#68 | Mission, Vision, and Impact in 2024

Welcome to the Designers Oasis podcast. I'm your host, Kate Bendewald. If you're tired of one-size-fits-all all advice to running your interior design business, you're in the right place. Join me each week as we dive into topics to help you run a thriving interior design business. Without the hustle. We'll talk about the business of design, but also mindset and mental health because I know when you thrive, so will your life and business. It wasn't that long ago that I stepped away from my corporate interior design job to build my own design business so that I could realize my own creative dreams, have more time with the people I love, and serve my clients at the highest level, while making more money than I ever could have working for someone else. It wasn't always easy, and I made my share of mistakes along the way. Fast forward to today. And I've learned a thing or two. Since then I've built multiple six-figure interior design businesses on authentic word-of-mouth referrals with many repeat clients. And I want to share it all with you the ambitious, inspired, and I get it occasionally overwhelmed interior designer who shares this dream of transforming lives through the art of interior design, You can do this. Thank you for letting me spend part of this day with you. Let's get to it.

Hey, there, I want to interrupt this episode for a very exciting announcement. Let's be honest, when you're preparing client proposals, you're probably asking yourself the same question that 1000s of other designers are asking themselves questions like, What do other designers charge? How much would a designer at my experience level charge for a project like this? How long should it take to do X, Y, or Z? If you're like most designer, these are questions you ask yourself often. The problem is, these aren't easy questions to answer. An experienced designer is going to charge differently and likely be much faster at their job than someone who's in their early stages of business. But we're on a mission to bring clarity and insights to these exact questions. And that's where you come in. For the month of February, we're launching a massive survey to interior designers like you in order to gather vital information related to how designers price their services. In the end, we'll share our findings with a thorough and detailed report. Beautifully designed, of course, so you can see what designers at your level typically charge and how long it takes them to do certain aspects of their job. Our goal is to give you insightful data points so you can more confidently price your services and estimate your time. If you want a free copy of the report, you'll need to participate in the survey.

To do that, head over to designers oasis.com forward slash survey today. Again, that's designers oasis.com Ford slash survey and we'll be sure to link this in the show notes. So if you're not able to go there right now just know we've got that available for you. Here's the thing though, the more designers who take this survey, the better data will have to share with you. So as soon as you're done taking the survey, my hope is that you will share it with an interior design friend of yours. Now, if you're catching this episode after the survey closes, don't worry, you can still get access to the survey results at the same webpage designers oasis.com forward slash survey. Now before I go, I want to mention that we take your privacy very seriously. All survey results are anonymous and none of your personal information will be shared. You can find more information and FAQs on the webpage. Again, that's designers oasis.com forward slash survey. Your participation is so helpful and contributing to the betterment of the interior design, business industry and design business owners everywhere Thank you so much for your participation. Now, back to the show. Well, hello there, my friends, welcome back to the designers always this podcast. I'm your host, Kate Bendewald. I'm so thrilled to be back in my office back at my desk. And I am fully coming out of hibernation and thawing out from the slumber. For me. That is December and early January, I take my end of the year and started the new year very seriously, for better or worse, but I really do. I believe in seasonal hustle. That's what works best for me. And so there's something for me personally, it's very sacred about that sort of end of the year season and started the new year where I really do just like to kind of go inward a little bit and sort of be introspective. And I think we all do to a degree. Yeah, I'm finally feeling like I've sorted through a lot of my thoughts, you know, we, we often get so busy in the day to day and the grind that we don't really give ourselves a lot of room to think beyond like, what's what's the next thing that I absolutely have to do, right. And we don't find a lot of space and time to let our let our mind and our creativity just wander and think and expand. And so I really do enjoy having some time for that and some quiet space, some whitespace. And so that's been good. And I've really sorted through a lot of that. And I'm really super excited about what's in store for 2024. And so I wanted to just kick off this new season. We're in season four of the podcast. If you're new around here, welcome. We're glad to have you. I just wanted to share a little bit about my vision and about what what we're going to be doing here on the podcast, inside the designers, voices community. And here with you guys. So I just want to say I'm a little this morning I had a I had a mammogram. Actually I had my so I turned 40 last year. No, that's not true. I turned 41 last year. And my doctor said, you know, it's time for you to have a mammogram. Right?

