We recently connected with Amanda Foster and have shared our conversation below.

Amanda, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?

I graduated magna cum laude from Sacramento State University with a BA in interior Architecture, minor in Graphic Design and AA in Fine Arts from Napa Valley. I did amazing internships with the right firms downtown in both interiors and graphics where I learned more about marketing and web design. Since high school I always loved doing freelance on the side. Making CD covers or logos for friends which turned into poster designers, business cards and even Apps to websites. I did that during the night and had my 9-5 cubicle job drafting for a large architecture firm. I felt I had done everything right and didn’t understand how I was in a sea of cubicle workers or as we were referred to CAD monkeys. CAD short for AutoCAD the software we used to draft very dry construction documents. I was first in my class and voted most likely to succeed. I had amazing internships and follow up jobs but being in the industry in Sacramento felt unfulfilling. If you check out my interiors site: Fosterdecor.com you can see I have a TON of creative juices and bursting with amazing presentation thanks to my graphic design side. So working on boring construction documents and technical elevations seemed like a waste of time. I felt depressed clocking in and out in a morning rat race. There had to be more! My fiancé got offered a game commenter position which would have him travel to big video game events all around the world. He didn’t want to take it without me, and since my current gig was leaving me a little disgruntled I thought F*CK IT! And gave my 2 weeks!! It was a crazy time as we had 2 weeks to back up everything we owned and put into storage so we could travel the world. We raced to get our Visas and finally had everything in order. Before heading out I found some freelance gigs on LinkedIn AND a job for a Virtual Online Interior Designer. At that time (2014) eDesign was SUPER new. A lot of people didn’t know you could design virtually which was a huge deal in the interior design industry. I thought WOW this is fantastic. I can work remotely not just for my graphic design projects but for interior design too? Sweet! So with my laptop in hand, we back packed through Europe as my fiancé did his video game events (which I loved since I am a gamer too) – I was also able to work on eDesign projects now partnered with Havenly and Decorist – the two big eDesign companies. I quickly climbed the ranks and went from newbie to waitlisted pro! I was indemand by many in the designer directory. I was also a part time Ghost eDesigner. A title the COO gave me LoL. I did such a good job gaining 5 stars after 5 stars with all projects they had me as the clean up crew for the projects that were headed to 1 star status. I would login on their behalf and chat with the client and redo some designs (ghost eDesigning). So 200+ projects later I was offered to manage the San Francisco Havenly Pop up showroom. We had been all online for 5+ years and they wanted to break the mold with a few pop-up spots in high-end locations like San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles and Miami. The pop up was in the design district with an Airbnb I was able to stay in while working Wednesday- Sunday. It was a dream job because A – San Fran. B – Design District HEAVEN. C – it was what we call hybrid design, part in person consultations of 30 mins followed by eDesign mood board with a few products to up sell full design makeovers. All locations were a success and my particular location was extended time after time. We closed for winter with plans to be back in early spring, but COVID happened… and that shut the world down. So we thought. The pop-ups were on hiatus but eDesign became bigger than ever! I had so much experience in the field but was trying to figure out my next move. My fiance was no longer working abroad so our travel days were over (but 5 years of it aint bad). We had visited practically every country and were able to both work and do what we loved! During covid I got more involved with social media (as many did). I started connecting with more women interior edesigners online! It was so empowering finding driven ladies like myself and I called our group the eDesign Sisters. A group of 8 women at different levels of design coming together to learn, share and grow. I started organizing some eDesign challenges as we were finding our way with social media. I would pick a theme once a week and we’d create a mood board or design to share with the hashtag #edesignsisters. Some favorites were New years, Xmas, Valentines, St. Paddies, Easter, Summer Glamping, Etc. They caught the attention of the design community and I would get asked for others to guest participate. So our 8 turned into 10, 15, 20 and for my birthday we had 77 edesigners participate with 3 grand prizes! The community loved me as I am first and foremost a positive cheerleader to my peers. They see me as a leader and I correct them as the party starter! I am a social butterfly and love to share my knowledge with the group. It was so fun and definitely lifted our spirits during covid. So many people came across my website or Instagram account amazed by my renders or designs and asked how do you this? How do I get started with eDesign or rendering or even social media. So organically I started answering questions and then that turned into auditing my peers work, then helping with social media, which evolved to consulting. So I now have services specifically to help my eDesign peers. Helping them get started with eDesign when they have ZERO design background. I have my eDesign Bootcamp courses to guide them through this process and help flip their hobby into building a profitable business. That then turned into branding strategy, graphics and web design. I am a one stop shop for my peers. They get a coach, mentor, graphic and web designer to help them from point A to Z! It’s been a blessing to be able to utlize my graphic design + marketing expertise. I always had to do one or the other. Interiors by day in a sad cubicle and freelance by night to try and do something creative. But as you remember felt unfulfilling. Now I get to have my own business, take everything I learned about eDesign and teach it to my peers. Help them create successful businesses. Help them create authentic + vibrant branding so they stand out from the vanilla sea of competitors. Help them create strategic and websites they can leave on auto-pilot. It’s amazing I get to use these 3 talents Interiors. Graphics. Web Design all in – I’m so grateful! It’s been a long and wild ride and more exciting things to come. I am going back to my fosterdecor interiors roots by participating in the ORC challenge. It’s time for a big makeover for myself (since the last 2 years I’ve been helping my peers with their makeovers) – they are super excited to see mine and more publication as well is my goal for this year!

