Shayla Copas 0:00
And if you ever get someone that says because this has happened before, oh, I don’t believe in contracts. I’ve just want to, you know, I believe in a handshake deal. Run as fast as you can, because there’s not such a thing as a handshake deal.

Nate Disarro 0:13
Hey, it’s Nate Disarro and welcome to titans of industry, the podcast where I talk to industry leaders and innovators who are at the top of their game and leading the pack in their fields, uncovering some of the best stories in today’s business landscape. In this episode, I speak with Shayla and Scott Copas, a power couple that are creating an all encompassing lifestyle brand. Shayla has built a very successful interior design business working with people all over to create the home of their dreams. Recently, she’s launched her own design books along with signature furniture, product lines, and now she’s pushing out an elite travel planning business. And Scott Copas is the backend of Sheila’s endeavors primarily working with the operations finance and logistics side of the business. With his background in commercial construction and business management, he completes this entrepreneurial powerhouse duo. Now let’s get to the episode. But before we do, let’s talk about content, strategy and Video for marketing your business. Our team at content Titan is committed to great storytelling, no matter what industry you’re in, it’s crucial to engage, entertain, inform and captivate your audience and video is the best way to do it. Having worked with people and organizations of all shapes and sizes, our team has the experience to deliver the right content at the right price. We are easy to do business with and we know how to get you results. Visit content titan.co to learn more. Now here’s the episode with Shayla and Scott Copas. Well, Shayla Scott, thanks so much for jumping on the podcast. I guess I’ve known you guys for a handful of years now. And always, you know, anytime I see you or see what you’re up to, never ceases to amaze me that you’re in a different part of the world coming out with a new book, Scott right there by your side the whole way. So I’d love to just kind of start with give me a little insight to what it is you guys do on a daily basis, and how you know, we ended up having this conversation today.

Shayla Copas 2:16
Wow. So it’s a myriad of things. I’m an entrepreneur. So our businesses lifestyle, which encompasses quite a bit, we never know what we’re going to do from day to day, we started in interior design, and that’s going better than ever. People are wanting to redesign their homes since COVID. It’s just like, they got to look at them for so long. And they realize that they wanted to make changes. So we expect that to stay pretty strong over the next several years. But we also started a travel division of the company, for people who love design and are inspired by design. And I can design their personal travel, as well as our main pillar of that business is taking people on luxury trips. And so I guide them on luxury design inspired VIP virtuoso trips. And we’re touring the world, all luxury travelers know virtuoso, and they get excited when you say, oh, yeah, we’re virtual. So we can make sure you get all the VIP perks, you will be a rock star when you walk, when you walk into that location that day at that hotel. And the general manager will know your name. And they’re actually and some occasions, we send pictures ahead of time.

Nate Disarro 3:39
Well, clearly I’m traveling the wrong way. So I need to sign up for a trip sooner rather than later. But what are some of the places you’ve you’ve taken people? What are some of the most exciting

Shayla Copas 3:49
Well, we’re getting ready to launch taking people places. I’m already booking travel for people that are going on their own with their families, but we’ll be taking them to Scotland, Morocco, South South Africa, where it’s just it’s a large list, Peru, Alaska. The list is long over the next two years.

Nate Disarro 4:12
That’s amazing. Yeah. All right. So you’ve got interior design, you’ve got travel that’s inspired by design. What else do you have your hand in?

Shayla Copas 4:20
We own a marketing company. So the hive PR marketing, we launched in 2020. And it mainly focuses on design designers, architects and contractors. With that, with it focusing on the design industry and contractors. I wanted to stay right down the vein of what I always do as a designer and what I know is design. So the travel has the design aspect to it. The marketing company of course has the design portion to it and then being a designer we also are big into product design right now. Interesting, yeah, we’ve signed several licensing deals in there, we, we expect the portfolio to expand by quite a lot in the next couple of years.

Nate Disarro 5:11
So Scott, I mean, that, that, in and of itself is a quick overview of things that I would see as a bit of a challenge to kind of keep under one header. Talk to me a little bit about your role and all that and how you wrangle the cat so to speak,

Scott Copas 5:27
well, I’ve always handled the financial side of the business. And that one’s probably the easiest part of it, even though I don’t sometimes I don’t even know what the invoice is for, because she’s going in so many different directions. And then I do help in the operational side, logistics. And, you know, and sometimes when she has some construction issues on one of her projects, not maybe issues, but what’s the best way to solve the issue, solve the problem, I’ll go out and meet with the clients and help them with that. But the unique part of this entire business, goes back to her interior design, that is a very personal relationship you have with your clients, you find out a lot about them. And you know, and and that helps in designing trips and travel for them and their family. It is it’s, I would never have thought of that. But I’ve seen it and we really haven’t even officially launched it yet. But it is it’s an amazing part of the business, the product design, I do get involved in some of the product design, when she and her team are presenting that to one of the vendors or manufacturers. I look at it from a constructability standpoint, I have a talent for that. So I’ll I’ll jump in sometimes and say I think there might be a better way to manufacture it. I don’t pretend to know how to design it or or suggest that you might want to do it this way. It’s all from a practicality and constructability standpoint, because and in controlling costs for us and the manufacturer.

