Meet Britt Golden of BdotDesignz & It’s A Golden Lifestyle in Long Beach

Today we’d like to introduce you to Britt Golden.

Britt, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I started BdotDesignz in 2013 as a Senior college student at Cal State Dominguez Hills. All graphic design majors were challenged to build a logo. I started posting my logo on social media and building a portfolio to use for potential job interviews. Two days before graduation, I actually ended up landing a one-year contract job with Red Bull designing training decks! After my year was up I talked to my then boyfriend, now husband about giving freelancing a try and found a love for designing elegant wedding & party invitations. To my surprise, I did very well every month for about four months. However, in 2014 while freelancing I had the opportunity to interview with a major Forbes 100 telecommunications company for a job in IT communications using my design skills that would increase my pay by 50k a year and I got the job!

During my time here, I learned how to record and edit corporate videos. I remember finding out that they paid a girl over 15k to edit videos and I knew that I needed to learn how to do this. So in 2017, I challenged myself to learn editing and started a YouTube Channel called It’s A Golden Lifestyle to uplift everyday women and give my personal tips to other career girls who loved makeup. Video subjects included testing if a product was worth spending our money or how to do a certain look for work and transition it to happy hour. It was fun! But balancing YouTube and my corporate job was very challenging. In 2017, I noticed that I started to feel different and not as happy and bubbly as I had been in previous years. My “dream” corporate job was becoming very political (as they all apparently do). I’d switched six different managers in one year and was not being promoted or recognized. This was beginning to weigh on me so I stopped freelance designing during my spare time.

In Sept 2018, I found myself experiencing anxiety and depression for the first time. It’s the craziest most out of body thing. I couldn’t control my thoughts and I was genuinely scared for my life. I started doing research on how to manage what I was going through, changing some of my unhealthy habits & incorporating more self-care, attempting to let go of the need to control everything (lol this was hard) and leaning on my now husband for support. The depression started to subside until I lost my Brother in law to gun violence in December 2018 and my amazing Father to pneumonia in Feb 2019. So now I was experiencing depression AND grief. Two things I’d never experienced before. During the time with my dad in the hospital I drew very close to God with him. Praying and meditation were two new things I’d picked up to help me through day by day. When my dad passed away I didn’t know what to do with my life.

However, I just kept praying and meditating and actually got baptized in April 2019. After being baptized, I had a renewed sense of I can do all things through Christ that strengthens me! I felt motivated to design again and start doing YouTube videos again. I realized that my YouTube channel was growing tremendously and FAST. In 6 months I’d went from 1,000 subscribers to 9,000 subscribers! As soon as I decided to promote myself as a freelance designer I had request after request after request. After much back and forth, discussing with my husband and praying I decided that I had no desire to go back to my almost 6 figure job. Money was no longer my driver. I began to legitimately build BdotDesignz & It’s A Golden Lifestyle because this is my purpose.

I now have a full time running design and videography business, an ever growing YouTube channel that just surpassed 11,000 subscribers and recently started doing an event titled Makeup N’ Sip under my It’s A Golden Lifestyle umbrella. I want to help other businesses succeed by doing design and video for them and make other everyday women like myself feel beautiful! I’ve taken my 18 y/o nephew on as an Intern to teach him about video and design. One day I’ll be able to actually employ my family members and run a full design studio with an office where I can take client meetings and record YouTube videos. This is my purpose and I’m happy to fulfill it.

Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Some of the struggle I faced were battling with myself on whether I wanted to freelance or be corporate. Do something I love or make enough money to support my family.

I also had to deal with grief and depression and anxiety.

BdotDesignz & It’s A Golden Lifestyle – what should we know? What do you do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
BdotDesignz is a graphic design and video company. I feel like this field is dominated by men. Especially the video space. What’s great about BdotDesignz is that it’s a one stop shop. Your entire brand including video work is cohesive because it’s all from the same design house.

It’s A Golden Lifestyle on YouTube has evolved. It’s a channel that the everyday woman can relate to. I’m not an MUA, I didn’t work at Sephora or MAC or a hair salon at any point in my life and yet I still found a love for makeup and hair. My motto is if I can do it so can you!

Contact Info:

• Website: Bdotdesignz.com
• Email: bdotdesignz@gmail.com
• Facebook: Instagram.com/bdotdesignz
• Other: YouTube.com/Itsagoldenlifestyle

Image Credit:
Jasmine Ashley, The Daniels Family, Alex Dorsey

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