Please, introduce yourself and your business.
I'm Gina Herrera, I'm 34 and I live in Brooklyn, New York. I'm the founder of the Wellness Hatchery, a boutique ecommerce product launch agency that is dedicated exclusively to helping well-intentioned business owners in the wellness, beauty, and self-care categories launch, market, and scale their product-based brand. I've worked with some really large brands in the past, some household names, but honestly, I don't even like mentioning them because what I'm most proud of is the work I've done for people with zero experience selling anything.
I am one of those super fortunate people that genuinely loves what they do, I am so passionate about marketing and design and how they work hand in hand. There's something so insane and beautiful about how an outwardly average person can change the course of their future through ecommerce. Anyone can do it. It's for sure not easy, but if you're willing to do the work (or hire me to do some of it for you, haha), you really can create a whole new income stream with the potential to scale.
How did you start your business?
I've really only been freelancing since the summer of 2020, that was part time (about 15 hours a week on top of my pretty demanding job working at a product licensing agency). So I'm still pretty young in the game. But it all started after what I call "My Last Straw".
It was September 2019; I felt unappreciated at my day job and my career growth had stalled. The company had not improved in terms of salary, systems and organization, or sexism. I left for my first 10-day vacation in over 6 years , I was told I was "abandoning the team" despite being available the entire time via emails. Upon my return, I was demoted from my creative director position in the most unprofessional and disrespectful way possible: on a company video call, without even being spoken to in advance. Despite literally having trained the individual who replaced me - a man with absolutely no formal experience in design or management - I quietly accepted my fate with grace, realizing that my potential for advancement at this company had come to an end. Prior to this, I was not actively seeking new roles or working on updating my portfolio. Instead I always had excuses, like that I was too tired, or that things could get better if I tried hard enough at work, etc. For this reason, I refer to "The Last Straw" as being THE event that triggers one to be completely and irrevocably fed up with their situation and actually drives them to make a massive change in their life.
After my Last Straw of being completely disrespected by a superior that I used to admire and look up to, I found the energy to spend an hour every night reworking my portfolio so that I could pursue a better job. However, when my body of work was finally ready for interviews, the US was entering the start of our coronavirus issues (January 2020). Very few places were hiring, and overall it was the worst time in recent history to be pursuing a career change.
I quickly realized I was wasting precious time and energy on interviews that went nowhere because a lot of companies were simply going through the motions for positions they had posted a long time ago, but were no longer hiring for. Feeling discouraged, I remembered that there was a freelancing platform called Upwork, and I signed up hoping to at least find some more fulfilling and interesting design work for extra money since I was now working from home, our salaries had all been cut by over 40% due to pandemic-inspired fear, and everything was in lockdown. Imagine my surprise when I won my first project after just 3 days, and was able to go from $25 per hour to $50 per hours after a few small projects with good reviews. From there, things only got better.
How much revenue was your best year? (include margin if possible)
The past two years have been a bit over 250k with about an 80 to 85% profit margin - typically like anyone else I would aim for year-over-year growth; however, it's worth noting that last year was much more focused more on building more personal freedom in my day-to-day life and working on the business instead of in it, so I was beyond thrilled to hit the same numbers while putting in significantly less hours.
When did you notice traction when building your business? The “Oh S**t!” moment, what did that feel like?
There were actually a ton of those moments at various points during my journey. My real first "Oh S**t" moment was paying off $20,000 in credit card debt by moonlighting on Upwork only 15 hours a week from August to December. I was so proud when I made that last payment. The weight off my shoulders was insane.
But I was still incredibly cautious about my approach; I worked nights and weekends after my 9 to 5 and I set clear income and time based goals for quitting (my life KPI's, one might say). I wanted to make sure this was 1000% sustainable. So I decided that starting in January 2021, I would do this for one more year, bump up my hours to 25 a week and work my ass off since I was WFH and saving time / energy from not commuting, and if I was still pulling at least the same as what I was making at my current job after fees and expenses, I would leave.
