Hey Bus Driver – Appreciating Jo Packham

This post is super special.  Over the weekend I had a bunch of creative friends to my home to celebrate a milestone in my career…the ten page article in Where Women Create magazine.  We called it the Create – Make – Celebrate Retreat and we were so fortunate to have Jo Packham, the founder of the magazine, here to join us.  She is an amazing force of empowerment, love and authenticity.  She is a mover and a shaker and a dreamer and a do-er.  She is my hero.  During her time with us, she shared how she sees herself in our lives.  This is for her… Hey Bus Driver!

Jo explained how much she enjoys supporting women to get to the next level in their careers and lives.  Whether through creativity, cooking or business…she sees herself as a resource to support women in being recognized and seeing bigger possibilities.  She sees herself as a bus driver.  She let us all get on her bus and through her worlds of wisdom, ideas and sharing…she hopes to get us to the next destination in our careers then drop us off.  I am so thankful to be on this ride (with these friends).  Here we all are…

And here is a doodled version that I whipped up to commemorate this memory.

If you want to color it, you can download it FREE HERE.  I must say at this time that Jo has spent many years encouraging women to color OUTSIDE the lines.  If you download this, I request that you add patterns, add details and add your own creative flair to the doodle.  Please share it if you do as I would LOVE to see your twist.

To show our appreciation for her, we each decorated her a bus cookie.  We learned these techniques at the retreat and were so excited to use them in this way.

It is crazy funny to me that I happened to have a BUS COOKIE CUTTER in my stash.  I see this as a sign and reminder that things always happen as they are meant to.

She taught us a lot about magazines.  I learned that many of the magazines we see on shelves print WAY more than they will ever sell because they make their money from the advertisements.  These extras end up in dumps.  Sad.  What makes her publications even more special to me now is the knowing that they have over a 95% sell through.  The money is made is the supply/demand and the selling of them!  Here is the opening page to my article with my studio in the background.

Here are few photos that were published in the magazine featuring my home studio and work space.  You can grab a copy at Barnes and Noble! Go.  Go Now.  If you made it to this point in this post, you want it.  I promise.

I am deeply honored to be on Jo’s bus.  I appreciate her coming to the retreat, teaching us about what it means to truly care and give and being the gift that she is to me and to women.  I hope she loves her cookies.

You can follow along with Where Women Create on their Instagram HERE account or you can visit their website HERE.

Cheers to the Leaders who Change Lives,

Laura