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

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.

Kate Bendewald

My guest today is Katie Gutierrez, who is the lead designer and co founder of ARIS design studio along with her husband Ruben in Miami, Florida. I recently met Katie through a mutual connection who reached out to me and invited me to be a speaker on the eighth list design summit which she hosted and it was an absolute success in so much fun. She is the creator of biographical design and interior design system that uses the client's biography as the foundation of her six step design process which we are going to learn more about today. But the results in spaces that are the combination of clients self expression that transcend the boundaries of trends. She also runs biographical businesses a coaching business for interior designers and helps them to identify their differentiator and turn it their passion into rapid scaling. Not only that she has a tool, a CRM, customer relationship management tool that helps interior designers increase their exposure and lead engagement called the mike gotcha app. And when she's not busy running her empire, you will find her in Miami spending time with her family dancing in the living room or at the beach with her feet up on the lounge chair. Hi, Katie. Welcome. How are you today?

Katie Gutierrez

I am so great to be here, Kate. I'm great. And so glad to be here because I am basically obsessed with you and everything that you're about and what you do so to be in the same room with you feels like such an honor. I'm so grateful that you've had me here today.

Kate Bendewald

Well had you back. So fun little side story. Katie is such a gem and thank you in the feeling's mutual. Katie is you were so gracious. One of my worst nightmares that I always feared happened actually happened. Katie and I have previously recorded a podcast episode and the some setting was off. And it did not capture her audio. And so I had to put my tail between my legs and sent her that email that said that our time had not been captured. And it was really devastating. But you were so cool about it cool as a cucumber. And so I'm really grateful that you were willing to come sit with me again, because I loved our conversation. And I really, really, really want designers to hear all that you have to say so thank you.

Katie Gutierrez

I'm really glad that it happened for another opportunity to be with you.

Kate Bendewald

Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh, you're so funny. As we're recording this. I'm like looking at my settings. I'm like okay, double check. Make sure everything is right. Like we are little seems to be working. We already did a sound test. Jeez Louise, Kate. Okay, well, welcome back. I look, I don't I'm gonna be honest. I don't know where to start. You have got so much going on. You want to talk about your design process? fast with your clients, I want to talk about how you use this same concept to help interior designers, I want to talk about what it's like to run your business, or should I say empire with your spouse. And I want to talk about your thoughts on community over competition. And we got to do this all in an hour. So you guys roll up your sleeves, buckle up, we are, we're gonna dive right into it. But my first question, Katie, is do you sleep?

Katie Gutierrez

Yes, actually, I'm very, very, very dedicated to work, play boundaries. And, you know, something I pride myself on is being a really great mom. And for me, one of the things that has to do with is setting boundaries on time and so I am committed to picking up my son from school every day or as many days, you know, and not working nights and weekends. And I, you know, probably missed that mark. Two times a year. Other than because something major, you know, but other than that I'm really dedicated to, to these work life boundaries, or work life balance, I'll say, Sure,

Kate Bendewald

yeah, no, I love that. Because I think it's so easy for us to see people who are doing so much and just think that there's, there's no way to do it and still be able to maintain, you know, that that balance, and it's so important, and it's something that I talk a lot about, because I got I missed the mark, a lot, you know, early on, and I, part of the reason and part of the impetus for for starting and building designers always is was because of that burnout that I had. So it's really, you know, I was fortunately able to pause, figure it out, turn it around. And it's been working well, for me for the, for the last, you know, seven, eight years, since I had that big good takes.

Katie Gutierrez

Yeah, I was gonna say it takes a lot of intentionality, right? You have, right, you have to choose that that's the way that you want to live. And sometimes it chooses us, right? Because we get, or there's an event or, you know, our kid, you know, like things happen that show us to choose it or teach us to choose it. And ultimately, it's largely about a choice.

Kate Bendewald

Absolutely. And I love that you said that. And it's funny, because I'm currently in the middle of working on a piece that I'm going to be putting together about being intentional with your business. And I love that you just said that. It's a choice. And, you know, I remember working with a lady a number of years ago, when I worked in corporate architecture, and for a period of time, she was my boss, and she made me anxious because she never stopped working. And she was there when I got there. And she was there. When I left when I had a baby. I couldn't do that. And I was just like, and she was just miserable. And I was like, I don't want to be that person. I just don't and I never have so anyway. Alright, so you this is important to you, you are intentional about it. And I love that because it shows that it absolutely is doable. Let's start really though with your client process, you have developed a signature process that you take your clients through that you call biographical design, am I getting that that name, right? Exactly right. Okay. And this is an interior design system that uses the client's biography, as the foundation for your six step design process. So can you share more specifically about how this works and what it's about? And why you believe in this this way of doing things?

Katie Gutierrez

Yeah, so I really, really believe this is my passion. It's my everything. Like I really wholeheartedly believe that human beings should be celebrated in their individuality. And because of that philosophy of life, if you will, I have to do my work from that place, right. And so what I did was, I noticed that over time, the, my favorite my best projects were when I was doing this, or coming at the project from this process. Over time, I realized, wow, I can really package this in and name it something and do it on purpose and do it with intentionality. And so I decided to do that and I did it. And now I call it biographical design. And biographical design is my signature system, wherein I deep dive into a person's biography. I have a system called spirit. Spirit is an acronym for the six key things that I know that if I can pull out of my client and reflect those six key particular things in space making, then I know that the home will feel like it's their own self expression, because ultimately it is, so what I do is I match those six things, spirit, SBIR it, I match those six things to colors, patterns, and materiality and by Doing that I am able to guarantee the outcome of a home that is a vehicle of the client's own self expression.

Kate Bendewald

Wow, that's beautiful. And tell me what you do. Is this something that you do in the initial interview with your clients? Like, can you give me? Like, how does this play out? Do you do like I do a deep dive with my clients? And I have, you know, a series of questions that I like to get into, and we get real personal, right, but sounds like you've got it sort of down to a science, that's kind of the same thing.

