When is The Last time You Level-Up'd?

Business Support, Lifestyle
by: Kel Amstutz

So, once upon a time... I started this blog, you know the one...Life at Gray Gables back in 2011. 

Sure, I was full of content but I wasn't really clear on 

• what I wanted to do
• who my audience was
• what my brand could be
• or even what mission I was on

It was, in my own words, my Hobby blog. 

It was not a business. 

It was something that I dedicated my heart and soul to, put my passion into, but I was putting my words on the computer screen, not really thinking about building anything...BIGGER than that.

I was not navigating my ship.

I was not being the captain. 


I was just a passenger, looking into the ocean for a landing spot...to see where I would end up...what kind of opportunities might...or might not happen.

I was extremely passive and taking an extremely passive approach.  In the end, I just floated around. I had high hopes of what I wanted my blog(s) to be...but trying to build them in order to build an income seems like it was a mirage.   

So, I started educating myself. I developed my professionalism, my business and my lifestyle goals.  

The biggest key for me was clarity.  

No, clarity is not always tied to implementation. Having a coach or mentor is extremely important. 

I decided to seek a coach, someone who would push me, hold me accountable, steer my course and let me be the captain to the ship I knew I needed to sail.  

What a difference, right!  

 Not only do I have huge ideas, but I am actually implementing new offerings that are extremely beneficial to all parties involved.  It has been a win-win situation for both myself and my clients.  

 
For those of you who ask...

'Is it really possible to make money doing what I love?'  

Well, YES!  

 

The fastest way to get there is to level up  YOURSELF.  
 

• You need to surround yourself with people who are doing what you want to be doing. 
• You need to arrange your role models in your circle and watch, look and listen. 

"You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." 

~Jim Rohn  

Have you heard the saying "Two heads are better than one" ?  Hiring a captain to help navigate your ship could be the key for you to earn a couple dollars here and there or ACTUALLY earning a full-time income from home with a business that you had once only dreamed about. 

 

The difference that having a support system or coach can do for you is amazing. You will see and feel the changes taking place. 

Check out this video on leveling-up and be sure to let me know in the comments how you have experience up-leveling in your own business and/or life! 

 

Are you ready to level-up your income? Book a one-time breakthrough session with Kel! 

Love this article:

 

If you found this post interesting, I bet you’ll love checking out my other most popular posts:

• 3 Reasons Why You Really Need to Productize Your Knowledge 
• How to Make Your BLOG Go Viral
• What is Content Marketing and Why Does It Pay? 
• The Speaker's Guide to Productizing Your Expertise

• 99 Companies Offering Part-Time Work at Home Jobs
• List of 21+ Companies That Hire Frequently For Work at Home
• Top Companies that Offer Legitimate Data Entry Jobs
• Best 10 Work at Home Jobs for Teens (18 and under)

 

 Here is my most popular eBook! 

I strongly recommend my eBook, The Social Media Manager Kit by Kel (w/ bonus) in order to get you started. It will include templates for emailing potential clients or those you landed a completed job with, it will allow you to focus and challenge you to keep moving forward. 

This life, working at home, being financial free and with my family, is something that I used to dream about. 

Today...

• I am living it. 
• I am loving it. 
• I am making it my life! 

Need More Help?  

Check out my eBook, Make your Dream a Reality in 30 Days or Less! - a jump start guide with templates to get you ready, set and ROCKING this Social Media Manager gig! 

 

@KelleyAmstutz

/kel.amstutz

KAMSTUTZ09

How To: Get Happy Right Now!

Faith, Lessons on Working, Stay at Home Moms
by: Kel Amstutz

Are you happy? 

Are you struggling? 

Maybe a mix of both?

Learning HOW to be happy with yourself, in the moment is a great gift. Each moment, including the present is a gift. If you are not happy with yourself, your body, your family balance, your financial situation, you can become insecure. If you think that you are not good enough you will begin to fear rejection, feel lonely, and take on many other negative thoughts. 

 
WHY IT AFFECTS EVERYTHING

Let's go with self esteem. You are not happy with your body. You think you are too fat, or perhaps too skinny.  You see a flabby tummy, or stretch marks.  If we use this example, this mindset, you are unhappy with your body, OK. What does that do to you?  Well, you might be jealous of others. You might find yourself worried that you are not attractive enough to keep your spouse, or maybe you will feel that your body will affect intimacy. 

