Special Touches

2/9/2017

Wow, it's been a busy few days. So many projects and family obligations all rolled together on top of each other this week. Happily, all weeks are not created equal. One thing that came to the top of my mind today is this ... I work with so many different clients and learn about their businesses, I get to slow down and listen a lot. It's great to hear about a client's company, their vision and goals for their brands. It's refreshing and calming for me to stop doing and listen to someone else's story. One of the things that impresses me most isn't a client's unique product or services, but how they deliver them... the special touches of appreciation. The attention to detail and considerations that they give as they do business.

Local real estate firm, The Core Group,
has this art down to a science.

To thank their clients for entrusting them with the sale of their homes, they wanted to do something special for them. Rather then just pick something up off a store shelf, they have recently commissioned me to create a few custom home portraits of the houses that they've sold. Sometimes the houses that I paint are of their client's first home. I'm still living in the first house that my husband and I bought together in 2000. It's hard to imagine how emotional of an experience selling our house could be. You become attached to a house. The walls are full of your children's laughter, tears, challenges, struggles and growth. Selling a house, with all of its memories, I imagine, would be bitter sweet.

Caryn Dahm Watercolor Artwork Custom art

To bless their clients with a special memento art piece is, well, above and beyond. I find it inspiring and challenging at the same time. I often get so caught up in the daily to-dos and household management that I forget to think like this. I'm more often hyper-focussed on trying to get dinner cooked before my art class students show up at my kitchen door. As we all strive to use our gifts and talents in our businesses, may we get our day to day grind done, but also stop along the way and remember to be thoughtful and generous.