Today we’d like to introduce you to Natasha Antonioni.
Hi Natasha, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
My path to this work wasn’t linear—it rarely is when you’re following what genuinely calls to you. Ten years ago, I transitioned from a thriving career in the beauty industry into real estate, a shift that felt both natural and radical. My husband, Dario, is a gifted architectural designer, and together we’d been renovating our own homes, discovering how spaces could transform not just aesthetically, but emotionally. Real estate felt like the natural next chapter.
But something unexpected happened a couple of years in. Clients began asking me to help them reimagine their homes—not just to sell them, but to truly live in them. What started as design consultations evolved into something deeper: a process I now call Intentional Design.
I’m in the final stages of my book on this work, which explores how our environments can either support our evolution or subtly hold us back. Intentional Design isn’t about creating picture-perfect spaces—it’s about getting crystalline clear on your vision for your life, your goals, your deepest desires, and then intentionally weaving those aspirations into your environment. Through carefully chosen art, objects, and focal points that align with your future self, your home becomes more than just a beautiful backdrop. It becomes a daily, subconscious reminder to move toward what matters most.
This understanding comes from watching transformations unfold over decades—first in the beauty industry, where I learned that true change happens when external shifts create space for internal revelation, and now in the way thoughtfully designed spaces can awaken something dormant in the human spirit.
Real estate remains the backbone of my work, and I’m blessed to share it with two remarkable business partners. Our team, The Council Real Estate Group, operates as a powerful trio—each of us bringing distinct strengths that serve our clients far beyond what any single agent could offer. When we list a home, I handle the preparation, staging, and any upgrades needed to maximize value. Holly McCormick is a masterful negotiator with meticulous attention to contract details. And Albina Rippy, a seasoned entrepreneur, runs the business operations, oversees our social media presence, and ensures every transaction touchpoint flows efficiently for our clients.
The next evolution of our work? Incorporating Intentional Design principles into new builds and future projects—creating homes that don’t just house lives, but actively support them in becoming more fully realized.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My path to this work wasn’t linear—it rarely is when you’re following what genuinely calls to you. Ten years ago, I transitioned from a thriving career in the beauty industry into real estate, a shift that felt both natural and radical. My husband, Dario, is a gifted architectural designer, and together we’d been renovating our own homes, discovering how spaces could transform not just aesthetically, but emotionally. Real estate felt like the natural next chapter.
But something unexpected happened a couple of years in. Clients began asking me to help them reimagine their homes—not just to sell them, but to truly live in them. What started as design consultations evolved into something deeper: a process I now call Intentional Design.
I’m in the final stages of my book on this work, which explores how our environments can either support our evolution or subtly hold us back. Intentional Design isn’t about creating picture-perfect spaces—it’s about getting crystalline clear on your vision for your life, your goals, your deepest desires, and then intentionally weaving those aspirations into your environment. Through carefully chosen art, objects, and focal points that align with your future self, your home becomes more than just a beautiful backdrop. It becomes a daily, subconscious reminder to move toward what matters most.
This understanding comes from watching transformations unfold over decades—first in the beauty industry, where I learned that true change happens when external shifts create space for internal revelation, and now in the way thoughtfully designed spaces can awaken something dormant in the human spirit.
Real estate remains the backbone of my work, and I’m blessed to share it with two remarkable business partners. Our team, The Council Real Estate Group, operates as a powerful trio—each of us bringing distinct strengths that serve our clients far beyond what any single agent could offer. When we list a home, I handle the preparation, staging, and any upgrades needed to maximize value. Holly McCormick is a masterful negotiator with meticulous attention to contract details. And Albina Rippy, a seasoned entrepreneur, runs the business operations, oversees our social media presence, and ensures every transaction touchpoint flows efficiently for our clients.
