Hey, I'm Paige Killian, founder and CEO of everything

with style.

I've built a business helping busy moms of littles get

organized in three simple steps. Like many of my clients, I love

being a mom and I also desire more. If you've ever felt that

stirring in your heart, that whisper or really loud voice

that keeps you up at night, then you are in the right place.

Because this is not a solo mission. Whether you're a little

curious or totally ready to be a mom, boss and use your God given

gifts to serve others step into your calling, turn your passions

into purpose, and still make it to the carpool line on time,

then girlfriend, it's time to pivot. I've got you now let's

get started.

Hello, hello. Welcome back to another episode of the time to

pivot podcast. I am so excited because I am joined by one of my

first guests on the podcast. Her name is Erin carpenter. And I am

obsessed i Loki sort of did like a social media stalker moment.

And thankfully, she didn't write me off completely. I just felt

like the things that she and her husband John were doing. Were

absolutely fantastic. And it made so much sense to get her on

for one of these first introduction episodes, because

she and her husband, John have definitely found a way to use

their God given gifts to serve others. And I cannot wait for

you to meet her. So, Erin, thanks for being on today.

Thanks for having me. I'm so excited. Yay. We were just doing

a little chat before I hit record. And we were talking

about how I felt like I needed to pivot from my last podcast,

which was the moms organization motivation podcast into this

one, because I was meeting so many people who were feeling

like, while they were loving lots of parts of their lives,

they still felt like there was this sort of, maybe this call

that God had for them to sort of tap into some of these gifts

that they had in a way that they could use them to serve others.

And they're just kind of stuck. And they didn't totally know

what they could do. And so as I was browsing one day on social

media, your account came up, and I saw how you and John have done

these two really cool things. I mean, it looks like you've done

a ton of cool things. But there are lots of ways that in early

in your relationship before even you guys got married, I heard

you got married around the pandemic time, right talk about

a pivot right in the middle. Oh my goodness, do you want to tell

us a little bit of what that was like first and who you are, and

then we can get into some of these really cool projects that

you two have been working on? Yes. Sounds perfect. So I'm

Erin. I live in Charleston, South Carolina. I'm a transplant

I moved here from Boone, North Carolina in 2021. Which is

crazy. It feels like it was yesterday and 10 years ago at

the same time. And then do you did you and John, when you guys

were talking about what you were going to do for your wedding. I

just happen to see this by the way online. I told you I'm such

a stalker. I tell No, I love it.

Perfect, perfect. But when I was looking through to kind of get

to know you guys better I was like, Oh man, they we were one

of the families that bought a house during the crazy lockdown.

2020 insanity. But you guys actually got married. Tell me

about that pivot? Because I'm sure that's probably not

originally what you guys had thought about when you were

thinking about getting married? No, it's crazy. And it's funny

because I got married a bit not that much later, in my mind. I

thought I was gonna be married, you know, by like, 20 or

something when I was younger. And so I got married. I think I

was 28. And so, you know, I thought about my wedding before.

And then when me and John got engaged, it was so exciting to

like dream up like, okay, you know, we're going to have

everyone we've ever met. That was our thing. We're like, it's

going to be so casual. We're going to have tacos, it's going

to be like at a summer camp. But everyone like we invited like

350 people, which is so crazy. Like I invited my entire

department from work like people who I didn't even know that

well. We're just like everyone's welcome. So, which is hilarious

thinking of, you know, the pandemic and what it turned out

to be. So not only were we planning this 300 person

wedding, on a shoestring budget, then we also were renovating our

first project together. And we also got a puppy all at the same

time, which was very exciting, all exciting things, but when

you combine them it's just wow, like what's happening what's

going on?

about the world. And then when we first heard about the

pandemic,

I remember we were sitting in our renovation, like, in the

middle of it, there's this little bistro table we got from

Goodwill, and we're eating dinner. And I was looking at my

phone was like, This is crazy. They say the pandemic might last

till June because it was probably March at that time. Oh,

my goodness, like, you know.

And he's like, Dude, there's no way the pandemic can last until

June like, if the pandemic lasts till June, like the wedding is

the least of our concerns, it's going to be anarchy. Like we

still laugh that he says that. And so sure enough, the pandemic

lasts till June and we cancelled we like kept switching venues

downsizing, we went from 300 people to 50 people, but then

that venue like couldn't even do it. And so then we didn't size

to 10 people. But then our town we lived in North Carolina, they

made this rule two weeks before our wedding that it said like

anyone coming from out of town has to quarantine for two weeks

before they can come public and like all of that, please random.

