Sophie Interview - Main

 [00:00:00] Today I'm joined by the founder of Sophie Patterson Interiors, Sophie herself. Since launching her studio in 2008, Sophie has completed over 80 luxury projects worldwide, but it's her strategic use of social media that's transformed her business into the global luxury brand that it is today.

With over a million followers across Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok, Sophie has built a loyal international audience. Open doors for collaborations and attractive clients from around the world today. In her episode, she shares how founders can use social media platforms, not just to showcase their work, but to grow a business, build credibility and reach global customers, and also how to set boundaries around it.

Juliet: Hi Sophie. Thank you for joining. How to. Startup today. It is great to have you on the show because I know we're gonna talk about all things social media as a founder, but before we do that, I'd love it if you could introduce a bit about yourself and the business that you've started.

Sophie: Hi, Juliet. Thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be here. I'm Sophie Patterson, founder of [00:01:00] Sophie Paton Interiors. We're a high-end interior design studio. We do projects all over the world, and we also have several product lines that we do in collaboration with other brands, such as furniture, wallpaper, home accessories.

And then most recently I've just launched an online interior design course called the Sophie Patterson Academy.

Juliet: Incredible. And when did you start your business?

Sophie: Oh, gosh, I actually can't remember life Pre Sophie Paton Interiors. I've been known to introduce myself as Sophie Paton Interiors before. I set up the business in 2008 and I did a couple of projects for a developer before that. So yeah, nearly half my life, 

Juliet: And with social media, when did you start using that for your business?

Sophie: So my social media journey happened very organically because I remember I had a web developer at the time who told me she was gonna put a link. Instagram didn't even exist, but she told me she was gonna put a link to Facebook and she said, if I do this, you must update it regularly. She was very strict.

 'Cause it looks bad if it's not regular. [00:02:00] I've got her to thank for joining Facebook, and I guess that was probably around sort of 2009. We set up a Facebook interiors page. Actually, I don't do that page anymore. And that was really key because I ended up posting about our projects behind the scenes what I was doing, and my whole driver for doing that was I didn't have enough projects.

Necessarily to populate an entire website. But I remember being a recent graduate and all my friends were going off into corporates and they were all talking about their big high flying jobs. And I didn't want them all to be thinking, oh, she's just dossing about fluffing cushions. So it was more from an ego thing that I was like, no, look, I am doing real work.

So I put quite a lot of content on that Facebook page and through that Facebook page, I actually found my first. Non-developer client, a private client and then I joined Instagram in 2012. Again, didn't really know what I was doing. I don't think any of us realized how important social media would be.

My very first post was a bottle of champagne. It was more like, typical older millennial. [00:03:00] Like, Ooh is, does this work, has this gone on? Is this out in the world Worldwide web? And then very quickly it took a different term. 

Juliet: And where has it ended up today for you in social media? How integral to your business is it?

Sophie: I mean, Huge. I think it's fair to say social media has built my business. It is such a big part of our business. It's how we get our private clients for our interior design projects, most of our clients now I can pinpoint either, they found me through one of our various social media platforms, whether that's YouTube or Instagram.

Or their friend who recommended us to them originally came through social media. So I think it's been so key for that side of the business, but also for driving the sales, all our collections for our online academy. It's been massive for us. And I think with that. Huge audience. We've got over a million people that follow us across our different platforms.

I also feel a huge sense of responsibility. So as much as it builds and drives our business, in some ways it slows me down because I say no to so much that gets offered to me because I feel a sense of [00:04:00] responsibility. You know, I'm not just selling to a blind audience. I know these people we've engaged over years and years.

They've watched my journey. We've had. Conversations in dms that I really care about what I put on my platform, what I recommend to them. So I it's been great for the business, but you feel a big sense of responsibility with it as well.

Juliet: I've often called it a necessary evil because I've struggled with it, but only because I've struggled with my own boundaries with it, and set myself time limits and all that kind of thing. And everyone said do you really need it? It's yes. 'cause it forms part of our lookbook.

So if somebody hears about us, they'll check out our website, they'll check off our LinkedIn post, they'll check out our Instagram. They'll get a sense of who we are and they can get to know us without even emailing us or calling us. For you, has it provided that sort of screening as part of the screening process with clients 

Most of my clients aren't very active on social media and yeah, we always, before we work with someone, obviously we'll do a little bit of research just to make sure that we're the right fit. We can only take on a certain amount of clients every year. But yeah, I think like a lot of our.

Sophie: Clients will [00:05:00] not only feel familiar and comfortable with me, but like members of our team as well, they're all feature on YouTubes or Instagram. They're like, oh, Anthony or Charlotte and it's really nice for them because they feel like they know our team before they even start working. And they're also quite familiar with our process because they've watched various videos about, we share a lot of our process online.

