About Theresa Wilmot
Theresa is the brand stylist, graphic designer and creative problem solver of Wilmot Designs, LLC. She works with business owners to help them give a voice to their message and mission through creative and effective design. Her background includes working for a global consumer goods company in their art department, a theater playbill publication and a hat company where she had her first experience with textile design. Theresa is taking her business to the next level with fun, new clients!
What does a graphic designer do?
“…Someone in business for themselves probably does a wider variety of things than a person who works for a larger agency. And those things can span the, both the print and digital world.”
How did you decide to start your own design business?
“So, after working in the areas that I worked in professionally, um, I say professionally, but for someone else, I, decided to go out on my own because we were living in Bentonville, Arkansas at the time…”
How does a well-developed brand communicate the message and mission of a business effectively?
“So, a well-developed brand like I was saying before, is more than just your logo. It is your presence when you are not there. So, what a well-developed brand should do is communicate…”
Can you share with me your most successful or favorite networking story/experience that you’ve had?
“I belong to a women network and my favorite story out of that group so far is having volunteered to help with a promotional booklet that they were going to put together for a women's entrepreneurship week here in Milwaukee.”
How do you stay in front of or best nurture your network community?
“I'm actually just getting to know the people themselves because to me, part of networking is not only what I could do for them, but what they could do maybe for someone that I know or even for myself.”
What advice do you have for the professional on growing their network?
“I would say to not be afraid of it, be open to the idea of it as being something that could be very natural and not canned or fake…”
Digital networking or traditional networking?
“I think about this a lot lately just because of the business I'm in. And I think right now I'd have to say the traditional sense just because it's newer to me and I'm typically, I'm pretty good at making connect genuine connections with people.”
If you could go back 20 years, what would you tell yourself to do more or less of regarding your career?
“To trust that I am enough, that I am talented enough that I am skinny enough that I am funny enough that I, I feel like back in my twenties I doubted myself a lot.”
We’ve all heard of the 6 degrees of separation… Now, who would be the one person you’d love to connect with, and do you think you could do it within the 6th degree?
“Aaron Draplin, the graphic designer, um, who I've been following… I would love to connect with him because he is a designer without, um, he seems very approachable. I think that's a good way to put it.”
What book are you reading right now?
“I love yours because it's, you interview a wide range of guests in a wide variety of businesses, um, about networking but also about their business journeys.”
Any final words of advice for our listeners?
“I would just say to be patient with yourself. Um, don't go into networking thinking that you have to, you know, make so many contacts right away or I know some people do that, some people have goals, you know, they want to make so many contacts at this event or that event.”
You can get in contact with Theresa at:
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LinkedIn: Click Here
https://www.wilmotdesigns.com/
