Design Your Home For A Life of Wellness with Jeanne Collins

Jennifer Norman:
Hello beautiful humans. Welcome to The Human Beauty Movement Podcast, your source for hope, healing, happiness and humanity. My name is Jennifer Norman. I'm the founder of The Human Beauty Movement and your host. This podcast is here to guide you on your journey of self love, empowerment, soul alignment and joy. With each episode, I invite beautiful humans from all corners of the globe to join me for open conversations about their life lessons and the important work that they are doing to help heal humankind. Take a moment now to subscribe to this podcast so you don't miss an episode. I'm so glad you're here joining me for today's show.

Jennifer Norman:
Have you ever thought about how your home and your surroundings could be impacting your health and well being, for better or worse? More and more, architects and interior designers of homes, offices, schools and public structures are considering the materials, light, color, acoustics, all of these things to create more natural harmony between people and the places where we spend the most time. On today's episode, we are going to talk about how we can create balance between our inner and outer wellness through internal reflection and intentional design of our dwelling spaces. Yes, we can optimize our well in the places we dwell. To guide us on this fascinating topic, I'd like to welcome the remarkable Jeanne Collins to the show. Jeanne is the founder of JerMar Designs, based in New Canaan, Connecticut. She is an Architectural Digest AD Pro 2024 feature designer, the winner of the 2022 Luxe Magazine Red Award, and she was also recently nominated as an HGTV Designer of The Year. Jeanne is also the author of the book Two Feet In, Lessons From An All In Life, in which she chronicles her journey and the life lessons she's learned along the way. By listening to today's episode, you will learn how to enhance wellness for yourself and your family through design. You'll be taught the principles of wellness and positive energy for a sense of calm, beauty and overall well being. You'll gain inspiration on overcoming challenges, embracing change, and fostering resilience for a fulfilling life. And you'll hear strategies for balancing your personal and professional endeavors with perseverance to achieve success.

Jennifer Norman:
So without further ado, I'd like to welcome Jeanne to the show. Welcome, Jeanne.

Jeanne Collins:
Hi Jennifer. Thank you so much for having me.

Jennifer Norman:
What a pleasure and an honor. So now you have a personal story where you were married, you had kids, you had a corporate job, but in 2022, you decided to found Jeremiah designs, which is now a thriving, award winning interior design business. You have to tell us what that turning point was in your life that led you to this transition.

Jeanne Collins:
Oh, yeah, the big fork in the road. So, yeah, I had a really big one. So, yes, you mentioned I was married. I've actually been married and divorced twice.

Jennifer Norman:
Same girl. Same.

Jeanne Collins:
I'm a single mother. Yeah. Been there twice, two times around, so no shame there. It is what it is. I'm a single parent. I have a 17 year old, and I actually got divorced from her husband when I was six months pregnant with her, which is not what most people do. And I've been a single parent ever since. And so she's now 17, but I was at the time, and I spent 22 years in advertising sales.

Jeanne Collins:
So I ran a sales team for a public company for advertising sales. And in January of 2020, right before the COVID lockdown, I got fired from that nice, big VP job. And I always kind of define myself first as a single mom. If someone said, who are you? What do you do? I'm a single mom, and I'm a vice president of sales. And that was where it started and stopped, to be honest. And someone asked what my hobbies were. I was sort of like, I don't know. I have to think about that because all I did was work.

Jeanne Collins:
And when I got fired, I had to really think about, I was turning 50 that year, and it was COVID, and I had to really think about who was I and what was purpose to me and what did I want my life to be like? Because I realized after I got fired that I was pretty miserable in the life that I was living. So I made a major pivot and decided I was going to change industries. And I did have a passion for interior design and construction and architecture. And so I decided I was going to start my own firm, and I was going to start my own interior design firm. And I went back to school during COVID to do that and did it all online, and that we're coming up on four years in May of that. So I live a very different life now. By making that huge change in the fork in the road, my life is very different. I made a critical decision at the time that I did that.

Jeanne Collins:
I felt like everyone talks about work life balance, and I felt like. Like I had no balance whatsoever. And so I decided for myself that I was going to change that term for myself, and I was going to live with life first and work second, and I need to work to make a living. I have a large mortgage, and I'm a single parent, so that working was not really an option. However, the choices that I make in my life are so drastically different now. Because my mindset and my choice has been to find balance and to put life first, and that has made it so. I've made so many different choices in my life, and the people who are in my life now are also drastically different. And my life just has so much more balance and peace to it now that I've made those choices.

