Welcome to Designing Success from Study to Studio. I'm your host, Rhiannon Lee, founder of the Oleandra 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 can 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.
On today's episode of Designing Success I have been a little bit M. I. A. and for that I apologize. I was actually incredibly unwell for a couple of weeks, so of course the first thing to go was the podcast because it was putting some extra stress on my health and I just didn't have the capacity to show So I took a little break, took a week off and I've come back feeling so much better. Everything health wise is under hand and I'm really excited to get into today's episode.
I decided I didn't really want to pick a topic for today and instead I wanted to give you one hot take, one solution, one secret hack and one mindset shift. So we're going to just hopefully get a lot of actionable stuff that you guys can sink your teeth into. Because I've had a really busy weekend, I ran a half day workshop this weekend on AI and productivity hacks. I am going to be sharing the replay of that. I've edited up and packaged it into two nice one hour replays.
And I am going to be sharing that only to my email list. I'm not going to put it up on Instagram. I'm not putting it anywhere else. And I've got some exclusive bundles for anyone who does go ahead and watch the replay where you will be able to get like micro teams of my AI assistant. So you might not actually need all 12 of them, but you might be wanting to focus on marketing or systems operations, something like that. So to be. in there and check all of that out.
You first need to subscribe to the email list. I'm going to put a direct link in the show notes because you may just want to sign up and you can unsubscribe later. That's okay. I won't be offended. But every single Friday, I work really hard to send something across to my email list. That is actionable, something that they can take and employ it within their own design businesses. Something that's been helpful for me and my personal growth or professional growth.
So it's not the same content that you see on Instagram or even in the podcast. I do try to keep it quite fresh and interesting. So feel free to join me on my email list. You'll find all the details in the show notes, but enough about that. Let's get into today's episode and why we're here. Okay. The first thing I'm going to give you is a bit of a hot take and that's around why your design business isn't always growing. It can be that we're just working on the wrong things.
So sometimes we focus on doing more like endless networking, reaching out, pounding the pavement, as they say, or thinking Oh, I need more clients. What am I going to do? I'll do some local area marketing. I'll print some flyers. I'll say it in a different way. I'll work on my messaging. I'll hire a coach. I will just, I'll go back to basics and change the services. We can sometimes be tweaking and fiddling with so many things that are, Ain't broke. There's nothing wrong with them.
And it keeps us busy. It means that we're like, Oh, I've got so much to do right now. I'm in the middle of redesigning the website, or I'm doing this, or I'm doing that. But what is it really all for? Do we need to be that busy? Again, referencing having some health concerns this month, I've started to realize that there are so many things that we can do that gets us away from that traditional hustle mentality and actually doing less.
Can have a better outcome now, I've talked about the 80 20 rule before, and many people in business and marketing and inside of that corporate world will always talk about Where is the majority of the outcome coming from and it's from a couple of key specific tasks that we need to do to keep the noodle noodle moving to keep the needle moving and things that we need to do so When I have been in bed and unable and without capacity.
My businesses had to run on to around two and a half hours of my attention per day. Now, obviously I already had AI assistants. I already had all sorts of experience in that world that I could go and workshop with chat GPT. Okay. Things have changed. My calendar has changed. Have a look. And I'll just upload link to my Google calendar. And I was like, look at what's already in there. I will honor anything that is already in there. inside of my calendar right now.
But I will not be taking on anything new until I find out what is going on with me health wise and until I feel like I am able. I've mentioned it, but yes, I am able now. I'm feeling much better. So I was like, put a stop cell on any new inquiry come up with an email for me where I can get back to people and pause their inquiry for a fortnight and then pick it up when I'm feeling better.
If that was you, all of those, I've reached out to everybody who had asked me about private coaching I was also able to say look for opportunities in this calendar to work better. Is there ways that I could be doing things in a healthier way? And one thing that I do is where I do client work or on certain days and framework or student work is on other days. Batching tasks.
You've all heard me say marketing Monday and finance Friday, but also being like, I do in homes like, for me, not as much, but for some people that I work with, I'm like, I want you to put this in your diary. Like the first Tuesday of every month and the last Thursday of every month, people can book you to do in home consults. That way you're on the road for that whole day and you're not wasting. a half a day of a day that you'd like to be getting down to design work or working on projects.
