Meet Dionne Woods | Artist & Business Coach for Creatives

We had the good fortune of connecting with Dionne Woods and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Dionne, Let’s talk about principles and values – what matters to you most?
Not only in my personal life but professionally, too, I highly value integrity and loyalty. It’s so important to build relationships that are framed on a strong foundation.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m a completely self taught artist. I began my artistic career out of the need to stay home with my boys and have flexibility. I’ve always craved DIY projects for our home and my mom taught me a lot about home interior design. I’ve always been one to run towards color, the more the better. I look at being on a small budget as a gift. You’re forced to think outside the box and get creative. I began painting old discarded furniture and selling those on Etsy in 2010. It was hard, and I wanted to often quit the shipping part of my business. There were so many lessons learned. In 2015, I began painting on canvas as another way to feed my creativity and offer by furniture customers a different price point. This set my heart on fire. Using water with my paint began to transform my style, both on canvas but on my furniture then, as well. My work started to gain social media momentum and my sales took off. I hired Jennifer Allwood as my business coach and started using social media more consistently. That grew a strong connection with my audience and eventually opened up a membership group, The Creative Connection. I fell in love with the clay / chalk paint, DIY Paint and I always tell people the paint made me better by doing the hard work for me. Blending in a boho style with 8 to 10 colors became my new norm.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If visiting here, I’d send you to Bricktown, Mid town and the river canal downtown. Any of the restaurants there are fun with a great atmosphere.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Almost 5 years ago, Jennifer Allwood, reached out to me to help her with a webinar. My part was to educate her audience on shipping furniture across the country and selling on Etsy. She then encouraged me to do LIVE videos on Facebook. That was a hard start but I’ve never looked back. Secondly, my now dear friend, Debi Beard of DIY Paint, reached out to me about teaching her retailers some furniture makeover tips and tricks. Both of these women saw something in me that I was unaware of. Teaching became a part of me, a must. The reward to so satisfying and again, I’ll never look back.

Website: https://www.theturquoiseiris.com/
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Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBCs9i_M-XYjgZYiBfxGWCA
Other: Our new lifestyle and paint magazine. https://theturquoiseirisjournal.com/