Jennifer Norman:
I can imagine how many of us, and I was the same way. Workaholic to the nth degree. It filled up every crevice and corner of my life. And it was difficult to tear myself away from the computer or away from the office, to the point where there were occasions where I can remember even, like, pulling all nighters at an office. It became an obsession because it was so self defining. It was like, oh, I am my job. This is how I define my self worth. This is how I define my value by what I do, what my career is, what my title is, all of those things.

Jennifer Norman:
And once that goes away, it causes people to have a bit of like an existential crisis. And. And it does, yeah.

Jeanne Collins:
It's one way to put it. Uh huh.

Jennifer Norman:
It's like my life is completely.

Jeanne Collins:
That was it.

Jennifer Norman:
Exactly, yeah. And so, yeah. And of course, going through divorce is also unto itself its own crisis, because the life and the vision that you had for your future is all of a sudden gone, too. And so all of these different life changes. And for frankly, I know divorce is very prevalent, and so a lot of people are going through the pains and the griefs and starting over and redefining themselves from that. Job loss is also something that is very prevalent or determining and making the switch for yourself. Okay, this is what I need to do. My mental health now I matter, and I'm putting myself first.

Jennifer Norman:
If people are listening to this podcast, you are probably putting yourself first, which is amazing, because that's what this is all about. It's about ways that you can get inspiration for self improvement, personal growth, all of those developmental needs, and maybe a little bit of spiritual advice along the way, which is great. But, Jeanne, I would love for you to tell us. Oh, my gosh. You decided to do something completely different, and that is daunting to so many people. It's just like, okay, mid life, switching gears to something completely new. Tell us what that decision making process was like for you.

Jeanne Collins:
It was hard getting fired. If you're really honest about what getting fired is, there's an emotional rollercoaster goes with it. Anyone who's fired, no matter how miserable or how much you ate your job, you're angry, you feel like you've been wronged. It shouldn't have happened to you. You are angry, and you're also sad because it's a loss. It's similar to a divorce. It's a loss, especially if you've been there for a long time. And I had been there for eleven years, and I ran a team of 45 people.

Jeanne Collins:
And so they were my family. There were people who'd worked for me for ten years, and I'd seen them get married and have kids and have deaths of parents and cancer. And so many things that you go through with your coworkers over a ten year period of time, that they become your family. Many ways, I spoke to them more than I did my own family and even my own daughter, for that matter. And so you go through, there's a lot of negative emotion that's tied with getting fired. But I also had a lot of positive emotion just in terms of, it felt like a weight had been lifted, and I didn't realize how much stress I was under and how physically and emotionally draining that was. I worked for a public company, and so essentially, I always said, I report to Wall Street, and I am only as good as my last quarter.

Jeanne Collins:
And the numbers that we put up last quarter. And that is true when you work for a public company and you run a sales team. That's just the reality of it. Wall street is your boss, and how the market reacts to your team's performance really can control your job. So when it happened, I did feel a huge sense of relief because I was like, wow, I don't have that stress anymore. And it was very scary of what's next. But I tried really hard to be like, okay, let's not spend all day in the scariness of what's next and the sadness of the emotions. Let's spend some time in the what could be now and imagine what could be.

Jeanne Collins:
And I reflected back on my 22 year career there, and I thought, if you had asked me when I started that career, if I would have ended up where I was, I would have never imagined I would have had that level of success and mentored as many people and had as big a team and traveled and all the things that I did, I would have never imagined that at all in the beginning. So I just kind of sat there and I said, okay, well, I'm going to work for another 20 years here. I'm a single mom. Let's be honest. I'm working till I'm 70, without a doubt, if not later. So if I have another 20 years to work. Imagine what I could do and imagine what I could create. And if I could do it loving my job or having a passion for something, well, my life could be so much different.

Jeanne Collins:
And so I really tried, and every day you're not in that mindset when you're trying to figure out what you're going to do and who you're going to be. But I really wrote about that a lot. I journaled a lot about it, and I really tried to stay in that energy and that space of not feeling lack and not having fear and being more. Imagine what if. And I, so as I went on the process of trying to figure out what I wanted to do, I left money out of the equation. And I just said, let's not think about the fact that I have to make a living. Right? Let's try to figure out what do I want my life to be like? What do I want my days to be like? How do I want to feel at my job? How do I want to contribute? What's going to make me feel fulfilled? Do I want to travel for work? Do I want to work from home? What do I want that life to look like? And I focus there as opposed to what are the tasks I want to do in my job. I tried to focus a little bit bigger, and then from there I was really able to think about, okay, wow, maybe I could become an entrepreneur, and I would have never thought I could be an entrepreneur, ever.

Jeanne Collins:
I was like, that's not me. Like, I work for someone else. I don't know how to be an entrepreneur. I don't know how to run a business. That's not me. And now I have two businesses and I'm starting a third. So I think when you change the way you look at the situation and it can be the same with a divorce, it's like it's a loss. It is a loss.