So I wouldn't have my boobs squished. It was great. Then they called me back and said, Hey, we want to have one more look at your right breast. And so I you know, it didn't startled me. They said 50% of the people that call back for second imaging imaging just to get kind of a second look. And so I made my second appointment, and I went in there this morning. And I honestly never for a moment felt any sort of anxiety, I'm going to fast forward real quick and just say everything, everything looks good. We're good. But there was never really a moment where I felt anxiety or fear or nerves leading up to it. But when I was laying on the table, and she was doing an ultrasound of one of my breasts, I saw her measuring a growth. And I just want to say like I I felt fine until I saw that. And I'm like, What the fuck? What is happening right now. And so she left the room and said the doc the radiologist is going to take a look at it, then she'll be back in to talk to you. And ultimately she ended up saying, you know, it looks benign. And she explained why she thinks that. And she said that if I you know, depending on my anxiety level, we can choose to biopsy it right now. But she didn't think that was necessary that she'd like to wait six months and have me come back for a second imaging and just to see if there's any changes that have been made. But anyway, all that to say that like, man sitting there replaying there on this table having this Jen and watching her measure that growth. I mean, I can't think of anybody I know who hasn't been touched by cancer in one way or another. And I just want to give a shout out to my dear friend, Jenny Carlson who is currently undergoing cancer treatment. She has talked about her her journey publicly. She's financials for creatives. I love her dearly. She's been a past guest on the podcast, she has been a guest expert inside of our program. So I'll be sure to link to her episodes, you can hear from her and she's going to be back on the show this season. So she's wonderful, but she's you know, she's going through her own journey with this right now. And I keep her close to my heart all the time. But, you know, there was something about doing that sort of idea of geez, Louise, Kate, that it sort of puts things into perspective, right? It's like what the fuck is important, right? Why the fuck do we get out of bed every day? And why does that matter in I'm working with a new coach myself who I just just started working with and I adore her. I'm so excited to work with her but she's also really helping me kind of get this into focus and I think that's going to be a lot of what we do.

Talk about this year, you know, when we think about what what is it that we're doing right as an interior as interior designers, why does it matter? What's our impact? How can we leave the world leave? People leave spaces better than we found it? What is our legacy? Right? What what is it that we want to imbue? In the people that we work with? It's it's not just about the pretty things, right? It's about creating and building beautiful spaces that help people feel whatever it is they want to feel, you know, whether that's feeling relaxed, rejuvenated or connected or energized, healed, we have interior design has the ability to do that. And a lot of us, especially new designers, get hung up on that value proposition, what is it that I really bring to the table, and there's so much, so we're gonna really be digging into that. But it got me thinking this morning, just how grateful I am for my health and not to take it for granted. And that you know, the work we're doing, we want it to feel like it matters. And so what does that mean for us? And how do we stay? How do we stay motivated, right, this is an election year, there's a lot, there's a lot that's in the queue for the coming months, we've got a lot going on globally in the world. And I understand that sometimes when you read the news, and you read some hard stuff, or see hard stuff that it can be hard to come and sit down at your desk or go to your drawing board and try to dig into this craft of interior design and have it feel like it matters, right when you when you see so much going on in the world. But I want to assure you that it does matter, right? It the work we do absolutely matters. And so we're gonna have a lot of conversations around that this year. And really bringing that to the surface because it's a really important subject to me and one that I want to just keep tapping into. I'm gonna butcher her words in But Elizabeth, oh my gosh, I'm looking back at my bookshelf. If you're looking if you're watching the YouTube. Oh my God, why am I speaking on her name? Elizabeth Gilbert, she's Luis, it's like a household name.

