Brooke LeBeau on Life, Lessons & Legacy

We recently had the chance to connect with Brooke LeBeau and have shared our conversation below.

Good morning Brooke, we’re so happy to have you here with us and we’d love to explore your story and how you think about life and legacy and so much more. So let’s start with a question we often ask: Are you walking a path—or wandering?
I wonder sometimes about the difference between walking a path or wandering. If we hit a detour and don’t know where to go, we start to wander. If we wander and see a path that interests us, we walk down it. As human beings, I think we have a hard time moving without purpose which makes me ask: what’s the difference between wandering and simply taking a detour?

For me, the difference is intention. A detour suggests a direction, even if the journey doesn’t go as planned. Whether or not the detour is intentional, I’ve come to believe we’re always moving where we’re meant to be.

I’ve noticed that walking a path carved by someone else often feels easier, especially when trying something new. When wandering down my own path, it feels a lot harder. The road is full of forks with no obvious “right” answer. That’s why I live by the idea: “Make a decision, and then make it right”. It’s my reminder to not dwell on the past, because I’ve learned that indecision can be more paralyzing than choosing “wrong”.

So I wouldn’t say I’m simply walking or wandering. I’m moving forward with intention, open to detours, flexible in direction, but grounded in the belief that I can shape wherever I land into the right place.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Artfully Creative Studio is a full-service creative marketing agency that specializes in a total-coverage branding approach. Founded and led by Brooke LeBeau, we provide clients with everything they need for a complete, cohesive marketing plan. To date, the Artfully team has proudly partnered with more than 30 clients, helping them bring their brands to life with creativity, clarity, and authenticity.

In an effort to support other creatives and marketing professionals, we’re building Live Artfully–a space for curious thinkers, quiet rebels, and independent goal-setters. To us, living artfully isn’t about being a visual creator. It’s about designing a life and career that’s artfully your own. Through localized events and open conversations, Live Artfully will grow into an ecosystem where professionals and entrepreneurs can share experiences, exchange ideas, and help each other design careers creatively and authentically.

Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What did you believe about yourself as a child that you no longer believe?
I once had a conversation with a colleague where we were discussing the different temperaments of our children and I mentioned that I was a shy child. He mentioned that he too was considered shy as a child but preferred to call it “observant”. I’ve thought about that ever since. There’s a trend going around encouraging leadership to not underestimate the ideas of the quietest person in the room. It’s usually the introverts, the shy kids who’ve entered the workforce, and they are almost always the most observant. The thing about observation is that it’s a data-driven and scientific quality. If you’re a person used to assessing every factor in a situation, the solutions you come up with are bound to be more well-rounded. In the same way a data analyst draws conclusions or a scientist conducts research, an observant marketer is naturally assessing a multitude of factors and composing potential results to their hypothesis. I think that this way of thinking takes longer to process so in business, especially a fast-paced meeting setting, we sometimes miss out on valuable insights from the introverts in the room.

If you could say one kind thing to your younger self, what would it be?
My younger self focused too much on how things “should” be. As I’ve grown into myself and my business, I’ve really internalized the idea that every client is different and every business is different. Marketing and branding best practices are guidelines, not rules. In art we say “you have to know the rules before you break them” which boils down to intention. In business, I like to apply this method in branding exercises. Before a brand evolution or new brand launch, I like to work with the client to gain an understanding of the industry they’re situated in at a micro and macro level. From there the assessment and creative decisions are all based in either a diversion or iteration of their specific industry. I’ve noticed that focusing too much on how things “should” be done results in iterative work instead of innovative work.

Sure, so let’s go deeper into your values and how you think. Is the public version of you the real you?
Certainly different people bring out different sides of me but generally speaking, I find it very difficult to try and be someone else. I’d have made a terrible actress. I spent many years not speaking up because I wasn’t sure if my brand of weird would be appreciated or taken seriously. When I started my own business, I had to put myself out there and it was very important to be myself publicly and in a one-on-one setting. I find that when I try to do anything else it’s exhausting and energy is a resource that none of us has to waste.

Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. Have you ever gotten what you wanted, and found it did not satisfy you?
I think that accomplishing the wrong goal can be just as informative as failure. When we achieve something and find that it doesn’t feel how we thought it would, that’s a good indicator we chased the wrong thing. This is still a work in progress for me but I find that understanding how I want to feel is the key to getting what I want and helps me redirect my path to what I actually need.

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