Rosie Kosinski of Shattered Pencil Studios: 5 Things I Wish Someone Had Told Me Before I Became A Founder

Do Be Do Be Do. In a world chock full of pressure to be productive, it’s easy to just Do, Do, Do until you burn out. However, a crash-burn vacation doesn’t always do the trick as you temporarily Be, Be, Be. Generate balance by time blocking for both “Do” time and “Be” time — Do Be Do Be Do! I would have avoided a few major burnouts had I adopted this early on.

As part of our interview series called “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Became A Founder”, I had the pleasure of interviewing Rosie Kosinski.

Rosie Kosinski is the Brand Queen and Founder of Shattered Pencil Studios, a brand design & development boutique. She straddles the line between creative and strategic, artistic and scientific. Raised by entrepreneurs and artists in a nomadic environment that took her through Europe, the Middle East and the United States, Rosie is a global citizen through and through. She taps into this mosaic of perspectives to deeply understand the people she serves and to help them connect with the people they serve.

Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?

One of the early indicators of my untamable entrepreneurial spirit was how frustrated I felt having to decide on a college major. Every subject fascinated (and continues to fascinate) me. Likewise, when I ‘did time’ in corporate as a Graphic Designer, I felt trapped by the copy & paste tasks, mindless templates drying up my creativity. At first this career path showed up as little veins of projects — logos, flyers, website layouts — which I would fulfill after work. The dam broke when the last company that employed me full time as a Creative Director laid off 60% of their staff, including me. However, I stayed on as a freelance designer and that gave me the time and just enough bill-paying resources to delve into networking, prospecting and begin the long and focused road of learning about running a successful business.

Can you tell us a story about the hard times that you faced when you first started your journey?

Head trash. Landfills-full of head trash. I could share stories of panic about making rent, supporting my husband as he started his business as well, and trying to visit parents and siblings living across every sea. I could also psychoanalyze my feelings of restlessness rooted in my nomadic genes, or the constant stream of guilt — “I should just be grateful to have any work, doesn’t matter what kind of work,” “I’m not doing enough,” “I’m not properly using my talents.” Ultimately, however, the most difficult challenges arose not through circumstance alone, but from succumbing to negative self-talk and allowing fear to determine my pace and my actions.

Where did you get the drive to continue even though things were so hard?

It was not tough to find drive when I was facing challenges. The real obstacle was not knowing what questions to ask and not having a business mentor for the first few years. However, with hindsight being as clear as it is, I had three pillars of strength that gave me courage during my challenges: 1) Faith 2) Loved Ones 3) Reflexively saying “Good!” — What does this last one mean? So I got laid off: “Good! Now I have time to meet people.” Money is short: “Good! This teaches me resourcefulness.” Loved ones suffer illnesses: “Good! I get to be a support and empathize with others who suffer.” — In short, every little step is not just a step forward; it is a step inward through learning and reflection.

So, how are things going today? How did grit and resilience lead to your eventual success?

“Good!” — Great, in fact. Grit and resilience led me to seek guidance from my beloved Business Coach, who helped me grasp that if there is anything — truly anything — with which I am dissatisfied in my business, that I am the one who gets to rectify that. If grit and resilience are muscles, I had been sprinting in circles when I could have been climbing. My coach helped me make drastic changes, including becoming decidedly selective with what companies and people I was going to serve. It was also important for me to be humble and remember that I was, I am, and will continue to be a work in progress. Likewise, my success is a journey.

Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?

This is a difficult question to answer because so often a funny story is in fact dismal …and embarrassing. But here it is: I was stuffing my commuter bike into my car when I saw a man in the car parked next to mine. I smiled and greeted him, and we engaged in a few minutes of conversation. When he asked me what I did, I said I was a designer — brand and marketing. He jumped out of his car in total delight. “You won’t believe this, but I have been looking left and right for a designer for my businesses, and I have been nothing but disappointed!” His name was Will, and he was a serial entrepreneur and investor in the world of media and music.

He launched into a monologue about his various investments, and I checked the businesses there and then on my phone. They seemed legitimate. His passion and fervour were contagious and, before long, we launched into brand designs for his vodka brand, website designs for his media organization, marketing strategies for charities, partnership with renowned photographers, models and rappers, and album cover designs for famous musicians. I felt I had “made it” — I had finally been discovered! So many incredible projects with so many talented minds. Months of hard work, late hours, weekend meetings and trips to all sorts of schmoozy restaurants, homes and cities. He was planning on getting me to one of the Kardashian parties in a couple of weeks (not that this was of any interest, quite honestly) and he was setting me up for a long career in the music industry once I met some more of his influential friends.