I'm also getting older and I get fucking remember anything. But Elizabeth Gilbert said something to the effect of this in, in her book, Big Magic. You know, when we when we see war, when we see poverty, when we see mental illness happening, it can be really hard to understand, like, Where does creativity Where does music creation or poetry or novel writing? Where does that come into the fold. And I really wish I could find that this exact quote, I might have to reread the whole book just to find it. But, you know, she says that. It's because those things are going on that your craft your artistry, whatever form that might be. For us, for a lot of us listening, that's interior design, it's because they're going on, and that we can do this, that it helps us realize that we're still alive, and that these things really do matter. And it is the thing that brings joy and light and life to the world. And so I really loved the way she she phrased it, although I guarantee you, she put it much more beautifully than I just did. But anyway, so I really, I really care a lot about the world of design in a deep way. And I want all interior designers to really understand at their core, the value that it provides for our clients and how it can help shape their lives and make it better. So we're gonna be talking a lot about that. Another thing I want to really dig into, which is kind of related, we talk about, we don't talk about exit strategies very often. You know, what, what is an exit strategy? Is it something that you want in your business? If so, what does it look like? And how does it work? Now an exit strategy, as my new coaches shared with me and I thought was great, the way she put it was, an exit strategy is a wonderful thing to have. What's really fucking cool is when you know you've got that available for you, you've got your data, you've got all of the information that would be necessary to sell a business or to pass it off to someone. You never have to sell your business. You never have to exit your business unless you want to. But knowing that you could at any moment, that's a real power move. While a power move might be the reason why you want an exit strategy. I think another reason why an exit strategy in your business might be something to think about is, you know, I think about if I got hit by a bus tomorrow, would this whole thing crumble and my kids would have nothing to show for it. I would rather have a legacy something where if I got hit by a bus tomorrow, God forbid, this business could continue to run and make money for my family. And so that's something that I'm going to be working on personally in my own personal business journey, but I really hope that I can take some of those learnings along the way and share them with you here on the podcast. And you may never have thought about an exit strategy before. Or you might call it an insurance policy and, and insurance, strategy, whatever you choose to call it. But it's really important that you start thinking about those kinds of things now, because if that's something you want down the line, 510 20 years down the road, you're going to need to do some things today to kind of get your house in order. And I couldn't tell you what all of those things are right now. But I'm hoping to learn and share some of those learnings along the way.

So that's something else that we're going to be sort of tackling this year as we dive into some of our conversations. All right, what else are we talking about this year? Well, one thing that I'm super excited about, and I hope you're excited about it, too, is we're launching a massive survey of interior designers. It's the interior design, pricing survey, interior design pricing survey. And I need your help, okay, because what I'm doing what our team is doing, and I want to give a big shout out to my team, Jackie, and Megan, for helping us get this off the ground. But the survey opens today, and it's going to be open for the month of February. So here's what it is, if you've ever wondered to yourself, hmm, I wonder how long it takes other designers to do X, Y, or Z? Or what would another designer of my caliber, not my level of expertise and experience, what would they charge for this project. That's where this survey information is going to come to back to help you. So here's how it works. We're putting together a survey, you can go see it right now it's at designers oasis.com forward slash survey, this is for designers who have had a little bit of it, you need to have at least a little bit of experience a few projects to be able to qualify to take the survey, right, the more designers who take the survey, the more accurate the results will be. But what we're gonna do is we've got this series of questions, it's going to take about 30 minutes for you to complete. So I want you to come to it when you have a little bit of time so that you can focus on it. But we're going to ask you a series of questions about you and your business. Everything that's anonymous, it stays private with us, we don't share any of your personal information. And you can read more about that there on the survey itself. If you have any questions, obviously reach out. So we're gonna ask you some questions about your business. And then we're going to ask you to look at three different projects to evaluate what you would charge and what you think your time would be for those projects, all the instructions, all the information will be there. But the idea is that we're going to at the end of the survey have a whole bunch of information that tells us well, designers at this level, would take about this long and charge about this much. And designers at this other level may be further along in their career. What does that look like?

We've got a whole bunch of information we're hoping to gather. And what is going to happen is when we're done, after we close the survey, we're going to take all of the information, everything that we pulled together, and we are going to put together a detailed report, it will be for sale. However, if you contribute to the survey, you'll get a copy for free. I don't know the cost off the top of my head, I have it in some notes somewhere. But eventually, once it's done, and we publish this report, in March, we're going to publish it in March. So very quickly, we're going to turn this information around and have it available for you. But we're going to have a PDF report that you can download so that you can compare how you charge and how you would price certain projects and compare yourself to other designers who are at the same level as you. Here's where this came from y'all.

So I talk to a lot of designers inside our program, the interior designers business blueprint, we have a monthly live q&a coaching session. And so we I talk to designers all the time, and one of the questions that keeps coming up. It also happens in our Facebook group is, you know, questions like, How long should it take to put together a drawing set? And I find this a very difficult if not impossible, question to answer, you know, and other questions similar to that, I find it nearly impossible to answer because here's why. First of all, I don't know your level of experience or expertise. I also don't know that you have the same expectations as I do for what a drawing set looks like the level of detail and the level of quality in those drawings. And so it's not fair to just spew out some random numbers, because we're not comparing apples to apples. So the goal of this survey the interior design price same survey is to help level the playing field so that we're kind of comparing apples to apples. Is it perfect, of course not. But it's going to give us a whole lot of information that is much better than just throwing spaghetti at the wall. And I want to share this information with you because I think it's going to help you build your confidence and, and use it as a baseline for determining your own fees. Okay, remember, this is a baseline, you're the one that gets to decide what you charge, every project is different. But this is going to give us kind of some broad strokes to base our pricing off of, I think there's a whole lot of factors that come into play when when thinking about your pricing. The the number one thing is the value that you bring to your clients, your pricing should always reflect the value that you bring to your clients, first and foremost, will stop. But there are also other factors that go into your pricing experience and education is one of them, right? You can't deny that somebody with more education, formal education and interior design and experience is obviously going to be able to charge more than someone who's just getting started and maybe doesn't have that level of expertise and experience. And it's going to maybe take them longer, right? Where you live often can be a factor for your rates. So we're going to try to bring all of this into a report where you can see how other designers work as well. And we're just really excited to share this with you. So I need you to come take this survey. Okay, so it's the designers oasis.com forward slash survey, it is open for the month of February only. Okay? If you're not sure if this is something that you would qualify to take, or would know how to take just just go take a peek at it right, just take a look that can't hurt and see what's there and see, well, we'll explain a little bit more about how we intend to use this information. But when you complete the survey, you will get a free copy delivered to your inbox when that report is ready. And then the next most important thing is that you share it with your friends because the more designers who take the survey and contribute to this information, the better the results are going to be. And the more accurate the results will be. So we really look forward to seeing how that all shapes up.

Here designer, are you tired of wasting precious time with prospective clients who are not the right fit? Do you experience imposter 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 to 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

All right. So what else thinking about what kinds of conversations we I want to have on this podcast and inside our program, I really want to shine a spotlight on sustainability in the interior design world. The reality of the environmental and social impacts of the furnishings and construction industry has really started to permeate my consciousness in a new way. Back when I was in design, school and college, this was something that was very important to me. It was at the forefront of decision making. And then as I started my career and I was in commercial design, and I was I one of my first jobs outside of it in college was I was the education coordinator for the US Green Building Council, because it was 2009. And the economy was in the tank, and nobody was hiring interior designers at that time. So this was kind of an adjacent job that I could take during that time, I learned a lot, but it allowed me to really understand sustainability in the built environment. And then I moved into commercial design and it it just happened that over time, the focus of sustainability in my work started to wane. And, and I lost track of that as a focus. And I and I have really felt the need to bring it back into focus, not only for myself and my clients in the work that I do, but in the in the consciousness of interior designers all over the world. I want to bring solutions and ideas for designers, front and center. I think we have the power, a lot of power to influence our industry when it comes to getting to talking with our clients and getting them on board. But also, when talking to our vendors and our reps. Many of us are going to high point this spring, what would happen if everyone listening to this podcast asked your presenters questions like? How is your company monitoring factors to ensure safe and ethical working environments, and that child labor practices are non existent? Or tell me where you source your wood? For the frames of your upholstery line? Are you sourcing wood from sustainably managed forest? Right? So when we start to ask these kinds of questions to our vendors, and our reps, and it's not just coming from one person or 10 people, but it's coming from 1000s of designers who are saying, Hey, listen up, this is really important to us, we have to do better. The fast furnishings world, you know, it started fast fashion was a word that we became privy to a number of years ago. But the topic of fast furnishings really isn't a word that has been popularized yet. But fast furniture is a very critical issue to our world and to our environment. And so I want to I want to talk about that I want to talk about the social issues around how furnishings are made, and that sort of thing. And so I hope to do it in a way that is inspiring. This is not a doomsday podcast, I'm not here to make anybody feel bad about the the practices that we're doing. And you know what, these things that I'm talking about, can be incremental, of course, I want you to do your best I want you to push yourself, I want to push myself to make better choices and smarter choices and more conscientious choices when it comes to how we source and specify things in interior design. But I also want us to realize that even small steps moving in the right direction, that counts, right. And in so wherever you find yourself on this topic, whether this is a new idea for you, or whether you're like, Kate, you're preaching to the choir over here, I want I want us to bring this conversation into focus in talk more about it, here. And in this year and beyond. Alright, so a couple of other things that we have going on this year moving forward that I'm I'm really excited and looking forward to and I hope you are too. podcast guest I am going to be interviewing a lot more interior designers. I love hearing stories from real designers and their journey in their business and their life. And I just think that it's so compelling and in everyone has such a beautiful story. And I want our guests to come and share not only what has worked well for them, but what what did they try that didn't work right so that we can sort of learn from those who've gone before us. So I'm looking forward to that. We have a couple of episodes coming up that I want to share with you.

