Free to be...: Bohemian Business Spotlight No. 5

I thoroughly enjoyed this interview! It's not that I don't enjoy the others, it's just that Jasai Madden is a woman who provides so much calm in a world full of crazy. She's a lover of "living" as you'll read...Atop all of the positivity that she exudes, she's also the owner and chief mixtress of beauty products at Kitchen Pretty and author of "The New FastGirls." An earthy renaissance goddess indeed! Enjoy!

1. I won't ask your age, but what was your favorite t.v. show to watch growing up?

I absolutely loved Laverne and Shirley. Watched it everyday after school. I think it was in re-runs by then though. LOL! I also loved The Cosby Show and A different World. But only the Dewayne Wayne and Whitley relationship ;)

2. What or who gave you the courage to start a business?

I have been working for myself in one way or another since I was ten years old. I braided hair all through high school and took care of my son for years doing that. I am also an author, having written and published two books, the latest of which, The New FastGirls, has just been released in electronic version on KINDLE and NOOK. So the act of striking out and doing my own thing has been woven into the fabric of me since the beginning. Kitchen Pretty however was born very organically out of my interest in never being laid off again. And so in my quiet listening I heard an opportunity to connect my passion of using food-as-medicine with the business of beauty. One month after I was laid off I began making all-natural, handmade beauty products. That was kind of it. So, the courage to start a business has never been a thing I’ve needed. Now the fortitude to keep going…. that’s something altogether different!

3. Out of all the creative businesses you could have chosen to start, why did you choose Kitchen Pretty and Natural Beauty Products.

It is very much a tale of one thing begetting another. For me, everything started with the fasting. I began to fast in Winter 2008. In doing so I began to get in touch with the deepest most hidden parts of myself. When we access this space, lots of potential that had been previously hidden, surfaces. So fasting of course made me look at what I was eating and looking at what I was eating made me look at what was healthy and what wasn’t. Learning and then beginning to teach others about the healing power of food, I understood that what works to heal the inside of the body also works to heal the outside. So I incorporated those ingredients into the products that men, women and children need and use most often and I had myself a business model. In reading this back it feels more like gift than a choice.

4. Lots of people want to be their own boss for obvious reasons, however they don't understand that it takes a great deal of commitment, and hard work. What's your work day like and how do you stay focused?

If anything is unorthodox about me, this would be it. I just met a woman who is an advocate of tossing out balance and strict structure and working with our natural “Flow”. I would have to say that thus far that – Flow – has been my program. I know what needs to be done and I do it – kinda. I get distracted more often than I am comfortable admitting but I somehow find my way back and on track. And in the process I have usually discovered some other wonderful piece of my wild puzzle that fits perfectly.

Recently I have attempted to adopt a process of noting what I have to do and then checking those things off the list or at least noting what I’ve done at the end of the day. But I really don’t recommend any of this. What I do recommend is that people develop the discipline of listening closely to their lives and rhythms and obeying those directives, however that looks.

5. How do you find the strength to persevere when the challenges seem to outweigh the rewards?

I know that nothing is as it seems. I pout. I nap. I know that nothing is as it seems. I go to the bookstore. I work on another project. I know that nothing is as it seems. And then I get back to work.

6. What inspires you?

Beauty of all kinds: beautiful scents (coffee, lavender, nag champra, the scent of my man) beautiful sights (vistas, flowers, book covers, faces, nail polish), the warmth of the sun, the glow of the moon and ready hearts.

7. What's your go to wine when it's time to unwind? :)

Anything smooth and red. (whites make me tipsy) I am in discovery mode with wines again and it feels like dating. *swoony*

8. Most people who want to start a business don't know where to begin...any suggestions?

Listen. Power down. Get still. Do what you love. Stare at the sky. Stop trying. Kiss the “fails”. Be kind to yourself. Bake something. When we do these kinds of things it opens us up to the vast world inside. A world that most of us have closed down out of fear and shame and programming. Be kind to yourself and what is in there will come out. The best businesses come from that place inside.

9. When it comes to the following words, what advice would you give?

Work: do it honestly and out of love. And if you cant do it out of love yet, tell the truth about why you are doing it so you can get free.

Self: Seek yourself like you would a lost love or child. Never give up and embrace what you find in whatever state you are in.

Life: Know that what we see is only what we’ve chosen to see and that we can always choose differently.

Love: Do it. Don’t stop. And start with you. And then your nearest enemy. And hurry up.

Friends: Love them where they are. And mean it.

10. I define a Bohemian Spirit as someone who is free, unique, and unafraid to make her own stamp on the world. Why are you a Bohemian Spirit

Because I am God’s daughter. Sweetheart to the Sun. Sister to the moon. Free as the breeze.