We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Bill Frey. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Bill below.

Bill , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with a hypothetical question – if it were up to you, what would you change about the school or education system to better prepare students for a more fulfilling life and career?

This question comes to me at a time where I am watching my children (9th and 5th grade) go through the school years. I feel that there has been a great deal of emphasis placed on book knowledge and less on real world situations. This leads to more structured answers than searching for solutions. Kids need to understand that there are many ways to look at a situation and they only initially view the situation from their perspective. In their mind, they may think the only solution is from their viewpoint, but what if another perspective can provide a better solution? I believe the school systems would benefit from teaching some trades and life skills. Where do you learn to cook, balance a check book, learn to take personal responsibility for life on their own? There is more information at the tip of our fingers than ever before, and I believe our schools need to teach our children how to find and use the information that is available. There is no longer a need to memorize and repeat what others do, but instead, exercise their own decision-making skills. There also needs to be a focus on what the real cost of each decision we make day to day.

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 background and context?

Since we started the company in 2004, Illuminating Design has been transforming residences, businesses, municipalities, and communities into inviting places of wonderment for the holiday season. The company was founded on the belief that clients deserved a higher echelon of service than was previously available in the industry. We have found a great space in the market, creating custom artistic lighting designs, all the while working with many different medians, including but not limited to, projection, laser, pinpoint light, and broadcast lighting.

It all started when I found work as a lighting installer for a small lighting franchise in Atlanta after graduating from Clemson University. I discovered a passion for the technology and art form of building installations that create a spectacular lighting experience for the viewer. This led me to develop a proprietary style of tree light wrapping. I saw the niche opportunity for a business that utilized my relationship-building communication style and my technical/artistic skills. During this time I received my Masters in Marketing from Georgia State University and set out to take the industry by storm.

What was once an Atlanta secret, Illuminating Design has risen to the forefront of the holiday lighting, event lighting, wedding lighting and specialty lighting industry. Through continual research and innovative design, we have developed relationships with some of the top lighting vendors and manufacturers in the industry all over the U.S. This enables us to test the products we are using, as well as give us the opportunity to work directly with manufacturers to produce the best products available on the market. In 2017, Illuminating Design focused the business to create large displays for communities, cities, municipal areas, and shopping districts. In 2018, we are able to offer design and consultation services to help others create amazing displays independently.

Over almost 20 years of installing artistic lighting designs, Illuminating Design has worked with many cities and high-profile installations, not only in the Atlanta area, but in many states across the country. This has garnered us enormous attention with our work being featured on local and national news outlets. This includes all media types: print, radio, television, and monthly publications. We were a part of an installation which was chosen in the top 10 public holiday displays by Forbes magazine, and while we are very proud of our past, we believe our best is yet to come. A few of our clients are The Atlanta Botanical Garden, Cheekwood Botanical Garden, City of Atlanta, City of Knoxville, Cox Enterprises and Post Riverside.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Your reputation is built on your work, not just what you say you can deliver. With any business or personal opportunities, you always want to be forthright with your words and capabilities as a company. You need to convey the proper expectations of what to expect throughout the entire process and ensure clients you are someone they want to do business with. We must remember people want to work with you if you can see their vision, solve problems that may come up, and show the clients what benefits you bring to the relationship.

How do you keep your team’s morale high?

The most important thing about managing a team is to remember exactly what it is, a TEAM.  This means the goal is the same for each member, working together to create the vision of our clients. Each manager should be able to take a group of individuals, provide them with the skills needed, and give them a target to reach. A manager needs to trust in their team and use each individual’s skill sets to complete the job. If you have all team members responsible for the same tasks, you have an army not a team. A team needs to be a collection of individual thoughts and ideas that bring value to the project. Allowing your team members to be heard and recognized for their input and collaboration is very important.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.illuminating-design.com
• Instagram: @illuminating_design
• Facebook: @IlluminatingDesign
• Youtube: Illuminating Design Inc

Image Credits
Andres Valencia