Dreams in action: Karin Bohn’s journey from YouTube fame to Netflix host & beyond Part 2

We’re back with part 2 of my conversation with award-winning House of Bohn Design Studio founder and Netflix’s Restaurants on the Edge host Karin Bohn!

Tune into this juicy conversation as we dive into social media and the truth behind being an influencer, the hoops and hurdles to landing on Netflix, and of course, the adventure into motherhood.

Karin shares her TV hosting journey, how she coped with the grueling schedule on top of running her business, what she was surprised to learn during that time that led her to fall back in love with designing. 

We also dive into contracts! Karin talks about some practical ways she structures her contracts to avoid scope creep and how to separate personal value from your fees.

Finally, she dives into her most important piece of wisdom: how showing up day in and day out even for the mundane things is the key to real results. This conversation is one for the books, I learned a ton and you will too!

Follow Karin Bohn on her website House of Bohn and Instagram or her YouTube Channel

This episode is sponsored by Devix Kitchens

Read the Full Transcript ⬇️

Hey, Hey, Hey, it’s Rebecca and you’re listening to Resilient by Design today, I am bringing you part two of my interview with Karin Bohn. If you have not yet listened to part one, please go back and do so. This is the continuation of that conversation. And today. Today, we dive into all the juicy goodness.

[00:00:21] We talk about that transition from being a host on a Netflix TV series and what it means to be an influencer and if you should pursue a path of being an influencer. We also talk about motherhood and what is that like now for her? How has her business shifted? How has her, the way she does things and I talk about my experience too, you know, running a business and being a parent is.

[00:00:45] A little bit different than running a business pre-kids. It just is. Your time is different. The way you show up is different. And we talked about that today. I think you guys are going to really enjoy this episode. If you didn’t catch the first one and you’re curious who Karin is, she’s the founder and creative director of the award-winning House of Bohn Design Studio in Vancouver, British Columbia.

[00:01:04] She established her business in 2009. She built an incredible YouTube following of over 200, 000 subscribers. She is continuously growing that channel. She offers behind-the-scenes, glimpses of her creative process, and collaborative partnerships. That’s how I found Karin. I loved her honesty. I loved her transparency and how she connected with the community and shared exactly the pros and cons, ups and downs of growing her design firm that sort of led to.

[00:01:33] She was the host of Netflix Restaurants on the Edge, which features a global hospitality experience where they travel the world and they take struggling restaurants and make them incredible. Go check it out on Netflix. There are two seasons, but Karin is just truly a gem of a human. She’s honest, she’s transparent, and she shares it all in this episode.

[00:01:56] So guys, I hope you enjoy this part two with [00:02:00] Karin Bohn. I want to talk about television because you landed your own Netflix series, which was, I imagine a dream. It sounds like a dream to me. How did you even get the show in the first place? And like, how did you manage filming that show and running your design team?

[00:02:19] And, you know, I immediately think, is that why you scaled up with employees? Because you may be, Could it be as present in your design firm? Like there’s only one of you, right? And you had a lot of like pokers in the fire. Like, talk to me about that experience.

[00:02:35] Karin Bohn: Getting the Netflix show was also a labor of love and a lot of hard work.

[00:02:39] So for as long as I had had my interior design business, I had always wanted to do a television show. And in fact, when I was in design school, I did a little stint with HGTV and did like a design competition show called Design Interns. But when I went out on my own, I always knew like TV was going to be, that was in the cards for me.

[00:02:58] And. When I was building my YouTube channel, I had the opportunity to really like practice being on camera and practice having a presence and practice, you know, my posture and I got to see what looked good on her makeup and hair and where the highlighter on my cheek needs to be to look really good and, and how to speak without using too many ums and likes and all of that stuff.

[00:03:23] So as I was building my YouTube channel, I was. Also practicing camera presence and through the years I was cold calling producers. I would cold call a producer, introduce myself. Awesome. I know.

[00:03:39] Rebecca Hay: I love that because everyone’s always assuming that it lands in your lap. Oh, she got a TV show because she’s so successful.

[00:03:45] They called her.

[00:03:46] Karin Bohn: Yes, and everyone assumes that like, oh you built your YouTube channel, and then all of a sudden Netflix calls one day. It wasn’t like that at all. I was cold calling producers for years, pitching myself to them, and I would go and have coffees with them, [00:04:00] and I would put together video reels, and I would send them out to them, and I would, I remember even at one point flying myself out of to Toronto and I had a couple of meetings lined up with producers and I would go and meet with them in person and I would get feedback.

