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Welcome to Founders and Fortitude, the podcast where passion meets perseverance. Hosted by Audrie Dollins — a marketing strategist, retired professional photographer, visionary entrepreneur, and founder of AD Media Group, a renowned influencer and brand marketing firm — this podcast uncovers the stories behind extraordinary lives and thriving businesses.
Through authentic conversations and impactful storytelling, each episode explores the entrepreneurial journey, sharing the highs, lows, and actionable strategies for success. Gain expert advice, business insights, and inspiration from trailblazers who have turned aspirations into reality.
Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or taking the first step, Founders and Fortitude offers the tools, motivation, and community you need to build, grow, and thrive in today’s dynamic business landscape.
Tune in weekly to discover the grit, grace, and fortitude it takes to succeed and leave a lasting impact.
Welcome to Founders and Fortitude conversations with Audrey Dollins, a podcast where we uncover the raw realities of being a founder, celebrating the brilliance of the teams, individuals, and families working tirelessly behind the scenes and explore the fortitude, the unwavering determination it takes to navigate the twists, turns, and triumphs of entrepreneurship and life itself. Each week, we will share candid conversations, actionable insights, and inspiring stories to empower you on your journey. Whether you're building a brand, scaling a business, an online creator and influencer, or pursuing your passions with relentless drive, let's dive into the grit, grace, and growth it takes to thrive. Let's get into it. Hello, friends.
Audrie:Welcome to another episode of Founders and Fortitude. I am delighted to be here with my friend, Shay Geer at IVB Design Fine Furnishing. Shay is the owner and designer. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Shay Geyer:Thank you for having me, Audrey. This is such an honor.
Audrie:Well, I'm not gonna lie. I'm a little nervous because I admire everything that you have accomplished and done, and I've had the privilege to work with you and your amazing team that you've built. And so with my knowing your background, can you share a little bit about yourself and then how you got where you are right now?
Shay Geyer:Yes. So happy to do it. So my mom started IBB when I was about two years old. So IBB stands for interiors by Beth, so my mom is Beth Rafferty. So I grew up in the industry.
Shay Geyer:I'm an only child. And when I was younger, my mom would schlep me around to the design center and often appointments. I was, you know, the product of two working parents. My dad was in commercial real estate. They're both serial entrepreneurs.
Shay Geyer:So I come by all of this honestly.
Audrie:I love it. And I also read an article where your mom never really pushed you into it. You just you your own desire grew into it.
Shay Geyer:Yeah. Which I'm so blessed and thankful that she did that because I feel like with the especially with the family business, if the kids are forced into it, it's just it's not authentic, and there's no passion there. So that could be the detriment of a business. And so I'm so thankful that my parents never said you have to go into the family business. So and things are a lot different back then.
Shay Geyer:When I went off to college, we've been around for, gosh, I may I guess about twenty years at that point. So it was a a substantial business and, been around for a while, but my they my parents were like, you're not you know, you don't have to be the legacy. That doesn't have to be what you do in life. And so and they could tell, I think, you know, from an early age. I was very independent, very strong willed.
Shay Geyer:I'm actually a natural redhead and Are you really a
Audrie:going on, Doreen?
Shay Geyer:I didn't know that.
Audrie:Yes. Auburn hair and freckles. No. What? Oh my god.
Audrie:Yes. I did not know that.
Shay Geyer:Yep. So we're fiery. Fiery. And I'm also Irish to be on top of that. My maiden name is Rafferty.
Shay Geyer:So yeah. So feisty Irish ladies. Well, look at us. Like Yeah. So, but my parents, you know, they they didn't force me into it.
Shay Geyer:So it was nice that the progression just happened. And how it happened is I went to school. I thought I was gonna be in sports broadcasting. So our love for sports is mutual and, actually interned for Sunday night football while I was in college. I absolutely loved it and wanted to be a sideline reporter.
Shay Geyer:This was pre Erin Andrews. So she's a little younger than me. And so, while I was doing that and building all these connections and relationships in in, sports, my mom was an interior designer. They happened to have a house in Scottsdale. And so I had all these friends that were getting these big contracts right out of college for various sports, and they're like, hey.
Shay Geyer:Your parents have this nice house. Can you help me furnish this house I just bought? And so I kinda started that way. My mom was like, you know, you could do this as a career. And I was like, oh, I'm just having fun.
Shay Geyer:And she's like, yeah. Your career should be good, and you should put paid to do this. So, I graduated college and ended up, moving back here to Texas, Texas, and the rest is kind of history.
Audrie:Yeah. That is so awesome. I I am so obsessed with that story, and I love that you love sports. And that will lead into a conversation a little bit later, but I wanna pop back to your mom. Okay.
