Design Yourself

Yes, magic exists. Inspired by this week's solar eclipse, host Sharon decided to share what she does to bring magic into her life. Learn her tricks for creating magic in her business from manifesting dream clients to the power of sitting with your palms facing up. Plus, there's poetry! This week's episode is a great fit for anyone to shake off logical thinking and get into the creative practice of...

This week Sharon shares one of the most helpful pieces of wisdom she's ever received: "It's more important to be present than prepared." Learn how she has come to understand this adage over the years and how she's added on to it as well. As part of this process, Sharon shares some questions you might consider if you find yourself holding on tightly to a desire to be in control and tips for bringin...

Making a commitment can be daunting. Sometimes we get swept up in all the research we can do, even for some of our everyday decisions. Is this really THE best restaurant we could eat at on vacation? Is this THE movie we want to see? So when it comes to a longterm commitment, the pressure often rises. Is this really THE right job? THE right person? THE THING?! Host Sharon agrees with Sheryl Sandber...

It's a great accomplishment to achieve a critical goal. It can be all the more satisfying when that goal is to run a business you care about successfully. But it's still just one outcome. Today's episode focuses on for the sake of what. For the sake of what are you working hard to hit those goals. For the sake of what are you running your business. Sometimes our work gets us so heads down that we...

Inspiring others to trust and follow you takes more than great ideas or a stellar product or service. It takes executive presence. Executive presence communicates your authentic spirit in way that allows others to connect to you. It inspires and motivates. And it necessarily takes many different shapes and forms. Executive presence must be varied because at its core is the unique spirit of each of...

Remember what it's like to first start out in work? Our guest today doesn't have to remember. She's in it. Artist and educator Julia Lipovsky joins her sister Sharon to talk about what it's like to find your voice and find a job. Hear how Julia paid attention to clues as she moved from a job to pay the bills to a job that inspires her soul. And how she put her art school education to work even whe...

We are half way through 2017, which makes now the ideal time to check in on how things are going and get focused for the second half of the year. In this week's episode, Sharon offers up 9 questions to reflect on how your year is going and shares what's she been noticing about her own New Year's resolution to "let rest." This episode is perfect for anyone who is ready for a quick time out to refle...

It's easy to get caught up in what we are doing, isn't it? This week's episode is designed to help you lift out of the daily grind and celebrate your "champagne moment" successes. Whether finally hitting send on a big proposal, getting great feedback from a colleague or client, or finally seeing that passion project come to life, it's important to carve out time to celebrate. These celebrations ca...

Today we close out Season One of Design Yourself with the celebration of the podcast's 50th episode! Leadership Coach Sue McLeod joins host Sharon to reflect on what she's learned after her first year of podcasting and to model a process for evaluating progress. Whether you are wondering how your own passion project is going or are ready to take stock on a work initiative, this week's show offers...

If you've ever wondered how you can make not just a living, but a life, this week's episode is for you. Nate Shearer is a thoughtful, funny guy who doesn't let work define him. His pursuit of play has led him to race bikes professionally, learn the welding trade, explore skate and surf culture, move out to the country and then return to the city - and the list goes on. He is also one of Washington...

Facing the Monday Blues? Feeling antsy at the idea of taking a vacation for fear of all that work that will pile up while you are way? This week's episode is for you. Drawing from what she has learned from re-entering her work routine after maternity leave, host Sharon explores what you can do before, during and after a "break" to making getting back into work as seamless as possible. Learn about...

Ever wonder who makes our pretty and original cover art each week? It's today's guest, the designer and printer behind the Cincinnati-based studio Cryptogram, Jon Flannery. Jon shares with our Design Yourself community what motivates him in his work as a designer and entrepreneur. You will learn the mix of science and art that integrates in his own creative process and how having creative entrepre...

Changing jobs. Moving. Getting married. Having a baby. If you're preparing for or experiencing a transitional time in your life, this episode is for you. This week's guest is a high school English teacher, bride-to-be, and host Sharon's "birthday twin" sister. She's also one of the most giving and caring people we know. Philly has been a font of ideas for show topics since Design Yourself launched...

