#58 - Michelle Crawford: A Creative Life, The Bowmont, and Becoming More Yourself

In this episode, Sam Bell speaks with Michelle Crawford about building a creative life across photography, styling, writing, food, hospitality and community, and becoming more fully yourself through decades of practice.

Michelle is a Tasmanian-based stylist, photographer, writer and host whose work has appeared in Country Style, Graziher, Galah, Inside Out, Lunch Lady and Delicious. She has co-written Not Just Jam and Better Brain Food, and her memoir A Table in the Orchard was published by Random House. She has curated food and cultural experiences for MONA, The Taste of Tasmania and the Huon Valley Mid-Winter Festival.

Today, Michelle brings these many creative modalities together at The Bowmont, a restored 22-room former bank in Franklin, Tasmania. It is now her home, a design-led place to stay, and a setting for workshops, photo shoots, dinners and intimate gatherings.

The conversation moves through creative instinct, Tasmanian silence and produce, making a brave tree change with “no jobs, no money and no idea”, restoring rather than replacing, and the patience required to grow into your own work. Michelle’s quiet influence comes through in the beautiful spaces, images, meals and connections she creates around others.

What you’ll hear:

• How The Bowmont became a home for Michelle’s many creative practices
• Why beauty, silence and natural surroundings support her creativity
• Moving from Sydney to Tasmania and trusting what felt right
• Food, produce and the distinctive creative culture of Tasmania
• Allowing skill and identity to deepen over time
• Japanese craft, repair and respecting the hands behind beautiful objects
• Community building through hospitality, workshops and shared experiences

Guest links:

• Michelle Crawford: https://www.michellecrawford.com.au
• Michelle on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_michellecrawford
• The Bowmont: https://www.thebowmont.com.au/
• The Bowmont on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebowmont

Conversation mentions:

• Do Lectures: https://thedolectures.com/
• fforest: https://www.coldatnight.co.uk/
• Jen Goss’s natural genius: https://youtu.be/wT2YAhpx4MI

Chapters:

00:13 Introducing Michelle Crawford
02:50 Restoring The Bowmont and bringing many skills under one roof
07:06 Beauty, sensitivity and the creative power of silence
10:14 Moving from Sydney to Tasmania
17:30 Taking the leap and allowing time to become yourself
21:02 Family, travel, craft and the long trail of hands
26:00 Designing The Bowmont through history, repair and instinct
33:51 Freelance life, visibility and creating from rest

Explore further:

Discover Natural Genius: https://naturalgenius.com.au
Learn more about Sam: https://samanthabell.com.au
Subscribe to hear future episodes.
Listen via other platforms: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2568387

Credits:

Hosted by Samantha (Sam) Bell in Kiama and Franklin, Tasmania, 16 June, 2026.
Produced at the Kiama office, 16 June - 16 July, 2026.
Photo: Lean Timms.

Natural Genius Podcast https://naturalgenius.com.au

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:02

Welcome to the Natural Genius Podcast. We're here to help you tap into your natural genius. Let's go. I'm about to meet the treat who is Michelle Crawford. We first met when I was seeking a venue for the do lectures in Australia. We met through a mutual friend in Tasmania. We've gone on to catch up rarely. Each time it has been a lush experience created through the warm and welcoming Michelle, usually with fantastic coffee with cream in it or something homemade and cooked that's absolutely delicious. Through to sweet travels around her Tasmania, eating incredible stone fruit that drips down our wrists because it's so lush. She's an absolute inspiration. She has worked in many different creative ventures and is propelled to continue to create beautiful space for others. She is easefully generous and absolutely to be admired the way she can showcase beauty in her imagery and words. I really hope you enjoy hearing the two of us. Absolutely excited to see each other again, and I hope you enjoy being inspired by Michelle. Michelle Crawford, welcome to the Natural Genius Podcast. What a complete pleasure to see each other. It's been way too long.

SPEAKER_01 1:40

It has been a long time, but thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_02 1:44

Pleasure, and you've been such an angel to me. You've been my chassis angel, having met years gone by and then had, I think I might have popped past your place with maybe three different people and then have recommended a few others to you. And each time we've had like either great adventures in your beautiful homestead or traveling together, eating incredible stone fruit with it dripping down our wrists, which is always the great way to eat stone fruit, especially in the amazing Tassie. When I was reflecting on who you are and who I know you to be, I was just thinking about this amazing diverse or portfolio life and career and all these creative ventures that you've been propelled into. Tell me how you come to be so creative and tell me about this latest venture.