Well, I hit my total salary - $75k - 3 months early in September, another "Oh S**t" moment. My boss, the CEO of the company, picked a massive fight with me a month later. Literally half the company was staring and listening to us shout at each other in a little fishbowl (we had glass walled offices, fun); the last thing he said to me was - and I remember this so vividly - "I'm so tired of you chiming in with your stupid comments in every meeting." Keep in mind my "stupid comments" were simply suggestions on how to make things run more smoothly to improve HIS company. And he genuinely expected me to just get back to work. I transferred all my files to the server, walked out and sent in my resignation via email from the car on my way home. Admittedly, that was more like an "Oh s**t, I'm really f**king doing this aren't I?" moment. But again, the relief I felt was astronomical.
What was your childhood like? Were you slinging candy on the playground?
I sold little handmade beaded lizard keychains for $5 in fourth grade, so you could say I showed some promising signs of hustle at a young age. But what I actually remember most about my childhood was being an avid reader. I was always getting in trouble for reading a book under my desk in school. I was incredibly shy so it was also a great way to avoid talking, I would just tell anyone who tried to speak to me that I was at a really interesting part in my book, haha. I also really liked writing my own little stories and drawing pictures, I drew a LOT as a child. So it was very obvious I always had an affinity for creativity. But I actually just wanted to be a veterinarian. I love animals. Oddly enough, even from a young age I always knew I didn't want to be considered "average," and I didn't want to make less than 6 figures by the age of 30.
I had a really good relationship with my family as a kid until I hit about 12 and my ADHD and depression issues started. Despite being in all the advanced / gifted program tracks, my grades most definitely didn't reflect my intelligence. My mom, although a great mother, was unfortunately really strict due to some anxiety and OCD issues of her own, and this led to some depression on my end too. I've since worked through this, mental health was not really a thing back in the 2000's so there weren't really a lot of stigma-free solutions for her crippling anxiety. But at the time it really hurt me and held me back from making real connections with people, so I felt lonely and misunderstood a lot. And I always struggled - and still do - with focus and productivity. However, my parents were and still are my biggest supporters, regardless of circumstance. I never felt like they didn't care for me or believe in my ability to succeed, so I was very fortunate for that.
I also want to mention my father's background as well. He is an immigrant who came here from Colombia when he was 19. He grew up very poor, like literally eating rice and beans everyday and sharing one toy amongst 12 siblings every Christmas type of poor, so he came here to seek better opportunities. Not only is he literally the kindest and most genuinely good person I know, his constant hard work put our family squarely in the upper middle class. Although I wasn't spoiled, I never experienced any essence of financial hardship. We always had everything we needed. It's just so amazing to me that he was able to come here and achieve the classic American dream. He's always been a massive inspiration to me. Then my mom would work part time to make sure we got nice things for Christmas and birthdays. I remember once she bought me and my brother little iPod minis for no particular reason when they first came out (I am definitely dating myself here, haha). Mine was apple green and I loved it so much, I took it everywhere. She was so proud of being able to do that for us too.
What has been your best marketing marketing channel?
Upwork, as much as I hate to admit that. For some reason I feel this weird shame at having succeeded there, haha. I'm not sure where that comes from, maybe because others I know have struggled so hard to get clients on their own without any type of freelance platforms. The platform itself has changed a LOT even just in the four years I've been using it, and often not for the better, but even so, there's nothing like getting the chance to pitch your services to red hot leads that have clearly stated their budget range and expectations. I often get potential clients approaching me just from finding my profile and being impressed with my reviews and total earnings, and that can sometimes lead to really large projects between 10 and 20k.
How many attempts at building something did you make before you found what you’re working on now? Did you always have an entrepreneurial drive?
I have really big plans for the business but I have probably gone through at least 3 to 5 iterations on what that future could possibly look like. It's funny because I always thought before this you create the business once, it either works or it doesn't, and that's kind of it, but that was just my lack of experience talking. When my business coach told me that we should be working on the business and making it better every day, I was sort of confused, because I was like won't we run out of ideas pretty fast...? But I've discovered that realistically, there is ALWAYS something to be done and always room for improvement and growth.
