Episode #1 Transcription - Welcome and 3 Core Truths I Believe

Welcome to the Designers Oasis podcast. I'm your host, Kate Bendewald, interior designer, mama and CEO of a thriving interior design business, built on authentic word of mouth referrals. It wasn't that long ago that I stepped away from my corporate architecture job to build my own dream, one that would allow me more time with the people that I love, the ability to serve my clients at the highest level, and to make a great living. It wasn't always easy, and I've made my share of mistakes along the way. Fast forward to today, and I've learned a thing or two. This podcast is for you - the inspired, creative, ambitious, and let's admit it,  occasionally overwhelmed interior designer who shares this dream of transforming lives by transforming homes. Join me and my guests each week as we walk through practical ways to build an interior design business you love, and helps you transform your clients' lives. You can do this. 

Thank you for letting me spend part of this day with you. Let's get to it. 

Hello, friend, and welcome to the very first Designers Oasis podcast episode, I could not be more thrilled and excited to kick things off with you. So quick, behind the scenes, I am transforming or switching from blogging to podcasting. Why? Well, I decided to switch because I personally am more of a podcast listener. And I figured that my audience is probably a lot like me, you are working, you're on the go, you are a busy guy or gal. And for you to be able to take some of what I've been sharing in the blog. (Fun fact, there are 78 blog posts on the Designers Oasis website). Those are not going anywhere. But this is a way for me to be able to provide you, my audience, interior designers with great information that you can take with you on the go. So whatever you're doing right now, whether you're doing the dishes, you're out for a walk, or you're driving, thank you for letting me spend part of this day with you. I cannot wait to get started. So what do we have on the show today?

So first, I want to give you a little bit of background on me, a little bit about how I came to this place that I'm in as an interior designer. So if you're new to designers Oasis, consider this a little bit of an intro, I'm also going to share with you some of those early struggles that I experienced in my design business, but also how I was able to overcome them, and turn my little baby designer business into one that thrived and supports me and my family. And then finally, I'm going to share with you three core truths that I believe can help you grow in your business and accomplish your biggest dreams. Okay, are you excited? Well, let's get started. So I'm gonna give you a little background on me. I'm just a regular old girl, right? I didn't come from a big fancy designer family. I was living in Austin, Texas. I'm a Texas girl. And I was going to college. And I was working in the hospitality industry in the service industry. And it was at this point in college where I had taken all of my basics, there was nothing else, nothing left to take. And I was running out of time to decide what I wanted to major in. And then I learned that there was an intro to interior design course at a local community college. And I instantly knew that would be my path prior to learning about this. I didn't even know interior design was an educational path that you could get a degree in. 

So how did I know growing up, my mom was a self proclaimed weekend designer and she would help friends rearrange and reimagine their spaces. And I've loved helping her with that and tagging along. Next, she was a teacher. So in the summers, she worked for a friend who ran this massive antique gallery. So not only did I get to experience all of these beautiful antiques, I would also go with her to work and help sort of rearrange the different shops and the different rooms in the shop. So that was a big part of my upbringing. My mom, she was a single mom, and we moved a lot and I mean a lot I counted at one point. And by the time I was 18 years old, we had moved More than 18 times. And it was hard, it was difficult. But my mom always spun it as this is a new place to fix up and to make her own. And so you know, I just rolled with it. And then there was my grandmother who practically helped raise me. And she had impeccable taste in fine furnishings and decor. And having spent so much of my childhood in her home, I was exposed to this world of beautiful high quality fine furniture, some of which I've had the good fortune of inheriting. So design is pretty much baked into my life from a very young age. Fast forward to a few years later, and I finished my degree in interior design at Texas State University. And along the way, I had a few internships including one with a well known interior designer in Austin, who was known for her high end interiors. We're talking about one of the projects which was a million dollar boat dock. So for me, it was next level, it was an unbeatable experience. Eventually, though, I found my way to Denver, where I now live and work and I began working as an interior designer at oz architecture. I was working on hospitality projects, multifamily and civic projects. One of my very last projects there was working on a part of the children's, the Denver Children's Museum. So this was just a dream. I worked on a great team, the energy there was so good there was just like this buzz. And if you can imagine scenes from the movie, the intern, the site was set designed by Nancy Meyers. That was kind of the vibe there. It was just so fun. But most of all was really good people and fun work.

