Yeah. Welcome to Designing Success from Study to Studio. I'm your host, Rhiannon Lee, founder of the Oleander Finch Design Studio. I've lived the transformation from study to studio and then stripped it bare and wrote down the framework so you don't have to overthink it. In this podcast, you could expect real talk with industry friends, community, connection, and actionable tips to help you conquer whatever's holding you back. Now let's get designing your own success.
This is my 100th episode of the podcast and I can't believe it. I honestly just started and was like, I'll do one season. I'll interview a few people for my own curiosity, just so that I can learn and grow and hopefully have some impact along the way. My primary. My primary focus for the podcast was to bring actionable, practical things for people who can't work with me one on one or one too many in a group setting. And it's just been wild. I can't believe it's a hundred episodes.
Thank you for sticking by. Thank you for everyone who listens. Thank you for every rate, subscribe.
Most importantly, recommendation to other people in the industry that might benefit from this because I know from experience how much I've learned while I've been hanging out little teeny tiny baby clothes on clothes horses or washing lines all in the early days of my business just absorbing like a sponge all of the different podcasts and I just wanted to be a voice like that to some of you out there who might need that little pep talk that little voice in your ear that just says messy action
always progress over perfection move forward momentum anything you're doing to put one foot in front of the other is the right thing to do. So as something a little bit different, I decided to go out to the students inside of my framework group and invite them to dial in and ask me the questions for once. I did not know what they were going to ask me. I was a little bit nervous. I was like, Oh gosh, I get where the guests are.
Feel a bit nervous sometimes when they dial in, but it was a great conversation. It was quite raw and real because I meet with these girls every week and it's just exactly as I am inside of those support calls, except with a little bit less guidance to them and a little bit more insight into me and my journey. So I hope that you'll enjoy this interview by the framework is with me, Rhiannon from Oleander and Finch and I'll be back with regular programming next week. Happy 100th listening.
I would love to know if there is somebody out there who thinks that they've listened to all 100 episodes that would blow my mind. I don't even I don't really listen back that often because. Ew. To listening to your own voice.
But if you're out there and you think you've listened to all of them or you've tuned in since the beginning for the whole year, I would love for you to let me know, you can click on the link at the top of the show notes that says, text me and tell me what you thought of this app and just say hi and let me know that you've listened and you will make my year and make the effort that 100 episodes in 12 months. Completely worthwhile. It's been insane. It's been so much fun.
It's better than I imagined it could be. And you'll hear inside of this interview, it's really a weird thing to wrap up because it feels like it's like my eulogy or something, but I'll be here next week and I'll chat to you then. Okay. Bye for now. My question was around what do you think is the single most important thing that you did to take your business from fledgling to thriving? You can pick more than one if you'd like. I have two in mind. The first is around distractions.
So learning that a lot of the things that I was focusing on were not moving the needle in my business. So I In the very early stages, I struggled with comparisonitis, I struggled with seeing what others were doing and achieving and people and comparing myself a little bit to people at the same stage of my design course, yet they've got clients or they're at the same stage of business, but they look like they're really busy.
And eventually I realized, Oh, okay, but they're not breastfeeding with a two year old. Or, oh, okay, but they're not currently going through design school at the same time. They're actually been working for three years. They built a business and I was comparing myself flat out myself versus them. The other version of distraction that I would say came up for me was just around Oh, I need to do a lead magnet. I need to learn to do this. I need to get.
And they were all things that were well beyond what I actually needed. So I needed to be creating a brand kit. I needed to be understanding who I wanted to target. I needed to be learning how to apply the marketing and business skills that I had from former career. Into a benefit to this business I was launching. And I was just getting so excited by next steps that I found that I was really distracting myself with things that were not relevant to the level that I was at.
And then therefore I missed whole things. Like I didn't create templates or have I didn't even have it an, or didn't need to be automatic back then it wasn't, but I didn't even have a templated email response that if somebody inquired on my website that I was just sending, thanks for the inquiry. Can we touch base and talk more about your project? That's a very simple block of text that I could have had saved as a response in my email, but I was writing it every single time.
So I felt like I was distracting myself and not staying focused and not doing what I needed to do. The second big shift, was embracing my Instagram stories, talking on camera and doing that. And now that could have been a time and a place I'm never going to say it's never one strategy fits all, but in terms of my I guess competition or other people in the e design space, they were very much staying behind the camera. So as e designers, there was a lot of mood boards. There was not anyone else.
Showing up and saying I am the face of the board. I'm the face of the brand. I am the person that made that room and there was no one coming in saying I just worked on a theater room in New South Wales for a beautiful family to young kids here with the challenges. Here's the kinds of things that I explored. Here's a few dead ends that I found and here's the outcome and how we got there and taking people on that journey. I used to show up every like after every call and give a quick client brief.
And then I would show like a series across the week, the building of the mood board. It gave the clients a really exciting sneak peek into what was happening with their concepts or things that were going on. And it kept my audience really engaged because they were watching the journey and evolution of the deliverable was like a week later and it was all done. And I do think. That helped to catapult my business. It just showed something different that people weren't really doing.
So I saw some designers doing that and they were for want of a better word, real designers on site, designers like Defer and Stone and like some of the designers that I really looked up to. And I saw and you're walking through bathrooms, talking about tile selections and stuff. And that felt like very disconnected to the level that I felt that I was. And I just showed up at the level I wanted to be at. Like I constantly just was like, okay I'm not there, but I, I was delusional.
