Creative Genius Podcast

Procurement is one of the most essential activities of any interior design business. But it is time-consuming and fraught with frustrations and headaches. Up to now, designers have not had many options if they wanted to delegate procurement to someone else. Thanks to a new service created by interior designers for interior designers, that is now easier than ever.

In this episode, Gail welcomes back to the podcast interior designer Christi Barbour, founder and partner, Barbour Spangle, in High Point, North Carolina. A few years ago, Christi and her partner realized that their team was spending a lot of time on procurement and procurement-related issues. They decided to hire a procurement manager part-time. They were so pleased with the result that they converted that person to full-time. When they saw how that allowed their designers to focus more on what they do best—designing—they got the idea to develop a procurement service for other designers as well. That service is now available in a membership subscription.

Many designers, especially sole practitioners and those with smaller firms, have difficulty meeting minimum orders or opening accounts with some vendors. Because their firm is located in High Point, Christi explained, they have developed exceptional relationships with many local and national vendors. By using their procurement service, designers can take advantage of those relationships and of the many years Christi and her partner have spent learning how to improve and streamline their procurement process.

“I have a genuine desire to support and uplift our fellow designers,” Christi said. She realized she could leverage her firm’s experience and serve as a partner and catalyst for growth for other firms. It is a win/win/win for designers, vendors and her firm, she said.

Christi said that what makes her firm’s service different from others is that as designers they know what designers need and the challenges they face with procurement. Also, designers don’t need to worry about outlays of cash. Her firm handles all the arrangements with the vendors. Plus, the designer gets more favorable designer net pricing, and they handle warehousing and claims issues.

“Designers spend over 50 percent of their day dedicated to procurement,” Christi said. Her service can help them save valuable time and money. “It’s for anybody who is seeking their highest return on investment for outsourcing their procurement,” she said.

During their conversation, Christi explained how her firm spent over a year streamlining the procurement process to just a handful of touch points. She also explained how the service works and why for most designers it is a better option than hiring a procurement manager for their firm.

For all that and more, listen to the entire podcast.

If you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full shownotes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s11e3-shownotes

Mentioned in This Podcast

If you would like to learn more about Barbour Spangle's procurement service, visit https://www.bsdgprocure.com.

Listen to the previous episode with Christi, on nurturing productive partnership, here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TQEhYdDeb0&pp=ygUQcGVhcmwgY29sbGVjdGl2ZQ%3D%3D

Episode Transcript

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Welcome to the Creative Genius podcast, Kristi. It's great to have you back on and I am so excited to have you. Thank you, Gail. It is always a pleasure and a delight to be part of your podcast and to get to see you. So thank you for inviting me to be with you today. Thank you. Well, you've gone through a lot of changes in the years that you've been in business and

And frankly, you're one of our big success stories. And I'd love for you to share some of the things you've gone through in the last several years. Well, thank you. We first of all, thank you very much for saying that. We greatly appreciate that. And you have been a big part of who we have become and the successes that we have achieved. So.

please know that you are part of that story. And so I would say that was first and foremost is the coaching that we have received through you. And just the advice that you've given us over the years to be nimble and adaptable to the ever -changing landscape of this crazy industry we call design. You know, our core passion has always been about creating spaces that people fall in love with, but with some guidance from you and your team.

we were reminded to not overlook how important the behind the scenes aspect is of running a successful business and being a CEO of a company. And that's really led to a lot of ahas over the years. As you mentioned, we've had quite a few changes. One of which specifically that I'll mention is based off of the fact that over the years and being based in High Point, North Carolina, we have had the true privilege of

creating some really exceptional relationships with vendors. And this has given us the opportunity to get better service, deeper discounts, create those relationships, which we know are so vitally important to the success of any business. Through developing those relationships, we have had the opportunity to better understand the procurement process because of getting to know these vendors and learning the business of procurement.

Over time, we recognized how much time and energy was going into our procurement process. That was certainly something we looked at with you. And so about eight years ago, we made the decision to bring on a part -time expediter and procurement person who pretty quickly got to be full -time over the course of a couple of years. And what we found was a significant shift in our business because we found that by having a dedicated person to procurement,

It allowed our designers to focus on what they do best, what they love to do, and that's design. And then we had a numbers gal and a relationships driven person who got to focus on what she did best, and that's Procure products.

Well, that's interesting because some people do outsource it. And of course, we're going to talk about that. And for you, you decided to bring it in -house. And then you became, I would say, an expert at procurement. And so you have now started a new arm of your business, which is to do procurement for designers. So talk to us a little bit about that.

I would love to. Yes, we made a decision, a choice a long time ago to pull procurement in -house, but we've also cried on your shoulder a number of times over all of the headaches that comes with that. And so I guess the short answer to that is we remember what it's like. We remember what it's like to be faced with.

not having the capital and the cash to be able to make minimum orders and or annual minimums and able to open accounts with new vendors. And so overworking over the last eight years, working to perfect this process and by no means are we perfect, but we certainly have worked hard to perfect it. We have recognized that all that hard work could help others. And so our motivation behind this procurement service

really drives from a genuine desire to support and uplift our fellow community of designers. We're providing a service that can make a difference in their business. It could even be a stepping stone for their business. And so, you know, it gives us a chance ultimately to become a and a catalyst for growth for other designers. in doing that,

I'd like to think that we can provide advice or mentoring or be a resource or an advocate for them when it comes to the procurement of products. And so we're really excited about that because that is a win -win for us to be able to lift the community of designers, our fellow community. So it sounds like that's your why is partly because you've been through the pain. I that's the reason a lot of us start our businesses is because of the pain we've been in.

been through with our businesses. Exactly. That is exactly why we started it. It's just that genuine desire to support and uplift. But you know, Gail, it ultimately it turned out as we developed this, it has turned into a win, win, win. It's a triple win. For the designer that we're working with, it gives them the opportunity to make sales, to become a better value and give better service to their clients. And it increases revenue. And that most importantly, it gives them back valuable.

time. And to our vendors that we've talked with, it gives them the opportunity to sell more products and it prevents them from having to turn away small orders that don't meet minimums. This way they're getting all the orders. And then for us, well, yes, it increases our product sales, but that does ultimately lead to us getting better pricing and having buying power. And it allows us to support our industry and elevate the entire profession of interior design.

So that triple win was really important to us. So why do you think your procurement process and business stand out from other services that are available? Well, we are interior designers, so we're walking that very same path. And we've been there. We remember what it's like to start this process. And so a couple of points that I would say stand out differently or at one, you have a dedicated point of contact. We're not private equity backed.

We don't have fancy chatbots or anything of that nature. We are real humans that are located here in High Point, North Carolina in the middle of the furniture industry. And so that's an important part. The second is designers don't have to worry about an outlay of cash. We eliminate that financial burden, all of the cash exchanges between the client and us. And clients receive pricing that's at designer net or even sometimes below.

which will stretch the designer's budget even further and ultimately the client's budget. we've just,...

Alas, there is no magic formula or time-tested blueprint for running a successful interior design business. One reason is that, despite a number of similarities, each interior design business is unique. Yet, struggling business owners often look to their competition to try to figure out what they should be doing. Instead, they should be asking themselves what will make their particular business profitable.

In this episode, Gail talks with Ali Faulkner, principal designer, AEF Interiors in Orange County, California. Ali opened her firm only five years ago, not long before the COVID pandemic rocked the industry. She’s had a lot of ups and downs, but has managed to hold on and grow her business into a highly successful firm with a team of seven in a relatively short period of time.

Ali explained that when she first started operating her business she made a lot of mistakes. A major one was that she kept turning down smaller projects in the hope of landing some really big ones, because that's what other firms in her area were doing. But, those big projects didn’t materialize. Finding her business on the ropes with little money in the bank, she realized that she could be a lot more successful doing many small but profitable projects.

Ali says owners need to ask themselves, What does my business need to be profitable? “It’s crucial for you to have an understanding of what size project you need and how many you need.”

To do that, Ali said, you have to pay attention to the business side of the firm. Know how it operates and know your numbers. “If you have the interior design skills and you know the business, you have a double whammy,” she said.

Another important component is to have a clear vision for your firm. She said she knew early on that her vision was to use interior design to help people better. “Getting clear on our vision is what has propelled our growth,” she said. “What makes us all different at the end of the day is who we are and the level of service we provide.”

Gail asked Ali what advice she had for other design business owners.  She said,

Lean on your resources. Use whatever is available to learn on the fly.

Know your data and know your business.

Hire people who are smarter than you and then get out of their way.

To hear how Ali got stays motivated despite her setbacks, and more, listen to the entire podcast.

If you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full shownotes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s11e2-shownotes

Mentioned in This Podcast

To learn more about Ali’s firm, go to the website at aef-interiors.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yV3lT2vcZ3M&pp=ygUQcGVhcmwgY29sbGVjdGl2ZQ%3D%3D

Episode Transcript

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Allie, it's so great to have you on Creative Genius Podcast. Welcome. Thanks for having me, Gail. it's our pleasure. So.