In 2013, I had my first baby, and I did my maternity leave. And then I came back to work. And I was really excited to come back to work. I loved and missed the people there. But for me, I it was a it was a big challenge. It wasn't easy for me because I was experiencing extreme sleep deprivation. Every little sound my little baby made would wake me up. And you know, she'd be fast back asleep and my head would just start spinning over all the things going on at work. And I just wasn't able to get back to sleep. And you know, I suffered through this quietly for a long time. I actually tell the full story on the on an interview that I had with Luanne Nigara  on her podcast, so I'll be sure to link to that in the show notes. But the leadership and other people started to notice that something wasn't right. And I truly thought I was gonna get fired. So I'm talking with my husband about what's going on. And he's the one that actually suggested, Why don't I just go work for myself. I remember the day crystal clear we were on a walk. And he's sort of helping me ideate on this. And I didn't see that potential in myself. But he did. He is to this day, one of my biggest cheerleaders and I'm so grateful for him. So here we are, if I've kind of made this decision, okay, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna go work for myself. But I've got a lot of hurdles and my way first, I had no money. We had no money. We had just bought our first house. We had a brand new baby. We were getting married that year. And not to mention I had, we both had student loans.

Next, I had zero business experience. I mean, none. Sure I had a degree in interior design. And I could design but I didn't know I didn't even know what the hell of Chart of Accounts was right. Not even the very basics. And I had no connections, no connections to high end clients. It was just not it just wasn't my world. All my friends were mid 20 Something fresh out of college. I didn't have family connections. But here's what I did have going for me. Yes, I had a design degree. So I knew the nuts and bolts. I knew the academics of design. I had some experience. I had my experience working with a designer in Texas. I had experience in the architecture world. And that really taught me the importance of systems and processes. In addition to really sharpening my design skills. I had an extremely supportive family. I also had tenacity. So my experience growing up, nothing was handed to me. I worked for everything I had, and it wasn't going to stop here. So that's what I did have and that's what I focused on and I said I'll figure out the rest. So here's where I started. I built a very basic website. Remember I had no portfolio and I didn't have much to show for my work. But I did start talking about what I was doing and sharing that with my friends and family and I wasn't didn't shy about what I was doing. And they were happy to share my name. There was this Facebook group that I was a part of this neighborhood Facebook group called Highlands mommies, it's, I think now called Highlands families, which I love. But that Facebook group alone was like my cash cow for so long, because I just had one project and the client left me a glowing review inside that Facebook group. And that's how the buzz started. So I was growing organically, all through word of mouth, and I was, I was making money, I was making a lot of money. And I was getting a lot of projects and a lot of calls. But the problem was, I was getting totally burned out. The clients, the people themselves were fabulous. And they were great. Some of them are still friends to this day. But some of the projects that I was at, then I was getting the project budgets were just too small. And so that was one problem. And the second problem was a result of that. I was running myself completely ragged.

So between client work and the accounting and all of the running a business side of the design business, I was just a mess. I really didn't know what I was doing, even though I was helping my clients and they were getting results. And they were happy. I was not exhausted. I was like, this is not why I left my design job with benefits for this. So I really spent some time sort of thinking about what, you know what, what I could do to fix this. And that was something that clicked, I had a realization. I realized, even though I don't run in a circle of prospective high end clients, I knew what they wanted, I knew what they liked. And I know what they expected. Because of my experience, having worked in high end hospitality in the service, industry, and service is everything. And I had that in spades. I knew that I needed to charge more for my services. But this was hard. I was still thinking small. And having come from a background of near poverty, I had a mindset about money that was holding me back. And I knew I needed help. So here's what I did. And I will tell you, I did not do all of these things at once. It happened over time, over throughout some different seasons in my career. So

