Latest / Sukany4: The Walk and Talk Podcast / S1E5 - Anne Sowerby - Maryport - Interior Design, Entrepreneurship, Dyslexia and Fairies

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S1E5 - Anne Sowerby - Maryport - Interior Design, Entrepreneurship, Dyslexia and Fairies · Sukany4: The Walk and Talk Podcast

• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to the podcast.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: Today's episode comes to you from the vibrant town of Maryport on the west coast of Cumbria.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: I met up with Anne Sourby, the powerhouse behind sassy property styling.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Now, let me tell you, when we first met, the rains had been coming down in sheets all day.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Thankfully, by the time we hit record, the skies appeared.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: It was a bit windy, but it was perfectly fine to take a walk and have a chat.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Anne's career is nothing short of extraordinary.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: By the age of 22, she was running her own toy shop, and since then went on to be the town centre manager, to meeting Dion Warwick, to setting up her own interior design business.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: The list goes on.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Anne also opened up about being diagnosed with dyslexia at the age of 30, which completely changed how she approached learning.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: From tips on why greys and blacks are the new neutrals to the crucial difference between house and home.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_00: Anne's got a pile of wisdom to share with us.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, not forgetting she's a multi-award winner in her field.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: So jackets on, put ear pods in, and join us as we take a walk around Maryport, chatting about design, life, and everything in between.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: Hi Anne! Hello, hi, nice to see you.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_01: Nice to see you, how are you?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_01: I'm fine.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: I hope you're enjoying the weather because it's beautiful today now.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_01: It is now, yeah.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_01: The whole day's been pretty horrific, hasn't it?
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: It has, yes.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_01: It's like the first of July and it looks like November.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I know, it's shocking.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, as I was driving through the lakes, it was just pouring it down, and I was thinking, oh no, what are we gonna do?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but anyway, we've ordered it especially, so it's lovely on the coast of uh the Irish Sea.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: Of the Irish Sea, and it's absolutely stunning.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't been to Maryport for ten years, I think.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, no, it is a hidden gem.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot going on now, it's a lot, a lot to more interesting, more food places, more cafes and things like that.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I think hopefully in the next few years it might come into its own.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so are you born and brought up from Maryport?
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not, I'm not from Maryport, uh, even though I've worked here uh over the years for quite a few times.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: I um I was born near Respectria.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I was born in a little town, a little village called Langrig.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and my family had a business there and rented a building from the local farmer.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: And um sorry, I got distracted.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: That's the one one thing about being outdoors, you get distracted by the things you're doing.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um so your parents were farmers, did you say?
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: No, well, my parents had an agricultural suppliers and uh they sold uh a various amount of equipment and and you know, wellingtons and uh stuff for you know, sheep drench and all sorts of different things to to keep farmers in business across the the northwest, you know, of Cumbria.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and then they sort of spread out as time went on.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, so that's what they did.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And um have you moved away from the area at all?
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_00: Not really, no.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_01: I've I've uh done uh uh because it's obviously quite a big county, I've done a bit of a loop round.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: I lived in Maryport and I lived in a little village called Plumland and and I live near Wickton again.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: Oh okay.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I used to live at Kirk Bampton, so I have moved the whole area, but um, but uh um yeah, we've just I've come back to where I went to school, which is my husband thinks is hilarious because everybody knows me.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, that's yeah, so there's something nice about that.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: There is, yeah, it is nice.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I feel like I'm sort of uh got a place again now, really, particularly since my parents and everybody are gone now.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's quite nice to have uh some local connections.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it makes you feel at home, doesn't it?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, it does, yeah.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, someone said something recently to me when I was talking about my podcast and saying it was all about community and the people who make our communities what they are.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and she said um the community isn't a home without the people that make it up.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that was lovely.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: A house is only bricks and mortar, it's it's definitely who lives within it or and with villages and communities, that's exactly the same.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's the human connection that's everything.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, in terms of your entrepreneurship, yeah, which is how we've got to know each other through the Pink Link network.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: That's right, yeah.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, do you want to share a bit about how your journey to get to where you are?
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: I um I left school with no qualifications and worked for the family uh business for a few years, but then uh my mum uh had sold out of the business to her business partner, yeah.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and so I started a toy shop, so I've always done entrepreneurial things, so I did that for five years, so it was great.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: I played every day for five years.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: What's that with your mum then?
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, well, I actually just did it on my own, which when I look back, I think, oh my goodness, I was 22 and starting my own business.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow, that's amazing.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I did love it, it was great, it was so lovely.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: And at the time, did you um obviously you wouldn't have understood how big a step that was.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: No, it's only now when I look back, you know.
• 5:46
  SPEAKER_01: I think, oh my goodness, it really was a brave thing to do to go and work for yourself.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I guess if that's all you've known through your family, then that makes sense.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh and then I've sort of done a variety of things, but all probably on the same basis of business and and uh and development and marketing, and so when you think there is a common theme of everything I've done, yeah, um, but mixed in that is the property side to how I've got to where I've got to.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: So um I was a town centre manager and I ran a Dissington Wall Garden, which was a community project that did training, and I developed that the development of the training um uh in tr in 1999, I went for the job there.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: At that point, I was married to a dairy farmer, okay, and my family were market gardeners in Lancashire.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: So uh yeah, and I had a background in business and selling and stuff, so yeah, I went to develop it, so that's what I went through, and then eventually I just took the whole site and became the manager of everything.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow, and uh and we got£70,000 worth of funding, which£20 four years ago is quite a lot really did it all up, put the past, put it back, made it more like a Victorian garden.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and still did a lot of training at the time.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and uh and then after that I got I got to the stage where I felt I'd done what I'd come to do and I moved on, and that's when I became a town centre manager.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and then this um was it Drissington?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: Dissington.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, which is near Lily Hall in um in between just outside of Workington.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Oh okay, and you were saying that you can still see the world.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yes, you can, you can go and there's a cafe there and you can go in, so which I'm delighted at.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's nice if you do something and then it has a legacy and it continues.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_01: I was just gonna say legacy, but yeah, and I play I painted some of the murals on the walls, and it's quite nice that they're still there, so that's quite nice as well.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_01: That's lovely.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love that.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and so what does a town manager do?