I would love for you to tell your story. How in the world did you get started with interior design and tell us about your story in Orange County, just a little bit about you. Gosh, okay. Never very good at making a long story short, but I'll try my best here to give you the spark note version. I used to work in luxury hospitality and consulting. So I used to come from a service -based background and worked in operations. I moved to Orange County six years ago.

for another job. It was my first opportunity in being a part of a startup and actually building a company. I was with them for two years and life happens. Unfortunately, I was a part of a layoff. You take the chance by going to a startup and I had the opportunity, this was like early 2019,

where I started to think to myself, I really enjoy building and a lot of the startup companies I wanted to work for, they were all located up in San Francisco and remote work like wasn't a thing. My husband being the like amazing person he was, like, Ali, like I really love where we're living now in Orange County, like you should look at starting something of your own. And I was like, okay, well, what am I passionate about?

What does it require like a ton of capital to start a business? And I was like, well, you know, what I'm really passionate about is like serving people. And that doesn't require a ton of money to start that type of business. And I believe in myself. I had a strong like belief in myself that I could start something. And so I started to think to myself, like, at the end of the day, like I have a good eye for design people, you know, would say I had cute outfits and I had like

you know, furnished our home and renovate our little $25 ,000 kitchen. And during that time while I was interviewing for other jobs, I would be like trying to take a phone call to take this interview. And the guy who would be showing up to do my tile would be like, Hey, before you go, like what color grout joint and what size? I was like, okay, this process of interior design, like this was terrible. Like the level of like experience and service, like I could make this better for people. So.

I had that light bulb moment in my head. was like, okay, you know, everyone has always said like, you have cute outfits. I had done our home. And it dawned on me that like, I could get into interior design. And while again, I wasn't necessarily accredited, hadn't gone to school for it. I knew what it took to build something from the ground up. And I saw

myself and 10 other people do it at the startup company. So I really had the confidence to believe in myself. So I did a little bit of research, right? And I was like, okay, what, how do you make money doing interior design? And I learned, you know, there's, you know, products that you sell and then there's service. And I said, I'm really good at service. I used to work in luxury five star hotels. I built at client experience before I can build this business.

So that's the spark no version of my journey. And so I started the business in October of 2019, had no idea what was about to happen to the home industry. And I really have take it. I would say like I rode the tailwind of COVID. And I really think that now being in 2024, how we have grown so much of that is me taking risks, but I would say very calculated risks by looking at my data.

which has allowed us to propel and be where we're at, you know, in the less than five years that we've been around for. That's so crazy. Well, how many people on your team now? good question. So it's me plus seven now, which is just like, yeah, it's, I'm so grateful and I never ever would have thought like, we would have the team that we do at this stage of the company. But yeah, me plus seven says, it sounds really weird to say.

Yeah, not bad for just a very short period of time So how did you have this confidence? Where did that come from? Did you just grow up you just born with it? What is it? What I'll say is that I moved a lot growing up I went to three Let's see here two different elementary schools three different middle schools and two different high schools. So I have realized that because of the environment

that I grew up in and I was constantly being thrown into these new spaces and like having to like not eat lunch alone every time I went to a new school that I always kind of just put my best foot forward and knew that like, I'd make a new friend, I'd figure out how to like navigate the new school. I can't tell you how many times like, I think I tried out to be on like a dance team, basketball team, ran for student body president twice and like.

I was treasurer once, so you could say that I succeeded. to me, the way that I think a lot of people think about failure and trying to do things, I think because of how I grew up, it's not really my perception of failure. As long as I learn something from it and as long as I'm not doing the same thing over and over again, expecting the same results, that's truly insanity.

As long as I've learned something by trying something like I'm winning at the end of the day, which sounds really lame and really cliche, but I think that's what gave me the confidence to try to go out and build this business is like I had the resilience to know that like I would figure it out. Like I would find a way. And what I'll say too, cause I did a little bit of research before I got into the industry and there was 2 ,500 interior designers within 25 miles of coast to me. What that means is it's not only a really

I think mindset, this goes back to like what you always talk about, but like a lot of people could be like, 2 ,500 interior designers within 25 miles. Like, how am I ever gonna stand out? My mind, I was like, my gosh, there's gotta be a lot of resources here then. Like if there's that many people, there's probably that many people trying to sell to those people and teach these people. like, so I looked at it as like, wow, there's probably a ton of resources that exist here.

And that's really what I did. Like I listened to podcasts and I learned about all of these, you know, showrooms that existed and third party, like I would say like purchasing houses. Like I learned from my curiosity of the resources that existed. And that's what gave me the confidence is like, I was like,

I just need to know enough to be dangerous and I'll learn everything else on the fly. Like, right? You'll figure it out. You'll figure out that you need a P trap when you have a floating vanity because you'll know someone who knows the right information. it was just knowing that all these resources existed here and not being discouraged by how saturated this Orange County market is because it really is. It's very saturated. Well, obviously it has not slowed you down. they're in your company, obviously you're well,

over a million, probably more. And so we know that when you get to that point, that you have to have some sort of foundational knowledge th

Perhaps at one time or another you’ve considered using a recruiter to help you with a difficult or timely hire. Perhaps, too, after reviewing their fees you decided to conduct the search on your own. Understandable — but did you factor in all the elements involved? A recruiter can do a lot more than helping you find possible candidates. They can make the difference between making a satisfactory hire and making a great one.

In this episode, Gail welcomes back to the podcast Ken Roberts, principal with Interior Talent based in Orlando, Florida. Interior Talent specializes in talent recruitment and retention for firms in the architecture, interior design, engineering, retail and manufacturing industries nationwide. The firm has been serving those industries for 21 years.

Ken said he and the team at Interior Talent think of themselves as “career matchmakers.” They help clients find the best candidates for their firm and candidates to find the best fit for their career plans. He pointed out that for most employers conducting their own search, the process can take up to six months. Their firm usually can fill a position in one to two months.

Ken explained that a recruiter not only can save employers time — time they can better devote to growing their business — but they have industry knowledge and contacts that give them access to candidates who might be a great fit but who are not responding to job postings. They also can help with other aspects of hiring, such as conducting skills assessments, onboarding and retaining employees.

Ken acknowledged that a recruiter is not for everyone. He said, in general, they are best called upon to fill more senior-level positions and in firms with five or more employees. But, he said, clients need to be ready to make the commitment to work with the recruiter. They need to devote time to the process and communicate responsively.

In the second half of their conversation, Gail and Ken talked about succession planning. In particular they discussed what’s involved in identifying and, if necessary, recruiting the right leadership to take over the firm to ensure its future success. Leadership goes beyond competency, Ken pointed out. What makes someone a great designer does not necessarily make them a great leader. In selecting someone to lead the firm, clients need to have a good understanding of where they want to take the company.

For more insights, listen to the entire podcast.

If you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full shownotes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s11e1-shownotes

Mentioned in This Podcast

You can find more information about Ken and Interior Talent on the firm’s website at interiortalent.com.

To listen to Ken’s previous appearance on the Creative Genius Podcast, in which he talked about hiring and retaining employees, listen here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSf2gEe70zM&pp=ygUQcGVhcmwgY29sbGVjdGl2ZQ%3D%3D

Episode Transcript

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Ken, welcome to the Creative Genius podcast. We're glad to have you here with us. And for those of you that don't know Ken Roberts, I'm going to have him share his story. How did he get into being an executive recruiter? Gail, so great to see you. I love spending time with you. So thanks so much for inviting me to be part of this. My pleasure. I know your listeners will be always hopefully get some more exciting stuff like that. You always like to share, but

A little bit about me. Well, I am one of the principals of Interior Talent. We are an international recruitment company based in Florida, but we nationwide and 21 years. And we got into the business. My partner happens to be my wife and she actually started the business. I came on about a year later because I had a lot of experience in the recruiting world, but more recruiting from my team. I managed about 500 employees in the West.

And so I took that experience and kind of joined on forces with her. had some good sales background and always loved what she was doing. And so we took her interior design recruitment specifically business and we expand a little bit more and we started working with architecture firms. And so I jaund on and we said we would do it for a year and if we could still stay together, we'll continue. And here we are 21 years later, still working together and loving everybody. And still married. And still married. Yes, still married.

Good point. Yeah, well, especially there are so many couples that work together and sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. So it's a good sign that you're 21 years in. So congrats. No, it's great. I love her. Yeah. Well, let's talk about what a recruiter is. A lot of people have not used a recruiter and what is it? What do you do? And when is it best to hire somebody to help you with hiring somebody? No, thank you. Great question.

You know, over these 21 years, what's amazing how we've seen, specifically for this industry, more on the interior design side than on architecture, but on the interior design side, lot of companies didn't know what a recruiter was. And we basically, we are that talent acquisition arm for a company. You know, when they're looking to hire, it's a lot of work and takes a lot of time, especially for smaller firms where like the principal and owner is really in the thick of the business to kind of take the time to look at bringing on some additional talent.

