Designed by Wingnut Social | Interior Design Business

How to Become an Interior Designer From Home (with Alexis Peters)

Are you getting burnt out by running a traditional interior design firm? Then check out this show with Alexis Peters - you just might change your business model. Today’s guest is Alexis Peters of “Home Styling by Alexis,” and we discuss the importance of offering virtual services to your clients, as well as the perks to becoming a completely remote interior designer.
Alexis Peters fundamentally believes that every single person on this planet deserves to live beautifully regardless of their income. Beauty & affordable go hand in hand in her book. Alexis' background as a production designer for feature films is where she learned how to stretch the dollar crazy far and the results were thrilling. Craving to help as many people as she could live beautifully, Alexis started an interior design business specializing in Virtual Design.
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⭐️Alexis specializes in virtual design. She wanted to build a business where she could travel and be anywhere she wanted, yet still be making money. Coming from a film background, she transitioned into a design career after helping her mom redesign her home over FaceTime during the pandemic. She believes all businesses should offer virtual design to increase their sales. When you go digital, there are no limitations on who you can serve. Alexis started her business by reimagining spaces for locals, but realized she could access a wider clientele by designing via FaceTime or Zoom. This career choice still allows her to help others, but now she can embrace more free time and stay comfortable at home. Alexis describes this as, “I still get to have my life, and be creatively fulfilled and help people.”
⭐️Alexis fell in love with design as a child visiting one of her family member’s mansions. She felt so inspired by the gorgeous home that she would return to her house and rearrange furniture, artwork, and more. She learned that the way you arrange furniture in a space can be life-changing. Alexis felt she was able to recreate the magical feelings she felt in the mansion in her own home just by moving furniture around. She was able to create a new, safe, cozy feeling to her space with existing pieces. It inspired her current business in that she believes everyone deserves to live beautifully regardless of their budget.
⭐️When it comes to virtual design, you can offer many things: 3-D renderings, floor plans, and much more. No matter what you’re offering, Alexis believes a virtual aspect to your business is crucial. In our current society, more people are craving a virtual option. With virtual offerings, your business becomes more accessible and you expand your clientele.
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📲CONNECT with Alexis:
Website: http://www.homestylingbyalexis.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/homestylingbyalexis/
📲CONNECT with Darla:
Darla’s Interior Design Website: https://darlapowell.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darlapowellhome/
📚Resources & People Mentioned:
"Shantaram" by Gregory David Roberts
Photogrid: https://www.photogrid.app/en/
🏠FOLLOW Wingnut Social:
Website: http://www.wingnutsocial.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WingnutSocial/
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Wingnut Webinars: https://wingnutsocial.com/webinar
Get Wingnut Academy Updates: https://wingnutsocial.com/wingnut-academy/
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Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3RJzmtK
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TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook: What’s the Best Content to Post? | Mini News

TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook: what’s the best content to post? On this episode of Mini News, Emily walks us through the transition from social media to entertainment media. When it comes to short form video content, why aren’t Instagram and Facebook as successful as TikTok? What type of content is most successful, and what is best for your audience? Find out on today's Mini News!
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⭐️If you've been listening to the podcast for a while, then you know that video has been reigning king on social media, specifically short-form video. There's been a long-standing battle between Meta and TikTok, fighting for dominance of the social media space. However, TikTok doesn't consider itself a social media platform - it's branded as an entertainment app (or a media company that distributes content) similar to Netflix. The problem with Instagram and Facebook trying to push short-form entertainment videos is that their companies were built on the social graph. TikTok has always been an entertainment-first platform. Facebook was founded on social connections and maintaining relationships, so this transition has been difficult for them as their app really serves a much different purpose than entertainment.
⭐️Here at Wingnut, we've noticed a shift recently with some of our clients where Reels are not performing as well as they once did. We're seeing carousel posts and still images gaining traction again - not all hope is lost when it comes to photo content! However, this is why strategy is so important. When you have a strategy in place for your social media accounts, you know exactly what you need to be posting to better resonate with your audience. That's where we come in!
⭐️There's no hard and fast rule that says you should be only be posting entertainment video content. You should test different types of content and see what performs best. While Meta's algorithm is pushing video content, it will ultimately push what resonates most with your audience. Meta wants users to be spending the maximum amount of time on their platform, so they will push what your audience will engage with the most.
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📲CONNECT with Darla:
Darla’s Interior Design Website: https://darlapowell.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darlapowellhome/
🏠FOLLOW Wingnut Social:
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Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WingnutSocial/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wingnutsocial
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Wingnut Webinars: https://wingnutsocial.com/webinar
Get Wingnut Academy Updates: https://wingnutsocial.com/wingnut-academy/
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Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3RJzmtK
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How to Create the Perfect Online Course (with Ariel Schiffer)