Not only through our online design academy, but also like free content on YouTube and Instagram. So I feel like they feel a bit more prepared. 'cause I think hiring an interior designer is a really intimidating thing. No matter where you are in life, no matter what budget you've got, you are essentially trusting someone with your biggest asset.

So having that kind of insight and soft instruction through social media I think has been really helpful for them.

Juliet: Going back to the beginning, what were the first few posts that you really thought this is gonna move the needle for your business?

Sophie: I didn't really realize it was gonna move the needle, to be honest. The reason why, aside from being told off by my web developer and said, you have to post this regularly for me, what really like. [00:06:00] Drove me to post regularly was having a sense of community because I think as a founder, it's so lonely.

and I worked by myself for five years. I did all the jobs in the business and I worked from my garage. And I just really wanted to be able to connect with like-minded people. I loved the fact that I could reach out to different brands in the industry, other designers and have that kind of sense of community and relationships.

And for me, I was just sharing what I was doing because I still had that kind of like wide-eyed enthusiasm just thought, wow, this is so cool. I'm so passionate about design. I can't believe I'm getting to do this and people are hiring me to do their home. And I wanted to share not just the end results, but also the process.

So I think. That for me was really important, having that sense of community, and I think that then transferred into like the content I was posting. Then I realised my audience were becoming my community and I was building community there, and a lot of them could relate to me. A lot of them were. Maybe aspiring interior designers or people doing up their own home, [00:07:00] and they really loved the fact that I was sharing behind the scenes, like real world behind the scenes, not just the end pretty pictures and also bits of my life as well.

You know, I think if you're gonna be on social media, you set it yourself, like you've got to have boundaries. What are you comfortable with? And it's not just important for yourself to have those boundaries, but also for your audience because they want consistency. So if one week you decide to sher loads your life.

And it comes out the blue from having never shared anything about your life. You are confusing your audience. if they happen to have not seen a post for yours, which can happen quite easily with the algorithm how it is, and then all of a sudden up pops a story about. Your gym routine and they're like, who's this person?

I'm not interested in gym routines, unfollow. You have to work out what you are comfortable with and then do that consistently so that it's on brand. You've thought about it. It's not just, maybe you've had a glass of champagne on a Friday night and you're like, woo-hoo. Let's post this.

Everything should be really considered because your personal brand is your.

Juliet: How did you work out what content you should be posting and when, because there's so much around content of [00:08:00] sort of the type of visual. Is it video, is it carousel, is real? Versus how often? What time of day? How did you learn all of that?

Sophie: It's been trial and error, I would say. You kind of work out what your audience resonates with, and not every audience is the same. You know what my audience likes. When they're active will be different to someone else's. So I just have this like idea in my head and for me, even now, even though it's like such a big business and it, this is so key to it, I do like to keep it quite organic because I'm a real geek and I'm constantly researching.

I love like nothing more on a Saturday night than like. diving into a podcast about what the algorithm wants or, different ideas. And I think if you get too structured and you're like well, Monday, this is our content pillar Wednesday, this is our content pillar, you don't allow yourself to have that ability to flex.

 we still do it organically. And I did everything on social media myself up until April. I hired a social media manager. Well, I actually wants to hire one social media manager, but I hired two because they were both so [00:09:00] amazing, and that's been amazing for me in terms of being able to create more content.

Hit more platforms. We do everything in-house and I thought it was gonna free up some of my time, but actually I think it's so important to have that personal aspect. I think you can always tell if a founder or someone key in the business is involved with the social media strategy because it feels more current, it feels more relevant, and.

What I think is really important with your social media, no matter what business you are doing, is it's gotta be almost like a little bit, you're seeing something that you're not meant to see. Like you are really kind of spying on behind the scenes. If it's too polished, it just becomes a bit boring.

Juliet: you are so right. And I was listening to the news this morning and saying that half the internet is AI generated and not real, but does that matter? And it was around the moral. Aspect of content, and if AI is talking to ai, if humans talking to ai, we've all been absorbing content that's been pre-written or pre-recorded and edited.

Where is that line? But I'm so with you, I enjoy content where I can [00:10:00] relate to the person giving it to me. And I know that for myself, like posting from my LinkedIn is very different from posting to our company's LinkedIn and we almost. Which shouldn't really bother having a company LinkedIn because people much rather hear first person.

For you, what do you think has helped grow such a loyal community over the years? Because you are across, I believe Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

Sophie: That's correct. I think, you know. just sharing honestly and openly. I'm quite an open and honest person, and often, even with our online course, I said to my team, I want to include a little black book of all of our favorite suppliers. And they were like, oh, okay.

They were like, so even this supplier, yes. Even this supplier. Yes. And like they were shocked, but they were like why, why are we giving so much of this IP away? Like, This is too important to our business. But I disagree. I think like the more you share and the less you focus on gatekeeping and just I don't feel that like by empowering other people, I am disempowering myself.

