Who's in your corner next year?

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Transcript

Speaker 3: 0:12

Welcome to Designing Success from Study to Studio. I'm your host, Rhiannon Lee, founder of the Oleandra Finch Design Studio. I've lived the transformation from study to studio and then stripped it bare and wrote down the framework so you don't have to overthink it. In this podcast, you can expect real talk with industry friends, community, connection, and actionable tips to help you conquer whatever's holding you back. Now let's get designing your own success.

Speaker 2: 0:37

On today's episode of Designing Success, I wanted to talk about who is in your corner in 2025. So I've talked a little bit about why now is the perfect time to start Q1 planning or start thinking about what ducks you need to line up in a row in order to have a successful 2025. And I feel like lots of people are talking about that. Yes, I will come and have a chat about reflection. I will have a chat about having a serious break because I'm a big believer in it. But in the meantime, while I'm still in the office, I am absolutely having a think about starting my new year with big goals and with a clear plan and with a team that I know can help me achieve that plan. So I feel like in January we're so full of hope, like this year we're going to grow, we're going to do this, we'll work smarter, we'll be balanced. But by February we're sometimes thinking, gosh, I'm still feeling like low mojo. I haven't even really. Realized I'm back at work. I'm still in holiday mode. We seem to waste a lot of Q1, certainly an experience that I've both lived and witnessed a lot. So I thought I would look at what could change that outcome and that is generally support. Or planning early now while you're still in the office anyway, cause we haven't quite broken up for a Christmas break. So now would be a good time to sit down with yourself and think about, do I have the right tools in place? Do I have the right people in my corner? Do I understand the strategies that I want to implement next year for long term growth? Success is not a solo sport. Absolutely. Everyone that you talk to, who's running successful businesses. that growth happens when you have a dream team. And that dream team isn't always hiring staff or throwing money or outsourcing to contractors. It can look so different. And I've got quite a few episodes in this last season where I've talked about what outsourcing looks like or what sort of things are available to you. The one thing I do know that's true is we cannot do it all alone. There are so many pressures in small business. There are EAPs, which is assistance programs and free counseling. Beyond Blue have a great one for small business owners. And I just want to shout that out because there are times in the business where we're completely overwhelmed because it is so much you started your, if it's an interior design business, you almost certainly started that to practice. The craft of interior design and you probably didn't expect that you would become the Swiss army knife and wear all the hats and be creative, be a marketer, be a bookkeeper, be a client manager, be a relationship counselor. If your clients are anything like mine, where they're in a consult call with me, literally arguing and wasting time. So we have to take on all of these different And I just don't think any one person can do it all. I think that trying to do it all limits our potential, and it's one of the main reasons we get trapped in the busy work, or feeling like, oh, this week was crazy, I did all this stuff. It's did you need to though? Like really? A firm boundary with that person. Couple that I just referenced of me saying, look, did you need to exit this call and rebook in my calendar? Because we need to be moving forward and collating the information that I need to gather the client brief This can be discussed offline like between the two of you and just knowing that you can say that in a fair like In a totally lovely way, you can make a joke about it or you could say to them, Hey, is there any chance you guys can pick this up later so that we can move forward? Cause I just need to know what it is that I'm going off to source for you or for the project. I'd love to see you break down the key categories of support that you think you might need next year. So for some of you, you might be like, look, I really need to get across my financials or my numbers or get a little bit more savvy when it comes to what I'm instructing my accountant to do, or I'd really like to understand my P& Ls. I'd like to. Regularly meet with myself and financially health check my business. That might be a goal of yours, in which case you might not be able to just magic that into existence. You might be like, okay, who can I speak with? I have a business money coach. A shout out to Justine McLean. She has a course called business money magic. I am in that course. And that has been really helpful for me. But again, that is someone in my corner that I have assessed last year. I need a little bit more help with managing. this and looking for opportunities financially within my business. It could be that you think that you thrive in a group environment. You might like to do group coaching. You might like to have private one on one coaching. You might think, look, I would like to have a quarterly review with someone who's