From Freelance to 10K Projects: How She Built a Global Design Career | #108: Sana Arif

Sana Arif is a senior designer, branding expert and co-founder of Si-Tech, a creative studio behind over 10,000 design projects worldwide. With seven years of hands-on experience and more than 500 clients, she’s helped founders and creators turn their ideas into brands that actually stand out. From carousels to packaging, logos to infographics, Sana knows how to make a message look as good as it sounds. In this episode, we talk about branding, confidence, growth and what it takes to build something from scratch. Sana shares how she found her voice, how she attracts loyal clients, and why showing up consistently beats chasing trends every time. Connect with Sana: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanaarifofficial01/ https://www.fiverr.com/users/hayaali4321/ https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1ESB1hF5ro/  Timestamps: 00:00 - The advice that changed everything 01:14 - From Kashmir to global design work 03:13 - Childhood dreams and helping others 04:07 - From medicine to chemistry 04:23 - Burnout and building her own academy 05:35 - Discovering the online world 06:11 - Using her skills to help others 07:36 - Learning design and first client 08:41 - Finding success on Fiverr 10:19 - Growing with Facebook ads 13:44 - Getting banned and starting over 14:25 - Building a personal brand on LinkedIn 16:44 - Storytelling and honest content 21:24 - How she approaches posting 24:20 - Using AI for design and content 25:22 - Favourite tools she swears by 26:48 - Her role models and mentors 29:01 - Mentoring and giving back 30:45 - Avoiding burnout and staying creative 31:29 - Life beyond LinkedIn 32:01 - Her core motivation 33:37 - Time management secrets 35:03 - Dreams for the future 36:05 - From no clients to global growth 37:27 - Advice to her younger self 37:52 - Final message: start messy 38:47 - What inspires her 40:34 - Branding vs marketing 42:52 - Closing thoughts Connect with Tommen: X: https://x.com/TomasLoucky⁠⁠⁠ Stan: https://stan.store/Tommen LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomasloucky/⁠⁠ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisistommen/⁠⁠ More: FenPost: https://fenpost.com/ Links: https://linktr.ee/produced_by⁠⁠⁠ Newsletter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://producednewsletter.substack.com/⁠ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ProducedByPodcast⁠⁠⁠/ Podcasting tools I recommend: Riverside: ⁠https://riverside.fm/?utm_campaign=campaign_2&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_source=rewardful&via=tomas-loucky Adobe Podcast: https://adobe.prf.hn/click/camref:1101l584tU/creativeref:1011l150787 Podsqueeze: https://podsqueeze.com/?ref=tomas FenPost: https://fenpost.com/?via=tomas SocialBee: https://get.socialbee.io/swiinl  Some links are affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. If you find these tools helpful, using these links supports the show. Thank you!