Jaimie: Well my guest today are passionate duo in home design. They're known as home design coaches. We have Trish Pikersgill and Heather Morris. Now let me read out their introductions before I open it to them. So Trish is a mother, a building designer, a coach, a cake designer and a business owner with 23 years experience as a building designer. She's known for her attention to detail and her expertise in kitchen design. Her superpower lies in finding multiple ways to solve problems, and her goal is to personalise each design for the end user. Now Heather, Heather Morris loves design and is a mother, architect, mentor, coach, property investor and business owner with over 25 years of experience as an architect. She is known for her expertise in design compliance systems and processes. Her superpower is making complex issues easy to understand, and her goal is to ensure that you get your design right the first time to save time and money. And together they are a force to be reckoned with known as the Scribble Club. Trish and Heather, welcome to Pitch Perfect.
Heather: Thank you.
Trish: Hello.
Jaimie: It's great to see you here. And can you tell me first of all, I'll throw it to you Trish. How did the scribble club come about? How did you find each other? And tell me about sort of the origins and why you decided to form this this club?
Trish: So we connected through here in my builder with Tina Tower. So we both had the aspirations to run online courses and yeah, especially in design ourselves. So we already had sort of course ideas outlined and mapped out and inhibitors reached out said, “hey, you want to catch up for lunch?” She was in town in Tassie. So yeah, we've caught up into being a sort of a one hour lunch was a three or four hour lunch. I think. We just connected on so many levels with the similar values in the industry and and experiences. So different ends of the scale here. There's more involved in the commercial and I've been more involved in the residential sector of construction. So we just we found we had so many great connections without the same values and, and thoughts about the industry.
Jaimie: That's great, Heather, anything else you want? To add to that from your perspective?
Heather: Yeah, so we have a really good synergy because I came from a while I ran a large commercial practice on the Eastern Seaboard that had over 50 staff. So I very much think about big picture and high level and strategy and Trish is very much about the doing she's married to a join us so and that's the person who puts kitchens together and instals and so she gets down into the fine details. So it really is a nice synergy between very high level strategic kind of thinking and then your detailed thinking but also architects and home designers. And building designers are quite a different background so architects are very detailed and prescriptive. So we will actually show you where your toilet roll holder will be in in a bathroom whereas a building designer will be a little bit more generic and a little bit more open to interpretation.
So there's been a real a better understanding between both of us and what we do in our respective industries which has been a great learning process. To and together we're really passionate about helping people have access to design because unfortunately, design can be very elitist and very expensive. And what we don't want to happen is for people to try and do it themselves and get themselves in a lot of trouble and waste a lot of time and money. So part of our whole ethics is about making it accessible and universal to everybody. So no matter what your background, you've got access to a lot of free content. And then there's also we will have courses and things that if you want to take more of a deep dive into it but on Instagram on all our social media and free masterclasses as well. So it's very inclusive for everybody. And I guess that's something that we both share, we both want, particularly females to be able to do have had their dream house but without costing them too much money and make mistakes.
Jaimie: Yeah.
Heather: That's the big one making mistakes.
Jaimie: So how does it...
Trish: It's out. Sorry you go Jamie. I was just going to say that's part of our common theme we noticed as well as in within the industry or like clients will come into us and say we don't know where to start or we don't understand and I think that's something that we've really loved is that coaching and education process behind what the industry has to offer.
Jaimie: That's fabulous. And so how does it work? I was just going to say the two of you. Are you co located near each other in the same town, same state. How do you do catch up or is it all online?
Trish: I mean, so yeah, a bit of both, actually. So I'm in Tassie and Launceston and Heather actually visits Launceston or Tasmania in the warmer weather so she's runs away when it gets cold and where it's sitting at minus two this morning. So she's not here. But I'm the US Army Tassie and we had to be caught up in person initially through those warmer months and then my CSA there via zoom or phone calls. And Heather you are in the?
Heather: Yaman, almost Northern New South Wales was just the new Byron Bay there anyone hasn't realised
Jaimie: Don’t tell too many people that
Heather: Don't tell anyone. So yeah, it's quite a different environment. But the other amazing thing about that is I've always worked up and down the eastern seaboard of Australia. And so it gives us a great understanding across the board of all the different things I've travelled around Australia three times with a caravan when I went into semi retirement. So I really do understand all the different challenges that people have around Australia and they are quite different climatically and also with building codes. And so my specialty in compliance means that I can talk to people in all sorts of different states with lots of different climates. So for example, in Tasmania, probably 80% of that is bushfire prone. So that's a whole different design code and raft of challenges compared to eastern seaboard.
