SABRINA SOTO 

Sabrina Soto:

I felt like I wanted to do something creative on television. I just didn't know what it was. Something inside of me knew it was going to happen no matter what.

 

Jon Pertchik:

Today on The Market Makers, how Sabrina Soto manifested the design career of her dreams.

 

Today I sit down with Sabrina Soto of The Sabrina Soto Show, a Cuban American woman who's overcome all sorts of challenges and hardship, and always found a way ahead. She stands, to me, for how we can all will things to happen if you really, really care and really, really want something, you can actually make it happen. And she really represents that, as you will see. She's amazing, she's got a beautiful spirit, she's vivacious, and she's a fearless warrior, but only in the kindest way. She creates spaces, not just to create spaces, but really is a part of helping people redesign their entire lives, and being thoughtful about wellness and food as well as great design, always with an eye toward how to help people thrive.

 

Thanks so much for being here, and I hope you enjoy the conversation.

 

Well, thanks for being here, Sabrina. We've got Sabrina Soto today on The Market Makers, and I'm super grateful you're here, and super excited to-

 

Sabrina Soto:

I'm so happy.

 

Jon Pertchik:

... spend some time with you.

 

Sabrina Soto:

Thank you.

 

Jon Pertchik:

I know you come in here for a short period, and I feel special, so thank you for that. So one of the things that, just in looking at your background a little bit. I saw getting into design, starting that way, your mom was really a big influence. I mean, tell me a little bit about how you first got curious about design, and maybe your mom's background a little bit?

 

Sabrina Soto:

I was like that kid, my sister was really into sports, and I was not. I'm athletic, but I'm not sporty. And my mom was a party planner, she loved doing crafts. So every weekend I would spend going to the craft stores with her, making things with our hands. And it was always a passion of mine, but how I got into it was so crazy because I wasn't formally trained, but I always had this firm belief that your house is your sanctuary. And no matter how deep your pockets are or not, that you should be proud of your home, that you can create a beautiful space. And I really believe that your home really tells your story, and it should hold you instead of being... It shouldn't hinder your life. And unfortunately, I've seen in so many clients' homes, that a lot of the time it brings a lot of stress into their life.

 

So the whole reason I love being in design is because I realized that, when I was a kid, that my house became sort of a friend of mine. It's a long story, but when I was in high school, we went through a really hard financial time. And unfortunately, my parents split up, and I was a latch key kid. Home alone from the time I got off school 'til I went to sleep. And that home became sort of my best friend. And I had this unspoken agreement that if I take care of the house, the house would take care of me. It was the thing that I came home to every night. It became my safe place. And I would every day do a different project, whether it was cleaning the screens or the baseboards, or touching up paint.

 

It became a passion of mine, and I felt so proud of that house, because I created this beautiful space, and I had zero money. I would go to the garage, and find things to make a new space look refreshed. And at the end of high school, the bank came and evicted us from this house. They physically got us out of that house. And when we left, all of my friends had no idea how poor we were, because the house looked immaculate. And that's why I have such passion for budget design, because I believe that your space can look beautiful no matter what. And it should, and you should look forward to coming home at the end of the day. And I know so many people who sit in their cars scrolling, because they don't want to go inside. And that, to me, is such a wasted opportunity.

 

Jon Pertchik:

Two things strike me about Sabrina's background. The first is how a house and a home means something very different to her. It actually, as she says, it became her friend. Her house and her home became actually her companion during difficult times, a place where she found solace and to some extent, strength. And it's really an amazing way to think about what a home is. Designing spaces meant more than just making a space beautiful, and often, beautiful things come out of difficult situations.

 

The second thing that I find fascinating about Sabrina is something she left me with, and that is a home isn't just a noun, a physical place. It is that. For her, it was a place of solace, and safety, and a companion. But in addition to that, it's also a verb. It's a place to home, to live, to thrive, to be active, to feel energy, to be around others, those you care about. By doing this, Sabrina used design to help change her narrative, and it's that same strength of mind that helped her realize her potential for interior design as a career.

 

Sabrina Soto:

So a friend of mine told me, I was in this job, it was a great job. I was doing real estate and staging, I was making great money, I was newly married, I had a great house. But my friend told me about this documentary called The Secret, which now everyone knows. Back then, it wasn't... It was before Oprah talked about it. And the only way you could watch is you had to pay $4 and 95 cents to download it.

 

So I watch it, and something inside of me clicked. I don't know what it was, it was as if something was ignited inside of me. I fell asleep that night, and I thought somebody was ringing the doorbell at four o'clock in the morning. I was married at the time. Of course, my husband did not get up to see who was at the doorbell, so I did. Hence, why I'm divorced.

