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Take Your Shot . . . and ReBloom!
298 Plays8 months ago
What do you do when your semi-professional basketball career comes to an end? You move to France, meet your life partner, and start a retreat for artists! That is just what Harrison Turner did and what pleasure to hear how he created the fabulous Perigord Retreats for artisans in France. What started six years ago as a side hustle, is now his livelihood and passion. Together with his partner Katel and young son, they have made a special space filled with inspiration that welcomes groups for unique adventures and local cuisine. We are proud to tell his inspirational story in this podcast!
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/perigordretreats/
Other Links: https://perigord-retreats.com/links/
ReBloom is proudly sponsored by Jet Creative and UrbanStems! Jet Creative is a women-owned marketing firm committed to community and empowerment. Looking to build a website or start a podcast--visit JetCreative.com/Podcast to kickstart your journey.
UrbanStems is your go-to source for fresh gorgeous bouquets flowers and gifts delivered coast-to-coast! USE: BLOOMBIG20 to save 20%!
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Purpose
00:00:01
Speaker
Do you have a dream that is a small seed of an idea and it's ready to sprout? Or are you in the workplace, weeds, and you need to bloom in a new creative way? Perhaps you're ready to embrace and grow a more vibrant, joyful, and authentic life. If you answered yes to any of these, you are ready to re-bloom.
00:00:24
Speaker
Welcome to the podcast where we have enlightening chats with nature lovers, makers, and artisans as they share inspiring stories about pivoting to a heart-centered passion. Hello, I'm Lori Siebert, and I am very curious to hear from friends and artisans about the creativity that blooms when you follow your heart. And I'm Jamie Jamison, and I want to dig deep into the why behind each courageous leap of faith and walk through new heart-centered gardens.
00:00:54
Speaker
Each episode of Rebloom will be an in-depth conversation with guests who through self-discovery shifted to share their passions with the world. Get ready to find your creative joy as we plant the seeds for you to Rebloom.
Harrison Turner's Journey to France
00:01:11
Speaker
Hello, welcome everyone to another episode of Rebloom. I'm Lori Siebert. And I'm Jamie Jamison. And today, Jamie, we get the pleasure of talking with Harrison Turner, who I got to meet when I taught at Paragord retreats last September. I'm so jealous. I am so jealous, but now everybody gets to meet him. I'm so excited for this interview.
00:01:37
Speaker
Just wait. He's so charming and the story of how he ended up where he is and what he's doing is so inspiring and so fascinating. So I can't wait to talk to him.
00:01:49
Speaker
Well, let's dive in and hello Harrison and welcome. Well, I should probably start off by saying thank you very much for inviting me. And secondly, I had a hunch that we were going to get on really well Laurie, because both of you are business women and I'm sure you have the same feeling as me. But when you don't really know someone or when you haven't really dealt with someone,
00:02:13
Speaker
And you're going backwards and forwards by email or by text, asking loads of questions and there's just always little bits and it just kind of feels like a never ending thing. That wasn't the case with Laurie. Laurie was kind of, yeah, okay, let's do a workshop. There's one book in, two book ins, three book ins, four book ins, fully booked.
00:02:30
Speaker
see you in September. And that was kind of it. And to me, that's always a massive, massive green flag. People just get on with it. They don't talk about it. They don't ask questions. They just did. They just get on with it. So I had a big hunch that we were going to get on well. And I think I think it turned out really well because you come in back in two thousand and fifty five. Well, that's a pleasure on our mouth.
00:02:51
Speaker
My husband doesn't always appreciate my travel style. He's like, you and I don't travel the same because I just like the week before I start figuring out what I'm going to pack. And yeah, I'm sort of I just roll with it.
00:03:06
Speaker
You know, but you're also a great connector too because you were over there and you met Harrison and you're like, oh my gosh, you have to talk to him. He's incredible. And we had an amazing conversation about social media and growing his social. And I love that. So even though I haven't been there yet, Harrison, but I definitely want to come over. It sounds dreamy and it's going to be amazing. And so we can't wait to hear your story about how
00:03:33
Speaker
you ended up in France because you're not French, are you? No, not
From Basketball to Art Retreats
00:03:38
Speaker
at all. I'm about as English as it gets. So I was originally a basketball player. You know, I was one of those kids growing up that was full of energy and had to stay busy. Like I couldn't sit in a class for eight hours a day focusing.