Host Sharon isn't afraid to admit she loves a good organizing fest. Ever since she was a little girl, she's been famous (erm, sometimes infamous) for her love of taking everything down off the shelves so that she could pick it back up in a new and improved order. So you won't be surprised that when organizing consultant Marie Kondo's book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up hit stores in 2014, S...

This week's episode is all about the simplest of tools for getting stuff done: The To Do List. This week Sharon geeks out on the best times to tap into this tool, her favorite 4 variations on the To Do List, and 4 tactics to make sure that you leverage this resource to best effect. Here's the basic theory, one size fit all solutions simply don't work. But that doesn't mean you have to begin every...

Sharon is back with her first solo show as a mama of three. She shares what she learned by setting a 40 day boundary for extreme rest post the arrival of her new son. No matter your life circumstances, all of us can benefit from finding ways to carve out rest in a way that works for us and our life circumstances. This episode is great for anyone who is feeling ready to take a break, is wondering a...

Melissa Sanabria is one of those rare people who is both super creative and super organized. She is the designer and blogger behind Pretty Little Rowhouse and she is a consultant with a Big Four accounting firm. She is a natural at dishing out great design solutions and she is just as comfortable directing projects and managing clients engagements. This week we get to hear the story of how she dev...

Aimee Rowe returns to the show this week for the second half of her Camino de Santiago discussion with Sharon. In episode 40 Aimee and Sharon share how they prepared to walk this ancient pilgrimage route through Spain. This week they share what the experience of walking was actually like. Hear Aimee and Sharon's favorite Camino adages, what they loved about the journey, who some of the memorable c...

Aimee Rowe joins us on the show this week for for the first in a two-part series on the Camino de Santiago, an ancient pilgrimage route through Spain. Aimee is a doctor, an adventurer, and a long-time friend of Sharon's. Sharon and Aimee walked this pilgrimage route together nearly 5 years ago and this week they are discussing how they both prepared for this walk, including how they went about mak...

Life is too short not to spend your time doing what you really feel called to do. In today's encore episode Sharon offers up tips and resources for just letting go of the excuses and going for it - whatever it might be for you. Learn 5 simple steps to move from where you are today to where you want to be. Ideas Shared: This week I had fun playing with Adam Kurtz's new book  Pick Me Up: A Pep Talk...

This week we meet the husband wife team behind Forty Third Place, the umbrella under which all of the creative projects and collaborations of Jonaki Sanyal and Blake Sloane live. Woodworking, carpentry, photography and design are among their specialities. (Blake just built beautiful custom desks for Sharon's home office!) Listen to learn the story of how this pair has always prioritized their crea...

Meet Clara Muggli-Toyloy, the mom and entrepreneur behind Fuzzy Logic Wool, a brand new company that produces gorgeous, handmade, sustainable clothing and cloth diapers for infants and toddlers. Clara is just starting out with Fuzzy Logic (her Etsy shop launched in late 2016), but she's not new to the world of working for herself. Early in career, she set up her own landscape design company operat...

"Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants." So says Epictetus. In this encore episode Sharon discusses money, money, money. Learn about the difference between operating from a sufficiency ("there is enough") vs. a scarcity ("there isn't enough") mindset and explore the 5 guiding steps to ensure that money isn't what holds you back from going after what you really wa...

Today we meet adventurer-extraordinaire, Aimee Rowe. Learn about how she wended her way from being a humanities major in undergraduate (religious studies with an environmental studies concentration to be specific!) to completing her medical residency today – nearly 15 years later. Aimee's path is filled with many unusual twists and turns from sailing tall ships on both the Atlantic and Pacific, te...

In today's Design Yourself, we meet Catherine Orr and Elena Rue, the filmmakers and storytellers behind StoryMineMedia. Learn about how they launched a business that defied industry standards, created a unique perspective on how to tell stories that create impact, and pushed themselves to continue growing and learning along the way. This one is for anyone who has a story to tell. (Elena and Cather...