 

But I get up, nobody's at the front door, I'm already up. So I went into the computer and after watching The Secret, I felt like I wanted to do something creative on television. I just didn't know what it was. And there was an ad, they were looking for a designer to host a show.

 

Jon Pertchik:

And where was that ad?

 

Sabrina Soto:

It was on Craigslist.

 

Jon Pertchik:

Craigslist, right.

 

Sabrina Soto:

Yeah, it was on Craigslist, in the media and TV jobs. And I was like, "Well, I've done some design work, I've done some TV work." So I sent my resume, and 16 weeks later, I was filming my first HGTV show.

 

Jon Pertchik:

I saw that.

 

Sabrina Soto:

It's wild.

 

Jon Pertchik:

The main point of this podcast is, people in these industries that we relate to, sharing people's personal journeys of becoming successful, and finding these key moments, these inflection points. Like, that was an obviously critical moment in who you've become.

 

Sabrina Soto:

Yeah.

 

Jon Pertchik:

So maybe with the benefit of hindsight now, when you go put yourself back into that head space that day, and watching The Secret, how did it make you sort of more receptive to something, or desirous of it? What do you think happened?

 

Sabrina Soto:

I think in our business, it's not this, you're going to be a doctor so you go to medical school and you graduate, then you're a clinician, whatever the case may be. There's steps. When you're a creative, there aren't these steps that you take. It's like, you just never know what's going to happen.

 

Jon Pertchik:

Right, it's not so linear, necessarily.

 

Sabrina Soto:

It's not linear, and it's so easy to give up. And it's so easy to listen to the people say that you're not going to make it. So what happened after I watched The Secret is, I just, something inside of me knew it was going to happen no matter what. So I started training, as if I was already on TV.

 

I changed what I was eating. I started working out so that I would look good on TV. Now, again, I had no job. But inside of my head I said, "I have to prepare for the opportunity." And then when the opportunity came, and I was in that audition, my self-esteem was so high because I had been training for that moment, that that's why I got it.

 

Jon Pertchik:

What I love about that is, you think about luck, how people describe luck so often as the wind blows your way. And yeah, there's always a little bit of that in life, but the key to it is having the self-awareness, and almost like the advance preparation so that when the wind does blow, if you've done those things, you're ready to grasp it. That's one part of it.

 

The other part of it is the self-awareness to see that thing that the wind blew by, that leaf that blew by, and that leaf is different than the other 50 that came by. So you can pick the signal from the noise, and go and grab it.

 

Sabrina Soto:

And I think a lot of people also that are creatives have imposter syndrome. When I was doing the pilot episode of Get It Sold, which was my first show. I had no business talking about design on television. Let alone, designing a room. And I ended up teaching myself every night about design. And so when I was teaching the audience about whatever project I was doing, I was actually teaching myself and the audience at the same time.

 

I didn't know everything. The producers on the first day asked me to paint the room. I had never painted a room before. And the cameramen are here, and the sound guys, and they're just staring at me. And I'm pretending like, "Holy... What am I doing here?" And that night I went to the bookstore. I'm like, "I'm not going to let this happen again." So I read about how to paint. I read about techniques that are different so that I could teach the audience. So it's okay not to know everything, but when you get the opportunity, do everything in your power to prepare yourself for every day.

 

Jon Pertchik:

Again, another takeaway from that is, life is full of constants and variables. And I think success has a lot to do with knowing the difference. And what I mean is, a constant is like laws of physics. Things fall in a vacuum at a certain rate. You can worry about that all you want, but it's not going to do anything.

 

Sabrina Soto:

Right.

 

Jon Pertchik:

But worrying about the things that you can control, and just putting everything you have into those things. If you're willing to do that, and you do that over trials, you'll be successful.

 

Something about the fear of failure, too, and unknown. Drives, at least it drives me, to work harder and smarter.

 

Sabrina Soto:

Yeah.

 

Jon Pertchik:

And that's part of where the motivation comes from, too.

 

Sabrina Soto:

Yeah, I think also when it comes to motivation, find what really ignites you. And I think a lot of the time, in the business of being a designer, you like to compare yourself to what everyone else is doing. And you see success somewhere else, and you want to emulate that. And that's not you. You also have to find your own voice. And whether you're a designer, or in any sort of job, you have to find your own voice and your own point of view.

