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Welcome to Take Control with Nicole, as business owners we experience first hand the fine line between our personal and business lives. During our conversations, we will look at simple hints and tips to create time, reduce overwhelm, and help you to navigate through your journey to where you want to be. If you’re looking for smarter ways to work, and create space and time freedom in your day, then you’re in the right place. All right, let’s go.

Nicole Smith
Hello, and welcome to take control with Nicole. Today I’m speaking with the fabulous Emma Bloomfield all about the fabulous world of interior design. Emma is an interior designer who specialises in creating beautiful and real homes and spaces for their home owners, renters and commercial spaces. Really priding herself on finding those ways of connecting the humans with their spaces, connecting the colours, making it feel just like home and a special place to be. And I’m really excited to chat with Emma, because this is an area as much as I am creative. My home is not a place that I have, to date, been very confident in choosing pieces and putting them in place. So very excited to have you here. Welcome.

Emma Blomfield
Thank you so much. Hopefully, you can pick up some tips and tricks for your own house today, too.

Nicole Smith
And we’re just about to move. We’re just looking for a new home as well. So this year, we’re planning to move. So I’ve already started to think about design and colours and things. Oh perfect timing. Yeah, exactly. Well, I’d love you to share a little bit more about yourself and your journey. What led you to start in business or fun things?

Yeah, it was an unusual path. I actually went to university and studied. Why I did a business degree and I majored in marketing. And I also did a certificate in events management thinking that I’d go down the path of events and marketing and then finished right in the middle of the GFC. And no one was hiring, there was no prospects, I was working in retail at the time for Oroton Group. And I was doing a lot of the visual merchandising and window displays for all of the beautiful handbags. And I thought, oh, you know, this kind of relates to marketing and selling and I love the creative side of it. And so I started looking for visual merchandising jobs, but Seek at the time was lumping visual merchandising jobs in with interior design jobs as being like the same category. So all these interior design jobs were popping up and all that, oh, I could do that. I could do that. And as a kid, I absolutely loved playing that game, The Sims, you know, the computer game where you create the houses. Yeah, I was obsessed with that game, like to the point where my mom would be like, You need to get off the computer and do your homework. And so I always had this passion for design and also online design. And eventually got a job with an interior designer who took a chance on me in the GFC. And then kind of just fell into the industry from there, started my own business when I realised that her prices were exorbitant. And I had a lot of friends that were moving out for the first time or buying their first place and asked me “Oh, could your boss come and help us?” And I was like “You can’t afford it. Ha ha ha. But I can help you.” And so it kind of all started from there. And then the very first service that I offered in the business when I first started it was an E decorating online decorating service. And it wasn’t until a few years ago that I made the connection that that was actually what I loved doing as a kid or as a teenager, creating those online designs on the Sims. And now I do it. But it’s my own version for real clients.

Nicole Smith
That’s so funny. Yeah, there’s always things that we do when we’re younger that we love. And it’s so amazing when we can actually translate that into something that we do in real life going forward. Right? Because it’s exactly, yeah, it’s not work. I mean, his conversation the other day about like corporate land, and how it’s work, you know, and it’s like, whereas I’m very fortunate in what I do. I love what I do. It’s fun and exciting and investigation. And let’s try this and all that. No. Boundaries. Really.

Emma Blomfield
Yeah. And no one telling you no, like, if you come up with a great idea, go and execute it and see if it works.

Nicole Smith
Yeah. I’d love to know your thoughts actually on topic off topic. But I was having another conversation yesterday with me in a co working space. It’s a fabulous Community Manager here. I was saying about my business and how it organically happened. And he said, Well, yes and no. He said, You’ve been very intentional about the choices that you’ve made. And you’ve taken action on those choices. And I’m like 100% Do you feel that that’s very similar to your journey as well, where you’ve seen a thing you’ve jumped in and made it?

