Designing Success

Text me and tell me what you think of this ep.

Interior designers who feel overwhelmed by AI typically don't have a tool problem — they have a prioritisation problem. Australian AI strategist Rhiannon Lee recommends three starting points: spend four minutes meeting Claude, do a five-minute audit of your most repetitive business tasks, and invest time in free AI literacy resources. Chasing AI image generation is the biggest time drain to avoid.

EPISODE OVERVIEW

The noise around AI is loud right now. Everyone's screaming that Claude killed interior designers, that you need to understand MCPs and managed agents and agentic workflows — and meanwhile you're just trying to run a studio and not lose your mind.

This episode is not that.

Rhiannon Lee, AI strategist for Australian interior designers, cuts straight to what actually deserves your attention this week — if you're starting from scratch, if you're overwhelmed, or if you've been dabbling but can't see a clear path forward.

Three things. Fifteen minutes. Actual forward momentum.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE

Why the overwhelm is real — and why it doesn't mean what you think it means The wave of AI experts, the screaming headlines, the feeling that you're already behind. Rhiannon talks about why it feels like going from zero to hero overnight, why that's disorienting even for people who are genuinely across it, and why the existential stuff is worth sitting with — without letting it stop you.

Claude vs ChatGPT: the honest comparison interior designers actually need Not a feature list. A practical frame. ChatGPT is your dinner bestie who knows your history — great for thinking out loud, voice memos, and unpacking what's in your head. Claude is Lord Business from the Lego Movie — your chief of staff, your executive assistant, the one you brief every morning and who executes without needing to be managed. They're not interchangeable. They work better together.

How to use both tools without burning through tokens Rhiannon's actual workflow: think out loud in ChatGPT, get a tight synopsis, take that synopsis to Claude. Minimise spend. Maximise output. It's a small shift that makes a big difference.

The five-minute business audit that unlocks everything else Before you build anything in AI, you need to know what to build. Pen and paper. Two columns. What's repetitive and soul-destroying in your business right now? What would you hand to a staff member if you could write the procedure in ten minutes? That list is your AI roadmap — and most designers haven't written it yet.

Why AI gives bad results (and it's not the AI's fault) Claude and ChatGPT can both produce incredible outputs. But if they don't know your brand voice, your project process, your pricing logic, or the 40 steps between inquiry and invoice — they're working blind. The output quality problem most designers are experiencing is a context problem, not a capability problem.

Where to find free AI education that's actually worth your time Anthropic has guides and libraries. Google has full AI courses. There are university-level accreditations available online at no cost. You don't need to do Studio Build to start learning — but you do need to be intentional about who you're learning from. Rhiannon's filter: have you seen them actually doing this in their own business, breaking things and showing up? If not, they might just be generating content that sounds right.

Why chasing AI image generation is costing designers time they don't have This is the big one. At every speaking event Rhiannon has done in the past two years, the same conversation happens: someone's spent days trying to get an AI tool to do renders properly and is ready to quit AI entirely. Here's why it keeps happening — large language models are language first, image second if at all. They're pattern recognition engines. They are not spatial. They are not

Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.

 Grab  more insights and updates:

Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/the_rhiannonlee

For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub  on my website ; https://www.rhiannon-lee.com/

Get your interior design studio running on AI in 6 weeks.

admin, client follow-ups, content, and operations handled.
Six live build sessions.

You leave with a working system, not more mess.

Studio BUILD  ( now open) 

Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations. 

Thank you for your support!

Text me and tell me what you think of this ep.

Join the email list to get the business restructure challenge, 'Studio Build'  updates HERE 

The kids are on school holidays, there's a triple bunk being installed, and I'm stealing 20 minutes here and there to talk about the pricing shift that's quietly happening in the interior design industry and why you need to get ahead of it. 

This one's recorded live from the chaos: paint swatches, tent pitching, and small people interrupting every second sentence. It's unpolished, unedited, and exactly the kind of bonus episode you didn't know you needed. 

What we're talking about: 

The home reno update no one asked for (but you're getting anyway) — triple bunks, colour drenching, and why I'm not taking myself seriously with this one 

The 15-day Easter challenge happening on Instagram right now — 20 minutes a day, tidying up the operational side of my business so AI can actually do its job properly 

The pricing conversation that came up in Studio CEO this week and hasn't left my head since — what happens when you can do in 24 seconds what used to take 2.5 hours? Do you charge less? Spoiler: absolutely not 

Why billing by the hour is a trap in an efficiency economy, and why you need to stop itemising your scope and start pricing for the outcome 

The thing to remember: 

You're getting better. You're getting faster. You're finding smarter ways to run your business. That doesn't mean you charge less — it means you protect your pricing and articulate the value you bring, regardless of how long the admin takes. 

