The Ins & Outs - Going Real Deep

Episode Date: September 12, 2023

It's episode 1 and we're going real deep. We'll be letting you know what to expect from the next 5 episodes, discussing how we got started in the industry, our career highlights and professional and personal struggles along the way. We're trying to create a podcast that's really helpful to you when it comes to interiors and exteriors. So, if you have any questions, message them to us on instagram, @the_insandouts_ and we'll answer them. Come at us!InstagramJojo - @houseninedesignPolly - @pollyanna_wilkinsonWebsitesJojo - https://www.housenine.co.uk/Polly - https://www.pollyannawilkinson.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Green, the colour of true elation, pine on a summer's day, see I've been waiting for you, waiting for you Welcome to the very first episode of the Ins and Outs podcast! Yeah baby! Yes Polly, we are so excited to be here. This podcast is really all about helping you with any inside-outside dilemmas you have. In this very first episode we are going to be telling you about how we got into the industry, about our career journeys and giving you some advice on how you can break the industry yourself and if you've got no interest in being in the industry then we're here to help you with all of your home and garden dilemmas

and to answer any of your questions. We are going to be giving you the highs and lows, delving a little bit into our personal lives. And finally, you're going to hear a little bit about puking children and how Polly got blanked by the Queen. So this is a limited six episode series. So for us to keep going with this, we really need you guys to like, subscribe and follow the podcast so that we know that you're loving it and that you're learning something

and that you want to hear more. So don't forget to do that. So the reason for this podcast is not just that we can sit and have a good chinwag. It's actually because we really want to help people and not make the mistakes that we see happen so much in so many of our projects and with so many of our clients. So we are doing this podcast to help you guys. We're going to talk about back to basics. So first of all, how the hell you look at a layout on your house or your garden or where do you start on what is quite a daunting project? We're going to talk about light.

We're going to talk about colour. And then most excitingly, we're going to take some questions and do a full on agony on solve your problems from paint colours to plants. And that's going to be in the final final episode yes it will of our first season let's start it let's do it i'm so excited let's start right from the top hole who are you that's a big deep question i know it's deep you can go as deep as you like you know you can keep it quite surface or you can go real deep wow you know i like it deep oh my god i just did that again what is wrong with me everyone knows my mind i know it it's filthy um who am i yes who is pollyanna wilkinson who is pollyanna wilkinson who is her essence

how did you become the super successful badass woman that you are today so we've got really differing stories actually so I I freaking love this because I love hearing how people particularly creatives get into to where they are so like loads of people I think I'm maybe I'm speaking for too many people I followed the trajectory that my parents were comfortable with which was like go to school go to uni get a good salaried job. For me, I was a management consultant at Deloitte, you know, straight out of uni, boop, into that corporate gig, you know, climb that ladder. And I lasted nine months and I was not loving it.

I didn't love it because I was posted to a council in Herefordshire. So I left Deloitte and I briefly flirted with event management but I worked somewhere where you had to buy your own loo roll which I always thought was a bit weird. What? There was a company that you had to buy? The office just never had loo roll so you had to go down and buy your own loo roll and then I just fell into legal marketing. I think a lot of people in their 20s you don't know what you're doing you just kind of work with recruiters and then I found myself there for a decade and I didn't know what else I wanted to do so I just kind of kept doing it until like many women our age I had kids and I knew I wanted to work just because uh I just wasn't really cut out for being staying at home with them love them

don't really want to be with them all day and so I had to ask myself that question of if I'm paying an extortion amount in child care then it better be for something that I really want to do so that is when I retrained it took ages to figure out what I wanted to do that's so interesting what age did you leave what you're doing to then enter into getting a design job 30 yeah this is really amazing because I find that design is quite an aspirational career choice and therefore I think exactly as you just said I think a lot of people don't do it because they think it's not going to particularly pay well which I'll be really honest it doesn't you do it more for the love of it but I do think that a lot of people do exactly what you say maybe a little bit of persuasion from their parents to go and make sure that they only

