Helping You Create Your Dream Space

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[Music]

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[Applause]

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[Music]

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welcome back to another episode of

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greetings from the garden state i'm mike

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ham we are here in morristown new jersey

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with my good friend ally cuomo of

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alexandria como design ali welcome to

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the show thank you it's good to have you

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here are you excited for your i think

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your first ever podcast experience super

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excited super excited a little nervous

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though well you know it's just like we

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talk you know and now it's just we're

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talking with mike's on and we're gonna

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record everything you said like i said

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before um but uh but yeah no we i'm very

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excited to have you on we haven't done

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this type of episode before so you are

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our inaugural episode in this field and

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we're going to get to what that is in a

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little bit

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um but uh let's talk about you for a

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little bit so

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uh what do you do and let's get like a

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little bit of like the early background

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days of ali come on sure so i'm an

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interior designer okay um

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i was always into art design growing up

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i went to school for design new york

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school of interior design on the upper

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east side

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um

1:08

i worked for two firms out of college

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and then i went out on my own eight

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years ago okay all right was like uh

1:14

design all that kind of stuff that was

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always something that you were

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interested in right

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yeah i mean you know but like you go to

1:20

college and you don't know if it's gonna

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work out sure and it did yeah so that's

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that's good that's cool yeah it's great

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were you like into that kind of stuff

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like you know even like growing up like

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what made what made you make the

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decision to actually go to design school

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i was always into art growing up um

1:37

took like every art class school offered

1:39

um yeah always loved it even as a little

1:42

kid yeah yeah and then like the new york

1:44

school of design right uh that's like

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kind of like i would imagine a lot of

1:48

different types of

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uh designs right is it is it just

1:53

it's just interior design okay um but

1:54

it's art school so it's not a typical

1:56

college experience there's not i mean

1:58

it's um

1:59

you know there's no sports

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right well yeah you guys are busy

2:03

designing that's right yeah there's a

2:05

lot going on um but uh okay so then like

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uh so you work for two different firms

2:10

coming out of college um and then at

2:12

like what point do you decide to kind of

2:15

go out on your own what was the just

2:16

like the what went into that decision to

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go out on your own all that kind of

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stuff

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i mean i think it's probably similar to

2:22

most people who start their own business

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but

2:24

um a combination of wanting

2:27

you know more control over the design

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and

2:30

um you know you also get to a point

2:32

where you see how much money you're

2:33

making for your bosses

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and you're like

2:37

i'm actually doing all the work so yeah

2:39

cool i'm gonna do this yeah exactly um

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yeah yeah but i kind of i always knew i

2:44

wanted to go out on my own and then i

2:45

had the perfect storm

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situation that pushed me to take the

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jump okay yeah yeah

2:52

the perfect storm being anything that

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could be shared on this episode or like

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yeah why not yeah um yeah nobody wants

2:58

to see the show anyway full disclosure

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um

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so i had these three really big jobs um

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that were all referrals to me

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and

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it was kind of like okay

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if i totally fail i'll like yeah i'll be

3:14

good for a bet so

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um it was like office space i

3:19

went into my boss's

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office and i quit of course like i'm

3:23

like crying i'm like i'm sorry i'm

3:25

leaving anyway and i quit and and i left

3:28

that day just like yeah yeah right and

3:30

then you get home and you're like oh my

3:32

god what did i just say what just

3:34

happened just like blacked out you know

3:36

um no but that's awesome and i think

3:38

that like that's really cool because

3:39

obviously a lot of the people that we

3:40

have on the show are small business

3:42

owners or you know like they run

3:44

non-profits in certain capacities and

3:46

some of them have done exactly that you

3:48

know maybe not like boom them out but

3:50

like you know they've done something

3:52

else it wasn't clicking for them and

3:53

they wanted to do something that kind of

3:54

you know yeah for them almost so i think

3:57

that's really cool and it gives you more

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control over what you're doing which is

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awesome um so let's talk about like

4:02

maybe the with uh your interior design

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business the types of you know clients

4:08

that you're generally working with

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so i do mostly high-end residential um

