In this very special 300th episode of Resilient by Design, the tables are turned! Rebecca Hay steps out from behind the mic as Darla Powell—founder of Wingnut Social and host of the Designed by Wingnut Social podcast—takes over the interviewer’s seat.
Rebecca opens up about the biggest shifts in her interior design business, what inspired her to transition into coaching, and the lessons learned from recording 300 episodes. She shares behind-the-scenes stories, mistakes she’s made, and the mindset work that helped her move past fear and build a business that serves both her and her clients.
If you’re an interior designer looking for real talk on confidence, pricing, and scaling your business, this milestone episode is packed with insights and inspiration. Stay tuned until the end, where Rebecca flips the script back on Darla to talk about how AI and ChatGPT are changing marketing for designers.
THANK YOU for listening, and here’s to 300 more!
episode highlights
- Why Rebecca paused client design projects to focus on coaching and education
- The mindset shift that helped her grow a profitable business and podcast
- How consistency built confidence over 300 episodes
- The pitfalls of passing on discounts—and why it holds back profitability
- What’s next for Resilient by Design and Rebecca’s new business direction
- Darla Powell’s insights on SEO, ChatGPT, and getting found as a designer online
Episode Resources
- Episode 237: Transforming a side hustle into a full-time interior design business with Andrea Krill
- Episode 150: Instagram marketing and being yourself on social media with Darla Powell
- Episode 171: The biggest 2 year business transformation with Jocelyn Polce
- Episode 287: The Fastest 2-Month Design Business Transformation You’ll Ever Hear with Melissa McDonald
- Learn more about Darla Powell and Wingnut social at her website here!
Read the Full Transcript ⬇️
00;00;00;01 – 00;00;32;01
Rebecca Hay
You know, so often in life I have found myself quite insecure. Even though I know deep inside I have the ability to do something. I hold myself back because I’m afraid. That terror barrier. All right. I’m Rebecca Haigh, 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.
00;00;32;03 – 00;00;57;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.
00;00;57;09 – 00;01;21;24
Darla Powell
Hey hey hey, it’s not Rebecca, and you’re listening to the Resilient by Design podcast. You might be expecting Rebecca. Hey. Don’t worry. She’s here because I am interviewing her today. My name is Darla Powell, and I am the founder of Wingnut Social, the digital marketing agency for interior designers. And Rebecca has very generously asked me to interview her today for this milestone of the podcast.
00;01;21;24 – 00;01;27;00
Darla Powell
The 300th episode.
00;01;27;02 – 00;01;56;14
Rebecca Hay
Just popping in here to say who Darla is. I’m so honored for her to be my guest. Interviewer. Darla is the host of the designed by Wingnut Social podcast. She is also the owner of Wingnut Social, and that is a marketing agency for interior designers. I’ve had her on the podcast before. I’ve been on hers. I even got to be a guest host on her podcast, which actually is what gave me the idea to have her here today.
00;01;56;15 – 00;02;17;13
Rebecca Hay
This conversation is Darla interviewing me. We thought for the 300th episode, it would be fun to do things a little different and maybe just pull back the curtain a little bit more on me and my story for all of you, because you’ve been listening to me now for 300 episodes. So I tried to share some nuggets that you maybe haven’t heard before.
00;02;17;13 – 00;02;45;00
Rebecca Hay
There’s some stories I share about my life that might be new to you, and I also share what’s coming ahead. We dive deep into how the podcast came about. Spoiler alert I tried other podcast topics before this one, and then stay tuned to the very end, because I kind of couldn’t help myself. I ended up having to interview Darla a little bit because she started talking about ChatGPT, how it helps homeowners find designers, and you guys are going to want to stay to the end to listen to that, because it’s so good.
00;02;45;00 – 00;03;02;28
Rebecca Hay
But thank you for listening. For 300 episodes. We are here because of you. If there was no one listening, I probably wouldn’t be recording this. So thank you to you. I hope you enjoy this very unique 300th episode of Resilient By Design.
00;03;03;00 – 00;03;06;14
Darla Powell
What an exciting milestone. Rebecca, how the hell are you?
00;03;06;21 – 00;03;23;28
Rebecca Hay
Hi, Darla. Thank you. This is so weird being on the opposite side. I’m used to being the interviewer, and it’s surprising when you’re when you interview people all the time. And I know, you know, that’s that that’s more comfortable for me than being the guest. So I’m fantastic. I’m a little nervous. I’m excited to have you interview me.
00;03;24;04 – 00;03;31;02
Darla Powell
So let’s just start 300 episodes. My goodness, what a fantastic achievement. Congrats to you on that.
00;03;31;09 – 00;03;51;28
Rebecca Hay
Thank you. It’s funny. You know it feels like just another episode, but it also is a moment where I’ve had to kind of force myself to pause and reflect and and celebrate. You know, we don’t always celebrate all the wins. I know you’re at almost 500 episodes, so, like, I feel like it’s not that many, but it’s still a lot, and it’s exciting.
00;03;51;28 – 00;03;56;02
Rebecca Hay
I don’t know, I think it’s an opportunity for us to kind of reflect and say, hey, look what we’ve done.
00;03;56;04 – 00;04;17;15
Darla Powell
Yeah, I mean, I think we tend to downplay it, but most podcasters don’t reach 100, don’t reach 50. So that shows your tenacity, your commitment to your audience, the interior designers, and I’ve told you this before and behind the scenes, is that you are one of the best interviewers podcast hosts in this genre. Period. I’m here better than I am, for sure.
00;04;17;15 – 00;04;37;16
Darla Powell
I’ll say that ten times all day. You’re just brilliant. And what you do is so good. And I’m sure the audience is out there going, yep, that’s true. So today’s episode, we’re going to dig in a little bit behind your motivation, why you started the podcast, what it is you’re doing now, what it is you did, and just learn a little bit more about the genius behind the microphone.
00;04;37;16 – 00;04;38;00
Darla Powell
Are you game?
00;04;38;08 – 00;04;39;15
Rebecca Hay
I’m game. Let’s do it.
00;04;39;23 – 00;04;52;03
Darla Powell
All right. Very cool. So let’s start with the very obvious question. The podcast. Why did you do it? Because you’re you’re an interior designer. So why did you even start a podcast? Because it’s not a small thing.
00;04;52;06 – 00;05;15;11
Rebecca Hay
Well, first of all, I will say I didn’t know it wasn’t a small thing. Like any great like any great decision. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. I really had no idea what I was getting myself into, and sometimes I think those are the most successful endeavors because if you know all of the facts, I think it would have held me back from even doing it.
00;05;15;14 – 00;05;30;19
Rebecca Hay
So it’s interesting. I actually, I don’t even know why I wanted a podcast. I think I was listening to Gary Vee a lot, and it’s funny you say, you know, most people don’t make it to 100. I remember hearing him say, you know, somebody was like, oh, Gary, will you be on my podcast? And he’s like, get to 100 and then we’ll talk.
