Empowering Women through Interior Design and Personal Growth with Jeanne Collins

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to today’s episode of the Work at Home Rockstar Podcast. I’m excited for today’s episode. We are talking to the founder of Jermar Designs and Jermar Publishing. So what she does is she helps to motivate and inspire women to improve their overall well being through inner design from home to heart.

Excited to be rocking out today with Jeanne Hey, you ready to rock?

Jeanne Collins: Hey, thanks, Tim. I’m so excited to hear from you and to get to talk to you. Rocking is great. I’m all in.

Tim Melanson: And I think I said the French version of Jeanne, right? So you’re Jean then, right?

Jeanne Collins: I, in this country, I’m Jean, but Jeanne, I respond to because my name is French. So yeah, all good.

Tim Melanson: is French, yes.

is

And so is mine. My last name is Melanson. And most people say Melanson.

Jeanne Collins: So

Tim Melanson: it

Jeanne Collins: You a beautiful, you have a beautiful accent. Like you could totally pull it off. Most people can’t. So congratulations to you.

Tim Melanson: Yeah So we start off with a good note. So tell me a story of success that we can [00:01:00] be inspired by.

Jeanne Collins: Okay. Um, so I’m an interior designer, um, and how I got to be an interior designer is a long story also, but, um, we’ll talk about that later. So, but one of my success stories is, um, in the very beginning when I started out my business, I was maybe a year into my business and, um, a friend of my daughter’s was building a pool house.

And this is not your average pool house. It’s a 2000 square foot pool house. So you could live in it. It’s like a guest cottage. And they had reached out to me to do the interior design. And I was so excited because this would have been my biggest project ever. And I was so excited about this. And so I did this whole big proposal and I gave it to the husband and he got back to me and he just said, you know, your price to do this work relative to my budget is really high.

Like proportionately, you’re more expensive than the architect. And I was like, well, you know, interior design is not an inexpensive thing. And, and he went away. And I was like, okay, whatever, that’s fine. Um, and then four months later he called me and he was like, okay, I really need help. And I was like, okay.

[00:02:00] And he’s like, and your price isn’t changing. Is it? I was like, no, it’s not. My price isn’t changing. It’s the same. And so he hired me and it was, it actually has been my most successful project in terms of press and accolades and awards that I’ve won for the project. But, uh, I love it as a success story because I stood my ground as to my worth and my value in what I was providing as a service.

And I wasn’t going to discount it just because someone told me I was expensive because I knew I was worth that charging that amount of money. And in the end that I was right, I was worth it. So it’s one of my favorite stories to tell, like stand your ground as an entrepreneur, especially if you’re in a service business.

Tim Melanson: That’s amazing. It’s really hard to do too, sometimes, especially when you’re first getting started to stand your ground, right?

Jeanne Collins: It is. Yep. It is. Especially because you’re like, I need the business. It

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Jeanne Collins: I knew it was a lot of work and I was like, I’m not just going to discount it just because you tell me I’m expensive. If you want to hire a luxury interior designer, guess what? We are expensive. We are a luxury service so [00:03:00] that comes at a price.

So sorry.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, and it’s one of those things where, uh, I mean, who knows what happened to him when he went away, but my guess is that he probably did try to hire somebody at a lower price and probably didn’t get what he wanted, right?

Jeanne Collins: Love he had worked with designers before and he’d been so unhappy and I was like, okay, so you were so unhappy with them. All the reasons you are so unhappy is a level of service that I provide and that I fix for that problem for you. So, um, you know, I think he really came back with. Because he started getting in over his head and he was like, I don’t know how to finish this I don’t know. I need furniture. I need window treatments. I need rugs. I don’t know how to furnish it. I don’t know, you know, what to do with the rest of the tile. And I need help. And I’m like, you have a landscape architect. You have an architect who built the thing. Like you have all these specialties that you’re paying a ton of money for.

I don’t know why you think, because I deal in soft goods for the interior for this project, I should be [00:04:00] at a discount or should cost less. I should, so I stood my ground and honestly, it gave me such self confidence by standing my ground and I was like, it’s okay, I’m not going to discount my product and my services and I’m not going to discount my skillset.

And then when he came back and he hired me and the project was incredible, um, I was like, see, it gave me such self confidence because I stood up for my value and my worth as an entrepreneur.

