Unconventional Bliss: Redefining Creativity with Isabel Bagsik - EP 029

 

In this episode, we sit down with Isabel Bagsik, a soulful brand designer and creative wellness guide passionate about helping heart-led visionaries and revolutionary leaders express their authentic selves. She shares how she blends design expertise with wellness practices and creative rituals to craft brands that genuinely connect and stand out.

Isabel shares how tapping into your inner child and embracing play can unlock creativity while building a "rest toolkit" helps nurture your well-being. She dives into the power of creative storytelling — sharing wisdom through stories to inspire and connect with your audience on a deeper level. Discover why refining your brand to align with your authentic self is key to attracting your ideal clients and rising above the noise.

Isabel also shares her personal growth journey and how she integrates wellness into her creative process, offering fresh inspiration  for anyone looking to create a standout brand rooted in alignment and intention.

This episode is packed with actionable tips and soulful insights that will leave you inspired to infuse more authenticity and creativity into your brand.

Tune in now and discover how to create a brand as unique and magnetic as you are!

 

Takeaways

• Embrace play and connect with your inner child to nurture creativity.
• Build a rest toolkit and explore different levels of rest to support your well-being.
• Tap into your creative voice and express yourself authentically.
• Value wisdom and lived experience alongside formal education and certifications. Refining your brand to align with who you are and stand out from the crowd is essential.
• Quiet external noise and listen to your own intentions and intuition.
• Embrace your uniqueness and let it inform your branding to make it more powerful and magnetic.
• Integrate wellness and creativity into your work for a more holistic approach.
• Tap into nature and the seasons to inform your growth process and energy levels.

 

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction to Isabel Bagsik and her work

02:10 - Isabel's journey to unconventional bliss

06:09 - Nurturing creativity through play and wellness practices

11:13 - Building a rest toolkit for well-being and creativity

17:44 - Tapping into your creative voice and expressing authenticity

19:40 - The power of creative storytelling medicine and passing down wisdom

28:27 - Refining Your Brand: Aligning with Your Authentic Self

34:38 - Embracing Uniqueness: Standing Out in a Sea of Templates

39:06 - Integrating Wellness and Creativity into Your Work

44:40 - Tapping into Nature and the Seasons for Growth

48:45 - Quiet the Noise: Listening to Your Intuition

 

Connect with Isabel on Instagram @unconvetionalbliss and through her website https://isabelbagsik.com.

 

If you’re ready to have a deeper conversation about how to maximize impact, profit and pleasure in your business and life, you can schedule a time to connect with me right here >>>

Did this message resonate with you? If you are enjoying the show, it would mean so much to me if you would take a few minutes to leave a review. Reviews like yours help podcasters like me get my podcast into the ears of more people. Thank you in advance for taking a minute to share your kind words. Rate this podcast on your favorite platform. 💜

 

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Episode Transcript

 

Rachel (00:08.533)

Hello and welcome to Pleasure and Profits. I'm your host, Rachel Anzalone. And today I have a brilliant and soulful guest for you. Her name is Isabel Bagsik and Isabel is a soulful brand designer and creative wellness guide. She helps heart led visionaries and revolutionary leaders like you create authentic and attention-grabbing brand assets, launch your innovative projects, and get paid for culture-shifting creative gifts, all while honoring your well-being in the process with creative rituals, practices, and original personalized design strategy. She spent 10 years designing for high-profile clients, brands like Google and Target, organizations like Claire, Lead Filipino, and the University of California Davis. And the change makers like Stephen Curry and Michelle Obama. 

And during this time, she also developed her wellness practices, leading her to discover an effortless and pleasurable brand process. She's here to alchemize your visions into the digital realm with website and social media graphic designs that take your business and creative to the next level of impact, income, and success. 

So you could tell we are very much on the same page. There's so much synchronicity between Isabel's bio and her experiences and what she contributes and my own personal beliefs and the purpose of this podcast around impact, profit, and pleasure. So I think we're going to have a really juicy conversation today. So welcome to the show, Isabel.

 

Isabel (01:53.751)

Thank you, Rachel, for having me. I'm so excited to chat, see what overlaps we have, and let this conversation go where it needs to go.

 

Rachel (02:01.515)

Yeah, absolutely. So let's start, if you would, by telling us a little bit about your journey and what led you to create Unconventional Bliss.

