Find Your X-Factor

The Mid Career Design Wall

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1:11Welcome back to the Deeply Graphic Design Cast. I'm Nick Longo. There's a weird point you hit in a creative career where getting better at design doesn't seem to change anything. And that's frustrating because getting better has basically been the answer your entire career. Think about it. When you were starting out, you needed better typography skills, better concepts, better software skills, better presentations, better work. Maybe you needed to learn how to actually talk about your work and saying, I just thought this looked cool.

1:47So you worked on all of it and eventually you got pretty damn good. But now maybe you're 8, 10, 15 years into this thing and suddenly the math isn't working anymore. You're good at what you do, but you're still getting passed over for opportunities. You apply for a job you know you could do and you don't even get an interview. You watch somebody else get promoted and think, wait, wait a minute.

2:18I'm just as good as that person. Or maybe you run a studio and you're looking at five competitors and thinking, our work is just as good as theirs. Why are they getting these projects? And our natural responses for this as a designer have always been the same. I guess I need to get better. Maybe I need to redo my portfolio. Currently doing that. Maybe I need to learn another program. Doing that all the time. Maybe I need to take another course. You can take mine.

2:48Maybe I need to get better at motion. Get in line, right? All of us. Maybe I need to learn 3D. Maybe I need another certification. Maybe my mock-up needs to look better. Maybe I need to redesign my website for the 17th time this year. But I don't think that's because it's always the problem. Because at a certain point in your career, the question changes. It stops being how good am I? And starts becoming, what do people know me for?

3:20That's what I want to talk about today. It's your X factor. Not some manufactured personal brand. Not inventing a persona for LinkedIn. Not trying to become the loudest designer on the internet. I'm talking about finding the thing that you already bring to design that makes people specifically want you. Because there's a very good chance you already have it. You just might not think it counts.

When Craft Stops Being Enough

3:48So, this mid-career wall. I want to start with something that I think happens to a lot of designers. Early in your career, improvement is pretty easy to see. Not necessarily easy to do, but easy to see. You can compare something you designed two years ago to something that you designed today. And you're like, oh, wow. Yeah. I got better. Your type's better. Your composition's better. Your concepts are stronger. You can present your ideas without sweating through your shirt. There's obviously progress going on there.

4:19But eventually, those jumps get smaller. You reach a level where you're surrounded by other people who are also good. And that changes the game. If you're not applying for a senior design position, everybody who makes it to the final round probably has a decent portfolio. If a company is choosing between three brand studios, presumably all three can design a brand. If your creative director is deciding who's ready for that big responsibility, hopefully everyone being considered can do the actual design work.

4:55So, craft still matters a lot. I want to make that really clear. This isn't one of those, like, talent doesn't matter anymore conversations. Of course it matters. You need the chops. But eventually, craft stops being the only thing separating you from everybody else in the room. And I think this is where a lot of really talented designers get stuck. Because they keep trying to solve a differentiation problem with more design. They're thinking, if my portfolio were just 10% better maybe.

5:26But what if the person looking at your portfolio already thinks you're good? What happens next? Now, you're asking different questions. What would this person be like on my team? I asked that every time I was interviewing or looking to bring someone on my team. Can they explain their thinking? Can I put them in front of a client? Can they lead somebody? That's a whole other. The new LinkedIn Hiring Pro can't undo your last hire. The no-show.

5:57Who set you back because they didn't show up on day one or day two or ever again. And now your product launch is delayed because you're talking to alien abduction podcasters to track them down. But LinkedIn Hiring Pro can help make sure your next hire sticks. In fact, businesses who use LinkedIn are 24% less likely to reopen a role in the next 12 months. Hire right the first time with LinkedIn Hiring Pro. Post a free job today at linkedin.com slash quality. Energía baja. Falta de concentración. Nebla mental.

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6:58Do they understand our business? Do they know budgets and timelines? Can they make decisions? Would I want to work with this person every day? What do they bring that we don't already have? That last question is a big one. What do you bring that we don't already have? That's where your X factor starts showing up.

Identifying Your X Factor

7:17So what is your X factor? Your X factor is the thing people start coming to you for that isn't necessarily written in your job description. That's it. It might be another skill. It might be knowledge. It might be your personality. It might be something from a previous career. It might be the way you communicate. It might be the way you'd think. And sometimes it's something so natural to you that you don't even recognize it has value. That part is really important because we tend to value the things that are difficult for us.

