We were lucky to catch up with Nicki Heiner recently and have shared our conversation below.
Nicki, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?
The moment I would tell someone that I’m an Interior Designer, I would get 2 types of responses. Either “I love HGTV!” or “Oh my goodness, I need help decorating my house”. This used to make me sad that the career that I am so passionate about was typically reduced to being associated with a TV network or asking for help on picking out throw pillows. Don’t get me wrong, I love HGTV too! But what I do as an interior designer is a far throw from what is on the TV shows. After 20 years of designing and space planning high-end residential homes, corporate spaces, bars & restaurants, hospitals, churches, convention centers, and schools…I felt a pull at my heart that God was leading my path somewhere else. I stepped down as a senior designer at one of the most respected architecture firms in San Antonio and started my own design studio.
Reality quickly set in that my new team was just me and the nerves set in. “Am I talented enough to do this on my own?”, ” What if I fail?” The same questions start piling up that all entrepreneurs have when they first begin. Scared, nervous, stressed, self-doubt…all of these are exactly what I felt and still randomly feel.
The amount of support I had when I created Design Hill Interiors LLC was beyond measure and pushed me to keep going. However, my marketing plan felt like I was throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing what stuck. I no longer had a whole department creating content and marketing for me now that I was on my own. I had to learn this myself and figure out the path forward. I have a family member who is a website builder that I tried to hire, but he turned me down. I didn’t understand why, but he told me “You need to learn to fish. Learn this and you will never regret it.” I immediately signed up for community college website courses and started watching YouTube videos and taught myself WordPress and built my own website. I took the same approach to marketing since these are things that I’ve never had to do in my design world. I discovered a marketing firm that caters solely to interior designers nationwide and started training with them and creating my brand. This included discovering who my ideal client was, my unique selling proposition, social media, and networking.
My design career had always been focused on space planning, finishes, architectural details, and building code. Having to learn all of the marketing strategy and website design made me feel completely out of my element. When the self-doubt starts creeping in, you have to remember why you started this in the first place and have faith that this path is leading you somewhere amazing.
There will always be bumps in the road for my business that will trip me up, that’s just Murphy’s Law! But I have come to realize and accept that any struggles that come my way with either a contractor, a client, or even money are that “It builds character”. Which is something that my father would always tell me growing up when I didn’t like something. You hate to admit it, but sometimes your parents did know what they were talking about. I would not change my journey at all, and everything happened as it should.
There are other interior designers and architects like me that have taken the leap and gone out on their own. We all have the same fears and similar struggles. I began pulling these designers and architects together, introducing them, and have created a designer collective group that shares continuing education, networking, advice, and support.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
The marketing firm I started training with helped me discover so much about my passion for design and how to express it and remember why I had chosen Interior Design in the first place. Every business owner has to put together a business plan and include who their ideal client is. I have to admit that I wasn’t sure when I started my design studio who exactly my ideal client was. I had worked in so many different areas of design, how could I pick which ones I wanted to focus on? This was a predicament! I had grown up in Fredericksburg, TX, and was surrounded by the German Heritage architecture style. A lot of them were beautiful homes and businesses with limestone walls and gingerbread trims, and perfectly painted shutters. But the ones that always took my breath away were the homes that had been forgotten about with the sagging porch, rusted metal roofs, broken windows, and overgrown yards. There was so much untapped beauty that it became a driving force for me. The marketing firm helped me realize that not only did my passion for design run deep, but I had a passion for giving my clients a connection to each other and their space. Renewing what time has taken a toll on and creating an environment that brings people together.
It is always my pleasure to meet new people and now when someone asks me what I do for a living, I will tell them “I change lives”. The driving force for my design studio is Design, Connect, Renew. I help those busy professionals with kids or fur babies and empty nesters uncover the full potential of their space and create a beautiful, welcoming home that aligns with their vision for the future. My goal for all my clients is to create spaces that are easy to love and make it hard to want to leave.
Design Hill Interiors offers an initial Design Planning Session which is the beginning part of our journey together that includes a 2-hour in-home session meeting where we’ll get to know your desires for your home, get a sense of your space, and begin developing a design plan to get you where you want to be.
While the design process is deeply personal and sometimes overwhelming, the right knowledge and guidance make it a wonderful experience from start to finish. The best part of working together with my clients is that while I’m diving deep into the details, they can kick off their shoes, sip, and savor all that life has to offer!
Something unique about Design Hill Interiors is that we understand that there are individuals who don’t necessarily need full design services. Sometimes they just need ideas for their kitchen, bathroom, or office, a shopping buddy to help select new furniture, or even help at their custom home builder showroom to select finishes. This is why we have an offering of Designer for a Day service that is completely catered to the client’s needs.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
What has helped me build my reputation in the design and architecture community over the years is that I love to connect people. Not just professionals, but interior design students, manufacturer sales reps, architects, engineers, and clients. Connecting people has opened up different avenues for new projects for me over the years. In addition, I volunteer my time at local San Antonio universities for reviewing design projects and talking with students about my design journey. There is so much that I wish someone would have told me prior to getting sent out into the professional world. I have students who still reach out to me for advice in their careers.
I also hold product development board positions with a few nationwide furniture manufacturers.
Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?
Interior Designers are more than throw pillows and curtains. I wish my career was just like HGTV, but it’s far from it. Every single one of those shows has a large team of people being them that devels into the details and makes it feel like magic is happening. And that is my goal with each of my clients. By the time I am done, the end result will feel like magic has just happened. Collaboration with all trades between design, architecture, engineering, and the contractor is a must. A registered designer has the knowledge and awareness of building codes, plumbing diagrams, material appropriateness, casework details, and budget. We are the stewards of our client’s monies and it is our due diligence to have their best interests at heart.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://designhillinteriors.com
- Instagram: @designhill.interiors
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/designhillinteriors
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicki-heiner-designhill-interiors?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_view_base_contact_details%3BsvdwKWc2QICNtdaBpNSf3g%3D%3D
Image Credits
Brittany Paul Photography