We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Tanner Thibert a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Tanner , appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

I have always been interested in running my own company, and from a young age, I always gravitated more towards a more entrepreneurial mindset. Something about the freedom to make your decisions and stand behind your values moved me from a young age.

As a teenager I tried everything from making my own clothing brand to video production to online stores, never really making any money or knowing anything about business but just diving in head first to figure it out.

Once I got older and responsibilities kicked in, I found myself working numerous jobs and realized very quickly how far I was away from my goals and dreams. The first real business I created was my own photography business. I slowly progressed over many years to landing some great clients in the outdoor/commercial space. I created editorial work with companies such as Sony Alpha, Nomadict, and Penny Skateboards as well as shooting campaigns with companies such as Blurb books, SLS skateboarding, Bay Photo lab, and many others. This was an amazing experience and many skill sets I still continuously apply daily.

Although the landscape quickly began to change, accelerated by the pandemic and I realized I would have to adapt and find other ways to make an income in a way that was more sustainable and could be done remotely.

Long story short, through some close friends I got introduced to the world of design and realized this could be a great transition from my current work. I started by signing up for a boot camp in UX with the idea of pursuing that route, but afterward, I figured out graphic design would be a better route because of its close similarities with digital media, and was something I saw myself enjoying much more. I spent the next 2 years learning as much as possible by going back to school, taking workshops, and building my portfolio by working for free and working remotely as a design intern.

I currently work full-time as a graphic designer specializing in logo design, branding, and merch design. This however provoked something even more profound than I was expecting. Working for many years under companies that did not appreciate my work or time, or even being compensated fairly, I saw creating my own business as a way to take back control over my life, and organize my time how I wanted. As a graphic designer, my mission is to be able to empower other business owners with the assets they need to build their own dream companies! I take this very seriously as I see that as an opportunity to make a change in the current system of selling your time to a sole employer and free people from being completely dependent if they are unhappy in their situation.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Going deeper into what exactly I do as a designer. The main type of work I do with clients is logo design and branding. Many people new to running a company may not even know the importance of this for their business. Brand identity is way more than just a logo, it is an in-depth look built on research into what makes your company unique, what values you hold as a brand, and how you want to help your target audience. My goal as a designer is to do that groundwork for you and create a stunning and specialized brand identity that you can use to apply to all of your future projects and grow your business & assets.

As I mentioned previously I am extremely passionate about doing this for my clients because I believe it is helping them to do exactly what my mission is which is to empower people’s own ventures and projects.

On top of this, I also work creating my own products both digital and physical. Some of the highlighted products I sell on both my personal website & Etsy store are my own hand drawn custom fonts, t-shirts & other merch products, as well as photographic prints/books.

I love to create personal projects such as articles, photographs, films, etc mainly to inspire my audience and show them a deeper look into my own brand and values.

What I am most proud of is I have built and run my own small business based on genuine values of the belief of helping people and providing value, not tricking anyone into spending their money because of flashy marketing techniques for personal gain. I truly believe my clients are signing up to work with someone who truly has their best interest in mind and will work tirelessly to provide them with an amazing result.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I have a bit of a different take on this. Although I am on social media and have various platforms, I have always heavily debated the importance of being on social media all the time. Yes, having a social media presence in this day and age is important but I also believe these platforms especially some in particular can be a huge waste of energy without much reward. My advice would be to be present and show your best work and social media and use it as a tool to connect to others but from there, the amount of content you produce should depend on how much you even feel compelled to share. My worst engagement is always when I am just trying to keep up with an algorithm because people who follow me don’t feel any connection with that sort of content, as opposed to when I wait till I actually have something exciting to share. This can hinder artificial growth but I would just try hard to focus on real connections with people both in person and online because in the long run that can outlast social media trends.

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

Yes, it did and the main cause simply put was perseverance. I have revised my business over and over for years and continue to do so today. I have had many times as well of going back to other jobs to regain some finances and go for it again a little later on. The thing about careers especially in my field is you are going to have to invest time learning and growing your portfolio before you can start to make money, and once you do it probably won’t be enough to replace and income for a while. A tip I have for aspiring business owners as well is to learn about finances, and use ur current job to save an emergency fund, and try to limit spending whilst you’re growing your company. Sometimes in salary positions, you can get by doing the bare minimum, a lot of people do so, but with this you get what you put in and sometimes not even then so learning how to maximize productivity is essential to growth.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tannerthibertstudio.com
• Instagram: @tannerthibertstudio
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tanner-thibert-997b70165/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC–0mfAhfhiuX_ZacUJZyuA
• Other: Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TannerThibertStudio?ref=profile_header

Image Credits
All photos by my – Tanner Thibert