My guest this week is the incredible Whitney English. She believes that anyone can live a beautiful life. She believes that gratitude is the birth place of joy, that people matter, that love is the answer and that if you’re real, you can’t be ugly.

Whitney has bootstrapped two businesses to seven figures, has a degree in interior design, has studied management at Parson’s in New York City and has had her work featured in O Magazine, the Wall Street Journal and the Today Show.

Her new book, A More Beautiful Life: A Simple Five-Step Approach to Living Balanced Goals with HEART, was just released and it is incredible.

4:29 – Whitney 101

• Whitney moved to Dallas to start her career as an interior designer, and then 9/11 happened and the job market dried up.
• She moved back home with her parents and started her own business.
• Later, she created a planner and it took off. People loved it.

12:10 – Rock bottom

• Years ago, when Whitney was struggling with her business and her marriage, she wanted out and realized she was at rock bottom.
• She found out there are some beautiful things at rock bottom and it has a firm foundation.

15:35 – Avoiding pain

• Whitney is an enneagram 7, which means she tries to avoid pain. One way she avoids pain is by chasing ideas.

17:40 – Self-discipline

• There’s only one way to build self-discipline in your life. Practice doing the things you don’t want to do.

20:11 – Pursuing needs

• What if we just pursued our needs as our goals, and then let the wants kind of happen?
• When Whitney had a bad day recently, she decided to take a walk, drink water and eat a salad to reset herself.

30:44 – Neglecting needs

• Whitney noticed that she was neglecting her own needs and had to work on liking herself.

43:14 – Unique gifts

• You’re not using your gifts to the best of your ability if you haven’t taken care of all the other not-fun needs first.

47:08 – Get to know you

• Guilty pleasure? Fancy cocktails, beer or wine
• If she had to do another job? Something with textile design

FEATURED QUOTES

I’m not using my gifts to the best of my ability if I haven’t taken care of all these other not fun needs first.

I found out there are some beautiful things at rock bottom. It is a firm foundation.

One way I can avoid pain is by chasing ideas.

There’s only one way to build self-discipline in your life. Practice doing the things you don’t want to do.

What if we just pursued our needs as our goals, and then let the wants kind of happen?

CONNECT:

https://whitneyenglish.com/

ABOUT WHITNEY ENGLISH: 

Whitney English believes that anyone can live a beautiful life. She believes that gratitude is the birthplace of joy, that people matter, that love is the answer, that if you're real you can't be ugly, that everyone is creative and some of us have forgotten, and that it's worth trying to be a better version of yourself today than you were yesterday. If you're more into technical details, she has boot-strapped two businesses to seven figures, has a degree in interior design, has studied management at Parsons in New York City, and has had her work featured in O magazine and The Wall Street Journal and on the Today show. She was featured as one of Country Living's Women Entrepreneurs in 2008. One of her favorite dreams come true, though, is her husband, David, and their three children. She nightly dreams of a perfectly organized office.