Michelle Lynne 0:02
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 Lynn. Well, hello, welcome back, everybody. Welcome to the podcast designed for the creative mind. I am your host, Michelle Lynn. And I am so happy you're here today because I have a gentleman by the name of Ben Rutledge. Ben is a brand strategist, a designer and a marketer, as well as a co founder of mighty fine agency. Ben has a dual background in marketing and psychology. And he's passionate about helping small businesses succeed by telling the right story to the right audience. So modern marketing can feel overwhelming. And you can waste a ton of time and a ton of money to just get lost in the noise. I think we all know this. But that's what Ben does. He helps tell the right story to the right audience and helps your business build trust stand out and ultimately grow. So Ben, welcome to the podcast. Oh, my gosh, I'm so excited.
Ben Rutledge 1:32
Yeah, I'm happy to be here. Thank you so much for having me. Oh, absolutely.
Michelle Lynne 1:35
It is my pleasure. And I think that your message is just really going to help a lot of people in our audience, because like you said, it's so easy to just get lost in all of the noise. And I can speak from experience. I tried to be all the things everywhere. So let's just start from the beginning. And we've had some guests that talks about branding and marketing and stuff like that you pull things together nicely, but let's start with what is a brand? Why is why does it get so confusing?
Ben Rutledge 2:10
Yeah, that's a great question. So it's funny how something we're all so familiar with can be kind of hard to define, right? Everybody almost intuitively knows what a brand is. But if you have to like put it in a box or put a label on it, it can be tough. We interact with hundreds of brands every day, we see that we're bombarded with brand messaging. So like what, and I've been doing this a little while now. And I've heard so many different definitions, I think over my marketing career and is working as a brand strategist, everything from a lot of people's perception is it's they think of the brand assets like a logo or a font or style of colors, the you know, they go to kind of a collection of parts of the brand. And although those are parts, or they'll go a little more ethereal, like it's a feeling, or it's an impression. And I do think those are all part of a brand. But I think anymore, the best definition I've heard of a brand is it's just a relationship. Like that's what a brand is. It's that thing that lives in between you and your audience of your customers. And you control part of it, but it's also how they perceive you, which we all know, can't fully be controlled. Which is also why I think it's so much more important to be clear about the things you can control. Because there's always going to be some things on their side of how they perceive it. But it's that thing that lives in the middle of it takes care and it takes all the things relationship takes trust, communication, clarity, boundaries, you know,
Michelle Lynne 3:39
so I think that's a completely new perspective.
Ben Rutledge 3:42
Yeah, I mean, it's I can't, it's the best I've come up with to this point.
Michelle Lynne 3:46
So that's, that's really unique, because as a relationship, like you said, it takes communication, it takes boundaries, it takes things to be well thought through to determine how you're going to say something to the other person's going to hear it. So a little bit of editing, I can say that as a married woman, important did not say everything and think. So what would you say, as a, as a small business owner or as an individual? How, what's the best way to to get that brand out there? How do you clarify it? So if I have mL interiors group, what's the best way to clarify it?
Ben Rutledge 4:25
Sure. Another great question.
Speaker 1 4:27
What is the best way to clarify I think, and this is, you know, full full credit to Donald Miller. If
Ben Rutledge 4:32
you guys aren't familiar with Donald Miller, check out his building a story brand I think he does a great job with with a lot of this.
Michelle Lynne 4:39
I totally agree. I love that book. And that's Yeah, and I love listening to him read the book. So I always listen to his books on audible. And for whatever reason, his voice is just so soothing. And then I also have the hardcopy so I can make notes
Ben Rutledge 4:54
Yeah, he's got a voice for audiobooks for sure. Yeah, not all also. Yeah, groundwork. Yeah.
Michelle Lynne 4:59
I know that's true. But he can do both. So coming back to story brand, I interrupted you.
Ben Rutledge 5:06
No, you're fine. So I think, you know, as I think story, to sum it up is the best way to clarify a brand. And the reason is like, as humans, we just resonate with certain stories and our lives, we think of them in stories we, what's the first thing speaking of relationships, when you meet a couple, one of the first questions you ask is, How did you meet? You want to hear the story? If they're in pain? How did he propose? Like, we care about the stories behind relationships? And I think the stories we tell ourselves about relationships, they really are how we define them. I mean, as humans, it's how we define those things, we our memories, or stories, or our dreams or stories we're playing out in our heads, you know, story is so central to the human experience, I think, and sometimes our stories are false. Yes, they are. Yes, they can.
