Let's talk about Elizabeth Aaron Design.
Tell me more.
Sure.
So the first question people have usually
is if my name is Jodi Peterman, where did Elizabeth Aaron
Designs come from?
Is it a franchise or something?
And I'm like, no.
I was literally trying to come up
with the name of the company.
And I had two little girls that were three at the time.
I had just taken the company over
from my co-person that was working with me, my business
partner, I guess you would say.
And the girls were driving me crazy.
And I needed to come up with a name.
And I said Hannah Elizabeth and Sydney Aaron
Stop because they were just being normal three-year-olds.
And I was like, huh, Elizabeth Aaron Designs.
I think that'll work.
So that's how we came up with the name.
I love it.
And it's beautiful.
It has a ring to it.
And it's so funny.
I'm just going to disclose in transparency.
I was reading it.
And I was like, who am I meeting with?
And then I was like, oh, I get it.
But it's beautiful.
And it has a ring to it.
So that's definitely heaven sent.
So what does Elizabeth Aaron Designs do?
So we are a nationwide interior design company, full service.
So we do a lot.
A lot of what we do across the nation is multifamily projects.
We'll go in and take a D or C class multifamily project
and get it to an ARV.
We also do brand new reconstruction multifamily.
And we just finished up a spa.
We also do residential remodels and new construction as well.
You kind of have to be good in being able to pivoting
is one of my things.
So you have to be able to pivot in this game
because 2024 was a show, a show of all shows.
And a lot of the commercial, a lot of the people
weren't investing in those multifamily properties.
So if we had all of our eggs in that basket,
we probably would have been cooked.
But we started, because we have the other facet,
we were able to keep everything going by doing the remodels.
Because a lot of people didn't want to sell their home
and move to a new space where they'd have to pay higher
interest rates.
They just wanted to invest their money into their home
and create it, make it the way they want it.
Wow.
So commercial, residential, and new homes.
Wow.
We do new construction on multifamilies.
In Des Moines, Iowa, I think I don't even know.
I lost track after 10 new construction projects
multifamily.
We handle everything from working with the client
when we're just looking at the architecture plans,
all the way up until they give me a $500,000 budget
to go buy pool furniture, all the furnishings,
all of that stuff.
And then we take care of the installation, the ordering,
and procurement, and all of that.
Wow.
When did you get started?
I'm blown away.
So yeah.
So we lost.
I had a business partner.
And then in 2003, I decided to take over the company.
She wanted to go in a different direction.
So I just decided it was the pivotal point.
Do I take this over, or do I just go find a 9-to-5 job
and work for somebody?
And I had two little girls that I needed to take care of.
So I was like, I think I'm going to try and make this work.
This is what feels right.
So I just took the company over and came up with that name.
So that was in New Jersey at the time.
And then 9-11 happened.
And we're just going through trying to get our lives back
together after being in New Jersey during 9-11
and seeing everything that happened.
My brothers ended up being in the National Guard in Iowa.
And they got called up.
So I told my husband, I'm like, maybe we
should think about moving back there.
And it took us a little bit.
And in 2007, we made the decision.
In 2009, I think we found land.
And we started to build our own home in Iowa.
And it was a horrific process.
And we moved there.
It was gut wrenching.
It made me become the worst version of myself.
It completely changed me.
It changed me because it changed how
I do business as my company.
I decided that there had to be a better way of doing this.
And when I was talking to my lawyer,
because, yeah, it got that bad, yeah, she said, well, why?
Because I said, we've got to change this.
It shouldn't be this way.
There's a very simple fix.
And here's what I think we should do.
And she's like, 40% of lawyer businesses in this area
comes from disputes with homeowners and contractors.
Nobody's going to help you.
And I decided that I was just going
to try and change it by myself.
What could I do?
If you look at the problems as a whole,
if you look at the problems of the entire world,
it's like a huge elephant that you can't eat.
It's like, where can you start small and local?
So I'm like, what can I do to help?
And so I came up with, OK, I backtracked
through my project.
What would have made this project better?
What would have made this a better experience for me?
How could I have done due diligence and found
a better contractor and things like that?
So I kind of value, reverse engineered, I guess,
is the best way to do it.
And then came up with this process.
And then I've been doing it.
But everybody's like, your process is not brain surgery.
And that's what I say.
It's not brain surgery.
But it is unique because not very many people are doing it.
And so they're like, you need to term it.
So I'm like, OK.
So I came up with the EEV process, the Insured Ease
Design process, playing up EE and Elizabeth Aaron Design,
just changing the thing.
And so then I'm like, OK, I'm doing it.