Amanda, 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?

So I probably mentioned more of this in the previous question but I can expand on it. So my name is Amanda Foster from Foster Decor edgy interiors as well as Foster Decor Consulting. I’ve always been creative since a young age. My brother and I were in artist camps and growing up in the Napa valley there is art and creativity everywhere. Hey graduated from Napa valley college with a fine arts degree and carried that over to Sacramento State University for their accredited interior design program and focus in architecture. I minored in Graphic Design. Like I said before, since high school I was always doing side jobs for friends and family with small freelance projects. I was using Photoshop in the very early days. I would enter art competitions, design competitions and one any and every scholarship I set myself out to! I was a bit of an overachiever and loved school very much. So it was a bit of a shock when I graduated and experienced these amazing internships for some pretty big companies in downtown Sacramento. When I finally got my 9:00 to 5:00 I felt like this was it this was everything I’ve been working towards. And like I said before it felt short of everything I had dreamed. I was stuck in a rat race working on very technical and boring construction documents for very minor small parts of a huge project that would take up to 2 years to complete. Felt like a small COG in a large machine as we were nicknamed the CAD monkeys as we just spent 8 to 9 hours in a cubicle drafting. So I decided to keep my graphic design freelance gigs going by night so I could have some creative juices flowing. Like I said before it would be small little projects a CD cover or a logo or business card and some bigger projects turned into complete branding, print media, and then getting noticed by some non-profit organizations with app creation web design or 20 plus page programs for their events. I was able to become a freelance graphic designer for the University of Montana part-time. I created illustrations of characters and redid presentation of their curriculum to look more attractive and interactive for students and teachers. I also had work part-time for a downtown from that focused on marketing. It was very inspiring work learning about full brand identity creation and how to create a road map first before diving into the graphics and visuals. Most graphic designers don’t do the step and rely on buyable stock clipart or trends that die. I’m glad I have this experience to set me apart. And like I mentioned before I felt depressed staying in this 9:00 to 5:00 job and when my fiance learned of his new job opportunity which would take him all over the world it was time to put in my two weeks and start packing! I focused on freelance work since we were on the go and as long as we had Wi-Fi in our hotel we were good it didn’t matter where in the world we were which was beneficial since we were traveling and backpacking through Europe, Mexico, Canada, Brazil, the United States, Japan etc. Before we left I came across the LinkedIn post about online virtual interior designers. I hadn’t heard about edesign before. It was fairly new (in 2014) and piqued my interest as I was pretty overqualified with my background with an accredited degree in interior design and focus in interior architecture. But there were no construction documents it was more presentation and product sourcing. It was also a test of how do you deal one-on-one with a client virtually and keep things running smoothly. Since I am such a social butterfly it wasn’t hard for me to engage with my clients positively (with a lot of energy). With my graphic design background I already had mastered Photoshop so I quickly could create 2D renders. Learning how to source online for products was the trickier part but something that I teach in my edesign boot camp to new designers learning the ropes on how to get faster at it and set limitations and alarm so you don’t get too carried away in a Pinterest rabbit hole. Like I mentioned before in the previous question, I quickly climbed the ranks and was seen as one of the go-to VIP e-designers on staff (out of 200+ remotely at the time). I was always raking in the five star reviews for Google and Yelp. The company wanted me to help with their disgruntled clients who were leaving one star reviews and I would Ghost eDesign and log in on their behalf and flip things around to turn those one Stars into five. This was a separate gig I was doing for the same company so I was doing pretty well and had over 200 plus projects under my belt. I learned so much but what was more fulfilling was being able to travel all over the world with my laptop and as long as I had Wi-Fi didn’t matter what country we were in I could still be an e-designer and not stuck in that sad little cubicle! Like I said before it’s amazing to be able to utilize those three talents of mine my interior design background, graphic design background and web design background. I am a One-Stop shop for my peers as I can coach and mentor them through my e-designed boot camp courses specifically for newbies just starting out or veterans who are established traditional interior designers but wanting to get online with edesign and now learning the ropes. It’s been really amazing helping both different types of designers new and “seasoned”. I’m also able to utilize my graphic design and marketing background by helping them build stronger brand identities and road maps for their business so they’re not just winging it and hoping to randomly get successful on social