00:03:54
Speaker
So actually my mum made me start swimming when I was eight years old, competitive swimming. So eight to 12, that's what I did, somewhere between seven and 10 times a week. And that kind of took the edge off my energy levels to a point where I could actually focus at school. But it wasn't my passion. It definitely taught me a lot of things, discipline, responsibility, but it wasn't my passion. So alongside that, I played soccer, what we call football in the UK.
00:04:22
Speaker
But again, I was okay, but I was nothing special, but it was fun. And then when I went to secondary school or high school, I picked up a basketball on my first day of school, first lunch time, three basketball courts lay down next to each other outside. I picked up a basketball and I started playing with my friends. And it really was one of those things where it's just immediately I just fell in love with it. So I went from someone who'd never really played basketball, never considered it as a real option to just
00:04:49
Speaker
just I couldn't get enough of it. So we start school in the UK, we start school in September. So it's just autumn starting, it's getting colder and colder. So I remember that first winter I was out every single night on the driveway shooting a basketball with gloves on, fog, ice, rain, whatever weather, I was just
00:05:11
Speaker
obsessed, absolutely obsessed with it. And that kind of didn't really change all throughout high school. You know, I was that kid that would lunchtime, I'd go and play basketball, we've got our school shoes on, long trousers, t-shirt, tie, and I'm just going covered in sweat after lunch. You know, that was me. So whoever was sitting next to me in afternoon class,
00:05:31
Speaker
They suffered. Poor kids. You know, it's like when you're that age, you think you're going to the NBA, you think you're going to be a superstar. And an infinitely small percentage of people make it. I wasn't part of that.
00:05:49
Speaker
percentage, unfortunately, wasn't good enough. But I did a lot of things with basketball and really, really enjoyed it. I got to play in 17 or 18 countries across Europe in different tournaments. I played in national championships. We won four national championships. Just pretty much won everything there is to win in the UK.
00:06:11
Speaker
without ever being a star, if you like. Well, when I was younger, yeah, I was good. But as you get older, I think I got more and more competitive. And that's when I realized that it was never going to be a full professional career for me. It was never going to be maybe a vehicle that I could use to get some experiences.
00:06:28
Speaker
But realistically, I was never going to become rich. I was never going to become famous. None of that, not that kind of level. So I finished my studies when I was 21, and my parents decided that they wanted to move to France. So this was in my final year of studies. And so in the UK, you do three years of studies, and then you graduate, and then you go into a job. I went to a good basketball university. But it's all, everything finishes at the same time. So when I graduated, I had no club.
00:06:58
Speaker
had no job. And so it was kind of the perfect opportunity for me to try something new. Yeah. And your parents moved. They moved from England to France. So they didn't give you their forwarding address, I hope. Well, yeah, I actually moved out a month after they did. So it all happened quite quickly, really. Yeah. So then I got out there end of November in 2015. And by the middle of January, I'd signed up for the local basketball club.
00:07:27
Speaker
This is in France? Yeah, this is in France. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Straight away, you know, I had to find some friends, to put simply. And this is a club at quite a low level, if you like. But that's actually where I met Cattel, because if you imagine France, actually, the map of France looks like a hexagon. And we're somewhere in the bottom left in the southwest, and she's from the northwest.
00:07:49
Speaker
And she moved down to where we live now. At the same time, I moved down literally a month apart and we both joined the same club at the same time in January.
00:08:02
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a massive, massive coincidence about, um, defense, if you believe in that kind of thing or not. Um, um, I totally do. So between January and May, we didn't really talk much. We kind of just the boys team and the girls team sort of, we, we practiced after each other and some level of games on the same day. So we started hanging around together a bit. Um, and sort of over those next few months, we developed a bit of a relationship and, um, sort of never looked back really.
