Many designers fear that staying broad will help keep clients coming, but in reality, niching down does the opposite — it frees you.

In this episode, Rebecca shares why getting clear on who you serve is critical to refining your client messaging and finally attracting your dream projects. Learn how to niche down as an interior designer without scaring away potential clients, and why speaking to everyone is really speaking to no one.

episode highlights

  1. Why general messaging keeps you stuck attracting the wrong clients

  2. How to niche down as an interior designer without limiting your growth

  3. Identifying your ideal client beyond demographics (values, emotions, and decision-making)

  4. A 4-step framework for refining your messaging

  5. Real examples from Rebecca’s coaching experiences and programs

  6. How small tweaks in your website and Instagram bios can massively shift client attraction

Episode Resources

Read the Full Transcript ⬇️

00;00;00;01 – 00;00;36;15
Rebecca Hay
Niching down does not mean limiting yourself when you get niche or like really specific serving one type of audience, one type of client or customer. It means getting crystal clear on who you are and who you serve so that you can have the most success. 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.

00;00;36;17 – 00;01;07;05
Rebecca Hay
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. 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;07 – 00;01;37;04
Rebecca Hay
Hey hey hey, it’s Rebecca and you are listening to Resilient by Design. Today on the podcast, I am talking about your client. Are you speaking to the right client, or are you kind of watering down your message and speaking to everyone? I’m diving into one of the biggest reasons that many interior designers, maybe even you, are stuck in a cycle of budget client scope creep and projects that just don’t light them up.

00;01;37;06 – 00;01;59;27
Rebecca Hay
It is possible that you are trying to talk to everyone, and in doing that, you are literally attracting no one. Sometimes it feels frustrating, but don’t worry, I’m not here to shame you. This is a pep talk and more than that, I’ve got some exciting steps to share with you today. So here is the shift that possibly you have been needing.

00;02;00;02 – 00;02;21;27
Rebecca Hay
Because if you’ve been feeling like I feel like I’m doing everything right, I’m posting on Instagram, I’m responding to inquiries. Maybe I’m even like under charging just to get the job. Like I’m not even that expensive. Why am I not attracting clients or the right clients or better clients? You are not alone. There is a better way and this is exactly where you need to be right now.

00;02;21;28 – 00;02;32;20
Rebecca Hay
I’m going to walk you through my four part solution to this challenge. So buckle up, get your pen and paper, because here we go.

00;02;32;23 – 00;02;53;12
Rebecca Hay
Let’s be honest, part one is about the problem. The problem is you’re trying to speak to everyone. You’re possibly a little bit worried that you can’t make enough money to pay rent to make ends meet. Or maybe you don’t need the revenue, but you feel frustrated because you don’t get to do projects that let you up that allow you to be creative.

00;02;53;12 – 00;03;13;08
Rebecca Hay
People aren’t trusting you. They’re maybe nickel and diming you. Possibly they’re shopping you. Who knows? The reality is, we try to sound professional, right? All of us want to be and look professional. We want to be polished, and most of the time we want to be appealing to as many people as possible. For me, that always showed up as my people pleasing.

00;03;13;08 – 00;03;33;05
Rebecca Hay
Like I want everyone to want to hire me. I want everyone to like me. Everything’s an opportunity. But here’s what really happens when you act and show up this way. First, your message gets vague. Also, the clients who reach out are not the right fit, and you could just sound like every other designer in your city and in your neighborhood.

00;03;33;07 – 00;03;55;26
Rebecca Hay
The truth is, if your messaging doesn’t make someone feel like you’re speaking directly to them, they’re going to scroll right past it. So clarity is going to lead to a more specific audience. So when you get clear I’m going to walk you through that in just a second. You are going to have a much clearer message, but you need to know who it is that you want to work with.

00;03;55;29 – 00;04;17;13
Rebecca Hay
And that is something that I think as business owners and especially as creatives, we tend to breeze over. We just want to do our art. We just want to practice our craft. We want to bring people in and obviously we want to make money. But I think what happens is we aren’t really paying that much attention to how we’re showing up and how we’re speaking and who it is that we want to serve.

