We’re looking forward to introducing you to Emilie Schiller. Check out our conversation below.
Hi Emilie, thank you so much for taking time out of your busy day to share your story, experiences and insights with our readers. Let’s jump right in with an interesting one: What is something outside of work that is bringing you joy lately?
My dogs. I feel like this is one of the reasons that people have pets, but every time I see them play together or do something ridiculous that is totally in line with their personalities, it makes me smile and I love it so much. Also, the excitement they have when you come home after having been away for even an hour is just perfect; we don’t deserve them.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I am the owner of Home Methods, a residential interior design company. We work with clients on end-to-end design projects, which means we do everything from determining a concept through to executing the project – that means we manage all the vendors, we handle all returns and deliveries, and we style the space so it actually feels finished (and not like a collection of furniture in a room!). Our goal is to create bold, unique interiors that work for people’s lives (so if you have 3 kids, we aren’t going to focus on impractically light sofas!), and we do that by managing the entire process so it’s one less thing for our clients to worry about, giving them back time in their day that they can spend on something else.
Great, so let’s dive into your journey a bit more. Who taught you the most about work?
Definitely my mom. She’s retired now (although that took some time!), but watching her work while I was growing up was incredibly formative. She was a teacher, and one of the things I remember was at the beginning of every school year, she would call all her students’ parents and introduce herself to them. In the 90s when I wanted to use our landline this was very annoying to me, but in hindsight, it’s a level of client service that I have tried to adopt when working – that idea of going the extra mile to make sure people feel comfortable with you and that they can confide in you is so important, especially in interior design when you’re in people’s houses and dealing with personal or tricky conversations, it’s so helpful when people feel like they can have an honest conversation with you, and they feel that way because you’ve shown them, from the beginning, that they can trust you and you’ll be there for them throughout the process.
What fear has held you back the most in your life?
Fear of not being perfect. I’m a very typical type-A, only child who was a very good student and always did everything I was supposed to do, and I was supposed to do everything in a way that was perfect and had no mistakes, so for the most part, I did that. And when I was younger and I made mistakes, it was really hard for me! This sounds like an asshole thing to say, but because I spent a lot of time focusing on not making mistakes, I didn’t make that many of them, and so I had no coping skills when I did. Which means that as I got older and things wouldn’t go the way I had planned, it was sometimes a little dramatic because I didn’t know how to handle that.
Now, after a lot of time and therapy, I’ve started to move away from this idea that everything has to be 100% amazing and perfect all the time. When I was in consulting, we used to have this saying that “perfect is the enemy of good,” and now I feel like I’m truly starting to embody that approach because I don’t have this fixation on perfection anymore. I want to do the best I can, and if mistakes get made along the way, that’s ok, I’ll fix it and move on; the mistake isn’t a reflection of who I am.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. Is the public version of you the real you?
It’s a version of the real me. I don’t think anyone is one thing consistently all the time forever and ever, and so I do think whatever I show you at that moment is who I am that day. For client interactions, that may be a more formal version of myself, if I’m seeing friends, it may be a more extroverted version of myself, for my husband, it might be a view of my sadness that day. I think when we ask too much of people, the cracks start to show, and I want to see those cracks, and I try to show that, because that’s what makes me interesting and I feel like those are the things that people can connect with.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. What is the story you hope people tell about you when you’re gone?
Is it that Maya Angelou quote that people will remember how you made them feel? That’s the story that I want people to tell about me when I’m gone – that I made them feel seen and that I was there for them if they needed something. If they remember that, and the feeling of fun and good times we spent together, that’s a good story for me.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://homememthods.com
- Instagram: homemethods
- Facebook: homemethods
Image Credits
Tommy Sheldon
Constance Gauthier
Amanda Archibald