Are you thinking of creating an online course? Guest Ariel Schiffer is the Founder of Dreampro, the first-choice course creation agency for entrepreneurs and small business owners - and she's also helping build a Wingnut Social course! Today, we discuss who should create a course, the potential of an online course, what goes into the course creation, common mistakes, and much more.
Ariel Schiffer is the Founder of Dreampro, the first-choice course creation agency for entrepreneurs and small business owners. She has over 10 years of experience working with Fortune 50 companies, non-profit organizations, small businesses, and private companies to develop their professional and leadership development programs. Her agency offers expertise in creating courses and programs with a mission to improve the quality of education and offerings in the online space.
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⭐️Even as a DIY-er, you can still make a phenomenal course. It’s not about having all the bells and whistles, or crazy video editing. It’s about being extremely clear with potential course members and letting them know what they’ll get out of the course. A good course is designed based on the people who are taking it. When it comes to learning something new, it can be uncomfortable to step out of your comfort zone. To make this process easier for your course members, make your course something that really relates to their lifestyle. This will create a stronger connection with your course members as well.
⭐️When it comes to figuring out who exactly your course will help, and what it will help them do, get as specific as possible. Unless you have a massive audience or credibility, get as niche as possible in your digital offerings as it will allow you to market yourself even more. Listen to the noise - what are people sick of? What are they begging for? What are people constantly asking about? As much as we don’t like to be in the noise, listen to it! It will ultimately clue you in to what’s trending, and what people are craving right now. Once you figure this out, you’ll be able to offer something really valuable and help your learners overcome something they’re currently struggling with.
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📲CONNECT with Ariel:
Website: https://dreamprocourses.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dreamprocourses/
📲CONNECT with Darla:
Darla’s Interior Design Website: https://darlapowell.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darlapowellhome/
📚Resources & People Mentioned:
"Built to Sell: Creating a Business That Can Thrive Without You" by John Warrillow
🏠FOLLOW Wingnut Social:
Website: http://www.wingnutsocial.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WingnutSocial/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wingnutsocial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wingnutsocial/
Wingnut Webinars: https://wingnutsocial.com/webinar
Get Wingnut Academy Updates: https://wingnutsocial.com/wingnut-academy/
🎧SUBSCRIBE to The Wingnut Social Podcast:
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3RJzmtK
Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/designedongooglepodcasts
TuneIn: https://bit.ly/designedontunein
YouTube: https://bit.ly/designedonyoutube

How to Get More Subscribers with YouTube Shorts | Mini News

On this week’s Mini News sesh, Emily and Lilah discuss YouTube Shorts. Do Shorts really matter? How do Shorts impact your YouTube channel as a whole? If you’re already posting on TikTok and Instagram, do you need to post YouTube Shorts as well? Watch this video and find out!
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⭐️Did you know that 75% of YouTube users engage with Shorts in some form? 70% of web users regularly watch short-form video. This being said, Shorts are definitely a rising competitor to TikTok and Instagram Reels. If you're a YouTube user, you should be using Shorts, too. In the last month, 74.4% of YouTube viewers that have found our channel (Wingnut Social) discovered it via their Shorts feed.
⭐️YouTube is testing new monetization options, including product tagging, which will be similar to Instagram and TikTok. What does this mean for interior designers, architects, and home brands? Well, you'll be able to tag your products in your Shorts!
⭐️If you're already creating videos for TikTok and Instagram, upload them to YouTube as well. You'll be getting even more value out of your effort. Videos under 60 seconds will automatically be shared as Shorts, similar to how videos on Instagram are automatically shared as Reels. If you also create long-form content, your Shorts can help users discover those longer videos. Here's a tip for your Shorts: YouTube is very SEO-heavy, meaning keywords in your video titles and descriptions are super important. Your Shorts "captions" are going to look different from an Instagram Reel or TikTok caption, which are more reliant on hashtags.
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📲CONNECT with Darla:
Darla’s Interior Design Website: https://darlapowell.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darlapowellhome/
🏠FOLLOW Wingnut Social:
Website: http://www.wingnutsocial.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WingnutSocial/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wingnutsocial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wingnutsocial/
Wingnut Webinars: https://wingnutsocial.com/webinar
Get Wingnut Academy Updates: https://wingnutsocial.com/wingnut-academy/
🎧SUBSCRIBE to The Wingnut Social Podcast:
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3RJzmtK
Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/designedongooglepodcasts
TuneIn: https://bit.ly/designedontunein
YouTube: https://bit.ly/designedonyoutube

How to Transition Your Business Into a Full-Service Interior Design Firm (with Hearth Homes Interiors)

