241: Creating Space for Your Business to Grow
Michele 00:00
Hello, my name is Michele, and you're listening to profit is a choice. Joining me on the podcast today is Rasheeda Gray of Gray Space Interiors located in the Philadelphia area. Rasheeda started her business as a part-time opportunity about seven years ago and since then it has blown up into a full-time career. Rasheeda will share on the podcast today a little bit about that journey, what it has been like growing and developing a team, and then having an opportunity to rebuild when the team left. She is also going to share the lessons learned as she has embraced both the creative and the business sides of her life. There is a lot to learn, and I hope you join us.
Every day, empowered entrepreneurs are taking ownership of their company financial health and enjoying the rewards of reduced stress and more creativity. With my background as a financial software developer, owner of multiple businesses and the interior design, industry, educator, and speaker, I coach women in the interior design industry to increase their profits regain ownership of their bottom line, and to have fun again in their business. Welcome to Profit is a Choice.
Michele 01:32
Hey, Rasheeda, welcome to the podcast.
Rasheeda 01:33
Hi Michele, thank you for having me.
Michele 01:35
Oh, I'm excited to chat with you today about all things business, growing a team, and making switches from a corporate environment working for other people to working for yourself. And I know you have a lot of insights to share and this is going to be, I think, a really exciting, encouraging, and real conversation. Thanks for being willing to have it with me.
Rasheeda 01:58
I'm so excited. Thank you.
Michele 02:00
Rasheeda, I would love to begin by setting the stage for the listeners. Tell us a little bit about your education, where you worked, and what you did prior to starting your interiors business.
Rasheeda 02:12
Okay, so where do I begin? I have a background in marketing and international business. I graduated with that degree almost 20 years ago now and I thought that was sort of my life's path. I always knew that I've been a creative person and so marketing was the closest thing to creativity, that sort of was a surer set career path for me. So, I did marketing with insurance companies, mostly for 15 years, I worked for companies like Chubb and State Farm. My last position was Assistant Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Chubb Insurance. In that journey, I sort of went on the soul-searching sort of personal development journey within, and discovered that even with career success, promotions, and sort of rising through the ranks, really quickly in corporate, there was still this untapped desire or purpose that was there. And after kind of doing some soul searching, after talking with friends and family, I kind of said, you know, what would I want to do if I didn't get paid for it? Interior design was always there, I didn't realize that it could be a career, but it's always been a part of my life and who I am. So yeah, seven years ago, I started Gray Space Interiors and here we are today.
Michele 03:42
You know, it's interesting. I have a business degree and worked in business for years and I always knew I did creative things on the side. I had multiple small businesses, I'm not talking formal businesses, but I had an entrepreneurial spirit from a very young age. It still makes me laugh when I think about it, I was in the seventh and eighth grades, and I had a hair braiding business. That just cracks me up. The high school girls would come to my hair to get their hair French braided on Friday and Saturday nights before they went out on their dates, and I'd make like $5 to French braid their hair. That still makes me laugh that my mom even let me bring people over to French braid their hair, but I did. Anyway, I always had that same kind of creative outlet need and entrepreneurial spirit not always to make money but, I did. I did charge money for most things I did but this is because people were willing to pay. What they would say to me is I'll pay you for that. To your point. I didn't always know that I could be paid for some of those things, but people would start offering. Well, that only took one person to offer for me to realize that I could charge for it and I even remember after starting my window treatment company and doing all of those things, doing it in such a way that did it part-time and then it grew into full-time and it grew into something else. Even now that I've had those businesses and closed that part of what I do, to focus on the coaching, the education, the consulting, and Metrique Solutions and all those things, I still have that need for a creative outlet. I've taken some painting classes like watercolors and things like that just trying to find other outlets to express this creative drive that I have inside of me.
I think we all have it. I think it shows up in different ways. For some people, that creativity might show up in a math calculation for somebody else, it may show up in I decided to write a book or write a poem, and for somebody else, it might be in building relationships a different way. I think we all have some creativity within us that is expressed differently, but I know what you are describing with that need, that one thing can't fill. You know, what I think is cool, too, is that, of course, you and I've coached together for over a year now, I think what's interesting is watching how your education in marketing has also influenced the way that you show up in design. And I think what's so cool about that, especially if we were to stand back and look at, for those of us that have a belief system, that God has a plan for our lives, you can see that you're not wasting, even by shifting directions, it's not like you're wasting that marketing degree, we're now using the marketing degree in a different way. I'm not wasting my business degree, even when I did financials and all that at the beginning and took a hiatus to build, it was with an idea of financials in the background that showed back up later. So just watching as you get further along in your life, you can see the patterns and how they're interwoven and to be able to use that.