Emma Blomfield
Yeah, it was 12 years yesterday since I started the business and 12 years ago I started as just extra pocket money on the side of my full time job. because I was getting paid absolute peanuts as a very, very, very junior designer, and I didn’t really have any grand plans for the business, it was literally just, oh, I just want some extra money. And I want to be out to help out my friends. And then it turned into this full scale Design Studio. And I was like, Oh, how did that happen, but somewhere along the way, my goals shifted, and it went from, oh, you know, this is just something to help pay some extra bills to, oh no, this is paying every single bill. And then also feeding my own kind of aspirations and desires for life as well, because I am in control. And if there’s something I want to do, I can trial it and see if it works. And then if it doesn’t work, stop doing it or get feedback and tweak it and go from there. So I love that I’m in control of what the destiny is for both my own like, personal professional path, and also for the business too, because they’re two different things, really.

Nicole Smith
And um I think that’s a real trait of a creative soul is allowing yourself the space to actually trial and test it. I know when I’m looking to do something, and I feel a bit stifled, I don’t have as much as much space to be able to really dive into it and see if it’s actually a thing for me. So it’s really good, especially when you’re working for someone, you don’t have as much space to do that, because they’re doing this.

Emma Blomfield
Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

Nicole Smith
I’d love to know a little bit more about the process of design. Is it similar for all the properties and all the peoples you work with? Are there sort of different ways you do it? Or?

Emma Blomfield
Yeah, I mean, so we’ve got two main services that we offer interior design and interior decorating. So some clients don’t need the design side of things, because they’ve bought a house that’s been renovated, and they literally just need to have it furnished. And then other clients are working on renovations on new builds. And they obviously need to have the, you know, bathrooms, design kitchens designed and that’s all hard surfaces and that sort of thing. And then we move on to the soft furnishings after the builders have kind of left. So we, yeah, it’s complex, because there’s two different offerings that we have. And then kind of like, obviously, they go hand in hand in terms of what we do. But the way that we approach it, and the way that we have to sell those services is obviously quite different. And then when we start working with each of those clients, they’ve, like every single house is different. So it’s really unique in terms of pricing those services, and then also the way that we run each of those services as well. So there might be something really unique, that’s different, or a bit of an issue or a challenge for us with a project that we wouldn’t get on the next one. So therefore, we’ve got to allocate more time to solve that challenge or come up with some new ideas. So there is there are stages that we work through in terms of you know, concept creation is obviously when we start researching preliminary ideas around, what kind of tiles we’re going to use, what kind of colour palette we’re going to go for. And then we go and drill down deeper into the actual design decisions. So then we’ll actually lock in, what color’s your benchtop what color’s your splashback, what kind of carpet are we doing, and all of those sorts of things. And then after that, we do the documentation. So that’s where we write up all of the details for the builder, or any of the trades that are on that project. And then they start implementing that on site, which is with the decorating side of things, it’s a little bit different, because obviously, we don’t need to go to as much level of detail for documentation for any trades. But we still do that initial concept stage where we start researching what that house could look like. And we then do the product discovery section as well. So we’ll start researching what kind of sofa what kind of fabrics and then kind of layer it from there. But there’s stages within decorating that we do as well, because you do need to choose those big ticket items first, before you can start looking at the smaller pieces because you need to kind of work out what your base colour palette is before you decide what coloured cushions you want. And I think a lot of people get confused by that. And they start going out shopping and they end up buying a vase that they really love. And then they want to work it in with another cushion that they’ve got. And then they’re like, oh, but hang on a minute. What color’s my couch? And then it all kind of unravels from there.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, I could imagine because those the small items I guess, are easier to buy, you know, it’s less decision making. It’s like, oh, yeah, I love that. I’m gonna grab you know, you’re out in a holiday. Normally, that’s when I buy and see things. Better have that. I remember when we, so we built our home nine years ago, something like that. And I remember this. Now it was a Porter Davis home so we didn’t have someone like you to actually come in and guide us. We were like, shoved into a big warehouse thing with like bricks and like tiles and like their paint. They’re like, pick your white. I’m like, which one? And so I’m like, I’ll just have whatever’s in the display home. That’s easiest. But have I really realised since we started looking for a new home, I’m very spatially aware I need to see how big something is for me to actually connect with it in the space? Yeah. Do you find that something that’s not unique to me, and it’s quite normal for you.

