Episode 194: Loving your craft, putting the right energy in your business and people will find you with Leah Singh
People will come to you if you focus and love your craft. In today's episode, Fiona talks to Leah Singh about building connections on all sorts of platforms and through different mediums. Leah also shares her story and how she goes off the beaten track and immersed herself in the local vibe. Tune in!
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
How Leah Singh's business started
On the effects of the pandemic
Moving to New York to get away from all the craziness
On family influence and upbringing
Leah's sources of inspiration
On business achievements
How to connect with Leah
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Resources and Recommendations mentioned in this episode:
Leah Singh
CS Lewis
If you work on your craft, you’re focused, you're making stuff that you love, and you're putting it out there, people will come to you. You don't need to reach out and try to get into places. They will come to you and that's what I've done. I am so passionate about designing and working with the artisan. I put my energy into that. All the precedent after that and the stores that I'm selling to has been people finding me.
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Welcome to episode 194 of the My Daily Business Coach podcast. We're only six episodes short of 200 episodes. If somebody had told me a couple of years ago that I'd be up to episode 200 and I would have stuck with this podcast and what it would do for my business, I may have not believed them. Firsthand, I can say that having a podcast has been absolutely incredible for my business, myself, and for my connections. I love it. If you are somebody who would love to start a podcast, please know that I have put everything that we have learned into a short course How to Start a Podcast, which you can find at MyDailyBusinessCoach.com/podcast.
In this episode, it is a small business interview and I'm chatting with somebody who is super interesting. I connected with them through Instagram. It’s totally random. I came across their work in the explore tab and fell in love with it. I was like, “I need to talk to you.” Before we get stuck into that, I want to acknowledge the traditional owners and custodians on this beautiful land on which I record this podcast, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. I pay my respects to their elders past, present, and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded. I also pay my respects to any other indigenous people who might be reading this from around the world. Welcome.
The other thing I wanted to mention before I get stuck into this lovely interview with my guest is the Marketing for Your Small Business course and coaching program. That is a nine-week live coaching program with myself, where you work through the Marketing for Your Small business online course and that goes into everything that I've learned over twenty years being in marketing, working in senior marketing roles in places like Countrywide Group, Audible, and Amazon. If you're interested in that, check out MarketingForYourSmallBusiness.com or you can find it at MyDailyBusinessCoach.com/marketing. That kicks off on the 26th of April 2022 and it runs every single week for nine weeks.
If you are not from Australia, please don't let that be a deterrent. We've had people from the US, the UK, Europe, New Zealand, and different parts of Asia that have come into it. It is at 9:30 AM Melbourne time but we have had people definitely join some people or watch the replays and send us their questions in between so that I can answer those live on the call. You don't have to be in Australia to be part of this. You just have to have good internet access. On with the small business interview.
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My guest is the wonderful Leah Singh from LeahSingh.com. Leah Singh is a beautiful craft texture and color brand. I came across Leah on Instagram. I was looking for something else and I don't know if it was through a hashtag or on the Explore tab. Based on other things that I'm looking at. The homewares were beautiful. It was standing out as well in colorful bold prints, these beautiful textures made in India.
I fell in love with it and I contacted Leah on the off chance that she might want to be on a podcast in Australia. She got back to me and she was like, “Yes, I would love to.” Leah, at that time, was splitting her time between New York and India. She is originally from India and she grew up in India and then moved to New York to study Industrial Design at Parsons School of Design.
She was surrounded there by minimal lines and Western architecture. She created this incredible brand that merges both the upbringing that she's had in India and also the architecture and the clean lines and minimalism that she fell in love with when she was in New York and other parts of the West. She splits her time now between New York and Delhi.
When I spoke to her, she was in Delhi. She had come back from New York. It was interesting. She said, “I needed a bit of a break. Everything was a bit hectic in Delhi so I went to New York for a break.” I thought, “Most people do not go to New York. It's not necessarily seen as a calming place.” I loved that even instantly. As soon as she said that, I was like, “I’m learning so much about you.”
I had to get Leah on the podcast to talk about what it has been like living between two cultures and creating a brand that merges those. What has it been throughout the pandemic, not being able to travel as much as she was used to? How did the education at Parsons influence what she does now? I absolutely love this chat with Leah.