Rasheeda 06:48
It's so interesting, a couple of things that you said sparked something for me, entrepreneurship that was not on my radar at all. I never considered myself an entrepreneur. Now in hindsight, I'm like, yeah, it's a natural thing for me, but you know, when I was younger, my sister braided hair, for others in the neighborhood, I did not do that. You get to an age, I was in my early 30s, and I was like, What's my purpose in life? I began sort of soul-searching to figure out what that is and then I sort of experimented. I posted on Facebook before and after of my home and it was like the support and encouragement from friends and family that kind of propelled me to the next level. I was like, okay, this thing that I love, interior design that sort of been there all along, could be a real career. And I don't know about you, Michele, but I've never been exposed to interior design being a career growing up. I didn’t know any interior designers, HGTV wasn't a thing until later in life for me and so if you don't have the awareness, it's not something that sort of becomes natural as a career. So perhaps, if I had known maybe the career path would have been an undergrad instead of marketing in interior design. But to your point, everything happens for a reason and so I think my marketing degree, my business sense, and I have an MBA as well, those sorts of experiences and education have sort of prepared me for where I am today. And I also think it's a competitive advantage. It's something that I sort of lean into when I'm talking with clients, I sort of share that journey because I think that's what makes Gray Space or myself unique in that way that we have those sorts of background experiences and things like that. So, to your point, everything happens for a reason and it's almost like, okay, I went on this path for some sort of specific reason, and I need to understand that and then lean into that and not shy away from it.
Michele 08:48
I think it's interesting too, as we talk through this, we all have multiple needs to be well-rounded humans. I have a need to think very logically and very mechanically, sometimes, and then other times, I have a need to think and feel more fluid and more creative. It's kind of that form versus function or logic versus emotion. I think we all have bits and pieces in that. Therefore, when we think about our life's journey, there was a part of Rasheeda that was fed, nurtured, and grown, through the marketing and through the MBA program, and through the things that you did. And then there's a part of Rasheeda that has grown and been nurtured on the more creative side with interior design. If nobody hears anything else, this is what I want him to hear today. We're all on this journey, this life journey, and where we start doesn't have to be where we end. As a matter of fact, I hope that it's not unless it is perfect when we start. But we have the ability to move through it and to try different things. We want that for our kids, we want our kids to try different things and find what feels good. I have this conversation with people a lot, there's a big difference between doing something as a hobby, or as an enjoyment, and then turning it into a business. And that's where I want to talk about that journey for you. You worked in corporate, and then about seven years ago, you started Gray Space, you started on the side part-time, as a side hustle, let me see if I like it, and how this kind of works out. In other words, I'm not going to just be like, oh, I think I like that. Let's quit everything. You kind of overlapped it for a bit, which most of us do, and kind of stuck your toes and water may be up to your knees and hips before you decided to go all the way. Tell me a little bit about what that was, like starting it as a secondary job or a side hustle.
Rasheeda 10:46
Well, I believe in the power of speaking life through the tongue and, saying things out loud and manifesting things. When I was thinking about becoming or looking into interior design, I sort of shared it with friends and family, I did a vision board, and then I was like, okay, I'm going to take a class. So, I took a course at Temple University, and I said, you know, like, and what you see on TV is one thing, understanding the principles and respecting the discipline of interior design and studying it is different though. In the midst of taking that course, is when I got my first client, and that client came from the friends and family whom I shared this desire with. So that person was looking for an amateur designer and I was as amateur as they get seven years ago. I took on that first project charge very minimal because I wanted the grace in the room to learn and grow. It was one room, and it went well and then the word spread, and the next client came, and the next client came. And so, in those three years, I'm sort of balancing. I had young children at the time, so it was motherhood and working in corporate plus a very high-level job and then building a business.
