Discover how designer Maggie Reina built a thriving design studio working just 20 hours a week. Learn her part-time framework for creating full-time income through intentional systems, clear processes, and strategic boundaries.

Bio

Like a lot of people, Maggie started out in the corporate world thinking that was the path she was supposed to take. But it didn’t take long for her to realize she craved something more creative, more fulfilling. So Maggie launched Viola Hill Studio out of our one-bedroom apartment in Wauwatosa, WI- just hoping it would be some fun side income and a creative outlet. Instead, it completely changed her life.

A year later, Maggie left her 9-5 to go full-time with Viola Hill Studio and she’s never looked back. Since then, she’s had the joy of designing brands for incredible clients and building a business that’s grown year after year. These days, that business looks a little different: she’s shifted into part-time hours, embraced the season of motherhood, and continues to support her family doing work that truly lights her up. Now, Maggie’s passionate about helping other designers find that same freedom in their own studios; showing them they don’t have to choose between growing a successful business and living a life they love.

TRANSCRIPT

Bethany: Hello everyone and welcome back to the show. Today my guest is Maggie. Maggie is the founder of Viola Hill Studio, which she launched from the bedroom of her one bedroom apartment after realizing the corporate nine to five was not for her. What began as a quote, little side hustle quickly grew into a thriving design studio. Today she works part-time, embraces motherhood and still supports her family doing work she loves. And now she’s created the part-time studio framework to help other designers find that same freedom in their business, proving you don’t have to choose between growing a business and living a life you love. And as you saw from the title, she works a 20-hour work week. And that’s, like myself personally, that sounds impossible. So I’m so excited to have you on the show, Maggie, and just sharing all the things. So thank you for being here.

Maggie: Yeah, no, thank you for having me. I’m super excited to talk about it. It’s a subject that I feel very passionately about, especially in this season of business, like of motherhood. I think every season of business that I had, you know, offers a different kind of work week or a different work day. And I’ve had to kind of adapt my business and adapt like what I want out of my business. You know, I think that’s the biggest thing is my goal has always been the same for me and that’s kind of just been keeping me aligned throughout any change that’s happened. You know, just always thinking about that final goal of being able to essentially, you know, show up for my family, show up for my daughter, while also still doing the design work that I love. 

Bethany: Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Take us back to the one bedroom apartment era, where your work days maybe looked different. Like what were the early days like and then the days kind of building up to this season?

Maggie: Fun times. Like I look back and I think like that was just, it was so much learning and I personally love to figure things out. I love trial and error, you know, like try something, see what works, see what doesn’t, how can I make it more efficient? That’s just like something that I love to do. So when I was working my 9 to 5, I, you know, always just, I never felt fulfilled. I had like the perfect setupI had flex hours. I had four weeks paid vacation, great salary, great team that I was working with. Literally the ideal setup and it just like never was clicking with me. I always wanted something different. And so I’d see people, you know, obviously having their own businesses, like, can I do this? 

So it started in my one bedroom apartment. My desk was in our very tiny bedroom and I’m like, okay, I’m going to go all in on going to start Viola Hill Studio. And just see what happens and then learn as I go. I did work as a freelancer for some other female-founded businesses, hiring a graphic designer. I thought that was a really great way to kind of learn the behind the scenes of running your own business. That was something that I had no clue. I didn’t even know where to start when it came to that. So it gave me a little insight into how to start to run my process. And then once I got to the point, I knew I had my design abilities. I knew like everything on that end was good. It was more just like the backend stuff. I didn’t know how to do. So once I got into that, and I started, you know, running my business. Okay. I just need one client to try to learn off of. And it slowly grew from there. 

I mean, honestly, I started my business in 2017 and in the beginning of 2018, I had to quit my job because I’m like this, I’m getting like it started, it was like a snowball effect where I had a client and another one, another one. And like, okay, either I work all day, every day, or I go all in and I take the leap and I bet on myself. So yeah, I went full time in the beginning of 2018 and haven’t looked back. I think, with my business, like I said, there’s been different seasons of business. And where I was even like, you know, when I in 2018 versus 2020 versus 2023 versus now has all been different. And I think just the biggest thing for me was just kind of staying consistent through it all. And like I said, having that goal to focus on, like no matter how my business was changing. What I actually wanted was kind of this goal right now, working 20 hours a week, bringing in respectful, good clients, high paying clients, high ticket clients that, you know, I don’t have to like rush to keep doing, you know, finding more and more and more. It’s being very intentional with my time.

