Small Business Bestie
Entrepreneurship is hard, and sometimes we could use a friend to walk a mile in our shoes. Small Business Bestie is here to provide that friendship, support, and inspiration that small business owners need from time to time.
Small Business Bestie
17: Resilient Design- Gayle Cornett's Creative Comeback and Navigating Digital Hurdles
Ever wondered how a seasoned interior designer reignites a three-decade-long career? This week, we have the pleasure of chatting with Gayle Cornett of Gayle Cornett Interiors, who takes us on her incredible journey from Colorado back to Lexington in 2009. Gayle opens up about her return to the design world after taking time off to care for her mother. She shares her love for diverse design styles, influenced by both her clients' varied backgrounds and the evolving tastes in Lexington. You'll hear about her passion for new constructions and historical remodels, along with the creative ways she adapted to the pandemic's impact on home design trends.
In another fascinating segment, we explore the resilient journey of a fashion designer who turned early discouragement into a thriving career in design and slipcover making, all while raising her son. When her website was hijacked, she faced significant challenges, including rebranding and bolstering security measures. She reveals the emotional toll it took and the practical steps she implemented to safeguard her business. We also delve into her new venture with the Bluegrass Design Collective, highlighting the benefits of shared office space and collaboration within the home services industry. Cozy up with your favorite drink and join us for these inspiring stories of resilience and creativity.
Connect with Gayle:
Gayle Cornett Designs Website
Gayle Cornett Design Facebook
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Connect with Michelle on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/bestiemichellesmock
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Welcome to the Small Business Bestie podcast, where we celebrate the journey of women entrepreneurs in the heart of Central Kentucky and beyond. I'm your host, Michelle, and my mission is to create a podcast and community for us. Each week, join us as we sit down with a different small business bestie to dive deep into their stories, sharing the highs, the lows and everything in between. We will meet friends who are brand new in business, veterans in business and maybe even the occasional dreamer. So grab your favorite coffee or cocktail, get cozy and let's meet this week's small business bestie, Gail Cornett, with Gail Cornett Interiors is hanging out with me today. We have been wanting to do this for quite some time and things finally worked out. I'm so excited to get to talk with you today. So, before we get too far into the conversation, tell us a little about yourself, who you are and what you do.
Speaker 2:I'm an interior designer by degree and I've been doing this for almost 30 years now maybe a little right at 30 years. So I've had a lot of background, a lot of experience in different areas, fields of the trade. I lived in Colorado for about 16 years, moved back here to help take care of my mom along with my sister, and I've been here since 2009, I think something like that. So finally, back on my own again and doing my own business, which is my passion. It's what I love. So that's a little bit about me to start with.
Speaker 1:So you've been back in Lexington since 2009. And you said you're finally back out doing your own business. When did you kind of go back out on your own?
Speaker 2:Actually just starting this first of this year. I wanted to get back out and start last year middle of the year, so we went through just a lot of changes. I was doing kitchen and bath design, which I love. I love doing that as well. I mean all aspects of it. But it was just time up doing that as well. I mean all aspects of it, but it was just time. It was time for me to be out and just, I don't know, get passionate again about you know what I'm doing and the people I'm around.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I know you and I are in Ladies Late Flex together, and so I've had the pleasure of getting to see some of your work or at least the photos of some of your work during some of your presentations, and your work is incredible. I did of some of your work during some of your presentations, and your work is incredible. I did want to ask you a couple of questions specifically about design, because I think, as a lot of people probably like, dream of doing that when you're younger, you know, and then life goes different directions. So I have a little spark at that, like oh my gosh, it's so cool, that's great. So I have a couple of questions that like, oh my gosh, it's so cool, yeah, it's great. They're really focused on making it that log cabin feel and things like that to kind of fit the region. And then Lexington, obviously, and Kentucky. We have the interesting design aspects that we like to play with here. So are there specific regions or design aspects that you really like working with?
Speaker 2:Well, I love Colorado because there were so many people in transition. There were people from California, there were people from Texas, idaho, all the way from New York. I mean, there were people from everywhere. So the aesthetics that I saw in getting to know their lifestyle just let my imagination just go crazy. I loved working with that because it opened me up to some things that I never had when I lived here before I moved to Colorado, because Lexington's very traditional, very horse country, that kind of thing, and I love that too. But I love the fact that I'm seeing it change a little bit. Now the younger generations are opened up to more of a modern, a little bit more eclectic look, so still incorporating some of those, you know, traditional things in there if they want that, but I've loved seeing the change in that. But living out there really opened up my design style and let me create and get out and go to the museums, go to the mountains, go.
