A Founder's Life
Join me as I explore the powerful intersection of entrepreneurship, health & wellness, and parenthood. In each episode, I’ll be interviewing inspiring individuals who excel in one or more of these areas, sharing their stories, insights, and lessons. My goal is to provide valuable takeaways that can help you thrive both personally and professionally.
A Founder's Life
Second chances at life are powerful - Sarah Walker - S6 - E15
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This episode of A Founder’s Life is brought to you by Thankz, helping founders scale with reliable remote talent. Get $1,000 off your first month by emailing founders@thankz.com with the subject line Founder’s Life.
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👤 Connect with Today’s Guest – Sarah Walker
Website: https://nuanceinteriors.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nuanceinteriors
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahplattwalker/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nuanceinteriors
Can your home actually improve your health, focus, and quality of life?
In this episode, Sarah Walker, Founder and Principal Designer of Nuance Interior Design, shares how a life-changing car accident led her to rethink the relationship between wellness and the spaces we live in.
Sarah explains how she helps families and family offices create homes that support longevity, recovery, connection, and overall well-being. We discuss sustainability, healthy living, family life, entrepreneurship, and why our environments have a bigger impact on our health than most people realize.
This conversation is a fascinating look at the intersection of design, wellness, and intentional living.
What you’ll learn:
• How your home impacts your physical and mental health
• Why wellness design goes beyond spas and gyms
• The role of sustainability in modern living
• How family influences business and life decisions
• Why entrepreneurs should seek help sooner
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Welcome to A Founder's Life. I'm your host, Leo Gestetner. On this show, we dive into the real stories behind the highs and lows of entrepreneurship and how we pursue a more balanced and meaningful life along the way. This podcast is sponsored by Thankz, helping founders like us scale with reliable remote talent. Now I'm excited today to be joined by Sarah Walker. Sarah, thank you for joining us. Would you like to introduce yourself? Yes, I'm Sarah with Nuance Interior Design, founder and principal designer. And we are an interior design and wellness advisory for families and family offices all over the world. Well, thank you. Do you want to talk a little bit about the journey that brought you to where you are today and then just a little bit more about what your business is doing for your clients? Love that. So a little bit of background about me. was born and raised in Dubai. My father is a wildlife environmentalist and really taught me about sustainability, which is a core pillar of our business. Now, my mother is an art lover, an educator and into holistic medicine. And when I was 12, I knew I wanted to be an interior designer. I met one and just fell in love with everything she was describing. And it absolutely resonated. I went to an accredited interior Design School to study interior design, art and business. But about halfway through I was in a severe car accident that really shifted how I view homes and their ability to support us. I'm fully recovered now, but it was a 20 year journey to really unpack chronic fatigue and chronic pain. And what I realized is that if our home doesn't support us during those challenging times when we're jet lagged or burnt out or trying to raise children, those stressful moments, it's failed us. And so my whole premise now is to create really sanctuaries or wellness retreats in people's homes where they can recover, focus, connect, and enjoy everyday life. We really are passionate about helping families live their life to the fullest and incorporate longevity, not just about living longer, but really living better through different wellness modalities. and a multi-faceted approach that isn't just about the spa or the steam room or the ploddy studio. It's really a holistic 360 look at everything from foundation to furnishings, being non-toxic, monitoring the water quality, incorporating neuro-aesthetic principles, which is the sense of belonging, beauty and safety. And it's really revolutionized how families live and connect in their homes. Lovely. talk a little bit about how family looks for you. I have three children, ages 13, nine, and six. And my husband is actually my business partner. He worked for T-Mobile corporate for 17 years and has an MBA. And so when we got really busy, I said, why don't you come make money for me instead of T-Mobile? And so we've built something really wonderful that a family business that we're excited about and. We're actually looking at creating a family compound in Florida next year with the rest of my family. that is a really key tenet of how I live my life personally. And so family offices and families that are trying to build something similar really align and I'm excited to help them. Well, how many families will be living in your new compound? I'm planning on at least my father and my sister and I should say my parents and my sister and then hopefully we will have a very strong presence with my brothers also visiting. They have their own families and so kind of balancing that is going to be exciting. Well, and how does health look for you, whether that be mental health, physical health, nutrition, exercise, of however you look at health? I try to practice what I preach, which is that health is wealth. so I actually spend a lot of time educating myself about not only the latest modalities for my families, but how I can improve my quality of life through nutritious food and focusing on kind of really an athlete's diet or a cancer-free diet protocol that focuses on superfoods and that's really been interesting