Where to find the Easter challenge: Instagram — search the highlights, watch along, steal the prompts, and give your own business 20 minutes of attention each day. 

Next episode: Not for two weeks. I'm with the kids. See you week commencing 20 April. 

Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.

 Grab  more insights and updates:

Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/the_rhiannonlee

For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub  on my website ; https://www.rhiannon-lee.com/

Get your interior design studio running on AI in 6 weeks.

admin, client follow-ups, content, and operations handled.
Six live build sessions.

You leave with a working system, not more mess.

Studio BUILD  ( now open) 

Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations. 

Thank you for your support!

Text me and tell me what you think of this ep.

AI adoption jumped dramatically in the first quarter of 2026 ... and so did the slop. In this episode Rhiannon gets into the conversation she's been sitting on: what AI-generated content actually looks like, why it keeps happening, and what the real fix is. 

Rhiannon takes a straight-from-the-machine AI caption and edits it in real time, cutting line by line and explaining exactly what to look for. The before:

The AI slop tells to watch for

Negative parallelism it's not because of X, it's because of Y The rule of threes dressed up as wisdom  Motivational non-statements that sound profound and mean nothing Emojis doing the emotional heavy lifting

The empty in, empty out rule

AI is a language model. It predicts the most likely next word based on everything it's ever read. Give it nothing No opinion, no story, no specific point of view & it gives you the average of everything on the internet. Which is, without exception, beige. 

The knowledge base argument

Using AI well is downstream of knowing things. If your marketing knowledge is underdeveloped and you ask AI for a strategy, you'll get something that looks like a strategy | and you won't be able to tell if it's good. The actual investment: micro-learning. Borrow the book. Go to the seminar. Ask AI to teach you things, not just produce things for you. When your understanding goes up, everything you bring to AI gets better.

The workflow that actually works

Voice note in the car → bring that raw material to AI → let it help you find the structure → edit it back to sounding like you → feed the final version back to the tool and say: this is what went out. Learn from that.

The responsibility question

Rhiannon's honest answer: she's not going to police anyone's feed. But she's also not going to pretend the bar hasn't dropped. The most useful thing any of us can do is hold the standard in our own work.

The one question to ask before you post: did a real person think this?

Resources mentioned

DM CEO to @the_rhiannonlee for the AI context checklist  everything you need to tell AI about your business to start getting results that actually sound like you.

Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.

 Grab  more insights and updates:

Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/the_rhiannonlee

For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub  on my website ; https://www.rhiannon-lee.com/

Get your interior design studio running on AI in 6 weeks.

admin, client follow-ups, content, and operations handled.
Six live build sessions.

You leave with a working system, not more mess.

Studio BUILD  ( now open) 

Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations. 

Thank you for your support!

Text me and tell me what you think of this ep.

You've probably pasted a client brief into an AI tool this week. 

Maybe a site visit transcript. A proposal draft. A mood board description with the client's full name, address, and renovation budget attached. 

And there's a reasonable chance you've never read the terms of service of the tool you pasted it into. 

This episode is about that gap .. and what to do about it. 

Interior designers hold some of the most sensitive personal data of anyone in a professional context. Home addresses. Security system details. Access codes to properties mid-renovation. Renovation budgets. Insurance information. Family composition. 

Most of that data is flowing through AI tools right now with terms of service nobody has read. And the AI education space — including me — has been almost completely silent about it. 

This isn't an anti-AI episode. I use AI every day in my studio and couldn't go back. This is the episode I wish someone had made two years ago, before most of us clicked yes to everything and hoped for the best. 

We cover: 

> What data you're actually holding as a designer and why it's higher-risk than most industries 

> How free-tier AI tools handle your inputs 

> and what 'training on user data' actually means in practice 

> AI agents, connected permissions, and why the hiring analogy matters more than people think 

> What Australian privacy law says and what it means for your studio — Training AI with your creative work 

> and the IP question nobody has a clean answer to yet

>  Four steps to audit what you've already connected and make deliberate choices going forward 

Plus the three questions I ask before connecting any AI tool to a client-facing part of my business.  

The three questions: 

1. Where does my data go — and does it stay there?
2. What access am I actually granting — and can I revoke it instantly?
3. If this tool was compromised tomorrow, what's the blast radius?

DM me privacy on Instagram (@the_rhiannonlee) to continue this chat 

Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.

 Grab  more insights and updates:

Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/the_rhiannonlee

For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub  on my website ; https://www.rhiannon-lee.com/

Get your interior design studio running on AI in 6 weeks.

admin, client follow-ups, content, and operations handled.
Six live build sessions.

You leave with a working system, not more mess.

Studio BUILD  ( now open) 

Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations. 

Thank you for your support!

Text me and tell me what you think of this ep.

I uploaded a six-month-old transcript from a client consult and got a complete Notion project dashboard in about eight seconds.