It came to a point where I had to make a decision that if I wanted to grow Gray Space and take it to the next level, I questioned myself am I enjoying it, is this something I can see myself sort of building a career out of, and then I had to decide if I would continue or sort of just do it on the side as a hobby. We were growing. I had team members at the time, and I was still working a corporate career. I had television appearances, and all these things were happening, so it sort of came to a point where I knew I wasn't being a good employee and I had to decide if I was going to keep going or to kind of stay on the horse. I did some analysis and started to prepare for that transition. Part one was, if I were to do this full-time, could I replace my corporate salary? Again, I had children, mortgages, and all those great things so I had to be responsible with my family and say I needed to have savings, and I needed to have a plan. My husband is also an entrepreneur so that was a huge help in the process, because he understood the journey, and was supportive from day one. But we certainly came up with a savings plan and a plan to grow the business. Because I already had team members and because my corporate salary took care of me personally, whatever I made at Grey Space during that time could go back into the business, that transition was a little easier. But I wanted to prepare financially and with my family and I hired a business coach at that time, too. So, you and I have been coaching together for a year, but five years ago or so right before making the switch to full-time entrepreneurship, I wanted a coach that could help me with like mindset shift, visibility in the design industry, and so I worked with a coach who sort of helped with those things. It was the mindset of working for someone else versus working for yourself. It was also the mindset around imposter syndrome, if you will, be an expert in marketing to start an entirely new career, that you're sort of learning and growing each and every day. So I have the mindset of I am excellent in any field that I'm in and as long as I apply ground principles of work hard, be ethical, learn as much as you can, be a student always, those kinds of things, then I'll be successful in what I'm pursuing. That business coach was a huge part of the transition as well and just preparation for that.
Michele 14:35
That's amazing. One of the things that I thought about when you made the comment that I wasn't necessarily a good employee anymore, didn't mean you didn't do your job but what it meant to me is we have a limited amount of energy. You were thinking about what I used to call your juice box. If you've ever had a kid that had a juice box, you put that little skinny straw in there, and they start slurping on it and you can watch the juice box kind of collapse on itself. That's what happens in our lives. We are handing out straws to people like candy, and they're sucking our energy or picking all the juice out of our juice box. I used to talk to my clients a lot about who's got a straw in your juice box. And number one, do you want to share your drink with some people? I don’t want your backwash in my juice box! Get out of my juice box! But it's thinking about how we have limited energy; I still think about that today in my business, for example, first and foremost, I'm thinking what is the energy that I need to be a mom, or a wife or a friend or a daughter? What does it take just to be? Then I think, what does it take to serve others in the capacity, whether it's corporate or for myself and my business? What does it take to serve in my business, but to be the owner of my business?
Two different things, because when you start a business like this, and this is a piece, I think I missed, and I have seen most people miss it. We are not only going in to own the company, but then we're also the main employee of the company. That main employee has to work 40 hours, and the business owner has to work too, which is why we also have this is what you can make as a salary and this is profit, two different things because they're paying us for two different jobs. I think we miss that. In other words, the jobs are never done and tied up in a pretty bow with nothing else outstanding when you own the company. When you're corporate, it's a little bit more, it can be a little bit more of a split. And I know that when I looked to start mine and then to grow mine at different levels, I kept thinking about where's the best place to put my energy for now. Looking at it seasonally, like you mentioned young children, mine were toddlers when I started. And even now, Rasheeda, the same with you. I know you and I have talked about this, thinking about how do I put energy toward growing and maintaining a team while leading that team. Where do I put energy and what is it going to take to serve my clients? What is the best way for me to make the most money but also serve the best for that client, because some clients can suck us dry. And some projects can suck us dry, even if the clients are adorable. It's finding that balance between all of it and when we're first starting our companies like you were and like I have been, you don't know what's going to energize you and what's going to suck you dry. I think there are times that we think this is going to be exciting and energizing and it is almost the death of us. I know that I have been on the side, there was something that came into, you know, my opportunity list and I looked at it and I thought I don't know, but I'll give it a shot. And then I thought, darn I love that, I would have had no idea if I hadn't taken a chance.