7:53If something comes easily, we assume everybody can do it. They can't. Maybe you're the designer who can walk into a meeting where six people disagree and somehow get everybody moving in that same direction. That's a freaking skill. Maybe you can take a completely vague client comment like it just needs more energy and somehow figure out what they actually meant. That's, again, an amazing skill. Maybe you're great at presenting. And I don't mean that you could just stand in front of a keynote deck and survive.

8:25I mean you can actually make people understand why an idea is good. You don't just show the logo. You sell the thinking. That's a skill. Maybe junior designers consistently come to you because you're really good at looking at their work and explaining exactly why something isn't working without making them feel like an idiot. That's, again, an amazing skill. And maybe you're ridiculously organized. Maybe you understand business. Maybe you can write.

8:55Maybe you're funny. You're incredibly calm when everything else is going sideways. Again, these are amazing traits. Maybe you know fashion. Maybe you know sports. Maybe you know manufacturing. That was a huge part of my first job. I learned all about it. Budgets, timelines, shipping, all that stuff. I bring that stuff up all the time now to make sure people understand what added value I bring that's not in the headlines of my website or in my resume. Maybe you understand how things actually get produced, the reality of it, and every designer around you is designing beautiful things that are physically impossible to make.

9:32You know who I'm talking about. If you've got those knowledge, if you've got those things, that matters. Maybe you're that person that asks one more question during the kickoff meeting. I hate you. That changes the direction of the entire project. That's not just being good in meetings. There's something there. There's something truly valuable. And I think designers dismiss a lot of these things because none of them sound like graphic design skills. Nobody can calm down a room full of panic executives under skills on their resume.

10:03But we are putting things like Illustrator, Photoshop, Figma. Obviously, we're doing that as well. But 10 years into your career, what value or what skill do you think is really going to make a difference and be more valuable? All those apps or the thing that you can do in a panicked moment? So next up, stop trying to reinvent it. Here's where I think the whole personal branding conversation sometimes goes sideways. We're constantly being told that we need to figure out what makes us unique.

10:35I've asked that question a thousand times. What makes you different? And that question is enormous, right? It feels like somebody just handed you a blank sheet of paper and said, okay, define your entire existence. I don't know. I like logos and tacos. Is that a brand? Like, is that what I'm going to build? So instead of trying to invent what makes you different, I want you to look for evidence. Your career has probably been leaving clues for years. Here's the first question.

11:07What do people repeatedly ask you for help with? Not what you're assigned. What do people come looking for you specifically to help them with? Maybe every time there's a presentation, someone asks, can you look at this? How's this looking? There's a clue. Maybe everybody asks you how much they should charge for freelance work. Maybe people send you their concepts because you're good at spotting which ones actually have legs. Maybe the account team comes to you before a difficult client call because they know you'll be able to explain the design decisions without making the client defensive.

11:45That's evidence. Second question. What part of your job feels unusually easy to you? This one is sneaky because if you've always been good at something, you probably assume it's easy for everybody. Maybe presenting doesn't scare you. Maybe writing headlines comes supernatural. Maybe you can instantly organize information. Maybe you can look at a giant pile of research and see the story inside it. Meanwhile, the person next to you would trade their left arm to be able to do that kind of stuff.

12:19Pay attention to these things. They feel easy, but they're incredibly valuable. Third, what compliment have you heard repeatedly through your career? Not nice work. Something really specific. You make complicated things easy to understand or you always think of the business side or you're really good with clients. You always have these great ideas. You're the calm one. If you've heard some version of the same compliment from five different people over 10 years, stop treating it like coincidence.

12:52And here's another one I really, really like. What responsibility keeps finding its way to you even though it's technically not your job? That one can tell you a lot because organizations naturally start routing problems toward the person who seems unusually capable of solving them. Nobody announces that you were the presentation person. You just somehow became the presentation person. Nobody made you the mentor, but somehow the juniors keep coming up to your desk.

13:23Nobody gave you the title of strategist, but somehow you're in every strategy meeting. That's your career telling you something. You should probably listen. All right, next, my own X factor. I've been thinking a lot about my own career too. Originally, when I started thinking about this episode, I thought my combination was something like designer, car nerd, professor. And I do love cars probably more than it's financially responsible for me. And I absolutely love that these things show up in how I think and how I talk.