media. They now can come to me to create a strategy for their business, to create vibrant branding so they stick out in a fun and authentic way against their drab and vanilla competitors. Everyone now needs a website so it’s really amazing being able to know look as an interior designer myself and e-design expert I know what you need for a website and when some of my peers go to outsiders that aren’t in our industry they have to explain what the heck e-design is and the designer doesn’t know what packages they should have on their site or what ala cart extras they should include because of their niche. I’m able to give them a strategic and high converting website that they can run on autopilot that’s working for them 24/7 by an interior design pier versus an outsider not in our industry. I like being the One-Stop shop for my design peers. I’m so grateful for creating Foster Decor my interiors Instagram account the platform that I use during covid to be more social and connect with other designers and network with them. It morphed into finding other e-designer women who are driven and trying to gravitate social media and figure out what to post that’s how it started. I somehow became what they called “the leader” but I liked correcting them as I’m the party starter (I bring people together but I don’t necessarily see myself as the leader). So I started organizing some themes and design challenge ideas. It was a way for us to participate in creating a design that all followed the same theme but everyone’s work was of course different but we posted it on the same day with the #edesignsister hashtag and it was a fun way for us to compliment and support and give positive feedback on the designs and help build our portfolios, get more social on social media, and also have some fun during covid which of course wasn’t a great time for anyone. But this caught the attention of a lot of the design community and so I was getting a flood of requests of people wanting to participate so our number of eight turned into 10 which turned into 20 which became a wait-list to participate! We did themes for new year’s, christmas, Valentine’s day, St Patrick’s day, Easter, summer glamping, hipster harvest, and many more until we hit my birthday and 77 e-designers participated with three grand prizes. That was the best birthday and there were so many creative and amazing bedroom designs that really capture the heart and soul of foster Decor my interior’s website which is all about bold and edgy designs so I was super grateful for that design challenge that I organized I never thought 77 people would be interested in creating a design for me but I knew each and every designer because I’m a social butterfly and I take the time to ask questions to my peers versus talking. I’m very excited and positive with my community. Many know me as the social cheerleader! I think that’s what helps my business stay so successful is so many designers know me and vouch for me. They see me as a positive role model who is willing to answer questions. That’s how Foster decor Consulting organically was created. People would come across my website or social media and be so impressed by the designs, graphics and presentation. They would ask how did you do that, how do I even get started with edesign, what is a mood board, what prices are packages should I be charging, what’s a niche? I kept answering and having one-on-one conversations without expecting anything and I think a lot of the community saw how involved I was, positive, and knowledgeable. One of my peers asked me to audit her website and that’s kind of how the ball got rolling on charging. I was going to do it for free just because I like to help and again I’m just a positive social person that it just seemed like a fun experience to just hop on zoom and give her some feedback. But she said that hour that I took the time to screen share her website and circle things and give her feedback and criticism all in a constructive way of like look you should do this or swap this out or if you move this down she was like oh my gosh I’ve learned so much more with you in this one-on-one time then some of the courses I bought. She was then mowing me right there And then and wanted another hour. She told some of our other peers about the experience and said hey I have a couple of girls that are going to want the same thing charge for your time charge what you’re worth you know a lot about edesign you know a lot about interiors you know a lot about marketing you’re on to something here… So I was like okay cool like I could do this again that was fun and when you have fun doing what you love it doesn’t feel like work. So that’s how my VIP intensive came about which is creating a brand identity and roadmap for my interior design peers. They get two excerpts from my edesigned boot camp and work one-on-one with me as I audit their social media and website and show them constructive feedback so they can implement some homework to help flip their hobby into a more profitable business. We also create a brand identity with a niche and focus with a marketing perspective so they know what kind of interior designer they are and who they best serve and what specialization. These seem like easy questions that people would know but they often get skipped so I try to teach and train and mentor my peers to take a few steps back so they can create a stronger business foundation for themselves that way we can then have a solid game plan for creating the visuals that go with it AKA The Branding graphics (custom brand board, color palettes, logos, social media templates, FB banners