A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business Podcast

Today With Robyn White:

We all know that marketing matters. But so often when I’m talking to newer designers, I realize that marketing is misunderstood—especially when it comes to the luxury client.

My guest today, Robyn White, understands that. Today, she’s here to talk about what marketing really is, how marketing for the luxury client is unique, and how to incorporate your personality and story into your messaging.

Pick It Apart

[2:26] Robyn and LuAnn reflect on what marketing really means.

[6:54] Robyn explains the difference in marketing to a luxury client.

[15:54] LuAnn and Robyn discuss how important it is for your website to show what makes you unique.

[27:43] Robyn explains how to convey luxury through your website.

[43:14] Robyn and LuAnn reflect on how important your website is.

LuAnn Nigara and Robyn White’s Ah-Ha Moments

“The more marketing you do, the more you’ll start to realize that people don’t care that much about what you’re trying to sell to them, because it’s not about them. When you turn the tables and make your marketing about how you help them and what problems you solve, they become interested.” – Robyn White

“If I can read a page on your website and I can substitute any person’s name for this because there’s nothing so specific that is only you, then you haven’t done your job in explaining who you are or what it’s like to work with you.” – LuAnn Nigara

More About Robyn White:

Robyn White is the owner and founder of RDW Design Studio, a boutique website design studio located on Cape Cod, MA. Robyn offers a refined website design experience for clients who value quality and want a strategic, sophisticated and simple website designed so they can book more premium clients.

Robyn specializes in helping interior designers, architects, stagers and organizers elevate their website so it reflects the high-quality work they provide and so their business has the online home it deserves. Through her impactful and strategic website design, she positions her clients as the premium choice by making the right first impression online.

She helps her busy clients go from overwhelmed to overjoyed with their websites by taking care of all the techie stuff without the techie talk. Through her supportive, streamlined and stress-free design process, Robyn designs websites that are not just beautiful, but allow her clients to show up online with confidence and attract their ideal clients.

Connect with Robyn White

Website

Instagram

Facebook

LinkedIn

Get a Freebie!

What’s new with LuAnn Nigara

RSVP to the 10th Birthday Party for A Well-Designed Business Podcast in HPMKT

⁠Boardroom for Creatives⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Watch the Docuseries!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.luannnigara.com/cob⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Get The Goodies!

For checklists, resources, and extra goodies from A Well-Designed Business sign up for free here.

Purchase LuAnn’s Books Here:

Book 1: ⁠The Making of A Well – Designed Business: Turn Inspiration into Action⁠

Audiobook: ⁠The Making of A Well – Designed Business: Turn Inspiration into Action⁠

Book 2: ⁠A Well-Designed Business – The Power Talk Friday Experts⁠

Book 3: ⁠A Well-Designed Business – The Power Talk Friday Experts Volume 2

Connect with LuAnn Nigara

LuAnn’s ⁠Website⁠

LuAnn’s ⁠Blog⁠

⁠Power Talk Friday⁠

Like Us: ⁠Facebook⁠ | Tweet Us: ⁠Twitter⁠ | Follow Us: ⁠Instagram⁠ | Listen Here: ⁠Podcast

Other Shows Mentioned:

#466: Power Talk Friday: Nicole Heymer: You’ve Defined Your Brand…Now What?

#174: Power Talk Friday- Fred Berns- Own Your “Only” Word & Tips to Discover Yours

#159: Power Talk Friday – Nancy Ganzekaufer – How To Get Confident & Clear on What You Offer

#841: Power Talk Friday – Nancy Ganzekaufer – The Profit Insiders for Interior Designers.

Today with Deb Mitchell:

Welcome to A Well-Designed Business, it’s Power Talk Friday! LuAnn shares a conversation with Deb Mitchell on today’s show. You may know Deb on Instagram as DesignWriterDeb. She’s a writer specializing in serving interior designers. Did you know that your own writing style can differentiate yourself from other designers in the way it reflects your personality and your style? And that the most impactful way of writing speaks to the client? Listen in for tips on how you can make this happen, or how you can work with Deb if you’re needing a little extra help in communicating effectively with your ideal client.

