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Entrepreneurship is often a twisting, winding, surprising sort of affair. As Becky Pospisal, owner of the Knotty Nail will tell you, those surprises can come both in the form of challenges (as in adapting when your well-made plans don’t work out as expected) and blessings (like finding that folks really like your business). Although you can’t always prepare tangibly for surprises, they are, by nature, unexpected, trusting in your ability to handle whatever may come will often produce exactly that.
Join us this week as we talk with Becky about surprises, how she got started with the Knotty Nail, and spouses who will say what they really think about the name of your business. Plus, using the SBA, creating lasting employee relationships, and transitioning your business so you can do the things you love doing and find great people to handle the other stuff.
To learn more, visit theknottynail.com
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Transcript
Introduction to Living Uncommonly
00:00:02
Speaker
Everyone dreams about living an uncommon life, but how we define that dream is very different for each of us. And for most, it's a lifelong pursuit. Welcome to the Uncommon Life Project podcast. We're going to introduce you to people who are living that life or enjoying the journey to get there. We're going to also give you some tools, tricks, and tips for starting or accelerating your own efforts to live an uncommon life.
00:00:27
Speaker
A life worth celebrating and savoring.
Becky's Leap into Entrepreneurship
00:00:30
Speaker
Please welcome your hosts, Brian Dewhurst and Philip Ramsey. Hello and welcome everybody to another episode of the UncomiLife Project where I am your host, Philip Ramsey. The only Aaron Kramer. And the only Aaron Kramer.
00:00:42
Speaker
super excited that you're coming on the show. We have an amazing show for you today. It's a great one. So we have Becky Paspisil on the podcast. So that's not easy to say. And so from here on out, we're just going to call her Becky. If you want to know her bio, here's the deal. She owns the naughty nail. She quit her job.
00:01:03
Speaker
16 years ago, or in 2016, and started this, she used to work for a chief officer at a nonprofit, and now she owns Central Iowa's most popular do-it-yourself art studios. Super excited for you to be on the show, Becky. Thanks for taking your time.
00:01:22
Speaker
Thanks for having me. It's going to be amazing. We've just been talking for, should have been like five minutes. It was 15 minutes because she's that amazing. And so if this is the first time you have ever listened to the show, thanks for being on.
Investing in Self vs. Financial Markets
00:01:35
Speaker
We know your time is valuable. We are, I don't even know if we call ourselves financial advisors, but we like to help people invest in themselves and help them live a life that they love to live so they can wake up every morning, love what they do.
00:01:48
Speaker
and also get paid for it because for some reason these frickin' bills just keep comin' every month. And so if we can start helping people start loving their life every day, they don't wanna retire because they wanna impact the world. Becky is one of those people. So, okay, if you have one question for Becky, I wanna know what it is to start out the show and I want it to be a really good one.
00:02:09
Speaker
Oh man. And Becky has done podcasts before, but only one big one for ABC. That's right. Kind of a big deal. So if you get star struck, I get it, but I want a good question right now from you, Aaron Kramer. Let's start it out with a bang. Okay. Dang it. You put me on the spot.
00:02:28
Speaker
How do you, Becky, how do you feel about your journey that you've taken now? If you were to describe it in one word. Oh, that's a good one. That is a good one. That's a good start one. Wow, Aaron. Aaron hit me with a big one right at the back. Happy Friday, everyone. Yeah. Show's over.
00:02:44
Speaker
That's a good one. Yeah, it's a good one. Okay. So, um, yeah, I've been in business for six years now, which is hard. Isn't that crazy? It is. It's hard to say that out loud because it doesn't feel like that. So I guess if I look back at the last six years,
00:03:03
Speaker
it surprises me.
Business Growth and Challenges
00:03:05
Speaker
That's probably the best word. I just never really, yeah, isn't that crazy? Like of course you have big dreams of something of how your business will look and what will happen with that when you start a business. However, it seems really far away, especially because when I started, I didn't have any money. Like it was so small.
00:03:24
Speaker
Or no knowledge, no knowledge at all. Zero, zero. Yeah. So especially in this industry, like I was not even like an artist or crafter by trade, like at all. So yeah, when I look back, I'm like,
00:03:39
Speaker
Did I think that maybe I would own a brick and mortar store? Did I think I'd have an online presence? Would I think that I have a sustainable income where I can provide for my family? No, I did not think that. Did I wish it? Sure, probably. Yeah. I mean, that's everybody's dream, right? But it really surprises me.
00:03:57
Speaker
the way it happened also, and probably at a pace that I was most comfortable with too, because it all felt really manageable. I don't think I ever really put myself in a position where I'm like, I am detrimental to my family or anything like that, you know, which is exactly that. I'm in over my skis, which you kind of always feel that, but you never really are that, right?
00:04:18
Speaker
Right. You always feel like you're in over your head. You also always feel like you have no idea what you're doing. Right. It's kind of like parenting. We've said this a lot in our podcast. It's kind of like a child. Like at first when you have a kid, like it's coming, it's happening. You can't really stop this train, but you have no idea. You just kind of adapt and overcome. And then you have the child and then you'll let you leave with it from the hospital. Is that the scariest thing? Are you sure? Yeah. Are you like, I came in with an empty baby car seat and I'm leaving with like the most prized possession.
00:04:46
Speaker
Truly. What do I do with it? Not to be this about me, but I've out gotten to three car accidents and I hadn't even left the parking lot ramp. You know, it's like, Oh gosh, why is everyone driving so fast? So true. Okay. Keep going true. Yeah.
Customer Relations and Branding
00:04:58
Speaker
I don't know. I mean, surprised is probably the best word. If I really had to sum it up in one word, I guess. And, um, I guess I'm,
00:05:06
Speaker
I don't know if I would have done anything differently, but I'm just really happy with how it's turned out. It just goes to show that you can make a plan and it's maybe not going to work out that way. You have to be able to adapt. When I look back at all the things, I would never imagine my business would look the way it does right now.
