080: Integrating Family and Business
Michele (0:01) On the podcast, today are Jeremy and Chandler Corals. Together they own Peach and Pine Interiors and they host the wonderful podcast Love Where You Live. After pursuing other careers that were centered around music, they both are now focusing on building the interior and renovation business that they have. With the little music still on the side. We're chatting today about how their business began. How they're integrating their home life and business life and focusing on the foundational aspects of the business that will put them in a place for future growth. With the one-year-old child and a three-year-old business, you can bet that they're busy, and how they support and listen and love on each other is inspirational. Enjoy the podcast.
Hey, Chandler Hey Jeremy, welcome to the podcast.
Chandler (1:26) Hey, Michelle. Thank you.
Jeremy (1:27) Hey, How's it going?
Michele (1:28) Good. Good. I am so excited to talk to the two of you today. We coach together with the Inner Circle and then I met you at High Point and I just love the dynamic between the two of you. And so I want to dig into that today. And I want to talk about some ways that you are marketing and what you're doing and how you got started. I think you have a super interesting story. And I would love to have you share some of that with us. So Chandler, I'm gonna ask you to get started only because I think the business started with you and An independent.
Chandler (2:01) Yes, it did. So we met in college at Belmont, we both have music industry backgrounds. So I've always been creative and I think I'm wired to be creative and I've really had an interest in interiors. I never thought of that as a potential career path. I just have always naturally loved decorating. My mom is very much wired that way. So as my grandmother. I come from a long line of women with great taste and interior design, and so just kind of grew up loving it. My ideal birthday present would be to redecorate my room. I just loved the design, but it was always a secondary creative outlet and music was my first and so that was what I thought I wanted to do with my life was actually in a recording artist. I have a voice degree and pretty soon after we got out of college, we got married right after we graduated, and Jeremy was touring a lot on the road. He does audio so he was on the road a lot with artists and so I found myself at home a lot in this new home. We bought our first house quickly after we graduated, and it was a little bit of a fixer-upper. And I found myself first of all going through a little bit of an identity crisis as a young 20 something going, I don't think I want to do with my life what I thought I wanted to do with my life. And so what am I supposed to be doing? I had a job in the music industry on the business side of things doing I was a marketing manager, and then a radio promoter at a record label.
So I was working, I had a job, but I knew that wasn't what I wanted to do forever. I knew creating music wasn't what I wanted to do forever. And all I wanted to do with my time was decorate my house. I remember my dad calling me and saying it seems like you're spending a lot of time on that house. I don't want to pry but do you think that's taking away from your career and it's funny because now that is my career, but at the time, it was a way for me to just be creative. I started blogging, I started sharing the renovations we were doing we discovered that Jeremy is really handy. And so he was able to implement a lot of the ideas that I had, I started on a shoestring newlywed budget, just doing whatever we could update this home. And as I started sharing it, people started asking me to help them. And it just sort of organically started turning into a very small business, me just helping friends doing things here and there. And I started to realize that this is something I wanted to do with my life. It was over a couple of years, I think of me starting to realize I think maybe I could actually make a living at this. And I didn't really know what that looks like long term. But Jeremy and I talked and decided I was going to give it a really strong go. So for about a year while I still had my other job, I started to grow the business as much as I could. And it kind of got to the point where I needed to be able to devote full time to it. And so two and a half years ago, I quit my job in the music industry to really pour everything into growing an interior design business and it was always the two of us together. To some extent, he feels like we've always worked well in tandem. And so we started the business saying it's both of us because he's always been involved. on social media, it was always us doing projects together. But really, it was my career. And he was my support person. And recently that has sort of changed now. It's, it's both of us all in.
Michele (5:12) I know that you and I shared a little bit, the three of us before we jumped on the podcast today. But that is so similar to the way my first business started was doing things in my home. And then other people saw it and asked me to do it, I kind of fell into a business. My degree was in something completely different, right. And I worked corporate, I wasn't willing to give up the corporate job. But I was doing this on the side, and then it became a business and then I had to get serious about it and realize how to do it the right way. And my husband still picks on me and tells me he said it on the podcast we did the other day and his retirement plan. And so we've been laughing about that, because he's thinking, well, if I ever get out of the software, I can go work with Michele. So maybe ours is a more extended version of the fact that Jeremy's come into work with you quickly.
Chandler (6:01) Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Michele (6:04) Maybe ours is on the 30-year plan.
Jeremy (6:04) Yours is a safer way to do it.
Chandler (6:07) Yeah.
Jeremy (6:08) So stick with that.
Michele (6:08) Yeah...I don't know. There are some days I would say yes. And some No, but so I think that this is fantastic. And you know, what I love about it is that I think everybody is creative, as much as people with on not creative. I think we're all creative with something. Creative with an idea, creative with our words, creative with our speech, creative with our hands. I believe that we're made in God's image, right. And He's a creator, and it says we're made in His image we must be able to create, it just doesn't look the same for every person. And using the beauty of your creativity and music and then realizing that it can translate into other aspects of creative desire, right, that come out of you being able to do that. And so how long did you work? Let's say it primarily by yourself before Jeremy joined you and a more...
Chandler (7:06) Full time.
Michele (7:06) Full time, like yeah, position
Jeremy (7:09) Two years.
Chandler (7:10) Yeah, it was two years from the time that I quit my other job. So I had been kind of growing the business, like intentionally growing the business for about a year before that. So really probably three years of me by myself before Jeremy stepped in full time.
Michele (7:27) So then if I have this right Chandler, about like, let's call it a year of a side hustle.
Chandler (7:33) Right.
Michele (7:34) To build it up why you had the other job, then the safety net for you was removed and you went in full time. You did it for about two years full time, while Jeremy still had his full-time safety net and then he decided to get rid of a little bit of his.
Chandler (7:48) Yes.
Jeremy (7:48) Correct.
Chandler (7:49) Yes. And he still tours some, he still is on the road some but not nearly. He's taken a major step back and how much he tours to devote towards me and the music industry by how much he goes on the road in the music industry to be able to focus full time on our business. So...
Michele (8:08) Okay, Tell me about from your perspective, then I want to hear from Jeremy's, What was it that happened that made you realize, okay, I need him in this business more or I want him in the business more.