So it's actually quite an interesting exercise to think what if I was rendered incapacitated tomorrow in terms of, it was going to be three weeks until I could go back into my Workspace, wherever you work from, what sort of things when I assess my calendar are must do, what things are nice to have, what things are probably distracting, shiny object type things that I'm like yeah, I've got to do that or I want to do that.
Because when we actually clarify and classify our tasks into those almost like red light, green light, amber light categories, you start to see that. You might be really stacked heavy in the amber and red stuff and not doing enough of the green light activities. Self assessing this is a really great task that you can do. It won't take you long.
Open your calendar for the next two weeks or even just think about day to day when you write your to do list, get out your highlighters, get a green one, get a red one, get an orange one and actually highlight them in the right colors. So then you know the order of which you should attack things because go for green. Always go for the stuff that's going to make a difference to your business.
And a side note to that, if something is highlighted in green, that is not a thing that I would like to see go from today's list to tomorrow's list to Wednesday's list. I think that is definitely something that you go and think this has to be achieved before I leave the office today because these are the things that move us forward. That leads me so nicely into the second thing I want to talk about, which is around process, positioning, and pricing.
So many designers overlook the time that you're bleeding through with inefficient workflows. A streamlined, repeatable process for everything, like onboarding, invoicing, project management, will literally save you hours every week. And I'm not just talking about all the. I'm talking about, even if you're doing this manually, it's really important that you're assessing like your workflows. And I mentioned like picking a particular day, like this is the day I do visits into houses.
This is the day I do admin tasks. This is the day I do marketing and making sure that everything that when you're doing those dedicated specific tasks, you're not bouncing around doing a bit of admin work, going into the creative zone, going over there. The operational leakages in design businesses are horrendous. And I'm not having, I'm not throwing shade at anyone. I've been guilty of it at certain times in the early years of my business as well.
But I feel like until you get this rinse and repeat and a real understanding of the workflow, when I do this, it leads into this. When I do this, it leads into this. And there are no gaps. There are no holes. And there are no leaks. When you get your design business running like this, that you have so much more time for designing and for doing other things because you're not just constantly spinning your wheels trying to catch up and jumping around. It was so much wasted time.
We're sticking to the task, getting it complete. I'm a stiffer for saying this one to my kids all the time, but if you put your hands on it, don't let go of it until you put it in your, it's home. And of course I'm talking about cleaning the house, but if they're like, yeah. Don't move things from one pile to another pile. It's just more piles. It's just more visual clutter. I'm like, if you've touched it, it's your responsibility to find its home before you take your hands off it. Does it work?
I don't know. I'll get back to you in 15 years. So far, no way. Okay. So now I'm going to talk about positioning and I really want to talk about the power of niching. Everyone talks about niching your business and being the go to for something.
But when you can step away from All the other people that are doing the same things and step into something that's like I am also an interior designer, but I specialize in x and we all have examples of designers that we know that's the person I go to when i'm looking for moody using a lot of navy blue and Black and grays, et cetera. And this is the designer I go to when I'm looking for light and bright and coastal lots of, lexicon and weather boards and all that kind of stuff.
I think you could probably, if you know the design world, which two designers I was just thinking of right now. And that is because they built a niche. They built a brand for themselves. One I've interviewed on the podcast before. Hello Kelly from Thirteen Interiors. If she's listening, she's done a wonderful job of positioning herself. She is the go to for that moody aesthetic. And people know it. And they're going to go there for it.
When we're thinking about positioning, it could be a really quick tweak or a really small tweak. But I just like to think about it as though every time you're, sending something out into the world, be it a piece of content or something that's branded under your branding. Be like, does this represent my niche, my particular skill and the aesthetic that I want people to know me for or to be known for?
The third thing I want to talk about around that sort of trifecta of process positioning and pricing is going to be pricing. So many designers are undercharging. Most people are in their beginning, just doing general fear, imposter syndrome not understanding industry norms, not understanding market research. When they are researching, they're researching other people who just graduated who are also undercharging. So it becomes this like vicious cycle.
And it just keeps you trapped in survival mode. It's just it's just such a thing that until you work with a coach or you have someone objectively come in and say, why is that price like that? Like for those inclusions, I would look at it. As this or, just being able to challenge you a little bit on where your pricing sits. But if you're doing it yourself, one thing that can instantly make a change to what you're doing is the introduction of a minimum project value.
