Episode 320
Career Conversations with DuVäl Reynolds
"On this episode of The Traveling Introvert, our host Janice Chaka sits down with guest DuVäl for an insightful conversation about career and introversion. DuVäl highlights the importance of setting aside time to be alone and recenter oneself, even in the context of being married and having a dog. They explain how their spouse is understanding and supportive of their need for personal space. DuVäl also shares how they use time blocking to maintain control over their schedule, preferring structure over spontaneity. These strategies not only help with introversion but also benefit their business.
DuVäl also discusses their journey as an entrepreneur and expresses a wish to have started their business sooner. They believe their business is thriving, thanks in part to the systems and processes they have put in place to manage energy and relationships. They even share their approach to communication, including moving conversations to email to create more space and sending small gifts to show appreciation without requiring further follow-up.
As an interior architecture and design professional, DuVäl sheds light on the misconceptions about their industry, emphasizing that it involves much more than just pillows and fabrics. They explain how they make holistic design decisions and the importance of boundaries in their work environment. DuVäl acknowledges their introverted nature and the need for personal space, which is supported by their understanding team. Networking is also discussed, with DuVäl explaining their intentional approach to maintaining positive interactions while managing energy levels.
Throughout the episode, DuVäl emphasizes the significance of time blocking, culture, and reserving energy in order to successfully navigate their career and business. They provide valuable insights for both introverts and listeners interested in the world of interior design and entrepreneurship. Grab your headphones and join us on this episode of The Traveling Introvert with DuVäl!"
Guest information
DuVäl Design is a full-service interior design firm, based in Fairfax, VA. Honored by magazines as “The One to Watch'', “Hot Talent”, and House Beautiful’s Next Wave, he’s been seen in Architectural Digest, House Beautiful, Washington Post, and more. He currently serves on the Interior Design Advisory Council for Marymount University, as the co-chairperson for HPMKT Diversity Advocacy Alliance, and has recently launched his e-commerce furnishings site, House of DuVäl.
Transcript
Peter hello and welcome
Speaker:to another episode of the traveling introvert with our career
Speaker:conversation segment that we do once a month.
Speaker:I am really excited to speak to this
Speaker:following human because they popped up in my feed. I have
Speaker:a I have a feed where I stalk other introverts and
Speaker:I sent out a message on their web sibing like, yo, you
Speaker:don't know me, but can you come on my podcast? And the said
Speaker:yes. So I am now going to pass it over
Speaker:to today's guest. Duval, how are we
Speaker:doing? Yay. Hello, I'm well.
Speaker:Thank you so much for having me on. My name is Duvall.
Speaker:I am a residential interior designer in Fairfax, Virginia,
Speaker:based just outside of Washington, DC. And I am an
Speaker:introvert. Well, that's my first question out the window.
Speaker:Now I'm going to be scrambling. What does introversion mean to you when you
Speaker:say you are an introvert? Yeah,
Speaker:obviously I think the main definition that most people know is that just we get
Speaker:our energy by being with ourselves and by ourselves
Speaker:and so where others can relatively drain
Speaker:you out of your energy. I think for me, introversion is really just
Speaker:I find my peace and my calm being
Speaker:centered within myself and with myself. I think that's what my
Speaker:introversion looks like. All right, thank you.
Speaker:Interesting that you said you think most people know that introversion
Speaker:is this, but if you look up the Cambridge dictionary, there's a whole other
Speaker:definition there that is not that. Really?
Speaker:Yeah, I've got a personal vendetta against the Cambridge dictionary. It's been
Speaker:ongoing for years. It's updated slightly and then I went and looked
Speaker:and I was like, no, why are you still doing this? But it's one
Speaker:of the reasons why people feel the way they do about introversion is because there's
Speaker:a lot of outside stuff that says things
Speaker:that might not be correct.
Speaker:I know, right. So with that in mind
Speaker:and you said it's being with yourself, from
Speaker:what I'm gathering, it's also knowing yourself and what you can do. Is
Speaker:there something that you do regularly that has improved
Speaker:your business?
Speaker:Yeah, I mean, there's a number of things I do in regards
Speaker:to my introversion. I do have set times in my
Speaker:schedule that I'm by myself. So I am married for about five years
Speaker:now and we have a little dog and I
Speaker:love my wife and I love my dog, but there are times
Speaker:in our schedule that several hours out of the week is just for me
Speaker:and so that's just for me to recenter. I just need space by
Speaker:myself. I don't need anyone needing anything from me. So
Speaker:that's definitely really big. And even my wife, she's very good about
Speaker:like, hey, you need your time alone because I can get irritable.
