 Welcome back. Welcome back. The hashtag to use is hashtag entrepreneurship Tuesday on why in the morning at Y244 channel as you can find us across all of social media platform. At Michelle Ashira is where you can reach out to me. I'm reading some of your comments out here and I'm just going to sample them after this particular interview. So in this particular session we are talking about matters of creating warm spaces. Be it in your home, the office, wherever you are, just to show that your space is warm and cozy. We're talking about interior decoration. So in studio right now, I have Carol Gecoño. She's the CEO of Porsche Deco and design apostry design. I didn't want to, I didn't want to button the morning hand. Thank you very much for creating time, Carol. Thank you. How are you doing? I am fine. Who is Carol? Carol is a mother to one boy. I am a daughter. I am an entrepreneur. I am a child of God and I'm passionate about life. Before interior decoration, what was Carol doing? Before interior decoration, I was a banker. I worked in the banking industry for over 10 years, going 12, and then I left because it wasn't, I think it wasn't my place to be in it. Then I stumbled into the interior design decor business. All right. When did that happen? It started in 2013 when I left employment. I did my own seat as in that's their post-repart because I re-posted my seat in the house and I thought wow. So you can take an old seat and make it look nice, change colors, just it changes the whole environment. Then I thought okay, I'm coming from the professional world where nobody knows about this as in, and then nobody wants to hassle about it because the hassle of going to talking to fundies is too much. I was like by the way, this is a good thing. Can I post on Facebook and see if I can get somebody who will be interested in this. And yeah, I got clients. I got a call from a friend. Can you do this for my seat? And it started. It started like that, like a joke. But because I was still thinking maybe I can go back to employment. I was still in between. And I was also in school. I was a day star. So I had school. So it wasn't like a full time thing. It was just like a hassle in between jobs. Then I did it for 2013, 2014, 2015 and back to employment. Then I went to work for my co-finance. I did two years there. Then I think that the moment you've tested your own money, your freedom, you just can't seat in an office. You can't do an age to five because you're just restless. So I found myself back out. And this time because I had already created a page because I run my business on the page. It's online. Then I decided, okay, let me revamp it. Let's try and do different things. And it exploded. As in it was, no, that's when everything just fell into place. Okay. So you've tested both sides of the world. Employment and being your own employer. What is the difference of the two? Maybe you could highlight some of the experiences that you've had in employment and in entrepreneurship? In employment, when you're an employee, you're in a comfortable space. And there are people who, as I say, there are people who have been born to stay in one job, one environment, all their life. They can survive even 30 years in one employment. My issue was, and maybe most bankers, we move. As we move from one bank in those like 10 years, I had done like four banks. So that means there's something you're very restless in what you're doing. The other thing, you also move from one bank to another or from one employer to another because of the money. The more you move, so your rank goes up, your money goes up. But you see, you end up pure slave to that whole thing. But for others, it works. The poll will get rich out of employment. But the percentage is like 1%. The rest, you're just leaving paycheck after paycheck. Like the new language I've learned so far, the month becomes longer than the money. Because by mid, I think by the first week, you're broke. And now you're looking forward to the salary. When you're in employment, you have your freedom. You have your time. So you choose how you're going to run it. But it's crazy because you're more committed to it. You give it 110%. The money that comes in, you're the only one who is going to do the budgeting. You're the one who decides, this profit, what do I do? Do I save? Do I do this? And there's more money. You make more money. In the first two weeks of the month, you can make more money than you ever did with your salary when you're employed. But let's look at when you're starting off the transition now from a secured job where you are assured of a paycheck at the end of the month. And now you're stepping into a new space where you're not really sure about the future. How is that? Let me tell you entrepreneurship takes days. You have to be consistent. You have to be persistent. And you also have to be optimistic because you have more than 99% of the time you want to go back to employment. Because you will find yourself like during this COVID time, you will stay without, nobody is calling you. No business is coming through. But if you're employed, you'd have your salary. So it's a choice that you make every day. I'm willing to do this. I know where I'm doing this. And again, when you're passionate about what you're doing, you never feel this thing is not right. You push