Peter hello and welcome
to another episode of the traveling introvert with our career
conversation segment that we do once a month.
I am really excited to speak to this
following human because they popped up in my feed. I have
a I have a feed where I stalk other introverts and
I sent out a message on their web sibing like, yo, you
don't know me, but can you come on my podcast? And the said
yes. So I am now going to pass it over
to today's guest. Duval, how are we
doing? Yay. Hello, I'm well.
Thank you so much for having me on. My name is Duvall.
I am a residential interior designer in Fairfax, Virginia,
based just outside of Washington, DC. And I am an
introvert. Well, that's my first question out the window.
Now I'm going to be scrambling. What does introversion mean to you when you
say you are an introvert? Yeah,
obviously I think the main definition that most people know is that just we get
our energy by being with ourselves and by ourselves
and so where others can relatively drain
you out of your energy. I think for me, introversion is really just
I find my peace and my calm being
centered within myself and with myself. I think that's what my
introversion looks like. All right, thank you.
Interesting that you said you think most people know that introversion
is this, but if you look up the Cambridge dictionary, there's a whole other
definition there that is not that. Really?
Yeah, I've got a personal vendetta against the Cambridge dictionary. It's been
ongoing for years. It's updated slightly and then I went and looked
and I was like, no, why are you still doing this? But it's one
of the reasons why people feel the way they do about introversion is because there's
a lot of outside stuff that says things
that might not be correct.
I know, right. So with that in mind
and you said it's being with yourself, from
what I'm gathering, it's also knowing yourself and what you can do. Is
there something that you do regularly that has improved
your business?
Yeah, I mean, there's a number of things I do in regards
to my introversion. I do have set times in my
schedule that I'm by myself. So I am married for about five years
now and we have a little dog and I
love my wife and I love my dog, but there are times
in our schedule that several hours out of the week is just for me
and so that's just for me to recenter. I just need space by
myself. I don't need anyone needing anything from me. So
that's definitely really big. And even my wife, she's very good about
like, hey, you need your time alone because I can get irritable.
Also, I time block my schedule pretty well, so I'm
a very big person on time blocking, so that my time. I feel like
I have control over it because I think also, again, as an introvert, when you
have too much spontaneity, and I think that can be draining for me. I can't
have too much of just like, anything goes and we go anywhere and do
anything. Even though I seem like a fun person, I'm not really a spontaneous
person, so I think I do that a lot. Yeah. And it helps. It helps
my business. Okay. I want to go in two different directions. One,
you mentioned you have a partner, and so
how did you communicate with them, your needs as
an introvert? I was like, I need to be
left alone. I love you, but I need you to leave me
alone. That's pretty much what happened.
And then, of course, we have therapy.
We don't have one now, but we've been through a lot of therapy. Just
because I'm a person who I don't feel like I feel like I need
help expressing kind of what I need just within
myself, for myself and with someone else. Right.
And I think that I read as an
extrovert, so I think it looks contradictory when
it seems like I want to be left alone. But the if you put me
around people, like, I seem very lively and social, but then by ourselves, I seem
like I don't want to be social. So that was a long we had to
learn how to communicate my
actions, basically. I don't know if that makes any sense. It does.
And so many more people should do therapy
just to do therapy because everyone
needs it. We're not born and we don't automatically know all the things, and then
we meet different people, and different people communicate differently or not.
We all have stuff and things. So yes, do that.
And really quick. She communicates very differently where she
is an identical twin, and she has always had
someone. So she's from birth to when we got married, she was always with her
twin. I know. And then we got married late in life. So for
35 years, she was
with someone sharing space, always having space. So then putting
that with someone who's a massive introvert,
it was a very tricky conversations we were having.
Yeah. You all can't see my face, but I'm doing the shocked Pikachu. Oh, no.
That's that you all should see her face. Oh, no.
Okay. And then the other part of that was you mentioned time
blocking. Did you always do time blocking? Or how did you figure
out that that was the method that would work for you and your business?
Yeah, I didn't always time block. I knew
I was always pretty good about my schedule, so if I have events or
things to go to, that was always pretty good to be in my
calendar because I don't like to miss things. I like to be on time, I
like to be early where I can, and I'm very good about commitments. If I
say I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it, like, no questions asked.
