Good Life Project - Surprising People With An Extra Layer of Love – Tina Roth Eisenberg

Episode Date: November 5, 2014

There’s this myth about being a grown-up, especially, being a parent, that it’s a time where the play ends and the serious work begins. That laughter and surprise and curiosity and spontaneity, very often the things that got you where you are, need to cede to more responsible behavior.But, what if the exact opposite was true?What if the real secret to a life well lived, was to never let them go. Better yet, to build your waking hours around them? That's what we’re talking about on today’s episodeMy guest today is Tina Roth Eisenberg. Over the last 9 years, she’s founded:Swiss-Miss.com: A design-turned-lifestyle blogCreativeMornings: A breakfast conference for creative pros now hosted in more than 100 countries every monthTattly: An artist-driven temporary tattoo companyStudiomates: A flourishing co-working space in Brooklyn, andTeuxDeux: A task-management appAll while raising a family and even documenting her son's epic 2-year old meltdowns at ItsHardBeingTwo.com. And it all seems to come from a place of deep service and play, a desire to connect with people and help them connect with each other.By the end of this conversation, you'll be looking at business and life differently, and very likely searching the internet for confetti! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I go on a weekly dinner date with my daughter. She's eight. I love it. It's just short and sweet, but it's just our ritual every week. And so a few months ago, we're sitting in a restaurant, we're having dinner, and I ask her, like, so Ella, do you actually know what I do at work all day? And she just very matter-of-fact, very quickly answered, yeah, Mom, you sit at your computer and you laugh. So there's this myth about being a grown-up, especially being a parent, that it's a time where the play's got to end and the serious work begins. That laughter and surprise and curiosity and spontaneity, very often the things that got you where you are,

well, that all needs to see to, you know, more responsible behavior. But what if the exact opposite was true? What if the real secret to a life well lived was to never let them go? Better yet, to build your waking hours around them. Well, that's what we're talking about on today's episode. I'm Jonathan Fields. This is Good Life Project. My guest today is Tina Roth Eisenberg.

Over the last nine years, she's founded a design-turned-lifestyle blog, a breakfast conference for creative pros now hosted in more than 100 countries around the world every month, an artist-driven temporary tattoo company, a flourishing co-working space in Brooklyn, all while raising a family. And it all seems to come from a place of deep service and play

and this insatiable desire to connect with people and to help them connect with each other. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were going to be fun. January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. We'll be right back. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch,

getting you 8 hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series X. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone XS or later required, charge time and actual results will vary. The real connections that I've made in life, they were always because they came out of a face-to-face meeting, right? I really, really believe in the more I'm online and all the different manners of Twitter and all that, which I love, love. I really believe in the end of the day that real connections are made in person and not behind the screen. And that's the reason why I started so many of the things I do, like my co-working space, Studio Mates in Dumbo.

And then out of that came the creative mornings to monthly gatherings of the creative types and stuff. And it even goes back further. When I was in high school, I ran the student union, you know, the student, what do you call it? It's student organization. Yeah.

And I organized all the events and the cultural stuff. So, I mean, it goes way back. It's just like, I think something that I have in me that I like to get people together. So what is it that you think happens? I mean, because it's interesting, because I've really tried to explore this,

and I've done a ton of research on belonging and stuff like that, and stumbled upon actually this guy named Emile Durkheim and his whole sort of theory of collective effervescence, what happens when people get together, and there's this intangible thing that goes on. What do you think is really happening there? I mean, that you can't replicate without having people in your life. Well, it's not just about getting people together.

I think the key component is to get like-minded people together, that there's a common denominator. And just for example, Creative Mornings, we had our first ever summit where we invited all the organizers from around the world in one room. It's so funny. I started Creative Mornings because I believe in getting people together. But then here we are six years in and we've never got the organizers together. And there's over 100 chapters now. And what happened was completely magical. This was like a week and a half ago.

And you can talk to my team. We all start tearing up when we think back of these two days. It's that there was such an incredible understanding and kindness and sort of like just like-minded. We all had common ground. We all knew what it means to organize creative mornings. And we all sort of have the same belief system, the same values. You could just tell that. You could feel it in the room.

And I'm not someone to speak about world peace, to be honest. In the end of the day, while I'm an optimist, I'm also a little bit cynical sometimes. But these two days was the first time ever in my life where at one point I looked at our chief happiness officer, Sally, and said, Sally, look at this room. This is the first time ever I could imagine there's such a thing as world peace. If we just keep growing these communities that really there's just such an amount of respect for each other in the room and and the kindness that just really makes you feel so confident and and comfortable and just allows you to be who you are and i think that's that's the beauty it's like the finding your like-minded group that makes you a better person

at the end of the day yeah no i and i you know like we were just talking i just came off an experience where i i there was something so similar going on um and and i wonder you know one of the things that i was wondering is when you leave something like that and i'm curious whether this was going through your mind at all um you walk out you're like okay this was these were two stunning days days where like whatever expectation i had, it was just blown away. Can I do this again? Or was that like a one-off? Like is this, how do you do it again?

How do you build on that? How do you make it bigger? How do you take that ripple and actually take that ethic and that respect for humanity and that deep, deep, deep sense of belonging and connection and shared aspirations and values and beliefs and scale it to a level of impact where you're really making a substantial difference in a lot of people's lives.