00:05:25
Speaker
Okay, so if you're a first time listener, I wanna encourage you, okay? Because at the end of the day, if you go to a traditional financial advisor, they're gonna take your money, they're gonna put it in the market, okay? Let's say it goes up, it can go up or go down. It can go sideways too, but eventually it's gonna go up or down. It's going down right now. It's going down right now, but this is in October, I hope, or maybe it's gonna air in November. Maybe it's going up now, I don't know. But here's the deal. At the end of the day, what have you learned? Let's say it goes up 500%.
00:05:55
Speaker
What have you actually learned and how has your life changed? Not really that much. Retirement's looking good, but you're not touching that money. It's a long ways away, kind of in jail. Let's say it goes down. Uh-oh, what did you learn? Nothing, okay? You start your own business and jump off the proverbial bridge that we talk about. You're learning something right away.
00:06:15
Speaker
which Becky, you have learned. Not only did you like, I'm in over my skis, but not too much, but I'm learning constantly. Every day is something that I get to learn. I get to adapt. I get to overcome. So that's why we love an uncommon life. So where do we go from here? You tell me. So you were surprised. What were you surprised about? Well, I think the first thing I thought,
00:06:40
Speaker
I guess I didn't realize that people would want my business around or to be a part of my business. Your customers become part of your business. They're the reason why you have a business. You have nothing without your customer base, whatever that looks like.
00:06:54
Speaker
When I started, I thought, okay, I'll do, you know, I do DIY workshops. When I started, I went to people's houses. I went to restaurants, went to bars. Do what you gotta do. You got a car load of wood in the back and hammers and all kinds of stuff you are driving around with in your Camry. And, um, you know, you're, you're going to someone's house and you're hoping they don't have a glass table and they have a great time. And then they tell all their friends and,
00:07:19
Speaker
And then all of a sudden someone else is booking and then it just like this rapid pace that people were excited about my business, which got me more excited about it because I was very nervous about my business. I was nervous. I was going to show up and everyone was going to mess it up. It wasn't going to look good. Similar to we've all done those canvas paintings.
00:07:38
Speaker
of a palm tree that doesn't look like a palm tree and ends up in your closet, or you give it to your mom or your grandma, and they're like, it's beautiful, and then you never see it again, right? And that was my worst nightmare with my business, is not having happy customers. And I'm a Leo, and I am on the disc profile, a high I and a high D. I care very much about what people think about me. Which is tough, right. Super hard. Right.
00:08:02
Speaker
I always just wanted to make sure everyone had this like wonderful experience with my business, happiness associated with the naughty nail. And so I'm very good with people and that's part of the reason why I started this business. As I was a social worker, I was a chief compliance officer at a large nonprofit. My job was to manage unhappy people and unhappy things like contracts and yeah, people getting hurt and you know, workers comp, all kinds of things. And I did not enjoy that.
00:08:27
Speaker
Right. I can only imagine. Right. Yeah. You're doing the deal. Draining, right? And so I, I picked the naughty nail. I picked my business because I didn't think anyone would ever get mad at me. I was like, everyone will be happy because who doesn't enjoy like some time with their friends, a cocktail and making some art. You'd actually be proud to hang on your wall.
00:08:49
Speaker
And so we joke now that I only do crafts you can't suck at because I don't want you to leave with something that you're going to put in a closet and never show anyone. I want you to be proud of it. So I guess I was surprised that even happened, that people were like really pleased with their finished projects. They wanted to do it again. They wanted to tell their friends. They would order custom gifts. And then that just really snowballed very
Starting the String Art Business
00:09:13
Speaker
quickly. Like to the point where eight months later I left my job. So it's like,
00:09:17
Speaker
Because you hated it anyway, let's be honest. I did hate it. I was ready for a change. I was tired of working for other people. No one likes compliance. Just be honest. No one likes compliance. Yeah. Because that's what I want to get into real quick. I want to back it up a little bit here. Good. So for our listeners, I get the pleasure. Becky is one of my, she's my neighbor. Yes. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I remember we're all sitting, I think we're, or not sitting, we're standing by the mailbox.
00:09:42
Speaker
And I overheard you talking about how miserable you were at your full-time job. And you saw somebody else doing something similar to this. And you're sitting there thinking, you said something like, I can do this. Yeah. It seems so simple. Yeah, like, what? I'm going to do this. And so then you did it. And now we're here today. But talk about that journey of really taking that leap, going through that thought process.
00:10:09
Speaker
of actually like jumping off that bridge as we say. Right. Let me, let me just quick cause the naughty nail. Yeah. Give us like a 30 second. What is the naughty nail? Yeah. So we're a DIY studio custom art engraving shop and we teach classes. Not fingernails. No. Okay. Not nails. Like here's my nails. No.
00:10:29
Speaker
So we started with string art, which is nails and wood and string. Yeah. Which a lot of people are like, what, what's that? You saw it in the seventies, but it's like cooler version of that. So, and that's funny cause that's not even our most popular thing anymore. It's not weird. It has changed, but you know, that's a different story for another time. All right. Now go back to the journey. I just want to make sure that we're on the same things cause it's not the nails. No, not fingernails. No, don't do that. My fingernails look terrible. My daughter painted them and she's eight. So just imagine what they look like in your brain.
00:10:56
Speaker
Not good. Um, okay. Yeah. So I remember that Aaron, I a hundred percent remember that telling people I had seen string art on Pinterest and I'm like, I can do that. That's so easy. Now I'm a DIY er, but like things like I put ship lap up in my house and we tore the hardwood out and put flooring in that kind of stuff.
00:11:16
Speaker
Not like I like to make art books. Yeah. No, that's not my thing. Um, I like it. I just don't do it. So I, um, tried doing string at one time on the carpet in my living room. Number one, not on carpet. Don't do that. It doesn't work. Obviously hammering a nail it through onto carpet does not effective, you know, things you don't know. Yeah.
00:11:35
Speaker
found a piece of wood in my garage. I think it might've been hickory, so as hard as you could possibly get. And the nails are huge. Yeah, on carpet. Lots going on here. Yeah, doing great so far, right? And I decide to make an enormous heart. It's like three by three. It's huge. And I draw a heart on a piece of wood, and I try to hammer in like six nails, and I'm like, this is hard.
00:11:55
Speaker
Literally hard and also very hard to do. And I quit. And my husband, Andrew, was like, yeah, thanks for wasting the wood. And I'm like, listen, I thought it was going to be easy. And we put it away, and I never thought about it again. And then we went on vacation. We were in Lake Tahoe.
