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.
On this week's episode, I am going to talk to you about three little things that I think we tell ourselves or three fears that we let get the better of us in the early days that we really don't need to. So this is my 99th episode of Designing Success. And I was going to bring to you some lessons that I've learned in almost 100 episodes.
And as I started to reflect on them and write them down, they were things like not to be afraid of the T. So initially I was quite intimidated by the idea of microphones and audio editing and that entire world. And some of the other things that I noticed were things that I've learned just do it. Don't wait for permission.
As I was writing all of those pearls of wisdom down, I thought, you know what, I'm just going to boil this down to the three things that I see the most often The framework q and a calls and the support calls and even private coaching that are universally known. I've seen them over and over, and they're things that I told myself in the first year or second year.
And I think everybody's saying them or thinking them in their minds, and they are really great to hear someone's perspective of just going, You know what? You don't have to let that thought control you, and you don't have to listen to it either. You can do things a different way. Without further ado, let's get into it. The first one I want to talk about is around niching down and, choosing a niche for your business and actually actively going out and marketing that way.
It is a little bit terrifying. When we niche down, we talk directly to the people that we want to serve. And in doing so, sure, a few people might find your page and think, eh, I don't really love that modern organic aesthetic. I would much prefer something bright and bold or whatnot. So yes, they might bounce off your profile or off your website and over to someone who is better served to look after them and to capture them.
But that is a good thing because the people who wanted a modern organic aesthetic are going to land on that bright, bold website and go, meh, this isn't really Speaking my language, I need to find someone who is. So showcasing what you love to do and what you want to do more of is only going to encourage more and more of those clients.
When we niche we then are able to get busier and justify an increase in pricing and our experience and relationships with individual suppliers that are inside of that niche and all of that sort of starts to compound and we get better and better at what we're doing. We just build deeper expertise and we just become the known go to designer in a particular area. And that doesn't have to be a single style or aesthetic. It could be that you have a focus on sustainability.
It could be that you have a focus on inclusivity in interior design. There are a lot of different ways to niche your business and There are even some ways that you can niche by locality. There's, it looks different for different people and I've worked up lots of different ways. But when we're afraid of missing out on potential projects that are outside of the niche, it holds us and keeps us small. And it means that you start just losing your message and talking to everybody.
And the saying goes, if you talk to everybody, you speak to nobody. And it's so true. And I think in the early stages we can be really uncertain about it. What it would look like if I did niche? What if I pick the wrong one or concerns about like long term sustainability of interest and projects? Will there be enough clients?
There are always enough clients the more and more you get into your niche and you find your Jam, and you are able to talk about that the more people will Discover you, but also discover what you stand for and what type of transformation you are offering to them. Because when you're just showcasing, I do a bit of this, bit of that. I've done this waiting room over here for a play therapist. I've done this hairdressing salon, but I've also done the front room for a Hamptons house.
And then two weeks ago, I did the theater and rumpus room for a mid century modern. It's just a lot of noise and people just can't see themselves in your transformation, your content or your delivery. So they're suddenly like, look, you might not be for me and that's quite fine. And if they were to land on your page, and for example, you specialized in mid century modern or mixing vintage and thrifted items, they would see that straight away and go, okay, yeah I'm liking this. I'll stick around.
I'll keep investigating and see where this goes. Now, it's not always possible to go from, I've just been talking to everybody to boom, targeted niche. I would encourage you to just get started with a gradual transition. So looking at some strategies that could showcase 50 percent of my content is going to start with this niche specific projects, focus, mood boards, deliverables are only ever going to be shown in this style aesthetic that I want to move into the direction of.
Or if, like I was talking before, you choose to niche into something that focuses on things like sustainability, then 50 percent of my stories going forward have to be about materials, manufacturers, And other authoritative content that showcases your learning, upskilling, or knowledge around sustainable materials. And then people start to get a real sense of what it is you're trying to niche into. I just want to be very clear, especially when I'm addressing people's concerns and worries.
If you were to niche down, for example, into let's just say like minimalist or Japan y look and an eclectic maximalist project, You don't actually have to turn it down if you don't want to. You could take that project. You could take the deposit. You could be making profit from that. Practicing your skills on that. And, In order to not dilute your brand, you just wouldn't splash that finished project across everything. I think we're very literal when it comes to, Oh, I'm niching down.