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I I I ran a host of festivals and really just tried to get economic development and regeneration into the town and you encouraged you know people to come spend their money.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: I had a tourism partnership where everybody puts the money in to pay for joint marketing campaigns, yeah.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_01: Uh just did a huge range of things.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: But with the Town Centre Manager Maryport, I actually um booked Dion Warwick for£23,000.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: They had a big blues festival and she came and we had uh Elkie Brooks another year, and we um uh before I came, uh um I can't think of the guy's name who does the New Year's Eve concert um Jules Holland.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Jules Holland came yeah, so there's been some fantastic, you know, blues, so it's a shame really because they sort of lost their footing and probably Covid just finished them all.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: And then unfortunately, Kendall Calling came and they had it the same weekend, which seemed absolutely bonkers.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_01: It just seems so unfair to do that, but anyway, it wasn't anything to do with me.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and and so it's sort of I think they have a sort of a mini one, but it's nothing like and they have a sea festival now, which which is nice, and that that's that that's got quite a lot of food and and that kind of stuff.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's sort of taken over, but yeah, it's been tough times with COVID and things, so yeah, and then I did it in Whitehaven and did the same, and um, and I had a massive, massive big Christmas fair there with about 9,000 people coming and uh and and live camels and things like that.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_01: So that was amazing.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, so I've done done I I I you don't realise how much I know about festivals, I know an awful lot about running a festival, yeah.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but um and where do you get all these ideas from?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've just yeah, I like thinking outside the box.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's I I've naturally created yeah, that's right.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: So the creative side's the bit I like really.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I suppose that's how come I ended up getting to to um deciding after being a business consultant because it kept being made redundant.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, even though everybody wanted me to carry on, nobody could ever actually find the extra bit of funding, which was very disappointing.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, and afterwards they admitted to themselves that it was the wrong thing, they should have kept you up anyway.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: And did um did you get training on the job or had to be?
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: I did, well yeah, and I also did quite a few things.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I for all I left school with no qualifications, it was because I was terribly dyslexic, but yeah, eventually did a diploma, I did a uh certificate management, um and then did a diploma in business performance coaching with NLP, and then I've got MVQ level four in business advice.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I you know I I got mine at the back end rather than front, but for me that's the best way because it was like distance learning and doing it with modules, which is much better for me than actually doing it for formal education because it's just not suited for people who are dyslexic.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: And you said you didn't um get assessed as dyslexic till your 30s.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Well, only because I paid for the uh pay for it.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, yeah, no, no, never at all.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody ever actually assessed at any point and ever did I actually get.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: And when we realise now, my brother's got 9-0 levels but no English.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: My mum had dyslexia, we were all dyslexic.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay, yeah.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: I always laugh that the somebody said, Oh, did you play Scrabble in your house?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_01: And I just started to laugh, and I said, I said, No, with a house full of dyslexic people, Scrabble would not on Alice.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: We played Monopoly, surprise, surprise.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, surprise, yeah.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: Family of entrepreneurs, yeah.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_01: So what prompted you to get tested?
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: Uh well, I when I did the course at the college, my friend was working there and she tested me.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: So that's and what were you working at as the at the time?
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um I think it was at the Wall Garden, so it was 24 years ago, yeah.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, so um uh because she tested me because she thought that I was.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't score as in like 99, it was about 89 because I was old enough to work out some of the solutions.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_01: But if I'd been tested when I was young, I would have got I would have been 100%.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's only because you were old enough to be able to answer some of the questions because of the knowledge you had rather than the back, you know what I mean.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_00: So have you found that you're a lot kinder to yourself?
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Well, to be very honest, what I have done is is told other people.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, now that I have my interior business, yeah, I actually write on the bottom, please excuse my reports because you actually employ me to do your designs, not write your reports.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and people are really kind about it because when you get emails off me, sometimes it's a bit bit odd and they'll say that, but now people do just accept it because I don't need to be able to write well to tell you what you need to do in your house, or and I can run spreadsheets and bring a whole team of people in, no problem whatsoever.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_01: So they're the skills that are important to that person, yeah, rather than the fact that it's a beautifully written report.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: I do have other people who check stuff and things, so sometimes and the same with marketing and stuff, I get people to read them, you know what I mean, yeah.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_01: For me.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: So and so what was the trigger point for leader?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you were made redundant and you needed a you were thinking about a change of course anyway.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_01: I had an accident in 2011, and I and unfortunately I ended up cutting one tendon in my little finger, 17 stitches in the operation at Freeman at RVI and the plastic surgery unit.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I couldn't use my hand for three months because it's one of the worst things you can do is to do a tendon because you can't stretch it, but you can't even pick a bag up, push the bin, nothing.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, so I um uh decided that if I didn't do what I really wanted to, and in the in the meantime, of all of the things I've done, Steve, I'm I divorced my first husband and I then met somebody else playing tennis, funny enough, at Maryport.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: And um uh because I played for Maryport at that point.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_01: Oh didn't you?
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah, and there's so many little bits to you.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: There is, yeah, yeah.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_01: And so I met Steve and and and we did properties and and had houses and and started flipping them more.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: So that was something that we did.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: Oh hello.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: So hi so yeah, so that's how uh so I so I love it, and you know, even when to the uh at the farm, I I had a green kitchen in the 80s that was all wooden painted and things like that.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: So I did always was really interested, made my own curtains, you know.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_01: I love doing anything design-wise, so yeah, so so it was just a natural progression that I really would always wanted to be an interior designer, yeah.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: But I knew that we live in such a rural place as Cumbria, you can't just really do interior design, so that's when I trained, and I trained to be a house doctor.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I trained under Anne Maurice, American lady who had a TV programme.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: And how did you find out about her?
