Biographical Interior Design



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Love What You Do


“Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics.”

This quote was originally attributed to Albert Einstein, one of the greatest and most influential physicists of all time. But in recent years, more and more people have learned it was a quote that actually came to life well after his death. Regardless of who said it, or whether they even had an interior designer in mind, there is still great relevance in how this quote can support our roles as creatives and designers of space.

We recently had the pleasure of interviewing Katie Gutierrez, a Miami-based interior designer, coach and speaker, who shared why she believes the antithesis of the quote above rings true. “We know that the energy from which you create determines the energy of the outcome. … What we are finding is that the energy from which people live within a biographically designed home—meaning it’s a celebration of all of the parts from which they come from—is really allowing them to feel seen; really allowing them to feel celebrated. So, when they are in a home creating from that energetic, the things they create within the world have a completely different energetic; one that is more authentically aligned to who they are.” Read more on Katie's interview below.

The result of finding what you truly love and enjoy about your work can help support what you can come to truly love and enjoy about your business. Gutierrez also dives into the importance of working with a business coach and how incredibly beneficial it can be to the success of what you want and expect in your interior design business.

Here's to a Wonderful Fall Season!
Your Team at the Designer Society of America



Friendly reminder:

High Point Furniture Market will be held Oct. 22-26 in High Point, North Carolina. Registration for the fall event is now open and can be completed online at highpointmarket.org, or by calling 800-874-6472 or emailing registration@highpointmarket.org.

Transform your business in less than a week.
"In just a few days of HPMKT, you can meet more people and see more products than you can probably imagine. This is a great show for newcomers because the people are welcoming and there is so much to learn. You can truly build your business here. Watch our video to see for yourself." Visit High Point Market

Don’t know much about High Point Market? The biannual event includes showroom after showroom of meticulous design, combined with educational and networking opportunities, as well as resources. There are 180-plus buildings with 2,000 exhibitors from many categories, representing more than 100 countries. It’s a definite must-visit, whether you’re new to interior design or have been in the business for decades. Learn more at highpointmarket.org.




'The Energy YOU Create'

By Lindsay Field Penticuff

It sounds so simple: “Do what you love.” But what if you’re doing what you think you love, yet you haven’t quite figured out what you actually love doing within your profession.

As an interior designer, coach and speaker, Katie Gutierrez has had an opportunity to speak to and work with interior designers from all across the country. Something she hears quite a bit during her initial calls is that while an interior designer may enjoy their work in this industry, they are often still searching for their niche within the industry.

She has also learned that it’s not uncommon for an interior designer to realize that the “missing piece” in their business may not necessarily be just a strategic plan or marketing plan, but the work they are doing on themselves and for themselves. For more about Katie and Biographical Design

“That’s why I work in tandem with a therapist,” says Gutierrez, who owns and operates Errez Design Studio in Miami with her husband, Ruben. “When I enroll people into my program, I don’t say, ‘Come for therapy,’ because they don’t know it’s the thing in their way. What they think is it in their way, is, ‘I don’t have a strategy for sales,’ or ‘I haven’t systemized my process.’”

“They come in to talk about systemizing, and I guess I have this way, something about me that when people get on the calls with me, they open up, and sometimes cry, and they tell me about how they just went through some thing,” she adds. “They ask me to talk about systems, but what they really need to talk about is how they don’t feel good enough.”

Gutierrez has learned through the years that sometimes interior designers can’t figure out what is wrong with their systems, strategic plan, or sales until they learn about what’s going on inside them.

“That’s true of almost everything in life. You can answer any question with that little device in your pocket [cellphone], but it’s usually the case that there’s an emotional block. I know I have to support them with the emotional block in order to support the thing they didn’t think they knew how to do. Once we get rid of the emotional block, then I get to say, ‘Well, what could a strategy be?’ Then, they figure it out!”

And it’s because of this discovery that Gutierrez’s No. 1 piece of advice for interior designers is to hire a business coach.

“The difference between a novice runner, who runs in the neighborhood and maybe runs in a few marathons here and there, and an Olympic runner is that one has a coach and one doesn’t,” she says. “A person cannot do on their own, what they can do with others.”

We insure everything—our car, our house, our business. But oftentimes, interior designers don’t think about “insuring” themselves.

“If you’re not investing into your business being the most successful it can be, every single thing in your life that revolves around that business is in danger of failing,” Gutierrez says. “Your business holds the pathways for everything else in your life, particularly as it relates to money—whether you go on vacation, where you go on vacation and how much you spend, the car you drive, the house you live, how much you donate to charity, where your kids go to school. Everything is sort of intertwined.”

She believes that every decision that has to do with money and time, has to do with how successful your business is, and it only makes sense to want to invest in it—financially and energetically.

“Are you living out your passion or do you feel overworked and burdened? If you feel those things, chances are, your business is not making as much money as it could,” she says. “Your whole life has to do with how well your business is operating and how well you’re operating inside of it.”