Grounded In Love
Social entrepreneur & artist Michelle Woo is planting seeds for change and learning as she grows.
Michelle’s story is one of following your heart and keeping the faith. She is the Executive Director of The Spanx by Sara Blakely Foundation, and when she’s not on the clock, you’ll likely find this multi-passionate mama of two boys and a baby girl due this spring, tending to her family and her garden with love in her heart and a shovel in her hand.
Her latest labor of love, Hearts & Spade, is rooted in hope and marries her non-profit know how, creative artistry and giving spirit to pay forward the joy and refuge she has found in gardening to support refugees.
Michelle had been prayerfully nurturing an idea for merging and monetizing her passions for five years, but it was during the dark days of the Covid-19 pandemic that a hopeful concept took root and began to bloom.
She went to work hand painting flowers from her own garden to create and sell a 2021 desk calendar donating 10% of profits to transform refugee camps. Now with the help of friend and fellow philanthropist Mallory James, Michelle is turning smart phone thumbs into green thumbs with the launch of a Garden Starter Kit.
The perfect Galentine’s gift, the kit includes tips, tools and inspirational art to dig into a healthy habit - plus 10% of profits go to refugee career training. Kit illustration by Hearts & Spade Founder Michelle Woo via IG.
Back Story
During my ten years at Spanx, I had the fortune of learning from Founder Sara Blakely and rubbing elbows with fellow female power players like Arianna Huffington, Oprah and Diane Sawyer. But it’s the lasting gift of friendship with people like Michelle, and my lifetime supply of Power Panties, that keeps on giving.
I worked with her for five years, have known her for ten and am grateful for her beyond-her-years wisdom which she continues to generously share with Spanx, the thousands of women it supports and countless others, including me.
Please read the interview with my big-hearted, plant-loving friend as she talks about finding joy in the simple things, creating beauty in the best and worst of times and having the guts to share it with the world.
Q&A
YOU’RE A BUSY BOY MOM TO YOUR SONS WATSON AND LIAM AND ARE EXPECTING A BABY GIRL THIS SPRING. HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR PARENTING STYLE?
I had a friend recently share a parenting analogy that made sense to me - you’re either a gardener who focuses on creating the right environment for your kids and nurtures them with the knowledge and acceptance that you have limited control over who they will become, or you’re the carpenter who whittles away with a slightly heavier hand to help form and shape them into their best selves.
I’m likely a little bit of a carpenter in certain moons or seasons, but I definitely, unsurprisingly, identify as the gardener mom who sees my kids as little packs of seeds who arrive without instructions and each with totally different needs and who I’m trying my best to help flourish.
The Woo Crew Dec 2020 (L-R): Watson, Michelle, Liam, and Jordan. Photo by Mary Catherine Brownfield.
WHAT IS YOUR GREATEST WISH FOR YOUR KIDS AND WHAT STEPS DO YOU TAKE TO MAKE IT COME TRUE?
My greatest wish for them is to experience a faith that gives them deep roots.
My Christian faith is the most foundational part of my life, and my hope is that they will experience the sense of peace and grounding that comes with faith in The Lord. I do my best to model my faith for them, pray over them and certainly teach them, but ultimately I know it’s not up to me. I will continue to expose them, in faith, to truths I believe in and steward their hearts, but ultimately I have to entrust those little hearts to the Lord. They will eventually make their own choices. I want them to wrestle through big questions and will always love them no matter what.
HOW WILL YOU AND YOUR FAMILY BE CELEBRATING VALENTINE’S DAY?
Hopefully I’ll be shipping out lots of gardening starter kits! We have three of our four family member’s birthdays and our anniversary in February and early March, and my husband Jordan finds anything too sappy or cheesy pretty cringeworthy. He didn’t even want us to record a wedding video. So despite his request to permanently cancel Valentine’s Day, we will likely celebrate by cooking something fun. He is a great cook, and we’ve really gotten into the experience of it over the past year at home.
And as far as the boys, we generally try and keep things pretty simple when it comes to holidays. We’ll do Valentine’s cards for Watson’s classmates and for neighbors, and probably go for donuts.
TELL ME ABOUT YOUR LONG LOVE OF FLOWERS, AND WHILE I’M GUESSING THIS IS LIKE ASKING YOU TO PICK A FAVORITE CHILD, WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE?
I love flowers and always have with childhood memories of my grandmother’s garden and foraging for wildflowers in the woods behind our house etched in my mind. And through hosting “Flower Potlucks,” I’ve learned that I’m not alone, as flowers have a place in everyone’s heart. They’re there at life’s best, and most heartbreaking, moments. When my grandmother (a master gardener & the loveliest soul) passed away in 2015, my relationship with flowers grew from admiration to a hobby. I consumed every flower book I could find, signed up for workshops, and headed across the country to study under the best: @floretflower.
More than learning composition, color, texture & structure, working with flowers taught me to slow down, pay attention, be present and celebrate beauty.
And in an effort to save some money because flowers aren’t cheap, I invested in growing my own. Year one, I sprinkled seed & prayed for the best. My husband laughed, and I didn’t believe they’d do much either. Then, like a tiny miracle, some actually grew! Just like that, I became a gardener, digging in deeper each year.