Audrie:Because I was I was laughing about this, and I I make jokes about it. Like, I don't necessarily want to be called the boss babe. Call me what you want. I'm just a boss. Like, you know, I wanna work hard.
Audrie:I'm a founder. I'm an entrepreneur, but I understand the movement of Boss Babe and women entrepreneurs, and I respect that. However, your mom was the original Yeah. Boss Babe.
Shay Geyer:She is. And and it's funny because, the crew that she kinda runs with her best friends are all serial entrepreneurs and boss babes too. And so it's kind of funny to look back and kinda see. I I don't think she would ever say that she intended to go that direction. It just sort of evolved and happened.
Shay Geyer:I think it's more about being strong willed and knowing what you want and being passionate about something. And then that sort of just happens naturally. I think if you say, I'm gonna be a boss, babe, and that's what I wanna do, you kinda can come across as, like, almost like a dictator and a a b word.
Audrie:Yeah. A lot. I'm worried it misses I think that's why it kind of sometimes I'm like, but I'm not that. I'm trying to achieve this. Right.
Audrie:And if you wanna call me that along with many other things, I'm sure do that, but that's not what I'm pursuing. I'm pursuing this. And if the a name goes along with it, great. But your mom's just dedication to it has Yes. If anyone has the privilege to walk into your amazing building
Shay Geyer:Thank you.
Audrie:They would see that that is a lot of hard work. Yes. And then along with you, you know, following through that and your amazing team because your team is also dedicated. The same people that
Shay Geyer:I have seen three years ago, four years ago are still here. Yeah. We we are really big about employee retention. We really try our best to hire right, and we want them to be with us for the longevity of their career. In fact, the very first designer my mom ever hired is still still here today.
Shay Geyer:She's been with us forever thirty five years. Wow. Yeah. So it's it's very important to us. You know, it's a and you know this.
Shay Geyer:As a business owner, hiring employees and getting them trained and onboarded and used to your company culture And all of that stuff is very timely, and it's expensive. So you don't wanna have turnover in your company. And so we really try very hard to hire. Right? And we're very conservative about hiring.
Shay Geyer:You conservative about hiring, you know, our marketing team, for example. I didn't we didn't even have a marketing team at all. I did everything until we hired Angie, who's our VP of marketing. I guess it was about five years ago. She's been with us five over a little over five years now.
Shay Geyer:And, it's it's we grew fast in those last ten years, and I needed someone to help. But we waited until we could afford it, and I knew that I wanted that person to be around for the long haul of the company. I didn't wanna hire somebody, and then, you know, next year go, we can't afford you anymore. So now I gotta backtrack. So I think you have to take those steps to be thoughtful in in how you hire people.
Shay Geyer:So
Audrie:It's definitely obvious, and I've had the privilege to work with Angie, and she is so detailed. She loves the company and as I mean, it's a lot to line out, and she does it seamlessly. And I love, the magazine that you put that you put out, and then your social media. I do wanna tap into that a little bit because we talk about when your mom started it, and then you followed it up, and then marketing, because marketing helps carry that message. How has within that five years, you talked about that growth.
Audrie:Yeah. How has social media affected your growth and your business in telling that brand story online?
Shay Geyer:Huge. Social media for us because, I mean, obviously, we're interior designers, so aesthetics is everything. And a picture for us is worth more than a thousand words because it's it's what we do, and it's how people can view our work. And so, social media has built played a huge role in getting our message out, getting our work out into a reach beyond Dallas. And so because we do projects all over the world.
Shay Geyer:So and that reach is really great for us because we get a lot of great jobs off of social media because of that. So it's it's very, very, very vital to our business.
Audrie:So with the success that you've had right now, it is so it's funny to me to ask, like, what's your next goal? Because I'm like, you are living a dream of so many, and even the people that work here, I know, feel like they're living a dream because it was a dream for me to work with you. So what is that next like, what is that goal for 2025, with your team and then personally too within the company?
Shay Geyer:So it's interesting because I've given a lot of thought to this. And and my mom obviously started the business and said this is a legacy family business. And I hope I'm not gonna cry as I tell this, but, I my daughter, our oldest, is in design school at TCU right now. She's a sophomore. She'll be going abroad next year to Italy to study with the design program over there.
Shay Geyer:So really exciting things happening that all on her own choosing. She we kinda did the same thing with her and told her, you know, you don't have to go to the family business. It would be great. You know, we talk about it a lot. And she kind of fought it in high school because we unfortunately, we bring work home.
Shay Geyer:We my husband works in our business. My mom lives down the street from us, so we kinda don't ever shut it off. But it's we're passionate about it, so it just happens naturally. So she kind of, you know, played it off and didn't really pay much attention to it in high school, but she has a very, very inherent creative, structure to her, and she's so talented. I mean, she will be exponentially better than my mom or I combined.
