82 - Challenging Society's Norms & Building a Business That Honours Your Mental Health with Danielle LaBonté
Hey babe, it’s time to honour your mental health. Danielle will give you the power to that today.
LISTEN TO THE EPISODE HERE:
We are joined by our Amazing guest, Danielle LaBonté, the overly-caffeinated founder and creative director of her own Boutique Graphic Design Agency Danielle LaBonté Designs. Danielle works with ambitious entrepreneurs and mid-scale companies across the world, offering a wide range of custom-tailored design and brand strategy services to strategically upscale and provide value through timeless design.
This is such a great and down-to-earth conversation about how Danielle scaled her boutique branding and design agency. We dive into how she challenged society's norms and her family's expectations for her career, we also talk about building a team, and how to set boundaries with clients and how to honour your mental health as an entrepreneur.
We’re excited for you to tune in as we think you’ll be able to resonate with much of what we talk about in today’s episode!
Expectations vs Reality - Danielle’s Entrepreneurship Journey
Danielle shares how she comes from a traditional European family where she was expected to go to university for a business degree or commerce. However, she studied art history in her university and later returned to school for graphic design for another three years. She didn't expect to become an entrepreneur but it happened along the way as she realized that she didn't want to work a 9-5 job for someone else.
Scaling A Business - Lessons Learned
When Danielle first started her business, she had only one or two clients and she had to go full-time in order to scale it. She quickly realized that she couldn’t do everything herself, and she had to learn to:
Delegate tasks and outsource to a team.
Invest in hiring the right people for the right roles.
Hiring her first employee was a mindset shift as she now had to be responsible for someone else. Outsourcing isn’t cut-and-dry process - there were challenges in the messy middle seasons of trying to scale and balance the hiring of employees, delegating tasks and growing her business.
Honoring Your Mental Health While Running a Business
The key is to find a balance between running a business and taking care of one's mental health.
In order to stay motivated and creative, it is important to take care of your mental health and to understand the seasons of your business.
Take A Seasonal Approach
Take a seasonal approach to business and allow yourself to relax and rejuvenate during slower periods. Make sure to recharge and focus on self-care.
Time Off
Embrace the idea of taking time off and not feeling guilty about it, as it is important for one's mental well-being. Travel! Get out of your environment and go somewhere new!
Set Boundaries
Set boundaries that make sense to you and protect them!
Clear Communication
Clear communication with clients helps you to understand their needs and expectations and meet them there or point them in another direction.
Self Care
Find rituals and practices inside and outside your business that care for your body and soul. Journal, exercise, get outdoors - find what helps you disconnect from work while staying in your body.
Connect with Danielle LaBonté:
@daniellelabontedesigns @brewingupcreativity
Code: DESIGN10 for our online shop
https://www.daniellelabontedesigns.com/
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One on One Business Coaching and Strategy Consulting with Danielle Wiebe
TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] Danielle Wiebe: Welcome back to the podcast. So excited that you're here today. Joining us, we have an amazing guest, Danielle Labonte, who is a self-proclaimed over caffeinated, founder and creative director of her own boutique graphic design agency, Danielle Labonte Designs. Danielle works with ambitious entrepreneurs and mid-scale companies across the world offering a wide range of custom tailored design and brand strategy services to strategically upscale and provide value through timeless design.
[00:00:35] This is such a great and down to earth conversation about how Danielle scaled her boutique branding agency. We dive into topics like how she challenged society's norms and her family's expectations for her career. We also talk about building a team and how to set boundaries with clients and also dive into honoring your mental health [00:01:00] as an entrepreneur.
[00:01:01] And I just love this topic. I love talking about this because it's something that I don't ,think we talk about often enough, because a lot of us, as entrepreneurs, as we talk about in this episode, we work from home. We are by ourselves a lot of the day. And so, you know, taking care and honoring our mental health is such an important topic.
[00:01:20] And so I love that we dive into this today. A quick reminder for anyone who has not yet got their application in for our mastermind. Our applications are actually gonna be closing by the end of next week. So after that time, you will no longer be able to get your application in. We're gonna be closing them out.
