EP #49 | Renovate your Business with Cerissa McKinnis
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 help you transform your clients' lives. You can do this.
Kate Bendewald
Today, I'm joined by Cerissa McKinnis, an interior designer from San Antonio, Texas and a member of the interior designers business blueprint program. I invited her to sit and chat with me first, because she's a righteous good time. Her energy is contagious, and she has this ability to light up even a virtual space through zoom, but also because I wanted to hear her interior design business journey. It was clear from an early age that serosa had an innate eye for design when at just 16. She scoffed at a set of architectural plans her parents were considering and insisted that changes were made. And she was right. After attempting career paths towards being a doctor and then a lawyer, she had what she calls a God moment, and she knew that interior design was her calling. She shares how she has had many doors closed on her over the years, but her persistence has paid off. Today she runs a thriving interior design business she is proud of. I love that salsa has an attitude of being a lifelong learner. And she views the work she does as part of her legacy that will live on long after she's gotten. I truly enjoyed getting to spend some time and hanging out with Teresa today. Let's listen to her story now. Hi, good morning, sir. So welcome to the show. How are you?
Cerissa Tate
I'm doing well. Kate. Good morning. Thanks for having me.
Kate Bendewald
Oh my gosh, I am so so thrilled to have you today. Today we're joined by suicide mechanics of industrious interiors. She's an interior designer out of San Antonio, Texas, a fellow Texan. Welcome. She's also a member inside the interior designers business blueprint and a series that has just been like you came into the membership and it was just like, all of a sudden, there was this new energy inside the group and I was like, oh, powerhouse, I love her. I love her. And then you and I had a chance to talk one on one and I just got to see learn a little bit more about you and your story and you're just doing really cool things and I'm so I'm so thrilled to have you in I mean, selfishly like and in my world a little bit but also just your energy is so contagious and I love that energy that you bring to the group and so the designers in the membership as you know are they span years in terms of experience, some people are brand new, so people are just getting started and they're, you know, just starting to to develop their business. There are others who are more in the the space where you are, you've kind of been doing it for a while, but they're you you're you're in this stage and this phase of business where you're really leveling up, you're polishing your you know all your things and you've just been blasting through the program. It's amazing. But anyway, I just I was like, I got invited to the podcast because I want it I just want to share Your light and your energy with our members. And you've got some really, you've done some really cool things. So I'm hoping we can chat about that today.
Cerissa Tate
Excellent. Thank you so much. I'm super excited to be here and I love designers oasis. If you're listening to the podcast, if you're not a member, you're missing out. That's all I got.
Kate Bendewald
Yeah, cuz you're missing out on SORSA. All right, so take it out. You know, I'm always gonna ask a backstory. I want to know how Where did your design journey start? Have you always sort of known? Have you always been a creative person? How did you find yourself in the world of interior design.
Cerissa Tate
I have always been a creative person. Creativity has always been my outlet. For as long as I can remember, when I was a little girl, and going into my teenage years, I did ceramics and I painted and I just loved. I loved art, how I got into design. When I was about 15 years old. My mother, and my father started to plan and build their dream home. And they hired an architect and the works like they were not built. They were it wasn't semi custom. It was a fully custom home that they were building. And I remember sitting at the kitchen table with my mom, and looking at the floor plan and ask him and telling my mom, like, Look, you got to take this floor plan back to this architect, because I don't understand why he put the toilet in the bathroom. And I don't know if you guys remember. But in the this was like the late 90s. So in the late 90s, they used to put the toilet close to the bathroom. Like it's a lot of houses that are like that this was the norm back then. And I have no idea why they didn't think about I'm not in the bathroom. Lord, help me the toilet near the kitchen. Near the kitchen.
Kate Bendewald
I'm not sure I remember where
Cerissa Tate
you know where it was.
Kate Bendewald
It just makes me feel so much better. Because in this morning has been kind of bananas for religion that the house and I feel like a little bit Wackadoodle. And I'm like, it's all good. But now I know it's Friday. We're, we're all good. Okay, so near the kitchen. Yes. Got it. That makes sense.
