"You don't need to do it all! Think about your personality and what is a good fit for YOU and your clients." - Kate Bendewald When it comes to design services and the different options that we, as interior designers, have when it comes to what we each offer, I don’t believe in a one-size-fits-all approach. In many cases, designers today don’t want to do procurement due to lead times, construction costs and delays, etc. Many of you may want to have a menu of options for clients. In this episode, ...
Jul 04, 2024•42 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint In today's episode, I am answering a listener question for our #dearkate entries! This question comes from Melissa, who wants to know about starting their own business? Melissa says: "Interior design has been a part of my life for decades. But I haven't worked in this field professionally. After graduating from an interior design program, I'm considering going right for it and opening my own design firm. I feel confident in my ability to design for clients....
Jun 27, 2024•38 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint In today's episode, I chat with Selena Soo and Sharon Stokes. Selena Soo is a publicity and marketing strategist for visionary entrepreneurs and experts who has helped clients and students get featured in places like Domino, The Oprah Magazine, Forbes and Inc, and land interviews on popular podcasts and national television. Joining her today is Sharon Stokes, her head of publicity programs and senior media coach who has served as a TV producer for close to ...
Jun 20, 2024•45 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint In today's episode, I am joined by Andrea Liebross, a dynamic business and life coach who specializes in empowering unapologetically ambitious women entrepreneurs. Andrea is not only a seasoned speaker but also the insightful host of the Time to Level Up podcast. With a unique approach, Andrea guides her clients to merge Big Thinking with robust systems, creating a powerful synergy that propels them toward success. Her mission is to help women entrepreneurs...
Jun 13, 2024•1 hr 1 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint In today's episode, I'm catching up with Tammy Cody, founder and instructor at SketchUp for Interior Designers where she has taught 1000's of interior designers exclusively for over a decade how to master SketchUp so they can streamline their productivity while producing beautiful and organized drawing sets to accurately convey their ideas to clients and contractors. Here’s a glance at this episode… Tammy shares the common misconceptions about Sketchup We d...
Jun 06, 2024•47 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint In today's episode, I sat down with the very talented, warm, smart, and creative, Britt Davis of Art & Adorn in Charlotesville Virginia. Britt is mother to 4 kids, she's an artist, interior designer, event planner, and retreat host at her farm - Glentivar Farm. Twice a year she and her best friend Molly Crouch who you can find in this episode host a day-long retreat for women called Tonic and Bloom. The retreat is a day of pause and reflection where gue...
May 30, 2024•1 hr 5 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint In today's episode, I got to sit down and chat with Amber Guyton, the creative mind behind Blessed Little Bungalow. She's a marketer, a Financial Services Advisor turned blogger, influencer interior designer, and now a collaborator with companies like World Market and Mitchell Black, where she recently launched a beautiful line of wallpapers. Her work has been featured in HGTV Magazine, House Beautiful, Forbes Architectural Digest, Ebony Apartment Therapy, ...
May 23, 2024•1 hr 6 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint In today's episode, I'm catching up with Cerissa McKinnis of Industrious Interiors in San Antonio Texas who offers luxury kitchen and bath design and whole home transformations. She's a long-time member inside the Interior Designer's Business Blueprint but today we are talking about a book she's written - Navigating the Liminal Places: How to harness the power of transitional moments in your life. Here’s a glance at this episode… We discuss the concept if l...
May 16, 2024•50 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint In today's episode, Christina Canales joins me to discuss the importance of building a successful interior design business through fostering relationships with vendors and clients, and collaborating with other designers. We dive into the value of communication, mutual support, and taking back control of the sales process to navigate challenges. We share strategies for managing anxiety and impostor syndrome, including perspective-taking, reframing negative t...
May 09, 2024•1 hr 1 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint Have you ever had a client who is questioning your most recent invoice, they want to do something outside of your contract terms, or they misunderstood information? So what can you do to salvage the relationships? In today's episode, I tackle a listener question on how to handle challenging client situations. I'm sharing 8 strategies that can help you in ANY sticky situation and hopefully bring a resolution without sacrificing your dignity or your income. I...