Deb Mitchell’s career as a professional writer began when she responded to an ad in a local Charlotte, NC magazine seeking volunteers for a readers’ panel. On a tour of the magazine’s offices with the other selected panelists, the idea for an article came to her and when she mentioned it to the editors, they hired her on the spot as a writer. Nearly ten years and hundreds of articles later, Deb decided to blend her design feature writing experience with her pre-writing career experience in high-end retail sales to help interior designers move their businesses forward with strategic copywriting and content marketing services.

Today, Deb’s client list is ever growing with designers at nearly every stage of business. Most recently, she’s joined forces with two experts, a branding designer and a website developer, to offer designers an all-in-one option for fully custom designed and copywritten WordPress websites.

Deb has by-lined articles in publications such as Casual Living, Design Texas, Lake Norman Magazine, and Today’s Charlotte Woman, and on The Renegade Writer blog. Her ghostwriting has appeared in dozens of top shelter publications and design blogs.

Show Highlights:

Start the writing process with getting to know your clients. What do they care about?

When writing, differentiate yourself by considering how you are different from your colleague in aesthetic, processes, delivery of services, and personality.

Make your writing reflective of you. Don’t write a bio that’s so vanilla we can substitute another designer’s name for yours.

Don’t be intimidated about writing. Get your ideas out of your head and get someone to take a look at your copy and help with editing.

Create a “messaging” folder – it’s a living document used to hold your core words, thoughts, and phrases. Add to it as you come up with copy that helps define you and will resonate with your clients. Start by finishing these statements:

I believe my clients deserve…

I believe my clients should experience…

When speaking about me, someone said…

To create consistent messaging, refer to this file when writing your social media, creating a new web page, or preparing to speak on a panel.

Read your reviews to get ideas and reflect the language your clients use.

LuAnn and Deb cover the services that Deb offers.

Connect with Deb!

Deb’s Email

Deb’s Website – Schedule a Free Consultation Today!

Deb’s Instagram

Deb’s Facebook

Deb’s Pinterest

Websites Mentioned:

Blakely Interiordesign

Victoria At Home

Links :

Is Chairman of the Board Right for YOUR Business?

LuAnn Nigara COB

Get the Goodies! – For checklists, resources, and extra goodies!

Purchase LuAnn’s Books Here:

The Making of A Well – Designed Business: Turn Inspiration into Action

A Well-Designed Business – The Power Talk Friday Experts

LuAnn’s Website

LuAnn’s Podcast – Please SUBSCRIBE, Rate & Review!

LuAnn’s Blog

Power Talk Friday

Other shows mentioned:

#174 Fred Berns- Own Your “Only” Word & Tips to Discover Yours

#125 Nicole Heymer: How to Brand Your Business

#544 Natalie Norcross: Natalie Norcross: 5 Things To Do To Get PR

#364 Janelle Photopoulos: Leading, Not Simply Running, Your Interior Design Firm

Today with Deborah Rosenberg:

What happens when your personal beliefs become part of the way you run your business?

In this Best Of episode of A Well-Designed Business®, LuAnn sits down with Deborah Rosenberg, principal of DiMare Design, to talk about her decision to build a design firm committed to humane, cruelty-free interiors.

Deborah’s approach grew out of her own evolving awareness of how animal-derived materials are produced. Eventually, she began looking at the leather, wool, down, and other materials she was specifying professionally and asking herself a bigger question: If these choices no longer aligned with her personal values, why would she continue making them in her business?

That decision ultimately became a defining part of her firm.

LuAnn and Deborah explore what it means to take a deeply held belief and allow it to influence your business model, your sourcing decisions, and the clients you attract. They also discuss an important lesson for every interior designer, whether or not humane design is part of your own philosophy: Having a clearly defined point of view does not necessarily limit your opportunities. Done thoughtfully, it can distinguish your firm and establish you as the expert for the clients who are looking for exactly what you do.

