We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Natalie Rodríguez a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Natalie, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I grew up as a competitive dancer. Dance has taught me everything I needed to know about life – most notably how to practice and hone skills to achieve goals, how to work as a team, listening to constructive criticism, and how to apply the critiques to consistently improve. I credit most of my resilience to my time in the dance studio, as when dancing competitively, you are practically under a microscope both on stage and in class, always having something to improve. When listening to constructive critiques all the time from judges, teachers / coaches, and peers, some might become offended with the remarks and carry on with doing what they’re advised not to do, and in turn, continue to score poorly. Constructive critiques are actually a good thing, as it’s like a cheat sheet from a different perspective advising how to become a better dancer and score higher. When action is taken to address the given critiques, improvement is inevitable.
The same principle can be applied to our everyday lives and in our careers. When there is a setback, or an undesirable outcome, there’s always something new to learn from it, which helps to shift perspective and turn it into a more positive experience. This makes the setback a little easier to handle. It sometimes helps to write down the things learned from a negative experience, even if it’s small. This helps to address the situation and how it affected us, and to also develop a more positive sense of closure. Overall, our experiences provide opportunities to hone ourselves to become the best versions of ourselves – it’s easier to move onto the next goal or activity with this mindset. Each experience also prepares us for the next chapter of our lives whether we are aware of it or not. We often don’t know what our experiences are preparing us for until we get where we’re going.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
In short, I’m an interior designer that specializes in custom VVIP aircraft interiors. I got my start in the aircraft completions / business aviation industry during my time in university, when I started working with Gore Design Completions in San Antonio, Texas. After graduating I spent some time designing residential and commercial business interiors, then went on to design for two different VVIP aircraft completion centers AERIA Luxury Interiors (San Antonio, Texas), and Citadel Completions (Lake Charles, Louisiana) prior to opening my own design practice.
Natalie Rodríguez Luxury Design is an exclusive, globally recognized luxury interior design practice that specializes in Boeing and Airbus aircraft, both narrow- and wide-body variants, offering the full spectrum of design services for custom-tailored luxury cabins, whether it’s for green aircraft completion or existing interior refurbishment. We proudly service Heads of State / Government Bodies, Ultra-High-Net-Worth Individuals, as well as private aircraft for corporate and / or charter use. We are also proud to service luxury interiors for light- and long-range business jets. Our approach is entirely customer-centric, dedicated to providing bespoke designs that meet the needs of the most discriminating jet owners. Natalie Rodríguez Luxury Design is an approved design partner with Boeing Business Jets.
A new activity for this year that I’m so thrilled to share, is that I’ll be participating as a guest speaker at the RedCabin inaugural Business Jet and VIP Interior Innovation Summit alongside well-respected industry professionals, which will be taking place on 10-12 September 2024 in Montreal, Canada. Additional information on the summit can be found at https://business-jet-interior-summit.redcabin.de/.
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
My best advice for those early in their career paths would be to learn everything you can about your industry, learn the skills / tools / software needed to thrive and excel in your respective field, as well as continuing to knock on doors that you know are meant to be opened for you. Staying connected with colleagues, customers, and vendors in your field consistently will also help tremendously throughout the journey. You will find that others are happy to help you reach your goals in any way they can.
These thoughts are derived from personal experience. For example, in reference to learning everything possible, having an extensive command of design tool capabilities has been especially helpful in my career as an aviation designer. There are so many customized components that go into detailing an aircraft interior, which requires very specific skillsets and specialties that are often broken up into different subdepartments within a design team.
For instance, there are many different software types that are used to convey design documentation to be used for interior build. Many of these programs that are for compiling floor plans and digital illustrations, I learned during my time in university studying interior design. Many of my design team members at the aircraft completion centers came from industrial design backgrounds and had expertise in other software, such as those used for building larger elevation packages, detail drawings and renderings that have photorealistic qualities. To ensure I would keep up with these colleagues, I enrolled in engineering courses specific to the software required and improved my skills as I worked in these programs every day at work. My knowledge on aviation interior materials I learned on the job shadowing the design team members that specialized in this area.
Another pivotal quality that has been helpful is polite persistence, which also ties in with resilience. I knew from my teen years that I would design aircraft interiors. There were many times at the beginning of my career where it seemed almost impossible to achieve this goal, and there were even a few times when the door just didn’t seem to open for me. I didn’t understand at that time that I needed to continue honing my skills through other design sectors (at that time it was residential and commercial business interiors), and I realized once I got where I was going that my experience outside aviation was necessary to prepare me for the following chapter reentering the industry that I loved so much. As my career shifted a few times during this period, I continued to stay connected with colleagues at AERIA Luxury Interiors, where eventually, the door opened for me as I continued to knock.
Alright so to wrap up, who deserves credit for helping you overcome challenges or build some of the essential skills you’ve needed?
As a designer and professional in business aviation, Ken Harvey, former Director of Design at AERIA Luxury Interiors and Gore Design Completions San Antonio, has been one of the most impactful in my journey. Under his direction, there was an emphasis on the development of innovative, elegant designs that function well for the user, as well as thinking ahead to how elements will be built in production – encouraging maximal detail in elevation packages for utmost communication coupled with much involvement in the production process to maintain the integrity of the design to be built. He also speaks and writes with much decorum and professionalism, which continues to hold a strong influence in my day to day. His practices are especially helpful in fostering and maintaining industry relationships and delivering a service where The Customer feels heard, seen, and understood.
From a personal development standpoint – my family is my rock. They are always supportive when there are challenges to overcome and have built the foundation of the values I hold to this day. My mother taught me growing up to always stay true to my authentic self and fostered an environment that encouraged growth in creativity and imagination. My father taught me the significance of having a customer-centric mindset, the importance of going the extra mile, as well as illustrating the difference between being “ready”, and being “prepared”. Both of my parents brought us up with strong values centered around our faith in Christ, resilience, integrity, and maintaining a positive mindset. My sister teaches me every day the importance of selflessness, humility, as well as handling oneself with grace, patience, and bravery in times of adversity. My grandfather was also a strong influence in my career choice, as he is a retired architect with a detail-oriented mindset noticing little things in interior / exterior aesthetics, functionality, and user experience of everyday things, which are some of the most important factors in private aviation interiors.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.natalierodriguez.design/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natalierdzzz/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-rodr%C3%ADguez-luxury-design/