Cerissa Tate
There's a kitchen. And so I mean, like the door of the bathroom opened up into the kitchen. And I told my mother, I said, Mom, you have 2030 people over for Thanksgiving and Christmas. You need to tell this architect to put this bathroom someplace else it needs to be by the front door or something. You don't need any unwanted odors anywhere. And so my mom was like, Oh, my gosh, we've been going to meet with his architect so many times, is he going to be able to change it? This is a big change. And I said, Well, you need to ask him and you should have asked me to look at this before now. But
Kate Bendewald
how old are you? I had
Cerissa Tate
I must have been about 15 or 16. Wow. Yeah, it is
Kate Bendewald
very natural for you to look at that. And
Cerissa Tate
say, this is an in depth point. I had never even been introduced to architecture interior design. That was my first introduction. And immediately I was like it's a no for me. But and so as that process went on my best friend's family was also building a custom home at the same time. And so I never got to see my my mom's dream come to light because my mother passed away right before they were going to start building. And so we didn't build that custom home. However, I was able to watch my best friend's home get built. And during the time, I was with them picking out brick carpet paint for the exterior, tile, countertops, all this stuff. And my best friend who was the same age as me was like what is wrong with you became dragging us to all of these places to pick out stuff and why are you so interested? And it's to the point now 30 years later, where my best friend is like can you please talk to my mom about her remodel? Because I don't want to talk to my mom about her remodel. But that's how that's how it all started.
Kate Bendewald
Oh my goodness. What a story well, I'm I'm so sorry for your loss that must have been really tragic and hard for you especially at that tender age. I'm I'm really glad though that you did have the opportunity to at least be a part of that next process with somebody that that was obvious play very close to you, which continues to be a dear friend and a clearly that made an impact on you and and your life. And here you are. I don't know how many years later. But so now did you go straight out of high school into the design world? Did you? What was your Absolutely
Cerissa Tate
not,
Kate Bendewald
you know, it's not a lot of people's past to tell us. You know, so.
Cerissa Tate
So what happened my parents encouraged my creativity as a way of, of a release or a place to go for escape, but not as a career path. And so when I graduated high school, I was like, I'm going to be a doctor, I wanted to be a pediatric cardiologist. I used to watch TLC all the time. And back in the day, TLC used to have actual operations, like they used to show actual operations or regular television, and services, sat there and watched it, I was, I enjoyed it so much. And so I wanted to be some type of surgeon at some point in life. And then I got to college. And I had my first class, biology and biology 101, I was minded, I was a straight A student, I, my friends call me a genius. I competed in academic events. I was just I said to be some kind of scientist or something like that. I tell people, I study the science of design now. So I haven't left science. But nonetheless, I went to college to be a pediatrician. And I got to school biology one on one and I failed miserably. I never felt before in my life. And I failed miserably. I mean, miserably. My father thought that I must have been over there in Atlanta, having my best life. And I was in Atlanta, struggling trying to add tutoring sessions and all kinds of stuff. I mean, I was having fun. But let me tell you, it was I was stressed out because I'd never failed before. And so I changed my major to pre law because I like to talk. And then
Kate Bendewald
still, in no way lowering the bar or the expectations for yourself. I love it. No,
Cerissa Tate
no, not at all. And then one day, I had this experience that I can only describe as a god experience. And I was in my dorm room. And I looked up at my roommate, and I said to her, I said, You know what, when I get it to be in my 30s, I'm gonna have a life crisis and be an interior designer. And my roommate was like, so why don't you do that now? And I was like, because I don't even know what that is. And that's why I say it's a god experience because I had never even heard of an interior designer before. I had no idea what I was saying. So I got up and I asked Jeeves, I'm dating myself. So fellow design Oasis members. If you are not old enough to know what who asked Jeeves are he predated a Yahoo in Google. He was Uncle Google. And he actually had a name, Jeeves. But Jesus was not as smart as Google was. as smart as Google,
Kate Bendewald
first of all, he said, I asked Jesus, but you said Ask Gino, the same age like I don't
Cerissa Tate
remember Ask Jeeves. But you don't remember Jeeves? Oh, my gosh, he had a suit on and everything. And you were just like when the internet was like in its infancy for us as the end users Google. It he was he wore a suit and a top hat and everything it was it was a big to do. And so Jeeves did only knew where I could go to school for interior design. He couldn't even tell me what interior design was. And so what I did was I looked in the phonebook and I found a list of I just looked under interior designers and I started calling interior design companies, which don't go to school to be an interior designer and never like we're not hiring right now. Click like Where should I go to school should be You know, like, I didn't even like, I tried to go to school, I'm not even going to be eligible for employment with your company for at least another two to four years. So I look so I'm looking to go to college. And so I finally got two or three designers who were willing to listen to the question. And they told me a school to go to, I ended up going to the Art Institute of Atlanta, and my GPA went from like a 2.5, when I was struggling to 3.8 in one semester, and I sat in class, and I realized, this is why I had that what I call it a god experience was because this I feel like is what I was created for. I feel like interior design is that perfect mix of technical and creative. And it allows for me to use both sides of my brain and be super happy while I'm doing it.
