Produced By - More Than a Colour: The Story Behind the Yellow Queen | 161: Real Desmond

Episode Date: July 20, 2026

Real Desmond, also known as the Yellow Queen, is a Brand Identity Designer and Brand Manager helping businesses and professionals build brands that are seen, trusted, and remembered. From starting an online thrift business to working with clients across 11+ countries, she has built a distinctive personal brand on LinkedIn through consistency, clear messaging, and her instantly recognisable use of yellow. In this episode, Real shares how she discovered her passion for branding, how LinkedIn transformed her career, and why becoming memorable is about far more than logos and visuals. We explore what it takes to stand out in a crowded market, attract opportunities through trust and consistency, and build a brand that reflects both your value and your purpose.Connect with Real:https://www.linkedin.com/in/realdesmond-branddesigner/https://www.realdesmond.com/https://www.instagram.com/real__desmond/Timestamps: 00:00 - Why she became the yellow queen 01:00 - Intro 01:21 - Building a memorable personal brand 01:38 - The story behind the yellow queen 02:50 - Why she chose yellow 05:37 - How people remember brands 09:03 - From thrift store to branding 10:41 - Discovering linkedin 12:48 - Why growth takes time 13:13 - Popularity vs paying clients 15:19 - Recognition over virality 16:10 - The yellow branding strategy 19:07 - Why numbers can be misleading 21:31 - Consistency vs frequency 21:38 - Discover unproduced podcast 22:18 - How to get clients on linkedin 23:21 - The linkedin profile checklist 24:26 - Who to connect with on linkedin 25:24 - Learning from the right people 26:06 - The 3 content types that build trust 29:29 - Why patience wins 29:59 - The problem with one-off clients 32:36 - Consistency beats posting daily 34:02 - What makes her approach different 35:07 - Why clients keep recommending her 36:56 - Why she takes client work personally 39:56 - Favorite movies and hobbies 43:27 - Favorite books and learning 44:55 - MBA, AI and future goals 46:41 - Learning to appreciate the season 48:21 - Ambition without burnout 49:29 - Brand services and where to find her 50:40 - Final advice for creators 51:20 - Finding purpose in every season 52:42 - First impressions and surprises 55:13 - Outro 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/HRJBZKRiverside: https://riverside.sjv.io/vDnDodFavikon: https://www.favikon.com?fpr=tommenRa 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 can go on and on about how there's color psychology. Like I said, I'm a brand identity designer, so there's color psychology to it. Yellow is the color of enthusiasm, positivity, and I am a positive person. I am very enthusiastic about what I do for brand owners. And I feel like positivity is what a lot of business owners that I work with need. They need that burst of positivity and belief in their business. They want someone to believe that their business can do well. And so I feel like that color represents not just,

my personality. It also reflects what I want them to feel when they come to work with me. I want them to feel positive that this experience would be amazing for them. And also yellow is one of the colors for creativity. It symbolizes creativity. And so I felt like, okay, so we have the industry aspect of it, which is creativity. We have the brand personality, which is me being a very positive person and taking consideration of my audience as well, I wanted them to feel that positivity. And so I felt like yellow would be the right choice. 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, Real. Thank you for joining us today and welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. Real, for those who do you know you, can you please introduce yourself? Okay, my name is Real, Reel Desmond. I am a brand identity designer and a brand manager and I am from Nigeria. yeah, that's pretty much it.

What about your super cool nickname, Yellow Queen? Can you tell us more about it? So I think I started showing up on LinkedIn in let's say December, 2022, but I really didn't know so much about the platform. I started being serious on LinkedIn, February, 2020. And I think May 20203, I decided to be serious with my branding.

Seeing that I'm a brand identity designer, I decided to show people how much branding can look like or how branding can look like. And so I decided to be intentional with my colors. I chose yellow. And I started showing up with yellow everywhere, yellow on my banner, my headshot, my pictures, everywhere yellow. And I love calling people nicknames as well.

And so I love calling ladies queens. And so over time, people started calling me yellow queen because obviously I used yellow in love and I'm always calling them queen. And so they will call me queen back and then they start adding yellow because they always see me with yellow. And so yellow queen, that's how the name came about. And I adopted it. I loved it. And that's how the yellow queen came about.

My audience named me. You could have chosen any color while yellow specifically. Okay. So I can go on and on about how there's color psychology. You know, like I said, I'm a brand identity designer. So there's color psychology to it. Yellow is the color of the enthusiasm, positivity, and I am a positive person. I am very, you know, enthusiastic about what I do for brand owners.

And I feel like positivity is what a lot of business owners that I work with need. They need that burst of positivity and belief in their business. they want someone to believe that their business can do well. And so I felt like that color represent not just, you know, my personality. It also reflects what I want them to feel when they come to work with me. They want them to feel positive that, you know, this experience would be amazing for them. And so that is that. And also yellow is one of the colors for creativity.

It, you know, symbolizes creativity. And so I felt like, okay, so we have the industry aspect of it, which is, you know, creativity. We have the brand personality. which is me being a very positive person and taking consideration of my audience as well, I wanted them to feel that positivity. And so I felt like yellow would be the right choice. But, you know, in hindsight now that I see,

I see like it's God orchestrating everything because there's a lot of story behind why I decided to come on LinkedIn. And so that Bible verse, yellow reflects it. So I feel like at the end of the day, my head and God working together for that yellow to come about. So yeah, that's it. I really like it because when I see your brand on LinkedIn it, is totally recognizable, even on your website.

