Why Designers Need More Than a Course — And The Shift I’m Making in 2026

Real transformation in your interior design business doesn’t happen overnight. It doesn’t come from downloading another template, joining another challenge, or signing up for a course you never finish. It comes from staying in the room, building consistency, and having mentorship that supports you through every stage of growth.

In this honest end-of-year episode, Rebecca shares the behind-the-scenes decisions that shaped her business in 2025, including the moment she walked away from the biggest design lead of her career, and how that clarity led her to redefine what she’s offering designers in 2026.

If you’ve ever felt stretched thin by too many services, too many ideas, or too many “shoulds,” this episode will help you reconnect to what truly moves your business forward.

If you’re ready to step into the next level of your design business with more clarity, more focus, and more intention, this episode will speak directly to you.

Share this episode with a designer who needs clarity heading into the new year.

episode highlights

1. Why courses alone don’t create long-term transformation
2. The difference between consuming information and receiving mentorship
3. How Rebecca realized she was still “doing too much” even after simplifying
4. Why the most successful designers stay connected to support over time
5. The question every designer should ask before planning 2026
6. How choosing your “one thing” shapes your clients, your marketing, and your energy
7. A first look at the major shift coming to Rebecca’s business in 2026

Episode Resources

• The One Thing by Gary Keller
• 10x is Easier than 2x
• Download Rebecca’s free Discovery Call Script

Read the Full Transcript ⬇️

00;00;00;00 – 00;00;34;18
Rebecca Hay
Real transformation doesn’t happen overnight. It happens through consistency, through mentorship. I think I’ve grown as a business owner more in these last two years than I have in the last 12. 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 breaking books. Over the last decade, I’ve grown from an insecure student to having false starts to careers.

00;00;34;21 – 00;01;04;07
Rebecca Hay
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. 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. Hey hey hey, it’s Rebecca and you are listening to Resilient by Design.

00;01;04;09 – 00;01;27;14
Rebecca Hay
Can you believe that? We are already nearing the end of another year? Whoo! I don’t know about you guys, but this is the time when I really start reflecting. I start getting actually quite excited about the year ahead. Probably starting around October. But I love looking at what worked, what didn’t work, and most importantly, what do I want next year to look like?

00;01;27;16 – 00;01;46;14
Rebecca Hay
So if you guys have been around here for a while, you know that I love personal growth, professional development, and I love a good book when it comes to that. So I’m going to share with you one that’s had a massive impact on both my life personally and professionally. And it is called The One Thing by Gary Keller.

00;01;46;16 – 00;02;18;19
Rebecca Hay
It is the tiniest, skinniest little book with the greatest impact. All right, so if you haven’t read this book yet, the premise is simple but so powerful. Extraordinary results come from focusing on what matters most. And in fact, I have the quote from that book saved as my screensaver on this desktop at the office. And that’s exactly what I want to talk to you about today, is how this idea of doing less actually is better, and how it’s actually shaped my year this year.

00;02;18;19 – 00;02;38;14
Rebecca Hay
So I’m going to share a little behind the scenes of my business, and I’m hoping that maybe this will be the key to help you unlock your next level in the year ahead. So I want to look back at my year of intentional pause that was this year, 2025 for me. So I’m going to start with a little behind the scenes update.

00;02;38;16 – 00;02;59;29
Rebecca Hay
I haven’t shared a lot, so this is I’m a little nervous to share this here today, but I know that when I am open and I share honestly and with integrity, I always get the best feedback. Someone who’s listening to this today needs to hear this. So for over a decade now, you know that interior design has been my identity.

00;03;00;04 – 00;03;28;28
Rebecca Hay
It is what has built my brand, my business and my reputation. But I realized something really last year if I wanted to grow into this next chapter of my career and my own personal professional development, I could not keep doing everything. And maybe, just maybe, when you’re listening to this right now, you can relate. Maybe you’ve been juggling multiple service offerings.