Speaker:Also, I time block my schedule pretty well, so I'm
Speaker:a very big person on time blocking, so that my time. I feel like
Speaker:I have control over it because I think also, again, as an introvert, when you
Speaker:have too much spontaneity, and I think that can be draining for me. I can't
Speaker:have too much of just like, anything goes and we go anywhere and do
Speaker:anything. Even though I seem like a fun person, I'm not really a spontaneous
Speaker:person, so I think I do that a lot. Yeah. And it helps. It helps
Speaker:my business. Okay. I want to go in two different directions. One,
Speaker:you mentioned you have a partner, and so
Speaker:how did you communicate with them, your needs as
Speaker:an introvert? I was like, I need to be
Speaker:left alone. I love you, but I need you to leave me
Speaker:alone. That's pretty much what happened.
Speaker:And then, of course, we have therapy.
Speaker:We don't have one now, but we've been through a lot of therapy. Just
Speaker:because I'm a person who I don't feel like I feel like I need
Speaker:help expressing kind of what I need just within
Speaker:myself, for myself and with someone else. Right.
Speaker:And I think that I read as an
Speaker:extrovert, so I think it looks contradictory when
Speaker:it seems like I want to be left alone. But the if you put me
Speaker:around people, like, I seem very lively and social, but then by ourselves, I seem
Speaker:like I don't want to be social. So that was a long we had to
Speaker:learn how to communicate my
Speaker:actions, basically. I don't know if that makes any sense. It does.
Speaker:And so many more people should do therapy
Speaker:just to do therapy because everyone
Speaker:needs it. We're not born and we don't automatically know all the things, and then
Speaker:we meet different people, and different people communicate differently or not.
Speaker:We all have stuff and things. So yes, do that.
Speaker:And really quick. She communicates very differently where she
Speaker:is an identical twin, and she has always had
Speaker:someone. So she's from birth to when we got married, she was always with her
Speaker:twin. I know. And then we got married late in life. So for
Speaker:35 years, she was
Speaker:with someone sharing space, always having space. So then putting
Speaker:that with someone who's a massive introvert,
Speaker:it was a very tricky conversations we were having.
Speaker:Yeah. You all can't see my face, but I'm doing the shocked Pikachu. Oh, no.
Speaker:That's that you all should see her face. Oh, no.
Speaker:Okay. And then the other part of that was you mentioned time
Speaker:blocking. Did you always do time blocking? Or how did you figure
Speaker:out that that was the method that would work for you and your business?
Speaker:Yeah, I didn't always time block. I knew
Speaker:I was always pretty good about my schedule, so if I have events or
Speaker:things to go to, that was always pretty good to be in my
Speaker:calendar because I don't like to miss things. I like to be on time, I
Speaker:like to be early where I can, and I'm very good about commitments. If I
Speaker:say I'm going to do it, I'm going to do it, like, no questions asked.
Speaker:And then as work got busier and the I think the demand
Speaker:on our brand was getting bigger, and it still
Speaker:is. Time blocking makes sure it helps me make sure that I'm
Speaker:not forgetting to do work that I've already committed to, but it
Speaker:also acts as a protection. I can just put time in the office, and
Speaker:if someone asks me something and I don't want to do it, I'll just be
Speaker:like, actually, it's not available. I don't have capacity that day to do
Speaker:it. So I think that also kind of protects me just from,
Speaker:again, my own space and the need to recharge.
Speaker:So it's been super helpful. And so
Speaker:with running your own business, do you have colleagues?
Speaker:Yes, my team consists of it's five of
Speaker:us, and then her team is now two of them, and
Speaker:then we have three ancillary team members
Speaker:that come in and out of the business, kind of like as an
Speaker:independent contractor. So it's a total of was it
Speaker:310, maybe ten of us, 1011, something like that.
Speaker:And so with the amount of people that you have on
Speaker:your team, how do you go about setting boundaries
Speaker:with them and their needs?
Speaker:Good, thoughtful questions. Look at you just being awesome.
Speaker:Well, my team knows how I am, so at this point, they are
Speaker:all kind of like, I don't know, I'm pretty good. I don't know, I'm pretty
Speaker:good about, like, at my desk, I will wear my headsets so
Speaker:that I can just kind of focus, and I don't want to be involved in
Speaker:a lot of conversation and then days and weeks
Speaker:where I think I'm pretty good
Speaker:about just setting my boundaries. Right. If I'm feeling
Speaker:overwhelmed, I will work from home so that I'm not bothering and I'm
Speaker:not disrupting someone else's good space. Right.