Chandler (8:22) Yeah.
Michele (8:22) And what was it from your perspective and then I want to hear how he felt, stepping away ...
Chandler (8:30) Yeah.
Michele (8:30) And stepping into what you were kind of creating.
Chandler (8:33) I think from the beginning. We've always kind of worked well together even when we were dating in college, we always kind of work projects together with my music career, he was always my producer or he played keys for me or he played guitar for me and we always sort of have always loved entrepreneurial ventures, side by side. And so even when we started teaching pine and we might get into the reason for the name of our business, but it's both us together as part of the kind of even named for our company and so I always consider him like an important advisor. But as the business grew, I realized there was no way for him to really be involved in help because he was gone so much he wasn't really part of things, we hit a point where needed to be sort of all or nothing, I think, for him to be able to be part of the growth of the business and I also feel like I hit a point where I kind of had reached my capacity in growing the business well alone and we started talking about maybe hiring an assistant or something and started to the timing of everything and the way the Lord worked it all out. He got a really big chunk of time off from touring just naturally because of the artists he works with took a sabbatical and so we kind of went okay he can either go back out find more work, which is what he would normally do. Or this is our chance during this sabbatical to give this 100% go of him being full time in the business and see if we can make it work and if we want to make it work, and so it's kind of now or never, and we just pulled the plug and went for it. And that was just earlier this year. So it's been a whirlwind and a very fast-tracked growth. I think at that time, I think we now see, it was a necessary step. But go ahead and do what ...I've been talking so much.
Michele (10:33) So Jeremy, how did it feel from your perspective, I can imagine it would be hard to have your wife building a business, you're traveling a lot. You're not there. You want to help, you want to support but limited time or resources, with money, time all of it, being there had to be a struggle.
Jeremy (10:52) Yeah. And I think even more so than that. For those two years. We would talk and say well Okay, I want to be more of a part of the business, but what part would I even do? Like, I'm not going to necessarily get in on the design side. So where is my role? What is my role going to be carved out to help the business grow? And like Chandler said, at the beginning of this year, I was really, really busy and gone a lot. And then we were looking ahead at six months where I was going to be home. And in the past, I would have found other tours and other artists to work for and fill that time but we just kind of said, you know, we created this business with the intention ultimately of coming together on it and it is our career. And we want that for us. We want that for our family. And so now's the time to give it a shot and I feel like at the same time that we decided that and in June is when I came on full time with Peach and Pine at the same time that we decided that some of that niche of my position became more clear, just naturally and in some of the content that we're creating now, and in some of the projects that we are taking on, There are areas that I can step in and help with, partially because I'm home more, but partially just because we know our own business better at this point and what we're wanting to do. And so yeah, I mean, as Chandler said, The Lord works out the timing, exactly the way that it's supposed to, and the last five or six months has been a really wild ride.
Chandler (12:34) And I think we've said we were saying the other day, we were talking about it, and he said, Why does it feel like since you've stepped on, we've just had so much to do to grow the business. Why do you know what was going on for two years before that? And we said, up until this point, I wasn't building a business. I was building a me. I wasn't necessarily running a business, I was running a me and I was running a me to the best of my ability. But now that Jeremy's been able to step on, we're able to look long term and say, we want to do this really well and grow a business and not just a Chandler. Yeah.
Michele (13:12) Right, right. I was just getting ready to ask you have you found that you have been able to take on larger projects, larger-scale projects? And Chandler, do you find that your confidence has increased because you're not going out there by yourself? You're going out there as part of something bigger than
Chandler (13:30) Absolutely. I think it gives me the confidence also that we have very different skill sets. And so he's able to take on a lot of the things that I felt some of the business things, some of the project management things that are his wheelhouse that were harder for me to do. Now he's able to take that stuff on and he's great at it. And I'm able to focus more on the design and the client interactions that I kind of naturally gravitated toward. And so I think because now we're both able to operate a little bit better in our own giftings. I definitely feel more confident and more, like you said, able to take on larger projects, just because there's a teammate here helping to get it done. So
Michele (14:14) How did your extended family react to this?
Jeremy (14:18) They've been great.
Chandler (14:18) Yeah, I think they've known for a while that we're entrepreneurial and that we don't have. I mean, even with music industry jobs, I don't think we ever had the trajectory of sort of normal.
Jeremy (14:31) It's never been stable. The baseline was pretty low.
Michele (14:35) Corporate, focused...
Chandler (14:37) Yeah. And so I think this did not come as a surprise to them, that we wanted to do this together, and they've been really supportive. Yep.
Jeremy (14:47) Really supportive.
Michele (14:48) That's awesome. I was just curious after your Dad commented.
Chandler (14:51) Well, my dad is going away. He's he comes from a corporate oil industry finance background, and so I was raised A very kind of typical, my dad was corporate, and my mom stayed at home with us and had a wonderful upbringing and, and my dad is a great businessman, but I think he's known for a long time that my career path would not look the same. So.
Michele (15:19) So did anybody warn you about going into business with your spouse before you did it? Or do you think they had just watched the relationship between the two of you and didn't feel like it was a conversation you needed to have?
Jeremy (15:28) I feel like more people have said to us... Oh, I could never do that. That's more typical.
Chandler (15:34) That's a very typical response. Yeah.
Jeremy (15:36) Which I respond to. I really don't recommend it. Like you. It really takes to specific people that work really well together, obviously, and it is 100% Okay, that not everybody is equipped in that way.
Chandler (15:52) Yeah, a lot of people yeah, just kind of making comments like, Oh, I can't imagine or I don't think my husband and I would work well together or stuff like that. But I think we've been together since we were 18. And I know you and your husband are high school sweethearts. And we've always as I said, we just kind of always done things together. So I just don't think anybody was surprised. I think they kind of think okay, hope this goes okay guys, but I don't think anyone was right.
Michele (16:18) Right. You just hear that you don't go into business with friends and family. And I had other podcasts where it was a mother-daughter team. I've had others that have been husband, wife team, and it's a different dynamic because of the dynamic at workflows over into the dynamic at home unless you're very careful to draw certain boundaries and I don't mean in a bad way, but even like some of my other... I coach quite a few married couples like you, and some of them will even say we have to sometimes at the dinner table, make work...