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that being said you know different

4:17

everything from a whole house to a room

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um when i went out on my own it was

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really mainly to focus on kitchen design

4:23

okay um

4:25

but it's it's everything at this point

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yeah yeah are there certain things that

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you enjoy doing more like do you if

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you're doing a lot of residential you

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know like if it's kitchens or whatever

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yeah is that like your thing you're like

4:35

i love doing kitchens i do i love

4:37

kitchens because they're kind of more

4:38

technical and

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um

4:41

you know everyone like everyone with

4:43

good taste can't do a kitchen sure yeah

4:45

um so

4:47

yeah i love the kitchens but but it's

4:49

nice to also do the fluffy stuff the

4:51

pillows the decorating wallpaper it's a

4:53

good mix yeah yeah and then uh do you do

4:56

any like commercial projects also i have

4:59

done some restaurants um

5:01

i have a law office in texas right now

5:03

so cool yeah

5:04

stuff like that your business is like

5:06

all over the place

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yeah i mean it's mostly new jersey new

5:08

york but i've had jobs in maine florida

5:11

cool yeah and then like i guess a lot of

5:13

those come from referrals as well right

5:15

yes yeah usually it's either a second

5:17

home from someone based out of here or

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uh yeah yeah awesome um and then like so

5:23

i so i know uh on my other show i had

5:26

another interior designer and like one

5:27

of the things that i asked her and i'm

5:28

just curious and we kind of talked about

5:30

this before so i do already know the

5:31

answer full disclosure but um so is

5:33

there like when you're working with an

5:35

interior designer is it like important

5:37

to find one that may be like your

5:38

visions match up like do you have like a

5:41

particular like aesthetic that you like

5:43

to bring to people are some people like

5:45

i don't care what you do just make it

5:46

look better um do people come to you

5:48

with like a plan of like what they want

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to do and you need to like fulfill that

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vision yes it's all kinds um i feel like

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some people really are particular know

5:56

what they like and

5:58

that makes my job kind of easy and then

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you know the hope is that

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you can kind of push them and and maybe

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it can be a little bit more

6:06

exciting or or bigger than what they had

6:09

kind of already yeah um

6:12

thought of for themselves but

6:14

i don't know i think

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other people have a really hard time

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explaining what they like and so um you

6:20

know you can kind of tell like your

6:22

first meeting with someone how they

6:23

dress

6:24

what what they're about yeah usually

6:26

people are wearing their favorite colors

6:28

when you first meet them interesting

6:30

that's a good that's a good fact yeah

6:31

it's like human interesting

6:41

um

6:42

yeah so so that's you know but like if

6:45

everyone was good at it i wouldn't have

6:46

a job yeah sure so yeah um

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yeah but i i try and it's not about me

6:52

it's not about my aesthetic it's about

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kind of translating the client's

6:57

um vision and

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helping

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helping kind of make that a reality but

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it's not it's not i'm not um

7:04

i'm not a one-trick pony with my designs

7:06

yeah sure you can't be because then it's

7:08

like you know no like do you just do the

7:10

same thing every time like yeah crazy

7:12

and i'm not also like a crazy artist

7:14

that's like it has to be my way or yeah

7:16

right right yeah but so like what i

7:18

think is interesting so you know we're

7:19

doing this episode in your home um which

7:22

so i've always thought and i don't think

7:24

i've ever actually asked you this

7:25

question maybe like the first time i

7:26

came over here but like do you kind of

7:28

like use this space as kind of your like

7:30

test kitchen almost

7:32

because like you kind of be like hey

7:33

like what if we did this in here and

7:35

like just try it maybe to kind of see

7:36

what it looks like in a room

7:38

some i mean sometimes i would say

7:40

there's um there's what i call the

7:42

archives

7:43

so there's

7:45

like the basement has a lot of

7:47

stuff

7:48

stuff discarded uh yeah yeah yeah yeah

7:51

or like for future use maybe yeah so we

7:53

just swap it out but um

7:55

but i'm into like going to estate sales

7:57

and

7:58

treasure hunting um so i'm always

8:00

collecting yeah i like that and so um so

8:03

it really goes down to like even just

8:05

like the stuff on the shelves and not

8:07

just like furniture and all that kind of

8:08

stuff obviously right yeah yeah art

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right now i have um

8:13

i have a job we're doing tons of art so

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like helping clients pick art is super