Bethany: Yes, yeah, absolutely. Oh my gosh, we have, we’re just like a year apart in our like entrepreneurship jump. Yeah, very close to the timing. But, I don’t know if you felt this way at all, but I think like those early years, there was definitely a period of time where it just felt so flush. Like there was like an endless number of people who needed your help and your work. And then I think, as I’ve grown as an agency and I think it’s literally just my perspective being opened, there was a time where I was like, “Oh my God, now everyone’s doing this kind of work.” But then I get clients now who are like, “But now everyone’s doing this kind of work.” I’m like, “Not really. There’s always been everyone doing it. It’s just like, now you’re in it. So you see that.” So I think that’s always an interesting shift talking to someone who’s been in it for so many years, it’s like, no, it’s all good. There’s still plenty of people out there.

Maggie: Oh yeah. And I feel like there was such a, I don’t know if you saw it, but especially around 2020, you know, when everyone was indoors and like, “How can I still make money?” I’ve, there was just like a huge surge of brand designers or just designers, like, because you know, everyone’s staying in, “Okay, let me start my business and I need a brand to start my business.” So I felt like there was like this huge surge of brand designers. The market got so diluted and it’s funny because, you know, just staying consistent with every, like, a half of the people that I’ve seen they burnt out or it just wasn’t truly, they weren’t passionate about it. So it was very easy for them. The moment it got hard to just be like, “Yeah, actually I want to try something else.” So I’ve definitely seen like it, the market not being so saturated as it was before. It’s definitely kind of died down. It’s a little, it’s a little more intentional. It’s a little more. There’s some more authenticity to it, which I’ve honestly been enjoying. 

Bethany: Mm hmm. Yes, definitely. And I also think not everyone’s meant to be an entrepreneur. Like it’s hard. Your first few years are hard. And I think there’s something to be said about there is a little bit of grind at the start. I don’t know that you can skip out on things like the effort and the grind and jump into, you know, the first class flights or whatever. You know, I think that it’s sold in such a different way.

Maggie: Yeah.

Bethany: And yeah, it’s really not for everyone, but what you said, like consistency, number one thing, when anyone’s like, “But what was really hard for you? Or what do you recommend I do?” I’m like, “Be consistent. Like if you are not consistent, it’s not gonna work out.” Like I don’t know what else to say.

Maggie: And it’s so easy to say, but then it’s like the moment you go through a low period in your business, cause you will and it ebbs and flows. You’ll go through a low period multiple times. And it’s so easy to then not show up in those moments. And just, you know, that’s something that’s like really worth noting is just expecting those moments to happen and preparing for when they will. Like, “Okay, when I slow down with inquiries, I’m going to have like a list of things to do for my business so that I can still feel productive and still know that I’m working on my business.” And just kind of being prepared for that has helped my mindset with it. Cause it does happen with every, every designer that I’ve talked to, they always go through highs and lows with their business.

Bethany: Yes, yeah, absolutely. There’s a really good book. I’m going to butcher the title. But if you Google Horowitz and hard things, it says hard things twice in the title. And I don’t want to say it wrong. But it’s like hard doing hard things, the hard things in the hard things or something like that. But Horowitz is the author. (The Hard Thing About Hard Things: Building a Business When There Are No Easy Answers―Straight Talk on the Challenges of Entrepreneurship). 

And he talks about being a CEO. He uses the word wartime, which is not exactly great given the current times. But there’s like the time when you have to step into a CEO making really hard decisions and then a time where you can be the CEO who builds culture and like learning to step into those shoes as a small business, as an entrepreneur, starting now is like such a hard skill to learn the hard things. So anyways, I think that’s like a really supportive structure to start thinking about things from a founder/CEO perspective, not just like a designer perspective too. 

Maggie: Yeah, being a designer is one thing, but having your own business is a whole different ballgame.