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I I'd always sort of had seen her programmes, was really interested.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Right, and I sort of just started doing some research and found that they did a course, yeah, and they were interested in me doing it because I had a business acronym, I had a business background.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: They have a lot of people who think, Oh, yes, this is lovely.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you come with your two quilts and your two cushions and your two lamps and put them out, and it's all fluffy and cute, yeah.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_01: But actually, you do the design, no, there's so much, so much more hard work behind the scenes that goes on.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_01: The design side's only a little bit at the end.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and it's hard to run a business as well.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: So they were really interested.
• 15:35
  SPEAKER_01: So I did the course quite quickly, right?
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then I had 18 months to do.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you had to do so many case studies and they marked them before you were uh able to say you were a house doctor consultant.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_01: So I did that, so I and I did more house staging to begin with, but as time went on, I realised that actually I was quite good at doing interior design as well.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I just do loads of interior design as well, and it's just come along as it's gone along, really.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: So, what does house staging mean?
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: House staging is is you you dress a property to make it as van uh as as advantageous as you can to get as many people through the door so it's to make it pretty or you know install furniture if it's empty.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: Make it enticing to whoever.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and is that just houses that are going on the market or I do I do it for anybody really because I do Airbnb's and and holiday homes and everything because because it's the same principle whether it's a holiday home or whether it's a uh um uh you know your own home.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but I do but I also do staging in both um empty houses, but yeah, also houses where people live, and a lot of people don't.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's just yeah.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: That's okay.
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um so you could come to my house and you could like I could show you my lounge and you could you could come up with ideas for how to make it more functional.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: And also what a lot of people do is if you buy a house, they move in and they put the furniture where somebody else has had their furniture.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and that's the marks on the carpet, yeah.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: And you and and I I've I've been in people's houses where I've actually gone, you do realize yourself as in the wrong place, you've swapped it round and they've gone, I can't believe this.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: I just can't believe, even by just doing that, how it's changed the room.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_01: And the other one that people do is they put the they redesign the kitchen and make it the same as it was before, and often it's like, no, don't do it again, don't and I and I mean a kitchen designer don't don't get paid enough to go, actually, this is totally wrong.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_01: They often just plonk it back in the same place as it was before because it might be easier.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's just uh everything's where it was, so yeah.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: So it's quite interesting to that's hilarious.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, in terms of the kitchen design, then you get people kind of just changing the look but keeping the layout the same.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, that's right.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, that's right.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_01: And it's like, you know, what are you doing that this isn't right, this design isn't right, or makes it look really narrow, and the you know, and they what or they want a breakfast bar in the middle, and it's like, well, this kitchen isn't big enough, you're gonna end up wandering around all the other way.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: I've worked with people where it was so big, yeah, you had to walk.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_01: If you forgot the salt, you had to walk like half a mile to get to the sit down and then you had to walk back again.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: So just so yeah, you know what I mean?
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_01: Just so crazy, some of the things people do.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've always found with houses I've lived in, um, it's always better to live in it for a while to understand how you're using the space before you commit to anything.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but but you see, I can stop that because I can come in and work it out straight away.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: So if you're doing itself, that's fine, but if you want somebody to make it right, because also sometimes it's harder to move in, then start doing it.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's sometimes uh it's often a lot easier to not live there for three months, right?
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: Do it all up and then have it all done, and then that's it.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and then there's no disruption at all.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_01: That's right, you know.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the other side of it.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_00: But so what are the key things in terms of um you if you are if if I invite you to my house for a consult, what are the key things you're looking at to start with?
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_01: Is is you, how you live, okay, your tastes, what's you what drives you, how do you live, do you have six children, do you have no children, do you have multiple pets?
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: Do you not?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: How do you live?
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: Do you work at home?
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: All of those things because I often get asked what's your design tastes.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well, if I was Karen Hoppen, you might have a design taste that people buy into.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: But a normal people don't though, do you?
• 19:40
  SPEAKER_01: But also is that uh you can't possibly have one taste and your taste fit that person.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I pride myself on really listening.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, at the moment I'm working with a young man who's about I don't know, he's I haven't actually asked him, but he's around about 30, I would say, 28, 30.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: And who sadly his his parents died and he's inherited quite a lot of money.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_01: So with him, it's it's about designing a house that's designed for this young man who wants to live and uh and and and have it really nice, and he's bought a beautiful new modern house that's actually quite a nice design, one in Carlisle, a really nice little estate, and uh and he knew he wanted to get it right, you know.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I my taste is not going to be like a young man who games, yeah.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I pride myself on you know what he likes and how he likes it, and and so it's just really interesting.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's right.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: So I spend a lot of time working out what they might like, yeah.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_01: And then when the house is finished, it's what they want, yeah.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so I enjoy that because it's just really nice.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: Because somebody said, Do you like in two design or home?
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Do I like home staging best?
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_01: Because I come and create it and then nobody makes it a mess.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_01: I said if you do a two design, you go back and then they live in it, and it's like, no, it shouldn't be like this in the nicest possible way.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, often they don't.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I do have people, I mean, I I've known I've done staging jobs where we have bought things, they've lived in the house, yeah, and then they've asked me to come back when they've moved and reuse everything because they've bought it, right?
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: So it's all brand new basically.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: So I then help them to make their new house.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's good.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: So I've you know I've done that a few times as well.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh yeah, I mean I'm very grateful because I've had a lot of repeat customers and people who've come back to me for other things since.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: So you know, that's when you you hope that you know you really have done a good job for people when they actually asked you to do more jobs for them.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_00: So, how many um properties would you do at one go?
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: How many do you take on?
