My Husband Interviews Me: Humble Beginnings + Design Investment R.O.I.
An Interview like no other between a married couple: Business, Working Together, Interior Design, and R.O.I on Investments.
Watch here, or check out the transcript below.
Check out my interview with non other than my own husband Reed Goossens. We’ve worked together on his real estate investment projects including common spaces, lobbies, offices, and model units within the multi family industry across the country. I’ve turned him into a believer that great design brings in potential renters to view the space, and leave more often having signed a lease.
I love working with multifamily spaces and investors. One, they have full trust in the process. Two, I love helping other businesses succeed through the transformation of design. And you better beleive we work hard to incorporate green practices and products in these projects too.
Below is the transcript of our interview:
“Reed: It's so important to anyone starting a business to be surrounded by mentors and groups and have other people in your sphere show you what you can achieve. And they always say you're the average of the five people you hang around with. I'm sure there was people in your sphere that you just had to sort of up level a little bit and, and get into the different rooms to be surrounded by people who could be an influence to yourself so you can have the confidence to move forward amongst a lot of other things that obviously you've done. Welcome to Investing in the us, a podcast for real estate investors, business owners and aspiring entrepreneurs looking to grow their wealth by investing in US real estate. I'm your host, Reed Goons, and so far I've acquired over $800 million worth of investments on various properties across the United States. On this podcast I interview go-getters, risk takers, and the best in the business to learn more about their investment journey and the cutting edge strategies they're applying towards building a legacy. For more on growing your own wealth and a buy investing in the us, visit www.reedgoons.com.
Erica:
Good day, good day. And welcome to another Crackin' episode of Investing in the US. I am your host, Reed Goossens, and today on the show is the most important guest of all time: My wife Erica Reiner.
Reed:
She's An absolute rockstar entrepreneur. She's the owner and design principle of Eco Method Interiors, a full service interior design company working across a wide range of industries from commercial to residential real estate, retail and investment properties. But enough out of me, let's get her out here. Good day honey. Welcome to the show. How you doing today, <laugh>?
Erica:
Hi. It's been a long time coming to, to do this, so yeah, it'll be fun.
Reed:
Can you rewind the clock and tell me, I had you made your first ever dollar as a kid.
Erica:
Yeah, I knew that question was coming and I was thinking about it and I think that like you story with the bags of dirt, which hopefully you've told on here.
Reed: I have not <laugh>
Erica:
<laugh>, the only commodity we had was a plum tree in our backyard. So I think we tried to set up a plum stand like a lot of kids do with lemonade. But um, I don't know how many plums we actually did sell and about your bags of dirt story. I think it's one of the funniest, cutest things ever where your first ever dollar was, your only commodity was dirt according to you. So you packaged up your Ziploc bags of dirt and then your mom went down and asked the neighbors to come by and buy it. <laugh>
Reed:
It wasn't even good dirt, it was just like literally from the side of the road it probably had rocks in it and it's like, and it was the smallest amount of dirt. Like it wasn't enough to do anything with it. Right. And so I think that's the other funny thing, but um, can you walk us through your relationship with entrepreneurialism and how you've got to where you are today because I, you know, I think it's a pretty cool story, but I want you to share it with the wider audience and, and just that journey into the space and what you've created.
Erica:
Okay. So going back to I 2014, we had come to la I think I had read like a couple of books and you had just started your, you know, ventures into real estate and some other people around me were starting businesses and I was kind of like, wait, hold the phone. I didn't, this was, I didn't understand that that was possible. So I started thinking about like what I might wanna do. It seemed really appealing to me. I had a bunch of different ideas, some of which we still talk about. And then I, uh, ended up just trying to go with interior design. It was something that I was always really interested in. My mom was always into it. I was always like rearranging my room as a kid, so I just kind of, you know, built like the first crappy website on Wix and started searching around everywhere for like initial projects and just one by one learning and failing horribly along the way, but um, kind of just kept at it and kept refining and refining and refining and it was a side hustle until, uh, for like 2018, but maybe even a little bit longer than that.
Erica:
So, um, yeah, it's definitely been a, a process.
