Episode 060: Called for More with Ryann Dowdy
Show Notes
Ryann Dowdy thought she was doing everything right. Dream job, 6+ figure salary, family, nice home, but still felt unfulfilled. She finally realized it was because she was chasing a dream that wasn't hers, so she left corporate life and became an entrepreneur. As she found more success on her journey, she still felt alone and misunderstood by her peers. Ryann knew she was called for more.
As women, we crave community and connection. Ryann’s mission is to create a safe space for every woman who has ever been told she’s too much, too picky, too loud, too ANYTHING to come together and be fearlessly themselves.
In this episode, Ryann shares her story and why she created Be In The Room, a community of high-achieving, bad-ass women rebelling against the status quo. Because when women connect, work together, and harness our power into ONE common mission - we will be invincible.
Connect with Ryann:
Website: www.beintheroom.org
Facebook: www.facebook.com/groups/beintheroom
Instagram: @RyannDowdyOfficial
TikTok: @RyannDowdyOfficial
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ryanndowdy/
About Michelle
Michelle Lynne began her interior design career after spending more than two decades working in Corporate America. She began in the home staging arena and has since built a successful, award-winning, full-service interior design firm, employing talented designers and serving clients across the country.
In the summer of 2018, Michelle began focusing on a big gap she saw missing in the interior design industry: teaching interior designers how to run the business of an interior design business. She now engages in private coaching and leads an in-depth, 12-month group coaching program, both options focus on teaching designers profitable processes, systems, strategies and mindset needed to run a streamlined, profitable interior design firm.
Her motto is simple: we rise by lifting others.
Connect with Michelle
You can follow Michelle on Instagram or join her Free Facebook Community! You can learn more about Michelle's program, Designed for the Creative Mind right here. You can also learn more about Michelle's Interior Design Firm here.
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Transcript
Michelle Lynne: Hello, everybody, this is Michelle Lynne again. Welcome back to the podcast. I'm so excited to have you here today. I have a friend, her name's Ryann Dowdy. Ryann did everything right in life. She had her dream job, six plus figure salary, married, kids, nice home, and woke up and just still felt herself completely unfulfilled. So she knew something wasn't right.
I'm assuming that some of us in the audience have felt the same way. So there's a whole background to Ryann, but her mission is to create a safe space for every woman who's ever been told that she's too much, too picky, too loud too anything, to come together and be fearlessly themselves. So, I want to welcome Ryann and just let you guys get to know her a little bit more. She is just a magnet. A magnetic personality. So welcome, Ryann, thanks for being here.
Ryann Dowdy: Thank you so much for the opportunity. I'm excited for this conversation.
Michelle Lynne: Oh, me too. So you and I have spoken from a business standpoint on occasion, but really, I'm excited to get to know you a little bit more on a more professional / personal note. Because I think that what you what you do, just joining women, and celebrating is so near and dear to my heart. So let's get a little bit more background from you. You were in six figure business and did you just quit cold turkey and pursue your dream?
Ryann Dowdy: Not even a little bit. So it was 2017, and my son was born and I went back to work. I had my dream job, right? I was just like, okay, you know, this is it. I'm finally building my own sales team, I'm not traveling anymore, everything is amazing. But it was not amazing. It wasn't bad. Again, I just didn't feel fulfilled in any way. So I wish that like I did something with that information immediately.
But really, what I did instead was falling into this terrible guilt and shame spiral about like, why can you not just be happy? Everything that society told me should make me happy, I had. So it took me a little while to kind of get through that. And then okay, what am I going to do, and I honestly didn't even consider entrepreneurship. I thought I was gonna have to just make an industry change.
I'd been in marketing and advertising for 15 years, and I wanted to just shake it up and go sell something else, be in a different room of people, and things will change. And that's when I discovered online entrepreneurship and this ability to take a skill set that I already had and use it to make money. And I was like people do that? I sold advertising in like the brick and mortar space, so to me, having a business meant like going into a business having a brick and mortar store. And so it was like this is wild.
So yeah, that was kind of where it all started. And it was finally 2019. So it took me almost a full two years to finally leave my full time job and jump into entrepreneurship. I had the realization, beat myself up for six months, and then started talking to people and figuring it out. And then it took me about another year and a half to get the business to a place where it could replace my corporate salary. Also, in the middle of all this I had kid number two, so that was an adventure.
