Today we’d like to introduce you to Vanessa Santos.
Hi Vanessa, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
My name is Vanessa Amilet Santos, a Houston-native living in Orange County, California. I’m a web designer and developer with over 9 years of experience. My mission is to help entrepreneurs, creatives, and leaders establish their authentic online presence by providing visual solutions that will launch and grow their brand. Throughout my experience, I have worked as an in-house designer and developer in the Tech, Construction, Energy, and Oil & Gas industries. I have also worked independently as a freelancer, helping companies of all sizes and different industries throughout the nation. This has helped me gain insight on the importance of creating engaging and user-friendly designs that focus on the customer journey.
I founded Vanessa Amilet Creative in 2021 to continue helping companies throughout the nation elevate their web presence with unique strategic bold websites. My main goal is to work alongside you as a partner to understand your business’s and customer’s needs; therefore helping you turn your virtual visitors into engaged customers. My current services include Custom Website Designs for Service-Based and Product-Based companies, Strategic Landing Page Designs that convert users to customers, and other offerings such as Branding, Marketing Collateral, Social Media Templates, and more.
My unique skills in design, development, and marketing allow me to help clients in different industries achieve the results they are looking for. I have had the pleasure to work with amazing clients in industries such as Event Planning, Coaching, Music, Performance Arts, Human Resources, Finance, and much more. My clients are from different areas in the nation, including Atlanta. Not only do I help clients with their web presence, but I enjoy learning about their stories and how they got started. Everyone has a unique story to tell! I love to learn things from my clients that I get to take on in my personal life and career. Getting to know my clients also helps me strategically plan their website designs.
If you are interested in learning more about me or my services, you can visit my website: http://www.vanessaamilet.com/.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
I think everyone can agree that being a business owner has its ups and downs! It is definitely a learning experience. There have been a lot of lessons along the way. Although I have been freelancing for years, taking the leap to pursue my business full-time has brought new challenges to learn from.
I started freelancing as a web designer and developer in 2013 while attending the Art Institute of Houston. Throughout the years I encountered different experiences which have helped me handcraft my services, as well as my processes in my business. From all of the unique situations I have been through, I learned and decided to update and improve things in my business. These things included updates to my processes; my proposals; contracts; and handling potential clients.
Taking the leap of pursuing what I love to do full-time made me realize that a lot of it doesn’t have to do with how we handle calls with potential clients or how we have our processes set. It really has to do a lot with our mindset. This can mean how we see ourselves as business owners, our self-image, how we feel about the services we offer, and even our mindset toward money. For me, the main thing was my mindset toward money. I know that I provide amazing work and services, I trusted and believed that any client that I brought on loved my work and the results I achieved. However, the issue that I had was towards how much money I could charge and if I was worthy of getting paid for the services that I provide. This led me to work on my money mindset by working through all of the limiting beliefs that I had towards it. It’s really important to know the value that we bring to clients with the services we offer. It is what will make us successful in the long run!
There were other things that I did not know about running a business, such as accounting, payment processes, taxes, etc. Thanks to the resources provided by the Freelancers Union, I was able to learn a lot with the information and webinars they provided.. I encourage anyone that is a freelancer or a small business owner to join the Freelancers Union! It is free to join and the organization provides a lot of great free resources. Another thing I have learned is that it is best to outsource tasks to professionals in that field. A lot of the time we try to do everything on our own. However, delegating tasks that you do not enjoy doing is best for business. It gives you the opportunity to focus on other things in your business.
As you know, we’re big fans of Vanessa Amilet Creative LLC. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Vanessa Amilet Creative offers strategic bold website designs for mission-driven entrepreneurs, creatives, and leaders seeking to establish an authentic online presence. What sets me apart is my unique approach to understanding a client’s and their customer’s needs by handcrafting websites that are unique to their personality and brand. Not only do I focus on the design, but I focus on the overall experience and customer journey. My skills and expertise as a designer, developer, and digital marketer have allowed me to create outstanding experiences for my clients.
If you are interested in learning more about me or my services, you can visit my website: http://www.vanessaamilet.com/.
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
Ever since I was a kid, I have always loved to make people laugh with my corny jokes. I’m a really goofy person and just love to bring a smile on someone’s face. I have always had a passion for the arts and technology. As a kid, I was always curious on how the internet and website were created. My curiosity led me to research and learn the basics of coding (HTML/CSS). Once I started learning how to code, I knew that this is what I wanted to do. I loved being able to bring my creativity and bringing it into life. I have always enjoyed problem-solving. Any type of challenge I face, I have no problem facing it until I find a solution.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.freelancersunion.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/vanessaamilet/
- LinkedIn: https://www.
linkedin.com/in/vanessaamilet/ - Other: https://dribbble.com/vanessaamilet
Image Credits
Headshot Photography by Neydi Photography (https://www.neydiphotography.com/)
