Turning Passion into Profit | with Jen Bishop

We were super excited when we got the opportunity to sit down for a chat with Jen Bishop – the founder, publisher & owner of one of Australia’s most popular home design websites – Interiors Addict.

What started as a hobby for Jen back in 2011, has now turned into a full-time career and an incredibly successful interiors news website with more than 150,000 readers per month, 100k followers on Instagram and 74k on Facebook!

Jake and Jen had lots to talk about and I highly recommend listening to the full podcast episode to get the best experience. If you share the same passion for home styling and business – you will love every second!

Jen’s inspiring story, genuine personality and insightful tips about the industry will turn you into an Interiors-Addict-Convert sooner than you can say ‘Home Renovat…’

*poof*

Does anyone else suddenly feel a strong urge to go to Bunnings?

Click here to:

Short on time?

You’re in luck! I’ve summed up the best outtakes for busy bees like you. These are all the things that resonated with me the most (bias-alert!), but I sure hope you enjoy this article as much as I did when I was writing it!

PS: To make the reading easier, I’ve done some colour-coding! Jen will be pink to match her beautiful brand and Jake will be blue.

“It was supposed to be something small just for me… some place to keep my homewares inspiration.”

That’s how Jen remembers her humble beginnings of something that turned out to be much more than ‘just a hobby’. She started blogging about her passion for interior design outside of her 9-5 job as an Editor for a business magazine.

“So when did the transition happen… from hobby to business?”

Jen: “I think it took about a year. Being a journalist by background, I had no issues calling up some of the country’s best interior designers, who became contacts of mine and introduced me to other people, who then saw big names on the blog and thought ‘I want to be on the blog too!’. And from there it just snowballed.”

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The power of ‘who you know’, am I right? I personally think that nurturing a strong network is the most underestimated asset of business owners. Jen has beautifully demonstrated how creating mutually beneficial relationships can really be a pivotal strategy in your business growth.

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Jen: “I also realised how much I loved it! It just took a little while for everything to come together… and if I’m being completely honest, I really doubt that this would be my job now had I not been made redundant, which was just an absolute blessing in disguise.”

Jake: “I find it fascinating how things fall into place, but the timing is never quite as you expected. Some opportunities just come up and force you to act NOW. And if you didn’t do it, in a few years when you’re ready for it you’d wish you had the same opportunity you had back then.”

Jen: “Exactly! You’re rarely ready for these big moves, but in hindsight you think thank goodness we did that!”

The biggest outtake for me, so far? Adversity = opportunity…. provided you choose to see it that way.

We wrote an article about this topic not too long ago, click here or on the picture to have a read.

“What do you think was the thing that captured people’s attention?”

Jen: “I think it was a combination of two things. There was a gap in the market for interiors content for everyday people – something that wasn’t all designer, and it wasn’t all Kmart. It was kind of for everyone and there hasn’t really been anything like that before. I teamed this up with a very personal approach, where I put a lot of me into it. You can read home magazines and love them, but you haven’t necessarily got the face, personality and accessibility of the person who’s writing it. So I think that those two things were what my readers found most appealing.

Jake: “I think you understood the importance of authenticity way before it became a buzzword and people started recommending it from the marketing point of view. We’ve been doing it as well within our own social media – we try to get the whole team on video and show the less polished behind-the-scenes footage. And what it means for us is that when we have new clients or agents contact us, they feel like they already know us.”

Jen: “Exactly! There’s nothing worse than meeting someone who you’ve been following on social media and they are not the same person. Imagine how disappointing that would be. It’s much easier to be authentically yourself.”

“What is the best investment you’ve made – in terms of money, energy or time?”

Jen: “Virtual Assistant, for sure. About 4 or 5 years ago I realised there was a lot of admin stuff that I didn’t have enough time to keep on top of, so I brought on my VA Jodie and she completely changed my life.”

“What is the best advice you wish you received?”

Jen: “I wish someone told me to build my email database sooner. Especially after what happened recently with Facebook, it made us realise that we don’t own these platforms we use so frequently for marketing our businesses, but we do own our email database. That’s so important in any kind of business, because it’s a direct contact with people who are interested in what you do. I would have also benefited from the advice to outsource sooner. Once I started outsourcing tasks and jobs to other people, I found that that was a big game-changer for me.”

Phoebe has actually addressed this topic as well, click here or on the picture to read her tips & strategies for successful delegation.

What a content-rich & insightful conversation this was!

I’ve been trying to decide how to summarise a 38-minute discussion in a few dot points. It almost feels like I’m not doing it justice, but based on what I heard, these are “Jen’s 5 Tips to Turn Your Passion into Profit”.

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