Don’t Quit Your Day Job with Miranda Wong

In the Making

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.

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