Find out how HERE 

Every action item, every room, every design direction we discussed — colour-coded, categorised, with checkboxes and notes. I hadn't touched the output. It just built it.

This is for you if you finish a site visit, come home, and three weeks later you're trying to remember whether the client wanted warm oak or white oak on the joinery. This is not a client-facing tool. It lives entirely behind the scenes — your own running record of every promise you made in that room.

You need: a transcript, Claude connected to Notion, and one prompt. That's it. Four steps.

The full instructions are in the comments — grab them, try it today.

🔍 In this video: Claude + Notion for interior designers | AI project management for design studios | how to use Claude with Notion | interior design workflow automation | AI tools for interior designers 2026 | turning client consult transcripts into Notion databases | project tracking for interior designers

📩 Get the full instructions + prompt: [link in comments]

Timestamps 0:00 The problem this solves 0:45 Live demo — the Notion dashboard 2:30 Filtering by room and priority 4:00 The exact prompt to use 5:15 How to connect Claude to Notion

Rhiannon Lee helps interior designers integrate AI into how they actually run their studios — not just how everyone else uses it.

Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.

 Grab  more insights and updates:

Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/the_rhiannonlee

For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub  on my website ; https://www.rhiannon-lee.com/

Get your interior design studio running on AI in 6 weeks.

admin, client follow-ups, content, and operations handled.
Six live build sessions.

You leave with a working system, not more mess.

Studio BUILD  ( now open) 

Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations. 

Thank you for your support!

Text me and tell me what you think of this ep.

 In this episode of Designing Success, I sit down with interior designer Bradley Montag to talk about the intersection of design, property, and town planning. 

Bradley began his career as a town planning lawyer before transitioning into interior design, giving him a unique perspective on how homes should be renovated, extended, and designed. We explore how understanding planning regulations can influence design decisions, why heritage homes deserve thoughtful renovation, and the common mistakes people make when buying or renovating property. 

We also discuss the reality of renovating older homes, honoring architectural history, and why designing a home purely for resale often results in bland spaces with no personality. 

Finally, we dive into marketing for designers — including social media, thought leadership, and how creatives can communicate their value more confidently when pricing their services. 

If you're interested in interior design, property renovation, heritage homes, or building a design business, this conversation offers both practical insight and honest industry perspective. 

Find Bradley on Instagram @bradleymontag

or on TIK TOK @bradley.montag 

Download the free guide mentioned in this weeks BONUS  episode:
 https://oleanderandfinch.myflodesk.com/aicontext 

Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.

 Grab  more insights and updates:

Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/the_rhiannonlee

For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub  on my website ; https://www.rhiannon-lee.com/

Get your interior design studio running on AI in 6 weeks.

admin, client follow-ups, content, and operations handled.
Six live build sessions.

You leave with a working system, not more mess.

Studio BUILD  ( now open) 

Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations. 

Thank you for your support!

Text me and tell me what you think of this ep.

AI is everywhere right now — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Midjourney, Nano Banana — and interior designers are being told they need to learn all of it.

But the real problem isn’t the tools.

It’s the lack of context.

In this episode of Designing Success, I break down how interior designers should actually be using AI inside their design studio, including:

• the AI Studio Stack and what each tool is best for
• why ChatGPT isn’t the best tool for photorealistic renders
• how tools like Claude, Gemini and Perplexity fit into a design business
• the mistake most designers make when experimenting with AI
• how to prepare your studio so AI tools actually understand your business

If you’ve tried AI and thought “this is kind of helpful but not life-changing”, this episode will explain why.

The secret is something I call the AI Context Layer.

AI performs dramatically better when it understands:

• your studio processes
 • your services and pricing
 • your brand voice
 • your client communication
 • your frameworks and intellectual property

That’s why I created a free guide to help designers start preparing their studio knowledge for AI.

Download the free guide here:
 👉 How to Prepare Your Design Studio for AI
https://oleanderandfinch.myflodesk.com/aicontext

Inside the guide you’ll learn:

• the AI Context Drive every design studio should build
• the key documents that help ChatGPT behave like it works inside your business
• how to organise your Google Drive so AI tools actually understand your studio

This episode is for interior designers, decorators, and creative studio owners who want to integrate AI into their business without getting overwhelmed by tools.

Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.

 Grab  more insights and updates:

Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/the_rhiannonlee

For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub  on my website ; https://www.rhiannon-lee.com/

Get your interior design studio running on AI in 6 weeks.

admin, client follow-ups, content, and operations handled.
Six live build sessions.

You leave with a working system, not more mess.

Studio BUILD  ( now open) 

Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations. 

Thank you for your support!

Text me and tell me what you think of this ep.

