I am so excited to feature this duo today because not only are they dear friends of mine, but they are also my amazing web designers, and I absolutely love them! They’re such a great couple and SO insanely talented and incredible at what they do. They run a very successful website design and development company (they also manage social media for companies, help with branding, graphic design, and more), CKO Digital, and they work together every single day. While many of you may say you could never work with your significant other, Mishelle Echeverria and Seth Bruce do so and they work incredibly well together. I love this interview, and I think you will, too. Keep on reading to find out what their favorite part about working together is, what the most challenging is, their advice for couples working together, and more.
How long have you been together as a couple?
M: Lucky number 11
S: 11 years
How long have you been working together?
M: We previously had a restaurant and a club together in the Greenway Plaza area and with CKO Designs and now CKO Digital it has been a total of 10 years working together.
And you don’t just work together, you own a business together – what would you say is the most rewarding thing about running your own business? And the most difficult/challenging thing?
M: The most rewarding is knowing that we played a part in someone else’s business and being able to see our work everywhere – whether it’s social media, logo design, menu design or their website. The most difficult/challenging would have to be the actual business side as opposed to the creative side. Taxes, Accounting, Payroll, delegating, hiring etc.
S: The most rewarding is seeing the work that you do make a difference. Having a thought go from a design on a napkin to an actual solution to a real problem. The most difficult/challenging thing has to be my wanting to be involved in every aspect of the project. Meetings, phone calls, design, development and then optimization. We have a team that helps with all of these things, but I still like to be a part of it all. It gets difficult with the little amount of time during the day. As well, creating a good work/life balance and separating the two can be challenging.
What is your favorite thing about working with one another?
M: That we get to hang out all day – if I wasn’t working right next to him we would probably be texting all day and absolutely no work would get done on my end.
S: I like that we share common interests. Every decision we make is together and we always have the same end goal.
What would you say is the most challenging thing about working with one another?
M: When I’m on a deadline and he wants to talk or show me something. Also he’s a “loud cell phone talker guy” so I always have to put my headphones on when he’s on a call.
S: Making business decisions together while not letting our emotions get into it.
When you go out on date nights or travel together, do you tend to talk about work or you try to put it on the shelf for the time being?
M: Every. Single. Time. We could probably expense every meal together since it’s at least 95% work talk.
S: It’s a mixture of the two. There really is no way to separate it. We’ve tried.
Have you always been interested in web design/programming/coding (Seth) and web design/digital marketing/social media/branding (Mishelle)?
M: I have definitely always been interested in technology and all of the latest gadgets and things. I spend my nights reading about everything that is happening next so that we can always be ahead of the curve. I do actually remember when social media became a thing – I was working at a boutique and all of a sudden there were facebook business pages, blogs were just starting out and I had just received an invite to try out Pinterest.
S: I was actually studying finance and entrepreneurship at the University of Houston and I saw a solution to a problem that Mishelle was having with her blog design. I picked up coding pretty quickly and the rest is history.
What advice would you give to a couple that is in business together or plans on going into business together?
M: Find different parts of the business to manage – Our work barely overlaps since I handle the social media side and he handles the web side, so that makes it easy to not step on each other’s toes.
S: Have a clear common goal and work together as a team. Also, good communication!
Thanks, Mishelle and Seth!
Follow CKO Digital on Instagram and Twitter.
Read past interviews here.
If you or someone you know might be a good fit for this series, reach out to me. I’d love to hear from you!