Bethany: Yeah, totally. Okay, let’s get to the meat of it. We’ve teased everybody as a design studio, like you’ve grown an agency or a design studio, whatever title you like. Like a lot of times that comes with working a lot of hours dealing with like “emergencies”. I’m putting emergencies in air quote because we work in brand and marketing. There are no emergencies. 

Maggie: Right.

Bethany: I’m like- too many emails. And so tell me a little bit about this part-time framework, how you built it, what’s the tea?

Maggie: Like I said, I’ve adapted through seasons, but I’ve always prioritized life over my business. Like I’ve never wanted to be defined by my job title. I’ve never wanted that to be like my only thing I think about and focus on. So just that mindset alone has helped me structure my business in a way where I never feel bad when, you know, a client emails at nine o’clock, “I need this done right now.” Or, you know, there’s those “emergencies” because, I think of it, I take all emotion out of it. And I just think of it in a way where I personally value my business, but I value my life more. And so how can I structure my business in a way that supports that?

And I started, I still love what I do. Like I absolutely love. I wake up excited, loving what I do every day. And so the way that I’ve been able to structure it is before when I didn’t have a daughter and it was just me and my husband. I quit my full-time job and I’m like, “Okay, so what do I do now?” Before it was a lot of like learning my process and learning how I can take my client from point A to point Z efficiently and get the results. And it was just kind of like being consistent with that. And then I realized through that part of it that a lot of the hangups with my process are within the actual process itself. It’s not necessarily, I need more clients. I need better clients. I need to market myself more. It was always like, “No, it’s when I do have clients, they’re going through my process, but it’s not going so well. It’s not going efficiently.” Like projects are, they’re going two months, three months past the deadline, clients aren’t communicating consistently. And there’s just so much wishy-washiness in my process that that’s where my focus- I’m like, “Okay, if I can just nail this down, my whole week is going to be more efficient.”

So I’ve restructured my business. I figured out a process that works for me and my clients. A lot of it comes down to just being more- clarity, I should say. Just a lot of clarity and a lot of communication with like, I know exactly when someone signs on for a brand design, let’s just say, I know exactly the steps that are involved with that process. I know exactly how many days things will take. I know exactly how many days my clients need to give feedback via, you know, collaboration time, whatever it might be. So I know the start date and the finish date and I know how everything should work. And I’m able to give that exact timeline to my client so that they know how everything works. 

And once I started like really getting clarity with my offers, I was able to be more confident in my process, which then kind of flows into my client experience. Like they feel that confidence. They know they’re just being guided along. They, and everything started to be worked out more efficiently. And I realized that like that’s where I can get hours back in the day. It’s not necessarily like, you know, less clients because I don’t have enough time. It’s being more intentional with the time that I do have and really being very clear with what needs to be done. 

And so yeah, so it’s not like part-time means I’m not working as much or, or, well, I’m not as serious, I should say, or it’s, you know, it’s really just working intentionally, not constantly. So yeah, it was better systems that have helped me get to this point in my business. First, it was like, “You know, I really don’t need to work 40 hours a week. Half the time I’m just, you know, scrolling on TikTok or I’m distracting myself with the show or something.” I first nailed it down to like, “I want to work half day Fridays.” So I kind of built that into my timelines and I built that into my process slowly. And then I was like, “Okay, now I’ve noticed that Mondays when I get up, like I can’t start the day right away. So let’s do half day Mondays.” And so it wasn’t just like 40 hours to 20 hours. It was a slow build. And then when I had my daughter, it was kind of like, “Now I have no choice because childcare. I want free childcare, like it’s in these buckets of time. So I have to get everything done in 20 hours, besides the nap time pockets that I’ll work on, but the 20 hours is like consistent.” So now again, it’s just being more intentional and clear.

Bethany: Do you have a team that supports any of your processes?

Maggie: Nope. It’s just me. That’s again, something like, why I’ve had to nail down my process so much is because I’m able to manage. I mean, I have, I outsource things like development, web development. I’ve outsourced some supporting brand collateral items or like final files, things like that. I’ve outsourced those things, but that’s all within my process and copywriting as well. Like I have a system where I develop their timeline. I put it into my system and it automatically shoots out emails to whoever needs to be notified of dates. They’re able to confirm with me that it works well and then we can kind of go from there. 