I love that you got a coach at the beginning to work on mindset because everything that happens in our lives and our business starts between our ears, it starts with what we think and what we believe. That's why I'm such a fan of the book Atomic Habits because he talks about what you believe is an outpouring of who you think you are and what you see. If you want to change your activities, you have got to change the belief systems behind them. Atomic Habits is a great book. But what I'm curious about for you is when you first started, and you took that first word of mouth and family and friends, and then they tell family and friends until there's some point where you're no longer working, we're just family friends, at some point, we've done all we can do there, or they're taking our energy, love family and friends, but they can sometimes be the worst work, but not on your family friends, it is just because we know it's a boundary issue, honestly. But if we were to go back and look at what you thought when you started and where you are now, what were some misconceptions that you think you had? You didn't know it then but that you've now seven years in looking back, you can see oh, I didn't anticipate that. I wasn't expecting that. How can we help the listeners? If anybody's looking to do a similar thing, what were some of the things that kind of caught you off guard or didn't show up in the way that you thought they would show up?
Rasheeda 19:17
There were quite a few actually. The first one that comes to mind is this idea of I love interior design or whatever this creative pursuit is so I will start a business which means I get to do it all the time, and that is not the case. I always say I spend probably 20% of my time actually designing and then the other 80% running the business. Now thankfully for me, I love business and especially the marketing side of things and it wasn't a deal breaker for me. But if you don't have a business to run, there aren't any projects to design. In the beginning, it was doing a lot of the administrative work, reconciling, budgets, contacting and emailing clients, working with contractors, placing orders, all those things and now I have a team that helps with a lot of that part of the business. Even now, it's as you grow and reach the next level, it's strategic planning, it's professional development, it's being the business developer or the salesperson in going out and getting the business. So, I spend a lot of time doing that and that is not what I expected when I started this business.
Michele 20:29
What I would say is that most people think when they come in, that's what they're going to get to do the primary activity of the business. That's why in the book E Myth they talk about, oh, I'm a great baker, I bake these wonderful pies, I’ll open a bakery, and then they realize they're not the ones baking the pies anymore, they're the ones keeping the business going and checking the inventory and making sure everything's running and then hiring and staffing. And they're like, wait a minute, but I really love making pies. But that's not what you get to do.
Rasheeda 20:59
I think a goal is to get to a place where things are running well enough where you can sort of figure out where you would like to operate like your zone of genius, but still not the same capacity, you're not going to be the technician and doing most of the work, you're going to be sort of overseeing or being the editor of the design.
Michele 21:18
I talked to a friend of mine, and he works at a very high level for an extremely large company in the industry, and his comment was I asked him, I'm like, Hey, so what's been shocking to you about your new roles when he took over as CEO of the company. He said I was shocked that 75% of my time has been spent on leadership and team development, HR-type things, as the CEO, I would not have thought that 75% of my time was on building the team that reports to me so that they can build the team that reports to them so that by the time we get down the people that are doing the work of the company can do the work. I know that a lot of people that I work with, because of the businesses that I primarily help blow their businesses up, are the ones that have done those first few years and they're like, okay, work is coming, so many things are happening now, how do I move into that leadership role in my firm, because I'm overwhelmed with all the things and too much work. That shift of you have to really love business, or start to create an affinity for business, and for leadership, and coaching your own staff and teams and team development has to be huge and moving sometimes more into that Design Oversight. I love the part where we talk about even in Clock Work about finding your queen bee role, your zone of genius, what is the thing that you love to do. And I know you and I've even had that conversation now like, okay, Rasheeda, the business has shifted, and you've done everything in the business, but what is it that you love to do that you really want to have a grip on, you want to own, and then what are the pieces that you want to oversee? What is the work that we need to hire for, so that you can oversee it, but you get to keep doing the parts that you love to do?
Rasheeda 23:11
I think entrepreneurship is really humbling, in many ways, in many, many, many ways, from financial and all those things, but in terms of like being in your zone of genius, you quickly have to realize and self-evaluate and say, I'm great at this, but I am terrible at this, I'm not so great at that. Then once you have that sort of awareness, be willing to hand that off to someone that you've hired since you have the right people to do the right job. Another one of my favorite books is Good to Great. You have got to make sure that you're putting the right people in the right seats on the bus to move forward. So that's been a shift that I've learned along the way, also just kind of letting go and just trusting that you have the right people in place.
