To-The-Trade with Interior Design Community

Laurie Laizure talks with Morgan Finley of Morgan and Hatch Design about the reel series that put Morgan on Laurie's radar, "Who's Gonna Clean That," and what it revealed about why designers should show more of the real, unfiltered version of their work. Morgan explains how a single viral video, a fluted marble hood nobody wants to clean, drove roughly 3,000 new followers and kept compounding as s...

Chris Laumer-Giddens joins Laurie Laizure to talk about building science, the study of why homes fail and how to build them so they last for generations instead of twenty years. Chris works with his wife, Jody, who has owned LG Squared since 2006; he joined in 2012 after specializing in indoor air quality, rot, mold, and thermal failures. LG Squared handles architecture, interiors, and mechanical,...

Jameelah Watkins-Mallett, founder of Lauren Wesley Designs and creator of the CASE Collective conference , talks with Laurie Laizure and Nile Johnson about trust between designers, real talk about money, and the path that took her from doing hair at twelve years old to running a thriving design and events business. The conversation opens with a candid look at why designers hide their best work onl...

Sharon Sherman of Thyme and Place Design has 40-plus years of experience across interior design and kitchen and bath, and that dual perspective gives her an unusually clear view of what's broken among designers, showrooms, and brands, and what actually works. The episode digs into a gap that's been widening since COVID. Clients are changing. Showrooms are closing. Brands that want the designer mar...

Jenny York, VP of Marketing at Currey & Company, joins Laurie for a conversation about what it actually takes to build a brand that designers want to work with. Currey is approaching its 40th anniversary as a second-generation family-owned business, now led by founder Robert and Suzy Currey's son Brownlee. That independence shapes everything, including creative risk-taking, the decision to hol...

Kimberly Kerl is an architect and designer based in South Carolina with thirty years of experience, and her episode with Laurie and Nile covers a lot of ground: client process, billing, trends, and an honest read on where the market is right now.   She starts with video. Kimberly has been documenting a live renovation at her own home, posting unscripted walk-throughs from the job site multiple tim...

Tracee Murphy has spent 26 years in luxury residential design, runs her firm Trademark Interiors, and teaches designers and brands how to leverage psychology for a competitive edge through her platform, The Designer Launch. Her title, The Design Biz Therapist, is not a metaphor. She believes the gap between a struggling design business and a thriving one often has nothing to do with talent, portfo...

Eric Dillman started in interior design school, moved into sales and digital marketing, and now works directly with designers to help them show up consistently on social media and stop waiting for the perfect moment to post. In this conversation with Laurie Laizure and Nile Johnson, he gets into what designers should prioritize, how to stay consistent when life gets hard, and how to finally get on...

Rhobin DelaCruz has been designing for over 18 years, but he didn't attend High Point Market until about 2.5 years ago. The turning point was business coaching, specifically understanding that designers who build direct vendor relationships and sell to their clients themselves can capture 20 to 100 percent profit on goods, compared to the 10 to 20 percent that comes from sending someone to a retai...

Houston designer Juliana Ewer has been going to High Point Market almost every year since 2018. In this episode of To-The-Trade, she and host Laurie Laizure make the practical, financial, and professional case for why market attendance matters not as a perk, but as a real competitive edge. The conversation starts where Juliana always starts: product knowledge. You can't do a sit test online. When...

Jill Erwin started her interior design business in 2006, survived the recession, and recently hit the 20-year mark with a rebrand: Just Jill Home. She joined Laurie and Nile on To-The-Trade to discuss what it actually takes to get to the point where you charge what you are worth and stay there. Pricing was the throughline. Jill has spent years attending industry panels where designers reference ra...

Maria Khouri grew up in Beirut during Lebanon's 15-year civil war, moving 12 times in 10 years. She has spent her career making homes in San Francisco that feel like exactly that: home. Her boutique firm handles high-end residential work across the US and into Europe, and her commercial clients hire her for the same reason her residential clients do. They want spaces that feel personal. In this ep...

Kelly Collier-Clark of House of Clark Interiors came to interior design after nearly 20 years in corporate America, a real estate license, and a full life lived before she ever took her first design client. When House Beautiful named her a Next Wave Designer, she found out at a restaurant and cried in the bathroom. It was earned. In this conversation with Laurie Laizure and Nile Johnson, Kelly get...