 

Isabel (02:10.541)

Yes, so there is a lot of milestones that I can pick and choose from, but I can start off with saying that a creative career was really not something that I was thinking about when it came down to applying for colleges. And it's interesting because when I was young, I was super creative, getting my hands on any crafts. A lot of those supplies and materials are still with me today.

And so it's interesting that when we get older, a lot of the times we're socialized into putting that aside and thinking of “a more stable, safe career.” But really like, what does that mean? And so fortunately, I was able to go through that journey, stick with the conviction and my intuition of creativity as my career and trusting that even though it was scary and I didn't know what that looked like and with everyone else, my elders, my parents, deciding me to do something else, but I stuck with it and I'm so glad that that was so clear for me even if the exact steps or vision wasn't clear that has led me to where I am today. 

So I've studied design and digital media. I've had the background and experience in the industry across various fields. So in magazine publishing, in cosmetics, in healthcare, and in the traditional marketing agencies and digital studios, and now have been building my own business to take what I've learned in the design industry and fusing it with my passions to support revolutionary leaders making social impact and creatives and visionaries and bringing that together with wellness practices and creative rituals. 

So I'm here as a soulful brand designer for leaders and as a creative mentor and consultant for those who are ready to step into their creativity as well.

 

Rachel (04:28.337)

I love that so much. And I can relate. I started my college career in art school my first year and pretty quickly was like, what am going to do with this? I have to pay bills. Am I going to wait tables for the rest of my life because I decided to become an artist? You know, I sort of had all those questions and pretty quickly decided I had to like figure out something else that was more practical. And I put a lot of that stuff on the shelf.

And now later in life, like, I mean, so much of what I get to do is infused with that creative stuff, right? And a lot of what I learned there was really useful, but I find now, you know, in being in my 40s that I'm like, I want to do those things. I want to play with the paints again. I want to have my hands in the clay. I want to, because there's just so much joy that comes from that. 

And even if you're not using it as a business, it's a tool. It doesn't have to be the thing that pays your bills, but it's an experience that creates a creative flow within us that contributes to everything we do, right? Whether it's for your business, to support your copywriting or to just be tuned in more with your clients or whatever it is. So I love that you help people come back to that or expand that for themselves. I think that's really valuable.

And I'm curious if you, what are some of the things that you've seen with the people that you work with who are looking for that, like opportunity to expand their creative expression? What are some of the common themes or experiences that you see those people having?

 

Isabel (06:09.045)

Yeah, and I want to expand to what you just shared and let folks know that when I mean creativity, I don't just mean in the fine arts sense. But like what you mentioned that it is innovative thinking, it's thinking of new ways to approach things. It can inform and influence how we approach business, how we approach our relationships, client relationships, personal, how we go about our days and really think of different ways that are inspired and outside of the box and not necessarily just the fine arts conventional way of thinking of creativity. So just opening that up to what that means. And in terms of the themes that I've noticed with the clients that I've worked with and the communities that I've supported, a lot have stemmed from fear of being seen and sharing their craft and what is truly on their heart.

Another thing that I've noticed is the overwhelm of too many ideas and not knowing where to start. And with that paradox of because they have too many ideas, they don't do anything. And then another thing that comes up as well is the burnout. So being so tied to the hustle and grind, that hustle culture, I myself have been so tied to, tied my identity to as valuable as, “Oh I'm doing so many cool things,” yet at the expense of my wellness, my well-being, my rest, and not realizing that. And unfortunately, in this toxic capitalist society, in the Western society, that our value has often been pinned to our levels of productivity. We're taught to be guilty, to rest and take a break.

It’s a hobby or it's extra and not as important when you pursue creative hobbies or passions. And so a lot of this is, are things that I've noticed come up time and time again within myself, within clients and people that I've supported. And so how do we get back to untangling from all of this external narrative that no longer supports us, has never supported us? And rewrite a new way of being or rather also rewrite and also return to kind of original ways of approaching expression. 

I mean, if we go all the way back to early humans, then we see cave drawings, we see oral storytelling, we see crafts of pottery and stone or jewelry shells. Like we see all of these things of expression and joy and life being shared and over time we've kind of forgotten that and put that aside for industrialization or productivity that doesn't help human people. People. So yeah, those are some things that come up time and time again that I've noticed.

 

Rachel (09:23.529)

Yeah, one of the things I was reading through your website, and I read this sentence or couple sentences, and it just like landed so solidly because it's so aligned with my own perspective, which is, I'll just read what you had on there. “It's disconnection from the body and spirit has led to too many visionaries burning out before their gifts have been fully realized.”