Jaimie: Yeah, I love that. And so both of you are ladies in the construction industry, which is an industry that, I guess traditionally and probably still is really dominated by males. What's it like being a female in your industry?
Trish: Well, we could tell some stories, I reckon.
Jaimie: I’'m sure.
Trish: We have, Heather’s had it's had a few more scary ones than what I have but I think they there's a big change. And I'm saying definitely dealing with tribes and buderus has been a big change from the younger generation and it's more accepting of females in the industry and I really found and valued that to be really great. I've definitely evolved and learned a lot more from them. I think it's been open to a two way conversation. It's not us and them in regards to male and female in my experience,
Heather: Whereas I've gotten was a groundbreaker. So when I first started in construction industry, a side chain was like a men's locker room, complete with, you know, the nudie posters and the whole beard it really has changed phenomenally in terms of just interacting with other humans. And I think that's a really great thing that wolf whistling and all the things that used to be aligned with building sites are not allowed anymore. And we all have to treat each other with respect and courtesy, but it has been a big change for some of the older particularly men in the industry, because they just used to train people in a certain way. And so it was very difficult. So just to give you an example, I think I wore trousers for probably 15 or 20 years because they would have the joy of sending you up a ladder if you were wearing a skirt. That's so you know, you just learned to kind of bring things back to being sensible and normal, but I always was very down to earth with them and wasn't tried to be any different. But it's good to see that one of the big issues in our industry is that lady's got to have babies and it's very hard to get back in because regulations and pilots everything changes so rapidly that it's like it is a culture shock to come back into something. So one thing we're very passionate about is keeping people involved in the industry. So if they have a bit of time off, come back in, get your knowledge base up again and keep going because it is it we have a huge attrition rate of females in the industry. That's something that we'd like to see changed.
Jaimie: Yeah, I'm sure that applies to a lot of industries, actually. So that's really great to hear that it sounds like you're not there yet. As far as being on an even keel, but it sounds like there's some you know, huge progress being made there which is great. Can you tell me a little bit about one of the things I love and I teach and Paid to Speak how they, you know this in PR club. Being a PR Club member is about adding a futuristic element to your keynote. So if you can talk about the next three years in the building industry or the next three years, the real estate property, people love that crystal ball. So I'll just ask you what is the future of phone design in Australia is something pretty cool?
Heather: Well, it's actually interesting, Jamie because we're in a perfect storm at the moment. So without being too scared to be about the whole thing. But what's happened in the last few years has really been dramatic changes in our economy and in the way we live. So we had the pandemic and so people were based at home a lot more so they got used to working out of their homes, things like that. We also have had fairly catastrophic natural events. So we've had fires in New South Wales, we've had floods we've had all those sorts of things. So we've got a large displacement of people that are homeless and particularly for scarily enough 50 year old women pass who fall through the safety net they've actually got out of employed but they they don't have public housing, and we've also got a massive shortage of housing in Australia. And combined with that, this is groundbreaking thing I'm about to tell you industry insider tip that from the first of July some of our very large aged care facilities are going to put a line through having high care facilities. So that is going to change the face of the way we look at housing in Australia because what's happened with all the government changes so the reason that the changes in the regulations have been come through is from risk. So we've had high rise buildings that have had failures through Sydney. So the legislation is all tightened up and the process have tightened up. But the result of that is that there's not very many places being built or we've got record or low development application levels. If you combine that with a whole bunch of aged care providers and not being able to provide that service because they have to provide a nurse full time as it is entered. And the minimum wage has just gone up meaning that most of the healthcare workers in one large client that we know of that field just that one change would increase their pay rates by $1.5 million on the baseline. So this is all going to change.
