December 22, 2023
Kris: Hey everybody.
Don: Hello! I’m sure there are a lot of people out there who will relate to this. It’s a good one. And this beautiful designer has shared a letter with us. So we’re just going to read that through.
And there’s a bit to it. And it really does set up all the context. So bear with us and we’re going to read that for you.
Kris: This person prefers to remain anonymous, which we absolutely get. And yeah, if you ever want to, you can absolutely be anonymous and you can still ask questions.
Okay. Hi ladies. I’m in my first full year as a full time graphic and web designer. Congratulations! I’m currently five months pregnant and want your advice. Once again, Congratulations!
Don: Yes!
Kris: I know you have shared being transparent with clients is best practice, and I do 100 percent agree and have definitely improved my client experience and my stress levels by being human and communicating.
Don: Well, love it, yep.
Kris: Love it. However, I’m finding it’s hard to want to share my pregnancy with clients. I’ve actually been working hard to hide it.
Don: Ooh, okay, yeah.
Kris: I can’t shift the feeling of being worried that my clients May feel I’m unreliable because pregnancy can be such a roller coaster, which is not me I guess perhaps this is coming from my clients being usually older and male with traditional views.
Don: Mm hmm.
Kris: I Guess this isn’t much of a question, but more of a discussion Is this a normal feeling to have and do you have any recommendations of overcoming this? I know my current clients are happy for me and absolutely do not think that.
I do think it’s mainly in my head. Some female perspective would be much appreciated. P. S. Love the podcast. It’s always a highlight of my week and I love taking notes and actioning what I learn.
I believe a lot of my success in a short time has come from it. Thanks again. S.
Don: Oh!
Kris: That’s beautiful. I forgot that little bit was at the end of the question, but it’s like, Oh!
Don: Thank you for being so vulnerable with us and, and asking this question. It’s a big one but it doesn’t need to be. I just want to say that straight away. It feels big, it feels like a heavy thing, and it feels like something that, you know, clients are not going to be able to roll with or flow with, but the reality is they do and they will.
Absolutely 100%. So, I’ll just speak from my perspective.
When I had my children, I was so ready for children. I was so ready for business life balance. I didn’t want to hang up my boots. I didn’t want to stop being in business.
I’m a passionate businesswoman, passionate business owner. loved it, loved doing what I was doing, loved contributing to the family, I definitely wanted to change the dynamic of how I was doing business because I would have a whole new person to take care of from now. So I needed to tell my clients straight up.
What was happening so that expectations were shifted and then met. And I was in a very similar position to you in that I had a lot of traditional male clients. And Kris is across from me in the podcast studio nodding, nodding. I think we’re going to have very similar stories to tell Kris. And I was nervous as well.
I was really nervous about how they would think, but I was also nervous when I went from a business in an office with a reception desk and a boardroom table that people would think I was going to lose half my brain matter because I was going to work from home. And I’ve been working from home successfully in business since 2002, 2003.
So way before COVID, way before working from home became a thing, I wanted to work from home and have that work life balance. And. I think that when I did that, I realized, oh. They trust me, they realise I don’t need to have bricks and mortar office to actually deliver the type of work that I’ve been delivering.
And so then when I was pregnant, I had that little bit of faith that they would also know that I’m not going to change and I’m going to be able to deliver the same level of work that I’ve always delivered. But it was going to change, there are going to be changes. It’s natural, it’s organic, and it’s normal.
So we just have to articulate what those changes are going to be. Now, we don’t have to share the nitty gritty personal details, all we need to do is change and shift the landscape of your availability to those clients. That’s it. That’s all they need to know. In my opinion, it’s that simple. So they know when they are going to be serviced, when you are going to be available to them.
That’s all they need to know. They don’t need to know behind the scenes other than that.
Kris: Isn’t it funny that we both felt this way about announcing our pregnancy to clients? Yeah.
Don: Some clients. Yeah.
Kris: Yeah. And I remember being so delighted and so pleasantly surprised when I told clients that I was pregnant. Um, And some of the even more conservative, male, whatever, like, they sent gift baskets and it was like, what? I was just really surprised.
Don: Yeah!
Kris: And because we already had an established relationship and they knew and trusted how I operated, they They trusted me with how this was going to unfold.
Don: Yeah. Yeah.
Kris: And so it was really important for me to communicate to them what would happen.
Don: The change.
Kris: How it’s going to work. So. Are you taking on clients through that period? Are you getting help with that period? Will you be fully on pause? Like, I’m on maternity leave. You will not be able to get design from me for three months, six months, nine months, twelve months, whatever it is. What is that situation? That would totally depend on your, your situation and you know, your family situation and all the rest of it.
It’s just about being really clear about it, but shout out from the rooftops because it’s a beautifu thing. They’re going to be excited.
Don: They will be excited. I love that. I love how Kris has reminded me that when you do share the news people are nothing but happy for you. They really are. It was like when I moved from office to home and I thought, Oh no! Oh no! They were nothing but happy for me and a little bit envious that they couldn’t sit in a garden and do their work as well.
