The Redundancy That Changed Everything

I was Head of Interior Design. I’d spent three decades building that career, late nights, big projects, the kind of title that looks good when a stranger ask’s ‘what do you do as a job’. And then, in the space of a twenty minute conversation, it was gone.

I remember walking to my car afterwards and just sitting there. Not crying, not panicking, just numb with shock. The kind of shock that comes when something you built your identity around disappears in an instant.

I was 49. It was November. Christmas was just around the corner and I had two boys to feed.

If you’d told me then that three years later I’d be earning more than I ever did in that role, working under 20 hours a week, from my home office or campervan somewhere on my travels, I don’t think I’d have believed you. It felt too far from where I was standing that day.

But here’s what I’ve learned since. The redundancy wasn’t the end of my design career. It was the push I needed to build one that actually fit my life.

So I started small. E-design, no site visits, no chasing contractors, no managing a team through someone else’s budget. Just my eye for interior design and a client who wanted my help. It felt almost too simple at first, like it couldn’t possibly replace a corporate salary.

But it has. And it’s done more than that.

I’ve worked from my sofa in my pyjamas. I’ve worked from a café in another country. I’ve picked my kids up from school on a Tuesday when they were sick without asking anyone’s permission. None of that was available to me as Head of Interior Design, no matter how good the title sounded.

I made a video about this recently, the whole arc from that meeting room at 49 to where I am now at 52. I’ll link it below if you want to watch it.

What I want you to take from this isn’t just my story. It’s the question underneath it.

If the job you built your identity around disappeared tomorrow, what would you build instead?

For me, the answer was already there. I just hadn’t given myself permission to build it yet.

If you want to future proof your interior design career, then click the link here and join the other designers who are doing just that.