Stay-at-Home Mom Turned Design Boss

Are you ready for a quick snippet of inspiration? Tune in to this short but sweet interview with business owner and POP alum, Sharon Hocking.

In this episode, Sharon shares her remarkable story of transitioning from corporate graphic designer to a thriving interior design business owner. After gaining invaluable experience working for another firm, Sharon found the confidence to strike out on her own and now helps clients see beyond the ordinary.

Discover how the Power of Process has transformed Sharon’s business and learn her top strategies for pre-qualifying clients. Sharon also discusses why we shouldn’t wait to pursue our dreams in life, business, and design.

Join us for an insightful conversation packed with practical tips and motivational advice. Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out, this episode will provide the inspiration you need to take the next step in your journey. 

Episode Highlights:

• Sharon Hocking’s early career as a graphic designer for Nike.
• Transition from being a stay-at-home mom to starting her own interior design firm.
• The importance of working for other designers before starting your own business.
• The value of building relationships and serving clients in the interior design industry.
• Challenges faced when restarting a business in a new location.
• The significance of finding a community and support system in the design industry.
• The benefits of participating in programs like Power of Process for business growth and confidence.
• Tips for designers in rural areas to overcome isolation and build connections.

Episode Resources

• Learn more about Sharon Hocking here and follow her on Instagram here.

Read the Full Transcript ⬇️

Rebecca Hay: Hey hey hey, it’s Rebecca and you’re listening to Resilient by Design. Today I have a short episode and this is a new one. I am interviewing another designer and I thought this might be kind of fun to do these short episodes throughout the summer and then maybe continue into the fall if this is a hit. This way, we can find out in a short snippet about the career paths of different designers.

Today, I have an incredible woman, Sharon Hocking. She’s from Oregon and happens to be a Power of Process alumna. She just did Power of Process this spring. We talk about her earlier career, where she started (spoiler: she worked at Nike), what she did as a stay-at-home mom, and how she ended up running her own interior design firm. She has been doing this for over 20 years and she shares her experience, what she did, and why to get where she is today. Of course, we also talk a little bit about how Power of Process really helped her to elevate her service level to her clients in the last six months alone. I hope you guys are going to enjoy this episode. It’s a short but good one with Sharon Hocking. Enjoy.

Welcome to Resilient by Design. Sharon, I’m excited to have you as my guest today.

Sharon Hocking: Thank you, Rebecca. I’m excited to be here.

Rebecca Hay: We recently got to know each other a little bit inside Power of Process and I had this idea that it would be really fun to bring on some designers to share their stories for others who are maybe about to start a design firm, dreaming of starting their own business, or people who’ve been doing this for a while and just want to hear that they’re in the right lane, learn from others, and get some inspiration. Your story is really interesting, I think. Why don’t we just start at the beginning? How did you end up in the interior design industry?

Sharon Hocking: We live in Oregon, outside of Portland, near the Columbia River Gorge. I had an earlier career as a graphic designer for Nike, and I loved it. I did logos, t-shirts, textile prints, and all that stuff. But when we started having children, we have three daughters, I stayed home. That’s what I wanted to do. That was our goal. When our youngest was about four, I thought, “You know, I need to create.” Just loving people, homes, fabrics, and furniture, I thought, “Well, interior design is kind of like graphic design.” So, I went back to school, took some courses, and for the first about 8 to 10 years, I worked for other designers. About 12 years ago, I opened a coffee shop and got to help with it. I realized, “I’m on fire. This is what I’m meant to do. This is where I feel like I’m gifted and where I can excel and actually help people.” So, that’s how I got started.

Rebecca Hay: I love that. I love that you actually worked for another designer for a decade. Talk to me about that because it does seem that more often than not these days, people are trying to sort of skip that and start their own business, and then it can be really challenging. Why did you decide to work for someone else first? Had you always planned on starting your own thing? Talk to me about the thought process behind that.

Sharon Hocking: I knew nothing about business, except from the corporate world. But going from a big corporation to then starting your own is a little different. I needed to gain some confidence. I knew that I wasn’t ready to run the show. So, I sought out some mentors. You know, this was a while ago. There wasn’t a lot of sharing. I didn’t know of any coaches. It was kind of a different world. It was a little bit snooty and people weren’t really sharing much. So, I wanted to work for other people. I worked for a designer in a local smaller town, and then I worked for a furniture store where we had a design studio. I learned a lot there. We did Street of Dreams homes, like show homes. I worked under someone there and just gained a lot of confidence. Working with people’s budgets and their money, you really need to know what you’re doing. We’re investing a lot. So, I gained a lot of wisdom and confidence by doing that.

