We recently connected with Nathalie Fleitas and have shared our conversation below.

Nathalie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

I think success is relative and means something different for everyone. It could mean running a successful business and making millions of dollars for one person, or slow living on a farm for another person and just making enough money to live doing whatever they want every day.

For me, personally, success means being able to wake up every day and enjoy what I’m doing. It means the ability to have a thriving personal life and work towards a future. I love being able to hone my craft while helping other women who are trying to grow a business. It gives me a sense of purpose and joy I don’t think I would have working in corporate.

Nathalie, 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 am a brand and website designer that focuses on helping women entrepreneurs grow their brands strategically and aesthetically. A couple years ago I noticed how there was a huge opportunity in the market to create feminine design that was high-end and elegant but not the typical pink and frills etsy brand. A lot of female business owners were hiring male designers to create a website and brand that was nothing like what their brand embodied. When I started offering custom branding services that aligned with their brands and who their customers perceived them as, that’s when my business really started to grow.
Looking back in my life, it almost seems like design was always the path God had in store for me. Branding is much like visually conveying the story and purpose of a business to its customers. It’s giving life and voice to a business in order to create a trustworthy relationship with people.

I always had a curiosity for drawing, writing stories and computers when I was a little girl. And I know probably every kid does, except mine never quite went away. I would draw all the time through my childhood and even make illustrated stories on PowerPoint. That developed into designing small websites as a teenager for either school clubs or my own fiction stories.

I remember in high school a scouter came to explain the different creative professions you could study at the Miami Art Institute and graphic design was one of them. I was truly fascinated, but my dad discouraged me; he didn’t understand how art could be a profitable profession. While I ended up doing graphic design eventually, that was the best thing to have happened to me because I ended up going to school for Marketing instead.

I work with clients to bring to life the brand of their dreams both from a strategic and aesthetic perspective. That wouldn’t have been possible if I had just gone to school for graphic design. Obtaining my bachelor’s in marketing and working for a marketing agency during and after college allowed me to understand all of the moving pieces that makes a brand successful. While design plays a very big part in that, especially now in 2022, good design without vision or strategy will make a brand fall apart quickly enough.

At the studio, I work one-on-one with fashion, beauty, and e-commerce brands seeking to enhance and grow their brands. My clients are typically women who have small businesses and are ready to grow and enhance their brand visually and strategically. When I design a brand, I lay out all the important brand elements needed to be able to connect with its consumers effectively. We focus on business goals and map out how the brand needs to show up in the marketplace to make an impact. Of course we also give it a major facelift and ensure there is visual cohesiveness across every touch point.

When it comes to creating a website I look first at the user journey and the experience they will have while connecting to the brand. They need to feel like they are interacting with a trustworthy brand that has their best interest in mind from the very first post they ever see on Instagram to when they make a purchase or sign up for a service.

Every interaction a customer has with your brand either gets them closer to trust you and buy from you, or the exact opposite. My job is ensuring that through every step your client is seeing and hearing the same message from you which fosters their trust in your brand.

My goal in the studio and as I continue to talk to many more women entrepreneurs is to focus on their experience and create a good relationship that will make them feel comfortable through the entire process. Business IS personal for me and many of the women that come to me. Their businesses are their pride and joy and they’re looking for someone with similar values and ideals to help them make it better. When you are working on branding with someone, it has to align with what they have dreamed up for their business; you have to be able to get them and understand them deeply.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Referrals are the backbone of my business as a creative, especially in the female entrepreneur community. Most of my clients come because I’ve worked with someone they know or because they follow someone that has worked with me and has tagged me on social media.

Focusing on client experience has definitely helped me leverage word-of-mouth referrals which is the best way to get clients, I think. They already come knowing the level of work I offer and have somewhat of an understanding of what the process will be like.

The other thing that has worked, for my business in particular, is showing snippets of my day and life on Instagram stories. While they can clearly see my work on the feed and my portfolio, some clients need to know they like me as an individual and that our personalities align to be able to reach out. Like I mentioned before, branding a business is very personal and a lot people want to ensure they are hiring the right person for the job.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

Being a creative and owning a business is definitely like being on a rollercoaster of emotions. Creating design for someone is definitely a vulnerable experience, especially after you’ve spent weeks working on a concept and refining it to perfection. There’s definitely emotional attachment to your work. I’m always anxious right before a brand presentation and I’ve always thought that was a bad thing. I had this mentality that “professionals” don’t get nervous about their work and are just always confident with their outcome. I really thought that because this was my full time job it had to look like and feel like going to work. After almost 10 years in the business, I don’t think those emotions will ever go away. It’s part of the process and now I think it pushes me to do a better job.

When a client loves what you’ve created for them, it is the best feeling in the whole wide world. It validates you and your craft which is especially needed when you deal with imposter syndrome or thinking you are not good enough to be in your field. I think every creative deals with some of that at one point or another.

Another thing that’s unique about a creative career that I had to get used to is how different productivity can look like from one day to the next. Some days I can design super quickly and everything comes easy, while other days making something simple takes hours. It also varies a lot on your emotions and energy levels. I don’t sit around waiting for creativity to hit me; I believe in doing the work, but it can definitely be a little difficult for things to click right sometimes and it makes you feel really discouraged, especially when you work with clients and project timelines.

I learned to give myself some grace. That it is okay to give myself time to go on a walk or look at things differently for a second to reignite my inspiration. I’ve also learned that open and honest communication with your client, as well as setting expectations about your process really helps alleviate the pressure from both ends. In my experience, clients understand creativity is not a straight line and would rather you take your time to create something of quality than rush through it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://natfleitas.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natfleitas/