0:00

Hello and welcome to designer discussions

0:02

with Jason , miriam and Maria . Welcome

0:05

to 2024 and

0:07

we will be talking about planning , marketing

0:10

, pr , business development , helping

0:12

you plan for the new year .

0:16

Welcome to the designer discussions

0:18

podcast with Jason

0:20

Maria and Miriam

0:22

Tune in each week , where

0:24

we talk about marketing , pr and

0:26

business advice for design professionals

0:28

.

0:30

Are you an interior designer facing the challenges

0:32

of marketing your business ? Are you

0:34

struggling to find the time and looking for effective

0:37

solutions ?

0:38

You're not alone Many interior designers

0:40

and will probably share these same things

0:42

, but there is a solution .

0:44

Welcome to the designer discussions academy

0:47

, where we understand your challenges and

0:49

are here to help .

0:50

Our academy offers a monthly focus

0:52

on marketing , pr and business development

0:55

, tailored for interior designers and

0:57

remote Learn the most important marketing

0:59

tactics , from SEO to get press

1:01

, social media and even harnessing

1:04

the power of AI .

1:05

Join us at the designer discussions academy

1:07

and take the first step towards transforming

1:09

your interior design business .

1:11

So if you've listened

1:13

to any of our podcast

1:15

in the last few years , you know we always

1:18

do beginning of the year

1:20

, planning for the year episode . Again

1:22

, I will say , like I said last year listen

1:25

to the original one . We did in

1:27

2022 , because

1:30

that laid the foundation of how

1:32

you need to plan a lot of this . And then we added

1:34

on to it last year in 2023

1:37

and now we're going to add more onto it

1:39

here in 2024 . So

1:41

this episode is

1:43

a continuation of the other two

1:45

episodes . So make sure to listen

1:48

to those episodes where you get the foundation

1:50

and then we're adding on to it now . So

1:52

I'm not going to talk about where I talked about

1:54

. Make sure you have a plan that

1:57

you're reverse engineering so you know what your

1:59

end of the year goal is and you

2:01

know what you need to earn every month

2:03

so you could get to that . I explained all

2:05

of that in the past episode , so I'm not going to go back

2:07

over that . But a lot

2:09

of what I'm going to talk about and what you're going to hear about , I

2:12

did a presentation to the NKBA

2:15

in at the end of last year it was

2:17

December 18th and I talked

2:19

about a lot of the planning for 2024

2:22

. So if you were not on

2:24

that webinar , you'll be able to

2:26

hear what I had talked about in

2:28

that presentation and one

2:30

of the things I had talked about and if you listen to

2:33

the last episode where we did the end of the

2:35

year review , I

2:37

had ended with a sneak peek

2:39

on what I was going to talk about now , which

2:41

was about voice activated interface , and so that's one

2:43

of the things that you

2:45

need to look at Making

2:48

sure that your website is optimized

2:50

for voice command . Whether

2:53

you built the website on your own , you had somebody

2:55

else build it . Make

2:58

sure the technology for having

3:00

voice activated search is actually available , and

3:05

there are apps out there that you can add on

3:07

. If you had a developer built the website , you

3:11

can check with them to make sure that that was incorporated into the web design

3:13

. There are ways that you can check

3:16

that . But

3:19

voice activated search

3:21

or voice activated interfaces one of

3:23

the big deals happening now with AI , which I'm sure Maria

3:25

will talk about , but a lot

3:27

of that is happening now , and

3:31

you want to make sure that when anybody

3:33

is on their mobile device , if they say , show me designers near

3:35

me , show

3:38

me remodeling companies in my area , by them saying

3:41

that , as opposed to typing it , your company

3:43

will be one of the ones that are

3:45

found in search . Also

3:50

, make sure you have chat box

3:52

on your website and on your social media channels . That

3:57

will save you a lot of time . It

3:59

will take you some time to actually set

4:02

that up and there are a ton of YouTube

4:04

videos on how to create that for your

4:06

social media , how you can create

4:08

that for your website . But make sure you

4:10

have that because you may spend

4:12

a few hours to set that up

4:14

, because you want to have all

4:17

the FAQs frequently asked questions

4:19

that anybody asked in terms of

4:21

what are your office hours , what are your

4:23

services all of the typically

4:25

asked questions that you will ask . You

4:27

want to have that in the chatbot so

4:29

anyone can come in and find

4:32

out that information , so you're not having to

4:34

get emailed about it or

4:36

you're not having to get a phone call about stuff

4:38

that they already know . This has helped to

4:40

save you time and it's helped to give

4:43

the end user information that