Tim Melanson: it. So now along with the good notes, sometimes there’s some bad notes that don’t, things that don’t go as planned. So I’m wondering, can you share one of those? And the same thing is that why you stood

Jeanne Collins: your ground No, I, you know, I worked on one project and the end project was beautiful. It’s just the client and I weren’t a good fit. Um, and it was one of those situations where most people hire a designer like me, because I do all the work. I do all the shopping. I bring everything to your house. I bring you five choices and you choose and we move on.

And I. Didn’t do enough due diligence in the beginning of this project, um, because it [00:05:00] was a friend of a friend to really understand their decision making process. And it turned out that the wife was one of those people who was always wondering if there’s something better out there. And so I wasted so much of my time, um, looking for things and bringing her examples of things and making design suggestions and then having her go out and do all this research and change the design. So, it was really frustrating for me. But what I’ve learned as a result is now on the up front as part of my interview process where, you know, potential clients are interviewing me, but I’m also interviewing them to see if we jive, you know, are we a good band fit basically, um, because it’s not just about bringing anybody on.

Um, I ask a lot of questions now about how people make decisions and so that I can understand what they expect from me and what I expect from them.

Tim Melanson: That’s brilliant. That’s exactly the question too. And, and you, so you have made some changes in the way that you do things on the onboarding side to make sure that you

Jeanne Collins: I have, I have. And I’ve walked away from business as a result since, you know, if [00:06:00] someone reaches out to me and they say, you know, I just, I really have a hard time making a decision. That is not the right client for me. That is not why you hire me. I can coach you and help you make a decision. But if you’re someone who’s paralyzed by making a decision, you are not the right client for me.

Um, And I will walk away from a project. If someone says they, they can’t make a decision and that I need to be patient with them, I’d want them to tell me I needed to be patient with her because she was going to be really hard for her to make a decision. I was like, then you know what you are not for me.

There is a designer out there for you. It’s just not me.

Tim Melanson: Yeah Right that overlap with my business. So part of my business is we do branding. We do, uh, we do website design as well. And so many of those stories, like those exact same situations that we’ve gotten into with people not understanding, um, you know, the worth of a good designer. And also, uh, you know, the, the, just the decision making part of it.

And, and, you know, One of the things that, that I found really frustrating is that sometimes a client will [00:07:00] come in and try to get you to do what’s in their head rather what you know is right,

Jeanne Collins: Right.

Tim Melanson: Just like, what

Jeanne Collins: You’re like, no,

Tim Melanson: me for?

Jeanne Collins: right. Right. And this is the process. And this is why I do it the way I do it. And if you were capable of doing this, then you wouldn’t need me. And so it’s making sure people really understand why they are hiring you for your service and your value. And, and, and. And weeding out the people who won’t let go of control and let you just do your job.

Because I think that for us as entrepreneurs and small business owners is one of the most frustrating things is when people don’t let us just do our job.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, yeah, exactly. It will, it will be the worst client that you’ll ever have is that, is

Jeanne Collins: that

Tim Melanson: person. Yes

Jeanne Collins: A hundred percent. Yes.

so

Tim Melanson: there’s probably, I know for me, there’s no amount of money that you know,

Jeanne Collins: to that No, because it causes so much stress and so much anxiety and so much bad energy, um, that [00:08:00] I have absolutely learned like that job that I had, that I talked about. It was not, it was a huge learning experience for me. So I’m not going to say it wasn’t worth it because it was, but financially it was not worth it at all because the amount of time I had to spend that I didn’t get paid for and the amount of stress and anxiety.

And every time I saw her name pop up on my phone, I just thought, Oh my goodness. She’s changing something else. Like you’ve got to be kidding. Um, and that’s tough when you’re a design person or a creative person. It’s really hard. You want somebody to collaborate with that, that the result of your collaboration is going to be much improved.

It’s like you’re a team, you’re a creative team, just like a band. Like you want bringing those band members on to make the end product that much better than each individual person. And that’s what you need when you have clients in a creative industry.

