From Fear to Full-Time Design: Lexi Westergard on Starting Slow, Scaling Smart, and Staying Rooted in Purpose

What if the thing that scares you most is exactly where you're meant to start?

In this episode, I sit down with interior designer and business owner Lexi Westergard, who shares her journey of building a thriving design firm while raising young kids—and facing down her own fear of rejection. From launching her first project with a newborn at home to now running a full-service design studio and virtual sessions with clients nationwide, Lexi opens up about the slow start, the mindset shifts, and the systems that made it all possible.

We talk about:

• The messy middle of launching before you feel ready
• How motherhood shaped her vision for business
• Creating boundaries, balance, and beauty in both home and work
• Why staying curious, courageous, and connected is the secret to sustainability

If you’ve ever felt behind, unsure, or afraid to begin—this conversation will remind you that purpose isn’t found all at once. It’s built piece by piece, in the ordinary, the unexpected, and the brave yes.

Keywords

interior design, entrepreneurship, work-life balance, design education, online design services, mentorship, women in business, overcoming fear, creative fulfillment, home design

Summary

In this conversation, Lexi Westergard, an interior designer, shares her journey from a stay-at-home mom to a successful business owner. She discusses the evolution of her design services, the importance of education, and the challenges of balancing work and family life. Lexi emphasizes the significance of overcoming fear, the value of community, and the fulfillment she finds in her work. She offers practical advice for aspiring designers and highlights the importance of serving others and maintaining relationships with family.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Lexi Westergaard Design
01:57 The Evolution of Online Design Services
04:56 Personal Fulfillment in Interior Design
09:02 The Journey to Becoming a Designer
12:00 Navigating Early Career Challenges
16:56 Building Confidence and Overcoming Fear
24:00 Launching a Business as a Stay-at-Home Mom
27:56 Growth and Expansion of the Business
28:37 Navigating Business Tools and Overhead Costs
31:51 Overcoming Fear and Taking the Leap
33:46 Balancing Work and Family Life
35:40 The Importance of Continuous Improvement
38:32 Building Relationships and Networking
40:11 Quality Time with Family
44:42 Struggles with Balance and Presence
50:17 The Power of Serving Others
54:44 Advice for Aspiring Designers

Aligned & Ascending is an 8-week space where I help you get clear on your next step, your message, your offers—all of it—so you can stop second-guessing everything and actually build the purpose-driven business you’ve been thinking about.

So if you’re craving clarity and momentum—and a business that feels like you—DM me the word ALIGN on Instagram to get all the info.

Transcript

Kindra Morse (00:00)
So Lexi Westergaard, that is the name of your business, correct? That's awesome. I love it though, because it's you. It's your business. It's your vision of what you want to create in people's homes. first off, just talk to me a little bit about, I think what I love about your business is that you do so much online and you do what you call digital sessions.

Lexi Westergard (00:07)
Yes it is, very creative. ⁓

Yeah.

Kindra Morse (00:27)
For someone like me that loves your work, that lives states away, talk a little bit about what you do in your business today.

Lexi Westergard (00:35)
So I'm an interior designer. So my business is Lexi West regard design. Again, very creative, just my name. ⁓ so we have, we do specialize in full service interiors. So we do a lot of new builds, remodels, full furnishings, but we are getting a lot of people that wanted to ⁓ work with us that just weren't in the scale. So we created what we call design sessions where it's an hour video chat and it's just with me. ⁓

And we've done where we help with kitchen remodels. We just did one that was for a fireplace. They were getting ready to get a new fireplace. They didn't love the design that ⁓ the contractor came up with. in real time, I was just able to redesign it. And we picked paint colors, tile, because we have all those samples here in our office. And so ⁓

Yeah, we can get a lot done in an hour, especially if they come prepared with, you know, their goals and what their end product is. Sometimes they might need to get an additional session if it's larger scope, but we just feel like that's our way to be able to help kind of everyone ⁓ instead of just our full service clients.

Kindra Morse (01:50)
How much of your time do you feel you spend with local clients where you're walking in their homes versus online clients?

Lexi Westergard (01:57)
So the online is a small portion. We do work with clients out of state, but typically those projects, if they're full service, during the pandemic, we were able to really streamline our communication with out of state projects. And we kind of know when we need to be on site, when we don't need to be there, and how to communicate with the builders.

through digital. also, not to get too much into it, but if you're building a home, we create what's called a design book. And what that is, is think of it like the architect creates the floor plans and the outside. Well, we're doing the inside elements. So we're elevating all the interior walls, which include like millwork, lighting heights. We call out all the materials that we select. ⁓

We'll create spec schedules so that the builder knows what to buy, where the materials go in each space. We show that what layout we want the tile in. It's very detailed and it takes a lot of time to complete that, but we just find that when we have that element that the project goes a lot smoother and we know that they're executing it properly versus having to guess what layout we want, what grout color. We always joke that

⁓ People just think, ⁓ your job's so fun, you just shop and pick out fun fabrics. And it's like, that's such a small percentage of what we actually do. What we actually do is executing all the interior details. Like even just doing millwork, we're choosing all the trim pieces ⁓ on the wall. That could be five different materials and we're laying it out. We're dimensioning it out. And then we're also communicating with the contractor.

⁓ usually on a weekly basis to ensure that everything is going well and managing ⁓ those aspects, but also just taking the stress off of the homeowners because a big part of building a home is the decision fatigue. They don't even know how to answer the contractor's questions and we're able to fill that in for them and it takes us, you know, a few minutes. We just actually had ⁓

a client that was choosing a stain sample because we always get stain samples and then approve them because

Longer the short is like every wood takes it differently. And so we always want to prove those before it goes in. It was for a built-in. So she came into our studio and was like, what color should we do? And I'm like, this one. She's like, wait, that was so fast. How did you do that? I'm like, years of experience, you know? And so something that could take a homeowner hours to decide and then they second guess it, we're able to do a minutes because of experience. And, you know, we do this for a living.

