The Studio Tapes EP2 - Pricing Chats

Explore the Framework Express HERE

Talk to me about Private Coaching by emailing rhiannon@oleanderandfinch.com

Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.

Grab more insights and updates:

Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/oleander_and_finch
Like Oleander & Finch on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/oleanderandfinch

For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub on my website ; https://oleanderandfinch.com/

Ready to take your interior design business to the next level? Check out my online course, "The Framework," designed to provide you with everything they don’t teach you in design school and to give you high touch mentorship essential to having a successful new business in the industry. Check it out now and start designing YOUR own success
THE FRAMEWORK ( now open) https://www.oleanderandfinch.com/the-framework-for-emerging-designers/

Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations.
...

Transcript

0:29

Surprise. Welcome to episode two of the Studio Tapes. For those who are unaware, the studio tapes is a behind the scenes look at private coaching. The framework collective, or the framework express where we unpack big ideas in small groups. So in. Private coaching, it's one-on-one. In my framework collective, there are five girls and in the framework Express there are also five girls. And the difference is that the collective is a 12 month group of five, and the framework express is a 12 week sprint. So we do each week is a different topic and we unpack it for an hour and a half and we get it going. Today's. Framework Express. We meet on Mondays for an hour and a half, and my next 12 week sprint is kicking off on the 1st of June. So in spirit of the fact that I already have some girls who've signed up for that June sprint. I thought I might share some behind the scenes of our pricing week, because I know pricing is such a big topic. So these studio tapes don't come up often. They're little bonus episodes of the podcast and they're a real look inside the world of coaching, inside of the Oleander and fin ecosystem. So I hope you enjoy it. I hope you get something out of this. And remembering this is a tiny snippet of what was an hour and a half coaching call. And if you have any questions. Around the Framework Express or the June kickoff, it's 12 weeks. It totally transforms your business. I have seen the biggest leaps from girls who signed up on week one, who I could see were a little bit drowning, a little bit of like dead business in their eyes all the way to, we're now at week eight and we are moving into week nine next week. And then obviously finishing up at week 12 and the look of relief when I look at them even this week of being like, yes, I have tidied it up. I'm starting to really make some big steps towards scaling. It's just, it's actually the greatest thing. I hope you'll get to join me on one of my 12 week sprints, if not June, then possibly in the future, because it is just so incredible the bond of these groups. The way that we can all speak freely. The fact that it is so targeted and so small. It is a lot of fun. I'm really enjoying it and I am ready to bring on and meet some new people. In June, I'll pop a link to the websites to check out the framework express in the show notes. This particular kickoff, 12 weeks on the Monday, the 2nd of June, will be super appropriate if you're a property stylist. So I work with a lot of stylists and stages in private coaching and their only big downtime in the year is probably for this 12 week sprint kicking off in June. So if that sounds like you, please reach out. I'd love to have a chat. But for now, I am taking you backstage and I hope you really enjoy listening to all things pricing. Because you feel, I think that you probably feel like I can show them if they challenge me 10 hours on paper, I can show them. If you come to me and say, alright, what did I get for my 1950? Or what did I get for just shy of$2,000? I can be like three hours of this, four hours of this. I'm at 1 95 an hour and I don't have to. Feel like I have to learn to justify my talent because that's the missing thing. It's actually being able to articulate that you didn't invest in a course like the Framework Express. You didn't go to school to learn to be a designer. You don't continually do personal development. Go in, you don't do showroom visits to see the latest collection at Globe West. You don't go down to Warwick Fabrics and find out what's new, like you are not doing any of that stuff. That's your value. That's what you are doing. You don't have to mark that down in hours necessarily. Measure our value by our output. There's so much more to who you are as a person designer than just what you spit out like at the end, if that makes sense. Like I think that's the missing confidence part sometimes, is just being able to articulate that you can do this with or without me. And that's another thing that we feel a bit like if we get a no and they go, we're going down the Pinterest route. Okay, good luck sucks to be your house. Like I can do it or you can do it. And I think we do though sometimes feel like, oh, nervous, you're putting something forward and then going, but you could easily say no, but hear that language easily say no. Anyone can say no, but you can't easily replicate what I would give you if you said yes. Like you cannot do that. And that's got nothing to do with the clock. That's got nothing to do with how many times you sit in front of your computer and say, I'm onto the Preston project and I'm starting and I'm hunting and I'm looking at whatever. And it's got so much to do with all of the background knowledge that you've cured over the years that you've made a mistake in and then learned something all the times that you've been out, shows other things, like it's all got a value attached to it. And I think we just like. A really fun and important thing to do is to write down your billable and non-billable value. What is your values? A non-billable value would be, yeah, upskilling education. Things that like every time you spend an hour and a half with me on a Monday and then you go do your homework, you're investing in increasing your value to your clients. You're a better business