00:08:28
Speaker
Yeah. Like to the point where my idea was to sort of come to France for a year or two and then learn French and then probably go back to England and because I speak two languages, I'll be more employable while we're able to get a new job. I've been here for eight years now. You know, it's like you find a partner and build a life together and it kind of goes from there really doesn't it? Now we've got our son.
00:08:56
Speaker
But yeah, I'm kind of getting ahead of myself a bit. So I played in this with this club at a low level. And then I moved to a different club in a different town. And that was kind of a semi-professional. So we got paid a bit, but not enough to live on. So it's actually bad. It's really, really hard because you're training like a professional and you're still living like a professional, but you still have to work.
00:09:20
Speaker
So you're just constantly exhausted, constantly exhausted. And you're just doing it for the love of it just because you're passionate about it and nothing else. How long did you do that? So I did that for three years. I mean, I guess it's like when you, my experience with artists is a lot of them had a different career first and becoming a professional artist is kind of a second career for them. Like maybe they worked in
00:09:45
Speaker
in advertising or they did some kind of creative profession and then moved into art from that. Does that sound about right to you guys? So when you're making that transition. Yeah, there's transitions all along the way I think but always something creative if you're lucky.
00:10:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. And when you're making that transition, it's hard because you're kind of doing both. And it's exhausting. Yeah. So that's well. But then how did you go from doing that to being a host of artists retreats? That's a very big leap. That's a huge leap.
00:10:22
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm getting there, if you can bear with me. So because I was only a semi-professional, I still had to work. And obviously I just moved to France, didn't really speak French that well. And I actually ended up working with a guy who had a similar kind of concept to what we do now. And they'd been doing it for quite a while. And I ended up working with them for a season and a half.
Starting a Business in France
00:10:45
Speaker
And at the end of that, I said to him,
00:10:49
Speaker
there's some stuff that you do really well and some stuff that you do not quite so well. And I've got some skills, you know, I studied marketing and business. I think you could, you know, I tried to sort of call out a bit more responsibility to myself. Um, and it didn't, it didn't, it didn't happen. Um, to my benefit actually, you know, so with my parents, we decided that we'd, we would try and do the same thing ourselves. Um, with the property that my parents had bought and then moved to France. Um, so we kind of,
00:11:16
Speaker
I took some inspiration from them and then added a whole load of stuff to it, to major hours and sort of make it work better with who we are as people and how we operate. So I did that with my parents for a few years. My parents retired. So then Katalina and I kind of took over the business after COVID and took things to another level. So we've had our best year.
00:11:42
Speaker
2022, 2023, and this year looks like another incredible year. 2025 looks amazing, even going into 2026. So, yeah, it took our long story short. I never, ever, ever thought I would do anything to do with art. But here we are, you know, just taking advantage of opportunities as they come up.
00:12:07
Speaker
That was a very big pivot. That was a very, very big pivot. Harrison, tell us a little bit about the place, about what you've started. So you were doing basketball, and then you were working. And for many people, they're looking to find their passion and their heart. And you actually found it as a very young boy.
00:12:32
Speaker
and had to leave something that you felt very passionate and loved. But you found something else now that you are, I think, very much equally passionate, maybe in a very different way. But can you tell us about your new business and what it involves?
00:12:47
Speaker
Yes, absolutely. Playing basketball growing up, you learn so many skills that are transferable. Discipline, responsibility, working in a team, and actually just perseverance. You ladies know what it's like when you're starting a business. It just feels like you're confronting a new problem every day and then you find a solution to it and you're like, yes, that's a little win. But on your back pocket, you wake up the next day, you do the same thing again.
00:13:12
Speaker
And then when you look back three years behind you, you think, well, we've come a long way. We've made a lot of progress. And I suppose as much as I was passionate about basketball, I'm also passionate about that process of just sort of solving problems and building stuff from nothing. That's something that's just really, really fun. Fantastic. I think it's like knowing you. I mean, I am just super impressed that you are. Can I tell your age? Yeah, sure.