And you don't have to go out and send out a comms to all people who've ever worked with you and be like, excuse me, just so you all know, we're not increasing our prices in 2025, but we're going with minimum project value and this is how much it costs to work with me or whatever. Absolutely not. You don't have to do that. But if you start internally talking about, in a discovery call, okay, so tell me more about your project. Tell me about your timelines.
Tell me about your budget and getting a bit of an idea. If it doesn't hit your minimum project value that you have in your head I don't actually really want to drive over to your job site. I don't want to get involved and la la la when. At the end of the day, it's 385. That's how much I would charge for an in home consult or a 30 minute call or whatever. So obviously I'm just throwing numbers into the wind because I don't know everybody's business, but it's not about charging more.
It's about deciding, Naomi Campbell said it best when she said, I don't get out of bed for anything less than 10, 000. If you're looking at minimum project values, you're attracting those projects instantly because you're only thinking about those projects when you're creating content. And when you're thinking about, okay, I want to, I can take five jobs this year at this minimum project value.
And then if I want to plug in some quick and dirty zoom calls and things in between, or if I suddenly go, Hey, I actually have a little bit of wiggle room in my calendar before the next meeting. Big project starts and I'd be happy to help someone with just a bathroom or whatnot. You have flexibility, but giving yourself that minimum project value in the behind the scenes stuff just gives you standardization and gives you that.
Like I don't kick off until it's five figures or for me, I've focused on whole home renovation, so I don't want to be playing with projects that are 1, 500. It's just understanding that number and that minimum project value. So you've had my hot take on why you might be focusing on the wrong things. You've had my solution around the trifecta of positioning process and pricing. And now let's go in for a hack.
So this one is about working with the wrong people and maybe not asking the best questions that convert on your discovery call. And it's really just a simple client filtering system one question that I think always shows people's red flags without them knowing. Just the one question that I always make sure that I ask is, what's most important to you on this project? Because straight away, people will come out and they will be like, budget.
Or that's where people answer that question with, Oh, we worked with this girl and we weren't happy with it. And you're like red flags. What do you mean? You've had another designer on this project. Or they'll come back and say, Oh, look, it's just really important that we get started straight away. We want, we basically want you to come over next week and you're like, okay, you're jumping ahead with the timeline.
It will really reveal whether the client is realistic, whether they're respectful of your boundaries. It's just such an easy to implement technique. I'm not going to overcomplicate it and give you heaps of stuff. I'm just going to say, if. Your discovery call doesn't include, for me, it's two questions that are the most important things to ask in a discovery call. The first is what's most important to you on this project, because it really shows their true colors.
So it's not supposed to be a trick. It's just like it catches them a bit off guard because you might've picked up on one or two other things that spark a little red flag in your back of your mind. But generally the answer to this will solidify if it's green flag, red flag kind of things.
And the second question I think is instrumental in finding a good fit between you and the client in a discovery call is when I will speak to people and say, aside from the furniture budget or aside from the budget that you've set aside for the renovation or what we're actually doing with the finishes and fixtures, what expectation do you have of the designers? Fee on top of that budget. So I, my fee is not included in what you've set aside for the kitchen renovation, et cetera.
Mine fee is above and beyond just the same as all your other contractors, like a labor fee, like your electrician or your plumber or whatnot. So do you have an expectation around what that design fee will look like? And then please don't talk, don't fill the space here. Let it go, because this is where your client will say to you, Oh, we hadn't really thought about it, but I guess, we're hoping to keep it under the 5, 000 range for the designer.
And you've just seen this two story project that you're like, not happening. Or on the flip side, maybe they're looking at having a bathroom only done with you as the designer. And they realistically are saying, look, we've put it, we're thinking like around the four or 5, 000 mark. Obviously we'd be love if it was less than that. I don't know how many hours we're actually going to need. We'd probably need to look at that.
Closely at what responsibilities each party has and then go from there if they're realistic again with the respectfulness and the realism That I love that a lot of the times you'll hear people not want to give you a number Of course, we can barely get them to give us a budget number, but the way they handle their reaction to this not only are you setting up expectations and boundaries around please don't make me eat into the furniture budget.
