More Than Wallpaper | Mosaic & Co

This week on Double R Flo-Town, Robert and Reeves sit down with Leah Norwood and Courtney Bingham of Mosaic & Co, one of Florence's most unique and rapidly growing businesses.

What started with a friendship between two moms has grown into a thriving wallpaper installation company, design studio, and training center that is creating flexible career opportunities for women across the Carolinas.

Leah and Courtney share how they built Team Mosaic from the ground up, why wallpaper is experiencing a major comeback, the challenges of entrepreneurship, and how they're helping transform both homes and lives through meaningful work.

They also discuss Florence's future, supporting local businesses, balancing family and business ownership, and why building something bigger than yourself makes the hard work worth it.

Whether you're an entrepreneur, homeowner, design enthusiast, or simply someone who loves hearing local success stories, this episode is full of inspiration and practical wisdom.

00:00 Introduction to Team Mosaic
00:45 Why wallpaper is making a huge comeback
03:00 Building a training center and design studio
05:20 Design trends, textures, and personalization
06:25 How Leah discovered wallpaper installation
08:15 The trampoline park conversation that launched Team Mosaic
09:20 Why their partnership works so well
11:30 Creating opportunities for women and mothers
12:40 Growing a team of installers across the Carolinas
14:50 The realities of large-scale wallpaper installation
16:10 What makes Team Mosaic different
18:15 Marketing, growth, and attracting customers
20:45 From first phone call to finished installation
24:30 What Florence needs to grow and thrive
27:35 The challenges of being women business owners
30:40 Finding purpose beyond wallpaper
32:15 Flexibility, family, and building a meaningful business
33:20 Closing thoughts and laundry room wallpaper debate

Transcript

Welcome And Wallpaper’s Comeback

SPEAKER_04 0:12

Double R Flow Town. We have Team Mosaic with us today. Leah and Courtney, thank you so much for coming.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 0:20

We've been talking about this for a while.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

I know. We have. We're excited to do it.

SPEAKER_04 0:23

I thought it was last month. And I called Fields. He's like, um, Leah's on the way to Columbia.

Reeves 0:29

And I was like, oh I was on the way here. And Leah was on the way to Columbia.

SPEAKER_04 0:34

But we finally made it. Yeah, I know. I know you guys are super busy. And this is kind of the busy time, right?

SPEAKER_03 0:41

It's always busy. Oh, it's always busy. But right now it's just busy. Yes. Yes. It's a little crazy.

Reeves 0:46

We're going to get into it, and maybe I should start with this question. But as a guy, I've got when did wallpaper come back in vogue?

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Um it well, you know, it was huge in like late 80s, 90s. And then we went to that kind of minimalistic, all white and lands, gray. We're glad that phase is behind us. Um, I would say probably about five years ago it came, it came back with the vengeance, but now it's it's booming. It's booming. And I don't think it's going anywhere. No. The papers are so different than what they used to be, and it's so cool. And they're not even papers. Some of them are like truly like it's art for your walls. So there's so many options.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

And now it's it's not everyone trying to do the same thing, like in the 80s and 90s. It's really the designers and we're just more individualized. Like, what do you like? Yeah. And you know, so everyone's there's so many options out there, and everyone's picking different things. So I think it's gonna last. It changes around.

SPEAKER_04 1:41

It changes. Absolutely.

Reeves 1:43

Completely all I know is last weekend I was taking down shelves in a laundry room because we're gonna wallpaper the laundry room.

SPEAKER_03 1:49

Absolutely love right place to wallpaper.

Reeves 1:52

We know some installments. I guess I'm well, I think she's going to talk to you.

SPEAKER_04 1:56

Yes, good, good, good, good. Anyway, you just roll with it, Reeves. You don't ask questions, right? That's what I'm trying to do.

Reeves 2:04

You let them pick it out. I'm trying, Robert. I'm trying to just love it. You just feel joy when you walk in the rest. This is a laundry room. What are we doing?

SPEAKER_01 2:12

But it's a little bit of that's what we get a lot of men too that have had to take old paper down. Yeah, and they're like, we're not doing that.

SPEAKER_03 2:20

And we're like, uh, we get it, but it's you know, I always tell people though, like, wallpaper is on fire right now. Let's just say we have a 15, 20 year run. Get it now so you can enjoy it for that 15 or 20 years. Don't wait till 10 years from now in the middle of the trend, and you're on the edge of like having to go back to whatever, you know?