[00:04:14] Like I remember one producer saying to me, I don’t know, you’re just so normal. Because at the time it was like eccentric personalities that were all over HGTV, you know, like just, but, and. And also the thing that we try to be

[00:04:30] Rebecca Hay: as a kid, we just want to fit in and we just want it to be normal. Now, as an adult, you’re told, Nope, you’re too normal.

[00:04:37] You’re too normal.

[00:04:38] Karin Bohn: I know, but and then I would get also feedback like, well, TV is cyclical right now. We’re not doing design shows. We’re doing a lot of construction shows or real estate shows, but when design comes back, you’re the first person that we’re going to think of. And so as I was doing that and getting They call them hold agreements, where you’re signed on with a production company, you’re on hold with them, so you’re exclusive to them, with the idea that you’re going to develop a show together.

[00:05:05] So for a five year period, I was under, I think it was six different hold agreements with different production companies. And wow, yeah, it was a long time. And every time, and big production companies like E1, they do, they’re out of LA, they do feature films, right? So you kind of think like, oh my God, this is it.

[00:05:26] This is for sure going to take off. And then you kind of would be on hold for nine months or a year or whatever. So when the last one expired, I was like, I am done. I am not Working with another production company. I am so done with this. And I’m just going to focus on my YouTube channel because I feel like I’m getting way more traction there anyways.

[00:05:46] And what do you know? My phone rings and it’s a Beverly Hills phone number. And I was like, probably another producer, sure enough. And she’s like, Oh, you know, I got connected to [00:06:00] you through this one casting agent. And we’re looking for a design host, you know, it’s a travel show. I’m not supposed to tell you where it’s going, but I’ll just tell you, cause we don’t have a lot of time.

[00:06:10] It’s going to Netflix, you know, are you in? And I was kind of like, I don’t know. Send me some more info. That’s literally how you’re like, I’ve been down this. I was like, I have been down this road before. So she does, she sends me the deck. And that night I was doing dinner with my family and told them about it.

[00:06:29] And they were like, this is Netflix. Are you kidding? When I slept on it, I was like, wait a second. This has already been green lit. They already have the other two hosts, the restauranteur and the chef. They already have a filming schedule. Like they’re going to start production and filming in a couple months here.

[00:06:47] If I don’t sign them, another designer is going to sign on to this. So I did the zoom. And with the producers, everything, like, I think we, within the time that I got that phone call and the time that I was signed was like a month. It was so fast and then we were starting filming, I think, in two or three months after that.

[00:07:06] So the whole thing just happened really, really fast. And then I was on the road for seven months. Seven months. Oh my gosh. Flying in, I was in another different time zone almost every two weeks, which sounds like fabulous and glamorous. But no. That sounds exhausting.

[00:07:22] Rebecca Hay: Yeah. It was exhausting. I’m like, I could not do that.

[00:07:25] That’s insane. If I

[00:07:26] Karin Bohn: had Madison, like if I had a kid now, like there’s no chance that I would be able to do that. I would be like in Finland, for example, I’d wake up at four in the morning in Finland to get ready to be on set. Go film for the day. If it was still business hours in Vancouver, I would go back to the hotel, order room service, and then I would be on Zoom with my team until like 5 o’clock in Vancouver time.

[00:07:51] And then I would kind of crash and do it all over again because we were still running about, I think it was about, it was around 20 projects at the time that I was doing the show. Did you

[00:07:59] Rebecca Hay: [00:08:00] ever feel guilty that you were, All the way across the world and your team was running all these projects without you like physically being there.

[00:08:07] Karin Bohn: Well, I didn’t feel guilty because I did hire a general manager because I was going to do the show. So she was very clear about her role and what she was supposed to be doing while I was away. But it did make it challenging to You know, like design is one of those things where you, it’s hard, you can’t phone it in, right?

[00:08:29] Like it’s, that’s hard. You need to be connected to the projects. You need to know what the clients, where they’re at, how people are responding. You kind of need to really oversee how a project is coming together. And I think my team would get frustrated when, you know, they would do all the work to put together a design and I would come in and then want to change a bunch of stuff, which I understand, but yeah, it was what it was at the time.

