Episode 379: How Creatives can Be Authentic in the Digital Age, a conversation with Robin Avni of Bricolage*

Robin Avni

Today's guest helps us step out of the world of growing and designing with flowers and into the larger arena of creative strategy and the way we express ourselves and our brands through digital media.

I am delighted to welcome Robin Avni to the Slow Flowers Podcast.

The timing is ideal, as we come to the close of a calendar year and if you're like me, you're also finally allowing yourself to dream and imagine goals for 2019.

Robin's consulting practice is called Bricolage; when translated from the original French.

The term means: *CREATION FROM A DIVERSE RANGE OF ELEMENTS. 

Nearly a decade ago, I received a surprise invitation from Robin Avni to join a cohort of creatives she called Lifestyle Insights. Real Women. Real Life. 

Tthat experience included me in a dream team of 12 female lifestyle experts, each of us with knowledge on a specific subject matter ranging from design, food, fitness and health to gardening, travel and family and parenting topics.

I've always been drawn to Robin and her energy. She is a multi-talented, idea-a-minute visual and written communicator. I remember reading Robin’s home+technology design stories in the Seattle Times long before I was fortunate enough to meet her – which I recall was on a press tour of the former Seattle Interiors Show in 2004. Thanks to LinkedIn, we stayed in touch and years later, even though I was living in Los Angeles at the time, we'd get together when I was in Seattle on business.

Robin pioneered the idea of a female-focused creative media and consulting agency. Described as a select group of savvy lifestyle experts focused on how real women live, make choices and craft their worlds, Lifestyle Insights developed new-media content shaping messaging, programming, strategy and knowledge with intent - and a little bit of soul. Robin coined the phrase the MOMMY TO MAVEN™ marketplace.

Here is one of the 2010 Lifestyle Insights. As Robin and I say: "We were ahead of our time!"

Together our group launched the daily blog, “Lifestyle Insights. Real Women. Real Life” in September 2009. The experience gave me a new forum to write in a new way, including fun, memoirish, essays, as well as outdoor living and gardening topics. I had to learn how to communicate my ideas in 300 words or less, which in today’s world of bite-sized journalism, is an excellent skill to have.

Through our blog and related projects, such as white papers and trend reports, Real Women. Real Life. spoke with a powerful voice urging corporations to re-think how to communicate with their female customers.

One of the highlights of that time was co-presenting with Robin at the Independent Garden Center conference in 2010 on the topic of: “The Female Gardener: Mommy to Maven.”

Our workshop shared some of the research and insights collected by Lifestyle Insights, with the goal of helping independent garden center owners and garden-related companies to understand the female consumer not just by obvious demographics of age, ethnicity or economics but by her life stages.

Botanical Prints by Robin Avni -- I love that she is exploring her printmaking passion

"Daisies," by Robin Avni

Before we start the interview, here is a bit more about Robin Avni:

Robin's #1 agenda these days includes her role as Grandmother!

Throughout her career in the media and high-tech industries, including eight years as a Group Design Manager at Microsoft, she has managed high-profile projects and award-winning teams.

As an Assistant Professor of Design at Cornish, Robin managed several academic/corporate projects including two collaborations with Amazon and a special grant from the Microsoft HoloLens team.