We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brooke Curole Smith a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Brooke, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

Our Mission:

“At Reverie Inspired Co, we are dedicated to bridging the gap between passion and visual expression. Through strategic branding and human-centered design, we empower entrepreneurs to confidently embrace their distinct identities, crafting not only brands but also stories that authentically align with their vision. With creative artistry and a commitment to transformative experiences, we welcome you to a journey where dreams find their visual home, and passion finds its purpose.”

Hi, My name is Brooke Curole Smith and I am the founder and CEO of Reverie Inspired Co. I crafted our mission at the studio through my passion for people, purpose and daydreaming.

A glimpse at my story and how my personal mission in life influenced my design studios mission:

I have always been creative and very multi-passionate. I have always been obsessed with the idea and the knowing that I was meant for more. That life just had to be about more than showing up to my desk at my 9 to whenever job and only having 2 weeks of true PTO a year. Life is for the living and I felt like I wasn’t living for a long time and I was just taking part in the rat race of the autopilot lifestyle that the corporate world had provided me.

In college I took 2 design classes and honestly fell in love with it. I think what I love most about it is truly just getting to be creative, but also being able to be a part of other entrepreneurs stories in their businesses. I know what it is like to be in a job that you hate and feel like you are settling in life just looking at the weeks going by waiting and waiting for the next vacation that only comes bi-annually. So, being a branding and web designer allowed me to not only be creative and design beautiful things for beautiful people. But to be a part of someone elses journey in creating a life THEY love.

Nothing shatters my heart more than seeing people settle in life. So, seeing someone take that leap of faith in themselves and either start the business from scratch or invest in themselves and uplevel it from where it is now to where they want it to be is just magical.

My story starts in corporate and is still being written. But taking the leap of faith and betting on myself to quit my corporate job and start my own business is how I think I can relate to others and it truly drives my mission. The desire for more. The desire to LIVE a life that I carved my own path in versus settling for what is “normal” or “recommended” by society. I aim to bring the human back to branding and help people design lives they love through creating a business that feels like home to them. To remove the word “settle” from all of our vocabularies and truly help others “come home” to their branding (and businesses).

At Reverie, we are revitalizing the artistry of branding through human centered design. And this truly does come from our passion for people, purpose and daydreaming.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

(apologies, I kind of answered this in the last question…I’ll reiterate here)

Hi, My name is Brooke Curole Smith and I am the founder and CEO of Reverie Inspired Co. I crafted our mission at the studio through my passion for people, purpose and daydreaming.

Our Mission:

“At Reverie Inspired Co, we are dedicated to bridging the gap between passion and visual expression. Through strategic branding and human-centered design, we empower entrepreneurs to confidently embrace their distinct identities, crafting not only brands but also stories that authentically align with their vision. With creative artistry and a commitment to transformative experiences, we welcome you to a journey where dreams find their visual home, and passion finds its purpose.”

A glimpse at my story and how my personal mission in life influenced my design studios mission:

I have always been creative and very multi-passionate. I have always been obsessed with the idea and the knowing that I was meant for more. That life just had to be about more than showing up to my desk at my 9 to whenever job and only having 2 weeks of true PTO a year. Life is for the living and I felt like I wasn’t living for a long time and I was just taking part in the rat race of the autopilot lifestyle that the corporate world had provided me.

In college I took 2 design classes and honestly fell in love with it. I think what I love most about it is truly just getting to be creative, but also being able to be a part of other entrepreneurs stories in their businesses. I know what it is like to be in a job that you hate and feel like you are settling in life just looking at the weeks going by waiting and waiting for the next vacation that only comes bi-annually. So, being a branding and web designer allowed me to not only be creative and design beautiful things for beautiful people. But to be a part of someone elses journey in creating a life THEY love.

Nothing shatters my heart more than seeing people settle in life. So, seeing someone take that leap of faith in themselves and either start the business from scratch or invest in themselves and uplevel it from where it is now to where they want it to be is just magical.

My story starts in corporate and is still being written. But taking the leap of faith and betting on myself to quit my corporate job and start my own business is how I think I can relate to others and it truly drives my mission. The desire for more. The desire to LIVE a life that I carved my own path in versus settling for what is “normal” or “recommended” by society. I aim to bring the human back to branding and help people design lives they love through creating a business that feels like home to them. To remove the word “settle” from all of our vocabularies and truly help others “come home” to their branding (and businesses).

At Reverie, we are revitalizing the artistry of branding through human centered design. And this truly does come from our passion for people, purpose and daydreaming.

Our studio focuses on creative and strategic design for your business. From brand strategy, to creative direction sessions to full on web design, we work hand in hand with our clients to create a visual space and brand presence that feels like home to them.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Authenticity and transparency.

I know those answers sound so cliché, but they truly are the key.

Don’t get me wrong, I am still very much working to grow my online presence and I am looking forward to a lot more expansion over the years. But I believe the success I have had in my business is due to the raw and authentic way I show up on social media. I am unafraid to be myself online. Some days I show up without a stitch of makeup on and pour my heart out about the struggles of entrepreneurship. Other days I feel on top of the world and I am sharing some of my best design tips or talking everyones ears off about how “people buy from people and your brand strategy is the foundation to everything in your biz.”

The consistent piece for me is showing up and sharing it all.

I think people appreciate a glimpse into your life versus just being bombarded with sales tactics and business posts. I do those too, you can’t sell your services without talking about them. However, people really do buy from people, and my most successful growth online (and in turn growth in business), has been due to my personal posts and showing up as Brooke the human instead of just Brooke the business owner.

My best advice for anyone just starting is to just post. Really work on healing any fear of judgement you may have. It is just a limiting belief that is holding you back. I always remind myself that no one who has been where I want to go in life will look back at me and judge me. They get it, they have done it. And if anyone is judging me for showing up online…if they aren’t living a life I would want in any way, shape, or form, why give their judgments any attention?

Be you, do you, and your best post is the next one you actually POST!

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

Atomic Habits by James Clear.

I always say that entrepreneurship is truly the best therapy session I have ever had!

I had no idea how impactful personal development was to the success of my business. I have never been forced to reflect on myself and how I show up in all aspects of my life like I have since starting my own business.

One book that truly changed the way I show up and has impacted my performance in my business positively is “Atomic Habits.”

How you do one thing is how you do all things (or at least, in many cases). So stepping back and noticing my behavior patterns and habits OUTSIDE of my business was wildly telling for me in how and why I do things as I do in my business (good, bad, and ugly).

I am now someone who is obsessed with her morning routine and setting myself up for success for the day via my mindset and self-care before all. Creating time and space to do things like movement, meditation and journaling has actually transformed my productivity and creativity in my design business.

This book will reframe the way you look at habits and re-teach you how to integrate new habits in your life in a way that is meaningful and will last the test of time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://reverieinspiredco.com/
• Instagram: @reverieinspiredco (https://www.instagram.com/reverieinspiredco/) | @iambrookecsmith (https://www.instagram.com/iambrookecsmith/)
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@iambrookecsmith?