A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business Podcast

What is your vision for your design business? How do you manage to balance work and life? Are you managing it, or has the business taken over your life? When you’re in the middle of the day-to-day of running a business, it can be easy to forget why you started in the first place. Whether it is creative freedom, income to support your family, or a dream that has finally taken flight, it is so impor...

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...

Today we are in for an incredible treat. John Rhulin is the founder of the Ruhlin Group, a powerhouse company that helps high-end firms reach their audience, maintain customers, and gain referrals through Gift-Giving. John has roots as a salesman, but by seeking opportunity, reaching for excellence, and learning the huge value of gratitude, John has created a Group with high-end clients such as th...

Today, we have Cynthia Spence on show with us. She is the Principal of Cynthia Spence Design, which is a Full-Service Interior Design firm,  located in the San Francisco Bay Area and it caters to both Residential and Commercial clients. Cynthia feels that the world has become increasingly more noisy and so it's really important to her to create environments that are both soothing and restorative f...

My guest today is Maria V. Kutruff, principal of Viola Interior Design, which is located in the Philadelphia area. Over the last 14 years, Maria’s work has ranged from designing custom furniture to designing office spaces to the renovation of entire residences. She is active in the American Society of Interior Designers, having served on its board and received several awards. She received her mast...

The guest for today's Power Talk Friday is Jody Padar. She's a CPA and she also has a podcast called 'Let's Get Radical', so she goes by the name 'The Radical CPA'. Jody is the CEO and the Principal of New Vision CPA Group, which is a Public Accounting firm based in the Chicago area. Jody joined her father's firm more than ten years ago and today, we talk with her about what happened when she firs...

Today we have Kamila Gornia, a Digital Marketing Strategist, on the show and she's here to help demystify Facebook Ads for us. LuAnn is particularly interested in this topic, because she herself, doesn't have a very good grasp on it. This means that she's tended to put the brakes on with the use of social media in her business, not really knowing if it would be effective enough to be worth spendin...

My guest for today’s amazing show is Candy Scott, the Principal of MOOD Design + Build, based in Chicago. She gives practical advice on launching, growing, and sustaining an interior design business. Candy has 15 years’ experience in both commercial and residential design. She graduated from Meredith College in Raleigh, NC, with a BS in Interior Design. You’ll hear her describe how her early exper...

Great news! We have Fred Berns back on the show today, for Power Talk Friday! Fred has been with LuAnn in episodes #22, #48, #96 and #174, so they really go way, way back! If you're new to this show, you have a really great treat in store, because Fred is a Coach, specializing in the Interior Design Industry. He has been coaching and writing promotional copy for Interior Designers for more than th...

You're probably wondering what LuAnn's doing here on a Thursday, right? Well, this is a news flash that needed it's own show and its own announcement,  so here it is: LuAnn, together with Nancy Ganzekaufer, the first person on the show to introduce the concept of niching in Interior Design (episode #9), is launching a ten week, Live Coaching Session and it's called Money, Mindset And  Sales. LuAnn...

Today is the third show in the series which has been sponsored by Certified Cruelty Free Design, which is the heart project and brainchild of Deborah Rosenberg, of DiMare Design in Miami, Florida. If this is the first time that you're listening to this show, you can go back and listen to #82, where we met Deborah Rosenberg, to find out more about her and how she runs her business. Then, in episode...

The guest on today's show is Allison Fannin, the Texan Principal of Two Thirty-Five Designs. LuAnn invited her on the show for a very specific reason- and then, while researching her, she discovered that Allison actually had twenty-seven thousand followers on Pinterest! Allison graciously agreed to make the focus of today's discussion about the figuring out of the whole Pinterest thing. So, listen...

On today's episode of Power Talk Friday, LuAnn has an absolutely ridiculous treat for you!  She has Lee Cockerell with her, who's name may or may not be familiar to you... He has spent his career leading operations all over the world, for Hilton Hotels, Mariott Hotels, and Walt Disney Company. He spent more than twenty years with the Walt Disney Company, where he ultimately became Executive Vice P...

