Behind the Scenes at Alice Lane

12:43Brittany Zika:of my favorite pieces that we've ever done good i love that yes what am i you know i'm just gonna

12:49Noelle McKenzie:say this because i did this little chair painting series yeah forever and ever ago just studying all these different chair frames and drawing them and watercoloring them and when i was doing this the cleasmo's chair i like that of jess it's so graceful and i feel like it's the foundation for all things as far as just this like egyptian and you have that as far as just like ergonomically the back it occurs around you and as far as the lines are so minimal it's like one of those stripped away things and the fun thing about jess um that everybody should know is that she is so genuine i know she's a she's a pretty face girl um most people are just like my gosh she's your friend is really lovely i'm like she's beautiful inside and out but she's no nonsense and i think like the cleasmos is that it is just like the foundation and form for all great design as far as when you're coming to like furniture and the lines are perfect and it's occasional it's not a chest pounder but it's the perfect piece in any room so that's just me she's a clismos that i will try to live up to that that is really lovely and i do love a clismos chair

13:51Brittany Zika:To break away from the chair, I'm going to say Beatrice Brass Etager. Ooh! Because I think you're just very put together and you're very classy and classic, which to me Brass is. And at Alice Lane, you legitimately touch every single department. So, you know what I mean? You kind of have just every shelf. You encompass everything and you lead the charge. We're shoulder to shoulder, but we're definitely, you know, following like your vision. and you're just that beacon at Alice Lane. The voice in our heads. That is so nice.

14:26Noelle McKenzie:I do love Beatrice, so thank you. That's so lovely.

14:30Brittany Zika:What a great question, whoever did that one. Wow, that's really sweet. Good job.

14:33Noelle McKenzie:I wish the names were on here. I know.

14:36Brittany Zika:If you had to decorate using only one color, what would it be? Wow, that is tough. Green. Are we saying everything? Everything in a room? Different shades, though?

14:47Noelle McKenzie:Yeah, it has the most shades of any color on the wheel, so green. so that's great yeah did not know that Sue loves green she wore a green wedding dress a beautiful very light seafoam green would you call it seafoam well I think it's mint but then it had the lace overlay so it was a wedding but it was green I knew what it was I'm just kidding I love seafoam in the 90s we called it seafoam it's mint so pretty um okay I well blue I know I'm just like it's me blue in fact we were in a space yesterday that we're shooting tomorrow and it's an all blue chandelier room. It's every shade of blue and I love being in that room.

15:24Noelle McKenzie:My brain loves it. My eyeballs love it. I don't know why I love blue so much. I know it's such a basic answer, but I just love it. It's a classic. Yeah, it's the Cleezvous answer. It is fun to be in a room with all one color. How about you, Corey?

15:37Brittany Zika:Yeah, I would say blue too. I just feel like there's so many different directions you can go with it, but there's something like classic and restful. I would say that.

15:48Noelle McKenzie:Love. Great question.

15:49Brittany Zika:Is there a project that fundamentally changed how you approach design?

15:53Noelle McKenzie:Almost every project, there's something that's going to change the way that you do design. And that's why I think the longer you do it, the better you get at it. Because we're often working with different builders, different trades, and we're learning from all of them, right? It is a luxury to get to work with a builder over and over again, because then you're speaking shorthand, but that's not always the luxury that we get. I think from every single project, we're just always learning about how that builder takes you through the process, what trades they're using, how to communicate with them.

16:23Noelle McKenzie:Boy, let's never do that again on any project because they just couldn't communicate back. Or I feel like every single time you work with somebody new, it sharpens your sword in a different way. I don't know that we'll ever be done learning. Is there a project that fundamentally changed how you approach design? Yeah. Which project was it? And I think it has to do with the builder relationship. I'd say Tiger Oak. Only because the builder, I'd worked with a lot of builders at that point. We had done a lot of really great homes. But it wasn't as far as just Lori from Robison. He was so approachable to talk to the true honesty.

16:54Noelle McKenzie:From designer to builder that had the clients back, all three of us. It was a really great trifecta. The results were really good because we were on speed dial. We were talking, I feel like, almost every day to one or the other. And so it was just shorthand. And we were able to, I think, come up with some really interesting things that weren't happening. At the time, because they were willing and he was a yes man. Again, the more you do it, the more comfortable you get in your own point of view and your tone and delivery. I think the truer the design can be. And I think that that was just like a step toward that direction for other as far as just communication efforts and stuff with the team.

