Latest / The iDesign Lab Podcast / Kelly Kern: Design Visionaries: Partnership, Innovation, and the Art of Interiors

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Kelly Kern: Design Visionaries: Partnership, Innovation, and the Art of Interiors · The iDesign Lab Podcast

0:00
Voice Over: The following podcast iDesign Lab is an SW Group production in association with Five Star and TW Interiors.
0:07
Voice Over: This is iDesign Lab, a podcast where creativity and curiosity meet style and design.
0:15
Voice Over: Curator of interiors, furnishings and lifestyles.
0:18
Voice Over: Hosted by Tiffany Woolley, an interior designer and a style enthusiast, along with her serial entrepreneur husband Scott, idesign Lab is your ultimate design podcast where we explore the rich and vibrant world of design and its constant evolution in style and trends.
0:34
Voice Over: Idesign Lab provides industry insight, discussing the latest trends, styles and everything in between to better help you style your life, through advice from trendsetters, designers, influencers, innovators, fabricators and manufacturers, as well as personal stories that inspire, motivate and excite.
0:53
Voice Over: And join us on this elevated, informative and lively journey into the world of all things design.
0:58
Voice Over: Today, we're joined by the incredible Kelly Kern, a true design dynamo with a rich entrepreneurial journey.
1:05
Voice Over: Originally from North Nevada, kelly spent over 30 years in Atlanta before relocating to Florida.
1:10
Voice Over: She's a West Coast girl at heart but deeply influenced by her Southern surroundings.
1:15
Voice Over: From founding her first business, the Paper Gourmet, at just 24, to pioneering the luxury home care category with Caldrea and Mrs Myers, kelly's diverse career is a perfect blend of creativity, business savvy and a passion for design.
1:29
Voice Over: Now she's channeling that energy into restoring historic homes and refining her design skills, all while playing a key role at J Douglas.
1:36
Voice Over: Stick around as we dive into her fascinating journey and what's next for this multi-talented visionary.
1:44
Tiffany Woolley: Welcome to the iDesign Lab podcast.
1:46
Tiffany Woolley: Today we're excited to have Kelly Kearns in our studio and she's going to go on a journey telling us about her journey into the interior design field of being a rep for some really, really incredible brands, and we're excited to have you here today.
2:06
Tiffany Woolley: I wanted to get started with a little bit about yourself.
2:10
Kelly Kerns: Sure, thank you first off for having me, so born and raised in northern Nevada, moved to the East Coast years and years ago, always imagined I'd make my way back to the West.
2:22
Kelly Kerns: And here I am, in my mid 50s and still here on the East Coast, but I think I think I can safely say now this is probably home.
2:30
Kelly Kerns: I've been in Florida now for three, just about three, years.
2:33
Kelly Kerns: I relocated here, as I said, from Atlanta, actually for this job.
2:38
Kelly Kerns: I work under a sales agency that's based out of Atlanta, so I'm an independent sales rep, work under a sales agency that's based out of Atlanta, so I'm an independent sales rep, but what they call a sub rep, which means that basically all the administrative and operational tasks that come with this job and there are many those are managed by kind of a central point in Atlanta.
2:57
Kelly Kerns: We also have a full-time showroom, not just in Atlanta but also in High Point, north Carolina.
3:01
Kelly Kerns: Interestingly enough, I actually hired this sales agency that I work under now as a rep.
3:09
Kelly Kerns: I hired them to represent one of my brands that I managed as a sales manager gosh, I don't know 14, 15 years ago.
3:16
Kelly Kerns: So I met Doug Self, who's the principal of J Douglas, all those years ago, and we became obviously professional friends and colleagues but then maintained a friendship over the years, even after I had kind of stepped away from the industry in the years the year leading up to COVID and those years and when this opportunity came about he reached out to me to see if I'd be interested and I thought why not take a chance?
3:43
Kelly Kerns: So that's what brought me to Florida.
3:45
Scott Woolley: How did you get your start in interior design or in furniture?
3:48
Kelly Kerns: Well, you know it's interesting, I've always my sister and I joke about this.
3:52
Kelly Kerns: I instinctively Lord knows how can find my way to the most expensive thing in any shop or boutique.
3:59
Scott Woolley: That sounds like Tiffany.
4:00
Voice Over: That's right.
4:00
Kelly Kerns: It's our own special gift, but that's right.
4:02
Kelly Kerns: It's our own special gift, but that also lends itself to design and my mom I mentioned to Tiffany earlier.
4:07
Kelly Kerns: I grew up with a single parent and my mom was pretty exceptional and one of the ways that she was, I think, so special was that she made our home truly our house, a true home.
4:26
Kelly Kerns: So it was a space that was comfortable and loving and warm, and we didn't have a lot, but what we had was special and the things that she collected.
4:30
Kelly Kerns: I say collected.
4:30
Kelly Kerns: She was not a gadget, she was not a trinket lady, but it was a home that was put together with heart and things that were meaningful to her and certainly, ultimately, to us, and that's something that my sister and I both, I think, inherited from her.
4:44
Kelly Kerns: So we've always had a love of, you know, design and spaces, and that's something that my sister and I both, I think, inherited from her.
4:45
Kelly Kerns: So we've always had a love of, you know, design and spaces.
4:48
Kelly Kerns: And I can remember as a young girl flipping through design magazines and dog earring pages and, you know, cutting out pages and even pasting them on my bedroom wall.
4:57
Kelly Kerns: And I can remember gosh seven or I might have been seven or eight years old and I was late to school one morning and my mom was getting irritated because she was ready to go and I was too busy because I was making a waterbed for my Barbie dream house.
5:12
Tiffany Woolley: Oh, I love that.
5:13
Tiffany Woolley: So you really have this instinct inside you.
5:16
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, you're drawn there.
5:18
Kelly Kerns: Yeah, and I will say that you know I'm not a designer.
5:20
Kelly Kerns: I don't have the credentials, I've not gone to school for design, but I do have a love for it and I feel so fortunate to be able to be surrounded by the talent that I am People like Tiffany, I mean.
5:36
Kelly Kerns: I see their vision executed and my home is really important to me and I'm so fortunate to be able to play a part in kind of the execution, to be able to play a part in you know kind of the execution.
5:44
Scott Woolley: So would you say it's your mother inspired you to go in this direction.
5:47
Scott Woolley: Or is there another person in the industry or icon?
5:50
Kelly Kerns: Well, no, I've always just again, I've really kind of gravitated to this.
5:53
Kelly Kerns: But my background really, you know, sales came naturally to me, but I was always on the sales management side of the industry.
6:00
Kelly Kerns: My first love which is kind of funny is paper, believe it or not.
6:04
Kelly Kerns: I loved to design invitations and stationery and I actually launched a business.
6:10
Kelly Kerns: I opened a retail store at the age of 23 in Annapolis, maryland, called the Paper Gourmet and it was gifts and invitations to please every palette, thank you, and it was such an exciting venture.
6:22
Kelly Kerns: And I look back and I think, gosh, that was such a bold move at that age.
6:27
Kelly Kerns: But I was pretty fearless because I knew at that age I had so little to lose.
6:32
Kelly Kerns: And I think now it's like I know too much.
6:36
Kelly Kerns: So we're ruled by fear in a way that we aren't when we're younger.
6:39
Kelly Kerns: So I encourage people that are young to really take risks that you wouldn't otherwise take, because as you get older you're not in the same position.
6:46
Kelly Kerns: You might not be able to do that and it ended up being just an incredible journey, but that was really kind of the entree to the industry for me was I had this shop and I loved being a part of people's lives.
7:00
Kelly Kerns: I was doing invitations, you know, for personal events exactly all sorts of you know the meaningful, you meaningful, these moments in their life that are so meaningful engagement announcements and then wedding invitations, and of course, the baby showers.
7:10
Scott Woolley: So there's a lot of design that's involved in all of that.
7:12
Scott Woolley: Yeah, absolutely.
7:14
Tiffany Woolley: And I still have a love for all of that.
7:17
Kelly Kerns: And that was back again quite some time 30 years ago.
7:20
Kelly Kerns: But I enjoyed the gift component of that shop, so I had gifts and so forth and I would go to the Atlanta show.
7:32
Kelly Kerns: And that again just kind of opened my eyes to this bigger world and I was just so intrigued by their creativity all around me.
7:40
Kelly Kerns: Interestingly enough, that was actually when I was in, you know, again in a different building.
7:45
Kelly Kerns: Anybody who's been to the America's Mart knows there are different buildings and each actually house different types of product.
7:51
Kelly Kerns: So the Merchandise Mart, which is where our showroom is housed, of course, is namely furniture, home decor, and that was a building I never stepped foot in because it was, you know, it was kind of out of reach.
8:04
Kelly Kerns: It wasn't something that a category of product that I would have bought into.
8:07
Kelly Kerns: So you can imagine, years later, when I actually had a chance to be exposed to that, it was just to me, it was like my everything.
