Beauty: More than a view, it's your door.

Instead of looking at beauty as an ancillary concept, what if beauty is a key to elevated, creative thinking?

Consider this mindset shift: Defining beauty on your terms isn’t a frivolous exercise. When you place yourself in your premium environment, it invites, allows, and encourages you to think differently. Why? Because you’ve surrounded yourself with elements that are genuine and meaningful to you.

Don’t settle for the cluttered chaos of other people’s definitions. When you claim what beauty means to you, you're not living in the land of wishful thinking; you’re immersed in an environment that sparks your mind and raises the bar on how you think, move, and operate your business.

Here are tangible ways to use your definition of beauty to shift into your full potential. See how this concept can work for you and how it has evolved for me.

Define It
Define what it is you call “beauty.” You can’t absorb its magic if you haven’t identified what it means. What images, activities, or experiences inspire you, bring calm, and clear your mind?

For example, being outdoors is my definition of beauty. I’m not hiking the highest peaks; I’m the trail walker and sunrise stroller. It inspires me, helps me breathe deeper, and gives me a fresh perspective. I’ve been doing this for years and thought it was just what I did in my downtime.

Once you define it, seek to create subtle, simple, and sensational ways to weave this inspiration into your life. For me, it means candle scents in birch, pine, ocean, and other aromas fill my studio. Photos and artisan decor representing these scenes are displayed throughout my home and office.

Taking this step will allow you to find more joy, renewed excitement, and calming fulfillment. Consider how this powerful energy enables you to think differently in your work.

Pay Attention to Your Passions
What do you love to do when you’re alone with time? I walk each week in neighborhoods and parks. I’m up at sunrise to witness the serenity of daybreak, and I take a lot of pictures everywhere I go. I also value quality, unique print products; magazines (yes, the ones you hold), stationery, cards, bookmarks, journals. And, I write, I note what I’m thinking, jot down ideas. All the time. For years, I considered these separate from business. Until now.

When Beauty Meets Business
A few years back, I was taking photos outdoors for our artisan gift business at clients’ home properties. This activity sparked a connection with another long-held passion, a love of print elements. After years of this creative current running under the surface, the light bulb switched on, and I began experimenting. I could use these photos to create postcards as a thank-you gift for the homeowners. They could use them as notes to invite others to come and visit. Suddenly (Well, this took years to figure out!), I combined print, artisan gifts, and photos to create a product, a gift for others - a meaningful combination.

The door in my mind opened, leading to new product ideas and expanded thinking, events, and collaborations. Now, it allows me to stretch beyond focusing only on traditional business topics to a powerful blend of beauty, brilliance, and business savvy - more of what I truly enjoy.

Moving forward, you’ll see the impact of this combination in my quest to inspire and elevate seasoned and savvy women in business.

Ask yourself, where do you see beauty? What passions are you overlooking that can add excitement to your daily work? How might these create opportunities to impact your business bottom line?

Practice weaving the work you love around the life that fulfills you.

Photo examples of how defining beauty, owning my brilliance, and elevating my business savvy moved me toward new ideas and next steps. Stay tuned…

Stretch into Possibilities

Are you bringing the energy to finish the year strong, or are thoughts of pause and delay creeping in? If left to our own devices, we can think of reasons not to start that new and exciting thing. You might be thinking, surely there’s a better time, and it might even feel true. In most cases, it’s not. And years can slip by in the waiting. If you’re putting off your next step, it’s likely because it’s outside of your comfort zone, and it feels awkward and uncomfortable. That’s all the more reason to keep going. Deciding to move forward means recognizing discomfort is part of the journey. Treat those uncomfortable thoughts as passengers along for your exciting ride!

Putting your creative skills into the world is some of the most rewarding and fulfilling work you’ll do. Don’t let delay divert your dreams. stretch into possibilities.

When we started Red & Rugged, we had no retail experience or background in selling upscale handcrafted gifts online. (Before 2020, some people turned their noses up at our online-only business; post-2020, we were suddenly so smart!) We had to learn it all. There were skills, client relationships, and processes that had to be figured out, so we did. I started at the ground level and ended up selling to global executives and accomplished business owners. One day at a time, one skill at a time.

What’s holding you back? As you ponder the answer, know that there is always something that can make building your business inconvenient or challenging. Decide that now is the right time, and you have all the skills you need to figure it out. You can choose to pivot, tweak, go a new direction, and get creative in your problem-solving. Ask for help, read, watch an instructional video, get coaching, etc. Embrace the feeling of having your own back and shining your light into the world. Part-time, full-time, or as a side business, it doesn’t matter. Either way, you’re putting your creative talents out there, willing to try, fail, alter the process, and go again to succeed. Rinse and repeat.

What if, a year from now you wake up and realize you’ve acquired a ton of new skills? You’re a whole different person - that is exciting! Imagine the possibilities when you stretch your capabilities.

Are you ready to make this your season of growth? To declare the time is now to put your creative talents into the world. Learn new skills, think differently, connect with customers, and step into the next version of yourself. If the answer is, heck yes! I invite you to join me in the Creatv Catalyst.