00;03;29;00 – 00;03;57;29
Rebecca Hay
Maybe you’re doing full service design, design, styling, renovations, consultation only staging, right? You’re trying to do it all for everyone. And on the outside it looks like you’re thriving, but on the inside you’re exhausted. You’re spread thin. You are constantly context switching, context switching, meaning switching between different types of tasks, between client calls to marketing, to installs, to team management.

00;03;58;02 – 00;04;23;28
Rebecca Hay
And then somewhere in there you’re supposed to create right and be magically creative and amazing. Yeah. So I get that. And so for me, I’ve already been there with the design projects. I really honed it in, I decided years ago, and this is no secret, if you’ve taken power of process and you know my framework, you know it’s focused on full service interior design.

00;04;24;00 – 00;04;47;11
Rebecca Hay
And I have one seven step process that’s used for every project. But for me, last year I realized it wasn’t the design business that was pulling me in multiple directions. It was having two businesses coaching, podcasting. That was kind of this hobby I did on the side very quickly became my number one passion, and it quickly became a business.

00;04;47;17 – 00;05;16;04
Rebecca Hay
And so I found myself in 2024 really sort of straddling these two businesses. And feeling as though I just had one foot in one and one foot in the other, and neither one was going to get my full attention if I had both. So for me, I made the decision at the end of last year to step back from design projects, meaning that I decided in 2025 I wasn’t going to take a single design project.

00;05;16;06 – 00;05;35;25
Rebecca Hay
Now, this was not easy. End of January. Beginning of February, I had the biggest lead ever in my life. Come to me for a new build. I really struggled with that. I remember being on the ski hill, actually talking to some other ski moms. Our kids were in lessons and I said to her, I’m actually I’m not taking on design projects this year.

00;05;35;25 – 00;06;03;02
Rebecca Hay
And this is like January, right? So this is like the beginning of the ski season, beginning of the year. I mean, I’m feeling strong. I wrapped 2024 with an epic design project, feeling pretty good about myself. You know, I was going into some course launches and feeling good. But this project came my way and I remember saying to this ski mom, oh my God, it’s so funny that you just asked me about design projects, and I just told you yesterday that I’m not taking any on and this is like Saturday to Sunday.

00;06;03;02 – 00;06;21;01
Rebecca Hay
I’m like, I literally just got the most incredible lead on a project. They found me through ChatGPT. They’re comparing me to one other top, top designer in Toronto who in my in my mind is way bigger deal and more known. And she was like, oh my God, what are you going to do? You’re going to take it right?

00;06;21;04 – 00;06;45;23
Rebecca Hay
And I remember thinking, I don’t actually know, I didn’t know, and this is where all the work I’ve done to listen to my intuition really became helpful, because I remember going back to the chalet that day and saying to my husband, I don’t know what to do. And through that week, I ended up having a couple of discovery calls with this potential client.

00;06;45;25 – 00;07;05;08
Rebecca Hay
I said I was going to consider it to the clients, but I immediately knew I didn’t want to do it. I knew that that was going to be a distraction from my one thing. If you are going to tell your business results next year, first of all, you need to read the book is easier than two x

00;07;05;10 – 00;07;29;11
Rebecca Hay
By Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy, one of my all times faves. I’ve listened to it like three times on audible. Then you need to release the 80%. That is only to explain your results. And for me, that 80% was the design work. Even though this was a project where I could have charged hundreds of thousands in design fees, I knew that it was just going to delay me being able to show up.

00;07;29;11 – 00;07;48;03
Rebecca Hay
Coach designers, develop new programs, podcast, do outreach, go to high Point, do all the things that I love to do. And so that next weekend at the ski hill, when that mom came up to me and she’s like, oh my God, so what happened? You know, did you do the design project? And I said, I turned it down and I refer them to other designers.

00;07;48;06 – 00;08;26;05
Rebecca Hay
And of course, this ski mom probably thought I was crazy, but I felt later. So for me, stepping back from design projects wasn’t about giving up. It was about giving myself space and time to think and to invest my energies in one thing. I wanted to figure out where I could have the biggest impact without burning out, and I knew that was going all in on my coaching business, because even as I shifted my focus to coaching and education this year, 2025, fast forward to halfway through the year, I realized something surprising I was still doing too much.