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: It just depends on what they are because interior design can take quite a big piece of time, yeah.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then home staging you usually do within a few weeks, unless there's a time frame for a month or two or whatever.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I can I I quite like that.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: lovely mix yeah to you know to to do hangham yeah so yeah so it it it it's just a case of and and I think now I probably can can I can probably stage about four or five houses at a time with my stuff and then if they're like a show home well I can buy furniture and put that in as well.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm probably in a I've got a team now that come and install and who follow me around who have a removal company.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_01: Oh okay so so I think I so I think now I can do a lot more you know so do you keep um like certain bits of uh pieces of furniture in a warehouse somewhere for staging uh half of it's in um uh in houses at the moment uh and then the other um is is I have a guy who has a a storage company at Workington now but he goes all over the country so you know we can we can move it up to Scotland or down into the lakes or Lancashire easy.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: So he comes and and I have a an app called Sortley okay and it has an inventory of all of my stuff so I would put all the things that I want him to take in the app in the in a in a you know a a list yeah and then he I said email it to him and then he has a list with pictures of all of the things that I want.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah yeah a lot of the things we've used so much that some things are quite classic so we we know the names of them and particular the guy who works for Andrew's brilliant yeah and he's the one that goes oh Anna we're taking the Morgan chair and things and we know what that is you know yeah yeah that's good and so how do you manage um changing fashions uh I very lucky yeah um after a few times of using them invariably people then want to buy some of the things so I sell it all to somebody who's moving into a house and then that gives me a fresh start.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah some things wear out yeah mirrors lampshades yeah and pictures are the things that wear out right they get broken hopeless because they they're quite fragile so they're the three things that and also because fashions change yeah they're the things that actually because they break you buy new ones and it actually makes it have a fresh look yeah so yeah cushions and cushions and things and also is what people's palettes like so if you go to a house and it's a Victorian house and it's all creams yeah it's gonna look totally different than if you go to another house that has all greys and blacks and torque colours you know so each time you do it and believe it or not you can put the same furniture in three houses different styles of houses and the stuff looks totally different.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah yeah it's amazing you can see the way your face lights up how that you love it I do absolutely love it yeah I do it yeah it's just it's just it just is a my dream job I just absolutely love doing my job yeah is it what would be the top three things that give you the most satisfaction yeah I think I like it when you turn the key and it's done and you can leave it for the person and then they can sell it quite quickly.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah you know that that's one side but I think um I think whoever I work for it's the fact that you've listened to what they want yeah and uh and you know and you played the brief yeah yeah that's right you know so I think that's it.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever said no to someone if they've put forward one of their ideas?
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah sometimes you have to be quite tactful and suggest that no that isn't right.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: One of my for with staging houses one of my pet ones is oh well I'm not changing that I had one man who wanted to keep the dining room as a children's dress uh play room and I said I sort of said I have no children yeah if I came to buy your million pound house I would not want a children's dressing room I would want a dining room and and actually one when I went away his wife went she's absolutely right yeah you can't do this now I think we could walk that way if you want um uh and they sold their house for a million pounds not long and he was really awkward he was he was one of the most awkward men I've ever worked for yeah every opportunity and I almost think it was almost he didn't like change at all and so it really wasn't anything to do with me I think it was just he couldn't cope with change.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah that is hard you kind of um it's actually quite a personal space you're entering isn't it it was just selling the house a lot of people really struggle with letting go well that's right to show it their way and and also is that they get hooked on I had one gentleman I mean he was getting divorced or something so he didn't end up using me but he was saying oh I don't like those chairs and I went I'm not being funny I said I don't like to be rude I said but you don't need to like the chairs I said all you're doing is showing it's a dining room and he went all point tick and and he really made him think about it because you know you know at the end of the day all you're showing is that's a dining room that's a lounge and you're never going yeah and you're never going to suit everybody's taste yeah what you've got to do is make it neutral and nice enough yeah that you can have somebody in their twenties or somebody in the 90s can see the space the same and that's the key to it.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah you know so what was the um sort of key takeaways from your course the house doctor course oh um uh accessorize up and neutralize down neutralize down if you got if you picture a brown or a black sofa yeah and you put red cushions on it yeah on a photo they look like blobs oh okay if you had um everything more neutral colours yeah so you had a creamier coloured sofa and creamier coloured or group or pale grey and greys yeah but the same principle and more neutral tones together yeah or even the black sofa had black throws and black accessories right you you you don't have pops you have a more a more smooth look right is more accessorised to be harmonious right and the other thing is yeah so if you have say pale green through the house for argument's sake you would have a plant pot that was pale green and then pale green accessories or plants and then so you would go through the house and tone it to be the same colour tones.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah and so from the moment you come in you feel like you're in one space yeah what people do is they'll go they'll have a red bathroom and a green kitchen and a turquoise downstairs blue.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: So as you go around this house shouts at youctic yeah yeah and so that's definitely so in a good old American accent she would go you need to tone it down and next says around it up yeah I love that yeah um it's funny what you're saying about the bathrooms being like Gary's colours or whatever or completely disconnected is there um what's your view on this sort of trend to move away from bathtubs?
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think the thing is is that if you have a big house there's still the rule of thumb is to have one.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: If you've only got a tiny house and it works to have a shower room well fine.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: But if you've got a family bathroom and a shower room and you're not sweet I would keep the bathtub right because there's still quite a lot of people who like having a bath.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: Right okay so there is definitely a strong market for well there is a market for it it isn't in our house my husband's six foot seven have you ever tried to get in the bath at six foot seven so there's no point in us having a bath at our house but in our last town we did put one in yeah much to his disgust right but it was because we knew we were gonna sell it and the thing is is the next people who came yeah knew that that you know they could have a bath yeah exactly but there was two shower rooms two big walk-in showers so yeah if you have a house that has more multiple bathrooms yeah always keep one as a bathtub uh keep a tub yeah because the thing is is if you have children or grandchildren or people to stay yeah young children like a bath yeah they do that's true and you like to put them in the bath yeah and um do you work with outdoor spaces at all?
