Episode 380: Ashley & Nick of New Opening Studio
What happens when two separate businesses become one creative powerhouse? In this episode, Fiona chats with Ashley and Nick of New Opening Studio. They share their journey of merging individual skill sets, client bases, and personal lives to form their brand. They also provide insights into the challenges of distinguishing true skills and experience from the noise of social media. Tune in!
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“Overall, audiences are critical thinkers now, as we know. As you said, it's more than just purchasing a product. It's about the messaging, the feeling, the reputation around it, and the consistency. The audiences have evolved and there's been some education over time around that. People these days want to invest in products and brands that are ethically-minded, sustainable, or taking into all these different considerations and business owners themselves are now realizing the value of that as well.”
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Welcome to episode 380 of the My Daily Business podcast. This episode is an interview episode and I have to say that I'm quite excited about this one because I not only know these guys but they have helped me massively in bringing the new brand, My Daily Business. I'm not so new anymore but with rebranding from My Daily Business Coach to My Daily Business, they were hugely responsible for the visual components of that. I'm excited to talk to them about their business and about all sorts of things to do with design, graphics, website, and branding.
Before we get stuck into that, I want to acknowledge the people who are the traditional owners and custodians of the land on which I record this podcast and meet these people and that is the Wurrung and Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. I pay my respects to their elders, past and present, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded. If you are reading this, I would urge you to think about, if you're in Australia, how you are going to show up on the 26th of January 2024. If you're reading this in your First Nations, I would remind you that there are support systems out there like 13YARN, which is By Mob, For Mob. Let's get into this episode.
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This is an interview with two small business owners who have come together to combine their talents and create a brand under the umbrella of New Opening Studio. If you're keen to check them out, it's @NewOpening.Studio. You can also just put in NewOpening.studio and you'll go right to their website. It’s good and cool, they don't have a dot-com but they have a dot-studio. They would know all about that because they are branding and website designers.
Who am I talking about? I'm talking about Ashley Simonetto and Nicholas Bunting. Together, they are New Opening Studio but they have also run their own separate businesses for years and they are combining that into New Opening Studio, which offers branding and websites. It takes all of their skillset from content strategy, design, and website usability, all of that, and brings it into one brand under New Opening Studio.
In addition to this, they are also romantic partners in real life. In our chat, we talk about what it's like going from two people who work and live together and are in a romantic relationship and have their own businesses into creating a combined business and what things do they have to discuss. Have they assumed certain things about each other's businesses or have they not? How do they define what type of clients they want to take on, particularly if their previous businesses or their separate businesses were working with different clientele?
Ashley designed all of the branding for My Daily Business. In early 2023, we changed names from My Daily Business Coach, which we had been for years, to My Daily Business. Ashley is the person who brought all of that to life in a visual component. I was excited to get them on here to talk about what things they look for when it's looking at clients but also how have they built this new business and what does it look like in terms of having their existing businesses, which they have run individually for years, through to bringing this stuff together.
We talk about everything from setting boundaries through to what tools they use and how they monitor where something is. For example, if Ashley brings on a client and then that client wants to also create a website, at what point does it then go to Nick being in all of the meetings? How does it all work? A lot of people reading this podcast have a partner who is also creative or who might also run their own business.
I know that because a lot of people will tell me, “I was reading it because I've got an interior design business but then my husband started listening to it because he has a building business or a construction business and he's getting a lot out of it too.” It's interesting to think about it from a perspective of, “If we were to combine forces, what would that look like?” I have an interest in this because my husband is a graphic designer, head of design, art director, and all of those things and it's a complimentary skillset to what I do.
We have had a business in the past that we ran together years ago, he did graphic design, and I did the copywriting and brand stuff. That's something that, never say never, could happen in the future. This is interesting. I want to thank Ashley and Nick for being so open and talking about how it has practically worked and then also looking at things like what sort of clients are they after? How do they create things?
What do they think of the competition that is out there now through platforms like social media where anyone and everyone can pop up and say, “I'm a website designer,” or, “I'm a graphic designer,” or, “I'm an expert in this or that,” when they don't necessarily have the skills, experience, and the proven track record that these two have. What is that like? Here is my interview with the wonderful Nicholas Bunting and Ashley Simonetto of New Opening Studio.
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Welcome, Ash and Nick. It's fantastic to have you on the podcast. How are you both feeling about life at the moment?
Thanks for having us.
