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46. Creative Confidence: The Goal That Strengthens Self-Worth with Bhavini Lakhani
Episode 4618th December 2025 • Psychologically Speaking with Leila Ainge • Decibelle Creative
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A conversation about creative confidence, goal setting, and how sharing your work builds self-worth. Designer Bhavini joins Leila to explore fear, visibility, and growth.

In this episode of Psychologically Speaking, Leila Ainge sits down with creative designer Bhavini (B81 Designs) to explore the psychology behind creative confidence, self-worth, and setting goals that stretch you.

Bhavini shares the now-iconic story of her childhood Peter Rabbit — the rainbow-drenched sculpture her mum repainted white — and how that moment shaped her creative identity decades later. It becomes a powerful metaphor for self-expression, suppression, and the courage to show the work you’re proud of.

💡 What’s inside this episode

  • How childhood experiences quietly shape creative identity
  • Why sharing your work feels terrifying — even when clients love it
  • The difference between confidence, self-esteem, and self-worth
  • How fear of rejection stops creatives from posting their work
  • The “imagined audience” and why visibility feels risky
  • Practical strategies for building a habit of sharing
  • Why accountability, community, and collaboration matter
  • How one difficult client situation derailed Bhavini’s motivation
  • The value of starting a goal that’s really about self-worth, not perfection

🎯 Bhavini’s 2026 Goal

To share more of her design work online ,consistently, visibly, and beyond her comfort zone , and to build self-worth by doing the thing she’s been avoiding.

With tools like the Rejection Challenge, a bingo card of self-sabotage phrases, and reframing portfolio updates as self-worth time, the episode shows what it looks like to set a goal that genuinely grows you.

🧠 Why this episode matters

If you’ve ever hesitated to show your work, doubted your abilities, or worried about being judged online, this conversation will land deeply. It’s about identity, self-expression, and the quieter psychology behind creative careers.


🔗 Mentioned

  • B81 Designs (Bhavini)
  • Doing It For the Kids Community
  • Being Freelance
  • Liz Mosley & The Rejection Challenge
  • Hannah Isted

🚀 Join the 2026 Goal Sprint

Want your own ambitious, exciting 2026 goal — the kind that assumes you can grow from day one? Join Leila’s 60-minute live Goal Sprint.


www.leilaainge.co.uk/goalsprint

Transcripts

Speaker:

Hi, I'm Leila Ainge, psychologist and researcher.

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Welcome back to Psychologically Speaking, a podcast all about human behavior, bringing

together fascinating research, insights and real life experiences.

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This season, we've been exploring goals with our guests and we're following them into the

new year to see how their beliefs, behaviors and actions shape those intentions.

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My next guest is the wonderful Bhavini

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also known as Bhav and she is the creative spark behind B81 Designs, a place where design

goes from just okay to love it.

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She's honed her craft in the corporate world, but after redundancy, she quickly realized

she could have more fun and most importantly, better coffee running her own show.

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Her designs have playful touches, clean layouts, and strategic white space and bold pops

of color that help businesses stand out from the

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I love spending time with Bhavini and I've heard all about a story to do with a childhood

rabbit Bhavini welcome to the Psychologically Speaking podcast.

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It's great to have you here.

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Hi, I'm really excited to have this conversation with you.

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Thank you.

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So, just a little bit of background.

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Earlier this year, you stood up It was the Doing It For The Kids event.

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And you told everybody about a rabbit from your childhood.

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And this has

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directly influenced, where you are right now.

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I just wondered if you would briefly tell our listeners about that.

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And do know the funny thing is it wasn't until maybe sort of five or six years ago that I

realized exactly how much influence this had had over where my career has gone.

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So when I was at nursery, we got given white Peter Rabbit statues to paint and...

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my statue looked like a rainbow had like exploded all over it.

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was every single colour you could imagine and I was really proud of of this creation.

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When I got him home, the reaction I got from my mum wasn't the same as my reaction I had

towards my rabbit and a few days later he'd been painted white.

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So my mum had covered up all the

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beautiful colors I'd thrown at this rabbit.

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She painted him white, giving him some black outlines for his eyes and then that rabbit

stayed in like a display cabinet for a very long time.