Michele 23:58
Let's talk about team building. I mean, here's the deal, we can create ourselves a job where we're the only person working in the company. And just honestly, I've seen some people that were independent designers, and they just did one or two projects at a time and that filled their pipeline and filled their heart and filled their pocketbook in whatever way they need it. There's nothing wrong with that, we're not condemning it, but there are multiple ways. I know that I get asked a lot when people come to me, Michele, I don't want to grow and scale and I'm like, well, we always are looking to grow and scale, it doesn't always mean that hiring these huge teams. Sometimes it means outsourcing, sometimes it means growing the type of project that we're doing. It just means not always necessarily doing a one-room challenge over a one-room challenge over a one-room challenge. Those are great. If your whole business is built on just doing that and you're happy keep doing it, no judgment. But most of us are going to get tired of that after a while and we're going to want to expand our horizons in some way.
That's what I'm talking about. And one of the things that I've loved in my coaching, and I think that you've enjoyed it, too is like, even when we have a conversation, I'm not just saying, hey, Rasheeda, here's step three, step four, it's what do you love, what do you do, where do you want to go, how do you see yourself playing into this? In other words, we're designing around you, and around what you're great at, or what you want to be great at, what you want to be known for, or how you want to show up in the world. But the beauty of that is, that means that if everybody's building their business, yes there are business principles, yes, they're all those things, and they are great design principles. But when you step into a space, you're saying, who are the people that live in this home? I have feelings, and I can feel the feelings when I say it, I step into that home. And you're like, who are these people? How do they live their life? How do they show up in this space? How do they want to visually represent their existence? The place that they have for safety is home. That's the big question. Well, my job as a coach is to help you do the same thing in your business. Who are you? And what do you bring? And how do we visually, mechanically, or operationally want to set up this business holistically, so that you can represent who you are to the world through the business? I was just going to say, that's kind of where you were, when you came to me, you had a team that started with you, and your business had changed and evolved. Honestly, we're seeing about every two to three years, a lot of businesses and a lot of people these days, they're wanting to try something new, or go back to something different, or explore their options. Your team had grown with you for a few years, and they were starting to explore other options and look for other things, as were you, your business was shifting. When you came to me, you had a thriving business, but it was in a position of needing to be rebuilt, and kind of recalibrated for the next place that you wanted to go.
Rasheeda 27:04
Yeah, I think it's like divine intervention because I said to myself, I wanted to work with Michele, and I sort of planned months in advance. I think we talked a few months before I started and little did I know that the timing would be perfect because I had a huge shift. I had an entire team of three people sort of move on in their careers, and one was with me for five years. I'm grateful that they had the time with Gray Space, and that they're moving on and growing, but it was a shock. It was sort of unexpected, and it was a time of transition, and to have the guidance of a coach during that time was priceless.
Michele 27:44
Because even when you're excited about other people's opportunities and the changes, you're still standing there.
Rasheeda 27:50
Yes, I mean, you go through all kinds of things like well, what did I do wrong? What changed? And then in hindsight, you say, okay, I'm grateful this happened. For me, that's kind of what it was because it allowed me to rebuild the team. We now needed to grow to the next level.
Michele 28:08
Not just rebuilt the team, but we rebuilt parts of the business, like even the offerings. In Good to Great, they talked about having the right butts in the right seats on the same bus in the same direction, that whole thing.
Rasheeda 28:20
I don't think I had that before.
Michele 28:22
Well, your direction was shifting and changing. Because sometimes what we're starting with, that's why we even talk about Aim with Intent, people, and processes are kind of the levers that we look at, the business is shifting and changing the needs of the home if you will, are changing. Sometimes those people don't shift and go with you. It happens, right? But what it does, if we can step back and let the emotion play its way out, it gives us an opportunity for a reset to say, now looking forward, how do I want to restructure, recalibrate, put the pieces back together in a different way. There is beauty and even if one person leaves that gives you the ability to take that job description, and think about things differently, which you can't always do when the person sitting there doing the work.
Rasheeda 29:09
So true. That's what it was, I had the right people, and they were amazing, and we built an amazing company, but as the needs of the company shifted, it's kind of more challenging to have someone who's been doing the same thing for five years, sort of change in that way with it. So, it just really gave me a chance to reassess what our needs are and then reassess what I would like to do and what I'm great at in the company and then fill in the holes or the gap with the right folks. One of the exercises that you had us do was create a job description for ourselves, create a job description for the gaps that are within a company and so by doing that, I was able to say okay, I am currently doing this, but I'm not great at it, I don't love it, I would be better spending my time here and then I can fulfill the role to do that. So that was super helpful in that transition.