Thank you.
Life at the moment, now that we're at the end of 2023 and pushing for that last month or so, I would say a little tired but excited that we've had such a massive year and accomplished and done so much.
It's been a big one, a bit of ups and downs, as I'm sure a lot of people know, from really slow to really busy and navigating a whole bunch of different things going on in the world and also in business. We're not crawling to the edge but getting there.
This will be coming out in early 2024 so our future selves will listen to this and be like, “I feel super energetic and excited.” I feel like everyone gets to this stage. You can see summer on the horizon and you're like, “Come on. I can see that it’s there”.
All the Christmas trees go up in coals in November and you think it's already there and you got a couple of months to go.
The time has gotten earlier and earlier. As soon as Father's Day's over in September, it goes straight into like, “What's the next thing?” As soon as Christmas is over, it's straight into Easter, like, “Let's do hot cross buns on December 28th.” I am excited to talk to you guys about your joint business, New Opening Studio. Can you tell us how this came to be and a bit of the background before you got to this point?
I've been doing graphic design in-house for different businesses since I graduated. Becoming a freelancer was a natural progression during COVID when we were all reflective. New Opening Studio was an organic step for us. We were already working together anyway so it’s passing on our clients back and forth between each other because our skillsets do complement each other so well so it made sense to join together.
I started in graphic design and then moved towards web design. I got roped into web design and then web development and then started a business through plain web development. I've been working with a few different studios and designers separate from me and developing sites that they'd built. We met each other and I liked the work that Ashley was doing. More and more, I wanted to work with the branding that she did and find a way to come together. It just so happened that a couple of projects came up and, more and more, we were working on projects together and turning down clients of our own or finding time to work together. The point came where we were like, “Do you want to make something of it?”
Make it official.
You've both been running your own separate businesses before this came into a thing. Ashley, we had connected through the design files and a lot of people that read this will know your work. Nick, we connected through Ash. With each of you, did you both know as soon as you finished uni and your studies that you were going to do your own thing? When you were working in these other places, before you started your own business, which was then before New Opening Studio, what was the jump? Was it much of a jump where you're like, “I'm always going to have my own business.” Did you think, “This is why I'm starting.” What made you start it?
I never thought I would be a freelancer. I always thought it would be the ultimate goal when I'm in my 50s or something when I had it all sorted and I understood everything. I'm quite shocked that it has come so soon but I'm also glad that it has. COVID was that push. The silver lining was it made everyone comfortable working from home so that opened up the dialogue with multiple different clients at once. I didn't necessarily have to be there sitting at the desk from 9:00 to 5:00 to complete the work. There was another level of trust that wasn't there before. For me, it seemed like it was possible and it was something that I could achieve. In the past, I didn't know how to jump from X to Z.
I was a bit different. Graduating in graphic design, I didn't know if that's what I wanted so I went the whole roundabout way of figuring out what I wanted to do and working different jobs and then realizing that I wasn't as fulfilled doing things for other people. I stumbled along years down the track that I do love design. The website of design got re-inspired there. I didn't see the way forward without jumping straight in and making one step. All of a sudden, I've got a client and then I'm like, “I have no choice but to keep going now.” I fell into it. I’ve been going ever since.
It did help that, during that time, I could work three days a week at a full-time position and then I had two days doing freelance. You do reach a boiling point where you're like, “I need to dedicate myself to either one or the other because I'm not giving my best to one or the other either.” That was that moment of decision-making.
I'm going to put you on the spot as well. When I started my business, and I'd come from corporate and I'd worked at lots of different places, I was like, “I'm going to do this,” which I thought I was going to do marketing strategy for corporates because that's what paid a lot. I then started talking to small business owners and I was like, “I could work with them.” I had to get the money coming in from the corporate in order to do the work that I wanted to do with creative small business owners.
Eventually, I shifted my whole business to only pretty much working with creative small business owners. When you both started, did you both have a niche that you were going after? Nick, were you like, “I'm going to target this type of business that needs a website and needs design.” Ash, were you like, “I've worked at the design files. I'm going to target that audience.” How did you both decide for your separate businesses who you were going to work with?
I didn't have that set out from the start. I was too busy and caught up in trying to figure it out and trying to make it work that I was like, “Get anything in the door and then figure it out later.” I'm still going through that today. I've got a much better idea of what niche and what market but I’m still trying to figure out what I'm best suited to and who we're best targeting.
