Veere has been recognized numerous times as one of the top interior designers in the world by leading magazines and tastemakers. At the helm of his eponymous firm, Veere has designed interiors across the globe and seen his own homes featured in World of Interiors and Architectural Digest and Vouge, among others. Veere built his career slowly but organically, combining a relentless drive to follow his passions with a strong work ethic and commitment to service. In our conversation, Veere offers timeless and universal insights into how apprenticeship, professionalism, and dedication to craft can weave into a powerful fabric of relationships capable of elevating anyone to the top of their profession.
Veere has been recognized numerous times as one of the top interior designers in the world by leading magazines and tastemakers. At the helm of his eponymous firm, Veere has designed interiors across the globe and seen his own homes featured in World of Interiors and Architectural Digest and Vouge, among others. Veere built his career slowly but organically, combining a relentless drive to follow his passions with a strong work ethic and commitment to service. In our conversation, Veere offers timeless and universal insights into how apprenticeship, professionalism, and dedication to craft can weave into a powerful fabric of relationships capable of elevating anyone to the top of their profession.
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“I think what lets you down is a preconceived idea of how you have to be, to be that very thing you would like to be, that's punishment. But being a free spirit but never losing sight of the essence of where you want to be or the world you inhabit, that is what you must never leave.” - Veere Grenney
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Episode Timestamps:
*(02:25) - Why your work should be about service
*(06:51) - Being a free spirit and never losing sight of where you want to be
*(10:02) - Why travel was important for Veere’s personal and professional career
*(15:18) - Planting yourself in an environment that enriches you
*(19:40) - Why the person itself is more important than the qualification
*(21:10) - The importance of an apprenticeship, growing, developing and mastering
*(28:48) - The benefits of having someone who's pragmatic around you
*(31:02) - Being brave and taking the risk
*(38:31) - There is no timeline for success
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Sponsor:
Who Got Me Here is brought to you by Connect The Dots, mapping professional relationships so you can find the strongest connections to the people and companies you want to reach. Visit ctd.ai to learn more.
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Links
[00:00:30] Annie: I'm here with Veere Greeney, world-renowned interior designer. Veere was born in New Zealand and made his way to London to fulfill his dream of interior design, apprenticing under some of the greatest designers of all time, and ultimately launching his own design firm. Veere's work ranges from New York City apartments to English countryside homes, and it draws awards and recognition from top design professionals and clientele. We're so happy to have you today on the podcast. Welcome, Veere.
[00:00:58] Veere: Thank you very much.
[00:00:59] Annie: So let's kick off just by starting to talk about networking in general.
[00:01:05] Annie: When I say the word networking, what comes to mind for you? What does that evoke for you?
[00:01:11] Veere: The great thing, and I don't mean this in any old-fashioned way, cuz life is still the same as it's always been, but the process of life and where we get to places so often has changed, or the inter-reaction between human beings has changed.
[00:01:25] Veere: And when you talk about networking, you are talking about how you reach out to people and therefore maybe have a connection which then could lead further in your life to where you want to. I think that's, if we had to find networking, I think that's what we are doing. And what we are doing today particularly, or what my business is particularly, is about networking as humans, not necessarily networking as a product.
[00:01:54] Veere: For example, if you're in a country where you're just making something, you're making um, a fountain pen. The networking so often is about who wants to buy my fountain pen? And the humanness of it is slightly disregard. And I've always said with interior design, if you were fairly affluent and you were looking for an interior designer and you looked at my website and thought, That is really fantastic, I really loved that.
[00:02:18] Veere: And then you looked at another one, you thought, Well, that's pretty good. Not quite as good as ve. But it's pretty good, so I'll interview them both. If I came across as an arrogant, very unhuman person and not much fun, and the other person came across as someone who they really liked, had a connection with, why the hell would you work with me?
[00:02:38] Veere: Who cares if it's not a hundred percent? If you enjoy the process? So to go back to what networking is, In my business, Annie, and I think in so many human businesses or business of service and after all, and my work is really about service. I mean, it's service that I love doing, and I think it's a great privilege to be asked to serve in that way.
[00:03:01] Veere: And when something is about service, you must never forget the humanness, and it is only human relationships. To be a bit more specific about networking is the product I deliver. From my talent, shall we say, is that lovely thing that God gave us or it was in Gene and we spend our whole life manifesting it.
[00:03:25] Veere: Cause if you're a little girl, if you're my daughter and you're very good with the violin, I could sit there and think, Well, you never know. She might have the possibilities of being the greatest violinist on earth, but she might not. So I'll give you every encouragement possible to try and manifest whatever talents you are given.
