Today we’d like to introduce you to Isabell Campbell.
Hi Isabell, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I’ve always been a creative person. I’m originally from Germany, and I’ve worked as a graphic designer for more than 30 years. For a big part of my career in Germany, I worked in graphic design and eventually led a graphic department. I loved what I did, and honestly, I never imagined that one day I would pack up my life in Germany and start all over again in Texas.
In 2015, I moved to Houston because of my husband, who is American and from here. That was a huge change for me. I didn’t just move to another city, I moved to another country and had to find my place all over again. I already had years of professional experience behind me, but suddenly I was in a completely different environment, building a new life while raising my family and figuring out where I fit professionally. I continued working as a freelance graphic designer, but over the years my path started changing.
Social media eventually opened up another creative side of me. I started creating content, sharing things I genuinely enjoy, experimenting with different platforms and learning a completely different side of marketing. More recently, I decided to take that seriously and started building myself as a UGC creator.
Now, at 52, I’m learning something new, putting myself in front of the camera much more than I ever thought I would, and building a new chapter of my creative career. I’m definitely not going to pretend I have everything figured out, because I don’t. But I think that’s part of what makes it exciting.
One thing I’ve realized is that starting something new later in life doesn’t mean you’re starting from zero. I’m bringing all those years of design, creativity, life experience, motherhood, moving countries and basically having to reinvent myself with me. I’m still figuring out exactly where this next chapter will take me, but I’m really enjoying finding out.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Smooth? Definitely not. Moving from Germany to Houston was one of the biggest changes of my life. I left behind the country I knew, my family and friends, and a career I had spent many years building. I knew how things worked in Germany and I knew who I was professionally. Here, I basically had to start over.
One of the hardest parts was the immigration process. I ended up waiting almost eight and a half years for my green card. During that time I wasn’t able to work, but what made it even harder was not being able to leave the country to go back to Germany and visit my family and friends. Eight and a half years is a very long time when the people and the place you came from are an ocean away.
When I finally received my green card, I thought, “Finally, now I can work again, I can travel, and we can move forward.” But after such a long and expensive immigration process, our savings were gone. So even though I finally had the freedom to go back to Germany, financially we simply couldn’t make that trip happen right away. That was hard. You wait all those years for that door to finally open, and then realize you still can’t quite walk through it yet.
Professionally, I was also trying to find my way back after being unable to work for so long. I had decades of experience in graphic design and advertising, including managing a graphic department in Germany, but I also had this huge gap in my work history. Then I ran into another strange problem, sometimes being considered overqualified because of how much experience I had. It was a weird position to be in: having all that experience and still feeling like I had to prove myself all over again.
I’m also a wife and a mom of four, so throughout all of this there were times when my family simply had to come first. Somewhere along the way, I had to figure out who I was professionally now, not just who I had been before moving here.
That’s part of what makes this new chapter with content creation and UGC so interesting to me. I can have more than 30 years of experience in one creative field and still be a beginner in another. Putting myself in front of the camera at 52 and learning an entirely different industry definitely pushes me outside my comfort zone. Sometimes I look at people who are already much further along and wonder if I started too late.
But I keep reminding myself that I’m not starting from zero. I’m bringing all those years of design, advertising, working with clients, motherhood, moving countries and having to adapt more than once with me. If anything, everything that happened along the way taught me that sometimes you really do have to start over, even when that wasn’t part of the plan.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’ve worked in graphic design and advertising for over 30 years, so being creative has pretty much always been part of my professional life. Over the years I’ve worked on all kinds of projects – magazines, newspapers, books, advertisements, flyers, catalogs, logos, packaging and product design, just to name a few. I also managed a graphic department for a period of time in Germany.
After being away from work for so many years because of my immigration process, I’m still figuring out exactly what the next version of my creative career looks like. Graphic design will probably always be part of me, but lately I’ve also been exploring content creation and UGC.
UGC is very new for me. I’m learning as I go, experimenting, getting more comfortable in front of the camera and trying to find my own place in an industry that I honestly didn’t even know existed not that long ago. I’m definitely not an expert at it yet.
What I do know is that I don’t want to become a completely different person just because I’m creating content. I’m 52, I have a German accent, I don’t always say everything perfectly, and I’m not interested in pretending that I do. I like content that feels more like a real conversation between two people than an advertisement.
If there is something that sets me apart, maybe it’s that combination. I have more than 30 years of creative experience behind me, but I’m also completely willing to be a beginner again and learn something new. I’m probably most proud of the fact that after such a long interruption in my career, I’m actually putting myself out there again and seeing where it takes me.
What’s next?
Right now, my biggest plan for the future is honestly to keep building. I’m still figuring out exactly what that will look like, but I want to grow my work in content creation and UGC while continuing to use the creative experience I already have.
Of course, I want to become successful with it and earn a good living. I’m not going to pretend money doesn’t matter, it does. After everything we’ve been through financially, having more freedom and security would mean a lot to me. But success to me isn’t just about having a certain amount of money in the bank.
I want to build a life where we have choices. I want to be able to travel more, spend time with the people I love, go back to Germany without it having to be this huge financial decision, experience new things with my family, and simply enjoy life a little more instead of always thinking about what we can or can’t afford.
Maybe that’s my version of the “good life.” Not necessarily something extravagant, but having the freedom to say yes more often.
Professionally, I’d love to see how far I can take this new chapter. I would love to work with brands that appreciate someone who is a little older, has life experience, has an accent, and doesn’t look or sound exactly like everybody else online. And if what I’m doing encourages another woman in her 40s, 50s or beyond to try something she thought she was too old to start, that would be pretty amazing too.
I don’t have the whole five-year plan mapped out. I just know I’m not done yet. There are still a lot of things I want to build, see and experience.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/isabell.campbell
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/isabell.campbell.35
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@isabellcreates
