We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jess Rauls a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jess, sincerely appreciate your selflessness in agreeing to discuss your mental health journey and how you overcame and persisted despite the challenges. Please share with our readers how you overcame. For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.
Building and deeply understanding a toolkit for whatever I need as challenges are presented is most helpful. If you want to see your weaknesses, start a business. It’s like truth serum for all that requires growth within yourself. As a result, mental health can reach peaks and valleys and it’s important to devote time to understanding and processing your own emotions. Your own growth. When you know what impacts you and have the tried and true resources to re-centering yourself; the weight feels lighter when something surfaces. Be it yoga, meditation, a go-to quick meal prep, noticing how I am impacted by shifting sleep patterns; it all seems to offer insight as well as fuel when I don’t feel I am my best self.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I own and operate a fine art floristry studio in the heart of Charlotte, NC. This began as a floral design studio out of my home focused solely on weddings, private event services and off-site workshops.
After opening a retail space in 2023, we have grown and shifted into arrangements, bouquets, boutique gifts and private workshops while retaining our private event services. Our style varies based on the client but when it’s most creative we gravitate toward a dutch master style; incorporating produce, beautiful trinkets and vessels. I love the layers and curiosity it offers.
Most recently, we have branched into fine art pieces. We create incredibly unique floral arrangements, photograph them and then sell them as fine art photography. It’s a newer space for me to explore and feels incredibly exciting, rewarding and affords me the opportunity to appreciate floral design for the artistry and emotional expression it truly is.
What I love most about our offerings as a business is that they are all driven from the same space – connection and curiosity. Our drive is to connect our audience with themselves, one another and nature. To be curious about life. To feel emotionally full and loved so that they may have room to share the overflow and expand what they once felt were spaces of limitation.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I deeply feel the most important and impactful area you can develop as you journey through entrepreneurship is the relationship you have with yourself. Hard skills can always be taught but are you willing to seek the knowledge at all? Opportunities are offered. Are you courageous enough to look for them, or accept them, rather, when they arrive?
I most often find it comes back to our heart, mind, perception of our world and the skillset that lies within us. If you want to know your faults and fears, open a business. They will all be triggered and displayed before you. From there it is your willingness to remain consistent, curious and connected to yourself should you want to grow. The awareness is key.
To improve any of this, welcome a behavior I heard once long ago. It stays relevant in my mind when times feel most arduous. “Slow down to speed up.” Most feelings and situations are temporary so slowing our minds enough to be thoughtful about our next steps usually generates the most aligned impact. It allows us to be the person we would want to be if we could choose. It allows us to be the person we ARE choosing.
All the wisdom you’ve shared today is sincerely appreciated. Before we go, can you tell us about the main challenge you are currently facing?
My company is growing at a rapid pace. What I am learning about this is that the mental vehicle that has gotten me to this moment may no be what will take me to the next phase. Tis time for change and ironically, that change is not within myself but the way I see the woman I am and embrace her.
The temporary setbacks I am learning from all seem to revolve around forgetting tiny details and keeping track of the wide variety of tasks at hand. I find myself planning long-term and daydreaming about projects I would love to create while also tending to the day-to-day. This tends to leave my mind in a state of mental ping-pong.
Because it can feel like a lot to manage I am taking the time to pay attention to my patterns and better understand them. Recognizing historical patterns is becoming an asset simply because leaning in prevents lag time through moments of frustration or reactive repairs to slip-ups.
I recently started using the Productivity Planner from Papier and love it. The planner serves as a guided journal at the start which has been wildly insightful and helpful. It offers prompts to help you understand the ways you naturally operate; evoking a jumping point for this discovery of self.
As I embrace the curiosity I find there are behaviors I would like to change and others I simply wish to accept. Offering a balance of grace, understanding and adjustment as I go. Slow to down to speed up, right? Calculated steps now feel like happy joyful leaps forward as opposed to speed walking without noticing my surroundings.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.gatherflowerstudio.com
- Instagram: @gatherflowerstudio
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/gatherflowerstudio
Image Credits
David Powell
Kori Hoffman
Mackenzie Leigh
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
