We recently connected with Claire Palmer and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Claire, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
When I was tiny, one of my earliest memories was sitting at my table and painting a picture. I was five or six, so it was certainly not a work of art. But, whenever someone asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would reply, “artist”! I had no concept of what being an artist meant, and I wasn’t aware that minimal talent was behind my young fingers, but that didn’t matter. I was rather headstrong as a child and would often not take no for an answer.
Fast forward to middle school and high school. Adults constantly asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, where I wanted to go to school, and what I wanted to study. I think it’s ridiculous to ask someone who barely has a frontal lobe developed what they want to commit the rest of their life to, but I would usually answer, “I have no idea, but I want to help people.” I very clearly remember having the desire to help anybody that I met but unsure of how to do so. (By this time, the desire to become an artist had been withered away by self-doubt and lack of confidence in my artistic ability.)
Eventually, the high school counselors got their way, and I enrolled myself into a four-year university studying the only thing I had ever been good at throughout school: English and writing. There I sat, in my English 101 class, working towards a degree in English with a minor in French (for no reason other than I liked the sound of it). While I was taking intensive grammar lessons, I was simultaneously working in various restaurants throughout my college career to make money for rent, tuition, and general living expenses. (Headstrong- remember?)
Working in a restaurant is a beautiful and terrible thing. For anyone who has braved the hospitality industry, it is a lovely hurricane of late nights, lots of beverages, cash flow, exceptionally close friendships, and dealing with the public. I loved the fast-paced and chaotic environment when I entered my first restaurant. Befriending the line cooks, hanging out with the hostesses, and becoming close to the servers and bartenders while also making people happy with food and alcohol was something that I was made to do.
But I knew it wasn’t sustainable. Eventually, the late nights lose their shine, your end-of-night beverages no longer taste enticing, and serving the public is still fun, but I began to believe I could do it better – in a different way.
Halfway through my degree, I came across a different bachelor’s program. I had fallen in love with Professional Writing. I had taken web design, grammar, rhetoric, writing, and an entire myriad of classes that studied everything about consumer perception and creation. (without even realizing it, I had fallen into the arts.)
In 2021, after a tumultuous year of harrowing experiences for everyone in the restaurant industry, I knew my time had come to do something more. I started my business of brand and web design and have yet to look back.
Every day, I am an artist in my own right. Although I may not be painting pictures like I thought I would when I was five, I build beautiful brands and websites daily. I use my professional writing degree to dig deep into the strategy behind why people buy and my hospitality experience to know how to communicate with my clients, create a stress-free process, and build something that gives them the same feeling as taking the first bite of a delicious dish at a restaurant.
I found my purpose by creating art – in all types of ways.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am a brand and website designer aiming to help other entrepreneurs become confident industry leaders. I focus on building brands that are rooted in strategy and storytelling. Many things are universal beyond languages, and to tranced through the digital space and become memorable, I infused the story behind the brand into everything I build and design.
I specialize in website design on Showit and work with people from all industries. Restaurants, medical spas, podcast hosts, photographers, copywriters, coaches, business leaders, financial advisors, entrepreneurs, and everyone in between.
I also specialize in designing website templates on Showit that are strategic, easy to customize, and built for any business owner to purchase and customize without any stress or hair-pulling (which can happen with web design).
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?
1. The ability to talk with anyone and to understand how to solve a person’s problems while making them feel heard and understood.
2. My degree in Professional Writing for providing me with a comprehensive look at the world of visual rhetoric and what it means to design something that makes people want to take action.
3. A table of mine once said, “Never say you are ‘just’ anything. Always be proud of what you are doing, where you are at, and the service you are providing.’
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
This is going to be a story that will make you wonder why I pulled it from my personal repertoire.
One of the most impactful things my parents ever did was to force me to run cross country in middle school. I wasn’t the best at anything when I was a kid, but I wasn’t the worst. I was fantastic at doing just enough of something to be able to stay, “I tried,” but I was the queen of quitting before it got complicated.
I cried in the parking lot of cross country on the first day of practice. I wasn’t wearing the right clothes or shoes and felt horribly and irrevocably out of place. My dad sat with me in the car and sternly but kindly said that I would try. (Even if I didn’t want to.)
The first practice was when I finally understood that I could do something even if I wasn’t the best. I continued to run throughout high school, and although I qualified for State Finals, I was never the fastest on the team, but I fell in love with the sport. I still run to this day, and last year, I ran my first marathon.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://juniperfolkdesigns.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/juniperfolkdesigns/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/juniperfolkdesigns
Image Credits
Carly Visuals
