Designing Premium Experiences: Luxury Secrets 🌟 | Experience Design Authority Victoria Taylor

This Beyond Interior Design podcast episode discusses the importance of creating a personalized and human-centered approach in service and experience design. We discuss the need to understand and meet the needs of clients, break traditional scripts, and design environments that foster meaningful interactions.

1. Why should potential clients choose you for their design needs?
2. How do you stand out from the competition in the services you provide?
3. How do you create magic in your design studio?
4. Is becoming a better designer the key to success?
5. Why is experience the key factor in branding and marketing?
6. How can we incorporate more human elements into service and design?
7. In what ways can service design and actual design complement each other?
8. Why understanding the desired experience is so important when designing?
9. How can we design for different generations, with their behaviors and expectations?
10. How can we break the script and change perceptions in interior and experience design?

Here you can find out more about Victoria Taylor:
http://instituteofinteriorimpact.com/victoria

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Transcript

everyday potential clients are looking for someone to help them with designing their new home office restaurant or hotel but what is the reason to choose you how are you standing out to them in the service you provide we all know it's a challenge to stand out initially online in the digital world and then physically in the real world live in person we get a daily overload of choices in a continuously experiential driven world so how do we create the right conditions with our design studio for magic to happen if you think you need to become a better designer you are wrong this is the beyond the terror design life we have experience an experiential consultant Victoria Taylor to share her experience with us Victoria travels the world visiting the most beautiful destinations and Consulting hospitality and travel brands on how to create extraordinary in an increasing experience LED world she has an insatiable curiosity for the exceptional networks for their clients to deliver exceptional this time and next time and every time so is the key to success just steps creating extraordinary experiences discover in our next Beyond in Tarot design podcasts here she is Victoria hi Mark hi thank you for having me yes welcome yes I was really looking forward it yeah so stay here thank you so much I love it my pleasure um well almost Christmas I put on my uh special Christmas jumper for you I put on my Christmas series yes kind of fluffy yeah well it's I I didn't wear one she actually is not one part so it's it's it can get uh worser than that um well yeah glad you were here um you know I had a I I have a hospital experience entertainment abroad in Holland it was actually on uh halfway of my life so far um I really loved it with uh connecting with all these people giving them a good time and well another passion was a Terry design and so in some way I'm really connecting Both Worlds right now to give them an experience because a lot of uh interior designers are focusing on the end result of this beautiful interior design that's well it starts somewhere else with the clients with an idea in the head so let's discover today let's let's can see if we can get some you can share some secrets with us how to tap in the conversation which is going on in the mind of the of our prospects and clients today but first actually um you've worked for um for diverse client set from Artisan Boutique Hotel businesses to to hijab Network clients can you name a few um yeah I've worked with Brands like Aston Martin and I've worked with piano cruises I've worked with Kempinski um I work with some major property developers and I'm not I'm not able to name right now um but yeah I work with boutiques as well I'm I'm currently experientially directing the the build of a really really awesome um Hotel over in Croatia that's very cool um I get to work on a really wide range which is great because when you're working with the larger corporates it's a very different approach to when you're working with boutiques so it's nice that there's learnings from each world that can be transferred to each world as well because they both learn from each other so um yeah I've worked with a really wide range of work with the Jockey Club I've done I've done all kinds of different things and as you said ultra high net worth individuals on their super Yachts um so it's a very varied and interesting space and um a very fun space to work in as well yeah I can imagine you travel all the world so what what's can you what's the most beautiful destination oh my goodness what's your person your personal favorite what do you like are you are you a big fan of luxury are you a big fan of um do you know it's to me it's not being so much I don't like to pinpoint it to one thing um for me I think experience is when the right conditions come together in a Melting Pot of so many different things and then it's the precise moment with the destination with an experience that may have gone before it and all of a sudden it's just magical um so for example um I was speaking at an event over um in Macedonia um at the end about two months ago and we went to this beautiful tiny tiny little restaurant and the chef and we walked in there was no menu or anything and you know we said to the chef so what's on the menu and he said oh I am the menu and it was beautiful it was just it was really authentic it wasn't luxury at all it was very rustic but we spent five hours in that restaurant eating all of the food that he presented to us we danced with the star half we looked over these beautiful views it was one of those lifetime experiences that you just couldn't replicate anywhere else um so for me I think it's a combination of being with the right people at the right time in the right conditions which for me means that picking a right place it's kind of transient and it evolves um so yeah to answer your question it's lots of different things for me yeah yeah yeah yeah good yeah it's very clear if you explain it this way yeah it's it's really yeah you're gonna pick it to one to one location and and it's definitely nothing something you can copy paste to another destination because there are so many things influencing The Experience yeah yeah well how do you find customer experience what is it wow I think lots of people Define it really differently um so you know