Kindra Morse (04:56)
Yeah, so

how does it feel to be doing that service for other people and how does that relate to you feeling fulfilled and living in your purpose in what you do?

Lexi Westergard (05:07)
Yeah, I love what I do because we get to meet so many different walks of life. And what we do is so personal. And I love being a part of this big aspect of clients. Your home is a sanctuary. It's more than just a place you live. like to think back of like, it's where basically the backdrop of your memories are made. And so,

that's always been super important to me and I find that ⁓ I want to give that to other clients and I just love that aspect of it.

Kindra Morse (05:44)
Yeah, so growing up, did you always know I want to be an interior design or did you have other things that you thought you would want to pursue as an adult?

Lexi Westergard (05:56)
I did not know until probably my junior year of high school that that was even like a thought. So I look back of when I was younger, I wanted to be like a pediatrician, ⁓ a PI, which is hilarious because yeah, like I remember seventh grade, I was like, I wanna be a PI, which makes sense because I love crime podcasts and things. So I'm like, that's hilarious. And then I wanted to do hair.

⁓ and I actually was signed up my junior year to do the in-school program where you go your senior year of high school to hair school. And so me and my best friend at the time were going to go do that. And I did a project in one of my classes where you could choose two different.

⁓ careers. So I was like, here I'm for sure doing that. And then the design was kind of an afterthought that I was just like, maybe I'll do that. But I think that that's kind of what planted the seed ⁓ of wanting to do it as a career.

And so after working in hair for a year, which I loved, I loved, I was an assistant, I loved assisting and I loved the salon I worked for, ⁓ I decided, you know, maybe I want to do something different. And I think it comes from, honestly, my daddy's a chiropractor and I had a bad back. I was in like lots of car accidents as a teenager. And so he's like, it's so bad on your back, you know?

So I decided, you know, maybe I will switch to design and do that. I can always come back to hair. And so that's kind of when I decided to go to school was, I think a year and a half after graduating hair school, yeah, that I went back to school for interior design.

Kindra Morse (07:45)
So you actually had a break between high school and going back to college?

Lexi Westergard (07:49)
Yeah, I to, sorry, repeat that.

Kindra Morse (07:54)
So you had, did you go straight into college after high school or did you have a break between graduating?

Lexi Westergard (08:00)
Okay, gotcha. So I worked a year in hair. And then when I was ⁓ after that year being out of high school, doing hair, my friend actually said, do you want to move to Hawaii with me for the summer? And I was like, ⁓

no, like I have my career going, I'm going to start getting like my own clients. But then I thought, you know, when am I ever going to have the chance to move to Hawaii? So I said, okay, let's do it. So I went to Hawaii. And then that break of like not really working, I worked at like the Polynesian Culture Center, which is like, did luau's and all this stuff, I worked there in Hawaii. So I did that for the summer. And then coming back, that's when I decided to go to design school. So I like

think that that break really kind of allowed me to think about other possibilities of if I wanted to do hair school or go to design school. ⁓ I don't know if I would have changed to be honest, so but who knows.

Kindra Morse (09:02)
wonder how

many people take that much time between graduating high school and then actually go to college. Because I feel if you don't go to college right after high school, the odds of going back to college probably drop pretty substantially. But when you made that decision, did you know in your heart, this is more in alignment with how I want to show up in the world, or were you unsure?

Lexi Westergard (09:24)
I'll be unsure. I was 19 at the time. think another thing, another seed that planted is I had a friend ⁓ that was in kind of the same friend group that was going to design school. So then I was like, this is kind of interesting because it was a six month program. It wasn't like a full four year degree. So I think that that made it feel easy to switch to as well where it was like, I'm not going to have to do four years of college. I could do this vocational school that

only teaches design and then work after that.

Kindra Morse (09:57)
So

I'm just curious, since you are now running your own business in design and you went through that schooling, how much do you think having that schooling played a part in your success? How necessary is that?

Lexi Westergard (10:11)
I think

a big part, I think definitely a big part. There's things that you learn at design school that I think are really important that are foundational aspects. You know, we did art history, you learn the history of furniture, space planning, I think is super important scale. There's like different design rules that I feel like a lot of people are like.

you could break them, but at the same time, there are like principles that make a room look nice. And I think that that gave me that foundation. I did not learn AutoCAD, which I really wish I would have learned AutoCAD. ⁓

So that's kind of always my advice that people are like, I want to start my design business, but what should I do? I'm like, you got to learn AutoCAD. That is just so important. If you want to be a designer, if you want to just do decorating, you don't necessarily need to, but we're heavily in AutoCAD and SketchUp and doing drawings, renderings. It's a huge part of our business, especially if you're doing new construction.

remodels, you can look at a space and have an idea of what you're going to lay out, but until you get on paper, that's where you can really see the possibilities and different layouts and things like that.

Kindra Morse (11:26)
So when you got done with this vocational school, did you go straight into working within the design field?

Lexi Westergard (11:33)
I did. Yeah, I found a job at a furniture store. So I worked there. And then ⁓ my husband and I ended up getting married. So I think we were dating while I was in design school. We ended up getting married and he was going to school up in Utah. So then we moved up there. I got another job at another furniture company. And

interesting enough during that time I did the design where I would help customers that go into their home help them and then sell our product. Well it was commission based and my husband was in school so I got a little nervous about being commission based. They would give you like you know I think it was like two thousand dollars a month at the beginning to kind of get you on your feet and then it was full commission. Yeah like a base and ⁓

Kindra Morse (12:24)
like a bass.

