How I launched the damn thing!
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Starting something new and launching something from scratch can simultaneously be the most exciting thing, the most terrifying thing and the most rewarding thing you’ve ever done.
It’s HARD to build something out of nothing, and you really do kind of fail upward. So when you do succeed, or begin succeeding, it feels like you’re conquering the world!
I wanted to share my story, in case you’re on the same path and need some ‘you can do it, if I can do it’ motivation.
It’s been about a year now since I decided to nix the ‘ol stuffy studio brand in favor of something unorthodox (& more like me), and it’s been about 6 years since I started this business idea from scratch.
But what led me here, exactly? And what’s happened since that total rebrand? How has my first year working in my business full-time been?
See, what ha’ happen’d was …
I’ve been a graphic designer by trade since 2006. That’s the year I switched my major in college from Interior Design to Art & Graphic Design. I got my first design job while I was in college taking graphics classes that same year. I’ve now been in the business for 15 years.
From Jan 2012 to June 2020 (8.5 years!) I was an in-house designer in an art department focusing mostly on print-related work, but I also somewhat managed (when I had the time) their social media accounts, created 2 websites for the company, and implemented a project management system to keep better track of orders & production during my time there.
Throughout college, I’d transferred universities, and switched jobs a few times in those moves, and from 2008-2011 I’d been working outside the industry, at an eye care clinic, an animal hospital managing the boarding facilities & a small team, and even at a small business incubator running the front desk. So this design job felt like a win, especially in a small town and a state that generally doesn’t seem to value labor.
For the first few years, I was deliriously happy just because I had a job in my chosen career field.
Eventually, my happiness there began to drain and turn into bitterness, frustration, anger, and even resentment. I was developing my voice as an expert, but all the while kept feeling shut down & insignificant as suggestion after suggestion to fix or tweak productivity & work efficiency was shot down or ignored, and yet I was simultaneously praised for being such a good employee. It was so confusing.
I didn’t realize it then, but two things were happening:
I was becoming an ‘adult’ and growing into my own voice, and
I’d begun the very earliest stages of realizing my worth as an employee (& eventual business owner).
My gut was increasingly screaming at me, that I couldn’t continue to grow into the person I was becoming while I was working there because that kind of work culture wasn’t built to allow it –and ultimately, I wasn’t built to stay in it. (Any other Type A’s feelin’ me there?!)
I began to develop a drive to produce meaningful work and make an impact in the world, however big or small. Designing t-shirt graphics wasn’t it for me, so it became monotonous. I craved the ability to be creative in my own way.
An hourly rate, lack of benefits, and some personal financial struggles eventually led me to start freelancing. I’ve always freelanced over the years as opportunities arose, but never in an ‘official’ capacity, until 2015.
I knew what I wanted to do, but my financial circumstances didn’t allow for that dream. Ultimately, I’ve always wanted to work for myself and was inspired by 2 of my graphic design professors who did just that (both had full-time independent work, apart from teaching part-time). I knew it was possible, but my college education didn’t teach me business, just art & design.
I felt stuck.
READ MORE: Why graphic designers are leaving corporate jobs in droves
So, then what happened?
I made a Facebook business page, started an Etsy shop, and built my first website on Weebly, –all for my shaky freelance design business. In short order, I also began to blog, because all my Google searches said blogging was good for bringing traffic to my site, though I had zilch for content ideas.
My first website was atrocious.
My Facebook page was laughable.
And my Etsy shop? ––OMG. Don’t even get me started! (It only ever had 1 sale. ONE.)
Oddly, I just kept going anyway, trying new things and seeing what would work. I was just throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what stuck.
The blog actually developed a micro-following, though I honestly have NO idea why to this day. They were written like a f*cking academic college report. I began to collect a small email list and was getting personal referrals for freelance work, which was enough momentum to ignore the failures, keep my eyes on the successes and keep plunging forward.
In 2016 I moved my website from Weebly to Squarespace and fell in love with web design. I’d been doing print design for so long and was ready for a change so I dove in headfirst because I wanted to learn everything there was to learn (as is often my approach about passion projects!)