Kate Bendewald
Love, love, love that. Only go back for a moment there. I know, there's some listeners who who've had this experience that, you know, maybe you've you're listening to this story. And you're thinking, Yeah, I've been in those shoes where I've been trying to knock on doors and get information and find out how does. How does this work? Granted, today, there's, it's a lot easier to find this information. But I can't tell you how many times over the years I've had either young designers or somebody looking to switch careers who have come to me and said, I'm trying to understand how to get into the interior design business. And when I said I would be willing to talk to them, they just about fell out of their chairs, because they're like, I can't tell you how many people I've tried to contact who either don't call me back, don't write me back. Just nothing, right? Not even not even a no just like you know, if you've that resonated for me, and it just is shocking. So you're a designer and somebody knocks on your door. And they want information about how to kind of get into this industry. Do the world a favor and just just share what you know, just getting five minutes or so. But you finally found somebody who gave you kind of a roadmap for where to get started. And you found yourself at the Art Institute and you sat there and you were just like this is it I'm supposed to be doing this. And it just it all clicked and it all made sense. And so you graduated, what happened next? Did you work for other designers? Or did you go out on your own right away?
Cerissa Tate
What happened next? This is this, this is my soapbox, so I won't stay on there long. But this is what I tell the designers, the young designers, the young designers that I meet, right? Especially the ones now that I meet that work in this space that I used to work in. So I was not confident when I graduated. And because I wasn't confident in in my skills and abilities or even in the fact in that in my God given talent. I made the decision to I applied for one or two design firms did not get did not get hired. And so I went and I made the decision to work retail. And so I worked my as a as I was an interior designer at a retail furniture store in Atlanta. And that was, in retrospect, probably the worst decision that I made. And I'm not shaming retail at all. So that so if you are a retail designer understand I've been there I worked in the industry, from 2004. Yes, 2004 to 2013. So almost two years. So I'm not shaming you for being there. But what I am saying is this is not the best decision. If you know that one you want to run a firm to you want to have any type of AFib or I'm sorry, in CB IQ accreditation, if you want to do remodeling or if you even want to at some point change your mind and go work at an architectural firm. It is just really hard when you pigeon holed yourself like that for you to then come back out and for the world to respect who you are. And so I made the decision. I did that for 10 years and somewhere along the line. It just didn't work because that involves sales. And because I was a newbie sales really wasn't my wasn't very good. So and I also exited school right before the recession and the recession hit Georgia very hard. And if I had If I had had faith in confidence in myself, I could have been at a design firm, or an architectural firm and I may have better fare the recession than I did working retail.