Jeanne Collins:
There's fear from the unknown, but also looking at the imagine what could be and more imagine what could be for yourself and imagine what you could create and do for yourself by having your situations change. And I think if you can spend time in that space and that energy field when good things start to happen.

Jennifer Norman:
I want to press pause because this is so important. This is so important to reemphasize. You are always going to be faced with these crossroads in your life, and you can cling on to the thing that you knew, that place where you knew you were working too hard, you knew you were doing it for a paycheck, you knew that you were doing it for the title. You knew you were doing it for various reasons and for good reason. Perhaps the universe is telling you something. Things move away. They fall apart, they dissipate, and they present you with a new opportunity. So are you going to cling to that discomfort that you're familiar with, that lifestyle that perhaps was not best serving you because you know it and it's familiar? Or are you going to eradicate that and say, this is an opportunity for me to design the life that I now want to live? If money were no object, how would I want to spend my days? How would I want to feel every day? What would this look like? And envision the life that you want to have for yourself.

Jennifer Norman:
Anybody can do it. It is possible. But so many of us, particularly women, keep ourselves small, keep ourselves boxed in, get back onto LinkedIn and say, okay, I'm open to work. Somebody hire me, because I have this skill set, and this is what I can bring to the table. And I'm willing to take a pay cut because I know that I'm not all that marketable anymore, because I'm over 40, over 50, over whatever it is, whatever kinds of limiting beliefs that we tell ourselves, you gotta cut that shit out. You gotta start fresh. Jeanne is a perfect example of being able to stop, take pause, and lean into the things that she knew she was gonna have more passion and desire and enthusiasm for each and every day. Okay, now that I've gotten off of my soapbox.

Jeanne Collins:
I'm gonna add to your soapbox, though, because one thing I talk about in my book, and I do share with friends, is, which helped me feel not quite so alone, is I read a book called Comeback Careers, and it's specifically designed for people who have left the workforce and are coming back to the workforce or want to pivot and make a change in your career. And in reading that book, it had a lot of tips and exercises and really made me think, but it also made me realize, because there's lots of success stories in it from people that the authors had worked with, that I was like, okay, wow, they did that. I could do that, too. And that's so much of it, is finding your tribe of people that can help you feel, whether whether it's a podcast that you listen to or people you follow, or a woman's group that you joined, feeling like they're people that you can talk to that can help lift you up and help motivate and inspire you. Because if you can see that someone else has done it, even if their situation isn't exactly the same. It doesn't matter. It helps make you feel empowered, having.

Jennifer Norman:
That support, seeing that it can be done. If you can see it, you can be at all of those things. It's so, so critical for us to get into a new kind of a mindset for ourselves, one of empowerment and not disempowerment. And so I think that that is just immense, immense advice for everybody who is going through kind of mid stage career choice decisions for themselves and how they want to live the rest of their lives. Okay, so let's switch gears, because I love the idea of inside out wellness well being, designing your spaces to mirror and reflect your wellness from within. And so this is something that you dove into because you must have had a penchant for it. You must have enjoyed the aesthetics of beautiful surroundings and places that you live. And so tell us what wellness based interior design means to you.

Jeanne Collins:
So, it's something I'm really passionate about. I didn't realize this until I started doing it, because you're right. I love interior designs. I love beautiful spaces. I live in New England, and we have incredible architecture. And so it's very inspiring. And I love beautiful fabrics and really unique furniture and designing furniture, and I love all of that. But what I've realized is that I also have a very strong passion for mindset and inner wellness and making yourself a priority and taking care of you.

Jeanne Collins:
And so a few years ago, I really started to think about how do my designs, from designing a room and how I'm going to make it look and flow, how does that connect to everything that I do for myself? And I use myself as an example in my own home. And so I started to make certain changes within my own home that I thought would help improve my inner wellness, but also improve the aesthetics of my inner home. And so, for example, one of my favorite things to talk about with people. People is what's the first thing that you see when you wake up in the morning and taking note of what are your first sensory experiences in the morning? And so do you wake up and look at a piece of artwork that's really inspiring or has a lot of significance or meaning or touches you emotionally? What's on your ceiling? Is it painted a color? Does it have wallpaper on it? How does it make you wake up? Your brain, for example? And I say this when I speak in front of groups, and I say, or are you looking at a pile of laundry? And I can tell you 90% of the time, the room chuckles and they're raising their hands at the pile of laundry. And so I say to people, it seems like such a simple concept, what I'm talking about, but it's really not, because if you think about how you're waking up your body and think about your first sensory experiences and what are you telling your brain and your body about a. What's important and how you want to start your day? And if it's laundry, that is not the way to start your day. That laundry just needs to be put somewhere else. And so when I design bedrooms, for example, I'm like, let's really give thought to, what are you looking at? What is your spouse or significant other? What are you looking at on the walls? And is it something that is on the wall because it was your grandmother's, whatever.

