Brand Design Photography & Styling Clarity Consulting

Podcast: Your Elusive Creative Genius

I stumbled upon this podcast/video at the perfect time. I was feeling the morning blues of being uninspired and naturally…I was blaming myself for being uninspired. I kept asking myself..”I have a dream job, why can’t I just pull it together?” I came across this TED talk with Elizabeth Gilbert (author of Eat.Pray.Love) and she just blew me away. So much that I listened to it twice (she kind of talks fast too).

She does a really good job at examining the creative process and performance expectations. She has also developed a unique way of dealing with the constant pressure of needing to be successful…she calls this solution “the disembodied creative spirit”. Here’s my takeaways from the talk.

Podcast Takeaways:
– Is is right that you are afraid of what you were put on this earth to do? Afraid of not succeeding. Afraid of never being able to succeed again.
– Creative are naturally a little bit “undone”, but why do we have to be linked to suffering?
– We need protection from the results of our work
– Consider a separation, yet collaboration with your creative “self” instead of being so dependent on it.

Listen to more here–>

More Podcast reviews here: Embrace FailureChat with Pinterest Founder,  Learning to Balance with Joy and NaomiBecoming Your BrandBeing More Present with Your Business, Surrounding Yourself with Art, Usefully Losing Control Of Your Brand

Podcast: Usefully Losing Control of Your Brand

Hey guys. If you have 5-10 minutes, I’ve got a really thought provoking podcast for you today. Tim Leberecht talks about how brands try to tightly control their reputation, but he presents the idea that maybe losing some control could be extremely useful for building your brand reputation. The whole 5 min is jam-packed with examples of WHY this might work, but it got me thinking

Podcast Takeaways: (questions I’m now asking myself)
– Is your brand what other people say about you when you are not in the room?
– Should I give my clients and blog readers more control of my brand? (more collaborations?)
– How can I gain trust without using predictable behavior?
– How could I infuse an element of surprise into my brand?

I highly recommend listening…super quick and powerful, little speech.

Listen here–>

More Podcast reviews here: Embrace FailureChat with Pinterest Founder,  Learning to Balance with Joy and NaomiBecoming Your BrandBeing More Present with Your Business, Surrounding Yourself with Art

Lesson Learn-ing: Don't Over Commit

As a young designer, you start to learn quickly what your limits are and how those limits are quickly reached. Over time you get a better understanding of how to manage your time and how to keep yourself from exploding from being over worked. I think it’s completely natural to want to take on ALL the projects that come your way and I’m not sure you fully understand your limits until you’ve been pushed to them, over and over again.

After 3.5 years work experience since graduating design school, I feel I am JUST now getting a good grip on this concept of being over-worked and the idea that I have limits. With the experience that I’ve gained in those 3.5 years, I can now say that I can spot the warning signs of being over worked. I can (for the most part), tell people NO…even though the project will most likely be awesome. I’ve also learned that I don’t have to take on all the projects that come through my email. I’ve learned that both myself and my clients benefit from me only taking on projects I’m extremely passionate about. I’ve learned that it’s not about the money for me. I’ve learned that my nights and weekend are for me and my family….all things I didn’t really understand until just now.

Are you struggling because you continually over commit yourself to your work? If so…STOP…haha. I know. Easier said than done.  Experiment with passing up some jobs, taking the evenings for yourself, and working only when passionate. I’d love to hear about how you guys have worked through this idea of  “over-working”.

Here’s another great post about the glorificaton of “busy”. Thanks Eva.
Above photo: Annaleena Leino

Veda News: Now Accepting New Clients

Hi Veda House friends. I’m stopping by today to do a little update. As you know, a month ago I left my full-time day job at the advertising agency to run my freelance business full time. I still continue to check business news at insidemma. I promised myself that I was going to take a full month off to work on personal projects, find a new place to live, and just all around get inspired again.

This month has been awesome in helping me get back on my feet and feel excited about design/styling again. I’ve been taking SOOO many photos and spending a lot of time focusing on my personal brand. I’m excited to announce that a new blog design is in the works as well as a brand new Facebook page where I hope to share more behind the scenes from my studio.

But most importantly, I’m finally ready to start taking on clients again, full time. If you’re looking for a little help on rebranding, putting together a lookbook, developing a logo, taking shop photos, etc…you know where to find me. I’d love to work with you 🙂

Email me: casspyle@gmail.com

Lesson Learned: The Internet Rabbithole

This is how my mornings go. I wake up anywhere between 7:00 & 8:00. If I’m feeling peppy, I make coffee/tea for my fiancé and I before he leaves for work at 8:30. Once he leaves, I plop myself on the couch with my ipad and zone out for about an hour. I spend that hour reading through my emails that came in overnight, go through my bloglovin’ blog roll, and scroll through inspiration on Pinterest and Tumblr. The hour goes by quickly, but I’ve found it to be a really good way to start the day.