8:16

fun yeah yeah yeah very personal yeah

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definitely and then so like you must be

8:21

like um you know like where do you find

8:24

those things like you go to like art

8:25

galleries do you go to like local

8:27

artists like how does that stuff work i

8:29

try and keep it local i think it's

8:31

really nice to support local businesses

8:33

um

8:34

and the art community i mean especially

8:36

in the past two years that's obviously

8:39

been in an area where people have

8:41

struggled but

8:42

yeah i mean to to be able to um

8:45

people want to see stuff in person also

8:47

before they spend on it so yeah yeah

8:49

yeah um do you ever like when you're

8:51

working with people and like you said

8:53

people that have like a very specific

8:54

vision and i know it's like their thing

8:57

but if you're just like this is gonna

8:58

look terrible yeah like tell them like

9:00

this this isn't gonna look good yeah so

9:02

i've been told i have no poker face but

9:04

um

9:06

guilty but yeah i mean i you know you

9:08

try and gently be like uh

9:10

yeah

9:11

i'm i'm not sure about that or

9:14

that's not what i would go with yeah

9:15

yeah right but if they really want that

9:17

fine and you know what not every job

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gets photographed so

9:21

if you're happy i did my job that's it

9:24

yeah so on the instagram page alexandria

9:26

como design i think is the instagram

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page that is the instagram page

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that's good recall right there i was

9:31

doing my research so the ones that you

9:33

know those aren't necessarily going to

9:35

be on no particular page

9:38

no yeah um all right so uh so we're

9:40

gonna take our first break of this

9:42

episode uh so we're gonna do a quick uh

9:46

kind of going through in the second

9:47

segment we're gonna do a quick like how

9:49

what it would be like working with ali

9:51

you know i mean so uh for everybody

9:53

listening we are here in morristown new

9:54

jersey uh with ally cuomo of alexandria

9:57

cuomo design i'm mike hamm this is the

9:59

greetings from the garden state podcast

10:00

we'll be right back

10:05

it is time for today in new jersey

10:06

history albert einstein was born on

10:08

march 14 1879 in germany his work as a

10:11

theoretical physicist influenced the

10:12

philosophy of science and his very name

10:14

is synonymous with genius being jewish

10:16

he came to the united states as hitler's

10:17

influence grew in germany and settled in

10:19

princeton new jersey affiliating himself

10:22

until his death in 1955 with the

10:24

institute for advanced study and that is

10:26

today in new jersey history

10:32

right we're back this is the greetings

10:33

from the garden state podcast i'm mike

10:34

ham we're here in morristown new jersey

10:36

with allie como of alexandria como

10:37

design i can say that really fast now um

10:40

so in the first thing we kind of learned

10:41

a little bit about your background um

10:43

what got you into design the types of

10:45

stuff that you work on all that kind of

10:46

stuff but for the people listening we're

10:49

going to do like our experience

10:51

segment now um so maybe like what it

10:53

would be like working with ali obviously

10:56

amazing

10:59

i mean clearly so we could probably just

11:01

wrap up this segment really quick um but

11:03

maybe take us through like some initial

11:05

steps like maybe how do they find you

11:07

and then like what are some of the first

11:08

things that you do when you start

11:10

working with a new client yeah okay so

11:12

um i don't advertise um all my work is

11:17

referral based only so

11:19

builders architects um

11:21

past clients

11:23

um

11:24

super lucky that

11:26

that's been the case so far um

11:28

but

11:29

yeah i mean if someone will reach out or

11:30

sometimes the builder kind of sets it up

11:33

and um whether it's just me and the

11:35

client or or the whole team

11:38

um and it depends if it's new

11:39

construction i'm probably

11:42

chatting with the architect and kind of

11:44

involved from the ground up or if it's

11:47

just like redecorating a living room or

11:50

yeah um renovating a kitchen then you

11:52

know i'll probably be dealing with the

11:54

client directly

11:55

from the beginning

11:57

and you know we have an initial meeting

11:59

and

12:00

um

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kind of a rundown of what they're