Jeanne Collins:
And you actually really don't like that piece of artwork. Well, take that sucker down and let's find something that has a lot of meaning to you and can really wake up your senses in the right way. And we take this conversation when I'm working with my clients, and we take it down to, okay, let's go to your feet. All right. Your feet support you all day long. What's the first thing your feet feel? And people are like, I never thought about that. I'm like, a rug in a room is really pretty, but it's also about, how does it feel? And how does that feel for your feet? Or do you get out of bed and the floor is cold in New England, and the floor is cold? That is not the way to wake up your body. And we moved down to lighting and all these other things, colors.

Jeanne Collins:
How was your first color experience in the day? And so really getting my clients to think about these things and think in those ways as we're starting to design, and then it makes them think about, when I bring different choices, it'll be like, I don't know. Maybe I like that. Or maybe I don't like that. I'm like, well, why don't you like that? How does it make you feel? Right? What is it? What inspires you and making them, when they start to find pictures and images of things they like, I'm like, I don't want it just because you like how it looks. I want you to find me things that draw emotion out of them, things that inspire you emotionally because you looked at a picture, and that getting clients to think that way is a different way of thinking. And then when you design around that thought, you end up with a different product in the end, you end up designing different spaces now, it's interesting because.

Jennifer Norman:
I think that when originally, if I'm to think about, okay, interior design, wellness well being, obviously feng shui comes to mind. Item placement, working with the flow of energy. Do you integrate any concepts of feng shui into what you do?

Jeanne Collins:
I do, to a degree. I live in a place that is not nearly as open as the west coast. So how there. It would be a little bit different, you know? But a lot of times I'll say to people, we really don't want to put the bed there because it's not a good idea to have your feet facing the door. That's a bad idea. Right? That is a non feng shui idea. I use similar concepts from feng shui in terms of just flow and room flow and get, because people tend to want to put more into a room, and recognizing actually less is more and allowing the energy to have places to move. We do talk about colors a lot.

Jeanne Collins:
And what do colors mean for people? Red can be a really motivating, inspiring color, but red is also a very angry color. And so this idea that you should have red in your dining room, well, that depends, and that depends on your personality, and that depends on your dynamic. And sometimes red and black is very powerful, but sometimes it's not such a good idea. And so I do try to sneak some of those principles into design without necessarily saying what they are, because sometimes you don't want people to look at you and be like you are. So just depends on your audience. You just have to, like, you just have to pick how you're going to include it. Like, in the feng shui world, they don't like, you know, wooden beds. Right.

Jeanne Collins:
Fabric is much better because it absorbs the energy. And so I will recommend to people that not only is it much nicer design for me, but there's also that reason as well. Better for their health. And they'll be like, okay, all right, fine.

Jennifer Norman:
Excellent. Yeah. One of my best friends is Chinese, and she said that she would have an aunt who would come to her house and just yell at her because she's like, you can't put the bed there. The spirits are going to come dragging you out by your feet. And she's like, you know what? Just sick and sick.

Jeanne Collins:
It's a huge one.

Jennifer Norman:
All the superstition. It's exhausting, you know? And so that unto itself is really like an energy. Zap. It was just a very ironic twist on it is.

Jeanne Collins:
Right. Well, and like, in an office, you're not supposed to have your back to the door. And so it's. There are definitely, and I'll point some of those things out to people just so they're aware of it based on how open I feel they are to it. But at the end of the day, I mean, unless you're building your own home, you didn't design where the doorway is and where the windows are. And so sometimes you have to work with what you have to work with, and you can only do so much. I mean, unless you can put your bed in the middle of the room, there's only so much you can do. But we don't like to block windows.

Jeanne Collins:
Things like that. Put furniture in front of the windows. You want the energy to be able to move. And so a lot of times we try our best.

Jennifer Norman:
You don't have to be perfect. I think that that's the thing, is that some people are like, well, I have the apartment where I live. It's a shoebox, and I can't really do anything more with it than what it is. There's not natural light, there's not this. And so they'll start saying the reasons why they can't design for greater wellness or well being. They think it might be something that is very elitist or something, if you've got a lot of money. But what are some of those principles of wellness when it comes to interior design that irregardless of the money, irregardless of where you live, these are some of the simple things that we can be incorporating into our design.

Jeanne Collins:
So my favorite, because it doesn't matter how big or small, wherever you live, is my favorite, is that I always design in every room, every home, I should say that I do. I always design reading nooks and spaces that you can go to have your brain breathe. And it's a dedicated space within your house. And it's very often a chair. It could be a chair in many different rooms. It could have multiple chairs. It could be a bench. If you have a small place, it could be a pillow that sits on the floor next to the bed.

