Explore Home - A Podcast from Universal Furniture

This week, we invite you to Explore Home with Megan Molten, founder and creative director of her eponymous design firm in Charleston, South Carolina. Tune in as Neil sits down with Megan to discuss her design career journey, the importance of building ironclad client relationships, and her forthcoming work featured in Flower Magazine. Megan explains how the positive feedback generated from her design-focused social media accounts gave her the confidence to transitioninto a full-time design ca...

Welcome to the Explore Home Podcast. This week, we invite you to explore home with Yvonne Christensen and Nichole Speirs, owners of Utah-based House West Design. Listen as Yvonne and Nichole discuss how “meeting” on Instagram led to joining forces and opening House West Design. They discuss the challenges of merging two companies together, from day-to-day processes to delegation and hiring the right team. Over the course of the last 3 years, they have assembled a tight-knit, well-rounded grou...

Welcome to the Explore Home Podcast! This week, we invite you to Explore Home with Rydhima Brar, founder and principal of R/Terior Studio based in Los Angeles, California. Listen as Rydhima discusses opening her interior design business at the very start of COVID and how her previous corporate role helped her pivot her business strategy. Then, Rydhima shares with Neil more about her childhood growing up in Kuwait and how her upbringing played an integral part in her unique aesthetic. After, t...

Welcome to the Explore Home Podcast. This week, we invite you to explore home with Carmin Black, Founder of Half United. Half United is a for-profit philanthropic company that puts helping others above profit. Selling “socially good goods,” Half United works with artisans in developing countries to produce one-of-a-kind items. This leads to gainful employment in places that are in desperate need of opportunities.Neil and Carmin talk about how she and her brother started Half United when they ...

Welcome to the Explore Home Podcast. This week, we invite you to explore home with John McClain, CEO and Creative Director of John McClain Design. Home design is in John’s blood, his family built homes and he tagged along as a kid. This led to the discovery that he loved every aspect of home design, from the foundation to the roof. Neil and John talk about how he began by decorating friends’ homes for a free lunch. On a whim, he auditioned for an HGTV special that focused on designers. H...

Welcome to the Explore Home Podcast. This week, we invite you to explore home with Tammy Nagem, President and CEO of High Point Market Authority. As the newly appointed HPMA President, Tammy describes her transition into the role and the anticipation of the upcoming Spring High Point Market. Tammy and Neil discuss how anyone who is serious about the home furnishings business needs to attend HPMKT. It is the epicenter of the furnishings industry, you will see more product, more categories...

Welcome to the Explore Home Podcast. This week, we invite you to Explore Home with Erika Ward, owner of Erika Ward Interiors in Atlanta. Listen as Erika describes her journey from majoring in finance at the University of Georgia to working at her family-owned flooring business. There, she put her business acumen to the test with budgeting and estimating construction projects. Erika used this experience to be hired as the project accountant on the Georgia Aquarium. She was In her 20’s and...

Welcome to the Explore Home Podcast! This week, we invite you to Explore Home with Amy Bartlam, owner of Los Angeles based Amy Bartlam Photography. Listen as Amy describes her road to becoming an interior design photographer. As a child in England, both her parents were deeply involved in the arts, and encouraged their children to be so as well. Amy's father let her use his cameras for school projects and a lifelong love affair with photography was born. Amy’s first “real” job was assisting a...

Welcome to the Explore Home Podcast! This week, we invite you to Explore Home with Will Brinson, CBS Sports Senior Writer. Listen as Will details how he went from an English major at NC State to a sports writer for CBS. Will began his career writing on sports message boards on his lunch breaks, he caught the eye of a sports blogger and from there, worked his way up the ranks. He has been hanging on tight to his dream job ever since. Will and Neil discuss the similarities between a ...

Welcome to the Explore Home Podcast! This week, we invite you to Explore Home with Erinn Valencich, interior designer, real estate developer, and entrepreneur. Listen as Erinn details how she first made her way into the design industry, starting with some special childhood roots. Neil and Erinn then touch on Erinn’s progression into the custom design industry. They then discuss Erinn’s exciting new furniture collaboration with Universal, as well as take a closer look at what inspires Erinn an...