 

Jon Pertchik:

One of the themes that's been coming out of this podcast so far is, again, people who are really successful, are really, truly authentic, like really true to themselves. Because to your point, it's not what's around outside of you, it's an internal thing. If you express yourself through design, or whatever creative vehicle, and people respond to it. They're saying they appreciate your approach, and if you just continue to do that, that audience will be there and you can build it.

 

Sabrina Soto:

There's only one you. There is only one you. You might be doing the same sort of design as someone else, but there's only the way that you do it.

 

Jon Pertchik:

And so, I read a little bit about your background and this idea of manifesting. And where does that come from in you? And what does that mean for you?

 

Sabrina Soto:

It comes from a lot of work that I've done, a lot of healing, but also a lot of knowledge. I've probably read every self-help book, or quantum physics, or manifestation book that's ever been published. I am very much to the point of almost obsessed with the subject, only because what's so fascinating to me is that we are able, we have the power to create whatever reality we want. No matter what it is you want. And a lot of people go, "Well no, you can't, because this person can't do that." It's like, "No, that person probably doesn't want to do X, Y, and Z of what you're saying."

 

If you really want to create anything in your life, it's about meeting the frequency of that thing. So it's about creative visualization, taking care of what I said earlier, your mind, body, and soul. Because if you're not eating properly, or you're ingesting either drinking or drugs, or listening to too many horror podcasts, or watching tabloid TV all day. You have no idea how it really does lower your frequency.

 

So I'm not saying you have to live a staid life. I'm saying, doing the best you can to take care of yourself, you'll be in a better position to manifest and magnetize other things to you. Whether it's a job that you want, meeting the love of your life, whatever the case may be.

 

Jon Pertchik:

Where do you think that comes from, for you? I mean, obviously you started a couple of things.

 

Sabrina Soto:

Desperation?

 

Jon Pertchik:

That's funny, that's the second time someone to me has said that great things come from desperation.

 

Sabrina Soto:

Because it is. It's through pain that growth happens. If no one's ever felt heartache, they're not going to yearn for true love, right? And so, there was a lot of pain in my childhood that I wanted to find a solution for. And because I didn't have money, the only way I was going to find a solution was to read books. So I've been reading self-help books since I was in high school. I was obsessed with past life regression, all of those things. I mean, it's always been a passion of mine. But now I get to see it come true, and I have seen how I've made things out of nothing. So I know it's real.

 

Jon Pertchik:

Like what?

 

Sabrina Soto:

Like the Craigslist ad. I mean, I didn't have an agent. I didn't have any connections at HGTV. I wasn't even a real designer. I had no business. But the fact that I believed, and here's another thing that I've never told, this story. When I was in that audition, the audition was actually for another show on HGTV. It was for a show called Sleep On It. Oh my gosh, I can't believe that I could remember that. That was 20 years ago.

 

And during that conversation I was having with the owner of the production company, I said, "Well," he was like, "What do you do on your spare time?" And I was like, "Sometimes I stage houses." His whole face changed. And I thought, "Well, maybe he doesn't know what staging is," so I started telling him what staging was. And he stopped me, he was like, "No, I'm actually looking for a host for a staging show," which was Get It Sold. The other show never even went to production. So had I not said those words then, I would've never had my first HGTV show, and I wouldn't be sitting here now.

 

Jon Pertchik:

That, I mean, you can say that's sort of luck. You just said these words. But it sounds like there's something more to it. Back to maybe that frequency?

 

Sabrina Soto:

Yes, I know this sounds a little crazy, but it was almost like somebody told me to say that. It was weird, because I'm like, "Why did I just tell him that?" And when I saw his face change, I'm like, in my head I'm like, "You idiot. Why did you say that out loud? You're talking too much." But I had to say that out loud, because that's how I got my first job. I just think when you're in the flow, things happen.

 

Jon Pertchik:

You have to be in the mix of things to make things happen. Momentum breeds forward momentum. You can't possibly predict how things are going to play out until you're actually in it, until you're actually in the game. And only once you're in the game will you start to see variables and possibilities, and only then you can act on those possibilities to get to the next step. And so it's really critical to actually put yourself out there, to put yourself in it, because you can't predict every outcome without being in it. And only when you get in it will you start to see the range of possibilities, and to be able to make progress and take steps to get ahead. And this is something Sabrina is still doing today.

 

Sabrina Soto:

So this morning I signed my contract for my book. I've been writing this book-

 

Jon Pertchik:

Congratulations.

