If it’s your first year in business, you need to do this

Our POP alumni never cease to amaze me, and this guest, Anna Baldi of Contrast Interior Design, is no exception. After 20 years working in commercial design and set design, Anna took a leap of faith—quitting her job on a Monday and launching her interior design business on a Tuesday. (Yes, really!)

In this episode, Anna opens up about what pushed her to finally go out on her own, why she signed up for my very first bootcamp, and how it led to a major transformation inside Power of Process. She gets real about the overwhelm of starting from scratch, the unexpected wins that validated her pricing, and the mindset shift that changed everything.

Whether you’re new to business or feeling stuck in your process, Anna’s story will inspire you to take bold steps, trust yourself, and put the right systems in place from day one.

If you’re in your first year of business, this episode is your roadmap to building a strong foundation, avoiding burnout, and attracting the right clients.

 

episode highlights

  1. Why Anna left a 20-year design career to finally start her own business.

  2. The Power of Process modules that helped her build real confidence.

  3. How she implemented a $5K minimum design fee—and got it.

  4. The personal boundaries she set to protect her mental health.

  5. What she learned from the POP community that changed her perspective.

  6. Her #1 piece of advice for new interior design entrepreneurs.

Episode Resources

Read the Full Transcript ⬇️

 

00;00;00;01 – 00;00;20;24
Anna Baldi
Start your business assuming you’re going to succeed. Taking courses like this and learning from people like you and people in the course. That’s what’s going to propel you forward and give you the tools. You don’t know what you don’t know. I’m 20 years in and I still don’t know what I don’t know. So being around other like minded individuals, seeing how somebody else does it and then implementing it to do it your own way.

00;00;20;26 – 00;00;23;00
Anna Baldi
It’s an invaluable experience.

00;00;23;03 – 00;00;55;02
Rebecca Hay
All right. I’m Rebecca Hay, and I’ve built a successful interior design business by trial and error, podcasts, online courses. And so many freaking books. Over the last decade, I’ve grown from an insecure student to having false starts to careers. And now I’m finally in the place where I want to be. Throughout my journey, it’s been pretty obvious that I’m passionate about business and helping other entrepreneurs do the same.

00;00;55;05 – 00;01;07;22
Rebecca Hay
Each week, I’ll share tangible takeaways from my own experience and the experiences of other badass women to help you build your confidence and change your business.

00;01;07;24 – 00;01;36;20
Rebecca Hay
Hey hey hey, it’s Rebecca, and you’re listening to Resilient by Design. In today’s episode, I’m interviewing a popper that is a power of process alumni. That’s the cute little nickname we give to our students. And her name is Anna Baldy. She’s an interior designer with 20 years of experience spanning commercial, set design and residential. She quit her job on a Friday and on the Monday started her own interior design firm.

00;01;36;22 – 00;02;01;12
Rebecca Hay
She decided to follow the dream she’d had on her heart for decades, and she launched Contrast Interior Design, which is a Cleveland, Ohio based interior studio creating thoughtful story driven spaces. She’s a recent graduate of the Power of Process program, and she shares the transformation that she has had and specifically what it did for her business. I think you’re going to like this episode with Anna.

00;02;01;12 – 00;02;20;20
Rebecca Hay
It’s super relatable. She shares a lot of really great nuggets. She also shares how she was on the fence. She wasn’t sure or quite ready for power of process, and she tells us why she did it. So I hope you enjoyed this episode with Anna. Welcome to Resilient by Design. Anna, I’m excited to have you here today.

00;02;20;27 – 00;02;22;29
Anna Baldi
I am so excited and honored to be here.

00;02;23;00 – 00;02;25;29
Rebecca Hay
Why don’t you start off by letting us know a little just who you are?

00;02;26;03 – 00;02;34;28
Anna Baldi
Sure. My name is Anna Baldi. I’m the owner of Contrast Interior Design, a business I started about a year ago after 20 years in the field. Just decided to go out on my own.

00;02;35;00 – 00;02;43;07
Rebecca Hay
Okay. 20 years in the field. When you say that. Tell me about that. Like, were you always an entrepreneur? What were you doing before you decided to go out on your own?

00;02;43;13 – 00;03;04;12
Anna Baldi
I went to school for interior design at a school in Ohio called Kent State Phenomenal School for interiors, and they really pushed commercial design. So when I left there, I was like, I got to work at an architecture firm. So that’s what I did for 14 years. When I left there, I was our director of interior design and had kind of built up their interiors department, which was really great, but I was looking for change.

00;03;04;12 – 00;03;29;27
Anna Baldi
So I did commercial interiors for 14 years, and then I did set design for retail and, commercial pictures, for about three years, then very small stint as residential design firm. That was a terrible experience. So we got on a Monday and I started my business on Tuesday. So I’m glad for that opportunity. I don’t think it would have propelled me any other way, but this is a dream I’ve had for 20 years.

00;03;29;27 – 00;03;33;05
Anna Baldi
I’ve always wanted to work for myself, so this is really fun seeing it come to life.

00;03;33;08 – 00;03;48;01
Rebecca Hay
Okay, I love this. I love that this was your dream for 20 years. Like it’s something that’s been on your heart. So what was it like? Take me back to the moment when you were like, no, this is not for me. I am ready to do my own thing.

00;03;48;03 – 00;03;50;22
Anna Baldi
You really want me that? The real picture, Rebecca?

00;03;50;24 – 00;03;53;14
Rebecca Hay
No, no, no, you are.