The next evolution of our work? Incorporating Intentional Design principles into new builds and future projects—creating homes that don’t just house lives, but actively support them in becoming more fully realized.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
At its core, my work bridges two worlds: the strategic, market-savvy side of real estate and the deeply transformative practice of Intentional Design. With The Council Real Estate Group, we offer comprehensive service that goes far beyond traditional real estate. When clients list with us, they’re getting a trio of specialists—my eye for preparation and staging that maximizes value, Holly’s expert negotiation and meticulous contract work, and Albina’s masterful business operations and client experience management. It’s a model that allows us to serve at a level no single agent possibly can.
But what I’m most known for—and most proud of—is the work that happens beyond the transaction. I specialize in helping clients see their homes not just as real estate assets, but as environments that can actively shape their lives. This is where Intentional Design comes in.
The process begins with getting crystalline clear about vision—not just for a space, but for a life. What are you building toward? What matters most? Who are you becoming? Then we translate those aspirations into the physical environment through carefully chosen art, objects, and focal points that align with that future self. It’s about creating spaces that don’t just look beautiful, but that subconsciously remind you daily to move toward your deepest goals.
This isn’t vision board aesthetics or surface-level styling. It’s a sophisticated process rooted in understanding how environment shapes psychology, how external transformation creates space for internal evolution. I learned this first in the beauty industry—that true change happens when we create the conditions for people to see themselves differently. Now I apply those same principles to entire homes and lives.
What sets me apart is this intersection of expertise: the entrepreneurial backbone from building businesses, the intuitive understanding of people developed through decades of one-on-one service, the design sensibility from countless renovations with my husband, and the strategic real estate knowledge that ensures every decision serves both beauty and value. I don’t just help clients buy and sell homes. I help them create environments that actively support who they’re becoming.
I’m in the final stages of publishing my book on Intentional Design, which will formalize this methodology and make it accessible beyond my individual client work. The next chapter for our team involves incorporating these principles into new builds and development projects—creating homes from the ground up that are designed not just to house lives, but to elevate them.
What I’m most proud of isn’t any single transaction or transformation, though there have been many profound ones. It’s that I’ve found a way to bring all of myself to this work—every lesson learned, every skill developed, every observation about how spaces shape souls—and use it in service of others’ evolution. That feels like the truest expression of purpose.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I’ve come to understand that the most meaningful risks aren’t always the obvious ones, they’re the moments when you choose to expand rather than protect what you’ve already built.
Eight years into my real estate career, I faced one of those moments: the decision to move from working independently into partnership. I’d spent nearly a decade building my own reputation, my own client relationships, my own way of doing things. The thought of intertwining my business and livelihood with others felt vulnerable in ways I hadn’t anticipated.
But Holly McCormick and I had been friends since I first moved to Austin, there was trust there. Not just in our friendship but in her working style. She is a community builder, a passion the three of us share deeply actually. When her brokerage, Realty Austin, was acquired by Compass, we recognized something rare: an opportunity to become a powerful force together rather than remain capable individually. We brought in Albina Rippy, whose meticulous standards and entrepreneurial sophistication elevated us immediately. She holds our team to the highest levels of integrity and operational excellence.
The risk paid off in ways I couldn’t have predicted. What I gave up in autonomy, I gained in collective strength, shared wisdom, and the ability to serve clients at a level none of us could achieve alone.
I think about risk differently now than I did in my twenties or thirties. Then, risks felt like leaps into the unknown—closing salons, moving cities, starting over. Now I see risk as expansion: the willingness to outgrow what’s comfortable because something truer is calling. The risk isn’t in the doing—it’s in staying small when you know you’re meant for more.
Every major transition in my life has required this kind of courage: leaving a thriving beauty career for the uncertainty of motherhood and relocation, stepping into real estate without a safety net, developing Intentional Design before I had language for what I was creating, and now writing a book that makes my methodology public and vulnerable to critique.
The through-line isn’t recklessness—it’s trust. Trust that when you’re aligned with what matters most, the risk of staying put outweighs the risk of moving forward.
Pricing:
- Luxury Real Estate
- Investment Opportunities
- Properties that can be transformed
- Intentional Design Offering
Contact Info:
- Website: https://thecouncilregroup.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/natasha_antonioni/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@NatashaAntonioni
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