I was just like, I'll just act like what I want. And eventually it will come. And I think that kind of was a winning sort of technique or approach or strategy. How do you best juggle family life with business life when, without letting the business run you ragged because I know my creative mind doesn't function when I'm in overwhelm. And obviously that's like the biggest element of running any design business.
And every household, if your household doesn't run with overwhelm, I take my hat off to you, but mine is like hectic most of the time. I don't have, I definitely don't have the Oracle answer or I'd be way richer than I am, but I do think it's about for me, a couple of techniques triage, like who needs me the most right now, what is the most important and why, and is that easily explained to my young children, like in a way.
That if I had to explain right now, why mommy can't do X because of Y is Y actually important enough to present that to a young child? Is it me just thinking I'm busy and getting up in my head or is it, can I keep it in work hours? And if it leaks over, it has to be because it's like an emergency situation or something's gone on. I work a lot when they sleep.
I have a strange work hours, I'll work in the day in the 5 hours that they're at school and then I'll be there for 5 hours and then I'll put in an extra 2. 5 hours in my evening to make up a 7. 5, 8 hour ish day, which is like a general work day. What else do I do? I try to separate the time so that work time is work time. I'm not interested in what they've got to say or what they need. And then when it's their time, it is their time. I have Wednesdays with Marley, which are non negotiables.
I only work with private coaching clients, if they've booked like long term coaching by a Voxer, they are the only ones who are allowed to reach out. I don't really hang out on Slack on Wednesdays. I will often come back to DM saying it's not a work day. There's an auto response.
But I think I have to recognize I've never really wanted to put mumtrepreneur or go hard into that content pillar of mum in business in my business, because I don't feel qualified to answer that in a way that misrepresents the difficulty of it. I always feel uncomfortable saying, Oh, you just got to be really organized and you've got to do this.
And no, because the second you think you're on top of it, one of them staggers out of the bathroom and his head spinning and his projectile vomiting on everything, like it's just, you can't plan. So I guess you have to learn this in business, but it's also balanced with parenting is the lack of leaning into the lack of control and just knowing that you won't ever win this battle.
So maybe we don't have to fight against it so hard to what I guess what I'm saying is what you see when you think you see someone who's doing it there's gotta be an undercurrent of chaos there that you just can't see because I really don't believe that anybody has. All of this under control, you can get better. You can work on time management. You can work on processes and systems. And that's something I've really leaned into things like learning automations and AI and other things.
All of that is because of my why, which is my family. So all of that gives me more time with them. But I don't think I'm perfect at it. I don't think anyone's perfect at it. I think they're probably fibbing if they're telling you that they're not feeling like when I do this, I'm mediocre at that. And when I'm doing that, I become mediocre at that and just feeling that constant pull.
The other thing I would just say about that is when I think about my why, and I think about how like it is overwhelming or it is a big struggle. I always think back to when I was employed.
And I had that struggle anyway, but I also had a feeling of inadequacy and I had a feeling of constantly apologizing for my children or calling and saying, I can't come in today and then letting the team down and then I had this extra heaviness of feeling like I'm going to get Pulled up on this in the next KPIs. I've had too many sick days. I'm not even sick. My kid has a fever and I used to be a wedding coordinator too.
So imagine trying to call in sick when the bride thinks you are the person opening the door of the Bentley. And she only trusts you with all of the arrangements. And it's like this heavy pressure of Oh, but I've also got a newborn baby who's fever of, 39. 5 and I can't come to work. And I hated that feeling so much to feel like. This is the lesser of two evils because when I'm, I am feeling stressed, it's my stress and I can untangle my own mess.
I just hated having that third party, which was employment involved as well, because I just thought it was just. Impossible. So the answer is it's impossible, but you got the best way forward and give yourself grace. My goodness. We are so hard on ourselves. That's something I've really had to learn. And when I'm really overwhelmed, and when I say to my husband what are we going to do? I've got this, you've got that. We don't have time.
I can't I can't possibly launch the hero on my marketing's really suffering because I'm not showing up. Cause I'm doing this or that. It's just about going, why you're just, you're doing a great job. Like at the end of the day. Kids go to bed. They love their bed. They're healthy. They're happy. You might be stressed, but it is a season. And and I know people say that, but they're actually, it's not always peak level hecticness in this house. It's it's secular.
And there are times where the business is operating really well in business hours, and I'm getting more time with the kids. And then there's times where they have to take. They have to acknowledge that right now is a really busy time. There's a lot going on from my work. My, my husband's work is the same. So why should I apologize for mine having peak times that need to be more attention?
The first year was one of those times before we decided to run a business, we sat down and I was like, the next 18 months with these teeny tiny humans, you're going to have to really step up. Like so much of this needs to be a you problem. Cause it can't be me problem. If I'm going to also launch a business. If you find the answer on your quest, everybody, if you get any great tips, bring them directly back to me because I would love to put them in my business and personal life as well.
Yeah, no, my kids are teenagers now, but I still struggle to find that balance. Even though I, have a lot more time, I guess to myself, but it's just trying to lead by example, and not be on your phone constantly and things like that. And just being there for them too, because they obviously need it. a fair bit emotionally. Yep, just constantly trying to find a balance.
I love what you said there about role modeling too, because in the early years, Specifically the amount of mood boarding that I thought I was just doing until one day my child looked at me and said, why don't you just play on the iPad? And my kids still don't have devices. So there are no iPads. They don't have that. So they don't know how it works, that it has work on it. They just know from the lens of their friends have Minecraft, or their friends have games and they don't have one.
They can't say that it can have multi uses. And so one of the ways that I have combat or come up against that is I let them use my style sourcebook account occasionally.