Studio CEO 

Are you running a successful interior design studio but feeling exhausted, undercharging, and stuck in technician mode? In this episode, Rhiannon Lee — founder of Oleander & Finch and business coach for interior designers — breaks down the 12 core personal development principles that transform time-poor, overworked designers into confident, strategic studio CEOs.

Whether you're hitting consistent $10K months or pushing beyond, these are the mindset and business shifts that separate designers who stay busy from those who build genuinely profitable, calm, and scalable studios.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• Why moving from technician to CEO is the most critical shift in your business
• How to stop reinventing the wheel using AI and automation in your design studio
• The difference between turnover and real profit — and why it matters
• How pricing conviction (not confidence) is what unlocks your next revenue level
• Why visibility as a creative director is non-negotiable for studio growth
• The danger of survival energy — and how to shift into strategic thinking
• How to go from consuming business content to actually implementing it

This episode is for you if you're an interior designer who:

• Has been in business 2–5 years and feels ready for the next level
• Is juggling too many offers, too many tasks, and too little margin
• Wants to understand where AI fits into a modern interior design business
• Is considering business coaching but wants to know what areas to focus on first

Mentioned in this episode:

• Studio CEO — Rhiannon's intimate 12-week group business coaching program for interior designers (next cohort starts 23rd March)
• AEO & GEO optimisation for interior designer websites
• AI tools and custom GPTs built for creative studios

Connect with Rhiannon: Instagram: @oleander_and_finch Website: www.oleanderandfinch.com

Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.

 Grab  more insights and updates:

Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/the_rhiannonlee

For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub  on my website ; https://www.rhiannon-lee.com/

Get your interior design studio running on AI in 6 weeks.

admin, client follow-ups, content, and operations handled.
Six live build sessions.

You leave with a working system, not more mess.

Studio BUILD  ( now open) 

Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations. 

Thank you for your support!

Text me and tell me what you think of this ep.

In this honest roundtable episode, Rhiannon Lee is joined by four interior designers and property stylists to talk about pregnancy, maternity leave, cashflow, systems, staffing and what really happens when you mix motherhood with business ownership.

If you are an interior designer who is pregnant, trying to conceive, planning a family, or quietly wondering how maternity leave works when you are self employed, this episode is for you.

We cover:

• How to plan maternity leave as a small business owner
 • Cashflow planning during pregnancy and unpaid leave
 • Government maternity pay for self employed women
 • Raising prices before maternity leave
 • Selling vouchers or pre-paid services to create income
 • Project timeline planning for interior designers
 • Protecting client relationships while pregnant
 • Hiring and training staff before stepping away
 • Building SOPs and systems before baby
 • Returning to work part time after maternity leave
 • Mum guilt, ambition and productivity shifts

You’ll hear real experiences from studio owners at different stages. Some are pausing their business. Some are keeping teams running. One has sold her business and stepped into a creative director role. Others are navigating pregnancy in solo design studios.

This conversation explores matrescence, flexible work, time management for mums, and how to structure a design business that supports both family life and financial stability.

If you run a full service interior design studio, property styling business, or solo consultancy, you will walk away with practical strategies to:

Plan maternity leave without shutting down
 Protect your income during pregnancy
 Strengthen systems and operations
 Set boundaries with clients
 Build a sustainable studio model

Pregnancy and entrepreneurship do not cancel each other out. You can design a business that works around real life.

For more resources on pricing, systems, SOP development and AI for interior designers, visit oleanderandfinch.com.

Designing Success from Study to Studio is the podcast for emerging and established interior designers who want stronger systems, profitable studios and a business that supports their life, not competes with it.

Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.

 Grab  more insights and updates:

Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/the_rhiannonlee

For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub  on my website ; https://www.rhiannon-lee.com/

Get your interior design studio running on AI in 6 weeks.

admin, client follow-ups, content, and operations handled.
Six live build sessions.

You leave with a working system, not more mess.

Studio BUILD  ( now open) 

Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations. 

Thank you for your support!

Text me and tell me what you think of this ep.

Studio CEO (formerly Framework Express) is now open for the next cohort. Join the waitlist HERE 

Interior designers keep asking, “Where are the next clients coming from?” 

In this episode, I break down practical local area marketing strategies that actually convert. Not more content. Not more reels. Real positioning. 

We cover:
 – How to get in front of renovation conversations earlier
 – The upstream strategy most designers ignore
 – Strategic partnerships that generate better projects
 – A simple 4-hour weekly plan to attract local clients 

If you need clients in the next 90 days, this episode is for you. 

Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.

 Grab  more insights and updates:

Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/the_rhiannonlee

For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub  on my website ; https://www.rhiannon-lee.com/

Get your interior design studio running on AI in 6 weeks.

admin, client follow-ups, content, and operations handled.
Six live build sessions.

You leave with a working system, not more mess.

Studio BUILD  ( now open) 

Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations. 

Thank you for your support!