Today we’d like to introduce you to Paige Searles
Hi Paige, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My name is Paige Searles, an Alaskan born & raised artist, content strategist and multi-signed model. I am the founder of Passion Fruit Studio, a creative consultancy that helps ambitious minority business owners infuse their authentic story within their marketing. The studio is a place where creativity, strategy, and passion blend seamlessly. Passion Fruit Studio specializes in end-to-end digital marketing and creative support for small business and brands. storytelling, ideation and strategic communications to help others.
The meaning behind Passion Fruit Studio is two-fold. First being that serving others with my gifts of storytelling and ideation is my passion. I truly enjoy what I do, which is a gift within itself. I enjoy collaborating and helping others scale their business and receive the fruits of their labor. Passion Fruit Studio was created by combining both elements.
The path to get where I am today has been anything, but linear, yet every pivot and redirection was essential to my success.
Growing up I always got in trouble for getting art supplies on the carpet. As an only child living in Anchorage, when I wasn’t outside enjoying the summers where the sun never sets or winters that never seem to end, I would be in my room creating and imagining my own world. From painting to making sculptures from cardboard boxes, I created with anything I could get my hands on.
Whenever asked what do you want to be my answer would vary from interior designer, artist, painter, all with the common theme of creativity.
You would think with such a consuming passion where the hours would fly by, that would create a direct path for me to graduate and go straight to a fine arts school or into a design discipline, but that wasn’t the case.
Being an artist or creative was never actualized as a career by my family or those around me. It was merely seen as a hobby, something I was good at, but nothing more.
As I continued throughout my primary education, I began developing an interest in science and pursuing a path to ultimately become an orthopedic surgeon. I completed numerous AP classes, shadowed surgeons as an intern in high school, attended a summer fellowship at nationally ranked university for medicine. You couldn’t tell me or anyone else that this was not going to be my destiny. The dedication, time and intentionality I put behind this outcome taught me a lot about myself. This was my “new” dream, to help people, learn about the human body, and allow people to live better lives.
Fast forward to my freshman year of college in fall of 2020. At this point, I had been pursuing this pre-medicine track throughout high school and even a little bit prior up to now. I remember sitting in my dorm room on campus, not knowing what the state of the world would be tomorrow, let alone by the time I would graduate college. I had just received what I deemed as a below average grade on an introductory biology exam that I studied so hard for.
With the weight of the world and a million unanswered questions regarding how life will look, the passion and dream that had been tucked away for years was tugging on my heart.
Will I be 110% okay with myself if I continue this path for the next 12 ish years to become a surgeon without ever giving my creative gifts a shot?
That was the question as I asked myself. I knew that even if I failed or it didn’t work out, that I wouldn’t have to live with that “what if”.
I sat on it by myself, internally going back and forth. Thinking about how disappointed my parents and support circle would be if I make this change after investing so much. Is this the right decision? Am I giving up? At that moment I knew I had to trust myself.
It was the day before the withdrawal deadline, meaning if you drop your classes your GPA would not be affected by it. I dropped all my science classes, switched my major to advertising and never looked back. To this day, that was probably one of the scariest moments of my life because I did not know what the outcome was, but it truly was the biggest blessing I could have given myself.
Since that day, I have taken every opportunity I can to bet on myself, even when scared, because I remember that day, I trusted myself enough to allow my dreams to come true.
That experience has allowed me to graduate Cum Laude with a Bachelors in Advertising and Certificate in New Media from The University of Georgia, where I was able to explore all facets of creativity and learn skills within communications, graphic design, web development and app development.
That experience allowed me to be the youngest graduate in my cohort from ONE School NYC, an advertising portfolio program that teaches young black creatives to be skilled in art direction and copywriting.
That experience has allowed me to gain the opportunity to attend the Cannes Lion Festival in France, the oldest and most renowned festival in the world regarding advertising and creativity.
That experience allowed me to step outside my comfort zone and collaborate with other creatives, modeling for their brands and projects. Over time, this has led me to be a professional model signed to 4 agencies across New York and Atlanta.
That experience also gave me the confidence to not only help others bring their visions to life, but concepts and direct videos of my own. Which helped me to build out my own creative consultancy, Passion Fruit Studio, where I can help mission-led and service-based businesses and brands on a larger scale.