[00:03:42] Veere: Cause within every human being when they're born, and I believe a mother or father sees us in their children, every possibility exists. So if my job is to manifest whatever gifts I've been given, and we usually recognize those gifts in our subconscious, how far I go with that is, I suppose, My talent. And then it's about networking.
[00:04:02] Veere: Because if you are really brilliant violinist, but no one hears you, what's the point? , you know, it's what you give back really. Networking. It's what you manifest. And then net manifestation is presented to others. And that along with who you are, is everything. Every person I know, my business, that's hugely successful.
[00:04:27] Veere: Understands that quality. And I have friends who I think are very, very clever, but they don't manifest that quality and therefore, why you ever chosen?
[00:04:37] Annie: I love that idea of networking as service and really focusing on that human connection. I'd love to hear more about how you manifested the life and career that you have today.
[00:04:50] Annie: You had a fascinating, sounds like adventurous route from growing up in New Zealand to what you're doing now today in London, and I'd love to hear more. What that experience was like and in particular, what some of the big breaks you got along that journey were?
[00:05:11] Veere: Well, I read the other day actually, which is something which is just somebody come to mind and I think is quite relevant for what you've just said is Oscar Wild once said that if you know exactly what you want to be when you grow up, if I'm or a policeman or a heart surgeon, or I don't know, an actor or whatever, It's a bit of a punishment because in fact, that's all there is.
[00:05:35] Veere: What I think the way I can explain it is that all my life is a little boy. When I was growing up, I just had this desire to look for beautiful things and I love beautiful houses and I loved the whole process of life and how we live and there's a child and I think there's a very important point to any is that so often.
[00:05:56] Veere: We cannot truly remember how we felt as a child or as a young person. And when you are my age now, it's difficult to remember how you felt even when you were 25 or 30. But the most important thing is often your friends or your family will tell you because the thing about shared history, you can't lie, which is really pisses me off a bit, but you can't lie, you see?
[00:06:18] Veere: So they'll tell you exactly what you are. When you are horrible at a 15 year old or a 25 or 30 year old. So the, the point of this conversation really is that the more you manifest the person you are, which mightn't run with a convention of what you would love to spend your life with, that never lets you down.
[00:06:40] Veere: I think what lets you down is a preconceived idea of how you have to. To be that very thing you would like to be. That's punishment, but being a free spirit, but never losing sight of the essence of where you want to be or the world you inhabit. That is what you must never leave. Now, as a child or a young person, you choose the world you want to.
[00:07:08] Veere: The preconception of the exact finish line is a punishment To actually explore the world is exciting because then the people you meet, you might meet your spouse, you might meet lovers, friends, whatever is usually connected with the world you want to be in, and those choices of who you choose as friends, lovers, whatever else it may be, they also shape your world.
[00:07:35] Veere: In my case, as a young man in New Zealand, growing up in the sixties, I knew I wanted to enter the world of decoration, Architecture. Architecture, particularly houses beauty living, I suppose. You know, there's something also about gay men. They love something glamorous, so anyone that looked glamorous fitted into that mode as well.
[00:07:55] Veere: So it became a mixture of the world of glamor and a world of beauty and a world of discipline, and a world of. The way we live. So all those things are mixed up in my young brain in the sixties, but in those days, unlike the privilege of maybe your life now, it wasn't well defined about how you enter that world.
[00:08:17] Veere: If you are talking about the world of privilege, usually, because the work that I do tends to be, unless it's philanthropic, tends to be for privileged people or privileged life. How do you get to that privileged life when you lead a very nice middle class suburban life in middle class New Zealand, which that faces the bloody end of the earth as you know how long it took you to even get there from America, let alone from Europe.
[00:08:41] Veere: So, you know, where do you go? You know, the architectural school, which I tried to go to, didn't work for me because in those days, which wouldn't apply, You had to have a completely mathematical brain. They didn't really care about anything artistic. It was purely mathematical. Well, the one thing that doesn't sit with me is math.
[00:09:00] Veere: So therefore, I was excluded today with my artistry. I could well go to architectural school and the mathematical part of it is computerized anyways. So therefore I'm not blaming the sixties. That was the world I was born into. So then what you then do is I never lost sight of loving that world of beauty.
[00:09:20] Veere: So when. Father wanted me to do accounting and various things. I mean, I was just a bloody hopeless case. I wasn't interested. So as soon as I could, as soon as I was 21, I left New Zealand and I only had one desire, and that was to go and live in England, maybe the Kings Road, and have a groovy life and a whole, you know, wild sixties hippie life.