8:16
Tiffany Woolley: Oh yeah, yeah, so were you buying for your store.
8:20
Voice Over: I was.
8:21
Tiffany Woolley: So you were a buyer at such a young age.
8:23
Scott Woolley: Well, she was buying she's, I was, so you were a buyer at such a young age.
8:26
Scott Woolley: Well, she was buying, she's selling and she's also designing and running a business.
8:29
Kelly Kerns: It was such fun and I really have to credit my boyfriend at the time, who still is a close friend to this day.
8:35
Kelly Kerns: He was such a great supporter.
8:38
Kelly Kerns: Again, I was pretty fearless.
8:42
Kelly Kerns: The backstory to this, by the way, is my sister and I lost our mom pretty young, like a year before this happened or maybe about two years before this happened, and quickly thereafter we lost kind of our father figure.
8:54
Kelly Kerns: My mom's only brother had passed unexpectedly, so literally it was't some big windfall.
8:58
Kelly Kerns: We really felt like the best thing we could do really would be as a tribute to both of them was to take a risk that we otherwise and to do something we otherwise would not have had a chance to do.
9:17
Kelly Kerns: My sister ended up moving to Guatemala and she taught school in Guatemala and traveled and that really was kind of.
9:25
Kelly Kerns: She had a love of travel early in life.
9:28
Kelly Kerns: She was a wonderlust and she actually was in the.
9:30
Voice Over: Peace Corps in Rwanda if you can believe it.
9:31
Voice Over: A piece really Wow, a wonderlust.
9:34
Kelly Kerns: All those years ago.
9:34
Kelly Kerns: But so that was her journey and that was her venture and for me I was a little more comfortable staying home or staying close by.
9:43
Kelly Kerns: Josh and I were relocating from Atlanta.
9:45
Kelly Kerns: We were gone for about three and a half years to Annapolis.
9:49
Kelly Kerns: He had a job in DC and Annapolis was so charming and idyllic and we became such a part.
9:55
Kelly Kerns: My business became such a part of that local story, just a fiber of that community, and it was just an incredible and storybook experience for me.
10:05
Kelly Kerns: But that was how the business started.
10:09
Tiffany Woolley: What a segue, really.
10:10
Tiffany Woolley: What a transition.
10:12
Kelly Kerns: And then when I sold the business so I sold the business Josh had a chance to move back to Atlanta.
10:16
Kelly Kerns: We both actually were really we really loved Atlanta, so we were happy to go back.
10:20
Kelly Kerns: But I ended up going to work as the sales manager for the Simblest Group, which was definitely kind of the preeminent sales agency for higher end gift and you know, and smaller decorative items and so forth.
10:35
Kelly Kerns: But you know they had things like.
10:37
Kelly Kerns: They had things like the Times collection Do you remember the Times?
10:39
Kelly Kerns: And they had that, that Fraser fir candle that everybody had.
10:43
Kelly Kerns: It was you know, all the thing was all a thing and some personal care, but it was a boutique agency run by Ron Simblist and again I had transacted business with them as a buyer and then suddenly I flip-flop and I get to the sales management side and worked with them as a sales manager.
11:00
Kelly Kerns: So that was kind of my segue.
11:02
Tiffany Woolley: What an amazing little story, and I love how something can start so small and impactful at the same time.
11:12
Tiffany Woolley: Brings you full circle almost to where you are now, because both of I mean not both, but multiple brands that you represent now have such a huge following.
11:24
Scott Woolley: Yeah, so tell us about Jay Douglas.
11:26
Kelly Kerns: So Doug Self actually is the founder and president of the company and if you've not had a chance to meet him, I hope at some point when you come to Atlanta or High Point I can introduce you.
11:36
Kelly Kerns: He's quite remarkable.
11:37
Kelly Kerns: He was a rep himself years ago and I think he saw an opportunity to maybe do things different and better and so he launched his own sales agency and gosh, I don't you know, of course, I don't know.
11:49
Kelly Kerns: Trying to think of how many years, I'm going to guess that that was over 20 years ago, maybe 25 years ago.
11:55
Kelly Kerns: But he's definitely known in the industry as kind of as a pioneer and a leader, and he runs his business with just such organization, such professionalism, he's such a kind person and everything is very well planned out.
12:17
Kelly Kerns: I learned so much from just even a conversation from Doug.
12:21
Kelly Kerns: There's always a takeaway that's important and meaningful and he's really a great partner, but he really lets us run our business.
12:28
Kelly Kerns: I mean, this is, in fact, a business that's my own and I get to run it and I have an admin who's fantastic.
12:34
Kelly Kerns: She's almost full-time.
12:35
Kelly Kerns: She's based out of Orlando, because you really in this job, especially when you have multiple manufacturers, the responsiveness is everything you really need to be able to get back to people.
12:47
Scott Woolley: Especially the world we live in today.
12:48
Scott Woolley: Communication, yeah Well.
12:51
Kelly Kerns: I know that I'm the queen of immediate gratification and if I can't get an answer right away, I'm on to the next thing.
12:57
Kelly Kerns: So I kind of go about my business with the expectation that most people are probably a lot like me.
13:02
Kelly Kerns: So I will usually be on the road and Shoshana, who is my admin we call her Shosh she is there and on the computer and so people get answers and information and orders put through right away.
13:14
Kelly Kerns: So we really try and be like we really try, and if I'm going to compete, I have exceptional product, but more than that, we have exceptional service.
13:22
Kelly Kerns: So I want to make sure that my accounts people like yourself know so, jay douglas is representing a number of different brands.
13:31
Tiffany Woolley: I feel like they were one of the beginning, because I feel like now so many groups are under umbrellas.
13:35
Tiffany Woolley: But if I now think about it, with what you just mentioned, jay douglas was probably one of the original that had multiple brands in our industry.
13:46
Scott Woolley: So J Douglas is like a company in itself.
13:48
Tiffany Woolley: It was J Douglas Living Exactly.
13:52
Kelly Kerns: And I think he just dropped the living, he rebranded, I think about 10 years ago, and so it's just J Douglas.
13:57
Kelly Kerns: But again, the reputation for J Douglas, just the way he operates the business, the way that we as a company, our culture, all of those things, it's quite something to be aligned and really be a part of that organization.
14:10
Kelly Kerns: There are 15 of me within the organization that do what I do.
14:15
Scott Woolley: That's not that many Throughout the.
14:16
Kelly Kerns: United.
14:17
Tiffany Woolley: States Throughout the Southeast and the Atlantic.
14:18
Tiffany Woolley: That's not a huge.
14:20
Tiffany Woolley: I mean, that's a special group.
14:22
Tiffany Woolley: It is and we're close.
14:23
Kelly Kerns: We have a really interesting, and some of these people have been there from the beginning, which is a real testament, obviously to the organization, but also to the brands that we represent.
14:32
Scott Woolley: What are some of the brands you represent?
14:34
Kelly Kerns: So, gosh, I'm lucky I have a pretty fantastic line list Off the top.
14:39
Kelly Kerns: Archeriers, obviously, is where we met initially, and such an incredible, incredible company.
14:45
Kelly Kerns: Again, the culture is really interesting.
14:48
Kelly Kerns: The product is even more phenomenal.
14:50
Tiffany Woolley: What does their development process look like at Arteriors?
14:57
Kelly Kerns: Do you get involved in anything like that?
14:59
Kelly Kerns: I think that they're receptive to the feedback that we get and we do share that with, obviously, our contact within their company, but they're such a well-oiled machine, they have a process that, again, their planning is several years out, right so what we'll see, you know, in this next.
15:13
Kelly Kerns: You know this next release has been actually in the works for probably three, four years, actually probably more likely three but you know they're such a as a brand.
15:19
Kelly Kerns: You know they're such a as a brand.
15:22
Scott Woolley: You know they're such a leader in the industry and you're talking about Arteria.
15:25
Scott Woolley: Arteria is, in particular and that's really forward thinking trending.
15:28
Kelly Kerns: They are, but you know all of these companies have to be.
15:30
Kelly Kerns: You know, again, the process involved in product development is a timely one.
15:37
Kelly Kerns: I mean it takes, it's a long run.
15:40
Kelly Kerns: But with Arteria in particular, you know they're the big player, they're factories that they work with.
15:45
Kelly Kerns: Those are their factories, or their factories where they're really the number one probably manufacturer in terms of volume.
15:52
Kelly Kerns: So they really have a they're always going to be a priority for those people and it's not necessarily a customized line.
15:59
Kelly Kerns: I mean, there is some custom upholstery options not custom, custom, but within their range there is, and that would be more for and for that customization that would be really in their hospitality or contract division, and that division is not something that I actually manage.
16:15
Kelly Kerns: Again, the business has grown so much that we really have to kind of stay in our lane.
16:19
Kelly Kerns: So I sell primarily to well, completely to residential designers and retailers.