And I'm showing my clients.
They're like, yeah, you're doing it.
And you're showing your clients.
But how can you get this out there?
How can you make it an even bigger impact on it?
And so now I've started my podcast.
My whole business model has changed around it.
And yeah.
Wow.
OK.
So you have.
And rightfully so, it's been 21 years, right?
Yeah.
Yep, 22 and January 3rd this coming year.
Wow.
So I mean, you've had that experience.
And you've had that time to be able to adjust.
And it's so funny.
We have land.
And we're soon to build in probably the next five years.
And it totally, I was like, oh, no, she's had something to say.
But there's a plan for it.
When you created this and you began this,
please tell me about your vision.
My vision was really working with the clients.
I couldn't articulate it back then,
because it has to evolve.
But right now, as I'm sitting back and looking back on it,
I just wanted to be the bridge between contractor and client.
I thought that there was a better way to communicate,
because the contractors do these things all day long.
And generally speaking, most of the contractors are male.
So they've got a certain set of God made them their brains one
way.
And it doesn't always communicate
to women who are kind of put in charge of the house building.
I mean, a lot more husbands are getting involved, obviously,
with it.
They want it to function.
The women want it to look pretty.
So the function part comes first.
And the looking pretty comes later.
And the main issue is, and I know
I'm going away from the bit.
This will tie back to my vision.
But the main issue is that contractors want clients
to work off of allowances.
So you're building a home.
The first thing they tell you to do is go pick your appliances.
Here's your allowance.
Well, your allowance is $5,000, but the appliances you want
are $19,000.
All right, you're over.
There's money in the budget to go over a little bit.
You're fine.
Then you sign off on it, and they get those ordered.
And now you're going to look at cabinets
and work with a cabinet side.
You're picking things one at a time as the contractor needs
it, not seeing it completed as a whole.
And you're working off of allowances.
So as you go over and over and over to get the function part
done, by the time it comes to light fixtures, plumbing,
your furniture, your window treatments,
nobody thinks about putting that in the budget.
You know what I mean?
You're coming to the middle of your project,
and now you're way over budget.
And now to cancel anything that you've ordered.
For example, one of my clients ended up
doing this glaze that she loved on every one of her cabinets.
And it was probably an extra $35,000 to do this glaze.
Had she known she couldn't get the light fixtures
and the plumbing fixtures that she wanted,
she wouldn't have gone over, because she
was on a decent budget.
But it was over, and it was very frustrating for her.
So I feel like I've always seen myself
as bridging the gap of communication
between the client who doesn't do this every day
and the contractor does, and being an advocate for both.
Because I can explain to the contractor
in terms that they can understand what the client's
feeling and going through, and I can explain to the client
what the contractor's doing and why they're doing it that way,
where it makes sense to the client.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And bridging that gap.
Superhero powers.
And bridging that gap makes all the sense in the world,
because you have the language of a contractor,
but you also have, not in a negative way,
but the human language to actually have
that discussion with your client,
to share with them what it means.
Because of course, at that point, money is a big deal.
Well, yeah, because 80% of all projects, new construction
or remodel, go over budget by 22%.
That's a lot of money.
On a new construction home, if you're
talking like a $700,000 or $800,000 or a $1 million house,
that 20% is a lot.
And the problem is working off of allowances.
So the other way, besides being the bridge of gap
of communication, that's a vision I have.
The other thing is to actually bring that vision to life,
to show people all the things that we're selecting
before they even dig a hole in the ground.
My whole thing is everything has to be designed.
I've dotted T's cross every product selected,
the grout color, all the things need to be done.
And we do it the way the client wants it,
knowing that we're going to be over budget,
because what people see on Pinterest and Instagram
is going to take them over budget.
But I tell them, let's just get it basic,
design the way you want it, and then we'll value engineer it.
Not cut it all out, but by the time
we get through the two rounds of edits,
we make documents that the client or the contractors then
get.
The contractor takes and gets bid on actual things
that the people want.
Because what's important to you might not be important to Jim,
or what's important to Jim might not be important to you.
You might not care if you don't have the most beautiful
chandelier or whatever.
You really want geothermal in your house.
So you want to put more money into function.
So it all weighs, and there's this one pot of money,
but we can move that pot of money
and redistribute it in different ways.
So if we have the whole design up front,
and we think about all the things,
and we tell you how much it's going to cost to do that
and break it all down with the contractor,
then the contractor and my design team
gets together and says, OK, the budget's
$400,000 for this rain model, and right now we're at $475,000.
What are some ways we see that we can value engineer this?
