This week we are updating your portfolio! That's right – we are doing it! It is happening, people! If you read that first sentence and immediately felt your body recoil or the urge to click out of this email… hear me out.
I am asking you for a tiny bit of time this day/week to cross off something that is going to have a lasting impact on your business. Here's the thing – there isn't a checklist this week. There isn't a printable. You already did the work when you put your content together last week and now it's time to implement.
Have you ever had something on your to-do list for weeks or even months? You keep putting it off even though you know you really need to do it. And it won't even take that long. But for some reason it just falls off day after day after day? But then… you finally do it. And there is this sort of magical, wonderful feeling when you finally cross it off your list.
That is the feeling we are after today. So here's what we're going to do next:
- Write down specifically when you are going to update your portfolio
- Write down what locations of your portfolio you will update (website/PDF/Instagram highlights – it could be anywhere that your work is visible)
- Consider working in 30 minute chunks of time. If it's not reasonable for you to spend 4 hours updating your portfolio, consider working for 30-45 minutes each evening to get this across the finish line
- Take out a post it note and write down “I will keep the promises I make to myself” – as a reminder that you deserve to follow through on what you say you will do.
Ready, set, go!
As a quick little side note, I wanted to take a couple seconds to chat about the ways that my portfolio appears in the world:
- My website: The number one place people see my work – I would consider it lacking, it's a single page of static images. No copy. Could definitely be much stronger.
- My Instagram: Lots of people come to me referencing my work from social media. Only problem? My work on social media isn't actually… my typical day-to-day work! This is great for licensing and pattern design, but I don't really get any visual branding/packaging/print clients from social media because of what I choose to share there (I have some firm boundaries around sharing client work on Insta)
- My pricing guides/estimates: There are images of client work in every estimate that I send out.
- PDF Portfolios: From time to time when I am pitching a specific type of project I will prepare an industry-specific PDF portfolio. For example, I worked in a school for four years, and had a lot of experience meeting the needs of educational clients. So I put all of that work into a single PDF and sent it to prospective clients.
Personally, this week I am going to focus on updating my pricing guides which feature samples of my work. I like to sandwich pricing information in between really, really good photos of past projects so that it sort of reinforces what I am capable of and the value and expertise that I bring to the table.
All right guys, that's it for today. Let's do this!