Bethany: I love that. Amazing. Okay. Just as someone who has like a pretty rigid process to survive, I still encounter sometimes, you know, like I give two days for feedback and like they know the two days and that sort of thing. But I’ll still encounter people not adhering to that or I’ll be like, “Hey, where’d you go? Like, we got to move this along.” So like, what do you do when that happens? Like, do you have kind of a process there?

Maggie: Yeah. So I’ve, I mean, I deal with that all the time too. It’s not, you know,I think you can be so clear with your process, but your clients are still going to have their lives and it’s totally normal. And again, it’s just having that expectation that it will happen. And so how can I prepare for it best for when it does? 

And for me, I’ve had automatic emails that will send out. Like, you know, I have a, so let’s say I send a brand strategy document, feedback’s due by this day, and if there’s a form that’s along with it where they give their feedback, if that form isn’t filled out by that day, the next day they’ll get a reminder, “Hey, I need your feedback, please.” I have email templates set up that kind of go over. And then if they still don’t respond, it’s really just about being clearly communicating. I need your feedback by this day. Obviously, I’m saying it sounds really stern right now. 

Bethany: Right- I am sure you say it nicely. 

Maggie: I say that in a friendlier way. But like, I need the feedback by this day so that there are no fees because I have fees that are involved in my contract. So as soon as it starts to get to a point where, I could see it starting to negatively affect the project timeline. I make sure to just be annoying where I’m emailing whether it’s every day or every other day, I’m emailing them, letting them know, “Just so you know, like, I need this and for the success of your project. You invested a lot of money in this.” 

“We’re on the same team, that’s another thing. It’s like not taking anything personally, like always thinking of things as we are both trying to get to the same goal. So, you know, in order to do that, I need you to send feedback. If you can’t, please let me know so that we can rework.” And a lot of the times, they’ll send feedback right away. And if not, there’s an actual excuse that makes sense. And at that point, if we have a great working relationship, I’ll work with them, I’ll be flexible. Because that’s the whole point is I want them to not feel any tension or any like, as soon as they start feeling like anxious about things, and it’s just gonna lead to a not good result. So being flexible, but also still having your boundaries.

Bethany: Totally, yeah, it’s such a fine line to walk to. So I love how you broke that down, because I mean, yeah, I operate very similarly. And then, of course, it gets to points where you’re like, “I’ll stay flexible, but just so you know, like now our timelines moved” and like because our timelines moved, maybe I had a trip or something, you know, and I’ll be like, so now we have to kind of like you’ve got to like be okay with this kind of thing.

Maggie: Right. And it’s like, yeah. And it’s, and it’s how, how do you say that without being like, you don’t want to be walked over. You know, saying things like, “Okay, I’ll be flexible. So it really just is like, I’ll readjust the timeline.” Cause they signed off on this original timeline. Now dates are changed, which means that other dates are going to be changed. So I’ll fix the timeline, resend it to them and be like, “Okay, we’re now here’s the new timeline.” And usually that works. And if there’s obviously special use cases where it’s like, you know, then they miss another deadline and when that starts to happen, it’s more of there’s something going on where you might need to actually personally, “Hey, what’s going on? Or let’s hop on a call.” And really get down to the bottom of it. I think designers are afraid of hopping on a call. And that’s not part of my process, but when it needs to happen, it needs to happen. So, at the end of the day, they’re hiring you for something. So you need to be okay with having a call and getting to the solution.

Bethany: Yes, absolutely. I avoid meetings as much as possible unless it’s like, “Okay, well, let’s talk about this.” I usually am like, “I’m not understanding something.” Like if it’s something in the process or the feedback’s so minimal and I’m like, “I’m gonna need a little more from you.” Yeah, and then in rare cases, I have a pause clause in my contract too, which I’ve had to enact like twice where like, you know, if someone truly ghosts for like weeks at a time, then I’m like, “Okay, well, now I’m telling you we’ve officially paused” and it allows a three month pause and there’s a restart fee and they can restart in that time. And then if they don’t, they don’t. And there’s no refunds. Like, I can’t like chase people down. It’s honestly a lot of work. The emails, the admins, the following up, the constant. So I love that you have it automated. And if you don’t have a clear process, I think it triples that amount of work. Or when someone kind of goes off your process and you’re like, “hey.”