00;08;26;08 – 00;08;52;21
Rebecca Hay
Wow. This year was a whirlwind. Different programs, multiple launches, different audiences, serving newbies, serving established designers, different types of support, different ways to sell my courses. I did a boot camp. I did a challenge like everything I was doing was really good and it was helping people, and it was helping generate revenue for me so I could keep, you know, living my life.

00;08;52;24 – 00;09;12;25
Rebecca Hay
But it wasn’t focused and I felt pulled in so many directions. And sometimes we think that we’re simplifying things, but really we’re just rearranging the chaos. Can you relate to that? So I’m going to share with you how I found my one thing, and I’m going to give you a glimpse into what this is going to look like, because things are going to look different next year.

00;09;12;25 – 00;09;37;02
Rebecca Hay
And I’m hoping this episode sparks something in you to make you think about your business differently, too. So I went back to the book. Two books actually. The one thing and ten x is easier to x, but in the one thing there’s a quote that really stuck with me, the author Gary Keller says. Also, if you do listen to our audible, it’s lovely because, I just like, love.

00;09;37;04 – 00;09;59;11
Rebecca Hay
This is so weird to say, but I love like, a grandfather. The way they talk and the way their language is, I’m pretty sure. And now I’m not second guessing myself, but I’m pretty sure that’s how this book is. Just reminds me of my grandpa. I don’t know, that was a weird sidebar. This is his quote. Success is about doing the right thing, not about doing everything right.

00;09;59;11 – 00;10;35;16
Rebecca Hay
I’m going to repeat that success is about doing the right thing, not about doing everything right. And that quote hit me like a ton of bricks. Ha! Because that’s exactly what I’d been doing. I have been doing everything right, trying to do everything right. But it was a lot of freaking moving pieces. And every launch, every course, every offer, every client, every podcast recording, trying to please everyone, trying to show up and do everything the way it’s supposed to be done and trying to be everywhere.

00;10;35;20 – 00;10;57;02
Rebecca Hay
But doing everything right isn’t the goal. Doing the right? One thing is, and it’s funny, I look back at January, I like to pick a word of the year 2025. My word of the year was simplify, and in October I was at the Milli Club Mastermind and I was in Nashville, with Amy Porterfield and in that mastermind container.

00;10;57;04 – 00;11;29;17
Rebecca Hay
And it hit me really hard. I said to Amy, I said my word for 2025 was simplify, and I have it frickin a simplified a thing. And I said, all I want is to focus on one thing. All I want is to simplify my business so that I can have more time in my personal life, so that mentally, I can still get excited and throw all my passions and power and energy into the thing.

00;11;29;19 – 00;12;03;28
Rebecca Hay
But I’m not constantly thinking about, oh, go do that too. And then what about that? And then so I asked myself at this mastermind in October, if I could do one thing, what would it be? And I think it’s so interesting because Amy kicked off that mastermind with a teaching on how do you tell your business? And we spent about 2 to 3 days focused on our business, our strengths, where do we want to take it in 2026, and what are the distractions and what are the areas that are really going to turn next?

00;12;04;00 – 00;12;24;00
Rebecca Hay
Our business. And the truth was, if I stripped away all the noise, all the busywork, all the things that I could do, because let me tell you, when you’re in a mastermind like that, you get a lot of ideas from people who are really killing it. But what’s the one thing that really lights me up and what makes the biggest difference for my community?

00;12;24;00 – 00;12;50;23
Rebecca Hay
And the answer for me became super duper clear. One of the answer I realized that I want to serve designers more deeply, not just for 6 or 8 weeks at a time, the way I’ve been doing in power of process with the bootcamp, right? But over the long haul, I want designers to work with me forever. Well, okay, at some point you are going to you’re going to you’re going to grow up and graduate and move on.

00;12;50;23 – 00;13;09;27
Rebecca Hay
But I don’t want you. I want you to be in my circle. I want you to be in my inner circle because I have also realized something. Yes, we see incredible transformations inside our course because the framework, the power of process framework is so freaking good. And I am I am not biased. I mean, I might be a little biased, but I have seen hundreds almost.