Speaker:And then when we have to socialize a lot for our job, so whether we
Speaker:travel for work or we're having to do events for like a week or so,
Speaker:I usually will take the next week, and I'll work from home
Speaker:just to kind of have my own space. So I think everybody kind of reads
Speaker:me pretty well, but I think for the most part, most of the
Speaker:team well, half the team is probably introverts.
Speaker:Okay. And so when you're onboarding, when people don't know you, how do
Speaker:you express what the culture is like in
Speaker:your organization? Yeah, I talk to them
Speaker:about culture a lot, actually. Culture is very big for me. I'm very crazy about
Speaker:my culture because I want everyone to want to come to work.
Speaker:So we cultivate that very heavily. And as far as, like, introversion goes, as
Speaker:far as that, I do kind of let them know up front, I'm like,
Speaker:okay, I seem very social and I'm very personable, but
Speaker:I'm not a really social person, so don't misread it. And sometimes
Speaker:I think my facial expressions, because I might be deep in thought, will
Speaker:look more concerning than I am. So I always try to prep client new
Speaker:people, just like, hey, just don't worry about my face. Anything you need, I'm here
Speaker:for you. And then I think over time, just being around me,
Speaker:I think people can see the dichotomy, I would say,
Speaker:of my brand and what we offer
Speaker:clients versus how I manage my time in the office.
Speaker:So, yeah, that brings us on to clients. How do clients handle the
Speaker:boundaries that you may put up for them?
Speaker:All of our clients are pretty good, but also we have a pretty good onboarding
Speaker:system, and I'm pretty good about
Speaker:managing their expectations. So most clients just kind of read us as
Speaker:extroverts, but they would think nothing different, and we don't have any reason to not
Speaker:tell them otherwise. And then our system is set so that our
Speaker:customer interface for an entire project can be
Speaker:as little as five interactions, which is how I
Speaker:structure the business to
Speaker:minimizing and draining me. I know she's laughing at me
Speaker:and giving happy hands. Happy hands, happy hands.
Speaker:No, you can relate. I'm sure you can relate. I'm sure other listeners can
Speaker:relate. I used to have a lot of touch points with clients,
Speaker:a lot of interaction. And after realizing this is my
Speaker:business and that's not something that gives me life, it drains me.
Speaker:We've set our business up. We have touch points, and in each one of the
Speaker:touch points, I have my team members all
Speaker:with me almost on every visit so that I always have an escape.
Speaker:And my team also knows I sound crazy. The more I talk about this,
Speaker:I think they get it. The can start seeing my facial expressions. Hey,
Speaker:we need to get me out. And it's not because I can't manage it, but
Speaker:it's also because running a business and we're everywhere all
Speaker:the time, I have to reserve energy,
Speaker:and so I can't just give it all at every moment. I have to
Speaker:be strategic with it. And I think that's another thing. Probably most
Speaker:people can relate. Like, every day, I start out with a certain level, and I
Speaker:try to give as much as I can throughout the day strategically.
Speaker:And the when I'm out, I'm out. I don't tell
Speaker:you that's it. And so with your business and your
Speaker:career and the brand that you're building, can you tell me one or two misconceptions
Speaker:that people might have about it?
Speaker:Oh, yeah, we have a ton of misconceptions. My business
Speaker:is we do interior architecture and design. And I
Speaker:think most people, when the think about interior designers, it's just like, oh, pillows
Speaker:and fabric and window treatments, and that is exactly what we do.
Speaker:That's not uncommon, and that's what we do. But I also
Speaker:tell people, like, for us and many other designers, we do full new builds. We
Speaker:work with developers and architects. And what that means is, any
Speaker:house that you walk in, someone had to make decisions for everything in that house,
Speaker:and that's what we do. So your floor color, your window treatments, the trim
Speaker:details, your crown molding, your lighting, your window
Speaker:framework, the cabinets, the knobs, the tile work. Where did
Speaker:it start? Where did it stop? What color is the grout? How tall is the
Speaker:tile? I think a lot of people think builders do that, and I think they
Speaker:think the contractors are doing that. And that's actually not true. That's what designers do.
Speaker:Like, we make every selection where your lighting is placed, how high the lighting
Speaker:is placed, the color of your light bulbs, and then we also
Speaker:come back in with furnishing. So we're doing area rugs, sofas, and
Speaker:chairs. But I think people don't realize how holistic our work
Speaker:is. That's a big misconception.
Speaker:Can I give you one more? Can I give you one more? I think another
Speaker:misconception is that we do this as a hobby, which there are some
Speaker:decorators who do. And so I've had a
Speaker:lot of people well, not as so much now, because we're much more
Speaker:established, but starting your career, they're like, oh, my God, you should help me with
Speaker:my house. Oh, my God. Come over here. I don't do this for
Speaker:fun. I do this and I get paid for it. So
Speaker:it's a very different thing. Yes.
