In this week’s episode, we’re talking about 5 easy-fixes to elevate your brand and stand out from the competition even without rebranding.

And joining me in this conversation is my beautiful friend and Inner Circle Mastermind mentee, Jen Bowers!

LISTEN NOW

Jen is a champagne drinking, coffee addicted, crazy cat lady. She helps women how to brand and market their business and she loves to help them pop that branding stress bubble.

She is the founder of Pink Pom Pom by Jen and Pink Pom Pom Social, a styled image library for brands with big personalities that helps hundreds of women create a stunning social presence for their brands!

Jen knows how important it is for a woman to be able to build a beautiful business and stand on her own two feet. Cause when she can do that, she has her own choices.

Listen to this episode to learn:

• Why your brand personality is essential for attracting the right customers.
• What is your brand voice?
• The one thing you can do to instantly separate you from your competition and build a deep connection with your audience.
• Why you need to start thinking of your ideal customer as your ‘bestie’.
• Why you need to create an Instagram presence that you’re proud of (and it’s not so that it just looks pretty).

This episode is super practical, so get yourselves a pen and a paper, sit down and take plenty of notes for this one!

Until next week, stay happy in your hustle.

CONNECT WITH JEN

Website: jenbebrands.com
Instagram: @jenbebrands
Facebook: @jenbebrands

CONNECT WITH ME

Web: www.tracyharris.co
Facebook: @mumswithhustle
Instagram: @mumswithhustle
Twitter: @MumsWithHustle
Mums With Hustle® Podcast Community By Tracy Harris: @mumswithhustle

LOVE THE MUMS WITH HUSTLE PODCAST?

Okay, mama! I'm going to give it to you straight, 'cause you know that's what I'm about. Podcast reviews are super important to iTunes and the more reviews we receive the more likely iTunes will reward us with better reach.

I want to reach more hustling mamas that can add extreme value to our kick-ass tribe. Help a sister, out? I already love you forever, but I’d be extremely grateful if you would review me on iTunes!

If you've loved this podcast, never miss another one! All you have to do is SUBSCRIBE to the Mums With Hustle Podcast on iTunes.

The post MWH 322: 5 easy-fixes to elevate your brand and stand out from the competition (without rebranding) with Jen Bowers appeared first on Tracy Harris.

In this week’s podcast, I’ve invited the wonderful Leah Crisell and we’re going to talk about branding for beginners.

When you’re growing your business with zero capital to invest in branding and you have to DIY it until the business turns a profit, then this episode will be particularly helpful for you.

LISTEN NOW

Leah is a personal branding mentor, strategist and designer and host of the podcast ‘The Leah Crisell Show.' A Creative Director turned entrepreneur, Leah left the agency world behind her, to follow her passion, helping ambitious women transform their brands and their business.

Listen to this episode to learn:

• What branding really is.
• Top 5 things that every business owner can do to create a brand that they are proud of.
  1. Get clear on your uniqueness / unique point of difference.
  2. Think about who your audience is.
  3. Align your brand vibe. Choose a colour palette that feels right for you.
  4. Be consistent in communicating your brand vibe.
  5. Build your community and connect with your audience using your branding.

Leah talks about key foundations you should have in your business regardless of your niche and shares that you don’t need to have a tonne of cash to invest in your branding when you’re starting your business and as you build your brand.

She unpacks a lot of practical tips on this episode, so make sure to grab a pen and a paper as you listen to this one!

Until next week, stay happy in your hustle.

CONNECT WITH LEAH

Website: www.leahcrisell.com
Instagram: @leahcrisell
Facebook: @byleahcrisell
Podcast: The Leah Crisell Show

CONNECT WITH ME

Web: www.tracyharris.co
Facebook: @mumswithhustle
Instagram: @mumswithhustle
Twitter: @MumsWithHustle
Mums With Hustle® Podcast Community By Tracy Harris: @mumswithhustle

LOVE THE MUMS WITH HUSTLE PODCAST?

Okay, mama! I'm going to give it to you straight, 'cause you know that's what I'm about. Podcast reviews are super important to iTunes and the more reviews we receive the more likely iTunes will reward us with better reach.

I want to reach more hustling mamas that can add extreme value to our kick-ass tribe. Help a sister, out? I already love you forever, but I’d be extremely grateful if you would review me on iTunes!

If you've loved this podcast, never miss another one! All you have to do is SUBSCRIBE to the Mums With Hustle Podcast on iTunes.

The post MWH 293: Branding For Beginners with Leah Crisell appeared first on Tracy Harris.

We’ve just had an amazing week last week! We just wrapped up our Inner Circle Mastermind Retreat and it was beyond anything I could have ever dreamt of when it came to a virtual event experience.

Even though we had to pivot the retreat to virtual (due to the current global circumstances), it did not stop us from organising an EPIC, fun experience spoiling our ladies online.

It was so incredible and the ladies are definitely UNSTOPPABLE!

We covered a lot of content in 3 short days. We talked about different facets of business and hearing from incredible guest experts including Stu McLaren and Kristy-Lee Billet.

I have learned so much through this project and all the moving parts! Many of you ladies have sent me a DM over on Instagram and mentioned that you are interested in various components of our virtual event. One of those components was the sourcing and coordination of gifts.

We chose to give several gifts to our ladies that were sprinkled out across the sessions and the retreat experience. And as valued members of the Mums With Hustle community, I wanted to share with you a list of suppliers that I worked with in putting together the gorgeous gifts for the Inner Circle Mastermind Virtual Retreat Experience.

I hope that you find this list of incredible small businesses useful especially when you are planning your own virtual event. You also get to support small businesses. Win-win!

Gift Ideas From Incredible Small Businesses

1. Gift boxes from @sherbetcreations

A huge thank you to the wonderful Teresa Tripodi our Gift Coordinator! Teresa coordinated and packaged all of the wonderful gift boxes for our ladies. We have worked with Teresa on many projects over the years. She just does an amazing job at curating beautiful and thoughtful gift boxes for whatever their purpose is.

Teresa can work her magic in all kinds of creative ways to ensure that you make the impact you’re wanting to make and that your recipient feels special. She made it so easy and effortless for us to gift the most amazing items to our Inner Circle Mastermind ladies at our Virtual Retreat last week.

