Produced By - Freedom by Design: Building Life on Your Terms | 166: Jane Kisnica

Episode Date: August 24, 2026

This episode is supported by Indy, an all-in-one platform that helps freelancers and small business owners manage invoices, payments, contracts, proposals, projects and client work in one place. Produced By community members can get 1 year of Indy Pro for $35, 80% OFF the regular $225 value. Use promo code TOMAS082026 to claim the offer here: https://weareindy.com/app/launchpad?signup=force&checkout=true&promo=TOMAS082026&pkg=annual Jane Kisnica is a freelance graphic designer and visual branding expert. Known on LinkedIn as “The Creative Assassin,” she helps businesses elevate their visual identity through standout branding, websites, and creative assets that capture attention and build trust. With her bold design style, authentic storytelling, and unapologetic personality, Jane has built a personal brand that is as memorable as the work she creates. In this episode, Jane shares how she went from an unfulfilling corporate marketing career to building a successful freelance design business on her own terms. We explore why she chose lifestyle over simply following her passion, how she built her personal brand while still working full time, why LinkedIn changed the direction of her career, and how embracing her authentic voice has helped her stand out, attract clients, and create a career around the lifestyle she genuinely enjoys. Connect with Jane:https://www.linkedin.com/in/jane-kisnica-graphic-designerhttps://www.janekisnica.com/ Timestamps:  00:00 - Introduction 01:11 - Meet the Creative assassin 02:04 - The story behind the name 02:54 - Finding your own voice 03:40 - Introversion isn't what you think 06:07 - Introverts vs extroverts 07:20 - Handling hate on LinkedIn 09:14 - Why negative comments can help 10:28 - Why she left corporate life 13:03 - Realising she hated 90% of her job 14:29 - Choosing freedom over comfort 15:38 - Why Instagram failed 17:55 - Discovering LinkedIn 18:36 - Finding her voice on LinkedIn 20:44 - Landing the first client 22:07 - Quitting her corporate job 24:20 - Building a business while working full time 27:03 - How to actually get clients 28:51 - Working for free to build trust 30:10 - How vulnerability attracted clients 33:05 - Why relationships beat portfolios 34:34 - Canva vs Figma without the ego 36:34 - Why clients come before designer ego 39:43 - Working with the tools clients want 40:04 - Life in Thailand 43:24 - Places she still wants to visit 46:24 - Books, reading and switching off 50:40 - What's next for Jane? 52:05 - From Banner queen to websites 53:35 - Final advice for creators Connect with Tomas:Stan: https://stan.store/TommenLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasloucky/⁠⁠Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisistommen/⁠⁠Unproduced:Newsletter: https://unproduced.substack.comYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@unproducednotesSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/033Ddo8ibDlLYoaP7FFLIWMore:Links: https://linktr.ee/produced_by⁠⁠⁠Patreon: https://patreon.com/tomaslouckyNewsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://producednewsletter.substack.com/⁠The Podcast Club: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/25420030/Tools & gear that support the show:Metricool: https://f.mtr.cool/HRJBZKFavikon: https://www.favikon.com?fpr=tommenRiverside: https://riverside.partnerlinks.io/2752q1ai767zRa Optics: https://ra-optics.myshopify.com/discount/TOMMEN?rfsn=8803777.591d19JamX: https://jamx.ai/podcasters-offer?ref_id=e02d48af-ef66-4e76-b804-c2e8d282a8bfSome links are affiliate links, which means I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. If you find them useful, using these links helps keep the podcast running. Thank you!  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

I've been featured on LinkedIn Lunatics more than I care to count. It's a Reddit thread where people screenshot LinkedIn people's posts and then talk shit about them. Everything from my pictures, what I wear, my tan, the way I write, what I do for work. I've even had people have a go at me for the glass that a restaurant served me a drinking that was in the picture. Not something I can control considering it was a restaurant I went to. And that's what they serve me to drink in. But I don't get loads and loads of hate, but anyone who shows online, you'll get some people complaining about how you talk, structure your sentences, and you get a bit of grammar police, all that stuff. I would say 98% of people that engage with my content love it.

And then there's maybe 2 to 3% that might leave some hate or snarky comments. It's usually a middle-aged folding mat, white man who has to share with my clothes or, with the fact that I have an opinion. Before we dive into today's episode, please hit that subscribe button. Your support helps us grow and inspire more people on their journeys. Thank you. Hello, Jane. Thank you for join us today and welcome to the show.

Hi, thanks for having me. I'm excited. Me too. And Jane, for those who don't know you, can you please introduce yourself? Oh no, you're making me introduce myself. I hate doing that. I can do it, but I have one very brief and good one, which is Creative Assassin. That's my favorite one.

Great, great. Thank you. Yeah, I'm Jane. I'm a graphic designer. I live on LinkedIn and have for a few years now. And yeah, my tagline is Creative Assassin on LinkedIn. What did you come up with that, Jane? Because on LinkedIn, there are many people with all kinds of, I don't know,

taglines or positions, but when in something creative, something unique, it makes you remember and stand out and I really like yours. Yeah, so one, obviously, I wanted something creative and something that is different from everyone else. And two, I really like Assassin's Creed. Oh, I'm a creative and I like playing Assassin's games on my ex-pop. kind of connected. I mean, because, you know, it's important, or there are so many,

whether it's experts for LinkedIn, like brandy in the graphics and everything. So when you see like another graphic designer, it's kind of, okay, next one. But if it's something unique and different, it makes you stand out, which I think it's a great idea. Exactly. That's the whole point. So I have my branding stands out from most designers on there and my tagline and stuff. And I think it's not only the work, like obviously beautiful design, but I also like the way you write, like your tone of voice. Not only on LinkedIn, but even reading your website. It's funny, it's different.