[00:09:42] Veere: That's all I wanted to do, However, It was never, ever lost the thought of beauty and architecture and houses and wonderful things in glamor. So then you start the road, and in those days, which is a completely different era, one spent a lot of one's time moving and traveling. And I traveled the world for a year, two years through all the places.
[00:10:01] Veere: So every country from Afghanistan to around, to India, to Pakistan, to Beton, Nepal. Everywhere we went was open border. You might need a visa. The day before, but it was all open. And remember the entire world then was agricultural. It was not industrial. So it was a very different world.
[00:10:19] Annie: And were you doing jobs in these different places as you were traveling?
[00:10:23] Veere: Well, no. I went to Australia when I was 21 and I worked out in the Outbacks driving trucks. No one believes me, but it's absolutely true. I can promise you. And I worked on a mobile guest pipeline. And I worked for almost a year and saved a lot of money. So in those days I could travel for 18 months or so with not too much money.
[00:10:40] Veere: So that's what I did. So we just traveled, but life was very cheap, so that's why it lasted so long. No telephones, nothing. So my parents didn't aware was for months on end. But all the time, one was always looking at lovely temples. One was exploring beautiful things the way people lived. In other words, the essence of what the world I wanted to live in didn't leave me.
[00:11:01] Veere: That's the point I'm trying to make to everybody about their life. And of course, the biggest thing which I say to everybody, which is the most important thing to never forget, there is no joy in comparison. And everyone's life now is comparison. Everyone says, Now, Annie, unless you do what you're gonna do at the time you're 25, you're a failure.
[00:11:22] Veere: Therefore, you won't do what So and so did. I mean, you know, hey, I was a failure in a way, but I was actually living my life. I wasn't actually at 21 at Parson School in New York. I didn't even know it existed in those days. Wasn't part of my world. So I was out there exploring the world, being who I.
[00:11:38] Veere: Learning human skills of getting on with people, bullshitting the border guards when they wouldn't let us through or want to shave our heads or something. You know, you learn, you learn. You learn the way of getting there without anything else but who you are. So then for many years I lived in that sort of way.
[00:11:55] Veere: When I got to London, the only way I knew was that first. Well, if you arrive in a strange city and you've got no money or strange country, As far as way as you can get from your own country, you need money. So the way to earn money in those days was to work in restaurants. I worked in restaurants and then as soon as I could, my money, I used to earn, I would buy furniture and I was, I was passionate about furniture and art.
[00:12:19] Veere: And I then had to store in the Portella road, and I used to start trading. So then I started trading. And when I started trading, You begin to meet people, and when you meet people in the world you want to live in, you get to know the people in that world and remember the world that you wish to were.
[00:12:35] Veere: Habit is always small. What's happened with the internet? Everything is worldwide, but it's also relates to the small place you live in. If you lived in a small town in America, You know that you are eminently responsible for every single thing you do, cuz everyone knows everything you're doing all the time.
[00:12:52] Veere: Whereas if you live in New York, you can do whatever you like because no one really knows who you are. You know? So in other words, when you're accountable, you also develop different skills. So therefore you develop the people you like and you develop the people you like to meet. And remember when you meet people and there's a common ground, it's a very nice pinpoint to begin with.
[00:13:12] Veere: That's really how the journey. Began probably by the age I was 26 or seven. I realized that interior decoration encompassed everything I loved. Cause by that stage I used to have flats. I started with a squat, but I had flats. But I knew if I painted the walls a certain color and did things that looked different to everyone else's, and people would come in and like it.
[00:13:35] Veere: So you begin to get a taster by this stage of what you really loved. To do, I decorated my first room, which was in a very sixties way. Amongst my friends and family, there was great recognition of having a very groovy aesthetic awareness. They all knew that I wasn't going to be CBR in an academic way, although I've always been quite bright.
[00:14:02] Veere: There was going to be a different trajectory from me. It could still be in business, but it was going to be on an artistic level, not in the way my father was an economist. But he said it probably became obvious to all of them that my career would be centered around things artistic. But then there's a business element, which is quite handy to have as.
[00:14:23] Annie: I'd love to go back to that time. You're in London, you're working in restaurants, you have a shop on Portobello Road. How did you really connect deeply with the people that you were meeting and how did you translate those introductions? Potentially fleeting connections into longer term, more meaningful relationships?
[00:14:44] Veere: What's very interesting is there's something called a shared history. So when people knew you in your twenties and you get to your fifties and sixties or older, the people that knew you then like it more because they remember that cuz the person you were in your twenties are not the person you are in your fifties.
