Posts in Business
The Meridian Experience: Four Years In The Making

I didn't set out to create a "conference"...at least not in the way traditionally seen in this industry. I set out to create an event... an experience that would speak to the modern day interior designer who creates content while also servicing clients, the home influencer who has been an aspirational figure to an audience of thousands, and the hungry designpreneur still carving their path in this industry. I set out to create a safe space for the marginalized who have often sat out events for fear of feeling out of place or undeserving. Lastly, I set out to create something that fills us with information as much as it celebrates the journey...that pours into our professional cup as much as it does our personal cup.

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New Year Digital Purge Challenge

Do you tend to end the year with a purge so that you can start fresh in the new year?

You do a deep clean of everything from the pantry to your wardrobe, donating, gifting, and/or tossing as needed, and when you're done you feel freer, lighter, and excited that you've made room for all new things. 

BUT WHAT ABOUT A DIGITAL PURGE?

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5 Online Design Services You Can Offer For The Holidays

‘Tis the season of decorating & entertaining, and while people’s time (and money) may be wrapped up in all the festivities the season brings, as an e-designer you can step in an offer affordable, convenient, and unconventional alternatives to many of the things they’ll already be doing and/or need done. 

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Setting Up My New Planner System: How I Use My Planners

My love of using planners stems from my love of writing - I sincerely believe in the power of putting pen to paper! And while I have always been this way, in my big age, I have accepted that if I don't write something down, it's likely not gonna get done. Because of this, I love me some planners, notebooks, notepads, post-its, and calendars!

Getting to this new planner system took A LOT of trial & error, but I love it just in the same ways (and for many of the same reasons) that I love organizing my home so it was worth all the effort to find a system that works.

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House Beautiful Magazine Advisory Board 2020-21

Two months again when I decided to adopt the #sharethemicnow initiative for the home industry, I knew what I wanted to see happen, but I had no actual idea of what would happen. There are certain things you can anticipate but other things you can never see coming...and that's precisely what happened to me.

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Award Nominated Blog Announcement

As I sat down to write an entirely different blog post, it dawned on me that I do a really poor job at sharing when pretty amazing things happen, especially here on the blog. Some times I am so bad at celebrating myself but when I do remember, it's usually just on Instagram. Yet for whatever, at this moment I realized I hadn't shared some pretty epic news about the blog — Albie Knows was nominated for an Amara Interior Blog Award in the Best Company Blog category!

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5 Lessons I Learned From Share The Mic Now

Rolling into June, we were at the start of a Civil Rights Movement, which isn't something I imagined ever saying in my lifetime...yet here we are. I've seen a number of heinous acts become hashtags over the years and have almost never offered up a public opinion, on everything from mass shootings to police brutality.

This time feels different.

Everything right now is different.

As I prepare for more #sharethemicnowhomeedition activations, I'd be remiss if I didn't take minute to think through all that the first iterations of the sharethemicnowhomeedition has taught me thus far.

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How To Create Easy Mood Boards

Ever since diving into interior design as a career, I have become pretty known for how I’ve employed technology to launch my path, specifically as an e-designer. Specifically, people started really noticing my renderings and my mood boards, with the latter being some of my most popular content amongst designers and design enthusiasts alike.

Spoiler: I use Keynote to create easy and dynamic mood boards. This isn’t to say I haven’t used different platforms over the years. Trust me...I have! I got here after a lot of trial & error with my deliverables, with my content, and with my business across the board. For me, this made (and still makes) the most sense. Truth be told, my gigabytes are precious so it was worth it to me to give a native application a fair shot if it meant I could delete additional software and/or have one less website login to remember.

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How To Plan A (Last Minute) Brand Shoot

For two years in my business, I tried to plan a brand shoot for Albie Knows…with no success. Whether it was finding the right photographer or having it in the budget or just liking the way I looked in the mirror, there was always something in my way.

Last year, one of my designer besties introduced me to Mariah Texidor. I was blessed enough to book her to shoot my One Room Challenge transformation. The photos were amazing, but more than that, the shoot was amazing. I knew that if there was ever an opportunity to work with her again — aka I’m back in NYC — that I’d jump at the chance. 