00;05;30;21 – 00;05;46;28
Rebecca Hay
And I remember thinking, oh, wow, 100. And like, now here I am at 300, which is amazing. But I remember hearing him talk about host the party, be the host of the party. And I love this idea of having a platform. I had a YouTube channel. I mean, I still do, but we were doing videos every week and it was pretty tiring.
00;05;46;28 – 00;05;53;15
Rebecca Hay
It was fun, but I wanted to find a way to connect. And so actually I attempted two other podcasts.
00;05;53;17 – 00;05;54;29
Darla Powell
First, really.
00;05;55;01 – 00;06;08;12
Rebecca Hay
Before I landed on Resilient by Design. The first one was intended to be with my husband, because here’s what I think listeners will appreciate. I was too nervous to do it on my own. I thought I needed a partner.
00;06;08;19 – 00;06;09;03
Darla Powell
Same.
00;06;09;06 – 00;06;26;25
Rebecca Hay
And I think you could relate to that too, right? Because you have once upon a time had a partner I did. It was me thinking I needed my husband to do the podcast together and we would record little bits. Remember he bought all the equipment because he’s super techie, so I had all the fancy equipment. He said he was going to edit it and we recorded a few members sitting in our bed.
00;06;26;27 – 00;06;46;13
Rebecca Hay
Well, using my iPhone voice memo, trying to record and then getting the mixer and having it on the bed because we were like, we need soft surfaces, where can we do this? It was the only place in our house and we recorded and we were pretty funny together. But the problem was coordinating it, getting him to show up because it was really my idea.
00;06;46;13 – 00;07;03;14
Rebecca Hay
I was the driver and I got frustrated. I’m like, this isn’t going to work. I can’t keep waiting on you to have time to do it. So then we didn’t actually launch the public. So when I say I had two podcasts, they never really made it to the airwaves. Okay. And then I had a second idea with my friend who worked corporate.
00;07;03;14 – 00;07;18;27
Rebecca Hay
She was working at LinkedIn. We’re like, let’s do one called Boardrooms and Barbies. Don’t even ask. The name is terrible. I don’t know why we thought it was a good idea because we were moms. We thought like the Barbies represented the moms. She was working corporate. I’m an entrepreneur and we were going to talk about the differences. I went to her house.
00;07;18;27 – 00;07;40;05
Rebecca Hay
We recorded like one episode, but the same thing was happening. Like I couldn’t get her to meet me. And finally I was just like, effort. I’m just going to do this on my own because then I have control. Yeah, we just did it. I had an assistant help me figure it out. And Resilient by Design was because I think that especially as women and really the podcast was intended for women.
00;07;40;05 – 00;07;55;01
Rebecca Hay
We are resilient by design. I don’t think we give ourselves enough credit for what we can do. Regardless of the setback. And so that was really where it was born. And it was always intended to help interior designers because those were the people in my world.
00;07;55;03 – 00;08;08;25
Darla Powell
I want to unpack that a little bit. So when you started out for podcasting, you didn’t realize how intimidating or how complicated it was going to be. And I can relate. If I had known ahead of time, I might not have done it. But you went ahead and did it anyway. And going into it knowing how difficult it was.
00;08;08;25 – 00;08;24;20
Darla Powell
And you had your crutch, right? You had your husband, you had your friend, and you defeated that paralysis by analysis. You’re like, screw it, I’m just going to go ahead and do it anyway. So, that takes a lot of courage to just get in there, get out of your comfort zone, do it by yourself without. Because I had the same thing.
00;08;24;20 – 00;08;50;04
Darla Powell
I had my ex. We were doing it, and it really was a crutch. I wanted someone to bounce off of because I was a little timid to go and to own that space and to do it myself. Now that you are in it, 300 episodes and you don’t have a co-host, you are doing it yourself. How do you feel about that now, in hindsight and being the Rebecca who maybe was a little insecure about doing it yourself and now full ownership, that transition, how is that empowered you?
00;08;50;08 – 00;09;16;26
Rebecca Hay
Yeah, it’s a great question. I’m sure, that you could relate to having now shifted to having it on your own, your own podcast. I would say it’s empowering, but I would say more than anything, it’s just a great reminder that we are enough. And this might sound like really deep and cheesy and emotional, but it’s true. You know, so often in life I have found myself quite insecure, even though I know deep inside I have the ability to do something.
00;09;16;28 – 00;09;36;05
Rebecca Hay
I hold myself back because I’m afraid that that terror barrier doing it on my own, I mean, I wasn’t on my own, let’s be honest. Like most successful people aren’t doing everything by themselves. I had an assistant from day one. I never edited it myself. That is not my superpower. Like tech is not me. Vera has been with me since day one.
00;09;36;05 – 00;09;53;26
Rebecca Hay
She’s still my podcast coordinator. She’s shifted. Her role within my company has changed over the years, but she still does the podcast with me. But being the host on my own, I think at the beginning I was nervous to show up. I was nervous because I’m putting myself out there. This is who I am. This is my personality.
00;09;53;26 – 00;10;11;05
Rebecca Hay
Sometimes I see things, say things on the podcast and I listen after I’m like, oh, cringe, why did I say that? But it does feel empowering, especially at 300 episodes. I look back and I think, shit, if I can do this, I could probably do anything like it’s it is empowering to get to a milestone and do I think I’ve made it?
00;10;11;05 – 00;10;28;12
Rebecca Hay
By no means. I’ve made it air quotes, but it hey, I’ve been consistent and I think that is the biggest takeaway. I was saying to my husband this morning on my way here, I was like, you know what? It is amazing what? And they say this, they out there in the universe say this, but consistency is so key.
00;10;28;15 – 00;10;45;01
Rebecca Hay
And this is one of the only areas of my business where I’ve been the most consistent. It is it makes me feel pretty awesome and pretty powerful and like, I don’t need people, I want the support, but I don’t need others in order to achieve my dreams.
00;10;45;04 – 00;11;05;23
Darla Powell
Yeah. Something I say at the end of my podcast. So I say get out there, get uncomfortable, and be great, because the only way you grow is to get outside of your comfort zone and to go into that area, that sphere of you’re a little bit afraid to do it and you’ve done that. So anyone out there that’s listening, that’s a little bit afraid to jump into something that really is the only way you grow and you say you haven’t really made it.
00;11;05;23 – 00;11;30;23
Darla Powell
I disagree, I think being a successful business owner and having 300 episodes on your podcast and a very loved podcast, that’s pretty decent, we’ve dug into how I want to dig into the why. Right. So you’re an interior designer, a successful interior designer. What was your motivation for starting the podcast? You’re why you’re raison de, whatever it is.
00;11;30;26 – 00;11;51;07
Rebecca Hay
For us on that or whatever. Yeah, yeah, that’s a really good question. It’s funny, I think back to I don’t know what year it was. It was probably 6 or 7 years ago and really starting to love business. So as I was building my design firm here in Toronto, I was, you know, experiencing all the challenges and really reaching out to to try and learn as much as I could.
