Everyone thinks they're a good designer. So if everyone is good, then you need to be great to stand out. Being great is more than just able to create visuals and solutions. That's only half of it. You need so many more things here are just a few. You need: Knowledge, wisdom, trust, speed, work ethic, attitude, will, determination, taste, eye, creativeness, reputation, respect, character, gratitude…plus understands graphic design, spacing, typography and yes, know how to actually do the job you're trying to get. Notice didn’t say follower count or engagement stats. Stop wasting your time with those vanity metrics. If everyone has 10K followers, who actually has 10K followers? I'd rather have clients paying 10K. Now you might be thinking? Hey I have all those things and should be getting work. Most saying that don't. You still only have decent work, not good yet. And you still need to pass through the good phase to become great where you're endless booked. This isn't a bad thing stop thinking it is. You don't magically become great after a handful of years of creating basic designs. And just to be clear, even the greatest designers aren't always booked. We all have our cycles. I often went 2-3 months every year without work. Those were the best times because I knew they were coming and I used those times to do fun things wether time off or building new ideas. It's how Epicurrence was born. The great designers don't complain about the lulls, they embrace them. They take the time to go after their dream clients or projects, not just the ones that reach out. You also need to know when to pivot. 2-3 times out of my 20 year freelance career, I knew the patterns of when lulls happened and a few times I just went full-time for companies for a bit. Still freelanced on the side because that was always the goal. When my job was done full-time, I'd go back to freelance. You're going to have long careers. I'm 20+ years in and have seen this industry change drastically constantly. You're chasing engagement now, but that's temporary. I don't think most of you want to go down that rabbit hole. When does it end? 10K followers? 20K? 50k? 100K? 500K? When will you be happy? If you need followers to get work and are more focused on that, your work may not be good enough, yet. Work will come when you focus on getting work and put in the time. There's a fine balance. Promote yourself everyday and if you do it right, followers will naturally come. But you don't want followers, you want clients. Followers can = clients but doesn't matter if you're not good enough yet. That only comes from great work and having all the right skills to get their attention and close the sell. If you want to be an influencer, focus on engagement. You can make good money if you have the right brand (most don't). But influencer type money is a time suck. You have to want to do that or it's something you do on the side out of love for your industry and others (like me) so it doesn't matter if you get paid or not. I showed up here for everyday since 2009. You've got to put in the time to earn it. Occasionally super stars are created and can punch through. I was not a super star. I just worked harder than everyone around me, took more risks than most, and knew I didn't need to be the best I just needed to show up and be reliable. You think you've done everything, but did you move to the heart of it all? I moved to San Francisco during the design bull run. Are you during the AI start up run? Not saying you have to move, you don't these days, but when I say I went the extra miles, I went the extra miles. There were 4-5 of us that got ALL the freelance work for like 4-5 years in SF. We owned the market. I was the least smartest one but got just as much if not more of the work. I also see designers these days saying people don't want to pay premiums for good work. They just don't want to pay premium for decent work. I hope that stung. It should. Some need a reality check. I did free work, discounted work, and so much flexibility it's what help make my career. And that's when there wasn't as many designers. Now there everywhere and so many are over charging. So many are under charging. Don't feed into the you should raise your rates posts. The only thing you should do is what you want and what gets you paid! If you're not making money, lower. If you are, raise. It's pretty simple. I never once thought I was great, which always made me work harder than most. I always knew there was someone better than me, which always made me try harder to catch up. Every job I ever had I was always terrified of getting fired, so I worked harder than most. All it takes is one client to start the referral cycle. But it's up to you to have the right attitude and work ethic to take it to the next level. GO GET IT.