we can talk about experience in so many different ways obviously you've got you know like service experience which is that kind of you know like a customer services that kind of supports anything experience LED but you know I think a lot of what we allude to and a lot of what we talk about is experiential um and we talk about you know creating worlds where we can connect with our customers and guests on so many different levels and so many different levels of immersion as well um so for me when you know when I'm talking about experience it combines great service with great design and and for me as well it has to do something extraordinary as standard now because I think that you know we live in an experienced economy and I think whereas kind of two three years ago maybe this was more of a um kind of a buzzword two three four years ago even even kind of grown and evolving you know now it we do live in an experienced LED world and I think first and foremost his Brands we need to be stages of experience as standards and secondary comes what we do so for me experience has to be at the Forefront it has to be exceptional it has to be excelling in service design and design um and extraordinary has to be the standard I think so secondly you tell us is what you do yeah so you could talk about all your expertise and all your things you can sell for your client but up front there's this Experian thing yeah we really need to take care of uh to uh well to to be visible actually absolutely and I think you know we can imagine it and envisage it as we're we're all running a show you know we're all we're all creating a show for Our Brands businesses everything that we're doing you know we're like show Runners and we are running around putting on a performance um and and that performance is is the experience and I think of where good enough at that performance and that's in everything that we do you know it's not just in the service that we provide it's in every phone call every conversation every comment we write on LinkedIn every every place we travel to every handshake that we give you know experiences in every tiny interaction that's reflective of what we provide because ultimately what we provide that there's a much bigger extension of that um so you know we we have to think in experience and that maximum differentiation all the time Time by delivering experience through everything that we do yeah because one of your quotes was different drives desire sure for sure yeah I mean we have to be thinking in maximum differentiation because you know we we live in a world where you know it's it it's no um stranger to you and I we you know we scroll the same LinkedIn feeds and we see some of the most amazing amazing experiential activations designs you know I work in the hotel sector specifically more now um and you know we see quite a lot of replication because you see things that work and they work well and then we see different iterations of that and and for me difference really is the key you know when I when I sit in these environments where I'm in these very high intense workshops where we bring in people and people get together from all different design disciplines it really is about thinking differently um to make yourself stand out in a world where everyone obviously wants to be doing well in experience but you don't do that by iterating and providing a different version of what someone else has done you do that by putting your stake in the ground and saying this this is how we're different and that takes a lot of work you know that that takes a lot of work um so yeah for me I mean you know ultimately we see some great iterations and different versions but for me difference really does Drive desire and it tends to be the people that are willing to take risks that see the results and see that foot falling and multiple guests coming through because they do provide something different to a world that's becoming more increasingly experienced-led where they're overwhelmed with experiences yeah yeah it's it's a I saw an example on uh what's the social media post who said marketing is like someone asking on a date yeah that's marketing branding is the reason they say yes and customer experience is the reason they come back for more instead but if I hear you talking you you the customer experience is not a it's not a thing not a third step it's not first marketing them branding and then customer experience no experience is everything it's yeah it's in every comic you know you and I are having a conversation here today and I can't see everybody else who's here that have joined us today but thank you to everyone that has joined but we're all having an experience now together um and that experience will give people a reflection on me um it will give them an understanding of who I am and how I operate and how my brand operates so this for some people will be their first touch point and experience with me um and then they they might if they like what I say go on to have a look at something else that I do um and and follow that kind of Journey and path so I think we we constantly need to be thinking about every experience that somebody has with you as a brand is the last experience that they're about to have was it a good one and would they want to come back for more we have to treat everybody as though there are like a last time person because when we treat them like a last time like this is the last interaction we'll ever have that's how we can be sure that we give them a great experience that means that they want to come back and so that there is a next time not just the last time you know yeah yeah great yeah we had a for years we had a kind of challenge that when people were working with us the at the end they could tell it was a was a great journey and it went we had a lot of debt quite intensive really personal uh Journey we took them to design their ultimate home to to live on their own terms but then the the just the first step that they were looking for an entire designer certified online and then to it's hard to stand out in that world because we have so many cliches like I'm hey I'm I'm making uh I'm designing a home feeling and uh it's it's it's it's it's going to be really personal and authentic and new and all these stories so so what can you can you explain can you give us an example of uh you are an Hospitality expert yeah we had a conversation before that you that you were telling what you can advise in Hospitality expert because it works the same for booking a holiday or booking a restaurant okay can you okay can you sketch