Jeanne Collins:
It's that simple with soft lighting and the candle. And what it is, is it's a space where you go, you can meditate, you can journal, you can read. I often encourage people to sit in the chair and look out the window and watch what's going on in the world outside you. But it's a place where you are teaching your brain to breathe and teaching your brain to take a pause. And if you consistently sit in that seat every day, you will very quickly realize that once you sit there, if you're paying attention to your body, no matter what you're doing in that chair, as long as it's aligned with breathing, taking a pause, your shoulders will start to drop. Your body will be knowing, oh, okay, here we are. Even if it's five or ten minutes we're in our space, that we get to just pause and breathe and take a moment. And it doesn't have to be, you have to sit in, like, a yoga pose.

Jeanne Collins:
It doesn't have to be like that. You don't have to meditate for 45 minutes. It's just a place where you give yourself and your brain a moment to breathe. And this is really important for people who have children also, because what you need to teach your children is when mom is sitting in that chair, there is an invisible do not disturb sign around me. And so if you come charging into my bedroom and I'm sitting in my chair, you are going to turn around and walk away, because this is my chair and my time, and there's nothing wrong with that, because you need to give your body and your brain that ten minutes every day or more, if you can, to sit in that chair and do that. And it's a really important wellness thing. And a lot of times people start it, they'll be like, I'm not a meditator. Okay, fine.

Jeanne Collins:
Don't meditate. I don't care. Just sit and look out the window. If you're just sitting, looking out the window and observing what's going on outside, you are doing a form of meditation. You just don't realize it. You're stopping the chatter that's going on in your brain. You're paying attention to something else, as opposed to thinking about the to do list or just journal, just write, just bullet points, whatever comes to mind. You're causing your brain to take a pause from the everyday chatter that is happening all the time.

Jeanne Collins:
And that chatter is normally very negative. And you can create these spaces anywhere in your home. Any type of chair, any type of pillow, any type of corner. I love to put them in offices. I put them in every room. I have one in almost every room of my house, which is a separate chair that I always will sit on. I always have a nice pillow. I always have a nice blanket.

Jeanne Collins:
I always have a nice candle there, and I always have really nice lighting, because sometimes I'll be reading. And that's okay, too. That's giving your brain a chance to pause from the chatter of the day. It's good. And so it's like, it's such a simple thing. You can do it anywhere, any house. I do it when I go on vacation. When I go on vacation, I'll be like, okay, where am I going to do this? Is it going to be the chair that's out in the balcony? Am I going to go downstairs? Am I going to go outside? Like, where am I going to go in my morning to have my time to sit and breathe and pause? And I'll do it even on vacation in a hotel.

Jennifer Norman:
That's beautiful. I know people who have carved out certain rooms to be their libraries or their meditation nooks. And I think that kind of compartmentalization is very good for just being able to say, okay, this is time for me. It automatically gets your body parasympathetically into that space of just breathing, calming down, getting into that soulfulness of just connecting with your inner self for a moment away from whatever else is going on in the world, especially those that are working from home nowadays. Like, the compartmentalization, I think, is pretty important now.

Jeanne Collins:
It's good. It's good. And you get addicted to it. Like, I have a certain chair in my room. I do it every morning. And, like, really? Like, I mean, like, I get antsy if I don't do it every morning because I'm sort of like, my body craves that. Just like it craves exercise and many other things, but, like, it craves that those moments of downtime. And sometimes they can only be ten minutes.

Jeanne Collins:
And other times I'll sit in the chair for an hour if I have enough time to do it. But it's conditioning and changing the way you're thinking about wellness and how you're treating yourself and your body and giving your body an environment for which it can thrive.

Jennifer Norman:
Lovely. Now, I love going on to HGTV and watching those before and after shows. It's just always such a surprise and delight. And I'm curious if you, when you work with clients, are there ever, any times where you go in and you're like, oh, no. Like, or maybe you say, oh, yeah, you know, there's so much opportunity to go from point a to point b. What are some of those no nos that you think that people fall into those traps that people fall into in terms of their environment, where you're like, okay, a little bit of self awareness or a little bit of awareness of what you're surrounding yourself with could really make a big difference in your well being.

Jeanne Collins:
I think some of the mistakes that people make is people struggle spatially to understand a space. So people struggle with understanding how big or small a space is, how big or small furniture will be. I have people reach out to me, me all the time. Be like, I ordered a sectional. It's way too big for the room. Yeah, not surprised, right? Or I ordered it in dark gray because I have kids and it's huge. And now, like, the whole room feels like the walls are closing in on me now because I've done this. And so I think spatially is where people struggle the most and where a lot of times, they'll make bad decisions.