Can you do it or do you lose that at some point? I absolutely believe that you can do it. Like if I just see that we have a Facebook group with all the organizers and if you just read what's going on there right now, these people went back, these organizers, and they are just so filled up with these two days that they are so motivated to make a change and make it even better and take it to the next level.

And I actually think these events like you had, they're important to actually sort of refill our tanks and with the confidence and sort of making me realize, what we're doing is important and this is really, really good. So I think like every two, three years, we're going to have to have one of these events where it's just like, it really shows us again that what we're doing is really important for our communities. You're doing it in your and there's lots of small pockets of communities. It doesn't just have to be my organization. I feel like we all have to just find our groups

where we feel safe. And we feel like the people around us, they make us better by pushing ourselves to be better or to set our goals a bit higher or just maybe set our standards for our work a bit higher or whatever it is, right? just maybe put, set our standards for our work a bit higher or whatever it is, right? Yeah, no, I totally agree. And I think what's also happening, and I wonder if you, what your thoughts are on this, is that I have this sense that there's a,

that there's a growing, what I would call a belonging crisis that, you know, all of the places that we used to look to for this sense of belonging that we have to satisfy, it's a deep human need, they're kind of crumbling. Or we're not finding that sense there anymore. A lot of people are abandoning faith at a really rapid pace these days. They consider themselves spiritual but not faith-based or religious-based. Employment used to create a really strong sense of belonging, but a lot of people don't feel that anymore. Local groups, there are a lot of things. And I think people are wandering around and feeling a sense of unease, pain, anxiety.

But at the same time, in the time of like the internet, it's never been easier to actually find that group that you connect with. So here's an interesting question. Do you think that that is an adequate fix? Or do you think that there's something profoundly different that happens when you have people in a room? Well, I still feel like, you know, look at Meetup. I still think it shouldn't just be virtual, but you can take it to the next level and you can find a Meetup group that you connect with and then meet up in a room. But I agree, it shouldn't be just virtual. But I actually think there's also something to be said that there's probably a lot of people that live maybe in more remote areas

that finally find people that they can connect with on a level that they would not have been able years ago. So there's a beauty in both sides. Yeah, I totally agree, which is interesting because I'll read something which kind of lionizes the Internet for creating this false connection, which keeps people from making the real connection. I'm like, you know, I can see there's an argument for some people, but to make a blanket statement like that because of exactly what you just shared, there are a lot of people in places in the world where their people aren't in their village. So if they can find a connection with those people through the ether on some level. That must make their life so much better right there.

It's got to, right? You know, it's got to really be some kind of game changer or flatten the world for them to a certain extent and say, huh, okay, I'm not alone. So you mentioned that, you know, it's not just the fact that people in a room together, but they're also sharing something. And one of the things that you, uh, you just tossed out was what I think is your fifth rule, which was, Oh my God.

Don't, don't ask me what all the rules were right now. I know. I wrote people like, well, remember when you wrote that in your last book? I'm like, honestly, no, I, I'm like, I have like, I can't remember what was in it or what was out there. So I'm going to throw it out there for you. Which was Push TV Vet. And that seems like a really important thing for you just from an ethical standpoint. So talk to me a little bit about what that means, you know, when you started to kind of realize that was important to you.

Well, I guess the way I was raised, I was raised in a somewhat spiritual environment and not in a very faith-based. But I kind of grew up in the Sardona, the equivalent of Sedona of Switzerland. **Matt Staufferer, Jr.:** I had no idea there was like a Sedona. **Sara Hanks, Jr.:** Yeah, yeah. Sort of. **Matt Staufferer, Jr.:** That's great. **Sara Hanks, Jr.:** And so I think I've been raised very open-minded in a lot of quirky things and stuff.

And my parents were both entrepreneurial and they really instilled this thing in me to say, always try to go to the next level. Always try to push you better. Everything you do, just afterwards look at it and it's like, how can I make it better next time? And I think it's such a good value to instill in your, in your children, because I know that I'm not perfect. Like I, I have a little bit of a,

uh, I want to make things really, really perfect. I'm just Swiss. But at the end of the day, I know I'm not, and I know I'm human. And so with my teams,

I often bring this up with, with my teams. I was like, you know, all right, we might not have like really nailed this one, but how can we make it better next time? Or next time also just on a human level, you know, it was like, you know, all right, we might not have like really nailed this one, but how can we make it better next time? Or next time also just on a human level, you know, I was like, you know, I feel like I could have reacted better. And I just bring it

up with my team and say like, you know, let's just, I'm pushing to be better next time. And it's just, it comes from a place of humility, I guess. That's just, you know, you can always try to be better in anything you do. And once you set that mindset, it also makes you very approachable. Does that make sense? In terms of because you own the fact that you're on the path? Oh, I'm the first one to say like, hey guys, I don't know what the answer is here.