00:12:13
Speaker
And I told my husband, I was so miserable at work and I'm like, we are not leaving this trip until I come up with something to do. And he was like, yeah, we brainstormed ideas, nothing. Came home, no ideas. What was he doing at the time? What was his name? Andrew. Andrew. Yeah. He called him Drew. We call him Drew. He loved him. We call him Drew. We love him and we call him Drew.
00:12:33
Speaker
He works for a startup company where they do power over ethernet lighting. It's an invented thing that they came up with. It's pretty cool. They manufacture these products. He was enjoying his job, but you were not enjoying your job, which I think is a core value. When your spouse hates their job or life, you hate your life. You will do whatever you need to do.
00:12:58
Speaker
I remember him asking me if I was depressed because it was like Sunday night and I was crying on the couch and he was like, is there something wrong with you? And I'm like, of course there's nothing wrong with me. What's wrong with you? But I didn't realize how unhappy I really was. I mean, you spend so much time in your job. You do. You might as well like it.
00:13:18
Speaker
Well, and I also felt like I had kind of dedicated, you know, 13, 14 years to my job and I worked my way up from an entry-level position to a chief officer and which is what everybody wants. I'm not everybody, but that's what I, you know, I, yeah, I think maybe I want to be a CEO of a nonprofit.
00:13:36
Speaker
I feel like I knew everything I needed to know about the job, but I just did not enjoy it anymore. I loved the clients and I loved the work, but the system is hard. Anybody that works in social work knows the system is hard. And you were going upstream because that's just not your personality. Yeah, no, I'm like, I need that, like.
00:13:52
Speaker
energy, positivity. Yeah, totally. 100%. So after my failed attempt of string art at my house, I remember we were coming home from my stepdaughter's track meet and I told Drew, I'm going to start a business teaching people how to do string art. And he was like, didn't you try that already? Wow.
00:14:13
Speaker
Drew, come on. At least you've been honest. Sometimes you need that people. He's totally opposite of me, which is good in a lot of ways because together we make us superhuman. But when we talk about things, we're not on the same page typically. At first. And he'll admit it too. Right.
00:14:28
Speaker
Because the problem with having that is the American Idol thing where somebody gets up there and is like, my mom and dad have told me I'm amazing. Right. And you're like, oh, gosh, we have a problem here. Right. You know, so yes. Totally need Jews in the world. We do. He can he can ground me very quickly. So I told him I'm doing this and he was like, OK. And then I'm like, and we're going to call it the
Balancing Stability and Entrepreneurship
00:14:49
Speaker
naughty nail. And he was like, that's a terrible name. It's a terrible name.
00:14:52
Speaker
And I'm like, it's not because it's funny. And my personality is punny. I love a good pun. And he was like, totally being devil's advocate here. And no joke, I think I went home, bought the domains on GoDaddy, and bought all the things, and got my social media handles. And I'm like, we're doing it. I don't care if you like it. I'm doing it. I'm sold. We had gone back and forth about names and stuff, but I was like, hold my beer. Yeah, we're doing it.
00:15:21
Speaker
Awesome. Yeah. So, and I'm, I mean, I launched this website and everything before I had never taught a class. I had made like four patterns for people to choose from. You're jumping in head first. Oh, you don't even know how deep the water is. Yeah. Welcome to the jungle. Here's what I'd say quickly. If this is like not resonating with you, a lot of people have different risk tolerances. So like we hear Becky's, she's ready to rock.
00:15:46
Speaker
Yeah. Now she did have a safety net of her husband, Drew, who had the cashflow. Yes. And she was going to keep her job. So we see some of these people who are like, have the risk tolerance of like, not only am I going head first, I'm quitting my job before I even test the water, which honestly, like that's totally up to you. As long as you know, the risks and the rewards, I'm okay with it.
00:16:06
Speaker
But our job is to help people like, hey, the water might not work. So if you are worried about that, keeping both feet in the thing. So like, yeah, it sounds like you're jumping in head first, but you had a lot of like ropes attached to you. I did. Right. Yeah. Um, I was making good money at my job and so we weren't, we had two small children in daycare. So this was not an option to quit my job. Right.
00:16:29
Speaker
This was in addition to the very demanding job that I had. This was a side hustle. It was a side hustle, right. And that's what we thought it would be, right? Like two nights a week, maybe I'll bring in. My goal, I think I wanted to make enough money to cover daycare. No. And I think I paid, I want to say it was like $1,200 a month at the time for daycare, which is a lot of money. Totally. I mean, that's a lot. It's two house payments. Yeah, that's a house payment. It's a goal for you to shoot for. Yeah. That wasn't like, and I need to make 60 grand.
00:16:57
Speaker
You know, like, oh gosh. Yeah, we're starting small here. Yeah, but it is helpful to overall plan, like thinking about that. Yeah, we were, to be honest, we were not in a great financial situation at the time. I mean, we both on paper looked like we made a lot of money, but we had a lot of bills. You know, we both had a lot of credit card debt. We had car payments. We had a house payment, which was our least expensive bill out of everything. And then two babies. And then, you know, my husband has a daughter who is older and she's in college now. And we, you know,
00:17:26
Speaker
uh, older kids, more activities, you know, getting ready for college, we're saving for her so we can pay for her school. You know, we had a lot of bills. So our money was out as fast as it was in and out. Yeah. So this is your typical America. Yeah. Yeah. We are. Yeah. The American dream, right? As a debt and mortgage. So we had it. So this was, uh, it was a risk because we had little children at home. Um, and you know,
00:17:53
Speaker
two parents. It's helpful. We're a team. My husband doesn't sit on the couch when he gets home from work. He helps. It was a lot. There was a risk there. I replaced my income relatively quickly. It really went quickly. Tell me about the first class.
Initial Investments and Growth Strategies
00:18:12
Speaker
Because at this point, this is the second time you picked up the old nails and hammer. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. So I had done some at my house. You know, I had got my examples, we got our patterns, figured out how I was going to do it, you know, but not tested with other people. So first class was my dear friend Jessica offered to host.
