Today we’d like to introduce you to Kirstin Protsman.
Hi Kirstin, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My journey started when I was in community college and had a vision to work for myself. Back then I didn’t know exactly what I was going to do but I knew it would be in the graphic design field in some way.
Fast forward through jobs that sucked the life out of me to bartending and improving my own social and customer service skills to becoming an assistant for a talented interior designer. Through all of this, I was freelancing in some way. And by the time I started as an assistant, I knew my goal was to take my branding business, Rae Design, full time.
Making full time happen and going from freelancer to entrepreneur was quite the commitment. But the long days and splitting my attention between jobs was worth the struggle.
And with the support of my husband, I was able to take Rae Design full time and fully commit to growing my business and serving my clients.
I think having a small business will always be some sort of journey. Right now, three years in, running Rae Design has a lot of moving parts. Including: marketing, business development, sales, networking to build relationships in my community, and the client work itself.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Starting a business as definitely not been a smooth road. There have been many ups and downs, celebrations and insecurities.
The biggest struggle (and honestly shock) was during my first year being full time in Rae Design. I was coming off my best year ever while working part time. I was confident that quitting that job and going full time was the right decision. My husband and I talked about it and had been planning for this moment for years. I was excited to experience this new chapter!
But the first two years were… rough to say the least. In my first year, I barely made half of what I’d made the year before.
I’d been doing what I’d always done – marketing and promoting myself online. Taking courses to learn something I felt was missing (it wasn’t.) But the inquiries weren’t coming in like they had when I was still working part-time.
I was at a loss. And stressing myself out.
I felt so grateful that my husband’s job was able to keep us afloat those first two years. And grateful that we’d been planning this and working toward it. We knew it was going to be hard. But we also knew the potential for a positive payoff. So we kept roughin’ it and making life work for us.
It wasn’t until one of my clients repetitively invited me to a networking event that happened weekly that things began to change for me.
Living in a rural area, there aren’t a lot of opportunities to connect with the small business community on a regular basis. Most of the opportunities require some sort of membership and at this point, I didn’t have the budget for that. But I did have time and a willingness to travel 1 hour, both ways, to attend some events and meet new people.
At first, I was a nervous wreck going to these things. I’m pretty introverted and had spent the past few years trying to market solely online and build a following and community that way. That route clearly wasn’t working for me and I was mad about it and had decided to just stop creating content for social media while I figure my next move out.
Putting myself out there in these uncomfortable (at first) situations within my local communities was my strategy for change.
Networking and building relationships locally changed my business for the better. Now, a few years in, I’m a member of a couple of chambers as well as a business club that have been worth every penny.
I’m grateful for those early, free opportunities to meet other local business owners and build relationships with them. I now have a community of other business owners (and now friends) to turn to when I run into new challenges or obstacles within Rae Design.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am a brand strategist, brand identity designer, graphic designer and Squarespace website designer. Brand strategy and identity design is my speciality and I’m known for helping clients transform their ideas into tangible products (a brand strategy, identity, and/or website) they’re proud of.
I like to work closely with my clients, to be able to experience their business and understand their unique goals and struggles to then produce a creative solution for them tied to the face of their business–the brand identity. These creative solutions can look like: a brand strategy, a refreshed (or completely new) brand identity, a website that expresses the soul of the business, monthly brand consulting for ongoing strategy and projects, helping bring ideas to life through creative expression–like coordinating product photography, graphics, templates, etc to use in advertising and marketing.
I’m most proud of the clarity my clients walk away from our branding projects with and the confidence in themselves (and their business) that naturally follows.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
For me, success means having enough.
Enough to pay the bills. Enough to put food on the table. Enough to enjoy ourselves, even when it’s just a little bit.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://rae.design/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imraedesign/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imraedesign
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirstinprotsman/
- Other: https://rae.design/subscribe