because they care and they want you to be you know secure but then you enter and getting into jobs that just you know pay the bills and you can earn well better than you could in a creative job yeah and actually I do have to own that I was only able to retrain as a result of having the kids and then being very small. And I sort of retrained whilst they were at home and then started the business at the same time as kind of having them at home. So it kind of grew with the kids. And I appreciate that that's a luxury. I was able to do it because retraining is expensive. Starting a business from scratch and earning peanuts for the first few years is a luxury that a lot of people yeah can't have which again is why either you have to do it

when you're younger and have support from your parents or do it later in life when you can have support from a partner or you know you have that sort of financial security that does tend to be why the career change happens into design which is why we hear so much from you i know this is why we wanted to talk about this sort of career so much in design is that the the amount of people that come to us and ask how do I get into design I'm in this job how can I leave where do I go where do I study I think it's easy to say it's not a quick fix I'm going to do a three-month course and then start you can but you're still going to have to work in the same places you're still going to have to you know work just as hard harder if you haven't had a haven't had an education in it I started my studio very green and you learn as you go but I mean all business owners learn as they go I think

what was your salary I didn't have one for two years but equally I sort of worked around the kids so at least I wasn't paying child care but salary yeah salary who has a salary is the first year like I was designing for nothing uh for year one I was a design assistant and I was under 16 grand I was 26 years old that's tough but it's you're doing it because you love it you want to do it yeah and that's the price you pay I would have loved to have gone into a studio and I've talked about this before but studios usually want full time and I was like I've got two kids that have norovirus chicken pox every like vomiting bug going every other day how do you do that and and go and work in a studio and sort of prove yourself

and climb that ladder on a five-day week usually in town yeah I couldn't I couldn't make it work so for me it was a case of I'm gonna have to start on my own and it's just the business has grown with the children which is lovely and like many many others you're sort of scrappling around for work and offering to do things for friends for very little or for glasses of wine and then you do one and it begets another and it begets another and here we are eight years later uh with a much bigger studio but it takes time and those first years were tough yeah it's graft oh it's graft it's graft kids when the kids are sleeping you are opening your laptop and working yeah it is relentless yeah there wasn't like a lot of coffee mornings it was just working the evenings um

working in between play groups so I found it really tough and very lonely. It's the loneliest thing and actually since I've listened to many podcasts about business and entrepreneurs business owners I am so actually quite reassured to hear how every business owner says it's the loneliest thing to own a business it's really lonely. Even now I still find it very lonely. Even now which is why I remember so well Paul when you and I became friends in this big old design world I remember I had this sort of instant feeling of support because you don't have a business partner and I don't have a business partner so we set up our businesses from scratch on our own from our dining tables and we've done it all on our own offering backs with our own money offering backs and i think and it's just hard graft motivation and that's what's made us you

know i'd say it's pretty successful today i think that's what made us bond but that's what bond made us bond because we call i remember we used to call each other and ask for advice on this client's done this or i've got a problem with this contract or what would you do in this scenario and i think because we're in the same industry but removed by the fact that one's inside removed by wall divided separated by wall it felt really appropriate I could talk to you and ask you about anything and turns out I think you're pretty awesome as well right back at you pal now come on you share your story because it's very different where do I start I from a young age I would say I was always creative and it's probably the one thing that I was passionate about as a kid. I would always, I didn't like school.

I never liked school and I was in all girls private day school and I just never felt like I fit in. I always liked sort of playing with the underdog or I was always socialising in the corridor or I was always that kid that was just never. was always socializing in the corridor or I was always that kid that was just never my my head my head teacher's words pulled my parents into into a classroom after school and said in front of me Joanna is never going to amount to anything all she does is spend her time socializing in the corridors or misbehaving in the toilets I used to get balls of tissue paper I was I had a really good friend called Robin in school when I was in middle school. And we used to go to the loo. I don't know what the thing was.