The journey to get here happened through evolutions of self discovery and reflection, but I am grateful to be able to say this is the life that I have designed for myself.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The path of creativity often includes unexpected bumps and obstacles.
One of the biggest struggles I had to overcome early on was imposter syndrome. In the beginning it was harder to combat because I was building my portfolio, gaining skills, figuring out what I wanted to specialize in.
It was intimidating at first and sometimes overwhelming having this looming cloud of doubt and outside factors like rejections reaffirming that. I would try to not talk myself out of applying for bigger opportunities or highly competitive roles just because of that little voice in my head. It comes with time and experience to be able to combat those feelings, but I always tell myself “you wouldn’t have the opportunity if you were not qualified to do it”.
It is important that I celebrate my wins, no matter how small. It could be learning a shortcut within design software or tackling an idea I’ve procrastinated on. These moments will help propel me through the downsides that may come of back-to-back rejections or having work stolen/not credited.
The other main struggle I had in the beginning was trying to specialize too early. When I was just entering an industry or discipline, you don’t know what you don’t know. In some aspects this still applies. As I worked with people, gained different titles, touched different areas of the process, I was exposed to more pathways in which I could design your career. For example, when I first began taking classes within advertising and researching the jobs I could have post-college it was mainly centered around graphic design or marketing/comms roles. I did not know there was a whole world of art direction and the complimentary roles of copywriters, account executives etc. existed.
Relieving myself of the pressure to figure out what title or discipline I wanted to pursue would have alleviated some stress and time that could have been focused elsewhere. When it comes to that, I suggest trying everything because you are going to figure out what you like and don’t like faster. This helped me to figure out what criteria to look for when applying to roles as well.
As you know, we’re big fans of Passion Fruit Studio. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
As a creative and communication strategist, I focus on infusing authentic stories within marketing to create impactful and successful campaigns. Passion Fruit Studio specializes in developing end-to-end marketing and communication campaigns across social media, video, and web. The studio specifically aims to help mission-driven and service-based companies that are founded by minority women.
In terms of my experience I have a variety of skills spanning video producing, scriptwriting, art direction, creative concepting and digital marketing. I am a lifelong learner and I believe the importance of challenging yourself often. This feeds into my mentality of diversifying my craft while being open to new opportunities.
Coming from an extensive military background, being a collegiate athlete, having parents who raised me in Southern hospitality and also having the chance to solo travel to multiple countries are just a few aspects that contribute to the complexity of who I am. These perspectives give me a unique advantage because I am able to pull insights which allows my creativity to thrive.
A project I enjoyed recently was helping a local creative client build their online presence. I developed a comprehensive social media strategy that showcased their services and positioned the studio director as an expert within the industry. This increased their engagement and allowed their social media channel to serve as a deeper dive of what the studio entails as a whole. What I enjoyed most from this project was learning the story of the founder and the iterations of what came before that built the business today. I was able to incorporate them within the content to showcase the ethos behind the company. It was also rewarding knowing that this company has worked with many other Georgia owned and operated companies that continue to serve the community.
In the future, I envision Passion Fruit Studio as a powerhouse for creativity and mentorship, where both ambitious business owners and aspiring young creatives can find the support they need to succeed. I see a studio that serves as a bridge for minority youth to gain hands-on experience. By offering them opportunities to work on large campaigns, I hope to empower these young talents to transform their creative visions into profitable assets. Passion Fruit Studio will be a space where impactful storytelling, innovative strategy, and community commitment come together to inspire growth, amplify voices, and drive meaningful change in the creative industry.
Are there any apps, books, podcasts, blogs or other resources you think our readers should check out?
There’s so many that have inspired me and pushed me to be where I am today. In no particular order here are a few that are top of mind:
Books:
The Perfect 100 Day Project by Rich Armstrong
How to Be Everything by Emilie Wapnick
The War of Art by Steven Pressfield
Podcasts & Video
The Cutting Room Floor by Omondi
CNBC Make It (Youtube)
Creative Minds (Youtube)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.passionfruitstudio.co
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paigesearles
Image Credits
Personal Image – Tracy Fentress, @famebydesignportraits
Second Image (graduation image) – Naa Dedei Martins, @media.fcm
