The Chaise Lounge Podcast

Amber Golob: Accountant Turned Interior Designer

Today in The Lounge, Nick talks with Amber Golob, accountant turned interior designer, as well as Neil MacKenzie of Universal Furniture. Amber Golob has a marketing tactic that brings in TOO much business so you’ll want to hear about it. Nick tells us what you can expect from the Universal Furniture Showroom at the Fall High Point Market.

What is Universal to the Trade?

Neil is the Marketing Manager of Universal Furniture. He joins us from High Point, North Carolina, the epicenter of Interior Design. The Universal showroom is located downtown High Point and their corporate offices are right down the road (off Highway 68) which connect to their warehouse as well.

Universal consists of three brands, Universal Furniture, Smartstuff, and Universal to the Trade. Universal to the Trade is a new program that launched 2 and a half years ago with exclusive products available only to designers in the industry. There is no order minimum, for all orders, and the prices include freight! With Universal to the Trade’s online system, you can check past order history, easily navigate the website, build a library AND it’s mobile-friendly. Order what you see, and that is what you get. You will receive up to date notifications of where your order is. The turnaround time for a product to be shipped is on average 14 days. Call the design line to order samples now! Universal to the Trade’s focus is on giving designers an easy one-stop shop, so they would love YOUR feedback.

Universal Furniture has one of the biggest showrooms at High Point, over 18,000 square feet. During Market, they will be doing breakfast, lunch, and cocktails so come by, charge your phone, kick back and relax! The showroom is also filled with natural light, fun music, and food so it will be a great place to hang out. You can see the schedule of events at their learning center during High Point Market here. This INCLUDES Nick's talk, "PASSION SUCKS. It's All About the Money." So don't forget to stop by!

If you want to find Nick at Market, he most likely will be hanging out in his Universal Furniture "office" so go visit!! Nick also wants to have breakfast with YOU so join him in the Universal Furniture Showroom on Saturday 10/14to say hi!

You can find out more about Universal to the Tade by going to their website or following them Instagram and Twitter.

Getting to Know Amber

Amber Golob lives in Chicago and her studio is in Evanston, Illinois. Her favorite movie she’s seen in the last year is Wonder Woman and her favorite childhood memory is when she would clean the house and rearrange the furniture every Saturday with her mother. Amber is originally from Osage, Iowa. She grew up on a large acreage in the woods playing outside - an idyllic childhood. Her favorite fashion accessory is earrings because they can complete any outfit. She and her family don’t vacation in the same spot twice, they are explorers and like to go somewhere new each time. When she is asked beer, wine, or cocktail, Amber prefers a cocktail with gin.

How Amber Went from Accounting to Design

Amber’s interest in interior design started as a little girl when she rearranged the furniture with her mom (to this day she still purges and rearranges when she is stressed). She went to school for Business and later became a practicing accountant, but realized it wasn’t her passion. To be in finance, Amber says, you need to be interested in how money works, and not what it does; and she wasn’t. So she set out to marry her passion with having a business and went back to school to get a Fine Arts degree at Harrington College of Design in Chicago.

A lot of people want to go back school for Interior Design but know that it can be a difficult challenge as you grow older. Amber was married and pregnant with her first child when ...

Industry: Interns! Interns! Interns!

Benjamin Moore Paints continue to be the best on the market. It's the only paint Nick May uses and believe us, he has used and tested them ALL. Benjamin Moore is the BEST there is for the dollar investment. As a designer, make sure your painting contractor uses the right product, not something cheaper because it might not hold up. Unfortunately, if something does go wrong with the paint in a client's home, it's usually YOU on the line, not the painter. So make sure the contractor is using the EXACT product you are specifying so that they don't go with something inferior. Also, if you don't have a Benjamin Moore architect and design color kit, reach out to Nick on the Question? tab and he will make sure one is shipped to you at NO cost!

Today on The Lounge, Phyllis Harbinger joins Nick from her outdoor office on her very own chaise lounge. Design Manager has started a social media campaign to support designers making purchases and Phyllis has hopped on board! When customers buy online, they are not getting the same type of service designers provide to their clients. Additionally, if you buy from a big box store at a cheaper price, it's not just cheaper because they buy in bulk but also because they use different parts that aren't the same quality. Phyllis has since blasted her social media channels to support the campaign and gave a shout out to her trusted vendors. The relationship that designers have with their vendors is taking care of the designer and their clients as well as championing their design process and endeavors. That doesn't happen to a client who goes online and buys something. Phyllis is advocating for designers to step up and educate their clients! Interior design is not a commodity, but a value-added service. Go take a look at Design Manager's campaign on social media with the hashtag #designmyths. Phyllis is also hosting a webinar with Design Manager on September 7th so go sign up here and join in!

