We were lucky to catch up with Susana Baker Boey recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Susana, thanks for joining us today. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

I’ve been an overachiever since I was a kid finding validation in straight As and dean’s lists. As I entered the corporate world, report cards became performance reviews, and I worked tirelessly to impress and earn top marks. One day my manager called me into her office and asked me something no one ever had: “Can you please do less?”

While I picked my jaw up off the floor, she explained that my quest for perfection was holding me back, keeping me tied to a project much longer than necessary. Then she put it into terms she knew I’d understand, “Your B- work is better than most people’s A+ work.” She wanted me to know that in the world of business, and frankly in life, you make faster progress by being satisfied with ‘good enough.’

When I started my own business, overthinking and perfectionism threatened to keep me stuck before I had even really begun. But I recalled that conversation from many years before and decided to move forward once things were ‘good enough,’ knowing that as the boss I could tweak things as I learned and grew.

Don’t get me wrong: delivering excellence is one of my core values—my clients have trusted me with their business and I am committed to providing them quality support. But I now know that success as a creative entrepreneur relies on understanding the fine line between excellence and perfection.

Susana, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’ve spent my entire life telling stories. My childhood of doing small-town plays turned into a competitive public speaking, followed by degrees in journalism and theatre, and then a career in marketing spanning a decade.

For 7 years, I worked my way up at media and advertising companies in NYC and DC, winning awards for marketing, writing, web content, and brand development. Starting my own business was never the plan, but after successfully climbing the corporate ladder, I jumped off in search of my own version of success.

I founded Susana Boey Creative in March of 2021 and have since supported corporations, entrepreneurs and small businesses with their brand strategy, messaging and positioning, web design, copywriting, and marketing.

While folks usually come to me knowing they need a logo and a website, what they need (and what I give them!) is 360 support in launching or rebranding their service business. We tackle everything from “How to I talk about my business?” to “How do I package my offers?” to “Where do I look for clients?” — all while creating the brand foundations and website they need to appeal to their ideal customer.

I operate in a way that centers empathy, clarity, integrity, and joy, which means you can expect a friendly space where being human is very much allowed, patient teaching and explanations without complicated jargon, 0% shady business tactics, and best of all… FUN.

Who’s the woman behind the biz? That’d be me, Susana Baker Boey. I’m Colombian-American, fully bilingual, and based right outside of NYC. With family all over the globe, I travel as often as I can, taking my business with me. I’m married to a Malaysian-New Zealander and we’re obsessed with our rescue dachshund, Lucy, who often crashes client meetings.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

Referrals, referrals, referrals. The high stakes, large investment, long term work that I do requires that potential clients feel completely comfortable with the person they are entrusting with their business. While marketing, case studies, and authority building help, the number one factor people consider is the opinion of someone they trust.

My priority from start to finish is to deliver the kind of work and client experience that will encourage someone to recommend me to a friend or colleague.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

When I was toying with the idea of quitting my corporate job, I began taking on some freelance jobs in my spare time, mostly corporate copywriting and content creation. Once I proved that I was a true strategic partner, clients entrusted me with more projects and responsibilities. During that time, I put everything I was making into a new business bank account and didn’t touch a single penny.

I also created a line item in my personal budget called the “quit my job fund” and tried to cut spending in other categories to give myself as much of a cushion as possible. Once I had the equivalent of a few months of my paycheck saved up and a couple of recurring clients, I felt confident making the leap.

Now for the disclaimer, because I don’t believe in the “I did it, so you can too” mentality running rampant on social media these days. Everyone’s situation is different and some have much more privilege than others. Mine looks like having a spouse with a job that provides me health insurance and a salary that could cover our bills if we ever really needed it to. It looks like not having student loans because I was lucky enough to earn a scholarship that covered my tuition. And it looks like running a business that provides services online, meaning that I have minimal overhead and less risk.

Contact Info:

• Website: susanaboey.com
• Instagram: @untanglingideas
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susanabakerboey/
• Other: Threads: @untanglingideas

Image Credits
Beth Menduni