I'm going to share with you these three things that I did that transformed me and my business. And then when I'm done, I'm going to share with you these three core truths that I believe to be true. And that I think can help you take your business to whatever level you want it to be. Okay. So here are the three things that I did, the very first thing I did was I hired a sales coach. And this was the biggest transformational experience for me. Spoiler alert, I have shared so much of what I learned through my sales coach experience on the designers Oasis website. So that that is there for you. But here's the problem, I did not know how to talk to my clients. During the discovery call. I was all over the place, I was nervous, I didn't know how to move them to the next step, which was a consultation, the calls would go so long and with and it was just, I knew it was bad, but I didn't know what to do about it. So I hired her. And in addition to her coursework, I recorded a sales call and she listened to a discovery call. And she proceeded to completely tear it apart. It wasn't easy to hear, but it was effective. And everything I learned in that experience transformed my ability to move clients to the next step with me. And today I've taken what I've learned, and I can move a client not only past that initial discovery call, but through a great consultation experience. And you know, how I present the proposal, and then how I present the design, right? Because you're selling your design ideas, as well as the idea of working with you and your services. So selling is baked into what we do, but I really view it as helping selling is helping so that was transformational for me. Number two, I read the book Worth Every Penny: Build a business that thrills your customers and still charge what you're worth, by Erin Verbeck and Sarah Petty. And I really hope I'm saying those names, right.

This book showed me how to focus on creating specialized offerings and an over the top customer experience not on matching prices of my competition. Because remember, this was at a time where these large corporate online design programs were were becoming popular and advertising things like Oh, you'll get a whole room design for $99 Well All, I was like, how am I supposed to compete with that, like, I'm not gonna walk in your house for less than $99, much less provide you with the design. And so I was really stuck on how to compete. And so this book really helped transform my view, I will link to this book in the show notes. And it also taught me about relationship based sales skills that I needed to sell without being pushy, and have my current clients coming back for more. So, by the way, I'm just gonna go ahead and put this out there, it is my goal, to have these ladies as guests on the podcast. So I'm just gonna put it out there. I have talked about this book for years. And I'm always recommending it, I absolutely love it. So I'll be sure to link to that below. Okay, and then number three, I hired a money coach who completely helped me transform my relationship with money. This was some of the hardest work I've done, I just got goosies. Okay, this was harder than any therapy session I've been in. But it has paid off literally and figuratively. So those were the three things that really helped transform me and my interior design business. So fast forward to working with these coaches, reading lots and lots of books, listening to podcasts, and more importantly, serving hundreds of clients over the past nearly a decade, and I've learned a thing or two. So today, I have some of the best clients who I'm proud to serve. They're so fun, they're so easy, they often remain friends once the project is over. And they just love the design process that I take them through. I've grown a small team to help support me and serve my clients. I've streamlined my services and my design process, one that clients rave about. I have a business that runs on word of mouth referrals. And this is the absolute best when it comes to building that know, like and trust factor in your business. And I'm profitable, I earn, I earn a great living, and I'm charging what I'm worth, and I'm making money on services and products for clients who are happy to pay for it. So that is a little bit of my journey.

As an interior designer. I've made lots of mistakes. I've tried things that worked. I've tried things that didn't work. It's all just taken time, right. And I'm still refining, we're still learning, we're still growing and still working to make the clients experience better. Okay. Now I want to talk about these three core truths. They're very simple. And I think that I will stand behind these till the day that I die. And if you can get behind these ideas, the sky is truly the limit for you. Okay, so you're ready, listen up. All right. So core truth number one is very simple. You don't need to have it all figured out. Right? So Mike Littman said, you don't have to get right, you just have to get going. I love that. The truth is, you will never have all your ducks in a row. I just told you that we're always refining. We're always improving. But you just have to get going. When I started, I had no business skills, no money, no connections. But I did have experience and I had support and I had ambition. So I want you to really no matter where you are in business, I want you to start to focus on the things that you do have, what are the things that you have going for you and really play those up. And you're going to figure out the rest more you remember the Marie Forleo mantra, everything is figured out double? Maybe you don't have a design degree? Well, today, there are so many types of programs out there that are flexible and affordable. So find one that works for you. Maybe you don't have any money, find free software. I probably shouldn't admit this, but I was using the student version of SketchUp for years before I finally paid for the real version. So if you need to bootstrap it, or get scrappy, do it. Apple, Dell subway cores, Starbucks, Mattel, these are all companies that started with no money. Okay, so don't use this as an excuse, find a way to get started.