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: I do yes yeah we've uh done quite a lot of decking over the last year and we've been doing a lot of composite decking right you know where you um come and uh um you uh um put it down that's that's you know made of plastic stuff so it looks has much more longevity.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: Oh okay yeah so and um does that include extensions and indoors to outdoors type of music um yes yeah we've I've actually just done my own actually which has been a really nice experience yeah and doing it for everybody else it's been a real pleasure for the first time actually putting a big extension at home so that's nice I've loved that and that is absolutely that it's a outdoor space with a a beautiful canopy outside that's you can barbecue at any time yeah with roof lights in it and yeah no it's it's been wonderful but but we have I have worked with people and I have a team and part of that team is an architect so I work with a whole team builders yeah um joiners yeah plumbers electricians how um how was that journey of sourcing the tradespeople um well I I've actually picked them up over a uh a few years so I now have what I would say is a one-stop shop okay so I have a a range of people yeah who we can go um and I coordinate what they do right and then we just work as a team yeah and just do it between us it's and it's so nice because I trust them all yeah and you know that if you say oh and they trust me yeah so if I said to them well I'm coming to your house we're going to do a refurb yeah they will go all right okay and then they'll give me a date and they'll all come together.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: Oh that's really nice.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: You know they they they that's the dream and yeah I work for a a hotel in the lake district and the man the man the owner who was a developer but owned it yeah he said to me my trouble is I can never get in trades but it would never get electrician and I just and I think he thought I was being a bit blasé with him and I said that's not a problem if you want electrician next week I'll get you one.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah and he didn't really believe me but six weeks later he did.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah when the whole place was done it was all done too yeah and he's had us back since we've done more work for them and they've actually now put it on the market.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_02: Have they?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah and and they definitely put it on the market for a lot more money because we've done it all up yeah so when you do um interior designing yeah is that does that always convert to you doing the project management and finishing the job?
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh no not always um I'm always careful because some people have their own decorators some people have their own teams that they use so no sometimes it can be just doing the design side and then they use somebody else.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: Oh okay to just finalise the creative bit.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah yeah or even oversee it so I project manage but only the things that I'm buying not um not the other things so um if I'm helping somebody to pick the kitchen and bathrooms yeah but somebody else is installing them yeah and say picking the floor in yeah I I charge them a fee for them what I'm doing right but if the building work and all that's been done by somebody else and that's nothing to do with me it you know I mean I do my part of it.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah that sounds good.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_00: So it's it's quite a mixed bag of offerings isn't it?
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_01: Oh absolutely yeah and I think that's the thing is is I would say probably now I would say that I'm a property expert.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah meaning that I you know can do a wet range of different things for you know like the the hotel we were talking about they had staff quarters right and we replaced their shower right into a big bathroom their bath into a shower space.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah so they took the bath they took it out so my team came yeah and literally within four weeks they had it they all had been done.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_01: Turned around wow yeah so and so when you when you remove things like that do you scrap it or do you sell it or do you leave it to the owner?
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um I don't know what actually happened with that bath yeah but everything else I think they ended up getting skipped so it yeah yeah that's interesting and do you have um customers who worry about sustainability and where the materials are coming from to be perfectly honest I think in an ideal world you'd all like to say that in reality is no.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_01: No yeah and is that something you're thinking about moving towards at all?
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_01: To be perfectly honest in my own house we've tried to make it as sustainable as we could with um I I live in a Swedish built timber framed house yeah so we could have just put block and breeze but we actually made it match the original house.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: Oh okay so we've put as much insulation as we can can in it and tried to make it as efficient as it can be um but there's also that practicality some of the things that are recycled and upcycled and all that sometimes are harder to get yeah a lot more expensive right you know so yeah that is the problem so I I I I I think it's really interesting um to to do some of those things yeah yeah so there is a keeping an eye on the sustainable thing but cost is also a problem.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah yeah I mean I would think most of my clients will say I've got this amount to spend yeah uh it isn't about uh yeah I mean even the latest lady um I'm working for they've actually put a solar part next door because they have a business as well.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: I think she's had what she wants no n not you know renewable.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean things like your light fittings are all low voltage now.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_01: You know there's a lot of things that come standard don't they?
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah they do yeah you know but um um she had the Howden's kitchens well they're quite nice because they're British yeah so that so there's less a low footprint yeah yeah so you know actually most of my kitchens are from Howden's okay because I just think it's quite good to work with a British company really yeah keep that carbon footprint down as well and they're they they're all local guys they employ you know so that's important so I think there is an element of that yes it's nice and a lovely beautiful gr German kitchen yeah however it you know yeah costs a lot more and now with as not being in the um EU yeah that that's got to have had an effect on that.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah definitely yeah so um how would you encourage people to get into this field of work?
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think I think the thing is is it's is it has a bit of a romantic people always say oh I love your job.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_01: What they don't realise is that I rock up if I do house staging in a Pickford van versus you know that kind of van.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_01: A day and a half I go home absolutely exhausted and have a beautiful show home.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um invariably there's only your the the team of two two removal people and me and maybe one other person.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_01: So actually it's an awful lot of hard work.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah it's not as glamorous as just the final product.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: And and to be absolutely honest the um interior design side is quite hard because in this area there is a lot of people who are very comfortably off but they're not used to using an interior designer.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_01: In fact somebody it made me quite think think about it really this gentleman this lady said I've never ever met an interior designer and I and I it stopped me in my tracks and I thought actually there's very very few I've ever met you know it makes sense yeah yeah so so I I would say that it you you've really really got to think about it.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: I think if you're a young person you need to go to a city to try and do it because realistically it's really hard work in this rural area.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: And is that to get the experience and get the well also is this there's not very many people.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_01: So if you so if you go to I don't know Manchester or anywhere like that you're much more likely to have a bigger percentage of people with a huge amount of m money and also is is is quite frankly some people who want it it it's all about the wanting to spend money to you know to show off to your friends.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah yeah so so there is that element of that side of it yeah which which is more likely to happen in um you know yeah in a city sort of or the Cheshire belt or I see you know all the footballers wives around the country.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_01: So so therefore you know um so considering where we are it's quite incredible what you've achieved given the the restrictions of the geography and three hour drive time I had to have wow because and not so much now for interior design that tends to be in Cumbria yeah but but for house staging because it just isn't the population.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah there wasn't the demand for it.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_01: No yeah and also with people yeah it's it's trying to get the word out what home staging is yeah so frustrating.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_01: I mean the number of houses I've seen w lately where people do not ever sell a house empty.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah oh you see so many on Right Move don't you vacant and empty and I mean an estate agent even if it's a terraced house will not reduce it less than five thousand.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_01: Right and and I can tell you now it doesn't cost five thousand to stage it.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_01: So even if it costs you two in the next three yeah that three will pay you fees yeah you know I think it's just bunkers it's and hope it's sell quicker as well yeah yeah because I guess not everyone can imagine what the space could be used for.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: Do you know how many people it's amazing what's the stats 79% 79% of people viewing properties are not able to view it like imagine it.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_01: That means if you have it empty cluttered dirty squirry that means that you're selling it to 21% of the population.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_00: Wow that's incredible isn't it because you I mean I look at Right Move all the time and I just see certain properties just don't move so you've got the the ones where they look stunning but they're asking for way too much money.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yes and there isn't you know it's not flying off the shelf and then so that's a whole other market but then you've got the empty ones that have been there forever and they they're just changing hands for local estate agents.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah and that's what saddens me is yeah that they don't actually then come to me odd times do but invariably it's the client who says to you somebody like us.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_01: And the number of them oh I wouldn't bother no really strange because you would imagine that it's in their interest to um to sort of work with you or have a partnership with you to so frustrating so if there's anybody listening to this who wants to start that relationship I'm happy to talk to you because I think there's a whole new market yeah to change the concept of how an estate agent works.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah that's incredible isn't it yeah if I was selling a property and or my property and someone said well actually if you pay for this and we'll stage it and if it doesn't sell within X months then we'll reimburse you something.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's your guarantee of why this service is good isn't it?
