Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Raoul Hemkes. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Raoul, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think it takes to be successful?

In one word: perseverance. Starting my company with my business partner 23 years ago was not an easy task for 2 main reasons:

1. We decided to open a graphic design, digital animation & interactive media agency when the world wasn’t yet ready for these kind of products. Back in 1999 it was very difficult to sell and intangible product which came embedded in a CD or packed within a hard drive. It took us many hours, days, even months, to convince a client that the world was shifting to this new way of presenting and selling a product. Needless to say, we couldn’t charge the client what our work was really worth back them. Times changed.

2. Starting from scratch is not and easy task. My business partner and I quit our jobs and invested all our savings in a dream which yet had no clients. We started to knock doors with many many rejections; later on those same clients which had rejected us in the past, came knocking back by themselves as soon as they saw what we started to produce for other companies.

Raoul, 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 majored in Mass Media and Communications. While still in college, I started as a radio host on a local Mexico City radio station, then one day on my university’s bulletin board I read that there was an opening for a TV producer 2nd assistant in a new national television network (Televisión Azteca), and I thought to myself “I don’t really know anything about TV production but I might as well apply and see what happens”. When I finished my job interview, the interviewer looked me straight in the eye and told me “you had really big balls to apply for a position you know nothing about… how would you like to become a TV news reporter?” Needless to say, I said yes. Months later I was reporting on national television and it became a fulfilling job in many aspects of my life: it gave me discipline, empathy, and it taught me how to endure long work hours and never complain about it.

4 years later I started to feel like if something was missing from my life. Since I was a child, I was very creative and artistic, and the job as a reporter kept me from exploring that side of my personality, so when I met my current business partner and he proposed to me to open a digital agency, I said yes and quit my job.
I had never designed on a computer, I did all my work by hand (the old way), so I bought a designing software and self taught myself on how to use it. It turns out I discovered a whole new world and loved it. 23 years later, we are still here with a bunch of important clients.

I feel that the new generations are more focused on trying to have a more balanced life between work and pleasure, yet I truly believe that you have to invest yourself to work as hard as you can for at least a decade, and that balance will arrive at your life by itself.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

Well, it started as a love story, We met online on a chat room back in the days when you yet weren’t able to send pictures of yourself, so it was kinda of a blind date. We just relied on the idea that we had a lot of things in common and we liked ourselves chatting online. Eduardo came with the idea, along with another friend, to start our own business and put our individual talents to work. So one day, in a local diner, it all began to take form in a paper napkin and we soon opened our business.
A few years later, Eduardo and I broke up, but thanks to Ana, our third partner, we managed to overcome the heart brake, keep the business going, and eventually we became best friends. Today, Eduardo is the brother I never had, and although Ana left the partnership to seek an adventure in Italy, we are still god friends.
I wished we would’ve saved that paper napkin.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

2009 was a really difficult year and we were very close to closing the business. Not only there was a global financial crisis going on which led us to lose all of our clients, but also we had in Mexico the H1N1 pandemic which took us to an almost 2 month lockdown, and yet for worse, my mother had to strokes which left her incapacitated. As an only child I had to start supporting my mother financially as well as myself with no clients, almost no savings, and no insurance. But, if you work hard and persevere, the universe will grant you answers… and so it did along with other valuable lessons: work, save, never ever go into debt and trust your instincts.

Contact Info:

• Website: dinamicagenerica.com
• Instagram: @hemkes