Oh, no. Oh, no, that's done it overnight, or something like

they made this rule. It was so random or like, What do you

mean, this is this is a new rule that they made. And so we were

like, Okay, maybe it's just time to you know, elope or whatever.

But I was like, I just have this feeling like, I'm gonna make

this happen. And Charleston, like we had been going down to

Charleston a ton. Because John was living on a tiny sailboat

for a season of his life. So he could go stay on that. And we

just love Charleston. And I was like, I wonder if they would let

us get married there. And so I googled like weddings in

Charleston in this, like, amazing venue that I had no idea

that it was like one of the best venues, I just called them. I

was like, Do you have availability for a wedding in

two weeks? And they're like, Sure. And they gave us like, all

these discounts like crazy discounts. And we were able to

have 75 people, it was out all outside. And so it was gorgeous.

In the end, it was so much fun. We loved every minute of it. But

it was insane. Just trying to like throw everything together

and switch everything over. We had to like start from scratch

two weeks before. So it was crazy. But well, that is an epic

pivot in your life. Absolutely, for sure. And that's really

getting started in your life, especially like you talked about

having this idea of 350 people and I can identify with that I'm

such an extrovert and I, I love having you know, you have your

different pockets of groups of friends, you know, and over the

years and just wanting to celebrate this special moment

together. And it does not surprise me in the least Hearing

you say that originally, that was the plan. Because one of the

things the thread that I'm really seeing that you enjoy,

and that's so important to you is creating community. And I

would love to talk about how the two of you have really used your

gifts in creating you were talking about even during all of

that you were working on a project. Was that your house

that you were you guys were working on? Was that the project

during COVID? Yes, the one that you were Yeah, tell me. Tell us

about that first. Okay, perfect. So it was kind of a weird

situation not weird situation. I want to start over. But so that

was a fun project because I had been living with my girlfriends.

And that's actually a huge piece of kind of my inspiration for

the wonder which we'll talk about later. But I had been used

to living communally, you know, like, everybody's got their own

room. But you all can come out and have like case studies and

have a movie night and then go back into your own room. And I

lived that way for my whole seven years or something, you

know, different like friends in a house. I thought it was so

much fun. And John had been kind of living a similar way. So we

found this tiny tiny house it was probably like 700 square

feet as it was for sale and it was in horrible condition. It

was like there's the main house and then the side of it. There's

this like dirt floor tin corrugated metal shack attached

to the side. Oh, wow. So yeah, of course, John, like, pierced

through the metal, the corrugated side thing and he's

like, we should turn this into an apartment and live in this

part. I'm like, really?

Okay, I don't see the vision, but I trust you. I like was

still learning him at this point. I'm like, okay, maybe

maybe that will be beautiful. So what we ended up doing was

turning the main part of the house into a rental and my

roommates who lived up the hill and our house, they all came and

lived on that side. And then we transformed this little shack on

the side, which was 390 square feet is very, very tiny, into

our little newlywed apartment. And it was really fun like we

loved tiny living and it was really fun to have my roommates

on the other side to pop over we'd like share brownies like

come over for you know, Bachelor nights still so it was really

fun to and also it was very simple living you couldn't have

too much stuff it just made us feel very like focused on our

relationship our marriage you know, first starting out and I

don't know friends and community we still had bonfires in the

back patio. So we still had our like gatherings

stuff. So yeah, it was a really fun time. I have to say the

professional organizer in me is geeking out over this

simplicity, which is so cool, because you really did focus on

what the two of you loved. And it has now turned into what

seems to be a mission as far as I'm concerned. Just looking at

what you guys have done, which then came next was it the

wanderer which we were talking about it being like a guest

house slash, maybe bed and breakfast or trying to figure

out how to bring into that appropriately. It's the coolest

thing talking about communal living. And then also, this

laundry mat, which it sounded like John had always had this

dream of owning a laundromat. I'm so curious where that came

from. By the way, shout out to John. Hey, John. We're totally

talking about you today.