Michelle Lynne 5:53
You're telling ourselves stories? Yeah. So finding that narrative about our business is we need to stand back and look at who do we want to be? And what do we want to convey? I would imagine.
Ben Rutledge 6:05
Absolutely, absolutely.
Michelle Lynne 6:08
So what is an example of, of a story in relation to a brand, whether it's maybe it's your own? Mighty fine agency? What is your story? Yeah.
Ben Rutledge 6:17
So our story was kind of birthed out of really our own experience. You know, I'm a marketing guy, but it can still be overwhelming. There's so many tools, there's so many, you know, things that last year, were was a cutting edge tool. Now there's a new AI tool that does the same thing. Is it going to be good? Is it so there's you're just constantly being inundated with all of this stuff? And overwhelming to us?
Michelle Lynne 6:41
Is it harder for you to do your own messaging than it is to do a client? No, I'll tell you, my audience, the interior designers can appreciate that, because it's harder to do our own darn house than it is to do a client. So it's good to hear that that crosses over and districts
Ben Rutledge 6:58
salutely One of the things I remember when I was going through Donald Miller's kind of story, brand training was just the value of the story brand community and having other guides to do your story of brand is so hard to get perspective on yourself. It's just so hard. Yes. And that goes for so many areas of life. But yeah, so
Michelle Lynne 7:19
audience, if you hear that, when you're struggling trying to find your branding, and you find your message and your story, it's natural to feel overwhelmed, because it is also familiar to us. So your story from Mighty Fine. How did you come about that? And I mean, I know how you came about it just because you probably went through all the exercises that we're talking about that? Yeah.
Ben Rutledge 7:42
Yeah, for us, it was like, you know, you think about a story. And you know, Donald Miller story brand. It's kind of based around a common framework called the hero's journey. And we're all familiar with the hero's journey, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, Hate to break it to people and want to start, you know, fights in the forum. But they're basically the same story you have this hero gets a call to Destiny meets a villain than meets a wise guide. Whether it's Gandalf or Dumbledore, Yoda.
Michelle Lynne 8:10
That's the same for story. Yeah, Star Wars.
Ben Rutledge 8:13
So you take the strip it down to the bones, it's kind of the same story. And so for us, it was, you know, what are we experiencing? If we're experiencing this as marketing people, I know small business owners are experiencing these same things. We're having trouble cutting through the noise, we're having trouble sorting through what tools to use, what strategies to use. And what we found was kind of digging through that like, things like story, things like human what humans resonate with doesn't really change. What tools you use can change. And that's going to vary from year to year, even sometimes new stuff comes out and updates come. But what resonates with people doesn't. And so for us, it was, you know, people are having this problem. How do we then transition from this is our problem and our story? How do we kind of transition over to the guide role, and help others along that same journey? So, you know, if I find that in this story, I'm the, you know, I'm the first one not the villain, hopefully not the villain, villain, hopefully enough self awareness. It's not. But if I'm experiencing this myself, and I wish there was somebody that to help us with this, then if I can figure out how to help somebody else, then that kind of moves me to a different role in the story to help others. Yeah, so that's kind of how we kind of came across ours was, through our own experience, and then wanting to then help other people cut through some of the same noise as we solve these business problems for ourselves, not clients, and this is ongoing for us as well.
Michelle Lynne 9:46
So how how do you create that internal clarity? Or how do you help create internal clarity for for small business? Yeah,
Ben Rutledge 9:56
so one of the first things we do is another great quote origin in our discovery process is figured out who is the hero in their story? Like, who is their hero? Because everybody's different every, you know, every designer is going to focus on a different clientele potentially. Right? Who is in their geographic area? Or maybe they travel like it, it can vary. And so who are they wanting to focus on? And that's like, You got to start with the hero of the story. Okay,
Michelle Lynne 10:24
so hero could also be kind of synonymous with your ideal client profile.
Ben Rutledge 10:31
Absolutely.
Michelle Lynne 10:32
Okay. Okay, perfect. Yeah. So dialing in on that is going to give you some clarity. So you kind of know who you're talking to.