[00:14:58] Veere: But still, the essence of who you were is still there. I was working in restaurants at night. Now it happened at the restaurant I worked with in was incredibly groovy, cool hip restaurant, and it was also in the middle of noting Hill Gate and Notting Hill Gate in the seventies was such a cool place to be because it's in the Chelsea area.
[00:15:18] Veere: And it's where the rich folk lived. But noting Hill was the Seedy part, but it was a seedy part cuz it had big houses that were divided into flats and it had these big communal gardens behind. So it was a very beautiful area, but it was lived mainly by more alternative people. It was very hip, it was very Ed.
[00:15:39] Veere: So I was in that area to begin with, which in other words suited me. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. So I was in that area. I was in a restaurant. So you make very superficial friends of lots of people that come to your restaurant. It's superficial. They know who you are. They hide beer, da, da, da. Then they all knew quite quickly that I also had a stall imported be.
[00:15:56] Veere: So I became known as someone that also dealt in furniture or nice things or. Had an artistic bent because what we couldn't do at 20 Annie, I couldn't go on the internet and show you, this is the room I've done. This is my bedroom, isn't it called? I couldn't put it on the internet, so I couldn't show people what I did.
[00:16:15] Veere: But then you gain a reputation because everybody's on the streets. And the thing about a market, why I love the Portobella Road. Everybody went to the market. So any dealer in London, interior design. Now remember in those days too, you're ahead of the curve. So it's a bit like a startup. The great thing about you doing a startup, you're head of the curve and you create your own curve.
[00:16:39] Veere: So that's the great thing about the world. You in habits. So when you start your curve, you meet people relating to your curve that help you make it up. So if you are doing a startup in Silicon Valley or something, the people that you probably have to relate to other people in the world you are trying to serve.
[00:16:57] Veere: So I therefore met the people who were influences or movers or shakers. So I met a lot of designers. You know, indirectly came to me and bought things, or they knew me. So when I decided about the age of 31 that I wanted to work, In a grown up way in interior design, I had quite a few context to go to and they knew me through my dealing, so that enabled me to quite easily get a job.
[00:17:29] Veere: Now, if, for example, I didn't necessarily know those people as well as I did, say I'd tried to get a job in the world at the age of 25 and not 31. I think I was at the time, you'd probably at 25 get a more Lowely job. But you can still get inside the door because like not having a preconceived idea of how you're gonna be when you get there, which is punishment.
[00:17:56] Veere: If you use more of yourself, you get in the door. And once you are in the door, shall we say in the studio as a fashion designer, and you are literally sweeping the floor or you're making. When you're out at clubs or out with your friends, you work at Shavani, it puts you in a different place. So you want to try and connect the world you want to believe in and live.
[00:18:17] Veere: I'm not just, I, I'm talking about the word of glamor because people still think what I do is glamorous. It's not glamorous, but let them think whatever they like. But I'm trying to illustrate to people the way they project themselves forward. And I suppose the continual voice I'm hoping I'm giving is, it is so important.
[00:18:36] Veere: To be who you are. And it's so important that the qualities of communication, kindness, empathy, the desire for excellence, the desire for always being on time, the desire for being disciplined, the desire to turn up on time, the desire to not let people down, all those qualities are priceless. And so, If we are so determined to get where we are by a route which is in our imagination, it becomes punishment because so often those things are not held to be true and they still are the most important qualities of all in all of us.
[00:19:15] Veere: And today, so often. When it comes to education of people, I often get very sad when it's only the examination of wish they're seen and nothing to do with the person, and yet we all know that the person itself is probably more important than the qualification. At the end of the day, when I'm looking for a pa.
[00:19:36] Veere: Now, it seems off funny because in my work. Everybody that comes to me has a degree. So it's just like saying, Well, I've all got blue eyes, you know? And yet some of them are really bright and some of them are not. Having a degree doesn't make you bright. It might make you intelligent, but it doesn't make you bright.
[00:19:53] Veere: And you know, if you've got someone, a young kid even brought up on the street that's street wise and personable and charming and knows how to do anything, they're better. They understand life more. You know, say I'm getting you junior in my office and there's always juniors lined up to come and printers in my company.
[00:20:12] Veere: Now, a young junior, you want someone who loves interior design. So obviously they could have left university doing a history of art degree, should we? And they come to me and they really want to work in interior design. The fact if they can put two colors together or want to create a booth room, I'm not interested.
[00:20:28] Veere: All I care about is all the things I mentioned. They know how to get things done and they think laterally and that doesn't change in any business. Any, I know
[00:20:37] Annie: you've talked about the importance of apprenticeship. I'd love to hear about the role of apprenticeship in your own career, cuz you were at that moment, early thirties.
