TRANSCRIPT
Michelle Lynne
Welcome to design for the creative mind, a podcast for interior designers and creative entrepreneurs to run their business with purpose, efficiency and passion. Because, well, every design is different, the process should remain the same.Prepare yourself for some good conversations with amazing guests, a dash of Jesus and a touch of the woowoo and probably a swear word or two.If you're ready to stop trading your time for money, and enjoy your interior design business, you are in the right place. I'm your host, Michelle Lynne
Michelle Lynne
Hey, y'all welcome back to the design for the creative mind podcast, I was looking at my notes for last week's podcast, talking about like kind of what the mission is for the design for the creative mind platform and our podcast. And just the overall journey of that I've taken from Baby designer to a big girl business owner. And I think I wrapped it up that way, just kind of talking about what's actually possible. And I wanted to dig into that a little bit more with you today. And, you know, let me let me just define baby designer as I use it, I know I took that term from Luann. And just to clarify, for a baby designer, is where we all start, okay, you might have gone to school for interior design, but you're still a baby designer, when you don't have much experience. Okay? The ways of being a baby designer is you're new to the industry, you're new to business, maybe you went to school for design, maybe you didn't. So you're just dipping your foot into this industry. And you could be a baby designer for years, if that's what you choose to do, you can be a baby designer for years, or you can make choices and move yourself up and out of there. But being a baby designer shows up as a you're still charging hourly fees. And that hourly fee is like 100 bucks, you are a people pleaser. And you don't have boundaries. And y'all I'm saying all of this with love. Because this is where like I've been there, I get it. And this is what I see with the students that I work with. And I'll refer to them as bakers, because it's the interior design business bakery is my coaching and mentorship program. So if I say bakers, I'm not talking about somebody who's making cookies, or birthday cakes. Okay, so being a baby designer shows up without you don't have systems or written processes or procedures, you don't have software like to help navigate and run your business. Being a baby designer is you're working weekends and evenings, and you're always glued to your laptop or your phone. You're always available for your clients. Baby designer is a lack of confidence. And sometimes that's because you don't have a lot of experience. But maybe the experience that you've had, has not been very fun. And you don't know how to you don't know how you don't know how to do this. And you know, you don't know what you don't know. So my, my daughter, Genevieve, I kind of introduced her last podcast when I went to go adopt her. She's five years old now. And she's in this phase of why why Mom? Why? Why? So why are we stuck and being a baby designer? Even if you've been in business for a few years? Well, a lot of it is it's a lack of experience in some areas, or a lack of a conscious decision to make a change and uplevel your business, it can be that others are doing it this way. So that's what you're going to do. Maybe you go to lunch with, or no actually, this is what happens. You're in a Facebook forum, right? And you're asking questions, what would you do if blah, blah, blah? And and you get this the handful of answers, but you don't know who the answers are coming from? Are these people who know what the hell they're talking about? Or are they just on Facebook? Because they can't run a business so they're gonna pretend like they're successful and answer your question like they know what the heck they're talking about. Okay, but they're but they're dead ass broke.
Michelle Lynne
So just so sidenote there is when you are asking questions in the free Facebook forums and I have one okay. In fact, gratuitous plug. The interior designers business, Launchpad is my forum. It's my Facebook group. We do a lot of live training there as well. So I would suggest joining that but don't take advice from strangers that don't have a track record. So so that's what I mean like others are doing it this way. So that's the way you do it. So you're getting advice on a free Facebook group, from somebody who calls themselves a designer but they're actually sitting at their computer in an office. And they're actually in a completely different industry. So So that's, that's, I'm not going to beat a dead horse. But you know what I'm saying. So another reason why, you know, we we get stuck as a baby designer is, again, if we don't choose to uplevel and then educate ourselves. But oftentimes, our identity is wrapped into the business. So our boundaries are blurred. And what I mean by that is, it's a small business, and it's us, and it's ours. So sometimes the clients do that for us, because they're like, Well, why can't you give me your discount? And it's like, okay, well, you're asking me, but this is really my business. So it's hard to have those boundaries sometimes. And oh, my gosh, y'all. There's also our mind, like, this is a huge part of it. Our mind is not our friend, let's just put it that way. Our mind is a two, it's an ancient software. It's an ancient software that was created with the intention to protect us, our mind was always looking for what was wrong when we were running from saber toothed tigers, okay, or a tribe coming to you pillage our village and take our women and children. Okay, our mind is always looking for what's wrong. It's looking to say, Okay, well, if I'm running, where's the cliff? So our mind, even today, it's always looking for what's wrong. And so we're thinking these thoughts about what's wrong, like, I'm not good enough. I didn't go to school for this. I didn't I don't run in these circles. Like, I don't have money. I don't understand this. I'm not good enough. I'm not worthy of success. I'm not worthy. Because I didn't go to school for design, even though my designs are freaking beautiful and even prettier than some things I see in magazines. But I'm not worthy of charging more than 100 bucks an hour. I'm not worthy of making a good living off of this. Okay, there's a lot that goes into this. Does any of this sound familiar? I know that I've had these thoughts. I still do. It's like that impostor syndrome still sneaks up. It still speaks up, but I'm here to tell you that. You have thoughts. You are not your thoughts. Okay? They become beliefs. They almost become who we are, but it's not accurate. You have thoughts, you are not your thoughts, you have fingernails, and you are not your fingernails. Okay, so, a lot of times that are just the stories that we grew up with. So I'll tell you, I grew up reading Daniel steel. Okay, I'm gonna date myself. So I'm 50 something years old. 53. So back in the 80s and 90s. I just devouring Daniel steel novels. Okay, they're so cheesy. I look back now. They're so cheesy. My mom actually blames those books for my highfalutin taste as she calls it. She's probably right, because I was never exposed to anything. I wasn't exposed to wealth. We grew up poor. That's a whole different story. Like we grew up. So we really grew up pole. We were so poor, we couldn't afford the are we were pole.
