All-In Design
"All-In Design" is IIDA Alabama's podcast that invites you into the dynamic world of commercial interior design. Immerse yourself in the artistry, innovation, and inspiration that shape the spaces where we work, collaborate, and create. Discover the latest trends, cutting-edge technologies, and timeless design principles that define the ever-evolving landscape of commercial interiors.
All-In Design
Episode #31 - Interview with Emily Raley
Join us on this episode of "All-In Design", where we interview Emily Raley of Davis Architects. We discuss Emily's interest in athletic design and also her love of the grandma's house aesthetic. We explore how she got into the industry, her passion for it, and her passion for body building. Yes, body building.
We'll start in five, four. Hello and welcome to All In Design Idea Alabama's podcast. Thank you for listening. My name is Chad Moore here with my co-host Mark Griffo. Hey everybody. And we are continuing our series with junior designers here in Birmingham. So Mark, if you would do the honors in introducing today's guest. I am very happy to.
SPEAKER_00:Why
SPEAKER_02:are you laughing?
SPEAKER_00:I'm laughing because we did a little bit of a check first and now I want to say Amelie Raleigh. We're here with Amelie Raleigh.
SPEAKER_01:Amelie Raleigh.
SPEAKER_00:Amali Raleigh. Yep, that's me. Yeah, so this is your new alter ego. No, we are here with Emily Raley. Emily is at Davis Architects here in Birmingham. She is a 2023 graduate from the University of Alabama, and you are a junior interior designer at Davis.
SPEAKER_03:That is correct.
SPEAKER_00:And we're happy to have you just because, as Chad mentioned, this is kind of a continuation of our series where we're talking to people who are newer out of school because they have a different and unique perspective than people who are kind of like
UNKNOWN:Thank you.
SPEAKER_00:mid-career and then the veterans out there so we're glad to have you and if you want to tell the folks a little bit about yourself the floor is yours
SPEAKER_03:of course yes i'm happy to be here um so like mark said i am from university or i'm from alabama but i went to the university of alabama um i guess i could just start off by saying my story of how i got into interior design
SPEAKER_02:for sure where in alabama are you from
SPEAKER_03:oh uh i'm from helena alabama so little small town yeah cute little helena yeah nice little town i love it born and is there um family's still there yeah family's still there i still live at home with my mom all the rallies are there all the rallies yeah um i still live with my mom so if anybody needs advice live with your parents for as long as you can because you will save a lot of money um i took that advice for a while too so i'm going to take it for a while yeah it's nice it's nice
SPEAKER_02:we moved back in with my parents at one point with kids
SPEAKER_03:hey my brother just moved back in yeah he has a baby she's like a year and a half yeah and they just moved in like this past week so yeah things are getting exciting yeah that's awesome it's very rowdy at the rally house
SPEAKER_00:it's gonna be a whole new thing yeah we're gonna know this is gonna the rest of your career in birmingham they're gonna mispronounce your name great so sorry sorry about that
SPEAKER_03:it's fine i'm used to it happens all the time but um yeah back to alabama So, let's see, the first day of orientation at Alabama, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I went in undecided to Bamba Bound, and Bamba Bound is just Alabama's orientation. Completely undecided. My mom was with me, and I was like, yo, I don't know what to do. I'm so lost. She's like, but we're here. We're here. I didn't think this through. What do I do? She was like, why don't you do interior design? I was like, okay. I have no idea what that entails.
SPEAKER_02:Where did that come from? Why did she say that?
SPEAKER_03:Have
SPEAKER_02:you ever asked her?
SPEAKER_03:No, not really. I think it's just because
SPEAKER_02:I'm always... Do you have her phone number? We can call her. First call in guest.
SPEAKER_03:Hey, why? Why did you choose interior design? But I think it's just a lot. I would paint my room every single summer, and I was always redoing my room. I think I've lived in every single room in my house just because I like to redecorate and redesign, and I love to build furniture. So sometimes during the summer, we would go to Home Depot, and I would just get lumber and build furniture. I
SPEAKER_02:did underline it, and since our last episode, Mark, I got a highlighter.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, you did? I see that. Yeah, I got a highlighter now, too. When everything's done. right on the page, it's hard to discern what you want to pull out. So we're learning as we go. It only
SPEAKER_02:took 30 episodes. So built a lot of furniture. What were you building?
SPEAKER_03:Or still building? I don't really build so much anymore. I like vintage shopping now. I love to go to vintage stores. And
SPEAKER_02:how old were you when you were building?
SPEAKER_03:Like 19, 20. So I would make, I have this big credenza. It's like a wood credenza. Built that with my mom about three summers ago. Three or four summers ago. I built my headboard, like a blanket rack.
SPEAKER_02:How did you learn how to use power tools?
SPEAKER_03:We just had a lot. My mom's kind of the same way. She's a teacher, so she gets the summers off and she would just DIY everything.
SPEAKER_02:I've seen my kids with power tools and it's not good. Well, my stepdad cuts it off.
SPEAKER_00:Your kids are also younger than 19. Maybe you shouldn't be giving them power tools. The
SPEAKER_03:farthest I went was a sander. So I didn't, my stepdad was the one that cut all the wood. I was not trusted with that. So, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So freshman year, you selected interior design at that point?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I went into the first class not knowing what to expect and absolutely fell in love with it. And I can't even remember what we did for our first project. I want to say it was residential. I did not like that. I knew from the get-go, sophomore year, like I was not going to do residential. And we took a class, I think it was my junior year, where we designed a school and absolutely loved that. So senior year when... one of my friends had an internship, Bella Rizzo. I don't know if y'all know her. She works at Christopher. Um, she actually had an internship with Davis and I asked her, I was like, I like what they do. Do you think I could, you know, get your boss's phone number and possibly get me an internship there? And she was like, Oh my gosh, yes, this job is right up your alley. Everything that you would like to do. And, um, she gave me Stephanie's number
SPEAKER_02:and she's doing residential.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, she is. Yeah. She's at Christopher. Um, And so she gave me Stephanie's number, contacted her, and got an interview. And then from there, I was an intern for six months and just graduated and went straight into work. Nice. And I love it. It's
SPEAKER_02:great. What was it about doing the school project in school that kind of turned you on?