[00:20:48] Annie: Then you went and worked for some very world renowned designers for I think something like 10 to 15 years based on what I've read. I'd love to hear about that decision and how those relationships with those mentors really supported you or helped you reach where you are today.
[00:21:06] Veere: I went to work for Mary Fox and David Hicks, and then I went for a few years on my own.
[00:21:10] Veere: Then I went to Colfax and Fowler. Now all those names, David Hicks, Mary Fox, is not so much for your generation, but she was incredibly influential in a contemporary way with David Hicks and then Colfax. When you apprenticeship in a great company. Or say you went to Balenciaga tomorrow, as I said, or you went to Givenchy, or you went to Dior, it gives you a chance to explore and be.
[00:21:34] Veere: Now if you look at the fashion collections of Givenchy or Valentio even, it's absolute genius, but it's nothing to do with Valenti and nothing to do with Givenchy. It's actually to do with what's current. Cause remember, we are still current. So to answer your question, what was brilliant about mentoring it somewhere, like let's go to Colfax and file.
[00:21:55] Veere: When I went to Colfax and Fowler, I would, I'd been in the business for 10 years. I started in the business like at 31. I think I was 41 when I went to Colfax and file. I had five or six years with Mary and David, and then I had a few years on my own working for a couple of clients and then Colfax and Father got hold of me and said, We need a new director in our company.
[00:22:19] Veere: We're seeing your work. We like you. Will you come to us? We also want someone with a new approach, maybe a slightly more contemporary approach, like someone like Albert Hadley. And my business was to Sister Parrish. She was conventional. He was more avant-garde. So I went to Colfax and Fowler, and now. I hated being there really, because A, I earned a salary.
[00:22:42] Veere: I hate earning a salary cuz I hate earning, knowing how much I'm gonna earn. I prefer to earn a lot or I have nothing. I can't bear being in the middle. So I hated that, number one. Number two, they were very conventional. The way they did things, and I fought against that too, is I've always fought against being conventional.
[00:23:00] Veere: However, once I relaxed into it and realized actually they have a lot to say, and I shouldn't be so arrogant. Learning the art or the mastery of proportion in scale and cut and quality was. Like no other. So it's like going to a great couture house. There's still that tradition continued by the people that work in it or the employees of it that teach you something that most people don't know.
[00:23:29] Veere: So for example, I'm sitting in my house in Morocco at the moment and a lot of people have been to see it. Funny enough, it's becoming a very well known house for the reasons of, I suppose, cause it's in an interesting place and has extraordinary views. But the house itself, I built. People come into it, love it.
[00:23:46] Veere: But then people who are in my business, and there's a lot of decorators that live in Tan and there's a lot of decorators that come to Tan and a lot of wealthy Europeans and Americans that come to Tangier is they look around and they feel the curtains, and they look at the quality. They look at the quality of the upholstery, they look at the quality of certain things that I do, a hand painted work on the walls, et cetera.
[00:24:08] Veere: Not about extravagance here, it's about the quality. It's about the cuts. So they appreciate the house often, like all of us do with somewhere beautiful. If you go to a beautiful house, any yourself, and it might not be your world of houses, you'll come away usually from one after a while and think, what is it that made it stand apart?
[00:24:30] Veere: And so often it's quality or it's layered, or it's very intended, you suddenly realize the reasons you love it. So going back to your question that you asked me is the apprenticeship that I did allowed me to learn. When I say learn, I'm talking about. Things which you never imagine are important when you are doing interior design at the moment.
[00:25:00] Veere: There's an awful lot of people. However, not everybody understands the difference between things which are incredibly well done and thought through, and those people that don't know the difference. And if you don't know the difference, that's not a fault. But if you know the difference you do, if you were a startup and you're doing something really extraordinary, the people who know more in the tech world would recognize what you are doing.
[00:25:28] Veere: Quite soon, the people that stand apart have themselves in it, and then those who just. Follow blindly if you want a real rent from me. The biggest rent that I'll give you is about how the world is now corporate. And when I say corporate, I mean. Every small startup, every interesting shop, every interesting thing that becomes good is brought out by the corporate.
[00:25:57] Veere: So all of this is suddenly being forced into accepting the corporate, but the corporate is made up usually of people that are only economic and don't ever use the other side of themselves. The more romantic or the more empathetic or the more humanness of us all to enter into a transac. And I think it's a great sadness that a lot of your generation, they're forced to often just be worker bees in corporate.
[00:26:24] Veere: As opposed to being themselves and something small, how do
[00:26:27] Annie: you think folks could really tap into what their essence is, who they truly are, to then manifest that and map out where they wanna go with their careers and the way that you did?
