We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Fernanda Martinez. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Fernanda below.

Fernanda, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

This is a very short and sweet story. I wanted to have a name that represents me personality and the mission of my business while keeping it short, catchy, trendy, and of course, recognizable and easy to remember.

I am usually the friend that wants to motivate everyone and my mission is just that… motivate and inspire people with visual arts. When I started my business in 2016, saying “Get Stoked” was “cool”. You could hear everyone saying it all the time and I always used that expression as well. The meaning is very fitting for my personality and mission which is why I picked it as my business name.

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’ve always been an artist and art has always been the only thing I want to do all day long so I started to monetize it slowly and pretty on accident.

I started making stickers for myself and slowly people stated to ask me if I could make stickers for them too which I would always say yes to.

Next thing I know I’m making stickers full time and investing in industrial equipment to offer better quality and faster turnaround times. I truly love what I do… The whole process is fun and rewarding.

My ideal clients are fellow artist that want to offer more affordable versions of their artwork such as stickers, labels, prints, puzzles, coasters, and more. I am always happy to help them find the best option for their budget.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

My very first investment was a grand total of $21. I ordered some custom stickers online so I could sell to friends and family.

I ordered from the same manufacturer multiple times until my online sales picked up and I realized that I could make stickers at home with a cricut machine and my mom was the one who kindly surprised me with one to start making stickers at home and be able to fulfill online orders in time instead of having to wait for the manufacturers to ship my orders.

As my sales picked up and my custom orders started rolling in… the pandemic hit and I was able to start saving more money while making more sales and staying home. Around that time, I had been looking to buy a house, being a home owner has been a huge dream of mine and I had been so motivated that I had a pretty think savings account. When covid hit, the real estate market crashed and it was IMPOSSIBLE for me to boy a home at that time… so i spent all my downpayment money on a printer, inks, vinyl, and other materials and tools I need to make high quality stickers.

From there, my expenses went up so high that I cried myself to sleep almost every night, but a few months later, when I saw how I was able to make more orders in less time, and I mastered how to use the monster of printer I had bought, then I was able to start making more money to make stickers full time and invest more on other tools to grow my business.

Now this is a never ending cycle that I learned to love and enjoy,

Can you open up about a time when you had a really close call with the business?

There has been an endless amount of times that I’ve wanted to give up.

Wether it is because sales were low and I couldn’t cover all my expenses, or sales were too high that
I missed due dates or made mistakes… Being a business owner and running said business 100% alone is scary, draining, stressful, and a lot of times it feels like you are not good enough, or capable to keep going and growing.

There was this specific situation when I made a custom t-shirt order. I sent the quote and design proof and for some reason, my client thought that I was going to do this for free. and refused to pay when I was dropping off the t-shirts. That situation happened very early in my journey and was a $200 dollar loss which felt incredible rough at the time.

Another time, I received a small wholesale order, my client used a coupon provided the Faire and then Faire took a commission and fee which caused the order to be $0.00 and I still had to pay for the materials, on top of that, the buyer requested a remake because the stickers got bent during shipping.

Situations like these are very draining and stressful. A lot of times I have to put my health and self care on the back burner so that I can put my money towards my business and that is not a good feeling.

From personal experience, I can say that it all works out in the end, Some times I have a great week and break income record, and the next week I am at my lowest but this is all part of the game and it always pays off in the end.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.getstokedhandmade.com
• Instagram: @getsokedhandmade
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoubkq87QPr0uLmtvQKZKRw