Today we have the second show in our Facebook Coaching series. If you missed the first show, it was episode #215, where LuAnn spoke with Kate O'Hara, the Marketing and Business Development Director at Martha O'Hara Interiors. There she spoke about how to build your following on your Facebook Business Page. Martha O'Hara Interiors has over two hundred thousand followers, so she really has some pret...

Today we have a particularly inspiring episode! If you're the type of businessperson who takes action and can appreciate it when others do too, you're really going to learn a lot from today's guest, Darci Hether. She's on the show today to let you know that if and when you come across new ideas or business strategies, if you not only hear them, but you also implement them, you can change your busi...

The guest for today's Power Talk Friday is A.J.Wilcox and he brings a brand new topic to the show. In the more than two hundred episodes that have aired over the past year and a half, we have never before discussed Linkedin and so A.J. has just become our Linkedin Guru. LuAnn has never considered Linkedin to be a particularly hot platform for the Interior Design Industry, because Interior Design i...

Today, we have the second show in our sponsored content series by Cruelty Free Design. Deborah Rosenberg, of DiMare Design and the founder and creator of Cruelty Free Design, has sponsored three shows. The first show was episode #212, where we spoke in depth about Cruelty Free Design and the program that she has developed. Today's show is going to feature the marketing and the resources that you g...

Have you heard of the Morpholio Project yet?  Well, today LuAnn has something pretty cool to share with you. Morpholio is an IOS app and LuAnn has the co-creator, Anna Kenoff, with her, on the show. This app was designed as a tool for your presentations, for working with and collaborating and critiquing presentations, with your clients.  The news about this app has been featured in Wired, Fast Com...

The guest for today's Power Talk Friday is Natalie Eckdahl and LuAnn is absolutely delighted to welcome her to the show! Natalie has really helped LuAnn in her journey and even after thirty years of being in business, there are things that she's learned from Natalie and taken back to Window Works!  Listen in to find out what Natalie has to share with you today. Natalie is the founder of the Biz Ch...

Today, we have Kate O'Hara back on the show. Kate handles the marketing for Martha O'Hara Interiors and she has managed to grow their Facebook Page to two hundred thousand followers- enough to almost make LuAnn's brain explode! A lot of Designers have Facebook Pages, so Kate has graciously agreed to come back on the show, to help you to figure out and understand how you can try to duplicate what s...

Welcome to a solo show with a big purpose! I’m dedicating this episode as a bona fide, unsolicited shout-out to Rachel Moriarty of Design + Style. I mention her often on the show because she is always impressive, but she just now hit the one-year anniversary of going Facebook Live to her consumer community EVERY DAY FOR ONE YEAR. To show my significant high five to Rachel for her accomplishment, l...

Welcome to another episode of Power talk Friday! Today LuAnn has Stephanie Chung with her on the show. Stephanie has a company called Stephanie Chung and Associates, where she offers Sales Training, Executive Coaching and also Small Business Mentorship, to companies nationwide. Stephanie also has a course, called High Ticket Selling Made Simple which has been designed to help business owners sell...

Today's show is a special one. It's a sponsored show- sponsored by Cruelty Free Designs, which is the brain child and love project of Deborah Rosenberg, of DiMare Designs in Miami, Florida. Deborah has been on the show before, on episodes #82 and #117 and now she's sponsoring three shows, to tell you- her colleagues, all about Cruelty Free Design. Listen in to find out more. These three shows will...

Today's guest on the show is Carly Waters, the Principal of Carly Waters Style. Carly has really loved design ever since she was a little girl. As the daughter of an attorney, however, she followed in her Dad's footsteps and became an attorney too. Listen in to find out how she ultimately managed to change that and follow her heart and her dreams. Carly graduated from UC Hastings in 2010 and start...

The guest for today's Power Talk Friday is Yian Quach.  Yian, who is originally from Seattle, Washington, has been designing websites since 2015 and he helps professionals in the Design Industry to cure their web site pain so that they can grow their businesses. There is a particular mention, on his website, that LuAnn found quite interesting- in addition to his role as Website Doctor, Yian really...