Ben Rutledge 10:42
Okay, usually like, depending on where someone you know, how much how far they are into the business how experienced they are, I have a lot of customers under their belt, then I finally tend to be able to define their ideal customers, somewhat better, because they've had experience with customers they didn't like, and they did. And sometimes defining what it is about the ones you didn't like, and then looking at the opposites can be as helpful or more helpful than the ones you that were easy to work with, or you enjoyed.
Michelle Lynne 11:11
Dude, it's like dating. Yeah, I'm gonna avoid that dude, again. Yes, very much. So. Yeah, absolutely. So, in your experience, what would you say has been some of the most common problems that you've seen small businesses, trying to? What are we doing wrong? Some of the biggest things, sure,
Ben Rutledge 11:33
obviously, that that is a little bit case by case. But the most one of the most common problems I see is in when you know, the parts of the story, what a lot of small business owners, unintentionally, sometimes guided by marketing people that even mean well, they are operating on, maybe just not the best information, but they will position themselves as the hero instead of as the wise guide in the story. And so, so what will happen is a marketing person will come in and because the small business owner is that marketing person's hero in their story, right, that's customer them up like the hero, instead of us working together to find out who the hero in their story is, and their ideal customer, and create something with them. That isn't, I want it to resonate with my clients, right this way, as I work with, I want them to be happy with they're proud of their branding, happy with their websites, all of that stuff. But more importantly, I want it to resonate with their ideal customers. So that makes
Michelle Lynne 12:41
perfect sense. Because we're so we're so in the trenches, and our business, because it's our business feels personal. And I'll tell you a lot of people that I talk to it, we oftentimes, our business is part of our identity. Yeah. And therefore being in that hero seat is almost natural. But that makes perfect sense. Because we're not, I'm not marketing to myself. I'm marketing to the hero. And that makes perfect sense. Because there's so many times that as I'm talking to designers just all over the country, they say, Well, I wouldn't do that. And my response to them, along with what you're saying is, well, of course you wouldn't be the person who's you wouldn't color your own hair either. Now, man, that's a girl thing, just gonna have to trust me. But that's like a pretty big aha moment is that the hero is who the story is all about. Yeah. Y'all, this podcast episode was made possible in part by foyer, a lightning fast interior design software that creates photorealistic renderings. I'm not kidding, you can barely tell that it's not a real room. So why don't leave your beautiful designs up to the imagination of your client, when you can show them what their space is going to look like. You will sign more clients and get more approvals with the software. It's powered by artificial intelligence, and a whole vouch for its ease. Because if I can do it, anybody can. Because y'all know that my design team are the ones who do all the work. Find them in the show notes.
Ben Rutledge 14:21
Absolutely, they, what I find is, it's rarely coming from I mean, occasionally, it's it's coming from some, you know, ego or narcissism. It's just because that seems like the common sense thing to do is to promote yourself. Yeah.
Michelle Lynne 14:35
We're supposed to be the expert. Right?
Ben Rutledge 14:38
Exactly. Exactly. And most people want to build a successful small business, they're not in it to fail. And they want to promote it. But it's that same thing where but deep down they want to help people too. And so there's also this other side of where the same reason we feel like we talked about earlier uncomfortable writing our own by knows, if someone asked you to write a bio bio for yourself or something, it's one of the hardest things to do is to sit down and write about yourself. It's some of the same, I think psychological things at play, where someone's will resist or shrink back from their own marketing, because they don't want to be self centered. They don't want to be narcissistic. And they think that's the only way. And so then there kind of becomes a psychological barrier to self promotion, instead of seeing, but when they switch, I find a light bulb comes on. And suddenly it's I'm doing this to make my customer feel like a hero to make them, help them achieve their goals, and the role switches. And suddenly, it's not about me anymore. And it becomes, I think, even easier to promote your business, because there's that clarity,
Michelle Lynne 15:47
and you put the focus on somebody else now. So here's, here's a strange question. Do you find a difference in that obstacle between your male and female clients?