13:57But the more I thought about the idea, I realized that that's not really my X factor. That's part of my personality. My actual combination is probably closer to designer, teacher, and operator. I've spent my career making things, real client work, brands, packaging, products, campaigns, the whole messy process that comes with doing this professionally. So I understand the craft, but I've also spent years teaching design.

14:28It forces you to develop a completely different skill. You can't just know that something isn't working. You have to explain why it isn't working. You have to take something that feels instinctual after 20 years and break it apart so nobody who's been designing for 20 weeks can understand it. That changes the way you communicate. And then there's the other part. I've run a business. I've dealt with clients, budgets, deadlines, pitches, scopes, production, things going wrong at the absolute worst possible moment, like the minute you're going on vacation.

15:05So when I'm talking about design, I'm usually looking all through it through these three different lenses at once. Can we make it? Can we explain it? Can we sell it? And can we actually get the damn thing out the door? That combination has probably done more for my career than any individual design skill that I have. And the funny thing is I never sat down 20 years ago and decided this shall be my personal brand. It's just happening. That's what happens through these years.

15:36The career came first. The pattern became obvious later. And I think that's probably going to be true for a lot of you listening right now. You don't need to invent your X factor. You need to notice it.

Applying Your Skills At Work

15:50All right, next up, if you work for somebody else. So let's make this useful. If you're an employed designer, your X factor becomes really valuable when you stop treating your job description like a fence. Let's say you're a mid-level designer and you're really good at presenting. Use it. Don't sit there waiting for somebody to someday notice that you're a strong communicator. Volunteer to present the work. Ask to sit on the client call just to listen. Help another designer prepare their presentation.

16:22I think that's how I really got into presentations back in the day was I sat over someone's shoulder and just helped them. And I learned through the process how to get better and better. And then I became the presentation guy at my job all because of doing it. Become associated with that skill. Or maybe your thing is mentoring. Don't just say I helped some junior designers this year during the annual review. Frame what actually happened. You helped onboard two designers. You created a process. You gave feedback. And you helped them become productive faster.

16:55Now we're not talking about you as somebody who just got good at design. We're starting to talk about leadership. Maybe your X factor is understanding the business side. Great. Start asking business questions. What are we trying to accomplish here? How are we measuring this? What does success actually look like? I used to ask those questions a lot of times to our sales reps that were just really kind of bringing in these leads. And sometimes I feel like they missed the whole objective of it. And bringing up these questions really got them thinking.

17:27And it was like talking for other people that didn't bring it up. Now you're not just the person making the thing. You're demonstrating that you understand why the company is making the thing. That changes how people see you. And this is where career growth starts getting interesting. Because the goal isn't necessarily to become the best designer in the building. Honestly, I don't even know how you measure that. The goal is to become unusually valuable. You want people saying, we need Sarah on this because she's really good at finish the sentence.

17:59That sentence matters. Because when bigger projects show up, people think of names. When leadership opportunities show up, people think of names. When somebody leaves and suddenly there's an opening, people think of names. You want your name connected to something beyond, yeah, he's a really good designer. Good is great. Specific is 10 times better. If you run a studio or a freelance business, now, if you're that person and you're running a studio or freelance business, this gets even more important because clients have a lot

18:34of choices. Go look at 10 design studio websites right now. You're going to find a lot of the same. Beautiful work, beautiful photography, beautiful case studies. Everyone loves collaboration. Everybody believes in strategy. Everybody is passionate about being meaningful and getting experiences into the mix. Apparently, every design industry got together and agreed to use the same about me page. Guilty as charged. So how does a client choose? Obviously, the work matters.

19:05Price matters. Experience matters. But eventually, they're going to choose people. This is where your X factor becomes positioning. Maybe you spent 10 years working inside restaurants before becoming a brand designer. Raise your hand if you did. Totally did that. Not for 10 years. That's valuable if you're branding restaurants. You understand what happens after the identity leaves your computer. You understand the menu. You understand the staff, the customer, the signage, the ridiculous little operational decisions

19:39that suddenly become design problems. Lead with that. Maybe you're incredible at facilitating. Your workshops are the reason clients hire you because you can get six stakeholders who walk into a room with completely different things to say and they leave agreeing on one direction. That's not a side note. That's part of the product. Maybe you're insanely good at explaining strategy without using a bunch of branding jargon. Put that on your website because clients aren't sitting around wishing they could hire someone

20:14who creates meaningful visual experiences at the intersection of strategy and culture. Nobody talks like that. They're thinking, can this person solve my freaking problem? Do they understand me? Can I trust them? Are they going to make life easier for me? That's the number one question you got to ask yourself if you're choosing something, right? So do you make it easier for them? Make sure they know that. Your X factor helps answer those questions. And here's a ridiculously simple way to figure it out.

