A Decade of DGI
From day one, my mindset with this business has been: “Just go. Say yes. Keep moving. Keep pushing boundaries. No breaks—just move.” Naturally, our ten-year anniversary almost slipped by before I realized what month it was and paused for a moment to reflect.
Quite honestly, I don’t know how it’s already been ten years. It feels like just yesterday that I put in my notice at Perkins+Will and took a chance on myself. I had lived in Chicago for only a little over a year, with no network, no substantial projects or client relationships, and no team. What I did have was grit, an incredibly supportive boyfriend (yep, that’s Mike), and creative energy that needed an outlet. I started with small projects and said yes to literally everything. I love being busy, so I filled every waking minute with work, even at the expense of my social life.
I never stopped to write a business plan; I never even thought about what I wanted this to turn into. I just wanted to design.
Lucky for me, that supportive boyfriend—who later became my fiancé—saw what I couldn’t. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to truly express how much it meant when Mike sat down, looked at my pipeline and the work I was doing, and said, “I’m going to quit my job and join you. You have something here, and we can build it into something big together.” He was the main breadwinner in our relationship and had an incredible career trajectory ahead of him, so I couldn’t believe he was willing to put all of that aside. At the time, I was just trying to convince him to let me sign a lease for my first office space so I wouldn’t have to host client presentations in our two-bedroom condo anymore. Mike helped me realize that I was bringing something new to the market and that, if we wanted to, we could build a real business together.
Shortly after he joined, things started moving even faster. I had to learn a whole new skill set and train myself not just to design, but to teach our process to a growing team. We had to establish systems and processes. We had to figure out billing structures, sales tax, and all the back-of-house operations I didn’t quite understand—but thankfully, Mike was a natural. With his expertise, my scrappy hustle matured into a real business. We started landing major jobs, and our marketing efforts took off with the help of social media.
And somehow, I blinked, and we’re here. It’s been a decade. I can’t begin to express how proud I am of the team DGI is today. Over these years, we have evolved from an interior design firm into a full-scale design-build firm with an in-house general contracting team. We have worked—and continue to work—on projects I never dreamed possible. I get to wake up every morning and collaborate with the most talented, incredible people. And now, that supportive boyfriend is an even more supportive husband, building a business and raising a child with me all at once.
The amount of gratitude I have for everyone who brought us here—our team members past and present, our clients, our business partners, and our friends and family—is more than I can ever put into words. I feel so fortunate to do what I love every single day and share it with the world. These ten years have been both the most rewarding and the most challenging. Building a business is hard. Mike and I have poured years of our lives into DGI, giving everything we have emotionally, physically, and financially. Because of that, the pride we feel looking at what it has become is a feeling I can’t fully describe.
And with that, we return to the mindset that brought us here: “Just go. Say yes. Keep moving. Keep pushing boundaries. No breaks—just move.” Because we aren’t done yet.