[00:01:39] So if you've been thinking about it, if you've been on the fence, go to businessbabescollective.com/mastermind. Get your application in, and we will schedule a call with you for an interview. And I cannot wait to meet you. I can't wait to connect with you. And this is also your last opportunity to join us for our V I P mastermind [00:02:00] day, which I actually shared all about in detail in our previous episode yesterday. So you'll have to tune into that episode if you want to hear more. But for now, let's go ahead and dive into the episode we have for you today. I really think you're gonna be able to relate and resonate with Danielle and I's conversation. So let's go ahead without further ado, let's get started.
[00:02:24] Welcome to the business babes collective podcast. I'm your host, Danielle Wiebe. In this podcast, you'll learn tangible business tips and strategies on how to grow successfully and sustainably. We'll also interview seasoned entrepreneurs, so you can listen in on their stories and see behind the scenes of what it took to grow and scale their businesses. Let's dive in, as we discuss the wild, exciting, crazy, challenging, rollercoaster ride of entrepreneurship.
[00:02:53] Welcome, Danielle to the podcast. I'm so excited to have you here today.
[00:02:58] Danielle LaBonté: Thank you so much for having me. [00:03:00] I'm super excited about today's episode.
[00:03:01] Danielle Wiebe: I love it. Well, tell us a little bit more about you. Tell us about your business, who you are, and also like how did you get into entrepreneurship?
[00:03:11] Danielle LaBonté: Absolutely. So I'm Danielle LaBonte. I am a graphic designer and entrepreneur. So when I say graphic designer, I mean, I run a graphic design studio here in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and I work with clients and mid-scale companies on a global scale, so I'm not just working with people from Canada. I'm working from, with people in the States, I'm working with people in Europe. What I specialize in is branding web and packaging design, and I wouldn't change it for the world, being in the position that I am today. Obviously we're always growing. But in terms of being an entrepreneur, definitely wasn't my first choice. It, I didn't even expect to fall into it really. It was just kind of something that happened along the way of my journey, but I wouldn't change it for the world.
[00:03:54] Danielle Wiebe: I love that. So when it comes to getting into entrepreneurship, can you kind of back up a little bit and tell us [00:04:00] what inspired you to actually start your own business. Cuz you said it wasn't really necessarily what you originally saw for yourself. So what did you, you know, studied in school? Did you study something and then go into entrepreneurship after that? Or how did that kind of come about?
[00:04:13] Danielle LaBonté: Okay. So I guess the reason I say I wasn't expecting it was just because I come from a very traditional European family. And what this means is that you are taught to go to university for almost a business degree or commerce. I guess my grandfather's ideal grandchild would be working in the bank. He likes to tell a lot of people that my grandchildren work in the bank and no, that's not true. I don't work in the bank. But yeah, it's, it's,
[00:04:41] Danielle Wiebe: that's awesome.
[00:04:42] Danielle LaBonté: it's so funny. I guess that's just the way I was raised. So my mind in that time of my life, where you are really young, at least in my eyes, I, when I look back, I, I was young. I'm late teens, early twenties, and I'm trying to navigate this world and I'm starting to slowly realize that, I don't know if it's the [00:05:00] best fit for me to work a nine to five for somebody else.
[00:05:02] And the reason I realized this was, there was a couple of things. So yeah, I did go to school. I did what I was told to do. I went and got a degree. My degree was not conventional though. So everybody thought, oh great, here we go. She's gonna work in a cafe, and that was like the slogan that I got my whole life, she's gonna work in a cafe because my degree was art history.
[00:05:20] And in my last year I decided to. Florence. And when I moved to Florence and I saw people going to become a curator, I actually realized that I, I did not want to do research, um, at all. So I thought, okay, I can't do the museum thing. I can't do the gallery thing. I love looking at the art. I love learning about it, but it's just not. For me. So I decided to go back to school again. I thought I don't wanna be the person behind the book. I wanna be the person designing. So I went and returned back to school for graphic design for another three years.
[00:05:51] Now, again, that was another thing my family thought, what the heck is she doing? Seven years of school. Why? Like go get a job. And I thought, [00:06:00] oh my goodness, there was a lot of pressure, uh, to be honest with you, cuz I was seeing a lot of people at that time getting jobs and doing the thing that we're told to do and I didn't do it. So while I was in school, I started freelancing and I started thinking, okay, this is kind of fun.
[00:06:17] I kind of like it and I'm networking and I'm meeting so many people in the Toronto area and um, I'm starting to realize, Hey, I could do. I could actually really go full-time with this. So even though I was working for other people, when I got out of school to get that experience and see if I would like working for somebody else, I did learn I actually prefer to be the manager, I prefer to be the organizer. So I left those jobs that I thought gave me stability, and I went full-time with my business.