And Isabel, you are here to guide them to discover a new liberated way of existing and creating. Discover that a new liberated way of creating and existing is possible. And what I hear you saying is that, and this actually resonates with some of my, teachings that I've learned along the way, one of my biggest teachers who was an early guest on the podcast for Rochelle Schieck is that mostly it's about remembering, right? It's not about necessarily discovering something new. It's about remembering what we came into this world with and remembering like what our heritage and our lineage brings and returning to some of that, that we've gotten sort of distracted and pulled away by things like capitalism and productivity and, you know, a lot of the technology and some sort of the sophisticated stuff in this society that we've created and what we really just need to get back to is like putting our feet in the dirt and you know drawing pictures on rocks or you know whatever it is and so what are some of the tools that you use with people to help them come back to that and to find that creativity themselves?

 

Isabel (11:13.301)

Yeah, yes. I love that reminder that it is remembering that we are inherently creative. I mean, if we look to children or our childhoods, they are just creative and messy and experimental and don't have these external pressures and narratives that they think that they have to adhere to. And so some of the practices that I do invite clients and folks into are returning to their inner child and having that sense of play. And so there are some practices that we do to remember that. 

Some of them include some meditations to connect with the emotions that you've experienced in your childhood. There are others where it's more hands-on, where we do a art therapist, art therapy technique that has been shared by Dr. Lucia Capacchione that I came across and have seen as hugely transformative immediately whenever I bring this into workshops and in-person retreat, client sessions where you're using your non-dominant hand to access intuitively to your inner child, this other part of your brain that's nonlinear and not logical. 

And it's so fascinating to see what comes up through that, through illustration or a writing prompt. Other things that I've guided folks through to nurture their creativity is to reflect on the rest, to build a rest toolkit for themselves and explore the different tiers of capacity that they have. I kind of think of it as like, tier one is the thing that is the most accessible and useful thing that you can do immediately, no matter where you're at and with no tools. 

One of those things I share as an example is your breath, connecting with your breath. And I've done this and practiced this when I've been on a really crowded public transportation and I was feeling short of breath and I might have passed out. I don't remember what it was, but I tapped into my breath and that helped me keep going. And I didn't have anyone around me to help me.

And so that's what I think of tier one as something immediate, easy, accessible. Tier two, maybe one tool, something that's a little more involved of a wellness rest ritual or practice. And tier three is the most ritualized involved. You have all of your supplies or materials to help you. Maybe it is a bubble bath or it's something where you go on a hike and you have that full day for yourselves and exploring that rest isn't just still, it can be active and it can be tending to the different parts of yourself like spiritual rest, emotional, physical, all these other parts of yourselves and when we zoom in, it really is what is present in your body, in your internal world, with your emotions, what do you need right in this moment? And that will inform and guide you to what rest practices will support you. 

So those are some things that I invite folks into in terms of the creative mentorship spaces that I hold.

 

Rachel (14:47.199)

That's beautiful. First, I think the writing with the left hand, I think is brilliant. I've seen that tool and I have a really, a friend from many years ago who one time I was just like feeling really frustrated and stuck and she was like, here's what you need to do. You need to do everything opposite of what you normally do. Like sleep with your head at the foot of the bed, you know, drink with your left hand, walk backwards down your hall, you know, like do everything backwards, because it will get you out of just being in the habitual things that you do all the time, it'll get your brain operating in a different way that you will see possibilities that you didn't even know were there. You know, things will occur to you, you'll just shift your energy to a whole new world of what's possible. When you get out of the rut of the habitual you know, routine stuff that you're constantly doing.  So I love that. I think that's really fun. 

And the other thing that comes to mind, what you're talking about, when you're talking about rest and that A, it could be active. Love that. It doesn't mean like laying horizontal or it could, but it doesn't have to, right? And that we, I think often in our culture, when we think of rest, what we're actually thinking of or what we're doing is tuning out, zoning out or numbing instead of actually resting in a way that's going to nourish us. Resting in a way that's nourishing us could be, you know, walking around in our garden or it could be, like you said, taking a bubble bath. It might not be staring at Netflix for hours. Now, sometimes we might be just at that point where we're like, I just need to zone out for an hour or whatever it happens.

 

Isabel (16:37.131)

Mm-hmm, for sure.

 

Rachel (16:39.209)

But that's not actually filling our tanks up and it's not stimulating creativity, right? Where the rest, kind of rest I hear you talking about is rest that's nourishing and stimulating to our creativity.