So they don't have any games or access to iPad, but occasionally I'll give them a little client brief and I'll let them have a little play and they design a lounge room and and then Atticus designs a lounge room, Banjo designs a lounge room, and then they bring them to me and I do the like block judging and I decide who's room reveal is. Got the most design elements or whatever. So I let them play on it a little bit and involve that.
It's, your teenagers are just going to roll their eyes in the back of their head. So they fall for the little kids. It's been really helpful for them to get more of a insight that it is work and understanding what I do recently. I asked them and they were like, you draw houses. I was like, not really. That's not really my job. I don't even draw a lot of floor plans. Like it's not really what I do. So showing them more about I just had a chat to this lady and here's a picture of her house.
And this is what I've decided would look good in her house. And then when I get the afters or whatever, being like, remember that house I told you about and showing them it's really been helpful for them understanding that I'm not just ignoring them, that somebody else is relying on me or that I have a client. Like they don't know what these mean when they're really little. Yeah. Yeah. So that's been helpful.
If anyone's out there listening, who's feeling guilt about being on work devices and stuff all the time, sometimes just showing them what your day to day looks is really cool. Which again, I couldn't do in my paid employment because I don't think there's any brides that would have liked me being like, I just brought my three year old to your wedding. I know that's great. Thank you.
Do have another question, but it's more tailored towards imposter syndrome and if you went through that or if you go through that the overwhelm and also if you have any advice, yeah. Imposter syndrome is a dirty little beast and she rises for all creatives. There's no way I don't have it. Like it's really hard. My business has evolved as well. It went from this like e design into mentoring and I was like who am I to do that?
Help, like to help people like, especially like I started mentoring people who were doing sort of design work that I don't even do like full service design until I actually really thought about it and thought actually I'm not teaching them how to be a designer. I'm teaching them the business and marketing skills that I have qualifications for and years of experience in doing. So I had to do a bit of a shift there. Imposter syndrome.
I think the important thing, again, I mentioned this before about fighting against stuff. And it's more about like thinking about big challenges in our business, like we're in a rip and you have to sometimes lean into it or let go and be taken with it instead of fighting against it. You will never, ever overcome. Imposter syndrome, you will only work to live with it and be able to have tools and tactics that work.
Some of those things are recognizing when you're in a full on like spiral, like actually knowing like this isn't it's about understanding the difference between, fact and fear and when something is something that I'm just worried about versus something that is factual am I incapable of training these people to have thriving businesses? Absolutely not.
Am I sometimes feeling like there's other people that have done this for longer or that, might look more professional or have a different angle yeah, okay. That could be true. So it's breaking down that fear and fact and actually trying to be more third party observant, like even if you're working with Tati B. T, you should not cancel, but you can use it that way. And so to say I've got this that I want to share, but I have these concerns.
Can you show me a list pros and cons almost of what you think would be factual and what could be fear in terms of my thoughts around this piece before I go and launch it publicly, because I don't want to embarrass myself and you'll probably find that she'll come back being like, okay, you're in a you're in a loop of negative feelings right now. I also have a A note in my phone that is like a brag book that is all the little voice memos, all the beautiful words of people drop by.
And I appreciate every single one of them. And so many people who've dropped by to say, I've podcast. It's changed everything. Or I've just listened to episode blah, blah, blah. And it's really helped me move forward in something that I've stuff stuck in all of those things and you will get them. They won't always be Google reviews, but they can be as simple as when someone writes back and says, shut the front door. I'm obsessed with that all. Like you nailed it.
That's exactly what I had in my mind, or I cannot believe that you solve the Rubik's cube of that weird wall that we've been like, Stressing on for ages. So all those like nice little comments, you screenshot all of them and put them in the one note in your phone called the brag book or whatever. And when you are having that really stressed out moment of just oh I'm feeling like today's really hard for me to show up and show up properly.
That's a great one to go back to and just say I can do hard things. I am capable and people do they pick up what I'm putting down in a positive way. And it doesn't always have to be clients. There's other designers who will just do a little comment on your shared post saying, I'm obsessed with this look.
That is something to put in there because when you put in there, it's a full library and collection of positivity and positive reinforcement that you're not as bad as your brain is telling you are right now, because it is very much fear over fact. It's just one of those things, but you will go through it, especially sharing creative work, creative.
Creativity is objective and depending on your own mindset and your own self stories and the things that you do, you can really get paralyzed in this place and find it really hard to move to the next step of actually just showing up and sharing. It's just talking about the overwhelm. Like how you deal with that. I just feel like there's so much to do.
Okay. I'm going to tell you this little secret, not just about micro tasking and they say like when something feels really big and we're going to break it down to the small steps to get there and then just follow the small steps along the path until you're at the result. You can use chat GPT to reverse engineer those micro steps to the larger task or goal.
But I will tell you when you get there, you are probably just as ambitious as every other person in the framework and just as, motivated and whatnot. It's like a rainbow and a leprechaun and all that sort of stuff. As you get closer, the goal moves and that's business. Like you're never going to get to the end. So pressure on yourself to finish it all in a timeline. There's no more hectic timeline than the first year of business.
Because you're growing at a trajectory that is just almost 90 degree, just straight up. You are learning so many things and you're all of a sudden exposed to opportunities you hadn't even thought of. As in, I have an opportunity to master Instagram. I have an opportunity to master Pinterest. I have an opportunity to tweak my website or create my website. I have an opportunity to nail LinkedIn. I have an opportunity to create SEO targeted blogs and post them. Everything.
