Epic Entrepreneurs

From Louisville to Western NC: How Lyn Mabry Built a Pure Design Business

• Bill Gilliland

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What happens when you take a leap of faith, leave behind a successful business, and start over in a new community? Lyn Mabry, founder of Designing Spaces by Lyn, did exactly that when she followed her dream of living in the mountains of Western North Carolina.

After 25 years in the design industry and a thriving business in Louisville, Lyn handed her company to her team and ventured to a place where she knew just one person. Her story of rebuilding from scratch offers powerful lessons for entrepreneurs at any stage. With remarkable candor, Lyn dismantles common misconceptions about business ownership – the mythical freedom, instant profits, and glamorous lifestyle many imagine. Instead, she paints a realistic picture of 24/7 dedication fueled by genuine passion for helping clients see possibilities they can't envision themselves.

What sets Lyn's approach apart is her commitment to "pure design" – no commissions, no product markups, just expertise and service. Her team works in pairs, combining complementary skills to give clients multiple perspectives. This collaboration highlights Lynn's philosophy of team-building: seek people who love the craft, operate with transparency, and bring talents different from your own.

Perhaps most inspiring is Lynn's fearless approach to growth. When new to the area, she literally walked the streets with her resume, knocked on doors, called every realtor she could reach, and joined numerous community organizations. Her advice to other business owners? "You have to believe in what you're offering, be fearless, and genuinely care about the person across from you." As she looks toward expanding her aging-in-place services, Lynn demonstrates how finding intersection points between market needs and personal passion creates sustainable business opportunities.

Ready to apply Lyn's entrepreneurial wisdom to your own journey? Listen now and discover how authentic connection, persistence, and passion can transform challenges into stepping stones for growth.


Lyn's email: lyn@designingspacesbylyn.com

Thanks for Listening. You may contact me or our team at https://billgilliland.biz/

All the best!
Bill

Thanks for listening. Please hit the subscribe button, leave us a 5 star review, and share this podcast. You can reach me at williamgilliland@actioncoach.com or at https://billgilliland.biz/

All the best!

Bill

Speaker 1:

Hey there, welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs. I'm Bill Gilliland, your host. I am the principal at Action Coach, business Growth Partners and one of the founders of the Asheville Business Summit, and I am super excited today to talk to another member of our community. I'm here with Lynn Mabry. The name of her company is Designing Spaces by Lynn. So welcome to the podcast, lynn. Tell us a little bit about you and your business.

Speaker 2:

Thanks, bill. I'm excited to be on this show podcast. I've been in this area for about three years. I've been in the design business for about 25. I moved here because I always wanted to live in the mountains and I just was ready to go. And I just was ready to go. So I had a great team of designers in Louisville, kentucky, who wanted to take over my business and that freed me to move here and start again. I didn't know what would happen with that. I just wanted to be here and I love design.

Speaker 2:

So, three years later, we have built our little team and I have two wonderful designers, three wonderful designers that work with me on my team, and we provide we go all over Western North Carolina, need a designer, will travel. So we don't have a store, which I think is a benefit. We'll shop for you wherever we find good deals and the right products for your design vision, your design vision. And one of the things that I think make us different is that we don't have a store. We're not trying to sell you any of our things. Further, we don't take commissions from anything. We simply are your designer and you pay us to help you.

Speaker 1:

Um I got it okay yeah, no, that's great.

Speaker 1:

I mean, a lot of people may not understand that in the design world sometimes there are commissions, sometimes people buy furniture and resell it, sometimes there's a lot of ways to play the game and you guys are pure design. You're just getting paid for your expertise and for your experience and for your eye and for making things look great. Yes, yeah, no, I like it. Well, let me ask you a few questions. This is a great question for you because you've actually started from square one again. I mean, you had a business and then you, like you said, you sold it and then you moved here and you started again. So what are some of the lessons? The question actually is if you had to start from square one, what would you do differently? Lessons like the question actually is if you had to start from square one, what would you do differently?