Shay Geyer:I mean, she's very, very smart and creatively talented and just so driven and determined. So she could she could do anything she wanted, but I told her, I said, if you have any inclination that you wanna do something with design, you should really go to school for it because having that technical side behind you to support what you already have that God gave you was gonna make you just an unstoppable. And so she came to us Christmas day, right before she went off to college to make a decision. And we had looked at nine schools, and she came down and told us. She said, on Christmas day, pay the deposit for, the admittance.
Shay Geyer:I'm going to TCU, and I'm gonna do design. I was like, don't play. Because TCU was the only Texas school she looked at. And, we everything else was SCC far away, and she'd was entertaining design still, but that's what led her to TCU was their design program. And so the to answer your question, my mind is focused on legacy and structuring the business.
Shay Geyer:You know, obviously, we've been around for over forty years, so we're not going anywhere. But, like, what does that stability look like? Because back to hiring employees and wanting them to have their careers here and have longevity, you have to structure your business with that as your backbone. Right? So to me, legacy is, you know, what incentives do we offer employees to make them wanna stay stay around here?
Shay Geyer:You know, what can we do for our employees to make this a place they wanna come to every day to go to work? The last thing I want is for people to work for us that hate to come here, and they don't like their job. You're not doing any of us any sort of a good, you know, service or clients or other employees and staff members if you hate your job. So making this a place where people want to come every day, that they're fired up to be around their teammates and clients and all that sort of thing. So all that is, like, in my brain really heavily, like, structuring the company so that, you know, we've grown so much.
Shay Geyer:We have almost 90 employees. That's amazing. 37 of those are designers. And so the way that we're structured is that all the designers run their own projects autonomously. So they have, you know, creative freedom, but they also have, their it's almost like they have their own business within a business.
Shay Geyer:So they're running their own projects independently with the built in support staff of accounting, a full delivery team, logistics, like, everything you need to do, but they basically have you know, it's their work. They get credit for it for every project that they do that we photograph. So it's kind of like being an independent designer but with the built in support staff. And that's how we've always run the business, and that's how I see continuing it. So just, really, my focus is, like, structuring the business for the longevity in the long haul to create a legacy that, hopefully, Jaylee will come, you know, support the family business.
Shay Geyer:I mean, she kinda toys around with, I'm gonna do my own thing. And I'm like, okay. We'll see how that goes. My husband, Brian, is like, we might have to let her do that and just see. I'm sure she'll end up back here.
Shay Geyer:And so we're we're working through that. But that's that's my focus is just, you know, whether she ends up here or not, that's my focus is creating the legacy and continuing that. And we really, this last year put together we redid our organizational flowchart. And so we gave internal promotions to some new leadership and so clearly defining our departments. We're I don't ever wanna be a corporation in the sense of, like, people don't feel like they can come talk to me or Brian or my mom, but there we've gotten so big that we have to have people in place to manage.
Shay Geyer:Right? So that's the business side of it's a a big part of my focus right now. That's your long
Audrie:No. I love that answer because it brings me to I'm gonna ask two questions, that kinda roll together. Because it brings me to any anyone that is a business owner or founder. You have to have a open mind. You have to you have to be a multitude of things.
Audrie:You have to have the door open where they can speak to you, but you also have structure and process because there's a key thing you said, it's work and it's business. We are not I mean, as much as we we wanna have fun, what we're doing, it's still you have to have the work ethic. You have to how to continue to show up. Right. And and you have expectations of people on your team.
Audrie:How do you generate a and I'm I'm just gonna say thick skin or mentally strong when sometimes no matter what, we're business owners. We're not always loved every day. We have to make the difficult decisions. How how do you mentally handle that on a daily basis?
Shay Geyer:That's that's probably one of the biggest challenges and something I had to learn. So I dealt with the nepotism as a as a kid coming out of college and working for my parents. Everybody's like, oh, she got that project because of her mom or because of you know, which they had no idea behind the scenes. I mean, I'm a networker. Like, I can I can talk to anybody?
Shay Geyer:I will hustle, and I built my clientele by by hustling and, right, networking with people. And so that the nepotism thing was huge for me and crushed me a lot because people would say that I was handed things because it was my mom's business. And I did work, and that's how I learned as I worked on projects with her, and I was very fortunate to work on her projects. We got to do some amazing I was I was exposed to some really high end luxury things because of that. She already had this established business.
Shay Geyer:So I'm very grateful for that. But my own clients, I built from the ground up, and I started in, our subdivision design and did neighborhoods with Highland, who's one of our builders. I built my clientele from doing that from the ground up. I mean, I I started my parents didn't just say, here, you're you get a title. We didn't even have titles back then.
Audrie:I mean, no. Exactly. And I think that's where my other question was gonna come around to is, what do you feel that your children have witnessed that other children may not have that opportunity? Because I look at my own children. Okay.