00;04;17;14 – 00;04;38;21
Rebecca Hay
We’re just like, really happy to be serving. So the vague message is something like, you know, we’re an interior design studio based in Toronto. We do full furnishing and decor. What we’re like, okay, most designers are doing that or some version of that, right? That’s vague. Are you talking about we can appeal to every style. That’s also kind of vague.

00;04;38;26 – 00;05;06;29
Rebecca Hay
So you want to get really, really specific and clear so that the people who need you can find you and immediately see that you’re the right fit. It’s kind of similar to this idea of niching down. I’m not going to dive into that so much today, and I’ve definitely done episodes about that. I just want to talk about your messaging because messaging is everything, and especially in a climate where there could be fear of the unknown, what’s happening with the economy, what’s happening in the political landscape?

00;05;07;02 – 00;05;29;24
Rebecca Hay
Like across the globe, there is a bit of hesitation to get really specific, because we want to make sure we’re covering all our bases and we can still generate revenue and people are still going to hire us. But I actually think the opposite is going to be what will help you is getting super clear and getting specific. I mentioned that your message is vague, potentially.

00;05;29;26 – 00;05;48;07
Rebecca Hay
Then I also mentioned clients who reach out maybe aren’t the right fit. What I mean by that is someone could be reaching out to you. I actually just spoke with a designer the other day and they said, you know, this person hired me for a paint consultation because I offer paint consultations. And that once when I was at her house, she was like, oh, well, let’s get you a quote on designing all these things.

00;05;48;07 – 00;06;20;21
Rebecca Hay
And they’re walking through the kitchen in the living room and they’re talking about moldings and, I don’t know, like wallpaper and decorating and like maybe a little bit of a renovation, but like small scale stuff. And so this designer was like, wow, this paint consultations really turning into a big project. And so she’s taking all the notes. And I chatted with her after she sent out her proposal for the paint consultation, and she used my pricing with confidence formula to price her project at a more fair rate than what she had done historically.

00;06;20;24 – 00;06;40;02
Rebecca Hay
And she’s like, the woman did not get back to me. This client just ghosted me. To which we don’t know what happens, right? We’ve talked about that on this podcast is what to do when a client goes to you. But it’s possible anything could have happened in their life. But I also ask that designer, I want you to reflect on your initial interaction.

00;06;40;05 – 00;07;07;22
Rebecca Hay
When they first came to you, they weren’t looking for full service design. They weren’t looking for designer. They were looking for what you offered, which was paint consultations. Not to say that a paint consultation can’t turn into the project of your dreams. It has happened as possible. But what’s happening is the message she’s putting out is for someone who is probably more budget savvy, who just wants a little bit of help, who can probably feels like they can do it themselves, but it’s not the right fit client.

00;07;07;25 – 00;07;28;20
Rebecca Hay
If what you actually want is to do the full gamut, your messaging is vague or is specific in the wrong area, and so the clients reaching out aren’t the right fit. And then we also have this tendency of sounding like everybody else. I’m guilty of that. In my early years, I would literally go to local designers websites to be like, oh, she looks like she’s killing it.

00;07;28;22 – 00;07;52;11
Rebecca Hay
And I would literally like plagiarize their verbiage when I would talk to people. Don’t worry, I didn’t like post this anywhere or make money of it. I would always like learn from them and then put it all differently on my own website. But I was basically like, okay, well, she said, we offer turnkey design. I’m like, I’m going to say that we offer whatever it was.

00;07;52;11 – 00;08;07;24
Rebecca Hay
I just copied what I saw out there as examples, and it wasn’t actually a reflection of me, but I was just trying to show up professionally and I kind of just sounded like everybody else. I recently had a conversation with someone who reached out to me, and they wanted to hire us for our services, and I said, I’m not taking on projects right now.

00;08;07;27 – 00;08;23;26
Rebecca Hay
This is my year sabbatical from design work, so I can focus on the podcast and I can focus on my courses and and he said, okay, well, can you recommend some designers? And I gave him a few names. He eventually got back to me and said, yeah, no one here is really standing out to me. Nothing about them seems different.

00;08;23;29 – 00;08;48;21
Rebecca Hay
They’ll kind of say the same thing. And these were like established designers. You need to get clarity on your message. Okay, so I want to move into part two. So now we understand why the general messaging is just not a great solution for someone looking to grow their business and attract better clients. So the second part is then understanding who is it that you want to serve?

