Kleo

Kleo is the free browser extension that helps you discover and create the best LinkedIn content.

Co-Founder

Trevor Nielsen, LLC

Fractional Product Designer

Giddy

*43% company wide layoff 

• Designed & launched mobile app from 0 to 1
• 500k app downloads + 50k active users in 12 months
• Reached 1,200+ reviews averaging 4.7/5.0 stars
• Created crypto wallet circulating over $50M transaction volume
• Built design system from 0 to 1 with engineering
• Contributed to library of 40+ custom illustrations

Senior Product Designer

NOCD

• Helped mobile app reach 8.6k reviews averaging 4.9/5.0 stars
• Designed tools resulting in 10% increase in therapy effectiveness
• These tools allowed members to get better up to 6 weeks faster
• Lead 10+ user interviews testing product from user feedback
• Created dashboard allowing members to view their progress
• Established a design system unifying app styles & components

Lead Product Designer

Newfold Digital

• Shipped Office 365 offering to 800k HostGator users
• Audited 200+ styles & components throughout the product
• Involved from 0 to 1 creating design system for product
• Art direct the new and improved UI refresh

Product Designer - HostGator

• Provided art direction for marketing & product team
• Supported the marketing team with all advertising assets (online ads, email marketing, print collateral)
• Worked closely with devs to design and build landing pages for marketing campaigns
• Created illustrations for the website and marketing

Senior Designer - MOJO Marketplace

Canopy, Inc.

• Played significant role in the rebrand of Canopy
• Full redesign of the company website
• Booth design + sales collateral for 70+ tradeshows
• Designed 50+ custom icons & illustrations
• Created 5 ebooks in collaboration with copywriters

Visual Designer

ICON Health and Fitness

• Technical image editing: color correction, manipulation, compositing
• Retouch, manage, coordinate, and care for all of ICON's imagery - created internally and externally
• Use of tools such as: Photoshop, Lightroom, Capture One, Illustrator
• Maintain distinct brand image styling for multiple world class brands including: Proform, Nordictrack, Altra, iFit, Gold's Gym, FreeMotion

Senior Photo Retoucher

• Collaborate with clients to produce print/digital content including: logo, website, flyer, poster, business card, letterhead, infographic, iconography
• Assist clients in producing branding standards and guidelines

Owner / Designer

Malouf

• Product image preparation for web, packaging and catalog
• Creative image compositing
• Digital tech on site and in studio photoshoots
• Package file resizing and preparation for print
• Content creation for web and online channels

Photo Retoucher / Graphic Designer

Aggie Idol

• Raised over $3,100 in monetary donations and over $10,000 in value as a team for charity event through donations by local sponsors and time of well-known community personalities
• Co-managed event that was recorded for having the biggest crowd ever at Utah State University for a non-school sponsored event with approximately 1,200 in attendance 
• Designed posters, flyers, banners, and ground signs to be posted & distributed throughout the community and university campus. Also designed the 12 page final event program
• Marketed event to the community through print, radio, Facebook, Youtube, and movie theater commercials

Graphic Designer / Co Founder

Part of the bottom 99% of designers. Building Kleo. Serving teams with fractional product design.

Portfolio: www.trevornielsen.com

I’m a seasoned visual designer, naturally turned product builder. I’ve had years of experience fine tuning the craft of visual storytelling and creating compelling aesthetics that have helped brands and products reach their goals across the world.

You are 100% perfect for the role, but so are a dozen others.

The current market favors companies over candidates.

Rejection does not mean there’s something wrong with you.

When you’re rejected, remember:

- You can be perfect for the job and still not get the job.
- Companies have the luxury of being stupidly picky.
- You are not broken because you get rejected.
- Try not to see rejection as a personal flaw.
- It’s a matter of timing + skill fit + budget.

Knowing this doesn’t fix your lack of a job situation.

But it does help alleviate the sting of rejection.

Trevor Nielsen

There are 1,000 different design processes.