I feel like if you share and you help [00:11:00] others. My clients aren't hiring me because of like the place where I get my curtains made or where I get my furniture or my carpet from. They're hiring us for our vision and our customer service and our ability to design their home and make it as good as it can be for them.

So I think that translates through to the free content we share on social media as well. We do share really openly. We do really help our followers, you know, if they'll DM me, even if there's nothing in it for me, me or one of my social medias will respond to them. We share what we can and we really want to help our audience, and I think.

They can feel that. They can feel that. This, for me, you know, my social media didn't start as a business strategy. It started as a sense of community. And that continues to this day. And I think they can see the difference. You know, We are all wisened to, you know, swipe up by this, swipe up and like false recommendations.

And I think when you stay authentic, your audience stays very loyal to you.

Juliet: And you build the trust and as you going back to the top of the conversation where your clients are trusting you with their home, you want [00:12:00] to build the trust. 

It's, 

It's so interesting to hear you say this 'cause I'm constantly sitting on a fence of. What do we give away? What do we just automatically want to share be helpful versus we do need to have a cashflow.

We are a business. We're not a charity. Where do you draw that line? And with content, given it takes a lot of time, even organic natural content does take time. Just even sit down and post and think through what caption and link you might want to include. Do you have a sort of set amount of time per week that you give it and then you stop? you just let it run ragged and do as much as you possibly can?

Sophie: I think the main focus of our business is the like, the couture interior design aspect. So my clients that are paying design fees, they always come first and everything else has to be slotted in around it. That's why, you know, with social media, I've got the social media managers. I'm still really heavily involved, but I.

They know, you know, they have work full-time for me. They know what's going on in the business. If I'm flying to America for a project, they're not gonna be able to capture content. So we plan some stuff ahead, [00:13:00] but equally, we've got a lot of conversations going. You know, I was in LA and San Francisco last week for a project and I was messaging them saying, look, I know I approved all the content, but can you just send me like the outline of what we're posting so that if I was to post from LA, it's not looking unnatural with what you are posting on the grid. But I don't think you could necessarily put in a time limit. I think you just go with it when you can. And especially when I was doing it by myself before I had social media managers, I would take breaks sometimes, like I know it's really bad for the algorithm, but it's also about your mental health.

And if I was going through something tough. I needed to take some time off, then I would take time off and like our audience were really sweet. I would return like two weeks later and they'd be like, are you okay? You've posted every day for the last 10 years. I'm really worried about you. And that's so nice.

But the algorithm will punish you for that. So it's like a big decision. And I don't like to post in advance or like, schedule things too much. So that's been the one benefit for me now, and I know that I'm in a really lucky position that I've now built a business where I [00:14:00] can afford to have two social media managers and I think.

For us, it's proved itself that it's like such a key part of our business, it's worth investing in. I'm actually gonna hire another person, not so that I can remove myself from it, but just so I can make sure that their workload is manageable. Because they often say to me, I dunno how you did this all by yourself.

There's two of us plus you. They work flat out often. They all want to stay there for like an hour after work. And I'm pushing 'em out the office saying, you've gotta go home, you've gotta have a life.

Juliet: That's

it. it's endless and I think. In any part of starting a business, and I knew this already when I came into it from communications and PR because you can always pitch another editor. You can always find another angle. There is no finished to-do list. And having OCD and going into communications was probably a terrible idea.

I should have learned that was not good for me, but. Starting a business that you could always do more. And I think with social media, I constantly sit on the fence with my team. they debate with me and challenge me on it, of, you could do more founder-led content, you could do more to camera. I'm like, yes, but I don't want to.

And I, I [00:15:00] don't feel I've got anything to say and I'm definitely not gonna do a get ready with me or anything like that. But they're like 

well, 

the algorithm will thank you for it. And I'm like, I don't want my life ruled by an algorithm. And that's my choice. And I know that we are missing out from awareness and engagement and potentially clients, but it's 

sort of 

drawing that line that I've set up a business, it has to work for me.

I can't give everything to it. How did you find that boundary for yourself?

Sophie: I think that's, I love, see this is what I love about podcasts and I love actually coming on podcasts. I very rarely get to speak to other, particularly women in business and like have these conversations. I don't think this is something that I've ever spoken to a man about, but I probably have a different perspective and 'cause I get asked a lot by sort of new designers or people that want to set up their own business, like what should I do?

And I don't always follow my own advice, but as you are saying to me, like you are saying, your team is saying you should do more talking to camera pieces. I agree with them and I think like I am an introvert. I hate being filmed. I still, even though I've done it for five [00:16:00] years. Multiple times every week.

I still get anxiety. When I was filming my online course, I filmed. Consistently for a year to produce 14 hours of content. And it was like just talking to a camera, like engaging. But you know, When I'm filming my YouTube, walking around a project, I find that a lot less intense. But I feel like it's really important to try these things because if you want to grow your business, you have to like be willing to put yourself out your comfort zone.

