When is it better to keep your side hustle on the side, and stay with your day job? Teresa Au speaks to UX designer-by-day, illustrator-by-night Miranda Wong about the pros and cons of working a second shift in a creative field. Miranda shares her strategies for time management, why her illustration business makes her better at her day job, and the hidden rewards of meeting customers and vendors in real life.

What you’ll hear on this episode:

How Miranda’s creative process has changed since graduating college and starting a job
Her thoughts on how to be creative in a time crunch
Use your body to inspire your creativity–take a walk or dance to a song
The interplay between UX design and having your own business
Miranda’s new confidence at her day job
A professional breakthrough from speaking her mind
Gaining support at work from early-career colleagues
The benefits of finding a mentor
Why time management is also about attitude
Creativity flows at night
Prioritizing self care and rest
Why she started Mando’s Bake Shop in the pandemic
Giving to worthy causes is part of the business, not an afterthought
Responding to Black Lives Matter and Stop Asian Hate
Should Miranda take Mando’s Bake Shop full-time?
Thoughts on future expansion and employee number one: her mom
Breaking down creative vs. administrative time
How Miranda learns from her vendors by visiting them in person
Posting on social shouldn’t be a chore
The importance of creating a consistent brand online
What are the most successful posts?
Choosing self-expression over what’s popular with your followers
The popularity of fan art
Inspiration from Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way and Tiffany Tan aka Apple Cheeks
Work/life balance? Be sure to know your purpose
Do your co-workers know about your side hustle?
What success looks like
Miranda’s One Word for 2023

Miranda Wong is a Chinese-Filipino American illustrator and designer based in California. Her illustrations are inspired by everyday life, memories, food and desserts, or anything that celebrates her Asian background and culture. She sells illustrated stationery and decor products online at Mando's Bake Shop.

Teresa Au (@tautastic) is an executive for community engagement at Adobe. Her career spans diverse creative fields, primarily in New York’s fashion industry, as well as architecture firms, and now Silicon Valley tech companies. She has always prized working with distinctive design and the interesting people behind it–from designer Elie Tahari to start-up CEOs.

Learn more about this podcast, and find transcripts and links, at adobe.ly/inthemaking. In the Making is brought you by Adobe Express and Adobe Creative Cloud.

Past episodes of Wireframe can still be found in the show archive within this feed, or online on Behance.

Design flyers, TikToks, resumes, and Reels with the new, all-in-one Adobe Express. Create video, marketing, and social content. Edit photos and PDFs. Make it all in one app, including generative AI tools from Adobe Firefly and easy, one-click tasks like removing backgrounds.

Adobe Creative Cloud provides apps, web services, and resources for all your creative projects — photography, graphic design, video editing, UX design, drawing and painting, social media, and more. Learn more about the apps in Creative Cloud

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