[00:06:43] Danielle Wiebe: That's amazing. That's so cool. And yeah, I think that definitely, that can relate to a lot of people just having that pressure of, okay, like I, you know, I don't really know what I wanna do. Like, I, I can relate to that too. Like I remember being in school and trying to figure out like, what do I wanna do? Or what does, what is this gonna look like? You [00:07:00] know, when I go out on my own and not really knowing, and there's so much pressure, I think, around that time, when you're going to school, everyone's asking you, what do you wanna be when you grow up?
[00:07:08] And you're kind of like, I don't know, we'll see what happens. And so thank you for sharing, kind of more of that journey. I would love to hear more about you scaling your business because obviously, you know, you kind of shared that you did your business full time. So what did that look like? Getting those first few clients and then kind of like being able to sustain yourself and then scaling it to the point where it's at now, where you have a full blown business agency that you're able to grow and scale yourself.
[00:07:37] Danielle LaBonté: Yeah. So I literally had only, maybe like one or two clients when I first started out and I thought that was amazing. And it was at the time, I mean, it's your first time starting out and your first client, you never forget it, right? So I was super thankful for it and I absolutely loved every second of it. But in terms of scaling it. I had to put, I had to go full time. There was no way that I could be [00:08:00] working for anybody else if I knew I wanted to go full time. So I had to leave those jobs. I had to leave what I deemed to provide me stability and, um, happiness.
[00:08:08] So I had to, I had to leave. It's it's a full-time job. In order to scale your business, you have to even delegate tasks. You have to outsource for a team. And I thought I could do it all myself. And I think as entrepreneurs, we automatically assume that we need to do everything ourselves because at the end of the day, we trust ourselves, we're perfectionist at heart, I think a lot of us entrepreneurs are perfectionist at heart. So learning along the way of scaling my business, that I, I did need to outsource, I did need to get some social media managers. I needed to get some people to do admin for me because at the end of the day, that is not what I love doing.
[00:08:41] I love designing. So I wanted to spend as much time as designing. So in order to scale, I, I did have to budget accordingly. I had to really be specific into what I needed to hire, who I needed to hire first. What role was the most important for me? And I still say to myself to this day, [00:09:00] If I didn't have the people who are helping me on a day to day basis, I don't know if I would be here today.
[00:09:06] Of course, it comes from hard work on my end too, but it was something that I had to come to terms with and budget accordingly, invest accordingly. And I put in this day and age, if we aren't posting on social media or being super active, I don't know if we would even have the clientele that we have today, either because I'm no social media manager, but if we're not posting reels or we're not showing the behind the scenes of anything or our or deals or client projects, I don't know if we'd have the outreach that we would have today either.
[00:09:31] So there's so many things that go into scaling your business, but in the bigger picture and the scheme of it all, truly, I would thank my team every single day for helping me along the way to scale and believing my job.
[00:09:43] Danielle Wiebe: I love that that's. So great. And so tell us, what, what kind of mindset shifts did you have to go through? As far as like hiring that first person being like, okay, now I'm not just responsible for myself, but I'm responsible for this other person as well. Tell us about maybe some challenges that you had in those [00:10:00] messy middle seasons of trying to scale and balance the, okay, do we have enough clients to make sure that we're able to support team that we have as well? So what were some of those challenges, whether that's tactical, you know, challenges that you can share with us or mindset shifts that you had to have for that. I would love to hear it.
[00:10:18] Danielle LaBonté: Yeah. Yeah. I, I had a lot of mindset shifts and I still have them to this day, but I, what I do wanna start off by saying is that, I knew from the start, I didn't wanna be some massive agency. I wanted to be considered a boutique agency. And what happens along the way is you have to boost your prices and you have to price your worth. And I think in the beginning, when you're a freelancer at you're pricing based on hours, then when you wanna grow, you can't price your worth and your expertise on hours. It doesn't work like that anymore.
[00:10:48] You have a lot to offer and there's a lot of return on investment for your clientele. And you have to shift your mindset to realize, when they're investing in you, their business grows tremendously. [00:11:00] So. I didn't have that. I didn't acknowledge that right in the beginning, I thought, okay, like just hourly, it's fine, this is going great.