the scenario that that well well people go through if they're Loop or something yeah I think I think the best way to think about that is that everybody goes through a different scenario okay um and and it's not just based on um The Journey that they're going through with your brand it goes based on every lifetime experience that they've had before the moment that they interact with you so everybody comes to an experience with a brand from a different starting point whatever that starting point is so if you imagine every brand um this is probably the best way to kind of break it down if you can imagine every brand as a department store okay so you're a department store and there are multiple doors to that department store so they could be on level one level two the ground level it could be through um like through a walkway it could be up in escalator it could be through doors that open there's so many different entries into this department store and any of those guests customers can walk in through any of those doors at any one point right they may decide to stay inside or they may walk back out of one of those doors and they may walk back into another door but when they walk out they'll have other experiences in their life that will impact whether they'll walk in through another door which makes it really difficult and it makes it a challenge because his Brands to say well how do we keep them inside like how do we make sure yeah and they walk in that they want to stay inside and that's why we need to be thinking in moments rather than Journeys because when we're thinking in Journeys how do they all come to us we kind of make this assumption that they all go through the same process no it's a kind of line it's a kind of funnel they they're one or two but they're not no and really yeah the room the rumors are good there I really visualize all my clients coming in through all these doors around me and then it's like hi are you hi John hi Carla and then I'm like okay what what do you need to do and what kind of emotion are they right now absolutely step on to connect with them absolutely and you've hit on a really key Point as well because you know emotion is such a big driver of decision making and ultimately you know it impacts our buying behaviors but when you know when you're tapping into the emotion of different guests different customers again that's different and that and that's also based on yes how they are in that particular moment so you may get a customer that comes to you on a Monday and they've had a really bad morning so they've gone out they've missed they've missed their flight or they've missed their train or they've lost their keys to their house and they come and they're not in a good mood or they come on a Tuesday and they've just had a job promotion so there's so many variable factors that sit around that I think as Brands we need to be way more aware of the human condition and know that actually that human condition is so variable and all we can do is meet people where they are rather than trying to dictate what Journey they go on you know we're trying to dictate Journeys we're way too far ahead and in a completely different world to what's actually happening so I think when we can stop trying to funnel people into what they're going to do this then they're going to do this then they're gonna do this that just isn't how it works we need to go right this is a world of amazing unique incredible diverse individuals and actually at the moment they intercept that with us what can we do in that moment to make this so magical that they want to come back and then repeat that every time in different iterations for each different customer in each individual scenario because it's just not possible to determine something that creates the same outcome for everybody everybody so what I would say to summarize is to imagine that department store with those multiple doors with this different Melting Pot of conditions and make sure that each moment with each customer gives them something that they want to come back for yeah so you yeah well the we call this podcaster design experiences one moment at a time and now now I really get it because I was in this kind of customer Journey mode this experience about and and it's always be yeah it's it's two because uh you're talking about traveling and Hospitality it's like I go from A to B and on this journey I will experience something but nobody told me which way I need to go on that journey and so every time when I'm going off track yeah I need to go to the destination something can happen to get me there yeah and that could be digitally or physically you know those moments could be it could be when you're in a physical say we're talking about a physical office or a you know physical interior design office or it could be a retail outlet or it could be a hotel or it could be on Instagram you know it could be on LinkedIn it could be um in a publication so we have to remember that actually the moments that we're creating they transcend physical space you know they happen both in the digital world and the physical world so every moment that we create we need to be reflective of our brand values um of everything that we're trying to create you know we need to be able to create Magic on the page and magic in the scroll as much as we do in in person in real life it's it's it sounds really like hard work because but yeah it is it sounds like like a lot of work actually a lot of work but I think when you well we everybody including me is always looking for that for the for the big bangs for the big steps the these are the magic things and it's the same way you talk on LinkedIn you see this amazing post of all the stuff which is going on which which artificial intelligence and and and and I don't know Holograms whatever and I'm always getting spoiled after weeks seeing all the best things going to happen in the world I'm like okay where where am I I'm just a small interior designer I don't have maybe the resources to design all that but on the other end I know that what what made a big difference in uh in our own company in our company masters of the dairy design was when we designed those moments this customer experience and and that that was actually really magic we knew that okay people are uh are asking for and it's every designer they saw something uh interesting online because otherwise why should they contact you and then we were sending them the questionnaire to get to know more about them a little bit about uh us we send them a present a magazine so it was all these few things