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

Sophia, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s jump to the end – what do you want to be remembered for?

It’s scary to think about all the things to get done in order to build the legacy you want to leave behind. I have a bad habit of being impatient when it comes to things I think I can control the pace of. Therefore, I have constantly found myself taking moments to breathe and reminding myself that the person you were a year ago, three years ago, and even six months ago, is proud of the place you are in, in life.

As most, when I was young, I was unsure of so many things. I never found my, “niche,” while in school, leaving me wondering what life had in store for me. What was my purpose?

I always had an eye for fashion, that was something I looked forward to every day. Putting an outfit together, and trying different styles of make-up, always made me feel expressive. When I graduated high school and found home design, it felt very natural to me, like I finally found my place.

Years later in the industry, as I sit here today and write about what legacy I want to leave behind, so many things hit my mind as this is a question I think about almost weekly. Questions such as this move me, they inspire me every day with the decisions I make as some can ultimately reflect that one day built legacy.

Sometimes I feel possibly too attached to my work. But never in my life did something feel so meant for me as it does when I am creating a project or motivating my team and for that reason, I never thought twice about the care or attachment I have for my work. If anything, I have always felt lucky to have found something that makes me feel like I have my little place in this world.

As a young woman in an industry that I have fought tooth and nail to be in, I hope to be remembered for that strength. I hope to be remembered for the passion I carried, a passion that I hope was infectious because I loved what I did that much. The late nights spent perfecting my craft and building a name for myself, I wish for those nights to be remembered as a story of a girl with a dream.

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.

When people ask me, “How long have you been doing this?” I always laugh, because as anyone with a family business knows, the moment you can go to work, you do. However, as I got older, my parents were always sure to let me know that I could find my own way in this world, I did not have to feel obligated to go into the family business if it was not right for me. This was something I pondered for a bit of time during my senior year of high school, but it was at this same time that the designer working for the company at the time asked me if I was interested in assisting her on the design end of the business while I finished high school. Through this mentorship, I never looked back. At seventeen years old, I was assisting in typing contracts, running our company’s social media pages, and even creating my own design page. I also began to take clients to the stone yard to assist them with selecting their countertops.

I decided to work full-time, learning under the lead designer the company had at the time, all the while also obtaining my bachelor’s degree in business management. When I turned nineteen years old, I began selling my own remodeling projects and within my first year of selling, I sold just a little over half a million dollars in remodels. It was around this same time, that our lead designer who had taught me everything I knew to that point, let us know she was moving to South Carolina. With these personnel changes happening, my Father came to me and asked if I felt ready to step up in the company as a designer, a showroom manager, etc. As nerve-racking as this all felt at the time and as much as I still had to learn, I knew this was where I was meant to be.

In 2020, we were all impacted in one way or another. As much tragedy as we all felt during such a time of uncertainty, our firm was fortunate enough to be able to open a second location at a shore point in New Jersey. At the time, we were renting a space on this island in NJ. But within two years time, we were able to expand this second location, relocating to a larger building that we were able to own, and through this process, I was able to develop a full-service showroom, replicating our exact process from our Southampton, NJ, showroom.

When curating my showroom locations, I keep many things in mind, some of which are implementing designs, samples, and color palettes that are not something you would find in just any magazine or TV show. I aspire to have people walk in and feel moved by the designs. Even if the displays are not something they can envision for their own home, my goal is for the work to be something that the client can take something away from. Whether it be the way I designed something, a material I used, or a color that caught their eye, this is how a relationship between a designer’s work and client a clients dream design begins to come together.

Throughout my entire career thus far, sometimes it feels like I am living on a dream and a prayer, as the saying goes…But what it really has been to me is the pursuit of happiness. There have been many bumps in the road, and I expect many more to follow, but sometimes you have to sit back and realize where you began to be able to see how far you have gone.

So much of who I am today is from my parents. They guided me, taught me, and believed in me. Our family business is built on many things, but it is mostly built on the strong belief in the value of people. Everything in business is about people. The people who make up your business, the people who buy from your business, and the people you want to buy from your business. Something that has kept us going for 55+ years in this industry is built on this fact and I know as long as we hold true to this, it will keep us going for the next 55+ years.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I am a young woman working in a heavily male industry, but this is not. a statement I usually like to advertise. Contrary to popular belief, I enjoy each man I work with within this industry, some of them have made me who I am today. If I have learned anything thus far, man or woman, respect is something that is earned. Just because you may come from a certain place or be a part of a certain company, your own name must gain its own value. The simplicity in the action of respect is something I personally take great honor in obtaining. There is not one story I can reflect on to speak to of this matter as most of the stories of respect have taken time. I have learned that when it comes to a team or any professional relationship, you need to show up, repeatedly. Showing up does not just mean being on time for a meeting, it means showing the other party that you are there to be a part of the end goal. Whether this is working together through collaboration on a project, bringing insight to a client to better their everyday living, or just being there to listen to your team members’ input when others may not, these actions may just seem like you are, “doing your job,” are simple actions to truly gaining ones respect or just be a part of the process. Once one understands the value and importance of working towards respect from your peers, one will appreciate not only the work one does but also the seat earned at the table will become much more meaningful than ever imagined.

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

Some of the greatest advice ever given to me at the start of my career was, “You do not need to know everything. You are not a plumber, you are not an architect, you are the designer of the project, and you need to work with the experts in their fields to come together and bring a project to life.” This was something I carried with me every day from that moment on because, in the beginning, I definitely felt as though I had to know every aspect of remodeling inside and out to be able to produce it. This is very far from the truth. This statement made to me was only the start of what I wish I had known earlier. Recently, I have had the honor to be a part of some amazing organizations and exclusive councils, where I have met people who have completely changed my outlook not only on this industry but in life. Going back to the statements about people; People are your resources! From the people you work with to simply the people, you may collaborate with through groups or organizations. DO NOT let yourself fall behind over the simple fear of feeling as though you may not belong in the room. In any industry, be authentically yourself, or work towards being whoever you want to be. Walk into a room with confidence but maintain grace. Never be scared to ask a question, even to the most high-up person in the room. There have been times when I have been in a room with hundreds of people and I purposely stood up to ask a question that I may have even known the answer to, so I could mentally get over the fear of standing in front of so many people and asking the most known person in the room a question. Over the years, this was how I pushed myself out of my comfort zone and somehow through that, I found my most authentic self.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.sophiamariadesign.com/
• Instagram: @sophiamariadesign
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sophiaamianodesignbuild/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sophia-amiano-57456914a/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcvTHD9QDuJyeeJIwZyLsYg
• Other: https://linktr.ee/sophiamariadesign