Speaker 1:You know, just seeing so many different elements to inspire you was great it's almost like you got a glimpse of the different types of designs just by the transient nature of where you lived, as kind of a precursor to like. And then the internet, yes, and then everyone saw all the designs and things kind of really blossomed I think Right, that's great, okay. The next question I have, specific to design, is as a designer personally, do you prefer to work with like new construction, like where everything is in a perfect square, the walls are where they're supposed to be and the floors are what they're supposed to be and there's not really a lot of wear and tear or character in the you know home by accident? Or do you prefer older buildings that have a little more of that like character that you have to be creative to kind of fix?
Speaker 2:Well, I really like both. I mean, I love the challenge of I specialized in historical design with the state of Kentucky for a year, about a year and a half before I moved to Colorado, and that was really interesting. So I got to research the wall coverings, the floorings, the fabrics and things like that, learned how to have those reprinted and made you know, so that still looked authentic to the time. So I love working with historical homes, but I also love remodels and taking walls out and just being able to just open the space up and just see people get excited about you know what they can do with what they have. And during the pandemic I think I found there was so much more of that because people were staying in their homes and they were home all that time and I was doing Zoom calls and just going through people's homes, talking to them and giving them advice and that kind of thing. And I think that opened up a different aspect for me as well, that I could actually do that. And then people were saying, oh, I could do this to my home, I could do this and that, because they were looking at it every day and they were hating so many things. It's just like but you could do this. So it was great to get people excited in that type of nature.
Speaker 2:I just love all aspects of it. I just I never my mind doesn't shut down, I'm always creating. I'm writing a story in my mind constantly, which I love writing anyway. So, and to me that's just design is like a story of the people that live there or the people that are going to live there. That younger generation has got older parents that may be coming to live with them within five to ten years, or they've got younger kids, they're having kids. It's just so. Their whole lifestyle is changing and I just love working with that and just listening to their thoughts and ideas and just putting it together and see how happy they are.
Speaker 1:Okay, I think that's all of my design specific questions, Unless there's anything else you want to tell us about. You know what specifically you love to do, like who's your ideal client to work with, but which is nice to bring them together and to see that they really love the end product.
Speaker 2:I think I really like doing classic designs that are going to be still in 10 years. They're still going to look fresh. They can switch out pillows, they can throw in a piece of artwork or just to switch little things out, not the main bones of the whole project. So I love that and I love just creating a quiet luxury. It doesn't have to be over the top, it has to be livable and that just means, you know, I like little pockets of color and pockets of bold and moody colors, but I mostly like for it to flow. You can have different objects. All surfaces don't have to be the same. It's kind of a 3D effect. They play off of each other. So, like every sofa doesn't have to match, that's one thing I really am strong about is diversity. The chairs don't have to match the sofa. Everything doesn't have to be a set.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:You know that you just go to a furniture store and say it's sitting there, the chairs that go with it are there. I just want that whole thing. I like to have it interesting. So when you walk in, it's like wow, I would never thought of that.
Speaker 1:Well, I nominate myself as tribute because we definitely need some help in our house. When we moved to Lexington, I think, we moved into our house here and we had a tiny sofa that came out of our RV and the kids each had half of the bunk bed that we took apart and that was our entire home. So over the couple you know, three years that we've been here, it's just been like a few random pieces here and there as we really need something. We've gotten something and I look around now and I'm like what happened?
Speaker 2:in here.
Speaker 1:It's like a thrift store exploded, but that's okay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is okay. I mean, sometimes you just buy. I mean I always say buy one piece that you really love and build on that. You don't have to buy everything at once. There's not a time crunch on it. You know, you can live with the things you have until you can build on pieces that you just like. Collecting art Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Well, that's great advice. I'm going to start taking it, I promise Okay.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:Okay, let's switch gears just a little bit and I want to talk about, kind of like, how your experience with entrepreneurship has unfolded over the years. So when did you become an entrepreneur? When did you actually take the leap the first time?
Speaker 2:The first time, I guess. When I first got out of design school I worked for several companies and I had a young son started. You know, I had him young, so I was trying to take care of him. And working on straight commission was just. It was terrible and I was always gone and I paying for childcare, everything. So I've always been a seamstress, I've always been able to sew. I really wanted to be a fashion designer. That was my whole goal to go.