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Just, you know, just sitting there in the living room every day I'd see this rabbit and

over the years that white paint started chipping off and it started at the base and you

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could see like the little layers of

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colours popping through in bits where the white had popped off and yeah like I said it

wasn't until so maybe five six years ago that I realised hang on this has had a major

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influence on where I am now and how my career has gone like I my design journey started

off in an agency and then I was working in the corporate world where everything is very

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dull.

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You know, we've got to be a certain way to appear professional.

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And then when I set up my own business, it felt a little bit like what was going on with

that rabbit where the paint that was white and dull and boring was being chipped away and

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all the sparky colours and the creativeness was coming through.

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It's such a beautiful story.

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mean, obviously it's horrendous that your poor rabbit got painted white.

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I think though, very relatable if you are a parent whose child does come home with many

wonderful creations.

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We've all been in that place and I now look back at my childhood and think, God, all that

pottery I used to take home to my mum that I thought was amazing.

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Exactly.

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But it's such a metaphor really, isn't it?

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Around how we do suppress who we want to be and not just us suppressing, but we're

conditioned to kind of go, that's a bit too much or let's whitewash that.

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And that literally happened in your childhood.

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And I think it's lovely that then you've taken this story and you've kind of said, right,

now I'm going to talk about this because it's really important.

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um

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Yeah, the talk that I did at the Doing It For The Kids meetup was the first time I've ever

told that story out loud.

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And I'll tell you what, Leila that collective gasp that went through the room was like

therapy.

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I still remember it.

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I was in that audience and yeah it was I think we all just went she did what?

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Yeah, yeah, and I could see the reactions on people's faces and this was the first time

I'd ever done any public speaking so I was a bit, oh, is this the right way to start?

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Is this a good story to tell?

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And I just went with it because my gut said yes, it was the right thing and I'm so glad I

didn't try and sort of whitewash the story down and turn it into a different kind of talk.

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And it just, it really says something about you and what you stand for.

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And I know you as somebody who is a very, you know, bright and joyful and we joke about

coffee.

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and that does come through, I think, when I see your design aesthetic it's just such a

joyful and lovely thing to be truly ourselves.

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100%.

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what is your goal for 2026?

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So this year I started working on myself and my mindset quite a lot because I felt like I

was...

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not chasing anything.

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I was letting work come to me rather than sort of going out and really asking for what I

wanted.

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So I started working on my mindset.

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I worked with a mentor this year and I've really worked on growing my self-confidence.

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And as part of that I also started working on a rejection challenge that Liz Mosley has

had a lot and I've had a lot of fun doing that.

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So my goal for next year is a little bit related to all of the stuff

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that I've been working on this year and it's to share more of my work online because I've

stopped doing that and I don't have a valid or good enough reason about why I've stopped

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sharing my work and no it's fear of rejection isn't it that is why I've stopped sharing my

work because I'm worried about what other people will think and I think I need to put that

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to one side and just share the work.

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well when you say share the work, what is sharing the work?

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What work exactly?

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brand identities that I've worked on, I've worked on a couple of impact reports this year

for charities.

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There's branding that I've created for really, really lovely clients over the last two

years.

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And I haven't, I haven't shown it off to the world.

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I haven't put it on LinkedIn or on Instagram.

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And the less I've done it, the more it's become this thing of, no, I can't share my work.

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What will people say?

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What if nobody likes it?

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What if people say something horrible about it?

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And I've just stopped sharing.

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And presumably your clients have all been thrilled.

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Absolutely.

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You know, we've, I've worked quite collaboratively with all of my clients from the very

start of a design project.

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And so it's not like, you know, I say to them, right, this is the design.

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This is, this is what you've got to have.

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We work until we're both really proud of the end result.

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Whether that is a journal or a brochure or a brand identity.

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it doesn't get signed off until we're both myself and the client are really, happy.

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So there's nothing there that would make me think, oh, I can't share that.

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It's something I'm not proud of.

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It's something the client isn't proud of.

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So then we start to think about your own platforms.

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So which platforms are you on and which spaces would you be sharing?

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em So I am on Instagram and LinkedIn and I've my own website as well so I need to post my

work on Instagram.

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You know it's a very visual platform so it's perfect for sharing that.

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I need to post my work on LinkedIn because that is where the clients that I want to work

with in the future hang out.

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And of course I need to post on my own website because that's what's mine, right?

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And so I'm going to just play back the phrase that you've used, which is I need to.

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I need to post on Instagram.

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I need to post on LinkedIn.

