The Architect turned Lighting Designer's trap (And What Came Next) - Golsana Heshmati

What happens when a lighting designer who's built her life around betting on herself sits down and reveals why everything she once believed about success was completely wrong—and what came next changed everything?

In this episode of LytePOD, host Sam Koerbel sits down with Golsana Heshmati, founder of Seed, a boutique lighting design studio in New York City, for a conversation about what it really means to build a practice rooted in authenticity, trust, and the courage to redefine success on your own terms.

Golsana reveals why the definition of success she believed in her twenties turned out to be completely wrong, why entrepreneurship is lonely but trust makes it bearable, and why the best measure of success isn't the award or the publication—it's the moment you're surrounded by creative people, sharing ideas, and feeling like you finally got your answer. She walks through the uncomfortable truths: why lighting designers don't brand themselves because they're afraid to compete with architects, why she designed her own logo when she couldn't afford a designer, why she showed up to a networking event exhausted and bought lunch for 36 people the next day—and landed her first massive project because of it. And why the one hour train ride that almost didn't happen became the turning point that proved betting on yourself isn't a risk—it's the only way forward.

💡 Key topics explored:

• Why the definition of success—big names, famous projects, industry recognition—turned out to be completely wrong, and what replaced it

• How starting your own business teaches you what matters most—and what never mattered at all

• Why the moment you feel most alive isn't finishing a project—it's being in a deep creative conversation with someone who sparks ideas

• The journey from seven cities across multiple continents to building a boutique lighting design studio in New York City

• How lighting showed up accidentally—and why it became more powerful than architecture ever was

• Why betting on yourself isn't a risk—it's trusting that if you don't believe in yourself, no one else will

• The one hour train ride to a networking event that almost didn't happen—and how buying lunch for 36 people the next day landed the first major project

• Why transparency and trust define Seed's culture—and how involving the team in every decision makes risk less lonely