Transcript: Bonnie and Lana from Three Birds Renovations on Taking the Leap, Backing Yourself, and Building a Dream
And We're Rolling with Stephanie Hunt
STEPH: Bonnie and Lana, a huge welcome to you both. Two of the three birds — and a big shout out to Erin, Ez, you're missed. Now, firstly, congratulations on building an empire. A genuine juggernaut. It's incredible. Blood, sweat and tears. You've all worked so hard and it's really paid off — and you bloody deserve it. I'm a huge fan. Fourteen homes transformed, online courses, two beautiful books, and a huge, beautiful community of women who feel really empowered.
BONNIE: Thanks, Steph. It's mind-boggling sometimes. Your wildest dreams are kind of coming true, and it's just so amazing to be able to work with two of my best mates and have such a great time doing it. Obviously it's hard work, but we feel really lucky.
LANA: And I don't think we stop and smell the roses enough. Someone always tells me that, and it's because we're always so busy, always looking at the next thing. We can always do better, we can always say oh, we could have done better here or there. It can be really easy to let it all pass you by and be so buried in the day-to-day grind that it takes someone like yourself and a podcast for us to step out and have someone say: hey, here are all the things you've done, here's how we're seeing it from the outside. And we go: oh yeah, that is really cool. Because it's a lot of hard work. Blood, sweat and tears. We just got off a meeting where we were talking about exactly that. You're living the dream, but you're working hard — and you deserve that dream.
BONNIE: Yeah, it's not just take a pretty pic for Instagram and record something for Reno School. We started the business — I remember we were all working for different companies at the time and we really wanted to do something for ourselves, create our own rules and boundaries. We started part-time, didn't we, Lana? Three days a week.
LANA: Three days a week. And then soon it was seven days a week.
BONNIE: That's the thing — everyone who runs their own business will tell you: you don't work less, you work more. But it's under a very different context. The flexibility of how we operate, the work that we do — whilst we're working harder than we ever have before, it's more rewarding. We get to do a lot of our work from home or remotely, which has been really great especially over the last few years. We've grown the team and we work with a lot of lovely people now beyond just the three of us, and that's really satisfying.
STEPH: What was it like when you first decided to quit corporate? Scary, or were you ready?
BONNIE: I had been tapping on Erin's shoulder for years. We can renovate a house, come on, we can do it. I'd watched my mum and dad do it so many times. It took me two years to get her to say yes, to put up money, to come on board. And we always knew we wanted a third person to join the crew, and Lana was just perfect — she brings so much energy, she's so vibrant, obviously very clever. And she's good for a laugh.
LANA: But interestingly, Bonnie says she was so ready to jump ship. Well — I quit first, and Bonnie quit last. I'd been pushing everyone, and finally Erin had quit, I had quit, and then Bonnie was like: oh, I don't know if I can do this. Am I really going to quit my job and go and start something new? So she was the big wuss in the end. Erin and I eventually started booking so many meetings and property viewings that she was basically going to have to quit just to turn up. Is she not going to come to this viewing? Is she not going to come to the house today? We thought we were just going to have to force her hand. She definitely had the coldest feet.
BONNIE: And I think there would be a lot of people in that position. Just risking that security — that was a big one for me. I feel so much safer when I know exactly what's going on. It was just that unknown: have I made the right decision for my family? I did end up making the right decision, but it was scary.
STEPH: Was it your idea initially, Bon, to focus on flipping homes — which would have been tough in a Sydney market?
BONNIE: Yes, and the key was the three of us pooling money — the risk is less. And with real estate, it's proven over so many years, but it's not as risky as, say, starting a company making bikinis where you've got to outlay so much money and you're not sure who's going to buy it. But you kind of know someone's always going to buy a house. You can always sell it.
LANA: We always talked about it — the worst case scenario is we get our money back. You might not make a big windfall, but you'd have to really stuff up to lose money.
BONNIE: And even though we started in a very hot market — that's fine if you buy and sell in the same market. You buy at a hot price, but you sell at a hot price too. And equally, in a low market, you might not get the best sales price at the end, but you should have bought at a good price as well. Where it starts to become a little more risky is longer projects that you hold for years. But real estate tends to just go up, even if the rate of growth slows. It's usually worth more tomorrow than it was yesterday — particularly in the suburbs we chose to operate in.