objectively looking at my business. So you might go and get a business coach. Or again, with the group thing, you might join a group coaching like the framework. If you're in the early throes of starting up your interior design business, that would be really great support for you because you will meet a community and you'll be able to use all the templates and get guidance as to what to do. But it might not be a good fit for you if you have been in business for a long time and you want impactful, strategies and support. And in that case, you might like to look at some of the small group. Like I have a framework collective, which is just a group of five. I will be taking three intakes for that group in 2025. So if you are at all interested, jump on the wait list, reach out, let me know that you're interested so I can send you those details. Because it is a very small group. And it is completely different. It looks at how we scale their businesses. I'm not teaching foundational stuff. You need to come already prepared and ready to grow in that course We talked a little bit about community. Community might be something that you think you need more support. You might have identified that in 2024, and this is very normal, I felt really lonely in my business. I sat in my office, I worked and I worked, and I tried to go out and meet some builders and I felt tongue tied Maybe the, in terms of who you need in your corner in 2025, maybe you need to be putting into your calendar a weekly half day where you work from a cafe for company. Or maybe you want to go and think about What industry events happen throughout the year. There's some great design shows coming to Melbourne in the middle of the year next year. How can you reach out already and get a team together who are going or can you join up some in person events that are happening? Certainly with the framework we go out for in person events quite often into the city and You don't have to be a frameworker to join us. I don't advertise them They're not paid events or anything But if you ever feel like you're someone who sits in your office and you would like to meet other interior designers Just ask me when the next melbourne catch up is and you're so so welcome to just come along and join us at least for a chat and to meet some people who are Definitely like minded, all going through the same struggles. They're really good days out and you would be most welcome. I feel as though when you're surrounded by others that are in the same season of business, it's. really helps level you up as well. Or if you're just slightly under and you get into a room with people who are where you want to be, you will lift, you will raise to join them. I promise you that. So if you're feeling unsure, it's actually really great to push yourself to jump into that room, whatever that room is of whatever coaching. I'm not specifically talking about the framework. When I say group coaching, there's, as I said, I'm in a business money, I'm also in another course that looks into AI. I'm currently in two paid group coaching programs myself. I work with the business coach myself, because I think everything that I learn can be passed back down to the people that I teach. My, the. Self improvement journey is really important to me. I'm super curious and love learning. I love to check it all out. So whenever you talk to me, I will always be in one of those courses, but I think when we're looking at building out the right team for 2025, it's important to think of the practical steps that you can take to audit your current support. Who are they? How do they help? What's missing? I talked about being lonely, but maybe it's also thinking about productivity, the AI assistants, do you need that whole staff room to start working for you? Or maybe it's not AI that you want to do. Maybe you are still very much skeptical about the tech side of things or unsure. And then maybe it's actually a virtual assistant or a VA that you need to bring in Or yes, as I said, go work in a cafe or work for one day at a collective hub. Hire a desk and go and work in there. So something like that might be helpful if that is an area that you have identified is lacking. And then look for resources that align with those lacking areas and the goals that you want to set for next year. So is it tools? Is it coaching? Is it just even podcasts like this? Do you want to just commit to saying, I won't miss it. I'm going to walk the dog on a Tuesday and a Thursday. I'm definitely going to catch up and we sometimes feel like we have to prove we can do it all ourselves, especially as women and especially, I work with so many ambitious women and we just, it's like we've just been taught that It's quicker and easier if I do it myself or it doesn't feel like an achievement if I've gotten help along the way and I think we really need to reframe that we've already come a long way to reframing hustle culture and the expectation that we work from sunup to sundown to get what we want. Things like the AI tools and understanding that something can do it for you in seconds to free up to 10, 25 hours a week out of your work. What you were previously doing, those things exist and the support is out there and it's really just about thinking a smarter way to grow, planning for next year, knowing that you don't have to do it all. It's still good if someone helped you get there, if someone else was there. And