I moved to Las Vegas and got an opportunity to work for a signs and printing company. This was my first graphic design job, and I was so excited to start my design career.

The work was fine, but I was already tired of the 8am-5pm lifestyle, plus I didn’t have the freedom to experiment and be creative. I started building my own website on the side. Later that year I landed my first freelance client, quit my job after 9 months, and got a couple of more clients.

This year I was focused on growing my graphic design business. I posted on social media, went to networking events, tried paid ads, posted on Craigslist – everything! I didn’t charge enough, and I was crazy busy with things that weren’t bringing results. It was all trial and error.I was less happy than when I worked for someone else. Some months I made $300, some months I made $3,000, and it wasn’t consistent at all.

I moved to Austin in January and did some market research that led to doubling (and tripling) my prices and being active on LinkedIn. I had my first $9,500 month – which was crazy and unbelievable to me! And I was not busy at all. Suddenly I had more money and more time. I started outsourcing and hired a writer and a web developer. I also landed a big client that ended up being on Shark Tank and is now a multi-million dollar company.

Even though I was busier than I wanted, I got some amazing recognitions this year. I was named Entrepreneur of the Year by BONG (it’s not what you think 😊 it stands for Business Owner Networking Group). I was a speaker at the freelance conference at the Microsoft Headquarters here in Austin, TX. I did a lot of business presentations, hired a graphic and web designer, and outsourced a lot of writing, editing, and proofreading

I published my first book, BrandFix, that was a #1 new release on Amazon and became an online course creator. This year I attended a mastermind and hired a marketing company to help me niche down and be more intentional about who I wanted to work with. I had some huuuge clients - the total of one project was close to $250,000! I continued to outsource everything I could. In November, I registered the Aventive Academy domain.

Aventive Academy started after I saw that so many brand, web, and graphic designers struggle with growing their businesses. I started building a community and sharing everything graphic designers need to do to ditch the 9-5 and become successful business owners -- the proven ways that worked for my business and will work for you too!

This year I mostly worked with my ideal clients –skincare lines. I sent proposals for $15,000 (this was my minimum), $25,000 and $30,000. We also welcomed some new students, graphic designers, who enrolled in our online freelance courses, and our IG hit 10k so we got the famous “swipe up” button. We hired a graphic designer, web designer, web developer, and a marketing strategist. Overall, the year was great!

We welcomed more students to Aventive Academy's programs, and we launched our popular podcast! We also built 8+ more programs that help designers with specific business areas such as Pricing Your Design Services, How to Find Your Niche etc. Our students had amazing success like quitting their 9-5 and making $10k a month. I also rebranded my branding agency to niche down even more, and because of that I was able to get an $18k client immediately.