Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Unscripted Small Business. I'm your host, Zanetta Chinikin Power, and I am here with Karen Aqua from Florida, owner of Joe Bell and Studio 131. We're going to learn a little bit more about her business today and talk more about her areas of expertise. Hello. Thank you for hopping on today.
[00:00:24] Speaker B: Hello. Thanks for having me.
[00:00:27] Speaker A: You are most welcome. So tell me a little bit more about your story. How did Joe Bell and Studio 131 come about? I'm so curious to learn more about your personal and creative journey into entrepreneurship.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Well, Studio 131 started off at this space in Largo that I was actually renting out for my dance instructing business. So I was teaching ballroom dancing. I. I have a past of I was a ballet dancer. I danced in New York City and London and all kinds of places.
And then once I moved to Florida and kind of retired from that, I started teaching ballroom dancing.
And there's a big market for that here.
And I just realized I couldn't work for anybody else. I'm terrible at that.
So I knew from day one that I was always an entrepreneur and that I needed to follow my heart, my dream, my gut, and my vision. And I always thought that was dancing and dancing forever. But as we grow up, our aches and pains and things and life changes us.
So we have to pivot.
So this particular pivot happened because I was leasing space from a woman who actually got brain cancer.
She was amazing. She was my mentor. I really looked up to her. She had so many different businesses and so many ideas all the time. And her venue was absolutely gorgeous.
She wanted to have like a photo studio, video studio, and all kinds of things happening in this beautifully renovated building. But I was the only one there because it was Covid and she had just finished her remodel. So she gave me this opportunity to completely take over for a really low cost.
And I had no idea how I was gonna pull that off because I was pregnant with Isabel, my first little girl. She's four now.
And my mom was actually had just passed away from cancer. So it was this really stressful, crazy moment in my life where I decided I could either wallow in grief and not start off my life as a mom, very positive, or I could do exactly what I think my mom would do and say just flip and go for it. And I did. And it was definitely the best move I ever made.
And as I got bigger and bigger and bigger in my pregnancy, I found it more Challenging to keep dancing.
So I started renting the space for weddings and the story then continues and starts to write itself.
[00:03:15] Speaker A: I really appreciate that you knowing yourself, knowing that the entrepreneurial spirit is your preference and it's so embedded in you that not only did you take an opportunity that was presented at what may have seemed like an awkward time and turned it into something that allowed for you to create something completely new.
Not just physically with having a child, but also as a business owner, being a woman owned business and transitioning that even to and event space. So I, I think that your mind is already creative and innovative and that is the type of expertise and energy needed right now. Where there's so many things happening in different industries and markets and the economy. Just the agility to be able to pivot to make your brick and mortar business do something that you may not have, have planned, but it, it's, it's how you allow your business to have new legs and new life when sometimes things are unexpected.
[00:04:15] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. I mean I would say the best things that have ever happened to me in my life were completely unexpected.
I can think of two really great ones.
Which brings me to Joe Bell actually.
Well, first off, the venue became very successful and I really fell in love with it, more so than I ever thought. And I stepped away from more of the teaching and danc and we moved into an even bigger and better space. So that's going really well. But of course there's me, the creative, right? And I was like, well, running a venue is more business and as I got more team members, it's all just running the business, which I love, I love that side of me. But the other side that used to dance and teach and be more creative and choreograph was really lacking. Right. I really had this like empty void and I started feeling burnout. So I sought help and I figured out what parts of the business I really love and what I absolutely need to start delegating.
It's the only way to grow, right? And as women, we want to do it all because we can see the whole picture. We care so much. We're so big hearted. We think like just because I can see it all, I can do it all myself. I don't need help.
Yes. Then I got pregnant with Joseph and Joseph, oh my goodness, he's so sweet. He's a year and a half now, but he made me slow down. I was so tired with him. So I had to hire more people, grow the team, which was terrifying and amazing. I love my team. I wouldn't trade them for anything. And I created Job, which is named after Joseph and Isabel, my two babies.
[00:06:09] Speaker A: Wonderful. Well, I.
Little Joseph is here and has enabled you to again, you know, use that energy into figuring out what's next and what's best for you. And what I've heard is that delegation was really important in that journey to scaling. What are some other factors and components of just being in that this critical step, you know, inflection point of your business that helped it grow?
[00:06:36] Speaker B: Well, I would say that most people quit when it's hard, and that's why businesses fail.