Jeremy (16:56) Yeah.
Chandler (16:56) Yes.
Michele (16:57) ...Off-limits or it's all we talked about it but The permeating focus of all of our conversation it's either our children or work. We need to be a little more well rounded in our conversation.
Chandler (17:08) Yeah
Michele (17:08) So that's one of the ways that you see the seeping...
Chandler (17:13) Yeah, I think it requires and we're still learning but I think it requires being very intentional with creating some lines where work doesn't take over everything.
Jeremy (17:26) I even heard that you say when you were interviewing your husband that you did not create a nine to five and we did not create a nine to five, we're ten to two and then a couple hours break and then some more time later and it's all over the place, but we just try to carve out whatever our schedules looking like we do try to carve out Hey, let's go to lunch and not talk about business or Hey, let's get out for a date night or intentional times where you can connect not about business or even about her son, where we can just kind of connect. And yeah, not have to worry about some of those other things.
Chandler (18:09) It can be challenging too, I think because whenever I was primarily doing the business by myself, if there was like a business challenge or something I was struggling with, I could come to him with it. And he was kind of a neutral, a bit of a neutral third party where he could look at it objectively and say, it's going to be okay. But now when there's a challenge, neither one of us is a neutral third party. So we have to be able to be encouraging to each other, but also like, it's okay for both of us to be discouraged at the same time. And sometimes that happens. It's just been an interesting, dynamic shift in that way.
Michele (18:45) I was about to say, that's a very interesting shift. And that's, you know, because that's really what Joel is to me, and we talked about that, right. Like, I can come and say, Hey, I need you to be my girlfriend on this, which means I don't need you to solve that. I just need you to listen to me.
Chandler (19:00) Right.
Michele (19:01) This is the role I need you to take. But his interest isn't as vested as mine is, and he's not knee-deep in the business the way I am. So he can be a bit more on the outside looking in. And so I can absolutely see the shift that you're referring to because now, this is a reflection on the two of you. And both of your livelihoods are caught up in whatever decision making do.
And so there is a different weight to that decision making and even to talk through what the options are. And I use the saying that I heard it says you can't read the label from the inside bottle. Jeremy pretty much inside the bottle with you.
Chandler (19:27) Yup.
Jeremy (19:42) Yeah.
Chandler (19:42) Yep.
Michele (19:43) Yeah. So before you do this, I know you've talked about your different giftings and you each chose to work on that. Did you sit down and kind of have a little more of a formal conversation with each other about Okay, I'm going to carve out this part of the business right now is what I'm going to do. You do that. I know you've left it a little bit fluid and open-ended for each of you to grow into your positions. But was it a conscious conversation to move in that direction,
Jeremy (20:11) I think it was a series of conscious conversations that were still...
Michele (20:16) Okay.
Jeremy (20:16) ...still having some things just kind of naturally, when I came in, they came over to my side, a lot of the business back end sort of things that nobody ever sees, is a little bit more towards my logistical brain, a lot of getting content creation out. And especially as at the beginning, when I was carving out, I had a lot of time to think through, what kind of content are we trying to put out, I was able to actually put that content out and not have to bother Chandler with Hey, what do you think about this, and so some of them just kind of came naturally but then others, we try to have a business meeting every week, which is funny because it's the two of us, but we call it a business meetings. And we have had several conversations like okay, Chandler, you've had everything up to this point. Are there things that I can take over? What does it make sense for me to take over? And just trying especially to over-communicate to make sure that we don't have things falling through the cracks.
Chandler (21:17) And with client project or just project by project, we've kind of sat down and I've said, Okay, here's the project, here's what we're looking that needs to be done it How about if you communicate with these vendors, and I think it would be great if you kind of took over this portion of the project, and then we communicate that to the client, that Jeremy's in charge of that. And then we kind of just make that decision, but we're still figuring it out sort of bit by bit.
Michele (21:44) I liked that you were being intentional. I think intentionality is what's going to serve you well, right. I mean, the whole name of the podcast Profit is a Choice. It's about these choices, and it's sometimes it's these small choices, even to choose To say the two of us are going to call this a business meeting with this, right?
Jeremy (22:05) Right.
Michele (22:06) Not just another time to get together but a very focused conversation on solving this particular issue challenge. And that intentionality, I think, is also what helps keep the barriers up around the home. Because we know there's a time set that we're going to have the conversation, and it also creates freedom within that time frame for you to share with each other, whatever you think or fill as business owners, not as husband and wife.
Chandler (22:32) That's true. It's Yes, I think it's been a key especially we have a toddler, we have a one-year-old and so with, we've also learned in this first year of parenting, that it's a lot harder for me to shut my mom brain off than it is for him to shut his dad brain off. He's an amazing dad, but he can kind of go into business mode at any point. And sometimes it's harder for me to divide the two as you know, my baby is needing to eat lunch or something. And so carving out those intentional times that I know I'm stepping out of any mom mode and into business mode is really a key.
Chandler (22:34) Yes.
Michele (23:12) There was a question on one of the recent Inner Circle calls that we had about mom guilt. And I remember both of you shaking your heads when the conversation came up, and it's a real thing. I mean, we talked about dad guilt as well. But I do think that by and large, men have an easier time in some ways compartmentalizing more than when it was not that they don't care. And it's not that they don't think about it. My husband is better sometimes at compartmentalizing than I am. And so having more of a structure around my ability to compartmentalize helps me, which I think is exactly what you're saying.
Jeremy (23:56) Yep.
Chandler (23:57) Exactly.
Michele (23:58) How do you manage some of that? I'm assuming you have some childcare?
Chandler (24:04) Yeah, We have him on Mother's Day out a couple of days a week. And then we have a nanny a couple of days a week. So right now we have childcare Monday through Thursday. And then we are...
Jeremy (24:15) Tag teaming on Friday.
Chandler (24:15) Tag team on Friday, he'll take dad duty in the morning and I'll go work somewhere and then we'll switch off in the afternoon or kind of whatever that day, whatever that week needs to happen. But yes, we don't have full-time childcare. And we've kind of done that on purpose because we want to be able to integrate family and work and have him kind of throughout what we're doing. But yes, we do. I don't think we could make it work at this point without some outside help. And we don't have family in town. So that's been a key.