Special thanks as well to the following small businesses who made our gift boxes such a delightful, exciting and beautiful treat to our ladies!

• Boxes from @newdirectionspackaging
• Lined Paper from @cbs_printing
• Ribbon and Filling from @giftpackagingaus
• Confetti from @discountpartywarehouse_aus

2. T-shirts from @handmadebytashao

3. Mugs from @mybebecadum

4. Artwork from @beyondhercontrol

5. Cookies from @prettybites_ and Tea from @t2tea

6. Candle from @thesoapstress and Label on Candle @limeandmortar

7. All Branded Stationery from Kwik Kopy

We just worked with our local one and they were tops!

8. Art materials – Wrapping of Canvas @lovejkaustralia and Palette from Reno Art in Granville

9. Group Activity @bondipaintclub

We used the materials above for an online group painting session facilitated by @bondipaintclub! The ladies loved it so much, not only was it fun, they also got to practice their creativity.

10. Bubbles @freixenetau

What’s a better way to cap off your event than with a glass of sparkling! This best-selling sparkling wine is one of those gift ideas that just works for any occasion, and will surely help you celebrate your epic event!

Ladies, just imagine how powerful a virtual event can be when you ask yourself, “How can I make this amazing for my attendees?” Don’t let the global circumstances stops you from serving your audience in the most awesome way!

Also, if you want to know more about Inner Circle Mastermind, head on over to mumswithhustle.com/mastermind. It’s a year-long experience where I teach established business owners how to build their businesses around their dream lives. So if you are a Digital CEO who wants to grow your dream business with online courses, memberships, subscriptions, high-ticket services, and coaching programs, this is your next best step.

You’ll learn next-level online marketing and sales strategies and focus on building out a smart, scalable, and sustainable online business, and here’s the best part: you’ll get access to both me AND Karl as your mentors, and have the opportunity to tap into our experiences of running a 7-figure online business!

If you are ready for advanced conversations about business strategy, launches, team-building, mindset mastery, this is for you! PLUS, the women in my Mastermind also get access to all of my courses and the Social Method Society.

My love, places for the Mastermind are extremely limited, so make sure to pop your name over at the waitlist as applications open next week!

In the meantime, if you haven't heard the latest episode of the Mums With Hustle podcast, you can check it out right here.

The post Gift Ideas for Your Next Virtual Event appeared first on Tracy Harris.

Lights! Camera! Branding! Professional photos can seriously take your biz to the next level, mama. Booking your first photoshoot is a huge step because it shows everyone that you’re ready to share your brand with the world.

Did you know that beautifully curated and engaging images are one of the most powerful ways to connect with your target audience and share the vibes of your brand with your tribe?

How many times have you caught yourself scrolling on Instagram and experienced a little visit from the green-eyed monster when you see carefully curated biz images on a fellow mum’s account? Does your thought process go a little something like… I wish I had more pics like that. Should I book a professional shoot? Would I even benefit from a branded photoshoot? Are curated images specific to my biz even worth it?

The answer to your questions is YES! You and your biz are SO worth it. Toss those negative vibes into the garbage, and let’s get you photoshoot ready!

Now, I know the thought of having someone take photos of you can make you feel super nervous, but trust me when I say that preparation is key. In my latest podcast I revealed a few of my secrets that I utilised when I got ready for my photoshoot with the crazy talented Jade Warne of Hipster Mum.

I wanted to share three keys from that episode in greater detail to help you take action and nail your next business photoshoot.

Know The Story You Want To Tell

Before you dive into a branded photoshoot, you must understand your brand/biz inside and out. What is your core mission and vision? Who is your audience? What will your audience find engaging?

Believe me when I say that you can’t just throw eye candy at your tribe and expect them to love any you crumb you toss their way – you’ve got to curate a story and tell it.

So answer these questions:

What will you use these images for?

• Are you shooting for your media kit?
• Do you need gorgeous pictures to run with your Facebook ads?
• Are you leaning more towards using them on your website? What vibe are you trying to sell on your site?
• Content for your socials? Aim for a mix of pictures with you in them and others with only your products. Think solo product pics and others with products styled alongside yours (flatlays are great for this).

A great way to figure out your vibe and the story you want to tell is to create an inspo board on Pinterest. This can be a secret board (like the ones we discussed in our Pinterest strategy podcast with Sarah Renae Clarke).

Once you curate a board that visually shows the look and feel you’re after for your brand, share it with your photographer. You could even start a Google Doc so that you and your photographer can both exchange ideas on the same page. I know not all photographers offer services likes this, so I’m truly fortunate that it was included with Jade’s service.

I seriously didn’t have to organise this aspect at all. My photographer Jade, from Hipster Mum, was ALL over it! #TotalWeapon. All I had to do was pin my vibes and share it with her.

I looked for poses, scenes, styling, outfits, colour palettes, etc. The more you prep for your shoot with these little details, the easier it will be to communicate your brand’s story to your audience in a visually powerful way!

Set Your Scene

The purpose of my shoot with Jade was to have curated images that we can use on upcoming sales pages for new products and programs that we’re going to be launching in the near future.

I wanted my images to be fun with colour, style, and quirky vibes. Essentially, I wanted some images to be so over-the-top (OTT) and show on the outside how I and all the bizmums want to feel on the inside.

Styling:

I’m going to be honest with you… I didn’t do my own styling! That was something I definitely had to outsource. I worked with the ladies from Designer Style List. They curated some very on point looks complete with accessories for this shoot. I also wore some casual pieces from Chasing Case, an online fashion store for mums.

Quick tips when it comes to styling for your shoot:

• Always have the right bras and undies. Take several variations with you!
• Carry clips to tie back clothes, so everything fits you perfectly.
• Get your hair, nails, and makeup professionally done for camera. Yep, this is an investment, so treat yo’self. During my shoot, I did change my lipstick up a couple of times, but my makeup stayed the same. For my makeup, I went with a fairly natural and glowy look. For my hair, I recently had my colour done, so I straightened it myself because that’s how it usually is.
• Choose a hair and makeup style that could go between looks. My straightened hair and natural makeup fits dressy me, sassy me, and casual me!