It's a forever-evolving thing. As you're growing, that changes as well. Through working with TDF and then other businesses in Melbourne, I lent myself to small business female owners and my work reflects that style so what I put out is what I attracted and that's what I love doing and it's what I love working with. That definitely became my niche organically. Maybe I did put it out there but it came back to me. I also always have in my mind a running list of businesses that I admire so I always try to reach out or have a plan in that way. What was exciting about New Opening and what the business name entails is it's a new opportunity. We're still figuring out what our demographic is and who we're better suited to.
You nailed female small business owners. You did my brand and I'm excited to have you both on here talking about all of your skillsets. When you decided to join forces with New Opening Studio, you guys are a couple as well as being business partners. I know a lot of couples that would love to do this. It's interesting because my background was magazines and content. I had a little copywriting branded content business in 2007. My husband is a head of design, art director, and graphic designer. He's been a graphic designer and art director for 25 years or so.
We have talked so many times about joining forces and we even had our own business in London called Subject Object. We had this whole thing and we're going to work together and it hasn't happened yet, not to say never. My husband and I also had a cushion business in London and I feel like, at some point, it'll join forces. There's a difference between having dinner together and being like, “We should do something together,” and then actually doing it. You guys are legit. You have a full business. How did the conversation even come up? How long was it between, “We should do this together,” to, “Let's do this together.”
There was a bit of naivety between both of us not thinking it through and just going, “Let's do it.” The more we would have thought about it, the more we probably wouldn't have done that. We just said, “It works. Let's try it.” We came together and that's that. It's one thing running a business and it’s one thing being in a relationship. There's also one thing being in both. Every day, you’re trying to draw a line at dinner, stop talking about work, or we're at the park or something, “Can we put a line through it or do we need to talk or what are we talking about? Which hat are we wearing?”
Our personality types match quite well and we complement each other not only in skills but in personality. We're able to figure it out as we go. If you've come from both successful and independent strong business entities and try and make something work that's not complementary or just try and do business, it might be a different thing. It just so happens that it complemented each other and then figuring it out wasn't bad so we kept going. It's been like, “We can do this.”
Especially for me because I was figuring out how to do freelance in the first place, I've only been doing it for maybe a year or two now, I was more like, “Why not just add in another thing to figure it out?” I was already in the head space. As Nick said, maybe if we did sit down and discuss it over months and months, it probably would not have happened. It happened quite quickly as well. It was because the projects were pushing us to work together so we’re more so, “Let's just make it an official professional front. Otherwise, it's bits and pieces.”
It was as simple as having a branding project and then a client asking the question, “Do you know anyone that can build a website?” She's like, “Yes.” Naturally, we'd work together and then it's like, “Cool.” We were like, all of a sudden, “Do you want to make it seamless so that they're not going from one business to another business and just go to the same business?” We were like, “Yeah.” It warmed us up to being together and being separate working on projects together so we've got a good test run at it.
My first guest on this podcast was Josh Rubin from Cool Hunting. He runs Cool Hunting with his partner and husband, long-term relationship, Evan Orensten. He said that the best piece of advice he got from his mum was, “Don't have dinner and talk about work. Dinner is a safe zone.” You guys have said a little bit of that. Do you have a switch-off? Do you say, “It's after 8:00, we're not talking about this.” It's hard when you're creative because I'm sure you're getting lots of different ideas all the time. You might be watching Netflix and be like, “We should do something like that or be in the park.” Have you come up with any rules or anything like that?
My mind fills up quickly and can't handle it when I'm trying to have a break or something. My ideas are always flowing and then I come out to have a break and try and switch off. We're together so we start naturally talking back about work. I'm like, “No. Can we stop for a bit so I can have a break?”
Meals, lunchtime and dinner time are where we definitely try the most to not talk about work. Although, we could probably do better at it.
Let's talk about the name, it's such a good one. You guys are in that brand space. How'd you come up with that? Did you have loads of different names or were you like, “Ash and Nick. A&N.” Did you come up with all these different things or were you like, “This is it. This is the perfect name, straight away.”
We had a little work retreat, half retreat and half play, to disconnect and recharge creatively. During that time, we had the intention that we were going to map out everything within the business and the name included. We weren't going to leave until we just figured out a name. It came about quite organically. We didn't come in with anything. We just wanted it to be a little bit more abstract and not mean too much but also mean everything.