May 02, 2024•44 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint The messes never clean themselves up but somebody who knows what they're doing has to get in there to help kind of right this ship. In today's episode, Morgan Boudreaux, from Business by the Book, a full-service accounting firm that works directly with interior designers across the country joins me. Business by the Books started as a family-run business founded by Morgan's mother, Sherry Wilson. Today they have a team of bookkeepers who are passionate about...
Apr 25, 2024•59 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint In today's episode, we have a returning guest, and my friend Jenny Karlsson - a certified money coach helping creative entrepreneurs develop practical financial resilience and stability strategies. She's also the creator of the Money Compass Deck, a tangible tool to help you cultivate your connection with money. Jenny offers a safe, shame-free environment to help creatives develop a healthy relationship with money so that they can experience greater ease an...
Apr 18, 2024•1 hr 12 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint In today’s episode I want to share the 7 money tips that I live by as an interior designer! Maybe finances come easy for you or maybe you’re more like me where it needs to be built into your schedule and you need a clear list of what needs to be done, what needs attention, and what to focus on. Here’s a glance at this episode… I discuss making a ritual out of looking at your finances each week to create a habit and create a ritual of grabbing you favorite c...
Apr 11, 2024•37 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint On today's episode, Carla Titus, the founder and CEO of Wealth & Worth Within shares about finances, scaling, profitability, and her mission to empower business owners to take control of their finances to grow profits, have cash in the bank, and pay themselves, so they can build personal wealth. Carla loves working with interior designers to help them achieve financial clarity and peace of mind so you can get back to the work you enjoy doing. Working as...
Apr 04, 2024•56 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint In today's episode, I interviewed Katie Gutierrez, the creator of Biographical Design, an interior design system that uses the client's biographies as the foundation of her six-step design process. She also has a customer relationship management tool that helps interior designers increase their exposure and lead engagement called the My Gotcha App . In this episode, we take time to delve into the intricacies of work-life balance and intentionality within th...
Mar 28, 2024•1 hr 6 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint If you capture what really matters to your clients, your copy will be gold and resonate with the audience. When it comes to copywriting, if you try to speak to everyone, you end up speaking to no one. If you don't have a clearly defined audience in mind when you're creating copy, your message ends up diluted and can feel all over the place. In today's episode, I am joined by Masha Koyen of Content Vertical where she offers strategic website copywriting serv...
Mar 21, 2024•1 hr 1 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint What is most important is that you start to recognize the value of your time. Discovering the value of your time includes understanding how important it is to manage, control, and protect it while still remaining flexible as a business owner. In today's episode, we dive deep into time-saving tips tailored specifically for interior designers that will help you handle minor inefficiencies so that you can spend your time in your zone of genius and the areas th...
Mar 14, 2024•1 hr 1 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint You don't need to justify or explain your rates or your prices when presenting them. You just need to show your value. In today's episode, I share three mindset shifts that will help you confidently price your services and reframe your mindset when presenting your pricing. Let’s dive into the top 3 mindset shifts you should make to reframe your mindset regarding pricing. Here’s a glance at this episode… I share how to separate your value from your time and ...
Mar 07, 2024•25 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint When we think about scaling a business, the first thing that typically comes to mind is “How can I get more project work”? Maybe you’re currently taking 8-10 projects a year, so you ask yourself, “How can I increase that to 12-15 per year?” Taking on more projects is indeed going to generate more revenue and help you grow your portfolio, AND it takes more resources (i.e. time from you, growing a team, investing in your business, etc,) Sometimes, the real qu...
Feb 29, 2024•39 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint In today's episode, I have a conversation all about the unconventional path to interior design success with the mother-daughter duo Susan and Jillian Hayward. We discuss all of the shared experiences, challenges, and collaboration along the way. Here’s a glance at this episode… We talk all things entrepreneurship, design education, and business growth including Susan and Jillian's unconventional paths into interior design. We share about the many ups and do...
