I Confess... Nepo Baby Nightmare

Confessions of an Interior Designer

In this season finale, host Caroline Turner reflects on her journey as an interior designer and shares a cautionary tale about a design firm

Key takeaways

• A well-established design firm collapsed after the founder's daughter took over without industry experience or commitment.
• Caroline's decision to launch her own business was catalyzed by being fired from a previous role at age 24.

Main topics

• Nepotism in business management
• Entrepreneurship and risk-taking

Notable quotes

I realized I wasn't managing. I was just surviving.

Conclusion

The episode provides a blend of professional wisdom and personal vulne

Transcript preview

Speaker 2 (0:03) Welcome to Confessions of an Interior Designer. I'm your host, Caroline Turner. Here we talk through the crazy stories that they certainly don't tell you in design school. Because let's face it, every space has its sins. Are you ready to hear confession? Speaker 2 (0:22) Hi everyone. Welcome to our final episode of season two of Confessions of an Interior Designer. I wanted to do a solo episode for this final because we never get to talk directly to each other. And I know that sounds a bit parasocial, and I suppose it is for my side, but I really do value all of our listeners and all of the people who have made this podcast possible. There would be no reason for me to do this if there weren't other people on the other side listening. So I really, really... Appreciate it. And before we get into all the nitty gritty, I wanted to make a couple of acknowledgements. One, like I said, to all of you who have been listening, this is something that when I started it, I had no... concept of what this could be. All I knew was that I wanted something that was discussing the messy middle, the part that I felt like was being left out of the conversation. There was so much discussion around how did you get here? Meaning, how did you get to your level of success? How did you do this? How did you make it? And I was in the moment where I was like, I haven't made it. this doesn't apply to me. And if anything, it makes me feel bad. And if anything beyond that, it makes me want to change my process and not trust myself. And so when I had this rattling around in my head, I was like, okay, well, you know, what if it was just like all of us talking about the shit that we get wrong? And while it's, you know, sometimes gets away from that a little bit, I do think the heart of this show is that none of us are perfect. Even the most important people I've spoken with have plenty of stories of times they've fucked up or mistakes they've made or things they would change. And most often I'm hearing people say, oh my God, I was such an idiot. I can't believe I did X. But they end up following that up with, but it made me, it got me to where I am today, or I learned X, Y, Z because of it. And I really do think it's ultimately, if you weren't in the arena, you wouldn't even be able to make these mistakes because you wouldn't be there doing the thing. And that is something that helps me every day. And I hope has sort of been the thesis of this. But with that being said, as I said, I really value the opinion of all of our listeners. And so whenever I see you guys in public or we're at an event together or something, it's always so... helpful when I get feedback from you guys. And I've tried to adapt every time, but I would love to hear from the wider audience as we're thinking and dreaming about season two and the potential of that. What do you guys want to see? Have we run our course? Is this something you feel like you've heard enough of? We get it that people aren't perfect. Is this something you want to hear more of? If you do, who would you want to hear? What do you want to hear us talk about? Are you rocking with how we are right now? Or is there something you feel we could do better? I don't always ask for feedback on the internet or out to a wider audience, but this is one that I really would value if you guys would take the time. Also, we're hoping to do more events and things in the future. So keep an eye out for all of us to be able to see each other in person. The other thing that I want to mention, and I know that not all of our guests who have been on the show listen, but... For those that do, I just want to extend a heartfelt thank you to the people who have agreed to come on this show. When I first started season one, we said we were going to do solo guests, solo guests, solo guests, because I genuinely didn't think there was enough people who would want to be a guest on the show. And I just, yeah, got smacked in the face and realized how many people are yearning to talk about things like this. And so it has just been... one of the highlights of my career to be able to sit next to people I admire in all different ways in this industry and pick their brain and find out all of the things that they've gotten right and wrong. And I know as someone who runs a business, all of our time is incredibly valuable. And to be able to be willing to exchange that knowledge for all of the people who are listening to me right now, Speaker 1 (4:30) it's something I'll never take for granted and never take lightly. Speaker 2 (4:33) But yeah, I've just, there've been some days after I record where I'm like, I cannot believe I just got to have a full conversation with that person. It is something that I am very, very grateful for and that you guys have all given me. And of course, thank you so much to our sponsors, Programma and Designer Receiving. We couldn't have done this season without you. If you're potentially interested in sponsoring the next season, please, please, please, please, please email confessions at carolineturner.co. And if you think there would be a good sponsor, email us or tell them to come talk to us. Here's Speaker 1 (5:13) a Speaker 2 (5:13) confession I know a lot of you can relate to. For years, I told myself I had my project management under control. Sure, I had 30 different tabs, docs, and emails open at once. And yes, I'd occasionally panic search for a specification at midnight. But I was still managing, right? Then I tried Programma, and I realized I wasn't managing. I was just surviving. And barely. When I demoed the platform, I was most impressed by their incredible AI web clipper that pulls every single spec from a supplier's webpage straight into your product schedule. We're talking product details, dimensions, pricing, finishes, everything captured in seconds instead of the hours we used to spend copying and pasting into spreadsheets. It saves me so much time, and most importantly, it's given me back the headspace to actually focus on design instead of drowning in admin. So here's my advice. If you're serious about streamlining your design business and actually reclaiming some time in your day, head to Programma.design and use code CONFESSIONS25 to get 25 % off your annual subscription. Trust me, you'll wonder how you ever managed without it. Let's get into the confession. Speaker 2 (6:24) I used to work at a fairly well-established design firm that had been built over decades by a very talented founder, a woman in her 60s who was widely respected in the industry. She started it as the principal designer and built it over the years to be a respected name in the industry. Well-known locally, and at this point had a handful of lead designers. me being one of them. During the time I was there, the founder announced her retirement and told us that she was relocating across the country. The plan was that her daughter, who was in her 30s and came from an art background, would take on the leadership of the company. She told us that she really valued the idea of a family business and wanted to continue on the legacy. Wow. Internally, people were skeptical. The daughter had gone to school for art history and had no real background in interior design. She would be managing the company but had no training in the industry in which it operated. and none of us had ever met her. It seemed that she truly had no interest in the company whatsoever and was simply inheriting it as an afterthought. No one wanted to be outwardly negative about it, but people were not thrilled. But whatever, I'd worked there for almost five years, and I wasn't the most senior there by far. This was a company that had a strong reputation and an established client roster. How much could that really change? Well, the first few weeks after the transition, the daughter made a very visible effort to be present. She was in the office, meeting everyone, sitting in on product reviews, going through client lists, introducing herself directly. But honestly, there was a sense of performance to it from my point of view. Like when she'd be in the office, it was a lot of commenting on the feng shui of the office, the decor we had on the walls or lack thereof, little things like that that weren't important. It seemed like she was trying to position herself as an expert where she wasn't. She would bring things into the office to decorate. And to the rest of us, it just felt like clutter. It was a little odd, but I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt. She was new, and it did feel like things might settle into a rhythm. But that optimism lasted for all of maybe a month. She'd been working, quote, remotely more often while we were all consistently in the studio working. That soon became the default for her. We didn't see much of her after that month, and it wasn't like she was involved online either. She'd move meetings all the time or tell us she couldn't make it and to just brief her on it after. And the times that she would join, she'd often have nothing to contribute. And this was bad because as part of the restructuring, her role was supposed to be the main point of contact for clients to then be delegated to us. That was