Kate Bendewald
Can you question? So in Cid, of course, they don't recognize design work in the retail environment as well as contributing towards your experience. Is that what you're Is that accurate? Correct? Yeah. Okay. Got it. So in CIT Q, for those of you who are listening is the accreditation program to become an accredited interior designer. And it's, it's very, very important that you have that especially in for the commercial world. Arguably in residential. I'm sure there's plenty of people that would argue with me about the importance of it and residential I'm don't send me hate mail. I'm not here to to die on that hill. But yeah, so And Sadie Q accreditation, really, it has a strong focus on the health, safety and welfare of from an interior design perspective. I know I studied for my NCT Q and I was just about to take the test when I left my commercial firm and went to work for myself. And I was like, you know, this is hard, I don't need it, I'm getting, I kind of taken the test right then in there. And I probably would have passed because I've been studying my butt off. So I, in some ways regret it because I was so close. But like they too, they look at not only at the test score, but they look at your experience level. And they they want you to have a certain number of years, in the number of hours, like you'd have full time hours working for a licensed architect or licensed interior designer. And so if you go to retail sales, the experience, which I would argue you do get some experience, you definitely get sales experience, but in their eyes, that's not unless you're working for an accredited architecture designer. They don't count that experience. And so if getting your sad cube certification is important. It's important to understand what kind of experience will count towards your your experience hours. So it's been a minute since I've talked about in CPQ. So I just wanted to see if I was getting that correct.
Kate Bendewald
Hey, designer, are you tired of wasting precious time with prospective clients who are not a right fit? Do you experience impostor syndrome because, you know, the back end of your business is kind of a hot mess. Perhaps you're experiencing growing pains and you don't have the tools, resources or team to support you. I get it. I've been there. As an ambitious interior design business owner myself, I know the roller coaster ride this can be over the years I've learned a thing or two about running a profitable word of mouth design business, and I want to help you find success too. How would it feel to wake up and face the day knowing exactly what to focus on next, having a roster of enthusiastic clients including a paid waitlist, and having the space time and creative energy to develop projects that you are proud of, and our portfolio if not press worthy. I want to invite you to learn more about the interior designers business blueprint, a business coaching program designed exclusively for interior designers who want to serve their clients at the highest level while making good money. But without the burnout and overwhelm. If you're ready to get off the roller coaster, you don't have to do it alone. Join me inside the interior designers business blueprint and get the tools teaching and community you need to pave the way for an interior design business your clients love and you are proud of to learn more grab the link on your audio player or head to designers oasis.com forward slash blueprint that's designers oasis.com forward slash blueprint. Okay, so you what what happened after this after when did you launch industries interiors.
Cerissa Tate
So after in about, let's say if so in 2011. I, prior to that I did freelance work here and there. But in 2011, I got married to my ex husband. And at the time, his mom was remodeling her kitchen and two bathrooms in her house. And so it kind of really worked out to be almost a whole house remodel. For the most part. At this point. Again, I'm working in a in a retail environment, not at all in and really I wasn't even working in design at this point. And so I began to have conversations with the contractors because they were doing things that my dead mother in law did not ask for. They do didn't understand her budget related questions or key key points, where, you know, she said things like, I don't want the cheapest, but I don't want the most expensive. She was like mid level in her budget, she ultimately ended up spending about $75,000 on this project back in 2011. And he but he, he quoted her, maybe 35. And so I helped her navigate that situation. And really, I began to be her her advocate. And I spoke to him to the point to where this contractor really didn't like being instead of calling me Ciresi, he decided that he wanted to call me serious, because whenever I came into space, I always say him in his place. And I made him do what the client asked to do, not what he wanted to do. And so he wanted to call me serious service. But nonetheless, after that experience, my my mother in law was like, Oh, my God, how are you so good at this? Well, I went to school for this. Did you really? Yeah. Everybody needs to experience what I just experienced. She's like, I remodeled my house, two or three times since I've lived in it. And this is the most stress free I've ever been. She's like, I never had a project finish. And the contractor absolutely finished me not lose some portion of money. You made sure that everything was taken care of. And that was just so amazing. And what can we do? We've got to start we've you've got to do this for other people. And, and so at that, so at that time, we did some research, and she actually invested money so that I could purchase CAD software. So I purchased Chief Architect, she invested money so that I could get a website established a business cards, and really, you know, start my company. And so that company was called designed by sorcerer. And she was retired at the time. So she was my administrative assistant. And we did several projects together. For the two years that she and I worked with one another one of the projects that I did in that season, which was in 2014. I actually two projects that we did together, I won design awards for in my local ASI the community and
Kate Bendewald
winning awards. That's awesome. And this is what's your mother in law at the time?
