#awinewith Gabrielle Reiher
MEET Gabrielle, founder of Custom Made Artworks
You can find them here:
Transcript
Danielle Lewis (00:07):
Gabriel, welcome to Spark tv. Thank
Gabrielle Reiher (00:10):
You. Thanks for having
Danielle Lewis (00:11):
Me. I'm so excited. And you have brought a cocktail, so you're already my favorite person. Cheers to you. Cheers. And the podcast.
Gabrielle Reiher (00:20):
Woohoo. Thank
Danielle Lewis (00:21):
You. Oh, so good. Let's just set the tone, set the context, let's tell everyone who you are and what you do.
Gabrielle Reiher (00:30):
Okay, sure. So my name is Gabriel Ryan and I'm an artist and I recently founded my own company, which is called Custom Made Artworks. And what I do is I create original handmade artworks tailored to suit any space so I can work with individuals or I can work with designers, developers. And so I've worked with hotels, I've worked someone's lounge room presence for a friend. It varies. But basically I create unique, handmade, large scale, abstract artworks designed for you.
Danielle Lewis (01:04):
I love it. This is amazing and so creative. Thank you. Have you been an artist all of your life or what's the got? Yeah.
Gabrielle Reiher (01:13):
Yeah, so I've done lots of things, but I've always painted. So even when I was a little kid, I used to always paint on, we didn't have much money growing up, so I'd get hard, rubbish. And then I'd find all of the neighbors had always had paint in their sheds, like leftover paint. And so I'd ask if I could use it or I'd get it from the art room or whatever. And so I'd just paint furniture and then I'd paint walls and my mom was amazing. Let me paint everything so I could paint the house. I could paint my bedroom. So I've always been painting, but I've also been a casting director and a TV director, theater director. I actually owned a theater in Melbourne, but over the years I've realized that the one thing I really sort of love doing the most is painting. And it's very isolated, so it's very solo. So finally, I'm trying to figure out that blend, I guess, of networking and connecting with people, but still having all that alone time. Yeah, that's the only downside, I guess is what I'm trying to say. But I do love it and I've always loved it. My ex-girlfriend used to say, you need to go paint the crazy way when I get a bit mad if I paint, I just can't write down. And so that's also I think an indicator that it's what I'm meant to do.
Danielle Lewis (02:30):
I love that. And it's so funny though, I mean, even just saying that it's such a solo exercise, I feel like that's the plight of the business owner though, as well. Right? Hundred percent. We're just behind our desks by ourselves going, yeah.
Gabrielle Reiher (02:44):
Hello.
Danielle Lewis (02:45):
Does anyone know? I
Gabrielle Reiher (02:47):
Totally, we want that. We want to be able to just do whatever we want, but then when you're doing it, it's kind of like, hello. I do love it. I do love it.
Danielle Lewis (02:58):
I know. It's so funny because, so I was at this event and this woman said to me, I work from home and my husband is a big wig in mining. And she was like, what do you do? Just, oh, my
Gabrielle Reiher (03:10):
Partner works in mining too. Oh
Danielle Lewis (03:12):
Really?
Gabrielle Reiher (03:13):
Yeah, we'll get back to,
Danielle Lewis (03:16):
And she's like, what do you do? Just sit at home all day and wait for him to come home. And I was like, oh my God. What? I was like, I'm actually building an empire here. Excuse me. But some days secretly I'm like, I haven't talked to anyone all day. I am actually him to come home. Me too.
Gabrielle Reiher (03:32):
I know. I feel like I battle that internal guilt. Some days I'll be struggling so hard with resistance and my own self-doubt or whatever, and I'll literally watch the Real Housewives of Orange County all day and then I'm like, hate myself. I'm like, oh my God, what have I done? Nothing all day. And I'll work 14 hours to try to make up for it, and it's so stressful. But I think that the feeling comes from that too, because I have had the same thing because my partner's a minor. They're like, oh, so does she pay for everything? And I'm like, well, she does
Danielle Lewis (04:07):
Help me. It piss me off.
Gabrielle Reiher (04:08):
I know. It's so rude. I'm actually doing 50 people's jobs, not just one. I'm doing one and getting paid for it. I don't even have guaranteed income coming in and I'm doing 50 jobs. It's so frustrating. It I chose, it's frustrating. Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (04:24):
Whatcha doing what? Doing.
Gabrielle Reiher (04:27):
I know. I totally get it. What mind does your partner work at?
Danielle Lewis (04:32):
So we're in Kalgoorlie at the moment. So he works for a company called Evolution Mining, which is like a gold mining company.
Gabrielle Reiher (04:39):
Yeah, cool. Okay. So my partner's up in Lobar.
Danielle Lewis (04:44):
She does Oh yeah. In Queensland. Yeah.
Gabrielle Reiher (04:46):
Yeah. So she's an electrician. She does week on, week off. But I think it's hopefully, I probably shouldn't say too much. Maybe we could, I dunno.
Danielle Lewis (04:55):
That's alright. We'll move on. We'll move.
Gabrielle Reiher (04:57):
Hopefully it'll come to an end soon.