12:03

looking to do

12:04

and i think that's also when they test

12:06

out you know if they like your

12:07

personality and sure so i'm sure that's

12:09

really important too huge yeah yeah

12:12

i mean generally sorry to cut you off

12:14

because i'm sure like you had a whole

12:15

thing in plan but it's my show um so i

12:19

like generally i'm sure it depends on

12:21

the job but like you know a couple

12:22

months you'll be working with this

12:24

person generally some clients it's years

12:26

i mean for like a new construction

12:28

project oh right yeah i mean it's years

12:31

and it's crazy because when a job like

12:32

that's over like a big job

12:34

you feel like you're like breaking up

12:35

with

12:36

them your friend

12:38

i've been talking to you like

12:40

almost every day for two years like

12:41

that's yeah

12:43

um

12:44

but

12:45

yeah and then at that point if they want

12:47

to move forward um you know i take a

12:49

retainer deposit whatever the

12:51

situation's gonna be and but it's very a

12:54

la carte like yeah every job is

12:56

different and and personalities are

12:58

different some people need a lot of

12:59

hand-holding and

13:01

want a lot of contact yeah um and other

13:04

people are just you know happy to let

13:05

you do your thing sure yeah is there a

13:08

reason you don't really advertise

13:13

i mean low-key flex i don't have to

13:17

that's what we said before it was

13:18

amazing that was perfect um but uh so i

13:20

think that's really interesting too like

13:22

you know kind of the first steps working

13:23

with a client um and then like you

13:26

mentioned the first i've been like you

13:27

know when you have those initial

13:28

conversations with people you kind of

13:30

like you gave us the sociological thing

13:32

about you know seeing what they wear

13:34

kind of like knowing what kind of colors

13:35

they like all that kind of stuff um when

13:38

you're like putting these i guess plans

13:40

together are you like putting it on

13:42

paper is it like a computer program or

13:45

is just in your brain and you're just

13:46

like boom there it is we're gonna put a

13:48

couch over there we're gonna put a bowl

13:49

over there exactly yeah no um

13:52

i do autocad for um

13:55

for kitchen design

13:57

and then if i'm if i'm working with an

13:59

architect on

14:01

either an addition or a new construction

14:03

um you know that's good because your

14:05

drawings can interface sure um

14:08

yeah i have some experience with revit

14:10

but

14:11

autocad

14:12

any of those yeah i'm sure they're

14:13

programs

14:14

yeah yeah so it's more like a visual

14:16

yeah

14:17

otherwise if it's just kind of

14:18

decorating stuff um

14:20

you know that's going to be just samples

14:22

of fabrics and sure and clients really

14:24

want to feel and see and you know yeah

14:27

so like

14:28

this just came into my head too because

14:30

i know what kind of table you have in

14:32

the kitchen like that old butcher table

14:34

oh yeah which i think is like so badass

14:35

my kitchen island is a butcher block

14:37

yeah i love that um but like have you

14:39

ever

14:40

like been searching for stuff you said

14:42

you like estate sales and different

14:43

things like that and you're like this is

14:45

really cool for a client but like i want

14:47

it like

14:48

yeah right like a few days ago i was at

14:50

the gallery picking art for a client and

14:53

like whoops bought two paintings yeah

14:56

rats right

14:58

yeah yeah but um so yeah because i would

15:01

imagine like you know you get to see

15:03

like a lot of cool stuff and like who

15:04

doesn't like going to places like that

15:06

and finding cool things yeah put in

15:08

their own home you know it's a treasure

15:10

hunt exactly for sure yeah it's harder

15:12

to buy stuff like that for clients just

15:13

because you don't know you don't know if

15:15

they're going to like it yeah right and

15:16

anything like a big commitment like that

15:18

you're not just going to go out in a

15:19

limb and buy it um

15:21

but

15:22

is that why like the basement is filled

15:24

with so many things we did just need a

15:26

bigger house

15:28

maybe yeah yeah no there's a little

15:30

there's a little collecting but you know

15:32

i get tired of stuff too and um of

15:34

course yeah yeah so

15:36

yeah

15:37

