E36: An artist, mother of three, and former music marketing executive, leaves Los Angeles and builds an international natural crayon and candle business in rural Spain | Clara Infante of Copito in Garraf, Spain

I’m excited to invite you to my conversation with Clara Infante. She is an artist, maker, marketing professional and mother to three young boys. After the birth of her first son, Clara and her husband left Los Angeles and moved back to her home country of Spain. Clara was born in Barcelona, but grew up in Miami. Her dad is from Spain and her mom is French, and she grew up speaking Spanish, Catalan, French, and English. Clara didn't thrive in a school environment and decided to leave high school and not go to college. A lover of music, she opted to take a job working in a night club and managing their social media presence. She began her job at the infancy of social media and learned quickly how powerful Myspace was to build community and expand audience reach for musical artists. She quickly became the liaison for all musicians that played at the venue and pitched her social media management services to bands when she would drive them to the club from the airport. Eventually she was able to move to Los Angeles and became a founding member of an agency representing artists' presence online. While working as a marketing director for a record label, she met her husband, British musician SOHN. It was an instant connection and they very quickly were married and expecting their first baby. Soon after her son arrived, Clara started thinking about making a major life shift. Her previous lifestyle didn't really fit with being a mom and so she decided to leave her corporate job at Sony. Her and her partner wanted to plant permanent roots somewhere but the cost of real estate in Los Angeles was out of reach and they weren't sure if they wanted to raise kids there. While touring rural real estate listings online, Clara stumbled upon her perfect affordable "Los Angeles style" home in the coastal mountains of Spain. The house was an architectural gem - a one-of-a-kind midcentury modern - built almost entirely off-grid from local materials. They moved in only 10 days before the delivery date of their second son. Moving to the countryside awakened Clara's creative side. She realized that being a mom wasn't enough to fill her cup. She knew she didn’t want to work in music anymore - and now she had the financial safety net of her husband's job to be able explore her passions. Clara is candid about the privilege she was afforded that gave her space to explore and experiment. That sense of stability and freedom is what allowed her to open up to her creative side, without initially feeling the pressure to earn an income from it. She started off reselling her children’s used clothes online, and honed her skills as a photographer. She then became interested natural dyeing, and started doing that as well, posting her process online. She learned that she thrives off of feedback in her work and that, in turn, helped her gain exposure along the way. Nowadays, Clara's business is focused on making hand-made crayons and one-of-a-kind sculptural candles - all from natural and mostly local materials. She will often go on little adventures in her landscape to gather plant and earth materials to use as natural pigments and dyes in her products. Each creation is as much a piece of her as it is the landscape she calls home. This is a story about transition, the endless creative pursuit, the importance of filling your cup, and a real talk fairytale of leaving LA for rural Spain. To read her full feature and see images from her one-of-a-kind home visit: www.urbanexodus.com/blog Support the show Sign up for Apple Podcasts premium or our Patreon Membership for ad-free listening, rapid-fire guest interviews & our new mini-pod Ditch the City. urbanexodus.com | @theurbanexodus | buy the book