Tim Melanson: Of And, and the irony is that they’ll also think that it’s worth less because it’s their idea. Like, you know, they’re, they’re sort of going like, Oh, on, you can charge less because this is me doing all [00:09:00] this

Jeanne Collins: Right. It’s like, no, no, no. It doesn’t work way. My skills are still my skills. Sorry. Okay.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. So if you’re, you know, you’re listening to this and you’re in the creative world, these are some experiences. So you might want to, you know, create a really good onboarding process to make sure that you kind of weed out the people that that want that type of work, unless that’s what you want to do.

If you want to be a production worker is what we call it. Where you’re just taking direction from somebody, then great. I highly recommend you charge by the hour for that.

Jeanne Collins: Right. Exactly. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Well, and it’s also a learning curve for you because if you charge by the hour, then someone can change their mind a ton of times and it doesn’t matter. But if you don’t and you charge a fee for your services, which I now mostly do because I don’t like being a lawyer, um, and I like my clients to know what they’re getting.

You have to make sure that you are accurate. Otherwise you start losing money if you’re spending time that you’re not getting paid for. So it’s definitely a balance as an entrepreneur to really make sure that The number you put out there, you can deliver [00:10:00] that end product in that amount of time based on your hourly rate for yourself internally.

Tim Melanson: Uh start. That’s a lot of nuggets right there. That’s something you probably learned from.

Jeanne Collins: talk

Tim Melanson: a little bit about your jam room. So tell me about, you know, a successful home office.

Jeanne Collins: well, my own is one of my most successful, um, but I’ve done quite a few offices that have been really fun. Um, so one thing I love to do with offices is you can make an office not have the same vibe as the rest of your house because it’s a place where you can be much more creative and much more fun. Um, and so my office, for example, is all, um, gray, black and white.

And it’s really pretty masculine, um, compared to the other parts of my house. And that makes it really fun. Um, I’ve also done an all black and white office for a couple and the rest of their house doesn’t look anything like that. And it has metallic wallpaper behind the bookshelves and it’s All black and white and the artwork is really, um, it actually looks like records, believe it or not.

And [00:11:00] it’s these swirls that were hand done by a woman I found in New York city and their swirls and they actually look like records and they’re red and yellow and they’re really bright and bold. It looks nothing like the rest of their house, but it’s such a fun, creative space to be able to give them a place to work.

That is different. Um, I’m a huge fan of custom made desks. I have a custom made standing desk. It raises and lowers, but it’s custom to the size that I need. And I want, um, the other client I was talking about, we made a custom desk for two and it’s all round and curved because they’ve little kids. And so all the wood curves and in the middle is a huge bubble table that connects these two round desks together.

So their kids can sit at this desk with them. So. You know, it’s a place I always make sure people have music. Um, I listen to music all day long if I’m not on a zoom call and even sometimes on zoom, I’ll have it on the background. So I always make sure people have music. They always make sure they have plants.

You want to bring the outdoors in. If you have space, always put a [00:12:00] chair. You need like a place to go sit down after your zoom calls and artwork. Artwork is so important. You don’t want it to be sterile. You want it to be something that inspires and is creative. You know, bookshelves have not just books have things that you’ve collected from trips that you’ve been on so that when you get off your calls, you can go sit your chair and just look around your office and be inspired by what is happening there.

You know, you want it to be a place of not only work, but calm as well.

Tim Melanson: I love that. That’s really cool. For the artwork, would you recommend that it’s someone else’s artwork or your own artwork?

Jeanne Collins: Depends, you know, um, I have both in my own house, so it just depends if you are an artistic person by all means put your own artwork up there. But um, if not, I, you know, I encourage people, it’s sometimes a place where you would put something that you wouldn’t necessarily put in your family room or in your hallway.

You know, you can go bold, you can go big, you can be a little bit more daring when it’s in your office, which is fun. You know, I encourage people color is a great way to add color to a room is by coloring your artwork. So [00:13:00] it can be a lot of fun.

Tim Melanson: I love that. That almost all that stuff in my

Jeanne Collins: Yeah. And don’t forget photography. So like in my office on one wall, um, I have black and white photographs, you know, and photography is really interesting and you can have photography on so many different subjects and genres and so many different price points, you know, sometimes black and white photography of something that captures something that’s real.

Um, is really interesting because you know, it’s real, it’s a real person or a real animal or a real place and a real destination. It’s not just something that’s painted, it’s something that’s real. So it could be really inspiring if you want to go to Africa and go on a safari, then go get yourself some cool piece of photography to put on the wall to help you manifest and create that in your office while you’re working, create that vacation by what’s on the walls.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, like a vision board, right?