Rebecca Hay: Yeah, I love that. I mean, I worked for someone for five years, as you know, and it was so beneficial to me just to figure out like, “What does it look like to order fabric?” Right? Like, I didn’t know that process. I remember the first day working for him, he was like, “Oh, can you order like five yards of this from Kravet?” I was like, “What is Kravet? And what do you mean five yards?” Like, I didn’t know anything.

Sharon Hocking: Yeah, exactly. There’s a lot to know.

Rebecca Hay: There is a lot to know. Yeah, I think anyone listening who is maybe just starting out or they’ve just graduated school and want to run their own thing, maybe consider even part-time working for someone else. You don’t know what you don’t know. It can speed up your learning curve just like taking a course like Power of Process can speed up your learning curve when it comes to business and connecting with other designers. When you actually work for a design firm, you really get to see it from the inside. When you work for smaller firms, and I’m not sure the size of the firm you worked for, Sharon, but really small firms expose you to a lot, right?

Sharon Hocking: Yeah, absolutely. That’s where I started. I felt like that just really gave me the vote of confidence to think maybe I could do that on my own.

Rebecca Hay: Okay, so talk to me about that first job. So, your friend was opening a café and you’re like, “I can do this.” Did you immediately quit your job to just start taking on projects? Or did you sort of do it as a side hustle for a bit?

Sharon Hocking: I’m trying to remember.

Rebecca Hay: And how many years ago was that now?

Sharon Hocking: Oh, about 12 years ago. Oh no, sorry, I wasn’t working because I had been a stay-at-home mom. But I did work for another designer first for a while. This was right around the recession. We were just kind of coming out of that. I think I was just trying to establish myself as doing something. I thought, “Oh, well they have confidence in me.” I just knew that I was doing what I was meant to do when I did that project. I just started doing more and more and learning as I went along. I’m still learning, but I have a lot more confidence now, a lot more experience behind me, some good projects, working with great contractors who can make a design come to reality, and learning how to work with people. You know, that’s a skill in itself.

Rebecca Hay: When I was working for another showroom, she said, “You’re good with people.” And I thought, “Oh, well that comes naturally.” So that’s really what I enjoy more than anything is just relationship building, working with people.

Rebecca Hay: Well, and that’s really what we’re in. We are in the business of people. It’s hard to run your own business if you don’t like people. Some people just want to do the creative and they don’t want to deal with the clients. While you can outsource an aspect of that when you’re starting out and you’re running your own firm, you are the people person. Sometimes I think people forget a little bit because you start out just wanting to create beautiful spaces, and you have an eye and you can pull things together, but it’s so much more than just knowing what color goes with what and which pattern to put and the thickness of the grout lines. It’s so much more than that.

Sharon Hocking: Right. Especially, these are people who invite you into their home. There aren’t too many jobs where you’re standing in people’s bathrooms with them and you’re figuring out how you’re going to space-plan it. These are their intimate, everyday spaces, and you get to partner with them in that. I feel like it’s always a privilege when somebody invites you into their home and into their life. Ultimately, it’s about serving them. It’s about my business, but it’s ultimately about them. I try to think, “How can I really serve them, inspire them, encourage them?” I’m even seeing way above and beyond what they’re seeing. I really want to be sure that we’re looking at all the details that they can do in this project that they might not have even thought of before. I try to offer them more than what they’re just calling me for because I’m helping them see beyond what they can see. That’s really what I think we do.

Rebecca Hay: Totally. Clients don’t know what they don’t know either, right? That’s your job as the professional, to come in, educate them, and show them a whole new world that they didn’t even know existed. I think that’s where a lot of change can happen when you’re running your own firm.

Sharon Hocking: Absolutely. At first, we just want to give them what they ask for. This is what they want. “Oh, and I’m not going to suggest that. They didn’t say they wanted that.” We’re not going to look at the walls or the interior doors. “Oh my God, they’re so ugly and awful, but I’m not even going to talk about it because that’s not what they brought me here for.” They have a certain budget. But I think the more comfortable we get in doing the job, the more we recognize, “Okay, I need to give them what they’re asking for, but I also need to give them more than what they asked for.” That’s where, I think, you find out who your designer is and the person you want to work with.