I can't do this. I can't do that. It's your business. There are no rules. You can say yes to anything that excites you, that lights you up. That's going to make you feel like, Oh my God. Yes. They want to work with me in the beginning. I'm like, try everything. You might find your niche accidentally because you worked with something you weren't expecting. But the conversation that I wanted to have today was specifically around concerns that if you niche, you're going to miss out on projects.
And I just simply don't think that's true. I think you're going to get better, more aligned projects that people are going to know who you're for, what you're about. You're going to get more and more of those people. And you still have the ability to say yes to anything else that comes across your desk. All right, let's get into the second fear that I see all the time. That is.
Not wanting to price according to your value or price yourself where you think you should be pricing because you're worried about missing out on the opportunity. Put a finger down if you've ever spoken to someone on the discovery call, gotten really excited and then they've said, no problem, send the quote through and I'll run it past my manager or whatever and we'll see how it goes.
Or You've got a really big opportunity to pitch for a developer or a builder or someone and you think, Oh gosh, I want to keep this affordable so that they use me and I don't miss the opportunity. But that is absolutely not the angle you want to be approaching any fee proposals with because it's it works against you. It's almost like that thing, that psychology of desperation in sales.
It's not great to, inappropriately price your scope of work in order to win the work, it's just going to do you no favors in the long run. Not only are you racing to the bottom against maybe someone else's pitch for the work and then you make theirs look really expensive, but people would doubt why it's so heavily different to what the other designer was quoting in the first place. Maybe the work isn't up to scratch. Maybe you don't use good enough suppliers. You're not as experienced.
You don't know what you're doing. It can actually work against you and actually look like. You're unsure of the value that you deliver. I feel like when we're worried about losing the opportunity, you can over explain things, you do this amazing sort of scope of work and fee proposal, and you're effectively communicating all of the value and listing everything out. And then you're undercharging or you're charging such a almost comical round number at the end to do all of that work.
I want you to look down on that and think about before you were an interior designer. Thoughts around how much it cost to work with an interior designer, specifically on a really large job? So if you're thinking about one of these jobs that I have in my mind that I'm thinking, which is definitely a five figure proposal, Even when you're undervaluing, what would be your assumption that it would cost to work with the designer?
Cause I guarantee you, the person who reached out with you has an assumption that it costs in and around what it costs in the event that you put the fee proposal together and your potential client comes back to you and says, Oh my God, we were not expecting that. That's way beyond our budget. La la La chances are there is no budget for design services. in that they obviously are thinking that it costs like 300 to do a 25, 000 job or project.
You will get to know that if people are horrified or if they question it like really full on, they are generally, Just have no clue and are not people who would value the service or pay for the service. So that's where our discovery call comes into play and really looking for those red flags and vetting those and asking really great questions like, what are your design service expectations above and beyond the budget that you have for this project?
Have you set aside and have you set aside a reasonable amount of money to work on a project this large, the timeline should take between three and nine months of my time, just conversations like that. It can be a really great idea to challenge these ideas in your networks as well. When you're out for dinner with friends, talk about the industry as a whole and challenge those ideas around what they see on social media, what they think it costs.
Ask them, what would you pay for a designer to come and help you do your whole open plan area? What would it look like if you, if they chose the furniture for you, what would you expect to pay? If they were choosing the finishes on a new build, what would you expect to pay? And ask your friends, you'd be surprised at their answers.
And sometimes that really helps give you the confidence to be like, Oh, okay they are actually expecting to pay more than 10, 000 versus you in your mind, you might've thought. They'd probably say, I don't know, 300. So it's just getting, we make a lot of assumptions, especially in the beginning, and we don't do enough data collection and question asking. There's so many people in your network right now between, school pickup to the next catch up winery date with the girlfriends.
Like just ask the question, Hey, I'm not looking for clients. I'm not talking about me specifically, but if you engage an interior designer for a large project, what sort of ballpark. Would you expect to pay? And then ask other things like, okay, you work for X, if your office was doing a refit and you got a designer in, what do you think the bosses would be expecting to pay? Just getting some gouging, what the opinions and ideas are out there.