Are you thinking about transitioning from a staging business to a full-service interior design firm? Watch this video! Katie and Olivia of Hearth Homes Interiors started as a staging company and found success, but they decided they wanted to pivot and go all-in as a design firm. Today, they walk us through what led them to that decision, as well as how they navigated the transition.
Hearth Homes Interiors is a Santa Barbara design firm owned by two sisters-in-law, Katie Labourdette-Martinez and Olivia Wahler. After starting as a staging company and finding success, they decided they wanted to pivot and go all-in as a design firm. Their work reflects that highly-coveted, quintessential Santa Barbara style—refined and timeless, approachable, livable, and filled with organic textures and layers.
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⭐️Are you a new designer or decorator entering the industry, but you’re not quite sure whether you’d like to do staging or design? Staging is an incredibly necessary service, especially for the real estate market, but it can require a lot of logistics. You’ll occasionally be met with long-term homeowners that may be uncomfortable seeing new furniture in their home, or are upset that they have to put their personal identifying items away. However, this needs to be done because staging has to appeal to the masses - it needs to be visually appealing to the most amount of people possible. With design, you can be more specific to the person that will be living in the space. You can give a different sort of flair to design that you cannot with staging. Olivia says designing a house for a family to live in is extremely gratifying; she loves designing it to their lifestyle and creating a space that’s going to comfort them and make them happy.
⭐️When it comes to staging, you need to be able to plan out your finances. Having inventory and storing that inventory can get really expensive - consequently, staging is a business where people are often breaking even. You have to be very strategic if you want to make staging a profitable business. You also need to be aware of how the market is doing in order to price your business appropriately. You can dip your toes in the water (without the financial risk) by redesigning existing spaces and freshening up what people already have. Do you really need to have your own inventory for staging? There are business models where you could rent your furniture, however, it’s a trade off as it may compromise your overall furniture selection.
⭐️Is staging or design more lucrative? For Hearth Homes Interiors, staging had a cap - they only had so much warehouse space and inventory, so they couldn’t stage an endless amount of homes. Additionally, during slower months as well as the pandemic, the market became unpredictable. The status of the market is a big part of staging overall. With design, Hearth Homes found that there was a lot more potential to make more money, and the market has less of an impact since it’s a luxury service.
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📲CONNECT with Katie & Olivia:
Website: https://www.hearthhomesinteriors.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hearthhomesinteriors/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@hearthhomes
📲CONNECT with Darla:
Darla’s Interior Design Website: https://darlapowell.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darlapowellhome/
📚Resources & People Mentioned:
"Night Road" by Kristin Hannah
"The Alice Network" Kate Quinn
🏠FOLLOW Wingnut Social:
Website: http://www.wingnutsocial.com
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/wingnutsocial
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Wingnut Webinars: https://wingnutsocial.com/webinar
Get Wingnut Academy Updates: https://wingnutsocial.com/wingnut-academy/
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Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3RJzmtK
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Why You Have to Get On TikTok if You’re an Interior Designer | Mini News

Are you an interior designer about to make a TikTok account and you're looking for tips? OR are you an interior designer who thinks TikTok is just a silly app for kids? Either way, we're here to help! Since TikTok just replaced Netflix as the most popular app for people under 35, Gavin (SEO Manager) is here to share some tips on joining TikTok as an interior designer and the benefits of catering to a younger audience.
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⭐️TikTok just replaced Netflix as the most popular app - not just for kids, but for people under 35. This can be pretty surprising as I’m sure many of us view TikTok as something for kids, or that it’s not a professional space. However, the data shows that this is quickly changing. When you’re thinking about where you want to invest your time and limited amount of resources, you aren’t typically prioritizing younger audiences. However, Gen Z is poised to become one of the wealthiest generations of all time - the average age of people with a $25M net worth is age 45 and above. As an interior designer, if you’re looking to target even the $5-10M range, oddly enough, it could be within the 20-35 year old bracket. These younger generations are developing a higher level of wealth but are a relatively untapped market for interior designers.
⭐️What kind of content should interior designers make on TikTok? Firstly, if you have products you can sell, you can now sell them within the TikTok app and reach more people faster. As social media apps roll out new features, they typically reward early users by pushing your content out more, since it’s ultimately in their best financial interest to showcase new features. But what should the videos even be about? You don’t have to go on TikTok and do silly dances. Shift your perspective and consider this…TikTok can take the weight of professionalism off your shoulders and allow you to be a bit more lighthearted and showcase your personality. Try looking at TikTok as something more “freeing” rather than silly. If you have a staff or team working on projects with you, you can also have them create videos to demonstrate a day-in-the-life at your business. You can also show your design work through TikTok. You can use trending audio and sounds to create a fun video clip, like room transformations, which do really well on TikTok. Take a before and after video, with a little bit of your work in between, add some audio, and post away!
⭐️Have you been really resistant to join TikTok? If you’re an interior designer listening to this right now, you’re going to realize TikTok isn’t just for kids - whether you realize that now and can take advantage of that, or you realize it once someone else has done it. It’s important to get on TikTok as soon as you can because you will see an advantage. TikTok is working to gain more users of older generations as well, so if you fall into that category, you may find your content getting pushed harder in the algorithm. It is financially beneficial for TikTok to push that content to help reach older demographics.
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📲CONNECT with Darla:
Darla’s Interior Design Website: https://darlapowell.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darlapowellhome/
🏠FOLLOW Wingnut Social:
Website: http://www.wingnutsocial.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WingnutSocial/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wingnutsocial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wingnutsocial/
Wingnut Webinars: https://wingnutsocial.com/webinar
Get Wingnut Academy Updates: https://wingnutsocial.com/wingnut-academy/
🎧SUBSCRIBE to The Wingnut Social Podcast:
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3RJzmtK
Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/designedongooglepodcasts
TuneIn: https://bit.ly/designedontunein
YouTube: https://bit.ly/designedonyoutube

How Much Should I Pay Myself as a Business Owner? (with Tara Newman)