00:18:32
Speaker
And I think she ended up having like 10 or 12 people there, which was awesome, right? How much are they paying for this? $40 a person. That includes everything. They get to pick their pattern. And I brought everything to her house. We set it all up. And I think it took close to four hours. Not supposed to take that long.
00:18:49
Speaker
But great time. Yeah. Great results. Everyone had a great time. They all turned out wonderful. I learned a lot about how many nails should be in the pattern and how old the people should be that are there, maybe no children, and just learned some very quick lessons right off the bat. Good. Which was great, which I implemented immediately. And how much do you think you've invested at this point, other than bandwidth of mind? Yeah, about $2,500, I think. Yeah, yeah. So not crazy. No, not crazy, but money I did not have.
00:19:16
Speaker
So I borrowed some money from my parents and promised it would be paid back in three months. And I was able to pay them back quickly, which was great. But I needed a website, because I wanted to look legitimate. I'm like, if I'm going to do this, we're not doing a Facebook group.
00:19:33
Speaker
Yeah, no. Which is fine. If you've got to do that, that's a great place to start free marketing. It's an absolute wonderful resource that I use today. But at the time I'm like, no, I want to look like a real business. And so I had to, you know, I did as much as I could on my own and then I had to pay someone to do the rest because I just didn't have that skill set. Yeah. And that's okay. Yeah. You know, right. It was an investment. Yep.
00:19:55
Speaker
So yeah, um, probably, what was your design? I just want to know quick. This is off the topic. The first design I did. So I had four, I had Iowa with a heart. Oh, that's cute. Yeah. I think I've seen some of those popular one by far. I know you and anchor. Okay.
00:20:10
Speaker
Um, Oh gosh, I want to say we did a pot. Was it a paw print? Maybe a big paw print. Okay. And then, um, six chevron arrows. Oh yeah. Yeah. Go opposite. That was pretty popular too, but it is a lot of nails. So yeah. So those were the four, I think I started with. Great. Sorry. Great. Popular to this day. Yeah. So, so yeah.
00:20:35
Speaker
Awesome. Okay, so the first thing went well. Yeah. You were just hyped up. Let's go. Drew, let me tell you about it. Yeah, I was pumped. I was pumped. The people there were pumped. Like they, I, you know, the one thing I knew I needed to do was take advantage of people marketing on my behalf. Yeah. So I made these tiny little three by three hearts, string art hearts. I made like two of them for every party I went to. And I said, if you post a picture of your art and tag me on Facebook or Instagram,
00:21:18
Speaker
I will draw
00:21:23
Speaker
to lay with it. Yeah, which was great. And so that I attribute to it taking off so quickly is because the power of using your own customers to market you is that is the best marketing you could ever not pay for. Right. Right. Is a referral. Yeah. So that's what I did. And, um, it's funny cause when I stopped doing that, I could tell a big difference in my growth. Like it dropped dramatically. It was huge for me. Wow. Huge for me. Did you go back to that well?
00:21:50
Speaker
No, I need to. I mean, I should, I have it. It's been a weird time with, you know, if we want to fast forward, it's been a weird time. So different. The vid, the COVID. The vid really put a wrench in things. So yeah. Okay. So after the first night class deal, when was the next one and who hosted it?
00:22:08
Speaker
Yeah. So I did a, uh, an event at Palak studios in East village. They're not opening more, but Sean Palak is a very popular airbrush artist here in Des Moines. And he used to have an art studio in the East village and him and his wife owned it together. And we hosted a workshop there. It wasn't very many people, but once again, about three and a half hours. So we're getting smaller, which was good efficient to get wine fixes this.
00:22:30
Speaker
Yeah, it does help. Drinking makes everything better sometimes. Not for everyone, but in this case, yes, it can make difficult art more fun. So yeah, that went better. And then there was a lot of private parties after that. And then I think I hooked up with Hy-Vee and started renting one of their party rooms. Like a lot of them have party rooms.
00:22:48
Speaker
started doing stuff at Hy-Vee and a lot of local- So then people you don't really know. Right. That's interesting transition. Yeah, that was very exciting to have businesses reach out to me that wanted me to come into their brewery and do it or wanted me to come to their business and do it. Because one thing I know about Becky is you're going to show up well. That makes sense, like you're a people person. Yeah. So like that is exciting because normally you know these people so they know that you're a people person. Right. I know what you're getting into.
00:23:11
Speaker
But when you don't know these people, like you can show up for that and it's very attractive, right? Like, oh man, she can actually hold a conversation and she cares about me. Yeah. Not just my art. Yeah. I can small talk with anybody. I'm not afraid of strangers, which is helpful in this because part of that was, you know, the experience, right? You go to these wine and canvas, which was like really the only kind of art studio that was out there at the time when I opened this and I kind of copied their business model.
00:23:35
Speaker
But the one thing I remember about going to those was the instructor sat with a microphone and told us what to do. And I'm like, this is fun. This could be better. I got in trouble for talking too much, right? Oh, I missed what we're supposed to do. What's the leaf supposed to look like? Do we do it one more time? There's like a million questions, right? Becky's my people. You're my people. Just stop talking, Becky. But I couldn't do it. So I wanted it to be more like I
00:24:02
Speaker
if you're struggling, I could come up to you and make a joke and make you feel better about the fact that you're struggling and then get you right back on track. Let's go. Nobody feels bad for not being good at this. And so that was part of the experience that I think made it successful. Cause even if you weren't and everyone was like, Oh, I'm not, I'm not crafty. I'm not artsy. I'm like, you don't have to be, you have to follow directions that you
Commitment and Leaving the Job
00:24:23
Speaker
can do. Anybody can do that. Coming from a non artsy guy. That's amazing. When you get to make something, you're like,
00:24:28
Speaker
I made that. I did it. It's huge. Cause usually when I try to make something of like artsy, it's, it's a, Oh, that looks good. Did your little girl do that? No, I did that. It was me. It's so true. Yeah. Yeah. So then when, as this transition goes, were you like, drew, I have to quit my job now. And he was probably on board at that point, but like you probably did it too late. You probably could have done it sooner.
