Inspired with Alexa von Tobel
00:00:00 · Nate Berkus, Alexa von Tobel
[00:00:00] S0: The truth is that I was working for Leslie Hindman Auctioneers in Chicago, and I went into her office one day and I said to her, I think I'm gonna quit my job. And she said, Well, you know, it's really scary out there. And I said to her, Yeah, but I make $780 every two weeks. How hard can it be to make that? [00:00:21] S1: You made $775 because... [00:00:23] S0: You're right. Thank you. Thank you, my former financial... Personal financial expert. You're right. It was $7.75 before taxes. I really thought to myself, how hard can it be to be my own boss and make up $1,400 a month? But I would say that what was perhaps distinctive about me in the early days was I would say to these really rich people who had these really big homes, If you want to take a chance on me, I'm a kid, and I know I'm kid, but I'll work really hard for you. That I can promise, and I will always tell you the truth.
00:01:04 · Alexa von Tobel, S2
[00:01:04] S1: Welcome to Inspired. I'm Alexa von Tobel. What elevates interior designer from good to world class? It's not just your talent or taste. It's understanding your client so deeply that you create spaces that help them become who they wanna be. That is Nate Berkus' superpower. Few creatives embody ambition and reinvention the way Nate does. At just 24, he launched Nate Berkus Associates in Chicago. Thirty years later, he's built one of the most respected design firms in the world. He's been recognized on Architectural Digest's 8,100 list for nearly a decade. He's a two time New York Time bestselling author, a television host, which is where I met him, a producer on five major shows, a creative force whose work has reached literal millions, and he's a fellow friend of mine. Nate's story is one of curiosity, resilience, and an infectious zest for life. In this conversation, you'll hear all about what gave him the confidence to start his firm at 24, how surviving the two thousand and four tsunami changed him, his take on AI and the future of design, and his new book, Foundations, that launches on November 18. Now let's dive right in. [00:02:10] S2: If you're running a startup, we know things like managing equity and communicating with investors are always top of mind. Carta has built a connected suite of tools that over 40,000 companies use to do just that. Their platform of software and services helps you lay the groundwork so you can focus on building. To learn more or get started, visit carta.com.
00:02:10 · S2, Alexa von Tobel, Nate Berkus
[00:02:10] S2: If you're running a startup, we know things like managing equity and communicating with investors are always top of mind. Carta has built a connected suite of tools that over 40,000 companies use to do just that. Their platform of software and services helps you lay the groundwork so you can focus on building. To learn more or get started, visit carta.com. [00:02:30] S1: And with that, I'm so excited to welcome my friend, Nate. Nate, first of all, have fun. I'm so excited to do this with you, having known you for a long time and just so inspired by you on many levels. I wanna I wanna start from the beginning. I wanna dive into your origin story. So... But first, welcome. [00:02:48] S0: Thank you. I love being with you. You know that. You and I are usually, like, in the corner of a cocktail party being pretty badly behaved, so I feel like we're very professional today. [00:02:58] S1: Yes. This... Like, we will bring our professional selves. [00:03:01] S0: I'm trying really hard. [00:03:02] S1: Yeah. I I will try really hard too. [00:03:04] S0: Okay. Great. [00:03:05] S1: So, Nate, I wanna go back to the beginning. You grew up in Hopkins, Minnesota, and you and I both have Midwestern roots, which is one of the many things I love about you. Where did you fall in love with design? I mean, I know your mom, fun fact, Nancy was, Nancy Golden was a designer who also appeared on HGTV. But where did this love and obsession of design come from?
00:03:31 · Nate Berkus, Alexa von Tobel
[00:03:31] S0: So my mom's family was all East Coast based originally, all from the suburbs of Philly, and they cared. My grandmother's house was sort of assembled. My family on that side had a furniture reproduction company that was French provincial furniture and English brown furniture. And so I was really always around it. And then my mom, when she divorced my dad, I was two, she was 22, and my father got divorced and she put herself back through design school and was always around, I was just always around it, to the point where I would come home from visiting my father in California and my room would be in a different part of the house, completely redecorated, took new wall covering, new everything and I'd be like, well you moved my room? But our house growing up was a lab and my mom had a very decent business as most of her friends were housewives and my mom had clients and she was lugging those heavy wallpaper books around and bringing what her kind of vision was to the Twin Cities, which as you know, is not by anyone's definition ever considered like a design metropolis. So it was funny because we were that family who dressed a little different, lived a little different, And we ate the same though, Dairy Queen and the State Fair of Minnesota. Those were check check, still my favorite restaurant worldwide. [00:05:13] S1: DQ, love me. [00:05:15] S0: Yep, yep. DQ. It's the best. [00:05:17] S1: It's the best.
00:05:17 · Alexa von Tobel, Nate Berkus
[00:05:17] S1: It's the best. [00:05:18] S0: So I would say it was exposure. And I think what I really do credit my mom at a very early age, which is something I still do today, both with her and with my company, is that weekends were spent at multi dealer antique malls and auctions and estate sales. And it was all about having things and searching for things that had real value, both aesthetically and monetarily at the best price and finding stuff that no one else had. And I am still in pursuit of that at 53. [00:05:51] S1: Which I can attest you deeply are in pursuit of that at 53 still. [00:05:57] S0: No, 100%. There needs to be a counseling program for how deeply I am ingrained in the auction and secondary market world. [00:06:06] S1: I love it so much. One thing I wanted to make sure I said. So you studied French and sociology at Lake Forest College. That is such an interesting academic mix for a designer. You studied people and culture influence. If you think about that, how do you think that that created any foundation for how you think about design?
00:06:31 · Nate Berkus, Alexa von Tobel
[00:06:31] S0: Well, I've always believed that design, you know, thirty years into my company, I've always believed that design is part magic, part alchemy, and a lot of sociology. I've always believed philosophically that my job as designer is to dream a slightly bigger dream for the client than they can dream for themselves. And so that's where this sort of skill set of scale and sourcing and all of the things that go into properly and effectively assembling a beautiful interior kind of stem from, but it's also my responsibility to look at someone and meet them and pretty quickly understand not only who they are, but where they've been, and also most importantly, perhaps who they aspire to be, because a successful room, when you stand in a successful room, whether it's yours or someone else's, you feel the best version of yourself, and that's not an effortless process, it's a deeply thoughtful, very layered process, but that's the alchemy of it, and without the sociology background, without understanding what Susan Faludi was writing, what Jane Goodall was studying, even though that was more anthropology, but still it set me up to think through how to very quickly get people to feel comfortable around me. And that's really what it's all about and what it remains all about. [00:08:13] S1: That's so well said, and by the way, what an incredibly authentic skill set to being able to then be set up as a really powerful designer. Nate, one thing I did not fully know about you was you started Nate Berkus Associates at age 24. [00:08:34] S0: I did.