Today we’d like to introduce you to Laurie Moulton.
Hi Laurie, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I have always been fascinated, even as a small child, with solving the challenges that come with creating, building and growing a business. I started out selling art door to door to my neighbors, summer lemonade stands, and eventually creating a babysitting enterprise that gave me the confidence to trust my instincts. I was consistently shaping my curiosity and desire to seek to understand, embracing lifelong learning as a person and entrepreneur. That excitement for business is what eventually drove me to pursue a corporate career in Finance within the high-tech sector for over 25 years. I never thought of myself as a creative person, I was entirely focused on building businesses, my personal brand and climbing the corporate ladder, which required me to be highly professional and all business, all of the time. Personally though, I have always been deeply inspired by the art behind architecture, design and fashion. Eventually that inspiration evolved into a creative outlet for me when I would design my own home and style distinctive looks to wear to the office.
After over 25 years in my high-tech corporate career, I felt that I had reached everything I had set out to accomplish in that phase of my life, and I was ready to start something of my own. At the time I had just re-married to my now husband and business partner Chris, and we decided to take the leap and start something together. From my own experience, I knew there was a gap in the market for pretty, feminine dresses and suiting for women in business, so we decided that would be a great niche not only locally, but also as an ecommerce concept. The real idea was to get some balance into my life – which in hindsight sounds crazy that I would have thought my life could harmonize in that way – my corporate life had become overwhelming and all-consuming and I needed to reset my priorities. I gave my career everything I had, mentally and physically, missing out on time with my family and missing out on time for me. Finally, I realized that I could operate at the same level of ambition and determination building on my own, where I could work alongside my husband and children at different phases of our business, giving me the freedom to balance my life in the most unexpected and incredible way.
With that revelation, we launched our first clothing boutique, House of Lolo, in 2011 in Portland, OR, which would become the catalyst for us creating a family owned, lifestyle collective of businesses that would transcend through all facets of home, design and living. We then launched Lux Box Agency, our boutique real estate agency, in 2015 after relocating to Palm Springs, CA in an attempt to create separation from the all too tempting opportunity to consult in the high-tech sector, yet again, pulling me away from what I really wanted to be building. We decided to launch our second House of Lolo shop in Palm Desert in 2019, just before COVID, which was a wild ride as we all remember. Eventually launching Lolo Interiors design studio and furniture gallery in 2022, after over twenty-five years of organically growing the interior design business with referrals from our real estate clients at Lux Box Agency, testing the concept of adding a furniture and décor collection within our clothing boutiques, House of Lolo, and designing and building our own residential and commercial spaces.
My days are focused on being the Principal designer for our interior design studio, sourcing all of our incredible artisans, designers and beautiful products for our shops and of course as the CEO and creative director across our family collective of businesses.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
The journey to creating, designing, crafting, collaborating and curating a collective of businesses is definitely not for the faint of heart, but from every struggle we have an opportunity to learn, to evolve, to grow and to adjust your plan to make it successful. We approach every challenge with our eyes wide open to discover what we did well, what we could have done better and how to think differently in the future.
When we are delivered a business challenge we always focus on the facts, and by facts I mean the numbers, to encourage the decision necessary in identifying our path forward. Sometimes we see the risk and potential issues coming at us and we still choose to continue to move forward with the original plan, for the sake of continuing to invest in the idea and our belief in following the path. And sometimes macro or micro market conditions can have a material effect on our ability to succeed with the existing plan and we have had to learn to listen to the market, pull back on the reigns, reset priorities, focus on the now and watch for opportunities in the markets that we are in that could open a new or better path for us in the future.
Leaning on our deep knowledge of our markets, our collective experience, leading with an optimistic outlook, and cultivating an incredible team who can evolve along with you, are what we continue to revisit as the keys to succeeding in challenging times. We only ever look back to see what we could have done better in order to inform us of what we should do next.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
Lolo Interiors is the underpinning of our family collective of businesses which were created to pay homage to nature with effortless, understated, elegance. Lux Box Agency, Lolo Interiors and House of Lolo create a family-owned collective that transcends through all facets of home, design, and living. The collective was created to evoke emotion, be a catalyst for inspiration, and provide a sense of comfort with their organically elevated collections.
Lolo Interiors is our interior design studio and furniture gallery dedicated to creating spaces that harmonize organic materials, textures, and natural light which are the root of the studio’s inspiration & design process. Our designs interject a warmth and calm that aim to inspire and evoke emotive principles, the spaces themselves crafting their own language for what it means to be home.
House of Lolo is our clothing boutique, inspired by a vision to share beautifully edited collections in a small boutique setting, fostering a sense of community with other like-minded people who seek a personally catered and unique shopping experience. My childhood nickname — “Lolo” — became the moniker for the shop.
Lux Box Agency is our family-operated, luxury real estate brokerage, blending our vast knowledge of real estate, business, architecture, and design to advocate for you in buying, selling, designing and managing of beautiful spaces.
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Operating our businesses in a luxury resort, second-home market, brings many interesting challenges but we have found that when we listen closely to our clients, their buying behavior, dreams, opportunities and plans can become critical predictors for the future of our businesses. COVID provided a huge opportunity for us in some ways and had a devastating impact in other ways. We have built our businesses to support the steady growth we have experienced over the last few years during and after COVID but with the current economic impact of high interest rates, we are experiencing the impact of tighter spending in some way for each of our businesses. We have had to reprioritize our efforts, reset our goals and be incredibly focused on the foundational business fundamentals, including client experience, outreach, marketing and honing our pricing methodologies, all of which we have developed over the years to guide our decisions as to how we need to invest in our businesses and where we see the biggest opportunities for growth.
Pricing:
- We continue to do industry research and testing around our pricing methodologies, as they evolve over time and require specific attention dependent on the needs of our individual businesses.
- For interior design, specifically, our larger scale projects are priced on a fixed fee basis, dependent upon the overall scope of the project, scale of the space and timeline so that we are able to deliver the highest level of service, communicate those costs of the project to our clients upfront and make it a predictable cost for them.
- For smaller scale interior design or styling projects we provide both virtual design services, via Zoom, or on-site consultation services, which are billed hourly, allowing us to provide guidance to our clients on both interior design and construction at a smaller scale, or for clients wanting an expert involved as a sounding board, working in collaboration with the client on their design ideas. Virtual design sessions, can be booked directly on our website and are a great way for us to help clients kickoff a project or work through specific challenges they might be facing on their project.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lolointeriors.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lolointeriorsbuild/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurie-moulton-8547592/
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@lolointeriors?_t=8n96qgJt27i&_r=1
Image Credits
Jessica Casto, was the photographer of my bio photo ONLY, all other photos were taken in-house by Lolo Interiors. The AD Pro photo is approved to share as they have provided us with permission to use their logo as an AD Pro featured designer when promoting our interior design business on our propriety photos.