SPEAKER_04 2:42

Yeah. So the next person's gonna deal with it.

SPEAKER_03 2:44

Yeah, the next person's gonna deal with it. That's right. Yes.

SPEAKER_04 2:47

There you go. So you guys set up the new shop on West Palmetto, it's right down from our office. So it's awesome. It looks so good.

Why Wallpaper Works In Small Rooms

SPEAKER_03 2:55

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04 2:55

Thank you. And so you have a whole training facility inside of that. Yes, we do.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

So that's actually why we wanted that space to begin with, because we were training our installers in our clients' homes, and we quickly realized it's only four corners in a room. We only, and when you're dealing with a certain amount of paper, it's very expensive. And so we realized we needed a training center, and we saw that building, loved the windows. Like we obviously knew it needed some TLC, but yeah, but it's humongous. And so, like, we do we do the back for the training center, and then that we're like, well, we have all this space, we might as well make a studio in the front, and that's how we started with the studio.

SPEAKER_03 3:36

Okay, yeah, and it just kept rolling, you know. It's like we have so much space, we're gonna have wallpaper. Oh, well, let's add fabric. You know what? Let's add ferro and ball paint. You know what? Let's add some tile, let's do custom roads because we have so much room. I mean, we still have sponsor room.

Reeves 3:52

Yeah, so when someone walks in to mosaic,

The New Mosaic Studio And Training Center

Reeves 3:55

what are they going to see?

SPEAKER_03 3:56

All those things, all those things. So if you know, if they come in and they just want wallpaper, that's great. But if they come in and they're wanting to redo a whole room, like we have all the things, or if they wanted to redo a whole house. We had a client um the other day that came from Clipson, South Carolina, and she was like, we don't have anything like that, like this, even in Greenville. So she drove all the way here to like put together some stuff with her new house. And before she left, I was like, was it worth the drive? Because I mean, that's a drive, right? Yeah, yeah. And she was like, absolutely. And I was like, Yay, we're doing it. We got all the good stuff, you know. So we're just we want women. Uh, we work with a lot of designers on our install side, like, you know, 70 plus designers. So we like really support them. And we're not, we are not designers, we are not trying to be designers, but not everyone's in the budget to be able to hire a designer. And some people just want to do things that they like and don't want a designer. So we kind of want a space where someone can come in and pick pretty things and it be within their budget and just one-stop shop kind of thing.

SPEAKER_04 4:56

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 4:57

That's awesome.

Reeves 4:58

And and so we've already talked a little bit about the the trend moving away from the neutrals and the whites and things like that. So what are you what are you seeing with that, especially maybe with like are you talking to any contractors about new construction, or is all this so personalized and and higher end that it's not really mass produced at that level yet?

SPEAKER_01 5:23

I mean, we don't deal, we deal with some contractors, we definitely do with more designers, and they're they're focused on the aesthetic of the inside. We don't have some of the contracts are like, y'all figure that out. You that's yeah, you know. Um but you know, I mean, I think you see some people still want neutrals, but the cool thing now is they can come in and get a neutral grass cloth and add texture, like it's about layering and textures, even if you want a neutral home. There's really options for literally everyone now, which is a really cool thing.

SPEAKER_03 5:54

Crazy, exciting. There is crazy exciting paper. If you want neutral, there's I mean, the the options are really endless. I mean, all the wallpaper companies that were around in the 80s and 90s are still around, plus, all of these other companies have you know been developed and grown. And so, like, there's just the options are endless. You can a hundred percent find something you love, and that's what we tell our customers like, don't settle for something you just like because there is something out there you will love.

Reeves 6:23

Yeah, oh that's cool because it's it's just endless. So let's take a step back. And how did y'all get into this space? And where what's your background? And tell us a little bit about that. Don't forget.

unknown 6:34

Yeah.

A One Stop Shop For Finishes

SPEAKER_01 6:35

Our daughters were like, You better mention that we're the reason you know each other. So our daughters met at school in the playground, and that's how we met.

SPEAKER_04 6:44

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 6:45

Um, but kind of rewind uh it was 2022. I had closed my clothing store. I wanted to put some wallpaper in our home. I used pill and stick, which we laugh about because it's like the band. So bad we won't hang it anymore because it's terrible. But it I thought it would be everyone thinks it'll be easy. They have a great marketing plan, right?

