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

Donna, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

“Success is the sum of small efforts repeated day in and day out.” ~Robert Collier

My story is exactly this quote. But I cannot always say that this is what I believed about becoming successful. As a young college graduate, I believed that climbing the corporate ladder was the way to be successful – with each new job would come more money, more recognition, more accolades. But just like so many of us experience early on in our adult lives, my path was not a straight one. It was full of detours and road blocks. I was beginning to question everything I wanted to do in my career that would ultimately bring me the success I was so desperately seeking. After a few years, I made the very necessary decision to put my career on hold to focus on being a mom.

While my career path was on pause for the moment, I continued to hone in on ideas that might lead to my next steps to success. However during this time, the meaning of success to me was evolving. Despite all of my various endeavors to get back on that road, the one thing that I learned about myself was that I was craving creativity. Whether it was teaching myself to make jewelry from repurposed materials to collecting and experimenting with recipes to put together a cookbook to trying to team up with people to start a party business, I was noticing a pattern – the one constant for all of these various endeavors was my love for designing the packaging or graphics or pages or invitations. My mind, body & soul were finding new avenues to create but always ending back on the same corner.

Once I realized this about myself and began to focus on my passion, the more I believed I was back on track to a path of success. On my road, I believe my landmarks were clear despite the twists & turns. Doing a little something every day to stay creative and staying true to that passion has taken me to where I am today. While my success is not a story of major wealth or recognition, it is one of perseverance and determination. It is believing in myself and taking note of the small victories!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Donna Deck Creative was a dream that I had been conjuring up for many, many years – usually while changing a diaper or feeding a hungry child! I was a stay-at-home mom for almost 20 years. After leaving my corporate job to take on this challenging and exhausting new career, I began to freelance for local businesses in real estate and tech, designed flyers for church events, created custom invitations for friends and family. I was slow to gain clients and it was challenging to promote my business because this was long before the days of social media. Then child number three and number four entered the picture. My dreams had to be put on hold. Through the years I continued to design invitations and even took on pro-bono work for non-profit organizations to keep my skills up & learn more about graphic design.

In 2021, after a brutal pandemic year, I decided it was time to get after it! I read a book that inspired me to dream big and live a creative life. That is when I decided to make my dream into a reality. I began designing greeting cards and selling them at local vendor/farmers’ markets and craft fairs. I was getting my name out and branding my business. I began working at a locally-owned community newspaper as a graphic designer – entering the workforce again after all those years of dreaming about being a graphic designer. I was on my way!

My greatest asset is being able to bring clients’ ideas to life in print. I love working with clients on custom projects like weddings, bridal showers, graduation parties, birthday celebrations because I believe these events deserve to be memorialized with an amazing invitation. I enjoy discussing what inspires clients and how they want to incorporate these ideas into their events. I present clients with several concepts to begin and we work together to come up with the perfect final product.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

The mission that drives my creative journey is two-fold. First, I decided to pursue this creative life to be a role model for my four children. They are the most important spectators in all of this! For so many years, I focused on their upbringing and, of course, still very much do. But it was important for me to also show them that my dreams matter too – I encourage them to follow theirs, so why wasn’t I following mine? It was also important for them to see me working very hard to build something with time and passion. It is important for them to see me as someone other than just “Mom” – I want to be someone that they not only look up to but are also proud of!

My second mission is to give back using my gifts and talents. I recently became involved with Girls In The Know! – a non-profit that empowers young women and teaches them the mantra, “I Am Enough.” I am able to use my skills as a designer to give back to the community and support an organization that I truly believe in.

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

I am still very much trying to build my reputation in my market, but I have had enough experience in the last couple of years to know that my clients appreciate my approach and belief in customer care. I believe it is important to take the time to communicate with clients about their needs and wants – this is a service I provide before any billable hours are recorded. Also, I am open-minded with the ideas of my clients – if they provide me with a sketch or a screenshot of something they’ve seen and want to try to recreate for their event, I do not take offense to that. Ultimately I want to make my clients happy with their final product. I am efficient and skilled which are teachable traits. But knowing how to connect with people, how to be open to their ideas and how to communicate honestly are what I bring to the table that build my reputation in the market.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @donnadeckcreativestl
• Facebook: Donna Deck Creative

Image Credits
Lori Clapper Photography
JS Photography STL LLC