A lot of oysters, you can do a lot of things right? But I think that can absolutely be the catalyst for the overwhelm. And I think overwhelm looks different in different seasons of your business. You can get to where I'm at, and it could be that you like you have more clients than you have time in the day.
Like you're Doing time for money and you have to look at group coaching because you can no longer service that many private coaching one on one because there's only so many blocks of time that you can put in or my kids are growing in their afterschool sports and other things. So I'm starting to think, Oh, when am I going to be doing all these night framework calls and recording podcasts and editing?
They're starting to wake up a lot more, they're becoming people instead of babies and I'm going to have to be a lot more involved. So knowing that it's such an evolution. That first year is the most overwhelming and I think it's what weeds out so many people like we look at the statistics and it's a certain number don't make it to three years and it's high. It's 70 percent of businesses don't make it there.
And it's because the pressure you put on yourself to do all of those things in that 12 month timeline is really crazy because what happens. There's no bomb doesn't explode if you don't get X done by November of next year, which makes your first anniversary, then you do it in Q4 of that year, you'd push it back. Just get something done. Cause I think when we look at everything, we look at nothing, like niching, when we talk to everyone, we talk to no one.
When we look at the big picture, like the resource library and the framework is the most overwhelming, hectic piece of content you'll ever see in your life, but it's a lifetime access. And I do not expect you to get through it. I say it to everyone. You'll get through whatever percentage of this you get through and that's fine. And whatever you don't, we'll still be waiting for you next year and your goals and focuses might change.
So I think it's about even, and one thing I would suggest with big overwhelm is working with a coach, getting that shared, like I do a shared notion page with my private clients, but like having quarterly reviews where you're tracking to goals and sticking to that.
As your I guess what I want to say sticking to that as your point of reference against what was done successfully and what wasn't done successfully, as opposed to all the things you could do, because the things that we could or think we should. Are the things that are actually playing in the overwhelmed space, not the things that were like, Oh, I could pick the top three things that will make a move the needle result for my business for this whole quarter.
And you're going to get a way better result doing that, then stressing about the 35 opportunities you could have done and doing none of them for the three months. And that's just something that I, got better at along the way, but 100 percent no. The first year of my business was.
A lot of busy work, a lot of focusing on the wrong things, which is why the framework exists, because I spent all the time with the, like thinking that the website and the business cards make a business, not the work or thinking that, if I'd spend as much time on my website and business, if I spent much time on templates and emails and things that would make my business onboarding, just even having a process and understanding what that looked like my business really grew really strongly, fast
and organically. But if I had that, I could have doubled it. I reckon I feel like, I probably just physically couldn't take any more clients cause I didn't have a process to onboard them. Got a question that It's a bit hard to say, but I will bravely say it in terms of support from spouses, family, friends, all that sort of thing. If that's lacking, not to use a better word. Yeah. How do we get around that? It's such a hard one and everybody's.
Like family situations are different, but even with someone as emotionally intelligent and supportive as my husband, Aiden is, we've been through so many seasons in the six years of you don't get it, or you're just not picking up the phone. The, you're not supporting me in a way, like I've had times where I've gone, do you know what, if I need to just go and pack shelves at Foodworks, let's just do that. And it's not because I can't bring in the clients.
It's there's no point me bringing in the clients if I don't have your support in the back end in order to facilitate the work for them. And that comes up time and time again. Friends and family is another really tricky one. I found that really hard at the start. I often say I don't think you should have friends and family follow you. And I said it even on this week's podcast. And the reason being is they feed insecurities.
Any kind of imposter syndrome you're going to get is going to be in and around your family, like 1000 times more than it would be because they knew when you were like a dorky little cousin trying to flip tadpoles across the like puddle. So you feel like they're not going to believe I'm an interior designer. That's weird. I barely believe I'm an interior designer. Like in the first six months, you're like, this is awkward.
I don't want to show up telling you what white paint when they're like, I've never seen you with a paintbrush in my entire life, but I don't paint it. I chew. Yeah. And you just feel like you're justifying things all of the time. I do think one of the biggest challenges from I hope this kind of answers your question, but it's not really around support, but I find the financial side of the business really tough inside of a marriage.
I think that you have to take 12 whole months of pretty much not bringing a lot. To the table, which gives me massive insecurities knowing that I could just walk into a corporate role and have wage parity with my husband straight away, but I would never see my kids. I'd be on the train at seven o'clock at night and, like all those sorts of things. But for the first year, there's a lot of they see you working.
And they say no clients and you immediately feel like they think that you're terrible at it. And that feeds your insecurities again that you are terrible at it. And it just goes in this kind of loop. And I also think still to this day, I struggle with the idea that my husband doesn't understand my cash flow reports.
My. A P and L statements and doesn't understand what's coming up and design in general, isn't something that I can say, okay, we're projected to have another 140 K year because I've got nothing securely in the future launches or projects. So I can't actually show you it's like the vibe of the thing. And I need to just come with the idea of my business. And they're not naturally like that.
Like he's I. I go to work, I work and every fortnight somebody sorts out the tax thing and then they pay me what's left and it's the same amount and I can tell you my yearly wage. That's how his mindset is. He hasn't ever worked in corporate or business. He's a teacher. And so I have always found that a little bit tricky because I, he doesn't have eyes across the finances and just has to believe.
In the faith, and I'm a very positive person, so he probably thinks I'm making it up most of the time. But me saying I'm assuming it's X this quarter because I'm predicting this amount of growth. And so that looks like Y in terms of money or this financial year will be this. The money stuff has always come up as really difficult. And I can see why, because we basically put a blindfold on them, sit them in the corner and then just tell them to trust. And that's very difficult.