It's sarcastic, so I think it's great. Yeah, it's just a bit of my personality. I am a bit, I am a bit blunt, I am a bit sarcastic. I do joke about things that probably you shouldn't joke about. So I have a bit of a dark sense of humor. Yeah, I kind of try. I'm just trying to be myself in my content and, you know, right, the way I talk. Just obviously with a bit toned down because I swear like a sailor in real life.

But one thing that actually surprised me is that you say, or at least like on your website, on your content, you say the chart introvert. And based on your content or that we speak out, say the opposite. Are you introvert, ex-ervert or something in between? Yeah, I'm definitely 100% introvert. I like being on my own and I spend most days on my own with my dog and that's how I like it. And I think there's a big misconception between what an introvert and extrovert actually is. Most people think that an extrovert is someone who's like really bubbling, really loud and really outgoing and kind of, you know, has a tone of, like, has a voice. and his opinion, all these things.

And then it's the other extreme for introverts where people think they're quite like quiet, they can't really, they're not good in social social situations. They're like timid and all these kind of things. But it's not true. The main thing that divides, like they can, two things can be, you know.

Yeah, of course. So those things can be true, but the main thing that sort of separates introverts from extroverts, is how they recharge their social batteries and how they like to spend their time, free time. I like to be on my own. If I go out, let's say, for dinner with a friend, I can be out maybe two, three hours, and then I'm done.

My social batteries run out. I want to go home. I want to cuddle up on the sofa. I want to turn on CV and I don't want to talk to anyone. If I have two, three client calls in a day, after that I am exhausted. I need a nap or I need to have a few days where I don't really speak to anyone so I can recharge my social batteries. Extroverts are the opposite in that sense that they recharge their batteries by being around people. They need to be around people.

If they're not around people, they become sad and depressed and they need people around them. Extroverts don't. They kind of spend time on their own. So that's kind of the main thing that separates. Both can be loud and opinionated and be good in social situations or be bad in social situation. It's just more about the recharging process and how you sort of, how you yourself. And it makes sense.

And actually thinking about it or kind of going to it now with you, I feel actually the same that I like, I don't know, talk to people like to you now, meet some on you, this and that. but at the same time, I like to then kind of recharge to be on my own doing some kind of my stuff. So it's very much relatable. Yeah, like, I have a friend here. She is, like, I get tired just from listening how many people she sees in a day and how many things she does in a day.

Because usually when we meet up for, like, dinner or something, she's going to be like, oh, yeah, I was like, I met this friend for a tie lesson in the morning, that I went in this, and that I met up with a friend for lunch. and then I met another friend and then I did this and now I'm seeing you and I'm like, oh my God, I'm already tired. I know, I'm tired of that, yeah. But yeah, it's more,

those, obviously there are other things that kind of separate introverts from extroverts and there's also sort of one in the middle, which is an ambivort, which is kind of both. In some of the balance, yeah. But yeah, those kind of the rechargeing and how you reset and how you kind of recharge, that's the main things that separate the two and then yeah that makes sense i was just curious and also

as we discussed like the way you speak the way you write your turn on voice have you experienced like some let's say even negative feedback or negative reception like on lincoln because obviously you know you show up on lincoln who've been there for some time so just curious if in my opinion it's a posit oh did you yeah i've been featured on lincoln lunatics more than i care to count so Wait, is it officially on Reddit, LinkedIn? Yeah, yeah. It's a Reddit thread where people screenshot LinkedIn people's posts and then talk shit about them.

People have everything from my pictures, what I wear, my tan, the way I write, what I do for work. I've even had people have a go at me for the glass that a restaurant served me a drink. kin that was in the picture it was a wrong with that it was a mason jar and someone got really offended

by the fact that my smoothie in the picture that I had used with my post was served in a mason jar not something I can control considering a restaurant and that's what they served me to drink in but yeah probably not like I don't get loads and loads

of hate but like yeah like anyone who shows online you'll get some people complaining about how you talk, how you structure your sentences, and you get a bit of grammar police, all that stuff. And obviously we cannot satisfy everyone. And I think with a few people like this that complain, at the same time, there must be so many people on the opposite side that actually see there's something unique,

stand out and probably inspiration for others as well to find their voice and stand out with the way they show up. Yeah, 100%. Like, I would say 98% of people that engage with my content love it. And then there's maybe 2 to 3% that might leave some hate or snarky comments. It's usually a middle-aged balding mat, white mat, share with my clothes or with the fact that I have an opinion. And you know what it is like even negative? Like when they talk about it negatively, for example, as we discussed already, it still helps you to boost the visibility and reach more people.

Oh, yeah. So it's also good. I don't think that these people realize that every time they share a link to my post and they click on it, and even if they don't get on it, on it, even if they look at it, it still tells LinkedIn, oh, people are looking at this. So let's show it.