And then as work got busier and the I think the demand
on our brand was getting bigger, and it still
is. Time blocking makes sure it helps me make sure that I'm
not forgetting to do work that I've already committed to, but it
also acts as a protection. I can just put time in the office, and
if someone asks me something and I don't want to do it, I'll just be
like, actually, it's not available. I don't have capacity that day to do
it. So I think that also kind of protects me just from,
again, my own space and the need to recharge.
So it's been super helpful. And so
with running your own business, do you have colleagues?
Yes, my team consists of it's five of
us, and then her team is now two of them, and
then we have three ancillary team members
that come in and out of the business, kind of like as an
independent contractor. So it's a total of was it
310, maybe ten of us, 1011, something like that.
And so with the amount of people that you have on
your team, how do you go about setting boundaries
with them and their needs?
Good, thoughtful questions. Look at you just being awesome.
Well, my team knows how I am, so at this point, they are
all kind of like, I don't know, I'm pretty good. I don't know, I'm pretty
good about, like, at my desk, I will wear my headsets so
that I can just kind of focus, and I don't want to be involved in
a lot of conversation and then days and weeks
where I think I'm pretty good
about just setting my boundaries. Right. If I'm feeling
overwhelmed, I will work from home so that I'm not bothering and I'm
not disrupting someone else's good space. Right.
And then when we have to socialize a lot for our job, so whether we
travel for work or we're having to do events for like a week or so,
I usually will take the next week, and I'll work from home
just to kind of have my own space. So I think everybody kind of reads
me pretty well, but I think for the most part, most of the
team well, half the team is probably introverts.
Okay. And so when you're onboarding, when people don't know you, how do
you express what the culture is like in
your organization? Yeah, I talk to them
about culture a lot, actually. Culture is very big for me. I'm very crazy about
my culture because I want everyone to want to come to work.
So we cultivate that very heavily. And as far as, like, introversion goes, as
far as that, I do kind of let them know up front, I'm like,
okay, I seem very social and I'm very personable, but
I'm not a really social person, so don't misread it. And sometimes
I think my facial expressions, because I might be deep in thought, will
look more concerning than I am. So I always try to prep client new
people, just like, hey, just don't worry about my face. Anything you need, I'm here
for you. And then I think over time, just being around me,
I think people can see the dichotomy, I would say,
of my brand and what we offer
clients versus how I manage my time in the office.
So, yeah, that brings us on to clients. How do clients handle the
boundaries that you may put up for them?
All of our clients are pretty good, but also we have a pretty good onboarding
system, and I'm pretty good about
managing their expectations. So most clients just kind of read us as
extroverts, but they would think nothing different, and we don't have any reason to not
tell them otherwise. And then our system is set so that our
customer interface for an entire project can be
as little as five interactions, which is how I
structure the business to
minimizing and draining me. I know she's laughing at me
and giving happy hands. Happy hands, happy hands.
No, you can relate. I'm sure you can relate. I'm sure other listeners can
relate. I used to have a lot of touch points with clients,
a lot of interaction. And after realizing this is my
business and that's not something that gives me life, it drains me.
We've set our business up. We have touch points, and in each one of the
touch points, I have my team members all
with me almost on every visit so that I always have an escape.
And my team also knows I sound crazy. The more I talk about this,
I think they get it. The can start seeing my facial expressions. Hey,
we need to get me out. And it's not because I can't manage it, but
it's also because running a business and we're everywhere all
the time, I have to reserve energy,
and so I can't just give it all at every moment. I have to
be strategic with it. And I think that's another thing. Probably most
people can relate. Like, every day, I start out with a certain level, and I
try to give as much as I can throughout the day strategically.
And the when I'm out, I'm out. I don't tell
you that's it. And so with your business and your
career and the brand that you're building, can you tell me one or two misconceptions
that people might have about it?
Oh, yeah, we have a ton of misconceptions. My business
is we do interior architecture and design. And I
think most people, when the think about interior designers, it's just like, oh, pillows
and fabric and window treatments, and that is exactly what we do.