Speaker:Don't get trapped on the friends and family train where you're doing everything at a
Speaker:discount and the yeah, don't do it.
Speaker:Correct me if I'm wrong. Does this mean you deal with commercial properties
Speaker:or residential properties or a mixture? Correct.
Speaker:So we mostly stick with residential, and we can do what we call
Speaker:light commercial. So if it's just FFE, fabric finishes,
Speaker:and we will do that. Like, I can put in chairs
Speaker:and change the walls and colors and flooring, but when it
Speaker:comes to construction of a commercial building, I'm less likely to
Speaker:try that. But inside of a home, I can move anything in the house. I
Speaker:can turn your whole house any
Speaker:kind of way. We rip out the kitchen, stairwells, flooring, all of your
Speaker:lighting, all of your plumbing, and we can put everything back.
Speaker:Wow. That is awesome. And so
Speaker:with the business and the misconceptions,
Speaker:one of those misconceptions probably is the type of people or the amount of
Speaker:people that you have to deal with, many people, because they might assume what you
Speaker:mentioned, that it's just like pillows and floors, but you only deal with one
Speaker:person. I'm assuming from what you've said
Speaker:that that is not the case. So how do you deal with networking
Speaker:for your business and needing to meet different people for different things in different
Speaker:ways? That's fantastic question.
Speaker:Now that we're a team, I can actually delegate our work. And
Speaker:so we have a lot of touch points with a lot of people.
Speaker:So just putting together, let's just say a
Speaker:sofa that alone has several touch points, because
Speaker:as designers, we don't just buy off the floor. So I'm not going to
Speaker:creighton barrel and buying a sofa. I'm actually going to the
Speaker:manufacturer. We're buying the frame. We'll buy the fabric from a different
Speaker:vendor. I'll buy trim work from a different vendor. That has to go to one
Speaker:location for the sofa to be assembled. Then that has to be
Speaker:shipped to a carrier, who will take it to a receiver, who then delivers to
Speaker:us. There are a lot of touch points just for one piece of furniture that
Speaker:doesn't include, like, your tile work and your contractors and then your lighting
Speaker:people and your HVA specialists. So one, if you can
Speaker:delegate, I have different team members working on different things. So I have one team
Speaker:member. She's a purchasing agent, so she manages all of our
Speaker:accounts. So all of the conversations with where we buy materials, she handles that
Speaker:for me. And then we have our project coordinator who kind of navigates, and then
Speaker:our design whatever design team. And then as far
Speaker:as with just conversations, I tried to
Speaker:minimize again, how many wait,
Speaker:was this a part of the question? I feel like I just lost the rest
Speaker:of that question. How do you build your network?
Speaker:Because you have to deal with so many different humans. Sorry about that.
Speaker:Okay. I was rambling my
Speaker:network. Yeah,
Speaker:it's a great question. I'm drained by the
Speaker:question. Good Lord. Okay, so I am very good at networking.
Speaker:That is something that I have put a lot of time into. I'm
Speaker:extremely strategic about that. I'm not a
Speaker:haphazard kind of person. And I've
Speaker:learned that networking has built my company. It has sustained
Speaker:my company. It is what's growing my company. So in doing
Speaker:that, I do try to minimize how much
Speaker:massive interaction I have to have for networking through the week. So I may do
Speaker:one or two events or one or two touch points of something like that to
Speaker:kind of make sure that I come in with enough energy.
Speaker:I also am pretty good about follow ups, staying on top of things
Speaker:and in building my networks with people, just
Speaker:staying on the forefront of people's minds, or just kind of
Speaker:making sure they had a good experience with me, even if they don't remember what
Speaker:I said. How did I make them feel and how do they feel around me?
Speaker:That's very important to me. I guess that's one of the ways I
Speaker:navigate, I guess, networking. So follow up question. You
Speaker:mentioned about being good at follow up, and a lot of times I get
Speaker:clients who are very much like, I don't want to network because then how do
Speaker:I follow up? How do I keep in touch, how do I keep track and
Speaker:then get overwhelmed and then don't want to do it? So how do you
Speaker:keep track? Yeah, I get that. I learned
Speaker:that some of the follow up doesn't have to be as big as I think,
Speaker:because sometimes it is one of those things that
Speaker:you can feel like, oh, God, here's another relationship that I have to cultivate for
Speaker:a long time. I don't have the capacity to manage this. I very much
Speaker:understand that. So moving conversations to emails is very
Speaker:good so that it kind of gives you that space. It doesn't feel like a
Speaker:phone call. I'm also very good about sending small gifts, so
Speaker:like a little thing to an office, whether it's chocolates or
Speaker:wine bottle or florals arrangements, I think that's always a way
Speaker:to show people that you're thinking about them without feeling like there has to be
Speaker:an additional follow up conversation that's been good.