Ben Rutledge 16:01
Ah, that's a great question. I'm gonna have to think about that for a second. Yeah,
Michelle Lynne 16:05
I just pulled that one. Yeah,
Ben Rutledge 16:07
I think it varies. I think it really is case by case I can think of use cases with both, right? Where sometimes I had to, like they really wanted to self promote. And I can think of male and female clients that I've had that really wanted that and I had to kind of wrestle a little bit to get them to shift and put their their customer seat. And then I've had others that way, it was like such a relief, to just talk about themselves, and then almost beat them up to start to create, to write blogs to post on social media, because suddenly they didn't have to draw, they didn't want the spotlight in the first place. And especially with what we tend to specialize in service based businesses and designers are, that's a service industry. Right? So a lot of people are in that because they genuinely want to help.
Michelle Lynne 16:53
They were I think, someone and they're good at it. And yeah, it's time to make it a business and not just a hobby. So finding a way to market yourself accurately or successfully is just the beginning of your business. Absolutely. No, but how did you get involved? How did you fall into this role? How did you get started in the business? That's
Ben Rutledge 17:13
a great question. So it kind of goes back to my kind of the dual background. You mentioned earlier I, my undergraduate degree was in Creative Advertising. So I went to Appalachian State University longer ago than I care to do the math, and studied creative advertising and always just love brand strategy. And then later, I went back for a Master's in Counseling. And what I realized was, I've always been really curious about what motivates people. And what drew me to both because they seem pretty desperate, they seem like totally different areas. But really, whether it's in a business setting with what motivates consumer behaviors, or even small business owners to do what they do, because that's a lot of the branding process. If it's going to be authentic and true, you got to get down to your why you gotta get down to those things. And their core motives. And not just yourself, but your customers. But it's the same thing in in kind of therapy and counseling. It's like, what, why are we doing the things we're doing? And I think I've just always been really curious about that. And so it's led me down a few different paths and brand strategy being one of them.
Michelle Lynne 18:17
That's really interesting. And that is definitely part of your uniqueness is that you have that psychology aspect. And I'll tell you, just from an interior design standpoint, we joke because oftentimes, it feels like we're doing marriage counseling. But just because between the male and the female, or partners in the home, having different perspectives of what they want it to feel like,
Ben Rutledge 18:44
yeah, that's fascinating. Yeah, but that's so true. Because you didn't stop. It's the right thing to do. Yeah,
Michelle Lynne 18:49
but so are you because like, it would feel it's such a personal space when I talk about my brand. And like, it's very sometimes like uncomfortable in areas that might not be as buttoned up to let other people know that. And so you would have to know those things from your clients, earn their trust and be able to translate it so I can imagine you're damn good at what you do.
Ben Rutledge 19:15
I hope so. Let my clients be the judge, but I tried to be
Michelle Lynne 19:22
so what would you say is the most difficult or rewarding aspect of what you do? The
Ben Rutledge 19:27
most difficult or rewarding I think the most rewarding is when I see people feel in control of their an aspect of their business that they felt out of control before. That's just a satisfying thing where I see them feel empowered, like they went from overwhelmed to empowered that some of this stuff isn't you don't have to know everything about it. That's why you hire marketing people, but you need to know to know what's going on. And to not get you know, to vet marketing people like myself, make sure we're doing a good job and then just like feel proud of the brand or the business That's because it feels honest and genuine to your point because there is a vulnerability to that. And when we can get down to the real stuff, and a lot of times, it's like, you know, they're given me that the sour mash, I gotta make whiskey out of it, you got to distill it. Yes, you're getting all this content. And when you can boil it down and give it back to them, and they go, yes, that feels true. That's it. And it almost frees them to then go out and tell their story, because now they can, you know, like,
Michelle Lynne 20:27
that makes total sense, because you've given them not only permission, but you've given them some context in which to market themselves. Because like, when I first started my business, Gosh, 2008 How long has it been 14 years ago? I had no freaking clue who I was. And it was just a matter of going through some trial and error. And I wish I would have had somebody like you back in the day. Thankfully, I did read Donald Miller storybrand. So that kind of helped. But it's, it's so close to us. Yes.
Ben Rutledge 20:59
I still work on my I still question sometimes is this quite right is this. It's an ongoing process. It's a living. It's dynamic. And
Michelle Lynne 21:08
I love that because it is an ongoing process, because sometimes Done is better than perfect, because perfection is perception. And it's going to change six months from now. Yeah. Oh, my gosh,
Ben Rutledge 21:20
I mean, true story I had, you know, hesitations about coming on a podcast, like is all my stuff buttoned up is this is that there's that thing of like, well, it's not going to be perfect ever have, I just take a step that's in front of me. And so that I think that's all we're all on that journey.