00;11;51;07 – 00;12;11;16
Rebecca Hay
I listened to podcast. I was reading all the professional development, the business books, and I realized I was obsessed with business. And when I would get together with designer friends, that’s all I wanted to talk about. They wanted to talk about so-and-so’s project. Did you see so-and-so in a magazine and look at the fabric? And I was like, can we talk about profit margin?
00;12;11;21 – 00;12;29;07
Rebecca Hay
What are you guys doing? Like for your hiring process? Like what? All of the things that were interesting to me. And so the more I talked about it, the more I learned, and then the more I shared what I was doing. And as I started to share with my friends and designers in Toronto, I realized, oh, they really are interested in what I have to say.
00;12;29;07 – 00;12;49;07
Rebecca Hay
And it’s valuable. And they are learning from my experience, and they can take a lot away from that. And so I still remember this one time we had this little group of designers, little we’re still great friends. There’s like 5 or 6 of us. We’re in a boardroom at a shared workspace. We would meet once a month just to talk about business or design stuff or whatever, complain about clients.
00;12;49;07 – 00;13;08;10
Rebecca Hay
We’re sitting there and I’m saying, here’s what I do with my contract, and this is what I’ve done. Do you have a process like this? And I realize in that moment, oh, I really like teaching this. I really like helping other people. And then I immediately had this fear, this fear of who do I think I am? Are they going to think that?
00;13;08;10 – 00;13;30;14
Rebecca Hay
I think I’m all that, that now I can teach people how to run a design business? And that fear was like in my body, and I can still remember this moment sitting at the boardroom table timidly saying, I think I’m going to start a podcast and being so nervous. And these are my friends of course, they were extremely supportive, but I remember judging myself, thinking, who do I think I am?
00;13;30;14 – 00;13;46;29
Rebecca Hay
What is the design industry going to think of me like? This is such crazy stuff. And I look back on it, I laugh, but it felt so real in the moment. And so I was just like, I want to help designers. And before I launched the podcast, I started getting designers together in Toronto because I knew that designers need community.
00;13;47;02 – 00;14;05;05
Rebecca Hay
I had seen from my little group of five designers how powerful it was to share stories, swap ideas, complain about clients and trades and all of that. And so we would do meetups in Toronto. I did a few, and then it became more regular, and that’s when I realized, okay, I have a knack for sharing my experience and helping others.
00;14;05;05 – 00;14;11;13
Rebecca Hay
And the pandemic hit. It was like March 2020. I had just gotten back from a Disney cruise of all things.
00;14;11;15 – 00;14;12;26
Darla Powell
Oh my.
00;14;12;29 – 00;14;30;15
Rebecca Hay
Fortunately, we weren’t stuck on that ship. Oh my goodness. And there was no more meetups. I couldn’t organize the in-person meetups, and so a few designers reached out to me and said, hey, why don’t you do it on zoom? I was like, zoom! Like, I don’t know, I’ve never used zoom. Okay, let’s try this. So I was like, okay, I’m going to have a designer.
00;14;30;19 – 00;14;50;21
Rebecca Hay
I had like, I don’t know, 100 people on an email list. I had Instagram, I’m like, let’s go to zoom. And it’s just all these like, squares, right? All these little rectangles staring at me here. I’m thinking, we’re all going to chit chat like we do at an event. But everyone was just quiet, waiting for me to talk, and the first few zooms made me feel super uncomfortable sharing.
00;14;50;21 – 00;15;09;19
Rebecca Hay
So again, I’m like, who do I think I am? It’s one thing to have a natural conversation and share, but it’s another thing to sort of be on a podium. And that’s when I started to realize, okay, there’s value here. I want to start a podcast. And it was during that middle of the summer. It was July, I think, 2020 when we launched Resilient by Design.
00;15;09;22 – 00;15;15;08
Darla Powell
Yeah, that’ll do it. Covid. Covid changed the industry and zoom stock just shot way up.
00;15;15;09 – 00;15;17;17
Rebecca Hay
I know if I had only known I should have invested.
00;15;17;21 – 00;15;22;07
Darla Powell
Everybody sitting around like The Brady Bunch, but now it’s just everybody.
00;15;22;09 – 00;15;26;05
Rebecca Hay
Oh my god, the Brady Bunch. That is such a great comp I love that.
00;15;26;06 – 00;15;49;20
Darla Powell
Okay, so Rebecca, you’ve you’ve said before on your show and in interviews that you weren’t always buttoned up. So your systems and processes now you advise interior designers everything is locked in. But running your own interior design business, right. There had been some mistakes or some learning curves. You had to get you to this point to share your experiences, to keep other interior designers from doing the same.
00;15;49;22 – 00;16;10;08
Darla Powell
What was that journey like in your residential interior design business? To get you to the point to where I can help interior designers not make these same mistakes and provide them with the wealth and the information of knowledge to create their own successful interior design business. How did you but not.
00;16;10;10 – 00;16;15;13
Rebecca Hay
Haha, okay, that’s a that’s a loaded question. I mean, I made a lot of fucking mistakes.
00;16;15;13 – 00;16;16;26
Darla Powell
Sure we all have. Yeah.
00;16;16;29 – 00;16;39;01
Rebecca Hay
We all make mistakes. I just felt like I made more than everybody else. I think I just kind of go in headfirst sometimes, like the podcast, without really knowing what I’m getting into. I’ve always been someone I’m much better now who takes things very personally. So I know if there’s anyone listening who can relate, but I’ve always been the type of person who I wear my heart on my sleeve, literally.
00;16;39;01 – 00;16;42;13
Rebecca Hay
Oh my God, I’m wearing a heart of my sweater today. That’s hilarious.
00;16;42;17 – 00;16;47;12
Darla Powell
Going into the YouTube channel and you can actually see your cute little yes.
00;16;47;14 – 00;17;12;11
Rebecca Hay
If anyone’s listening, they might relate to this feeling of, first of all, extremely insecure, feeling like I don’t even know if I’m good at what I do. I’m trying painfully to help clients at all costs, you know, constantly being told by my husband, like, why is this upsetting you? Like it’s just business or, you know, don’t respond to her text message like a client at 11:00 at night while you’re breastfeeding.
00;17;12;11 – 00;17;45;26
Rebecca Hay
Like, I really was just putting it all out there, and I feel like I got hurt a lot emotionally. I let it happen to myself. And so as I started to develop ways to protect myself and to protect my sensitive emotions, it started to work. What I think brings designers to me in my world is that I’ve not always had it buttoned up like I’ve started right from the bottom, trying to clamber my way, trying to figure out with clients who had no money, no business even hiring a designer.
00;17;45;28 – 00;18;07;18
Rebecca Hay
Try. And how do I get higher level? How do I keep going? And it really was a way of wanting to protect myself so that I could show up more of a business owner and less of this human being constantly trying to serve and feeling like I was always letting people down. And I don’t know if you’ve ever been there, but it’s everyone’s personality is different.