00;08;48;21 – 00;09;11;14
Rebecca Hay
Who is your dream client? Really? And when I say this, I don’t just mean, oh, it’s a woman in her 30s and 40s and she likes neutrals and modern design. I mean, that’s pretty general and vague. Again, what I want to know and what I think will help you and serve you better in your business. From all the ideal client exercises I’ve done.

00;09;11;14 – 00;09;30;17
Rebecca Hay
And I teach this inside all of my programs, I think because it’s so foundational, I it teaches inside pricing with confidence. I teach this inside power of process. I teach this inside my mastermind. Like these are the foundation of your business, of any business, in any industry, whether it’s service or product based. You need to know who your client is.

00;09;30;19 – 00;09;51;05
Rebecca Hay
But when I ask this question and the way I’ve been teaching, it has shifted over the years. But what I’ve learned from my own experience is you need to understand more than demographics. What are they like? What do they value? Are they decisive? Do they want to feel taken care of? Do they value design but have no time to do it themselves?

00;09;51;08 – 00;10;14;28
Rebecca Hay
Did they grow up with like nice, expensive things? Do they desire to have nice expensive things? Do they want to show off? Do they? Are they ashamed of their space? What are those feelings and emotions that go with your client when they’re coming to hire you, or the person that you want to serve? And then if you’ve done this before and you have projects under your belt, I want you to think about your favorite project ever.

00;10;15;01 – 00;10;37;14
Rebecca Hay
Favorite project. What made that client such a joy to work with? And one of the exercises I’ve done, a few, private coaching over the past year or so, one on one with designers, and I always start off our six months together with one exercise, which is I have them review their projects from the previous year, and I have them put them into categories of good, better, best.

00;10;37;14 – 00;10;53;08
Rebecca Hay
And I encourage you to do this to yourself. If you haven’t done that, that’s good. Better, best. Even if you’ve only had a couple projects under your belt, you can look at those projects and maybe you want to look further back than a year. By all means. But when I asked them to put them in a good, better, best, I asked them to do it multiple times.

00;10;53;08 – 00;11;15;18
Rebecca Hay
Because sometimes you can have a great project that made a lot of money, but actually the client was pretty shitty. Or sometimes you could have a project that is like, oh, so creatively fulfilling. And it looked amazing. And you got featured in a magazine, but you made no money. So I asked them to go through this exercise for three different ways.

00;11;15;22 – 00;11;40;08
Rebecca Hay
Good, better. Best. The client. Good. Better. Best. Financially, which one brought in the most money for you, and then good better, best for creative fulfillment. Today I just want to focus on the client one, because if you were to categorize your projects by good, better, best and figure out which projects were the best clients to work with, I want you to really focus in on what were the attributes of that client that made them so great.

00;11;40;08 – 00;11;57;28
Rebecca Hay
Forget about if you made money off of that, forget about it. If it was really that creative, where they really trusting, did they get excited when you came to their house? Had they been struggling for years and just finally decided it was worth it to invest? Did they work with designers before it did? Like, what is it about that client?

00;11;58;00 – 00;12;15;07
Rebecca Hay
And when you get clear on this, your marketing is going to become a lot easier and a lot more effective. And this is exactly what I helped designers with inside my bootcamp. So I’m going to share more about the bootcamp to come. We just did it for the first time at the beginning of the year, and it was a huge success.

00;12;15;07 – 00;12;35;17
Rebecca Hay
And so we’re bringing it back and I’m going to share that in just a minute. But we do dive really deep into understanding this client, because it can sometimes feel overwhelming to make those decisions about who you want to serve. But that is a really, really important part of clarifying your messaging and making it a message or making your business stand out.

00;12;35;17 – 00;12;41;09
Rebecca Hay
So you’re speaking to the dream client instead of just speaking to everyone.

00;12;41;12 – 00;13;06;22
Rebecca Hay
Part three. We’re going to talk a little bit about the niching down. I mentioned it earlier, and though this whole podcast isn’t about that, I do think it’s worthy of a moment as a reminder that you can niche down without scaring people off. Let me say that again. For the people in the back Niching down does not mean limiting yourself.

