Meet Christina Calle | Owner and Graphic Designer at Calle Creative

We had the good fortune of connecting with Christina Calle and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Christina, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Before 2020 I was in the corporate world for almost 11 years and for most that is not a long time. For me that was too long. Growing up I thought I needed to go to college, get a job, get married, get a house and start a family. I did all of those things but at the cost of being without my small children for most of the day. I worked over an hour way so we could afford that home and life. Working a corporate job I still have very high student loan payments. I saw my two youngest at the time maybe 3 hours awake a day. Then the weekends came and I was too tried to be the “fun mom”. In 2018 my dad attempted suicide and it made me really reflect my own life and what I was doing to build a life for my kids. My dad ended up surviving but our live have been forever changed. At that moment I knew I needed to make some serious changes. In 2020 COVID came and the job I had for almost 8 years closed its doors. I was 7 months pregnant with our third and my husband was supposed to have surgery at the end of the week. I walked out of the building, went and got Chipotle with my mom, who also lost her job that day since we worked together, went home and just sat on the couch and cried. It took a few months to really figure out what I wanted to do as a family navigating COVID and home schooling; since the schools were closed, and I also needed to figure out my next steps to start supporting my family again. It wasn’t till October of 2020 when I decided that I wasn’t going to take these low paying job offers because of COVID and take a chance on myself and my family and build a better life that they deserved and not be a slave to corporate.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I went to The Art Institute of Tampa. They taught the basics of graphic design and how to open the Adobe programs, they taught me how to write a cover letter and resume, they taught me how to get an internship and do an interview. But I was never taught on how to run a business. What if I never wanted to go get a “job”, what if I wanted to start my own business right after graduation. They didn’t give us those skills. I got my LLC in October 2020 and I didn’t even fill that out correctly and finally hired an accountant a year later to fix it for me. I knew I wanted to help small businesses with their branding and graphic design needs. I loved everything about branding and learned so much while I did work in corporate and worked a long side some of the largest brands in the world, But I didn’t know how to get clients, I just opened up a Instagram and Facebook page for myself and started posting my work, I eventually stopped picking at my website and hit publish in December of 2020. I hired a business coach because after three months I still had no idea what I was doing. I had some clients, mostly friends and former coworkers helping me out. But it wasn’t until I started doing face to face networking and building a relationship with other small businesses around me that my business took off. It was slow but after almost three years I am so glad I got started and walked into my first networking meeting and said yes to setting up 1:1 with other local businesses.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
So I love going into the city every now and then and visiting the small local restaurants, usually somewhere that has really good sushi or ramen. But there are major cities all over the place and yes everyone is unique, I grew up just outside of Atlanta and then moved to Florida and lived just outside of Downtown Tampa. But for me it’s the small local towns and for Florida it’s the local beach towns. Going to the local parks and exploring nature and going to the beach. Visiting those small nature preserves and just experiencing the life outside of the city. I once thought I wanted to move to New York and live there for a year and experience that. But being born in Florida and growing up in Georgia I just feel more connected to nature. So when my friends come down to visit we go to the local spots that many people don’t know about and can’t find on a Visit To Florida brochure.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I would say it was the book by Simon Sinek “Start With Why” I read that book a few times when I was starting to plan out my business. It helped me really understand why I was taking a chance on my self and on my family. Giving up a paycheck and group benefits is scary when you have three small children. But I knew they needed a better life, a happier mom, and more flexibility with both parents. My husband deserved a happier wife and one that was home more often. That book helped me understand that, yes I am a great designer, I can help small businesses with their branding and graphic design needs. But that is what I do not WHY I do it. I started my own business for my family. My children get to wake up with mom most days making them breakfast, I walk them to school and pick them up. I get to be involved with their school, Cub Scouts and church again.

Website: callecreative.com

Instagram: instagram.com/callecreative

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/calle-creative

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ChristinaCalleDesigns

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@callecreative pinterst.com/callecreative

Image Credits
I own the right to the images that are uploaded