Props:

What props will help you communicate your story? If you know your brand story, finding props to use in your images will be a breeze. Sometimes, it would even make sense to take your littles along and let them be in the shoots with you!

For my shoot, I included props that were synonymous with me as an entrepreneur and the MWH brand.

Here are some examples of props that I used for my shoot:

I had to have Instagram represented in one way, shape or form… The form turned out to be a custom created hashtag by Angela Sibley at Decor Me. I also took along my laptop, iPad, cellphone, microphone, headphones, some coffee gadgets (#becausecoffee) and giant smoothie cups (#becausesmoothies).

If you’re unsure if your props make sense, ask your photographer! They have the expertise. Again, I was fortunate to work with Jade because she made everything so much simpler. By knowing the vibes and style I was going for, she easily made suggestions of what props would be a good fit for the look and feel I was going for. #AllOverIt

Get Your Head In The Game

Girlfriend, you can’t fake your confidence. In pictures, confidence shows and so does a lack of it. Before your shoot, I recommend working on yourself if you’re experiencing any insecurities.

Listen up, mama. I’m about to drop a #truthbomb.

If you find yourself picking your appearance apart – you better stop yourself right there! You are perfectly you. Your individuality gives you your power.

If you focus too much on trying to pose like someone else, look like someone else, or even copy someone else’s style, it’s going to put you in a negative headspace.

Just be you. Embrace the skin you’re in and think about your PURPOSE. You have an amazing brand story to tell to an audience of people that are hungry for it. You owe it to them (and to yourself!) to communicate that with confidence.

A good photographer will position you and give you direction – all you have to do is show up with confidence and have FUN.

During my shoot with Jade, she would give me four different places to stare and told me how to lift my head. She’d even point out if my shoulders were hunched (oops!).

Jade made sure the light was just right and that I was comfortable. Furthermore, she helped elevate my confidence by showing me how SICK the pictures were looking immediately after she’d taken them. #TrueStory

To be honest, all of the prep that I did before the shoot gave me confidence, too. I knew my story, I had killer props, and I knew what I was going to wear for each scene. Even my family attended the shoot with me (yep, the whole crew – hubby, the littles, and my mum to keep the kiddos sane – thanks, mum!!!). In fact, my boys jumped in pics with me.

It was an overall great experience because I took the time to prep for it, I was myself, and I had the right photographer. There’s no guarantee another photographer would have gotten and felt my Mums With Hustle vibes like Jade did.

A photographer will not fill you with confidence, if you ever feel like they don’t:

• “Get” what you’re trying to achieve
• “Get” your brand story
• Treat you with respect and kindness
• Answer your questions or concerns

This is why I went with Jade… She’s one of us. A mum with hustle who obviously understands my brand and my tribe. Jade knows what it’s like to organise and shift around your entire world just to have time to get in there and have a shoot. She gets that as startups, we are often holding our wallets super tight because at the beginning of business it can often feel like we’re bleeding money quicker than we’re making it.

Now It's Your Turn

At some point in your business journey, you’re going to have to invest in your brand with high-quality, powerful brand images that you can use across your website, social media, blog, media kit, and sales pages. So why not amplify your brand now, with one of the best shoots ever?

If at any point you’ve thought that it was impossible and unaffordable at this stage of your biz journey – think again! There’s nothing I love seeing more than mums taking action and elevating their brand. That’s why I partnered with Jade to offer the MWH Community 50% off half and full day shoots with Hipster Mum!

This promo is only available if you book your shoot before December 15, 2017. Not sure you can swing a photoshoot in December? We’re mums, we feel that chaotic holiday hustle!

It’s totally cool to schedule the shoot in for early 2018, as long as you book in by December 15.

Booking your photoshoot with Jade is easy! All you have to do is send her an email (Jade@hipstermum.com or click the button below), and let her know you’re a mum with hustle!

[button text=”Email Jade” url=”mailto:Jade@hipstermum.com” class=””]

CONNECT WITH ME

Web: www.mumswithhustle.com
Facebook: @Mumswithhustle
Instagram: @mumswithhustle
Twitter: @MumsWithHustle
Biz Club: MWH Biz Club

P.S. Love MWH Podcasts? Review me on iTunes! 

The post 3 Keys to Nail Your Next Business Photoshoot appeared first on Tracy Harris.

They're really useful in determining the direction of your visual branding, and often form the basis of a more formal style guide down the track. Creating a mood board from images that represent the style or personality of your business is also great to build out your brand colours, ensuring consistency across your visual brand.

Mood boards can have a multitude of applications and uses, you can create them for your whole brand, individual projects, product or collection ideas, and even events related to your business (I'm about to put one together for an exclusive live event I am planning for members of the Makers Academy).

For me though, a mood board is a super efficient and easy way to remind myself of my brand personality on a daily basis, in visual form. Much like a vision board, the best way to keep your mood board front and centre of mind is to either print it off and stick it on your wall above your computer, or set it as your home screen on your most-used device.

But let's take a step back for a second: How do you actually create a mood board in the first place?

You need to collect and collate images that speak to your brand personality. I've put together a quick tutorial for you here on how to do it in Adobe InDesign.

Step 1

Collect images that epitomise your brand (or event, or project… whatever it is that you are creating the mood board for). Think about texture, lifestyle, sights/sounds/smells, activities, patterns, typefaces and any other design elements that appeal to you – save them all into one folder to make them easier to find later.

Step 2

Create a new InDesign document, setting it to the size you would want to print it at now or in the future (you can always scale it down for the web later, but you can't scale it back up if you start at web size, without losing quality).

Step 3

Here's where people generally just shove all their images into the page and try to shuffle them around to make it work – try to avoid doing that! We want this to look nice so we can stand looking at it everyday

Instead, think about your layout – Start with placing frames on the page in your desired layout (you can check out some Mood Board examples on Pinterest) – or download my free template.

Mood boards generally look best when there is even spacing around each image (but this is definitely not a hard and fast design rule!). To achieve this I set up columns and guides with an even 5mm spacing between each frame, and gave my circular frame a 5mm white stroke on the outside of the object.

Step 4

Place your images in the frames. Select one frame and go File > Place to put your images into the frames.