I find that the hour I spend a day browsing online inspiration has a really big influence on how creative I’m going to fell that day. This got me thinking about how much my personal work is influenced by others. Bri of Design Love Fest recently wrote about this exact thing HERE and makes some great suggestions about how to avoid being sucked down the rabbit hole.

I totally agree with her suggestions/ concerns and strive to let the internet inspire my own personal ideas to grow and evolve, and for my personal ideas to not mimic my internet favorites. It’s a tough one, but I think we can all find the perfect balance of drawing in inspiration and generating your own to share.

What are your thoughts on using internet inspiration to influence your own personal design???

Podcast: Surrounding Yourself w/ Art

Today’s Podcast is another After The Jump session on Heritage Radio, brought to us by Grace Bonney of Design Sponge. This week’s podcast was with Amy Azzarito who has a “Past & Present” column on Design Sponge. She now has a new book out called Past & Present: 24 Favorite Moments in Decorative Arts History. I love how she has worked really hard to surround herself with history and art and how those two things have shaped her professional career.

Podcast Takeaways
– Your childhood frequently has a huge impact on who/what you chose to become as adult. Your history gives you courage to move along all the paths you go down.
– Constantly seek out new things to learn and surround yourself with art,history and family.
– Everyone (past and present) wakes up in the morning, worries about their kids, hopes to gain money, and when we do have a little extra money…we seek to make where we live better. Interesting way to look at the need to “decorate”.

Listen here–>

More Podcast reviews here: Embrace FailureChat with Pinterest Founder,  Learning to Balance with Joy and NaomiBecoming Your Brand, Being More Present with Your Business

Lesson Learned: Perks & Pits

Its been almost 3 weeks since I’ve set off on my own to start my own business. I’ll have to say that I’m still loving it 🙂 I’ve been doing a lot of reflecting to fully appreciate aspects of my new day to day life and made a little list of  “perks & pits” so far. I’m sure this list will keep growing, but my “perks” list is longer than my “pits” lists…so that must be a good sign right?

Perks:
1. Being REALLY inspired and energized to create…constantly
2. Sundays don’t suck. No more dreading the upcoming work week.
3. Gained Flexibility in my Schedule. Last week I decided to have a last minute meet up with a friend to eat cupcakes and spent my Friday afternoon at the St. Louis Art Museum.
4. Making my own rules as I go and trying to forget some I’ve acquired in my Agency years.
5. Taking baths in the middle of the day while taking an ecourse on my ipad…multitasking relaxing/learning.
6. Getting to be home all day with my pup. I can tell he really likes it too!
7. Being less tired at night because I’m not pushing myself to the limits all day.
8. Making healthy dinners because I actually have time to cook!
9. Cleaning can happen throughout the week instead of piling up for the weekend.

Pits:
1. I have a hard time remembering to eat lunch and STOP to breath. I’m exploring the idea of making a morning and afternoon “to-do” list to keep me on track.
2. Being so inspired you feel a little lost as to which project to tackle first.
3. When you’re feeling lazy…it’s SOOOO easy to turn on Netflix and get sucked into the unproductive zone.
4. The hours of the day just FLY by and before you know it, it’s time to make dinner. Ahhh!!!

 

I actually had a hard time creating that “pits” list and this gives me more confidence that my new work/life balance is a really good change for me. I’m still very thankful I’ve had this opportunity to give it a try.

Freelancers out there….I’m curious what “pits” you’ve found along the way?

Podcast: Being More Present with your Business

One of my goals for this year is to be more present and I’m learning that it’s not only important to be present in your personal life, but also with your business. Melbourne weekly eastern is awesome site which will keep you updated with any kind of business news. As I venture off into the world of small business owner, I’m finding it difficult to keep on task. I’ve got so many options/ways I could spend my time I find it hard to just choose one at a time and focus on that. This podcast by the lovely Grace Bonney was yet another good reminder that you can’t and shouldn’t do everything at once. Make sure you get in touch with an expert like Andy Defrancesco to make the right decisions.

