We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ariel & Sierra Roberts. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ariel & Sierra below.

Ariel & Sierra, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you walk us through some of the key steps that allowed you move beyond an idea and actually launch?

As a creative, ideas flow like water, and are never in short supply. Turning that idea into reality? And turning that reality into a profit? Those are much more difficult tasks. Sierra and I were very intentional in this way. Together, we are two halves of a whole. So when we had the idea of turning our passion and skill into a full fledged business, we got to work on outlining exactly what that would look like. Who will function as client relations? Who will take care of the finances? Sierra submitted for our business license, tax exempt status, set up vendor accounts, and began her hot girl Xcel era. I got to work finding out what our clients (which were friends at first) needed, what their budgets were (we were starting with small potatoes), and how we could make the most aesthetically with what we were starting with. That put our foundation in order. Then came an instagram and Facebook for social media presence, a commitment to putting forward a small investment in our website, a custom logo, and grassroots marketing materials. We officially had a business, which was an accomplishment, to be sure. But we didn’t have the profit we were looking for to make this business more than just a hobby. So we set our sights on finding expanders in the industry that we could look to as mentors. Creating a group of peers has been nothing short of game changing for us.

Ariel & Sierra, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

First, and foremost, we are sisters. This can be a difficult distinction to make when we are experiencing a highly charged interaction – the emotions behind being family and being business partners is a blurry one to be sure. But our bond as sisters is our top priority, always. In the same way that you start to talk or dress like someone you spend a lot of time with, we have started to design that way, and created a unique and distinct fingerprint with all of our projects. Our entire model is built around this. We primarily help families (in all shapes and sizes), identify and create their own style for their home that is an extension of themselves, and not based on exterior influences. How do you know what to wear that makes you feel the most comfortable and confident? It usually is not the same style, and definitely not the same fit, as the next 5 people you’ll see. A home’s aesthetic should be exactly the same way. We help our clients to merge form with function, bring in pieces that feel distinctly “them”, incorporate bespoke pieces they make have collected and curated over the years, and pull it all together with a polish. Most of our clients have become personal friends, and in this way, we know that we are presenting ourselves honestly through our designs and attracting clients that align with our authentic code. It’s a really enjoyable experience to meld together our vision and personalities with our client’s and watch something new unfold each and every time.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

This is something that, as a unit, we are continuing to work toward unlearning – “Why not us?” And not in a rejection sort of way, but in a “That person/business was able to find success – we can, too.” Behind every success story, or big business, or stunning design, or polished exterior, there’s a person behind it that one day had an idea. Sure, we might all come to the table with more or less than others, but, ultimately, seeing what’s possible for others only drives us to find out what’s possible for ourselves. It can be really hard to open your mind up to the fullest extent of possibilities and not let past experiences color those gray. Sierra and I grew up with very little means (we laugh when we remember an outdoor patio set as our living room furniture for a time) but our parents did a wonderful job providing everything that they could to us with what was available to them. That meant getting variances to schools outside of our district with higher education scores, and higher mean incomes for the families attending. It was very hard not to feel like you were on the outs from the start when we were taking city buses home from school and wearing only thrifted clothes and our classmates were deciding what first car they wanted their parents to buy and sporting only the trendiest brands. We have both worked to push ourselves as far past our humble beginnings and provide ourselves with exactly the type of lives we want, without limitation. We’ve come this far, who’s to say how much further we can go from here? So if we see someone who has what we want, or has achieved something we strive to, we always have to remind ourselves to come back to: “Why not us?” Anything is possible.

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

This is an exciting one because while the answer is “Not yet!”, we are absolutely on the precipice. We started our business only 3 1/2 years ago and we have created something that is fully self sustained between the two of us and pulling in enough revenue that we would have been able to support one person’s yearly salary with our business at the beginning of this year. We have been extremely intentional about that this will look like to fully support both of our yearly salaries, and because of that, we have set some individual and business milestones to help us keep track of that goal and timeline. This isn’t an overnight jump off a cliff and hope for the best story (as much as I, Ariel, would like it to be as the risk taker of us two!). We both have families, and young kids, and mortgages, and car payments, and schooling to pay for, and we are both equal financial partners with our spouses. That means planning, a lot of planning. This year specifically, we put together a pro forma to map out our likely, and possible, yearly income and how that divided up between us. We both put in place exit strategies with our existing careers, and we both planned out what our nest-eggs needed to be with our individual spouses to ensure that should the sky fall (or we’re in a dry spell, as we have all experienced in small business ownership), we would all be okay. Admittedly, it has felt like a long, drawn out, slow going process as we wait for the fruits of these labors to ripen. But in reality, we set all of those plans into motion in May, and finding ourselves heading into the last months of the year, it hasn’t been that long, and best of all, we are on track. 2025 is looking like it’s going to be a beautiful and fortuitous year for Roberts Studio Design, and us personally. We’re almost there, and it’s going to be such a fulfilling finish line to cross when we get there. And best of all, it’ll end up being the starting line of the next chapter.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://robertsstudiodesign.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/robertsstudiodesign
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robertsstudiodesignphx
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/roberts-studio-design-phoenix

Image Credits

Ashley Guice Photography