TIP: One thing to remember about InDesign is that the image and it's frame are SEPARATE objects. This allows you to change the shape of the frame without interfering with the integrity of the image – but it can also make it super confusing when you're just starting out, as often it looks like your image has been chopped in half or doesn't exist at all.

When you first place your image into the frame, it might fit great, but it might also be way bigger than the frame and you'll need to scale it down (the image that is, not the frame – remember they are separate!). You can do this two ways: first, right-click the image and go to Fitting > and choose either Fit Content Proportionally or Fit Content to Frame(it depends how much of the image you want to show and what shape the image is compared to your frame – you can try all the other options also! Just go Edit > Undo if you don't like the result).

The second (and my preferred) way is to grab the Direct Selection Tool (the white arrow, shown below) and click on the image. This will select the image instead of the frame, and allow you to resize it independently of the frame.

Once you've got a brown outline, you can grab a corner of the image and drag it inwards to make the image smaller (always remember to hold down the SHIFT key whilst dragging, otherwise your image will not retain its original proportions and be distorted).

Go ahead and place the rest of your images into the remaining frames.

Step 5

Adjust your layout. The great thing about using InDesign for this type of work is that you can really easily move around the frames, as well as change their shape and size. Spend a bit of time swapping your layout around until you are happy with how the images are working together in the composition.

TIP: Don't worry if your images look a little fuzzy or pixellated when you place them in, this is just INDesign's way of saving memory by showing a lower quality version of the final image. As long as the images you saved originally are a good size (anything over 1000px wide/high should be fine) you won't have any issues once you export the file as a jpeg/PDF or print it off.

If you want, you can check your images by going View > Display Performance > High Quality Display (but remember to turn it back to Typical Display or Fast afterwards, otherwise you might find the program will run slower as you work).

Step 6

Select your brand colours. Once all your images are placed, you should be able to see a common colour theme running throughout. We can now use the colours within the images to select 3-5 colours that will form your brand colour scheme.

Select the frame that you want to fill with a colour swatch, then select the eye-dropper tool and click around the images to find your colours. You can see in the video below that the colours I ended up with are very close to my actual brand colours, so I've done a pretty good job at choosing images that represent my brand – good thing!

Step 7

Analyse your board. Once you're done, you can switch to preview mode (if nothing is selected on the art board just click “W” on your keyboard as a shortcut, or otherwise go View > Screen Mode > Preview, and cast your eye over the composition. Does anything seem out of place?

The image I've used in the top left corner of my mood board looks like the odd one out here, it's much darker than the rest and give off a different vibe, which I didn't notice at all until everything was in place and I took a moment to look over the composition as a whole.

The image I replaced it with fits much better and now the whole board is light and bright and fun – so don't skip this step!

When you're happy with the design, go File > Export and save your mood board as a jpeg or PDF file (also be sure to save your original InDesign file so you can edit it later if you need to!).

And you're all done!

For more tips on creating your own mood board, this is a great little article over at Creative Market with some good examples included too.

I would absolutely love to see what you come up with for your own mood board, so be sure to share your results in the comments below!

Meet Mikaela

Mikaela is a fun and friendly but sometimes-ranty (aka passionate) creative entrepreneur. Her sister died in 2005, and she now lives life to the fullest in her honour. She has run multiple businesses in various industries, and is a qualified graphic designer and teacher. Mikaela wants to empower women to pursue creativity in business and in life, through her online community for makers and creatives The Makers’ Collective (with a strict no BS policy), and online school The Makers’ Academy.

Web: http://themakerscollective.com.au/start-here/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themakersco/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themakers.collective/

The post How to Create a Mood Board in InDesign appeared first on Tracy Harris.

Instagram is a visually stunning application, and if you’re using it to market yourself or your biz you should definitely be sharing a highlight reel of only your best high-quality photos.

I know that for most Biz Mums it’s becoming increasingly harder to stop comparing yourself to others and their Insta accounts because you feel that your images don’t quite measure up to the gorgeous professional images that are EVERYWHERE on Insta.

First, you’ve got to stop feeling that way! Your account is special and unique because only YOU can offer what you have to your Insta tribe.

Second, what if I told you that it’s completely possible to take your own show-stopping images with your iPhone?

Yup, I have the perfect tips and tricks to ensure that you get way more double taps on your Insta pics without touching the bank.

I’ve pulled together a short tutorial on how you can use your iPhone camera to take better pics for Instagram TODAY!

Let’s get into it!

1. USE THE TIMER.

This is a great function for anyone because the timer immediately removes any shaky hands or small movements that cause blurry photographs.

Note to self: Must share this one with my Mum aka blurry-photo-taker #SorryMum.

2. USE THE FOCUS TOOL.

You want your images to be sharp and in focus. Take advantage of your phone’s focus tool by touching firmly on the area of the screen where you want to focus – aka your focal point. It will bring this up on your screen.

3. INCREASE THE BRIGHTNESS.

I suggest increasing the brightness while snapping your pic by using a quick touch on the screen. You’ll see a box come up with a small sun, indicating brightness. Try touching different areas of the screen to find the perfect brightness. The brightness will adjust with each touch you make in a different place.

If you’ve increased your brightness following the tips outlined above and you’re still not entirely happy with your lighting quality, you can adjust further by following your quick touch with a gentle dragging/sliding of your finger across the sun icon. Moving up will increase the brightness even more and dragging down on the sun will decrease the brightness.

Once you’ve found your perfect brightness, snap away or see the next point.

4. GET AS MUCH NATURAL LIGHT (INDIRECT) INTO YOUR PHOTOGRAPHS.

Daylight is the optimum time to take your pics. Don't be tempted to take them at night, even with your flash or with a light on. Why? Because your photos will get that yellow tinge going on, and that is a big no-no.

The more natural light you have, the less you’ll come to rely on filters and editing tools.

Many people who take winning photos do so in the same room of their house, at the same time of day. This allows them to achieve the same light each time, and it’s just a great tip to keep you achieving the results you’re after.