17:27Noelle McKenzie:I think that that makes a really, really great project is when you can, I don't know, again, shorthand it. If your point of view can be more quickly translated through your communication, that's everything. That's why the client hired you is for your point of view. And if the builder can understand that faster, he's going to deliver a better project.

17:45Brittany Zika:I feel like obviously working at Alice Lane, but you know, not, we're not being in the design center at the time. Tiger Oak was, there was like a huge shift. I mean, a lot of people like stood up and took notice of our talent and, and, and ability and especially you guys in, in the design center. And it was kind of monumental for Alice Lane. There was a lot of things that were very cutting edge, especially at that time. thinking of the kitchen, you know, being one of them. Yeah, I still feel like I'll see photos of that project, and I'm like, that's crazy. It's still mind-blowing. And it was, was it almost 10 years ago, eight years ago?

18:22Noelle McKenzie:2018, so almost.

18:23Brittany Zika:Yeah, eight years ago, so.

18:25Noelle McKenzie:As far as, like, Big Color was starting, Utah still wasn't used to it, so I think everybody was just, like, shocked by it. But it's such a breath of fresh air at the same time. Yeah. Yeah.

18:33Brittany Zika:I was thinking about different pieces that we've worked on. And there are a bunch of them that have kind of changed me in certain ways. But I'm going to say the showroom, 100%. I've always been a scrappy, figure it out type of person. That's never been tested, therefore built more confidence in me doing that than the showroom. Just having to pivot on things last minute. You know, obviously that was a time where budgets going haywire.

18:57Noelle McKenzie:For those of you that aren't aware, so Alice Lane has been around for 18 years. and we rented our first two locations and then during the pandemic we bought land and we said let's pay ourselves rent let's own our own building so we set about designing the building with an architect and we had all of the budgets in pandemic hits they run out of concrete we're building a tilt-up construction building that's 31 ,000 square feet Corey is over this special project and they run out of concrete and Corey's trying to help general this thing and all of a sudden the budgets for this building are through the roof so much so that we were like I don't know that we would have built this except we've already we were double over budget and hadn't broken ground yet yeah yeah so it was just I don't even know gut punch after gut punch yeah it was the wildest of times and probably so many of you have built during this time because a lot of you are designers And so you're probably seeing your budgets go wild.

19:54Noelle McKenzie:Furniture ordering was wild. It took a year to get a sofa. It was crazy. Anyway, the building we're in right now is a building that we own. And Corey helped general it. So that's the project he's talking about. Sorry, back over to you.

20:06Brittany Zika:I mean, just having to get scrappy and that gave me a lot of confidence in doing that, especially on a large scale. I came in a couple weekends and I was like installing trim and stuff like that, which wasn't a part of the game plan. but it was like hey we've got to get this done there's also our showroom that we own we want it to be amazing or like how do we in these confinements how do we make it the best that we can i think that's part of our ethos at alice lane and this showroom is an example of that

20:35Noelle McKenzie:isn't it so fun that all three of us we've just been here since for so long that none of us are too good for any like we're taking out the trash yeah the last couple weeks been doing a lot of manual labor yeah but and at the same time i'm like we're not above it we're just so proud of the end product we're gonna get in there and anyway i'm really proud of that yeah yeah i love

20:55Brittany Zika:that actually a tip to everybody new at alice lane entrench yourself in that culture and that's how you're going to fit in yep especially just back in the orem days when we all worked in that small design center went to lunch all the time together like as a team and we were just we were the muscles

21:11Noelle McKenzie:We moved all the sofas in heels. We unloaded trucks. In heels. Unloaded so many trucks. Yeah. We didn't even have a warehouse in that first. It was just the back room. And so the microwave shared space with the towers. And then all the sofas were up vertically. And then we'd just be like shimmied things around. Even just all the learning curves. In the beginning, we were installing a library yesterday. And remember, we didn't have books. But then we're just like, what's missing? Books. So Jess and I would bring our books from our own personal library to style within the showroom. Because we were just figuring it out.

21:38Noelle McKenzie:You couldn't just put accessories on everything. You had to have books. Yeah, we had to have books. And we're like, well, I guess. And then we were like, we should sell books. We should sell books. That's a great idea. For years, 2008 or 2009. Yeah, totally.

21:52Brittany Zika:If you were starting Alice Lane again today with no reputation, what would you do differently? That's a great question.

