Meet Jessica Puleo

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jessica Puleo a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jessica, 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 chose this question because I feel like battling imposter syndrome is a daily occurrence that you have to wake up and decide if you’re going to let it get in your way and make you doubt yourself or if you will push it aside and be your own confidence builder. Somedays it wins, most days, I do. Becoming apart of the interior design industry because one day I woke up and decided I could, that was a lot. Why me? Why do I get to join that world and tell people I’m an interior designer even though I didn’t go to school for it? Who cares! Not one single client in my five years in business has ever asked for my degree qualifications or where I attended college. What they care about is if I have an eye for design and can I create something that they can’t do themselves. And my answer to those questions has always been yes and I keep reminding myself of that especially when I start comparing myself to other designers. And honestly, that’s where it hits the hardest. The comparing factor. Doesn’t do anyone any good because design is so fluid. There is a designer for everyone and what a beautiful thing that is. I know at the end of the day, I provide a huge value to my clients because I listen to what they want, I know how to bring together a beautiful and realistic design and I’m truly passionate about what I do. So when you start feeling doubtful, look at what you’ve done, look at the accomplishments you’ve been able to achieve and know you are the only one that’s comparing yourself to anyone else. Be confident in yourself and it will push aside that self doubt.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am the owner and lead designer of Spaces Reimagined, a full service interior design firm. I started my company during Covid after getting furloughed from my job and not having any idea what I wanted to do with my career. I had previously been in the event industry for 10 years and it was all I knew. After I was furloughed, I started applying at any place that had an opening but no one was hiring so my husband told me to take some time and think about what I wanted to do. I had no idea where to start. I’ve always wanted to run my own business but I couldn’t figure out what type of business that was going to be. I started making a list of all the things I was good at or enjoyed because where else do you begin? I had always had a passion for interior design but I didn’t think it was attainable because I didn’t go to school for it and I really didn’t have a desire to go back to school. But after watching TV one afternoon I saw a staging company come on and stage a reality TV show and I thought, well now that would be fun! I thought about it, took the idea to my husband, researched it and then decided to get certified in Home Staging. I had no clue what it took to start a business so there was a lot of trial and error (that’s an on-going process when you run a business) but what I found was that staging and design were very similar and I started advertising for it and because of the current state of the world and people needing to figure out how to reimagine their space, my business took off. I said yes to everything that came through the door and figured it out along the way. Five years later, the leap of faith was worth it.

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 would say confidence was one of them but I lacked so much of that when I started on the technical side of things – what to charge, how my website should look, the design of my business cards. I was always second guessing those things but I knew I could make this work. I saw the big vision I had for myself and that kept me pushing through all the hard stuff. Listening was another big factor. I listened to people who were smarter than me, I listened to my business coach, and I listened to my clients without pushing my own agenda or design on them. People want to be heard and sometimes they need you to figure out their brain dump and find a path forward. Lastly, faith. Faith that the Lord would provide, faith that my dream wasn’t stupid and to keep showing up everyday because this was what I felt my passion was.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

I feel it’s better to rely on your strengths and focus on what your zone of genius is because I can’t be everything, I can’t learn everything but there are people out there who have different zones of genius than me and I want to learn from them. Hire them to my people and build a company where we collaborate together knowing our strengths and weaknesses and letting people shine where they can. Having to be well rounded in terms of business is exhausting. I think having general concepts and ideas of things is great because when you’re first starting a business, you have to do those things yourself but eventually you get to the place where you can hire out and trust the professionals to handle it. But if you focus on things you aren’t good at, it feels like you spin your wheels and can be frustrating instead of spending time on the things you know you are good at. We should always strive to keep learning and growing but I feel like that comes when you’re able to surround yourself with people who make you better and not because you’re trying to do it all yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://spacesreimaginedne.com
• Instagram: @spacesreimaginedne
• Facebook: @spacesreimaginedne

Image Credits

Heidi Kirn Photography
James Reed Photography