Michelle Lynne: Let's just do it all at once. Yeah, because you would just have a kid. How many years are in between?
Ryann Dowdy: My kids are two years apart. It's like two years, four months. So I had Davis in 2017, Georgia in 2019. And the year that I quit my full time job and I always say that Georgia was kind of like the the thing that lit the fire under my ass. I knew, like once I found out I was pregnant, I was like I'm not going back to work after this kid is born. Like I don't care what it takes, come hell or high water. I'm gonna figure this thing out.
Michelle Lynne: Nice. Yeah, sometimes it does just take that swift kick.
Ryann Dowdy: In the form of a tiny little red-haired, blue-eyed baby that did it.
Michelle Lynne: I'm exhausted thinking about them being two years apart and then just trying to get anything done. I have one and that's plenty. Little tornado. Yeah. She's three and I call her threenager.
Okay, so what is your business?
Ryann Dowdy: I run a community called Be In The Room. We are a community of high achieving badass women who we say the common denominator of our membership is that we rebel against the status quo, right? We deal with all the things that we are told to make us happy. If they make us happy game on, but if they don't, it's okay to do something different.
So we are a currently a virtual community. We're adding in some in-person stuff; we have a really big vision for what that looks like. But my thought process was if we can put all of the smart women in a room together that have ever been told they're too much of anything, that's where we can really change the world. We can have open and honest and vulnerable conversations. We can inspire others and support each other and be a sounding board in a really powerful way.
Michelle Lynne: In a safe space. So why are you so passionate about building this community for women?
Ryann Dowdy: Well, because of my personal story. And you're kind of a part of the story in some ways. So I had one business, crushed it and then I started a second business with a business partner. That business partner asked me to come in and run that business. I ultimately retired business number one and took over business number two. I am about four or five months into it at this point and I am just a mess. Like the business isn't growing, I am stressed to the max and everything felt hard.
I was stressed and burned out and my nervous system was shot. I literally like wound up on the floor of my shower in tears, just like what am I going to do. And of course, I thought I had a sales and marketing problem. It was obviously none of those things. But I had nowhere to go to dismiss this where it felt safe. Because the community that I built in my previous business, I'm considered a thought leader in that space. They look up to me. And then the other communities are the masterminds that I'm in are full of potential clients.
So I'm like, well, there was just nowhere to go and be like, Okay, guys, I'm falling apart. I'm not sure what's wrong, I just need to talk through this. So I personally felt very alone and isolated in this space. Then I did what I always do when I'm feeling that way. I started talking to the women who I did have relationships with. It was just a ton of like, oh my gosh, me too. There's nowhere to go to talk about this, like, my spouse is super supportive, but he just doesn't get it or, you know, my friends are like, Oh, that's so cool that you run a business, but I don't really know what you're doing on the internet.
Or that's really cool that you're the Vice President of whatever, but I don't know what that means. So there were so many high achieving women who told me that they were feeling the same way and that they also just felt really isolated. We didn't have a place to really have these conversations that weren't spaces that were meant for business development. No one wants to do business with somebody who's a hot mess. So I wanted to create that space.
And there's just that whole idea of as soon as somebody's like, I'm a mess, and somebody else is like, oh my god, me too. And I hate to say that misery loves company. That's not what we're doing here. It's just that space to say that it's not okay. There's another woman in Be in the Room who wrote a tax check that was more than she made in 2017. Her 2021 taxes were more than she made all in 2017. Where do you go to celebrate that? So, I wanted a space where both of those things can happen. Where people could celebrate those really amazing fun things that are kind of wild, but we could also go and say, hey, this feels really hard some days.
Michelle Lynne: I think that's amazing. Because just with my little community that we're growing, let's talk about it. It's lonely, being at the top. The top doesn't mean that you are maxed out with your potential revenue success or whatever, but you're at the top of your business. You are the leader of your business.
Who do you go and talk to you because, women, we always try to try to look perfect. And it's bullshit.
Ryann Dowdy: We do. Amen.
Michelle Lynne: So you know, it's just such a sad state that our society says that we need to have this, this and this together and seriously, like, Okay, so as a mom, and as a business owner, how in the hell do you manage your boundaries?