as a hobby. I enjoy cooking. And then as far as exercise, I really enjoy hiking. in the Pacific Northwest now in Seattle. So there's beautiful running trails and that's a fun family thing to do too. We have a dog, a King Charles Cavalier that's a big part of our family. And so it allows us to prioritize that a little bit more. And I would say that You know, we try to teach the children as well, and by example, that your physical health impacts your mental health. And so focused on sleep and understanding that everything we eat is building your cells. And you can pick the quality of the cells that are the building blocks of your body by what you put into it. And so really just giving them that agency. to choose what they eat and that there's neutral foods and there's superfoods and there's foods that we eat sparingly. And I would say that I am excited about the future of wellness and the technology that is enabling us to live a better life. Yeah, and I think the knowledge especially and you know for me I often talk about it being not really about longevity, no particular interest to live to 150, but healthspan, you know want to be healthy until I die. Right, you want to be able to be, you know, autonomous and mobile for as long as possible. I'm the same way. I don't know that I have much desire to live excessively long. I don't have any goals to live to 200. But what I would like to do is have a pain-free, full life where I get to choose. You know, I look at my parents and they're active. You know, my father is 80 this year and he's playing street hockey with my son. And just, you know, that's so admirable to me. He lives a very active lifestyle, walking miles every day. And it's made his life so much fuller. He has his full cognitive ability. My mother has hers. And it's just enjoyable to be with him. That's great to hear. And what do you like to for fun? I love to travel. I'm lucky that my profession incorporates my hobbies as well. I enjoy relaxing in the spa because I'm often working 60-hour weeks, so it's nice to fully unplug. and then traveling combines all my loves of wonderful food and seeing beautiful art and architecture. We try to go to museums all over the world. and be inspired. We just got back from a trip to Vienna and saw some of most beautiful buildings I've ever seen in my life. what for you allows you to live a balanced life across these? The balance being the overall, you may be working 60 hours and other times you may be spending much more time in the spa, but overall how do you look at a balanced life? A balanced life for me is being able to do what I love. And I absolutely love spending time with my children. And often that means that I'm working late at night after they go to sleep, and I'm working while they're at school so that I can be present when they're home from school. And it's a lot of hours to build a business that I'm super excited about and that I believe is making a meaningful impact. I get to wear many hats in my business. I get to meet with wonderful families all over the world and talk to them about how they want to live, how they want their home to feel. And that's super rewarding. I get to create. I get to design and use that creative muscle as well as the analytical side of looking at our marketing performance and our financials. I really find that I've been lucky to find something that I love doing. Like I said, it incorporates a lot of my hobbies and for me that has created a balanced life. What's been a pivotal moment in your life? I've had a couple. I think the car accident was really one where I realized that I was kind of getting a second chance at life. And I wanted to do something meaningful with that opportunity. It was It was a bit of a wake up call that if I want to have something that I'm proud of in life, I get to create it. I get to choose what that looks like. Another pivotal moment was, of course, having my children. that really gave me a different level of purpose. And I would say, you know, the third thing is, when I built my 3,000 square foot showroom in Washington that was fully sustainable products I curated from all over the world and that it could be done. It was something that really hasn't been created before, at least in the United States that had a curated selection of everything you need to renovate or build a new home. It has everything from tiles to furnishings and art, the cabinetry, and that was an incredible undertaking. But I did it and I will use that as a template going forward. And it's helped other designers say, yeah, we don't have to compromise when it comes to sustainable design. There are plenty of vendors that are also on that platform of making a positive impact. And what's one piece of advice that you would give for an aspiring entrepreneur? that it's hard and that it's constant, but it's incredibly rewarding to have something that you've built. And I think the advice in hindsight, I wish I had gotten help from people ahead of me sooner, instead of just believing I had to, you know, knowing it was hard and just grit through it and build it completely on my own in order for it to be mine. And I've learned that actually you can be so much more successful, so much quicker if you get that help, whether it's the coaching or the courses and really finding of course someone good. But it can catapult your business to where you want to be and you can get to that enjoyment piece a lot quicker. Yeah, definitely not an easy journey, but uh it can be a very fulfilling journey. Exactly. And how can people find you? Nuance Interiors is our website, Nuance Interiors on Instagram, and my LinkedIn for more of the educational articles is Sarah Platt Walker. So all of those places have resources and a little bit behind the scenes of how we work and our portfolio. Well, thank you, Sarah. was really good to have you on the show. Thank you for having me, Leo. It was a delight. Thank you for listening to today's episode. If you enjoyed the conversation, don't forget to subscribe to the channel, tell your friends and please leave a review.