Running a successful design firm requires BALANCE.

If you nod to every client whim and request, you probably won't get the projects that you'd be proud to showcase in your portfolio...

Hold a death grip on your aesthetic, and you'll probably have a hard time getting clients in the door as a startup.

If you micromanage every line in CAD, every minute of billed time, you'll have an unhappy, if not unprofitable, staff...

Give too much freedom, and projects can easily go off the rails.

Likewise...

If you have your "head in the clouds", speaking existentially in jargon only your professors would understand, and potential clients will struggle to understand how (or if!) you can help them...

If your marketing focuses solely on your concrete skills and experience, potential clients will struggle to make a connection with you and will evaluate your firm primarily on price...

Somewhere between "the clouds and the dirt", lies the most powerful marketing you can implement in your business: EMOTION.