SPEAKER_01 2:36

Wow, starting off with the big one.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

You can start off with any small part of that if you like, I don't mind. Or even just say hi, Sam. It's great to catch up.

SPEAKER_01 2:50

Well, I'll start with the building because I just love talking about the building. So um we back in the end of 2019 bought this um old bank in the little riverside village of Franklin in the Hewan Valley, so about 45 minutes south of Hobart. Um, it's uh was built in 1905, so it's a big um 22-room Edwardian bank called the Beaumont that's had a very um checkered history. It's been everything from it was a backpack's when we bought it, but it had been an antique store, it's been a derelict eyesore, it's been um a hospital. So it's had this very chequered past. And so we moved to when we we lived in a little homestead, a little weatherboard homestead, which in Tussie when we moved from Sydney, which was perfect for raising two children and giving them that sort of idyllic um childhood that we wanted. But as they grew up, we kind of needed a new challenge, and this building just seemed to be the perfect place where I could utilise all the skills that I have with um styling and photography and hosting in one building. So um since we've been here, it's just um it's been an amazing place that where I can spread my interior styling wings. So, you know, 22 rooms to play with. Um, the building's designed, we've set it up into three separate spaces. So an Airbnb apartment upstairs, a studio creative space downstairs, and then we live in the back of the building. So we host, yeah, we host workshops here, photo shoots, um, pop-up dinners, and yeah, it's um it's it's been great to have a home that I can utilize all those skills and work for myself.

SPEAKER_02 4:51

So incredible. And tell me about the start of the project. How did you work out to divide it in that way? And did you start with certain rooms and then go, okay, that room's done, let's move on to the next. Look, tell me, tell me more. How do you go from backpackers to where you are now?

SPEAKER_01 5:11

Yeah, we so the way we stumbled like so. We knew the building, like when it was an antique store, we used to come here all the time, and it had been on the market for about 18 months. And um we actually had gone down the path to buy, we bought a farm, we bought 25 acres on the river and was very inspired by places like um the do lectures, where they host their events and um forest. So I kind of wanted to create something like that. So, you know, a place where you could host events, like a versatile old shed that could be converted into all different um purposes, and uh, you know, sort of camping, glamping, cabin type situation. And we went a long way down that path to make that happen on paper. Um, and then when we were ready to build, it was just, you know, it it just didn't feel right, it was too expensive. We were having to make so many compromises on the original vision. And then I just thought about this building and I thought, you know, no one wants it. We can still have a multi-purpose event space, we can still have accommodation, we can still have somewhere to live, but it's already built. It's pretty ugly, but I know once I strip back all the it to the bones, it's a really beautiful building. So we sort of abandoned the idea of the farm and kind of bought this building instead. So we kind of already knew how we could make it work, plus I had to convince my husband um before we actually bought it. So yeah. So yeah, we kind of um yeah, we could sort of slightly shift that vision of what we wanted to do and make it work in an existing building.

SPEAKER_02 7:05

Amazing. Where do you think that your beautiful creativity and drive to style, to photograph, to write, to create incredible experiences for others comes from?

SPEAKER_01 7:19

That's a good question. I I I I guess I've always felt happiest in a space that is beautiful, like even since I was a child, like I'm very sensitive to the surroundings and what things look like, and I get quite anxious if I have to be in a place that doesn't feel good to me. And it's as I get older, it's becoming more and more stronger. My tolerance for being in a space that's not right is um is uh is decreasing. So, and I guess I've just been lucky to have been have worked, like my career path has just been all over the place, but I've been so fortunate to work with people that have not only inspired me but encouraged me to and and noticed those particular skills and encouraged me to develop them. So I guess it's innate, but it's also being fortunate to be in positions where I can develop those skills as I go along.

SPEAKER_02 8:31

It really feels like your community there is part of that secret source in terms of the people that you surround yourself with and the environment, maybe nature, maybe uh proximity, or um I don't know, even things like great antique stores or markets or people just having that propensity or that kind of interest in creating beautiful things. I wonder, tell me more about those around you that help help to support that.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

Yeah, I guess Tasmania does have that, but to me, I find the um the landscape and the the emptiness of it, like there's no one here, and you can you can actually be alone in your own thoughts, which is probably more powerful than sort of being both the people. So I just it's so easy. You drive 15 minutes and you're in the most beautiful natural environment, and you cannot hear a thing. Like, how rare is that where there is complete silence and the only thing you can hear is your ears ringing. Like, to me, that's such a powerful um motivator in creativity when you're feeling burnt out, just need to get away from everything. So I think as much as I'm inspired and encouraged by the things around me, definitely step having the ability to step away and just bring like embrace that beautiful, powerful natural environment is so um beneficial. I think it's for creativity.