[00:08:49] Yeah, it was what it was at the time. Yeah, and so you’re exactly right. I was scaling up because this opportunity was here and I thought or believed and wanted at the time that when the show was going to launch, we were just going to keep going in that direction, right? Like we were probably, we’re just going to keep scaling and I was, you know, it’s going to be product line and there’s going to be all this different stuff, right?

[00:09:13] Yeah. So that was part of the scale up. For sure, and just to service the clients that we had, but it’s a lot to manage. I mean, 14 people is a lot to manage. And

[00:09:24] Rebecca Hay: hosting a TV show, traveling all over the world, and were you still doing your YouTube channel at the same time?

[00:09:30] Karin Bohn: I was still trying to do the YouTube channel at the same time.

[00:09:33] Yeah, but that was challenging because with the Netflix show, like everything was just so hush hush. I couldn’t post on social media. I couldn’t talk about it. And so you have this monumental thing that’s happening in your life, but then you can’t really talk about it or share about it. So then, and the whole thing for me with YouTube was about showing up and being authentic.

[00:09:52] And so there was a little element of like inauthenticity that I felt like was happening there. So it was really hard to keep up with the real. And with the [00:10:00] audience during that time.

[00:10:02] Rebecca Hay: If you had your choice, would you do the TV show again?

[00:10:04] Karin Bohn: I would do another TV show again. I probably wouldn’t do one that was so schedule demanding and with all that travel.

[00:10:13] And I will say when we wrapped all those episodes, I was like, I don’t think I can do this again for another season. Like, I just don’t think there’s enough gas in the tank to do this. Nor do I feel like I have the desire to do it. Like having the experience of filming. 13 episodes was great. I loved it.

[00:10:31] And you know, the relationship with some of the other hosts and being in all these other countries, like so fun, but definitely pushed myself to the limit. And I was like, I don’t think I could do that again and run my business. And I don’t necessarily have the desire to, but I would do another TV show.

[00:10:45] Just not that one. So it was a blessing in disguise that it got canceled.

[00:10:51] Rebecca Hay: So, I mean, in hosting the TV show, what surprised you about your role as a host? I mean, I’ve worked in television behind the scenes designing the Property Brothers, Scott McGillivray, a bunch of shows, but what I learned was that in the shows that I worked on as the designer.

[00:11:08] The host really had not, did not have a lot of involvement, some did, some didn’t, in the design. Was that the case for you? Like, was there anything that surprised you? I just, that’s just the first thing I think about is, because it’s such a grueling schedule, as you say, you can’t possibly do everything. And so was that something that was that happened to you that was surprising or is there something else that were sort of you weren’t expecting?

[00:11:30] It’s

[00:11:31] Karin Bohn: so two different jobs. Like hosting a TV show is so different than running an interior design business. They are not the same thing. They’re, they’re just so far apart. I think what surprised me is just the realization of how much I really actually love the practice of interior design and how much I really love building out a concept and spending time in the discovery with a client and building a concept and then, you know, [00:12:00] working with a team and having a team of people who are helping to put a design together.

[00:12:05] I really love that process with TV, everything is fast and you’re making quick decisions and then you’ve got budgets that you have to meet or you have partnerships where you have to use a certain product because of that partnership and so it’s design but it’s not like real design that you’re doing.

[00:12:21] So I think I surprised myself from doing the TV show of just how much I really love. The actual profession and job of being a designer. And then the other thing too is like TV’s slow. It’s slow. When you are doing your own YouTube channel, and you’re filming something like a day in the life, and you can, you know, film all this content, and you can get into a meeting, and then get into a showroom, or you know, You know, speak directly to camera and then you can get put an edit together within that week.

[00:12:49] You know, it’s fast. TV is like, okay, you’re now on set and it’s the other hosts saying, but you’re so far away from the hotel that you got to sit around for hours and hours. And there’s no green room because you’re in Hong Kong in the middle of wherever. So you’re just like sitting around kicking stones or, you know, like it’s,

[00:13:09] Rebecca Hay: it’s like that.

[00:13:09] Hurry up and wait, get to set. But you don’t get to do anything. Oh my god, totally. Or if you need to be here at a certain time, and then you’re just hanging out

[00:13:16] Karin Bohn: waiting. You’re hanging out and I’m thinking about all these deadlines that we have back in the office. So that part was hard as a business owner.