5. APPLY THE RULE OF THIRDS TO YOUR PHOTOS BY GOING INTO YOUR CAMERA SETTINGS.

Using the rule of thirds can really help your pics stand out among a sea of messily placed flatlays. The theory goes that you should place points of interest in the intersections or along the lines. This will make your photo more balanced and will help the audience interact with it more because eyes are naturally drawn to these intersecting points.

If you divide your photo into nine equal parts, you’ll get two vertical lines, two horizontal lines, and four intersections. You can either do this in your mind or by switching on the handy grid function under your iPhone camera settings!

To learn more about the rule of thirds in detail click here.

6. STRAIGHTEN YOUR PHOTOS.

No one likes crooked pictures, upside down pictures, or pictures that make them have to rotate their phone to really see what you’re showing.

Straighten your photos by selecting your photo in your camera roll and clicking ‘edit’ then select the first tool on the bottom left of your screen. You can now begin to play with the angle of your image by using your finger to move the protractor at the base of your photo until your image is straight.

7. MAKE YOUR PICS SHARPER.

Once you’ve snapped your Instagram ready pic, open it in Insta and use the sharpen tool, but steer clear from other filters. They’re often too harsh and unnecessary, if you’ve applied the tips above.

Bonus Tip:

Want to get your head around flatlay photography? Have a listen to this beauty of a podcast interview I did with the flatlay queen, Nicole Ward.

Aren’t these some gorgeous flatlays?

Flatlays submitted by: Nicole @themamasorority, Amanda @sugarsugar_cakes, and Clare @littlereads_

If these tips above aren’t enough to help you create show-stopping Insta images then keep reading…

Here are 3 resources I can’t stop raving about and that you NEED to check out when it comes to creating the perfect Insta worthy image:

1. CANVA

At MWH we use Canva for Work. It’s nearly replaced the need for Photoshop, and it’s fun to use! With Canva for work, you can set your own branding, create reusable templates, add your own font, and do my fav thing… MAGIC RESIZE!

2. CREATIVE MARKET

The Creative Market is a great place to explore, find ideas and buy everything from logos, web templates, fonts, business cards, product mockups, and so much more! Every week they offer 6 free downloads, and it’s actually great quality stuff.

Want to know a secret? I get all of my gold textures from there!

3. VSCO CAM

VSCO Cam is a great free app for photo editing. You can do so much to your pictures with VSCO’s editing tools or you can take advantage of the preset options that are available to you. The app is very popular with nearly 40 million users, and even professional photographers rave about it.

Have fun and remember, it takes practice and patience to get a great shot, but it's so worth it!

I’d love to see how you’re using all of these tips! Tag me on Instagram @mumswithhustle in your pics, so I can give you a much deserved double tap.

SNAG A FREEBIE:

Love Instagram? I do! My main platform for connecting with my tribe is Instagram. Can you tell I am madly passionate about teaching bizmums strategies that will electrify their Instagram efforts?

Did you you can get your hands on three epic Instagram ebooks and an Instagram Audit through the MWH Store? Yep! I'm so mad about Instagram, that I'm now offering to audit my tribe's accounts. Learn more by visiting the Mums With Hustle Store.

Here's an epic tribe building tip – Instagram Stories is generating a TON of engagement right now. Learn how to do them right with my FREE Instagram Stories Planner.

Enter your details to grab the direct download:

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The post How To Use Your iPhone Camera to Take Stunning Instagram Pics appeared first on Tracy Harris.

I think by now most people know about Photoshop and Illustrator, and many small business owners know how great they are for editing photos, adding watermarks, creating graphics and designing quote images for sales, promotions and social media sharing to boost your brand.

What you also probably know by now is that Adobe has been raising their prices significantly over the last few years, so much so that now the cost of the (somewhat cheaper) teacher/student edition of the Creative Cloud monthly subscription is fairly prohibitive for a micro business owner (hello!) – even more so for those of you who are only using the software occasionally, or not using it to it’s full potential.

So I’m here today to give you some FREE alternatives, that are both simple and intuitive to use, and can do most (if not all) of the things you need them to.

As a professional freelance graphic designer (and photographer in the past), I’ve been using the Adobe Creative Suite (mainly Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign) for over 15 years. I literally teach other people how to use these programs at my local University and doing in-person workshops for small business owners for the last 8 years. But today’s post has nothing to do with these programs, because I don’t believe in getting you to pay for something that you don’t need to be paying for.

I’m ALL about the scrappy, bootstrapping, DIY method when you are first starting out in biz, and even as you are growing your business to a sustainable level – you really need to be saving as much cash as humanly possible while you’re in those early stages. And spending extra dosh on programs and software is NOT what we want to be doing.

So I’ve got some alternatives for you, and you’re going to LOVE them! But I’m not going to list out a bunch of free options and make you sift through the features and work out which one might be suitable for you, because who has time for that?! I’m giving you just two recommendations – I’m all about finding something great and just going with it.

First up, PicMonkey

PicMonkey is really great for image touch-ups, re-sizing images, cropping, creating circular graphics with transparent backgrounds, placing watermarks over images, creating themed (think holidays – Christmas, Mother's Day, Halloween etc) graphics, quote images and so much more.

You can find a massive amount of inspiration (along with tips and tutorials) on the PicMonkey YouTube channel  – check out the “PicMonkey + Your Business” section for some great stuff that you could get started with today!

When you go to the PicMonkey site (at the time of writing this), it implies you need to sign up to be able to use the service – either for a free trial or a monthly fee in different pricing tiers. Here’s my hot tip though: you don’t. Just click on one of the icons at the top of the page (“Edit”, “Touch Up”, “Design” or “Collage”) and you can start editing right away, and save the result directly to your computer once you’re done.

If you want to use any of their templates for creating a design, say for fliers, promo graphics and the like, you will need to sign up. But we’re trying to save money here, right? So here’s where my second recommendation comes in:

Canva

Canva has oodles of free templates for various designs you can use as a starting point, and you can also choose to start a design with your social media platform of choice in mind, so you get the exact right size for your graphic without having to go searching for dimensions according to the latest Facebook update – total time saver.

