Day 2 of the HAVEN Workshop was jam-packed full of learning sessions and a chance for our attendees to really dig in. We got the day started with a breakfast bar prepared by Malibu Farm (including the best swedish mini pancakes!).

Photography: Sally Pinera

A Sweet Surprise to Start the Day

Our ladies sat down to a beautifully crafted package of samples from Susan Connor New York, shown above. We wanted to help our attendees build their sample library and we believe that Susan’s intricate patterns should be a staple in every designer’s collection. Her selections for our group were a stunning array of blues and neutrals, full of designs that bring meaningful stories, texture and detail to so many homes. We’re so honored that Susan partnered with us to craft this sweet surprise for our attendees. She’s also the kindest human ever and is such a joy to work with! If you’re interested in working with her, give her a shout.

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Morning Sessions

Day two sessions began with design speaker, Lindye Galloway on Client Growth: Gaining New Clients & Larger Scale Projects. If you follow along with Lindye on Instagram you know she’s a kickass boss babe! It was incredibly inspiring to hear how she’s grown her beautiful design empire.

Up next, Melissa Baran of HAVEN (oh hi, it me!) spoke on Instagram Growth: How To Grow an Engaged Community on Instagram. As a platform that began on the ‘gram, we had a thing or two to say on the topic and saw lots of note-taking happening during the session. Also, I promise you I was not playing a game of airball, even though it certainly looks that way from my hand motions, ha!

Our social media convo rolled right into the third session of the morning, Marketing: A Powerful Way to Promote Your Brand with Anastasia Casey of The Identité Collective and IDCO Studio. Anastasia has a unique (and genius!) niche as a brand guru and works specifically with interior designers, so her tips were absolute gold for our girls.

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Luncheon at Serena & Lily

Partnering with Serena & Lily for a small part of our event was such a dream! We adore their brand and mission, and with the Newport Beach shop right around the corner from our venue it was a no brainer to join forces with their team on day two. They hosted us for a breezy luncheon, catered by Malibu Farm. This gave our girls a chance to chat a bit more outside of our learning sessions.

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Designer Circle

After our luncheon, Jane Stier from the Serena & Lily team shared a bit of info on their Designer Circle trade program and the brand itself. With 12 design shops around the country now (one opening in Palm Beach in late fall!), they offer an opportunity for designers and customers to have a tactile experience with their products quite unlike any other shop out there. Our attendees were able to have that experience, followed by a design presentation breakout session with our design speakers.

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Design Presentation Breakout

We split our group into two and Lindsey and Kate shared how they each present to their clients. It was one of my favorite sessions, seeing our attendees huddled around each designer soaking in all the knowledge they could.

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Afternoon Sessions

While it was hard to tear our group away from the delightful time we had at Serena & Lily, we headed back to our classroom for afternoon sessions. First up, Reisa Elden of IVY shared the ins and outs of Business Management: Build a Profitable Business by Leveraging the Right Tools. Our girls got a complete walkthrough on how to use their amazing platform. If you’re interested in getting your own demo with their team, click here!

Reisa then led a panel with two of our design speakers (Lindye and Lindsey) who use IVY to keep their businesses running—Business Growth: Discovering the Best Growth Strategies That Work for You.

Next, we heard from our friend Ryan Garvin on Best Practices for an Interior Photoshoot. With 10 years of experience (and the kindest heart ever), it was an honor to have Ryan has one of our speakers sharing his insight with our group. He dove into everything from rates and contracts to styling and being mindful of your endgame with photoshoots.

For our last session of the day, Kate Lester generously served our group a round of bubbly, because that’s how she rolls. We love you, Kate! We were running a bit off schedule so this was such a treat to keep us going at the end of the day. She spoke on The Business of Design: How To Make Money Doing What You Love, dishing all her secrets. One of our attendees took four pages of notes just on Kate’s presentation. It was pure gold!

All in all, it was SUCH a fantastic day. We gave our attendees the evening off so they could get a bit of a break and choose to do their own thing for dinner, but the most beautiful thing happened—as I walked into the Lido Hotel lobby after tidying up our classroom—I peeked into the bar, and almost all of our attendees had decided to join together for an impromptu dinner. Proud workshop mama moment when I saw that. I immediately joined them and you better believe my heart was full that evening. I truly loved this group so much. There was effortlessness and ease of connection between them—exactly what I hoped for when envisioning the community that would come from the HAVEN Workshop.

Stay tuned for our next post on Day 3!