Something about rags-to-riches stories always rubbed me the wrong way. ‘Cause most online business journeys don’t fit that shiny (and predictable) arc. They’re pretty… normal.
Take my own story for example: I followed everyone’s expectations until I said “f*ck it” on Christmas Eve 2019. That was over 6 years ago, and in honour of my 6th Brandversary I wanted to tell you the real story. From a nightmare internship that had me designing menus in PowerPoint (yes, really) to building a business that lets me own my weird, I’m taking a trip down memory lane. So whether you’ve been here since the very beginning, or just started tagging along, here are two big reminders:
Everyone online has their own version of the rags-to-riches story. From Jenna Kutcher's small town beginnings to Steven Bartlett's broke dropout to millionaire CEO narrative. And they all follow the same formula: someone struggling, someone invisible, someone just like you — until the life-changing event, the magic idea, the secret skill, the right mentor that makes everything click into place.
I get it. We want things to make sense. We want reassurance that our current struggles lead somewhere, that we're just one decision away from everything working out.
But something gets lost when we try to make stories neat. We reduce people to plot twists. We turn mess into marketing. We imply that the more painful your past, the more worthy you are of success.
And here's what I know: not everyone who suffers gets the reward, not everyone who's talented gets discovered, and you don't have to be broken to be deserving.
If you're anything like me, there wasn't a single moment when it all made sense (and if there is, I'm still waiting for it). There were wrong turns and stupid decisions and deeply inconvenient timing. Hard lessons I didn't want to learn, people who didn't believe in me, moments I almost gave up, not even in a brave way, but in a very unremarkable one that no one would ever clap for.
There are moments I can look back on now and call turning points, but at the time, they were just plain Tuesdays.
So in light of my sixth brandversary, I wanted to honour the work, the growth, the wins — but also the in-betweens and the not-sures.
2019 was the year I finished my Communication Design degree with great grades. I'd always been a good student, and my parents taught me that if you put effort and commitment into something (especially something you like) you're bound to get good results.
So when I finished my degree, I was confident a job would come fairly easy.
I wasn't naive. I knew the job market was awful, that design isn't known for spectacular job opportunities. But I'd been encouraged to follow my passions, so I did.
And had you asked me if I'd considered starting something of my own? I would've called you crazy. That felt way over my head — I had awesome design skills, but zero business creation or management ones.
So I started doing what everyone else was doing: applying for jobs. Agencies, publicity, marketing, bigger, smaller, whatever came my way that was graphic design or communication design related.
From LinkedIn applications to cold pitch emails, I got a 100% rate of being ignored.
Not even a no. Just silence.
Six months after graduating with still not even a glimpse of a job opportunity, I got this crippling feeling that maybe following my passion was a mistake. That I should've followed a simpler, more traditional path. It started reinforcing all the things people had said to me over the years once I took the avenue of going into an arts-related field.
"Oh, so what's your real job going to be?"
"Oh, so are you just going to work at McDonald's?"
"You chose this because you're really bad at math, right?"
I started wondering if these people were right.
On a random Tuesday, I did one of those LinkedIn quick applications for a marketing internship at a new hotel development with zero expectations because those never turn into anything, right?
I got a call to do an interview (which to this day is my only job interview ever). After the whole interview process, where I was made to do one of those spot-the-difference games (yes, really), I landed a design internship at a marketing department at a five-star hotel.
It had everything on paper to be exactly the kind of work experience I was looking for.
On day one, Human Resources handed me the collaborators' manual. They'd done me the favour of underlining the most important article: personal image.
This article went in depth about what colour hair you can have, what colour nails you can have, which type of earrings you can't have, how long your skirt should be, and how jeans and tennis shoes are forbidden.
If you've ever seen a fine arts student, you'll realise how deeply problematic this was. My entire wardrobe was basically jeans and tennis shoes.
I was getting paid less than minimum wage: 3.60€/hour, when an orange juice at this same hotel was 4€. I didn't make an orange juice in an hour of work. I had to buy a whole new wardrobe because nothing I owned fit the bill.
One time, there was a default on a laundry machine with toxic fumes and we had to keep working. There was a paper on the door separating staff from hotel guests that said "don't forget to smile" with a smiley face. On my first day it seemed off, by my last day it felt pure dystopian. We had to eat three-day-old leftover food masked with curry spices.
And the design work? I was supposed to be photographing products, creating digital assets, learning website design — so much diverse experience that felt attractive on paper.