SPEAKER_02 10:15

Oh, how wonderful! And it so, how did you decide to move to what what brought about the move from Sydney down to Chassy as opposed to anywhere else in the world?

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Um probably to be honest, it was probably financial. So when we were looking to buy a house, like Tasmania was super cheap. So we were um we were living in Sydney in the inner west, we had a baby, and we just we were looking to do a tree change, as the the they used to call them back then. Yeah, um, and we looked within that two-hour radius of Sydney and nothing felt right. And we also didn't know what work we wanted to do. Like I knew I wanted to work in food, but I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, and my husband was just happy to go with the flow, luckily. And then it was October 2004. Our daughter was 18 months old. We came to Hobart to visit friends for a weekend, and they took us, you know, sightseeing. We went for drives, saw snow, saw beautiful apple orchards, ate incredible food, and um we just fell in love. So we moved back to Sydney, quit our jobs, gave notice on our house that we were renting, and by the first of December, we'd moved here. Like we just put everything in a shape.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Oh, amazing.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

So we just knew it felt right. The the thing with Cobart was that you're in a capital city, so you know theoretically there's more work. And um, and you you know, within half an hour you can be in this incredible rural or regional environment, but you're still half an hour to a capital city, so it ticked on it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:05

I talking about great food, I remember when you a couple of times took us for that amazing sushi. Oh yes, yeah, and and ate that in this beautiful deserted beach, but it was the most amazingly curated, like beautiful looking sushi I think perhaps I've ever had. And then since then I've heard of um uh growing wasabi in Tazi as well. And it tell me about the produce down there and what's delighting you around what you're observing with things like that popping up.

SPEAKER_01 12:46

Yeah, it's interesting. So you've got the old school stone fruit and apples, which is still it the industry's changed, but it's still thriving. So there's a lot of organic growers now, and a lot of people growing heritage apple trees, sort of um get it and sort of cater into a more a smaller market as opposed to trying to compete in the supermarkets. Um, we have um there's a lot of market gardeners popping up, which is just delightful to me. Like we get a box of incredible vegetables delivered every week from a farm just down the road, and they plant really a new, like a good mix of unusual vegetables like ridiculous and um lots of obscure Asian greens, but then you also get your you know, your carrots and your cabbages, so it's a really good blend, and that's just feels like Christmas every Friday when the balls are because it's just been picked that morning and it's it's just amazing. So I'm special. I know I'm loving seeing um that take off and and grow and people really embrace that. But the the funny thing in the Hewan Valley lately is the whole bread roadside bread fridge. Like there are all these um bakers opening up these roadside stalls where they put their produce, it's an honesty box, um, in old fridges. So I think it started on Brunei Island, there's a baker there, but the Hewan Valley has embraced the bread fridge, and they've all gone, they've all gone viral. So you have to get there at 8 a.m. because this is gorgeous on social media, but you can get the most delicious sourdough bread and the most incredible cakes and biscuits and croissants, and this is yeah, it's a real done. You could just travel around and just find their preachers with your cash in hand. Exactly. Some of them are really sophisticated. They've got, you know, one of them's got like a a chill on a stand, like a big iPad, and you just pop in what you buy, and then you tap your card, and they're all, yeah, it's it's such a great um, I don't know, it's such a great trend, and I'm pretty excited by it. You just break bread at your disposal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:13

Well, I know for me, it being in different places around the world, one of the great things is good bread and good market food. And tell me, when I was there, I've noticed this in New Zealand as well. Certain growers don't bother to get the organic certification because it's too expensive. Is that still the case?

SPEAKER_01 15:34

Yeah, so they can they can call it chemical free or um some do, but yeah, there's definitely and I know my grower is so organic because it's just full of like quite often there's you know, slugs and worms, and I feel guilty because I've taken you know, our veg has so much of their little critters. I want to give them back. But yeah, it's still it's it's a there's a lot of admin, there's a lot of hoops to to jump through when you're trying to get certification, and the margins are so small. Yeah, I just think for a lot of growers, especially if you're they're selling direct to consumers, um, and a lot of them are always open for you to come and visit and see where it's grown. And if you need that proof, this is to see where your food comes from. And sort of, yeah, I think a lot of growers opt for that.

