We were lucky to catch up with Keila Gonzalez recently and have shared our conversation below.

Keila, appreciate you joining us today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

I think what it takes to be successful is failure and curiosity. No matter what industry, passion or career you are pursuing failure is something that will happen but it’s something that if you get comfortable with you will definitely thrive. I have learned the most in moments that I have failed because I had to figure it out myself and after I do figure it out the lesson will forever be with me. Curiosity to me is something that is so important for success because without being curious and exploration there is a lot that you won’t discover.

Keila, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Keila Gonzalez and I am a Latina self taught graphic designer born and raised in NYC but now living in Arizona. My design career started by mistake actually, my best friend wanted a snapchat filter for her birthday back when snapchat filters were a thing and me being the capricorn that I am I said yes without realizing I have no idea how to do that. I was able to teach myself through many google searches, youtube tutorials and trial and error and after all our friends saw her Snapchat filter I started getting requests to make them for birthdays, events, baby showers and more.

Eventually someone asked if I knew how to design a logo and again I said yes even though I had no idea how to design a logo. Before I knew it that one snapchat filter had snowballed into me getting tons of female clients asking for logos and eventually website design. As the years went by I started to realize how much I loved design and how I had an eye for it.

I have always been very into women empowerment but during this time of me gaining clients I quickly realized I preferred to work with women owned businesses and I saw that my services were not only empowering other women but also inspiring and motivating them to start that business they have always wanted to start. I am always proud of all the women that have been brave enough to invest in themselves and in their business because it’s not an easy thing to do when you have no idea what you’re doing. I love being able to help women through design but also with the support of believing in them and giving them business advice so that they know they aren’t alone.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Instagram and word of mouth has been the two best sources of new clients for me. I have yet had to do any sort of marketing or reach out on my end because I usually always have clients contacting me through IG or emailing me because I worked on their friends brand design. I suggest posting the type of work that you want to get on your socials so that it attracts clients that want the work you want to do. Tik Tok is huge right now as well so I think utilizing Tik Tok is really smart and will possibly produce new clients since their algorithm shares your content to people that aren’t following you.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

When I first started designing I was living in NYC still and there were so many women empowerment events happening and I went to ALL OF THEM. I think going to these events and meeting a lot of women in person where they could see my personality and energy in person was a huge contributor to building my reputation within my market. Networking will never go out of style and as scary as it was to go to an event and introduce myself and meet new people it was honestly the best thing I could so to promote myself and my business.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hustlingmami.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/creativelykeila/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keila-gonzalez-737a5071/