And you're saying with the title or the nickname. Did you go through my website? I did. And I was about to say, because I know already who I chose the nickname and the yellow, because you say that on the website. But I was curious before. And I wanted to know for the audience, you case they were. Okay, okay, okay, okay.

Is it the same? Yeah, yeah. Because on the website, there is also the reasoning why you chose the color. And also that you call people of kings and queens. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I call them, yeah. So I love LinkedIn. Yeah, I do. I love Knicks a lot. I just like making people feel like, you know, special. And when I came on LinkedIn, there was too much Ma and Star and, you know, I just feel like it's too much.

I want to have something a bit more personal, maybe more, you know. So I said, okay, so I started saying kings, queens, charms, you know, different things, depending. And it's also smart because it makes them remember, but it's different than other. Yeah, yeah, yeah,

exactly. Because people remember how you make them feel, but they might not remember, you know, your name or anything, but I've been able to do the visual trigger. Now I need to do the experience. So the visual trigger is the color. So whenever they are scrolling on LinkedIn and they see yellow, they are able to

stop and say, well, this is real shade of yellow. It's very bright. And then how does she make you feel last time you came across her post? And then you're able to remember how, you know, she called you a nickname. She made you feel, you know, same. And so, would I say that as the strategy

behind that? Yeah, but I like it. It's good. I was about to say that I also like the nickname itself because you can see so many people on LinkedIn with titles like, brilliant expert. this and that.

But when it's something unique and different, it turns out. It makes you remember them. And it's just something unique about yourself. So I think it's very smart if you have something like that. You also have yours. I feel like yours is nice as well, green. Thank you.

So should I ask you why you came about green or what happened? Why green? Oh, great. I could come up with some kind of cool story. I wish I had something like you, but I honestly, I just liked the color. I remember I was probably, I think I was just going to Canva. And there was like this design, I was like, oh my God, it's beautiful, this shade of green.

And that's how I chose it. I'm afraid I don't have any smart reasoning behind it. Well, you actually do like it now. Yeah, I do. Although it's a funny thing that I always like blue. I don't know why, but I just was a fan of blue color. but I chose green and I think, of course,

it's subjective, but I think it's a beautiful color, but I don't have cool discovery story like you'd or some kind of reason. I understand. I actually love, like my favorite color is black and then red. So yellow was never my favorite color. Not at all.

I think if I were to mention my top ten colors, yellow would not be part of it. So when I went, I said, that's why I said I can go on and on and talk about how I wanted to, color but I think at the end of the day God wanted me to use the color. That's just it. It was just mine because I don't like yellow. I just didn't like it in it because I said they're using it. I'm not being black. I love black. I love red. I love the forest green, the darker shade of

forest green that love luxurious color. I love it. I love brown, coffee brown. I love nude. I love purple. All the colors except yellow. Yes. Yellow was never really my color. but I just started liking it and loving it because I started using it. I was slightly surprised when I saw you in red shirt because I thought it was going to be yellow, but now also it makes sense if you like red to you. Yeah, but red is also part of my branding. Red is also part of my branding. It's just my accent color and not like my main color, but it's also part of my branding.

I'm sure that you would have noticed a little bit of red here and there on my brand or my website. Yeah, I actually wanted to wear yellow, but I felt like, you know, I don't want to post things. I don't want it to look like I'm forcing the yellow. Let me just wear red. But I had my yellow top out, but I changed my mind. For people that aren't just listening to audio, make sure to look at the video as well to know what we are talking about.

Then Ariel, I know that you also share it on your website, but can you share with us your story of both discovering LinkedIn and your passion for design? I know that it starts with your thrift shop a few years ago. Yeah. What's more about this story? Okay, so I was, okay, I finished uni. I got out of uni in 2019.

I was working in a clinic at that time. And I was also running a small thrift business on the side. And one of the things that has to do online business, you know that you have to put out flyers, tell them all new orders. new clothes available and all of that. And I would think I was trying to use Canva at the time. And there was another one app, I think, posted my wall. I didn't quite know how to use all of those things.

But I was just managing and I stumbled on a course online, a smartphone flyer course. And I jumped on it. And so that time, I think I posted it on my website. I was not, I think that was after COVID. So there was little or no finance. Everybody was at home not working. I had stopped working as at that time because of COVID. And my sister, she was the one that gave me the money I used to register for the course.

And I started designing thanks to that course. I don't want to go into long details, but I stayed designing thanks to that. And I was doing that and I was earning money from it, though not as much as, of course, what I earn now or what I charge now. So I was doing that. And in 2022, I had passed out from NYRC. So in Nigeria, there's a mandatory service you have to go through. It's a one-year service, you know, so the nation.

So I finished my NYST program and I was job hunting after that time. And so in December, I attended an event. And in that event, someone talked about LinkedIn, talked about the amazing things on the platform. And just like everybody, I already had a LinkedIn account, but I was not using it. I mean, my story is similar to a lot of people out there. I was not really using LinkedIn.