[00:13:24] The other thing that surprised me, and through this entire experience, is actually how much you can do with your own social media. Really, I think you can accomplish everything you want to accomplish, reach the audience, build the name, build the brand exactly the way that you want to with your own social media.

[00:13:48] So if there’s anyone out there that feels like feels like they need to have a TV show or they need to have something else in order to propel them, I’m going to tell you firsthand, you really don’t, you can do, you can do it on your own these days. And [00:14:00] sometimes you can probably do it even better because you don’t have a whole nother Netflix kind of controls what I wore, what the wardrobe was like, how you show up.

[00:14:09] And so sometimes you don’t even really feel like. This is me, Karin Bohn. I am, I am the Netflix host that they want me to be for this particular show.

[00:14:18] Rebecca Hay: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I think that’s really great advice. I mean, I think we’re seeing that there’s a lot of opportunity for influencers Instagram, YouTube, TikTok.

[00:14:27] If you really invest in that, like you can really probably also create additional revenue streams. Without having a TV show. And I, I don’t know, I’m assuming you got paid to host the TV show, but it’s probably not the ticket to retirement. And so the, the reality is we still need, even if you do get a TV show, you know, there’s still.

[00:14:49] Opportunities for you to bring in additional sources of revenue. And I mean, you’ve been an influencer now for a really long time. Can we talk about that influencer scene? Like, did you use sort of influencers on Instagram to bring in revenue? Like, let’s talk about that aspect. Cause I think it’s so fascinating.

[00:15:05] Karin Bohn: I know. Let’s talk about this. And also because I think I was listening. I can’t remember who you were interviewing, but I did listen to one of your podcasts when you were talking about, you know, do you need to have multiple revenue streams as an interior designer? Is that to your benefit or is just doing into, and I say just, but is just doing interior design enough?

[00:15:27] I think from my experience being an influencer and Running an interior design studio is very, very challenging. The thing is with being an influencer now, depending on what kind of partnerships that you’re taking on, it’s can be very distracting from your interior design business, from a, Just a time commitment, right?

[00:15:54] And even a small thing, like maybe putting together a YouTube video. I [00:16:00] mean, you know, even if you’re building out a fee that you think could be like quite lucrative for this media. You know, by the time you hire whoever is going to film it and edit it and you’ve got your own wardrobe and then the time away from your business and all this one day shoot now turned into a two day shoot and now this edit that you’re going to have done in a week takes three weeks, you know, by the time you’re done all of that, and then the back and forth with the, whoever the partner is, you know, was it actually as lucrative?

[00:16:32] As just being in your business and potentially doing real business development in your business. I kind of question that, you know, and I’ve been in that position where I think sometimes just having a focus. And being really dedicated to that focus and we were talking about this at the beginning of the podcast, you know, showing up day in and day out and doing the things that are really mundane and tedious and that seem really boring.

[00:17:03] If you have the gusto to keep doing that and just showing up every day, I feel like sometimes I can yield way bigger results than trying to do all of these different things. Great

[00:17:14] Rebecca Hay: woman. I love that you said that. And I think that means a lot because like, oh, we target designers asking me all the time.

[00:17:22] It’s like inside of my designer’s room. Hey, Rebecca, like, you know, can we talk about, can you do a training on affiliate programs? Can we talk about, you know, that like to know, like, how do I get people to click and like make money with an Amazon affiliate? And I’m like, hold your horses. Totally. It’s not what you think.

[00:17:38] And it becomes, it could be a full time job. And I often say to designers, and this is obviously not from my own experience, but what I’ve seen is you see people who are influencers, that is their primary job. Like Chris Loves Julia. How did that start? She didn’t have a design business. She was an influencer.

[00:17:56] Amazing at what she’s done and what she’s grown. But [00:18:00] that can become a full time job. To do that. At that level to do it so well and to bring in revenue, there is no freaking way in hell that you are also managing an interior design business unless you have the team there. And even then, as we’re seeing, it’s not as easy and cut and dry as you think.

[00:18:18] For me, I’ve done little itty bitty influencer things where we’ve done a lot of product. Like you give me product in exchange, I’ll give you my photos. I will pitch it to magazines. I’ll do so many Instagram posts. I’ll do a YouTube. I calculated the last Quote unquote, big partnership that I had. And I’m pretty sure I lost money.