I can't wait for her pieces to come to Australia. She does ship to Australia but there might be some exciting news, which I won't say any more about because I instantly was saying to her, “You need to be stocked over here. People would love your brand here.” It was a lovely conversation that we had. Here it is and I hope it very much inspires you regardless of where you're at in your journey with the business. My interview with Leah Singh, the Founder of Leah Singh.
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Leah, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here. Thank you for having me.
You're so welcome. I'm wondering how you're feeling. Can you tell us where you're talking to me from?
I got back to India, to Delhi from New York after being away for seven weeks. I got back on a Friday night, and I'm excited to be back but jet-lagged.
I can imagine. It’s almost your Monday morning.
It's almost 9:00 AM.
Thank you so much for getting up and doing this podcast with jet lag as well.
I’m so excited to be here.
I'm excited to have you. I was saying in the intro now that I absolutely love your business. I found it through Instagram. I would love to know a bit more about it. How did you start it? Why did you start it? When did you start this?
For my senior thesis at Parsons in New York, we had to do a project that was a good life so we had to do something that would help the community. What I wanted to do with work with artisans in India with my project was using bone which is a byproduct of other industries. It was introduced to replace ivory because ivory was banned in the 1980s. They started using bone from meat products and since it was a byproduct, they weren't killing any animals for the bone. I was making jewelry from that.
After I graduated and I came back to India, I thought I would start my business making bone jewelry and I did that for a while. While I was in India, I was going to all these craft markets and there were so many textiles and so many different techniques from different parts of India. I was drawn to the colors, the textures, and the different techniques. There were embroidery techniques, but they were different ones from each region in India. There was printing and weaving and then I slowly started to dabble in that. I started with Kantha embroidery.
As I started doing that, I felt that I was enjoying myself working with color, way more than with the bone so I slowly shifted then to doing textiles. The reason that I wanted to work with artisans only was that while I was doing my senior thesis and trying to identify which craft I wanted to work with I found that a lot of the crafts in India are slowly dying out. The younger generation doesn't want to stick and either does embroidery, weaving, or these labor-intensive jobs when they can be moving to cities and working in an office.
These crafts are slow dining out and the artisans who are doing them now, once they retire, it's not going to be carried on. I wanted to work with these artisans to support their craft and keep it going as long as they're around and also to market it to a different clientele because a lot of the stuff that they were making instant make is the same stuff that they've been making for years. I wanted to transform that into something modern and market it to a different customer base. That's how I came to do textiles.
What a story. Do you still sell or make any bone jewelry or is that completely finished now?
It's completely finished now. I still have it and I feel like, at some point, I want to put that stuff out there and sell the stock that I have but right now, it's been the textiles.
You see Indian textiles around and you think it's a big industry and surely it must keep going and going but it makes total sense when you say that these other people, the young coming up are like, “I don't want to do that.” It's great that there are businesses like yours that are employing companies to keep doing that. We're seeing a huge resurgence. Indian textiles are incredible and intricate. These are these incredible artisans. Did you know people that were in the industry, or was it purely through the markets that you found the makers?
It was mostly through the markets because they have these markets in Delhi where they bring artisans from villages across India. With each artisan group, either embroidery technique or if it's some paintings from a specific region, they all come to Delhi to sell all these different and beautiful products. That's where I met some of them. Some of the artisans would be someone I knew or an acquaintance would connect me with someone who would connect me with someone else and then I met the artisans. None of them work in factories. All the artisans work from home. It's all using traditional Indian embroidery, weaving, and printing techniques.
Your work is so beautiful and I'll get into that more in a second. You touched on the fact that you've come back from New York and that you studied there. We're still in a pandemic and I know that that has meant so many people are separated from loved ones. As someone who has spent time in the US and India, how did you move through the challenges especially, there was a huge amount of heartache and the stuff that we were seeing, at least on our screens in Australia about India during the pandemic. It was heartbreaking. The population alone and being hit by a pandemic. Can you talk us through how it's been for you as somebody who's lived between two places, going through this pandemic, and also how the pandemic has affected you with your business as well as personally?
When the pandemic started, we went into lockdown immediately in India so it was uncertain. I remember that in my neighborhood, we'd have this whole battalion of police cars and the police came through to make sure no one was outside and everyone was staying home. It was scary and uncertain. Because I worked with artisans who worked from home, they’re not working in a factory, they were continuing to work.
If they had orders with them from before they were able to continue working. In some way that was good for them because that's the source of income. If they continue to work and once they're ready to ship the products to the buyer, whether it's me or anyone else that they work with, then they will get their income.