yourself. But it takes a lot of consistency and being persistent. It takes a lot of, it takes a lot from you to remain as an entrepreneur, especially if you've come out of employment. Because the options, even I, like this year, I've talked to a few friends of mine, can I go back? Can I come back? Can I get a job? But then something happens. Like when you decide that I want to go back to employment, at a time, the doors just open. You start getting work. Then the others will tell you, you've been out there for long. I don't know what you'll do here. But others tell you, hang in there. As in, why are you going? Stay there. Okay. So for our viewers who are watching this, and they will be wondering, what are we talking about interior decor? What is interior decor? Interior decor is what you see. It's when you get into a room, how it's been put up. The furniture, the curtains, the colors, as in the whole space. Interior design is the concept. They can give you, like when you're designing your house, that's where they come in. It's a space. Maybe you can decide on these meters, the meters and the square feet, all that. Interior decor is the aesthetics. What, how do colors blend in? How do you do color blocking? And for most guys, especially for my clients, because we do a post, we do, where I'm online, it's because I don't need to be like at the workshop. We re-upholster seats so far as curtains. So we come to your space. That means you have a house, big or small, and you think I can change. Maybe I can get a different color for my seats. I need to change curtains. I need to do this. So we come to you and we create your space. And also we have someone who might be watching this and they always want to have a nice cozy place and they might want to invite an interior decorator, but they feel like, oh, the expenses, it might be quite expensive. How would you work with your client in terms of meeting towards what they want and work within their budget? So it's, it's conversation. Basically, the first thing you do is consultation. So it's, you tell me this is my budget. This is what I want. The others will go like, I have this seat. Can I change it? Can it look this way? Because you see, you can see the ones that are out. Because right now, I think the, the hippiest seats are the tuft, the tuft seats. The Chesterfield ones that have buttons. So everybody looks at theirs and they think, okay, can I change this to, can it look like this? So I have to tell you, yes, no, the structure is like this. Then you tell me this is how much I have. Then we work with our budget. Interesting enough, any budget can fit. You can do something with what you have. You can change something with what you have. It is just being open. Yeah. I would tell us like we can go for cheaper back quality. Yes, yes, you can. Yes, there they are. As people do, it's also how, how far you want to make your mind to open it up and explore out there. Because the thing about deco is you can use anything. You can use Kangas. You can use Kitangas. You can use, you can go to Gekomba. There is fabric for everybody. There is the high end. There is the other. You think it's low end, but it's very nice. And it's also how you put up, you bring the pieces together. It can be a cheap thing, but it looks nice. What sort of a background does one require to just venture in this particular business? For me, I think it's, it's talent. Everybody has been born with their God-given talent. There is something that is in you. Maybe you're in employment or you're sitting at home. You're wondering, what do I do? So it's more of what you do with what you have, where you are. So take, take, take the courage and creativity. I think everybody, we did the 844 system at Encraft. I think everybody knew these were, they are those people who are good in drawing, those people are good in bringing colors together. People who did agriculture, you know, we were exposed. And most people who are running activities or doing things with that are talent-based and passion-based, it's something that started from when you were a child. Because for me, when I was young, I wanted to, okay, I had a few things. I wanted to do political science because I was thinking I can do politics. Then I also really wanted to do interior design. That was also something else. Then when we finished school, you find we're in the technology space. So you go and do IT because everybody else is doing IT. You can actually explore. Yes. Then you go and do business because everybody is doing, then there's white collar jobs that everybody needs to get. So you find yourself in employment. But there's still that thing in you that is the creative space in you. That's the one you need to tap into. And that's the one that takes you to the next level. Okay. And at what point were you confident to the point where you need to, from a vision to actualizing whatever you had in your mind, which is now coming up with that push-decker? When I got a client, got the first one, got the second one, the third one, and you're thinking, ah, this is nice. And interesting enough, back then, when I started, I would go, I didn't have confidence to go to the clients alone. Because like now I come to you and need to take the measurements and all that. I did not know how to hold that, take measure, how to calculate. But with