We were lucky to catch up with Margarita Ryan recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Margarita, thanks for joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?
The first big risk I took was coming to live in the United States, and more specifically to a town of scientists where art didn’t seem to have a place.
That was three years ago. I married my partner in crime, who accepted a job at LANL. Coming here meant leaving everything I had built in Argentina: my country, my artistic career there, my family and friends, my culture. I arrived here with no connections, no command of the language—a disaster.
At that moment, at 27, I decided to take the plunge, start from scratch in a new place, and cross my fingers that all this would turn out well.
I have always been an entrepreneur and very creative, I never lacked ideas and I never will, so it was a matter of arriving so that the following month I could start my first businesses, I started selling empanadas, that helped me meet a lot of people and introduce myself to the town, soon after I got a creative position in a company, a year later I had the opportunity to show my art at an event, and shortly after that I decided to open Beehaus, my own small art, design and marketing business.
Margarita, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I come from a very, very small town in rural Argentina, and that greatly shaped who I am today. I learned to live in a community that feels like a family, where we knew each other and cared for each other.
Today, I’m grateful to be from there. I feel it makes me a little more sociable and empathetic. I can read people with great ease, I understand them, I understand what they want and don’t want, I connect with very diverse profiles (even when my English is terrible lol), and I feel that’s a huge advantage when it comes to doing business.
First and foremost, I’m an artist. I paint, I sculpt, I create things. And eventually, I found myself in the digital world, full of endless possibilities, and there I realized there was a lot that a couple of friends and I could do.
The town I moved to didn’t have much development in graphic design, nor direct/easy access to digital artists. I also noticed a significant lack of local digital marketing. So I said, okay, there’s a problem here, and I have the tools to solve it. It was just a matter of organizing it a bit, getting together with friends, and starting to figure out how to approach the situation.
Today, the main services of Beehaus, my small business, are Social Media, Website Development, and Branding. Meanwhile, on my own, I continue to create a lot of art, mainly selling large-format paintings, which is what I love doing most. Also, when opportunities arise, I make digital drawings to illustrate scientific papers, and I love it!
I think that locally, people are slowly gaining more and more trust in my work. Many already recognize my paintings by my style, and that’s really cool to me. I also believe that those who hire me do so because they know they can talk to me—a real person who understands and listens to them, and who tries to create something they love.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
I couldn’t tell you how many times people close to me told me to do something safer, to not take so many risks because I don’t “know” how to do it. My loved ones criticized my decisions, making me feel terrible and unsupported, especially when things were shaky (which honestly still happens; I’m still not in a stable situation).
And yes, probably much of what they told me is true. 90% of what I do today, I didn’t know how to do three years ago, but I learned. —- And I still have clients, I can still pay my friends and team. I keep going and keep learning because I believe in myself, because I’m not afraid. When I make a mistake, I apologize, I fix it the best way I can, I learn, and I move on.
I think being resilient is difficult, but believing in yourself makes it easy.
Others, even those who love you, will doubt you, but if you believe in yourself and know where you want to go, then nothing will stop you. Having clear, written goals, you know ‘smart goals’, that’s the most important thing. The rest will follow, problems will have to be solved all the time. The important thing is to continue believing that you will get there, enjoy the path, enjoy the process, calmly and without bragging, planning and conquering, in small steps :)
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Yes, several times, haha.
I pivoted when we adjusted our offering. At first, Beehaus was supposed to be an eco-friendly design and marketing hub, working only with eco-friendly brands. But then the market itself shaped us, and our offering consolidated into something very different: a much more conventional digital marketing, far removed from those values. Although we still hold them and respect them to the best of our ability, they are no longer a requirement for doing our work.
Recently, I also had a major turning point in the company’s history (and my life). In January, I opened a space in downtown, a beautiful location with lots of light. But today, six months later, I’m closing it because it’s not worth continuing there given that my business is very digital, and my art can be displayed in third-party galleries. The rent and other expenses became very high, and the current income doesn’t justify continuing there. So with some regret, I decided to return to the origin, a small and warm office/studio in my house.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://linktr.ee/beehausthemagic?utm_source=linktree_profile_share<sid=00066fe0-29dc-4860-828d-9cac4d4e06bf
- Instagram: @beehaus.design
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/beehaus.themagic/
- Other: Art Instagram: @margaritart.ryan
Linktree Beehaus links: linktr.ee/beehausthemagic
