Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Alicia Griffiths. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alicia, appreciate you joining us today. What sort of legacy are you hoping to build. What do you think people will say about you after you are gone, what do you hope to be remembered for?

I hope my legacy will be a reminder to follow your true passions in life, live an authentic life for you, and that it’s not too late to re-evaluate and design the life you want to lead. I also hope that design-wise, my legacy will be to always design your home for you – not your neighbor, not your mother or best-friend, but create a space that truly reflects your uniqueness as an individual and makes you happy every day.

Alicia, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m a residential interior designer based in Carlsbad, offering full-service interior design to clients throughout San Diego County. Whether a client is simply too busy or overwhelmed to handle their own renovation or furnishing project, or they struggle to visualize the possibilities, I work with clients to understand their needs, style and how they want a space to feel. From there, I create a design concept which is truly unique to them, and manage their project through to completion including purchasing, tracking, on-site project management and the final install.

I think what sets me apart is my unique eye for design – honed from my time living in London and Italy for over 10 years, combined with my California-casual roots as a San Diego native. Above all else, I aspire for a home to be unique and reflect the people who live there. Like us, that often means combining various aspects of our life and style. It’s striking that delicate balance between ‘curated’ and ‘chaotic’ that I love so much.

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

I was working in PR for over 15 years, managing high-profile brand campaigns for global companies like L’Oreal, Salesforce and Barclays Bank. While my career enabled me to move to amazing cities like San Francisco and London, after having my first child and moving back to the US, the shine had worn off. I was un-inspired in my role, stressed out, and dying to do something creative. Throughout my life I’ve always been drawn to interiors, but for some reason I wasn’t really aware of it as a ‘proper’ career when I was younger. I decided if I was going to change my career in my thirties, it had to be something I was truly passionate about.

My husband was incredibly supportive and we decided to live in a more affordable area for several years while I went back to school to get my Certificate in Interior Design, while also working as a freelance PR professional. For years, I balanced the side hustle of taking on small design projects for other designers, gradually building up my own clientele. I eventually came to a point where I was so busy on the design side that the PR work was getting in the way of my growth. At that point, I knew I had to go for it, and over several months I pulled back on my PR work, and eventually devoted myself full-time to my own firm. I know many people consider career changes as something abrupt and dramatic, but for me (and having a young-family and a mortgage), it was a series of small but important baby-steps that gradually brought me to where I am today.

What’s been the best source of new clients for you?

General contractors, and referrals from previous clients have been my best source of new business. What surprised me about the industry is how often a home owner will approach a general contractor to do a major renovation, and they don’t realize that they will need to provide all the designs and material selections themselves. It’s in these instances where the GCs I work with are happy to have a designer up their sleeve that they can refer to clients. It ultimately makes their lives easier – they know I’ll have all the materials ready when they need them, they will be appropriate for their intended use, and the designs are thought-through and detailed.

And of course previous happy clients are the best referrals ever! There’s nothing more satisfying than being approached by a new business lead who ‘heard great things’ from a previous client.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.agriffithsinteriors.com/
• Instagram: @agriffithsinteriors

Image Credits
Image credits for first six photos – Bar Seven Seven