Lexi Westergard (12:30)
Once that was up, I was thinking, I feel like I want something more stable. I ended up doing their ordering. I did their orders. By the time I was done and I left there, I was doing four people's jobs. I ended up taking on the ordering, delivery team, and customer service. I really contribute that to being the foundation of learning the backend of running a business.

a lot of what we do is like ordering, obviously customer service, filing claims, the furniture, which obviously I have a team that does that. But when I started out and was doing everything, that really helped me.

Kindra Morse (13:14)
At that time, did you have a plan of having your own business at some point?

Lexi Westergard (13:19)
Okay, say that again, you broke up.

Kindra Morse (13:21)
At that time when you're running all these different positions, was that intentional? Did you think, I'm gonna learn all this stuff so that I am better prepared for my business or was that unplanned and that's just the way it worked out?

Lexi Westergard (13:35)
Okay, it kept breaking up. Can you say it again?

Kindra Morse (13:38)
That's okay. So when you're working through all these different positions and your motivation is to have more consistent income, were you also at the time thinking this is going to prepare me for running my own business or was that, did that happen as almost unintentional?

Lexi Westergard (13:59)
I think I always had even in design school, like aspect of like, oh, it'd be fun to do something on the side once I had kids and start my own thing. But no, it was definitely not something that I was at the forefront of my mind thinking like, oh, this is gonna help me when I start my own business. This is what I'm gonna do. No, definitely not. But I think I always kind of had that in the back of my head, but not the forefront.

Kindra Morse (14:27)
Yeah, I think there's so many things that we go through in life that these different experiences that we don't realize are preparing us for something down the road. And you go through seasons and you're doing different jobs thinking, I don't even like this. And then later you realize that served a purpose for me.

Lexi Westergard (14:45)
Totally. I can't agree with that more because there were times I had a long commute that I didn't really love doing that, but it definitely helped me down the road for sure.

Kindra Morse (14:57)
So after that job, did you, I wanna say you told me you had another job.

Lexi Westergard (15:04)
Yes, I had a couple, to be honest. So ⁓ we moved back to Arizona and it was in 2008. And so the, you know, that was kind of a horrible time to the construction, especially in Arizona, the construction business was not doing great. And if I'm being honest, I really felt insecure that I didn't know how to do AutoCAD. At that time, I kind of understood that a lot of

Kindra Morse (15:30)
No, what is AutoCAD? I have no idea what that is. No, it's fine.

Lexi Westergard (15:32)
Okay, I'm so sorry. So AutoCAD

is, I know sometimes I talk and then realize, wait, this is like a second language to someone else. So AutoCAD is the program we use for floor plans. So every architect uses AutoCAD to create their floor plans and the building aspect of a home. And so we do that for furniture placement, we'll elevate walls, which means we're just kind of working our way up. And so,

kind of as if you're standing in the room and we'll do like a kitchen and elevate how we want the hood to look, the proportions. It helps us to see what the space is gonna look like before it's actually built.

Kindra Morse (16:13)
So you knew about the program, but you had no experience with the program. And so that limiting belief of, don't know enough about that stopped you.

Lexi Westergard (16:16)
Mm-hmm.

I think so, yeah, definitely. And then I think also the limiting belief of no one's gonna hire me because I don't know that. And then also the market, I didn't even try. I think that for a lot of years I had a fear of rejection. And I think I still sometimes do to be honest. Like I'm afraid to put myself out there because I'm afraid of that rejection.

And this year I've been like, I'm going to network more and just put myself out there because what's the worst that can happen? But I mean, that's taken me a long time to get over. And I know a lot. Yeah, definitely. And and yeah, so I I really think I could have benefited from working for a designer prior.

Kindra Morse (16:56)
Well, like how long did that hold you back from stepping into actually building your business?

Lexi Westergard (17:15)
I mean, I know I could have because a lot of these things that I learned like a design book that I kind of explained at the beginning. ⁓

I learned all that stuff the hard way of just trying to figure it out. And then obviously I networked with other designers in my area that then we kind of help each other out, which is so nice. But, you know, that took a long time to kind of figure out. Like my first projects, I was hand sketching things, you know. there's just, you know, hindsight's 20-20. There's a lot of things that I'm like, oh, I could have done this and this and this differently, but at the same time, I wouldn't be where I am today.

Kindra Morse (17:25)
the slow way.

and

Lexi Westergard (17:53)
without all of those things and I also really pride myself in like I can just figure out anything. I've always kind of thought that's about myself and so although like the business side I've like taken years to develop I eventually knew I could do it but now thinking back I'm like I should have like paid to take I did pay to do some courses like a designer was doing a course so then that's how I learned about

different aspects of the back end. ⁓ yeah, now it's like, I would have probably done more courses to learn things quicker.

Kindra Morse (18:29)
Right, now

you prior to actually starting your business, so how many years was it from when you finished that vocational course and launched your own business? How many years? Nine years. So, and there was a period in there where you worked for your dad?

Lexi Westergard (18:41)
I think nine years. Yeah.

Yeah, so I worked for my dad. ⁓ I worked for a school with kids that have autism. ⁓ So I did that. Yeah, definitely. And then I've always loved kids. ⁓ But anyway, so then I went to work for my dad. I was kind the office manager.

Kindra Morse (18:56)
That must be near to your heart.

Lexi Westergard (19:09)
for him and I am glad that I did that because my mom works there too. So we'd go to lunch a lot and it was fun to have that time with them. ⁓ But yeah, it wasn't until after I had my kids that I started my design business.