This lesson, he'll be so excited for his shout out. So

which came next? Was it? Was it the laundry? Or was it the

laundromat? Tell us about that? So it was the Wanderer and it

was a little bit of a transitional time for us because

it wasn't the wanderer for the first year, because we had

decided we were gonna leave Boone North Carolina, we lived

there for I think I'd lived there for seven years, John had

lived there for like, 12 years or something. So we were it was

a small, small town. We loved it, but we wanted something

bigger, and we were just ready to start a new chapter of our

lives, put down some roots. And so we're like, Okay, we're gonna

move, but we don't know we think we want to move to Charleston,

but there's no like open doors there yet. You know, I didn't

have a job there yet. I had been working this long term job in

North Carolina. John worked remote, so we're just kind of

like in transition. And around that time, we've been looking at

multifamily properties like I'm addicted to Zillow and Redfin.

And so like, even in my downtime, I'm just like

scrolling and multifamily is also very interesting to us,

because there's so many things you can do with it. And so I saw

this listing for a multifamily house in Boone, it was a

triplex, it was very cheap. And especially because we've been

looking at Charleston and everything in Charleston was so

expensive. And so we're like, this is actually a really good

deal. Like the square footage was really good bang for the

buck. And so we went and looked at it, and it was three separate

apartments. So the bottom two floors, there's a, I think, a 12

I can't remember how big they are. They're both two bedroom

apartments below. And then the top is it was a four bedroom,

and college students live there. And it was totally trashed. They

all had dogs, there's dog poop all over the driveway. It was

great. Just to take care of the space, there was liquor bottles

on the mantel as like their decorations. And it was just

felt so dingy and gross. And there's carpeting and just It

was nasty. And but we saw the bones of the place were really

good. And so we ended up buying it was it took a long time to

finally get that done. But by the time we closed, we were

actually living in an RV, which is a whole other side story. But

we decided to get an RV and travel the country and work

remote in this kind of transitional season before we

moved somewhere. And so we ended up closing, we were in Dallas,

Texas when we had to get the paper sent to us to sign for

this triplex and we just ran it as is as long term for the first

year. And it was fine. It made like decent money. But I was

running the numbers for Airbnb, because I've always wanted to be

an Airbnb host because I stayed in so many Airbnb ease and my

traveling days. And I always thought it'd be so fun to be on

the hosting end. And it's really good investment to so I was

trying to sell him on it. And every room had a bathroom in the

in the bedroom. So John looked at that and said, What if we

turned each of them into its own individual unit. And I was like,

Okay, that sounds like fun. And then we started really dreaming

of the themes and things we could do with it. Because we've

stayed in so many places like that, like that's our preferred

method of travel is these little nuggets where you have your own

space, but you can still meet other people. And so we just

kind of ran with it from there. That is so cool. And I'm gonna

put your link to your way, you've got a couple of different

social media platforms, I'm gonna put those links because

you guys, you have to check out these awesome reels that they

did that really show that behind the scenes of this. So clearly

some of your gifting is that that vision that being able to

look in a place that somebody else will be like, get me the

heck out of here, unless they're a young man with a dog who likes

to drink whiskey. Okay.

And I'll tell you, I'm from Tennessee girl. So as you were

saying what this looked like, I was like, oh, boy, did I go some

of those places? Yes, in my college days, but then after the

college days, you're like, get me out of here. We got to

elevate where we're staying.

For sure. So I love that you looked at this place, whether it

was you or John or the both of you and you really saw potential

in it. That is certainly a gift that not everybody has. And you

guys just said let's make this a communal space. Yes, but I know

Is the attention to detail. So first of all the fact that

everybody got their own bathroom. That's huge. But am I

mistaken? Did I see that you guys so brilliantly have a lock

with like a keypad or something that's on every is that on every

bathroom? No, it's on every so every bedroom has

it in like the suite doors are all shot and locked, and they

have the names on the doors. And so the key codes and keys are to

the bedrooms, but the bedrooms are the bathroom is in this

suite. So it's like a hotel room like you walk in, and you have

your room and then your bathroom attached. So you never have to

worry about other people in the bathroom because that's my pet

peeve. Like I will never share a bathroom. I will do

collaborative spaces, but I need a bathroom. Yes. That's so

brilliant. And that's what I was trying to figure out. I was

like, that is so smart. Because if you think about it, you may

have people who are staying in Okay, wait, I'm gonna try to wow

you with what I remember. It was the Rose Room. Yep. Sounds

beautiful. This sage sweet. And now I'm blinking because I just

put myself on the spot. There's two more, and they're already

locked in sandalwood. So you Yes, yes, yes. Okay, I knew

there was another sweet I can Sandalwood sweet. And then the

lavender love. They're so cool. They each have their own sort of

vibe and personality, you as the cool factor. I have to tell you,

you whether you're gonna go stay with them or not, which you

totally should. And I feel like we should plan a vacay over

there. But you've got to see how absolutely smartly they laid

this out and not made so much sense to me when I saw that key

path because I thought that's really smart. If they have

someone who's already in and staying in one of their rooms.

