We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Marielle & Michelle Helland . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Marielle below.
Hi Marielle and Michelle, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
Finding our purpose in life wasn’t easy. We knew we were meant for more the the traditional 9-5 gird life, getting married, having kids the whole nine yards. That is how we stood out in our friend group because we just had this feeling in the pit of our gut that we were not meant for the traditional path. We also have a very similar path and the main reason we got as close as we did.
Michelle was already creative since she was very young, I (Marielle) on the other hand was never. Michelle even went to school for design, and I took early childhood education to become a kindergarten teacher. The only reason for even going down this career path was because my grades were not good from high school, and particularly a good math grad was needed to get into anything good.
So both me (Marielle) and Michelle had the same faith, our grades were horrible, and our options were working with kids, or at a grocery store. And we knew we had to do something, but we had no idea what.
We were living in Norway at this time (We were both born in San Diego California, and Raised in Norway (Norwegian Parents) So we decided lets move back to the States, so we applied through the Norwegian Abroad system to get into a school in the US and Santa Barbara was one of the schools they worked closely with. So we applied, wrote a personal essay and we were in.
We had arrived in Santa Barbara, ready to start signing up for classes when we realized that since we were American citizens applying as Norwegian from Norway there had been a mess up and we had been “Forgotten” and the only class options left were science, math and a media class.
We knew we were not going to waste a semester on classes we hated nor wanted, but we had no idea what to do. We were across the world from our family, in this tiny studio apartment, and did not have school.
After a lot of tears, fear and what the heck have we done questions we decided to take a day off and just enjoy Santa Barbara and think of something else until we could figure out what to do. We brought our laptops to this cute cafe in downtown Santa Barbara and remember the thought that crossed our minds “Wouldn’t it be cool to work from your laptop from cute cafes all the time”?
That same evening I (Marielle) was scrolling on Facebook, something I never did, and then this ad popped up “Start Your Online Brand + Website Design Business & Travel The World” There was this rush of emotions just reading this ad, like I knew we had found our purpose. We signed up for their free email series and we were hooked!
The next day we dropped out of Santa Barbara Collage, purchased the design course and the rest is history. We have been in love with brand and website design ever since and found our purpose and what we where meant to do in life that day!
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Marielle: I am Marielle, I am a 28-year-old showit website designer and have an online brand + website design studio with my sister Michelle Helland. I was born in San Diego, California. Raised in Norway and currently living in the Canary Islands Spain. We have two rescue dogs (Sadie + Leo), some people might say I am a crazy dog lady, haha.
Michelle: I am Michelle Helland, a 25-year-old currently living in the Canary Islands, Spain. I was born In San Diego, California, and Raised in rainy Norway. I have always been creative by heart ever since I could remember, always painting, drawing, and designing. So becoming a brand designer was pretty destined for me. Other than that, I love our two rescue dogs, love thrifting and just chilling out watching series and like my sister, we love cooking up some good food!
I love to travel and meet new people but also just chill, watch a good series, and eat good food.
Me and my sister Michelle have a brand + website design studio called (Elle & Elle Design Co.) where we help women entrepreneurs build unique, authentic brands and showit websites so they can connect directly with their dream clients. I am the Showit website designer (Marielle) I specialize in one specific website platform called Showit. My sister Michelle is our brand strategist and branding designer.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
Three qualities or skills that I think were most impactful for me in my journey were.
1. Mindset
2. Determination
3. Kindness / Empathy
My advice to you who is starting your online business and you are on this journey. It takes time to build an online business. There are so many people endlessly talking about their 7-10K months just weeks or months after starting their business, and the truth is it’s mostly fluff and dishonesty. Not saying it’s not possible, just that they probably had many other factors play in that got them there. If you are passionate about what you do, and you are determined to make it happen, you will. There is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, but it’s all worth it in the end. Just remember if you don’t give up, you can’t fail.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
We have taken many online courses to really get knowledgeable in our design skills, but when it comes to overcoming challenges our parents have supported us, invested in us, and believed in us the whole way and we would never have been where we are today without the support and help from them. So I would say courses have helped us become successful in our skills but everything else has been the help of our parents.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://elleandelledesignco.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elleandelledesignco/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088815117812
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marielle-and-michelle-helland-404b14268/
- Youtube: @elleandelledesignco
- Other: https://no.pinterest.com/elleandelledesignco/