[00:18:37] I calculated what it would have been if I’d purchased the product outright. And then all the hours I paid to my team to do the edits, to do the back and forth and the back and forth emails when they’re like, well, can you just tweak this thing and maybe take that out? Or what have you. I’m like, was it even worth it?

[00:18:52] Because of the mental time too, I’m the type of person who like, I have integrity. And so it weighs on me if I have a partnership with someone, I want to make sure I deliver and then some. And I know there are some influencers out there who don’t fulfill their end of the deal because my husband has a marketing agency, works with big brands and he can tell me this person didn’t fulfill it.

[00:19:10] This person didn’t fulfill it. And I was like, are you kidding me? Like I can’t even imagine. But I’m It is not what it looks

[00:19:16] Karin Bohn: like. It’s not what it looks like. It’s not what it looks like. And you’re so right about that. Like it is a full time job to be an influencer. It’s a full time job managing the partnerships, managing the production team, getting those brand deals, upkeeping the image, quote unquote, or your feed or the amount of content that you need to be producing in order to have that be a viable business where you’re getting paid and.

[00:19:44] You’re getting paid enough that you can live off that and potentially have a team of people or, you know, even, even just someone assisting, like it is definitely a full time job. And I think it looks really good on Instagram or people are like, [00:20:00] wow, right? There’s that, that it’s like shiny, but not all that glitters is gold.

[00:20:05] People really underestimate the amount, like you can turn your service. Based business as an interior designer into a very lucrative and profitable business By kind of doubling down and working on your sales skills working on your outreach skills working on even just your contract structuring your contract in a way where there’s an opportunity to capture Scope as it inflates, you know, things like that can add way more revenue to your existing business than if you’re going to go out and, you know, take a couple of photos of you and detergent throughout the year, you know, like that’s not really.

[00:20:49] Yeah,

[00:20:50] Rebecca Hay: or, or wine. Like just go buy the bottle of wine and then save yourself the time. Exactly. Send the thing. Like, Oh

[00:20:58] Karin Bohn: my gosh. Yes. Yes. And we’re so much respect for people who do do it full time. And, you know, obviously it can be being a content creator can be a very lucrative business. But you have to be dedicated to a full time.

[00:21:12] It’s. It’s very hard to juggle an interior design business and be an influencer at the same time.

[00:21:21] Rebecca Hay: So let’s talk about, you just mentioned contracts and I think it’s, that’s something like scope creep is sort of what you’re referencing. And this idea that like, that is an opportunity to make money, right? A lot of designers get nervous because they’re like, well, my God, now there’s all this extra stuff and I don’t want them.

[00:21:36] I hope they don’t ask me to do that thing because it’s not in the contract. They didn’t pay me for it. And I don’t want to do it because then I’m not going to make money. Maybe just talk a little bit about. How you can make money in your design firm. Like if you decide, okay, you know what? Yeah, Karin’s right.

[00:21:47] I don’t necessarily need to go and like, you know, hawk a pillows or toothpaste or what have you. What are some of those things that you could do to bring in additional revenue? Not necessarily another stream of revenue in your [00:22:00] business. I always preach to designers like. Be known for one thing, like what is your core offering?

[00:22:05] The more offers you have, it becomes like a, like a charcuterie platter of like, pick what you like a la carte. And then it’s creates chaos internally because it’s hard to track. But I’m curious what your thoughts are. The way that we structure our contracts is that we are actually a mix of a flat fee and an hourly.

[00:22:24] Karin Bohn: And I know you’ve had this discussion a lot on your podcast of like, should you be hourly? Should you be flat fee? Our contracts are. Structured so that part of the contract is flat fee and part of it is hourly. And the pieces that are hourly are the pieces that I know where time is less contained. So that could be something like, often we’ll help a client go through the permitting process.

[00:22:50] The permit we could submit a permit, a building permit, and you know what, the city approves it and boom, we’re off to construction. Or there could be a bunch of back and forth. The city has an issue. We like right now we’re going through a renovation where the city has some issues with the plans. We need to bring in a structural engineer.

[00:23:06] There’s it’s very complicated this, and so that’s going to take more time. So we will. And so, always, anything that I know where the time is less contained, or there’s a lot more variables, I always put that into the contract as an optional hourly service. Always. I never build it in. I love that. Never.