Feb 22, 2024•1 hr 7 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint In this episode, we dive deep into crucial aspects of interior design, focusing on pricing strategies, time management, and the imperative shift toward sustainability. I advocate for responsible design leadership and share my journey toward a more sustainable approach. Here’s a glance at this episode: I share the importance of responsibility in interior design leadership. I discuss the significance of sustainability in interior design, backed by compelling ...
Feb 15, 2024•40 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint In today’s episode, I interview Tina Guevara, owner of Juliette Sebastian Interiors and a member of the Designer’s Oasis program to share experiences and tips for building a thriving interior design business. Here’s a glance at the episode: We discuss the importance of having your backend processes set up well in your interior design business. Tina shares her journey through Designer’s Oasis and the support she has received and found invaluable. We dive int...
Feb 08, 2024•1 hr 14 min
I believe in a rising tide that when one of us does well we all do better. I love sharing this space with other amazing interior designers and can’t wait for what’s in store! In today's episode, I share my vision for where we are headed in 2024 and the impact that we can have as interior designers. I want to share a little bit about what we're going to be doing here on the podcast, inside the Designers Oasis community, and the topics and guests we are bringing on. One big part of this is a surve...
Feb 01, 2024•36 min•Season 4Ep. 68
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint I feel strongly that when we share our gratitude through gifting with clients and the people that we work with it's a good feeling and it makes us feel good as well. In today's episode, I share my love of gift-giving by sharing how to show gratitude through gifting clients and colleagues plus the positive impact that giving others gifts can have on your mental health and even your business success. So, think about your budget, get yourself organized, and ge...
Nov 30, 2023•38 min•Season 3Ep. 67
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint When you share gratitude openly with others, it starts to have a ripple effect and it can help you to feel good too, even when there are uncertain times (and there are many!) Gratitude is this amazing, free thing you have available to you at any time, all the time, no matter what. In today's episode, I share the power of gratitude in business and how it can help to create a sense of belonging and connection to our work and to the other contributors to our b...
Nov 23, 2023•24 min•Season 3Ep. 66
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint Spending time styling and preparing for a photo shoot with a professional photographer is key. Finding a photographer who can capture interior photos from different angles to bring a room to life is such an important part of curating a great interior design portfolio. In today's episode, I share all of my best tips and advice for styling an interior photoshoot for magazines and publications. Here’s a glance at this episode… I share how to plan and execute a...
Nov 16, 2023•39 min
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint Have you ever gotten yourself a big project or call from a big deal client and thought to yourself, I don't think I have what it takes to take on this project? What if instead, you got curious and asked yourself, what would it take to be successful with this project? Who do I need on my team? What do I need to learn? In today's episode, I share 3 mindset shifts to start using so that you can run your business through a lens of curiosity, leading to a busine...
Nov 09, 2023•50 min•Season 3Ep. 64
Interior Designer's Business Blueprint Starting an interior design business is easy, but growing an interior design business is so much harder because you just don't know all the answers and sometimes it's using your own intuition. In today's episode, I chatted with Libby Rawes about how she successfully transitioned into an interior design business and what it took to really make the career shift from branding to interior design. Here's a glance at this episode: We discuss how Libby made the ca...
Nov 02, 2023•51 min•Season 3Ep. 63
Building an interior design business that is profitable takes hard work but it is figure-outable. Today's episode is all the 3 commitments that you need to make to build your interior design business in a way that is profitable without setting yourself up for burnout and taking on too much to get there. In this episode, we turn the tables, and Katie Gutierrez, from Biographical Design interviews yours truly! Here’s a glance at this episode… 👉 We discuss overcoming financial struggles in a busin...
Oct 26, 2023•55 min•Season 3Ep. 61
Interior Designers Business Blueprint Serving clients well and building an interior design business with excellent communication can be done without always being available. Today's episode is all about how to create systems, processes, and communication that allow clients to feel nurtured and cared for without having to always be ON and responsive in the moment. This doesn't come naturally for most of us. Here's a glance at this episode: [5:40] I share examples of when a client may reach out for...
Oct 19, 2023•30 min•Season 3Ep. 61