Yeah, that's true. When they engage, that gives me even more push on the algorithm, because the algorithm, you know, there's a different shade between. a bad and positive comment. It just goes, oh, it's a comment. Let's show it to more people. Yeah, that is true.

And Jen, if we go slightly back, I saw on your LinkedIn, like in your experience, like the work that you did before. And what was like the point or when did you decide to pursue your passion for design and work on your own and start building the brands on the LinkedIn? Okay. So I don't really have, I wouldn't say that I have passion for design. I have passion for the lifestyle that it allows me to live and the working sort of environment that I can build for myself.

If I want a million bucks tomorrow, I would stop designing. Maybe I would be very selective and do some very special projects that I like. But overall, it's a job that I don't hate and I'm pretty good at. And most times I enjoy doing and it pays the bills and buys my pub treats. I like the honesty. Yeah, it's just not like, people say, oh, it's like my passion and I'm so about, I'm not.

It's a job that I don't hate, which is good enough because it's not, I'm not living to work. I'm working to live, so it's not, I don't, as long as I don't despise what I do every day, that's good enough for me.

It doesn't have to be my, like, passion. But yeah, I, so I used to, I used to do, marketing for a real estate agency in not real estate for a recruitment agency in London. I've done real estate before as well in my past lives. Yeah, so I used to work in reception there and then

they kind of ax the reception role because everything was moving online so they didn't need someone to sit at the door and greet people. So they moved me into the marketing role, which I have been helping the marketing manager before. Then the marketing manager left. They gave me her job. And then as, yeah, sort of as time was going, I was picking up more and more design work. They sent me to some courses, like workshops and things like that. So I learned how to use illustrator and video.

Like I literally, I was performing all the roles. Everything that you might think that a company needs under marketing umbrella, I was doing all of it. Photography, you know, website, SEO. social media, graphics, like the whole, the whole lot. And then I was very, I was very overworked, but very unhappy. But because I was so worked and so tired, because I'm also a massive introvert,

I was working in an office of 100 plus recruitment consultants who, all their smashing phones, like all day long. You have all these people talking around. Like, it was awful. Or like for me mentally and so draining. And then by the time Friday, Saturday arrived. I was so exhausted that I didn't even like have the energy to even think about my life for. So I was kind of like in this zombie state for a bit. And then COVID came and

obviously things slowed down a bit and we all worked from home. And because I managed to actually rest and slow down and think, I've realized, okay, I am a proper introvert. I hate going to the office. I perform much better when I'm working from home. I have so much more energy and I get so much more done as well. I also realized that I hated about 90% of my job. The only thing that I actually enjoyed was the design side of things. And yeah, and then they started then COVID restriction. So that was kind of like I started thinking about, oh, maybe I need to think about, you know, getting a remote job or whatever, because that was becoming a bit more like normal because because of COVID's company started offering that.

So I was thinking, oh, maybe when, you know, the whole COVID nightmare sort of fizzles out, I can start looking at a new remote job or at least a couple times a week remote. And then they started forcing us coming back into the office. In the beginning, it was one date and it was two days and it was three days and that it was like, okay, I have to be back. Every day. Every day. I was like, I don't want to do this.

I don't want to be, I don't want to get out at 5 o'clock in a morning, rush for a train. sometimes it took me like two, three hours just to get home because the trains in London never fucking work. There's always delays. There's always, there's always a broken train or some rail or whatever. And I was like, I don't want to live this life anymore. This is, this is awful. Like, what am I doing?

I hate this. And I wasn't quite sure what to do. And then I started thinking, oh, kind of like design and I quite enjoy it. And I seem to be pretty okay at it. and big part of my job was mostly designed. So I would say probably, if I had to split, I would say probably about 60 to 75% a day usually was designed-related work,

and then everything else was all the other marketing stuff. So I was like, okay, I'm pretty much getting paid like a full year's salary by a company to do this thing. Surely I can get enough clients to kind of turn this into a business. So I tried in beginning, I tried on Instagram, and that didn't work. That was a complete flop. And then...

Sorry, Jane, to stop you, but as you mentioned this, why do you think it didn't work on Instagram? Was it your approach or target audience, or what do you think? I don't know. I think it was a mix of things, because in the beginning I tried to niche. I tried to... Because, you know, everyone told you have to niche. You have to have a niche.

If you don't have a niche, you can't do anything. So I was like, okay, what do I enjoy doing and what do... Like, what kind of people I like and what do I personally enjoy doing? So I was like, okay, I like wellness. I train a lot. I read a lot of self-held books. Like, I like psychology. Like, I like all that wellness stuff.

I used to be a personal trainer, like all these things. So you know what? Okay, I'm going to niche women in wellness. Sort of go for that niche to design for. And then I try there and I couldn't get any clients, every person that I spoke to on Instagram ended up pitching to me and trying to, like, you know when they asked those specific questions, like oh yeah yeah so another one yeah yeah it was just a lot of that and then it's also

instagram is so you have to be every post that you do needs to be quite visually stunning and you need to post a lot and it's you have to put i think you have to put in a lot more work to succeed on instagram then you have to on lincoln and i'm more of a storyteller I like stories. I like, like, yeah, just long form content, I guess. That's what you can call it. And that's not really what you do on Instagram.