00:13:39
Speaker
you're 30 years old and you are running this business and like I just was so inspired by your entrepreneurial spirit and like you not only started the artist retreat business but you're also growing on your property and creating products which is a whole nother business. So clearly you are not afraid of
00:14:06
Speaker
approaching a problem and figuring out how to solve it. That's just, I think, in you. Well, I tell you what, that might be an even sillier story. Why we started that. Yeah, tell us about that. Tell us about that. What are you doing? So, we have over 5,000 lavender blanks now on our property. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So, it started as about 20.
00:14:32
Speaker
And then 200, then 400, and over three or four years, we ended up with 5,000. To cut a long story short, we used to take our artists to Lavender Farm as about 40 minutes away. But we're in French countryside, so really, really windy roads, steep hills. And one day we had a client that was, she wasn't sick in the car, but she wasn't far off.
00:14:54
Speaker
And at that point I said, look, I'm not going to this lavender farm. It's lovely, but I'm not going there anymore. I'm bringing the lavender farm to us. We had a field behind the house that had perfect soil for growing lavender. And I thought, well, you know, it wasn't going to take two days to plant a load of lavender plants, and next year they're going to look amazing. And for a month, people are going to have the smell of lavender wafting through the open windows in the morning.
00:15:17
Speaker
They're going to be able to go and take photos with the sunrise and sunset. When we planted the lavender, we took all of these things into consideration so that we could try and sort of make the most of it from that sense. And in the first instance, it was just for artists to paint, to pick, and just to be around. And then at the end of July, that year after the blooming season of lavender, what do we do now? The lavender looks terrible.
00:15:45
Speaker
Yeah.
Expanding into Lavender Farming
00:15:46
Speaker
So we had to cut it. So the first year we cut it, that was it, left it to the next year. Then actually said, well, maybe this year we should distill it. So in the second year, we started selling lavender products. So just one product, it was just lavender essential oils in sort of tiny little 10 millilitre containers.
00:16:04
Speaker
And that sold well. And then we planted more lavender. And then we added a few products. So we added some soap, a body scrub, a shea butter body scrub, a balm. And I think now we're up to about eight or nine different products that we sell primarily to our artists, but also on our Ecomat site online. And we've got it in a few shops. There's lots of tourist shops in our area. So we saw about
00:16:31
Speaker
trying to build a foundation where we can find a solid way to grow over the next few years in that sense too.
00:16:40
Speaker
I love how in your story it seems like you hit a roadblock or an obstacle or some kind of challenge. And instead of just giving up, you figure out a way to make it an opportunity. And I think that's really cool about your story.
00:17:02
Speaker
Yeah, it's just the fun side of it. It's just the fun of solving problems really. I mean, I don't think I'm exceptionally intelligent or I don't think I have any exceptional skills in that sense. I just genuinely enjoy the process of trying to get from point A to point B.
00:17:18
Speaker
Let's take a quick minute and thank our amazing sponsors. Our podcast is proudly brought to you today by Jet Creative and Urban Stems. Jet Creative is a women owned marketing firm committed to community and empowerment since 2013. Are you ready to rebloom and build a website or start a podcast? Visit jetcreative.com backslash podcast to kickstart your journey.
00:17:44
Speaker
They will help you bloom in ways you never imagined. And bonus, our listeners get an exclusive discount when you mention Rebloom. And a huge thanks to Urban Stems, your go-to and our go-to source for fresh, gorgeous bouquets and gifts delivered coast to coast. Use Bloom Big 20 and save 20% on your next order.
00:18:09
Speaker
And don't forget to subscribe to this podcast and follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Rebloom Podcast. Thanks to our sponsors and thanks to you for joining us today.
00:18:22
Speaker
I mean, we talk about, you know, getting into the weeds or the challenges and sometimes people get very discouraged. And, you know, what do you do with old lavender? Well, you turn it into something even more beautiful and create another business out of it. And you never know what's going to bloom if you just try. And that is the beauty of what you're doing, Harrison. You two are
00:18:48
Speaker
really throwing out the seeds and seeing what blooms and but with some research and hard work too. Well that's what I was gonna say that's the other thing that impresses me about you Harrison is because we've had conversations about your the product side of your business and because we're maybe doing some branding together and
00:19:10
Speaker
Yeah, you planted these plants, but when I spoke to you about the brand and what it means to you, you're also researching the land and how to properly use the land. You dig deep when you go into something, so you're not just blindly hopping into something. I think you really research it and figure out what's the best way to do something.