This conversation is a reminder that your core values are not words you choose for your website. They are standards that should help you make decisions about how you operate, what you offer, and what you are willing to stand behind.

What’s new with LuAnn Nigara:

⁠Boardroom for Creatives⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Watch the Docuseries!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.luannnigara.com/cob⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Get The Goodies!

For checklists, resources, and extra goodies from A Well-Designed Business sign up for free ⁠here⁠.

Purchase LuAnn’s Books Here:

Book 1: ⁠The Making of A Well – Designed Business: Turn Inspiration into Action⁠

Audiobook: ⁠The Making of A Well – Designed Business: Turn Inspiration into Action⁠

Book 2: ⁠A Well-Designed Business – The Power Talk Friday Experts⁠

Book 3: ⁠A Well-Designed Business – The Power Talk Friday Experts Volume 2⁠

Connect with LuAnn Nigara:

LuAnn’s ⁠Website⁠

LuAnn’s ⁠Blog⁠

⁠Power Talk Friday⁠

Like Us: ⁠Facebook⁠ | Tweet Us: ⁠Twitter⁠ | Follow Us: ⁠Instagram⁠ | Listen Here: ⁠Podcast

Today with Kate O’Hara:

Kate O'Hara is back on A Well-Designed Business, and if you have never heard our past conversations with her, go find them after this one. They are some of the most listened to episodes in this catalog.

This time we go straight at the conversation that makes emerging designers freeze. A client asks to see your trade invoices. A client asks what your markup is. And instead of feeling entitled to run your own business, you feel like you have to defend it.

Kate spent 20 years at O'Hara Interiors, nearly 10 of them as CEO, before she made the deliberate decision to close a business she built across studios in Minnesota and Texas and start Lake House Group, her advisory practice for founder-led and second-generation companies. She has trained more designers on how to have this exact conversation than almost anyone in the industry.

Here is the reframe that changes everything. When a client asks about your markup, they are not asking about money. They are asking if they can trust you. When they ask why something costs so much, they are asking if it is a smart decision. When they ask why you chose a certain vendor, they are asking whose interest you are actually protecting. Once you hear it that way, the defensiveness goes away and curiosity takes its place.

Kate walks through exactly how she handles it in a discovery call, why the questions almost always trace back to a client's past experience with a designer, or no experience at all, and why she is willing to walk away from any project, no matter the size, if it does not feel right from the start.

From there, the conversation moves into the mechanics you actually need. Flat fee versus hourly, and the different way you protect a meeting from scope creep in each one. Retail pricing versus trade pricing versus sourcing something truly one of a kind, and why what you share with a client shifts across each one. How to present an investment as a range instead of a single number, then narrow it room by room so the client feels informed without feeling gouged. And why breaking a final bill down item by item, even when the total never changes, can quietly talk a client out of loving what you designed for them.

Kate is also now co-owner of the Design Influencers Conference alongside Nicole Heymer of Glory and Brand, happening March 1 through 3, 2027 in Atlanta. And if this conversation told you what it told me, that Kate is one of the sharpest minds in this industry, you can book 50 minutes with her directly through the Boardroom for Creatives.

More About Kate O’Hara:

Kate O'Hara is the founder of Lake House Group, an advisory practice that helps founder-led and second-generation businesses navigate growth, operational blind spots, and transitions. She previously served as the second-generation CEO and Creative Director of O'Hara Interiors before intentionally closing the prominent design firm to focus on advisory work and co-owning the Design Influencers Conference. [1, 2, 3]

Connect with Kate O’Hara:

O'Hara Interiors Website

O'Hara Interiors Instagram

Lake House Group Website

Design Influencers Conference Website

Design Influencers Instagram

Fay + Belle Website

Fay + Belle Instagram

What’s new with LuAnn Nigara:

⁠Boardroom for Creatives⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Watch the Docuseries!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.luannnigara.com/cob⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Get The Goodies!

