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Danielle Thompson - Emotional Intelligence: A Designer’s Superpower

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Highlights

Have you invested in your emotional intelligence? In this episode, Danielle Thompson shares how she has unlocked her superpower as a designer by working on her emotional intelligence. This work has helped her to boost her confidence, find balance and communicate better in stressful situations. It has helped her along her career path to find the success she has today with Design Match! Read the article below for her advice on unlocking your superpower by working on your emotional intelligence. Listen to more of Danielle's advice in the full episode!

📢 Invest in yourself emotionally.

Determine ways to help balance your emotions. This could be through time outdoors, exercise, or with family and friends. Find ways to make yourself happy to maximize your personal and professional life.

👏 Find a coach or mentor to help you build confidence.

Positive reinforcement is better than fear-based encouragement, so find a coach or mentor who will cheer you on without judgment and help you build your confidence.

🧠 Understand how your brain works in stressful situations.

Our brains are wired to remember negative memories and feelings quicker than positive ones, so coping with stressful situations is hard. Try to visualize a positive outcome to break the cycle of being overwhelmed or anxious.

Emotional Intelligence: A Designer’s Superpower

In episode 51 of The Product Design Podcast, Seth Coelen interviews Danielle Thompson, Founder of Design Match,where they connect ambitious startups with the perfect designers for their projects!

During our chat, Danielle talks about how she has progressed along her career path by creating products and launching businesses. Danielle dives into how powerful the proper support can be along your product design career path and why working on your emotional intelligence will set you up for long-term success. She also shares how she came up with the idea for Design Match and how she found quick success with this product. If you are looking to get work as a Product Designer, Design Match may be for you! This episode is filled with fantastic advice for all designers, regardless of how long they have been in the game.

Danielle Thompson & Seth Coelen on The Product Design Podcast

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This article will focus on Danielle's advice on finding the right mentor for you and how to work on your emotional intelligence.

Achieving Emotional Resiliency Through Self-Awareness

Danielle has created and launched several businesses, bringing her closer to helping designers find work and make more money. Design Match is a culmination of all her hard work over the years. During her career, Danielle has chosen to find ways to grow her emotional intelligence, increasing her resiliency. Here are a few of the tips she shared during this episode.

📢 Don’t sacrifice present moments for hypothetical futures!

Danielle has learned during her career that she is unwilling to sacrifice her present life for something that may or may not happen. She has traveled the world while working and takes time to invest in herself so she is stronger mentally, physically, and emotionally. Investing in yourself emotionally is one of the best investments you can make for your personal and business life.

👏 Get support when you need it.

Find a career coach or mentor that suits your learning style. For most people, positive reinforcement is better than fear-based encouragement, so find someone who will cheer you on without judgment. Over time, while working with your coach or mentor, you will build confidence with each success cycle, which allows for more knowledge and easier accomplishment of future tasks. Finding the support to move through difficult times or as you tackle new challenges will be key to your career progression.

🧠 Change Your Mindset: Take a Moment to Understand What's Happening in Your Brain

Emotional sustainability and resilience are essential in business -- make sure to pause and choose how to respond rather than letting the environment dictate it. Our brains are wired to remember negative memories and feelings quicker than positive ones, making it difficult to cope with stressful situations. Visualizing a positive outcome helps break the cycle of being overwhelmed or anxious. And remember to acknowledge bad days without giving them extra weight to them by moving forward fresh each day.

“Having that emotional resiliency and awareness really just allows you to be present for those things and enjoy the ride so much more. It is the best investment to invest in yourself and learn about yourself so that you can be the person you dream of being in the world.”

🎯 Bet on yourself; it will pay off in the long run.

Making significant changes in your life or career can be really scary. Whether you are making a career switch, have just landed a big promotion, or launching your own business, you will have moments when you feel on top of the world and other moments when you don't know if you will make it through. Always keep moving and bet on yourself first because you will do what needs to be done to succeed!

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Danielle Thompson
“It's that time in the valley of despair when people usually quit because something else is shinier, and they think they can avoid that curve if they just jump to something else. But if you stay and stick with it through, you will come out the other side with much more learning and growth. There are so many people who are afraid to go through that, so that's what thins out the competition.”

Thank you so much, Danielle!

Thank you, Danielle, for joining us on the show and sharing your excellent advice on emotional intelligence and resiliency. From how to pursue a career in product design to what techniques to use as you progress through your career path, Danielle's advice on finding the pause to respond intelligently and investing in yourself so you find continued growth will come in handy along the way! We are so excited that your mission to help designers find work and make more money is going so well, and we can't wait to see what Design Match has in store in the future.

Listen to the complete episode on The Product Design Podcast, which includes a peek behind what inspired Danielle to create Design Match, what they do, who they can help, and what the future vision for the company looks like. Don’t forget to follow Danielle on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Instagram, and also check out the Design Match website and blog for more information!

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Where to find Danielle

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