Reed:
What was your childhood like? Because usually the start of wanting something different, you mentioned that you didn't even realize it was an option for you until other people around you were starting to do it. So what were your parents like, were there other people in your life showing you in an early age you could do this other thing than, than going out and getting a JOB and working nine to five?
Erica:
We grew up like, you know, middle class, maybe upper middle class. I'm, you know, not sure how you categorize it, but uh, we, you know, we were, we did not need for anything. My mom did not work and my dad was a doctor and so I think I didn't have the best example of entrepreneurship, uh, small business ownership, even like being a bots female. None of that was really on the table for me. And I also being really, I remember being really aware of like my, our family's like privilege I guess, although I didn't have the vocab for it back in the day because we did do a bit of traveling, especially back east to like New York City in the early nineties, you know, through early two thousands. Like just seeing people on the street there and then coming back to like my perfect bubble, I think it made me feel like a little bit guilty.
Erica:
And I do think that that plays into my like <laugh> force, like I analyzing. I do think that plays into my like overall money story and how that kind of got jumbled in my kid brain. So I remember vi you know, I think the things that, the second thing that turned on the second most important light bulb was reading Jens Centro's book. You Are a Badass at Making Money. Maybe that was like 2017 or so, but I just, I, I remember like realizing, oh, maybe there was two things happening. One, I was not a particularly like great employee. I always like thought I would be better at running it than the person was. And then two, I realized I didn't have the best relationship with money. I didn't even have those vocab words until Jensen Chao's book and I listened to it over and over and over and over and over would fall asleep to it and like, it's like, oh my God. So I had a, like a huge mindset shift that had to happen. And then I have been working diligently on changing that for the better ever since then. As you know, it's not easy. Those things are so ingrained in you to like, you're limiting beliefs or a certain mindset. It's weird 'cause I really like business. I really like enjoy a lot of aspects of it, but it's like kind of a, an internal battle at times.
Reed:
Hmm. No, and and I've seen that both on my side of the coin and on your side of the coin, trying to build something from scratch can take it so many different ways from there. I think one of the things that we haven't talked a lot on, and you can probably count the amount of females on two hands that have been on this show over the last seven or eight years, but talk to me about that ability to try and go out and be a boss. Having that imposter syndrome early on, particularly as a female to make it your own and have people, you know, sit up and pay attention to you.
Erica:
That was definitely the hardest piece because I am a product of my environment on like the smaller scale of the family dynamics and also like the larger societal scale and you know, in my own just life experience, I just, I had very little confidence. I also just kind of didn't really know what I was doing, but maybe, you know, like a nice young Chad that wouldn't <laugh> stop them so much. But it was really hard. The mindset was the biggest piece I had to overcome being, you know, my own worst enemy. I do feel like I am quite resilient in that like I can get back up after I fail, but I was, you know, just riddled with trepidation and insecurities the, the whole time. And it was really, really tough. Worked with business coaches, group coaches, just um, you know, tried to push myself outta my comfort zone.
Erica:
So all that internal stuff. But then there's the external stuff and how people see young women and in the design industry, like there is a, uh, very unique and strange sense that we should not be making money. One is because we're women, two because it's creative and it seems like superfluous I think to some people, especially those that don't understand the business side as if we're just like shopping all day or something. So there's a lot of little like micro hurdles floating around all of our subconsciousness that a lot of us talk about in our like inner industry groups. So it was definitely a slog on the internal and external. I mean, I remember being like on a, one of my first projects I was really excited about at Palm Springs, um, dental office, the client and I went out to lunch. There was two business partners, one female dentist and one male, um, investor, business partner. And he ordered drinks and then I passed. I just didn't think it was like professional, didn't want one, had to drive home from Palm Springs and he was like, are you pregnant? And I was like, the f like who asks that? So that's just kind of like, like no one, I just think that like there's um, a different vibe being uh, a young female trying to be taken seriously. Especially with your battling like your own insecurities on the inside, not necessarily like projecting the most confidence possible.
Reed:
How do you handle that? What techniques do you use? And for other women listening to this show and building, you know, a business from scratch, h how do you, how do you weigh those two worlds in a world and external world?