before we got the deal that made a huge difference in the customer experience and it it's well last week we had a student uh who could join us on the uh interior design day we got one day uh uh we go three days in a whole project on at the location with the client designing like a co-creation and she said how how long do you know these those people I said just one day well it feels like you know them forever and I was like okay this has to do with all this designing all these small moments for sure is it yeah yeah for sure and I think it you know as well we we very often look to the big things you know and ultimately you know when we're designing experiences we have to have those um big designs and those you know those big Ideas these you know Big Blue Sky Thinking that changes the world but while we're Blue Sky Thinking and we're creating these amazing big designs and you know you know I'm very fortunate to work on some really nice nice nice chunky I'll say chunky projects yes you are yeah but along the way we can't we can't forget those small interactions because the small interactions are just as important as the Big Ideas because ultimately without humans experiences fail to exist so we can have all this Blue Sky Thinking and these big beautiful ideas but without the people they might as well not exist so it doesn't matter whether you're Disney or whether you're an interior design studio it doesn't matter because ultimately your your guests your customers they need to be center of what you do and when you put them at the center of your decision making you can't go far wrong you know ultimately if you're trying to emulate holographs in I'm just using that for an example holographs in an interior design studio you kind of have to ask yourself well what for and what's the purpose and what value does it add it's great that it's there as inspiration in the world that circles around me but actually you know what's the real relevancy of this to my customers my guess what you know whatever industry you're in what's the real relevancy of that or how do we design those moments or create the conditions to design those moments where magic happens with the people that are paying us money for our services you know and and the focus really has to be there so you know yes it's really important to have that combination of that blue sky thinking those really big innovative ideas but also a real focus on all of those you know customers and those small moments that really make a difference to them yeah yeah the the relevance I really like that if you say that because uh some people you can use design even as a kind of gimmick or to attract likes or you know if you see a beautiful Design interior it's like is it because of the liesource or do you want more do you want to start the conversation what is the purpose of showing depth and I think it's a a big misunderstanding if you uh if you see yourself nowadays in this this well for let's call it a kind of New Generation stuff to see rescue different worlds hey maybe maybe you are a Disney if it feels authentic to you as an interior designer to to talk Disney let's call it that yeah right talk Disney yeah if it's relevant to you it's relevant I'll say relevant to you I think it's really important that we go is it relevant to our customers because very often we can say you know we can go down this brand experience brand experience you often hear that don't you brand experience But ultimately it's their experience their experience is what determines what they feel about your brand you know ultimately whatever experience they have with you becomes the meaning that they attach to you so the meaning that I attach to your brand for example is built through the experience that I have with you and so far each interaction that I've had with you has been a great experience so to me the meaning that I attach to your brand is of high quality now somebody else might have a bad experience with you I'm sure they won't but I'm just sure this is an example and then the meaning that they attach will be less than favorable so again I think when we think about brand experience we make it very sort of ego driven about us yeah we always need to be making it about them and what their experiences with us and you know very often when I'm working with hotels or design projects you know it's like well how do we create this so it reflects the brand and it's like well actually what do you want people to feel you know you need to make people feel something so that they then go on to do something whether that's a purchase or whether it's they come and book a stay or they decide to design their kitchen with you or they recommend you to a friend they have to feel so that they then do and that comes from kind of suspending our own brand Egos and putting their experience at the center rather than brand experience yeah wonderful yeah so ask yourself the question how do you want people to feel about you about your brand sure about them 100 it's all about how people feel you know we're all we're all emotional beings aren't we and you know since the beginning of time we've we've all gone through various different life scenarios and you know you know when you read a story when you read a narrative this is why Disney is so good at what Disney does because we're it's it's threaded together by story you know it's all about story and story evokes emotion and you know when we're dealing with humans the best way to reach them is through something that we've known since the beginning of time and that's Once Upon a Time time we've all grown up with that since we sat on our mums and Dad's knees being read bedtime stories you know we've we've all grown up with Once Upon a Time and and that's all yeah yeah it awaits all your imagination too right yeah it's a world Beyond is that this is definitely the Beyond world if you that you are opening up with these experiences yeah you break you bring in all your own uh associations and meaning actually because it's it can be you can design an experience but you actually you're telling me for everybody it's a different experience 100 they bring their own resume meaning yeah sure and all we can do is kind of go well you know what we're working with this world of diverse beings and every moment that they meet with us we want them to feel great so that they then do something whether that's a purchase a new visit an inquiry a recommendation whatever it is they have to feel so that they do yeah yeah people buy when they feel of course they do yeah but it's not just about the buy-in it's like they