00:24:55
Speaker
Right? I could have. Right. But it wasn't right. I was scared. Right. And so when did it like cross over? And then now tell me after that happened, you'd proverbially jumped off the bridge. Yeah. They're dropping. The parachute was kind of open at that point. Let's be honest. Yeah. Because that's the way you are. Great. So you're flying underneath the canopy.
00:25:14
Speaker
Tell me about how that felt after you walked out. Like, did you have like cake, ice cream? Did people say goodbye? Tell me that. No, I really wish. That's what's disappointing probably. So I told my boss I was going to leave and I remember I cried when I told her because I was so committed and I still love the organization. And I asked if I could maybe work one or two days a week for her still.
00:25:41
Speaker
and hanging onto the bridge. I was, yeah, I was nervous. It was, uh, you know, that say paycheck boy, it's hard to get rid of that when you just don't know what's going to happen. And I hadn't really been through a full year of my business. So I didn't really know like ebbs and flows of like calendar months, what money was going to look like, you know, which is huge and owning a business. And, um, so that made me nervous and she agreed to let me do that. So I gave plenty of notice. I think I gave like two months notice probably. And, um,
00:26:10
Speaker
So I transitioned to very, very part time, like one to two days a week. And then that only lasted like a month or two. And then I, I quit and I thought there would be more of a, like, uh, you know, I can't believe you're leaving and there was nothing. Right. And, um, it's very surprising, isn't it? Like, let's just talk through that quickly because you're just a number. Yes.
00:26:34
Speaker
Yeah. And that was hard. I think because the nature of my work was so human based, you know, we are working with people, we're taking care of people in their most vulnerable states as social workers, people who are struggling or people that need consistent help, families that are struggling or in constant chaos. And our staff, you know, a lot of our staff work so hard and they work so hard. They get paid literally nothing. A lot of them are in paths. So they're dealing with taking on the emotional burden of working with these clients. And I, such a huge heavy burden.
00:27:04
Speaker
It is so hard. It's so draining. I mean, if you know someone that works in social work or nonprofit work, like give them a hug cause they need it. Go get them a crumble cookie for real. That makes everyone happy. And so I just thought, you know, I saw other people leave and you know, I just was like, Oh, you know, being someone that loves a little attention and myself, I was like, you know, everyone's going to miss me. And, uh, I don't think really anybody did. I think they did, but they just probably didn't like make it a bit. Yeah. They sure missed you.
00:27:31
Speaker
but it's like they don't really know how to process through that. Does that make sense? Like it's like, well, do we send her a goodbye? Like it's not a retirement. It's like, but for like your company that gives out like, I mean, nonprofits, people are working, you're giving out so much love to everybody. Like all your clients and everything. You think it would be easier to give love to your own employees.
00:27:50
Speaker
Yeah. I, you know, and it's funny, I saw it happened with other coworkers and other departments, you know, and, uh, that was probably the most disappointing thing is I had really dedicated like a lot of my years to that. And, um, I have it, you know, but you know, it's great. What's come out of that, I will say is as I've opened my brick and mortar, I've had former coworkers shop with me consistently over the last six years, people that I didn't have great, like a relationship with simply because I didn't know them that well, not because of anything else, but,
00:28:20
Speaker
who show up and shop with me and it's the people I didn't expect. Yeah. Right. And it's been, it makes you feel so good that someone wants it. But let me say this that as sad as and disappointing as is to not have like a farewell. Yeah. It almost solidifies the fact of like, I'm making the right decision. Oh, it did. You know, like, okay. Yeah.
00:28:40
Speaker
What was I doing for so long? Right. Yeah. Yeah. And it did make me feel that way. I'm like, this is the right decision because I'm not missed. And also as an opportunity of growth is how do you treat people as you have employees and people move on thinking, of course, like, yeah, I'm sure they don't get that feeling.
00:28:57
Speaker
No. And I do have employees now. And I, it's so funny as I tell my husband constantly that I genuinely love everybody that works for me. Yeah. And some of them have left me and I'm still friends with them to this day. And I would take them back at a second if they're like, you know, we're very part time, you know, they worked very part time for me. Some of them work more than others and that's okay. But if they called me and said, Hey, I want to work for you again, I'd be like, okay,
00:29:21
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. We'll get you in this rotation. Yeah. I genuinely adore them. And so I, that's always
Support Systems and Studio Benefits
00:29:27
Speaker
been important to me that I treat my employees well, and I hope they feel like they're treated well, um, with the limited times that they work for me that I check in on and make sure they're doing okay. Do you need anything? Oh, you need a day out? You can't work. Okay. I got you. Like it's, you know, we try to make it the best part time job they can have. Right. And where they enjoy it.
00:29:46
Speaker
Yeah, where they enjoy it and they feel like I am grateful for them because I am. Them working gives me time with my family and that it costs me money to have them there, but the reward is greater for me. So now you've jumped off, you're doing the deal and things are going well. Did you see an uptick in business after you did that?
00:30:08
Speaker
I did. Yeah. People were really excited. We made a big deal of it on our social media that I quit, you know, and here I am. I'll have my own party. Thank you. Yeah. No, I need to. Right. And I moved into an art studio in downtown Des Moines called Mainframe Studios. Where is that? Is that right off of like Methodist area? Yeah, it is. Right in front of Methodist. Yeah. So it used to be the old Iowa Telecom building. In there. Yeah. I want to blow glass in there.
00:30:30
Speaker
Gotta go. Oh, JJ Gaffers, you gotta go. I want to take all of our clients there. This is like, if our clients are listening, hang on. Cause I want to take them through that kind of deal and then have people. Anyway, a little bit more than you wanted, but I'm with you. You should go. It's an amazing place. And I think the building's finally completed too. It's full of artists now. So I was there for almost two years and that was a great transition into like really low rent, nice space where people could now come to me and I quit traveling to people, which made my life easier.
00:30:59
Speaker
Um, because when you're doing art and you forget something, you're in trouble. Like, so I drove to Mason city for a workshop with 50 people and I forgot nails, which is literally what I need to make the project instant sweat, instant, like clammy. Like I'm clammy for you.
00:31:16
Speaker
I mean, I drove like a bat out of hell to Menards and bought nails there because I was, luckily had a friend with me who continued to set up, but I mean, there are times where you're like, oh, I'd have done it twice in my life and I have PTSD from it, honestly.