4:45

they want to know about your company . So

4:47

setting up a chatbot on your social

4:50

media platform and also on your website

4:52

is something that you should do immediately , if

4:55

you do not already have it . Like I said , it's going

4:57

to take a few hours at the start

4:59

, but believe me , it

5:01

will save you a lot of time in the long

5:03

haul . And then the last thing

5:05

I want to talk about on this side

5:07

for planning for the future and I had talked about

5:10

this in the last episode Personalizing

5:12

your content , making

5:14

sure that you A

5:16

we have an episode on identifying

5:19

your ideal client avatar . Make sure

5:21

to listen to that episode . But you want to identify

5:24

who that is and creating

5:26

content that is geared towards

5:28

your ideal client , because right now

5:30

, with the advent of AI and all of the

5:33

content that it generates , it's

5:35

easy for anyone to

5:37

create blogs , to create content

5:39

, but you have to stand

5:41

out from everybody else , from all

5:44

the other designers and remodellers in your

5:46

area . The only way you're going

5:48

to really do that is if you understand

5:50

your ideal client and you

5:52

personalize that content to

5:54

them , so when they read it

5:56

, they know that you're

5:58

relating to them , that you're speaking

6:00

to them . Making sure that the

6:03

content is actually personalized

6:05

is vital . Those are just a few things I want

6:07

to talk about , so I'm going to hand it over to

6:09

Maria , our resident AI

6:11

expert , so she could talk about what

6:13

is to happen in 2024

6:15

. That will help you .

6:17

So , if Jason didn't overwhelm me enough

6:19

, I'm here to help hammer in

6:21

on things that you could

6:23

do to really help out yourself

6:26

this year , and these

6:28

are going to be pretty basic . Actually , I think we

6:31

all know we should be doing these things , but we

6:33

aren't actively doing it , and I

6:35

can safely say if you just take a

6:37

little bit of time and do these two

6:39

things , they'll save you time and money . So

6:42

number one is get in there

6:44

and review all of your subscriptions

6:46

100% , every single

6:48

one of them . Look and see if there

6:50

are other programs that have recently come

6:52

online that can help you do

6:55

those same tasks for less money

6:57

and also can be done easier

6:59

. It's really a good time of year to

7:01

start looking and exploring new solutions

7:04

to things that you've been using , Because

7:06

you might be going from something that's costing you hundreds

7:09

of dollars a year . So think about your

7:11

email servers , your organizational

7:15

programs like your Trello boards and all

7:17

that kind of stuff that you are using

7:20

for project management . Just look around , check them

7:22

out , see if there's something else out there . It's

7:24

time to review your subscriptions

7:26

from 2023 and then possibly

7:29

find something new for some of the

7:31

larger price points

7:33

on your balance

7:35

sheet . Number two

7:38

okay , this is , unfortunately

7:40

, what I really , really want

7:42

you to do . Okay , this one is going to be

7:44

my 100% recommendation to

7:47

you guys , because I am

7:49

thinking of you . Okay , Data

7:52

breaches are going to become

7:54

much more frequent and

7:56

because of data breaches

7:59

being easier and more often

8:02

than they've ever been , all of those old passwords

8:04

that you've been using , where you use one password

8:07

for all your accounts and it was like eight

8:09

and it was like letters and digits

8:12

and you thought that that was gonna secure your account

8:14

. It has secured your account

8:16

in a lot of ways till

8:18

now , but right now

8:21

it's the time to get a password

8:24

management system , something that you

8:26

can have on your phone , on your computer

8:28

, that will generate

8:30

for you new passwords

8:33

for each website you go to . They

8:36

need to be nice , big , long ones

8:38

, and then you need it to

8:40

manage them and save them for you

8:42

in a safe way . You're also gonna

8:44

want to make sure you have two factor

8:47

authentication for logging in

8:49

on some of your favorite social media platforms

8:51

. If you haven't done it yet , it's

8:53

time . You

8:55

don't wanna get held for ransom If

8:58

your Instagram account has more than 5,000

9:01

followers . Just plan

9:03

on seeing something come

9:05

up in your email saying someone's

9:07

trying to log into your account . You're gonna start seeing

9:10

it more frequently . I've had a couple

9:12

people try to hack mine recently

9:14

and I think one of the best investments you can make in

9:17

yourself and in your business this year is

9:19

to start modifying and

9:21

up-leveling all your passwords and security

9:24

systems for your data online

9:26

.

9:27

All right , also , and Miriam , so

9:29

what do you have on the PR side that

9:31

we need to look forward to in 2024

9:33

?

