One of Molly Torres Portnof’s earliest design-related memories was of her chatting on the sofa with her mom, basking in their home’s lavish interiors—particularly the bay windows. The fact that none of those features actually existed? Totally beside the point.

“I was using all of these terms, and my mom was like, ‘We don’t have any of those things—what are you talking about?’” the Long Island–based designer tells host Kaitlin Petersen on the latest episode of Trade Tales. “I was like, ‘I know, but we could!’”

Torres Portnof’s affinity for good design stuck with her, through her education at the University of Delaware’s fashion merchandising program to her post-grad gigs working in digital marketing for brands like Theory and Helmut Lang, where the conversations she overheard from the store design team always seemed more interesting than her own work. Noticing her wandering eye, a colleague helped Torres Portnof secure an internship with legendary Manhattan design firm Cullman & Kravis.

It was an instant fit. The budding designer quickly enrolled in design classes at the Fashion Institute of Technology; when her internship ended, she transitioned to a job at the One Kings Lane design studio, and started taking on a few projects of her own through the design platform Homepolish. When the company shut down in 2019, Torres Portnof was abruptly thrust into the world of entrepreneurship, striking out on her own with the launch of DATE Interiors.

From the beginning, she focused on maintaining a small team (just an assistant designer, a bookkeeper and a PR guru), low overhead, and clients who could match her all-in attitude. It’s an approach that’s served her well: seeking her own vision for success and achieving it on her own terms.

“You cannot be taught confidence,” she says. “I’ve tried. I’ve been to school. I’ve been doing this for a long time. I’ve done all the things that should make me confident, and it really just is doing it day in and day out, and having these positive results and the professional photography that makes me be like, ‘Oh my God, I love this!’ All those things start to build confidence. That’s what I feel like I have—maybe instead of or despite the lack of comfort.”

Elsewhere in the episode, the designer shares the value of publicity in a changing media landscape, why she sends an investment guide to every prospective client, and the process she swears by to find the most qualified leads.

Crucial insight: When searching for a professional to take some family photos last summer, Torres Portnof noticed that every photographer provided prospective clients like herself with an investment guide, breaking down their process and fees in a visually engaging format. Shortly thereafter, she decided to implement an equivalent document within her own firm to help interested clients understand what it would be like to enlist her design services—and to weed out those who might not be a good fit. “It’s a great introduction to me, to our firm,” she says. “It has everything—our services, how we charge, FAQs, next steps—and it’s done in a way that feels super on-brand.”

Key quote: “I used to think that there was going to be a magic bullet. If this happened, then all the projects would come in. If this happened, then my dream client would be dropped on my doorstep. Over the years, I’ve understood that’s just not reality. There is no overnight success. There is no magic bullet. There’s no one thing that’s going to open doors up for everything else. There’s just a ton of hard work, there’s a ton of strategy, there’s assembling the right team … so you’re not just putting all your eggs in one basket.”

This episode was sponsored by Vanguard Furniture and Kohler. If you like what you hear, subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.