time, ended up now, I normally do the consultations alone. I am the one who does the measurements. I can calculate. I've gotten to know if I look at a seat, it needs how many meters. If I take measurements of a window, it needs how many meters. You learn as you go, yes. Speaking about learning, from a point of passion, I'm so sure that is not enough. How did you gather more skills while going further in this business? Google is your friend. There's interesting enough information is out there in the net. And it's how you do it. If you want to grow, learning never stops. You have to read a lot. So read books, read blogs that are in this interior space. Read everything. As in just learn, be willing to open up your mind to new things. Because what we say is that success is uncomfortable. So that means you have to get out of your comfort zone. It will be difficult. It's not an easy thing because you also meet difficult clients. So how do you manage them? How do you deal with it? You also get losses because you might get into a job, but I'll tell you, yes, I can work within your budget. And then I come and find myself, it's gone over budget. And the thing with entrepreneurship, you do not go again professionally. You don't go back to your clients. Do you go back to your pocket? Yes, you have to. Because I promised this and I have to deliver. So if I come back to you, then I lose credibility because you just look in like your shift. You don't know what you're talking about. You're not credible. I can rely on you. You started off by working within your space and then you posted it on social media and people appreciate it. And then that's how you got your clientele. How do you retain your customers before we actually check out some of your images? There it goes. But you can answer that and then we'll check out the pictures. Interesting enough, I come to your house. I do a good job. You refer me. The referral is even better than somebody who just comes to the page. Then others, whatever photos we have in the page, they do, they work for you. People are lazy. Let me say Kenyans, where we're getting. People don't like going and getting tired. So they'll end up on social media pages or they see a photo and then they're like, okay, sir, I think I want to call her. And then there are some who are very confident. They'll give you their business. But there are others who come with referrals. But I also like the ones who just come. They've just I've gone, I've checked everywhere. I've gone through your page. I think I like your work and I want to give you business. Okay, now we can check out some of the couple of your projects that you have done. We can start off with the curtains and tell us more about this. So this is a new trend of curtains that are coming up, where you're mixing, you mix in much colors. And then it needs somebody who's very bold because most guys don't like colors. And they'll be like, and then the other thing about, if you have such curtains, that means your house has to be blending. So that means the seats, the sofa, no, the sofa, the seats, the table, the carpet have to blend in to this, but it can have an element of that blue. You can have an element of yellow or you can have white. Oh, you just don't throw in curtains? Yeah, curtains don't. Interesting enough, curtains compliment the room. What if I want to go for darker colors from the curtains? If you want to go for darker colors in the curtains, that's fine. Then you can brighten up the seats. But even seats that are like, this is a gray, you throw in, you can throw in color. The interesting thing about why they are called throw pillows people, it's because you throw and they are there to bring in the element of color into the room. Then what we are noting with, and not so you see there is a change, the trend currently, our parents era them, they were dark, brown, gray, you know, dull colors, but now people are becoming very bold. So the colors are bigger. Let's look at this setup. Okay. Yes, this looks a little bit warm, cozy. Maybe you could take us through this image. This, this is, that's an ottoman, but it has, yeah, it has arms. And it's also a storage ottoman. That one you can sit, you can use it to, like, if you're reading, this is a room, this is like a bedroom, because you can use it as storage, because it has somewhere for storage. And then it can be a sitting area. On the bottom? Yes, the bottom storage. You open it up. So this is a very functional piece in any room. It can be in the sitting room, it can be in the bedroom, but it serves different purposes. Is it intentional we have the walls to be gray, the mats to be gray, and the seat to be gray? Yes, that's intentional, because that's, that's, that's how you blend in. Then you see there's that, the karak that has been thrown there, which is like a blanket, that is maroon. So gray goes very well with maroon. Okay, let's look at that. And now let's look at this sitting room here. So this is blue and then a blend of, like a floral print, which is more of abstract. So there are people who, they would want, they have to put a color, and then they don't want floral. The poloos say I don't want floral, but I want something that is abstract. So this is also, this is also the new trend, is what people are doing. Yeah, nice. Interesting. Yeah, that's how you