00;18;07;18 – 00;18;30;20
Rebecca Hay
I know that not everyone is like me, but as a result, I really worked hard so that I wasn’t crying at night so that I didn’t get a pit in my stomach so that I didn’t feel disappointed or letdown, or worry about what the clients thought, or if they were going to like it. Like, I really spend a lot of time fine tuning tactics to help me, and those are the tactics that I now that I teach designers.
00;18;30;20 – 00;18;44;20
Rebecca Hay
And I think back to your original question, I think that’s what designers are drawn to, because I didn’t just come out of the gate. I’m not one of those ballsy like, I have friends in Toronto who are ballsy designers. They come in and they tell their client, this is how you should do it. This is what it cost.
00;18;44;20 – 00;18;57;00
Rebecca Hay
And they’ve just always been that way. That is not me. I was not that way. So I think my journey and my transformation is what really does resonate with designers, especially designers who are early in their business journey.
00;18;57;02 – 00;19;17;29
Darla Powell
I think that really that really lends to your credibility as an as a coach in this industry, right, where you have seen interior designers who haven’t even been in business for years, who said, you know what, let me start coaching was like, what? How can you possibly coach? Right. We want to hire those people who have been in the industry, who have made the mistakes of learn how to correct the mistakes.
00;19;17;29 – 00;19;36;22
Darla Powell
And so when we’re hiring a coach in the industry, we’re not going to make those same mistakes. Someone with experience and someone with the transparency that you have to say, yeah, I fucked up. I’ve messed up, I’ve made mistakes. And here’s what you don’t need to do, right? And here’s what you do need to do. I definitely appreciate you sharing that with us.
00;19;36;22 – 00;19;48;25
Darla Powell
So let’s talk a little bit about Rebecca. Hey, as a person, what is something that you’d like to share with the audience that maybe they don’t know about you? Some delicious insight. Whoa.
00;19;48;25 – 00;20;11;02
Rebecca Hay
I didn’t see this question coming. Oh my goodness. I feel like I’m such an open book. I can’t even imagine that there would be any detail that people don’t know about me. I think, like I’m a small town girl at heart, I realized, and I’m a nature lover. I’ve realized. And as much as I live in the city and that’s where I currently am, I do crave a much slower pace.
00;20;11;02 – 00;20;34;15
Rebecca Hay
I crave like sun and trees and a house that has windows on all four sides. Not these tiny little Toronto, you know, like brownstones. I just, I do. I crave a slower pace. I do crave like I want to do retreats for designers and like, you know, show up and be in the outdoors and do fun activities. Like, I feel like that’s where my intuition is leading me.
00;20;34;20 – 00;20;55;27
Rebecca Hay
I also love to travel. So what’s something that people may not know about me is that I can speak fluent Spanish. I lived in Spain for two years in my 20s, trying to figure out my life after university, and I actually fell in love with a Spaniard. His name is Danielle. Danielle and I dated for at least a year.
00;20;55;27 – 00;21;14;20
Rebecca Hay
I was living in a tiny little town in south of Spain. That’s where I really. I took Spanish all through high school and university. I took every course I could get my hands on but hadn’t been practicing. So living there in this tiny little town in the middle of nowhere, Leonardo. So if anybody knows Andalucia, I taught ESL, so I always love to teach.
00;21;14;20 – 00;21;25;26
Rebecca Hay
That was I almost went to teachers college. So there’s that teacher is in me. Yeah, actually, when I was in grade three, I started my own school in the basement of my house. It was called Gold Gate Crescent School.
00;21;25;28 – 00;21;27;02
Darla Powell
It’s all coming together.
00;21;27;02 – 00;21;43;23
Rebecca Hay
And there were like two little kids that came and like we did the basement. I would give them worksheets and exercises and like, I just wanted to be a teacher so bad. So it does come full circle at that. Yeah, yeah. So I lived in Spain and then I actually sponsored him to immigrate to Canada as my common law partner and lived in Vancouver.
00;21;43;23 – 00;21;56;14
Rebecca Hay
And then I know I’ve had a whole life and then we split. But the biggest takeaway from that is that I came out of it with incredible experience, but also speaking fluent Spanish. So I don’t know, maybe there’s a retreat in Spain in the future.
00;21;56;21 – 00;21;57;19
Darla Powell
Elsewhere.
00;21;57;23 – 00;22;01;25
Rebecca Hay
As if we’re not living in Canada today.
00;22;01;27 – 00;22;14;23
Darla Powell
Oh, okay. Well, there you go. Yeah. I never would have guessed any of these things about you. Okay, there you go. There’s something that’s a terrific share. Okay, let me ask you something. What’s one piece of business advice that sounds smart, but you don’t agree with and why?
00;22;14;28 – 00;22;26;27
Rebecca Hay
One of the pieces of business advice that I do hear coaches give designers is to pass on their discounts to clients. What? There are people in this world today who do still preach that. I know it’s shocking.
00;22;27;04 – 00;22;27;20
Darla Powell
That it’s shock.
00;22;27;22 – 00;22;47;11
Rebecca Hay
Because they’re reasoning, and I did buy into this at one point is that, well, that helps to justify your design fee so you can charge more in design fees. And then you don’t have to worry because you’re completely transparent. And I’ve also heard the argument that if you do that makes you more competitive. That’s what a lot of designers do.
00;22;47;11 – 00;23;03;09
Rebecca Hay
Clients are looking for that. I mean, if you’ve been listening to my podcast for a hot minute, you know I completely do not subscribe to that. I do not believe you should pass on discounts. I do not believe it should be expected of you. That was where I started to make the money. When I hit my first million dollars a year.
00;23;03;09 – 00;23;16;29
Rebecca Hay
It was because that was the first year I stopped sharing my discounts and I was sharing them 5050. I was like, I thought that was someone had told me to do that. And I thought, okay, this is great. I feel more comfortable. They get a bit of the discount. Then I don’t feel bad charging more for my design fee.
00;23;17;04 – 00;23;34;06
Rebecca Hay
But I had an operations manager, Marianne. She was close to retirement. She literally retired after working for me and she said to me, Rebecca, what are you doing? You’re not going to be profitable. You can’t be profitable this way. Like no one’s even asking for these discounts. You need to stop sharing them. And we did. And that was the first year that we hit $1 million in revenue.
00;23;34;11 – 00;23;53;03
Rebecca Hay
Now, it wasn’t just because of that was some great projects, but that was the lump sum of money that we made that helped me keep my company alive during the pandemic. Yeah. During that first shutdown, which in Toronto was very long, like Canada, we were like super conservative. And the government shut everything down for months and months and months and really hurt our economy.
00;23;53;05 – 00;24;02;12
Rebecca Hay
So I would say that’s a piece of advice, but I don’t believe it. The people are still teaching it, but I see it and they are. So do not do that.
00;24;02;14 – 00;24;23;16
Darla Powell
And I saw that as you’re going back in time before you started doing this, that little uncertainty and that little discomfort of going into that zone, because you said I didn’t feel bad about charging for your design fees. Yeah. But going forward and doing that, which is something that we teach, right, is charging your worth and raising your rates and all of those things that are very scary.