OK, they don't have to go ahead and get the new HVA system.
They could do a mini split in the new addition,
and we could save money that way.
We could not tile, fully tile these beautiful two guest
bathrooms that nobody's going to use.
We'll do their primary bathroom, because that's
the one that's going to get used, but the other one,
let's just do some fiberglass.
That'll save them $30,000.
So we come up with ideas, because we're working as a team,
and then we meet with the client and say, OK, client,
here's where your budget was.
Here's where we came in at, and here's
where we think we can get you closer to your budget.
So we can't get you all the way to $400,000 with your vision,
but we can get you to $425,000.
Is that OK?
And some people are like, I just love it the way I want it.
I'm going to figure out how to get the extra $75,000.
And other people are like, no, let's cut back as far as we
can, and then maybe they'll go so far as one of my clients
and say, OK, our budget was $300,000,
and what we want is $500,000 with everything involved.
Let's break it into two phases.
Let's do the first phase before we sell our home,
and then let's work on once the home sells,
then we can work on phase two, when we break it down together
as a team as to what makes sense with the least amount of angst
or inconvenience to the client to have people come back
and do stuff while you're living there, if that makes sense.
So that's kind of like my vision.
And our whole tagline is achieve your vision,
and that's how we achieve your vision
by being part of the team.
And it takes a person-centered individual, such as yourself,
Jodi, to be able to do that and to have that conversation,
because people want what they want when they want.
Interesting enough is I'm a full-time real estate agent,
so you're speaking the language that I hear very often.
But again, people want what they want, right?
And it's up to you, as it has been in my field,
is to make sure they get that in a budget that fits them.
So you're right, achieving their goals,
but having it make sense in the knowledge and in the money.
Exactly.
Well, that's why you can say, I'm working on this little
cabana right now, and we did this beautiful tile.
And I'm like, you can take the tile accent wall off.
It's $6,900, but you're going to want something there.
We either need an accent paint color,
or you need wallpaper and an artwork.
So if you take off the tile, you'll save about $2,000.
So is it worth to take the tile off because it
does such a wow factor?
Is there something else we can remove so that you
can keep that tile wall?
But until you have numbers and until you have a design,
you have no idea.
One of my clients, we were doing a show home one year,
and they had a 22-foot wall.
And we did this beautiful 3D textured geotile all the way
up and down as you're going down the stairwell.
It was beautiful.
And then another thing that we gave them,
an option we gave them was, we don't have to do the tile.
What if we did this trim accent wall?
It would have saved them like $6,000 or $7,000.
And they're like, no, we really like the tile.
But they were able to make those decisions.
And so we cut back in some other places
so that they're putting their money where they want to put it
and what makes sense to them and what they really gravitated
towards.
Yes, yes.
Makes all the sense in the world.
You sound so passionate.
You have a passion in this.
And yes, anyone that's in business for as long
as you've been, there is a passion.
How did you get started?
I understand 2003.
But where did this love come from?
Since I was a little girl.
I know a lot of people say that.
But I was literally seven years old.
I remember, I don't know, some family event.
But all my family was gathered in the kitchen
with my grandparents and everything.
And I said, I'm going to go to Iowa State University.
And I'm going to graduate.
I'm going to go to design.
And I'm going to go to New York City.
And they're like, ha ha, whatever.
I was on a farm in Iowa.
I literally lived little house in the prairie.
I had got up at 5.30 in the morning
to go get the bucket cows fed before I got on the school bus.
So I'm literally grounded that I can put on a ball gown and heels
and go.
I think that's another unique thing about me.
So it kind of got started back then.
My grandma, Charlotte, was a beautiful seamstress.
And she had her own company called Rich Chardon Designs.
And she made clothes for people.
She was a seamstress.
And she taught me how to sew.
And of course, I had my Barbie house
that they had, I think, an Amish person make.
And it was all wood.
And there was nothing in there.
And I was like, well, this is beautiful.
But it's boring.
I was constantly cutting up scraps of fabric
and taping them to the walls as wallpaper,
cutting different, they look like bedding
and different things like that.
So I've always been very creative in a very family that's
a little creative, but more so like we don't leave Iowa
type of thing.
Right.
You got to stand out.
And you actually, you did exactly what you set out to do.
I did.
I graduated from Iowa State University.
I went to New York City.
I did an internship there.
I'm like checking all the boxes.
Yes.
And that's determination.
It's an inner knowing, I guess.
Don't fight it.
Just be led where you're led.
Yeah.
And when you talk about your vision
and how long you've been in this business,
I definitely want to know what was your most significant
learning experience.