How much should I pay myself as an interior design business owner? Do I need to have a million-dollar business to be a millionaire? And what does profit-first mean? Tara Newman is here to help you calculate your revenue goal, figure out how much you should be charging for your services, and learn what percentage you should be paying yourself as the business owner.
Tara Newman is the Founder and CEO of The Bold Profit Academy where she teaches service-based business owners how to sell premium services and programs without the emotional stress of launching, worrying about ads, overwhelming social strategies or complex funnels.Tara hosts a weekly podcast called The Bold Money Revolution and has been featured in publications like Money Magazine, Yahoo Finance, and Huffington Post as well as other publications and podcasts.
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⭐️Tara says that $250,000 per year is what allows you to pay yourself $10,000 a month. It’s not necessarily a factor of whether we should be looking things at an annual basis or monthly basis. Tara works with many business owners, particularly established female experts running service-based businesses. One of the big moments for these women who are experts at what they do, but not necessarily experts at business when they get started, is when they realize they need to replace their traditional salary (which is often around 6 figures). Tara says if you want to be paying yourself $100,000 a year, you need to have business revenue in excess of $250,000 a year. If you’re running a business bringing in $250,000 or less in revenue, in profit-first theory, you should be able to pay yourself 50% of that revenue.
⭐️When you’re scaling your business and hiring employees, how do you keep on track with paying yourself adequately within the profit-first formula? As business owners, it’s important to get into a habit of asking yourself, “How can I simplify?” Ask yourself these questions on a weekly basis: What can I delete? What isn’t adding any value to my customer experience? Tara says if it’s not adding to your customer experience, then it’s not adding value to you in the long run. Another thing to ask yourself is what you can automate. There are some great technological options and simple tools that allow businesses to automate more and still maintain a high-touch business. Tara finds that many business owners don’t understand their operation well enough, and they just start hiring employees because they feel overwhelmed. Instead, Tara recommends you stop and check in on how to reduce the overwhelm not necessarily through adding a person. Can better boundaries be established? Is there some clarity we can have around our process? These things need to be addressed before scaling, otherwise you run the risk of complicating your process in a costly way. The ultimate goal of scaling is to increase revenue without adding equal amounts of expense.
⭐️How do you know if you’re charging enough for your services, and how do you find out your goal revenue? We all have our own magic number that we need to hit based on our personal financial goals and situation. Tara created a revenue goal calculator that allows you to reverse-engineer your particular needs. When using the calculator, you’ll put in your personal financial needs and then it will calculate what revenue goal you need to hit in order to pay yourself. Check out the revenue goal calculator at theboldleadershiprevolution.com/revenue.
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📲CONNECT with Tara:
Website: https://theboldleadershiprevolution.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thetaranewman/
📲CONNECT with Darla:
Darla’s Interior Design Website: https://darlapowell.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darlapowellhome/
📚Resources & People Mentioned:
"Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole" by Susan Cain
Revenue Goal Calculator: https://theboldleadershiprevolution.com/revenue-goal-calculator/
🏠FOLLOW Wingnut Social:
Website: http://www.wingnutsocial.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WingnutSocial/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wingnutsocial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wingnutsocial/
Wingnut Webinars: https://wingnutsocial.com/webinar
Get Wingnut Academy Updates: https://wingnutsocial.com/wingnut-academy/
🎧SUBSCRIBE to The Wingnut Social Podcast:
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3RJzmtK
Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/designedongooglepodcasts
TuneIn: https://bit.ly/designedontunein
YouTube: https://bit.ly/designedonyoutube
 

You Can Shop on TikTok with This New E-Commerce Feature | Mini News

Did you know that you can now shop on TikTok? TikTok has a new e-commerce feature, similar to Instagram shopping. TikTok shopping is currently being tested with big brands like Amazon, Target, and more, but it will be rolled out to smaller creators and influencers as well. Meanwhile, Myspace makes a comeback through a new Instagram feature that allows you to add music to your feed posts.
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⭐️There may be some of you interior designers out there rolling your eyes when you hear the word TikTok. However, we’ve seen some big brands, real estate agents, and designers take TikTok by storm. There’s a big opportunity for TikTok to be a key extension of your brand. TikTok helps interior design feel more accessible to new users and viewers. Whether you like TikTok or not, this Mini News is for you, because TikTok is in the process of launching their in-app e-commerce in the United States. It’s been out in the UK for a bit, but now it’s moving to the US. Think of it like Instagram shopping, but on TikTok! Right now, it’s only available to bigger brands like Amazon, Target, and others, but eventually they’re hoping to roll it out to the smaller creators and influencers. Abby suspects there will be a follower count requirement, based on the fact that you can’t have direct links in your bio on TikTok unless you have at least a thousand followers. After this initial testing with bigger brands is complete, smaller accounts should have access to it as well. We’re on TikTok @wingnutsocial - give us a follow!
⭐️TikTok tips: We’ve experienced that “talking head” videos aren’t getting us much traction as more original, creative content. It can seem very random what takes off, but from our experience, aesthetically pleasing videos tend to do better, plus videos that use trending audios. Spend 10 minutes a day scrolling through TikTok and if you hear the same audio more than once, try using that audio and see how your video does!
⭐️You might have seen this in your feed over the last few days - Instagram has added the capability to add music to your static feed posts. When you’re composing your feed post, there’s an option before hitting share that says “Add music” and you can add 5 to 90 seconds of a song of your choosing to your post. This doesn’t mean that you can skip out on Reels. These are still considered static images. Using this new tool may boost you slightly in the algorithm since they’ve been pushing this feature. Instagram typically rewards users that test their new features. This new feature could also help convey more emotion through your posts to connect with your followers in a new way.
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📲CONNECT with Darla:
Darla’s Interior Design Website: https://darlapowell.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darlapowellhome/
🏠FOLLOW Wingnut Social:
Website: http://www.wingnutsocial.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WingnutSocial/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wingnutsocial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wingnutsocial/
Wingnut Webinars: https://wingnutsocial.com/webinar
Get Wingnut Academy Updates: https://wingnutsocial.com/wingnut-academy/
🎧SUBSCRIBE to The Wingnut Social Podcast:
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3RJzmtK
Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/designedongooglepodcasts
TuneIn: https://bit.ly/designedontunein YouTube: https://bit.ly/designedonyoutube