And education is a big thing that we can do through social media and other things, which is to consistently show people how much money they could save or what interior designers do. I shared a post with the frameworkers today, which I absolutely loved. I would credit her if I can find her, and you can all go and have a look. She is at the pre start studio.
And she did a post that said, I found 21 mistakes in 10 minutes on this floor plan, total 20 K. And then each slide is a screenshot of the client's floor plan and the mistakes that she found. And it is a brilliant way to showcase authority. She knows what she's doing to showcase the value in interior design. This is why we would avoid costly mistakes and save money and feel confident. This is why we hired her. I just thought it was brilliant.
So I shared it with all the girls and I'm sharing it with you. A shout out to the pre start studio because I just think it was a really Great example that was outside of the box and it's not the messaging that we constantly see, which is why work with an interior designer or how to work with me or what I do, what I'm about. This is showcasing from the perspective of the potential buyer, what are you going to get? And she also even talked to their timelines and they're busy professionals.
They don't have time. She said in under 10 minutes, I found. 10 I don't have it up on my screen anymore. Where she says, I found 21 mistakes in under 10 minutes on this floor plan. So she's immediately, and you save over 20, 000. So it's just it's a great deal. The example of a brilliant post, a brilliant perspective and way to showcase things.
So just to loop back on the idea of being worried that you will miss an opportunity if you price how you think it should be priced, we have to work on overcoming that and holding our nerve and actually sending out the scope of work that you want to work on. I say it over and over, but if you send something out and they say, yes, and then.
Work with them for the next six, 12 months, maybe 24 months and your prices go up and you really resent them because you're like, Oh, you barely paid anything for this whole renovation. La. It's so disappointing for them as well because you build this resentment based on. A cost and a pricing that you never gave them an opportunity to pay you fairly because you didn't quote it that way. And things do change.
And whenever you're sending out a big scope of work, you need to be thinking about will I stand by this pricing and feel like I'm being paid fairly and feel good about this midway through this timeline of this project or near the end, et cetera. That is the sort of lens or test you want to be putting yourself through right at the end to be like, it's all well and good to.
heavily underpriced and win the work, if they're serious about having a designer come in and they've already approached you and they've clearly seen, a little bit of what you do, or they've had a discovery call, they've had a bit of rapport with you, you're, four fifths of the way to the end line already. And it's just about holding your nerve, presenting the right pricing in that last little part. And I feel like everybody gets that last little part.
And that's where Everything just comes undone because they panic. And I've seen it over and over. I've seen girls post their fees and their scope of work, and we've worked through them and we're really happy with them. And then I've reached out and said, did you send it off? And they went, yeah, I just adjusted the pricing slightly. I gave them a 3, 000 discount just so that it looked better. Like it was under 15, 000 and it's literally for nothing.
I can't tell you how many times I'm like, what? Um, But I also get it and I've been there and so I'm not throwing any shade. I'm just saying there's a smarter way, a better way. And we really need to be aware and self reflect on these things so that you can be like, Oh, okay. How will I feel about this halfway through the project? Because we all know it. If you've had any clients before, the ones that you haven't. Priced correctly at the beginning have felt really painful.
You haven't enjoyed them. You have gotten to a point where you're like, I cannot wait till this is over. And that's not the point of designing your own success.
Okay, the last one was, I guess it linked back to at the beginning when I was reflecting on the podcast and I had a lot of fears around the way my voice sounded, whether I could conduct an interview, whether I would know how to do that or would my would my competitors listen in and make fun of me or would it, there's a lot of fear that comes into it.
Just because somebody looks brave on Instagram doesn't mean everything they do isn't, they don't have similar sort of thought patterns as you do when you're doing things. When I was thinking about the fact that I wish that I had just done it because I probably procrastinated maybe, I don't know, 12 months longer than I should have, just feeling like I needed to learn the technology. I needed to, build a bit more authority as a mentor.
I felt like I had been running a really successful business, but it's not like potential clients as design clients that would be listening. It would be other designers. And I just wanted to get a feel for all of that, but a lot of it was excuses too. And I could have just started like I did with my business and other things, but And it would have gone a lot better.