Erica:
Number one is community, community support. So like the chat groups of other designers, um, group coaching and listening to other people's struggles but also their wins being inspired by other people. Self-help books, you know, business, podcasts, self-help, podcast therapy. Literally I've done it all. I still do a lot of those things in time and just like getting those different experiences under your belt, processing them like and having that, just working through it. So hopefully not everyone has as many uh, mindset struggles as I do, but I, I did, I started from like zero and then I feel a lot better now, but in it's definitely been like the full, it took like the full 10 years <laugh>,
Reed:
I just know the story but like share with us the moment you realized the industry was so full of just like absolute mouth breathers, <laugh> as you like to say and like, like you realize like, oh my gosh this is what was iava scared of. Like, 'cause you are awesome at what you do, but just like everything from project management and dealing with GCs and clients and just having so many of their own insecurities in in what you are doing and then managing that and then realizing in yourself just like, oh I like what was ever worried about, you know like, 'cause you become confident when you start putting yourself out there and doing it and realizing half the people dunno what they're doing anyway. You know, not, not necessarily in your business but like with your clients or with your GCs or just bad communicators or you know, bad project managers, all that sort of stuff.
Erica:
It wasn't one thing, it was many, many, many, many things. So I added like one block of confidence and ability and expertise at the time because also I am self-taught. Like I did not go to design school. I have an environmental background, I did like a decorating certificate like through the mail like in 2011. So I had a super preliminary background and I had, I come worth almost 38 now. So like still of the time where like a degree seemed really was told that like that's super important. And I didn't have examples of people like pivoting career-wise around me that much. So, um, it, you know, coming from self-taught like I just had to learn it like piece by piece by piece. I had, you know, looked at other people doing similar things in my space too. But I was doing a coachee exercise with my coach at the time, Mikey. And he just had me looking at very like specific things to the so-called competition, um, which I don't even really like view it that way now, but it just kind of like gave me a bit of confidence about the offering I do have and things that I am excelling at and you know, other things like for instance, a therapy exercise. I had a therapist tell me to like write down a bunch of successes. So it's kind of like, again that mindset thing of focusing on the positive, recognizing wins, little things like that.
Reed:
It's so important to anyone starting a business that to be surrounded by mentors and groups and have other people in your sphere show you what you can achieve. And they always say you're the average of the five people you hang around with. I'm sure there was people in your sphere that you just had to sort of uplevel a little bit and, and get into the different rooms to be surrounded by people who could be an influence to yourself so you can have the confidence to move forward amongst a lot of other things that obviously you, you've done. I wanna pivot and talk a little bit about, you know, your offering, right? You've got a, and for those people who don't know, I'd love you to tell the audience a little bit about the niche that which you do your interior design and then we're gonna try and come back to the, the sort of the ROI aspect of it and, and what I mentioned at the beginning of the show. So can you just give the, the, uh, the audience a bit of a background on the specifics of the the eco method?
Erica:
Yes. So I was trying to offer everything all at once early on. And then like I said, I have the background in the environmental world, so everything from tech startups and like industry to teaching environmental science. And I found like the early days I was like, what do you guys think about like this eco product? They were like, well only if it doesn't cost more. And so I just realized like I don't wanna leave that piece of my values behind, so I'm gonna merge the, the eco-friendly piece with the design piece. And so that's why in 2018 I rebranded from what it was to eco method interiors. And so it started with just being able to specialize in eco-friendly products and materials. And now this year I am launching an initiative to be able to donate funds to a charity directive like through the business that can offset emissions et cetera through, through the work.
Erica:
So like finding ways to layer in what's really important and valuable and it is doing what I wanted it to do and bringing the ideal type of clients to me. And then also in terms of like the, the, what we're doing talking about here, the investment sector, I used to kind of like shy away from it 'cause I'm still worried about like the perceived barrier to entry and like the perceived higher price tag and all those kinds of things. But I have done, like the projects I've done with you, I have incorporated in so many different types of sustainability aspects and sometimes you know what they are and sometimes you don't and it just like happens. But it's, so it's both an internal like value and process and also an external like niche and um, differentiating offer that I'm now super proud of.