We used to get this toilet tissue, tissue paper, and make it really wet and then throw it up at the ceiling and it would stick like a pancake on the ceiling. Of course, one of our teachers walked in and found us doing it. So we got in trouble. But I wasn't a naughty kid. I was just, I never felt like I knew, I never found my place. I really felt so out of place. I was so non-academic. I didn't like I knew I never found my place I really felt so out of place I was so non-academic I didn't like academia anything it used to terrify me and so it always felt like

the fit kid at school I always felt like the one that just wasn't you know and so I left that school went to sixth form college went to Isha college which was actually really like quite arty and a bit more media and I sort of felt like I fit in there but then I discovered boys because I'd been in an all-girls school and then boys became the subject that I became most interested in and then that lasted a while but I came out with just the same flair for art I was always into art always loved it but I left gosh I then met a tennis player which is like really random traveled on the ATP tour with him and I kept every time I sort of almost go to start something I'd get distracted probably by a boy oh gosh and then so when I came back my mum was like what are we going to do with you sat me down like you you gave up your place to go to university to study

some ridiculous Mickey Mouse subject that I was never going to amount to anything doing and then I was like do you know what I my mum put this newspaper article in front of me and it was about Foxton's and she said, you get a free car, you get a 16 grand salary and you'll get a bonus, whatever. I thought, do you know what? Fuck it, I'll do that. That sounds good.

I'm going to go and be an estate agent. So I went off to be a lettings negotiator for Foxton's in Putney and loved it. It was great. I was in an office with like 12 blokes um it was really good fun well it's just great fun apart from there's only one toilet you can imagine what that's like so that was really fun and i had a really good time and i bought and sold my first flat with my boyfriend at the time in putney and but again i was just like what am i doing i'm doing a career

just because i'm doing it to make money and to pay my i mean i was you know living in a little flat that i decorated the whole thing myself top to bottom I did all the entire my entiling tile the fireplace so even from that age I always loved interiors I mean it probably looked god-awful if you told me what it looked like now I'd love to see some photos but anyway so then split up with that boyfriend sold the flat and I thought you know what I'm doing something I really don't like doing and I saw an advert somewhere could have even been in a tube station for KLC design school so I looked into it and I couldn't afford the year course so I couldn't afford to do the year so I thought I'll just do the short course yeah and I did and I

started it I was living with a girlfriend of mine in Chelsea at the time and renting a room off her and I just dove headfirst when I say headfirst into this course I rolled up my sleeves and I threw myself at it at the age of 25 years old I think I was and I threw myself at it headfirst wholeheartedly and loved it like just loved that course so much and I would highly recommend Kelsey to anyone I loved it and I finally felt like oh my god I've finally found the thing that I wanted to do and money was never a driver for me I was never money driven at all I never have been never wanted expensive things or anything like that it was just that I wanted to find my purpose in life and I think I'd finally found it and then I went off to study um

I got my first job at a little interior design practice in Chelsea. And then I just worked my way up from there. But hard graft and a minimal salary, 16 grand, then to 18 grand, 21 grand. I mean, it was a slow process. I think it's more well paid now because I think it's a bit more established design. But yeah, and then I set up House 9 about eight years ago. Have you in your eight years of owning your own practice ever thought fuck it this is just too much like hard work I'm really over this this is just a lot I have always loved it ever since I started I have bloody loved it I love it

so much I have felt agonizingly lonely what do you absolutely love about it um it's on my own terms I think is a really big part of the business for me is sort of I can work as hard as I want and see success so that I find very satisfying I love the creativity I love working with the clients like the very best projects are when they're like we trust you you do you and they're oh there's it's just so delicious and working with plants I just it's a joy and I could talk about it forever so I've never been like I want out I've wanted company uh but now I have a team which is lovely but the only time where I've been truly devastated with my work is when I haven't when I've been at show gardens and not got the medal I wanted and I have something about your peers who are your judges

judging you and you're not getting a gold medal it's very painful oh really oh it feels that is the biggest failure I felt with my work and it was of my own volition you don't have to do show gardens it's your own choice is when I didn't get a gold and it's um I still got a very good medal but I didn't get a gold and it's agonizing let's be really honest here let's just really honest I at the end of last year I was ready to throw the practice in I'd had enough were you yeah you didn't let on that to me I know you're having a tough time but I was really to the point where I think I've I've found running a practice and I have I've obviously got a team and it's you know you're making ends meet and it genuinely is like that and the pricing structure in our industry is is just you know it's really hard to try and figure out everyone prices