Ryann Dowdy: Yeah, so I have a lot of support. There's a team of people both on the business side, and on the personal side, that makes stuff happen. So before I ever actually even had a business my husband and I determined that if one of us had an opportunity to stay home with the kids, it was not going to be me. I love my children dearly. They're amazing. I am not designed to be a stay at home mom, he is just the most patient human on the planet. Babies love him.
So like if that was ever going to happen, it was going to be him. So as soon as the business started to take off, we started to have that conversation where it was like, okay, we're fighting time here. My business is what's really supporting us like, does this make sense for you to continue to commute and go to work and work these hours based on the booking and childcare and the time to run this house?
So Kevin actually put in his notice, pre COVID, but then COVID sped up his timeline. So he's been home with the kids. He runs the house, he helps with business stuff, he just does all of the things.
Michelle Lynne: What a blessing.
Ryann Dowdy: Yeah. Oh, my God, it's so incredible. And he's so good at it. So it's really fantastic. And then, you know, simple stuff. I don't clean my house anymore. We finally brought in somebody to help us with meal prep after fighting over dinner and groceries for I don't know how long.
Michelle Lynne: That is a game changer in marriage in general. I'm all about outsourcing. But I started thinking about like, I need to outsource my meal prep because it's like a tornado. When five o'clock, six o'clock hits with the family and all the things.
Ryann Dowdy: It's a tornado. It was a constant battle of like, what do you want for dinner this week? I don't care. What do you want for dinner this week? And then the same thing in the business, right? Like, if this is something that I don't enjoy, it's not revenue producing, or income producing in some way, A, does thi need to be done at all, and then B, do I need to be the one doing it?
This happened over the course of years. I didn't just like wake up one morning, and all of a sudden learn to let go of control.
Michelle Lynne: That's the best thing about this podcast. You're sharing years of experience in a short period of time, so y'all better be taking some notes.
Ryann Dowdy: It was one thing at a time, right? It was one thing at a time in the business, it was one thing at a time at home, to the point where now I'd say that 80% of my time is spent doing things that I genuinely enjoy, and things that I am genuinely good at, both at home and in the business. And then I've set really clear boundaries with my husband, as far as like my work hours. These are the hours that I'm working, these are the hours that I'm not and I've set those boundaries with my team.
It's always challenging at first, right? I try to finish by 4 and the kids usually come home around then. And I try really hard to be done by the time they get home because otherwise my office doors are right here, and they will try to break it down if they can hear my voice on the other side of it. So I try really hard to honor that for him and for the kids as well.
So it was just making those decisions ahead of time. And I feel like as entrepreneurs, it's challenging because we like freedom. Freedom is great, but I found that like being able to really communicate, these are the hours that I am working, and these are the hours that I need support. Making those boundaries really clear instead of being like I'm gonna work whenever wherever has really helped those boundaries at home too.
Michelle Lynne: I'll tell you that helped with me because I love to work. I love love love to work. So if I didn't set that, you know, this is my home time and this is my work time, they were continually crossing and nobody knew what the hell was up,
During the day, if I'm working, it better be an emergency if my husband calls. I learned this from my brother. I called my brother years ago during the middle of the day one time, and he answers and he says hello. And I'm like, Hey, Jay, what's going on? He goes, Is this important? And I'm like, No, I guess it could wait. Okay, I'll call you later. And I was just like, that works.
So same thing with my husband. Don't call unless it's something. And same thing with the office. It's you know, what, after after five o'clock, closer to four. I'm out if you need anything, text me if it's an emergency, otherwise, I'll answer it tomorrow.
Ryann Dowdy: Yep. And I give my team that freedom do the same thing, too. I mean, there are times where you will get emails from me at wild times. Thoughts will cross my brain while I'm putting kids to bed and I'm like, oh, you know, I pop it into Slack or whatever. But my intention is not that anybody responds to it at eight o'clock at night. It's just I need to get the thing out of my out of my brain.
Michelle Lynne: Yeah, I can understand that. And I think that that is imperative when you do have a team, whether it is you know, team spouse at home, or team professional, is just because I email you at eight o'clock at night, doesn't mean I expect you to respond. Because sometimes it's 2:30 in the morning, I wake up and it's just uh, you have to fire it off.