Nate Disarro 7:21
Yeah, absolutely. Well, getting into the genesis of this newest business venture, the design inspired travel. You know, anytime I’m traveling somewhere nowadays, one of the first places I go to look where to stay is Airbnb. And when I’m looking through, it’s that very point, I’m looking at the design of the way the places laid out, is it something that fits my taste? Is it something that this is a place I want to stay within? Also, I mean, I just got back from Italy and had a wonderful time exploring Florence and different towns in Italy. And same thing, find yourself being drawn to places that are visually pleasing to you. So is that kind of what inspired the ideas as you saw this niche? Or how did it come about?

Shayla Copas 8:04
So there, it’s twofold. My clients were asking me where they should travel. And, you know, we travel quite a bit. And I thought, you know, I can add that facet to the business as well as my followers, were wanting to go along on the trips with me. They were watching where we were going to South Africa, or if I was going to Peru, and they’re saying, Oh, we want to do this, but we’re a little scared, we’re a little apprehensive to go to someplace like Africa. It is it is a little scary the first time, so we’d love to go with you. And that was really how that all kind of evolved was through my clients asking me where they should go. And then through my followers on social media asked him to go with me.

Scott Copas 8:49
And if I could jump in on that, it kind of evolved. Because if you know Shayla, she’s an interior designer, she posts everywhere we go. And we’ve been very blessed to have gone to travel to a lot of very unique places, and, and posts all of this information and beautiful photographs and actually videos of what’s going on. And that generated all this interest from our clients and from our social media friends. So it kind of evolved that way even though I had no idea she was blended, I’d started a travel business. But you might want to tell tell them what made your mind up on that lot where we were and what made your mind up on on starting travel.

Shayla Copas 9:41
We were on an island. We had just left South Africa. And we went over to Mauritius. And at the time we had a travel agent, so I didn’t own a travel agency back then. And we were booked someplace that we we’d spent quite a bit on this room and we were in the nicest suite They had, and we arrived there and there was no air conditioning. And it was 100 degrees or 90 something degrees. And I was absolutely miserable. So keep in mind before this, I had already had clients asking me about travel, I had already had my followers asking me about going on trips with me. And I’m suffering in this room, and it really was suffering. Plus, there were rabid cats that were and I’m a cat fan, I really am. Because I have the Sweet Little Kitty right now I’m saving. But there are rabid, feral cats on our back porch that we tried to attack me every time I went out the door, and then it was hot. So anyway, it just was a miserable situation. And at that point, I thought, You know what, I really want to prevent these things from happening to other people. And so my followers have already been asking me about this, my clients have asked me about this, this is God telling me, I need my own travel agency. And we just need to add this to che look up his lifestyle. So I literally sat in my bed because I wouldn’t I wouldn’t go outside the rabid cats were there, I was mad at the world. I was there for seven days, I believe five to seven days, maybe it was it was seven days because we were there longer than anyplace else. And they also couldn’t feed me very well because of my allergies. And I was mad at him. So he wasn’t in the room. And so I just got online, and I started researching starting my own travel business. And I realized that I needed a thing called a host agency. So I started contacting host agencies during this miserable jail sentence. And by the time we left, I had my mind made up, I was going to start a travel agency, I realized, you know, people do need an advocate when they travel, they need an advocate. But then also I was like, okay, so this is going to be kind of confusing to people that I have a design business. And I have a marketing business. And now I have this bit, you know, and now I have this travel business, but I felt like if I kept it along the vein of design, that I’d be fine. But then something else happens along the way. And when I started telling people, I was gonna start this travel business, some of them care about the design elements, but a lot of them don’t. And they started calling me saying, Can you book my travel? And we haven’t even launched it yet. And we have a ton of travel clients.

Nate Disarro 12:35
But I mean, how many businesses out there were started because somebody had a terrible experience and realize there’s a better way to do something, right? I mean, that’s the nature of what entrepreneurs do every day is solve a problem that nobody’s taking the initiative to solve, because they experienced the problem themselves.

Scott Copas 12:52
You know, and you think about it, unfortunately, shameless and influencers, you know, and feel a lot more comfortable if you were the person traveling to having that kind of service. So

Nate Disarro 13:03
from both y’all standpoint, the value of having good partners and what that can do to make or break a business.

Shayla Copas 13:09
Oh, absolutely. So good partners will make or break a business, for sure. And I think a lot of it is vetting those partners, making sure that you aligned together. Because I’ve always said if you align with those partners, there’s nothing that you can’t, that you can’t do and no mountain that you can’t climb together. Because people can feel that energy coming from you. It’s it’s in that makes that business really survive and go further than if they were on their own. And I think that’s why I’ve become really involved from a product design standpoint for manufacturers, as well as an ambassador, as well for those manufacturers. And we continue to get more in our portfolio, every year that we’re going to be announcing soon, we cannot wait to announce the ones that we’ve been working on for two years, because it actually takes several years to develop these types of partnerships. You don’t just go in and shake someone’s hand and and it’s done. Right. It takes two to three years to develop a product line and to develop that relationship. You know,

Nate Disarro 14:19
depending on on kind of what your business is, what you’re trying to do what you’re trying to accomplish. I think a lot of people have this idea of whoever the first person is that can help me do what I’m thinking I want to do, let’s just take and run with it. But every partnership just like any, you know, business partnership, any vendor relationship, you’re gonna have challenges and struggles along the way where you might disagree, you might whatever but to your point, the more you kind of align on the front end, then you can work through those problems. You can overcome those challenges. You can, you know, have a real special thing that happens.