differently you know some designers charge a lot more than others depending on experience and clients you sometimes lose clients because they'll go to someone else because they're cheaper not because actually we can do a much better job for you but because that person's cheaper so there's a lot of competition out there we were struggling with a couple of clients at the end of last year who just were being really difficult and making my team's life difficult I've worked for companies where I was really not made to feel good about myself and I promised myself that if I had a studio of my own with a team, that I would look after them. It's so important that they feel like it's a safe place

and they can enjoy what they do. And they're rewarded for their hard work. And it just felt like we were just getting a bit of a battering last year, just constantly. And it just felt like it was just one thing after another. And honestly, I felt like all I was doing was putting out fires. And whilst also just felt like it was just one thing after another. And honestly, I felt like all I was doing was putting out fires. And it was also trying to be a mum and feeling like I wasn't doing well at that. And because I felt like I wasn't doing any one thing right. Everything just

felt like it was just a struggle. And I just thought, you know what, maybe it would just be easier if it just went back to being me again. And I felt and I was really at the last year, funny enough, was probably at my lowest point where I felt really lonely I felt really really lonely and probably didn't ever speak about that to many people but I felt like I was just at a point where I was like I'm just over having to manage other people's constantly manage other people's expectations when I know how hard we work and I know how hard my team work and I'm not going to have it anymore I'd rather just go back to just being me. That's how I felt. And I was having this conversation with a really good local friend of mine at our local pub and her husband was there and he'd done

this brilliant course, this business course. And he was like, mate, it sounds like you need to do like you need some help. You know, you don't have a therapist, you don't have a business coach, you don't have a mentor. You just need some help. You've been doing this a long time and, you know, in a business, it is a lonely place lonely place it's a really it's hard to know really what you're doing especially when you're doing on your own and so I did I jumped on this business course and that was an intense three-month period of like just learning and picking my business part and learning everything there was to know about it and then putting it all back together again and now have come honestly started this year with a completely new perspective like i am a new person in business it's amazing oh i love that yeah but

i honestly last year i was at my lowest point i was like i'm over this but i do think you as a business owner you have bet mgm is an official sports betting partner of the national hockey league and has your back all season long. From puck drop to the final shot, you're always taken care of with the sportsbook Born in Vegas. That's a feeling you can only get with Bet MGM. And no matter your team, your favorite skater, or your style, there's something every NHL fan is going to love about Bet MGM. Download the app today and discover why Bet MGM is your hockey home for the season. Raise your game to the next level this year

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If you have any questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connex Ontario at 1-866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. BetMGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with iGaming Ontario. Ebbs and flows of it just feeling really fucking great. And then the next minute, the wave crashes and you're just like, this is you know such hard work i've worked so hard on this and it's so thankless and you know at the end of the day you're taking someone's money and you're responsible for it and making something beautiful for them and and you're sadly off the back of that also responsible for every single supply and trade and everything else that comes into it i know you're how you run

how garden design works are slightly different because we do all the procurement yes everything down to the the fabric and the lines and the you know the flooring and the word there's a lot of builders and the contractors and the project managers and the architects and so there's so many facets of our business people that you have to manage that it can be relentless i think relentless is the word i would use and it's it's really interesting um when I go and speak at sort of colleges and schools about this and a lot of people want to go into business on their own it's the one thing I say is you're going to be really lonely and you will never have a day off again but on the flip side of that I would encourage anyone not everybody has it in

them to run their own ship I just think that's, I just think you do or you don't. And some people are really happy just working for other people. And I totally and utterly get that. But I do think I would still encourage people to not take what we've said and not want to start their own business because I do think it is challenging. It is lonely.

It is relentless. But it's awesome. You wouldn't do it we love it and it's a challenge so every day is different the bigger you get the bigger the studio gets the bigger the challenges become the bigger the problem problems become yeah but the better you manage them and the stronger you become and you put you put really good people around you so we're both mums and business owners how'd you find that oh it's it's a challenge in that I'm doing it because I love what I do I started house nine before I'd had Ziggy actually thought I couldn't have children so I went through quite a struggle of not having being able to have kids so when I then did get pregnant with Ziggy, my child, my baby was house nine.