As soon as you say that, that's the same advice I give as aspiring designers and it makes me laugh. 'cause I'll see them year on year, like at different events and different talks I'm doing. They're like, oh, I did it and I actually follow them 'cause I really am interested engaged in their journey.

And I'm like, yeah, go you. I am like so proud of you. You are doing it. And then I'm thinking to myself, but you haven't done any to camera pieces for a while and you know, it'd be good for your engagement too. And so it's in the back of my mind all the time. And I also say to my. Social media team, please don't ask me if you can film me.

Just film everything like me and the team will get used to you just filming and we'll relax into it because real content is so much more [00:17:00] interesting. Like I'd almost rather you put a mic on me the minute I arrive in the day and then take it off because. I have to be able to multitask. I can't just, yeah, I'll have some day set aside if we've gotta film a particular campaign or we've gotta shoot the level of content they want from me.

I can't just set that time aside. I've gotta be actually able to run the business. And it, again, it comes back to thinking like, what do I find most interesting? Well. I love reality TV when it's like really real. Like I'll admit I love the Kardashians and I know people love to hate them, but I am full of admiration for them because what they've built, how they've monetized things, it's so impressive.

And yet it must be so tempting for them to like really edit out the bad bits, but they keep it in and that's what people love to see. And I'm not saying necessarily that I would do that, but I think my approach to social media and like I always like to think every year, like what am I gonna do for the business? For social media next year I want to be more vulnerable and more open. I'm gonna be renovating my home and we all know, you know, you are renovating right now. You know, There's so many highs and lows and I think it'll be really interesting to see that from the [00:18:00] perspective of sort of fly on the wall of watching a design go through the highs and lows like everyone else does.

You know, I've got budget, I just got the prices back from my. Contractors and all the subcontractors this week. I've totally blown the budget. I'm about three times over the budget and now I've got to scale back. And it is like,

Juliet: it happens to the best of them. This

is reassuring 

Sophie: as much as it's horrible to live it, this is gonna make great content.

So in the back of my mind I'm like, oh, this is really annoying. But I'm like, don't skip out this bit. Get the team to film you being really stressed out about the fact that we've now got to value engineer aspects of 

Juliet: of it as well. The humanity, people can relate that and that's why I think I love podcasting so much because it's everyone understands a conversation like this. Today we'll have listeners and we're all comfortable with the fact that we have eavesdrops and we are welcoming them in, and it's almost like you're sitting in a cafe and you're on a couple sitting next to you, and everyone's all right with it.

And it's, me, it's one rung down on that vulnerability a 'cause it's not live, it's not necessarily my face, and I can edit it if I need but my team of like, you're too to, too Chanel trained. If you are [00:19:00] more, you like the dad jokes and the silliness that we get to see, your listeners will bond with that more.

And I think with podcasting it's really hard as well because it. It is recorded And you put it out on it's a one way street, and you don't get any feedback with social media, you can get quite a lot of feedback, both positive and negative, unfortunately. But you're making me laugh because I remember last year when I moved house, I was like right, two things.

Next year I'm gonna get to the Antarctic and see the penguins, and I'm gonna move to bury in the COTS worlds. My friend's like, okay, then whatever. Turns out getting to the Antarctic, he is way easier than buying a house in the

especially when you're self-employed. When I started painting reason I thought in my delirium of tiredness, I time-lapse myself and chucked off on Instagram.

Never have I had more engaged content than me painting a room in old sweatpants from school days compared to like Antarctica with penguins. It's like guys, seriously? And recently I went to Uganda to see gorillas. I'm like, no one cares. They wanna care. They really care about paint Even a 23-year-old in the village like, Jules, I'm so invested which do [00:20:00] next.

was like, what? And I'm the same. And this is. in terms of the type of business you're in it, it plays really well to visual content, so it works very well on social media. I'd argue that as a PR and a podcast consultancy, our content isn't as engaging for social media 'cause it's not as visual, it's much more audio.

I mean, I'm trying to make excuses not to do it, 

2025-12-15--t03-15-54pm--5f3ac011a8c422002b8b9e6c--fallowfieldmason: do you think, 

Juliet: do you thinkshould consider their social media use or content strategy?

Sophie: I think you should consider it a lot. And I think touching on that point about is it aesthetic? That's a really interesting perspective because yeah, it does definitely help that I've got like visually engaging. I can do before and afters with designing beautiful homes all over the world. And most of our clients do let us share their homes, which is amazing.

But actually what I've realized is like we'll spend a lot of money on production. We'll have videographers, professional photographers, we'll put together these beautiful posts or reels or videos, and then. It'll do well, it will be good. But when I [00:21:00] think how much money and time we invest in it, I'm like, was that really worth it?

