167 – High Point Market: Hospitality Designers Share All

High Point Market: Hospitality Designers Share All Today in The Lounge, Nick hosts the Hospitality Insiders Share All: What it Takes to be a Designer in the Hospitality Sector panel with guests Gary Inman, Nina Magon, Patrick Sutton, and Todd Ellenberger. The panel was recorded live at High Point! Nick also talks with Lynne Lawson of Lawson Dream Team at Norwalk Furniture during High Point. Lynne and Nick discuss how she finally entered into interior design and how she did it with no interior design education.  Hospitality Insiders Share All: What it Takes to be a Designer in the Hospitality Sector The panel begins with each designer introducing themselves and talking about how they began their careers in interior design. They all work in varying design firms, from large to small. Both Gary and Nina have fashion design backgrounds and then later moved to interior design. Patrick is the son of a pioneer of 'travelism,' so he spent his childhood seeing the world and enjoying its architecture. He loved the world of architecture but felt something was missing. In order to complete his story, he stopped doing architecture and began designing interiors of buildings. Todd started thinking about interior design in high school and right out of school began designing handmade draperies for high-end residential clients. A few years down the road and he now works for Hirsch Bedner Associates. The designers talk about their transitions into the hospitality sector and some of the difficulties they faced in changing from residential to hospitality. They discuss the differences in design, such as logistics and fabrics, as well as the change in monetary profits. They also chat about how long it really takes to design a hotel from start to finish. For more input, listen to the full panel! Getting to Know Lynne The last vacation Lynne took was in Europe when she visited Austria and Switzerland this past summer. She fell in love with Switzerland during her two-week stay. Lynne lives in Columbia, Maryland and the last home decor piece she purchased for her home was a convertible cocktail to dinner table. The one room in her home that she would never put on Instagram, is her daughter’s room because it’s still in transition from her moving out... Lynne plans on converting it to her 'woman cave.' "Beer, wine or cocktail?" Lynne prefers wine. How Lynne Got Started in Interior Design Lynne previously worked at IBM for 19 years, as a salesperson, consultant, and a consulting principal. She would sell mainframes to NASA, classified agencies, the White House, House of Representatives, the Senate and the World Bank. She left because she was traveling a lot, lost her younger brother, and turned the age where enough was enough. She thought about what she really wanted to do with her life and decided to go 'interior design.' Decorating Den Interiors is a 47-year-old business of individually owned and operated franchises. It is for both start-up interior decorators with no experience and interior designers with degrees who want to take advantage of the business, marketing, and public relations opportunities that Decorating Den Interiors provides. To get into Decorating Den, you first have to contact the corporate office and they take you through a series of steps: you qualify the company and the company qualifies you. At the end of the day, you should be able to run your own franchise! If you move forward in the process, you are then given both business and design training. Some of their training includes how to recieve leads and how to market your business. You are encouraged to have a grand opening seminar to generate leads so you can get started on designing. In the beginning, you continue to receive training from a manager as well as continue going to CEUs (Continuing Education Units). Lynne says that running your business from a series of consistent and repeatable proces...