SPEAKER_03:I think it was just the– I loved the type of design that it was, kind of copy and paste. It was easier, but it was an elementary school, so I was still able to play with color. Right. I chose a concept. It was Legos, so I was able to play with that concept. Yeah, it was just– I don't know, the layout of everything. And it wasn't small. I liked the big part of the project. I didn't like the little houses with all of that. So yeah. The scale. The scale. Yeah. I guess. And the organization of it, like we would do layouts, like the, we had the shell of it and we got a list and square footage of all of the rooms that we needed. It was 20 something classrooms and, you know, all the admin suites, conference rooms, break rooms, janitors, all of that. We got square footages for it and we had to lay it out. And I loved that. And then from there, you know, we had to take our concept and design it and just the whole process of that I loved it so after that I knew I wanted to go into commercial I
SPEAKER_00:feel like you got pretty lucky like day one in T-Town and your mom being like interior design and you're like sure yeah it's
SPEAKER_02:probably one of those things you have when you watch your kid growing up and you're like they're probably going to be it
SPEAKER_03:I think that's why I followed her advice because she knows me better than I know myself so I was like yeah I'll do it I don't
SPEAKER_02:know what it is at this point I know I know lots of things that my children won't be. That's mostly like, okay, they're never going to be this. Yeah. Like one of my daughters wants to be a singer. She's never going to be a singer. Let her dream. Yeah. I was going to say, crush that dream. No, no, no. We're encouraging it. I mean, you know, I just don't see it yet. Maybe. Yeah, maybe. It could still happen. Yeah, you never know. She's still
SPEAKER_00:young. When I was looking to get in this industry and I was 33, three or 34 when I was looking to get in this industry. And I was kind of talking to people, including my dad. And one of the first things he said to me, this is a true story. He was like, well, you're not going to be a cardiologist. Wow. I was like, well, that's true. Cause I'm apparently I've aged out of going to school for 24 years. So then I went into furniture sales. Anyway, it's not about me. I'm just saying that you can have parents who be like, no, that's not going to happen for you. Right. So
SPEAKER_01:yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Mine was doctor too. There's no way. No, no, I did not like, I mean, school was fine. It was just not my favorite thing ever. I'm not a good test taker at all.
SPEAKER_00:Like didn't do well in terms of the results or like test
SPEAKER_03:anxiety. So like while taking the test, ACT, all of that tests in college and high school, like I could, no matter how much I studied for the test, I would always end up with bad grades. I mean, they weren't bad, but not to my standards.
SPEAKER_02:And not to the amount of time maybe you put into studying. Exactly.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. And so that's my mom also knew that I had more of a creative side. I grew up like drawing and painting, all of that stuff. So, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:What was the biggest surprise coming since? So you interned with Davis for six months. Yes. So you already had kind of an inkling. But what was the biggest surprise coming out of college and then working for a firm?
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Um, the amount of detail that goes into everything. Like, they, at Alabama, they kind of showed you what was gonna go on, but they didn't get into the nitty gritty of, like, what was actually gonna happen. So, I mean, college helped me, yes, but... Being at Davis, I am learning something new every single day. And it's a lot sometimes to take in. I mean, I was terrified at the first day of my internship just seeing these projects that they did.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_03:I remember Sammy, what's her last name, Sammy? Warnoff? Yes. She came in, she did my portfolio review my senior year, and she came into our Revit class that summer interim, and she showed us a Bluebeam session of one project that she was working on, and she showed me her project, and I was like, there's no way I can do that. That looks so complicated, so hard, and I was just terrified. And so when I got the job at Davis, same thing. I was so scared looking at the plans and they were telling me like what to do. And I was like, I'm going to, I'm going,
SPEAKER_00:I don't know. Did Sammy have any good, good advice for you? So we know Sammy well, cause she's been, she's still on the board.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:She's a good friend. She can't, she can't leave. She can't leave the board actually. She's never going to leave. Does she have any good advice when you're like, I can't do this?
SPEAKER_03:Um, I think it was just, you know, stick with it.
SPEAKER_00:Great advice, Sammy. Yeah. Honestly, I can't remember. Yeah. Didn't have any good advice. I
SPEAKER_03:think she, it was...
SPEAKER_00:She's not at all inspiring. It's okay. You can say it, Emily. It's fine.
SPEAKER_03:No, she definitely was. It was three years ago, so I don't really remember. Two and a half, three years ago.
SPEAKER_00:Well, that brings up my question I had when you were talking about tests. Yes. So how do you handle... Because, yeah, some people... hate tests some people do terrible in class and do well in tests how do you handle critiques like how do you handle critique in school and then now translating that into handling essentially critique with clients or internally with your peers. Yeah, I love
SPEAKER_03:it. I was actually talking about this today with one of our principals. I love critiques. So I will give either, whether it's Stephanie or somebody else that I'm working on, one of the project managers, if it's a document and it's almost ready to get sent out, I always tell them. I don't send it with them saying, hey, could you maybe mark this up if there's any problems? I just straight up say, no. let me know what I need to fix because I know there's something in this drawing that's probably not right. And 99% of the time that is the case because I've only been doing this for two years. I don't know everything. Right. And so I, yeah, I send it to them knowing that there's going to be feedback. So I'm just like, Hey, here's this, let me know what I need to fix. So I love critiques because it's how I learned.
SPEAKER_00:Right. You know, maybe this is something else your mom knew about you. Probably. She was teeing you up because a lot of people, we've talked about this on the show before, Like a lot of people, even interior designers or graphic designers, whoever can't handle critique, which is unfortunate because I mean, it's part at one, it's going to make you better.
SPEAKER_03:Exactly.
SPEAKER_00:Right. But it's also just part of it. It's part of the curriculum when you were in school. And then when you're out in the real world, you're going to have those either, you know, coworkers or principals or VPs or whatever. And then especially the clients are going to be like, this is not at all what I wanted, or what are you doing?
SPEAKER_02:It's a good skill to have, even late in your career, to be able to hand it to somebody else and say, what am I missing here? Because I found, even though, and I know Mark does a lot of graphic work and has got a background in that, You've got a certain talent already, but at fresh eyes sometimes you can be blind or you get into certain ruts and you do the same thing over and over again. But I've had multiple times where I've just been like, can you just look at that? What do you think? And they'll point something out. I'm like, oh, that's like 100 times better. Yeah, that's better. I should do that.
SPEAKER_00:And then you say thanks and you're better and the project's better and you move on.
SPEAKER_03:I always get a second opinion on anything, even if it's just like a– shade of a, I don't know. Not a lot of color in this room. Yeah. Like I'm trying to think of something like a knob. If it's like a color of a knob, I asked Katie, she's like my work bestie. She sits right next to me and I'm like, what do you think of this color? I need a second opinion. So I don't like to just blindly put something in without somebody else's opinion. Like I, I just have to get somebody else's opinion. And it just, I don't know, makes me feel better about it.
SPEAKER_00:Do you think you'll ever get over, not over that. That's not what I mean. No, probably not. She's like, I understand the question. Nope. It's who I am. Everyone that works with me is going to have to deal with it. Love me for who I am.
SPEAKER_03:Because I guess if somebody else hates it, I can blame them and say, well, they like it too. There you go. I gave it to them. It's not just my terrible idea.
SPEAKER_02:Right. Right, yeah, yeah. This has been vetted. Yes. But you do, I mean, you do get to a point, though, where either time doesn't allow that or, you know, eventually you'll get to a level, I think, where it is like, okay, my taste level and people are coming to me because I have a certain taste level and I produce at this level. Yeah. But again, if there's time and you've got people that you appreciate their feedback, that's good to share. Definitely.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. You'll get to a point, too, where you'll be asking for feedback and you'll immediately know, not Katie. We love Katie, too. But the people, they'd be like, no, you're wrong. You're wrong. And
SPEAKER_03:that's going to be okay. Yeah. No, totally.
SPEAKER_02:That's fine. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I learned from it. I learned from it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. And then you know not to go back to that person. Yep. Yep. Never again. So what was your biggest concern when you first started work?
SPEAKER_03:Oh. My biggest concern?
