We’ve always believed that forming a strategy is impossible until your clear on what your values and principles are. Without values and principles to guide you, making decisions can seem impossibly difficult. Given how important setting values and principles is to decision making we asked folks we admire to tell us about the values or principles that matter most to them.

Andrea Rose | Animal and Earth Advocate , Co-Founder of Living With Harmony, a Colorado non-profit

I consider myself to be a person with integrity and this principle is a governing force in my life. This also means that several other principles come into play, such as respect, loyalty, compassion, kindness and justice. I find it difficult to say that just one principle matters most to me, because they all interrelated You cannot practice one, without several others becoming involved. I don’t take this lightly because I try to apply these principles to every aspect of my life. Once I identified my moral compass, I found it easy to make decisions because they either supported my beliefs or went against them. Ever since the youngest age I could remember, once I learned about something, I found it impossible to go back in time and pretend that I didn’t know. I would get a nagging feeling in my heart if I tried to ignore a feeling that something was not the right thing to do. I feel blessed that I have this inner guidance and it helps me approach each day with the attitude, “how can I make a difference today?” Read more>>

Courtney Besser | Sound bath facilitator, Reiki Master Practitioner and Teacher, Seer /Intuitive

Integrity!! To me integrity means to be honest with yourself and with others. It also means to be true to yourself and your creative ideas, vision, mission and goals. There may be so many other folks that have the same business as you or have similar offerings or services, but there is only ONE YOU! Read more>>

C.L. Fondal | Singer/Songwriter/Producer

Perseverance! This is so important to me and has kept me sane honestly. It’s amazing when we as people are feeling motivativated, focused, and strong. But what keeps me going when I feel scattered, scared, and confused…Perseverance. The will to always want to be better or find a way out of no way is what keeps me going. Perseverance is my best friend! Read more>>

Tamara Layman | Architectural Interior Designer, NCIDQ, ASSOC. AIA

What I believe in most is pursuing a beautiful, ordinary, life-well-lived. It is a practice about which I continually center myself and my work as an architectural and interior designer. I first became familiar with the idea during architectural graduate school about 20 years ago. While studying for my master’s degree in Architecture at CU Denver I enrolled in a course named “Architecture and the Ultimate Concern” taught by George Hoover who was an accomplished Colorado-based architect and an inspirational professor. Ultimate concern is a phrase that sums up one of the most important universal human conditions: that we are existential beings (think: carpe diem) most profoundly worried about what constitutes a good life. What is good after all and how do we reach it? How does it relate to the built environment and our roles as designers? We deliberated a brief history of philosophy and my Aristotelian-based foundation became clear to me: Good is the activity of pursuing happiness, over the course of an entire lifespan, by deliberately planning, building, and achieving all the truly good things, like knowledge, friendship, health, wealth of experience, and appreciation of art – for the enrichment of our ordinary lives. Pursuing a life-well-lived, in this sense, has very little to do with gross self-indulgence, fame and popularity. Rather, truly good things are attainable by anyone who works toward them, and their achievement elevates both the individual and the universal human condition. So, design should always help people do this. As architectural designers, working at every scale from large urban planning to intimate personal surroundings such as the home, this ultimate concern should be our guiding principle. Read more>>

Jessica Millhiser | Business Operations Consultant

I guess I’ll start by saying, as an entrepreneur, I believe that our personal and professional beliefs are very closely linked as our businesses are an extension of us. So for me, I have 3 main core values for my business, but they are also important to me personally. These three core values are: Authenticity, Reliability and Collaboration. It’s hard for me to pick just one that matters most between the three because they are all valuable and important; but if I had to pick one, I would say Reliability is huge for me. I am a very “I will do what I say” kind of person. I commit to something and I follow through. I hold everyone I engage with to those same standards. I need to know that you’re going to follow through and do what you say you will do. I need to be able to trust that. Read more>>

Ule Logue | Lifestyle Photographer

Authenticity is a core value that I hold in high regard. I believe in capturing genuine connections through photographs, as these moments often hold the most meaning and depth. Additionally, I place great importance on the emotions behind the photos, as they truly bring a photograph to life and make it resonate with viewers. These principles guide my approach to photography as I strive to capture and convey authentic moments that evoke genuine emotions. Read more>>