woman. You're more confident, you, like you are spending money and that money's gotta be recuperated. Somewhere along the lines in terms of we passed that. Kind of bill on, like that invoice is shared over the next 40 clients or whatever in order to make that worthwhile. And it's not just this course, it's like late night. Looking at Home and Garden magazine or whatever, like going through, you're staying on top of everything. And I think that when we build hourly, we really do penalize efficiency. Like you're so much better at what you do because of your experience and the time in the industry. So yay for the people that are paying you 10 hours for what someone who's in their first 18 months of business might be sending out an invoice, but they're billing for 35 hours of their time. Yeah, but the result is the same. So smacking yourself on the hand for being faster, better, and finding it easier because of all of the investment you've made in becoming that better designer over all of that time. But they're just numbers. Unless you own them, unless you understand what's behind them and you are confidently capable of saying that look like we are always looking at other designers, you're always comparing yourself. You're always doing those things. But the one thing that you're not comparing is I can do the same result as she and she is out there confidently charging whatever. Or if you wanna be in comparison. I love, I often think about that thing where they're like, behind every time you're worried or whatever, there's somebody. Um, like a lot less talented or capable as you charging three times as much. There's always somebody out there who's just talking the talk and delivering smoke and mirrors and doing nonsense. I know a few myself in my own industry that are like that, and it's if they're out there tooting their own horn, carrying on, collecting triple the amount of money that I collect from my students and delivering half the amount of value. Then those are important things to consider as well. When you're pulling together your pricing, you're not asking for anything outrageous. And I think one big shift that we have is that nothing's really changing for you except the ask and the number. So sometimes that can, I don't know about you guys, but sometimes that can feel a bit like. What? I'm not like doing anything more. You're just getting better at what that's presenting the value, listing out the scope. But if that's you, if you are feeling like that, come and see me because there might be some wiggle room to just overhaul your documentation or like to feel like you're delivering a better experience at the end of everything. Could also make you feel like there's more reason to ask for more. Play with this, play with that calculator, model things out and really, if I can impart nothing else, let's change from client facing, commercially sensitive. Calculations and let's only start showing our clients the end number, but listing out what they get for that number. So it's more like a package and more, this is the service offering and this is how much it costs to get me to fulfill that service. And none of the calculations in between because that's, we get caught in the weeds and we get like a bit defensive and we also get a bit jumpy if they're like, oh, why is it only five hours for concept but 15 for procurement? Doesn't it take longer to come up with the idea? And it's just'cause you are better at it. Because you're actually very like creative people. And so conceptually we can pull it together'cause we're excited and we're, I'm gonna do this and oh, we'll put this out there and I'm gonna get this ceramic Robert Gordon basins and all these things. You're really excited and you pull it all together. And then in order to just order it logistically and get it and it's taking ages and there's just such a disconnect, I just wish they could never see the calculation. So I just don't show them. And if you hear anyone ask you, please come and tell me because I'm working in this maybe delusional world of no one ever asks me for the actual breakdown. So I feel comfortable and confident to say to you, don't have to tell them how many hours your job takes. Do you know any other industry where they would do that? Think about honestly, when someone, if you needed a quote for something really big, imagine you get the whole roof replaced. Imagine the tilers and the roofer saying it's a 14 and a half hour job, and I'll let you know if it goes over. And we'll talk money. They get down for a drink and be like, get up the letter. What you doing? I would not wanna know how, like by the hour, I just want a new roof. So how much does it cost for me to get a new roof? It's$40,000 job. Great. Are you gonna be here for a week or a month? What's going on? If they say a day I am like, that's all it takes. And you've got a team of 25 and you get me a new roof. The roof is$40,000, not how we got it. Cool. Yeah, I've moved into my TED Talk ranting now. Well. I hope you enjoyed the studio tapes. I hope to share some other insightful things because there are so many huge conversations that we have in our community and so many times that we are collectively sharing. I'm only going to be sharing my answers in the studio tapes because what my students are talking about is private and it's locked down and it's a small group and that's what they pay for. I'm also not giving out my juiciest things because girls gotta eat. Some things have to be behind a paywall. So, um, I will just share as much as I possibly feel I can and that I feel will be helpful. If you enjoyed today's episode and you want more studio tapes and you liked this, pull back the curtain behind the scenes kind of vibes. Come and let me know. Oh, better yet, let Apple Podcasts or Spotify know. I would love, love, love to grow some of those ratings. And I haven't had a little review in quite a while, and I just think the more that I get of those, the more this becomes a suggestion to interior designers and small business owners who could really use the marketing process system ai. Pricing all the focus. So please share it with a friend, pop it up in your stories, share the link, write a review, all the things. I'm gonna get outta here'cause begging ain't my jam. And I will see you on a regular episode all right, bye for now.