Canva does have a bunch of great stock images you can use for free, or “premium” photos for just $1 (US) each, but you can also upload your own images for free, so I recommend you find the stock images you want from a free stock photo site such as: Pixabay (my go-to), StockSnap, Pexels, FancyCrave, or Plixs and upload them yourself to use in your designs. My second hot tip: Spend a couple of hours browsing through all the free stock photo sites that allow commercial use and save ALL the images that align with your brand and visual aesthetic, building up an image resource library on your computer that you can grab an image from whenever you need it – again this can save you loads of time later!

The Canva YouTube channel is also really valuable, they have some great tips on the actual design of your graphics too.

Once you sign up for a Canva account you can save all your designs to re-edit later or download them to your computer – you can now even save your graphics as simple animated gifs!

So if you’ve been weighing up the pros and cons of investing your hand earned profits into software for photo editing and graphics creation – there’s really no need. Jump on board these free solutions, and I bet you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how far they will take you before you need to upgrade to anything more robust.

If you’re keen to know more about the theory of design (so you can really nail those graphics you’re creating), you might want to check out my eBook: Design It Right. It’s a short but jam-packed guide to the design process, typography, layout, and the elements and principles of design.

Let us know in the comments below if you use either of these programs, what you’ve created using them, what limitations you’ve found with them and if you have any other software or app recommendations for your fellow hustlers!

Meet Mikaela

Mikaela is a fun and friendly but sometimes-ranty (aka passionate) creative entrepreneur. Her sister died in 2005, and she now lives life to the fullest in her honour. She has run multiple businesses in various industries, and is a qualified graphic designer and teacher. Mikaela wants to empower women to pursue creativity in business and in life, through her online community for makers and creatives The Makers’ Collective (with a strict no BS policy), and online school The Makers’ Academy.

Web: http://themakerscollective.com.au/start-here/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themakersco/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themakers.collective/

The post Free Tools To Edit Images And Create Graphics For Your Business appeared first on Tracy Harris.

If you’re looking to increase your mailing list signups, having an interactive PDF download as an incentive is a great way to encourage more people to sign up. A printable PDF is fine, but often people will download it, forget to print it out and never look at it again. The most valuable resources you can provide your customers are ones they can USE, so let’s go through how you can easily make your PDF interactive using InDesign, right now.

Making your PDF interactive is surprisingly easy in InDesign. The difficult part is getting the design right. If you have no prior knowledge of graphic design and are keen to give it a go yourself (high fives!), I recommend you do a little light reading on the fundamentals of design first – I’ve got a short eBook that can help you with that.

If you already have some knowledge of the principles of design and are confident to give it a go, the main things that you need to keep in mind for this type of document design are:

Space

Your design needs space to breathe, and your audience needs space to think. If you’re pages are crammed full of text and lines and boxes and graphics, the reader will become overwhelmed or worse, bored, and won’t be able to digest the information sufficiently in order to get the most value out of the freebie. If you’re designing a workbook, give lots of room for text answers, or drawings, or doodling.

Typeface choice

The fonts you use are important, they set the tone of the freebie, convey emotions, and are really representing how you are speaking to your audience through the page. Make sure all text is legible (VERY legible!), and also fits with your overall branding strategy. Stick to 2 typefaces throughout the workbook (in a variety of weights if need be, to differentiate sub-headings and descriptions etc), and keep it consistent across everything else your brand puts out.

Colour choices

Firstly, keep your colours on-brand, but also, don’t be afraid of colour! A black and white text-based document is pretty boring for someone to consume, so (as long as it fits with your messaging) feel free to go for it with adding colour to your freebie. Always keep in mind legibility –  don’t put text over a colour background or pattern, but a colourful or patterned border around the content for example, can add visual interest and make your design pop.

Once you have the content of your free download and you have laid it out in the document, making sure your typeface choices are legible and consistent with your branding, you’ve given enough space to allow the design to breathe and your colour choices represent your messaging correctly, you’re ready to do the techy bit – adding the interactive elements. And we can do it in just two easy steps!

Step 1:

For a text area, first select the element you want your readers to be able to type into. Then go up to Window > Interactive > Buttons and Forms, and select “Text Field” from the drop-down menu. You can adjust the other settings if you like, but really that’s all you need to do!

To create a checklist, create a small box, and in the “Buttons and Forms” dialogue box, select “check box”.

For checklists I like to create the first checkbox and then copy and paste that item down the list, to save a bit of time.

Now, the important part of an interactive PDF is being sure to save it properly. If you accidentally save for print, it won’t be interactive at all!

Step 2:

Go to File > Export, and choose “Adobe PDF (Interactive)”

On the following dialogue box you can choose your settings on how the PDF will be viewed by default when people open it (full page, full width etc), but the main thing is if you want the viewer to be able to print the PDF (a good idea since they may want to fill it in by hand, or fill it in digitally and then print), you need to ensure the Resolution (ppi) is set to 300, and JPEG Quality is set to High so your design prints well without being pixelated or blurry.

Once you’ve exported the file, it should open up a preview (if you had that option selected) and you can check everything works ok. If not go back and change whatever settings you need to, and re-export to PDF (don’t worry if this happens, I’ve been doing this for over 10 years and I still mess up my exporting like every other time haha).

And that’s it! Pretty do-able, right?

But what do you create?

Not sure what you could possibly create as an interactive download? Here’s a short list of examples to get you started, just find the type that would benefit your audience the most, swap in your industry and start creating!

• A checklist for a living room makeover (perhaps you sell art prints)
• A checklist for getting your garden ready for veggies (perhaps you teach home produce courses)
• A checklist of rainy day activities for kids (perhaps you sell kids craft kits)
• A checklist for detoxing your home (perhaps you sell eco friendly candles)
• A checklist for a maternity hospital bag (perhaps you’re a doula)
• A workbook for planning your engagement party (perhaps you sell wedding rings)
• A workbook for planning the perfect kids party (perhaps you sell party favours)
• A workbook for creating a content schedule (perhaps you’re a social media manager)
• A workbook for getting your kids to eat more healthily (perhaps you’re a nutritionist)
• A workbook for getting your art space set up perfectly (perhaps you’re an art teacher)

Hopefully these ideas give you a jumping off point to get started!