Jeanne Collins: Exactly. Exactly. Or if you like music, you know, I have a friend loves music, you know, he has guitars up on his office wall and like, that’s really fun, you know, it’s like reminds him of his passions and the things that he does for [00:14:00] creativity by having guitars right up on the wall.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. I’ve got instruments everywhere in mine,

Jeanne Collins: Sure. I’m sure you do. But it’s because I wanna

Tim Melanson: I wanna be able to play them easily

Jeanne Collins: Great. Of course. Easy access.

Tim Melanson: Yes

Jeanne Collins: course. Of course. Yeah. We’re like, I have like a walking pad under my standing desk so that I can actually multitask and I can walk while I do work at the same time. So I get

Tim Melanson: a really smart thing to do. And someone

Jeanne Collins: get my

Tim Melanson: steps that you can do work like on a treadmill. It’s so

Jeanne Collins: You can. Yep. You can. It’s amazing.

You know, it’s like, I’m not like I’m walking fast. Um, you know, but a lot of times if I have to listen to something or if I’m on a zoom call with someone that I’m friends with and it isn’t a client, you know, I’ll just walk. I did it this morning for an hour on a call with a friend of mine. Um, you know, we just walked, you know, a lot of the people that work on my team, I’ll just walk while we talk and you know, before you know it, I’ve got in another 4, 000 steps just by being on a call.

Tim Melanson: Gotta do that. I’m a pacer, so I like to around and like if, if this was not a recorded like Zoom call, I would be walking

Jeanne Collins: Walking everywhere. I do, too. [00:15:00] I do.

Tim Melanson: annoys my family

Jeanne Collins: Oh, but I do, too. I used over my house. I used to walk all over my house and talk on the phone all the time. If I wasn’t on the Zoom, I was always pacing around. Always.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Well, if I had a, if I had a treadmill, then I wouldn’t annoy them. I would just build a walk here

Jeanne Collins: Correct. You walk in place.

Tim Melanson: a boatload of weight

Jeanne Collins: You do. It’s amazing how many steps you get just by doing that. You don’t even have to do it at a fast pace. It’s not even like I’m working up a sweat. I can be if I want to be, you know, it’s just moving as opposed to sitting. Which is so much better for your body.

Tim Melanson: And it’s good for the creative juices, too. I mean, I think it’s the reason why I do I do the pacing

Jeanne Collins: Oh yeah. Oh, I, my best ideas come from me walking outside. Always.

So

Tim Melanson: let’s talk a little bit about getting fans. So, you know, there’s lots of audience out there There’s lots of ways to you know, reach people, but how do you get them to like you?

Jeanne Collins: So I find interior design is really personal. And so, so much of my business comes from referrals. [00:16:00] From people who know me or use my services, um, you know, know my daughter, know someone I know, um, so much of it is referrals because it is so personal. And I think when you’re hiring a designer, not only are you hiring someone to make your space beautiful, but you’re hiring someone, you know, to really become a part of your family because you spend so much time together.

So it’s really important in my field that someone is hiring someone that you connect with and that you jive with, and that you’re willing to like bring into your band and you’re part of your family for it. For a long time, we could be working together for years. Um, so in that sense, most of it, you know, every once in a while someone will reach out and say they saw me on a Google search, but most of the time it comes from referrals from other people, you know, referrals from Facebook, referrals from Instagram, people who follow me on Instagram and you know, someone else comments on my, on my work and they follow me anyway.

So that’s normally how it, how it happens in my industry.

Tim Melanson: so then okay, uh number one Do you actually [00:17:00] ask for the referral or does it just end up getting brought up and then they just contact you

Jeanne Collins: I don’t ask. I just, yeah, no, I don’t ask. Um, you know, I have a couple of clients that are always on my list of referrals. If people ask me for a referral, like a recommendation of someone that I’ve worked with, I have a couple of clients just because the scope of their projects were really large, um, and we worked together for a really long time.

And so I have a list of, Clients that I always, you know, give their name and number if someone wants to talk to someone about what it’s like to work for me, but I actually don’t ask my clients for referrals. Um, I do have my clients give me quotes, um, at the end of every project that I do post, um, that will post on my new website cause I’m doing portfolio pages for each project.

