So why do some interior design firms thrive, while others barely survive?  The answer lies in one powerful, little word:  brand. On August 21 & 22nd, join an inspired conversation about branding, visibility and money.  This compelling series of interviews combined with live sessions for interior designers and product makers will bridge the gap between what […]

I just got my media accreditation for  Dwell On Design  and between that and a slew of interviews I’ve been doing for an incredible event – more on that later – it feels like I’m back in pre-production again. The Los Angeles Design Festival 2013 kicks off this weekend and Dwell is just one of the […]

Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery or so the saying goes and I suppose copycats are par for the course when you’re successful in creative business but I’m not going to lie, they bug me. One of my clients recently had her design ripped off by a fellow blogger. Now that design had already […]

My mentor Michael Maschio was the Production Executive in charge of The A-Team in the 80s. He rolled his eyes when I gushed. He’s old Hollywood. His dad was the packaging agent for Casablanca, so piecing together epic creative projects was in his blood. He managed all kinds of personalities with ease, dealt with situations […]

The one thing that’s standard among interior design professionals is that pricing their services isn’t. Whether you charge hourly, by the square foot, with markup or without, or as a percentage of the overall budget, every job and every client is unique and coming to consensus can be tricky. You’ve probably heard a lot of […]

I remember interviewing Directors for the first film that I wrote and produced. One in particular argued with such certainty that he knew what my film was about and that it couldn’t work without his bigchanges to the father character, that I almost forgot that I’d written it. Another wanted me to change the relationship […]

When it came out in 2003, filmmaker Nancy Meyers’  Something’s Gotta Give sparked a wave of requests from American renovators wanting a dream kitchen just like the one in the Hampton’s house Diane Keaton’s character owned in the movie. At the opening of West Week in March 2013, Meyers joked that there were definitely kitchens more […]

I’ve never watched BRAVO’s Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills but I have heard about Yolanda’s Fridge. This is the fridge. This is Yolanda. This is Yolanda inside her fridge. Yolanda Foster, wife of composer David Foster, is billed as a “domestic goddess” and her fridge has become a supporting  character  in the popular reality series. It’s likely […]

Because so many of my clients have had huge success this year, occasionally I’ll attract folks who think I’m some kind of magic bullet. And while I do love the seemingly magical opportunities that are sparked when a client’s vision is aligned with a strategic plan of action, I also know how much work was […]

As some of you know, I spent two years covering KBIS (The Kitchen & Bath Industry Show), first in Las Vegas and then Chicago. 400 interviews, at least 250 draft scripts and 85 packaged episodes later, I think it’s safe to say I know how to tell a story about a faucet. My Operations Hat […]