00;03;53;16 – 00;04;08;06
Anna Baldi
No. It was just a very uncomfortable situation. I was working in a very small firm. It was two sisters and me. So you can imagine the dynamic. There is a difficult one to navigate. That was my third job in a row where I felt like people were telling me how to do my job, that didn’t know how to do my job.

00;04;08;08 – 00;04;25;03
Anna Baldi
I was just really sick of being told how to do things that I knew how to do. I was doing them by myself for 20 years and doing them well. So I just kind of got to the point where I was like, I’m really good at this, and I think that I can do it on my own. And I was, quite frankly, sick of other people profiting off of my talents.

00;04;25;05 – 00;04;41;12
Anna Baldi
I wanted to profit off of them myself, and that was kind of really where my head was at. But mostly it was survival in that moment because I was just like, I can’t be here anymore, and I can’t hear the same mean feedback every day. Not to take a victim mentality, but it was just like, I deserve better for myself.

00;04;41;13 – 00;04;50;12
Anna Baldi
I didn’t even talk to my husband about it before I did it. I just kind of quit. Oh, like. And then I called him up like, hey, I just quit my job. That’s kind of the really shortened version.

00;04;50;13 – 00;05;05;01
Rebecca Hay
You know, I’m really glad you shared that. So thank you for your honesty, because it’s funny. Like, I’m thinking back to my experience and I worked for someone else. I did not have 20 years in the business, I had five. I always just say, yeah, I just knew I wanted to go to my own and I was ready and I was having a baby and it was my excuse.

00;05;05;01 – 00;05;31;29
Rebecca Hay
But I never actually really thought about what were the thoughts. And as you were speaking out loud, I’m like, oh yeah, those were the thoughts, right? Sick of someone else profiting off of all your hard work and talents, which, I mean, that is part of being an employee. But if you are an employee who is craving entrepreneurship, who is craving control over your schedule, over your tasks, your activities, your creativity, then that’s not for you.

00;05;31;29 – 00;05;47;24
Rebecca Hay
And some people are okay because they just want to plug in and plug out and make as much money as you want off of me. Because, you know, for Penn, I’m going to go surfing because there are people who are like that. Chances are, if you’re listening to this podcast right now, you can relate to Ana on myself.

00;05;47;24 – 00;06;00;03
Rebecca Hay
Whether or not you’ve worked for a designer or that feeling of I want to be in control. So most of us, I love that you said this. I wrote this down. You were sick of being told what to do. I can relate to that. 1,000%.

00;06;00;09 – 00;06;04;02
Anna Baldi
Yeah. I mean, you can ask my parents. I don’t like being told what to do by anybody.

00;06;04;04 – 00;06;29;02
Rebecca Hay
Like me too, I just came oh my gosh, it’s funny. I now is an adult. I’m sure you are the same. I now recognize, like, why am I getting frustrated in this given situation? Oh, it’s because someone else is telling me how to do it and so I’ll rebel even if what they’re telling me is right. I do not like someone else calling the shots, and so I’ll do the wrong thing, and then I’ll circle back and realize I should have just probably listened to them.

00;06;29;03 – 00;06;31;17
Rebecca Hay
What is that about?

00;06;31;19 – 00;06;50;05
Anna Baldi
Yeah, yeah, I actually just had a realization. Yesterday a friend sent me a podcast about asking for permission, and how especially women, we feel like we have to ask for permission to do things. And I’m listening to this podcast and I was like, that’s not me. I don’t ask, I just do. I have that gene where I’m just like, I don’t know, I trust myself, I’ll figure it out and I just do things.

00;06;50;09 – 00;07;12;05
Rebecca Hay
Okay. So that was your turning point. So tell me a little bit about the early stages of that, like running your own business. I know many designers often feel overwhelmed and sometimes they feel like frustrated with their clients. Like maybe their clients aren’t appreciating them. Right. The way that maybe your previous employer was. Did you feel this way in the early days of running your own design firm?

00;07;12;05 – 00;07;29;26
Anna Baldi
I think I’m the complete opposite. I was not appreciated at that last place I worked, so I immediately had two clients, but it was family and friends that hired me. It was really weird timing. I was thinking about quitting and within a week they had both reached out and said, hey, we’ve been wanting to do this thing for two years and we think we’re ready to hire you.

00;07;29;26 – 00;07;48;23
Anna Baldi
And I was like, what? So I was lucky enough to get to phenomenal clients that I already know, and they were so grateful and appreciative of what I could help them with. So for me, it was this feeling of like, oh my gosh, somebody actually appreciates me for this. This is phenomenal. And then as far as organization, I’ve never started a business before.

00;07;48;23 – 00;08;15;26
Anna Baldi
So that definitely was overwhelming. But I think I’m really lucky and blessed to have so many phenomenal entrepreneurs in my life. Friends, family. My father in law has owned his own, landscape design business for 30 plus years, so I’ve had a lot of wonderful people to talk to that first week I just met with everyone and I just took the feedback and my motto this whole time has been, I am going to treat my business from the start like it’s going to be a success.

00;08;16;01 – 00;08;29;03
Anna Baldi
End of story. I’m going to get an accountant. I’m going to get a lawyer so that when everything hits, I’m prepared and I don’t feel overwhelmed. And I think that’s really served me well. As I’ve gone through this first year, it feels like it’s been longer. But this first year of business.

00;08;29;10 – 00;08;47;13
Rebecca Hay
I cannot believe you’ve only been in business a year. That’s amazing because you just took power of process. And so I want to hear about that experience. Like what was it that because you worked for designer, you had tons of experience in the industry? Why did you decide you needed power of process?