Cerissa Tate
Yes,
Kate Bendewald
I can't Yes. And there are too many people listening that are like, I would go into business with my mother. You have a unique relationship, I'm just gonna say it was unique,
Cerissa Tate
and it didn't end well. But those were the glory years, they were wonderful years we had, we did have a lot of fun during that time. And I also want to make this note note, Kate for for the listeners who are in that new season, guys, I was working at a furniture store. And my off days were Thursday and Friday. That's it. I worked every other day of the week, but Thursday and Friday. And my mother in law for some large remodel projects, was able to make the phone calls, keep clients abreast of what was going on what we had been on order where we were in line at the project so that when I got off of work on Wednesday night at 7pm and rolled into Thursday and Friday, I could have appointment set to go to tile to tile, showrooms and granite yards and goes to the plumbing showroom and with my clients and everything. So I got a lot done in two days. So I just want to say that if you are looking to start and you're in whatever situation that you're in, you just need to step back and look at your time and see how can you manage what you have and then only take on clients that you can fit within the time that you have to manage. And just trust that as you build it will grow because eventually I started working I left the furniture store that I was working at. And I went out on my own and it took about three years.
Kate Bendewald
Oh, wow. So you were working seven days a week. It's the main thing that you had this person at your side to help coordinate things the rest of the time. I mean, if nothing else, that's a huge plug for the value and importance of having an assistant and so you would get off of work and then head to your side hustle and did that For three years before you, you went out full time on your own. Wow, okay. You call it so now now your business is called industrious interiors. This is making a lot of sense now. Okay, can you talk to you, you've got this really cool concept inside your business that you call yourself the dream caster, which I think is so cool. And so you take this idea of dreaming, like taking your clients dreams and turning it into reality. And you apply this terminology to each phase of the design project. And so can you kind of high level kind of share the the Pharaoh, what do you mean by by this dream casting and how you apply that to your projects and your clients?
Cerissa Tate
Absolutely. So dream casting I liken on to like vision casting, most of us have heard of things like vision, boarding. And even, you know, just writing the vision down so that you can see, and you can know where you're going. So our clients, they have a vision, or they have a dream for their home. Their problem is, is they don't know how to make that dream, real in their home. And so through the dream casting prize process, I have my clients first cast there, they first cast their dream to me, so that I can catch their vision. And I can then run with it and go through the remainder of the design process, which is the concept phase, the assessment phases, the development phase, and then what I call it during production at the end, which is the implementation and installation and manifestation phase. And so it is my clients love it. They always tell me, I'm a dreamer. I've had several, even vendors who said, Oh my god, seriously, you're such a visionary. You're such a visionary. And so people have said that to me. And so I said, I'm gonna embrace that. You have a dream, I'm here to make your dream come true. And recently, in going through your blueprint program, Kate, I was able to expand my tagline. My tagline used to used to be manifesting dreams. But now my tagline is manifesting dreams of Heaven in your home. And the blueprint really took me through that process to get there. And so that's what I do. I just as a dream caster, I receive your dream, I take your vision, I think about it, I meditate, I mull over it, and then I give it back to you. As a Realized dream.
Kate Bendewald
Oh my gosh, I love it. It's beautiful. And it's so fitting for you and your personality, which is just so infectious. Can you just mentor a younger designer for a minute? You can because you've done so much work on your business in the last year? Can you kind of talk back to your younger business owner self? And if you could tell yourself or in this case, other designers like what is something that you probably would have done sooner? Or differently that I hate the phrase you don't know what you don't know, I really do. Because somebody said it in a very condescending way to me when I was very young and probably in a in an in an appropriate way a text. I just hate that phrase. But sometimes it just makes sense, right? It's just It's the it's the appropriate thing to say. But what would you say to somebody who's, you know, really looking to take their business to the next level? They've they've got the dedication to to their business, right? That's, that's a no brainer. But they're they're still struggling, where what would you say to them?
