In Ask an Influencer, Business of Home explores the creator economy. This week, we spoke with interior architect and product designer Julee Ireland.
Despite her long list of design accomplishments, Julee Ireland started down several other career paths before settling on her current one. By the time she became a designer, she had already lived a number of other lives: as a custom fashion designer for A-listers, a professional NFL cheerleader, and then a budding actress performing improv comedy at The Second City in Los Angeles. In L.A., she uncovered an interest in mural painting, flea market shopping and furniture flipping that would help secure her a designer position at a local carpet company, which eventually led to the launch of her own firm in 2001.
A decade later came another uphill climb: building a following on social media. It took five years for Ireland to reach 10,000 Instagram followers—and a few more for her to nail down the right combination of outsourcing, engagement strategies and design resources needed to attain her current audience of 184,000. The road was long, she says, but entirely worth it. Today, her social media serves as an incubator for future clients, a source of brand partnerships, and a funnel for potential participants in her online course, Home Renovation School.
“I’m living proof that if you love something so much and you put your heart and soul into it, there isn’t anything that you can’t achieve,” says Ireland. “I also want to inspire other people to understand that you don’t have to have this certificate or that to be successful. If you have passion, there isn’t anything that you can’t do. It’s been a very fun ride for me.”
Ahead, Ireland shares how hiring a social media manager was crucial to building an audience, why divulging a bit of free design advice online can be valuable, and how to use your industry insider status to set yourself apart.

Finding a Right Hand
For Ireland, the value of building an audience suddenly became clear at a certain follower-count milestone. “[Getting] to 10,000 is the first goal everyone should have. There’s something about the algorithm—and of course, they’re changing it all the time—but there’s something about that magic number. When you hit that, the doors open up a little bit more,” she says. “I’m not going to sugarcoat this: It is not an easy road. It is a dedicated road, and it is every day, and it’s consistency.”
But when you’re operating a full-service design firm, maintaining consistency on social media is no small feat—at least, not alone. When Ireland hired her social media manager, she was instantly able to benefit from new structure and accountability when it came to building an online presence. Now, her manager puts together a content calendar 30 days in advance, edits and posts content on a regular basis, discusses strategy in regular check-in meetings, and spearheads adjustments to their approach in response to algorithm changes, platform updates and insights on past posts.
All the while, Ireland maintains broader creative oversight. “Even if you do have a social media manager, you still have to be the CEO of your own brand,” she says. “I’m not saying micromanage, but you still need to be the director of your ship so that your story is told the way that you want it to be told. … My job is to be very clear on who I am and what my message is to the world, so that she understands how to craft those social media pieces that reflect that right—and very rarely does she miss the mark.”
For Ireland, that often means shooting and scripting her own content before uploading all assets to a shared folder with her social media manager, who then edits and posts previously agreed-upon content. That workflow also allows Ireland to maintain consistency in posting even while traveling to design events and job sites.
“To be successful in social media, it does have to reflect you and your voice, so to make it work, you have to be involved,” she says. “It has to be part of your business plan; it’s got to be part of your calendar. Look at that every day, and give yourself 10 minutes to look over your socials and see what’s going on—are you happy with it?”
Give-and-Take
When it comes to engagement, Ireland says, what you put out is what you’ll get back in return. For regular grid posts, that means setting some time aside right after content is published to quickly respond to comments. “If you do that right away, that step boosts the algorithm, and it starts pushing it out to your followers,” says Ireland. “That first hour or so is critical.”
She also sets aside a little time each day to engage with people who message her directly. There, she isn’t afraid to divulge a bit of design advice free of charge—knowing that sharing the name of a paint color or the source of a table lamp could help establish her authority as a design professional and build trust among her online community.

“A lot of Instagram is trade professionals, but it’s also DIY-ers and homemakers and people who are renovating,” says Ireland. “It’s really important that as a designer, people look to us to help them, and it’s OK to give away a little bit of that knowledge, [because] then you gain loyal followers—and that is also key because then they tell their friends, ‘Wow, this person was so approachable, she answered my question.’”
Plus, when applicable, Ireland can easily follow up that free advice by suggesting that her followers might want to consider booking a consultation if they have further questions, or enrolling in her Home Renovation School in order to get some guidance while also maintaining independence in leading their project. “I use those opportunities to continue to build my business,” says Ireland. “The other thing that happens is you build your brand and your audience.”
An Inside Look at the Industry
For Ireland, homing in on her target audience online has also helped shape her content strategy, specifically when it comes to the kind of information she’s uniquely positioned to share. Since one of her flagship offerings is Home Renovation School, which is geared toward DIY-ers and trade professionals (but perhaps not those who are not yet fully immersed in the industry’s inner workings and many events), she makes sure to divulge details from her trips to fairs like Milan Design Week on social media.
“It’s really important to have your pulse on what’s going on in the world, in design and architecture; to go to these shows, to network. And then it’s also super fun to share that with your audience,” she says. “[Especially] if you want to build your name, your brand, your presence, [and make it] something bigger than just [posting] a few projects here or there—anybody can do that.”
Even those who aren’t planning to jet off to any international design fairs, she says, can get in on the strategy. “If you were someone who is maybe more of an introvert, you can still go and find the cool stuff just by meeting someone and asking them about their product. That’s the easiest way to build confidence, because people generally are good. They’re kind. And people who are passionate about something want to share their knowledge.”