So then when I was pregnant, I worked right up until I dropped. And then when I dropped, I was literally back to work. I had her strapped on me. We were doing Garrock Hotel in Devon, this hotel that we designed. And I had her strapped on me with a bit in a baby carrier. And she was three days old and I was on a building site. And I remember I didn't put nipple pads on. I forgot to put nipple pads on.

And I was literally leaking milk. And the guys on site were like, Jojo, you've got something going on there. A little bit of milk in your tea. And I just remember being like, this is just so unheard of that anyone would do this. And I remember my mum came down with me because Brad was working at the time. And my mum was like, you're on a building site. You've got to take some time off, Jojo. And I was like, I can't.

I can't. This is what I do. I have to be here. I have to see this through. And that was it. I didn't go back from there. There was no time off. I didn't have maternity leave.

I didn't do coffee mornings. I didn't go to from there there was no time off I didn't have maternity leave I didn't do coffee mornings I didn't go to mum clubs I was just working so I think it caught up with me later that I really felt like I'd not given her my full that sort of early days time but I ran my own business so I could spend time with her in the morning and I could you know I took her to work with me I had her in the office with me a lot and in a pram in the office was trying to work and and the girls obviously their team were amazing and so although it has its sort of it downsides I think as I've then become a mum with now a five and a three year old they need me more than they did then so now it's more like I I hate myself when I'm I'm so in work mode at the end of the day and they come home from school and I'm on my phone and I just need to do this.

And they're like, mummy, mummy, mummy, mummy. And I'm like, I can't right now, darling. I've just got to send this email. And I can see their little faces and they just want me. And I'm just like, oh, what do I put first? You know, you can't, you't you're constantly torn I think any working mum will just know it's so hard because you constantly feel like you're you know what should you be putting first you know because one had one piece of bills and it's something you love

and the other one is something you love but that needs you and you know so it's a real it's a balancing act like it's just it's it's hard but it's brilliant I love it I love real, it's a balancing act. It's just, it's hard, but it's brilliant. I love it. I love both of it. Like I genuinely am saying that. I'm not trying to now sugarcoat it. Both are bloody brilliant and fucking challenging both at the same time. It's not all work.

You've just been on holiday. Looked epic. Two week holiday, which I don't think I'd ever not do again. And again, this is another reason when you run your own business, you can take time. You can take your business away with you. Obviously, like again, kids have really hard work and you know and if you haven't unless you've got help it's full on and and we we had some really funny experiences when we're away of when we turned up rocket bought a sick bug with her and was like she literally threw oh my god we went to the supermarket and uh day one and you know when you

know little ones not well because they get very clingy and cry yeah we thought it was maybe because she was tired we just got the flight first things first let's just get to the fucking supermarket and stock up the fridge for when we get to the villa so we're going around we're going like super speed like around this foreign supermarket up and down the aisles throwing stuff in right with getting there and rocky is just going more and more pale and she's just really grisly and i put her in the little trolley bit they can sit in got to the final aisle which is my favorite aisle booze the booze aisle nice genuinely this sounds like i'm making this up we we genuinely got to the booze aisle which is the very last aisle in the supermarket and we're pulling out pulling out the pooling and reds and the roses and then i'm

sort of probably spending a bit too much time looking at the label. Anyway, starting putting them in and Rocky's just like, like this. And I was like, fuck. So I picked her up, pulled her out. And I was like, oh God, she's going to go. She's going to go. And she just went like this and just projectiles all over the wine aisle.