SPEAKER_02:It was on the list. Whether
SPEAKER_00:the check would clear. Are they going to pay me? Are they actually going to pay me for this?
SPEAKER_03:How many vacation days do I get? I don't really know if I had any concerns, honestly. Because,
SPEAKER_02:again, you'd been there for six months kind of already, so you already knew. I
SPEAKER_03:knew what I was kind of getting myself into. Maybe the workload. kind of concerned about that and how to juggle a bunch of projects at the same time.
SPEAKER_02:Right. That was, and I've mentioned this on the last podcast, there was a student day, it was a couple of years ago, but we had a round table discussion of junior designers and it was one of the things that was funny. And I had just, probably because I've been, it's been so many years since I've been in that situation going from college into professional work, but just the getting up, you know, at, you know, whatever, six o'clock, seven o'clock, getting to work on time, like just that adjustment of every day doing that versus the college schedule, which, you know, you might not roll out of the bed until 9.30 or whatever.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I think that's actually what I wrote down too. Yeah, it was– and one of the questions I wrote down– you know, having to balance the social life with work life and church life and fitness life and all of that, trying to figure all that out. Um, it's definitely been complicated.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. You don't realize how much free time there is in college. Yeah. For sure. Until you start working and then you're like, Oh, okay. When am I going to do all these things? I used to do that in the middle of the day, you know? Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I thought in college I was slammed. I was like, Oh my gosh, I'm so busy. I'm so busy all the time. No, not
SPEAKER_02:even close. Yeah. Well, you were busy with your social. I mean, like, got to go to this
SPEAKER_03:party.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, all the fun things that you want to do. You can't miss that. My
SPEAKER_03:mom, since I still do live at home, she's like, I don't know how you're, like, going on and on and on. And I'm like, I am 24. She's like, well, yeah, that makes sense. She's like, my old body can't do that. I'm like, well, living it up while I can, I guess.
SPEAKER_00:Do you have a curfew at home?
SPEAKER_03:No. No? No. I love my parents. They're great.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. They just
SPEAKER_03:make sure that I'm alive. and they're good.
SPEAKER_00:The only reason I ask is because I was still in college, but I had come home and was staying. I don't know if it was Thanksgiving or something like that, but I was staying for a little while. And I was getting ready to go out with friends. And my dad kind of made a comment about like, don't stay out too late. And I didn't roll my eyes because I'm not an eye roller. But I definitely gave a look in his response. And he's like, yeah, it sucks when you come back.
SPEAKER_02:Did you come back at a certain time?
SPEAKER_00:No, I was good. The one time that I really didn't get in trouble was Per se, because I was grown at this point. I was probably about your age. I was probably like 24, 25. And I was kind of in between adventures and living at home. And this is completely off topic for interior design, as they often are. And I had left the house to go to the gym at like one o'clock in the afternoon. Was
SPEAKER_03:this like air quotes go to the gym?
SPEAKER_00:No, like I was. Yeah, I was like going to go to the gym. I think she's surprised that you were. Yeah. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks, Amelie. Yeah. Yeah. I did used to be a time when I went to the gym anyway so I'm like yeah I'm gonna go to the gym I gotta do go to the gym while I'm at the gym I have friends that call me and they're like hey like we're grilling out we're having a little pool party well because I was at the gym I was like oh I'll just swing by because I can just like swim in my my gym shorts like I don't need to go get a bathing suit and so I go to this little like afternoon party and do the thing and um while I'm there I'm there for a few hours and so now it's like four or five o'clock in the afternoon and I get a phone and call for some other friends this party's kind of wrapping up and they're like hey we're having a party um you know, you should, you should come over here. And so I went to this party that's now in your wet. I had, I had, I had dried off at this point. I think I even, I think I swam in my gym shorts, but I think I had like a pair of jeans or something like that that I had in the car. This is important. So it is, it actually is pertinent to the story that won't end. People were like, what, why are we not talking about interior design and Emily? Um, I go to this party and it started to kind of pop off. Like it was, you know, five or six o'clock and people were already having a good time and I had a really good friend that I went to Auburn with that they were all swimming, and I went over, and she was like, Griffo, and she reached her arms up. She's standing in the pool, and I reached down to give her a hug, and I knew immediately I had made a mistake, and she immediately just grabbed onto me and completely dunked me. The whole point of this story is that my phone was in my pocket, and it wrecked my phone. Okay. And then I proceeded to stay at the party until probably 1 in the morning. And never checked in. And so my mom and my sister had called me repeatedly looking for me. Because I had, air quotes, gone to the gym at 1 o'clock in the afternoon. I showed up 12 hours later. This is probably in my adult life the one time I remember my mom and my sister being mad at me. Because they thought I was dead on the side of the road. They should be relieved. Yeah. Get over it.
SPEAKER_03:If something like that were to happen, yes, my mom would be very upset. But
SPEAKER_00:you're responsible.
SPEAKER_03:I like to think
SPEAKER_00:so. I mean, the thing is, it's like nobody remembers phone numbers anymore, right? No. I know my parents' home phone number. And you just didn't. I could have called and just been like, hey, I'm at a party. My phone's toast. Right. I'm fine. But you didn't. I didn't. Anyway, back to Emily. Yeah. I think it was a little interlude. Yeah, thanks. Thanks, Chad.
SPEAKER_02:Well, I don't have any more questions. We're done. Best guest ever. Yeah. You had one answer. It was a question, what's the most valuable lesson you've learned from a mentor or senior designer in your first few years? Do you remember what you wrote?
SPEAKER_03:I don't. I wrote these down so
SPEAKER_00:fast. Chad, it's like a test question. I'm not good at tests. She's very relaxed. She's having a good time, I think. I'm doing all the heavy lifting. Yeah. Kidding. I hate it. And you're going to be like, quiz her. Wait till you get to the end. I'm going to put you on blast here because you haven't listened to a show yet. We should just switch this around. You have no idea how this is going to end.
SPEAKER_02:You and I will do the podcast and we'll ask Mark questions. Oh, that sounds fun. That way we're not asking her questions.
SPEAKER_00:It'll be the longest podcast we've done in that case.
SPEAKER_03:I was going to ask one question.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, go ahead.
SPEAKER_03:What's the camera in the yard for? I know you have cute animals.
SPEAKER_00:That's why it's there. Okay, for the cute animals? Yeah, it is. We are that couple that when we discovered that we had animals in the yard. I
SPEAKER_03:would have done the same thing.
SPEAKER_00:We were like, well, let's... I
SPEAKER_03:thought the
SPEAKER_02:cameras were there and the animals came and just dug there because there was a camera.
SPEAKER_00:Right? That would have been a way better story.
