We were lucky to catch up with Celeste Dial recently and have shared our conversation below.
Celeste, appreciate you making time for us and sharing your wisdom with the community. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others overcame obstacles can be helpful. One of those struggles is keeping creativity alive despite all the stresses, challenges and problems we might be dealing with. How do you keep your creativity alive?
Being a creative is very draining, it takes a lot of mental and emotional energy to put art out into the world that resonates with people. When you are a designer and art director like myself, and you are doing this for many different brands and having to pull from new creative inspirations every day, the toll it takes on you is even more so. I like to recharge by fueling my personal life with art and things I’m passionate about. Things like; art, writing, music, poetry, interior design, print design, reading, DIY home decor projects, fashion. Taking time to focus on things that I am personally passionate about always overflow into my business passions. I keep my creativity alive by resting when I need to and listening to my body when it says “this is a block, nothing is going to happen right now”. I am a firm believer in listening to your body and taking advantage of creative flows while also giving yourself the grace to rest when it just isn’t coming to you, don’t force it.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
My name is Celeste and I am the owner of Sainte Noire® – a creative studio specializing in artistry-driven brands. Sainte Noire® is going on 4 years old, I began the studio after I had my first child. I have always been a creative at heart so building a studio around helping other artist’s making a living and thrive from their crafts is truly something I’m so passionate about. We live in a world that has always told us that you can’t make a living off of being creative, that’s where the phrase “starving artist” comes from. My mission at Sainte Noire® is to flip that on its head – I want my clients, friends, relationships to be Thriving Artist’s in their fields because it is absolutely within reach. We work with all kinds of artist’s from jewelers, to beauty and skincare brands, photographers of any kind (our favorite are commercial or fashion), painters, musicians, etc. I have never been a fan of niching down and restricting yourself and your creativity to just one style of business or one specific person – Artist’s come in many shapes, sizes and industries and we love working with them all. We have recently rebranded ourselves as well as our offers to be tailored towards artists specifically and how we can best serve them, those will be launching in February and we can’t wait to get them out into the world.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
Determination and Persistence: in order to be a business owner you have to be determined that you are going to make it. You are going to have slow and scary seasons where you wonder where the next paycheck is going to come from (especially getting started), but you have to push through that and know that you are in the beginning stages of finding what makes you magic, success is on the other side of not giving up.
Remaining Open: open to new trends, styles, partnerships, systems, process, the list goes on. You cannot be a business owner or a creative and think that what got you here, will get you there. It won’t. You have to be able to adapt, and flow into new ways of doing things, new marketing, new platforms, new ideas, etc. in order to stay relevant. Getting into one way of doing things and refusing to move, will end your business quicker than it started.
Stay True To You: and not the business you, the personal you. It’s so easy to get sucked in by all of the noise that comes from marketing and other businesses you follow, I urge you to tune it out and stay true to what makes you, you. Own it. That is what is going to bring your ideal consumers or clients to you – not how much like that other brand you are.
Do you think it’s better to go all in on our strengths or to try to be more well-rounded by investing effort on improving areas you aren’t as strong in?
I think it’s better to focus your time, money and energy on your strengths. Everyone has a zone of genius, per se; that is what makes you stand out and makes you unique. Spreading yourself too thin by doing things that aren’t necessarily your zone of genius will do nothing, but leave you doing everything at 50%. Zeroing in on the way you do something, why you do it that way, how it benefits the people you do it for, and finding new ways to do that thing will be what sets you apart and makes a situation where someone has no other option but to work with you if they want that experience/result.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://saintenoire.co/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saintenoire/
Image Credits
Photo of Celeste by Kayla Mendez