00:31:32
Speaker
We've all been there. I love it. Horrible. Yeah. It's the worst. So yeah. Could have had something like this this morning, which all of myself did not work for our podcast. I'm like, no, no. This is the last thing we need right now. Yeah. So that anyway, moving to a studio really eliminated that. So no more forgetting things or whatever. And so, uh, that was great. And they, it was awesome. I could schedule classes and people could come to me and I still traveled some, but I charged a fee to try to deter people from, you know,
00:32:00
Speaker
So it was great and it really, it really was a perfect move. So here's the trajectory that normally we see. Okay. We have a person that wants to start something. We help them walk into that, set things up, get some excited. It starts to work. Then no matter what, without fail, there's always something that they're like, but I don't love this part of it.
00:32:24
Speaker
And so we're always like, okay, great. Good. Glad you know it. Define it so that maybe you can hire to it and have somebody do it. So what was that for you? Like, huh, love it, but hate this part. Yeah. I got two things. Yeah. Give it to me. The biggest thing was, uh, Oh, I know. I mean, I know exactly what it was. I hate, I had to work nights and weekends. There it is.
00:32:43
Speaker
And my kids were in daycare, so I never saw my children. And they were little. And it was a lot for my husband. So it was just a lot of our family to be gone all the time. And you're teaching a three-hour class from 6 to 6.30 to 9.30. And I'm in downtown. I'm not getting home till after 10.
00:33:00
Speaker
So that was difficult. Um, so I had to hire people to help me and I, so I hired contractors to just teach classes and that was great. Um, actually I have three things. I just thought of a third one. The second one was, you know, prepping the wood that we used for our projects. Drew and I were cutting it in the garage at our house. Bless your heart.
00:33:21
Speaker
or I was ordering it from a lumber yard and paying them to cut it, but then I had to stain it. And you know, it's cold in the wintertime. Yeah. And I live in Iowa. We live in Iowa. And I do not have a heated garage. The devil. Yeah. So that was really not fun. And, um,
00:33:36
Speaker
you know, of course, Drew has to help me by default because he's my unpaid intern when it comes. So he is required to assist me or poor Drew, like he deserves a lot of credit. And, um, so I remember him being like, I'm not doing this anymore. Like we, I'm waving the white flag. Terrible. It was horrible. You know, standing wood outside and your winter coat with a million layers on. And I mean, but we did it for a long time and just couldn't really afford to have anybody else do it. But, um, so I needed to be able to have someone else do that for me. And, um,
00:34:06
Speaker
You know, and after a while, you know, we would do like a thousand pieces of wood like in June and I would pay like I put a thing out on my social media. Who wants to make 50 bucks today? Come on over and help me stain. Five of my clients would come zip cash. We're done. We're good for six months. Wow. So we did that a lot. Yeah.
00:34:25
Speaker
Um, the third thing was the financial paperwork aspect of owning a business. Um, you know, I shamefully had a Google doc with my finances in it for a very long time. I had a business account and actually probably better than a lot of people. Well, boy, it was murky for there for a couple of years. I mean, it was like tax time and I'm like, I have literally not accounted for one thing for the whole year. So we're pulling, you know, and you had somebody help you with the taxes. I did. So they were like, what's happening in here?
00:34:52
Speaker
Correct. Yeah. So here's a big mistake that I made off at the bat. We just had like a typical accountant help us at first, somebody we had used for years. Um, and I made a very large purchase. I bought a laser for my, um, company. It was like almost $16,000 biggest purchase I've ever made.
00:35:09
Speaker
It was a lot of money. And my accountant wasn't familiar with like a large purchase for taxes. And so it wasn't depreciated correctly. So the next year I hired a CPA that worked with small businesses and she's like, yeah, you overpaid in your taxes. Like we should have depreciated that whole thing. And so we had a lot of adjustments to make over the years. So that if I could go back in time, I would a hundred percent just paid the money. It wasn't even that much more to have someone that knew what they were doing in regards to
00:35:39
Speaker
small businesses. But it made a huge impact. Huge impact. Yeah. Just help me predict like what kind of companies should I have an LLC? Should I have an escort? Should I be paying myself? Gosh. And it's like uncharted territory. You don't know. Right. Yeah. None of it. And there's no like book that's like, if your business looks like A, B and C, this is what you do. So
00:35:57
Speaker
It's so interesting how many times we just coach people, hey, these are the questions that I think you should ask your accountant slash CPA only so you can get the education. Cause they don't really educate you. If they had their way, you'd make, you paid zero in taxes. All right, Joe, I didn't make any money either.
00:36:15
Speaker
You know what I'm saying? So that's not the answer. Correct. Yeah, help me. So we got to help where are we at here and just helping them, equipping them with some questions to have them ask their accountant.
Investments and Industry Adaptation
00:36:26
Speaker
Because every tax guy or guy is different. Yeah. And so you just need to know where your person is coming from. Here is a couple of questions that you can ask. So then you can make an educated decision, and then you guys can write off in the sunset. But it's very interesting. There's nobody, there's no class that teaches you that.
00:36:42
Speaker
Not really. It's sad because it's a big deal. It's very surface level, right? You get a class that's very generic. It's just enough to be like, okay, now I know this, but I don't even know how to know. You don't know what you don't know. And I mean, boy, would we all benefit. I used a small business association. They were great for the most part. My advisor tried to change the way I was doing the art and I'm
00:37:05
Speaker
I remember I just, you know, silly things like this is what I need from you. Tell me how to, like, tell me what I need to do legally, you know, and luckily, you know, my best friend's an attorney. And so she was able to help me with a lot of this, you know, and get me on the right track. But boy, you don't know what you don't know. And you, and this is, people can get into trouble, but I'll tell you, you know, you don't know what you don't know. And then other advice I've heard or,
00:37:32
Speaker
My attorney would tell me a lot of dumb people own very successful businesses. You don't need to be smart to own a business. Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you who can do the work that you don't know how to do and then you do what you're good at, right? Stay in your lane.
