Isobel Wynn, Designer & Founder of House of Wynn
In this episode, I sit down with the inspiring designer Isobel Wynn, Founder of House of Wynn. We talk about Isobel’s design work, her nomadic lifestyle, and business. She shares the bold move she made to approach potential clients with personalized emails, showcasing her passion for their brands. Isobel shares powerful advice to embrace imperfection, follow your passions, and trust the journey, reminding us all that someone has to make it—why not you?
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Today I have a special guest. She is someone I've been following on social media. 00:13 I love her design work. I totally nerd out around her content. Isobel win is here and welcome to the podcast. 00:22 Thank you so much. I'm excited. You are so welcome. You're the founder of House of Wynn. You're a designer. You live nomatically. 00:33 I know right before we hit record. You're in London, but every few months you move. And I honestly, I love your travel content. 00:41 It's one of my favorites. And I would love to hear the story behind your brand. How did you get here? 00:48 How did you find this cool lifestyle and business for yourself? Like give us all the insight. Oh my goodness. It's been quite the journey and it's not been like a super. 01:01 Simple one. Like I feel like a lot of people have been there career paths partly because you know what we do. 01:07 Didn't even really exist when I was a child. So you know, totally. When someone says like, what you want to hear in your older, like I had no idea this was the thing that I could be doing. 01:16 So never really had to me, but you know, from being a kid, I was always very textbook artsy. I want to say about being too cliche, like love the painting, the drawing, like art was my right or diet school. 01:28 But I never really figured out how I could make a career out of that. So I ended up still going to an arts university and doing that as my degree. 01:36 And then after that, I ended up in the film industry as a personal assistant. And you know, this felt like the right career path at the time because I was like, oh, I want to be in film, one of your film director. 01:47 But then I could very quickly found myself really hungry after a more creative path. Not just going to people's dry cleaning and coffee. 01:56 Like, it worked for a bit, not forever. But I did feel kind of trapped. I was like, I have no idea what I could possibly do. 02:04 And then COVID hit and all the film sets around the world just completely shut down. I told her to boss my job. 02:13 And I had to give up my London flat. And I just moved home with my parents and I was like, well, if there was ever an out and a time to really try things, now is it. 02:22 Like, everything else in the world is pretty dire. So let's try and make a tiny bit of positivity out of this situation. 02:29 So I went nuts trying all different kinds of online courses and tried, like, pottery, like, roaring classes and illustration classes. 02:38 I did like an online environmental course. I like, maybe I'll be assigned to really throwing things into the darkness. You know, I love this. 02:46 It was all really strange. And then I came across the term, like, virtual assistant. And I was like, you know what, I've been a personal assistant in real life. 02:54 I'll just be a virtual one. And so that's how I started out finding about this online world was as virtual assistant. 03:00 But I then very quickly ended up kind of assisting designers. And I was like, I'm on a sec. I could do that too. 03:08 Like, it felt a little bit of imposter syndrome, though, because until that point, I'd always been the assistant and never the creative. 03:15 And it kind of felt like, oh my god, who am I to be the creative in any sense of the word? 03:21 And it's a very daunting task setting up a business let alone. Kind of putting your art out there into the world and you're created mind out there into the world. 03:30 But I took a load of online courses in graphic design and web design. And I got a job as a delivery girl while I was finding my initial client base. 03:38 I was like, you know what, I got to do what you got to do. I actually loved that job. It was really fun. 03:44 And yeah, it all went very weirdly well. And I ended up getting like fully booked for three months. And then I was like, oh, I know. 03:53 And it was just very overwhelming. But almost a little bit too like overwhelming. I was like, well, we need to slow down here. 04:00 But I very quickly realized I was like, hey, well, now that I've got some income and COVID has calm down. 04:07 What do I do now? Because I didn't really want to go back to London. And I was like, hey, I can work remotely from anywhere. 04:14 I've kind of got the travel bug where can I go? So I just like, I moved to a tropical island and been like what a sub-tropical island, off the coast of Africa called Medira. 04:26 And I ended up living there almost a year. And that's kind of warehouse of when was really born into what it is today. 04:32 So like, house of wynn is very much, you know, I say space for creativity and some work in experiment and build this kind of vision that allowed me to have this kind of location free lifestyle, that allowed me to be free. 04:45 Because I think that's kind of a very core value for me as feeling free to be who I am and what I want to live. 04:51 And the fact that I can help others do that through design and help them build their brands was just insane. 04:57 And the fact that I was doing it from my little beach house, like from my little Portuguese island Medira, was just the dream. 05:04 And then since then it's just kind of grown and grown and I've like hopped around the world a little bit. 05:11 And yeah, that's kind of where we are now. But how's it going? See, and everyone listening now, you know why I was like, Isabelle, would you come on the podcast? 05:20 Because I had a good feeling just from what I was seeing you on social that this was a cool story. 