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I'm the creative and founder behind K Made Design Co., and I’m here to help you transform your brand and website into your greatest assets, that build your reputation for you and a community of hyper-loyal brand advocates!
Hi, I'm Karlie!
I’m jumping on the In’s and Out’s train, friends.
If you aren’t quite familiar with what I’m talking about, it’s where people all over Instagram and TikTok have been sharing things that are “in” and things that are “out” for them.
It started in the new year, as a replacement to the traditional “resolutions” that often come with heavy standards of expectations.
In’s and out’s are a lot more relaxed – simply a list of things that you are going to try and focus on, and things that you feel you should leave behind.
And the trend has definitely caught on – people have even started doing them month by month now!
So here I am, sending out the first (of hopefully many, if I remember to stick with it lol) K Made edition of a monthly In’s and Out’s recap.
At the beginning of each month, I’ll be sharing three things that I want to focus on during the month, and three things that are out the window!
AKA, my blogging and my email newsletter (hello!)
It’s 2024 – time to ditch marketing strategies that are ineffective and leaving me burnt out.
In the beginning of my business, I did what I saw everyone else doing: slaving away on Instagram.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great place to connect! But when it comes to the return on your time investment, marketing effectiveness, lifespan of content… Instagram just ain’t it.
I very quickly felt burnt out from doing so much, and seeing so little.
So what do I focus my marketing efforts on now?
Well, after some research, I realized blogging and newsletter marketing is where it’s at!
And I know what you’re thinking – but no, blogging and emailing are not dead.
In fact, they’re just about some of the best marketing strategies you can invest your time into!
Creating blog posts means your content will have an eternal lifespan, as it will continue to utilize SEO and bring users to your website for literal years!
And email marketing is also still alive and well. No more competing for views or engagement – emails go directly to your audience’s inbox, with nobody else screaming for attention.
So, after the chaos of moving and finally feeling settled in (read the tea on that here!), I’ll be spending this month getting back into the marketing groove.
Things are shifting.
Nobody likes the perfectly polished brand identity anymore.
Instead, people want to see people. Brands who only market with flawless brand photography and professional copy are starting to come off as disingenuous, cold, and unrelatable.
I saw a post the other day that said, “We don’t want to see businesses anymore – we want to see founders.”
Meaning, people would much rather see the person behind the business. To feel like they know them, their struggles, their goals, etc.
Honestly, this is great news for me. I’ve always felt the most comfortable connecting with my audience, and even my clients, with my true personality.
If you were able to take a peek at my client emails and Asana messages, you’d find whole lotta exclamation points, LOL’s, and every emoji under the sun.
And you know what? That’s something my clients love. They appreciate my excitement for the project, and how I end up feeling like such a friend in their corner. Which is exactly what I want!
So here’s to us being more like ourselves, without feeling the need to put on a “face” in order to make our businesses seem more professional.
Come to think of it, that just might be the reason why people love the In’s and Out’s trend in the first place.
March 19th marks the first day of my favorite season – Spring!!
Which means warm days, chirping birds, and budding trees are just around the corner. And I’m SO excited.
While this isn’t necessarily a business tip, I do believe that any business owner (or anyone!) would benefit:
It’s time we all start getting more sunlight in the morning.
You might have also seen this making the rounds on Instagram, and it’s got my full support.
If you’re looking to kickstart your morning routine, I truly believe one of the best things you could do is start it outside – whether that’s going for a walk or just simply sipping your coffee out on the porch.
Heck, I’d even take it if all you did was stick your head out the window for 30 seconds!
This has been such a game-changer for my morning routine, and I swear it’s made my ‘lil ole brain happier as well.
And if you aren’t quite convinced, I highly recommend checking out this article that covers all the benefits that come from sunlight in the morning!
March 2024 is where us business-owners are focusing on a happy, healthy morning routine, y’all 😌
Yeah, yeah, I’m guilty of this too.
Which low key makes me kinda a hypocrite, since I constantly preach about work-life balance and self-care as a entrepreneur 😅
But March is the month where we focus on business things during business hours!
Evenings are reserved for hobbies, time with friends and family, relaxing, and having freakin’ fun!
And in order to effectively prevent business burnout, we need to make sure we have healthy working boundaries.
Ever heard of doom scrolling?
If not, props to you lol.
I, on the other hand, used to be a big doom scroller 😬
Basically, it’s a form of procrastination and/or distraction, where you spend an embarrassing amount of time scrolling on your phone. For me, the culprit was Instagram.
Whether I was bored, stressed, sad, procrastinating, what have you, I would distract and entertain myself by scrolling through endless meaningless videos.
And honestly, that just simply wasn’t good for my brain (or my business lol).
I feel like I eventually could end up just writing a book on all the ways I think Instagram just plain sucks lol.
However! I didn’t want to completely delete it. After all, I do want to stay in-the-loop news-wise (aka keep updated on Taylor Swift lol), and be able to stay in touch with friends.
Basically, all I wanted was an app that would let me look at my homepage for small chunks of time, without letting me waste time on the explore feed.
Eventually, I downloaded ScreenZen, and I’ve been loving it! It has the most customizable settings I’ve ever seen for a screen-time restriction app, and it’s effectively got my time on Instagram lower by hours.
Highly recommend!!
This one honestly goes hand-in-hand with #2.
While I absolutely adore my job and my clients, there are often times where the idea of starting a task overwhelms me, and I end up procrastinating until almost the last second.
(If you happen to be a client, you didn’t read that 😅)
But no more! March 2024 is where we get our act together.
And come on, what good am I doing if I’m avoiding a task because it stresses me out? I just end up even more stressed out!
So now, if a task I need to start is overwhelming, I just set a timer for just 10 minutes to work on it.
Once the 10 minutes is over, I have free reign to stop.
Because more often than not, starting the task is the hardest part. Once I’m in the groove of it, it’s smooth sailing!
And it’s worked like a charm.
So if you happen to struggle with procrastination as well, try this trick and let me know if it worked for you!
Hopefully these in’s and out’s have inspired you a little bit! Don’t be afraid to hit that reply button or message me on Insta and tell me all about your own March in’s and out’s!
Feeling overwhelmed, conflicted, or intimidated by the thought of branding? You're in the perfect place. I’m Karlie, and as the creative behind K Made Design Co., I breathe life into brands for visionary entrepreneurs like you every day. My role is to spotlight what makes you distinct and then propel you to stand out in your industry.
Your reputation is pivotal, and I’ve heard through the grapevine that the quality leads you're seeking are scrutinizing yours. A piecemealed brand does no justice to your meticulously crafted client experience, services, and business structure. It’s time to align your external brand image with the exceptional quality of your services.
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K Made Design Co. is a design studio developing iconic brands and websites by creating one-of-a-kind identities that spark bubbling conversations, create lasting impressions, and empower business owners to step into the role of visionary so they can lead, expand, and define the future of their companies.
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