It's all visual. And the visual is very time consuming, especially if you're a designer, and you constantly need to design new things, new carousels, new images. It's just, so yeah, I think it was just, it wasn't, it's just not the right type of platform for me. And then I came across, actually,

one of the people that I came across on LinkedIn, my boss sent me. I can't remember the name now, but it was some one of like some sort of LinkedIn coach person, just basically talking about how you should be posting on LinkedIn. You could build a business and you can like do all these amazing things with LinkedIn. And he sent it to me and he was like, oh, have a look at her. Like she's, she's really cool. You know, this is really interesting. Maybe we can do something like this for the recruitment agency, maybe see if you can get any of the recruiters interested in kind of taking part in being more active on LinkedIn and things like that. I was like, yeah, sure, why not? And then through her, I found some other people. And then I landed on, I don't know if you

know her about Leah Turner. Yeah, so I found Leah Turner and I started following her and she was just basically talking about how, you know, she was a single mom, she was making like 18,000 a year. And then She started posting on LinkedIn and she blew up and she built all this business, but basically talking about her life and having opinions. And I really resonated with how, I'm not a mom, but we're kind of, it's more like she's, you know,

she has tattoos, long blonde hair, like she's quite alternative. She's not the typical button up sort of LinkedIn corporate Colin. And I really, I really, yeah, just resonated with her who she was as a person and how she was posting.

And I was like, no, I have opinions. I have things to say. So I started following her and just kind of learning from what she was doing and started doing more personal content on LinkedIn while also trying to kind of introduce the whole LinkedIn personal brand to the recruiters, but they were really resistant. So by the end I gave up on it, so I was like, you're not listening to me. It's always so fine. It's exhausting.

Like I can't keep doing this. Yeah. And then I started posting on LinkedIn. in and I started doing it really seriously. I think about month two or three, I got my first client. In the beginning, she asked me, because I, I think I did a post about my clinical depression, and I was talking about that, and that I think was one of my first viral posts. Like, it really blew up.

And this person reached out to me, and she's like, oh, I'm going to be starting, I want to do these blog series on mental health and workplace environments and all this sort of stuff, would you want to come on? And I was like, sure, I've never done this before, but why not? You know, I guess if I'm really terrible, just don't post the episode. So I went on and I did that. And then after that, we got on really well. And then she was like, you know what?

I want my graphics for the podcast to be a bit more professional. Do you want to do my, my graphics? So she was like one of my first clients. And then it kind of started snowballing. She recommended a couple more people to me. And then my content started catching. and I was also living in comments a lot on a lot of big creators' profiles. So I built relationships with them and then they started sending me some clients,

things like that. So kind of just slowly snowballed. And yeah, I think about six or seven months in, I was giving notice at my full-time job. I realized, because I was working like mental hours, I was working like seven days a week, like morning till late at night weekends everything but yeah I realized that with the design work I was already I was only doing it like part time and sort of half-assed and I was already making more doing it than I was making it my full-time job and it was a lot less stressful it was just kind of like you know one doing LinkedIn banners and and brochures and things like that and it was all

really quick and easy work and you got paid good money and you didn't have much with it. So I was like, okay, if I quit my job and give this, like, I'm already making more than I'm making my full-time job, right? It's only been six months. So if I quit my full-time job and put full-time effort into building sort of my personal brand, surely I can make enough money to live well or make more money that I'm making now working 45, 50 hours a week. And then in the back of my mind, I was like, and if it all flops and fails, I'm just going to go back and get another job. Like, I'll go and bartend. You know, I'm a really good bartender.

I can pour a drink. There's always options. It's not like this is the only job in the world that I'm ever going to be able to have. And like COVID was over as well so there wasn't that issue anymore. So I was like, you know, fuck it. I'm just going to I'm going to bet on myself. I'm going to this risk. See what happens.

If it doesn't work, I'll move back in with mum. I'll live with mum for a few months. I'll save money and I'll start like, you know, move back to London, whatever. I'll figure it out. But like, I have options. And yeah, and then I resigned. A lot of people took the piss out of me from the company and laughed at my content and the stuff that I was posting

because the more longer time it went, the more personal stuff I was posting. So people were getting a bit like, oh, that's so cringed, like, oh, look at me, I'm an influencer. And then... And then in the future, they realize importance of personal branding and come back to, oh, Jen, can you teach us? No, I don't think so. Their recruiters, they're very stubborn, very stuck in their ways. So I don't really have contact with anyone from there,

because we were just such different, different. They were all about, like, you know, smashing the, like proper sales, matching the phone, you know, starting drinking on Thursday till Sunday and parties. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't drink, I don't, like, all that environment is just not something that I'm attracted to at all. Yeah, so, yeah, I left.

And then within less than two years, I was making three times more than I was making it. My fourth time tripled my salary. I was making like 32, 33,000 pounds a year as I'm managing a whole marketing department for 100 plus people's company. And then I went to my own, sitting on myself in pajamas, making three, three, four times more. Yeah.

Myself, I'm not leaving my apartment five days a week. So, yeah, it worked out. Yeah, I'm happy to hear that. And I like what you said before, you know, sometimes it's understandable, but people say that they don't have time to build their brand or start something their own. But as you said, you can start while working full-time job. Of course, it's not easy.