Cerissa Tate
If I could speak to my younger self, and other designers that are where I once was, I would say you have to be willing to make an investment in yourself. That's the first start you may not know necessarily know what it is that you need. To your point of you don't know what you don't know. But the truth of the matter is, is that there are people out there who do know what you don't know. And you just have to have the mindset. I had to have the mindset that I needed to invest because I'm investing not just into my business, but I'm investing into my future, which means I'm investing in into my family. I'm investing into my kids, my grandchildren and future generations just by taking a moment to invest into the business. That it, I believe that I'm called to do we all if you have a business, it's because you believe that you are called to be an entrepreneur and be a business owner. And if you've answered the bar call of an entrepreneurship, then you need to be willing to invest in yourself. And at every level, invest in yourself, you never get too high, or too knowledgeable where you still can't invest in yourself and in your business. So that's what I would say.
Kate Bendewald
My gosh, I love that I love what you're I never really thought about it the way that you just said about you. You said, this isn't just an investment in myself in my business, but in future generations, and, you know, you being able to create sort of a legacy for yourself and your family and be able to, to carry that on. That's so cool. The other thing that you said, too, is, you know, I remember the first time I, the very first coach I ever hired with as my, as a business owner was a sales coach. And I've talked about this before, but, you know, I had design experience through school and through my work in the commercial world. But I had never had any opportunity to be in a sales position. And I realized, like, I was screwing up opportunities, because I didn't know how to carry that conversation. And that initial investment, I want to say it was like $2,000. And to me at the time, it felt like it might as well have been a million dollars at the at the time, you know, and I think I've told the story in the past. But if it's, if you're new here, I'll just say, like, I launched my business in the same year that I had a baby, I quit my job, we were getting married, and we were doing a whole house renovation. So we had like, no money, we had no money. And so you know, spending that $2,000 felt like so much money. And I would do it again and again. And again, because it laid this foundation, that helps be just do so much more. And I realized I'm ever since then I've always had some kind of a coach some that sort of a horse that I was working through, or a mentor those working with. Because I have, you know, every time you take, you know, reach that next step or that next level, it's sort of a new set of challenges that come up, or a new set of, you know, expertise that you need to polish on. And so what I'm hearing from you is like you need to have an attitude of being a lifelong learner that comes in the form of you know, oftentimes investing in yourself.
Cerissa Tate
Absolutely. Never stop learning.
Kate Bendewald
What I'm what would you say to somebody that was thinking about joining the interior designers business blueprint? And they weren't sure. You know, if they were ready to make that investment? Or if it was the right, right, move for them? What would you say?
Cerissa Tate
I would say, Just do it, simply, but just do it. No matter if you're like me, who has been in business of some sort since 2011. Yeah. Or if you are not like me, and you just opened up your company last week, you need to do it. Because here's the thing that I know for sure that I did not learn in design school. And, as Kate just mentioned, she her first investment in herself was in sales training. There's a lot of things in the in the blueprint that talks about a lot of marketing tips like building your avatar, what does your ideal client look like? What is your elevator pitch? These are all things that you're going to need to know, as you promote your business. You're gonna need to know that in whatever marketing platform you use, whether you use Facebook and all of their things, or you use Google or even if you use house, you got to know who you're marketing to. And a lot of times even when people such as myself who have been in business for so long, you may not necessarily have that fine tune and the blueprint allows you to fine tune that and then you walk and then it just allows for you to walk through the rest of the client journey to get you to where I feel like a solid place a solid foundation for you To be able to go forward, and I'm gonna talk to for a second, the business owners that have been at it for a while, like me, guys, we work in the home industry. A lot of times we have, we deal with houses that have foundation issues, and you have to have a specialist come in and adjust the foundation so the house can continue to stay and grow and thrive. It is okay to adjust your foundation. Do not stand here and listen or sit here, listen to this podcast and Kate's podcast and consume her content and think that you don't need it because you're so far like your house is so old. Foundations need like if need to be fixed all the time. And then if you're a newbie, you need a solid foundation. And what I really love about Kate's program, because I too have had several mentors that I paid for even another interior design mentor. But what I love so much about designer design Oasis, and Kate's program is that it is set you up with the fine foundational things. And then if you go and you just keep coming, she keeps continuing to build so that you can build a really great house, and your business can be fantastic. So do it. That's why I say just do it, it doesn't matter where you are. Just do it.