Someone had told me in 2021 or 2020 about the platform, a lot of professionals are there. And so I downloaded the platform, tried to log in and see what they're doing there. I didn't understand that. So I understood it and I left it. I never looked back until 2022 December. I was hearing about LinkedIn and seeing it in another life.

Someone telling me how much opportunities, having his life change as a result of LinkedIn. And I'm like, wow, I think if he could do it, I can. So I just need to start showing up on the platform. And so that December, I think I was telling up in that December by posting, but I was just posting like Facebook, the way you post on Facebook. I didn't know what they were doing there.

I was just posting and leaving it. And then any time I see someone doing, like, I think then it was more popular than it is now, social Saturday party or something like that on LinkedIn. I would just say, oh, let's connect, let's connect. And that was just it. I didn't know what I was doing. But in 2023 now, a new year, that was. February, I joined a LinkedIn challenge, a 21 day LinkedIn challenge.

And that was it. I joined that challenge and I said understanding the platform, started, you know, because it told us how the platform works. I said they understanding LinkedIn. I started learning about the platform and then started enjoying the platform. And yeah, that was it since February, 23 and this is June, 2026. It's been, I would say it's been in this simple word. I would say it has been amazing.

It has its often down, but it's been good so far. I'm happy to hear that. And I like to hear the time or like when you started because it's always worth reminding that to grow your brand, attract the audience or grow the flowing. It doesn't just happen overnight. I think people feel for a short cut. Oh, it doesn't.

No, it doesn't happen. There are no people. They want the quick results. They want it quickly. Some people have, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, and I don't blame them. I don't blame them. I feel like if you want to grow genuinely on LinkedIn,

it's going to take a while. I mean, except you want to be, so you know there are two ways to grow on LinkedIn. There's the easy way where you just post motivational posts and motivational quotes, tell them a sub story, a sad story, a grass-to-grace story, and you get people like, oh, my God, yeah, tips, strategies, all those things.

how to get a job. Like, those are the easy, like you would grow so fast. You would easily grow. And then if you then have a community where you people drop each other's like a pod, engagement pod. So you would grow on LinkedIn. It would be easy for it to grow. You people will repost each other as opposed, share each other's posts, engage on this post.

But again, it's not going to give you the results you want. If you what you want on LinkedIn is to, you know, get clients, build authority and all. I would always say your KPA. is not another person's KPI. Everybody has their different KPI. Just know what you want to achieve on LinkedIn and know what your KPI is. So for someone that just wants maybe popularity,

their KPI might be people sharing their posts, them having high engagement and all of that. For somebody that wants to get a job, those things do not matter. What matters to them is someone is checking their profile, sending them a DM, telling them, oh, I saw this service, I saw this, I saw that, is this what you do, asking them the right questions.

And they feel like, okay, this is a KPI for me. For someone that wants, you know, clients, your, your KPI should be, or if your target audience are going through your post, if they are reading your post, if they are reading your post, checking out your portfolio, checking out your projects,

checking out your recommendations, and asking questions, feeling that your inquiry forms, you know, those are your KPI. So for me, right from when I started LinkedIn, I just wanted to, like I told you, I attended an event and I heard once somebody said, LinkedIn helped them achieve, So from the get-go, my mindset towards LinkedIn has always been,

becomes someone of value so that you can attract people of value. So you have to be that person that gives value, be known for what you do. And with time, you're going to attract people that will be able to do that and give you or want your service or want the value that you're giving out. So that has always been it for me since I joined LinkedIn. I've never been one to be so, you know, hell-bent on getting viral and all of that. It has been, have I been able to.

close the deal this month. Have I, you know, has anybody referred me? You know, because like I told you, I told you, I mentioned visual trigger. I said, that was the strategy that I used. I said, I was going to make sure that I become one of the top, at least I would be one of the top five people about branding and design on LinkedIn in Nigeria. That was my goal. And so I said, okay, so how was I going to achieve this? I said, I was going to get a visual trigger and a message trigger. So the visual trigger was my color, obviously, I was going to use yellow so much that anywhere they see yellow, even if it's not on LinkedIn. Even if it's outside of LinkedIn, if you're able to see that shade of yellow, I want, you know, I want them to think of me. I want my name to, you know, come up.

And now it's going to be everywhere for me. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So I was putting yellow everywhere. Now I even post normal pictures. Before now, when I started on LinkedIn, I was only posting my headshot or pictures like a headshot picture with just a yellow. background all through. And so people started noticing that and that was my strategy, visual trigger and that the messaging trigger that was always talking about branding. I was always pushing out

branding, talking about branding. Branding is showing my work. And so that's the flow. So when they see the visual trigger and they think of real, when they see yellow, what is real known for? Real is known for branding. And so that's how you're able to build a little bit of space in the person's mind about you. And so that was my goal. And I knew that if I was a able to do this, that means anybody that thinks of real and they remember branded. If someone was to need my service in their circle, the first person that would think of is real as regarding to branding. And so I think that was what I was able to do to, I think I did that. I'm still doing that actually. Like I said, that I became intentional about that,

especially in May, 2023. And like I said, I started building on LinkedIn intentionally, February, 2020. And then May, 2023 was when I decided to, you know, brand myself and, you know, double down on what I was doing. And that thing made, the month I landed my first foreign client on LinkedIn.