22:00Noelle McKenzie:I'm going to hand it over to you, Jesse. You know, I think the thing that has been so grounding for me, and I would say anybody that's starting a new design firm or a new business. We have a gentleman on our executive team that we meet with once a week that's not in our business, but he helps work on our business. And he knows our business. And it feels like any problem we can bring to him, he very calmly can tell us how to dismantle the bomb. And it's not a big deal. Nothing's a big deal. And I think we can so easily turn it into a bigger thing or make stories up in our head about what this must mean or what this is, or it becomes so huge that it hijacks your brain and you can't actually do your job because this thing that's happening is so all encompassing and you can't sleep at night and everything else.

22:45Noelle McKenzie:And it's just so nice to be able to bring it on Tuesday and say, so this happened. And then he'll be like, Oh yeah, well, you know, I've experienced something similar to that. And if you just do this or, Oh, you know what, let's just pick up the phone and we'll just, nothing's a big deal. And I love that so much. And I think if I could start Alice Lane again, I would do that a lot earlier. I don't remember when he entered the picture. Maybe it was 12 years ago and we've been in business 18 years or I don't know.

23:11Brittany Zika:I think it was like six months before I started. And how long have you been here? 13 and a half years.

23:16Noelle McKenzie:13 and a half years. So, and we've been in business eight.

23:17Brittany Zika:So probably 14 years.

23:19Noelle McKenzie:Yeah. I love having that calm in the storm, some sort of advisor to the business. And I know that doesn't have anything to do with reputation or excellence or hiring the very best people, but I think that your own standards will align you. we always say high tide raises all boats you're gonna hire people that you know are extraordinary and you're gonna work hard with them you're I'm just gonna assume everybody's gonna do great work but there no matter what there's gonna be things that come up and feel like they're gonna sink your battleship and you just need to be able to have people that can help you know how to solve those problems and have them help solve for them or they're that I feel like they have people on speed dial that can help you know take care of any issue or i don't know it just brings a lot of just sophistication and calmness to any storm and you feel like you can do anything like anything is figureoutable yeah which i love yeah the thing i can think of i love that answer is when you're hiring i don't know we have a friend that's just unless you're a full body yes don't do it like she's at the stage of life she's lived long enough that she's just if it's not a full body yes it's a I really do feel that way as we've just as far as teams have evolved and changed over the years.

24:31Noelle McKenzie:The people is what makes it great. As far as the talent, the feeling that they bring into a space that can't change people. You can train them, you know, as far as in skills and things like that. Don't expect that you're going to change somebody when hiring. Make sure it feels like a full body yes. Not like, oh, okay, I'm 80%. I think we can get by with this. Anyway, none of those have been good for either party. and I'm just like the best thing I think you can do for your business and just your progress is just hire the right people it's the best of your knowledge I'll also say and move on quickly and move on quickly because I think that's that's best for both parties because you both know it's not a yes and if you keep trying to fit which we've historically done for so long but once we once we know we just out of respect for everybody you just need to move quickly the most fair thing to

25:15Brittany Zika:do it is yeah yeah great question one small thing to add to that i worked here for probably five years or something before we started developing our product i would say there are some times i wish we would have started that earlier everything happens when it yeah you know when it's supposed

25:30Noelle McKenzie:to we also did that during the pandemic yes exactly it would have been nice maybe to have

25:35Brittany Zika:you know some ground yeah our very first container came in the first week of april 2020 and then we got it we were like how everything's gonna be shut down like how are we gonna it's a very stressful time but all things happen for a reason yes we had to learn that way yeah it's like we have to just chalk it up to that's alice lane started the end of oh eight it's like man we have the best

25:56Noelle McKenzie:timing yeah but i feel like you do it the hard way first then you know how to do it and there's

26:01Brittany Zika:only one way to go from there it's like we're at bottom yeah and nothing's hard yeah nothing's hard

26:06Noelle McKenzie:i feel like you got real muscles from that whole thing and then and then you've got you gain so much experience on how to dismantle that bomb yeah yeah it's resistance training it really is training yeah we do it the hard way first sure do if your house had a theme song what would it be

26:23Brittany Zika:another solid question you guys okay i'm just gonna say right now sue and cory are gonna have

26:29Noelle McKenzie:the best answers for this no it's a lot of pressure cory is a musician and sue's hall

26:34Brittany Zika:is also a musician she was singing some spanish she's always she's always singing or always

26:40Noelle McKenzie:whistling. Her son is in ukulele lessons and song lessons and her husband makes the very best playlists. It's true. I try not to let you down Tom. Let's see.