So in regards to community, you have a community that you're creating right now, for individuals who don't have the ability or the intent to join the Be In The Room? How do you start fostering a community that's safe, without starting your own?
Ryann Dowdy: So, for me, what made the community safe is we set expectations ahead of time as to what you can expect being a part of this. With Be In The Room, we have a free Facebook group, we have a podcast, and you know, we serve our people in paid ways and free ways. But for us, it's just very clear as this is what we're doing here. I think that sometimes just letting people know that this is a safe space to say the things helps.
We also protect it and anybody who is not acting in alignment with the code of conduct is addressed, but not aggressively in any way. But like, that's been really interesting to me. I've had to reach out to people and say, Hey listen, I love your viewpoint here, but this could be mistaken this way.
I wish I could say it was like, super easy, and it was coming really naturally to me. But I had to work for it and build this space where we can say the things that we want to say without being judged, but also not be jerks. So I found the best way to create safety in a community is to be open and honest.
Be open to feedback, I tell my people all the time, they tell me, tell me what you love, tell me what you hate, and tell me what you want more of. But then also just setting the expectation of what this community about is about, this is what it's for. And if you cannot adhere to these this code of conduct, then we will ask you to leave. We have to protect the space.
Michelle Lynne: That makes sense. So a community that you're building is very intentional. It's different than girlfriends going to have wine and just catching up and chit chatting.
Ryann Dowdy: Exactly, exactly. And we do that also, by way of all of our events, we host weekly events, they're all curated in a specific way, they have a point. We really want to create that space where everybody knows what they're getting into ahead of time.
We really think of like psychological safety. What am I here to do, what I'm going to accomplish, and what's my responsibility in this conversation. So we try to give people as much notice as possible as far as like our schedule, our topics, and those sort of things. And we curate the conversation for the people who aren't the ones to always raise their hand on a zoom call full of 30 people, right?
We also do like small pop out rooms on Zoom to where we put three and four people in a room together. And so again, sometimes you're not willing to share in a big group, but in a small group, it's not all eyes on you, you might be willing to speak up and say something or get involved in the conversation. So we try a couple different ways to really let our people know what's going on and give them you know, the guidelines of what's gonna happen here.
Michelle Lynne: So it's like a personal/professional relationship. So you could get very personal about all of your messy junk and all of that, because it ties in with business. So you're, you're kind of redefining that.
Ryann Dowdy: Yeah. And we do that by like, again, the topics that we choose for conversation. So we do what we call collaboration events, and those are the ones we go into small zoom rooms for, we choose the topic and sometimes the topic is all business and sometimes it's not. Like the other day, the topic was how do you put yourself first? How do you prioritize yourself as as a human?
That went more personal. When we talk about, you know, what's working for you and your marketing that went more business? When we had conversations about the topic was having difficult conversations, it was split, some of it was personal, and some of it was business. So for us, it's really about letting those two things intermingle. Which is the issue that we talked a little about this before you hit record, like I don't believe in work life balance, like I think that that is bullshit.
And because it's just life, it's all life, right? We are. We are business owners, we are moms, we are wives, we are sisters, we are whoever you are, right? And you don't ever balance those things that you were just all of those things. So I wanted to create a space where you could be all of those things and it wasn't like let's leave your your, you know, the fact that you're a mom at the door and come to discuss business because that's not realistic.
Michelle Lynne: Right, right. Right. Right. And one of the things that I've learned because I don't think you know, my story I adopted Genevieve really late in life. I was 4748 Okay, yeah. So, so I was all in on being business business business, and then all of a sudden I've got this kid, you know, in my lap which is wonderful and amazing, but It's scary. It's scary as hell, how do you balance it and I've learned.
Megan, who's one of my designers just came back from maternity leave, it's like, you can't balance it all. You can't have it all at once. Now, sometimes your home life is well organized and rolling like a routine, you're still working. And then other times work is just flowing like a train. And home life is like, Oh, she didn't pick up any groceries. You know, thank goodness for Amazon Fresh.
Ryann Dowdy: This idea that that balance should look a certain way. For me. It's how do you know, it's all of the things all of the time. And like you said, sometimes the cups are filled in different ways. And there's different things and happening. But I think that work life balance was actually done is had women chasing a very unrealistic ideology of how they're supposed to feel and how they're supposed to be and how they're supposed to show up at work and in their homes.