If you are not happy with your body, you might not want to look at it. You might obsessively under eat or begin binge eating, which makes you feel even worse about yourself. You might overeat junk food to overshadow your unhappy thoughts, which make your health an issue. Or maybe you take on shopping, making yourself feel better but causing debt or buyers remorse. 

The possible scenario's are endless, but you get the general idea. 



WHY WE'RE LIKE THIS

There is not just ONE answer to this question. It is a build up that includes a lot of reasons! 

The media.  We watch beautiful celebrities with perfect faces, stomachs, hair, thighs, abs, chests, booties- all over the place. We see them on the Internet, TV, Movies, in magazines.  Everywhere.  We are comparing ourselves to an illusion. Why would we need to like these illusions? Why can't we be like ourselves?  Why can't WE be ideal? 

The comments section.  When friends, family members, co-workers, spouses make innocent comments perhaps about our booties, boobs, etc. that settle in and we find ourselves feeling bad. These comments are small but they can hit our self-esteem very hard. 

Childhood. In our childhoods, maybe our parents comment on certain things that stick with us, making us feel bad. Perhaps our parents got a divorce, maybe Dad was never around- maybe Dad left Mom, maybe she wasn't good enough for him. By extension this can transpire into you are not good enough for someone? 

Failures. Everyone makes mistakes. They say 'To error is to be human' but perhaps we have made some mistakes and failed at some things that we tried very hard to accomplish. Everyone does it, but when we do it, we take it to heart.

Spiral of negative thoughts. One bad thought can lead to another, and then another, until we have a bundle of BAD thoughts that become our self-image. This negative self-image can affect everything that we do.  This self-image and these bad thoughts are NOT us- they are things that HAPPEN to us or within us, but we don't let them become us. We can cope with these thoughts, we can turn them into a positive, into gratitude, and even into happiness.


HOW TO: GET HAPPY NOW!


Getting into a more happy and healthy place NOW is all about practice and commitment.  Of course, this will NOT be an instant effect, it will take a while because our self-images can not transform overnight, it took years, perhaps to find and fill with this unhappiness, after all. 
 But, here is a trick that I learned from someone near and deal:

1. Make a MENTAL MOVIE. 

Pretend you have a movie that you play in your mind. The movie is about who we are. You have a flabby tummy, you are fat, you are too skinny, you aren't disciplined, you aren't lovable, you don't earn enough income, you aren't good at ANYTHING. 


Start to pay attention when this movie starts playing- it affects everything that you do. 

Now, realize that this movie IS NOT YOU. This movie is just playing in your mind. Realize that it is NOT true. This is NOT based on your reality. Realize that this movie CAN BE CHANGED!


2. Start to EDIT your movie.

It is time to base the movie on reality. Do not let your fears from childhood or illusions from celebrities or comments others have made affect this movie. Instead, it should be based on the FACT that you are a GOOD person who is loving, kind, beautiful, passionate. This might not be what you think about yourself, but let's make the movie like this anyhoo.  

Ask others why you're lovable. (look for those who might give kind answers) Use these images in your new movie. When negative images start to pop up, edit them to the cutting room floor and tell them that they have NO PLACE in your production!  


3. Play the new movie in your conscience. 

Put this new movie in your mind often and play it. 

Practice!

You need to realize that you are PERFECT- just the way you are. You do not need to buy things in order to feel happy. You have healing powers locked inside of YOU. You just need practice! 

Comment below and share a little about how you find happiness in your daily life! 

 

If you found this post interesting, I bet you’ll love checking out my other most popular posts:

• 3 Reasons Why You Really Need to Productize Your Knowledge 
• How to Make Your BLOG Go Viral
• What is Content Marketing and Why Does It Pay? 
• The Speaker's Guide to Productizing Your Expertise

• 99 Companies Offering Part-Time Work at Home Jobs
• List of 21+ Companies That Hire Frequently For Work at Home
• Top Companies that Offer Legitimate Data Entry Jobs
• Best 10 Work at Home Jobs for Teens (18 and under)

 

 Here is my most popular eBook! 

I strongly recommend my eBook, The Social Media Manager Kit by Kel (w/ bonus) in order to get you started. It will include templates for emailing potential clients or those you landed a completed job with, it will allow you to focus and challenge you to keep moving forward. 

This life, working at home, being financial free and with my family, is something that I used to dream about. 

Today...

• I am living it. 
• I am loving it. 
• I am making it my life! 

Need More Help?  

Check out my eBook, Make your Dream a Reality in 30 Days or Less! - a jump start guide with templates to get you ready, set and ROCKING this Social Media Manager gig! 

