We were lucky to catch up with Tasha Moody recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Tasha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you happier as a business owner? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job?
Being a business owner is a dream many people share. It’s often envisioned as the ideal role, where you make your own schedule, do only the parts of the job you enjoy, have plenty of free time if you want it and make lots of money along the way. The truth is, being a business owner is an incredibly special role I am honored to have, however those ideals people imagine are so far from reality you can only understand it if you’ve ever owned a business yourself.
At the end of the day, all of the glory AND all of the guts are yours in tandem when you own a business. And believe me, there are a lot of guts along the way to the glory. You have to maintain a unique balance of persistence, malleability, determination, optimism, work ethic and sound judgement.
If you have the ability to fall down and get back up over and over, you’ll make a great business owner. The glory is there – as long as you don’t allow the troubles to take you down on the way.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Iris & Oak is a Home Staging and Interior Design firm specializing in residential and small business projects in the Atlanta area. As a firm, we exist to create environments that bring joy, and we take that mission seriously in every part of what we do from our personal interactions within our own team to the way we treat our clients to the spaces we design. Ethics are extremely important to us, we pride ourselves on being transparent about how we work, and following through on what we have promised.
The fabric of our team is a unique culture of truly caring about both people and design, in equal parts. A beautiful finished room is rewarding, don’t get me wrong, but if it breaks us or the client along the way it’s just not worth it. Many of our design lead times can span the better part of a year, working very closely within someone’s personal home, so compatibility and working with reasonable people can make all the difference. That is why we vet our clients and really want them to vet us as well. At the end of the day design is good, and it is important, but we believe relationships matter most and design should be fun.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
One of the lowest times in my business was nine years ago when, in a single week, I lost my nanny to a move (at the time I had a 3 month old daughter and 2 year old son – one of the hardest phases for a working Mom), my car was broken into outside of a job site and my laptop was stolen (which was not backed up and contained all of my business documents), and a girl on my team let me know she was leaving to attempt to replicate my business and take clients with her (something that has not happened to me before or since, and truly broke my heart).
I was shaken to the core both personally and professionally. So much hurt, confusion and loss in the span of seven days, I didn’t even know where to start on putting the pieces back together. In addition to the computer and nanny losses, I was protective of my business and my clients, angry that someone I trusted and poured into would mistreat me in such a way.
I got on my knees one morning, and just pleaded with God to help me. He immediately put words into my head I know I didn’t come up with – words that have completely changed the way I approach business and life ever since. He said “Tasha, you’re acting like all of this is yours, and it isn’t. You worked hard to get where you are and created everything you have independently, but I gave you the endurance and the creativity to do it. I gave you all of your abilities, talents, opportunities, work ethic, even your health. Now open your hands, stop grasping onto something that was never yours, and trust Me – have I not always repaid you tenfold?”
I know this will sound crazy to some people, but I’m telling you – He literally put these thoughts into my broken heart that morning, and I had immediate peace. I released all of the “stuff” – all of “my” clients – and saw it as an opportunity for me to bless someone else. To be fruitful and multiply in a different type of way. I stopped trying to control the outcome, and just released it all and moved on.
Then one by one, I had random new clients call my phone – big clients who were extremely exciting at this younger phase of my business. I hired designer after designer who are not only insanely talented but also have some of the best hearts I know, all of whom are still on my team to this day. Wouldn’t you know it, one-by-one every former client also came back to me, rounding out the whole beautiful lesson.
I now see my business as a sort of ministry more than anything else, and it’s that mindset that allows me to keeping pushing and evolving when the waters rise and things get tough. It’s not about me, or things going as planned, or any one thing to be honest – it’s about using the time, talent and treasure that is Iris & Oak to do great things for the people on our team and the people with whom we work.
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
I started my business with a dream of doing Home Staging and Interior Design on some small scale that would allow me work-life balance and the ability to do something I enjoy. The work-life balance part hasn’t exactly worked out, and only a fraction of my time as Owner can be spent on actual design these days, however I can honestly say I am doing something I enjoy and care deeply about each and every day.
With that being said, because I never had the desire to be the biggest or most well known, I have never paid a single dollar toward any sales or marketing. I wanted to do a great job for each client I took on, make some money along the way and come home to my family with a sense of peace each day, knowing I had done well. Come to find out – that essentially meant I did what I said I was going to do, and did it well, creating trust within my clients and a great finished product each time. And guess what? You won’t learn this in marketing class but simply doing what you say you will do – and doing it well – will grow a small business faster than you can imagine. Purely word of mouth referrals mean pre-qualified clients who already have a comfort and trust with our services. I believe there is no greater way to market a business than word of mouth.
In my opinion, building a reputation and growing a business is far less complex than people make it seem. To this day we tell our clients we are not perfect, there will be mistakes, but they can rest assured we will correct them and make it right in the end. We stand by our promises, keep our rates fair and do what we say we will. We have grown in revenue every single year since I started Iris & Oak 15 years ago. I attribute that to a tried and true combination of talent and ethics.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.iris-oak.com
- Instagram: @irisandoakinteriors
- Facebook: @irisandoakinteriors