Katie Gutierrez

Yeah, I have it down to a science. And I really, really believe in the importance of that, for interior designers is to have what I'll call a thought leadership. I didn't make up the phrase, I'm just saying, like, it becomes thought leadership when it is packaged, and when it is systemized. That's the difference between like I do this, I'm like, great at what I do. And like, No, I have thought leadership around it and thought leadership lends itself to becoming grand. Yeah, and when your company is branded, like, that's when you are seeing higher profits, that's when you're seeing a greater brand experience for your clients that have feels more luxurious to work with you because they're part of a system a part of a process. So um, so I've taken biographical design, which at the beginning was like, hmm, I just do a kind of intuitively, I intuitively ask the clients these questions and intuitively match it to design and intuitively, you know, create a space intuitively based on what the things that they've said to me. And while I used to wear that as a badge of honor, like look at how great I am so intuitive, what I realized that that was actually blocking me from creating that brand. And so when I finally was able to find the science in it, is when I was able to package it and create a system out of it. And then once that was systemized, everything in my business changed. Wow.

Kate Bendewald

Can you give me an example of a client how you took something from their biography, something that you uncovered? And how that translated into an element or something in the space?

Katie Gutierrez

Yeah, so I would love to give two examples. Sure. One is one sort of like a more surface, the light example. And then the other one has a lot of depth to it. And I think both are important to show. So one, one tangible example is I had a client, that was a couple, and a husband and a wife. And they were very different from each other. He was born in like farmlands, and grew up in that sort of country lifestyle. And she is more New York fashionista. And so those two sort of personalities and people coming together were was a very interesting experience that we've loved. The sort of challenge of that. And one of the things we did as a tangible example was we did a coffee table that was a tree stump, to sort of celebrate that country side of him. And we had that tree stump gold leafed to celebrate that glamorous side of her. So at the end of the day, they have this collection of gold tree stumps as their coffee table as a real celebration of the unification of these two people coming together. So that's one, you know, tangible.

Kate Bendewald

I love that. I love that so much. And you know what else I love about that? It's like, yes, that's your signature service. That's a that's a clear example of that. But also, that is, you can't buy that in a store. Right? And that's as designers and I hear the question a lot, well, how do you keep clients from shopping you? Well, that's how you you make and design custom things. Because ultimately, you are a designer. Not a personal shopper. So I love I love that customization and bespoke you, you know, piece that is really cool, because it's a coffee table. And it's the center of conversations, right? It's it's like this grounding piece in a in a space. Oh, I would love to see pictures of that. Okay. Now I'm really I, I'm really eager to hear this other example that you mentioned.

Katie Gutierrez

And I love this teachable moment that you brought in here, Kate, which is like one of the reasons why you're such a great coach and such a great guide for interior designers is the way that you're able to like infuse teachable moments like that. And I'd love to add one more, which is look at how or can you imagine Can you see how much when I presented this coffee table to these clients how much they were like, Oh my gosh, yes, we have to have that coffee table. It has to be just like that. And we have to have it and however much it costs. We don't care. We'll do it. Right. Right. Because a lot of times I hear designers ask questions all the time about what do you do about when clients want revisions and revisions and revisions and revisions. You know, one of the things I say is like, why are they asked me for so many revisions like what's your design process? What's your info gathering process? What's your reflection? process, right? And so this is such a great example of like, would they ask for a revision of that coffee table? No, because look at how beautifully and uniquely it represents who they are. Right. And so it's just like point to, and thoughtful. Right. So it's just pointing back to like, how do you do the info gathering intentionally, then yield space? That is a reflection of that. Intentional info gather? Yeah. It's such an important part of business of design. Right, right.

Kate Bendewald

Oh, my gosh, it's so good. Yeah, I was just having this conversation with a designer the other day, and it's like, well, if you're doing that many revisions, there's got to be more to it. What was what happened before that? How did you know? Because it's clearly something's missing the mark. Oh, goodness. Okay. Wow. So much. So, so many good nuggets here, Katie, thank you for that, too. Yeah. So what's another example that you have another

Katie Gutierrez

example. So we were working with a client on Miami Beach, which is like, amazing real estate there. And when they called us in they, they said, Oh, we want this white kitchen with white subway backsplash tile. Now, nothing wrong with white kitchens or white subway backsplash tile. But what I know is that when a client says that out of the gate, I know that I have an opportunity to ask them more questions about why they want that, right. Because usually, I have seen that when people ask for that. It's because they didn't do like a deep dive until here's what I'm getting at. I told these people, like I hear you. And the way I work is I do biographical design, which means I'm going to start with a biographical discovery, and really get to understand who you are and your biography and all this. And then we'll ultimately yield a kitchen design and we'll see if it's white, or if it's not, are you open to that? You know, and you're like, Yes, we love that idea. Right. So in the biographical discovery meeting with them, I found out I learned that the client was the survivor of a terrorist attack. Now, it goes without saying what an incredible impact that experience had on this client. And so what I also learned was that this family does Friday night dinners every night with their extended family, and they cook it in that kitchen. Very, very gourmet. They like go all in on this Friday Night Dinner that they do every Friday night. We do we do. So what I found was that there was this like disconnection between this white kitchen that they wanted for resale value, and the incredible passion that they live from. And the incredible like, zaps of like doing these Friday night dinners meant something with a lot of gravity. You got one, right?

Kate Bendewald

Yes, yes. Yeah. So,

Katie Gutierrez

so what we present here,

Kate Bendewald

like, I'm sorry, you cannot have like, there's too much soul there to let that happen. Exactly.

