We caught up with the brilliant and insightful ALLISON Handler a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

ALLISON, appreciate you joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I consider myself extremely lucky to be able to do what I love every day, flex my creative muscles, all while making a very nice living. But let’s not kid ourselves. Being in interior design is very much first and foremost a business, and you have to understand that in order to be successful. I do have a background in business. I have a degree in marketing and I had spent the first 2o years of my career in the fashion industry working for several multi million dollar companies and soaking up all the experience. When I decided to start AHD, what truly helped me grow and scale very quickly was that business backbone. Being creative and having great ideas are obviously super important, but if you don’t understand how to execute and profit from your ideas, you won’t truly see the growth and success you are hoping for.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Allison Handler Design is a full service luxury interior design firm servicing northern NJ and NYC. We specialize in new construction homes, full renovations and furnishing projects. I have always had a creative spirit and spent the first 20 years of my career in the fashion industry, working for major fashion labels such as Calvin Klein and Donna Karan. After a successful, but exhausting career, and having two young kids at home, I knew I was ready for a change. Allison Handler Design was born, almost by accident, after several friends and family members asked for help with their own home projects. Building off her fashion roots, I discovered I had a major passion and natural talent for interiors and decided to pursue it as a new career path. I absolutely love what I get to do every day – I love the connection and personal relationships I develop with my clients, and most importantly, love creating and executing dream spaces they get to call their own.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media, particularly instagram, has been the number one driver of new leads and business conversion for me. Instagram at its core lends itself perfectly to my industry, as a curation of beautiful photos showcasing our work, however, I have found I’ve been able to use it to really connect with potential clients, utilizing the stories and reels features to literally speak to potential clients and allow people to get to know me. I found that once I started getting personal with my followers, putting my face and personal life (my children, behind the scenes, etc), I was really connecting with people who were able to better understand me and my brand. Being an interior designer is a very personal job – you are very literally spending the better part of a year or more heavily engaged with your clients and their personal lives, so it is very important that you feel a connection with your client and vice versa. By showing people more of my personality, and what it’s actually like to work with me, it helps people understand and feel comfortable with the investment and process of engaging with us and our services.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Truly getting to see the vision come to life! It is so rewarding to have an idea, and no matter how many samples, or drawings you share, seeing the actual physical product come to life in front of your eyes is so special. Working on these projects, as I’ve mentioned, can take a year or more to complete, so seeing all the hard work, and literal blood sweat and tears, turning into a perfectly executed space is just so cool. That will never get old for me!

Contact Info:

• Website: Www.allisonhandlerdesign.com
• Instagram: @allisonhandlerdesign

Image Credits
Linda Pordon Photography Meghan Balcom Photography