SPEAKER_01:You should have loved that.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. No, it's because it was like, oh, we have animals. If only we had a wildlife camera. Oh, we do have a wildlife camera. Thank you. So, yeah, one is a wildlife camera and then one is technically a bird fi. I don't know if it's bird fi or bird fee. I don't know how they say it. It's kind of like Amelie Emily. What's the difference? Fi, probably. Wi-Fi. No, it might be fi. Yeah, bird
SPEAKER_02:fi. Yeah, okay. So the question I was asking you was what's the most valuable lesson you've learned from a mentor or senior designer in your first few years? Oh, I do remember my answer. I mean, you just filled this out a day, like, within the last 24 hours. It's been a rough 24 hours. I
SPEAKER_03:have a deadline on Friday. I remember it was what Stephanie told me. Whenever we have big deadlines coming up, she always says, it's going to be okay. It's going to get done. It's not the end of the world if it doesn't get done. Deadline weeks, you're all so stressed out and you're just... everything is riding on this deadline. If it doesn't get out, then like, holy crap, everybody's going to freak out. We have so much work to do, but I always try and remind her when she's stressed out and she reminds me when I get stressed out, like it's okay. It's going to get done. It is going to get done. Yeah. Um, so
SPEAKER_02:it's not the end of the world. No, it's not
SPEAKER_03:like it's, it's fine. So whenever we, we just kind of like check in with each other when we get, when it gets stressed out, like,
SPEAKER_02:yeah, I remember there was a story. It was a, at dealer sales rep in Nashville. But she had been working with this client for a long time. They'd become friends. And she was in a meeting, and the client asked to get her out of the meeting. Like, I need to talk to her. I need to get her out of the meeting. She gets on the phone, and it was about something. Some chair's going to be delivered or something like that, and they were delayed or something like that. And she was like, what are you doing? She was like, you know, we're friends. And so if you're pulling me out of a meeting, I'm thinking something serious has happened. This isn't serious. Yeah. Right. These are chairs. Yeah. Yeah. And so you got, yeah, you do have to have kind of that perspective. Like at the end of the day, you know, we're not a, you're not a cardiologist.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Right. Yeah. Thanks for reminding me. Yeah. It's my great,
SPEAKER_02:my great shame. You
SPEAKER_00:don't work out and you're not. Much to the chagrin of my cardiologist. I don't have a cardiologist. I'm just playing. Probably should.
SPEAKER_02:What, what, and I thought this was, Actually, I highlighted it because I have a highlighter. What type of design projects are you most drawn to and how are you working to specialize in that area?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I think I remember what I put on there. I love athletic.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, what is athletic design? Gyms, any sort of commercial gyms.
SPEAKER_00:Chad doesn't go to the gym either, apparently. Athletic, what do you
SPEAKER_03:mean? Is gym an acronym for something? Is gym someone's name? Who's gym? Yeah, so we just did UNA, so the football stadium at UNA. I was on that last year, and I loved that project. I got to help design the weight room for in there, and it was so much fun.
SPEAKER_02:I mean, going there as well, probably. UNA?
SPEAKER_03:Oh, it was UNA. University of North Alabama. Gotcha, gotcha. I wish it was a UA. That would have been cool.
SPEAKER_00:That would have been a budget right there. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. But, yeah, anything with athletic equipment, gyms, I love it. That is... one thing I wish I could do a little bit more of at Davis, but you know,
SPEAKER_00:work out or design facilities.
SPEAKER_03:I work out a lot. Um, yeah,
SPEAKER_00:we'll
SPEAKER_02:get to hobbies. Okay. Yeah. Sounds good. You're ready. I guess that was the one. I was about to ask the question. Can you share a project that was particularly challenging but ultimately rewarding? UNA. Sometimes the show just runs itself. Yeah, it sure does. We're almost done. We're so professional. What advice do you have for individuals aspiring to become interior designers?
SPEAKER_03:I don't even remember what I put. Can you
SPEAKER_02:read me my answer? No, why don't you just, can you just answer the question the way I'm asking? We're getting much more relaxed as the more
SPEAKER_03:episodes go on. I want to match my answer because I don't want you to be
SPEAKER_02:like, no, that's not what you said. We've had that before. We had someone on, and I won't say who it was, but she had filled out, and so there were certain answers I was expecting her to give because they tied up, and she said something completely different, and you're like, well, that's not what you wrote.
SPEAKER_00:Now the highlights don't tie together I'm trying to like weave a thread the
SPEAKER_02:arrow I had from here to here doesn't
SPEAKER_00:work anymore busted
SPEAKER_02:what's funny is you did you did yeah what advice do you have for individuals to individuals aspiring to become interior designers you highlighted that one as well I did yeah because your answer was so good was it it was a there were there were three it's like charades in terms of answers three
SPEAKER_03:sentences
SPEAKER_02:and your last sentence was two words and it was all caps all caps
UNKNOWN:So there was some emphasis.
SPEAKER_03:Wait.
SPEAKER_00:This is where the test anxiety kicks in.
SPEAKER_03:It is. I literally wrote this less than 24 hours ago. Keep going?
SPEAKER_00:You did have go. Okay. That's one word in
SPEAKER_03:one
SPEAKER_02:of
SPEAKER_00:the
SPEAKER_03:sentences. You got to tell me. It's okay. Oh, it's okay.
SPEAKER_02:To... To... Keep going. Not...
SPEAKER_03:Not know the answer to something?
SPEAKER_02:What direction you want to go in? Oh, dang it. Kind of like the question. This question, didn't know. There are internships for a reason. Yes, yes. And then... Ask...
SPEAKER_03:Questions? Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You did it. You got it right. Yes. I
SPEAKER_03:answered my own question.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Ask questions in all caps.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. So the first part, it's okay to not know what direction you want to go in. Now
SPEAKER_02:she's going to be like, she's all relaxed now. Now you're waxing. I'm good. You're leaning back. I was
SPEAKER_03:stressed because I didn't know the answer. I don't like tests. So... We've had interns that come through, and they don't know what they want to do. They're still in college. And they go through the internship with Davis, and they're like, absolutely not. Never doing that again. Hate a commercial. Want to go to residential. So you still have time when you're in college to figure that out. A lot of people that I graduated with had no idea what direction they wanted to go in. I got lucky, I guess, because I knew exactly what I wanted to do.
SPEAKER_00:No, it sounds like you did. Yeah. Yeah. And I. Interior design. No good. Mom said so.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. But yeah, I just the internship was great and everybody there was super welcoming and loved the work that they had. And when she offered me the job, I was like, oh, yeah, let's do it.
SPEAKER_02:Did you have a conversation with them about the job or did they approach you?
SPEAKER_03:No, I approached Stephanie. I wasn't sure about the hiring process, so I just asked her. I really love working here, and I just wanted to know if there were any open positions for a designer.
SPEAKER_02:When did you ask that question?
SPEAKER_03:Let's see. I graduated in May, and I asked her in April, very beginning of April, maybe end of March. It took her about two weeks to get back to me, and she was like, talk with Neil, and we'd love to have you on our team. And I was like, oh my gosh, I'm so excited. So
SPEAKER_00:this is two in a row. where I think this is a very important point to highlight, because we're both highlighters now, and ask whether you're a student, an internship, you're a young designer, ask. Don't assume. So you asking, you going to Stephanie and being like, hey, what's available? Because a couple of things happen when you don't, right? Mm-hmm. they may not reach out to you because they may assume that you're not interested. Exactly. Right. Or or someone makes that same ask the very next day. And then they're like, oh, yeah, yeah, this person asked and they're interested. And so that's I mean, firms want people who want to be there. Exactly. You know, so
SPEAKER_03:because I also didn't know, like she didn't know if I wanted to stay, like you said. And how does she know that I would be interested in it? And, you know, she didn't come after me and was like, hey, do you want a job here? Right.