Kindra Morse (19:28)
Yeah, so your daughter was how old?

Lexi Westergard (19:31)
She was two and a half and no, he was like six weeks. And I think he might've been four weeks to be honest, because I started my business April, 2015 and he was born March, 2015, like the end of March. So.

Kindra Morse (19:33)
and your son was six months.

six weeks! He's tiny!

Wow. So crazy

time to decide. I think now is the time to launch the business. How did that come about?

Lexi Westergard (19:55)
Yeah, exactly.

So after I had my daughter, Instagram was kind of 2012. So Instagram, I started following some designers on Instagram. And I went to it's kind of like a parade of home where you go and you you can go through different homes and see what designers and architects and builders done they kind of showcase their work.

And that kind of gave me the bug again that I'm like, I really want to do something creative. Like, I feel like I could really do this. ⁓ at the time I was a stay at home mom, so I quit my dad's working for my dad and was a stay at home mom, which I always wanted to be. And...

Then I decided, I think I'll do it on the side. So then when my daughter was little, I asked my friend, she was wanting to redo some of her house. I said, let me do it for free and I'll help you. And so I helped her do that. then, ⁓ cause I was thinking, I'll get portfolio images. And ⁓ ultimately I ended up not getting portfolio images, but she referred me to a patient of hers and...

Kindra Morse (21:10)
Why did you not, I

know that you struggled with the fact that you did not have a portfolio. That was something that you told yourself is the reason that you couldn't start, even though everyone starts without a portfolio. No one, I guess if you consider doing it for free, but even then you have to get free work without a portfolio. Everyone has to start without a portfolio, but why did you not get the pictures for the portfolio in that scenario?

Lexi Westergard (21:16)
Yeah.

true.

I think it's because we never finished the spaces, to be honest. So it was kind of like we did a little here, a little there, but it wasn't enough of a complete space that I wanted to showcase. ⁓ But she referred me to my first client who was...

single dad at the time moved into a new home and needed someone to do all the furnishings. And so he really trusted me and he didn't ask for a portfolio. He just trusted because he was referred to me by this mutual friend. And so long story short, while I was pregnant with my son, he was wanting me to work for work for him, you know, hire me.

I had a really hard pregnancy. had some preterm labor. The way my son was on my nerves, I couldn't hardly walk. So even going to the grocery store to ride a scooter, which is super humbling. ⁓ then six weeks prior to my son being born, my husband broke his leg. And he was the one grocery shopping, cleaning the house, doing everything, because I could hardly move. So that was a huge...

Kindra Morse (22:41)
gosh.

Lexi Westergard (22:51)
you know, trial in our lives. And so I'm like, there's no way.

So then when he came back a month later after I had my son, I knew this doesn't come around very often and the chance of this happening is pretty slim. And so I said, okay, I'm going to do it. And at the time I had no clue how to charge. you know, I had an LLC at the time because I think I did an LLC prior to even getting my first project because I knew I needed to make that, you know, those steps. But

Yeah, it was crazy times, you know, up in the middle of the night on my phone sourcing and just when the kids napped, I would work and wake up early to work. And yeah, it was wild times.

Kindra Morse (23:42)
Be to that

inner knowing that this is something I feel called to step into. I feel capable. I may be scared, but I know I need to take courage and step into this. What did that feel like in that time with a four week old?

Lexi Westergard (24:00)
You know, I feel like it was all a blur, to be honest. But ⁓ I really credit my parents because they have always taught me that I can do anything that I put my mind to. I remember a distinct moment of my childhood when my dad said, you know, Lexi, you really could do anything you put your mind to. You could be the president if you wanted to. That's just like your personality. And so that always stuck with me. And so I just knew.

I think that their courage in me allowed me to have courage in myself and know like

I can figure it out. also have this weird characteristic of I kind of like doing things that scare me a little bit because I don't know, like I love, I've skydived, I've done canyoneering. I like things that like make me a little scared and get me out of my comfort zone because I don't know why. Why I am like that, but I do and I think that that's part of starting a business or starting anything and I just know like, you know, I'll figure it out. And especially now with like chat,

and like the internet, like we didn't even have all of those aspects ⁓ or resources ⁓ that you really can't figure out anything nowadays.

Kindra Morse (25:21)
I think it's so interesting though that you would be the kind of person that loves to skydive and likes to do scary things and still struggled with stepping into building your own business for so long, right? Because I think because it ties back to you're not putting yourself out there when you go skydiving. You're not putting yourself out there when you do something scary because there's no result that you're expecting from it. Whereas when you decide I'm going to put myself out there as a business owner,

Lexi Westergard (25:34)
Yeah.

Go.

Yeah.

Kindra Morse (25:50)
Now I'm going to be judged. I could be rejected. even a person, yeah. Like what do you make that mean about you?

Lexi Westergard (25:54)
It's the rejection. It's the rejection. Yeah.

Honestly, there's probably like something in my childhood where I was rejected and it's just created this like narrative in my head, to be honest. I don't know what it is, but I feel like that's what it has to be.

Kindra Morse (26:11)
Even

Even today, you have

over 100,000 followers on your Instagram page. You have a very large business. Maybe speak to the scale of the business you've built and you still have that feeling, right?

Lexi Westergard (26:25)
I think it's definitely less. I'm definitely feeling more confident in who I am ⁓ because I've done this for so long, but definitely I feel like even two years ago I had a lot more of that fear of rejection, but now I kind of am like, what's the worst that can happen? know, I've kind of, it's shifted I think in me, ⁓ but yeah, definitely it was there in the past.

Kindra Morse (26:46)
Yeah.