[00:26:43] Veere: I think it has to come from self, but you'll find that in fact the most inspiring thing is for you and the help to you is people that know who you are.
[00:26:54] Annie: I, I'd love to switch gears a little bit and talk about mistakes. A lot of folks when they think about building and managing their network are fearful of making a misstep, and I'd love to hear about a mistake that perhaps you made when it comes to your network in your career, what you learned from it, and what you would advise others to do or to avoid based on that experience.
[00:27:17] Veere: Looking as I do at your generation or Jamie's generate my nephew's generation, or even people 20 years younger than younger than me, one of the great problems we all face any is when you get to a certain age like your parents' age. It's what I call the could've, would've, should've, generationed. Then all I can do every day of the week is tell you what I should have done, what I could've done, and what I didn't do.
[00:27:41] Veere: You know? And that's all about mistake. Why didn't I buy three more properties? Why didn't I do this? Why didn't I have that relationship that was offered? Why didn't I do this? And the thing is, Which is so sad for so many of us are people that suffer so much because they think they should have. The one thing you're gonna do every day is make a mistake.
[00:27:59] Veere: I've made a mistake this morning, you know, Cause I had, you know, too much carbohydrate. It doesn't matter, you know, every day there is a mistake. It's unfortunately all the time we make mistakes and brave people. And the word brave and courage are very important words. Brave and courageous people never think about the consequences of the mistake and, but there's only one thing that sure is your make so many if you are ending your life right now, and people said, What regrets do you have?
[00:28:32] Veere: I think the only regret you'll ever have is if you treated other people. So regarding yourself and doing the wrong moves, uh, should we say taking a startup and whatever. If there's a big decision to make, I think it's always very good to have someone who's not emotional, but only pragmatic around you. So I would say if you wanna check yourself when you're making big decisions, should we say in business or the path we're all taking, always try and find someone pragmatic to sound with, not someone emotional.
[00:29:05] Veere: We don't want to hear about the puppies and the cuddly toys when we're making a big decision. We wanna hear about the cold facts of whether it's financially the right thing to do, whether we have the energy and the right people around us. Whether the moment is right, you know, these are big decisions, which a pragmatist has no problem.
[00:29:23] Veere: But if you're a bit warm and fuzzy, as I am more emotional, it becomes more difficult. So that's the only advice I would say, to avoid some of the more consequential mistakes. If you learn why you did something and it was really for the wrong reasons, you don't usually make them again. And looking at mistakes and sacking them up and taking responsibility for them are hard.
[00:29:47] Veere: One. Or looking at a mistake and knowing, um, and having empathy to the person who perhaps instigated a mistake and getting over that and forgiveness. So really important in business and in your life, that life lessons, which are so vital to have. Other than that, every day of your life will be a mistake. I promise you.
[00:30:08] Veere: It'll all be mistakes all the time. The mistakes, the way you sit, it's collecting them over time. The way you break the. Absolutely. But just get over it. I mean, yeah. You know, have you got ever had people you know who are a certain age and you suddenly see your friends who continue do the same thing, which is always a mistake.
[00:30:24] Veere: You wanna say, Actually get over it. Will you? You know, because don't carry that burden always. because new mistakes
[00:30:30] Annie: will happen. Yeah. And I'm hearing you even say, be prepared, be willing to make them in order to make the moves, get where you want to go. Be brave. Mm-hmm. ,
[00:30:39] Veere: if, if, if you were giving me advice, wouldn't you prefer me to be brave and make a mistake then don't do anything.
[00:30:45] Veere: Mm-hmm. ? Absolutely. Yeah. But when you make a mistake and then you would, and then you look at it and you realize what mistake, you'll never do it again. Yeah, you've learned something. Whereas if you're not brave and you know, God does favor the brave, I'm sorry. Mm-hmm. , It just does. Mm-hmm. , because you go ahead first and what is so amazing about being brave and taking the risk, any person you ever speak to that's ever done anything worthwhile has taken a risk.
[00:31:09] Veere: Mm-hmm. . Always. Yeah, always. Because there's no guarantee, covid included. There is no guarantee. Mm-hmm. . And so take a risk. Yeah. You know? Absolutely. That's the only thing. I don't mean silly risks. You, you, Well, you know what I'm talking about. You can misinterpret what I'm saying if you wish to, but in what I call a positive and and pleasant way with friendships, with love with.
[00:31:29] Veere: Business. With all those things, you take a certain risk.