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I need to post on my own website.

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What would flip that to from I need to I want to?

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That's a really good question.

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I'm not sure I have the right answer to that.

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And I think that would be really useful to explore the motivation behind it.

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And so I've asked a leading question there around your own platforms and sharing.

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So then why do then your own control and linking back to the rejection challenge, I think

a little bit here, we tend to do things in spaces where we feel safe and we might go for

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things that we think we're not going to fail at.

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So putting things in your own space is it fully in your control and you can fully curate

it if we take the spirit of where you've been this year, I would then say, so that's

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great.

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And we do need to think about how you get from need to want, but let's think bigger.

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uh

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That is a really good idea though because like I said this year has been about building on

that self-confidence, going in search of rejection to continue building on confidence.

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So yeah I should go bigger shouldn't I?

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What would that look like?

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okay, so immediate answer.

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It's something like sharing in groups and platforms where I know there are other peers who

I admire, whose work I admire.

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I don't know where else that's the first thing that comes to mind like groups that I'm not

necessarily always active on or groups that I'm part of where it's full of amazing

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designers but I'm automatically saying to myself I'm not as good as them

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And it's really interesting, this visibility, how it comes up for people.

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The central part of my imposter phenomenon research was saying how we do eventually, we

all kind of hold back in spaces when we see other people being the things that we desire

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to be and we want to be.

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And there is a magic.

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point in there around when we can relate to people behind the scenes that then we don't

feel that way.

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And again, I'm just going to probe here because for people who don't know you in the

communities in the same way I do, there must be, you hinted at it there, there are

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communities that you probably feel that you spend more time in and are closer to, yes?

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Yes, definitely.

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Freelance magazine, I'm probably not as active in, but being freelance and doing it for

the kids, I've been a member of those communities for quite a few years now and know

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everybody quite well.

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And I think that's part of it, isn't it?

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Is that when we think we know who our audience is, we come back to this idea of the

imagined audience.

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So if you're aiming to put your stuff out into a space that you wouldn't normally spend a

lot of time in, then a strategy might look a bit like connecting with a couple of people

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in that community prior to doing it, to strengthen.

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And so we've got these three interrelated concepts if you've got confidence.

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Mm-hmm.

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confidence is all about doing the thing.

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So it's something that comes and goes and it gets better with practice.

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That is it.

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No short-cut.

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Yeah.

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Yeah.

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You've got self-esteem, which is built up and knocked down and built up and knocked down.

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But you've also got that self-worth.

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And I think here, this isn't about confidence or self-esteem.

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It's that self-worth, isn't it?

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So the self-worth.

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is going to thrive when you can build those good relationships with people.

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Prior to putting your stuff out there, which is the practice part of the confidence, isn't

it?

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is, yeah.

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So that might be a strategy.

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So, so far that looks like the online world and space.

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Is there anything that you could do outside of online to share your work?

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So I have been going to a lot more networking events this year.

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um But they're not really events where I would go and immediately share my work.

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um But they are events where I will make connections with people, I will have

conversations with people.

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And eventually if there is a way that I can share my work, I would send them links to my

portfolio.

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But again, that's...

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online rather than actually sharing work in person.

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I don't really know how I would go about sharing in person.

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this year you've done a talk and you've the Peter Rabbit talk.

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Did you repeat that?

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Did you do that somewhere else or?

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haven't done it anywhere else, I've done my one talk and that is it!

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How about something really stretching?

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How about taking your talk and bringing in elements of your portfolio into your talk?

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and I guess I have already kind of done that because if I think back to sort of the slides

that I created to share with the talk, obviously the slides were created by myself, but

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the examples that I used within that talk were examples of work that I had created.

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So yeah.

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That's just a really natural way for you to kind of go, and this is an example of my work.

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This is, you know, this is what I did for this client.

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So this is an impact report I was really proud of.

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And, and that moves your story into, you know, really talking about what you've got and

showcasing.

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that feels very stretchy but also...

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It in with everything I've been doing this year quite well, doesn't it?

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And it feels like a natural extension of something like the Rejection Challenge.

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Yeah, yeah, because you're essentially pitching to do more talks and those talks become

more aligned to your business and you're not necessarily using a story, which is a great

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story to use, but that is just one part of it.

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It's not the whole thing.

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Yeah, yeah, exciting.

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Tell me then what steps.