STEPH: I can relate to that with my own family background — my dad's a builder, my brother's a builder, my mum has a really good eye, and we grew up in houses that were half-built. Sarking everywhere. People would come over: oh, that's blue sarking. And we'd be like, yeah. Or we'd sleep in the garage.
BONNIE: Oh, I know all about that! So many kitchens in the garage. We used to sleep in the garage too. And you know what? It was totally fine. Just for a short period of time. Friends would come over and go, wow, you live in the garage? And then four months later it was an amazing house. We were there for like three weeks and then mum and dad would sell.
STEPH: As soon as it's finally nice, they sell it!
BONNIE: Exactly!
STEPH: I also love that you were very quick to keep your husbands' names out of the business.
BONNIE: Yes. Erin, Lana and I did this for us. We understood what we were capable of. We knew what we could achieve and we wanted to achieve it ourselves. We're really proud of what our husbands do — they're wonderful people, they've had amazing careers. But this wasn't about them. This was about us. And we were very cautious of having that WAG headline hanging over our heads. We didn't want that. This was our thing.
LANA: Were there issues with media trying to peg us that way early on? Yes, 100%. We'd go on TV and as they're introducing us we could see the package they were playing as overlay — footage of our husbands at work as the introduction to us. I was mortified. That's just what they thought was the way to introduce us — probably what they thought we wanted. But we didn't at all. I always felt most worried about how Bonnie felt because Bonnie was the most sensitive to it. I was less sensitive given our different personalities, but I always believed we could overcome that WAG tag. I used to say to Bonnie: look at what Victoria Beckham's done — she's now bigger than her husband. She's cool.
BONNIE: That made things worse. She was like: are you now comparing us to Victoria Beckham? Because that is embarrassing. My spice girl!
LANA: But you know what? It only happened a couple of times and then it just really did vanish. Now it's completely absent and a lot of people have no idea who our husbands are. They didn't add any value to what we were doing — we didn't need them. I mean, they helped financially — we all mortgaged our homes to buy our first property, so they were obviously part of that. And they gave us love and support to go after our dreams. That was fantastic. But operationally we just didn't need them.
Although — I must admit — in the first house or two we did get Bonnie and Erin's husbands to lay some turf for free.
BONNIE: My husband was invited to join and did show up. But by the time he'd put on his sunscreen and had a good stretch, the other two had already finished the lawn.
LANA: If you know him, you would sit here and giggle and completely understand. The two other boys were just straight at it — turf down, job done. And Bonnie's husband was still off putting his sunscreen on, having a lovely time. He moves so slowly, still to this day. The fridge is open, you've got to close the fridge door — the time it takes to cross the floor and close it. Every woman would be pulling her hair out.
STEPH: Well, Bon — our husbands actually work together. But when I say work...
BONNIE: Is it work? They're basically just being really silly on television. So many people say to me: oh my gosh, I'd love to do what you do, you've got the best job in the world. And I'm like: no, I actually don't. My husband does. He mucks around with his mates on TV and has the time of his life.
STEPH: Back to Victoria Beckham — you guys have essentially formed an epic band. I'm doing it now.
LANA: Destiny's Child is who I always refer to, Steph. And Bonnie is Beyoncé.
BONNIE: Please. My brother tells me Lana's Beyoncé actually.
LANA: No, no. But it is a bit of a girl band — the three of us with different styles, different personalities, different skill sets. And that's really working.
STEPH: And you've been very smart about managing each other's levels of ambition so you can share the load and the winnings. You're the epitome of a flexible workplace.
LANA: That's evolved over time. We've really learnt what each other needs and what's going to work. And I think it's really important when you're working with your mates that you understand how they operate. We've still got lots more work to do on that, but the key is that we respect each other, value each other's opinions, and are willing to do what we need to do to make each other happy. That's a really important part of our success.
STEPH: How important was the decision to bring in a CEO?
LANA: Really important. That was about four and a half to five years ago, so quite early on — we're coming up to eight years in the business now. We could see at that stage that we were about to really grow the team with lots of new people to help us get everything done, and we just couldn't do it all on our own. As we grew, we really needed someone to help manage it all — and that's where a CEO came in.
