From Big Dreams to Real Responsibility

What Building Digital Duo & Co Has Taught Me

There’s a trend going around where your younger self and present-day self talk to each other (see my Instagram post for reference). At first, it felt nostalgic, but the more I thought about it, the closer it hit home.

While I was making the post, I was thinking, man, if my younger self were looking at my life right now, she’d probably say something like “Running a marketing business is a lot of work,” and she wouldn’t be wrong.

The Dream Was Simple

When I first imagined owning my own business, the idea was rooted in freedom.

Freedom to choose projects.

Freedom to be creative.

Freedom to build something that felt aligned.

In my head, owning a business meant autonomy and flexibility, but also a little bit of magic. What I hadn’t really understood yet was what comes with that freedom.

“The Reality is Responsibility”

Running Digital Duo & Co. means every decision passes through me. Strategy, creative direction, execution, client communication, workflow, boundaries, you get the point. There’s no switch you turn off at the end of the day. No one else to hand things to when something feels heavy. The responsibility is constant, and at times it can be a lot.

But Something Interesting happened along the way. The work didn’t just get harder, it also got clearer.

Alignment Changes Everything

At some point, I stopped seeing the responsibility as pressure and began to see it as ownership. Ownership over how I work, over the quality I deliver, and over the kind of clients I partner with. That shift from just doing the work to building something intentionally changed how I approach marketing entirely.

Creativity without structure leads to burnout. Strategy without intention leads to noise.

This perspective is the foundation of how I have started to run The Digital Duo & Co. today. Before design, before content, before posting, there’s a strategy. Before strategy, there’s understanding.

I focus on helping brands:

Clarify what they’re actually trying to say
Build Systems that make marketing sustainable
Create work that supports growth, not just visibility

Because good marketing shouldn’t feel chaotic, and building something of your own shouldn’t feel disconnected from who you are.

A Note to My Younger Self (and Maybe to You)

You were right to want more.

You weren’t chasing freedom because you were restless; you were chasing alignment, even if you didn’t have the language for it yet. What you didn’t know was that building something of your own would ask more from you than confidence or creativity. It would ask for patience. Discernment. The ability to sit with uncertainty and keep going anyway.

Some days would feel heavier than you expected. Not because you were doing it wrong, but because you were doing it honestly. You’d learn that clarity doesn’t arrive all at once. It shows up slowly, through repetition, mistakes, and choosing again on the days it would be easier not to. And while the work would get harder, you would get steadier.

You would trust yourself more.
You would stop waiting for permission.
You would build something that looks less like the dream you imagined, and more like the life you actually want.

So yes, it’s a lot of work.
But it’s work that shapes you as much as it sustains you.

And you would choose it again. every time.