Meghan Blum
Founder, owner, Meghan Blum Interiors
Age: 38
Spouse: David Blum
Children: Victor, Harrison and Lillian
Mentor: Designer Bill Van Vliete
Reasons she is a Forty: Meghan is the founder and owner of two small businesses where she has grown and excelled as a leader. She has volunteered for Blank Children's Hospital for over 10 years and helped raise thousands of dollars. As a business owner she donates not only her time but many large and small items to local charities giving back on so many levels. She’s used her skills as a designer to help construct a home for women recovering from mental and substance abuse.
What are your goals in your role at your company? My goal for my role at Meghan Blum Interiors is to be a leader on all levels and enable everyone to thrive. Being able to lead my design team and the business aspects of all the things we are doing and letting them use their creative talents and grow a business as a team.
What are your goals for your community involvement? One of my goals is to always be involved with the community. I see doing philanthropic work always being a priority in my life. I love how it personally touches so many people’s lives. I think it's so important to have community involvement to keep our community thriving. I love giving back.
What's your biggest passion, and why? My biggest passion is my design work. I truly love what I do and what it does for people's lives. Being able to give people a beautiful home that functions better and more efficiently is such a wonderful way to use my creativity. Our homes are our sanctuary and the place we bring our babies home to and enjoy dinners together. So having spaces that are special and help create these memories is the greatest treasure.
What is it that drives you? The thing that drives me to pursue success is my children. They motivate me to be the best person, designer, boss I can be. I want to show them how to have balance, how to do tough things, and how to be successful. Life is hard and instilling in them a good work ethic and that you can be a mom and business owner. I love sharing stories with them on things I have to do and sharing the real-world lessons. This drives me to be a better person all around.
What are your future aspirations? One of my aspirations for the future is to improve some inefficiencies for the design community. Many of the processes that are done are very antiquated. I’ve been working on some innovative ideas and hope to share them with designers all over the country. It’s exciting to think you are helping designers in the industry function better.
Three hobbies: Golf, Pilates and playing with my kids.
Fun fact: Meghan was the 2005 Colo Snowball Queen.
One word to describe you: Ambitious.
What is your wish for the Central Iowa business community? The wish I have for our community is that the trend to support small business owners continues. They truly are the backbone of our community and make us unique and diverse. Without that support, our community would look so different.
Anything else you haven't addressed that people must know about you? I’m a lifetime learner. I really love to learn and grow. I’m constantly listening and learning from podcasts, classes and entrepreneurs. I love taking these ideas and adapting them to my life. You can never influence the world by staying the same, so it’s important to always grow and change as a person and leader.
What's one piece of advice that you would give to a young professional? The one piece of advice I would recommend to a young professional is to get involved. Get involved with anything and everything you have an interest in. It’s the best way to do good things for our community, but the relationships you make along the way are an added bonus.
What is one issue you would like to see Central Iowa leaders address? I would love to see Central Iowa leaders make a better effort to wade through the political divisiveness that holds back true progress. Most issues are not black and white; finding the middle ground is where the answers are and progress is found.