The Kate Show

As many of you know, I'm due with my first baby in July 2019. As I'm preparing for her arrival, I realize that now is the perfect time to share a bit more about my business model, my team, and why motherhood won't be taking me away from entrepreneurship. (Shout out to all my working moms who hustle hard and hug their kids every day. Balance isn't perfect, but you make it look good.) If you're curi...

Have you been looking for a way to take your interior design or home staging business to the next level? Some of the most lucrative business ideas can be implemented within an existing business and marketed to your existing audience, and this new business venture is no exception. Most of us are familiar with AirBnb, the revolutionary hospitality platform that allows home owners and property manage...

As a home industry professional, you know how much your client's experience with you matters from day one. In fact, the ease with which you bring them into the fold of your company speaks to your level of professionalism even before your creative work has had a chance to shine. Not only will your on boarding process shape your client's expectations, it will also create a lens through which they wi...

If you're ready to develop a mission statement for your interior design, home staging, or workroom business - one that cuts the fluff and focuses on the heart of what you do - stay tuned. This episode of The Kate Show takes a magnifying glass to the often overlooked mission statement and analyzes why it is a necessary component of every successful marketing strategy.

"I spilled wine on her white sofa...and she laughed." That was the subject line of one of my most successful email newsletters. My customers used it to introduce their clients to the wonderful joys of Crypton Fabric, resulting in custom furniture and re-upholstery projects. Open rates went through the roof anytime the email was sent - and it didn't matter or big or small their mailing list was. Tw...

Are you so burned out and bewildered by the 1,000+ pieces of marketing advice flying in your face that you don't know what to do next? Are you so overwhelmed by marketing or even just your own client load that the thought of cranking out a blog post, a newsletter, or a month's worth of social media is completely ludicrous? If so, it's time that you partner with a marketer. In today's episode of Th...

Did you know that Pinterest is a great way to promote your new line of home furnishings, your blog, and even your portfolio? While you might know it as a social platform, Pinterest is actually a search engine and an absolute powerhouse when it comes to sending the right traffic to your website. If you write blog posts that get very little attention, if your lead magnet isn't attracting new email s...

In today's episode of The Kate Show, I'm pulling back the curtain on what marketing fear is, how to know if you have it, and how to address the real root of your fear. (Spoiler alert: Your fear isn't really about marketing.)

Remember, if you have to lower your rates to land a project, you were chosen because the client believed you were "cheap." Don't blame the client; that's exactly what you told them! It sets the precedent for a project and a client relationship based on you working many unpaid hours, lowering your already low confidence, and allowing yourself to be taken advantage of by a bargain hunter who got exa...

If you've been in business for a few years, you've likely served many wonderful clients. Wouldn't it be great to work with them again? While they might not be ready for another batch of window treatments, another staging consultation, or a renovation, they likely could use one of your other services. This episode of The Kate Show spills the secret of how to reconnect with clients from long ago and...

When a client tells me that her past ad runs resulted in next to no phone calls, I know that at least one of these pieces was missing. While I'm not a huge fan of paid advertising in general, I do know how to make an ad work, and we're diving into every detail in this episode of The Kate Show.

I recently came across a blog post written by an interior designer that explained her reason for leaving Instagram, thus removing herself from social media entirely. It intrigued me with its refreshing perspective and made me dive back into the basics of modern marketing to answer the BIG question... Is social media really necessary to market your interior design, home staging, or workroom busines...

In this episode, I share 20 business marketing and management tools that will help make your home industry business more organized, professional, efficient, and profitable. Best of all, most tools are free or extremely affordable, and all have the potential to leave you feeling better about your self and more confident about where your business is headed. …and that is priceless.

Did you know that your level of confidence determines how effective your marketing will be? This is good news and not-so-good news for interior designers, stagers, and workroom owners. Why? Because mindset issues can’t be overcome by outsourcing, covering them up, or pretending they don’t exist (been there, tried that!). In this episode, I provide a 9 question quiz to help you determine whether yo...

As an interior designer, home stager, or workroom owner, you likely fall into one of two categories: You do email marketing on the regular You are skeptical about email marketing For those of you who already send email newsletters, prepare to take notes as we discuss 13 ways you can get more people to open each newsletter you send. For the rest of you who are unsure email marketing can even help y...

Have you ever been tempted to copy and paste your recent interior design, home staging, or workroom business blog post into a newsletter and hit send? Me, too. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work well for a number of reasons. Blog posts and email newsletters are not interchangeable. In fact, they play starkly different roles in your marketing. If you try to substitute one for the other, you’ll start...

Are you freaked out about your marketing? Marketing anxiety can come from four places: a lack of knowledge, not using a plan or setting goals, watching your competition too much, and trying to do it all yourself when you just don’t have the time. In fact, many of the interior designers, home stagers, and workrooms I speak with are in the awkward phase of, “I know what I should be doing, but I don’...

While you’ve been marketing your design, staging, or workroom business online, you’ve likely faced another hurdle: offline marketing. In today’s episode of The Kate Show, I’m shared the four steps to creating an offline marketing strategy that puts you in front of your ideal client, earns their trust, and puts them on your project schedule.

“Marketing takes too much time.” “I tried ______ to market my business and it didn’t work; I’ll never try it again.” “If I want results, I need to spend money on ads.” Ever caught yourself thinking these things? I hear them all the time from interior designers, stagers, and workroom owners. Marketing has been painted as being difficult and expense (mainly because marketing / ad / PR companies want...

I’ll bet you can think of at least one person who talks about themselves…a lot. I’m also sure you’ve noticed how difficult it is to have a relationship with that person. Whether they realize it or not, talking about the subject they know best, themselves, is a great people-repellent. In business, this is also true and not only comes at the expense of potential relationships, but also at a loss of...

Because I’m running a business, managing a team, and working with customers (hey, aren’t you doing that, too?), I have to be strategic about how I spend time marketing my business. I can’t do everything, and I sure wouldn’t want to try. In today’s episode of The Kate Show, I’m sharing 10 ways I’m not marketing my business. I hope this rebellious episode gives you the freedom to stop wasting time o...

Are you confused about SEO? Are you worried that your interior design, home staging, or workroom website won’t be found on the first page of Google? Just like social media, SEO has been over-complicated, overthought, and completely blown out of proportion. In fact, SEO anxiety has driven many business owners to spending hundreds of dollars they’ll never get back, all in the hope of “getting on the...

Do you ever wonder if half of your marketing efforts are a waste of time or money? You should. Learn how to assess and address this issue in today’s episode.

As a business owner who has become very open about faith and business over the past couple years, I’ve gotten a radical perspective on faith and business. Surprisingly, I’ve realized that the more personal I make my business, the more people want to connect with, partner with, and work with my brand. I’ve also discovered some non-offensive, effective ways to share my faith. In today’s episode of T...

Are you about to get a new website? Make sure it is designed correctly from day one by avoiding these top 20 design mistakes. These mistakes are far too common on interior design, home staging, and workroom websites. I’ll bet your site has at least one of these faux pas.