Meet Terri Conrad

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Terri Conrad. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Terri, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?

I was born into a family ill-equipped to parent children in kind, loving & constructive manner. There were four children, I am the youngest, my mother and father. Our abuse was profound, ultimately necessitating my estranging myself from this family for my well being and to begin my healing journey.

As a result, I was left with many deep seated and faulty beliefs that were established as a result of this neglect and abuse.

As I entered the world, the work force, and relationships as a young woman, I slowly began to see that all were not like that which I grew up in. The challenges I faced in my young adult life, along with my curiosity led me to ask questions of myself, my childhood experiences, and the debilitating beliefs I held about my worth and my value, that were clearly hurting me and keeping me from living a better, and more fulfilling life.

I sought therapy while in a young and failing marriage. However, in hindsight, wasn’t ready to make the needed commitment to my healing and quit prematurely.

I continued to live life as well as I was able to, now divorced and still in my early twenties, yet was still driven by my faulty beliefs and living from a place of overwhelming lack of confidence, self-worth and value.

I realized I needed to resume therapy and spent some time in trauma focused therapy. This, while certainly healing, was insufficient because I quit too soon and did not allow a focus on dismantling the faulty beliefs I held about myself.

It wasn’t until I entered yet another difficult marriage, and became a mother to two daughters, that I truly began a journey of introspection.

I journaled with consistency, read many wonderful books both spiritual and psychologically based – and began what I refer to as my own deconstruction process. While it may sound simple, it was not by any means. I journaled each belief I held to be true about myself, the source from which it came, and tried to discern whether it was true or faulty. I then took those faulty beliefs, broke them down in a bit of a Socratic manner, realizing how each made me feel. Several years later I found a therapist who really understood my trauma, and how to help me heal. Through inner child healing work, and my own deconstruction process, my deep healing began, and I was able to pull the faulty beliefs as though they were weeds, and plant seeds of truth about my worth and value. These seeds bloomed into more and more confidence with each new day, and each new experience.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

I started my own creative business in 2007 (Terri Conrad Designs) motivated to be able to work from home and be a full time mom to my two very young daughters. I had no artistic training nor college degree, but was determined to help financially support my family, while be home with my children. I learned, and continued to learn what I needed to make this a viable and successful business and it served us well for many years. I licensed my art to gift, home decor, stationery and fabric manufactures, with many of those products sold world wide. As my healing journey progressed, I felt led to guide and support other women and to connect with them in a more personal, yet still creative way. Through this, Bloom True was created. The name is derived from my own healing journey, that is, a sense of coming home to the heart of who I (now) believe I am created to be, with a deeply formed sense of worth, value and confidence, and emotionally grounded woman.

Bloom True is a new on-line creative community where I, as its creative guide, walk alongside women as we embark on a journey of self-expression, personal growth, and heartfelt connection.

I teach women how to create through expressive arts, and mixed media art journaling, in ways that encourage, nurture, and inspire their spirit—all while embracing self-compassion and loving-kindness. We offer uniquely designed downloadable creative papers, art prompts, and creative art journaling kits that support their creative expression, as well as creative tutorials on multiple platforms.

In 2025, Bloom True will be offering on-line e courses in this theme, and others such as: self-awareness, self-worth, mindfulness, true-self, and more as well. Currently, we are offering a complimentary Self-Love on line e-course with a downloadable/printable art journaling kit when they subscribe to our web-site at www.bloom-true.com. We also have complimentary content on our YouTube channel, all designed to encourage, nurture & inspire women as they create, discover & grow artistically and personally.

Bloom True is truly an organic, beautiful evolution of my professional work and personal healing. I feel beyond grateful I can blend the two. In a time when so many woman are wanting to discover and express their voice, to be seen and heard, my hope and desire is that Bloom True will will be a go to reliable source, a soft landing if you will, for them to turn to again and again, as they cultivate their voice, connect with like-minded community and discover how to create in a mindful, intentional way that will support them and their own personal journey,

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?

They’re personal characteristics, perhaps, more than skills: resilience, determination, and a willingness to learn what I need to, to do what I want to.

Developing resilience was a necessity for my survival. My choices were to develop resilience or succumb to my trying circumstances. I believe what helped me most was learning to practice acceptance; self-acceptance, acceptance of my circumstances and that I may have contributed to them, and acceptance of those things I simply cannot change . This meant adopting a mindfulness practice, that involved being in the present moment, taking things one day at a time, being patient, and focusing on what was possible in the moment. It’s much easier to become frustrated, and think, ‘This situation is horrible, and there is nothing I can do,’” But we have choice in our attitude, and with that can choose to view the situation differently, saying something like, ‘This is out of my control, but I can focus on what I can do.’”

Learning to practice acceptance can be hard and holy work. To accept that everyone is human, including myself, that others aren’t always going to be perfect, nor would life always present my ideal to me in my circumstances was essential for me. I am grateful for the support I had with my therapist.

There are many plot twists in life. Developing determination is key in getting you to where you want to go. It comes down to consciously deciding to persist toward a goal and to have a willingness (and determination) to tackle any challenges along the way and not allowing them to derail or discourage you.

Curiosity is innate to who I am – I imagine this was fortified by my wanting to understand the dynamics in my abusive family of origin. I’ve channeled it in a way that benefits me and that is my love for learning. Being willing to learn is a behavior that ultimately can propel you from where to are to where you want to be in your life, personally, professionally, and relationally. I once heard that both the ability and a willingness are needed to heal. This can easily be applied to learning. Ask yourself if you have the ability, then, if you have the willingness to do what is required to learn the needed or desired skill. Now, possibly more than ever, we need to be adaptable to remain relevant and viable, certainly in the work force. We need to accept that we do not know, nor understand all things, and that it is OK to ask for help, to be humble and open minded. Some things are easier to learn than others. For example, I am a heavily right brained creative, intuitive person, and left brained skills are not easy for me to learn, albeit necessary to run my business. When I begin to feel discouraged and/or frustrated in my learning curve, I find it helpful to reflect on why I am learning something new and how this new insight or skill will be to my benefit. This can recharge my desire to learn, bring the benefits of doing so to the forefront of my mind and give me a needed boost of motivation to continue the process. Ultimately, I find that when we learn self-love, self-compassion, and self-acceptance we are better equipped to be kinder with ourselves, and most certainly with others. We simply need to keep in mind it is all a process.

How can folks who want to work with you connect?

Firstly, we welcome anyone into the creative community that connects with what we are doing through Bloom True.

Second, ideation and input are a couple of my core strengths. I have a vision for Bloom True that I want to realize and welcome the opportunity to partner with an investor and partner who is strategic and able to translate that into execution, building upon the foundation I’ve developed with Bloom True. If interested in engaging in conversation I can be reached at:

Terri Conrad
[email protected]
www.bloom-true.com

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Clark Conrad

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