Helping You Create Your Dream Space
0:00
[Music]
0:03
[Applause]
0:05
[Music]
0:15
welcome back to another episode of
0:16
greetings from the garden state i'm mike
0:18
ham we are here in morristown new jersey
0:20
with my good friend ally cuomo of
0:21
alexandria como design ali welcome to
0:23
the show thank you it's good to have you
0:25
here are you excited for your i think
0:27
your first ever podcast experience super
0:28
excited super excited a little nervous
0:30
though well you know it's just like we
0:32
talk you know and now it's just we're
0:33
talking with mike's on and we're gonna
0:35
record everything you said like i said
0:36
before um but uh but yeah no we i'm very
0:39
excited to have you on we haven't done
0:41
this type of episode before so you are
0:43
our inaugural episode in this field and
0:46
we're going to get to what that is in a
0:47
little bit
0:48
um but uh let's talk about you for a
0:49
little bit so
0:51
uh what do you do and let's get like a
0:53
little bit of like the early background
0:55
days of ali come on sure so i'm an
0:57
interior designer okay um
1:00
i was always into art design growing up
1:02
i went to school for design new york
1:04
school of interior design on the upper
1:06
east side
1:07
um
1:08
i worked for two firms out of college
1:10
and then i went out on my own eight
1:11
years ago okay all right was like uh
1:14
design all that kind of stuff that was
1:16
always something that you were
1:16
interested in right
1:18
yeah i mean you know but like you go to
1:20
college and you don't know if it's gonna
1:21
work out sure and it did yeah so that's
1:24
that's good that's cool yeah it's great
1:26
were you like into that kind of stuff
1:27
like you know even like growing up like
1:30
what made what made you make the
1:31
decision to actually go to design school
1:34
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
1:46
kind of like i would imagine a lot of
1:48
different types of
1:50
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
2:01
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
2:08
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
2:18
go out on your own all that kind of
2:19
stuff
2:20
i mean i think it's probably similar to
2:22
most people who start their own business
2:24
but
2:24
um a combination of wanting
2:27
you know more control over the design
2:29
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
2:35
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
2:42
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
2:48
situation that pushed me to take the
2:50
jump okay yeah yeah
2:52
the perfect storm being anything that
2:54
could be shared on this episode or like
2:56
yeah why not yeah um yeah nobody wants
2:58
to see the show anyway full disclosure
3:00
um
3:02
so i had these three really big jobs um
3:05
that were all referrals to me
3:07
and
3:09
it was kind of like okay
3:11
if i totally fail i'll like yeah i'll be
3:14
good for a bet so
3:16
um it was like office space i
3:19
went into my boss's
3:21
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
3:59
control over what you're doing which is
4:00
awesome um so let's talk about like
4:02
maybe the with uh your interior design
4:06
business the types of you know clients
4:08
that you're generally working with
4:10
so i do mostly high-end residential um
4:14
that being said you know different
4:17
everything from a whole house to a room
4:19
um when i went out on my own it was
4:21
really mainly to focus on kitchen design
4:23
okay um
4:25
but it's it's everything at this point
4:27
yeah yeah are there certain things that
4:29
you enjoy doing more like do you if
4:30
you're doing a lot of residential you
4:32
know like if it's kitchens or whatever
4:34
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
4:40
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
5:07
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
5:20
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
5:49
to do and you need to like fulfill that
5:51
vision yes it's all kinds um i feel like
5:54
some people really are particular know
5:56
what they like and
5:58
that makes my job kind of easy and then
6:00
you know the hope is that
6:02
you can kind of push them and and maybe
6:04
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
6:15
other people have a really hard time
6:16
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
6:50
yeah but i i try and it's not about me
6:52
it's not about my aesthetic it's about
6:54
kind of translating the client's
6:57
um vision and
6:59
helping
7:00
helping kind of make that a reality but
7:02
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
8:11
right now i have um
8:13
i have a job we're doing tons of art so
8:14
like helping clients pick art is super
8:16
fun yeah yeah yeah very personal yeah
8:19
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
9:19
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
9:27
page that is the instagram page
9:30
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
12:01
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