Speaker 2:

so, um, you know, I'm not sure, I mean I'm. I've certainly made mistakes, but overall would I do anything different when I started my business here.

Speaker 1:

I don't think I would have. I love it. I mean you shouldn't have to do a lot different. I mean you learned a ton from previous business experiences.

Speaker 2:

And yeah, it's interesting A little bit Trust myself and my instincts and to trust the people that I work with, for and with. Yeah, I am a person that operates good or bad sort of gut. There's a gut feeling about things and I think in a way that's made me a good designer, because you have gut feelings about things and you have them about space. You know you can walk in someplace and go. What's not right here, what doesn't feel right, and I think customers come to us and say things like I don't know what's wrong with this living room, but it just never has been right.

Speaker 2:

And yeah, I think that's our lane, I think we know how to do that, but I'm not sure I answered your question. But I think the only thing I might have done differently is in the part of our business and we didn't talk about this but we offer a range of skills from pure interior design to renovation and remodel design, to staging, and I've done a lot of renovation and remodel design in my career. The same with interior design Staging was huge in Louisville, kentucky I moved here and it's it three years ago wasn't so huge, so I might have approached that differently. I might have approached, approached offering more of a learning curve maybe to the realtors about the positives of the staging techniques, you know yeah yeah, yeah, no, no, I got it.

Speaker 1:

Well, I mean a few things that's great. Well, you kind of answered my next question, which is one of your learnings as an owner and an employer, and you said that you basically learned to trust, which I love that, because I think that's hard for business owners.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I think it is too, and it has been. I can micromanage with the best of them. I can micromanage with the best of them, and I have some talented women, oh my gosh, and I just need to let them do their thing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, get out of the way.

Speaker 2:

Well, I want to be involved. I want to be there to be supportive. I want to be there if there's a question or concern, but no, I need to step out. They can do it. They are really good.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that. I love that. Hey. So what are some of the common misconceptions that people have about running a business?

Speaker 2:

Common misconceptions that people have about running a business. About running a business, not design, but just in general, yeah, just in general.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, general business.

Speaker 2:

That you got a lot of free time. If you run your own show, you know you can take off whenever you want. You know you get to boss everybody around, that you make a lot of money. How about that one? You know, yeah, no.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Maybe you do when you get to the big time, but you know, for most average entrepreneurs business owners, small business owners we work 24-7. And I'm not complaining Clearly I must love it, but we work 24-7. If the phone rings, I answer it. I don't care when it is, and if somebody needs my help and they're 45 minutes away I'll go. You know, I just do it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I just do it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I think it's. Yeah, sometimes it. I mean I've seen plenty of people that were running, were sort of the general manager of a company and then they buy the company and they have no idea. Oh my. God the general manager is different than actually running and owning. It's an interesting thing. So what do you attribute your growth to?

Speaker 2:

I first of all what a great community this is.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

What a open welcoming. How can I help you community? Oh my gosh, I really feel that way. But I am driven. I love what I do, maybe that's it. I absolutely love this craft and I love helping people. I love doing stuff that they can't do, seeing stuff they can't see. I love that, and so I think I'm driven in my drive. I'm driven anyway, but in my but I can funnel this love of this craft into that drive. And I mean I. I went. When I first got here, I literally walked the streets of Hendersonville with my resume and some information on my little company of two then and one and a half, and I just knocked on doors. I just called every realtor that I could get a hold of and introduce myself. I went to all the furniture stores. I joined everything.

Speaker 1:

I love that.

Speaker 2:

And I joined everything. And I'll say something else. I'm probably most of the time the oldest person in the room and sometimes that might feel intimidating, but it's also a great way to get noticed.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, well, if you're new in a community, I mean you got to get out right. Yeah, I mean you came here from Louisville not knowing, at least, very many people.

Speaker 2:

I knew one person.