[00:31:32] Annie: One thing I I'd love to discuss is the global reach of your business and your personal brand. You work in projects from Connecticut and New York to the English countryside, to Sweden, to Morocco and beyond. How do you maintain. Relationships, connections across such a global scale.
[00:31:55] Annie: How do you think about that and what advice would you give to other folks who aspire to have that type of global
[00:32:02] Veere: reach? Well, of course, Annie, you are so lucky, your generation of the first generation really, that have had that global reach. You know, um, I have, I have since, I would say for the last 30 years, I've always worked abroad.
[00:32:15] Veere: Now, when I used to work abroad, for example, from England, I started working in America with English, with American clients, living in London for wealthy people who are building a house in Long Island or building a house, Connecticut, or usually are usually projects in the city. So I started. New York career very early, and I got to be well known amongst a certain group of people.
[00:32:36] Veere: Then you move on and you go to 2007, the world of the iPhone beginning, and that's when everything made a seismic shift because. I then have my fabric collection and shoemaker take it up and therefore my name becomes all over America. So people look at going to a shoemaker showroom and they see my name.
[00:32:55] Veere: So if you see Veere Greeney and you Google it, then you see the thing behind it. So that's how we get there. And, but cuz your generation have invented that and invented that globalness. But what you tend to find is that if you're doing a project in Morocco, I'm doing one in Abu Dhabi, at the moment, I'm building a house in Arkansas or wherever I am.
[00:33:15] Veere: The same rules apply of the way you do business and the way you manage people, whoever you are, whether it's a Muslim country, whether it's a Christian country, whether there's a Buddhist country, it doesn't matter. The same rules apply of what we've just been discussing, so that never changes the way you work it logistically.
[00:33:38] Veere: That's a different story. For example, like in Abu Dhabi, we're doing some work at the moment and the contractors are mainly, uh, from India or the subcontinent. But still, when you're dealing with them and you are working with them, the same rules always apply and. Always apply. They don't change in different areas.
[00:33:56] Veere: We imagine they do, but your generation and just before you have allowed the world to be global. So remember, all the people in those countries have iPhones as well. All those people have what we are doing now. All those people have Zoom calls. It's not just. America and Great, and Europe. So it applies to all of us now, and that's why it's so easy to reach it and why you are so lucky that you have that possibility.
[00:34:22] Veere: Travel has now become the difficult part cuz it's now so bloody difficult because nothing works the way it did before, but it'll come right. So it's only exciting for you and your generation to be global if you wish to be, And that includes my profession. Mm-hmm. .
[00:34:38] Annie: Terrific. Yeah, and it sounds like it's about the same approach of kindness, generosity, service.
[00:34:46] Veere: Exactly. Never ne never and, and integrity and just never, ever lose sight of that because also it attracts mm-hmm. , doesn, the people you attract that appreciate that are gonna behave the same way. , you know, . Mm-hmm. .
[00:34:59] Annie: Absolutely. The last topic I was hoping to cover with you is around the role of trust. In relationships and the role that trust plays in building your network.
[00:35:09] Annie: I assume that you've worked on many projects with high profile individuals, things where you need to use discretion or can't publish the photos of the project on your website. And I, I'd love to hear about the role that trust and discretion have played in your ability to build your network and your.
[00:35:29] Veere: Firm. Most people who are successful, who work internationally in whichever field it is, it's usually trust because the whole world of showing your craft that's through publication or mainly on the internet, has only been a recent invention. Up until about 2010, everything was magazine based, so you worked towards magazine.
[00:35:52] Veere: So the networking, which we haven't talked about, was also about people that could show your work. In other words, uh, magazines could showcase it. And that was big use to be an ad, to be in house and garden, to be an hg. I mean, that was the ultimate. And when it first happened to me in 1990, I thought, Well, I've arrived.
[00:36:11] Veere: But then you realize no one called me. They might have loved it, but my name was out there. Get the name out there. The name's important. So, but I think the element of trust is still the same. And I do think though, it's a bit like relationships. Annie one is off, continually disappointed. Continually. I'm disappointed in people who behave badly or people that financially want to behave badly or they expect too much from one.
[00:36:37] Veere: And often if you're dealing with domestic now, there's a big difference here. Interior design, which is domestic, which is my world, is a lot trickier. Because often there's a psychological element to it too. Cause so are often creating beautiful houses or a series of beautiful houses for privileged people that can be behind it.
[00:36:56] Veere: Elements of power or all sorts of other elements. But I think what has to be highly intuitive, like everything you do on whatever level that. And I think in fact you get to where you need to be. Uh, very old decorator. When I first started once said to me that decorators, interior designers get the clients they deserve, which sounds pretty heavy, but in a funny sort of way.
