It’s the FIRST EVER Rose Gold Pick! I love Artifice (my podcast) more than almost anything, but I want to be able to feature a wider variety of artful business-owners, and specifically a wider array of artful femmes. So, this is the beginning of a brand-new monthly series wherein I choose a beautiful lady, ask her “what does beauty mean to you?,” and then tell you where to find her and the things she does/makes/sells/curates, etc.
If you need a little background, “Rose Gold” is the name of one of my new songs from Masks. It’s a tribute to the beautiful and how-does-she-do-it ladies of Pinterest and Instagram. And it’s just a teensy nugget of inspiration for this series. My personal “Rose Gold” muses are all sorts of women doing “beauty” in ALL sorts of ways…
AND, I’m VERY excited to feature Loralee Dodson as the very first official Rose Gold Pick!
A little about Loralee…
Loralee has been a restorative personal trainer for 22 years; helping women re-learn to love their bodies, with the side effects of losing weight, getting strong and trying new things. Now she is the Life/Health Coach for fierce, active women over 40 who are adapting to injury, illness, or aging and still kicking ass!
️Loralee currently lives in Florida, but I met her years ago when she was teaching at Lifted Life Yoga in Alpine, UT. I attended Loralee’s class nearly every Thursday for two years, and looked forward to it during all of the days in between.
I started attending yoga classes shortly after my mom was diagnosed with brain cancer. It was an extremely difficult time for MANY reasons—among them, my toxic relationship with my mother had left me with a profound sense of worthlessness, exacerbated and magnified by the permanence of her terminal diagnosis. My self-esteem was basically non-existent.
Loralee exudes beauty in every way, and her confidence is truly intoxicating. I felt beautiful in Loralee’s class. And the longer I attended the class…the more beautiful I felt outside of class, as well. For the first time in my life, I started to actually *believe* that beauty was more about confidence, strength, and kindness than it was some objective measurement of skin-clarity, hair volume, or waistline.
I can’t explain what this meant to me during those years, and what it continues to mean.
As I begin a series on beauty, I want to start off by defining beauty in this sort of intangible way. It’s a feeling, it’s something about presence, and it’s totally subjective (though it doesn’t need to FEEL subjective in your own mind or body). You can own your definition of beauty, you can own your taste, and you can own your sensibilities in a gracious way.
I want to talk about visual beauty in all sorts of forms, as well as ideological beauty. I’ll do my very best to keep this series varied and expansive. If you have recommendations, PLEASE send them my way.
But for today…
Loralee, what does beauty mean to you?
“Beauty means owning your triumphs and your badassery. As a life coach, I work with a LOT of women who are transitioning to fitness (bodies) over 40. My biggest goal for women generally is to remind them to OWN their wins, their triumphs, their work. To show up as THEMSELVES as a woman in 2020. Beauty comes from our thinking. If you want to feel beautiful choose to BE beautiful. The choice has only EVER been yours.”
Loralee, I LOVE you. Thank you for being a source of beauty in my life.
To everyone else, follow Loralee on Instagram @life.coach.lor, and on her website. I’ll be back with another Rose Gold Pick in July.
Happy Beauty Building,
EM