SPEAKER_03 7:03

They do, so it's easy, DIY. You can do it, it won't mess up your walls again.

SPEAKER_01 7:06

No, it is it's awful. It's awful, it's awful and harder to hang, honestly. And so, but I started with that and put it on social media so people saw that I was doing it. And then at the same time, my in-laws were buying a home in Charleston and had a lady that had been hanging for 30 years that was hanging their wallpaper, and she agreed to let me come just like watch her. And I watched her and I was like, I can do this, like I can totally do this. I was an art major, like I love detailed stuff. Like, I've I've just always enjoyed working with my hands, and so I had some friends and family let me do it in their homes to kind of experiment, put that online on social media, and then I had people who just started kind of clicking. I mean, literally within two to three months, I was working like full-time wallpaper. Like, I mean, it was the demand was there. Wow, and that was twenty twenty twenty-two, twenty twenty-three, and we were friends, we had met and become friends, and um, you know, I was working like a dog, and it's so funny we laugh because Courtney's like, don't stop doing that. You do that so much. You're like, you're working all the time, like stop. And I look at us today. I know, and I've and I had several times where it came up in in me, like, you should do you should do something more with this. It's been such a blessing to you, but I just kind of like pushed it down because I'd just gotten out of a business and I was like, I don't know if I want to do that again. And then I was installing one year ago in May at a huge project, and it was, I literally like felt the Lord lay it on my heart, like, Leah, it's time to stop being scared. Like, this could change so many women's lives. You have to do this. But I was like, Okay, I wanted to do it, you know. And so we were at the trampoline park on a play date. On a play date, like a week later, and I immediately came home and talked to Fields and my mom, and they were like, Oh, you know, I mean, they were supportive, but it was like, how are we logistically gonna do this? And we were talking at the trampoline park, and I was like, I just feel like I have to do this, but I don't want to do it by myself. It's you know, and Courtney's like, Well, what if I did it with you? And so she was like, I'll do all the parks that you ate. Do all the parks you ate because I actually love that stuff. She loves that part. So, and then literally two weeks later, we had our LLC and we just haven't stopped since. So it's a really cool story. And our girls did bring us together,

Texture Over All White Interiors

SPEAKER_01 9:20

our friendship, and so that's a really cool part of it. That is very sweet. So it is, it's a it's a neat, and now we're later.

SPEAKER_03 9:29

Yeah, we're very different though. You know, Leah's very creative, and I'm more very uh structured and the back end of stuff. So we're two sides of a coin, which is really yeah, it works really well. Like, I don't really get in her avenue, she doesn't get in out my avenue. Like, we give each other opinions and stuff, but like we we don't want to do each other's job, which is really that's how successful businesses work. Like we have zero desire to do the other person's stuff.

Reeves 9:56

You know, you know your strengths, you know your weaknesses. Yeah, like and I knew that going in.

SPEAKER_01 10:01

I was like, I don't like to do the money stuff, the back end, that stuff. Like it's I have PTSD from that. And so it's like it is recognizing your weaknesses and knowing, okay, well, we balance each other out with strengths and weaknesses, and it really works. It really works.

SPEAKER_03 10:15

It's I can't imagine um it being successful, like if I had someone else, you know. Like I honestly just think it's like yeah, it's us that makes it work. And Leah is a super hard worker, I'm a super hard worker, and like we just are get things done, kind of women. And so it has been a year of getting things done, getting things done, and it, you know, yeah, it has been a crazy year, but like you'll look back though, you'll look back and say, that was crazy, but man, we that building this business phase was so fulfilling.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Right. I've had so many people tell me that, you know, because sometimes we're like, what are we doing?

SPEAKER_03 10:52

What are we doing? This is a lot.

SPEAKER_01 10:54

I'm tired. I'm tired, but it is like when you're in the trenches like that. I think you look back and you're like, those it's kind of like with those are the days like when the kids are small too. Like those are the best building something meaningful and doing it. And yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:08

Then later on when you've made it and you're like, Well, I've made it now. What? Now what?

SPEAKER_00 11:12

Yeah, the building.

