studio (un)scripted: 5 questions with caroline lee.
CAROLINE LEE, The Most Fascinating Person I Know (and also who I want to be when I grow up)
The studio is my happy place. Where is yours?
My happy place is nature. My happy place is burning man. My happy place is being with people I love and in front of delicious food.
You have the most brilliant and creative mind that I’ve ever seen. What inspires you to find life and color in everything you do?
Thank you for saying that I have the “most creative and brilliant mind you’ve ever seen!” As a practicing death doula, I have a close relationship with death and dying so also I want to be here as much as I can, while I’m here. It’s pretty rare to be in a body so I want to live it, to feel it. Even the challenging sensations, I want to be in them and think, “oh wow… interesting.”
I also just think that life is really absurd so I like to find humor in it. Whether it’s like having (name will not be used here for The Studios very strong feelings, but former president that was recently arrested) as president, who is nothing more than a reality TV persona or you know, weird things that humans do. I like finding the humor and the absurdity in it all – That gives me a lot of life.
What “real talk Caroline” advice would you offer to a curious entrepreneur looking to create their own space?
Go slower than you think you should but don’t talk yourself out of it. Don’t be so cautious and careful that you don’t do it. You’re going to have to take some risks to make it happen but being reckless and racing ahead is unnecessary.
If you’re going to do something as an entrepreneur, put in the years of hustle. In your 20’s work 12 hour days and psych yourself up for what you can do when you’ve built yourself and your reputation. Build a community – build a really, really rich community of people who know you, who trust you, who know what you’re good at and are repping you when you’re not even listening and when you’re not around.
With so much experience in home design, design, photography and the arts in general, what is a trend you will always consider your first love?
I have a very complex relationship with the color pink. I completely avoided it for the first 25 years of my life because I thought it was only for girly-girls. So in my late 20s when I realized that was just a late construct and no one owned the color pink, I fully embraced it.
I now internally love the color pink. And I don’t care whether it’s in or out, whether it’s trending or not, whether people decide to make it a gender stereotype, I’m just like – give me pink. It’s gorgeous. There are just so many delicious shades. Dusty pink, bright pinks… just the best.
If you could ask me anything, what would it be?
As a death doula, I’m instinctively curious to know what you want done with your body when you die?