might come this time and they might feel something so strong but they're not quite ready to buy or they need to go and have a you know you then take it back to real world let's take it away from this beautiful Disney World where they're in that wonderful moment they feel something there's fireworks it's like they're stood at the base of the castle and they feel wonderful they're you know they feel that wonderful Disney feeling but then they go back home and the baby cries and the husband had a bad day at work or and it goes back to real world and then all of a sudden that kind of intense decreases so then we need to be there when they come back again when they might bring back their partner to reignite that magic again so we have to you know think of them coming they're transient they're in and out to relive relive the moments so yeah the first thing you're doing is grabbing your phone yeah going through all the pictures or the videos or uh like all these great memories and then and then you are like hey how can I duplicate it again or when you are we doing it again or what's the next step yeah when they come back you have to recreate that magic you almost have to Discount the moment that's gone before it and start again because then you're not you're not depleting in what you're delivering so you need to be delivering every single time um and trying to reignite that magic because the moment they leave so many different things happen so when they come back again we have to lift them back up again right so that that amazing moment and we do that through physical design through emotional design um and you know in the hotel well that's absolutely fascinating because you know we can do that through the Interiors we can do that through the different spaces through the different activities and different things Foods yeah yeah absolutely the sensory side of it the smells The Sounds the sights that you know so many different things and but we just have to be thinking in that you know every new moment treating it as a new moment you know they might have had 10 moments with us before but actually it could be this moment where they decide to make a purchase they could have come some seven times before and gone away and not done anything but of your seventh moment is a bad moment they're not gonna buy which means that we have to keep our levels high all the time and that's challenge yeah but but even when they already bought and they're in the middle of a kind of a predatory like we have a really intensive design process it's in four weeks we designed the roll home we see them maybe four times uh and then it's such a great moment the whole world is not turning around anymore it's like they are all in in the interior design and then creating designing their new lifestyle actually or the new firm or whatever but then you have a long moment in between this creation Parts because I don't even invented the magic wand yet to do the construction work with one one magic uh Magic stop so this this whole timeline in between design phase and creation or the the when it's turned key this is a moment uh this is a well that's maybe the hardest time because they have to wait they're looking for the end results they have some kind of energy and passion because they know what's what it's going to be but how how can you but do you have any idea just I just think I just pick your mind for that how can you tap into the what's going on there to to keep this this energetic adrenaline High yeah yeah so what you're referring to there is like the anticipatory experience so they've gone through that moment and they've you know they've made that decision to purchase and then they're waiting if I ever think what you said rightly so they've made their purchase and they're waiting then right they're waiting for the design the design the design is ready but they need to create it and that's how we're designing one month but they the creation will take maybe nine months or yeah so it's creating it's very similar to the stage when someone books a holiday or a vacation and they've they've had their book in reference and it's that all comes through and then there's this big period of time between in that document and when they actually travel and this period of time is it's kind of a graveyard for buyers remorse or a wonderful playground of possibility and potential and I would say that the more that you can think about how you can keep there you don't need to be in their face but how you can keep there and keep dipping back in with it could be this is where we're at in the process right now it could just be a really simple communication it could be a video to show them a tiny snippet you know if you're referring it to interior design it could be you know we just wanted to show you this um we can't wait to show you the completed thing we know it's x amount a month away but it's just dipping in with those little touch points you know could it be that they've got a birthday and you you dip them with a birthday card or whatever it is you know tiny tiny touch points that keep you in their mind and help to build that anticipation for what's to come because we can leave that time to just die yeah we can use it as this kind of like hey here we are here we are yeah it's like it's like we are waiting in this box yeah and the clients around us uh we're waiting to uh when they're opening their doors but they're not coming in but because they're just waiting so actually I want to go out of this box of our our brand our company and it's like hey I opened the door and I see oh are you there how how are you what's going on there that's so you need to you need to design actually the the the door to reach out to them and you need to design the door that they can reach so they can reach out to you yeah and make it a two-way door as well because ultimately you know the the the more open you can be in in showing them that that communication is a two-way thing and that you are accessible um that's really important you know we we live in a busy world you know everyone has their busy Lifestyles jobs families friends children occasions everything um and you know sometimes people actually don't want to bother people so I think making people feel like they they have that place where they can come back and two you know always imagine that department store and you want to make sure that door is open whenever they want to walk in they want to walk in and say hello if they want to walk out and not and they want to just walk in and say I've been to the beach today as as irrelevant as that might be to your brand you know this is this is all very basic Service delivery 101 you know it's make people feel because ultimately if you want people to buy they need to feel you know if you want people to trust they need to feel and you need to be approachable you need to be that you know that Source where they can come in when they want and where you can reach out to them and just you know very often in business we make it very stagnated and it's like purchase this paperwork end result and it's like we're humans all of us we're all humans it doesn't matter whether you're sat at the board of directors for apple or whoever you are we're all humans we're all motivated by communication and interaction and and human how we are as humans so make make it more human you know I know we're very much talking about the service side now we're not talking about design but service design and actual design they go hand in hand yeah it is at first yeah it's great it's that you say that because a lot of people might see it this way that they say this service it's services is not designed but it is when I when I saw the opportunity uh to design those moments literally you can you can you can design you you there is graphic design involved video editing uh logo design uh a gift design PDF design evil design whatever there's a lot of design involved in this to give them the ex those experience we designed the whole magazine and what you need to do for a whole magazine it's really customer it's a journey for sure it's a cool journey to go on so it's it's definitely designing but it's it's sometimes it's tangible sometimes it's not 100 you know I think we and we think of everything in life as we can we can design the best version of everything possible you know when I go to meet clients um you know I've had I've had clients flying from different countries to come and meet me over here in the UK whenever whenever I meet people I will always make sure that I select somewhere that is experiential so it Sparks the conversation and I tend to like to take clients to maybe two or three different venues in a meeting so we might start somewhere for coffee then go somewhere else for lunch and then maybe somewhere else after for like a post dinner drink or what whatever it is yeah so that we can have conversations around those different environments because you know ultimately when we're working in hotel design or luxury experience design it's really important that we're not just sat in a stagnated boring stale office we need to be in those environments that facilitate conversation and facilitate that Blue Sky Thinking creativity so you know even designing and very particular you know I will speak to my assistant and say you know we need to design places where we're going to create great outcomes from these meetings you know and these are already people who are customers they're not they're not people that I'm trying to get in as customers they're people who are customers But ultimately I need to create the environment for them to flourish that isn't just by taking them to a coffee shop you know I need to take them somewhere where it's going to ignite their brains so they can say hey Victoria what about this or hey Victoria and I'm going hey what about this so you know even designing those meeting places and spaces is really really important have you you think of the whole world as something that you can design to be better then you're on the right track oh yeah I love it yeah that's uh yeah we call the Institute of interior impact and it's it's really sometimes we forgot that it's not only about this those this beauty it's about what's the purpose what's the purpose of what you are designing and if it's if it's meant to be to have a really cool brainstorm session then that's it or romantic setting or entertaining uh you know yeah yeah and I think it's being again really like bespoke with that as well um and you can still do that on a mass scale as well you know if you're you know a huge organization you can still do that but it's having the ability and the resource to say how can we make this person feel magic with our brand and that and that doesn't matter if you're apple or who whoever you are that's that's taking that person and that scenario in that project and saying right what what does the project need to flourish how can we create the conditions for magic to happen with that person and go out there and do it yeah yeah well if you bring it to a smaller level those small steps because those are again this is what we see in the world which is going on and we like it but we are those maybe single or Duo designers and we have to start somewhere um I think it has to do if we talk about form followers meaning in the in the first session you can have the deal or not doesn't matter if in the first session they would like to talk about their feelings about their new lifestyle or their new company just well for me I I would like to I like to tap on on those story of those feelings I'm not going to talk about Solutions or the whole trajectory or the last design Trends so every time we have another version I deliver another experience at the table and I'm kind of uh customizing it on the on who's on the other side yeah that's I think that's so important you know what you said there about form values meaning because you know I think um particularly after the pandemic you know everything feels a lot busier now right um and you know the world feels a lot quicker and I think you know very often um as as consultants as owners of agencies businesses whatever that is people are trying to get to that end goal it's like the sale the sale the sale and you know you know I lose count of the amount of times where people come to me with a solution based offering immediately and I'm like ask me some questions like for me the the magic lies in the questions because that's why you uncover where you discover where you learn about the person if someone wants to come to talk to you about their feelings and meaning and their life experiences that's a really big clue and and that's a really big clue to help you to understand where you go next you might not close that sale the first time and actually if you do you've probably not done your job well enough and you're probably leaving money on the table as well because you haven't got to know them well enough to be able to to do that at that stage so what I would say is actually there's a lot of um there's a lot of benefit in slowing down and and really understanding people and understanding how people feel or how those guests want