I don't know. I have never done this. And just, I'm also making people feel safer around you, you know, just say like, I don't know the answer and let's figure it out together. And I think this all kind of plays, plays together. And also I, you know, as a, as a, as a person that is leading teams now, I've never done this before. I didn't go to school to be a perfect boss, but all I keep telling my, my telling my employees and also my children, because I feel like there's a lot of similarities of starting businesses and running a family. He said, I just tell them, listen, I promise you that I am trying to be the best person I can be. And sometimes I make mistakes and I will say I'm sorry. And I think that is like just a, when you run a company like that, people feel safe.

And they also feel safe to come to you and say like, hey, I messed up. And it's all about feeling appreciated and safe in the environment you work in. So it's not just about pushing to be better. It's that ethic of, you know, like, okay, let's just make this the best that we can. But at the same time, like you said, there's a level of humility around it that, you know, look, we're all human, and part of that push to be better is making mistakes and trying new things, and sometimes stuff works and sometimes it doesn't.

But I feel like the workplace, especially in New York, is so competitive. I don't think this is a notion that is very embraced. And it kind of pains me a bit to see, don't just pretend to be all tough and rough. I'm really, really hoping that just the work environment has a bit more heart. It's a bit more, you know, like you see a lot of people go to work and sort of put on a different persona than they are at home. I don't believe in that. I believe in you need to be that person that you are at home or at work. And it comes back to feeling safe, you know, and feeling.

Is that what you think is what drives it? Yeah, I think so. People don't feel safe, so you feel like you have to wrap yourself in this. That's what I think it is. I mean, I've been in environments where I was constantly scared. Like, you know, I came in five minutes late. Oh, my God, what's going to happen? And how brutal is it to show up in a place like that every day of your life?

That's not a life. I can't. And also, you're not able to do your best work. That's the icing on the cake. If you have an environment like that, people will not do their best work. Yeah. That was one of the big awakenings, actually. It's like if you have an environment like that, people will not do their best work. Yeah. That was one of the big awakenings, actually.

When I started doing a whole bunch of research between the relationship between anxiety and fear and creativity. And there's actually strong research that there's an inverse relationship between anxiety and creativity. When you're anxious, when you're stressed, your creative capacity literally craters. And which is so interesting because so many people will create a work culture that is all based on ramped anxiety and fear and crazy demands and then say, we need more, better, faster, harder. You're not giving us what we need. Not realizing they're actually destroying

the capacity of the people that they want to innovate and actually do that. And I can tell you, people that follow me on Instagram and Twitter, me and my teams, like for example, with Tatly and Creative Mornings, they often ask me, are you actually getting any work done? And I always laugh because, like, we work really, really hard, but I also want to make sure we have fun while we're doing it. And I'm the first one to be silly at work. And we have a lot of, like, for example, we have a prop box at Tatly that's just filled with like silly things with like Viking

hats and stuff. And sometimes I always say like, sometimes you just need a Viking hat to reply to certain emails or I welcome silliness at work on a moment where you just like, you know, just goof off a little bit. Or we have a, one of my favorite things of all times. And I really feel like every business needs one of these is like, we have a confetti drawer. We have an entire drawer filled with confetti. That's awesome. So to me, every now and then it's just, you know, sometimes you just need confetti. Like there's certain people that send you a really lovely note with their order or whatever it is, like you just need to add a little bit confetti in someone's order. And, and just, have you ever stuck your hand in like a big giant drawer of confetti? I have not. It's amazing. So anyway, so there's these little things that,

um, I always say that with what I do at Tatley and creative mornings, I'm trying to sprinkle a possibility of a smile in whatever we do. And I really shines through in, in like, for example, on creative mornings.com. When you like a video,

it, it rains hearts, which people email us. And I didn't, it makes my day. It's so simple. Or, or for example,

and, uh, we have profiles on creative mornings. And when we built a new site, I said, come on, let's, let's just make a filter for single, you know, come on when you're a single, you just want to know who's single in this community and stuff like that. And, and, and I feel like it's these little things that, that make people realize that we really love what we do. Like we put our heart into it and, and yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's the notion of delight and I think it's a lost, I think it's a lost art in, and, and, and on two levels is really what you're talking about.

One is actually the culture within the, like whatever it is that you're building, you know, create this, this sense of play and delight within it. But then also, and maybe actually it's just the, the continuation of that story. When you do that, then, you that, then people just end up sitting there having so much more fun. And also then kind of saying, okay, well, how can we give this to the people that we're serving or selling to, our customers, our clients? And so you come up with ways to actually externalize that whole thing. But I think there's no sense of delight.

We are here to actually delight. You know, I think a lot of business is built and probably rightly so around, let's first, we need to solve the problem, right? Because if you're not solving a problem, it's in my mind, at least as a business model, it's harder to build something real around it. But at the same time, you can build something real around delivering a delight. And sometimes that's in addition to solving the problem, but sometimes it can also be just that and nothing but that. I just think they can go hand in hand, solve the problem, and then add a layer of like, how can we just also make this a…

And it doesn't take much. I mean, it's like the stuff that when you… I love this example, right? So when you mail out tablets, do you just throw them in a standard envelope? No. No. What do you just throw them in a standard envelope? No. No. No, you do. No. I mean, this is something that I feel really strongly about is that we have really beautiful craft envelopes. Our labels are pretty. We put real stamps on it, like real stamps.

