Leading from the Feminine

By Laura Martin Bovard

Iam an expert at transformation of self and home. Shepherding people through transformation is my jam… I have spent 30 years relentlessly hunting my own shadows, so I can show up to my Interior Design business courageous, boundaried, and bold. Building this business has forced me to confront the beliefs and strategies that were holding me back in life and in the process, rewrite many of the stories I started out with as a young designer, what I thought I knew about how to be a successful businessperson.

And one of the most powerful realizations I have had, the most effective reinventions, something that completely changed how I do business, how I feel in my life, and how much success I create, is leading my business from The Feminine.

What is Feminine energy?

It’s about looking not for what is right or wrong; but rather seeing where the opportunity is to learn and grow. It’s always handling situations from the perspective of being a creatrix: What did we do to co-create the situation we are in? — even if, clearly, it’s someone else’s fault; because that person is in our lives for a reason or that situation has something to show us about what we need to do to learn and grow.

Here are some tips for you, based on how I lead my business from the Feminine

Treat your business like a lover

I have come to see LMB Interiors as its own separate being. I revere it. I treat it as a lover. I ask, “What do you want, business?” “What do you need to grow?” “How may I thank you for all of the resources and abundance you have given me, the homes that have benefited from you, the clients, my employees, and their families that have benefited?”

This practice has been a revelation.

Share what you have learned

At this stage in my career, I want to share what I have learned. I want to teach younger designers how to revere their businesses as a beloved, yes, and also as a reflection of the level of their own spiritual and emotional well-being. Because seeing this, and then using the tools that this perspective makes possible, is a revolution. A rising tide lifts all boats.

Personal development is an act of radical business development

I’ve had to overcome my own limiting self-talk. My childhood traumas taught me to minimize myself in order to make others feel comfortable. A few years ago, I stumbled on an elegant solution to this; I created an alter-ego (my “Divine Hustler”) who was more deserving, more articulate, more powerful than the insecure version of myself that my parents raised.

For many years in my adult life, I felt like a fraud. I had to overcome all of the programming of a culture that had all these stories about wealth, what it was, who deserved it, and what quality was, and what beauty was. Essentially I had to overcome the social conditioning of my upbringing in an uneducated, poor family, not to mention the patriarchy that surrounds us so completely that we don’t even see it, that we breathe like air. Growing and leading your business from the Feminine doesn’t necessarily mean female-bodied, though it can. All of us have essences of Masculine and Feminine in ourselves that we can identify and develop.

I created my Alter Ego, the Divine Hustler, to help myself become the person I wanted to be, and here I am — maybe 20 upgrades later! — I am now living that future self. I think we interior designers need to treat ourselves and our businesses in the same ways, meaning both deserve vision, self-development, and upgrades. Designers need to see the vision for our future business as if the best version of ourselves, our future self, (if needed, our Alter Ego), is running it.

Seek out “Expanders”

I recommend looking to other successful people for inspiration and ideas, a.k.a. “Expanders.” An Expander for me is Tucker & Marks in San Francisco: they take photographs of every project; they delegate tasks to professionals; they take half of their income and invest it back into the business; and maybe most importantly, they turn down projects that are not a fit, and they do this without fear because they know and trust that more projects will come.

Maintain healthy boundaries

It’s taken me 18 years to get to this place of being willing to turn down clients and projects that are not the right fit. Over the years in those situations, I kept thinking, “Am I going to have enough work?” When you’ve been around this industry long enough, you come to know, there will always be more work. At the same time, you are prepared. You are always putting systems in place as if you are a more mature business, acting as-if, being ready for that future version, even during the slow times.

When you treat your business like it is its highest, mostevolved self, it will flourish. This means you offer it your regard, your reverence, you treat it with respect, AND you have boundaries; thus, you simply don’t take on certain clients that would violate those boundaries.

Build your team & be open to change

Let’s say that some of us who run successful companies tend to be high-functioning, Type-A women, and as such, we believe we are supposed to do everything on our own.