[00:11:07] Uh, no, once I realized I needed a team, there was no way I could absolutely do that anymore. It just wasn't tangible. And it wasn't even profitable at the end of the day as a business owner. So when I say that I saw my business as a boutique, it means I wanted a smaller business because I can manage accordingly, I can ensure that everyone feels like close.
[00:11:26] I, I never wanted to have 30 plus employees thinking, okay, wait, have I talked to this person? Have I even like been able to catch up with them? Have we even gotten a coffee recently? So there were so many things that allowed me to realize if I know that this is my goal and I'm okay with having six to eight employees and then calling it a day, because at the end of the day, I want a lifestyle where I can leave and I don't need to stress about my employees.
[00:11:50] That was a mindset shift and a mindset that I had to embrace. And at the same time, yes, you are considering everybody's life. What are the [00:12:00] rates currently that people deserve compensation for? And how can I provide a lifestyle that they want while providing a lifestyle that I want?
[00:12:07] And they're actually hearing from me and they're growing at the same time. Like we offer internships as well. I wanna make sure that everybody's growing too. So we gotta expand skills, you know, doing tutorials or anything like that. Like I love doing that. So we had to make sure that the prices were raised, that it was a comfortable environment and people could work how they wanted to, whether we wanted to go and work in a cafe or they are working at home.
[00:12:30] So many things you need to consider, but you, when you become a boss, a manager, you do have to consider everybody else's lifestyle. It's not just your own. You're, you become almost like a caretaker and you, you love everybody because you want them to do well. So there's so many things that you have to go into it.
[00:12:45] Danielle Wiebe: Totally. Well, yeah. Yeah. And I feel like that is it's, it does become like a lot of pressure. And I think that that is like sometimes what holds people back, but then there's this, okay, so if we, if we wanna stay small and we don't wanna scale, like, and eventually if you [00:13:00] want to scale, right? It's okay if you wanna stay as like a solo entrepreneur, that's great, like no problem.
[00:13:04] Danielle LaBonté: Yeah. Absolutely.
[00:13:05] Danielle Wiebe: But, if you do wanna grow and scale your business, then at some point you're gonna kind of have to get over that fear of having someone else. And so what would your advice be for, for someone who, um, maybe wants to start to kind of like grow their team? Did you start by having contract workers part-time and then sort of like go grow from there?
[00:13:26] Danielle LaBonté: That is exactly what I did. Um, I was contracting out for a decent amount of time. And to be honest with you, I still have people that I contract out because I might just need them for a certain project. And I absolutely have no problem doing that at all. So to this day, I still might even contract some people out.
[00:13:43] So it did start off with a lot of contractual work, part-time and then leading into full-time to offer to them, because then you gotta consider like benefits and all that stuff that you never even think about. And I'll be honest with you. When it comes to me and math and having to [00:14:00] coordinate these things out and thinking like, do I need to go to my bank?
[00:14:03] Like, do I need to go talk to somebody? Like my advisor? I don't enjoy it. But it's just something that you kind of have to wear a hat for and you just kind of have to do. So I preferred that slow process. I know some people where they just jump right into it, maybe because they could, or they had the capacity and just maybe are amazing at numbers and finances and I absolutely commend them. I admire them, but I was a slow progressor and I wanted to go into things slowly and I still, I still am like that. I enjoy it. I feel like it's just more achievable and it's not as daunting to bring somebody on without just throwing them into it.
[00:14:38] Danielle Wiebe: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. No, that's, that's great because then it's, cuz it, sometimes it feels like this big thing, but you're like, Hey, you can take baby steps to start to grow your team and start to become comfortable, you know, managing some, somebody else, understanding like your management style and like how they work with you and all of those things, so that is super helpful.
[00:14:58] I would love to [00:15:00] kind of just shift gears a little bit and talk a little bit about mental health and entrepreneurship, because I think it's something that is very prevalent. I mean, a lot of us as entrepreneurs, we work solo. We work from home and potentially we have remote teams or we're just working kind of on our own. And so how have you found the best way to balance growing your business while also taking care of your own mental health at the same time?
[00:15:26] Danielle LaBonté: It's a process every day. I, I can say that there are like stressful periods that come with running a business. So I, I honestly just say that probably the winter months. So in January to March, I personally know I need to block out more of my time because there's more inquiries. Uh, can we bring on the work? I need to consider all of that.