What was difficult for everyone was that if you didn't already have something that you were working on, there was no way to start a new order. There was no way for me to send new orders because they weren't able to access things like getting more materials or dyeing the yarn, or even shipping because everything had stopped. In the beginning in India, there were such few cases because of the lockdown that they did immediately. People were still safe and okay and not getting sick and were able to continue working like the artisans that I work with. After a few months, especially in April and May of 2021, it got worse.
People had the lockdown. When it ended, people had started going out again and the cases were going up. They were increasing so much each day and it was scary. People like the artisans and some of them that I work with got sick. They ended up in hospitals and it was extremely stressful and depressing all the stories that we were hearing of people going to hospitals, and there were no beds. They were not allowed to come in and then people were going from hospital to hospital looking for a bed to get the care that they needed.
It was extremely stressful and depressing. There was nothing anyone could do because no one was able to go out for fear of getting sick. I wasn't able to travel for two years so I didn't see my family in the US. That was difficult as well. In terms of the business, we didn't get affected as much, except for shipping. Shipping has also stopped. UPS, FedEx, and everything were only shipping medicines, vaccines, and things like that. They weren't taking any commercial goods. When the pandemic started, we were getting a lot of orders, but we weren't able to ship anything for a few months.
That was stressful because we were worried that people would start canceling their orders because we hadn't shipped in a few months. What I did notice during the pandemic was that customers have become much more patient because everyone was in this together and experiencing these difficulties, challenges, and delays with everything. We didn't get orders canceled because everyone was okay to wait and they knew that we were also having difficulties on our end. That was comforting and knowing that they were supporting us through whatever challenges we were facing in terms of the delays.
I remember watching about India and it was heart-wrenching. How is India now? I'll be a spokesperson for the whole country but do you feel like things have opened up? I know there's a huge amount of vaccination there. Are people relatively feeling okay about things now?
Everything is more or less open. Everyone is out and about. People still wear masks but they’re slowly removing the mask. You had to wear your mask in the car so now you don't have to if you're in your own car but things are still not smooth. In terms of work, there are still delays with certain supply chains like getting materials and the cost. Everything has gone up.
The materials and labor the cost of everything has gone up. That started during the pandemic and it's gone up increasingly over the last few years. That has also been a bit of a challenge but things are open. The number of cases is low all over India but it still doesn't feel like things are normal because of the delay. There are times when things close in certain areas because there'll be an increase in cases and they’ll lockdown. It’s not smooth.
I feel like everything around the world is not smooth at the moment. I hope things get better soon. The other thing I wanted to ask is about your pieces. They are beautiful. That is what stopped me on Instagram. I was like, “These are a delight on the senses. They're bold and colorful yet they're quite structured and timeless.” You're clear about this on your website as well. You say, “I'm equally passionate about social and environmental responsibility.” A lot of small business owners read this who are in a similar space homeowners, textiles, or designing products somewhere. Has it been harder than you thought or easier than you thought to create pieces that not only look beautiful but are also made well and made in an ethical way?
It's been easier than I thought because my whole goal was to work directly with the artisans so that there was transparency in the working conditions, the wages, and all of that. Initially, when I started I didn't know how to reach the artisans directly so I thought that I would have to work with organizations that work with these artists groups. That's how I started to get into it. I found that they were charging a lot of money but I didn't know where that money was going. I didn't have access to the artisans. I wasn't able to sit with them to develop things.
I felt like there wasn't transparency. I didn't know what was going on. That's when I started to reach out to them directly to ensure that there is transparency and I know what was going on. It's been easy because I know that the artisans are working from home. They're not coming to a factory where they might be in dangerous unhygienic conditions. A lot of the artisans we work with are women. Traveling to a factory would be dangerous. Since they work from home, they are able to take care of their children while also working on their crafts. It hasn't been difficult because I've been able to have that transparency.
I love that. There's a lesson in that for anyone who's listening. You don't always have to go through a middleman. Look at other options. We touched on it before. You made this move to study was that the first time that you moved to the US or had you lived there previously?
I lived there. During high school, I went to boarding school in the US for 1.5 years so I've been there. My father is American so his side of the family lives in the US and my brother and sister had moved there when I was still four. They’re much older than me. They are there so I visited. I also lived there during high school so going back to college I knew that's what I wanted to do.