How to Ask Your Interior Design Clients for Their Budget (with Hilaire Pickett-Martin)

How do you get that elusive budget from your interior design clients? Stick around and find out! On today’s show, we’re discussing client communication and transparency. Guest Hilaire Pickett-Martin is here to tell us to not shy away from answering (and asking) the tough questions with your interior design clients - plus how to ask your interior design clients for their budget!
Hilaire Pickett-Martin grew up (quite literally) in the business. She is a graduate of Elon University. Hilaire handles Design Lines’ communications, and applies her enthusiasm and passion to promoting the firm. She also oversees all the accounting and day-to-day operations. Hilaire uses her inborn knowledge of the business to pitch in wherever she can. Outside of the business, her favorite vacation spot is Whistler, British Columbia, and she recently learned to wakeboard and snowboard.
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⭐️Hilaire says transparency starts at the first meeting with your client. It’s important to really listen to your client and understand their challenges. What does your client ultimately want? Use your first meeting to get to the bottom of their goal. Hilaire sets expectations along the way, even in the initial design presentation. She may show her clients design choices that have big lead times; she makes sure to articulate these timelines to her clients. She also tries to get a sense of the client’s budget and timeframe (even if it’s a range) to make sure they align with her vision. Hilaire is very authentic in her conversation with her clients, being fully honest if she doesn’t think something can be accomplished within their budget and timeframe.
⭐️How do you get your client to tell you their budget? There are several different approaches. If your clients have a number but are just hesitant to share it, Hilaire recommends asking for a range - “give us a high, give us a low.” Another approach is to identify pieces within the space that the clients are willing to spend money on. You can find a budget range by value engineering specific pieces. Value engineering is a fancy way of saying “working within a budget.” There are 3 things you can have - price, function, or quality - but you can’t always have all 3. You might have to sacrifice one or the other. If you value engineer the price of an item, you may not have the best quality. At the end of the day, you have to pick what’s important and what you want to spend the money on.
⭐️Being transparent during the final steps of the design process is just as important as being upfront in the beginning. So you’ve procured furniture and it’s on purchase order - having open communication about delivery is crucial. Obviously there has been a huge amount of pressure on expediting over the past few years due to supply chain issues. Hilaire is very open about deliveries, letting her clients know that the timelines and delivery dates are subject to change. She feels people have been relatively understanding of these delays coming out of a pandemic. Additionally, Hilaire and her team are present for every install. They make sure everything comes off the truck in great condition, and if they’re not, they let the client know and work towards repairs or returns. Lastly, they communicate with their clients at the very end of the process upon invoicing.
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📲CONNECT with Hilaire:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/designlinessignature/
Website: https://designlinesltd.com/
📲CONNECT with Darla:
Darla’s Interior Design Website: https://darlapowell.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darlapowellhome/
📚Resources & People Mentioned:
"Feeding the Soul" by Tabitha Brown
🏠FOLLOW Wingnut Social:
Website: http://www.wingnutsocial.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WingnutSocial/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wingnutsocial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wingnutsocial/
Wingnut Webinars: https://wingnutsocial.com/webinar
Get Wingnut Academy Updates: https://wingnutsocial.com/wingnut-academy/
🎧SUBSCRIBE to The Wingnut Social Podcast:
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3RJzmtK
Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/designedongooglepodcasts
TuneIn: https://bit.ly/designedontunein YouTube: https://bit.ly/designedonyoutube

3 Tips to Grow Your Instagram Account | Mini News

Want tips to grow your Instagram account? It’s our 300th episode - woohoo! Today we’re sharing 3 awesome tips on growing your Instagram following. We also have an Instagram contest to celebrate our 300th episode @wingnutsocial - enter to win a FREE 30-minute Instagram audit consultation OR SEO audit consultation.
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⭐️Go to our Instagram page and check out our 300th episode giveaway. You can enter by liking the post, following our Instagram, and tagging 3 people in the comments. The grand prize is your choice of a mini SEO audit consultation with us, or an Instagram audit consultation with us. That’s a 30 minute consultation with experts at Wingnut Social to go over your Instagram and give you real takeaways and advice on improving your account, what you can do better, and what you’re already doing great. For the SEO audit, or “search engine optimization,” we’ll run a quick audit and sit down with you to review the results. We’ll give you advice on how to gain traffic to your website and much more. It’s a FREE coaching session! Enter the contest today on Instagram @wingnutsocial.
⭐️When it comes to growing your Instagram following, we talk a lot about the types of content you’re posting, but we don’t always consider what you have to do once that content goes live. We have 3 great tips for you to help grow your Instagram following! #1: Respond to your comments on your posts. When you receive comments on your posts, don’t just leave them hanging! It’s great you got that initial engagement, but when you respond to the comments, you make the users feel special and heard, which encourages more comments. If possible, try to respond within an hour of receiving a comment. It’s a lot of work, but it’s super important to build that engagement and establish real connections with your followers. Getting ghosted can sometimes hurt your followers, so if you aren’t responding, they may not comment again. Think about a time when you commented on a creator’s post and they actually responded to you - how did that make you feel?
⭐️Tip #2: Respond to your DMs too! Don’t just ignore those direct messages that come in. Check them often and see what’s coming in. You might be getting business inquiries that you’re not realizing are coming through! You might get people asking about your services and more. It’s an opportunity to respond and drive them to the next step in your process, whether that be your website contact page, a phone number to call you at, or a link to schedule a call. At the very least, have an automated response on hand with directions to your contact page.
⭐️Tip #3: Engage with accounts within your target audience. Engage with accounts that you think your target audience would also be engaging with. The formula here is to like a post, comment something specific on the post (not just “Love it!”), and follow the account. It’s a great way to get that account, and those who follow that account, to view your profile and potentially engage with your content/follow you. But who do you know who to engage with? Look for accounts that relate to your target audience. For example, if you’re a designer in Miami targeting high income families, you should interact with local businesses like high end restaurants and family attractions (not always design accounts). In terms of hashtags, you could try “Miami families,” “Miami living,” “family life,” and more.
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📲CONNECT with Darla:
Darla’s Interior Design Website: https://darlapowell.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darlapowellhome/
🏠FOLLOW Wingnut Social:
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Wingnut Webinars: https://wingnutsocial.com/webinar
Get Wingnut Academy Updates: https://wingnutsocial.com/wingnut-academy/
🎧SUBSCRIBE to The Wingnut Social Podcast:
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3RJzmtK
Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/designedongooglepodcasts
TuneIn: https://bit.ly/designedontunein YouTube: https://bit.ly/designedonyoutube

