We were lucky to catch up with Elaina Mitchell recently and have shared our conversation below.

Elaina, 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?

All business owners wonder if they made the right decision to build a business, instead of working a dependable 9-5 job. The thought to look for steady pay was a constant one in my early days of becoming an entrepreneur. The pressure was even higher for me, because I was a single mom to a baby boy…he was depending on me. But, he was also my reason for building a business. I really had no other choice, because in the beginning I had no money for a babysitter to even be able to attend or hold a steady job, and my son was too young for daycare at the time. My back was against the wall, and figuring out how to make money from home was an absolute MUST for me.

It’s been almost a decade of running and scaling my own businesses, and I’m so very thankful that I never gave up or gave into those thoughts to fold. My so is now 9 years old, and he’s been able to witness first hand that chasing your dreams is always worth it.

Elaina, 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?

Where do I begin? It’s been such a wild ride…

I’ve always loved art ad design, since I was really little. I always told my parents I wanted to be an artist when I grew up…and my dad would always say, “Artists don’t make any money.” So I knew from the very beginning that if I really wanted to follow my dreams, I had to get creative, stay persistent, and prove my dad wrong.

All throughout high school I made money selling my art to my classmates and painting custom clothing for spirit days. Making money with art just came naturally to me because it was all my soul ever wanted…to be able to live off of my passions. A school counselor suggested that I go to college for graphic design, so I did. I actually dropped out of college after my first semester due to financial and personal issues, and I used Youtube tutorials to teach me how to operate all of the Adobe design programs.

I was eventually able to offer graphic design services to clients, but I wasn’t charging much, and it was hard to pay my bills with just graphic design work. Bartending and modeling became my focus, because they paid better. The words “artists don’t make any money” would play over and over again in my head…and I felt a bit defeated.

It wasn’t until my mid 20’s, when I found out I was pregnant, that I realized bartending and modeling wasn’t going to be an option much longer. I eventually had my son, and became a single mom at the age of 24. With a little baby to take care of, I knew it was time to refocus on my passion for creativity and design, and figure out how to make money from home.

So, I started offering Graphic design services online. Social media platforms like Facebook were just becoming really popular and I used it to my advantage to network and throw my hat in the ring for projects. Graphic design projects soon turned into requests for website designs, and eventually video editing and full branding. I was really thankful that we had tools and resources like Youtube and Social media platforms to both learn from home, and network from to, to then be able to work from home. It was a dream come true.

My branding clients started asking me about social media marketing services…and though I had never thought to offer that service, I knew how much social media helped me build my business and I knew exactly how to help other clients do the same. I began offering social media marketing and content creation services due to the demand, and eventually St. Pete Social was born!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

In the beginning stages of building my business, I also had a little baby to take care of. Because I was a single mom, and didn’t have family around or extra money for a babysitter, I had no other choice but to bring my son with me to client meetings. This was long before Zoom was a big thing.

I remember feeling so nervous and embarrassed every time I would walk into a meeting with my toddler in hand. But each and every time, the client’s understood and actually respected me more for it. I still have some of the same clients to this day, and they’ve been able to witness my son grow up into the young man he is today. Some of them still say “I remember when you were just a toddler coming to meetings with your mom!” and that always melts my heart.

Some people think that being a single mom, or a mom in general, means you can’t chase your dreams any more. I’m here to remind you that that’s just not true. Being a mom actually gives you a burning fire to chase your dreams and never ever stop!

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media is how I built my personal brand and businesses. It really is an amazing tool that we have at our finger tips. I learned quickly on social media, that all humans are looking to connect…but much deeper than surface level. Being vulnerable online, sharing my personal story, my fails, my downfalls, my ups and my downs, it all helped me truly connect with my friends online and led to the growth of my audience and bottom line.

My advice to anyone starting to build your online presence would be to show up authentically and unapologetically. The world is sick of cookie cutter responses and fake masks. The world is craving the real you…and the most beautiful part about that is there’s literally only one YOU. Your story is one of a kind, your personality is one of one, everything about you is unique and so valuable in this world. It’s time to let it shine!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.elainamitchell.com, www.stpetesocial.com, www.emitchellstudio.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/elaina.mitchell, instagram.com/stpete.social, instagram.com/emitchellstudio
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/stpete.socialmediamarketing