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah yeah although you can't predict market of course so there needs to be some kind of something around that I would say yes.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: Because my house is very much a reflection of me.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm very aware that when it comes to selling it I would need you want to take you out of it.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah a home is the place you live a house is what you're selling yeah and people forget that and I'll say to them it doesn't matter whether you like it or not it doesn't matter that you love that pink wall that pink wall needs to go now because the next person won't like your pink wall.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah yeah yeah exactly it's such an emotional tie though isn't it because you've got to start saying it's the house I'm selling not my home anymore that's the mantra that you have to um shall we start moving again so shall we talk about awards?
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh wow yeah well so from what I understand you've had a few I have yes yes I um um I uh I can remember in uh twenty twenty four uh twenty fourteen um I became a house pro yeah and signed up for house which is house.co dot uk that's z isn't it yeah h-o-uz-z yeah dot co dot uk uh and uh their American company who came over here and they and if you're looking for ideas they're a bit like a sophisticated property side of Pinterest in a way.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: Oh okay.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so you but you you know you can you can look for consultants in your area to work for you for a variety of different things from you know houses uh uh to um interior designers to yeah keep talking interior designers to um architects you know the whole range of to you know all different kinds of companies kitchen fitters wardrobe companies all that they all register on it yeah so I registered and I can remember paying£200 which actually it's still the same price so probably it's cheap now where it was and I can remember thinking oh gosh but actually I had loads of customers but going to awards the point of this is yeah is that um I got um the year after so for the last nine years I've got house for service okay and I got 52 reviews now right and um so that was the first one I got which you know was then on your website and everything else yeah and that was quite good.
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_01: So that first award was a called House for Service.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah well they do the interior design side but they also do for service but for some reason I could never work out how I never anyway that's another point.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_01: But uh but it meant that they recognised that every year you were doing really well and that your customers were always feeding back.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_01: Oh okay okay that's the case so that's how I got for service yeah and then in 20 um eighteen nineteen I uh was uh asked if I would like to do an awards for the rural business awards yeah and I had uh um a vintage caravan okay with Paisley patterned all beautiful inside yeah voyage fabrics and uh beautiful wallpaper little green French grey paint and it looked absolutely idyllic but it was bright purple and purple Paisley on the outside so wherever you went everybody went oh my goodness is this caravan went back so uh so I had the sassy van as we called it yeah no used to go to shows in it and so I won the north uh north of England um uh business of the year right wow with the rural business awards oh that's amazing and from that point yeah it just changed my business because suddenly people just took you in a different light because they realised that you know and I was quite shocked because if you'd asked me before I wouldn't have realised it would have had such an effect so and did you have to apply for these awards or were you nominated?
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_01: I think I was nominated quite a while ago since 2018.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_01: But I I was and then you they then ask you some questions.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah so yeah so I so um I uh yeah so I so that was that was really yeah that's awesome uh I was so amazed uh yeah to actually win the North and Regional final yeah and then went to the full final yeah but uh I didn't win that one but it was just such an honour to get to that point anyway yeah uh but it really did change my business and then from there I have won a few uh but in but um two years ago uh sorry three years ago I won um a business um uh sorry interior design professional uh services um for the UK yeah wow uh innovation and an ex excellence award a national award yeah and I've actually won it three times in a row oh my goodness uh so so yeah so yeah so I so so I'm a bit bowled over by that yeah and what they said was it was about the fact that every time they look at my stuff yeah there's more and more reviews saying exactly the same thing that's great it's a consistent service yeah so so yeah so it's quite humbling really so it's lovely so yeah so so that's um that's lovely and I've won uh um uh one for professional services from the House Wow and yeah I've been nominated for quite a few I've been nominated twice for different categories for the Evers so that was that's been nice I've been to that awards a couple of times yeah there's such an amazing uh uh array of women that yeah you can believe you can't you can understand why you don't win it yeah um but the first time I did it I I uh was up against a fairy godmother and a gentleman on our table said he used a cute couple of F words and said well you were never going to hurt against a fairy godmother were you yeah and we just fell about laughing he just thought it was so funny and that just sort of summed it up you were never going against a fairy godmother so in 13 years that's so much accomplishment yeah so I guess it speaks volumes to doing something you're passionate about.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_01: Oh absolutely I don't ever feel like I'm going to work so that's a nice thing yeah so I think that's that's a that's a lovely thing I met some fabulous people been to some fabulous places yeah some fabulous budgets yeah so that's that's yeah if somebody had asked would I have I've got a limited company you know that's VAT registered that's yeah yeah so 13 years yeah it is and and uh yeah uh and it it it it is hard work you know there's yeah there has been times when it has been really really difficult yeah for Steve my husband without him it would not be possible because it's just a stallwal that's always believed in me.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_01: Oh that's important.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah that's really good and uh and I guess these days you're not worrying about where your next client's coming from well that's right you know like at the moment you know I've got three or four decent clients and and uh and a great believer in that it just all it just all seems to work out yeah so did you have times in the early days where you would you felt you had to say yes to everything?
