Val Sharp
Redesigning More Than Rooms
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It’s hard to picture Val Sharp sitting at a desk, reconciling financial reports in the rather dry environment that one might find an accountant. But when she graduated from the University of Alberta with a B.Com. – that is exactly where she was headed.
She articled in Edmonton and Vancouver, then left to do marketing for IBM. Soon she found herself back in Calgary designing an accounting system for an oil company. Laid off when the company closed its doors she worked for another oil and gas related company for 3 ½ years as Director of Financial Reporting – in charge of consolidating the company’s subsidiaries. After they were all sold her position was no longer needed and so she left to start her own consulting company.
Val continued to look for work that would truly satisfy her – and took an investor relations position in Vancouver with Macmillan-Bloedel. Not entirely happy with what she was doing, she returned to school – this time in a more creative atmosphere. Attending Vancouver Film School, she received her certificate in multi-media in 1995. Her next position was with Intrawest as Director of Corporate Communications.
“It was an exciting and thrilling position and I loved it. But I worked far too hard and long and after three years was simply burnt out” she tells me.
Like many other women she made the decision to find something that would feed her and give her energy instead of a job that would drain her of energy. “I wanted to do something I was passionate about” she explained.
A little research led her to look closely at Life Coaching. She ate up the training and realized that it not only helped her look closely at herself, her path and life/work/balance, but trained her to help others do the same.
At the same time she also fell upon ReDesign and became trained in the US as a Redesigner. As different as coaching and redesigning seemed – Val was able to draw some significant parallels between the two.
“Coaching is partly about finding what truly makes your heart sing and getting rid of the junk. For some it can take years of hard work to get to where we know we are on the right track – doing what is right for ourselves. Our environment reflects on the outside what is going on inside.
Redesign is about having your home make your heart sing too. Val found that providing ourselves with a nourishing, uncluttered environment expedited the internal process.
“You can change your life, which will lead you to change your home, or you can change your home which will kick-start changing your life.”
And so with two very different businesses started – one in Redesign and one in Coaching – she was not sure at first which of the two would win out as her primary business.
As one of the very first Redesigners in Canada she began to get inquiries from all over Canada about Redesign. Finally she had one woman who had been an interior decorator for 20 years approach her to teach her about redesign. Val decided to take her on – and developed a program based on her own experience and what she had been taught. And so, slowly her business began to morph into the one it is today.
“I never saw myself as a teacher – but the more I taught women how to turn their passion for decorating into a viable business – the more I loved it. There is nothing more gratifying than seeing a woman blossom as her business grows. And as her business grows so does her confidence – and soon she begins to see her own potential as a business woman”.
The uniqueness of Redesign is that Redesigners use what you already own, and makeovers are almost always done in just one day.
Val now spends most of her time teaching rather than doing re-design - although she still keeps her finger on the pulse of the industry because she actually does three redesigns in every course she teaches.
She runs classes all over Canada with only six students per class. This ensures that each student gets the personal attention that they deserve on the 5 day course. In fact she now sees how easy it was to marry both the coaching and re-design into one business
Val has also started the not for profit organization – Canadian Redesigners Association. The purpose of the Canadian Redesigners Association is to provide support and encouragement to members specifically trained in interior redesign, to share interior redesign information between the members to provide ongoing learning and to promote the concept of interior redesign in Canada.
And the not for profit organization has also been set up to give back-- they are proud supporters of the National Ovarian Cancer Association.
What an incredible journey it has been for Val – and most days she feel like she is just beginning. But what an adventure she has embarked on. And where she once wondered whether she would become a coach or a redesigner, it now seems clear that she has become both. Mostly though – it has become the most satisfying career path – and it has been one she has created herself.
“I had no idea of the emotional impact of what I was doing” is what she tells me of both redesigning and of teaching. “This business is much bigger than just moving furniture around and making things look pretty. It is really about making places for people that they want to be in. It is about consciously removing items that make a space uncomfortable – and giving them a peaceful place in their hectic lives.”
By Mandie Crawford |
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