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

Juli, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Coming up with the idea is so exciting, but then comes the hard part – executing. Too often the media ignores the execution part and goes from idea to success, skipping over the nitty, gritty details of executing in the early days. We think that’s a disservice both to the entrepreneurs who built something amazing as well as the public who isn’t getting a realistic picture of what it takes to succeed. So, we’d really appreciate if you could open up about your execution story – how did you go from idea to execution?

I technically started my business back in 2015, but I had been designing for friends and family for most of my life. For years, people would encourage me to do this as a “real job”, but I didn’t feel that I was qualified to do so. Yes, I had been doing it for fun for as long as I could remember, but I didn’t study Interior Design in school- my bachelors degree is in Voice (Music) Performance and I performed professionally in theatre for almost a decade after graduation. Once I ‘retired’ from the Theatre and had my first child, I found that I was designing my own home constantly. As a creative, without my life in the performance arts, I had to find an outlet for creative expression and my home was my canvas. More and more friends starting asking why I wasn’t an interior designer, making money doing what I loved. Honestly, that sounded like an absolute dream, but I truly didn’t believe that I had what it took. I had some serious imposter syndrome sneaking in and the fear of failure or not being able to do right by prospective clients left me paralyzed.

Then one night I was having dinner with an acquaintance who was really encouraging me to start a business, and I asked her, “What does that even look like? I don’t know the first thing about what to charge or how to gain clients”. We talked through some of the steps I would need to take, how much someone would even pay a newbie like me, and shortly thereafter I decided to take the leap and just give it a go. I joined design groups on social media to ask as many questions as I could. I spoke on the phone with designers asking how they charged. I read about how to start a business in my state and what would be required of me. I mulled over a million business names and searched all over the internet to see if they were already in use by someone else. It’s hard to remember now how long the whole process took, but in my own time I launched my business on a very small scale. I posted in a moms group and started to gain clients there. I had a 3 year old son and shortly became pregnant with my second after starting the business, so I needed to prioritize my time and my availability. I decided to do “e-design” only (at the time) so that I didn’t have to travel to site visits often or spend full days doing installs. I worked at this level for quite a few years… small scale e-design projects serving clients who found me through word of mouth in their community groups, through their friends etc.

I remember one client in the very early stages of my business saying to me, “I’ve told my husband we have to hire you to do our whole house NOW because once you blow up- and you ARE going to blow up- I won’t be able to afford you anymore.”
That stuck with me because I truly didn’t believe that I would ever “blow up”. Not because I didn’t think I had skills as a designer- otherwise I wouldn’t have even begun- but because I felt like something differentiated me from “those real designers” out there. Me vs. Them. I was capable of small scale work, in my mind, and the “real designers” had the big jobs. I realized in that moment, however, that all of these clients absolutely loved my work and 100% believed that my business was going to grow- so I may as well believe it and lean into it too! As time went along, each successful project helped grow my confidence, and once my mindset shifted to “hell yes, I can do this and it really IS a dream job” my projects grew in both number and scale.

In 2021 I knew that it was time to scale my business. My kids were a bit older so I had a little more flexibility in my ability to take on more. I hired my first employee almost 2.5 years ago and it was the best decision I’ve ever made for Brocato Design + Co. Since then, my business has grown from what felt more like a “side hustle” to a full time, full service design firm. I remember a time where asking for $250 felt scary, and now we have projects that bring in more than $100K in design fees alone and even more in overall project revenue. We have since been nominated for and won “best of” awards in local areas as well as having been published for the first time this year!

I’m still learning how to run a profitable business every single day. I continue to explore and learn ways to grow, how to continue to be a better designer, and entrepreneur. I don’t think that ever ends… but I pinch myself often over this dream job that has become my reality all because I took an idea and just took the leap.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Juli Brocato and I’m the owner and principal Designer at Brocato Design + Co. I’m a graduate from Florida State University with a degree in Music (Voice Performance) and spent a decade working in the Performance Arts where I lived in Los Angeles, New York City, and touring the country soaking in all the beauty that inspires many of my designs today.

As a lifelong artist and creative to my core, I founded Brocato Design + Co. in 2015 so that I could share my passion for design by serving others with an artistic sensibility towards creating lived-in luxury in their homes. I saw a need where so many lacked the knowledge or ability to make their home look and feel uniquely theirs, so I took a leap of faith to start my business and have never looked back!

Creating beautiful spaces for my clients and building a business around a lifelong passion has truly been my dream job. I am a proud member, in good standing, of the Interior Design Society at the Professional Level. At Brocato Design + Co, we are known for lived-in, luxurious designs that evoke a sense of serenity combined with a playful quirkiness. With a keen artistic sensibility, we are able to fully encapsulate the aesthetic tastes of each individual client, while still balancing artistic style and function. I am incredibly proud of our ability to create unique spaces that are tailored to the individual rather than having every design look the exact same every time. Helping others feel at home in their home is our main goal.

We recently started a new design podcast, Dwelling On It, to further help those who don’t know a damned thing about creating spaces that feel like home to them. Here we help those who may not have the budget to hire a designer themselves, or just prefer to DIY. We also cover what to expect and what to look for when hiring an interior designer should the listener choose to go that route. With our conversation style vibe and our absolutely ridiculous moments of laughter and jokery- it’s an entertaining and educational listen for sure!

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

I don’t know that I’d call it a lesson that I was taught per se, as much as I would call it a mindset that I had to unlearn in order to succeed. I think so often we have limitations placed on us or place them on ourselves… whether through our societal programming, familial, or even just our own ideas we’ve created ourselves. I definitely had to unlearn the concept that to succeed in my industry I have to have a degree in design, and to succeed in business I have to have a degree in business. It’s simply not true. Do those who have formally studied those fields have an advantage? Probably yes, but for me that holds more truth in the business side than the artistic side. As someone who did formally study the arts, I learned that you can’t teach talent. You can teach technique, you can teach skills to hone those talents, you can teach work ethic and discipline to your craft, but you can’t fully teach talent… to be innately creative. So for me, I realized along the way that yes I have to learn skills in both design and business as I go, but I can apply what I’ve already learned in the arts field as a whole to the field of interior design and it has served me greatly to let go of preconceived ideas regarding any one path to success!

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

Less from a management perspective but 2 books come to mind: You’re a Badass at Making Money by Jen Sincero and Rich AF by Amanda Frances. Both of these books changed my money mindset and allowed me to get out of my own way/release any restricting beliefs I held about my ability or worthiness of making large sums of money… especially as an entrepreneur. Once I realized that I am fully capable of making a LOT of money (and that absolutely anyone is, really), I started seeing much larger projects come along and felt perfectly fine quoting them at much higher rates! These 2 books were game changers for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.brocatodesign.com
• Instagram: @brocatodesignco
• Facebook: @brocatodesignco
• Linkedin: Brocato Design + Co
• Youtube: @brocatodesignco
• Other: Our Podcast, Dwelling On it, is on Spotify, iHeart radio, amazon podcasts/music/audible etc!

Image Credits
Robert Radifera Photography, Stylish Productions, Christy Kosnic Photography, Mary Pat Collins Photo.