How I discovered my creative side and used it to thrive

with developing my own business and overcoming hurdles to open doors to new opportunities.

I have been creative from the beginning. It started with making arts and crafts when I was a little girl. When I was a teenager I started scrapbooking memories and writing my own books. As a young adult I helped with catering events, decor and print design. As an adult I started to design invitations for all occasions. Creativity is something that has been a part of my life from the get go and I have always had a passion for it.

I turned to catering events in high school which was one of my first jobs I had. I loved being able to turn a vision into an actual event and see it all unfold. Let me tell you, event planning is hard work and I was sure I wanted to be an event planner for the rest of my life. After a while though, I grew tired of the event planning world and I was given an opportunity to have an even better career. A career that would allow me to have more freedom.

Invitations by design and a new adventure with design school

I had found a way that I could be a part of the event, but be behind the scenes of it. Invitation design was the love that I found after being an event planner. I loved being able to unleash my creativity and design an invitation for someone’s event. Afterall, an invitation is a glimpse into the event itself. I designed invitations for my family and friends for a few years as a creative outlet before deciding to make it my career.

I attended The Art Institute of Las Vegas and during that time I worked with the renowned Ann Trobough, owner of ShopAnnbelle’s: a luxury stationery design studio known for its unique and inspiring invitations. It was there that I fine- tuned my graphic design skills and gained valuable creative insight from one of the industry’s best. I graduated with my Bachelor’s of Science in Graphic Design in 2014 and I knew that the jobs that were available were not for me. I didn’t want to work for a hotel or work at an agency. I had an infant son at home and I didn’t want to be away from him or be too exhausted working and being a mom.

I took a risk and was granted a reward.

I decided to be my own boss and take the plunge and develop my own business. I had made contacts and relationships along the way and started talking to them about becoming my clients. Within the first month of being official, I had 2 big clients and another came shortly thereafter. I was lucky enough to have a startup business that took off with clients coming and going. I was able to stay home and take care of my son while working with my clients.

I started by taking on all kinds of projects and soon realized that I had a love for branding and all that went with it.

I decided to niche down to be a branding designer and therefore I only accepted projects for branding.

There is something about designing a brand from scratch and watching it grow throughout the years.

I love everything about branding and even started accepting projects to help brand social media pages (Instagram and Facebook) to include branded social media graphics and keep the feed as branded as possible with colors and overall look and feel.

A curveball that gave me a mighty fight

After about 4 years of being my own boss, I was thrown a huge curveball. Over the holiday season in 2017, I had been feeling pretty lousy and my energy level was zapped. When I got home from our holiday vacation I went into an Urgent Care facility to get checked out. I was told that I needed to go to the hospital right away and to receive a blood transfusion. I was shocked to say the least and did what the doctor told me to do and drove myself to the hospital.

On January 16, 2018 I was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.

I went into the hospital and didn’t leave for about a month and a half due to getting treatment for about 2 hours every day (except the weekends, of course!). I was given a month off of chemo treatment to recover.

Feeling better after my first round of chemo, I went to Disneyland to celebrate and to embrace a little magic. After my month of rest was up, I then went back in for another month of treatment with a month off afterwards to recover.

My last round of chemo was thankfully approved to be outpatient which allowed me to spend time with my son again. After my final treatment on July 11, 2018, I was officially in remission and I have stayed in remission for 3 years now.

Rising from the ashes like a Phoenix

My business had to take a back seat during my treatment fighting cancer. But after everything started to get normal again, I decided to really hone in on my business and redevelop my business strategy. I hired a business coach to guide me through the process of redefining who I wanted to serve with my business.

I knew I wanted to continue serving my clients through designing their brands and I knew that I wanted to do more to help. I thought that by developing different social media branded series I could help my clients and potential clients to be armed with the knowledge they would need to work with a designer.

I also knew that I wanted to teach more so I created a mini course and a zoom call to do just that! I plan on adding more courses down the road. Teaching others about branding is a passion of mine, especially when you can collaborate with others in the industry with similar clientele.

I have taken everything that I have learned and I have now reached a point where I feel like I am on solid ground again with my business.

Living life to the fullest and making all the memories

I have continued to live my life to the fullest, just like I had before my diagnosis. I make sure to take time away from my business to enjoy the little things in life with my son and the love of my life.

I travel as much as possible because it feeds my soul and allows me to find inspiration for my designs. I go anywhere and everywhere. A favorite place for us is Duck Creek, Utah and Bryce Canyon National Park. We also have plans to travel abroad and it’s more about picking the places to go and what order to visit them in.

I visit Disneyland to have a little magic in my life and to bring out the kid in me. Someday soon we will take our son to experience Disneyland, but for now we will make it an adult trip.

I spend quality time with my family and close friends. Game nights and family dinners are a favorite of mine.

I also take on opportunities to help others however I can. I want my business to be more about helping clients instead of padding my bottom line. I also want to teach more people about how to elevate their brand and make it work for them.

Take a look into my crystal ball

Looking into the future I am excited for all of the possibilities that could become a reality. I am eager to work on collaborative projects and have teaching opportunities.