I took classes on HTML & CSS, bought textbooks, read business books & every blog post I could find. I also took my first online course that wasn’t from a university, which was a little scary TBH. I bought a contract and figured out how to start invoicing properly, then started setting up real processes and systems for my clients, thanks to that course. I began to start feeling ‘official.’
In 2017, I had a few guinea pigs that let me move their sites off WordPress to Squarespace for the practice, the low-low price of totally free, and a big thank you. Luckily for me, my family is full of entrepreneurs as it turns out! And BTW, all 3 of those websites are still active today and maintained primarily by the site owners.
This year, I also registered my business as an LLC, opened my business checking account, and accepted my first check to “Studio 1862, LLC” 🤩
In 2018, I was finally becoming comfortable blogging, and because of my consistency with it since 2015, I started getting inquiries from people that found me on Google searches. I was taking on anything that came through the door, so to speak, and that was all the work I could really handle in my freelance side-hustle.
In 2019, inquiries slowed a bit while my brand was feeling stagnant –and no, I didn’t realize the 2 were connected until later. I’d almost reached burnout in late 2018 and took NO work for several months to recuperate, but just kept blogging.
My husband had become increasingly frustrated that I worked on weekends, because I had been working 99% of all weekends for about 4 years at this point, and some weeknights too. I enjoyed pouring my energy into my business, but I didn’t realize the effect it was having on my husband, long-term, so I pulled back a little. Meanwhile, I was feeling worse & worse about my 9-5. And frankly, so was my husband.
By the end of 2019, right before we closed for Christmas/New Years, I’d had all I could take –it felt like– and I told my boss that I was burnt out and wanted to phase myself out of that job. I had no real backup plan at that point, but it just felt like I had to make a leap of faith anyway or I’d lose my shit. He was shocked but handled it gracefully. I used that Christmas break to think seriously about what I needed to do for myself… and landed on absolutely nothing.
So for the first few months of 2020, things kept going as usual. And then the pandemic hit the US. Business at my 9-5 slowed drastically. We were all cut to part-time hours and even while we were at the office working, there wasn’t enough actual work to keep all of us busy the whole time we were there; some days some of us were only there to take an order IF it came in. After a couple of months of this, my boss asked if I was interested in a furlough. He seemed nervous to offer it, understandably, but knew I was in need of some time off and this was the perfect way to provide that for me, while also helping him manage the downtime. Win-win!
My furlough started in June of 2020. In July, the vacation my father-in-law had planned for months had finally arrived; he’d wanted to take his sons & their families on vacation out west, –something unheard of. It’d been planned since Thanksgiving or Christmas before the pandemic. We were nervous about traveling, but we packed our N95s & 3oz bottles of hand sanitizer, we socially distanced, had a blast together for just over a week out west —& none of us got sick, thankfully. We got to see a lot of Colorado, Arches National Park, Mesa Verde, several gorgeous waterfalls, and beautiful mountainous landscapes. We did a few hikes, lots of walking & car rides, a little shopping, and had all of our meals together. We took tons of pictures and made a lot of truly great memories.
And then our whole lives turned upside down.
Not 5 days after we got back, my father-in-law was in a horrible accident and passed away. We were SHOCKED. As a local physician that was widely popular in our community, (what felt like) everyone was reeling from his sudden absence, including his employees and patients from his medical practice. In addition to grieving, his 2 boys now had a to-do list a mile long, as they were left to finalize all affairs and get things in order, –and nothing had been in order.
My husband resigned from his job, citing health concerns & a desire to help his brother deal with the aftermath of their dad’s passing. We were living off our savings, my unemployment, and I was working my ASS off to grow what had been a casual side-hustle into a full-time income so I could support our family through these next few months.
READ MORE: How to know when a 9-5 isn’t right for you
Then there was the Template Shop.