For checklists, resources, and extra goodies from A Well-Designed Business sign up for free ⁠here⁠.

Purchase LuAnn’s Books Here:

Book 1: ⁠The Making of A Well – Designed Business: Turn Inspiration into Action⁠

Audiobook: ⁠The Making of A Well – Designed Business: Turn Inspiration into Action⁠

Book 2: ⁠A Well-Designed Business – The Power Talk Friday Experts⁠

Book 3: ⁠A Well-Designed Business – The Power Talk Friday Experts Volume 2⁠

Connect with LuAnn Nigara:

LuAnn’s ⁠Website⁠

LuAnn’s ⁠Blog⁠

⁠Power Talk Friday⁠

Like Us: ⁠Facebook⁠ | Tweet Us: ⁠Twitter⁠ | Follow Us: ⁠Instagram⁠ | Listen Here: ⁠Podcast⁠

Other Shows Mentioned:
Episode 1030: Ceo Conversations with Kate O’Hara: Insights and Strategies on Successful Scaling

Episode 1042: Ceo Conversations with Kate O’Hara: End-of-Year Business Strategies for Designers: Pipeline, Productivity, and Press

Episode 1148: Ceo Conversations with Kate O’Hara: A Framework for Understanding Luxury Interior Design Clients

Episode 1157: Ceo Conversations with Kate O’Hara: Marketing to the Three Tiers of Luxury Clients and How to Attract Each One

Episode 1188: Ceo Conversations with Kate O’Hara: Scaling Your Design Firm Part 1: The Three Paths Forward

Episode 1202: Ceo Conversations with Kate O’Hara:Is Your Next Idea a Revenue Driver or a PR Play? Part 2

Today with Mae Reedy, Abigail Kahan & Jennifer Arteaga:

Three interior designers. Three multi-million dollar firms. Jennifer Arteaga, Mae Reedy, and Abigail Kahan all built their businesses in under 10 years, and not one of them stopped hitting growing pains once the revenue got big.

In this Overheard episode, LuAnn sits down with all three to talk about what actually gets hard once you're running a firm beyond the $5 million mark. Fee structures and profit margins that look nothing alike but all work. Mae's year of building her first org chart, which she compares to giving birth to a whole different company. The client boundary conversation you have to be willing to have once you're serving executive-level clients. And the shift from doing the work yourself to running the room, which changes everything about how you lead.

If you're earlier in your business and think it gets easier once you hit a number, this conversation will change your mind. It gets harder. Just differently.

What’s new with LuAnn Nigara:

⁠Boardroom for Creatives⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Watch the Docuseries!⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.luannnigara.com/cob⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Get The Goodies!

For checklists, resources, and extra goodies from A Well-Designed Business sign up for free ⁠here⁠.

Purchase LuAnn’s Books Here:

Book 1: ⁠The Making of A Well – Designed Business: Turn Inspiration into Action⁠

Audiobook: ⁠The Making of A Well – Designed Business: Turn Inspiration into Action⁠

Book 2: ⁠A Well-Designed Business – The Power Talk Friday Experts⁠

Book 3: ⁠A Well-Designed Business – The Power Talk Friday Experts Volume 2⁠

Connect with LuAnn Nigara:

LuAnn’s ⁠Website⁠

LuAnn’s ⁠Blog⁠

⁠Power Talk Friday⁠

Like Us: ⁠Facebook⁠ | Tweet Us: ⁠Twitter⁠ | Follow Us: ⁠Instagram⁠ | Listen Here: ⁠Podcast⁠

Other Resources Mentioned:

Sandra Funk's Interior Design Standard

MrSteam's Virtual Spa Tool

The Boardroom for Creatives

Other Shows Mentioned:

Episode 1210: What Would Lu Do: The Discount Lie

⁠Episode 1200⁠⁠: SPONSORED SHOW: Mr. Steam: Optimize Wellness Design with Steam Showers Built for Performance⁠