We were lucky to catch up with Deborah Jacobs recently and have shared our conversation below.
Deborah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today 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?
I am a very HAPPY small business owner. Now, here is to defining Happiness: Happiness for me isn’t a smile glued on your face 24/7. Happiness is when you find balance between your hardships and joys. A balance that allows you to grow while learning from your hardships and focussing on your joys.
Of course I sometimes wonder what it would be like if I had stuck to a regular job! Usually it happens when hit with what feels like a catastrophic unforeseen, like, for instance: getting a text from one of our tenants while enjoying a labor day brunch at a favorite local restaurant with our family, stating water is cascading through the ceiling (from the upstairs tenant’s bathroom,) backed with a video of the scene that was, I kid you not, playing Jurassic Park’s theme music in the background! Yes, for a second I wondered, maybe even wished I had a regular job that wouldn’t interrupt life at any given moment… But it doesn’t take me two seconds to level myself back into knowing that I am not cut out for “normal” or “regular”… I’d be miserable. I love this very unique path of mine. Living by my own rules, hours, failures & successes. It’s not an easy path. One that comes with risks and inconveniences! But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Deborah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
None of where I am at now was planned or scripted… It all just organically rolled through the motions and opportunities and here I am!
For starters, I had to battle my dad to allow me to pursue arts in high school… I had to remit a blank exam to make my point heard. Latin or Economics weren’t my calling!!! We compromised. I was allowed to attend the art section at one of the last remaining all girl catholic schools run by nuns in Brussels, Belgium that had the smallest art section ever. I think we were all 7 of us in class. But I LOVED IT! After high school, I took a year to work several jobs and saved up for Grad school. I was one of the few that passed the entry exam at one of the best art schools in the Country! St Luc! Thereby skipped the first entry level prep year and graduated with HONORS three years later getting me my first packaging design job in Amsterdam, then Brussels… My passionate self wasn’t limited to the arts, it of course carried over into my personal life and even though I had just bought my first little home in Brussels, a heartbreak made me cross an ocean to allow enough distance for healing. From Arizona, to San Francisco… I managed to first get sponsored with an H1B visa by a multi media school and then targeted my favorite Contemporary Art Galleries and persuaded them to sponsor me into becoming the Art Director for their SF, NY & Napa Valley locations! Some fashionably fun memorable years those were!! They led me to eventually meet my husband…
After 15 years in the Bay Area, getting married and becoming parents we decided to make the move to Indianapolis, IN where he was originally from. This move prompted me to completely reinvent myself as the art scene was much different here then in California. First, I focussed on remodeling our new home in Broad Ripple, picked for it’s walkable location, but needed a complete customization to “fit us”, then I turned the space above the garage into an in-law for when family visits from Belgium. Which lead to airbnb’ing the space between visits… which gave rise to a next remodel and airbnb unit, to yet another one! At the rate of two to three remodels a year for a while. OMG the level of gratification in those transformations was GRAND! Went up to running 10 airbnbs at a time at some point but that was too much. Found out my sweet spot is no more then 7 units at a time to manage with tender love and care.
My favorite aspects of my job include the creative process (remodeling/design), for sure! Welcoming and hosting some amazing people has definitely been a treasured part of the job too, but finding ways to highlight our neighborhood and community through promoting all of our favorite local spots to our guests through social media @ripplebnb has become one of the most rewarding aspects somehow! But if you ask what I am most proud of in the past 10 years since we have moved to Indy, I would have to bring up my passion project: The Broad Ripple Flower Alley! Starting the #broadripplefloweralley with our neighbors has been such a fulfilling and joyful process… One that keeps on giving, growing & glowing!
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
After not even having to go through an interview process to find a job out straight out of school back in Belgium, having graduated with honors, I found myself at the bottom of the resume piles in San Francisco, under hundreds of the most talented creatives around – requiring an expensive and tedious sponsorship process in order to be hired. I am ashamed at the amount of trees I killed sending out my resumes! It was a tremendously humbling experience. Probably a much needed one too! After the desperation set in as I didn’t want to return home due to failure… I ended up walking into one of the most upscale art galleries around with my broken english and offered them to re-build them their website (as theirs was a bit dated,) for FREE! An offer they didn’t refuse. They loved it and went through the process of sponsoring and hiring me!
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Moving from the Californian art scene to Indianapolis, Indiana had me pivot big time, career wise. A complete reinvention. Starting from scratch into a brand new field: from graphic designer and art director to remodeling, construction, interior design and hospitality services! This without any prior experience, in a third language and Country can be rather scary! But exciting too!! I believe that once you are a creative person, you can apply that creativity to what ever you set your mind to.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ripplebnb.com
- Instagram: @ripplebnb
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dbojacobs/
Image Credits
@ripplebnb