So a recruiter like us, we're a niche recruiter, only work in A &D. We are really that resource that you go to when you want to find the very best talent. So we are a team here in Orlando and we have some remote employees that we have great relationships and we take those relationships to help navigate the waters of maybe the candidates that are not qualified to ensure you're getting the best qualified and interested candidates in front of you. And we really take

Because we're so specific to the industry, we really understand this world and we can talk the language. We can be great ambassadors for our clients. And so I like to say we're matchmakers. We are career matchmakers. We're taking great talent with great companies, putting them together. And the whole idea hopefully is to be able to make it a great match. But more importantly is to save the employer, aka the principal, all that time and energy it takes to kind of weed out through all the

Not so great. It is. It is a hard job to hire and find the right people and ask the right questions and go through all the. Resumes and read through it and I know that your expertise and especially 21 years in you have so much knowledge about how to read a resume and probably see things that we don't see that if we're not in the recruiting business, of course we're not going to know all the things that you look for.

Yeah. And you know what it is too is that, know, a lot of people and it's no, it's human nature. want to hire people that we like. Right. So sometimes we can help ensure that the, let's say the qualifications or the technical aspect of that kid, its background is already a match when you're meeting with them so that you can focus a little bit more on whether or not the personalities and culturally they fit within to your company culture and they kind of jive with them.

So it helps kind of, it does speed up the process for sure, but it allows us to, because we look at so many portfolios and so many resumes, we can weed out things a lot faster than most companies can because we just do it all the time. And so you're right, know, it's just a lot of, sometimes a lot of things that they miss and we try to weed through that so that they can really just see the best, you know, the best candidate possible, right? Well, I'm sure you're not for every firm.

because it is an expensive thing to hire, of course, to pay fees to you all. But what size of firm is a good firm size to be working with you? You know, I think it comes down to, well, I would say that typically when we see firms that are maybe about five or more employees, right, typically, because usually at that point, they have a little bit of more structure to them.

You know, when we get the 10 or 15 or 20 employees, they're even more structured, of course, typically. But, you know, when we first started Yelp, we worked with five -person and three -person firms, and we still work with those small firms because they have the least amount of resources. But I think where the right size firm really comes down to understanding how we can work best together and how we can be the ideal partner to support that.

And we understand that, yes, we are not the most inexpensive service that you can hire. We try to do everything we can to let them really see the value in that. But more importantly is making sure that we can truly be partners that really understand what their needs are. And there's time and time again that we tell our clients, especially the smaller firms, like that's not what you need. You don't need that much or you need something different or you can pay less. We really want to help them to understand rather than just trying to get a placement.

Our reputation and our commitment to the industry is way more important than making a placement. Yes, we're a business. We got to make money. Of course, we got to pay the bills. But we know that those those quick placements are not really why we're in business for 21 years. So I don't know. That's a long way of answering your question. Hopefully it does. Well, yeah. And I think because it is an investment, then somebody has to be willing to pay that price.

But when you think about how much time you have to spend going through the recruiting process and placing ads, which you do on their behalf, and then you have to review the resumes and the job descriptions and go through the initial interviews and set those things

Fear can be a positive emotion, protecting us from danger. Fear can also be a hindrance, holding us back from achieving our best, true selves. Deep-seated fears and traumas from the earliest years of our lives may influence our choices and relationships without us even being aware they are doing so. In the name of keeping us safe, they create barriers to growth. Recognizing and getting free of these fears can allow us to live more positive, productive and satisfying lives.

In this episode, Gail talks with Master Life Coach Rhonda Britten, founder of the Fearless Living Institute. The Institute offers coaching and programs to help individuals identify and master their fears. It also offers training and certification for those who want to become coaches. Rhonda is also an Emmy-winning TV host and the author of several books on living fearlessly.

Rhonda related her own traumatic past and how it colored her sense of self and choices into adulthood. Her decision to change led her eventually to understanding the critical role fear plays in our lives and how one can break free from fear.

“Everything comes down to fear,” she said. “Fear loves you. It wants to keep you safe.” That might seem a good thing. But as Rhonda discovered, fear cuts you off from your essential nature, from the activating principle that wants you to live the life your soul intended.

What we normally think of as fears are what Rhonda referred to as fear triggers. The kind of fear she is talking about is a more deep-seated core fear that develops sometime before we reach age five. She identified 10 of these core fears, one or more of which most people are affected by.

Gail asked Rhonda what are the keys to living fearlessly.  Rhonda stated five:

Truly believing that there’s nothing wrong with you.

You do have a soul mission—a calling or purpose.

You are exactly where you need to be. Be willing to forgive yourself for your past.

Recognize your brain is your friend when your brain is in freedom and your brain is your enemy when your brain is in fear.

Ask yourself, Am I making this up or is it true?

For all the details of Rhonda’s story and her insights into living fearlessly, listen to the entire podcast.

If you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full shownotes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s10e10-shownotes

Mentioned in This Podcast

For more information about Rhonda, the Fearless Living Institute, and her books, go to the website at fearlessliving.org. You will also find her podcast and blog on the site.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pv6CO-n0vCE

Episode Transcript

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Rhonda Britton, it is so good to see you and have you on the podcast today. And well, thank you, Miss Gail. Yeah. And here we are. It is July in two thousand and twenty four. I can't believe this. We have known each other almost 10 years. Get out of town. No, I know. Wow. We met each other at a mastermind retreat years and years and years ago.

You've done a lot of different things over the years and I can't wait to talk to you today about what you've been doing and what you're planning to do. But, and I almost hesitate to start here, but I think your story is so powerful and I would really love for you to share this with listeners because the minute I heard that, I mean, I just felt it all over my body and, and every time I hear it and I've heard it so many times now, but it just,

touches me deeply and I just really feel like it has a powerful message to share with other people. So would you mind sharing? No, not at all, Gail. Of course, I'm happy to. I know you're referring to the worst day of my life, right? Because most of us, most of us, the worst day of our life actually becomes the vehicle in which we blossom. You we don't we don't necessarily look at it that way for maybe a few decades or, you know, could be years, could be decades. But, you know, eventually when we look back on our

we can see how the seed of our purpose, the seed of who we are meant to be, the seed of, you know, our convictions is usually birthed on the worst day of our life. And for me, that was when I was 14 years old. And I grew up in this little tiny, tiny, tiny, tiny town in upper Michigan, 365 inches of snow a year, two restaurants, know, Douglas house, hotel buffet and big boy. It's all we had. No McDonald's, nothing, nothing, zero, it Joe? And my parents were in the middle

getting a divorce. And my it was Father's Day and my father was coming over to take my mother and my me and my two sisters out for Father's Day, which is a big deal because there's five of us and we really never went out to eat. And so we're going to go to the Fancy Douglas House buffet. Very excited. And so I'm in my mom's bedroom. You know, she's fluffing up a beehive hairdo, putting on a blue eyeshadow, rose color lipstick. My dad, you know, I can hear him coming in the front door. Come on, come on, come

you know, my mom looks at me and I'm like, okay, I'll go. And so I start walking towards the back door with my father and he starts, you know, yells to my sisters, come on, let's go, let's go, let's go. So me and my mom start walking towards the door. My sisters are still in the bathroom. We have one bathroom, so they're fighting for the mirror. And as we're going out the door, my father, starts raining.

And my father looks at us and says, well, I'm going to go get my coat from the car. And so me and my mother start, you know, walking out gingerly through the rain and my father opens his trunk. And I noticed out of the corner of my eye, he hasn't grabbed a coat, but he has grabbed a gun. And he starts yelling at my mother. You made me do this. You made me do this. And he fires. Now

start yelling, what are you doing, dad? What are you doing? Stop, dad. What are you doing? Stop. And he cocks the gun for a second time, points the gun at me. And I absolutely believe I'm next. He blinks, I blink. He blinks, I blink. We're just frozen in that time moment. And my mother, with literally her last

screams out, no, don't. And my father realizing my mother is still alive, takes that bullet intended for me and shoots my mother a second time. And that second bullet goes through her abdomen and out her back and lands in the car horn. And it just starts wailing. And then my father cocks the gun again.

drops to his knees, puts the gun to his head and fires. So in a matter of minutes, know, two minutes, I was the sole witness of watching my father murder my mother and commit suicide. Now, I don't know how other people would respond to that, but this is how I responded. It's my fault, right? I did nothing heroic during those two minutes, right? I didn't grab the gun. I didn't jump in front of my mother. I didn't, you know, kick his shins. I didn't, you know, I didn't do anything heroic.