16:21
Kelly Kerns: I sell primarily to well, completely to residential designers and retailers and my territory is South Florida, basically to Delray and up to Vero, so it's a lovely and very nicely, it's a nice-sized territory but it's manageable and that's important because you want to again be responsive.
16:37
Scott Woolley: Is more of your business on the designers or retail.
16:40
Scott Woolley: It's more heavily weighted with designers for sure, that's what we're hearing, that's the trend we're hearing.
16:47
Kelly Kerns: I feel like it's been that way for a while, even when I was on the sales management side.
16:51
Kelly Kerns: I really saw that shift several years ago where really our volume was by and large generated by the design trade, the retailers that footprint.
17:03
Kelly Kerns: It's expensive to run a retail store.
17:05
Scott Woolley: And they're somewhat disappearing.
17:07
Kelly Kerns: Yes, they are, and I hate that.
17:08
Kelly Kerns: I personally love the experience of shopping.
17:11
Kelly Kerns: I like that.
17:12
Kelly Kerns: I love a well-curated retail experience, but I also understand, having been a retailer.
17:18
Kelly Kerns: It's a lot and of course my business was a small business in comparison, but the design trade is so very important and vital to what we do and I would say that's, you know, that's really kind of the future.
17:30
Tiffany Woolley: There's a lot of growth still to be had in the interior design industry, which is, you know, exciting for me and in my own research I've realized it's something that they even say AI won't really interfere with, because so much of it is intellectual property that only people can explore and provide, and there is a connection online and on site or in meetings, on a daily basis.
17:58
Scott Woolley: Well, there's a personal connection as well with every client.
18:02
Kelly Kerns: And someone's personal space.
18:03
Kelly Kerns: I mean that's so important, right, Like you get to know them, I mean that's so important, right, Like you get to know them.
18:05
Kelly Kerns: I mean there's a real intimacy to that relationship.
18:09
Kelly Kerns: That's so important and a computer can't generate that.
18:13
Kelly Kerns: No.
18:14
Scott Woolley: Not at all.
18:14
Scott Woolley: We still find that the vast majority of consumers don't understand interior designers.
18:21
Scott Woolley: I think that, oh, it's just too expensive to go to an interior designer.
18:26
Scott Woolley: I'll just go to rooms to go, or just go to a furniture store.
18:29
Scott Woolley: Part of the reason why we're doing this podcast is to really get the message out there that if you're an individual that's looking to do your home, go see an interior decorator You'll save yourself money, yes, and I say that I'm like a good designer shouldn't cost you more than what you were going to spend.
18:54
Kelly Kerns: Making a decision for home product lighting furniture rugs.
18:55
Kelly Kerns: So often people go about it on their own and when they do, they end up actually with product that they can't use Correct.
18:58
Voice Over: This happens all the time, all the time.
18:59
Kelly Kerns: The lighting doesn't.
18:59
Kelly Kerns: The sizing's off the lighting doesn't correspond with the existing design plan.
19:03
Kelly Kerns: There are so many things and it's very expensive it is no.
19:07
Scott Woolley: They're walking into a furniture store and they're seeing oh, I love all this, how this looks.
19:11
Scott Woolley: They're putting it then in their house, going why doesn't it look the same in my house?
19:17
Scott Woolley: Well, they're not thinking about.
19:17
Scott Woolley: Well, the furniture store had nice rugs, they had different lighting, they had wallpaper up, they had wallpaper up, they had.
19:22
Scott Woolley: Which designer brings it all together?
19:25
Kelly Kerns: I mean something just as simple as, again, knowing how to like the placement of a rug and the dimensions of a rug.
19:30
Kelly Kerns: I know.
19:31
Kelly Kerns: If I'm not mistaken, years ago you interviewed Rip.
19:35
Voice Over: I think Rip was on here and I love Rip he's.
19:37
Voice Over: So Rip and I are counterparts in the territory.
19:39
Kelly Kerns: We actually share one brand, lalloy, so Lalloy has a little bit different business model in that most brands that I represent, I am the exclusive representative for this given territory With Lalloy, we actually share the territory, so he has accounts that are assigned to him, as do I.
19:56
Kelly Kerns: It could be a little rough, couldn't?
19:58
Scott Woolley: it.
19:59
Scott Woolley: Not at all, it actually and again there's no like competition.
20:02
Scott Woolley: Yeah, I'm not going to lie.
20:05
Kelly Kerns: When I first joined on I thought that seemed a little.
20:07
Kelly Kerns: I thought, gosh, this is a little shaky to me.
20:10
Kelly Kerns: We all play really nicely in the sandbox together, and especially you know, rip.
20:15
Tiffany Woolley: I don't know anybody who doesn't know.
20:17
Tiffany Woolley: We should probably rip back on because we did it during COVID.
20:19
Tiffany Woolley: We went together.
20:21
Tiffany Woolley: He's such a stitch, he is a stitch.
20:22
Kelly Kerns: He's so funny.
20:23
Kelly Kerns: But Lalloy is one that we share and I can tell you like again, rugs that can be expensive.
20:28
Kelly Kerns: You're making it.
20:29
Kelly Kerns: I mean, people generally don't know how to buy a rug and you know what Google's not going to tell you they always go too small.
20:35
Scott Woolley: Google's going to guide you only so much.
20:37
Scott Woolley: That's the personal side to it, yeah absolutely Plus Plus.
20:40
Kelly Kerns: You want to work with somebody's existing home.
20:42
Kelly Kerns: Not everybody's doing a full redesign, Not everybody has the budget for that.
20:46
Kelly Kerns: So, you need somebody like yourself to come in, who has the background and the training and the resources.
20:51
Kelly Kerns: They don't know where to go.
20:58
Scott Woolley: You save infinite time and money by working with a professional design trade.
21:00
Scott Woolley: But a lot of people think they know where.
21:01
Scott Woolley: They think that, oh, there's this great store, I'm going to go there, I'm going to redo my bathroom.
21:04
Scott Woolley: And they realize, oh, I need tile and marble or whatever.
21:06
Scott Woolley: And they go, oh, I can do that, just marble and tile places.
21:10
Kelly Kerns: Then when they get it all put together, they go TV.
21:11
Kelly Kerns: Yeah, they make it look so easy and the budgets are so unrealistic.
21:15
Kelly Kerns: On that show I always laugh because-.
21:17
Tiffany Woolley: They really are Design on time, like I mean totally Jumping back though to like our tiers, and even you just mentioned Lalloy.
21:25
Tiffany Woolley: So how do you design?
21:40
Kelly Kerns: and create and balance your personal business and brand, essentially between brands that are under the J Douglas umbrella and then brands that are not.
21:44
Kelly Kerns: So now I'm not, so I don't actually do design myself.
21:48
Kelly Kerns: I work exclusively with designers.
21:48
Kelly Kerns: So I sell to design trade.
21:49
Kelly Kerns: So I'm not doing design plans, but I actually do help my designers and my retailers occasionally if they're looking for on you guys so often I'll see, you know you align better than correct.
21:58
Kelly Kerns: We would yeah, and I also know like scale.
22:01
Kelly Kerns: You know we can look at the dimensions for anything online and you know I mean you're the designer, you know.
22:05
Kelly Kerns: But but I can give you some sense because I've seen it in person.
22:09
Kelly Kerns: I can speak to the experience more fully or explain kind of like, is this going to actually cast enough light?
22:16
Kelly Kerns: Is it bright enough?
22:17
Kelly Kerns: Is it going to?
22:17
Kelly Kerns: You know, these types of things, that that you can't really gather from just a website alone so it.
22:22
Kelly Kerns: it's really important that again, that I know my brands intimately and that's really the service that I provide.
22:30
Kelly Kerns: But I also have other brands other than Arteria.
22:33
Kelly Kerns: Again, I'm really lucky to have the line packages that I do and I'm probably not going to name all of them, but really I offer textiles.
22:42
Kelly Kerns: So really even down to the fine details Bath linens, bed linens, beautiful bedding and even actually the inserts for your personal space I find it surprising often that not all of my designers actually take the project that full step.
23:00
Scott Woolley: That's Tiffany.
23:00
Scott Woolley: She takes it.
23:01
Scott Woolley: Not every project allows you to take that full step.
23:02
Tiffany Woolley: I of course, would love every.
23:03
Tiffany Woolley: Every project allows you to take that full step.
23:04
Tiffany Woolley: I, of course, would love every project to allow me to do that.
23:12
Scott Woolley: And me too.
23:12
Scott Woolley: We just did an installation two days ago.
23:18
Scott Woolley: I think it was like two truckloads of furniture and whatnot.
23:20
Scott Woolley: The house was Tiffany redid, the whole house brought everything in and she also bought them all their new plates, their cups, their knives and forks and whatnot.
23:27
Kelly Kerns: The house was Tiffany redid.
23:28
Scott Woolley: the whole house brought everything in and she also bought them all their new plates, their cups, their knives and forks and spoons Like truly chunky yeah, everything.
23:32
Scott Woolley: Towels, the linen, including remodeling the whole house, all new floors staircase wallpaper and all furniture, but all, even the little teeny things.
