Vanessa Cullen is the Principal of Forward Thinking Design, one of Australia’s leading boutique interior architecture studios & has owned her own business since 2003. Vanessa holds a Bachelor of Design (Hons, UNSW) & a Postgraduate Diploma in Museum Studies (Deakin), is an Accredited Member of the Design Institute of Australia, is the Junior Vice President of the NSW Chapter of the Australian Shop and Office Fitting Association. She is also the face behind the plant based health and clean-eating website More Than PKD – a social enterprise she created to empower people to take control of their own health and to reach their full potential.
Entrepreneurial Role Models:
Rich Roll – Plant-powered Wellness Advocate, Bestselling Author, Ultra Athlete Podcast Host
Jo Burston of Inspiring rare birds
When business started difficulties overcame:
…”I had no experience whatsoever in business. You know I was just a designer in training. I didn’t know what to charge, I didn’t know how to use any accounting software, I really had to make it up as I went along. And I don’t come from a family that is entrepreneurial, they are all hard workers but definitely not starting their own businesses. So really I came from nothing, I had no idea. That was probably my biggest difficulties”…[Listen for More]
Favourite Books:
Healthy at 100: The Scientifically Proven Secrets of the World’s Healthiest and Longest-Lived Peoples Book by John RobbinsFavourite Quote:
“you just don’t know if you are going to wake up tomorrow so you need to make the most of that day”
Also mentioned:
“if it doesn’t feel right it probably isn’t”
Recommended Online Resources:
Rich Roll Podcast – Plantpowered Wellness Advocate, Bestselling Author, Ultra Athlete Podcast Host
Also mentioned:
The Excutive Connection – TEC is a membership organisation providing leadership mentoring and business coaching to CEOs and executives to make better decisions for greater results
Forbes – global media company, focusing on business, investing, technology, entrepreneurship, leadership, and lifestyle
Money
Best Advice to Other Entrepreneurs:
“My best advice would be to make sure that you take care of yourself first. And what I mean by that is that if you turn up to your business every day in an exhausted state, if you don’t eat right, you don’t sleep, you don’t exercise, you don’t spend time with your family. If you don’t even out your pursuits you can’t give 100% when you don’t have 100% to give. So it’s sort of like the whole thing about you have got to take care of the source. I mean if you have got dirty tap water because it is coming from a dirty source then what are you going to be drinking, and what are you going to be giving to your guests? Its going to be dirty tap water. You are going to go back to the source and make sure that the source is clean. And from there what flows will be clean and clear and useful and vibrant and healthy for everyone. And business is the same thing. If you as the source are not in a good state then how can you expect to service your customers well? To lead your team well? To execute whatever it is you do well? You need to make sure that you actually taking care of yourself first. And that is not selfish in any way, shape or form. That is just the only way that you are going to survive and it is the only way you are going to thrive in business is you need to make sure that you are healthy. Because you still want to be around at the end of it to enjoy everything that you have worked for”…[Listen for More]
More About Vanessa Cullen:
Neil’s Quote at the Beginning:
“All questions of process require an answer that begins with a very important sentence, and the sentence is: ‘Everybody is different.’ Whatever way of working you name – methodical, haphazard, gets up early in the morning, sleeps all day, works at night, revises immensely, never revises at all – someone has made great work with that way.” Robert Pinsky
Other Quotes From the Chat with Vanessa Cullen:
- “Financial literacy is the most important thing to get before you do anything”
- “Stunning spaces for a beautiful bottom line”
- “successful by making other people successful”
- “you can’t give 100% when you don’t have 100% to give”
- “if you look at the best branded interiors out there, so the best retailers and they are engaging their consumer. It is an interactive and collaborative approach to sales or to food or whatever it is that they are trying to do with you in that business premises. So it is very two way”
- “it took me a while to learn about business and not just your trade, which I think is the mistake that most small businesses make and is the reason why so many go out of business quite early on”
- “you need to learn to wrap your head around your financial reports because too many people don’t track that well enough”
- “I would really say that financial literacy is probably the most crucial thing to get before you do anything”
- “I don’t see any benefit really in you thriving or profiting at the expense of other people. It’s just not necessary there is enough abundance in this world to go around”
- “I have noticed that so many business people really inhibit their own growth by being unable to trust others and to delegate and give other people the responsibility and actually give them the opportunity to fail and know how they are going to manage that if and when it happens”
- “I just don’t think that a business can ever grow when it is tied to an individual. That individual only has so many resources”
- “so many people burn out because they try to do everything themselves”
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