Knowing When To Pivot | Anita & Neil Lawrence | Episode 1113

Anita & Neil Lawrence | Episode 1113

Anita & Neil Lawrence met in art school back in the late 80’s and have been carving out a living together ever since. When Anita and Neil first graduated from art school they did various jobs on Vancouver Island in British Colombia to make ends meet. Eventually they bought a production studio, opened a restaurant, and lately a gallery studio.

Anita Lawrenc

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Neil Lawrence

What are the biggest signs that it’s time to change directions?

Neil: Well, when you start to get a feeling that this just isn’t working. There’s only one way to fix that, you got to make some change. We felt if we kept going this way we are either going to burn out or grow broke and you got to be happy so we made a decision to pivot and change to something different.

Anita Lawrence

What was the bigger motivating factor, was it the finances or the burning out?

Anita: I think probably the finances because when you take on such a huge enterprise and you have a family and you have a home it really comes down to dollars and sense. You have to be very pragmatic about it. Business should never be emotional, it has to be based on facts and figures. Is it working financially, great.

Neil Lawrence

Was that loss of passion part of the role?

Neil: I think as far as the wholesale the passion was definitely dwindling for me because I was missing the creative aspect of it and it was just becoming a job. Yes, I was definitely searching for something more and get the creativity back.

Anita Lawrence

Does that mean you were looking for emerging opportunities?

Neil: I always loved drawing. That was my first love. I was fascinated by the clay so when I started playing with the sgraffito technique where I saw the merging of the love of drawing and creating with clay. That was just a great moment whenI realized that.

Neil Lawrence

Anita: And it was received so well bye customers. There was this immediate satisfaction of taking a piece out of the kiln and having someone just praise you for it. That is the aha moment of, Okay, I’m on to something here.

Anita Lawrence

Do you think those opportunities were always there or did they become evident only when you were ready?

Neil: I think it was a little bit of both. We could have seen the opportunity to create a restaurant and move if we really wanted to. Our current landlord, this building was being revamped and when we saw the beautiful renovation of the budding we were thinking, we’ve got to get there. So that opened the opportunity to move our studio and create this cafe in this amazing space.

Neil Lawrence

Anita: I think, Paul, those emerging opportunities happen when you are willing and you are open and you are receptive and you are listening. You are watching what is happening in your business, in your community, and in your relationships. When you listen to that and you are paying attention, I think that is when you see opportunities.

Anita Lawrence

How do you manage pivoting from one to the other without doing a hard stop and hard start?

Antia: Transitions happen sort of gradually I guess, because they took time to build out. The restaurant took time to build out in terms of the interior space. You just make plans and you start to move in that direction. We pray a lot so that was included in our process. Are we doing the right thing? And doors open and that makes me incredibly grateful.