What would you say to the woman that's listening that let's just say her heart is for interior design, but she's letting fear of rejection stop her? Like what would you say to her right now?

Lexi Westergard (27:07)
Honestly, what's the worst that can happen? I think sometimes if you think worst case scenario, then you realize that's actually not that bad.

that kind of maybe calms your nerves a little bit. ⁓ I did have the luxury of once launching my business as a stay at home mom. So we weren't worried about having an income because I didn't bring up income. Everything was extra. So I think that that definitely helped me with launching my business. It honestly was just like, this will be something fun. I am a busy body by nature. And ⁓ I just kind of thought, you know, this will be something fun to

to

do on the side, creative, see if I can actually do this. ⁓ And then it got to a point where it was like, this is actually a thing. Like, I need to hire employees. ⁓ It was probably two years that I hired my first employee. ⁓ then two years ago, I finally got a studio. So we were working out of my home for a while. ⁓

Kindra Morse (27:56)
How long was that?

Lexi Westergard (28:12)
And then, you know, and I didn't want that overhead cost, but now it was like, OK, I need a place that my employees can go that if I'm out of town or sick that they can go and we have space for all of our samples. And so I took that leap two years ago and it's been probably one of the best decisions I've done in my business.

Kindra Morse (28:30)
can imagine. So as far as starting a business like this, there's really not a lot of overhead.

Lexi Westergard (28:37)
No, well, there is ⁓ a lot of programs. I I probably have like seven to 10 different programs that I use for my business. You know, you an invoicing software. You have AutoCAD, SketchUp, you know, all those kind of programs.

Photoshop, we now have Canva, and that's just the creative side. Then there's also the backend stuff that, so there is quite a bit of overhead with that. And then when you grow your team, obviously there's more overhead. But if you're just by yourself, ⁓ I mean, I think I probably use QuickBooks for invoicing when I first got started. So if you don't pay for all those things, then it's probably lower, smaller overhead.

Kindra Morse (29:21)
Mm-hmm.

Right, well, you get rolling with the business. You don't invest in those things. Did you have all of those programs when you started getting clients? Yeah, you started getting.

Lexi Westergard (29:36)
No, no, I think the invoicing

one was the first program I got. Photoshop was probably the first. Photoshop, then probably the invoicing program that we use. ⁓ It creates like proposals and POs that we can send to our vendors. And then probably it wasn't until...

And even actually my first employee, had AutoCAD. They have the student version. So we got by with that for a while. And then it was like, OK, they're no longer a student. Like, we need to probably get it ourselves. And so now we have that. And then we just bought SketchUp this year. No, last year. ⁓ And we use Enscape, which is ⁓ it kind of turns SketchUp into more photorealistic image.

So you kind of use those together. ⁓ We use Slack. I don't know. There's a lot. One day I might create a ⁓ whole software that does it all. Well, not all, but like a lot of it because there's a lot of gaps for sure. No, I said maybe one day. Maybe I will. I thought of it, but I'm like, that's a lot of work. So we'll see.

Kindra Morse (30:32)
Yeah, but all of those.

Yeah.

You're creating that?

You should. ⁓

Yeah. But

you did start without any of those things and you build your business. You even said earlier that the AutoCAD was so important and you even proved that even that's not necessary. You can start without knowing how to use it and without having it. you can get as you grow your business, you can invest back into yourself, what you know and the tools that you have to then grow your business. So I just think there's so many people that dream of something like this. Like how does it feel now?

to live in something that you dreamt of doing so many years prior, like we talked about this earlier, but how many years ahead would you be if you had stepped into that a lot sooner? There's so many women that are listening thinking, I really wish I was doing this, but for whatever reason, we're not stepping into that, right?

Lexi Westergard (31:41)
Yeah, definitely. I think that fear holds you back a lot. And I actually had a question on I do like a q &a every week had someone asked like,

When should I start my business or something like that? And my advice is just do it. Like just start and it could be if you have a job it can be on the side. You know all you have to do is get one client and then from there you get another and then once it gets to be the point where you have enough clients that you can then quit your other job, ⁓ you could do it slow. I did it, I grew my business pretty slow I would say. Like I've been in business 10 years but I also feel like I'm just getting started because

for many years ⁓ I've never worked full time on my business to be honest because when my kids were young I worked three days a week and then now that they're in school I work when they're in school so I work like eight or like nine to three and some days if I need my husband will pick them up or my mother-in-law or my mom

but that's really important, that balance. And I have another employee for me that she has kids and so she's done it three as well, you know? So, I don't know. I think that that's really important that we can also have a career and a business, but then also still be with our families.

Kindra Morse (33:06)
How compatible do you feel this line of work is with balance in life and being able to build it in the nooks and crannies-ish of your day?

Lexi Westergard (33:18)
I mean, I feel like it's any business it needs like work, you know, but ⁓ I like it because it's creative and it's different every day. I don't feel like there's no two days the same. ⁓ But I think it's definitely very compatible how I built it because ⁓ I'm also really

It's taken me a long time, but I'm good at delegating. And I think that that's very important when you own a business to be able to delegate and focus on like big picture or the things that you're good at and that give you energy and then offload like the little tasks. So.

Whether that's when they were young, had a nanny and someone that helped with laundry. And now it's, have an assistant that helps me go through my emails and, you know, my team takes off each different part. And I can focus on big picture of growing my business. But then also, because I'm a designer at heart, I really want to be involved in the design and the client facing aspect of it. So, you know, I'm still

in sourcing. I might not source every piece in a room, that's why I have a design team, but I'm big picture, I'm sourcing a lot of the big items, ⁓ kind of the end, the accessorizing, I still love that part, so I probably will never give that away to be honest, ⁓ but I kind of know where I need to spend my time to make it most effective and...

kind of outsource the rest, which I still need to outsource some other things that it's a process. Yeah.