Emma Blomfield
Pretty much all of our clients that come to us we do generally ask them a question. Can you visualise things? I mean, like a lot of our clients are doctors, accountants and lawyers. And I think those professions themselves kind of lend themselves to be like, Okay, well, you’re a bit more the right brained. And so therefore, your ability to see that finished project is a bit difficult. So we do need to spend a lot more time on 3D renders or going and showing them the items in showrooms and actually getting them to sit and feel and see what they look like in order to kind of work out how that might look in the house or map it out with masking tape. We do that a lot. So stand in the space and lay down newspaper or masking tape and see what it looks like. Because then you’ll be able to visualise it a bit better as well. Whereas we walk in and go, Yeah, that’s gonna look amazing. And they’re like, huh, how do you know that?

Nicole Smith
It’s really funny actually. Because like, in one way, I’m very good at it, if the finish is there, and it’s in the room and I want to rearrange it. I’m like, yeah, that will fit there. We can do that da da da. It’s the new things, you know, my husband’s a project manager in construction. So he’s all over the Yeah, plans and things right. And so bless his heart. And like, how big is this room? And he gets out there like, laser measurey thing? Oh, gosh, the other night, I was up till way too late. I’d found this like pseudo CAD programme. So if you don’t know what CAD is, CAD is like an online. It’s a design tool that, have you used CAD or something similar? Sketchup. Sketchup. Yeah. So yeah. And I literally mapped out what this property could be with the extension. And I had the measurements, right. And it was, I got right, your giggling I like and you could put in the kitchen cabinets, and the colours, I went all out.

Emma Blomfield
That’s like me with the Sims, I used to do that exact same thing with the Sims, like I had no client that was just like, I could do what I want.

Nicole Smith
You had the Sim clients.

Emma Blomfield
Yeah but they can’t tell me what colours they want.

Nicole Smith
I know for me, as well, my environment has a real impact with how I am, how I work, how I know be a person, do you find that as well? And how can you help us as your clients to really discover what that is for them?

Emma Blomfield
Yeah, I find it really fascinating when people seem to not care about that sort of stuff. Because for me, it always was just second nature. And if my house is a mess, then generally that is the reflection of where my life’s at. So at the moment, I’ve just got a puppy dog last weekend, and so his stuff is kind of spread all over the house. And it’s been a challenge trying to toilet train and sleep train and crate train a little eight week old baby. So for me, it’s like, okay, well, the house is a clear reflection of my mental state. And it’s the case like, you know, if something’s off at work, you know, sometimes I will come home and clean like, that’s probably really OCD trait, but it does make a difference because, and it’s the same with the office, if the office is a mess, I’m like girls stop drop,lets clean up, because I don’t want them working in an environment that’s not neat and tidy, and you know, orderly, because ultimately, then it’s going to lead to things getting lost, or mistakes being made. And we can’t afford to do that.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, I am. It’s funny, because you know, when some previous businesses that like clean desk policy, and everyone’s like, Oh, no, having a clean desk policy, I like to have my paper, but then the more that you realise that it’s impactful in ways, if you see stacks of paper, oh, gosh, counting.

Emma Blomfield
anxiety, so obviously must have some form of OCD.

Nicole Smith
I do remember as well, when I was younger in my teenage years and might have had disagreements with your mom, you know, I used to go in my room and deep clean it and rearrange the furniture that was something that I would always do. And so you know.

