Welcome to another episode of A Well Designed Business! Today we have Adam Scougall on the show. He's someone who has become quite famous to all of us through the Facebook groups that we're in, where he's become our good friend and also someone that we really value! Today, Adam and LuAnn have decided to zero in on some really interesting topics, including photography and leaving your day job to become a full-time Interior Designer. Listen in now, to find out what Adam has to share with you.
Adam, who is an artist as well as an Interior Designer, opened his Interiors Consulting Business in New South Wales, Australia, in 2010 and ever since then, he has been creating and studying Residential Interiors for his clients, across New South Wales. His work has been featured in many national and international publications, including Home Beautiful, Real Living, Grand Designs Australia and Singapore's Metropolitan Home Magazine. What really hooked LuAnn about Adam is that he also has a full-time corporate job, which he has no intention of leaving in the foreseeable future. LuAnn really found this is very interesting, especially when they discussed the pros and cons of having a full-time job while running a Design Business on the side. So, listen in- you may find this really interesting if you are possibly in a similar position to Adam, working full time, while building your Interior Design Business.
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Adam's website: www.adamscougall.com.au
We have Jessica Brace with us as our guest on today's Power Talk Friday. LuAnn is very appreciative and happy to have her on the show, because she's really well sought after in podcasting circles, due to her expertise in Internet and Video Marketing. LuAnn has also enjoyed several other podcast episodes, where Jessica was the featured guest, talking about Facebook Live. So listen in, as Jessica shares some of her expertise about Facebook Live with you, today.
We're doing a whole series about Facebook Live on the show and statistics have been mentioned by more than a few of the guests recently, that by around 2020, approximately eighty percent of all social media will be done by video. We also know from others in the Design Industry, about how important Facebook Live, Instagram, and Snapchat have become. LuAnn finds Facebook Live to be a particular conundrum though, because, on the one hand, she sees it as a great platform for our really visual Industry, however, on the other hand, Designers do tend to struggle a bit with the mechanics of how to do it and sometimes even with the content. So listen in, as Jessica sheds some light on how to get going with Facebook Live and how to keep going, from there.
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Welcome to another episode of A Well Designed Business! Today we have Kendra Bester with us on the show. She's an Interior Decorator who runs her own firm in the Toronto area and today she talks to LuAnn about some of the challenges that she's faced and the things that she's learned in her first three years in business. She also discusses the importance of setting up great systems in your business and ensuring that you really have your finances in good order. Listen in to find out more about Kendra and the way she runs her firm.
Kendra received her degree in Environmental Science from the University of Guelph. She then switched career tracks and enrolled at Humber College, in their Interior Decorating Program. She graduated there with first-class honors and she's now a Certified Interior Decorator. Listen in today, to find out more about Kendra's take on the business side of Design.
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Welcome to A Well Designed Business! Today we have a really special treat for LuAnn (and hopefully for you too). We have Interior Designer Marina Umali of Marina V Design Studio in New Jersey with us and on today's show she discusses the art of Feng Shui and how she uses this practice in conjunction with her Interior Design work. At the time of recording this show, both Marina and LuAnn were really looking forward to the Lunch And Learn, where Marina presented Five Easy Steps To Invite Success Into Your Personal And Your Professional Life, With The Art Of Feng Shui, at the Window Works Showroom. Although the Lunch And Learn has already aired, you can still go over to www.facebook.com/awelldesignedbusiness and find it. Listen in to find out more!
Marina is a New York State Certified Interior Designer. She's lead accredited and she studied Architecture at Parson School Of Design and Interior Design at The Fashion Institute Of Technology. Marina worked as an Interior Designer for a number of different Architectural firms in New York City, before starting Marina V Design Studio. She is a Certified Feng Shui Practitioner and she is about to start her second term on the board of the International Feng Shui Guild. You may even remember Marina from the My Doma commercials that she recorded over the summer. Listen in now, to find out more about Marina and how she uses the art of Feng Shui to enhance her Designing.
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If you, as an Interior Designer, have any questions relating to Feng Shui, you can email Marina for answers. (marina@marinavdesignstudio.com)
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Use the link www.mydomastudio.com/awelldesignedbusiness to access the goodies that are there for you!
Welcome to today's Power Talk Friday! This is the next episode in our Facebook Coaching Series and we have the fabulous Molly Mahoney joining us on the show today. Molly is the Prepared Performer, the Camera Confidence Coach and she's also a Facebook Live Ninja! She really has an incredible amount of energy and passion for showing Entrepreneurs, Artists and Business Owners how to up their visibility and online presence by leveraging all the latest and most powerful features that Facebook has to offer. Listen in to find out more!
Today, Molly gives some really awesome tips on how to identify your ideal client, so that you can attract them to your Facebook Business Page. She also talks about how to understand Facebook Ads and about how to host Facebook Live broadcasts, to provide great value and build deeper relationships. Molly is the very first guest on this show to talk about Facebook Messenger Bots, which can really help you to attract more of your perfect clients and customers in a unique and reliable way. It is a bit complicated, so pay close attention and you're sure to get it. Molly also has a free gift for you today, so be sure to stay with us right to the end of the show. Listen in now, to learn about the really useful strategies that Molly has to share with you, to help you to effectively engage with people and to draw them into your Facebook Live Videos.
