Self Made Web Designer with Chris Misterek

Listen to the full episode HERE.

Chris: This couple went from struggling as VAs, otherwise known as virtual assistants to building a web design agency in just a year and a half. And they’re telling you how they did it this week. Are you ready? Let’s go.

What is up self-maders. Welcome to another episode of the self-made web designer podcast. It’s been a week since we last hung out and I hope you missed me as much as I missed you, but if you didn’t that’s okay. I’m just glad you’re here. This week’s guests are a young couple that lost everything when the pandemic first hit. They had no jobs, they had no house, and they had very little to their name, but with a little bit of Moxi and some grit, they were able to pull themselves out of that hole and build a successful web design agency in less than two years, and they’re sharing their very inspiring story with us this week. And I know you’re going to be encouraged, but before we dive in, I wanna invite you to check out the web designer starter kit course in it.

I outline the steps I took to go from knowing nothing about design or development to doubling the income of my full-time job with a web design side hustle in only two years, the best news is it is 100% for free. That’s right. You get it, you get it for free and you can start your web design journey yourself today. So go to https://selfmadewebdesigner.com/ and sign up. 

Introducing Austin and Monica

All right. Are you ready to hear from Austin and Monica on how they went from struggling VAs to crushing it with a web design agency? Let’s do it, Austin and Monica. Thank you so much for being on the self-made web designer podcast. So good to have you.

Austin: Thank you, Chris. We’re really happy to be here. We have loved your show. We have really enjoyed listening to it. We’re happy to be here. 

Chris- Tell me and everybody who’s listening a little bit about yourselves and how you got to be the web design slash branding agency that you are. 

Monica- So we actually, our journey started back pre-COVID. We had gotten jobs with the Peace Corps, and so we set out to leave for Mozambique Africa for two years. Being that it was gonna be two years, we sold our housing contract. We sold most of our stuff. We had someone lined up to buy our car and we were so excited. Everything was in suitcases, packed up, ready to go.

But our departure date was the dreaded April 2020. Before of course, we could leave, the world shut down. We were jobless and homeless and really had no prospects. We had no direction in our lives. It was a confusing time for everyone. They told us it would be two weeks and then a month, and then it kept dragging on from there. So we got jobs working in senior care, which was really hard and we weren’t seeing each other at all. And so we decided to start working online. And so we found a program to become virtual assistants which for us was awesome and terrible at the same time.

So then we transitioned into being web designers because we just love creating and we love being paid for our expertise instead of just doing the things that other people don’t wanna do. 

Austin- Yeah. There’s been a lot of interesting turn of events in the past year and a half for us. A year and a half ago if you’d asked us what we wanna do. I don’t think web designer would’ve been on the list, to be honest, but as we’ve discovered more about the online business world and different possibilities there, we’ve both really fallen in love with designing and Helping clients who have a business goal who have a dream be one of the steps towards that.

And so it’s been a lot of fun. It’s there’s been a lot of development. Again, it kind of come unexpectedly, but we’ve loved it. 

Chris- I love the story of coming from diversity into finding something that you’re really passionate about because a lot of my guests and that’s my own story as well, is finding a big bump in the road and saying, ‘you know, I’m not gonna let this keep me back. I’m gonna keep pushing through.’ 

Overcoming Hurdles of a Business Start Up

So talk a little bit about that, cuz I’m sure there’s a lot of folks out there who are in one way, shape, or form struggling with something, you know? And they’re trying to find what’s gonna help them make that breakthrough to start their web design business, web development, freelance, whatever it is they’re doing. So how did you overcome some of those hurdles? There are pretty steep learning curves at the very beginning. And, you guys were even farther back because most people at least have at least a home or apartment that they’re starting with, but you guys really kind of had nothing. And you just started from scratch quite literally.

And you turned it into something successful. So how did that happen? 

Austin- Like Monica was saying we were both at jobs that we didn’t super love. We both knew we needed something different and something better, something that worked with our lifestyle. Monica’s really the one who helped us make this leap. If it weren’t for her, I’d still be working probably at a restaurant as a waiter. She had this idea that we needed to create a business that works with the lifestyle we want. And work for ourselves. And so she pushed us towards that. 