26:50Brittany Zika:I have mine. Oh let's have it. Bohemian Rhapsody. Oh nice. Because it has so many just different changes. You're high then you're low. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. That's good. There's some calming moments. That's what I would say.

27:04Noelle McKenzie:Talking heads this is the place. Yeah.

27:07Brittany Zika:I would say that for you

27:09Noelle McKenzie:too. Yeah. I feel good about that. I don't know. What's my song? Will you guys give me a song? Jess is happy and boppy.

27:16Brittany Zika:But also have like a cool vibe.

27:18Noelle McKenzie:You want to hear something fun? My young daughters who are in their 20s were like, Mom, listen to this song. It's Sade. And I was like, oh, that's Sade.

27:27Brittany Zika:That's why I was heading to you. Hold on.

27:29Noelle McKenzie:Did you guys? I mean, I don't know if you've seen that, but it was like social. People are using a lot of Sade on their feeds. I just like, that was hysterical. That's probably like the thing that I send to annoyingly to Corey and Jess is screenshots of songs. The best. Again, I sound like Provo Grammar right now. I just like, I wouldn't send it to you if I wasn't thinking of Yes. Yeah, we love it. So, I'm like, I think that they would like this song. Okay, we'll have to put a pin in mine. I'll have to come back to it. I don't know. I'm going to say

27:57Brittany Zika:something Tame Impala.

27:58Noelle McKenzie:That'd be good. I don't know Tame Impala. I'm excited. And I want to say Mika. Gift me a song. Oh, I love Mika. Because like, that's just the iPod and the OG Al Sane was hooked up and it was always playing Mika. And I'm like, I will forever think of Jess and Adam because I'd never heard of Mika before I started working here. And that was our soundtrack. Mika is forever like you. Yes. Okay. And there's a song by the bleachers called Isimo. I-S-I-M-O. Yes. I love that song. Yeah, that's a right song. Whenever that comes on, I just love it. So there we go. Love that. That works. That's great. That's a good question.

28:31Brittany Zika:What's the funniest thing that's ever happened during an install?

28:35Noelle McKenzie:The funniest? I don't know. There's like some like chaotic things. We should have an episode that are install stories. Actually, we should. I'll paint the picture for those of you that aren't interior designers. As you can imagine, an install is when the home is finally complete and now she gets to get dressed. And that means that your furniture, which has all been in storage, is finally about to roll up on a big 18-wheeler. And it's going to be brought off the truck, unboxed, checked for any imperfections before it's brought into the house. and then put in its spot right where the interior designer drew that it's going to go.

29:09Noelle McKenzie:Sometimes on installs, the thing can't make it in the front door. It doesn't fit. Or you learn that you have to crane the piece up and into a window or onto a deck. Or you're going to chop it in half and put it back together. Or you're going to find out that in large cities, there's deconstruction services that can cut your sofa in half, get it in and then reconstruct it. You cannot believe the dismantling of bombs that happens on installs. And you have to put your thinking cap on and you have to act like everything's normal because sometimes the client is there and you're like, oh, this. We'll just get a deconstruction service over here.

29:42Noelle McKenzie:It happens all the time. So common. You go to lunch. We're going to have this thing in the house by the time you're back. You go get a massage. You deserve it. Yeah. So you cannot imagine the things that happen on an install.

29:56Brittany Zika:I have one. I don't know if it's like super funny, but pretty close to when I had first started. We didn't have like a warehouse team. I organized the entire delivery. It was up in Provo. I won't say her name, but. Oh, shit. I'm just kidding. Why not? No, she was great. Day one, took everything there. Obviously, there's a ton of trash that comes out. We had that old, like, black trailer, remember? Yeah. After day two, we had a bunch of trash, put it in the black trailer. A couple of the warehouse guys that we did have at the time. We also take accessories to place. And sometimes the customer doesn't want them, which is totally fine.

30:31Brittany Zika:And then we take them back. Someone put all of those in a black bag. There was like probably four throw pillows, Ryan's studio pillows. There was a throw blanket, some books. That got thrown into the back of the trash truck and it all got taken to the dump. And it was literally$2 ,000 worth of stuff. I was sick to my stomach because I was in charge of all of that.