 

Isabel (16:55.287)

Mm-hmm. Yeah, I mean, I love a good Netflix binge where I just am a potato on the couch, but to do it too often is no longer rest anymore. So, yeah, just like tuning in, being present and seeing what is nourishing for you in the moment and being careful to, you know, not let one end of the spectrum of a certain kind of rest keep you in that loop. And it's no longer us anymore. So, yeah. Thank you for naming that.

 

Rachel (17:25.077)

Yeah, I love that. All right, we have talked about rest and creativity. I would love to know what you mean by creative storytelling medicine. What does that mean to you and what does that mean in the context of how you work with your clients?

 

Isabel (17:44.927)

Yes. So kind of similar to what I mentioned earlier, I think about ancient pre-colonial indigenous practices of passing down wisdom. So oral storytelling, they are passing down their knowledge about agriculture or rituals or ways of being in their life. And I think that's so beautiful to remember that that has been a practice for a long time and that often is not remembered or revered in the way that it used to. And so that's what I think about as an early form of that oral storytelling medicine. And something else that comes up as well is this sense of passing down knowledge that is often maybe forbidden, but necessary for survival or for protection. If I think about how, let's say mothers may pass down certain knowledge to protect their daughters, whether it's about the harms of certain marriages that were not chosen for them or that they didn't get to choose. 

And so thinking also about how instead of being written out and being seen, that certain important ways of protection can be shared secretly through the voice. And in terms of the work that I do and support, I see the value of being able to practice using your creative voice, whether written or oral, because again, like what I've shared, some of those blocks is being scared or the fear of being seen or heard of what is on your heart to fully express yourself because of the fear of what are other people gonna think? What are they gonna say? Am I wrong? All of these thoughts and worries that come up encouraging them to practice that and connect with that side of themselves. 

And also it's not just for them, but medicine for the people that they are here to support and share with because it is an interactive creative experience if we think about books that we truly love and the emotional response that we receive when we really love that piece of literature or a movie that has moved us to tears or even belly laughter. How powerful is it that a piece of media can instill and evoke emotion in someone else?

Like that's kind of magical to think about how one idea from someone's mind that didn't exist in the tangible world comes out into something that can be experienced and create some kind of reaction across the world. 

So that's powerful if we think about how powerful our own creative voices can be to talk about what we are here to talk and share, if it's certain knowledge, if it's to create a movement, if it's for the healing of collective liberation. There's so many things that we can do with our voices to help serve for the greater good for social impact.

 

Rachel (21:17.267)

Yeah. So what's coming up for me hearing you talk about this is, in particular with women who, as you shared, might be afraid to share their voice. What I immediately think of is that there are, we've lived in this culture for such a period of time where this sort of linear, very masculine, fact-based, you know, science-based knowledge has been put on such a pedestal that that's the most valuable information. And often what I see are women who have a level of wisdom that doesn't show up that way. Like they can't point to a scientific chart to verify something that they know in their soul and in their bones.

And because of the way that our culture operates, that wisdom has been diminished, right? And so there's a sense that it's not valuable or that if I don't have the facts to pack, to back it up, that I can't share it because I'm just going to get, you know, knocked down or called out for something that, you know, as a woman, I know in my soul, I know it in my bones, like I can feel it, I know it to be true. And if I speak with other women, we're all having this shared experience. And yet, it's invalidated because there isn't this sort of like linear factual, you know, tactical data to back it up. 

And so that idea of like the oral storytelling, the carrying on like this conversations in circle, the sharing of wisdom among women, where it doesn't have to be written in a book. It doesn't have to be produced in some way that we can share that wisdom. And there's so much value in that. And if we can get over the fear of it being invalidated because it doesn't have that factual backing to it, so many women could benefit from it by having it available in writing, in media sources, you know, online, in places where they may not get to experience that because they're not getting it from the women who are, you know, immediately around them. Does that resonate with your experience with the clients that you're working with or kind what you see happening around you?

 

Isabel (23:57.526)

Yes, there's so much that's coming up as you're sharing this. And what's coming up is this reminder that, yes, there are places where certifications and degrees are important for certain careers and jobs. And then there's also space for remembering that there's lived experience and wisdom that should also be revered as well and seen as valuable. 

And it's really a level of discernment for people to know, what to discern, which, what is important to look at and to balance that out and see, because there are so many seasoned and wise leaders and creatives that I've come across that have shared or have heard where, “they don't have this degree or they didn't go to this art school or whatnot,” but they have a body of work or they have so much experience or they've proven time and time again with incredible insight about their certain field. And that is something is so much more magnetic and powerful and culture shifting than someone who may have a couple of degrees but are not doing anything with it or not doing anything that is benefiting society or culture and maybe doing something harmful. 