Maggie: And I think that’s like been the biggest part of it, like having an efficient process means you have to be so clear on it because if I didn’t know, you know,  cause I used to be like, “Okay, you’ll get your brand presentation within two weeks.” And there was no set date. There was no nothing. Cause I wanted there to be flexibility with my process and I didn’t want expectations. 

But then it leads to that where it’s like, “Okay, well, they don’t know a certain day, then who’s to say that like the day that I send it to them, that they will be available” to, you know, maybe I sent it to them and they’re on vacation or maybe I send it to them and they, you know, they weren’t expecting it. So you can’t blame the client. You need to have your process so fine tuned that, even if a client does doesn’t follow along with anything, you have protocols in place to get them back to back-on-track.

Bethany: Yeah, and then you also know the next steps too. Because yeah, in the past I’ve struggled with that. And I mean, it still comes up. You can’t control what clients do in their lives and all the things we’ve said. But yeah, in the past, before I had a structure, that was definitely a challenge. But now I’m like, “Nope, you’ll get it one week from this date, and then you have two days to respond.” And then I know if they take three days to respond or whatever, I’m like, “Okay, well now I know it’s just going to shift a little bit.” And I just tell them it’s going to shift a little bit if they’re a couple of days late or something, you know, and try it. I don’t want it to feel stressful either. But at the same time, it’s like we can’t wait on this week’s set of time because then another project is already starting and like, you know, going back.

Maggie: Oh yeah. And it affects other- and I’ll say that too. Like, “I have these timelines for a reason and I want to make sure that I’m able to spend a certain amount of time”, especially with my 20 hour work weeks. Like I have a limited amount of time. 

So I’m very intentional with the timelines. So when they’re signed off on and things are changed, it’s not just an easy, like, “Oh, no, no big deal.” Yeah, no, I have to rework it a little bit, which it’s more work on my end. But again, I expect that, like I’m a service provider, so I expect to be able to make my clients happy, however that happens. And a lot of the times it’s, they might take a couple days to send feedback. I build it into my process for that reason- I have just general collaboration dates. So when I send the brand presentation, I have when their feedback is due. And then I have just like a general 10 days of collaboration time. So there’s no, “Okay, so then I send edits the day after, then they send feedback two days after that.” I feel like that was super rigid. It felt more authentic to just, depending on the edits, you know, we’ll fit it in these 10 days.

 If it needs more than 10 days, you know, then there’s a bigger issue. Then we need to like figure out an actual goal. Something’s not aligning. So it’s, it’s usually like, I can catch up in those 10 days because I allow a pretty long collaboration time. That actually just saved me with this last client that I had. They, with their brand strategy, we didn’t finalize their brand strategy until I’m going to say it was like four or five days later. Which is a pretty good chunk of time and it’s okay, because I was able to catch up in the collaboration. Like they had a couple of edits for me. I was able to catch up and deliver everything on time without me feeling stressed, without them feeling stressed. So I’ve allowed for like more days in my process for that reason.

Bethany: I love this perspective, too, because I think the only frameworks I’ve heard kind of out there in the design community are like VIP days, website in a week, like these very condensed rush. In my opinion, rushed. I hate being rushed- timeline. I’m like four weeks for brand, four weeks for web like, you know, three to four weeks for copy. Like that is just how I operate, because I think we all need time to process. And I think intentionality- I’ve always said, design’s not a Jiffy Lube service with me like that. I can’t roll. 

So I love hearing that you can still have, you know, a good amount of time for both you and the client to feel like it’s a smooth process and to process the information. It’s a lot to process and not have it be like these condensed VIP day trendy, I mean they are trendy right now, kind of structures, which I think is so, so important.

Maggie: Right. Yeah, there’s a balance of both. Like I recently posted how elongating my project timelines actually made my projects shorter because I felt like when I was trying to stick to a very rigid, fast timeline, like you said, they weren’t able to process things as fast as I could or, you know, maybe they felt overwhelming and when they’re overwhelmed, they automatically just like, “Okay, I don’t know what to do. I’m just gonna like sit for a second.” 