Michele (24:46) Right. That was one of the challenges for me. When I started mine, the kids were little we didn't have family in town. That could help I mean, my husband has a brother that lives near but they both worked full time as well. So I didn't have anybody that was able to help or get over quickly or anything. And so, I worked a lot around my kid's schedule and so my ability to work more and more and more grew as they grew.
Chandler (25:14) Right.
Michele (25:15) And you'll probably see, just guessing from being on this side of a one-year-old.
Chandler (25:19) Yeah!
Michele (25:21) I am guessing that you will see that integration between home life and business life shift and morphed many times...
Chandler (25:27) Yeah.
Michele (25:28) Yeah, as you go through it. And it's almost easier to contain a baby but when they hit that two and three and they're touching everything...
Chandler (25:35) We already see that!
Michele (25:37) The integration points...
Chandler (25:38) I was just said to him this morning, I was like, do you remember buddy whenever you used to just sit in the bouncer and not move? Those days are long.
Michele (25:50) Long gone that's right let's just gonna get more gone. I couldn't tell you. But I'm I I applaud you for that for trying to build a family and a life and business on your term, and in a way that integrates them at whatever level is comfortable and necessary for your family. So I think that's awesome. I love seeing the pictures of Chip and Joanna out and Joanna has got her new baby on her hip.
Chandler (26:14) Yeah.
Michele (26:16) I love that and it encourages me. And so, but I know, we can't do that all the time. And many of us are not in a position. And most clients wouldn't want to show up with a baby on our hip. And that's not what you're doing. But I am saying that it is nice to see that we can have family and business and work.
Jeremy (26:35) Yeah, and that's one of the reasons we created the business in the first place. And we've always said to each other, the business is going to grow. But we want this business to create the type of life, and you say it all the time. profitability isn't just about money. And so we want it to create the type of life that we want to be living and that is flexibility and time with family. And integrating the family and the business. And so we need to be doing that now. We don't need to be waiting until it's more profitable financially or anything like that. And so that's what we've tried to do so far.
Michele (27:14) So how do you keep business from rolling into home life?
Jeremy (27:18) That's a great question.
Chandler (27:18) It's a great question, I think one thing that we've implemented that sounds like a small thing, but it's honestly been really important for us in the last year or so is creating more boundaries around our Sunday Sabbath? We, you know, we've always gone to church on Sundays, but I feel like just in the last year, we've made a strict rule that we do not work on Sundays, and we don't check emails, we try our best not to even talk about client projects and like really, really intentionally rest from work because when you're an entrepreneur work is 24/7, and so now it's 24/6 but we've really, really been careful with that. And that has been, I think, very freeing, especially for me mentally with my personality type. I can be a workaholic if I don't watch myself. And so actually making it a rule that I cannot get worked on even if I have a spare moment, or I don't feel that tired that day. Like I'm not going to work on Sundays. I'm just gonna focus on our family. That's been a game-changer.
Jeremy (27:23) Game changer, Really.
Chandler (27:38) Yeah.
Jeremy (27:43) And we're pretty good about if we're going through the week. And we are kind of feeling down or bogged down. We'll say, Hey, I think we just kind of need a night to chill and not do any work. And we just try to be in tune with each other on that and have the freedom to say, Hey, is Thursday night let's just like sit down and watch a movie and try to rest up for the remaining part of the week or whatever.
Chandler (28:52) Yeah, I think it's just keeping tabs on each other to say Hey, are you okay? Are you feeling stressed? Do I need to take the baby so you can get work done for an afternoon? I feel like it's constant check-in just to make sure that we're staying healthy and the way that we approach the mixture of life and business but the integration is part of like Jeremy said, part of the point. So
Michele (29:17) I can appreciate that. I mentioned on the call, one of the things that I have tried to do and mine has vacillated over the years like I have the 24/7 and moving into the holidays and you feel like you got to get things done. You're working around the clock. I mean, Joel even alluded to it on the podcast, but I try very hard now to be done with work somewhere between five and six each day. So that when my husband comes home from work or my son stops in to visit, that I can be present with them like there's nothing worse and sometimes it might go to 6:30 but my husband had in the past up until the last probably three months. He didn't get home till 7:00 at night, but he would leave the house by seven in the morning. So I felt free to work from seven to seven. But those 12 hour days were number one, they're long and exhausting for anybody. But I've got multiple autoimmune diseases so they were even more taxing than I think I wanted to believe they were. And so he has shifted his workday. And he leaves even earlier and he's now been getting in between 5:30 and 6. And so I thought if he can shift his workday, I'm going to shift mine too and so I've been starting a little bit later and getting off so that I can be with him. That's been a huge game-changer. And then I do my best if I can, not to work on Saturdays and Sundays I've really tried to block it now. I, of course, was High Point on Sunday and I do a couple of things if I have to travel like that, but by and large throughout the year, and I try to preserve those days and not do it and it gives enough. I had the years where I didn't even have that I worked till midnight every night got up and did it over again and didn't have a break but I have found like you, The more I do that, the more I love my work, more I love my clients, more I love my job the more clearly...
Jeremy (31:13) Yep.
Michele (31:14) By having that time of regeneration and rest not just for my body but for my mind. It's hard for me to turn off my brain.
Chandler (31:23) Absolutely. I feel the same way. Honestly, we do work on Saturdays pretty often just part of it is because we have a toddler because of the season of life that we're in, there are chunks of time during the week that we... I don't work a lot of afternoons. A lot of times we kind of work up until we get our baby from childcare and then we take a few hours off before he goes to bed and then we work again after he's in bed and I'm sure you remember that from baby years. So a little more chopped up schedule, yeah. And Saturday's a lot of times we're kind of making up the difference and whenever we miss three The week but then just knowing Sunday's coming gives me the motivation to work double-time sometimes when I need to, throughout the week knowing right and I have a mental break coming.
Michele (32:11) I do the same thing. And sometimes I'll wake up honestly on a Saturday morning, and I won't have any work to do for my clients. But because I've been rested, I want to do something for myself and my own business. And then I don't stop myself doing that if I want to do something good for my business on a Saturday if I want to do it and it's not, interfering with the family thing. I do it, but I'm just having some of those boundaries in place. Yeah.
