Rose Gold Portrait: Whitney
Rose Gold Portraits are stills of women in business that are making an impact and sharing their brands with full passion. This special series will highlight women that showcase the topics we talk about in action. These women serve as pillars in their communities and ours!
Raine & Rose nominated Whitney because of the grace she serves throughout her brand identity, marketing, and services for her clients. Such a full circle visual of embodying your brand!
Who are you as a person?
I'm a Catholic Christian, a morning person, and an avid cappuccino drinker. I love animals in general but currently have 2 cats (1 hairless names Indigo and 1 furry guy named Galileo). As for the fire in my eyes moment (haha) this might sound lame but definitely when my husband Carter and I decided to paint our dining room black haha. I just had never lived in a space that felt that it embodied my creative style and somehow painting our living room black really did that having a space that feels like your personality somehow makes all the difference. We've been slowly renovating our house over the last few years and it's been a fun and rewarding creative outlet.
Buuuuut, if you're looking for other examples, another moment would be getting to go to Rome this last January and being surrounded by TRUE masterpieces in both fine arts and architecture. It was an experience I'll never forget and something I've wanted to do since I was little.
Why did you start your business?
Haha OK so this happened in a very odd way for me.
I had been running my business on the side VERY casually prior to 2020. Essentially, I'd just take on 2-3 clients a year when I wasn't feeling fulfilled with my day job as a print and packaging designer for a teen clothing brand.
Then, in April of 2020, like many people, I was furloughed and had some physical health problems come up at the same time. I spent about 4 months just trying to get better and then my job told me they were officially letting everyone go. I was prepping to apply for new jobs but feeling really worried about it because of my health situation, and my husband randomly said "why don't you just start a business". I had never really considered that as a possibility for me to do as a full-time job. It felt very unstable and unstructured, but that happened to be what I needed in that season of my life.
So I made the decision and dove in! It was certainly a bumpy journey at first but it fit my personal needs at the time.
I feel so blessed to be able to work from home and be my own boss. It still will occasionally strike me as this odd and incredible thing that I've been doing this for going on 3 years now. I truly didn't think it was possible, but by God's grace, it feel into place when I needed it most.
If you want other women in biz to know one thing, what would it be?
I'd say to not be so hard on yourself.
I know when I started, I spent a lot of emotional energy worrying and feeling like I needed to catch up to other business owners. I felt like I just needed to work harder and learn more constantly which led me to feel really burnt out.
It wasn't until I embraced the fact that growing a business was going to take time, that I was able to relax a bit and truly enjoy all the benefits that come with running a business like time flexibility.
I think a lot of us get caught up in wanting to scale our businesses or having these vanity metrics like tons of followers or high-ticket clients (all great things!) that we can lose sight of what we DO have already in the present moment like the ability to choose your schedule, take days off, work with clients that excite you, etc.
What results stick out to you the most about Pinterest’s take on “Whitney Aesthetic?”
Such a good question haha.
I feel like my aesthetic is somewhere in between Dark & Moody and Parisian so I'd say the gold-framed mirrors, black walls, lit candles, and lotssss of coffee pics.
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Find Whitney’s website at the button below or find her on Insta @thewildhivestudio