Interns! Interns! Interns!

Phyllis started using interns back in 2004 when she was in the early stages of her career and could not fill a full-time position. She had two interns who worked two days a week as 3rd-year students. They went to job sites and did everything, mirrored her AND helped her. Hiring interns is an amazing experience for a small business to grow their team. Furthermore, if the internship goes well, it's a great idea to keep he/she on the team so they can start them full-time when they graduate. Even if they're not the right fit for your company, the experience helps them to get other jobs outside of it and enriches your practice too. Phyllis' interns usually stay with her for 3 years and after the first year, they come on board full-time. In terms of compensation, the first year starts out with paid expenses and the second year transitions to a paid internship. If your school has an internship course like FIT, you can get school- credit for it as well.

Not all schools have internship programs but Phyllis believes that every student should seek out an internship no matter what. They give you perspective and incredible work experience. So if you are a student and don't already have one, seek out the opportunity because so much value is added to your entire educational experience. Work for experience, not for free.

What should students look for in an internship?

Look at firms whose company culture and vibe you like. Look at the kind of work they do, the size of their office, and their values. Think about what YOUR unique brilliances are. As an intern, you will likely be asked to do more than what you are best at, but it's important to highlight what you ARE best at in your resume. Think about all of the experience and education you will get out of the opportunity: designing, sketching, attending meetings, fabric shopping, working on installations, seeing through deliveries,

Ann Lowengart: Interiors Started on a Dare

Today in The Lounge Nick joins Ann Lowengart of Ann Lowengart Design to talk about how her interior design business started on a dare. Ann and Nick discuss the importance of having a great staff on your side and how it helps propels your business.

Getting to Know Ann

A career can really feed your soul. For Ann, it does just that. She loves client interactions, design, business, and operations. She says that understanding that a love for her career can be more than just a paycheck, is the biggest lesson she learned from her parents growing up. Her favorite vacation she took was when she brought her daughter, an equestrian, to ride in Ireland. When Ann is asked, "Beer, wine or cocktail?" she prefers an iced tea and a run.

Before she started her career in interior design, Ann was in corporate sales and attended UC Berkeley. She received the classic sales job after college and worked for Procter and Gamble. She says it was a really great experience for her because she rose up the ranks from stocking shelves to managing a small group of people. It was a great way to learn the basics of business and how to sell effectively, manage a team, listen carefully to her customers, behave in the most ethical and honest way and win at what you are doing.

I Dare You!

After five years, Ann took a severance package from P&G, which she and her used husband to buy a building. Ann remodeled the units in the building and then sold them. It was in the first unit that she discovered her love for wood floors and molding. She also found that she had an eye for spatial relationships and detail. Ann’s friend noticed that she LOVED what she did with the remodel and dared her to put "Remodel Consultant" on her business card. Ann did and the next day at her open house she handed them out and received her first call. She booked her second project from a neighbor who also picked up one of her business cards and now, almost twenty years later, she has finished her fourth project for that family.

The Business Today

Ann has a team that consists of nine to fifteen people. At any given moment they might also have nine to twelve luxury residential projects going on at a time. Decorating a home from the ground up can take one to two years to complete, but allows Ann to get to know her clients really well. She prides herself on customer service. Projects at Ann’s company can vary greatly in price. A lot of customers are under the impression that remodels work like they do on HGTV. Some kind of magic wand is waved around and poof! The project is done. Unfortunately, that’s not how it works in real life. Ann had the opportunity to be interviewed by HGTV and one of the first things he did was apologize for the expectations HGTV sets... rarely anything can be finished super quickly for a reasonable price.

