Imperfectly Said: vol 2
with Delia Burl, Founder of Tidewater Studio
Welcome to Imperfectly Said – a conversation series where I sit down with women I admire to talk about the highs, the lows, the messy in-betweens, what shaped who they are, how they create, and the journey that brought them here. Life’s about telling our stories authentically and imperfectly, knowing we all have something to share and room to grow.
Today I’m chatting to a new friend of mine, Delia Burl, Founder of Tidewater Studio, a branding and design studio dedicated to helping women-led businesses “become unforgettable and step into their calling”. Today Delia and I talked through her journey as a creative entrepreneur, finding your anchor among a sea of infinite career paths, challenging our perfectionism, and signs to recognize that you are in the right place.
Tell us a bit about yourself, who is Delia Burl?
I'm Delia Burl. I grew up in Maryland, like 15 minutes outside of Baltimore, and I now live in Annapolis with my fiancé Connor, our dog Brew, and our cat Daisy. We have our nice little fam.
I'm one of those quintessential personality test takers. I don't know if you have done that as well, or human design, I just always love all of those. I think this gives an indication about my personality. So if anyone else is into that, I am an Enneagram 2w3, which basically means I'm a people pleaser and a perfectionist mixed. I am a Manifesting Generator in Human Design, and I'm an ENFJ on Myers-Briggs. All of these basically tie in together to be a kind of continuously optimistic, slightly people pleasing, but very action oriented person, which I feel like does describe exactly how I am.
I am constantly looking on the glass half full, but I will constantly be trying to do more or do something else, or add something else to my plate.
Usually when I'm not running the studio, I am probably listening to a podcast on my walk with the dog. I am a consistently anxious girly, but I will always listen to true crime podcasts, that is my go to. Or that if I'm not doing that, I'm probably at some antique store nearby searching for a mid-century modern piece to redesign my house for the hundredth time, because I just cannot get enough of going on Pinterest and trying to build out this beautiful dream house.
“Was I terrified? Absolutely.”
Tell us about your entrepreneurial journey. How did Tidewater Studio start and what have you learned along the way?
I have learned so much. The journey has definitely been a whirlwind. It has been all over the place, and I would not change a thing to where I am now. I feel like I have to start kind of back in 2020, when I was going to graduate. I did graduate college, but it was Covid, so I didn't actually walk. I never ended up walking, I just ended up having them send my diploma in the mail. I went to Towson, which is just one of Maryland's big state schools for communication and marketing, I always had this interest in that.
I took an internship at a local agency my senior year, and then once Covid hit, they didn't really know how to do virtual learning at that time, so I ended up just essentially hopping on full time the second semester of my senior year. I just started my first job early. I did that for a year and a half, and it taught me so much about every aspect of marketing from like organic social to paid social to SEO to ads to copywriting. But it also taught me exactly what I didn't want to do in business. Just because I saw a lot of working, a lot of underpaying, a lot of frustrating interactions with clients that did not sit well with me. So I ended up leaving that job and taking a job as a content specialist at a SAAS company. I met my fiancé there, and my first year there, I had just this itch to do more and feeling like I wanted to expand somewhere else.
So I started freelancing, actually Tidewater Studio was Tidewater Social. I did a little over a year and a half of social media management at first, because that was my main job at my agency, and that is also what sparked my transition into Tidewater Studio, because during this entire time, I essentially was seeing the same pattern repeat over and over again, which was the fact that these clients I was working with didn't have a foundation or messaging to work from, so anything that I was posting was very reactive or just following some random one off trend that they had seen, and it wasn't really moving the needle for them.
That kind of gave me the “aha” moment to be like, maybe I should just be doing brand strategy and messaging and design, because this is the foundation that I'm yearning for as a social media manager. And so that is essentially what really sparked Tidewater Studio.
I have just had about six months of running Tidewater Studio full time, and it has been a beautiful transition.
Where did the name Tidewater come from??
Maryland is part of the tidewater region, which is just Maryland, Virginia, Chesapeake Bay area. Regionality played a role in that, but then also my idea of guiding you through the ebb and flow of business through tides. So really working more as, and I talk about this a lot in my business, but I say I'm not another logo designer. I don't want to be the one that's just dropping a logo for you. I want to be the one that is in there with you for months, building, getting all of these beautiful gems about your story and your perspective and then helping you show that. So really me working as a partner through these highs and lows of your business and then showing you how to pivot and expand that into your brand.