Danielle Lewis (04:59):
I know it's really hard though, right? I know that as business owners we can work from anywhere, but it's a really hard balance. Personal life and business life and FIFO partners super hard.
Gabrielle Reiher (05:15):
Yeah. How do you manage it? Does he go away and come back or is it a he? Sorry.
Danielle Lewis (05:20):
Yeah, yeah, it's a he. So he, no, I know you've got a check. It's all good. I love that. Thank you.
Gabrielle Reiher (05:26):
Thank you. You're welcome.
Danielle Lewis (05:28):
You can get in trouble. Yeah, no, so we are residential, so that's why we live in Kalgoorlie, but he does travel on and off for bits and pieces, so it's a bit ad hoc. I mean, fortunately, so literally in a week's time he's got to go up north and whatever. So I'm tagging along and going to stay in Perth for a week. So I'm like, I try and take advantage of his travel.
Gabrielle Reiher (05:52):
Yeah, that's good. Yeah, that's smart.
Danielle Lewis (05:55):
And it is the one thing where I'm okay, I should be, we are lucky that we can run our businesses from anywhere. As long as I have an internet connection, that's my baseline. Then I'm like, I mean different for you though, being in a creative endeavor, you can't paint anywhere.
Gabrielle Reiher (06:10):
Well, that's true. I actually left Melbourne when Covid hit, so back in March.
(06:17):
I know. Best decision. Yes. It was too stressful there. So I left there and I've actually managed to paint on the road in my van and Oh cool. I've found that it's actually weird. I think it's, I'm just in the flow state more, but I seem to get more work, whereas now I've been on Bribie Island in one spot, more secure, but it's been harder to just, I'm not in that sort of zone. It's interesting. So I have to figure out that balance, but it is better overall to have a studio I can work from. So as long as I can go back to my studio and create the work, I throw paint around. I don't know if you've seen on my website, but I make big ones and I throw buckets of paint. So I have done it in the park, but it's not really fair to others. So I try, yeah, I need a studio. I actually building, so I'm excited. You need an
Danielle Lewis (07:13):
Entire building.
Gabrielle Reiher (07:15):
Yes. Ideally I need a huge warehouse in New York City, but we'll get there. One next. Oh
Danielle Lewis (07:19):
Yes. Oh my God, that's so good. But it's funny what you just said about when your back's against the wall, when you're hustling, when you were on the road, that more work would come and now that you're kind of calmer, safer in one place perhaps. I don't know. I always find that a lot of people, a lot of women in business, they wait until the money runs out. They're at the end of the month and they haven't made their sales to panic and hustle.
Gabrielle Reiher (07:44):
That's exactly what I do.
Danielle Lewis (07:46):
Doing it on and on and on,
Gabrielle Reiher (07:48):
A hundred percent. And I think, I don't know the statistics or whatever, but maybe it's because we have always sort of lived that way, or I don't know. For me anyway, it's like I'm used to that sort of sense of urgency and I don't know, survival mode and it's not healthy and I know that, but it's in my body, you know what I mean? So I'm trying to work it out, but it's also like, yeah, I find the same thing. So I have to trick myself. I have to be like, okay, put that money into that account and then I dunno what's there. And then I'm like, okay, I've only got $20 left and then all of a sudden I'm working so hard, I have to fully convince myself I delete the app and everything. Trying to force myself that. Yeah, I dunno what other people do. Any tips would be really actually helpful because keeping that sense of urgency but not panic. Do we have a word for it? Moat drive, I guess. I dunno.
Danielle Lewis (08:44):
Yeah. Well, I mean it is interesting. I kind of feel like it goes back to, so before we hit record, we were talking about how if we were busy we can get everything done, but if we have a day off, we do literally do nothing. If I have a day of back-to-back podcast recordings, I will do a hundred things in between with the time I have. If I have no meetings, I'm like, I don't want to work today.
Gabrielle Reiher (09:07):
Hey, maybe it's actually more efficient. Maybe we are actually more efficient. It's like, hang on, this is my day off, I'm going to enjoy it. Or it's like, well, I've already got something on that day, I might as well pack it all in there. I'm going to think that. I think that's what it is. After hearing you say that, and I think, do you have any kids?
Danielle Lewis (09:28):
No,
Gabrielle Reiher (09:29):
No, me neither. So I guess we are lucky in that way. We don't have to do things every day, but I do think, as you were saying before we hit record that people with kids, they have that forced, they have to do something every day, so they are more productive and they have to be and they can't get out of it. So not trying.
Danielle Lewis (09:46):
Yeah,
Gabrielle Reiher (09:47):
Totally cannot understand it, but I think there's something in it. I think there is
Danielle Lewis (09:52):
Totally. It's so funny that you mentioned about the kid factor for some weird reason on the last couple of podcasts, I've said, I reckon moms make the best business owners because they just find time. They find time that doesn't exist.
Gabrielle Reiher (10:03):
Yeah, I a hundred percent agree. My sister-in-Law is a machine. She's amazing. So she does import export, so she moved here from Hong Kong and she speaks Cantonese and Mandarin and my brother does too. They're super high achieving amazing people, but she has built her business from nothing and she will literally squeeze in to two minutes an entire morning of work. It's amazing because she has to. That'd be so cool.