Audrie:When other people were going on vacations, we were building another business. We were building this. They were sweeping floors at a wedding and event venue, and they were watching a cupcakery be built. Right. I mean, I have pictures of my kids, like, after school, we would pick them up and we would go here.
Audrie:So our it's not that our kids were work I didn't make my kids sweep. I mean, they did, but, like, they had responsibilities. They please don't call them a child, they've lost. But they had responsibilities that, you know, not to say, like, our kids better than any other kid, but they had it's not nepotism. It's they had a a work ethic.
Audrie:And they've witnessed things, and they see, you know, okay. I people see my mommy like this, but then I also see my mommy like this. And this is how they're handling it together because my husband and I work together so closely. And they see those relationships, and it's not always, you know, perfect, but there's so much coming from it. So what do you feel?
Audrie:Because we my kids don't wanna take over the marketing firm right now. Right. But, what do you feel like they've learned with that option of choice? I think we've built little awesome kid that will work with other people if they don't choose to work with us. %.
Shay Geyer:A %. You know, it's interesting because, I mean, being an only child, I didn't have a choice. And so, you know, in the summers, I was helping answering the phones for my parents' business or whatever unboxing freight, whatever, you know, that day brought about where they needed help. I didn't have a choice. And so there was probably some resentment when I was younger, so I've been sensitive to that with our kids, but also kind of, like, we've we've been flexible with them with it because we don't we didn't want them to resent it.
Shay Geyer:So if they had cheer or something that they wanted to do over the summer or breaks or whatever, we make sure that there's a balance where they're not feeling like they they're not forced. Like, we do have a great team here at IBB, but we wanted to instill the work ethic in our kids. And I think, you know, my husband is very routine. Like, he wakes up at, like, 04:30 or five in the morning, gets up, works out, sits in the sun. I mean, he's so regimented, and our kids see that.
Shay Geyer:I'm very regimented, and, like, I I have a structure and a schedule that's I follow my calendar to the tee. It's not so structured and planned the same like my husband's is, but I'm up early in the morning. We're going. We we don't sit still. And so I think that's the biggest thing that our kids see is, like, besides the fact that we've said, come, you know, sweep the floors.
Shay Geyer:We've had floods here in our warehouse before where we everybody has to jump in the car and come up and help and pitch in. And so I think it's more like lead by example because we like I said, we didn't want them to resent the fact that, oh, we have this family business, and we have to help out, that sort of a thing. So just finding that balance because I will tell you with that work ethic. And it's also about being independent. A funny story.
Shay Geyer:My sister-in-law lives here close by to us, and we needed help with Ricky, our youngest, at one point this year. And, we Brian and I were both out of town, and my mom had gotten sick. So, usually, my mom helps, you know, pitch in when we need help with the kids. Right? So my mom was sick, and so last minute, my sister-in-law had to help out.
Shay Geyer:And so I had a group text with my sister-in-law and Brookie, and I said, Brookie, you need to get aunt Penny all the details for this weekend because she had, like, a birthday party and stuff, and, like, sister-in-law was gonna help take her around town. Right? So, literally, Brookie, like, sends her her friend's address, but I that was the deal. Like, if you didn't give Aunt Penny the details, it's not happening. So you want this to happen, you have to do your responsibility to help make it happen.
Shay Geyer:And so she did. She was on it all on the group text. Everything went down without a hitch. And later on, my sister-in-law and I are talking, and she's like, first of all, I'm not sure my kids would have known what the word logistics meant at at 13 years old, let alone take the initiative to actually say this is where I need to be at this time. Because I literally told her.
Shay Geyer:I'm like, you have to give her all the details. That's not my job. That's your responsibility. These are things that you wanna do for fun. So this is your responsibility to get Anne Penney those details to make it happen.
Shay Geyer:Because I always tell my family, like, if it's not on the calendar for me, it's not happening. Mhmm. Because we have so much going on. All the details have to be there, addresses, where to be when, who the contact person is. So there's no questions that we can all do what we wanna do and still have fun.
Shay Geyer:And so our kids have just learned that, and I I didn't really think much of it. But I'm like, oh my gosh. You're not all 13 and 14 and, you know, 18, 19 year old like this. And I'm like, this is just how we roll. You know?
Audrie:Well, I think you also touched it too is because as much as people say, like, you need to separate business from home life, I can't. It my passion. I love it. If you're telling me I like, I love my waking up Saturday morning, having my alone time, because I wake up early as well. Yeah.
Audrie:And having my alone time and sitting on my computer and looking at my work the way that I wanna look at it and not like a timeline type thing. I love to work. There's many times, like, and you mentioned this too, we've been on vacation or we're looking at this. We're we love business and we love marketing and we love the process that it's very hard for us to separate it. And the facts are the responsibilities are not an eight to five position.