30:53Noelle McKenzie:I'm getting so much trouble.

30:55Brittany Zika:I went to the Linden dump four hours later.

30:58Noelle McKenzie:Stop.

30:59Brittany Zika:No, you didn't. Yeah. Oh, that's so smelly. For some reason, I was just like, I can find these. I can find this stuff. And you know, they throw it out and then compact it. I was rummaging through garbage, literally garbage at the dump. You win. I know. You win the funniest story. And I look over at this pile and I see the top of this pillow sticking out. I'm like, no freaking way. So I'm climbing up this mountain of garbage. Oh, gosh. and now these days i've probably just been like ep that's we're gonna cut our losses yeah exactly but i was determined and i had a sales order and i had circled everything that was on it and i found

31:42Noelle McKenzie:everything in that pile oh my gosh that's such a good way how do we not know this story i know i'm just like you don't want to make mom mad oh my gosh i didn't know this right either that's crazy Okay, well, you win. I know. That was awesome. That was awesome.

31:57Brittany Zika:Lightning round. Lightning round. Lightning bonus round. You have to get matching tattoos tomorrow. What are you all getting?

32:03Noelle McKenzie:A chair. I was about to say a chair.

32:04Brittany Zika:I've had this joke that I was going to do a fake tattoo, but you're just like, hey, I'm super committed to Alice Lane. Get an AL tattooed on my neck.

32:14Noelle McKenzie:You win. We're getting Alice Lane. AL tattoos. I love it. I love it.

32:18Brittany Zika:That would be so funny. That would be good. So funny. What are some specific paint colors you are loving right now for, say, a primary bedroom?

32:25Noelle McKenzie:Specific paint colors I'm loving right now. I have to say I love a nude for a primary bedroom. You know the wall covering that's in Boston's primary bed? Something about that just signals. It's soft. It's not white. It's not beige. It's not pink. It's just this beautiful nude tone. And when I just barely did my bathroom in kind of a nude plaster, it's kind of that color, but probably 50 % lighter that's in that beautiful woven grass cloth that's nude. I love, I love a nude in a primary bedroom. What do you love in a primary bedroom?

32:59Brittany Zika:I was going to say something in the, you know, clay-esque like realm. Because I feel like you can do so many, have so many different variations with that.

33:08Noelle McKenzie:I think we're all sort of kicking on that same sort of clay nude, that whole terra field. Whether it be a woven or a plaster or a high gloss, it's all going to be stunning. But I just think that's such a nice soft color. And I feel like we'll look pretty in that color too. I just think you want to look good in your room.

33:29Brittany Zika:And you don't want to wake up to something too intense. I need a slow roll in my morning.

33:34Noelle McKenzie:Yeah, I like saturations. I love a deep, dark.

33:39Brittany Zika:A recent purchase you loved. It could be anything.

33:42Noelle McKenzie:I am getting so many great glasses right now. Oh, yes, you are. Yeah, we talked about that earlier. Gosh, I'm so excited. We went down to Richfield to the Valley Vision where Jess's dad, that's her dad's office, and her brother-in-law works there and sister. And it's so much fun. People are like, why are you going to Richfield? I was just like, oh, you don't even know. Me and the boys, we go, and it's kind of like our thing. We go down, and we have this drive, and it feels like a little bit. celebratory and we're going to go get our eyeballs checked and uh i'm excited about all the glasses i've gotten so far but there's one specific pair that i haven't gotten yet called this danish designer and i'm so jazzed about it it's the only one i haven't received i'm just like fighting at the bit to get them so i think yeah glasses because i need them function yes but also they're cool but it's yeah it's an accessory so cool yeah there's something about an eye doctor that has a private practice that can do whatever they want and bring in any frames and they really do shop far and wide and get really cool specs and sue looks great in all of them so you look really good i am getting excited because every fourth of july i get myself a new pair of specs down at the clinic and it's almost always a maui gym i love the lens i love the look i heard um they merged with gucci a few years ago on the fashion portion of it that's cool and then of course they have the very best lens in the market so i always love getting a new pair of sunnies every summer so i'm thinking about that but i'm trying to think if there's anything else i've purchased that i'm

35:09Brittany Zika:crazy about lately how about you cory i mean i have a furniture specific one but i also have something else i'm super into skateboarding they just released these like really soft wheels which are not a thing for like street skateboarding but i bought them and they're amazing just how they sound to me and how they feel. Yeah. And they, I feel.