One is with Susan and Julian Hayward, a mother and daughter team out of Massachusetts, who I loved hearing from but they're really just just a sweet and incredible family there. And they are talking about what it's like to run a family owned business. So I loved hearing from them and that episode will be out soon. We have Katie Gutierrez coming on the show who's going to be talking with us about finding your differentiator. Katie is just just a delight. She's a powerhouse. She's an amazing designer out of Florida and you are in for a treat hearing from Katie. We also have Tina Guevara, who is a longtime member inside the interior designers business blueprint program, who I have had the privilege of watching her grow and thrive over the last few years. She's done an amazing job with her business. she has, she came on the show. And we'll be sharing that episode very soon, where she talks about some of her secrets as to what has helped her the most in building a thriving and sustainable interior design business. So all those and more are coming up in the weeks and months ahead. So that's about it. Just a couple last quick announcements to share with you that I want to make sure you're staying connected to this because we have, yeah, we've got the podcasts but word a lot of other places. And I want to make sure that you know about them. First. Don't forget we have the dear Kate segment, which is where you can get free coaching. So send your questions to me at designers oasis.com forward slash dear Kate and we will share these hotseat coaching questions here on the podcast. If you want to learn more, again, go to designers voices.com forward slash Dr. Kate. And we will link in the show notes to all of this. So if you're driving, don't worry, I've got them saved for you and queued up so they are easy to find. Make sure you're following us on Instagram, you can find me at designers Oasis, I'm sharing some really fun stuff over there that you won't find anywhere else, including freebies behind the scenes content, and just some general shenanigans. So again, I'm at designers Oasis, I'd love to hang out with you over there. That's kind of where I am. I'm not not so much on the Facebook. That cracks me up every time. The Facebook, not only Facebook, but you can find me on the Instagram. The other thing I want to make sure is that you're on our email list. So every Thursday we send out a weekly newsletter called The brief and you can join almost 7000 other interior designers who get our weekly newsletter, where you get, make sure you get access to everything that's going on. These are weekly value packed emails delivered right to your inbox, I will not clutter your inbox with garbage.

I want to make sure I personally write these emails. And I personally make sure that I feel that what I'm sending out is valuable to you. So I not only share early access to our podcast episodes, but you'll also get fun stuff like links to new interior design brands and products that I find and love. I'm constantly saving the names of companies or products that I just think are really great interior design products, whether that's furnishings, or art, or artists, or title companies that are just making really cool fun stuff. So if you want me to help you build your Rolodex of trade sources, come join us join the newsletter, it's called the brief. Plus, I like to include things like tech tips and trainings, general musings, and design inspiration. So it's fun, we have a good time and that comes weekly. So check the show notes for a link to join the email list or you can go to designers oasis.com, forward slash in the No, that's I n in the no kn O W. I'm sorry, I just did that. I just paternalist you by making you think that you didn't know how to spell in the No, I know, you know how to spell in the know. All right. That's all I got for you. Don't you love it? When a friend shares a new podcast with you that you think that they think you would love? Would you be that friend? If you enjoy this podcast, why not share it with an interior design a friend of yours that you think would also love it? Not only does this help make you a wonderful friend, but it also helps me tremendously and allows us to keep making episodes for you. So make sure to share this episode and more with your interior design friends, or not. You sit share with your mom, I don't care. Anybody that you think might enjoy this. I think a lot of what we talked about can help folks who are home flippers or Airbnb designers or whatever.

But anybody you think might enjoy these kinds of conversations. Be a good friend and share it with him. All right. I love you guys. Thank you so much for hanging out with me. I am so glad and thrilled to be back here with you in the new year. It's gonna be fun. Cheers to 2024 All right, bye for now. Hey, friend, thank you so much for letting me spend a part of this day with you. I'm so passionate about helping designers like you. And I believe in a rising tide that when one of us does well we all do better. So if you share this attitude of abundance with me, I want you to do just one little thing. Please share this episode with someone using might love it. And if you're feeling extra generous today, go ahead and take just 30 cents guns to open your podcast app and leave us a five star rating and review. It's free for you to do and it helps me to be able to keep making more episodes and resources 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. I'll see you soon.