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you need to take to get your portfolio updated on your own platforms and in your own

control.

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So as you can imagine, I'm quite particular.

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If I'm going to share on Instagram or on LinkedIn, the visuals have to look good.

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So what I need to do is take the final, you know, if we're talking about a branding

project, take the final parts of the brand identity that I've created, create some

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mock-ups, so visuals that show off the logo, the colors, the typography.

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show off any merch that I might have designed and created to go along with the identity,

turn those into a carousel and start uploading them.

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And how long does that take?

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I mean, that's a bit like asking how long is a piece of string, I guess.

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I will admit, I sometimes let the idea of it has to look perfect take up far too much

time.

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And then, you know, when you've allocated a particular amount of time to create these

visuals, I'll run out of time.

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However, doing the actual, creating the actual visuals doesn't take that long.

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It's maybe a half an hour job.

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But it's me needing it all to be super perfect that takes time.

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Does it need to be super perfect?

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No, no it really doesn't.

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It's a simple answer.

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And then a follow-on from that would be, does this feel then like a habit that needs to be

developed?

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And I think what I need to do is get into the habit of really being strict with the time,

creating it, whether it's creating the carousel poster show on Instagram or LinkedIn or...

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You know, I don't differentiate the content that I put on Instagram or on LinkedIn.

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It's the same thing.

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The only thing that's slightly different is when I put up a gallery page on my website to

show the work.

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it's the same visuals just in a slightly different format.

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tell me about habits that you've got in other areas of your life.

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quite good at sticking to them when I set them.

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I like weightlifting.

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So I've got, I've made that into a habit of how many times a week I do it, how long I

spend doing it.

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And it's just something that comes really naturally to me now.

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How long have you been doing that,

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years.

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Five, six years maybe.

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Yeah?

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And what's kept you motivated, do you think?

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That time is just for me.

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My kids don't need anything.

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The husband doesn't need anything.

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The rabbits don't need anything.

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The clients don't need anything.

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It's my me time.

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Whether I am at home and I've got an audio book in or I'm listening to some music and got

the weights out in front of me.

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It's just, it's me.

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It's time for me.

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And so developing your portfolio and getting it out there is self-worth time.

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that's, know, it's adding into your self-worth bank.

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So I wonder if thinking about it as this is a self-worth task m rather than it's an admin

task or it's a bolt on or something you to do afterwards.

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really like that thinking of it as a self-worth task and then like you said with the

confidence the more you do it the more it comes actually the more I do it the more fun it

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becomes I guess and when it's fun it's not a I've got to do this

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And that's where we lead in next is, how can you make this fun and easy?

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Yeah, I know how I can make it easy.

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I'm a massive, massive lover of pen and paper with a list and a nice highlighter that I

can then mark off once I've done it.

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I know I could look through all my client projects that I've worked on for the last two

years and write down everything I need to share.

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Mm.

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and that is there in front of me then that would make it easy rather than, I've got a bit

of time, what shall I share?

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it reduces the mental load completely because you do the task once, once and done.

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I've made the list, I've decided what's going to go where, I've not got to do that bit of

thinking again.

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I know it's gonna make me sound really sad but I really love nice highlighters and pens

and paper so actually that would probably make it quite fun for me as well.

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We are a designer, That's one way of making it fun and easy.

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And then with things like strength training, we get automatic feedback loops because you

get that endorphin.

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uh

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feeling good, and potentially you've also got other feedback which is maybe you find it

easier to open jars or, you know, lift things.

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yeah, you might be using 10 kilo dumbbells one week and then the following week you're up

to 12 kilos.

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you can see, like immediate feedback

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So here's the curious thing then, isn't it?

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So when we put stuff out and our underlying belief is, what will people think?

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that says something about where we're expecting the feedback to come from.

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Yes, okay.

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So if I asked you to think about that differently What kind of feedback can you trust and

work with?

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own feedback firstly and actually the client feedback and those two I guess are the only

things that matter really.

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Yeah.

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Because as long as the client's happy, the work has hit the brief, as long as I am happy,

actually that feedback is the most important, isn't it?

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I wonder if there's a way to share the self-worth, the confidence and self-esteem that

comes along with this.

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So when you deliver a project to a client and they love it, you know, that feeling is

reciprocated, isn't it, between you both as a partnership.