And so there, I love what you were mentioning about how being in circles or being in community, a lot of wisdom can be shared as well. How powerful is that instead of paying thousands in an institution? And that's a whole other conversation of some of the problems there. 

 

Rachel (25:56.917)

Yeah, thousands or hundreds of thousands, right?

 

Isabel (26:18.827)

Yeah, exactly. I mean, I myself have gone to university, have critiques and my own peers have had critiques with higher education institutions. I mean, it wasn't even made for women. It was made for white men. But anyway, that's a whole other conversation. How amazing is it to create your own curriculum in a way by sharing lived experience and wisdom and doing so in a place of generosity by exchanging these resources with other people, whether material or knowledge based. Yeah, I don't know if you had a question there, but that was what was coming up.

 

Rachel (26:38.889)

I don't. This is what happens on here. We talk in circles and have lots of tangents. 

One of the things that came to mind as you were speaking is the idea that, and I wonder if you see this in particular in the business, where you're helping people with their branding for their business. And one of the things that I see often, particularly with people who've been around for a little while, most of the women that I work with, and I do work with some men, but it's generally a lot of women, are over 40. They've had careers. They maybe have had their business for a period of time. And they've consumed all this information or they've gathered all this information of tools and tactics in marketing and business and sort of all this stuff. And then it gets to a point where there's just so much of that. It's like, what, what do I do? What do I do with this? You know, like it's too much. 

And, and that's where I feel like that wisdom comes in. Wisdom, like to know yourself and to get really clear on what of these hundred things that you've learned are relevant to you and to what extent and at what point in time. And so I'm curious, because you're coming from this experience, from this perspective, that when you're working with clients on their branding, first of all, are you running into that where you have people who are like, you know, I sort of have all these things and I've learned all these things and I'm trying to implement all these things and you're really helping them refine? And what's your approach to helping them refine that brand in order for it to get so clear and so aligned with who they are that they're not out there trying to do a million things that everybody else is doing?

 

Isabel (28:40.481)

Yes, I love this question. And I have experienced this myself. And I've seen this within clients too, where there's so many tools and templates and tutorials and webinars and free resources to just download. And it can be overwhelming. And then you get lost in the sauce. You get lost in “What am I supposed to do? How am I supposed to appear?” Copying, Canva templates or Pinterest boards that may not exactly fit what you are here to do or accurately represent who you truly are and what you're here to share. 

And that's something that I see as something about, you know, getting overwhelmed with that external noise once again. How can we quiet that down? How can we put a pin in it, put a pause on consuming and return to listening to within to remember what are your intentions for building this business, for starting this project, for creating these products and having that be the North Star as a starting point. 

And something that I guide folks through when we get on on soulful brand design sessions is starting off a meditation to just connect with the essence of your brand and visualize all of these different parts of what does your brand feel like, look like, smell like. Who do you envision coming into the room with you as your ideal clients or community and painting a really vivid picture and connecting with the feelings too are really powerful ways to guide you through the brand process, through your body, because the body has so much wisdom and it's without effort because you're just listening and it's already in you. It's just a matter of remembering and getting clear and quieting the noise that's happening all around you — that you yourself, you're unique in this world. No one has your particular experience, your culture, your memories, your passions, your quirky habits. And so getting clear on you will make your brand stand out. There will only be one of one. You will be the one that stands out in your field because you become so much more clear in the sea of all these Canva templates. And not to put down Canva because I think it's an incredible tool to democratize design. And it doesn't matter what tools you use, it really is how you use it and how you can utilize that to create a powerful brand. 

And so that's something that we get into and also loving the strategy side of things and letting the intuitive practices and creative rituals that we do together and letting that inform and inspire what strategies and brand design elements fit you best and support your goals.

And so those are some of the things that I guide folks through and something that I did experience with one client to help design their logo when we got to that point was they had gone through working with multiple designers for their branding, but nothing really clicked for them. And we were going through these questions to get clear on what were those blocks. And what were those challenges and what is it that they really want to be represented as? And so we did the meditation practice, we did the non-dominant hand reflection practice, and that provided so much clarity for me. And this was all done within 60 minutes. 

So much clarity for me to get a huge vision and feeling into what they're here to serve because those who don't have a design background naturally and typically aren't able to articulate what they want or how they want to. 