Danielle Lewis (10:33):
And that's what I mean, I feel like it's almost the hack is be busier,
Gabrielle Reiher (10:39):
Just
Danielle Lewis (10:41):
Schedule things in your diary just so you have no time. So then you do your tasks
Gabrielle Reiher (10:45):
Well, you know what? This is exactly what I've been thinking about lately and I think that, so okay, my first business was my theater, so I opened an independent theater and gallery. It's called the Allen Cat Theater. It did really well creatively, but in terms of business, I couldn't sustain the money, so then I had to close it. I was stressed, and so I ended up losing heaps of money, but learning heaps, what I learned from that is you need to schedule days off as long as you book those in as well. I think that you're right. I think overbooking everything is probably the way to do it as long as you're also booking in bad as this sounds like time with your partner.
Danielle Lewis (11:26):
Yes, yes. I literally have dinner in my diary tonight so that I didn't do anything else.
Gabrielle Reiher (11:31):
Totally. And if that's what we have to do, that's what we have to do. And I feel like if men have to do that when they run their businesses, there's no question asked. And so it's like I think that gender norms do play a role and even I'm a lesbian woman, so the gender norms are different, but I still was raised as a girl in a female world, and I feel like there's a lot of expectation to not have the masculine energy and not, I don't know. I think that has to play a part in the guilt.
Danielle Lewis (12:02):
Oh, totally. I think there's, and it's also hard too. I feel like as women, we've been told that the masculine way is the way to run a business. That it is hustle, hustle, hustle, go, go, go. And don't get me wrong, I like hustling. I come from the era of hustle. I come from, so business a decade ago was all about hustle. Now I know we like our space and we like time and we like balance. I'm the
Gabrielle Reiher (12:25):
Same. I've gone through that same journey,
Danielle Lewis (12:29):
But I think it is that it is, as women, we were taught that the man's way is the way, and so probably when I started business was like, oh, well I have to hustle hard and I have to not sleep. And oh my God, I had a male co-founder once who told me, if you are tired, just drink a coffee.
Gabrielle Reiher (12:46):
And I was like, wow. Oh my gosh. That was me with my theater. I lived on three hours sleep a night, and I can't even remember half of it. People will say, oh, I don't remember them. So not worth it.
Danielle Lewis (12:58):
No, it's not. I feel like you've got to swing in both directions. Sometimes you kind of got to go period of hustle and then, okay, I worked really hard so I can get some space and just feel what it feels like and one day find a balance. I'm not sure if I agree that a balance happens on day one,
Gabrielle Reiher (13:16):
Especially
Danielle Lewis (13:17):
High school, having a job and a business. That's hard.
Gabrielle Reiher (13:20):
I think so too. I think there's seasons for everything, but the biggest thing I've been learning is to listen to your body. Without our health, we can't do anything. So it's like health is wealth, so it's like your body will tell you, and whether my brain likes it or not, my body will tell me if I'm tired. So I'm trying now to just use that as my indicator for when I need to go slower. But it's interesting. Today I was like, okay, I'm doing an interview with you and then I'm doing my podcast with my friend. So I've got a late night, she lives in France, and so in my mind I'm like, okay, I'm going to be working until 10 or 11 so I can probably have a few hours to chill, but I still felt guilty or whatever. But then I forced myself to do it and I was just relaxing and I have this list. I even set an alarm in my phone saying, do the admin call the 20 people, blah, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I'm at a cafe. I'm at a cafe and my phone dies and they plug it in for me, and then the waiter comes over and he is like an alarm's just gone off that says, you need to do your admin and call 20 people.
Danielle Lewis (14:26):
That is amazing. I was
Gabrielle Reiher (14:28):
Like, oh, well there we go. Anyway, I didn't do that. But what I did do is enjoyed myself and relaxed before this. I was looking forward to this and I didn't want to miss it again. I pretty confused. Anyway, get this, he ends up being the manager and is going to refer me to the owner of the building for custom made artworks.
Danielle Lewis (14:48):
Oh my God,
Gabrielle Reiher (14:50):
How is
Danielle Lewis (14:51):
That?
Gabrielle Reiher (14:52):
So I had a nice time, had a wine, didn't stress, ended up getting more of a lead than I would've otherwise. So I was like, that has to be a sign.
Danielle Lewis (15:00):
It's such a good thing. But you are open to business. You'll have conversations with people. You never know where leads are going to come from. Yes, it is good to be in and call you 20 people, but you kind of never know where sales are going to come from in business.
Gabrielle Reiher (15:15):
It's so exciting. But it's weird as well. I always think about it. I could choose to speak to that person or not, and it could alter the whole trajectory of my life. I've always thought about that. It's crazy.
