Latest / WTF! Women Talk Finance / EP 16: The Entrepreneurial Risk of Saying 'No' with Tori Burton

Transcript

EP 16: The Entrepreneurial Risk of Saying 'No' with Tori Burton · WTF! Women Talk Finance

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Jackie.
• 0:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Candice.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_02: And this is WTF.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_03: Grab your coffee, wine, water bottle, emotional support snack.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_03: No judgment.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_02: And let's get into it.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: Hi, welcome back to WTF.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_02: We're here again with Tori Burton.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh on Instagram.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: She is Tori Burton Home.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: It's T-O-R-I as an ice cream.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_02: Burton B-U-R-T-O-N home.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna talk all the things, Tori Burton Home.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, if you didn't catch our last episode, please go back, listen.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: It sets the stage for just how remarkable Tori is.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_02: She's a young entrepreneur.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: She has spent the last almost decade battling some pretty crazy health challenges.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_02: And she's here now.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: She is an interior designer.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_02: She is a furniture maker, a furniture customizer.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: She is like the style queen.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: If you follow her on Instagram, you'll see this woman's got the eye.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: And we're gonna hear about her journey now into entrepreneurship.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like, Tori, tell us all the things.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: How, when, why, what, where?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: Excuse me.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_04: So it's a this is definitely more fun than the last episode.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so I went to school for interior design.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_04: And when I moved to New York, I was like, designers are crazy.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_04: I'll just say that.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_04: Like some of my favorite designers, I had found them, you know, called them and been like, Do you need anybody?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_04: I'm graduating.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_04: And they're like, Oh, we'd love to meet.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_04: And I went out and I met them and they're like, We'd love to hire you.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_04: Can you start this day?
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_04: And no one would give me like a salary or a anything.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_04: Like, no one gave me real things.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_04: So I, you know, college grad, my dad's like, you can't, that's not a job offer.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, yes, it is.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_04: He's like, no, it's not.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_04: So then I had interviewed at a place I interned at once in college called Holly Hunt, and it is a really prestigious interior design showroom, and everything is made to order and really special and like hand-forged and hand-tie, you know, it's just like very into the craft and the vision.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_04: And Holly Hunt is founded by Holly Hunt, who is like an incredible.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_04: She just has like an incredible eye.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_04: Like, she is so cool.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_04: And so they offered me a real job in New York with like a salary and benefits and things like that.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_04: And I thought at first that I was gonna use that job to like meet and network with designers in New York and be like, that's who I really should work for, and then jump ship and go there.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_04: But the product was so incredible, and Holly is just so like she would come into the showroom and this she's Chicago based, but she would come out and she would sit in a chair and be like, it really should be half an inch lower.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_04: Like, why it it really should be.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_04: And then the next day you'd get an email, and it's like starting now, the Mesa chair height is this new spec sheets coming.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_04: Sell the one off the floor, like because it's she knew it could be better.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_04: And she all her motto was like, Don't let being the best stop you from being better.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_04: And they also are a rep vendor showroom, they have a line that Tolly Hunt, but they carry other designers like Rose Tarlo and Gregorius Pineo and Cass and all these like beautiful makers and things like that.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_04: And I think our cultures vary into like Amazon, you know, and like yeah, money is also real.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yep, yeah.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_04: So people are like, why would we get a wool a silk rug when we could get this one from ruggable that goes in the yeah?
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_04: So it is whatever.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_04: So, you know, I just like fell in love with product, and then when I did leave, I went to go to a designer who was working on starting his own line.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_04: And so that was like I was half junior interior designer, half in charge of like his first Dibs shop and also his product development because of what I learned at Holly Hunt.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and like I said earlier, I do love being an interior designer because I really love people and like learning how they live and what make I want everyone to like love their home.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_04: Like I want you to love everything in your home and make it feel like you.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_04: But people are different, and so like I said, it's just hard to work with people sometimes.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_04: Or I have a vision and they will say no to two of the 10 things, and then I'm like, well, that's not my vision anymore, even though it, you know.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_04: So I kind of liked that if you are the maker, you are putting out your your design and people are buying it, versus I guess collaborating to come up with something that fits the person.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_04: And I just love product, and also I do think as an interior designer too, there's just not there's not enough there there.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_04: Like there is so much product, but I can never find what I want and I know I can make it.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um so um yeah, so I launched with my f I first I had sorry I reached designs are the easy part, in my opinion, but then it's like how do I create this?