Yet, they all have one thing in common:

Start loose → Finish tight

When beginning a sketch, illustrators hold the pencil with a loose grip. 

The grip tightens as you become more decided on the art direction. 

What this might look like in product design:

- begin ideation in a text doc before opening Figma
- sketch layouts/flows on paper before a screen
- start in a wireframe vs using hi-fi components

Starting loose allows you to achieve a few things:

- withhold judgment during ideation
- quickly pivot & change directions
- gain a vision before committing
- be open-minded to new ideas

As you reach the end of the process you tighten things up. 

If you skip the loose phase it’s challenging to go back.
You’ve already invested time & effort in one direction.

Next time you begin a project be mindful of this pattern. 
Don’t be too quick to tighten things up.

Don’t miss out on the leverage you gain from an open mind.

Sorting through connection requests can be a real pain.

The problem is the design lacks information.

You can barely learn about someone without visiting their profile. 

Yet, how ironic that LinkedIn penalizes users for visiting too many profiles… 

—

Here are a few ways I’d suggest modifying the invite cards:

1. Vertically stack the content. LinkedIn already uses this pattern in other areas. It would allow for a carousel swipe experience which would be helpful to quickly scan through invites.

2. Increase size of the profile pic. Before connecting with someone it’s good to learn who they are, which involves seeing their human face.

3. Show their banner behind the profile pic. Gives me a bit more context on their personality and personal branding.

4. Include the website link from their bio. Allow me to visit their link prior to visiting their profile.

5. Make mutual connections clickable to see who those mutual connections are prior to visiting the profile.

6. Include extra data points such as total followers and total posts. These bits of data allow me to learn more about them at a glance.

—

Do you agree/disagree with these adjustments? 

What else would you change?

Does leaving your 9-5 role make you happier?

A couple of friends have asked me this recently.

The answer is “yes and no”. 


I’m happier because:

→ I love the freedom to build whatever I want. It’s nice being able to build Kleo while also having client products in the mix of my day to day.

→ If my midday gym time goes over by 30 min I don’t stress over a boss/team wondering when I’ll be back. No one is asking me randomly to “hop on a quick call”.
 
→ My income feels more secure being diversified across multiple clients and not one single employer. Odds of all clients dropping me simultaneously are low.

→ I don’t see any ceiling or “budget cap” over my earning potential. If I want to add more clients or pursue other earning opportunities I have more freedom to do so.


I’m less happy because:

→ I’m still adjusting to working with multiple teams. Trying to improve my client communication and sending more consistent progress updates.

→ I stress about disappointing clients. This causes me to think about my projects 24/7 and I have to learn to shut off “work brain”.

→ I’m tempted by new opportunities. I have 100 avenues I want to pursue, but only enough time to focus on a few at once.

→ I’ve been getting worse sleep lately due to poor time management. The freedom to work “when you want” is not always a blessing. It’s critical to set working hours and be disciplined to stay within those working hours.


Overall, I can’t see myself going back to a full-time job any time soon. 

I’m steadily working out the kinks of this new working style. It’s only getting better. 

If you’ve considered leaving the 9-5 feel free to message me with any questions. 

I have a lot to learn, but I also have so much I can share.

Writing online can directly impact your earning potential.

I’ve been asked this question many times:

“What’s the *actual* ROI of content creation?”

This post aims to answer that question. 

—

Oct 2016
Recruiter sees my content on Dribbble. 
I switch jobs 3 months later.
Results in 42% increase in pay.

Dec 2020
Recruiter sees my content on Dribbble.
I switch jobs.
Results in 27% increase in pay.

Dec 2021
Recruiter sees my content on LinkedIn.
I switch jobs.
Results in 7% increase in pay.

Aug 2023
Friends + ex colleagues see my layoff post.
They refer me for client opportunities.
Fast forward 7 months.
Client work results in 41% increase in pay.

