Meet Kevin Twitty

We were lucky to catch up with Kevin Twitty recently and have shared our conversation below.

Kevin, first a big thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and insights with us today. I’m sure many of our readers will benefit from your wisdom, and one of the areas where we think your insight might be most helpful is related to imposter syndrome. Imposter syndrome is holding so many people back from reaching their true and highest potential and so we’d love to hear about your journey and how you overcame imposter syndrome.

I have been in the interior design industry for 19 years and during a lot of that time I struggled with the ups and downs of accepting my deserving, my expertise, and my talents. Imposter syndrome is something every business owner and creative struggles with. It has only been within the last four years that I have overcome those thoughts of doubt in my ability.

I remember the exact moment. I was on a job site with my clients, the builder, and the electrician on a 7500 sf new construction home doing an extensive walkthrough for the electrical layout. About halfway through this meeting, I realized that I was the one everyone was turning to me for the answers and those answers were coming out of me automatically like it was my first language.

In the same week I was presenting a custom kitchen design remodel for another client, and again, the confidence in the decisions I was making for this renovation and why these choices were the best for the home and the client’s desired aesthetic naturally flowed from me.

Because I am a believer in the rule of threes, the final moment in the same week was when I was installing new tailor-made furniture into a client’s home. As each piece was placed, art hung, rugs laid, and pillows chopped, the vision came to life. When my client walked into the room, the entire space lit up with joy and excitement. It was perfect. At that moment, I knew, I was the expert.

I have had many moments like these during my career, but there was something special about this week, and these three moments happened back-to-back. I felt the deep shift within me and all past imposter syndrome moments washed away and cleared the path to truly step into my skin and honestly believe in myself without reservations. Since this week four years ago, I have never looked back and have not had a moment of doubt.

The results for my business and for me personally were incredible.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?

Hey, I’m Kevin! I’m your favorite designer’s favorite designer. (WINK)

I create luxury interior design spaces everywhere from Portland, Oregon to Dallas, Texas and beyond. My projects are fun, inspired, and fresh. Every. Damn. Time.

I started working in design in Dallas Texas after receiving a degree from Stephen F. Austin State University. Post-college I really fell into the grind of working and climbing the Dallas ladder. It was all concrete jungle, work your ass off, and get to the top mindset.

7 years into my career in Dallas, my husband and I had some eye-opening events happen in our personal lives and with the people around us. These events made us realize how short life is, and we decided to grab life by the balls and see the world.

We sold everything and backpacked the world for a year and a half. It was a therapeutic, beautiful experience. We saw the world, and that experience truly shaped the designs I create. Everything I create has been inspired by my globetrotting.

When we were coming to the end of our trip, we knew we wanted to live in an area where we could step outside and just live. We wanted to be able to walk to places, have a work-life balance, and be in nature. We really see nature as healing and important, and Portland is the city where you can go on a hike mid-day and yet still work as hard as you want to achieve amazing things.

Once we settled on moving back to Portland, I decided it was time to jump out on my own with my design business. I started Kevin Twitty Interiors with three clients who had been waiting for me while we were gone and never looked back since. It has brought me some of the most exciting projects all across the US and I’ve seriously had much fun.

From modern luxury custom homes and remodels to commercial spaces to cozy mountain retreats and lake houses, if you’ve seen it on Instagram, I’ve created it. The journey is just beginning!

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I have been fortunate to have so many positive influences professionally.

I will never forget the first design job I had at the Dallas Trade Mart creating visual displays and storefront windows for an 18,000 sf showroom. It was thrilling and a lot of hard work. This job taught me my creativity and outside-of-the-box thinking. Not only did these displays need to be beautiful, they had to be sellable. I carried this into my home design career. Creative spaces that were both beautifully crafted and sellable to the client’s needs, wants, and dreams.

The second skill was learned when I worked for an interior design firm in Dallas for seven years. I was a fully commissioned designer who was fully responsible for my projects. This taught me the importance of being extremely organized and detail-oriented because if I wasn’t, a project could easily fall apart. This skill serves me today as I juggle various types of projects across the United States. It also helps convey what is needed to the contractors, builders, and trades clearly.

The last skill learned was after I started my own business and that is the art of saying no. It’s so easy for an entrepreneur to say yes to every job opportunity, the scarcity mentality of where the next job comes from is real. Learning to set boundaries in all forms ended up being one of the most freeing things to learn. People do not need access to me 24/7. I need that work-life balance for me and for my business. Let’s all be done with a burn-out culture!

Any advice for folks feeling overwhelmed?

Do you know the TV show, “Dead To Me” with Christina Applegate? If you haven’t, I highly recommend it. When I am feeling overwhelmed, I do something very similar to her, I turn on loud music in my car and go all out singing as loud as I can, swinging my head and every direction, and feeling that passion of the music. It’s a great stress reliever. But that is just one method. It’s my car therapy.

However, my method of addressing the “overwhelmed” feeling is to sit down, take out a pad of paper, and physically write out my to-do list. This is extremely helpful in tracking what needs to be accomplished. There is also a great satisfaction when I get to mark off something I completed. A great hit of dopamine.

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