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.
0:48
Hey, everybody, welcome back. It's Michelle Lynn. And I have Jacqueline green here today. She is the CEO at behind the design, which offers training education, marketing services to the design community. Jacqueline is a seasoned commercial interior designer, a former college instructor, and a highly experienced marketing expert. And I am excited to introduce her to you. Hello, Jacqueline. How are ya?
1:17
Good. I'm so excited to be here.
1:19
Oh my gosh, this is gonna be so much fun.
1:21
This is so much fun. I and I have to tell your audience I've been listening you for a couple of years now. And I'm just I'm so excited. It was almost like having one of those, you know, celebrity moments.
1:35
And now you're here and you're like, oh, that buildup was kind of before we got on. Before we got on camera before we started recording, I was telling Jackie just, you know, a random conversation like about how my lips are tattooed, and how we neither one of us like to put on makeup. So I was going for the easy way out and all these things. So it's the funniest thing, you just pick up the you pick up the zoom, and it's like your old friends. Exactly.
2:01
That's the best. That's the best way to do it.
2:04
I think it's just fun. I mean, it's such a small community when you get really down to it. And you and I are on the same page wanting to help interior designers needle forward in our business. So it's like it's just meeting a kindred soul, kindred soul, kindred soul. So, Jackie, let's let's talk about your commercial designer. Instructor. And now you're doing and now marketing. How is this? Let's just start with the origin story. How did this evolve?
2:35
It started, I actually was in marketing. So I was in marketing for 20 plus years, about 15 effort for big, huge corporations about seven working with small businesses. And, you know, I just decided that I wanted to go back to school. And, you know, I did what everybody does, I'm like, oh, what would I be good at what I want my next career to be at. And I really liked interior design. I was around a little bit as a kid because my mom was an interior designer for a period of time. And I thought, Okay, I'll go back to school, I'll take a class, talk to my husband and my class. I took, and I and I ended up going to two classes that first semester and that was all but it took. And so I started working in an architecture firm, immediately. I basically finagled my way in there saying, hey, I can help you through marketing if you teach me this industry. So yeah, and that's how I did it. And so by the time I actually graduated with the degree, I had already worked at three different architecture firms.
3:32
Wow. So yeah, really been exposed to a lot at that point
3:36
I had. And that was kind of how it all got started. And that's also how I got into teaching. But because by the time I was to that point, I started teaching right away, because I'd already had that experience. And I had a degree from before and I had a lot of wisdom and what I tell a lot of my students, so you I had a transferable skills, get a look at your transferable skills. What have you done previously, that you can build into this career?
4:01
Oh, that's so true, too. And everybody brings their own unique spin to it.
4:05
Yeah, absolutely. And so when I was in design, I found that there was a big disconnect. And I saw that we had these really big firms and I worked for both small and large architecture firms. So there are big ones, and there were large ones. But I saw in the desert design, that we weren't really doing a great or fabulous job of really building our businesses. And there's a lot I think it's like 84% of those who start businesses stay in the solopreneur in interior design. And the thing about it is no one taught us in design school, how to market ourselves, how to build a brand, how to create a business that we can eventually sell, and that we could eventually, you know, grow to be bigger than us. And so that was one of the things I saw this disconnect and it was so different going into the architecture firms from my experience in corporate marketing, and these big corporations, what we do for professional development, how we really, you know, build out our teams, our leadership, it was just a lot different. So I decided I was gonna I love teaching, I absolutely loved my students. So I thought I would take that aspect of teaching and all this years of experience that I had, and I would bring it into this course or into this company. How can I help designers? How can I help them build their dream? And there's absolutely nothing if you want a solo practice. That is, that's great. But understanding what that dream looks like, and how do you build that? So you're not just building your job, right? It's J, OB, the J. OB, because you think about it, why did we leave the the boss or the company that we were at designing? And most likely, it's because we had a crappy manager, we didn't want to, we want to choose RM projects. We've heard that one 1,000,001 times, we want to design more? Well, the truth of the matter is, if you look at it just in that point, a lot of times we end up not thinking bigger. And we kind of play small, because we're like, Well, I just want to work on these cool projects. Now,
6:13
that was me back in the day, it was like, Yeah, I'm gonna set my own schedule, have all sorts of flexibility, work with really cool clients and make a bucket of money. Yeah, that's true. It
6:25
doesn't happen that way. So you really have to put those systems and processes in place, you have to put the habits in place to support that you really have to understand even from your mindset, you know, not having that limited mindset that comes with us from our childhood. I don't know how in the world. This baffles me. Every time I think about it. We have these limiting beliefs that come from our childhood. I'm like, Are you kidding me? I'm screwing up my kids to
6:54
classes. I know. And they're just that, and I think it comes from our parents, but also society. Oh,
7:01
yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Especially in the time that I grew up. And I think you and I probably around the same age of what we're supposed to be seen heard from and oh,
7:12
that rings a bell. Yeah. Sit there and look pretty,
7:16
pretty. Don't say anything, not part of this conversation.