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If you're then doing almost like a show-reel highlights of work in next year in 2026,

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how you know you could potentially use that leverage of the double boost to kind of say to

a client I'm going to highlight this next month because it was such a cool piece or I

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really enjoyed it and again that again it centers it away from you and it enters it

towards the client which is where your initial energy was focused.

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yeah, yeah.

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And actually, along with the work, I guess the other thing I could do is share the snippet

of feedback from the client.

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And that potentially makes it feel nicer to put it out there as well, doesn't it?

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does, it's really natural and you know it's that social proof thing isn't it?

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It's like here's what this person thought, this isn't just my opinion So let's think about

then everything that could possibly get in the way.

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As Taylor Swift famously said, I'm the problem, it's me.

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me, and you know I'm a Swiftie!

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I do, I do.

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I love that song so much.

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She's so right.

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So what, get really specific with us.

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What is going to hold you back?

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the mind monkeys really.

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I know me and I know I can get into the habit of, no I don't have time, oh no I can't

share this, the caption isn't quite right or you know whatever it is, it is me making the

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excuse and I know that now.

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Mm.

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Doesn't matter if it was two years ago.

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The client's still really happy with the branding.

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The branding's still in use.

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Why shouldn't I share it?

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I'm imagining a really lovely bingo card with some of these phrases on it.

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And I'm imagining you having this in front of you.

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and ticking each and every one off every time I'm trying to create something to share.

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Yeah, this one came up today.

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this one came up four times today.

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We all know intrinsically what is holding us back when we've done that work and you've

done that work this year.

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You've done that deep dive into what do I need to move out of my comfort zone?

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So next year really is just having a strategy to keep noticing it and not to be

complacent.

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And a way to do that is just to...

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to make it into some fun, to have a laugh with yourself about it.

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absolutely.

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And this is why, one of the reasons why this was the goal that I wanted to set was because

and look back and reflect on:

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work I've done and then not build on it next year.

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hear what you're saying.

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I think that's a great goal.

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I think it's a wonderful goal.

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So talk to me about time scales and specifics in terms of how much do you want to share

and buy when.

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So I hadn't really given any thought to time scales and anything, if I'm honest with you.

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However, look, I'm going to be really realistic because I know if I say I'm going to share

one project every week, that won't I've got at least sort of 20 to 30 different projects

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that I haven't shared.

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if I aim for a minimum of one, but a maximum of three,

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every month for the first six months of next year, to me that's realistic.

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I think it's realistic is because I will be super strict with with the time I am not going

to tell myself that every project needs a

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really amazing caption to go along with it or I need to put, you know, three hours into

writing two paragraphs or two sentences about the project.

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I don't.

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I wonder if a way to progress with this might be, as you do design projects next year, is

to think about this as you're doing it.

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While you're in that zone, you're in that creative space, and not to delay that cognitive

effort, if you like.

298

:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

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:

Yeah, and I used to be so good at that a few years ago.

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:

As soon as a project was done, I would share it online maybe within sort of a month or two

of it going live.

301

:

I'd always make sure that the client had launched or the report that I'd been working on

had gone to print and the client had shared it first before I put anything in my portfolio

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:

or on my social pages.

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:

yeah, I used to be in that habit of this is done.

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:

Let's get the visuals ready.

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:

I'm not using being too busy with client work as another, you know, item on that bingo

card.

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:

And I'm just curious to explore ever so slightly here that there's obviously a shift in

the why, the big why behind what you're doing this because at the start you were doing it

307

:

more regularly and perhaps there was a different motivation and driver to do that then.

308

:

You've talked about that ease of once you stopped doing it, it was easy not to do it

309

:

What changed?

310

:

that motivation to where you are now?

311

:

There must be something different in your business.

312

:

Yeah, I think I can probably pinpoint a moment and it was an issue with a client project

It must have been good four or five years ago now.

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:

Unfortunately, the client relationship didn't end well.

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:

Client was unhappy with something.

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:

But it wasn't my fault.

316

:

I was constantly told that it wasn't due to anything I had done.

317

:

was the client had not signed off stuff And the client didn't want to take any

responsibility for it.

318

:

Really, really tough.

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:

And it was such an amazing project to be part of.

320

:

Hmm.

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:

And I worked on it with a couple of other freelancers as well.

322

:

it just soured the experience, I guess.

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:

And I've never once shared that project online because, I don't want to.