Even with that familial support that’s there for you, it is still hard to move to another country. I have done it. I moved to London which is similar to Australia. It's similar whereas I would imagine that India and the US have a lot of differences. Before we started, I loved it when you said, “I went to New York to get away from all the craziness.” New York seems to be a hectic place.
For anyone who's listening, was there anything that you could offer in terms of advice for people that might be thinking that they'd to make a move to another country, whether that country is similar or whether that country is quite different? Was there anything that you would maybe not do again or anything that helped outside of the family support? The pandemic is still on us but a lot of people because things are lifting and are restrictions lifting are thinking, “Maybe I'll move to that country and work for a while.” I was wondering about your advice on that since you've done it.
Even though I had that familial support, I went in and what I wanted to do was to get familiar with everything local. It was helpful to meet people who are from the area. Even when I'm traveling on holiday and I'm going to a new country my goal always is to get a sense of what the local feel is. How the people live, what kind of food they eat, and what the culture is like. Even though I've been to New York and live near New York, I still didn't have that sense of a complete local feeling. That's what I wanted.
Once you immerse yourself in that, it's so much easier. It’s nicer and faster to feel at home when you feel you are part of the people and everything that's going on. If you can, it's important to have someone you know that's from there who can show you how things work in that place. That's what was helpful for me. My best friend in college was from New Jersey but she knew New York well and then we would do all the local things. I felt like I became a true New Yorker.
That’s such a good point because I lived in London twice. I was born over there but I definitely knew a lot of friends who moved to London. A lot of Australians go to London. It's like a passage that you go through as a younger person. I feel a lot of Australians also go to London and hang out with other Australians. I made a conscious decision the second time I went to be like, “I'm not hanging out with Australians living in an Australian area.”
It's crucial what you said. Make friends with people who are from there because they can show you the best places to do X, Y, and Z. I love that advice. Your father is American and from my stalking of you and I saw that you're quite close with your mother. She looks like a lovely woman. Is she also creative? Is that how you decided, “I'm going to go down this creative path and study at Parsons.” What was your upbringing like? Has your family influenced you to get into the business that you're in now?
I'm close to my mom. She's not creative but she always has had a good eye for things and my paternal grandfather was the creative one. He used to do woodwork and make jewelry. I was exposed to that a little bit growing up. My parents also had a factory in India where they made reproductions of antique furniture so there was wood and stone and grass. I wasn't involved in that at all but I was around creating stuff. I got the process of creating and I enjoyed that but when I think back, I didn't have anything to do with them. It was something that I enjoyed.
For as long as I can remember, I loved art class. I love drawing, building things, and making things with my hands. Maybe it was passed down from my grandfather but I don't know if my parents influenced me at all. They didn't want me to go to Parsons. It was an art school. They were like, “What are you going to do afterward? Be an artist?” I would be painting and then I would not get a job. They were concerned about me going to Parsons.
It's everywhere. I did a Bachelor of Arts like an arts degree and it’s the same. My parents are like, “What are you going to do with that?” Degrees give you so much fuel for the rest of your life and learning about all this stuff. What was Parsons like? What was it like to be around so much creativity and people that want to explore that as a career?
I had an amazing time. Most of what I should have learned, I'm using now. It was an amazing experience being around other people. Coming from an international school in India, there were other people in my school who went to art but then being in an environment where everyone was into art and design was extremely inspiring and sometimes intimidating. Being in New York, having all access to all these museums and events, and then being with people who were so creative was extremely inspiring.
People always asked me, “You went to college in New York, you must have been going out all the time. It must have been amazing.” Yes, I did go out but I didn't go out as much as people thought I was because Parsons is extremely difficult. In terms of the requirements, if you miss more than two classes in one semester, you fail that class. You can decide, “I'm not going to go to class.” You save your absences for when you're sick because if you get sick then you may have to go to class because you have already taken two days off. They were extremely strict with attendance.
The homework we got was intensive so I'd be working until 2:00 AM and then you'd have to be back in class at 9:00 and our classes were 3 or 6 hours long. They were extremely intense. It was an intense academic experience. My best friends are all from Parsons so it was an amazing experience in terms of design, learning about that, and being exposed to that in New York. Also making these amazing friends who have the same interests as me.
A six-hour class. That would have been hard. With the business that you’re in now and have gone to a school like Parsons, I’m wondering do the friends that you had from there have all gone into creative businesses? If they have, do you keep each other accountable when it comes to your businesses? Have they become business friends as well?