Kindra Morse (35:12)
learning the things that you want to be spending time on versus the things

you really don't and then figuring out how do I find the person that is going to do this task. Yeah, for sure. What is the best business advice that you've ever received?

Lexi Westergard (35:18)
Yeah, for sure.

trying to think.

Kindra Morse (35:33)
Or life advice.

It could be life advice.

Lexi Westergard (35:40)
I don't know, I think...

For business, ⁓ honestly, I feel like the fake it till you make it actually kind of works. I've done that a lot throughout my career where I might not know something and I'll say, I'm gonna, I'll get back to you on that one and then do research on the back end. And I don't think there's anything to be embarrassed by that. So I think that, and then.

Also, think just always trying to improve. ⁓ I think just in your personal life and business, ⁓ because that's how you get further throughout each stage of your business, your life. ⁓ If we're not growing as people, then we're staying stagnant. And I don't think that's good for us. I think it's good to always be growing.

Kindra Morse (36:35)
think it's the movie Catch Me If You Can, and it's Leonardo DiCaprio, and he goes through all these different jobs. He's like an imposter. I think that's the name of the movie. There's a part where he's like teaching college classes, and they ask him, how did you teach college classes without a college education? And he said, I just needed to stay one chapter ahead. And that's literally how you run a business. You literally just need to be one chapter ahead of what you're trying to produce and create in the world, right?

Lexi Westergard (36:44)
Yeah, it is.

gosh.

That's really good and that's true. I feel like that's really good advice.

Kindra Morse (37:11)
It's funny because when you see it in the movie, it makes perfect sense, right? How it applies to, and no one, it's like going pro. No one starts as a professional. Everyone starts as a beginner. So we have this belief that we're not good enough, that we don't know enough, we're not trained enough, but no one starts with all of that. No one does. Everyone starts feeling that way.

Lexi Westergard (37:16)
Yeah.

Yeah, it definitely takes time. And I think if you can find people that you can bounce ideas off that super helpful as well. I have a group of designers here locally that will text constantly, you know, what would you do in this situation? Or even it's like, I this design dilemma that I, I think this is the answer, but what do you guys think? And so just because I've been doing this a long time, I don't know everything, you know, that's pretty impossible to.

know.

Kindra Morse (38:04)
Absolutely. Well, networking

is huge no matter what you're doing. Finding people that are doing the same thing that you can learn from that are maybe a little bit ahead of you that you can grow with. But also, it's connections, relationships. Life is a relationship game. So working on the relationships you have with the people around you, everything gets better when you focus on 10 out of 10 relationships. Now, what is one thing about you that you wish people knew better about you?

Lexi Westergard (38:32)
Ooh, I've never been asked this question. ⁓

I don't know. I feel like, you know, you only see a little snippet of me on social media, but I feel like there's so much more to me. I'm kind of funny. I feel like people maybe don't know that. I have a good sense of humor. I get that from my dad. And then I'm trying to think what else.

I also am very heavily involved in our church and ⁓ doing a lot of community things that I don't really showcase that and that's super important to me as well. ⁓ So maybe those two things. And also I feel like...

I don't show my kids a lot in social media, but I find that my biggest purpose and job in life is to be a mom. And I've always thought that I've always really tried to find that balance between owning a business and being a mom ⁓ and being a wife. I think that that's really important. My relationship with my husband and making sure that that's a healthy one for my kids to see and, you know, constantly dating my husband so that we're keep, I mean, we've

together

almost 20 years and I still love them just actually probably more you know because we've been through a lot of things together and so I think there's a lot of things that people don't know about me maybe I don't know

Kindra Morse (40:00)
What are two

pieces of advice that you would give to the woman listening that does have a business that also wants to improve her relationship with her kids or her husband?

Lexi Westergard (40:11)
I think setting aside time, so ⁓ I mean, your calendar is big. think at the beginning of the year, me and my husband sat down and figured out what our perfect year would look like or our perfect week. so making sure your calendar reflects that, we... ⁓

we really prioritize date night. And so we do that every week. We try to sometimes we're out of town or we're too tired. So date nights just like watching a show in bed, but that's super important. I think also, ⁓

quality time is super important and like our kids, actually started doing this as well, which has been so fun is every other month. We tried to do every month, but it just didn't work out. So I'd say like at least once a quarter we take what we do a one-on-one date with our kids. And so they get to choose what they want to do and we give them a budget and then they have to plan it and make sure that it hits within the budget as well.

Kindra Morse (41:02)
that.

Lexi Westergard (41:13)
So then it's teaching them how to budget and ⁓ then we get that quality time. That was something I kind of stole from my parents. We would do one-on-one dates and had fond memories of that. And so we decided to do that with them and ⁓ they love it. Like one...

Me and my son, went to dinner and then we went and got a Lego set and built a Lego set together. So that's what he wanted to do. And honestly, Legos are really fun. It's better than a puzzle and it's kind of like therapeutic. I'm like, I can see why you like this. Like it's just, and so he would take turns building it. And that was really fun. And of course my daughter, think we went shopping and pedicures or something, but.

Just those like quality one-on-one times I think are super important in connection because life's busy and even when I am with them, you know, they have sports or want to hang out with their friends. And so just trying to capture that before they get to be too cool for their parents.

Kindra Morse (42:09)
Yeah.

Yeah, it comes way faster than you ever expect.