35:29Noelle McKenzie:Cushion almost? Yes, cushion.

35:31Brittany Zika:Yeah. And then less effort to get going faster. Yeah. Which I need because I'm a little bit older than all the kids at the skate park. But as far as the furniture goes, cocoon swivel. Yeah. Two weeks ago, we had a babysitter come over. Her name's Ruby. She lives in our neighborhood. I'm like, Ruby, come here. Come sit on this chair. Check. She doesn't even care. And I was just like, Swivel, now you can rock on it. like she's yeah i've been loving those i'm yeah i'm just so good having everyone sit on them that comes over so knock on my door you'll yeah come in i'll show you the cocoon what's your favorite part of your area of business and your least favorite favorite part of the area of our business

36:12Noelle McKenzie:is again i love people i'm an extrovert so i'd say the client i really do like i love the relationship and just like understanding them and growing it it can sometimes be the tricky part too you know as far as just if you're not aligned i would say probably probably the client is why we do this thing and you know because again if we did like the same a spec house with a builder so easy just stamp that out but it's fun to take somebody's personality and interpret and really understand why they don't like that certain thing or why they want this feeling and how what does that look like through our lens like i mean when it is going well don't you feel like it's like having a crash again it is like you're thinking about them all the time you're dreaming about them you're waking up you're getting ready and you're trying to solve their problems and you're not billing for any of that of course but you're just it's so much a part of everything that you're just thinking of because you're just trying to solve for the greatest highest version of their life possible and so when you do get in with the right designer um and you have that aspect where you're just really crushing on each other only great things are gonna come out of that you'll go through hard things but it won't be bad because you're gonna be able to get on the same page pretty easily so i hope that everybody gets to feel like they're having a crush when they're when they're

37:27Brittany Zika:working it's fun to be obsessed with something it is fun and at the end of the project you're like

37:31Noelle McKenzie:well surely it's weird i just talked to a client the other day and like her house is like finished but we're just like doing the last little bits and we got on the call and we're like i miss you how are you how are the kids like when are we gonna go to dinner i don't you know as far as and that's it's a really it's a cool feeling to be like they'll they'll call me shorthand and like just to be that person as far as just like they trust your taste on their behalf is pretty cool

37:56Brittany Zika:so yeah that's good i feel like my job specifically at alice lane is like very fitting to my personality and the aspect of like the blend of like creativeness and yeah like left and right brain it's like very much in the pocket of who i like in an escape room all the time like that's what I was going to kind of say maybe like is not not my it's not my least favorite it just is overwhelming sometimes because I get all of the problems it's like hey this came in wrong or this person has this claim this caught on fire I'm like whoa it's like so much coming at me all the time that gets exhausting but at the same time it's like I'm blessed to be equipped with the ability to solve issues like that.

38:43Noelle McKenzie:I will say my least favorite is claims. Not our claims department, but just when we see or hear if something fails, why it fails, and having to get curious about that, and then being, it's so sad, you know?

38:55Brittany Zika:And it makes you feel like you suck.

38:57Noelle McKenzie:Yeah. Or if the delivery guys stood something up on end and busted the legs on something, you're like, guys, when we deliver dressers, we can only deliver them by carrying them this way. Or, I don't know, it just breaks your heart when furniture gets damaged. I'll say my least favorite. It makes me so sad. The warehouse sale. The warehouse sale breaks my heart. Everybody loves it. I'm so happy for everybody they score. And when I walk in that room, I just see a room full of failures. That's my least favorite. How about that? I get it.

39:28Brittany Zika:I love the energy of the warehouse sale. I'm not going to lie. I know. I'm a wheeler and a dealer. So that's just like, my grandpa would take me as a kid. He loves yard sales. That type of guy. You know what I mean? That's his generation. It is fun. So I've just been like. Still my generation. Yeah. Still my generation. It's like, this is my yard sale. You know what I mean? But I get, I feel the same way. Cause I'm like, man, like we worked so hard on this stuff and it's, yeah. If the podcast ended tomorrow, what would you miss? This is a break in my day. Miss right here. Yeah. Yeah.