I have found that I cannot run a company without collaboration, or at least, I wouldn’t want to. Everything from planning a trip, to writing articles like this one, to executing social media campaigns, to executing designs for clients, I have a team. There is a connection of sisterhood around everything I do. My social media team, my marketing writer, my studio manager, my expediter, my designers, and my intern — we are all in this together.

In the process of building my team, what I have come to recognize is that every relationship is going to be in my life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. Thus, not all of my consultants or employees are going to be permanent members of the team, and that is perfectly fine.

When I am hiring, I have learned that it is especially important to consider whether this person will be a fit with the culture of my firm. They could be immensely talented, but if our personalities, energies, and communication styles are not harmonious, the relationship will either grow both of us towards harmony or come to a natural end.

Self-care is marketing / marketing is self-care

When you invest in your marketing, that is self-care for your business. When you invest in your own ongoing training, and self-reflection, and even how you care for your body, these acts will translate into you being your best self, and your business will benefit.

Both you and your business need expanders and a vision for the future, as well as reverence, boundaries, and self-care.

Be philanthropic

Another seemingly paradoxical strategy that has paid off for me over the years is being generous — which has included donating money and time to philanthropic causes, but also even referring projects to other designers who I thought were a better fit for a project! This is part of having an abundance mindset. And everyone benefits.

Bonus takeaway: Prioritize self-care and pleasure

A woman who is filled up, turned on, full of herSelf; all she wants to do is give and share. That means giving quality design to your clients, giving staff a bonus, having mani-pedis in the office — making it fun to be at work.

Ken Lowney, an architect and friend of mine, once said to me — at the point when I had been running the business from my downstairs family room for 10 years: “Laura, move your business out of your house and into a legitimate office space and you will never regret it.” And he was 100% right. I wish I hadn’t waited so long.

That advice may need to be a bit different now because of Covid. Instead, this might be a time to get rid of the big office, the overhead; and have employees and contractors working from home. But the idea remains the same. Is the space that houses your business worthy of the quality of work that you do? Does it nourish and inspire your work?

Even if I can’t leave the house, I take a shower, put on makeup and lip gloss just for myself. Energetically, the lines begin to blur when people show up to work, even at home, in sweats

and uncombed hair. I do still have my office, and I like having that boundary. When I’m driving home, I start thinking about turning on the sauna and putting on my silk kimono — a Kim+Ono robe — it’s a whole ritual I do.

And it’s the same for going to work. Getting dressed for work helped me forge this new version of myself. I have found my brand — earthy chic — I don’t think if I was working from home in sweats every day that I would have evolved to this version of adorning myself with feminine accouterments, the makeup, jewelry, and clothing — it’s like putting on my superhero cape!

You have to have your Mr. Rogers moment: Take off your dressy shoes and put on your slippers — even if it’s just as you walk from your home office to the rest of the house. That transition helps create the feeling of separate, equally revered spaces, and the

reverence you hold for yourself, at work and at rest.

When you can realize that the process of preparing yourself to go see your business as if it is a lover — showing up with such reverence — you want your business to notice you! Here comes my girlfriend, she’s going to do me right today, thinks your business, quivering with anticipation. It makes work more fun to think in these metaphors….

For me, the day-to-day process of self-care, making my Rasa coffee mix, listening to podcasts, all become ritualistic experiences. That is what being in the moment is, loving what is, being present — loving what is, is the prize. Operating from the Feminine, work is not a grind. It becomes effortless. We pause, we allow, we don’t contort, don’t rush to an answer. We trust that the answers will come.

About Laura Martin Bovard

Interior Designer Laura Martin Bovard will tell you that she could not have imagined that her current multi-million-dollar business with eight employees was even possible — and that it would be this much fun — back when she started designing from her dining room table in 2002. Today LMB Interiors is a sought-after award-winning high-end interior design firm with an earthy chic vibe. Known for working with local Oakland and Bay Area artists and workrooms, LMB Interiors creates unique, personalized, soulful interiors that celebrate community, connection, creativity, family, and home. Laura runs her business from the Divine Feminine, alchemizing spiritual and material practices into a thriving company — with a lot of cussing and dance parties and Zoom calls and mani-pedis thrown in.