If you’re an aspiring interior designer, career changer, or established designer trying to grow a sustainable business, you may feel pressure to know everything before you begin. You may also believe that growth means taking on more projects, hiring more people, or becoming the person who can handle every detail of every project.
But Annie Obermann’s journey with Forge and Bow offers a different perspective. Annie and her husband and business partner, Jordan Obermann, didn’t start with formal design training or a perfectly structured business plan. They learned through renovating their own homes, working with partners, making mistakes, and eventually building a boutique design-build firm known for thoughtful residential renovation, craftsmanship, and high-end design. This year, Forge and Bow is celebrating its 10th anniversary.
In this episode, I talk with Annie about what happens when you are brave enough to start before you know everything—and humble enough to recognize when you need better systems, experienced team members, and outside support. We explore client experience, project management, team communication, hiring, professional development, branding, delegation, and how to build an interior design career that supports both your professional and personal life.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
How courage can launch your interior design career
Why sustainable growth requires strong business processes
How team communication improves the client experience
Why competency matters when hiring design professionals
How delegation creates more freedom and business growth
6 Proven Strategies on Building a Sustainable Interior Design Business
Building a successful interior design business isn’t simply about creating beautiful spaces. It’s about creating a business structure that can consistently deliver an excellent client experience while giving you and your team room to learn, grow, and have a life outside of work.
Annie’s story gives us several practical lessons about growing from a designer who is doing everything into a business owner who can lead a capable team, improve systems, and create a culture where people feel supported and empowered.
1| Be Brave Enough to Start Before You Know Everything
One of the biggest lessons I took from Annie’s story is that you don’t have to have everything figured out before you begin.
Annie and Jordan didn’t formally train as interior designers. Their journey started with renovating a 1910 bungalow and gradually taking on more projects. They learned through experience, partnerships, mistakes, and simply being willing to say yes to opportunities—including an unexpected opportunity with an HGTV production company. That experience ultimately pushed them to build the business infrastructure that became Forge and Bow.
Annie’s advice to designers who are afraid they don’t know enough is simple: “Just be brave and start.” She also reminds us that if something doesn’t work, you can tweak it and try again.
You don’t need to know everything to begin building your interior design career. You need the willingness to learn as you go.
2| Build the Right Team Around Your Weaknesses
As your interior design business grows, you can’t remain the person who does everything.
Annie and Jordan eventually built a team of 14 people, split approximately evenly between the design and build sides of their business. Their projects move through project coordinators, architects, lead interior designers, estimators, production managers, project managers, and trades.
The goal isn’t simply to hire more people. It’s to build a team where everyone’s strengths complement your own.
Annie put it beautifully: “Hire what strengths you don’t have.”
For me, this is one of the most important principles of sustainable business growth. You don’t need to become amazing at everything. You need to recognize where your strengths are—and then bring in people who are stronger in the areas where you aren’t.
3| Choose Competency Over Personality When Hiring
This was one of Annie’s most practical lessons for anyone building an interior design team.
For a long time, Annie and Jordan hired people they liked. They valued good work ethic, good relationships, and people they enjoyed being around. But they eventually realized that personality alone wasn’t enough to deliver the level of client experience they wanted.
Annie explains, “We were hiring for personality for a long time.” But sometimes the competency simply wasn’t high enough for where they wanted Forge and Bow to go.
That’s a critical distinction.
You want good people on your team, but you also need people who are capable of performing the work at the level your clients expect. Annie’s advice is to be “very slow to hire, be very quick to separate when it’s not working.”
The right hire doesn’t just make your business easier to manage. They directly affect your profitability, your client experience, your reputation, and your stress level as a business owner.
4| Create a Culture of Safe Questions and Continuous Learning
As designers, we’re often afraid to admit when we don’t know something. But Annie and Jordan have intentionally created a culture at Forge and Bow where asking questions is encouraged—even when those questions come from the owners themselves.
Annie explains that because she and Jordan are the least experienced people on their team in some areas, they’re constantly asking questions. Rather than making people feel uncomfortable about what they don’t know, this has created an environment where everyone is willing to learn from one another.
Annie says, “There aren’t any stupid questions.” She believes it’s important to have an open mind, even when you’re an experienced professional who encounters a detail or approach you’ve never seen before.