Shayla Copas 14:52
Yes. And a lot of it needs to be done contractually on the front end and that’s what a lot of people in business forget about. out, is making sure that they have, they have really solid contracts, they don’t want to pay attorneys, they don’t, you know, they don’t want to go through all the legal portions of it. But in the end, it’ll bite them. So if you have a solid contract, and you go into it on the front end, stating, This is what I expect. Now, tell me what you expect that nobody’s going to be disappointed. If you don’t, people tend not to want to do that, because they’re afraid they’re going to scare him away, right. But they’re not going to scare what they’ll do is scare away a partner they don’t want to have with from the contractual side. So we’re adamant about making sure that we’re very transparent on the front end, and that we also encourage our partners to be transparent, so that there are no surprises, and then things turn out real well. But, and I think that’s why things take so long to is in the negotiation side of it, when we have one that we negotiated, I think it was in 2021, early 2021, that we will not be releasing until 2023. We’ve already been designing things or at the factory in production. But we won’t be telling people about it and releasing it to consumers until 2023.

Nate Disarro 16:20
It’s crazy, I think one of the most crucial things you just said was the fact that essentially, you take long on the front end to get these contracts done. But don’t worry about scaring people away, because sometimes that’s the best case scenario you want to and I think a lot of times, you know, business owners think, well, it’s my one shot at this partnership, or my one shot at this growth stage of the company, or whatever the case may be. But the reality is, there’s tons of opportunities out there, you got to seek out the right ones.

Shayla Copas 16:48
And if you ever get someone that says because this has happened before, oh, I don’t believe in contracts. I’ve just want to, you know, I believe in a handshake deal. Run as fast as you can, because there’s not such a thing as a handshake deal. 30 years ago, yeah. And there’s always going to be something that comes up along the way that that you’re gonna want to address later on, why not address it now and get it out of the way? Yeah.

Nate Disarro 17:16
All right, storytelling, content creation, putting yourself out there. Scott, as you alluded to, it’s vitally important to kind of, you know, let people know what you’re up to. Because you never know what business may come of it, or what opportunities may come of it.

Scott Copas 17:31
There’s no tell them what’s in her mind. That that I don’t know about yet. But she’s the storyteller. She’s the face of the business. And, and so we, we backer, and we want to come in and we want to traveling we want to you prior to COVID, she was doing a lot of public speaking, and that that’s starting to come back now. And we went, what, two years, I guess where she had an entire book tour where she was going to be gone nearly nine months. On this on the first book, you know, she’s working on the sick, but second book, and that got cancelled because of COVID.

Shayla Copas 18:09
And then I got even more serious about travel. You know why? Because I knew that people were going to be stuck at home. And just like they would want to start designing, I knew that they would want to start traveling again. And that that traveling itch, so to speak, would would build and build and build and it’s paying off. That’s all yes, that’s just part of being an entrepreneur, you try to figure out 100% can do do to fill to fill people’s passions, and you go for it. Yeah,

Nate Disarro 18:39
well, you see, use the analogy all the time, you know how many you got to have a bunch of lines in the water, because you never know, which one is going to catch a fish, you know, so you don’t have multiple things happening and figuring out what you’re going to do.

Shayla Copas 18:50
Yeah, no, but the the issue here is all of them caught a fish. So we have to figure out how to how to keep putting the line back out and in and in from a workflow standpoint, because we all know now workflow is so important with businesses on how to keep them all going from a workflow standpoint. So we’ve had we’ve had to invest in workflow software for each business and that all it gets really expensive.

Scott Copas 19:18
And there’s multiple software’s especially on the design side, both on the interior design and the product design side. And and as well as the travels I mean, we’ve

Nate Disarro 19:29
the amount of tabs do you have open on your browser at any?

Scott Copas 19:32
Oh, you ought to go off

Shayla Copas 19:34
for this morning. This is what I had. People always laugh every time we get on a zoom. And I share my screen and you can always hear people like why do you have so many tabs up I’m I’m an entrepreneur and I have several businesses and so I’ve got to go from from my from my travel software to my interior design software to my marketing software all day long.

Nate Disarro 19:59
I feel that it’s It’s, every time I try and close them down. I’m like, No, I need that. I need that. Yeah, constantly go back and forth. So how important is telling your own story? How important is it for you to be vocal about what you’re doing how you’re solving people’s problems, and putting your own message out there.

Shayla Copas 20:16
It’s, it’s important to me because I want to inspire people, I think that people tend to get going in their direction and in their path in life. And they and they forget to get inspired, and they forget what they can do. Sometimes they just go to their job each day. And they think this is what I’m going to do the rest of my life, but maybe they’re not really fulfilled. And I always hope that when I tell my story that I’m going to, I’m going to inspire someone to go out and do go out and follow their dreams and go out to do the things that they’d always hoped that they could achieve.

Nate Disarro 20:54
I love that. I have a good friend who he was telling me one time he said, Nate, people can learn pretty much anything they want to learn. It’s not a matter of knowledge, it’s a matter of inspiration and motivation. They need to be inspired, they need to be motivated. And then they’ll learn whatever they want to learn. And of course, experience and the vision to get it perfect and have a product to sell or whatever, is certainly something that takes time. But it starts with that inspiration and motivation. And that’s really what, what gets us going.

