We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jessica Cote a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jessica, we’re thrilled to have you on our platform and we think there is so much folks can learn from you and your story. Something that matters deeply to us is living a life and leading a career filled with purpose and so let’s start by chatting about how you found your purpose.
My purpose, I work on my purpose daily, and it does change with what the day calls for – the basis for all of it is kindness, comfort, and simplicity. You never know what someone else is going through. My good friend said it is the stories we tell ourselves. I try not to put my story on anyone and stay open to what theres might be. Being a Designer and going into peoples homes, helping them to figure out how to live, you get to the essence of people. The goal for me is to make it there’s, make it simple, and give them comfort.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
Creating spaces makes me happy, it is that simple.
My craft of Design came to me by making mistakes and correcting them.
You learn so much more from making a mistake than you would ever learn from doing it right.
At 50 years old there have been a lot of mistakes and corrections.
I am at the top of my game now. I am confident in my abilities and it comes through while working with my clients.
It goes something like this:
There is something about the day, you get up and you go, busy, responsibilities, tasks, movement, life, and then you get home.
That instant response of walking in – what do you feel?
I want my clients to feel happy, proud, relieved, safe, and calm.
If I can achieve that, then bam, I’m doing it right.
It’s not special or exciting, it just is what I do. I love it. I do all types of Design work from working for builders to commercial work, but I always come back to a form of home therapy. I started Sapling, a company for good design at affordable pricing to help create a spaces that give people that home that enchants them. The Tagline is “For Wherever Life Plants You”. We all deserve that safe space to just be.
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?
Listen, Patience, Practice.
You learn this in Kindergarten.
If you can Listen to people, hear what they are saying, not what you want to hear, but really listen, and you are in the service industry, you will be great.
Patience, I practice daily, not good at it at all, but a lot of understanding and getting better at your craft will come from being patient with yourself, patient with others, patient with process.
Practice is the most important out of all of it, practice gives you knowledge, experience and confidence.
Who has been most helpful in helping you overcome challenges or build and develop the essential skills, qualities or knowledge you needed to be successful?
Being a mom has all sorts of gifts and challenges.
My son has made me a better person, I don’t think he knows that, but I will tell him tonight over hibachi.
It has been a long road for us and this path we are on with him has forced me to develop my skills of listening, patience, and practice.
It’s not a choice to work on those things, it just is, I am so fortunate for that.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://saplinghome.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sapling.home
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/saplinghome
Image Credits
Katie Fischer
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