And we never think about it from the partner's perspective. Like we, I have, we have fights in our house sometimes around the money and be like you're just putting all this pressure on me. And then I'm just going to sound desperate. And like I'm selling for the sake of the fact that you don't trust that we're going to make this amount of money. And I do.
So having different mindsets as well and different personalities has always been a challenge in all of the six years there's been, it's not often, but there's once or twice a year that It gets to like what's happening? When are you launching? It's stay out of my business. I've mapped out my launches. I'm not going to change that. Cause you all of a sudden think we need a new car and you think that one launch will buy that for you. Like that. You don't know what you're talking about.
Sit down, put your blindfold back on. I hope that kind of. Answers that how do you train them to be more supportive communication, like everything, more awareness, them understanding more of what you're trying to achieve will help them support you to do it. I think it's when we say, I want to start a business. I'm going to go over and invest in this thing. I'm going to go do this thing. And they don't really come with you.
They don't see the work that you're putting in, and they don't know the plan or the goal. So sitting down and saying, I said to Aiden at the beginning, I'm probably not going to get anyone to pay me to do their design work for the first year. But I will make this work because I'm the most tenacious person I know. And if you just leave me to, do my thing and work, then I will make it happen. And in that first year. I worked at the wedding venue, but I did two weddings.
I did a like Friday night wedding and a Sunday wedding and Aiden wasn't at school. He was with the kids. We had no childcare costs. And I ended up working like 13 hours a week or whatever.
And the rest of the time I had tiny babies and I could just work on Setting up things, which reflective in, or in reflection, I did so badly because I had no templates, obviously just playing with my camera and getting like having fun on Instagram, which I do not recommend the framework is obviously written to be a better way to do things if you're starting out. And I don't know how the rest of you feel, but I see some nods and things.
And I think I would just like to say in a more public sense that it's really tough. You don't, I don't know why, but you don't have fights about your employment. Like your partner has no opinions on where you work, who you work with. Like they're just like, Oh yeah, that sounds nice. And you're going out for drinks with the friends after work and you chatted about this in the kitchen, in the tea room, but when it's your own business.
And I think it could be as well, because we're so overexposed to it in terms of we're so emotionally connected to it. It then becomes this thing that we. Work alone a lot of the time if you're not in the framework or anything like that, you just work alone tick, tick, tick, tick, boom.
When they walk in the door, you offload all of the stresses, all of the worries, and then they reflect that back at you and you immediately shut down and go you just don't trust me, or you're just not leaving me to do my thing. But I feel like if I'm really honest and I put myself in. Aidan's perspective, he gets like, it's this and it's that and no one's buying. And it's been a really shit year and it's blah, blah, blah. And then he tentatively goes, do we have any money?
And I like explode on him to be like, just leave it. And I think that, we can, sometimes. Think about just having that conversation. The next time you go out for dinner, the next time you do something, be like, this is not talking about work. This is talking about us through the perspective of running a business, because the whole family runs that business. That's now a family business. This is like really important.
It keeps me feeling like I'm like ambitious and I'm feeling engaged and passionate about what I get to do, what I love, which is great. That has. Flow on effect for you. I'm a more positive person because I'm not working like for something I don't want to do. But, everybody has to say yes, that's the point, isn't it? If there's any pushback or friction around whether or not you should, or you could, you've got to iron it out. You've got to have the conversation because it'll never get better.
Like it will just fester like everything and be like really bad. I think if you can. Get that support in terms of ask for it. We don't ask for it. Women, I think, especially we'll just be like, we're fine. We're fine with the Martha. We're doing the thing. And if you're feeling unsupported again he doesn't get access to the finances. So how can he know about the money? And he doesn't have access to how much I need the support at certain times, unless I say so this is a time where I'm really.
I've written a course and I don't know if anyone's going to buy it. I'm really, I'm frightened. I'm feeling like I'm having imposter syndrome. I need more emotional support. And if I'm snippy at you, it's because I'm projecting things that are happening in the business.
And I think just having those conversations openly around what you need can be helpful because sometimes they can just need a little, or partners can just need a little bit of Prompting when it comes to knowing that you're waiting for them to do something better. That's my therapy hat on for the day. But the support thing is so tough, you absolutely must have it for this to be a success.
And if you feel like it's lacking in any way yeah, it starts to really grate on your convictions that you have the capacity. To win at this business and you absolutely do, but you, yeah, you're going to need to fight harder for what you want to like, don't be afraid to tell them they're being a dick, but maybe just the clarification and explaining why it's important to you and why you don't think it's like currently. At the level it should be and friends and family as well.
Like I would just say, this business isn't for you. Act like a psychologist. Like I'm sorry. It's a professionally against the code. I can't come and work on your house and just shut it down so that it's it's, I'm actually talking to potential clients only like I'm taking on X amount for the rest of the year and it's not something you need to worry about.
It's. All well and good to say, I do interior design, just like you see on, and if you want to reference something simple that they'll understand, like block and then that's it. They don't need to know anything else. Like, how's it going? Excellent. How's your work?
It doesn't, I feel like, yeah, I don't want to give too many details to friends and family because it's the only thing that I think is actually actively beneficial to do with friends and family is explain the dream job, the types of jobs that you want to work on and ask them if you ever hear of anybody who's about to start a project like this, make sure you use my name, tell them that I do what I do. And that's the only thing that can be of a benefit. Yeah, that's really helpful. Thank you.