Jeanne Collins:
And so I see it happen with furniture. Normally, people scale either, like, way too big or way too small. So it looks tiny, and the room doesn't have any cozy feel to it. I see it in rugs. People tend to make rugs. They buy rugs that are too small for a space, and then it doesn't expand the space, and it doesn't allow for different parts of a room to be all incorporated under one clean space. Lighting. People tend to go too small on lighting as opposed to large on lighting.

Jeanne Collins:
Recognizing that every room should have multiple types of lights. You should have recessed lights in the ceiling that just provide general light for the room. You should have task lighting in every room. If there's a place where you read or you cook, for example, you should always have tasks, and you always want ambient light. You want some light that comes from either the ground or a side table that projects upwards, and that's a much softer form of light. And so recognizing that every room should have those three types of light within them, and that that creates an ambiance and an aura to a room, as opposed to just recessed lights in the ceiling, even if they're on a dimmer, your room is really lacking because you don't have the sensory experience of light and illumination that's coming from a lower level, raising up, which is much softer. So those are the three things that I find that most people struggle with. Vision being the largest one.

Jeanne Collins:
And that is, most of the time, people hire me because of one of two reasons. One, they don't have a vision for their homes. And two, they don't have the time or the skill to do what I do.

Jennifer Norman:
That's exactly why you provide the amazing service that you do, because not everybody can. And having that conversation with them to bring out and then having their joy probably just, like, so immense and intense at the end result to say, oh, my gosh, this is exactly what I wanted to just probably very, very rewarding. I also think that sometimes you go into a space and you can feel the energy of a space. And I've gone into, like, these multimillion dollar homes where it's like, oh, my gosh, this is really gorgeous. But it kind of feels like a museum. Like somebody doesn't really live here. Like, there's not really a solar.

Jennifer Norman:
It wasn't necessarily made for practicality, for, like, people to actually just, like, enjoy and sit cozily with each other. And so I'm curious what your take is, because I think that some people will think, okay, interior design. And they go on Pinterest and they see all these things and it's like, this is gorgeous design, but it might be for art, or it might be for an impression, or shall we call it ego, rather than for us to feel like we are really living in harmony with our well being. What's your thought on that?

Jeanne Collins:
Right. Well, yeah. So also, a lot of it is what inspires you. So you mentioned art, and art is actually artwork within a home. And it's very important. So you can have an enormous mansion, and if you have appropriate artwork that's the right scale and size for the walls of what's on there, it can be so impactful and can create incredible energy in a space that doesn't even have to have a lot of furniture. And so it's recognizing the things that you can add to a space that do create energy. Plants, by the way, are another one.

Jeanne Collins:
It is amazing to me how many homes I walk into that don't have any live plants. And I will even say to people, you know, I have one client. She lives in, like, an 8000 square foot house. And the first time I met her, I go, so what's the aversion to plants? You don't have a single green item in your entire house. And she just laughed. And I'm like, that's true. You have all these windows and all these big, beautiful rooms.

Jeanne Collins:
And there's not a single living thing here except for you people as adults and your children as humans. Where are the plants? And so there are a lot of ways that you can very easily bring energy to a space, whether it be through artwork, sculpture and plants. Living things bring the outside in. And by bringing the outside in, it softens what might be a very large, stark space. Just by adding some really big, beautiful live plants. Plants, it can make a huge, huge difference in the space, making it feel lived in.

Jennifer Norman:
I'm totally giggling at that because I love plants, but plants do not love me. I think that, like, I have everybody jokes and it's like, okay, the black thumb of death is like, I forget to water them. I forget or I water them too much. And so I ended up just like throwing up my hands after I killed, like, the last ficus or what have you in my house. And so I was like, I had read that, that silk plants are probably the next best option. Not like the plasticky ones, but something that is made out of some sort of a natural material will actually also help to bring that kind of energy without the maintenance, I suppose.

Jeanne Collins:
Yeah. Yep. You can definitely do that. I do encourage people. I mean, I do have one client who's like, allergic to most flowering anything. And so we have a lot of faux, like, she even has, like some, a bunch of faux succulents in her house. And they look really nice. You would never know that they're faux whatsoever, but they add a lot of texture to her space and they add the greenery to her space that softens her space without giving her something that she is allergic to.

Jeanne Collins:
You can get a lot of really nice now faux branches. Even branches are really interesting. You get a lot of height up into it and it creates a lot of interest. And there can just be like a faux branches of whatever, and that can be really interesting in a space. I also encourage people. I personally love water features. You can get a water feature. Get a himalayan salt lamp.