Aug 2023
Jake sees my content on LinkedIn.
I partner with him and Kleo.
Results in pay increase: TBD 👀

—

Moral of the story:

Mastering your craft is not enough. 
You have to also be discoverable. 

Sharing yourself online results in exposure.
Exposure results in opportunities.
Opportunities result in more money. 

So what’s my *actual* return on content creation investment?

In my case an *actual* 229% increase in pay from 2016-2024.

What could you accomplish if you could work 5x faster? 

I want to share the secret with you. 

Two things must happen:

1. Say “yes” to more work than you’re comfortable with
2. Possess a fear of disappointing people

That’s it. That’s the secret sauce.

You’ll have looming deadlines with multiple projects.
You’ll fear the “any updates on this?” message.
You’ll surprise yourself at how fast you can design.

— 

I’m sort of half joking with this. But there’s some truth. 

We give ourselves too much time for analysis paralysis. 
When time is scarce you stop overthinking.

Most design projects become sluggish due to indecision. 
Reduce available time and watch decision speed skyrocket.

We’re cooking some Kleo in Colombia.

I'll post later with highlights from the week. 
But for now I just have one question...

How is the food so good??

Name one place on earth with better food than Colombia.

I'll wait..

I spoke on a live panel on the topic of “personal branding”.

Here are a few takeaways from the discussion:

—

→ People online with many followers are no smarter than you. They simply decided to share their stories in public instead of keeping them private. 

→ Authenticity is the key to standing out in the crowd of cliches and AI generated content.

→ Being vulnerable is scary but builds trust from others. Sure, you risk exposing your weaknesses and being criticized. But the benefits outweigh the risks. 

→ Facing the fear of telling your story online can be the key to discovering your next opportunity. 

→ Content creation is like an investment account. You may not need it today. But in the future you’ll be grateful to make withdrawals from the network you build.

—

Thanks again Brian for inviting me.

Another lesson that things I fear are not as scary as I imagine in my head.

Stop making content creation harder than it already is.

I’ve fallen for this trap many times. 
You think you need to be original day after day.

But you don’t. Stop doing this.

Recycle topics + posts you've already written. 
It's okay (and good) to repeat yourself.

Not only is it less exhausting to be repetitive…
It’s also a more effective strategy for conversions. 

Go read Nick’s post. He explains this so well.
I’ll link to it in the comments. 

Nick is one of my favorite content creators. 
I’m always stoked to see a new post from him.

Go give him a follow!

Human behavior is so predictable. 

You chase pleasure.
You avoid pain. 

Most businesses are built to capitalize on human nature.

Pleasure-driven habits include:
- cheap food and energy draining diets
- hooked to the thrill of online shopping
- pseudo progress/rewards via gaming
- excessive social media consumption
- binge-watching Netflix and media

You might not realize you’re trying to numb your pain.

What if you embrace a healthy level of pain? 

Dreams and goals are hidden behind delayed gratification.

Habits to combat pain avoidance include:
- limit social media & phone usage
- 90+ min per day of deep work
- 60+ min spent outside daily
- 150+ min exercise per week
- consistent sleep schedule

Making life changes can be hard. 
If it was easy everyone would be living life perfectly.

For me it helps to only tackle one of these at a time. 
My current goal is to get 90+ min of deep work in daily.

Which one would help you the most? 

Taplio

Trevor Nielsen's Linkedin Analytics

Trevor Nielsen

What is Trevor talking about?

Trevor Nielsen's Best Posts (last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Taplio

.css-1jgreyo{background-image:linear-gradient(284deg, rgba(39,43,72,1) 0%, rgba(33,47,183,1) 100%);color:transparent;-webkit-background-clip:text;background-clip:text;}Trevor Nielsen's Linkedin Analytics

Trevor Nielsen

What is Trevor talking about?

Trevor Nielsen's Best Posts .css-qqfgvy{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);}(last 30 days)

Want to drive more opportunities from LinkedIn?

Trevor Nielsen's Linkedin Analytics

Trevor Nielsen's Best Posts (last 30 days)