So there will be quotes from the homeowner about their experience with me, um, directly related. So you can see the project and see what that homeowner had to say. Um, so I do ask for that. But. In general, I don’t ask people for referrals. Um, you know, people just reach out to people that they know.

Tim Melanson: Yeah, and now how do you handle it? So [00:18:00] someone sends you a message. Do you book a call with them? Or do you send a message to the person who did the referral as well? Like how do you handle it?

Jeanne Collins: Yeah. So I’ll book a call with them. Um, you know, so I always do an introductory zoom call just so, you know, we can see each other face to face, talk about their project, talk about what they’re looking to do, see if, um, it’s the right size and scope for my business and what I do. And if my services and the way I work might be the right fit for them.

Um, and then after that, we do an initial design consultation, which is in their house. Um, and they pay for that part of my time and my services. So and then if they do end up hiring me, I always send a gift to whoever referred them depending on the size of the project. You know, it could be a gift certificate at a restaurant.

It could be a bottle of wine. It, you know, could be branded Yetis, branded hats. It just depends on like the size of the project. But I always send something back to the, to the person who referred them.

Tim Melanson: Love it. Yeah, I like that. And so I think asking for that quote too is probably a bit of a Like a brain jogger for them to go like, Oh yeah, you know, [00:19:00] it makes them think about the, you know, the good experience that they had and probably actually does, you know, lead to a referral, you know, And then, and then the little gift would just, that’s just great.

It

Jeanne Collins: Oh, yeah. You have to always, you have to always send people a gift, you know, like I’ve done giveaways in the past, you know, send out newsletters to my database and been like, Hey, if anybody refers me and I at least get to this stage of a zoom call, you know, I’ll send you, I’ve branded Yetis. I’ve water, wine, and, um, coffee, like large tea Yetis that, um, are branded that are great.

And so I’ll send those to people if they refer someone and we at least get to like an initial zoom call, I’ll send that. And so I’ve done that before through my newsletters to my audience.

Tim Melanson: I love that. And it’s easy to do nowadays too, with all that branded stuff. There’s lots of like companies that Printify or whatever that, you know, allows you to just upload your logo and send off a mug.

Jeanne Collins: Yeah.

Oh, yeah. I mean, I have pens. I have notepads. I have all kinds of things. So, um, you know, and I also wrote a book. So I have my own book and I have all [00:20:00] the stuff that goes with my own book as well. So sometimes I’ll send that as a gift to people too.

Tim Melanson: Love that. That’s awesome. So now where did you learn all this stuff? Where does it come from?

Jeanne Collins: Where did I learn all this stuff? Um, life, life experience, I would say. So I spent 22 years in advertising and marketing. Um, so in advertising sales before I was an interior designer. And so, you know, you learn a lot in sales about, you know, people buy from people that they like. Um, and people they can relate to and people that they feel a connection with.

And so I learned that a long time ago in sales. And so no matter what your business is or what you’re selling or what your service is, it is all the same. And so, you know, part of what I do is make myself. Relatable if I can to the right person. And so, you know, that’s things like putting video content out on Instagram as painful as that might be, um, you know, making it so that I am a real person and, um, being vulnerable about who I am and my life and my family and what I do and not [00:21:00] always looking perfect on Instagram.

But. Um, giving people a platform in various places, you know, whether it be Instagram or YouTube or on podcasts where people can go and look at, listen to me and see me speak and talk about subjects that they are interested in, whether it be my book subjects or my speaking subjects or my interior design subjects or.

You know, becoming an entrepreneur and how do you start a business? You know, I talk on all of those subjects. So I think by making yourself vulnerable and putting yourself out there, it helps people feel like they can connect with you. And that is one of the most important things in terms of sales is you want to buy from people that you like and that you connect with and that you feel can solve their problems,

Tim Melanson: I love that yeah, and I think that’s something that I think everybody needs to understand a little bit more too because The, the, the part about being, excuse me, being good at what you do. That’s great. That’ll get you the referrals and, and that kind of keeps your business moving along, but what you don’t realize is how much you need to know about sales and [00:22:00] and it’s about there.

