Arielle's Entrepreneurial Journey
Well hey there! Arielle Roth here.
That’s right you get to hang out with the other face behind Emerge Entrepreneur Collective this week. I’m so glad you’re here and equally excited about our program! Am I entering serial entrepreneurship? I don’t know, maybe…this is company number two for me.
I’m in my third year of owning my own business and the one thing that remains consistent (other than the fact that it’s pretty rad) is that I honestly still have no clue what I’m doing. Which is why we’re here, to make it easier and more obtainable for anyone who has this goal, ourselves included. I’m just as excited to broaden my knowledge as you guys are!
My entrepreneurial journey and present life differ from Lex’s quite a bit. I still work a traditional 9-5 and I love it. I’m a real life Van Wilder, as in I took ten years to finish college, which equates to a lot of student debt. A structured reliable income makes the most sense for me financially, and I love going to the office everyday and seeing my co-workers and having routine. I’m a creative being, and as with most of us my attention span is lacking slightly. So my full-time job gives me a schedule that keeps me on task and creates a better mental space for me.
I’m also a serial workaholic. I enjoy multiple responsibilities and tasks, I don’t know how to sit still. I need variety to keep myself from getting bored (nothing good comes from that). So I have found my sweet spot, traditional marketing manager by day, freelancer and business owner by night and weekends. It works perfectly because it means I have things to keep me busy at home while I binge watch Netflix.
The real reason you’re here though, how did I get here, right? Let’s take it back three years to 2017. I was in a job that was toxic to my wellbeing. I mean coming home and crying every night toxic. I didn’t know what to do at that point, I had just interviewed for a dream position but they went with an internal candidate. I knew I either continued going to a job that was ruining my mental health by the day or I needed to figure something out.
At that point in time I was also waitressing and in a volunteer Director of Social Media and Marketing position with a local non-profit (workaholic, remember). I was also building a large amount of relationships with local businesses due to my job at the time and a few had talked to me about working with them for social media management. So I went to Facebook and asked if I was crazy. Trust me, that’s a question you’ll ask your friends and family a lot in this journey. I had my first client in 20 minutes.
What happened then? My angel of a roommate at the time reminded me that I would be fine, no matter what happened I still had my waitressing income and she knew how miserable I was. So I went to the Google Gods to figure it out. That evening I applied for my LLC and the next day I put in my two weeks at my job. Three days later I signed my first contract and Riella Marketing & Design became a reality.
So was entrepreneurship ever my dream or plan? Nope. But life has a funny way of working out and showing you the right path.
I now do everything from simple graphic design projects to far more in-depth ones, website design and management, social media marketing and management, content creation…you name it and if it’s in the realm of design or organic digital marketing, it’s probably on my list. I’ll be honest though, I don’t touch paid marketing like google ads, it brings me no joy. And there’s something to be said about the fact that you can pick and choose your tasks when it’s your own business. I LOVE the opportunity to build relationships with business owners and their customers. That’s the key to good branding and storytelling.
My Emerge story isn’t that different from my Riella one (other than I love my current job). Lex and I had a meeting to discuss a potential branding job for her. I actually went into the meeting having no idea what the company even was. But within a half hour I was passionate about it, we fit well with one another and it just made sense to work together after hearing one another’s stories. Just like that, we were business partners. I rarely ponder or overthink. Ask my mother, it stresses the poor woman out. I pretty much always make decisions in a matter of minutes because my gut simply knows the answer. And it seems to be working pretty well for me.
Part of the entrepreneurial journey is find your people that fit well. Lex is my 9-5 in the realm of Emerge, she keeps me structured and on task. I am so excited that we are two of the people you’re choosing for your journey.