So I would say at the end of the intentionality is key, you know what you want on the platform. If you want popularity, then it's fine. It's fine. If what you want is popularity, then go for it. Those repos, those 5,000, like,

3,000 like. It don't let anybody make you feel bad about wanting them because that is what you want. But if what you want to achieve on the platform is you want to get clients, then you should not be focused on this thing. Because you can have 1,000 followers, 100,000 followers and you've not been able to make sales or get anybody to work with you from then. It's very possible. We see a lot of people with followers. They've not been able to. Like, you see a lot of people on LinkedIn with more followers.

but they are yet to post a project. They are yet to make a post about gig they landed because of LinkedIn. And you would see someone with like 1,000 followers getting clients, getting gigs from LinkedIn. At the end of the day, is knowing what you want to achieve on the platform and knowing the KPIs, your performance metrics, what matters to you?

What are those things that if you're not seeing right now, it means that, you know, there's a red, you know, button blowing off somewhere, therein you, something is wrong, something is wrong. So yeah, I think that's it. That is true and very good points. It's important to be able to stand out on the platform because obviously there's a lot of competition, a lot of content. So I like when you spoke about being recognizable, whether it's thanks to your branding or thanks to what you stand for, what comes to people's mind.

So it's really important to find it. And it's always worth reminding also not to compare yourself to others because it's easy to see someone with, big numbers or I don't know engagement or whatever but you never know what their goals or how long they'll be showing up what I don't know what's achieved this and that

and you also never see the whole picture what's behind the scenes or what's like that you never know you never know I would I would say sometimes you I would know see numbers and I'm like would you want to trade what you have now for for the answer is no I think before you compare or when you want to start comparing, it's always important to, you know, go back to just ask yourself this question,

would you want to trade what you have now with what they have? Because sometimes, like I said, you see those numbers and you know that if someone was to follow them for a month, you would never really know what they do. You would never really know what service they offer. You would just keep seeing like empty posts. When I say empty, not like the post is empty in terms of value. It's more like making you feel hope, making you feel like, oh, you can do it, you can achieve motivational posts here and there.

Not that they are bad, but it's when it becomes so much that nobody can tell what exactly you're doing on the platform, what exactly you're selling or what's your services or then it's a bad thing. So I would just say for that one, it's just good to do a little bit of here and there

so you can do the motivational posts and all of that to spread your net to a wider audience and then use the actual post that matters to you post that authority building you know, post that, yeah, social proof, your services, your project, those are the other

ones that you should use to nurture them and post more of that. So there should be a balance between the two of them. If not, I feel like you're going to spend a lot of time on LinkedIn and end up, you know, uninstalling it because you're angry and frustrated. End up burning out.

Yeah, but that one is so bad. 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. Will we discuss it slightly before? I remember you mentioned when you've got your first clients

and you also have it on our profile that you worked from all around the world. So my question is if there are people struggling to attract whether it's first clients or clients in general on LinkedIn. What would be your advice how to approach it? Okay, so I would say normally there are too advices in terms of, you know, getting clients. A lot of people would do the outbound method. I have not done outbound before, so I can't speak on it. But I would say if you are starting right now and the market is competitive,

I would say that the first thing, of course, would be to optimize your profile and brand it. I would always say the goal of optimization and the goal of branding your LinkedIn profile is so that when someone comes to your page, it serves at a landing page, meaning that they are going to go through that page and they are going to make a decision in their heart if they can trust you for your work and if you can deliver. So I will say number one is your optimization. Make sure that your headline, your banner, your about section, your experience section, your skills, recommendations section,

your featured section, everything is communicating. I can do that job. You can trust me. So once that is covered, the second thing I would say is that if you're connected, or your network on LinkedIn. Make sure that you're connecting with your target audience. You're connecting with people that offer the same complementary services as you, meaning, for instance, someone that is a social media manager, connecting with someone that is graphic designer. You see that anybody that would most likely need a social media manager

would most likely need a graphic designer as well. So you connect with those people so that, you know, there could be chances of collaboration between the two people and also connect with people that have your, have your target audience as their own target audience. Business coaches, following a business coach on LinkedIn means that you are going to have business owners in their comment section.

So you can meet them, then you can connect with your target audience, connecting with people that offer complementary services, connecting with people that have your target audience as part of their own target audience, then you can connect with people that you can genuinely grow from, that can generally offer you tips on how to grow your business. Like when I started LinkedIn, I didn't know so much about writing on LinkedIn.

I didn't know so much about that. I connected a lot with, I had a lot of copyrighters in my audience or part of my network, rather. So I had a lot of copyrighters as part of my network. And they really helped me, you know, in terms of telling me, okay, I will read their content and their content will be, I will start telling me things of PPP, Ida framework, attention to this, attention, all those things, that copyrighting things.

And so I didn't know all of those things before LinkedIn. And so coming on LinkedIn, reading their content, I started learning, I said learning how to write, how to cut the blog, how to structure your posts, and all of that. So I started learning from then, and it helped me get better with writing. So those are the kind of people you also want to connect with on LinkedIn. People that you can learn from, people that can make you a better LinkedIn creator, a better professional. So you connect with those people as well.

and then genuinely people, people you like and all, don't connect so much with people that, let's say, with your competitors, don't connect so much with them, except the ones you want to learn from, or except the ones that you like, people that you can collaborate with, if not, so that it doesn't make your reach. Because the more you have, let's say,

if you're a graphic designer, you have a lot of graphic designers part of your network, it will make more graphic designers team. Those are not necessarily the people that you want to work with. So in my kind of stifle your reach in terms of the main target order. So once you have all of these people as part of your network, the other thing that you can work on is your content. So try to balance the three types of content that I post. You can have four types.