Speaker 1:

I had a client in Brevard. Right, yeah, one client and yeah. So, like you say, you knew one person. You've got to get to know some people. The only way to get to know is get out and get networking and meet some people. And yeah, you didn't want to quit working. So it's pretty hard for somebody like you and me, who are both driven. I can appreciate being able to see things other people can't see. I'm one of those guys that can't see it. I definitely can't see it until it's on the wall.

Speaker 1:

I mean, you need to paint it before I can tell whether it's whether I mean you can't just give me a color sample, that ain't going to work. I gotta, I have to trust I mean I you know out there, because I'm one of those people that that that needs what you have that eye, and that, that, that capability. So so the personal life, business life it sounds like it's all mixed together. How do you, is there any balance there? Or how do you? How do you look at that?

Speaker 2:

It's all mixed together for the good or the bad. I moved here for the love of the mountains. I love to hike, I love animals. I lost my beloved dog right before I left animal nonprofits, so that's one way, and hiking and being outdoors is something that means a lot to me. So I work real hard at carving out time to do those things, and I'm an introvert actually, but we all need friends and so, besides volunteering and hiking, I really try to you know, have friends here that you go out to dinner and you know, you talk about your work or their life or my life and you become friends, which is very meaningful for me. And then my family's huge to me.

Speaker 2:

I have two kids and three grandkids. An ex-husband I'm close to, and so I carve out time to go to where they are and spend time with them. But I work all the time. I take calls, I do stuff, but I'm there, I spend time with them. We're going to go in a couple of weeks to look at college for my youngest granddaughter not my youngest, my middle granddaughter and so I work real hard at staying present with my family and giving back.

Speaker 1:

I love it. You're staying connected, loving. I think a lot of people have the wrong idea about introverts. Introverts is about where you get your energy. It doesn't mean you don't like people. It just means at some point you've got to go recharge somewhere, which might mean walking around in the hills by yourself, right, yeah, no, I love that. I love that. So what qualities do you look for in team members?

Speaker 2:

A love of the craft for me, A love of the craft for me. A love of the craft. Contrary to what people think, designers do not, you know, just come home with piles of money every day. It is hard work and we spend a lot of time traveling. So I look for people where, like me, they just want to do this. It is their secret power, their superpower, it's their. I look for that is honesty, being very transparent and upfront. I look for somebody that can do that. I'm a very you-see-what-you-get person, what you get person. I really try to find people that are like that. And the third thing I always look for is complementary skills what they can offer I'm not good at.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that an offer I'm not good at. Yeah.

Speaker 2:

I love that and sometimes how that works is then I'm good at what they're not, and there is a team approach to our projects. We almost always go in pairs. I'm usually the other person and I mean there's two of us and you know, they have strengths I don't have, and usually I have strengths they don't. Usually works that way and that's lovely. It's just like a great benefit to our clients because two heads are better than one and yeah, so those, if that answers your no no, I think it's great.

Speaker 1:

I think that's. I think that's wonderful. I mean, if everybody on the team was just like you, it'd be chaos, right.

Speaker 2:

Right, it would be chaos, exactly you know.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I like that. So what words of advice would you give to other business owners who are looking to grow?

Speaker 2:

first of all, to me, you have to believe. You have to really believe in your product, what you're offering. You really have to know you can help somebody with this issue. Whatever your business is, you got to know you really can help, you're really giving, you really have a service to offer. I think whether it's selling a sofa or being a coach or you've got, you have to believe in it yourself. So there's the first thing. And then I think you have to be fearless. You just have to be fearless and you have to be okay with rejection. It's just part of the journey. You just you know, not everybody's going to be crazy about you. Not everybody thinks your product is what they need and you got to be open to validating their feedback.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, no, I love that. I love that. I mean, you know, rejection is a form of feedback. I mean, yeah, yeah, maybe they're not a good fit. Maybe it's just that you're not a good fit for them. Maybe maybe there's something you need to learn. So exactly. It's a hard thing to do to say thank you to a no, but it's but, it, but it's but. There is a no, but there is a gift in everything, the good and the bad.