00:19:37
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. So when we first moved up to France, I was thinking about different ways that we could earn money.
Sustainable Practices and Retreat Environment
00:19:45
Speaker
And one of the rabbit holes I went down was actually market gardening. So there's loads of different ways of doing that. You can just sort of exhaust the land, growing things intensively.
00:19:57
Speaker
trying to earn as much money as you can. And that might last 10, 15 years, but it's such a physically intensive job that most people don't do it for much longer than that anyway. So yeah, if you destroy your land in 10 or 15 years, you're going to do something else after anyway. But you have to take the environment into consideration, right? If everyone just made a tiny bit of effort to leave everything slightly better than they found it,
00:20:25
Speaker
the world would be in a much better place. I'm sure we can all agree on that, right? Right. Absolutely. And particularly if you're growing lavender because, oh my gosh, I want to come over there and smell that beautiful lavender too. It's just amazing. Harrison, for our listeners, because it's, you know, can you describe
00:20:46
Speaker
the space that you've created because they're just going to be listening to this and take us on a journey of your space and your farm and the space and what you do when you welcome the artist to France. What does it look like?
00:21:01
Speaker
So we have two houses that are on us. So we've got a fenced property. It's not very big. It's about five acres that's fenced off together. And it's kind of divided into two. So as you come through the front gate, you've got two houses, one that's just to your right and then one that's a little bit in the background on the left. And between the two houses, we've got a covered swimming pool, a jacuzzi surrounded by palm trees, some nice steps walking, going down into the studio that's at the bottom of the house.
00:21:31
Speaker
a truffle orchard in front of the house. So that was there over 100 years old, these truffle oaks and they still produce truffles. We managed to find four or five this year. I've got a friend with a dog who comes in comes and hunts for them with his dog. They're like truffles, but some people do. OK, I'm coming definitely for the truffles. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Yeah. And actually, you know what? Just just just in terms of the experience that we offer,
00:21:58
Speaker
We've won so much since coming in. I can't define it in one way because it depends on the weather, it depends on the season, it depends on what you want to get out of the workshop. I mean, now we've got to a point where we have a list of 60 or 70 locations to visit, depending on what you want. So for example, if you love flowers, then April and May is full of poppies.
00:22:22
Speaker
I mean, the farmers here, they don't use many pesticides. So where you've got a field of wheat in April or May, it looks more like a poppy field. Wow. Yeah, just acres and acres of red poppies. It's phenomenal. So at the start of the season, as we're sort of driving around, we're looking for where the poppies are coming up so that when we're gone, a group who's interested in flowers, they're going to come and paint this field, try and find something nice in the foreground, something nice in the background. So it's not just a boring field of poppies.
00:22:51
Speaker
and then moving on into early summer. So June and July, you've got lavender. And we've actually got three varieties of lavender, the flower at slightly different times. So instead of having a three-week flowering season, we've got six weeks. We're trying to make that season a bit longer so that more people get to experience that. After the lavender, you've got sunflowers. And then early into late summer, early autumn, you've got the vineyards. So if you like flowers and that type of thing, that's something for you. All season, it just depends on what you want.
00:23:20
Speaker
Well, being someone who got got to go there and teach there, what I really so appreciated is your attention to detail. And like every you you allow the instructor to kind of set the itinerary a little bit. My group wanted to do a daily excursion. So off we went every morning to a neighboring village or
00:23:47
Speaker
Josephine Baker Chateau, which was amazing or just very inspiring. She's a phenomenal woman. What an incredible life. Oh my God. Oh my God. That day was one of my favorites. So we go out in the day and morning and get all this inspiration. And then we went back and worked in the studio in the afternoon and then the meals. Oh my God. Because Cattell and the rest of your team,
00:24:15
Speaker
The the food that they serve was out of this world. You just really made everyone feel like they were really special and pampered. And yeah, it's it's a trip that I'll never forget. And I'm so excited I get to come back again.