00;08;47;15 – 00;09;06;03
Anna Baldi
Yeah, I understand on paper it doesn’t make a lot of sense. It sounds like I should know what I’m doing. And at the heart of it, I do. But you know, having 14 plus years of commercial experience does not equate to having residential experience. Yeah. And while I had done some things I was noticing really fast, it’s just a different animal entirely and I knew it.

00;09;06;03 – 00;09;25;22
Anna Baldi
But man, could I find out quickly. So I just found after a year I was kind of spinning my wheels. Every project I was pricing differently. I wasn’t really sure what my structure was. And I actually stumbled across an ad on Instagram for your Pricing with Confidence course. That was around Christmas time that I had just slowed down a ton.

00;09;25;22 – 00;09;41;20
Anna Baldi
I was like, kind of freaking out at that point, to be honest. And I was like, okay, I’ve got to make this work. And I need to get my pricing under control. So I took that course. Actually, I listened to your podcast then to make sure that I liked what you were saying. And then I was like, okay, this woman’s for me.

00;09;41;20 – 00;10;07;00
Anna Baldi
I’m doing it. So I took that course and that course just helped open my eyes so much. I think people expect that course to tell them like, this is exactly what you should be charging, and if you’re going in with that mindset, that’s not what it is, because everyone’s going to charge differently. Every situation is differently. So that pricing with confidence really put me on a track to say, oh, okay, there’s a little bit of a process here and you’ve got glimpses of it in that course, which was so helpful to me.

00;10;07;03 – 00;10;23;15
Anna Baldi
So just from pricing with confidence, I started kind of remembering how I used to structure commercial jobs and how I structured those first two jobs that I got on my own, and they actually went really well. So I was able to reflect on that, and that helped a ton. Then I jumped into your bootcamp.

00;10;23;16 – 00;10;34;12
Rebecca Hay
Yeah, that was and that was the first time I’d ever done a bootcamp. It was so fun. I’m doing another one. It was at the time of recording this, we’ve got another one coming up because I loved it so much. Tell me about that experience. Tell me about the bootcamp.

00;10;34;12 – 00;10;57;03
Anna Baldi
Actually, the bootcamp was phenomenal for me because it was like actionable steps. Take them now for me, some of them were things I was already dabbling in because of your pricing of confidence course was picking up on the cuz I was like sitting there, like studying the little pictures you had in the presentation. But then once we hit the bootcamp, it was like I got the words and the affirmation and the understand behind all of it.

00;10;57;05 – 00;11;17;21
Anna Baldi
So really built that front end of my process, and I was able to really hone in on my discovery calls. I consultations at the time, I suddenly was getting influx of projects that I did not anticipate, so I was able to really boots on the ground, implement that stuff immediately, and I could see my confidence skyrocket and my turnover rate skyrocket.

00;11;17;27 – 00;11;19;03
Anna Baldi
So I was calling.

00;11;19;10 – 00;11;45;18
Rebecca Hay
Oh my God, I just got goosebumps. I freaking love that. I love that you were just like, I am busy, but I’m going to do this bootcamp and you implemented everything you learned. I can tell you, the successful students of mine, the poppers, the pricing with confidence, the people, the designers, anyone who’s come through my world and I’ve taught them the people that implement it, like as soon as they learn it, because otherwise it just sits on the shelf, right?

00;11;45;20 – 00;11;52;12
Rebecca Hay
They are the ones that get the fastest transformations. It is so unbelievable. I love that, yeah.

00;11;52;15 – 00;12;11;13
Anna Baldi
My biggest takeaway at Sana Designer was talking about my pricing early and often in every conversation and touchpoint with the client. It really sets them up to have confidence in what you’re doing for them, and sets me up to have confidence in selling myself. So there’s no surprises when it comes time to send that proposal and get the client to sign.

00;12;11;16 – 00;12;17;21
Anna Baldi
It’s just you’re confident in what you’re doing. So that whole intake process, truly the whole thing was just perfect.

00;12;17;26 – 00;12;22;01
Rebecca Hay
And tell me, why did you decide to sign up for the bootcamp?

00;12;22;05 – 00;12;41;01
Anna Baldi
Yeah, I was feeling a little bit stuck and like I was having a hard time selling to my clients. It was just so much stuff I wanted to share with them. Like, what order do I even go about this in? So the bootcamp really helped me refine that process and take it step by step and understand exactly when to share and what to share.

00;12;41;03 – 00;12;43;13
Anna Baldi
That was just a very helpful experience.

00;12;43;15 – 00;12;47;02
Rebecca Hay
How did you feel about your business at the end of the bootcamp?

00;12;47;04 – 00;12;58;03
Anna Baldi
At the end of the bootcamp, I had confidence. That’s the best word. I can think to describe how I felt, confidence in walking in there and talking about my business and who I am and what I can do for these clients.

00;12;58;03 – 00;13;01;25
Rebecca Hay
Awesome. Okay, obviously then you had to take power of process.

00;13;01;28 – 00;13;16;09
Anna Baldi
Well, actually, Rebecca, I was on the fence. You may remember this. I was one of the ones at the end of the boot camp where you were like, does anyone have reservations? And I said, yeah, the price. I’m a little nervous here, and I just don’t know if I can make it work. And you gave me a very good advice.

00;13;16;09 – 00;13;32;03
Anna Baldi
You would said, you know, if it means not feeding your children, families don’t do that. But, you know, this is an investment. And I just said, yeah, it’s an investment. I at that point had several jobs, but I really had only scheduled out for the next couple months. And I was kind of, you know, I’m freaking out about what’s going to come next.

00;13;32;03 – 00;13;48;28
Anna Baldi
But I thought, I’m never going to attract people that I want if I’m not confident in what I have to provide. So I just, I took the leap. I’m so glad that I did, because the forward movement I’ve received after that course has been invaluable, truly invaluable.

