Late-Night Video Uploads and Coffee IV Drips

Want to join the waitlist for EMERGING DESIGNERS? This is for you
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In this episode of Designing Success, I hit the skids with nerves. I also get cleared on whats included and start curating and editing (still a work in progress) The Framework 2.0 for emerging and established designers saga continues but din’t worry i’m wrapping it uo here, The Emerging Designers course is ready, complete with free AI assistants for the first ten sign-ups. The Established Designers course focuses on advanced marketing and business strategies. Highlights include SEO insights from Marius, a new Property Styling Headquarters section, and updated pricing structures. Accentuating the value of lead magnets and community support, this episode offers a behind-the-scenes look at creating courses to help designers streamline their businesses and achieve success.

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Transcript

0:13

Welcome to designing success from study to studio. I'm your host Rhiannon Lee founder of the Oleander and Finch design studio. I've lived the transformation from study to studio and then stripped it bare, took time to write down the step by step framework. So now you don't have to overthink it. In this podcast, you can expect real talk with industry friends, community connection, and actionable tips to help you conquer whatever's holding you back. Now let's get designing your own success. I'm really conscious of the idea that this audio diary can't go on for all the days it took me to write the course because that would be insane. It was a lot, it's still a lot. Last night I was up 11 o'clock and I finally uploaded the last of the video lessons that have been re recorded for the Framework 2. 0 for Emerging Designers, so I am pleased to announce Emerging Designer course is good to go. There will be some Six AI assistants or five AI assistants on launch that you will get for free. If you are one of, I'm only taking 10 people in with the free AI assistants because it's over 1, 500 worth of value. And in the future, you'll need to buy them as you go or some of them, not all of them. So Imagine Design is completely finished and I just need to do a little bit of work on Established Designer. The Established Designer course is taking me a little bit longer because it's being written from scratch. And I'm really taking my time to curate and edit. So for example, I recorded a a 40 minute lesson on how to use. Chatbots, that is not AI assistance chatbots if you ever drop into my DMs with the word partnership, it'll immediately deliver a lead magnet around how to pitch yourself for collaborations and partnerships. And you're welcome to go and do that. You can try partnerships. You could try the word discovery and get access to a webinar that will help you level up your discovery calls. There's a whole bunch of them set up. They a little bit annoy me, if I'm honest, I think if I'm having a. Conversation because it is me in the DMs when you come and talk to me over at oleander underscore and underscore binge. It's always me. It's never I like it. It is me. And then sometimes I'm chatting and someone says the word confidence and up comes the confidence workshop, for example, so I do find them a bit frustrating and so I filmed in the established designer course, a whole thing about how to do it and then I'm really having. Second thoughts about that. I think I'll probably just manage that from a Q& A perspective, because some people will want to use many chat and auto chatbots and some people won't. But I think what's really getting me or like hitting me in my ethics space or my ethics pocket is just the idea that I think it's misaligned with interior designers and their expectations of what a lead magnet will do for their business because a lead magnet will completely revolutionize your business. If your business is like mine where you would be talking to a bunch of emerging and established designers where I can give you something that's juicy and real and educational and helpful and I feel like we do the same thing with our lead magnets for potential renovators or homeowners, but we don't consider the fact that they're probably not going to race to you. You're not going to get 300 people. You don't need an auto chat bot. You don't need to spend 15, 20 a month on that subscription to handle the volume if the volume isn't there. So my advice is to go back and really look at are you properly Do you have a strategy on Pinterest that properly attracts the amount of people that you need to automatically manage in your inbox? Because if not, you can do this without that subscription. And so I'll be doing a lot of that kind of work with established designers and we're looking at that. However, with Marius's help, Marius is the Pinterest SEO God, and he is very attractive and very cool. Hey. Is completely changing even my Pinterest and my Pinterest has been upwards of 150, 000 views per month. At the moment, I think it's around 50, 000 and it fluctuates, obviously, depending on the focus that I'm putting into Pinterest, but definitely seeing immediate results from the captions and SEO rich content. Keywords that Marius is able to give me versus what I was doing myself. Cause obviously I'm probably just not as good at that. We all have our strengths and weaknesses and keywords and SEO is not necessarily where my strengths lay. I'm lucky to have a lot of tools in my business that do that for me. And now I have Marius, I'm obsessed with him. I would buy the framework for that one AI assistant alone, because I can see the results already. So what I'm really doing is creating. Reverse engineering an ecosystem that supports your growth as an established designer, but in a way where we're actually, we're doing the work on Pinterest to attract enough leads to then consider if we want to