For this reason, Ann’s company gives a lengthy questionnaire process to be sure a client fits within her company. They have walked away from clients if they can’t meet their budget and timeframe scenarios because they'd rather not do a disservice to the client or the company. If they do accept a brand new client, they first listen carefully to the client's design expectations and look at any Pinterest boards, design boards, or tear sheets they may have in order to stick as closely to what the client wants as possible. After the customer is taken on a shopping trip to see which levels of quality exist within their budget. A specific budget is developed to include everything from furniture, draperies, area rugs, accessories, art, and any extra costs associated with projects so the client knows where their money is going. They do not move forward unless the client is on the same page as them.

Ann and Coupar PR

Coupar PR is very strategic as well as ethical and honest. Krista’s staff is also excellent in getting Ann's name out there su...

Click on the image to see more of Laura's designs!

Gail Doby and Laura Michaels

Today, it’s a doubleheader when Nick chats with Gail Doby of Gail Doby Coaching and Consulting and Laura Michaels of Laura Michaels Design.  On this podcast, we get sound advice from two keen and creative minds in the business. Also, Nick hits a home run when he suddenly asks Gail Doby for extended early bird tickets to the Interior Design Summit. Gail not only grants Nick his wish, but she agrees to give one lucky winner a free ticket.   Tune in and see how you can become that lucky winner and hear more about the Design Summit!

Getting to Know Gail

Gail was born in Iowa but grew up and went to college in Arkansas. Today, Gail is a successful certified coach and consultant.  In today’s podcast, she discusses the business of the business and her upcoming Interior Design Summit. Gail  expounds on one of her many favorite books on business, Rocket Fuel, authored by Gino Wickman and Mark C. Winters. Gail stresses one of the book’s ideas: the importance of business owners to have a second in command. She says she is fortunate and can’t imagine her business without her second in command, Erin Wearer.  Erin is a project manager. She’s a detailed person while Gail is more of the visionary person creating products and coaching clients.

Gail thinks of herself as a business therapist. She helps firms set goals, meet those goals, and exceed those goals. One question that many designers struggle with is how to set their fees for their services. Gail explains how she works with her design clients so they can realize how the pie should be divided when running the business, paying yourself, and profitability.

Mingling with Gail and other Top Designers at the Interior Design Summit

A lot of the coaching that Gail gives clients can be gained at the Design Summit.  The summit will feature a host of talented designers who have much to share on setting fees, sales scripting, and  growing your design business.

Listen to the podcast to see how you can get an early bird special price or even be one of the lucky winners.

Meeting Laura Michaels

Next, Nick meets up with Laura Michaels of Laura Michaels Design in New York City at ICFF. Laura’s design firm is located in Greenwich, Connecticut.  Laura took a peculiar path to get where she is today. She had a love for fashion, which she inherited from her very chic and modern grandmother. It’s natural that she would major in Fashion Buying. But the road took a turn toward interior design when her neighbors adored her sense of interior style and sought her out for style interior questions and solutions. She thought, ‘I am doing a great job for my friends; I might as well start a business in interior design.’

Laura gives us fabulous advice from setting fees, running a business, reading potential clients and knowing their style. She’s prompt at understanding her client and addressing the space. Most of the time, she chooses to custom build the home furnishing to meet the client’s need, but also to give the space a ‘one of a kind’ designed space.

Just recently she was named one of the top 50 designers in New York Spaces. The second advancement was to open a storefront rather than work from home. This move had many advantages such as more room for samples, but most importantly meeting and showing clients her creations.

Thanks for listening!

Click on the photo for more!

Sandra Funk: New Jersey Girl of Interior Design

Today in The Lounge, Nick talks shop with Sandra Funk of House of Funk, interior design’s Jersey girl. Though originally from Michigan, Sandra now calls New Jersey home. House of Funk has offices in both New Jersey and the beloved New York City. Sandra took an unusual path to her interior design career; from planning to be a third-generation tire heiress, to a website/business finance consultant and then finally to an award-winning interior design principal. Find out how she did it all, in this episode of The Chaise Lounge.

Breaking the Ice

Sandra is a lover of neckwear. From scarves to necklaces, this is her accessory of choice. She supports Chavez for Charity, a maker of jewelry that gives a percentage of proceeds back to charitable causes, a business model that Sandra has also woven into House of Funk. Her perfect night out is a beautiful night stroll through New York City, stopping in for red wine and apps, and seeing where the evening takes her. She is a wife and mother of two beautiful daughters and takes great advantage of the Au Pair program! Growing up in Michigan, Sandra was always surrounded by a strong DIY spirit in her family and community. This is where the initial interior design seeds were planted.