You cannot commit 100%, but you can still try, you can build it in a background and after a few months or maybe years. Yeah, you test the concept. Like, everyone has spare time. Like, we all have time to sit on the sofa and scroll on Instagram. We all, you know, get on public transport.

We wait for trains. We sit on trains to get into work. We sit on trains to come back from work. We can find time to do it. And that's how I did it when I had the full-time job. First, like, weekends. Weekends were like full-on work on my personal stuff. and side hustle.

And then during the week, lunch breaks, I worked on my client stuff. In the mornings, I worked like I would get up even earlier, going to work super early, do some client work, then do work,

then have a lunch break, do client work, then back to normal work, leave work, go home, saying, like, it's a lot, it's hard work.

Like, I was working like crazy for eight months, but it was worth, because I managed to build up a foundation, for myself to be able to leave my full-time job and kind of become my own boss and also the same time build up something that allowed me to make the most money I've ever made

in my life working for myself so yeah you can you can find time like don't spend hours a day scrolling on Instagram scroll on LinkedIn because that's what I literally that's what I did I just I stopped going on all the other apps and all I did it's like if I picked up my phone I was doom scrolling I was doom scrolling on LinkedIn and I was commenting and engaging with people because I knew that if I'm doomscrawling on LinkedIn and engagement people, that will help me build my personal brand. If I'm domscrawling on Instagram, it's not going to do anything for me. Yeah. And you know how smart algorithm is like on Instagram or TikTok or somewhere else. System that's spend there forever. Mine's full of ducks and videos.

A quick note before we continue. One of the things I've realized from hosting this podcast is that I spent a lot of time thinking about the conversations long after they end. That's one of the reasons I started unproduced, a solo podcast where I share ideas, lessons, observations and questions I'm still figuring out myself. If you'd like to check it out, you'll find a link in the description. Now back to the episode. And Jane, you said before how you got your first client.

But I think it's like a challenge for many people to attract clients, whether it's first client or maybe continuously get new clients. So what would be like your advice for people that are on LinkedIn and either struggle to find first clients or struggle to find clients in general? So what? I don't know if this is good advice. This is what I did. Right.

So I started building out the personal brand and obviously trying to start. share some of my work. I was creating like fake work, like, you know, social graphics and things like that just to show off sort of what I can do. And then I also found a few clients to work with for free in exchange for a testimonial, but not as I'm going to do work for you. And you have to leave me a good testimonial, but it was more so I'll do this for you for free. These are going to be deliverables. If you're happy with what I do for you, I would really appreciate a testimonial from you if you want to leave me one. It was kind of like, it wasn't like you have to, but it was more like, okay, if you're happy with the end, if you're truly happy with the end result and you're

happy to leave me a positive review, great. If you're not happy and doesn't work out, it doesn't matter because you're not paying for anything. It's, I'm, I'm just losing time, right? But at the same time, I am learning because I'm learning how to deal with people, how to brief, how to deliver projects, manage, all that stuff. So for me, it's a win-win either way. For the clients, it's either win or me. Yeah, and they don't lose anything, right? They don't lose anything, right? So, yeah, I think I had one or two clients that I worked with for free and they were happy and they left me some testimonials.

and obviously I posted all that work on LinkedIn. And then one of those clients actually came back later for some paid work because she was so happy with the free work that I did for her. So she ended up paying me for some work. And then, yeah, it's just that's what I did. And I just, I spend loads and loads and loads of time just building relationships with people, talking in DMs, commenting, you know, engaging in banter, just getting on coffee calls and not with a, oh, I'm going to try to like, you know,

sneakly ask you questions and try to like convince you that you need to buy for me. None of that. I didn't even think about it. I just talked to me. And many times those conversations, maybe not instantly, but with time turned into clients. And then the more, obviously, the more you post, the more people see your work and your personality, the more they get attached, the more

they get interested, they might not reach out straight away, but they might reach out six months down the line. I have had clients who, again, that I mentioned, I did that post about my clinical depression and that kind of, I think it went viral or semi-viral,

whatever, I don't even know what viral counts these days. I don't know, it's 100,000 impressions, is that viral, or does that not count viral anymore? I don't know. I think it does. I don't know what other people see, but to me it sounds pretty crazy. Yeah, so I think that post hit like 100,000 impressions or something like that.

And then I had two or three clients within a space of six months that reached out and said, oh, I started following you because I saw that post where you talked about depression and it really resonated with me. So I started following you and then I decided to build this brand. And because you were talking about this topic and because it's going to be like a mental, like one of them was a therapist who works with teens with eating disorders and can't remember what else. It was something to do with eating disorders and some other. He was like a specialist. And he reached out to me from the same post saying, oh, I want you to do my new brands for my new clinic because you get.

what I'm doing because you understand mental health you talk about it you're open about it you you get it so I want you to do it and that's because I've openly have spoken once about my own struggles and things like that

and then there was another guy who was doing some sort of wellness code this was so long ago like I can't exactly remember but I think it was something to do with fitness and mental health as well and he was the same he's like, oh yeah, I saw that post. It really resonated with me. And now that I'm building this,

I really want you to do the brand for me because I think you're the right person. So, yeah, it takes time. It's not a fast process. It kind of slowly builds up and build up. And again, you need to do good work and leave good impressions and build good relationships with clients. I have clients who have been coming back to me for the last two, three years. They probably could find someone cheaper if they wanted to, but they don't because they know that every time they'll come to me, they'll get good results, the quality work, and it's going to be quick. And they keep coming back because it's easy.