You start with the two names or try to merge things together. You get pretty literal about it. We made a conscious effort of looking at people we like and names we like and how that they were abstract or didn't mean much but could have meant something to the creator and keeping it short and sweet. We landed on Opening Studio and it was taken or something like that. We had to re-workshop it and we really loved it. We got there and thought that that was it and then we had to keep going. We finally got it over the line and New Opening was there. All of a sudden, we sat with it for about a week and it clicked.
Such a good story. How have you gone from both having separate businesses to guiding anyone who contacts either of you into, “We have this combined business now.” How has that gone? Have you had to basically run three separate businesses still while this is coming into its own? Also, I guess not everyone is going to need everything that you're offering. How has that gone? You've both built your own audiences separately that know what you do and then you have to do this education piece around, “We also do this now.”
It's definitely building it again from the ground up, although we obviously each independently have our own audience and clientele. It is re-educating people on what it is we can do together. It's still something that we are still navigating. If a client does come to us and we see that there is potential for it to have a more of a holistic approach, we would guide them to a New Opening. We would be like, “Also, just so you know, if you are thinking of this, I can offer you X, Y, and Z, not just brand and not just social media.”
It's quite difficult because if someone contacted you, you have to say, “Hang on, not me. Come over here, there's us.” It has been a bit clunky at times. Now, after doing a few projects and a few bigger projects, the referral train has started to kick in, which has made it a bit easier. They're contacting us together instead of separately now, which is a lot easier because you're straight in. The introduction to us together from our separate referrals is still a bit tough to navigate but we've definitely managed to educate people and make it work.
This comes up in any business partnership, whether you're in a relationship separate to the business or not, how have you defined roles? You have your own businesses and, like, “I do this.” At what point in the process does Nick take over or at what point of the process does Ash say, “No, this is the direction we're going in.” Nick might be like, “I would have thought this direction might've been better.”
I often joke with my husband if he comes into the business at some point, who knows, he may never do that but if he does, he's always like, “I get it. You're the boss lady. You're in charge. I just work for you.” How does that work? Even with sisters or other business partners where they're friends, people can join in a partnership but there’ll not be a clear delineation of roles.
From a business structure point of view, it has to be 50/50. We decided that early on because it gets a bit messy if it's not. Both of us, making that decision, have to base everything on that. Because Ash is on the branding side of things and I'm on the web side of things, projects tend to start with the brand and go into the web so Ash will take the lead on the brand side and I'll support all communication and things will be favoured to Ash and I'll support and we'll do reviews together.
It's definitely more towards Ash and then the handover to Web and then I take the lead from that point of view and then Ash will fill in and support as we go. It's hard because different parts of the process can take longer or shorter. There's not necessarily a 50/50 split sometimes but we just fill that in with support where we can. If someone's on the job longer, we're there to support and do work around them to support them in each phase where they're the leader.
Also, the nature of a design project is that it already is very strictly mapped out. You know how many rounds of revisions it's going to be. You know the phases and the stages. Prior to even onboarding a client, we have that all mapped out already. We can already understand roughly where we're going to slot in and where our time will be focused on so it doesn't need too much discussion amongst ourselves. Whereas maybe in other businesses, not everything is clearly mapped out all the time so there can be miscommunication or whatnot. That's probably one of the benefits.
You're in the brand space and websites being part of that and bringing it all to life. Over the last few years, we've seen this shift, even pre-pandemic. It's always been there but I feel like a lot of people have gone from having a purely transactional business, go on Alibaba, find stuff as cheap as possible, selling it, and making money to, “I want to build a brand. I want the beautiful visuals that go with that and the good tone of voice. I want my website to reflect us. I want everything to be consistent.” Why do you think more people, it seems, are building a brand and not just a business?
Overall, audiences are critical thinkers now, as we know. It's more than just purchasing a product, it's about the messaging, the feeling, and the reputation around it. The consistency and the audiences have just evolved and there's been some education over time around that. People, these days, want to invest in products and brands that are ethically-minded, sustainable, or taking into account all these different considerations. Business owners themselves are now realizing the value of that as well.
It's evolving and whacking things together and putting a website up and running some ads isn't a sustainable model. You need to engage your audience and give them a great product and represent that visually end-to-end in every touch point. I feel like it's starting to be proven that everyone sees the value in building a brand because it's more sustainable and it stands the test of time.