9:35

Well , I don't have anything that exciting

9:38

or so techy . Honestly

9:41

, in PR , it

9:43

always comes back to the basics

9:46

, and any of you guys who have been listening

9:48

for a while know that that is always

9:51

what I preach . So I'd say it depends

9:53

where your starting point is . If

9:55

you're doing PR , you've been doing it

9:58

for a while , you're getting

10:00

results . Keep doing what you have

10:02

been doing . Okay , that's amazing . That's

10:04

awesome . It's a great investment in your

10:06

business . I have a feeling

10:08

, however , that the majority

10:11

of people who will be listening to

10:13

this may not have been actively

10:16

pursuing PR . So

10:18

I would say take this

10:20

time of year and think

10:22

about if it isn't something that

10:25

you want to include in your marketing

10:27

mix , because you probably

10:29

know that getting published is

10:31

important . It can help on so many

10:34

different levels . The credibility

10:36

is like nothing else in

10:38

your business . It helps with awareness

10:40

. It can really transform your business

10:43

and ultimately get you the clients that

10:45

you really want . So if that

10:47

is something that you want , then Think

10:50

about how you are going to

10:53

go about it . Maybe you have budget

10:55

and you can outsource and

10:57

you can hire an agency or

10:59

a freelancer to help you with . That

11:01

Will probably cost you between three

11:04

and five thousand dollars per month . So just

11:06

be aware of that . If that

11:08

is not within your budget , you know . Then

11:11

look for other solutions , and

11:13

I'm going to put in a plug for our

11:15

Academy program here , because

11:18

as far as I know

11:20

, it is the only place where

11:23

you get real

11:25

hands on training and help

11:27

and how to get published in

11:29

the design industry . It's

11:31

an affordable way to do it because from

11:35

experience I can say it is challenging

11:37

to just try to do it by

11:39

yourself and win it because you don't know where

11:41

to start . So with a little bit of help

11:43

and the firm commitment

11:46

to doing it and the firm commitment

11:48

to spending a

11:51

small amount of time on a regular

11:53

basis , you can really

11:55

generate results that are going

11:57

to change the face of your business

11:59

long term . So that's

12:02

my plug . I never assumed

12:04

that everybody already is doing PR

12:06

, but if you are not , take

12:08

this opportunity to consider

12:11

starting it , because

12:15

everything is changing . But the

12:17

credibility of PR is evergreen

12:19

. These media placements are evergreen

12:22

and you can plug them into

12:24

any of the fun

12:26

new things that you are doing on

12:28

the marketing side . It's like a building block

12:30

that you use for your marketing

12:32

that's more powerful than most .

12:35

So now our listeners

12:37

have a good overview of how they need

12:39

to plan for the year . Like I said

12:41

, these are just add-ons to

12:43

the last few episodes we've done so

12:45

again , listen back to

12:48

the original episode , which was in January

12:50

2022 . Then we did

12:52

a follow-up episode today in January

12:55

2023 . And now this is just adding

12:57

on to that . So listen to

12:59

each of those episodes so you can get the foundation

13:01

, and then now , from what we had talked

13:04

about today , you know what you need to plan

13:06

for in the next year . If you

13:08

have any questions on any of this

13:10

information at all , feel free to reach

13:12

out to us . We look forward to

13:14

providing you a lot of good information

13:17

this year . If you have any topics

13:19

that you would like to listen to or that you would

13:22

like for us to cover , reach out

13:24

to us and we'll be happy to address those

13:26

. Like I always say , we have some general

13:28

topics that we have in mind , but if there's

13:31

anything that our listeners really want

13:33

us to cover , reach out , let

13:35

us know and we'll add that into the

13:37

list . We hope you all had a happy

13:39

new year and we look forward to hearing

13:41

you all throughout this year in 2024

13:44

. Have a good day and see you all in two

13:46

weeks .

13:48

Are you an interior designer facing the challenges

13:50

of marketing your business ? Are you

13:52

struggling to find the time and looking for effective

13:55

solutions ?

13:56

You're not alone . Many interior designers

13:58

and webop share these same things

14:00

, but there is a solution .

14:02

Welcome to the Designer Discussions Academy

14:05

, where we understand your challenges and

14:07

are here to help .

14:08

Our Academy offers a monthly focus

14:10

on marketing , PR and business development

14:12

, tailored for interior designers and

14:15

webop .

14:15

Learn the most important marketing tactics

14:17

, from SEO to get press , social

14:20

media and even harnessing the power of

14:22

AI .

14:23

Join us at the Designer Discussions Academy

14:25

and take the first step towards transforming

14:27

your interior design business .