SPEAKER_04 11:15

The building is the fun. The building is the fun. It is. Yeah, it's so cool. I want to, you know, I've been thinking a lot about this too, Leah. God puts the right people in your life when you're doing the right things, the right people come in your life. Like Reeves came into my life at the right time, and there's a bigger purpose for it than just the business side.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Right. Oh, and we we talk about that with our with our installers, like just some of the women that we would have never met that have come in and they they tell us all the time how much this business has blessed them, but we're like, you're blessing us. Like, this is like a it's a it's a wonderful thing.

SPEAKER_03 11:50

Like it's yeah. We uh, you know, that was part of our mission of wanting to do this, not just starting a company, but the fact that we, I mean, Leah was making great money, still spending time with her child, still homeschooling her child. Like the business was in plethora. So it was like, how do we give that to other women that might even be like us? Um, so we we now homeschool our girls, um, which we had done that before the business. Um, but you know, other women that maybe homeschool their kids or just want, you know, spend time with their kids, the flexibility and still be able to work and make money and do good things. And so as we've gotten to know our installers, and then you know, when when we have moments of where we're talking and just getting to the heart of things, like we do begin to realize like we really it's so much bigger.

SPEAKER_04 12:37

How many do you have now? How many installers?

SPEAKER_03 12:39

We have 10.

SPEAKER_04 12:40

Wow, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 12:41

And they're located, um, they don't all live here. Okay. So we have a few that live in Florence, but then we have Raleigh, Greenville, you know, so you just see that growing.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

We do. Yeah. I mean, we're right now we're focused on North

How Leah And Courtney Started Mosaic

SPEAKER_01 12:55

and South Carolina because there's just a ton. I mean, the demand is there and it's getting our installers to where they feel confident and ready. Because it's hard. I mean, it takes time to work up to certain levels of the wallpaper.

SPEAKER_03 13:06

Yeah, we take women from scratch. So we look for a particular type of woman, and then we look for the location that we're wanting to go into. So we look for women that are already creatives. You know, Leah was already a creative, that's why it was easy for her, right? So already a creative of some sort. They have to be physically fit. You have to be doing physical things in your normal everyday life. Yeah, you cannot be a couch potato like myself. You have got to like have some endurance, some stuff. You yeah, it's hard on your body. So we look for women like that, and then we look for women that have flexibility.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 13:38

And then from the interviewing process, when we choose someone, she starts them from like basic 101 and grows them through uh, we have the training center, and then they begin to do installs with her, and then they go out on their own on simple installs, and then they end up like the installer that we has been with us the longest who can do just about anything Leah can do. So, and that's only taken a year, but Leah like follows along with them and train like trains them up and and works on them on their weaknesses and you know just slowly gets them to where they can do more and more and more and feel more confident.

SPEAKER_04 14:13

I bet you can tell pretty quick, yeah, this is gonna work, or no, this this works. We had a couple of things though.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

You can tell the people that are gonna um kind of get it and run with it and naturally be better. But we have girls that have started slower that are excellent in scholars now. So everybody we tell them don't there's no pressure to be as fast as me or this person, like you have to do it on your own and just do it right. Yes. And I mean, I wish I would have had like we tell them, like, you you're not in this alone. Like you get they can call me and you know they're having issues, and they do in FaceTime, and like we laugh because I'm like, what was I doing? Like she did it without a what am I doing?

Reeves 14:50

Like, you know, you you're training these women and you're sending them to install and they're on ladders, and I mean, is it that kind of thing? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Okay, we haven't listened we have a scaffolding, we've been doing two-story four years, and that is not for the faint of heart. I look over that thing and I'm like, what are we doing with that? What are we doing? But then you see a wall that's like nobody, we're also capitalizing on a market that nobody does because a lot of the wallpaper installers are older and they're not doing that. Wow, then so we're doing these huge four-years, and we're safe. Like, we have a lot of safety precautions in place. We do it right very see. That's my second one. That's your style.

SPEAKER_03 15:28

So that's me and my side is making sure we have all the things that we need to make sure that they are all safe. On really big installs like that. I like to go on the first day and just make sure.

SPEAKER_04 15:37

Are they wearing a harness connected to the thing?

SPEAKER_01 15:39

They don't really like the harnesses, but we do have the railings and that's it's very it's the best scaffolding you can get. And you climb up the inside of it, so you're not climbing up the outside, and I'm up there, I'm the first one up there to make sure it's good.