That way, just preparing ahead, making sure that you're Do you

guys have like a cleaning service that goes in and cleans

as people leave? And then they get that prep? And then they'll

just lock it on their way out? And then it's ready for the next

person? Is that how that works? Exactly. Yeah, we have a

cleaner, I have a list of cleaners because at the

beginning, it was very overwhelming because we launched

in leaf season and Boone and leaf season just like people go

wild just to come look at the leaves. So we got a ton of

bookings right away. And I just didn't know how it was all going

to run. And so I had a bunch of different cleaners, who like a

lot of them were friends who so graciously said, Yeah, I'd love

to make a little side money and love to help you out. And so

that was a lot of rotation of cleaners, we'd get bookings. And

it's crazy people would book overnight, you know, you wake up

and you had a booking, if somebody's checking in in the

night when you're asleep. So then you have to make sure,

okay, there's a new cleaning, we have to get a cleaner there. And

then there's another check in. So you have to be very locked

into the details to make sure. Because we're also on

booking.com. And that's a whole other system of notifications.

So, but I found an amazing cleaner. Actually.

I guess I can say this on the podcast, it doesn't matter. But

John, this is how John, like he's the best in these

situations because he thinks outside the box because I was

really needing cleaners. And there's an Airbnb next door to

us. And John knew that it was an Airbnb. So he's like, let's just

go knock on the door and just see if the cleaners there. And I

was like, this is kind of crazy. But yes, let's do it. I'm into

it. And so we knocked on the door, and she was there. And

he's like, we have an Airbnb, do you want to like come work for

us, too. And she did. And it's been amazing she is she's there

almost every single day, she's very attentive to details. And

she knows our system. She knows all the sweets, all the little

talk because we were so crazy about all these little touches.

