We were lucky to catch up with Brianna Peacock recently and have shared our conversation below.

Brianna , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

Yes and Yes! I am so happy being a business owner. For a few reasons – I love the freedom, I love the creativity, I love the challenge (most of the time), I love feeling like I built something, I love not having a ceiling, I love the excitement of the sort of limitless potential being an entrepreneur provides. I love growing, learning, and improving. That being said, I have also cried on the floor like a baby desperate for relief from it all. Relief of the stress, the pressure, the fear, the responsibility, the heartache, the anxiety. I am a single mom raising 5 little girls (five!) and for me Ora is all we got, it’s our lifeline; if I fail there is no backup plan, no plan B, there’s homelessness and losing everything we have. So needless to say the pressure to succeed is HEAVY. This past year, 2023, was hands down the hardest of my life. I went through an astronomical (and seemingly endless) amount of heartache and devastation. Some of the things I went through were my fault, and some were not, but in either scenario I was still responsible regardless. I had the strength to handle some of it well, and I’m ashamed of the weakness I displayed at other times. I made some of my best and worst decisions in a single year. It resulted in substantial loss on all fronts. I lost money, connections, employees, relationships, stability, you name it. Some of my losses were deserved, and some were not. Learning to identify which was which and how to take ownership of both without victimizing myself was one of the hardest things I have ever done. But as a person and a business owner – the lessons that I learned from all of that pain are invaluable. The person I became, the business owner I became, I just can’t express enough the value that came out of all that heartache and hardship. So although it was my worst year, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Unfortunately for me there were some lessons I had to learn in order to improve that I would not have learned otherwise. So it was during those times that I wondered and daydreamed about how it would be to just have a normal job. I would sit overwhelmed crying and just think about how lucky everyone with a normal job and normal life were. People who didn’t have to find their own work, or worry about if or when they would have a paycheck. People who got to leave work at 5pm and actually have a life with their families instead of worrying if their company was going to survive. I even applied for a few jobs, that’s how desperate I was for relief of the fear and hopelessness I felt during that time. But that desperation pushed me back to my foundation in God and I held onto that with everything I had. And as he has done my whole life, he showed up for me. Within a matter of weeks everything turned around in such an amazing way that I still can’t comprehend it. Just when I had reached what felt like the point of no return, like everything I worked for was going to end, God rushed in with other plans.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I got into Interior Design (officially) in 2016 when my family needed extra grocery money and I was the little engine that could. I finally had the courage to listen to family and friends who always encouraged me to pursue it and I went for it. I sold some cakes on facebook to make enough money to get a business set up on legal zoom. Created some social media pages, made my own website, and offered to do 5 peoples homes for free so I could get some before and after pictures. And the rest is History! What started out as a way to hopefully afford some more groceries turned into a 7 figure business and my full time income.

Fast forward to today and we’ve gone through so much growth and so many changes. I went from working alone, to having a team of over a dozen people, to nearly losing everything I had built, to currently operating the best we ever have with a strong small team. Throughout the years I have learned through trial and error the best ways to serve clients, and the best way to run Ora. What I am able to provide to our clients now is 10x what we could even when our team was the biggest and it is only because of learning hard lessons. Every single process, service, and offering we now provide has been completely reinvented and fine tuned. I have never been more proud of Ora.

I think that something that sets me apart is the insane journey Ora has been on. I have a knowledge base built on experiences that fingers crossed most will never have to go through. The understanding, empathy, discipline, drive, and ambition that was fostered and birthed in those hard times is hands down the greatest gift I have been given since opening my own company. It’s also become my biggest advantage.

We have worked with hundreds of clients over the years and there are people I have worked with that would tell you I disappointed them, was hard to get in touch with, and just generally dropped the ball on efficiency. There are also people that will tell you it was the best decision they ever made, that they loved every second and can’t wait to do another project, and how I went above and beyond from start to finish. And they are both accurate. We all have wins and fails as business owners, and the moment you learn to take complete ownership of both, the game changes. What sets me apart now and enables me to give people an experience like no other is that I own both of those stories and most importantly know the reasoning for each. I know what it takes to give a client the kind of luxury 5 star experience they deserve, and I know from experience how easy it is to miss the mark. The wisdom gained from both my success and failure has allowed me to rebuild and restructure my company in a way that I never thought possible. Adversity (both self inflicted and unwarranted) gave me the insight and the know how to recreate systems and processes with so much safety and innovation infused into every detail that our clients now receive an experience I am confident is unmatched.

