I was probably six years old when I fell in love with visuals.

Not in some artistic, paint-on-canvas kind of way. I’m talking about sprawling across my bedroom floor, completely consumed by those massive bridal magazines—the ones thick enough to stop a door. I’d trace my fingers over the gowns, the details, the sheer audacity of tulle so voluminous it bordered on absurd. The September issue of Vogue? An annual event in my household. These weren’t just pages. They were permission slips. They expanded something in me before I had language for what that something was.

Here’s what I know now: visuals don’t just show us what’s beautiful. They rewire how we think. They give us language for desires we haven’t articulated yet. They stretch the ceiling on what we believe is possible.

And if you’re a creative entrepreneur, a dreamer with too many tabs open in your brain, or someone who processes the world through images before words—this is your superpower. The question isn’t whether you’re visual. The question is whether you’re leveraging it.

Pinterest Isn’t a Hobby—It’s a Strategy

Let me be clear about something: Pinterest is not a time-waster. It’s not “just browsing.” For visual thinkers, it’s one of the most powerful organizational tools we have access to—and most people are sleeping on it.

I use Pinterest the way some people use spreadsheets. It helps me organize my thoughts while simultaneously expanding my thinking. That’s a rare combination, and it’s wildly underutilized.

On any given day, I might be pinning how to forage through my own Michigan woods to create a wreath for the hearth. Or I’m comparing baby blue with wine-colored full leather pants (trust me, it works). Or I’m deep in gift-giving guides, font pairings for business branding I never would have discovered on my own, holiday tablescapes that feel both elevated and achievable.

This is the magic: Pinterest lets you hold multiple creative threads at once without losing them. It gives your scattered brilliance a beautiful digital home.

When I segment ideas into specific boards, I’m not just organizing—I’m clarifying. I’m taking the swirl in my head and giving it structure. I’m seeing patterns I wouldn’t have noticed otherwise. I’m building a visual roadmap for my businesses, my aesthetic, my life.

Instagram Saves Are Your Secret Weapon

Here’s something most people don’t realize: Instagram isn’t just for consumption. It’s for curation.

Those save buttons? Those folders you can create when you bookmark content? They’re essentially Pinterest boards living inside the platform you’re already scrolling daily. You can build little hubs of everything that inspires you—educational content, styling ideas, quotes that hit different, business strategies, even posts that simply make you feel something.

Start thinking of your saved folders as your personal curriculum. What are you learning? What are you drawn to? What do you keep coming back to? Your saves tell a story about where you’re headed before your conscious mind catches up.

The accounts I follow religiously—women like Sara Blakely, Jenna Kutcher, Emma Grede, the entire Girls Club community—these aren’t just entertainment. They’re education. They’re proof. They’re showing me what’s possible while I’m still building my version of it.

❣️The Discipline of Positivity

I’m going to say something that might sound counterintuitive in our age of “just scroll through it”: you need to be disciplined about what you consume.

We are bombarded. Not just by ideas and marketing, but by opinions, noise, comparison, and content that shrinks us instead of expanding us. The same platforms that can inspire you can absolutely drain you if you’re not intentional.

So here’s my challenge: use these tools with purpose. Curate fiercely. Unfollow accounts that make you feel behind. Save content that makes you feel possible. Build boards that represent where you’re going, not where you’ve been stuck.

This access—this ability to see inside the minds and aesthetics and strategies of brilliant women around the world—didn’t exist twenty-five years ago. We have something previous generations never had. Use it to your advantage.

When Overwhelm Hits (Because It Will)⚠️

Let me be honest about something we don’t talk about enough: entrepreneurship is lonely.

There’s no break room. There’s no work bestie to vent with over coffee. When you’re the boss, the visionary, the one holding all the pieces, overwhelm isn’t a possibility—it’s a guarantee.

I’ve been there. Sitting with anxiety that feels like it’s running the show. Feeling like every platform, every idea, every scroll is just adding to the noise instead of clearing it.

Here’s what I’ve learned: you have to make these tools bend to your will, not the other way around.

Take that overwhelm by the collar. Tell it what you want. Tell it how you operate. Pinterest isn’t happening to you—you’re happening to it. Instagram isn’t draining you if you’ve curated a feed that fuels you. The lasso is in your hands.

You have more power than you think. These platforms, these visuals, these endless streams of inspiration—they’re meant to serve you. They’re meant to expand what’s possible, cement your creative pursuits, and challenge you to be more expensive in your thinking and your life.

The Visual Life is the Intentional Life

Beautiful images have a way of doing two things simultaneously: they ground us in what we already know and they push us toward what we haven’t yet imagined.

They can help you hold a vision for your business. They can help you plan a holiday table that makes your family feel celebrated. They can show you seventeen ways to make a green bean casserole you never knew existed.

Big or small, visuals organize our inner world. They give shape to feelings we couldn’t otherwise articulate. They remind us that beauty is everywhere, and it’s worth pursuing.

So lean into it. Use Pinterest like the strategy tool it is. Build your Instagram saves with intention. Follow women who make you feel expansive rather than inadequate. And remember—the visual life isn’t frivolous.

It’s how some of us do our best thinking.

And thinking, my friend, is where everything changes.

🤍Quinn 

Your turn: How do you use visuals to organize your creativity? Tag me and let me know. @quinn.vise