to feel or what we think they should feel and and taking some time in that Discovery before we again right here's the solution here's a solution here's the solution because the solutions come naturally from great conversations so if people are coming to you to talk about something that doesn't revolve around the sale then lap it up because they're they're massive Clues to where you're gonna go yeah yeah sometimes you have you have clients in a hurry and they said how much will it take and they're like yeah okay one hour one and a half hour yeah with a really you can feel that they are in a hurry and they just want to make a decision this week they invited three interior designers maybe and then and then it's really hard because you want to be this solution-based designer to give them everything you got in in this speed meeting and then it's it's like you know that if you want to leave a good impression if you want to make impact you need to slow down yeah and the world is going fast nowadays you need we need to all to slow down and we definitely everyone wants to slow down actually that's the the funny thing right now what what's going on on that's on that side it's getting so fast and everybody wants to slow down but we all we it's like we're all speeding up we want to speed up but we want to slow down the thing is we've you know we've grown up in a town I don't want to speak for you but I think we're probably similar age um so we've you know we've grown up in a time where not all our lives have been completely on the internet right so we've we've known life like before social media for example you know look at if we look at Jan Zedd that's all they've known you know they've grown up in a very digital world where everything has been digital that's all they've known they've got higher expectations everything's on demand and the world is getting faster and faster attention spans are getting shorter you know and I very often say to people if we design for Gen Zed we're actually designing high levels for the rest of the world you know and I'm gonna give a personal example here like if I refer to my own mother amazing an amazing lady but she's you know she's pushing towards 70 years old and she Scrump Jesus scroll her and she's you know she's very interested in the world she's interested in design she's interested in popular culture she's very she's a real scroller and that and that's something that has developed over the last few years and particularly during the pandemic because you have to remember as well as a world when we were paged in our homes that was one of the only things that we were able to do I know I know things but we've become way more um succinct with the behaviors of gen Zed because that that was all we could do so actually we do expect everything more instantly on demand quicker it's like this faster quicker Pace you know we're attention poor we want to spend our time everywhere and we will only give our attention where it's really really captured and kept so I think you know that that is a real challenge for anybody in business and you know ultimately we do we do want to aim to slow people down but ultimately I think then it's having those conversations with people to say you know if we can't spend that time then all we can do is this we can give you our best in x however have you have you give us a little bit more time then we can deliver eggs so it's it's showing that value the difference between this and this is two hours or whatever it is yeah yeah yeah so it's it's really saying you know okay I appreciate you have this that's great this is what we can do with that or invest a little bit more time or we can give you this yeah and I think when you're giving people a choice it's like it's like talking to children really isn't it you know you say to children do you want this meal or this meal and then they make a choice rather than what would you like to eat because then they're always the same it's always the same yeah answering always pizza or a french fries or whatever for pancakes getting those options and just and again that's designing the experience as well because you're guiding people to the outcome that you want to create it's not it's not manipulation when the internet no no when the intent is good and then when the intent is good it's saying well how do we get you from here we know that your time poor we know that let's just assume that everybody is time poor in the world because they are you know not least gen Zed let's assume everybody is time poor and they can only give us an hour for example so let's create the solution for that this is what I can give you but I'd really love to give you more I'd love to give you this more what I'm going to need to do that though is this so perhaps I can give you this for this you take it away and have a think about it and then if you'd like this come back and let's have another coffee and that's another touch point you know that's a well let's meet and have a glass of wine here and I'd love to take you here because this environment's really interesting because of what you've said here and make it personal so it it's always that kind of bring back ability um and and designing that process to create the outcomes that we want so yeah assume everybody is time poor and treat everyone like gen Zed we can't go far wrong no but we we saw the value that was when we described what we did uh during the pandemic we saw the value of this this whole online world you can get on demand for sure and yeah before we were like okay no it's not for us we did it on in our own daily schedules and yeah it was a was a kind of reset of all the generations already yeah yeah and I know there's a difference between those Generations obviously you know we've all had life experiences you know but ultimately for me it's a wonderful challenge in Hospitality because you know when people are saying oh let's build a luxury hotel and I'm like yeah it's not gonna work let's let's just let's actually look at humans and what what has evolved in human behavior because ultimately you know we can create beautiful Interiors but unless we relate that to humans and Human Condition and World context and we want something to be relevant now and in six years time and in ten years time we have to think about the human and put them at the center yeah yeah wonderful yeah so we actually we need to break with the script or something or change the perception on the what's what's interior design is all about what is experience design or brand design because that's a it's getting a little bit dirty word brand