Emma Blomfield
I kind of wish that like part of me and had studied psychology because there’s so much that goes into it. And especially when we’re working with husband and wife on a project because you’ve also got to manage to like, you basically have two different clients and you have to manage their expectations, you then have to manage their relationship. And then you have to work out okay, well which one of us the decision maker because ultimately there is generally one then it’s not always a joint decision or someone’s way more involved in the process than the other one, but then the other ones still wants to have their own impact and input and stuff and you’re like, okay, cool, but like could you do this at the start, like don’t come in halfway through and start giving your opinion? You should have told me this at the beginning. And it’s really hard and sometimes I joke that we should all put like everyone in our team should put marriage counsellors on business cards because we do find that and sometimes you end up in like strange situations with clients, because it’s so personal, what we do. You’re in their house, you’re in their space, you get to know them on such a deeper level, because you need to know how they live as a family in order to design properly, and you find out so much about them. And then you leave, and you’re like, Oh, that was weird. Like, we got really deep with those clients, and I know everything you know, like, and then you kind of just walk away and you’re like, I don’t know, hope I like it. But yeah, the managing couples is a huge challenge and what we do, so it’d be very helpful to have a psychology degree.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, I think that in any any service based business, there’s elements of that right, regardless of if it’s a couple or business owner, because I know that definitely, I’ve got some sort of like, business support coach life, human, because I’m, again, similar. I’m in their business home, no, right in there, and helping them to transform what they have known forever to where they want to be. And sometimes that shift can be a little challenging. And I imagine it would be the same, just with maybe less choices over the side, more choices over yours of what colours are we going to go with? I like pink. No, I like blue.

Emma Blomfield
Yeah, or the one that I hate. Is my husband inherited this from his grandfather or grandmother. And we really want well, he really wants to have it on display somewhere. And she’s going, I hate it. Where can we put it? So I don’t have to see it every day.

Nicole Smith
Is there a place around the corner somehow?

Emma Blomfield
I know, does he have a work at home space? Can we shove it in his office?

Nicole Smith
I’m lucky that we haven’t got any of those things. It’s probably more my family. I know there’s a china cabinet going to be coming down to me at some point. And I do love it. So but I think we’ll make it work. We’ll have at that point. We’ll have a home that it fits into. At the moment. Exactly. Yeah, right.

Emma Blomfield
Yeah, just make sure the house is the right thing.

Nicole Smith
Yeah. Just interrupting this episode for one little message. If you have been listening and love what you hear and want to come in Connect, we have a take control with Nicole’s Facebook community, right over there on Facebook, that I would love to invite you to come and join us. We are a supportive community, we are looking to really take action in our businesses, and change the way or evolve the way we’re working right now. So I invite you to come on over and join our community and connect with us all. Community is the essence of everything, your business, being able to really build those relationships that you can nurture, and grow and support and celebrate each other. Oh, how fabulous, I hope to see you over there. Pop on over to Facebook, Take Control With Nicole. See you soon. So how do I know? I need to work with you, like at what stage does someone go – I need an interior designer and interior decorator in my world. How do we know?

Emma Blomfield
Yeah, there’s there’s a couple of like really key indicators. The first one is signing the contract for a new home. That is very often when we first get a consultation request. And you know, you kind of go, you got six weeks. So you’ve got to be in, we can do a fair amount of planning before that. And then you know, you’re not having to sit on the floor or not having to bring furniture that you don’t want to ultimately be in that house. Then the other one is obviously kicking off a reno. So plans are in Council or the builder is starting to ask questions on site. And then they go, Oh my god, the builder’s been asking me what tiles, what grout, what splashback, what colour paint, what I want to do on the ceiling, what am I doing for lighting, I don’t have time. I work full time, I just want to pay for this to go away. Or they’ve given it a crack, kind of got to a certain point with it, and then gone, you know what, I probably need a professional to run their eye over our selections to make sure that what we’ve chosen is right, and then do any tweaking from there. So those are kind of the key times that we get called into a project. So it’s quite varied, really. And sometimes I come into the project and think, Oh, I wish you’d called me four months ago.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, I could imagine this, we all make decisions based on the knowledge that we know, right? This amount and when you bring in someone like you as an expert in the space, you’ve been playing in all the different areas, created different unique designs for all ages or your clients. And so we’re taking those experiences and helping guide your new clients to find what’s actually for them because we all love different things even though they’re not similar. They are.