A few of them have started their own businesses. Two of them started almost immediately after graduating like I did and then some of the others started in the last few years. My businesses are quite separate. We don't necessarily keep each other accountable but we do help each other. If one of us has a warehouse and then someone else needs one then, we help each other with contacts. When we need certain things like a new accountant, we need a small business account and then we give each other references. It's amazing to have that support to help each other. It's not some competition. It’s genuinely helping each other which is so important in any industry.
Sometimes with design, there are people that I've met who are so secretive about all this. They're not open to supporting others, but it is important to have this community and support each other. They did go into design, but some have switched and changed their careers completely. They had enough at Parsons and they want to do something completely different. There's been a mix of that as well.
From your travels and even these markets that you're talking about, I can imagine that there are a lot of places for you to source inspiration. I love asking designers, especially, because they're such a source of inspiration for other people. Where do you source your inspiration from now? Are there certain websites that you go to? Are there certain galleries that always inspire you? Is it music? Is it a film? Where do you seek inspiration?
Being in India, in terms of color, I get inspired easily but then sometimes with the colors, I'm seeing here that they're bold, bright, and maybe a little too loud. Sometimes I want to use certain color palettes and I'm like, “Maybe this won't work in a home that's not in India,” so I have to tone it down. From Parsons, I became inspired by architecture. Geometric like Carlo Scarpa. I love his work and being inspired by his work.
Also, certain movements like the Bauhaus Movement, Art Deco, the 80s, and the geometric shapes from there so it's a mix of things. When I'm designing a new collection, I don't specifically go looking for inspiration. It's things that build up once I have a lot in my mind and I start sketching and fleshing out a new collection. When I'm looking at things for inspiration, I get too influenced, and then I feel like things start looking similar.
I remember I was talking to Kitiya Palaskas on a previous episode and she was saying, “Have a look for inspiration, but also do your own creative work and that inspiration as well.” I like that idea. I know I keep talking about your time in New York but how did you start making these connections? You had family there and you made some connections through university. You've been profiled in the media and other such things that some small business owners who are listening to this then go and search for you. They'll be, “That's amazing.” How did you get those things? Was it through connections that you had? Did you put yourself forward for magazines or media? Do you have any tips for people who are wanting to do something similar and get their word out there about their business?
When I started, a PR firm had reached out to me initially. I worked with them for about 1 or 1.5 years. They got me into a lot of great magazines and things which was great because it gave me credibility that I was featured in this magazine but that didn't necessarily feel like it was affecting my sales. It was great exposure, but it did not necessarily increase sales. I was introduced to this designer in New York who makes cosmetic purses and things like that.
I was speaking to her and I asked her for a lot of advice because she was established and she had this business that she was running on her own. The advice that she gave, which I followed since then, has been over eight years. If you work on your craft, you’re focused, you're making stuff that you love, and you're putting it out there, people will come to you. You don't need to reach out and try to get into places. They will come to you and that's what I've done. I am so passionate about designing and working with the artisan that I put my energy into that. All the precedent got after that and the stores that I'm selling to have been people finding me.
Working with PR is extremely expensive. When she told me that I can do that on my own, I've been doing it on my own. Initially, I did try that and I would email stories and try to get into various places and I didn't get any traction. When I let that go, I started putting energy there, focused on creating the brand and making the product, then the people came. I got the stores that I wanted to be in. They came to me. I feel like that’s what I've been focusing on, the product.
I love that idea. Was it hard to get into that headspace of, “I need to keep focused, and if I do a good job and love what I do people will come.” The financials are far cheaper to do it yourself but were there any mindset shifts you had to have to be like, “It's okay. I can do it myself. People will come.”
It was definitely tough to be like, “I'm not reaching out anymore to people. I'm going to focus on the product.” It was extremely difficult to let that go but then when I saw things happening there was proof and evidence that this can work so I continued doing that. I feel like going to trade shows helps because you're sitting in one place and then all the buyers are coming to you. You don't have to reach out to people. They're coming to you. They will get to see your product in person. They can touch it and feel it. That has always been a great way to meet people in the press or stores and make connections. That has also been helpful. It was focusing on the product and then putting it out there and then people coming to you.