And now my mother is dead. And so from that moment, I understood that I don't get to be happy. Right. don't, I don't get to have true happiness. That's out, that's out the door for me. You don't get happiness when you don't do the right thing, right? When you don't save the person you love, you just don't get that. And then for the next 20 years, you know, I lived two lives. On one hand, I got a scholarship to college. I graduated, my class, you know, so on the outside I was

I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. But in the inside, I didn't deserve to be alive because I should be the one that's dead, not my mother. I should be the one. I should be the one. So then for the next 20 years, I lived this double life. On the outside, I pretended everything was fine. Like I said, I got a scholarship to college. It was fine. But in the inside, because of the destruction in my own mind,

and so much fear I was in, even though didn't think it was fear. I never ever uttered the words, I'm afraid, ever. I don't think many of us were trained to say those words, and I definitely wasn't trained to say those words. So for the next 20 years, I tried to kill myself three times. I became an alcoholic. I had three DUIs, spent a little time in jail for that third DUI. And it was that third suicide attempt that I realized something.

I realized that I'm not very good at killing myself. not good at it at all. shouldn't laugh at that, but it's… Yeah, but it is, but I didn't, I'm not good at it, right? And that third suicide attempt, by the way, they put me in a psychiatric ward to evaluate me because now it's my third time. So now they're gonna take me into the hospital. And I don't remember how many days I was there, three, four, five days, and a little straight jacket next to me just in case, little lockdown facility. And I remember my older sister, Cindy Cumming,

I'm in middle of three girls, my older sister Cindy coming to see me. And have you ever experienced Gail, somebody losing hope in you? know, somebody looking at you and realizing that there is no hope that maybe you are damaged goods, that you are never going to change, like you're never going to get over this. Well, that's how my sister looked at me. Wow. And

I could see it, you know, could see it. And I was sent home, my sister leaves, she doesn't live where I was living at the time. I go home to my little tiny studio apartment. And I realize that I have to start over. And so what I do, I think I have a thought. What are you doing kindergarten? And

Well, you get gold stars on a calendar, right? So I actually went to the store, I got a calendar, gold stars. And for the next 30 days, I put a gold star next to anything I did, anything good, anything good. And I'm talking about good meaning I got angry and I didn't break anything. That's where we were, right? Like that's where I was in my life, right? Like, I got angry, right? Or, you know, I didn't have a drink, you know, instead of getting drunk,...

In many parts of the world, life expectancy is increasing. Many adults in the U.S. today can anticipate living into their 80s and possibly beyond. Maintaining a high quality of life in one’s later years requires taking steps now to ensure your future physical, mental and financial well-being. With a sound foundation, the second half of life can be just as fulfilling and rewarding as the first.

In this episode, Gail talks with Michael Clinton, author of ROAR: Into the Second Half of Your Life (Before It's Too Late) and founder of Roar forward. Prior to transitioning to the second half of his life, Michael worked for many years in the magazine publishing industry, holding top-level positions with GQ, Conde Nast and Hearst Magazines. He is also a writer-at-large for Esquire and a regular columnist for Men’s Health.

Michael chose to leave his publishing career and devote himself to promoting and advancing what he calls “the new longevity.” People in a number of countries are not only living longer; they are healthier, better educated and better off financially than the elderly of past generations. They can take advantage of many new possibilities in the second half of their lives.

Michael created the acronym ROAR to sum up his blueprint for successfully aging well into one’s 70s, 80s and beyond. It stands for Reimagining one’s life as one ages, Owning your numbers (assessing your current health and financial status), Action plan to realize the life you want for yourself, and Relationships (found to be essential to happy, healthy longevity).

A key to aging well is engaging in activities and endeavors that are fulfilling and help you continue to grow, such as lifelong learning, exploring, traveling, and spending time with family and friends.

Michael offered three observations on how to capitalize on the new longevity:

Release yourself from self-imposed ageism.

Reimagination and reinvention are possible at any age.

You are probably going to live longer than you think.  Are you prepared for that? How is your physical and financial health? Do you have a sense of purpose for the second half of your life?

During their conversation, Michael also talked about how the new longevity is affecting the economy and how interior designers can take advantage of the new longevity 50+ market for renovation, redesign, second homes, and home building. For all that and more, listen to the entire podcast.

If you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full shownotes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s10e9-shownotes

Mentioned in This Podcast

For more information about Michael and his book, go to the website for Roar forward at roarforward.com. You can also sign up there to receive the newsletter Michael mentioned at the end of the podcast.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnV0HOME314

Episode Transcript

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Michael, welcome to the Creative Genius podcast. So I'd love to know a little bit about your background and then what led you to write the book Roar into the second half of your life before it's too late. Thanks, Gail. It's great to be with you and to see you again. Well, I spent about 40 years in the magazine publishing business in New York City. I was the longtime publisher of GQ. Then I was a senior VP, exec VP at Conde Nast. Then I went over to Hearst.

where I was on the team that launched Oprah's magazine and we launched Food Network and HETV and built out a lot of brands. And I was for the last 10 years, the president and publishing director of the company. And I had a great, wonderful career. As I like to say, I was maxed out. I was ready to sort of think about what's next. And as I was doing that, what I was reading and listening to and hearing out there in the world at large was,

Are you going to retire? you going to wind down? you got to like, wait a minute, that's not on my agenda at all. I don't even like the word retire. It's a false construct that was created by the government 90 years ago. And, you know, people before that used to work and then they died. mean, they worked until they died. So I said, I'm ready for my next act. And I started to do some homework. And I said, I want to write a book on this

And part of it was really to get something off my chest, quite honestly. But what was interesting is I found, you know, I interviewed 40 people and I found people who were very like -minded. And since then I found many, many, many more people who, like yourself, who have said, you know, I'm far from finished. And the other thing that sort of tied into that was this concept of the new longevity. You know, if you're 60 and healthy, you're probably going be 90.

And if you take care of yourself, that's a whole lifetime of, you know, another 30 years of living. And, you know, at 70, another 20, 30 years of living, you know, et cetera. So we can all accomplish a lot more than you'll pardon the expression sitting around and or playing golf. Right. So the book, the book was really designed to sort of stimulate that thinking for people in terms

this concept of the new longevity in combination with all the possibilities in the second half of your life. So that's what took me there. Well, I love it. And thank you for speaking for all of us who are in the more seasoned years of our life. We'll just say it that way. Yeah. Yeah. Well, what does Roar stand for? So when I conceptualize the book, I wanted it to be, I didn't want it to be homework.

know, because a lot of people like groan and go, okay, this guy's gonna lecture with me and so forth. I wanted to be informational, entertaining. I wanted real practical tips and action points that people could follow in their own way in their own life in their own pacing. So we created so roar is an acronym. It stands for how do you start the ours? How do you reimagine and the reimagination process for yourself? The own

The O is owning your numbers, owning your health numbers or financial numbers, your owning your age, owning all the numbers around your life. The A is the action plan and that's life layering is the core to that. And then the R is the relationships that you have because so much of what you're gonna do next is gonna be, you're gonna have to rely on support and your community and your family and your friends to really help you get to where you wanna go.

The book was in four parts and had component parts. And I love the feedback I've gotten from people when they say, your book is a blueprint. It really is a nice blueprint for me to follow. And it's not homework and it's not, you know, it's too, you know, high in the sky, if you will. yeah, so that's the Roar concept. I love it. And I remember you sharing at the retreat when we saw you earlier this year.

that you are getting ready to, I think, run a marathon and you are, again, seasoned. Meaning a few years under the belt, but in a very healthy way. And it's very obvious that your mentality has not slowed down, even though you have reached this level of maturity and you have just so much to offer. So I really appreciate you being this. I would say just later in this particular area of

that all of us should be concerned about at some point. And probably a lot of people aren't even thinking about until they hit about 50. But it is a very vital topic that really should be covered because I don't believe people need to act old, look old, be old at whatever age they are, 60 plus. Yeah, no. I think, thank you. I think I've become the accidental role model. That wasn't my plan, but I'm sort of I'm proudly wearing the moniker.

because what I've realized, and I like to make, know, the new longevity movement is really a social movement. It's really being driven by people who are redefining the second half of life. And I always make the analogy that the women's movement, you know, in the seventies, when it really changed the role models for women as to who they could be and what they could become and the choices they could make about their lives. Today,

Today's 25 year old woman looks at so many different kinds of role models that she can choose from and say, you know, I want to launch my own business. I want to be a CEO. I want to be a senator. I want to be on the Supreme Court. know, pick your ambition. What I'm hoping is that people like me and others are creating the role models for not just ourselves, but for for younger people who look at us and say, I didn't realize you could do that at 60.

I didn't realize you could start a new career or launch a new business or run a marathon or, you know, pick, pick whatever subject it is. So I think it's important. You know, there's this great line, Gail, you can't be it unless you see it. And, know, right. And think about now, think about so many of the role models that are already there in the celebrity culture. know, Oprah just turned 70. You know, she looks amazing.