Michelle Lynne 21:36
I love that. And I think that we all it's, it's so refreshing, because it's important for us to recognize that nobody has their shit together. Like really who's fully buttoned up, and if they are, then the rest of their life is probably pretty boring. I'd like to have a whole messy life.
Ben Rutledge 21:53
I literally, like my job is to try to help you get your marketing shit together. That's part of my sales pitch. Because there you go. And I think I get it together, we'll get to caspo. We'll, we'll try.
Michelle Lynne 22:06
It is it but you also it's like, you have to have fun while you're doing it and be true to yourself. Because I literally will sometimes say, you know, shit in my, my presentation to my clients. And I've had more people say, and I'll say, Oh, I'm sorry that I just weren't. And I've had more than two people, like maybe three or four say, Oh, actually, I trust you more now that you just swore. And I'm like, what? Like, really? They're just like, because you're being yourself. And I'm just like, that just gives you such freedom. And that can be part of my brand is like in my intro here. It's like I love Jesus. But I swear a little.
Ben Rutledge 22:40
Yeah, absolutely. I think it should be because it's yeah, it's,
Michelle Lynne 22:44
dear Lord, it's so much easier to be myself than it is to try to be somebody I think I should be.
Ben Rutledge 22:49
Oh, yeah, it's exhausting. Yeah,
Michelle Lynne 22:51
yeah. Yeah. So circling back. I'm a huge advocate of outsourcing, what you're not an expert in. So outsource your bookkeeping, outsource, you know, maybe your social media, outsource your marketing. Some people are not there yet in their business. What's a simple way that business owners can start to apply? Maybe like the story to their brands? Until they can outsource to somebody like you? Yeah,
Ben Rutledge 23:18
that's a great question. I think one of the first exercises I think would be really helpful is to sit down and ask yourself, do kind of some ideal client brainstorming? What customers have I worked with? Or who do I just dream about working with? Maybe I haven't worked with my ideal customer yet. And I'm kind of setting my North Star and I'm, I'm heading for it. But what is it about them, that really draws you that you felt either like you were particularly helpful with this type of client, you did a really good job and it felt satisfying, or maybe they pay? Well, we're easy to work with. Everybody has different drivers if we're honest. So I think defining that so you know who the hero of your story is. And then ask yourself a very simple question, what do they want? And how do they feel about what they want, because those are the two things you need to speak to as the guide that your of that is your kind of guide role, because you want to be empathetic toward how they feel about what they want. And then you want to demonstrate that you're competent to deliver help them achieve what they want. So that's the guides role is not to talk about how awesome you are and all the things you can do. It's when we talking about what you can do for their problem and what the benefit for them is. And I think just sitting down and writing that out on one piece of paper would change so many small business owners marketing, because they tend to go right to what all can I do and put it all out there. And they forget sometimes about the emotional piece of it that people make decisions based on how they feel about their problem and the perceived pain of their problem more than anything else. And just that simple exercise. Who's my Customer, ideal customer, what do they want? How do they feel about it? And then how can I be empathetic toward that? And what can I do to help them
Michelle Lynne 25:08
that's so simple, in its essence, but so freakin powerful, like that whole next step of how do they feel about what they want? And how can I step in to help them? Because I think that that's where our heart is, as designers. Yes, we love making beautiful spaces, but for the individuals who are mostly, you know, in residential, our heart is with our clients, when we get those beautiful, beautiful souls that let us do our thing and trust us and absolutely, yeah, and so forth. But that goes right down to how do we make them feel? Mm hmm. Wow, that is just so same
Ben Rutledge 25:50
to most of the problem, there is the practical problem that you're helping Yeah. But there's an emotional problem that you're helping them solve to. And that probably is closer to their The reason whether or not they're going to become a customer or just stay. is usually there's a lot of people out there who can solve their practical problem.
Michelle Lynne 26:08
Oh, yeah, we all can. I mean, at the end of the day, an interior designer is good. There's some that are great, I get that blah, blah, blah. Don't Don't be me, y'all. But my point is, is that at the end of the day, we can all create beautiful spaces.