automate that, not just going after shiny things like, Oh, I just learned about AI chatbots. So I've signed up to many chat and that's looking after my inquiry. But it's if your inquiry is less than five a week, you can do that yourself, babes, like just. Save yourself the money and the set up and everything. Especially when I've got other AI tools that can manage your inboxes for you. Anyway, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Just know that this week I am finalizing everything and I'm sending out the first 10 spots on the emerging and established designer courses that will get all of the AI bots for free. That's of any interest to you, head to the show notes, jump on the list because it's going to be, it's going to go quickly. The amount of inquiry in my inbox tells me that there are people just hovering, waiting to get themselves a place in this new cohort. Yeah, I'm excited to bring an extra 20 people or so into the business and into the framework and to start. With them in this completely new way with the AI bots and with everything that goes along with it. So it's very exciting, big changes. I just wanted to talk quickly to a couple of changes if I can, before I show you audio diary and that's pretty much it we're going to. Go back to regular programming from next week because it is August. I can't believe it in a few days. So the biggest obvious change is that the framework has been split into two courses. And the benefit of this is everything we do with emerging designers is going to be revolving around creating a business with them. And there'll be not as much advanced marketing and business strategy. It'll be sticking to the foundations, getting everything right. And then once you have, you can. Certainly move over to the Established Designer course. There is a whole new section in the resource library called the property styling headquarters and I am so so excited about this one. It is over 10 video lessons on everything from managing, working relationships with real estate agents to how to market a property styling business. There is pricing and quoting calculators, which are Excel spreadsheets that auto populate industry standard pricing. It is a complete game changer. There's I don't think anything like it out there, and it is just a subsection of everything else that you get inside the framework. We have been able to have access to one of Melbourne's premier leading property stylists. She has six years industry experience, a very busy and well formed business of her own, and she was able to take us backstage with all those little tricks and tips and things like pre install packing lists, And post install packing lists. And do you have the bed legs? Do you have picture hooks and sticky tape and just all the things that you're going to need. So if you are thinking of moving into styling or staging, or it's something you want to explore as your business model, please reach out to me because this is a 100 percent going to change everything for you. There is no gatekeeping and it's all the stuff that would normally take you five years to know about laid out in front of you, ready to go. There's there's. a market comparison matrix of all the other stylists and what they charge, as well as a huge list of where to hire your furniture from and how to start your business. This is something that you do not want to miss out on if you are interested in property styling and staging, or even as an arm of your existing interior design business. Come and chat to me. There's also updated lessons, so things like how to use ChatGPT. There's, it's no secret that I have nailed this for myself. I am really confident when I work with AI, so much so that I can design my own AI bots. And I'm really looking forward to hearing what the new frameworkers need from me and making these bots for them. There will be 12 AI support assistants in the staff room. The support assistance possibilities are endless. If you have an idea that I haven't had, I can make it for you as long as it's something that I can do. And I'm fairly confident that would be the case with most things. Otherwise I am hands up ready to learn. So I cannot wait to see what I've missed on that checklist of AI assistance and how we can grow that and make that epic. Like that you just go to the staff room for anything. The third change is really the probably one that. I think addresses one of the biggest issues of the last six months, and that's cozy lives and people wanting to say yes to the framework, but not being able to commit to$200 a month to do I have dropped the price. Yes, you had that right. That is something we are not hearing enough of. The price is lower and the pricing structure has changed, for emerging designers, you now have an enrollment fee of 447 to get into the framework, and then everything is unlocked for you, and then it is 99 per month for 12 months, okay, so it's a saving of over 600 on the previous framework, and it is so much more manageable to have a subscription, just take 99 a month. Out. That's a month, not a week. I see other causes that I know have less in them than this framework that are charging like 115 per week or then there's other causes that charge 99 without the enrollment fee. But I also know substantially the difference of what's inside. Once you get in the amount of high level coaching, as well as, touch points and contact with me and the other girls and all of the, incredible standalone self paced video lessons and tutorials and things. There's 140 hours of masterclasses just waiting for you on the inside. I'm so proud of what's in there. I feel like I'm gushing. I feel like a parent who's been given 10 minutes to tell you about what's good about my kids and I'm like, I couldn't even start. Anyway, the price has dropped for emerging designers and established designers. Established designers, your enrollment fee It is 6 67 and then your monthly