We are known at the post office that the people that show up and buy like $4,000, $5,000 worth of stamps, but we want the pretty ones, the creative ones. I love it. And we have beautiful rubber-stemmed stuff on it. So it feels like a real human touch to us. And it almost feels like you got mail from a friend. And it's interesting to see how people, like they Instagram the envelope oftentimes more than the actual tattoos that are inside. And that alone shows right there, there's a lack of human touch in today's world.

And people just want to feel like there's real human beings behind the product they buy, and they love what they do. Yeah. No, I absolutely love that. It kind of reminds me of Derek Silver, someone who's building CD Baby. And basically, when you placed your order, you would then get an email that was this detailed story about how they were sprinkling pixie dust on it and creating this whole thing behind the scenes and doing a dance for you. And it was just an email that got sent out, but it generated just tremendous, tremendous smiles. And there's this sense of lightness and surprise that I think people don't expect. And then when they get it, not only is it good for business, it's good for humanity. And I think we forget that. We're so focused on let's do what we need to do to build something that's going to be a thriving,

sustainable business, rather than let's do something that actually adds lightness to the world. Yeah, I agree. And I feel like more and more people just sense which businesses are just about making money. I think you're right. And people crave. I think the reason why so many of my projects that I purely started as Labors of Love, as side projects, never intended to be a business because they just solved a problem that I saw or something that I wanted to fix, but how most businesses start, right? But I really am not. The interesting thing is that I am, I'm not driven by money. I'm really not. If, as long as I have enough just to,

you know, leave it, leave an okay life, I'm perfectly fine. So all these things that I started, there was never, the money was never the driver. And when you start something as a side project, as a pure labor of love, you make decisions on a completely different level. You never make a decision on how will this pay my rent? How can I make money? I mean, how can I maximize the profits? That is never my question. I mean, obviously now that my overhead is, for example, I have 14 employees now. I need to be a bit more like, okay, I need to make sure I can pay everything.

But at the same time, I always put sort of the labor of love aspect first. I'm like, how can we maintain this culture of just, this is fun. This makes people happy. Yeah. And I agree. I do think people sense that. I just think you feel it in every level of interaction, whether it's looking at the website or opening the envelope or getting a little bit of confetti and something people just, or even if there's, I just, the woo side of me believes that people just feel it, you know, on some way it resonates. Um, which is kind of funny cause I'm a fairly like science based person for most of the

time, like, you know, like showing the numbers. See, I'm on the other spectrum. It's so funny. I used to go in the yoga studio in Hell's Kitchen and had a partner and we were so opposite because I was always like, well, what's the science behind how this yoga thing works? And I'm trying to do the research. I even partnered with the university. We measured all this stuff.

And she's like, I don't really care, man. I just know it does. I'm the same way. It just feels good. It just, I feel't really care, man. I just know it does. Yeah, I'm the same way. It just feels good. It's just, I feel it. It's good. Yeah, no, that's awesome. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here.

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Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. i knew you were gonna be fun on january 24th tell me how to fly this thing mark walberg you know what's the difference between me and you you're gonna die don't shoot him we need him y'all need a pilot flight risk so so we've thrown out a couple things here And just for people who may not be familiar with you, Creative Mornings is basically – what's the thumbnail? Creative Mornings is a breakfast lecture series, a free event series that happens once a month on a Friday morning. That started in New York and it's basically for the creative community and very loosely – like it's a very loose term on purpose. Like if you think you are a creative spirit, creative mind, you're welcome to attend.

You just have to sign up. And these events now happen in 100 cities around the world every month. Which was not by design. Like you didn't start this to grow Creative Mornings event organization. No. So I was running a co-working space in Dumbo where I had designers, developers, illustrators, photographers around me. And I realized how that has impacted how I approach life and everything I do and has really raised the bar. And I realized I want this beyond just my daily community.

I would love to meet up with my creative community in my city on a regular basis. And I wanted it to be accessible because I feel the design conferences and all that, they're great, but they're expensive, time-consuming, and all that. So that's why the idea started. I just opened the door in my studio and welcomed people, and then we added a talk. And I kept running it for about two years on my own,

and design studios heard about it and invited me in. It was very, very low-key. It's also interesting. When you take the money component out, nobody has big expectations. It's like, you know, if the coffee wasn't that good one morning, it's fine. It doesn't matter. It's really interesting when you take the money component out, how everything changes. And now we have run events here in New York that are like 500 people big.

And we have names like Seth Godin to come speak, which is really wonderful. And people come and they leave and they look at us like, it just feels like a gift. This is weird. So it's beautiful. And then after two years, people started asking me from around the world if they can start the chapter. That was one of these moments where I had to really take a deep breath and say like, wow, can I let this go? And I realized there's not much I can lose in the end of the day. And we've since figured out, we're six years old now, we've since figured out how to find the perfect host

because they're very independent. Once we give them the green light of being the host of their city, we give them access to all the tools and all the back ends they need and then they run on their own. And it's really magical how this has grown. And we grow by three to five chapters a month at this point. And we're not actively searching or calling out. They all come to us.

