Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Driver.
Hi Katie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My story starts back at the end of preschool. My mom asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up… I said an artist because at that time I loved to color. But fast forward 27 years… I am living proof you can truly live out your childhood dreams. I fell in love with “interior design” at a young age watching Trading Spaces on TV. I was obsessed with how their designers transformed spaces and created opportunities for people to love their homes. I also loved the idea of owning my own firm one day and being my own boss. So, I went to UW Stout for residential interior design and business administration. I had the best experience and received the greatest education but found out my love for what I thought was interior design wasn’t exactly reality.
Through a wonderful internship my junior into senior year, I realized traditional residential interior design wasn’t for me. I wanted something a bit more hands-on and something that would allow me to create/make on a daily basis with a shorter project timeline. It was during an off-the-cuff conversation I had with one of my interior design professors that we discussed how I could use my degree in a different avenue of design. I found out that the film production industry had this department called the art department. It is a group of creatives that style sets and props, create custom props, create the look and feel of a production, and shop/source props for film productions. My mind was blown. That’s really a thing? I was SOLD. The last thing that came out of that conversation was that if I wanted to get my foot in the door of that industry… I was going to have to work at it. Nobody was going to do that for me. So I spent my entire senior year researching, digging, and uncovering all the names and contact info I could find of people who worked in the MN film market. I called, emailed, texted, messaged, and reached out to anyone and everyone who was involved in the art department.
By the grace of God, it was through consistent effort that I made a few connections and things just started to fall into place from there. I opened my LLC the month that I graduated in 2012, and 10 days after I left campus I was on my first TV commercial set assisting in the art department. It was for a FingerHut commercial, and I’ll never forget that first day on set. It was one of the coolest things I had ever been a part of. I was in awe, I was hooked, and I was all in. That one job rolled into another, and then another, and another. My business began to build and I started working for huge companies as an assistant in the art department. I was learning and growing everyday as a new business owner and assisting the top art department workers in Minnesota’s film market. About 2 years into my work in prop styling, a friend of mine asked me to do decor for her wedding. It was through that experience I learned that the film industry and the event industry are very similar in nature. One thing led to another and I began offering event decor services for private events, corporate events, benefit events, and weddings.
In 2014, I renamed my company and brought all of our clients, projects, and work under one massive umbrella… The Uncommon Creative Studio LLC. Today, after almost 10 years of business, we continue to focus on prop styling for the film & print industry, decor & planning for the event industry, and we have a rental inventory to support that work. We also recently started feeding film crews in the craft services department of film and have absolutely loved diversifying our work in the industry. This business of mine is built on a simple idea that we want to use our God given gifts and talents everyday to serve others and make them feel loved. I look back on all of this as I am typing and truly can’t fathom the provision from the Lord… God is good!
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Haha, my road has been anything but smooth…. it has been filled with potholes, roadblocks, setbacks and detours. What would an entrepreneurship journey be without those things, right?! They’ve made my story more exciting and a true testament to God’s power and faithfulness. Early in my days of owning my company and working in the film industry I was living at my parents’ house and eating their food(thanks mom and dad!). I was a broke college grad starting with nothing more than a dream, a college degree, and a can-do attitude. Art department jobs were coming in but not at a rate that could sustain me and cover my bills so I had to get a part time job. I worked at Starbucks my first 2 years out of college to keep me afloat. I would get up at 3:40am three mornings a week, work 4:30-8:30am at Starbucks, then head to a production from 9am-5pm, and then finish my day with a couple more hours of work back at my home office. Woof… it was a lot. I hustled but had faith that one day I’d be able to quit that part time job and transition to full time film work. I couldn’t be more grateful for those 2 years at Starbucks and all the lessons I learned serving people. It was preparing me for work that I never knew I would be doing today.
One of my favorite actors once said that if you apply constant pressure it will break before you do… He was right. After 2 years of nothing but that daily grind my work opportunities broke wide open and it laid a foundation that I still stand on to this day. I think other notable struggles over the last 10 years would be loss of clients, projects having hiccups that I didn’t see coming, a constant barrage of comparison thoughts, not feeling that I am equipped to handle the task at hand, and also the daily question of what if.
Owning my business has been the most challenging thing I have ever done but in the same breath, it has also been the most rewarding. So I’ll take all the struggles and trials because the triumphs and successes are second to none!
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
My work and purpose on this earth go hand in hand. On paper, my company is a creative studio that specializes in prop styling, event decor, and rentals but we are SO much more than that. We use our God-given gifts and talents everyday to serve others and make them feel loved. With that in mind, our projects are always rooted in serving others’ needs.
Whether it’s planning and creating decor for a baby shower or styling out a set for a production… our client’s needs are our first priority. All of our work stems from the same principles and elements of design so we can adapt to just about anything a client throws our way. We do prop styling, custom prop creation, prop shopping & sourcing, and craft services for the film industry. We do event & party planning, event & party decor, tablescaping, balloon installs, custom photo op installs, event & party graphics, and recently some home staging too.
I have a laundry list of things people would probably deem “proudest moment” but they don’t compare to MY proudest moment. This might be silly but I’m always most proud when I see a friend or family member wear an Uncommon T-shirt. Their support and love for my company and work bring me the most JOY. Seeing Uncommon’s logo and them reppin’ it proudly, reminds me of everything I have been through these last 10 years. It makes it all worth it. In 2018 we rebranded our logo and website… I’ll never forget my grandmother putting on her new Uncommon T-shirt for the first time. She wore a white eyelet collared shirt underneath with pink pants and told me she wanted to help drum up business for me. haha At the time she lived in a town of less than 1,200 people and 400 miles away from the Twin Cities… probably a far cry from potential work but she wore it proudly. I can still see her sitting in her camping chair at the Harvest Fest parade with that shirt on. It will forever be my proudest moment.
Uncommon is different because we are not just a business. I truly believe that someone who is willing to put others’ needs before their own can change the world. And that’s what sets us apart. As a creative, a business owner, a prop stylist, a party planner, and home stager… I am here to serve others. It’s all about them and not about me. It’s about loving and serving them well. It’s about taking care of the details and using my gifts and talents. My favorite country music singer once said that we all should be pipelines and not pots.
An avenue for resources to flow through and not a place to be stored or harbored. Our gifts and talents are meant to be shared… I’ve made it my life’s mission to do just that!
We’d be interested to hear your thoughts on luck and what role, if any, you feel it’s played for you?
Oh goodness… I actually don’t believe in luck… good or bad. I believe everything happens for a purpose… even hard times, suffering, and trials(James 1:2-4). I have seen the Lord build the most beautiful things from some of my darkest moments and hardest times of my life. Most things only make sense in reverse… as I sift through my journey I can connect the dots and know that it wasn’t luck.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Website: https://www.
uncommoncs.com/ - Instagram: https://www.
instagram.com/uncommoncs/ - Other: https://www.pinterest.
com/uncommonCS/_created/
Image Credits
Alma Guzman Photography (Headshot)
Wayne Jenkins Photography (Other photos)