Ben Rutledge 26:19
Right? Right. There's a lot of great artistic minds, why that customer will choose you as their interior designer. To solve that problem is probably more in the realm of trust. And they feel like you actually understand their problem, their state, their goals, what they want, how they want to feel, when they walk in their living room, their home, their bedroom, those are probably a lot closer to what's actually going to drive their decisions. And, you know, we get so busy sometimes it's it is the simple questions that lead us to, that we're sometimes overlooking because we got to run a business. And it's Yeah, times to work on your business when you're so busy working in it. Yeah,
Michelle Lynne 27:00
I definitely agree with you there. It's it's a balancing act. And I think that that's why instead of what are you distilling down to? Was it whiskey or bourbon? Yeah, my choice is tequila as a small business owner, just anything at the end of the day, awesome, awesome. Awesome. Let me interrupt myself to take a quick moment to thank satinath Insurance Agency for sponsoring this episode of The designed for the creative mind podcast. Their support and understanding of the interior design, decorating and home staging industries is unrivaled. Satin off understands what our businesses do, and they provide insurance that lets me sleep at night. Yep, this is the firm that I use. And they will do the same for your sleep habits. And your business too. They're more than an insurance agency. They're an extension of my business. They take care of the worry, because they are the experts, which allows me and my team breathing room to do what we do best design beautiful spaces. You can find their contact information below in the show notes. Give them a call today. Well, gosh, let me ask you one last question. And then we're going to dig into our next little segment of rapid fire q&a. But is there one piece, and I'm kind of putting on the spot for this? So don't feel like it has to be like life changing? But is there any piece of wisdom or advice that you would want to leave with the listeners? I mean, there's been so much but is there like one nugget that you would distill it down to tequila or whiskey?
Ben Rutledge 28:35
Yeah, let's see. Um, I feel think it would be somewhere in the realm of asking yourself what you're not fully facing. But a lot of times that we the answers are right in front of us, we're afraid to look at it, we're afraid to look at why our business isn't actually succeeding. And I'm sure you coach business owners, you know, this, there's something there that is whether it's a limiting self belief. I'm not engaging in my marketing because I'm afraid to fail I'm afraid to put something out there and then be about it later. I'm afraid of the feedback I might get I'm afraid of and looking at those things underneath and we kind of just keep going we stay busy and we don't always stop a look at that that is underneath and so it's almost the What are you not being honest with yourself about when it comes to your business? Because there's there's something that you probably do know it's in the corner of your eye You're not wanting to fully face it, but it's there and often those areas are where the most the growth happens. I love that probably something in that realm because that's for me with the most grateful just having to face the hard stuff. Not easy failing. I'm sure there's still areas in my business. I'm failing right now. And I'm just wrong in that law and I have to constantly be willing to look just
Michelle Lynne 29:55
a little level deeper and determining going back to The early part of our conversation is the false narratives that we tell ourselves that the stories that we might have grown up believing that we might have heard from our parents, or we might have heard, you know, successful business people are assholes. Well, that's not necessarily the case, if they're successful or unsuccessful, they're still gonna be in a household. So as a successful business owner, yourself, doesn't mean it's going to turn you into somebody you don't want to be or whatever those stories are. And that, I think that is part of where your strength comes from, because that's probably part of your psychology training, touching into your marketing and branding aspect. But as a business owner, it is about our whole because we are the center of the business at this point.
Ben Rutledge 30:44
Yeah, talk about a little bit. I'm curious what you mean by that statement? It's
Michelle Lynne 30:49
a fascinating statement. As as being the center as a whole.
Ben Rutledge 30:52
Yeah. Who really are like your H? Oh, no,
Michelle Lynne 30:56
actually, both right.
Ben Rutledge 30:58
I guess both. Yeah. Yeah.
Michelle Lynne 31:00
So I can tell from my own experience, and the people that I talk to, is that because we are so closely associated with our brand. But we also separate ourselves as our business and our person, that when I was younger, in my business, we were one but we were separate. And I tried to be a person outside of my business, but I was the person leading the business. Therefore, the business was representative of me and my strengths and my weaknesses, because it hasn't outgrown me. So as my business has grown, it's still to the point where it's still my brand. But it's not like a Coca Cola that has its own identity that's completely separate from whoever started it. Does that make sense? Oh,
Ben Rutledge 31:48
absolutely. Like you said, We're, yeah, there's that point of growth, where it feels like it kind of becomes its own thing. As part of me. There's honestly, I think that friction point, with a lot of small businesses they struggle to get, because that's usually where those limiting self beliefs kind of prevent you from being able to push it away from yourself and let it be its own thing to work on. It's so hard.