Rebecca Hay: And that’s the value that people end up paying you for because you can see the bigger picture.

Sharon Hocking: Exactly.

Rebecca Hay: I love that. So, where are you at right now with your business? Do you have a team? Do you have an assistant? Is it just you? What does your business look like today?

Sharon Hocking: Right now, it’s just me. We moved out of the Columbia River Gorge about three years ago, and I did have a couple of people working for me there. So, I restarted, rebuilt, and started from scratch again. It’s kind of exciting. It’s all on me right now, but I do see a team in my future for sure. I am hoping to bring someone on board who can handle the ordering and the technical aspects. That is not my strength. I am creative, but the follow-up and the technical stuff is not my favorite thing to do. So, I do see someone coming alongside me. I love this gal. I worked with her for about 10 years, and she moved back to Oregon. I need to get back in touch with her because she is so good at the ordering and the project management side of things. She worked in Oregon for quite a while for different designers and loves all that. I need someone like that so I can just create, and I can then sell my ideas to the client. That’s what I’m good at, is presenting ideas and getting people excited about the vision. Then I just need someone to take it and execute it.

Rebecca Hay: Oh, I can totally relate to that. I love it. I want to know if there are any particular challenges you have faced over the last couple of years. You just said you started over, and I am sure there were challenges. So, why don’t you share a little bit of that?

Sharon Hocking: Yeah, well, there are a lot of new challenges moving here to Central Oregon. It’s a different landscape, different building practices, and I’m getting to know new people. But even so, some challenges are getting work, staying busy, and how much I can handle right now. I guess I’m at a point where I can’t handle a lot more. I need to get an assistant. But just the changing landscape of business, the supply chain, and our world is changing rapidly. We need to adjust and have a mindset of being willing to change and adapt to new ways of doing things, new programs, and new processes.

Rebecca Hay: I think that’s just life. There’s always going to be change. The one constant is change. You have to be able to pivot. You had mentioned to me when we had talked earlier that one of your challenges recently was feeling a little bit isolated.

Sharon Hocking: Yes.

Rebecca Hay: Especially when you went through Power of Process. What did you find helpful? Because I think a lot of designers can relate to that.

Sharon Hocking: We did not have a local designer that I was connected with. No one was meeting in person anymore. I felt like we were all separated. So, I reached out to an old designer friend, and she and I started meeting every couple of months. We would just encourage each other. But then, in Power of Process, being part of a group, even virtually, was so encouraging because I got to meet new people, hear their stories, and how they run their businesses. Even though I felt like I was way out here in Oregon all alone, I didn’t feel like I was alone. It gave me encouragement and the process helped me feel like I had a system in place. Because I had a system, I could just keep working and going. I had the right tools in my hand and felt more confident and focused. Even though we are still meeting virtually, it was so helpful.

Rebecca Hay: I love that. Do you have any tips for anyone who is in a rural area? I think you just gave us one: join Power of Process, join some community, find some other like-minded people. But anything else that you could share with other designers who might be listening and feeling isolated?

Sharon Hocking: Yes, find your tribe, as they say. Reach out to people, even on Instagram. Be willing to meet someone for coffee if they are nearby, or have a phone call if they are far away. We need to share ideas and stories because we learn so much from each other. I have a designer friend who moved to Arizona, and we talk every couple of weeks. Just having that person to bounce ideas off of and get encouragement from is so important. Don’t be afraid to reach out and make new connections, even if it’s online. It can make a huge difference.

Rebecca Hay: I love that. Before we wrap up, is there anything you want to share with our listeners that we haven’t covered?

Sharon Hocking: Just be true to yourself and your design vision. Trust your instincts and don’t be afraid to take risks. And remember, it’s all about building relationships and serving your clients to the best of your ability.

Rebecca Hay: That is such great advice. Thank you so much for sharing your story, Sharon. It’s been a pleasure having you on the podcast.

Sharon Hocking: Thank you, Rebecca. I’ve enjoyed it.

Rebecca Hay: Thanks, everyone, for listening. Be sure to subscribe to Resilient by Design and leave us a review. See you next time!