7:20
Yeah, let me punch in the throat. Got something to say?
7:26
Oh, that kind of plays into it. It you know, what we do and plays into how we build businesses. And so having a more realistic view of that, and really having the resources and I was thinking about it not too long ago, what was the number one thing I would do if I if I started all over today? Yes,
7:45
yes, yes, yes, I
7:47
would ask for help. I know that seems kind of silly. But when I first started in, I went out on my own, I was like, Oh, I can do this. I I'm smart. I know how to do this. And I'm going to do great. And the number of times that I got stuck and couldn't pass through that. Or couldn't push through that. Because I was ashamed. I was just shamed that about asking for that help of if screaming out the visibility and saying, Oh, I don't know all the answers. Right? It stopped me. And so how do we ask for help as designers and that's where my company comes in as I want to help you I want to help you grow and be the best version your business be the best version that you want it to be?
8:31
I love that. And do you do residential? Or do you focus strictly on commercial? Now I only when you did your business.
8:39
I only did commercial for the most part. Now when COVID happen. I had to trance I did a lot of drafting for other designers. So I picked up some residential work, right? And I'm like a lot of people I started and they can Oh, I'm gonna do residential. And I took my first residential client was like, Okay, I feel like a marriage counselor. Yeah, I'm done. I liked my marriage. I don't mean yours. And I, I realized commercial made a lot more logical sense to me. And that's kind of how I evolved into the logical.
9:10
I'm not sure. So when I started getting in volved, more in the design side, I started by home staging, and deck like more of a personal shopping decorator, which just that was miserable as well. But as I started moving up and up leveling my business into the into more of the model that it is now there. I asked for help, and nobody was out there giving it so I'm not sure if it's the same on the commercial side. But back when I started, like everybody was hiding their content as if it was like the national secret. Exactly.
9:47
And that was baffling to me when in marketing. Yeah, there was a lot of people that were kind of, you know, stepping over people to get ahead. But there were so many I had so many mentors. I had so many people along the way that I You can ask questions of. And when I got, I worked at one architecture firm and all the women snubbed me, like they stump me that had talked to me the entire time. And it took me a long time to kind of get into their little niche. It was like I was a competition. And I'm like, I'm not here to compete for whatever attention or whatever you think I'm here for, right? I just want to do this design thing. And, you know, figure this out. And I was just talking to another designer last week, and our experience was so much as very similar to mine being held back and people not wanting to share, like, they're not going to share their trade secrets. This is not I mean, we're not doing rocket science here. This isn't defense. I mean, yeah, the more we share with each other, and the more we build each other up the matter or industry is the stronger we are together
10:53
a man I laugh because honestly, I look back. And this was, let's just say 2012 2013 2014. I, and I think the people that were asking, Jackie, I think they didn't know the answers. Very possible. So so like I had asked him like, how do you do this? And how do you do that, and they, I think a lot of them just muddled through and we're running like, like we're taught kind of, we were talking about earlier, before we started hitting record, just like it's a hobby, so they didn't know what they were doing. They just kind of went off of instinct and didn't have the processes and the procedures that you need for a business business.
11:33
Right. And that we I see it all the time. I mean, I looked at when I first got out and decided I was going to go out on my own. I worked with a designer to help her with her projects, and she was going to sell a practice. And she had been doing it for 35 years, she was ready to retire, she was tired. And when we really I was so excited, she's like, I think you're gonna be great. I think that, you know, I can mentor you and you could buy this. But when we really got into the details, she did our business to sow. Yeah, we had her relationships, but they weren't anything unique. She didn't have any systems, she didn't have any processes. If admitted, by the seat of my pants, maybe you can help me build the systems out.
12:18
I can buy it from you. Let me
12:21
work. Well, there's nothing for me to buy. Yeah, though, you have great relationships, you are the business, you didn't actually build that into the actual business itself. They're, they're separate entities. And so many times As designers, we think, Oh, I am the business. You have to think of it as a separate entity. It is its own thing.
12:43
And so let's talk about the marketing aspect of this. So yes, you have to market you have to have your business as a standalone. But then when it comes to marketing it, I think one of the things that I struggled with, sometimes I still struggle with it, I think our audience probably struggles with it, is because you are the business you get so busy being the business, but then you need to be marketing the business. How do you do both? Like or? And why is it important to market your visit business when you're busy? Because you know, because you're you're, you're planting the seeds.
13:24
You're You're absolutely right. And that is one of the big challenges that we have as small businesses, we ramp up and we market market market market, and then we get a bunch of clients, and then we're so busy serving them, that we let that marketing, you know, kind of fall down. And we're not in front of our core audience. We're not sharing our brand. We're not being consistent. And the key to successful marketing is consistency. And I think that is one of the hardest things that whether you're an interior designer, whether you're an architect, whether any, any small business is staying consistent within your marketing, and how do you do that when you're busy? And it's creating strategies that can work even when you can't work on them. Okay, so that again, so it's working, it's creating strategies that are working for you, when you can't work on them.
14:14
There you go. That's a that's a that's a little nugget. Yeah, so
14:18
let me give you an example of that. One of the things I really encourage everyone to do is network and build those strategic partnerships. When you network, I am shocked by the number of designers who do not network and that have been around for a while they have their referral base and in they've kind of built that up whether they know it or not. But those are just getting started or those that have only been in the business, you know, less than 10 years. When we network and make connections, those connections go out and sing our praises and they talk about us when we build those strategic partnerships for interior design that might be a contractor that might be a real estate broker. that might be another architect that doesn't have interior design services within their firm. When we build those strategic partners, they're actually doing our sales for us for our marketing. And that's not going to be all the time by any means. But they're going to bring us in if they like working with us. If we serve their clients, well, they're going to remember us. And so that's just one little marketing thing that you don't really think about the willows that marketing. Yes, absolutely. Building your relationships and having other people word of mouth marketing is huge.
15:33
That and I think, if you have enough of those, you know, just onesie twosie here and there, you have the opportunity to cherry pick some of the projects that you do want to work on, and you don't have to feel like you have to take them all.
15:46
Absolutely. And I think that is one of the biggest challenges, especially when you're first getting started is you take on everything in anything that you possibly can get your hands on, because you're not I'm not gonna say the word desperate, but you feel desperate to bring in money. And so you're taking projects and clients on that aren't in your wheelhouse or that your eyeball?
16:09
Yeah, and they suck the life out of you. Yeah,
16:11
they really. I was talking to a designer and she, she had a client or a prospect. And he kept comparing everything she did to Home Depot, and I and I was meeting with her, I'm like, you go back and you fire and say I'm sorry, I'm not the best designer for you. I can't work with you. Because I promise you down the road, three months, whatever that is, he is going to be a bigger pain. If he's a pain this way. And he's comparing you to Home Depot. And what he has your pricing at Home Depot, then he's not your ideal client. And I know you want the work, but that's not the work you want. Home Depot, Home Depot, like, I could get that tile at Home Depot.