Reed:
Kudos to you to not be like a lot of people do think, oh, eco friendly, it's gonna cost me 20% more or 30% more to buy that flooring or that glue or that paint or whatever it might be. But you are sort of saying, well, it's not necessarily every element of the, of the design needs to be eco, but there's just other elements that I can sort of sneak in there that doesn't, you don't even know the difference and I can achieve my same goal. And then, you know, adding little things. I remember when we did a project together, I think you donated a tree or something after we did the project as like a, a rounding off. And so it's creative in the way that you broaden other elements that are strong to your core into the business, into your clients without them really even realizing. So I think that's, you know, freaking awesome and, and a really good example of not shying away from your values and still being able to achieve what you want it to achieve. It may not be 10 outta 10, you know, eco and all that sort of stuff, but it's somewhere in the middle and that's, it's better than zero. Um, yeah,
Erica:
So for the multifamily world world that actually one of the biggest ways to be sustainable is just to use pre loved pieces. And so that's actually way cheaper for the budget and it's really helpful in the staging of the model units, the lobby, even things like a recycled rug pad, that's no big deal. But also sometimes it does cost more. So then there's like the residential clients, typically those people are really more interested in like the non-toxic element. But for things like the model units or you know, like non-residential spaces, the lobbies, et cetera, there's so many different things under the sustainability umbrella that are really easy to incorporate. And then for short term rental clients, I like to like pitch two options. One is the same thing, like using a lot of modern great condition pre-live pieces as you're outfitting the space. But also like if you're a higher end short-term rental owner, you might wanna like lean into the non-toxic thing.
Erica:
Like have the non-toxic cleaners and an air purifier and also the higher quality pieces of furniture. You might not be going to the nth degree, but I feel like there is a, you know, sliding scale for everyone and that is the method. And eco method is like weaving in the pieces that makes sense per project. Just like you've got your budget, you've got your aesthetic, you've got your timeline. I am making things harder for myself 'cause I'm like adding in this other criteria, but that's the niche and it is harder to do, but it's just like what I've committed to
Reed:
And I wanna just take a step back. And as a business owner myself, we've obviously worked together on extensive amount of projects, but I do wanna say for the listeners out there, and this comes from my background as a structural engineer working with other architects, it comes from America's background as well, working with other architects. Like think take yourself back to a time where you walk into a space and I know you and I honey, we, we, we, we laugh and we go to an Airbnb or we go to a space that's just so, like think of the teenage boy trying to decorate his room or her, you know, their, their room and it's just so thrown together. It does, there's no thought to it and there's such in a rush to get the business up that it actually hurts the business once it's up and running and taking that sort of 30 seconds to say, for example, I'm taking the Pelham place north and south, you did those leasing centers.
Reed:
I think we ended up spending like, I don't know, and I'm not trying to scare anyone, like six figures, you know, in, in the total renovations plus your work. But it was a quite a large space. It was two different leasing centers and then we had the, the model units. But on a $30 million project, it was such sense on the dollar that post doing that project, I've had so many people come up to me, my tenants, the staff people who walk into that leasing center and like, oh my gosh, you've just completely transformed this, this space. And as an owner, that's what I want. I want the tenant to already have a subconscious thing in them, within them to say, I'm gonna lease from this place before they've even seen a unit because they love the environment. And that comes down to just smart design and hiring someone like yourself.
Reed:
But it also takes the self-awareness to know that you need to spend the time and energy in doing it because it will have a massive ROI if you do otherwise you'll just be, excuse my language, money up against the wall if you try and do it yourself. Hire the right people to increase your ROI. And there's so many examples in my business that we've been able to work together on that is just, I can ultimately pinpoint like this increase in rental rate, this increase in NOI or revenue is directly affected by the way people feel walking into a space, walking into a leasing center, walking into a community, walking into a retail center, walking into an Airbnb, whatever it might be. Really, really, really stopping and taking the time to understand it is cents on the dollar and it can last years, right? With true good design, it can last 10 years before you need to do it again. So I just want to, you wanna comment on any of that?