But having a baby is a choice that you’ve made and it is an incredible time in your life and so you need to enjoy it and enjoy the whole journey. So like Kris said, let’s talk about some strategy. Some strategy would be to work out very clearly What it looks like for your clients, they’re only interested in how this impacts on them.
They’re happy for you. Don’t get me wrong. But then the next thing was, so how’s it going to work now? So what’s going to happen for me? They’re quite egocentric. Our beautiful clients, so write down a strategy on next steps.
Write down a date that you’re going to announce your pregnancy. Then, what happens for the clients? What can they expect? How long will you be away? When will you be back? What will be happening in the meantime? Are you outsourcing? All of those questions, and you might not have any answers to these questions just yet, but you can now start to map this out.
Then you can do it in a few ways. You can do a beautiful reveal. In an email, you can do a beautiful reveal on socials. For clients who you think are extra special and might like that personal touch, invite them into your studio for a cuppa, a cup of tea, a cup of coffee, you know, a cold drink. Share the news with them that way.
Maybe a phone call. Share the news with them that way. How do your clients like to receive news that means change? So, there’s no mistake. There’s change afoot and that means they, it’s a shift for them as well. So we just need to articulate what that change means for them and how it’s going to work from here.
That’s it. So plan it. It’s like a little plan.
Kris: I feel like what Donna was just talking about, having that plan in place, maybe the reason why you’ve been holding off saying something, cause you might not have the plan and you’re like, I don’t know how this is going to work.
And I’m just five months in and and it might still seem like, oh, it’s a long way away, yeah. It’s gonna creep up, and what’s gonna happen is that once you announce it, there’s a high likelihood that Client A is going to go, Oh, I need this done before
Don: yes,
Kris: your baby arrives. Oh, I need this done before you have your baby. All these things will come out and you’ll be all of a sudden very busy and stressed. And we don’t want that in your last trimester of pregnancy, that you are completely off your trolley with work because you’re trying to get all these deadlines
Don: Is that an Aussie saying as well? I love that saying. I use it a lot – off your trolley. Means mad, going mad, off your head, you know, busy, very busy.
Yeah, absolutely. And I just want to say to what Kris said, that happens when we go on holiday. Right? Every time we say, we make an announcement that we’re going to be exiting the business for a week or two weeks or three weeks, clients go crazy and they all want something done. So can you imagine when you say I’m having a baby?
It’s inevitable what your work will increase. It’ll be like boom. Okay before you go before you go and have your baby I need this and that done. You don’t have to say yes to everything is my point You don’t have to make your pregnancy about being in overwhelm being stressed long hours No time to yourself, no time to really enjoy the pregnancy, to take stock of what’s happening in your life.
You don’t have to say yes to everything. You do have to manage that. So, when requests come in, think about, think about, are they actually necessary for right Can they be put off until after your Can you outsource? What can you be doing? So before you make the already have that strategy in place.
Do I want to actually get somebody on board? Do I want to outsource business? How’s that going to look? How is it going to work? Because it’s going to start, like Kris said, pretty quickly. They’ll be like, oh great, congratulations! Before you go, I need this, that and the other. So yeah, be prepared. Strap yourself in.
Kris: So it might be that it is time for you to find somebody to help support you on your team. And it might not need to be a designer. It might be a VA, like a virtual assistant who can co admin stuff and design adjacent stuff as well, like stuff that’s easy to populate and anything that’s like time consuming, they can be trained up to do that. And so it’s time now, if you’ve got time, to first of all do what Don said, get a plan in place, lock it in, lock in some dates.
And also really start mapping out your systems and mapping out who it is that you’re looking for to help you.
Don: Yeah, absolutely. And the dates, believe it or not, will give you so much freedom. By setting dates in, like even the date that you were going to announce it, it will give you so much freedom because you’ll be like, okay, on the 22nd of December, I’m going to tell my clients. That’s when I’m going to tell my clients.
I’ve got until then to get all my ducks in a row. And it’s just like, oh, okay, I don’t have to think about whether or not to tell my clients. And just that, alleviating that out of your psyche it’ll just free up so much space in your head for you to focus on, on the next step. So there are a lot of ways that you can get help and it doesn’t have to just be with the design work when a babe comes into your world.
There are lots and lots of ways, so yeah, start strategizing, start thinking about it and really embrace the fact that you have every right to be pregnant, you have every right. to have a baby and to, and to have a business too. And you can have life balance. So it’s okay. It’s okay to share this very incredible, miraculous news with the world.
Kris: Alright, good luck with everything! Maybe send us a message to keep us posted. We’d just love to hear how you go and what happens for you.
Don: Please announce the arrival of your beautiful babe when that happens as well. Let us know.
Kris: Okay! Bye!
Don: Bye!
© Copyright 2024 Design & Prosper Pty Ltd