Carmeon Hamilton, an interior designer, landed on HGTV’s “Reno My Rental” after quitting her job.
Hamilton told Insider that taking care of your mental health is important for success.
This article is part of “Me, First,” a series about successful women who put their passions and well-being first.
Carmeon Hamilton was at a crossroads at the start of 2020.
An interior designer, Hamilton worked at a furniture retail company as a senior buyer and lead designer. As someone who is passionate about creating spaces that make people feel comfortable, she was a perfect fit for the role.
While working for the company, Hamilton cultivated her social media presence as an interior designer and began hiring her own clients. It seemed like the ideal setup: she could build her own brand with the benefits of a stable income.
But things changed when her boss asked her to stop posting on social media.
“He felt like I should spend more time on my job,” she said. But she thought it wasn’t fair. She said the company did not compensate her for the time she spent working late and she felt she was underpaid.
So Hamilton quit and turned his part-time personal project, Nubi Interiors, into his full-time job.
Hamilton said she felt underappreciated in her job and decided to pursue her passion as an interior designer.
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“It was terrifying. It was one of the things my husband tried to convince me of for years,” Hamilton said, speaking of her late husband, Marcus, who died in 2021 after being hit by a driver while driving. drunk. “He knew how much I loved my job, but how undervalued I was at that job.”
Hamilton launched her full-time business on March 1, 2020. She found immediate success, thanks in large part to the social media community she had taken years to build.
You need to make sure that you take care of yourself because if you are successful in this area, you can be successful in anything else.
Hamilton said she believes she has found a niche in the market because, unlike many other designers, she was already working with remote clients when the pandemic hit.
“I had thousands of people who wanted to work with me,” she said. “I tripled my corporate salary in the first six months of my entrepreneurial career.” She said that in addition to undertaking home design, she was able to say yes to brand collaborations that would have been a conflict of interest when she had her corporate job.
Hamilton says she carefully crafts her work schedule to create a healthy work-life balance.
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Hamilton pledges to put his mental health and his family first
Hamilton said working for herself gave her the opportunity to create a job that focused on her personal life, not the other way around. She said she’s set up her workflow so she doesn’t have meetings on Mondays and Fridays and is always done with work by the time Marcus and their son, Davin, are arrived home at the end of the day.
“I care more about living than succeeding,” Hamilton told Insider. “I want to live and cherish the moments I have rather than chasing success. If success comes it’s amazing, but I’m not a hustler. I’m going to do what I have to do when where it is time to work, but I will live when it is time for me to live.”
Hamilton said that while she’s been successful as an entrepreneur, she doesn’t consider herself “a hustler” and is more focused on life.
Houston Cofield for Insider
Hamilton’s successes led an HGTV producer to recruit her in the spring of 2021 to participate in “Design Star: Next Gen,” a contest that pits eight designers against each other in a series of challenges. She was floored when she won.
Hamilton said that after Marcus’ death she enjoyed the flexible career she had carved out even more.
“In my husband’s tragedy, I was able to stop and live,” she said. “I wasn’t pulled in many directions trying to be a mother and also crying as a wife and being a businesswoman. I was able to be as long as I needed .”
Hamilton told Insider that prioritizing your mental health and well-being is an important step towards success.
Houston Cofield for Insider
As she moves forward in her career — featured on an HGTV show called “Reno My Rental,” taking speaking engagements and continuing to design unique spaces for clients — Hamilton wants to stay open about the importance to put life before work, she says.
“It’s very hard to be a boss or a hustler,” she said. “If the foundation you’re trying to work from isn’t solid, you can’t move on and be everything for everyone for everything for your business if you don’t have good self-esteem.”
Hamilton said no matter his success, his mental health and his family will always be his top priorities.
“You have to make sure you take care of yourself because if you’re successful in this area, you can be successful in anything else,” Hamilton said.