And you know, we have this letter that we put it into the

bed and we fold things this way. But she learned all of that. And

she's amazing. We could not do it without her. I can't remember

what your question. Let's No, this is so good. And also I love

that you're like, I'm gonna share this. I'm glad that you

said that. Because Can I also tell you, I love I'm here for

thinking outside the box. And I think that was genius on John's

part. I also have to say, working now, with some of my new

clients. It is so interesting to me how some of them really feel

like they need to be doing everything. And the fact that

you guys have now put these things in place the systems in

place, you have your specific setup for how this runs. You

guys have done such a great job at these details where you can

now step back and say like a lot of my clients, whether it's the

mom clients that I'm organizing for, or the new clients that I'm

working with now as the mompreneur strategist where

we're talking about using those gifts and finding a way to share

them with the world. It is so interesting how some of them

really struggle with finding people to do the things that

maybe don't light them up, or they don't really have time for

but they keep feeling like they have to and they feel guilty if

they get a housekeeper or you know if they're getting somebody

else to do some things running behind the scenes. But here's

the thing, when you're thinking about your giftings and what

you're great at, that's where you need to be and if you could

bring someone in to use their gifts, I mean the way that you

just your face lit

But when you were talking about this person who can come in and

she learned all these different specific details, and she's able

to help you guys put those very special touches on these rooms,

she is getting blessed to not only is she getting to make some

money out of that, which yay, makes the world go round. But

was just say it. Yeah, also she's getting to use her

giftings. And she's really great at that to be able to serve you

guys, to them, where you guys have this bigger vision to serve

other people give them these amazing experiences. I'm a big,

big proponent of not just buying more and more stuff, but

spending your money and your time on creating new memories

and experiences. I know that's important to me, as a mom with

little kids, you know, I don't want to be spending all my time

cleaning up after everybody. We want to be out living life and

doing fun things. And you're giving that to the people who

are staying with you. So I love that so much. That's such a cool

way that you've created community in that sense, and

also given someone else an opportunity to shine her amazing

light and bless others. And now I would love if we can pivot. Of

course I had to use that word and talk about the laundromat,

which is that was a massive project. And I was actually

seeing one of the reels that you did recently where you talked

about one of the hardest parts when you it was almost like you

could see that you were in the homestretch. But you guys were

really spending a ton of time I got laundromat. First of all,

tell me about this. Here he goes thinking outside the box again,

John came up with this idea to do this laundromat. I'm curious

if you were immediately on board, because you like you

mentioned that part about you were kind of learning him. So

were you like, Okay, this is the guy with the vision like I can

trust that it's going to be great. Or were you like you are

crazy. Can we just be a married couple and travel the world in

our RV? Where did you stand on that? Well, I'm all for a

project but at the laundromat really threw me off at the

beginning because I had always been thinking about everything

in terms of hospitality completely, you know, what we

had been doing, or what do you call residential properties?

Yeah, so already a laundromat in itself. I was a little confused

by it because we had never really, like I just didn't know

about laundromats. I had no idea. We were both novices to

the laundromat world. And then when we saw this laundromat when

we went to tour it, I was like, oh, there's no way you know,

this is it. This is the worst shape laundromat I've ever seen.

It was in such bad condition. And it just was not it was not

something you would walk out being like, let's buy this

place. So I definitely was like, Okay, we're on the same page

here. Like we're not getting this laundromat. But he was

very, very excited about it. And like, I'm always on board, like

I'm always down to do whatever. Like I trust John's judgment,

basically because he if things go and I also trust the Lord to

work out the details, if it's not supposed to happen, that

he's going to shut it down. So I'm like, okay, like God and

John, take this where you will see, it's like Jesus, Jesus and

John take the wheel and, and I'm just here to be supportive. And

I'll use my giftings and make it beautiful when that time comes.

But I love it. Jesus and John, do your thing. Yes, that's like

my new life motto.

A quick reminder, you can now get my book in four different

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girlfriend. The subtitle is why getting organized and living

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hardcover, and the audiobook. So if you're enjoying this podcast,

I have a feeling you may love the audio book. Again. It's

called I've got you girlfriend, why getting organized and living

this mom life is not a solo mission. Thanks so much for

making it a best seller. And back to the show.

So yeah, it was definitely just kind of and we were also I can't

remember I think we had we hadn't even renovated the winder

yet. So we had been running them as longterm. We knew that was

coming and then we bought the laundromat. And I was like why

this seems like the worst timing possible. I don't know why we're

doing this. But we sat on it for a while we did our the Wonder

laundry and laundromat they sound the same. We did the

Wonder renovation. And we just let the laundromat run two

because we wanted to come in and see the committee like we didn't

want to come in and change everything right away. We want

to see how it ran and observe and kind of make our plan. And

so then that's when I started getting excited about making it

better because there was so much potential and if I started

looking at things like there's this huge window on the front

that wasn't being used, you know, there's dumpsters and

vending machines in front of it and I started it was in such bad

shape that I hadn't even been able to visualize it at the

beginning.

