# 76 | Finding your Differentiator to Build a Successful Interior Design Business with Katie Gutierrez

Interior design Business1-Launching2-EstablishingInterior Design ProcessInterior Design ServicesMindsetAttracting Client

Mar 28

Written By Kate Bendewald

finding your differentiator with katie gutierrez

“I have the opportunity to deliver more value to people and that's why I do biographical design.” - Katie Gutierrez

In today's episode, I interviewed Katie Gutierrez, the creator of Biographical Design, an interior design system that uses the client's biographies as the foundation of her six-step design process. She also has a customer relationship management tool that helps interior designers increase their exposure and lead engagement called the My Gotcha App. In this episode, we take time to delve into the intricacies of work-life balance and intentionality within the design business.

Using Biographical Design in your Interior Design Business

Katie has created an innovative concept of biographical design, a signature process that involves delving into a client's biography to inform personalized interior design choice. Katie shares how she aims to pull six key elements from the client's biography in the design of their home, ensuring it serves as a true reflection of their identity. When creating beautifully and well thought out designs for our interior design clients, it is very important to go through the process of intentional information gathering and reflection in design work.

Relationship Building in Interior Design

The importance of building trust with clients is a key element in the interior design process. and Designing a unique space takes into account the intimate nature of interior design and the need to be sensitive to clients' personal information. With Katie's process for biographical design, we can see the significance of understanding a client's differentiator and how this model works with interior design clients.

Building Confidence to Attract your Ideal Client

Building confidence and attracting clients in the interior design business is often the first step as we get started. Adding to that as we grow is attracting your ideal clients which takes intentional work in branding and messaging. By uncovering your personal brand and attracting the right clients through intentional work and self-awareness you'll build an interior design business that you love and want to continue to pursue. When we find ourselves attracting the wrong type of clients, it may be time to take a step back, refine our messaging, and avoid succumbing to burnout or overwhelm.

Creating Work - Life Balance

There are different methods and thoughts about what it really means to work towards and create a work-life balance. It is so important than when we make choices involving our business and how the decisions impact our family, values, and goals that we work towards aligning these choices with the commitments that are important to each of us. This often requires setting boundaries (which can be hard, we know!).

Embracing Collaboration vs Competition

We can often find that within the interior design industry, there are feelings of jealousy and competition. By shifting your mindset from one of scarcity to abundance we find that there is plenty of interior design work to go around when you truly know what type of design and what type of client you want to pursue. We encourage you to listen to your desires and pursue them intentionally, rather than engaging in unproductive comparison. It's so important to recognize and embrace your individuality in your interior design business.

It's important to gain confidence in building your interior design business in a way that highlights your unique skill set, what you love to do and also provides unique design work that is meaningful and powerful to your client. Using biographical design and focusing on creating a business you love can help you gain satisfaction, work-life balance, and live in a collaborative space all while providing exceptional service to your interior design clients.

Resources mentioned in this episode: