A Latina Creative Executive’s Toughest Cut
True leadership is defined by the courage to simplify, find the pieces that are cluttering your vision right now.
The Art of the Absolute Cut
As entrepreneurs, we are inherently wired to build. When an exciting new design idea presents itself, our instinct is to execute on it, stretch our creative boundaries, and bring it to life. But I recently learned a valuable lesson in my own creative enterprise: sometimes the truest test of a successful business isn’t what you choose to build, but when you decide to pull the cord on it.
When I transitioned from my fashion business into writing and self-publishing children’s books, I found myself navigating a completely new landscape. I soon realized that being a passionate creator was only half the battle. To succeed, I had to flatten a massive learning curve and immerse myself in the meticulous business of self-publishing—from understanding formatting standards, print-on-demand mechanics, and ISBN acquisitions to navigating distribution channels and independent marketing algorithms. It was a deep dive into brand new world for me, and as my books began gaining traction, I naturally looked for ways to expand the ecosystem around them. Early on, someone gave me a piece of advice that sounded great at the time: design and publish respective coloring books and comprehensive study guides to accompany each narrative title.
I invested months of meticulous creative energy, time, and focus into formatting, engineering layouts, and illustrating these companion pieces. Because everything was print-on-demand, I didn’t have to worry about the financial risk of holding physical inventory. It felt like a safe bet. Alongside these paper goods, I launched a coordinating line of apparel and merchandise that paired directly with the books’ themes, creating a beautiful, cohesive visual collection.
Listening to the Market’s Real Demand
But a beautiful design concept doesn’t always match what the market is actually asking for at that moment. As the months rolled on, the reality of where my business was actually gaining traction became clear. The print-on-demand coloring books and custom merchandise lines weren’t giving me the financial results or the momentum I was looking for.
Instead, a completely different vision was presenting itself through my clients. Schools, libraries, and community organizers weren’t looking for peripheral products. They were actively demanding the experiential value of my work: they wanted me in their classrooms, interacting with students, performing readings, and hosting intensive, hands-on storytelling and design workshops.
As a Latina entrepreneur I needed to take a different view. My initial business assumptions had missed the mark. The immediate pull from my audience wasn’t for physical items; they wanted my intellectual property, my unique creative curriculum, and my personal presence.
Looking at this scenario through an editorial lens felt very familiar. In book publishing, an editor has to ruthlessly cut subplots or beautifully written chapters if they slow down the pacing of the book or don’t add necessary value. As authors and creatives, those cuts hurt because we spent weeks writing them. But as editors, we know the story falls apart without making them. The same rule applies to our businesses: we have to be willing to cut or pause great design ideas if they cause drag on our growth.
The Hidden Cost of Fragmented Energy
Even without the burden of storing physical inventory, every single tangent I introduced—the coloring books, the study guides, the product lines—demanded a distinct slice of my finite time and mental bandwidth. Each project required digital maintenance, backend setup, and its own marketing focus. I was exhausting myself trying to “push” these product extensions, which zapped my energy and diluted the time I could spend on the things that were immediately ready to provide a solid return on investment.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of forcing an idea to work simply because you poured your heart into creating it. But as a true Latina executive prioritizes focus over sentimentality. I made the deliberate decision to stop these other merchandise lines, phase out the companion paper extensions, and focus entirely on the two engines driving immediate revenue: writing my next book titles and scaling my high-margin, in-person children’s workshops. By removing those distractions, I freed up the mental space to show up fully where I was most needed.
Timing vs. Value
Choosing to step away from these design tangents doesn’t mean they were bad ideas, or that they can’t be highly successful down the road. It simply means the timing isn’t right—right now. As a small business grows, its needs change. There may very well come a day when a merchandise line or a suite of study guides makes perfect sense to reintroduce. But today, the focus belongs on the foundation.
As a Latina creative entrepreneur, an innate sense of resourcefulness and community-minded drive can occasionally become an operational downfall. Just because I can design and build everything myself doesn’t mean I need to. Saying yes to every good idea until my focus is too cluttered to move forward ultimately hurts both my business and my well-being.
The Strategic Line Edit
To ensure your business remains agile and highly profitable heading into the second half of the year, I recommend conducting your own strategic “line edit” using these three filters:
- The Energy-to-Revenue Ratio: Isolate the offerings that consume 80% of your administrative energy but contribute less than 10% to your actual net profit. If a product line requires endless maintenance for minimal financial yield, it is a liability, not an asset.
- The Push vs. Pull Dynamics: Analyze your sales channels. Are you exhausting your marketing resources trying to hard-sell and “push” an ignored product onto the market, or are you leaning into the areas where clients are actively “pulling” your brand into their lives?
- Scalability of Core Assets: Does this tangent enhance your core business, or does it dilute it? Protect your foundational intellectual property and unique voice. It is far more profitable to be an undisputed provider of a singular, impactful niche than a mediocre supplier of an overstuffed product catalog.
Heading into the middle of the year, I recommend taking an objective look at your business canvas. Are you exhausting your resources trying to force a product that the market is currently ignoring, or are you leaning into the areas where clients are actively pulling you in? True leadership is defined by the courage to simplify. Find the pieces that are cluttering your vision right now, put them on the shelf for later, and double down on what works today. Your time, your margins, and your sanity will thank you for it.
Related content:
My Creative Blend of Hispanic Heritage and Design – Part 1