Katie Gutierrez

So that you see that with with, with not some more explanation. So we explained that to them, like, wow, we're seeing so much depth and so much soul and so much intentionality with these dinners, and where they're coming from, and all the things. So to create that dinner inside of this kitchen that you want for resale value, when you don't even plan on selling the house, like we saw that there was, you know, more deep, that more depth we could have. So what we did was we presented to them the idea of doing a blue kitchen, because we know that when anybody goes through some traumatic experience like that, and we all have to some degree, we know that in like chromotherapy, blue in particular is a calming color, Deep Blue in particular is is evocative of safety, and wood and being connected to natural materials can evoke that feeling of nesting. And again, that connection to earth, which grounds us. And so we presented them the idea of doing a dark blue kitchen with moments of, you know, wood cabinetry. And at first we were like, What do you think? And it was an overwhelming, yes. And overwhelming. Yes. And now can you see the difference? Like, I hope you can feel the difference of my giving them a biographically designed kitchen, and this deep blue kitchen and the energy that they create those dinners from and the effect that that has on those Friday night family time. Like that is a different lifestyle. And so what I know is like that's the the depth of my work with people is I could have designed a white kitchen for them. No problem. Right. But I know what I have the opportunity to deliver more value to people and that's why I do biographical design. Yeah. Oh, and that's why I've structured it also to be a thing that I talked about in the sales meeting and onboard people with because if I can get them to onboard with the desire to follow my leadership in the direction of biographical design, that I know I have sort of magnetize them to follow my leadership with biographical science throughout the entire I already have the project. Yeah,

Kate Bendewald

right? Well, I have so many things to say and ask. But I also want to be mindful of our time today I but I want to just say this. anybody listening? You, this is what we do. This is what we should be doing with every single client, you have a responsibility to them to know who they are and ask hard questions. And I honestly Kati can't tell you how many clients I've had over the years, that in that deep dive interview, or through the process of talking to them, I have learned that there's mental health challenges that there's PTSD, that there's anxiety. And all of a sudden, it's, it's so much more important, it's so we have such a bigger opportunity to change the way somebody lives and feels and engages in their their own home and how they and how they feel. And so if you're not asking these questions, if you're not getting to the core of who they really are, you're it's a huge missed opportunity. And you do this so beautifully.

Katie Gutierrez

I love that you called it a responsibility. And I totally agree, like, what is more intimate and personal to somebody than their home and their money? And as interior designers, we touch both? Right? Yeah, yeah, that's true. We touch three shoe right. And so and so we do have a responsibility to be very sensitive, sensitive to that. And one thing I hear a lot of designers saying is, um, you know, how can I go to a person and expect them to open up to me like that? Mm hmm. You know, and I, and I just say, like, I do it? Yeah.

Kate Bendewald

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I mean, trust building with clients is something that I probably should talk more about, because it's a really important part of, you know, how I engage with clients. And I think that you have to a, you need to read people. And when you're first starting to work with them and try to understand like, is, is this a person that has capacity for trust? Because we have to be trusted? Like, kind of from the beginning? Yes, we're gonna have to earn some of that. But is this a person that I feel like can ultimately, trust me with with this responsibility? And some people may need to have more of a runway to get there. But ultimately, you if you're asking questions like that, I hope that we're working with people that have you have asked yourself this question Is this somebody that I can go deep with as, as somebody that I can ask these difficult questions and get an honest answer from and have them know that my intentions, what my intentions are, and where I'm going with this and why it's why it's important to know these things. And

Katie Gutierrez

I love the way that you just said that because a lot of it has to do with the way that you are able to talk about your process in a way that you show value to them. So I don't say I love biographical design, because I love it so much, because it's so good for me, and I enjoy the process. And it gives me so much, you know, fulfillment in my work, I say, I have crafted biographical design for you. Because I know that you will love the outcome when your home is biographically designed, because you will not like it if it's only pretty, you know, and it has to be resonant for you. And so I've crafted the system for you. And when people can see the value for themselves, they're much more likely to acquiesce to that leadership. Right?

Kate Bendewald

Exactly. Well, that's a that's a really perfect segue into talking about how so you basically, my understanding is that so you've, you've developed this biographical design model for working with your clients, but you had this moment where you were like, and I can take the same idea and help designers biographically design their business. So let's pivot a minute to about to talk about the work that you do with designers. You call it biographical design, which is similar in that it's an interior design system that works with excuse me, yeah, that works with designers to help them understand and get clear on what their differentiator is. Am I Am I getting that correct? You got it perfectly. Thank you. Yay. Okay, somebody gives me a gold star. I'll

Katie Gutierrez

put myself Okay, here, five.

Kate Bendewald

I need some even small wins today are great. So let's take little I'll take what I can get. Alright, so talk me through this a little bit more and how you how you help designers in this way? Yeah,

Katie Gutierrez

so in doing it for so long for interior design clients, meaning homeowners, and I also do commercial work as well in my firm. What I found is that biographical design really yields somebody special spark, and what I found is that that is cross contextual. So I take this biographical discovery, and I spend the time with designers to We'll go through their biography, quite literally, to help them yield and pull out of them what their differentiator is. A lot of times designers say that they don't know what makes them different in the market, in the industry. And because they don't know what makes them different, they don't know how to sell themselves, they don't know how to talk about their value, they don't know how to price because they don't know what their pricing, their conversion rates are low in sales, because they don't know how to, you know, attract a client, their lead generation skills seem to be weak, because they don't know how to be, quote, unquote, out there with their message, because what message and so what I have found is that the biggest thing that supports interior designers is to first start with a foundational piece, which is like, I'm really good at making things beautiful and functional. Because beauty and function and health is the definition of interior design, it's not a differentiator to you, you're not different because you do that you're doing the definition of interior design. So when I go through this differentiator discovery process with the designers, it yields what that differentiator is from a place of their own self expression. I don't tell them anything I pull out from them when their answers are, reflect that back to them, and show them what they've said. And I'm like, basically, that's a differentiator. And then they're like, oh, my gosh,

Kate Bendewald

you're Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it is it because you sometimes you can just be so close to it, or you can't see, you know, and and I would imagine, I'd love to know more, but I would imagine you're looking at things like, what's their work experience been? What's their life experience been? Where have they traveled? What are they? You know, like, where are they from? Like, what are these influences that make up you know, this picture? How to Yeah. So how do you how are you? Can you give us a little snapshot? How do you do this?