00;24;23;18 – 00;24;52;20
Darla Powell
But once you step into it and you see it working, just it it’s exponential. It changes every thing. And now, of course, you have that experience to speak to, to relay that to your clients, to your to your students as you coach. So I love I love hearing that. What would you say? Just a little bit of a takeaway and business advice to those designers who are hearing you say this and are like, yeah, but how can I justify making profit on the furniture and charging my design fee?
00;24;52;20 – 00;24;57;01
Darla Powell
That just seems like I think they’re getting angina from that.
00;24;57;03 – 00;25;17;29
Rebecca Hay
It’s so funny. I interviewed them. One of my power of process students who came to interior design later in life. She was previously working, I think she was on Wall Street. She was in a financial role, and she started her design business and she took power of process, and I interviewed her on the podcast and I’ll, we’ll have to find the link and share it in the show notes.
00;25;18;02 – 00;25;50;08
Rebecca Hay
And she said to me, she’s like, this is so bizarre to me. Coming from the financial world, to see that designers are giving away the margin that is meant for them nowhere else, in no other industry does this happen. If you go to Starbucks, you’re not asking for them to give you the coffee beans at cost. If you go to, I don’t know, a clothing store, you’re not expecting them to tell you how much they’ve marked up the jeans and then give you half of that back.
00;25;50;10 – 00;26;08;01
Rebecca Hay
Like there’s no that I know of any industry in the world that operates this way. And here’s what I say to designers. And the thing is, like, back to what we said before. Like the terror barrier, it’s frickin scary. Like the first time I was like, okay, I’m not going to share my discounts. Like, hold my breath. It works.
00;26;08;01 – 00;26;33;29
Rebecca Hay
But the next time the client push back. And so it’s uncomfortable. It’s so freaking uncomfortable. Have those conversations. But you need to have those first few conversations. And the more you practice it, the easier it gets. And the reality is to run a successful business. There are multiple streams of revenue within your business. And when I say that, I don’t mean well now you should offer online courses and now you should do e design.
00;26;33;29 – 00;26;55;23
Rebecca Hay
I don’t necessarily mean that. I mean within serving a client, there’s money you get for your service that you offer, and then there’s money from the goods that you resell as a company. If you have a registered business, typically you get a resellers license or resellers license, which means you can legally resell those goods to clients. That is just part of your business model.
00;26;55;26 – 00;27;16;05
Rebecca Hay
What I would say to those designers is, first, you need to see why you need to keep it, because if you don’t understand it, it’s going to be hard to do it. You need to really understand why, and then you need to just write down a few sentences like, what would you say if a client pushes back? Like have it like a script at the ready so that when you’re in a phone call, you know what to say so that you feel more comfortable.
00;27;16;05 – 00;27;35;13
Rebecca Hay
I think scripts are so powerful for that, especially if you’re someone like me who feels more insecure, a little bit nervous, and like you can’t find the words. And sometimes when you when you have it in front of you, you say it in a much more powerful, professional way than you would on your own. If you’re like me.
00;27;35;15 – 00;27;52;05
Darla Powell
So you mentioned your power of process. So that is, a course that you offer to train interior designers to become successful and to run their business profitably, hopefully not to share their discounts. What are some of the or the biggest success story that stands out to you from the years that you’ve been doing that?
00;27;52;07 – 00;28;08;08
Rebecca Hay
Oh my God, there are so many. Like one of my early years stories is Jocelyn. Jocelyn polls in Connecticut. She’s one of my OGs. I like to call her. She took Power of Price. I think she was maybe just a couple of years into running her business, and really wasn’t until she took the course she realized how much she was treating it like a hobby.
00;28;08;12 – 00;28;26;04
Rebecca Hay
Within six months, she had moved her office out of her home. And this is a mom with like five boys, five children at the time, I think they were under the age of ten or something. Crazy, even younger. Moved into her own office space, started charging completely differently, like tens of thousands of dollars, stopped passing on any discounts.
00;28;26;11 – 00;28;49;03
Rebecca Hay
And she shared with us. I think she shared in the podcast that after taking the course, she realized how much she needed to stop sharing her discounts. She looked back. I don’t know who would do this. This is like, why would you do this yourself? But she looked back at her previous year in business and she calculated how much money she had given away by letting her clients have the discount.
00;28;49;06 – 00;28;56;11
Rebecca Hay
So she calculated how much money would she have had in her pocket if she hadn’t shared her discount? And you know what it was? It was $30,000.
00;28;56;14 – 00;28;57;02
Darla Powell
Yeah.
00;28;57;05 – 00;29;01;23
Rebecca Hay
When you’re starting out, that’s a lot of effing money. That’s still a lot of money. Yeah.
00;29;01;25 – 00;29;02;11
Darla Powell
I’ll take it.
00;29;02;17 – 00;29;25;21
Rebecca Hay
What could you do, pay yourself more? You could have. She could have hired an assistant so that for her was a real wake up call. So she’s one of my shining stars in the OGs. And then in the most recent launch, I mean, we had two designers. I had them on the podcast talk about how before the course was over, they had already tripled their design fee and locked in a new project, tripled because they were vastly under charging.
00;29;25;26 – 00;29;30;15
Darla Powell
You know, when I started as an interior designer, I charge like 75 bucks an hour. So I get it, I can relate.
00;29;30;15 – 00;29;51;12
Rebecca Hay
Yeah, exactly. It’s easy to triple when you’re charging so little. But she charged. I think it was Mel of Mel Mack Design. She charged for a kitchen. I think it was like December before she took pop up in February. In December she had I don’t remember the dollar value, but whatever the fee was for a kitchen. Yeah, no, sorry for a whole house for an entire main floor.
00;29;51;12 – 00;30;14;10
Rebecca Hay
There was a fee, let’s call it $10,000. I’m not sure that what the number was I making that up? She took part in February. In March, she landed a new potential client that just wanted to do the kitchen, and she charged $10,000. Nice. Same fee that she had charged for an entire main floor. Now, I don’t know if it was 10,000, I can’t remember, but the idea was whatever that fee was that she previously charged for a whole home.
00;30;14;12 – 00;30;33;26
Rebecca Hay
She was just charging for a kitchen. She really she really did. And it’s really honestly, what I think it all comes from is confidence. Yeah. Is seeing how other people do it, being given some tools that you can use and then taking that leap of faith and stepping through that discomfort, just putting it out there, like, look at that.
00;30;33;26 – 00;30;34;19
Rebecca Hay
That’s amazing.
00;30;34;25 – 00;30;37;23
Darla Powell
That is incredible. And I love that you call it pop.
00;30;37;25 – 00;30;50;05
Rebecca Hay
I know I have to like some people, I get confused I don’t know, I just sort it. I kept calling it pop and then my students would call it pop and there was this weird disconnect. So I’m like, well, I guess if that’s what they’re calling it, that’s what I’ll call it too.