“It is so much more important for us to be sharing in a way that is authentic to our true selves. Just in this constant battle of influencers and ads and so much content all of the time, pulling back to ourselves is going to make running a business or growing your job that much easier, because you're opening up space for more people who do resonate with you to come in.”
How you work to create work life balance for yourself? Are there any rituals or habits you have that help make self employment sustainable for you?
I have had to learn balance in both sides of it, and that was surprising for me. I definitely had to learn to balance my days and make time for my self-care. So what I've done that's really worked for me is to pick, I would say like 2 or 3 things that I say, this is a non-negotiable for me. I block that out in my calendar and then I time block the rest of my day around that.
For me, I have a hot sculpted yoga studio right down the street from me, and I adore going there. Usually I'll either pick a morning class or a noon class and use that to start my day or to break up my day, and that is a really good brain break.
In the same mindset around that, also giving a couple days a week to do a little bit of meditation, I used the Open app, they're my favorite. I will listen to them all the time. Carving out specific brain breaks have been really meaningful for me. Also, with having a dog, I have to walk him multiple times a day too, so I just usually take 2 to 3 times a day where I'm like, this is my 20 minute break.
Because as a creative, I'm sure you've been here, but my favorite example to give is like working on a logo or I'm in Illustrator exporting files or something. If I don't pull myself back, I'll sit there for like eight hours straight and do it. I won’t have eaten lunch, I wouldn't have taken a walk. Giving yourself that time, like a Brain Break, has been really helpful.
And also on the other side of that, giving yourself time to rest and take space away from your business. I found especially being in my first year of building this, that there is still so much I want to do. There's so much I want to expand on my website and my emails, and my Instagram, and I was finding myself working on weekends or working really late at night because I can because I have that flexibility. But then realizing, oh my gosh, well, I would have rather spent these past two hours sitting on the couch talking to my fiancé than working. Just having to evaluate your time, it's definitely a big learning curve, but that has been the best thing that I've done is just to time block my habits into my day.
I find if I block out a couple self-care things like, go get coffee, or go make lunch, then I treat it like a meeting essentially. I'm treating this like a meeting and I need to step away from this for now and come back to it later.
I would say flipping the script and thinking of your self-care as a part of running your business has been really helpful for me because I'm able to step back and pour into myself so that I can come back and pour into others more easily.
What are your thoughts on turning your passion into your career?
I hate to be so basic starting this out, but the idea of of just frickin doing it. I came on it from the mindset of if I don't do this, there is 100% chance that I will never know what it would have been like. I if I know I would never, ever know what this is like, why not try this?
It is not the end all, be all if you choose one path and it doesn't work out. It doesn't mean you can't pivot. It doesn't mean that you can't take a part time job, or you can't start freelancing, or I couldn't go back into the workforce, and I think before taking that jump, that's what I was so scared of.
You are going to learn so much about yourself, that is going to be the deciding factor after leaving corporate America. You cannot pay me enough money to go back unless you're giving me like a $500k salary. It is just not for me. I think also just as Gen Z and as this creator economy is growing, it's becoming so much more normalized to be your own brand but also run your own brand.
I love how much this is growing, and I think it's a really palpable shift of what the next generation of the workforce is going to look like. I think because this is becoming more normalized now, it has just made it that much easier for me to make the jump, and I would much rather be on the front end of this than wishing I would have done it five years down the road.
“I have always had this inner desire to transform something for people or show them that transformation.”
What advice would you give to anyone feeling lost or feeling a lack of an anchor in themselves or their careers ?
I love that you use that word, an anchor. That is exactly what it feels like. I also know just in your 20s, you feel like you're kind of all over the place a lot. What am I going to do for work? Or what am I going to do for this, or my health or my this? Or I'm going to start this new hobby? I feel like making this transition as much as it scared me, it also recentered me. Was I terrified? Absolutely. It's a huge jump into huge change. I don't want to overlook that. But after that, the inner peace I felt of knowing that I made this decision for me and that I feel so aligned in it was so palpable and noticeable.
Honestly, I feel like it started to compound. That one decision has given me the confidence to really just start pulling a lot of that perfectionist anxiety layers back of like, I'm just doing it. I did this and it's worked out so far and it I feel like it will just continue to compound.
Follow Tidewater Studio on IG @tidewater.studio
Work with Delia and Tidewater Studio
Listen to the full podcast episode with Delia on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.