But for me, three types of content, the personal content, which is content that talk about what you do, your journey, why you do what you do, what made you going to LinkedIn, what made you go into that scale, that service, you know, your values, all of those things that necessarily, the human being behind the LinkedIn profile. So content that make them know you so that they can trust you because you have to know someone to like them and then trust them. So the goal of those kind of content would always be to make your potential clients or potential need see you as someone that, oh, I know a little bit of our personality. I know a little bit of her. So I can trust high a bit and become born. Imagine let's say maybe you post the content about liking K-drama. Like I like K-drama. And so let's say you post a content about liking K-drama and then your target audience,

these other clients think it and like, oh, I love Kedrama too. And they comment and you're like, oh, and you start bonding over those things. And before you know it, yeah, they might need that. They were like, oh, this person, oh, she likes Kedrama. Let me send her in a little. Let me see if she can do what I want. So contents like that, those personal contents are not necessarily you just posting personal contents.

There are more of you trying to make them, you know, feel you and know you so that they can trust you. And then the second type of content is the authority building content. These are contents that make them trust you as a professional or trust you as an expert in that field. These are keeps strategies, experiences with clients, industry inside your perspective to things in the industry, just contents that will overall make them see you as a professional so that they can now move from liking you to trusting you as, you, you know, someone that can do the job. And then the other type of contents is the social proof or the proof. These are contents of posting projects, posting testimonials, posting milestones with clients. So together, when you do these three types of content, so you're posting the personal contents for them to know you, get to know you, feel comfortable with you and all of that.

Then the second type of content, authority building content, make them trust you as a professional and trust you that you can handle the business. And then the proof of those contents that will seal the deal and feel like, okay, I saw this project you posted. me she can do the job, I will send her a message. So those are the three types of content you post. And so if you're able, that's the long, if you're able to do this, you're all of these three. Yeah, you'll be able to, with time, over time, you know, with the compound effect, little by little, you'll be able to get those clients.

However, if you cannot wait, because it takes a lot of time. But if you want the ones that would be easy, you still have to do this once. But anyways, you just move straight to code. DMs and code emailing and warm or warm needs, basically, people engaging on your content. You can just send them a message and just say, you know, pitch to them, tell them what you saw on your website or their page, what you can do for them. And if you've been able to do the first one, which is the profile optimization and the branding, if you've been able to set up your profile and set up your page and they check your content

or you're posting your project, if you do a good job with the email or the code DM, I feel like if they're in that situation where they need your service, they would be able to take a chance. So, yeah, that's it. It's really well said and be patient because obviously it doesn't happen just overnight. Yeah, no, no. There's competition. Yeah, that's why I said the compound effect.

It's never one time. There's also try an error. You do it, try A, try B, A and B testing as well, you know, and with time, you know. And just know that everywhere, every industry right now is giving the heat, of AI. So there's not a lot of traction right now happening. So just be patient. And I would say skill up as well, skill up. Also try to find out if what you offer is an entry point. Because for me, I made a post about how my last post was, no, not my last, the post I've been posted. The content I put out two days ago was about how people kept messing up my work. And so I decided to go into

brand money. I remembered. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. And that is brand identity is an entry point, meaning you can work with a client and you're done. You might never work with them again. But brand management is a long term. So would I say, you have to be more intentional about what you do right now as regards to the market globally. Don't just, you know, take on skill that is just a one-time thing because then you're going to have to always, always find new clients. But if you take on a skill, make sure that you're seeing how can I make this look? long term. How can I work with my client long term? And so for me, that's what brand management does.

So I don't necessarily have to always look for clients every single time to be able to, you know, get cash, get money, get paid. I just have to do a great job with a brand identity the first time you can't meet me and then have them have a good customer experience and then pitch my services of brand management. So you can get to work with me long term. And so if you're able to do this for, let's say three or four clients and imagine having a retainer ship or working long term with three or four clients and they are paying you monthly. So you don't have to always look for a new clients. So always make sure that whatever service was skill that you're offering is not just entry level. You have to always see how you can make this something that would be long lasting

that will have a long life circle between you and your customer or your clients. So if you're into UI, you have to say, okay, can you pitch or have a proposal or a package where they get to retain you, you get to do changes on their websites, you know, monthly, weekly, all those kind of things. You just have to find a way to position yourself to be in the life of your client longer so that you don't have to always, always look for a new client to be able to have something to go home with at the end of the month, especially if you're just a freelancer. I agree. Be smart about it. And don't forget that. there is also competition growing because you have so many talented designers.

Imagine having to look for a new client every month. It's a lot. So you just have one. Find a way to stay in their life longer. Yeah. I was about to say before when you mentioned your content strategy that sometimes people think that consistency means posting every day, but consistency means posting two times week, three times per week.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. A small case it's one term and as one case it fits you. Your content strategy doesn't need to be. Your routine as well. I would say that there's a difference between consistency and frequency and people often, you know, interchange both of them. So frequency is just like you said, how frequent is it is, is it twice or, you know, four times a week?