Danielle Lewis (15:29):
And imagine like, oh, I love, oh my God, I just got goosebumps. This is fun. Imagine that too. Then you have the power. So in my mind I'm like, have the conversations. Don't ever not have the conversations because that one conversation could be the thing, could be the game changer. That's
Gabrielle Reiher (15:46):
Right. You never know who it is. That's exactly right. And it's all up to us. We can choose to be in a good mood. We can choose to be positive. We can choose to share or not share. He said to me, he was like, oh, so how's your day been in that moment? I could say, good, thanks, fine. But I was like, yeah, it's been great. I'm actually preparing for a podcast. I've just launched my business and then that, you know what I mean? And I thought about that. I was lucky. I'm chatty. It comes natural, but it is a choice too. It's
Danielle Lewis (16:18):
Interesting. No, and it's great too because sometimes people hate sales, but I'm like, just tell more people what you do. Stop thinking about it as sales. Just tell people talk. Just talk. Yeah. And I'm like, that sounds, that's why I always relate it to wine. I'm like, just stick that. Having a wine with someone, having a chat that's just chatting all it is. And if they're not the right person, they might know the right person.
Gabrielle Reiher (16:45):
That's right. And if they don't, nothing lost. Totally. You know what I mean? Yeah, I know. When I saw your podcast, it was called A Wine With, I was like, that's amazing. That's exactly what I would do because every time I've ever done anything, it's always been over a wine. And me and my partner always talk about it. We're like, we always have our best ideas at the pub. I'm like,
Danielle Lewis (17:03):
Totally, totally. It's because
Gabrielle Reiher (17:04):
We works. I think
Danielle Lewis (17:05):
It's so good. Well, yeah, my husband and I call it board meetings. Like I say, I need a board meeting, so we go to the pub, have a wine and thrash everything out, what's going on? And I unload it. He unloads out his work. I'm like, everything's better over wine. It's
Gabrielle Reiher (17:20):
Just a hundred percent. It's good. How long have you been working for yourself? For?
Danielle Lewis (17:25):
So since 2011, so I think this is year 13. Lucky
Gabrielle Reiher (17:31):
13.
Danielle Lewis (17:33):
Yeah. It's been a long time. Not apart.
Gabrielle Reiher (17:39):
No, it's not. And have you had other little jobs to top up a cleaning job here or there? Along the way?
Danielle Lewis (17:47):
I was working full. So my other business, so outside of Spark, I have a business called Scrunch, which is an influencer marketing software tool and social media agency. And when I first started that, I was working full-time at Telstra, and I actually worked full-time building that business for years. And it wasn't until we raised capital that I had to go into it full time. But ever since then, I've just worked for myself. Yeah,
Gabrielle Reiher (18:15):
Cool.
Danielle Lewis (18:16):
Which has been crazy. And so I've got two businesses now. I've also had an e-commerce business that I built through Covid and then sold. Oh, wow. Yeah. But it's just, it's full. It is full on though. I know. Again, we were talking before we hit record, we're both chatty and it's crazy that whole putting things off and the sales and I was like, it doesn't end. I kind of go 12 years in and I'm still figuring it out. Still everything changes. There's a new social media platform that you got to get your head around. There's this, there's that. It's like a never ending journey of
Gabrielle Reiher (18:56):
Growth.
Danielle Lewis (18:56):
Growth and learning and connecting with people. It's crazy.
Gabrielle Reiher (19:03):
So one of my best friends in the whole world, her name's B, she's an influencer, so she does YouTube. So she's actually a jazz musician by trade. She's super smart. And when we were young 15 years ago, she would always have amazing hair. I remember
Danielle Lewis (19:16):
That time.
Gabrielle Reiher (19:17):
Yeah, remember that? She'd always have amazing hair. I was a dental nurse. We were both working in retail as managers, and she's like, I want to be a singer and I'm an artist. And I was like, I want to be a painter and a theater maker, and we weren't doing anything we wanted. Anyway, years have passed and we both now do what we want, both entrepreneurs and creatives. And so we've decided to start a podcast talking about the process.
Danielle Lewis (19:41):
I mean, interesting though that you are now living your dreams, being a creative entrepreneur.
Gabrielle Reiher (19:47):
Yeah. Well, that's right. Well, that's the thing. We've started this podcast purely because we need to talk to other people to connect, to not feel like once whenever we talk, we feel better. We both feel more motivated. We're both like, oh, yay. I feel like, so you kind of remember you're not alone in the experience, but it's always changing as well. And you think you get your head around it and then That's right. It's constantly changing. And so we are like, you know what? It's kind of like if you're brave enough to do it, then you're brave enough to keep doing it. But it's not like you said, for the faint of heart because yeah, you kind of got to keep being brave, you know what I mean? Whereas it's safe to just get a job. It's boring, but it's safe. Whereas this is fun, but it's also scary.
Danielle Lewis (20:36):
It's so scary. And it's exhausting too. I don't know why I'm not being optimistic today, but just the reality it, it's even hard. I know even thinking about getting a job a, I'm like, I don't think I could have a job now. I'm too far gone. I would be so bored out of my brain. But I also think in this economic climate, I've watched too much of the Today Show lately. I also feel like having a job is risky These days you get fired. This is
Gabrielle Reiher (21:10):
What I always think. The company can just go bust and you get made redundant or they can go bankrupt and you get nothing. People can get fired. Exactly. This is what I think too. I love that you just said that. Nothing is stable anyway.
Danielle Lewis (21:24):
Totally. So why not bloody live your dreams. Exactly. There we go. See,
Gabrielle Reiher (21:29):
We're being positive. We're just being real about it. And I respect that. Exactly. I respect that a lot.
Danielle Lewis (21:34):
I know. Because people
Gabrielle Reiher (21:35):
Need to know the truth.
Danielle Lewis (21:37):
They really do, don't they? Well then, okay, so truth telling, what is it like to be an artist and run a business? Because I've run agencies and product businesses and memberships and stuff. I dunno what it's like to be a creative in business. What is that? Oh gosh.
Gabrielle Reiher (21:56):
Honestly, I feel like I have two personalities almost, and I have to try to see it as a positive. I tell myself, not everyone can use both sides of their brains. This is something I can be proud of, but at the same time, like you said, it's exhausting because I'm like, part of me just wants to paint full time and throw caution to the wind. I just want to manager. I just want to paint in my studio and get drunk and be left alone to be philosophical all day. But if I actually sign me up.
(22:29):
But I have tried that and it actually causes you to go into a real weird spin. It's not healthy, and you don't actually create your best work without integration of new information. So I feel like creativity is a well and sorry, a jar, and I see it getting filled up by living life and doing things and meeting people and experiencing things and it feels and feels. Then you've got heaps to work with and then you work and you create all this art and it goes right down again. And luckily I've got a few jars. I do lots of things. I can make film, I can do theater, I can perform paint, whatever. But doing business and balancing that is really weird. And I've started recently to get obsessed with the idea of the intersection of art and commerce because there's this whole world of assets and investing.
(23:23):
It's almost like shares. And so there's this ultra, ultra high income layer and I want to understand it and I want to get involved in that level. So I'm like, okay. So I've started doing authenticity certificates and signing all my things and only doing originals. And then what that means is the person buying it is now getting an asset that they can put on their insurance. And as my career grows, their asset also grows in value. So they're investing in individuality. That's my catchphrase I've come up with. I love it. I love it. I'm in, where do I sign? I actually did a marketing course. I can't take full credit for that. And a guy helped me come up with it called David. So cool. But that's really intriguing to me. Like sales 1 0 1, what are they getting out of it? Obviously the room's going to look cooler or the Airbnb will be worth more money.
(24:17):
It looks cool. Or people want to take photos next to a cool wall, so then you've got your Instagram folder. All that makes sense. But for them to get a physical asset as well. I love that. So that has really piqued my interest. And also I think I finally realized after working in advertising for a little while, and my old boss, Andrew, English and Nigel, they were so good to me and they helped me to see that my ideas are valuable. So what I've realized now is that most artists are just getting used or aren't being seen. So it feels powerful for me to be like, I'm going to be paid what my ideas are worth. And I like the feeling, but it's like now I'm trying to work out how to get the data together and how to justify that because it's new to me too.
(25:13):
I know that my last job, I came up with this cool idea, did it, and then they got, I think it was 20 times their initial Instagram following just from that one idea in a day. And they were like, holy moly, we'd never imagined this would happen. And we got all this press and I knew because I just worked kind of off energy in my heart, I knew it was a good idea because it was going to connect people to each other and they would feel something. So it was called a arrival, and it was an exhibition at the Melbourne, what's it called? Airport. And basically we just took photos of people meeting and hugging. I thought of it because of love actually, and they hug at the airport. I love that. And I was trying to get a job with these guys and they're like a travel company, and I thought, oh, I'll give them one of my good ideas.
(26:00):
So this is interesting. Okay, so in my brain I have my real ideas that are like mine. They're like my art ideas. And then I've got business ones that I'm willing to give away or that's just like the Excel spreadsheet. But then my precious ideas I keep, and it took me about six months to work out how do I work in a commercial space doing these abstract artworks and be an artist that has my precious ideas and I've only just come to the real lab. I guess the point I'm at now with it, and it might change, is you can't separate it. So I think as an artist, it's impossible. Your soul goes into it or you don't care. It's like all or nothing. So I feel like now that I know that and I understand that, that is the value, so I just need to price accordingly. So I think, yeah, it's complicated. I've read a book called The War on Art. The War of Art,
Danielle Lewis (27:02):
Yes.
Gabrielle Reiher (27:02):
Recently. Have you read that?
Danielle Lewis (27:04):
I haven't, but it's one of those classics that should be on my bloody book wall.
Gabrielle Reiher (27:08):
I will literally send it to you because it's only quick. Actually the audio book's even better, like one little paragraph per page. It's almost like memes before memes. So it's really digestible, basic. Basically it's for artists and entrepreneurs. So he talks about if you are starting an entrepreneur, if you've got an idea and you want to start a new business or you've got a product you want to create or a painting you want to make, it's the same thing and it takes the same, it's actually coming from the same space in you. And so that's interesting. So then I think about it and I'm like, okay, so it's not actually that different, it's just that I have the conditioning of the world saying that art isn't valuable or my experience of people saying that's not a real job. So I'm trying to prove something. And it is just mainly sort of clearing the clutter of negative.
Danielle Lewis (28:02):
Yes. Constantly. Constantly.
Gabrielle Reiher (28:04):
I'm like, I have a degree. I have experience every morning trying to remind myself it's okay to be paid. Then there's people going around getting paid $400,000 and they're working three hours a day in the office. I'm like, they don't care. Why do I
Danielle Lewis (28:19):
Totally, and it's so interesting because I feel like women especially do this. It doesn't matter if you're a painter or you offer you're a freelancer offering copywriting services. Women do that. They're like, oh my God, am I enough? Do I know what I'm doing? I'm charging too much. I don't want people to feel like I'm taking too much
Gabrielle Reiher (28:39):
Money. They'll work overtime. They'll get paid less than they need to. Totally
Danielle Lewis (28:43):
Stop it. Everybody stop it. We're not doing that anymore. Yeah,
Gabrielle Reiher (28:48):
We don't do that here. We don't do that. Don't
Danielle Lewis (28:50):
That here. No, we don't do that. People get paid. People get paid here. Yes. I heard a really good one the other day as well. You know how people often say Get paid what you're worth. I heard an awesome one that was like, you are already worth what you're worth. Your value is not in question here. So get paid on the value you delivered to someone or what you want, but don't associate your worth. I like the delivery amount. Yeah,
Gabrielle Reiher (29:16):
I like that. Because that doesn't define your worth.
Danielle Lewis (29:19):
Totally. You are already amazing. Now go charge them based on skills, what you need, experience, values, all that kind of stuff. It's like, oh, that's a really good way
Gabrielle Reiher (29:28):
To think. I like that. Yeah, I like that a lot. Yeah. Okay, this is cool. So language, right, and words how powerful. I've been thinking a lot about one in particular. Lately I just did a post about it. So growing up, my mom always said, you're a people pleaser. And I always thought I was too. And I was, but I'm not anymore. And I don't even saying people pleaser because I feel like it has a positive spin. So now I've started saying, whenever people say people pleaser, I correct them. And I say, oh, you mean self hurter?
Danielle Lewis (30:03):
Wow, isn't that interesting?
Gabrielle Reiher (30:06):
Yeah. And it's helping me so much. Whenever I think about it, I'm like, I'm just people pleasing. It's like I'm just self hurting. No one's pleased. I'm just hurting myself and it's helped me so much. So I've been playing around with that sort of thing lately.
Danielle Lewis (30:21):
That's awesome.
Gabrielle Reiher (30:22):
Yeah. Words same as what you were just saying, what you say to yourself and what you believe it actually sinks in.
Danielle Lewis (30:29):
Oh, it matters so much. You really have to be careful and catch yourself on the way you talk to yourself. It's so huge because I feel like you wake up and you're 40 or 50 or 60 and you've been living this life around the words you created, the environment, the internal environment that you created for yourself. And it's like, hang on a second, you're telling me I could have just changed to that to be positive.
Gabrielle Reiher (30:55):
Hold on a minute. I could have just changed that. I had
Danielle Lewis (30:57):
Control over that the whole time. That was
Gabrielle Reiher (31:01):
Within my power.
Danielle Lewis (31:03):
Oh, so true. Well, and that's the funny thing too. I remember a few years ago I was hating my business and I was just,
Gabrielle Reiher (31:11):
Isn't that fun?
Danielle Lewis (31:15):
I go on a little cycle with it.
Gabrielle Reiher (31:16):
Me too. Yeah, that's fine.
Danielle Lewis (31:18):
But I had to give myself a pep talk and I was like, well, you want to know what you are the person that made it. You're the only one that gets to change it, but so you decided
Gabrielle Reiher (31:29):
To do this. You invented this out of nothing. You didn't have to. Yeah, totally. You can also change it.
Danielle Lewis (31:35):
Yeah, exactly. You don't have to stay a, I love that. At any moment in time, you can just make another choice.
Gabrielle Reiher (31:45):
You know what, this is the exact flip side to what we were saying earlier about how it's constantly changing and that's stressful. It's the exact polar opposite of that is that it's always changeable. So we can completely change whatever we want whenever we want.
Danielle Lewis (32:01):
Oh, I love that. So there's
Gabrielle Reiher (32:03):
Always an endless opportunity of anything. Literally we can create and capture anything. My old business partner, he rang me, so it was my business, but we ran it together. I wouldn't have been able to do it without him. His name's Thomas, Ian Doyle used to playwright and he's amazing. So my favorite people on the planet. Anyway, he rang me one day and he said, you won't believe it. These people that used to work for me have taken my idea and they've repackaged it and they're making it and they're making money off it. And it was one of my best ideas from the theater, one of the only ones that actually generated income. And I'm not surprised that those two girls are doing that because they were smart, which is why I've worked with them. But it was hurtful because they didn't even ask me or give me credit. I would just say, yes, that's the other part.
Danielle Lewis (32:50):
Yeah, brilliant ideas. Go for
Gabrielle Reiher (32:53):
It. Exactly. Inspired by or thanks to. That'll do. That would be nice, but at the same time, whatever. Anyway, so I did have that little pang of like, eh, because I thought they're my friends, whatever. And so he's telling me, and I was literally what you just said. I was like, Thomas, if they want to take one of the ideas that I've already done and left behind, I have 400,000 coming down every single day from the universe. I've got so many, I can't even wait. I'm like, stop, please. I don't have time. I
Danielle Lewis (33:20):
Was like, I'm drowning ideas over here. Totally.
Gabrielle Reiher (33:24):
I'm stressed by how many ideas I have. The thought of having to borrow someone else's is so foreign. If they need to do that, they can have it. It's cool. And he just cracked up and he is like, that is the best way to look at it. I was like, it's not even the way I look at it. It's literally just how I feel. And that's the same. It's the first thing you said. So it's nice to meet you because I feel like I don't actually meet many people like that. It's nice. It's good. No, that's how I feel.
Danielle Lewis (33:48):
But it's also the power of having these conversations. Another thing we talked about was how you do just sometimes get isolated and you're sitting at home buying your laptop and you're kind of going a little bit crazy. You maybe haven't left the house in a week. I don't know where you're at.
Gabrielle Reiher (34:04):
I live on an island.
Danielle Lewis (34:05):
Oh my God. To the
Gabrielle Reiher (34:08):
Do you?
Danielle Lewis (34:09):
Oh, we're the same. I'm like best mates with the post office people here. Me too.
Gabrielle Reiher (34:17):
I totally get it. It's so
Danielle Lewis (34:18):
Funny. But that's why this podcast is my therapy.
Gabrielle Reiher (34:22):
Totally.
Danielle Lewis (34:23):
Twice a week or however many times I record it, I get to talk with the best women on the planet.
Gabrielle Reiher (34:29):
Oh, that explains, you know what, I get it. That's exactly why I'm starting mine with my friend. I get it a hundred percent.
Danielle Lewis (34:36):
It's so good.
Gabrielle Reiher (34:36):
Cool. Good on you. And that's the thing,
Danielle Lewis (34:38):
You just need to talk out loud and it just solves all of your problems. Literally when you're like, especially when
Gabrielle Reiher (34:44):
You're a talker, we're talking.
Danielle Lewis (34:45):
I know. That's what I'm here for.
Gabrielle Reiher (34:47):
Tell
Danielle Lewis (34:47):
Me about it. And I'm like, I have said no words all day. I need some words. I need to get my words out.
Gabrielle Reiher (34:52):
Totally. But what you
Danielle Lewis (34:54):
Said before about everything is changeable. That just hit. I was like, oh my God, I love that so much. I feel like sometimes I get stuck in the loop and it's like, no, I can literally change my mind. Everything. Create something today, right now, whenever something totally
Gabrielle Reiher (35:12):
New that you didn't even, okay, so something you didn't even think that you've never even thought you would do. So just recently my partner came to me with an idea and I was like, okay. And it's something that has never crossed my mind, and I thought of most things I've considered being a real estate agent. I've considered being a dentist. I imagine my life. I'm like, I could do that. I'm going to be a lawyer. I'm going to be a pro bono lawyer for women who abuse. But this idea I had never thought of. She comes to me and she's like, do you want to buy a boat with me, A sailing boat? And I was like, yep.
Danielle Lewis (35:55):
I didn't know it until right this second, but that's exactly what I want to do.
Gabrielle Reiher (36:00):
Let's do it. I'm like, why not? Because it's something I've never even imagined. And then since saying yes, it was only a week ago, I keep thinking to myself, isn't it crazy? There's so many things you could decide. I'm going to move to Egypt at any point. Or you could go, okay, my friend rings me today. He's like, do you want to do a podcast? I'm like, yeah, right. And who knows where that'll lead. It's so fun.
Danielle Lewis (36:25):
And it goes back to when we were saying before, just have a conversation and you never know where it will lead. It's like opportunities, ideas, conversations. It's really endless. Just do one more, try another thing, and you will inch toward the dream.
Gabrielle Reiher (36:46):
Totally. And I, I've tried lots of things and I'm a very yes person. I think you are too. But it's like I've started to think about it lately now, and I'm like, because we are so privileged that we have that. So first of all, I'm grateful. But second of all, it's like there's so many options and there's so much potential. We are so privileged. We could literally do whatever we want, even if we think we don't have the resources. There's still a way we are lucky, but it's almost overwhelming and it's like, there's too many things you want to do. So then I go in a loop and I come back and I'm like, I just need to enjoy the journey. There's no destination.
Danielle Lewis (37:29):
Totally. It's just about the path.
Gabrielle Reiher (37:32):
Yeah. Be right here right now. But it is really fun to me too. I think that's what makes someone an entrepreneur, is that excitement to try new things. I remember when I was, I was like 17. I was working at Village. Do you know Village Cinemas?
Danielle Lewis (37:48):
Oh yeah, totally.
Gabrielle Reiher (37:49):
Yeah. They're old people.
Danielle Lewis (37:51):
Yeah.