 

@KelleyAmstutz

/kel.amstutz

KAMSTUTZ09

How to Work At Home As A Graphic Designer

Business Design, Flexible Career, Work From Home
By: Kel Amstutz

Are you thinking about venturing into the field of graphic design for your stay-at-home job?

If so, I want to give you a graphic designer’s exclusive behind the scenes look at what it’s like to work at home as a graphic designer, provide you with some excellent learning resources and educate you on how you can break into the field of graphic design for yourself!

What is a graphic designer anyways?

A graphic designer is, in essence, a visual communicator. The designer’s job is to communicate the message of their client’s brand effectively to the specified audience. Designers do this through arranging type, symbols, color, and imagery to create a specific “feel” related to the brand they are working on for the project at hand. Typical projects graphic designers work on are: logo designs, business cards, brochures, flyers, folders, print advertisements, postcards, company letterhead & envelopes, booklets, catalogs, packaging design, greeting cards & invitations, social media pages including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, as well as web advertisements, and web graphic elements. Designers can also create simple, beautiful websites and can customize WordPress templates for their clients as well.

Qualifications to get started in your own business

What are the qualifications to become a graphic designer? I chose to obtain an associates degree in graphic design, some choose to go after a bachelors, some a certificate, and some choose to do their own self-study. If you choose to pursue freelancing as a graphic designer, then having a degree in this field isn’t required. What you choose really depends on your lifestyle and how much time and monetary investment you can put towards building your all-essential portfolio of work samples.

Learning Option #1: College

Choosing the college route is, in my opinion, a fantastic starting place if your time and finances allow you to do so. There are so many great college options to choose between. You could work towards a certificate or associates degree at your local community college, or you can opt for an online college such as Full Sail University or The New School.
The benefits of obtaining a degree in the field are great because you will be provided with a well-rounded education that will cover all areas of graphic design. You will learn crucial design principles, how to meet deadlines, and how to take constructive criticism on your work. You also won’t be constantly wondering if you are missing any part of your education, but instead will have a good grasp on what all of the different areas of design entails.
However, you don’t need to have a diploma sitting on your desk to become a freelance graphic designer. You could opt for only taking a couple accredited classes if you want and then pursue the rest of your education through self-study. Even if you did want to pursue a degree, I would also definitely recommend supplementing what you learn in school with your own self-study. Your work will be stronger and you’ll be able to provide even more value to your clients.

Learning Option #2: Self-Study

Fully immersing yourself in a design program at your local community college or an online college isn’t always the best option when you are a busy mom or just don’t have the funds at the time to do so. When this is the case, you need to know that having a degree in this field is certainly not a requirement to be a freelance graphic designer. Even with a degree, in my almost four years of working from home, I have never been directly asked if I had one from any of my potential clients. The most crucial thing that I have found potential clients are looking for is not a degree, but a quality work portfolio for them to see. I have experienced this to be the number one element that they base their decision on. If you put together a great portfolio full of at least 4-6 beautiful, solid samples of design work you have done – then that is enough to get started. How do you learn from your own self-study? I suggest that you put together your own learning course by getting a hold of every design book you can, soak up design inspiration from great and successful designers and emulate their work for your own personal practice, start an online learning track on Treehouse and begin taking a set list of courses on Lynda.com and learn all you can for the specific work you want to do at Skillshare.

After you have a general overview of the design fundamentals and a good grasp of the basics of each of the Adobe design programs (see the list below), I suggest starting out by defining the one area of focus that you want to concentrate on. Be it logo design, business card design, brochure design, simple website design, WordPress design, etc and learn everything you can about your area of concentrated study. Once you know all that you can about the subject, work on designing four to six solid samples for your portfolio so that you will be able to use this portfolio on different work sites.

Recommended tools

A Reliable Computer:: You can easily work on either a Mac or a PC, as the design programs can be downloaded and used on both of these platforms.

Adobe Creative Cloud Programs:: These programs are an absolute must and the industry standard for every graphic designer to have. I recommend to start out by downloading Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, & Muse. Learn these programs back & forth and you’ll be able to provide your clients with great value in any area of their branding materials. Adobe Illustrator CC is used for creating vector graphics. This is the program you would use for logos, scalable illustrations, 1-2 page advertisements, and icon sets. Adobe Photoshop CC is used for editing photographic imagery and building website mock-ups. Adobe InDesign CC is used for laying out booklets, books, eBooks, magazines & catalogs. Adobe Muse CC is used for designing simple websites without having to worry about complex website coding.