SPEAKER_02 16:25

And still plenty of cherries down there as well as apples. So good to hear. Before when I was saying that the stone fruit was dripping down our wrists was with the beautiful Jen Goss, it was massive, so flavoursome peaches. Yes, it's so lovely to talk about curation and being in spaces where they have to be beautiful. I feel like we're so lucky these days. I've got a very another dear friend, Michelle, who uh never ever posts on Instagram, and she is a beautiful cook and has amazing ceramics in her home, and her home is just so perfectly curated. I'm lucky enough to get photos from her here and there that are the bowls that has the figs with ricotta, and then there's maybe something on top, and then there's basil, like she's popped basil on top instead of anything else. And I just love her usualness around curation and beauty.

SPEAKER_01 17:29

I love the sound of that.

SPEAKER_02 17:30

I love that you share yours. I still have such joy in my memory bank of sitting around and um I think your dog Patch like running around and like us drinking beautiful coffee. You humbly create and naturally generate, getting things done and making things happen. What do you think that you would say to that person in Sydney in the western suburbs, or it's somebody who is appreciative of beauty like you are, and wondering whether to take the leap?

SPEAKER_01 18:05

It's difficult, isn't it? Because I mean, we just did it, we just took the leap. And we say that when we moved down here, we had no jobs, no money, and no idea. Like that was kind of but but Tassie's kind of Tassie's got a bit of a there's something magical about Tassie, and maybe it's because it's a smaller place, but when you're used to hustling in Sydney, where it's so competitive, you can sort of come down, you can sort of come down to Tassie and put your foot off the accelerator and just do 100% instead of like and you'll do really well. But um and yeah, and I someone said that to me um when we first moved here, just if you just do what you do and do it and put in a you know a a a nor a reasonable amount of effort, you'll do really well, which is something I've found to be true. But um yeah, it it's always there's almost all people have so many complications in their lives, don't they? And things that are holding them back, whether it's financial or family or emotional. But at the end of the day, like you just really do have to do what makes you happy, I think. And even if it is just a small part of what you do, um you know, but it's and I think the other thing that you do is there's this expectation that you have to be perfect from the get-go, you have to be really good from the start, and people like it. I'm 57, like I've been working on at this for a long time.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

Like this just didn't happen overnight.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Like I've been I've been working on being Michelle Crawford for you know 50s over. So, you know, I've got a 23-year-old daughter who's like, Oh, I'm so you know, I'm really I've missed the boat, I'm too old to go to university. Uh, where am I gonna where am I gonna what am I gonna do if I start uni now? I'll be I'll be 28 by the time I you know get my degree. I oh darling. I just think people need to give them so and I have so many friends in at the same age that we're just you know, we've been, you know, we've had our career out of school, and then we've got had children, we've raised kids, and the kids have grown up, and it's only now that we're in our 50s and early 60s that we're actually just hitting our stride. So if anything, my advice would be just to allow yourself the time to get where it is that you want to be, and just keep you just as the years go by, your skills set gets better and better, and you become a truer version of who you are.

SPEAKER_02 21:02

Oh, such beautiful words. When I read your LinkedIn before, I love the way that you create continuity through those different experiences. How do you think that the kids have been influenced by both Tassie and the various things that mum and dad have done?

SPEAKER_01 21:19

For my daughter, I I think she's not afraid to take a risk, even though she has quite she has a lot of anxiety, but she's not afraid to um, you know, she moved to the UK and lived in the Scottish Highlands for 12 months, and she's just, you know, she went, you know, went traveling throughout Europe on her own, not speaking the language. I think that like maybe that confidence is something that she got from yeah, being in Tasmania and just being out, but you know, being outdoors, going on hikes, and but also seeing being surrounded by a pair and and Friends who were creatives and sort of carving their own path. I think that's probably had an influence on her. Even though she's not quite sure, you know, she what she wants to do or what direction she wants to take. I think that's given her a really good grounding.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

What did she see around the Scottish Highlands? Why did she decide to be there?