Podcast Takeaways:
– Try running your business with the spirit of the girl who is just starting out. It infuses a lot of the excitement back into your everyday.
– Good reminder: Being productive today ensure a better and more successful tomorrow
– You know that feeling you frequently get that is saying ” go go go” move faster”, it’s most likely your body telling you to slow down. (another good reminder)
– Always be curious
– Good Exercise: think of three things that are currently weighing heavy on your mind. Act as if you are holding these three things in your hands…Now drop two of them and put 100% attention and focus towards the one you’re still holding. Once completed, feel free to pick up one of those you dropped if you’re still interested.
– Schedule your workday and stick to it! (ex: start and finish your day with 20 min personal time & work day ends at 6:00pm NO MATTER WHAT)

I was really inspired by this podcast and thought it extremely applicable to me right now. Take a listen and see what little nuggets of gold you pull out from it.
More Podcast reviews here: Embrace Failure, Chat with Pinterest Founder,  Learning to Balance with Joy and Naomi, Becoming Your Brand

Veda News: Get to Know Me


Today I’m going to do something a little different than what you usually read here on The Veda House. Over the past week, I’ve been super invested in an e-course developed by Kathleen of Kathleen & Jeremy / Braid Creative. This e-course has challenged me to really sit down and make some decisions about my personal brand and how to bring my personal brand to life in my profession. I’m going to do a full reviewing the course next week, but in the meantime, I wanted to share with you a discovery I’ve uncovered while taking the course.

I was tasked to pretend I was hosting a dinner party and I was able to invite 6 people/personalities. Each attendee was supposed to represent an aspect of myself. I was challenged to define their names, expertise, core values, personality traits,pieces of advice, and even their favorite topics of conversation.

After two days of contemplating my guest list, this is what I came up with…

Guest 1: The Maker
She’s a weekend warehouse picker who makes furniture, hand prints fabrics and makes natural home fragrances on her stovetop.

Guest 2: The Detailed-oriented Designer
She’s an extremely organized graphic designer who designs with attention to fine details and has a minimalistic aesthetic.

Guest 3: The Bohemian Gardener
She’s a “figure-it-out-as-you-go” gardener who successfully grows succulents, wears sundresses, regularly visits the farmer’s market, keeps bouquets of flowers in her house, makes dreamcatchers, has a small plot of land at the city garden, and has a crystal collection.

Guest 4: The Quiet Observer
She’s a sit back and soak it all type of chick who is always wanting to learn new things.

Guest 5: The Visual Storytelling Stylist
She’s an obsessive documentor and curious curator who strives to freeze every beautiful moment with her camera lens, constantly creating romantic vignettes to drool over.

Guest 6: The Storm Chaser
She’s an adventure seeking gal who prefers to be out in nature or surrounded by water…who also rides a motorcycle.

I’m curious. Who would you like to learn more about?

Sound interesting? Wanna participate in this exercise (developed by Braid Creative) among many more, please stop by Kathleen’s blog and sign up for her next course.

Veda News: What I've been up to

If you’ve been following The Veda House these past couple weeks, you would know that I’ve taken the scary leap of quitting my day job and starting to work for myself. Last Friday was my last day at the Agency and boy oh boy, the day did not go as I had envisioned. I envisioned being able to walk away at the end of the day full of excitement and giddy emotions, but in reality I was overcome with these really sad feelings. I felt like I was letting go of a lot of really good people that I’ve built relationships with. My team there was definitely like my family away from home and I was taken back by the realization that I wouldn’t seem them everyday anymore. For whatever reason, I hadn’t even thought about that aspect of leaving. Aside from feeling a little bummed about losing that close connections with my “work family”, I was also feeling completely free to explore and build my OWN brand.

Over this past week I’ve received a few tweets, emails and blog comments from my readers asking what I’ve been up to and so I thought I’d share. I decided to start this new adventure with a clean slate, so I’ve been deep cleaning my entire loft building to make it feel workable. I’ve also been attending Kathleen’s E-Course about personal branding and I’ve been completely blown away by it. I’ll be writing a complete review on it in a few weeks, but I highly recommend it! I’ve been exploring food styling and photography. I’ve challenged myself to bake/cook two recipes this week, style them, and photograph them. Let me tell you…I love every aspect of it (which is a sign I need to spend more time exploring it). Lastly, I’ve done a little pampering like get my hair colored and meet up with a dear friend for a brownie date.

All in all, my first week away has been going just as planned….to not have a concrete plan and allow myself to explore. Yes, I’m maintaining my existing freelance jobs, blogging, keeping up to date on emails and exploring a new blog design for The Veda House, but the majority of my day is spent getting inspired. Cheers to that right?

Question: What would you like to see on The Veda House in the future?

*Photo above by Max Farago (more here)

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