With this woman that you talked to and who gave you that advice, she sounds like a great mentor to have. Are there any other mentors or is there a particular business book or is there anything that has helped you build your business? Likewise, are there other technology tools or platforms that you're like, “This has changed the game in terms of the way I run my business.”
I didn't know who to reach out to when I started so I did things, made mistakes, and figured it out. With the PR firm that I worked with, I'm so glad I did that because I learned so much even though it was expensive, trying different things and in some ways might have been extremely challenging or extremely expensive but then that allowed me to figure things out on my own. Of course, it helps to have a mentor. If I could have had one, I would definitely choose to have someone to help me in certain situations when I would be stuck and not know which technology to use to make things easier.
At the same time, I feel all the trial and error that I did on my own was also extremely valuable to what works for me. I kept thinking that I needed to hire someone. I can't do photography on my own but then when I got the camera and worked with a stylist, I figured out that I can also do this on my own. It's not something that I can't do on my own. For me, I always feel like trying different things. Even if it doesn't turn out the way you want, you learn so much that you learn something that you can make work for you. If you can have a mentor, great. If you can't, then try different things and you will figure out what works for you.
There's this quote by CS Lewis that I've used many times but what you were saying reminded me so much of this quote which is, “Experience is the most brutal of teachers but you learn.” It can be a brutal teacher but then you've got experience. You won't go down that same path again in a way. How long have you been in business now? How many years?
I started in 2012. I didn't know what to do, how to market, and all of that but I started a small collection at that time and then I went to one of my favorite stores in New York called ABC Carpet & Home and they placed an order with me for my first collection. I slowly started to build it out and find more artisan groups using different techniques. I grew the collection thing from there.
It’s your tenth birthday in 2022. Congratulations.
Thank you.
What are you most proud of from the last couple of years? What are you most proud of in your journey in business?
The connection that I've made with the people that I work with. The most valuable part of my business is having these close relationships with the artisans that I work with. Also, the fact that I have been able to do this on my own. I only have one other person who works with me. It’s figuring things out on my own for the most part. I'm proud that I was able to get here on my own.
You should be proud of that.
Thank you.
If people are listening and they're thinking, “I need to connect with her,” or “I want to stock her stuff,” where is the best place for them to connect with you? What is next for you? Are you going to have a big party to celebrate another year?
I wasn't even thinking about it. Until you asked me right now, it’s like, “It’s been more than ten years.” Now that I realized this, I have to plan something big for the summer or fall. That's when I started out. I don't know what I'm going to do but I'm going to do something big and fun.
Celebrate. More than ten years is huge. Most businesses fail in the first three years so you've tripled that and then some. It’s amazing.
It's great to realize that’s me during the podcast. I'm, “It's been ten years.” In terms of what else I’m working on, there are a few things that I wanted to expand the product categories that I've been working on with textiles. I did that with a collection. We added dog beds and some bolsters. We did a bunch of tapestries that did well so I want to do a few more. We did introduce some candleholders. I don't know if you saw those.
Yes, I have. I've seen them. They're beautiful with the Art Deco shaping lines and stuff on them.
We did those but I feel like I'm having a harder time marketing those when our focus has been textiles. On one hand, we would like to add some more products that are not textiles. We’re also working with artisans in India who use traditional crafts like the candle holders but it’s figuring out how to tie all that together into the collection so it's more of a full collection for your home. They’re like tabletops, textiles, and all of that.
What’s the best place to connect with you and find all of this? Is it best for people to email you? Are you fine with people contacting you on Instagram?
Email is the easiest. I will get back the fastest if it's through email. It’s Info@LeahSignh.com.
Thank you so much for coming on and sharing your story. Your things are absolutely beautiful. Your designs and creations are absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing your business story with us.
Thank you so much for having me. It was so nice to speak to you and share what I do with all your readers. It was nice to be here.
Thank you. Bye.
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I love that you could randomly come across somebody on Instagram and then have this whole conversation. I'm definitely going to be checking out and buying some of Leah Singh’s pieces. There's a whole story when people come over and you can explain where this comes from and who makes it. I love the world. I love how incredibly accessible everything is. This whole conversation is a reminder of that. Thank you again, Leah, for coming on to the podcast.
I would love to know what you took away from my conversation with Leah. Whether you're in homewares, or whether you're not, whether you like designing, whether that's not a part of your business, I would love to know what stood out for you. As always, I'm going to list two things that stood out for me.
