Finding Your Why: What You’ll Learn This Month from Paper Talk

Season 5 of Paper Talk is here, and it’s all about focusing on your why. 

What does that mean exactly? This is your underlying purpose, the reason you keep going. Your why will bring you balance and happiness. It will help you understand whether to say yes or no to a new project. When you focus on your why, you can destress your work and get back to the joy that you first found in paper flowers. 

Everyone’s why is different, and it takes time to really uncover what the heart of your why is. That’s why Jessie and I will be spending all of Season 5 of Paper Talk chatting with a variety of guests about it. 

You won’t want to miss out on any of our fantastic episodes. Here’s a little peek of what we discussed this past month.

Episode 116: Over Coffee with Jessie and Quynh

We kicked off the season diving into Jessie’s why. 

Jessie shared how she got back to her why this past year. You can hear the entire story in the episode, but in short, she lost focus for a time. She quit practicing law to be more present for her children, and then had a wake-up call sitting in a hospital. Paper flowers were doing the same thing working at a law firm had done.

As she said in the episode, “I lost part of my why. My main why for not working 24/7 is so that I can be with my kids. So it just made total sense after being in that hospital and thinking, ‘Why, why am I doing things for other people? Why am I not doing things for my family?’ I was like, ‘I’ve got to stop, and I’ve got to choose my projects that align with my why.’ Part of my why is having that flexibility and that mind space to be there with my kids.”

Listen to Episode 116 to hear more of Jessie’s story and get tips on questions to ask yourself as you get back on track. Also check out THE WHY WORKSHEET to get your self-discovery journey started.

Episode 117: Jessie and Quynh

For this episode, we chatted more about my journey focusing back on my why, as well as how you can branch out and find new things that will be more fulfilling to you.

One very important thread that runs through my life is helping others. It’s why I started Paper Talk, it’s why I love hosting dinner parties, and it’s why I’ve started more marketing work recently. (If you want to hear more about my current projects, sign up for my newsletter here.) 

But I wouldn’t have found so much joy if I didn’t try new things and then give myself time to seriously evaluate if they worked for me. 

This is what I had to say in the episode: “What’s really important is asking those difficult questions and really sitting and thinking about them for quite awhile. Understanding your past experiences. What’s your strengths, what’s your weaknesses. I think that’s really important to understanding your why.”

Episode 118: Ashley Reagan

If you’re looking to try something new, why not look into craft shows! 

Ashley Reagan of ibleedheART talked to us about how she finds and chooses craft shows to sell her paper flowers and other art. You can learn how to choose the right audience and diversify your income—something we all need to be better at thanks to the upheaval of the last couple of years.

You can also hear more about Ashley’s why. “Paper flowers became a way to honor my granddad, because he was an avid gardener. He loved gardening. He would always tell me which flowers we were passing wherever we were. So one of the first flowers that I created from my own template was a marigold because he always grew marigolds in his garden.”

Episode 119: Chi-Chi Nnakwe Whitley

For our final episode in February, we talked with Chi-Chi Nnakwe Whitley of AfroBloom Art and Design. Besides being a joyful paper florist, she is also a PhD trained biologist and app creator. 

We chatted about how our unique backgrounds and skills have helped us on our paper flower journeys—and surprise, surprise, our whys weave through all of it. Listen to learn how to succeed on a path that is just right for you by focusing on your strengths. 

Chi-Chi summed up the start of Season 5 wonderfully: “To push through times when that ambiguity is there, you have to come back to your why and your motivation.”

Join us over at Paper Talk to gain more motivation and joy as a paper florist. We want to share, connect, and grow with you!