This is an idea I’ve been rolling around in my head for a year now, for a lot of reasons, but primarily to have a (somewhat) passive income stream, to help people who can’t afford custom design services, and to encourage online growth during a pandemic that forced everyone & their grandmother to go online.
I’d felt misaligned with my branding for a while, so when I decided to launch the shop I knew I didn’t want it to be under the same umbrella as my Studio brand.
Why did I rebrand?
What wasn’t working?
Why did fixing those things require a TOTAL redo?
What changes was I seeing that had thrown me out of alignment with my old branding?
How did I land on the new brand name?
I couldn't think of anything interesting to name it, until I realized I was focused on the wrong things: I just needed to do it and launch the damn thing.
–HOLD THE PHONE. “THAT’S what I have to name it!!" I thought.
But here’s where things got tricky. I was scared to use that name for my design business because it was unorthodox and a bit BOOM-in-your-face, which I knew would repel some people. So, I kept the two businesses separate at first.
LTDT had its own Instagram profile, and so did Studio 1862. I started building the shop’s website, and before I knew it I realized this separation wasn’t going to work.
I didn’t want to have two of everything:
2 websites,
2 LLC business registrations,
2 email marketing accounts,
2 profiles on every social platform,
2 different branded email address accounts,
2 accounts for social media scheduling,
2 blogs to run,
2 forms of content to manage,
2 brands to maintain, and
2 different voices for each of them.
I also noticed a trend, I was showing up more often and showing up better as my real self for LTDT. Studio 1862 was taking a backseat, and when I showed up for anything related to Studio 1862 it felt forced & uncomfortable. I realized I didn’t actually care about my Studio brand as much as I did about LTDT.
I knew I’d have to merge them. Out with the old, and in with the new!
In August/September 2020, I launched the new website and announced the branding change/merge.
The results have been overwhelmingly positive!
Within the first 30 days, my website traffic doubled. Over the next 3 months, it tripled.
Since January this year, I’ve gotten COUNTLESS compliments on my business name from people of all walks of life and every compliment reinforces the realization that people don’t give a shit if there’s a curse word in my business name. In fact, the “right” people actually love it, or at least the vibe of it.
Here are some of the kind words shared with me, and these don’t even include the countless things clients have said during discovery calls or inquiries, the conversations I’ve had while talking to my accountant, bookkeeper, the post office when I set up my PO Box, and so many others:
Growth and success in 2021
By June this year, I’d already replaced what I would’ve made in 6 months at my old 9-5. By December, I stand to have completely replaced that income.
As of posting this, I’m currently booked through mid-November and get to work with some truly AMAZING clients running some really cool businesses.
Because I’ve niched more toward a personality type than a business model, I get to work with people of all ages, male and female, architects, photographers, attorneys, doctors, nutritionists, breweries, podcasters, musicians, and more, which keeps things interesting!
This year we also began seriously house-hunting. Our other house sold in February this year. In March, we put in an offer on a house & lost it. The next week, we found another diamond-in-the-rough and put in an offer that was accepted! 🙌🏻
Because of Covid travel restrictions, we couldn’t travel 1,300 miles (2,100 km) to see the house in person, so we did a video walkthrough with the realtor and got a thorough inspection. In April, we moved across the country to a house, a city, and & a state we’d literally never stepped foot in before, until the day we signed the closing paperwork.
CRAZY, I know, but we are SO happy with that decision! We literally knew NO ONE here, but we are smitten & can’t wait to start fresh in a new place!
My husband had really wanted to change careers and found a job in a totally new industry where he feels like he can actually help people and make an impact, while also not working 80 hour weeks for horribly low pay & no benefits.
And of course, I’m working from home, for myself, and haven’t been this satisfied & happy with my work in over 10 years.
Overnight success? Nope.
I heard someone say once, that it took them years to become an overnight success! –And isn’t that the truth? 😂
I started this thing in 2015 because I was miserable knowing I was meant for something different that felt completely out of reach. But because I never gave up, kept plugging along, and decided to show up even when I didn’t feel like it, –I’ve made MY dream come true.