And then she did it like three times and of course he's standing there holding my i'm going mummy mummy what's wrong with her mummy and you know and their eyes are just like it was just and i was like fuck you know when you know the part of your brain is like oh my god my poor child and you want to hug and you're like i really don't want to get sick all over me so you're like oh darling darling and then and then at the same time you're also the other the other part of your brain's like my god how are we going to pay for all the shopping but i try to go to hospital okay and like million things going on in my head so i'll take the child you buy the shopping and then i got her outside and of course brad's like do i buy the shopping do i not buy the shopping

anyway i'm sitting in this air-conditioned car with her like rocking her thinking oh my god where's the nearest hospital anyway she had this sick bug that she'd bought I think I don't even know if it was covid or what it was but we had that for three days yeah did you learn how to say in Italian I'm sorry for all the sick no I think it was probably quite obvious from our reaction it was it was projectile it was it was fun we laughed about it actually even rocky laughed about it afterwards we thought it was quite amazing and then then the following week the girls were outside in the villa playing magic potions i basically give them a jam jar each fill them with a little bit of water and they go off around the garden and they put things in and

make it like a magic potion i do something very similar do you like all like perfume or something i'm sort of in the house i thought i'll go out and check where they are it's gone very quiet you know when it goes quiet that's never good news quiet it went really quiet and i was like where are the little fuckers and suddenly these like pitter patter they came running in straight past me into the bathroom and they were like we're so beautiful and i was like and I walked in and they had got the craft scissors and absolutely gone to town on their hair like like weird Barbie oh no think Liam Gallagher circa 1990 front back like a German biker oh yeah German biker straight Liam Gallagher so chic it was really not chic it was I cried I cried in the shower I was so upset I was like oh my god she's starting school I mean I had to pull myself

together like gave myself a slap JJ sort yourself out it's bloody hair but I just looked at my little girl who had this beautiful blonde beachy baby hair and it is just this mash-up of biker and Noel that's one for the wedding though, pal. That's a story for the ages. Have you had any shockers like that with your kids? Absolute shockers? They used to crap in the garden sometimes. Oh, don't we all?

They thought that was absolutely hilarious. Fertiliser. And I was like, I don't know. You know, because wild wee with little boys out and about. Well, maybe with little girls too. Oh, no, girls do too. Yeah. So I'd be like, wild wee.

And I think they just took the wild wee to a next level. Wild poo. And I was like, no, you've crossed a line. You've crossed a line. You've done pretty well then. You've got quite well behaved boys. I wouldn't go that far, pal. I just think that they've, yeah, I mean, there's been no scissors incidents.

I mean, they've vomited everywhere. Once one of them vomited in my mouth. Oh, God. Just a little. Just a little. how old are we talking he was only three okay we have that's a that's a direct way of getting norovirus taking it back to business here because that's we're meant to be being helpful sorry if we're not but what about you with running your business and the boys how do you cope with it well I've been very lucky my my now ex-husband or almost ex-husband it takes a long time to divorce um is he was amazing but it's the whole paperwork you've got to wait a lot of weeks it's a whole thing

um but he was amazing I mean he is integral to why I became a garden designer incredibly supportive man and just a brilliant guy was very Gwyneth and Chris he was super supportive of me training he was super supportive of the business he also runs his own business so we then found ourselves as the business grew in a really challenging place of both running our own having no work boundaries and and tag teaming just like you but being like it's your turn it's your turn it's your turn so I found that very tricky and the thing I find hardest and it's my own problem but I think a lot of women face it is I'm so I I'm so defensive of my business and not being painted as a hobbyist in my career so I really worry that people like oh she's a mum so she's

not going to be as committed as that man who's not a mum. And that's my thing, right? That is so interesting. Which is why I share so much less about my life on social media, because I'm worried I will be seen as less competent or less as a professional. And that's, oh, you know, the patriarchy. Let's not get into that. But that's my stuff.

But I think it's something a lot of female business owners feel. Yeah, I do. Funnily enough, I think it's the opposite for me. Really? I think when I had children, I suddenly felt more accepted as a woman with like a mother because it was much more relatable to my clients because most of my clients I'm going to say 90% of them have children yeah and therefore they wanted to have somebody that got it yes when I'm designing a house and even actually none of my team yet have little ones and it's interesting because I will always pick up on

the things like oh you've got to think about that because obviously at that level or you've got to think about that the baskets you've got to think about the toys and you've got to you know so actually it's like a there's a practical element of being a mum that you might not think about so actually for me I think it's been a I think it's a strength and a superpower and same as you when we're designing gardens there is often a child that will be using that garden whether it's a grandchild or child and I am a stronger designer for it but so it's my thing and I it's an insecurity yeah that I think a lot of women business owners you know trying to juggle everything and prove that you can still run a very successful business whilst juggling children I mean it is a superpower