etc). So once we have step one the VIP intensive or their brand identity business foundation roadmap in place that makes step 2 The Branding package AKA graphics make more sense and become more vibrant so they can have elevated and cohesive graphics for all their online content across all platforms. Which then leaves us with step 3 the website Makeover where we take the road map and the graphics and inject it into a high converting website specifically for interior e-designers. These are my three services and it’s been amazing being able to utilize those three core elements of my background interiors, graphics, web design. I’m grateful to be in such a positive design community and excited to continue serving my peers. Like I said before I’m excited about my own makeover for the last 2 years I’ve been helping my peers with theirs and now it’s my turn to get a little refresh on Fosterdecor.com my own interiors site. Stay tuned for more.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Can you share a story that illustrates resilience? There’s another component on how Foster deor Consulting was formulated. Unfortunately during covid right before my birthday I started getting cyber bullied and harassed anonymously. My supportive e-design sister group had known what was going on and eventually we figured out who the person was. It was so strange but it was an ex of an x (of all things). It was a very unfortunate time as I was getting bullied by this person daily for hours on any third party app or platform that they could sign up for with an empty account. They were constantly trolling me. Anything that I would post would get criticized and negatively commented and any story the same it just felt demotivating after weeks of this happening to do anything online without this person attacking me or the content I was trying to promote. It was embarrassing but luckily my group of the e-design sisters were very communicative and supportive with me during this crazy time. But it started escalating as this person found out my address. They started sending me things signing me up for personal ads, dating sites, pornographic sites, applying to be a model for pornos, quotes for thousands of sex toys, sign ups for loans, going back to school, etc you name it it happened in the span of 9 months of daily harassment. I couldn’t do anything on my foster Decor interiors website does any edit would trigger harassment based off of the content I would share same for my Instagram account. I had to hit pause on both of these platforms because I felt unsafe that this person’s obsession just would not stop. I tried getting the police involved but during covid they had their hands full with riots, the looting and protests happening around the election. We literally had tanks driving up and down our street since we lived at the time right near the capital. I didn’t want to give in to this person who is terrorizing me everyday so all I could do was document what I called at the time “the dailies” of harassment and bullying. This would include prank phone calls, hundreds of emails, calling back actual in person appointments that were made on my behalf of local businesses in Sacramento were plastic surgery consultations, breast enhancement appointments, acne, weight loss, birth control, adoption again you name it – they signed me up for it. I knew that this person must be in a dark place to put such obsessive and negative behavior on me daily for 9 months but it still hurt. Especially during a time like covid where we were so isolated from seeing our friends and family and we were afraid to even go out sometimes on walks with out having our masks. It was a dark time and I was so excited from all the amazing things I had done with my e-design community that I had to just put pause and figure out a safe way to still be foster Decor but without my harasser noticing. It’s extremely hard to be an online service provider when you can’t be active publicly online. So this is also the time where organically through private DMs my peers were asking me for advice on their account or website and also through private Facebook groups peers were asking for help with logos or websites things like that that my harasser could not see. This was how I could still be me still help my community still do what I could safely and without triggering the harassment. I finally was able to create a whole new website and a whole new Instagram account but of course starting from scratch is rough and also not having my name tied to it as this person was meticulously looking up any thing I was doing was very hard. I had to do so much behind the scenes while I was trying to also get the bullying to stop with a detective, private investigator and the help of the police department we finally had the evidence needed to get this person to stop. But at what cost? My self-esteem was shattered I was depressed I couldn’t eat or sleep I was worried because this person was obsessively harassing me and knew my location. We finally had to move which gave me some peace of mind but the trial after covid everything took a lot longer through the justice department. It was about a year and a half of harassment Plus doing all of the court stuff with continuance after continuance and restitution hearings and restraining orders in place to get justice. Luckily I documented everything so there was a lot of evidence. It was a very great feeling to finally get a restraining order from this deranged person. It was also another amazing victory for them to be found guilty with a year of probation, 60 days of community service, all of their