Michelle Lynne: Yeah, I think it was defined by men. I'm not sure. What do you mean balance? Have you ever tried wearing those heels? Heels are hard to balance and much less carry again. I'm all about the flats these days. And so. So I'm probably one of the last questions is what are some examples of rebelling against the status quo? Yeah.
Ryann Dowdy: So it goes back to my whole story of like, at 34, I did all the things, and I'm not happy with the things. I think that the internet tells us a lot of the things that we should do and want and feel. And for me, the rebellion against status quo was that I don't want to do, want, or feel any of those ways. And so sometimes this is done in the way of like, we should climb the corporate ladder or this is the key to success and happiness and it's very low risk, which we all learned was BS, right? So somebody who was like, I don't want to do that.
Or we're all told, you can you start a business or you should grow it and you should have a team and you should do these things. And some people don't want to do that, and some people do. So for me, it is whatever the idea of creating the life the way that you want it. The business and the career that works around your life, not the other way around.
My husband and I are the perfect example. With him staying at home and managing the house like that is my total rebellion against the status quo, right? Like, that's not the way it's supposed to look, right? It's the way that works really beautifully for our family. So to me, it's supposed to look this way. Our moms, dads, sisters, cousins, uncles told us, this is the way we should do this. But that is not how I want to run my life or how I want to grow my business or how I want to approach my career. I want to do it the way that I want to do it, even though it might not be traditional, it might not be typical, or it might not be the way that everybody says that it should.
Michelle Lynne: But it feels authentic to you. I joke that we "should" on ourselves a whole lot. We should do this, we should do that we should do this, we should do that. No. It's what do you want? And even from a business standpoint, I think that we should begin with the end in mind. And then it's the same thing for your life. What do you want your life to look like? And then who do you have to be to get there? It's just such a completely different frame of reference.
I think that you hit on a lot of this with women, because women haven't been given the permission to do that, right? A lot of women haven't been given the permission to be successful, to be a mom and making a bucket of money. I think a lot of it is society, a lot of it is from our parents, just the way they raise us and the money stories and all of that sort of bullshit. But interesting, you have found this wonderful little niche that we need more of.
Ryann Dowdy: Thank you. It's just really cool. Like I said, I feel like we're serving the middle market really well, right. There are a lot of resources when you're new to business or new to a career. And then there's a lot of resources at the top when you get to the executive level, the VP level. There's a lot of resources and big business for entrepreneurs, once you hit the seven figure mark. There's a lot of different resources that become available to you at that time, through coaching, through masterminds, through funding.
And then there's the other 90% of the world that lives somewhere in the middle. And it's kind of like where are my people? Where do I go to have difficult conversations? And so like I said, we're really serving that person who's already successful, you know, but they're looking for support and camaraderie and friendship and idea sharing and collaboration.
Michelle Lynne: Have you thought about franchising this? I know, it's still fairly new, but I mean, I'm just thinking about the audience. Thinking that we've got a bunch of entrepreneurs that probably need the same thing. As we get more and more local compared to COVID Zooming, it would be interesting.
Ryann Dowdy: So I don't know if we'll franchise or if we will hire market managers that will be Be In The Room employees. So there might be a market manager in Dallas or in Chicago and so on.
Michelle Lynne: Yeah, that consistency and control.
Ryann Dowdy: So I've been part of those organizations that are franchised, and I have learned that oftentimes, I'm having a very different experience than somebody in a chapter in a different place.
Michelle Lynne: That makes sense. Because the leadership is not consistent.
Ryann Dowdy: Right. So the energy I have is that we put market managers in markets, but they are Be In The Room employees.
Michelle Lynne: And they get training on a regular basis, and all of that sort of jazz.
Ryann Dowdy: And it totally supports my personal affinity to company paid for travel.
Michelle Lynne: Amen to that. Whatever you can write off is a beautiful thing.
Ryann Dowdy: I said that once to my mom, she's like, how do you travel so much? And I'm like, Mom, the company pays for it. She was like, You are the company. I was like, I know.
Michelle Lynne: It's a separate bank account.