SPEAKER_01 22:17

She got a job in a hotel. It was on a walk, a famous walk in Scotland, and it was one of the stops. So um, so during the warmer months it would be people coming like for two one or two nights on there while they were doing this walk, and then in winter it was Scottish events, uh weddings mostly. So lots of winter weddings, and um, yeah, so but the most incredible landscape, nothing else around in Glencoe, this beautiful valley with massive mountains, and yeah, just an incredible part of the world.

SPEAKER_02 22:51

Oh wow, I have absolutely loved my time in various parts of that amazing island. It's um it's the craft and the yeah. Tell me about your inspirations these days because it reminds me of Forest, for example, and Sean and the amazing blankets that she saw. Tell me what you love looking at around the world these days.

SPEAKER_01 23:15

So I've been fortunate to do a lot of travelling in the last couple of years, uh because Elsa was living over there. So I I went to Scotland, we went to Ireland, went to Italy, and then I went on a work trip to Japan a couple of months ago. It's that sense of I I I what I loved, I guess what I took away was that historical the craft and the history of the craft and how ancient it is, a lot of it, especially in Japan and in the Scottish Isles. Just the whole and the the amount of people who are passionate about maintaining that craft in a world of disposability and emu, like there's still people who take great joy from making things that are slow and of the place. I think that's what is so lovely to see in remote places all where I've been anyway.

SPEAKER_02 24:09

Like, yeah, that that tell me about some of the objects that you've loved because you're reminding me of of coffee cups that had the pinches so that the fingers would fit perfectly into them. Like, tell me about objects that you've seen that have just a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

It's gonna be the textiles more than anything. Yeah, the weaving, the people using natural plant materials for the dyeing, like that was very big in Ireland, the ceramics in Tokyo, in Kyoto, but the um the whole kimono, the way the kimonos are made, the amount of hands that the piece of fabric goes through, like specialists, like someone who does the drawing, someone who colours it in, someone who does the outline, someone who does the embroidery. There is this long trail of hands that go towards making one beautiful piece of kimono. Like that, I think struck me as such a yeah, an inspiring and beautiful way to make things.

SPEAKER_02 25:13

So that you can bring things home. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_01 25:15

I know it's tricky, isn't it? Never enough, that's for sure. I bought um one of the favourite things that I bought was all this antique hotel cutlery flatware from Florence. So beautiful, like a bit knackered and scratched. It's silver, and then the knives, the handles are silver and the blade is stainless steel. But I was showing a friend and she said, Yeah, that's because they they they removed the blade and would replace it, right? You know, rather than replace the whole. So it's this I just love that that notion of repairing. Even a ho a fancy hotel in Italy would repair their knives rather than throw them out and buy just you know new things.

SPEAKER_02 26:00

I wonder if we love that partly because of the link to time's gone by. Tell me about each room there and the different styling that you've done. The objects or the pieces, how lucky for the people to be coming into that environment there to be able to have the bonus of your curation from different places.

SPEAKER_01 26:18

When we first got here, we the the the upstairs is a two-bedroom apartment that would have been built for the bank manager. It's the bank manager's residence. So that is when you stay here, you have this two-bedroom apartment upstairs. That's that you get the whole top floor. So that was the first area that we approached. When we bought the building, because it's heritage listed. I did a bit of research um online at the National at the Taz Library Archives. And there are all these um photographs listed, but not catalogued, but not the actual photograph that hadn't been uploaded. So I had to book an appointment and tick which photographs I wanted to see, so I had to make it up, and went into this beautiful room upstairs at the Tassie State Library, you know, bookshelf, like old cases lined with books. And they brought out this tiny little um photo album about this big, by that was owned by this man called Bernard Walker, who was um an art uh quite famous architect in the early 20th century in Tasmania. And it was his photo album filled with photos of the Beaumont in different stages of being built.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 27:39

It was also filled with photos of him having picnics on in the bush or rowing boats with friends, like on the river, like little rowboats and having a picnic, or being running on a beach, like that beach that we went to. These women in those Edwardian outfits, bare feet, like running along the beach, just divine.

SPEAKER_02 28:02

So it sounds like a bit of a mashup of your life and that and your farm as well. So it is kind of like a through line for you as to win.