Katie Gutierrez

Meal day, so it's quite literally, like, tell me about your life. And I'll reflect back to you the patterns that I'm seeing, and always people pattern things, I really believe that each human being is kind of put on this planet to discover a particular thing. I really believe that everybody has a different sort of frequency. You know, we all have unique fingerprints. And in the same way, our hearts all have a unique This is science. I'm not I'm not saying this philosophy, this is actual science, everybody's heart just like a fingerprint is different. Everybody's heart actually has a different frequency of the electricity, it sends out from itself, this is science go look it up. It's fascinating. And everybody has a unique signature, the unique frequency. And so what I'm looking for is the texture of their life and the uniqueness inside of that. So that their business can be a reflection of that. Because if you imagine if you told like anybody to have a business that didn't look like them, feel like them act like them, that dis resonance will always lead to is this resonance of word? I think it is. It is

Kate Bendewald

now I don't know, I think it probably I come from the world of I make up words that feel

Katie Gutierrez

right. So just resonance, you know what I mean? So if someone feels dis resonant with their business, it's always going to lead to dissonance. Dissonance is the actual word. Okay, so if somebody feels dissonance in their business, it will always lead to a business that did they don't feel confident with write that they don't feel excited about that they feel burnout with, that they feel overwhelmed by Yeah, so what I do with people is first find the resonance of how their business can be a reflection of that texture, that special spirit that they have, so that we can create systems, just like biographical design is the system. They create systems unique to each designer so that their business is a vehicle of their self expression. And when that's in place, and that resonance is in place, there's no way to not attract clients that are matching that frequency. Yeah. And then well, yes, alive in their business and alive with the clients with whom they work, then they're able to deliver more excellence and delivering excellence begets more excellence begets more excellence and then there's this upward spiral that can happen when your business is a reflection or a magnification of the frequency you naturally are vibrating at.

Kate Bendewald

Yeah, yes, yes. Everything she said you guys who love it so much. And you know, it's funny because I you talk about how uncovering this and getting clear on it is is really a core aspect of building confidence and that makes so much sense and attract doing the kind of people that you want to work with. And if I just think about myself, I look back over the last, we'll say five years, because it was a lot of work leading up to that. But it was really about five years ago that I hit this stride. And that was because I started to get intentional and I did some of this work. And the clients that I attracted. It was it was a crystal clear difference in the kind of people that I was able to work with that were just lovely people and the kind of people who are friends today who keep calling me back and telling their friends about me. And it was it was because there was intention behind it. And I had that confidence because I had I had dug in and did the work. And so that makes so much sense. And I know that before that work, and I wish I had had you because I probably would have fast tracked my way there instead of slogging through it for as long as I had. But you know, I don't know, I lost my train of thought. But I just it's clear that that upward spiral happens once you it's like, you get moving, you get unstuck. And you can you can move ahead and you can feel confident and your yeses and your nose.

Katie Gutierrez

I had the most I want to say shocking, but it wasn't shocking, because it's it's the natural rhythm of what we're talking about here. But yesterday, I had a sales meeting with a client, a potential client. And the amount of times I said me to in that meeting was was astounding, right? So from the moment that I pulled up, I got out of the car, and she greeted me at the door and she goes, you're not going to believe this. But my husband has a Tesla too. And he has a UF tag to University of Florida. And he has the University of Florida tag too. And I'm like, Oh my gosh, me too well, right. And then when I walked in, she was like, I have one son. I'm like, I have one son. And then she was like, Oh, my dog just passed away. Like my dog just passed away. All of this is true. I hope you realize that. Wow. Yeah, of course. Then she was like, Oh, my husband has a seafood restaurant. But I actually don't eat seafood. I'm like, I don't eat seafood either. So actually, like, from all the little Wow, incredible resonance resonance between the two of us that ultimately, at the end of the sales meeting, when I went through my process, and I described biographical design. So here's how we work and ultimately led into the pricing. And I delivered the pricing information right then and there. And I had a contract and we're ready to sign and literally walked out of that meeting with a yes. Well,

Kate Bendewald

yeah, I mean, it seems like that would have been an obvious but But what but but that's because you have done this work and you're energetically bringing people into your world that are in alignment. That's

Katie Gutierrez

that's the whole point of this right is like, of course I attracted her. Yeah, right. Of course, she found out about me, because two frequencies that that are vibrating at the same frequency, we'll find each other that's this is like the law of attraction. This is physics. Right? We don't make a sales meeting. When I'm the whole time in the meeting, feeling like of course, she's gonna say yes. And I'm sure she was feeling like of course, I'm gonna say yes. And when the meeting feels like this is an obvious yes. Like, I love that. You were like, obviously she said yes, right. Now, well, if obviously, they'll say yes. When there's such resonance between the two people, the two parties, that it's like, of course, there will be a yes. That's what's available when we be do and are intentional with the frequencies that we're sending out that are a real honest representation of the frequencies that we hold.