[00:23:27] Another example. Of something like that would be like I mentioned, we work with a lot of developers and do multifamily projects and often we’re asked to coordinate with their marketing or branding team on a bunch of their like collateral. That could be anything from their marketing boards to how the graphics are going to be installed.

[00:23:50] And again, that’s. Time that we just can’t measure up front because we don’t know who their marketing team is. We’ve never worked with them before. It’s just too, [00:24:00] there’s too many variables. So that’s something that we will also put in the contract as an optional hourly service. I will almost never. Sign a deal and include those services at a flat fee, almost never, but they often will come up throughout the course of a project, and because it’s already in the contract as hourly, that’s an opportunity for us to just capture all the hours.

[00:24:30] That we’re spending in those phases without it being scope

[00:24:35] Rebecca Hay: creep. And without it affecting your bottom line, right?

[00:24:38] Karin Bohn: Exactly, because the scope isn’t creeping now and you’re able to charge for it. So you, you know, like for something, for building out a concept, let’s say, I can control that. I know how long it’s going to take us to do concept work.

[00:24:51] I know how many people I need. So I, I’m happy to charge that as a flat fee. But something where there’s a lot of variables that we just don’t know, I’m not going to charge that as a flat fee. And then I just never have to worry about scope Creek because we have enough provisions in the contract and we’re able to like itemize all that stuff too.

[00:25:08] And for someone maybe who’s newer, a contract writing kind of have to be right down all the things that you’re doing for a client and really. Separate these different phases and if you’re finding in your business that there’s just one area that you just keep giving more and giving more and giving more and you’re not charging for it, that’s probably a clue that that needs to be like an optional service.

[00:25:34] Or you need to separate out the fee for that in your contract.

[00:25:38] Rebecca Hay: I love that you call it an optional, like as opposed to should this, you know, extend past blah blah blah, you will be charged. Like optional sounds so positive. I love that terminology first of all. But then second of all, what do you do In that situation.

[00:25:53] Like, is there a process for letting the client know like, oops, yep, these are, this is part of our optional hourly [00:26:00] offering. You will now be, you collect a retainer. Like that’s, I think when designers get nervous about, because in theory, yeah, that makes sense. The scope is, is captured this way. It’s optional as you, as you call it, how do you then communicate that to your client?

[00:26:14] So you’re not surprising them. Yeah,

[00:26:16] Karin Bohn: well, we use what we call work authorizations or some people call them work orders. It’s really just like an addendum to the contract. And so we always, if we’re going to enter into an optional service, like all of a sudden, okay, they’re ready to go ahead with all this branding.

[00:26:33] They want us to coordinate with their branding people, great, we’ll send you a work authorization for that. And then we will, we’ll write it up as, it’s like a one pager that we write up and we get the client to sign off on it. I love the practice of having our client sign off on all of the fees. Before we do the work I don’t like any surprise billing or surprise invoicing.

[00:26:58] It’s so much harder to talk to speak to your services after you’ve done the work and often a client. can feel really pigeonholed, like, Oh, well, if I’d known, had I known that I was going to be paying extra for this, I wouldn’t have asked you to do it kind of thing, right? And so I like being able to go in and asking them to sign off on it.

[00:27:20] I don’t particularly have any issues talking about fees and really separating the service and, and my personal value with a fee. Like, I know a lot of. Times and for women or for when you’re starting out, and this was practice too, where you tie that dollar amount into your worth, right? So if someone is negotiating a contract where they don’t want to pay that much money or they’re like, Oh, well, can you do it for less or can you do for half the price, right?

[00:27:49] You take it really personally and now it’s like, Almost, I don’t know, it’s like a critique against your worth or your value and that is the worst thing that [00:28:00] you can do as a business owner. Like you have to separate those two things. It’s what you’re asking for and your fees is has no indication of your personal worth.

[00:28:10] Sometimes I think when, if a client isn’t bought in, To a fee, probably it’s just because they don’t understand the benefits enough yet, right? So to me, there’s almost like a little bit more of maybe like building that sales muscle a little bit more. Yeah.

[00:28:28] Rebecca Hay: Yeah. Oh, that’s so interesting. I love that. I always love hearing how people do their contracts and manage that.

[00:28:34] As you know, designers are always hesitant to ask for more money or manage that. So thank you for sharing that. I think that’s really useful. Oh my gosh. There’s so many more things that I would love to ask you, but I feel like we are running out of time. Before we get to the very end where I’m going to get you to share your nugget.