It helped transform us from a business with a really good foundation into what I'd call a company operating like a company. The way we're managing our financials, the lawyers we engage, occupational health and safety, corporate governance, setting up all those processes and bringing new people in correctly while we could continue to do our own jobs. It was also really good to have another point of view — an outsider opinion that wasn't just the three of us. We were so heavily entrenched in the business. We needed someone working on the business while we worked in it. It was a real game changer. Perfect timing.
STEPH: Can we talk about Reno School? Doors open Monday — fifty new video lessons, new downloadable tools and templates. You're really inspiring and empowering women to get their dream home without any wanker vibes, without feeling inferior or pressured to spend money they don't have.
LANA: That's exactly right. Module one drops on Monday and we're taking all our enrolments right now. This is the first time we're releasing video lessons — for the last four years it's all been written-based. But we know times have changed. People are so busy. They want to listen in the car sometimes. They want it a bit more spoon-fed in video format. Bonnie, Erin and I recorded every single video ourselves, and they're really fun and easygoing.
BONNIE: There could be some lines in there where I've looked at what Lana's written and said: I'm not saying that. But then our producer says: well, what would you say? And I rewrite it. She does have some cracking jokes in there though, I have to admit.
STEPH: Bonnie, your styling is so beautiful. You've got four kids, a white couch, animals — and it all just works. How do you stay inspired?
BONNIE: The most important thing to me is constantly seeing new things. I get bored quite easily, so I just need to constantly see something new. Travel is what I live for — honestly second only to family and friends. I thrive in a new place, seeing new things. But really anything can inspire me — driving down a new street and seeing a house that's a different colour, nature, whatever it might be. New is reinvigorating.
LANA: I'm the complete opposite. I don't like to travel. I don't want to go anywhere. And that's why I brought the travel to my home by creating a little slice of Santorini in Sydney on my street. That's where we hang all weekend. And I've been quite happy to be at home during COVID — I love being at home because I've made it feel beautiful. If it was the old home before I renovated, no — I would have been pulling my hair out. But I was fortunate to get it finished and I love it. Of all the Three Birds homes we've done, mine is still my favourite — which is perfect because that's how it should be.
BONNIE: It was funny — we had a Christmas party last year and at the end of the night Lana invited everyone back to hers, and it was just like... whoa. That never happens.
LANA: And shoes off! Everyone came around the back, shoes were off, out on the deck. There were like fifteen of us making margaritas in the kitchen. As I was saying come on everyone, get in the Ubers, people were going: are you sure? Are you sure? I was like, yeah, come on back. And it was actually fine. When I do it, it's okay. It's like this new thing — having people back to your house.
STEPH: Tips from your work — how you feel in your home is the single most important thing. Is that the best tip, or do you have others?
BONNIE: From Reno School and styling school it's your vision board. It's absolutely key — the Bible of your renovation, the Bible of your styling. If you stick to those images that you love and refer back to them constantly when you're trying to make a decision, that's my top tip.
LANA: And it's what our students tell us too. They give us feedback and they always say: the biggest thing I learned was to stick to my vision board. Because there are so many beautiful styles out there. If you're in the middle of doing a Hamptons-style home, you can't just switch midway to Safari Lux or Moroccan and think that's not going to have an impact. That's where the vision board keeps you on track. Even when you see fabulous shiny new things, you can respect them and say: God, I love that. But it's not the vision for this home. If you keep changing course while you're doing a reno, your home won't have a feel at the end because it's part this, part that, part that. One bathroom tiled in a Moroccan style, another in a very formal Hamptons, another in something different — you won't get a cohesive feel. It'll be patchwork quilty.
And the vision boards our students create are just incredible. They share them in our closed Facebook community and they're just inspiring. You want to offer 40,000 people jobs because they're just so good.
STEPH: The main theme of this podcast is talking to incredible women about how they've overcome challenges or tough times when confidence is low. Over eight years — have there been those patches?
