We were lucky to catch up with Tina Henson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Tina, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?

Genuinely, yes. No job in this world compares to the freedom I have now, and I don’t just mean time, although that’s a big one. I mean getting to choose who I work with. Getting to ask myself before taking on a project: is this going to drain me or light me up? Do I have creative freedom here? Can I actually make the kind of impact I want to make? That level of autonomy doesn’t exist in a cubicle.

And then there’s the financial side of it. In a regular job, your income is decided for you. There’s a list of salary ranges somewhere and you’re just a number on it. Work yourself to the bone all year, and if you’re lucky (truly outstanding) maybe you’ll get a 3% raise, a jeans day, and a pizza party. That’s it. That’s the ceiling.

Running your own business, your income is only limited by your own thoughts around money. And I know that sounds a little out there, but it’s true. We fear people will say no to our prices. We fear what success might look like on the other side. I still catch myself wanting to throw in a little discount sometimes because seeing a big number on an invoice can feel intimidating. But your worth is exactly what you decide it is. Own that.

Now, do I ever think about what it would be like to just have a normal job again? Honestly, probably every other month.

Sometimes it’s a client who keeps pushing boundaries and I’m tired. Sometimes it’s the fact that marketing your own business never really stops and some days I just don’t want to think about content. Sometimes it’s good old imposter syndrome showing up uninvited.

The last time I really went there mentally, I was just worn down. Nothing crazy, just one of those stretches where there’s a lot going on in life and business, and the negative thoughts start creeping in. I started daydreaming what going back would even look like. And then I immediately got the ick.

Because from my own experience: those feelings don’t last that long. A hot shower. Sitting down to journal the real pros and cons. Getting outside. These things work. But my favorite thing to do, and I genuinely recommend this to any business owner, is I keep a folder. Every thank you email, every happy text, every kind note a client has ever sent me lives in that folder. When I start feeling like what I do doesn’t matter, I go back through it. And every single time, I remember that it does.

The hard days are real. But they’re also temporary. And I’ve never once opened that folder and thought yeah, the pizza party would have been better.

Tina, 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?

Hi, I’m Tina Henson, the founder and designer behind TL Design Studios. I build websites and brands for healers. And I mean that broadly.

Yes, a lot of my clients are therapists, mental health practitioners, and spiritual business owners, think tarot readers, psychics, intuitive coaches. I’ve always felt like mental health and spirituality overlap more than people give them credit for, and I love working in that space.

But healing looks like a lot of things. A photographer helping someone feel beautiful and confident in their own skin. A tattoo artist creating a memorial piece that helps someone process grief. A lawyer fighting for laws that actually make their community better. Most of the people I work with are healers in some way, even if that’s not the word they’d use for themselves.

What brings them to me is usually the same thing: they’re really good at what they do, and their website doesn’t show it. They’ve been DIYing it, putting it off, or settling for something that doesn’t actually feel like them. My job is to change that.

Every project starts with strategy before we ever touch design. Who are you talking to? What do they need to feel when they land on your page? What makes you different? The design comes after all of that. That’s what sets me apart, I’m not just making things pretty, I’m building a system that works.

What I’m most proud of is what happens after a project wraps. Clients who tell me they finally feel confident sending people to their website. Therapists who booked their first client within days of launching. Business owners who had been putting this off for years and now can’t stop sharing it with everyone they know. That never gets old.

If your work helps people in some way and you’re ready for a website that finally reflects that, that’s why I’m here.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

I started on Instagram. Honestly it was okay. It taught me how to use social media, but it never really took off the way I needed it to. And looking back, I know exactly why. I was curating everything. Trying to look polished and put together because I was scared of being perceived a certain way. And that fear kept me small.

The thing that actually changed everything was letting go of that. When I started showing up as my actual self and sharing real behind the scenes, real projects, real thoughts, real client wins, that’s when people started actually connecting with me. And the more I did that, the more I grew.

These days I start everything on TikTok. My whole approach shifted from curating to documenting. I just show what’s actually happening and then repurpose it everywhere else. It’s simpler and it performs better because it’s real.

The engagement piece is something I think a lot of people underestimate. People aren’t following you like you’re an influencer. They’re watching a real business owner, a real person, and that relatability is what builds actual trust. So engage with everyone. Don’t just talk to other business owners or potential clients. You genuinely never know what rooms people are in. Someone who follows you just because they like your vibe might run into someone at a dinner party six months from now who needs exactly what you offer. That happens more than you think.

The hardest part of building a presence on social media isn’t the algorithm or the posting schedule. It’s letting go of the fear of judgment. That’s what held me back the longest. Once I got out of my own way, everything else started moving.

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

Honestly? Being a decent human.

Even back in my corporate days, senior leadership would ask me how my team was so engaged. The answer was the same then as it is now. I’m real. I’m honest. I share the ups and the downs. And I go above and beyond for my people.

When people talk about you behind closed doors, you want those to be good conversations.

I think about it this way sometimes. What if you stopped marketing your business today? Like completely stopped. No posts, no ads, nothing. Could your business survive on referrals alone? Could it thrive? That’s the real measure of the reputation you’ve built. And I genuinely believe if you create exceptional enough experiences for people, the answer can be yes.

There’s a difference between being someone people go to and being THE person people go to. That gap is filled by the moments nobody sees. The extra check-in. The honest conversation when something isn’t working. The way you make someone feel when they’re trusting you with something that really matters to them.

Referrals are the loudest thing in any room. And they cost you nothing except doing really good work and actually caring about the people you do it for.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tldesignstudios.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tinalynndesignstudio/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tinathetinybeana/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristina-rogers-4300b3126
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tinalynn1318