Reeves 15:53

But they're on steps with scaffolding and all, yeah, but yeah, but it's so y'all designed this business, and one of the things you said early on that fascinated me is this client coming from the Greenville area to Florence. So there's not a lot of people out there doing what y'all do, from you know, helping them pick out the design and and the different paper. There's a related right.

SPEAKER_03 16:19

There's a wallpaper store at the beach that's been around for a really long time, but she just I think focuses mostly on wallpaper. And and her uh brands are aren't as many as us. And then I think there's a wallpaper store in Greenville, and they have a good bit of brands, but that it's just wallpaper as well. So, like to have, yeah, what we have with the studio, the wallpaper, the selection. I mean, we carry ridiculous

A Mission To Create Flexible Work

SPEAKER_03 16:45

amount of brands, and then the feral and ball paint and the fabrics and all of that. Like, no one, no one in South Carolina. Now, if you go to Charleston, there are big showrooms that do that kind of thing. Um, but it it's a lot of a lot of the brands will have their own showroom, so it's just that brand. Um, whereas ours, we we bring in all the brands that we enjoy and like, and even if we don't like them, we'll bring them in, you know.

Reeves 17:07

And it sounds, I mean, it sounds like a complete turnkey operation that you've created, you know.

SPEAKER_01 17:12

We try, we hope. Well, yeah, and we offer we do consults as well because some people don't want to go the designer out because it's a huge investment, but they need help. And so we do help with some of those choices and offer different levels of that. But okay, we want it to be fun because you're decorating your home. This is where you're gonna have to live. But it the decision fatigue is real. People get really overwhelmed, they're spending a lot of money. So we kind of just want it to be fun. We want to make it fun for people and help them, you know, pick and not be so overwhelming.

SPEAKER_03 17:42

We also allow designers to come into our space. Yeah. So I mean, we have this big, huge studio with all these things that we have brought in, and it we we're fine with that. If they're if they're gonna use us for the install, if they want to bring their clients in and use our books and memos and samples and resources, we're happy. We have we have a few in town that that come. Yeah, uh, we have a designer in Atlanta that is has a client in Florence, and he's gonna come, and so we're we're happy to share the spaces there, you know what I mean.

Reeves 18:13

Do you find that the public just they find you or are you having to do some marketing?

SPEAKER_03 18:18

We have not done any marketing yet for the studio. I mean, we do social media a good bit. Yeah, I mean, social media. And we did a little bit of print um advertising for the install side this year. Uh April was our first one.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

Yeah. Um, they're in bigger cities, yeah. These beautiful kind of books that you can put on your coffee tables and stuff. It's our it's a it's a great client. It's uh yeah, the people that they they send the books to.

SPEAKER_03 18:44

Um we haven't advertised the studio at all.

SPEAKER_04 18:46

Wow, yeah. It's cool though. So I mean, Florence is the headquarters and Florence kind of makes sense. It's nice.

SPEAKER_03 18:54

I mean at first it was kind of like, is this too big for Florence? Is this something that can be successful? Because you know, Florence struggles with businesses sometimes, but we were like, you know what? Our designers that we utilize are in Columbia and at the beach, and we're kind of that midway, you know. So we felt like it was worth we had the space, so we felt like it was worth trying to give Florence in the area.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

And and we've had a great response, people this is here, you know, there's nothing like this around where you can come in and pick all these different things, so it's been good to get that feedback. It's been great and have people be excited about it. It's been great pretty quickly.

Reeves 19:28

What you said about Florence being in the middle, that's one of the things I think is so strategic about Florence, and we talk about that on the podcast pretty much every episode is we're not where anyone necessarily wants to go, but we're a strategic location where a lot of people can get there quickly.

SPEAKER_03 19:45

Exactly. Drive two hours and you're in a, you know, yeah, yeah. I've had a couple of clients, like the the one that came from Clemson, and one I was just talking to the other day, I was like, come spend a couple hours in the studio, I'll give you a local restaurant to go eat at, and then you can head back home. And they're like, Okay.

Reeves 20:04

And we've got excellent restaurants.

SPEAKER_03 20:05

We do, we have excellent local restaurants that they wouldn't be able to get in their hometown. And I mean, who doesn't love to eat?

SPEAKER_04 20:11

Where do y'all send them usually? What restaurant? Tubs, thing cafe.