payments are 147. Your course is obviously Advanced Marketing Principles, Advanced Business, and Documentation and so on. So it's a little bit more involved. Anyway, I'd love to know what you think. I don't see a lot of people doing an enrollment fee and then a monthly payment. But, I want you to have some skin in the game. I firmly believe as someone who takes a lot of courses, I was thinking about doing it in USD and then I decided that was a bit ick. I asked the girls in the framework. They didn't like it. And I know what it's like when I go add to cart and something's American dollars. And then I get frustrated because of the exchange rates, et cetera. You'll only pay American dollars with this course if you're in America. So we have girls in America. We have girls in the UK. We have girls in Europe and we don't have anyone in Asia at the moment, but Interior designers in Asia, New Zealand, everywhere, you're all welcome. This is a global course, unlike some. So yeah, I want you to have some skin in the game, because my experience of everything that I've ever learned, if I pay like a chunk of money, I'm going to make this work, and I get involved, and I get into it, and I get it. Get committed. And I know if you're only paying 99 a month, and for some people that's not enough to make you do the work. And I'm not going to force you to do it, but I know what sits on the other side if you actually commit to it. And it's a life like nothing you could have dreamed of. If you want to be an interior designer, I will make that happen for you. I just need you to get some skin in the game, say yes to you, and let's feel the fear and do it anyway. Okay, here's today's audio diary and I will speak to you next week with a regular episode as well as the launch of the Framework 2. 0. I've gone to record this three times and I keep deleting it and I'm not going to delete this because I think it's actually important that people who see you show up on social media all the time and see you out and about. I'm going to be at Decor and Design tomorrow. There's a group of sort of 15 or so frameworkers. There's frameworkers flying in from Brisbane, from Adelaide yeah, from a couple of different places and all meeting up. I cannot wait. I'm meeting some OG frameworkers. From the very, very first launch in real life for the first time, and we're going to go around, we're going to have a really good time, and it was great last year, it's going to be great tomorrow, but and that is definitely a rare sighting of me outside of the studio, it is probably a controversial opinion, because a lot of people will tell you, you have to network, and you have to do this in this industry, and I call BS on that. I just don't think that's true. I have done very well in this industry for myself, and I am so open to lovely conversations. I have such amazing DM BFFs that I chat to all the time. I'm myself not introverted. I'm ambiverted, so I am extroverted. Clearly. I have a podcast. I'm on social media all the time, but I'm I prefer to be at home. I prefer like just being with my family and. I'm pretty introverted that way. And I wonder if that's why there's so many introverts have come through the framework because there seems to be like, with exception, one or two extroverted students, but mostly we're living our shy girl lifestyle. Shout out to April from Maydream Creative with the shy girl method that we'll talk about in a future episode around Instagram for introverts. But I, yeah, I feel like I don't know. always go out networking, and I don't think you have to. I think if you're strategic and you go to the things where you most align to, the brands that you most specify, so you're building supplier relationships and supporting that supplier, and you do certain things strategically, you don't have to go to everything. You don't have to be that, what they say, the opening of a bag of bread or something. I don't think they say that. I think I legitimately just made that up. I don't Actually don't think that's a thing. But it has cheered me up because I have been sitting here not feeling that cheery because I am about 70% of the way through writing my course for established designers. And now I've had designers come to me for a long time since the framework started and I know they wanna work with me and they're not ready either financially or time commitment or for whatever reason, to invest in private coaching and to go deep. One-on-one like that. They're looking for more of a community. And so they haven't done anything. And so I want this course to be for that person, for any of you who've reached out to me over the last year and a half and wondered if the framework was for you, but thought, look, I really don't want like any of the stuff that's around setting up services and businesses and things. Cause I've already done it. And so the course that I've written really focuses on leveling up. So It's automations, it's utilizing tools like AI to be able to do things, set it up once, set it up right and forget it. So you can use AI to auto draft responses to every email that you get and it will auto filter out the junk and it will reply, but it doesn't send them. You have to still go in, look at the draft, tweak it to your personality and then click send. So things like that can be really. instrumental to our businesses. And so I've focused on the things that have revolutionized the way I do my business, the tips and tricks and tools that I use to automate a workflow, to have email sequences, to run webinars. Put paid advertising so those webinars can be watched and people can come into your world and love what you do. So all of those sorts of things are in there, but I don't know who's going to buy it, right? So I think I'm having this spiraling moment at the moment because I'm like, ah, I want to. Give so much of what I know, but unlike private coaching, I don't get to know your