Audrie:The the people that you have you have an amazing team, they do rely on how you run your business. Right. And it it has to come home. And so I have an opinion on work life balance.
Shay Geyer:Yes. Does it exist? Gosh. I mean, I guess it depends on who you're asking. I mean, I it does exist because it has to.
Shay Geyer:Right? And so, you know, I I try really hard. I really do. So is there I don't know if you would call it a balance. It's just priorities.
Shay Geyer:Right? So what's the priority for the day? And it's every day is different. But I will say that, like, my family is my number one priority over everything. And so I will that's why the calendar exists because I'm not gonna miss a football game that our girls are cheering at.
Shay Geyer:I'm not gonna miss a cheer competition. I'm gonna I'm the team mom for my daughter's school team. I don't know how that I got suckered.
Audrie:I was gonna say that's a lie.
Shay Geyer:It's kind of a joke, actually. It was really only because our oldest was also on the same team for six years, so the coach knows me really well. And I know her really well and how she likes things. And she doesn't want the parents, like, involved at all. It's really just an organizational thing, and she knows how I am.
Shay Geyer:And so she was like, you're a team mom when our other team mom left. And I'm like, really?
Audrie:Kate, let me do that. Yeah. I think you touched it too. I I think that it has kind of grown the question of work life balance because that it is every day is different, and it's that priority for that day. Yeah.
Audrie:And, that the don't be so hard on yourself. Right. And it really is, like, whatever you make it. And some days are not always gonna be perfect and
Shay Geyer:Most days aren't.
Audrie:Yep. Look. You know, someone told me, in a previous podcast, they say, just, like, just get used to so called failures. You know? And I don't necessarily call it failure failures.
Audrie:I call it challenges that you have to, you know, you have to solve something every day.
Shay Geyer:Teachable moments. Teachable moments. That catchphrase. Yeah. If you're not learning something new, I don't care what industry you're in.
Shay Geyer:If you're not learning something new every day, you're not doing it right. And I tell our staff that all the time too, especially in design because there's a new way to do something every single day. And I feel like as as a business owner, you have to be nimble. And our world changes so rapidly that it doesn't matter what industry you're in. If you're not constantly trying to better yourself with business knowledge or design knowledge for us, product knowledge, how to do things, you're not doing it right.
Shay Geyer:That's not you just you're gonna you're gonna fail because you're gonna be stagnant and not be able to take your business into the future, whatever that is. So, just with technology alone, I mean, you know, there's so many new I mean, it's that's another full time job.
Audrie:It it is. Okay. Let's talk about before we we wrap this up because I feel like there's so many great things. I could literally keep her here all day. I'm like, can I call you for, like, therapy in the morning?
Audrie:Absolutely. I'm certain. To follow that up with, the drive, I wanna make sure what it's your faith that keeps you going through the hard times. So yeah. I follow you and you'll share scripture or something, and I'm like, oh, I needed that.
Audrie:That's why I felt like this podcast was so important because I do feel like sometimes we're out here on this island as you know, whether it's the mom, we're leaders of our you know, half leaders of our family. We know that. Yes. But, we kinda feel, you know, sometimes alone. I think the the when we pick this choice of a career option, I feel like we can feel alone.
Audrie:And then when I see that, I'm like, your faith. Tell me a little bit about your faith. Is there a scripture that comes to mind or anything like that? I know I'm putting you off the spot.
Shay Geyer:You're like, oh. I can tell you that Isaiah forty one ten is my favorite verse, and it became my favorite verse about, I'd say probably eighteen, nineteen years ago. I was going through a really challenging time in my life. And I literally just remember, like, opening up the like, and it was right there in front of me. But and it's I can't I still can't quote it.
Shay Geyer:I'm so bad at quoting scripture, but it's about God in his righteous right hand and basically holding you up. Like, there's nothing that you can't do without with God by your side. And so, like I said, I'm horrible at quoting scripture, but that is my favorite verse. And I do study the Bible as much as I can, like, spend time in the word because that's my calm. It is what, like, gives me peace.
Shay Geyer:And I that's it's definitely has to be a focus for me. It's part of my morning routine, and now I'm even trying to do it before I go to bed at night or just even randomly throughout the day and involve myself with more people that talk about it more too. Because I feel like it's a a place where I always need some strength and support. And I feel like surrounding yourself with people that are like minded and have that faith too, it just helps you get through times. And that's why I share scripture or, you know, quotes and stuff like that about God and Jesus on social media is it's really more for me than, you know, everybody else.
Shay Geyer:But I always get messages from people like, thank you so much. I needed the I needed that today or whatever. But I feel like putting it out there. It's almost like that little god nudge of, like, you know, this is, like, reassurance. Like, I I put this in front of you, share it with other people because you never know who needs that in that moment or whatever.