They just go, Jane, I need this. How much is it? Okay, great. Let's do it. And then I do it. It comes back. It's maybe a couple of tweaks. And we're good to go.

Next project. So I think the quality of work and the relationships you build with the clients is very important as well because every good job and every good relationship and interaction you have with the client can lead one to repeat work and two to referrals. So going above and beyond where you can and as much as you can without kind of, I think, burning yourself out to leave a good impression on people and on your. your clients. So they do want to come back and they do want to refer you their friends and their colleagues. I agree. And as you said, it's not only about like a quality or beautiful work,

especially when it comes to design. Of course, it's very important. But at the same time, it's also about the person that you work with, like a quality, delivery, communication and everything. Because I can see it like from my own experience as well, that there are people who may create beautiful results but it might be hard to talk to, I don't know, slow or just unprofessional. So you want to work with someone who makes it just smoother and more inferable so there is much more behind it. Exactly. I've had plenty of clients who have come to me and gone, oh my God, it's so easy to work with you. Like, this person I worked with before, they're an absolute nightmare. Like, they would do this or that or they would like force me to use Figma when I don't know how to use it. And I only know

how to use Canva because there's a lot of designers have really big egos. other than like, oh, I'm not going to touch camera. That's not a professional design tool. I'm like, I don't fucking care. They know how to use it. I'll leave on the day long. I don't care. I don't have that ego.

Ego doesn't pay my bills. I don't care. And Jane, as you mentioned this, I was about to ask you. I saw recently, I think you started or you are starting maybe series on LinkedIn with some kind of tips. And I was about to ask if you are actually teeny tiny canva or stuff like that. And if you're like one of those, People.

Oh, yeah, yeah. If you're like one of those people that are, I'm team Canva versus team Figma. Or if you are both or if you've got the favorite tool? I love Figma. I adore Figma. I think it's one of the best tools out there. It's super easy to use. It's just the workflows and everything.

I love it. But I will never force a client to use something that they're not comfortable with. I always offer, when I do design work, let's say banners and carousels and things like that, I always say to clients, do you want it in Canva? Do you want it in Illustrator? Do you want it in Figma? No one, very few people want it in Illustrator. I would say probably 75% want stuff in Canva because they know they're going to get editable files. They know how to use it. That's what they want. They will wreck the files. That's not my problem after a pat. Like I've done the job. I get paid what you do with that stuff afterwards.

That's not, I don't care. Yeah, and then a small percentage is in Figma. Like I work in Figma quite a lot because I design websites as well. So Figma is primarily full websites, U.R, UX and all that sort of stuff, but you can do all the other stuff in it as well. So, so yeah, I use it a lot. I love it. I wish I could just use Figma, but that's not the world I live in.

But it's more impressive that you are a master of all of those and you are not just, okay, use this one, not any other. Because sometimes I see quite strict opinions, it's like just this tool and the other one is maybe lower quality or like I like that one. So I think well done. That's the thing. I don't have an ego. I don't have, I don't need to prove anything to other designers or other people. I started out on Canva. That was the first tool I learned when I worked at the recruitment agency.

That's what I mostly used. And it was easy. And I created loads of stuff for the teams to use, like reusable templates and things like that. So I got quite familiar with it. And then I started going on design courses. I learned Photoshop. I learned Illustrator. After Effects, all the video editing stuff, lightroom.

Like I've gone through most of the Adobe Suite. And yeah, I just... And then obviously when I went out freelancing, I realized that most people are familiar, most familiar with Canber. And it's easy to use. Obviously, all the stuff that you have in it, either it's free commercial license or you need a paid account and then you have access to all the extra stuff. So it was easier from licensing point of view because an illustrator, unless I create a paid account. every single assets and every single icon and every single background and texture and shape, whatever, custom and illustrate that I can't provide source file to a client because they don't

have the licensing for the assets that I have used in that design. And obviously, as a design, I'm not, I use a lot of templates and pre-built stuff because otherwise I would, you know, things would take forever. But if I wanted to do this really gradient, some sort of shape or thing, I'm going to go on free pick or Envato elements and download it and adjust it to what I need. I'm not going to do it from scratch because it's probably going to take me three hours. So, yeah, so it was one of the licensing thing as well because a lot of people wanted source files and then I can't do it with Illustrates unless I do everything from scratch. But if I do everything from scratch, I need to charge a lot of money because it takes a really long time to do like a LinkedIn. or whatever.

And then obviously most people don't have Adobe software and they don't know how to use illustrator or edited, but they do know how to work in Canva. So it was just one of those things. Yeah, I probably spend about 70 to 80%

of my day working in Canva because that's what clients want and prefer and that's what they're comfortable with and that's what I work in. I don't have an ego trip about like obviously you can do more with illustrator obviously you can do more with figma obviously they're professional design tools canva isn't but it's getting better with every day because they keep bringing out new things and new tools and you can do a lot of stuff with

canva now so yeah yeah i've just i just work with what what the customer base wants not what i want because what i want doesn't pay my bills Yeah, of course. I like it and I agree. I like Canva, but obviously I'm not a professional designer. So I was curious to hear your approach and it makes sense to me. I could Jane ask you many more questions, but to be aware of time. I want to ask you kind of lighter questions.

