We were lucky to catch up with Joshua Parkhurst recently and have shared our conversation below.

Joshua, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What’s the best or worst investment you’ve made (either in terms of time or money)? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

When I started my business I made it a point to be as helpful as possible regardless of the pay (or lack thereof). I provided solutions without compensation on many occasions. I would have free consultation meetings and provide creative ideas that the businesses could freely use and I let them know that. I wanted to share what I knew and was passionate about with the focus of helping businesses develop and grow. This came back around for me in a big way when I was hired by a marketing consultant who had many clients through the Austin area and across the country that I was later put in charge of running. I was told that I was reached out to so I could take on all these new clients because two years prior they had called me and asked for color information and help finding RGB hexadecimal codes for them after they had specified they couldn’t pay me to do so. It was a quick and simple thing I could immediately help with so I did. They said I was the first of many graphic designers they had called that was willing or able to help. The companies I’ve worked for and the relationships that were created from that instance has made a significant impact on my business ever since.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’m a creative mind with ideas that needs to be consistently let out of their cage. I’ve applied this in the graphic design and marketing world to help businesses develop through avenues most other businesses don’t.

Every business is unique and each demographic of their target audience has a different response to certain visual stimuli and marketing campaigns. Learning how groups of people think and react, finding new ways to attract and connect with these audiences excites me and a the same time helps to grow businesses.

I love connecting a business owner with a passion with the individuals desiring the very product or service that’s being offered.

I invest time in using tools that are available to most efficiently bring the customer and the provider together.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Starting a new profile on social media can be very intimidating, especially when so many other businesses are so well established on the platform. When I started I only posted visually appealing images hoping that would grab the attention of my audience but what I quickly realized is doing that didn’t entice any action to be taken by the viewer. It didn’t engage them in the comments or to watch a video or to even “like” the post.

Once I had learned how to create engaging messages that invited the viewer to comment on the post or visit our website or watch a video and look for something in the website or video like a coupon code or a free download then I was able to really begin growing a following. I would create posts that had incentives, such as a chance to win something for free for simply engaging in some way like sharing with a friend or posting a comment.

People also love challenges. Even without a prize when you ask people to offer their best joke or their best idea in competition with others engagement soars. Once you have engagement, and engagement with your target audience then you have a platform that will allow you to grow your business.

Using these methods my social media following increased 600% in less than 9 months. But every nuance made a difference. An engaging message would always perform better when accompanied by a visually stimulating graphic or entertaining video. And connecting to something real such as a download or product discount with a link brought in people which created conversation which would increase awareness of the brand.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist professionally is getting to creative something new every day. As humans I think we all have it in us to produce new things. We all do that in different ways but as a graphic designer I get to do that daily.

It’s a challenge to create something that you are proud of and you feel accomplished through but that challenge is the very thing the drives me to want to complete something with excellence. It’s not rewarding to make something that is broken or ineffective in its intention but when you make something that you feel is right and unique and draws other people in to look at and enjoy it’s very satisfying and a journey I want to be apart of all the time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.ParkhurstCreative.com