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_04: And then so my first task was then working with a pol like finding an upholstery workroom, finding a like a hard goods, case goods maker, and then finding a metal person as well, because I wanted everything to be my vision.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_03: Like how do you even find these people?
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_04: Did you just like I mean I'm like I'm blown away that you were able to collect these the the case goods um and the upholstery were from relationships at Holly Hunt and they might make things you know, they'll do private label.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_04: But I just went to who I th thought made the best stuff and like my the collection is not cheap, but like if you look at uh if you look at it as a business person, I know my margins are like terrible, but it's still so expensive that it's just like you know, we can't some people can, but I'm like, I can't have a hundred thousand dollar sofa, you know.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: It's how did what what has surprised you the most?
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: Like, do you consider yourself an entrepreneur, or are you more in the lens of like I'm just an interior designer and this is what you do?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: You collect pieces and there's a vision and you pull it together.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_02: Have you had a moment where you're like, I'm actually an entrepreneur?
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_02: I'm founding something, I'm built, I'm a business person.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like, how do you frame it first?
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_04: Here and there, I will have like emails or tough conversations, maybe, and I'm like, oh, I did that, you know, like I just had a I negotiated or something.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_04: But I don't know, it's also kind of cool, and I'm probably lucky in interior design.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_04: It's such a heavily like there's so many women in it, like the workrooms and stuff that are um run by men are so like respectful and honor your work, or like they only love that they partner with you so hard.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_04: There's like it feels different, you know.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_04: Like they will be like, that's incredible.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_04: I really like this.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_04: You know, one guy told me I couldn't do something because of a wood grain, and he was right because he couldn't get pieces of wood big enough, you know, and the species I wanted, and he's just like, I love that, but it's not really possible, it's not possible how you want it.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_04: And you know, it's just nice, like they're so support, you know, they're excited.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_04: I have a new design work out there, and I can tell the guy is excited to make it, and that's kind of the knobs on Jackie's um console we made.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_04: The guy kept them for a couple weeks.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_04: He's like, if you're sure you're not in a rush, he's like, I just love looking at them and things like that.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_04: Just like it feels like the best validation because I I'm like, I think from you know, the metal guy I found on Facebook, or not Facebook, how old am I?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_04: Instagram, just shot my shot in the DMs and was like, Would you be interested?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_04: Like, sent pictures of like what I was thinking.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I want oversized, I want this, I want imperfections.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_04: Like, do you would that interest you?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_04: Like, you know, because he can make like showers and shelves of like big pieces of metal.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_04: He's like, Yeah, so spoiler alert.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna interrupt you.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: I did not know that the guy, so yeah, spoiler alert.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_02: I have a piece from Tori Burton Home.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, it's custom made by Tori.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: She designed it, she had it made.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_02: It is a piece of, it's like a prized piece of furniture.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_02: It is so special.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: And it does.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: It has these hand forged, are they brass?
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_04: They're brass, but they're patina, um, like in a bronze finish.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: They're these just gorgeous gums.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: I did not know that the person that hand forged them was like, can I keep them for a couple weeks and look at them?
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: We need to put a picture up of those in this.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_04: Like put a picture up of your piece.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, we should do that.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_04: And then I think I did at the time, like tease a picture of it.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_04: And like another lesson I learned, but I did it, was like a girl, a designer, a girl.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_04: A designer was like, Can I buy them?
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_04: Like, she just wanted the knobs from me.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_04: And I was just, I pause because you know, sales are cool, but I was just like, no, that's that's a component that's not it's not for sale.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_04: I'm not a hardware, I'm not a hardware store.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_04: And she's just gonna put them on something of her own, you know.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_03: So protecting your brand, protecting what you're creating, and not having your creation be the focal point of somebody else's creation.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_04: And that oh, maybe it wasn't yours, Jackie, because at the point when she asked, I had zero sales, and I was like, this could be your first sale, but absolutely not.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_04: Like we're not, we're not that desperate yet.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_03: So how do you so because you're you're doing design work, which is what you went to school for, and then you have your brand, which the design work is part of your brand, but you really are passionate about this creation from scratch, the the building of custom pieces that you are dreaming up.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_03: How are you balancing kind of these two worlds?