[00:28:51] So get ready for that. Can we just talk about motherhood a little bit? Because I feel like. Feel like that’s an important piece. There’s a lot of moms listening. Some dads, mostly moms who are struggling, right? They’re like, man, I want to build a business like Karin Bohn. I want to be on fricking Netflix.

[00:29:09] Maybe they do want to be an influencer. Maybe they have really lofty, career goals. And, you know, coming from someone like myself, I’ve always had ridiculously large goals and visions for my future. And, and I can find it challenging at times to also remember, oh wait, yeah, no, you’re a mom. So sometimes your time is not your own.

[00:29:27] Can you tell me, like you’re new to motherhood, two years old, how is it going and how are you finding that things have shifted or if, if at all? Things have shifted

[00:29:35] Karin Bohn: so much, so much because I was a workaholic before. I had Madison . I love that.

[00:29:44] Rebecca Hay: Honest. Honest,

[00:29:45] Karin Bohn: yes. You know, my husband is an airline pilot and so he was, you know, away a lot, which was perfect ’cause that just was fueled my workaholism, right?

[00:29:54] And I could work into the night or work on the weekends. And that also [00:30:00] drive and work ethic was part of what helped me be able to do the Netflix show and still run 20 projects at the same time. It helped me build my. YouTube channel because I was willing to like review edits and do all the planning on the weekends and stuff like that.

[00:30:18] And now, motherhood with a toddler, you cannot do that anymore. Now, when I leave the office, my time is not my time anymore. And I’m also very conscious of tech, like I do not like to be on my phone when I’m around Madison. I don’t want to be on my computer. I don’t like that. I really want to be present with her.

[00:30:39] I So it’s changed a lot. And I feel like I, if I’m honest, I’m still navigating that balance. Cause I always feel like I want to be doing more. I definitely feel less. I’m not as productive as a mom or not as productive as I would like to be, but I think also I’m in a stage in my life now to where I’m really trying to remind myself that I don’t need to be everybody and do everything.

[00:31:08] anymore. So where I used to spend a lot of time on content and social media, I’m now considering bringing on like a marketing coordinator or someone who can kind of help in that area because I’m just not no longer in a position where I have the hours or the bandwidth to do it all. And so I’m going through a process of just letting go a little bit and being okay.

[00:31:33] Yeah. With, you know, doing less, but leveraging more. So I don’t know, maybe we circle back in a little while and I’ll let you know how that’s going. Absolutely. We will definitely. But it’s a work in progress. It’s an adjustment. I mean, as you know, if you have kids, right? Like you, as soon as you feel like you’ve gotten one phase down.

[00:31:52] You know, boom, they’re onto the next phase. So

[00:31:56] Rebecca Hay: yeah, and I think it’s good that you’re practicing, you know, limiting the sort of [00:32:00] tech that you’re spending time on with when you’re with your daughter. I know it’s something that these, as she grows, I can tell you for a fact, as my kids have gotten older, it’s almost even more important.

[00:32:10] Because now they’re starting to see, okay, well, daddy’s always on his phone. Daddy, listen to me, pay attention. My, my, my, it’s a little plug there for my husband who could put more often. But it, it is. And, and it, it happens in the blink of an eye. Like, I feel like I just had a two year old and now they’re six and nine.

[00:32:27] Like, what the. What happened? Like, how did that happen? And we have our entire lives to grow our business and our career. And I, I love here. Like it changes your perspective for sure. When you become a parent, because all of a sudden you’re responsible for another human being. And there’s a love that you never probably even knew existed.

[00:32:46] Right? Like you can’t even, it’s, it’s unmatched. The love of a child is unmatched to any love out there in my experience. And so just making, giving yourself some grace. And I love hearing you be so open and honest. Cause I think a lot of designers listening today are feeling like they’re not enough because they’re not achieving enough and that, but they’re juggling and they’re doing the kids like that is also a job.

[00:33:08] But that is another job and you have to recognize it for what it is. I think that as soon as we can give ourselves a bit of grace, get home at the end of the day and, and not every day at work. So like I too am working on this, right? There’s some days where you just, you get into a flow, right? Yeah. And you got an idea or you’re working with something and you’re like, Oh my God, if I just had one more hour, I could totally knock this out.