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To access everything that Molly has for you today, go to: www.thepreparedperformer.com/design
We are back together for another installment of Design Biz Live, in spite of all the obstacles and scheduling conflicts we’ve had to overcome to make it happen! I’m back with my trusted experts, Judith Neary of Roadside Attraction Design Studio, and Corey Klassen of Corey Klassen Interiors. One of our goals is to cover all aspects of the flat fee vs. hourly rate question that designers face. What we have discovered is that there is a more basic issue at stake that we must turn our attention to first. The issue is that YOU, as a designer, need to know what you are and are not most efficient at in your business. In other words, you need to break down the work of a designer into your personal strengths and weaknesses. Corey and Judith have developed a self-assessment for principals to use in evaluating all the different things we do for our clients. As industry leaders, Judith and Corey have spent a lot of time speaking in front of their peers, and they have developed this tool with the purpose of evaluating your skills as they relate to your design firm.
In this show, I talk with Judith about how solo firms and smaller firms can use the assessment to develop their fee structures.Let’s jump into this conversation!
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Links:
Corey's website: Corey Klassen
Judith's website: Road Side Attraction Studio
Download the Skills Worksheet Here: www.windowworks-nj.com/designbiz2
Welcome to today's show and happy birthday to LuAnn!
Today's guest, Angela Harris, is the principal of Trio Environments and she is a real dynamo! Trio Environments is one of the fastest growing Interior Design and Visual Merchandising firms in the USA today and in less than ten years, it is on track to becoming an international leader in Market-Driven Design. The company currently has over twenty employees and it manages more than seventy-six projects at any given time, both locally and nationally. More than twenty-one thousand homes have been sold with the assistance of Trio Environments, who has also generated over seven billion dollars in revenue to date, from Commercial and Residential clients. Listen in to find out more about Angela and the amazing success she's had with Trio Environments.
Angela has a B.S. in Marketing and Management, from the University of Colorado. After obtaining her degree, she went to work in an Engineering Firm but wasn't really happy there, because she didn't feel that she was living up to her full potential, so she dropped everything to pursue her dream career in Interior Design. She enrolled in an Interior Design program and spent her last five hundred dollars on business cards, direct mail and a few another start-up costs and then she launched Trio Environments. Angela also has a Masters Degree in Sustainable Design, from the Philadelphia University and she sits on the Denver Home Builders Association Board of Directors. She manages seven councils through the HBA and she sits on the Sales and Marketing Council for the National Association of Home Builders.
Angela has developed a three-part process, to give her company a competitive edge- it assesses a client's baseline value, through their Design program, it introduces Market Design principals and finally, it executes a design that's innovative, attractive and profitable. Listen in now, to find out how important it really is to be prepared and to have good systems in place and also to experience the passion that inspires Angela to fuse her market-driven approach with the creation of really beautiful spaces.
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Please give LuAnn a bit of birthday love today and go on over to iTunes and rate and review this show. She will really appreciate it!
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We have Lyndsay Phillips with us on today's Power Talk Friday. LuAnn is really looking forward to sharing her with you today because Lyndsay is a self-confessed organizational freak, appointed task manager, and project ninja. She's also a warrior VA (read Virtual Assistant) for Business Coaches, Accountants, Small Business Owners and Online Entrepreneurs. Her business is called Smooth Sailing Online Support and she also has a podcast called Sailing To Success Podcast. Listen in to find out more about Lyndsay, who really understands the challenges around hiring someone to help you, when growing your business and reaching the next level.
Lyndsay and her super team of VA's support entrepreneurs, just like you, who have fast-paced businesses with fast-paced growth. They really help people, by managing their back office, implementing their Marketing and strategizing and implementing their Social Media Campaigns. Listen in now, to find out how Lyndsay takes care of the detail and the moving pieces, which can all be quite overwhelming for really busy people.
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Today we have Jason Harris on the show and he's someone that LuAnn's been hearing a lot about recently. There seems to be quite a buzz going on around his relatively new platform, The Design Network, yet while doing some research about Jason and his background, LuAnn found herself very intrigued about his primary business, Furniture Land South. So on the show today, they talk about this primary business, as well as about the innovation and development of the Design Network. Listen in to find out more about Jason, his family business, and his really successful Design Network.
Jason's father started his business, way back in 1968, and in just one generation, he created Furniture Land South, the largest retail furniture store in the world! It covers one point three million square feet of space, they have a hundred and sixty Design Consultants working there, they represent more than a thousand brands of home furnishing companies and they turn over a hundred and fifty million dollars per year. Listen in now, to find out more about Furniture Land South and about how Jason developed the Design Network.