23:43
Kelly Kerns: It has to be so satisfying for you to step back and recognize the finished product, of course.
23:47
Kelly Kerns: And it's such a personal again.
23:48
Kelly Kerns: It's really such a personal expression.
23:51
Kelly Kerns: There aren't many things that you can do in someone's life that are more personal than helping them design their home and, again, their bedrooms for example I was just going to say so their bedroom.
24:02
Tiffany Woolley: So when you say one of the lines you represent is like what the downs duvets?
24:06
Tiffany Woolley: So I represent peacock alley, okay, which is out of dallas family owned company.
24:10
Kelly Kerns: Actually, most of the companies that we, that we represent, are still, of course, family owned.
24:14
Kelly Kerns: Um lovely brand, and actually peacock alley is the brand that I hired jay douglas for, you know, all those years ago.
24:20
Kelly Kerns: So I know the family I'm very fond of of them.
24:22
Kelly Kerns: The product that they manufacture is beautiful.
24:25
Voice Over: Yeah, it is beautiful.
24:26
Voice Over: Where is that out of?
24:26
Scott Woolley: And they're out of Dallas Dallas.
24:28
Kelly Kerns: And they actually have a lot of custom capabilities that just don't exist in the industry any longer.
24:33
Kelly Kerns: And that's all done in Dallas, their Dallas workroom.
24:36
Kelly Kerns: Wow, most of their products are either Italian or made in Portugal, and the line is vast, but it's really kind of something for everyone.
24:45
Kelly Kerns: I mean I can do something on a more contemporary scale, I can do something a little bit more traditional.
24:49
Kelly Kerns: I can do monograms.
24:51
Kelly Kerns: I mean it's nice to have that kind of in my offerings.
24:56
Kelly Kerns: But in addition to Peacock Alley, I also have one other textile brand.
25:01
Voice Over: It's called Pom Pom at Home and it's fun because it's just got that really chic kind of laid-back luxe linen look.
25:08
Kelly Kerns: Effortless, stylish, really comfortable and they're amazing.
25:12
Kelly Kerns: Every market.
25:13
Kelly Kerns: I'm just kind of in awe.
25:14
Kelly Kerns: You come to market because you want to see new and exciting and they deliver every time we went to market this year year and we saw you there.
25:25
Kelly Kerns: Yeah, in our tears.
25:26
Scott Woolley: First time for me to ever go.
25:27
Scott Woolley: Oh no, when we left I said to Tiffany I said you need to start bringing clients here, like when you're redoing an entire house this is like in two days, you can show them and they can sit in there.
25:40
Tiffany Woolley: I'm hoping through the podcast and through the growth, is really growing people's understanding of what is out there, and I feel like one thing that you realize at market is everything has its value there.
25:56
Tiffany Woolley: I feel like people aren't when we're together and you're looking at a bottom nine of a number of like oh, I want to spend that on that chair, you know.
26:05
Tiffany Woolley: Or oh, blah, blah, blah, Like when you see there is a difference, and I feel like that's the biggest takeaway from High Point is just there is a difference of the quality of, I mean, at least the things I'm looking at there.
26:19
Tiffany Woolley: It all holds its value and then some and I feel like that's something that's depending on the client might get lost and I feel like it's my job to really bring that back of like it is special and it's about creating this unique, you know, story that is your home Well, and kind of really introducing them to like kind of their future heirloom, if you will.
26:45
Tiffany Woolley: Without a doubt.
26:46
Kelly Kerns: So that that is hopefully furniture that you know will last, but also that hopefully their children will want at some point to have in their home that kind of idea.
26:55
Tiffany Woolley: Without a doubt, and I feel like there was a time where the heirloom furniture industry, in our instant gratification, made overseas mentality where things were in stock.
27:06
Tiffany Woolley: I would say even I lost sight of that as we were like kind of talking out in the office.
27:12
Tiffany Woolley: You know, my career started with only high, high-end residential.
27:18
Tiffany Woolley: I was only doing, you know, million-dollar interiors to $7 million to $10 million houses.
27:22
Tiffany Woolley: That was like where I started very young and then, as my life changed becoming a mom and going to schools and you know kid events I started meeting, you know, families who were just building their life and my career just on its own, trying to transition, with friends being like, well, can you help me?
27:42
Tiffany Woolley: And like, can you help me to transition?
27:46
Tiffany Woolley: With friends being like, well, can you help me?
27:47
Tiffany Woolley: And like, can you help me?
27:47
Tiffany Woolley: And they couldn't necessarily do the million dollar interior in nine months or 12 months or 18 months, but they were able to do it over a few years, you know, and it really was special to me to be able to introduce all this to them.
28:04
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, because, yeah, because where else I feel like it does get lost in furniture stores.
28:08
Tiffany Woolley: Like you say you love a beautifully curated store, I mean a big furniture store, even though they're really lovely for some reasons I just don't think it translates like I'll say, having lived in Atlanta for so long, the retail environment there is obviously pretty impressive Right, because obviously the size of the city, the sheer population can support it.
28:32
Kelly Kerns: But I love a retail and I'm curious what you like, but in a retail environment.
28:35
Kelly Kerns: I love a retail environment that has a real mix.
28:39
Kelly Kerns: I want to layer it.
28:40
Kelly Kerns: I want to go in and be inspired, not just by what's new.
28:44
Kelly Kerns: I want to layer it.
28:44
Kelly Kerns: I want to go in and be inspired not just by what's new.
28:46
Kelly Kerns: I want to see some product that is found like true art and found objects, things that are being repurposed and special.
28:50
Scott Woolley: Things that are unique and different.
28:52
Scott Woolley: It's not like walking into a regular, just furniture store.
28:55
Kelly Kerns: Do you find with your projects?
28:57
Kelly Kerns: Do you incorporate a lot of that?
28:59
Tiffany Woolley: I would love to spend more time and I hope to, and we do spend time doing that and obviously there's some jobs that lend you to be able to do more of that than others.
29:09
Tiffany Woolley: But to me that is what is special, too about going to High Point and even going to be and seeing arteriores is because for a lot of around here those are still special found pieces.
29:22
Tiffany Woolley: Even though they might not be vintage or completely from another time, they are so unique.
29:30
Kelly Kerns: Yes, and the finishes and the mixed metals and there's a story and there is To the product.
29:34
Kelly Kerns: An artistic story especially, I mean with each of my brands and again I have to give credit to several of them Villa and House which I love, which formerly was called Bungalow 5, and they're amazing.
29:44
Tiffany Woolley: I want to hear why they changed the name.
29:47
Kelly Kerns: Not that I matter on camera I can't be sure 100% that my story is correct, but I believe that there was an ownership like a chance for issue.
29:55
Kelly Kerns: But the ownership of the company did not change.
29:57
Kelly Kerns: Thankfully, because they're lovely people to work with and certainly to represent.
30:01
Kelly Kerns: But I think somebody there was Bungalow the name even though they had been in business for, I think, at 30 years at that point Wow, yeah, so they changed the name and honestly, yeah, so they changed the name and, honestly, things have continued to flow just the same.
30:14
Kelly Kerns: I know, isn't it one of?
30:15
Kelly Kerns: Those things we overthink and Phila in-house doesn't always roll off the tongue so easily so I refer to it as B&H.
30:22
Kelly Kerns: B&h.
30:22
Kelly Kerns: I do too, because that's the website.
30:23
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, exactly, it's much easier, but that brand they just reinvent themselves constantly.
30:29
Kelly Kerns: Again, the materials, people like Arteriors.
30:32
Kelly Kerns: I mean, these companies are so smart about design and again they're thinking, you know, way far ahead of what I could even get my head around.
30:40
Kelly Kerns: And another one of my partners that's really just, I would say are just killing it in terms of, you know, introducing new product and being really aggressive in kind of, in their pursuit of new business always, and their service is fantastic, is Worlds Away.
30:55
Kelly Kerns: I love Worlds Away it was a smaller brand years ago, vanities now.
30:58
Kelly Kerns: And they had a little bit different vibe, they are just so fresh.
31:03
Kelly Kerns: And again new product, always.
31:05
Kelly Kerns: People are really excited by it and to your point, the vanities.
31:09
Voice Over: The vanities.
31:09
Voice Over: I mean that's a whole new category for them.
31:12
Kelly Kerns: That is doing really, really well.
31:13
Kelly Kerns: So I'm really lucky to have these brand partners and some accessories as well.
31:17
Kelly Kerns: I mean Eddie Lawrence, who does the fantastic books out of Atlanta, all the customization.
31:22
Kelly Kerns: They've always been special.
31:24
Kelly Kerns: I love such a nice guy, but his creativity is just like next level.
31:28
Kelly Kerns: Cfc and Noir are both partners of mine as well, and CFC is abbreviated for Custom Furniture and Cabinetry.
31:35
Kelly Kerns: That's how they started.