Pantone Color Matching System:: Owning color swatches from the Pantone Color Matching system is highly recommended to keep consistent color across both printed materials and the web. (I recommend the color fans)

A Scanner & Printer:: Having a good scanner and printer is essential for bringing your sketches to the computer and being able to test print your work so that you can be sure you are giving your clients the best.

A Sketchbook & Pen:: Having a sketchbook and pen nearby is a great time saver so that you can do quick sketches to determine the composition of your project or concept idea before you bring them to the computer.

A Drawing Tablet:: This tool isn’t absolutely necessary, but can be a great help with illustration work and quick thumbnail sketches.

How to work from home as a graphic designer

So, how do you get started in your own graphic design business?  oDesk.com  is a great way to get into the freelancing world! There are many other freelancing sites you can look into as well. Invest time and effort into making your online work profile shine with your brief work description, your portfolio of 4-6 samples, and any skills testing the work site might have available. I also recommend having your own website set up so that you will have an outside web presence to show your potential clients during the interview stage. This website could be a simple landing page that you design in Adobe Muse.

By having this simple, well-designed one page (or more) website set up, you will be one step closer to gaining the trust of your potential client and turning them into a long-term business relationship. Once you have your profile and website set up, the next thing to do is to start submitting applications to the job postings that interest you for work directly related to your portfolio samples. Tailor each cover letter you submit to address what you specifically propose to do for the client to meet and exceed their project needs. Then, once the client hires you, follow through with your promises!

Graphic design is a field that is ever growing and there is no cap to how far you can go in your business! If you are interested in becoming a graphic designer, I urge you to take the first step and start exploring your own area of concentrated study. You can even do this while still working your day job by dedicating an hour or two each evening towards your own self-study and building your portfolio.

Working from home as a graphic designer is not only exciting, but also so rewarding. You get to do what you love, (create beautiful and effective designs), make a profitable income for the family, help others reach a high level of success in their businesses, and be there for your family all at the same time! There is just so much flexibility and there is always something new to learn or a new service you can offer. One day your concentration could be designing logos, the next day you could learn how to build a WordPress website and then offer that as an addition to your expanding services.

To help you get started, check out my quick list of recommended resources below! These resources are the top sites and products to help you on your way to becoming a great Graphic Designer.

Quick list of resources

Accredited Online Learning
Full Sail University
The New School

Non-Accredited Learning
Lynda
Treehouse
Skillshare

Inspiration
Behance
Dribbble
LogoPond
LovelyPackage

Finding Work
oDesk
Etsy
Elance
Freelancer

Design Resources
InkyDeals.com (Free)
SubtlePatterns.com (Free)
FontSquirrel.com (Free)
DaFont.com (Free)
WhatTheFont.com (Free Look-Ups)
MyFonts.com
Vecteezy.com (Free)
Shutterstock.com

Design Books
Creative Workshop: 80 Challenges to Sharpen Your Design Skills
Thinking with Type
Making and Breaking the Grid
Color Index
Design Basics Index
Layout Index
Type Idea Index
Logo Design Love
Adobe Creative Cloud Classroom in a Book series

 

If you found this post interesting, I bet you’ll love checking out my other most popular posts:

• 3 Reasons Why You Really Need to Productize Your Knowledge 
• How to Make Your BLOG Go Viral
• What is Content Marketing and Why Does It Pay? 
• The Speaker's Guide to Productizing Your Expertise

• 99 Companies Offering Part-Time Work at Home Jobs
• List of 21+ Companies That Hire Frequently For Work at Home
• Top Companies that Offer Legitimate Data Entry Jobs
• Best 10 Work at Home Jobs for Teens (18 and under)

 

 Here is my most popular eBook! 

I strongly recommend my eBook, The Social Media Manager Kit by Kel (w/ bonus) in order to get you started. It will include templates for emailing potential clients or those you landed a completed job with, it will allow you to focus and challenge you to keep moving forward. 

This life, working at home, being financial free and with my family, is something that I used to dream about. 

Today...

• I am living it. 
• I am loving it. 
• I am making it my life! 

Need More Help?  

Check out my eBook, Make your Dream a Reality in 30 Days or Less! - a jump start guide with templates to get you ready, set and ROCKING this Social Media Manager gig! 

 

@KelleyAmstutz

/kel.amstutz

KAMSTUTZ09