The market itself right now is obviously oversaturated and everything is condensed to your screen. We don't go out anymore and interact retail-wise or services-wise. In order to stand out online, you do need to take all those considerations into account and all your different touchpoints and ensure that there is that cohesiveness and storytelling.
I also think the level of brands, especially visually these days, has jumped a whole new level. For a lot of people, their skills are getting better, the technology is getting better, and they're just being able to represent brands holistically a lot better. People are getting left behind if they're not at that level. It's hard to ignore building a brand when they are so valuable.
I couldn't agree more. How have you both leveraged? You guys are young. How have you leveraged online platforms to showcase your work? As you said, a lot of us are on our screens all the time. Back in the day, I used to edit fashion journals and this was before social media. People used to literally rock up to our offices in Richmond and knock on the door and be like, “I've got these t-shirts,” or, I've got this. Can somebody help me with swing tag design,” or all sorts of different things.
It's different now. People used to also do a lot of printed publications. When I first moved to London, I printed a magazine of my work so that I could send a full and thick magazine of all my writing to people because people wouldn't accept it in a CD-ROM or anything like that. Now, there's so many ways. You can build your TikTok quickly and be like, “Here I am,” even if you just started doing graphic design five months ago. How do you guys get the word out about what you do when there's so much competition out there?
It's definitely changed over the last little bit, especially for my individual business. When I started a couple of years in, it was a case of uploading to Instagram, messaging people on Instagram, and showcasing your work from a purely visual point of view, “It looks good. This website looks great. They must be able to build a nice one so I'll get in touch.” The level of design has elevated over the last little while. Especially in the last year, I've seen it elevate quite a bit.
It doesn't seem to be as effective anymore because the level of design is incredible. Whacking your work up on Instagram doesn't get those leads as it once did. Now, it's shifting towards more providing value and showing your client what you can give them or provide for them instead of just showing a visual representation of your work.
We've shifted into more of like LinkedIn and exploring those avenues. They seem to be a bit more effective at establishing professional relationships. Instagram seems to be more tilted towards designers and getting inspiration for design. It's more about how we've made a shift to connect with businesses and outreach referrals and things like that direct-to-mailbox and trying to showcase the value where we can in content to connect with people that could utilize our work.
We've almost taken maybe a step backwards so we're not solely relying on just social media anymore to communicate with clients. We’re trying to connect and build relationships from the ground up. Even if we just started working with you one-on-one for one small thing, we'll show or educate you around our values and our services and then hopefully grow from there.
Social media and Instagram can be quite oversaturated. No one knows how the algorithm works these days and you're not completely in control. You can be in control of your narrative and your communication with people. Those are the things that we highly value. We always want to show up for people and hopefully, that surpasses what your feed looks like these days.
It's so true. I would say you've taken a step forward. I feel like I rant on about this on this podcast all the time but way too many people see social media as their holy grail. If they just add more content and more content. I get it, we've used social media and it works to some capacity. I love that you said go to something like a narrative that you can control and the platforms that you can control to some point and actually create that real relationship. On that tech talk, what other apps or what platforms do you both love for your business? What are the tools that you couldn't do business without?
We love Notion and it's taken us a long time to find the right platform that allows us to work remotely with clients and for us to communicate between each other. We love the flexibility of it and how you can build it to what it needs to be for specific clients or different projects.
Aside from our creative software and tools, we use TechWise for building brands and websites. Notion has stood out where we've both tried to be more in the business development phase and in the systems and trying to create a pillar where we can always revert back to when trying to navigate business and trying to grow and leverage its power to rely on.
It's been quite inspiring because you've always got a place to rock up to every day and see your business in a snapshot and go, “I know what I need to do and I know what I need to execute.” The guesswork has been a big one for us in not having something to look out to go, “Put me back on track.” Keep ticking the boxes, keep chipping away, and doing what you can. It used to be everywhere and spread out and emails and I'd use a database here or a CRM here. The CRM didn't store data, it was just a sales tool. It's brought it all together under one roof but it does take a long time or a bit of work to make it work for you.
That's important. You have to make it work for you. Whatever tool you're using, if you don't make it work for you, you can get easily sidetracked by the next thing that comes out because it seems more exciting and fun. It's like, “If you just use this one properly, it could still work for you.” Outside of tech stuff, have there been other things that have helped either of you? Have there been any books or have you read anything business-y, mantras, film, or Netflix shows that's like, “That has been super helpful for business.”