And then when I started thinking, Okay, if we can just

get rid of all this stuff and start fresh, I can see it coming

together. Yeah, absolutely. One of the first things that I do as

an organizer when we go in is we establish what needs to be

purged at first, before we go in and start organizing and putting

finishing touches. You have to do that first step, have a good

purge and girlfriend, I saw those photos that

I like to think that I think outside of the box, and I'm a

visionary, but I will tell you, girl, I sided with you. I was

like, John, what in the world? But

what are we doing? But I will say that there is something so

freeing you guys, I would think that you guys probably felt like

you lost weight after you just took a ton of that junk out of

there. I noticed that you were pulling drawers and cabinets

open. And it was just years and years of stuff that people had

put in those areas that no but because that wasn't somebody's

home, they were there temporarily to go in, do their

laundry, and then get out. So no one was invested so much in that

space to take the time to do that purge. And really, you guys

had to go in with a labor of love and intention in knowing

that this wasn't just going to be a place where people could

come wash their clothes, which was super helpful. And you're

answering prayers, I think to a lot of people. They're like you

guys blew this out of the water. You made it so incredibly

beautiful. It appeared that you did it in separate stages. And

which is probably why it took a while and I had no idea you were

simultaneously doing the wander by totally thought that to like

where we do okay. Yeah, we were. I mean, you were just totally

immersed in renovation at that time. It sounds like in

different areas. But also I would love so I'm curious

because the organizer me is just dying to know, like, the the

details of like picking the paint color and the layout and

the setup and what was important to you, but so you have to tell

me about that. But also, I'm curious, how important was it to

you? How much was it at the forefront, that the people who

had run that laundromat before? And were doing those things? How

important was it to you to keep them there and allow them to

sort of go along with you on this ride and make that such a

community experience? Yeah, oh, yeah, it was definitely our top

priority. We did not want to come into this community that we

literally just arrived. And you know, we were the new business

owners, but we were the New Kids on the Block. You know, we

didn't want to come in and be like, alright, we're doing

things our way. Because that would never work. So Steve, the

attendant and he also runs a washer pull business out of the

laundromat. He's been there for 10 years, I think 10 or 11

years. And he's there every single day. And he is like a

community staple. Whenever we're there, people come in and talk

to him. They're like, Steve, you'll never guess what

happened. And they'll be like, what you're kidding. And he'll

like comfort people and like anyone who's coming in to ask a

question. He's right there right away. So he is definitely and

people even when we were closed and doing the renovations people

would be like knocking on the we had paper on the windows and

doors and like we're Steve or like, he's here, but we're

closed come back in a month. So oh my gosh, he's like, he's like

the residential therapist. Yes, yes, it is. And it's cool,

because the there's a church across the street. And so he is

associated with the church. So we there's almost this, like

small partnership between the church and the laundromat

because Steve was over there. And then we also got to know a

lot of the people across the street at the church and

somebody from the church painted to, which was really, really

cool. And he's amazing painter, very detailed. So it was really

cool to be able to meet people from the community. And because

we got, you know, a quote from a painter from a painting company,

or like, this just doesn't feel right, this guy is not from the

neighborhood coming in. And when there's people locally who can

do it even better. And so that was fun. And the more people we

got to know and kind of collaborated with the more we're

like, oh my gosh, this is such an amazing community. And, you

know, like Leroy, the painter, his nephew would come over and

help and you get to know him and then his wife would, I'd be up

trying to do the stencil on the roof. And she'd be like, looks

so good, but scooch it over, you know, it's a little crooked or

whatever. And I'm spending a lot of time in a community that's

not our own, and just falling in love with like a different. It's

like our second home kind of in North Charleston now in this

little street. So we definitely were like this is the number one

priority. We don't want to like, we don't want to change things

and make things our own. It's literally not for us. We're just

trying to make it better for the people that already come there

and they walk there. There's a huge community of people that

that's been their laundromat for a decade. So we are actually

more than a decade. I think it's been open for 40 years. So we

definitely wanted to be part of the roots of the place. We

wanted to keep the same name. We just wanted to freshen it up and

then like step back and like let it continue. That is so amazing.

I love it.

Feel it feels like you and John Ruth just really came from a

place of service. And I think that when we are using the gifts

that God has given us to be able to put them forward in an act of

service, that's when we're gonna see the exponential blessings. I

think there are ways that we can do that on the home front and

serve our families, and even just serve our partners, but

also to be able to take that to the community. It just feels

like the blessings keep growing and growing when you're coming

from a place of service. So I think that's a really admirable

place to come from. I'm gonna sound like an old lady mom, when

I say this right in order your grandma, but like, I'm so proud

of you, because

you didn't be such a young couple. And this is really, I

would imagine that the two of you have had experience in

refreshing things and working on things with your hands a lot in

the past as well to be able to get to this place. But really,

this being a new business venture for you and doing it as

a new married couple. It's really admirable. I think it's

fantastic. And I'm so proud of you.

So all right, let's get to some of the cute finishes. You guys.

I can't stress enough you have to go in and look at the before

and afters. I mean, really, I am absolutely certain that John did

such incredible, amazing work. But I really feel like a lot of

the beautiful pieces. Aaron, I just I I really think that you

probably had a lot to do with that. Is that true? Some of the

aesthetic stuff? How did you pick up stuff? And also, I

noticed a couple things like the even when you were talking about

the wife who was helping you with the logo, it looked like

maybe you guys had ordered one thing and you had a plan, and

then you had to pivot because it wasn't quite working. So tell us

about how you pick some of the finishes. And then also when it

didn't work, what you felt like was kind of that key to making

it work? Totally. Yes, I so me and John in our projects have

figured out our kind of our lanes and our strengths. And

I've definitely acted as the designer so I pick all the you

know, the colors and it is still collaborative, you know, I'll be

like helped me with these paint swatches, I can't decide or you

know, and because he has a really good eye for design too.