Then equally I will go around with my shaky little iPhone where the lighting's not like perfectly set and put like a reel up that I haven't even thought about and it will might do five times as well. So I think people overly worry about like having a really curated feed. I do like a curated feed 'cause I also am a perfectionist and I think that's like part of our brand.

We need to make sure it looks good and people are gonna judge us. But what I think is a really good hack is if you don't have like a beautifully designed office or maybe not everything you are doing is like really visually engaging is do carousel posts. Carousel posts are doing so well. Anyways, Instagram loves them.

And have the cover image, something beautiful, whether it's like text with a nice background or you could do a personal branding shoot where you look great, you look really empowering and inspirational. And then afterwards you can have the carousels or the videos of whatever your content is that's like really educational and like really adds a lot of value, but doesn't necessarily look as good.

Juliet: [00:22:00] because I think people do get a little bit paralyzed of fear and Canva can only get you so far in terms of the design. So as a member of my team, that is art, basically, she's now head of brand. She took over the whole design of our. Business, redesign the website, redid all the Instagram, and I now send her stuff saying 

2025-12-15--t03-15-54pm--5f3ac011a8c422002b8b9e6c--fallowfieldmason: um, 

Juliet: can you sign this off for me, Francesca?

She's 

like, do know it's your company. yes, but you are really good with the border. like she's very, her eye is amazing, this is it. It hold you back too perfectionist about it, but that's a really good hack. What other hacks do you have for us?

Sophie: Ooh. Another one that I do, and this was triggered by something you said, is like, I've become less of perfectionist. Like I think we can all criticize ourselves. We can all hate the sound of our own voice or think, oh, does that sound silly? I'll review everything that goes out. I'll watch the full YouTube.

But I don't worry about like how I'm coming across. Like I think we are just our own worst critic. So I will let stuff go out and once I've reviewed it just to make sure there's no like mistakes or anything like that, then I'll just, I [00:23:00] won't think about it. Like I just move straight onto the next thing.

And I also don't worry about if there's any negative comments, you know. i'm really lucky for the number of followers we've got. We get very rarely any kind of negative comments. I can't remember the last one, but they'll always be the odd thing. If it's about a client's home, I will remove it because I'm like, that.

You can say what you want about me and my home. But That's, that person's private property and they've been kind enough to share it. If anyone ever says anything critical about me, I just don't take it personally. I've had over the years, you know, I got caught out by some journalist that worked the Daily Mail and she said, can we do this article?

And this is what the headline's gonna be and this is what it's gonna be about. And I think the original title was. Is this the most beautiful home in the uk? And I was like fantastic. Like you can't get pet pr amazing. Sign me up. And then what she proceeded to do, it did really well on the online version.

And then I clicked on a few hours later 'cause I was getting all these messages from friends being like, are you okay? And I, my daughter was really young. I think she was like six months old at the time. And I'd taken her swimming. I was only. Working part-time that day and she'd [00:24:00] changed the title from what we'd agreed to the new mom to make all other mothers jealous.

 She'd gone through my Instagram, taken like photos that I'd shared. And it was just like that typical sort of daily male ankle where they were like, we are just gonna get the trolls out. And there was 2000 comments of absolute ritual and poison, but it was so bad. I remember I had two of my designers staying with me 'cause my husband was traveling for work.

We opened a bottle of wine that night and we were reading them out loud to each other and we were literally like rolling around laughter. And I was like, this is actually, I'm so glad that I had this because the comments couldn't be any worse. And it kind of just teaches you and you think about. Who is it that's got time to read the Daily Mail online and then also write a comment in the middle of a day on a Tuesday.

It's someone that's sat at home that's maybe not that necessarily that happy. And I think like if you kind of person that wants to go out of your way to write something negative, then I'm not really interested in your opinion. 'cause you're probably not gonna be someone that I admire or respect.

 And after that. Things just don't affect me. say, oh, [00:25:00] it says more about you than it does about me. I'm very comfortable with who I am. I know I'm a good person. I know we do good work. So if it upsets you, 

Juliet: is really impressive. 

cause in the last few episodes I've asked quite a few of the founders how they've managed social media and the topic of the episode could be something completely different. But we've always ended up on that topic at the end recently, which I thought was quite interesting and quite useful.

Now we're talking to you about it, that boundary. It was and her question from you for this episode is from her, but she was saying she just doesn't handle social media well, and at some point she'd like to be social media free because she's not handling it well. And that boundary's 

2025-12-15--t03-15-54pm--5f3ac011a8c422002b8b9e6c--fallowfieldmason: really, 

Juliet: really important to put in and I think at the end of this year, I've concluded it.

It works for my business, but I need to be better boundaried with it. What advice would you give to founders on how to create those boundaries for themselves?

Sophie: I think maybe think about what aspect of social media doesn't feel good to you. Is it. You are worried about [00:26:00] people's comments, is it, and I think this is quite a common one, like are you consuming too much content of your competitors? Is it making you feel like you are not good enough or you are, should be doing more?