Shay Geyer:But I don't know how anybody who doesn't believe in God gets through the day, and I don't mean that to sound harsh at all. I hope that, you know, just and I'm not perfect, and that's not what it's about. You know? But and, obviously, we're all sinners. And but without the in the hard times, I don't know how you get through it because you have to have hope and faith in something to get through a challenging time.
Shay Geyer:And so when you have hope and faith in God, like, there's, like, literally this something in so I don't know if you feel
Audrie:that too. It. I that if I'm worrying about something, I'm, like, I'm gonna be okay because he's always taking care of me. Always. Always.
Audrie:Because our schedule I used to say this too. I make plans and God laughs. Yeah. Because, like, he's got this. Yeah.
Audrie:And the more I try to control, it's you know, I can only control what I can control. And I've never gone without. My family has never gone without. My clients have never you know? Yeah.
Audrie:We're we continue to grow and everything's a lesson. But I wake up praying to God. I go to sleep praying to God. Sometimes more frantic than others. So, you know,
Shay Geyer:most I understand.
Audrie:It's very frantic. Like, please, God help me. But Lord have mercy. And I love that you share your faith because, I connect with that without having to call you. Right.
Audrie:And there's many times that people that own business like, what do you do here? But no, like, don't not that I wouldn't turn to you, but I'm like turn to like, when you post scripture, I'm like turn to God because that is the answer. And what we're doing is not brain surgery at the blessing. And it's very difficult because we want to be so many things, but we aren't so many things he is. And if we keep turning to that, hopefully, it will kinda
Shay Geyer:Yeah. Usually, I alright. Well, and it's interesting too because I've and just alongside the faith and, like, how it pertains to business and stuff, I I really do feel like the most challenging decisions we've had to make, like, there's no way I could have ever done it without my faith. And I also think for 2025 and really just the future of our business, I'm really asking God, like, what how do I incorporate you more into not to be, like, in your face with people about Christianity in my faith, but, like, I feel like it's a light. Right?
Shay Geyer:So bringing that light into people's lives, and we're being invited into people's homes. Right? Yes. So to give them these backdrops, beautiful backdrops to create memories with their own families, whether they're Christian or not. I don't that that doesn't bother me because Jesus tells us to love everybody.
Shay Geyer:Right? And so and not judge. So whatever works for them as far as their religion, that's fine with me, but mine is, you know, the lord and Christianity and Paul and Jesus. And how can I bring that into our business by living the light without you know, I'm not trying to force it down people's throats, but just bringing that light into what we do? Right?
Shay Geyer:So that, I feel like, should be another part of our focus, and and really just, you know, by the way we steer things.
Audrie:Well, I can't appreciate you enough for opening up. I know I mean, I have been affected by it in your post, and I love it. So it's a light for me. And so that kind of fall falls into my next question. It's gonna be kinda twofold.
Shay Geyer:Okay.
Audrie:If someone wants to be a designer and go into this profession, what it and maybe that's talking to you when you're younger or to your daughters, what advice would you tell them?
Shay Geyer:Go for it. I mean, if you're passionate about anything, whatever your dream is, go for it because you don't wanna love life with regrets. And so if that's something that you wanna do, follow it and study, like, just dive into it full throttle. Go for it.
Audrie:Yeah. And if someone wanted to be a business owner, what would you tell them?
Shay Geyer:I would say go for it. I mean, obviously, you know, we're serial entrepreneurs, and I think, positivity is the only way I wouldn't deter anybody. I'd be honest with them and make sure that people know what that entails. And it's hard. It's tough.
Shay Geyer:I mean, there's there's I don't wanna say there's not downtime because you have to create downtime for yourself or you're gonna go crazy. But
Audrie:My eye is twitching.
Shay Geyer:I mean, honestly but, I mean, if you don't go for it, then you'll never know. Right? So if you feel like that's your calling to have your own business and to go into design and do it. I mean and I like I said, if you whoever your own business is, but just know that it's you when you're first starting out, you do everything. You're you're the designer.
Shay Geyer:You're the CEO. You're the social media person. You're the marketing person. You're the janitor. Yeah.
Shay Geyer:You're the toilet cleaner.
Audrie:Yeah. You're everything. You're everything. Important to know all of those Yeah. Positions because you respect it.
Audrie:And you
Shay Geyer:have to be prepared. Like, this you can't just go out and hire people right off the bat and say, those people are gonna take care of that job because that's not a sustainable business. You have to know every role of the business to be able to run a successful business because you can't lead otherwise.
Audrie:Right. A % agree. One more last question. It's a little bit of a fun one to circle back to the sports. Okay.
Audrie:Do you see a parallel between someone that loves sports and a and owning a business?
