Control What You Can — Interview with Tina Ramchandani
How do you start a prestigious interior design agency in competitive place like Manhattan New York? I interviewed Tina Ramchandani — an award winning Interior Designer based in Manhattan with a passion for warm, minimal aesthetic — Soulful Minimalism®.
Mental Wealth For Entrepreneurs Podcast on Apple Podcasts.
Show notes
Katerina: Hi Tina … Great to see you and thanks for being on the show.
Tina: Thank you for having me.
Katerina: I guess the first question everyone would like to know is how did you become an interior designer?
Tina: Well, I actually went to school or undergrad… University for interior design, so I’ve been doing this my entire career.
Katerina: Yeah, but what motivated you because I’ve read one of your articles where you were featured that when you were 19 you went to India?
Tina: Yeah, well I was, um, I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do with my life, and I was, you know, constantly exploring majors and careers and when I was in India, early on when I was about 19, I was there for a wedding, and I visited a hotel with my family and I was just so inspired by the feeling and emotion evoked in me when I walked into the hotel, it was really beautifully designed you could see through many layers of tables and settings to the ocean. So, and it had just a really great vibe, and so I felt like whatever that feeling was I wanted to capture that and have that in my life. So I decided interior design.
Katerina: Yeah. So you did your university degree and then and then you just started your own business.
Tina: No, I actually… I got my Bachelor’s in Interior design and then I worked for a women owned commercial interior design firm for several years. We did hospitality, hedge fund offices, health care and then I decided to explore residential interiors and I worked for an alias designer Vincent Wolf, based in New York for about five years, and finally decided that it was time for me to go out on my own, so I’ve been on my own for about six years now.
Katerina: Okay so yeah you’ve got some work experience first. Yeah, understood what the industry is all about and then you decided to start your own thing.
Tina: Yes.
Katerina: And you started started it in Manhattan right? Of all places? Its competitive, right?
Tina: Yes, that’s right, very competitive. Yeah, but I mean this is where I’m based in this is where my clients are so it just rolls with it. So we’re doing work not just in Manhattan, but in all of New York State. The Hamptons included, up-state New York and in New Jersey, and we’ve also done some work in Los Angeles.
Katerina: Yeah. So, what were you experiences when you just started? How did you feel starting your business in such a competitive environment?
Tina: I think that it really helped that I was naive about starting a business because if I knew all of the challenges, I think I would have been a little bit more scared and I don’t know that I would have fully dove into it. Um, it was definitely nerve wracking. And there were a lot of sleepless nights. It was tough.
Katerina: Yeah, cuz you did have some anxiety, didn’t you?
Tina: Oh, I didn’t really realise that I suffered from anxiety until I started my business. I started in 2014, and I was already seeing a therapist just because we’re in New York everyone sees a therapist. We’re all really mentally healthy or are trying to be. But soon after starting the business I wasn’t sleeping which was leading to backaches which was leading to anxiety and it was like a never ending circle and then I was diagnosed with generalised anxiety disorder.
Katerina: Gosh, yeah so so starting a business actually made it even worse, right, because it’s kind of hidden right?
Tina: It was definitely hidden. Yeah, it was brought to the forefront and I really had to deal with it. And I tried to avoid taking medication, just because I felt, there’s like a stigma around it right. Maybe I can beat this it’s not a real thing I had to really understand that I needed to take the medication to settle and calm down, I just thought, oh exercise or you know get over it, it’s not a big deal but it really wants a big deal and once I started teaching... I’m still in a low dose of medication, but it really helped.
Katerina: Yeah. Did you have any family or friends that would help you would support you when you start your business?
Tina: Yeah, I mean I, my family was really very supportive of the business. They’re definitely all my cheerleaders and my husband here who’s a cheerleader for me so that was really amazing but the anxiety was tough to explain. I have some friends that are well versed in mental illness and they, you know, were very supportive and they said there’s nothing wrong with this, you know, take the medication and do your meditation and exercises and you’re going to be okay but then I had some family members that don’t understand it so they just kept saying it’s all in your head and I’m like, you’re right — it’s all in my head. So there was you know there was a lot of… I was stretched in different directions about it.