16:56
Good luck, buddy. Yeah,
16:57
she did. Thankfully she did. I'm like I promise you those type of clients that want to compare nickel and dime you want they aren't your ideal. And there's it's too much work for the little bit of reward that they come
17:12
in. Absolutely. Yeah. And you know what, it barely even pays for covering up the gray hairs? Yes. I will get a lot of exactly. Okay, so let's go back to you talking about, you know, like your marketing is working for you that that little nugget that you that you had dropped earlier. But it sounds like how now how do you simplify your efforts, so that they are working for you when you're not working on them? You really
17:43
have to look at the system, what is your process. And so, for instance, email marketing is by far one of the best ways that you can continue to be in front of your prospects, sharing your, your design style, sharing some tidbits about you know, different design elements like, for instance, during the holidays, maybe you put out a blog of a, you know, blog, or some kind of what we call a lead magnet, something somebody wants, you know, something that they were willing to do. And you put that out on here's some design, or here's some decorating tips to help you through the holidays, without feeling cluttered or something of that sort, is you build a new, you get that you start to attract people and get their email when someone goes to your website, they're not necessarily ready to buy right now. Right? Just think of the website is your foundation. And so they're not ready to buy. And so you have to nurture them along until they're ready to buy. And one of the best ways of doing that is email marketing. So what is your system for doing that? How often do you want to email? What is your email? Basically template, like we send out an email every week, once a week, because I don't do it any more than that. Because I don't like to bombard. But it basically is a very short three paragraphs of me telling something authentic, whether it be a story, whether it be something that's happening in the business, and then I give additional resources to help that person. And so my idea is that, that whole strategies, okay, it's something really simple. All you have to do is write this little email. I've done it for the next six weeks. You know, you can have a VA set it up for you. I have a marketing manager that manages all that stuff. And you set that up and it goes out automatically through your system. And you can then mark it when you're not actually when you're busy working on your clients. It's looking at how can I schedule How can I build a system out we use a software called later.com that we can schedule out all of our social media posts between now in the next three months. So when you do get busy one we batch our time So we create a bunch of things all at one time, just like emails I write yesterday afternoon and read wrote four emails, that's four weeks of content, but batch your time and then put them, you know, schedule them out and something called in later.com. You can even engage on that software. And, you know, talk back and forth to people through it as well. And then you also see analytics of how well your social media is doing. It's thinking through that system.
20:30
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.
21:53
I love that. I love that does later.com Do your email marketing as well. I mean, your email,
21:59
they only do social media. And so yeah, but you can absolutely absolutely every email software out there allows you to buy to develop a template and when I say template, you know what your header and branding butter. Yeah, your standard branding so that all you have to do is you know, duplicate it, read drop in your new content, get it scheduled,
22:21
I need to talk to you about Sightmark I'm just gonna do a flagrant plug right here. We have a software that we've developed. I'm a co founder of it. Email marketing, social media. automations DMS, same thing. So it's like if later.com and say I guess mail Active Campaign how to baby. Yeah, Callen. Calendly has a baby,
22:46
I would totally be interested in my clients. Yeah, exactly.
22:49
So there's a shameless plug. And for those of you who are listening, I think there's a commercial on my podcast that that talks more about it, you can go to my side mark.com. And Jack, you and I will talk about that offline. Yeah,
23:03
because, you know, that is part of the system of having, okay, if this here, this here, this here, this here, it can be a little bit, but if you had it all on place, that's
23:13
huge. But that's why we developed this. Okay, so I'm not gonna hijack this podcast to go to Sightmark. But what you're saying is so relevant, because as I was growing my business and having come out of corporate, I knew that email marketing is huge, because social media can go away, you know, if Mark Zuckerberg, you know, sneezes, and you know, a burps at the same time. And then having that automation so that you don't have to do it manually all the time. And then you have it with your CRM. So you can you can you can, you can build your email list, and you can do your pipelines with your warm leads and stuff and nurture them as well. Like I was looking for this forever. So what you're saying is so on point with growing a business and staying organized with your processes and procedures in an outbound marketing,
24:11
it is absolutely important, what systems are what people don't realize what systems and processes when you take the time, and it is it's not easy. It's really, yeah, it's an investment, you have to get really detailed on what this looks like and what it's going to look like. But when you build that out, and you have those systems and processes, it makes it so much easier to get more done. And to do it consistently and to reduce human error. And it allows when you go to hire somebody whether it's a virtual assistant whether you're hiring somebody marketing, whether you're hiring somebody, another designer, having those systems in place allows you to guarantee the consistency of what you're delivering, whether that be marketing, whether it be design services, products, that you can be Barry, hate to keep saying that word consistent, but every single person that goes to your website, every single person that signs up for email, every person that buys from you has the same great experience.