Shayla Copas 21:23
It is it is in even with me, it takes me a while because I’m an overachiever. And so I never want to do anything halfway. And that is a little difficult. So with the with the travel business, you know, deciding in 2020. Or wait, so yeah, in 2020, making that decision in 2000 Sorry, I got a backup 2021 actually making the plunge and investing in it. And now we’re in 2022. So it just it takes time, if you’re an overachiever. And if you are, if you if you feel like you have to have everything? Well, from a perfectionist standpoint, together, it can be it can be a little daunting, but we are, we’re moving.

Nate Disarro 22:11
Alright, Scott, I’m gonna start with you on this one. As an entrepreneur, as somebody that you know, run big businesses, you always wish you knew something, and then you eventually learn it. So what’s something that you wish you knew earlier on in business? Or in you know, this, this role you’re in now that you had to learn the hard way? Or that would have made a lot more sense? Have you learned it a lot sooner? Well, my wife,

Scott Copas 22:40
that’s obvious. I wish I had. And I wish I had left the construction industry sooner. Because I had been in for been in contract for 44 years. So and it the industry was great to me and did well in it. But I got to the point that I was not enjoying it, but I was watching everything that shaylen Megan and her team and their team was doing and I was almost a little jealous. Because they were having so much fun, I was fortunate that I could go to some of the shows, and to different markets. And, and it I just realized how much fun it was and how interesting was and met a tremendous amount of people, because she knows a lot of people. And we had the best time and I envy that. And I wish I had done it two, three years prior to I would have known a lot more about their business and what especially on the interior design side, you know, they and I had some idea about marketing have probably understood the marketing better than I did the interior design side and other than I have a total appreciation for their design concepts that they and I fortunately get to see a lot of the products projects they do and the products they’re designing with their team and and I’m just absolutely amazed.

Nate Disarro 24:18
So what would you say to whether it’s younger people or just anybody out there that’s looking at kind of I think I can do this I think I should do this but I’m stuck in this world or I feel like now’s not the right time. What would you advise someone who’s who’s got that mindset but it’s kind of afraid to take that job.

Scott Copas 24:36
I think Shayla said it well a minute ago is if you have a dream, pursue it, you’ll figure out a way to make it happen. Logistics or just logistics. If you’ve got an idea and you’ve got a dream and you’re willing to take to make the investment, both in time, sometimes money. There’s a lot of you may not have money but people Pull out there do that are willing to invest in you. And so they need to take that opportunity because of the regretted. I’ve been fortunate to counsel a lot of younger people, especially in my latter years. And I tell them that, you know, they say, Well, you know, I’m thinking about moving into mostly in the construction industry, but not all, a lot of architects, a lot of younger architects I’ve visited with, and they’re talking about, well, I want to go out on my own. And that’s what I know, a dozen that have that have done really well. And but you got, you got to take that step. And that getting out of your comfort zone is a problem. And if you’re living week to week on a paycheck, you’re basically held ransom. You’ve got to figure out how to cut your expenses and financial finances probably my strongest suit, and learn to operate in you’ve heard this a million times you can see in books, figure out how to operate on half your budget, then you can take the rest of the money and do what you need to do to move forward to achieve your dreams.

Nate Disarro 26:14
And I think that goes for both the personal side and the business. Absolutely.

Scott Copas 26:18
The one in the same. Yeah. You know, everybody talks about personal life and business law. Art, if they’re wondering the same with us,

Nate Disarro 26:27
when it’s often said that, you know, investors often invest in the entrepreneur, not the idea, you know, there if you have passion and vision, people will give you money, they’ll give you help. You know, that’s the other thing recent conversation is, people always wish they asked for help sooner, because people will freely give help if you ask for it. But way too often, people are afraid to ask or they think they got to do it on their own, and whether it’s going to cost too much money or whatever. I mean, how many times have you voluntarily sat down with somebody younger and offered, you know, a piece of advice or a helping hand? And

Scott Copas 27:03
I can’t count the amount of times and sometimes it was a personal tragedy or a personal issue, not just business, and where am I going financially and all of that it’s a combination of a lot of things. I’ve been fortunate to have had that opportunity to do it many times.

Nate Disarro 27:21
I love it. Sailor I’m curious, what about you, as far as you know, what’s one thing you wish you learned sooner that you ultimately either learned the hard way or are still trying to figure out,

Shayla Copas 27:32
everything does not have to be perfect. And when I started talking about me being a perfectionist, or an overachiever that has gotten in the way of my productivity before, but there’s a happy medium there. So because I’m a perfectionist, that’s why people hire me. Because they know that I’m going to do it to the best of my ability and every detail will be taken care of. But I have to figure out how to, to not expect every single thing to be perfect. Like before we launch like just with the travel business. I could have launched this business a couple months ago, or maybe even six months ago. But I wanted everything to be perfect. And all my you know, T’s crossed and my eyes dotted. And it’s it’s just it’s gotten in the way of that. But fortunately for me, people already know I’m doing this. So they’re hiring me anyway. But

Nate Disarro 28:32
well, great line on that front is don’t let perfection get in the way of excellence. Right? We can still be excellent without being perfect. Oh,

Shayla Copas 28:39
absolutely. And I think we tend to be too hard on ourselves. I mean, do you ever feel like that you’re 100% just too hard on yourself. And I feel like I’m too hard on myself and then and people even when we do something that we feel is halfway. People were like, Oh, it was amazing. You know?