00;13;49;00 – 00;14;10;11
Rebecca Hay
Okay. Well, like let’s talk about that because I want to hear where you’re at. I want to hear what’s been happening. I want you to share. I’m just going to go straight to like, this big question that I was so excited to ask you, but I would just love if you could share one of your recent biggest achievements and paint a picture of what it has looked like one of the biggest achievements has happened, or wins that you’ve had since completing the course.

00;14;10;14 – 00;14;13;04
Rebecca Hay
What was it three weeks ago? Hasn’t been that long.

00;14;13;10 – 00;14;34;09
Anna Baldi
Yeah, I don’t know if this is what somebody else might define as big, but it was a very confirming moment for me. I actually had a client reach out and her budget was not large, and I have a $5,000 minimum design fee. That’s something I implemented as I was taking the course, but I talked about that early and often, as you tell us to.

00;14;34;12 – 00;14;51;01
Anna Baldi
She knew from the jump before we even said a word to each other what my minimum was. And her project budget was only $20,000. So I thought, there’s no way this woman is going to hire me, but she wants to talk to me. I’ll talk to her, schedule a consultation. I thought, she’s just going to take what you hear from the consultation.

00;14;51;01 – 00;15;16;19
Anna Baldi
I’ll give her as much value as I can possibly provide. I’m on my way because I don’t think she’s going to hire me. Sent the proposal. It was $5,000 minimum. It’s a pretty small project she signed. I was like, wait, what? Okay. And it was kind of proof of concept for me because I started my business. So now I know so many people have because I met them in power process and in the bootcamp, thinking I want to serve people that are like DIY.

00;15;16;19 – 00;15;36;18
Anna Baldi
They don’t have the money for a designer. That was where I started. I am not there anymore because I have learned what those people don’t want me. But this was a really interesting proof of concept where if I can talk about my pricing early, I had the documentation and the presentation to back up my service and why I’m worth it.

00;15;36;26 – 00;15;50;27
Anna Baldi
And she saw that value. It’s not a huge payday by any means. It’s certainly helpful to have the project, and I’m so excited to do it for because she’s the sweetest lady. But I was just kind of like, oh my gosh, I just showed my value to someone that I thought there was no way they were going to hire me.

00;15;50;27 – 00;15;53;18
Anna Baldi
And for me, that was a really big milestone.

00;15;53;21 – 00;16;13;26
Rebecca Hay
Wow. Okay, first of all, congratulations, because that takes a lot of guts to put it out there, especially when your brain is telling you the person on the other side probably doesn’t see the value. How many of us would have talked ourselves back from even putting a proposal together in the first place, or having a conversation with her?

00;16;13;26 – 00;16;34;14
Rebecca Hay
That kind of would have got muddy and like, but good for you for doing that. And if that does go to show that when you stand up for the value your service provides and when you feel confident, you can find those clients, I’m curious to find out from you a little bit about that confidence piece, because you said, like, it’s really helped your confidence.

00;16;34;15 – 00;16;39;26
Rebecca Hay
What areas of your business did you work on? Thanks to power of process that helped with your confidence?

00;16;39;28 – 00;16;46;04
Anna Baldi
I think the biggest one is the hardest section of the course, the complete. It’s where you write down your entire process.

00;16;46;10 – 00;16;56;16
Rebecca Hay
I know it’s the course is a little robust. I’m not gonna lie. I keep thinking I need to maybe like pull some things out of it, but I’m like, I can’t pull it out because, like, I feel like it’s all needed.

00;16;56;24 – 00;17;18;02
Anna Baldi
Rebecca, don’t you dare. Because it is all needed. I needed to go through that. I sat down, I think it took me eight hours to really sit down and be genuine and think about every single step I took. You’re talking to someone who had really already implemented a small process because of the other courses I took with you, so I really went into the nuts and bolts of how everything works.

00;17;18;05 – 00;17;36;13
Anna Baldi
I handwrote it out, and then I put it into an Excel spreadsheet and divided it. And then I came up with my phases, and then I came up with my stages, seeing it in that Excel spreadsheet. I mean, it was nine pages of handwritten notes, let alone so then you put it in this Excel spreadsheet and I was like, I am looking at my worth on paper.

00;17;36;15 – 00;17;46;14
Anna Baldi
That was the most important exercise for me. Like I said, for me, it took several days to go through, but to look at your worth on paper, it gives you a whole other level of confidence.

00;17;46;14 – 00;18;06;26
Rebecca Hay
Oh my God and I like I have goosebumps all over my body right now. I’m like feeling emotional because yesterday I interviewed another paper she literally verbatim said the exact same thing. I don’t know if her episode is going to air before or after yours, but if you guys are listening to this episode, go listen to the episode with page leak felt and she said the exact same thing.

00;18;06;26 – 00;18;33;09
Rebecca Hay
She’s only like a year and a bit into her business, and she said when she put it all down and she saw it in front of her in a slightly different context, she was doing it for a presentation, for a consultation pitch deck. It gave her the confidence to charge triple what she was charging before, and she said the same thing that like when she saw it in front of her, sometimes we just have to take a step back from our day to day like you did.

00;18;33;09 – 00;18;44;29
Rebecca Hay
Like what you did probably took a lot to say, okay, I’m going to work on this and not do the things I need to do. Like I need to send an invoice. I need to call that contractor, I need to go pick up that sample or whatever it is.

00;18;45;06 – 00;18;47;01
Anna Baldi
I need to market. So I get more jobs.