Why consistency is doing something repeatedly over, you know, period of time. So you just have to be consistent with whatever frequency you've chosen. So if you've chosen twice a week, what works for you, right? Yeah, what works for you? So that's just what I would say. And also, while you're choosing the frequency that you want to go with, you also have to understand that there's no way you're going to compare someone that is more frequent to you that is just showing up two times or three times a week. So don't think that your growth are going to be the same, but also be open for anything. because you can do a better, you can do a content that would do more

than someone that is always posting every day. So it's just, did I say, just do it and don't expect so much. Comparing yourself with someone that is showing up everything. It's not a wise thing to do. Exactly. And as we spoke about the competition or this type of work, what is it real that makes you different from others or that makes your work, what you do, unique?

Okay, so I would say this in response. I think how I would respond to this would be based on what I have gotten from the feedback I have gotten over time for my customers and my clients. So what they usually say, and I would say that's one of the things that I do is that I really, really do pay attention to my work in the sense that I always see, a lot of people might just see a job as just doing it and getting paid and you're going. But I see it as if I don't do a good job, I've heard that I'm responsible for it in the sense that naturally, I don't like titles so much because I feel like if you call me a title, I have to live up to it. So if someone gets to work with me and see myself as someone that is responsible for the job that they're doing or responsible for that business, sometimes you will see people, you can go through my recommendation.

Some of my clients will be like she even took it more seriously than I did And that's because I feel like I'm responsible for the business I feel like I'm responsible after that time Whatever goes wrong is on me So I have to be responsible I have to make sure that I do a good job Because it's not just reflecting on you

It's also reflecting on me as the one that designed it Or as the one that you worked with So that when you show that work to anybody They don't come and say Oh, who did such a trashy job Because you might like it you might like it. I mean, sometimes people do a job and the owner doesn't know so much.

So they're just like, oh, you did a great job and it's great. But you yourself as a designer, you know that that work is not so good. But what you fail to recognize or what you fail to acknowledge is the fact that just because the owner does not know what is good or bad, does not mean their friends do not know what is good or bad. So you might do a job and you know that you feel like I know I did a shabby job, but, you know, she doesn't know so it's good. I've been paid, you know, let her just go.

But then what you feel to understand is that if that person presents that work to their own family and their own circle, someone there that knows what a good job looks like is going to call it out and say, this is not a good job. And what does that mean? That means that it's going to reflect badly on you. So I feel responsible for my work and I see my work as stewardship. So how I see it is that God has given anybody that I work with. the ideas that he wants in the world.

So he has given that business idea to that person. He has given that brand idea to that person. And he wants that thing to be, you know, in this world. And so he's trusting me to be able to work with that person to, you know, deliver that work safely. So before now, I studied human physiology in school and I wanted to be a doctor. So I wanted to be an obstetrician. I've been so obsessed when I was growing up of Burton babies.

I loved that moment, you know, where a child would be born the first time and a mom would see her child for the first time. I loved that moment. So that was what I wanted to do, study as well, but it didn't work out. So that idea, that feeling, I found it in branding in the sense that that idea is in the business owner's mind. The person doesn't know what their brand is going to look like. They don't know how it's going to, you know, feel like. They don't know anything about it. They just know that I want to open a business or I want to open a brand.

So I'm working in partnership with God and in partnership with the person, the brand owner, to birth that idea and bring it to like in a way that someone is able to see that logo and be like, oh, this belongs to this business. Oh, this belongs. So that whole moment, it makes me feel like, oh, this is two wordship. This is what I'm supposed to do. This is purpose, not just me doing it because I like designing or because I'm getting paid. And I see it as a way of, you know, I'm fulfilling my purpose and I actually do enjoy what I do.

And the fact that I don't sugarcoat thing when I'm working for my mind, they would always say how real is very firm. She is very firm. She would listen to you. She'll be like, oh, it's okay. You know, tell me what you want. And then she'll be like, no, this is not going to work. This brand is not for you.

This brand is for your Soviet audience. It's not for you. So yes, you have a say, but I'm there to make the brand work. I'm not there to make you happy. In that regard of like the saying yes to everything that you want, you know, what we are here for is for the brand, for it to succeed, for the business, for you to succeed. And not necessarily to do all you want to do.

It's not a play project. It's an actual business that needs to be, you know, properly communicated through visuals. And so, yeah, I would say all of these things. I think those are the things that I think. Those are the things that I think make me different from, you know, designers. The fact that I don't just see branding as just, you know, branding. I see it as, you know, purpose.

I say it as stewardship. I see it as communication and in-change communication. And yeah, I think that's that. And yeah, I think that's worth from now. That's what I can remember. I really like it. And it's important to have a strong why behind it. Also enjoy it and being honest about it, not to be.

be someone just, we just agrees for the sake of getting paid or something, but I should deliver quality work. So I really like the answer to us. Yeah. Because at the end of the day, it's your portfolio. I mean, if you do a bad job, you're going to have a bad portfolio of work. So you have to do a good job. Yeah, you have to do a good job for yourself as well. It speaks for yourself and you should stand behind. Yeah, yeah. And real, just to be aware of time, want to ask to kind of play that questions. So what is it that you like to do in your free time or what are some of your hobbies?