39:58Noelle McKenzie:This is our book club. Sue and Corey and I, I don't read books, but I imagine it's like this where you and your closest friends get together and you talk about one thing. And it's a book. And for us, it's about the design that we're working on right now. And so it's kind of a place to sort of unravel it and talk about it, unravel it all on the table and say, here's what's going on and talk about it or say, this is awesome and let's share with people how we made this happen or let's make sure they don't miss out on these design details or whatever. And so I think obviously like the brother and sisterhood that we have here and just the almost counseling session it is for design because it is so complicated and everybody thinks interior design is so fun but it's a place where we can talk about it with you who are a lot of you interior designers or the design obsessed like we are and it's just a place to to share it and talk and be around like like minds it's not necessarily that like a lot of our jobs too it's just like we have employees and so like you're you're serving or you're thinking about not only your clients but just all the people around you and trying to solve for all these things so it is like it's therapeutic for sure to just be like this is why we started it this is why we're doing this thing this is why you know like i don't know it brings you back i think to i don't know the romance of design i only wish it was a live audience so that people could also engage in the conversation because it's such a rich yeah very detail oriented conversation i know it would be so fun should we go on tour yeah we should do that

41:30Brittany Zika:message us where you want us to come i know you're alice at aliceinhome.com

41:33Noelle McKenzie:what makes you the most nervous installs installs it's so funny because a million times you've measured it the furniture should always fit and still like you're just a night before you have anxiety you can't sleep it's like or if i'm flying for an install i'm just like god bless it like this goes well that is like your number one prayer to heaven above that everything will fit and the client will be happy that's all you want and so it's the thing that is the most gratifying but it's the thing that makes you like most just on edge for a sec and then it happens you're just it fit you're surprised even though you measured 10 times cut once i say along with that in that same vein is the photo shoot which we just barely got off one last week and it takes a whole week you're styling for a full day usually traveling for two full days to get there styling which is i think our version of the iron man because it's so physical and and you're trying for perfection yeah right the house has already been installed draperies everything all the players are there and now you're bringing in forged branches and you're bringing in fruit or food or everything and you're just trying for perfection and the photographer arrives and you're looking at perfection but it's not supposed to look too perfect you're trying to make it look effortless and perfect at the same time and it's so physical and it's so hard and you're like let's do the early morning shoot and get the house at sunrise but let's also get the night shoot and so pretty soon it's an 18 hour shoot and it's so physical and every bone in your body you're like did I get hit by a bus I'm not sure but you do stay up all night just trying to anticipate what you're going to need or what you don't need or what happened it's just so yeah one thing that will make everything else very cool and you're looking like inspiration and I'll yeah I know it is even yesterday we were styling for a shoot and at one point three of us we were just just the only one here that suffered from type 1 diabetes but we're like I think my blood is low my sugar's low and I don't feel well and then all three of us were just like me too i need for snacks anyway but it's tax it's super taxing nervous too i'll say every once in a while i'll need to speak in front of our trade event or something and so just anticipate i feel like anticipating something is more nervous than actually doing the speaking yeah and so i find that whole day that i'm just like oh do we have the right slides what do i know what my speaking points are and it's just like you're kind of sweating and freezing at the same time your hands and feet are so cold and you're but yeah you're so uncomfortable all day and you're like I wish I could just hurry and do the thing and get it over with.

43:56Noelle McKenzie:But yeah, public speaking, it's just always a little bit unnerving. I have a question for you because you're filming all the time. Yeah. With Jane and the product and everything. Do you ever get nervous? You always feel composed. I'm sure there's like more than one take, but you're pretty good at the one taker.

44:11Brittany Zika:Yeah. Do you ever get nervous?

44:14Noelle McKenzie:Yeah. Those days, because we do a lot of filming on Thursdays at my house where we're teaching something. It's the same thing. You're trying for perfection where you're styling the scene and you're looking through her lens and you're making sure the lights right the light's not good let's eat lunch really quick and then try for that light and let's try this in a different room and it's or if we're filming on the floor and people walk in and you're in the middle of it I feel so shy that's the one part that makes me so crazy is that you open up a business because you love to design and you want to offer beautiful furnishings and a design service and then the year's 2008 all of a sudden here's the year 2010 Instagram starts and then you're like oh post it once a month or once a week or whatever and then now it's the frequency is you've got to just like constantly now the biggest thing is the talking head where you want to have a founder story and you want to have somebody teaching you something and so now you have to spend all this time calendaring out what you're going to be teaching and talking about and where you're going to be doing it and that's a huge part of the job now we're like I wish we could just keep our heads down in design but you can't you've got to show up in this other way in marketing yeah that if you're shy that's really hard and I feel for people because I I look at any past content I usually want to put my head in the sand but eventually you get a little bit more comfortable with how it works but you still never get comfortable with having to see yourself in content yeah that's hard do you think you are the same person at episode one as you are now that's a great question definitely not hopefully I've said