 

Sabrina Soto:

... Thank you. I've been writing this book for three years, but when I first started writing the proposal, all the publishers wanted me to stay in this bucket of home design. "Write a book about home design," but that's not what I wanted to write about, I wanted to write about home design meets manifestation. So I'm writing this proposal, and I'm writing about home design, and I just stayed in this bucket. And I was on a very long flight, and I didn't want to sleep, it was international. And I spent 13 hours rewriting the proposal of what I wanted, and I sent it to my agent. I said, "Send this. I know that this is going to hit." Multiple publishers came to the table with offers, where I had been getting nos for three years. When I finally stopped listening to everyone else and listened to my own soul, things changed.

 

Jon Pertchik:

And so that's, the book is basically about-

 

Sabrina Soto:

It's about how to create a home that speaks volumes, to not only your mindset, your manifestation, the person you want to become, and who you are.

 

Jon Pertchik:

That's amazing. I'm looking forward to reading your book.

 

Sabrina Soto:

Thank you.

 

Jon Pertchik:

And so, where are you heading now? I mean, you have the book on your plate. That's a lot.

 

Sabrina Soto:

I have The Sabrina Soto Show, which we're starting pre-production on season two. I now have the book that I'm writing, I have my podcast as well. And then I have products. So I'm still designing products. I don't take private clients anymore, so that is a little bit easier, but I'm juggling a lot of different things.

 

Jon Pertchik:

But then, I guess without clients, that puts you in a greater position of control.

 

Sabrina Soto:

Yeah, because I get to pick and choose the projects that I work on, and I make sure that I'm passionate about them. Because I know how it is to just do busy work, and I'm not interested in doing that anymore.

 

Jon Pertchik:

That's awesome, to get to that place. And you talked about product design.

 

Sabrina Soto:

Yes.

 

Jon Pertchik:

I mean, how much of your life is dedicated to product design? And is that through partnerships?

 

Sabrina Soto:

It's through licensees, so I am now going to market in September for new bedding. I have a rug line with Unique Loom, that I've had for the last eight years. And I really want to merge how your house really does affect your mental health. And so with workshops, with the book, with workbooks, with retreats. So merging my two passions together is how I see my brand really evolving.

 

Jon Pertchik:

That's pretty neat. I want to talk more about that. We had a guest a few weeks back who was a licensed psychologist for years, practicing. And she would go to people's homes, and she would move things around as part of the therapy.

 

Sabrina Soto:

Yeah.

 

Jon Pertchik:

And after more of that time, she started to realize, "Wait a second, I really love design, but design for well-being," mental in particular, but also physical well-being.

 

Sabrina Soto:

So I have a new show coming out on Roku, September. And the whole show is about that. And I have seen in doing that show too, I've seen in the last 20 years of doing this, how people's lives change when their actual home changes. Or start taking care of their house the way they take care of themselves, and the way they carry themselves outside of the house, completely changes. So it is connected, and I think people think their house as just an afterthought, and it could just be a catcher for all of your clutter, but it's not what it is. It is a physical representation of what's happening inside.

The manifestation is important, so is meditation, so is being quiet. So is taking time for yourself. And you need a space in your house to be able to have a little small mini sanctuary. And people don't have that. And I'm not talking about a room that's a chapel. I'm talking about a corner with a pillow. It could be as simple as that.

 

Jon Pertchik:

That's amazing. Well, Sabrina, it's been awesome having you. I could talk for hours with you. It's so natural, and I really-

 

Sabrina Soto:

So good.

 

Jon Pertchik:

... and I really appreciate the time. So Sabrina Soto-

 

Sabrina Soto:

I loved your questions.

 

Jon Pertchik:

... thank you. Thank you for being here.

 

Sabrina Soto:

Thank you for having me.

 

Jon Pertchik:

I wish we had another hour.

 

Sabrina Soto:

It's okay. Well, I'll come back.

 

Jon Pertchik:

Oh, I would love to have you back. Thank you so much.

 

Sabrina Soto:

Thank you.

 

Jon Pertchik:

Thanks for being here.

 

For Sabrina, a career in design came from a place that was initially painful, but through quite literally taking her career into her own hands, and preparing herself for jobs she didn't even have yet, she willed her dreams into existence. The lesson there, start to be the person you want to be. Take action, be willing to adapt, and you can make great things happen. What's interesting, though, is that it's a constant journey. She's still doing it now, even with her book, and with her incredible success. Never stop pushing, and never stop progressing.

 

Thank you for listening to this episode of The Market Makers. I've been your host, Jon Pertchik. If you've enjoyed today's conversation, make sure you're following the show wherever you get your podcasts. And join us each week as we uncover more stories of transformation from the people shaping how we live, work, and gather.