Cause it tends to be that people will start a business thinking that I’m really good at this particular thing. And so I’m just going to start a business and that’s great, but we don’t really, I mean, there should be a whole curriculum in school about sales. I think. Right. We, we need to, I mean, we should be learning that even if you’re going to work in a cubicle, you still have to sell your idea to your, you know, to your peers and stuff, so,

Jeanne Collins: right?

And you have to we get that You have to sell your skillset and you have to sell yourself.

Tim Melanson: And

Jeanne Collins: interior design is no different. Interior design is a very creative field and they don’t teach you about sales and interior design school, nor do they teach you about marketing or teach you about how to run a business, let alone, you know, like the economics of a business and profit margin and everything else, um, you know, none of that is taught in design school.

It’s all about the theory of design, um, which is great. You need to know that, but it’s not that you need so many other things on top of that to run a business.

Tim Melanson: agree. Yeah. And so, I mean, you got, you, you managed to go through some sort of [00:23:00] advertising career at first. And, and I mean, if, if someone’s sitting here listening to this right now, and you’re not exactly sure what your business idea is going to be, I would go get a sales job, who

Jeanne Collins: You in sales, you could sell anything. Honestly. Once you’ve been in sales, you can sell absolutely anything. And I, even young people, I encourage them, like go work at Starbucks, go work at go work at a store, like go work in retail, go work in a restaurant so that you can understand customer service.

And there is sales in that and understanding customer service. And I think that is a foundation for any young person starting out, um, gives you such a leg up, um, versus, you know, going and working behind a desk for some company, you know, go get out into the real world and have to interact with people because the people skills and the problem solving and solution skills that you’ll learn by dealing with people, um, can transfer for so many different careers.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. And like, I think that that’s selling someone else’s product versus your own product. There’s like some pluses and [00:24:00] minuses of that, right? Like you’re selling someone else’s product. There’s not that emotional connection to it. So in some ways it can be easier, but in some ways, like when you’re actually like believe in yourself and believe that your product is actually making a difference.

You know, it’s so much easier to go out there and promote your own thing rather than selling a coffee, right? Selling someone else’s thing, right? So, like you say, the skills are very transferable. I mean, you’ll learn someone else’s process. And, you know, they clearly have some success, otherwise they wouldn’t be hiring you.

And can kind of, like, take some of those things and go, Okay, how do I apply that to my thing that I’m actually excited about, right?

Jeanne Collins: Right.

Exactly. And every product should have a point of difference. Every product or solution should solve a problem. Every product has a target market. You know, who is your target audience? What do they look like? What do they do? What are their activities? All those types of things. So the basic skills of marketing is all the [00:25:00] same, no matter what the end product is.

So learning some of those basics about, you know, product sales and service sales, you can transfer that to anything.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Have you, do you ever hire like business coaches or anything like that?

Jeanne Collins: Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Yes. I’m a huge proponent. I, I hire coaches for everything, to be honest, um, because I think just like I’m really good at certain things, there are other things that I’m not as good at. Um, and even from a marketing perspective, you know, I’ve hired a marketing agency, I’ve hired a branding agency, I’ve hired a brand design agency, I have a web developer, um, I hired a business coach.

You know, I’ve hired, I hired a coach to help me when I decided I wanted to write a book. I hired an author, um, to help me from a coaching perspective on how to go about writing a book and the process of that. So I am a huge proponent of hiring coaches because I think they help us, um, not only look at what we’re doing slightly differently and if they’re a good coach, they will really challenge us to look within and really think about.

[00:26:00] What are we trying to do? What are we trying to say? What are we trying to communicate? Who do we want to be? And you need that outside perspective because especially as an entrepreneur, it tends to become very inside you, um, because it’s your business and you’re doing it your way. And sometimes it’s really helpful to have someone’s outside perspective and their skillset.

You know, I hire coaches who are really, really good at things that I am not. And I learned so much from them because I’m willing to say, I don’t know how, you know, I don’t know how to. build a brand necessarily from the very beginning. Like I’ve got all these thoughts and they’re all over the place and I need someone to like tune them all down and, and, you know, put them onto a straight path for me.

Um, and it doesn’t make me weaker because I need a coach. I think everyone, you should hire a coach for all kinds of things, mindset, wellness, nutrition. I have a nutrition coach. Like I hire people for all kinds of things just because it helps me become a better version of myself because they, I can learn from their incredible knowledge.