blend. Oh, right. So the seats, they look amazing. Okay. You see now those are tropilo. So you can have, and then you see it's blending in with the curtains, and the color of the seats, and the tropilos. Okay, okay, okay. The caution, okay. Those are tropilos. Yeah. Pilots, floral, and then we have plain. Yes. Okay. The poloos are very comfortable. The people who are comfortable with the floral prints, but they are very comfortable with the plain. So it's just a personal taste. So it's all about personalization, because it's your space at the end of the day. You want to feel at home, warm, cozy. Oh yeah. So going back to now, Posh Deco, what makes the company different? What makes your interior Deco company different from what we have in the market, so that I'm sure if I come to you, I might get something different? For me, as I say, it's also, it's more of a personal brand. It's, you'll be comfortable maybe dealing with me, because you're not going to deal directly with the fundies, because I will be the face of the company. So you talk to me, we agree, then I bring my staff on board, they deliver, and then you're happy with the process. Then the other thing is that we work at home, in your home. So we come to you, we say work on site. So we don't, we don't expect you at here, we come and see your things and like, no, bring them to their workshop. So what makes it very different is that we come to you and we go everywhere. We've gone to Kisumu, we've gone to Nakuru, we've gone to Naivasha. So we come to your space and we're there. So how many team, what's your team? My team, it depends because, okay, on site, we can go like four, we can have like, okay, but I've come to see when I have very many projects, it's crazy. I've tried to have like three going on at the same time and it's really, really crazy because, again, the client expects you to be there. If they see something, this is not right, they won't talk to them, they'll talk to me. I don't like this, I don't like this. So the team can go up to 20, but mostly I work with four. What's some of your achievements looking back and do you, you're so proud of what you, what you accomplished? What I'm proud of is that I've been able to hang in there, I think, from 2013, which has been difficult, but it has also been very fulfilling. My first year was 2018, 2019. Those years were when everything just opened up and I got very many clients. The other thing that I also am happy about is that I also got to learn how to navigate the social media, especially Facebook, how do you get clients out of it and also the digital space. The other thing that I'm also happy about is that I am doing what God blessed me with and I'm becoming a blessing to people. And also, yeah, because the other thing that we say like even the COVID times, if I get a business, I'm not only feeding myself, I am feeding five other families. So there are people who, if I'm not working, they won't get anything. So you've also blessed many people in their process. Then also making clients happy, and really enjoy into their homes. You mentioned something very important that during this time we learned how to navigate social media, Facebook, share the nuggets of wisdom plays. You know what's your attempt when you're sharing, because if you go through my page, I don't just put photos, these are narration, because I've also had research. So when I'm talking about a color or I'm talking about a certain piece, I describe it. So there's that. Then there's, I show the process. You know most of the times you can go take photos from other places and put them up. So, but this I got from a client. There's a client who told me, you page, that's a better thing that was 277. He's like, hey, your photos, I really looked for you. But I think what you need to do for you to grow, you need to show the process. So you found it at looking like this, and you show that your people are working on it. Oh, before and after. Yes, before and after, but they're in between. As in has it been stripped? How has it been done? And then people will see, yeah, it is real. It is not just something that you've posted. Awesome. Okay, sorry. Continue. It's okay. So that's one. And then now boosting. There's something, there's Facebook boost, where you boost your posts. And the, and when you boost, that's when there's a lot of attention that you get. Because they go, as in when you open your Facebook page, you know, there's that whatever the one that is written sponsored, that's boosting that somebody behind it who has boosted it. And then Facebook takes it to the right people. What's some of the challenges that you have faced? The challenges is the managing, managing people, managing the workforce, and also even clients. You know, people are different. And there are people even like, because this work is a skilled, it's a skilled labor. Absolutely. Me, I'm not skilled. So me, I'm more of the concept, the creative and all that, but it's somebody who's going to do it. So you find some of these guys, you try and correct them, it becomes beef. They don't want to change anything. They feel offended. And you're trying to show them. Then also telling them, as in trying to change their mindset to, it's not just finishing the work. It has to be fine. It has to be fantastic. Attention to details. As in that corner, that nail, have