And I think for me, like I feel bad, but I don't have time to consume content anymore. Like I spend all my time either running the business or producing content. And I think that's where the shift's been for me, is if I'm looking at something and I'm like, this is making me stressed or making me not feel good enough.

I don't wanna unfollow anyone, but I'll just mute them. I don't need to consume this content anymore, like I still support you, but what you are sharing doesn't make me feel good, so I'm just not gonna waste my 

Juliet: really good point competitors. 

2025-12-15--t03-15-54pm--5f3ac011a8c422002b8b9e6c--fallowfieldmason: Well 

Juliet: cause 

I, 

I 

sort of 

would go down holes of seeing other in different, or my sector, but it's 

2025-12-15--t03-15-54pm--5f3ac011a8c422002b8b9e6c--fallowfieldmason: like, well, 

Juliet: I've decided not to do this. And that's on They have decided to become a. To camera founder, and choice.

And I think if I could remember my for myself, I would have a better boundary with it rather than those when you are knackered, you probably haven't slept, you've had a stressful client or something like that. And then you see something on Instagram where someone seemingly much is killing it in some [00:27:00] area. But you also forget that social media is only the positive stuff. You never really see the gritty. And maybe that's why the vulnerability does well, because people do want to see a bit more more

real. grit and a bit 

Sophie: breath refresher. Well, Another thing that, I've taught myself over the years is there's a cost attached to everything, so fine. You wanna go out there and you wanna be like absolutely smashing it. You wanna see your followers go through the roof. You wanna be doing projects all over the world.

The cost attached to that is for me personally, I'll be stressed. I'll spend less time with my family. I might feel overwhelmed. I might get burnt out. So I don't actually feel envious when I see other people having teams of like 50, 60 people. That's just not something I aspire to. The success I want is, you know, I love doing my job.

I love being able to do a really good job for my clients. I know how many projects I can take on every year. Deliver something really good for them. I feel stressed if I don't feel like I'm delivering enough value for people. And then with the scalable areas of my business, you know, I thought quite a few years [00:28:00] ago, I want to be able to scale my business.

The way I'm gonna scale my business is not by taking on more staff, taking on more projects, because everyone wants me. I can only divide myself so many ways. I'll feel guilty if I'm not giving them what I should be. I'll do the online, I'll do the collections, I'll do the products. And again, I didn't want to do that all.

In-house because then I've gotta hire more people. I'm gonna have a staff of like 60 people. I don't find that relaxing either. I don't particularly like managing people. So I did that all with other people who I thought were the best at what they do. You know, It was all tried and tested. They, we'd worked with them for our design projects.

I knew they had great quality. I knew they had great customer service, and I felt safe aligning with them. That's really scalable. All I have to do is design it and then promote it, do some shoots every. You know, Twice a year. And they deal with all the logistics. They deal with all the manufacturing.

So I think you can scale in different ways and I think we've sort of had this real transition for our sort of generation of like what success used to look like and now what success can look like now. And I don't wanna just work harder, I just wanna work smart. I want to enjoy the success I've already got.

I wanna enjoy my [00:29:00] life. Nothing's given. I always think probably like two or three times a week I remind myself, is this gonna be important on my deathbed? Am I gonna regret this? And I think the only thing I'll regret is not having spent more time with my family, not having done the things that I kept putting off.

Whether it was going to the Antarctic and seeing the penguins or you know, going on a safari. Whatever it is that I want to do. I make sure that I'm on track. And you said that you kind of write. Things that you want to do next year.

And I do exactly the same thing every December I'll review my year that I've had and I'll think, what do I wanna do next year? And I divide it into different sections. I have one for business, I have one for social media. I have one for like financial things. I have one for holidays I want to do. I have one for my health.

I have one for my kids and even one for my husband. And I'll sort of write like however many things I can think of, whether it's like five or 10. Under each section. And it's not like a New Year's resolution because it's not something I'm gonna beat myself up with. I don't have to do everything, but just try and do like a couple from each section.

And that means that you are keeping your life balanced. ' cause [00:30:00] all your, if all your success is financial, but you've had no holidays, you've had no date nights, you've had no time for the things that are important to you, then that's not gonna be a successful year. And then my other role that I do with that, and this is really key because I noticed I've been doing it since like 2000 14 was that if something stays on my list for three consecutive years and doesn't get done, I have to do it in the third year. So you hold yourself accountable. But the thing that I had to do this year, what I was really happy about was I had to go away to a spa. I went to the original fx, my clinic in Austria, just somewhere I'd wanted to go and spent 10 days by myself just doing complete self-care.

But that was really important for me because I think after. We just launched the online design course in June. I'd worked flat out with all our projects and my life was outta balance, and I knew that it was time. I had to like go there and I'd be a better mom. I'd be a better boss, a better designer if I 

Juliet: Time 

Sophie: recalibrated with that.