Tim Melanson: And [00:27:00] like you, you mentioned it in your, in your answer there about it doesn’t make you weaker. And I think that’s the, that’s the misconception is that people like think that asking for help makes them seem weak. But any strong person that you talk to. Right. Like anybody who’s in business who’s had some success, they’ll tell you that they have hired people that they ask for help and that they have mentors.

It’s just, it makes

Jeanne Collins: you

It does. And I mean, and mentoring I think is so important because it goes both ways. So, you know, I mentor a couple of different people on different subjects because they’re things that I happen to know a lot about and that they don’t. And it doesn’t mean that they have to go out and hire someone.

I’m happy to, you know, mentor them and give them my advice and give them my thoughts and help them when I can, just like I’ve come across other people that have been mentors for me and my career. And so I think it’s important to give back. If people are willing to help you, it’s really important to give some time to give back to other people,

Tim Melanson: Totally. Well, I mean, kind of relating it to the band. I mean, you, if you have, you know, [00:28:00] six drummers in a band, it’s not everybody’s got their own lane that they’re

Jeanne Collins: good A hundred percent. Everyone has their strength. Yes. Yep. And it’s like a band is exactly like a team. It’s exactly like a team. And the reality is the team should be stronger than each individual person.

Tim Melanson: absolutely. And, and just because someone is like maybe a top level, not the top of their game in a drumming, that doesn’t mean that they’re equally awesome at guitar. It’s

Jeanne Collins: Right? No.

Tim Melanson: guitar at all.

Jeanne Collins: Right. Exactly. Or they might not be a great singer and that’s okay. And it takes a little self reflection to figure out, um, what it is that is your strength and being willing to say, that is my strength. That’s my stake. That’s my instrument and saying, you know what? I’m going to let others be strong in the other things because I don’t have to be strong in everything.

Tim Melanson: I love that. All right. So it’s time for your guest solo. So tell me what’s exciting in your business right now.

Jeanne Collins: Oh, my goodness. So I have spent the last few months working on a rebrand. [00:29:00] Um, so you mentioned that I have Jermar Designs, which is an interior design business, and I have Jermar Publishing, which is a publishing and speaking business. Um, and I am launching the House of Jermar, um, the beginning of June, which is a lifestyle brand.

And so it encompasses all of my passions. And so it’s a lifestyle brand. It’s, Purpose and mission is to empower a million women to live all in and living all in means that wellness starts within and wellness starts within your environment and your house and your rooms and your spaces and the energy there, which is interior design.

And then it also starts interior for yourself and that’s your inner wellness and your mindset and nutrition and exercise. And so it’s combining all of those under one platform and one destination. So that has, um, Been encompassing my brain and my creativity and, you know, my, what’s your five year, 10 year vision kind of thing, um, which has been really exciting.

It’s definitely stretched me creatively. Um, but I’m super excited about the end product and where that’s going to go.[00:30:00]

Tim Melanson: I love that so much. And starting from within to like, it’s so important, like we’re, when we’re running our own business, I mean, we, we’ve got to bring the energy, right? There’s no one else that’s going to bring it for us.

Jeanne Collins: Yeah. Right. And you have to also take care of yourself, you know, it’s like you have to, you have to take care of yourself mentally, emotionally, physically, you know, and what are you doing to do that? Because otherwise you’re going to run out of juice and you’re not going to be able to perform, uh, you know, at a high level to really run a top notch business.

So you have to really think about how are you going to get life work balance out of all the different components of your life. And I focus a lot on, you You know, speaking publicly about how do you do that? How do you come up with life work balance? And part of that is mindset in addition to tools and tricks and things that you do.

But um, it’s a mindset about making sure that you always have that balance and it’s not flipped on the other side. And for most people it’s flipped on the other side and it’s work life balance and just the ability to work from home is your first step. step in my opinion of flipping that to having [00:31:00] life work balance, because then you have more control over your day.

And let’s be honest, we multitask like the best of them when you work from home. So it’s amazing how it, you know, if you don’t have to spend time commuting, it’s amazing how it can free up time that you can spend exercising with your family, cooking, reading, playing the guitar. I. Thank you. learning to play the piano, like all of these things that I wouldn’t be able to do if I had to commute every day to an office.

But since I work from home, I have the ability to have more flexibility in my life. And that is such a gift.

Tim Melanson: Love it. Have you noticed that there’s a certain type of person that would get the most out of working with you?