31:36
Kelly Kerns: They were a custom cabinet builder in California and I have to remind people in my territory often like this is basically your own Like.
31:44
Kelly Kerns: Think about this as your own workshop.
31:46
Voice Over: Wow.
31:47
Scott Woolley: I didn't even know that.
31:48
Kelly Kerns: They can do.
31:48
Kelly Kerns: Oh well, then I'm not doing my job.
31:51
Scott Woolley: And now you do.
31:52
Kelly Kerns: But not only can we customize, by changing the finish, the products that they have within their existing line, but we have the ability to customize and actually manufacture something that's not in existence.
32:04
Kelly Kerns: And they do it beautifully.
32:07
Tiffany Woolley: And it's domestic.
32:08
Tiffany Woolley: They are a great line in Noir.
32:09
Tiffany Woolley: Tell us a little bit more about those two brands.
32:12
Tiffany Woolley: Sure, so both California-based, they're related, right.
32:15
Kelly Kerns: They are so actually the designer, and this is interesting in this day and age.
32:21
Kelly Kerns: Usually you have a design team to put out this kind of product.
32:25
Kelly Kerns: So many new products each season and really just to have that true creativity, I think.
32:32
Kelly Kerns: For me personally, I think that at some point I would just tap out I wouldn't have any more ideas.
32:36
Kelly Kerns: But George actually is at the helm of the design team for both brands and he is the only person, the sole designer, does not use CAD.
32:43
Kelly Kerns: But everything new, everything.
32:45
Tiffany Woolley: Wow, lighting too.
32:47
Kelly Kerns: Mad genius, right I mean so creative and just fascinating to me that one person can think up and create all of this and put all of it out there and ever evolving.
32:59
Kelly Kerns: And actually noir is really interesting in that they launch.
33:02
Kelly Kerns: It's not duplicated really either no, it's not.
33:04
Kelly Kerns: And it's also noir is not.
33:07
Kelly Kerns: It's constructed from like 100% wood product.
33:10
Kelly Kerns: It is not.
33:11
Kelly Kerns: Of course, some materials sometimes will have brass or marble or other surfaces, but their wood product is all wood.
33:18
Kelly Kerns: There's no fiberboard, there's no MDF, it's no particle board.
33:22
Kelly Kerns: It is 100% wood.
33:24
Kelly Kerns: And there aren't a lot of brands out there that can say that.
33:26
Kelly Kerns: But what they do is so innovative and fresh and really interesting and it's really kind of the jewelry and I feel this way about our terriers.
33:34
Kelly Kerns: Often too, it's the jewelry in the room.
33:35
Kelly Kerns: You know, it's that moment.
33:38
Tiffany Woolley: They're the conversation pieces.
33:39
Tiffany Woolley: Absolutely yeah, they really are, and.
33:41
Kelly Kerns: I've seen people do some really cool things with a lot of my Noir products repurposing it into sink bases, you know that type of thing Even using it, building it in two walls inset to make it like a custom cabinet.
33:53
Scott Woolley: So you represent quite a few very very strong, well-known brands in the industry.
33:58
Scott Woolley: I mean when you think about all the different names you represent and you look at their catalogs, how extensive they are.
34:04
Scott Woolley: That's a job in itself to really stay on top of.
34:08
Kelly Kerns: Yeah so I have no hobbies.
34:09
Kelly Kerns: How's that?
34:09
Kelly Kerns: Your hobby, is that my hobby?
34:13
Kelly Kerns: Is that so?
34:14
Scott Woolley: I'll ask you a question, then, from a design standpoint of all the things that you sell, is there one area that you really personally love to sell more than another?
34:23
Scott Woolley: That's a great question.
34:25
Kelly Kerns: Not necessarily a company but a type of a I love lighting.
34:28
Kelly Kerns: I think lighting makes the space.
34:30
Scott Woolley: Right.
34:31
Kelly Kerns: It makes the room.
34:31
Kelly Kerns: It's the most fun thing to look for, I feel like.
34:34
Kelly Kerns: I think so I enjoy lighting.
34:36
Kelly Kerns: I really do, and I can't really speak as to why, but I think it just you know, for me, and maybe it's because really I have so many brand partners that do such strong and they also unique lighting.
34:51
Tiffany Woolley: They own that category in such a big way they really do.
34:53
Tiffany Woolley: All those brands I mean even to Noir has such funky they're not a huge catalog of lighting but all funky you have a Noir light fixture.
35:02
Kelly Kerns: Well and actually in fairness.
35:04
Kelly Kerns: So you're asking me what I like to sell the most.
35:06
Kelly Kerns: I mean, I do love the lighting, actually come to really love upholstery too.
35:10
Kelly Kerns: That was a category that I had not touched on really before joining J Douglas, and actually we have a brand that we sell exclusively.
35:19
Kelly Kerns: There's really only one other sales agency in the US that sells it, and I think one of the reasons I love to sell it is I've been to the factory.
35:25
Kelly Kerns: I've met the people I understand and trust in the construction.
35:29
Kelly Kerns: The story is a good one.
35:31
Kelly Kerns: It's still American sourced and American made.
35:35
Kelly Kerns: So not just is it constructed in the US, actually just outside of High Point, but it's also the product itself is sourced in the US, which I think you know.
35:42
Kelly Kerns: We don't have a lot of stories like that out there.
35:44
Kelly Kerns: But as a designer and you and I can attest to this in this world and I get these calls occasionally, where you know your customer is using Google Lens and they're price comparing and it's just Totally ridiculous.
35:54
Voice Over: It's so maddening.
35:55
Kelly Kerns: You've done all the work and you occasionally have that customer who or that client, I should say, who just you know thinks they're doing themselves a favor, when in fact it just it opens up a whole can of worms it's part of.
36:06
Kelly Kerns: But I love that Charter Street.
36:07
Kelly Kerns: Actually their line of distribution is so clean so we're not selling to anybody but trade, so it's not shoppable, so it's not only a great product but it really then kind of quiets or completely nullifies that conversation that you would have.
36:23
Kelly Kerns: But I love how the product delivers, it shows beautifully and it's a nice line, boutique kind of bespoke product and that's actually kind of been my, that's been my kind of my fun pet project since I got here.
36:35
Kelly Kerns: I just didn't know how much I'd enjoy that category.
36:38
Scott Woolley: So, as new things are coming out with all these companies, are you looking forward to that or are you looking at that as like oh, this is more than.
36:44
Kelly Kerns: I got it's like Christmas.
36:45
Tiffany Woolley: It is like Christmas, I mean, it is Christmas I today.
36:53
Kelly Kerns: I feel like that teenage girl that actually was always waiting for her, like Teen Beat or Glamour magazine, you know like they come in the mail back when we used to get subscriptions.
37:01
Scott Woolley: So how do you learn about when they're like new or you know arterias, when they're coming out with stuff?
37:06
Scott Woolley: Do they have a little meeting where you go and you get shown things?
37:10
Kelly Kerns: Yeah, absolutely, and the stories are you know.
37:12
Kelly Kerns: Again, it's so great right to understand the backstory, to know kind of how the product you know, kind of how it?
37:17
Kelly Kerns: Evolved.
37:18
Kelly Kerns: So each brand has obviously usually a sales manager, somebody at the helm, kind of that's our, you know, kind of our contact, our direct contact, and we'll usually get on a Zoom call as a group and they'll walk us through the new product introductions and tell us the backstory, which is really fascinating.
37:33
Tiffany Woolley: Really fascinating.
37:34
Voice Over: Can you imagine?
37:34
Kelly Kerns: There's a lot of note-taking which is great.
37:38
Kelly Kerns: And the photos and lots of oohs and aahs.
37:39
Kelly Kerns: But then we'll also follow up when we actually see that particular manufacturer at the next market.
37:47
Kelly Kerns: So we have Atlanta market in every January and every July, so January market's just a matter of weeks away, Wow.
37:53
Kelly Kerns: And we'll do a walkthrough of all the new product and a refresh on what's existing Because, you know, sometimes we find ourselves getting.
38:00
Kelly Kerns: You know we, like I, may have certain products.
38:03
Kelly Kerns: You asked earlier do I have certain things that are my favorites?
38:05
Kelly Kerns: I think we all do, I know.
38:06
Tiffany Woolley: And I have to reuse things, but sometimes they're just so good that it's like okay, but I have to force myself sometimes to.
38:16
Kelly Kerns: I need to talk to my counterparts that are doing what I do elsewhere in the country or in the region and say what's working for you, tell me, what are you getting traction from and what's the backstory, why is that working for you?
38:26
Kelly Kerns: And we'll exchange those stories, which is so important Because, again, ultimately I come back and I can actually make that beneficial for my clients here.
38:35
Kelly Kerns: So you know, I learn always, even about products that are already existing in the line.
38:39
Kelly Kerns: I'm still learning more about those because you know there's because they're vast companies and brands.
38:45
Kelly Kerns: You know I don't want to buy it, and I really don't want to be a mile wide and an inch deep.