So the only solution we really have other than the government throwing some money at though they're trying to do that at the moment for low cost accommodation is a concept that we've we've come up with which is called the “universal home” or “the home”, which is effectively like a granny flat but but larger in the debate that people can put in their backyards, and that's a two bedroom place with a disabled compliant or accessibly compliant toilet and shower and what that does what people don't realise is that ageing in place or aged care, dimensions and everything's and toilets and showers, as well as people with disabilities is exactly the same. So under the building codes, it's a sign. So what we're saying is a new house, a universal house that you can put in your backyard will really this is what's going to have to happen because we haven't got the infrastructure or the way forward to be building all these multi storey units because there's no profit margin in it for the developers. So general society is going to have to pick up the load and if you've got an ageing parent and you've know that they need care, a granny flat in the backyard doesn't work because it's only for one person. So if what we're going to see in the future is a changing model and a change of thinking and Trish and I are working with lobby groups with disability and we will be working with government to try and get these changes. Unfortunately, changes have to happen sort of at a federal level. So it's going to be a really really big impact and big change but something has to change or something has to give or we just won't have enough accommodation to the people and we've got a lot of immigration happening as well. So if we're going to keep everything sustainable, we need to look at a different model for how we house people. So it's kind of like the small house concept. But unfortunately, these houses can't be too small because we've got to have full accessibility throughout them.
Jaimie: And so what you're suggesting there is that say the, my mother, for example, when she gets older, she would live there is that the idea? So the sons and daughters of these, the aged care population would be actually building this in their own backyard?
Heather: Yeah, that's correct. So also the other thing, the other overlays to get somebody into aged care one there's a waiting list. So there's very few positions to it cost you roughly about half a million dollars to put somebody into an aged care facility. So it's very, very expensive. So we're hoping to create a model that is cost effective, so that you're not having to spend so some form of modular design that means that the person can be cared for so what we find with a lot of the ageing, things like dementia, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's is that the person becomes very dazed and confused and disoriented. And it's much much better for them to be in a place that is safe and comfortable. But unfortunately, also a lot of the action happens at night so you generally need a carer or somebody with them because if they just left alone, they're likely to have a fall or be hurt. Now the same thing is applicable for young people with disability so in this country, we don't have a lot of fullback for the hat usually a capo by their parents and if they're not able to be cared for by their parents, really the only default position is into aged care. So we're finding a lot of young people in aged care as well which is a big issue. And we know that their health outcomes are much much better if they're at home or close to home. And so to bid in place allows them to either have a carer or a relative or somebody stay with them but be relatively self sufficient. It also works for domestic violence victims for low cost, accommodation, all those sorts of things. So what we're hoping to do is just throw up some ideas about how we can fix all these problems that we've got in housing at the moment.
Jaimie: Yeah, gosh, you are such a great keynote speaker on this topic because it's something which you think oh, doesn't affect me. I'm not old or my parents aren't old yet. Or I haven't got a child with a disability. But at the end of the day, and it happened to anybody, and I know so many people who have a child with a disability who this really does affect and at the end of the day, we are all getting older as well. Whether we want to or not so I think this is going to be everyone's problem, isn't it really, particularly when you as you said the aged care sector can't cope with the demand. So it's really, really interesting. And I think that more people could probably hear that message, Heather, because sooner or later they will be affected.
Heather: Absolutely everybody I know has had some sort of affected of a person that's ill or a person with disability or even somebody that they know is a domestic violence victim or just somebody that's had a bad relationship break up and need somewhere to stay. Somebody that's fallen on hard times. So really what we're saying is society in general has to pick up the heavy lift and do the heavy lifting because this is not something that we can fix by building a few high rises, low cost accommodation somewhere with the government. That's just won't fix it. It's too far. And in Australia, we're so lucky because we do have lots of land. We've got lots of big houses and that's the other demographic changes with an ageing population. The older people are wanting to downsize. So again, you could have the young family in a large house and mom and dad at the back and their two bedroom unit. So there's lots of different applications for it, I think.
Jaimie: Yeah, changing the tone now tell me about The Scribble Club. How can people get involved? What do you offer? Tell me about your podcast, the courses memberships everything you've got on offer as part of this group of club people who are listening to this and and want to get involved and importantly, who is your target market?
Heather: Well, the target market really is beginners. So people that are wanting to start out and they just don't know where to start. That's what we hear all the time. It's a big scary industry. There's so much information on the internet. I don't know where to start.
Jaimie: So just to clarify, beginner renovators?