00:24:34
Speaker
I think the reality of that is we feel a big responsibility because you've got people who are, a lot of our guests who join us, it's the first time they go on this type of workshop and very often it's the last time. So this is kind of a, I don't want to say it's a massive part of their lives, but there's potential for it to be very, very memorable. And we definitely feel that responsibility. So that's why people always ask, oh, can I have an itinerary before I book? And I say, no.
00:25:01
Speaker
I don't know you. I don't know what you want to see. And I want to make sure you get to see exactly what you want. So when you get it, we'll talk about it. We'll be flexible and you'll get what you want. I loved that. And I loved, you know, we even based it on what the weather was going to be like that week to make sure that we
00:25:20
Speaker
You know, we took that into consideration and pulled everybody in the group on, you know, these are the choices of places we can go to.
Managing Retreat Experiences and Creative Growth
00:25:29
Speaker
What are you really most interested in? And but then when we were out and about, you would pull out all this gorgeous food and serve a picnic by a river or like looking at a castle or I mean,
00:25:42
Speaker
But you had it down to such a great rhythm that it seemed effortless, which I know it is not. Well, I think you were our 11th workshop of the season last year. So I think by the 11th workshop, yeah, we were in a pretty good rhythm. You were a well-oiled machine by the way. Yeah, definitely.
00:26:01
Speaker
How many workshops do you do Harrison a year and how many people you welcome each time? So workshops tend to be sort of seven to 12 people depending on if there's a couple or people who don't mind sharing bedrooms. So sometimes there's two sisters who want to share. So yeah, sort of small groups because we find that if you have less than seven, it can be quite intense socially because there's not enough and not enough variety between amongst the group.
00:26:31
Speaker
But if you have more than 12, then it's kind of hard. It'd be impossible for Laurie to give everyone enough time individually if there were more than 12 people. I mean, already most artists come here and they need three weeks to recover because it is intense. It's very intense. So to do that with more than 12 people, it's just impossible. So it's kind of a balancing. Obviously it's a business.
00:26:54
Speaker
you have to make money. So it's a question of balancing group sizes and making sure that everyone can get what they want without, without feeling like a number or, um, you know, we have to keep that personal side to think, but I guess that's what I'm trying to say. You have to, you have to keep it personal.
00:27:10
Speaker
Absolutely. It sounds like you do. I'm sorry, go ahead. Oh, go ahead. No, I was going to say it sounds like you're doing that. There's, you know, the big word bespoke. It sounds like you're really creating specialized, unique experiences for both the artist who's running the retreat and certainly keeping in tune the guests. And, you know, I love
00:27:33
Speaker
I love that you're not forcing not only what you grow on your land, but you're also not forcing people to jump into a particular model. You're encouraging people to do what they love and to experience that. And that's beautiful, Harrison. That really is.
00:27:49
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think we kind of pride ourselves on trying our best to understand what people want to get out of it. But also we do try and push people a little bit as well. So one thing I always say to people is even if you look, for example, a lot of people don't particularly like plein air painting because they're intimidated by the changing weather conditions or people looking over their shoulder.
00:28:15
Speaker
And I've realized over the years that actually you should force people to do it just once. Just once throughout the workshop, just sit there and pay it for an hour. That's it. Just take your journal out, find the quietest spot in the shade and just paint. And no one has ever regretted it. You might be happy with your painting. You might not be happy with it, but you will not regret it because when you confront something that you find difficult,
00:28:39
Speaker
You always, usually you always feel better after. You always feel like you've taken one tiny step closer to the goal. It could be a tiny step. It could be a massive step. And you always come away with positives from that kind of thing.
00:28:49
Speaker
That reminds me of when I taught one of the women in the group, you know who she is. She expressed to me that the reason she came was she wanted to learn how to paint big, bold florals. Well, I specifically don't do big things when I'm teaching overseas because you don't know what the space will be.