[00:33:29] But, you know, gymnastics doesn’t care. Gymnastics starts at five and I got to go pick her up and I got to get her gymnastics. I’m like, I’ll work on my laptop. This was my yesterday. I’m like, I’ll work on my laptop when I get to gymnastics. And of course I sit down on the bench. This is like now an hour and a half later, lost my flow.

[00:33:46] I’m like, I am so freaking tired right now. I am not touching that laptop.

[00:33:51] Karin Bohn: Yeah. Yeah. There’s another saying people often overestimate what they can accomplish in a day. And underestimate what they can accomplish in a [00:34:00] lifetime. Ooh, I like that. Yeah, so I feel like we pack our days full of stuff, and then we’re always feeling like we’re behind the eight ball because we didn’t get to our to do list for the day, you know, and then we’re not thinking about, okay, but step back, big picture, what is it that I’m gonna do?

[00:34:15] Accomplish in my lifetime. What is the legacy that I’m going to leave? What is, what can I do with my business over the next however many years, you know? And so I think that’s a piece too, just giving yourself grace and it’s not just about today. And again, I coming back to this theme of it’s really just about showing up every day, you know, showing, I think it’s like a yoga analogy, you know, just, Show up, come to the mat, just come to the mat, bring yourself to the mat.

[00:34:42] You know, it doesn’t matter how you’re feeling, what you’re doing, you know, what mental space that you’re in, how you’re doing physically, just the fact that you showed up to the mat and you did it on a daily basis, that’s the piece that matters. And that’s the most important thing. It’s not the fact that you had a great workout and you toned your butt today and you know, like you pushed yourself in whatever pose.

[00:35:02] It’s just the fact that you showed up to the mat. That’s the most important and I think over time, that’s going to yield so many more results. The fact that you’re just showing up.

[00:35:13] Rebecca Hay: I love that. Is that your

[00:35:14] Karin Bohn: nugget? That was my nugget.

[00:35:17] Rebecca Hay: I love it. I can tell. This is obviously the nugget. I can’t ask for anything else.

[00:35:21] Yeah. So good. Yeah. I love that. I love that. It’s so true. Be and be present. Right? When you get to the mat, your attention goes to what you’re doing. Yeah. Oh, Karin Bohn. Where’s the wisdom? I’m so happy that we had this conversation. I am too. Definitely does not feel like enough time. I know. Great one. And we covered so many areas.

[00:35:44] Would you please tell our audience where they can find and follow you?

[00:35:47] Karin Bohn: Yeah, I am Karin Bohn on all the things. So Karin with an I B O H N, you can find me on Instagram. You can find me on YouTube. You can find me online. If you [00:36:00] want to see more of our interior design work, definitely check out houseofbon. com. Yeah, I think that’s it.

[00:36:06] Rebecca Hay: Love it. Thank you so much for joining me today

[00:36:08] Karin Bohn: thanks for having me.

[00:36:10] Rebecca Hay: Okay, guys, ah, I still feel like, pinch me, did I actually just get to have an in depth conversation with one of my true inspirations? One of my, I want to say mentor, but like, I don’t actually know her and she doesn’t know me, but Karin, if you’re listening, I feel like you’ve been a mentor to me all these years.

[00:36:28] I’ve loved watching your business grow and change. And I think what really resonates about what you do is that you have changed. You’ve tweaked, you’ve altered, and yes, you’re still doing a lot of the same things, but the way you show up has, has shifted and it’s feels real. It feels human. And I thank you very much for continuing to be my mentor.

[00:36:49] that version of you that really has inspired so many of us, not just me. I really do hope we get to have you back and check in and see how things are going because I know the future is bright. It’s going to be amazing for you. Thank you again, guys, for listening to this episode. I would love to know what was your biggest takeaway.

[00:37:06] We talked about a lot of things. And if you listen to part one and part two, then we talked about a lot, a lot of things. Let me know what was the biggest nugget that you took away. I mean, her nugget of wisdom at the end was just like, mic drop, you know, like show up to the mat. You don’t even have to be a Yogi to understand what that reference is.

[00:37:27] Right. Right. Right. Show up, do the thing, even when it’s hard, and be present. Karin, thanks again for being my guest today. Guys, go give Karin a follow on Instagram, go subscribe to her YouTube channel, and let her know that you found her here on this podcast. All right, everyone. See you soon.