Michelle Lynne
But anyway, so back to Daniel steel. I was reading her books and you know, the heroine, heroine, heroine, the main character. I mean, she's always got like the perfect wardrobe or multiple cars, multiple homes, the perfect children. Now, it's not always how they start. But that's that's how her books end. If I recall correctly, this is my interpretation of what I read, like 30 years ago. Okay, nevermind. So So then she's always got the perfect husband and this job that just jet sets her around, and all these things. So when I was growing up, I, that's what I want. And I can do that I'm worthy of it. I never doubted my worthiness. Okay, thank you, Lord, my parents were fabulous. In regards to the fact that it was not an issue, I was worthy of good things. But as I grew up, and I've done work, you know, like internal work, I realized that there was a long time that I believed that I was worthy of the success that I was having, say, in corporate America, I felt like I was worthy of some of the success that I was having as an entrepreneur here at ml interiors group, but I kept hitting a boundary like a plateau and I was just like, what's going on? So you know, internal work, internal work, journaling, praying, all these things, self help, books, therapy, blah, blah, blah. One of the things that came out of this self exploration was that I didn't believe that I was capable. Okay, so I can myself as a baby designer for a while, not thinking that I was capable, like, I was hiding behind the fact that I thought I was a badass because I had been good at corporate. Okay, so my point is, is that we all have these stories. Whatever it is, mine came from my dad. Okay, love you, Daddy, love you to pieces. And my dad is a good man. But his charming joking manners was hey, Michelle, you can't do that. You're a girl. I mean, what I look back now. And I'm like, you can't What do you mean, I can do all of that. In fact, you'll girls, you know this. We do all of that backwards and in high heels. Right? So So these stories that we've been told, they get into our system, and they become our beliefs. We have money stories, we have worthiness stories, we have capable stories, we have all sorts of stories. What is yours? Okay, this shows up. So when you're in business, and because this is a small business, and it's so personal, and so many of us have our names on our businesses, that they intermingle. Okay, the key to having a successful sustainable business is to step back and run it like a business. And what I mean by that is, when when I knew that I had to step into the role of CEO and not just, you know, decorator Michelle, cute little home staging, Michelle. Michelle's got a little side hustle going on. I literally, so I literally had to step out of Michelle, and step into Michelle Lynn. Okay. Lynne is my middle name. And y'all know that when mom, when mom got serious, she used your middle name. She was like Michelle Lynn, Oh, Mom, I'm taking it serious.
Michelle Lynne
So ,I literally would take that hat, a mental hat and step into Michelle Lynn, when I went to work, because Michelle was kind of small. Michelle was kind of not so confident Michelle had a lack of experience. Michelle's a people pleaser. Okay, Michelle didn't have systems or processes or procedures. Remember that story from last last week, I think it was last week, where I talked about coming home and falling into the floor in a puddle of tears because I was just trying to muscle my way through it. I've always and I don't say this in a braggy way. But I've always been smarter than the average bear. So I thought I could just wing it, I thought I could muscle my way through. And I couldn't. So stepping into Michelle Lynn. And not necessarily being Michelle is how I personally had to make that transition.