I already mentioned drama. So I actually I actually love skating. I don't love it a hobby. I love movies. I love watching movies. Then tell us your favorites, whether it's a new favorite movie or Jail. What do you think my favorite

movie is? Like what genre do you think about, you know, I would like. It's going to be gay drama, of course. My favorite movie of all time is the mentalist. Mental. Do you know? Do you know it? The mentalist, it's a Hollywood movie.

I think Hollywood, yeah, Hollywood kid. I think it's Canadian or American. Hollywood is about the actor or director? Okay, actor. I've forgotten his name. Oh, my goodness. I have forgotten his name. I cannot remember now, but I'm pretty sure that after the recording.

I'll be like, okay, it was that one. Okay. It's actually the mentalist and it's a lot of this guy that is like it's a police drama. Each episode is a case. So he's a psychologist or if I'm to use that word, he's not really more like he's a psyche. So he's able to tell when someone is lying and all of that. He helps the police while trying to get revenge on someone that killed his wife. So it's a series.

So mentally it's my all time. I think. No, yeah, I know. I've never been like watching it regularly, but I know it from TV. Okay, okay. And then I like prison break. Oh, prison break.

Yeah. Yeah, I also like Merlin. I also like Legend of the Seeker. And also there is the suit. Soot is also illegal drama. That's American as well. So those are my like all-time favorite movies of all-time. Like I can watch and binge watch.

But if you're thinking of kids, drama my k drama movies my favorites are also the same vizenzio that's my favorite k drama do you know it i'm not going to like i don't it's netflix it's next list yeah it's netflix it trended for a while

it's also crime and trailer something like that legal as well also there are one that like flower of evil it's also legal police drama i that's by in general i like action movie not really action it's not like Van Dam

007J's born not necessarily not necessarily that type I do enjoy watching those ones because that's what we watch right growing up a lot of Van Dan and you know

I think Van Dan and Delta yeah yeah yes as a niga I think we watch and then you would get

the DVD plays with a lot of the movies inside of it and you start watching one by one by one by one and so we

yeah I remember Yeah, we watch of those ones. We did watch a lot of them. Delta Falls, the guy that just died recently. So Bruce Lee and all, we watched a lot of those movies. But as a person, I prefer like the police drama, the things I have to do with the mind, how to solve these cases. I prefer those ones as compared to the actual movies.

Yeah. So I love movies. I also love reading as well. That was my next question. What's your favorite books? Okay, reading. I love stories. I love stories. But right now, I'm not reading fiction. I'm reading nonfiction. So my Ferrari book of all time, do I have a favorite? But I also said the book that I think I loved reading while growing up should be this book here, the things I wish I knew before I've got married. I think the book, the things I wish I knew before I got married. I think the book, the things I wish I know. before we got married.

I think that was by Gary Chapman. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah, and I like the five love languages. So I read the, those are books. I had to buy it again. I read it in my year two in uni. I had to buy it again. So I love books that basically talked about different personalities.

Like anything that has to do with learning about different personalities, like personality traits, I-N-T-J, NBTI personality, all those things. I love. You can kind of see how. it connects to the kind of movies that I watch. I was going to say that, yes. Yeah. Yeah, but some good ideas.

Real, do you have like any goals that you, I don't know, plan to achieve or that you got, whether it's in upcoming week, months or even more long term, and you'll be sharing with us and the audience to be excited about? Okay, I do. I do. I would like to finish my MBA beast. So I'm currently running my MBA program. That will be wrapping up next year.

I think around April or May, depending. So I think that's what I'm focused on right now, running that, finishing that, you know, successfully. And I would really like to focus more on brand management as well because, like I said, there's a lot of ICAI coming up. And so you need to be able to find a way to be more long-term. something more long term and something AI cannot really easily replace. So we see a lot of graphic designers, you know, they're not being used anymore because of

AI. A lot of business owners are just relying on AI for designs. So we see that would be more in the coming days. And so I think I want to focus on brand management on how AI governance, how to help business, probably how to help business owners use AI. So I would like to do that. brand management roles more my MBA and I think I would

like to learn code email so I've never really learned it so I think it will be good to learn how to pitch to people it's never like to learn right yeah it's never yeah but it is that the funny thing is I keep saying I will but I end up not doing

I don't know why I think that intentionality yeah I need to be it's impressive that you that you obviously do your work, you built your brand, and now I found out that you also do your MBA, so you manage to do many things. So there are excuses that you don't have fun for something. Yeah, I managed to do that now, but maybe it's my personality type, but I always just

look forward to the next thing that I'm doing. And so that's why I think I made a post about how appreciating decisions. So I just have to appreciate the decision that I'm in. and slow down a bit. So I don't have to focus so much on doing a lot of things at the same time. But naturally, I'm feeling like, oh, I need to do more things. I need to do more things. I need to take on more jobs. I need to take on more rules.

Always more, more. But I'm just appreciating what decision I'm in because then it means I have time to actually do the NBA and actually read. Because if I take on more jobs and more things, I will not have that time. I'll probably feel. And don't forget, we mentioned it before, be careful about potential burnout. If there is too much. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.