I have borderline too many and I had to chill a little bit because they all pull you in all sorts of different directions and it comes down to YouTube shorts, motivational things, and little business tips. I follow business people in the web space or certain tech that I use or SEO. There are all these different influences at any one time and I'm screenshotting things every day. I've got a folder on my desktop of just screenshots.
I have way too many screenshots.
I'm thinking of making a website of daily screenshots. I’ll never look at them again.
That's the thing, you take a screenshot as if you've done the work, like, “I've taken it now. I'm going to take action that.”
You never look at it again. I think a lot of that is cool. I do have heaps of those inspiration. I have a notebook that’s more so about mindset things that you can take from the little business snippets and I jot down important things to keep in mind every day. A lot of content but I've had to dial it back lately because it pulled me in a whole bunch of different directions. Sometimes you need to trust yourself as well.
That's like parenthood. That's another thing where people will send you books and people will send you all this advice and you start following all these people and you're like, “I've got to trust my instinct. I know what I'm doing.”
It makes you run around in circles even more sometimes.
Sometimes I'll listen to something and I'll think, “I'm not doing that.” Earlier that day, I would have felt good about the business and then I'll be like, “I'm not doing that and I'm not doing that. Is everyone doing that?” You're then like, “Ten minutes ago I felt fine.”
You’re then chasing your tail. We went through that as well. I've had to sit myself down.
I was like, “That's enough.”
I was redoing my website and I got it to a good place and then, all of a sudden, I'm like, “I need to add this, this, and this and change this page.” We sat down and I'm like, “Is it where it needs to be?” She's like, “It's not you.” I'm like, “You're right.”
You can go around and around. On that note, what are you both most proud of from your business journeys so far?
I'm proud that we're doing it. I know that sounds a little cliché. I wake up every day and I can't believe that I'm doing this for work. I never thought I would get to this point where I could work for myself. The fact that we're trying every day and waking up and trying is pretty cool.
It's working. We’re fortunate enough to be in this position and there's been times where you're like, “Do I need to get a job to support this or something?” In the early days or whatnot going, “This is what I chose and what I need to do and I can't look back.” The fact that it's working and not having to double back on that is a pretty good achievement. We both remind ourselves of that.
I love that so much. What is next for New Opening Studio and where can people connect with you? What services do you offer? There are many small business owners who read this all around the world and you guys work with people all around the world. What do you offer and where can people find out more about you?
We are a New Opening Studio. You can find us on Instagram, @NewOpening.Studio. We pretty much offer a seamless end-to-end journey from brand identity to web design and build and all the bits in between.
Also, SEO, ongoing management of the website, ongoing support with the brand, growth of the brand, growth of the website, and all those sorts of things. NewOpening.studio is our website as well. Inquire us at Hello@NewOpening.studio.
What's next? Anything exciting coming up?
2024 will be a big year for us in terms of trying to continue growing and expanding. Hopefully, getting more overseas clientele is our biggest focus. We want to be more a part of the world next year. We feel like we've been behind our desks for the past year. We try to be out there, interact with clients and people more, and show our faces.
Sounds like a plan.
Hit the ground running and get into it.
Thank you so much for coming on and sharing. Also, thank you again for your beautiful work on my brand. We've had lots of people asking about that and always reference. You guys have done such a good job that you're being referenced in my new book as well. I talk about certain parts and I'm like, “Here's an example.” Thank you so much for taking the time. I know that there's so many people out there that may well be like, “2024 is my year to rebrand or to do things properly or to change my website up,” and you're there for them. Thanks so much.
Thank you, Fiona.
Thank you so much for having us.
It's amazing.
We appreciate it.
Bye.
Bye.
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How lovely and down-to-earth are Nick and Ash. Honestly, I could have chatted to them for another hour. I love hearing the behind-the-scenes about different people's businesses. I've got a relationship with them because they have worked on the most recent branding for My Daily Business. We had a new website and everything. I'd love to know what you took away from my chat with Nick Bunting and Ashley Simonetto, who, together, are creating a New Opening Studio and their own business owners as well as this new business that is amazing and creating the most beautiful websites and branding.
If you're interested in going and checking out their combined business called New Opening Studio, you can find that at NewOpening.studio. You can also find them on Instagram, @NewOpening.Studio. If you want to follow either of them separately for their other businesses, you can find Ash at @AshleySimonetto and you can find Nick at @BuildDigitalStudio.