There is no part of Ora that is more important than our clients. They are EVERYTHING. So I have built a business model that revolves around them, because that’s what they deserve. It is an honor and a privilege to be invited into client homes and businesses. Nothing is more rewarding than completing a project and getting to see the result not only in the rooms we design but within the joy and excitement of our clients.

Some other aspects that set Ora apart is how I approach design. I see homes as sanctuaries, and design them that way. The psychology of interior design is the most important aspect to me. Every client has different needs, wants, personalities, etc. You have to take the time to get to know them, their story, and their dreams. You may have a client that comes to you and wants you to design a space with a massive amount of blue everywhere because blue is their favorite color. And though there are endless ways to design a completely blue room from top to bottom, you need more information than a list of their favorite things in order to know whether or not that is a good idea. If you really care for your client and take the time to get to know them you may find out that they are prone to struggling with depression and sadness. You now know that you CANNOT give them a room that is blue from head to toe. Because too much blue has the tendency to feel cold, to increase feelings of sadness, and depression. That’s where the saying “I’m feeling blue” comes from. On the other hand when balanced correctly it can invoke feelings of trust, integrity, safety, and calm. So when you take the time to care about how your client will feel living in their space and not just the aesthetics, they now get to live in a room that offers them so much more than a well designed room. They get to exist in a room created for their well being, tailored to cater to everything about them and the way they live. It is our job as designers to really take a step back and understand how important our job really is. Homes are where people spend most of their time and invest most of their money. It is important to know what people like for sure, but it is so much more important to know how they want to feel. Think about when you have a bad day or aren’t feeling well – where do you want to go? Home. Why? Because it is safe there, it’s your sanctuary. And as such it should be an oasis of rest and comfort that was created with more in mind than the latest design trends. Even the way a space smells can completely change the way a space feels. All details are important and when the client is important to you, so are all the little details.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn was that not all issues/problems are my fault or responsibility as a business owner. My fault or not, yes they are. I think freedom, growth, innovation, and learning are possible once complete ownership, and responsibility is truly realized. I think for business owners to become true leaders you have to realize that sometimes bad things happen because of you and sometimes bad things happen to you – BUT as a business owner, and as a leader you are fully responsible for BOTH.

If you are a business owner it doesn’t matter what you face inside or outside of work. It’s your company, your team, and you are responsible for leading everyone no matter what you are going through. If your team makes a mistake, look at yourself first as a leader first before you blame them. Because most of the time the problem within teams is with the Leader. Look at yourself first whether it is your fault or not in order to become the best Leader you can be. That’s a lot easier to do once you realize that blame is irrelevant because no matter what YOU are responsible.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I think a story that illustrates my resilience the most is when I was facing losing not only Ora, but everything I had personally as well. Everything inside of me wanted to quit, wanted to runaway, and disappear. I truly did not know how I was going to find the strength to keep going. I had gotten to the point where I was so overcome with fear, pain, and anxiety that I had started to hate my company. I had no passion left at all for what I was doing, I was just trying to survive. Had I not leaned on God during that time I do not believe Ora would be here. It was not me that turned things around, it was him. One day I will tell the story of how it all happened, and let me tell you – you’ll agree that it could have been nothing but the power of God. It was outrageous, miraculous, and incredible. My love for God and my five little girls are what kept me going and gave me hope. Not giving up is one of the most incredible journeys we can experience. Painful yes but goodness do you get some treasure on the other side, it’s like winning the wisdom lottery. It revitalizes your passion for what you are doing like it’s your first day again. Seeing something through and persevering amidst what looks like the hardest thing you will ever face completely changes your point of view on the other side. You develop a level of appreciation, respect, and discipline as a business owner that you would never attain otherwise. I would encourage anyone facing what looks like an impossible challenge to keep going, keep fighting, face it and fight through it. Because the best version of yourself and the best version of your business will meet you there on the other side.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.oradesignsohio.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ora.designs/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/oradesignsohio
• Other: tiktok – @oradesigns

Image Credits
All image credits belong to Lauren Clutter Owner and Photographer of Little Bear Photography