How have you been networking during the lockdown? Lots and lots of virtual meetings – the sliver lining with the pandemic in my experience is that people welcomed human interaction, so it was very easy to connect and reconnect with people. I found other networking opportunities participating in virtual fitness classes, as well as bartending classes and bingo. We have such a great community and as an industry, it’s just very social…it has been different but not hard to stay connected. 

What books, blogs, podcasts, resources or influencers would you recommend to women? Brene Brown has been someone I have admired for many years…she is not only a strong woman with lots of great insights to share, she wants to empower others, inspiring people to be better – at whatever it is they want to work on. She is not afraid to push in places that may be uncomfortable to get to the other side. I appreciate that. 

What is the best advice you have received, and who was it from? I’ve received a lot of great advice throughout my career, but there are two recent pieces, from anonymous sources that have stuck. 1. “When there is no wind we row” In other words, it may not be easy and could feel down right uncomfortable at times, but we needed to persevere. And 2. “We are all in the same storm, but different boats.” When I think about the teams I work with every day this quote helps people understand they need to show empathy first and understand that each person is going to weather the storm very differently.

What honor, achievement or recognition means the most to you and why? Our team has achieved great things this year, regardless of the pandemic. The Interiors team at C3 is one of the best collection of designers I have worked with in 20 + years, and I wanted to let them know. I set and achieved the goal of reaching out in some way, every day, to the entire team, to let them know that they were appreciated, supported and seen – even if we were physically apart. I maintained this practice for 100 straight working days and made sure our team found connection. Our encounters were inspirational, funny and personal, and design related , and on other days we hosted “open-mic nights,” and asked people to share whatever was on their mind. It was small in effort but huge in maintaining the culture and comradery of a fantastic team.