– 20 min read –
It’s true what they say…
“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” ― Earl Nightingale
my dream come true.
I can’t believe that 3,285 days have flown by since the day that I decided that I couldn’t keep “day dreaming” about running my own design studio anymore. It was time to take the leap of faith. I had just turned 22, fresh out of college working at my first full-time entry level job. After 6 months, I started feeling overwhelmed, overworked and frustrated. I was also scared that I was becoming too comfortable with just getting a good, steady paycheck. Don’t get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that accomplishment! But, in my heart I had a passionate desire to create something bigger than myself, do better with my God-gifted talents, and ultimately to be truly happy. I started hating the corporate job life routine and became uninspired. I can’t help it I’m a true Gemini — I get bored easily and I’m spontaneous as Tinkerbell (who I was obsessed with at the time). I needed a change and all I could ever think about was chasing my dreams. At that age I had nothing to lose. So, why not?
Fast forward 9 years later. By the grace of God, I am still here…living, doing what I love and genuinely happy! I feel incredibly blessed because I still get to do what I love and work with my best friend & husband every single day! Every year that passes I am amazed at what has been accomplished through our work, our company’s growth, challenges we have overcome, and our life experiences as designers and business owners.
✨ I am forever grateful for the trust and unconditional support that my husband and now full-time business partner provided me since day 1.
He never doubted me or my dream. My dream became our dream. ✨
I contemplated for a few days about writing this post. My very first blog post! I wondered, “what do I say?, what should I share?, what would I want you to learn?”. Then, I realized that I just want to recollect and highlight my special memories, lessons, and share what my experience has been like on this amazing 9 year journey as a creativepreneur — the good, the bad, and the ugly.
My hope is that you find some inspiration from reading my story and that it helps you in some way as you navigate your own journey! Whatever that dream, goal or passion means for you — we are all trying to get somewhere. ❥
Highlights from my 9-year journey thus far
July 7, 2009
I did it, I took the leap! I quit my “good, secured salary job”. It all happened after I took my first road trip out of state to Destin, Florida for the July 4th weekend — a place I always dreamed of visiting. The ocean is my haven and after having explored a new piece of the world and seeing Florida’s beautiful blue ocean waters I felt refreshed with so much creative inspiration and confidence. I felt free and happy again and I didn’t want this feeling to fade. I could not go back to face my reality, so I didn’t. I quit my job to pursue my dreams. It all happened so fast and unexpectedly (but, this had been on mind for a long time).
Looking back, it was very scary, I cried all day. The next morning, I setup a little workspace in my bedroom, started working on my business and never looked back. I was unsure of what was to come, but I knew God was not. I was willing to bet on myself and I was confident that I could make my dream work. There was no other option. And, ’til this day 9 years later there is still no other option.
You won’t believe me, but the very next day after quitting my job I received an email from an old co-worker who was needing freelance graphic design help for the non-profit she worked at. There it was…my very first client! I took that as a sign from heaven that this was meant to be. It was too much of a coincidence to receive a lead the day after quitting my job.
So, I stayed busy working on a few client projects, and developing my company branding and website in Dreamweaver (with the very basic skills I learned in that one Web Design class in college). In October, we launched our baby to the world wide web. It was an exciting moment for sure! Now, it was time to hustle!
2010 – 2011
I don’t remember too much from these years, but 3 exceptional moments stand out:
- In early 2010, I received a call from my previous employer where I quit my job — they wanted to contract me to continue working with them, BUT through my new company! This was the BEST news ever and truly an opportunity that helped my business grow by providing lots of work and financial stability. They kept me busy! Even though I was doing the same work I did when I left, I was now able to work on other projects at the same time and I had freedom to work on my dream. To me this was another BIG sign from heaven…that this was meant to be.
- My team and I gifted a special wall mural that we designed and painted ourselves for a local non-profit organization (the one that was my first client). Those were some fun times and I am forever grateful to Gracie, Ozzie and Daniel for believing in my dream and donating their time and talents to make this happen!
- I started expanding my skillset from doing only graphic design work to also doing web design — I was eager to learn more and through trial and error I self-taught myself WordPress web design. BEST. DECISION. EVER. I was now able to convert my HTML website to WordPress, and when the opportunity arose I would design websites for clients too!