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_03: I'm probably not.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_04: But I look at that a lot, and I think if I didn't have that, like in theory, it sounds nice to be balanced or like to have nights where you go home from work and you don't do more work.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_04: But I am sick and I do love it.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_04: And like my sister just moved, and I'm like, she'll send me a sofa, and I'm like, I'm like, I don't want to look at any more furniture today.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_04: And then 10 minutes later, I'm like sending her a lynx.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_04: So yes, or letting her swatches, and I'm like, okay, I do want to look at more.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_04: I guess I really do love it.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_04: So how do you balance?
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_03: I don't balance, but but I mean, I guess that's a good point.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_03: No, I don't think anybody really balances, right?
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_03: Does being the creative though, um I I am a creative in my soul, but I'm in your life, and in my life, I don't get to do it as much as I'd like.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_03: And and a few people have said, oh, you should monetize this.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, does that, I don't know if I would find as much joy in some of my creative work if I were monetizing it?
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_03: And so is that how you kind of balance?
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_03: Because creating your furniture is like the you that's bringing your vision forward and building versus the design work, which is bringing somebody else's vision forward.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_03: Is that how you kind of approach it and give yourself your little like not a little?
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_03: You've got a great, awesome, beautiful, high-quality outlet.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: You can have a board, investors, advisors, and still have nobody you can actually talk to about what is really going on.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: That is not unusual.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: That is the founder reality.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: And we step in right there.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Tom Powell, and at the founder's office, we're proud to sponsor Women Talk Finance.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_04: I think it's something yes, but also I'm still trying to figure out because it is also like it is a professional thing, but it's also so personal.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_04: And like an example, I guess, is I have a client who like fell in love with a sofa and a rug and bought them, and we put them in the house, and it looked good, and loves the rug so much, they decided to put it in a different room, and then which I'm whatever, but then he now they're like, it should be blue and it should be that and I'm just like, wait, what?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_04: And so, and then they're texting me they love the shop, so they're like, what about this one?
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_04: What about this?
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_04: What if we did this?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, I need you know, uh like I just want to be like, leave me alone.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: And I can be quick, I can be quick, but it's like at some point, you know, sometimes I have to be like, it's not a yes or a no.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_04: Like I have like I can't just say yes.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_04: I have to like think and like feel, and I was, you know, like what is this new room?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_04: I've known this room this way for a year, and now it's gonna be blue, like, but it you can see it from that room.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_04: So, like, what blues work with that?
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_04: Like, or do I tell you we actually can't do blue?
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_04: You know what I mean?
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_04: It's just and then I kind of did shut down last night, and then I was like, I think I've got it, and I sent it today, and they said that's like the vibe and the palette.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_04: So I feel like okay, now we have like a vision again.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_04: But you know, you can't just be like, Can you please leave me alone or I have to take call like my brain is the process?
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_04: I need yeah, I can't always just be, you know, sometimes if I have to hem and ha over it, I'm like, then you probably just don't like then it's not right if you're like, well, you know, but also clients love to buy things without telling you, and then it's a truth that you have to work around.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: A truth, because they bought it.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_02: What would you say other um people who are like, I've got this talent and this passion, and I kind of want to turn it into a business?
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: I would love to be an entrepreneur, but insert excuse or doubt or reason or lack of confidence or whatever it is, fear, right?
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_02: What would you say to encourage people to like push past that?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_04: I I just think it's like you make plans, God laughs.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I really don't think you're gonna wake up one day and be like, today is the day, like all my ducks are in a row.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_04: I now have all this money, you know.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_04: I should everything.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_04: Do you know where all your ducks are?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_04: I'm missing so many.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, like, and just baby steps.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_04: Like, one of the cool things, I had um headshots done by this photographer, and then she ended up doing she shot my my furniture pieces.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_04: Um oh, she did some like decorative things, like some smaller things too.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_04: So I've had like three shoots with her, and the second and third shoot, she's like, wow, you've grown so much.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, have I done anything?