And I would say when you get to the point when you're truly terrified, first off, breathe.
It's always going to be okay. You started your business with nothing. More than likely, you're still going to be okay. Whether it goes according to plan or not, most of the time it does not. Because a business is designed with people in it and people are unpredictable. Life is unpredictable. And you have to be able to pivot and go with your gut. Your gut is your other brain. We have two brains, and some would say we have three brains. A heart brain, a gut brain, and the brain on top of your head.
You have to use them all. And I would say one of my biggest tools that I use is hypnosis. Actually, I started doing hypnosis when I started feeling that burnout and overwhelm. And it gets you into your subconscious and just a deeper level of thinking and it reminds you why you're here, why you're doing what you're doing and really focusing in on the core goals and not doing business just for the sake of making money. Because that's not the point of it. The point of it is to grow, be profitable, be, you know, share that prosperity and, you know, be able to change people's lives.
If you're not doing something you love, then you shouldn't be doing it at all. Or you should go work for someone else for sure.
[00:08:18] Speaker A: That's so funny. You know, I wholeheartedly believe in only doing work that you love. And so my mom would agree. When I was younger, she said, are you going to quit that job? I said, probably.
Probably.
I don't like it.
Now, as an entrepreneur, I feel the same way. You know, being able to put yourself into industries and connections and relationships to do the work that you enjoy.
And so as you are managing these two businesses, what do you look for in your industry partnerships when producing your larger scale weddings or luxury events? How is that ecosystem for you right now?
[00:09:01] Speaker B: Oh, it's Growing. And it's so exciting.
It's nerve wracking too because it's, you know, going into a bigger ship. Right. But ultimately it's the same stuff that we were doing on a smaller scale. It just requires a bigger team, better organization, and not settling. You can't settle for, for anybody on your team or in your circle. That is not amazing. In fact, we need to do that in our personal lives, in our, you know, our more intimate relationships and our business relationships. All of them. Keep that circle so inspiring all the time because that's what helps you grow. And I would say networking. When I first started doing this stuff, I was a little scared and thought that everyone was my competition. Cause I didn't know what I was doing.
So you're like, oh, I don't want them to figure out that I'm kind of like, you know, figuring this out as I go. But as you get more experience and you start really understanding and you start growing, you realize quite quickly that all of these people you network with, all of the people who are your competition, should be your best friends. They should all be in your corner.
I constantly am collaborating with all the different people in the same business, in really similar businesses. And the more you can collaborate and network and market together, you can design bigger and better packages.
And it all scales, it scales everybody up. Right. So instead of you doing a really small job by yourself with your like two people, you can do these massive, amazing events with huge budgets. Things that you would only dream of as a kid because you have an amazing, a team that you put together. So it's exciting.
Building those relationships.
[00:10:50] Speaker A: Exactly. Building the team and building those relationships is really the underpinning of everything that we're talking about in this, in this episode. So I would love to, you know, double down on that and share how venue owners and event planners can better collaborate with floral designers to elevate the guest experience.
What would you advise for, you know, experts in that industry to have better cross collaboration?
[00:11:19] Speaker B: Yeah. So again, it's just kind of getting out of your own way and realizing that you're not the only venue or you're not the only person in your special field.
So, you know, collaborating with like minded individuals will help you grow. And staying top of mind for people is really important because if, say, if my venue is not a good fit, Well, I have 10 venues that I work with regularly that I will always recommend to these clients coming in. So it's a way to constantly give each other business, pat each other on the back and grow I work with several different venues and one of my specialties is actually building packages.
So I take my team of amazing vendors and again I'm bringing everybody up with me. I go to these beautiful venues and I say, well, what do you specialize in? Okay, well we have a venue, we have tables and chairs and we offer food and beverage. Okay, well now you need a planner, you need a DJ, you need a photographer, a videographer, you need a 360 photo booth, you need beautiful decoration, you need florals, you need this, let's put it all in one big package. So when your client comes to you, you're not only just getting the venue price from them and the food and beverage, now you're getting everything they want. You're making it easier for the client and you're earning more profit because the more people you can hire on, you can actually pay.
You can pay for your own time as well, you know, so you can put your whole planning fee in there because you're coordinating everything and your time is valuable. That's what people forget to make sure that they account for their own time with business.