Getting Into the Business

After assuming that she and her sister would take over the family business of tire retreading, it came as a shock when her father sold the business. Sandra had even started college as a finance major in order to do just that. Upon graduation, forced to discover a new path, Sandra took on her first job as a business consultant, which allowed her to travel while she figured out her next steps. At that time, website usability consulting started to take off. As Sandra headed in that direction, she began taking interior design courses at Parsons School of Design to facilitate her website design work. She fell in love with interiors through her studies. Suddenly, the dot-com crash happened and Sandra was laid off. She, however, could not have been more pleased! It was full steam ahead of her interior design career.

Sandra’s first design gig was at Ethan Allen as a sales consultant and decorator. She received terrific training and was chosen to design TV host, Joy Behar’s, home office which would subsequently be featured on the television talk show The View. Upon leaving Ethan Allen, Sandra joined the team at Christopher Norman, where she really got to know the "Who’s Who" of the New York Interior Design community and learn about the intricacies of high-end design.

The Nuts and Bolts of House of Funk

House of Funk is a 6-woman team. Sandra is the creative overseer and editor with two lead designers. She has a head of PR, Head of Finance and a Coordinator that wears many hats. While Sandra tools around in CAD to facilitate the design idea process, she leaves final specs to her rockstar lead designers. She also enjoys using Wecora to pin ideas for design charrettes and also loves sourcing personally once the design direction has been established. Sandra likes to walk the city to source and contact her go-to vendors for the perfect item for clients. When it comes to vendors, style and quality are imperative, but customer service is THE most important factor. Vendors must stand behind their products after they’ve been delivered and really believe in their business. Sandra makes sure to build relationships with vendors that have high integrity as this will always translate to their projects.

Sandra advises that when adding to your team, always allow people’s strengths to shine. It is more beneficial to do what you are good at. Try not to seek out that one person that you think needs to do everything. Internships are another great way to get to know someone and find out if they are a fit for your team; much l...

Randy Fiser: The Big Cheese at ASID

Today in The Lounge we have a SPECIAL guest, CEO of ASID aka The Big Cheese: Randy Fiser. He might not have an interior design background and he isn't an interior designer but Randy is definitely one of the most influential people in the industry.

As always please reach out to us as Nick LOVES to hear from you guys, tell us what you're doing, what you'd like to hear on the show and ask us questions if you need advice!

Secondly, don't forget to check out Porcelanosa's Life Style Magazine either online or order it by mail because guess what, it's FREE. They feature tons of great commercial/hospitality designers and images. Their 3D rendering service is also FREE so you utilize it guys! Remodel a kitchen or bathroom for your clients. Learn more about it here.

Getting to Know Randy

Randy was born in Southern California and lived there until he was 11 when he moved to Arizona and finished high school. Later, he went to Georgia for grad school and eventually moved to Washinton DC where he has been ever since. He received his masters in Counseling and Human Development as well as an MBA. Ever since he was little Randy knew he wanted to be in business and work with people to make an impact and leave the world a better place. So, he invested his time in consulting and large scale organizational transformation work. Later Randy's managing and consulting work were mission driven and soon he transitioned to non-profit work on affordable housing development and education reform. He was a client of Brad Pitt's to help rebuild New Orleans as well.

Randy's favorite place to vacation is Bali. As long as there is an adventure and he can hike, bike, be active and go to the beach, he's there. Good food is, of course, important too. Randy lives in a small 700 square foot apartment in DC, space isn't important to him as he's never home! BUT it is very well designed and FUNCTIONAL. Canadian designers built the apartments using Universal's Design Principles so anyone could live in it, such as someone in a wheel chair or someone not in a wheelchair. This is why Randy believes design matters, it took him a year to notice and think about the wide-range functionality in his apartment because it was so well designed. Design can be both beautiful and functional to the point where you don't notice or think about!

If you ask Randy, "beer, wine or a cocktail?"... it's wine AND a cocktail.