Oh my gosh.
It would have to be pivoting and trusting myself.
Right.
You have to be able to pivot.
I mean, I went through a move from New Jersey
where women would go upstairs and hand me $80,000
to do one room.
Then they put part payment on a credit card.
And then they give me a check.
I called it the husband payment plan.
So I'm like, they're spending $100,000 on one room.
So I went from a situation like that to,
are we really moving to Iowa?
Because I was out of Iowa longer than I was ever in Iowa.
And yes, it was Des Moines.
But I'm like, OK, I guess they're
building a new Walmart by my house.
So that's my backup plan.
I can always go work at Walmart.
How am I going to take what I know about design
and what I started this business in New Jersey
and translate it into Iowa where women are strong.
They bake their own bread.
They have their babies by the tree.
They don't need help from anybody.
That's what I knew of Iowa.
Far from the case, Des Moines, Iowa
is probably one of the most hidden best kept secrets.
And even though I'm in Florida and the weather's amazing,
I miss Des Moines.
I came back this fall.
And my heart was aching for it.
It's just so beautiful with the bike trails and everything else.
Not so much now that they have snow on the ground.
Right.
It is a very cool place.
So yeah, so just pivoting.
I had to pivot there.
I had to pivot when I got a new person.
I had to pivot when I hired my first employee because that
meant relinquishing control, which is not easy for a type
A person who's had to control everything.
I pivoted during when we got our new storefront.
We grew so fast.
We're all working out of my house, which was insanity.
I cannot believe it lasted as long as it did.
Until I trusted myself enough to pull the trigger
and get a storefront.
And I had that.
Then COVID happened.
I had 14 employees.
And 14 women in one space is quite a lot of hormones.
And so that was a learning experience.
Don't grow too fast.
Too many too fast.
So then we pivoted down.
And now we're at a nice, even, beautiful seven.
And we're nationwide because COVID taught me
that I can trust.
And we will get work done.
And we will make it work.
Just trust the process a little bit.
And trust where you're led.
And don't be fear-based.
Anything done out of fear is just going to hold you back.
Just listen to your heart, pivot, and move forward.
And thank you so much for saying that, Jodi.
It's not easy.
I tell everybody entrepreneurship,
having a business of your own isn't easy.
As you stated before, you acquired this business
from a business partner that wanted to go separate ways.
However, you decided to keep going.
And now look at where you are.
We know, and I'm sure it hasn't always been easy.
It could not have always been easy.
No.
But you know what?
I was getting in my own way.
It was all me.
I mean, the spiritual journey that I have been on,
I can totally see I was getting in my own way.
And I was leading with fear instead of being like,
what literally it took me, like just three years ago,
I was like, OK, we moved to Florida.
And I felt like God wanted us to be like I
was supposed to be in Florida.
Like everything just worked out.
There was no fighting it.
It just happened.
It was beautiful.
And I'm like, OK, this is where we're supposed to be.
What's happening?
Why is there no business?
Why is this not happening?
What am I not doing?
I don't get it.
And then everything just had to slow down
so that I could focus on myself and get
myself to be a better employer, to be a better business owner,
to be a better everything.
So I have a feeling 2025 is going to be pretty amazing.
I am super stoked.
As I mentioned before, I was super excited to come on
to talk to you about it because reading everything, one
of the biggest things about Vision Pros Live
and how I co-host is truly understanding the person
behind the website.
And I tell you, you marry the two.
You marry the two.
And Jodi, for what it's worth, I'm super proud of you.
Oh, thank you.
You made me cry.
Oh my gosh, that's so sweet.
How far you've come.
I mean, you've made it through some situations
that most people didn't.
It could either make you or break you.
And it didn't break you.
It only enhanced you.
And in 2020, you became nationwide.
And now you have moved from state to state.
But you still have this joy and this love
for this passionate design.
And you're expanding.
Super proud of you.
And I cannot wait to see where this goes.
I'm super excited as well.
Yes, yes.
So 2025, that's your year, Jodi.
I feel like it's all like how you have missing pieces
of the puzzle.
And you're like, I just want to put this puzzle together.
I did a spiritual retreat just like a few weeks ago.
I went to Costa Rica.
And I feel like I'm figuring out it's
being revealed, the missing pieces,
so that I can put the puzzle together to be whole.
Thank you for being here today.
I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live.
I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions as these
episodes continue to move forward.
This is going to get more and more fun.
We'll have more and more engagement as well.
We'll invite people to participate in the show.
And thank you for giving us your time and attention.
Have an excellent time building out your vision
and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.