"I exist in a perfect limbo: one day deeply proud of what we've built, the next already hungry to crush the previous version and do it better."
— Beatriz Barros
Who is Beatriz Barros
Beatriz Barros is the kind of person who makes you reconsider what staying in one place really means. She founded mishmash, a creative company in the merchandising industry, at 23 — graduating top of her class with a perfect score in communications and turning that foundation into something entirely her own. She later sold the majority stake to a Swiss writing instruments partner, and now leads her international creative team from her base in Matosinhos, just outside Porto.
What makes Beatriz particularly interesting to us at SOTIYO isn't just her professional story — it's how she moves. Through ideas, environments, sensory experiences. Through the tension between deep roots and a mind that's always looking outward.
She's the kind of person our brand is made for: someone who understands that comfort isn't about staying still — it's about moving well.
A desk at the intersection of satisfaction and ambition
We reach Beatriz at her mishmash office, surrounded by product samples, color swatches, and half-sketched ideas. It's a place, she says, of intense fulfillment — and constant restlessness.
"I'm doing what I love. Creating. Pushing. Imagining what doesn't yet exist."
But loving what you do doesn't mean comfort — not in the sedentary sense. For Beatriz, it means creative tension. The pressure to be the best, to never stagnate, to always raise the bar. Her desk isn't just a workspace. It's the intersection between satisfaction and ambition — and that tension, she says, is exactly why she's there.
She's rooted in Matosinhos, but quick to point out that staying in the same place was never the full story. Traveling has been her secret weapon — the way she's expanded her perspective, challenged her thinking, and brought new ideas back home.
Moving with the Rhythm,
Not Against It
When we ask about daily movement — not travel, but the everyday rhythm of how she flows through her hours — Beatriz is disarmingly honest.
"I never know exactly what my mindset will be on any given day, so I go with the flow."
Some days she has extraordinary creative energy and will postpone her entire calendar to make the most of it. Other days, she's just a drag — and she's learned to accept that, too. What she's developed over time is the ability to read herself. To align her work with her body's rhythm rather than fight it.
That kind of attentiveness — noticing when to push, when to pause — is something we think about a lot at SOTIYO. Comfort in motion isn't just about the right bag or the right pillow. It starts with being honest about how you actually move through the world.
The Offline Pause That Grounds Everything
Beatriz's office sits inside Matosinhos's market — a setting that creates a rare kind of synergy. Local merchants selling perishable goods, and digitally-focused young entrepreneurs doing their thing. Two worlds sharing the same space.
The moments she returns to most are the small transitions between them. Moving from her desk — where she might be deep in a conversation about a paper collection for a newly opened museum in Dubai — to the world of the market, which is so offline and disconnected from the outside that it functions as a kind of grounding pause.
"That world gives me an incredible reset," she says. It's not a destination. It's a transition. And that's precisely where meaning tends to accumulate.
A Mind That's Always Looking Outward
Beatriz is clear about her relationship with place: she doesn't feel confined by it. She gets tired quickly and craves visual input constantly. She starves for novelty. And when she can't physically explore, she finds ways to bring the world to her.
"What you read, watch, and hear quietly informs your thinking, and I'm always seeking that input to fuel my creativity."
Cities don't shape her in any fixed way, she says. Her mind is always looking outward, and there are no limits to the spaces she explores — mentally, creatively, experientially. It's a way of moving through the world that doesn't require a plane ticket. It just requires staying open.
On Carrying the Right Things
When she moves through the day, Beatriz carries her laptop, her phone, her gym bag, water, and — of course — a notebook and pen. Everything she needs, fully accounted for.
"I never pack light, and I don't really adapt as I go: I bring everything and plan for the worst."
It's a professional hack she's developed over time. A way to make sure she's always prepared, always ready to respond. Not the minimalist approach we sometimes champion — but an honest one. And there's something worth respecting in that: knowing your own system and committing to it.
What Great Design Feels Like
Ask Beatriz what signals good design, and she doesn't hesitate: it's the almost invisible details. The effortless characteristic that might look like nothing at all, but is actually the result of deeply intricate thinking.
"Rarely the obvious end result, but the small, almost invisible details that quietly elevate a piece and reveal the care behind it."
She points to Japanese design as a reference — the way invisible details reflect a deep level of intention. It's a language we try to speak at SOTIYO, too. Design that earns your trust quietly, without asking for applause.
Comfort Is Routine.
Routine Is Connection.
When we ask what comfort means to her while on the move, Beatriz gives an answer that stays with us.
"Routine. Doing what I love on a daily basis, no matter where I am."
And staying connected — to the people she cares about, to their presence, to the ability to see them and feel them nearby. Comfort, for Beatriz, isn't about the absence of movement. It's about what remains constant while everything else shifts.
Fully Present, or Not Really There
In transit, Beatriz leans into touch, smell, and sound. She's not a passive traveler.
"You can only truly take it all in if you fully release yourself into that moment."
She's conscious that without deep immersion, she risks leaving a place as if she was never really there. And that's never a feeling she wants to carry after making a journey.
On avoiding autopilot, she's honest: she doesn't always manage it. But she tries. She schedules ways to break the pattern — working from a different place, finally taking that trip she's been postponing. And every time she comes back from a different environment, something has shifted.
"I'm not the same person who left."
Seoul,
and the Logic of Not Postponing
Her next destination is Seoul — a city she visited two years ago that left a mark unlike anywhere else she'd been. The energy. The people. The environment.
She recently read Die With Zero, and its message stayed with her: live as fully as possible, don't postpone happiness, don't let life slip by. Seoul feels like the right place for that mindset.
A chance to fully immerse. To feel alive.
A Quiet Reflection
Beatriz Barros moves through her days in a way that feels genuinely SOTIYO. Not because she travels constantly or packs light — but because she pays attention. To her rhythm, her energy, the transitions that ground her between one world and the next.
She's built a company from creative tension. She's found stillness in a market stall in Matosinhos. She knows that the invisible details are where real quality lives — and that comfort isn't the absence of challenge, but the ability to move through it well.
That's what we're here to support. The people who move with intention, even when — especially when — they don't always have it figured out.
Discover more about Beatriz Barros
Instagram @beatrizbarros11
Linkedin barrosbeatriz
and see all she is building at Mishmash.pt
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Or keep reading:
A conversation with Ainhoa Cortés: On Carrying Less, Seeing More, and the Quiet Intelligence of Moving Through the World hm and curiosity as refuge, our previous conversation in the series.