00;13;09;28 – 00;13;42;20
Rebecca Hay
We’re approaching a thousand students having gone through this course and there is success to be had. But sometimes people are busy, life is busy, and so that real transformation doesn’t happen overnight. It happens through consistency, through mentorship. I think I’ve grown as a business owner more in these last two years than I have in the last 12, and that is because I’ve had community, I’ve had mentorship, and I’ve had it consistently, not just in spurts.

00;13;42;23 – 00;14;00;28
Rebecca Hay
And when you want to quit, you don’t quit and you’ve got people there to celebrate your wins. And that’s what I want to create more of. I want to be there celebrating your wins, sharing the tactics that I have used that I see work for others and the things that I’m learning inside all these incredible coaching programs. I want to share with you.

00;14;01;00 – 00;14;28;13
Rebecca Hay
And that’s what I want to do next year. So what does this mean for my business and what does this mean for yours? This is this episode. I don’t want it to be just about me. This is for you. And so I wasn’t actually going to share this yet. Oh, but you know what? I have realized that part of being resilient by design is being open about the process.

00;14;28;13 – 00;14;53;14
Rebecca Hay
And sometimes when we put it out there out loud, we gotta hold ourselves accountable to that. Right? So here it is in 2026. I’m making some big changes in my business. I am doubling down on my one thing as I talk about this. I hope your brain is thinking, shoot, what can I double down on? What’s my one thing?

00;14;53;16 – 00;15;23;24
Rebecca Hay
For me, I am creating a space where I can support designers on a deeper level beyond just a single program or a launch. It is going to be more immersive, and I truly believe it’s going to be that much more transformational and more connected. Because what I’ve seen over the years, in the last five years since I’ve been doing this, is that designers who experienced the biggest growth, the biggest mindset shifts, the biggest leaps.

00;15;23;26 – 00;15;45;20
Rebecca Hay
They’re the ones who stick with it, who just keep going, who fall and pick themselves back up. They stay in the room. You need to stay in the game. You need to stay in the room. They are the designers and even in my own circle of designers here in Toronto, my colleagues, they’re the ones who stay connected to the work, to the community and the coaching over time.

00;15;45;20 – 00;16;12;28
Rebecca Hay
And they’re constantly receiving, coaching, you know, inside the the mastermind that I’m a part of, actually, I’m in two masterminds. What I see is the women that have the most success are the ones that stay in the mastermind. They’re not the ones that are just there for a cohort or just stay for three months, or just over six months, like they re-up, they renew, they join again and their business.

00;16;12;28 – 00;16;36;06
Rebecca Hay
Yes, it’s an investment, but their business is the one that really starts to soar. They are the women who are franchise izing their companies. They’re the women who are surpassing $1 million. They are the women who work three days a week because they’ve dialed it in, and they can make enough money so that the other two days they’re golfing or they’re volunteering on all the kids field trips, whatever success looks like to you.

00;16;36;06 – 00;16;56;19
Rebecca Hay
But those are the women that see the success. So if you’ve been in my world through Power of Process or one of my bootcamps like the stand out designer, the confident designer, or you’ve been inside designers room, or you’ve taken a bracelet with confidence or all the things I mean, I even had a course called Momentum Marketing back in the day.

00;16;56;22 – 00;17;15;01
Rebecca Hay
For all of you that have taken my programs, I first just want to say thank you because you have helped me see what’s possible when we all go in on one thing. You are my inspiration. You are the ones who are taking what I teach and having incredible success. Heck, some of you are taking what I teach and doing better than I ever did in certain areas.

00;17;15;07 – 00;17;38;11
Rebecca Hay
Like, I will sometimes go home to my husband and say, there’s this designer who took pricing with confidence, has quadrupled her prices in only two months since taking the course, and she’s only been in business for like 12 months. Like, you know how long it took me to get there, guys? It’s insane. So this next chapter for me is going to be all about that.

00;17;38;11 – 00;18;02;20
Rebecca Hay
I want a ten year freaking success. And for all the new people who are coming into my world, you are about to see an incredible, incredible transformation if you stick with me, but without sharing any more details as we still finalize and fine tune them behind the scenes, I want to turn this to you. I know as designers we wear a lot of hats.

