%20-%204.png)
Designing Success
Designing Success from School to Studio by Rhiannon Lee is dedicated to filling in the gaps in your design course to encourage you to build a sustainable business that supports your dream lifestyle.
Are you searching for strategy, systems and support? Looking for a community to bounce industry issues around in? In this podcast, we will cover the interior design business infrastructure you need to supplement your design school curriculum with practical insights and actionable advice. We also cover all things marketing, product innovation, client acquisition, and more. Go beyond the theory, filter through the stuff that doesn’t serve you and get on with creating.
You will find real talk with industry professionals, practical tactics from business realists that leave you reenergised and focused on exactly how to improve the current landscape of your own business. For more behind the scenes of the interior design industry, check out oleander and finch in Instagram https://instagram.com/oleander_and_finch
or head to www.oleanderandfinch.com
Episodes
197 episodes
2025 Aidan & Rhiannon (replay part two...)
Six Years In: Business, Family Seasons, and Using AI as a Support Tool (with Aiden)Host Rhiannon Lee introduces a 2024 catch-up conversation with her husband, Aidan, reflecting on how their family and her business have evolved into its ...
%20-%204.png)
replay from 2023 part one of my conversation with my husband Aidan
revisiting one of my most popular chats over the school holidays - part one of mt chat with my husband, tune in for part two next week and an all new part three the week after. Behind the Scenes of Oleander & Finch: R...
Should you run your FF&E past a low-tox consultant? With Susie from Casa Flair
You can smell it the second you walk into some budget stores. Then we bring the occasional chair home, pop it in the corner and call it styled.Susie from Casa Flair Interiors has run her design studio in Sydney's Hills District for six y...
Finding your creative voice, pricing your work & actually putting yourself out there, with Kasia
What happens when the thing you started doing for yourself quietly becomes the thing you want to build your life around?In this episode of Designing Success, I’m joined by fibre artist Kasia for a conversation about creativity, bu...
Before You Use AI With Client Work: 7 Things Every Interior Design Studio Needs
Explore the AI safe policy KIT hereCheck out Studio Build HEREIf you’re using ChatGPT, Claude, Gemi...
The Instagram Strategy That Added 4,500 Followers in 30 Days
If Instagram has felt like you’re posting into the void lately, Trial Reels might be worth your attention.In this episode of Designing Success, I’m sharing the Instagram growth strategy I’m actively testing in my own busi...
AI in Design: Client Data and IP Policy's
Clients are starting to ask interior designers how they use AI with their private information — floor plans, budgets, family details, meeting transcripts. Rhiannon Lee, AI strategist for Australian interior designers, breaks down what actually ...
What I told a room of designers about AI at The Design Show, Sydney.
Register for the AI Safe Webinar, HERE Join the weekly email list HERE learn how to build out project manag...
Emergency meeting - Fable 5 for designers
Want to watch this and see the screen share version of the apps? chek it out on YouTube here https://youtu.be/LHPePe1tDMQ?si=78-Y9S-9glV8-V54Fable (Claude's most capable model) is free until July 12th. Rhiannon Lee used hers ...
Natasha, Emily and Oula, tell it how it is.
Oula, Em, and Natasha all said the same thing: they didn't expect the business structure side of it, they thought it was going to be more about the AI tools. If you've been on the fence about Studio Build what's the actual question you'd want a...
EOFY - tips for interior designers
Most interior designers hit 30 June without ever looking down. This episode covers the end of financial year financial habits solo interior design studio owners actually need — from reading your P&L without panic, to auditing subscriptions,...
Ewa Doherty on starting and scaling with an exit strategy
Starting an interior design business with an exit strategy — rather than building it to keep forever — is one of the most overlooked approaches to studio setup. In this episode, regional NSW designer Ewa shares how she built her supply selectio...
The client who says: "I just need someone to execute my vision," This is why I don't work with them anymore.
When an interior design client says "I just need someone to execute my vision," they've already decided they're the designer and you're the logistics coordinator. Rhiannon Lee explains what's actually happening in those moments, ho...
Are you over-delivering in your proposal?
Interior designers often over-deliver at proposal stage — sharing mood boards, design direction, and creative strategy before a client has signed or paid a deposit. This episode asks whether that's genuinely good service or anxiety dressed up a...
Why AI is making hourly billing dangerous for interior designers
Value pricing means charging for the outcome your client gets, not the hours it took you to deliver it. In 2026, that distinction matters more than ever — because AI is making designers faster, and if you're still billing by the hour, that effi...
“You’re Behind” Is the biggest lie in AI right now.
AI is not replacing interior designers — it's replacing average ones. Rhiannon Lee, AI strategist for Australian interior designers, breaks down why "AI killed my industry" is lazy marketing, how pattern recognition software produces same...
Where to actually start with AI in your design business (and what to stop doing)
Interior designers who feel overwhelmed by AI typically don't have a tool problem — they have a prioritisation problem. Australian AI strategist Rhiannon Lee recommends three starting points: spend four minutes meeting Claude, do a five-minute ...
Stop charging for the process (and other things I'm yelling about while the kids trash the house)
Join the email list to get the business restructure challenge, 'Studio Build' updates HERE The kids are on school holidays, there's a triple bunk being installed, an...
Posting AI slop isn't saving you time, it's costing you clients.
AI adoption jumped dramatically in the first quarter of 2026 ... and so did the slop. In this episode Rhiannon gets into the conversation she's been sitting on: what AI-generated content actually looks like, why it keeps happening, and what the...
The AI data conversation nobody in the design industry is having... but should be.
You've probably pasted a client brief into an AI tool this week. Maybe a site visit transcript. A proposal draft. A mood board description with the client's full name, address, and renovation budget attached. And there's...
Build your Interior Design Project databases automatically with AI
I uploaded a six-month-old transcript from a client consult and got a complete Notion project dashboard in about eight seconds.Find out how HERE Every action ite...
rethinking how we renovate, with Bradley Montag
In this episode of Designing Success, I sit down with interior designer Bradley Montag to talk about the intersection of design, property, and town planning. Bradley began his career as a town planning lawyer before t...
How to set your studio up properly to use a variety of AI tools
AI is everywhere right now — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Midjourney, Nano Banana — and interior designers are being told they need to learn all of it.But the real problem isn’t the tools.It’s the lack of context.