[00:15:48] So the way that's helped me honor, my mental health is looking at my business kind of on a seasonal basis. So right now with it being the summer, I like to [00:16:00] take more time for myself. Because, personally, it's a slower time in business. I will probably network a bit more. I'm gonna meet more people and allow myself to really become just a bit more tranquil.
[00:16:11] If that makes any sense. I, I, I like to travel a bit more. I like to see more things I like to journal a bit more. And that's the ways that I honor my mental health is just embracing the seasons of business. Now, originally a few years back when I started realizing that people are going on vacation this summer and they don't want to work with designers or agencies or studios during that time, they wanna take time off too.
[00:16:35] I thought, oh my goodness, what am I gonna do? I want to work. But then you kind of have to honor your mental health and say, okay, if they're doing, if other entrepreneurs are doing this. Why shouldn't I, and why shouldn't I look at my business in a seasonal manner?
[00:16:49] So I always say that my hustle period is definitely the winter, autumn, winter. And then by the spring slash summer, I tend to go a little easier myself. I don't put as much [00:17:00] pressure on myself. I might delegate more tasks during this time, so I know I can go to the cottage. I know I can go on vacation. So that's just a few of the things that I do to honor my mental health while running a business, cuz I know the guilt, I know the self doubt that comes with it because you feel guilty for wanting to take a step back. But I think we all deserve it as entrepreneurs at the end of the day and ensuring that we maybe get some times in the evening to be with our family and friends.
[00:17:24] Just these little things that we can do that people can understand, like office hours. They're real. I, I make it very clear. I'm emailing my clients from nine to five. And after that I am cooking dinner for my family. I am enjoying it. I am going for walks. I'm going on a trail walk. I just need it because, otherwise, at the end of the day, as entrepreneurs, how are we gonna, if especially for service providers, how are we gonna provide an immense service that our clients at the end of the day will be like, wow, I felt special. This was a unique process. And I wanna leave that good review.
[00:17:53] Danielle Wiebe: Yeah. I love that. And so when it comes to those busy months, is there anything that you do to [00:18:00] just help yourself kind of like stay focused, but also be able to still like, not burn yourself out? Is there anything you do? Like, for example, making sure you're either getting. Sleep or, um, I know like a common thing for entrepreneurs is like forgetting to eat lunch or whatever.
[00:18:15] What are some of those things as you've grown that you've had to put in place. And then also, I love that you mentioned boundaries as well, because I think that is such a huge thing, especially for service based entrepreneurs, of setting boundaries with clients and how difficult that can be at the beginning, cuz you're like, I wanna keep that client, but I also need to make sure that I'm taking care of myself. So how have you find that found that balance?
[00:18:39] Danielle LaBonté: I am a bit tedious when it comes to time blocking. So for instance, in the morning, I'm always doing admin. So my clients pretty much know now, especially if they've been rebooking on a container basis or anything like that, they know they're gonna be hearing from me in the morning, I'm getting all of that done.
[00:18:58] So I don't think I actually [00:19:00] would be anywhere where I am today, where I am honoring my mental health without time blocking. So this is what I mean when I'm like tedious, almost like organized freak when it comes to the way I organize my hours. Like if I know I'm only reaching out to people between nine to five and they know they're gonna hear from me during that timeframe, and I also promise that they're gonna get high communication when working with me, I need to value my own time as well.
[00:19:22] So if I'm not time blocking, I've absolutely lost track of my day. Did I even get back in touch with my clients? Did they have any questions for me? Did I answer them? You never know, because then you might think, oh, I'll get to it tomorrow. Hopefully. So if you're blocking out admin from at least nine to 10 in the morning, you a fulls a full hour's worth of reaching back out to people.
[00:19:43] Then you gotta put in that client time. How much time do you wanna put into designing? How much time do you wanna put into communicating with your team? Are there meetings that day? And I'm old fashioned. I, I write things down. I'm actually not like the Google calendar girl that some people are. Wish I was, though. I use it, but actually at the end of the day, [00:20:00] I'm literally picking up my pen paper and white out, and my day changes all the time, but I'm time blocking. So without doing that, I don't know if I would have a good management side to myself. I think I would go crazy.
[00:20:11] Danielle Wiebe: Yeah.
[00:20:11] Danielle LaBonté: And then, like you said, you need to honor the office hours. So if I didn't have the nine to five, I used to have a really hard time saying no. So what would end up happening is I would check my emails in the evening when I promised to be with my family, which caused a lot of arguments back then, they used to say like, you're never, ever present. And it used to, it, it, it hurt. It sucked because I did actually start noticing I actually wasn't present at all and that can hurt personal relationships. So you kind of have to follow your personal life too, right?