SPEAKER_02:That doesn't happen generally.
SPEAKER_03:It doesn't. I don't think that's on their radar.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_03:Really. Oh, let's hire the next intern. You know, they're heads down in projects. Right. For sure. So, you know, bringing that to her attention. she was like, Oh, she's interested. Let me talk to Neil. So talk to Neil and offered me the job.
SPEAKER_00:Nice. You also brought up a good point too, about like the importance of, you know, so you're saying like, Oh, I could do something, do this internship. I'm going to do this commercial internship. I hate, I hate commercial. And it's like knowing what you don't want to do is equally, if not more important than figuring out what you want to do, because now you've crossed that off, right? You've, you've, it's not an unexplored or undiscovered path.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You know, so there's a lot of, there's a lot of utility. Yeah. And I
SPEAKER_03:mean, if you, hate both of them, you can do sales. Like there's, you can go into the rec. Cause I know a lot of, um, people who have graduated with interior design major that have gone into like the sales side and our reps and there's that part of it. Cause some people that I graduated with, they, uh, when Laurie came to talk to, um, some of the seniors at Alabama about Interface, like they were like, I would actually love to do what Lori's doing. So, I mean, there's that option too. It's not just limited to residential and commercial.
SPEAKER_02:Lori's probably getting close to retiring. Don't even say that. That's a joke. I won't let her. Yeah, she's getting on up there, isn't she? Lori's a good friend. She was. Lori was a good friend. Today's episode is sponsored by Interface.
SPEAKER_00:Just to get back in her good graces. What about that Adam Whitley guy? What a great guy. He is an awesome rep. I'm kidding. People are like, what is he talking about? Another thing we talked about on the show, about the different avenues that you can go down with an interior design degree. There's lots of sales reps
SPEAKER_03:out there. I know Hayworth has their designers for You know, all the pergola stuff and designing. Falk has their own
SPEAKER_00:design. There's so much. I mean, we have our own designers here. All the majors. Well, not even all the majors. I mean, all the dealerships. All the dealerships. All the dealerships here in town have designers. I
SPEAKER_03:didn't realize this was a big shock to me when I came working here. I did not realize how many design firms are in Birmingham alone.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah. There
SPEAKER_03:are so... Just like firms, but manufacturers and places where you can work. I was so scared about job security coming out of college. There is so many, there's so much opportunity for designers coming out of school. That's not something to be stressed about. You
SPEAKER_00:just gotta put yourself out there. Exactly,
SPEAKER_03:yeah. And I told our intern, she was our intern over the summer this past year. I think she was here during the summer. She, um,
SPEAKER_00:you're getting older in times becoming a blur. I know.
SPEAKER_03:I know. You're almost as old as Lori. I'm going to retire next year. Um, but she didn't know like when she should start, you know, introducing herself to people at different firms. And I'm like, start now. Yeah. Um, no better time than now. And so she's been sending me her, uh, portfolio to look over and um yeah
SPEAKER_00:yeah do it now yeah follow up stay in touch build the network because they
SPEAKER_03:don't remember you like i mean they they might but big firms they see your resume once and then you know you might not hear back from them
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_03:Send them another email.
SPEAKER_00:Like you're not going to bug them. You may send them, you know, to that point, like you may send them a resume. It may be the day that they're, they've got a huge deadline. Yeah. And they don't actually look at it. Or that may be a day where for whatever reason, coincidentally, they got six other resumes. Right. You know, you don't ever know what's going on. No. You know, on the other end of the email. Yeah. And some follow
SPEAKER_02:up. And also, Talking to reps, you know, so I know there's different student days where there's trade shows and those sorts of things. And some of the design students do a good job of getting around to talking to the reps. And some you can see kind of walk down the middle and don't, you know, interact. But because the reps often know who's hiring because they're in all these firms. And speaking of Sammy and Mark, you know, Sammy was a designer at Alabama and met Mark at, I guess it was
SPEAKER_00:at... interior design student vendor day. Not the UA facilities vendor day, but the student interior design student program. And so she and I had met, there were two years that we knew each other. The first year that I met her, she was kind of, part of the organization, the IDA kind of student chapter that was running. And then the next year she was in charge and I was still, I was still a rep at that time. And then I don't know if it was six weeks, six months or a year later, you know, my wife and I are getting ready to go to work and she was running off. She's like, I get to work cause I'm interviewing some, some potential new hires. And just because I had been out in the world and new students at Auburn and Alabama, I just asked out of curiosity, shot in the dark, who are you interviewing?
UNKNOWN:And I was like,
SPEAKER_00:And she was like, oh, I'm interviewing this girl from Alabama named Sammy Warrenoff. And I was like, I know Sammy. And so, yeah, so that's kind of how that kind of spelled out. And then now Sammy's been at Gresham for five or six years, I think. Yeah. She's getting on up there, too. She
SPEAKER_02:is. Yeah, man, she's getting
SPEAKER_00:old.
SPEAKER_02:So many old people. Six years out of college. Six years.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Well, she just had a birthday. So yeah, that's right. She's even older now. She is even older. She's even older now, right now than she was at her birthday.
SPEAKER_03:So this has been going, this is so not related to interior design. That's just perfectly
SPEAKER_02:fine for this podcast.
SPEAKER_03:If you think about it, the age that you are actually turning is the age that you just completed.
SPEAKER_00:That's
SPEAKER_03:wild.
SPEAKER_00:It blew
SPEAKER_03:my mind. Because like in October, I'll be 25, but I just completed my 25th year.
SPEAKER_02:Right.
SPEAKER_03:Mind-blowing.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Absolutely mind-blowing. And everyone who's listening right now is like, wait, what? They're doing the math. I really
SPEAKER_03:hope that people are just like, this girl's an idiot. She didn't know that. No, I did not. Just let me be mind-blown.
SPEAKER_02:Just let me go. Yeah, just let it go. She didn't know the answers to any of the things that she wrote down, and she's just figuring it out. She's waxing poetic on age and time. No,
SPEAKER_03:I just have a terrible memory. That's actually one tidbit about me. My memory? Horrible.
SPEAKER_02:Okay, so I'm going to test you on another one of your answers. And this one made me laugh, so hopefully you know this one. Do you have a favorite color, pattern, or material that you often incorporate into your designs?
SPEAKER_03:Grandma's house. Yes. Specifically southern grandma's house. I love it. I don't know why. But think about you're just going into your sweet little old grandma's little one-level house. It's just, you know what I mean? That look. I do. Just the floral, the ornate.
SPEAKER_02:I think everyone has a picture in their mind. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:That's what I love.
SPEAKER_00:And I'm going to– I'll add some flourish to the picture they have in their mind because you wrote the old floral textures, doilies, and very ornate furniture. And I don't think in my almost 45 years– that I've seen the word doilies spelled out before.
SPEAKER_02:I thought it said dollies because my eyesight's not
SPEAKER_03:great. I'm kidding. I did have to look up how to spell it. I thought it was with
SPEAKER_00:two L's. I think that's why when I read it, I was like, I know what this is, but I don't know if I've ever actually seen it spelled out.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, because they have, I thought it was with two L's, but it is just with one L.
