Thanks for coming back to the Chaise Lounge where, today, Nick talks to Courtney McLeod, the New York-based principal of Right Meets Left Design, who chose design as a second career after moving on from corporate finance. She graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania with a business degree and was successful in that field, but she wasn’t in love with her work. Courtney drifted more and more toward the art and design side of life until she couldn’t help but make her move. She quit her job without setting anything up or planning and pursued her new craft.

Courtney didn’t even plan on starting her own business. She figured she would start at the lowest level at an established firm, but- like a lot of guests on this show- McLeod already knew people who were interested in hiring her based on what they had seen in her personal life. Her first ever client was a woman who came to visit McLeod to see some furniture she was selling to make room in her a smaller, more affordable apartment that better fit her metamorphosing lifestyle. The woman looked around at this new place and learned McLeod decorated it herself and asked if she could use that same talent in her place. And one client turned into more and more until she was running a small, stable, successful company of her own.

To see just what Right Meets Left Design is doing, visit RMLID.com or the Instagram @rightmeetsleftinteriordesign.