Let’s get personal
The road to an interior design career has been bumpy. Here’s the story…
Robust processes and systems as well as developing your creativity will help you grow as a designer.
TL/DR
SEGUE TO A NEW CAREER
My early career was as a teacher and educator in high schools and universities. I was one year into my PhD studies when I realised this was not my passion. My supervisor kept on telling me how you need to have a fire in your belly to finish your studies.
In an instant, everything changed.
It was after this meeting, that I could feel my supervisor's passion when it dawned on me. This wasn’t my passion, it was interior design. An unshakable feeling down to the **very last cell in my body** that I had to pursue my dreams to be a designer. I had no idea, at that moment, how I was going to start, but I knew that I had to.
My career as a designer took a few bumpy turns. I had three young kids at home and not a lot of time to study. It was the late 90s and learning online was not a thing that was even possible. So I headed back to college where I spent a year earning a certificate in Interior Design.
I was not a natural artist, so painting and drawing did not come to me. I took drawing courses besides my coursework and tried to improve. I realised that I needed to up my game and head back to university.
BACK TO UNIVERSITY
My kids were still young but I took on an undergraduate degree in Interior Architecture. This was no small feat. A lot of late nights and early mornings. I averaged around 5.5 hours per day of sleep. It was a struggle. Yet, I learned so many things.
I learnt AutoCAD and Revit and started using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Did YouTube even exist? I had to teach myself how to use the programs and paid a couple of people for lessons. After 3 years of a 4-year degree, I burnt myself out.
My husband had the opportunity to go to Hong Kong for work. I intended to take a year off and come back and finish my studies. I continued to study what I could, taking some surface pattern classes that happen to be online.
I decorated my new home in Hong Kong and a few friends asked me to do some work on their homes. This snowballed and after a couple of years, I had clients under my belt.
This morphed into full interior design practice. A year later, an interior design store called Eclectic Cool was born.
BACK TO AUSTRALIA
Covid struck. My kids had grown up and were all in Australia while my husband and I were still working in Hong Kong. In those Covid years, my husband and I spent 16 weeks in quarantine trying to move between countries. Late last year we made the move back home.
The thought of starting a new interior design business from scratch was daunting.
I realised, as I started going through setting up my business, that it was a lot easier than I thought. Over the years, I have grown in confidence in practising my creativity. I have developed a series of processes that made running projects easier. I have skills in tech, which made setting up a new brand and website easy.
I have spent a few long nights and weekends setting up my business. But, I have developed a good understanding of the needs of a design entrepreneur. This has been the payoff.
I realised that I could help other interior designers needing to develop the same skill sets.
You may prefer to delegate, but it is important to have a good understanding of what it takes to be a designer. I am launching these courses to help you do that.
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to help you.
Our last day in Hong Kong
Check out our courses on branding and websites specifically for interior designers just like you who want to start and scale up their interior design businesses.
