The Heart of Your Business Speaks!

Discover the art of connecting with business owners on a profound level with our guest, Robin, a fervent advocate for engaging directly with entrepreneurs. Robin shares her unique perspective on why aligning with the heart of a business is pivotal, highlighting the transformative power of understanding a business owner’s vision and personal journey. Through this episode, Robin unravels how these insights can lead to crafting design narratives that deeply resonate with the company's essence, creating spaces that not only tell a compelling story but also bolster the business's identity.

Join us as we explore the dynamic roles that corporate functions like HR and operations play in the design process. Robin elaborates on how these departments provide essential insights into functionality and efficiency, yet emphasizes that the initial rapport with the business owner lays the groundwork for success. By marrying creativity with practicality, Robin illustrates how to design environments that support and elevate company goals, addressing issues like employee retention and operational flow. Tune in to hear how Robin skillfully balances these elements to deliver designs that are as functional as they are beautiful.

We welcome your questions! If you would like to learn more about us or connect for a conversation, please visit www.pasleycommercialinteriors.com.

Episode Transcript

Randi Lynn (00:00):
Robin, you often say that you love working with
business owners.
You are a business owner, youthink like business owners, but
why do you like to work withbusiness owners?
Oh, that's a great question.

Robin (00:17):
We've done corporate jobs where we had to work with a
board Maybe it's even anonprofit, same kind of thing
and that's all fine and good.
They're good organizations, youknow they're doing good work
and we want to partner with them.
But it's different than workingwith the person who kind of

(00:38):
sweats over the business.
You know they have the wake upin the middle of the night
sweats.
I totally identify with themFirst of all.
That's part of it.
But the other part of it isthat, um, there's that's where I
find that the heart of thebusiness is.
Even if they've grown to thethe level that they've got, you
know, a COO and a CEO andwhatever else, if we can get a

(01:02):
conversation with that owner, Ifind that we can get to the
heart of the company and pullsome information out that is
going to be vital to the design.

Randi Lynn (01:14):
Sure, Because if the business owner has done their
job well, everyone on their teamshould be able to say what's
their vision statement.

Robin (01:23):
Totally.
What are?

Randi Lynn (01:24):
they about Um, but there's something special that
only a business owner holds.

Robin (01:31):
I think so.
I think so, and you know that,just like you said, the mission,
vision and values.
Like you said, if they've beentraining them well, they, their
whole team, can tell you whatthose things are, or at least
they can find the sign or theplacard somewhere in the
building that has them stated onit Um.
But it's different when I get tojust connect business owner to

(01:53):
business owner and, um, justlisten to their heart about why
they started this business orwhy did they buy the business or
what attracted them to theindustry, or whatever the story
is, and then we can kind of drawout some elements that we can
make, you know, weave into thenarrative of the design which is

(02:14):
something you do.

Randi Lynn (02:15):
So, like that first interview process, you're like
tell me your story, what's yourbrand?
They don't have it.
You help them.
We talked about that in theprevious podcast.
And then, yeah, so you're ableto Help draw those like draw out
what you're going toincorporate into the design, yes
, and that part, I think, isjust unique.

Robin (02:36):
I mean, like a CEO, somebody who's in charge of
operations is a lot of times whowe get assigned to in a
corporate situation.
Maybe somebody even that's overHR will be the person that
we're talking to because they'rehandling some things with
people and those guys areawesome.
I mean, like we have to workwith those into you know, those
people in those positions, um,to get the job done.

(02:58):
But when it comes to um and andtheir perspective is important
as well and we will definitelytake that.
But the business owner, um, isjust going to have a richer at
least a rich starting point forus to build our foundation from
for the design and thenincorporating the functionality.

(03:18):
A lot of times that does comefrom the operations and from HR,
because we want to.
If we're designing a spacethat's really going to help them
keep their best employees, well, I need to sit down with HR and
find out.

Randi Lynn (03:29):
Okay, let's talk about where your weak spots are
who are your best employees?

Robin (03:33):
Who are your best employees?
Where are the weak spots?
What can we do with spaceplanning and environment
planning that can enrich in thatand make it better?
Same thing with operations.
Where's the flow here?
How are?
How's your team workingtogether?
What's been the bottlenecks?
How's your team workingtogether?
What's been the bottlenecks?

(03:53):
Where are the places that maybewe could increase efficiency or
, you know, create somethingthat you don't have, if it's
storage or if it's, you know,whatever the situation is, you
know those people help us.
So it's not that theirpositions aren't important, it's
just that I think a lot oftimes in a design project that's
bigger will get pushed to thosepeople and, kind of, you know,

(04:14):
you don't need to talk to theowner, and we've just found it
to be very vital to be in touchwith them.

Randi Lynn (04:18):
Yeah, so to bring you in from the beginning.

Robin (04:22):
You know and just say hey , we're going to work closely
with you COO or whatever but youreally do value having that
first, just for an hour and ahalf, which I know is an
important time for an owner, butyeah, that's really important.

Randi Lynn (04:38):
But it's an important time.
But if we really look at itthrough the lens, like we've
talked about, that interiordesign is an investment, not a
cost.
It's also an investment oftheir time If we want to get
maximum output we've got to havethe important pieces.

Robin (04:57):
I find it to be very valuable Cool.

Randi Lynn (05:01):
Anything else to add to just the benefits of working
with the business owner?

Robin (05:06):
or I think you know connecting with their heart
Again, that was that piece Isaid earlier was getting to the
heart of the business.
I think sometimes we just findthat we can spell out and draw
out a unique element that mighthave just maybe even been missed
in branding.

(05:26):
You know previously that'sunique or special, previously
that's unique or special.
You know we always want to makesure that if there's accolades
or you know recognition thatthat company has received, you
know, locally or nationally,that we're able to feature those

(05:50):
things.
Sometimes there's an awarenessthat they have about something
about the company that is notmentioned in their mission,
vision and values.
It's just something that'sunique to their perspective,
that I think it's necessary tohelp us round out the whole
picture and make sure that we'rethinking about what's important

(06:12):
to them first.