SPEAKER_03 20:16

I like tubs, I like Starfire, I like Victor's, I like even um Redbone because it's just a cool different vibe. So you know, we give them a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 20:26

They could about walk to SC Real Foods from your place. That's what we do. We walk over there all the time.

Reeves 20:32

I don't think their clients are walking.

SPEAKER_04 20:33

Yeah, they're probably not walking. They're probably not walking.

Reeves 20:36

Yeah, not ever that crazy.

SPEAKER_03 20:41

That is why the frame trains the stuff we see. We're just like, what is happening?

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Yeah, yeah.

Reeves 20:48

So when someone calls, take us through someone's watching this podcast right now and they're like, I didn't know this existed, or I did know it existed, and but I hadn't called yet. So take us through introductory phone call to getting the paper on the wall.

SPEAKER_03 21:01

What how does that look like when we talk about like our business? We kind of have two sides of things. You know, we have the studio, but then we have the install. Our main business is

Training Installers And Staying Safe

SPEAKER_03 21:10

the install side. So if someone was to call for an install, they would call our number, they would talk to me. And so from there, I discuss our process. And if it's a designer, the process with them is a little bit different than if it was just a normal person calling. Um, so I walk them through that. We get numbers, we go back and forth a good deal. You know, I tell them the price and then we I I schedule it. And what I do, I'm really I'm the logistics of making sure that the installer is appropriate for the paper. Because like I said, we have different installers on different levels depending on how long they've been with Lear, what projects they've done. Um, so I'm very focused on making sure that we pair the right paper with the right installer A for them because I want them to be successful and be encouraged and not make a mistake and then all of a sudden they're defeated. Yeah. And then the paper's expensive. And I don't want to have to replace it. So no one ever has to worry about me pairing someone that can't do the can't do it and do a good job. Um, because I will not do that because I don't want to make a have a bad experience for a client, an installer, or our pocketbook. So that's a big part of what I do is just making sure that um all of that goes together. And I do that for the designers. I do that for, you know, Sarah who calls from Timminsville. Um, and then we have the studio side where people will call and say, hey, how do I get help finding my paper? And then we just tell them our hours and we also do appointments. So we don't have huge come in anytime hours. We do Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 11 to 4, and we feel like that's good. We would expand it if we felt like we needed it more if those if we weren't meeting the needs. Um, but we also, if someone calls and says, Hey, can you meet me on a Tuesday? Absolutely. You know, we're just not gonna sit up there all day on a Tuesday, we're gonna go on Tuesday at the appointment time. Um, so then I just talked to them about coming in and what we offer, and then from there they pick their stuff and then we get measurements and we do calculations, we tell them how much paper, and then we quote them and da da da da and then we steps.

SPEAKER_01 23:08

It's a lot of steps, but yeah, it's a lot of quote them and it's not a come in, pick up something and leave.

SPEAKER_03 23:13

Most, yeah, it's not we do have some rolls ready um to pick up. We keep very few in studio like that. We keep a handful for someone that's like, I need a bathroom done like tomorrow. Um, most of our stuff has got to be ordered, but we have some brands that ship literally to your doorstep in three days. So um, and we we talk about all that with the clients when they come in. Like, how quickly are you needing to get this done? Is this a renovation? Is this a new build? Is this just a redo of your bathroom, your kitchen? So a lot of conversations, um, a lot of back and forth, and then but it's like boom, boom, boom, you know?

SPEAKER_04 23:46

That's awesome. Yeah, that's really cool.

SPEAKER_03 23:48

We're there from the beginning to the end.

SPEAKER_04 23:49

You guys are doing great. My mom's been following you for a while. She's for years. That Leah Norwood, she's she you gotta you gotta see what she's doing, Robert. Oh, so yeah, we've been following along, and it's cool to see. Here's one question I always like asking, kind of to wrap it up somewhat, but you know, especially from young business leaders in Florence, and especially ones that like beauty and things getting nicer, because that's what I I thrive off of good looking things, you know. That's that's how I thrive. And when I drive through Florence, I'm not thriving right now. So, what do we need to do? What do we need to do? Like, what are some realistic things we can do to make Florence better and more beautiful?

SPEAKER_02 24:36

That's a good question.