[00:20:41] But you learn along the way, it's like ups and downs. And that's when I plastered my office hours in my email signature and on my website, because if you feel your personal life kind of crumbling your business will end up crumbling as well because you, without family, truly at the end of the day, that's those are the people we care the [00:21:00] most about.
[00:21:00] We need to put ourselves first. So those boundaries are hard to set in place in the beginning. But once you start learning how to say no and not feeling guilty about it, you notice the mindset shifts along with it too. But again, it's a process at the end of the day. It really truly is.
[00:21:16] Danielle Wiebe: Yeah. And thank you for being, being honest about that. And I, I can, I think everyone can probably relate to that of like going through seasons of being, not having the proper boundaries or not having those kind of like set hours in place. And then, you know, your work starts to bleed into every facet of your life, into like evenings and weekends. And then it just becomes this like crazy time.
[00:21:38] And, you know, there might be times of the year where it's like, like communicated that to your family. And you're like, Hey, this is one off thing or whatever. But yeah, I love that you actually have that in your email signature, and also on your website. And that's a really great tip for anyone who is like struggling to set boundaries is to like, have that...
[00:21:56] Danielle LaBonté: and it's subtle.
[00:21:57] Danielle Wiebe: Yeah. Yeah. And just, but to have that kind of [00:22:00] out in the open, just so that people know what to expect. And also I think, and maybe you can share a little bit about this too, but attracting the right type of clients as well, that will
[00:22:11] Danielle LaBonté: yeah.
[00:22:11] Danielle Wiebe: Respect your boundaries, too. Because you know, there, there might be clients that you work with that maybe they don't have any boundaries on their end either, so then they're also pushing your boundaries. So then it just becomes this like awkward thing. So I think there is something to be said of being upfront about it when maybe you first start to work with them. And that's like very, very clear so that you are, you know, taking on and attracting the right type of client, um, for your business because that,
[00:22:39] Danielle LaBonté: yes
[00:22:39] Danielle Wiebe: I mean that ultimately is going to affect your your business, your life. And then, like you said, bleed into potentially your personal life as well.
[00:22:48] Danielle LaBonté: Yeah, I used to, I mean, when you first start out, you take on clients because you want the experience. You want to build your portfolio. If you're in the design industry, at least. So you take it all on and then you, [00:23:00] you tend to be very lenient, easy and easygoing because they're one of your firsts.
[00:23:04] After a while, you start to really figure out your niche. Right now, we work with very busy service providers. And when I say busy, they might be in the health industry, the wellness industry, anything in that kind of realm, because they know at the end of the day, they want to invest in a professional. They don't have, they, they can acknowledge, I don't have the expertise in this. Can you please do it for me? I've. I've done it before I've tried. It doesn't work.
[00:23:30] They really put a lot of trust into you. And at that's something, actually this music to my ears in a discovery call with a client is hearing that they trust me and they're outsourcing for, you know, my team because they acknowledge at the end of the day, it's not their specialization and it's not their niche.
[00:23:45] And I appreciate hearing it because I know, okay, we're about to respect each other's boundaries. And one thing I forgot to mention earlier was when I initially start working with somebody, I send out a welcome package. And in this welcome package, I literally have a page dedicated to pretty much [00:24:00] mental health and communication.
[00:24:02] And I've actually received great feedback on this in terms of people that do start working with me because they realize right off the bat, after they've signed the contract, they've paid their deposit. They read in, I think, oh my goodness. Wow. It's so nice to work with somebody that understands that it is hard to sign off and how I can communicate ideally with you. How many days do I need to hear from you after I, I, you know, send you some designs for you to review, uh, when will you not hear from me? What can I guarantee you? I, I used to never send something like that out.
[00:24:31] And I realized I was missing out completely for somebody to understand how I'm gonna communicate, what they can expect from me and what I need from them while working together, it was something, I, it was a facet I completely missed out on when I first started in business that I can only promote so much to anybody listening out there.
[00:24:50] Danielle Wiebe: That's awesome. I love that you include that cuz, and, and that's really cool that your clients are really resonating with that too, right? And it's like, oh,
[00:24:57] Danielle LaBonté: They do.