Shay Geyer:Oh, yeah. It's the competitive man.
Audrie:Isn't it wild? Yeah. There's so many people I meet that I'm like, oh, they love sports. And it's the competitive in a, you know, oh, competitiveness. But so many people I sit down with are like, oh, well, I played a a sport in college.
Audrie:I did this. Or it's amazing the parallels of entrepreneurs and business owners.
Shay Geyer:You're so right. I never thought about it that way, but it's I think anybody that's inherently competitive. That's why I feel like my daughters would be successful in our family business because they're both insanely competitive. And it's and my husband and I both are too, and my mom is. I mean, it's like that's you know, I think that's part of being an entrepreneur because when you fail, you get right back up and you go back at it.
Shay Geyer:You don't that that not winning is what drives you. Right? And then when you win, you're like, what's next? You know? Right?
Shay Geyer:So you win something, and then you're like, okay. Well, what's the next level? Like, our daughters do cheer, so they're always wanted to be on the level six worlds team. So how do I get there? So I've accomplished all these things.
Shay Geyer:Like, how do I get to that next level? So I think it's a definite definite thing for sure.
Audrie:I think the same thing. Favorite teams.
Shay Geyer:Give a shout out to your favorite Dallas Cowboys. I don't care what anybody says. I am a Cowboys. I and I literally I have the games on the background right now because we we need to I think we are going for a first round draft pick this year. I mean, because the season was so bad, we're Hopefully, we're gonna end up with a traffic at too.
Audrie:I'm sorry. Kind of giving them a little trouble because I'm like, okay. Can y'all pay for my therapy? I guess I am like
Shay Geyer:That's pretty bad. But I grew up on my dad was a huge Cowboys fan. I grew up on Roger Staubach. Yep. And then, obviously, Troy Aikman, Deion Sanders.
Shay Geyer:I mean, so Emmitt Smith, like, all the Moose Johnson. Like, I'm huge. I sure love them all. Yes. Yes.
Shay Geyer:My husband's a Rangers fan, and I'm a running story with that really fast because he is die hard. Die hard. So when the the when the Rangers won the World Series, my husband and, our operations manager were in Vegas. We were we were there for, I think, Vegas market. They're like, let's bet on the Rangers to win it all.
Shay Geyer:So they they bet a hundred dollars to for them to win it all. And there was, like, a couple of different things, and it was, like, you know, a total fluke. Right? You didn't that was a huge gamble at the beginning. The season hadn't even started.
Shay Geyer:They turned that hundred dollars into $10,000 because they won the world season.
Audrie:That is so awesome. You can tell your husband that when I was little, my dad took me to the very first stadium, and I got a stadium chair. And so I have it, and I don't know if I wanna put it in, like, a game room or something like that. Let you But it's, like, old. I mean, if I need to paint it but I love the Rangers.
Audrie:The Cowboys grew up with You know,
Shay Geyer:a local girl. I mean, I like too. Worked into I like Kansas City too. Brookie's more of a Kansas City fan because the Cowboys haven't been good since I was, like, really in high school. But I it's just something, you know, I think when you grew up with a team like that, it's like there's just, you know Yeah.
Shay Geyer:I've never been compare. Yeah. Yeah. For sure.
Audrie:I love it. Okay. Now let's do some humble brags about IBB. You were talking about the wallpaper. Yes.
Audrie:Tell me all the things that you have coming out or that you're able to tell us right now.
Shay Geyer:Yes. So the wallpaper? The wallpaper is probably the biggest one. So our team, we've been working on this wallpaper collection. So, we it's completely customizable.
Shay Geyer:So you can the pattern you're seeing here is one of our murals, which I love, but you can change the scale. You can change the color. You can you can do pretty much anything. We actually have another, wallpaper that's getting ready to get installed in one of our model projects. I'm so excited about it, but it's all we, one of the girls on our, one of our designers on our model team did, artwork of, I don't know, probably 10 to 15 of our staff's dogs.
Shay Geyer:And so Gigi and Zoe are in it, but it's we took all of that artwork and then created a pattern, and it's our our dog wallpaper that's gonna I don't have a name for it yet, but we're getting ready to install it in about two weeks. So we'll have to share that. But, like, we've done our clients' horses before. We've done all sorts of, like, fun wallpapers for projects. So I was like, why not put something together, you know, that we could have, you know, available to the public that comes into the store and whatnot?
Shay Geyer:So we have tons of different patterns. We're kind of always playing with it and doing something new. So it's gonna constantly evolve, but it's completely customizable and really well priced also produced right here in, just in Fort Worth down the street. Yeah. It's fantastic.
Shay Geyer:And it's another local small woman owned business and, love working with them. They're great. The turnaround time is really quick. By the time we finalize the pattern and the artwork, it's about two to three weeks to get the material, so it's super fast. Yeah.