Maybe you don't have a supportive partner. Now you'll never hear me say that you need permission to build your dream, but I know how important it is to have their support. So how can you bring them along with you? How can you find out what their fears and hesitations are and how can you address them? Just ask what is the worst thing that could happen? Oftentimes, the worst case scenario isn't actually that bad when we start to unveil it and start to see crush to the surface. So this may take some time. And you may need to work through some of these fears and hesitations, but bring them along with you. Their support, I know how much it means to you, you know, pursuing this dream. Okay, core Truth Number two, I don't believe in a one size fits all approach to running your design business. Think about what you want your life to look like and design a business that works with what you want. Maybe you don't want to do a whole home full service design and big renovations. Maybe you want to do design only because you hate project management. Okay, do that. Then. Here's some other examples: designer for a day, you can do full service. There's retail stores, a store option, you can do design only, you can do only new construction. You can do spec builds. So think about what lights you up, and what are your skill set and focus on that. But you don't have to do it all okay? Maybe you want to run an agency style design firm where you orchestrate designers that contract with you, but you don't hire them straight out.

My point is, you've got some options. And now I see these business programs out there for interior designers. And I believe there's a lot of toxic advice about only doing things a certain way. And yes, maybe they work. But it may not work for what you're trying to achieve. So here on this podcast, we're going to look at things a little differently. We're going to look at different kinds of business models that can be wildly successful and give you tools and ideas to create a business you love. And that doesn't run you so stick around for more of that. All right, and then core truth number three, everyone, including you has a unique skill set, set of skills and background and expertise that adds this unique twist to your design point of view. And it's up to you to uncover this and tell that story. Let me give you some examples. I'll start with me first. So high end hospitality was my background before moving into design. And it's that level of service that is baked into my design process to surprise and delight my clients throughout from the very beginning to the bitter end, to the very end, because we know how long these projects can take, especially these days. But it's what makes my clients absolutely love working with me and my team. So with designers Oasis, we run a membership. The designers are just members. And I'm going to share with you some examples of some of the members inside the membership and some of their backgrounds. For example, we've got a private investigator who worked for the FBI turned interior designer. So what in the heck does that have to do with interior design? What Do you think about yourself? How can I relate those two? Well, guess what? She has this uncanny ability to ask very insightful questions to help her clients uncover their true desires for their homes and what it is that they want. We have a pharmacist turned designer, while she focuses on healthy interiors. And this girl has an Instagram following of over 4000 in just like a year or two. And she's just amazing with a civil engineer, and she got bit by the design bug when she built her own family home and decided to make a go of it professionally. She has since been featured in a New York Times bestselling book and major design publications. Another designer she's of Indian heritage, and she draws upon her Indian heritage to help her clients create spaces that are tailored to their unique culture and style. I just love that. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to think about what is your culture? What are your experiences? What are your purposes, both personally and professionally?

What have those experiences taught you? Where have you lived? Where have you traveled? What jobs have you had? What is that unique combination that only you have? And how can you draw upon that to help you be a better designer and a better business owner. Nobody else has this but you and this is the part of the story you might want to tell in your design business. So Brene Brown always says we're Wired for Story and I think it's so true. So what is your story? Okay, so just to recap these three, these three truths. Number one, you don't need to have it all figured out. You just need to get started. Okay, number two, there's no one size fits all approach to running your design business. us. And number three, your story matters and it helps shape your point of view as a designer. So I hope you enjoyed this very first inaugural podcast episode. That is it for today. I cannot wait to bring you more and to bring on guests so we can learn from them too. If you want to learn more, you can always find me at designers oasis.com, or on Instagram at designers oasis. I hope you have a wonderful rest of your day. I will see you next time. Thank you so much for letting me spend part of this day with you. If you're loving this podcast, please share it with a friend who you think might also love it. Or perhaps you can take just 30 seconds to open your podcast app and leave us a five star rating. And if you have just an extra minute, go ahead and leave a review. This helps me so much and it helps other designers like you to find the podcast. It also adds fuel to my motivation to keep making great episodes just for you. However you choose to help, please No, I appreciate you so very much. Thank you, my friend. Have a wonderful rest of your day and I'll see you next time