There was only one teeny, tiny, itsy, bitsy problem. The guy running the vodka project owed him money, and the lawyer in charge of my equity contract was on a vacation that never seemed to end…oh and Will’s money was being held hostage by his angry ex-wife. When his ex-wife phoned me and told me Will was committed into the psych ward, my bubble, which had burst in stages, finally obliterated for good. It’s embarrassing now to see how long it had taken to twig and realize what a con artist he had been.

The lesson was learned abruptly and violently. Barely 2 weeks after I cut ties with this fraud and his gang of “investors,” I received a call from a prospective client seeking help on their branding and website design. When they decided to name-drop and cite Donald Trump as someone with whom they closely worked, I asked: “how is that relevant?” They had no budget either and suggested the opportunity was unmatched. I told them to call me back if they could offer a currency my bank recognized, because a check for Exposure Bucks wouldn’t clear.

What do you think makes your company stand out? Can you share a story?

Have you ever stopped to ask someone for directions on the street? Have any of them been so enthusiastic to help and instead of just pointing vaguely, they draw a map or even walk you part of the way? That’s me. I love guiding people to where they need to go, whether or not that destination involves my services. Should a client require branding or marketing designs, I do everything in my power to make that journey fruitful and enjoyable, and to deliver results through my designs and through my trusted partners in order to provide long-lasting and sustainable brands.

Which tips would you recommend to your colleagues in your industry to help them to thrive and not “burn out”?

Did you know that historically people used to work 15 hours a week? Think about that for a moment. Here are 12 things to remember once you sit with the feeling that you most definitely, without a doubt, no matter what you do, work too much:

• Don’t aspire to work 12–18 hours a day, and don’t admire those who do — it’s an unsustainable system that leaves people shells of their former selves
• Strive instead to spend time savouring your breakfasts, your lunches, your walks, your talks, your drives, your books, your friends, your fresh air. Be relentlessly present.
• Schedule time for things you know you need as if you’re scheduling a meeting with your most important client: naps, lunches, alone time, long chats with a friend
• Just do it. Stop talking about how hard it is to do something that you know is good for you and just do it.
• Write down 10 things that you feel pressured by at the end of the day or week. You’ll be surprised how relaxed you’ll feel afterwards.
• Write tomorrow’s priority to-do list and schedule flow the night before.
• Be ok that this list will be executed very differently the next day.
• Create boundaries and time restrictions with your devices and condition others to be familiar with those boundaries
• Remember that when people are reaching out to you, they’re usually checking you off their to-do list. Unless it’s urgent, you don’t need to respond immediately
• Schedule vacations at the beginning of each year and/or quarter. You’ll make them happen if they’re already in your calendar.
• Remember that difficult emotions (anger, guilt, frustration etc.) can be addictive and can make you feel productive when you’re not. Determine if a feeling is not serving a useful purpose, and if it’s not, acknowledge it and move away from it.
• Every day is Mental Health day.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story?

Brief preamble of gratitude towards my parents, who didn’t get why I was stuck in a 9–5 before I finally established my business, my husband who is my greatest cheerleader, and my friends who believe in my talents.

Now, I need to tell you about my coach, Frank Morales, from Coaching WIP. He saved my business. He gave me the courage to change my pricing, slim down my offerings, become more selective, and make changes that challenged my feeling of being a total imposter in this industry.

In one of our early sessions, I was complaining about how much I was working for a handful of pennies. It was not sinking in HOW little I was charging. One particular exercise shook me to the core. He asked me how much I had made on a logo. At the time I had charged $150 for a logo (*blush*). Obscenely low, if you’re wondering. He asked me how many hours I had put into it. 30 mins for the discovery call, 1.5 hours for the kick-off with the client, 3 hours of preliminary research. 7 hours for the initial designs. Feedback…revisions…reviews…file management…emails… You get the gist. In the end we calculated that I made $5/hour on that project, not including budgeting for the business operation and admin time I was supposed to account for!

Frank has patiently helped me excavate some of the landfill-loadfuls of head trash I mentioned earlier that blocked me from pricing according to my value.

How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?

Who says I’ve used my success to bring goodness to the world? Ok, in fact this is one of the most important factors in running my business. Before I launched full time as a business owner, I worked for two corporate companies whose missions and services I didn’t fully believe in. Now, I deliberately work with businesses who demonstrate integrity internally and externally.

