We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Christie Evenson a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Christie, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Being a business owner can be really hard sometimes. It’s rewarding, but most business owners we’ve spoken sometimes think about what it would have been like to have had a regular job instead. Have you ever wondered that yourself? Maybe you can talk to us about a time when you felt this way?

Most of the time, I love being a business owner. I get to create designs for clients in an industry that I love and have fun working on the business strategy as well.

However, in the last couple of years, I’ve thought a lot about the pros and cons of being an entrepreneur compared to having a regular job. I had been successfully working full-time in my business for five years when my son was born, and while I loved the work I was doing, I felt resentful of my unpaid maternity leave/vacation time and increased pressure to bring in more money to support him. Corporate benefits and a paycheck that looked the same every two weeks sounded pretty nice. So when an opportunity came up that I was passionate about, I took it and worked in a corporate role for a year, running my business on the side. It was exactly what I needed at that time.

Now, I’m back to full-time in my business and focused on that for the time being, but I like the idea of being flexible with work and following what feels best in each phase of life. It shouldn’t need to be one path or the other.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Growing up, I took every art class available in school and spent most days after school at some kind of sports practice. That led me to study graphic design in college and find group fitness communities post-grad.

Eventually, I realized that bridging my passion for movement and design was just the niche I needed in my business. Now, I create brands and websites for the most inspiring professionals in the fitness and wellness community, from Pilates studios to personal trainers to yoga retreat centers.

For most of the brands I work with, I am their target audience so it makes it easy for me to understand how to create an experience that feels elevated and streamlined for their clients. Whether they are buying a fitness-specific website template or going all in on a custom brand and website, my designs are always strategically created with my industry expertise.

I often remind myself of the early days in my business, showing up daily at my favorite fitness studios, wanting so badly to be the one designing their brands and websites. Now I’m doing that and that makes me really proud.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

I think there are two things that, in combination, have been most effective in getting clients.

1. Creating the work I wanted to get. Before I was getting projects in the fitness industry I was designing brand identities and websites for fake yoga studios. Then I’d post the work to social media so that potential clients could easily imagine me designing for their brand.

2. Genuinely meeting and getting to know potential clients. Basic networking events never made much of an impact for me because they felt so stiff and transactional. Instead, being in the same places as my target audience and organically meeting them, eventually led to some of them turning into clients. Luckily for me, I enjoyed regularly visiting fitness studios so those relationships came naturally.

Of course, from there, referrals have been a huge source of clients as well.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Seeing a new brand or website live after putting so many hours of thought and exploration into it is such a good feeling. So much energy and strategy are required to create something that is just right for each project, and knowing that it is having an impact on the client’s business is the best reward.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://christieevenson.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/christieevenson/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/christieevenson/

Image Credits

Alisha Tova
Andrew Glatt
Delaney Newhart
Mari Charlson
Samantha McFarlen
Christiana Basso