In reality, I was creating restaurant menus in PowerPoint.
Why PowerPoint? Because apart from me, there was one designer for the whole hotel group. The menus had to be in PowerPoint so that if someone got sick, anyone could update them. Not a designer — anyone.
That excitement I got when I was accepted, which was very real, the validation I needed at the time, very quickly turned upside down when I was crying every single Sunday because I didn't want to work the following Monday.
I'd always been a great student who followed the rules. But this was different. It wasn't that there were too many rules; these rules just didn't make sense. They were made to make you feel unprofessional unless you looked a certain way.
The office politics were off. I was constantly being told to shut up in meetings just because I was the youngest. And after just two months, I didn't believe in what I was doing. I was doing it for doing's sake.
I started losing confidence in my design skills because I wasn't even using the programs I'd learned in college. I wasn't doing design, period. I thought I was going to lose my skills if I lost the practice.
I decided at a very cherry-picked moment to quit.
I quit on Christmas Eve as a gift from me to me.
It felt terrible walking in with this massive frog in my throat. But it felt awesome to just walk out and be free.
I didn't have a plan B. I recognise the privilege in this — I was living with my parents, I had no responsibilities, no bills, no apartment. I could literally just quit. And I did.
This experience was so bad that I got the creeps about going into another job. I started thinking everything else must be like this too.
As soon as I quit, I started toying with the idea of freelancing. That wasn't as big as building your own business — that felt very scary. But I didn't know anything about going freelance or how to start.
And I like to follow the rules. I didn't know what the rules were.
I was following a designer on Instagram because I was posting my little lettering work. The first invoice I ever sent was for a lettering workshop for a big stationery brand — I quoted 30€.
This designer, Joana Galvão from GIF Design Studios, was doing a campaign, and I saw her mention that her agency had made $1 million in one year.
I thought: wait. This is doable for a Portuguese designer with an agency in Porto? This is real? This happens to people?
It gave me a goal. If she can do that, maybe I can too.
I reached out with zero expectations of her replying. We had a conversation and she told me: "If you build a website for yourself in the next two weeks, I'll post it in the Facebook groups I'm in and tell your story."
So I did. I built my first website in two weeks on Squarespace. And she did exactly what she promised.
Then I enrolled in an online course about starting a business (B-School by Marie Forleo) because I had no idea what I was doing.
That's how everything started.
I got my first client, a Portuguese coach. Then my second client, my first international client, a publishing company in Ireland. I started using social media, using my website, following designers and agencies, seeing what they were doing, and making my way through it.
I invested in mentors and online courses. Business skills, design skills, working with clients — because no one taught me that at college either.
From Joana Galvão, to Gigi from One6Creative, Alice Benham for marketing, Vix Meldrew who helped me tighten up my Less Bland More Brand challenge, Xanthe Appleyard, Ceels Lockley... there were a bunch of people who helped shape this business into what it is today.
The most pivotal shift? I now see it as a business, even if it's still a one-woman show. It's no longer just a freelance gig to see what might happen.
And here we are now, six years later. I still believe the most radical thing you can do is be yourself in business and not feel trapped by what others expect you to do.
Because at the time when I finished my degree, the expectation was: get an internship to get a job to do that job for the rest of your life. And I was just like, you know what? It's not for me. It just doesn't fit.
A lot of things have changed since I quit that internship. But questioning what "professional" or "successful" looks like? That hasn't changed. And I hope it never does.
—
✦ B-SCHOOL: Online course for for entrepreneurs who want to build a meaningful, profitable business, by Marie Forleo
✦ THE BREAKTHROUGH DESIGNER: 3-month coaching program to take you from frantic freelancer to badass business owner, by One6Creative (*affiliate link)
✦ ON IT: Cast vision, set goals, track progress & finally work ON your business, by Alice Benham (*affiliate link)
✦ LIFE OF THE PARTY: An all-encompassing social media strategy course to grow an invested community that outlasts the algorithm, by Xanthe Appleyard (*affiliate link)
✦ Follow Joana Galvão, from GIF Design Studios
✦ Follow Vix Meldrew, Online Learning Expert
✦ Follow Ceels Lockley, Offer Strategy Coach
✦ See what my very first website looked like
Over the last 5 years as a Brand & Marketing Designer, I’ve helped freaks like us design their unconventional brands so they can step onto the main stage & own their weird. Because if you wanted to be, look or sound like everyone else, you wouldn’t be where you are today. Now it’s your turn.
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