I would love to know what you took away from that and what stood out. Maybe you are in the process of combining businesses with your own partner that you're in a romantic relationship with or maybe you work together with a friend, a cousin, or something else and there were some tips that stood out to you. I'm going to highlight two things that stood out, as always. There were quite a few. I wrote quite a few ideas down after we chatted.
The two things that stood out, one is boundaries. Nick talked about that and that's something that I hear a lot from people that are in a romantic partnership as well as a business partnership. It’s the idea that there has to be a point at which you don't talk about business. They were talking about going to the beach, the park, or having dinner. Even though it's exciting and you're getting all these clients and it's fun and there's so much creativity going around, maybe there has to be a point at which you say, “When we do this, we're not talking about work,” or, “When we go here, we're not talking about work,” or, “When we use this code word, we're not talking about work.”
One of the things that came up in one of my first interviews on this podcast was Josh from Cool Hunting who runs Cool Hunting with his husband and partner, Evan. They talked about their dinner being off-limits. They do not talk about work at dinner, that's the one part of the day where they do not talk about work. I feel like that boundaries can come up, whether you are in business with your partner or whether you talk about your work a lot and your home life.
Maybe there's a point at which, yes, we all love what we do and our business and life is so intertwined and so connected but sometimes it's important to switch off and talk about other things, maybe a book you've read or something you saw, or something that's been interesting to you or a friendship or whatever but not just constantly focused on work.
We do need periods of time away from it and sometimes it's in those periods away that we have our best ideas because the mind is able to relax and not stress and un-focus for a bit. It’s like when you do meditation. I love that they talked about that and they talked so openly about that, which I appreciate their transparency and honesty in the conversation.
The other thing that stood out for me is when they were talking about Notion and how they had tried so many different things. Nick is like me, a screenshot addict. I also get sidetracked sometimes and we all do. I see it with clients all the time where, in the space of six months of coaching, they will try four different platforms. It's like, “Stick with one,” or maybe two if the first one is not working for you.
Make that work for you as opposed to you having to learn a whole new platform each time and figuring it out. Think, “Am I utilizing the platform that I already have? I'm already set up as well as I could.”
I love that Nick and Ash talked about Notion and how they've had to spend some time figuring it out and figuring out what is best for them and the way that they work. Now, they're at a point where it works for them and it's an addition to their business. It's helping them in their business as opposed to being this thing that people get very excited by, spend a little bit of time on, and then it turns into this thing that is such a mess that they can't even really utilize it. It's not helping people in their business. That's an important point that they made.
If you have a platform that you're using, whether it's creating your marketing plan, your content strategy, your finances, or whatever, and you're tracking things, choose something and stick to it. Stick to it at least for six months or a year maybe. Think about, “Can this work for me?” Most of the time, if you want to do something on any of these platforms, whether it's Notion, Monday, Trello, or Asana, the old-school ones, there are millions, there seems to be new ones popping up every single day.
The thing is with new ones, they're constantly promising you, “This can do that.” Maybe you don't even need to be doing those things so you get sidetracked by something that is not even relevant to your business. You want to find something and there are always tutorials on how to do X, Y, and Z on any of these. If you wanted to create some template for tracking X, Y, and Z in your business and you wanted to do it on Notion, you would google a tutorial about that. Go to YouTube, check it out, or go to TikTok, I'm sure there'll be people showing you that.
Likewise, you could do that with Trello or Asana. We did have the wonderful Paul Minors on the podcast talking about Asana. He is a productivity expert. He specializes in Asana, Pipedrive, and a couple of other amazing tools. Asana is one of the oldest. We use Asana internally. I know so many people, over the years, have been like, “Why are you still using Asana?” Asana works for us and that's what we use. We have used Milanote as well. We’re open to other things because we have been using Asana for so long. Asana works for us. Working with people like Paul has made that even better than how we were using it previously. I love that Nick talked about that. That's an important point.
I would love to know what you took away from this. You can always send us a DM at @MyDailyBusiness on TikToK or @MyDailyBusiness_ on Instagram. You can go old school and email us at Hello@MyDailyBusiness.com. I'd love to know what you took away from this. I want to say thank you again massively to Ash and Nick for all their work on my brand but also coming on and sharing so openly about their own journeys in business. If you want to check out New Opening Studio, it's NewOpening.studio, and that is the same whether you're looking at their Instagram handle or their website. Thank you so much for reading. I'll leave it there.