SPEAKER_01 24:37

I one thing, having owned a high-end women's clothing store, I feel like with Florence, there's plenty of money here. People have the money to spend. Yeah, but there's this mindset of well, if I go to Charlotte or New York or Charleston, I can buy the same

From First Call To Paper On Walls

SPEAKER_01 24:55

dress there, but I maybe don't want to spend that in Florence because it's Florence. Same with like a nice steak at like Victor's, like it's the same exact steak at Hall's. Yeah, there's something about people, and I think on the whole, we have to change that mindset of Florence if we want Florence to grow.

SPEAKER_03 25:10

Pour our money into Florence.

SPEAKER_01 25:11

Like, if you want nice, more nice restaurants, more nice establishments, we have to be able to willing be willing to spend the money here. I know to stand Florence when I had my store, is that people there's something about that they don't want to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_04 25:25

A lot of the money for Moose's Thursday afternoon, they're hauling but the Charleston, to Charleston, Charlotte, the beach, the mountains.

Reeves 25:34

We say that all the time. The money leaves on the weekend, and what I hear you saying is we gotta help people invest here.

SPEAKER_03 25:42

Well, and yeah, to keep the businesses that start like being able to be successful and stay.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

Small business is hard, you know. Support small businesses, and we have to pour into our town if we want our town to flourish.

SPEAKER_04 25:55

Because just the the storefront that you guys did on West Palmetto makes that part of West Palmetto look better. Yes, it really does. And that corridor from I-95 back into town. Now we got public, it's it's getting there. It's getting there. We got MUSC coming, that's gonna feel better. We're trying to make our office look good. That we need these corridors looking better. Yes, and we got to do some landscaping too, something. And and we'll get there.

SPEAKER_01 26:24

We'll get there. It takes time. All that stuff. It takes time, and there's a lot of people pouring into Florence and time, money, resources.

SPEAKER_04 26:31

So, you know, I mean it's Fields made me feel good last week. I'm like, is is downtown gonna happen? He said, It's gonna happen, Robert.

Reeves 26:38

Oh yeah, and I, you know, it's already happening, but it's continuing to grow.

SPEAKER_04 26:42

It's happened, but it feels kind of like it's stagnated a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

It's gotta keep going.

SPEAKER_04 26:48

We got this block's pretty good now. Let's and and that's starting to happen.

Reeves 26:52

It is Friday afternoon. My son Tate, my youngest one, did a career week at McLeod this past week, and they had a graduation at Pointer Friday afternoon. And Rebecca and I took him to dinner Friday evening. We kept the cars parked at Pointer. We walked a couple of blocks downtown, ate dinner, and walked back. And that felt good. It works, it works well, you know. And um that's nice. We've just got to continue, like you said, encourage people to keep who live here to keep doing that type of thing.

SPEAKER_01 27:23

Yeah, yeah, because plenty of people that live here have the resources to spend the money here, you know. So I mean, it's it's just a matter of them doing it.

SPEAKER_04 27:30

So that's right. That's right. Yeah, that's awesome. Well, thank you all so much for coming. I got one more question.

Reeves 27:36

I mean, we've only had a few ladies on the podcast, and you two business owners. Um, I mean, what's it like just to kind of as a small business owner, as a woman, what are what's that like? Do you have any unique hurdles or any challenges that you feel like you've encountered because of that?

SPEAKER_01 27:59

I mean, I think as women, no offense to to men, but as women, we feel like we have to do it all all the time. Be moms, be wives. Oh, yeah, and but also we're being business owners too. So I think we struggle the most with the balance with our families and our kids, with our kids, but we're driven and we want to build something of our own.

Reeves 28:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:20

And the mom guilt, it's a constant thing.

SPEAKER_03 28:22

I mean, it's we are yeah, we both have only children. So I have one little girl, she has one little girl, and you know, they love their mamas. And and my little girl was used to having me home for eight years, and so this business has been a real struggle for her, which then causes the mom guilt. So, yeah, that's probably the biggest struggle for me.

SPEAKER_04 28:42

Think about the flip side of your girls seeing what you're doing. Right.

SPEAKER_03 28:46

And that and Leah's very good at reminding me of that because I my my child is just, I mean, 24-7 mama, you know, like she's

Making Florence More Beautiful Locally

SPEAKER_03 28:55

she doesn't like to be independent alone. She wants to be with me all the time. And I love her for it, but I can't because I'm also like I I enjoy work, so I get hyper-focused and I I want to get things done, and that works great, and that's why we are where we are a year in, because I can do that, but then I I have the guilt with her, which I don't think fathers have to deal with as much.