Erica:
So a a hundred percent I cannot stress this more, it's not superfluous. Like it's a part of the foundational process in terms of getting that return on your investment because it's also, it's not like 2015 at the start of like Airbnb and anything will do and it's like novel and cute. No, there's so much saturation, there's so much competition. Not just the short term rental, but like the, your entire like different sectors of investment for real estate. It it's nonverbal communication. So it's like, it's like the very beginning, it's like the top of the funnel, right? Like you cannot get people into, like people have very limited time in the day. Like they are only gonna go out and walk into the leasing center of your multifamily unit. Like if they're gonna go all the way there, first of all, you need good photos on this site of a nice updated space like this crapola that like your cousin's sister did or whatever, just isn't gonna cut it.
Erica:
Especially like in today's atmosphere, it's a hundred percent part of setting yourself up for success, put it in your budget, like you said, the rush to get to like opening and, and opening the door soon. Like it's not worth it financially. You have to start, um, from like the right positioning. So you've gotta get a good design, a professional that knows what they're doing and can work with you on your particular aspects and the photography. So that's the start. They see the photos on the site and then they're gonna like take the time out of their day to come and see it. And then the experience that they have when they're walking through it, like that's where I'm like, I can help this business like not leave dollars on the table. You want the highest conversion possible. Every single person practically who's coming in has like this good feeling leaving the space and wants to rent from there. So it's like one the the lead, right? Like having the space done, getting the photographs, that's like the lead in two, having them come through and have that good like physical experience in it. And it's like, you know, there's not a ton of uh, scholarly like studies on this yet, but there are on the concept in general and then specifically to the investing in real estate world, like the initial things I've seen is like 20% return on your investment over something that you did like with your leftover college furniture. So that's a lot.
Reed:
You think of all the different businesses out there, medical, dental, you know, just walking to any showroom. We've all been in that experience where you've walked into a space and it hasn't wowed you and you've already got a subconscious, as you said, the, the nonverbal, I think it was the nonverbal communication that I don't wanna be here, I don't wanna spend my money here. You know, it's, it's so people are such into being that the instant gratification and if they out wowed in the first 30 seconds, it's gonna affect them. Now there's a scale, you don't have to create the most over the top design. And that's the point, that's the point here. You can design can be used wisely and to a budget that can still move the needle. That's just not putting crap all of furniture to you're saying or a crappy l liquor paint and that's it.
Reed:
It it needs to tie together to the overall aesthetic. And, and you know, particularly in the multi-family world, like we tie it to our, uh, design colors for the, the, the new monument signs we tie to the design colors to the brand to, to the exterior painting to the colors of the furniture around the pool. So it all ties together when you, you you present it to someone online when they're looking at it on their phone or they're looking at it on the website. I absolutely love that and I think it's just such an important thing that not a lot of people talk about, particularly in the investment world. And I'm sure you've, you know, you've mentioned one time that I was like, your worst ever client on one, one Project <laugh>. Um, but talk to me a little,
Erica:
That was in the early day, early
Reed:
Days, but talk to us about that, the financial, you know, Chad mindset of just like, you know, you buy, sell, trade and then just don't have the time to take that breath to like, think about those little things.
Erica:
Yeah, I mean ideally, well that's not like <laugh>. Hopefully, ideally I'm working with clients who like get it right. So in the ideal sense, I'm working with people that understand how critical it is to the process. That's why they came to me. They're not like begrudgingly like someone told me I have, you know, how to have a designer, but there are of course degrees and everyone is always in a rush. So bringing a designer in as early in the process as you can because it will behoove you in the long run. And yeah, there's always conversations about budget, priority, feeling insecure, like I said, like I think if people feel like it's a really superfluous like add-on and it's not, you have to rearrange your mindset about this business model and like what's gonna make it work. And I am, maybe it's a little bit like, uh, asking a barber if you need a haircut, but I am like, I truly firmly believe that it will add to your revenue potential if you do a good job at this.