And we set the bar really high to become a host. But once you're in, we trust you. So when you say there was this moment where you're like, can I let this go? What's the this that you're talking about? What's the deeper thing that you're struggling with? As I said, these things that I start, they're very dear to my heart. They represent, like Creative Mornings was sort of like

represented a lot of the values I have or the, the way I want to approach life. And, you know, like about, and, and, you know, you start, you, you create a little, a baby, like it's a brand. It's, it has, it has very clear, like I was very clear to me that if, if I let someone else run this in other cities where I can, you know, control it, I need to be very, very clear on what cannot, like, what are the basic structure that this needs to be? Like, it needs to be free. It needs to be on a Friday morning. Because it's very cute.

Like, some European countries, they're so adorable. Like, Spain and Italy, they were like, hey, we want to run this, but can we do it in the evening? Because they're not morning people. And I'm like, no, it's called creative mornings. You're adorable. And then we slowly but surely convinced them, like, no, no, it's cool. There's a reason why this is in the morning. People will wake up for it.

Yeah. So I had to be very, very, like like i sort of had to boil it down i was like these are the three four things that you just need to accept and you can change them and then but then keep it loose enough that because it's very creative types that run these things that they can still put their own stamp on it right and it's interesting like we watch them from afar we see their videos go up on our site we see their photos go up and they site. We see their photos go up. And they kind of push us to be better. So what we call, for example, flair, like the love they pour into their events.

All of a sudden we're like, man, they have big giant signs. They have like, you know, custom cupcakes for the events. Is there like a competition? Yeah, it actually really becomes a competition. And we learn from each other. So, for example, in Toronto they did these these 30 second pitches to get the community more involved. We adopted that. So here in New York now, you can apply to say, hey, I want to pitch something for 30 seconds before the speaker comes on.

It can be anything. You have a new website, you're a photographer, you need a roommate, like whatever it is. And so we want to just shine the light a bit on the community members. And so learn from the other chapters and it's like this evolving growing beautiful thing yeah i think so many people would have like there is that moment where you're like okay this has legs and this can have a lot of impact and this can be amazing it can grow large in the world but you know i've got two there are two possibilities here i can own it and control the growth, or I can create a clear enough ethic instead of guidelines that I feel like anyone who raises their hand and then we say, okay, we really believe that you're going to, that then just go and do. They made it all so much better. If I've learned one thing by letting go, you make things,

trusting, like I'm sure you had moments in your life when somebody put a lot of trust in you. There's no bigger compliment in life than when somebody trusts you and believes in you can do this. Right. And I think that's, that's what happened with creative mornings by trusting these people with my personal labor of love. Um, it has completely like, it has created magic because they didn't want to disappoint me and my team now here. And when you trust someone, they're very likely not going to disappoint you. Granted, you need to pick good people, right? But yeah, I've learned one thing is that by trusting, letting go,

Creative Mornings has turned into something so much better, so much bigger than I personally could have ever dreamed of. But I admit, there were moments where I looked at my, you know, Kevin, who came on when we were only three chapters. He came on part time to help me grow this. And there were moments where we saw other chapters doing things where I had to take a really deep breath because it wasn't really what I believed in. And then we had sometimes conversations, this is going too far. This is cool. And we really had to learn over the years just to let go.

And it's okay. Unless, as long as they still, the foundation is, they're not touching it. They cannot start charging for it or can move it to night events. And it's okay. It's totally okay. That's amazing um so so creative mornings is one of the the big rocks in your uh ecosystem these days um the others as you guys can't see it but as we're sitting here i'm across from tina looking at her arms and they're slathered with all sorts of like amazing uh temporary tattoos and these are

not your average temporary tattoos. So one of the things you were talking about is this thing called Tatly. So again, for those who aren't familiar with what that is, take us inside a little bit. Where did it come from and what is it? So Tatly is a temporary tattoo company that I started three years ago out of a personal rule that I have that if I keep complaining about something over and over,

I have two options that I can either do something about it or let it go. And so about three and a half years ago, my daughter, who's now eight, came home from another birthday party and you get goodie bags with crappy temporary tattoos in them. And she asked me to apply them. And it was one of these moments again, where yet again, they were a complete insult to my Swiss aesthetics. They were badly produced, badly designed, and they really bugged me. And I was like, here I am a designer and my daughter wears really ugly temporary tattoos. And I realized that moment, wait a second, Tina, you're a web designer, so I can build an e-commerce site, design it, make it cool without a problem.

I have such an incredible network of illustrators and artists that I've celebrated for years on my blog that I knew if I reached out to them, they would probably design something for me. So that night, I researched a bit what it takes to make temporary tattoos. I emailed a few of my friends. And literally the next day, I had designs in my inbox, not realizing that actually designing for skin, it's like a new canvas. A lot of my friends were thrilled about that. Oh, that's so interesting. And so about two months later, fast forward, I just, as a joke and just for fun, we launched

with 16 designs. We launched tatley.com and I wrote about him on my blog, Swissmas, and the first day we had like 150 orders, which was magical. Did you expect that? Can we just talk about how amazing the internet is? That's why I bought YayInternet.com because

every now and then I go there. And then what I didn't expect, and I really thought, I figured, I'm going to send maybe 100 orders a month. You know, I can do that on the side. What I never, I've never sold a physical product before. What I didn't realize is that actually stores might want them. So the second day in business, I got a call from someone at the Tate Modern shop in London, and they asked me for a wholesale catalog.