So I felt like the shorter my timelines, the longer they actually became because of those disconnect that happened. You know, starting off with just a very intentional, you know, some might say long, I don’t think it’s long, but yeah, like I just think it’s normal. But starting with that kind of timeline projects start and end when they’re supposed to and there’s no disconnect. Clients are happy. I’m happy. I’m able to schedule my workload very easily. And yeah, it’s just very intentional. 

And then I do like there for me, I call them design days for past clients. And I think those are, you know, I’m able to schedule those within my bigger long-term projects, you know, just a full studio day. I have specific days that I have like blocks of time that I can work. You know, studio days are only for Wednesdays and they’re for past clients and I’m able to just keep that relationship. They’re happy, I’m happy. 

So yeah, it’s a great sort of way to look at it that like you don’t have to rush things to make things think that things are going to end faster so that you can onboard another client for more, you know, more money- more, more, more.

Bethany: Yeah. That’s just not how I operate, too. And I also think, like, to be a creative person, you need to have time and space. And like, I always tell my clients, like, “I want to let this marinate a minute.” Like, we meet a week before the project even starts because I’m like, “You might need to marinate on some of these questions.” Like, everybody needs to think about it a little bit. 

And I think that’s a big pushback, really. I think it’s going to be considered even more wild or against the grain in a world where AI and all these things are about output, output, output as fast as possible, not intentional, strategic design, or a website that actually gets found, things like that that matter, are put on the back burner because it’s a get-it-done. And it’s like, okay, you did it, and now it doesn’t work. So, great.

Maggie: Yeah. And it’s very fast paced. Everything’s like instant gratification right now. So yeah, unfortunately, but it’s something that like, again, just staying consistent and like, like making sure for me, as much as I see everyone doing everything else and, you know, it’s so easy to compare and, and, you know, I just think to myself, “Okay, but what do I want out of my business?”

And if I’m feeling good with where I’m at with my business is what I’m getting out of it, then that’s the only thing that matters.

Bethany: Yes, exactly. Oh my gosh, that’s exactly right. 

Okay, can you break down an average, because you said like Wednesdays are design days for past clients that come back on retainer, book them or whatever that looks like. Break down like a week for me. What is your 20 hour workweek look like?

Maggie: I’m a routine kind of person. I love a good routine. So in the beginning of 2025 is when I feel like I started nailing down my actual consistent, more consistent schedule. I started actually taking on more work and like, “Okay, so I got to really actually be intentional with where I’m working, how I’m working.”

So Mondays and Wednesdays I keep for just nap time work sessions. Usually I can squeeze about two hours anywhere from two to three hours of each day. I’ll try to keep that more admin- like following email, following up on emails, sometimes like edits for things or creating collateral materials, like just small little projects. 

Tuesdays and Thursdays, I have four hour sessions that I work. I work half days. So those, and it’s funny because those four hours, work days to me have been so much more productive than my Wednesdays. My Wednesday is like my full block. I have childcare all day, so I could, you know, work from eight to five if I really wanted to, but I found that like when I have all that stretch of time, if I’m not doing a design day where everything’s filled, I’m kind of like, I don’t know. I find myself getting more distracted or just like being, I have so much time so I can, yeah, I’ll take a longer lunch break or I’ll do, you know, which is totally fine. But, that’s why I think the four hour sessions- Tuesdays and Thursdays to me have been the most productive because of that. 

So that’s kind of what I do every week. I’ve been able to kind of crank out my, honestly, some of my best work, some work that I feel really confident in. And it was one of those things where in the beginning of the year, I’m like, “Okay, I’m going to try it. We’ll see where this goes. I don’t know.” 

And I’ve found that it’s actually worked so well. And, not only do I feel like confident with the work that I’m providing, but, the testimonials that I’ve gotten from my clients and just like the excitement throughout the process, like, I just feel like things have been really clicking, which to me, it’s just more of a reinforcement of like, yeah, no, this 20 hour work week. It doesn’t mean that you’re, you know, not as serious with your business or it doesn’t mean that you’re not like, it doesn’t mean that you’re lazy or that you’re choosing not to work. It’s just, you’re choosing to be very intentional with your time, knowing that you need to get certain things done in a short amount of time. So you have no distractions, no nothing, like you have to get this done. And to me, that’s how I actually realized how I work best.