00:29:12
Speaker
people are traveling with supplies. And so I was keeping things more tabletop size. So I thought, okay, how can I figure this out to make her happy? So taped four pieces of paper together for 11 by 17, taped them to the walls, then taped newspaper around them so we wouldn't get paint on your walls.
00:29:34
Speaker
and we all painted big bold florals and it was interesting because when I first said that's what we were going to do everyone in the group was a little bit terrified because they tend to paint really small and you know their head down and
00:29:52
Speaker
So this was something new to them, but I think that was one of the best exercises because they all, they faced something they hadn't done and challenged themselves and they ended up loving it. So I think you're absolutely right. You know, just pushing yourself a little bit out of your comfort zone usually ends up taking you somewhere really fun and exciting.
00:30:14
Speaker
I think that is one of the one of the best afternoons paintings that I've seen in that studio. People were so happy. There was just there was a buzz in that room. Yeah, there really was. It was pretty. So we have to thank our friend Greta.
00:30:28
Speaker
Absolutely. Absolutely. Because she's the one who pushed me to like I went to bed that night because I had kind of my itinerary figured out and talk about pivoting. You know I thought okay I want to make sure everyone here is pleased with what they're doing and what they're learning and how can I figure this out and and Cattell went out and got me some large paper that I could tape together and you allowed me to tape it to the walls.
00:30:58
Speaker
I know we didn't get much paint on the wall just a little bit. It's beautiful because you both have expressed when you are when you face challenges it's not a no it's a pivot and how can you make an opportunity out of it and Lori you did it when you were at the retreat and Harrison does it each and every day which is just
00:31:23
Speaker
phenomenal. It begs the question with all these artists around and your love of plein air and were you creative? Are you creative or are you finding joy in creativity now? Do you know what? After following artists around Premiere,
00:31:44
Speaker
I would never want to share this region with anyone but an artist. You guys have this capacity to appreciate things at such a deeper level than just your average tourist. There's so many things that you see that regular people like me don't see.
00:32:02
Speaker
when you talk about contrast, lights and darks, composition within a specific scene. You guys have just got this level of appreciation that it just never gets boring to watch. I mean, I go to these places
00:32:16
Speaker
110, 15 times a year. And I should be bored of it. But what keeps it interesting is the reaction on the artist space. When they get to a spot and then seeing what they produce and seeing how excited they are about it. We never get bored of that. We never get, Kitele and I talk about it so often. We never ever get bored of that.
00:32:35
Speaker
I love traveling with creative people. That's one of the reasons I love teaching because I was just in Oaxaca with a group of artists and we walk through the town and we're taking pictures of doors and shadows and windows and
00:32:51
Speaker
Go ahead. Gross sewer greats on the Great Lake. Everything is inspiration. And in contrast, I've traveled with a group of people who are not artists. And I'm always lagging behind because, you know, they're full speed ahead to the next wherever they're going. And I'm like, oh, look at that. Oh, look at that. So you are completely right. But that's how artists go through life. They they see everything.
00:33:19
Speaker
There's no doubt about it. There's a correlation.
Family and Business Integration
00:33:25
Speaker
I'm sure artists are the happiest people in the world. I'm sure of it. They seem to just kind of... Oh, that's the way they come across to me anyway.
00:33:33
Speaker
Well we certainly certainly in France for a week would be extremely happy but I think you're right we see things you know it's interesting I was a late-in-life photographer and my world and my perspective completely changed because I started seeing things as Lori said you look at great you look at shadows you look at light
00:33:52
Speaker
And even though you go to those same old places, Harrison, I bet now you look at them differently. You see them differently because through an artist's size, it's almost like a child's eye. It's just always different and it's always unique and it's always beautiful. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, to build on that point, when we go to specific villages, there's always certain things that everyone paints. But then there's always new things that pop up.
00:34:19
Speaker
And that's that sort of unique ability of an artist to find the beauty within the mandate. Yeah, absolutely. So I have a question. So you had your passion was basketball. You made a pivot mostly out of necessity. Do you have regrets? Do you miss that passion that you once had?
