Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Hannah Hansen. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hannah, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear from you about what you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry and why it matters.

Corporate America doesn’t understand that the bulk of time spent doing creative work doesn’t directly result in the end output. Leadership always seems to be shocked that great creative work doesn’t happen in 30 minutes.

I spend most of my time brainstorming, workshopping, and editing — and comparatively little time actually doing the creative work itself.

My creative process involves drawing mind maps, pacing around my office, writing out every concept that comes through my head, hating all those concepts and erasing them, doing a crossword puzzle, making a matcha, doodling layouts, and staring out my window.

But without those “unproductive” tasks, the final output wouldn’t be nearly as good. My brain needs that time to let the ideas marinate and rise to the surface!

This is why time tracking is so hard for me. How do I explain that I spent 4 hours “writing” an email, when only 30 minutes was actually writing?!

One of my favorite emails I ever wrote took me a whole day to concept and create. I was working for a publishing house at the time, and we wanted to promote our books that had minor errors (like a bent corner or lightly creased page) and were marked at a discount. I spent hours drawing mind maps and drafting (and then erasing) concepts — and finally landed on copy that humanized these imperfect books and marketed them as one-of-a-kind books, rather than damaged.

If I had taken 30 minutes to write that email, it would have just said something like “Browse our not-quite-perfect books and save.” But because I took the extra time to be creative and think differently, the end concept was more nuanced, less salesy, and FUN!

Hannah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a brand designer and illustrator, specializing in hand-drawn logos and illustrations! My passion is creating complete brand identities for small businesses — including your logo, brand voice, website design & copy, emails, branded assets, and more!

After graduating college with an English degree, I worked as a copywriter for 7 years at both brands and agencies, but always had a passion for design. I felt stifled in my corporate jobs — I was *just* a copywriter, so I never had the chance to flex my design skills or creativity in ways that I wanted, because there was always a designer/web developer/etc. on staff who handled that step.

The corporate rat race burnt me out, so I made the jump to full-time freelance work in 2022 and have never looked back!

I love living at the intersection of design and words, creating complete brand identities that speak to your business in every way. My goal with every client is to translate their passion for their brand into what their potential customer sees — bridging the gap between the two! I get to combine all of my passions and work with the most amazing small business owners to bring their vision to life.

One of the most impactful parts of my job is when a client tells me I captured their vision in a way they never could have on their own!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn that working 8 hours a day does not equal productivity.

As someone who got their start in Corporate America, I was conditioned to working 8 hours every day, regardless of whether or not I was being productive during that time. Work simply meant filling that 8 hours a day with tasks.

Now, as a small business owner, I can take the afternoon off if all of my tasks are done. The first time I did that, I felt insanely guilty — like I wasn’t “hustling” or “grinding” enough.

Instead, I’ve changed my perspective to be: “Wow, I finished all that work in just 4 hours! I deserve to take the afternoon off because I would just be mindlessly filling the rest of my day with unimportant tasks.”

There are definitely still 8+ hour days, but that time is spent actually being productive, not just filling the time with random to-dos.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

One thing that not a lot of creative freelancers talk about is partnering with agencies.

Most of what I share on my Instagram & website are projects that are owned by me — my clients that I booked for my services. However, a chunk of my monthly revenue is from other agencies or small businesses who sub-contract me out to do copywriting or graphic design for themselves or their clients.

These aren’t projects I can necessarily promote on my own channels, but they’re an important part of my business model. Some are guaranteed monthly recurring revenue, while others are larger one-off projects. It’s not glamorous, but I don’t have to handle admin, project management, or client invoicing — I just get to be creative!

Contact Info:

• Website: hannahghansen.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hannahghansen/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannahghansen/