What happens when design starts with the heart of the business? In this episode, Robin Pasley shares how connecting deeply with business owners leads to spaces that authentically reflect their vision and values. By blending personal insight with input from HR and operations, Robin shows how thoughtful design can enhance identity, improve functionality, and support long-term business goals.
www.pasleycommercialinteriors.com/commercial-design
Randi Lynn Johnson: 0:13
Robin, you often say that you love working with business owners. You are a business owner, you think like business owners, but why do you like to work with business owners? Oh, that's a great question.
Robin Pasley: 0:30
Oh, that's a great question. We've done corporate jobs where we had to work with a board. Maybe it's even a nonprofit, same kind of thing and that's all fine and good. They're good organizations, you know they're doing good work and we want to partner with them. But it's different than working with the person who kind of sweats over the business. You know they have the wake up in the middle of the night sweats. I totally identify with them First of all. That's part of it. But the other part of it is that, um, there's that's where I find that the heart of the business is. Even if they've grown to the the level that they've got, you know, a COO and a CEO and whatever else, if we can get a conversation with that owner, I find that we can get to the heart of the company and pull some information out that is going to be vital to the design.
Randi Lynn Johnson: 1:27
Sure, Because if the business owner has done their job well, everyone on their team should be able to say what's their vision statement.
Robin Pasley: 1:36
Totally.
Randi Lynn Johnson: 1:37
What they are about, etc. but there's something special that only a business owner holds.
Robin Pasley: 1:44
I think so. I think so, and you know that, just like you said, the mission, vision and values. Like you said, if they've been training them well, they, their whole team, can tell you what those things are, or at least they can find the sign or the placard somewhere in the building that has them stated on it Um.
But it's different when I get to just connect business owner to business owner and, um, just listen to their heart about why they started this business or why did they buy the business or what attracted them to the industry, or whatever the story is, and then we can kind of draw out some elements that we can make, you know, weave into the narrative of the design which is something you do.
Randi Lynn Johnson: 2:28
So, like that first interview process, you're like tell me your story, what's your brand? They don't have it. You help them. We talked about that in the previous podcast. And then, yeah, so you're able to Help draw those like draw out what you're going to incorporate into the design, yes, and that part, I think, is just unique.
Robin Pasley: 2:49
I mean, like a CEO, somebody who's in charge of operations is a lot of times who we get assigned to in a corporate situation. Maybe somebody even that's over HR will be the person that we're talking to because they're handling some things with people and those guys are awesome. I mean, like we have to work with those into you know, those people in those positions, um, to get the job done. But when it comes to um and and their perspective is important as well and we will definitely take that. But the business owner, um, is just going to have a richer at least a rich starting point for us to build our foundation from for the design and then incorporating the functionality. A lot of times that does come from the operations and from HR, because we want to. If we're designing a space that's really going to help them keep their best employees, well, I need to sit down with HR and find out.
Who are your best employees? Where are the weak spots? What can we do with space planning and environment planning that can enrich in that and make it better? Same thing with operations. Where's the flow here? How are? How's your team working together? What's been the bottlenecks? How's your team working together? What's been the bottlenecks? Where are the places that maybe we could increase efficiency or, you know, create something that you don't have, if it's storage or if it's, you know, whatever the situation is, you know those people help us. So it's not that their positions aren't important, it's just that I think a lot of times in a design project that's bigger will get pushed to those people and, kind of, you know, you don't need to talk to the owner, and we've just found it to be very vital to be in touch with them.
Randi Lynn Johnson: 4:31
Yeah, so to bring you in from the beginning.
Robin Pasley: 4:35
You know and just say hey, we're going to work closely with you COO or whatever but you really do value having that first, just for an hour and a half, which I know is an important time for an owner, but yeah, that's really important.
Randi Lynn Johnson: 4:51
But it's an important time. But if we really look at it through the lens, like we've talked about, that interior design is an investment, not a cost. It's also an investment of their time If we want to get maximum output we've got to have the important pieces.
Robin Pasley: 5:10
I find it to be very valuable.
Randi Lynn Johnson: 5:14
Cool. Anything else to add to just the benefits of working with the business owner?
Robin Pasley: 5:19
I think you know connecting with their heart Again, that was that piece I said earlier was getting to the heart of the business. I think sometimes we just find that we can spell out and draw out a unique element that might have just maybe even been missed in branding. You know previously that's unique or special, previously that's unique or special. You know we always want to make sure that if there's accolades or you know recognition that that company has received, you know, locally or nationally, that we're able to feature those things. Sometimes there's an awareness that they have about something about the company that is not mentioned in their mission, vision and values.
Robin Pasley: 6:12
It's just something that's unique to their perspective, that I think it's necessary to help us round out the whole picture and make sure that we're thinking about what's important to them first.
*Recorded in our studio at 616 N. Tejon St., Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80903