Speaker 2:When I went to design school and I had a counselor tell me that, oh, you'll never be a fashion designer in eastern Kentucky, that there's nothing there for you. And my comment now I probably would say well, how do you know? I'm going to live in eastern Kentucky, I may go to Europe, I may go to Paris, I may go, you know, to New York City. There's a lot, but I didn't have all those options open to me at that time. So anyway, as always it seems, just made my clothes all through college and all my friends' clothes and things like that.
Speaker 2:So I learned to make slipcovers and started doing that and all of a sudden I mean I was covered up with work and I was making more money than my friends that were designers just doing that at home and my son was doing his homework under my work table. I was still doing some design work, but for the most part that's how I worked with him and raised him, and so he knows hands-on carrying my fabric, books and all this stuff. He brings that up from time to time. He said, mom, I hope I never have to do that again, but he really respected the fact that I was doing that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so recently you started a new venture as a sole proprietor and you said you started that at the beginning of the year and you've had some difficulties. We've talked before we started recording and I only bring it up because I think that these types of situations are occurring more and more frequently, whether it is with websites or social media accounts or whatever of, I guess, like our digital intellectual property kind of being hijacked, and so you shared with me that that had kind of happened to you. Would you mind retelling the story?
Speaker 2:Yeah, Well, it's not my expertise by far, I've just I've gotten a lot of advice on it. But I had started out and I had my website was my company name and which I had had for quite a while anyway, and somehow another company had linked my website to their website and I had it set up so that people could refer and ask me questions on there. Well, all of those things were going to this other company. I don't know exactly how all of it happened, but the only recourse I had was to have a new name and rename my company, rename my website, everything, and to keep that from happening anymore. Even though I don't know, I just can't explain how it happened. I just know it was very frustrating and very hard.
Speaker 2:So this is six months in and I'm just now. I didn't learn about it until three months later that it was happening. So, whether I lost referrals or not, I mean, god's going to bring me more, so I'm fine. But I don't know exactly how it happened. But it was just. It was frustrating, very frustrating, to think that someone could just get into my business, and so it scared me to what else could happen. I changed my bank account. I had to change everything.
Speaker 1:You're the third person on the podcast who's had this happen, something like this, you know, in the recent months. So, yeah, I think, made everyone hypervigilant. I'm hoping you know that, like, we need those two factor authentications and I don't know all of the rest of the technical terms but terms but we do need to take every precaution that we possibly can with our websites and social media and things like that. But, to your point, oftentimes you think like, oh, they hacked my Facebook. What's the worst that could happen? Well, that's all linked to other personal information and so if somebody gets a hold of that, then before you know it, they've got your bank accounts, they've got your credit cards, you know all of those things and it really the time and emotional toll that it takes on you when something like that happens is just so much larger than I would expect.
Speaker 2:Okay. So you found out that it was happening. You found out that there was really no recourse except to change everything and start fresh. Was there someone a decided to do it? And so it was scary because I thought I've shut it down. I've worked so hard on this website, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but Well, I saw your new website this morning and it is beautiful. It's very convincing that you would be a great designer to work with. So, on your own, you went into an office space. Is it like a cooperative? Yeah?
Speaker 2:it is. There was three of us. Now it's only going to be two of us, so we're looking at maybe sharing the space with maybe another someone else that's in the home services. I'm not sure yet, but yeah, it's called Bluegrass Design Collective. It's me and Lisa Ferguson. She's with Blinds by Design, and she just does awesome job, awesome work. So we're really excited about the rest of the year. We're hating to lose our other lady that's been with us and been friends for a long time. We just are going to miss her, but hopefully she's going to come back and work with us off and on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you're currently looking for someone to fill that vacant seat in the office.
Speaker 2:It's a great office space. I mean we've got I think you've been in there before, so it's a great office space. We have a conference room with a kitchen and bathrooms showroom, so there's a lot of opportunity there.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Did you find that that was a good solution for the three of you to have like working as a collective, to be able to cross, refer and things like that? It was.