Kate Bendewald

Yes, I love it. And congratulations. Sounds like a really exciting project. You've got ahead of yourself a designer, I see you, you're working hard building your interior design business, and you're doing okay, but things could be better. Am I right? Maybe you're struggling to clarify what makes you different. You know, that onus factor that sets you apart from other designers in your area. Maybe you have leads, but you're squeamish when it comes to selling and you can't seem to move them from a prospect to a happily paying client. Perhaps every project feels like you're reinventing the wheel because your design processes aren't dialed in. Maybe you're eager to take on the big projects, but you're not sure how to implement full service projects without a team. So you keep playing small. Look, I get it. Running an interior design business, especially on your own isn't for the faint of heart. But it's totally doable and the rewards creatively, personally, professionally and financially are so worth it. If you're ready for a fresh perspective on what it takes to grow without the burnout and overwhelm, I have a special invitation for you. For a limited time you can catch my new masterclass the six part framework for a thriving interior design business Hi, I'm laying it all out for you, including the top three mistakes so many designers make and why they're stealing your time, your money and your joy, the secret to getting the best free marketing in your design business. And of course, I'll share my signature framework to building a profitable design business without constantly hustling for new clients. Here's the thing. When I say I don't believe in a one size fits all approach to how you run your design business, I really mean it. It doesn't matter if you want to run a business doing exclusively virtual design, or you want to build a business on a part time schedule. Or you really want to make a name for yourself working with high profile individuals with a buzzing team that supports you. Whatever your end goal may look like, my framework can help you look at your business with a fresh set of eyes so you can get the clarity you need to know what to focus on right now. And here's the best part. This masterclass is free. Yeah, free, head over to designers oasis.com, forward slash thrive and register now. I'll see you there.

Kate Bendewald

I want to pivot for a minute because I know that you run your business with your husband. And his name is Ruben. Thank you, Ruben. I want to hear what is it like to run a business with your spouse? How do you make that work?

Katie Gutierrez

Well, first of all, I'm obsessed with my husband. So that Oh,

Kate Bendewald

you guys are vibing on the same energy level, I guess.

Katie Gutierrez

Um, I just think that he's the tops.

Kate Bendewald

I'm sure the feeling's mutual.

Katie Gutierrez

I hope so. I'll kick him if it's not. Um, so, you know, it definitely helps that I genuinely love this person, right and enjoy being around him. But I think that, that this sort of key to our success, if you will, is one that we actually like each other. That helps, right, and what he doesn't like, abuse me or like all the major, you know. So, um, so I would say that that one of the things that we do intentionally is make sure that we are clear on what our individual rules are. Because I think sometimes what I've heard in the past is like, when there's overlap and a lot of areas and like, who's doing what, and who's stepping on whose toes and I thought you were gonna send that email with that you were gonna send that email like, right. So what we did early, early early on, is we get really, really clear on what our goals are. And that has helped a lot because I can encourage him in his roles, if you can encourage me and Ryan, my roles. And we can support each other where in when we need support. And then beyond that trust that each other has those tasks taken care of. And that alleviates a lot of questions and confusions and that the second thing is that every Monday morning, we have a business meeting. And we go over all the projects and we go over, you know, what our wins are, we go over where we need support, and we go over where each project stands. And then beyond that, one of the things we're intentional with is dreaming together about the business we're in, we take time and we go on walks, actual physical walks in neighborhoods that we desire to work in. And we walk around the neighborhood and we call it our like walking vision meeting. And we talk about our goals and aspirations for the business and make sure that we're both aligned in where we want to take our business. Because if we're not aligned, then we'll be behaving differently and doing different tasks. That won't be pointed towards the same goal. So it's important for us we recognize it's important for us and our life to we do that about our life as well, and what your desires are for our son and you know, all the things.

Kate Bendewald

I love it so much. So first of all, I'm thinking to myself, Oh my gosh, if I was still like doing design work, which I am on a very limited basis, but I'm primarily 100% dedicated to designers Oasis at this point. But I used to say this is sort of pivoting from the question and working with your spouse, but I was distracted by what you said about walking in the neighborhoods where you desire to work. I used to go on drives in the neighborhoods where the neighborhoods where I desired to work. In specifically I was looking for like, yard signs, like who's the builder who's the architect on these projects, because I want to connect with them. But I can see just energetically the benefit of like going on a walk in the neighborhood and listening to your podcast or whatever. And just spending some time in these in these neighborhoods to understand, you know what, you know, what's what's happening and to just be in it and feeling because I'll be honest, my clients aren't in my neighborhood. Well, they are but they're across the street across the big crowd. And so it's not the same as going for a walk in my own neighborhood. I've got to go to the neighborhoods where desire to work, we'll get back to working with your husband. So you guys are clear on your roles. You have these Monday mornings for the alignment meetings. And you also dream and vision together. What can you sort of briefly outline like, what are your roles? And how have you defined them?

Katie Gutierrez

Yeah, well, one of the things that we experienced very early on in our business is, so my husband and I, I'll speak for him that we like to be sort of attached at the hip. Sometimes I'm like, I have to go to the bathroom Come with me.

Kate Bendewald

Oh, my God. I have the opposite thing going on. I'm like, can I? Where are you? I haven't seen you in days.

Katie Gutierrez

They miss, you know? Um, well, the point is that, you know, you got to do how you couple right, and every couple of questions differently. So but, but in the beginning, we wanted to go to every meeting together, and we wanted to, you know, sit at the computer designing together. And you know, early on, we recognized that one that was not efficient, because two people doing all the tasks is not productive, and not productive means not financially productive. So we, we early on, quickly realized that if we can divide and conquer, then we have double the capacity for work that we can do. And so what we, you know, that came with a little bit of learning the hard way, for example, the example I gave earlier was a real one, like, I thought you sent the email, you know, oh, my God, it's been three days, and nobody ever emailed that client, right. So, so that came a little bit like learning the hard way. But, um, but what we do, what we have figured out is that we divide and conquer projects. So he has projects that are his own, and I have projects that are my own. And in some cases, there are some projects that I've never met the client. So there are projects in my office right now that I've never met the client.