Jeanne Collins: I think people who, um, can appreciate the energy of a home and they want their spaces to not just be beautiful, but they want them to function and they want their environments to help them live a better life. Um, those are the people that definitely. Um, resonate well with me from a design perspective and also from a wellness perspective, people who want to be inspired, um, people who are stuck and just don’t [00:32:00] know how to get there.

So people hire me from a design perspective because they don’t see the vision for their homes and people hire me from a coaching speaking perspective because they don’t see the vision for themselves, for their careers or their lives or how do they find their passion. You know, I talk a lot about passion and finding your, you know, your true love and what is your calling and what really makes you feel like you have inner peace in life and how do you get inner peace versus happiness.

And so I resonate with people who feel a little stuck and they just need some help and someone they can connect with. In terms of how, how do you do it? Like, where do I start? You know, I have a lot of people say like, where do I start? And I’m like, I’ll tell you where to start, you know, and I’ll give you a whole bunch of roadmaps and you can pick the tools and the tricks and the tips that you want that resonate well with you.

And it’s all about taking inspired action. Towards claiming your own life and becoming the designer of your own life, whether that’s your interior design of your house or whether that’s who you are inside.

Tim Melanson: Wow. I love that. So how do we find out more about you then? Yeah.

Jeanne Collins: So I’m super active on Instagram. Um, so at Jermar, J E [00:33:00] R M A R underscore designs on Instagram and my website’s Jermardesigns. com. It’s about to change to house of Jermar, but you’ll be able to find it either way. When you search, it will all be linked together. Gather as we launch the new brand. So I encourage people, the links to my book are there.

Um, I have an audio audible recording of my book as well. There’s stuff about interior design. I put out a newsletter once a month, so I encourage people, you know, become part of the community, interact, DM me. I love to hear from people.

Tim Melanson: What’s your book called?

Jeanne Collins: My book is called Two Feet in Lessons from an All in Life. So it’s a memoir Two Feet In.

It’s a memoir about the things that I’ve learned. It’s, um, a book that’s kind of a cross between self-help, um, business and a romance novel all at the same time.

Tim Melanson: Really? That sounds interesting too.

Jeanne Collins: It is. Yeah, it is. It’s, um, it’s, I’m told it’s a pretty inspiring, um, motivating read about, you know, how you really jump all in and how do you not let self doubt prevent you from taking steps to move forward and, you know, becoming the designer of your life because self doubt is what stops most [00:34:00] people, um, that, you know, they just don’t know how they don’t have enough self confidence and they don’t know how to move forward.

Um, and make different choices. They don’t know how to get out of that job that they don’t like or that relationship they’re unhappy with. You know, they don’t know how to get to the life work balance. So many people just don’t even know how. And so the book is written to inspire people, um, and motivate them to, to take that how and figure out how to do it,

Tim Melanson: That’s awesome. That’s exactly what I like to inspire people to do too.

Jeanne Collins: No which is great. Which is great. Yeah.

Tim Melanson: And the best time to get started was yesterday. Really?

Jeanne Collins: Uh, there is no time like today. Absolutely. You know, and, and like your whole product, you know, your whole podcast is built on like, become your own rockstar, right? It’s like become that. I feel like when I think about the word rockstar, I think about like the little kid that’s inside all of us that just wants jam and like, let it go and just have It’s fun.

And I think we don’t do that enough as adults. We grow up and we become so serious and you know, it’s like, okay, how do you find that in a rock star within you? And what is that voice? And a lot of times when [00:35:00] people go through this process, they find out they’re, they’re a different version of the rock star than they thought they were.

No, and they really let the guard down and don’t worry about what other people think. You know, who do you want to be inside? Like who is that person that wants to just jam and let it go and not overthink things. And it’s amazing what you can create when you can get yourself into that space.

Tim Melanson: Uh

Jeanne Collins: That’s

Tim Melanson: awesome. Thank you so much for rocking out with me today. This has been a lot of fun.

Jeanne Collins: Tim, it’s been great. Thank you for having me on the podcast and best of luck to you. You have a great platform. So thank you for having me a part of it.

Tim Melanson: Oh, so much too. And to the listeners, make sure you subscribe, rate, and comment. We’ll see you next time on the work at home rockstar podcast.