00;30;50;06 – 00;31;06;13
Darla Powell
You know, I love it. Okay, so 300 episode we’ve already discussed. That’s a milestone. My hat’s off to you. Really. Where do you see this podcast and pop your power process and the whole Rebecca Empire moving forward from here? What’s next?
00;31;06;16 – 00;31;28;12
Rebecca Hay
So it’s a good question. I am making some big changes. Actually, I really haven’t even talked about this, you and I offline. So this has been my first year without a design project. So with intentionality, I finished my last project in December 2024, and I said, I’m not taking on a new project next year. I want to give this online coaching a shot.
00;31;28;14 – 00;31;47;10
Rebecca Hay
And if I could keep working in design projects, it’s one of me and I can’t be 100% in both places. It was like having one foot on either side of the door. My team was feeling it. My design team was feeling frustrated because I was not present to them. I was clearly more passionate about coaching and so I had the systems in place.
00;31;47;10 – 00;32;01;04
Rebecca Hay
But when they needed me for something, I was like I was never available. I was like, just on Wednesdays. Like it got to be the point where I was like, never available. And then the same thing, the things I wanted to do in the coaching business. I didn’t have the energy or the time for it. And so I decided, you know what?
00;32;01;06 – 00;32;18;16
Rebecca Hay
This is really scary because this has been my identity for 15 years. For 15 years I’ve been known as Rebecca, the interior designer in Toronto. And I’m like, I’m going to take a pause. It’s just I’m calling it a sabbatical. We’ll see if I do more projects, I don’t know. So any inquiries that have come to me this year, I have redirected them.
00;32;18;16 – 00;32;44;15
Rebecca Hay
I’ve referred them out to other designers, some from the designers that are my students in my courses, some from local friends here, depending on the project. And so what’s happened as a result is it’s given me the time and space to breathe and really see this as a business. It’s so funny. I feel like, darling, like I’m almost taking my own advice, like the advice I give designers where I say, if you want your business to grow, you need to stop treating it like a hobby.
00;32;44;18 – 00;32;45;11
Darla Powell
Yeah.
00;32;45;13 – 00;32;52;06
Rebecca Hay
And it’s like, oh, right. If I want my online coaching business to grow, I need to stop treating it like a hobby.
00;32;52;09 – 00;32;52;25
Darla Powell
Yeah.
00;32;52;28 – 00;33;10;13
Rebecca Hay
That’s what I realized. And so I’ve spent a lot of time deep diving and, you know, a lot of mindset work, a lot of reflection to figure out where do I see this going at the time of this episode coming out? We’re not ready to spill all the beans, but I will say.
00;33;10;16 – 00;33;11;07
Darla Powell
Beans.
00;33;11;08 – 00;33;23;20
Rebecca Hay
It’s coming so soon. We are in development of a brand new website with a brand new name. I am still the face of it all. Okay, but it’s not the Rebecca show. I realized.
00;33;23;22 – 00;33;28;10
Darla Powell
I smart. This is so smart, I love this, I love this for us and.
00;33;28;10 – 00;33;32;07
Rebecca Hay
I have wanted to do this for two years and I have been too scared.
00;33;32;09 – 00;33;47;25
Darla Powell
I love this so I want to say that I had a very similar experience and it’s not the Darla Powell show, but I did the same thing. I was an interior designer, and then I had Wingnut Social at the same time and a divorce with that aforementioned podcast host that I worked with made me choose. I couldn’t be both places at once.
00;33;47;25 – 00;34;01;08
Darla Powell
I had I knew I couldn’t do 100% of both businesses. So my identity as an interior designer, there was some morning there, I drop that and just focused 100% on that social. And that made a huge difference in being that social. So I love this for you. I do.
00;34;01;11 – 00;34;18;06
Rebecca Hay
Thank you. You know, it’s so interesting when I think back to 2020, when I launched the podcast, I felt like I was at a crossroads. I know many of us did right because everything was shifting and there’s so many when so many designers listening here today who that’s when they decided to go into interior design, right. Like there was a lot happening.
00;34;18;09 – 00;34;39;26
Rebecca Hay
Okay. We’re going to tell you the truth. I had $300,000 in my savings account for the business. Yeah, which is, like, insanely amazing. I remember I had this thought, I don’t know what month it was, but it was 20, 20. And I was like, you know, I could just let everyone go. I have like 1 or 2 projects that were wrapping up and I could just, like, go all in on this online business.
00;34;39;26 – 00;34;58;12
Rebecca Hay
I launched a course already. I was really liking it. I felt like, you know, you just feel there’s like a something in your body, like some instinctual something. But I, I didn’t trust it because I thought to myself, with $300,000, like I could afford to live for a year if I didn’t have to pay for any expenses a year.
00;34;58;12 – 00;34;59;17
Darla Powell
How are you living.
00;34;59;19 – 00;35;02;17
Rebecca Hay
Or invest in the business or whatever? Right?
00;35;02;20 – 00;35;04;05
Darla Powell
Okay. Yeah.
00;35;04;07 – 00;35;21;25
Rebecca Hay
Yeah, no I don’t yeah, that was not my salary by any means. But I remember thinking to myself, okay, once I pay off all the things and I didn’t do it because I was too afraid, my identity was so tied to what I was doing. I was so scared. I didn’t trust that I could do it. I needed more proof.
00;35;21;25 – 00;35;37;15
Rebecca Hay
And I share this only because I think this is a good lesson. Yeah, sometimes we do have a pull to something and it’s okay to not be ready yet and not be hard on yourself. I know for a while I was hard on myself like, oh, why didn’t I do it back then? And financially I’d be so much better off like I wasn’t.
00;35;37;17 – 00;36;00;03
Rebecca Hay
It just wasn’t my time. So the universe planted this idea in me and I needed some time to, like, ruminate, mull it over, figure it out, you know, test the waters. And so now, here we are, five years later, ready to finally freaking do it. But I’m excited. I’m excited to serve designers, specifically the design industry, not just designers like decorators, architects.
00;36;00;03 – 00;36;26;05
Rebecca Hay
We’ve got landscape designers who take our courses, but on a bigger level to be the connector that I love, which is like bringing people together, bringing you Darla, bringing people who need your services. Like, I want to be more of a connector. And so that’s what this new iteration is going to look like. I’m very, very excited. We have some new offers coming out as well, or a higher level for designers who are a little bit more experienced, who maybe taken my course or already have a process, but they want more business support.
00;36;26;07 – 00;36;36;18
Rebecca Hay
So that is all coming in September October. There’s a big, exciting shift happening. So that didn’t fully answer your question, but there’s some exciting things to come.
00;36;36;20 – 00;36;54;13
Darla Powell
I love it and I love that you gave. You’ve given yourself some grace, right? You’re not like, oh, why didn’t I do that five years ago? You’ve trusted that the timing is here and now for a reason. You’ve let that bake and now you’re going full bore and into this new chapter. I think this is great. And I know you and I have discussed.