you done it? Are they consistent? As in, are they, we even measure, we use, is it one inch from one to the next? You know, small, small details. And interesting enough in this business, people don't bother with what you've done. It will take you two days, three days, it's okay. But as long as what I see is appealing to my eyes, and what's the final product, it has to be very detailed. Yes. Okay. Many industries have been affected with COVID-19. And I don't know about into the day, considering that most people right now, we have too much time to ourselves. So maybe we'll learn to change our space. Be looking at my house, I want to change this, I want to change that. How's the business been? The first two, let's say the first two, two, three months, let's say from March, April, May, it was quiet. Because at that time everybody was maintaining social distance. They were all locked up in their houses. Even I was locked up because they were wondering, where are you going? So for that, the three months you are just there, you're surviving on what you've saved up. From that June, yeah, the same thing. What you said, yeah, guys know, they can tell their friend, you need to repair your seats. Yeah, he told me, I've stayed at home, I've looked at that seat, it needs work. So yes, it opened up because not everybody was like, I need to change this, I need to change my curtains, I need to do this. Guys were moving out again because of the economy. People have moved houses. So you move to a smaller house, how do I take it down? How do I, I've gotten requests for people, can I offload as in, can I sell? Now the problem is that we don't buy, we don't buy old seats. Yes. All right, you mentioned something quite interesting, but you said, my desire is to overcome fear of an ordinary life. Tell us more about that. Yes, that's what I was saying about employment. When you're in employment, you're just living an ordinary life. You're living the comfort zone. It's good, it works. But I want to do more. I want more from life. I want to, to explore things that I didn't know I could do. As you know, we've been given our imagination you think out of the box. And for you to make millions, if I'm thinking of dreaming of millions, that means I have to really put myself out there in a place that I don't know. But what I've learned or what I've read, interesting enough, you don't think about the how. And I think that's how I ended up in this business. You need to know the where and the what. The how happens. It comes to you. Okay. And then there's also what I was, what I was writing my thoughts today in the morning. A quote from Teddy Roswet that he says, do what you can with what you have where you are. To be that whole view of speculative. Okay. Do what you can with what you have where you are. And let me tell you, for me that aim for me to stumble into this business. So you've left employment. So you're wondering what to do. So yes, I had a car. Do you know, you're told God uses what you have in your hands. So there was this guy who was doing creative work and he was getting clients. But he was always using taxi. So I told him, why are you using a taxi? See you call me. I'll drive you. And then you pay me. And I got money from it. I was thinking, okay, your answers are with you. They are within you. You just need to tap with it. You just need to tap within yourself. And then it's the thing is, let's look at even this COVID station. And I think that's where as a nation or even as a world and for the youth especially, you in this situation, we cannot control anything. We don't know how long this thing will go on. We've just been told adjust and learn to live with it. So you just need to know that you're the one who makes the choice. So I will choose how to react to this space or to this situation. And then you do what you can with what you have where you are. Yes. I like that. I really don't like that. What is the future of Porsche Deco? The future is my dream is to have, you know, you see it Mombasa Road, those showrooms and all that. Oh, yeah, I see the showroom. I want to have one like that. That would be amazing. Yes. Yes. That is Kenyan. But you know, we are doing to produce our own, you know, Kenyan, you buy Kenyan and you make Kenyan. So we'll do it here. You know, sort of like all the, I think all the shops or then ends and all that, they bring in as in their, they are made in China, then they come and assemble them here. And that's why they expensive. But yeah, we can still replicate that. But as I've said, it's just the final details, attention to detail and make it fantastic. All right. And it's actually way easier for a client to to be able to visualize whatever they want with whatever they actually can see in the showroom. Yes. Yes. How can you guys work it and find you on social media? They can find me on Facebook. It's called, my page is called Posh Deco and the Posh Tree Services on Instagram. It's Posh.254. All right. Amazing. So guys, that's all Marta Patini into Deco. Make sure you follow up with Carol Gekoyo and then she will be making up your space just the way you visualize it. And then you can actually get to see it in real life right now. Thank you very much. Thank you very much darling. We've learned a couple of things. Checking out your art and creativity. So then I will go into comments.