Katerina: Yeah… I guess… when you just started the business… has it become profitable straight away or did it take some time for you to actually find your footing and find clients?
Tina: I was lucky because when I decided to launch I had clients lined up. So we were able to have a look… like first two years were strong. After that, I think, the anxiety kind of came back because then I had to really learn to run a business right when I left I had clients and I was able to design which is what I’m really good at. And I didn’t have to or I didn’t know that I had to actually run the business, look for clients. A lot of behind the scenes aspects and then once those projects ended I had to learn to be a business owner and then the anxiety spiked again. But you know it’s something that I’m constantly struggling with but now I’ve learned to identify the clues.
When my anxiety is going to spike and what to do and how to you know, take a moment for myself and really analyse if it’s a real feeling or if it’s an anxious feeling. And I’m able to kind of move forward. And now… now that I know. Once you solve one issue business wise, it gets easier right so now I sort of get excited and I look forward to it or before I was afraid of it. Yeah.
Katerina: Have you ever thought of quitting?
Tina: A lot but I think everybody does. This is what I’m good at this is what I meant to be you know I’ve been designing for over 16 years now, or maybe more so, um, I don’t think that I could do anything else in life and I’ve been working for myself for so long that I really don’t want to go back to working for anyone else. I mean, obviously we’re in a precarious situation right now with COVID so if things fall apart and I have to I will, but I now feel that I’m a business owner and not an employee, so I’m gonna do everything I can to make this work.
Katerina: Yeah. What would be your advice today I mean given the current situation with COVID. What would be your advice to say to entrepreneurs who are struggling with their business at the moment.
Tina: Um, I think I would take that question in twofold right one from the anxiety or mental wellness point of view. This has thrown everyone through right we all thought, Oh I thought I was in a great path… um, you know I was studying with my meditation and my journaling and my medicine and seeing well but you know there’s so many fears that come out of this crisis… It’s not just business it’s also health and health of others and you know where’s the economy going to be and I think when you can’t control the outside world for me, it helps to just try and control a couple things about my own day so it’s my morning routine my evening routine it really keeps me grounded.
And then that allows me to have the rest of the day to focus on your business. So from a business point of view I would say to everybody. Um, if you are in a good mental place, then this is a great time to really work on your business and do all of the things that you never had time to do before you know so I’m taking it as an opportunity. I’m grateful that I’m happy and healthy and have my home and my dog and my husband. So I’m just taking the, the working hours of the day and working on my systems and my processes and my marketing and things that I can control and we have a couple clients that are still working so I’m doing that but that doesn’t take up the majority of my day. I’m just trying to you know be proactive, but also enjoy the day because when are we going to have this time again to really relax. I mean it’s not always relaxing.
Katerina: [laughs] You are the first person who said this.
Tina: It’s true it’s not relaxing, relaxing but you can in an hour you know give yourself a facial, you know, we’re never gonna have this time. Do your make up, do your hair like there’s no…, you know, take some time for yourself. We can’t get a massage so there are other things we can do.
Katerina: Yeah. Are you generally anxious person?
Tina: Yes. Yeah. Have you always been an anxious person or is it just when you started running your own business? It’s kind of…
Tina: I think anxiety runs in my family, and it was not, it’s not recognised, to be honest and I don’t know that I was anxious when I was younger but as I started to get older, I started to recognise those symptoms in myself. And another family members.
Katerina: Do you have a mentor?
Tina: I have lots of coaches. Okay, so one is my therapist who’s you know really great we speak once a week now on zoom during this crisis. I have two business coaches. I look to a lot of my friends who are designers and business owners for advice, we have sort of a mastermind group so I have a lot of people that I can ask questions, when I have issues which I think is really helpful because you can’t do it alone.
Katerina: Yeah. But in your business who’s helping you with your business? Do you have a lot of people working for you?
Tina: I had some staff we but we had to unfortunately stop work for the moment, so I’m handling all of the work that’s coming in, and hopefully we can get back to it soon.
Read the full interview here.
Originally published at Katerina.Thomas.com
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About the Author:
I help entrepreneurs to build their emotional and business resilience. Throughout my professional life, I helped hundreds of entrepreneurs to launch their businesses following their passion.