- I continued working on building my client base. Some clients I found by searching online, a lot were referrals from friends or colleagues, and others found me through my website.
2012 – 2017
I consider these years the magic years.
My business really started blossoming during these years! Things that I dreamed and hoped for started to manifest. It’s been a slow and steady growth up to this point — but these years really changed the fate of my future. I believe this was all written by God. I just had to have the patience and resilience to make it this far and not give up on my dream (which was always a struggle when things weren’t moving fast enough or when I let doubt and fear overrule). But, I never gave up! And, I have a few close friends and family to thank (they know who they are) for not allowing me to give up and always speaking sense back into me when I started to “talk crazy”! LOL.
During these years, I was blessed with some amazing, unthinkable and exciting opportunities! But, just like the saying goes… “with the good comes the bad”, these years also provided more than enough valuable lessons and challenges that I wish could have been avoided. Looking back these lessons were golden. I am who I am today because I overcame.
The Good
- In mid-2012, the most amazing opportunity arrived — a dream client found my website/business online! Elise, the owner of a strategic web consultancy firm in Maryland reached out through my website’s contact form. She requested a quote for not one, but 2 web design projects! It sounded too good to be true. Thankfully, it was true! I believe God led us to each other because since that day we have developed an amazing, trusting business partnership and friendship (sisterhood)! This opportunity is one of the biggest blessings that I am grateful for. I consider Elise a mentor that truly helped me develop as a better business woman and designer by pushing me beyond what I thought were my limits, teaching me so much about the digital & web space which has opened a whole new world for me and our business.
- I was blessed to work with the local Children’s Museum of Houston for a few months! This was a dream experience that I’ll never forget.
- A variety of projects and diverse clients kept arriving, mostly through referrals (which is the best) and through our website!
- Business was going great! I was busy and trying to manage it all by myself. When I really needed extra help and had the opportunity to do so I would contract a few of my designer friends!
- For a while now my husband who is also a designer would moonlight in the evenings and weekends to help me with client projects. Business was growing! We really felt like it was time for the next level – our dream to work and run our business together full-time came true. Late July 2012, my husband was able to leave his full-time job and join Kardia Design full-time. We’ve been dreaming and hustling for our business together ever since. Like my hubby says, “we bleed turquoise” (our brand color).
- In September 2012 — my ultimate dream finally came true! We finally were able to open a “real” office for our design studio. I no longer had to work from my apartment living room. This was an amazing feeling and accomplishment for us! We were so proud of this moment.
- Late 2014-2017: Amazing BIG opportunities started to come in – we were able to work on some amazing large-scale web projects that catapulted our business’ growth, expanded our capabilities, and opened many doors.
The Bad
"Took a lot of L’s called em lessons, never took a loss"
- Lecrae
- In late 2013 we unexpectedly lost one of our steady client contracts, the one who I used to work for. To be honest, it was time for something different and I know they felt the same way too. But, this curve ball really knocked us down for a while. We had just started the biggest phase our business dream and were almost a year into our office lease. Times were tough, but we kept on believing that we would get through it. A lot of adjustments and sacrifices had to be made.
- During this time, I learned that I needed to start making better, reasonable decisions and take baby steps even if I felt like I was ready to soar. I was reminded that I could dream big, but I needed to start small. I knew this. But, I had big aspirations and used to make impulsive decisions based on my emotions. I was naive and probably a bit too optimistic. Reality hit me.
- We needed to cut our overhead significantly to be able to continue working on our dream. So, instead of my “dream” office space of 1,000+ sq.ft. which was not even being utilized the way I imagined, we decided to downsize when our 1 year lease ended. We moved downstairs to a 480 sq.ft. office that was perfect for us. It was a sad moment when we had to move out from our first office, but this ended up being the BEST move and lesson that life has taught us.
- Our new smaller office was exactly what we needed. More than enough! We painted it ourselves all over again and made it feel like “home”. This office was my favorite place in the world! I suddenly loved it more than my first “dream” office. It meant more to me than just our “workplace”. It was a reminder of everything we had overcome, and it was the place were business really bloomed into the well-rooted sunflower that it is today.
