We recently connected with Dan Rondeau and have shared our conversation below.

Dan, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

Graphic designers know the process of coming up with designs for clients. Rarely does the client understand the ins and outs of why we do certain things or the strategy around the creation. I have always taken the initiative to discuss design and the strategy behind it.

Clients may know WHY design is important and that they need design in their business. They might not consider whether they are creating designs based on what they want to see and like or what their ideal audience needs to see. In the DIY design process, the business owner’s end goal is to create content to generate traction. They are not generally strategizing about how and where the design is used, if the content is something their ideal audience wants to see, and how their ideal audience will feel when they see their content. A graphic designer will ask these types of questions to create something strategically. There is no fault on the business owner, as they are wearing about 18 million different hats and trying to complete everything.

My job is to co-create the designs with my clients and to help educate those not ready to hire a designer. DIYing will always be a part of the business process. If I can help those DIYers see that creating graphics is more than going to Canva, grabbing a template, some stock images, and putting something out there, I am doing my part in impacting the world.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a graphic designer and strategist focused on coaches, speakers, and course creators who want to take their marketing designs from stagnant to stand out with a design strategy. My business started in 2017 as a side hustle to my full-time corporate pharmacy career. After spending almost ten years in pharmacy, I was very burnt out and ready for a change. Starting a business was never in my vision, and finding a business coach with whom I connected changed my mind.

Starting in social media management for business coaches and speakers, I learned the ins and outs of what I was doing hands-on. I discovered that writing captions and researching the algorithm changes was not my passion; it was in the design creation and implementation. Taking someone’s existing brand and creating a design around it that inspires and captures their audience was the challenge I went after each time. I pivoted the business mid-2018 to a graphic design business while releasing all my social media clients. This was a significant leap, and I made it through to the other side more successfully than I left behind.

Over the next several years, I would balance the business and my corporate life together. During the pandemic, I left my corporate position and entered business full-time. This was another giant leap that I needed to make. As scary as it was, I secured the same amount of money made in corporate within the next 30 days in business. Since then, I have never looked back to working in a corporate career.

My business, DJR Designs, focuses on marketing designs for coaches, speakers, and course creators. Examples of assets we create are social media images, slide decks, workbooks, lead magnets, speaker and podcast sheets/kits, event banners, ad images, and so on! During the creation process, we look at the strategy around marketing designs to best determine how we will create the visuals needed to stand out.

I am most proud of my clients. I added the word “impact” to my business last year. Not only am I making an impact in their businesses through the design creation and support I provide, but my clients are also making an impact with their ideal audience through their products and services. From virtual summits, networking strategies, systems and operations, social media management, and HR consulting to life coaching, membership and course coaching, conflict coaching, and accountability coaching. I am not solely working on designs for their business; I am providing the support and knowledge to help them build their businesses to the next level and strategies for how to get there with strategic design.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

Even before working with clients, I work to build relationships through networking communities, social media DMs, or collaborations.

To stay connected with my current clients, I like to use Voxer. This app allows my clients to send me a message, either through text or voice message. When working on designs, the tone and emotions heard through the voice messages can help shape the asset creation. Design is about effectively communicating how you want your messaging, emotions, and values shown to your ideal audience. Hearing their voice on how their mind sees the design helps me take that concept and make it into a final design asset.

I like to reach out to former clients and see how they are doing personally, what they have going on in the business, and what they are looking for with support. My support is not a project for me to complete – it can be a connection for their client, tagging them on a podcast guest search in a Facebook group, or introducing them to someone for their team. I am committed to continuing the conversations with my former clients and supporting them in any way they need to grow and scale.

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

The most rewarding aspect as a creative is presenting the final product to the client for feedback and review. I get to see their faces and hear their initial responses, which tell me immediately whether I nailed it or if we need to return for adjustments. I feel there is no “negative feedback” as it helps me understand the client’s views on designs better, listen to their thoughts and suggestions, and discuss the reasons for the design creation.

As a client, you have the image of how you see it in your mind. My job is to extract that image through a question process and replicate it to a design that strategically aligns with your brand, values, and audience. When you get to see the face light up and hear, “That is what I wanted,” or “How did you do that?” or “I love this vibe”, that’s when I light up. My love language is words of affirmation; hearing these and seeing the face fills my bucket right up!

Another rewarding aspect is once my client shares the design with the public. I do all I can to support my clients and share their success out there. If they post on social media, I am sharing it. If they are creating a webinar, I attend it. If there is a live event, I try to attend it. The client’s success is my success. Being there for support is beyond the item creation for the project or two; it is actually showing up for them in all ways possible.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://djrdesigns.co
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/djrdesignsco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/djrdesignsco/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danieljrondeau
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@djrdesignsco/