electronics are viewable by the police, 10 anger management classes, 3 year restraining order and restitution money they owe for damages. This isn’t something that I have told many people but now that it’s finally over as of March of this year it’s something I can now talk about and get some closure on. Is online service providers we have to be careful. And I go through this with my clients. It can be a very unsafe space out there and we have to be careful with our public information. What happened to me was probably at the worst time because of covid being won and the election being another and the police riots and protests being another so a lot of police were resigning at the time or getting fired or stepping down it was just a bad time to have gone through what I did which is why it took so long for it to stop. I hope no one has to go through what I went through but I don’t want to be silent about it I want to be vocal because this could happen to any of my other design peers who are also online with public information so it’s something I want to be open about like I am when anyone asked me how do you design or create mood boards or now it can be how do I protect myself since I’ve gone through this process I can help other designers avoid this or maybe give them the resources to help them speed up the process so it doesn’t take them 9 months (plus another 9 through the court system). To get more closure I went to a therapist who I really love and I think mental health is huge now since covid. It’s beneficial to get closure and Clarity on the situation but also to keep growing and learning and through a therapist that has been very eye-opening. She kept saying that wow you’re resilient to have gone through all this and become stronger afterwards. I maybe don’t see it or feel it now the only way I can describe going through what I did is just surviving I don’t even know how I endured so many days of that same kind of harassment daily. It became more of like a groundhog’s Day repeating the same harassment and documenting it and then getting bullied for a few more hours and documenting that and talking with the police and detectives and trying to move things along it was a very big long ordeal. A lot of crying feeling alone and isolated during a depressing time I mean covid wasn’t easy for anyone but getting bullied and harassed on top of that was a lot… Maybe I’m resilient because I survived and I’m stronger and I created another business behind the scenes. I didn’t let that situation stop me. But I still felt broken. I felt damaged and hurt and scared and terrified that resilient doesn’t come to mind but just survival. Somehow. And now that I can talk about it there are so many internet trolls out there and random strangers that could scam you and take advantage of your public information and this is just another way that I can help my peers to avoid these ugly situations that no one should go through.

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

This is an easy one so when I was partnered with the Big e design companies like heavenly or decorist we were taught to be a chameleon designer AKA change according to the client. So one day I’d have to be farmhouse in neutral and then the next day I’d have to be modern and eclectic and then the next day I had to be shabby chic + traditional. It was actually an interesting way for me to test my creative juices, expand my portfolio, try out different design styles and aesthetics, work with an array of different types of people. So I covered this in my e-design boot camp and explain how this isn’t a bad thing when you’re first starting out and maybe you don’t know what type of designer you are so it is beneficial to do the above to expand your horizons because you may think you like modern but once you’re actually designing and creating your portfolio and working with clients you really learn quickly when you’re sourcing and designing that oh wow I didn’t even know that there was this whole other design style called eclectic I want to be doing projects like that forever that’s my favorite!! So I definitely am thankful that I had this experience but what I learned is when you’re on your own you don’t have to be a chameleon and constantly changing for your client what will you be today. From a marketing perspective this is actually wrong people think having a wide net means that they’re going to get so many different fish but if you don’t have clear messaging on who you are who you serve what you do what you specialize in etc that vague tagline isn’t going to resonate with anyone and you will be overlooked. Your competitor that does have clear messaging and a niche with a focus and specialization has triple the clients that you do with a small net versus your wide net. There’s a reason why it’s called riches in the niches and that’s what I help my peers discover through our one-on-one VIP intensive session. We create the road map for their brand identity and business so that they can have a flourishing and profitable e-design biz versus a just winging it hobby on Instagram.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.fosterdecorconsulting.com
• Instagram: @fosterdecorconsulting
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/fosterdecorconsulting
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fosterdecor/
• Other: www.fosterdecor.com interiors site @fosterdecor interiors instagram (my consulting business is my bread and butter now where I can use all 3 passions of mine so I put those first above)

Image Credits
https://www.linagrantphotography.com/ https://www.instagram.com/linasayscheese/