Ryann Dowdy: It goes to a separate bank account. If it's run through the business, because it's a mastermind or group or, you know, I'm doing a VIP day with something like absolutely. I haven't paid for a full vacation in a very long time because I've always managed to tack business onto like the front or back end of it.
Michelle Lynne: So last question, before we dive into some rapid fire q&a is what do you tell people about being okay with wanting more?
Ryann Dowdy: It goes back to your your "shoulding" comment, right? I believe wholeheartedly that our desires are put on our heart by God. If you feel a nudge, or an inkling or a pull in a certain direction, it is never by accident. And this idea that I should be happy with what I have, or I should be content with this thing, or I should not want to spend more time working because I should do this like that, to me is a no. Whenever we're using the word should, it's often somebody else's influence and not our own.
Michelle Lynne: Love that. So just give yourself the grace to change directions.
Ryann Dowdy: Yeah, I just think the desires are not on accident. Because it feels that way to high achievers, because they're like, but I have all sorts of desires. But there are people in the world who don't.
Michelle Lynne: Absolutely. Well, the adoption of my child. Five years prior to that, I had no desire to adopt. And then all of a sudden, like you said, God puts it on your heart. And it's just like, okay, okay, yeah. Now, granted, I wrestled with God for a while and said, Oh, hell no. I'm too old for this shit.
Ryann Dowdy: When you are a high achiever and you're motivated and you like to do things, it might feel like it can't possibly. You may feel like everybody else is like you and they're not.
Michelle Lynne: Absolutely. And I think that's a key thing is that nobody thinks the same way I do. Nobody thinks the same way you do once we realize that the assumption and the shoulds can definitely get out of the way. I love that. Oh, girl, I could talk about this and just listen for the next hour. I just love the women lifting up women. It's such a special place that we need more of it. Isn't that funny how your other businesses just kind of went in different directions and this is where you find yourself? You're in the right room.
All right. So in the interest of time for our audience, this next segment is rapid fire Q&A. Nothing's off the table. What's your favorite ice cream flavor?
Ryann Dowdy: Ooh, eeny, meeny, miny, mint chocolate chip.
Michelle Lynne: Oh, that is a popular one. Okay, last movie you watched?
Ryann Dowdy: I never watch movies so it was probably like in Encanto with a child.
Michelle Lynne: There you go. Red or white wine?
Ryann Dowdy: Both.
Michelle Lynne: Dream travel destination?
Ryann Dowdy: Europe. So my 40th birthday is in 2023 and I have been saying for years that for my my 40th birthday, we are going to do like a two week wine tour.
Michelle Lynne: Remind me and I can send you some information. We were out there before COVID and you can rent villas. So like we stayed in a villa off of the Amalfi Coast for a week. And then we just went from there to different towns. It was amazing.
Okay, do you have a consistent morning routine?
Ryann Dowdy: I do.
Michelle Lynne: What is it?
Ryann Dowdy: I am usually up somewhere between 4:30 and 5:00. I know that's crazy. I get plenty of sleep. That's usually the second question. I go to bed early. I pray and I meditate. I usually journal a little bit. I read some nonfiction and I exercise usually and between like 5:00 and 6:30, which is when I start to get ready for the day and the kids are up.
Michelle Lynne: That makes sense. Love that. What's your favorite form of exercise?
Ryann Dowdy: I love to be outside. So I walk a lot and it took me a long time to like be okay with it. I was a college athlete. And I was like walking was not exercise, but it is I love it. But there's also a heavy bag in my basement that brings me a lot of much needed stress relief.
Michelle Lynne: It's amazing what hitting something can do, isn't it?
When was the last time you laughed until you peed yourself?
Ryann Dowdy: Recently in in Costa Rica, I went on a retreat, and it was called The Millionaire Girls Club. So it was all seven figure business owners. And we like laughed until we almost peed daily.
Michelle Lynne: That sounds like a blast.
If you couldn't be in the profession you're in now, what would you be doing instead?
Ryann Dowdy: Like there's a whole lot of things like in the sales and business arena that I could do but like I probably would have gone to law school. Like start over. I would have been an attorney. I would've been darn good at it.
Michelle Lynne: Absolutely. Would you be doing criminal? Would you be doing corporate? Like what kind of love would you gravitate towards?