[00:37:20] Veere: I'm a great believer in like for life, you get the people you like. And the great thing about getting older, if you were starting your career now as an interior designer, You'd find after 10 years you, you'd come pretty quick at sussing who are the right fit for you. Those things that are not nice people.
[00:37:39] Veere: The two are the right fit and I, there's a couple of people who have come up to me and want me to work for them, but I just know we don't really fit because what they really want, I'm not the right guy. So I think the word, I think trust is like all those things as a child, as a young woman is a mother.
[00:37:57] Veere: All the things you may experience in your life, there's different times when you have to trust in different ways, but you know, businesses like life. It's the same thing. The way you believe your life is the way you should live in business, in my opinion. Same thing applies. Mm-hmm. . Terrific.
[00:38:11] Annie: We like to cap it off with sort of the single most important thing for folks who are listening to this, who really want to expand their network and achieve their own dreams, what's the single most important thing those folks should take away from your story, your experience, the advice that you.
[00:38:31] Veere: Well, I would say to get all their ducks lined up in the right way to make sure they are not all fur coat, no nickers. They have all the the right qualities to fulfill what they're promising. Make sure all those things are right. And the thing is, Annie, you'll only be disappointed if you put a timeframe on it and want to be like someone else's time.
[00:38:53] Veere: It will happen. It may happen a bit longer, but most importantly, from the very first thing I started to say, it doesn't necessarily have to happen like everybody else's. Though I know in your, I know in your world, you can say if you suddenly have a million Instagram followers, la, la, la, it will, I mean, it might in a way too, but it doesn't have to be that.
[00:39:14] Veere: It does, does not. And surely if anyone you speak to that is in my business, okay, and they want to be successful or they'd love to be in a position, every one of them will have a different way of getting there. Everyone has a different way. There is the way of the internet now, which a lot of people think is the only way, But there are other ways too.
[00:39:36] Veere: If you lived in. Say a medium size sitting in America, you might find that, you know, local press and a couple of local projects that you do beautifully are all, you need to be that grandstand to something much bigger. You don't suddenly start to work in the best projects in America or the world just by having the internet at your fingertips.
[00:39:58] Veere: There has to be substance with it and in may transpire that it's going to be where you are. The gold may be under your feet, right where you. And the thing is, you know, I've always said put your head down. Don't worry about where the finishing line is. Just keep doing it. Cause if you keep doing it out there, there is a universe it's gonna take you to where you should go.
[00:40:19] Veere: So, I mean, you know, anyone you speak to in my business will always tell you that a door is always open, the most unexpected way. But it comes out of talent, kindness, empathy, integrity. It comes out of those qualities, not by the bad ones. What's interesting is that it is so glorious being involved in my business, which we're talking about particularly, or any sort of startup business in 2022.
[00:40:46] Veere: Of course, there are problems always, and if you want to take all the problems that are possible, you won't do. But you'll still find that people love someone that has the courage to do something themselves. People are responsive. There's always a risk. It's no different from what it was before. Only in retrospect can your generation sit there and say, wasn't there gr.
[00:41:08] Veere: He so lucky he had that sort of world when he grew up, but it was just as difficult. We only knew a quarter of what we know now, but I would say to all those people, it's really important just. Keep going. And also more important than your Instagram numbers is to make sure you are really good at your craft.
[00:41:28] Veere: So when the opportunities are there, you can do it so well. What is so important is that you do it properly, you know, and it isn't just all smoke
[00:41:38] Annie: screen. I love that you've talked about that throughout the conversation. You know, get in the door. Whatever task it is that you're doing, absolutely do it properly.
[00:41:47] Annie: Take in what's around you and you'll, and follow the threads. You know, just kind of keep following the, the different threads
[00:41:54] Veere: and they will always, always, always take you to where you're going. But as a young woman of made mid twenties or whatever age, you can't see where you're going to be, God willing at 60 or 70 or 50 or 40.
[00:42:06] Veere: But let me tell you, if it's based cuz you love where you are in the world, you're inhabiting, it takes you to the right place of that. I can promise you there is nothing. Sure it is risk. It just is, You know, bad things happen of course, but it's written amazing. You have to, and you must believe that. Cause if you don't believe it, there's no future.
[00:42:25] Veere: Mm-hmm. and there is a future.
[00:42:27] Annie: Well, I feel inspired ending this conversation, so thank you so much for joining us today. It's been such a delight to hear about your experience and your advice for how other folks can build their networks, and we just so appreciate you coming on the podcast. Thank you so much.
[00:42:45] Veere: Well, it's. Privilege to be asked, and thank you, and good luck for everyone.