Nate Disarro 28:57
What? Yeah, because we feel like everything as entrepreneurs, everything that leaves the door has, it’s a reflection of who we are. That’s kind of what what our mind says. But the other outside world isn’t looking at you in a mirror. They’re looking at something that they’re not used to seeing. And so they don’t know what to think of it, but they see it and they think it’s excellent. While you think it could be better. You know, so there’s a paradigm shift of what you think matters. And I’m speaking about any entrepreneur versus, you know, what the public sees, and they they may not know, it could be better, they may think it’s already as good as it can be. And I think that’s one of the biggest crutches a lot of people face is just just get it out there. Let the world see it and then tweak it based on the way other people need it to be kind of tweaked their reaction. Exactly. Okay, one of the things that I really liked talking about is personality types. And, you know, any entrepreneur obviously, you have to have people around you you have to have people in your life that either work with you or for you, and your use case, as a married couple, talk to me a little bit about how your personalities work well together, and then maybe how there’s challenges there that you have to overcome?

Scott Copas 30:15
Well, I’m somewhat like her in this, it has to be perfect. I’m not, it’s bad. But I’m pretty close. And so, you know, we we butt heads a lot. But I think that’s what makes us successful, quite frankly, even in my previous business. You know, I discussed a lot of things with her about what was going on and getting her opinion. And she does the same thing with me. Finding that happy, medium and medium sometimes can be a challenge. We’ve been fortunate that that we ultimately come up with the right decision. But it may take a week of arguing about it or not talking to each other to get get there. But that’s what, that’s what good partners do. And so I can’t complain about how it’s worked turned out. The process sometimes can be a little challenging. But we’ve been very, very fortunate. And, you know, this is, I’m like a kid in a candy shop, with all dealing with, with what they did. And I wake up with a lot more excitement and ready to go in and ready to go to work and learn something. And outside of finances, I can do finances all day long. But it’s the other part of it that I really enjoy the most.

Nate Disarro 31:49
So Scott, thanks so much for being here. I really appreciate you taking the time and sharing some wisdom with us and look forward to next time we catch up.

Scott Copas 31:56
Oh, absolutely. And thank you so much night, it’s great to see you. And I’ve looked forward to this and and look forward to hearing the prop the podcast. So thank you again.

Shayla Copas 32:09
So as far as personalities are concerned, we are very alike in personality. But we do like Scott mentioned, because we’re so alike. And we’re and we’re so passionate about what we do. Sometimes we’re we’re very stubborn. And we can’t see the other person’s point of view. And it takes us a while. But we always come to that we always come to that point, it just takes us a while. And that’s the interesting thing about working with your spouse. And, you know, especially if you’re a lot of like,

Nate Disarro 32:46
yeah, I completely agree that, you know, there’s, I’ve been a big fan lately of the Enneagram, if you’ve paid any attention to that, the personality test. And you know, when you boil it down, there’s there’s nine individual personality types. So you’re bound to either be just like somebody or completely opposite. And at the end of the day, we’re all after the same things. But we kind of get there a little different way. And it’s important to understand that there’s nothing wrong with somebody that’s totally different from us. And there’s nothing wrong with somebody that’s just like us, we just kinda have to step back and understand that we’re all a little different. That’s okay. But we’re trying to achieve the same things, we just have to let each person kind of see it their own way for a minute.

Shayla Copas 33:26
Wow. And it’s fun that you mentioned that because we took we didn’t take that particular personality tests. But we took another back in 2016. And it had a graph and several things that came with it. And we were exactly the same every single day, the way that the graph went up and down, and all the different phases of that test was the identity and identical personality.

Nate Disarro 33:54
So give me a little behind the scenes, what are some of the things that that stand out about you as personalities that are similar?

Shayla Copas 34:02
We’re both we’re both leaders, we like leadership, we like we’d like to get things done. We both are problem solvers. So if somebody has a problem, and they call me, I’m likely not to be quiet. And just listen, I’m going to tell them what they need to do to fix it. And we are not scared or afraid to take risks and to go out and do things for the betterment of society as well. We’re both we’re both very passionate about helping others,

Nate Disarro 34:38
which is incredibly apparent. Obviously, any entrepreneur is taking some form of risk, but to do it over and over again and keep launching new ideas, new new ways to do business. You know, you could just settle and be comfortable doing what you were doing. But let’s go out and try this. And if we fail, we fail but we took the risk and What was one of the things that stood out the first major risk you took? And then realize you were successful? Were you paralyzed by taking that risk? Or was it something that you felt like this is going to be fun and exhilarating, and I don’t care if I fail?

Shayla Copas 35:15
Well, I’ve taken a lot of risks. But my first risk was when I started my first business before I even knew Scott, that was my first risk, was jumping off that diving board and saying, Okay, I’m going to start a business, I was a single mom, on my own, and didn’t know if it would work out. But it did.

Nate Disarro 35:36
It’s amazing how often it works out. And again, it goes back to that vision and passion and purpose. And if you can align that to the idea, then it’s really hard to stop people, I think most people that that failed a business or, you know, don’t continue on, it’s because you lose that passion and that drive.

