On today’s episode of Make + Design, Carina delves into one thing you can do to change the trajectory of your business: becoming incredibly, crazy fast in Adobe Illustrator. Carina gives us a great example on how getting fast in Illustrator increases your pay rate since you can produce so much more work. Carina’s advice is to spend less time in the dozens and dozens of features in Illustrator and to focus on developing proficiency in the 10 to 20 actions that professional designers use ALL THE TIME.  How long does it take to get fast at Illustrator? It will take a few months but the *key* is to be in Illustrator every single day. Those who spend time every day will get better, fast, more efficient and will increase their pay rate and explode their growth as a designer.   __________ Download Carina’s free guide: The 7 Tips Nobody Will Tell You About Becoming a Surface Pattern Designer here: http://eepurl.com/dN2RcY  __________   About Carina Gardner: Carina Gardner is a fabric designer, paper designer, and design educator who is passionate about helping other designers fulfill their creative dreams by teaching them her strategies for making money as a designer. She has a Ph.D. in Design and taught design at the University of Minnesota before starting Carina Gardner, Inc.   Carina Gardner, Inc design brand has been featured in dish ware, holiday decor, sewing patterns, and more. Her exclusive Design Suite Program helps creatives make money designing as they learn to design. Her programs include Illustrator and Photoshop training, surface pattern design, paper design, Silhouette & Cricut file design, and running a design business. She started the Make and Design Podcast so that she could share inspiration, stories, and experiences about design and life with crafters and designers.   Find out more at https://www.carinagardner.com Check out her most popular program, Design Bootcamp, here: http://www.carinagardnercourses.com/designbootcamp  Watch this episode as a video at https://www.makeanddesign.com/