SPEAKER_01 29:17

They do somewhat as they get older, and you know, I mean, I think it is they don't understand now. They don't, but I can speak to this with my mom. When you watch your mom build something, but also be a present mom, you're teaching them things that they don't even that'll serve them the rest of the year. They can they can do both, like we can't do it all and not burn out, but we can do multiple things, you know.

Reeves 29:40

That's the key. You said be a present mom, and that's what's so hard. And I've I've kind of felt this actually a little bit, obviously not as a woman, but as a man, you know, I've been in real estate for three years selling real estate, and it's primarily a female industry. Right, okay, and maybe people don't want me to say that, but it's primarily a female industry, but I have recognized I have some unique advantages as a man that moms and lady generally moms, they have your attention's got to be more divided than my attention does as a man. I get to go to work and I can focus on work. My wife can kind of try to juggle everything that she's having to juggle. Yeah, yes. And I've I've felt that, you know, on the flip side. Um, so I I don't get what you're saying, but I get what you're saying.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

Well, the fact you recognize it too for your wife, that's huge. Yeah, it is great that you're that's great.

Reeves 30:38

You know, I mean, it's just it's just between men and women. There's an advantage I have being a man in running a business. I feel that.

SPEAKER_01 30:45

And that's what sometimes we'll vent and we'll be like, why are we doing this? This is so hard. But then we always go back to our why and our women that work for us. And I get chills thinking about some of the things they've said to us about thing, I don't know what I would do without this opportunity right now and come for my family. I get I just got chills thinking about it, you know, it makes me emotional. But it's like, all right, we're doing something so much bigger than just wallpaper, and we have to just keep moving forward.

SPEAKER_04 31:11

Hopefully, in a year or two, you'll scale and you'll get some people underneath you guys. Yeah. And then it's, you know, you'll get there.

SPEAKER_01 31:19

It will. And the right people will come at the right time. We've learned that, like, uh as far as God opening doors, he's opened some of the doors.

SPEAKER_03 31:26

We have a great team, and yes, and we do try to like pray about all of our decisions, and sometimes he shuts some doors. That's what I was about to say. If it doesn't happen, like you're like, you know what, we're okay with that. We are okay with that.

Reeves 31:38

So absolutely but but you providing a mom who desperately wants to be home, but she can work part-time and maybe bring a couple of thousand bucks into the home makes a huge difference for a family.

SPEAKER_03 31:52

Yeah, on your own time.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

They get to pick their days that they want to work.

SPEAKER_03 31:56

I mean, when I when I'm scheduling, it's hey, I've got an install, I need it between here and here. You tell me when you want to do it, and that's that's great as a mom, you know. Hey, that flexibility. You still get to go to the kids' presentations or you know, the

Mom Guilt And Women In Business

SPEAKER_03 32:10

special event or the soccer game, which is you don't have to miss that. Which is really huge.

Reeves 32:14

That's good job, ladies. Yeah, well done. Thanks. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

That's why we're we're doing this. That's at the core of all the all of this hard work. So and then we just like pretty things.

SPEAKER_03 32:24

It's fun. It's fun, it is fun, it's really fun. It's great for someone to come in and uh, you know, uh say, I love neutrals, I want a neutral bathroom. And then you start looking with her, and she walks out and she's got it. She's got it like the whole bathroom, a metallic with the bird room, and then navy blue dining room. It's like that's fun because you just see, oh, that just kind of changes this, and it's fun. It's where they find the one and they're like, you can just tell the one that's like the one, and we're like our stuff and looking and looked, and they see the one, and like everything changes, and that's just fun.

SPEAKER_04 32:58

That's just awesome. That is awesome. That's cool. I'm looking forward to Reeves's uh you're off laundry room.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

I know we are too. I'm awesome. You're like, I'm staying out of that.

Reeves 33:08

I'll write a check.

SPEAKER_01 33:09

I'll stay.

SPEAKER_02 33:10

There you go. That's yeah. It'll make you feel good. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Final Thoughts And Thanks

SPEAKER_02 33:17

It does.

SPEAKER_03 33:18

It makes you feel so much better than paint. It makes you feel it's really cool.

Reeves 33:22

I'll let you know.

SPEAKER_04 33:23

Yeah. Thank you guys. Keep up the good work.