 

Rachel (33:05.865)

Yeah, they can see what they don't like, but it's hard to articulate what they do want, right?

 

Isabel (33:29.461)

Yes. Exactly. Exactly. And so that's what I'm here to do to be that translator, that mediator in a way of your essence and bring it out into the digital world. And so after those practices and questioning, I had this and going through some Pinterest images to just like get direction of going, let's keep going this way or that's not the right direction. And I had this intuitive vision of what their symbol would be. And when I shared that and mentioned it, they immediately lit up. And we're like, “Yes, that's it. That's exactly what my branding is, what my mission is” and would totally translate to their ideal clients who are executive women leaders, all these things. And I didn't even share a sketch. I just shared what it was, where it's coming from, how that would translate and symbolize their work. 

And so it's such a powerful way of connecting with what you're here to do and can be done so quickly, effortlessly, and so fun because it's connecting with your intuition. And we don't have to go through a long multi-page strategy or all of these practices that people are telling you to do in terms of branding and strategy, it can be done through listening to the wisdom of you.

 

Rachel (34:38.891)

Well, what's interesting, what you just said is that a lot of those exercises, those questionnaires and that kind of stuff is all coming from the head, right? And so when you go to answer those questions, it's all, what do I think that is? What do I think the answer is, right? It's not truly embodied. And so what we think or what we know with our mind can only come from information that we've gathered, that we've seen, right? It's all a mental exercise instead of allowing that creative flow to come in to let it be something new, let it be something that nobody else is doing or nobody else has seen or experienced or something that's really uniquely you. 

And the other thing that comes to mind when you're talking about this, you you talk about, you said something about a client who had been to multiple sort of branding experts and just hadn't like gotten to the right place. I see this a lot for myself when I'm working on business growth and marketing strategy with people is that they need to be ready. And sometimes it takes like layers and layers and layers to get to the place where they know themselves well enough to know that “Yes, now I know this is for me. Now I know that that's the right choice.” Like to develop that discernment.

You know, if we think about it in terms of other life experiences, you know, you've got to go on some bad dates before you figure out the right. And it doesn't mean that those were all, you know, bad guys or bad girls, right? It just means they weren't the right one for you. And but you have to go and like have that experience to get to like, I do know what I want. I do know what's important to me. And I think that's true of anything, whether it's, you know, jobs you're applying for or you know, even clothes, you buy clothes, you're like, “I thought I liked that. It looks good on the hanger. It doesn't look good on me,” you know. But we have to develop that discernment. 

And it sounds like your process really helps people develop that discernment by tapping into their intuition and their inner wisdom and their creativity and really getting out of the mind, getting out of the head of trying to answer based on what they've seen other people doing.

 

Isabel (37:02.251)

Yes, exactly. There is so much that I've seen where people will impose a certain design or style thinking like, this will help you X, Y, and Z, but not really. Yeah.

 

Rachel (37:15.989)

Like attract the right client. “If you want high end clients, you need to do it like this, right?” Like that kind of, yeah.

 

Isabel (37:20.821)

Right. Yes, there's a lot of this is how you should do X and there isn't a really collaborative co-creative experience that at least I haven't seen as much and I'm starting to as I'm getting more and more into this work and but it's not as popular and what's important for me when I work with folks is reminding them that they have agency, have sovereignty to be a big part of this branding process that there is so much, even though I am here as the experienced brand designer, I'm merely here to excavate that from you to help me alchemize that into a visual asset, into a logo, into your brand colors, your website, social graphics, whatnot. I'm more of a translator in the visual world.

But you're here to help share what it is within you and you get to inform that and more powerfully so when it's deeply grounded from a clear channel through your intuition and through your brand essence and not so much of getting weighed down from again, that external noise from the what should be done, this is how you should look like, this is how you should attract people. This is safe, this is X, Y, and Z, all these things. And remembering that the more clear you are with who you are and embracing all of those aspects of you, the more powerful and magnetic your branding, your business, your messaging will be.

 

Rachel (39:06.731)

Hmm. I think what is really important in terms of maybe something people need to hear and in order to understand why this is so important is that I think a lot of my audience and I think probably a lot of your customers really are visionaries, right? And if you're a visionary, what that means is that you have the ability to see what hasn't yet come. What hasn't yet come to be, what hasn't yet come into physical form. And if you're looking at what everyone else is doing and trying to replicate that, then you're taking your visionary gifts and putting them in a box. And it's going to be hard to recognize them, to find them in that box, because they look like everybody else's, right?