00;18;47;01 – 00;19;12;21
Rebecca Hay
Right? Right. Okay, so but Instagram was up there. Oh my God, my website. Like like as a business owner, as an interior design firm owner, we wear so many freaking hats and it can feel. So when you and I were chatting about this offline before we hit record today’s, you can feel spreads so thin because we want to do it all, but sometimes we need to pause, stop doing everything, and give our business the time and the energy that it needs.

00;19;12;21 – 00;19;36;00
Rebecca Hay
So you can get really clear on how am I going to run a project, how and then how am I going to communicate this to clients. And that’s what power process is all about. So it means so much to me that you had that. But I want you to really give yourself the pat on the back for doing the work, as you said, like that was the hardest module for you was where you had to really reflect on how you wanted to do things and you did it.

00;19;36;01 – 00;19;50;20
Rebecca Hay
Did you share your Excel with the community? Okay, I remember I was I can’t remember seeing that because, yeah, I, I think I share an example of in the course of how I did it too, and I did it that way too, because I remember starting it and I’m writing everything on paper. And I was like, well, this is dumb, because now I’m just have to type it up.

00;19;50;20 – 00;19;56;23
Rebecca Hay
So I’m just like, put it in the computer and then like, move things around. But it’s so helpful.

00;19;56;25 – 00;20;16;01
Anna Baldi
Yeah. It was it was really, really shocking. You have to set aside that time. I personally set aside every Tuesday for marketing. I call it Marketing Monday on a Tuesday, haha, I love it. I think I’m not a stupid name for things, and every Tuesday I devote that whole day to whatever I need to do. I still have the I need to create the checklists.

00;20;16;01 – 00;20;32;15
Anna Baldi
There’s documents I need to create from the course. I’m really happy with the process I’ve put together. I’m building a new website right now with fantastic website developers. That’s all great, but I do still need to create all those supporting documents. So I’ve kind of got it budgeted out every Tuesday over the next, however long it takes to really create all those documents.

00;20;32;15 – 00;20;41;01
Anna Baldi
But wowza, I knew it was going to be valuable. I didn’t understand how valuable it was going to be until I went through it.

00;20;41;03 – 00;20;43;23
Rebecca Hay
What does this mean for your personal life?

00;20;43;25 – 00;21;04;27
Anna Baldi
It solved all my problems. Rebecca. No, I’m just kidding, of course. Right. One thing I did when I started my business a year ago is I knew that I wanted a mental health wellness aspect to how I ran this. Because working at an architecture firm, you are worked to the bone and I knew what it felt like to be overloaded and just losing my mind.

00;21;04;29 – 00;21;24;25
Anna Baldi
So I kind of came into it knowing I’m going to accept jobs, but they may have to wait a month until I can get to them if I’m busy. So I had this kind of boundary I wanted to set from the jump. I wanted to set a boundary. I’m not contacting people after 5:00. How our process just gave me more tools in my toolbox to support that.

00;21;24;28 – 00;21;41;07
Anna Baldi
One of the biggest things I picked up actually, was you mentioned, and I don’t remember if it was a live or in the course, but you mentioned scheduling emails and I literally didn’t even know you can do that. So now if I want to respond at night, I will, and I’ll schedule it to send to 9:00 the next morning.

00;21;41;10 – 00;21;45;09
Anna Baldi
That is such a small thing, but it’s a big statement.

00;21;45;11 – 00;22;09;03
Rebecca Hay
Yeah. You know, there are so many little tools and tricks that we can do in our business. And, and I’m curious to to hear how I mean, that was that was a little nugget that I dropped and shared with you. But I imagine there were things that you learned from the other designers in the community as well. Tell me about your experience inside the pop for those who are listening, who don’t know what I’m saying, power process is the course, but we call it we affectionately refer to it as pop.

00;22;09;05 – 00;22;16;13
Rebecca Hay
So once you join pop, you get a cute little nickname ear Popper for life. But how did the pop community help you?

00;22;16;20 – 00;22;35;19
Anna Baldi
It was really interesting to just be able to talk to other designers that are in the same place. I have a lot of design friends, but they’re all from the commercial design community, so I didn’t really have a ton of people to turn to to say, like, what are you doing with this? And you get people from all different walks of life in their business as well.

00;22;35;19 – 00;22;49;22
Anna Baldi
So one of the things that was huge to me is I actually posted in the Facebook group, Group a poll and I just said, hey, I’ve got a project. I gave very quick notes about what what it was. And I said, how many hours do you think you would spend on this? Because I was really spinning my wheels on.

00;22;50;00 – 00;23;06;11
Anna Baldi
How long should I be spending on this project for my spending too much time on my not spending enough time, you know, we just spiral down the drain of never ending thinking and, just seeing the responses from people. And it was like, okay, well, I am right on target then, because I’m spending in a decent amount of time.

00;23;06;11 – 00;23;24;08
Anna Baldi
So just the feedback on that. I think somebody else had asked about minimums or pricing or something and just to see, oh, this is what other people are charging for consultations. I was only charging for intro dollars. I can charge 500, no problem. It was so supportive and so uplifting and everyone just wants to help each other. That was huge for me.

00;23;24;08 – 00;23;25;07
Anna Baldi
Just getting that feedback.

00;23;25;13 – 00;23;42;18
Rebecca Hay
Yeah, I love that and I often encourage people because we have these live zoom calls. So we call them study hall sessions where we get together and it’s a little combination of Q&A, maybe me going deeper in an area we do breakout rooms, which I love, and I know that the poppers love that is in the zoom call.