SPEAKER_00:What is a doily? For the listeners that don't know.
SPEAKER_03:I know, I'm not sure if it's, There's probably another word for what I'm talking about, but I know doilies, they have... It's like the paper... they kind of remind me of like those paper snowflakes that you cut out when you were a little kid and you unwrap it and it's all like cut out. It's kind of like one of those, but it's more of like a fabric-y texture. You would know exactly what it was if you saw it.
SPEAKER_00:And it like goes on like an end table. Tabletop snowflakes. Yes,
SPEAKER_03:those. I have them like all over my room.
SPEAKER_00:Tabletop snowflakes. I wonder what would happen if you Googled that and it would come up. You have them all
SPEAKER_02:over your room?
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I do. I have a couple
SPEAKER_02:in my room. Is your bedroom, does it look like it? Are
SPEAKER_00:you a southern grandma? It does. It
SPEAKER_03:looks like grandma's house. Yes, it does.
SPEAKER_00:Do you have a jar? I was going to say, do you have a crystal jar of candy, but like the really cruddy, like gummy candy? you know like crystal rock
SPEAKER_03:like the butterscotch
SPEAKER_00:not no it's like it's like they're like they i'm having a very specific i just
SPEAKER_02:had a butterscotch that was before we came
SPEAKER_00:which we got out of the little glass jar in the front yeah yeah um welcome to the dealership it's like a southern grandma's house i'm gonna i'm gonna get off the candy thing because i can't i don't know how to describe it but like
SPEAKER_03:the strawberry ones
SPEAKER_00:Those, yeah, those are definitely like Southern grandmas. That is, yeah, totally. That's old school. Yeah. Apparently not old school. Apparently they still have them. Do you have a little
SPEAKER_02:China
SPEAKER_00:tea set? I
SPEAKER_03:do. Okay. I just bought a little teacup last week.
SPEAKER_00:That's right, because you're, so we can, do we dip our toe now into the hobby? So like vintage shopping? Oh my gosh. Is this where this is coming from? Yeah, maybe. I assume that you're, well, before we do that, your Southern grandma bought bedroom now. Has that always been your bedroom? No.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. I used to be very into like the bohemian type, like the burnt oranges and the...
SPEAKER_02:And then you aged rapidly. And I aged very quickly.
SPEAKER_03:I went from like college to retirement really quickly. You did, yeah. Yeah, and I'm fine with that. But like all the pompous and You know what I'm talking about? Just the bohemian style. And then, I don't know, last year I went to...
SPEAKER_00:Do you have, like, petroleum oil and stuff and, like, incense?
SPEAKER_03:No. Well, I did have incense. I would... I had the little, like, flat thing that you had the little hole
SPEAKER_00:in. The little stick and it burns and the ash falls. Yeah, yeah. I did
SPEAKER_03:have one of those. Um... But yeah, I don't know. I just, I went to a vintage store and I saw these, you know, uh, what is it? Crestwood, Crestline, Crestwood pickers or something. Irondale pickers. Right. I went to one of those and just all of the vintage things. I fell in love with it and I was like, okay, I'm going to completely redo my room. Okay. So I took everything out of my room, um, and redid the whole thing. Okay. Cause my grandmother, my great grandmother, actually her house, whenever she passed away, we got basically her whole entire house in our basement. So she has
SPEAKER_02:a lot of... Okay, so you've got a lot
SPEAKER_00:to pull from. I have
SPEAKER_03:lots of stuff to pull from. And I've got...
SPEAKER_00:Which is not going to stop you from buying new old stuff. Absolutely not. No.
SPEAKER_03:That's the part of the hobby. Just want to avoid that out. So I'll go downstairs and shop. It's great. Okay. Yeah, I shop down there too. And then I've got... I love it also because... You know, my grandmother, she had some artwork that was passed down to me, so I'm able to put that up in the furniture from my great-grandmother's house. She had this credenza, this really, really beautiful credenza, and I put it up in my room. And a lot of the things that I have are very sentimental to me, and that's why I love it so much, I think. I'm
SPEAKER_02:looking forward to when she, you know, I guess maybe gets it on her own. This might be difficult to do within Davis, but to when she designs... that gym or that athletic complex that's southern grandma. It's
SPEAKER_00:going to happen. Yeah, that would be something. It is going to happen. That's going to be ID award winning.
SPEAKER_03:Give me a couple years.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. All right, yeah. Keep on the lookout.
SPEAKER_03:There's actually a gym. It's a Crunch Fitness. It's out in California. It is beautiful. It was built into an old abandoned theater. Okay. It is gorgeous. Yeah. So think of like Alabama Theater with all of the seats taken out. Yeah. And it was, of course, leveled. And they put weight racks, everything that you would need.
SPEAKER_02:I've seen a bookstore like that in Nashville. There was an old theater that turned into a
SPEAKER_03:bookstore. It was so, so cool. So I'm going to do that with the grandma's house. Okay. I'm going to buy a grandma house
SPEAKER_00:and I'm going to turn it into a gym. Yes. It's going to make for some very interesting, interesting photos. Yeah. Instead of like, you know, like the towels that you get at the gym, like the workout towels, right? Where you're supposed to like wipe your equipment off. You can like hand people doilies.
SPEAKER_02:Doilies. Man.
SPEAKER_00:And they have, they put their, you know, like you go to like two bench press you know back when you you know we used to go to gyms yeah totally bench press
SPEAKER_02:it's what is that
SPEAKER_00:yeah exactly and you know you lay your towel like down where your head's gonna be so your sweaty head doesn't get all over the bench people are gonna be laying doilies down those
SPEAKER_03:in fresh
SPEAKER_00:linen
SPEAKER_03:yeah
SPEAKER_00:yeah oh man wow Gatorade and like really expensive like fragile teacups yeah in the gym people with like big muscles like holding dainty little things
SPEAKER_01:that's beautiful I love
SPEAKER_00:that I'm going down this rabbit hole I know you You've seen this movie, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Okay. You need to watch The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. It's a great film. Okay. But it's in a cast of characters.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:There's a strong man in it. And there's a scene where he... realizes his true self where he likes to be meek and dainty. And he's a huge dude. And he's holding this little teacup. Yeah, watch that. This is two episodes in a row now. I'm giving random movie recommendations. But you should watch The Adventures of Baron Moon Chowsley. I will
SPEAKER_01:watch that. That sounds
SPEAKER_00:awesome. And that's all I'm going to say because nothing is going to prepare you for what this movie is about.
SPEAKER_02:I'm already looking forward to getting home and going on mid-journey AI and do kind of a gym in a grandmama's house. Yes. Just to see what kind of pictures kind of get made.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:I'm scared AI is going to end up taking all of our jobs.
SPEAKER_00:We've talked about that. We're not all worried about it.
SPEAKER_03:You don't think so? No. Well, that's good.
SPEAKER_00:I think it's useful tools.
SPEAKER_03:I don't think about it. AI scares me.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. I'm terrified of it.
SPEAKER_00:What are you like? You're afraid of like the job part or like that it would take over the world. I just
SPEAKER_03:don't understand where you can literally, you can ask it any question in the whole entire world and it'll give you an answer. That's horrifying.