Michelle Lynne
Imagine trying to bake a cake without a recipe. You kind of know what the ingredients are. But you don't know how to put it all together. After lots of hard work and trying different combinations, all you are left with is a sticky situation and a stomachache behave. Running an interior design business can feel exactly that same way. That is why I created the interior design business bakery. This is a program that teaches you how to bake your interior design business cake and eat it too. If you don't want to figure out the hard way, and you want guidance to follow a recipe that has already been vetted. Someone that has already been there and done it and will help you do it too. Then check out the year long mentorship and coaching program, the interior design business bakery. If your interior design business revenue is below 300,000. Or if you're struggling to make a profit and keep your sanity, this is the only program for you. You can find that information at designed for the creative mind.com forward slash business dash bakery. Check it out. You won't regret it. So you transition from this baby designer mentality into a big girl business owner. And what a big girl business owner what does this look like? Okay, that doesn't mean like everybody has a different version of success or a different vision of success. So as we're talking today, or as we're talking on the podcast, my version of success is not going to be your version of success. Your vision of success is not going to be somebody else's vision of success. Okay, Vision version. They're all interchangeable. What does it look like for you whether you want to, you know, have a seven figure multi seven figure design business or multi six figure design business that's moving towards is your big girl business? Okay, multi six could be $250,000 in revenue, and in the whole scheme of things, that's not a lot when you have projects and you're navigating them well, or you just you have projects that are the right project. So, so a big girl business, it's not necessarily measured by money. So let's just clarify that. So I'm talking about multi six multi seven figures, but it's not clarified by money. I was talking to an individual out of Florida a month or so ago. And y'all she was doing like close to a million dollars. Okay. But she didn't have systems and processes in place. She's in Florida. No, I think she was in Virginia. But I guess that's neither here nor there is it? So anyway, I was talking, I was talking to somebody the other day, she had hit seven figures in her revenue, but she didn't have systems and processes. So she was running her booty off. Okay, her team was running her their booty off, not necessarily knowing what to do. Okay. So she could technically we could technically say she had a big girl business. But a bigger business is also going to mean that you can sleep at night knowing that you have cashflow. You can sleep at night, knowing that you have profit, you might have a seven figure business. But if you're not making shizzle for money, then it's not really sustainable. And what I mean by that is, just because you have a large revenue, you need to have margin. That margin needs to be what you put back into the business, what you take home, what you save, it's the profit. Okay, so big girl businesses have simple and repeatable processes. And I say simple, because so often, we just try to make things difficult. Think of think about that spin. Like what was the last time you were going to start to just like read restart your workout regimen. Okay? But do we do we think, Okay, well, I need to go buy this, and I need to go buy that. And then I need to sign up for this. And then I need to do this with my diet. And I need bla bla bla bla bla bla bla, okay. And it's getting complicated when really, you just need to get your happy ass out of the house and walk and just get started. Put on your tennis shoes, they don't have to be brand new tennis shoes to start your workout regimen. Okay, so so we complicate things. So a process should be simple and elegant. It should be written down. Okay, standard operating procedures. This is how we do this, this is how we do that. So if somebody comes in that you're training them, these details are written down, and you can hand them your instructions, and they can run with it. And then when you find a better way to do it, you change those processes. But every project is different, but the process should be the same. So while the design process should be the same, the project process should be the same. What about how you answer the phone? What about the format that you make appointments in? What about your business colors? Okay, just this little things, your business fonts? Are they the same everywhere. Now, these this minutiae is something you can get lost in. So you have to prioritize the big details first, like in all reality, the fonts that you have on your website. And then on your design presentations, if they don't match, nobody's going to notice. But they will notice if they do match, because things will be the continuities there. But is it more important to have your fonts consistent across the board than it is to have your client onboarding? Know Your Client Onboarding, needs to be consistent, because if you don't have clients that you've on boarded, they're never gonna see your design presentation and see that your fonts are the same as on your website. So don't get lost in the minutia. Don't let this overwhelm you just know that these are the things that you're working towards. It's going to be those standard operating procedures. It's going to be a bigger business, it's going to be knowing who your client is, and marketing to them. If you're trying to market to everybody and their dog, your message is getting watered down. You need to be narrowing it down and talking to your target market. Because if you are narrowing it down, and you're talking to the people that you want to work with, if there's I'm just making this up, if there's 25 people reading your Instagram post, and if you don't know who you're talking to the maybe maybe one of them could become a client. But think about this. If you have narrowed it down and you know who you're talking to, and maybe it is let's just say it's bachelors
Michelle Lynne