Shayla Copas 35:54
That’s true. And also, when people start looking at what happens to them, and becoming a victim, they, they no longer see what they need to be grateful for. And gratefulness really does promote us to have drive. So something bad. So some, let’s say you’re working on a new business and something happens, and it’s just not so good. And so you become the victim, and you no longer are in the driver’s seat. Once you become the victim, you’re no longer in the driver’s seat. And so therefore, you kind of go down this little hole, the little, little rabbit hole and things in things don’t turn out the way they could have. If you looked at the positive parts of that situation, you know, and sometimes there are physical things that can happen that you can’t, you can’t control those. But it’s the part the part that’s in your mind and in your head that you can control. And that you can you can pull yourself out of any situation, you just have to try. Because it’s never going to be easy. It’s not going to be perfect.

Nate Disarro 37:02
Agreed. Over the last couple of years, obviously everybody’s talked about the challenges that we’ve had to go through with COVID. And in some cases, businesses closed their doors, and in others, people started to thrive and survive because of the business they were in. And everybody’s got a little bit of a different story. But even outside of COVID What’s one of the biggest challenges you feel like you faced and how did you overcome it?

Shayla Copas 37:31
Biggest challenge in my life, face. Pick one, that’s an entire not even one novel that’s like six or seven. So I’ve faced a lot of challenges in my life. I would say being a single mom was my biggest challenge in starting that first business.

Nate Disarro 37:52
What What kept you going? What gave you the drive and desire to overcome you know, the idea that I’m sure there were a lot of days you were like, you know, I just want to go get a job somewhere. This is too hard.

Shayla Copas 38:03
My daughter I think just having someone depending on me for survival was what kept me going even on the hard days.

Nate Disarro 38:12
Everybody has mentors and people they look up to and people that are there along the way. So who are some electrical Titans right? Who are your titans in your life that kind of you look at and are inspired by.

Shayla Copas 38:27
I’m inspired by my husband, I’m not wanting to sound cheesy, but he has really helped me as a as a business owner over the years even though he didn’t work with Shiloh Copus lifestyle. He he was very involved on the back end with giving that advice each day to keep me going. His mother was also one that that was very inspirational to me. She’s no longer with us, unfortunately. But we were very close.

Nate Disarro 39:01
Well, now that Scott’s not here, we can speak freely about him. But you know, his his reputation and community, just the type of person he is and there’s so many people that that look up to him and if kind of really respected him throughout his previous career. And it’s exciting to see what you guys are going to do continue doing and how how big this thing’s gonna get. So what’s next for you? I mean, I know we’ve talked a little bit you tease the the travel business that hasn’t even officially launched but I’m sure you’re not even close to done.

Shayla Copas 39:37
On in close to done with business. Yeah.

Nate Disarro 39:40
Where are your ideas take you. Oh,

Shayla Copas 39:42
there are several working on. We’re now really trying to develop the lifestyle aspect because before we were Shayla Copas interiors, and then when we added the hive marketing and PR in Shayla Copas travel and then our products we decided to really develop the I’m Shayla Copus lifestyle. And with that we have a cosmetic line coming out. So because that really fits in that lifestyle segment, and that cosmetic line will be launched this year, that’s amazing and announced that one. Very cool. Several of them I can’t announce yet, of

Nate Disarro 40:18
course understood. Well, I want to jump one more time back into the importance that the storytelling and specifically your social media has played in a lot of what you’ve done, everybody starts at zero. And some of us get to a few 100, some of us to a few 1000, some of us to 10s, and hundreds of 1000s of followers. But, you know, everybody wants to be there, but not everybody can get there. And so to have the kind of connection and audience that you have, what do you attribute to that? How did you use storytelling and visuals to kind of gain your following, it had

Shayla Copas 40:57
to do with finding my niche. Because when you are on social, there’s a million people on social millions and millions of people on social media. And they’re just so many accounts, and people unfollow and follow each day, but they follow the accounts that have a niche and keep them interested and are authentic, being authentic is the key thing. And then having that niche. And my niche is really interior designers follow me and people that love interior design in general. But my my, my my biggest source of followers is interior designers.

Nate Disarro 41:36
So talk to me about being authentic and kind of telling your own story. How do you keep from straying or at way and just tell the story that maybe isn’t as authentic? Because that’s easy to do? A lot of people want to just show their best world or whatever, you know, but how do you remain authentic?

Shayla Copas 41:54
Well, I remain authentic by by putting my heart first and they tell you, you should always put your head first and you should think first but when you when you think with your heart, and you operate with your heart, but being careful, I’m not saying to you know, be not not think about what you’re doing. But when you really operate from the standpoint of of your heart, that’s when you’re authentic, and you don’t really worry about the money. If you worry about the money, you’re never gonna get anywhere. Don’t worry about that. It will come. And I listened to my followers. So that’s what hence the cosmetic line. I did not want to start a cosmetic line, but they kept contacting me well, what makeup are you wearing? What are you know, what color is that lipstick? And same thing with the travel. And so I talked to Scott and I said, Do you want to start a cosmetic line? It said, Sure, honey, we’ll start a cosmetic line. So that’s where that all came from. And it but it comes from your followers, staying connected to them listening to then leading with your heart and being authentic.