And yeah, if the one actionable takeaway from this lesson is just to sit down and actually list out who am I going to need in my corner next year and what does that look like either financially what does it look like in terms of will I need to train them? Will I need to pay, yeah, financially, will I need to pay for them? Is there anything on the market that exists? Now that could help me with that admin or help me with this. And it could be a free app. It could be learning more over the holidays, watching YouTube clips. It could be AI assistants, getting them to do the heavy lifting so that you no longer take 20 minutes to reply to emails. It's two seconds and a little voice note. If there's anything from this call that I missed. If there's anything from this podcast that I can help you with in terms of, I did drop a sneaky that I am doing another round of exclusive Framework Collective, another three rounds next year. I haven't shared that publicly before, so expressions of interest are open. They are such a small group, and I think we turned away over 13 applications in the last round where I only took five girls in. So if you are interested, please jump into my DMs and just let me know that you're interested so I can let you know if you are the right fit or have a conversation with you about how we get you to a point where, maybe you're best to join the second intake in 2025. And I could give you some tips on how we could get you to a place where it'll be the best thing for you to do when you are ready. Okay, so let me just round out today by making some suggestions of some awesome people you could have in your corner for 2025. Firstly, I mentioned this, but financial advisor or accountant, knowing your numbers is top priority if you want to run a successful and profitable business. So they can help you plan for taxes, help you plan for profitability, look at pricing. Percy is amazing and he does amazing things, but he works in conjunction with, and he's not even a person. So I definitely like to have both. I run different models through Percy, the AI assistant, but I also work with a money coach and an accountant. The second will be a VA. So they can be actual humans or AI assistants, but taking on admin tasks, managing your inbox, scheduling, looking at social media helping in all the areas that can allow you to focus on the high value work. So stay where you need to be delivering the designs at the level that you want to, all that sort of stuff. It's just like a whole new way of thinking about things when you start to. Step up in your business and go, okay, how can I be only doing the stuff that's going to get the biggest impact? And then where do I go to get people to support me in the other things? The third will be a marketing expert, a marketing agency, an AI marketing assistant, whatever you want to do, someone that can help position your business and build a marketing plan or a strategy that gets results. So if you're not sure how to do that, find someone who can reach out. Ask me about marketing workshops. Find out now for Q1, what will be running, what will be out there, what could you do, or how much does it actually cost to get social media marketing management, or to get an AI assistant who can plan all your content strategy, or who is a copywriter, all those sorts of things. I think that the marketing piece is really important because it's somewhere that we don't always love doing it, so it can be such a relief to plan to just do it. Someone in your corner to support you on that marketing in Q1. Next will be a mentor or business coach. These are great in terms of someone who has experience in your industry that can provide, look like they're objectively looking like a drone above your business and can spot operational leaks, problems. Incidents, accidents, places that you can improve from space. Like they're really good cause it's not their business. And we all know that. Like I can't see things. I have blind spots all throughout my business. It's why I have a mentor and business coach because there are things that I'm so emotionally attached to because I created them that I just can't see a way to improve them. So I've really benefited from that in 2024 and I will absolutely keep that person in my corner for 2025. The next would be like IT or tech support or if you're nervous or you don't know how systems work or how to increase your tech knowledge or create automations or attach things, go find someone who does. And it doesn't have to be that you hire someone in an IT department. Have a conversation with someone that you think is across it and be like, what are your favorite ways to use AI? What do you think is possible for me? Would you have a half an hour to have a chat to me about this? Or do you have any recommendations of Ted talks or YouTube clips or things that I can watch where I could increase my knowledge, but not in a scary way where I could just see a result, stuff like that matters, and even just going on Google and asking Google, look for Reddit forums. Number six, photographer or content creator. Visuals are amazing ways to level up. And if you're planning, having someone in your corner who will either do branding for photographs maybe film your reels in 4k or look at doing more professional videography things that can elevate your brand and stand you out having your projects all photographed. So knowing that you've got a