Emma Blomfield
Well and also the other thing is we have so many of our suppliers reps coming to us in a week to explain new products, educate us on their existing product range. When we’re working on a new project, we often go to our suppliers and say, hey, you’ve got this really cool project, they’re wanting to do this kind of style. What have you got in your range at the moment that you think would fit and then they flick off facts and ideas. And that’s kind of like that initial concept stage as well. So we’re constantly being educated by you know, the industry and our peers. So why would you not try and tap into that knowledge? I don’t do my bookkeeping, and I don’t do my accounting, because if I tried, I would fail. Or I’d make mistakes. So I’ve always paid someone else to do that for me, because there’s no benefit to me working on those things.

Nicole Smith
Another interesting conversation I had yesterday around, you know, in the past, people have been like, Okay, we’re going to focus on our weaknesses, what’s your weaknesses, let’s, let’s improve those, do some training and things like that. Whereas if we actually focused on, which is what you’re doing, focus on the areas that you are already successful and love and excel at. You just continue to grow in those spaces and delegate the 100%, 100%, when you can find what you love, and where you don’t really need to be playing. It’s a relief, isn’t it? Oh,

Emma Blomfield
It is. And it did take me a long time to get to that point. But it is it’s like that nice sweet spot where you kind of like, okay, I know what I’m doing. Let’s keep going.

Nicole Smith
I think it’s really important, as well as business owners to know all the bits and pieces of your business, how it runs what you know. And with finances, for instance, I’ve just engaged. We’ve been working together maybe four months now. So I’ve got a management accountant six months, actually a management accountant that we have a call every month, and we go through all the bits and pieces. And so I’m across it, she’s across it, we talk about where we’re heading, what’s coming up all those things. And just by having that person in that role to support me to then make more conscious decisions can only help you move forward. Again, what you said, when you’re at the right moment when you’re first starting.

Emma Blomfield
Yeah, that’s different. It’s cashflow ultimately. But it also it’s important, like you said before, it’s really important that you’re across all of that. So I know how to do those things if I absolutely had to. But it doesn’t interest me, it’s a total waste of my time. And if you cost my time out by the hour of what I charge, why on earth would I be doing that when someone else who is far more qualified and understands it can do it much better than I can?

Nicole Smith
100%? I always wonder, is there anything in your business journey that you kind of look back at and like, think, Oh, that was a really integral learning or something that has really shifted my way of businessing to move forward?

Emma Blomfield
Yeah, for me, there’s like two things that I’m I’ve always kind of been afraid of in business. One is owing the taxman money that I hadn’t accounted for. I think that’s a legitimate fear most business owners have. And two is like legal issues that I hadn’t accounted for as well, which, again, are probably quite common business issues, or, you know, worries. And, of course, those things are going to manifest and happen in some stage in the business. And one of them happened really early on for me, it was I think, in my first year in business, I’d hired an accountant who came and said, I’ve got good news and bad news. Good news is your business is doing really well. Bad news is ,you owe a heap of money to the ATO and it’s due, if I lodged your report, now, it’s due in like two or three weeks time, and I was like, that’s not right. And for three weeks, I was going back and forth with this accountant saying, I don’t believe that what you’re telling me is true, because I’m working it out based on X, and you’re telling me it’s Y. And eventually, they came back and I said, I’m really sorry, I actually was calculating your net profit as your revenue. And so that’s why it will look like you owe the tax department more than you actually did. So that accountant was fired shortly after that. And then I obviously knew I needed to pay attention to the finances, because if I hadn’t, I would have ended up paying a massive chunk of money that I actually didn’t need to pay or have to come up with that money that I didn’t have. And then another one was a legal issue that I had, because I have published two decorating books. And the first book that, I well, the first contract that I signed with the publisher didn’t end well. They wanted to name it something that I was not on board with the, front cover was a design that I wasn’t happy with. And just generally the process was not going in the way that I assumed that it would, and we had to take legal action to get out of that contract, took three months for that to happen. And then eventually led me to my new publishers who are absolutely amazing and the perfect fit. So I think one of them is, go with your gut, like always go with your gut because I believed that there was a problem with the accounting and then I just did not believe in what they were providing for the book publishing. And ultimately, both of those things led me to a better path. But there are still lessons that you have to learn and they’re quite painful when you’re living through them.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, 100% that’s something that has been forefront for me is that listen, if your body and your mind is telling you, something doesn’t add up here, and especially in those realms, like, you know, you rely on your people who are experts to know what they’re doing.