Ryann Dowdy: I would probably gravitate more towards like corporate business law.
Michelle Lynne: That would be fun. And you don't have to deal with all the predators and crap like that.
Chocolate chip or oatmeal cookie?
Ryann Dowdy: Chocolate chip.
Michelle Lynne: How many siblings do you have?
Ryann Dowdy: One.
Michelle Lynne: What is your favorite book?
Ryann Dowdy: It changes because I read so often. So my favorite business book that I recommend to everybody is Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blunt. It is a sales book. One of my very favorites.
Michelle Lynne: Do you recommend that to people who are not even in sales? Like if you're an interior design business owner?
Ryann Dowdy: 100%.
Michelle Lynne: My husband has it. I might have to go read it.
Ryann Dowdy: Oh, yes. Yes. Because it's about business development. It's about keeping your pipeline full. So whether you are a designer or in sales or you know running in marketing. It's my favorite business book I recommend to everybody.
Michelle Lynne: And then what about non business?
Ryann Dowdy: I guess it's still kind of business, but it's more self help. I'm a big fan of Jen Sincero's book, You are a Badass. I just recently reread that.
Michelle Lynne: I love that. Have you listened to her on Audible because she reads it so well.
Ryann Dowdy: Yeah, I listened to it the first time I consumed it. And then I read it. And then I listened to it a second time. I like ran out of audible credits. And I was traveling, and I wanted to listen to something and I was like, what do I have on here?
Michelle Lynne: Oh, my gosh, it's amazing. I actually in my interior design business bakery program, a year long paid program. That's one of the first things I reference is what makes you a badass and you need to go read this book. So yeah, that's one of my favorites.
Okay, when was the last time you took a nap?
Ryann Dowdy: So I'm actually going through a coaching certification. And I was in Sedona like six weeks ago and we did a sunrise hike, we climbed to the top of a mountain. It was very fun. And then it just like midday, after lunch, we were both kind of like we need a minute. So I laid down and took like a 30 minute nap. I'm gonna do this more often. It's so good.
Michelle Lynne: Amen to that. 23 minutes technically, is what you need. But I can't remember who I was talking to. It's here on the podcast, I'm pretty sure. Or maybe it was on her podcast. I don't know. But anyway, it's I believe she said it was NASA proven that whether you're napping or just resting 23 minutes is the optimal time for most individuals. More than that. that you just want to keep keep sleeping less than that you don't have the opportunity to really wind down. So I now set my alarm for 24 minutes.
Okay, last question. So if you could have dinner with anybody, living or someone in the past, who would it be?
Ryann Dowdy: Oprah. So one of our core values in Be In The Room is reinvention. And the way that woman has reinvented herself again, and again, and again and again, and continue to stay relevant. Other people her age and with her tenure have not managed to do is just incredible. And so like, I want the behind the scenes with Oprah. What does it really look like to be you? Who is your team? What boundaries do you have in place? How do you manage having multiple passions and multiple projects? I just think it's incredible.
Michelle Lynne: I think that would be so much fun. Can I have an invitation?
Ryann Dowdy: Of course.
Michelle Lynne: I'll bring the red and the white wine.
Well, Ryann, thank you so much for being on the show today.
Ryann Dowdy: Yes. Thank you for a fun conversation.
Michelle Lynne: Oh my gosh, absolutely. It's been fun to get to know you a little bit more. And so I know our audience has loved everything you've shared. How can they find you? How can they connect with you?
Ryann Dowdy: So beintheroom.org is our website. And we have a Facebook group called Be In The Room. And I'm on social media @RyannDowdyofficial on most channels. And it's Ryann with two n's.
Michelle Lynne: Oh, fantastic. I will make sure that that's dropped into the show notes so that y'all can find it.
So for those of you who can benefit from even more resources surrounding the business of running your interior design business, join my growing community on Facebook. Yeah, I know, it's Facebook, but just create a ninja profile and hop in there. It's called the Interior Designers Business Launchpad. I go live once a week. Wednesdays at noon, Central Standard Time for just a quick training. It's a lot of fun. We're growing a great community. And then if you need even more insight, I have the Interior Designers Business Bakery. You can check that out at designedforthecreative mind.com. Thanks again, Ryann.
