Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Karla Raines. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Karla thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

I discovered a path combining professional mastery with creative risk-taking. The result? A twenty-year career advancing purpose-driven organizations throughout the community.

My parents were a tremendous inspiration. When I brought my soon-to-be husband home to meet my mom, Phyllis, she shared this piece of wisdom. “If it’s important to you, do it for yourself.” Her words have guided me more than she might have imagined as I made time for passions big and small.

Mom lived authentically; she was wholely herself. A lifelong love affair with painting complemented her homemaking and banking career. She was Martha Stewart before Martha. My mom’s passing in 2014 left my dad to discover his independence. When his health began declining in 2017, I found myself filling in the gaps alongside my brother. My dad, Carl, had fallen and broken his right shoulder that January. His journey to left-handedness at the age of eight-five commenced with his rehab.

The career-defining eureka moment that led to my career breakthrough with the Differentiation Zone® occurred in April 2018. Earlier that same year, my dad’s health took a turn for the worse. His move to a memory care facility is the backdrop to my breakthrough.

I share that backstory as it profoundly shaped my path as I said “yes” to myself in bigger and bolder ways. Painting sustained me through grief, heartbreak, and disappointment. It also provided a canvas, literally and figuratively, to express my risk-taking as my strategy work advanced. I moved from painting with a brush on a small canvas to using a palette knife on larger pieces. My risk tolerance accelerated as my dad’s health declined.

My muse wouldn’t let me go. The voice in my head that said, “Karla, you may be on to something,” was constant throughout 2018. I told myself, “yes.” I’d spent years mastering the art of strategy. My intuition and a left brain-right brain proclivity told me so. I’d hard-wired the neural pathways between those two hemispheres. I knew what an insight felt like because I’d experienced them repeatedly for clients. This time the aha was for me.

Carl’s Alzheimer’s began slowly and then accelerated rapidly; he passed in January 2019. Nevertheless, I continued to say “yes” to myself. I shared my intellectual property with a few trusted colleagues. Their affirmation kept me going. In 2020, my “yeses” got bigger and bolder as I accepted an invitation from a colleague to write a book during the height of the pandemic shutdown.

My advice? Say yes to your talents, passions, and ambitions. As Phyllis would say, “if it is important to you, do it for yourself.”

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’ve enjoyed a career as a strategist serving purpose-driven organizations in dynamically competitive industries. My passion led me to a career-defining eureka moment in 2018. The experience crystallized my intuitive process and inspired me to reverse engineer the process I’d taught myself over years of hands-on practice. My book, Differentiated, shares the story of this inventive strategy process through real-life vignettes and powerful lessons from over two decades of consulting experience.

Clients comment on my ability to see beyond what is. That gift leads me to discover authentic differentiation and craft plans to realize a competitive advantage. Abstract painting propels my professional creativity and risk-taking as it fuels my soul. Enjoy my work at Karla Raines Art.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of my creative life is the pure and simple joy I feel when creating something new. That joy occurs when I discover a consulting client’s unique differentiators from diverse research findings. It’s that sense of being in the flow with my creativity. Joy is also a cornerstone of my artistic process. The joy is remarkable when I am present with a painting. Spatula in hand, the risk-taking is worthwhile as I consider which painterly mark to make next.

There’s something about the lived experience of creating something original from your imagination and intuition. We don’t give ourselves enough permission to do that as adults. Painting is a gift I give myself. My mom was a painter too, and a very creative person. So she was thrilled when I discovered painting too. “There’s nothing like painting,” she remarked a decade ago. She was right. There’s nothing else like it for me.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I learned not to tell myself no. Not long ago, I had a mentoring call with a relatively new solopreneur consultant. In her late thirties to early forties, her focus is on a specific field backed by years of experience. She had three big questions for me. One was a surprise, and yet not a surprise at all. She noted that I proudly owned my talents. What gives me the confidence to proclaim myself an expert, she wondered? I couldn’t help but remark that men would never have this conversation. One man would not question another’s boldness. Confidence is a given.

Why do women shy away from naming and claiming our expertise? It’s as if we need permission to own our excellence. I’ve overcome a lifetime of conditioning from others who wanted me to settle for less than my full capabilities. So I quit telling myself no.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://differentiationzone.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/karla_raines/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/karla.raines.5
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karlaraines/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmzabtBPR8Zq5vap9ZApDuw
• Other: https://karlarainesart.com/

Image Credits
Flor Blake, photographer