all right you know yeah everybody does

15:39

trends you got to keep it fresh yeah

15:41

yeah you got to keep yourself inspired

15:42

right you got to keep moving that's

15:43

right it's like a shark you got to keep

15:44

swimming

15:46

um so i guess one of the other things

15:49

and we've done this in a couple other

15:50

episodes and kind of like talking about

15:52

you know challenges that have faced like

15:54

your particular industry over the last

15:55

couple years and they're continuing i

15:58

would imagine um so maybe like what are

15:59

some things that you're experiencing

16:01

that are just kind of you know making

16:03

your job harder right now yeah so

16:05

there's still a lot of delays um with

16:08

shipping and lead times um

16:11

you know so like custom furniture sofas

16:13

are 17 weeks right now

16:15

so um and that kind of started even way

16:19

back when they had the fires in texas

16:22

the foam factories burned down oh

16:24

like yeah like

16:26

how bizarre but yeah so we're still

16:28

dealing with a lot of that um

16:30

i know construction materials are still

16:33

you know there's still shortages and

16:34

they're they're um

16:37

marked up you know everything's more

16:39

expensive and so yeah yeah and that i

16:42

would imagine that would like create

16:44

maybe like a like more

16:46

client interaction to kind of be like

16:48

hey i'm not not doing my job it's just

16:51

more like things are happening beyond my

16:53

control i have to say i feel like all my

16:55

clients have been super understanding of

16:57

that sure um because everybody knows

16:58

about it expecting everything not just

17:00

that that's right and you try and manage

17:02

expectations but you know sometimes you

17:04

order something and they're telling you

17:06

like a few weeks yeah and then

17:08

in a few weeks it's like oh actually

17:10

yeah so um

17:12

containers are getting held up at the

17:14

ports yeah yeah there's all kinds of

17:16

stuff right right yep um and then so one

17:19

of the other questions that i had too

17:20

and i don't think we went over this so

17:21

this is going to be like a surprise

17:22

question um but uh but so i think one of

17:26

the things that would be interesting

17:26

kind of too is like eight years ago you

17:28

went out on your own um and then like

17:30

was there a certain point we might be

17:32

coming up on nine years okay i don't

17:33

want to age myself well that's fine um

17:36

but uh so coming up on

17:37

eight or nine years yeah um was there

17:39

like a moment where you saw things like

17:41

finally like maybe not finally but

17:43

clicking you'd be like wow like i'm good

17:45

like i got my client base like is it was

17:48

that was there a moment that you had

17:49

that was like that like i'm crushing it

17:51

right now um you know it's it's funny

17:53

like i feel like when when you're

17:55

crushing it

17:57

like when a room gets delivered and it

17:58

looks amazing and the client's super

18:00

happy

18:01

that's like such a good feeling like

18:03

sure you know it looks good you're

18:05

really proud of your work and they're

18:07

super happy like there's nothing better

18:09

but

18:10

um

18:12

no i mean you know when you're crushing

18:14

it and you're super busy you're usually

18:15

also super stressed so right yeah yeah

18:18

like this necessary double-edged sword

18:20

yeah for sure yeah necessary evils

18:22

whatever the saying is um and then like

18:24

maybe looking into the future do you

18:26

have like play like goals and ambitions

18:29

for the future of your business or is it

18:31

just kind of like just we're going to do

18:33

what we do and we're just going to keep

18:34

getting clients and doing jobs yeah i

18:36

mean i um i've flipped some houses a

18:39

little side hustle um

18:41

i really love doing that

18:43

obviously the market since it's blown up

18:45

it's not really quite feasible right now

18:47

but um i would like to do more of that

18:48

in the future and

18:50

um

18:51

yeah that's kind of easy because there

18:53

is no client

18:54

so you are the client yeah yeah no but

18:56

every new client's a different

18:58

experience like you're dealing with

18:59

different personalities and tastes so um

19:02

yeah it's interesting it's always i

19:03

would imagine that is really interesting

19:05

and i didn't even think about that part

19:06