You know, if you look at Jennifer Lopez, she's in her 50s. If you look at Cindy Crawford, she's about to turn 60. I mean, the redefinition of what 60, 50, 60, 70 looks like is changing before our very eyes. And the behaviors that go with that, possibilities of things. I was just at a graduation ceremony for a friend of mine. She just graduated from veterinary school and she's 60.

I love it. you know, she said, you know what, I'll be a veterinarian for 20 plus years. that's perfectly fine. And another friend of mine is 90 just got remarried. So, you know, it's all it's just it's creating the possibilities of what might be and then figuring out what works for you as an individual. So that's the exciting part. I think it's very exciting. And I think as long as we don't look at it as.

a number that we should stop in the ELEKA stop sign and just look at it is just, okay, we've got to make some changes here,...

Many interior designers today maintain one or more social media accounts as a means of promoting themselves and their firms. Many also say they don’t get much new business from their social media efforts. In part that may be because they’re not really familiar with the best ways to leverage their social media presence.

In this episode, Gail talks with Laurie Laizure, founder of the Interior Design Community (IDC). As the name implies, the Interior Design Community was established to be an online place where design industry professionals come together and share tips, tricks, and industry information, ask questions, or just vent. Today, with some 94,000 members, the IDC has a presence on Instagram and Facebook. Its activities include offering questions of the day to encourage designers to share and learn from one another, spotlighting interior designers doing exciting projects, and sharing the industry news or initiatives that matter most to its members.

Laurie’s expertise with social media goes back to the early days of Google+ a decade ago. She has been experimenting with and testing various social media technologies and services ever since. The key to any and all social media success, she explained, is commitment.

“If you really want to be great at social media you have to spend a lot of time at it,” she said. “Don’t do social media if you’re not going to do it well.”

That involves not only keeping your content fresh but also making time to interact with viewers, followers and queries. It’s called “social” media for a reason. “Engagement is everything,” she said. People coming to your social media channel or page are not just passively eyeballing images, videos and other content. They are looking for a response from you.

What kind of content should you post? “Share what you know,” Laurie advised. Don’t just post photos of projects with no information or explanation. Viewers want to know how you did it and why you did it. Combine great visuals with storytelling. Think “infotainment.”

Be clear about who you are trying to reach. “Designers often make the mistake of posting as though they are posting to other designers, not to potential clients,” she said. What do potential clients care about and want to know? Take time to understand what their problems and challenges are. Offer them solutions, and demonstrate how working with you can save them time and money.

Laurie also shared some best practices for posting on different platforms, as well as strategies for growing your following. For all that and more, listen to the entire podcast.

If you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full shownotes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s10e8-shownotes

Mentioned in This Podcast

To learn more about the Interior Design Community, go to the IDC website at interiordesigncommunity.com.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c394j8tiI1s

Episode Transcript

Note: Transcript is created automatically and may contain errors.

Click to show transcript

Welcome, Lori. We have known each other for so many years and I've always admired your commitment to the interior design industry. So I want you to tell us a bit about your background. How did you get involved in the industry in the first place? Well, it was sort of by accident. I came into this industry from the printing industry. I worked in the fine art reproduction industry for a long time. I knew that industry very well, knew all the players in that industry well.

And I'd run across this material that was at the time very new that you print on it, stick it onto a wall and peel it off. was a peel and stick wallpaper material. Back when digital printed wallpaper was like not even out there yet, really. And I recognized it was something that would be kind of interesting to do. I thought it would be, you know, something that would take, you know, as far as if you're thinking of the fine art reproduction market,

you don't have to frame it. don't have to, you're really just cutting the pieces, rolling them, boxing them and shipping them rather, very little finishing goes into it. but there, and there's a lot of quantity of materials used for wallpaper. So I thought this is a really interesting product. And I think that I might want to do something with it. At the same time, my brother was an addict. And unfortunately we, my husband and I had to take custody of

He had three kids, we had one of our own. And so overnight we went from a house of like one family of three. And I, at the time worked for a company where I had to do some traveling, my husband worked for a company where he was doing some traveling, so we were juggling that. And we got custody of these three little kids who needed a lot of help and care. And we loved them so much, we wanted to give them as much attention as possible. So it kind of seemed like…

well, this is the right time to do this. You know, let's just go into this wallpaper business. When I wasn't really a hundred percent committed or prepared to do that. And so I thought, you know what, one of the things I hit on really quickly was condo complexes. And I got a bunch of them in the local area to put our samples in and we started getting orders from those people. But I knew I needed to invest in website and I needed to invest in social media.

and that was brand new and I needed to get in touch with people that would specify this kind of material. And so I kind of thought it'd be great. I joined a couple of interior design chats on Twitter and I just found it was really like there was nowhere to go to share information. I was really starting to get super fascinated about digital marketing and websites and like I just fell into that bucket and just like absorbing as much as I could and

and paying attention to it. And I had felt like I had information to share and that other people probably had information to share. And I didn't, how do we, there was nowhere to share it. Like Twitter was just not a space that allowed for you to go into deep conversation. Like, are you using the scheduling tools to get onto Pinterest when Pinterest was brand new? And how are you getting conversions from

emails and how are you doing? You know, there were just so much of it out there and, you know, so many tips and tricks and so many new emerging products that I, you know, I felt like I could share some information I could learn from someone else. And then at the time, Google Plus was the place to be because they were, you know, they're they're they own search. Right. So like 90 percent of search happens on Google. And

At the time, their social media network, Google +, if you put a link in it, it would automatically index that link faster. They were doing really neat things with this thing called authorship, where you'd have a picture of your own face on your blog to show that you had authority on a specific subject, which was awesome. And they started this thing called Communities. And I thought, okay, I'm gonna start this thing. I'm just gonna do it. I didn't care what would happen to it at the time. I was just

I'll have a spot. I'll invite some people I've met through Twitter and whatever to come into this group and see where goes. And I didn't really have any expectations. I just started interior design community and within a day we had over 200 members and it just never stopped growing wherever we put it. I mean, it just, and it sort of became a bigger focus and more, I became more passionate about it than the wallpaper business. So I ended up selling the wallpaper business

focusing on that. So that's really how I jumped into it. Long story, but. Wow, that's great. Well, and you've got a real passion for it. And you also have a passion for social media. I've seen you everywhere for a very, very long time. And so how did you learn how to use it so well, so quickly? I think it's a lot of mixture of reading from reliable sources that are

doing or developing these products and also testing for yourself to see what works. I'm gonna be straight up with you. Like if you're really gonna be great at social media, you have to spend a lot of time doing it because they want you on the platform. So you have to be able to have the time to do that. So my kids would be at school or when everybody's playing video games, I'm on there doing

testing a post or responding to someone or in DMs or putting a story up or making a graphic or something like that. So I was always trying to figure it out and trying to see what worked and what didn't work and how that tested. I'm a very analytical person. So I would definitely look at the analytics and see what worked and what wasn't working and what people responded to versus.

what they didn't respond to and how I could grow. I actually really liked the process of growing, but I also liked how rewarding it was to help as many people as we were helping over time. It's such a wonderful thing when you're like, hey, you could do this an easier way and you tell someone and then they come back to you two weeks later and they're like, thank you so much, that helped me so much. You're just

It's like a little drug almost, you know, that endorphin that you get from like helping someone solve a problem. And we just did that over and over and over and over and over again, thousands of thousands of times. So it just, it was exciting. fun. What platforms are the most important ones for designers today? You know, visual platforms I think are still the most popular. So if I were investing in, you

in social media as a designer today, I would still be on Instagram. think that leading into doing more video content and duplicating that video content onto TikTok, because I think TikTok is the fastest growing social media network there is right now. So and you can it's do it's duplicate. So you can put it on as real. You can put it on as a TikTok....

As with any major transaction, many things can go wrong when selling a business. You need to be well-informed and diligent from the very beginning. Some mistakes or oversights could end up reducing the value of your firm or saddling you with a high tax liability. Working with qualified professionals from the start can help ensure you get the most value and other conditions you want from your sale.

In this episode, Gail invites attorney Manny Clark to the podcast to discuss what factors owners need to consider and plan for when deciding on their exit strategy from their business. Manny is a corporate and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) lawyer and shareholder in the firm Winstead, P.C. His practice is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Manny stressed the importance of developing an exit strategy as early on in the creation of the business as possible. He also recommended that when it comes time to execute that exit strategy owners engage the counsel of qualified professionals at the start. Doing so can help prevent costly mistakes or delays and ensure that the seller gets the best deal possible.

Gail asked Manny what owners should ask when seeking a professional to work with. First, he said, ask them about their ability to handle your transaction.

Do they have experience in your industry?

How many sales or mergers of your kind have they performed before and what was the outcome?

Ask them to explain what issues are involved in the transaction.

If you are working with a firm, find out who is going to be leading the transaction and doing the actual work; a senior member or a junior member?

How much experience does that person have with your kind of transaction?

What fees can you expect and when will they be due?