Environmental Psychology and Design (with Smita Sahoo)

What does studying criminal minds have to do with interior design? Smita Sahoo (founder of āśaya I Design in Chicago) joins us to discuss her studies of environmental psychology, which explores the relationship between humans and the world around them. Smita uses research and data to drive her design. Also in this episode, Smita offers advice to fellow women designers and entrepreneurs.
After working for over 16 years with top national and international real estate developers and companies, Smita founded āśaya I Design, a Chicago based luxury interior design and architecture firm. Her uniquely creative voice in the design profession is informed by a diverse background in architecture, interior design and environmental psychology. Smita thrives on designing spaces that strengthen our emotional connections to the places we live, work, and interact.
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⭐️Smita has a focus in environmental psychology, which is understanding how humans interact in their environments. Environmental psychology is very data-based, and this data helps drive her design. Every human being picks up on certain cues in their environment before they act. Smita studies the design of certain spaces and how human beings perceive it. She illustrates this through the design of a high-end store. You can’t lock up all the expensive items like a CVS. Your merchandise needs to be on display, but you don’t want to encourage it to be snatched up. In this situation, you need to curate a perception that customers are being watched so they are less likely to steal. Ultimately, Smita uses research and data to design comfortable spaces that feel secure.
⭐️Smita is very passionate about empowering fellow women in business. She has some really great advice, starting with “believe in yourself.” Once you believe in yourself, and you have decided that this is your path, no matter what happens you will commit to moving forward. Everything else will become aligned. Successful entrepreneurs are not those who haven’t seen failure - they have failed, picked themselves up, and kept going! Smita compares this to a child’s mentality of learning to walk. Despite constantly falling, they remain curious and don’t give up. She advises to not give up, with the intention of learning to walk, and eventually you will start walking. Confidence and tenacity comes first - the rest can be taught. You have to be a little crazy in pursuing your business, because if you’re just playing it safe and doing what’s already been done, you aren’t taking any chances or betting on yourself.
⭐️When it comes to mentorships, Smita keeps an open mind and likes to have multiple mentors from different walks of life. Different people have different strengths. Smita advises reaching out to potential mentors regarding some of their work that you admire, and request some time to chat. Smita has never shied away from reaching out to high-level designers and asking to grab coffee and chat about their experiences. She even reaches out to other business owners to ask simple questions like, “How do you save on taxes?” and “How do you hire people?” There’s a lot to learn from other business owners and how they operate. Try reaching out to someone you know and share secrets!
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📲CONNECT with Smita:
Instagram: https://instagram.com/asaya.design?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Website: https://www.asayadesign.com/
📲CONNECT with Susan & Paul:
Website: https://kadilakhomes.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/KadilakHomes/
📚Resources & People Mentioned:
"Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul" by Howard Schultz
🏠FOLLOW Wingnut Social:
Website: http://www.wingnutsocial.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WingnutSocial/
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Wingnut Webinars: https://wingnutsocial.com/webinar
Get Wingnut Academy Updates: https://wingnutsocial.com/wingnut-academy/
🎧SUBSCRIBE to The Wingnut Social Podcast:
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3RJzmtK
Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/designedongooglepodcasts
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YouTube: https://bit.ly/designedonyoutube