Michelle Lynne 32:12
It's such a horrible, but that's like a marriage. So we're again, going back to the relationship a marriage is its own is its own entity, separate of the two people within it. And you have to work on that separately. But you have to remove yourself and be able to look at ourselves objectively, which is virtually impossible. But it still needs to be done, whether you get help doing it or just work on it accordingly. But yeah, it was it's very interesting, that dynamic and a lot, especially in interior design. We all a lot of us have our own names, like Michelle Lynn interiors group, yeah. Right. So I tried to get used to be by Michelle Lynn. And then I was like, Okay, I've got to separate myself from it. So now it's ml interiors group. So it's not as much me it's about the brand itself. But it's hard not to get stuck in that. Oh,
Ben Rutledge 33:02
it's so hard. It's Oh, my gosh, I think we just we only good friends and good business relationships to help us get that perspective. Right. It's really hard to do that alone. I have my you know, plenty of peers in the marketing world that I go to all the time I bounce stuff off of because I trust their opinions. Right? It's collaborative. It's, I need their perspective. I can so
Michelle Lynne 33:23
nice to have that community. Oh, absolutely. You need it. There's an even people outside of the industry, because I like to look at my business from other business models and perspectives to see what I can learn from an outside perspective, instead of doing the same thing over and over like the rest of the industry has. Yeah, sure. Just in addition to the stuff that works. I love that though. The whole versus the whole. Something about
Ben Rutledge 33:53
return on that one the rest of the day. Thanks.
Michelle Lynne 33:55
Yeah, exactly. Well, Ben, this has been so much fun. I really appreciate your time here. So the next couple, next couple of minutes is a great format to let our audience get to know you a little bit better. And it is simply fun. It's a rapid fire q&a, so it's gonna be a little bit of anything. Are you ready?
Ben Rutledge 34:15
I'm ready. All right.
Michelle Lynne 34:17
What was the last movie you watched?
Ben Rutledge 34:19
last movie I watched? It was the Guy Ritchie King Arthur on I think Netflix.
Michelle Lynne 34:26
Oh, okay. But how was it on?
Ben Rutledge 34:29
It was good. It felt like a Guy Ritchie film, but with a lot more special effects.
Michelle Lynne 34:33
There you go. Are you left handed or right handed? Right handed? Red or white wine? Red. Who's your favorite superhero?
Ben Rutledge 34:41
Ah, okay. So there was a I don't know why but as a kid, I love this kind of obscure X men named bishop. He was a cop from the future and it made me because my dad was a cop. But he's a cop from the future came back and time to try to catch a bad guy. You could time travel and really often had lots of guns. Yeah, so as a kid it was nobody's probably heard of that superhero but as a kid that comic books I look for. I
Michelle Lynne 35:05
love that. I wonder if he's ever made a an appearance in any of the movies. I
Ben Rutledge 35:10
think you might have been some of the the X Men movies. But various levels.
Michelle Lynne 35:15
Yeah, that's what I'm looking at. My dad was a cop to was just recently retired as a police chief outside of Albuquerque. Yeah. Okay, good. Yeah. So let me tell you a high school in a small town with a cop as a dad. Really kind of limited things.
Ben Rutledge 35:34
My My dad was a homicide detective for a good bit of his career and actually taught courses on interrogation techniques. Oh, she kind of get away with stuff and your dad. Human lie detector basically.
Michelle Lynne 35:50
Yeah, my dad used to intimidate my boyfriend's when they came in. He greeted him at the door with his with his gun. Dad. Cut that out.
Ben Rutledge 36:01
Yes. All right. On my little sister that if you know if you showed up with the gun, and they were mad enough to keep coming, and at least that told him something about the character, you know,
Michelle Lynne 36:11
it's a valid stamp. That's a valid truth. Beach mountains.
Ben Rutledge 36:15
Mountains.