00;18;02;20 – 00;18;23;04
Rebecca Hay
As a design firm owner, you are everything. You are the creative. You are the manager. You are the boss. You are the HR person. You are the bookkeeper. You are the admin. You are fill in the blank. Right. And so we have we feel like the beginning, we have to say yes to everything because we want to bring in the money.

00;18;23;04 – 00;18;51;17
Rebecca Hay
And also we’re pretty smart cookies. We can pretty much do anything. The question that I want you to sit with as we wrap up this year, what’s your one thing? What’s your one thing? What is your one thing? If you could only offer one service or have one process, what type of project? One type of project, what? What would it be?

00;18;51;19 – 00;19;17;24
Rebecca Hay
What is the work that truly lights you up? The kind of project where you lose track of time, where you just want to keep working and not Bill. But but you’re going to build right where creativity flows easily and where you work with clients who literally just get you and value you and say, wow, this is so good, while you’re amazing, what if you doubled down on that and let go of the rest?

00;19;17;26 – 00;19;47;22
Rebecca Hay
No more charcuterie. Board of services, you know what I mean? That charcuterie, that’s basically an entire complete meal with various prosciutto and salamis and cheeses and olives, grapes and jams and and and you are not a charcuterie board. No more saying yes to every inquiry just because it pays. Here’s the truth. You cannot be known for everything, right?

00;19;47;25 – 00;20;09;28
Rebecca Hay
It’s like going to your GP for eye surgery. You’re not going to do that. You’re going to go to the eye surgeon, doctor, ophthalmologist, whatever they’re called. Right? It’s no different. I mean, okay, it’s different. I mean, this isn’t life or death, though some clients do feel that way sometimes. We have to sometimes walk them off the ledge.

00;20;10;02 – 00;20;32;19
Rebecca Hay
But could it be for you that you’re known for something? Does it mean you only do kitchens? You may want to do kitchens and bathrooms. It may be renovations, but maybe you don’t. Also do color consults and staging. What could you if you could pick, what would you be known for? What is the one area you want to be known for?

00;20;32;21 – 00;21;00;18
Rebecca Hay
And then when you get known for that one thing, that signature style, maybe that clear process that defined experience, your business gets simpler. And guys, this is what it’s about. Your marketing is going to get easier. Your clients are going to get way better and more in alignment. And honestly, your life is going to feel lighter. And that is what I want for you.

00;21;00;20 – 00;21;30;07
Rebecca Hay
All right. So as we close out this year, my hope for you is that you take a little time to slow down, to reflect and reconnect with what matters the most. You do not have to do it all. You don’t. You absolutely don’t. You do not need to be everything to everyone. Sometimes the best thing that you can do for your business is actually to focus on doing less and to start saying no, because when you do less, you can actually do it.

00;21;30;11 – 00;21;52;08
Rebecca Hay
The one thing so much better you’re not getting pulled in multiple directions. All right. If this episode resonated with you, I would love for you. Just please take a quick moment and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, Spotify. We’re trying to hit a goal of 100 reviews before the end of the year. They get the time of recording more like 80, so it means so much to me.

00;21;52;10 – 00;22;17;04
Rebecca Hay
And I encourage you to share this episode with someone with a friend, with a design colleague, someone who knows needs this message. Someone who wants to feel empowered, excited about the year ahead. Someone who is ready to tell their business and focus on the one thing. And before you go, if you want to start streamlining your own process heading into the new Year, you can always download my free discovery call scripts.

00;22;17;06 – 00;22;41;19
Rebecca Hay
It’s the beginning of every design process. Just go to rebecca.com/discovery. It is a simple but extremely powerful tool that will help you lead confident client conversations for new inquiries. Potential clients who call you right from the very first call. That is the very first step in my process and it’s yours for free. You just go to rebecca.com/discovery and that’s it my friends my designers.

00;22;41;19 – 00;22;57;22
Rebecca Hay
Here’s to clarity. Focus on building a business that feels as good as it freaking looks. Next year I will see you soon.