38:49
Kelly Kerns: I really want it to be focused and be a resource you know that's trusted.
38:53
Kelly Kerns: Yeah.
38:54
Scott Woolley: Good question.
38:55
Scott Woolley: So Jay Douglas had their own booth.
38:58
Kelly Kerns: So we have our own showroom, showroom in High Point.
39:01
Scott Woolley: We do, which is, at least from my perspective.
39:04
Scott Woolley: That's unusual because all the reps that we know they're all inside of other you know the brands that they're representing.
39:11
Kelly Kerns: Yes.
39:11
Scott Woolley: But you have multiple brands in your showroom.
39:13
Scott Woolley: I mean, that's a real commitment from a rep company.
39:18
Scott Woolley: Oh yeah.
39:18
Kelly Kerns: Absolutely yeah.
39:19
Kelly Kerns: But I think again it kind of speaks to.
39:21
Kelly Kerns: It's really a testament to Doug's belief in the brand but what that does is it gives us an opportunity for the brands that might be kind of smaller boutique companies, that might not be able to well, they probably could, but they may not want to actually take on the commitment, which is a big one of their own corporate showroom in those environments so we actually then can staff and show their product in a really beautiful way under one roof in that market.
39:48
Kelly Kerns: So some of those smaller brands can actually be housed there.
39:51
Kelly Kerns: So they still get a presence, because we want to make sure that our clients have the ability to see each of our brand partners at market and it's also nice to have it again outside of Arterios has their really beautiful showroom.
40:04
Kelly Kerns: We cover a lot of ground, so we do have the corporate showrooms, but then we have our showroom in addition too, and in our showroom not only do we show those brands that are only housed in our showroom, but, if you notice, we'll have the rugs from Lalloy.
40:18
Kelly Kerns: We'll even have some of the one-of-a-kind rugs from Lalloy that are beautiful, and then we'll have lighting and accessories, kind of cross-merchandised, so that we can actually again remind our clients when we're in there that don't forget, we have this, this and this, right, and then we can go back circle, back to those corporate showrooms, right, yeah, yeah, it's.
40:36
Kelly Kerns: It's pretty impressive organization.
40:38
Kelly Kerns: It's very, very well thought out right, yeah, it is yeah, we get our steps in at high point, for sure oh, I know that's the best part of yeah you know, at least it's like exercise for fun so what did you think of high point?
40:50
Scott Woolley: what was your?
40:50
Scott Woolley: I was overwhelmed by you know, I've been in a number of different businesses.
40:54
Scott Woolley: I've spent a lot of time going to trade shows representing products and brands that I either had and was selling and, like you said, a lot of steps.
41:05
Scott Woolley: It's a whole city of just furnishings.
41:09
Kelly Kerns: Fascinating, isn't it?
41:10
Kelly Kerns: Yeah, you know when I think of what.
41:12
Scott Woolley: Dakota used to be here in South Florida.
41:15
Scott Woolley: That's nothing compared to what High Point is.
41:19
Scott Woolley: It's like I said when we were going to the airport leaving I said to Tiffany you need to stop bringing some of the clients here.
41:25
Kelly Kerns: So how do you think about that?
41:26
Kelly Kerns: What's your thought on that?
41:28
Scott Woolley: I thought of one client immediately, like they would have walked around and would have bought everything for their entire house.
41:34
Tiffany Woolley: Well, I always say, you know, with clients in general and in my own design processes, we all love a lot of things and we appreciate so much.
41:42
Tiffany Woolley: So, going to a high point, you just see so many things you love and want to use anywhere and everywhere because they're all so cool or beautiful and edgy and new or what have you.
41:52
Tiffany Woolley: But not every project can house each thing, so that might be distracting for somebody who can't compartmentalize and that person yeah, you know what I mean.
42:02
Kelly Kerns: Be like that's my future lake house, that's my future country house, exactly.
42:05
Kelly Kerns: But it's another girl's dream and I get so many of those little picture boards.
42:08
Tiffany Woolley: in my brain it was like, okay, this would be great for a Yellowstone ranch.
42:12
Voice Over: This would look great in a New York City apartment yeah, you get part of it.
42:19
Tiffany Woolley: You do that kind of thing.
42:20
Scott Woolley: I'll say it again on this podcast that anyone who's considering the thinking of remodeling, redoing the house even if it's one room and they feel they're going to spend money that they're caring about they should get a designer and they should go to High Point.
42:35
Scott Woolley: They should go see.
42:37
Kelly Kerns: It's just.
42:37
Kelly Kerns: It really opens your eyes to the possibilities, doesn't?
42:40
Scott Woolley: it yes.
42:41
Kelly Kerns: It's a special experience.
42:42
Scott Woolley: Not to knock furniture stores, but when you go into a furniture store it's like they have the chairs on the floor.
42:48
Scott Woolley: But I don't think people realize that this chair you could get probably 500 different ways.
42:53
Scott Woolley: There's so many other fabrics you can get the different wood finishes on the legs and so forth, that I don't think people know that.
43:01
Kelly Kerns: I don't think people realize that, scott, are you looking to take over my job?
43:07
Scott Woolley: No, but that's one of the reasons why we're doing this podcast is to try, to anyone who listens, to educate them more that it's an endless amount of possibilities, that you don't have to just stick with the one thing that you saw.
43:19
Scott Woolley: That can be changed.
43:20
Tiffany Woolley: I call tiffany a com junkie well, I like, yeah, you know, we get all the, all the orders that come in.
43:27
Scott Woolley: It's for me in the beginning when I got special, yeah yeah, when I got involved with her like three years ago in this business, I would say to her why are we selling a chair to this client and we're putting a different fabric on, a different trim on, and now we're specifying the color of the leg to be a different finish?
43:44
Scott Woolley: What was wrong with the one that's on the website?
43:47
Scott Woolley: She's like that's not what the end result I want to have in this house, and so three years later, you understand.
43:54
Kelly Kerns: Oh, yeah, yeah.
43:55
Scott Woolley: Well, you understand when you see the home done.
43:57
Scott Woolley: Yes, yeah, you know I've had the pleasure and I'll say unique pleasure to have worked with some of the most talented artists in the world, from music and entertainment and so forth, from Paul McCartney to you name it.
44:09
Scott Woolley: Oh my gosh, wow.
44:10
Scott Woolley: Paul McCartney do you name them?
44:10
Scott Woolley: Oh my gosh, Wow, goodness.
44:11
Scott Woolley: No one's more talented than what I see Tiffany do.
44:16
Scott Woolley: That's only from a husband, right, which is going to lead me to my next question I want to ask you is that she's constantly sending on Instagram.
44:24
Scott Woolley: Every day she sends me something to look at that another designer is doing or another interior design firm is doing.
44:29
Scott Woolley: Look at this room, they did Look at this and look at that, and there's a lot of very, very talented interior designers that are out there and she's showing it to me on social media.
44:40
Kelly Kerns: So what you do, is social media important or part of what you do, very so I don't think it's so important, like my role in social media, but I look very closely at what my clients are doing.
44:52
Kelly Kerns: It's really important for me.
44:53
Kelly Kerns: In order for me to be a helpful resource to them, I have to have some sense of what your projects look like.
44:59
Kelly Kerns: You know kind of what the execution is design wise for you.
45:03
Kelly Kerns: Perfect example today, walking into your office, kind of looking at your job board and seeing you know cuttings and so forth.
45:08
Kelly Kerns: I mean I may be able to be like, do you already have?
45:11
Kelly Kerns: You know you're assigned to rip for Lalloy, so I can't say this, but usually I'll walk in and be like do you have a rug?
45:16
Voice Over: Because I have a rug I have, you know, I've got.
45:18
Kelly Kerns: I've got a beautiful, you know, like I, something that will correspond, or I have a light like that's going to work really well with this particular collection.
45:24
Kelly Kerns: So so I think that that's you know kind of value that hopefully that I bring.
45:32
Tiffany Woolley: What do the brands expect from you at all?
45:36
Tiffany Woolley: What does it look like for the cross-promotion?
45:38
Tiffany Woolley: Obviously, when you tag a brand who evolves, that Is that the brands themselves, or Jay Douglas.
45:46
Kelly Kerns: So the brands each are, I think, spearheading their own.
45:49
Kelly Kerns: They have their social media teams.
45:51
Kelly Kerns: Again, that's a job, a role that they actually all have internally and, of course, they want us to promote that as much as we possibly can.
46:03
Kelly Kerns: I mean, who would ever have imagined the impact of that to our industry?
46:07
Kelly Kerns: Right, it's just kind of mind-boggling.
46:10
Kelly Kerns: You and I were talking about technology and its impact earlier.
46:12
Kelly Kerns: No, it's pretty amazing.
46:16
Kelly Kerns: But I think that you're asking about the expectation.
46:18
Kelly Kerns: For me, personally, I think the value that I bring is really, again, like the service, but really to make sure that I'm telling the story that the brands want to be told.