Michele (32:40) Okay, next question I want to ask you is telling me about how we alluded to it at the beginning when you mentioned it, but tell me how you came up with the name of your company.
Jeremy (32:49) Well, we went through a lot of really bad options, to begin with. And then, honestly, it just kind of came to Chandler one day when we were talking about it speech and pine home peach as a nod to my Georgia roots and pine for Chandlers Texas roots and as everybody knows names with two nouns are popular so yeah where Peach and Pine homes.
Chandler (33:20) Yeah it was just kind of a fun alliterative name that mixed both of our roots in our hometowns in together, so
Michele (33:29) I'm so glad that I asked you because I would have had Chandler as the peach and Jeremy as the pine.
Chandler (33:34) The running joke is that he's the peach of the relationship is based on the name.
Jeremy (33:38) It's on my Instagram, the peach of Peach and Pine Homes.
Michele (33:40) Right, because you think of peach as a bit more feminine and you think of pine as manly. So I just immediately went to the masculine and feminine. But I live in Georgia. I understand being a Georgia peach but I just thought it was funny.
Chandler (33:56) Yeah. It's one of the reasons I like it though because it is kind of masculine and feminine. Of course, it's a little bit reversed in who whose home It refers to. But it, it does feel like a good combination for a husband, wife team, so
Jeremy (34:12) We've never thought twice about it once we came up with it. We've always just loved it.
Chandler (34:16) Yeah. So it just kind of stuck once we came up with it.
Michele (34:17) Yeah. So, no, it's really good. And it's funny the more you think about the name, the more you can see how it can play out in your business, you know?
Chandler (34:26) Yeah, it's been a good fit for us.
Michele (34:30) And then you have a tagline about loving where you live. How did that come about? Because that is a message that I see interwoven. And, I mean, we're going to talk about your podcast, but I see that interwoven and a lot of the copy of most things that you put in that.
Chandler (34:45) I think it kind of stems from everything we've been talking about up to this point, which is for us, family, and work and home are also integrated and one of the reasons that we're so passionate about client homes and the idea of interior design is that we think that a home that you love to live in it permeates more than just, oh, this is a beautiful space I like to be in it affects people's lives. And I think we feel privileged to go into client's homes and be part of their most influential and kind of vulnerable spaces, which are there, the places where their family lives. And so the podcast is actually what started the love where you live concept. We were talking about creating a podcast that was part of Jeremy's stepping into, like he said, creating content for our business was part of his role when we brought him on to the business full time and because of his background in audio, and both of us just love podcasts. We said this would be a great marketing tool. This would be a great kind of addition to our business. It feels natural for us. And so what should we call it and we started talking about why do we do what we do? Why do we care about homes? Why we care about them because we want people to love where they live. And we think that that matters. We think it matters beyond just the beautiful aesthetics, which we love beautiful aesthetics, but we just think it means something it matters. And so once love where you live kind of like when Peach and Pine, Love Where You Lives came out of one of our mouths we were like that's it. That's the name of the podcast. And as we started thinking through all of our marketing efforts, and all of our copy, as you said, I'm glad to know that it comes across as a part of all of our story, because that has been intentional on our part to say this, this is a big part of our mission and vision for the business.
Michele (36:36) And I like the idea of “Love Where You Live” because it doesn't mean it's got to be that over the top right. You go back to the first home that you did, and what you did is you made that house a home so that you two could love where you're together.
Chandler (36:50) Yep, exactly. And I think that's part of our, our podcast mission to is that not everybody that listens to the podcast is going to be a client, although we hope it will bring clients to us. But our hope and vision and mission is that everyone will find something to do in their home, which makes it a space that they love to live in a little bit more. And that not everybody has the budget to come in and do a whole remodel and change everything about their space. But that doesn't mean that they can't still love where they are.
Michele (37:23) And so how do you use that in your conversation with the homeowner when you first come in? Do you do kind of simply what you just stated there? Do you ask them questions like how do you feel about your home today? Do you love it? Or what would that look like if you were to define this home as a place?
Chandler (37:44) I think it's a big part of the conversations I have with people even on the phone like on a pre-consultation phone call. I think well, first of all, I think people who find us have probably seen that messaging, either on Instagram or our website and when I have a conversation with the homeowner, I always say, we really care, we really want to help you make a beautiful space. But we also really want your family to live in. We want it to function well for your family. We always talk about form, function and feel like we want it to function well. We want your family to be able to thrive here, we want you to be able to live more fully and richly and deeply and in this kitchen or this living room or whatever space we're tackling. And so I do ask questions on a consultation like Okay, tell me your pain points with the function. What about storage? How do your kids live? What let's talk about the fabrics we're going to use based on your particular lifestyle. Do you have pets? And I think all designers do that but it is part of kind of the whole picture as we say like we want to create a beautiful space. We want to create a space where you just love to live there. So it is part of I think it opens the door for those conversations and clients will call us and say I saw on your website, you know what you do, and it just looks functional and comfortable. And they'll kind of allude to that, I think as well. We hope that that message is coming across.
Michele (39:12) That's great. I think it is. It came across to me.
Jeremy (39:14) Thank you.
Michele (39:15) So, yeah, right. It's always good to know what you're doing is working. So as you were saying that you have been taking on slightly different projects, you've had a bit more courage and confidence to go after bigger projects because you're no longer having to do this by yourself and alone. And so it is nice to have someone to share that with. What are some of the ideal projects you're hoping to work on? Are there other types of projects that you've maybe not yet taken on that you are looking forward to doing?
Chandler (39:46) I feel like I'm dominating conversation here, but we...
Jeremy (39:49) We live by the 8020 rule if you're familiar with that, or Chandler talks 80% and I talk 20%.
Chandler (39:53) Awww this is true.
Michele (39:56) As my husband will tell you that will keep you happily married.
Chandler (40:01) I mean, my favorite thing is whole home remodeling. And so we've done a few of those. And I hope to have more of those clients come along in the next year or so. Or in the future.
Jeremy (40:13) We just had a reveal today.