• 49:53
  SPEAKER_01: Oh absolutely yeah yeah that's right desperate to go you would do anything to get to work yeah yeah that's right yeah but don't have to do that anymore.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_01: No and other things that you definitely would never consider what sort of things the people oh okay but sometimes chemistry with the yeah I mean the bad odd people I mean there was uh there's only one gentleman where he said I don't think I want to and he wanted me to buy everything but at cost.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't want me to put any markup anything and he wanted to buy it from a wholesaler at cost.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um and uh and I said well it doesn't work like that because the world wouldn't go around if everybody bought it at cost and sold it to somebody at cost.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_01: How dare I so he said I don't think I want to work with you anymore and so I emailed him back and said and said that I actually totally agree with you I want to no longer want to work with you anymore.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_00: It just wouldn't go forward would it?
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_01: No but on a whole I I've had very very few customers that that have been awful.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah yeah oh that's good I haven't I find that small time developers can be a bit difficult because they want to micromanage everything.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_01: Oh okay it's their baby yeah and so therefore they want to micromanage everything and it's like I mean it's very hard to say to somebody look I've been doing this for you know twelve years now and and some before that really yeah um you know you've got to trust me yeah um and and yeah yeah it's hard to let go isn't it it's hard to sort of once you've done it once then you build that trust well that's right that's sort of building building that relationship if you think it's uh yeah and that's a lovely thing is I have developers now who just you know oh right and we're doing another can you do that oh I'll do another and that's that's that's what where you want to get to so that people just trust you that you're part of the service and that you know yeah yeah that's really nice.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_00: So how do you balance out stress?
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_01: Well actually um I I had a yeah a very very strange time over COVID and just before because sadly I've lost my mum my my my best friend my mother in law my brother in law and now I've lost my brother in the last so so so yeah yeah that's right and had quite a few family challenges but anyway right um but uh I actually do a lot of meditation.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_01: Oh you do?
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah and I um I uh Amanda Green's become a really good friend yeah and uh she started little tarot group which I met Ed for before and the that we do and we just do it as sort of just as a little bit of a hobby.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah um I'm one of those people that um isn't telepathic right but I can say about somebody yeah I'm an old soul I think that's probably what I am right and I'll say oh such and such about them yeah and it'll happen.
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_01: Not not in a bit I don't mean it that you know somebody I once knew her husband died and I said she'll never move on and I knew she would never move on and she didn't and and think I sort of have a way of being able to sort of gauge what people are thinking and and yeah and it's quite a strange thing to to to sort of know your thought.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah but I listen to Reiki music um all the time and uh how did you get into that?
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_01: I I just couldn't sleep my head was just going and I just started to took it because of business just everything because obviously it was the business probably was the easy bit yeah it was everything else that was the hard bit yeah so uh yeah so I um oh fairy park just talking about the fairy godmother yeah so now we've got a fairy park yeah they must have put that in so that's lovely that's cute yeah so um so uh so yeah no it's been a it's been an amazing journey and uh uh but but with for me you've just got to switch off.
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_01: I absolutely love gardening.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_01: Oh do you and um and we well look at these little flowers.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah so it's a fairy path it's beautiful.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_00: It really is sorry gardening.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah so so doing our own house has been stressful because we've had quite a lot of issues with our the people who live round about us just not wanting change.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_01: Oh okay and we have a modern bungalow and so we built a modern build which wouldn't affect them because it was right in the middle of our garden yeah but they've just been a bit of a nightmare so that's been challenging but I've just sort of I've I've just I I now let go I don't worry about things anymore.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_01: I believe that you've just got to um live for today.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah I agree with that and not um worry about it and the more you seem to worry the worse it gets it so so I don't do that anymore.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_01: Oh that's good yeah but the Reiki and the and the meditation uh I'm I've been listening this last few weeks to the quantum jumping stuff and I've never done that before.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_01: Quantum jumping is where you go in the parallel universe.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_00: I think I used to watch a program as a kid called Quantum Leap.
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah well this is jumping universe yeah well this is the same principle of you yep that you're believing in in in this other reality yeah everything's everything's done twice so this bridge was thought about and then built so it does things twice.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 55:21
  SPEAKER_01: And this is yeah so this is how I haven't got any more than that I've already been a little bit into it but um so is our podcast no it's there's loads of it on YouTube.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_01: Oh okay so I've been listening to those and uh yeah and I and and just about beliefs because when we first built our house we had a few issues with my mum's estate which has taken five years to uh to to get by and um and so we we built the house and did all this big extension but actually we we at the time don't know how we were actually going to finish paying for it.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_01: But we've ended up with no mortgage and a house that's doubled in value and we haven't got loads of you know loads and loads of debt so that's fantastic.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_01: So I do believe that you sometimes have to let it let us be and believe in what you want.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah I think that's probably why my business has succeeded yeah so is there a bit of manifestation going on oh absolutely I've always um always have a yearly uh um what I'm gonna do and yeah oh look at all those things this is awesome yeah all these little fairy things along the way oh it's gorgeous oh well I'm very taken by Mary Pot yeah and I've obviously come with the right tour guide yeah absolutely flowers aren't they are yeah that's really uh the I wonder if there were what one for the um autistic because of the blue aren't there and do you mind grabbing a picture for me please of course yeah I'm a big believer in goal setting and sort of visualising I visualize a lot yeah yeah yeah that's right and and uh and and I just try to I am a positive person you know I I you know I like to believe in the best even like the football I was so disappointed with them because to me they're writing them off yeah and and and I afterwards and I put a post out and put now uh now uh you're all you naysayers you know now look because they would just I mean in the commentators and everybody and I'm sure that teams like America and stuff I'm sure they don't have all this rubbish they just believe in their team yeah you know it's absolutely disgusting yeah yeah we start from a negative space absolutely you know yeah expect the world yeah oh look at this it's just beautiful yeah there's a little fairy thing there yeah that says don't piss off the fairies that says don't piss off the fairies yeah that's absolutely true yeah yeah beautiful piss off the fairy and you've had it so are we closer to your car or my car?