00;23;42;18 – 00;23;58;09
Rebecca Hay
You go into smaller groups and you can share and learn from each other there. But I’m always saying because there’s only so much time, we can be live on zoom. I’m always saying, drop that question in the Facebook group because like people post in the chat in the zoom, which is great, but it goes really fast because there’s lots of people in there.

00;23;58;09 – 00;24;14;25
Rebecca Hay
Everyone’s excited and then you can’t really reference back. Even I can’t like look back on the zoom chat. So I say post it in the Facebook group. It’s there for you to use. And I love seeing that because you get all kinds of designers saying, oh, I only for example, I charge $95, shoot, I need to up my rate, right?

00;24;15;03 – 00;24;46;17
Rebecca Hay
Or you see someone else is charging 1500. You’re like, whoa, I didn’t even know that was possible. So it’s really awesome to see how the community helps each other. Like it’s great that I’m there to support as well, but I don’t have all the answers collectively, though. Wow. The volume of insights and experience. Because because we have designers inside pop, and it never ceases to amaze me with every cohort, with every session who are either brand new or have been doing this for 1520 plus years.

00;24;46;17 – 00;24;52;16
Rebecca Hay
It does span the whole gamut, which is amazing because you can learn from each other. I love that, that’s amazing.

00;24;52;22 – 00;24;54;01
Anna Baldi
Yeah, that was a really great experience.

00;24;54;08 – 00;25;04;21
Rebecca Hay
Well, I am so happy to hear that you had such a positive experience. Where are you taking your business from here? Like what are the next steps for you? Where do you see your business going in the next year?

00;25;04;24 – 00;25;20;19
Anna Baldi
My goal is just to attract the right clients. I’ve got a number of them right now and I have my heart. I just love them all so much and they’re so supportive. They’re like, they’re my cheerleaders and also my clients. It’s really it’s really amazing. And and the big thing for me is attracting clients I did not know before.

00;25;20;22 – 00;25;22;16
Rebecca Hay
Yeah. Strangers.

00;25;22;18 – 00;25;41;03
Anna Baldi
Because it was great, starting with friends and family, but like, bring with strangers, you know? Yeah, for me, I think the next year is about building up my people and having them find me. Which is why I decided to invest in a website designed by professionals instead of just me and why I’m, you know, going through the power process course.

00;25;41;03 – 00;25;56;08
Anna Baldi
I just want to design for the people that I love. So I’m I’m really excited to do that in the next year and then beyond. Who knows? I would love to to grow, bring on staff and go the whole distance. But for now, I’ve just got to focus on one year at a time.

00;25;56;13 – 00;26;10;25
Rebecca Hay
Yeah, I love that, I love that. What would you say to someone if you were speaking to a fellow interior designer, maybe someone who’s listening here today who hasn’t taken pop yet? Is considering it, but they’re not sure. They’re maybe feeling a bit hesitant. What would you say to them?

00;26;11;03 – 00;26;28;29
Anna Baldi
Yeah, I mean, I’ve been in your shoes. I wasn’t sure if I should invest this or not, but it’s really a small amount, especially in my case. I’m like, if I get one job that’s paid for with half of it, it’s such an investment to set yourself up for success. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said in a million times, start your business.

00;26;28;29 – 00;26;52;11
Anna Baldi
Assuming you’re going to succeed and taking courses like this and learning from people like you and people in the course, that’s what’s going to propel you forward and give you the tools. You don’t know what you don’t know. However, I’m 20 years in and I still don’t know what I don’t know. So being around other like minded individuals, seeing how somebody else does it and then implementing it to do it your own way, it’s an invaluable experience.

00;26;52;13 – 00;27;03;02
Anna Baldi
I’m just so glad I went through it and I am very proud of myself. After the course, I was like, oh my gosh, I get it. So I would hate for you to deny that feeling for yourself.

00;27;03;04 – 00;27;09;23
Rebecca Hay
I love that, I love that I get it. What have you got something connected in your brain when you just said that? What was that thing?

00;27;09;25 – 00;27;33;04
Anna Baldi
I think the thing was, I get it for me because it’s really easy when you’re going through the course. Okay? This is how Rebecca does it. So this is how I should do it. And at least for me, for a good half of the course, I was like, okay, yes, that is how it’s supposed to be. And it wasn’t till I hit I think it was probably writing everything out, but I finally was like, oh, we’ll just because that’s how Rebecca does it doesn’t mean it’s how I have to do it.

00;27;33;04 – 00;27;49;18
Anna Baldi
It’s a really great base, but maybe I have a different perspective or my clients are different, my situation is different. And once that clicked and I realized I’m going to do it my way, I was like, yes, I’m all in. I got this. And that’s I think, where my confidence really skyrocketed.

00;27;49;21 – 00;28;05;29
Rebecca Hay
Okay. Thank you for sharing that. I love that you had that epiphany because, I mean, you’ve heard me say it a million times inside the course. I say all the time I’m like, there is no one size fits all to running a design business. I’m going to show you the example that I have been using. It works for me.

00;28;06;01 – 00;28;26;11
Rebecca Hay
Here’s what works, but you might take what you like from it and throw other things away because it is personalized. It is customized not just to our clients, but to us and how we like to work, and the types of projects we like to do. However, it’s important that you have a process as a foundation to your business.

00;28;26;11 – 00;28;48;17
Rebecca Hay
It should be the cornerstone of your business and inside the course. Obviously, I share examples from other industries just to really help paint the picture. Like I didn’t make this up. This is like business 101. But as creatives, we’re never taught this. I was never taught this. We didn’t go to business school. Many of us, and even there’s even designers who did go to business school and they’re like, oh, yeah, like, I don’t know.

