When it comes to interior design, Angela Belt has worn a lot of hats over her 15-year career: stylist, designer, visual merchandiser, market editor, and more. She’s learned that great design is about much more than aesthetics and accounts for not just what’s present, but also what’s missing.
Her podcast, “The Mood Board,” sees those worlds collide—and sometimes diverge. On each episode, Belt engages in open and candid conversations with tastemakers about the intersection of race, culture, and interior design, ranging from serious to fun, and all moods in between. The result is a podcast that represents (and speaks to) the industry insider as much as it does the outsider.
We talked with Angela about her podcasting process and what she’s learned along the way.
What motivated you to start a podcast?
Two things in particular motivated me to start the podcast: One, I was in a terrible car accident a few years ago, and I wanted to find a way to connect with the interior design industry as I continued to focus on my recovery. Secondly, for years I had been focusing on 28 Black Tastemakers and celebrating Black interior designers and creatives during Black History Month. I decided I wanted to expand that conversation beyond BHM, and open it up to all tastemakers to discuss race and culture and learn how it impacts your experience in the interior design industry. I really wanted to learn how tastemakers make it to where they are in the industry and thrive.
What’s your show’s format and how did you decide on it?
My first few episodes I had no time limit for my interviews, and a lot of them felt really serious. When I would go back to listen to them, I would ask myself, “Is anyone really going to listen to this?” So around the spring of 2020, I decided to make the interviews a mix between real talk and fun. At the end of each episode, the guest will play an interior design game and we will discuss the latest trends in the interior design industry.
What’s your recording setup?
I have a Yeti mic, Beats headphones, and my laptop. I record at my desk. It’s really nothing fancy, but it gets the job done.
How do you promote your podcast?
I promote my podcast through Instagram on social media, and my website. My husband also helped me design cover art, and I work with an app called Morpholio to design shoppable mood boards around each of my podcast interviews each week. So people can listen, and then literally shop the conversation.
How does having a podcast elevate your brand?
It shows a lot of potential clients that I have a lot of experience in the interior design industry, and I’m well-connected. It also helps give me a lot more exposure and more editorial exposure and more collaborations with other brands, because the podcast shows how much I care about interior design. I can talk about it all day.
What’s one thing you wish you knew about podcasting before you started?
Getting the audio right is still a big struggle for me, and it’s something I know down the road I’m going to need to invest in to get a crisp sound every time. I also wish I knew I need to control my laughter because it is way too loud sometimes in my interviews.
Why did you want to use audio to tell your story?
For me, audio was best because as I stated earlier I am still in the process of recovering from an accident. Doing videos every week is a lot for me, but having an audio conversation at my desk at home is just the right amount of exertion for me right now.
What’s a podcast that you look to for inspiration?
For me a podcast that I enjoy listening to now and I get inspiration from is “Brave, Not Perfect” from Reshma Saujani. I feel like so much of my life was also focused on perfection. After my car accident, anything close to perfection became impossible. So I like listening to her candid interviews and stories about bravery and being real.
What’s your favorite Anchor feature?
That you can edit within the Anchor platform. My husband normally would help with editing on GarageBand, but now with the new editing feature in the [Anchor] app, I find that much easier for me to do with little assistance.
What’s your favorite thing about your podcast?
That it reaches people all over the world. I’ll be honest, I never thought people would really listen to it. So to talk to someone now, and they can identify my voice from the podcast is very strange. I love when people just leave a voice memo from Anchor just to say “Keep it up” and “We really need more shows like this.”
What’s your best podcasting advice?
To just start and stay consistent. People will start to gravitate towards your show if you do it consistently, and they see that you’re really invested in it. Also, make sure your show is really about something you’re passionate about or it won’t last. I can talk about interior design every single day, so doing an interview about it once a week never feels like a drain.
<iframe src="https://open.spotify.com/embed-podcast/show/73EqXGKweSCXYaozzIjGaO" width="100%" height="232" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allow="encrypted-media"></iframe>