Erica:
And yeah, just competition wise, like it's just very, it's factual. Like you would just be losing out. So that's part of the, the process is like, I do a little bit of a comps analysis. I like to look around for someone that's doing it bad and someone that's doing it good and say like, we need to be doing it as good or better than this. We're not gonna copy their style, we're gonna like pay attention to the brand, the aesthetic and the mood that you wanna do. But like, so you get a sense of like who's doing uh, a good and bad job around you. And also that you can see like that validation of like, oh yeah, the people who are doing it good. Like I have to, you know, out outcompete them as far as like budget, I in particular, like, I do try and stick to it as much as possible.
Erica:
I never just like willy-nilly go over budget, but I am honest at the beginning like if they have realistic expectations, I think people think that they can make like $10,000 stretch over 10,000 square feet and you cannot, like that is not, you know, it's not the 1950s if you're buying like Ikea furniture even now, like Ikea furniture. It's just, so the biggest part of the education process about budget is like the ex expectation of how to stretch the dollar. Like I said, if you're looking, there's a lot of like tips and tricks up my sleeve. But again, it's that pre-preparation of like, what do I need in my business plan budget? Like what is, have I ever looked at what it costs to buy furniture? Have I ever looked at what it costs to hire a design service professional? Like it's very strange. The strangest thing is like people's just like ignorance about what things cost.
Erica:
It's like we're all familiar with what food costs but not as familiar like with what these things cost. So I have actually started putting this in my expectations document my welcome packet. I say it verbally, I say it like in the questionnaire when we're doing the consultation, have you ever looked up like at what, like it costs a furnishing, do you have a budget? Have you worked out your like business plan yet? Because you can't just like go into it and then like be shocked about what things cost. Um, and that's not like on the designer either, you know, like, so just trying to get them like warmed up. There's a lot of steps I do in my process to like facilitate that process.
Reed:
As a side note, uh, could be a call to action right now, having something on eco method interiors come on and uh, have a little guesstimate on what things could cost per square foot, you know, to build out a nice design motif. I think that's, uh, that just came to my mind. Um, I'm sure you're thinking about that sort of stuff as well, but as you enter into 2024, what's the sort of outlook now for the business and, and and beyond?
Erica:
Yeah, so 2023 was weird for me personally for us coming, um, out of maternity leave 'cause we have a kiddo now and then I kind of came out into this like recession world. So that was a little weird. But the good news is I am starting to see the tide finally turn and I am very, you know, optimistic and positive about what that is going to look like going forward. And yeah, I feel like now more than ever, like you just need to have, you know, the tools in your tool belt to make like a successful real estate investment. And I again, I just feel like in addition to the amenity ads and like good management, if you don't have that good design experience, the atmospheric like transformation, you're not, you're not, I mean there's too many like, other options and there's too much like, you know, scarcity vibes in the, in the world right now. So I just feel like it's, um, it would behoove everyone to hire me. <laugh> <laugh>.
Reed: Well, at the end of every show we'd like to dive into the top five investing tips. You ready to get into it?
Erica: Okay,
Reed: Question number one. This is a lightning round. All right, now you don't know these questions, but they're very easy. First thing that comes to mind, question number one is what is a daily habit you practice to keep on track towards your goals? <laugh>
Erica:
Daily habit. I practice to keep on track towards my goals. I have to track all of my tasks in a task management system. I have to get it outta my head and into something else or I can't function.
Reed:
What software do you use?
Erica: I was using Todoist and now I use an industry specific one called design files.
Reed: Question number two is, who's been the most most influential person in your career to date?
Erica: I think you want me to say you?
Reed:
No, I don't. I don't. <laugh> <laugh>. I want you to be honest,
Erica: The influential person in my career to date, let's say you really,
Reed: Oh
Erica: Yeah, you, because your GoGet ness, your confidence, but also like you are my personal sounding board, you have helped me with problems and been supportive. So I obviously couldn't do it without you.
Reed: Oh sweetie, that was so, so lovely. But honestly I ask everyone that question and I did. Oh, that wasn't a setup. That wasn't part of it, <laugh>.
Erica: No, I know, but Today it's you.
Reed: Thank you sweetie. Question number three is, what's the most influential tool in your business? When I say tool, it could be a physical tool, like a journal or a phone or it couldn't be, it could be a piece of software that you just can't run the business without. What is it?