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_04: But it's cool to have her see that and like tell me.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_04: And then I've kind of like reflected and I do journal and I'm like, whoa, yeah, like I didn't even have a Tory Burn Home email address then, and like I didn't even have you know these things, and it's when you just constantly do little things.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_04: I also like quarterly goals, things like that, like um, you know, I just heard recently like a lot of people think they can accomplish what is it?
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_04: They think they can accomplish more in five years than they can.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_04: What is it?
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_02: They overestimate what they can do in five years, but underestimate estimate like what they can do in like a year.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_04: And it's like if you just keep doing little habits or like pick like start a Pinterest board to like collect, like I literally had a just like a Pinterest board that I loved my and I was like, I so didn't even b I don't know, I'm so dumb.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_04: Like someone's like, oh, you have such a style.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, I do like I said that I was like, your Instagram is like a Pinterest board to me.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_04: I love it, and it's and then I didn't I started just like a like a Google Slides document of like a screenshot of my Pinterest page that it made me so happy, and then like wrote some things that spoke to me, and then I have idea, you know, I had like built out kind of just like a little slide deck that felt like, oh, that is a brand, you know, and that took a while, but it was just like fun and exciting because you would be like, Oh, that does look good together, like that does speak to me, and that could be something, you know.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_04: It's been a very long time since I started this too.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_02: So or it's been a very short time, depends on how you want to frame it.
• 19:28
  SPEAKER_02: I love the idea of looking back and being like, what have I accomplished?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what has changed?
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: How have I grown?
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_02: What have I done in the last 90 days, in the last six months?
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think we are so forward-looking that we don't ever stop and pause and celebrate what we've done.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_02: And it's so worthy of taking a minute to look at what we've done, where we've been, celebrate it, and then keep moving forward.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_04: And if I made a list of all the things I've done, probably even just this year already, I'd be like, well, that that's more than I thought.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like my friend Kristen got a jar last year around New Year's, like a like a pottery jar.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: And she committed to like every day writing like the good thing from that day.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I went to yoga, or like I I ate so healthy today, or like I'm proud of me because, or I connected with this friend, right?
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_02: That I haven't talked to in a long time.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_02: And she'd pop it in that jar every day.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: And then at New Year's the next year, she would spend like an hour at New Year's like looking through these little slips of paper, like, look at my year.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: My life is so full.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: My life is so good.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I started doing that, and then I I forgot.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: I've got a little pot now, and I did like half a year, so I need to, I need to go back and pop back into that.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I I finally also got into journaling because people had told me that.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, that's just a dark idea, you know.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_04: But I kind of framed it as like time capsule slash gratitude.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_04: So like fun things like you know, I ordered these shoes from Shop Bop and they're fantastic.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_04: Like I'm obsessed with them.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like Need a picture.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: Need a picture.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_04: That would be my journal entry.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_04: Because I'm always like, if some if my if I have like, you know, children someday or who look through my diary, it's like they're gonna be like, what is she talking about?
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_04: Like she was on way too much happy pills because it's all like the good, you know, like it's kind of a gratitude lens.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_04: Be like, what are you dealing with?
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_03: So there's like the one line a day book, and I have those and they're they're fun.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_03: And then you can look back a few years and you're like, oh my, and especially like when you get to a part that was like not a great day, yeah, and you're like, whoa, I couldn't then I couldn't see where I could be today, which I think is really a neat experience to kind of I call it time traveling.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, I time traveled.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_03: I just I went back and gave my old self a little squeeze and was like, you're gonna make it through.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_03: You're gonna, it's gonna be here.
• 22:07
  unknown: Yeah.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much, Tori.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um again, and you would love to style picture, see what she's making.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_02: It's Tori Burton Home.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: She's T-O-R-I-D-U-R-T-O-N Home on Instagram.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: Tori, you are yeah, you're such a little special fight flight, and have love this conversation with you.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_02: I am so grateful for you both.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_04: So thank you.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_03: Just so good.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_03: Follow her.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_03: It's amazing, it's a treat for the eyes.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_03: Check her out.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_03: Thank you so much.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_03: Like and subscribe.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_02: Bye.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, that was today's episode of WTF.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: If you laughed, learned something, or felt a little less alone, make sure you hit follow and send this episode to a friend who might need it.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: Women don't gatekeep, especially not the good stuff.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_03: We'll be back next week with more real talk, more stories, and probably more over sharing.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: See you next time on WTF.