Lexi Westergard (42:16)
Yeah, I'm kind of getting that. ⁓ I saw something recently, so my kids are 12 and 10. And so I'm to that aspect where it's like I literally only have six summers with my daughter and eight summers with my son. And that makes it seem so short and makes me so sad. But I just have to be excited for like the next phase, like.

grandkids and also then maybe Mima has been travel more without the kids, you know, so every phase is fun, but it's just sad that it goes so quick.

Kindra Morse (42:46)
Hmm.

And I would even, not to make that worse, but I would even say it's not even until they're 18 because they do get to be too cool for their parents a lot earlier than 18. And it's so important to be intentional about building into the relationship you have with your kids. My oldest is 17 and I love the relationship that we have, but it takes the parent being responsible for 90 % of the relationship investment. I think a lot of it can be very easy to think, well, they don't want to spend time with me.

So that's that. And you can create so much positive change in a relationship if you're really intentional about the outcome you wanna create. And with my kids, for me, it's 90 % my responsibility to pursue them, to be curious about them, to empower them with questions that cause them to know that they can trust themselves, things like that. But yeah, I've seen that, that people think it's till they're 18, but then it's almost like 10 to 12 that they really start developing their own personality and friend groups and...

want to go do things with their friends more than their parents. It's interesting, but it's all beautiful.

Lexi Westergard (43:56)
Yeah.

Kindra Morse (43:58)
⁓ I had another question and I totally forgot it and I'm gonna take a drink too because I am so thirsty. I've noticed that I, this is like off, not on this thing, ⁓ that I have ⁓ taken drinks during people talking and then it's on the YouTube video and I'm like, that might be distracting.

Lexi Westergard (44:03)
Cheers.

I know I don't like to drink because of that, but I'm like, sometimes the mouth just gets dry.

Kindra Morse (44:25)
Yeah, so much. ⁓ I don't even know if I have any other questions. I'm just trying to think of something else. ⁓ actually, so was there ever a time where you didn't have balance with your kids or your husband?

Lexi Westergard (44:42)
Honestly, all the time. not, you know, I feel like it's a constant struggle. I'm not gonna pretend like I haven't figured it out because I don't. I think that there's sometimes a week that...

you know, I might have an insult where it's like, I'm working late hours and it's all focused on work. And then there's times where it's like, I have a lot of kid things and so I'm focused more on my kids or, summer comes up and it's like, I want to maybe work from home or do more things with them. So I think it's a constant battle. I got some really good advice one time. I'm trying to think how it goes, basically be present in whatever you do. So if you're like with your kids, don't be trained to do work.

and like be with your kids, like be with your kids. If you're at work, be at work and be intentional of your time and be really present ⁓ because I think then that creates the ultimate balance even though I think there's no such thing as like perfect balance. ⁓ But I do feel like creating my hours where...

⁓ I can get my kids from school. That helps with the balance, but I think there's always a constant struggle. So, yeah.

Kindra Morse (46:00)
Absolutely. The way I

had it explained is that you need to be 100 % where you are 100 % of the time. And when I first heard that, thought 100 % feels like a lot. How can I, that sounds like perfection. That's what I initially heard. It sounds like perfection. How can you be perfect? And it's more of, like you say, when you're with your kids, you're 100 % with your kids. When you're at work, you're 100 % focused on work. And it takes practice to get to that point. But I think that

helped me a lot is to focus on if I'm at the ball game, I need to be 100 % at the ball game, not 80 % at the ball game. And I still struggle with this, but working to be 100 % where you are or be where your feet are is another way I've heard it. So wherever your feet are, if it's in a client's house, your mind is focused on the client. If it's with your kids, it's focused on your kids. If it's on the date with your husband, it's focused on your husband. ⁓ But there's so many different ways.

And I agree with you, I think that it's an illusion and it's something we're constantly pursuing, you just need to be in pursuit of it.

Lexi Westergard (47:09)
Yeah, I actually was talking to a woman and she was telling me ⁓ it's like if you had plates that were spinning, sometimes you need to spin this plate a little bit and then and then you need to go back over here and spin this plate and to keep them all spinning. And so I thought that was really interesting as well. But sometimes your focus needs to be over here a little bit. Sometimes it needs to be over there and to keep everything running. Because as women, we do a lot. It's a lot.

Kindra Morse (47:37)
Yeah, and

there's also, I know you started slow, but there's also the amount of effort that it takes. If you're in a position where you're launching a business and you actually need it to produce income, you're not home in a situation where you don't need to have income right away, you have to get out of balance to create momentum in a business for a season. And even where you were at, did you have any of that in building your business?

Lexi Westergard (48:00)
True. ⁓

Yeah, definitely. I mean, there was a lot of time where I would be working late at night. I would wake up early before my kids ⁓ got up. I would be working during nap time. And so I was kind of pulled at all different directions. And I think that that was like a huge sacrifice. ⁓ And even just hiring someone to come in, because I always kind of thought I would be a stay at home mom, to be honest. ⁓

That was kind of hard, but what I found early on was I was the best version of myself for my kids when I also had my business and I was able to be creative and I felt very fulfilled. ⁓

at that aspect of my life. And so then I could come home to my kids and be present and give them a better version of myself because I think a lot of times ⁓ it can be exhausting. know, we always joke that my husband would come home from work and I'd be like,

was talking to my dad and I'm like wanting to chat with him and he's like, I'm so tired. I'm like so overstimulated. And I didn't get that until I started working that like, yeah, like when you have that interaction with you, know, other adults, it's then exhausting. And so, ⁓

Kindra Morse (49:26)
Adults.

Lexi Westergard (49:31)
I mean, he was a good sport. He didn't let me know that until I started my business. I was like, I'm so tired. Let's just order in and do nothing. He's like, yeah, this is what I've been trying to tell you. He was a good sport about it. yeah, to answer your question, I can't remember what it was.