Chandler (40:16) Yeah, we just revealed a whole home remodel. I just love being able to be a part of the process from the time that general contractor comes on board, like from the very beginning to just to be part of all of the details. I think that's when we can transform and I love the before and after seeing people's homes change. So I hope to continue to do more kinds of remodeling projects. I have some personal goals, I'd love to do somebody mountain house someday I've just loved... We don't live by the mountain, so we have to drive a few hours. I don't know how that's gonna happen. But that's like on my list. I'd love to go to a coffee shop someday that's on my list. But for now, we're kind of focusing on larger scale remodels and possibly some custom homes as well.
Michele (41:03) What about you, Jeremy, what would you like to do? Do you have a list like that?
Jeremy (41:06) I'm all in on the mountain house for sure. So we will figure that out at some point. This is just off the rails. But I've always said I would love to do a golf clubhouse because I'm an avid golfer.
Chandler (41:20) This is news to me.
Jeremy (41:22) And so... I think it would just be awesome to like kind of remodel and redesign a golf clubhouse at the very least. I wouldn't mind being a little more involved in the design side of a man cave or two.
Chandler (41:37) He wants a client to want a man cave so he can take the lead.
Jeremy (41:40) That's a pretty big bucket list. So yeah, mountain house and a man cave. I guess.
Michele (41:45) I love it and a golf clubhouse. I think sometimes it's about saying what is it that you want and really thinking about it and putting it out there because you just never know somebody could listen on a podcast and think I can't make it to the mountains but maybe Jeremy and Chandler can.
Jeremy (42:02) That's true. We'll travel.
Michele (42:06) Will travel. That's right. So I know both of you have a very strong faith and Chandler some of the music that you produced and saying was Christian oriented? How do you find your faith plays out in your business? Or does it?
Jeremy (42:22) Oh definitely does. I think just even recently, we've just been taking a look at our mission and vision and really kind of scoping in on what those things are.
Chandler (42:34) Thanks to you.
Jeremy (42:34) Thanks to you. Of course, and we try to exhibit certain characteristics of God and how we deal with clients and with each other, those characteristics being creativity, diligence, excellence, and generosity. And because we know that those are characteristics of God, we also want those characteristics to be emblematic of us and how we deal with clients and how we deal with each other and how we deal with people were purchasing from or anyone that we're interacting with. That's kind of our baseline. And that really comes from our faith. I don't know if you have anything.
Chandler (43:18) Yeah, I mean, I think I said it before, but it all feels really integrated for us, our family and our business and our faith just cannot be separated. I don't think we would have the courage or the motivation to be on this entrepreneurial journey. Personally, if we didn't have faith that it was what God was calling our family to it.
Jeremy (43:41) To be honest, I think we would have stopped by now if we weren't really, really sure this is what God wants us to be doing.
Chandler (43:47) Yeah, I think so too.
Michele (43:49) I can appreciate that. Um, I think I would have done a long time ago as well. I have always thought about the fact that of course, I work in the money and in finance And as you both know, I coach on so much more than the finances, I coach him a full business, right?
Jeremy (44:05) Yeap.
Michele (44:06) And the finances, It's just a document that shows all the decisions you're making in the business. That's all that it is. But I've also if we think about the money aspect as if you were to say, our parents left us this inheritance, right? We when we hear that, quite often we think about the money, how much money did you get. But the truth of the matter is, we can't leave any inheritance for anything that we don't own. And that is characteristics as well as money. And so when you think about the inheritance that you want to leave for your children and your family, I can't leave them an inheritance of integrity if I had none. I can't leave them an inheritance of kindness if I was rude. The same way that I can't leave them money If I didn't have any money. It doesn't work that way. And so the way I think about my faith playing out is if the inheritance I would like to leave for the people whose lives I touched, I have to have it to be able to give it. I cannot give a gift I don't have. And kindness, generosity, integrity. I think those things are what we can sure use a lot of in the world these days. And so I think it's great that you're able to incorporate that. And to think about it and to be again, intentional and being kind and being creative, and being diligent to get the work done and to do it to the best of your ability. I think those are characteristics that anybody would applaud.
Chandler (45:42) Thanks. Yeah, I agree that we do great at that. No, I agree that it is part of a legacy. And I love that perspective on it. It's motivating.
Michele (45:59) Yes. Many times we get very... we almost have blinders on, like with profit, that it must only be about money. And it's about so much more and about inheritance, well, it must just be about money, but it's about so much more. And when we can broaden the scope of how we see what we do and what we leave behind, for those whose lives we've touched in some way, either briefly or deeply, it makes us think more about how we interact. How do I work with my clients? How do I work with my vendors? What would my co-laborers say about me? What would these other people say? What would they think? And did they feel better because I was in space with them, or did they feel worse because I was in this space with them? Yeah. And just being intentional to try to make it better?
Chandler (46:44) Yeah, I think, especially since Jeremy has come on to our business full time a big focus has been a part of the reason that we've joined the designers in our circle, a big focus is to be able to grow our business to be more profitable and sometimes it can feel more profitable financially, and sometimes it can feel discouraging when that's not happening at the speed that we wish that it would. And we have to look at each other. You know what, it's not just like the money and doing well and stewarding the money well is really important. But if we lose sight of our family and of loving each other well in the process, then what's the point of the money anyway? Do you know?
Michele (47:22) Exactly, exactly. And I think that raises a great point. And that is sometimes we think things are going to happen one way and they happen differently. Or we think the path to success is throwing the one webinar out there or do the one project and you're found and all of a sudden, you're a multimillionaire, and I'm not saying those don't happen on occasion. But I will say, by and large, it's blood, sweat, and tears. I mean, you guys are in the national, right. I mean, how many people are in air quotes? Were just found?
Michele (47:54) Yet they've been in a smoky bar for 18 years playing that same song. I think back to Chris Stapleton when he kind of blew onto the scene. Everybody was like, Oh my gosh, like he was just found. And they were like, you have no idea the 15 to 20 years he's been putting into just be found.
Chandler (47:54) Yeah.
Jeremy (48:12) Yeap.