Emma Blomfield
Yeah, exactly. I know. And then for them to not and then you’re like, oh God, Who can I trust?

Nicole Smith
Yeah, I think that why, it’s really important to have a community in business, right? So you’ve got your people that you can rely on for, hey, I need a new, for me in my world, very, very relevant. So Steph Munir is my management accountant, my business accountant. And I said, I need someone to do my income tax, I need a new accountant. I need some new insurance and the new insurance broker. And so I’ve reached out to some people now and the the experience has been wonderful. It’s just been so…

Emma Blomfield
It makes you feel less alone, because it’s very lonely in business. And a lot of people don’t understand what you’re trying to do and trying to achieve. They’ll support you and tell you that you’re doing amazing things. And you’re kicking goals. And it’s nice to hear that from time to time. But I think sometimes I just want to whinge to someone that gets what I’m whinging about. And it’s sometimes it’s literally just an opportunity for me to vent and then I’ll feel better. I’m not necessarily looking for advice, because I’ll just get over it and find a way through. Or other times I do you need advice. And so I’ve got a lot of business owner friends who all say the same thing that like, you know, my husband doesn’t understand or you know, my parents don’t get what I’m trying to do. You know, my friends don’t get it, and you guys get it on a deeper level and you understand, you know, the buck stops with you. And sometimes that’s really hard for people to accept and understand. And they kind of just like, oh, yeah, but you know, you run your own business, you can change that and you like, sometimes you can’t. Sometimes things are out of your control, and you can’t change them. And you just have to live through it and find your way through. However best you can. And you just need the right people to be back in your corner. And and know that if there’s an issue with your insurance broker is going to sort you out straight away, if there’s a legal issue, your lawyer is going to jump in and defend you to the end. If there’s an accounting problem, your accountant will pick up the phone or bookkeeping problem, and your bookkeeper will sort it out. But if you don’t have those people around you, I think he can feel really lost and really lonely.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, 100%. I shared just before we pressed go on recording you that my I’m scaling my team at the moment, and I’ve got some really cool people in my world that do that exactly for me that, you know, they know. So you’re talking about the venting or the talking or I always preface what I’m looking for in the conversation, I learned this from my very close colleague, Kathy Rast. So if we go into conversation, Today, I just need you to listen, or I would love you to give me some advice, or I’m looking for this and then words. And then that way the other human on the other side knows what role they’re playing in that conversation. And that’s just good humaning right we, we attract people who are similar to us, but complement us as well. And we really create those spaces and containers for each other. So it’s wonderful when you find those people who just like, ah, you guys.

Emma Blomfield
Your little business village.

Nicole Smith
Yeah. So that is another term that’s come up so much in the last three weeks, business village, it’s so true. So, so true. It is, you need one. Exactly. Amazing. Is there anything else you want to share that we should know about what you do for people? Before we jump into our three questions?