two because like you know you're dealing

19:07

with so many different people that you

19:09

need to be able to be like a chameleon

19:11

like adapt to like maybe different

19:13

personalities and be able to talk to a

19:15

lot of different people i mean that's

19:16

like what this is for sure you know how

19:18

many different people i've had on this

19:19

show or the other show too like so many

19:21

different backgrounds yeah experiences

19:24

and lifestyles and whatever right and

19:26

you need to be able to like connect with

19:27

those people and find some common ground

19:29

so you can make some magic happen for

19:31

sure you know yeah yeah amazing um all

19:33

right so

19:34

we are gonna take our second and last

19:36

break of this episode uh so this is the

19:39

greetings from the garden state podcast

19:40

i'm mike ham we're here in morristown

19:42

new jersey with ally cuomo of alexandria

19:44

como design we'll be right back

19:50

it is time for new jersey fun fact of

19:52

the day did you know that atlantic city

19:54

new jersey is home to the world's

19:55

longest boardwalk

19:57

and that is your new jersey fun fact of

19:58

the day

20:03

all right we're back for our last

20:04

segment of the greetings from the garden

20:06

state podcast i'm mike ham we're here in

20:07

morristown new jersey with allie cuomo

20:09

of alexandria como design so we've done

20:11

a lot of stuff over the course of this

20:13

episode your background what it's like

20:14

to work with you obviously amazing um

20:16

and then you know maybe some stuff that

20:18

you've been dealing with and clients

20:19

have been dealing with and other people

20:20

that you work with um

20:22

uh you know over the last couple years

20:23

but one of the things that we always

20:25

like to do for these episodes at the end

20:27

is to kind of tie it back in some

20:29

capacity to the community because it's a

20:33

new jersey-based podcast and we just

20:35

love talking about everything that there

20:36

is to know about new jersey um so we

20:39

we're friends beyond just you coming on

20:41

this show that's why i have talked to

20:43

you before

20:44

um but uh so we both live here in

20:46

morristown uh so you've lived here for

20:49

five years yep five years yeah um so

20:51

talk to me about like what drew you to

20:53

morristown and maybe some things that

20:54

you like about morristown sure so i grew

20:56

up in chatham um just around the corner

20:59

um

21:00

mars sounds great though i feel like

21:03

you know i went to college in the city

21:04

but i'm definitely more of a country

21:06

girl so it's it's kind of the perfect

21:08

combination yeah um you know walking

21:11

into town all the restaurants

21:13

um

21:14

great social scene but

21:16

there's still trees and grass yeah right

21:18

it's like it's got like this this sort

21:21

of a city yeah but just like it's like a

21:23

suburban urban

21:24

type of deal you know that's what i like

21:27

it's like a little oasis like you said

21:28

like you live walking distance i live

21:30

walking distance to all the cool stuff

21:31

that's down there and it's like like how

21:33

many other places can you just like walk

21:35

down get like a baller meal someplace or

21:38

like have a couple drinks and then go

21:40

home and then like you're just again

21:42

like it's like a five minute walk and

21:43

then you're just in peace and quiet

21:44

totally yeah it's ideal it's amazing

21:46

yeah um and then

21:48

uh yeah so that's that's awesome so

21:51

and

21:52

moving in further into the community

21:54

side of it so like what are some ways

21:56

that you kind of like involved yourself

21:58

in the community yeah so i i feel like

22:01

um

22:03

i mean certainly pre-koved

22:05

you know we were all more involved in in

22:08

a lot of things but um

22:10

i don't know just like

22:13

where where you eat and like seeing the

22:15

same people all the time and then

22:17

you know as you meet people and and

22:19

being like a small business owner you

22:20

really connect with other businesses in

22:22

town over that

22:24

yeah yeah yeah yeah

22:27

yeah connecting with small businesses

22:28

like in in what capacity like going out

22:30

to eat there like people that you

22:32

actually work

22:33

there supporting supporting small

22:35

businesses um but also

22:38

you know when you connect with other

22:39