00;28;48;19 – 00;29;10;18
Rebecca Hay
I don’t remember learning it this way. And a service based business requires some structure to it so that you can have the freedom to be creative. And finding your way is my goal. And you don’t probably know this and I, but when I first designed this course, Power of Process, it looked a little bit different. It was actually more about why you need a process.

00;29;10;18 – 00;29;28;11
Rebecca Hay
Here are some examples. And I walked you through setting one up, but I didn’t give you my process. And I found it was great because I was attracting. It wasn’t just designers that would come. I was getting other creatives take the course, which was great. But then I found that the bulk were designers. Of course, because I’m miniature designer.

00;29;28;14 – 00;29;44;13
Rebecca Hay
And then I was getting all these questions, like the study halls, which I don’t see anymore. We’re like, can you walk us through what trade is, what you said. You said a concept and budget review. What’s that? How do you want a presentation? What about your contract? And it was like the whole study hall was me. Like showing them my process.

00;29;44;13 – 00;30;06;28
Rebecca Hay
Till finally, I think it was after a couple of years. I said to to my right hand of yours, I was like, maybe we need to just like, really make this course super specific to interior designers and give them everything. And so about a year and a half ago, we revamped the whole course, and it was two years ago now, so that we walked you through how I run a project literally from A to Z.

00;30;07;00 – 00;30;17;23
Rebecca Hay
And then we say, okay, you have this foundation. What are you going to take from it? Let’s help you now shape your process. So it means so much to me. You probably didn’t know that backstory.

00;30;17;26 – 00;30;19;08
Anna Baldi
No, I had no idea.

00;30;19;10 – 00;30;28;01
Rebecca Hay
That it’s working, that how we’ve changed the course is really helping. And I know it is, because I don’t get those million questions anymore because the questions are answered inside the course.

00;30;28;08 – 00;30;46;27
Anna Baldi
Yeah. Well, and I want to thank you for sharing that, because one thing that I’ve had in the back of my mind is you think progress over perfection every time. I mean, you say, what, 500 times per study is a little too much. No, never too much, because we always need the reminder. But as I was creating the process, I had a tendency to be like, well, this needs to be perfect.

00;30;47;03 – 00;31;09;05
Anna Baldi
And I was like, no, Anna, you can just start the process. And if somewhere along the road it’s no longer serving you or the way you thought it was gonna work isn’t working, you can change it. And just hearing you say that even the course itself has transformed to fit the goals, it’s like an invitation to be like, yes, okay, we can change our processes if we need to, but we have that base to change it from.

00;31;09;08 – 00;31;10;27
Anna Baldi
And that is the biggest thing.

00;31;11;00 – 00;31;38;12
Rebecca Hay
Yeah, the lesson that if you’re listening right now, hopefully you’re taking this away is that you are going to iterate and change your business over the years because you change, because your customer changes. Who you serve and who you want to serve is going to change. And so in my example, kind of unrelated but related, I was serving creatives, and then I got laser focused on who I wanted to help.

00;31;38;12 – 00;31;56;13
Rebecca Hay
And I realized I want to help interior designers who are in the early stages of their business, who are feeling like there’s got to be a better way. How do I do this? How do I fast track my success and make more money? And so I tweaked and iterated the course itself and our marketing and our messaging to speak to those people.

00;31;56;13 – 00;32;14;18
Rebecca Hay
The same applies to you and your interior design firm, how you’ve set it up. And this happened to me with my design firm. Your pricing structure is going to shift a little over the years. Your process is going to shift. Maybe you start focusing on new construction only, like your desire to do things a certain way is going to shift and change, and that’s okay.

00;32;14;18 – 00;32;23;04
Rebecca Hay
And that’s that progress. That’s why there’s no point in getting it perfect from the get go, because it’s going to change. But you need something. You need a foundation.

00;32;23;07 – 00;32;41;02
Anna Baldi
Yeah, I actually try to come up with a process two weeks after I started my business, I sat down and came up with these tiered services and I had everything figured out. I didn’t have anything figure it out, an idiot. But now I’m sitting here today and I’m like, okay, I think I do have this figured out, but let’s see what happens.

00;32;41;04 – 00;32;47;15
Anna Baldi
I trust myself because I have a base to work from, and I trust myself to make good decisions moving forward as I need to.

00;32;47;18 – 00;33;13;17
Rebecca Hay
And I’m excited to follow your journey, and because I’m excited to see how having this now established, even though you still have areas you want to work on, you want to create some documents, things like that. I’m excited to see how it opens up more time for you to focus on the creative, because I know for me, I was so stressed out, always trying to figure out the how to do things and what was coming next that I would not give myself the time.

00;33;13;17 – 00;33;23;20
Rebecca Hay
I really wanted to work on the design scheme, to do the card, plans, to do the creative stuff, and so that for me was a massive shift. So I’m excited to watch and hear how that works for you.

00;33;23;25 – 00;33;37;22
Anna Baldi
Yeah, retail. I just have a list in my head of like, well, once I get these documents figured out, everything is going to be fine. But once I’m at a time, I tend to kind of freeze when I feel an overwhelm. But the process is actually helping a ton with that because I don’t need to freeze because I know what comes next.

00;33;37;28 – 00;33;43;04
Anna Baldi
And that’s then also invaluable. I mean, the whole thing, invaluable thing is freaking invaluable. It’s all just great.

00;33;43;07 – 00;33;46;23
Rebecca Hay
Amazing. Well, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. That’s the whole idea, right?

00;33;46;24 – 00;33;48;13
Anna Baldi
Yes, exactly. Yeah.