That's not uncommon, and that's what we do. But I also
tell people, like, for us and many other designers, we do full new builds. We
work with developers and architects. And what that means is, any
house that you walk in, someone had to make decisions for everything in that house,
and that's what we do. So your floor color, your window treatments, the trim
details, your crown molding, your lighting, your window
framework, the cabinets, the knobs, the tile work. Where did
it start? Where did it stop? What color is the grout? How tall is the
tile? I think a lot of people think builders do that, and I think they
think the contractors are doing that. And that's actually not true. That's what designers do.
Like, we make every selection where your lighting is placed, how high the lighting
is placed, the color of your light bulbs, and then we also
come back in with furnishing. So we're doing area rugs, sofas, and
chairs. But I think people don't realize how holistic our work
is. That's a big misconception.
Can I give you one more? Can I give you one more? I think another
misconception is that we do this as a hobby, which there are some
decorators who do. And so I've had a
lot of people well, not as so much now, because we're much more
established, but starting your career, they're like, oh, my God, you should help me with
my house. Oh, my God. Come over here. I don't do this for
fun. I do this and I get paid for it. So
it's a very different thing. Yes.
Don't get trapped on the friends and family train where you're doing everything at a
discount and the yeah, don't do it.
Correct me if I'm wrong. Does this mean you deal with commercial properties
or residential properties or a mixture? Correct.
So we mostly stick with residential, and we can do what we call
light commercial. So if it's just FFE, fabric finishes,
and we will do that. Like, I can put in chairs
and change the walls and colors and flooring, but when it
comes to construction of a commercial building, I'm less likely to
try that. But inside of a home, I can move anything in the house. I
can turn your whole house any
kind of way. We rip out the kitchen, stairwells, flooring, all of your
lighting, all of your plumbing, and we can put everything back.
Wow. That is awesome. And so
with the business and the misconceptions,
one of those misconceptions probably is the type of people or the amount of
people that you have to deal with, many people, because they might assume what you
mentioned, that it's just like pillows and floors, but you only deal with one
person. I'm assuming from what you've said
that that is not the case. So how do you deal with networking
for your business and needing to meet different people for different things in different
ways? That's fantastic question.
Now that we're a team, I can actually delegate our work. And
so we have a lot of touch points with a lot of people.
So just putting together, let's just say a
sofa that alone has several touch points, because
as designers, we don't just buy off the floor. So I'm not going to
creighton barrel and buying a sofa. I'm actually going to the
manufacturer. We're buying the frame. We'll buy the fabric from a different
vendor. I'll buy trim work from a different vendor. That has to go to one
location for the sofa to be assembled. Then that has to be
shipped to a carrier, who will take it to a receiver, who then delivers to
us. There are a lot of touch points just for one piece of furniture that
doesn't include, like, your tile work and your contractors and then your lighting
people and your HVA specialists. So one, if you can
delegate, I have different team members working on different things. So I have one team
member. She's a purchasing agent, so she manages all of our
accounts. So all of the conversations with where we buy materials, she handles that
for me. And then we have our project coordinator who kind of navigates, and then
our design whatever design team. And then as far
as with just conversations, I tried to
minimize again, how many wait,
was this a part of the question? I feel like I just lost the rest
of that question. How do you build your network?
Because you have to deal with so many different humans. Sorry about that.
Okay. I was rambling my
network. Yeah,
it's a great question. I'm drained by the
question. Good Lord. Okay, so I am very good at networking.
That is something that I have put a lot of time into. I'm
extremely strategic about that. I'm not a
haphazard kind of person. And I've
learned that networking has built my company. It has sustained
my company. It is what's growing my company. So in doing
that, I do try to minimize how much
massive interaction I have to have for networking through the week. So I may do
one or two events or one or two touch points of something like that to
kind of make sure that I come in with enough energy.
I also am pretty good about follow ups, staying on top of things
and in building my networks with people, just
staying on the forefront of people's minds, or just kind of
making sure they had a good experience with me, even if they don't remember what
I said. How did I make them feel and how do they feel around me?
