Cheryl Luckett didn’t quit her corporate job on a whim, she engineered her exit. Down to the month.
Recorded live at High Point Market, this episode traces how Cheryl went from a decade-long career as a corporate dietician to founding Dwell by Cheryl, now a nationally recognized design firm with licensed furniture and textile collections. Her path wasn’t overnight, and it wasn’t a straight line, and that’s exactly why it’s worth hearing.
In this conversation, Cheryl breaks down:
- Project 36 — the 36-month, spreadsheet-driven exit plan she built with a financial planner to leave her corporate job with confidence
- How she turned a casual blogging suggestion into a personal brand that ran alongside a full-time job, night school, and client work — for years
- The real mechanics behind landing furniture and fabric licensing deals, including a partnership that took seven years of relationship-building before a single product launched
- Why she made a conscious pivot away from decorating-only projects toward new construction and renovation — and what that shift reveals about pricing, positioning, and growth
- Her advice for designers weighing a leap of their own: what to prioritize, what to ignore, and why “acting as if” matters more than having it all figured out
If you’re building a design business, whether you’re still moonlighting or already scaling a team, this episode is a real-time case study in patience, positioning, and knowing when to evolve.
Guest: Cheryl Luckett, Founder & Principal Designer, Dwell by Cheryl