00;33;48;18 – 00;34;05;29
Rebecca Hay
Oh my gosh, that’s so amazing. I’m so happy that you joined me today on the podcast. It’s such an honor to have a listener. I have a popper here to share your experience, because I know that this course can be so transformational and I can’t wait for more designers to go through it and have the same success that you’ve had.

00;34;06;01 – 00;34;15;08
Rebecca Hay
And maybe we’ll get everybody together on a panel. I’ll talk about where our businesses are like a year from now. We can look back and be like, whoa, look how far you’ve come. I can’t wait for that.

00;34;15;08 – 00;34;16;01
Anna Baldi
And I love that.

00;34;16;05 – 00;34;27;01
Rebecca Hay
Before we wrap up our time together, you know this because you listen to the podcast. I always ask for a last nugget of wisdom. What do you have to share with our listeners today?

00;34;27;09 – 00;34;42;27
Anna Baldi
I’ve said it twice. So I think you know what I’m going to say when you’re starting out, set yourself up as though you are going to succeed. Do not assume you are going to fail. Assume that you’re going to succeed, and you need to have things in place to support you and just trust yourself. You’ve got everything you need.

00;34;43;00 – 00;34;44;14
Anna Baldi
Just do it. Don’t question.

00;34;44;18 – 00;34;47;10
Rebecca Hay
Just go I love that. That’s good advice.

00;34;47;15 – 00;34;53;29
Anna Baldi
But also like, you know, maybe don’t just quit your job on Monday and start a business on a Tuesday. It’s a little stressful, okay.

00;34;53;29 – 00;35;12;26
Rebecca Hay
But but at the same time, if you need that, like some of us just need to like, force the change, you know? Yeah. And for some people doing it as a, as a side hustle and a hobby for a while works. But for other people it’s like, no, no, no. Like for me doing the interior design firm and all the coaching in the courses.

00;35;12;28 – 00;35;36;06
Rebecca Hay
Last year I was feeling really overwhelmed because I was trying to run two businesses successfully and I was doing it, but it was burning out like I just don’t have the capacity and and shifting this year or taking a sabbatical from design work and shifting all of my efforts into courses and helping designers, it’s like, oh yeah, I have such mental capacity now for this that I didn’t have before.

00;35;36;09 – 00;35;57;21
Rebecca Hay
So if you’re listening and you’ve been treating your design business like a side hustle and you’re really dreaming, like Anna said, for how many years? 20 years. She always had this dream in her heart. This might be your side. Today’s conversation might be your sign to take that leap of faith and and really make that shift because it’s never going to grow past a certain point.

00;35;57;28 – 00;36;00;11
Rebecca Hay
If you can’t give it all of your attention.

00;36;00;13 – 00;36;02;03
Anna Baldi
Just trust yourself. You’ll figure it out.

00;36;02;05 – 00;36;09;17
Rebecca Hay
I love it, trust. Thank you so much. And before we sign off, can you let everyone know where they can find and follow your exciting journey?

00;36;09;19 – 00;36;18;25
Anna Baldi
Yes, on Instagram I am contraste underscore interior design. My website is contraste ebay.com so you can find me at both of those places.

00;36;18;29 – 00;36;21;13
Rebecca Hay
Amazing! Thank you so much for joining me today.

00;36;21;15 – 00;36;25;14
Anna Baldi
Thank you for having me. This is so fun.

00;36;25;17 – 00;36;42;20
Rebecca Hay
Okay, I loved chatting with Anna. I think she is such a dynamo. I love seeing how she is such a quick action taker. I freaking love my action takers. You know? She said she saw an ad on Instagram. She’s like, I got to check out this Rebecca girl before I buy something from her. She did listen to the podcast delve into pricing with confidence.

00;36;42;20 – 00;37;03;29
Rebecca Hay
It was getting results and she just trusted her gut. And then from there, did the bootcamp move from the bootcamp into pop. Even though she was hesitant and look at how she’s winning, I’m so excited to follow her journey. After we finished recording, Anna said that she just did a brand photoshoot and a whole big interiors shoot. She’s launching a brand new website.

00;37;03;29 – 00;37;24;05
Rebecca Hay
I cannot wait to share it. We will link it in our show notes. She is on fire. There is something that happens when you take the time to really dive deep into your business and treat it like a business. A momentum builds and I’ve been hearing this from a few different poppers that even during the course, like while they’re in the course, they start to get inquiries.

00;37;24;05 – 00;37;49;17
Rebecca Hay
Inquiries just start coming in. And I chatted about this with page on her podcast about this idea that maybe it’s a little woowoo. So stick with me here, but you are energetically aligned and open to new work once you are clearly showing the universe. I’m taking this seriously. I’m signing up for this course. Boom! Opportunities pop out of thin air.

00;37;49;18 – 00;38;07;28
Rebecca Hay
I’m telling you, this is the universe working at its finest. It’s manifestation. Oftentimes we get so caught up in the how, how am I going to get there? And how am I going to find a client? How? I mean, hey, listen, I do this too, and this is something that I work on with my own mindset, coach, is stop worrying about how you’re going to get there.

00;38;07;29 – 00;38;29;07
Rebecca Hay
Follow your gut. Take that leap into the thing that’s exciting you where you want to dive in and then go with it. Put that intention into the universe. So if this is you, if I’m speaking to you and you’re feeling drawn and you’re feeling pulled, come check up our process. I really believe it is transformational. If you are ready to let the transformation begin.

00;38;29;10 – 00;38;45;19
Rebecca Hay
Head on over to rebecca.com/power of process and I would love to welcome you inside our community. See you soon.

June 12, 2025

Be the first to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *