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.
All right, welcome back. Thank you so much for joining us, I say us because today I have my design team next to me, Debbie Pratt, and Megan forums, and we're actually recording from Dallas Market Center. So we are in the trenches in the middle of the day on the hunt. And we are talking about how to source efficiently and effectively. And while we definitely recognize that we have the benefit of Dallas Market Center here in our backyard, it's not always the first place we start. So we want to talk about today, you know, how can you source even if you don't have a market center in your backyard. So Debbie and Megan have both been with me for seven and five years. And we have gone through quite a few iterations of how we design and develop our project our projects. So forgive me if the quality of the sound isn't as good today. But we wanted to take advantage of the inspiration that we're seeing today and share some ideas with you. 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 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 [email protected], as well as in the show notes. So let me start with Debbie, since you've been you've been with me longer, how do you start your projects? Like? Do you start with an inspiration? Do you start with the clients questionnaire? Like how do you start the vision and then we can probably dive into where you source from
Debbie Pratt 2:54
there. It's it's kind of a combination of a bunch of different approaches when we go on our initial visit. And we look at the space. And they talk about the issues and what the challenges are and why they haven't done anything themselves. And just figuring out what needs to be done to achieve that goal. And it could be a combination from the questionnaire when there's there may be like this out of the other these areas with a problems. But the approach is what they tell us. And then the first thing I think of for instance, I'm in the middle of a project, that's a contemporary guess you could say warm up, the interior of the home is a very cool contemporary and the exterior is a warm, contemporary. And that's why the interior doesn't feel as cozy as the exterior. So my first thoughts when I looked at this home was there's this beautiful wood finish on the outside of the house. And there's none of it inside. So we need to bring that organic in. But organic means different things to different people. So what does organic mean to this client? So wood, organic material was what they see as organic, but they didn't like rustic organic, like live edge or anything like that. So it's kind of a sleek, organic. So that's my my jumping are off start starting point. Yeah.
Michelle Lynne 4:16
So I think yeah, every project is a little bit different when and I think as designers, the audience also understands that sometimes it's just an instinct, and you can't put your fingers on it. And Megan, what are you working on these days and kind of where did you jump off with him
Megan Fornes 4:31
funny, it was organic. So my clients a glammy organic and we didn't know that until a few pictures and because I thought she was a warm organic and just like light woods, but turns out we like a little bit of gold. But it took those few conversations to pull that out or glamour,
Michelle Lynne 4:47
Glamour. Like yeah, so
Megan Fornes 4:50
I mean it started I mean, it's the beginning what they thought their inspiration was and then I pulled my inspiration and I like to merge the two and with We'd like to call collaboration. And when
Michelle Lynne 5:01
you say inspiration, you're, you're talking about their inspiration images, and then you gathered separate images. And you talked about the Yes. And
Megan Fornes 5:09
why their brains thought that those were, what they were attracted to. And then off of their questionnaires and input and looking at those and what I thought, and looking at their house and everything as a whole. And something that they might not have recognized, was able to pull out those design ideas that they're like, oh, yeah, we are kind of gloomy. We do like a little bit of gold, and then make and then taking that the next step and doing mixed metals and bringing in the live edge, but they're ever everybody has a different vision view of what that feels like. So
Debbie Pratt 5:42
and I think part of our job, when we do it correctly, is they see clients see things that they like, but they don't know why they like it. So we get that answer for them. And so they understand, that's what their taste, you know, is driven towards, because they don't know why they like things. And so we kind of our little investigators into figuring that out. And so once we figure that out, then it's almost like That click is the jumping off part. And then it could be one fabric, it could be one piece of
Megan Fornes 6:14
furniture could be a rug, or something that flows throughout all the spaces that we're doing to
Debbie Pratt 6:18
and then that's like the common theme of the project, which pulls it all together. So
Michelle Lynne 6:22
once you have the general vision, like I think I'm gonna go in this direction. Where do you guys and let's back up a little bit because we have grown. We have grown our Rolodex of vendors, by leaps and bounds over the course of the years. And I want to share with our audience like if you're just starting to do that, it's you have to start somewhere, a great way to get a list is to go to like go to Dallas market center.com. And take a look at their list of vendors. That's an easy way to start it. Same thing. You can see him at High Point Vegas and so forth. So we've taken our time. And now Instagram, yeah, is amazing that we find new vendors that way. But let's talk about once you have a general vision, and you understand the first few decisions, how do you start sourcing, like there's so much out there, like there's so much out there,
Megan Fornes 7:17
narrowing it down by style, obviously, yeah, that gives you the certain trades that you need to specify and kind of narrowed down to and then I mean, yeah, just scrolling through their websites, if you're not able to see it in person. And then going deeper into that made goods, I ordered five samples that I wasn't able to have in person, even though we're here, or they're backordered, or whatever. So if you're not close to anything, you can still get those woods samples, the metal samples, you know, all of that that you need. So you can look at it with the fabric and just make sure the color story kind of goes or all goes together. Yeah,
Michelle Lynne 7:53
because sometimes the wood looks like it's very brown online. And that shows up gray.
Megan Fornes 7:58
Yeah, like a chair we saw today, it looks very dark, dark charcoal online, and it was very light gray in person today, which is, you know, something you kind of have an advantage to, and you do get to see it in person before you purchase. But
Michelle Lynne 8:14
that's also why you request the sample. So that also goes from a sourcing standpoint, a lot of its online
Megan Fornes 8:21
is say a lot of it a lot
Debbie Pratt 8:23
of its online, but then you have to also, like the style has a lot to do with it. But it also has to do with the price point. I mean, depending on the house and the level and how the client uses their home. What level do you shop, so to speak, or start designing or source? Because you can't put you can't
Michelle Lynne 8:44
put Neiman Marcus into a it dealers
Debbie Pratt 8:47
dealers house. Exactly. So you know, you just have to make sure that it's at the right level and price point for the required achieved result that they want that
Megan Fornes 8:57
and making sure if they need to see it in person or not. Yes, that makes a huge impact whether where you source from because if you're sourcing from places that are out of state, and you just cannot get a you can't see it in person and that client really needs to see it in person well then you know not to source their exhibit and
Michelle Lynne 9:13
that has to be in the questionnaire that you send them before you do their initial visit and also confirmed just because sometimes they forget what they say
Debbie Pratt 9:22
and as I say comfortable times because some places, they don't have everything on the floor but they may have the cushion that's standard and all of their you know upholstered pieces so you can get a feel for the sit, which is usually the most important thing some people don't care at all as long as it looks good. But the majority of people especially like a sofa, they want to sit in it because it's where you plop yourself every day where a cozy chair or something like that, but if it's just something of an accent, or maybe some casegoods where you can get the finish then we usually can convince them that you know what, this is the finish. Trust us the quality of school Images, yeah, multiple images, as many as you can. And sometimes
Megan Fornes 10:03
I'll even Google that furniture and see if they have it in different rooms that other people have taken pictures of and other designs and stuff just to get a better live view of that image. Because sometimes the website doesn't provide good images. So I'll do that sometimes, too.
Debbie Pratt 10:20
And I think it's the relationship you have with your client, to get that trust and gain that trust. So they understand that you're, you're trying to find things that are in town and is, you know, on the floor, see, they can sit in it, but let them you know, know that you trust this particular vendor. And that you're, you know, it's a reliable resource, and that the quality is going to
Michelle Lynne 10:41
be there. And I think that a lot of that comes with education. So if it's your first time using st Vanguard furniture, then what you'll want to do is get to know your local rep. Or if you can call a showroom and talk to them have a zoom call, have them, have them educate you on the furniture itself, like, why is this better than that. And then these days, you know, we can we can source efficiently. So you might come up with a very beautiful design, the effectiveness has been a challenge because of the the market and the furnishings and the lead times and everything. And that's just something that has to be explained early on to the client. And so when we're talking about how to source efficiently and effectively, you might be able to create a design based on some of your favorite vendors. And then you see something on Instagram, and you reach out to the new vendor. And then you start developing that relationship. But then you also have to find out what their lead time is. So that you can prepare your client and say, Hey, this is normally a six to eight week lead time, we're probably looking at 10 to 12, or we're looking at 12 to 16, or whatever the case may be, so that you are still being effective, but you have to educate the client and set their expectations
Debbie Pratt 11:57
and do a little research in the industry to see what's happening in the world. So you know, delays with overseas products or the foam issue down in, you know, down in the Houston area where so
Michelle Lynne 12:10
what we just learned today, actually, so as I said, we're here, we're here at Dallas Market Center. And we were talking to one of our reps and talking about the lead times and how long do we anticipate if we placed an order that this is gonna take. And I had mentioned, so I heard on clubhouse that this particular vendor was shutting down for a couple of weeks just to kind of take a breath and get caught up. And she said, you know why? There's nothing wrong with the company. And they're not behind in production, but they've produced as much as they can, and they're waiting on the phone. So the foam that goes in and wraps the the cushions is produced mostly, and I think she said Louisiana and southern Texas, and Houston area. And so, you know, depending on when you're listening to this podcast, this is 2021. And we have what we call Snowmageddon. Well, what happened down in the southern states, we're not used to it being negative or to the rise for an extended period of time, the factories that produce the foam, their pipes burst, obviously, the foam was completely ruined at that point. Foam, once they get it back into being manufactured is a petroleum product. So it has to their production has to be signed off on by OSHA. So like all of this is now stuff that we're going to be sharing with our clients so that they understand why it takes so long to get these things take to get these things shipped. So it's education, and it's talking to people and it's hanging out on clubhouse if you need to, or calling your rep and they'll know much more about what's going on because they are dealing directly with the manufacturer. So you're telling me how do you how have you built up a Rolodex of vendors?
Megan Fornes 14:00
I mean, just Googling Google Search sometimes sometimes I'm gonna I don't even so if I'm going to the same vendors over and over and over again. I mean, Instagram honestly has become a great tool because I'll go look at another designer and or just be scrolling. It's like, Ooh, I really like that click and if they tag it, hopefully, you know, and then that'll bunny trail off to another page. And then I click on that site, and then I try to look for it on trade. Or sometimes. I mean, nowadays, there's a lot of retail shops that offered trade products. And sometimes I'll even just scroll there's and see what they're showing. Right so like, film has a lot of right. Burke decor, they should have a lot and so I'm like okay, and then I'll take that go back to our resource. So sometimes there's just different platforms to see things better here a gold apparel. There's another One Kings Lane. Uh huh. Yeah. So it's just different things like if you're seeing the same thing in front of you go to a different source, go to a different website, go to just a different platform. Trying to get your eyes on something. And then that'll sparks an idea or a new vendor. Or maybe you just haven't seen a vendor in a long time.
Michelle Lynne 15:07
And here's a plug. If you're not a member of the interior designers business Launchpad, which is my free Facebook group, where I give free training once a week, you can hop in there and just ask, Hey, y'all, what are some of your favorite vendors for a contemporary look? Hey, y'all, what's your favorite vendor? For a traditional? Okay, y'all, what are your favorite vendors for couches, or whatever the case may be? The community is also a good resource. You know, I'll reach out to friends of mine who are interior designers and say, girl, I need something new, like, what are some of your favorite vendors and, you know, new new things just pop up. And it's just designers helping designers, which can over here,
Debbie Pratt 15:48
it can also be as simple as a hashtag. Yeah, I've been working on a project where I need very same project, actually contemporary lighting, and interesting wallpaper. So I've been searching on the hashtags, you know, wall coverings and stuff. And the way that the algorithm works, all of a sudden, getting more depression might be different tomorrow, I'm getting all this stuff in my feed for what I'm searching. So it's like they're saying, Hey, have you looked at this? Hey, have you looked at that? So it kind of,
Michelle Lynne 16:17
I bought some shoes because of that.
Debbie Pratt 16:20
So it's kind of they actually put it in front of my face. And I found two new wallpaper vendors by doing that, which I absolutely love. And our wallpaper installer even said, this stuff is really good. Use it more, because it was so easy to install. So it's, it's just little things that, you know, you know, how the internet works, and all that little inner workings that you hear about, but it can help you. So yeah,
Michelle Lynne 16:46
that's a really great point. That's a really great point. Let me interrupt myself to take a quick moment to thank satin off 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 designed beautiful spaces. You can find their contact information below in the show notes. Give them a call today. So I think that that's a efficient and effective sourcing. Even if you don't have a market center in your backyard, that's easy to easy to do. And then of course just showing the clients as many images as you can of the piece if they are okay, not seeing it.
Debbie Pratt 17:54
An order sample sample sample sample as many as you can order like yes started honestly, because the Santa Fe running out. Yeah, yeah. All
Michelle Lynne 18:03
right. So normally, we have the rapid fire questions. But you guys were just on an episode recently, and I haven't come up with a lot of questions. So I want to ask you, as a designer, what are some of the quirks that you bring home with you? And are you easy or hard to live with?