The Ugly
Unfortunately, we’ve had some ugly moments that still hurt my heart when I think about it. But, I try not to let these memories bother me anymore. It took a long time to overcome the challenges that we were faced with.
- Early 2016 – our office was robbed – we realized that some of our items had gone missing. I had a professional DSLR camera and Bamboo Drawing Tablet for work, but we didn’t use it too often. It took some time before we realized that these items were missing. I was certain that I didn’t misplace them. Then, we noticed an older off-brand monitor screen that didn’t belong to us in our storage closet. This screen was placed here as a cover up to replace the monitor screen we owned and was stored in the very same spot. Apparently, we weren’t the only ones in our office building that were targeted. The worst part is that someone with keys to our office had walked in, took what they wanted and locked the door on their way out. We were furious, hurt and at a loss for words. Time passed, we kept working and trying to move forward, but it was not easy. Our lease was coming up for renewal and we decided that we should just move to another location and get a fresh start somewhere else.
- Late 2016, we relocated to a brand-new office, ready for what was to come! We were excited for this change. Our new space didn’t feel like home yet, but we got adjusted and made it work! Then, the unthinkable happened. After just 2 months at our new office it happened again! ;( I remember my husband and I were happily walking into our office Monday morning, Dec 13th, 2016. I stayed in the front reception area checking for voicemails, then I heard my husband yelling… his new Apple iMac computer was gone, his Beats headphones and other small items were gone, drawers were opened, and things were shuffled around. My heart sank, and tears flowed for days. To make things worse it was the holiday season, and yet again someone with keys to our office walked in, went shopping and took our hard-earned working tools and locked the door on their way out.
- The most disappointing part was knowing someone from the inside was vandalizing our space. We tried running away from this only to be attacked again. But, what could we do now? So, we just kept trying to stay positive, we focused on our work and pushed through these challenges. We stayed here for a year, but we were mostly working from home now. We took all our valuables home. I couldn’t trust leaving any electronics or tools at my office anymore. Eventually, we were able to replace the computer that was stolen, but we decided to upgrade from desktop to laptops so that we could take our computers back with us when we needed to go to the office.
- The office had now become a space to just meet our clients. I was always on the edge, thinking someone was watching us, or that they would come back again. We never worked inside that room again either. It just felt haunting.
- At the end of 2017, we decided to take a break from worrying about our office space. It was too stressful and I was not willing to lose any more of our hard-earned tools. We also realized that we didn’t really need an office to do great work. It was nice to have a private space of our own to meet our clients, but a lot of the work we do and communication is handled online. So, we decided to make the best of it and started working from our home office again temporarily — or from anywhere in the world, really!
2018 – Year 9
Our “office” used to mean everything to me. When I was younger I used to think that not having our office meant I failed, but not this time. This time I won, because I am still here. Those thieves could not steal our joy! You must realize this happened 2 years ago and Kardia Design is still daydreamin’ and killin’ it! 🙂 We are still dreaming and hoping that one day we will find the perfect new spot for Kardia.
I know this was a very lengthy post, but just like our journey it is full of uphill and downhill turns. The journey to your dreams or destination is not always a straight one. You’ll have to shift gears, slow down, take detours, make U-turns, but you’ll get closer to your destination as long as you keep driving and refueling yourself with inspiration and positive thoughts. The biggest lesson that I hope you can take away from reading my story is that throughout the various challenges we faced one thing remained consistent, we worked hard, kept believing in our dreams, and NEVER gave up. I don’t know what the future holds, but I trust that God is and has always been in control throughout our journey. Our story was written before time. My job is to do my best every single day and to believe in the beauty of my dreams. ✨
I cannot wait to see what happens throughout these next 12-months…year 10 is on the horizon, so it’s time to continue with the design hustle! We ain’t done.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read my story! Please leave me a comment, I would love to hear your thoughts. What’s your story?
Wow! I absolutely loved reading about Kardia’s growth so far, it’s a wonderful trip down memory lane (even the ugly part!) & great pictures! Go Cindy & Daniel!
Thank you so much for reading our story, Sofia! And, most of all thank you for always being the best supporter & friend to me! <3 xo