Manny then walked through the three major stages of executing the exit strategy. “The single most important thing you have to do is consider that you have to exit your business,” he said. Be clear in your mind what you want your exit to look like and who should be involved in it. That includes putting together a team of qualified professionals to help you with various aspects of the process, such as an M&A lawyer or broker, investment advisor, CPA, and evaluator.

The other stages involve setting your house in order, especially your financials, and organizing your business. “You ultimately have to understand how your business grows,” Manny said, and what are the prospects for future growth for the buyer.

Manny also listed some of the biggest mistakes sellers make in exiting their businesses as well as some of the challenges of trying to sell a small business. For many more details, listen to the entire podcast.

If you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full shownotes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s10e7-shownotes

Mentioned in This Podcast

For more information about Manny and to contact him directly, go to his page on the Winstead, P.C. website.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2_OralVUxU

Episode Transcript

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Hi, Manny, thank you for joining us today on the Creative Genius podcast. You and I chatted a few months ago and I thought it would be of great value to our listeners to think about their exit strategy. We've had a few other people on our podcast to talk about their experiences as sellers of businesses and we've had people that have been on that are actually brokers for businesses. So now we're going to talk to you from the aspect of you being an attorney.

So welcome to the podcast. Awesome. I'm so glad to be here. really appreciate the opportunity, Gail, and so excited to talk to you and to speak to you, the creative, genius listeners. All right. Well, thank you so much. Well, let's talk about your role and how you're involved with business owners in the process of exiting their businesses.

Absolutely. So, you know, from my perspective, and I'm an &A attorney, very often I'm counseling both buyers and sellers in connection with their &A transactions. And quite a lot of my practice involves counseling sellers as they are preparing for and ultimately implementing their exits from their business. And there are all kinds of different exits. And I'll talk a little bit more about, you know, what different kinds there

today. But within that role, I'd say I really do three things. know, one, I am primarily there to consult with the seller about what are their objectives with respect to their exit and also to help them understand what is possible in connection with their exit. And I can give a bit of an example for that. So you may have some sellers who are interested in ultimately retiring. They see their exit as a plan

you know, obtain kind of final exit liquidity, you know, infuse their retirement nest egg to prepare for, you know, going off into the sunset. And for those kinds of sellers, counseling them in connection with their transaction may mean helping them enumerate legally, you know, a successor to the business. So that may be in the course of, you know, sale negotiating alongside a buyer for

employment contract to keep the employees associated with the business. It may also involve ensuring that non -compete terms, indemnification terms, which are basically the ways in which a seller covers a buyer for problems with the business that occur, that arise or result from some of the pre -closing activities of the buyer, that those things are appropriate for someone who is ultimately

be leaving the business. So that's one thing I do it. I try and ensure that your objectives are met in connection with the sale transaction. Secondly, it is advising you with respect to what exactly it is within your buyer's offer. So as sellers, we obviously as lawyers understand you may not be intimately involved with all of the dynamics of emerging and &A transactions.

However, it's important to note that it is very much a transaction that sits squarely within the realm of corporate finance. The professionals who are frequently involved in creating their entire lives as finance professionals. is very often corporate development professionals, chief executives, CFOs, who often leading this process within strategic buyers that is companies.

Folks from private equity or very frequently folks who have been analysts and investment bankers at very large investment banks throughout the country. And so the folks you were dealing with are used to certain kinds of transactions or willing to give and are willing to enter into certain types of trades when it comes to a merger and acquisition transaction. And so my job is to help you understand what terms attend those trades,

you can get and what may be unrealistic as a part of that. And then finally, it's to negotiate on your behalf and ultimately seek a closing on behalf of sellers. So that is, I will try for my position as an &A attorney and with my knowledge to seek the best deal for you, to try and implement whatever exit strategy you would like to implement and that's possible alongside a buyer and ultimately do all the things that

help you get to a closing, including we need to refer in different individuals, either from my firm or from outside firms to assist. And that's lawyers, accountants, investment bankers. It is helping you sign things. We've done pretty much everything. is core your services at midnight to get signatures if necessary. So that really is my role within the &A process. OK, so you're babysitting the whole process, in other words. Exactly.

That is that's precisely it. And we enjoy that. And I enjoy that my pride is this is difficult. And you know, I know it is a trade. It's a financial trade. And so it is something where someone who is not accustomed to this kind of trade does need a little bit of hand holding. And that's fine. Everyone needs experts to, you know, to refer to. And in this case, we get to be that for our clients.

Well, it's very complicated. just finished a podcast with someone else who just sold her business last week, closed on it and is done. And ironically, as an interior designer, she actually has, she was an investment banker first. And so she came into this with a lot of knowledge, but it was so interesting having the conversation and understanding from her perspective that even with that knowledge, she didn't know all the things that she was going to encounter.

And her comment was that the transaction attorney was the most important part of her whole process of having somebody who really understood the ins and outs of the agreements and how to negotiate those and what the contracts meant. And I just thought I would share that with you because we literally just finished that podcast about an hour ago.

So it is it's wonderful to hear that. I'm sure that there are clients who, you know, view who share her feelings. You know, from my position, I certainly think it's the case. We we hold a really interesting position in the set of advisors in the sense that we are, you know, an advisor who, you know, due to our ethical obligations are required to represent you zealously to look towards your interests in either the seller or the company's

before our own and additionally, even where it may implicate potential conflicts. And we have to get rid of those conflicts from our perspective. in our view, we need to be intimately into what it is you want out of your transaction and fighting for that at all times. So I'm glad that she got that in Connection Threat Transaction. She She ended up with a very successful sale.

She's very organized and very thorough and luckily has super clean books. So she knew what a lot of what she needed to do to go and prepare for this. Thank goodness. She made it easy on everyone and herself. Well, it wasn't easy according to her. So that'll be interesting for everybody to hear that conversa

You’ve invested a lot personally and professionally in growing and sustaining your firm over the years to make it the thriving business it is today. When it comes to selling your business, however, the value for prospective buyers is not how the firm has performed in the past but what prospects it has for the future. To get the most value for your business when you’re ready to sell, make sure it’s in tip-top condition to set up the buyer for success.

In this episode, Gail talks with Kirsten Kaplan, founder and former owner of Haus Interior Design in Rockville, Maryland. Kirsten just recently sold her firm to one of her employees. It was part of her plan from the beginning when she decided to start her own design business.

Gail asked Kirsten what steps she had taken to prepare her business for sale. She said that she had started four or five years ago, knowing that she wanted the financials to be really strong at the time she put the business up for sale. In addition, she focused on what she referred to as the four pillars of maintaining a healthy business:

Finances - making sure finances are spotlessly clean, with no intermingling of personal and business expenses or other questionable practices

Operations - everyone on the team is consistently performing every task correctly, in the same way, and according to company policies and procedures

Team - making sure there is proper alignment of personnel with duties, responsibilities and level of expertise and experience

Client - providing a high level of quality service, maintaining contact and clear communication, ensuring clients know they matter and are valued

Gail asked if there were any lessons learned or unexpected developments Kirsten had encountered during the selling process. She said she had underestimated how important the quality of the buyer’s legal and accounting team was. No matter how good your team is, she said, if the buyer’s team is not as good or experienced, that will slow down the process and can result in delays or dead ends in the negotiations.

Asked for her advice for other designers who may be thinking about selling their businesses, Kirsten offered:

Be really clear about what you’re selling. It’s all about what future you’re offering the buyer.

Never stop marketing and growing the business during the sales process (which can take years to complete). You want the business to be as healthy and strong as possible at the time of sale to get the most value for yourself.

Document the value of the business, both tangible and intangible. Don’t expect a broker or evaluator to tell you what the business is worth. You need to explain to them why the business is worth what you think it is.

During their conversation, Kirsten also talked about some of the professionals she engaged to help her with the selling process, what type of sale and what method of evaluation she chose, and why she decided to stay connected to the firm as a consultant and advisor post-sale. For all that and more, listen to the entire podcast.

If you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full shownotes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s10e6-shownotes

Mentioned in This Podcast

For more information about Haus Interior Design, go to the firm’s website at www.hausinteriordesign.com. Kirsten mentioned that she chose to use a method called Seller Discretionary Earnings (SDE) to evaluate the firm’s worth and what advantages it had for her as the seller. For more detail, you may find this article helpful.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLIqabeif00

Episode Transcript

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Welcome to the Creative Genius podcast. Kirsten, it's so great. Great to have you on today. It's nice to here. Yeah, it's so fun. And you went through our program a few years ago. And I remember pretty early on that you wanted to sell your business, but you're still so young. Why did you want to sell your business? It's a good question. And I remember that too, when we first started, that it's always been my plan to sort of have this as an exit strategy. And I, you

when you're river rafting, you know, go through all different kinds of terrain, right? And I think running a business is really similar. So you have those times where you're paddling like crazy through the rapids, other times where the water's really calm and you can just sort of enjoy it. Other times where you're having to portage your raft over the dry spaces. And I really think after doing that for 20 years and loving it, I was just ready to pull the raft off the river and take some time to enjoy the scenery.