Speaker 2:I mean it still is. It still is. I think it's just the fact of not having to get a space on our own. We could not have had as nice of a space to show what we do, and so it really was a great option for us. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when we started hearing a little chatter about it, I was like genius. I think that there's a lot of hesitation to do things cooperatively like that, because you know we're all human and we have emotions and you know situations that like change, and so you always think, well, like I'm doubling my risk, you know if we're being honest. But I think that it's so beautiful to see the like, bravery and like stepping into that of like trusting each other, trusting God, trusting your clients. You know to know that. You know if we're working together and putting our energies out there, like three is better than one, right, you know? So that's really awesome. I'm proud of you guys. Yeah, so that's really awesome. I'm proud of you guys. Well, is there anything else that you feel like we could chat about that would bring value to our listeners? Anything that you have particular expertise in, or words of wisdom, anything like that?
Speaker 2:Well, I'm going to go back to diversity. I know I talk about that a lot, but I think just, if you're going to try to do things and you're trying to do your design on your own, just really think about something that inspires you and build on that. Don't just you know, you don't have to just look at someone like me to do it. I mean, I love doing it and some people have a hard time visualizing. So that's where I come in actually do a vision board and I can actually do digital design for you to show you and walk you through the space and actually give you, you know, options of taking something out and putting something else back in, so that you can actually visualize it.
Speaker 1:Do you do that digitally?
Speaker 2:I do. I just have a computer program where I can actually do the layout and the plan and then I can actually I can take the wall out, put the wall back in so I can show you how you know how it could look. I like doing that, but I love the old way that I learned in college was vision boards. So we do a vision board and that's got all your the elements of the whole design and that gives you you know from your flooring to your furniture, to your artwork, to all the soft surfaces, the paint colors, that type of thing. So and it just shows you a cohesive design as to what it can look like and along with the floor plan on there so you can actually see what parts go to which piece.
Speaker 1:As you were saying that, I remembered when I was a kid, my very favorite movie in the whole wide world was Mrs Doubtfire, and the mom, miranda, was an interior designer and there's a scene where she's like making this huge presentation to a very important client and she has the vision board, she's talking through all of the elements and I think that that's probably what inspired me to want to be a designer. Never happened.
Speaker 2:That's funny, I know. When I was in college I mean we were doing the vision boards they insisted that we do our own vision boards each quarter that we're in school. So I have, I found my old vision boards. I mean it's a vision board for life, for your life and where you want to go in life and your goals and everything like that. I was absolutely amazed at things that I had accomplished. Down to my son, I had a little blonde-haired boy with little curly hair on my vision board, which was exactly what I got. Oh my God, and you know so many things. I had Colorado mountains in there. I had never been to Colorado in my life, never even thought I would ever go, and I ended up living there. I had never been to Colorado in my life, never even thought I would ever go, and I ended up living there. But I mean there was a lot of other things that were on there that I did accomplish and I just I visualized them and I guess I somehow manifested them, which is a big thing now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's really interesting. I'd never even heard of vision boards until just a few years ago, so wow, do one every year.
Speaker 2:I mean, you know, I try it start out every year did you do an event or a class? I did. I, yeah, I taught a class on doing that, which hopefully I get to do another one, I'm hoping this year oh, I would love that.
Speaker 1:If you have the availability and desire to do one for the small business bestie community, that would be that I would love. Coolest meetup I would love that. Yeah, that would be so fun. We'll we'll try to make that happen then, great great, I'd love to awesome. Well, gail, I think you know how I feel about you. Thank you so much for coming and chatting with me and being a friend and all of that. So I guess this is where we will tell everybody goodbye.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you too. I appreciate your kindness and your friendship over the years. It's been awesome getting to know you and all the things you're so amazing at.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much. All right, we're going to hit the red button and then we're just going to keep telling each other sweet things. Okay, all right, that sounds great, all right.
Speaker 2:That sounds great.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, thanks so much for joining us, guys, and we will talk to you later. Well, that's it, friends. Before we go, just a little reminder that I'm your host, Michelle, and I'm the proud co-owner of Cultivate Accounting, where we help small businesses with accounting and I help besties like you go from idea to launch and beyond with personalized small business coaching. No matter what phase of the journey you're in, I'm here to cheer you on every step of the way. Connect with me on Facebook at michellesmock.520. New episodes of the Small Business Bestie podcast drop each week, so hit that subscribe button so you never miss an episode. Do you want to be a bestie on the show? We'd love to hear from you. Just head over to smallbusinessbestiepodcom to submit your guest request. Until next time, keep dreaming, keep going and remember. Do it even when you're scared. Thanks for hanging out with us.