00;13;06;24 – 00;13;46;23
Rebecca Hay
I’m going to explain why when you get niche or like really specific, serving one type of audience, one type of client or customer, it means getting crystal clear on who you are and who you serve so that you can have the most success. And from a marketing perspective, it means when you get crystal clear on that message because you know who your niches clients will actually find you a whole lot faster and easier when you can show up and confidently say, we serve busy professionals who want a high touch, stress free design experience and don’t want to be involved.

00;13;46;25 – 00;14;06;21
Rebecca Hay
For example, the right people are going to say, oh my God, that’s me. I don’t want to be involved. Oh, I thought I would have to go around to all these showrooms and I don’t have time for that. That’s the designer for me. And then also you’re going to deter the people who are not quite right. Right. And the people who see that and are like, oh, I was who I really want to be involved.

00;14;06;21 – 00;14;27;07
Rebecca Hay
I don’t know if that this designers for me, great. Let them keep scrolling. Let them not hit inquire on your website. Let them not waste your time. And there’s this fear that if you are turning people away or you’re deterring or repelling, let’s be honest, we’re kind of repelling those people. There is a fear that then where’s the work going to come from?

00;14;27;09 – 00;14;49;01
Rebecca Hay
Guys, I can tell you it’s there. There are people who want what you have to offer. They want you to help them in the way that you want to help them. You know, the beauty of really getting clear on who it is you’re serving. So what is your message and getting really niching down. And when I say niching down, I don’t mean you have to only serve retirees or empty nesters.

00;14;49;01 – 00;15;17;10
Rebecca Hay
I mean, if you want to. Awesome. That is a great niche. But there could be other characteristics that make your people niche. Maybe they are all lawyers. Maybe there are different age categories and different stages of life. But you love working with lawyers. Or maybe it’s young families, or maybe it’s divorces. Maybe it’s just professional couples looking to level up and move from their starter home to their dream home.

00;15;17;12 – 00;15;32;23
Rebecca Hay
There’s so many different ways that you can be niche without being too, too specific if that scares you. But I can tell you right now that when your message is super broad in general, it is vague and you are going to attract a little bit of everybody, but not the right ones. Part four is really how do you refine your messaging?

00;15;32;23 – 00;15;52;07
Rebecca Hay
Because that’s what needs to happen, right? It’s it’s one thing to know, okay, this is who I want to serve. But like how do I talk about it? Or how do I get the word out. That’s who I want so they can actually find me. And so this is where the rubber meets the road, as they say. I’m just going to give you a few tips here, because this is something we dive deeper into inside the bootcamp.

00;15;52;07 – 00;16;19;23
Rebecca Hay
But for today’s purposes, I want you to consider how do you show up in your Instagram bio or your website when it shows up in Google? So if somebody first comes and lands on you, does your Instagram bio or your website name who you help? Whether it’s the website on the Google search page or on your home page of your website, assuming you have a website, if you don’t, you’re working on building one out.

00;16;19;23 – 00;16;38;29
Rebecca Hay
These are things to consider. I want you to be super clear it’s right at the top. Who is it for? Who are you for? Who do you help? I know when we redid our website, we got really clear. Our clients are busy working professional professionals who trust us to, I don’t know, take the reins and manage the project on their behalf.

00;16;39;01 – 00;17;08;27
Rebecca Hay
Let’s immediately show people who you are as opposed to interior Design studio in Toronto, Canada, servicing all your design needs, want, want. And then I want you to consider are you using whether it’s on Instagram based book, website, your emails, your verbal communication. Right. Because it’s really wherever you’re showing up. Are you using generic industry language or are you really speaking to someone’s pain points?

00;17;09;02 – 00;17;35;23
Rebecca Hay
So let me give you an example. Generic industry language might be something like I love this one. Love. When designers do this, we handle specification and scheduling well, let’s be honest. What the hell are you talking about? Specification. I mean, that’s not so generic. It’s kind of specific. So that’s maybe a specific example. How about you speak to someone’s pain points right.

00;17;35;25 – 00;17;55;17
Rebecca Hay
We will select all of the items for your home and ensure everything gets delivered to site in a timely manner. Oh my gosh. You’re going to find everything for me and you’re going to get to my house. Oh, that would be amazing. I have no I don’t even know where to start. Or maybe their pain point is they don’t know where to shop, right.