Jeanne Collins:
There's so many cool ones you can do. I even encourage people like sculptures. Start to think about art more than just what goes on the wall. Sculptures can be so interesting. You can put it on the table and it can just create incredible energy. And it's not that you need to spend a lot of money. There are so many places, especially if you go wherever you live. There's so many art shows and little galleries where people who are up and coming Etsy.

Jeanne Collins:
You can find some of the coolest stuff on Etsy if you spend some time with some really interesting artists. And so it's nothing. You have to spend a lot of money. But you could go out into Etsy and Google sculptures or something you're interested in and it's amazing what you can find and you can buy that can be feel very unique and creative to your space. And that is what, as people bring these things into the home, they're bringing things that are interesting to them. But it's also ways that you soften a space and it doesn't look so sterile.

Jennifer Norman:
I'm going on Sunday to an art show, which is called the other art show, and it's for up and coming artists. And so the pieces are not expensive. And also, by the way, if you're into sculpting or if you're not, that's also something that's. That's a nice, perhaps hobby to take up. Put your hands in the clay or create something out of other recycled or upcycled pieces of wood, things like that. You can make so many really cool things out of found objects. That's a great opportunity to bring your own personality in.

Jennifer Norman:
So, Jeanne, you recently wrote a memoir, Two Feet In, and this shares personal insights and lessons that you've learned. I would love for you to elaborate on the concept of living with two feet in. How does it apply to you with your life and also how people can design their lives?

Jeanne Collins:
So when I started to write my memoir, the purpose of writing my memoir was really that everyone said, you're really inspiring and you do a lot of things and your stories could potentially help others to feel inspired about ways to take control of their lives. Because life isn't perfect and stuff happens. Like I said, two divorces, multiple career changes. I've started a couple businesses. I've been a single parent. So there's stuff and childhood baggage. We all have it, right? So when I started to write my book and I gave my book to a friend of mine early on, one of the early editions, he said to me, he goes, when you do something, you jump all in.

Jeanne Collins:
And I was like, I do? He goes, no, you, like, dive in with two feet. Most people don't actually do that the way that you do it. And the difference is that I do jump in with two feet. I'm all in. Once I make a decision, I'm 100% all in. But what makes me all in is that I don't go backwards and doubt my decision and I don't allow myself and the doubt that we can have within ourselves to prevent me from making the decision. Or after I've made decision, I don't go back back. And so when I decided I was going to start my own business, that was it.

Jeanne Collins:
That was the fork in the road. That was the path I chose and I moved forward and I gave it 120% of moving forward and I didn't allow what can very easily come in, especially while you're trying to figure it out and it's fearful and you don't know what you're doing, and there are bumps in the road, and maybe you're not making money. I don't allow that chatter to happen that would say, oh, maybe you shouldn't have done that, or maybe that was a bad decision. I don't allow myself to do that. And I've managed to figure out through a bunch of different mindset techniques how to quiet my mind and how to not do that. And so I think that part of my lesson and my story and the things I talk about in my book, people find very helpful, because not everybody naturally does that. Most people have the little bird that sits on their shoulder and talks to them all day long. I have it, too, and it's very negative.

Jeanne Collins:
And it's learning how to quiet the bird and not letting the bird become who we are and having our own voice that actually can talk louder than the bird on our shoulder. And use that as an analogy. But everyone can relate to it. Everyone smiles. When I talk about the bird on the shoulder. They're like, oh, yeah, I got that one, too. Of course you do. People want...

Jennifer Norman:
Did you name the bird? A lot of people name the bird.

Jeanne Collins:
Yeah, a lot of people do. A lot of people name the bird. I'm like, he's not your friend. He's not your friend. Like, you can call it ego, you can call it whatever you want, but in its most simplistic state, it's your mind that's constantly talking to you, and your mind is constantly creating chaos for yourself. And so it's learning to have the clarity and learning to make a decision and trust myself that no matter what happens, I don't know the outcome. I have no idea. But no matter what happens, I will learn something along the way, and it will not be a mistake, and I will get through it, and I will survive, and I will be fine.

Jennifer Norman:
I heard this phrase which stayed with me for years, which I really just appreciated, but it's like, you don't want to live your life like warm tea. It's like, it's either hot tea or it's iced tea, but you don't... nobody wants warm tea.

Jeanne Collins:
Nobody wants to be in the middle, right?

Jennifer Norman:
If you're presented with an opportunity, then if you're not feeling that sacral fuck yeah, then it's a fuck no. I mean, and there is. There is.

Jeanne Collins:
Then that's a no.

Jennifer Norman:
Like, there's nothing really in between that. It's like, just go, like, going for it and then just, like, figuring out along the way. I mean, that's what life is all about nowadays.