So a whole bunch of things just sort of aligned, which we can get into, but it just, was the right time. That is so great. Well, how did you get into designing in the first place? Tell us a little bit about your background, how you got here. Yeah. So, unconventional. So I was an investment banker and, after business school and realized what I really loved was at working on interiors. And I really had a passion and still do for the ways

our built environment can influence people's lives. And so I always had a passion for understanding how people wanted to live and what the roadblocks were that they were experiencing to creating that kind of a life. And then, you know, having the skills to really tackle that for them. So that's always been my driving interest. Well, the investment banking part that had to help you when you were starting to get ready to sell the business, right? It did.

It did. think, you you and I always talk about the numbers and having been a banker and understanding the numbers and understanding the accounting just gave me a level of confidence that I think I wouldn't have had otherwise. You're kind of unusual in the industry to have that kind of a background and then come into the creative. So you and I have work hindered spirits with my finance and banking. We are. Yeah. So when did you know it was time to sell? What was your trigger?

You know, I think that's going to be different for everybody, but for me it was, you know, I had a really amazing team and I had gotten the business. Thank you to you and to several other people to a place where I really felt like there was value in the business that wasn't just me and those there are certain pillars that I think need to be really sturdy. You need to have your operations,

finance, your clients, your team, all of those have to be in a really good place so that you, when you're selling your business, you are setting the buyer up for success. And so that kind of came together thanks, you know, in large part to my experience with Alliance. And, you know, it also just so happened that I had an employee on my team who, you know, made it clear from the very beginning that she was interested in running the firm and that this was why this opportunity was so

you know, to work for me was so interesting to her because she knew that she was going to get that opportunity where she may not have had it otherwise. Sure. Well, and that's one of the best ways to sell your business in this industry is to somebody else who's working for you. What helped you prepare the business for sale? What were some of the things that you went through? All the steps that it took? I know you are so close to it since you just closed like maybe a week ago. Yep. So.

Right. So this is fresh, hot off the press. So now that you still remember that, what are the things you did? Yeah. I think, you know, I really think it takes about four years if you're starting from scratch to being able to sell the business. the reason that I say that is because when you sell and do the valuation, the business broker and the buyer and whomever else in the lender who's looking at your deal,

is going to want to look back at at least four years of financials. Sometimes five, but usually four is a good number. So if you're starting from scratch and you really haven't done anything, what I'm doing is preparing some checklists that would have been helpful for me in each of those four categories that we talked about. So finances, operations, team, and clients.

you know, it can become clear to somebody what the roadmap is. And if you've been working with you and Alliance or boardroom and you already have a running start on all those financials, your business is probably operationally very efficient and runs really well. Then, of course, the timeline is much, much compressed. So there were steps that I took.

you know, along those along the timeline in each of those categories. And I would say that within operations and cut me off if it's too much information, but within operations, I wanted to be sure that my team was repeating the same process consistently and professionally every single time it came up. we weren't making decisions anymore ad hoc, you know, each individual circumstance.

When there's a claim, there was a certain process for dealing with it. When there was a client question, certain process for dealing with it. And those processes were the same every time. So we had a lot of consistency within our team and we just knew, we knew how to do our jobs very efficiently and the operation could run without any one of us because all of us worked together and understood that. From a finance perspective, I think,

One of the steps I took is a little bit controversial and other designers may run things totally differently. And the caveat I would want to say first of all is this was just my experience. This is not saying that this is the one and only way anyone can ever do this. This is just how it was for me. But when I was going through the process, I discovered that my own characteristic of being frugal

and being careful and having really clean books became an advantage. And you and I have talked about that a lot....

If you’re looking to grow your firm’s revenue and profit, consider diversifying into other areas. That can take many different forms, depending on your interests, creativity and the opportunities that come your way. But be careful. A new enterprise can become a distraction and put a strain on your business. You want to choose those that support the main business and increase its value as well as its bottom line.

In this episode, Gail talks with Julia Kirkendall, owner and principal designer, Kirkendall Design, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Julia has been practicing design for more than 40 years and has operated her own firm for more than 30 years. Over the years she has explored various ways of diversifying into other enterprises to generate more revenues and higher profits, including opening a retail store, offering design/build services, and, most recently, creating a studio space that hosts design and lifestyle events and activities.

Gail asked Julia about her biggest challenges in starting and growing her own business. Julia said her main challenge was figuring out how to understand the value she provided to clients. Related to that, she said, was changing her mindset towards money. She had assumed clients would be more focused on price. She soon discovered, though, that “clients weren’t looking for something less expensive. They were looking for me to do a really good design job.” That gave her the confidence to charge what she felt her services were worth.

The other lesson Julia said she learned along the way was to stop trying to fix every problem that she came across in her interactions with her clients. “There are a lot of similarities between being an interior design and being a counselor,” she said. She realized for her sake and her clients’ sake, she needed to just provide a service and not involve herself in other peoples’ problems.

Julia said one of the reasons her business has been so successful is that she decided to seize opportunities when they came along. “You have to be bold,” she said. “You have to look for opportunities and jump in.” She encouraged other designers to do the same. “Don’t be afraid to walk through those doors.”

Gail asked her what other advice she had for designers looking to grow their businesses. Julia said to recognize that growth and change are good things. Also, work hard at building the team that supports your dreams, and then work hard at supporting their dreams.

Toward the end of their conversation, Julia talked at some length about her latest project, The Studio at KD. She emphasized the importance of diversifying into different revenue streams, but also ensuring that those ventures support and reinforce the main design business. “Feed the mothership” is her motto, she said.

For more details about The Studio at KD and more insights from Julia, listen to the entire podcast.

If you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full shownotes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s10e5-shownotes

Mentioned in This Podcast

For more information about Julia and her firm, visit the website at kirkendalldesign.com. Learn more about The Studio at KD here.

Julia mentioned a tool that Gail had introduced her to for evaluating whether to undertake a new project or venture called an impact filter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6NB3yuXn5FU

Episode Transcript

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Well, welcome, Julia. I'm so glad to have you on the podcast. And I'd love for us to just start and talk a little bit about how you got into interior design. Sure. You know, it's been a long road. So that's been over 32, probably closer to 40 years. But I've had Kirkendall design for 32 years. So of course I was doing it part time way before then. And

realized I was in a whole other career path and realized that design and creating home was a natural gift for me and that after coaching and helping a lot of friends along the way, it just became something that I picked up and was doing and loved it. And so what started out to be just kind of a fun hobby ended up being a career

Well, I think you're probably not alone with that. A lot of people do that. I good for you. At least you have built a very successful business over the years as a result of that. Yeah, yeah, it has been. It has been really a lot of fun. And, know, we are constantly pivoting and doing new things, and that's what's kept it fun and engaging. No, that's great. I can't wait to dive into that with you today. So.

Let's go back a little bit and I can't remember exactly what year we met, but I do remember meeting you at High Point Market where I meet a lot of people and I remember our conversation. I'll never forget it. You came up to me at the end of it and asked me some very pointed questions, which were great. So why don't you decide why you decided to work with us or why don't you share? that was quite a few years ago, but yes.

You know, Gail, you are probably one of the very first out there in coaching designers and it was such an intriguing opportunity. So it took me quite a while to really investigate if you would and kind of get to know you before bringing my business and trusting somebody to take my business from the level that I had gotten it to a new level. But I knew

that I needed that help. I just didn't know where and how. And listening to you and your qualifications and your experience really helped me feel comfortable. And like you said, it was several questions. I didn't dive into it very quickly. It took me a little time, which I think is how I approach about everything. And then, you know, we got started in a coaching

coaching situation for quite a few years. And you absolutely helped me grow Kirkendall Design to a whole new level. Well, that's so fun. And it's been fun working with you. I just remember you calling me the principal more than once. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. I like to have somebody who would have the wisdom and knowledge and direction that you could give because I respond really well to that as I

You made many mentions of you'd give me an assignment and I'd turn around and I'd get it down because I was so eager to learn, but also I respected what you had to say and your direction and it made total sense to, you know, explore and do the work to be able to get the results. Well, I remember I gave you one time when we were talking, I gave you some things to work on and I specifically remember telling

You've got about six months to get this done. And when we had our conversation, you had it all done. It was a month later. You were so funny. I just thought to myself, that's Julia. She is going to take the bull by the horns and she's going to go take action and get it done. That's kind of how this whole thing started. You know, I started a Kirkendall design with $200 and just some idea

what I could do with that. And quite honestly, I never looked back or even looked to calculate or count how much money I had at that point. I just knew I was not, there was another level. And when I met you, which was several years into my business. And like I said, at that point in our industry, there were not very many people out there who knew how to, or had the skillset to coach.

coach interior designers and, it was a great, great find and connection and yeah, it really helped. Well, thank you. Well, and you did the hard work though. So let's talk about some of the hard work you've had to do. What are some of the biggest challenges that you've faced over the years? So for a long time, it was just understanding my value because it was such a natural gift. And I think that runs true.