05:26 And it totally is a cool story. So tell me this, how did you get those initial clients? Because I'm sure so many people listening, they're like, okay, that sounds amazing. 05:37 Like you literally are living so many people's like dreams of how they want to live and build a business. So how did you get that initial clientele to help just, you know, build the business so that you can take those next apps? 05:53 Yeah, so it was in a few different ways. So a couple of my first ever clients were ones that I had assisted with them being designers. 06:00 And they ended up kind of like subcontracting me. And I guess it was like a white label situation which, you know, like, is a really great way to cut your teeth into the industry because, you know, you get to see the inside of someone else's business model get to have absolutely relations, which is 06:16 a whole other bit of business that they never teach your art school. So it's really handy to like let yourself take those steps and be in the background. 06:24 But on the side of that, you know, I was slowly building my presence on Instagram. I was posting work, passion projects. 06:30 I was literally thinking to myself, who is my dream client? And I would just design a brand for them in like a day, the bare minimum, and then make content out of it and post it. 06:39 And from that, I would get clients and inquiries. And then there was a couple of times where I would literally go online and I'd say, no, who'd say, like just sifting through businesses that I would find like, swim where brands and just anyone jewelry brands. 06:55 And I would just start emailing, call the emailing the founders basically saying, like, I love what you're doing. And this is my portfolio and I'm not trying to sell you anything, but I just want to be on your radar for if you ever need any design work. 07:10 Please reach out and that's chat about it. And I definitely ended up doing a few projects for basically no money, which is kind of unfortunately, what sometimes you have to do just to get those initial bits of experience. 07:23 I did that too. Yeah, exactly. I mean, I never want to like encourage people to work for free because I do think that comes from a place of privilege. 07:31 I had parent privilege. If I ever really needed to come home, I was able to and not everyone has that. 07:37 And also kind of privilege in the sense of like, I guess I didn't have a full time job at that point. 07:44 I was working as part-time delivery girl, but some people have full time jobs for us. They're building these bits so completely. 07:52 There's a lot of privilege going on, but yeah, I was able to work for free and very low budgets. And it's slowly snowboards to a place where I felt comfortable with what I was charging. 08:03 So there's that as well. It's obviously easier to get clients if you're not charging as much. Unfortunately, but that comes a time when you have to like obviously no worth. 08:12 And you're more likely to get aligned clients when you're charging something that you feel aligned with if that makes sense. 08:19 That absolutely makes sense. I think that's such a huge hurdle that so many creatives work through. And so for you, what was that shift that you felt that you're like, okay, now I feel more comfortable charging what I need to be charging in order to sustainably grow this business, scale the business 08:38 , take care of myself, save, you know, all those travel like all your goals. What was that? Maybe shift in your mindset that let you say, okay, it's time. 08:50 I feel comfortable charging more and I feel comfortable really owning that. It's definitely is a confidence thing and a lot of it is mindset and believing that you are worth that because I think a lot of people approach design with, you know, selling a list of what you can give them and just saying, 09:11 well, okay, I need to take sex amount of hours. But once you've done enough of these projects, you realize that you'll create a mind is something to be valued and not everyone can just come up with these things on the spot. 09:21 And I started to kind of realize and step into my own power of like, hang on a sec, like, not everyone can just create a brand in a week. 09:29 And, you know, you're doing something that is making other people so much more money and so much more value for their lives and their brands. 09:36 And like, I kind of felt, I was like, you know what, I kind of deserve to be compensated as such. 09:41 I still want my work to be approachable, but I want to be able to live the life that I want to live. 09:47 And I want people to see value in my work and, you know, it can't money can be like, look, that would be a lot of shame, unfortunately. 09:56 But you just have to really be confident in your work. And it's a really scary thing to approach, because obviously when you raise prices, you'll have certain clientele drop off and you're wondering, oh my doing the right thing. 10:07 And right, it's always going to be scary. You're always going to be kind of waiting through the darkness on that sort of thing, but you've got to really trust your gut on when you feel like it's time. 10:18 I mean, if you want to look at it more from like a very black and white business perspective, it's supply and demand, you know, if you're having a gazillion, like inquiries and you find that you get out of the time to take everyone on, it's time to raise your prices and take less people on. 10:33 I always tell people that to especially for service-based businesses, it's always best to raise your prices and in just your prices is even probably a better way of looking at it, so you don't get too anxious about it is when you're busy. 10:46 That's the best time. Because you can ride that wave of, you know, maybe some people leave, but then you are waiting to attract new people that align with you and totally respect what you do. 11:01 So I love that piece of advice. That is such a game changer. What for you did you see that you wanted to do maybe differently in design or just how you are growing your business? 