Susie deVille – Age 57
Business Coach, Author, Artist, Founder/CEO, Innovation & Creativity Institute
About me
Susie deVille, award-winning author, artist, and Founder & CEO of the Innovation & Creativity Institute, is on a mission to show entrepreneurs and visionary leaders how to connect with the source waters of their creativity, home in on whom they truly are, and unlock their entrepreneurial potential. She helps business owners and creators learn and leverage the power of trusting themselves and lean into the surprising alchemy of inspired action. Her award-winning book, BUOYANT: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Becoming Wildly Successful, Creative, and Free, is available wherever books are sold.
What do you do and why do you do it?
I help entrepreneurs, creators, and visionary leaders work less, earn more, and feel more calm, clear, and confident by tapping into their innate creativity. The prevalent advice to entrepreneurs and creators is broken (“go all in, we can sleep when we’re dead, and that the way to success and freedom is through more work, discipline, and productivity”). I am passionate about showing a much easier way–one that is joyful, sustainable, and liberating. We are all creative…we are all artists. The cultural lore lies to us when it asserts only a very small number of people are creative. Nonsense! When we unleash our inspired creativity, we have untold access to our imagination, intuition, and problem-solving acumen. It is in this state that we are able to do the work we came here to do–the legacy work we are devoted to that changes the world.
What changed for you after age 50?
I experienced a profound shift in my willingness to be much more visible and vulnerable. I committed to completing my lifelong dream of becoming a published author (and achieved that goal on September 6, 2022). I also answered the profound call of delving deeply into my art practices and made painting, sketching, collage, photography, and mixed media a priority in my life and business.
What would you tell the 20 or 30-year-old YOU?
You are already an artist. + Start before you feel you are ready.
What do you think you’ll tell yourself in retrospect at the end of your life?
I love how you courageously embraced the art of designing and living your ultimate life and how passionate about and effective you were in setting others free.
What impact do you think increased visibility can have on your business?
I am after the highest good for the greatest number. I would love to reach more people (and set them free to do their best work) so that the overall happiness quotient in the world multiplies exponentially and the pressing challenges we face as a society can be better addressed.
Who or what inspires you and why?
I am inspired by artists of all stripes: writers, painters, photographers, poets, and entrepreneurs. Each possesses a deep level of courage to create boldly and to put their work out into the world.
“I want to encourage everyone to embrace the idea that you are already an artist, and it’s just a matter of setting yourself free and uncorking what is innately inside each and every one of us.“
Susie deVille
The Brief
I had an amazing chat with the incomparable Susie deVille. Susie is a speaker, award-winning author of BUOYANT: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Becoming Wildly Successful, Creative, and Free, and Founder & CEO of the Innovation & Creativity Institute, a coaching firm connecting entrepreneurs and business leaders to their innate capabilities, guiding them to lead from a place of creative confidence. Breaking the status quo and creating a wildly-innovative methodology to build successful businesses. She is known for creating “rebels” out of entrepreneurs and leaders who yield lighter workloads and higher profits.
I love any opportunity I have to spend with Susie, including this interview. Fresh from spending 4 months traveling Europe, Susie shared the empowerment of leaving behind the mundane for a while and how being away and having unique experiences and adventures can be transformative. She found joy in disconnecting from her regular life, but for her, the real magic is sharing these experiences, and opening up inspiration and possibilities for others through her own exploration.
Susie’s belief that we are all artists and that creation is the key to opening up our true selves is contagious. She shared touchpoints of her own journey from the trifecta of deep debt, a struggling business, and a divorce hitting all at the same time to he realizations she had as she did the deep inner work of discovering the life she wanted and making it a reality.
The voyage wasn’t easy. There were moments of doubt and struggle, moments when she felt like giving up. But she stresses the importance of persisting even when it feels too hard, revealing that often you’re on the brink of success right when you feel like surrendering.
Overall, her messages resonated deeply with our audience, and we’ve received great feedback, like from Susannah, who found validation in blending her creative and entrepreneurial sides. And if you’re intrigued, be sure to learn more about Susie and her unique mission.
