Scaling Out Our Values with Arielle Crawford

The Soft Focus

Are you someone who finds confidence and purpose in learning new things? Do you enjoy feeling personally empowered in your home and garden? Are you always looking to have more control over the supply chains impacting your daily life? If so, this episode is for you.

Arielle Crawford spent the beginning of her professional life as a sustainable fashion designer in New York City. Committed to wearing exclusively natural fibers, she wanted to expand that discipline into other areas of her life. After COVID, she knew it was time to take her skillset and burgeoning confidence to a homestead in rural Texas, and learn how to live off the land.
Today, Arielle walks Corinne through her journey learning about natural building methods and materials. They discuss diving into new projects before being “ready”, gaining confidence from learning new skills, the authenticity of living your life one day at a time, and how pregnancy is a superpower. Arielle is warm and generous with her information and experiences— we know this episode will inspire you to get out there and build something new!

Corinne and Arielle discuss:

• How Arielle chose to leave fashion and New York City, to move to a career in natural building in rural Texas
• Arielle’s principle of “scaling out your values”
• The importance of learning new skills
• Her transition from Brooklyn to central Texas
• How skills from the fashion industry prepared her for the transition to off-grid living
• The special qualities of cob building
• The Hand Sculpted House
• Magical lime plastering
• The personal empowerment from natural building methods
• MOLD and what exacerbates it
• How traditional paint is similar to wearing polyester
• Arielle’s journey to living plastic-free
• Getting to know a bag of flour
• Arielle’s mantra of “Convenience is not my King”
• Basic life skills as a balm for anxiety, depression, imposter syndrome
• The stoic idea that your day is your life
• Arielle’s experience of being pregnant as a superpower
• Living life in a pregnancy biorhythm
• Infusing leadership with femininity

Find Arielle’s non-profit on instagram @therealnesspreserve, as well as her natural building company @texas_cob. Stay tuned for all their offerings in spring of 2024, teaching others about natural building and homesteading skills.

If this episode resonated with you, share it with a friend or leave a review—it helps this work grow.

• Subscribe to The Soft Focus Podcast

And if you’re craving food that aligns with your values, don’t forget to order from the ranch. It’s nourishment that supports your body and the soil.

Connect with us:

[email protected]

IG@latebloomerranch

Thanks for being here.
– Corinne