So what is it that you like to do in your free time or what are some of your hobbies? What I like to do in my free time? Sleep. I do love nap. a good Sunday afternoon nap. I like traveling. I guess traveling is one of my main hobbies. I wish we could have discussed more experience with Thailand,

but I'm afraid it will be another hour, so it will take time because I like to discuss geography and travel as well. Yeah, Thailand is my happy place. But yeah, I like travel. I like exploring new places, new things. What is then, except Thailand? What is your favorite one that you visited? Taiwan?

In Vietnam. Yeah. If you don't mind me asking why Taiwan, I've never been there, but I'm not sure why, but I wouldn't expect Taiwan. I don't know. I just really liked it. I was very surprised by how much I liked it and how nice it was. It was very clean. It was very safe. it was the food was good

I liked how much greenery there was everywhere like the city itself not but you can jump on a train and be in the mountains hiking and they have really well kept like the surrounding nature areas were all clean and the paths were like pristine and the hiking trails and I just really really enjoyed it they also do really good tea

and I like tea I went on like this geeky tea tour around the tea fields and I did tea houses and all that stuff so yeah I really really enjoyed it and I would go back because I want to see I stayed in Taipei the week I was there but I would want to go back and explore the other parts of Taiwan but yeah Vietnam as well

But Vietnam's men crazy I guess it's more similar to Thailand or Vietnam, I guess, or not. I would say Thailand's probably more developed and more sort of geared towards better infrastructure is more geared towards Westerners. Vietnam is still a bit crazy.

Yeah. And as you are now based in Thailand Is that the place where you want to stay or for the future have you got plans to move back or move somewhere else? No. I'm not. I've no plans to go anywhere. If I can, I'll stay here until the day I die. I can't say that I stay in Bangkok my whole life that I don't know.

But I do have the house and renting now. I have it for two years. So I'm going to be at least here for two years. So I'm going to be here minimum of two years. And then after that, I don't, yeah. I have no plans to go anywhere. My current visa is five years, so I have time. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And you mentioned those places that you enjoy, that you visited, and what are some of the places that you want to visit or plan to visit? South Korea. That's a good one, yeah. I have developed at my 37 years of age. I have developed passion for K-pop. And I want to go to South Korea. How did you, I don't know, discover it or what makes you so interested in it?

K-pop demon hunters last summer. Oh, wow, okay. But when it came out, I watched it on Netflix. And I was like, oh my God, this is so good. What the hell? Like, obviously, I've known about K-pop my whole life. Like I've been, I used to be a massive anime fan, so I'm kind of familiar with the Southeast Asian culture, but I never really listened to K-pop as such and never gone down that rabbit hole. Obviously, I know it's less and pink and all like all these, all these big, big ones, but I never really listened to anything.

And then, yeah, Cape of Demon Hunters came out and I watched it and I was like, oh my God, this is amazing. I've probably seen it like a thousand times. I just constantly have it on in the background. And, yeah, when that came out, I just went down a K-pop rabbit hole. I remember I was up in bed until like 3 a.m. just scrolling through videos, started with K-pop Demon Hansa videos, and then it kind of just led me through different things, and that I found there's band called Stray Kids, and they are quite, they're very different and quite unique compared to the other. big mainstream

K-pop brands. They're very loud and they're very in your face and they're like they mix all these crazy music genres and I have really cool videos and interesting voices. Like one of the guys, he looks like an angel. You kind of, you can't, sometimes

you can't tell if he's a woman or a man. He's like the most beautiful human being I've ever seen my life. And he has the deepest voice I have ever heard. Like, as soon as he opens, he's Mao, he has this blonde hair, which looks angelic. And then he starts singing and has this really deep, like, deep. Like, what the hell is going on here?

So I went down that rabbit hole, and then I became a fan. I became... Oh, it made me curious. I will check it out. I wasn't expecting this. It's really interesting. Yeah, so, yeah, South Korea. I want to go.

And then I want to do Japan. I want to go to China. Singapore, I haven't been to Singapore yet. Yeah. Well, I think a good thing is that it's not that far away for, right? Since you live down. Down the road. I think Japan's the furthest down.

I think it's about seven, eight hours from Thailand. But yeah, it's all around here. Sounds exciting. And I remember before you mentioned that you read or used to read like books, self-development books or stuff like that. Have you got any recommendations or any that were your favorite? No, because I haven't read any self-development books in a very, very long time. I still read a lot.

I probably read about four to five books a week, but I read loads of urban fantasy because reading for me now is a way to switch off and relax my minds and kind of. just detach myself from work because I'm sure, as you know, when you work for yourself, it's really hard to kind of, you're always on, right? And reading is one of the things that kind of takes me, I have quite vivid imaginations. When I read, I kind of play out all the scenes and everything in my head and the characters, like I have like my own images of how they look and how they move and what they, all that stuff. So it, yeah, it's like watching a movie in my head.

So I have not read any personal development stuff in years. And then, although I don't read this type of books, but if anyone is interested, what are your favorite from the stuff that you read, actually? There's a lot. There's a series called Anita Blake, which is about a vampire hunter. And she actually, I think Marvel also does comic books

from the books, or at least they use. used to, I think, or was it DC? I can't remember. One of the big comic book company, there's a comic book as well. So it's like a vampire sexy demon, vampire warrior wolves, all that sort of stuff.