00;36;54;13 – 00;37;14;00
Darla Powell
I mean, I’ve been on your podcast a couple times and vice versa. We’ve discussed kind of growing into that more experienced designer target audience. You know, the people that need your help at this stage of your growth, at the stage of their growth. And I, I have such good feelings about this. Thank you. I think you’re fabulous. This is going to be fabulous.
00;37;14;03 – 00;37;30;25
Darla Powell
If you guys are on the fence about getting a mentor, getting a coach, getting some help with your design business, I’m here to tell you. I mean, I have had a podcast since 2018. I have interviewed hundreds of guests and Rebecca has the real deal. I would recommend you in a heartbeat. You cannot go, oh.
00;37;30;25 – 00;37;32;08
Rebecca Hay
You’re so sweet. Thank you.
00;37;32;10 – 00;37;38;12
Darla Powell
I mean it, and I don’t say things I don’t mean. I’m a Taurus. I think, you know.
00;37;38;15 – 00;37;48;27
Rebecca Hay
I blossom well. The feeling is mutual. Obviously. I invited you here to interview me because I think you’re awesome. So I’m excited that everyone gets to hear us chit chatting.
00;37;48;27 – 00;37;58;07
Darla Powell
And mutual admiration club. Yeah, exactly. All right. So I think that we have we have covered a lot here. Now I have to ask you, are you ready for your rapid fire round?
00;37;58;10 – 00;38;04;07
Rebecca Hay
All right, bring it on. I did not prepare. Do people prepare? Are usually excited not prepare to clearly do this.
00;38;04;08 – 00;38;09;14
Darla Powell
This makes it a lot more fun. What’s a design trend that you secretly love?
00;38;09;16 – 00;38;24;19
Rebecca Hay
Oh, that I secretly love secretly design trend that I secretly love is pattern on. Pattern on the home pattern. Like the matching Roman with the wallpaper and the bedspread. I don’t know that I would ever do it, but I secretly love it.
00;38;24;23 – 00;38;28;22
Darla Powell
That’s a very good answer. What’s a design that you wish would disappear?
00;38;28;24 – 00;38;38;09
Rebecca Hay
Gray? I still see it everywhere. Fucking gray. I’m over it. No more gray. Paint the exteriors of the houses. Gray. Stop! It’s done. Go! Move on. No more gray.
00;38;38;11 – 00;38;46;22
Darla Powell
My wife and I are currently house shopping in every every house on Zillow that has been prepared for sale. We look and it’s gray walls. Gray. Great.
00;38;46;22 – 00;38;48;23
Rebecca Hay
It’s still it’s like, come on guys, I have.
00;38;48;23 – 00;38;53;15
Darla Powell
To repaint the whole thing. Cocktails or wine? Oh.
00;38;53;17 – 00;39;00;08
Rebecca Hay
There was a time when I would say wine, but now it gives me a headache and I can’t tolerate it as much, so I’d say cocktails.
00;39;00;10 – 00;39;01;08
Darla Powell
What’s your favorite cocktail?
00;39;01;15 – 00;39;03;03
Rebecca Hay
Gin and tonic. Pretty basic.
00;39;03;03 – 00;39;13;07
Darla Powell
Very sophisticated. I love that mine is an old fashioned, but I get a headache from them now. So I share your back. Yeah. What is your dream? Travel destination? Not Spain.
00;39;13;11 – 00;39;24;27
Rebecca Hay
Anywhere in Europe. I would love to go to Tuscany. I’ve never been to Italy. Even though I lived in Spain. I was right next door. I’d love to go to Tuscany. I would just love to spend time in Europe.
00;39;24;29 – 00;39;32;29
Darla Powell
Yeah, I you know, I’ve never been to Europe. Shows you what a what a Rube I am. Yeah, I haven’t I have never, but I’m just a I’m just a yokel. Yeah.
00;39;32;29 – 00;39;35;16
Rebecca Hay
What’s your dream travel destination? Europe.
00;39;35;19 – 00;39;43;01
Darla Powell
All of it. I’d like to do a river cruise. One of those river cruises. Yeah, but my wife’s like, no, it’s too dangerous.
00;39;43;04 – 00;39;48;28
Rebecca Hay
Oh, my. Oh, no. Oh my God. Seriously, the world is all. It’s dangerous in different ways, but it’s everywhere.
00;39;48;28 – 00;39;53;21
Darla Powell
Exactly. You got to live your life. What is the most used app on your phone?
00;39;53;23 – 00;40;11;12
Rebecca Hay
Oh, it probably is Instagram, but actually it’s probably not. It’s probably slack. We use slack for our team communication. You know, it’s so funny. Sidebar I tried to use slack. I had this, little small group mastermind in January with designers. It was just an in-person day. And then I was like, you know what I’m going to add on a few months of support.
00;40;11;12 – 00;40;32;18
Rebecca Hay
So I like to sort of add on extra value, and we’ll give you a few extra zoom calls just so we can keep in communication. Use the slack channel. Nobody use the slack channel really. And I realized I feel like I couldn’t live without slack. And this is something I feel like I need to educate designers on, because it is so helpful to stay organized as a team, not using email and not using text.
00;40;32;18 – 00;40;34;23
Darla Powell
We use Google Chat for wingnut.
00;40;34;25 – 00;40;36;13
Rebecca Hay
Oh, I’ve never used that.
00;40;36;13 – 00;40;39;14
Darla Powell
Oh, I mean, it’s just because we have the G suite novels, or.
00;40;39;19 – 00;40;40;09
Rebecca Hay
So do I.
00;40;40;10 – 00;40;50;23
Darla Powell
I didn’t know them or not. I don’t know if it’s got all the bells and whistles, but yeah, we use I love slack every day. We use G suite, the Google Chat in asana for our project manager. Yeah, we.
00;40;50;23 – 00;40;55;02
Rebecca Hay
Use asana too. I was debating when I left my phone. When I open Morris on our slack, but probably slack.
00;40;55;05 – 00;41;03;25
Darla Powell
Yeah, I open Instagram the most. And last but not least, can you leave us with a nugget of wisdom? The tables were turned here. Oh.
00;41;03;28 – 00;41;10;15
Rebecca Hay
This is what I always ask a nugget of wisdom. It’s never too late to go after the thing you want.
00;41;10;17 – 00;41;10;29
Darla Powell
That is.
00;41;10;29 – 00;41;18;23
Rebecca Hay
Perfect. Whatever it may be, it’s never too late. Whether it’s age or not. Not even to do with age. Just do it. What are you waiting for?
00;41;18;25 – 00;41;34;24
Darla Powell
Yeah, you know what? Because if you’re. Let’s say I’m 57 now, and I’m, like, afraid to do the thing when I’m 65. You know, in retrospect, I’ll say, oh, I wish I had done the thing because when you’re 65, in your head you’re still 16 or whatever, right? So it doesn’t really matter. Just just do it. Rebecca. Hey.
00;41;34;25 – 00;41;43;01
Darla Powell
Thank you so much for inviting me to interview on the Resilient by Design podcast. This has been a real treat and I appreciate you. Congrats again.
