How An N.S. Businesswoman Turned A Love Of Doodling Into A Thriving Business
HALIFAX — Throughout the pandemic, employers have been dealing with increased stress among staff members. People were more disconnected from one another during a very uncertain time for the corporate world.
One Nova Scotian entrepreneur used her unique online business, Doodle Lovely, to help people relax and meditate under these new working conditions. But you may be surprised at the activity owner Melissa Lloyd encourages in the workplace. As the name of the business suggests, it’s doodling.
Why would an employer want workers to doodle during office hours, isn’t that distracting? Lloyd has done research on the subject and found surprising results. Doodling actually helps you concentrate on a task, quite a lot.
“I spent a lot of time and research on the neuroscience and psychology, just to understand what is happening when we’re doodling,” explains Lloyd. “That was always another passion of mine— psychology.”
“Way back when they used to say you’re not paying attention when you’re doodling in the classroom. It’s quite the opposite; people who are doodling on calls or in a boardroom, they’re actually able to retain 29 percent more information than people who are not.”
According to Lloyd, when you’re doing something creative, like doodling or painting, you are working out the area of that brain that’s used to focus on a task and problem solve. Therefore, employers should, indeed, encourage creative work breaks among employees.
“When you’re in the creative process, you’re in the present moment…when you’re focused on an activity like doodling, it’s building up the muscle in front of your brain which is the prefrontal cortex.”
“Anything you were doing before the doodle; your brain is actually connecting all those pieces together.”
You may be wondering how a businesswoman became so passionate about doodling. Well, before she launched Doodle Lovely, Lloyd spent 20 years in the design industry, working with such major corporations as Disney, Warner Bros, and Universal.
It was a successful career, but a very stressful one. Eventually, Lloyd burned out and that’s when she discovered the therapeutic nature of the pen and paper.
“I was at my dining room table in Newfoundland, and I was taking a break and I picked up a pen and I started to doodle circles. At the time I just got lost in this rhythmic motion.”
“And I thought I need to be able to put these tools out there and give people access to such a simple tool that we all innately have in us.”
Lloyd launched her online store Doodle Lovely in 2016, which sells doodling stationary, pens, cushions, and even a “doodle-by-numbers” series. But it was in September of 2020 that she launched her “Doodle Breaks” initiative, which had her instructing workplaces (via zoom) on how to relax, and even meditate, through the art of doodling.
Doodle Breaks have become so popular that Lloyd gets either a booking or an inquiry about the service five times a week on average. Despite being a relatively new part of her business, Lloyd estimates that Doodle Breaks now make up 35 percent of her revenue.
These office exercises have proven to be popular, due to the accessibility of doodling. As the brilliant Larry David once said on an episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm: “I can’t draw to save my life, but yet I’m a very good doodler, don’t you think that’s ironic?”
Actually, It’s not every ironic, Larry. As Lloyd herself points out, there’s no such thing as a bad doodler.
“A lot of people are afraid of creativity-so doodling is all about being nonjudgmental; if you can draw shapes and lines, you can do this.”