00;17;55;17 – 00;18;23;23
Rebecca Hay
So you could say we work with trusted suppliers and we have an extensive list of, I don’t know, vendors and suppliers who we work with to furnish and decorate a home or what have you. Something like that generic example would be something like, we create contemporary and classic homes. You get the idea, right? Ultimately, I want you to ask yourself this question would my dream client feel seen by what I’m saying?

00;18;23;26 – 00;18;43;19
Rebecca Hay
Would they feel seen? Would they feel like, oh my God, she gets me? Oh my God, it’s like she’s in my head. That’s what we want. That’s what we want. Small tweaks make a huge difference. We had a guest speaker come into designer’s room a little while ago and oh my God, she audited a couple of the members websites and that recording is saved like it is inside designers room.

00;18;43;19 – 00;18;58;19
Rebecca Hay
So if you remember, if you join us, you’ll get to go back and you can watch that recording. And wow, was it a light bulb for me. I literally was watching her talk and go through someone else’s website and at the same time, I was looking at my website and I saw like 50 places that things I had to change.

00;18;58;19 – 00;19;20;08
Rebecca Hay
I took a million notes. I still haven’t made those changes, but I did see all those changes and I was like, Holy af. I had no idea. It’s little things. It’s tiny little tweaks, right? Like you could say something like, if you’re overwhelmed by design decisions, we’ve got you. Or we can help you create a home that reflects your personality, not just trends.

00;19;20;10 – 00;19;42;21
Rebecca Hay
Or we can blend you and your partner style. That’s another pain point, right? It’s like, I like contemporary. My husband likes traditional. Let’s say in my case it’s the opposite. But like, I can’t even imagine being able to design a home that we both love so they don’t even try. Those are little tweaks in your message that are going to make a huge difference, and they’re going to speak to the people that you want to serve, but you need to know who you want to serve.

00;19;42;23 – 00;20;02;28
Rebecca Hay
So make some time. Or if you don’t have time, make some time. And I want you to write down who is your dream client. Like for real? Like who would you like to serve? What type of personality, what are their pain points? And then take that description and audit your bio, your Instagram bio or your website header. Does it actually say who you help?

00;20;03;05 – 00;20;24;27
Rebecca Hay
Are you clear enough? And then if you’ve been nodding your head through this whole episode, this is your invitation to join me. Inside the Standout Designer Bootcamp is back. The first time we ran it ever was earlier this year was like January February, and the response was overwhelming and honestly, I knew I was onto something because people were making massive progress just in our two weeks together.

00;20;24;27 – 00;20;44;07
Rebecca Hay
So we decided to bring it back again. So for those who missed it or needed a second chance, or you’re just hearing about it for the first time, this isn’t just another training. It is your moment to finally say I am done attracting clients that are not the right fit. I’m ready to level up and I want to attract better clients.

00;20;44;13 – 00;21;01;19
Rebecca Hay
We’re going to deep dive on a lot of the topics I shared today, and then some. And I’m going to walk you through uncovering what it is like. What is it about you that can make you stand out as a designer and a business? How can you pre-qualify those clients? Like how do you know when they come to you if they’re the right fit?

00;21;01;19 – 00;21;20;12
Rebecca Hay
And how do you do that with confidence? And then I’m also sharing the exact steps that you can take to turn those new potential client, those inquiries, those new leads into a solid design project and how to do that sales, how to have that sales conversation. It’s going to kick off with our live welcome party on Wednesday, May 28th.

00;21;20;15 – 00;21;42;26
Rebecca Hay
And trust me, you’re going to want to be there from day one. The energy is amazing. The Facebook group is just on fire with everyone sharing the clarity you will gain is priceless and it’s only $47. So if you’re ready to attract those better clients, feel confident in your process and finally own your value. This could be your first step.

00;21;42;26 – 00;22;06;18
Rebecca Hay
So tap the link in the show notes, or you can head on over to rebecca.com/bootcamp to grab your spot. I can’t wait to see you there. You’ve got this. Oh, one more thing, if you liked this episode leave us a review and I’ll see you soon.