If you’ve never experienced rejection in your life, raise your hand. No one? Ok. That’s what we thought. Everyone has experienced some sort of dismissal, especially in the business world when they try to camouflage it with formality: “We appreciate your application but this does not suit our needs at this time.” We’ve also heard the one that makes us feel like a tiny grain of sand: “Thanks but we’ve decided to go with someone else”. What about the one where they don’t even respond? Yup. We’ve gotten that one, too. And, of course we have all heard the (un)romantic ones :“It’s not you, it’s me”, “I just see you as a friend”, and the infuriating classic, “It’s just bad timing.” Despite whatever version of these lines you’ve heard, they all suck. BUT! Only at first. The thing is, in the beginning, most of us can’t see rejection as a benefit to our lives and as fuel for our go-getternes. Unless, however, you are a determined Boricua/Salvadoran/American woman like Pam. In that case, rejection gets turned around into motivation pretty quickly.
Pamela Delgado was inspired to start her own business after knowing she was being underpaid at her 9-5 job and given countless lame excuses by the company’s execs on why she couldn’t be promoted or be given a proper raise. The responses were consistently negative and they were always determined by her male higher-ups. Not only did it not seem fair, it also seemed personal. Why not reward an employee with a wage that is compatible to their work when all requirements are being met and even surpassed? No explanation. So, Pam decided to take life into her own hands and change things up. She started a graphic apparel line called Rawly Bold with the purpose of empowering women. Unfortunately, when COVID hit, there wasn’t much hope for a brand new apparel business since shopping was at the bottom of pretty much everyone’s list. Did that stop her? Absolutely not. During a time when the entire world had to go digital, Pamela and her sister, Aysha, saw the opportunity of helping women-owned businesses through what they knew best - sales, digital marketing, community building, design and strategy. In May of 2020, they decided to start their own agency, Delgado Creative Group.
Through this process, Pam realized a couple of things. Number one: she has found her purpose and this is what she should’ve been doing all along. And number two: helping herself whilst helping other women is really the most rewarding job of all. And this bring us to, how did we, Onlychild, a design studio that works with women-owned businesses, and Delgado Creative Group, an agency that also helps female-businesses, meet? Fate gives us the perfect answer. Pamela found us through We All Grow Latina, a community of Latina creators and entrepreneurs who get together to support each other. I mean, if this isn’t female support overload, then we don’t know what is. Pam saw the work we did with the We All Grow rebranding, (which btw, is fire and you can check it out here) and she hired us to work on their branding. Delgado Creative Group wanted something different, original but intriguing and captivating. They wanted something that would attract the dream client and we pretty much nailed it! Click here to see it.
In just a little over a year, DCG has already locked in eight regular clients and the inquiries just keep popping in. The Delgado Creative Agency works like this - Pam is the more strategic, consultant one of the duo. She understands the business and strategy of it all and her sister Aysha is the creative half who works with graphic design, logos, templates, website building, flyers and the promotion aspect of the business. Doing it all on their own hasn’t been easy, but Pamela has learned that the truth of the matter is, you can do it all as long as you put your mind to it. It doesn’t have to be big and you don’t have to know everything at first because things are constantly changing. What you know now, might not be what you will need in the near future, you might have to learn and pivot, and that’s okay. The important thing to stick to is to be consistent with your goals and dreams. And that, my friend, is what you do when you don’t get the response you were expecting to get, when you don’t get called back for that second interview, when you get a no or not even an answer.
So, if you’re in that place right now, remember that rejection is also here to remind you to keep moving and be patient, explore different paths, reevaluate, reinvent yourself, rethink your short-term goals and reconsider your long-term goals.
We promise, these moments will only make you stronger and make you grow. There is no rejection, just redirection.
To an amazing rest of the week!
Your friend,
Onlychild
CHECK OUT OUR WORK FOR DELGADO CREATIVE HERE