Michele (48:12) And I think we sometimes think it's just that I was walking down the street one day and somebody said, oh, wow, I think you're like the best coach ever. No, that's not how that happens. We're not just like found to be a model and found to be a coach or a designer or a musician. It's just rare that that happens. And so we focus and build our plans on the rarity instead of on the hard work and all the things that are supporting us in the background. And to your point earlier, I think anybody who goes on this entrepreneurial journey has to be in it for a long haul. If we come in, there was a phrase that I heard and I've used on a couple of podcasts, it says, to get to the top you gotta take the stairs, there's no and so it's Sometimes you go up a couple of flights and you go back a couple of flights and sometimes the doors locked and you gotta wait on somebody to bring you the key and it's a lot of work and your legs get tired, you have to sit and take a break a little bit and you don't just get in the elevator and hit penthouse suite and go up. That's not the way this works. And so I love how you two are supporting each other and checking in with each other and you have a foundation that's about more than just let's be the one-hit wonder and make our millions and go off to Tahiti. Do you know what I mean?
Chandler (49:31) Wouldn't that be nice?
Michele (49:31) You got bigger goals? Yeah, it'd be nice to get a bigger goal than that you'll be bored with Tahiti.
Chandler (49:37) I think you said on a coaching call recently that it's your why and your mission and vision that will keep you going. And it's true. Like we've had to take a step back and say, why are we doing this? And what do we want for our family and for our marriage and all of that out of this because otherwise, all the bumps in the road would derail us, you know?
Michele 50:04 Right. It's true when you find out your personal why, and then you take that and put it in. Even more beautiful when we're creating the company, right now becomes an extenuation of our personal line.
Chandler (50:15) Yeah.
Michele (50:15) And then you take that and put that into the mission and vision, print it and look at it and read it. And so the days that you feel derailed, the days you feel knocked down, the days you are on the staircase to success and the doors locked and you have to go down two flights to go to the bathroom. Stop and read it, because that's what's going to keep you getting back in the stairwell and climbing back up again, as opposed to going I'm done. I'm just going down. It's easier to just stay down. It takes tenacity. It's just not an easy road. It's a worthwhile road, if you're called to go down it and if you are equipped properly, but it's certainly not full of ease.
Chandler (50:54) Yeah.
Michele (50:54) I'll say that. So how are you planning for profitability now?
Jeremy (50:58) Well working with you.
Chandler (51:00) Yeah, it's been important. I mean, I think as I said earlier, when I first started teaching, it was me by myself. I mean, I was profitable from the beginning and that my overhead was super low, I was making an income, but I did not have the long term, the long game really in mind as I was going. And we've always been very budget-conscious on our finances. And so we didn't make big missteps. But we also did not know what we were doing as far as the long term. And so I think now we're just putting a lot of the building blocks in place to be able to pay ourselves and more consistent salary, to build up the business savings so that we can invest more and do bigger things in the future.
Jeremy (51:50) We've always been pretty wise with our finances, but for some reason, it just never dawned on us to do the same thing with our business finances. As far as savings and that sort of thing, and so...
Michele (52:03) Right.
Jeremy (52:04) ...we're taking a trip down the stairs, to hit the restroom real quick before we head back up.
Michele (52:11) Yeap.
Jeremy (52:11) And just making a more comprehensive plan of how the business can be sustainable moving forward.
Michele (52:19) You know, Jeremy, that's a good point. And I know we can giggle about it. And we do. It amazes me that that is... I mean, it happens to many of us, I even talked about it, I even did it in big business knew how to manage it, and then it just escaped me when I got down to my smaller business, or we put profit first in place in our business, and we don't realize that that's similar to the Dave Ramsey format for our home.
Jeremy (52:46) Right.
Michele (52:46) We put the Dave Ramsey type things in place in our home and don't realize, well, my goodness, I should probably look at my business the same way. So it's this disconnect that we sometimes have but once we are connected to the fact that we are stewards of everything. I'll even give you this example. I told somebody yesterday, I said, we're getting ready to profit first your time. And she's like, I don't understand what you mean. And I said, Well when we profit first your money, we pull up all of your bank accounts. And we say, what is most important in this company? And what gets done first? And how are we going to do it? Right, right. And we create these buckets if you will, or these bank accounts or envelopes or whatever system you're using. And we say big rocks, we're going to put the big rocks over here, and then we're going to the medium rocks, and then we're going to the small rocks that we have room for everything. Yeah. Let's do that with your time. Why would we not profit first your time, what is your time is most profitable that you do, and we can look at it as your home life, your business life or them together, and then we're going to spend that on your calendar? So let's profit first your time. So when you all talk about integrating your time and having this fluidity if you will, between home and life and business, it's really about also profit first in your time.
Chandler (54:00) That's great. Yeah, I agree with all the above. And I agree with I mean, we are Dave Ramsey people as far as home stuff. And it took The Designers Inner Circle for us to go What? Well, how are we doing that?
Jeremy (54:15) How did that not even dawn on us?
Chandler (54:17) Our business? Yeah. And you don't know what you don't know. And we can't look back and be mad at ourselves. But we are now able to put that into place on a broader scale.
Michele (54:28) Right? Well, heck, you've caught it within three years. I would say you're doing good.
Chandler, Jeremy (54:32) I hope so.
Michele (54:33) Yeah, you are and now you can go back and air quotes profit first time by going what is it that me spending time on makes it more profitable? Either for our family or the business, one of the podcasts that I just did with Amber Delagarza. She is a productivity specialist and she talks about one of the things we need to do, is we need to if you will almost profit first our time with marketing. Marketing is the thing that we have to constantly keep doing to bring in more and more work. Yet that's the thing that when we get busy, we put over to the side. And then we go through these lows of not having work. And so if we really start thinking about what is it that's driving profit and the company, what are the activities as the owner of the company that we're the only ones that can do or that we most need to do each week? Then it actually starts helping us do the profitable things first and the least profitable thing later.
Chandler (55:28) Yeah, it's good.
Michele (55:29) So there you go. There's another nugget now you get to go have another conversation on the Monday morning business call that you do,
Jeremy (55:37) Yeap. We'll do it.
Chandler (55:40) So let me ask you this. Having been in business for a few short years, bringing in and for the most part, both salaries are now dependent on the success of this company. What advice would you share with the listeners based on what you've learned so far? What would you say?