Bethany: Yeah, okay, love that. So I’d love to hear like, because if a designer is listening right now and they’re probably overwhelmed and overworked in some capacity or maybe they’re not, they’ve got to figure it out. But if that’s the case, like, what’s the first step you’d recommend taking towards creating more of this space in the schedule? 

Because I know you said you did it over time, more of this freedom, because I think I think about like when I’ve been in those spaces where maybe I overbooked myself or whatever, and it’s like, feels impossible to get to a point where you’re not, you know, working crazy hours or whatever. So what, like, what’s the first step?

Maggie:  I feel like there’s a couple avenues to go around, to go about it. You know, like you said, depending on where you feel the most anxious or overwhelmed, like is it because you’re booking too many clients or is it because you want to work towards a different schedule? So first really auditing your lifestyle and your business and like figuring out what makes you the most overwhelmed or most anxious and then like honing in on that. 

Like, if it is, you, you want to get to a 20 hour workweek. For me, it was starting by really auditing my process, like refining my offers, making sure I knew exactly what my offer was going to be. And with that, so if you have multiple offers, knowing exactly what tasks are underneath that offer. So it’s like, for an entire brand identity, there’s the brand strategy phase, there’s the brand design phase, there’s the, you know, collaboration phase. So underneath each phase, what’s involved in the brand strategy phase, you know, there’s development time, there’s feedback time, there’s collaboration time, and then there’s final. And starting to really nail that down and understand how many days you want for each task, clarity around your offers and the tasks around your offers and the days around them. 

That in itself provided me so much relief because I could visualize everything. When they’re in your head and you’re like, “I know around the amount of time things are going to take”, you know, it’s hard to really nail it down. 

So just write everything down and see how you can adjust from there. For me, it was like, “Okay, I was doing five days for a brand presentation. It’s like, okay, let’s try 10 days and see how that works for this project. Does that feel good?” And once you start realizing what feels good with your process, your client process, things start running a little smoothly. Once things start running smoothly, then you can start to introduce like, “Okay, I don’t want to work Fridays. So let me adjust all the days in my timeline to make sure that I’m accounting for a four day work week instead of a five day work week.” So you really have to nail down the days first in order to then be able to adjust from there.

Bethany: And I think, too, if you’ve never done an SOP or anything like that, I know you work solo, I have like, or you outsource. So same thing. You still have to like communicate this to somebody who has to know what to do in certain steps. And I think having it written, visualized like is going to be a requirement at any point. If you haven’t outsourced yet or had a team or whatever that looks like for you, you’re going to have to do it at some point. So get it out of your brain and onto paper. 

Maggie: Yeah, it’s crazy the amount of relief you’ll feel when you just write everything down and have such clarity around what your day actually looks like, what your process actually looks like, so that you can refine it from there.

Bethany: On the other side of things like that? To me, that’s the really practical next step. But like, what about the feeling of, you know, like that guilty feeling? I know as someone who’s always trying not to be workaholic, there is like a guilty feeling that comes with, and maybe that disappears a little more in motherhood, I don’t know about that personally, but like, I want like this thriving business and I feel like I need to work on my business and my clients deserve this full attention. And there’s so much around stepping back and rest in general. So how did you kind of navigate that?

Maggie: I, again, just being very clear with expectations in the very beginning with my clients. There’s never been a point where if I don’t respond right away, clients are like, “Why aren’t you responding? Or I need this done right now.” A lot of the clients, again, once you have those expectations in the beginning, they’re not expecting that throughout the process. 

So a lot of the time I will respond to certain things or I’ll, you know, make the website edit or, you know, I just actually had a client from years ago, email me just asking, “Hey, there’s one thing on my website that I don’t want to mess up. Like, are you available to make the change? Like, are you available for website edits?” And I’m like, you know, she was such a great client. She gave me such a great testimonial. We have a great working relationship. So yeah, I’ll just make that. It was super simple. I just made that edit. And it’s really just a case by case basis when there’s clients that you know that will take advantage of it. 

