Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kate Martinelli. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Kate, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?

My family was always involved in community theater and I studied dance for many years. This led to a BA in Theater and Dance. I went on to get my MA in Dance/Movement Therapy from NYU in 1991. My love of dance and fascination with detective work (I always thought of psychology as being a “detective of the mind”) was perfectly integrated in Dance Therapy. Not to mention, I was an avid Agatha Christie and Hardy Boys fan. Dance Therapy offered a perfect combination of my passions. I was hired as the first Dance/Movement Therapist on an inpatient psychiatric unit, where I remained for 14 years. I moved to an outpatient facility and stayed for 16 years. I left in 2020, and began telehealth on-line counseling from 2020-2022.

As mental health treatment changed, I was required to run more psychoeducation groups (verbal modalities) and I pursued my counseling license in 2001. As a dance/movement therapist I integrated non-verbal and verbal interventions. This backstory serves to answer the question of what experience has helped me in my business.

In my 28th year as a mental health counselor, I was inspired and encouraged by my daughter to pursue Interior Decorating as a business. I had been decorating my homes throughout my entire adult life. One day my daughter, a professional photographer, posted some photos of my work on Facebook and I thought: “That’s pretty good”. Friends and family also consistently said: “You should do this for a living”. I never felt financially secure enough to quit my counseling career which offered steady salary and benefits.

My love of theater and dance fed and sparked my creativity and was a natural transition to interior decorating. I took the leap and founded Interior Decorating NE in 2018, formally training with Home Staging Resources as a Home Stager and Designer. I did keep my toes in the counseling waters from 2020-2022 with patients through on-line telehealth service, part-time. With some financial security the transition was effortless.

My career in counseling fulfilled my desire to help others and where I developed acute listening skills. I found it natural for me to offer alternative strategies (creative problem solving) to patients. It is essential to have these skills in my staging and design business. Working with staging clients, design clients, agents and vendors requires:
1) passion and an intense desire to help with selling and designing homes.
2) acute listening skills
3)high degree of creativity and flexibility.

After decades of experience in mental health counseling I am highly adept and equipped to help home sellers cope with the anxiety and depression that accompanies this process. With respect to design clients, acute listening and desire to create comfortable and enticing homes are the elements that have contributed to my success. With both services, I am undaunted by the various personalities encountered and am excited to offer stress-free design solutions. Counseling and Design offer another commonality; the unpredictable nature of both professions and the ever-present element of surprise. I never know who I will meet and what challenges and delights they will present to me. I welcome and need this in my life. I am always ready.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I have answered most of these questions in the previous section.
My services are: Home Staging and Interior Decorating. I pride myself on expedient, efficient service. I have been prized for my communication and delivering timely and budget friendly service. I offer free staging consultation, for vacant listings and 3 levels of service for occupied listings: Home Preparation/Consultation, Half-Day Staging and Full-Day Staging, all for occupied listings. Agents have expressed high degree of satisfaction with my responsiveness and delivering design that suits the luxury level and size of the home. My Interior Decorating service begins with a free phone consultation to discuss specifics about the project and explain the process.. I then conduct an in-person, comprehensive Lifestyle Assessment, for an affordable fee. I take measurements and discuss furniture and decor items the client wants to keep and formulate a report on items the client wants me to select. I record specific decor, style and color options, along with how the room is to be utilized. If the client wants me to proceed and hire me for design services, I provide a quote at the consultation. I discuss timeframe, budget and vendor preferences. Following the consultation, I draw up a contract and provide design/mood boards for the client to approve or request revisions. My approach to design is careful attention to detail, scale, balance and creating warm, inviting spaces. I do not rest until every decor item is in perfect harmony with the whole. I have 28. 5star reviews on google. I employ a social media marketer, have a facebook business page, google business page, Linkedin page. I attend at least one networking event per week.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

What drives me is devotion to creating designs that clients are completely in love with. I treat each home as if it were my own. I don’t just love design, but it is a necessity, I have to do it. Design fuels my soul and I become obsessed with each project. My mission statement is: “Creating homes you don’t need a vacation from”. I want each client to marvel at their home and feel embraced each time they walk in the door. I am also driven to be completely financially independent through this business and travel the world. I want to take a vacation at least 4 times a year, and look forward to returning each time to the sanctuary I have created.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I wish I knew more about marketing strategies, SEO’s and positioning my business to reach wider market.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.interiordecoratingne.com
• Instagram: kaclpm
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Kathy.Martinelli.7
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/Kate-Martinelli-81bb0830