Like a Twilight saga. No, it was a bad joke. No, no. There's no shiny, there's no. Sorry, Twilight Taga was terrible. I shouldn't have. It's kind of, it's one of those that's really bad, but it was also good because it was so bad.

It's like a, it's a cult classic, like everyone knows to life. And then there's these colds, cold, dougarie, pleasant, and it's about this skeleton detective based in Ireland, and it's all about magic and superpowers and things like that and kind of sorcerers living amongst humans. And, yeah, I think there's like 15 books out now, they're very funny. They're mostly geared towards children,

but there's a lot of sarcasm and a lot of dark humor in there. That translates to an adult mind very differently than it does to a kid's mind. You know how they do that sometimes when they squeeze it in adult jokes? And you're like, I'm laughing for a little bit of a reason than you are right now. So it's kind of like, it's just, it's just fun in. easy to read and like the world building is amazing and the characters and you get like freely attached to some of the main characters and the books. It's just yeah nice easy easy series. It sounds good. Although I don't read this stuff, it sounds exciting and listening to what it is

about and it sounds cool for people if anyone is interested. And then Jane can you please summarize where people can find you, follow you and promote any of your services. So LinkedIn is probably the best place or through my website, which is janecaskinca.com. It's really easier if, I don't know, you put it in the description or something. Undershawares. My surname is a bit of a tricky one, as you can see. So it's not easiest to remember and spell. But yeah, LinkedIn or Jane Kisneka on LinkedIn, I'm the only one, is no one else, or janekosneka.com.

That's what it's good about it, that it's unique. As you said, it may be harder to spread, but at the same time, there is no one like that. It makes unique to you. No, yeah, no, definitely. Just me. And then, Jane, have you got like any plans or goals in, let's say, upcoming weeks or months? You'll be willing to share with us or with the audience to be excited about? Just keep working.

That's my God. I don't have, like, any... I'm not one of those people. I don't want to build an agency. I don't want to have employees. I don't want to have all these big things. I'm just, I'm happy just working, doing my thing, making decent money, saving some, helping my mom with her mortgage, you know, and just...

Enjoyed the journey. Enjoying the journey. Like, one of the main things that I want to push for more is websites, because they're higher ticket items. I can do less and make more. they're smart yeah I like so yeah

website design and development is something that I've been pushing for the last year and I want to push it even more for the rest of 2026 and just going forward I kind of want to move away from being the LinkedIn

banner queen to being more of a website and being a project queen yeah no it makes sense of me and I understand and I didn't that nickname I didn't I didn't

I did not come up with that. Some people have called me the link to me back. I didn't call with that. But I guess, but it's a good one because I feel like there are a lot, I mean, understandably, but a lot of people who like position themselves as, you know, I don't know, this week I did this number of banners. Banner is the most important and this kind. I know it's important, but kind of recycled when you see it all the time that,

okay, banner, blah, blah, blah, then if like, okay, I keep listening about the banners. and it's going to be everywhere. So I feel like everyone wants to occupy that space because obviously on LinkedIn is important. So it's good that you are, you know, the queen that you've got the title. Yeah. It's someone gave it to.

Yeah, it's what I started. Like I've probably at this stage, I've done thousand plus banners. So it's a lot. I've done a lot. Like at one point when I first started out, I was probably doing four, five bannos a day, Monday to Friday plus.

So, I'm kind of, the more I've grown, obviously, the more I've expanded my services, and now I'm trying to more focus on bigger projects. Usually the LinkedIn banners and things are the low-ticket item that brings in clients and then converts them to sometimes brand websites, you know, brochures, slide decks, proposals, all that sort of stuff. So, yeah, I don't push the LinkedIn banner thing as much as I, as I used to. to because it's just time-wise it doesn't convert as well and money-wise when then a website for

example no i understand that one needs to be smart of course and then jane uh very many answer today right so yeah and that's fair then i was sorry to ask you jane very last question if there is anything i should have asked you and did not or any final message or anything you would like to leave the audience with oh god you should have told me to think about this before i can On the couch. No, don't worry. Doesn't need to be something ground breaking. I would say, stop caring about what everyone else things and just do you on LinkedIn.

Because you'll never please everyone. It doesn't matter what you do. There's always going to be someone who hates you or hates what you do or doesn't agree with what you do. So stop listening to the haters and just do you and build your dream and do what you want to do instead of trying to please everyone else. else. So I guess that's my clothes. That's a good one. And I agree. Content changed my life. So I'm a big, it has a lot of flaws, but LinkedIn has changed my life and my career. So I am a big fan of it, even though at times I hate it.

I agree with you that LinkedIn, I think it's a powerful platform. Of course, everyone has highest and lost, like not every day is a sunshine. But it can be, if you know how to use it, you're willing to put the effort in and keep showing up. It can be really great. And I'm glad to obviously hear about your own story. I want to say, Jane, thank you for your time. It was really nice to listen to your story, your experience, to have fun, because I like when, not only when there is someone sarcastic, has fun,

positive and enthusiastic. I really enjoyed it. I feel like that we could be talking for way longer, so maybe at some point in the future again. So thank you very much, Jane. I'll be wishing you all the best in the future, so thank you. Yeah, thank you for having me. This has been fun.

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