Kate Bendewald

Wow. Okay. So he's a designer. You're both designers.

Katie Gutierrez

Yeah, we actually met in architecture school,

Kate Bendewald

I was about to ask. Okay, got it. Okay. Who? And who else makes up your team? What are you guys? How does it what does it look like?

Katie Gutierrez

Yeah, we have two other people that, that work with us. And generally, how it shakes down is we have somebody who is so everybody in my office is a designer, and does design work. That said, there are clear defined roles that each person has. So I do have somebody supporting with procurement and project management, and somebody supporting it, right, and somebody supporting in two dimensional drawings and renderings.

Kate Bendewald

Okay, love that. That's dreamy. I love that makeup.

Katie Gutierrez

It is so dreamy, because one of the things that I'm really really adamant about is that, that business should feel easy. And business should feel light, and you shouldn't feel overwhelmed by work. And it should feel like flow. And it should feel graceful, and it should feel fun. And so for myself and for my team. It's like, if someone's overwhelmed, it's like, what are we doing wrong here? And I consider that as a wrong the wrong thing, right? Or let me say there's an opportunity for up leveling systems. So my team as a whole really believe and I'll say that, that we all feel like it's a fun working environment. We enjoy ourselves as a team, we enjoy working together, we enjoy the projects, and it's enjoyable experience. Yeah.

Kate Bendewald

Oh, I love that. Yeah. And you know, if there is a point where if you are doing it all, if you are doing the procurement, and you are doing the drawings, and you are doing the client meetings and the designing, you will feel overwhelmed and burned out, you just were just not meant to be doing all of that forever, you know, maybe in the beginning when you're just getting started. But eventually, you've got to have a team of people supporting you.

Katie Gutierrez

And we don't all have brains that are wired accordingly. Right, right. All the designers that come through my program, I have them do something called a wealth of sorry, wealth dynamics assessment. And that is a personality type of quiz that measures what about your personality can support you in wealth building. Now how that works is it's sort of like understanding how your brain is wired. Some people are really good at charts, spreadsheets, data, some people are really good at like me, I really like to be in a support role supporting others, helping people right, that's where I really really shine, which is why I opened the coaching program because I really shine when I'm in support of others. And so, so, having a person uniquely aligned to their Your task in a way that matches the way their brain is normally is, is naturally made up, the way it's wired, is going to support that person in producing, delivering excellence with that task. If you asked me to do a spreadsheet with time, I'm not going to be delivering excellence, so much in that direction. If you ask me to be in support of somebody, particularly in a role where I am, like we are now like, it's called Star profile, we're on like, a shining star, like on camera for others, is particularly where I really come alive and really can deliver excellence. So what I believe in is no human being is equal in all areas. It's not really, let's say, it's not common for any human being to be equally right left brained or equally, right. And so it's so alleviating when you can take a role away from yourself, that is not in alignment with how your brain is naturally wired, and give it to somebody else whose brain is aligned with that task. Because then both people will feel graceful and easy with the work that they're doing. And that's important. If you don't feel graceful with the work that you're doing, like, how much excellence can you be delivering?

Kate Bendewald

No, my Oh, my gosh, oh, my

Katie Gutierrez

gosh, excellence can you be delivering when you're feeling overwhelmed? Not much. We want to be delivering excellence from our cup overflowing on to the work that we're doing, rather than feeling drained, the cup has been drained from the bottom, you know what I mean? Yes,

Kate Bendewald

absolutely. I love that. And it seems like one of the things that you do really well is you put structure around everything that you do from your in everything, and even down to the way that you help somebody understand, you know, what's, what are the things? What are the activities that are gonna light you up? You know, and, and you put specific language around that I, you know, I'll just I'll be the first one to say like, you never want me to be in charge of ordering and procurement, because it just won't. I mean, I just it'll happen, it'll be you know, but there, there are likely to be mistakes that are likely to be. Yeah, I know. So I have always, always, always like that is the very first person I hired was like somebody to help me make sure that these things get done and get done well, because it's just not, I will fail.

Katie Gutierrez

Yeah, and we're all made that way, right? Like, if we think back to grade school, like some of us were really great at math, and not so good at English. And some people were really great at English, and not so great at math. And you know, that it's not common for everybody to be great at everything. Leave it, that's what makes the world such a beautiful place to live in, is that we're all uniquely made to fit together like a puzzle piece, or puzzle pieces to make a beautiful picture of humanity. There's no one person that represents all of humanity, that we don't need anybody else, right? We're communal beings. We're built to live in community with others. And this is part of the reason why that is such a beautiful. That's why it happens is because we hate each other. Yeah,

Kate Bendewald

absolutely. Well, and you know, when it comes to building a team, I mean, one of the biggest mistakes I see designers make and myself, I've done this before, is hiring somebody just like you because you like them, and they feel comfortable in like home. It's like, Yeah, well, that's great. But are they going to be the best person for this this job, you've got two people that are too alike. And you've you've got to balance it out. So that makes sense that you've got that structure in place within your own team there.

Katie Gutierrez

Yeah, great insight.

Kate Bendewald

I want to kind of go back because there was a, there was something that I wanted to ask you specific about your biographical business, you because I heard you tell the story. And I don't remember if it was the last time we recorded or if it was in the ALA summit, but I heard you tell this example of a designer that you worked with, who had a fine arts background and how you used that system, and then we're gonna get our listener question, but I was like, oh, shoot, that was such a cool example. And I didn't want to gloss over that. So can we just back up a little bit and go back to your your your car back into your system? Biographical business, it can you share that story, that example of one of the designers that you worked with and and how you walked her through this process?