Is Elon Musk Bringing Back Vine?! | Mini News

Is Elon Musk bringing back Vine?! It’s been a wild week in the social media landscape, and SEO Manager Gavin is here to break it down for you. We discuss Elon Musk acquiring Twitter, the potential comeback of Vine, and the Instagram outage that caused everyone to lose followers. 
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⭐️Twitter has been acquired by Elon Musk! We don’t really know what he plans to do with the platform, but Twitter in general has played an outsized role within the political media landscape due to its following among journalists, commentators, celebrities, and more. Elon says, “The reason I acquired Twitter is because it’s important to the future of civilization to have a common digital town square where a wide range of beliefs can be debated in a healthy manner without resorting to violence.” Anyone who is looking to become a thought leader in the social space should be looking at all avenues of the social media landscape, including Twitter (regardless of how you feel about Elon Musk). Elon Musk is the first person to have taken five different companies in five separate verticals and built billion-dollar businesses from the ground up. You can expect Twitter to transform as a result of Musk’s acquisition, especially since Twitter really hasn’t changed much in terms of its functionality since its inception.
⭐️Elon Musk is entertaining the idea of reintroducing Vine. Vine really laid the groundwork for today’s social media. Before Vine, social media platforms were primarily photo-based. Vine was the only quick, funny, entertainment-driven site. It was the first platform to introduce what we have today as modern social media. Elon Musk bringing Vine back as a competitor to TikTok could be incredibly successful. Additionally, in times of recessions, entertainment-based media and social media outlets always thrive. It could be a perfect storm to bring back Vine as a competitor to TikTok. Vine has a big nostalgia factor for people, so it’s possible if it came back, people would be eager to produce less on TikTok (or leave TikTok altogether) in favor of creating content on Vine.
⭐️What does this all mean for interior designers? Take stock of your current content on other platforms (like TikTok), and start taking steps to prepare this content to transition to Vine. Prepare your content in advance so, should Vine come back, you’ll be ready the second it launches. You don’t want to begin your content creation post-launch. If your content is already prepared for Vine, you can be a first-mover, which is incredibly important. Getting on a social platform early can have a huge impact on your following and offer other big advantages. If you’re already creating content for Instagram Reels and YouTube Shorts, you should be able to repurpose this for Vine - make sure your video content is incredibly organized on your computer or hard drive so you can immediately plug and play if Vine comes back.
⭐️There was an outage on Instagram where everyone was losing a ton of followers. There were many reports of people being suspended from their accounts randomly. Within a couple hours, it seemingly resolved and the followers returned. Was it a bug, or was it a hacker? What do you think? Either way, it seems everything is back to normal (for now).
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📲CONNECT with Darla:
Darla’s Interior Design Website: https://darlapowell.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darlapowellhome/
🏠FOLLOW Wingnut Social:
Website: http://www.wingnutsocial.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WingnutSocial/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wingnutsocial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wingnutsocial/
Wingnut Webinars: https://wingnutsocial.com/webinar
Get Wingnut Academy Updates: https://wingnutsocial.com/wingnut-academy/
🎧SUBSCRIBE to The Wingnut Social Podcast:
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3RJzmtK
Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/designedongooglepodcasts
TuneIn: https://bit.ly/designedontunein
YouTube: https://bit.ly/designedonyoutube

Project Management Tips for Busy Entrepreneurs (with Tonya Thomas)

Are you an interior designer struggling with organization and project management? Tonya Thomas joins us today to share some tips and tools that she’s used to help CEOs grow their teams from 1 employee to 50, lead multi-million-dollar revenue growth, and free up their time to oversee major expansion projects. Also in this episode, Tonya explains how hiring a virtual assistant is the key to a complete organizational overhaul.
Tonya Thomas is the founder of Team Delegate, a provider of elite virtual executive assistant support to seasoned executives turned small business owners. Tonya is a speaker, 20+ year business owner, and host of the Unbottleneck Your Business podcast. She excels in helping CEOs grow their teams from 1 employee to 50, lead multi-million-dollar revenue growth, and free up their time to oversee major expansion projects.
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⭐️Why are systems important for businesses? Systems create consistency and organization! A lot of times we have systems in place and don’t realize it - for example, if you have an assistant that manages your calendar through Google Calendars or Outlook, that’s a system! Your system consists of the tools that you use, and how you use the tools.
⭐️SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) are super important to put in place for your business. They create organization, and they’re also helpful in case of turnover - you won’t need to utilize your time to train new hires because a well-created SOP can be used effortlessly for onboarding. It’s important that your SOPs are both written and visual, because everyone learns differently (adding in videos can help visual learners). Creating SOPs can also help identify issues within your overall workflow and ultimately allow you to smooth out your processes.
⭐️Some helpful project management tools are Asana, Monday.com, and Teamwork. Tonya personally uses Teamwork for projects. Even if it’s just you and one other person, having a project management system is crucial because it organizes your work. When you’re working with others, especially if it’s remote, a project management system really helps create cohesion and consistency as you’re working together virtually.
⭐️What’s a virtual assistant, and do I need one? If you’re someone who doesn’t necessarily need a full-time employee, but are seeking some help in managing your calendar and other tasks, an executive virtual assistant can work for you. Your company can either be in person or remote, it doesn’t matter - a virtual assistant can help both! An assistant will help create systems for your business, and also research project management and organization tools that suit you and your team.
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📲CONNECT with Tonya:
Website: https://www.teamdelegate.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/teamdelegate/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tonyabthomas/
📲CONNECT with Darla:
Darla’s Interior Design Website: https://darlapowell.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darlapowellhome/
📚Resources & People Mentioned:
“The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It” by Michael E. Gerber
🏠FOLLOW Wingnut Social:
Website: http://www.wingnutsocial.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WingnutSocial/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wingnutsocial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wingnutsocial/
Wingnut Webinars: https://wingnutsocial.com/webinar
Get Wingnut Academy Updates: https://wingnutsocial.com/wingnut-academy/
🎧SUBSCRIBE to The Wingnut Social Podcast:
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3RJzmtK
Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/designedongooglepodcasts
TuneIn: https://bit.ly/designedontunein YouTube: https://bit.ly/designedonyoutube