Speaker 2:

So there's a gift in every rejection.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I mean, and frankly, you're not going to, not everybody's going to buy, that's just the you can talk to. I mean, you can have a very high close rate, but not everybody's going to buy. It's just not reasonable. It's not reasonable and sometimes it's baffling. You're like what, but you know what? That didn't make any sense, but it made sense to them.

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, let me just say one more thing that I think is a key to success, and it's caring about that person, really caring about that other person, that person across the desk, that person across the counter, that person when we walk into their homes, you know you got to genuinely, authentically care about that person.

Speaker 1:

I agree.

Speaker 2:

And people feel that. They just feel it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, they know if you're there for you. Yeah, that's right and not them. Yeah, really, yeah makes it makes no sense. They, they, it is, people are not stupid, and they and they, we have an innate sense, and actually women are better at this than men. Um, but you know, they got it, they're gonna, they're gonna know, they're, they're gonna, they're going to have that knowledge.

Speaker 2:

If they're being played, they know it. Oh God.

Speaker 1:

I think they come at it thinking that they might get played, and so I mean they're actually coming in with that bias, so you really have to overcome it. I love that. So what's the next thing, the next big thing for Lynn and designing spaces by Lynn? What's the next thing, the next big thing for lynn and designing spaces by lynn? What's the next thing?

Speaker 2:

well, I think, uh, I uh want to get more into, uh, the aging in place, or I don't know how to say it.

Speaker 1:

No, no, there's actually an aging in place. Designation for builders oh, I know.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I know about that and we do some of that, but what I was trying to say and can't think of the term is getting more into that market. Like, I've joined a group of professionals that work with seniors and we do do work with builders and well, not builders remodelers to augment houses for aging in place. We do that. We also work with people downsizing and moving in to some of the independent communities around here and I'd like to expand on that somewhere and help them pick what could fit into their new house or apartment or whatever in an independent living campus and I want to do more of that.

Speaker 2:

I think we first of all, that's my age group, but I and I did it, I downsized and I think we can be really helpful to seniors that this is hard. It is hard. It is hard whether you're augmenting your lovely house and making the doors bigger. Work with uh, we do work with one wonderful builder and do the design work for them and the selection work with their clients as they're building new houses. But I think we have something to offer contractors and new construction. But remodel, let us do the design portion, let us do that part and you guys take care of the rest of it. We all kind of have our lane, so those areas, no, I like it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, most builders are looking. I have a lot of clients that are builders and remodelers. Most of most of the builders want to just build stuff yeah and so, and remodel and do that sort of thing. They don't. Builders want to just build stuff yeah and so, and remodel and do that sort of thing. They don't actually want to do. The design. Design is like one of the hard parts for them. Yeah, I mean most of them. Some of them have that capability, some of them have that eye or have a design background, but most of them don't. So, lastly, what's the best way for somebody to get a hold of Lynn or get a hold of your team?

Speaker 2:

Well, you get a hold of Lynn. Or get a hold of your team, well, they can get a hold of me. I take all calls, the initial calls when people have questions. Or they can go to our website and there's an is 502-333-2338. And my website is, you know, wwwdesigningspacesbylynncom, and there's a place for an inquiry and that goes straight to my email and my email is lynn, with one N at designingspacesbylyncom. So any three of those ways is great.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, just so people know, that's designingspacesbylyncom. Yes, yeah, just one N, just so people know this Designing Spaces by Lynn, that's L-Y-Ncom. Just one N. Yeah, just one N, and it's Lynn at Designing Spaces by Lynncom. So we'll include that in show notes, but we'll have it in there. Hey, fantastic, this has been great. Hey, we really love having you as part of our community and love what you're doing and excited that you're back building a business here in Western North Carolina.

Speaker 2:

Well, thank you, and I am grateful and flattered to be on your show. Thanks, bill.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, thanks, Lynn, and until next time all the best.