Today we’d like to introduce you to Sonya Marin.
Hi Sonya, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
It’s hard to believe that I’ve transitioned from a 25+ year career in banking and fintech to now immersing myself in the world of painting hand fans, crafting wax seals, and working with dried flowers.
Five years ago, I found myself paralyzed by pain. I’ve dealt with migraines for as long as I can remember, but they had never been this debilitating. Days stretched into nights without relief; over-the-counter medications no longer dulled the ache. I even felt the pain while I was sleeping.
Things escalated to the point where I sought almost daily acupuncture during my lunch breaks and started IV treatments to help manage the pain. It became so severe that getting out of bed felt like a monumental task. When I learned I couldn’t see a neurologist for a few months, panic set in—I thought, “I’m going to die if I can’t find help.”
During this tumultuous time, I was a new mom with very little support nearby. My husband was entangled in an immigration case that could potentially uproot our small family from the country. He had no driver’s license, which meant that any time he had to drive our child to doctor’s appointments or run errands, he risked deportation if pulled over. We were also caring for a very ill father-in-law in our cramped two-bedroom condo. To top it off, my salary was threatened with a pay cut due to recent corporate mergers, and I was the main breadwinner. The looming financial uncertainty pushed me to take on three side hustles: organizing markets for mom-owned businesses, selling jewelry, and venturing into real estate investing.
When my manager insisted that I return to the office, I faced an additional 40+ hours of commuting each month. For what felt like the first three years of my child’s life, I barely slept more than four straight hours. I was in complete survival mode.
A friend suggested the Root Cause Protocol, which marked the beginning of my journey toward alleviating the pain. By some miracle, I managed to secure an appointment with Dr. Trupti Gokhani, a private practice doctor who took over an hour to listen to my struggles. One phrase she uttered resonates with me to this day: “You are not living in the flow of your life.” She explained that the stress I had endured was overwhelming my body, causing the part of my brain responsible for anti-aging to shut down (I was sprouting new white hairs!). If I didn’t heed the warnings of my migraines, my body would find another way to get my attention—essentially, migraines could be a pathway to disease.
I realized she was right. I had fallen out of love with my job and felt I was no longer making a difference. I could no longer escape my stress through traveling, dancing, or socializing as I had before.
Dr. Gokhani encouraged me to dance more, along with taking additional vitamins, and introduced me to a natural herbal tea suited to my Ayurvedic body type. Miraculously, within just two days, I felt like a brand-new person. I couldn’t remember ever feeling that vibrant and alive in my body. I knew I had to forge a new path.
By the summer of 2019, my husband was granted a green card, allowing him to pursue work that aligned with his math degree. With what liquid savings I had left, I took a year off to recover my mental and physical health. I had heard that creativity could cure burnout, so I dove headfirst into every creative class I could find—soap making, candle making, oil painting, cooking, flower arranging, and water marbling. I spent countless hours binge-watching YouTube videos to learn card making, and by October 2021, Sonya Marin Designs was born. I consider myself a multi-passionate creative and you’ll see this in my work. I’ve since relocated to San Antonio in 2023 with my family to escape the brutal Chicago winters.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Being a creative comes with its own set of unique challenges.
1. After relying on a steady paycheck for 25 years, transitioning away from that security has been a significant adjustment. I miss the reliability of a regular income, but I don’t miss asking for vacation time or having someone else control my schedule.
2. I participate in a fair number of local pop-up markets, which can feel like short-term wins. However, as I get older, I realize that doing this many markets isn’t physically sustainable. Recovering from long market days can take almost an entire day. As a naturally introverted person, engaging with customers requires considerable energy. Often, it feels like I’m constantly creating items just for these markets, which leaves little time to focus on expanding my business. My goal is to scale back on markets after the holiday season and devote more energy to my online shop.
3. Handmade products come with their own set of challenges. The effort and energy involved can be immense, yet we live in a world where many people expect items to be both inexpensive and readily available. Additionally, every platform takes a cut, making pricing one of the toughest aspects of my business. I want my items to be accessible, but I also need to be compensated fairly for the materials, time, and energy I invest in them.
4. Creating one-of-a-kind items, like my water-marbled hand fans and flower frames, presents another challenge. I don’t currently photograph these items or list them online because I participate in so many markets. It doesn’t make sense to take pictures of items that may sell at the next event. Instead, I go live on social media at least a couple of times a month, allowing customers to shop with me and see what’s available in real time. My next hurdle is figuring out how to efficiently and effectively represent these unique products through photography for online sales.
5. As a solopreneur, managing everything—sales, markets, social media, sourcing, customer service, creating my own packaging, and crafting—can be overwhelming.
6. As a multi-passionate creative, I often feel scattered, and I know that something needs to give in order to simplify and grow. It’s difficult because I produce so many different types of items, and there’s not a single one I’d want to give up. This can also complicate my market setups, which can be quite intensive. Setting up a full display for a 10×10 canopy can easily take three and a half hours with two people. Many times, I’ve wished I could simply narrow my focus to one thing!
7. Life feels like a constant juggling act. Balancing my business with being a present mom, wife, and daughter, all while managing the household, keeps me incredibly occupied and fulfilled!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
You can see the journey in my work really through my instagram. I began with fresh flowers, card making and hand painting wax seals. I learned how to dry flowers and added dried floral arrangements and dried floral wreaths with my work. Those were difficult to transport to markets and I couldn’t ship those, so once I moved to Texas I had more room to work and began working with pressed flowers and water marbling. When I was younger, I thought I had to be loved and beautiful and in a relationship to receive flowers. Now I surround myself with them in my work, partially because I love them and partially as an act of self-love.
Seasonally I offer:
Spring-Fall:
Water marbled hand fans. I currently have them in 3 different sizes. 8.2″, 10″ and 13″.
Fall-Winter:
Preserved floral ornaments.
Glass lightcatcher ornaments.
A Dia de los Muertos learning and coloring book.
Various beaded Sugarskull items.
Water Marbled ornaments.
All year round I have:
Handpainted Wax Seals in 70+ different designs like initials, snowflakes, etc
Pressed Flowers in Double Glass Frames.
Handmade Greeting Cards.
Pressed Flower Bookmarks.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Listen to your soul. As a young child that I was creatively inclined. As a second generation immigrant, a lot of us learn that we need to be in safe corporate jobs or in the medical fields that make lots of money in order to be considered successful. Happiness and alignment wasn’t considered. I never once as a young adult considered a creative path.
I saw my parents go work at a place they didn’t necessarily do out of passion, but out of necessity and I followed that same path. It was from that I realized that in order for my own child to follow his dreams, I needed to follow mine and it’s been my biggest impetus for staying on this new path.
Sometimes I get upset thinking how much further I could be if I had just considered a creative path from the start. But we really never know. I learned a lot from my 25 years in bank management and fintech. Everything I learned helped prepare a solid foundation for where I’m at now and this was the journey I know I was meant to go through.
Literally every purchase from a customer affirms this for me. Although I have no idea where this path will take me, I just keep putting one foot in front of the other and have faith that this is exactly where I need to be. I feel so aligned with my values of family, creativity and connectivity, that I’ll be here for as long as I can!
Pricing:
- Preserved Flowers Ornaments $18-22
- Wax Seals $18 for a pack of 8
- Zodiac Portraits $75
- Calavera Portraits $25
- Dia de Los Muertos Learning and Coloring Book $12 Found on Amazon and Etsy as print on demand$7
Contact Info:
- Website: https://sonyamarindesigns.etsy.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sonyamarindesigns/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SonyaMarinDesigns/
- Other: https://createdoutofeve.etsy.com/listing/891057787