Nate Disarro 43:03
It’s so true. I think everywhere you look anybody you talk to the TAT, any sense of success with social media and storytelling through those platforms, the number one thing they’re gonna say is, Listen, you know, because a lot of times, it’s about what do I need to put out? What do I need to say, but nine times out of 10, if you’re being authentic, and you’re just putting yourself out there, you got to listen to what people are saying back, they’re telling you what they want, you just have to listen,

Shayla Copas 43:29
and you have to respond. So people will sometimes most people that I know in social media tend not to respond. And I always respond when those responses come from me. So there’s not someone on the back end responding for me, those are true shale responses. And I’ve developed deep connections with people I’ve never even met because of that. It to

Nate Disarro 43:53
me, it’s the equivalent of if you go into a big room, and there’s somebody on a stage and they’re talking to you. You want them afterwards to be down, answering your questions and mingling with the crowd. And the best social media accounts. The best, you know, people that you know are on social media are the ones who have something to say that people want to listen to, but then come down to the crowd and to your point, respond directly and aren’t getting somebody else to respond for them or whatever the case may be. But but that’s who we want to talk to. And those are the people we’re gonna go tell other people about, say, Hey, you should listen to this person because they’re willing to listen to you and then give you tips, tricks or advice back to you. Okay, so one of the things I like to do just to get a little personal feedback is sort of some quick hit questions and answers. So I’ll just throw some things out. Give me the first thing that that comes to mind. I know you’ve put out your own books, but what’s the best book you’ve read? Or what are you currently reading? I

Shayla Copas 44:56
actually have it right beside me. It’s called the blessing and it is My favorite book from I, when I grew up, I had some challenges as a child because I was abused as a child. And this book is my favorite book because it helps us to grow and to understand what we’ve gone through and take those things for the positive.

Nate Disarro 45:18
Well, and I want to tack on to that for one second, because one of the ways that we were introduced to each other was through a great organization. So talk to me about some of the philanthropic things that you’ve been a part of, and what what really kind of hits your heart. From that side of things. Do

Unknown Speaker 45:33
you have 10 years.

Nate Disarro 45:36
We’ll start with a list.

Shayla Copas 45:38
Well, CAC Children’s Advocacy centers with with my background, it, it struck my heart, and I’ve been, you know, we I, Scott and I both started the woman of inspiration event that they now I’ve carried on, I chaired it for two years, or we both chaired it for two years. And it was a, it was a wonderful event.

Nate Disarro 46:03
That’s awesome. Well, such a phenomenal organization, the work they do every day, needs all the support it can get, but it’s near and dear to my heart as well. You know, we’ve had the fortunate opportunity to help tell those stories and raise awareness and bring advocacy to a problem that most people don’t realize is as big as it is,

Shayla Copas 46:27
they don’t realize and the way we are treated. And the way we react to it has a lot to do with our future and and our passion for life later on and what we achieve. And so we need to get more awareness out so that we can help these children heal. While there’s still time because many adults, if they didn’t get that healing and counseling when they were young, they’ve gone so far that it’s a lot harder for them to climb out of it.

Nate Disarro 46:57
All right. Thank you for that. Let’s let’s move on. So what’s a part of your daily routine that you have to do?

Shayla Copas 47:04
I don’t drink caffeine. But every morning, Scott go, he takes me we get in the car with our kitty with Prada, and we go to get him a sausage biscuits at Burger King. And then we drive down to Starbucks, and I get a hot chocolate even in the summer. That is our routine every single

Nate Disarro 47:30
day. That’s a unique one. But I love it. That is fantastic. All right, what is the best piece of advice you’ve either given or received?

Shayla Copas 47:39
If you always do what you’ve always done, you’re always gonna get what you’ve always got. So if something isn’t going right, change the pattern.

Nate Disarro 47:49
I absolutely think that’s fantastic. Alright, so what is a relatively newly formed habit?

Shayla Copas 47:54
Now that Scott is we both work out of the same office, we spend a lot more time together. And every morning we get up, we get up and we have he has his he has his coffee, his first cup of coffee because he’s habitual with the coffee. And I have tea decaffeinated tea, that’s before we go hit Burger King, and we hit Starbucks. And we talk in the morning.

Nate Disarro 48:21
The next question is typically, if you could write a book, what would you title it? But you’ve written books. So tell me a little bit about this is your chance for a plug, what what books have you written?

Shayla Copas 48:30
I’ve written four seasons of entertaining. And right now we’re working on four seasons of celebration. And we’re also working on some other books later on down the line that have been we’ve kind of started the brainstorming on those products. Yeah, and some journals and calendar journals and calendars.

Nate Disarro 48:54
always something going on. Yeah, always something

Unknown Speaker 48:57
we’re just not going to stop.

Nate Disarro 48:59
What is the best thing you’ve bought in the last year for $100 or less.

Shayla Copas 49:04
Now that I’m in the travel biz, it would be packing cubes, because I pack a lot of luggage. And this is the way that I’m able to get my stuff down to less luggage is with my packing cubes.

Nate Disarro 49:17
That makes complete sense. Alright, favorite destination you’ve ever been to South Africa. Okay, any specific place

Shayla Copas 49:25
there so much so that I’m going to Africa again this year. So the twice in one year, just you know, so on ways to travel to a favorite destination sua Lu and we will be taking people on a group trip there to swallow in 2024 or 23. Sorry, for so many group trips. I’m trying to get all of my dates right but in 2023 will be taking a group of people to swallow and then to another resort as well. Well, they call them camps lodges there. I’ve got to get that right terminology. Because I’m going to be certified in Africa by the end of this year. That’s awesome that they’re flying. There again, for my certification. I just went there to fill to do some filming and shooting for the first book. So we had a videographer and a photographer, Jason masters with us and we went to shoot,

Nate Disarro 50:26
I followed along on social media on that trip. And he did. It made me jealous.