Is that it? Did anyone have any more questions that came up when I was talking about them? Yeah, Therese. I have one about podcast. We're here to celebrate 100 episodes. Congratulations. And I was wondering, did that I guess change your business as well in terms of obviously Broadening the eyes and ears on your business and what you do in terms of getting people into the framework and things like that do you think this has been a great touch point, to get people into your business? \-Yes, I do.
But one of the main things and one of the catalyst reasons for it was I feel like we talk a lot on. In content strategy and other places around thought leadership on authority and showing people that you can do what you say you can do, and you can provide that transformation. And again, with the comparisonitis or other things that were coming up, there's a lot of people who do the same thing as I do, and that's great.
And some of those coaches are great for people who respond to that style of coaching and whatnot. And I really wanted to weed out, I was getting a lot of people who had It's seen other containers or other courses and wanted this, that, and the other. And it wasn't aligned with me. I'm like, I'm not very, we were, I'm definitely going to get your result. I'm going to get you to be solution focused and I'm going to find the answer for you, but I'm not going to sit and manifest it.
Like I am not the person that you come to when you want Anything like that, like I do believe in goal setting and I believe in all this stuff, but I believe in action a lot more and I'm not for everybody. And that's totally okay. And I think I wanted the podcast to showcase that because I was getting so much of that inquiry that was crossing over from other courses. And I'm just, they weren't the right fit for the framework.
And I only really wanted people in there who like, there's no accident that work is in the word framework. It's it's, it's not easy, but it's effective and it will get the result. And I. Just felt like there was a lot of I don't know how to say this as well. I was also seeing in that business coach world, like a lot of like scratchy fighty kind of stuff on Instagram. That was like, I can do six figures in six weeks. And they said that, and they shouldn't say that.
And they said that, and that's very like, not my jam. And I went, you know what? Or you can just make the decision for yourself. Listen to a few podcasts, see who resonates with you. Because all I want to do is have. Impact a greater impact for more and more designers, but only the ones that I can truly get a really great results out of. And that won't be everyone. You're not, yeah, you're not for everyone. And I thought it was a really good way rather than doing a bunch of alignment calls.
Now, what happens generally is the alignment calls are just to talk about availability to private coach to talk about Can I tell you a bit about my business situation and do you have capacity to take me on this year to get me that result and do that thing? And that's a much nicer feeling because before I felt like they'd seen a lot of what I had posted on Instagram. But what we post on Instagram is not who we are. And you know that you come to the calls every week.
The calls are very much like raw and authentic and there's tears and there's, lots that goes on and I show up as I am, which is this and this on the podcast, it's this in my Insta stories, but it's not always this on my Insta feed, because how can it be like, that's not that so I really have found. I'm able to connect better with the people that do come into my world and show them and allow them to, yes self qualify if they're right for that place.
And if they think that we work well together without having to go into masses of alignment calls. And I get to chat to some really cool people, which is really nice. When I started the podcast, there are a lot of design podcasts out there, which is great. When I started the business, there were none. I was listening to so many American designers, but it felt really terrifying Oh my God, I would never do that or pitch for that or be that kind of designer. So that was like a little bit scary.
And then I listened to lots of like marketing business, all that sort of stuff, which I've always had such a strong interest in, but there wasn't a lot. Now, there are quite a few, which I absolutely love. I don't listen to any others because I'm always worried about like just strong crossover in content. And I just want to make sure that my. Thoughts, they clean and clear to who I am and what I do, but I celebrate them.
And I think it's a fantastic that there are designers coming up through the ranks now that can listen to 15, 20 different kinds of views and yeah, some are process heavy and some are marketing heavy and some are got interviews and they're all different. But when I started there wasn't a lot doing like the full one hour interviews with all of the designers and stuff. And actually, I think that was one element that I was packing it because I don't have a journalism degree. I don't know.
I don't have a clue what I'm doing when it comes to interviewing other people. I think My first interview was with Colleen from Cedar and suede. And I look up to her a lot. I think she's a beautiful designer and a beautiful person. And my whole face was twitching through the entire thing. If you watch the zoom, which obviously you only get audio.
I feel like I was so nervous and red faced and Oh my God, she's looking at me, which is entirely the point of connecting with someone and having an interview. But I guess it's nice to hear that people that you may be. Not pedestal, but like you look at and think are not nervous or are killing it or doing it fine. I still dial in some of these women I have absolutely admired since I was before I started interior design and the idea that I get to have a conversation with them is quite terrifying.
Hello, Rhiannon. It's Bec here from design release. My question is about your in design services and wondering how do you maintain a good productivity and. Down on prestination when it comes to choosing selections for your clients. I know often when we have value based pricing, some of the way of staying profitable is being able to choose things, efficiently and not drag our feet with that.
I would love to see and to know if you have any practical hacks or tips on how you manage your time when it comes to choosing selections for your e design clients. Thank you so much. All right. I think. In no other place in my life am I a decisive person and if something is for my own home, you better believe I research it and like second guess it for six months, but I believe when I'm in a zoom call by the time I get out of that one hour zoom call, I've made most of the selections in my head.
I can see the room. I know what I'm doing. And I really know what I'm looking for. And I don't know if this is helpful and I don't want to make anyone feel like, Oh I don't, I look at everything, but over time, I've just gone, no, I'll give them a concept. I'm going to do it in a I'm going to do a black timber TV unit option, and I'm going to do a Tasmanian Oak and I just know what I want. And so then I also keep abreast of supplier websites all of the time.
So when I'm in peak, specifically when I was working with clients a lot, I've actually really struggled since I've. I started taking one client at a time. It's way harder for me when I had so many, I was really across the newest collections at all my favorite trade suppliers which made it much faster. Cause I'm like, I'm thinking of this particular sideboard from globe West, which I know comes in X, Y, and Z. And lately I've gone to reduce capacity. I only take one client at a time.