And I would say it was, it was a lot harder for me because I hadn’t really thought about being a business owner before. Whereas Monica, that’s some things she’s always wanted to do. And so for me, there were a lot of hurdles of the uncertainty of having clients,  when you don’t have a structure like when you’re gonna get paid, and you don’t have uncertainties about where your money’s coming in, where your money’s coming from.

There are a lot of uncertainties, can I even do this? A year and a half ago, I hadn’t done a whole lot of design if any. And so there’s been a having to learn the skills for the job as well. So I think. Really key thing for me has been having support. So for if somebody’s thinking about it or they’re in a place that they don’t want to be in and they have this idea of somewhere they want to go, I think it’s really important to have a support partner, somebody who can push you towards that goal when it’s getting hard, somebody who can encourage you, somebody who maybe even takes a couple of steps for you. That’s been seriously life-changing for me. 

Monica- I feel like it’s really important to have someone that keeps you accountable and keeps you in line. When things get hard for me, it was always looking to the people who’ve made it, you know? Cause there’s a lot of times where you don’t think you can make it when you’re starting a business. We are both really big fans of education. We are always listening to like self-improvement podcasts, and business podcasts, we’re taking classes and we’re always looking for the next thing.

So for us, it was finding the leaders in the industries that we were working in, whether that was a VA or when we transitioned into web design, finding people that we wanted to model our business after, and then taking their classes and learning from them. And letting tail riding off of their success a little bit and knowing that they were where we were at once and so we can make it to where they’re at now.

Chris- Yeah. So kind of having that north star as a guide for you’ve seen people kind of make it, and then you’re taking their track record and maybe even their tips and tricks and, and putting that to use in your own business. 

Finding Balance Between Finding Inspiration and Comparing

Monica- It can be a double-edged sword though, because sometimes it’s really discouraging to look at how far ahead of you they are, So you. have to kind of like balance that a little bit. You have to be careful with that. 

Chris- Yeah, man, let’s talk about that, cuz I feel that all the time, and I’ve been doing this for longer than you guys have, and I had a guest on and we chatted about this recently. Where I said, ‘it’s so easy to look at somebody else’s work or look at the income that another web designer is making and being like, well, shoot, I’m sucky. I should just quit’ and there’s never a level where that stops. So, how do you guys find that balance between finding your motivation and people that you’re looking for who are a few steps ahead of you, but not letting it get you so beat up and downtrodden from realizing you have so much farther to go?

Austin- It is tricky. I don’t know if there’s any one golden answer. If there is, I don’t know if we’ve found it yet, but I think for me, one thing that’s helped is just to remind yourself, you have to very consciously remind yourself that whoever you’re looking at, whatever the master designer you’re trying to emulate or getting inspiration from, you have to remind yourself that they had to start somewhere too. They, at some point were a beginner designer. At some point, they did their first website. They did their first social media graphic, or whatever it is they’re designing. And that’s helpful cuz then you realize, ‘okay, they started, they were at, they were where I’m at some point. So I have the potential to keep growing, to get better, to improve just as they did. 

Transitioning from Virtual Assistant to Web Designer

Chris- Well, let’s pivot a little bit. Cause it’s a really interesting story. I’ve not had a chance to talk to somebody who’s done this going from being, a virtual assistant to web design. So you mentioned a few things, you found you were really passionate about web design, you really loved the learning of it all. But talk about that transition. Did you just find that there was more money to be made in web design? Like, dig down a little bit into that. So if somebody listening might be a virtual assistant or is maybe considering between becoming a virtual assistant or a web designer, what would your advice to them be becoming a virtual assistant?

Monica- There is a lot of money to be made there. If it’s something you’re passionate about. So we became virtual assistants because we wanted to work online and we wanted to be able to travel. And for us, it was the greatest start ever, because we really learned the back end of a lot of different businesses and what worked and what didn’t work by working with the businesses that were working and were not working, but it was hard for us to want to go to work.