46:30
Kelly Kerns: You know, flipping through a catalog is not tactile.
46:33
Kelly Kerns: I want you to have samples.
46:34
Kelly Kerns: I need you to have things in your hands so you can experience and so that your clients can experience that too.
46:39
Kelly Kerns: So I really try and encourage my accounts to lean on me for those resources.
46:44
Kelly Kerns: We were talking about your library earlier.
46:46
Kelly Kerns: It's like you know, like what can I?
46:48
Scott Woolley: do.
46:48
Scott Woolley: I don't think we do a good job with that.
46:51
Scott Woolley: I don't think we lean on like yourself.
46:53
Scott Woolley: We don't.
46:53
Tiffany Woolley: But I feel, as the team has grown now here we'll be able to lean on our reps more.
47:01
Scott Woolley: We also don't do a great job on social media at all.
47:04
Tiffany Woolley: We don't really put any emphasis into it.
47:05
Scott Woolley: We're working too.
47:06
Tiffany Woolley: That's our 2025 goal.
47:08
Tiffany Woolley: You're busy with this podcast You've got a lot going on.
47:13
Scott Woolley: And I'm busy with this podcast.
47:14
Scott Woolley: You've got a lot going on and it's our goal.
47:15
Scott Woolley: Yeah, I think the podcast is really now making us rethink that we need to put more of an effort into the social Well, and I don't know.
47:20
Kelly Kerns: I mean, I feel like we're all in a similar age group, that's like a whole new skill set yeah it is.
47:27
Kelly Kerns: So I'd say, take it easy on yourself, don't put too much pressure on yourself to understand and know all of that.
47:32
Kelly Kerns: I think that that's where these younger people having somebody in your office, an intern even usually can take that over and they come by it so righteously, just innately in that age group, in that demographic.
47:44
Tiffany Woolley: Because I'm one of these people who's such a perfectionist I don't want to put anything that doesn't look perfect online and meanwhile some people totally don't overthink it, like it doesn't matter if there's blue tape still on there for a paint touch up you're gonna wait till that yeah, and then that never ends up like yeah coming to fruition.
48:03
Tiffany Woolley: We've moved on our times right.
48:06
Kelly Kerns: Moved on anyway yeah, well, I'm terrible about I.
48:09
Kelly Kerns: I have done projects on my own, so, um and I and I joke that half of being smart is knowing what you're dumb at so I know just enough about design to keep out of trouble.
48:19
Kelly Kerns: And then come to the professionals for the things that I know I don't know anything about.
48:23
Kelly Kerns: But I've always.
48:26
Kelly Kerns: And I look back at this and I think, gosh, one of my greatest regrets is I always forget to take the before pictures.
48:30
Kelly Kerns: I always take the after pictures and you really want to be able to appreciate just how far you've come in a project.
48:42
Tiffany Woolley: And that is the gratification.
48:43
Tiffany Woolley: I always say that too, actually that some of these projects that are existing are almost more fun than starting from scratch, because it's reshaping something and breathing new life into it.
48:51
Tiffany Woolley: You can start from scratch and create something that's really magnificent, but starting with something that was really odd or awful or, you know, had a lot of quirks, and then creating something really.
49:05
Kelly Kerns: It's kind of tough, though, sometimes, just to tell somebody that their baby is ugly.
49:08
Tiffany Woolley: I know it's easier when they call you no-ears Very easily.
49:12
Tiffany Woolley: It's a good saying.
49:14
Kelly Kerns: You just tread gently or tread lightly, Absolutely.
49:18
Kelly Kerns: I know it's so interesting.
49:19
Kelly Kerns: I'm fascinated by the podcast, though I think you have a fan of me now I'm going to make a point.
49:25
Kelly Kerns: I listened to a few of your previous podcasts after I met you in October.
49:30
Kelly Kerns: You're a work in progress.
49:32
Kelly Kerns: No, I love it though.
49:34
Scott Woolley: You and I talked about this earlier.
49:36
Kelly Kerns: You know I spend a lot of time in the car and I'm on the phone quite a bit hands-free.
49:41
Kelly Kerns: I'm careful, but this is a better use of my time listening to podcasts.
49:48
Kelly Kerns: There's so much to learn.
49:50
Kelly Kerns: There is so much to learn.
49:51
Kelly Kerns: And not just specific to design, but about personalities and people and kind of what makes us tick.
49:55
Kelly Kerns: And this is, at the end of the day, we are selling, or I'm selling product, but it's really I mean, this is again such an intimate industry it is, and so it's really about the people and the personalities.
50:08
Tiffany Woolley: It is and I love that too like even through you and learning the stories of these brands and of these items, and there's just not enough hours in the day to always, you know, remember all those things.
50:23
Kelly Kerns: Do you feel like your clients appreciate knowing on what is available, which is endless?
50:27
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, so, even though it's endless and it's available, we can.
50:38
Tiffany Woolley: I always say, like, do you know how many I edited to get to these three?
50:41
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, do you know how much we edited, like out of all those crazy chairs and all the crazy light fixtures or lamps, like literally as we've curated your house.
50:53
Tiffany Woolley: I think only these three are like a perfect complement.
50:57
Kelly Kerns: Amazing.
50:57
Tiffany Woolley: You know.
50:58
Tiffany Woolley: So, like there was a lot of editing to get to, yeah, and you hope that people.
51:04
Kelly Kerns: You know, sometimes they again whether people really can grasp just how much goes into that.
51:09
Kelly Kerns: It's hard to know, but we know, and that's why we're also doing this.
51:15
Tiffany Woolley: It is kind of a profession where people think, oh well, I can do that myself, versus understanding all the many facets.
51:23
Tiffany Woolley: Oh, yeah, the construction and the coordination is truly so much of what we do, and it's not always easy and seamless, but at the end of the day, I mean there's nothing we won't do to make it right.
51:38
Tiffany Woolley: You know, at the end of the project but I have that gratification.
51:43
Kelly Kerns: To your point, though, again, just, you know, there's so many facets to the business, and the things that nobody, like a, you know the end user, would never be able to understand is something as simple as actually receiving the product, the delivery of that chest or that console, simple things like that we can't really generally deliver to a residential address.
52:05
Kelly Kerns: Correct the world doesn't work like that.
52:07
Kelly Kerns: I mean, in some instances we can.
52:08
Kelly Kerns: Is it ideal?
52:09
Kelly Kerns: No, that's when things go wrong.
52:11
Kelly Kerns: And again, that's why it's so important to have somebody on your side that can manage all of that for you.
52:16
Kelly Kerns: I always tell my customers, or my clients I should say I'm like you know, that's again, that's where we come in.
52:21
Kelly Kerns: I should be to your point.
52:24
Kelly Kerns: I have several brands, but I should be the single point of contact for you.
52:27
Kelly Kerns: You should not have to have a relationship individually with multiple brands.
52:30
Kelly Kerns: You should have one number that's mine, one email that's mine.
52:34
Kelly Kerns: So if something does go sideways, I'm your single point of contact.
52:38
Kelly Kerns: We'll take it from there.
52:39
Kelly Kerns: Something arrived damaged or maybe short shipped, maybe there's an invoicing or billing question or issue.
52:45
Kelly Kerns: That's what I'm here for, so not only to tell the story about the product and the brands and educate, but really the service.
52:52
Kelly Kerns: Yeah, and that's important and I really do Like I take that very seriously and it kind of comes back to just being a young person in business all those years ago and growing up working in customer service, even in high school, having weekend jobs.
53:06
Tiffany Woolley: It's kind of part of my core, you know it's like in my DNA Well, you do it well.
53:10
Tiffany Woolley: Well, you know it's like in my DNA Well, you do it well.
53:11
Tiffany Woolley: Well, thank you, I appreciate it and we're grateful that you joined us today.
53:13
Tiffany Woolley: We always have like these questions for fun.
53:17
Tiffany Woolley: These are more just for fun, oh, okay.
53:20
Scott Woolley: Yeah.
53:20
Scott Woolley: So we're going to ask you a couple of think of design.
53:22
Scott Woolley: Is there a hotel that comes to mind that you love to design?
53:27
Scott Woolley: Oh goodness, something that stands out.
53:29
Scott Woolley: Oh, I hate to.
53:34
Kelly Kerns: Well, I like anything that makes me feel at home and, honestly, this is not a well-known hotel but it's more an inn, kind of a luxury inn in Arizona, in Paradise Valley, the La Hermosa Inn.
53:49
Kelly Kerns: La Hermosa I love Spanish, adobe and also Mediterranean architecture.
53:55
Scott Woolley: Is that near Scottsdale?
53:55
Scott Woolley: Yeah, I think it's Paradise Valley is the address.
53:56
Scott Woolley: Is the actual city, mediterranean?
53:56
Kelly Kerns: architecture.
53:57
Kelly Kerns: Is that near Scottsdale?
53:57
Kelly Kerns: Yeah, I think it's Paradise Valley is the address, is the actual city, but yes, just outside of Scottsdale it's not.
