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

Ranessa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

To be honest I felt like I had no idea what I was doing, and sometimes still don’t! It was 2020, I had just been laid off from a job I loved. Office Manager for a local children’s magazine, and I also did all of the layout and most of the graphic design work. It was my dream job at the time and something I had prayed in.
However, God had other plans for me. They laid me off, effectively closing the magazine down due to financial difficulty and tried to keep me on to work in their other business of Screen Printing.

That was not for me either though, so I resigned and began doing freelance work as a logo designer and website designer while I worked for Clorox answering email inquiries during the pandemic.
It seems that sometimes even when we’re not sure of ourselves though or God’s plans for our lives – He writes our stories in the best ways. During 2020 I landed my first 2-3 website design clients and began building a little portfolio I could then show to other prospective clients. At first, I just went to local businesses. Giving out my custom designed business cards like candy.

Sales was not my strong suit, but I knew I had some skills as a self-taught designer and I knew how to use those skills to take old, outdated 90’s websites and rebuild them into something more user friendly. My mom who is in her sixties would help me ensure everything was legible, and usable even for the “more mature folks,” as she called them! What I found out really quickly was that I needed to solve prospective business owner’s problems. They didn’t just need a website.

Most of them never even had a professional logo done, and had no idea what social media marketing could do for them if they could do it correctly. Through many trials and lots of error – I learned that I could offer to build full visual brand identities from custom logos to a fully functioning website and offer it as a Done-For-You Solution of Services.

That also opened up the possibility of website maintenance and growth plans. Where people could basically hire me as a full-time employee and only pay a monthly, or weekly reduced fee, and we would fully do everything to help them show up online professionally, uniquely, and effectively to the people they actually wanted to reach.

Now five years later, or six (if you count the year before Covid where I was teaching myself website design on the side), I own R. Designs Txk, LLC. A Done-for-You Design Company that frees you up to do what you actually love—Running Your Business.
We’re locally owned and operated in Texarkana, Arkansas. But we work with businesses and corporations all over the USA. I think the highest compliment I’ve ever been given was that when people call us they get a real person, who speaks a little southern, they can understand and can feel understood.

I would say it’s truly been a God thing because I cannot fathom how I’ve made it 5 years being Self-Employed on my own until recently, Every partnership has truly been that- a God-given partnership. Most of our long-term partners have come from simple word of mouth referrals. We now have a partnership with a few local and national level digital marketing agencies who help us give our partners the option to go even further with SEO, and Google Advertising.

We don’t believe in locking people into contracts or digital marketing schemes promising they are gonna be on the front page of google if they spend millions. They are free to cancel our services at any time, but we work to ensure they feel like they receive so much value for their hard-earned dollar that it’s a no brainer.

We truly believe that with AI and how much the digital landscape has changed even in the last year, that it’s more important than ever to truly have an authentic voice, a personality and a visual brand people love to talk about. Focus on your local fans first and build up the free tools we have access too. Social Media, Your Website, and YOUR story are what makes you, YOU. And no one can copy that!

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?

Like creamer in your coffee ☕, R. Designs helps businesses, churches, and non-profits create custom, professional visual identity designs that you can use across your digital footprint.

Hey y’all! I’m Ranessa Hendrix!
a self-taught graphic designer with over 15 years of experience in both print and digital spaces.
(and a whole lot of love for what I do!).

I’ve dipped my creative brush in just about everything across the digital and print industry spectrum. As a self-taught designer, I’m all about embracing the journey of constant learning and evolving through online education. I feel like I can always learn more!

I started R.Designs TXK, LLC in 2019 as a Freelancer just before the COVID wave.
Now we help businesses all across America sprinkle a bit of magic into their brands with every pixel.
Whether it’s Creative Business Strategies to help you nail down your offers, crafting logos that pop or designing websites that functionally shine, I’m here to bring a touch of creativity and strategy to your table.

Oh, and when I’m not designing, you’ll probably find me re-watching Gilmore Girls (for the millionth time) with a big cup of coffee in hand. 😅

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

I’m what I would call a chronic learner. I fully believe you can learn anything online in this day and age. One of the biggest influential educators who has helped me personally has been the Futur. If not for their YouTube videos on pricing, selling your services and just straight up business and legal advice, I really would not have a fully functioning business. Because I am so introverted and I used to sell websites and logos for less than $5oo when I was just getting started.

I also used to let just anyone be my client out of desperation, but I feel like Chris Do taught me to value my services more and helped me learn that what I could bring to meetings was the ability to listen. Now I interview prospective partners rather than just trying to discount my services in order to land the sale.

Another really helpful and beneficial resource for learning more about logo design, full visual identity design and learning to do more as a Solo-Entrepreneur was Abi Cornick. Also a really well known YouTuber.

I’ve also taken several courses online. Used as many free-tools and Skill Share workshops as I could to work on becoming a better designer.

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

I’m not sure many people are going to like what I am about to say because the Social Media Space is so crowded with gurus saying you need to post multiple times a day on every platform.

To be quite frank, I’m 32 and I really hate Social Media. It has become a detriment to my mental health and contributes to my sense of Imposter Syndrome. Which usually leads to task paralysis etc. So, here’s my advice for any business owner, freelancer, creative person, startup, non-profit, E-Commerce Corporation.

Post Value. Give away all of your knowledge for FREE and sell the ability to do it for other people. Most people hire me because they simply do not have time or knowledge of how to build a website that not only looks good, but works. When I was first getting started on Social Media I was posting anything and everything to build an online presence. Now we have people using AI and what’s really lacking is the ability to see what is REAL vs. what is a cheap imitation.

I still don’t have what I would call a Social Media “Following”, but the people who find me on google find me because I have built long-lasting relationships with every partner I currently have. I’ve fostered my partner’s experience so they want to leave good reviews. And even partners that have had to cancel our services over the years know I would happily take them back because I don’t believe in pettiness or unethical business behavior.

So, when it comes to social media. Don’t forget to disconnect, outsource it if you need too and Create more than you consume.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.rdesignstxk.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/R.DesignsTxk/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/R.DesignsTxk/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ranessahendrix/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/browneyednessagirl93
• Other: https://www.rdesignstxk.com/identity-solutions