photographer in your corner means that you actually. Start to speak that language to clients as well. Like this is the process. And then the installation happens and then the professional photography happens and that person by name, like I use Sarah and Sarah will, we'll look at Sarah's availability about phase two of the project. So we can make sure to lock it in. It just. Sets that expectation from the beginning. So if you don't have a photographer or content creator, you could start looking over the holidays to collaborate with another business owner and just ask if they'll be that person for you. And it's great to just have that for headshots for reels for anything like that. Number seven, an industry peer group or mastermind. That's for that support, the accountability, the ideas surrounding yourself, people in your industry, a full on sense of community is so important when we work alone. And I mentioned that earlier, but joining one of those groups, attending the meetups, attending the weekly calls keeps you accountable and it keeps you from feeling really lonely. Number eight, a lawyer or legal consultant. Please make sure in your corner is someone that you could go to for contracts, for IP, for business protections, trademarks, someone you could go and ask a question how to reduce your risks. Make sure you yourself are operating within the law. There were conversations on this podcast a few weeks ago about plagiarism. That should never have happened you certainly can make sure that you're doing things really ethically and also just, drafting client contracts, just double checking on everything to Just sign it all off, know that you've got someone in your little black book of all the different people that you work with, that you know who is your lawyer. If I said to you right now, we're going to need to talk to your legal team, what does that look like for you? Is that yeah, I'm going to need to Google the local lawyer or do you actually have someone in your corner that you feel like you could say, yeah, I have a somewhat working relationship with this person and I could reach out for help. And the last one is around PR or media specialist. Now, not everyone will have PR in their corner, it can be really important to assess how you want to be featured in what outlets and how you want to boost your credibility and visibility in 2025. So it might be you in your own corner, but I didn't want to leave out things like PR. PR or media pitch packs or plans. If you don't have one of these, maybe it'd be a great idea to reach out to someone and ask how you can look at what opportunities might come available for you next year. Maybe pitch yourself to podcasts for articles for panels. It might be time to level up. If you haven't already, you can DM me over on Instagram at oleander underscore and underscore Finch, and just dM me the word partnership and you will automatically get my one page PDF for like a template that you can change into your information. That's a little bit of a media kit or a pitch pack. It's just a one pager because people don't have time to read everything about you, but it will definitely get you started and get you thinking about how you put yourself forward for those opportunities. And I know I've been doing a lot of. Podcast episodes at the moment that are quite full on in terms of pushing you to think about this think about that I guess it's because I do so much private coaching in the last quarter of the year and I have just Been seeing some amazing results. We've got some full on plans Business roadmaps that I've created in Trello and we're working through them. And while I'm working with these designers They're hungry to grow. They're ready to scale. They're looking for more next year 2024 was a strange year. Certainly when I do a bit of a reflection episode, you'll hear it didn't feel as great as maybe it looks on paper at the end of it all. There was lots of stuff that happened for me personally, professionally, there were a lot of pivots, changes, there's a lot of P words, DM me the word partnership, pivots, personal, like all that sort of stuff was going on. And I will do a big episode that unpacks that, but I hope that this has given you a bit of food for thought to sit down, do a little business audit and have a little wishlist of who you would like in your corner next year, because we can't do it all alone. If you need my support or help in any way, I'm always here. Please DM me, I hope that this helps you find the team that will get the best out of you for next year. Okay, I will chat to you on Thursday. Bye for now.

Speaker: 19:44

That wraps up another episode of Designing Success from Study to Studio. Thanks for lending me your ears. Remember, progress over perfection is the key. If you found value in today's episode, go ahead and hit subscribe or share it with a friend. Your feedback means so much to me and it helps me improve, but it also helps this podcast reach more emerging and evolving designers. For your daily dose of design business tips and to get a closer look at what goes on behind the scenes, follow at oleander underscore and underscore finch on Instagram. You'll find tons of resources available at www. oleanderandfinch. com to support you on your journey. Remember, this is your path, your vision, your future, and your business. Now let's get out there and start designing your success.

Speaker 4: 20:24

Yeah.