But I definitely take the lead on it. But if if I can ask his

opinion and he I can trust that if he likes it, it's like, okay,

good.

So my whole process, I researched a lot of other

laundromats from around the world. I googled like the best

the coolest laundromats and I took inspiration from a lot of

places, laundromats from other places that are way more

beautiful than us laundromats for some reason. Let's bring

that trend here. And then I just kind of put together a mood

board and researched a ton of furniture and we were on a

budget to so I would find an example of something that I

really loved that had a higher price tag and then find a

cheaper version, which always works really well actually. And

it went really well. I think there's always an aspect of

surprise when you're doing something like this because I

would like my paint swatch, I thought was going to be way more

muted. I thought I picked the most muted green of all my paint

swatches. And when it went on, it was a lot brighter than I

thought. But we're like, let's go with it, it's fine. And it

does kind of bring some fun and vibrancy to the space. So we're

fine with it. And then the cat, we ordered some different

counter stools that were very ugly. So I had to send those

back and replace them with some other ones. But overall, it went

pretty smoothly except for the exterior stencil part that

you're referencing. Because I just I had no idea how to go

about this, I had mocked up this Canva logo. And I was like, Oh,

this is going to be easy. I'll just order, you know, stencils

from the internet. How hard can it be. And they're all these

sticky sticker stencils. And it's such a long story. I'll try

to condense it down. But basically, they had sent me

these stencils, but they're all different. They weren't the same

border around them. They're all different sizes. So you had to

like either tried to trim them so that they're the exact same

size, but then you couldn't, it was such a nightmare to try and

space them. And then when you did space them, you peel away

the back, it falls apart right away. So it was just a

nightmare. And we spent hours on this. And we had Leroy up on the

ladder. And it was it was a nightmare. It was so bad. And I

was freaking out because I'm like, this is not going to work.

What are we going to do? There's no I have no idea like our

opening days in a week I have we have to have a logo on the

building. And it got to the point where John was like, let's

just hand paint the letters like no, we can't hand paint the

letters is that we have to do something. And I ordered that

second stencil for behind the front desk originally. And we

just said let's take it and see if it fits in the middle and it

did and we're like okay, we're doing it. And we were like this,

this works. I've had a lot of people say like I'm a designer

this is it's not big enough letters, and I get that but

we'll have you know, SEO and Google My Business and people

know the laundromat. They've been in the neighborhood forever

so we're just hoping they find it

and maybe down the line, we'll change it, but it works for now.

And it's that I mean, it's beautiful. I love how you guys

did it over on the side, too, that was so smart, because you

didn't want to just have it in the front. But you want to make

sure that if somebody is walking beside it, they're gonna see it

as well, that was so genius. Well, let's talk about that for

a second. Because clearly, especially if you're a business

owner, whether you're doing something in your house, and

you're you're planning something, or you're doing

something outside of that, there are going to be hiccups, things

are always going to come up. And we get to choose when we're in

the midst of that pivot. Are we gonna freak out and break down

and give up? Or are we still maybe a little bit freaked out?

I'm gonna still probably freak out, right? Because I see you

nodding. Because we have this vision. And we, we have this

expectation, and we want it to be beautiful. We want it to go

well. But I mean, how what do you think is some advice that

you would give for maybe still feeling those feelings, but then

pushing through? How do you feel like you are able to push

through when things don't work out? Yeah, that's a great

question. I would say, it's hard to stop yourself from feeling

bummed, like I Not gonna lie, I think it was a full day that I

just felt really sad about the stencils. And I knew in the

grand scheme of things, it wasn't going to affect the

business, it was going to be fine. But it was just this

expectation of it looking one way and then not turning out

that way. And I think it's just, I think stepping back and

looking at the grand scheme of things overall. And I think the

stencils is such a small example. But I think when it

comes to life in general, and pivoting and feeling like things

aren't going the way that you expected, and just trusting that

it will work out later, and like God is working, you know, in the

background, and that there's, it's going to be fine. And I

think even like I was in the corporate world for seven or

eight years before I quit to do, what we're doing full time. And

I think that in itself was really, really scary and hard.

