Designers team up to build community through podcast
At times, it can be difficult to get a feel for the people behind the glossy kitchens and baths one sees on magazine pages or in Instagram feeds, which might lead to a sense of isolation or disconnect within the industry. For Amy Kearns, of Amy Lynn Interiors, and Melissa Hryszko, of Veranda Estate Homes, connecting industry pros on a more personal level is a matter of sitting down and having a conversation. In January 2019, Kearns and Hryszko co-founded the podcast “Modern Design Minds,” in which they host different design professionals for candid, casual chats in an effort to dispel the mystique of social media and magazine glamour and provide a unique point of view on the industry.
The podcast began when the creator of “The Modern Craftsman Podcast,” a podcast geared toward general contractors and the trades, approached Kearns and Hryszko in hopes that they might be able to shed some light on the design perspective of the remodeling process for the trades and fellow designers. Kearns and Hryszko realized that there existed a need for more design podcasts catering to those in the industry, so they set out to fill that niche.
Each episode of the “Modern Design Minds” podcast is comprised of a casual but highly frank and informative conversation with a single guest. Previous guests on the podcast have included Johnny Hourihan of “The Modern Craftsman Podcast,” Dina Holland of Dina Holland Interiors, Amanda Giuliano of Giuliano Designs and Meredith Heron of Meredith Heron Design, among many others. Topics of conversation thus far have run the gamut from hiring effective employees, to region-specific business practices, to social media tips and tricks
and more.
Individually, the women behind “Modern Design Minds” are strong, successful designers in their own right. Hryszko is actually part of another dynamic duo, working for the past 18 years in tandem with her builder husband at the Calgary, Alberta-based full-service design-build company Veranda Estate Homes. Hryszko is also an avid social media maven and influencer, with over 83,300 Instagram followers. Veranda Estate Homes is unique in that the firm is a true one-stop shop, assisting homeowners with everything from land acquisition to new-home construction to finish selections. Due to the company’s detail-oriented approach to every project, Veranda only takes on eight to 10 clients per year.
Kearns, meanwhile, is the titular owner and lead designer at Amy Lynn Interiors, a Westborough, MA-based design firm. Kearns, who grew up in a highly creative and driven family, wanted to be a designer since she was very young. She worked in a variety of roles in the industry until she decided it was time to open her own kitchen and bath design firm seven years ago, specializing in highly functional residential design.
Between the two of them, Hryszko and Kearns bring almost three decades of design industry experience to their podcast.