That's very important to me. I guess that's one of the ways I
navigate, I guess, networking. So follow up question. You
mentioned about being good at follow up, and a lot of times I get
clients who are very much like, I don't want to network because then how do
I follow up? How do I keep in touch, how do I keep track and
then get overwhelmed and then don't want to do it? So how do you
keep track? Yeah, I get that. I learned
that some of the follow up doesn't have to be as big as I think,
because sometimes it is one of those things that
you can feel like, oh, God, here's another relationship that I have to cultivate for
a long time. I don't have the capacity to manage this. I very much
understand that. So moving conversations to emails is very
good so that it kind of gives you that space. It doesn't feel like a
phone call. I'm also very good about sending small gifts, so
like a little thing to an office, whether it's chocolates or
wine bottle or florals arrangements, I think that's always a way
to show people that you're thinking about them without feeling like there has to be
an additional follow up conversation that's been good.
Yeah, I think those are some ways. Oh, man. Gifts and
cards, if you have that information.
All right. So
thinking about everything that you've done with
your brand and your career and your business, what
is something that you would tell or what is something
that you wish you had known and would have taken action on
ten years ago?
Ten years ago, business wise, right? Yeah.
Ten years ago. Well, one, I didn't have my business at that time. I would
have told myself to start sooner. I wish I had started sooner because I feel
like I would be further along. I think in my business, my
brand, I think we're doing well for where we are.
For the few years that we've been in business, I think we've gained a lot
of traction. Very grateful to that whole
situation. But I wish I had started sooner. And then in
starting the business, learning to
create systems and processes that navigate
the business is so vital
because it can protect our personal energy, it can protect our
capacity to manage relationships
and the process of our business at whole.
I think that's something that a lot of people don't talk enough about, is when
you have your own business, you need to know how the business is run
and how you want it to run and set systems in place to. Make
sure it does to support that. Or you can't scale.
Or you can't scale. That's right. You can't get any bigger, can't take on more
clients. There's only so much energy you have. Very true. Thank you for all of
that. Final question is, in your
opinion, is a hot dog a sandwich?
First off, the fact that you are so serious about that
question, I love it. Secondly, before I
answer, hot dogs are my favorite food. Actually,
I love hot dogs. And then third, I've
never thought about that. And I'm going to go
with yes, it is a sandwich. It's a sandwich. What is your
reasoning behind hot dogs being a sandwich?
Now you have me second guessing. I don't know.
I'm going to stick with I will go with no. Okay. It's not a
sandwich. I love
it. Okay. That's a great question. Yeah,
because you get engineers who are very much it's about the structure and how many
pieces of bread. It's one of those questions that, depending on how your mind works,
depends on where you filter into what you think about it.
Yeah. It does have the same applications. There is
bread surrounding meat, and there are additional condiments and
vegetables attached to it either way, so sounds like a sandwich
to me. Wait, how do you wait,
what's your answer? Oh, no, I do not have an answer. This is an ongoing
question in our household, that is a thing. And if
you pick a side, then all bets are off.
Got it. Well, if you view it this way but then if you view it
this way, is an ice cream sandwich or sandwich? It's a very slippery
slope. It's a very slow okay. Does it
have to be bread? Does it have to be vegetable? Does it have to be
meat? It's a Calzona sandwich.
I'm literally going to go back into the office, and I will ask my team
this. It's a great conversation thing. I used to do a lot of
online sort of co working
back in the day, and it was supposed to be a five minute break, and
that question would break everything every time. People just keep messaging
in the chat about it. So it's a great I love that.
So thank you so very much for sharing your time, your expertise, your
knowledge, your warmth with us here today. Can you let
people know where they can find more about you and the
awesome work that you do? You are very kind.
Instagram is usually where you guys can find us. The handle is
Duvalldesign, LLC. That's
D-U-V-A-L-D-E-S-I-G-N
ll c. Everything is there that we have our website,
Duvallrenals.com, which is my personal last name. Yeah, we
would love to connect. All right. Thank you so very much.
And, listeners, you can do anything that you
want to do. Just manage your energy. Thank you for listening. This is
Janice@thecareintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have
a great rest of your day.