Erica:
I am a huge systems and processes nerd. I've even started dabbling in teaching other designers this who struggle. It's got, it's you've gotta have your workflow and that for me is like the project management software. Any other little like softwares that feed in your standing operating procedures. So I'm gonna bundle that all into like your backend <laugh> Yep. Backend processes.
Reed:
Awesome. Uh, question number four in 1 cent is, what has been the biggest failure in your career and what'd you learn from that failure?
Erica:
I've just had so many little failures along the way, whether it's being ghosted from a lead I was sure to get or just had like a bad attitude with a client or didn't communicate something well and caused like a riff in the client relationship. Didn't put enough time or effort into it and didn't get like a recommendation. I have done so many things the wrong way along the way in terms of how I provide service in a service-based business. So now really that's like my number one focus is making sure the client has a good experience.
Reed:
Yeah, that's, that's so important and such a, you know, they always say the customer's correct, but I think it's, it is really important in, in the design world to make sure that they're having that soup to nuts experience and feeling listened to, even though you might be, I'm sure you've had your fair share of crazies come through your door and uh, be your client and so you have to put up with their crap. <laugh> last question is, where can people reach you to continue the conversation That'll be in your sphere, where do they go?
Erica:
Www.ecomethodinteriors.com.
Reed:
Awesome stuff. Well honey, I wanna thank you so much for jumping on today's show just to reflect some of the things I took away from today's show. I think being vulnerable of how you had that relationship with money early on, being a female entrepreneur, just standing in your own confidence and seeing you, you know, I can personally say that I've seen you grow over the years and it's been an awesome to watch you change and evolve and, you know, evolve into this awesome person and human and butterfly, whatever you wanna call it. So I think that is really, really important. But I think also knowing that you've seen things in the business like, you know, the backend systems that, you know, in way, in ways in which the interior design business world is just lacking and you've had to go on it and made it your sort of powerful drive to make sure that you've got that working really, really well. Now, layer on top of that just really, really good design from an ROI perspective is so important and such a value add. And I, I know you're attracting really great clients that know the value of investing a small amount of money into good design that helps the business grow in the long term. And, you know, I'm sure we could have a whole podcast on just like, what's it like married to another entrepreneur, <laugh>. Um, but that's for, that's for part number two, but did I leave anything out of that?
Erica:
Um, I think the only thing is like, I mean part of it, the confidence bit was like just taking the leap into the niche and the rebrand and like not being like, oh is it, don't fire me if I wanna add in like the eco-friendly stuff. Just like really letting that be my niche and really letting that like help me drive the ideal clients to me. And also like kind of figuring out where I, where I stand in the investment sector or real estate sector, commercial sector where that's not their necessarily their top line priority, but making sure that I present it in a way that like is a value add and is like a feather in their cap and figuring out ways to like, make sure that they feel like that in the right kind of like pitch. And I think that again, like as the shape of the future moves forward with the level of competition and also with like the level of awareness and care we're putting forward into future buildings and stuff, like the sustainability piece is important. So, um, hopefully we'll see more of that in your world, world too.
Reed:
Yes, we will. Well again, thank you so much for coming on today's show. Enjoy the rest of your week surrounding me. Enjoy the rest of your week. I'll see you tonight, but you won't see the <laugh>, you won't see. Listen and we'll chat very, very soon.
Erica:
Bye everybody. Thanks hun. Love you.
Reed:
You too. Well there you have another cracking episode jam packed with some incredible advice obviously from my wife who is a rockstar. If you want to go and check any of the things that she's doing out, go to www.ecomethodinteriors.com. It's all over socials. Type in Erica Rina as well, all over socials, follow her on Instagram, LinkedIn. And I wanna thank you all for taking some time outta your day to tune in, to continue to grow your financial iq 'cause it's what it's all about here on this show. The easiest way to give back to this show is to give it a five star review on iTunes. Remember all the show notes from today's show, the links to Erica's website will be up on our website reedgoossens.com and we're gonna do this all again next week. So remember, be bold, be brave, and go give life a crack.”