20:47Ask a couple past clients this question. What surprised you the most about working with me? Not what did you like? What surprised you? Because whatever they say is probably something you're delivering that they didn't expect from a designer. That's interesting.

Five Questions For Your Career

21:04Write it down. All right. Let's get into this final exercise to figure out a little bit more about your X factor. I want you to answer five questions. If you're driving, please wait till you get home. But these are the five questions. Number one, what do people consistently ask me for help with? Think about that. What do people consistently ask me for help with? I can think of a few things and it's enlightening right now. Number two, what part of my job feels easier to me than it seems to feel to everybody else?

21:35You all got one. I know you do. Number three, what compliment have I heard repeatedly through my career?

21:44Love that one. Number four, what responsibility keeps finding its way to me, even though it's technically not my job?

21:56That's a doozy. And number five is my favorite. Finish this sentence. They're a great designer, but the thing they're really good at is blank. The new LinkedIn hiring pro can't undo your last hire. The no show who set you back because they didn't show up on day one or day two or ever again. And now your product launch is delayed because you're talking to alien abduction podcasters to track them down. But LinkedIn hiring pro can help make sure your next hire sticks. In fact, businesses who use LinkedIn are 24% less likely to reopen a role in the next 12 months.

22:30Hire right. The first time with LinkedIn hiring pro post a free job today at linkedin.com slash quality. Energy baja, falta de concentración, nebla mental, you might be dehydrated. Gatorade Zero Powders han sido diseñados científicamente para ayudarte a mejorar el balance de hidratación en el cuerpo. Hechos con la mezcla número uno de electrolitos, sin colores ni sabores artificiales. Shop now online or at retailers nationwide. Gatorade hydrates better than water. Is it in you?

23:01Signos de de hidratación leve y moderada. Consulta a tu médico si los síntomas persisten. What do you want somebody to put in that blank? Better yet, what are people already putting in that blank? Because that's the part I really want you to hear. This episode isn't homework telling you to go become more interesting. You don't need another thing to work on. You probably don't need to manufacture some new personal brand. This is about recognizing career equity you've already built. Then naming it, then using it deliberately, making it belong in your portfolio, making

23:38it belong in your bio. Maybe it changes how you introduce yourself in an interview or that pitch meeting. Maybe it becomes something you talk about in your next performance review. Maybe it changes your projects you raise your hand for. Maybe it changes the headline on your studio website. Don't change everything tomorrow. Pick one place. Put it there. See what happens. All right. I think a lot of mid-career designers are walking around right now believing they're missing something. And I understand why.

24:08This industry moves ridiculously fast. There's always another tool, another trend, another person younger than you doing something that makes you think, well, crap. I guess I need to learn that now, too. Improvement matters. Keep learning, keep getting better, keep making better work, but also understand that eventually your career can't just be an endless attempt to become 10% better at graphic design. At some point, you have to recognize everything else you've built along the way.

24:41Your taste, your experience, your communication skills, your weird industry knowledge, y'all got it. Your leadership, your ability to sell an idea, how you make things simple, your ability to make people comfortable, your ability to see the problem behind the problem, whatever your thing is. Because the designers who become really valuable aren't always the ones who can do everything. They're often the ones where somebody can say, oh, you should go talk to Nick. He's really good at blank.

25:13That's the sentence. You want your name in that sentence? So maybe the question this week isn't, how do I become a better designer? Maybe it's, what am I already better at that I've been giving myself credit for? Find that. Name it. Start using it. That's your X factor. And if you figure yours out after listening to this, send it to me. Seriously, I'd love to hear what that blank is for you, because I have a feeling some of you are going to realize the most valuable part of your career has been sitting there

25:45the entire time. You just never thought to put it in your portfolio. All right. That's it for this one, guys. I hope you enjoy it. Share with me what you have found. We will talk soon. Go find your X factor. If this conversation helped you think a little longer term about your creative career, hit like and subscribe. It helps more than you think. And if you know a creative who's trying to figure out their next move, share this with them. That's how we get this community to grow. With summer coming to an end, you're going to be spending a lot more time indoors.

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