Emma Blomfield
I think what we do is really interesting, because on the surface, and my brother is a builder, so he jokes about this all the time, but he actually does really understand that what we do makes a difference. A lot of people just go, Oh, you just fluff cushions for a living, and you make it look nice and you leave. And you’re like, yeah cool. It’s actually way more than that. But thanks. And I think you know, what we do is we get so deep into the clients lives and try and solve, you know, whatever design issues there are within the project. And ultimately, everything that we do. Yes, of course, there’s like a bit of a, I don’t know, what’s the word like a lot of what we do is very fluffy in terms of, you know, we’re spending people’s money to make things look nice. But at the end of the day, that has a huge impact on us psychologically. And I think people really kind of misunderstand the role of an interior designer, and they just think, oh, that’s what some rich person pays someone to go and do. And then they just get to live in their fancy house and live a fancy life. But actually what we do is make families really happy at home we make, you know, your work environment, if you work from home, a nicer place to be. We facilitate so much around family life that we’ve had some clients say to us all you know, as a family now that you’ve redesigned the kitchen and living space, my teenagers will come and do their homework at the kitchen bench and start telling me about their day and I’d really missed that before and now I feel like I’m much more part of their life because they naturally gravitate towards where I am in the house. And I’m like, That is why I do what I do. It’s not because you get to end up with a beautiful photo of their kitchen in their in your portfolio. It’s so that you know that somebody’s living a really awesome life in that house. And not necessarily just, we’ve made something look cool.

Nicole Smith
It’s not a house. It’s a home. Right?

Emma Blomfield
Exactly. Yeah.

Nicole Smith
It’s so true. Having a family myself, I’ve got a seven year old and a four year old and a 12 month old girl who’s just off the charts at the moment. Those moments where we are all in the same space is really important. And it is about creating an attractive, not physically attractive is nice too, but a warming environment that you know that real sense of, I love being in this area, you know, oh, it’s beautiful. Hey, did I see something on the socials that you’re doing some sort of like workshop with?

Emma Blomfield
Yeah, we’re doing a Feng Shui workshop. So a friend of mine grace, she’s an amazing Feng Shui specialist. She has done a lot of Feng Shui readings for my own home, my office. And just watching her at work is just absolutely magical to witness. And we did it in 2020, just before lock down happened. And she read out. That was the year of the rat, and she read up a destiny profile for what the year of the rat looked like. And she said everything that was going to happen. And we all kind of went, Yeah, nah, we’re just gonna go into lockdown for three weeks and then get over this whole virus thing that we find. And she was like, No, it’s gonna be a bit longer than that. And then she said the same thing for 2021. And then we were like, Okay, maybe she was right. So we decided to team up and do a workshop together, which is all about renovating your house with Feng Shui principles in mind. So it’s going to be really different to anything we’ve even seen on the market, anything we’ve ever, ever done ourselves. And just really focus on how your home can actually help you attract certain things in your life. So say, for example, you’re single and you want to attract a partner, or you’re kind of in a dead-end job and you want to see what the next step is. It’s really interesting. And I have had to be persuaded on this, because I’ve not always been a big believer in it. But watching Grace at work, it’s kind of hard to deny that it’s not working, and how changing things in your home can actually have an impact in your life. And it is just fascinating. So we’re really excited to be hosting that again, on the 25th of Feb in Sydney.

Nicole Smith
That’s so exciting. I had a fabulous lady on last year. And we spoke about this. And I remember her mentioning about the heart of the home. Yes. And there was, ah I have to go back, we should actually chat about that somewhere in here. But I go back and listen to it, because I remember her talking about that and how important it is. Yeah, it’s I think you have to do you do have to experience these things as well to really get that connection. So amazing. Well, we’ll put the details in here, it’s probably happened by the time this is gone live.

Emma Blomfield
We are talking about doing more. So if we get enough interest, we will host more. So come and hit me. We’re also open to going to other states too. So if anyone wants us to travel, we will.

Nicole Smith
Amazing, not travel, travel. What is this travel you talk about? Well, thanks so much. We’ve got three questions that I ask everyone who comes on the Poddy. So are you ready to rock’n’roll?

