What does it mean to design from a place of deep alignment — not just in what we create, but in how we live and lead?
Roanne Adams has spent two decades building some of the world's most resonant brands through her creative studio, RoAndCo. But a few years ago, something shifted. She began turning her attention from brand identity for others to helping women reconnect with their own.
In this conversation, Roanne and Shannon explore what it means to build from essence rather than expectation, how identity evolves across a lifetime, and what becomes possible when we stop performing and start listening. From a childhood in Paris to building a regenerative wellness retreat in Todos Santos, Mexico, Roanne's journey is a masterclass in the courage it takes to keep becoming.
This is a conversation about personal evolution as a creative act, and what becomes possible when we design in response to what is truly needed.
Photo by Cheyenne Ellis
Roanne Adams
Founder & Chief Creative Director, RoAndCo Studio
Roanne Adams is the founder and Chief Creative Director of RoAndCo Studio, a New York-based creative agency she launched in 2006, known for its artful and strategic approach to branding and design. Over the past 18 years, she has helped launch hundreds of brands and partnered with Fortune 500 companies including Google, Nike, and Estée Lauder.
She leads with a human-centered approach, designing brands that foster emotional connection, cultural relevance, and long-term resonance. As a woman business owner — at a time when only 12% of Creative Directors are women and just 1% own their own agencies — she is committed to elevating women's leadership and is a UN Women's Champion for Change.
Her work has been recognized with ADC's Young Guns 9. She has served on the AIGA New York Board of Directors and was named by T Magazine as one of New York's most outstanding design professionals.
In 2017, she launched Romance Journal, a publication dedicated to exploring consciousness through the lens of visionary women. Her newer body of work, State of Feeling, is a transformational retreat series helping women reignite clarity, creativity, and vision. She and her husband are currently developing a regenerative wellness retreat center and biodynamic farm in Todos Santos, Mexico.
What we explore in this conversation
- ✦ Identity as an onion: what remains when you strip away every role you have been given
- ✦ The "of two minds" framework: integrating the driven self and the romantic, creative self
- ✦ Designing from essence, not expectation
- ✦ Taking full responsibility as the foundation of conscious leadership
- ✦ Breathwork and community as nervous system regulation tools
- ✦ Listening to the land: what regenerative practice teaches us about emergent leadership
- ✦ Slowing down as strategy, not failure
When you start to strip away all of those identities and you're left with nothing — who is Roanne? Who is Shannon without all of these identities? That's been my work over the past ten years.
— Roanne Adams, Episode 01
Taking full responsibility for everything in your leadership. Don't blame it on anyone else. That's the sign of a leader I would want to work with.
— Roanne Adams, Episode 01
I don't see things as failures anymore. I really just see them as learning opportunities — and I want everybody to feel that way.
— Roanne Adams, Episode 01
From this episode
A Conversation with Roanne Adams
This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity and readability while preserving the spirit and substance of the conversation.
Shannon
The most powerful brands don't just look good. They know exactly who they are. Roanne, for listeners meeting you for the first time, how do you introduce yourself and talk about the work you're doing in the world right now?
Roanne
I'm a creative director, a founder, a mother, someone who has spent the last two decades creating brands and reconnecting women with their essence. I built an agency called RoAndCo, a creative studio that has shaped many of the world's most beloved lifestyle, wellness, fashion, and hospitality brands.
Over the past few years, my work has evolved. I'm now building something called State of Feeling — a body of work and a process that helps women shift out of stress and survival mode and into what I call awe and creativity and clarity. It lives through retreats, coaching, and a regenerative wellness retreat center that my husband and I are building in Todos Santos, Mexico.
Shannon
When you look back at the path that brought you here, what experiences feel most defining?
Roanne
Moving to Paris from Connecticut when I was eleven years old was pivotal. My father's job took us there and we lived there for four years. I was fully immersed in a new culture where everything was beautiful and expansive and felt meaningful. I immersed myself in the arts and became obsessed with art history at a very young age.
From there I went to Parsons School of Design in New York. And I always say: what romance is to Paris, opportunity is to New York.
I think there are almost two sides of my personality. That's why some of the retreats I lead are called "of two minds." I have this hardcore pressure on myself to work hard and produce. And then there's this other side of me that's softer and more feminine and more romantic and artistic. Those two sides have come together through these two different businesses — RoAndCo being one and State of Feeling being the other.
Shannon
I'm curious about your relationship with identity for yourself.
Roanne
Identity work is something I've led women through. We take on so many identities throughout a lifetime. As children we're a daughter, a son, a sibling. Then we're good at something. Then we take on a degree and we add another layer and another layer. It's like this onion becomes bigger and bigger.
What's really interesting is when you start to strip all of that away and you're left with nothing. Who is Roanne? Who is Shannon without all of these identities? That's been my work over the past ten years — figuring out what is my essence and who am I below all those identities.
Shannon
What does it take to give yourself permission to change?
Roanne
Some people are just born with it. But most of us were brought up to please other people, make money, support ourselves and others. Oftentimes we can't say no to certain things or let go of an identity that makes us money or gives us external validation, even if it's suffocating us. The way to give yourself permission is to do that deep inner work. Sometimes it just takes another person.
Shannon
You mentioned taking full responsibility in leadership. Can you say more?
Roanne
A truly conscious leader — one who shows up with presence and a regulated nervous system — takes full responsibility for everything that's theirs. Don't put your stress or pressure on other people. The tools I bring to State of Feeling include daily gratitude practice, breathwork, and community. We are social creatures and we need to be with others.
Shannon
You've stepped forward as a leader in regenerative practice, stewarding land in Todos Santos. Where did that come from?
Roanne
I feel a responsibility for everything I have brought into this world. I have birthed thousands of brands, thousands of products — and I feel a sense of responsibility for all of the waste those brands create. My husband and I decided we should just build our own regenerative retreat space. This land had gone fallow, literally three and a half acres of dust. So we started irrigating, getting the soil richness back, and listening to the land — asking it what it wants. Which is a very different way of thinking.
We've really slowed everything down. We've put down our armor, relaxed the very capitalistic plans, and moved onto a more organic timeline. I'm grateful that we set this project up so that it can happen on nature's timeline.
Shannon
What is one possibility you're holding for the future?
Roanne
Maybe we will get to a place where we can turn around the destruction that we have created for the environment. Through regenerative travel, regenerative agriculture, regenerative business practices. Maybe there's a possible future where these ideas will just become commonplace — just become our way of doing business and living. That's my hope for the future.
Shannon
Thank you so much, Roanne. We're really honored to have you as part of Field Notes from the Future.
Roanne
Thank you, Shannon. Your questions have been amazing.