And in coming off of this exact formula of what I knew life

looked like and then being in this weird space of what there's

no formula to my day, you know, and just feeling like this is a

pivot. I know it's supposed to be good, but I feel like the

sadness, and weirdness and I guess allowing yourself to be

there. But knowing, like feeling sad, but knowing that there is a

plan, like things are working, like God's doing things behind

the scenes, so that you're gonna keep walking through that

sadness. It's just like walking through the woods, you just

gotta get through it. And then there's gonna be a clearing and

it's gonna be fun. That is, man, that's like mic drop moment.

Honestly, I so relate to those feelings, even when it's just

like you said, it's like, the logo on the outside of the

building seems so silly, but and so small. When I was starting

this new podcast, I really struggled, I got hit with COVID.

And so my, just me feeling good. And like, my voice went down, I

couldn't record the episodes that I wanted to at the time.

Then when I came back on, I was trying to record the intro and

the outro. And I just sound like I had a frog in my throat. It

was so bad. And then when the artwork came up, I was so

frustrated because I had this vision in my mind, I was like,

oh, I want it to be like this cool. Lightning bolt in the

back. Because I just wasn't associating, like, when we

pivot. It's like a bolt of lightning. And it's like, yeah,

and be strong. And let's pivot strongly and confidently. I

mean, you should have seen the first draft of some of the not

because my person was absolutely amazing who was doing it, but

she was trying to give me what I was saying was my vision. No, it

had to change. And I just had that moment. And she talked to

me, she was like, step back for a second. Let's look at the

grand scheme of things. You are a planner, you have plenty of

time, you can wait to record until you get your voice back.

You can we can redo this as our first draft, our first attempt

at the artwork, go away. I love how you talked about the mood

board, go away, find some things you do, like find some

inspiration, let's go in a different way. I even I remember

the getting the feedback from a couple of friends, but also some

professionals that were in the business as well. And then just

kind of shooting down in the nicest way possible. But

shooting down some of my first plans. And I was like, why am I

trying to do this, this is not my strong suit. I need to lean

into some of these other people that are more experienced. So I

just get that on so many levels. I think that's really great

advice to take that step back and trust that there, the

overall point is going to be met. You've got a God who has a

plan that is way bigger than us, leaning in feeling the feelings

and then pushing through. So I really love that that's

something that I experienced when launching podcasts and

something that you're experiencing when creating this

incredible thing that's going to serve the community. So I think

that's so fantastic.

Stick. Honestly, I'm feeling like I want you guys to come

back because I have a feeling in the future, you're just going to

keep creating all of these amazing things. And we got to

have John on at some point. Yeah, Ryan will be an amazing

guest. He's very funny and like, he will be cracking the jokes.

So he would be an amazing guest and he would love to come on. I

love that. John, this is your invitation to talk brother. But

let's talk about your you are a light. Aaron, thank you so much

for being here. I'm so glad that you didn't write me off

immediately when I slid into your DMS and never never, I was

so excited. I have a feeling that I'm going to keep up with

you guys. And we're gonna be friends for life. I just love

what you're doing. I love what you're doing. It's so

inspirational. Thank you so, so much. And if you guys want to

check out some of these amazing projects that have given more to

the community and have allowed these two awesome people to use

their God given gifts to serve the community, you've got to

check it out. I'm gonna post their information in the show

notes. And you really got to look at some of those very fun

before and after reels they are mega inspiring. So Erin, thank

you so so much for being here. And I look forward to talking to

you soon. Thank you to

you guys. Go check out the show notes. And I hope you'll be

inspired. And also follow up with Erin and tell her what

amazing things that you think that she's doing and give her

some encouragement because oh my gosh, this entrepreneur life can

be a little tricky sometimes. Yeah. Absolutely. Absolutely.

All right. Thank you guys so much for listening, and we will

talk to you next week. Bye bye.

Thanks for listening to another episode of the time to pivot

podcast. If it was helpful for you. I'd love for you to head

over to Apple podcast. Hit that fifth star and writer if you

want to book me to speak at your next event or work with me one

on one to get clarity around your gifts, how to serve others

and go from stuck and stressed to focused and fulfilled. Reach

out on the contact page at everything with style.com and

connect with me on social at everything with style mom.

Thanks again for listening and sharing the podcast and mom boss

remember this. Your gifts are meant to be shared. Don't keep

them to yourself and stay in your comfort zone. This is your