SPEAKER_02:Well, it's coming from somebody who can't remember the answer that she gave 24 hours ago. That's fair. Shots fired. Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:That's fair. That is fair. I think I'm scared of their memory because I
SPEAKER_00:don't have them. So before AI, and we'll talk specifically not to nerd out on LLMs, which are large language models. So that's what ChatGPT is. That's what Gemini is. So we're going to set those off to a side. Were you afraid of Google?
SPEAKER_03:No. No.
SPEAKER_00:Because you could ask Google a question. When I was in college, there was a website called AskJeeves.com.
SPEAKER_03:I think it was, well, because Google, you have to, you know, sometimes go into the website, read someone's whole biography, you know, all of that.
SPEAKER_00:That's what large language models are doing.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, but like AI is just straight to the point, so quick, knows everything.
SPEAKER_00:But it's all based on, it's crawling all that information. It's really interesting. You should go down a rabbit hole on how they work. I would
SPEAKER_03:freak myself out.
SPEAKER_00:And a lot of them work by, this is Margaret Folks explaining LLMs on a podcast about interior design. We haven't talked about interior design for 15 minutes. We're trying to
SPEAKER_02:stretch the time on these, and you're doing a great
SPEAKER_00:job. I have a new role in this. But they're programmed to think, use that word loosely, what is the next word going to be?
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And then what is the next word after that? And apparently that's also based on human understanding of language. It's like that's how your brain parses. But it does it so fast that that's how we're able to make sentences, paragraphs, and have conversations. That's what they're teaching these algorithms to do is what's the next word? What's the most logical next word?
SPEAKER_03:What algorithm are they teaching? Who are they teaching that to?
SPEAKER_00:It's all machines. So
SPEAKER_03:they're teaching machines.
SPEAKER_00:I got another movie recommendation for you. Terminator. No, I've seen it. Okay. Skynet. Yeah. yeah um so well i do have okay so we're gonna continue with one other question on the hobby okay because we've talked about southern grandmas and we're talked about southern grandma's gym
SPEAKER_03:yes
SPEAKER_00:and then gyms being one of your favorite projects yes so you like gyms
SPEAKER_03:i love the gym
SPEAKER_00:big hobbyist
SPEAKER_03:big hobbyist in the gym
SPEAKER_00:tell us about that
SPEAKER_03:um well i started working out about like three years ago um I don't know. I was always kind of like bigger. Um, I was never like that, but I just didn't love the way that I looked. So I went to the gym and started lifting weight training. Um, did that for a really long time and I have been hooked ever since. I just, I work out like six days a week lifting weights and, but you do like heavy lifting, don't you? Yeah. Yeah. I'm actually, I compete in my first bodybuilding show in November.
SPEAKER_00:Oh wow. You said that cause that was going to be my next question. I was going to ask her, you, are Are you gearing up for competition? Yes, I am.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah. Not a lot of people know about it because a lot of people don't understand. Now 70 people know about it. Yeah. Yeah. Perfect.
SPEAKER_00:I only mention it because I know this because you and I don't know each other that well, but we are connecting on social media. Yes. So you share this stuff on social media. Yeah. But some of the stuff that we've heard in terms of feedback from the show is that people love the interior design content. They love the hosts. We're great. Of course. Obviously. We're the best ever. Yeah. We've talked about people have asked for the show to be a little bit longer, but some of the other feedback that I've gotten is people like hearing also about the person, right? They like hearing about the interior design and their path and everything like that, but like throwing out little anecdotes. And so I think it's interesting and it's like something unique. So do you do any cardio? Is it more? It's both.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. So it's a very lengthy process. There's different divisions that you have to go into and the division kind of there's physique, wellness, figure and body, no bikini. I was going to say, what's the difference between figure and body? But okay. Yeah. Um, bikini, but wellness is the division that I'm in. And it's usually for people who have bigger quads, bigger glutes, um, not as big of an upper body, but a lot of people just don't understand. Cause they think it's, you know, not, it's a sport. Right. That's how I tell people. Like it is a 100%. It is a sport. It's not supposed to be like you getting up on stage being like, oh yeah, look at my body. Everybody look at my body. It's not supposed to be like that. Um, you train really, really hard. You have a very strict meal plan. You have to work out a certain amount. Sometimes I'm in the gym for three hours a day because I go in and... I get my workout done. I have to do 30 minutes of cardio every single day. Um,
SPEAKER_02:is that running generally? I do stair master. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:So I'll get
SPEAKER_02:my book. That's way better cardio than running. I hate running. I hate running. I do not like it. I got a rowing machine. I bought a rowing machine. Oh, I don't like that either. I like the stairs. Get a stair master. Stair masters are better.
SPEAKER_03:Um, so yeah, I do that. And then, um, I have check-ins with my coach and then I have to do posing. I've got to practice posing. Um, so How do
SPEAKER_02:you find a coach?
SPEAKER_03:So the gym that I go to, it's 24 Ian Pelham. it uh they're kind of transitioning more into a bodybuilding style gym so my boss there he's a coach for it and his fiance and i are friends and so she was like emily will you please compete and i'm like sure let's do it she had been asking me for months to do it and i was like no i don't have the time i don't have the time and then i was finally i think in the right headspace to do it and i was like fine let's do it so um i compete in november cool
SPEAKER_02:and it's and is that where is that held uh gulf shores okay
SPEAKER_03:yeah so i'm super excited um it's the hardest part for me is like trying to explain to people what it is um
SPEAKER_00:this is a platform interior design podcast is a good is a good platform
SPEAKER_03:for yeah so bodybuilding it's not supposed to be suggestive it is a it is a sport and um Yeah, I'm nervous, but I'm excited.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. That's great. Well, it sounds like you're doing all the right things, too, in terms of you've got a coach, you've got a gym, you've got a plan.
SPEAKER_03:Yep. I've been wanting to do this for like three years now. Yeah. Two and a half, three years.
SPEAKER_02:So it's still a half year away, roughly? Yeah, I'm still eight months out. Okay.
SPEAKER_03:So you do this thing called prep, where you go on a very, very strict diet. Right now, we're kind of leaning me into prep.
SPEAKER_02:When does prep start? How far out? June, 20 weeks.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. So we're going to do a longer prep with me. So my body fat percentage will get down to about 10%. So I'm going to be pretty cut, pretty lean, and then get on stage in November.
SPEAKER_00:So are you doing bulk right now, and then you cut in June?
SPEAKER_03:So... Technically, since I do have a little bit more fat on me, I have the muscle mass, but I have the fat with it. And so right now I'm cutting. So we're doing a slow cut because they didn't want to take my calories and just completely slash them in half because my body would freak out. You want to gradually drop the calories down until we get into prep where we can start really, really dropping it. So my body's used to the calories getting depleted.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Well, that goes back to your point of being in a sport. Yes. And you just go in and just, like, starve myself and be cut.
SPEAKER_03:No.
SPEAKER_00:Like, it's not a thing.
SPEAKER_03:You, like, to compete, you have to have a coach. Yeah. I mean, you don't have to, but you probably won't do very well if you don't have
SPEAKER_00:a coach. Right.
