One of the best parts of Designer’s Room is the immense wealth of knowledge we as a collective share and gain from each other. It is truly a space that is all about collaboration over competition! That is why I’m thrilled to announce the Secrets Showcase!
This is an exclusive Zoom event where designers will share insights, hacks, lessons, and tweaks that have made the biggest impacts in their businesses. Listen to this episode for a few secret examples of the sharing that goes on inside Designer’s Room and to find out how to participate in this unique community event on June 12, 2024. You will come away overflowing with insider scoops from this meeting of the minds and will also be able to share your own hard-learned resources.
Become a member of Designer’s Room and don’t miss this incredible community crowdsourcing opportunity HERE.
Download my free Project Budget Mini-Guide to start putting your numbers on paper HERE.
Read the Full Transcript ⬇️
Hey, hey, hey, it’s Rebecca, and you’re listening to Resilient by Design. Today’s a shorty, but it’s a goodie. I want to show you a peek behind the curtain of what can happen when designers get together To share and help each other. And what I mean specifically is I want to share with you some of the topics and conversations that have been coming up inside Designer’s Room, which is our private monthly membership for interior design firm owners.
Uh, and the reason I want to share that with you is because we are about to launch an incredible thing. I’ve never done this before, but we are hosting an event. inside Designer’s Room. And if you are not a member, don’t worry, there is still time for you to join, but we are going to be hosting a secrets showcase.
What is this fabulous thing, Rebecca? You and I both know that there is a special magic that happens when you get in the room together. With other like-minded humans. In our case, other design firm owners, others who believe in collaboration over competition. And so that is why on June 12th, 2024, we are hosting a secrets showcase inside our Designer’s Room community.
It’s going to be a very special 90-minute event where everyone will be sharing one big secret to their recent success. It could be something as small as, I changed the wording on my website to reflect, This or something as big as I changed my process from six to seven steps and here’s why. Whether you’re new to interior design or you’ve been in business for decades, you always have an insight.
You have a hack or you have a tip that you can share that is going to blow another designer’s mind. Sometimes it is the little tweaks that make the biggest difference and by sharing that you are going to make that designer’s life and business so much easier. So if you want to get the inside scoop on what’s working well in other designers’ businesses and share your expertise, little or big, then this is your invitation to become a member of Designers Room and claim your spot at At our online table for our secret.
Why can’t I say that word? I want to say secret, our secrets showcase. I want to give you an example of what I mean. Because designers room is really a special place. It is a place where you can share and ask questions. And I’m just going to share what’s been going on inside our Facebook group recently.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. The secrets showcase is actually meant to be in community together. We are on Zoom for this live event and you will be in breakout rooms with other designers and asked to share What your secret is that has worked recently. It’s really going to be fun. It’s like a meeting of the minds.
It is like brainstorming in a way. You will be so amazed by some of the small things that people and other designers are doing in their business that has made a big difference. Maybe it’s something you’ve tried in the last month, the last year, six months, what have you. So you head on over to rebeccahay.com/designers-room. You can find out more about how you can register. Get signed up, join our community so that you will be there for the June 12th event. But that event is on zoom, which means it is live. You’re going to see each other’s faces. We are going to share. And then you’re going to come back from those breakout rooms and share with the group at large.
It’s going to be incredible. I’ve never done this before. It’s going to be fun. There’s going to be music and there’s going to be prizes. Anyways, here’s just a little example of the designer’s room. Things like. There was a question in our group about emails. I often talk about starting an email newsletter, why it’s so powerful to let your past clients and potential future clients know what’s going on in your world and to keep you top of mind for them.
And there was a question about email header. You know, I’m using Canva, I’ve created an email header and one designer was saying, I feel clueless and I would love to know how do I get that header? How do I get some kind of interesting image or logo inside my email? So one designer said, I would save it as a JPEG and add it to your email with the server you use.
Or if you use Dubsado, you could add it to your template, but I would probably not send it directly from Canva. Somebody else says, I download it as a PNG file and then I uploaded it to an image box within the newsletter builder. These are really specific concrete examples that help someone in the middle of dealing with an issue.
Love that question. Another question was about wallpaper. Do your installers deduct window doors and other openings from the amount to place the order or do they include the entire wall and you have waste left over? One designer chimed in. She says, remember, you can always reference. Your design community, but I would assume that the openings are dedicated or deducted.
Sorry, but generally there’s a 10 percent overage. Somebody else said, we often include a 15 percent overage. Someone else said, wait a second, let me see if I can find the calculator that I have and I’ll share it with you. These are the challenges that we face, the itty bitty little distinct challenges we face on a daily basis of running a business that it’s really like so helpful to get help and answers for.
Okay, another one. I did a podcast episode here where I shared virtual assistants, how important and helpful it can be to have help in your business. And then I shared. Inside that group, some agencies or websites where I have gone to find virtual help freelancers, assistants, other people chimed in and said, have you tried this organization?
Or, what about here? And then lastly, I just wanna share about. Insurance. This question comes up a lot. One of the designers inside Designer’s Room said, I have an insurance question for those in Ontario. Do you have any insurance brokers or companies you’ve used that you could recommend? There were literally 15 responses to this question with different companies, who people use for their business insurance.
I also shared who I use. This is the type of crowdsourcing, um, Resourcefulness that you can expect when you are in community with other like minded designers. Again, this is collaboration over competition, people. This is not a place if you think you know the answer and you just want to like steal other people’s ideas and never give back.
This is a place To share and talk about the challenges. A few other conversations that have gone on just within the last month inside designer’s room are about ESA, electrical rules, how to know who’s responsible, understanding millwork companies. How do you partner with a mill worker? What does it look like?
What are the commissions? Can they give you a kickback? Like the list goes on. I’m literally scrolling through the group right now and looking for an All of the questions travel for projects. Somebody is in Rochester, New York. How do you bill for travel? Do you include it in your hourly? And then everyone goes through how they do it.
I, one person said, I outlined in my contract that on any expenses related to travel to the job site for long distance projects are reimbursed by the client, car rentals, hotel, et cetera. Somebody else says, Hey, I’m also in New York. This is the beauty of connecting. So, I hope that just gives you a little bit of a snippet into what designer’s room can be.
But the secret showcase is going to be that on steroids because the secrets showcase is going to be live on zoom where we are going to directly get you to come prepared, bring an example of something that has made a big difference in your business. It could be something simple as I raised my consultation rate from 250 to 450 and wow, the caliber of leads has completely changed.
It could be something else about your Instagram. What have you changed in your Instagram strategy that has made such a difference? Or is there worrying on your website that you’ve changed? What is it? What is your secret that’s working in your business that you can share with us and we can share ours with you.
So I hope to see you guys inside Designer’s Room in June. The event happens on June 12th. I look forward to welcoming you in. Just go to rebeccahay.com/designers-room. And you guys can join us inside our community. Okay. I’ll see you there. And I will be spilling a lot. All the secrets.