Shayla Copas 50:32
It was crazy. Yeah, it’s the second book. I think I said first book, but second book. It’s it over the top crazy. You’ll have to go on a group trip.

Nate Disarro 50:39
Let’s go. I’m ready. bags are packed, my packing cubes are ready to go. Yeah. In fact, I just had a conversation last week about a potential documentary series that we might do that one of the episodes would be in South Africa, so I may have to go anyway. Well, I’ll have to blue check with you though on on how to make it

Shayla Copas 51:00
right has the most endangered animals there and the rarest? So the only place that you can find a meerkat is in the Kalahari desert that I’m aware of. And if I’m wrong, someone please social media. Me and let me know because I’ve been saying that forever. But the meerkat is only in the Kalahari desert, and you can be up close and personal. One even ran over my friend Jason’s head while we were there, because we’re down on the ground with them. And they pop out of a hole like Pop goes the weasel. So cute, and so special, and then a brown hyena. So I mean, I know they’re mean, there’s a ton of hyenas in the world, but the brown Hyena is there. And we got to see the brown hyena, too. And they are so rare that people don’t always see them when they go to swallow. But they came out for us.

Nate Disarro 51:48
That’s amazing. In this Docu series that we’re looking at doing would be a conservation group that wants to tell these stories. And so it’d be fascinating for sure. Quick shout out to Jason masters, one of the greatest photographers out there. Yeah. What was it like having him along on your safari adventures for the book?

Shayla Copas 52:12
Oh, wow. That was a pinch me moment. You know, he’s been shooting quite a few chapters of the book, but going all the way to South Africa with him. And then my best friends, Jeremy and Jason, were there as well. And Michelle Cheeseman, who’s one of the best videographers. Besides you, of course, were with me, but it was a pinch me moment to have Jason there the whole time grabbing these unbelievable images of this journey. And so I’ve actually gotten to see them. Yeah. And they’re amazing images. He’s so good. He’s so good. But he’s never let it go to his head.

Nate Disarro 52:51
Yeah.

Unknown Speaker 52:53
The most simple human being I know.

Nate Disarro 52:56
All right. Couple more questions for you. What is a guilty pleasure that you have?

Shayla Copas 53:01
I have a ton of though. And, oh, boy. Travel is a guilty pleasure. I love it. And I’m obsessed with going new places and like going places for adventure like the Amazon or just someplace that might be scary to someone else. And having a Anaconda around my neck. Yeah, I did that.

Nate Disarro 53:27
Snakes are my number one most feared animal. I can’t stand him. I’ll go swimming with sharks, but

Shayla Copas 53:33
he won’t you won’t touch a snake. Well, I had an anaconda RAM. I know. I’m good. So yeah, and I love purses and shoes. Yeah.

Nate Disarro 53:46
Can can envision what the collection would look like, but I won’t ask to see a picture of it.

Shayla Copas 53:53
Yeah, well, I’ve quit buying purses and shoes because I have no more room for them in the closet. So unless I want to get rid of something. I’m not buying anything new.

Nate Disarro 54:03
That’s fair. I think that’s a good rule and everybody should abide by that rule.

Unknown Speaker 54:08
They were replaced by travel.

Nate Disarro 54:11
Okay, Music Are you a music fan? You have a favorite artists or musician?

Shayla Copas 54:16
I don’t have a favorite favorite artists. But I am a music fan. And I love rap music. Yeah, it always that always is a shock to some people. I love rap music, you know, hip hop, class, classical country. Especially like Metallica and the old the old rock. Yeah. So we’ll jam out in my office at full blast up there.

Nate Disarro 54:42
Are you in Scott go into Burger King and Starbucks in the morning with Metallica and Cardi B on I

Shayla Copas 54:47
totally wish we were but he likes talk radio. Yeah. So he does he cannot stay on my music. So

Nate Disarro 54:55
that’s one area you guys are definitely different.

Shayla Copas 54:57
We’re Yeah, very different. And I actually We like talk radio too, but I don’t listen to it day in and day out. I just like to get my mind off of the world’s issues. And I feel like music helps you. It motivates you and makes you happy.

Nate Disarro 55:13
Absolutely. I 100% agree with that. Shayla, what have we what have we skipped over? What have we missed? That’s part of your story and what you’ve got going on right now.

Shayla Copas 55:24
We’ve missed a lot. But you would have had to have had a long, long time, several days to get it all. So we’ll just have to do it in the next the next interview.

Nate Disarro 55:34
That’s right. We’ll definitely make an app. Awesome. Well, thanks so much for taking the time. I certainly appreciate you opening your home to us and, and having this conversation.

Shayla Copas 55:44
Thank you so much.

Nate Disarro 55:47
If you like this episode of titans of industry, head to content Titan dot CEO slash podcast for more episodes, or subscribe on your favorite podcasting app. And if you know of an industry Titan that’s doing amazing things. Let us know on social media or through our website so we can tell their story. Thanks for listening