A Day in the Life

Well, it's never a typical day in the life of Randy but usually, he's on the road. He meets with members of ASID, attends chapter events, and talks with manufacturers who want to bring their product in front of members. He meets with other associations that represent the surrounding areas of design and construction. He meets with government officials at the state and federal levels.He meets with clients who run companies, healthcare facilities, or who are homeowners. He talks about WHAT designers do and WHY design matters. Design impacts life. Randy informs us that we're spending 93% of our time indoors now!! So human interaction with the spaces we spend the most time in defines us as human beings and affect our health. Randy does a lot of public speaking on these topics and loves it because it is what he is passionate about.

Randy thinks ASID needs to continue pushing this message and furthermore elevate it with case-studies. It's one thing to tell people that design impacts lives but it's another thing to prove it. One interesting thing Randy brings up is how we design spaces for people but we never take pictures of the spaces with people in them! Aesthetic is defining design but in reality, design is for functionality and for people, every space has a purpose. If you let beauty take over you dilute what design is all about! In every image of ASID's new Head Quarters, they have people in it,

Susan Suhar-Phillips: Interior Design Director at HDR

Today in The Lounge, Susan Suhar-Phillips, Interior Design Director at HDR, joins Nick at the Porcelanosa showroom in the Merchandise Mart. Susan is Nick's longest-known friend to ever be on the show. Not only did they go to Junior High together but they also lived down the street from each other growing up! On this episode, Susan discusses how she got started in interior design and the variety of jobs she’s had in the industry. Susan also talks about her big move from Chicago to LAand how it made a HUGE change in her networking pool.

Getting to Know Susan

Susan is the Los Angeles Design Director for HDR, which is a large country-wide firm. She assists with projects at these sister firms as well. Susan has worked with HDR for about a year now. Before that, she was at Eckenhoff Saunders as their Interior Design Director.

Susan originally started out in the fine arts program at The Art Institute of Chicago when she found that being an artist was not a financially successful career path for her as she moved out of her parents home. So, she went in a different direction and tried environmental studies and sciences, but didn’t really like it. On a whim, she decided to take a drafting class at her local community college and at 21, fell in love with it. It was the perfect marriage of her creative side and her science side. This class gave her the exposure to architecture, drafting and interiors that she needed for the “ah ha” moment she’d been waiting for. Susan first received her associate's degree in Interior Design and then continued her education back at The Art Institute for Interior Architecture. She describes her community college education as gaining the technical knowledge while The Art Institute taught her to push the design envelope. It forced her to look at the world and its interior environments completely differently.

While Susan was in school she also did a couple of internships. Her very first internship was in community college with a furniture dealer. This experience allowed her to become familiar with vendors, materials, pricing, and application. While attending The Art Institute, she worked an internship with VOA which later turned into a full-time design position. VOA exposed Susan to the world of interior architecture and gave Susan a glimpse of how to collaborate with large teams, work on big projects, work with high profile clients, and work late nights. Don’t forget to bring your portfolio to your internship interviews like Susan might have ;).

Networking is Key!... But it May Take Some Time

Susan just moved to LA from Chicago a year ago, and as a result, she now has to start over with her professional network. She feels like networking is the only way to broaden your project base. Susan explains that the more exposed you are, even with your industry peers including competitors, vendors, and clients, the more you’re respected and understood as a contender in the industry. Moving can be stressful enough but it also took about a year for Susan to get used to her new routines, get acclimated with project deliverables, and accustomed to her commutes/travel before she started networking. She now has a good handle on everything and is ready to start.

The Business Today

As a BD, business developer, Susan can go out into the field and promote her company. She gave us some insight that HDR is moving away from hospitality and becoming more of a healthcare giant. Susan also mentioned that when Gary Wheeler joined HDR and took helm of the workplace, he made a significant change to the vision of HDR and where they are going design-wise. This vision is to become more interiors driven. HDR is going to be including the workplace and have strong market sectors between healthcare, work, education, science, and technology.

As Design Director, Susan,

Julia Buckingham: From Stay at Home MOM to Interior Design Powerhouse

On this Episode of The Lounge, Nick sits down with Julia Buckingham of Buckingham ID in Chicago at The Public (formerly the Ambassador East). They are both in Chicago attending Neocon. The last time Nick and Julia talked was on an actual chaise lounge with Michel Boyd at the Atlanta Market. Julia currently lives in "Casa Lantana" in Pheonix, Arizona but her office is still in Chicago with her daughters. Her favorite fashion accessory is shoes and her favorite place to vacation is Marrakesh in Morocco, which she visited with the #blondesquad (interior designers Holly Phillips, Cathy Austin, Tami Ramsey, and Krista Nichols). The most moving traveling experience Julia has had though was getting the opportunity to visit the manufacturing plants and homes of the people who manufacture her products.