Chandler (55:58) Whoa, I don't feel qualified?
Michele (56:01) Well, so even this, what do you wish you had done sooner or known sooner? Like the whole, we can have control of our finances? I mean, that's a big one.
Jeremy (56:11) Yeah, I think for me just having better control the finances like, again, we didn't. We weren't reckless, we've always been profitable, but we were not sustainably profitable. And I think I wish that we would have just started by taking a small salary and putting more into savings, which is what we're starting to do now. But I think we would be a little bit more flexible with some of the things that we want to do now that cost money and feel like it's a little bit tighter because our savings aren't exactly where we would want it to be. And so I think that's the big thing that I would change. Looking back and again, you know we've caught it fairly early.
Chandler (56:58) Yeah.
Jeremy (56:58) That's what I would say.
Chandler (56:59) I think I wish we had implemented a consistent like he said salary for me sooner and that now would translate into both of us but because I was kind of you know every month looking at my p&l and pulling an owner pay but not keeping it consistent the same month to month and so I think that would have been a wise choice I wish we had made sooner just to be able to grow, grow our savings and be a little bit more strategic with our income.
Michele (57:27) That's awesome. Sometimes it's those things that you know, we may not see it as advice but it's also one of those that that like we say hey here's the pothole I hit don't hit that.
Chandler, Jeremy (57:37) Yeah.
Michele (57:38) Hit your own, but if I can warn you about this one. This would be what I would say, right? If I had it to do over, this is what I would do.
Chandler (57:45) This is not meant to be like, just to toot your own horn Michelle, although I wish we had worked with you sooner I wish that we had started. Again, you don't know what you don't know. And we've we really have as intentional as we knew how to be from the beginning as far as trying to be wise about running a business, but I'm now realizing, I wish I had had a business coach, like you sooner who could have spoken some of this into me at the very start, you know, when I was year one in business, and I think...
Jeremy (57:58) We are rebuilding a little bit at the foundation. I think we have a solid foundation. But I think there are definitely pieces that we were missing that we don't know till we don't know.
Chandler (58:26) And it's hard to know who to ask the questions to as a starting designer to go. Who do I have all these questions I don't need I have any idea who to ask.
Chandler (58:34) Right or where it starts, heck, I wish I had that when I started. Because I struggled for the first two to three years, in my first business, not having the same. They were not even coaches back then I knew about outside of sports. And so, you know, I was getting my information from a group thing. Yeah. This means that I went out to a group and I took 14 different opinions and I chew them up and try to figure out which one's right and sometimes It worked, and sometimes it didn't. So I appreciate you saying that. And that's the same reason that I have my business coach is that why do I need to struggle for the next three to five years getting where I want to go? If somebody's already there helped me get there faster, right. Help me answer those questions. And I think it is always prudent to have someone who is ahead of us on the journey, that we're wanting to go on who can answer those questions and guide us and they don't have to know everything, but they at least need to know how to help guide us and move us forward. So thank you for saying that. That certainly wasn't planned.
Jeremy (59:36) There's no reason to do it alone. That's for sure.
Michele (59:39) Yeah, I don't think we certainly weren't made to be Island. So business is included in that. So I love all these things because it's the way that you're putting yourself in a position to be successful. You're looking at the things. Jeremy, you mentioned, Solid Foundation Builder, and that's one of the first modules in My Inner Circle and I actually go back through that on my own for my own business every year to make sure that no crack developed in my foundation because sometimes when we build on top of something, think about it just with construction, if it's shaky, or if it's on sand, right? Shifting sand, it's not going to be strong and it's not going to last. And so it is so important that we stop and fill in the blanks for all those little pieces and parts that we may have missed so that we can keep building up and out the way that we need to.
Chandler (1:00:28) Yeap.
Michele (1:00:29) So let me ask this last one. Where can people find you? Where are you guys hanging out?
Jeremy (1:00:34) We're all over the internet. Just kidding. We have a website, Peachandpinehome.com. We're on Instagram at Peach and Pine Home and our podcasts are Love Where You Live podcasts on Instagram. Same on Facebook for both. We have Twitter but don't use it but you're welcome to say hello and I'll check it once a week or so and hit you back.
Michele (1:00:57) That's about the way it is here.
Jeremy (1:00:58) And so yeah all over social media and we put out weekly blog posts.
Chandler (1:01:03) And our weekly podcast as well.
Jeremy (1:01:05) And our weekly podcast. Yeah.
Chandler (1:01:07) Which is primarily geared toward homeowners. But we just talked about a lot of home-related topics, so
Jeremy (1:01:14) And do fun interviews.
Michele (1:01:16) Excellent. Well, I will have all of this in the show notes. And so I want to encourage everybody to go check out your website and your podcast and to friend you over on all the social media sites except for Twitter.
Chandler (1:01:29) No need.
Jeremy (1:01:31) That's fine.
Michele (1:01:31) And I love it. Jeremy, Chandler, thank you so much for your time for sharing your journey and your lessons learned and how you've integrated your home and your life and your family and your business and all these things that are super important to you.
Chandler (1:01:45) Thank you.
Michele (1:01:46) To create this life that you both love. And I'm just so thankful that you shared that journey with us today.
Chandler (1:01:52) We are so honored that you asked us to be on the podcast.
Jeremy (1:01:55) Thank you so much.
Jeremy (1:01:56) So very, very encouraged.
Chandler (1:01:56) Such a joy and I feel like I'm coming away so inspired. I've gotten a lot out of this.
Michele (1:02:03) Awesome. Well, I look forward to talking to you all soon. Take care.
Jeremy (1:02:06) Sounds good.
Michele (1:02:08) Thanks to Jeremy and Chandler for joining us today. Don't you just love how they're striving to be intentional with their work and with their life? That's advice we can all use. We mentioned a few times in this podcast episode, The Designers Inner Circle. And Jeremy and Chandler are both members and they've shared that they wish they had started with this three years ago. And I'd love to say this, you know, it's never too early and it's never too late to do business better. And that's exactly what The Designers Inner Circle was created to do. To help you do business better. To get more information go to ScarletThreadConsulting.com. I would love to help you be intentional about your profitability and all areas of your life. Because profit doesn't happen by accident.