Interview with Sascha Lafleur

In this episode, I had the pleasure to interview the lovely Sascha Lafleur of West of Main. We got to talking all about scaling your business and virtually servicing your clients.

Sascha Lafleur, co-founder and principal designer at West of Main, has had a passion for design for as long as she can remember. She attributes her creative flare and an abundance of artistic energy to early influence by her immediate family, which includes woodworkers, builders, artists, and fashionistas.

Sascha studied communications before moving to Montreal to study interior design; a city that fostered a strong design aesthetic that she carries to this day. Her personal style is collected, romantic, and traveled, inspired by nature, culture, and "the stories and connections behind the artistry." In the albeit temporary absence of world travel, Sascha looks to books, social media, and films for timeless and thoughtful inspirations for her trademark style. This celebrated, local, and international award-winning designer is known today for curating thoughtfully layered, traveled designs. Sascha started West of Main Design in Ottawa where she is committed to co-designing spaces that are a true reflection of her clients’ lifestyles and passions, and ones that will carry them through not just today, but for years to come. Today, her award-winning firm continues to expand as Sascha leads corporate and full-scale residential projects across North America westofmaindesign.com.

Sascha and I had a very real conversation about how she grew her business in 6 short years. She goes into detail about her background and journey, and how she managed to do all this in a short amount of time by investing in her people. Sascha spoke about how growing a business is like taking a leap of faith in people, investing in people, because it's 10x harder to do it all yourself!

The second part of our chat was all about servicing clients virtually which is something a lot of designers are apprehensive about. The fear is that you won't be able to provide the same client experience virtually and then you get stuck with an unprofitable business model. Sascha goes into detail about how her companies service people online or remotely, while still offering full-service design. She says communication is key and have an exceptionally detailed presentation package every time you chat with a remote client is vital! 

I absolutely loved my chat with Sascha and had so many "AHA" moments and takeaways that I want to start doing with my team. 

Enjoy our chat! & Let me know what else you'd like to hear on the podcast. I'm here to help our design community! 

xo, Rebecca

You can find Sascha on Instagram @westofmain & @westofmainshoppe.

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