There were so many but the two things that stood out for me were this idea of building connection and we talked about that in terms of immersing herself in the local vibe when she travels. What did the locals eat? Where do they go? What does life feel like in this city or in this space that I'm visiting? That is such a beautiful thing.
As things start opening up again and people who have the means can travel, what an incredible luxury that is, and none of us will take it for granted if we did do it again, especially after the pandemic. I love that idea of going off the beaten track and immersing yourself in a place. This is such an example of not doing it.
Years and years ago, when I got married, which was in 2008, we had a honeymoon in Malaysia. We went to this beautiful little island called Langkawi and we were staying in this stunning beautiful boutique hotel that you would expect on a honeymoon. The food was not that great. The food in their breakfast was beautiful and we had all these different chefs but in terms of food we were going to get in from the hotel to have room service and stuff wasn't that good.
My husband's family is Indian and we love roti and different types of bread. We love all sorts of food from different parts of Asia. We were trying to get that and it felt it was not authentic. It was Western food and it was not great in the hotel. I was surprised. On the last day, we went walking through these different back streets and found this incredible little hole-in-the-wall place where the locals were eating.
I was like, “This looks incredible.” It was delicious. It was the best food ever. The roti and the curries were incredible. We were like, “Why have we not ventured a little bit further afield? If we had been eating that all week, it would have been so much better.” That's one example of going off the beaten track and then coming into this incredible information that you can find wherever you travel.
I love that idea but also the idea of connection when she talked about working with the artisans, connecting with them, not going through an agency and finding out who they are, what makes them tick, where do they work? How do they work? Why are they doing this work? It’s building those true relationships and real connections. Regardless of what type of work or business you have, so much of your business success is built on relationships, connections, having these genuine conversations, and communicating with people.
A huge part of marketing as well is to be able to build connections. That's what it is. You're building connections on all sorts of platforms and through different mediums. I love that point. The other thing that I loved was Leah talking about her time at Parsons and talking about different movements like Bauhaus. It reminded me that I am someone who loves to study. I always say if I won TattsLotto, I would literally be a perpetual student at University for the rest of my life. I have a huge appetite for learning and education. I was listening to her talk and I was thinking that we get so much of that in a formal education environment.
If you go to school and if you're fortunate enough to then go on and have tertiary education, or in courses and other things that we do but sometimes there are these incredible movements that shaped design, part of history, architecture and all sorts of things. We might have heard about them but not necessarily have studied them. Maybe we studied something completely different yet there's so much out there.
There's so much out there that we can learn and sometimes it's about taking that self-initiative and being like, “I've heard a lot about Bauhaus. What is it? How do I learn more about it?” Maybe I'm going to go to the library and find a book on it or maybe I'm going to find an expert and read some stuff up about them or watch some things on YouTube about that.
Often, we have so many opportunities to learn, and we spend that time sometimes doing things that aren't so great like scrolling social media mindlessly or watching trash TV. I'm putting my hand up because that's something that I do and there's time for that as well. There's also time for this education and learning. I loved hearing about such an incredible school like Parsons. Thank you so much, Leah, for coming on and sharing your insights. It's always wonderful to talk to somebody outside of Australia as well. I find that fascinating too.
This is what I love about social media with my love-hate but the parts that I love include accessibility and being able to connect with people all over the world. It’s the same with this podcast. Every time I look at the analytics, I look at the map of the world and all the little spots. We're on every continent besides Antarctica. People are reading and it's absolutely incredible to hear that. Thank you so much, Leah for coming on and sharing your insights. It's been wonderful chatting with you.
If you would like to connect with Leah, you can do that over at LeahSingh.com. If you are on social media, you can find Leah on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. If you follow her on Instagram, or you want to follow her on Instagram, you can find her @LeahSinghInc. She has absolutely beautiful pieces. I can't wait. We're working on a renovation and we’re excited to get one of Leah’s pieces in our house. It's super beautiful and I love it. I love the whole story behind it. It's fantastic.
As a reminder, if you're interested in marketing for your small business, we kick off that course and coaching program on the 26th of April 2022. You can find out all the information over at MarketingForYourSmallBusiness.com or you can find it at MyDailyBusinessCoach.com/marketing. Thank you so much for reading. I'll see you next time.
Thanks for reading the My Daily Business Coach Podcast. If you want to get in touch, you can do that at MyDailyBusinessCoach.com or hit me up on Instagram, @MyDailyBusinessCoach.