Juliet: when you run a business like I've never seen it before, if you don't 

kind of 

put those anchor stops in your calendar,and we are recording this mid-December, we're about to enter [00:31:00] 2026. Those pivotal change. Someone said, it's just another up and it's still another day.

It doesn't matter. It's the 1st of January. But it's quite a useful anchor point to be like 

2025-12-15--t03-15-54pm--5f3ac011a8c422002b8b9e6c--fallowfieldmason: well, 

Juliet: what went well this year? What didn't go so I enjoy? What didn't I enjoy? Because you are responsible so much your business and yourself, and if you're not looking after yourself, you're definitely not looking after your business.

And our episode is gonna come out we are doing 12 days of Christmas where we're rerunning all of our health and wellness episodes. This is a really shit time for You come to the end of the year, you're probably burnt out. Your family are trying to tell you to take time off probably can't.

But I love the fact that you are 

2025-12-15--t03-15-54pm--5f3ac011a8c422002b8b9e6c--fallowfieldmason: kind of 

Juliet: pulling yourself of the and looking at it as well as your life because the business does need to help you live a life as well. It can't just all be about work. I find that really exciting success metric as well. It's so hard to actually work out you want to do because once you know what you wanna do, you can.

Work out a path to get there, but that what does, what matters question

 key. 

And the question we our last guest, which was Rian from [00:32:00] Arta, the supplement brand, I dunno if you've come across it, but insanely beautiful packaging and 

2025-12-15--t03-15-54pm--5f3ac011a8c422002b8b9e6c--fallowfieldmason: amazing, 

Juliet: amazing product. She is a. swimmer, a naturo passion nutritionist, and has launched this beautiful supplements brand that's killing it. But she said she didn't really have what has been the most impactful change you have made to drive success within your business? quite a big question.

Sophie: Yeah, I think this year's been like a change and actually, yeah, you've nailed it on the head. It's those two things, but it, beyond that it's trusting my gut because when I told my team and I told people around me, I'm gonna launch this academy, this is what I'm gonna include in it. Everyone was like, I think you're giving away too much value.

I don't think this is good for your brand. Is this really on brand? You know, You're a really high-end interior designer. Is this making you too accessible? Same with hiring two social media managers. Everyone really questioned like, do we really need two social media managers? But I think. Both times I kind of wentagainst the grain and I really listened to all my team and I listened to people around me.

 But I think as I've got older, I've learned to [00:33:00] trust my gut more. And I was like, I can't explain it and I don't really wanna justify it. I just know this is the right thing to do. It's the right thing for the business. And it both have worked out incredibly well and I think that's been really empowering and what I'm taking from that moving forward is.

To trust myself more. You know, I think as a woman in business, you don't wanna be too bolshy. You don't wanna be seen as a bossy woman. You like really feel like you've got to. Be very sort of balanced and considered, and I think that's true, but I think most of us talk ourselves out of doing what we think is right, and we can be swayed by other people that are maybe slightly more confident in how they tell you to do things.

Whereas now I'm adamant, I'm like, no, like I wanna hear what you guys are gonna say. Like it might change my mind, but it equally might not. And you might not understand this vision that I've got, but we are on this journey and we're gonna pursue it. So I think just trusting yourself and I wish that you could have the confidence or I wish I could have had the confidence that I've got now in my forties and that conviction in my early twenties when I set up the business, because I think that's been the hardest earned thing to get to, is just [00:34:00] trust in 

Juliet: I'm so grateful I started when I was 39 'cause I had years of work experience for other brands and other processes and protocols and best practice, worst practice. And I had experience and 

2025-12-15--t03-15-54pm--5f3ac011a8c422002b8b9e6c--fallowfieldmason: I, 

Juliet: I admire people who start in their are just like, they go and they work it out as they do learn by doing.

And 

2025-12-15--t03-15-54pm--5f3ac011a8c422002b8b9e6c--fallowfieldmason: I mean, 

Juliet: I'm doing that too, for sure. But yeah, trust your gut feeling. definitely, so I need to speak to

Sophie: Yeah.

Intuition and I, my husband says that often, like a lot of the most successful founders, he knows, he thinks. Actually, his brother had this theory that it's like positive narcissism where you can't see what you've done wrong and you just have total conviction in yourself. And I was like, yeah, I think you do need to have that.

And, but I don't like the word narcissist, but it's a sliding scale. We all have of it of narcissism and an element

self, another word for it. I think if you let your inner critic take control, you'll never do anything like you have to just. Believe in yourself and don't think about things that are gonna go wrong, because all the things you can anticipate going wrong probably won't.