Michele 30:03
And doing those job descriptions every couple of years. That's one of the beauties of the strategic plan is this may be my job description today, but it is allowing for growth. There's nobody on our team, well, I won't say nobody, rarely are people on our team that say, sign me up for a job, and let's not change it for five to 10 years. They are going to be bored, they're going to move on, and they want to grow and change and evolve as humans and with their skill set. As owners being intentional, that's the thing I know that I stress a lot is the intention. So, when we create the job description, we're intentionally saying, here's what we do as the owner. Creating that new job description is what I want to intentionally do, this is what I want to do, who I want to be, how I want to show up, and then thinking another year out. And then a year out, if I've grown, I want to be able to do this, because there's a gap every year for something that's got to come off of your plate so that something else will come onto your plate. And I think just even being in the mindset to think that way, is freeing.
Rasheeda 31:07
It's even like that with clients. Over the years, you target clients' shifts, and you have to force yourself to say no to the projects that won't serve your business well, or you won't be able to serve that client well, and then opening yourself up, even if it's not there yet, to the opportunities that will come because you've made space in that way. So, the growth and evolution over the years sometimes are a bit challenging in the midst of it, but in hindsight, it's like, oh, I'm so glad that I took the leap and decided to do this, or I'm so glad. I mean, pricing, pricing has been a constant evolution for me. Push yourself to take it to the next level and you just never know what that may do for the business. It's all areas from people to pricing to clients. It's all about taking a moment to assess, and then identifying what the needs are, and then kind of filling them in as you grow.
Michele 32:09
And giving yourself the freedom to evolve. I think you've done a really good job with that at saying I don't want to stay status quo, and I am growing, and I am learning. Just like you said even with that first job, I didn't take a lot of pay so I had the grace to grow, giving yourself the grace to continue to grow even after 3-5-7 years, I think is a huge gift. I'm going to bring up something that I thought was interesting and it was kind of a moment that you had at the strategic planning event a year or so ago. We were doing project profitability reports and we had just started Metrique Solutions. I was showing you all how to dive into checking out project profitability, setting KPIs and goals for that, creating a budget for a project budget, but also a company budget, and then how to allocate funds and how to monitor to that all the time. And you had a real moment of wow, here are some areas of the company that I could improve upon so that I can do some things differently.
There were some that I think you were shocked about such as that you actually made the money and the percentages that you made, it was higher than maybe what your feeling was, and there were others where you were shocked in the opposite direction, you thought you had made more you thought your margins were higher, but when we looked at the empirical data, it was different. And I think that is key, for many of us, we are running our businesses, sometimes just because we're going so fast, but we're running them at such a gut feeling that when things don't work out, or things crumble around us, we all go whoa, whoa, what, wait, what, and if we can be a little bit more data-driven, as we said form to function or logic and emotion if we can start to look at the empirical data, then we can start building off of it. That was your moment of looking at the empirical data and comparing it to the gut feeling. And seeing that sometimes you were below or above what you thought, like good and bad, in both cases. I think it was a hard moment, but it was a powerful moment because it was the moment that you realized, if I know these numbers, and I can put this together this way I can affect the change in a way that is going to make me profitable and sustainable for the long term. Do you mind sharing a little bit about that because it was an emotional moment?
Rasheeda 34:40
It really was. I think it was almost the moment where I went from building a design company and doing something that I love to becoming CEO. Of course, there's always a series of other events, but that was certainly one.
Michele 34:57
It was a culmination of all of it, I think.
Rasheeda 34:59
Yeah, because I was at the tail end of coming out of the teen transition, it was the time it was having the time and the space to physically be away from the office and to take a look at the numbers and understand them in a way that I did not before.
Michele 35:16
You had had a heavy travel year; you had been really busy and you had a lot going on.