00;41;43;04 – 00;41;49;14
Rebecca Hay
Thank you to you. This has been amazing. It feels weird. That was nerve wracking being on the other side. I’m not gonna.
00;41;49;14 – 00;41;50;08
Darla Powell
Lie.
00;41;50;10 – 00;41;59;18
Rebecca Hay
Thank you for being my guest host today. And I’m just going to flip it back because I can’t help myself. Can you let everyone know who’s listening here today where they can find and follow you?
00;41;59;25 – 00;42;16;06
Darla Powell
Oh, I as I said, I’m Darla Powell and I am the founder of Wingnut Social. Wingnut social.com. We have our own podcast. We are currently on the summer break right now, but we’re also a digital marketing agency for interior designers and SEO social media. Get found on ChatGPT. All the good things to help you grow your business. Thank you for asking.
00;42;16;10 – 00;42;18;16
Rebecca Hay
How does someone find you on ChatGPT?
00;42;18;18 – 00;42;55;08
Darla Powell
So getting found or referred by ChatGPT is kind of a complicated extension of search engine optimization practices. It it’s an adjunct to search engine optimization. So the way ChatGPT it’s an LLM finds people is your internet presence, the copy on your website, referrals from other websites, your social media presence, your accounts, your followers, your value propositions. If you’ve been in business of home articles, actually contributed to a Business of Home article about the same subject, it really is an extension.
00;42;55;08 – 00;43;05;28
Darla Powell
If you have. If you don’t have search engine optimization for your website, you should anyway. But that whole game is changing when you go to Google it. Now I’m sure you’re seeing the that I overview.
00;43;05;28 – 00;43;07;19
Rebecca Hay
Yeah yeah yeah I see that.
00;43;07;22 – 00;43;31;27
Darla Powell
So traditional search engine optimization is suffering a little bit because of the AI overview. So the whole strategy behind doing search engine optimization has to be cohesive to include that element. ChatGPT isn’t as big as a Google search for SEO, but it’s growing exponentially so fast and it’s so robust, and it’s referring you as an interior designer in your area.
00;43;31;27 – 00;43;43;17
Darla Powell
And there’s so many different elements that have to come together to make that happen. Oh my God, this is your show. I, I want it to be a wing, that social marketing show. But, yes, a long answer to a short question.
00;43;43;19 – 00;43;54;14
Rebecca Hay
Well, I can’t help myself. It’s my show, so I have to ask some questions. Sorry, guys. This is going to be something that designers are gonna want to hear more about, so they better head on over to wing that. Have you talked about it? I wing that social.
00;43;54;18 – 00;44;13;05
Darla Powell
No, I haven’t talked about it on that show. I’ve interviewed on other podcasts with it. That is something that we need to cover. When I come off my summer break, it’s like, getting in on the first stages of the internet, right? You know, when and getting that positioning on something now that’s growing, get yourself in there, grow that so you can get ahead of the curve for your positioning.
00;44;13;05 – 00;44;15;12
Darla Powell
Now’s the time to invest.
00;44;15;14 – 00;44;27;25
Rebecca Hay
Well, we’re obviously going to have you back. So I can interview you at depth about this, because I’m pretty sure designers are like ears popping up. Like what I want to hear more. So we will have you back when you’re finished. Your, summer hiatus.
00;44;28;01 – 00;44;30;18
Darla Powell
Thank you. On the 400th episode, maybe or sooner.
00;44;30;20 – 00;44;47;28
Rebecca Hay
Oh, yeah, I love it, I love it. Well, thank you so much for being my host today, asking those tough questions. I’m excited for everyone to listen to it. And we’re going to have a party. And you’re invited to celebrate 300 episodes, so stay tuned on all the details I can’t wait.
00;44;48;05 – 00;44;50;13
Darla Powell
I bring my own cake and my own whiskey. You know.
00;44;50;15 – 00;44;53;25
Rebecca Hay
I’ll bring my gin and tonic. You can make an old fashioned. We’ll have a party.
00;44;53;25 – 00;44;55;11
Darla Powell
It’ll be great.
00;44;55;14 – 00;44;56;08
Rebecca Hay
Thank you.
00;44;56;11 – 00;44;59;09
Darla Powell
Thank you.
00;44;59;11 – 00;45;15;06
Rebecca Hay
That was so fun. That was so nerve racking. I was even garlic and sage like. I could tell you were a little nervous. It’s funny, we put ourselves in these situations. Even this morning, I woke up and I was like, oh, I’ve got this episode and I’m nervous about it. And I got to get my hair ready and I want to, like, reset up the camera.
00;45;15;06 – 00;45;29;20
Rebecca Hay
And I wanted to move. If you’re on YouTube, you’ll see, obviously I’m not in my in the little dark office that I’m usually in, because I just wanted to switch things up for this episode because it’s a really big deal. Anyhow, I hope you enjoyed that episode. Thank you again to Darla. Darla, I love you. You are a salt of the earth human.
00;45;29;20 – 00;45;48;23
Rebecca Hay
Truly. I always have fun chatting with you, so thank you for interviewing me and asking the tough questions for anyone listening today. If there was something that stood out to you in the episode, I would love for you to DM me. I know sometimes people DM me and I’m like, thanks, why don’t you send me an email? They’re like, because you said to DM you please keep DMing me.
00;45;48;24 – 00;46;09;23
Rebecca Hay
It’s perimenopause brain guys. Sometimes I’m like brain farting on what I say but always DM me on Instagram. You can also send us an email. Hello Rebecca Haydock. Com we would love love love to hear from you to understand or learn what has resonated with you over these past 300 episodes? What topics stood out to you? Which episodes really got you moving?
00;46;09;27 – 00;46;26;09
Rebecca Hay
Are there certain guests that you love that you’d love to hear from? Again? We are inviting you to our 300th episode Celebration Party, so go to the show notes to find out when that is so that you can join us. There’s going to be trivia, there’s going to be prizes, and there’s going to just be a good time.
00;46;26;11 – 00;46;49;07
Rebecca Hay
It’s me sending out my appreciation to all of you, because we would not be here without our listeners. The reason I’ve made it to 300 episodes is not just because I’ve showed up 300 times and recorded, it’s because I’ve recorded for people who are listening, who I know are getting value. It’s interesting when we ever we do a survey for our new students who join us inside Power of Process.
00;46;49;09 – 00;47;14;02
Rebecca Hay
99% of those new students tell us that they first were podcast listeners. So I know that there’s value here. And thank you for showing up and listening and giving us the feedback so we can keep making the podcast even better. Exciting things to come in the months ahead. So stay close. Be in my world. If you’re not on my email list, get on there because there’s a lot of exciting announcements happening.
00;47;14;04 – 00;47;16;15
Rebecca Hay
All right, thanks to you for listening to.
00;47;16;15 – 00;47;17;03
Darla Powell
Three.
00;47;17;03 – 00;47;29;04
Rebecca Hay
Hundred episodes. Crazy. See you soon.