The Business Today

Julia is in the process of opening a Modernique boutique shop in Pheonix, Arizona. Her business in Chicago is booming as she guts homes while maintaining their historic integrity and architecture through renovations and add-ons. Her firm consists of 5 people and focuses a lot on business and operations. She has 3 designers plus herself, one operations manager, and one business manager. She and Nick can't stress how important it is to have people to help run the business side of a firm. PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT: Nick met a student attending an ASID event while in Chicago who was actually interested in working on the business side of interior design. So Megan, if you're out there Julia would love to connect with you because business is what it's all about. Message us to connect! :)

Internships

Amy Flurry's art from her company paper-cut-project was installed by Julia for a client project in Chicago. Amy also recently asked Nick to talk about Internships on the show. So Nick asks Julia what she thinks:

Herrington School of Design was where Julia pooled her interns from before it closed. Having an intern was integral to Julia's business. She herself has hired 3 interns over the past 10 years as a part of her design team. Interns understand that they are starting out at a level where they need to be open-minded and they embrace the tasks of an entry-level position. She does get resumes from students whose schools don't require an internship program, but she knows it can be difficult to put time and motivation into an internship without receiving any credit or compensation. In her opinion, more schools should require an internship. Julia also has people who want to relocate to Chicago to intern for her, but it's difficult to financially commit to their travels and rent expenses without knowing them.

With that being said, her firm has at least 2 interns every summer and if SHE has not hired them afterward herself, some of the most amazing firms of Chicago HAVE. Having the ability to intern for a firm is integral to the growth of design students and can lead to potential job opportunities. Julia also suggests reaching out to designers to ask questions and see if they will become your mentor. 5 years ago, Tiffany Brooks who won HGTV Designer of a year, asked to meet up with Julia because she was stuck and didn't know how to have her own design firm. After they talked, Julia became her mentor and now she is rockin' it in the design world. You can talk to and learn from designers, or even go in for a couple days to see what it is that they do and how much work it is.

Julia's Story

10 years ago Julia was just a mom at the Jewel. She didn't plan for a new career but she'd always loved shopping and collecting antiques. Julia and her husband have had 15 homes in 30 years of marriage and consider themselves "Cereal Flippers." Her husband handles graphics, branding, and putting spaces together while she designs them. Their love language was/is working together on these projects. Then,

Francesca Bucci: Cruise Ship Designer

Today in The Lounge, Nick sits down with Francesca Bucci to talk about a BIG topic: how to design Cruise Ship interiors. 

Getting to Know Francesca

Francesca Grew up in Rome, Italy, came to U.S after she earned her degree in architecture, and finished her studies at Cornell. Sardinia and Bermuda are her two favorite places to vacation as she loves being close to the sea. Her favorite fashion accessory is a headband; they're a little retro, unexpected, or even preppy. If she wasn't designing cruise ships, she'd either be singing or figure skating. As an Italian, her drink of choice is obviously wine- “don't ask an Italian a question like that” says Francesca. She loves cooking and entertaining, so, she would rather stay home than go out but does gravitate towards French restaurants.

Finding Ship

When Francesca studied Architecture at the University of Rome, it wasn't interior-oriented, which is why she finished at Cornell. Her education in Rome was focused on architectural history, restoration and all of the technical aspects. Francesca first became interested in architecture in High School because she has a passion for drawing. Specifically, she loves drawing cartoons. In her cartoons, she is able to write the story of a building, as they take place in and are inspired by Rome interiors.

Francesca's first employer out of school was Perkinson Whales in Washington, DC. She felt like she was at a disadvantage compared to people who did all of their schoolings in the U.S. because she was much older and lacked the interesting theoretical knowledge one might learn in the U.S. In Italy you get out of school when you 25-26 versus 22. She felt as though her knowledge was basically useless in the States, where sketching and hands-on practices were practical. So, she jumped right in and had to learn at a fast pace everything there was to learn.