business owners that's kind of a

22:40

wonderful thing too and yeah so allie

22:43

digging deeper into the morristown

22:45

community and all that kind of stuff and

22:46

you mentioned you know like

22:48

collaborating or maybe not even

22:50

collaborating but connecting with local

22:51

business owners and all that kind of

22:52

stuff do you have like you know a

22:54

favorite spot around town they just like

22:56

whether it's a restaurant or a bar or

22:58

whatever they just like love going there

23:00

and getting brunch or dinner or wherever

23:03

yeah so i love i love south and pine um

23:06

former guest actually yeah yeah leah is

23:08

also a friend awesome um

23:10

yeah great food killer food um

23:14

i don't know i mean i also i feel like

23:15

there's so much history in this area i

23:17

love jockey hollow yep you know that's

23:19

an amazing building um

23:22

yeah yeah those are two great spots and

23:25

like even just like like where we are

23:26

like you know you start driving up and

23:28

down the street and it's like you see

23:30

you know all these like historic markers

23:32

like this was

23:33

someone's house or this is where george

23:35

washington yeah you know like set up his

23:37

camp

23:38

like what even my own house is like

23:41

was moved from two blocks away and i

23:44

have this crazy empty whole house was

23:45

moved the whole house is moved

23:47

and i have this antique map and my house

23:50

is on the map oh really from 18th

23:52

century i think i saw it yes

23:54

when i was here yeah i mean you know

23:56

that's really cool yeah yeah it's just

23:58

like crazy to think like you know i mean

24:00

my apartment building was not here that

24:02

long

24:03

but it's just like even just around the

24:05

corner for me is like that george

24:06

washington statue yeah his headquarters

24:08

across the street that's just cool

24:09

because like you know not only does it

24:11

have all like this you know new

24:13

restaurants and different places to go

24:14

and try and whatever but it's just like

24:16

so cool to think that how much stuff has

24:19

happened just in like this one little

24:21

town in new jersey it's amazing it is

24:23

amazing yeah what these buildings have

24:25

seen in right like literally like the

24:27

revolutionary war yes like soldiers were

24:30

here yeah they were just chilling you

24:32

know camping out maybe not chilling but

24:35

i mean in the winter they were chilling

24:36

well they were that's a good joke

24:38

that was such a bad thing that's a pro

24:40

guess joke um but uh it was my best dad

24:42

joke

24:44

but uh so maybe also i think is

24:46

important to note like with this

24:47

community stuff the idea that like

24:50

your business is like literally built

24:53

upon

24:54

networking and community whether it's

24:56

like your clients yeah and getting those

24:57

referrals like we were talking about

24:59

or other businesses like you mentioned

25:01

builders and architects that you work

25:02

with that like you know you guys are

25:04

collaborating on different projects and

25:06

all that kind of stuff so maybe talk to

25:07

me a little bit about like like the

25:09

importance of that obviously yeah i mean

25:12

you know i think growing up in the area

25:13

um definitely helps but

25:16

um

25:17

yeah i mean you know

25:19

you want to do a good job always every

25:21

time and so surrounding yourself with

25:23

people who

25:24

um

25:25

you work well with and that you know are

25:28

not going to let you down

25:29

um

25:30

that's kind of

25:32

that's kind of like the team

25:34

so to to work with these people

25:36

regularly and you're feeding each other

25:37

so that's

25:39

it's wonderful yeah yeah yeah because i

25:41

mean i would imagine like you know it's

25:44

that's what might be even more important

25:46

than like what fabric you pick right for

25:48

sure to a certain yeah because it's like

25:50

you could refer uh a builder and if they

25:53

suck then it's like a reflection on you

25:56

yes you know what i mean and vice versa

25:57

like if you come in and you're just like

25:59

we're gonna paint everything lime green

26:01

and put like you know neon fluffy

26:03

pillows like everywhere you'll be like

26:05

who the hell is this like why'd you

26:08

exactly um but uh but yeah so i think

26:10

that like that's always interesting to