And in doing so, I definitely feel like I'm relearning. Like I'm living that life of being a little bit less or a little bit slower. I'm just going, Oh, I haven't seen what's out there lately. I'm going to have to research some barstools now instead of be like, it's going to be this and it's going to be that. And I'll see which one they like the best. So I don't know if that answers the question in terms of. Productivity. I don't know that it's a productivity tip or tool or tactic.
I think it's actually just exposure. And it's like almost like the volume of people that I was working with made each individual job faster because I was doing multiple things at once. So if I know I have two living rooms and a theater room this week, then I'm like, right now I'm going on a hunt for a coffee table for all three. I know the three briefs, so today, for this hour I'm doing coffee tables.
That looks good, I'll get that stone one, the Monty from West Elm, and that's gonna go, I'll put that in both. I'll put that in one. Also, a lot of us are very keen to be like super original to every single mood board, which is fantastic. But as a scale strategy, you can also use the same coffee table in two houses because they don't live next door to each other and they don't know each other. And Especially if you're niching into a particular style, mine was modern organic.
There are particular modern organic pieces or suppliers like impressions or other people that I will lean on to achieve that look consistently. So having a library of pieces that I have seen in person that I adore that I love, that I'm. Good to go that I know in my mind, the dimensions, the proportion and scale makes things faster.
And I think because we want to challenge ourselves, sometimes we're like, we're going to choose something new for every single one so that it looks individual or different. But the combat to that for me was like, for my clients, I'll deliver what's right for the brief, no matter what that is, but that could be across.
And I'm not trying to force or oppress that these certain suppliers and this certain pieces and for my own active creativity, I will create something wild and original for content for Instagram. So I'm not trying to force that, feed my creativity. Through a paid service, I will do my creative stuff on this side and I will do what's right for the client, but in a commercial sense in my workplace, so through my business.
So when you're getting an e design from me, I'm going to choose the same mushroom illusion DIY shears that I chose in two jobs ago, because you have a very similar brief or the same flooring. So you just get to know and you look at some of the brands and I'm just going to reference their friends. Don't again. Anya. Hello. If you're listening because they are a good example of when I was coming through, like it's the same tile, same gray tile in all the bathrooms because it works.
They love it and it gets a result. So I think we're a lot harder than ourselves or we sometimes stretch to seek. Things outside of where they naturally need to be. And so just keep an eye on your suppliers and maybe even try what does it look like if you do take on three clients at once? And can you use that as a benefit? Can you lay all three client briefs out and then can you go after the items, but choosing for three instead of one to see if that helps. Here we go.
Stephanie asked, I'd love to know if interior design was all that you'd hoped it would have been. Oh, that's a big question, isn't it? A bit loaded. I love doing what I do is interior design. All that. I thought it would have been the industry is probably different than I thought it would be. And where I've ended in that ended. I'm not dying, but like where I am in that industry is definitely different to what I thought I would be when I worked in marketing and product and senior leadership.
I always would get feedback like, And I used to do training and it would be like, you should do more education stuff. Like maybe you're going to end up doing like that sort of thing. And so when I first started design, my husband even said, Oh, maybe you'll end up like teaching in like a TAFE like thing when the kids are older. That would be one place. I never really thought this would happen, but it did. In retrospect, makes complete sense to me.
Like when I say it, I'm like, that just feels normal. The e design thing was such a surprise because when I started my business, the first service that I offered was new build selections, and I thought I would be all about floor plan reviews and FF and E like that would be my jam and that would be the majority of what I would do. And. And I think I did exactly one of each of those services and didn't enjoy it.
Like really organically realized that it was more of the procurement, furniture, decor, like decorator style things that I really gravitated towards, as well as the e design stuff. I just loved it. Playing on style sourcebook and that just took off. There were not that many people doing it. And yeah, so it's a little bit different to what I thought industry as a whole is a lot more welcoming, helpful, kind and full of supportive people than it gets credit for even internally.
I feel like there's a lot of noise about. What a clicky, like la kind of industry it is. And I don't know if it's me, but that has not been my experience. That is not something I've never seen a single person sign up for the framework emerging or established designers and not be anything but. Overtly helpful, trying to lift each other up, help each other, passing on jobs all the time. I can't do this. I've got overflow. I, I don't have the capacity to take on this job.
Does anyone want to like that kind of stuff? And I just. I don't think that would exist in a really like negative industry. I think it's everyone I've interviewed, I've never met them and they dial in and they're warm and inviting and generous with their knowledge. And I think that it gets a bad rap and I would hate for anyone to worry about moving forward and starting a business and moving into the interior design industry, because they think that it's going to be full of yeah.
I'm non like minded bitches, not drinking wine. Cause it's not like that at all. It's very much like, uh, a group. The other thing I would say about whether or not the industry is exactly as I thought it would have been, is that like all industries that has its challenges. And I think it's more service based than I had anticipated. And what I mean by that is that, coming from like working back when I was a travel agent, I feel more in that role as somebody.
Like time poor, they don't have time to book their flights. They've come to the travel agent. And then in the interior design space, it's very much like I'm very, I'm time poor, busy professional. So you do it.
And it's along the lines of like hairdresser and people who do these transformations and the outcome is wonderful, like going on a holiday, getting new hair, having a beautiful interior design, but I don't think I anticipated how much it was like that customer service role, that forward facing sales.