Katie Gutierrez

I love that opportunity. Thank you. Yeah, so I worked with a woman who was if you can't, if you're listening to the podcast, and you can't see me, I'm doing air quotes. But she was air quotes, just an interior designer, and she was really struggling with Mission her name's Michelle. And Michelle was really struggling with how to find her voice. She She was confused about what to say in the market. She didn't know how to express her the value that she brought. She was also struggling with feeling like her work was superficial. And and because she felt like it was superficial. She didn't really believe that she could charge much for it. And she was also feeling overwhelmed by like all the things Right. And so when I started working with her, I did the biographical you know, differentiator discovery call with her. And what I found was that she's the daughter of a fine artist, and a gallerist. So she grew up in the art world, and she grew up herself making fine art from the leadership of her parents and, and learned the fine art making process and the philosophy that goes into art making. And what we found was that she had a dramatic opportunity, like dramatic, a big opportunity to, to infuse that into her business and to create that as her differentiator. And so what I supported her with was the creation of something called her art method. And it's two parts. One, it's how she approaches the design process, by way of the fine art design process, how a fine artist approaches the artwork with a philosophy of creation. And she brings that as a signature system to the way she designs the space is paired with, she matches the room, and the person with a particular art piece, and then designs the room around that. So the art piece is a reflection of something in particular about that person that they want to be reflected in the space. And then when she creates the room around that it's a whole room that recognizes that particular person's particular thing, right. So she crafted into now naming it and Systemising it where now it's called the Art method. And now she knows what's what's to what she Hi. She knows what to talk about when she's talking about her particular value that she brings. She knows how to talk about in sales, she talks about her signature art method. She knows how to systemize that, because now it actually is a method, right? It has steps and as a process and the system and all the things. So she's able to deliver it with incredible excellence, too. So what I love the sort of crescendo of the story is that after she sort of finished, you know, the 3d program that I have that does this, she came sort of air quotes, again, out there with her messaging, the first client that she attracted, potential client that she attracted, was the owner of a philanthropic art organization, not making some sushi when she went to that sales meeting, you can imagine how valuable she in particular looked to that potential client. And you can imagine also the incredible confidence that she stood in, like, oh, this person is going to hear me talk about my art method, they're gonna be so impressed. And it's such an alignment, right? And so you can imagine the incredible competence that she had in that sales meeting. And then you can imagine that, again, like we talked about earlier up, stay said, Yes,

Kate Bendewald

exactly. That's like the upward spiral because it's energetically in alignment, you know, right.

Katie Gutierrez

And then what ended up happening after that was that they actually developed into this partnership is maybe a strong word. But now Michelle has turned her business into also a sort of philanthropic arm, wherein she supports emerging artists. Oh, whoa, now she's made a commitment to and onboards her new clients to that all of the artwork that they bring into homes are going to be from emerging artists. And so meeting her philanthropic beliefs or love passions, and that passion is feeding her business. And so now there's, again talking about the upward spiral like, it's an incredible energy rich, filled, upward spiral of passion and excellence, and like client alignment. And so now she's all just say, rocking it. Yeah.

Kate Bendewald

Yeah. Just out of curiosity. Was that in Florida?

Katie Gutierrez

No. in Canada. Okay.

Kate Bendewald

Cool. All right. Beautiful. I love that story. And I'm really glad that we had a chance to come back to it because I think that's a beautiful example of the work you do and how you help designers. Okay, so we have a listener question that I want to get to, to round out today's conversation. And the reason why I am bringing this question to us specifically is because it's about collaboration over competition, which is not to be trite. Those are, you know, it's right for the conversation. Actually, these are her words. But she she used them in her question, but you and I could very easily from an outsider's perspective, be viewed as competitors, because we are both supporting interior designers in their business. And, you know, the fact that you invited me to the ALA Summit, and we're now sort of thinking about ways that we can continue to co create and help designers. It's something that I have a lot of thoughts and feelings around. And it's important to me and so I feel like they're you. There's no one better than you to be able to have this conversation with and hopefully we can help Maggie with this question. So Maggie asks, Maggie from Maryland says, I'm a big believer in collaboration over competition, and she uses air quotes, or I'm Jesus quotes. I'm using air quotes. There's quotes here, folks. It's one of those days, y'all. She says, she says, I genuinely believe there is enough business to go around. But some days, I feel deflated, seeing other designers in my area with amazing projects, who seems super busy. I am happy with my current project load. But some days I'm worried everyone is just doing better than me. Any advice on how to handle this?

Katie Gutierrez

Oh, my gosh, I want to hug her.

Kate Bendewald

I know. I know, Maggie. But you know what, Maggie is not alone. Yeah. And Maggie is not alone. Like I felt this. I can't imagine anyone who's human at some point in your career experiences this. So it's a very human experience. But yeah, Katie, what what would you say first? I'll let you start.

