Well, Jean, welcome to the Creative Genius podcast. It’s so nice to have you here today.

I’m glad to be with you. Thank you.

Yeah, do you want to just introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you are all about?

Okay, so I am presently the managing director of High Point by Design, also known as HPXD. But for many years before that, I was editor in chief of designers today, and that’s really what afforded me to meet a ton of designers. So that’s what I’ve been doing for the last seven years, magazines and now HPXD.

I remember when we first met, were doing designers today and you were an editor. So you have such a fascinating background as an editor, also an artist and a creative. And I’d love to hear about your journey and how it led you to High Point by Design.

Okay, I’m gonna do the very abbreviated journey and I’m happy to have a glass of wine with anybody that wants to go deeper. But like many people that we hang out with, I was a room rearranger early on, so I had the bug to make my environment feel better, feel fresh and new. And I did that in a tiny room with three pieces of furniture a lot.

I didn’t ever really thought about interior design until after I graduated from college and I did study interior design at Parsons. I went back after I got my BA. So I got my associate’s degree at Parsons and I did a job here or there, but I never really became a design assistant or worked in a firm. I did try. I did try. It was a recession in New York in the early nineties and I only got one interview and that kind of scared me.

But magazines also held a fascination for me because I really discovered a love of writing. And so I found that loving to write and tell stories and loving to decorate was the perfect combination for the magazine world. And I got my foot in the door at Country Living Magazine. So that was really my first industry experience, my first time going to High Point. I loved my job at Country Living. I traveled so much.

met so many people photographing homes around the country with great photographers. And that lasted for 13 years. then I had a kind of yucky time for a while. I was living in Florida and I’d say I was not making the most of who I was. But I think sometimes we all kind of have those years where we hide a little bit. And then came back out and in 2018,

I knew there was a, or 2017, there was an opening at Designers Today. And I found this out through some of my editor friends. And I thought, you know what, I really want to get back in print. And I was very persistent and I got the job and it was awesome. I loved my four years at Designers Today. And then, you know, the pandemic came and this little…

thing called High Point by Design was forming and they were looking for somebody to lead it. And I just, it’s like, my God, just said, you have to do this. And now that was 2022. So I’m three years into it.

It’s crazy how fast time passes by, right? Because I remember, gosh, if you were just starting with designers today in 2017, I think we had maybe met just maybe a year or two prior to that.

Yeah, probably when I was at Steel Yard, we probably met and would have conversations at Las Vegas Market.

Yep. then fast forward to today. It feels like you’ve been doing high point by design for a while now, which three years is a while, but you know, also blazes by so quickly. So, well, so from editorial desk to leading a design movement, let’s talk a little bit about your creative skills or your philosophies that you’ve that have kind of stuck with you throughout your career.

Well, I’ll tell you one thing that I didn’t mention, but it really has helped me in everything that I do. I worked in a PR firm for a while when I got out of school and I was the administrative assistant to one of the principals and PR just really afforded me the opportunity to learn how to create win-wins and to collaborate. And I love marketing and I love branding. So there was that, which was just sort of the beginning of understanding.

What those worlds were so i really look at my peer world is like being a great jumping off point for everything that i did afterwards it help me so much in the magazine world and now you know as we create events and things that htxt. Just being mindful of other people’s needs and follow up and all that good all those good skills that you learn working in a corporate environment so it was really really good and then in terms of.

creative skills. I know that a lot of people see me as an artist and yes, I am creative and I have done things in public that are arty. And I think I just have that kind of arty hippie vibe. But I think it’s the way that my mind works. It’s the way that my mind connects the dots. We’re all unique in that way. And then I just,

want to be out there talking to people. So one person’s idea, my idea, like it just builds. So I think it’s being open and I really think that where I excel is just the way that my mind is wired. It’s, you know, it’s mine.

And I love that about you. think that, you know, I certainly have an attraction to creatives and artistic and even that kind of hippie vibe people as well, where it’s just like, this is how we think and it’s how we do and it’s how we live. And that is something that’s very special that I’m learning not everybody thinks and lives that way.

You know, I’m attracted to art. I mean, I see it everywhere. You know, I see beauty, I see possibility and leaves on the, you know, on the sidewalk. It’s just, and I think that, yeah, I think a lot of people that we surround ourselves with also their minds just sort of wandering and create. When you’re creative, you’re just like, it’s just what you do. You’re just compelled to, know, whether it’s a painting or an event or, yeah, just brainstorming.

So let’s talk about a little bit about what inspires you outside of work. And how does that actually feed back to some of the things that you’re building here with Highpoint by Design?

You know, I was like, outside of work. Do I have an outside of work? I mean, I am so guilty of blending the two. And it goes back to like, kind of what I said about creativity, because I just can’t let an opportunity go that I think I can use in my livelihood.

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