​I had a wonderful interview with Stacie Burns who is a home designer for Immaculate Homes.  With my recent unemployment status I have been looking into different industries so a lot of these assignments have been very beneficial.  This interview happened in an interesting way.  I had thought about talking to someone in the home design business, but I was not exactly sure who I should talk to.  I was driving around running a few errands and I drove by Immaculate Homes place of business and they have a sign that says, “Home Design Studio”.  So I decided to stop and talk to one of the home designers and see what would happen.  The first person that I met was Stacie and I learned that she was the company’s home designer.  Later that afternoon we were able to sit down and visit and I was to learn quite a bit about the home design process.  I let her know that I have some graphic design schooling experience with a little work experience and I was curious about expanding my design experience in the home design category.  I have always been fascinated with house plans.  I even found a website that you can create your own house plans that I played around with creating the first floor of my dream home.  From Stacie learned about a few different software programs that they use for their design work and I was very pleased to learn that I could download some of the programs for free, so that I might be able practice using them.  Stacie completed her education at Utah State University in interior design which helped her learn the same programs that she is currently using (she did mention that her desire after graduation was to work for a home design company and focus on residential homes).  She of course recommend attending USU, but she also mentioned that BATC (Bridgerland Applied Technology College) had some great programs that would be very beneficial in receiving certificates and would only take a year or two.  I learned that a lot of home builders don’t have in house designer and a lot of times they contract the home designs with different home designers.  With some of the programs that I know are now available I plan on trying some of them out and maybe design and build some house plans for some friends to become more familiar with the program and see what happens.
 

The previous interview actually ended up leading to another interview with a home designer, who is self-employed and does the contract work that I was talking about earlier.  His name is Drifty Crossley (doesn’t that sound like a great name for draftsman?:-) and his company’s name is Fineline Design & Drafting.  He received his education at BATC and suggested that it is a great route to take in learning the necessary programs for this type of work.  He actually did not plan to be doing what he is currently doing.  He had just completed the program at BATC and he had a relative that was building a house and so he decided to help him out and put together their house plans.  Well, he did a really good job and this relative ended up referring him to other friends and family.  The referrals kept coming in and before he knew it he was creating a company name, he built a small office on the side of his home and now 20 years later he is still designing homes.  I learned more details from Drifty about the different software programs.  AutoCAD is the most common one that a lot of people know about.  However, he mentioned that there has been other software programs (Chief Architect, SketchUp, and Revit) that have been created that do a lot better job with home designing if that is the specific area that you would like to focus on.  I was also enlightened to learn about some of the proper codes and regulations that you need to know about for your house plans to actually be produced into working blue prints.  He had some background experience in the home building industry as well as with the home building supplies.  He feels this experience gave him a lot better understanding of the building process.  I know there is a lot to learn about this industry, but I think it would be nice to have some of these skills and have some fun designing my own home.
 

Staying on the design theme I had the opportunity to visit with Michelle Kimball who is a freelance Graphic Designer.  After I completed my schooling at BATC receiving a Computer Graphics and Media Design Technology certificate, I learned that getting into the graphic design industry is not that easy.  Just about every single job description is requesting 2-3 years of experience doing graphic design work, not just a degree or certificate.  So finding someone that is willing to give me a shot to gain that experience has been a little daunting and hard to find.  I have also struggled with becoming a freelance graphic designer because of the whole process.  I still had a good visit with Michelle and she discussed with me some of the main things that it takes to be successful in this industry.  1. You really need to understand what the client wants.  You might not necessarily agree with the colors or text that they prefer, but you need to be willing to think outside the box and still make it look great and that they like it.  It is also very helpful to be honest and upfront with them at the beginning of the design process and if something comes up that was not originally discussed let them know what is going on.  Listening and communication goes a long way in this industry.  2. Meet deadlines.  This one is pretty simple; you need to make sure that you complete the work when you say you will complete it.  If it is taking longer than you anticipated then stay in contact with your client and let them know what is going on.   3. Work hard.  This is one that should be for every job, but it is something that Michelle prides herself on.  She wants to do all she can to give the client what they requested and be able to receive possible referrals for more work in the future. 
 

My final interview was probably my favorite, because this was a very good friend of mine that I look up to a lot in this industry and it is not just because he is 6’4’’.  His name is Brent Huntington and he currently runs a company called Travel Management with one of his main parts of that business being a limousine service in Alaska called Alaskan Splendor Limousines.  He used to be a driver for the company and has since purchased the company and has created a very successful business.  Our discussion was specifically about what it takes to be an entrepreneur and run your own business.  The limousine business is not the only business that Brent has been successful in running.  He has twenty-plus years as an entrepreneur and has a lot of amazing experiences, some good and some not-so-good.  “Failure is not the opposite of success; if you have failed at something then it just gives you new information that you can take with you to become better in the next things you do.”  A few of the things that I learned from Brent that he feels is necessary no matter what type of business you decide to run is that you need to: 1. Master the basics of your craft.  The best athletes out there in any sport are masters of the basics of the game they play; a lot of the things they do are second nature.  2. You need to have a high teach-ability index.  Which on a scale from 1-10 (10 being the best) what is your willingness to change and willingness to learn.  Determine what those two numbers are and then times them together to get a teach-ability index number.  3. Motivation.  It is not about money.  It is about what you would do with the money.  Brent mentioned that when you are working on a project or you are trying to get to the next level.  You need to be working on step 2 even before you have completed step 1 so it forces you to get step 1 completed.  An example that he used was purchasing a new limo and before he even had the vehicle he was already making reservation for it.  So this forced him to make a decision about the vehicle and make the necessary changes to add another vehicle to his fleet.