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LuAnn is really happy to have Carla Aston as her guest on today's show! Many of you may know Carla from her Design Blog, Designed With Carla Aston, where twice a week, she shares quality content and also her passion for Interior Design, with her two hundred thousand loyal followers. When Carla's inbox started getting really full of questions and messages from her readers, she branched out and started doing E-Consultations, where she personally and intentionally addresses home owner's questions about Design, via email. Then Carla realized that if she made E-Books on the same topics and dilemmas, with the same solutions as her E-Consultations, she would be able to sell these on her website too. Listen in now, to find out more about Carla, her Consultations, and her E-Books.
Carla, a very smart lady, obtained a B.F.A. In Interior Design and then spent nine years working in Architectural Design Firms, both large and small. Since then, Carla and her family have lived in Norway and Australia, which has really given her a great perspective on culture, lifestyle, architecture, and design, all of which she brings to both her business and her blog. Carla has invested time and money and she has built her career very intentionally, so listen in, because you are really going to love the way she explains all of this, on the show today.
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Welcome to another Power Talk Friday! Today we are very happy to have Gavin Zuchlinski on the show. He is the founder of Acuity Scheduling, which is the slickest way for businesses to automate and manage their appointments online because it actually allows your clients to schedule themselves. LuAnn has an inkling that the features of Acuity Scheduling may be even better than the one she's using, so she may be switching over... Listen in to find out more.
Gavin is a self-professed Tech Geek and an Espresso maniac, and he's also a really fun guy who truly and wholeheartedly believes that business should be fun. Acuity Scheduling currently supports over fifty thousand businesses, all of the different sizes, from solo-preneures to major corporations with thousands of employees. They have a really efficient Customer Service Department and their focus is on making life way easier for entrepreneurs and business owners. Listen in now to find out how Acuity Services could make your life much easier and help you run your business.
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If you'd like to try Acuity out, go to www.acuityscheduling.com/luann for an extended 45-day trial. (It's normally only for 14 days.)
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Today's show is another in our Facebook Coaching Sessions Series, where we're tackling the various aspects of Facebook and how to best leverage them, for your Interior Design Firm.
Today's guest is Marc Mawhinney and he is particularly skilled at working with Facebook Communities, so today, he will be discussing the best ways to go about setting these up and he also discusses the different nuances of Facebook Communities. At the end of the show, you will hear about the course that Marc is offering, called Facebook Gold. Listen in to find out more.
Marc, a lifelong entrepreneur, is a Coach for Coaches. He does this through his programs, via his Podcast, Natural Born Coaches and also through his particularly successful Facebook Group, The Coaching Jungle. When LuAnn asked the peeps in her Podcast tribe about who is really good at creating Facebook Community Groups and Facebook Pages, Marc was the man that everyone told her to invite. So, today, we are going to be finding out from him all about Consumer Facing Facebook Groups, where you would be helping and teaching consumers about Interior Design, hopefully with the end result that they would hire you, to be their Interior Designer. Listen in now, as Marc explains some great strategies for setting up a really vibrant Facebook Group.
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Marc's Facebook Group: www.theccoachinjungle.com
His Email: marc@naturalborncoaches.com
Today we have Katharine Earnhardt on the show! She's the Founder of Mason Lane Art Advisory, a Brooklyn-based company that styles walls with art and objects to fit client's taste, space and budget.
Keeping up with the art world inventory, resources and pricing is a full-time job, and Katharine explains how designers can get support in this area so they can appropriately source and pitch the right art to clients.
Katharine has a B.A. in Art History and Economics from Williams College and an M.A. in Art Business from Sotheby’s Institute. Katharine has experience working in the Management office of the Museum of Modern Art, in business development at Christie's, and leading the business development team at a international art appraisal and advisory firm, Gurr Johns. Katharine is well versed in Art History and art market dynamics and works with designers through by straight referrals as well as through her trade program called Mason Lane Partners (MLP).
Listen in to find out more about the kind of assistance that Katharine offers to Interior Designers through her boutique art advisory service.
Show highlights:
- Katharine talks about her company's Interior Design Forum, called In The Maoson, that she hosts in her living room. It’s a really great networking opportunity!
- The pain points around buying art, that Katharine helps and educates Interior Designers and her clients with.
- How Katharine helps people to spend wisely when buying art.
- The aspects of art that go beyond the aesthetics, which can really add to the quality of the piece and also to how one feels about the work.
- The value in educating your client about the meaning behind an artwork and what drives price.
- Sometimes a client doesn’t need new art, they could just rearrange, or re-frame what they already have.
- The ideal height to hang your artworks- a great place to start!
- Katharine’s upcoming Webisode, where she goes through the kinds of problems that Designers tend to face when advising their clients about art. Go to masonlaneart.com to sign up.
- Why Katharine created her Webisode.
- Some great tips for you, from Katharine’s Webisode.
- The best places for you, as Designers, to source art.
- Some great online resources for art.
- What you will get from working with Mason Lane.
- How Mason Lane's services save Interior Designers money and time.
- A really fun rule, around the use of color, form, and design.
- Coordinating the light fixtures with the art.
- A frame can really make or break a piece of art!
- Some tips for creating professional-looking gallery walls- they really take a lot of planning.
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Katharine’s website: http://www.
masonlaneart.com Katharine on Instagram: masonlane_art.