Francesca’s first task at the job was solely to put project slides in containers but it didn’t matter, she was on top of the world just to have a job in an American firm. Later, she transitioned into a drafter position and her employers picked up on her keen eye for details and started to teach her more. After, she worked in a couple firms in DC then moved to NY, where she learned a lot. After 4-5 years, Francesca found herself with little knowledge on how to specify things so she went to learn! The next firm she worked at is where she learned the specialization of retail, residential, and cruise ship lines.

The Business Today

There are a lot of custom elements that go into a cruise ship. One must consider the weight and size of everything, how the ship is built, compliances, materials and outdoor elements. You need to be able to determine the parameters in a flexible way, as the building code is 10 times bigger than in NYC. There is a big learning curve when doing cruiseship interiors as it would be very challenging to learn how to build a ship in the span of one project. 

Based in New york in Times square, BG Studio International, Franseca's firm consists of 15 people, a small firm with big projects. Projects often last 3 years and the team does multiple vessels at the same time.

Upcoming Events

BDNY 2017 – Nov 12 – 13

KBIS – Jan 9 – 11

ICFF Miami– Oct 3 – 4

High Point Market Oct 14 – 18

Wrap Up

If you would like to hear more episodes, please visit us on iTunes or on our website at TheChaiseLoungePodcast.com. Lastly, find The Chaise Lounge on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter or post a review on iTunes, you may even hear your review read live on our next podcast. With that said keep dreaming big, and keep designing a great design business. See ya!

Phyllis Harbinger Talks about PR and Marketing

On this episode of The Lounge, Nick talks to Phyllis about PR and whether or not you should 'pay to play.' Later, he chats with Alyssa Rosenheck and Nicole Davis who will both be at Las Vegas Market on the Best of the West panel on Monday, July 31st from 1:30-3:00 pm. Learn more here.

Pay to Play? Here's What Phyllis Thinks

Some magazines offer deals where you can pay to get into them, is this something designers should do? Phyllis believes that press and exposure are always at the forefront of a designer's mind. Also, it is important to have a mix of different kinds of marketing and advertising strategies, some that you pay for! As long as you budget, there is NOTHING wrong with paying for an advertorial. They work regionally, don't look salesy, AND give a lot of information about you and your company. Sometimes paying for exposure and publicity can make people uneasy, but Phyllis thinks it's terrific. It improves your visibility and helps you get noticed.

Phyllis has even done it herself for an ASID campaign, where she and six others received a half of a page to themselves. Afterward, she received three phone calls from being in the magazine- a lot of value that otherwise wouldn't have come to her. The exposure brought her to the top of people's minds. The more you do in different channels to reach multiple audiences of potential clients, the better you are advertising. Phyllis stresses to make sure you have a strategic plan though- she plans her budget for each target strategy at the beginning of the year and does her best to stick to it.

True or False?

The only way to get published in today's market is to be an advertiser in a magazine.

Phyllis says that this is not completely true... there are some publications that rely completely on advertising and designers taking ads. When you do submit a project to a magazine you've advertised in, they will know your name already so you have a better chance of getting looked at. Though, from talking to sales people Phyllis has learned that a lot of editors try really hard not to be judgemental about whether or not someone has submitted advertising money to them and in addition, to the scope of work that they have. She doesn't think it's untrue that designers are looking for advertising because they are. If you're more well known, you might get asked to advertise but feel less pressure to do so, compared to someone brand new who is wanting to expose their work to the public.

How do you determine the amount to budget for marketing each year?

For Phyllis, budgeting depends on her needs and what she wants to accomplish. If her goals differ from a previous year than she'll move money from one bucket to another. Strategizing is not something she can do on her own. She'll ask her team about their thoughts on Facebook ads and analytics in order to make better decisions. She has a social media person, a social media strategist who does consulting and PR, and an SEO person. It's all about checks and balances, not a one stop shop. 

Marketing isn't free - it takes time and money. Phyllis advises thinking about what your unique brilliance is and to ask yourself if you are the best person to a job? Then ask, is there someone else out who will do it better, smarter, and quicker than you? In truth, it's worth paying for someone who can. Allowing this person to fulfill their unique value proposition leaves you time to do what YOU need to do and likely do best. Today we have access to global freelancers and virtual assistants... so it's easier to hire people across the world for less.

If you want to sign up for Phyllis' monthly new letter that gives business advice or if you have a question for her, email [email protected]. You can also follow her on Twitter or Facebook.