We recently connected with Calley Mize and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Calley thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Any thoughts about whether to ask friends and family to support your business. What’s okay in your view?

Asking friends/family to support your business can be intimidating and daunting BUT for me, social media has been a huge helper when bridging the ask for help. Using LinkedIn as a business page to promote yourself and services has helped me re-reach out to old coworkers that I might have lost touch with. Since I had previous relationships with them through our old corporate job, they remember my capabilities and/or work ethic. I think sharing a bit of your story on social media can help you reconnect with those ‘friends’ that are sometimes online-only friends, but that means being a little vulnerable to the internet.

I am personally thankful for a close friend of mine who went through the process of starting a creative business full-time. She was a great mentor and resource for me (still is) to ask questions about all aspects of business – quotes, website, payment/invoices and more. The one thing that I’ve found by relying on her is that she also will rely on me for any advice too. Finding a friend or family member that you can ask questions but also provide them with value has helped me grow as a business owner.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am a graphic designer who had no idea they were going to be a full-time creative business owner. After having my son, I was preparing to head back to my corporate job in about a month when the company closed it’s doors/business. The shocking change of plans left me scrambling to apply to so so so many corporate jobs with no success. After a while, I decided to be my own business-owner. I had previously been doing graphic design for friends/family on the side of my full-time job, but the pull of motherhood and the flexibility of my own schedule pushed me fully into that path.

Prior to me moving into being my own creative business-owner, I started a local charcuterie business with one of my friends in 2021. In this charcuterie business, we did everything ourselves – website/marketing was my realm and the business/taxes side of things was my friend. Although we helped each other thru each decision, it helped me in seeing what all goes into starting a small business. Since our business was local-only, we had different hurdles and challenges to get our business name/services out there – but am happy to say the business has continued to grow and be successful. For those in the Duluth, MN or Superior, WI area – look up Yes, Cheese!

But taking that prior experience along with my marketing knowledge, I’ve been able to do a variety of different projects. From websites to rebranding to production – I’ve done everything and anything inbetween. I’ve helped a variety of different industries, but many of my clients are business owners who are starting off, trying to do it all on their own but need help creatively. For me, I provide my clients with a holistic view of their messaging/creative along with giving them tools to succeed in their own small business. Marketing has so many different avenues that it can be overwhelming for a new business owner, I help them determine the right moves for their business both financially and from a time-commitment standpoint too. Since some of these clients are still full-time hoping to turn their side-business into a full-time reality. Having a prior local business in addition to my marketing skills has helped me better serve the small-business sector.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

For me, providing potential clients with value even if they decide to not go forward with me. For example, a client who has an existing website but isn’t gaining the traction online – I will have a phone call or even communicate via email first of some pros/cons of their site, competitor examples, and overall some marketing advice. From there, I’m able to establish a relationship with them, they can see my intentions are to better their business and I bring a wealth of knowledge, and if they don’t decide to move forward with my bid, they have hopefully learned something. Adding value to your conversations/connections has helped me with connecting to other small businesses.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think sometimes when you have a creative job, the thought is that you just make things look pretty. But for me, I’m thinking more about the customer and the journey they will take to learn my client’s brand/product. Approaching your design from a holistic standpoint and seeing how your customer will interact with your socials which leads them to your website to learn more, and when the information is so hard to understand/disorganized – it might leave the potential customer looking elsewhere. Between figuring out how all of your modes of communication work together along with being able to clearly tell your story is all a juggle that non-creatives might not realize is part of the creative process too.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://calleycreative.com/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/calley-mize-39875635/

Image Credits

Emmie Bassett