Interior Designer Wendy Yates and the Art of the Pivot | S25E5

Interior design is all about change—usually for the better.But what happens when obstacles present themselves, as they sometimes will, that require a design business to slowly or abruptly pivot? That’s what host Nick May and interior designer Wendy Yates—founder of Frisco, Colorado-based Abigail-Elise Design Studio—talk about in this honest, open-hearted episode of The Chaise Lounge podcast. Please join us! And let us know how you go about maintaining relationships, growing new business, and, yes, pivoting when fate throws you a curveball. We’d love to hear from you. The Launch: False Starts and Big HeartsWendy Yates, a native of Honolulu, Hawaii, has demonstrated her gutsy approach to the design business (and life in general) since her high school graduation in 1995, when she bucked the four-year college tradition, got a job, and started studies at her local community college. “What I knew about design as a high school student was what I knew from watching shows on HGTV,” says Wendy. “It didn’t seem super-accessible.” So, instead of studying design, she majored in art history, then theater, and then thought about being a physical therapist. “After two years, I dropped out and started a design business.” She’d moved to a small town in Colorado as a high-school junior, “met a boy,” and worked hard to make a life in a small town where there was really no money to be made as a designer. “But, thankfully, I had connections in Hawaii and some people who were willing to help me. And the ability to fly over there and stay there for a couple of months at a time.”The First Big Break“I was fortunate enough to have a developer in Hawaii take a chance on me and let me do a model home for him,” says Wendy. “So I would make my money there, and then come back and live in my small town in Colorado.” She convinced a local newspaper to do a story on her business and put a sign in her front yard advertising her fledgling design enterprise, but the only job leads that came of it were $10 an hour wallpaper hanging jobs or solicitations to decorate rooms for kids. “I had no credibility because I hadn’t gone to school,” Wendy admits. But she had natural talent and a work ethic that brought new opportunities. It was time to pivot.A Career Develops: First Job, First SuccessCommuting back and forth to the Big Island, Wendy worked closely with the residential and commercial developer who’d taken a chance on her. “He would have me do the model-home work,” Wendy recalls. “I’d go with him and his wife to the San Francisco Design Center, where we would pretty much do all the furnishing selections for the model homes. But all the fixed finishes—tile, lighting, flooring, cabinetry, everything from the ground up—we would do in Honolulu.Looking back, Wendy feels both gratitude and amazement at the latitude her mentors gave her to make selections for their properties. “I remember being surprised myself at how great my first model home turned out. I was like, I love it! I was 22 and super green,” she continues. “I had no knowledge of even fixed finishes. For me, design was décor—that’s how I understood it, not being trained. But I had organic natural ability and visualization.” Silencing Your Inner Critic“I could always visualize a space from a floor plan. I would see it in a 3D way. So I think that creative side of my brain is what gave me the leg up in being able to pull off something like that without any training,” says Wendy. After her first big project was complete and successfully sold throughout the development, she gained confidence in her design ability. But the “imposter syndrome” reared its head on occasion. After every job, she asked herself: Can I keep doing this thing? Is the next project going to be as great as this one? How am I going to get clients beyond this one person?If you’re a self-taught designer, chances are you’ve dealt with the same insecurities from time to time. But remember: On-the-job training is real training.