6. Am I doing all I can to demonstrate expertise?
Whatever it is you do, or plan on doing, clients won’t hire you to do it if they don’t trust you. So ask yourself: How are my promos showing professional expertise and supporting credibility? Do I have case studies, not just great visuals, which tell a compelling story about successful client engagements? Have we acquired: Metrics and results from our work? Client quotes and testimonials? Awards and accolades? Are we presenting all of these in a way that adds up to making a strong claim of expertise and mastery?
7. Am I inviting interaction and propagation?
Designer self-promotion isn’t a static or fixed activity. It’s ongoing, and increasingly, it will illicit a direct response if you do it right. So ask yourself: Am I giving people something fascinating to talk about? Is it easy for people to interact with me in real and virtual communities? Do I encourage connection to my firms’ thoughts and ideas? Are we playing in a big or small arena? Should we change that? Also, is it ridiculously apparent how prospective clients should contact you?
8. Am I playing it safe?
Am I bold? Am I hiding my light under a bushel and letting shyness or lack of confidence keep me from really promoting myself? Take a look are your relationship to risk taking. Is fear — of change, of failure, of rejection, of whatever — holding you back? The problem is that it takes a lot to stand out in our media-saturated world. Everyone is overwhelmed and has a short attention span, so there is no sense in holding back if you want to make clients aware of your firm. If there is some reason why you continue to seek the safe routine, you need to ask yourself: Is this stance really serving my firm?
9. Do I have the infrastructure to support self-promo?
Ask: Have I really committed the necessary time and money to my branding and promotion? Is it the last thing on my To-Do List? Did I open a job number and develop a budget? If not, then ask yourself: Why not? What is holding you back? Maybe you need some new people and processes brought to bear on the problem. It might be as simple/complex as dedicating yourself to the idea of becoming your own client.
10. How am I inventing a new and better world?
Maybe this question sounds a bit altruistic. Just maybe it will spark a different kind of discussion within your firm. The answer may lead you to shape a larger vision for yourself, your work, your clients, and our planet. Ask yourself: Am I creating options to help solve universal challenges like sustainability and globalism? How am I innovating on a human scale? Am I helping my clients to build new and exciting cultural bridges? If and when I do these things, how will I talk about them in my promotions? There’s nothing like deeply considering the world’s big problems to put your firm’s branding needs into perspective, right?
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