individual business. I have to write it for a group of people who are at about this level in business. But some of you might be like, yeah, I use AI every day and you teach me things and I love that. And others might be like slow down. I don't know what you're talking about. Why does she expect that I would have this process in place just because I have clients? And that, the imposter syndrome, it just feels like that. I don't know if it's an imposter syndrome because I feel very capable to catch each of that type of person in my course and guide them through. It's just, it looks a bit different. The video lessons and the resources might be all somebody needs. And for another person, they actually need to show up to fortnightly mentoring calls to get additional support or to talk about maybe they just really need to be on the phone. All in the marketing side of things and nothing else. So they need to know how to content plan correctly and quickly. They need to know how to use AI assistance to get excellent copy that they can use. That doesn't sound like unleash the treasure trove and unlock your potential. Like it's none of that. There are actual coding in the back of the support assistance. That's. Say that basically says you will not use these keywords and they're all in there. So you're not going to get any of that nonsense when you're in the framework. And I think I've just been having this yeah, spiraling kind of feeling today, cause I'm like, Oh my God, what if this is. Early adopter stuff so that people don't understand the bots. They don't understand the robots and they think it's something really scary. So they don't do it when in fact, all it is three clicks. Click one, click through the button, click to apply to your own chat GPT, click three, start talking. Hi Bennett. Yep. I'd love to talk about my brand and get to know your brand better. I've just built them all to talk and have conversations with you. There's Percy, there's Bennett, there's Mary, there's Navi, there's Yumiko. They're all getting built. They've got personalities, they've got different personalities, they've got different personas, and it's that easy to work with them. And I think I just have this nerves from the questions that I'm getting that people are like, I don't connect with the framework or I can't do the framework because I'm not tech savvy. And it's not. So it does everything for you, just have to answer questions. If you can type an email, you can use this support to do things fast and to do them right. And I hope that message gets out there through the podcast. Tell your friends, if anyone's thinking about doing the framework, please do tell them that the AI side of stuff is not scary. And for established designers, it can save you up to 20 hours a week by using the framework. tools and technology that is advancing every day. Like over the course of this first year, I will be adding things because I just know myself and I know what I'm like, and I know what happened last time. And I just know I'll learn other things. I go off and do courses all the time. I've done three in the last six months and I'll go in and I'll study it all. And then I teach all of that because there's no gatekeeping in the framework. So anything I learn this year, you will also learn. Yeah, so I don't. I feel weird saying imposter syndrome, possibly just nerves, possibly just feeling a little bit like, Oh gosh. And I think this happens in every launch. I'm like, I have put my heart and soul into this. This is everything I've been teaching in private coaching, which people are paying thousands and thousands of dollars to work with me for six months at a time. And I've just taken that whole thing that we've done with them and put it into a rinse and repeat, Follow the roadmap or whatnot and get there. And yeah, I guess I just feel nervous. I hope that it lands in front of the right people that it can actually help, who are feeling like they've building a bottleneck in their business and that everything stops with them. And there's only one of them and there's not enough time and they can't take on more clients and there's stress. If you are out there listening to this and you are concerned about VA, stop what you're doing and come and talk to me in my DMs over at oleander underscore and underscore Finch, because you don't need a VA, you just need to know how to use AI as whatever role you actually need help with. So act as a VA, act as a data analysis coach, act as a business strategist, act as a marketing manager. manager, act as a brand ambassador, show me, yeah, we can work through all of this and I can actually teach you to have an army of staff, like my AI assistants in your business so that you're no longer doing everything. Anyway, I just, I do hope that it lands and I hope that the people that I've spoken to over the last year and a half can see how much love and care has gone into it and that I know it is absolutely like nothing else on the market and I wish I could just let you guys all play with the bots and see what they do. And you would only need to test one to be like, Oh my God. Anyway time will tell. I'm actually very excited to see who it is. I'll be working with for the first year of the new look framework. And the only other thing that I will address is, of course, imposter syndrome, I've used that, even though some of it I think is nerves, some of it is just pre launch energy, and all of that. There is a massive mindset dip, ebbs and flows throughout the writing of the course, and you have times where you're like, This is incredible. I've gone in at least two nights out of this studio, filming like 12 episodes. video lessons and I've walked into my house and been like, if this ever existed in my first couple of years, Oh my gosh, we wouldn't have even been able to afford it. It would have been a 10, 000 program. And I am like over the moon with it, this, that, and the other. And