Gabrielle Reiher (37:52):
So that was my first job and I loved it. And I became the site trainer and a site manager at 17. I loved it. So I'm running this whole site at 17, and I'd learned so much from them. It was amazing. But I will never forget this moment, this woman who was a manager there for maybe 30 years, she's the oldest lady there. Her name was Pam. I'm full of beans, ready to go, changing everything, doing everything, winning all the KPIs, getting free esky from Coca-Cola, selling in a Catwoman suit full of energy, loving life. Anyway, so I'm now the new site manager and all the staff are my friends, and I'm just loving it. And I go out the back and I put up this sign and I'm like, please, because there was a desk and things were disorganized. So I've said, 1, 2, 3 with pictures. Put the thing here, then here, then here. 1, 2, 3. Made it very simple because I'd worked as that and I knew it was annoying. So anyway, I was doing that and I was thinking, this will be good. She comes in and she's like, oh, well good luck. Good luck. And no one's going to do it.
Danielle Lewis (38:53):
Thanks. And
Gabrielle Reiher (38:54):
I was like, well, I can at least try. You know what I mean? Then they're definitely not going to, if that's how, not with that attitude, but you know what I mean, if you don't even try. So I was only young 17, and I thought, oh, okay. Because thinking, oh, she's been here for a long time. She knows she's probably right. But then I was like, no, I can at least try. And so I did it and it worked. And so from that moment on, I was like, people are afraid of change and I'm not. So I think I like to be around people who aren't scared of change, and I think that's an indicator of someone who's a creative, who wants to live their own way, whether it's artist or entrepreneur. I think they're the same, really. Yeah,
Danielle Lewis (39:36):
I agree. Yeah. I feel like it could be very creative to be an entrepreneur.
Gabrielle Reiher (39:41):
I think so too. I think it's all the exact same qualities in a person. It's just expressed differently. And I've noticed entrepreneurs and business people are always the same as me. And I am starting to realize even more, even right now in this conversation, that they're not actually separate. They're the same. It's just a different expression. If you can invent a product, you can make an artwork. It's just techniques. Do you do anything creative?
Danielle Lewis (40:09):
I do actually.
Gabrielle Reiher (40:11):
What do you do?
Danielle Lewis (40:13):
I just love it. So I actually studied fashion design before I got all businessy, literally side projects. This year I've created an art, art print series for Spark, and all the proceeds go to funding the Women in Business grant. So they're all my own original artworks. And look, don't get me wrong, I'm not a painter. I will not put myself the same. But
Gabrielle Reiher (40:38):
You're a designer. Yeah, it's similar things. Okay.
Danielle Lewis (40:42):
Totally. And then just little things just to get my brain to stop knitting and look, I've really in my hands, me too creative thing. So I love
Gabrielle Reiher (40:52):
It. I've got my hands on leather recently, and so I've ordered leather needles and I've made a journal. It was so fun. Oh wow.
Danielle Lewis (40:59):
Oh my gosh.
Gabrielle Reiher (40:59):
It was so fun. So I'm like, oh, this is cool. And so I'm playing with all leather and I'm the same if we're in the front of the TV watching something, I just need to do something with my hands. Oh,
Danielle Lewis (41:07):
Same. Yeah, same. I just get so bored sitting still. I just can't handle it. It just drives me banana and my brain doesn't stop. So if I'm doing something, it can kind of calm down a little bit.
Gabrielle Reiher (41:19):
Yeah. It's that paint in the Craz way. It's interesting. I think. Yes.
Danielle Lewis (41:23):
Paint the craz away. I That's the mantra of this podcast.
Gabrielle Reiher (41:26):
Yes. Paint the craz way. That's so creating calms the, can you hear the pickles? No little in the background. Do you want to see, I
Danielle Lewis (41:37):
Would love to quite heavy. Everyone who's videoing Ian would love to see a pug on this show. Oh, what a cutie. He's huge. I thought he'd be tiny.
Gabrielle Reiher (41:51):
Tiny. No, he's a big one. He's eight years old and he is so noisy. He's like,
Danielle Lewis (41:56):
Oh my god, I love it. So cute. That is so cute. Okay. Oh my God, you and I could talk all day. So let's wrap. Let's give. So. So yeah, we've had such an amazing chat, but I'm like, how do we distill this down into one last piece of
Gabrielle Reiher (42:11):
Advice?
Danielle Lewis (42:12):
So I always like to leave the smart community with one last piece of advice. So based on your journey and your multiple businesses, what advice would you give another woman in business who is on this crazy ride with us?
Gabrielle Reiher (42:28):
I would say enjoy change.
Danielle Lewis (42:37):
I feel like
Gabrielle Reiher (42:38):
That
Danielle Lewis (42:39):
Puts a bow on everything we talked about today.
Gabrielle Reiher (42:42):
Yeah. Yeah.
Danielle Lewis (42:44):
I love it. You are absolutely incredible. Thank you. So are
Gabrielle Reiher (42:49):
You. So much. So nice to finally meet you and chat. Thank you. Sorry. Missed all the scheduling. I really appreciate you being so relaxed and helpful. No,
Danielle Lewis (42:59):
That's my life needs to be relaxed. It's crazy enough.
Gabrielle Reiher (43:03):
Totally. Yous been so nice to meet you though. You've said things that I'm like, oh wow, I can't wait to meet you in person.
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