If you've got 10, 000 for furniture and it's 4, 000 to hire me, don't give me 6, 000 to spend on the furniture. Like I am very firm on my discovery calls. My fee is above and beyond the aforementioned budget that you gave me for furniture. I'm not a piece of furniture. I'm not a sofa. I'm a designer. I want to be paid like your other contractors are paid. So those are my top tips for the two things that Just practice those. Write those down. Pause here. Go back. Write them down.
The two questions. What's most important to you on this project? And what are your expectations of the design fee above and beyond what you've set aside budget wise for this room or renovation? Okay, the last thing I was going to give you is a bit of a mindset shift or really it's more about a tool that you can use around setting boundaries and having tough conversations. I know you guys probably think I just say go to AI for everything.
I promise I do some of my own stuff, like a lot of the things that I do, I just like to outsource the stuff that I could do better. I don't want to sit in front of a blank email and overthink, overanalyze, fret, worry that I'm, the tone isn't going to be picked up correctly, trying to write an email to someone about why I don't want to take their job. That is not an effective use of my time.
Not only am I not getting paid ever because I don't want the job, but I've just spent, an hour and a half writing a let down email to somebody. I'm like, what? An hour and a half? I know my hourly fee. That's not sustainable. I don't want to be doing that. So I'd be going to AI and say, here's the reasons I don't want to take the job. Here's the red flags that I spotted. Please create a firm, but fair email that encapsulates all of these points or that addresses them.
Or sometimes I've even had to use parts in the prompt that will say things like, do not leave any areas open for consideration. Like I'm not saying thanks, maybe possibly in the future. I want to be firm, but fair. And I want the reader to understand this as a no from me, we are not a good fit.
So sometimes I'll be like quite savage and brutal in my feedback to AI, but then I will say, make sure to take all the emotion out of it and present this in a really friendly and professional way alongside my brand tone so that it comes out just like I wrote it. Really relatable, really friendly, wanting to help them. But just being able to very firmly say, This isn't something I can fit into my project planning for the following 18 months.
And therefore I'm not the right designer for you or whatever it is, AI will help you with all of it. The mindset is using or introducing AI as a tool that can handle these sorts of emotional tasks for you. Like you can go to AI and say, Hey chat, I'm sitting in my office, I'm really struggling to be motivated, like just have a bit of a conversation. Some people are using it for therapy and all sorts.
I'm not suggesting that at all, I'm just suggesting That mindset is something that can sometimes be hard for you to self manage or self control. So it can be really helpful to be like, Hey I need a little pep talk before I get going this morning because I'm finding it really hard to get into things. That was just something that came up in the AI workshop over the weekend that people I think were just not aware of or not using AI for, and that is to be quite conversational with her.
And actually, speak to her, like you'd ask advice from a friend and you, if you're catching up for a business lunch and a coffee, you might be like, look, I've got this client. I really don't want the job. I don't know what to say. That's all you need to put into AI and go from there. Everything that she gives you, nobody's putting a gun to your head to use it. It just sometimes helps that blank page feeling and you can move on with other things.
So that's been my one hot take, my one clear solution, my one secret hack and my one mindset shift to get you moving for this week.
My call to action here, I would definitely be saying pick one of those areas, process, niche, positioning, pricing, boundaries, and commit to making one small change or try the AI thing or on your next discovery, try one of those questions and see what it feels like if you make a change for the positive, if you reassess your calendar, if anything happens from this episode that you have loved, I would love to hear from you. Please come and tell me.
If any of you have ever done it, and many of you have, you'll see how incredibly disproportionately excited I get when I get those inbox messages. So please do share them with me. I'll be back with another episode, a solo episode for you on Thursday. And I have had some time off and that always means the downloads dip quite considerably because people really love it when you're consistent and you can, they're expecting me on a Tuesday and a Thursday.
And if you're not click the plus to follow this and it automatically downloads, I may have been off your radar for a bit. So if you're back, if you're binging or if you know someone who needs business and marketing tips in their design business or small business, can I ask you a big favor? Could you share this on your stories? Tag me send it to one friend. Send one particular episode, showcase your favorite episode, or one thing that helped you.
I really need the support to get back on track because taking a week off was the right thing to do for my health, but not exactly the right thing to do for my podcast. So over to you guys. I really appreciate it. And I'll chat to you on Thursday. 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.