you also I I've got to this point in my career now where like I said earlier and this is probably since having my absolute you know I sort of hit my limit at the end of last year I actually now only want to work with people that I can be truly authentic with yes and that means everything that means my life I'm not going to hell there's no holes barred and I think that's when magic happens because you're working with clients that are on the same page as you and I think actually if I would I would put that aside and think no you know be with me because of everything I am and everything I bring that's what I I think you're right pal I just think it's it's like the little gremlin in the back

of the head right being like but pal did you not get the people's choice award at Chelsea flower show I did

the Chelsea flower show is it the biggest flower show in the world yeah yeah so you got

people's choice a lot of people you got the choice awards at the biggest garden show in the world no it's epic that was that's like probably career highlight today the gold will come later and isn't there royalty as well at chelsea flower show did you meet any of the royals well that was that was that was such a it was like a career highlight and a career low light

all in once so i was told this year i did a garden at Chelsea for the RHS not judged absolute dream and I was told Polly you're celebrating women in horticulture so Queen Camilla is going to come and see it stand by your garden for like an hour beforehand and wait she will come and so I stood there and you had this crowd watching me standing there looking all sort of prim waiting to talk her through my sort of female horticultural heroines and here she comes here she comes and there's like crowd watching and then she just walked straight past me oh god and I had my mate there ready with the camera and he's just got a picture of my slightly disappointed face as she just walked past oh no but you know I've got a picture with her like

her and me being like oh did you not even get like a side eye or a wave i wondered if it would be uncouth to tap her on the shoulder and be like you've missed it oi oi um but you know the sas might have taken me down oh so right you know nice to be picked but i think they were running late so okay let's go back to the people's choice award you won the people's choice award i won the People's Choice Award. I won the People's Choice Award. Just not Camilla's, apparently. Camilla, do you watch humans? I could tell in her eyes that she liked it.

Or when she was looking the other way. Next time. You were there too, weren't you, my friend? We've had a couple of years at Chelsea together. Yeah, I didn't know about Camilla, I have to say, because that's quite lol. But yes, I've done a couple of Chelsea's as well now, which is a huge privilege. It is.

That was a real career highlight, actually. I felt really proud of doing that, I have to say, hugely proud. Well, you don't get many interior designers at Chelsea. No, you don't. Flower show. I have got to tell you something, though. Camilla actually came and sat with me and had a glass of champagne. We were having a chat.

She was asking... Do you see Polly's garden? No, she didn't actually mention you. She was just asking me about me and what I was up to. She apparently said she'd had enough of gardens. Next week, we can go back to basics. Yes. Get down and dirty with how to start interior and garden design

okay so back to basics what does it mean it means we're taking you back to the basics of design where we start when we start out in a design whether it be a renovation or new landscape garden design where we start i'm excited excited. It's going to be helpful. There's a lot of info. We've got a lot to cover. Well, look, back to the reason we're doing this is because we want to help people. We want to help you guys. And therefore, later in the season,

we are going to have an episode that is just fully your questions. Anything. No horse barred. Just for you guys. we've actually created another instagram account called the underscore ins and written outs underscore so that you can send in your questions that way we will probably put this on our instagram account so that you can pick this up but send all your questions in to there so that in the final episode we can answer all your questions which i'm really looking forward to that'll be really good fun maybe we get andy to maybe andy you can pull the questions out the hat and you could ask them and then we

can sit here and just answer them for you polly and jojo question time polly and jojo question time fired at us by andy roe there you go this is the cringy bit but it's got to be done um we need you guys to follow like subscribe this podcast if you've enjoyed it because if you don't it basically sort of dies a sad death and if you do we know that you like it and we'll keep going we can do more yeah yeah so validate us by following us liking us or subscribing we'd really appreciate that we would thank you what's that from

that is from something first episode in the can first episode in the can should we not do that though let's scat that back okay so that's that's gold