[00:13:04] Speaker A: Yeah, building yourself out of your business is something that I read in a book called the E Myth Mastery. I neglectfully don't remember the author's name, but the book is called the E Myth. The third book is called E Myth Mastery. And it is essentially what you just mentioned is building yourself out of the business so that you are operational if you will, but not just the everyday. Right. Eventually you want to have it to be self sustainable. So it sounds like you're building systems that would enable you to do that in the future. And so with that, as you're building this ecosystem, what are some systems and tools that you use to keep yourself organized as you scale?
[00:13:50] Speaker B: Well, I will say Google's my best friend. Google's amazing because it's a free way to keep yourself really organized. So I would say I probably create about 10 or 15 new Google Docs or forms or you know, some kind of Google somethings every single day. Always keeping a calendar. I live off the calendar. When you stack your whole week and frame it out and really make a solid plan for yourself, you don't have to sit, spend time every day getting to the office wondering what am I going to do today? And try and build your day as you go. That is not a successful way to plan. You should be planning for your whole month, your whole quarter, your whole year, your five year plan, like it should all be built out so you have a vision and that doesn't mean it's not going to change. It always changes. But the only way to achieve these goals is to make them. Some people are like, oh, I'm just going to go with the flow. Well, you're probably gonna be closed in a year or two because you're gonna run out of money and you don't have a focus.
Another thing that I like to do is just put post it notes on the things that are the most important because I do have a very overactive brain. Some call it adhd, I call it a gift from God.
But I know that my weaknesses require me to stay more organized. The calendars, the post it notes, having team members that back me up and having a solid morning routine. Because before my children wake up and before I have to deal with my team and before I have to do anything, I take care of myself and I come up with an amazing plan and I use chat. Chat and other AI tools is fantastic because it can take everything that I am trying to portray and organize it for me quickly. So it's like having another assistant.
Of course, always check its work because it is a robot. It is not a human. You must check the work.
Another wonderful tool is go high level CRM.
It's a beautiful thing, keeps everybody very streamlined. It's very organized. The amount of tools and accessibility available on that system is fantastic.
And I always surround myself with people who are better at things than I am.
I'm not afraid to do that. I know that the places where I'm weak and the places where I can really shine and I stay in my lane.
[00:16:25] Speaker A: Well, I love that. And speaking of staying in your lane, what gaps in the event industry are you solving right now for your partners and clients?
[00:16:36] Speaker B: I actually have just recently created what I call the home based partner program. And it's kind of top secret, but I'm sharing it with you now because it's. I'm just launching it.
So the idea of this is that I have this beautiful venue and most venues like mine are not used very often throughout the week. It's just a glorified office, but there's so much more potential. And after living in New York for almost 10 years and living in London and living in these cities, now that I'm in Florida, I have this massive building that's just sitting here and I'm like, well, if I just had one of those spaces in New York City, it would be filled every single day and it would be making massive amounts of money. So to me, having empty space is like Nauseating.
So anyways, I am trying to uplift all of the planners and vendors in the area and offer them a monthly rate where they can use my space, similar to how hairdressers rent a booth. They can rent my space to do client consultations here. They can do, you know, a lot of their social media and content creation here throughout the week. They have access to my massive job in industry. Like, they have everything here. I have about seven offices full of decorations, so they can access that anytime. They can show their clients and they can upsell them.
Not to mention, instead of just being a solopreneur, meeting people at a Starbucks or at their house or trying to kind of squeeze something in at their venue, now they have access to my space whenever they want. They get a code to the door. They're welcome here. They have a home. They have a home base to work out of.
So I'm getting really good results with that. And I'm actually creating a really cool event to help pitch it to all the people in my industry. And I already have about 30 or 30 to 50 people signed up. So pretty excited.
[00:18:36] Speaker A: Oh, nice. So how can other people learn more about this new program that you're launching?
[00:18:42] Speaker B: Well, they can find me. They can find it on my website. They can always call or text me and join my email list and I will send all of that to them. If they are local in Florida, they should come to our creative collective event. It's a branding shoot and I'm giving them a beautiful party and wonderful marketing for free to come and hear me pitch the plan.
And eventually I'm wanting to actually, you know, turn this into a program and a coaching that I can sell to other venues. Because now that I partner with like 10 or 15 venues in the area, I'm hoping I can extend this program as we get to full here into their spaces as well.
[00:19:23] Speaker A: Wonderful. Well, congratulations on everything and everything that I know is coming in the future for you.