We were doing things like Austin was making sales calls for somebody, or I was scheduling thousands of Facebook posts a weekfor this blog and it’s good work and it’s really important, it needs to be done. But for us, it was just time-consuming and just annoying and we just wanted to get it off the list. And so I remember I felt so stuck and just like down trodden. And I was like, well, we’re making money, but I don’t love it. And I’m not putting my best work into this. And actually, we lost, I lost a really big client because I was careless in the work I was doing because I just didn’t care. And so that was a really big eye-opener to me. So I sat down and wrote down all of the things that I liked doing as a virtual assistant and all the things that I hate doing as a virtual assistant. And the thing that kept coming up over and over and over again was I liked to make social media graphics.

I liked to design and I had taken graphic design in college. And so I kind of knew what I was doing. I knew all the Adobe programs pretty well, and I knew the basic concepts of design. And so when it came down to it, that was my favorite thing that to do as a virtual assistant, a married couple in business, it’s a little bit tricky to pivot your business, cuz you need to make sure that you’re both in line with it. So I guess I’ll let you speak to what happened on your end. 

Austin- It was pretty similar. Monica wrote down a list of things that she liked doing as a VA, and then encouraged me to do the same. And then we sat down, we compared our lists and there were a couple of things that overlapped and one of the big ones was graphic designing.

And so we’re like, all right, let’s check that out. And so we started looking at different courses and how to make, how to make that become our business rather than just one of the many tasks that we do. So I really think, I mean, Monica, you kind of already said it. It’s it really has to do with what you enjoy doing for us that was designing.

And there’s, there’s probably a couple of other things that we could have ended up doing and loved. But for us right now, it’s designing. And if you love being a virtual assistant, if you love organizing people’s inboxes, if you love scheduling social media posts, there’s nothing wrong with that. Go do it, and be your best at it. But if that’s not working out for you, maybe you’ve become a designer and that’s not working out for you. Find something that you love to do. So that working is enjoyable and not forceful. 

Chris- I would be the worst person to be a virtual assistant for anybody, because if I showed you an actual screenshot of my desk, you’d see just how unorganized my life is, the only thing that looks good in this office is just right behind me so that it has a good camera shot. I think there’s a caveat to what you’re saying, because of course you want to do what you’re passionate about and the work that you’re doing, but there are certainly are moments that no matter how passionate you are about certain things, you’re gonna get frustrated. You’re gonna want to quit.

Not Giving Up On Your Passions

So talk about that. Are you guys just always passionate about web design or the moments that you’re like wanting to throw your computer against the wall? And how do you get past those moments?

Austin- Yeah, those are good questions.  yeah. And there’s certainly moments like that. I don’t love it every single second of every single day.

There are many times when we’re working on the design for ourselves or we’re a client and we just get frustrated because maybe we can’t make it look the way we want it to look. Or maybe we think it looks great, but our client wants it to look differently. So we have to change what we want or there are times when I feel good about what I’m doing and then I see some designer who’s been designing for decades or years. I’m like, ‘man, I’m never gonna be like that.’ And, so, yeah, there are definitely moments that we don’t love it for different reasons, but I think it really just comes down to…I guess just take an average, I suppose, of the times that you are working. I do you look forward to going to work? Do you wake up at, in the morning and think, ‘oh, gosh, I can’t believe I have to get up and do this again.’ 

Monica-There are definitely moments. I’m a very big picture person. I hate the little details of making sure everything’s perfectly lined and all those things. So after I design Austin will usually go back through and line everything up for me and things. Just like little tweaks obviously. But I think those little kinds of tedious things are the things that sometimes are annoying to me. I love watching the transformation, especially like in a website,  it’s so cool to just watch it all, come together and watch all your links go to the right place and, and just really see somebody’s brand online. So it’s the end result that really drives me. That really keeps me going. 

Chris- Yeah, I like that. I can appreciate that. Especially coming from a music background, writing songs, I would tell people I hate writing songs, but I love having written songs. Because the process of writing a song is horrible.

It’s a roller coaster and you’re up and down and you feel like the best songwriter and the worst songwriter in the very same hour, you know? And so to finally just be done and have it to be some kind of digital MP3 that you can hand to somebody, is kind of a really cool thing until 10 years later, you look back and you’re like, man, that was a really bad song. I don’t know why I ever made it. That’s a topic for another conversation. 