45:40Brittany Zika:a million times that I feel I have a degree from being on this show I've learned so much feel like I'd be horrible addition to this podcast if I was the same person because I I have learned an insane amount thanks to you too I'm proud of that I was thinking about this driving in today it's funny

46:00Noelle McKenzie:that this is a question but I was thinking about the first podcast and I thought if anybody discovered the podcast today and they're like oh yeah this is gonna I'm gonna go back and re-listen to old episodes i i feel so embarrassed about the first season four exactly like they always say never compare like your worst to someone's best you know and and if you do go all the way back to season one i guess you'll just see a lot of growth within us and i think as designers too like the rooms that we did then are different than the rooms that we're doing now and it will be true for everybody here that you just got to start you're never going to be perfect at it in the beginning.

46:35Noelle McKenzie:You just begin and then you slowly learn and you learn most from failure and you just get right back up and then you keep going. And I just think it's really cool what can happen if you keep getting back up again.

46:46Brittany Zika:Yeah.

46:47Noelle McKenzie:And I'm proud of us for not quitting, even though our first episodes and first years were not very sophisticated, but I'm glad we're doing it. Yeah. Me too. Hurry for failure. Exactly.

46:59Brittany Zika:What's one thing listeners would be shocked to learn about Alice Lane sometimes the refrigerators stink really bad yeah and sometimes McKinley and I

47:10Noelle McKenzie:go and throw away all the things in the refrigerator so if you're missing anything if I'm ever there when she's doing it I'll help her and then we'll open the doors and get out to the dumpster no I don't know that's not a very good answer um what's a good answer I'm gonna say

47:24Brittany Zika:what's the Nike book shoe dog yeah they talk a lot about in that book that Nike's just figuring it out too and you look at Nike I think you're like they have everything and it's probably a process and you know all that peeling back the curtain at Allison I feel like is the same like you know we started the podcast just just to do it we had to learn to get better and so yeah I think there's a lot of stuff that we just figure out as we go and it's probably not as buttoned up as people think but that's the magic in it is that it's all of us collectively putting our best foot forward and we can keep that behind the curtain and still present the company in the way that we

48:05Noelle McKenzie:want to change it and change it again it's that to your point just like everything is always evolving I still like I was talking to somebody the other day and it's like how's how's business like it's good we're just I still feel like babies even though like we've accomplished a lot done a lot of homes evolved and added things but it's just like we're still I think that's one of the cool things about Alicene is just like we're still young so we can change it if it's not working let's change it yeah and I think that that is I think it's the magic sauce right that's just like we're not there's no ego there's there really isn't I think that that I hope people like I hope you're not surprised by it but just that like we all we're very human there's nothing too precious

48:49Brittany Zika:that it can't be addressed you know so yeah yeah and that's honestly that's everybody there's like you mentioned earlier in the podcast there's no job that anybody especially us three there's no that's you crawl through the dump i'll crawl through trash i don't care you know oh i don't

49:08Noelle McKenzie:know i loved your answers i it's just is hilarious i just want you to know like late night just ensues like probably cory too like we're hilarious yeah and i worked at a door shop with a bunch of guys

49:21Brittany Zika:before this for years so that's very much what I was used to in a work environment and I was really nervous coming to work for Alice Lane I mean I think I other than Adam and Drew I was the only guy at that point in the design center with all of you guys and I felt that I needed to be so proper you know what I mean not this isn't a construction site anymore type of thing just like spending time with you and like seeing how you guys are I was just like that's actually the same you know she's a bunch of dudes yeah yeah that's so funny i love it so great we're the

49:56Noelle McKenzie:luckiest we are yeah great questions i know that was really fun so fun i hope that it gives you a little peek behind the curtain about how things work and what surprises us and how it all ticks how human we all are yeah for sure interior design interior design thanks for tuning in you guys if you have any questions for us please send those to dear alice at alice lane home.com and make sure and give us a follow on Instagram. We're at Alice Lane Interiors and at Alice Lane Home if you want to see the store side of things. You guys have a great week. We'll catch you next time.