 

Isabel (39:51.317)

Exactly.

 

Isabel (39:55.447)

Yes. Yes.

 

Rachel (40:04.211)

And so in order to really step fully into those gifts as a visionary, you need to create something that hasn't been seen before, that's unique to you.

 

Isabel (40:11.387)

Mm-hmm. No, I love that. I think that succinctly is exactly what I'm here to support folks with. That you are not here to just be all beige and wear the same outfits in the photo shoots, which, you know, has its place and you can do something really different and interesting with these elements. But because you're here to do something different and radical and revolutionary, let your branding, let that represent that more accurately.

 

And it's not going to be something you can find really online or at least not popularly because you're here to do something different. And if you're here to copy others, then other people can't recognize that you're a leader to start a new movement or to share incredible new insight. So I love that image that you shared.

 

Rachel (41:08.959)

Yeah, I think that's really important for the people that you and I are both talking to, for sure.

 

Isabel (41:14.161)

Mm-hmm. Yes.

 

Rachel (41:16.757)

So you shared with me that before we started recording, you said since we last spoke, which is a few months ago, that you feel like you're a whole new person, that so much has happened. I'm curious if you would share a little bit about what's evolving for you and what you're excited about for the future.

 

Isabel (41:37.527)

Yes, so I think a lot of the things that I've shared, I'm deepening into myself and I think that's important as a as spaceholder is to practice what I preach, to walk the walk. And so deepening into my own creative rituals and sharing my voice and writing even more and bringing my spiritual practices, creative rituals to the forefront and not hiding that. 

The more that I've been experimenting and playing and releasing all of these things that I've learned about business and entrepreneurship, the more that I'm noticing people actually engaging even more responding and interacting with what I'm creating and sharing and people sending me messages and texts of how what I've shared resonates or thank you for sharing this and all these things happening in such a quick short time. 

And it's really because of what we've been talking about, of embracing what is unique to me, bringing that to the public and boldly and courageously sharing that and letting them into my creative practice, my process, the rituals I'm doing, and it's creating more intrigue into the work. And I've been sharing more and more about my unique brand design process that it is calling in the sole clients that I'm so excited to support and amplify their work. And it was just a matter of allowing myself to be seen in this way and to let people know that, “Hey I'm doing something different,” that I wasn't seeing the design industry, that I'm not seeing in the entrepreneur, spiritual spaces. And I'm kind of bridging that gap that I would have liked to see and I'm starting to see it more and more, a few more people who are in that realm too of bridging the intuition, the strategy together in really beautiful ways. And so I'm crafting and paving that way for myself through my lens and my lived experience and passions.

And so that's a lot of what's coming up of practicing my craft and sharing it even more boldly, more repeatedly and letting myself be seen, especially during this Leo season. Like, allow myself to be seen and have fun with it.

 

Rachel (44:10.996)

What are the things that, speaking of Leo season, what are the things, the seasons, the influences, like what are the, what do you connect with that sort of influence what you're focused on from season to season or from month to month or when you're looking at your own growth process, what are the things that you sort of tap into to inform where you're going next?

 

Isabel (44:40.877)

Yeah, so there's a variety of things that come up. One that comes up is certain cycles to help support my energy levels and how I show up with my work. So thinking about the lunar cycle and my mental cycle as well and thinking about my energy at certain phases of those cycles and not pushing myself at a certain time where before when I was younger, not realizing that, you know, it's okay to slow down when I'm having cramps or like I'm not meant to be doing rigorous exercise at a certain phase of my cycle, which would have been difficult, which was difficult in school when we had physical education. 

 

Rachel (45:28.181)

Yeah, yeah, it's not it's not built around women's cycles. That's for sure. Yeah.

 

Isabel (45:36.361)

Oh for sure. And so those moments of again listening to the wisdom of my body and what my body is telling me what it needs, the nourishment it needs, the energy, the exercise, the movement or lack of movement it needs in each phase and then thinking about seasons too I'm getting more aware and clear that again the body with uterus is so closely parallel to nature with the seasons that were not meant to operate on males hormones, which is 24/7, which is symbolically represented by the sun like every day, whereas the moon is closely related to the menstrual cycle and that has seasons. So thinking about the winter, summer, fall, spring seasons that the winter I actually do slow down and don't want to be working as much.