26:12

me because it's like that's part of the

26:14

community so we do a lot talking about

26:16

like you know if you're gonna volunteer

26:18

someplace or whatever and like obviously

26:20

that's important but like still you know

26:22

what the community that's important to

26:23

different businesses is different

26:24

business to business and this is

26:26

obviously a community that's very

26:27

important for everything that you do

26:29

which i think is really cool

26:31

yeah and and like i said even just like

26:33

using local art galleries and things

26:34

like that um

26:37

it's just nice to just stay local and

26:39

support yeah yeah 100 yeah i love that

26:41

um

26:43

all right so uh maybe like if people are

26:46

interested in maybe learning more about

26:48

you kind of learning more about like

26:50

what you do and maybe if they did want

26:52

to work with you in some capacity or

26:54

refer you to some place because

26:55

obviously referrals are

26:57

very key to like whatever it is that

26:59

you're doing um so maybe where can they

27:01

go to learn more

27:03

um so my website is

27:06

alexandriacomodesign.com or my instagram

27:08

is

27:09

also alexandria como design yeah we

27:11

plugged that earlier and we're plugging

27:12

it again um so and like you know you did

27:16

say that you don't mark

27:18

market yourself but here you are on my

27:20

podcast marketing yourself is it what uh

27:22

well i just wanted to chat with you

27:23

today that's you know well i mean who

27:25

doesn't honestly i get like instagram

27:27

messages all the time like could i come

27:28

on could i come on you know but i got to

27:30

save them for the good guess right right

27:31

not that anyone we have haven't had on

27:33

so far is not a good guess but you have

27:34

to be discerning about who you're

27:36

letting slide into your dms right yeah

27:38

cause i mean it just happens all the

27:40

time it's like give me some space

27:42

but uh it's hard to be popular yeah but

27:44

did you have a good time on your first

27:46

podcast episode ever i did i was a

27:47

little nervous but i i feel like it

27:50

wasn't so bad no it's not bad like i

27:52

told you it's not gonna be bad i know

27:53

it's great right but yeah it's it's just

27:55

like the you know uh getting in there

27:58

and actually doing it yeah i think it's

27:59

like sometimes it's like hard to like

28:01

talk about what you do because you do it

28:03

you talk about yourself and then just be

28:04

like you know introspective i guess or

28:07

whatever and then like look at it from

28:09

afar right and then be like oh this is

28:11

what i do and this is what you know the

28:13

process is yeah that kind of stuff so i

28:14

think it was cool and i really

28:15

appreciate you coming on and sharing and

28:17

just been cool because you are a friend

28:19

of mine to kind of see it see you from

28:21

like a totally different perspective

28:22

because this is the first time that i've

28:24

really likewise the whole podcast thing

28:26

yeah right exactly yeah this is the

28:27

first time we ever like dug down into

28:29

the stuff that right that we do right

28:30

you know like you've seen me like on you

28:33

know instagram or whatever but never

28:34

like

28:35

in in action in person i've never seen

28:37

you in action

28:38

it's a sight to behold um so alexandria

28:41

cuomo design.com is the website at

28:43

alexandria como design is the instagram

28:45

handle uh greetings from

28:47

thegardenstate.com is the website for

28:48

the show greetings from the gardens

28:50

gmail.com is the email address for the

28:51

show if for some reason you want to

28:53

reach out to me to get connected to ali

28:55

happy to make that intro referrals again

28:57

allie again thank you so much for coming

28:59

out with us today thank you so much for

29:00

having me of course yeah thank you for

29:02

welcoming me into your home reese you

29:04

know was hanging out but he like there

29:06

he's gone now so

29:08

i thought he was gonna be like more like

29:09

in our in our business no the dog got a

29:11

busy stick so she was busy yeah um and

29:14

amazing so uh everybody else thank you

29:17

for listening and we'll catch you next

29:18

time

29:27

[Music]

29:27

[Applause]

29:29

[Music]

29:35

[Music]

29:39

the same yeah

29:53

you

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