Emma Blomfield
Yes, hit me.

Nicole Smith
Ooh, okay, what’s your go to app that creates ease in your day?

Emma Blomfield
We have quite a few we have invested quite heavily in other systems and processes. Besides our own, we also have invested in our own kind of systems. Obviously, Xero makes finances easy for us. And then we have another one called Design Files, which helps us manage our projects. So it’s very specific to the interior design industry. And the last one would be Dubsado. So that helps us with all of our proposals and presentations to clients to try and get them over the line when we met with them and pitching jobs. So all three of those work hand in hand and we love them.

Nicole Smith
Amazing. So good when you find your tech stack and what really works.

Emma Blomfield
It took a while, it took a really long time. Yeah, yeah.

Nicole Smith

It sometimes does, though, because you’ve got to trial and test. And every time you iterate your business as well. It’s like oh, that doesn’t really fit anymore.

Emma Blomfield
Exactly. Yeah. Needs to grow with you. Yeah,

Nicole Smith
That’s right. Online. Hybrid. Paper. To Do List. Paper. Yep. Cool. Do you use paper alot in what you do?

Emma Blomfield
I do, we scribble a lot. Because we’re always designing things. If we’re talking about joinery for a client, we’ll draw it on a piece of paper before we actually put it into the computer.

Nicole Smith
Yeah, yeah, that makes sense. What would you do if you created more space in your world?

Emma Blomfield
There’s a very long to do list in my head of things I want to achieve and do. I think my biggest limitation is not having the funds to do everything I want to do. Not necessarily the time so for me obviously developing my own properties is on the list. That definitely takes time also takes a huge amount of money. And then other other things that I just want to change in the business that take time to so we’re in a big growth phase at the moment with the business. And there’s a lot that I want to achieve and a lot that I want to change. But all of that is just going to take time. So they’ll just be things that I slowly chip away out in my own time and pass things on to the team so that I’m able to actually focus on those things.

Nicole Smith
And play with a new puppy as well.

Emma Blomfield
Yes, definitely be a good dog, mum.

Nicole Smith
So cute. Cute. My dog biting at my ankles if I had him here today.

Emma Blomfield
He was chewing on stuff before, but he’s fast asleep now.

Nicole Smith
Thank you so much. It was such a pleasure having you on today. Um, we actually met at a fancy dinner at an event on the Gold Coast a few months ago last year. And it was funny. I think we both didn’t realise I recognise your name. Right.
So yeah, that’s the universe, obviously, you know, randomly sitting us next to each other in this wonderful event. It was beautiful to chat with you then and now. And yeah, I’m so excited to see where your business continues to flourish.

Emma Blomfield
Thankyou, it’s been lovely being part of the show.

Nicole Smith
Yay. Now where can everyone find you? Most importantly, yeah. Where are you hanging about?

Emma Blomfield
We’re very active on Instagram. So Emma.Blomfield. There’s only one O, in Bloomfield, and our website, emmablomfield.com.

Nicole Smith
Amazing. As always, we’ll put all the links in the shownotes will also pop a link to your Instagram post about the workshop unless it’s on your website at the moment or is it?

Emma Blomfield
We’ve gotten a Brent BrightLink for it that I can put in as well.

Nicole Smith
Cool fat, we’ll pop all that in there. Thank you again for joining us today.

Emma Blomfield
Thank you so much. Yeah,

Nicole Smith
Everybody else who’s out there listening, have a wonderful rest of your day and enjoy creating space and time freedom.

Well, there we go. Thank you so much for joining me today. It’s been such a pleasure having you on board. Have we connected on social jazz? If not, please come on over. Say hi, I’m on all the platforms at the artisan solutions. So I’d really look forward to seeing you over there. And if you enjoy today’s episode, don’t forget to tag me and I’d love it if you could leave a review. And of course, share this with others so others can come and join us next time. All right, then everyone have a fabulous rest of the week and until next time, see you then.