Kelly Wearstler has had a decades-long career as an interior designer. In addition to celebrity clients like Gwen Stefani and Cameron Diaz, Wearstler owns her own product line and has designed hotels around the world.
In college, Wearstler studied interior, architectural and graphic design. Her accolades include Architectural Digest’s AD100 and Time Magazine’s The Design 100, and she was the first interior designer to teach a MasterClass.
But before founding her design studio in 1999, Wearstler was working as a waitress to support herself and pay off her student loans. Now, over 20 years later, the 57-year-old South Carolina native credits her days waiting tables for teaching her how to work with the diverse clients she has now.
″[It taught me how to] just be a good listener. You had to be a good listener, and then you also have to know how to ask the right questions. Both go hand in hand,” Wearstler tells CNBC Make It. “I was also very shy and it really helped me to speak up. Every time you go to a table, you have a speech and say ‘Hi, I’m Kelly’ so that really helped me.”
Wearstler says she doesn’t see the moments she creates for her design clients as all that different from the experiences her customers had when she was a waitress.