How to Schedule Reels and Posts on Instagram | Mini News

Social media manager Lilah joins us to discuss how to schedule reels and posts on Instagram. Instagram has a new in-app feature that will allow you to schedule your reels and other posts. This is a great development, but is it the best option for you and your business? Watch this video and find out!
***⭐️Instagram is releasing an in-app scheduling feature! Scheduling your content is extremely important if you’re aiming to grow your business through Instagram. It allows you to save time by batching your content - you can upload your photo, add a caption and tags, and then schedule all your posts out. It will be a very simple feature, including just the date and time of scheduling, just like scheduling an email.
⭐️Despite this update, there are still many 3rd-party options for scheduling content on Instagram that offer more in-depth features (Hootsuite, HubSpot, and Later are other platforms that offer post scheduling). The benefit to using the Instagram scheduler is that it’s directly in app - it will be best for scheduling reels, especially if you want to add audio or music. However, unlike the 3rd-party platforms, Instagram currently will not offer competitor reports, hashtag analysis, best posting times, and other helpful tools.
⭐️What if I have multiple people logged into one Instagram account? Lilah suspects that not everyone will be able to see the scheduled posts, and that it will be specific to your phone. So if you are in a situation where you have someone approving posts to go out, this likely won’t be the best solution for you at this time.
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📲CONNECT with Darla:
Darla’s Interior Design Website: https://darlapowell.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darlapowellhome/
🏠FOLLOW Wingnut Social:
Website: http://www.wingnutsocial.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WingnutSocial/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wingnutsocial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wingnutsocial/
Wingnut Webinars: https://wingnutsocial.com/webinar
Get Wingnut Academy Updates: https://wingnutsocial.com/wingnut-academy/
🎧SUBSCRIBE to The Wingnut Social Podcast:
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3RJzmtK
Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/designedongooglepodcasts
TuneIn: https://bit.ly/designedontunein YouTube: https://bit.ly/designedonyoutube

How to Create Social Videos and Blow up Your Business (with Susan & Paul Kadilak)

Do you want to create videos for social media and grow your business, but you’re not quite sure where to begin? Susan and Paul Kadilak (Kadilak Homes) are here to share all their content creation secrets! They have had incredible success marketing and promoting their design + build firm, growing their business by 60% in one year by developing and implementing a social video strategy. Today they’re discussing how to build and action based strategy to grow business with social video, key details to create social video, and what’s next in the evolution of social video and how to grow in this ever changing landscape.
@KadilakHomes is a design build firm run by Susan & Paul Kadilak in the Greater Boston area. Together they have made it their mission to help their clients turn an ordinary house into a haven that they love coming home to! The Kadilak’s have grown by connecting directly with their audience through their social media channels and are excited to announce that they just launched a brand-new app, “Renovation Rekindle” for their Emmy nominated home renovation show.
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⭐️Can I really get my ideal client from social media marketing? Susan says look at the numbers - everyone is on these social platforms, and you need to go where your clients are. From social media alone, Susan and Paul’s business has grown tremendously. When you’re posting consistently and putting your content out there, your clients are attracted to that. If there is a client out there who isn’t a good fit for you, and they look at your content, they’ll never call you. But if someone’s looking at your content and watching your videos, they’ll usually do it for a while before they call you. They’re often a better fit because they’ve taken the time to prescreen you - they likely have made a decision before they even call you! Based on this, the quality of people reaching out to you will be better than traditional advertising.
⭐️Susan and Paul advise that if you’re not creating video content right now (and you’re hesitant to begin), start small. Instead of jumping in front of a camera, experiment with visuals, pictures, and concepts - you don’t necessarily have to be in the video at first. Take videos of your next project, drawing, job site, or whatever feels right. Eventually, you can start to appear in the videos, beginning with a quick snippet, and working up from there. Susan says she’s the last person who wants to be on video, but realized she wouldn’t get better if she didn’t try. Looking back, Paul says they “weren’t good” when they first started, but to be fair…nobody is! If you’re worried about starting, and find yourself paralyzed by fear of failure, you have to get over it or else you’ll never get started at all. You don’t have to be perfect…you don’t even have to be “good.” At the end of the day, you’re not auditioning for a role; you’re just documenting what you do and connecting with your clients, sharing your authentic self.
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📲CONNECT with Susan & Paul:
Website: https://kadilakhomes.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/KadilakHomes/
📲CONNECT with Darla:
Darla’s Interior Design Website: https://darlapowell.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/darlapowellhome/
📚Resources & People Mentioned:
"Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know" by Malcolm Gladwell
"Twelve and a Half: Leveraging the Emotional Ingredients Necessary for Business Success" by Gary Vaynerchuk
Check out "Renovation Rekindle" here: https://kadilakhomes.com/renovation-rekindle/
🏠FOLLOW Wingnut Social:
Website: http://www.wingnutsocial.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WingnutSocial/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/wingnutsocial
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wingnutsocial/
Wingnut Webinars: https://wingnutsocial.com/webinar
Get Wingnut Academy Updates: https://wingnutsocial.com/wingnut-academy/
🎧SUBSCRIBE to The Wingnut Social Podcast:
Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3RJzmtK
Google Podcasts: https://bit.ly/designedongooglepodcasts
TuneIn: https://bit.ly/designedontunein YouTube: https://bit.ly/designedonyoutube