To-The-Trade-S2E52 How The Zen Experience Transforms Teacher Lounges with Dara Segbefia

To-The-Trade Episode Summary

In this To-The-Trade podcast, our host Laurie Laizure talks with designer Dara Segbefia of The Zen Experience to explore where wellbeing intersects with the business of interior design. Dara’s work focuses on holistic design, and her niche is impactful, creating teacher lounges and staff spaces that prioritize educators as people first. She shares the origin story, naming her business after her daughter Zen and saying yes when a principal client requested a lounge that made teachers feel seen. The reveal confirmed it—teachers reported feeling respected, relieved, and having a space to unwind.

Why it matters, better staff energy benefits students. The design becomes a case study that spreads by word of mouth between schools. Small functional upgrades, like adding a second microwave and planning zones for introverts and extroverts, change the daily rhythm and invite community.

We get real about pricing strategies for designers. Laurie recommends adding a 10 percent admin fee to cover the many soft costs designers incur, from documentation to unavoidable incidentals, ensuring profitability and preventing resentment. Dara agrees, noting that losing margin diminishes passion. Clearly communicating fees is vital for healthy client relationships.

Dara’s operational core is a calm system. She starts her day without Instagram or email, avoids morning meetings, and only works with aligned clients. That boundary work, which steadies her nervous system, is both self-care and client management for designers, since a regulated designer makes better decisions. She also considers community a mental health tool—regular meetups and shared resources with designer friends keep the work human.

Field realities are part of the story. Dara recounts an install where a packaged pair of curtain panels arrived with one panel shorter than the other, a comedy of errors that her project manager helped stabilize. The lesson: laugh, get creative, resolve the immediate need, then pursue the refund later. The project manager, Nina, focuses on logistics and timing; she flags when design work hits fifteen hours and pushes the project to the next phase. This is operations and project management in action, and a reminder that designers can charge for it.

Impact extends beyond a single school. Dara is developing a nonprofit branch to support campuses with limited budgets, combining sponsorships with design to provide educators with dignified spaces regardless of ZIP code. A recent project in Compton demonstrated how quickly a safe, thoughtfully designed room can become a hub for meetings and support.

Designers will discover plenty of interior designer tips here, from safeguarding margins with admin fees, to creating a personal system that secures your mornings, to investing in community as a resilience strategy. This is design entrepreneurship with heart, and it’s the kind of honest talk our industry needs.

Client Communication & Boundaries