Is business with my spouse for me?

Chris- So, I wonder if we can pivot just in the last few minutes and talk about what it’s like working as a couple, cuz my wife and I are starting to do that together more. We’ve done it here and there. But she’s actually taking on projects when I’m too busy to take on something and she’s helping support me with some of the bigger projects that we have.

So, Austin, you had mentioned that you need to find somebody who’s a support, and Monica, you said accountability to kind of keep you moving forward, but I’m sure there are moments where  you guys are probably working in the opposite direction of things. And you’re like, ‘man, I don’t wanna work with you right now.’

You know, it’s just normal of any person’s relationship with whatever. So, how do you guys maintain a healthy marriage, a healthy relationship, and a healthy business at the same time? 

Austin- Yeah. That’s great. We love working together. We really do. You’re not wrong. I mean, there are definitely moments where despite loving working together and despite loving each other, maybe we get frustrated at one another, or maybe we have different goals or visions for how something should turn out.

I think I’m gonna still steal your idea, cuz we were talking about this earlier. So these are kind of Monica’s words, but I agree with her. So they’re also kind of my words.

I think it’s really important to have a separation in your relationship between your marriage life and your business life. Cause we’ll often sit down and we’ll have business meetings where we talk about how we’re gonna market ourselves, or we talk about how to handle certain clients. And then apart from that, we will set aside time to go on dates, set aside time just to spend the two of us together and not talk about business.

And obviously, there are some blur areas where we are hanging out and we’ll talk about life things and business things, but we try to really set aside time for each other outside of the business so that we keep growing our relationship and keep building each other. And our business doesn’t become everything and all-consuming.

Monica- Yeah. I don’t know that I have… I mean, they were my own words…

I think it’s really important to keep business conflicts in the business. So I mean, as designers and I’m sure you’ll experience this with your wife, there’s sometimes where I’m certain that that color is the best color and that’s where it needs to go. And Austin is very certain that that’s not where it needs to go and we shouldn’t use that color at all. And so it’s important to make sure that that conflict stays in the business and then it doesn’t become a personal conflict. If that makes sense, which can be really tricky. And there are definitely days that I’m not good at this. I’m gonna take my own advice, but there are definitely times when it’s important to say, okay, well, this is a frustrating point for us on this design or whatever…Let’s walk away from it. Let’s look at other options on our own and then come back together so that we’re not letting it fester. And we do not just keep hitting that wall over and over and over again. And I think for me, that’s when it becomes personal is when we keep hitting that wall. And I just get frustrated. Cause I feel like he’s just saying no, cause it’s me suggesting it. Being able to separate those two. It’s tricky, but it makes all the difference. 

Chris- Well guys, thank you so much for, coming on and, and sharing your insight and perspective. If somebody was trying to get in touch with you or connect with you online, where would they go?

Monica-Yeah, so you can, you can connect with us through our website. AandMDigitalDesign.com or you can find us on Instagram or Facebook. We’re on there a lot.. 

Chris- So again, thank you guys so much for coming on and we’ll have to have you on again and again in a few years, who knows, maybe you’ll be back to virtual assistance and we’ll just talk about that transition again. It has really been fun. 

Austin-Thanks you so much, Chris. It’s really been a pleasure. 

Chris- You know, what I love about Austin and Monica’s story is that it wasn’t a straight line. Their path to success had some twists and turned along the way. They tried working a nine-to-five job, and then they tried being VAs, and then they found their sweet spot and web design.

Most people think that if they try something and it doesn’t work out, then they’re failures, or they’re forced to go back to what they were doing before hanging their heads in shame, but it doesn’t have to be that way that doesn’t have to be the case for you. The point is that you keep pushing, you keep trying to find something that you love doing you’re good at, and you make good money from, and you don’t quit until you get there.

And hear me out, whether that’s web design, web development. Yoga instructing. I don’t care. I’m here cheering you on the entire way. Well, I hope you enjoyed this week’s episode with Monica and Austin. And next week we will be back. Same time, same place with another awesome episode until then keep working hard.

And don’t forget if you don’t quit, you win.