As far as favorites, I love peonies, the queen of flowers, but so does everyone else these days, and because I’m a 3, wing 4 on the Enneagram, I have to pick something original like a Snapdragon which I love for their whimsical faces or maybe foxgloves which are so interesting with their stalks and hanging bells and leopard print mouths that seem to be hand painted by a fairy. It’s too hard to choose.
Photo of Foxgloves by Brittney Strange on Unsplash
YOU’VE KEPT YOUR DAY JOB AT SPANX WHILE PURSUING YOUR VARIOUS PASSION PROJECTS. WHAT DO THEY ALL HAVE IN COMMON, AND WHAT ADVICE CAN YOU SHARE FOR FELLOW MULTI-PASSIONATE PEOPLE?
I consider my Spanx role, side hustles and hobbies all to be life giving. Gardening, arranging and painting flowers aren’t only creative outlets for me, they are a form of therapy. After my first son was born, it took some time for me to recalibrate and figure out how to make time for my hobbies which was the best way to care for myself.
My advice to moms, especially those like me, who are energized by putting their energy into multiple projects is to simplify where you can and get comfortable with the word no. If it doesn’t give you life, don’t do it and don’t commit to doing anything out of obligation. There are only so many hours in the day.
Female flower power in action at one of Michelle’s famous Flower Potluck workshops. Photo by Mary Catherine Brownfield
YOU MENTIONED COMING UP WITH THE IDEA FOR HEARTS & SPADE DURING THE TOUGH DAYS OF COVID QUARANTINE. WHAT WAS THE HARDEST PART OF THAT TIME, AND HOW DID YOU HANG ON TO HOPE AND ULTIMATELY DECIDE TO HELP?
When the pandemic hit, I was filled with worry, anxiety and sadness. My job at Spanx put me at the receiving end of countless requests for help, and seeing the implications of the virus around the world was a heavy burden to bare. Gardening was my sanctuary and a needed source of therapy.
As I was researching organizations for Spanx, I felt a sense of sadness and helplessness, but I also recognized the choice I had to take action. I dove into the work at Spanx with initiatives like The Red Backpack fund, and seeing the impact our support made on the lives and businesses of women gave me momentum and hope.
I distinctly remember one morning during my prayer time, being hit with the idea for the Hearts & Spade calendar, and I sat with it for months before taking a step forward. But once I did, the humbling and encouraging feedback kept me going.
It was during the broken, shutting down of social life as we knew it that I found the space, awareness and inspired drive to create something beautiful.
PART OF YOUR MISSION WITH HEARTS & SPADE IS #MOREEGREENTIMELESSSCREENTIME, HOW TO DO YOU RECONCILE THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA AS A FRIEND AND A FOE?
I definitely have a love hate relationship with Instagram and social media in general. On one hand, I love it for it’s visual inspiration and connectivity, and the other hand, I hate it for stealing my time and causing me to compare myself to others, or worse, doubt myself. I’ve found a lot of value in the Enneagram system, and when I look at this ongoing challenge through my lens as a 3 with a 4 wing who craves admiration and originality, it helps me realize that I have to put boundaries in place and make an intentional effort to use it for good without falling victim to the bad.
WHAT IS AT THE CORE OF YOUR PASSION FOR REFUGEES?
10% of every calendar purchase goes to Lemon Tree Trust, a non-profit transforming refugee camps, and each calendar stand was hand-crafted by local Afghani refugee Najib, the founder of Ariana Wood Carving
At the core, it’s through my faith and its teachings on the equal dignity of all people which calls for justice amidst a broken world. As long as I can remember, I’ve been intrigued by and drawn to the reality of connectivity. I’ve traveled abroad every chance I could to places like Morocco, China and the Middle East, including an extended stay living and working in Jordan just after college. While there, I was overwhelmed by the welcome and hospitality I received from the women who befriended me, who invited me to countless meals, weddings and parties and many of whom, had been forced to flee their own homes.
I think we all have causes that hit our hearts in a special way, and for me, that is refugees.
They are the most vulnerable groups who have been exposed to unthinkable trauma, and yet they are so resilient surviving, thriving, inspiring and teaching people in positions of privilege like me.
YOUR MAIDEN NAME IS POULOS, AND I’VE ALWAYS ENJOYED STORIES ABOUT YOUR GREEK HERITAGE. I’M CURIOUS TO KNOW WHAT IMPACT IT HAS HAD ON YOU.
I grew up hearing my paternal Grandmother who is named Khoula and who I call Yia Yia, tell stories about making shoes out of cardboard as a little girl that she’d wear while working the farm or walking miles to the nearest village to go to the market. She and my grandfather grew up dirt poor and continued to live modestly in Wilmington, NC where I grew up exposed to their language, foods, smells and stories that certainly helped form my view of the world and my place within it.
ANY WORDS YOU’RE LOVING RIGHT NOW?
“I have stared long enough at the glowing flat rectangles of computer screens. Let us give more time for doing things in the real world…plant a plant. Walk the dogs. Read a real book. Go to the opera.” - Edward Tufte.
WHO IS A MOONLIT MAMA YOU ADMIRE AND WHY?
My friend and mentor Heather Baker because she models so many of the traits I want to emulate like being fully present when you ‘re with her. She has a beautiful ability to “see” people and their needs and relate to them in that moment. With so much depth and curiosity, she is a beautiful soul inside and out.
Michelle reaping the benefits that she and her garden grew, Photo by Mary Catherine Brownfield.
Michelle’s favorite tools to tend to your soul and learn as you grow.
