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 Darla Murray Loomis is an environmental entrepreneur, artist, facilitator and inspirational speaker on “love, beauty, and the creative power,” who understands the importance of balancing and creating a synergy of business, family, and personal transformation.
A third-generation entrepreneur and second-generation award-winning pioneer in the beauty and healing arts industry Darla grew up behind the scenes in the beauty and salon business. However, despite outer appearances, she witnessed the destructive tactics of profit-driven competition and the soul-murdering lives led by those engaged in it. Despite the recognition and acclaim her family business earned and later her own, outer appearances were not inner reality. Darla grew up poor in a family torn by alcohol and drug addiction, often surviving without a child’s basic needs. Many of her colleagues, employees, and clients seemed trapped in similar behaviors. Despite its superficial appearances, Darla learned what “beauty” is not.
Initially drawn to nursing and the healing arts, she later followed her instincts into the beauty industry, graduated from Vogue Beauty Culture Academy in South Bend Indiana, and joined the family business. Working with family proved difficult and painful, for as a woman she received no recognition of her leadership and visionary potential. When her instinct for healing rebelled at the destructive business practices and beliefs she was expected to follow, she left to pursue a unique vision.
On her own and lacking funds, she convincingly persuaded backers to finance her—and became the third generation of entrepreneurs in her family. Focusing on ancient healing arts and a holistic approach to business, she blended her experience in the beauty industry with people’s obvious need for physical and spiritual wellness and pioneered the first day-spa concept in the Midwest. Applying the principles of holistic health—body, mind, and spirit—to her concepts of business, she integrated spirituality and business together in the service of healing into an organization that brought a holistic balance to their business, family, and personal lives.
Her efforts soon gained recognition and respect, and her company became an icon in the industry and a recipient of numerous awards for top sales in North American businesses. When an issue of Executive Journal publishing profiled her unique concept of holistic business, it brought Darla a new role as an educator and a mentor to business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs. Darla was invited to speak at business symposiums and national entrepreneur retreats she assisted on creating synergy of education and energy for sustainable growth. The energy and inspiration she brought to audiences of up to 500 led many to opening their own businesses and expanding on their original visions. Acclaim for her ability to integrate beauty, wellness, and love-based business principles into a unified whole attracted local and regional newspaper reporters and television hosts, who sought her expertise on these issues.
To better understand the spiritual components of wellness, she participated in a two-year program at the Academy of Spiritual Formation.
Darla Murray Loomis illuminates both the light and the dark sides of our human nature. She uses insights acquired in her own psychological and emotional recovery and transformation, and that of others. She is convinced that no one who denies or minimizes these conflicts and oppositions within human nature can succeed in expressing the whole of who we are, or lead others along a spiritual path in business or elsewhere. Consequently, her messages can be both inspirational and challenging. She knows that the road is not easy, but her goal is to motivate and inspire others, particularly women, along the difficult path of entrepreneurship, self-sufficiency and creativity, by sharing stories with them and bringing business and spirituality together in the service of healing. Her vision is clear: to place people and compassion before profit and competition, and that “work is love made visible.”
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