identity of brand experience yeah yeah you're focusing on the on the wrong uh on the wrong side of the yeah of the thing yeah I think so you know when we break the script with anything what we're you know what we're essentially doing there is breaking what we typically expect and delivering something different so you know you go into a let's give you another example you go into a restaurant the typical script of going into a restaurant is that you sit down you order some drinks you order your dinner your drinks come your dinner comes you eat your dinner your server comes along they bring you your check and then you pay your bill and you go so that's that's the typical dinner yeah well how can we change that dinner script you know what what do we do in that environment to to break that do we allow someone to have a main course in this setting here so they have their main course here and then maybe they moved to a different position of the restaurant which is not what they expect and they have their next course here this is just off the top of my head maybe they move here and they have a main course overlooking a view here and then maybe they moved to this view here and they have a dessert I I'm impressed I always move tables in the restaurant again in the courses so I'd say it's my seats three times in a restaurant if it's a beautiful one exactly that table is free I want to sit in that corner oh can we can we start at the bar please then I know for sure you have different perspectives on the same environment I love that yeah my wife doesn't like it she said this pick your table Mark pick your table don't chase have you are we going to stay here on this table or we go to James again so who knows who knows maybe we have desserts on the other side of the restaurant yeah yeah I like that it's a typical script and changing it you know what does someone expect when they come into an interior design studio and then how can we make it different how how can we break the script let's not bring them into the office let's go and meet them in an inspirational environment let us go and meet them here let us go and create a catalyst that introduces different conversation you know what what can we do to exceed their expectations yeah yeah oh love it uh Victoria yeah great I knew your story already but you gave me so much so much more insights and uh food for thought and I really stepping on in those small small steps in your experiments you're delivering it's it's what you what well the most concrete one is your last example about you go to a restaurant you pick your table choose your menu get the food the recipe but you can change the order you can change the 100 I'm dealing with it and then uh well if you if you change the first step if you surprise your prospects on the first step they they know who who's this I want to know more and then you have this difference drives desire absolutely I think like you know I can I can relate that probably to one of my own personal examples not not on not on a project but when I've spoken on stages at events you know there's times when I've delivered the keynote partly off stage so I've delivered it by starting off stage so they can't see me speak so it's a blank stage because they expect a speaker to be in the middle of the stage when they say yeah right so I started off stage and then I joined them on stage and they're kind of going why is this voice coming from like what am I listening to and they're more engaged by breaking the typical script of what they expect from a conference speaker um so it's just it's like how can I do different in a world of same you know and then doing that every time

expert on that one yeah you saw so many examples and you uh had so many experience yeah great so yeah well as I I would like to go to the I I know we could talk for more hours because I had so many on my list what I would like to ask where we could talk about but uh I know you have to go uh soon so what's uh if we if you need to give us a final advice as creative as ethereal designers how should we look at this well maybe let's call it the Gen Z worlds what what is it that we need to do to make the future better to make this world more beautiful and better and to grow as Humanity yeah I would say design him with a gen Zed brain in mind and I I actually don't like to talk about generate like generational categorization because I I believe that actually we're we are all Unique Individuals but we you know we we do have to have a look at contacts and context is important and I think if we can design with a gen Zed brain in mind on demand always on digital this very fleeting attention and we can design with that in mind then we design in moments and we design for magic at every part of the process which ultimately up levels experience for every generation that's gone before that so I think if we can be gen Zed thinking first and design back from that then we design for excellence great yeah thank you very much uh Victoria yeah for the people who are here and sign up to join us live you have the opportunity uh to ask Victoria anything you want well almost anything just stay with us and uh for all the other people um and to you who's listening to the podcast episode um thank you very much uh that you are here uh with us and um of course uh there's only a few days left and then the year is over already and talking about experiences this year was a real roller coaster for us we learned a lot about ourselves about you about our beautiful profession and we still do every day we've met the most amazing people on events in our podcast on LinkedIn I'll be on the tarot Design Group have reached the 170 000 members 171 almost this week we didn't see that one coming and we've connected with so many creatives worldwide and sometimes we even got the opportunity and permission to guide them to Mentor them one-on-one and to take our fellow interior designs to the next level so thanks a lot we love to do that so if you know it's only from this podcast please do know we have designed several programs and services to create a flourishing a meaningful interior design studio some of them are totally free but for the people who really want to make 2023 the best year ever you can join one of our premium trainings so just go to Institute of a diary impact.com and check it out you you might like it me and the rest of the team of the Institute inventory impact we wish you a wonderful Christmas take a step back reflect relaxed and enjoy time with your loved ones because there's more in life than just the dairy design Happy New Year