I love this because continuous learning isn’t only for aspiring designers or young professionals. It applies to all of us. A strong interior design team should be a place where people can ask questions, challenge processes that aren’t working, share their expertise, and continue developing their skills.
5| Build Systems That Protect the Client Experience
Beautiful design isn’t enough if the process of getting there is chaotic.
Annie and Jordan discovered that inconsistent processes created a difficult experience for clients—even when the finished homes were beautiful. They eventually focused heavily on improving their systems and the flow of information throughout the business.
For Forge and Bow, client experience became a major driver of business growth. Annie points out the difference between a client saying their house looks beautiful, but the process was stressful, and a client feeling that the entire experience was enjoyable, easy, and that they were heard.
That’s where team communication becomes so important.
The goal is for the client to provide their preferences—not repeatedly provide information that the internal team should already have. When your systems work, information moves smoothly from design through construction and project management, and your client feels taken care of rather than responsible for managing the project themselves.
6| Choose Authenticity Over Imitation
As you build your interior design career or business, it can be tempting to look at what everyone else is doing and try to recreate their style, aesthetic, or business model.
Annie’s advice is to resist that temptation. Instead, pay attention to what genuinely interests you and lean into the things you’re passionate about. She explains that authenticity comes across to others when you’re building a business around what you truly like rather than trying to imitate someone else.
For Annie and Jordan, historic homes and large renovations are a significant part of their work because they genuinely enjoy figuring out how to preserve the charm of an older home while creating more modern layouts and functionality.
That’s an important lesson for your own branding, too. You don’t need to look like every other interior designer online. Your interests, point of view, design aesthetic, and approach to the client experience can become part of what makes your business distinctive.
Don’t imitate someone else’s version of success. Build a business that feels authentically yours.
Final Thoughts
Annie’s story is a wonderful reminder that building a successful interior design career doesn’t mean chasing constant growth or trying to imitate someone else’s business.
Forge and Bow has reached a point where Annie and Jordan aren’t focused on becoming bigger—they’re focused on becoming better, creating more peace for their team, supporting family life, attracting aligned clients, and taking on higher-end projects with better budgets.
For me, that’s a powerful definition of sustainable success. Your business should support the life you want to live—not consume it.
Meet Annie Obermann
Annie Obermann co-leads Forge and Bow, a Colorado-based boutique design-build firm, with her husband and business partner, Jordan Obermann. Together, they have transformed the residential landscape of Northern Colorado through timeless, warm, nostalgic design paired with expert craftsmanship. Annie brings expertise in interior architecture, while Jordan contributes a strong spatial and visionary perspective. Their work includes historic renovations and custom new builds, with a focus on creating cohesive, functional, and elegant homes that reflect each client’s unique story. Forge and Bow is celebrating its 10th anniversary and is known for thoughtful problem-solving, meticulous attention to detail, and a commitment to quality.
Connect With Annie Obermann
Website: Forge and Bow
Instagram: @forgeandbow
Your Next Steps
If you’re serious about building your interior design career or growing your interior design business, you don’t have to figure everything out alone.
My Design Mentor is designed to give you the support, education, and community you need to keep moving forward. Inside, you’ll find 12 learning modules, a book club, special projects, a community of designers for feedback, and monthly one-on-one coaching calls with me where we can focus on the specific challenges you’re facing in your career.
If you’re ready to get serious about your next steps, sign up for My Design Mentor and let’s build your design career together.
Check Out Our Spotify Playlist!
Resources & Freebies
- Free webinar, “From Passion to Profit,” and learn the 5 Money Moves to start your interior design business right
- Your Roadmap to a Career in Interior Design
- Furnishings Investment Guide
- Remodel Budget and Timeline Guide
- 3 Things I Wish I had known when I Started my Career
- The best books every interior designer should have
Take a Quiz!
- Find Your Perfect Interior Design Style if you are curious about your design style
- Find Out What Type of Interior Designer You Should Be!
Let’s Connect!
- Email me at [email protected] if you have suggested topics
- DM me on Instagram at @rwarddesign if you have a burning question
Subscribe & Review!
If you love this episode, don’t forget to hit subscribe and leave me a rating & review! Click here.