I actually never saw myself doing this, I never wanted to own my own business. I always dreamed of working for some bigshot agency like Pentagram, and becoming an amazing award-winning designer, a household name, etc. I was ready to hustle so hard. I never even cared to be a creative director or in charge of anyone since it took me away from what I felt passionate about, the design aspect. But over time I realized that I am just so freaking done making other people - specifically arrogant men, to be honest - rich. I also don't care about winning awards or getting credentials of whatever sort, because I've seen some really shitty work that won awards, and I've also seen award-winning designs for business that go out of business very quickly because they spent too much money on conceptual bullshit that was more of an ego project than anything else. Meanwhile, now I'm making probably just as much as some of those well-known CDs, for less hours and less hassle. I'm gonna do what I love, and help who I want to help, and dedicate my time and energy to clients who deserve my talents and knowledge so that they can also pour those good intentions back into the universe. I'm actually really picky about who I work with too, I love how the people I do choose to work with want to make the world a better place for others through their products, and I wouldn't be able to do that working for someone else. Imagine me trying to tell Pentagram I don't want to work on their client's campaign because of my personal morals, haha.
What is your biggest overhead expense?
Well, Upwork's 10% platform fees are pretty rough from a financial point of view. But that's standard in the industry as a finder's fee and they offer all types of great stuff for freelancers like payment protection and escrow services. Plus, it doesn't need to be paid unless I'm actually making money, so it's an expense that is clearly tied to my income and if I'm paying more, it's because I made more.
Besides that, my web developers would be my next largest expense. Close runner up would be my virtual assistant.
I wish I could say rent, I'm absolutely horrified by my rent so I never fail to complain about it ($3600 for a small high rise studio apartment) but I suppose since I work from home that's not fully considered a business expense.
What’s the most important skill you’ve learned?
On a personal level, that definitely would be just learning how to cope with the mental pressure and ups and downs of entrepreneurship. I used to genuinely make myself sick with worries and what ifs. Taylor Tomlinson made a joke on her last Netflix special, "What's that quote by that philosopher? When you worry, you just suffer twice." Meanwhile in my head I'm like, oh yeah, I remember that, that was Confucius or something... Then she looked it up and the ~famous philosopher~ was actually Newt Scamander, from the Harry Potter prequel Fantastic Beasts. That was an embarrassing laugh. But yeah, it's so true. I would literally make myself suffer for no reason. Learning to deal with this imaginary feeling of failure, BEFORE I even failed, was crucial for my everyday mental health.
As far as more business-related skills, that would definitely be how to build out an offer and sell it, while being open to pivoting constantly. I'm actually weirded out by how far I pivoted because I never saw myself moving away from design, but I actually spend a lot of time doing marketing strategy and copywriting now, because it has a more tangible effect on my clients' sales. It's also super fulfilling because now I'm using both sides of my brain. My average order value is so much higher now, which allows me to work with less clients on a more personal level.
I also have to shout out my business coach (Patrick O'Connell of Profitable Designer) who is probably the entire reason I've advanced so quickly. He was the person who helped me with both of the above skills. My first year of freelancing I hit six figures. My second year, after working with Patrick, I doubled that number and hit 200k. It was definitely not a coincidence. By the way, this is not a sponsored article, haha. I am just so grateful to him for being so invested in my success, I can't not mention him.
What do you spend the majority of your time doing, in a given week? (I think a lot of people hear entrepreneurs “work,” but may not understand what that means on a day-to-day basis.
I would say I spend about 30 to 35 hours per week working total - maybe 25 to 30 of that on client work and providing instructions to my team, and 5 hours doing internal improvements on my business and marketing. Client work includes research, communication, design, marketing strategy, copywriting, providing creative direction and instructions to my contractors, etc. while the time I spend within the business is organization and structure related, as well as planning for scaling in the future, working on outreach and marketing efforts, and other things of that nature. I definitely also need to set aside more time for content creation, I suck at social media and it's a powerful tool so that needs to make its way into my daily activities, I'm just not an attention-seeking person so social media feels wrong. Obviously I need to get over that and just do it.
I also spend a LOT of time on the phone with potential clients, sales and closing is the best activity I can dedicate my time to and I think that's something many people don't understand. Just because I'm not literally doing physical client work constantly, does not mean that these other activities aren't valuable. Bringing in new clients needs to be top priority so that I have the finances to be able to continue the business, pay my contractors, and live my ideal lifestyle, while the next priority - while no less important in the grand scheme of things - is actually ensuring the work is delivered.
I do feel I work a normal amount of hours because I genuinely enjoy what I do. However, I don't need to, and that's important to me. If I want to just drop off and go spend a day in the city, I can do that. I actually just came back from a 10-day trip to Paris last week, barely worked at all other than a few emails and calls. I came back so refreshed. Then got right back into the grind. I'm just as happy working as I am not working, it just depends on my state of mind from day to day.
