S7 Ep.206 The Myth That You Need Design School To Succeed In Business
In today’s episode of my MythBuster series, I’m talking about one of the most persistent beliefs in the interior design industry: that you need design school to succeed. This one hits close to home for me, because I didn’t go to design school — and for a long time, I carried that quietly, wondering if it would eventually expose me as someone who didn’t belong. What I’ve learned over the years, though, is that this myth doesn’t just affect designers without formal education. It affects everyone.
What I see again and again is this gap — the gap between learning how to design and learning how to run a business. And no matter how you entered this industry, almost every designer hits it eventually.
In this episode, I talk about:
Why not going to design school does not disqualify you — and why going doesn’t automatically prepare you either
The real gap most designers face between creativity and business ownership
How education and preparedness are often confused (and why that leads to self-doubt)
The emotional weight of business ownership that no one warns designers about
Why burnout is usually a systems problem, not a personal failure
The identity shift required to move from “designer” to confident business owner
At the end of the day, designing beautiful spaces is only part of the job. Running a sustainable interior design business requires an entirely different skill set — one that can be learned intentionally, without shame, and without burning yourself out in the process. If you’ve ever felt like everyone else has a manual you never received, I want you to hear this clearly: you’re not behind, you’re not missing something, and you’re not failing. You’ve simply reached the part of the journey where leadership matters more than talent.
If this episode resonated with you, I hope it gives you permission to release the idea that there was one “right” path into this industry. There are just different roads, and they all eventually lead here — to learning how to build a business that supports your life instead of consuming it.
RESOURCES:
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