Resilient Retail Club member Petrina Reddy from "Saints at Sea" thought she was doing everything right — until the numbers told a different story.

In this episode, she joins me, Catherine Erdly, to share the moment she realised her retail business wasn’t actually working the way she thought it was.

We talk honestly about the emotional side of facing your figures, the hard decisions that come next, and how Petrina rebuilt her business with clarity and confidence.

If you’ve ever avoided looking too closely at your sales or stock levels, this is the wake-up call you didn’t know you needed.

Timestamped summary

00:00 "Balancing Creativity and Growth"

03:18 Multitasking Beyond Comfort Zones

06:40 "Business Growth Light Bulb Moments"

10:24 Seasonal Travel and Road Trips

15:22 "Promoting Portugal's Culture Creatively"

18:18 "Saints at Sea Spotlight"

Tell me what landed for you—DM @resilientretailclub on Instagram with your biggest takeaway or guest wish list. Tap follow (and rate and review me while you're there) in your favourite app to keep updated on new episodes.

Website: https://www.resilientretailclub.com

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Podcast: https://www.resilientretailclub.com/podcast

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Today on the Resilient Retail Game Plan, I'm joined by Petrina Reddy,

a former client and the founder of Saints at Sea, an interior design

studio and growing retail chain based on the Portuguese coastline.

From opening her first shop in Erica to now running four stores, alongside her

design work, Petrine shares how she's balancing creativity with the

realities of growth and the lessons she's learned along the way.

Welcome to the Resilient Retail Game Plan. I'm Catherine Edley and in the

next few minutes, you're about to get powerful real world retail strategies

from insights shared both from my guests and myself, backed up by

my 25 years in the retail industry. Keep listening to learn how

to grow a thriving, profitable product business. Let's jump in

with this latest episode. So, Katrina,

let's kick us off by talking about the highlights. What's

something that you've been really proud of as a business owner in the last year?

I think in the last year, just learning how to

grow the business itself within constraints and

understanding how I can do this without a

large funding background, for sure. Yeah. And you've opened a

couple of new locations. We started with one

store in a tiny location in Ericara, Portugal,

and now we've grown to four stores

and I guess we're still looking for more places to explore

by the coastline. But I think for now we're just really

grateful that we see some returns and

there's also significant growth as you and I made

some plans together, which

I'm really blown away by because you just by looking

at our numbers and our products and under. You really

understand the duality of my business. Because on one

section, I have the whole interior design studio running

simultaneously with four retail stores. And

you've really managed to help me hone in on not only

expanding, but also reaching some of these

targets and setting goals. And we've actually

reached that and we're still maybe by the end of the year might

surpass those targets. Amazing. Yeah, it's

fantastic. So let's talk about this then. So you joined retail by design.

What was going on in your business before you joined? What were some of the

challenges of frustrations that you were facing day to day? I knew

I had the skeletal bone structure of the whole business,

but just could not make connections.

So in my mind, it just felt like everything was swirling

around and I could not anchor not just the concept, but

just anchor the business itself so that I could better

explore what was necessary to grow or to have better

profits, which is something you helped me look at. I was Just

swirling around. And I really needed some grounding, and that's what you

gave me. I think that so many people will really relate

to this, that. Because, you know, not only do you have the.

Effectively the two businesses, the interior design and then the retail, and then

multiple retail outlets, but I'm sure like many,

many small business owners, you felt that being pulled in lots of different

directions. Is that fair to say? Completely. Like, you

wear so many different hats. At the end of the day, it's either

putting out fires, constantly finding solutions, which

is fine because for me, as a designer, that is part of what we

do. That's generally what I'm comfortable with. But then

trying to go beyond that, trying to

expand and grow and make sense of all these numbers

and understand the whole ordering system for

four shops on top of interior design projects,

that was definitely out of my hands. And I think that

that's the thing, isn't it? If your time is spent kind of putting out the

fires, it's so hard, I think, sometimes to see the

big picture, to be able to pull back and see the bird's eye view and

say, right, this is the direction that we're going in. Yeah,

definitely. Because you're so. You've got blinders on,

just kind of heading in one direction when, you know, when you still

have a lot of other things to solve. On top of that, there's

also people, management involved, not just your own

personnel, but also clients. And it's

overwhelming, you know, to try and find a way

to do all of this by yourself. Yes. And

on top of that, trusting that you've given enough support

to your team that they can help you with all those

little issues. Yes. And also in your case, standardizing

things across the stores as well. Oh, my God. Yeah, that's still a

challenge, you know, trying to get everyone in

uniforms or to. I mean, we like to light incense

on a daily basis just to. It's part of our whole culture

in the company. And these things, you know, even the right music

playing or re hanging the clothes on the rack, where it's like not

mixed up with colors and patterns all at once. You know what

I'm talking about? Absolutely.