What do you know now that you wish you knew when first starting your business?
I wish I had realized earlier how integral my past experiences were to building out my offers for clients. I started out doing catchall graphic design - a postcard here, a logo there, some flyers, etc. and it was okay, but I wasn't enjoying it much. Then I moved into focusing on retail packaging design (which is exactly what I was doing for my previous company before I was promoted to creative director) because I realized it was a harder skillset to master and not many had the level of experience I did, which meant it would be more lucrative with less competition.
Then I suddenly realized branding was where the money was at, plus branding was often a crucial first step to packaging anyway. So I sold branding with the packaging included. Then I moved into B2B packages geared towards helping clients get their products in stores, so branding, packaging, and retail displayers / sell sheets / presentations, etc. - again, all things I did at my past job.
This was before I identified ecommerce as the direction I wanted to move in, which was by far my largest jump in productization. Still, imagine if I had started out with doing exactly what I did at my old job instead of the little design tidbits... I'd have had an average order value in the multiple thousands with a small handful of clients, instead of under 1k with 10 to 20 clients a month.
Overall I'm not too upset about it though, because my learning curve was short. I made all of those changes within a year or two, so I can't complain. Sometimes I feel weird that I never financially struggled in the business. Like, am I missing out on a rite of passage that would strengthen my character development?! But at the same time, things were really hard at my old job. 75k isn't much when you have 20k in credit card debt and 80k in college loans dangling over your head, so it's not like I never felt the pressure of not making enough. I just haven't felt it in my business yet, knock on wood.
The world of entrepreneurship can be misleading. Many people think it’s always easy and always glamorous. What’s a big problem you’ve faced as a business owner and what were the emotions behind it?
As I mentioned briefly, I do have chronic depression and ADHD. And I'm a huge believer in the Meyers-Briggs personality types, mine is INTJ. Between the two of these factors, the biggest problem I face in my business is actually me - I'm literally my greatest strength and superpower, but also my worst enemy with the potential to be my own downfall.
INTJs, or "Architects" value intelligence and logic. The good things about it are that I have a serious propensity and thirst for self-improvement and doing the hard work to achieve the outcome I want. However, sometimes my dedication to hard work and how that feels like it should always pay off sets me back because it prevents me from seeing an easier solution. Plus, realism also outweighs optimism for us, so it can be very difficult to think positively, especially when combined with depression issues. If I'm not in the right headspace, sometimes I literally feel like the world is going to end and I can't breathe. I just a deep-seated sense of doom and dread about how my life isn't good enough and I'm failing at everything I want to accomplish. Outwardly, there's nothing wrong, so it's like my brain tricking me into thinking I'm failing. Those days can be really hard on me.
Meanwhile, my ADHD leads to issues with focus and productivity. I only just admitted how bad it really is (I missed not one, but two flights, two days in a row, due to the extreme time-blindness that often accompanies the diagnosis - big wakeup call). Or, alternatively, I can be so one-track minded that I spend eight hours uninterrupted slaving away on something without even remembering to eat or use the restroom. Suddenly I look away from my computer and it's dark out, I am starving, and my kidneys hurt.
In my experience speaking to other business owners, some doing MILES better than me and pulling in millions of dollars, the "you are your own worst enemy" aspect is always going to be the biggest hurdle. No one could ever hope to make us feel worse than what we can do to ourselves. Honestly, even though I know lots of people would be thrilled to be in my position, I just don't even see myself as that successful at all. This is all just a small blip in my timeline.
Many people don’t know where to start in the business world, they feel stuck. They may want to start a business to become their own boss and create their hours. What is your best advice for someone who feels completely stuck?
Just start. The hardest part of any task is to actually pull the trigger on doing it. By taking the first step, it will immediately seem easier. Build a plan that suits your schedule where you can dedicate at least one half hour to your business, and eventually you will see the rewards of a consistent effort. The most important part of any business is creating good habits to drive you towards progress, and you may not see that progress immediately, but one day things will start happening as long as you keep doing it.
I also would say to keep in mind that appearances can be incredibly deceiving. Everyone feels stuck at some point no matter how much money they are making or how outwardly successful they may appear. You're not alone. So never waste time comparing your progress to others, what one person presents to the world is almost never exactly what it seems.
