Monthly Muse: Renita Faye, Founder of AddWomxn
Meet Renita Faye, CEO and founder of Addwomxn. AddWomxn is a creative agency that celebrates the achievements and voices of all womxn, and champions gender equality and inclusivity. Renita strongly believes that the role of women needs to advanced and with AddWomxn, she’s accomplishing that goal. I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know Renita these past few years while creating illustrations for the her website. Being at the start of Renita’s vision and seeing what it is today is inspiring! She’s building a supporting community that stands behind it’s beliefs and puts them into action. Read on to learn more about Renita and AddWomxn.
Let’s start at the beginning - what did you want to be when you grew up and did that influence where you are today?
I always imagined being a photographer. I thought it would be glamorous; a way to do something creative that was “accepted.” I took a ton of photography classes in high school and college and although I really enjoyed photography, I didn’t enjoy the lighting and the scienc-y part of it. LOL. I started being drawn to graphic design, when I realized that was a thing and also a legitimate career path. (Being a child of a doctor and teacher, there was definitely an expectation of choosing a “solid” career, not going into “art.”)
Share with us your career journey and how you got to where you are today.
I started out my career at a very small Black-owned design firm in Minneapolis. I then got a job at a small woman-owned design firm. After those two experiences at some pretty toxic work environments, I told myself I would NEVER own my own design firm. I got a very steady and meaningful job at Yamamoto Moss, and worked my way up to a Design Director by the time I left 6 years later. I learned so much about company culture, what a community environment is like and really how to treat employees well and continually work on culture. That was in the dot-com boom and bust days, and after two significant layoffs in the company, and having our hours cut I took a huge leap and went out on my own to freelance, not really intending to start my own business, but that’s how it went. I quickly grew my firm, got some huge accounts (Macy’s, MOA, Wilson’s Leather) and began to grow my little firm, “Nita B. Creative” from there.
We grew so quickly and I didn’t really ever like the name “Nita B. Creative” for a company name (it was more of a freelance name) and eventually renamed and repositioned the company to “Affina,” where we focused primarily on marketing to women. I ran that successfully for 20 years.
In 2020, right before COVID hit, I began a journey of exploring what was next for me. I loved the idea of connecting women and helping us work together in a more meaningful, substantive way and went back to an idea I had 15 years prior to a building full of women creative entrepreneurs. Then COVID hit and that idea went out the window. I still liked the idea of exploring how women could work together to get bigger projects and bigger business to have more sustainable work for all of us.
Then the George Floyd murder happened right in our backyard here in Minneapolis. I knew there was something I had to do and I started along my antiracism journey. I looked back at my career and realized I hadn’t worked with a Black designer since my first job out of design school. And my Rolodex? All white folks! Why? What did I do to perpetuate that in my career.
I went back to the idea of connecting women and realized what was missing was that BIPOC women had an even more uphill battle than us white women. I felt a huge calling to bring a diverse group of women together to creatively solve our clients problems. Because diverse thinking delivers the best ideas. And that was how Addwomxn was born.
Can you share more about AddWomxn, what was the inspiration for creating it and what are your long term goals?
(See paragraph above.)
Long-term goals … I see us being a much bigger collaborative than we are now (currently at 16 members). I see us doing work across the country. I’d like to host a conference, where we talk about diversity (or lack thereof) in creative fields and how we need to do better, not just in numbers, but in inclusivity and belonging.
If you could go back and give yourself advice, what would it be and why?
Be kinder, gentler on yourself. Things will work out. Self-compassion and self-love is elusive and something that we (especially as women) don’t fully understand until we’re a bit older (ahem!) … But once you get there, wow, life gets more fun and more interesting!
What do you find are the biggest stumbling blocks you’ve encountered and what are the best ways you’ve found to overcome them?
I’ve gotten in my own way so many times. I would think there was a wall there and I was scared to go around it, climb over it, go through it. But really, it was a wall that I put there and once I looked at the bigger picture, I realized there really was not a wall there at all.
In the DEI space, at first I was really scared to make mistakes. Of course I made them. And it wasn’t disastrous. But I learned from them. Being on an anti-racism journey is just that – a journey – not a destination. It’s learning how to unlearn what we as the dominant culture have learned our whole lives, from our ancestors and from society. We can unlearn them, but it takes practice, determination, and the realization that we’re far from perfect and we just need to keep learning.
What’s the best advice you ever received and what advice would you give?
My college professor told me, as a woman going into this field, hop around a lot in your early career. I thought that advice was ludicrous! But, I did just that, with three jobs in the first three years out of school I learned very quickly what was good about company culture and what was toxic. I learned that I, in fact, could create my own culture in my company and it could be a positive environment.
Advice: Be the most authentic version of yourself that you can be. Do your inner work. Understand your privilege. And keep working on yourself.
Rapid Fire Questions
Coffee or tea? Tea
AM Warrior or Burn the Midnight Oil? AM warrior!
Beach or Mountains? Beach
Favorite book? The Nightingale
Go with the flow or Control Freak? Control Freak
Three qualities that got you where you are today? Hard-working, passionate, creative
Thank you Renita for sharing your story with us! If you want to learn more about AddWomxn, you can follow them on Instagram, Facebook, or check out their website.