And all of those things that, you know, if something grows up organically, it starts

off in a way. Like, then as you replicate things across multiple stores, it's

not just organic anymore. You have to start putting that process in. I think that's

where you stepped in, because I have this issue with

replication also. I was designing bars and restaurants

and clubs and a big part of it was this big franchise

business that the company had procured. It's all about

replication and it just kills a lot of my

design instincts and my design spirit.

Yes. So in my stores, what I was doing is each

one had its own focus, which then helps me understand

what the needs are. But when it comes to

replicating processes and the functionality and the day

to day business. Yeah, I really needed you, you know.

Yeah. It's so true. You don't want it to feel like a carbon

copy. But also if you've got four stores and they're all doing

things very differently, it can feel really overwhelming and to just add to

that feeling of overwhelm, that being pulled in lots of directions. So you

got that. And that really helped me put things into

perspective. Tell us a little bit

about maybe light bulb moments or a big

shift that you, you made because of the program. Oh, that's easy.

It's. You can do this.

Yeah. The big light bulb moment is understanding from your

perspective that there was room just within each

store for growth and that I could

squeeze it to its maximum capacity if I focused

on ordering right and getting products in, in

time and just chasing and following up on

certain things that would help the employees on

the floor to be able to make those sales.

So those were light bulb moments because I thought this is it

and this is how it works. And that's as far as it goes, you know.

And when it comes to the interior design studio, just

after conversations with you and for me trying to

identify that, for the longest time I kept thinking they were two

separated entities and it would be easier to just have

them not involve each other. But you

highlighted that look. They live off each other and that

was definitely a light bulb moment too. And then I stress

less about having to define each business and

there's far better flow in terms of

employee work processes and also

how the clients now just meander into the

shop and they tend to pick up more things, although they already

have products in their houses. Your shops

are just so beautiful and you can really see the design that runs through all

of them. And it doesn't surprise me that

the people that you've designed homes for, it's like

that visual identity for the whole business. The design

work that you do and the stores, they all exist in the same

aesthetic. So it makes sense that someone who has had their home

designed with then the things in the shop would feel like a natural fit.

But I think it feels like an ecosystem rather than two completely separate

things. Exactly. That's what you helped Me see, you know,

and like you said, when you're in the thick of it and you're just putting

out fires or trying to keep your head above water,

I could not really identify in

that way. That's definitely a light bulb moment, too. And

we are reworking on our website in order to

then make it simpler for people to understand. Also,

virtually, we do have this interior design section and we have the

shop section, but they're all in one big giant

umbrella. You. You've created a world, and within that world,

you can buy items to make your

home be part of that world, or you can have your whole home designed to

be part of that world. What's a tangible win? Maybe

something to do with sales, with the. With retail, or maybe a personal

breakthrough from your time in the program. Now that we've.

I don't know how long ago it was, but since we started

together on this whole kind of trip, you've

helped me highlight certain goals, and also

you helped me identify how much I would need to allocate

in order to gain certain amounts of sales, which I

never before because it was just kind of ad

hoc, doing as you go. And with some planning, we've

really managed to reach the targets that you were talking about.

That's definitely a big win because I thought, like, yeah,

okay, well, we'll get there someday. I didn't

think we'd get there in six months. Yeah, that's

fantastic. Of course, the business is so seasonal. You have your

peak summer season. Yeah. So it was also partly about getting

ready for that peak. Right. Being ready to go.

Yeah. It felt like you were packing up your whole house

ready to get on a flight, you know, and you don't know when you're returning.

It's one of those kind of experiences. What happened was

during this planning process, and for us, the season

runs kind of from April, mainly May is

when it starts to end of October. And

we're starting to trickle off now just trying to

gear up for such a short time period,

knowing that, okay, you have to start saving for winter and

that it is seasonal and we cater a lot to

travelers. I wouldn't certainly say tourists, because

the people that we attract, they tend to come back and visit us

again on their journey. And we've also had people that

have traveled through Portugal and they tell us,

oh, we were at your shop up in Porto, and then we going

to Concarge now, and we're becoming a bit of a road

trip too, you know, so planning ahead has

been brilliant. What

advice would you give to someone who's listening to the podcast, who'd like to grow,

or maybe they've got bricks and mortar and they'd like to expand.

