Today with Dezign Assist: Kylie Ponton, Corri English: Today with Corri English, founder and principal designer of Music City Interiors, and Kylie Ponton, principal and CEO of Ponton Interiors, we are talking about what it actually looks like to bring qualified virtual support into your design firm at any stage of business. Corri is eighteen months into building her Nashville-based studio and already navigating the kind of capacity challenges that come with early success. Kylie has fifteen years of experience, a seasoned team, and systems that most designers are still working toward. They could not be more different on paper — and that is exactly the point. Today they pull back the curtain on their real experiences bringing on Dezign Assist VAs, including the wins, the bumps in the road, and what they know now that they wish they had known sooner. This episode is sponsored by Dezign Assist. More About Kylie Ponton, Corri English: Corri English: By the time Corri English was five years old, she was already working. Theater. Commercials. Voice-over. And already noticing — the way a room changes how people move through it, how a set can carry a character’s whole emotional weight, how the details nobody plans for are often the ones that land hardest. Most people see rooms. She was reading them. Decades later, that instinct drives everything she builds. Corri is the founder and principal designer of Music City Interiors, a Nashville-based studio focused on custom homes, renovations, and the kind of spaces that feel like they were designed specifically for the people living in them — because they were. Before launching her design career, she spent years in entertainment as an award-winning actress, singer-songwriter, and voice-over artist, accumulating credits that range from Runaway Jury (alongside Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, and John Cusack) to House, CSI: Miami, Luke Cage, and The Bedford Diaries. She also fronted the country-rock band Brokedown Cadillac, whose music landed in Desperate Housewives, The Mentalist, and Disney’s Race to Witch Mountain, among others. Every role she played, every song she wrote, every performance she gave was really about the same thing: creating the conditions for an emotion. That’s still what she does. The medium just changed. Years on film sets left a mark that can’t be unlearned. She started seeing rooms the way cinematographers see frames — as mood, as character, as the place the story either wants to happen or doesn’t. Songwriting taught her something different but just as essential: the rhythm and architecture required to make separate pieces cohere into something that feels inevitable. Both inform how she approaches a home. Through Music City Interiors, Corri works with homeowners, builders, and architects on large-scale custom builds and renovations — handling everything from spatial planning and architectural detailing to full furnishings, finishes, and decor sourcing. Her aesthetic leans warm, layered, and slightly cinematic — collected rather than curated, elevated without being cold, detailed without being precious. She’s especially drawn to the projects other designers find difficult: the tricky floor plans, the structural constraints, the rooms that almost work. The puzzle isn’t the obstacle. The puzzle is the point. Her design philosophy is direct: a home should feel autobiographical. Not a reference image someone found on Pinterest, not a composite of what’s trending this quarter — something that belongs unmistakably to the people who live there. More refined, more intentional, more emotionally grounded than they could have gotten to on their own, but never disconnected from who they actually are. She doesn’t design for the photograph. She designs for the exhale. Corri lives in Nashville with her husband, Apple Music Country host Ty Bentli, and their three children — in a house that regularly hosts kitchen dance parties, construction-site field trips, blanket forts, and spirited debates about lighting temperatures she almost always wins. Ah Ha Moments with Kylie Ponton, Corri English: “I don't feel like I had time to learn everything the hard way. I just wanted more input, more feedback, more results." - Kylie “I felt like I had help but not support.” - Corri "I really do believe almost any firm on the planet could figure out a way to get their stuff done easier, faster, quicker with less headaches if they have qualified support." - LuAnn Connect with Dezign Assist. Corri English, and Kylie Ponton: Corri’s Website Corri’s Instagram Kylie's Website Kylie's Instagram Dezign Assist What’s new with LuAnn Nigara: Board Room for Creatives Watch the Docuseries! http://www.luannnigara.com/cob Get The Goodies! For checklists, resources, and extra goodies from A Well-Designed Business sign up for free here. Purchase LuAnn’s Books Here: Book 1: The Making of A Well – Designed Business: Turn Inspiration into Action Audiobook: The Making of A Well – Designed Business: Turn Inspiration into Action Book 2: A Well-Designed Business – The Power Talk Friday Experts Book 3: A Well-Designed Business – The Power Talk Friday Experts Volume 2 Connect with LuAnn Nigara: LuAnn’s Website LuAnn’s Blog Power Talk Friday Like Us: Facebook | Tweet Us: Twitter | Follow Us: Instagram | Listen Here: Podcast