54:02
Kelly Kerns: Again, it's not a grand hotel.
54:03
Kelly Kerns: I think what I like is that it's so again, it just.
54:07
Tiffany Woolley: The way you feel when you're there.
54:08
Kelly Kerns: Precisely, yeah, yeah, absolutely.
54:10
Kelly Kerns: I mean, I can think of grand hotels that are awe-inspiring, but this is really more again, what I enjoy.
54:17
Kelly Kerns: Oh, I love that.
54:18
Kelly Kerns: Yeah, if you haven't been go, I have to check it out.
54:20
Kelly Kerns: It's special yeah.
54:21
Scott Woolley: I think I may have stayed there.
54:23
Scott Woolley: It sounds familiar.
54:24
Scott Woolley: Yeah, be sure you go in the winter.
54:25
Kelly Kerns: It sounds familiar.
54:26
Kelly Kerns: Don't go in July.
54:30
Tiffany Woolley: What is your favorite wardrobe accessory?
54:33
Tiffany Woolley: Oh goodness, Spanx.
54:42
Tiffany Woolley: Wardrobe accessory oh goodness um sphinx.
54:43
Tiffany Woolley: I love that.
54:43
Kelly Kerns: Talk about an amazing story, no right, like there's so much there.
54:45
Kelly Kerns: Well, and now she's launched her shoe brand.
54:47
Tiffany Woolley: I don't know what do you think I'm curious, what do you?
54:48
Tiffany Woolley: Think about those.
54:49
Tiffany Woolley: I'm like you know, I've actually gone online to like maybe buy a pair.
54:54
Tiffany Woolley: But then I'm like, oh, oh, do I want to spend $500?
54:57
Tiffany Woolley: On that, but then again I get it.
54:59
Tiffany Woolley: But yeah, what a brilliant like just this and you know, she's somebody too who I listen to often and follow, which brings back what we do here at iDesignLab.
55:10
Tiffany Woolley: But everybody's stories are just so fascinating and the growth, oh yeah.
55:15
Kelly Kerns: I have so much respect for it.
55:16
Kelly Kerns: I these stories are just so fascinating, and the growth.
55:18
Tiffany Woolley: Oh yeah, I have so much respect for it.
55:19
Kelly Kerns: I don't know her, Sarah, but I know people that know her pretty well.
55:20
Tiffany Woolley: Just having been in Atlanta.
55:21
Kelly Kerns: Well, in Atlanta, right and my friends that have kids that are close in age.
55:24
Kelly Kerns: That went to school with her kids and she's legit.
55:30
Kelly Kerns: I mean everything I know about her.
55:32
Kelly Kerns: Just what you see is really truly who she is.
55:34
Kelly Kerns: And she gives back in a big way and, of course, you know, really took care of her employees when she sold the company.
55:40
Kelly Kerns: But no, I joke about that, but it's actually kind of true.
55:43
Kelly Kerns: I feel like that changed my.
55:44
Kelly Kerns: You know, that's transformed how clothing fits.
55:47
Tiffany Woolley: I think most women have transformed how it is.
55:49
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, I mean yeah, it's truly brilliant.
55:53
Tiffany Woolley: It's one of those things that, and it keeps getting better.
55:56
Kelly Kerns: I agree, I mean I have to.
55:59
Kelly Kerns: You know it's a little embarrassing, but I'm like, yeah, if you're asking me, you want the honest about truth.
56:01
Tiffany Woolley: That might be the best answer yeah.
56:02
Scott Woolley: Yeah, that's a good answer.
56:04
Kelly Kerns: I think most people would answer that if they were being truthful.
56:06
Kelly Kerns: Two more questions.
56:08
Scott Woolley: Sure, with all the things that you represent, is there a favorite design, design element?
56:13
Kelly Kerns: Design element, yeah, or design piece, lighting, for sure Is there a piece or more of a.
56:19
Kelly Kerns: I'm going to get in trouble because I have so many, Honestly, we have.
56:23
Kelly Kerns: Oh God, I'm so lucky because we have so many good things there is.
56:27
Scott Woolley: There's an item that just stands out to you.
56:29
Kelly Kerns: that's like there are a couple, honestly.
56:32
Kelly Kerns: But if I'm going to talk about lighting, our Terriers recently launched, honestly.
56:35
Kelly Kerns: But if I'm going to talk about lighting, our terriers recently launched and it was actually two seasons ago but it was called the Belal Chandelier and it's beautiful and it's basically kind of a mix like eucalyptus leaves.
56:45
Kelly Kerns: It's stunning.
56:46
Kelly Kerns: Yeah, I know, but I'm very excited to report that that, because I love green as a color, I do too.
56:51
Kelly Kerns: I'm actually expecting that right now for someone, and it might be.
56:54
Kelly Kerns: Are you?
56:54
Kelly Kerns: And did you see the flush mount that they introduced?
56:57
Tiffany Woolley: No, so that's beautiful.
56:58
Tiffany Woolley: I don't know if I did and that has done very well.
57:00
Kelly Kerns: It's gorgeous, and that, as a category, is something that, honestly, I think we were really in need of larger scale flush mounts.
57:07
Tiffany Woolley: I think that they have Like the diameter Totally yeah.
57:10
Kelly Kerns: And they've done a.
57:11
Kelly Kerns: Really it's been very well received.
57:13
Kelly Kerns: I would look specifically like the Fera the Bilal, but I love the Bilal.
57:18
Kelly Kerns: But I'm actually most excited.
57:20
Kelly Kerns: I got a little tip from some folks in the management team that that's actually going to be released in a white colorway, which I love.
57:29
Tiffany Woolley: I just love the simplicity of that.
57:30
Tiffany Woolley: Anything with white and I love green, but that's more of a commitment Always rings true.
57:37
Kelly Kerns: So that's kind of my favorite now, but also going to be my future favorite.
57:40
Tiffany Woolley: Favorite yeah for sure, I love that Absolutely Favorite restaurant design-wise Like a restaurant that's just so pretty.
57:48
Tiffany Woolley: Again, it could be a feeling Goodness.
57:55
Kelly Kerns: I would almost say, could it be someone's home.
57:57
Tiffany Woolley: Oh, I love home entertaining.
57:59
Tiffany Woolley: I love home entertaining.
58:01
Kelly Kerns: No answer is the wrong answer, but every answer is always interesting, my sister and I were lucky enough with her kids years ago to stay in Granada, Spain.
58:11
Kelly Kerns: Actually, her life partner, Stephen, has a home in Granada and has had it for years, and we went and did like a fun girls trip years ago and there's something about being and actually it's literally you know, you open the windows and you're looking directly at the Alhambra, so I mean it's just so, it's breathtaking, so to be cooking and breaking bread, if you will, in that environment, you know, and with loved ones, that's pretty special.
58:36
Kelly Kerns: So I can think of restaurants that I love and I love a good meal and I love a good glass of wine, but I think that that really just when I think about that, that's more memorable.
58:45
Tiffany Woolley: I agree, and I'm a sucker for beautiful tile work, you know, and all of the color.
58:50
Kelly Kerns: And I love that they're so fearless with all of that.
58:53
Tiffany Woolley: And it's just a special, it's a special space.
58:56
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, and I love that I do too yeah.
58:59
Tiffany Woolley: What a great way to Although shouldn't it be my own kitchen?
59:01
Tiffany Woolley: No, I feel like kicking in other people's kitchens in Europe is definitely a better have you.
59:08
Kelly Kerns: If you've not been to Granada, I will tell you it's an all-time favorite for me.
59:13
Kelly Kerns: I have such affection for that area.
59:14
Tiffany Woolley: That's your sister, do you guys?
59:15
Kelly Kerns: get to go often.
59:16
Kelly Kerns: No, I've not had a chance to go back, and I think one of the reasons that I do need to go back, for sure, one of the reasons I like it so much is it reminds me a little bit of home.
59:26
Kelly Kerns: The topography in Granada reminds me a great deal of northern Nevada, which is where I'm from, and their climate is not just completely dissimilar either, but it's just beautiful and, let's be honest, you know, the Spanish people are lovely and the food's lovely and the language is pretty easy and, yeah, it's just everything about it.
59:44
Kelly Kerns: Make a trip, yeah.
59:46
Tiffany Woolley: Well, I love that.
59:47
Tiffany Woolley: Yeah, it's a good way to wrap up on a high note.
59:49
Tiffany Woolley: Thank you so much for joining us.
59:51
Kelly Kerns: Thank you for having me and Merry Christmas or Happy Hol holidays, whatever everybody is celebrating.
59:58
Kelly Kerns: Thank you.
59:58
Voice Over: Well, thank you Appreciate it.
1:00:00
Voice Over: Idesign Labs podcast is an SW Group production in association with the Five Star and TW Interiors.
1:00:07
Voice Over: To learn more about iDesign Lab or TW Interiors, please visit TWinteriorscom.