I'm going to be talking about the role of writing a business when I started the business, I just went like you turn the lights on, people start booking like things just go and then I go and like swan around in a blazer and heels and tell people my over like my strong opinions on what is right and wrong for their house. Home and so there's very little of that, like there's a lot less of interior designing in being an interior designer, especially one with their own business.
Then I ever thought I just honestly thought it would be like a 90, 10 split to admin and working, and it's almost the other way. I reckon I do 10 percent interior design, especially now with the courses and the podcast and other things, then it, then actually getting out, meeting people.
Thinking about spaces and designing things, which is, I'd still do it if I knew, but I think that is the, probably the biggest surprise to the industry that I did not anticipate, but also side note, it's probably one of my favorite things because I've always been so interested in business and marketing that I really get to still continue do that and almost have a triangle of focus that keeps me really happy in my job is that I. Learn new business skills. Always. I do courses consistently.
You guys, come and join my course, but I also am always in a course right now. I'm into I've got a business money cause and I'm also in a course for AI, like for trailblazers who are using AI as early adopters and learning all of those new things and learning what's going on. And I will never not do that. Invest in education and be part of it.
And just like I never really want to hang up my boots designing so that I have a finger on the pulse of what's happening in the industry, in the market, what's going on right now. I feel like I'm just hungry to do all the things. And that probably comes back to that original overwhelmed question. It's it's a lot of stuff juggling at once, but yeah, it's good. Now I feel at the end, you're like, but I like it.
It feels like the hundredth episode and then the reflection piece almost feels like I've said it before, like I'm not dying. I'm not going anywhere. I'll see you guys in an hour's time. You very much. Congratulations on a hundred episode. It's amazing. And I had so much value. You give so much value to people just on the podcast that I think it would inspire a lot of people to join you to work within the framework because you give so much away for free.
Imagine what you're going to get inside it. But is that your experience though? Because you are inside of it. I think a lot of people think, oh if you're giving that. That, that I choose my podcast episodes out of the resource library or something, but they're totally different. Totally different. Yeah. And you give so much away. And and I think, you always say, the front of your episodes, it's actionable tip. And I think that is really what you're all about.
And I think, giving so much of those actionable tips on your podcast there's so much more to discover actually inside the framework as well. So congratulations. Thank you. And it's it's exclusively for people who are ready to take action. Imagine getting in the framework and being like, Oh, I'm just, I'm semi committed to this and not really willing to do anything. It's just a really nice collection of templates then, isn't it? Dropbox and just move on. Exactly. Beautiful.
All right, guys, thank you so much. I will see you in this week's call. Bye. Bye. Bye. I was not expecting some of those curveballs. I hope I caught them. Okay. I hope I gave you a little bit of insight into the reality of what business is like and what I'm like as well. Like I, I don't suffer excuses.
I am very solution focused, but at the same time, I am Think that I am extremely realistic when it comes to what's possible in business and just making sure that you are kind to yourself and that you do allow for the nuances in life and that your business and family can run concurrently, but they don't have to be fighting each other. And you don't have to be always so hard on yourself.
This is the main thing that I see with women in my group coaching specifically is just how hard on themselves that they are. And we all are But we don't need to be. There is another way and when things get difficult, I definitely look for solutions and I'm very much in the camp of this feels too hard. How do I make this feel easy? There's got to be a solution out there that automates this, makes it faster, harder and stronger.
And that is exactly why I've written the framework for established designers, which is all about time management. It's all about automations. It's about using AI effectively in your business, streamlining, standard operating procedures, getting a dream team around you, and really just refining what it is you've already started to build by having a business. A lot of these girls obviously have processes, onboarding processes, systems, all sorts of things.
And it's going to be about looking for the opportunities and tweaking the. Offering to make sure that they are creating space in their businesses to have capacity to take on more and more work. So I'm very excited about that. It's all about scaling. It is a super intimate group. I am taking five only that will spend the whole year with me. You get a one on one chat with me and then I'm going to build a roadmap, a shared notion document. That will work towards for the whole year.
You have fortnightly strategy sessions and coaching calls. If you want to attend, you don't have to you can come along once a month. If that suits your timeline better, but ultimately I'm excited about this container because it is. It's only going to be the five and it's me plus the five plus everything we can do to scale their business. And I cannot wait to come back and share some big time transformation stories with you because this is the stuff that lights me alive.
Like I love doing my private coaching stuff where I'm, you spend so much time directly with designers. You're able to see like a really big shift from the first chat up until wherever we're at now. So watch this space. And if you're interested in being one of the five. Y'all better run. You can drop into my inbox at oleander underscore and underscore Finch. I have had 10 alignment calls in the last two days.
When you're listening to this on Thursday, I will be pretty much wrapping up the offers for the five that I think will be best suited for the program. And then if they take up that first round of offers, great. If not, if there's a spare place or whatnot I think you should put your hand up to be considered if you really want to get serious about your business in 2025. Okay, looking forward to chatting with you again next week for our 101 Dalmatian episode. Bye for now.
That wraps up another episode of Designing Success from Study to Studio. Thanks for lending me your ears. Remember, progress over perfection is the key. If you found value in today's episode, go ahead and hit subscribe or share it with a friend. Your feedback means so much to me and it helps me improve, but it also helps this podcast reach more emerging and evolving designers.
For your daily dose of design business tips and to get a closer look at what goes on behind the scenes, follow at oleander underscore and underscore finch on Instagram. You'll find tons of resources available at www. oleanderandfinch. com to support you on your journey. Remember, this is your path, your vision, your future, and your business. Now let's get out there and start designing your success. I'll see you in a little bit.