Rasheeda 35:21
Yes, I was doing the marketing, I was building the business, I was designing. And when it came to looking at the numbers, I was like, well, I know our revenue number is good. I know we're bringing in money. I know we're growing, and this was 2020-2021. It was last year that we sat down at the conference and I say that our revenue numbers have grown double and etcetera and it's great. Then I looked at the profit, and then that's when the aha moment went off. I think you have to know your numbers and that's the one thing that I was trying to just know the surface and not know all the details. And that's the moment when I was like, okay, you have to know them and understand what they're telling you. It was as simple as profit and loss and realizing our P&L statement isn’t the only part of the story, you also need to look at the balance sheet. That's when I realized, oh, this is where we aren't doing so well. We weren't marking up products as high as we should and then we were leaving money on the table. We did do the analysis of how much more we could make and that also helped to solve the problem of why revenue is so great, but I don't feel that way on the back end.
Michele 36:35
And it wasn't by doing more work. It was capturing the value of the work you were already doing. In the coaching call that I had yesterday with the group, somebody was making a comment and they were describing something they did is not working. But it was work. What they meant was it wasn't design-specific, but it was still work. And I stopped her, and I said can we re-message that because internally if we're messaging that something doesn't have value, that we won't charge for it, or will feel guilty for charging for it or feel like we shouldn't charge for it. But if we can personally message that there is value in what we're doing, then on the other side, we'll be able to charge for that. She stopped and she's like, you're right. She was almost diminishing the value of the work because she wasn't directly charging, it was indirectly being charged through a billable rate. But trying to understand which things are overhead and which things do we charge for and if you do it for free, as a marketing expense, well, then it's part of overhead, which means our billable rate goes up, and she wasn't getting all those like you said those back in tiny correlations. I had to explain to her, we've got to mindset, we have to message this correctly, to charge for it correctly, and to then reap the benefits.
Rasheeda 38:00
I feel like a lot of designers do that, we feel like design work isn't work, especially early on, no, I would say throughout our entire careers. You might say, well, yeah, it took me 20 hours, or it took me five hours to find the perfect sofa or the perfect fabric for the sofa, but it wasn't really work, and I'm going to make it three hours or whatever it might be. We do that all of the time. Yes, I think mindset is a huge part of it. I also think, knowing what you need to make it makes sense, you know, this is no longer a hobby, I feed my family and the families of my team members as a result of what we do, so I need to understand not only what we're bringing in, but what does the profit look like at the end of the day, and what money we're leaving on the table. It affects everybody that we're working with, even our tradespeople. We have built a sort of ecosystem; we work with tradespeople in our community and so all of those folks depend on us to make the right financial decisions. At that moment and the conference, looking at not only what the top line is, but what is the bottom line was a big aha moment for me.
Michele 39:21
And I think the second aha moment if I could and if you think this is not the case, you say it. I think the second aha moment was that understanding in your own heart and mind that you are the owner of the firm that makes the change. You mentioned it as it was the move from, I've got a business to I'm the CEO mindset. You know, here's the thing, it wasn't here's information now let's make you feel bad about it, it was here's the information. It was powerful information and now you can use that information to get what you want on the other side. You can affect change. That's why my tagline is what you own, you can change. So you had to have that moment, we all have to have that moment, we're still having that moment, I'm still having that moment of what do I own in this because if I own it, whether it's my thought process, whether it's a breakdown in an operational structure or a financial understanding if I own it, then that means I can't affect the change of the next thing. It is when I don't look at it, won't take ownership of it, that I can't do anything about it. That was the moment that I think you saw the pieces, like that culmination, but you saw the power of the culmination, because you had the biggest smile, after you kind of took it all in and savored it and processed it.
Rasheeda 40:48
It was a huge relief. I knew something wasn't right, just because I've been in the business world and so I knew that what I was seeing on the top end wasn't kind of flowing down to the bottom. It was like that moment of uncovering what it was.
Michele 41:06
Yes, huge relief. So, all right, let me ask you this as we are moving forward in your story. Over the last two years, you have rebuilt a team and a new way by asking who is Rasheeda as the Queen Bee, as the principal role within the firm, what do you want your role to be, and then what do we do in the support roles for the firm so that you can all serve the clients. Well, you have made operational changes, I know that we have made some pricing and profitability changes by setting KPIs and putting goals in place and monitoring it, being able to see it visually in Metrique, that has been a beautiful thing on top of it. But you've done all that hard work, tell me where Gray Space is now and some of the fun things that you have in front of you.