[00:24:57] Danielle Wiebe: This is something like totally different. So [00:25:00] that is amazing. I would love to ask you because you're in such a creative industry. Can you share with us, like no matter who's listening right now, no matter what type of business they have, they need to be creative. They need to have creative ideas.
[00:25:13] They need to stay creative and, you know, that can be difficult, especially when you are just either just starting art or scaling your business. And sometimes maybe you wake up and you don't feel motivated or you, you know, you wake up and you feel groggy or you feel tired and you're like, you know, I need some motivation. I need some creativity. What would your tips be for people who, yeah, maybe are needing that extra motivation or to spark that creativity in themselves? Do you have any tips of what you do to, to keep motivated and to keep creative?
[00:25:45] Danielle LaBonté: I do. And let me be fully transparent. I had that kind of a day where I just wasn't feeling creative. I had a pulsing migraine yesterday, and luckily for me, I have amazing clients. And if I had any [00:26:00] meetings that day, they allowed, I, I rescheduled for the evening with them. They agreed. I had meetings in the morning and I woke up and I thought there is no way somebody is about to get the best of me while I am nauseated from my migraine and I'm not feeling inspired, I'm exhausted.
[00:26:17] And it might have been because I actually am the, an introverted entrepreneur. And I had a weekend of complete socialization, which actually drains me creatively, which is crazy to say. But I always just like to say that, cause there are a lot of introverted entrepreneurs out there. So I was drained from the weekend.
[00:26:32] Monday, came around. I'm drained. My head is pounding. So this is what I did. So whenever this happens to me, I do see if I have any meetings. And if there is a possibility of rescheduling, I, I will ask. Just, and I, and I will explain to my clients, I have a migraine. I wanna offer you the best call that we could possibly have while you're investing in these services.
[00:26:54] Any chance you're free around later on today or tomorrow, just because I, I need my Advil [00:27:00] to kick in and I need something to help me. If I'm feeling uninspired, I probably need to get out. I don't know if you feel this way sometimes, but when you're working from home, you just feel like you've been like locked in.
[00:27:13] So how are you really feeling inspired? I need to get in the car, probably go get myself a Starbucks and go on a trail, walk with my dog in hopes that he doesn't act out. And then it feels completely, it feels just more peaceful. You feel more peace. And then when you get to breathe in amazing air and not feel closed in, in your studio or office, truly, that helps for me to feel more inspired.
[00:27:36] And if I need to take the day off, this doesn't happen really as often. But if I'm really not feeling good or I'm feeling really down about my creative block, I will rearrange my time blocking. And so I might reschedule things for other days of the week, if I have some time. And again, I did that yesterday.
[00:27:53] I, I had to rearrange some things in order to know that, maybe today I would feel a bit better and I am. So I'm [00:28:00] glad I did that. I'm glad I reached out to my clients and I'm glad. Got out and got some fresh air and a good cha tea latte to join me.
[00:28:07] Danielle Wiebe: Yeah.
[00:28:08] Danielle LaBonté: Cause I felt a lot better.
[00:28:10] Danielle Wiebe: I love that. It's so it's so important. And I, I was so bad at this when I was first getting started. And I remember when my husband and I first got married, we were living in like basement suite. I was just starting my business. I was like locking myself in the, so just like, yeah, typing away, like doing all my work and then my husband would come home.
[00:28:30] He's like, have you left the house today? And I'd be like in my pajamas of just..
[00:28:35] Danielle LaBonté: No.
[00:28:35] Danielle Wiebe: Maybe not. But I look back at that and it, it it's so funny cuz the mindset that I had was like, I just need to get my work done. I need to like put my head down. I need to get my work done.
[00:28:46] Danielle LaBonté: Yeah.
[00:28:47] Danielle Wiebe: but the thing was is that I wasn't being as productive as I could have been, right? I wasn't as inspired of course, as I could have been, if I were to, you know, take a little bit of a afternoon break or [00:29:00] take time to actually eat my lunch and without just
[00:29:03] Danielle LaBonté: yeah.
[00:29:03] Danielle Wiebe: You know, bringing it to the computer, all of those things, all of those little things throughout the day, taking little breaks, going outside, getting a fresh air, like you said, if you have that ability to do so, it makes the biggest, biggest difference. And I don't know about you, but I find my most creative ideas usually happen when I'm not at my desk, at my computer
[00:29:24] Danielle LaBonté: in office?
