Hayley from WQ Creative and I met over 7 years ago when I started my first graphic design job and she was already a designer and sales rep at the same company. We completely hit it off and quickly realised we had many aligning values for life and business.
I am so thankful we have continued to stay in each other's life even after I moved to Melbourne, I have been able to watch her strive the best for her business all while growing her beautiful family.
Check her business out here, I can't wait for you to read her biz story below!
1. What is your brand story? Tell us a little bit about what makes you, you! And why you got into business?
I love marketing, I always have. I built my first website when I was 11 (it was a Harry Potter fan site – haha nerd). From the age of 15 I wanted to be a graphic designer.
In my first office job as a receptionist at a real estate agent way back when, I started a monthly newsletter to send to our client and got really good feedback that opened up to other avenues of marketing for the office, but graphic design is where I thought I wanted to be so I pursued that for a while before realising, I was being pulled to do more than that. I wanted to do more than create graphics I wanted to help the business succeed.
So, I started freelancing.
Which involved into wanting to do it fulltime where WQ Creative was born. I see so many great businesses about that have good intentions and want to make the world a better place with their product and/or service and I just want to help them succeed. I want to see more women in business, see more women with more wealth, shift the balance and power to those that will do better with this planet and people. Business should not just be about making money, but about doing what you love and making the world better.
That’s why at WQ Creative we actively choose to associate with brands that look to uplift their communities, environment and industry. We want a better world and we want to help you shape it.
2. What has been the biggest challenges you have faced during your career/business? And how did you overcome it?
Perfectionism, I have worried things aren’t perfect enough so I won’t launch a service or product. Pushing myself into “messy action” has been huge and something I still struggle with, but I am much better at it than I was a year ago. I have found it is a working progress and still a challenge that I have to work on every day. Daily mantras and a good playlist help!
3. What is something you are super proud you have achieved?
Knowing that I am good at what I do. As a business owner you have all these doubts come over you all the time, am I good at this? Am I worth being paid for this? Do I really know what I am talking about? And yes, I am! I have become really good at knowing what I am worth, and putting up boundaries. You still get the occasional person that will try and knock you down and so that internal little creepy mean voice (which I call Susan) will back them up and try and make you believe it. Majority of the time I will tell her to buzz off and I can go back to feeling as confident as I should be.
4. Who are the women you most admire in business?
Well, you are one for sure! Seeing you push yourself outside your comfort zone and putting yourself out there helped me push myself. I have done this from the sidelines (freelancing) for years now never being all in but it wasn’t until I saw you giving it your all that made me really go for it. So, thank you!
5. If you could go back and give advice to your younger self, what would it be?
Just do it! Stop waiting for the perfect time, stop waiting until you feel good enough, just start.
Block the nay-sayers and the negative voice within. Don’t let anyone’s fear or judgement of you stop you from doing what you want to do. Go for it!