324

:

Even though was a great project to be part of, I don't want to speak about the client and

I don't want to share the work either.

325

:

I think that was a bit of a point of, this rubbish stuff has happened.

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:

And I kind of started falling out of the habit.

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:

now and then I will share something, but it is sporadically.

328

:

It's not how it used to be before that.

329

:

That's really interesting.

330

:

Thank you for sharing that.

331

:

I think people will get this because it happens.

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:

Our work and our output isn't everything goes smoothly.

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:

It just doesn't.

334

:

In business, we all have those projects that sound amazing that might not actually come to

anything and you put a lot of effort into it

335

:

And it's interesting to share how that does impact our motivation one thing in our

business journey just changes how we think about stuff.

336

:

I mean I've been freelancing for 14 years now and this is the only thing that has happened

in that 14 years that has made me doubt myself or question myself and it is the only time

337

:

that a client relationship has

338

:

has turned out in the way that it did.

339

:

So talking about it today then, because I've

340

:

I know I wasn't expecting this.

341

:

to put some psychological safety back into this conversation.

342

:

I've asked you to think about something that you don't want to think about I wonder if you

know what strategy you've used with that up till now

343

:

when you say what strategy I've used with it, do you mean like

344

:

coping strategy with what happened.

345

:

So initially, I didn't cope with it very well.

346

:

And I did have some sessions to talk about it because I just couldn't wrap my head around.

347

:

how a person was not able to take responsibility for an error

348

:

having those sessions really did help me take the emotion out of it a little bit, zoom out

they made me kind of go over everything that I had put in place with the client, all the

349

:

work we'd done, conversations we'd had.

350

:

and look at it as a bigger picture and realize that actually I had done every single thing

I had been asked to do by the client, everything I had agreed to do, and I'd done it in

351

:

the best way possible.

352

:

unfortunately, sometimes errors slip through.

353

:

I am very much the kind of person who if I make a mistake,

354

:

I will speak to the client, I'm going to hold my hands up, I've made this mistake, what

can we do to fix it?

355

:

And I guess because the client didn't look at the situation in a similar way I didn't know

how to cope with it, I didn't know how to handle it.

356

:

Yes, that was a tough few months.

357

:

Now, whenever I don't think about that quite any, like very often, but when I do...

358

:

My first focus is on, yeah, but I did everything in the way that I do everything.

359

:

I was quite diligent with it.

360

:

It was the client's responsibility.

361

:

Actually, I I'm not to blame.

362

:

It is not my fault.

363

:

that's really interesting because that lands that immediate justification reminding

yourself you're not at fault.

364

:

I wonder if there's something around a new narrative with this chapter, you know, almost

putting it into a new place, a new story.

365

:

the way you crafted the Peter Rabbit story and spoke about it was really, you've got a

real gift it was beautiful.

366

:

So if we were to tell a story about this, which isn't necessarily what happened to you,

but just something more general, which is shit happens, you know?

367

:

And it isn't always your fault.

368

:

Yeah.

369

:

And I wonder if just having a narrative on that.

370

:

it just means when you are going back that's a different feeling or emotional response

that comes with it.

371

:

And what we're trying to do there is decouple that feeling that came along or the result,

which was, I don't want to share my stuff.

372

:

I don't want to put something out that didn't feel good.

373

:

Yeah, yeah, I like that idea.

374

:

And actually, there's a bit of downtime.

375

:

I take a bit time off over December, January time.

376

:

So there's a bit of downtime coming up where I'll have the space to actually think about

how this story could be flipped on its head.

377

:

if you're looking to do more rejection stuff next year and getting onto podcasts, story,

isn't it?

378

:

it's something that a lot of us experience,

379

:

We don't talk about it enough and actually I haven't spoken about this.

380

:

The other freelancer involved in the project obviously knows about the situation.

381

:

I haven't ever spoken to anybody about this.

382

:

It's one of those things that I've just dealt with and I guess buried it a little bit.

383

:

But...

384

:

I'm pretty sure it would be quite helpful to others to hear that, you know, shit does

happen, but that doesn't mean that's the end of the world or the end of anything, really.

385

:

So right back at the beginning, I said, you know, with imposter research, we know that uh

the imagined audiences and not quite knowing how people are going to react to things can

386

:

hold us back from putting stuff out there.