You can download a free trial of Adobe InDesign from the Adobe website, or you can subscribe for continued access starting at $23 per month for the single app (it gets cheaper per app if you get the full bundle). This can get a little exxy if you’re not designing stuff all the time, but if you know you only need to use the program occasionally, I would plan out your year to include months where you do all your PDF designs in that month, and then cancel your monthly subscription when you’re done. Alternatively you can always hire a professional designer, who will have access to the Adobe suite of programs all the time =)

Growing your email list really should be one of your main priorities if you run an online business, but asking people to give you their email address is a tall order – it’s like inviting yourself into their house without really knowing them. But if you bring a gift (like an apple pie or a free PDF download) that adds value to their lives, they will be much more willing to give you their information in return.

And now you know how to make it interactive, to add even more value =)

If you give this a try, please let us know in the comments below!

Meet Mikaela

Mikaela is a fun and friendly but sometimes-ranty (aka passionate) creative entrepreneur. Her sister died in 2005, and she now lives life to the fullest in her honour. She has run multiple businesses in various industries, and is a qualified graphic designer and teacher. Mikaela wants to empower women to pursue creativity in business and in life, through her online community for makers and creatives The Makers’ Collective (with a strict no BS policy), and online school The Makers’ Academy.

Web: http://themakerscollective.com.au/start-here/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themakersco/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themakers.collective/

The post How to Create Interactive Workbooks Using InDesign appeared first on Tracy Harris.

By Mikaela Danvers, The Makers Co

Too often I see hustling mamas launch their new businesses with not enough thought given to their branding, specifically their logo, arguably the most used visual element of their brand.

So many great businesses are starting out their biz adventure with sub-par branding – either that you’ve done yourself, a friend has helped you with, or an inexperienced designer has put together for you. This can be a problem when you need to re-design after a period of time (confusing and possibly alienating your existing customers who are now accustomed to the old brand). Or worse, your current branding could actually be harming your business success because customers don’t take you seriously or think you’re unprofessional.

How can you avoid this in the first place?

You need to ensure your branding is solid. This actually starts well before you (or a designer) creates any visual collateral for your business – I’ve created a Know Your Brand Workbook to help get you started!

Once you’ve got your head around what your brand needs to represent, it’s time to get visual.

So can you do it yourself? Of course you can!

I do have a caveat though:
The best option, of course, is to hire a professional to design your logo for you (and by professional I mean someone with either a tertiary qualification, or over 5 years practical experience designing for small businesses). A professional designer brings technical skills and a knowledge of design theory that other people only have a vague idea about, or are still working towards acquiring – they will take your project through the entire design process, ensuring the result represents your brand and business values appropriately and timelessly. Instead of just listening to your idea and popping some text over a stock illustration, a pro will investigate and research your brand, look at your competitors, look at your aspirations for your business, pull together ideas to form a concept that is then developed with your input over several iterations, to get the final design just right.

But sometimes, designing your own logo is what is right for you. This might be because you’re just not in a position to invest in a professional designer yet, or maybe you really love design and have a knack for it (even if you never studied it officially). Whatever your reasons, the most important thing to do when going the DIY logo route is to make sure you have a handle on the basic elements and principles of design (I have an eBook if you’re interested!), and also follow the these four rules* for a successful logo design.

It must be simple

A logo helps a brand tell its story, but this doesn’t mean you need to include everything about your business in this one emblem. Your logo must be simple, for so many reasons. To be memorable, to be functional across multiple applications (web/print/clothing/products etc), for scalability (it needs to work at both large and very small sizes – think of the favicon in a browser tab), and for good design. Good design does not include anything that is not absolutely necessary to get the message across.

So how can you ensure your logo has the simplicity that is required? When you think of the most successful brands in the world and their corresponding logos, they are not over detailed. The average 8 yr old could draw them well enough to be recognisable to others, and this is what you should aim for also. This does not mean your logo should look like it was actually drawn by an 8 year old!

It must be appropriate

Your logo must be appropriate for its intended use. As an example, a typeface that is delicate and feminine is not going to be appropriate for a Pro-Wrestling logo. You need to keep in mind that every colour, shape, and font you use has a meaning or feeling behind it, and when you put them together in your business logo, you are telling your brand story. You need to make sure you’re telling the right story!

“It is also important to state that that a logo doesn’t need to show what a business sells or offers as a service. ie. Car logos don’t need to show cars, computer logos don’t need to show computers. The Harley Davidson logo isn’t a motorcycle, nor is the Nokia logo a mobile phone. A logo is purely for identification.” – JUST Creative

It must work with a limited colour palette

Your full colour logo also needs to work in just black, and also all white on a dark background. You have to remember that you are not the only one that will be using your logo – if you participate in any collaborations, events, fundraisers, loops, wholesaling or something else run by another person, they will need to use your logo in a variety of ways, over different colour backgrounds or over photographs for example.

If you include things like drop shadows or gradients, these may not transfer well to one solid colour application. Typefaces with very thin strokes might get lost of dark backgrounds, and logos with too many details will look very busy placed on top of an image… all things to keep in mind!

The best thing to do when you’re creating your logo design is to make sure you have alternate colour versions designed purposefully – a black and white version, a reverse version (light logo for use on dark backgrounds), and perhaps one full colour version similar to the black and white version but in one colour of your brand, for things like embroidery on uniforms/aprons etc – great for wearing at markets!

It should have a maximum of 2 typefaces

When it comes to successful logo design, choosing the typeface you implement is the most crucial decision you will make. The style of type will make or break your logo design, so it needs to be carefully considered.

Besides choosing the wrong font, the second most common mistake in regards to your logo is that it contains too many typefaces. The best practice is to carefully choose a maximum of two different typefaces, and use their different weights for more differentiation if necessary.

“Using too many fonts is like trying to show someone a whole photo album at once. Each typeface is different, and the viewer needs time to recognize it. Seeing too many at once causes confusion.” – Smashing Magazine

Other things you need to keep in mind when designing your own logo:

Draw lots of ideas

My number one tip when creating a logo is this: Your first idea is never your best idea. Take half an hour to sketch out (either on paper or digitally) as many ideas for your logo design that you can. Make it a challenge, to pump out as many ideas as possible in that half hour.