Then you just, for me, I just take all emotion out of it. Just like, no, this is my process. This is what it is. And, you know, mentioning your contract if needed, or just, you know, taking the emotion out, like trying not to take it out on the client. 

Like if a client comes to you like, “I need this change by this time.” It’s like, “I hear you. These are my working hours, so I will get to it when X”. That’s it. It will happen, but you just gotta have the right product, just prepare for it in a way and make it really logical. It’s a business to business, so they can’t get personal about things and you can’t get personal about things.

Bethany: Yep, and I think, too, I don’t know if you’ve found this, but over time, the more you set structure and boundary and respond that way, the more your clients learn and it doesn’t feel strange to you or them. And you also start bringing in clients who fully respect that. 

Because I mean, I’ve definitely had clients who email me on a Friday and then are checking in on Monday. I’m like, “Well, it’s Monday at 8 a.m. my time. You emailed on Friday at 5 pm. So no, nothing’s happened, actually.” And I’ll just remind them and be like, “We finalized that on Friday and now it’s Monday. So I’m going to dive in.” Like I literally will write that down just to be like, just perspective shift for you here. Like I don’t work on weekends, you know.

Maggie: And, and like for them, it’s like, cause it’s so easy to them, like take that personally and be like, “Oh my God, this client is so annoying.” Just checking it. And it’s like, no, maybe she’s just really excited or maybe she doesn’t understand your process. 

So just like you said, that’s such a great way to go about it. “We did this on Friday. I’m diving in today. Like, I’ll let you know.” And sometimes, that’s all they need. Like, “Okay, cool. Thanks!” 

Bethany: Yeah. And usually it’s just because it’s exciting or, you know, it’s needed. And so it’s like maybe they’ve thought about it all weekend. And so they were like, “I just want to kind of have that communication there”, which is fine. And you kind of like learn people because it’s also like you’re learning people this whole time and you learn them in such a deep way when you’re building their brand strategy, I think, as founders, as, you know, individuals. And so you can kind of like figure out what works best.

And then I also just want to put it out there for your designer. Like, it’s okay to also just move on from people and just know that you’re not the best fit for them. Like, you know, after this many years, sometimes you are going to have to fire a couple of people or just be like, “Hey, like, I just can’t help you anymore if it’s causing you that much strain.” So also know you have permission to do that fully. 

Maggie: And it could be a very amicable fit. It could be very like, “Yeah, we’re just not the right fit.” There’s so many, yeah, I think for me, it’s one of the hardest things to do is taking emotion out of responses. And it’s something that I’ve worked on definitely for the past seven years. It’s so easy when something doesn’t go your way to be like, “Ugh, this client is a nightmare.” But really, instead of taking a step back and being like, “Okay, was there anything in my process that caused her to get to this point” and trying to just work it from there.

Bethany: Okay, amazing. Well, I appreciate you, like, diving into all of this. As we close out, I’d love to hear where designers can find you, connect with you, where are you at?

Maggie: I always welcome connection on Instagram DM me, at Viola Hill Studio. 

If you’re interested in learning about this whole part-time framework sort of thing, I relaunched my course recently. Everything that I’ve used to structure my business in a way where I was able to work, go from 40 hours to 20 hours, I put it in very actionable modules, very actionable steps for you to do the same. And it’s something actually, this course I launched a couple of years ago and I relaunched it since, and I’ve still been using what I’ve launched originally in 2021, I’ve still been using that to this day. So it’s something that adapts with you. And I think that if you wanted to learn more about that, it’s parttimestudioframework.com. I also have a deal I’ll have, for this specific podcast, I have a link where you’ll be able to get $120 off the course if you want to sign up. So it will be special to this podcast for any listener.

Bethany: Okay, so if you are listening to the Unbreakable Brands podcast check that out. I’ll put it in the show notes and then I’ll also put it in the blog post so that you can find it specifically attached to the show. Thank you so much! 

And thank you for sharing your time, your energy and the process because I think these conversations between two established designers I think are so important for other designers that kind of community is really essential. So I appreciate you and your time.

Maggie: Yeah. Of course, yeah, thank you so much for having me.