387

:

But when we start to share authentically and when we share not just the positives, but

also the stuff that's not quite right, then that's the stuff that deepens our

388

:

relationships.

389

:

m

390

:

reduces in poster experiences not just for ourselves but for others.

391

:

So there's essentially something here where a circle moment of you by putting stuff out

there both the good and also you know having a narrative about things that haven't gone so

392

:

well is you're making it easier for other people to show up as well

393

:

Yeah, that's a really good point.

394

:

Yeah.

395

:

I'm very excited about your goal.

396

:

I'm just going to summarize and correct me if I've got any of this wrong.

397

:

I think you're looking to put out one piece of client work a month in 2026.

398

:

You're going to potentially have a bingo card or something with some phrases that...

399

:

might often come up when you're thinking of doing this, is don't overthink it, you know,

it doesn't have to be perfect.

400

:

And do you know what?

401

:

can absolutely see this bingo card being sold as a product.

402

:

I think that's something that you could brand and

403

:

Yeah, we all do it to some degree, don't we?

404

:

And you're also going to look at opportunities to showcase that work outside of your own

circle of control or influence.

405

:

links putting yourself out of your comfort zone.

406

:

embracing this amazing rejection challenge and...

407

:

Liz Mosley has her own podcast and she's got whole episodes dedicated to this so I'll link

to that in my episode.

408

:

Yeah, I...

409

:

Lizzie's just such a lovely person, firstly.

410

:

I just...

411

:

I love this challenge and the way she's put it together and shared it with the world.

412

:

It is brilliant.

413

:

And I take a lot from other people.

414

:

So I had Hannah Isted on the podcast last week and I know her and um Liz, they work

together quite a lot as kind of business friends.

415

:

there's a lot to be said about that, the communities we're in are so important.

416

:

and I absolutely love that they share those behind the scenes.

417

:

they recently shared again how they met.

418

:

I can't remember which way round it was, but either Liz or Hannah had a podcast and one of

them was where,

419

:

Hannah was like, why is Liz doing this?

420

:

doing this?

421

:

I want to do it.

422

:

And rather than seeing her as competition, she became friends with her, and they've done

amazing stuff together.

423

:

And I have so much love for that story.

424

:

It just, it does.

425

:

And seeing what they've achieved together in the last four or five years just goes to show

that when you actually, when your mindset is collaboration over competition, look at what

426

:

you can do.

427

:

Exactly, exactly.

428

:

Well, I'm going to catch up with you.

429

:

So are you going to start your challenge in January or we going to start earlier?

430

:

That's a very good question.

431

:

I'm going to start in January.

432

:

November and December are looking quite busy with events and other projects.

433

:

I'm going to take the pressure off.

434

:

I'm going to start in January.

435

:

I've got some people on the podcast who are starting straight away and I'm going to catch

up with them four weeks in so that we can see how they're doing.

436

:

But what I'm going to do is invite you onto a group chat with a few of the other

podcasters to talk about your progress towards the end of January.

437

:

Is that okay?

438

:

I'm very excited for that.

439

:

ah

440

:

Bhavini it's been an absolute pleasure to have you on Psychologically Speaking.

441

:

making

442

:

Thank you.

443

:

It's been really nice chatting with you.

444

:

Everybody approaches goals differently.

445

:

There are some similarities though sometimes we pitch our goals a little lower We keep our

momentum modest

446

:

And we worry about failing sometimes more than we admit, So in January, I'm opening up

something new to help you move beyond that.

447

:

And it's called my 2026 Goal Sprint.

448

:

It's going to be a live 60 minute session where we're going to use my prompts to craft the

best goal for your:

449

:

it's going to be ambitious, it assumes that you can grow from day one, and it's got

built-in space to evolve if it stops serving you.

450

:

And ideas on what to do to mitigate derailments on the way.

451

:

You'll get weekly live check-ins to keep your momentum going, and especially past that

second week in February where most resolutions quietly melt away.

452

:

You'll get access to a Slack group And I will be in there every week to give you the

strongest psychological start to your year.

453

:

If you want a 2026 goal that feels exciting, grounded and possible, you can join us and

the link is in the show notes or you can go straight to www.leilaainge.co.uk/goalsprint

454

:

forward slash goal sprint.

455

:

I'd love to see you there.

456

:

That's all for today.

457

:

Thank you for listening to Psychologically Speaking with me, Leila Ainge.

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