New Member Profile: Rise Visible

Meet Aunia Kahn, founder of Rise Visible

Where did you get your start?

Rise Visible was launched in a small studio in Detroit, Michigan in 1998 as a passion project turned into a solopreneurship in 2001, and then into the award-winning agency that we are today.

Just moving from St. Louis to Detroit, MI in 2001, I was on my way to a new job in a new city. The streets were confusing, I knew no one and it was exciting and a little scary. Once I got to the office, I was only there a short time before I heard someone scream from the breakroom. I went to see what was going on and it was the first moment of 9/11. Standing around strangers and feeling out of place, I asked to leave and I never came back.

For months, I had a hard time finding work. I spent time volunteering at the local Red Cross and finally decided I needed to find a new way to take care of myself. At that time, I was also noticing a large change in my health that was impacting my life in every way.

I started considering my background in web and graphic design and marketing as perhaps an option to make an income. A website designer friend of mine in Michigan gifted me a computer back in 1998. The company they worked for went through a major hardware upgrade and I hit the jackpot! Every software program you could ever need was on that computer.

So, after a couple of months of being jobless, I got together a portfolio from work I created from (1998-2001) and connected with someone in the website design industry locally I knew through a friend. I asked if they might be hiring and if I could bring my portfolio by for consideration. Long story short, I did not get the job – I was too much of an amateur.

So, I started to freelance and started my own solopreneurship. The generosity of a friend and a gifted computer, guided me down a 24 year long path to running Rise Visible, an award-winning business I am so very proud of.

What is the most difficult business problem that you had to solve?

As a disabled business owner who had already experienced being locked in 2 decades before Covid, my biggest challenge has always been to find ways to connect in “real-time” without great risk to my condition. 

Struggling with a collection of rare and complicated conditions (EDS – Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, MCAS – Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, Dysoountonomoia, etc.), impaired my ability to go places or connect with people/clients in more traditional real-time interactions. 

As a person who is very much an extrovert and loves people, it can get lonely at times and I miss so many networking opportunities. This is one of the reasons I got into digital marketing, was learning to find new ways to connect with people through the internet.

Zoom, virtual networking, virtual events and so on, are now part of many people’s working environment. This introduction through the pandemic and after, has opened up so many opportunities for me like working with Springfield Chamber. Having weekly virtual Greeters has been a huge boon and has given me the ability to connect with my community in ways I don’t think would have been possible for me to do before.

What do you like most about your work?

What I like most about my work is helping people and their businesses gain grounding and visibility. Running a small business is hard work! It’s nice to partner with people and their passions. There is nothing like seeing a client light up about what they love doing!

Another thing I love about my work is that it is ever-evolving and has been that way since I started almost 24 years ago. I just love to learn. Website design, SEO, social media, e-learning platform, graphic design, etc. are always changing. There are design fads, Google’s suggested ever-changing rules for good SEO, and there are social media algorithms to beat! As a problem solver who loves creativity, psychology, and technology this is the perfect field for me.

Plus, I get to work with various types of businesses and people. I don’t limit myself to a certain type of business to serve – I am open to anyone that has a passion for what they do. In that, I have learned about various career paths and passion projects. I learn something new daily from my clients and my work.

Art is a big part of your life. Can you tell us more about that?

Thanks for asking, I am honored to be an internationally awarded, exhibited, and collected fine artist. Art is an integral part of who I am and was a very private and personal visual journey for years. I never imagined that I would exhibit any of my work or gain the notoriety that I have. I feel very lucky to know that people love the art that I have always created as a way to heal. My art was very private and like a personal visual journal for years. 

Art was something that kept me alive through the worst of my illness. I spent almost 2 decades with no diagnosis and no support from any medical doctor. I ended up on a feeding tube and almost died numerous times from life-threatening allergic reactions that doctors kept telling me were panic attacks.

Art was a way for me to work through being so ill, and the lack of medical support, and it was there for me when family and friends after years started to question my sanity. Art, writing, the online communities, and my pets were the things that helped me hang on until I finally got my life-changing diagnosis in July 2021.

Art also brought a very serendipitous and life-changing person into my life. Mr. Roger Popwell, an amazing artist and photographer saw my work one day and enjoyed it so much, he encouraged me to submit to a few galleries.

I am going to date myself by stating that we submitted my work as slides to galleries – not digitally. Digitally was not allowed. My work at that time was dark and had some heavy undertones of dealing with a less than wonderful upbringing and my chronic illness. The first show I was accepted it was at the St. Louis Artists Guild in St.Louis for the exhibition “Voices Within Surviving Through The Arts”. I will never forget it!

It felt raw and scary to do it, but people loved it and started to relate to my work due to it being so visceral. I won awards, gained press attention and was soon being asked to attend shows all over the country. I still love to create art and have four upcoming shows I am working on. It still feels surreal.

I also run Create For Healing an online educational platform that couples challenging topics like loss, grief, anxiety, stress, and identity with art and writing. We also have a very informative blog with many small projects and a small online community.

Art is healing and I am honored to do what I do.

Do you have any advice for others?

I think it is important to be true to yourself and follow your bliss the best way you can. Find community even if it is small or remote. We need people, we need community, we need each other and just know that no matter what, you are alone and you matter. Life is not easy, but we can make it a little easier on each other if we stick together and are more compassionate about the world around us.

Also, go for it! Take risks. Do the thing that scares you. I live by the old adage that life is short -Do what makes you happy as often as you can and don’t worry about what others think.