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Founders & Friends
Founders & Friends is where interior designers and creative entrepreneurs come for real conversations about building a business—and a life—that feels good.
Hosted by a designer-turned-founder, each episode dives into honest, behind-the-scenes stories from industry leaders, creative thinkers, and bold business owners who are shaping the design world on their own terms. We talk about the big wins, the hard lessons, the financial truths, and the messy middle of entrepreneurship.
Whether you're just starting out or scaling something big, this podcast is your reminder that you're not doing it alone—and that success can look a lot of different ways.
Come for the insights, stay for the community. This is Founders & Friends—where business gets personal, and conversations get real.
Founders & Friends
30. From Corporate E-Commerce to Web Strategist for Interior Designers
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In this episode of Founders & Friends, Ronniesha Rivera sits down with Cathleen Hall, founder of Cathleen Hall Creative, to unpack her 13-year journey from corporate e-commerce leader to full-time web strategist for interior designers.
Cathleen shares how she originally launched her business in 2019 as a consulting firm, stepped away during the intensity of the pandemic, and later reignited her entrepreneurial spark after rediscovering Jenna Kutcher’s work. What started as digital products on Etsy evolved into custom website design after a single interior designer client asked for template customization — and that pivot changed everything.
Now fully niched into serving interior designers, Cathleen breaks down:
- The financial and mindset shifts required to leave corporate
- Why website strategy matters more than aesthetics
- The most common mistakes designers make on their websites
- How vague messaging and weak calls-to-action cost you leads
- Why she recommends Wix for service providers and Shopify for e-commerce brands
- Her unique data-driven strategy process using tools like Hotjar
- The “300 million dollar button” story and what it teaches about conversions
- What actually goes into a $6,000–$20,000 custom website
- How her VIP Days and custom instruction manuals empower clients post-launch
Cathleen also walks through her structured 2–4 week project timeline, her user-journey mapping process, and how every button, headline, and page flow must intentionally guide ideal clients toward conversion.
This episode is a masterclass in treating your website like a strategic business asset — not just a digital brochure.
Cathleen leaves us with powerful entrepreneurial advice: do excellent work, give yourself grace, and don’t put pressure on your business to become massive overnight. Growth is built step by step.
If you're an interior designer thinking about rebranding, rebuilding, or refining your website — this conversation is required listening.
You can find Cathleen at:
https://www.cathleenhallcreative.com/
https://www.instagram.com/cathleenhallcreative
This Episode was brought to you by Vetted by Design
If you are looking to outsource anything in your design business check out Vetted by Design to find some amazing highly vetted pros you can trust to help you grow your business.
www.vetted-bydesign.com
https://www.instagram.com/vettedbydesign/
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*Only for interior designers & pro's who serve the industry