Rasheeda 41:51
Now we are focused on working on the right projects. We’re also sort of keeping our eyes open to additional revenue streams. I think you touched on this a little bit earlier, that the market is changing, and needs are changing in the market, and with the economy, we're all kind of just waiting and wondering what's going to happen.
Michele 42:14
We’re a little schizophrenic right now, we don’t know who we are or what we're doing.
Rasheeda 42:17
Yeah, I mean, I'm in Philadelphia. So, at the beginning of the year, it was kind of uncertain, and we've been seeing an uptick the last few months, but still, in light of knowing what could happen, I've been on a pursuit to diversify our income. In my role as CEO, I forced myself to take the time to think about the company in that way. On Friday mornings, it's just me and myself in the office, and I look at our performance, and I'm thinking about some of the initiatives that we have going on.
We're building in the commercial space; we've been mostly a residential design firm. We are slowly taking on commercial projects, and I think I brought it up on one of our coaching calls that I had a proposal with a commercial project and needed some guidance on that proposal process because that was new for us, but I'm happy to say that we've won that project. So, we've started on that one. Yeah, we're diversifying our income through commercial, as well as influencing, which is very interesting, as a designer, especially I think, in the social media area, which is an area that I love, because of my marketing background. Influencing is always at the forefront, and I've learned that you can do both and that you can do it in a way that doesn't compromise the other. I know a lot of designers may feel slightly different about that, but we're looking to work with partners that we have worked with and our own client projects on the influencing side. So that's been an area of growth for us. Then television as well, it’s just another area that we're exploring.
It's been an exciting time just opening our eyes beyond residential and figuring out not only what do I want to do as CEO, but also where does the company want to grow and what areas seem to be profitable for us to grow in. So that's kind of what's on the horizon and I have an announcement that was just announced yesterday. I am going to be participating in the House Beautiful Whole Home show house, which is going to be in Chicago, Illinois, or Hinsdale, Illinois this fall. We worked on our next show House, which is exciting.
Michele 44:32
When is that?
Rasheeda 44:34
It’s going to open to the public in late October, or early November.
Michele 44:39
That's so exciting. You know, what I love about the whole idea behind the Profit is a Choice podcast is that our choices lead us towards or away from profitability. And profitability is not just numbers. Profitability is about are we doing what we love, are we having profitable communication and profitable relationships. It's so much more than money. I love how you have taken that information in, Rasheeda, not just from me, but from a host of other areas as well and you have really kind of distilled it down to what does it mean for Rasheeda Gray and for Gray Space Interiors. Then you are looking for what does it mean to be profitable in my community, my home, in my work, in our processes, and in the lives of others. So, thank you so much for sharing that journey, and going through it. It has been a pleasure experiencing some of this with you and seeing your growth. I’m just really thankful for what you have added, not only to our coaching but even to the conversation today so, thank you.
Rasheeda 45:47
Thank you so much, Michele, it's been a huge blessing to learn from you and to see the growth looking back and it's definitely made a huge impact in who I am as a business owner, and I'm excited about our future so, thank you.
Michele 46:04
You're welcome. Well, I will put all of your notes in the show notes but tell everybody where they can find you on social media.
Rasheeda 46:11
Yes, on all platforms we are Gray Space Interiors, gray like the color and the word space and interiors with the s.
Michele 46:20
Awesome. Well, thank you for sharing with us today and I look forward to continue watching you blow up in all the best ways.
Rasheeda 46:29
Thank you, Michele.
Michele 46:31
Rasheeda, thank you so much for joining. That was such a fun conversation, it has been a joy and a privilege to watch you take the information and take the education that you have, and to have the opportunity to grow something really big, beautiful, and amazing. So, thank you for that. I want to encourage all of you to give yourself room to grow, room to let your business expand, and that may show up in a multitude of ways. Knowing that there are other ways of doing work in business, listen to yourself, or listen to your heart if something feels off or like you don't know enough and reach out for help. Because asking for help is one of the first steps in moving into the full business owner that you hopefully want to be. We here at Scarlet Thread Consulting and Metrique Solutions have the opportunity to help you do that and we would love to chat with you about it. You can sign up for a discovery call and make the choice to grow your business because profit doesn't happen by accident.
Michele 47:37
Profit is a Choice is proud to be part of the designnetwork.org where you can discover more design media reaching creative listeners. Thanks for listening and stay creative and business-minded.