As a, again, as a woman entrepreneur, I really am enjoying our conversation.
And with that, you know, not only are you managing, scaling your business, but also motherhood and leadership. So what advice would you give to other event planners, mompreneurs, or other women who are looking to do what you're doing in the floral or event space?
[00:19:55] Speaker B: Well, I'll just say that as a leader in my community and as a person that people tend to look up to, whether I realize it or not, or whether I ask for it or not, seem to have that energy with people or they trust me. So a lot of them are asking me, how do you feel about this as a mom?
And I said, well, I actually started this for my kids. I want to give them a beautiful future. I want to create generational wealth. I want to give them more choices than I ever had. And I want them to see me doing something amazing, because then they'll want to do something amazing. That will be their bare minimum. That will be what they expect in life, is something great, and they'll be even greater than me. For sure. They're already beautiful little geniuses.
But, you know, there's definitely late nights and, you know, oh, mom, you're working all the time. That's what my daughter said to me the other day. And I said, well, honey, you're at school all the time, and all you do is play with dolls and color and do beautiful artwork and dance all day. And she goes, yeah, you're right.
And I said, well, there you go. I work all the time and I design beautiful things, and you play with your friends all day and go to school. And she said, oh.
I said, it's that simple. I mean, our kids don't need us to micromanage every moment of their lives. They're going to grow up and have their own lives and their own friends and their own social circ.
I think it's healthy for them to have their own thing going on.
And my. My son is here at work with me. Like, he has babysitters now that he's walking and running around, but I get my snuggles, I get to squeeze him. I get to be in charge of who's who he's around. It's wonderful.
I wouldn't change it for. For anything.
[00:21:46] Speaker A: Oh, I love that. Especially the peace of mind that you can get as a mother and entrepreneur with knowing where children are. Sometimes when you're building a business and you're scaling and Your child is 1 or 18 months or at any age, they could be in daycare, they could be away, and you get to spend that dedicated time, and I'm sure that's additionally valuable for you.
It's everything I can imagine.
So where do you see the future of creative entrepreneurship, Entrepreneurship going, especially in luxury events and the experience economy?
[00:22:23] Speaker B: Well, I mean, a lot of people are scared to spend money right now in. In certain, you know, demographics or just in general. I mean, everything, everything is changing. We're going through major changes with our government and our structure, and there's a lot of chaos and unknowns. But that's not new, right? Like, it's not A new thing that things are uncertain with what's going on in society. It's. That's a constant. It just changes whatever the subject is.
So the fact is we, we as business owners and entrepreneurs will love to blame outside things for our lack of success.
But there's unlimited money out there. I mean, it's all there. It's really, I think, about mindset and welcoming in that money. If you don't have a problem with it and you're not afraid of it, it will come to you. It will be okay. There's more and more of it. You may just not be reaching your ideal clients. And sometimes when we are struggling or the economy is struggling or everyone's living in fear, which is natural. It's a natural human instinct to be afraid of things. We need to become that bigger, bigger and better business owner. We need to suppress that fear a little bit, breathe through it. And you know what?
Raise your prices.
People automatically will think you have the best service if you are priced the highest. So go for it. Everybody else in this recession is lowering and lowering and lowering and lowering.
So you can either be the cheapest, you could be the fastest, you could be the most reliable, you could just be the best, or you could be the most expensive and work less and make more money.
[00:24:08] Speaker A: So, I mean, I like that.
[00:24:10] Speaker B: Yeah, we all like that.
[00:24:14] Speaker A: That's great.
Awesome. So with that being said, I really enjoyed our conversation. The opportunity to learn a bit more about your businesses and the creative economy, if you will, that you are leading in Florida. Is there anything else you want to leave our listeners with today?
[00:24:33] Speaker B: Well, I would just say, especially if you're a mom or you're a female in business, have more courage than all of them. Just keep going. Like my mom always said, go with your gut, kid, and stop thinking about it. Just go for it. And she was right. She's absolutely right. Hit the ground running and be fearless in business. You'll be fine.
[00:24:58] Speaker A: Yes. That is the perfect message to leave our listeners with and to leave me with. So thank you for blessing me with that, Karen. This was amazing. This has been another episode of unscripted small business. We thank you for are listening. Learn more about Karen Aqua and her business at the show notes below. Thank you.
[00:25:18] Speaker B: Thank you.