And something that you never could have [00:35:00] imagined going wrong will go wrong, and you'll probably get through it. So it's just 

Juliet: waste time on worry. It's definitely something I've learned the hard way is 

2025-12-15--t03-15-54pm--5f3ac011a8c422002b8b9e6c--fallowfieldmason: um, 

Juliet: quite a handy one that, very early doors in the saying, if you don't believe in it, no one else is going to. So you do need a bit of blind belief of 

2025-12-15--t03-15-54pm--5f3ac011a8c422002b8b9e6c--fallowfieldmason: like, 

Juliet: I'm just gonna try. And who knows?

Who knows? 

2025-12-15--t03-15-54pm--5f3ac011a8c422002b8b9e6c--fallowfieldmason: I 

Juliet: you told me six years ago that I'd be producing podcasts and hosting a Ranking chart 

Sophie: 

Juliet: I think my question would be, you know. I would love to know from your next guess, when did they know they needed to bring in like a higher level of management? ' cause I think that requires a real element of trust that you are hand over control over big decisions in your business. So when did you feel that you were ready to do that 

Brilliant. that is a really good

cause that is an expensive mistake to get wrong

Sophie: It 

2025-12-15--t03-15-54pm--5f3ac011a8c422002b8b9e6c--fallowfieldmason: well. 

Juliet: also. 

Sophie: is. right as well. 'cause you've give them a big amount of time to 

Juliet: also 

really hurtful 

it goes wrong as well. The, 

the heart and the head are very in that 'cause it's your baby. Oh, okay. Yeah.

Sophie: founder [00:36:00] 

Juliet: yeah 

2025-12-15--t03-15-54pm--5f3ac011a8c422002b8b9e6c--fallowfieldmason: I, 

Juliet: I tried it and it gone back near it, but at some point I would like to try it again. But it's such the pivotal decision.

Sophie: what role did 

Juliet: I, when I started, I was 

calling myself a director and this woman came and said 

well, 

 you are gonna have to be managing director 'cause I'm a director. And I was like, fine, I'll promote myself, but hilarious. But I'm still taking home the same money or lack there all at the time. And was year two and she was a senior hire, typically, I think same.

Amount of experience I had, but just didn't work to the attention of detail that we needed for clients. The output wasn't as qualitative as we needed, and it just very, 

very quickly became very, 

very obvious it wasn't gonna And I think I learned the hard way that you, I'd originally probation period.

And 

2025-12-15--t03-15-54pm--5f3ac011a8c422002b8b9e6c--fallowfieldmason: um, 

Juliet: long notice periods changed it to long probation periods, but short notice periods when it doesn't work for either party, they want out. You want 'em out,

they either want to leave or

you don't want 'em and the time needs to be as short as possible.

[00:37:00] And it's very expensive if they have a long notice period. So I learned the hard way with that one. 

2025-12-15--t03-15-54pm--5f3ac011a8c422002b8b9e6c--fallowfieldmason: Um, 

Juliet: but every day's a school day, it's 

2025-12-15--t03-15-54pm--5f3ac011a8c422002b8b9e6c--fallowfieldmason: like. 

Juliet: No. And it's so nice now having gone through some difficult situations. 'cause I've learnt and I'll never forget stuff now 

2025-12-15--t03-15-54pm--5f3ac011a8c422002b8b9e6c--fallowfieldmason: of, 

Juliet: of those situations. So yeah, 

I'm quite 'cause it's like I, I know our payment terms, I know what sorts we want to work with.

I know what a good day at work looks like. know how my brain works at work, so I feel like I've hit. Of a groove, but the first two, three years, and Rian said the same, it takes at least three years to 

2025-12-15--t03-15-54pm--5f3ac011a8c422002b8b9e6c--fallowfieldmason: kind of 

Juliet: find your feet, 

 to into those economies 

Sophie: Definitely, I feel like it took me a solid 10 years to find my feet and build the business to a point where it felt like it was a proper business as well. Like I think working from home initially, I didn't necessarily. Take myself that seriously and didn't price accordingly and couldn't really see how I was gonna transition the business.

I think having a separate office and building your team, that's what it's taken for me to see, oh yeah, I have built a 

real 

business like 

Juliet: the business. It's you and 

it, 

it's, I'm employed [00:38:00] just by business. started and it's bigger than you, which is quite a nice feeling. 

but the responsibility with that.

Sophie: And I think as it gets bigger, the hard thing is like separating what's right for you versus what's right for the business. 'cause often those are two completely different things and if you don't want the business to be running your life, you've gotta be okay with making decisions that are gonna maybe hold that business back.

But you Such good advice. Thank you Sophie, so much for your time today. It's been great chatting to you. All things social media. 

I've loved it. I could chat with you all Thank you

Juliet: If you'd like to contact Sophie, you can find all of her details in the show notes along with a recap of the advice that she has so kindly shared. you can also hear her answer to rein from AAR's episode from last week on What was the most pivotal change she made in her business to grow her success?