And it was very, very cool. I said, absolutely, no problem. I wrote down the info. I hung up the phone and I turned to my studio mate and said like, Hey, Cameron, what's a wholesale catalog? I had no idea. So I realized, you know, maybe let's take this a bit more seriously. What I didn't, what I didn't realize is that I literally had created a new industry. There were no, like the temper, there was no company out there that licensed designs from well-known illustrators and designers. And that's what I do right now. We have a roster of really, really amazing artists and designers.

There are about 90 of them. And what I've been able to create, and it makes me very, very happy, is I've created passive income for them. So of every design you buy, a generous cut goes back to the artist. And some of our artists, every three months when we pay artist commissions, I get very happy emails back. And I really believe that in order to live a creative life, you need to sort of generate passive income in some way that frees you up to work on other creative endeavors. That's sort of a big belief I have. And it makes me happy to that with this project, um, I've sort of been able to, to create that.

Yeah. I mean, it's interesting. There's a common thread here that, that you've kind of circled back to in a lot of different ways, which is you, it seems like one of the things that really lights you up is your ability to create channels for other people to create sustainable livings through fully expressing whatever that's inside of them. Is that right? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. It makes me happy to, like also on my blog, nothing makes me happier than when I can write about someone who just started with a product or just put something out there. And then two months later, I get an email saying, Hey, that was it. That was just a push I needed. I quit my job. You gave me, you know, the nudge to go on my own and thank you so much. There's nothing that makes me happier than to sort of enable other people to, you know, follow, follow their creative dream. Yeah. No, I love that. Um, so now Tatly has grown to a point where, as you said earlier, you have 14 employees. How do you feel about being an employer on that level?

I've really grown to love it. So does that imply that you didn't in the beginning or it's just it's been? Well, it was hard. It was hard. I mean, it's interesting. The other day I looked at my blog. Like I've been blogging for nine years now and people call me a design blog, but oftentimes I'm like, wait, I'm not really a design blog anymore because I've sort of, when I go back into my archives and see what was interesting to me then and I look at it now, a lot of it is more about lifestyle ideas, how to lead, how to be a good, you know. Right, because I look at it, I'm just like it's a general lifestyle resource for me for all sorts of cool things. So I'm not really a design blog anymore, but I don't want to correct people on that.

But it's interesting how I realized just where my life has taken me. I think so much about how to be a good boss, how to be a good leader, how to motivate people, how to make sure my people grow around me, how to create an environment that people love coming to work. And that is a challenge that is really fascinating if you think of it, because seeing so many people that dread going to work. And I really believe that I've created an environment where people like to come to work. And I, I really believe that I've created an environment where people like come to work and, and, and I'm the, I'm very, very a feeler type, you know, like I, I,

I can walk into a room with my team and I can sense if somebody is not, if something's not right. And they always joke about that because I can just see it a mile away. I don't know what it is, but I can just sense it. And, and if, if I sense that somebody is really not at their best or not happy, that just bugs me. And I will tell flat out, like, if it's something I can fix, I will fix it. But you need to talk to me. And if it's something that has to do with the environment here, I will fix it and I will make it better.

So that's my big challenge these days is just create the best work environment I can. Right. So are you spending a substantial amount of your time sort of in management now, managing, business managing people? Yeah. I mean, I'm spending 50% of my time on Tatly and 50% on Creative Mornings. And a lot of it has to do just by talking to the teams and making sure – it's half leading and sort of pushing the vision forward on the company and at the same time – I mean, a lot of my time is just spent on hiring and making sure the team –

Coming from the background, you come where there's – because I'm assuming like the designer never leaves a designer. No. That is like the desire to create and see, create beauty and see. But designing a company is the same thing. And that's the interesting thing. It's structure. You experience it that way.

Yeah. It's the same thing again. It goes to layer of an office environment. How does your office look? To the layer of every aspect of the business itself, like the envelopes and all that, the packaging, the experience, the website, and then the layer of what is our structure of our business? There's so many layers of design. It doesn't just have to be type and pixel driven. The fascination for me with that is that you'll talk to a lot of artists or designers who

start to become commercially successful and then they have an opportunity to grow a studio, a company, a business, or a series of side projects that turn into a business. And they hesitate to pull back because they're like, I like to do what I want to do. And there's no conception that I can actually still do what I do, but the canvas is changing. Now the canvas is culture.

Now the canvas is whatever it may be. I actually wouldn't be a happy designer anymore. No kidding? No. What is it about it? Is it too small a focus? No, I just moved on. I know I was a really good designer.

I still am. But I want, again, push to be better. What's the next thing that I can learn? Where can I grow as a person? I figured to design out. What's the next thing that I can learn? Where can I grow as a person? I figured to design out. So give me the next challenge. Now you design companies and all sorts of other stuff. And in a way, it's like you're involved in helping people design their own lives. It's like now you're creating these channels for people to self-actualize, for lack of a better word. It sounds so pretentious, don't it? Let's come up with something else.