00:37:49
Speaker
Learn a little, but stay a little. Yeah, you gotta learn along the way to make sure you're making the right decisions, but house sourcing is amazing. Once you can get to that point, it really isn't good. Let me say what your professionals and stuff like. Yeah. Let's go back to, I wanna just the big purchase, for example. Yeah.
00:38:07
Speaker
super wise, by the way, a lot of people will push that off. And there's, they're thinking about that big purchase, like a big purchase that they would make like with a car or a house. The difference about a big purchase in a business is you think about the cashflow you can make because of the big purchase. And that's the part where I need to be challenged at times to say, Hey, this big purchase, I only think about the, the.
00:38:31
Speaker
the deficit, not the increase of. Everybody does. Yeah, the fact that you would buy that and invest in yourself in the business is your best investment. And I think a lot of advisors like, give me that $16,000, we'll put it in a retirement account. Stop the madness. The best thing you could do is pour that $16,000 into your business and get the laser cutter because it's going to make you have more money. Right.
00:38:52
Speaker
And also, like, don't buy the cheap one. Yeah, get the nice one. Get the good one. And I did. Yeah, you did. And that was huge. That was so scary. I mean, it was so scary. Once again, still trying to get out of debt at home and trying to grow the business or whatever.
00:39:10
Speaker
I was already paying somebody else to laser cut things for me. And so this is where I'm like, I know I can use this, but now I got to do it. And it's not just an investment in the equipment, but it's investment in learning how to use the equipment. I had to, you know, there's ventilation and there's fire hazards. There's all these things that I literally had no experience in at all.
00:39:33
Speaker
It wasn't going to be a simple plug and play type of situation. I'm buying a nicer laptop. This was a machine that shoots fire out of it. It's way different. It was really scary, but absolutely necessary.
00:39:48
Speaker
the craft world changes so much, right? The industry changes on what's trendy. And so I was ahead of the trend. I would think about the second person in Des Moines that had owned a laser cutter really that was using it to produce signs and stuff. And now everybody has them. You can buy them at Michaels is super annoying, but it is what it is. Right. So, um, but yeah, it really kind of stepped up my game and I was able to upsell people on things. You
Support from Family and Personal Growth
00:40:13
Speaker
know, that really made a big difference and paid for itself.
00:40:15
Speaker
Did you see like, do you have a number of like how, like how much it helped increase? Oh, well, um, I would have to, you know, I should look at that, but to be honest, I do more laser cutting now that I do string art. Like string art is very minimal. Maybe we'll do it once a month. Um, we sell kits, obviously they're popular there for kids and a lot of kid parties, but honestly people want laser cut.
00:40:38
Speaker
things now. So we do engraving and cutting boards and cups and all kinds of stuff. So, I mean, there's just so many things I can do with that. That just adds another tier, another leg to my table. Um, I can fall back on when things are, when you can't do in-person classes, you know, we can do things on the laser. Okay. Um, so how many people work for you currently? Five. Five. You have a brick and mortar building. I do. Right.
00:41:04
Speaker
All right, I want to go back, switch gears, because I will say this in every podcast that we have. Ah, it's probably over. Never use the word every Philip. But I will say many podcasts. We give our guests time to talk about their spouse.
00:41:19
Speaker
Why? Because if without your spouse, what we found is you wouldn't be where you're at. And so the sacrifices, and you've kind of talked about it a little bit out in the cold, staining and sanding, but talk about Drew and the impact that he's had on your uncommon path. And I guess we can even just, just for purpose, like where would you be without Drew?
00:41:41
Speaker
Oh, I would definitely not be here. Um, and we've had this conversation good when good times ended bad, right? You know, we've had this conversation. So, um, right off the bat. I mean, he wanted me to do something that I, I really just was happy. He knew I was unhappy. He was super supportive. Um, I won't say that he was always supportive. You know, there was times where things were rough and, um,
00:42:05
Speaker
you know, times where he had the kids four or five nights a week and I was gone and that was a lot, you know, and sometimes income has been inconsistent. You know, we didn't survive a pandemic. That was not very much fun. And so he has been though, like super supportive at the fact that like,
00:42:25
Speaker
When he quit his job to go work for this startup, I was like, do it now. Do it while you can. Let's do it. Why not? You hate it, you quit. You go do something else. I mean, it's different times. It's not like you work at the same place for 40 years anymore. So I wanted him to do something he really loved. And he wanted me to do something that I really loved too. And I used to love my job, and then I didn't. So he was super supportive in that aspect.
00:42:51
Speaker
He was very encouraging. I didn't know how to use a saw. I didn't know how to use a belt sander. I didn't know how to do any of that stuff. He's an electrical engineer by trade, so he knows how to do everything and all the things. He can set up the laser and got all the things going. He's really my tech support.
00:43:08
Speaker
Drew, my printer doesn't work anymore. I'm screaming at him on the phone. He comes over on his lunch hour and helps me. So he has been great just for tech support. And then when you open a business, you lose the luxury of having coworkers.
00:43:25
Speaker
So when you get home from work, it's lonely. It's a lonely deal. That's what I'll say. Yeah. It's so lonely, especially for someone with my personality that enjoys the company of other people. Just the presence of a person is company to me. So when you're home or when you're at the store, at the shop,
00:43:44
Speaker
On a Wednesday and nobody comes in which happens, you know Or you know, you don't have a co-worker there and it's it is lonely and I get home and I can't stop talking So he is the person I talked to and he's not a big talker. So this works out great for me
00:44:00
Speaker
Great, great listening. Not always working out great for him because, you know, I'll catch him snoozing over there while I'm just chatting away, but he's become the person I like bounce ideas off of, right? Do you think I should do this or how can I do that or how could we afford this or, or whatever? So also advises me on, you know, what risks should I take next?
00:44:18
Speaker
And he is very detail oriented and can think about all the steps in between when I can sometimes only see the big picture. So he helps me be like, okay, but we need to do these things first. I'm like, okay, but I want to get, you know, when I'm getting excited, he can kind of talk me down off the ledge, which is good sounding board.