SPEAKER_03:So, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I have a coworker, a former coworker that I used to work with when I was at Global Furniture Group. And she lives in South Florida. And she's probably... She's 10 years older than me, five years older than me. But she recently did her first bodybuilding competition last year. And it was something that she always wanted to do. And she did it late in life. And then I've got another buddy that's... Are there age divisions? There are. And then I've got another buddy that's...
SPEAKER_03:Y'all can do it. Y'all should come out in November. Gulf Shores.
SPEAKER_00:I feel like that would be... One of the most absurd things that we could do is me and Chad enter a bodybuilding competition. That would be
SPEAKER_02:crazy. Listen to her. That would be crazy. She's looking at the two of us like, that would be crazy.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely crazy.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. Wild. All right. Well, we're almost, we're at 55 minutes. Sweet. Holy
SPEAKER_00:shit. Almost got the first swear word in. Yeah. Okay, so this is the part you're going to love.
SPEAKER_03:I'm scared.
SPEAKER_00:This is, since you have not listened to an episode. No. Which you admitted. I did, yeah. This is the rapid fire question point of the show.
SPEAKER_03:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:But they're kind of random all over the place.
SPEAKER_03:That's fine.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_03:There's no telling what's going to come to my head.
SPEAKER_02:Blue or black ink?
SPEAKER_03:Black.
SPEAKER_02:What's one movie you can watch over and over again?
SPEAKER_03:Waterboy. Waterboy.
SPEAKER_02:Favorite
SPEAKER_00:book?
SPEAKER_03:Redeeming Love.
SPEAKER_00:What's that?
SPEAKER_03:Redeeming Love by Francine Rivers.
SPEAKER_00:Now you gave me the author and that didn't clarify it for me. You should know this book!
SPEAKER_03:It's kind of like a biblical... I don't really know how to describe it. It's like a biblical story kind of turned into a modern day love story.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, by the way, since you haven't listened to the show, I also derail the rapid fire very quickly. Okay,
SPEAKER_03:that's fine. Yeah, that's okay. It's kind of on
SPEAKER_00:brand for
SPEAKER_02:me. What's your go-to late night dinner place?
SPEAKER_03:Chick-fil-A if it was open.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Yeah. Chick-fil-A. What if it's closed?
SPEAKER_03:Uh... Taco Bell? No, I don't like Taco Bell. I don't know. I don't eat out. I can't.
SPEAKER_01:You can't. Yeah. Right. Yeah. We set you up for that. Yeah,
SPEAKER_03:exactly. My house, my refrigerator.
SPEAKER_00:That works. Yeah. If you weren't an interior designer, what would you be?
SPEAKER_03:Marine biologist.
SPEAKER_00:Have you ever watched Seinfeld? No. Okay. We'll talk about that
SPEAKER_02:later. Okay. Okay. When do you feel you get the most work done?
SPEAKER_03:When I'm at the office and people leave me alone.
SPEAKER_02:Like what time of day is that?
SPEAKER_03:Noon.
SPEAKER_02:Noon?
SPEAKER_03:After lunch.
SPEAKER_02:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:Or in the morning at like six o'clock if
SPEAKER_00:I come in early. So you need to be in the office though to like, you gotta get in your productive space. Yes, I need
SPEAKER_03:my three monitors.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm kind of, I'm looking at these, you know how you like, you ever look at pages and like, nah, I actually look at them. You know, you're like, I'm reading, but I'm actually not reading. What is your biggest interior design nightmare?
SPEAKER_03:uh working on a project with people i don't like
SPEAKER_00:i mean the people that are around you are very important yep that's a good answer
SPEAKER_02:all right outside of bodybuilding what's one skill or talent you have that most people do not know about
SPEAKER_03:um oh gosh i don't know
SPEAKER_00:do we just spend 10 minutes talking about it yeah that's because i would say bodybuilding
SPEAKER_03:right um I have a really bad memory if I told you guys that or not. I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_00:Well, we figured that out based on you not answering the questions that you answered yesterday.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, my memory is really terrible.
SPEAKER_00:I'm going to go back. I'm going to dip my toe back into the well of odd questions. Okay. I love this. Because I think that this one might work. Okay. This is one where... This is one that Andrew Aho was like, this question is worded terribly, and so I forgot how we needed to reword it. So if commercial interior design were a competitive sport. Okay, I know how I'm gonna word this. If commercial interior design was a competitive sport in the Olympics, what sport would it be?
SPEAKER_03:Curling?
SPEAKER_00:curling curling
SPEAKER_03:don't ask me why okay
SPEAKER_00:well it's rapid fire i won't
SPEAKER_02:i won't follow up on that one i think i think basically what you just did was say name an olympic sport oh wait
SPEAKER_03:i have ping pong because you're just okay it's so fast and back and forth oh that's
SPEAKER_02:it oh man i'm gonna go change my answer okay nice okay what are you currently reading
SPEAKER_03:um I can't remember the name of the book. Back to that memory. No, I know, right? It's so bad. It's about forgiveness and how to give grace to people and forgiving them when they've wronged you. I can't remember the name of it because it's a really long title, but that and the Bible.
SPEAKER_00:There you go. Nice. Okay, this is my last one. All right. I think this is maybe three episodes in a row now. What is your favorite non-swear swear word?
SPEAKER_03:Butt. Butt cheek. Because I don't cuss. Okay, non-cusser. So this is right up my alley. I say butt and butt cheek.
SPEAKER_00:so I don't want to be like use it in a sentence but like what's yeah like something's gonna like there's a bad design you're just like butt cheek
SPEAKER_02:so somebody cuts you off in traffic you're gonna yell you are such a butt cheek okay okay yeah
SPEAKER_03:you're a butt like quit being a butt okay stupid I mean that's a classic
SPEAKER_02:but I think butt cheek's good yeah I say that a
SPEAKER_03:lot it's kind of weird but
SPEAKER_02:but but you know Mark do you know what just around the corner
SPEAKER_00:I think it's the Eides. It's Easter. Easter. Great. I screwed that up, didn't I? Well, the Ides are coming up. Actually, the Ides were three days ago, weren't they? No. Four days ago? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:When this will come out. When this will come out. Oh. I was like, the Ides has happened? It was like, I missed the Ides. How did I miss the Ides?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, this will come out on April 15th. I feel like I failed answering that question two times over. So, yeah, Easter. Are you
SPEAKER_02:aware of who might have a bunny? Costume.
SPEAKER_00:I have one. Well, there's a curveball. We weren't expecting it. Now we can be a pair. I was going to say, are you the bunny? I also have a bunny. Because you're the bunny. I also have a bunny costume.
SPEAKER_02:That's right. Our very own Mark Griffo and Amelie
SPEAKER_01:Raleigh. Yes. Thank you.
SPEAKER_02:Both have bunny costumes and are available for your Easter party needs. Need him to hop around and hide eggs? He can do it. Need her to scare your children? She can do that as well. Service is free for the first 500 people. Then after that, the price goes up to$1 million. So we just need 501 people to sign up for it, and we'll make some money. And then it supports the cause. Yeah, it's a solid. That's our finish. Thank you for coming on. Of course. Thanks for coming on. for having me. Yes, thank you guys for having me. Yeah, I enjoyed it. Thanks.