You know what I realized that I lost until I came to

you was my inner voice. I was really doubting

that a lot because of everything swirling about just putting

out fires. Definitely try to

grow that and nurture your inner voice and not

lose that or your gut instinct or your

special box of treasures. You know, I think

you need to ground that and to keep your energy

centered in order to face the challenges

that will come. That's the thing, isn't it? You know, your business, if

you're a bricks and mortar store or if you're a brand, if you're creating products

as well, then it's about understanding what the customer wants

almost first and foremost. But it's also about your vision, right? Because

you have to lead the customer and say, look, this is what I believe you

should want or you will want. So if you lose that

connection to your intuition, I guess, quite quickly,

does it feel like a bit lost? Like, well, what am I selling? Like, what

is the point of view? It needs to have a point of view, right? Completely.

It needs the point of view. It needs that story as to where it

all came from. We do make our own products, so

that's the whole planning ahead. And we're gonna start to make

more products this coming year because we know we can if we're

organized and have the funds set aside to do so. But

definitely on top of nurturing and keeping

hold tight of your instincts and your inner voice,

you need to be ready to go on this

long, long journey.

You'll have many tangents that you might go off on,

but you need to stick to that road. You have to have this

sense of determination to want to get to

the end of this whole road or to actually enjoy the

journey that you're on, because,

I mean, no one's going to hold your hand and tell you, like, oh, you're

doing great. It's awesome. It's fantastic.

You need to be your own cheerleader. And I think these are

the tools that you have to know from the start that

you're going to need and then keep going. You

can't stop. Yeah, you have to be somewhat relentless,

right? Exactly. That's a good word for it.

And that can be hard to do. I mean, it's. It's one of those things

that's easier said than done. Right. Because if you do start losing that confidence, and

then you also have to have that determination. It's hard to. To have determination when

you don't have confidence. I suppose it does weigh down on

you throughout this whole process in your mind. If

you can keep this idea of where you're headed and

that there is no limit to how long it's going to take

or how far it's going to go, and that you're in for the whole ride.

And just be prepared. For that, I think that will get you far, maybe.

So then, what is next? What are you excited about coming up for the business?

I mean, there's always the opportunity to open a store

in Lisbon or one down south in Algarve, where

it's bright and sunny all the time. But I would

maybe want to focus into having people be able to

experience our retail, our design, so maybe

a space that they can rent and

experience our lifestyle. Short period of time, slow living in

Portugal experiences, maybe. Sounds

fantastic. So like a holiday space.

Yeah, I guess a holiday rental. And at the same time, for the

year ahead, I'm working on a

cultural design focused book

that we can then sell in our shops because we see that

it's something that's missing, identifying with the culture that

we're in here. Not many books written yet about Portugal

in general. We can sell to clients where they would want to take

it back with them. So that's what we're working on right now.

They're all designed by us here in Portugal, but we do work with a lot

of Portuguese artisans and makers that also have their

own brands, but all Portuguese based. We do come

together. We have workshops also on Saturdays

at the shop, highlighting the local potters. So. So we do have

plate painting workshops or tile painting workshops with different

potters. And we also have low intervention

wine sessions on Saturdays, Portuguese wines and

vineyards. So we are quite immersed in

the culture in a way, and we would like to be able

to put that into a book and share that with people.

And final question then. If I gave you a thousand

euros to spend on making your business more resilient, what would you

spend it on and why? Well, we do have to shop in

Cascais, which is right by the marina. I would

pack up my whole team, walk down to the marina,

rent a sailboat and go out for the afternoon,

have some Portuguese bubbly

and oysters and have a little session and a picnic on a

boat. Because without a team,

where am I and where is all of this? You know,

they really support and believe in what we do

and it carries us on and forward. That is such a really,

really Great point. Yeah. It's about creating that team bond

through a special event. Like a picnic on a boat.

Exactly. Resilient retailers.

Fantastic. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story with us. And

do you want to tell everyone where they can find you in your four locations

in Portugal? First of all, you can find us online with

our website, Saints at Sea, on Instagram.

We've got a shop up in Porto, as we are in the

middle, close to Lisbon. We've got two shops here in Ericeira

and one closer to Lisbon in Cascais, so we're generally

by the waterside side. Amazing. Fantastic. And we'll put all those

links into the show notes and people can check you out.

Thanks. It's been a wonderful journey with you, exploring and

understanding what I'm doing. Better. Like, without your support, I'd

feel still swirling in that tornado.

I hope you enjoyed my conversation with Petrina. I loved working

with her and helping her build her thriving chain of shops

in beautiful coastal Portugal. You can find Saints at

Sea online and on Instagram. Check out the show notes for the links. Thanks again

for listening. And don't forget to, like, subscribe or follow the podcast to be the

first to know about each new episode.