LANA: Definitely. Last year I went through a patch where my confidence was down and I just wasn't trusting my gut the way I usually did. And you've really got to work when you're in that mindset. Just getting up every day and going for a walk helped me. And then I'd allocate time to seeing new things — I was locked up during COVID and wasn't being inspired. Getting off social media helped enormously too. It's just about taking the right steps to get yourself back to where you need to be.
BONNIE: I couldn't imagine Lana having a crisis of confidence. I genuinely cannot see where that would come from. If we're using a football analogy, I think she's the best player in the comp, every single game. I don't know why you would doubt yourself.
LANA: Thanks, Bon. And I don't have any crisis of confidence about myself either. I think I'm fantastic.
BONNIE: Good. But we have different challenges. She has to deal with my crisis of confidence, which makes no sense to her at all — she's sitting there going: are you mad? That's great! The challenging times we have require us to communicate respectfully and create a safe environment for the conversations we need to have. It's not all smooth sailing. Business throws up challenges, friendships throw up challenges, various things come up. It's just how we handle it.
LANA: We're kind of at the seven-year itch, aren't we? A lot of businesses — and girl bands — don't make it past five, six, seven years. Spice Girls were five years. Destiny's Child were five years. And we've come past that now. But what do the next five years look like for us? It's not clear cut. We have to work that out together. And that's part of the reason we quit corporate in the first place — to have control. It's exciting to see what happens next.
One thing I said to the group — probably three or four years in — was: the only thing that's going to tear us down is us. We've got this fabulous business, everything is working really well. But the only thing that could throw a spanner in the works is the three of us. So you've got to work hard at it.
BONNIE: I had the pictures of the Spice Girls up on the PowerPoint slide for that one. And the message was: the only thing that's going to hold us back is us. We can achieve anything. We can do anything. We've got all the tools we need. We're in the right industry. We're in the right country. We can make this work — but it'll all depend on the three of us. And as Bonnie says, it still does.
LANA: Get busy living or get busy dying. And we are certainly living. We don't have a particular destination in mind — we never have. It's been about enjoying the journey and having a successful journey, and what success means to each of us. There is no plan in our top drawer that tells you where Three Birds Renovations is headed. And we do have fun.
STEPH: Do you get nervous on camera?
LANA: In the beginning — the first time we were on a morning show — I was absolutely shaking in my boots. I used to dodge cameras wherever possible. Going to events and getting photographed was just horrific for me. But now it's so different. It's just normal. Funny how you become okay with something.
BONNIE: Lana is amazing on camera. Fantastic talent. She always makes me smile watching the Reno School videos — I find myself smiling like an idiot in my room watching them.
LANA: And Bonnie is fantastic talent too. But I am very happy in front of the camera. In fact — the more people watching, the better I feel. I'm a bit disappointed if the stakes aren't high. The bigger the stage, the better for me. I remember doing a gig once with thousands of people watching and I was genuinely hoping there were more. And Bonnie was like: I'm going to die on the spot.
BONNIE: But also at the moment we're on camera a lot for our own production — we're the producers, we're in the edit suite. That's a very different kettle of fish to when someone else is filming you and they're going to cut and edit it. When it's our show, our everything — that's very comforting.
STEPH: Final question — your dream home?
BONNIE: I kind of cruise between Yellowstone and Positano.
LANA: Oh wow. Okay. Mine would be a rustic Mediterranean villa — lots of stone, on land but overlooking the water. Which is what I tried to do with my home. That idea of stone, cobblestones, that authentic feel.
BONNIE: And none of us are saying modern and sleek, are we? We all love that rustic, authentic, organic feel. And I know in our latest property — top secret — there's going to be some lovely authentic vibes. It's a big one, so don't be looking out for it too soon. Don't call us, we'll call you.
STEPH: Ladies, you are phenomenal. Congratulations. So incredible what you've achieved — and so authentic, real and down to earth. Thank you so much.
BONNIE: Thank you for having us!
LANA: It was awesome. Thanks, Steph!
And We're Rolling is hosted by Steph Hunt and produced by Stephanie Hunt Media and Habari Productions. If you need help with media training or your next on-camera appearance, head to stephaniehuntmedia.com. If you like this podcast, please share it with everyone you know, and follow, rate and review. Until next time, thanks for listening.