00:44:37
Speaker
Yeah. He's not a huge risk taker. So it, I, like I said this before, I think together we make a superhuman. So like I can big picture it and then he can figure out how to get it done. So, uh, I'm internally grateful for him talking me down off the ledge sometimes, or, you know, when I'm like, I'm going to quit, I'm done. I'm going to sell it. And he was like, well, but just yesterday you said you were going to buy another laser, you know?
00:45:01
Speaker
You know, I'm all over the place. Dang you. Yeah. And he'll call me out on that. He'd be like, you just said this yesterday. And I'm like, yeah, you're right. I'm just venting, right? So in regards to him taking care of the kids, taking care of the house and supporting me in my business, I truly could not do it without him, especially during the pandemic when, you know, there was one day I refunded like $4,000 worth of money to people because I could not have in-person classes.
Future Changes and Embracing Uncertainty
00:45:28
Speaker
Wow.
00:45:34
Speaker
We were like seven months into it, you know, and then not ideal. Yeah. Yeah. It's not ideal. So scary. And I'm like, what are we going to do? And he was like, it'll be fine. Right. It'll be fine. We'll figure it out. And it was. And so, um, I could, I could truly say if I walked home today and said, I'm done, he'd be like, okay, who do we need to call? That's okay. Right. He would support you. Yeah, he would. And so that's okay. So what's the future of the naughty now? Oh,
00:45:54
Speaker
And I was in like, we were hardcore. We had just opened the brick and mortar.
00:46:04
Speaker
I'm putting my two weeks notice it, actually. Just so you know, with this heiress, we'll be close. I don't know. That's funny. I am in a season of change right now, which happens to me about every seven years. This is super weird. I can track all of my job changes to March. Isn't this weird? There must be something in the moon, or I don't know. I don't know anything about that stuff, but there has to be something.
00:46:29
Speaker
The seven-year itch. The seven-year itch. I'm coming up on it, right? So I feel something coming. I just don't know what it's going to be yet. So I don't love owning a store. I thought maybe I would and there's times I absolutely adore it.
00:46:45
Speaker
but I don't know if I love it. And so, um, I need to think about what I want to do in that route. Um, I feel my priorities shifting on what I enjoy to do, enjoy doing anymore. And so I need to take time to think about what that's going to be. I don't know what it's going to be yet. We're doing a major rehaul, um, probably in September where we're kind of changing the format of our business where we're going to move to more walk-in. So by the time this airs, we'll be a walk-in studio instead of like a make an appointment and you know,
00:47:15
Speaker
So just to kind of hop on the times as I see the trends changing, it seems to be like that instant gratification of someone walks in, Oh, you're a DIY studio. Let me take your card. I'll book something that I maybe never see him again. Instead I might be able to hook them right then. So we're going to, we're going to move to that route instead. Um, but in a year from, you know, July in 2023, I don't know.
00:47:40
Speaker
Exciting to be continued. You'll figure it out. Yeah, I think embrace it Like that's the thing a lot of people will like just fight through it and not take time to really like think about that Yeah, I would just encourage you to do that. I don't think any no matter what especially with a supportive spouse Like there's not a wrong answer
00:47:58
Speaker
No, no. I mean, I, um, I know when I make the decision, it will be the right decision. I can get on board with that quick. And since I haven't been able to nail it down yet, I know I'm not ready to make that kind of decision yet, but I'm also very fortunate. I have a wonderful landlord. Like he's, if you, if you're listening, Michael, um, I love you, Michael.
00:48:17
Speaker
I love you. Yeah. He is wonderful and his wife is wonderful and supportive of my business too. So I know that I can work with them in any aspect. So I don't feel like I have to do anything. That's good. You don't feel like restrained. I don't. And like checked down. So we'll see. Okay.
00:48:32
Speaker
Well, what a amazing time. Thank you for just unpacking all of that. Super valuable. And I think tangible for people who are just like thinking about, cause I'd say the people on the bridge probably are listening to this podcast and like, man, that sounds great, but sometimes it's just not tangible. Like what can I do now?
Inspiring the Next Generation
00:48:49
Speaker
And, and I think the biggest takeaway for me is like, you don't need to know what the next step is, but you do need to have a somewhat of an idea.
00:48:57
Speaker
Like you can't just jump and be like, let's hope it works. Like we're jumping too, you know? And so I would always tell people, our favorite clients are the people who know what they want. If you don't know what you want, we're just not good fit because I can't tell you what you want. I can't tell you what gets you passionate or gets you excited. Um, but when you do know, well, we'd love to help you jump. Uh, so anyway, Aaron, my biggest takeaway is, I mean, you described yourself as like,
00:49:20
Speaker
financially, I mean, you're the average American, we're in debt, we have kids, we got all these things. And don't hinder your dreams of doing something great. That's good. You did it. You took the risk, you jumped and it's bigger than, you're doing amazing. So I think that's awesome. Thank you. Yeah.
00:49:37
Speaker
I would agree with that. I mean, don't let, be an example to your children, right? If you have children or siblings or whoever it might be in your life, like my kids will remember this, that mommy owned a business. Like mommy had a store, like that's so cool, right? And they are, they're a part of it too. They're out there, they come to the store with me, they do stuff. They, you know, they get to meet the clients. It's, it's cool for them too. So,
00:50:06
Speaker
I mean, make the family be part of it. Your kids are going to learn so much from that and the fact that you can take risks. You can do your thing. You don't have to work for somebody else. You can work for yourself. And it can work. It's interesting how attractive people that are doing uncommon things are to this world.
Conclusion: Pursuing an Uncommon Life
00:50:25
Speaker
They're like, I don't know. I still have this job. And blah, blah, blah. All these different excuses. So you're impacting not only your children.
00:50:33
Speaker
but, uh, the people around you. So continue to do what you're doing. Becky, we're your biggest fans. Well, I don't know. Drew's your biggest fan, but we're right here. If you need it, if you need cheerleaders, we're right here. Uh, you've been listening to the uncommon life project. I've been your host, Philip Ramsey and Aaron Kramer. Thanks for tuning in until next time. Go be uncommon.
00:50:51
Speaker
That's all for this episode of The Uncommon Life Project, brought to you by Uncommon Wealth Partners. Be sure to visit uncommonwealth.com to learn more about our services. Don't miss an episode as we introduce you to inspiring people who are actively pursuing an uncommon life.