Oh , Hey, let's just say it's bachelors that you want to help them create a space that feels like home. If you're talking to bachelors, and that's who your message general is, then more than likely, over half of your audience will become that target market. So then you have over half of those 25 people who could potentially be your client. Does that make sense? It's hard to explain when I can't, when I'm trying to use my hands, and you guys can't see my hands. But, but the point is, is that you can't be all things to all people. Okay? So knowing who your client is, and marketing to them is part of a big girl business, consistency, your consistency, discipline, a discipline is doing things that you don't want to do in order to get what you want to get. Okay? Or in order to be who you want to be. Consistency is showing up regularly. Okay, showing up on social media regularly, how many times we all posting, you should be posting at least three times a week consistency with your messaging. So it goes back to who were you talking to you talking to the bachelors or the soccer moms consistency, showing up to your team consistently? Are you you know, cranky and moody some days and superduper happy and excitable other days, like be consistent with who you show up as is your client treatment? Consistent? What I mean by that is, if if you were to receive a call from one person, and you talk to them, and you're walking through your process, and your estimated pricing, like how you navigate things, and you can ballpark, you know, an average room caught an average room design fee is blah, blah, blah. Okay, so that's one thing. And then let's just say their neighbor coincidentally calls the next day and gets a completely different experience. And let's say you're quoting him two different prices, because you're just making it up off the top of your head, depending on your mood, and your bank account. And then they talk to each other. And one says, oh, yeah, she quoted X number of dollars, blah, blah, blah, for a potential room. And then the other ones like, oh, my gosh, she quoted me twice as much really, really, like just just pretend they were talking like, is that consistency there? Does everybody have the same experience once they have signed on with you? Is their experience the same? bigger businesses, difficult decisions and difficult conversations? Y'all I just experienced this one, like straight between the eyes. Last month, I had two team members who went and started their own business, interior design business. Unbeknownst to me, on my time, very key employees, one had been with me for eight years difficult decision. Sorry, babe, you're out. difficult conversation, broke my freaking heart, and then it pissed me off. So you have to have these difficult decisions, you have to have these difficult conversations. And I'm not saying that you're going to be right out of the gate and having to, you know, part ways with people. But you can have a difficult conversation with a client along the lines of, you know, I know, that's what you want. But that's way out of your budget, or just having a difficult conversation of saying that. I know that you're having a graduation party in May, but your kitchens not going to be finished by then. Because the appliances are backordered. Okay, that's a difficult conversation too difficult decisions. Maybe you don't get that studio space that you still want right now. Because your cash flow or your pipeline is not where it needs to be. Okay, so those are difficult decisions. A difficult decision could be that, oh, my gosh, I'm making that decision to get the studio so difficult is both, you know, positive or negative? Because really, that's just kind of the perception but difficult decisions. Okay, you know, what else a big girl businesses, that what it looks like, it looks like you have weekends off, okay? Now, every so often, yes, there are times that you work a weekend. It happens. I mean, this is a small business, but you don't have that obligation that you have to work weekends in order to make ends meet because your pricing structure is consistent and profitable. Okay, you have evenings with your loved ones, software to navigate your business efficiently and effectively. But down to the penny, or at least the nickel. Okay. So big girl businesses are not you. You are not your business. You are the CEO of your business. And once you change your mindset, that yes, you might be the designer, and you're the marketer and you're in the salesperson and you are hopefully you're not the accountant, please, please please babe, go outsource that. Okay, it'll pay for itself. Do everything else to begin with. Okay, that's fine. But you are not your business. My business started as michellin interior. Well, actually it started as by Michelle Lynn, I think you might did I tell that story last week, I might have told that story last week on the last podcast last episode. But if your business is, you know, Susie's interiors, ml and michellin interiors group, like whatever that looks like, separate yourself from it. When a client asks you for part of your trade pricing, they're gonna call it a discount, it's not a discount, Betty, it's my trade pricing. This is a perk of my business where I turn around and I have a revenue stream. Or if they ask you, can you lower your price? Okay, you are not Suzy of Suzy interiors. You are not Michelle of michellin interiors group. Okay, you were the CEO, can you lower your price that was a little more than I was expecting is what they asked you, you can say? Absolutely. What room would you like to leave off?
Michelle Lynne
Don't say it that tone of voice that was very sarcastic. That would not be a big girl thing to do. But my point is, is that this season of the podcast, we're going to be talking about, like what's actually possible? How do you get from a baby designer to a big girl business? I'm going to be sharing a lot of those ingredients. That's what we're gonna be talking about this season. So in the meantime, take a look at the interior designers business Launchpad on Facebook. Okay. Yes, I know, it's one of those free Facebook forums. But I go live there on a regular basis. We have workshops in there, and so forth. So in addition to the podcast, I just love serving this industry. And thanks for listening. Thanks for listening to the design for the creative mind, podcast. For more resources, head on over to my Instagram have the same name designed for the creative mind, and the website designed for the creative mind.com. So I'll catch you on the next episode.
Michelle Lynne
Hey, y'all, if you love the show and find it useful, I would really appreciate it if you would share with your friends and followers. And if you like what you're hearing, want to put a face with a name and get even more business advice. Then join me in my Facebook group, the interior designers business launch pack. Yeah, I know it's Facebook, but just come on in for the training and then leave without scrolling your feet. It's fine. I promise you'll enjoy it. And finally, I hear it's good for business to get ratings on your podcast. So please drop yours on whatever platform you use to listen to this. We're all about community over competition. So let's work on elevating our industry, one designer at a time. See you next time.