Here’s what planning a last-minute brand shoot covers, from my perspective:

  • getting organized

  • having an awesome tribe

  • trusting life’s pivots

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So I Wrote A Book...

I realized I never came on the blog or on my YoutTube channel and actually TALKED about my book. And while I never mentioned it on my Instagram, I never really really got into why I wrote a book and all the sentiments behind this endeavor. 

For an entire week — the first week of February to be exact — I woke up every day at 4 am just to write. While my husband and daughter slept, before the sun was even up, I wrote. Within that first day, I had listed and named my chapters, like outlining a term paper, and before I knew it a book was unfolding before me. The next few weeks were spent learning all about the self-publishing process, working through and editing my ideas with friends and peers. And in the midst of all this creative chaos, eventually, a book was born. 

I channeled into that book all the stuff I struggled with sharing here on the blog or on social media; it felt like a safe, undistracted space to just talk about what I wanted to talk about when it came to curating and creating a home you’d love… hence the title, Curate The Home You’re In: Effortlessly Create Your Everyday Dreamscape. 

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What I Am Unlearning About Entrepreneurship

Not too many people know this about me, but from 2008 to about 2011, I tried my hand at entrepreneurship for the first time. 

That was over 7 years ago! 

I thought this iteration of entrepreneurship — with interior design — would be different. I figured I was older, wiser, I’d learned all the hard lessons, and so I was ready to do bigger and better than last time. I had a lifetime of experience behind me so what could possibly go wrong, right?

Answer: everything. 

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What Visual Merchandising Has Taught Me About Interior Design

Current Title: Visual Merchandising Manager for Williams-Sonoma

Wait… what?

If you’re new to my blog and somehow stumbled upon this blog post first, welcome, but you should probably read a few posts back where I share my wicked journey of creating a life I hated and needed to recover from.

The summer months was basically a season of reflection and self-discovery and hard truths for my family and I, but especially for me. One of those hard truths —

Being an entrepreneur was not enough for me.

I’d always known that should I ever need to go get a job outside of the home, it would likely be in visual merchandising, not interior design. I can’t quite explain it, but I knew that as a designer, I wouldn’t want to do that in the traditional sense of working at a firm, even though I am perfectly fine working within the confines of an organization as a merchandiser — weird, I know, don’t judge me. 

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Batching Hack: Setting Up Canned Emails in Gmail

If you listened to the last Q & Albie episode of the season, then you know it was all about batching with e-designer and content creator, Heather Hess. After a long season of sharing insights and tips for elevating your design business, it seemed only fitting to end with an episode all about productivity.

As we addressed productivity hacks on the show, there was one that we both agreed cold save a ton of time with clients, vendors, or other partners:

Q: ARE THERE ANY BATCHING HACKS THAT YOU CAN RECOMMEND?

A: CANNED EMAILS!

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Here’s What You Need To Know About My New Book

In case you missed it…I wrote a book! And not like I’m thinking about writing a book. I literally wrote and published a book to be sold… to you! 

But before I jump into all the reasons you should pre-order my new book — which you totally should by the way — I wanted to share with you some fun facts about the entire project that you may not know. Some of it is behind the scenes stuff. Some of it is an invitation into my head. And some of it is just pure random fun factness. But all of it is important to understanding how we go to here — me, an author. 

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Spring 2019 High Point Market Trend Report

Being part of this season’s Design Bloggers Tour meant I was able to exclusively tour 15 showrooms — some old favorites and others, new discoveries — and not only see the product but also get insights into the brand stories. After 48 hours and way too many cups of coffee, it was inspiration overload! So much new goodness! So what do we have to look forward to in 2019? Here’s my Design Bloggers Tour Spring 2019 Trend Report.

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High Point Market Design Bloggers Tour

If you’ve been following me for any length of time then you know that last Spring I was fortunate enough to attend my very first High Point Market. I was invited to speak on a panel talking all about e-design! Then this past Fall I returned to market, hosting my own Mentor & Mingle Event, but never did I ever imagine that a year after my first market appearance, I’d be attending as part of the High Point Market Design Bloggers Spring 2019 Tour! Presented by Esteem Media, the Design Bloggers Tour consists of 10 design bloggers — us — chosen to tour the sponsoring showrooms and share all the upcoming trends, collections, and launches with our readers — you!

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