Experiment with icons & symbols, type and layout. These can be super rough and something you don’t want to show anyone else (that’s fine!), but it’s important to get the concepts out of your head and onto the paper or screen. Don’t go straight to illustrator and start messing about with type and shapes in there – this takes too long to allow your ideas to flow naturally, your insights will be stifled. That step comes after this first step of sketching.

Avoid Trends

Design trends come and go, and the last thing you want to have to do is redesign your logo all over again in two years time when it looks terribly dated, especially if you’ve grown a following already. Along with this tip, also avoid stock elements – your logo needs to be unique and not contain identical elements as 40 other businesses out there!

Keep it Mobile Friendly

Scalable not just up, but down – to very small sizes. The text and details of your logo could be easily lost or muddied when viewed on a mobile screen, and as most people (depending on your target audience, of course) now view a majority of their internet browsing time on a mobile device, this is something you need to be really aware of when designing your logo. This of course goes hand-in-hand with the simplicity of your logo – if your logo is simple, it should scale successfully and therefore be mobile friendly.

Read these articles for more:
How not to design a logo
10 Common mistakes in logo design

*Of course in life rules are meant to be broken, but it’s really important that you’ve got a firm grasp on what they are first so you’re breaking them intentionally and with purpose.

Have you designed your own logo, or had it created by a professional? Have you had to re-design your logo after a period of time? We'd love to know your experience!

Meet Mikaela

Mikaela is a fun and friendly but sometimes-ranty (aka passionate) creative entrepreneur. Her sister died in 2005, and she now lives life to the fullest in her honour. She has run multiple businesses in various industries, and is a qualified graphic designer and teacher. Mikaela wants to empower women to pursue creativity in business and in life, through her online community for makers and creatives The Makers' Collective (with a strict no BS policy), and online school The Makers' Academy.

Web: http://themakerscollective.com.au/start-here/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themakersco/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themakers.collective/

The post The Essential Elements That Make a Good Logo appeared first on Tracy Harris.

By Mikaela Danvers, The Makers Co

Why you need an email signature

These days, in the times of algorithms across social media, page rankings in Google and exorbitant print-ad costs (along with declining print readership and no “click through rate”), email, for the time being, remains one of the most cost-effective marketing tools at your disposal.
Besides the well-known strategy of growing an email list and sending regular communication via newsletters and the like, there is another way you can get strategic with email for marketing your business, and it’s an easy one to implement: the email signature. Adding an email signature to your emails you send in your daily communications can increase the response rate and client interaction with your business. It can add valuable information, and a sense of trust (and professionalism!) at the end of every message sent.
According to HubSpot, the average person sends 41 emails per day at work. Though it might be slightly less (or perhaps more!) for the average hustling mama, that is a LOT of opportunities to get more traffic to your website, and let your contacts know about your biz.

Design Tips

The two main things you want to remember when putting together your signature are:
1. Keep it simple
2. Stay on-brand

Keep it simple

Basically, you don’t want to detract at all from the main purpose of your email, which is to communicate whatever message it is that you are sending. A hugely detailed signature with images, 4 links, 6 social icons, an email address and a promo offer is just TOO. MUCH.
Ideally, you want to have a nice image of yourself, your name, your website, and a short tag line explaining what you do. Depending on your business and the nature of your daily communications, you can include other information such as social links, but of course all that information should be easily found on your website.

I’ve created a short 3 minute video of me putting together my own email signature for The Makers’ Co, to show you how to pop an image to the left of some text in Gmail.

Stay on brand

Every single touchpoint you have with your customers needs to be telling the same story, and the way to do that is with a strong visual brand. All fonts, colours and imagery needs to be as consistent as possible across every type of communication – and this includes your email signature!
Be sure to try and match (as closely as possible – it can be tricky sometimes with the limitations given by email service providers) the elements of your email signature to your style guide (if you have one!). This means type choices (typeface, font weight and size, and colours), photography style and general layout all need to be in line with your visual brand.

What you can include

• Your website address, in a unique way (as part of a call-to-action)
• Your top three (max) social platform accounts
• Your phone number
• If you deal with international clients, an international pre-fix for your phone number
• Your short, concise mission statement / by-line / elevator pitch
• An image of yourself or your a great photo of your products
• Web-safe fonts
• Image banner underneath, with your current promotion – not too big!

Many articles online advise against using images because some email clients strip them out, but interestingly research has shown that including colour photos of yourself will make you that much more memorable:
“Research shows that the most memorable photos are those that contain people. Psychologists have also found that color images are more memorable than black and white” – yesware

I’ve made another super-short video to show you how you can easily save a profile photo with a circular crop and transparent background using the free online editor PicMonkey.

What NOT to include

• Your email address (there is division about this, in larger companies where your emails are being passed around and CC’d multiple times, there is an argument for including your email address in your signature. For the most part though, it’s unnecessary. It’s like including two return address labels on the back of an envelope for the same address)
• A fax number (everyone under the age of 25 is probs asking “what *is* a fax actually, anyway?”)
• Every single social platform available
• Large images
• If you only deal domestically, an international prefix for your phone number
• Inspirational quotes
• Full hyperlinks with the http:// in front and the / at the end… so messy
• Every single service you provide
• The entire email signature as an image (if someone has images blocked they won’t see ANY of your info)

Including promotions

It’s totally acceptable (and recommended!) to include information about your latest promotion underneath the main information of your email signature – just make sure it’s not distracting or too aggressive. A small image banner linking to a page with more info or a sales page is great, or alternatively a purely text promotion with a link will work perfectly well also.
The main thing here is to remember to switch out the promo when it expires!
The How-to:

Here’s how to manually set-up your email signature (if you so choose):

1. How to set-up your email signature in Gmail
2. How to set-up your email signature in Outlook

Let us know in the comments below (or in the MWH Biz Club) once you’ve optimised your email signature, and if you see an increase in traffic!

Meet Mikaela 

Mikaela is the founder of The Makers Co. The Makers Co exists to encourage makers and creatives to follow their own path in their creative adventure. Along with running her biz, Mikaela is also mum to two gorgeous children.

Web: http://themakerscollective.com.au/start-here/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/themakersco/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themakers.collective/

The post How to Create an Email Signature for Your Business Email appeared first on Tracy Harris.