SPEAKER_01 28:12

He's like my he's like the muse for upstairs. So I always when I had Bernard in my mind to a point, because you have to embellish who Bernard was, because you know, so who doesn't love a great story? Yeah, so he was, you know, he was the president of or chairman of the arts and craft Tasmanian chapter, so big William Morris fan. Um, he obviously he was he was part of the group of people that established the preservation Tasmanian Natural Preservation Board, which turned into national parks. So he was very passionate about creating national parks. Interesting. Um and and also just obviously loved being outdoors, but he spent time in London at the turn of the century. So he was obviously influenced by arts and crafts and William Morris. So that I sort of had I sort of had Bernard in the back of my mind when I decorated upstairs. So it's like if I ever got stuck, what would Bernard do? Like, you know, what would Bernard pick and almost make it feel like you're staying at his house, like he's gone away, like this. So there's like a display cabinet with shells and fossils and books on natural um walks and oh well, you know, a few oars lying around and a fishing rod, but also I kind of like to mix it up a bit because uh and hope that Bernard was inspired by Bauhaus and the modernist movement. So you'll get a bit of you know, mid-century chairs and a bit of contemporary street art to just, you know, not so it looks like a museum to Bernard, but he's sort of like the the thread that helped me make that decision.

SPEAKER_02 30:06

Yeah, I I'm glad to hear street art came in there because earlier in our conversation graffiti came to mind, and I was thinking, why is graffiti coming to mind?

SPEAKER_01 30:15

Yeah, well, you've got to mix it up a bit because you don't want it just to look like a you know 1910.

SPEAKER_00 30:20

You're a progressive gal.

SPEAKER_01 30:22

Yeah, and I I hope I hope that Bernard was too. Well, my Bernard was, yeah. I don't know whether the real one was, but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:31

Cooking must still be part of your world. What have you been cooking lately and what are you enjoying?

SPEAKER_01 30:36

It certainly is, and it's been lovely hosting, you know, we've had some amazing dinners here recently. We did a little event with a cookbook uh author, Emiko Davis, um, based on her book Tortellini at Midnight, where we created um we kind of pretended it was midnight because we're almost at the solstice and um it's so dark. So we just had you know beautiful past. Midnight would have been a long time away, hey. Yeah, so it was seven-ish, midnight-ish. That was a really lovely event, and it was great to have someone from Tuscany come and be inspired by the Hewan Valley and the way we use food. Because sometimes, especially because I've been traveling and you come back and you go, Oh god, it's you know, why aren't I living in Rome or why aren't I living in Kyoto? It's all so cool. To have someone can come and be really impressed with our produce and the way that we we use it was very reaffirming, and that yes, I actually am in the right place. Um, but yeah, so that's we're coming into the winter season now, so still eating lots of apples and quinces and nuts and leafy greens and um lots of slow cooking. We've had a lot of photo shoots here lately for big brands, so it's been nice to cater for the cruise. So I just love making papacha and good sandwiches and nice cakes and still always thinking about food and cooking. Oh, yum.

unknown 32:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:14

I'm so pleased to hear that people have found your place. For a photo shoot, sometimes you need various objects. So I can imagine that it'd be great to be able to go, hey Rochelle, we need it and Italy.

SPEAKER_01 32:27

Yeah, totally. It's yeah, it's the clients that we get just love it that they've got all these things to play with. And yeah, it's it's how did they find you to start with?

SPEAKER_02 32:39

How did you get the name out there about Beaumont?

SPEAKER_01 32:41

I it's really hard to track, isn't it? Like, I don't know. And you just have to keep peddling and hope, like all those little little moments contribute to the memory of someone. I I've got no idea how people find me. Some some friends, a lot of a lot of people come down to Franklin. We're across the road from the river, and it's just so beautiful. Like it's and then they see this crazy building, and hopefully they Google what it is.

SPEAKER_02 33:10

I even looked on Instagram before we got on this call, and I looked at the latest photo that you had, or it might be a pinned one, it just reminded me of Where's Anderson, and I thought, gosh, it's so clever to be able to create imagery that looks into the details, and then also in all different genres, like Where's Anderson as well?

SPEAKER_01 33:35

Well, it's so it's such a beautiful building. Like, I'm so I just love living here and I love being the custodian of this building, but it is just so handsome. The proportions are beautiful, the height's beautiful. Yeah, it's a pretty special building.

SPEAKER_02 33:51

Wow, and what comes next for the Beaumont and for life?