Kate Bendewald
Oh my gosh. Oh, I love that. And thank you so much for sharing that. And it feels good to because it feels like it resonates there's, I know that there are going to be people who roll their eyes and they're like, oh, here we go. Again, an ideal client avatar, right? There's like I've been there done that I'm past that. And if you are great good. And there will be a good point where you feel like you really got a good handle on it. And that said, and it sounds like this comes through for you. Two things. Number one, a lot of times I see people who and here's why it's so important is because like you just said like everything else hinges on having that really clear. And you can call it your ideal client avatar, you can call it your perfectly aligned client, which is a phrase I like to use whatever, it doesn't matter. But two things that I see happening number one, that the the specificity and the nuance of knowing who your ideal client isn't strong enough, this is the thing I see the most I see designers coming in, I asked them they say, Oh yeah, I know who my ideal client is. It was okay. Well tell me. And they proceeded to give me this vague sort of wishy washy idea of this person. And it's based on you know, demographics or whatever, you know, are some demographics important. Sure. But that's not nearly the depth that I'm talking about. The depth in which you describe your ideal client is, it's far more nuanced, it's far more personal. And it really gets to the heart and the core of of what is this person's core desires, you know, in terms of, you know, what, what lights them up, what are their what are their hopes and dreams for life, right, and there's just so much more to it. So that's a one mistake I see the most is, it's not even just being specific enough, it's like, really getting to the heart of who this person is. And the other thing that I see is designers who are a lot further along in their career, and they haven't revisited their ideal client in a while. And so it starts to get stale. And they have outpaced they've outgrown their ideal client, and they're ready to uplevel their business and start going for bigger projects with better budgets with dreaming your clients and saying no to the projects that aren't gonna fulfill them or like them up. But they're not attracting them, because they haven't revisited in a while. It's stale. And it's not, it's, they're out of touch with that person. And so they need to come back to this exercise, and revisited and I think this is something you need to do, at least every year. And make sure that everywhere you're showing up and talking to your ideal client, whether that's on Instagram, or any sort of social media platform, obviously on your website, your welcome packet, your services, that investment guide, as well as your service itself, and how you how you structure your services and your process. All of that can change when it's time to update that information about who your ideal client is. And I know for me personally, that there was a really clear moment in my career where I had, I took a step back and I realized my ideal client has really shifted and everything on my website isn't talking to them and so I had to go back and scratch Have a break. And in your words, I love this, like, fix that foundation, because it is your ideal client is the foundation of your business. And once you get past that there's so much more that can be affected your services, what services you offer, how you run your service, how you communicate to your clients, what touchpoints they have, what kind of packages that is all the things, all the things, how you communicate. And so that that is just one small aspect of it. But it's such an important one. And it's so to me, it's often an undervalued or overlooked aspect. And so I'm glad that you touched on that because and put it in that metaphor of a house and a foundation. It's so it's so appropriate for what we do. Oh my gosh, there's a thank you so much. And this has been a real pleasure just hanging out with you again, one on one. I hope one of these days we get to meet and in person. Are you? Are you going to high point this year? At all? You're not?
Cerissa Tate
I am planning to go to high point but I'm not 100% Positive. Yeah. But I will. Yes, so my calendar for the October so hopefully,
Kate Bendewald
oh boy. Oh my gosh, it would be so great to get to meet you in person. Okay, if they if our folks here want to catch you on online, what's your social media handle? And you can
Cerissa Tate
catch me on Instagram at industrious interiors, or my website is industrious. interiors.net. And that's it.
Kate Bendewald
Oh, my gosh, it was so thank you so much for hanging out with with me again. It's been a pleasure. I have a wonderful rest of your day. I'll talk to you real soon.
Cerissa Tate
All right. Thank you so much, Kate.
Kate Bendewald
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 know I appreciate you so very much. Thank you, my friend. Have a wonderful rest of your day and I'll see you next time.