Do cool stuff. Be happy, have fun, and quake and petty and have love. That's good. Okay. I'm totally cool with that. We'll see you next time. think differently and solve the world's most pressing challenges. From healthcare and the environment to energy, government, and technology, it's your path to meaningful leadership in all sectors. For details, visit uvic.ca slash future MBA. That's uvic.ca slash future MBA.

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Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're going to die. Don't shoot him. We need him. Y'all need a pilot. Flight Risk. I've always believed that being a parent and growing a business, they're so close. There's so much overlap, so many different levels.

So you're both, you're an entrepreneur, you're a parent. Talk to me about your experience at the intersection. Well, not only do I have kids and I run businesses, I started them at the same time. So it is really complete parallel lives. I started my design studio when my daughter was born, which is insane. But it was really, when I got pregnant, I really took inventory of my life. And I was like, I need to really do the things I dream of.

Like, I have to be a role model to this little nugget that I'm creating here, right? So I started design studio when my daughter was born. And interestingly enough, when my son was born, I sort of went through the same, like when I was pregnant, through the same sort of inventory phase, like looking at my life. And I was like, I really don't want to have clients. I realized I'm not made for clients. I'm just not made for the service industry. So I changed my life again. So it was interesting that not only did I become a parent,

but my kids actually were the triggers for changing up my professional life. And you know how I always hear people say, oh, it's either kids or career. To me, it's the complete opposite. My kids were the biggest career boost ever. Like they made me push myself to the next level in my career, which a lot of people just shake their heads at. And they're like, I don't get that. Right. Um, but so what I learned is that with both being an entrepreneur and a parent, you need to know what your values are and you need to able to articulate them like my, you know, like what do I stand for?

But, and, and, and they go hand in hand to me, they're the same at home as they are at work. So it's actually very efficient. Yeah, although, I mean, there's knowing what your values are, articulating them, and then there's living them. And I think for a lot of people, there's a disconnect there. And we see this, I mean, we both know this as a parent. It doesn't matter what you tell your kid. It matters what they see you modeling. So if you're like, oh, brush your teeth or exercise every day or whatever it is, and you're not doing it, they're like, really, mom?

Really, dad? Because I'm looking at you. I must say I had one of my, and I think any parent probably can relate to this out there. You don't know how much of the things you say and teach them really sinks in, right? And I had one of these complete parental win moments a few months back. I go on a weekly dinner date with my daughter. She's eight. I mean, I love it.

It's just short and sweet, but it's just our ritual every week. And so a few months ago, we're sitting in the restaurant, we're having dinner. And I ask her like, so Ella, do you actually know what I do at work all day? And she just very matter of fact, very quickly answered, yeah, mom, you sit at your computer and you laugh. And it just hit me. Like to her, there was no question about it. That's what I do. I sit at my computer and I laugh. And then I took a moment and then I was like, wait, you mean as in I like what I do? And she got a little bit annoyed. And she goes, mom, yeah, come on.

Isn't that the point? And that moment right there, the fact that she's eight and she, I, like I was able to instill in her that, like, you should like what you do. You should like going to work. You should be happy at work. That to me was like, okay, thing it is working now that i granted i might be screwing her up and on other levels but at least that one i got down raising kids in new york we have the therapy fund yeah building on the side for it's going to be accessed one day yeah so that that made me so happy. That's amazing. What an, what an, just an awesome moment, you know? Um,

yeah. And, and I, I mean, I think it's so important to, to, uh, to be that model, um, and also to have them see you live as one person in both lives. And also, I guess to, you know, expose your kids to the way that you contribute to the world and the way that you choose to earn a living. But, you know, are we fortunate? Have we made deliberate choices? We're both entrepreneurs. We're very deliberately creating the way that we do these things.

Like you, I bring my daughter into almost everything that we do. She knows a lot of people. She knows our whole team. I do that very purposely as well. I do it as well because I want her to see so many things. I want her to see how much joy, how much connection. I also want her to see that we try things and fail. Because hey, it's

really important for a kid to see and I think we shield kids from that so much. No, it's important. Another example of like I think you do the same is the other day I realized what were the moments in my life as I, um, the other day I realized, you know, what I, what were the moments in my life as a kid growing up in Switzerland that I really like, you know, cherish. And I remember that my parents had a lot of dinner parties, a lot of interesting

conversation. And even though I was a little kid, you know, you don't sit there necessarily, but you just soak it in. You see the people that come through the door. So a few months ago, I, I very purposely started having at least one big dinner party at my house. And I was just looking back at the interesting people that came through our door. A lot of them obviously are like the maker type. So I can always sit down with my daughter beforehand and sort of show her. I always tell her like, hey, tomorrow night, there's so-and-so coming or so-and-so and i show them what they do or if they've created something and and i'm i do that just so that she has context right and then seeing her interact with with the people and they take it totally

seriously they chat with her you know she's eight but i can sense that she's really she feels like they're you know they're taking her seriously so after a few of these dinner parties because it's taking away from us, my husband and I, paying attention to the kids, I just asked her, I was like, Ella, do you like these dinner parties? You can tell me if you don't. And she looked at me and she was like, it came out of her gut. She goes, Mom,

I love them. It's like these moments where I realize as a parent, you can show your kids this world. You know, you can expose them to people and thinking and conversations. And the same thing, I feel the same way about my employees as well. Like my business, Tatly and Creative Mornings are built into the co-working space,

Studio Mates, where we have some of the, I mean, smartest and most talented designers, developers, photographers, illustrators, you name it. And we have like so many interesting people come through the door. And oftentimes we invite them for lunch. And just exposing yourself to interesting people and people who do interesting stuff, you automatically sort of get inspired and raise your bar higher. Yeah, no, I totally agree. You have an insane level of curiosity, it sounds i don't know i think you do i think you i you may not realize it because to you it's just the way you're wired it just isn't everyone

like this right i look at the world i see questions i see things i want to learn people i want to talk to um but i actually think that's unusual i don't know don't know. I think because you and I probably have really similar lens on that way. I'm just constantly like, what can I learn? Who can I talk to? How can I? But the more I talk to a lot of people, and I think you and I probably tend to also surround ourselves with a lot of people who are in the creative space, the maker space, the entrepreneurial space where they have that also.

But when I think if you look outside of that bubble, which is the vast majority of folks, um, I see, I don't see a huge amount of curiosity in the world. And I, maybe it's just me. I'm curious if you agree or disagree, but, um, I think I just, I'm not surrounded by people that I'm not curious. Might be the case. I don't know. But one of my questions has really become, because I see curiosity as a huge driver of so much, is that something where you either have it or you don't? Or is it, and if you're just not curious on some level, can you actually teach curiosity? And again, as a parent, this is a big question for me too.

You know, maybe to push to be better is also about curiosity, right? You need to be. Maybe, right? Or just maybe that's something you can teach a kid, just to continuously like asking yourself questions about the world. I don't know. Yeah. No, it's something, it's a curiosity of mine.

Yep. But yeah, the rabbit hole I haven't gone all that deep into. Now you're going to make me think about this. It's like, what? You text me like, all right. And if you read something on the email, it's like, Jonathan, I haven't answered. I got it.

Here it is. Boom. Let's come back. We'll record five more minutes. So Tatley, Creative Mornings, used to work with design clients, not anymore. Studio mates, mom, married, such a full, such a rich life, contributing in so many different ways. What are the through lines with everything for you that you feel like, okay, when I experience this, I feel lit up? Oh man, that's a good question.

Like you're going to go into the deep core right now, huh? I don't know. You probably know better than I do. See, I have a really hard time sometimes. Like whenever I give a talk, I really feel like I'm scraping the barrel of my soul because I am such a feeler and I have a really hard time sometimes articulating. I don't know if you have that too. Oftentimes you have a conversation with someone who sort of says, you know, I really feel

about your work is X, Y, Z. And you go, thank you for giving me those words right now. I'm very much like you on that level. And some people, it becomes really easy to them to articulate what they believe in or whatever. And I have a really hard time so to be honest the essence of it's probably in somewhere in the realm of um surrounding myself with beautiful creative energy and at the same time connecting people i guess it must be somewhere right there yeah um but there's probably a way more eloquent way to say that.

Seth probably could do it in a heartbeat. Seth, just like boom, here's your word, go. We love you, Seth. Yeah, I mean, it's funny. Like the word, as we're talking here, the word that just keeps coming into my head is a word that we kind of had a short conversation around, which is delight. I feel it's so overused now, a lot of big companies. And I had a short conversation around with this, which is this, which is delight. I feel it's so overused now. A lot of big companies.

And I agree. And I totally, cause I think it's becoming a really big buzzword in terms of like, this is what we're doing. But when you go into the deeper, like, what is that really about? You know, serving people on a level that just gives them a full body smile that they weren't expecting to have. Well, it's like surprising people with an extra layer of love. Put a little bit of heart in your products and your services.

I think you just said it, actually. Surprising people with an extra layer of love. Yeah, good, good. Thank you. I'll use that. So I love this. We could go on for a long time, but I want to come full circle here. So the name of this is Good Life Project.

So if I offer that term out to you, to live a good life, what comes up? I'm doing it right now. I'm living an absolutely fantastic life in that I love going to work. I love the people I work with. I have a healthy family. I have an incredibly supportive husband. I can, you know, I can create and build companies and create just my life is colorful and full and interesting and full of really good people. Very lucky.

Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks for having me. It helps us get the word out to more people and make a bigger difference in the world. Hey, while you're there, why not subscribe? It's just a quick click and it's totally free and you'll never miss an episode. And if you'd love to know a little bit more about how we can maybe help you live your own best life, check out our upcoming events and courses at goodlifeproject.com. The Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch Series 10 is here. It has the biggest display ever. It's also the thinnest Apple Watch ever, making it even more comfortable on your wrist, whether you're running, swimming, or sleeping. And it's the fastest-charging Apple Watch,

getting you eight hours of charge in just 15 minutes. The Apple Watch Series 10. Available for the first time in glossy jet black aluminum. Compared to previous generations, iPhone Xs are later required. Charge time and actual results will vary. Mayday, mayday. We've been compromised. The pilot's a hitman. I knew you were gonna be fun.

On January 24th. Tell me how to fly this thing. Mark Wahlberg. You know what the difference between me and you is? You're gonna die. Don't shoot him, we need him! Y'all need a pilot? Flight Risk.