six degrees at work...

How does one get from Lori to Lauren when each are totally unaware of the other and a period of more than two years separates your own awareness of them? Well…


The short story is:

In late 2007 Ottawa decorator Lori Steeves moves to North Vancouver. Lori meets Ivana who later opens Dome Project Management in Vancouver mid-2008. Lori recommends attending American-born interior design industry guru Kimberley Seldon’s Business of Design seminar series taking place in Vancouver in early 2010. After the seminars, Kimberley recommends attending webinars put on by Calgary’s Kim Page Gluckie of MPowered Marketing called “How to Tweet” and “How to Blog”. At these webinars, Lisa from Dome meets Shannon Fitzpatrick from Toronto who writes an inspiring design blog. One morning Lisa is reading the blog and comes across the entry about Meet My Ugly Baby which turns out to be another hugely inspiring blog written by Lauren about her and her boyfriend purchasing their first apartment in Vancouver.

+ http://www.modusenterprises.ca (The company Ivana was working for, Dome’s sister company, when she went to Lori’s new North Van home to measure her kitchen for new IKEA cabinets)

+ http://www.simplyhomedecorating.com (Company owned and run by Lori Steeves)

+ http://kimberleyseldon.com/ (Kimberley Seldon, Interior Designer)

+ http://www.mpoweredmarketing.com/ (Kim Page Gluckie, Marketter specialising in small business)

+ http://www.whatsupwhimsy.com/ (Shannon Fitzpatrick, self-described “Interior Designer Wannabe” and blogger)

+ http://www.meetmyuglybaby.com (Lauren, Blogger and the proud owner of one seriously ugly baby)



The much much longer story is:

In January(ish) of 2008, home decorator extraordinaire Lori Steeves had just moved to Vancouver’s North Shore from Ottawa; very pregnant and ready to renovate. Ivana of Modus Enterprises Ltd. went to Lori’s new home to measure her kitchen for her future IKEA kitchen cabinets. The two hit it off, and Ivana saved Lori’s business card with intentions of recommending her to future clients of Dome looking for service beyond the scope of what we were offering at that point.

Many months later, Lori had a new baby girl and Ivana had a new baby company called Dome. With a view to creating the best possible future for Dome, Ivana asked Lori if she would be willing to meet with the Dome Design Team to provide any professional insights she was willing to empart. Lori agreed.

So Lisa, Ivana, and Lori met at a coffee shop on Cambie in October, 2009. Lori was very open and generous in sharing what she had learned during her years of experience working as an interior decorator. Lisa and Ivana were able to ask all sorts of questions they had been wrestling with as experienced kitchen designers looking to expand their skill sets. By the end of the conversation, Lisa and Ivana were armed with much knowledge and a name: Kimberley Seldon.

Years earlier, Lori had taken part in “Business of Design” – a seminar offered by internationally recognised interior designer Kimberley Seldon. She spoke very highly of the experience and recommended emailing the KS Design Group website to ask about the possibility of Kimberley making an appearance on the West Coast.

All three of us submitted this request to the KSDG site and it was not long before it was announced that Kimberley would do her seminar here in the Spring of 2010.

Taking Business of Design proved to be a great move for Dome.

And a couple of months later, via an annoucement on Facebook, KSDG recommended free online courses being offered by MPowered Marketting in Blogging and Twitter featuring Kimberley as a guest speaker. Lisa signed up and participated in the two webinars, as well as the “after the webinar” Twitter discussion groups.

Through the discussion group that followed one of the webinars, Lisa made an online connection with one very proficient blogger named Shannon Fitzpatrick. Shannon’s blog had been featured in the webinar by Kim of Mpowered as an example of “what to do” (because it’s awesome).

On a rainy Tuesday, Lisa was checking through her usual list of design-related blogs, and came across a posting on What’s Up Whimsy: http://www.whatsupwhimsy.com/2010/08/blogger-to-watch-meet-my-ugly-baby.html

This post lead to Lisa reading the entire blog Meet My Ugly Baby in one sitting, posting comments along the way. Lauren’s feedback to Lisa’s posts established an online connection, and Dome now follows Lauren on Twitter, and visa versa.

We have been working with Lori Steeves (on IKEA kitchen designs requiring consultation beyond what we are currently prepared to offer) for a while now. Whether any of these other connections ever result in direct working relationships remains to be seen. For now, Lori, Kimberley, Kim, Shannon, and now Lauren, too, are part of a list of people we at Dome will continue to be inspired by.

Thanks, Ladies.
Lisa (for the Dome Design Team)