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yes my car your car or you can walk through and then to mine whichever oh we can sort of halfway we'll go to mine because we have to go that way anyway don't we so yeah no so I do do totally believe in that um uh if you've if you've got a negative vibe I really struggle with negative people I really struggle with people who who only see everything in a dark vein and yeah and uh yeah so for me it it is is I try to keep away from them.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah it brings your energy down as well doesn't it yeah that's right and um uh and I and every time that I you know I honestly believe in what I'm doing everything just seems to work out and yeah and and I want to continue on that vein.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah yeah so that's a good energy to yeah so I'm hoping that you know I'm I'm looking at uh maybe doing more podcasts and maybe looking at some more of these yeah and uh and also is this I'm looking at ways of doing more residual income so that you know as I'm getting no younger uh you know there must be other ways because of my expertise yeah um I'm thinking of of of looking into new ways of um maybe sharing my expertise with people.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_01: So that's a little bit of coaching maybe yeah well the only thing is is somebody said yeah coaching side fine but what they were saying was is that if you do courses yeah that something like 80% of the people never finish the courses.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I was thinking um that's top secret just coming out now breaking news yeah yeah I'm thinking about starting an app.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_01: Oh are you an interior design app yeah well maybe even staging and stuff and and and about how you know you can get the best out of a room and things like that because there's a lot of people who would like to use you but maybe like to try it themselves or you know so you in after some ideas.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah that's so that's why yeah so I love that so yeah so that's um so that's so that's in the pipeline it is yeah so uh so there's no stopping you no that's it yeah Anne's taking over the world I love it you're getting sassy I'm here for it I love it yeah I love that your business is called what sassy property styling styling I love that yeah yeah so I'm thinking of doing some branding stuff that uh that's old that's oh so sassy oh yeah um and uh and also is is that after our last pink meet pink link making I was thinking of doing some uh branded stuff that was uh the one that was chuffing fampion yeah and then looking brilliant yeah so I thought they might be quite nice in journals and a few things that you could sell that that you could yeah so yeah so that so they're all pipelines at the moment so there's always something buzzing around in your mind doesn't absolutely yeah so that's what I'm thinking about.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.
• 1:00:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yes and um what do you think about networking?
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah absolutely love it.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_00: What do you love about it?
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think yeah like meeting people like yourself and and and you you you meet other people who bring something else to the party yeah and particularly when you work on your own a lot.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_01: So for me you know and and sadly now that I've no longer got my mum and best friendside you know I am lonelier than I was there's no doubt about it and and so so having a new network of people is just marvelous.
• 1:01:33
  SPEAKER_00: And also having the emotional connection to yourself to understand you need that.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely looking for it rather than allowing that to festo is really important.
• 1:01:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah yeah when when COVID came on I just got and my best friend had cancer and of course couldn't see her.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah and uh and I did the Natalie Ladwell um mine movies program.
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_01: I've never heard of that all right well Natalie Ledwell's one of the the top if not one of the most well known manifestation uh professionals in the world and uh law of attraction yeah and she does a she did a lovely little programme that you went on for so many weeks once while COVID was on well I couldn't go anywhere.
• 1:02:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah I was a lot of garner business so he could go to work so I sat there on my own so I I thought well I either sit there feeling sorry for myself yeah or I do something so I instead of was drinking we didn't drink only at weekends.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't drink either actually and uh and then we got and I got fitter and thinner and I did that course and I came out feeling yeah really positive.
• 1:02:37
  SPEAKER_01: Oh good yeah what a good way to use your time I love that so yeah sort of and I researched about doing Instagram and all those kind of things just because you might as well make a positive out of it.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah exactly yeah so no so that's for me that was what I did to try and yeah so oh well thanks Anne this has been awesome I feel like there's still so much more to dig into with you I think we've just touched the surface so we might need a revisit.
• 1:03:02
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah definitely yeah you can come to my pad and have a look at what I've been oh that'd be awesome yeah I never say no to that I love being nosy at people's houses.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_00: That brings us to the end of today's episode I hope you enjoyed this walk around Maryport with Anne Sowerby of Sassy Property Styling what a journey what a woman from owning her own toy shop at just 22 to managing town centre events to becoming a multi-award winning interior designer and home stager wow this Anne's story is one of passion persistence and creativity and as she shared sometimes it's the challenges like her dyslexic diagnosis at 30 that shapes how we learn and grow.
• 1:03:52
  SPEAKER_00: Anne's tips on interior design from the role of lamps and mirrors to those timeless greys and blacks really reminds us that staging a house for sale and creating a home are two very different things.
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_00: Her insight into this world was fascinating and she was an absolute trooper even being our guide around the beautiful and somewhat windy Maryport.
• 1:04:20
  SPEAKER_00: A massive shout out and thank you to Anne for your time.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for being so open about your journey some some parts of which were not that easy to talk about and for being such a wonderful host in Maryport.
• 1:04:33
  SPEAKER_00: I can't wait to come back and to our listeners thank you so much for joining us again on another walk and explore if you enjoyed the conversation please do share your thoughts with us on social media don't forget to spread the word share the episode and tell your friends all about us stay tuned for more inspiring walks and stories and remember to come back and check out the next episode.
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_00: Until then keep exploring