Today we’d like to introduce you to Keating Hurd.
Keating, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
My journey started when I became a single mother of four and ran from an abusive marriage. I was a waitress trying to make it when one of my co-workers said to me that her mother was the Vice President of one of the largest builders in the area and she thought I should go speak to her and try to get a job. I did… and that’s how it all began. I started as a model home sales manager and later went to custom home building and built my largest homes to date at that time on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. My last home built before the economy fell was a 14 bedroom, ocean front investment property and my second to last was a Parade of Homes winner. I had fallen in love with designing custom homes and was the COO of a custom home building company that was very successful. Then the decline happened and no one was building huge, fancy investment properties and my company went out of business and I went back to waiting tables to survive. During those two years I started my own company helping small builders try to save their company and find clients. I put together marketing strategy plans, and actual marketing pieces created for publication. I landed an architect as a client and he had invented a foundation used for bridges and boardwalks and small buildings for parks and recreation departments and various national clients like NPS, and Fish and Wildlife. He had also built his house with these foundations.
I suggested he market to builders. He brought me on full time and I worked for him remotely for over four years. During those four years, I drove my last child still yet to graduate, my dog, and my truck and drove across the country to go to Interior Design school in San Diego. I was blessed, after all that I had been through, to have a remote job for all of my college years and when I graduated, I decided to go out on my own and put my hard earned degree to use. I have owned my own company ever since. I have subcontracted my services to all types of contractors from the largest remodeling companies in San Diego to the smallest one man show. I am a functional and practical designer. My typical client is not the over the top multimillion-dollar spender, but more like the average person that does make some money and understands the value of having a designer in the mix. I am now back to building custom homes, although I still take on remodeling projects from time to time.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Raising four children while trying to work crazy hours to provide for them on a commission only sales job managing to get away from an abusive relationship and deal with that during the first ten years of my career. The economy crashed waiting tables at 40+ years old, because of the economy, to be able to provide how about living in a one bedroom apartment for 4+ years just to be able to afford to go to school and work from home. I was determined to be college educated before my children were going homeless during my last year of college with my son because I had to finish my internship and it was a full time paid position at only $16. per hour. My drive and my ambition to succeed were so strong in those days. We stayed with a friend on her floor on a mattress and then luckily for me, my boyfriend decided to move down and get a place where I could live with him and my son turned 18 and went and lived with one of his friends in LaJolla after finishing high school together. I was scared and stressed to the max… but we made it.
Starting and stopping my business every time I ran out of money. I would go and work for short periods of time for other companies, like a closet company or a plumbing supplier, make a bunch of commissions and then quit with savings and one client that I would find somewhere from a referral or cold calling old clients for referrals or one of my clients from the job I was doing would need some design work and I would tell them that I could do it and then I’d start building again from there.
We’d love to hear more about your work.
It began in 2009 and is still going today. I actually became my own LLC just this year. I specialize in new home construction and residential remodeling. I usually am the Project Manager and work closely with the Builder/Superintendent. I design it, I assist with finishes and I manage the project along with the GC. I think I am known for being a designer that believes in function over form 99% of the time and work closely with my clients to get to know their very unique story and lifestyle. Space planning is my talent and I like to include special moments in the home like a dog shower in the mudroom for my dog breeding client or a wet room in the master bath where my client with an autoimmune disease gains comfort while bathing and steaming.
Not all people need these things in their home, but when it works, it really is amazing how differently people feel about their home and the unique spaces within. They use their home more efficiently this way and ultimately end up loving their home more than they ever have. I have often heard over the years from my clients that they get home and don’t even want to leave, they love it so much. They say things like “we entertain more now” and ” the children visit all of the time now”… these are the things that make a designer’s heart sing. I do my work to be of service to people in my community and to make money for my family. I need both of those to feel as blessed as I do. I am lucky to have had the opportunity to make a difference in how people actually live. With all that is going on in the world, it is more important than ever that our homes be a safe haven and a peaceful and happy refuge from the world. I believe that my philosophy of being in service to others, listening and implementing my clients dreams not my dreams for them is what sets me apart.
I remember in design school that so many of my friends were working on finding their own design aesthetic and talked often of putting their design mark on the world. I was older when I went to school so for me, after building over 300+ properties already in my career, it was about helping people find their voice in the design of their space. I have found that this has created a wide variety of projects in my portfolio and I believe that my clients appreciate it so much more when they see the end result because it is truly an expression of themselves… in the most beautiful way.
What were you like growing up?
I was feisty and bright, tiny and fierce, and the one that everyone came to with their problems. I learned later that I was quite the empath and could read people very well… which later made me the top salesperson in pretty much every company that I have ever worked for.
I was a C student that would later have A students working for me, a natural born leader that understood what held people’s attention. I was more worried about my social life than my grades in high school… and even so I ended up being accepted to ODU with my grandfather’s help. He was a professor there and I had moved in with he and my grandmother to take care of him while he was dying of cancer. He was my favorite and taught me how to be strong and humble. He believed that people were always at their best… even when they were seemingly at their worst. He would say, “that’s the best that they can muster up right now. Try to understand them first before judging.” Taking care of him profoundly changed me at 19.
In college, I found myself and knew emphatically that my life would be lived by the ocean, watching the surfers and the seagulls, doing yoga and going out dancing with my friends. Little did I know what my life had in store for me!
At 23, I became a mother and was married to my college sweetheart… I was still growing up. We later divorced, I married again, had three more beautiful babies and divorced again. Both of my husbands were alcoholics and very abusive.
I found myself again years later when I went back to college to get my degree in Interior Design. I had managed to survive abuse, single motherhood of four, and building a career and the economy tearing it away. I stood at those doors of my first day with my books in my hand and students rushing past me and I cried. My teacher saw the tears silently streaming as I stood outside her door. She was to become my mentor and fiercest advocate for my growth and change into real adulthood. I felt like I finally grew up in those years and got to know myself for real. It affected my business and my creativity tremendously and gave me the confidence to continue with my own company and make it better.
Contact Info:
- Phone: 619-534-0753
- Other: keatinghurd/linkedin.com
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