Bold journey reached out to us to chat about our business journey. Here's our conversation! Link to the full article.
Hi Maddy + Ashley, thank you so much for opening up with us about some important, but sometimes personal topics. One that really matters to us is overcoming Imposter Syndrome because we’ve seen how so many people are held back in life because of this and so we’d really appreciate hearing about how you overcame Imposter Syndrome.
I think Imposter Syndrome can’t be overcome until you gain confidence in your skill set. This of course is much easier said than done, but I think we both started to overcome Imposter Syndrome by recognizing a few components. First that you cannot compare yourself to anyone else, in terms of capability. We all have different skill sets, backgrounds, timelines, personalities, and the list goes on. One of Maddy’s former bosses said “There are enough projects to go around and someone who hires another designer maybe wouldn’t have been a great fit for us and vice versa” and we remind ourselves of that all the time! What we have to offer as a design studio is just that, we can’t offer any more than we’re capable of and we certainly won’t offer any less. We make sure to be transparent with our clients and explain as much as we can upfront so they know what to expect throughout the entire process.
At one point or another, we’ve all heard someone say “You learn on the job” and there’s a reason for that. There are always going to be questions you don’t know the answer to no matter what industry you work in, so as soon as you recognize and accept that, I think it makes it easier to understand that you do in fact have the skill set to do your job. Nobody expects you to know everything about everything in your line of work, but knowing and utilizing your resources is key. In Interior Design there are infinite product launches and there’s no way to keep up with them all. We make sure to talk to our reps at different companies and we take advantage of vendor meetings so they can inform us what they have to offer and how it would benefit our clients. No client is the same and no space we design is the same so if there’s something that comes up that we aren’t familiar with, we make sure to look into it, brainstorm, and talk to our awesome network of vendors, reps, and builders!
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourselves?
Morgan Design Studio is a full-service design studio run by best friends Maddy and Ashley. We’ve worked on custom residential new builds, boutique commercial projects, and procuring products for distance design clients. Really if you have an interior design project, no matter where you’re located, we’re here to make it happen! Most interior designers are known for their style and often turn away clients that don’t seem like they’d be a good fit for their brand. When starting our company, we went through a lot of inspiration images and naturally fell into a groove of working on diverse projects. We both have different personal design aesthetics that also encompass a wide variety of design styles. Simply put, we like a lot of different things and we just want to have fun designing! As a result, we have a portfolio of versatile designs. It makes new projects exciting because they actually are “new”! We enjoy the challenge of approaching each project as its own entity and really take into consideration the clients’ wishlist and personal design style while helping them achieve the most functional, elevated home.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
We’ve found that some of the most important skills are less technical and more situational when running a business. After all, as a business owner, you have to wear more hats than most people are aware of– You’re the designer, the customer service department, the social media manager, the accountant, and the list goes on! One of the most important skills to have when diving into a new business is flexibility. It’s great to have a routine and consistency, but we’ve found it extremely important to reevaluate our processes and revise when needed. Just like most, we planned everything out with a vision, but the company also had a mind of its own and we had to take that into account. We’ve made it part of our routine to discuss areas we think need improvement and from there, we determine how soon to address it based on our list of priorities. In terms of our line of work specifically, we like to focus heavily on customer experience. We aren’t just hired to create beautiful and functional spaces, we’re hired to design your home and to make the process as smooth and enjoyable as possible. Interior Design is a big investment and we know that but we also think it’s 1000% worth it. At the end of the day, we think our job is fun and we want that to resonate through the clients’ experience.
The area we have the most difficulty with is patience. It’s easy to compare yourself to people or companies that are extremely established, or that blew up overnight. We have to constantly remind ourselves of how far we’ve come and that we too will reach our goals in time. To help with this we created a Milestones Marker. This is a document that lists every single one of our accomplishments. When starting out, landing a client was a big deal, and upgrading our software and brand collateral was also a big deal. We have this document so we can look back and remind ourselves of everything we have in fact achieved rather than always looking ahead at the things we can’t wait to get to.
Tell us what your ideal client would be like.
The foundation of every relationship is trust and ideally, our clients should trust us! We make sure to take our client’s personal design styles into account when designing their homes and we want them to understand that we respect their style. We then incorporate elements that make the home feel elevated and customized to them. When a client feels overwhelmed or indecisive they may want to change something and in some cases, they send us things they’ve come across online. What they don’t realize is it has a domino effect and that changing one thing ultimately leads to changing the whole design. Interior Design is a lot like painting. You can’t look at a canvas with the initial sketch, you have to trust that the artist will complete a beautiful painting once the colors and textures come into play. Most people don’t know how many moving parts are involved in interior design, especially when you factor in building or renovations. With our clients that trust us and our experience, we have a smoother and quicker design process for everyone involved. Rather than focusing on a single element such as a chair, they see the process through and get to experience every element in the space and how that chair plays an important role in the design. Although we would love for all our clients to fully trust us, we also understand that there’s a lot of decision making involved. We also understand that each of our clients is different and some will require more hand holding than others. Regardless of the scale of the project, we want our clients to enjoy the process and we’re here to help them see it through!
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