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

Hi Donyea, thanks for joining us today. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?

The right answer to this is no, I wish I hadn’t of started my business earlier. My journey comes with first accepting that everything happens for a reason and my journey doesn’t look like anyone else’s except mine.

Truth is I started an Interior Design Business years ago. Right after I graduated college in 2005. I was almost 26 years old and was a young Mother of 3. Honestly, I took a couple years off form college when I was pregnant with my third oldest child. He was born in 2003. I just wasn’t ready mentally, physically, or financially. My focus was on raising my young family along with my husband. So, I was content with working a local Visual Merchandising with hopes of climbing the corporate ladder and eventually becoming a Buyer. Here was reality check number one! I was throwing out hints of my dream to become a buyer to people that needed to hear it within my company. That dream was squandered away in one meeting with my Human Resource Manager. I was told that position was going to a family member as it was an family owned business. I was miserable. I still had dreams of running my own Interior Design company. Especially the more I was introduced the beauty of the world and what was out there. So, thank goodness, that didn’t happen. I just went and started decorating on the side for free to fulfil my passion while raising my family.

Reality check number two came in the form of my first paying job, which was for someone I worked. It was gas money, but it really allowed me to tap into my creativity. I painted art, made window treatments and even commissioned a custom bench for the first time. I knew this is what I wanted to do. My girls were heavy into travel sports which took up my entire life, but I found out about blogs. It took me some time before I had the courage to start my own. The Sister Sophisticate is what I did to continue to fuel my love for Interior Design. In those 3 years of blogging, I came to realize that I was a frustrated Designer. I didn’t have the money or the time to design my own house because I was so busy being a Mom of great athletes who traveled all over the nation. I had to accept that my time will come when they get older. That was reality check number 3.

In 2014, I had the opportunity to be a Kitchen & Bath Designer for a nation wide hardware store. It was time to say good bye to my Visual Merchandising career. It was a job in sales and I was very good at it both creatively and in hitting my sales goals. But! It was sales in a very corporate environment. It was not fun, but I was able to gain my knowledge of Kitchen & Bath design. I was also introduced to concept of relationship building with my clients and contractors. By 2017 this time of my life had phased out in the form of phone call from a friend from my previous Visual Merchandising job who had become the Director of my old department. She offered me a Senior position to come back. Reality check #4. I was tasked with designing the life that I wanted. I went back to the drawing board.

All these reality checks created who I am in my business and in my life today. I am built with tenacity, but most of a burning passion to design and create beauty. If I had not gone through what I did and tried to build my business sooner. I wouldn’t have the knowledge I had gained over all these years.

Donyea, 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?

Interior Design found me. I will say it over and over again. I really didn’t know where my creative right brained talents of arts were going to take me, but it found me in my grandmother’s garage when I came across some of my sisters projects she had been doing at the International Academy of Design & Technology. I was so intrigued I took a visit and the next thing I knew I was graduating with a B.A. in Interior Design form an accredited school.

The number one thing that sets me apart is my passion and love for interior design. When you match that to my journey and how I may have went off the easy path a couple times, I always came back to it. The next thing that sets me apart is the fact that I really focus on interior design being self-care. We shed so much of ourselves throughout the day and yet we are so sensitive to our environments. In order to feel whole again, it takes dedicated focus and attention on these spaces and renew the energy so that it can rejuvenate your soul.

At RHS we have a design process that provides services such as Color & Design Consultations, Space Planning , 3D Renderings, Upholstery & Window Treatments, Selecting Finishes for Kitchen & Bath, Home Styling
and Full Custom Design. We provide services to both residential and commercial spaces. We help our clients save time, money and unwanted stress by establishing a customized plan tailored to fit a ride range of budgets and give peace of mind knowing that you have a professional backed with team of trust-worthy trades to get eh job done. Our goal is to take care of you space so that your space can take care of you.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My mission at Rejuvenation Home Studio is to educate my clients on how important their environments are to the well being of their productivity. It’s not about how much you put into your space, but rather what so that it’s a cohesive and well-put-together design that you can vibe with.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

It has taken me 20+ years to get to the place I am in my business. The biggest learning lesson I have learned is not be afraid to ask for help. I was always either too scared because of my passive traits or too proud because of my competitive nature to ask for the resources I needed. If I had of known even 5 years ago about creating a network of friends and colleagues with your same passion and work ethic, it would have made some of my journey a bit easier. This can be as small as asking a business guru you admire how to set-up an EIN or as big ask taking out a loan to pay for your first website. I will also say that Google University has come a long way with finding that answer to any question you have.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://rejuvenationhomestudio.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rejuvenationhomestudio/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RejuvenationHomeStudio
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donyea-tollie-rejuvenation-home-studio-b429a9b/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/RHSHomeStudio
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/rejuvenation-home-studio-bartow?osq=rejuvenation+home+studio

Image Credits
Photography By: Tina Sargeant