So that's why I'm just, I think I've been giving myself grace about since last week. I think I've come to, is it last week or so? Maybe last month I've come to appreciate the season. I think my sister Evo mentioned it. She was like, you know that if you are, if you had more jobs, and more and more because I already have full-time jobs, but I'm always like, okay, I need to have more and more. So she was like, do you know, like, if you have more jobs right now,

you wouldn't be able to do your NBA. I was like, oh, that's true. That is true. If I had more. And you also need to obviously enjoy your life. Yeah, exactly. Exactly as well, because that's what I'm telling you that I realized like last month because you keep focusing so much on achieving and, you know, doing all of this.

I forget that you're actually living the life. Like, the life is supposed to. It's counting for you. You're not, you're getting older by the day. And so you will be so sad to look back at your life in the next five years. And then you turn back, what did you spend your last five years doing? And there's literally no memory at all. It's just you cook and doctor in your office and just working and working.

You just feel like you live a sad life. And so I think last month I was like, you know, I'm not going to force so much about it. Yeah, I want to work harder. I want to have more jobs. I want to get more higher paying jobs and all. But I have to live life and enjoy and spend time with my family. And just find joy in the little things that I do. I agree.

And it's always worth reminding for me as well. Can you then a real summarize where people can find joy? follow you and promote any of your services. Okay. So you can find me on LinkedIn, Real Desmond or LinkedIn. You can find me on Instagram. I'm Real Desmond. You can find me.

I think those are the two places I would want them to find me. Other places is biased for family and friends. But Instagram, Rio Desmond, LinkedIn, Real Desmond as well. And yeah, you can reach out to me for any of your brand identity. services or brand management, services, or personal branding as well or social media branding. I work with business owners, small, medium-sized business owners, also startups as well, professionals to make sure that their visuals match the value that they give and people can easily trust them, easily want to work with them, and easily find them recognizable.

So yeah, if you want any of the services, Richard to me, and I will be happy to work. with you. I will as always add the links to the show notes. And then very last question. Is there anything I should have asked you in the note or any final message or anything you would like to leave the audience with? I don't think you should have. I think that we talked a lot before the call. That's why I said we have to stop so that I don't ask so that we don't ask all the questions. I feel like we spoke a lot. We spoke at length during you know before the call and so or before the recording and so i feel like we've talked a lot on everything that we should talk about and if there's a final message i think the final message should be

in as much as you're i think we have talked about it right now the whole thing the season i'm in so i would just say like life is very short and so you just enjoy enjoy life live right work hard but don't work too hard so you don't burn out just find purpose in it every season. I think it still boils on to what I posted today or yesterday. Yesterday, yesterday actually find purpose in every season. Every season, there's something to learn about it. Learn from that season. It is a slow season. You are learning something. It is a fast season. You're learning something as well. So don't hate on any season. Just find, okay, why am I in this season? And what am I supposed to learn from this season? And yeah, with God on your side, I feel like you would

overcome whatever it is and whatever season, move to the better season or the better fees. Yeah. I think there's the perfect note to finish with. I really like it. Great reminder. Enjoyed the journey and then fun. I think that was the most important.

And I completely agree. I think this conversation was a perfect example, both before the recording and during the record as well. I really enjoyed it. So it was real great to meet you outside of LinkedIn. I genuinely enjoyed it. I feel like we could be talking for much longer so maybe we can catch up

any hand. I think it did hit it off. I would, okay, I would ask you a question. What was the perception you had of me before and after the call? Before and after? Obviously, I haven't spoken with you before, but I've been following you.

Like, of course, so what was the perception you had in mind coming to the call? Like, what do you think that I was going to be? like, and what's the surprising thing? Yeah, what's the surprising thing you learned about me today? And what was your perception about me before the call? And has it changed? The most surprising thing was that you don't like yellow color.

I wasn't expecting. But because I think I've seen some reels on Instagram, but before, I'm not sure if I've seen like any videos on LinkedIn, which makes it a bit different about the expectation what the person is like. So I'm not saying that I thought that you're not going to be positive or something or funny or something like that. But definitely prior to our call

and during our call, I really enjoy your personality, your positivity and enthusiasm because it, as I say, always makes it it reminds me why I like doing the podcast because it's connecting with people that are fun, energetic, have even

like a strong wife. So that is something that I really like. Again, I'm not saying that I thought that you were something different, but I just didn't know before. It's even fine. It's even fine if you thought to because I get to. A lot of people feel like that they didn't know that I was. Some person tell me they didn't know I was this like free and open-minded and just fun, that they felt like I was a positive and a nice person, but they didn't know that I was,

you know, a bit more talkative and, you know, fun and playful. But, you know, sometimes we can have like a negative surprise. When it's positive surprise, it's a good thing. Yeah, as I said, I really enjoyed it. Yeah. So I just wanted to say that I thank you for our time. We'll be following and supporting and I'm happy to keep in touch. So thank you very much for joining me.

Likewise. Likewise. Thank you so much for having me. It was fun talking to you, Tomaj. Oh my God, you made my day. Thank you so much. enjoyed it as well. It was a pleasure and I think we fit it off. I think we will be to meet in person I think we'll be nice friends, good friends actually.

I think so too real and I'll be looking for it when it happens one day so thank you very much and we'll remember this conversation. It's possible. Thank you. Thanks for listening to Produce by with Tomin. Check the show notes for all the links and don't forget to subscribe, like and share your feedback. Speak soon. Thank you.