So this third and last fear is around judgment on social media and when friends and family can be critical of you or they can see you doing your thing. And the thing is, everything that you do is, they are not your ideal client. It's actually not aimed at them. And so it never really lands. So they can make comments about it all the time. Oh, I saw you doing a giveaway or whatever, or I saw you doing, you're doing really well in your little business. Like how's the business.
And they're asking you stuff at family get togethers. And it's quite horrifying. And I feel like sometimes, I used to see your story views and I'd see the kinder moms had looked at my stories or someone from school or something had seen my stories. I knew I would see them at three 15 and I'd panic. And I think, Oh my gosh, she's not going to think I'm a real interior designer. And it just brings up a lot of sort of fears, but the thing is, nobody's looking except for you.
Certainly not as hard as you are at your content. Most people are just scrolling past or their stories were just on while they went to the toilet and the kid was watching the iPad. And then they came back and it had gone through all your stories, but they never actually watched it. They're not paying attention. And if you're worried about them, you can either mute them or block them. So they don't. I tell every Frameworker, just cut off your family. They're not buying from you.
They're not potential clients. They're skewing the algorithm. They're giving you weird engagement results because they're either liking everything that you do, which tells the algorithm to send your content to more and more people like Aunty Barbara, or, They're not liking anything, which is really common, right? How many friends and family are you like? Why are you lurking here anyway? You don't like, share, save, or do anything to actually support my small business. So what is the point?
If they know you're a designer, if they want help, I promise you, they will find you. They ask you in person or they text you because they're your friend. They don't need social media to get in contact with you. And if they're really desperate, they could probably find your website, but I would just get them off that because it is. Constantly in the back of your head, feeding that fear trigger that I'm going to look stupid if I talk on here, who am I to say this? You don't need that.
You need to, we know we need to humanize our brands and be really authentic. It is so hard to be visible, to be authentic and to Or almost even to practice your sales as well. You need to tell people things like 11 times before they are aware of your service or that you can start to sell to them. It doesn't feel normal to sell to family and friends. So if we just eliminate them out of that follower group, you're going to find you feel more confident.
You're more likely to share like a new product or a new service or a new September only offer, things like that. You'll start to be able to practice them more. And I promise nothing bad will happen. And if anyone asks, and people have asked me straight up, like my husband's aunties or something have said, Oh, I used to, I was really enjoying your content and now you've, I can't see you anymore. Like they've called me out on it. And I was like, yep, I've done a family block.
I've got a lot of things going on. I'm in a launch period promotional. It's not aligned with who I am when I'm, you know, It's not the same as somebody connecting and following you on social media and you blocking them, muting them or whatnot on your personal page. That is another thing that is that I alluded to in this. Once you put a podcast out, you can't see who listens to that and what their intent for listening to it is.
You do have to learn to relinquish quite a bit of control and just hope that it's landing where you want it to land. This entire podcast is about impact. It's about helping people who perhaps don't have the budget just yet to work with me on a private one on one basis, or they're not sure about group coaching, or they're not sure about the framework. And so they're just trying to. piece together bits and pieces of advice and practical, actionable tips wherever they can.
And that is all I try to bring to you on a week by week. I hope that you're enjoying it. I'd love for you to let me know. You can text me in the link at the top of the show notes or always drop over to at oleander underscore and underscore Finch. Leave me a review. I would absolutely love that. I love seeing that this does actually connect and do what I intend it to do. Please join me on Thursday. I have a special episode planned.
It is my 100th episode of Designing Success, which I cannot believe. I thought when I started, Oh, look, I'll I'll do one season and then I'll take a year, Six months off and then I'll do another season and it's just rolled in and been quite consecutive. It's twice a week. It's, that might change. I don't know, but at this stage, it's twice a week. It's Tuesdays with me and Thursdays with a guest.
This Thursday, however, for the 100th celebration, I have been interviewed by By my students, so by the frameworkers. So I don't know what questions they're going to ask me. They're actually going to ask them to me tomorrow and then I'll edit it and share it with you on Thursday.
I'm a little bit nervous sitting on the other side and being interviewed, but I'm really excited to be able to share I guess a little bit more about me and hear more from the other side where I'm not asking the questions. So if you want to hear me squirm, tune in on Thursday and I'll chat to you then. Okay. 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. This is the um, uh, Um, Uh, transcript.