Michelle Lynne 36:16
What both Phil love both. Yeah. If you couldn't be in the profession you're in now what would you be doing?
Ben Rutledge 36:23
Probably something in ministry or counseling therapy.
Michelle Lynne 36:28
Then it goes back to your roots there with your background. What genre of music do you listen to? Ah,
Ben Rutledge 36:34
Gosh, I really am all over. I know. That's the cliche answer. lately. It's been a lot of kind of catchy indie, though, just catchy indie stuff, whatever Spotify puts on the Radio, Spotify.
Michelle Lynne 36:43
So I had a chick a couple interviews ago, she was listening to french french hip hop. Think
Ben Rutledge 36:51
that. I'm not that cool.
Michelle Lynne 36:56
But the Indies, so I wouldn't listen to some French hip hop on Spotify. And it was actually kind of interesting.
Ben Rutledge 37:02
I'm sure it is. Yeah, I wonder if it's harder to rhyme in French. That would be my question.
Michelle Lynne 37:07
I don't know. But it sounded a lot sweeter. That he could have been cursing up a storm. But I had no idea.
Ben Rutledge 37:12
Yeah, it doesn't everything sound better.
Michelle Lynne 37:16
Very true. All right. Are you an introvert or extrovert? extrovert? Last time you took a nap.
Ben Rutledge 37:23
Sunday.
Michelle Lynne 37:24
Ah ha I'm jealous. If you could have dinner with anybody dead or alive. Who's one person you would invite to dinner? Oh,
Ben Rutledge 37:31
man, one person probably like the apostle Paul. Hmm. I have so many questions about some of the stuff he wrote. And I think I would like to ask him directly.
Michelle Lynne 37:43
I think that would be a really good one. It'd be a long dinner.
Ben Rutledge 37:45
It would be many courses. Yes. Should be
Michelle Lynne 37:49
fun. Well, Ben, I almost called you Paul. Ben, thank you so much for being here. I know our audience has loved everything you've shared this has been so informative. I had a few aha moments and tell the audience how they can connect with you please.
Ben Rutledge 38:03
Absolutely And thanks again for having me this has been a lot of fun yeah are just find us online doing my fine on Instagram mighty fine y'all dot com. That is our web address.
Michelle Lynne 38:15
So know how did you come up with the all mighty fine y'all dot com.
Ben Rutledge 38:19
Okay, so I'm from I lived I didn't live in Texas for six years, but I'm from North Carolina. So I'm still from the south. And so my brother who's my business partner and he does a lot of the development he's just a far better business admin than me speaking of like, knowing your weaknesses Yeah, not great to stay on top of invoices and bookkeeping and even some aspects of project management and so he's on the creative people person so he's great at that balance so I we were just trying to think of names and we went through several terrible ones and then on the phone one day he was like, what if we just call it a mighty fine because we want people's to be doing mighty fine. We want their marketing to be mighty fine. Somebody's saying that one good or if so, we just decided to kind of play off that and you know, we are back to your roots were from you know couple Appalachian boys and so we say you all sometimes we say Younes actually in my portfolio, in the mountains but you can change knowing but it felt right. It felt like that's kind of going back to being true to who we are. It's a little informal, but we say y'all we say y'all and emails
Michelle Lynne 39:30
Yeah, so do I and I'm not even originally from Texas but it does just have its own unique ring and welcoming spirit. Yeah, yeah. Oh, no, the bunny trail so with that being said, y'all can find Ben at mighty fine y'all dot com is the website and then Instagram I think I was
Ben Rutledge 39:50
doing mighty fine. Just doing with no G be mighty fine. You can modify
Michelle Lynne 39:57
font and I will make sure that all all these details are listed in the show notes so that y'all can just set it up looking references. Sometimes I just cracked myself up. Okay, so for those of you who can benefit from even more resources surrounding the business of running your interior design business, join my growing community on Facebook private group. It's the interior designers business launch pad. And y'all I know it's Facebook, and some of you are not fans of it. But just come on into the come on into the launch pad, get social, learn some things I go, I go live once a week doing some free training, you don't have to go and be social with your crazy uncle, who might be commenting on what you ate last week if you posted it. So thank you, again, so much, Ben, for being here. And for the rest of you. I'll see you next time. 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 the 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.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