Even today, I still have to remember that what I do has intellectual value or transfers to monetary value. I think understanding my value and making sure that I took care of that and treated that respectfully for myself before I could somebody else. And therefore, that also meant changing my mindset about money.

and thinking that I could do something less expensive and better when what my client was asking for was just they weren't looking necessarily for less expensive. They were just looking for me to do a really great design job. So I had to change my mindset. And that was a big deal. That happened many, many years ago.

And then I had to, course, like a lot of us, we, had to stop trying to fix every problem that I came into. And as we know that being an interior designer, has its, its correlation. There's a lot of similarities to being a counselor and you're right in somebody's home. You get intimately involved with them, their family, and you start doing things outside of the scope of not only your work, but all even your profession.

So you just have to back out and realize that you're there to do a service and do it really great and provide that service and not try to fix everybody's problems. Yeah, for sure. Well, yeah, and I think the challenges too, that I just know that you had some periods of time where it was challenging with some of the clients you were getting. I think everybody goes through that where they have that difficulty.

And then also just really achieving the profit margins that you needed and wanted to have. So just moving your business to a point where you had the confidence that you could ask for some of those higher numbers. That took a bit, didn't it? It did, but we're talking 15 years ago. So for me to reflect back that long, it is interesting when I look back on my business.

statistics because you know I love to gather data and I keep quite a bit of data that that that has been close to 15 years. So, David think back then now I'm disappointed I wasted the first 15 but the last 15 have been really good and the next 15 are going to be better. that's great.

Well, I remember too that when we first started working together,...

Even in the best of times, running an interior design business presents many challenges. You can view them as obstacles, or you can view them as opportunities that drive you toward new possibilities. If you fret about the negative, you can cloud your mind with anxiety or worse. If you maintain a more positive, even optimistic, attitude, you can tap into your problem-solving skills to explore new, perhaps also better, options.

In this episode, Gail talks with Cindy Aplanalp Ruzicka, principal designer with Chairma Design Group in Houston, Texas. Having begun practicing interior design in mid-life working for another firm, Cindy started Chairma Design Group ten years ago. Today, it is a highly successful, thriving, multi-award-winning firm, specializing in exceptional residential interiors “for the sweet spot of life.”

Acknowledging the many challenges Cindy has encountered during her interior design career, Gail asked her what she considered the keys to success in running a great interior design business. Cindy said:

Be open to possibility.

Have a sincere understanding of your financials.

Know your ideal client profile.

Embrace the “perfectly imperfect.”

Nurture your team.

“What will drive you crazy in design are all the things that are out of your control,” Cindy said.

Many years ago, she recounted, a contractor gave her some advice that she has held fast to ever since: “This or something better.” Rather than focus on how things could get worse, assume that they can only improve. Something you are not aware of or expecting can turn up and change everything. “The universe is always conspiring for our good,” she said.

Cindy noted that when you develop a level of detachment from yourself and the situation, solutions begin to present themselves. You can tap into your deeper self. “When you get out of the way and don’t resist,” she said, “you have no idea what the flow state does.”

Gail and Cindy talked at length about some recent challenges and changes in Cindy’s life. To get the full story and her lessons learned, listen to the entire podcast.

If you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full shownotes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s10e4-shownotes

Mentioned in This Podcast

For more information about Cindy and Chairma Design Group, go to the firm’s website at www.chairma.com.

Cindy said her favorite book is Change Your Mind Change Your Destiny: The eight habits of success that will help you create better relationships, more health, more wealth, and more happiness by Dr. Jay LaGuardia. It is available from online booksellers in various formats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QU90GoR36c&pp=ygUXcGVhcmwgY29sbGVjdGl2ZSBwb2Rhc3Q%3D

Episode Transcript

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Cindy, I am so excited to talk to you today. We have known each other for years now. Can't even remember how many years, but it's been a wonderful time that we've gotten to know each other. And I think of you as a friend at this point, and it's just been so fun to watch your progression over time. And I'd love to just start with, how did you find me in the first place, and how did we end up working together?

So the way I found you, Gail, is when Southern Living Magazine used to have like designer network and you were one of the speakers and I want to say it was in someplace in the South and you spoke and I waited a very long time to talk to you because you, I was like, okay, this woman has what I need because you had the ability to understand the design world and have walked a mile in our shoes,

but you also had the financial background to really help us understand what was happening with our numbers and how this can really be a profession. If we treat it like a profession, you know, like it's a serious profession, you can make some really good money doing this. You can support your family. You can educate your kids. Like, you know, I always tease that my kids have straight teeth and are well -educated, like thanks to you. And, you know, to turn it into a real business. And even though I had a great business manager,

They didn't understand the nuances of design. And it's really, really different because our forecasting, we're not selling somebody else's product. We're not selling into the same group of clients, know, the same thing. Like we're not selling widgets. We're selling creativity. We're selling one of a kind. We're selling things that we don't even know about yet because we're creating. And oftentimes we're creating on the fly.

So figuring out what the framework is for that creativity to be able to live and prosper and grow and expand was really helpful. And you helped me do that greatly. that's so good. I'm so excited about it. And you've built a really great design business. We're going to talk about your second business in just a couple of minutes. Sure. Let's talk about how you originally got into being an interior designer. well, that was I used to clean houses. was I nobody should ever trust me with their kids.

because I was terrible babysitter. One time I locked my cousin, I was supposed to be babysitting and I locked all my cousins out of the house and one of them fell out of a tree house and almost died. So I should never make, no one should trust me with children. I can't even believe God trusted me with children. I have two of my own and they're fine. so I started cleaning houses to earn money, right? And so I would take all the stuff off of his shelf.

and dust it and then put it back and put it back differently. And I kind of, got good at that. I got good at personalizing those types of things. Cause I, really mattered to me what was on those bookcases and how they were displayed. And could be a nightstand. It could be like all those things, right? All those personal things. And I was really crafting, like I was seeing the memories or seeing the life that my health cleaning clients had.

and I was putting it in a format that was really expressive to them. So maybe something tender by the nightstand or some, know, putting their life in their bookcase. So I could see their travel and their family and like things that were important to them. And that became meaningful to me. And I got a lot of clients doing that. Like as a kid, I'm like 14 years old and I have a house cleaning business. so, but I didn't know it was a profession.

I never thought it was like a way that I could make a living. And so when I went to college and, you know, life happened and I have a degree in business management and I just moved that direction. I did a bunch of marketing stuff, but in the background I was always doing my own projects, like flipping, flipping stuff. I've painted my cabinet several times, incorrectly mind you, like all the learning curve was on my dime.

I flipped a lot of houses, never made any money because I always put too much into them because like I'm going to live there. So, right. was terrible at that, but I had a lot of experience and then, I, I was a single parent. had one child, one daughter, and then I married a man that had four children and I had, I had, like a not very nice stepmother.

And I wanted to have our home have a completely different dynamic. Like I wanted us to be a family. So I would use space and how the things that we were created to be able to house like the kinds of memories that I would like to make with my new children and our blended family and all that kind of stuff. So they really had a living laboratory of how to manipulating space and elements and color and time and sense and all like all these things, right?

had no idea that I was crafting my next profession. And I was married for like 10 years, tennis years, and the writing was on the wall, but that was not gonna be a long -term situation. I kinda joke and I'm like, well, I went to design school in my mid -40s. I moved from my Rolex neighborhood to the Timex neighborhood, which was separated by a street. And I got into design.

And I had no idea that all that stuff, all that living that I had done in the past counted. It was credible. It was important in my evolution as an interior designer. And I think that that life that I lived really helped me come to an understanding of how much space a home takes, how you really, I really didn't want to concentrate on, is that going to soil my fabric or is that going to leave a

right, my countertop or whatever, I wanted to concentrate and focus on what am I doing in these relationships? Am I showing it? Am I making love? Am I holding the space for love and meaning and purpose to happen? And I wanted to get all those things out of the way. I wanted it to be beautiful and comfortable and welcoming and warm and like think of every other good word, right? That's what I wanted to create. And so I was, I had years and years of that experience.

And then somebody that didn't even like me mentioned that, you know, you're really good at this. You should, you should go to school for interior design. And I'm like, I never thought of that. And so that's what I did. And 10 years later, well, actually it's more than that. Cause I worked for another firm for about seven years. So would, chairman just had our 10 year anniversary. So 17 years later, ta -da. That, mean, it's crazy how life happens like

That's so crazy. So you did design before you knew that you needed to be a designer and before you knew that it was a profession. I love that. But you know, sometimes we have to live organically in our lives to find our true passion and to find what's really right for us. And I am so excited for you that you found this this path. And of course, now it's deviating again. And I can't wait to talk about that. So since you've

run a successful business for a long time on your own, what are the five keys to success that you see in running