Heather: Renovators or home designers or if you just want to change the style or look of a space it's it's that simple. So say you want to I'm having a big declutter and I want to redo my living room. For example, I want to style that up, but I don't know where to start. The system and process is exactly the same for if you're doing that to right through into doing a new home design. The only difference with the new home design is we're considering all the outside parts. So we have a little phrase called inside outside upside down that's out so planning is the first step. Then we talked about inside so inside the space are inside the house, outside the space or outside of the home, and then upside down. So what happens in our ceilings and all those who are connected. And we've had a new one well called Downside Up for dual that connect service connections through the floor and those sorts of things. So in the scribble club, that's the sort of thing that we're going through the full process about how you can design either a space and we're going to have mini courses on kitchens and bathrooms and things like that. But at the moment we're just offering a winter warmer for June, July, August, which is our masterclass and design guides. So it's $37 for the month so absolute bargain and they get hot seating with us they get one on one half hour clarity call to have a chat about it and access to a master class and us as a resource. Now we're expensive in real life. We're very expensive. That isn't it to us a lot. It's an absolute bargain. So Trish if you want to just fill in anything else about
Trish: Yeah, so we love to the focus at the moment is our home design guides. I had mentioned the Winter Warmers so each month we were delving deeper into a single single topic. So currently this month we're talking about Pinterest and how that can help you with your design direction and focus. Next month we're getting into kitchen design and then the following month is living living spaces. So kitchen design is my expertise definitely and I've done probably 1000 kitchens in my lifetime. So but we get right into the into the nitty gritty in our in our mini course but this next month is going to be a really great, like Heather's mentioned “where do I start?” That is that the probably the most common thing we hear from our clients and our customers is I don't know where to start. I don't know what to start with and and some of the tools that we provide. So you checklists and, and cheat sheets and top tips. Just like great to someone to walk into a join and go out and know what they're talking about. This add terminology is one of the biggest things in our industry that bamboozles clients or bamboozles, people's views as anyone and it can just be overwhelming so we as part of our podcasts the sketchy ladies which we love that name.
Jaimie: Yeah, it's like clickbait isn't it really?
Heather: We had problem with the other day she went the sketchy legs are you draw? I just got to bed.
Trish: Yeah, and I think that's out. We really enjoyed doing that because we've got so much that we can bear to there's really no experience that we can bring together and educate and I think that's part of it is just reducing the bamboozling of of the terminology. I think that that's probably the scariest thing like having to kind of talk to the council. What do they mean or one of them are looking at here and yeah, so it's mainly education and coaching. So our podcasts, our monthly design or home design guides, and the delving into our mini courses coming up.
Jaimie: Love that.
Heather: With our podcast, Jamie we've structured it very simply so that people can start from the beginning and work their way through. So no matter when they jump on the journey. We've got the four foundations of good design to start off with and that gives them all the basic terminologies and all the things they look at. So for the first 10 or so episodes are foundational for me, we split out into individual areas and there's loads of free resources. So we just say to people if you're not sure where to start, the sketchy ladies have a listen. They're only 20 to 25 minute episode, very concise, and we break down those difficult language barriers and give you all the terminology explain what things are so that you don't feel like you're silly. You don't feeling like you're asking a silly question or you can talk to a tradie that sort of thing. And our website is the scribble club.com So you can find our design guides there. And a little bit more about us and also on Instagram. So Instagram is at the scribble club, Facebook, the scribble club Pinterest. The reason we love Pinterest is Pinterest is a visual search engine. So it's the same as Google but it gives us pictures and what happens when we put their pitches in their balls together, then Trish and I can see exactly what we going what you need to do. It's really really quick and easy for us to be able to really put you in the right direction. So we're on Pinterest in the scribble club as well. So that's all our handles and social connections.
Jaimie: That's great. We'll link that in the show notes as well. Well thank you Heather and Trish sketchy ladies who make up the screw will call I love the names. It's been so great to to chat to you today. And I just think it's fantastic, you know to women in the construction industry coming together and just really genuinely wanting to help people who have no idea where to start. And yeah, can't wait to follow your journey and thanks again for for coming on Pitch Perfect and sharing your knowledge and wisdom.
Heather: Thanks so much.
Trish: Thanks so much Jaimie.
Heather: And a quick plug for the PR club for anybody that's not in it joined his club. It's amazing. The master classes are amazing. Do yourself a favour, join them.
Jaimie: I might cut that part out and testimonials. I love. Thanks, Heather. Take care guys. Bye bye
