My Personal Goals to Success

My name is Vanessa Starkweather and I have always loved designing. Growing up I would always design my bedrooms and help with parts of the home. I got the gift from my mother who went into fashion design when she was my age. I have always been passionate about design even though with growing up I would say I want to be a nurse, I want to be a DEA agent, I want to be a OB/GYN and so on. Finally I realized I will never be happy with any of that unless I could do what I love. Luckily, I figured this out at a young age so I can start fresh and gain many years of experience on my journey. Currently I am the in-house designer for Rivell Distributing. This is a great way to get to my finalized goal because I look at a lot of commercial blue prints and assist in the design process with errors that I come across while looking to place appliances in the kitchen and bath areas. 

My 3-6 month goal is to finish this semester, walk in May and then take my last 2 required classes necessary to receive my diploma. I want to work really hard this semester with my 21 credit hour load and get all A's. That never seems to happen when a teacher is pregnant, I guess the hormones come in and they forget everything. This semester I want to go out with a bang and feel really great with my accomplishments. I am excited about the classes I am taking and know that it will be great. Another thing I want to achieve within this time is working with the acclaimed Brett Bluth from New York City. He currently relocated to Park City and he said he would like me to "intern" with him come the first of February. He has a vast knowledge of hospitality, retail and event planning design. I am very excited to work with him and gain the knowledge that he has to offer. We will be working on a spring trade show is all that I know currently. 

In about a year I plan to still work at Rivell Distributing because I feel like it is really going to take off for me. The salary will be great because it is part sales and I feel like this will look great on my resume for being the age I am. I will work with commercial and residential builders. I will assist the with the design of the kitchen and bath areas of their project. I will sell them high end appliances or even the less expensive according to their needs. This will definitely develop my skills with sales, visually seeing and examining blue prints and practicing design for projects other then residential. I want to stay connected with Brett Bluth and work with him from time to time. I feel like doing this will make it so I can be introduced to all the right people. After I graduate SLCC I would like to pick up a few extra classes that I feel will make me more well rounded and assist me throughout my career such as photography, design psychology, revit, green design, advanced kitchen and bath, and a few architectural classes. I don't know if I will have time for all of these in the fall and spring semester after I graduate, but I would sure like to try. 

In three years I am hoping my husband and I will have moved to either New York, Houston or Chicago. We both want to live in the big city but it depends on how my husband's business is doing here in Utah or how well it expanded into other states. Anyways I would be fine moving to any large city with a need for a creative mind. There I would want to start working with a hospitality design firm. By the time I get to this point I would have worked at Rivell for 4 years, bringing in a great salary and having connected to Brett Bluth who has done many marvelous works. With this on my resume I don't think the firm would start me as entry level but want my assistance as part of a design team. This would be great and on my next step to achieving my goal. While I was here I would look up to the lead designer on all of the projects and try to learn as much from them as I could. I would ask them questions and make sure I know what I am talking about so that they would see how hard I will work to get what to where I want to be. 

After gaining knowledge within the design team I would want to become the lead designer in two years. So in my goal plan in about 5 years from now I would like to be the lead designer for the hospitality design. I have so many great ideas for restaurants and hotels. I would move again if I had to because my husband supports my career and he is so inventive and a true entrepreneur that he will do good anywhere we go. Back to my goals…being the lead designer not only would I give all that I have I would give more to the job in terms of creativity and giving the consumer what they wanted and some. I would lead the team I put together to success so that we would become number one in the nation. I would network and make sure I had a lot of connections. I feel like in this field you need to have many connections in order to succeed. I want Architectural Digest to have articles on the hotels and restaurants I have designed. I want to make it in 5 years and have everyone know me as a designer around the nation. I want to be the "Nate Berkus" on television. I feel like I will achieve this goal because I am so dedicated to this that even when the going gets tough I continue on through it.

In ten years I hope to have completed my highest goal. This is one where my husband and I work together. He has always wanted to buy and sell hotels and buildings. In ten years I want to be able to open my own hospitality/commercial design firm. I will have connected to enough people that I will have people invest with my company so that it can take off quickly. I will hire top designers and I will also hire entry level designers that I feel like will become great with the right knowledge and assistance. My company will work directly with my husbands. He will buy buildings and we will restore them, whether it be a restaurant, hotel or just a commercial office space. The hotels will be so great that when people are in them staying that they won't want to leave. The restaurants will be so explosive in design and yet so mellow that you will be staring at the restaurant the whole time instead of your date. The offices that we design will be a place where you feel like you can express your thoughts and not feel so confined to the stark white walls and ugly cubicles. I really want to create something different and I want to establish myself on top and have my name be recognized. I truly love design and I will accomplish all of my goals. I want to have a nice house in Orange County and San Francisco at this time and will travel in the nation to complete all projects, and I will trust my built up staff to go out for me to accomplish our projects. 

I have always loved design but especially with hotels and restaurants. I love going on vacations and I just admire the work and effort that has been put into the building. I also think about other buildings of the same sort and think "What you should've done to make this place better". I know that as long as I believe in my self and have the support of my husband that these goals will become reality in the next ten years.