Katie Gutierrez

Yeah, and I love first of all, Maggie girl. Yes. And also, Kate, I love that you and I are modeling what it looks like to be not competitive, but collaborative. And we're modeling that right now. And for me, that's such a like a Yeah, so ulimate. Okay, that said, Maddie, I feel like there's maybe two pieces that are that are happening right here in this conversation. One piece of it is the collaboration over competition. And then there's another piece in here that's really about jealousy. And I think that that's, you know, let's talk about the elephant in the room here. Right. And, and I want to be very, very clear that there's no judgment on on the feelings of jealousy. They're very important, very important feelings to feel. So let's, let's just touch on this one. And then let's talk about collaboration versus competition. Jealousy sometimes can be felt in ourselves as a negative feeling like if we're feeling jealous of others, then one we have, we're less than that person. They haven't we don't, which is a scarcity mentality, not an abundance mentality. And we are of abundance because we are of the universe that is incredibly abundant. We never have woken up in the day thinking, Oh, my God, I hope the sun shines today. No, we expect it to shine, because we expect to the abundance that this universe provides to us, right? So it's just noticing that it's a scarcity thought, not an abundance, thought. And that's okay. And it helps us Jealousy is a helpful tool to help us navigate our dreams, right? So So Maggie, if you're feeling like this person has something that you want, great, that's a really, really great indicator that there's something that you want that you're maybe not being intentional going after it yet. And that's a great indication of next steps for you. So what does that person have that you really have deep desire to have yourself? And then okay, what is the Empowered next steps you can take in order to go after those things and put yourself on a trajectory of achieving those things that that other person has, because the fact that they've achieved it is a huge indicator that you can achieve it too. So let's just, let's just touch on that for a second. Right? That's important to to discover. So now let's talk about the competition over, over collaboration. Kate and I, as she said, I absolutely wholeheartedly 100% agree that there is no such thing as competition. You know, I think that we live in a world that likes to present examples to us and, and show us experiences that competition is the way to go, you know, particularly the American Way is a lot about competition is the key to capitalism. And, and it's not a truth of the universe, per se. If we look back at the example that I gave about this, Michelle and her art method, Michelle doesn't feel she's in competition with other designers. She and I agree with biographical design, she and I and the other designers that that I work with, feel that they're standing in their truths. They're standing in their truths to vibrate at a frequency of you know, 96.5 megahertz and they stand in that vibrational frequency and then trust in the abundance of the universe that they will attract the things and the projects and the people that are perfectly, divinely sort of orchestrated for them and stand in that truth. And when you stand in the confident belief that what is meant for you will be for you. And then it will happen for you. Plus, the intentionality of the efforts to go after the things that you want. Did we did it did I do it?

Kate Bendewald

I'm sitting here. chuckling because I'm like, is she reading my notes? Like?

Katie Gutierrez

Yes, I have nothing to add.

Kate Bendewald

I literally I just wrote a few little like three little sentences before we hopped on. So I didn't forget. But I, you just literally said almost exactly what I had written here and everything you said, Katie is is I would agree with, I said, there's a difference between healthy competition and jealousy. That's a question you need to ask yourself. healthy competition can be a motivator, or jealousy can be a divider. As if there's room at the table, you don't need permission, you just need to show up, operate from a place of abundance. There's room for everyone. Watch for scarcity mindset, watch for scarcity mindset. Go get it. It's yours for the taking. Yes, yes. So there.

Katie Gutierrez

Yeah. And I would want to add one more thing to that. Yeah, I think that one feels that competition is a real thing. When I think that I my philosophy is that people feel in competition when they don't know what their uniqueness is. Right? Like, I don't feel you and I are in competition for hair right now. Right? I have like a short brown Mohawk shaved on the sides. And you have like, long luxurious movie star here. And, and we're coming from, you know, two different places, that's not incompetent, your hair is not in competition with each other. They're operating inside their own uniquenesses. You know, we'll leave that, that, that that's that's the way everybody gets to operate. Which first comes down to, you know, the word I use is knowing what your differentiator is, like, knowing what your unique value isn't standing inside of like, knowing that that's your truth. And then you're not in competition with anybody else. You're just doing you and they're doing them. And there's Yeah, to use your words room at the table for all of those people to do all of their things. Mm

Kate Bendewald

hmm. Yeah. Does it does a tree say I'm, I'm taller than you are. I'm my leaves are greener. You know, it's just although I do have bird feeders on my window, and there is this one bird who is kind of an asshole and won't let the other birds come feed the bird feeder. But that's, we're gonna stick with the tree metaphor just to stay on boy. Okay,

Katie Gutierrez

so with the bird metaphor, what's better? A bird or a bunny?

Kate Bendewald

Didn't know.

Katie Gutierrez

Not comparable? No. Yeah. They're Yeah, well, in their own right. They're each operating inside of their own truth of the uniqueness of who they are.

Kate Bendewald

Yes, yes. I love that. Maggie, thank you so much for your question. And I know that that's not an easy thing to put out there. Right. And to be to be honest about but what's cool is like, now that you've done it, now that you've said, it's like, well, now we know what we're working with. And we know where we're starting. So good on you, Maggie. And I hope you have found this helpful. Katie, thank you so much, like times 10,000. Because not once, but twice. We did it. And I honestly feel like this was such a different conversation than the first one and yet still perfect and beautiful and excellent. So before we go, though, I would love for you to share with our audience where they can find you. And if they want to do a differentiator call with you, can you kind of give some information there about how they can how they in the spirit of collaboration? How can designers find you and get a hold of you in that way? Yeah,

Katie Gutierrez

so first of all, I would say that on my website, there's a quiz that you can take that will reveal to you what your differentiator typology is. So if you go to biographical design.com, I'll repeat it biographical design dot, there's a banner right at the top for you to be able to take that quiz. And again, it'll reveal the results to you of what your differentiator typology is. And if you would like to hop on a call with me to discuss like business strategies and all the things, you can go to the designers hotline.com and it'll take you straight to my calendar, the designers hotline.com Is my cute

Kate Bendewald

name is where you of course will always make sure to have these in the show notes. But I'm glad that you're saying it again. So that's the designers hotline.com

Katie Gutierrez

Yep, takes you straight to my calendar to book a call and I'd be happy to support you one on one.

Kate Bendewald

love that. Thank you so much, Katie, have a wonderful rest of your day and I appreciate you sitting with me and sharing just such beautiful work that you're doing and supporting designers and just really a remarkable interior designer as well. So thank you, thank

Katie Gutierrez

you Kate and coming from you. That means a lot to me because I really look up to you value you I think the work that you're doing in the world is so needed, so important, so profound, so influential, so activating so accelerating that And, and to be like, coal in co creation with you right now I feel like oh, look at me everybody like

Kate Bendewald

CO conspirators co collaborators cope all the things, beloved. Okay, beautiful. Have a wonderful rest of your day. I'll talk to you real soon. Thanks. Bye for now. Hi. 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 seconds 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.