Laura Hildebrandt of Interiors by LH joins Laurie Laizure to share how she built a thriving interior design business in the DC area after a divorce left her a single mom of three with no work history or industry background. Starting with home staging in 2013 using furniture from her own house, Laura taught herself design at night, funded her early business on credit cards, and gradually transition...

Ann Feldstein, founder of Moxie Marketing and a 25-year veteran of the interior design industry, joins Laurie Laizure and Nile Johnson to discuss why women supporting women is one of the most practical business strategies designers can adopt. Ann's research-backed work on internalized misogyny explores how women unknowingly project societal biases onto each other, from judgment about appearance an...

This episode of To-The-Trade is brought to you by AJ Madison Pro , the industry's trusted appliance resource for interior design professionals. Recorded live on the floor of KBIS 2026, this special episode of To-The-Trade brings together high-end designer Nikki Levy and Jenny York, VP of Marketing for Currey & Company , for a candid conversation about what it actually takes to build lasting de...

PJ Delaye spent 26 years at York Wall Coverings, rising from export director to president of North America's largest wallpaper manufacturer. In this episode of To-The-Trade, he joins Laurie to discuss the wall covering industry's dramatic comeback and why designers should pay close attention. PJ compares today's wall covering landscape to the craft beer revolution. Digital printing has lowered the...

Heather Cleveland (Heather Cleveland Design, Bay Area) joins Laurie Laizure and Nile Johnson to unpack what truly differentiates a successful design firm: process. While talent is everywhere, Heather argues that a refined, repeatable client experience is what wins trust, reduces anxiety, and drives referrals. Heather shares her creative upbringing and her career pivot after a tech layoff, then exp...

In this To-The-Trade episode, Laurie Laizure interviews Phil Hotarek, a plumbing/HVAC contractor and decorative showroom owner in San Francisco who also leads the Decorative Plumbing & Hardware Association (DPHA). Phil explains DPHA’s role in connecting brands, independent reps, and showrooms through a hotel-based showcase that prioritizes time, access, and real conversation, along with educat...

In this episode, Marsha Sefcik talks with Laurie Laizure and Nile Johnson about building a design business that supports the season of life you’re in, rather than forcing yourself into someone else’s “right way.” Marsha shares her journey from corporate sales, training, customer service, and project management to nearly two decades in design, all while raising kids alongside her business. She emph...

Laurie Laizure interviews Boston-based designer Dane Austin about building a design career with intention, focusing on community, and anchoring projects in comfort and quality. Dane shares that he has known he wanted to be an interior designer since childhood, inspired by his grandparents’ stylish, welcoming home. He steadily pursued that path, earning two degrees over 10 years while working in re...

In the last episode of 2025 the To-The-Trade podcast from the Interior Design Community , hosts Laurie Laizure and Nile Johnson get real about what it takes to support design pros, and where the business of interior design is heading next. Laurie opens by thanking Nile for the behind-the-scenes work that goes into the show, from guest vetting to shaping questions that actually serve working design...

In this To-The-Trade podcast episode, host Laurie Laizure interviews Montreal-based interior designer Romina Tina Fontana of Fontana & Company about how her background in marketing and graphic design influences her approach to running her studio. After nearly twenty years in advertising, working with major agencies and brands, Romina shifted into interior design by photographing her own home a...

In this To-The-Trade podcast episode, Laurie Laizure and Nile Johnson interview DC-based designer Isy Jackson , founder of Chelt Interiors , about British-inspired homes, antiques, and sustainable business habits for design pros. Isy explains how her creative roots in the UK, from a fashion sketching Nana to parents who flipped houses and a stepfather in high-end tiling and crystal, taught her to...

In this episode of the To-The-Trade interior design podcast, host Laurie Laizure welcomes Los Angeles-based designer and Kitchen Design Innovator of the Year, Shannon Ggem . Shannon shares how her bi-coastal practice blends New England sensibilities, antiques, and California ease, and how she uses biophilic or dopamine-driven design to connect people to nature and the makers behind their homes. La...