00:34:42
Speaker
I think I've still got that passion. It's just not with basketball. It's with these new projects that we have and sort of trying to take them in the right direction. So from a passion perspective, no, don't miss it at all. I'm definitely the type of person who likes to go all in and you sort of, you can't manage, you can't do everything. And that was kind of a hard lesson for me to learn because just before COVID, I was playing basketball semi-professionally.
00:35:11
Speaker
I was working in a marketing agency in the Netherlands, marketing and recruitment. We did a lot of that. I was travelling to the Netherlands once a month for a week. I was playing basketball every weekend, training almost every day, trying to work out to stay in shape, trying to find time for cattle. We didn't have Gabriel at this point. It was impossible. I was exhausted. I ended up getting a couple of serious injuries, wasn't doing as well at work as I could have been.
00:35:41
Speaker
Yeah. When you're passionate and you try and do everything, actually it's, it's better to find something that choose one thing that you really enjoy and do more of that and get better at that because you just, you can't do everything. You can't do everything.
00:35:57
Speaker
Harrison, you're so right, and Lori and I are a few clicks older than you are, but you are so blessed in A, you found your passion as a young boy, which oftentimes people don't, but you had that courage to take that leap of faith to find yet another passion
00:36:18
Speaker
early on that sounds like it's going to sustain you and be your life, be a beautiful life because you had the courage to follow your dreams. And that's what everybody should do. And I would imagine you're working in a different way just as hard as you did when you were playing basketball, probably as exhausting but different. Yeah, absolutely. I think one of the best parts of it as well is actually I get to share it with Kacow now.
00:36:48
Speaker
And Gabriel, our son Gabriel, as he's growing up, I mean, he might be involved, he might not be, but the fact that we both have the opportunity to work very close to home in the winter, we've got much more time to spend with him and with each other. And that's really important as well because, well,
00:37:07
Speaker
I suppose I'm lucky in the sense that I can be obsessed with work and it doesn't mean that I have to sacrifice spending time with them because it's combined. We both love it.
00:37:19
Speaker
And yeah, it's a big blessing to be able to do that. I love that. And I got to witness that. I mean, seeing her passion about the food and what she's serving to the guests is equal to your passion of finding the best places to take us to.
00:37:40
Speaker
being charming the whole time. Oh, I think we all need. OK, I'm coming with you, Laurie, when you go to France. I must come. Oh, my gosh. And so Harrison, how do people how do people find you? Do they go through the artist or they go to your website or how would people inquire about having a retreat with you?
00:38:03
Speaker
So, if you're a student and you're looking for a workshop to join, then you can look at the list of artists we've got in 2024 and 2025 on perigord-retreats.com. So, that's P-E-R-I-G-O-R-D-retreats.com. At that point, you could see a list of everyone we work with and if you're interested in a specific artist, then you should definitely reach out to them. They're always more than happy to talk to you.
00:38:31
Speaker
Fabulous.
Conclusion and Invitation
00:38:32
Speaker
And we will have that in the show notes too. So you can find Harrison's links to both his social and to his website in our show notes as well. Well, I love your story. I love it. I'm so glad you joined us and shared this with us.
00:38:48
Speaker
Well, I'm just as interested to hear about your stories. I mean, now's not the time, but from what you've told me, Laurie, and from the discussions we've had, Jamie, you guys have got some really, really interesting projects coming up, and I'm definitely keeping my eye out on all of those. Thank you so much. Thank you for re-blooming with us, Harrison. You're the best.
00:39:08
Speaker
You guys are great too. Thank you very much. We'll be talking soon. We have lots to do together. Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm Jamie Jamison. And I'm Lori Seibert. And we hope you will join us again for another episode of Rebloom. Thank you, everyone. Peace, love and Rebloom, dear friends. Bye bye.
00:39:30
Speaker
Life is too short not to follow your passions, so go out there and let your heart plant you where you are meant to be and grow your joy. We will be right here sharing more incredible stories of reinvention with you. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you never miss an episode of Rebloom. Until next time, I'm Jamie Jamison. And I'm Lori Siebert. Peace, love, and Rebloom, dear friends.