Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Paulina Friedel. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Paulina, 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?
Passion. And day dreaming. I think I was very lucky to be born with a lot of natural passion for life in general.
I have some sort of childish excitement in me that doesn’t allow my spark, hope or optimism to hide for too long.
Even in dark moments, small things can bring me joy, and excite me enough so that I find my light and strength again. Then I can nourish back the fighter in me and I’m ready to re-group, pick up the pieces and start planning ahead. Sometimes big things, sometimes just the next small step.
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I’ve always loved everything about design, and have always felt drawn to hands-on projects and creating. When I was seven months pregnant, my husband and I purchased a fixer-upper and have been shaping it into a dream home ever since.
To add a little more to my plate in addition to motherhood and a full-home renovation, I also started PUNIAF.design and have been proudly expanding this dream into a collaborative, full-service company, beautifying Los Angeles one home at a time.
We transform people’s properties into their favorite places on Earth so that they can focus on making memories and celebrating life with their family and friends.
If that’s not the absolute best reason to do my job, I don’t know what is!? Right?
What started small in the pandemic, keeps going and growing as we tackle bigger and bigger projects. The reason so many clients have trusted us is because we care about the smallest details of their experience… the communication, the little touches, unfailing great atmosphere, and the biggest one: the PEACE OF MIND throughout the entire process.
Construction is not perfect, we’re not perfect. But we don’t fail by not trying or disappearing (you’d be surprised by the stories we hear about!).
We care, we show up, we do our best, we share our love for the craft.
And that makes me so happy and proud of our achievements, growth, the crew, and my awesome assistants. Oh, and this year we got new “headquarters” 😉 by turning a garage of my new property into our design studio.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
1. Curiosity about how things work – from watching Grandpa fix/build things when I was a small child, through DIY-ing and learning from failures, to constantly educating myself every single day. It might be my super power 🙂 But also something anyone can make a habit of!
2. Perfectionism – both admired quality and a cruel curse… but it does make a difference and pays off in the end. If you’re not naturally a perfectionist, just make sure to pay attention to details no matter what line of work you’re in. Details matter. Always do your best. Imperfections are a beautiful part of life, but if you’re going to consciously half-ass something, don’t do it at all…
3. Letting go – to balance out the perfectionism haha because otherwise I crash and burn! Adulting is hard. Being a woman, mom, entrepreneur and boss is literally impossible, and yet here we are. So I think to even simply keep going, requires improving the skill of letting go, delegating, picking your battles, prioritizing, giving up some control, embracing help, being ok with engaging in self care etc.. I know I sound confident here, but no, I don’t have it figured out yet, this one is a work in progress 😉
What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?
Not sure how but they taught me that I can do and be pretty much whatever I want. Not magically, but through learning and reinventing myself, and the mindset. And I’ve been doing it ever since.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.puniafdesign.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/puniaf.design
