How I doubled my income in a year as a designer

within the span of a year I doubled my income from this to this in the process I went from a full-time product designer to quitting my job as soon as my site income exceeds my paycheck I'm no smarter than anyone and I'm not earning a US income so how did all this happen before we proceed here's a disclaimer this video is not about how much money I make it's about finding out what actions I took that led to this outcome in hopes to inspire you because if I can do it you can do it too everyone's situation is different strategize based on your circumstances in 2021 I made 50k excluding taxes at this point I was still working full-time as a product designer and I had no idea what I want to do other than to be great at my job so what I did that worked were these nine things 2021 is a year where I had some lifestyle shifts as a side effect of this pandemic the pandemic led to more remote work and as a result I saved time because I don't need to commute and I can sleep in longer it leads me to feeling more energized in the morning because of the pandemic I also get to save money I don't need to pay for toll and petrol I save on food as well because the food in my neighborhood is simply cheaper than the food in my office during the pandemic I had lots of free time to be alone in my room to read to learn new skills and mostly through free resources like Google and YouTube all these free time force me to finally take the leap to work on side projects since I've got nothing to lose at this point I was still working full-time as a product designer as I spent more time improving my design skills and other soft skills it led to a promotion therefore a salary increase whatever skill we learn it never goes to waste so in this case I picked up webflow development and realized I kind of enjoyed it despite it was super hard I put my knowledge into action by building my own website as a pet project it doubled as a portfolio as my skills got better I offered my clients more value since I could design and build websites for them using workflow well nowadays postal framer the bigger the problem we solve the higher the payoff and that is usually the case in 2021 I had no choice but to price my freelance Services slightly below market rate but then I slowly learned to increase my prices even though my Palms were sweating and my heart was racing when I did that I also got International clients and secured a few retainer contracts so my freelance income was finally stable and predictable so I had a higher salary Higher Side income but I did not stop here I continued to follow my curiosity and experiment by building more side projects some didn't work out but the one that actually worked out was this YouTube channel thanks to you I did not start this channel until May 2021 as my hard work started to show some results I increased my income streams and I believe that the increase of income streams is a side effect of your knowledge your skills the side projects you build and the problems you solve for other people over the span of six months in 2021 I built eight income streams it's challenging but it's possible I will link the video on this topic at the end when our income grows our monthly expenses can also increase this is known as lifestyle inflation so in order to prevent lifestyle inflation I manage my money super carefully I tracked my finances on notion and Google Sheets kept my expenses super low left below my means I even donated and sold off the things that I no longer use because I'm everything everywhere all at once I'm forced to be highly efficient with my workflow and my time so I only have Monday till Friday to get things done as I take most weekends off I further optimize my system to get better at this I will also link the video on this topic at the end the nine things I mentioned just now are amazing but there are times where I was so overwhelmed because I wear many different hats by day I'm a full-time designer at lunchtime film videos at night I'm a video editor for my own YouTube channel and midnight I am a freelance designer I lost count of the times I'm down because I felt lost lonely and stressed out but the key to getting ahead in my opinion are these three things first we step out of our comfort zone if I hadn't stepped out on my comfort zone and started the channel I wouldn't be here imposter syndrome is like that annoying friend that calls you multiple times a day and won't shut up almost everyone experiences it even the best of us but I love this quote if it doesn't challenge you it doesn't change you so step out of your comfort zone more besides what's the worst thing that could happen anyway a smart way to get ahead is to leverage on our unfair advantages our chances of success increase when we have a competitive age over other people and it would be unfair to not talk about my unfair advantages for example my unfair advantages are my former employer me to work remotely I don't have kids which gives me more time to work on my things and I'm fairly good at design marketing and writing if I was to open a brick and mortar business selling ice cream for example chances are I'm going to fail because I have zero unfair advantage on that playing field everyone has at least one unfair Advantage so do you I recommend that you list down your unfair advantages it could be your strength or your circumstances and use your unfair advantages to get ahead an important mindset to keep in mind is Journey before destination this is one of Ali Adele's favorite quotes Brandon Sanderson says Journey before destination productivity and success isn't really about doing more things it's about doing more of what matters to us and choosing or rather learning to have fun along the way whenever we're busy change facing the next goal it's important that we also enjoy the journey if we don't enjoy the journey chances are we need to make some changes or we're probably chasing the wrong goals your hard work today may seem like it's getting you nowhere it may feel lonely your imposter syndrome May kick in multiple times a day remember it's just a phase as cheesy as it may sound if I can do this you can do this too as mentioned just now you can find out how I manage my time with multiple pets that I wear find out how I built 8 income streams in six months I've also experienced creative burnout so this video is about how I learned to approach it I hope these videos will bring you some value as usual see you in the next video bye [Music]

Channel: Rachel How

Views: 31,610

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Id: RBV2CstYAPQ

Length: 6min 37sec (397 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 16 2022