11:14 Just also you have a different, you have an interesting perspective of seeing the behind the scenes of many design businesses. 11:22 What are some things that you're like, I wanna do this my own way. Or I wanna see like, okay, there was a little bit of a gap here and I wanted to fill that in. 11:32 Because I think so many creative struggle with like finding their place in an industry that feels like so many people are doing it. 11:39 Oh, for sure. I mean, like it can be very overwhelming when you see just how much competition there is out there. 11:44 And it really is a case of kind of digging deep into what you think your superpowers. And that's what people will buy into. 11:51 And it's gonna sound really cheesy, but I kind of feel like my superpowers kind of put in humans first. Like I try and run my business with as much kind of compassion and kindness as possible. 12:04 And I really pride myself on like getting people. It's always been the case for me where I feel like I can work someone and just really dig deep into what sets their soul and fire and creative vision that they didn't even realize they needed. 12:19 And so you know it comes, I very much like like to look at the client themselves as well as their target audience. 12:25 A lot of designers just go for the target audience. Which is so important. Whereas I believe in marrying the two because I guess I work for a lot of personal brands and I just think that if you're not excited about your own brand, then you're not going to be able to represent it with like passion online 12:40 which is gonna then have adverse effect anyway. So you know, if you've got this brand that you think, yeah, sure like Michelle up the road is gonna love it. 12:48 Who might buy it but I hate it. You're not going to get anywhere. So I'm so glad that you said that because I feel the same way too when I'm crafting a brand strategy. 12:58 I so much focus on the founder and let they see for themselves and what they really want to talk about and what they feel the most confident about and really helping strategize their brand so that it aligns with what they feel the most empowered talking about and showing up about because like you said 13:18 , they're going to be the ones promoting it first. They have to be the most enthusiastic. So I'm really glad that you said that I think that's a really great point of aligning your brand. 13:27 If it's a personal brand or a consumer brand but still rooted in the founder who's hopefully going to be building this brand for many, many years ahead. 13:36 100% I can be glad. I love that. So for anyone who's listening who is curious about starting a service based business, maybe a design studio or web design, what piece of advice would you give them? 13:54 This is a very good question. I guess the only thing I can really say is what I would have liked to have heard myself in the sense that like don't be so hard on yourself because someone has to make it. 14:05 So why not you? Like don't count yourself out just yet. You don't have to know exactly where your life or your brand is going to end up. 14:15 You just have to head in the general purpose direction of what makes you happy and what you feel holds true to your values and your authenticity. 14:24 And you know, messy action is way better than no action. Yeah. It's imperfect. Your brand isn't going to be perfect. 14:31 And I don't know the world is so full of opportunity and there are things that you don't even realize exists yet. 14:39 So like I'm a big believer that we should stop asking children what they want to be when they're older and just start asking like, what do you want to be first? 14:47 What do you want to put your energy into first? Because you can be as many things as you want to be. 14:53 And that's why the personal brand spaces is just so useful and all encompassing. You don't have to be just one thing. 15:00 You know, I think that makes sense. I love that so much and that resonates with me so much. I've I've re I always call like relaunching. 15:10 I've relaunched myself as a personal brand so many times. I'm just finding my way and my path is anything but linear. 15:17 So I really appreciate you saying that. Also I really needed to hear that too. So thank you. I really appreciate it. 15:24 And I know so many people listening are be like, okay, that feels so much better. So anyone listening who is needing design work or is getting their brand ready to get great beautiful design. 15:40 How does someone reach out to you? How do they work with you? Maybe what types of brands do you work with? 15:44 I know you mentioned personal brands. Yes. So I work for a lot of personal brands and it's now starting to like reach out into a whole bunch of people I never in my busy as daydreams for what I'd work with. 15:56 You know, we're cooking like jewelry brands and better brands and like cafes and tall guides that live in Marseilles, then like a real range and you know, the best way to get hold of me is probably, you know, through my website for all you can drop me a DM if it's just a question. 16:12 I'm always up for like hearing people's creative visions and their dreams and seeing there's a way that I can like help them get there and plug myself into kind of like making that happen. 16:22 But yeah, what is your website and social handle? So my Instagram is at House of Wynn and the Winna spent WYNN and my website is house of Wynn. 16:38 Love it. And I'll put all the links in the show notes and on my blog with KellyBennett.com. And I just want to thank you again for coming on the podcast and sharing your story. 16:51 Truly, truly appreciate it. And this was such a beautiful reminder of doing things your own way and going for it and taking maybe the road less traveled. 17:03 But it's going to get you to where you want to be and places you have me and dreamed up yet. 17:08 And I just really appreciate you sharing that with us. Thank you. Thank you so much. So welcome. My pleasure. Talk to you soon. 17:17 And I'll see everyone on the next episode.
