Today we’d like to introduce you to Katie Gutierrez.
Hi Katie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
Have you ever felt that tug on your heart that you were meant to be doing a different career? I had that feeling. I was working as an architect for a great firm I loved but felt that there was something missing. I was feeling the calling to go out on my own and pivot to interior design.
After a battle of the mind’s limiting beliefs, my heart won and I left the firm I loved to start my own interior design practice. I discovered that what I was longing for was a journey towards an authentic and self-expressed life. That journey started over a decade ago. That desire for more depth in understanding myself in authenticity has guided my business today both in how I lead it and how I lead my clients.
My intimate understanding of the power of feeling self-expressed has led me to create a system of the way I do the interior design that explores a person’s biography to uncover a person’s special spark so that I can create a home that is a vehicle of their self-expression and support them in exploring what that literally looks like.
I call it Biographical Design. It is this differentiator that separates us in the industry and has been the key to our powerfully serving clients with excellence. living true to our authenticity allows us to powerfully serve people by doing the same.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The hardest question I was ever faced with came when my son was born. During pregnancy, I had decided to take the “average maternity” leave of three months, but, when I held my three-month-old in my arms and I looked into his blue eyes and kissed his little fingers, I felt this overwhelming question confront me – how can I organize my life to give me the most of these moments.
I decided to be a “stay-at-home mom” for as long as I wanted. I trusted that I would “just know” when the time was right to go back. It was challenging to sort through the emotions I faced with this new identity shift. I was a ‘stay-at-home mom.’ Was I still Katie or was I ‘James’ mom’ or was I both? It was a challenging time; a very blessed time, and a challenging one. I loved every second of my time with my bundle of joy and ultimately took two years off.
The transition period back to my office was hard for me. It was hard on a personal level – was my son okay at school, did he miss me, was this the right decision, was all I could think about as I tried to answer emails and phone calls. It was also hard on a professional level because I was out of the swing of things and felt rusty going back.
It began to feel more normal as the days turned into weeks and weeks turned into months. It was a challenging time I was grateful for. I still look back on my two years of maternity leave as my greatest years in life.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about Errez Design?
Influential people come to us for guidance on discovering their personal style in interior design. It’s not easy for a homeowner to identify how to create a home that feels like self-expression.
But what high-achievers know is that it’s not enough for their home to fit a trend, they know that unless their home is a celebration of their self-expression they don’t have access to living in authenticity. Without living in authenticity being impactful in the world is less attainable.
Through Biographical Design, our brand promise is to deliver a home that feels like a vehicle of our client’s self-expression in a way that simplifies the process so that they can have one-of-a-kind with peace of mind.
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
The biggest advice I would give to someone starting out is to hire a business coach. There has never been a gold medalist olympian or super bowl ever won without a coach in the wings.
One person cannot achieve what people can do together. It is this awareness that has led me to want to support other interior designers in their business. I take decades worth of experience and openly give it to the designers I coach.
Interior designers come to me to scale and grow through my guidance. I do this by using the same Biographical Design philosophy – I support interior designers in uncovering things from their biography that we can use to design a business that is a vehicle of their self-expression.
In doing so they are able to access greater confidence which gives them access to greater growth.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.errezdesign.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/errezdesign
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ERREZDESIGN
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOcuC8Y2XJkBYZUNrVfGP4A