SPEAKER_01 33:56

I really am not a planner. I wish I was, um, but I just and it's really interesting. I've been in the now. I've been working, um writing an interiors book, working with a photographer and a stylist. So it's their book, but they paid me to write the text, the stories about all these buildings. And it was quite an intense project, and it took up a lot of bandwidth, and it was very much a lot of editing, toing and frowing, and design. And once it was designed, you had to re-edit it, just it was constant. Like every couple of weeks, there'd be emails. Can you reply to this? Can you can you respond to this within uh days? So it's almost like I had no other work because and not that I put this out to the universe, but it meant that I could respond and figure, you know, do this work when it needed to be done in a timely manner. And then the book went off to the printer, and within a week, I had nine jobs come in. Like that never happened. Like nine jobs. And um, I was talking to this, I met this woman, and she said just randomly, she said, now that my book's gone, I think I've left I've let the universe know that my energy can now be ready to accept new work, and I've been really busy. And um, because she's just written a book as well. And I was, I thought, oh my god, that's exactly what happened to me too.

SPEAKER_00 35:25

It's almost like the universe looked after you and kept you broke, but you know, no other work coming in. Well then all of a sudden, what?

SPEAKER_01 35:36

Like now I'm sort of yeah, which is the thing, which is what happens with um when you work freelance, it's feast or famine. But it was just so interesting. The minute that the publisher said it's gone to print, yay, we got that email that the phone started ringing, and all of a sudden all this work came in. So um, and I always think I need to be a little bit more plan and talk like do a marketing plan for the next 12 months and do um a a list of you know, a roster of events for the next 12 months, but I never get around to doing that. But that is um, we have four or five events coming up for the next over the next four months. So working on uh a little bit of writing, but whenever I have downtime, it's when I get to turn my attention to the Beaumont and my own business and start thinking about marketing and visibility and what can I do to create more awareness.

SPEAKER_02 36:34

It's such an interesting perspective that you just shared because the more I meet different people, Michelle, the more I think that people are driven in terms of time in different ways. To be able to trust your gut instinct and to be able to create in the moment is something that hopefully is increasingly understood as a skill or as a another great way to be. I really do love at the moment there's a lot more online about productivity comes through those rest periods as well. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 37:06

Oh, you hunt you have to winter. Oh yeah, you just take YouTube from nature, like the trees, everything shuts down. Like I think it's really important as a human to do that, especially when you work for yourself, because you don't give yourself holidays necessarily and you don't schedule those in. But it's so important.

SPEAKER_02 37:25

Yeah, well said. Thank you so much for all the inspiration. Is this anything we might not have covered?

SPEAKER_01 37:31

No, I think I don't really have because yeah, the books, I don't know, it's supposed to be coming out in the fall. It's a US publisher. I can tell in the fall. It's coming out their fall. Um, and it's a book on adaptive reuse, so buildings that were built with a former purpose that have been re-invented as a place where people live without completely eradicating the building's previous purpose. So they've used what was there and created a home. So some really special homes in that building. It was a joy to work on that project. Um, so many beautiful homes all around the world and really amazing people.

SPEAKER_02 38:12

Um my gosh, you're part of another amazing network. And to think of your body of work in your lifetime, like how many different projects you've worked on.

SPEAKER_01 38:21

Yeah, but fundamentally, I think it all has that thread of storytelling, like whether it's styling, writing, cooking, it's all about creating experiences or or creating a feeling that a person would feel by eating or seeing or being in my work. I think it's about that's the the common thread, I think.

SPEAKER_02 38:44

As I wonder if we'll ever get to the stage of having these online, like digital galleries where all of Michelle's amazing newsletters or blog posts and photos and then spaces and then different events you've had. Imagine being able to like wander into this big all of your body of work.

SPEAKER_01 39:06

It's an interesting can conundrum in a dis in a digital world, isn't it? Because so much of what we do now, we spend so much energy creating something so disposable. And that's why it's such a privilege to write a book because it's something tangible that will last technically for a long time. Events I love because you're creating a moment and a feeling, and I don't care if I didn't ever take a photo. I just love the fact that people have been there and it's been this special experience and moment that you didn't feel the need to record and post on social media because you just lived in the moment and those events are so special to me. The memories, it's nice just to have them.

SPEAKER_00 39:48

Such beautiful words.

SPEAKER_02 39:49

Oh, thank you so much for your time. Oh, thank you so lovely to reunite and it's uh inspiration. I I just I so look forward to releasing this conversation so that others can be inspired.

SPEAKER_01 40:07

You I hope somebody finds some little nugget of inspiration.

SPEAKER_02 40:11

A little nugget, we love some nuggets. Thanks for listening to the Natural Genius podcast. Please share this with anyone who came to mind and visit us at naturalgenious.com.au. Thanks so much.