Megan Fornes 18:21
Oh, that's funny,
Debbie Pratt 18:22
huh? Go back and
Megan Fornes 18:26
I mean, I feel like I relatively still have a somewhat new house I've only been in it for two years. So there's still and it's a fixer upper. So there's things I'm always wanting to change. So then new ideas I see and things I want to play with things I might buy that my husband doesn't know and i i would say it makes me hard to live with and a sense of always being open and always wanting new things and changing my mind but that's my own personal space and it's funny how the brain for a client I'll see something and it's it that's it. But with my own house and my own brain I just love I love so much of it.
Michelle Lynne 19:04
So that makes sense. Yeah, yeah, changes. It's
Debbie Pratt 19:07
hard when we're exposed to so many wonderful beautiful things all the time. Are you buying
Michelle Lynne 19:13
time before you tell me what if you're hard to live with or I
Debbie Pratt 19:17
just I basically just lay it on the line and say look, it's the nature of the beast, you know I'm exposed to all these things. And sometimes sometimes I just need those things in my life and sometimes it snowballs if you if you change out one light fixture and then you realize the room that's adjacent to it doesn't really work anymore. So we have to do that is that there's a difference between being done and being finished. I love that. Yeah, that's all I had to
Megan Fornes 19:47
say about like that. And I pulled a rug out from my guestroom bed to put underneath my dining table by myself. That was pretty That's That's funny. Yeah. So always moving things which is fun.
Michelle Lynne 19:57
That's funny. That is very funny. All right. One last question. Something that would surprise us about you.
Megan Fornes 20:03
Do y'all know everything?
Debbie Pratt 20:06
There's any surprises? Oh goodness,
Michelle Lynne 20:10
then it doesn't have to be me or Debbie that would be surprised. So
Megan Fornes 20:14
as much as a social person as I am, I love communicating, interacting, going out being around people, I enjoy my me time. I almost have to have it.
Michelle Lynne 20:24
There's a word for that when you're extroverted and introverted. I'm
Megan Fornes 20:28
definitely BOTH Yeah. Yeah, and I don't need to do Yeah, just not talk to people put on my show I rewatch Grey's Anatomy over and over and over and over again. And that's just my happy place. There you go. And that keep makes me calm down and, and just take some time off. And then I'll go out and be social again. So I guess that's me.
Debbie Pratt 20:50
Something that would surprise people about me that's that's really hard, because apparently my face is
Megan Fornes 20:56
very easy to same.
Debbie Pratt 20:57
So all the time. So
Michelle Lynne 21:01
your girls don't have perfect.
Debbie Pratt 21:04
I just, I don't know. I can't think of anything.
Michelle Lynne 21:08
Bad gardening skills.
Debbie Pratt 21:10
I do. I love to work in the yard. But it's it's not just so the yard looks good. It's it's how I vent. If anything's bothering me if I can go dig in the dirt. Yeah, that's great. But it's silly stuff that bothers me that I would need to do that. But I just like walking by the nursery. I cried really easily. Oh, that would surprise me super easily like commercials and Instagram posts. I follow this up for the gram and then good movement, good news movement or something. And these these sappy stories, like for those of you back in the day, the Kodak commercials. Crap, those would make me cry. I cry very, very easily. And I cry when I met. Oh,
Megan Fornes 21:52
I need to and it's so frustrating.
Michelle Lynne 21:55
I think we I think probably most of the audience appreciate that. I learned one time that women cry. And men sweat when they get mad or angry. Like if you if you look at your significant other if your significant other happens to be male. When they get upset they sweat. Hmm. We cry.
Megan Fornes 22:13
Yeah, definitely. I
Michelle Lynne 22:14
my eyeballs sweat. All right.
Debbie Pratt 22:16
I think peanut butter is disgusting. How's that?
Michelle Lynne 22:21
Oh, yeah, that's kind of weird. Yeah. All right. Well, girls, thank you so much for sharing with us today. Audience, thank you so much for being here. And just as a request is I would really appreciate if you would scroll over to wherever you listen to your podcast and drop a rating and a review, as this is still a relatively new podcast, and it would really help boost so more people can hear it. So thank you for joining. 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 than join me in my Facebook group. The interior designers business launch pad. 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
