The Work from Home Podcast

The days of thumbing through the Yellow Pages or relying solely on radio and TV ads are long gone. Today, it’s almost impossible to have a thriving business without having any form of social media. In this episode, Tolu explains why social media is necessary for your business growth and brand and how to use up all its benefits.

He teaches how organic social media reach works and helps your business and how to find where your clients are most active. He explains that engagement is necessary to make your followers and clients feel seen and loved and give them a sense of belonging to encourage loyalty. He also shares strategies to engage, use insights, and effectively manage complaints from clients on social media.

Graphics are an essential element of content in the digital space. But what do you do if you aren't much of a graphic designer or can't afford one at the moment? Not to worry, some apps can help you out.

Today, Tolu shares his top 6 easy-to-use graphic design tools: Canva, Crello, Adobe Spark, Easil, Stencil, and Snapper. He weighs costs, pros and cons, and suitability for different business needs. He also highlights the top features of each tool. Additionally, he shares his opinions on whether these apps' premium and professional versions are worth it. 

As a bonus, apart from these 6, there's one secret tool he has used for clients, which is fantastic with great templates you can't find anywhere else. This tool is so good that people will confuse you for a graphic designer. He'll let you in on this secret if you ask by sending him a private message on any of his social media accounts.

Many graphic designers unknowingly stifle their job progress. How can they resolve this? Today, Tolu shares how to avoid common mistakes in the graphic design field.

He highlights the relevance of trusting one’s instinct before taking a job and the value of exploiting good communication skills while relating with clients.

He teaches how to copy templates, fonts, and plugins correctly so your work remains visibly original. He shares a few personal experiences to buttress his point.

He also shares payment, invoicing, and budgeting tips for graphic designers and ways to keep clients in the loop throughout the job process.

How do you market yourself in the graphics design community with millions of creators?

In today’s episode, Tolu discusses how to market your graphics design business effectively. He discusses how business referrals and recommendations work and how to use them. He also mentions the significance of having an online presence and showcasing your work through websites, portfolios, social media, stock sites, and other means of advertisements like google business, together with how to access and use them to attract customers.

Tolu pinpoints how to showcase past projects, workspaces, and tools in the gig economy and the need for consistency and sharing your inspirational source with the world.

Finally, he emphasizes why designers should set realistic goals, take up projects they excel at, how to engage those who offer complementary services, and the habit of business cards for promotional purposes.

There are loads of Graphic design opportunities out there. Now is the time to understand them and choose one that would set you apart and get you recommended for more jobs.

Tolu shares graphic design opportunities and functions in this episode.

He explains how Visual identity graphic designers project brands by understanding and using colors, fonts, logos, and taglines peculiar to that brand to make it easily recognizable. He shares how marketing and advertising graphic designers try to catch people’s attention more quickly. 

He mentions User-interphase graphic designers that are generously rewarded after designing experiences that people can connect to on apps and websites. He shares other editorial opportunities as a publications graphic designer or packaging graphic designer who works closely with printers to create designs for packaging new products. Finally, he talks about Emotion graphic designers who create those loveable animations and gifs closely related to Illustration graphic designers, but not the same. Let’s not forget Environmental graphic designers that create wall art for the ambiance of buildings.

What’s the next thing we tend to do after choosing a name for our brand? A logo. We definitely need basic graphic design knowledge to create that. In this episode, Tolu introduces us to basic graphic design styles.

He explains the need to get started with a Graphic Design tool and understand the terms of use. He also shares web apps that can get you started.

Tolu also outlines great graphic design styles: Art Deco, which is used by luxury and travel brands. It uses a lot of geometric shapes. Art Nouveau is more whimsical and romantic looking. The Psychedelic design is what we mostly have come to appreciate on concert posters and album covers with its clashing colors and eccentric fonts. He also talks about the Punk design, American Kitsch, and Swiss style, and he finishes with the popular Minimalist style that displays clean, crisp, high-quality images. He also mentions the 3-D design style that is used in the gaming and tech world.

Today, our guest is Alexis Haselberg, a trained management and productivity coach. Alexis discusses her career trajectory, from working in an office to transitioning into a work-from-home mum. She mentions various attributes and skills needed to work from home, the psychological aspects of being productive, and how everyone can efficiently achieve their goals using less time.

She also discusses the usual problems people face working from home, how they affect productivity, and surefire ways to solve them.

She shares loads of tips to increase your productivity, including her brilliant 'one-touch rule' and using the environment and a routine to help you get motivated.

How can you make working from home undemanding and simpler? 

Today, Tolu highlights techniques that will make working from home effortless. He emphasizes the benefits of having a dedicated workspace at home, setting daily realistic goals, and employing task management tools, widgets, reminders, notepads, and apps, citing various examples.

He also explains how to plan a work day/week properly, together with various attributes involved, and how to harmonize them to get work done.

Tolu also talks about how to reduce distractions while working, the disadvantages of multitasking, and the benefits of taking breaks and power naps.

Dom Einhorn started working remotely at a time when the internet was still referred to as “the information superhighway” and assumed to be a fad. But he was convinced that the internet would transcend any other technology in the world and kept going. Today, Dom is the Founder and CEO of UNIQORN Incubator-Accelerator, a multinational company that assists start-up entrepreneurs in getting into the technology space.

Dom shares his journey as a young entrepreneur in France back in 1993 who moved to the USA to start his business. He talks about mistakes new entrepreneurs make: Being so excited about creating their product and ignoring similar products on the market. He explains “the lone wolf syndrome,” where people isolate themselves while building a business without surrounding themselves with a team of people with complementary skill sets.

He also discusses the importance of grit, discipline, and resilience in executing business ideas. He encourages budding entrepreneurs to search themselves by asking: What would I be doing if I didn’t get paid? Can I turn that into a business for myself?

Today, our guest is John C Morley, an engineer and entrepreneur, talk show host, and the founder of THE JMOR Connection - an IT company and remote engagement specialist.

John shares the history and muse behind some of his business ideas and the motivation, enthusiasm, and passion that come with owning your own business. He also talks about his transition from working from the office to working from home.

In this episode, John discusses ways to handle work-from-home concerns, such as how managers can monitor and create seamless relationships with their staff, create efficient hybrid work environments, and handle data security/privacy issues in a work-from-home environment. He shares how his company helps other businesses increase efficiency and manage their work-from-home situations better. He also shares resources needed to sustain a work-from-home environment.