For example, my branding and marketing contribution helps Hidden Warrior Yoga reach more people, and, in turn, their clients are able to get out of pain. I love that I help make that happen. Main Street Movers on the other hand are enormously generous with their philanthropic efforts and pay their employees above average and provide full benefits — working with them allows me to perpetuate their goodness. I also support companies whose products and services promote sustainability and conscious purchasing.

Outside of my business, I contribute monthly to Skylands Animal Sanctuary, local food parties and on-going fundraisers that help animals and people in need.

What are your “5 things I wish someone had told me before I started leading my company” and why. Please share a story or example for each.

1. Find a Good Mentor. My business was a baby trying to race in the Olympics before I invested in my Business Coach. Not surprisingly, it wasn’t going anywhere, and I was getting totally exhausted. With a curriculum that provides a navigable route and bite-sized actions, I’m now always in training for my various business marathons.
2. Learn, learn, learn. Read, ask questions, watch youtube videos, scroll blogs, binge social media feeds — I really don’t care how you do it, but make sure that every day of the week, you’re learning something new and applying it. It doesn’t even have to be about your industry. My portfolio became so much richer once I realized I didn’t have to sequester myself to “brand books” by applying visual, business, and psychological knowledge I was absorbing through different channels. Behind the scenes, my brain would do the rest and these inspirations and nuggets of wisdom show up in designs and in client interactions.
3. Do Be Do Be Do. In a world chock full of pressure to be productive, it’s easy to just Do, Do, Do until you burn out. However, a crash-burn vacation doesn’t always do the trick as you temporarily Be, Be, Be. Generate balance by time blocking for both “Do” time and “Be” time — Do Be Do Be Do! I would have avoided a few major burnouts had I adopted this early on.
4. Live Your Priority. Write down your priority list for the 7 Area of Life (Mental, Career, Financial, Family, Social, Physical & Spiritual) and be sure your business strategy aligns with this list. More often than not our actions and strategies are unconsciously determined by an ambiguous list. For example, I thought finances were important, but if I had been honest, and based on my results early on, accommodating people was the real priority and it took longer than necessary to generate a viable income because I didn’t consciously make finance a priority.
5. Make Friends with Emotions. Leveraging emotion is the single greatest tool in my toolbox — the ability to productively engage the frustration, delight, confusion, or surprise in others. A book that gave me permission and knowledge to better harness these emotions and in turn better serve my fabulous clients is Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss.

Can you share a few ideas or stories from your experience about how to successfully ride the emotional highs & lows of being a founder”?

Fully digesting any given emotion and taking responsibility for my part in any given situation has been paramount to riding those highs and lows, and doing so with joy. Too often certain emotions like anger and guilt get stuck, and it can stay there for years. My doctor told me it takes 20 minutes for the body to return to normal after the fight/flight response associated with feeling anger, and up to 8 hours for your body to fully digest it. And that’s if you immediately let go. We all know what it feels like to have difficult emotions stick around and even torment us for weeks, months and years. Here are 4 steps that help me fully process an emotion to help make the rollercoaster more manageable:

Acknowledge and share the emotion in simple and specific terms. Share these with someone who will actively listen (friend, colleague, therapist), and/or by writing it down. Example:

• “I feel like a fraud.”
• “I’m annoyed that my client won’t respond.”
• “I’m angry so-and-so devalues my work.”

Shift your focus onto a new possibility.

• “I am a leader.”
• “I am honest and courageous.”
• “I value my work”

Commit to these new assessments. Determine what you need to do today or this week to fulfil these possibilities.

• “I will follow up with 5 people I haven’t spoken to in 3 months”
• “I will email the client with a deadline for response”
• “I will present my price without justification”

Remain in action. While the lows and negative emotions may still linger, acting on these commitments within the realm of these positive assertions shifts you to a higher gear.

You are a person of great influence. If you could start a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. :-)

Empathy Education. Not a very sexy sounding movement, is it? I really believe if people are not only exposed to hard knowledge and facts, but also to the reality that other people experience, there would be a lot more compassion and mindful expression. This would touch anything from racism to animal cruelty to wage gaps.

How can our readers further follow your work online?

www.shatteredpencil.com / www.linkedin.com/in/rosie-kosinski/ / www.instagram.com/shatteredpencilstudios

This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!

Thank you for the excellent questions and for the opportunity to share — I hope you needed to hear even just one nugget.