January Letter from the Editor

What You Can Expect in 2018

So, I just wanted to give you a taste of what you can expect here this year. Well, of course, the overarching unifying theme is color, color, color! Fashion, travel, wall guides and city guides, some entertaining ideas, some food and drink recipes, new products, and more — all from our unique colorful perspective!

On that note, we would of course love to take into account what you want to see around here! Let your voice be heard. Pretty please take a few minutes to fill out our survey. It really will help us to understand you better and thus to serve you better! Thank you in advance for participating. The responses we’ve received so far have been very enlightening.

Stretch Goals for 2018

Now, if I were to get vulnerable and share some of my “stretch” goals for myself within the business, they’d look something like this:

1. Take on some speaking engagements

Create & Cultivate, Alt Summit – we’re looking at you! 🙂

In my past corporate life, I gave presentations regularly to investors, bankers, rating agencies, analysts, and more. And I loved it! The act of communicating a message to an audience is thrilling to me — especially when it’s a good / positive / successful / inspiring message. So, I’d like to start using those skills again to share some of what I’ve learned in almost twenty years of being a business woman.

2. Create more video content and / or start a podcast.

You can see we started to dabble in video a bit in late 2017 here, here, and here. But we have more ideas percolating.

What would you be interested in seeing on the video front? Do you watch videos regularly? Or do you prefer to listen to podcasts? What kind of content do you watch or listen to?

3. Publish another book

Of course, we published More Color Please : The Walls of Houston, and we are very proud of it! Thank you all who have supported that endeavor. But we have other ideas brewing that we can’t wait to share.

4. Launch a destination experience

That’s really all I’ll say about that right now. But this is one of the most ambitious, “out there” ideas that we have – and also one we are most excited about. Stay tuned!

BHAG

On a related note, are you familiar with the term BHAG? It’s a term we used a lot in my oil & gas industry days. The idea stems from Jim Collins’ book “Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies” – a must-read for any business person. It stands for “big, hairy, audacious goal.” They are those goals that stretch and define your company or yourself.

Golden Globes

Since I’m typing this while watching the Golden Globes red carpet coverage, I thought I’d share a few thoughts on the evening…

First, as much as we love color, we were touched by the powerful imagery of practically everyone wearing black in support of the Time’s Up movement. As their website explains, “The clock has run out on sexual assault, harassment and inequality in the workplace. It’s time to do something about it.” And that is a cause we can fully support. We are all about empowering women. And as a veteran of corporate America for almost twenty years and just being a woman in general, I can vouch for the existence and persistence of many of these issues.

Second, on a more frivolous front, let’s talk about the fashion. A few of my favorite looks:

1. Allison Williams in Armani Privé

2. Jessica Biel in Christian Dior Couture

3. Mandy Moore in Rosie Assoulin

4. Angelina Jolie in Atelier Versace

5. Jessica Chastain in Armani Privé

We also loved seeing This is Us’ Chrissy Metz in a custom creation by our beloved Sachin & Babi. Furthermore, as Sachin & Babi told Refinery 29, they are also donating to the Time’s Up legal fund. In their words, “As designers we are afforded an incredible platform to dress some of the most talented actors in the spotlight. This is an issue that encompasses all industries including ours and as men/women, husbands/fathers, mothers/daughters, and colleagues of innumerable talented women that we work with, it’s our obligation to show solidarity and commitment to this cause.”

So, who was your best dressed on the red carpet?

And always, I wholeheartedly recommend Red Carpet Fashion Awards for all the latest on red carpet fashion and celebrity looks. Not only is Catherine, the founder, extremely knowledgeable and well versed in this fashion niche, she is just a lovely person.

One More Thing

Do you have any questions for me? Next Monday, we are launching a new monthly feature: a Q&A with me! So, ask me anything! Anything is fair game – within reason. 😉

Either comment here, or feel free to email us at [email protected]. This can be a fashion question, a travel inquiry, a business curiosity, or whatever else! We want to hear from you! Give us your questions!

Have a great Monday!