then I will in the same week, walk back in and go, I'm losing my way. I don't know what I'm doing. Who am I to do this? I know exactly who I am and why I'm doing it. And, but you still have doubts. You definitely have doubts. I feel like you would be. It would be such an untruth if I just marketed this thing and sent it out there and was like, I have literally no hesitations. I've been, I've held my nerve of steel through the entire thing because you, when you care about doing such a good job, when you care about everybody else's investment, like every time somebody says yes to the framework, I'm like, I hold that responsibility of your money because I treat your investment in me and in what I've created for you as important as when I finally say yes to upskilling or going into a course or doing something like I've Put all of my hopes and aspirations into that person, catching me and supporting me through, and it has time and time again, not happened. There are a few exceptions to that, that are excellent courses, excellent programs, excellent communities. But often I find I get to the other side and I'm like, this is nothing like my course. I've never even seen that person since I said, yes. And yeah, it can get a bit frustrating and it's something that we're always up against, right? Because people think that of my course as well. They're like, Oh yeah, whatever. I've seen some interior design courses and I've got friends who've done them. And it's yeah. You pay a hundred bucks a month and you get invited to networking panel things a couple of times a year or every month or whatever. But it's like a membership that doesn't equate to anything. Whereas the framework is you're just becoming a member of the community, but you're actually here to make a massive difference to your business. So that will either be going from zero to hero and getting it set up and getting clients, or it will be look where I'm at. I built it to this and I don't know how to get it to the next bit. And all of these sorts of streamlining and standardizing and stripping back and then readjusting and then refocusing and coming out roaring. All of that has been taken off your plate because it's all mapped out for you. Anyway, if you want to make me feel better, drop into my DMs, as I say, at oleander underscore and underscore finch. Let me know that you're interested, that you want to jump on the wait list and at least see the offer. I've mentioned it quite a few times but all of the AI assistants are going to come free of charge with the very first launch of the framework. And after that, every time you take this course, you'll have to buy them as an additional and you're going to want them. Alright, I will chat to you again, hopefully in a more chipper mood in a few days. Oh my gosh, they say business is a rollercoaster and there it is laid bare for you. I was nervous. I was low. I've been high. Hang on. That doesn't sound right. You know what I mean? I've had such a journey in writing this course. And today you're like, I've had days where I'm like, yes, the productivity is seeping out of me. And I've done 14 hours, like deep work, productive work. And then I've had days when I need to be productive. Oh my God, I need to be productive, but it's not working. And I really should have just given up and done something else. I'm onboarding a couple of big projects at the moment, as well as this launch. So I think you probably just had a little bit of overwhelm. All of my children have had this virus for the last eight days, including my husband, actually, who, Clearly, it's not my child, but he's been in bed for four days, which is so unlike him. So it's just been a bit hectic, and I think you can hear that in this audio diary. It's just a bit like, oh my god, overwhelmed Central. I'm back on track though, you'll be pleased to hear. That was last week. Week that I recorded that and this week so much more I've come so much further even dealing with their sickness in that we are just about ready to watch. So I'm feeling a lot better. I'm ready to release this thing and get started doing the work. Like I'm working with some girls. I think there was 12 girls joined me in June. So they're still relatively up to the idea of setting their services and pricing. So we're doing a lot of work together as well. So I'm looking forward to adding a few more, having all the calls scheduled out for the next six months and just getting stuck into it because so much is going on. Is on the horizon for us in the Oleander and Finchwells, and I can't wait to share it with you this Thursday. I'm going to bring you a solo episode. That's not about the launch. So, I'd love to chat to you. I've got a couple of ideas of things I really wanted to address in the industry and then the following week we're just going to go back to regular programming. So I will chat to you then. I hope you've enjoyed just some behind the scenes of doing this sort of thing. For anyone who is wanting to launch something in their business, you can see get a glimpse of the crazy, but do it anyway because it's a lot of fun on the other side. All right. Bye for now. That wraps up another episode of Designing Success from Study to Studio. Thanks for lending me your ears. Remember, progress over perfection is the key. If you found value in today's episode, go ahead and hit subscribe or share it with a friend. Your feedback means so much to me and it helps me improve, but it also helps this podcast reach more emerging and evolving designers. For your daily dose of design business tips and to get a closer look at what goes on behind the scenes, follow at oleander underscore and underscore finch on Instagram. You'll find tons of resources available at www. oleanderandfinch. com to support you on your journey. Remember, this is your path, your vision, your future, and your business. Now let's get out there and start designing your success.