And then when spring and summer comes around, I'm so invigorated and excited and creative ideas and socializing is brought to the forefront. And that just becomes easy for me. And so again, just like tapping into what is feeling effortless and clear in my body and not repressing that or ignoring that to just push through because of how work schedules are supposed to be or all of these things.

 

Rachel (47:07.155)

Yeah, yeah, I've been leaning into that more and more myself and it's hard to unlearn, right? All the things that we've done for so long. And so I do better sometimes and not as well other times, but I'm constantly, yeah, it's a practice. I'm constantly reminding myself.

 

Isabel (47:14.12)

Yes.

 

Isabel (47:20.766)

Mm-hmm. It’s a  practice.

 

Rachel (47:34.943)

And what I found is that it requires a level of trust that most of us didn't learn, you know, if I let myself rest, everything will still be okay. You know, things will happen when they're supposed to happen and the timing will work and that we don't have to just be pushing ourselves, you know, on this constant grind. Even when we have goals, even when we have, you know, objective things that we want to create, if we trust the timing, it often works out better than we could have done if we had tried to sort of orchestrate the timing ourselves and pushed through whatever the the the natural sort of desire of our body to rest or you know, I am finding it to be a really beautiful practice. I love that that's something that you do for yourself. And I assume you encourage your clients to do that as well. 

 

Isabel (48:22.783)

Yeah. Yes.

 

Rachel (48:30.195)

Yeah. If you could give one piece of advice, information, wisdom to creative and visionary entrepreneurs in order to help them to integrate wellness and creativity into their work, into their brand, what would you tell them?

 

Isabel (48:45.037)

Yeah, I mean, something that comes to mind that is silly, which the youth like to say is to touch grass, but literally go outside and step away from the computer, from the screens and let nature inspire you and give you answers that you're forcefully trying to seek and let your subconscious do its work in the background for those ideas and solutions to just arrive easily. I mean, if you think about the saying, best ideas come in the shower, that's because you're not connected to your phone. You're not connected to your computer. Yeah, yeah. So that's what I would say to remember that you're in a physical body here on this earth and to connect back with the world, whether it's nature or your loved ones around you and hug them tighter and remember, if you were to zoom out, that we're just a tiny speck in this whole universe. And the little Instagram posts that you're stressed about that, you know, was scheduled but didn't get posted at the right time and had a spelling mistake really does not matter in the grand scheme of the world.

 

Rachel (50:00.558)

It doesn't. I love that. That's perfect. I went to what's it called? I'm forgetting the word. We used to go look at the stars. What are those places called?

Isabel (50:18.221)

Planetarium?

 

Rachel (50:27.745)

A planetarium. I think that's it. For a star party a few months ago. I've been a couple times. They have telescopes set up, so I’m standing there looking through a telescope at a galaxy being born. And all I could think was, my gosh, we are so insignificant. We are so tiny. Like what's happening here, you know, is such a, just to get a tiny little grain of sand in the grandness of the universe. It's incredible.

 

Isabel (50:55.051)

Yes, yes, it really puts things into perspective of what is actually really important that I want to spend my energy on when you think about that, yeah.

 

Rachel (51:03.657)

Yeah, awesome. This has been so wonderful, Isabel. Would you let our listeners know how they can connect with you, where they can find you, and learn more about your work?

 

Isabel (51:14.231)

Yes, thank you again for having me on your show. I loved having this conversation and all the tangents that we went on with you and your people. Once again, everyone, I'm Isabel of Unconventional Bliss, and I'm a soulful brand designer and creative wellness guide for heart-led visionaries, spiritual practitioners, and revolutionary leaders with a solid business ready for branding, or maybe been in the game and ready for a brand refresh.

And I'd love to continue having this conversation with those who are listening. So if you're ready to chart, to change your brand in the next three months, you'd be able to book a free clarity call into the show notes and you can walk away with clarity on what areas of your branding, whether it's your website or socials or other things where things are preventing you from reaching your sole clients, what action steps to take. 

And if you're ready for an experienced designer to get this all done for you and off your plate, ways we can work together. So I have those options for you. Or if you just want to learn how to refresh your brand, maybe in the next 12 months, you can follow along on Instagram @unconventionalbliss for free guidance and ways to connect with community, learn more about my frameworks and how creative rituals can guide my design process and yours. And we can stay connected over there. 

So once again, thank you so much for having me on your show and just dive into all of these things with you.

 

Rachel (52:37.931)

Thank you so much, Isabel, and thank you all for being here and listening. Until next time, I'm wishing you even more pleasure and profits. I'll see you soon.