Shay Geyer:So, we love it, but it gives our designers kind of another, you know, way to put the client's sort of stamp of approval that of uniqueness. Nobody's gonna else is gonna have it. Right? As soon as you create a wallpaper of someone's animals or whatever you wanna do, it's theirs. Right?
Audrie:I love that. And you love pets. I've had the privilege to photograph. Yes. All the pets.
Audrie:The the team members.
Shay Geyer:And he had Roxy before she passed. Yes. So our our dogs love to be part of the pet. I love that.
Audrie:Also, humbly brag on the awards. You've IBB has worn won so many awards. Do you wanna see? Which I'll wrap up with last year.
Shay Geyer:The the biggest one for us, which was actually, I believe, the year before, but the biggest we've worked went into the hall of fame for the arts award, which is an industry organization. I kind of equate it to winning the Oscars. Right? It's it's a very big deal for our industry. So, we've won it five times now.
Shay Geyer:So they put us into the hall once you win five times, you go into the hall of fame. But it's a industry organization that we're a part of. Great, great industry organization. It's, all of our vendors and partners that we work with for items in our store, manufacturers that we work with to do all of our projects. And so it's a huge honor to be recognized by your peers.
Shay Geyer:So that's that's definitely the biggest one. And then we've won McSam award with Highland that we do all the model homes with, and so that's a huge one. We have 18 people on our model design team now, and they're, we did, I believe, 58 model homes last year. Wow. Yeah.
Shay Geyer:So we do all over Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin, and Houston. That team seems really busy. So to get awards like that for them is, like, huge because it's a great recognition for their talent and hard work. So we we got some of those last year, and I'm forgetting something. The hum you say humble brag because I like it's it's a it's a big deal to win these things, but also it's like, you know, you can go look at our trophy case of
Audrie:the I know. You're like and that's why I ask because I I mean, I have seen all the amazing awards that you've you've won and it speaks so highly of yourself and the team, and it's so I mean, when when we win an award, I don't know if we're ever gonna win an award. But please. It's ridiculous. I'm I'm I tell wait.
Audrie:I've won one, like, way back in the day, but if we ever win one, I'd just be it's I'll take carry it around with your dream.
Shay Geyer:Walking around like you're a little baby.
Audrie:Yeah. Well, I cannot thank you enough for opening up and sharing your time with us because I know you have so many things to do. And this is so important to me, and I hope people feel the passion and connection. Where can they follow you and IBB if they want to follow you online or if they potentially wanna work with you?
Shay Geyer:Well, the easiest is probably to get our website, ibbdesign.com, and you'll find everything there, all the contact information. But on Instagram, we're most active on social media. It's at I b b design, and then I'm at designer shay, s h a y. So, yeah, follow us on social media. We share all kinds of stuff throughout the day on our projects and what's happening around here.
Shay Geyer:And we would love to work with you, anybody that's listening, and, be invited into your home to kinda create something beautiful for your family. So we'd love to.
Audrie:Well, thank you so much. Well, you're gonna get a giggle because I'm gonna wrap it up. And every time I wrap it up, this is what I say. So if you wanna laugh at me, you can. Thank you so much everyone for tuning in.
Audrie:This was the episode with Shea Gear at IVB Design Fine Furnishings. As always, capture, brand, and engage, and let's do big things. Oh, I love it. This week's quote brought to you by Southern Junkies. Southern Junkies is a boutique located in the quaint town of Pilot Point.
Audrie:They keep you on trend and treat you like family. You can follow Southern Junkies on Instagram or visit their website and shop online. This week's quote is by Brian Solis. Trust is the new currency of business. Holy cow.
Audrie:Trust is the new currency of business. Someone that is involved with influencer and brand marketing, I call it trust marketing. Your audience now online and on social media is educated and they wanna purchase and spend their hard earned dollars with someone they can trust. That is why small business, locally owned, family operated means so much to a consumer because they trust them. They know that their dollars are going to be spent with someone that works hard.
Audrie:So when you are planning your marketing strategy, think authentic. Think how you can touch, your audience by building trust. Trust marketing. Let me repeat this week's quote one more time. Trust is the new currency of business, and I couldn't agree more.
Audrie:Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Founders and Fortitude conversations with Audrey Dollins. For details and links from our incredible guests, be sure to check out our show notes. You might even find exclusive discounts and special items we share that aren't even mentioned during the show. If you enjoyed today's episode, please take a moment to leave a five star review. It truly helps us grow and continue sharing valuable insights with you.
Audrie:You can connect with me daily on Instagram at audrey dolins, a u d r I e d o l l I n s. And don't forget to visit my website at audreydolins.com, where you'll find years of blogs packed with tips and insights to help you thrive. As always, capture, brand, and engage, and let's do big things.