[00:29:24] Danielle Wiebe: Typing. Yep.
[00:29:26] Danielle LaBonté: I feel that. I come up with the greatest things out of office and I think, oh my goodness. Wow. I should really be doing this more often. Like you said, those little five minute breaks or anything helps out tremendously. Even if you are feeling inspired that day, still take a break. Still make time for yourself.
[00:29:41] Danielle Wiebe: Yeah. Yeah. So good. So good. I love it. Okay. I would love to ask you about, because you have been able to, you know, build your business to the point where now you have an agency, you have amazing clients, like you said, all over in Canada and the U.S. And in, um, in Europe, which is so cool.
[00:29:59] And so tell [00:30:00] us, like, what are you most proud of, of your entrepreneurial journey thus far, you've been able to accomplish a lot, but what is kind of like a proud moment or even just like in general, what are you proud of?
[00:30:11] Danielle LaBonté: Oh my gosh. That's such a good question. I love to spend moments, celebrating myself like small moments. I think something the most, I guess the thing I'm most proud of would be the fact that I am the first person in my family to pursue something creative, pursue something that I do love, and I built a lifestyle for myself that truly works for me. It, it just really sometimes just comes down to that, that I'm seriously so proud of myself for because I never thought I would have the capacity of being able to do that and fight against what people were trying to tell me to do.
[00:30:44] And a lot, a lot of people assume because I was so quiet growing up that I would not have the capacity to do this. So I think I'm just most proud of myself for coming out of my shell and doing something that I was told I couldn't do. And I am doing it. And I'm trying to make it suit myself [00:31:00] and my lifestyle more and more every day.
[00:31:02] And I'm, I love the fact that I can embrace that now. I used to have a lot of doubt about it, but I'm more, more so proud of myself for taking the doubt from other people and internally, and taking that energy and actually making it positive when it used to be negative. So, um, I think I was proud of that. Yeah.
[00:31:19] Danielle Wiebe: That's amazing. That's amazing. I love that so much. Also, I would love to hear, do you have anything that you're excited about or something coming up that you wanna share with all of us. And then also like how can people connect with you? How can people find you? And we would love to hear all of those things too.
[00:31:38] Danielle LaBonté: Yeah, would love to talk about it. So nothing coming up, but we did just launch a design shop, which basically can help people with administration, designing, social media, uh, really anything like that. We've got some freebies on there as well for resources when it comes to budgeting all the stuff that, again, I said that I don't really have as much fun with, just to help out other business owners to grow there's contracts, they're all [00:32:00] editable. Uh, brand identity presentations, all that fun stuff. So we launched that design shop earlier this summer. Uh, it was like early June that we launched that.
[00:32:08] But what I would love to say is that everybody listening can get a 10% discount, uh, there is a design code that they can use a discount code is design10. And where everyone can find that would be on my website, DanielleLabontedesigns.com. And if you wanna find me over on Instagram, it is again @DanielleLabontedesigns.
[00:32:25] And also at the same time, if anybody's looking to hear more about creativity, I have a podcast called brewing up creativity, and that's where we spread awareness about the successes of creatives. Female creatives, non-binary creatives all around the world and we talk, we chat about it. We chat about mental health a lot as well. So if you wanna check out that that's bringing up creativity on Instagram and on apple podcasts, Spotify, all those mainstream podcasting platforms.
[00:32:52] Danielle Wiebe: Oh, that's so amazing. Thank you so much, Danielle. And thank you for that discount code and we'll have all of that in the show notes too. So I'll make sure to [00:33:00] link all of those things that you just talked about. So if you want like a quick access, anyone for listening, feel free to go and check out all of those resources, but thank you so much for joining us today.
[00:33:09] Thanks for chatting about your journey of entrepreneurship. It's so cool just to hear kind of. How people started in the entrepreneurial space and also just thank you for your transparency on mental health and how to keep up your creativity and all of those things. So thanks for joining us, looking forward to seeing where you go next. And I can't wait to tune into your podcast too.
[00:33:31] Danielle LaBonté: Likewise. Thank you so much for having me. This was such a blast.
[00:33:38] Danielle Wiebe: If you love this episode, make sure you screenshot post and tag us on Instagram @businessbabesco. Want to know when the next episode goes live? Subscribe on your podcast app, and while you're there, leave us a review. Until next time, keep dreaming big, setting goals and taking action.[00:34:00]