Kindra Morse (49:48)
Yeah,

so I'm just curious. think that our, you said you go to church. I think that part of our, if you're a Jesus follower, part of our faith, and I've talked about this before, is that you are called to serve. And I think a part of why we feel fulfilled is because we are called to serve. And I don't believe that that is just serving our own family. It's more than that. And how does that line up for you?

Lexi Westergard (50:04)
Mm-hmm.

I totally agree. I have found when I've been like the most sad in my life or like worried about problems that I'm going through. If I think outside myself and I go and help other people, that's been a huge mind shift change and not focusing on yourself that I mean, I feel like there's probably some statistic out there that serving others makes you like

way more happy. don't know what the percentage would be, but because you're outside of your mind and you're not thinking like, pour me or this is the trial I'm going through. It allows you to help others. And ⁓ I've used that a lot in my life when I've kind of been down, you know, trying to get inspiration of who I can help and other people so that I can be of service versus wallowing in my despair, if you will.

Kindra Morse (51:13)
Right.

Well, and I think we're all wired as mothers to want to be so involved in our kids' lives. I know for me, I absolutely couldn't stand the thought of somebody else seeing my son or my daughter, my sons or my daughter, roll over for the first time or take their first step or say their first word. That was a huge motivator for me to always find a way that I had ownership of my time. But going back to that period of time when you were a stay at home mom,

Did you have periods of time where you were feeling sad about not having something of your own?

Lexi Westergard (51:50)
I didn't know I know I I feel like my house was so organized. I was like, you know, would spend my time with like play dates with my friends. ⁓ Also, I did do on the side when my daughter was a baby. So my dad owns a chiropractic company.

Kindra Morse (51:52)
Really?

Lexi Westergard (52:13)
company or office and I would help with the billing so I would do that. So I always kind of did something on the side, maybe not the first six months of her life, ⁓ but I loved the slow downtime of it to be honest. I don't know, I think I would have always done something on the side just because that's my nature. ⁓

I mean, I was doing hair too. I did hair on the side when she was little too. So I was kind of did something outside of the home too, but I feel like the first year of her life, I thrived if I'm being honest. I loved that time period of just being like slow living and not like frantic. I would go and like.

Kindra Morse (53:00)
Yeah.

Lexi Westergard (53:05)
walks a lot and I would socialize with other friends that had babies my age which helped I think as well. Yeah.

Kindra Morse (53:11)
Right.

Yeah, I think there's a lot of moms that are home. And I do agree that first year especially, you're so consumed with that baby. But there's a lot of moms home past year too, that are feeling that lack of fulfillment. And because they don't have an outside job, know, something outside human, adult interaction. And it's important to prioritize that in some way because it can get lonely.

Lexi Westergard (53:32)
Yeah.

Yeah, definitely. I feel like I was really good at the first couple years of getting together with my friends more. So that's probably kind of the aspect that once I started my business, kind of went to the side. I was spending less time with friends and doing play dates and things like that. ⁓ So again, going back to the balance, it's like one thing has to give. that was, I mean, I still would do things with my friends, but it was just smaller scale, like maybe once a month versus like multiple times during the week or.

things like that but yeah.

Kindra Morse (54:14)
Yeah, it's, think, again, balance is an illusion that we, it's not actually possible to be in 100 % balance 100 % of the time. And anything that you say yes to is a no to something else.

Lexi Westergard (54:29)
Totally. Yeah, I agree with that 100%.

Kindra Morse (54:33)
As we close, one last message from your heart to any woman listening that loves interior design, what does she need to hear?

Lexi Westergard (54:44)
My biggest advice for anyone that wants to start a design business would be, I would either...

Okay, I would say try to work for someone, but typically if you wanna work for someone, you need some skills. So if you wanna start a design business, I would...

maybe take some online courses. I would definitely learn AutoCAD. You could even go to like your local community college and take some design courses just to get a base. Or honestly, you could probably YouTube a lot. I think YouTube is a great aspect as well for learning things. Now they also have a lot of different like ⁓

camps or different courses that you can go to and learn. I think that that would be super helpful. And then the biggest advice would be just do it. I mean, I feel like it's not going to be easy. There's going be a learning curve, but the more you kind of learn your market and speak to other designers that maybe also are starting off to figure out what everyone's charging so that you can figure out that aspect. But I think there's a lot of ways to get ⁓ different

things started. I do with my design sessions that I offer, I do also offer mentoring. So if someone wants to pick my brain and ask any questions, they can sign up for that. That's another way I think you can learn a lot of information. But yeah, there's think a lot of different avenues, but the biggest aspect is to just get started and.

run it as if you are a big company as soon as you get started because then when you do get big, you don't have the growing pains. creating processes, procedures, so that when you do hire people, it's less of a learning curve and you're not having to come up with manuals. You kind of already have that in place. So that was kind of a little smorgasbord of advice, but that would probably be my quick 30 second advice for anyone.

one.

Kindra Morse (56:56)
That's awesome, I didn't realize you do

mentorship too, that's amazing. So where can anyone listening find you?

Lexi Westergard (57:02)
So my website, LexiWestergardDesign, and on Instagram, I'm LexiWestergard underscore design. Feel free to DM me. Westergard does not have a U, so I feel like that's a common misconception, but those are probably my two most active places that I'm on the internet.

Kindra Morse (57:23)
Well, thanks for spending your day with me and I cannot wait to be working with you myself because I absolutely love everything that I've seen of yours. It's beautiful.

Lexi Westergard (57:32)
I'm excited too. Thanks, Kendra. You too.

Kindra Morse (57:34)
Have a good day.