Speaker:Yeah, I think those are some ways. Oh, man. Gifts and
Speaker:cards, if you have that information.
Speaker:All right. So
Speaker:thinking about everything that you've done with
Speaker:your brand and your career and your business, what
Speaker:is something that you would tell or what is something
Speaker:that you wish you had known and would have taken action on
Speaker:ten years ago?
Speaker:Ten years ago, business wise, right? Yeah.
Speaker:Ten years ago. Well, one, I didn't have my business at that time. I would
Speaker:have told myself to start sooner. I wish I had started sooner because I feel
Speaker:like I would be further along. I think in my business, my
Speaker:brand, I think we're doing well for where we are.
Speaker:For the few years that we've been in business, I think we've gained a lot
Speaker:of traction. Very grateful to that whole
Speaker:situation. But I wish I had started sooner. And then in
Speaker:starting the business, learning to
Speaker:create systems and processes that navigate
Speaker:the business is so vital
Speaker:because it can protect our personal energy, it can protect our
Speaker:capacity to manage relationships
Speaker:and the process of our business at whole.
Speaker:I think that's something that a lot of people don't talk enough about, is when
Speaker:you have your own business, you need to know how the business is run
Speaker:and how you want it to run and set systems in place to. Make
Speaker:sure it does to support that. Or you can't scale.
Speaker:Or you can't scale. That's right. You can't get any bigger, can't take on more
Speaker:clients. There's only so much energy you have. Very true. Thank you for all of
Speaker:that. Final question is, in your
Speaker:opinion, is a hot dog a sandwich?
Speaker:First off, the fact that you are so serious about that
Speaker:question, I love it. Secondly, before I
Speaker:answer, hot dogs are my favorite food. Actually,
Speaker:I love hot dogs. And then third, I've
Speaker:never thought about that. And I'm going to go
Speaker:with yes, it is a sandwich. It's a sandwich. What is your
Speaker:reasoning behind hot dogs being a sandwich?
Speaker:Now you have me second guessing. I don't know.
Speaker:I'm going to stick with I will go with no. Okay. It's not a
Speaker:sandwich. I love
Speaker:it. Okay. That's a great question. Yeah,
Speaker:because you get engineers who are very much it's about the structure and how many
Speaker:pieces of bread. It's one of those questions that, depending on how your mind works,
Speaker:depends on where you filter into what you think about it.
Speaker:Yeah. It does have the same applications. There is
Speaker:bread surrounding meat, and there are additional condiments and
Speaker:vegetables attached to it either way, so sounds like a sandwich
Speaker:to me. Wait, how do you wait,
Speaker:what's your answer? Oh, no, I do not have an answer. This is an ongoing
Speaker:question in our household, that is a thing. And if
Speaker:you pick a side, then all bets are off.
Speaker:Got it. Well, if you view it this way but then if you view it
Speaker:this way, is an ice cream sandwich or sandwich? It's a very slippery
Speaker:slope. It's a very slow okay. Does it
Speaker:have to be bread? Does it have to be vegetable? Does it have to be
Speaker:meat? It's a Calzona sandwich.
Speaker:I'm literally going to go back into the office, and I will ask my team
Speaker:this. It's a great conversation thing. I used to do a lot of
Speaker:online sort of co working
Speaker:back in the day, and it was supposed to be a five minute break, and
Speaker:that question would break everything every time. People just keep messaging
Speaker:in the chat about it. So it's a great I love that.
Speaker:So thank you so very much for sharing your time, your expertise, your
Speaker:knowledge, your warmth with us here today. Can you let
Speaker:people know where they can find more about you and the
Speaker:awesome work that you do? You are very kind.
Speaker:Instagram is usually where you guys can find us. The handle is
Speaker:Duvalldesign, LLC. That's
Speaker:D-U-V-A-L-D-E-S-I-G-N
Speaker:ll c. Everything is there that we have our website,
Speaker:Duvallrenals.com, which is my personal last name. Yeah, we
Speaker:would love to connect. All right. Thank you so very much.
Speaker:And, listeners, you can do anything that you
Speaker:want to do. Just manage your energy. Thank you for listening. This is
Speaker:Janice@thecareintrovert.com helping you build your brand and get hired. Have