25:13
That's like a restaurant. So if you guys think about some of the most successful, and I'm just gonna say chains for the time being I know there's great, you know, mom and pop shops, but the most successful chains are because you walk in and or let's just go to Starbucks, right? You go to Starbucks, and it's consistent. Whether you're in the Pacific Northwest, or, you know, Sunny Florida, you can walk in, and it's the same experience. It's the same recipe. It's the same vibe. And
25:44
we use them as a great example, from a branding standpoint, did you know that they did not even market their coffee for 30 years? 30 years, they did not market themselves, to everybody else marketed for them. And the genius I know, and you think about the branding, I guarantee every listener is like, Oh, I totally recognize when I just see the woman on the cup, that, you know, green logo. You in now just want to sign in the airport. And you're like, oh, there's a Starbucks. Yeah, like, you don't even have to see the word Starbucks anymore. You just know. And she's a great example of, you know, providing that experience. And their customers doing the marketing for them. Yeah, creating raving fans, raving fans, and they are crazy. It doesn't matter what time of day you go by Starbucks, and there's a line, I'm like it 10 o'clock at night.
26:41
Get a decaf. Like, I'll be up all night. But okay, so some marketing strategies, just to kind of recap, you've got the email marketing, like having your email list, the referrals, or strategic partners,
26:58
making sure your website is your foundation, because it's like 85%, I've seen the number go up as high as 92% will go to your website before they actually contact you. Yes, that is huge. That's
27:12
like your online. That is your personality, personality.
27:15
And it needs to be authentic to you as well. That's a big thing this year, too, with, especially with AI coming out. And there's so many AI products out there. You don't want to forget, some of them are incredibly useful. But you don't want to forget that authentic, they're doing business with you. And you talk you asset earlier them personal versus business, it's okay to have a business brand and your personal brand, your personal brand is part of the business brand. And
27:43
love that. And it's so important that it reflects you because like Jackie the way you would market yourself and the way I would market myself if we were let's just say we were both doing commercial or we were both doing residential design or whatever, they would look at your website and my website and completely have different personalities. Not so trying to be a cookie cutter interior designer works against you if I'm not mistaken. Yeah,
28:11
absolutely. You need to be unique and need to be sharing why you're unique. And there are quite a few in that brand. And and how you establish that brand is what's going to set you apart.
28:22
Yeah, and your personality, let it shine through whether you are you know, proper and traditional, or, you know, rebellious and rock and roll be
28:31
who you are, be who you are. And I think that is more apparent today than ever before. The other thing that I would say, too, is, you know, don't forget about your visibility. I know it's really easy when we get really busy to sit in our office and do our construction documents or you know, pick out finishes or whatever your specialty is that you have to be visible. And I mean, like for me, I'm an introvert. being visible is not my isn't my natural being I like to work and put my head down and just get my work done. Right.
29:07
I know you're saying being visible and I'm already getting getting nervous.
29:09
Yeah, it starts hurting starting to sweat and weird places. That's how I feel. But putting ourselves out there. And yes, there are some really crappy people out there that might say bad things. But keep in mind, it's somebody said this to me just last week, that the people that are judging you, or making those comments are not your target market to stop worrying about him. Your family judging whether you're gonna be successful in a business or not is not your target audience. So don't worry about what your family says. Now, I mean, obviously you need the support of your husband or spouse or you know, whatever that is, but you know, as far as mom and dad setting then house going well are you sure you want to go out on your own? Are you sure you want to have a paycheck? What about health care? Oh my goodness, what are we going to do about health care? So those things keep in mind that the people that are making those remarks are not your target audience. And that's that being visible. And just being a part of your community, I think is really important for so many reasons. from a health standpoint, from your business standpoint, the more you're out there, being visible, sharing what you have to give to the world, the more people will be drawn to you.
30:21
I love that. And it's funny that you say that I was going live today, I'm hosting a workshop called rolling in the dough. And it's still awkward for me to get on camera, you know. And so I literally went on to Instagram and did a story saying, Look, I've been doing this for years, and it's still weird. It's still weird looking at myself talking to a group of people on Zoom, or, or looking at myself on a story it and we're but we're our own worst critic.
30:56
We are the worst critic, then we'll just do it. Yeah. And we're comparing ourselves, I heard this to somebody, when you look at Instagram, you're going through your combat, comparing your inner self with their outer self, yes, your inner and your outer show. And so you have to set that aside and just put yourself out there. And if you make mistakes, it is okay. And other people. For me, if I see somebody make a mistake, I'm like, Oh, good. I'm not the only one that's done that. Yeah,
31:25
I think more people, what I try to promote is that perfection is just perception. So if you hop onto the gram, and you're trying to act all perfect, you know, it. First of all, it's not reality. And, you know, it's just I think people like the realness and the rawness. You know, there's a great place for beautiful pictures dropped out of your rooms that you design and style. But for yourself so much easier. Just being a dork. People
31:57
can relate to you much more. So yeah, I feel like the morale, dorks were so outcasted in high school, but I feel like as adults, they totally taken over the role role doing it?
32:11
Yes, for sure. Okay, what else do I want to ask? So? What do you what does your company do for designers do you, like, tell us tell us about that you have courses, you have services, you've got something brewing that's about to be officially launched.
32:34
So what we've done is we've put together both the courses and the marketing, so services, so if you need somebody to help you and do all the marketing for you, then we're that resource, if you want to do it yourself, and you know, kind of your di wire, which is a word we use. And we notice, we know and design world, if somebody is a DIY er, we're like, Alright, thanks. See you later. Oh, yes. In this case, I think of it as, hey, if you want to do some of this stuff on your own great, here's some courses we have a branding CEU course. So you can get like 1.5 credits at the idcc for the course. And we'll have more coming out this year that are accredited. And, you know, how do you build those skills up? Because we just didn't have them in school. Or if we did have a class in school, it wasn't that we weren't necessarily been able to apply what it means today. We didn't have necessarily have that wisdom to know or we forgotten because it's been a few years. And so how do we so we create the courses to help people who want to do it on their own. And then on top of that, then we offer the marketing services. What we're working on right now that is actually just launching is our hobby to profitability quiz, and masterclass. And so this is really looking at where your business is, is it a hobby? Or is it a business? And then what are those steps to pull it into a business and so we offer a free masterclass is just an hour. And you can, you know, take the quiz and then learn what that means. Because so many times we've, we've created our own jobs. And that's not really the point of owning a business, right? Oh, you need a business you want something that is, can operate and continue to make money even when you go on vacation. Even when you decide to retire. What are you building? Are you building a legacy? Are you building something you can sell? What does that look like? And knowing what that is? And so it's really digging into that hobby to profitability? What is our mindset that is preventing us from being a profitable business? What are the systems and processes that we're that we need to set forth to build that into building a business? And then our habits are critical to your success even in business?
34:51
Habits, that can be a whole different podcast. Oh, that could be a huge podcast.
34:55
Habits are just so important. And they whether you note or not you have habits? Some good some bad? Absolutely.
35:03
Yeah, I can name quite a few.
35:07
We won't talk about that.
35:10
So, Jacqueline, what? So what is the favorite part of your work?
35:16
Well, my favorite part, I think it's helping other people. You know, we, I've coached people, and just to hear them, like that light bulb come on, just that, you know, that moment where they're like, oh, I can do this, oh, there's some good ideas, I can apply these, I look at everything we deliver, we try to deliver in practical. So we have lots of articles, lots of different resources for people I want it very, that was number one rule, very practical. If I pick this up, and I read it, I want step by step instructions on how to get this done. And that's what I like, I like being able that somebody can do that on their own, or come to us, and we'll help them. But they haven't. I like
35:57
that too, because you have the course that's the DIY for the individuals that can't yet afford to outsource and hire somebody. But once they get to that point, they can turn around and hire you because they've already trusted you based on the DIY content you gave them. I think that's a that's a genius. Business model.
36:19
Yeah. And part of that, too, is I love writing content. I love sharing what I know. And it comes down to this was when I all of a sudden dawned on me, then my oldest son came out of college, he moved back home for a period of time, so you can save up and buy a little condo. And he gotten a marketing internship, and subsequently job and lead into what he does now. But he was asking me questions about different marketing aspects. And I realized at that moment that I know, I forgotten more about marketing, then this kid fresh out of school with his marketing degree, knows about marketing. Yeah, I need to share that. And I need to, you know, share that because I'd love those conversations so much fun are, you know, when your kids in that becoming an adult, your relationship changes with them. I mean, I still over mother him probably more than he would like. But as you become more respectful in the sense that you're both adults, but they still ask you questions, they still want to know, information. And so I realized there was a lot of things that I knew that I could share with other, you know, people, especially designers, to help them grow as well.
37:26
That makes sense. I think that's such a beautiful spirit that comes through in your conversation, you know, you you care about helping others.
37:36
Absolutely. And it probably comes partly from just loving being a mom for so many years. And then as they got older, it's like, I want to know
37:46
who can you nurture. Yeah, exactly. So if you could look back, or if you could go back in time and meet your 20 year old self, what would you tell her?
37:56
I would tell her that she was going to be amazing. And that she will conquer anything and everything she put forth, not to be scared. Oh, I love that. Yeah, you can't be scared. It's I really wish I was less
38:09
scared. Yeah, especially in our 20s. Yeah,
38:14
I would have got I think I would have gotten a lot further. I also would have told her stand up for herself a little bit once you got bullied at work, but whatever.
38:22
You got to bully a bully.
38:24
Yeah, exactly. But what we know now I love the wisdom you get as you go along. Amen.
38:29
So on that note, is there any piece of wisdom or advice you'd like to leave the audience?
38:35
Believe in yourself, you can do this and wake up every morning. A great book, of course, this is Mel Robbins, high five. We don't celebrate ourselves enough. And so give yourself a high five every morning in the mirror. And I do it every morning. Still, I read that book, right after it came out. And there's truth in it is celebrating your wins. And believing in yourself that you can do things. So when that little voice comes out and starts, you know, giving you negative talk. Think about that. Would you say those things to your child to your mate to your partner? Did you say those things out loud to someone else? And the answer's no. You would never do that. That would be so why voice? Yeah. Why are you saying those things to yourself then? Good. Yeah. And so I would, you know, leave that have you believe in yourself, you can accomplish everything you want.
39:32
I love that, too. Will you tell the audience how they can connect with you? Absolutely.
39:36
So the best way to connect with us is through our company website behind behind the design co.com Sorry, it took me a minute I almost got my own website behind the design code.com And actually that's most of our social handles as well as behind the design. koat.com
39:56
Perfect, I will make sure that those details are We're all listed in the show notes, so that our audience if y'all are driving, you don't have to write it down. I've got it. I've got that covered for y'all. And if y'all want to business bestie, sending business tips, encouraging words, event updates, and so forth directly to your fingertips, you can text the word bestie to 855-784-8299. And I will be, it'll be at your fingertips with encouragement, and with business tips. You'll hear from me on the regular, but I promise, there's no spam. So y'all, thank you for being here. Choose to be great today. And every day, and thank you, Jacqueline, for being here.
40:42
Oh, thank you. I appreciate it.
40:45
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 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 fun. 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