Jennifer Norman:
It's just like a lot of the people that we think have all of their stuff together, it's just like, you know what? We're all just kind of figuring it out tremendously.I heard another quote, which I'll just mention because I thought it was hilarious, and it's from Martha Stewart. And, like, talk about design. Talk about a woman who has been successful and has just got this incredible, incredible reputation for just going for it two feet in. And people were asking, well, what, you know, what was it that was made you so successful? And she's like, sometimes I don't know what I'm saying and I don't know the answer, but I say it with such conviction that I convince myself that it's true.

Jeanne Collins:
It's true.

Jennifer Norman:
I just laughed at that.

Jeanne Collins:
You say it and it might be. It could become convincing. The more you say it, the more.

Jennifer Norman:
It becomes enough conviction.

Jeanne Collins:
Correct. The more you'll create it.

Jennifer Norman:
That's my opinion. And this is the way that it is and I'm not looking back at it. Yeah, you can laugh at it after.

Jeanne Collins:
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. And she is a badass businesswoman. She lives around here.

Jennifer Norman:
Absolutely.

Jeanne Collins:
And she is a force to be reckoned with out here.

Jennifer Norman:
Absolutely, absolutely.

Jeanne Collins:
Yep. Yeah.

Jennifer Norman:
So how, I'm curious, you've been doing your thing for a few years now. How do you define success now versus how you think that you defined it before JerMar Designs?

Jeanne Collins:
Well, success before for me was all about numbers. Did I hit numbers? Did I hit revenue goals? That was it. I was 100% driven by numbers. At any given week, everything was about numbers and driving revenue. And now, for me, it's all about the larger picture goal. So it started out being, I want to find something that I'm passionate about. I want to feel like I'm living with purpose. And now for me, on an even broader scale, as I'm about to expand and launch a lifestyle brand and a lifestyle platform now it's really about empowering as many women as I can to become designers of their own lives and really step into their power and take control of their lives, whether that be in a big way or a small way.

Jeanne Collins:
And so now it's about the reach that I can get with my message and with my book and with my thoughts and with my connections and with my intelligence and with my creativity and how can I help as many and as I possibly can with my platform to be able to do so? So it's a lot different than the days of it was all about a weekly revenue goal, very different. I still need to make money. Don't get me wrong, we all still need to make money. But it's just such a different, it's such a different focus, and it's such a different feeling of success in terms of what it gives back. I mean, it gives back to me in a way I never thought possible.

Jennifer Norman:
I know that you have this philosophy that emphasizes being one with the universe and then also being grounded in your own personal blueprints. And I feel like that really, really is that it's like being open and knowing that the universe has your back. It's just like I always say this, everything always goes my way. Everything always works out for me. And knowing that that is the case is like, yeah, the money is important, but it's not the be all, end all. And the universe is going to take care of you if you take care of you. And if you are really just open to what the opportunities are with an open mind and open heart and open soul. I think that that is so beautiful.

Jennifer Norman:
So, Jeanne, I want everybody to be able to find you. I want them to know about what you're doing and how they can get in touch with you. Let everybody know what your websites are and how they can work with you.

Jeanne Collins:
So, yeah, so my business is JerMar Design. So it's Jermardesigns.com, and anyone can reach me there. You can follow me on Instagram. I'm very active on Instagram and I talk about all things, interior design, wellness, cooking, eating dogs, motherhood, everything you can imagine in a very real, authentic way. And so that is yourmardesigns, so at Jermar Designs. And then my book is called Two Feet In: Lessons From An All In Life. It's available on Amazon in every format. Also, the ebook is available anywhere you get an ebook.

Jeanne Collins:
And the audiobook exists as well. I recorded my own audiobook, so it is me speaking my book, telling my book and my story. And you can get that anywhere. You would buy an audiobook, you can download it.

Jennifer Norman:
So much good stuff. Jeanne Collins, thank you so much for all of the incredible work that you're doing and for sharing all of your life lessons. You are inspiration. You are inspiration in the embodied form. So thank you for being open to giving back, frankly, sharing your story and helping others on their journeys of self love as well. So thank you so much for being part of The Human Beauty Movement with me today.

Jeanne Collins:
Thank you, Jennifer, for having me and for allowing me to share my message with your audience. It's truly, it's a pleasure and a gift. So thank you.

Jennifer Norman:
Thank you for listening to The Human Beauty Movement Podcast. Be sure to follow, follow rate and review us wherever you stream podcasts. The Human Beauty Movement is a community based platform that cultivates the beauty of humankind. Check out our workshops, find us on social media, and share our inspiration with all the beautiful humans in your life. Learn more at thehumanbeautymovement.com. Thank you so much for being a beautiful human.