EP 041 - The Most Asked Questions By Interior Designers - Part 1 - with Marc himself! 🛋️🔥

BOOM! Here we are, with an extra special episode of the Beyond Interior Design Podcast! This time, no guest—it’s just Marc himself in the spotlight. And trust me, this is one you do NOT want to miss. We’re diving deep into the burning questions we’ve been getting for years from interior designers like you: how to level up, how to attract the perfect clients, and how to maximize your value. 🚀

Grab your notebook and pen because what I’m about to share could completely change your business! We’re about to drop some serious insights, tips, and tricks to help your design firm grow and attract the right clients. Sound good? Let’s do this! 💥

🔥 What’s in store?

• How to attract the right clients.

Focus! How do you make sure you’re attracting the right people instead of trying to serve everyone? Spoiler: you don’t need to do everything for everyone!

• Who is your ideal client?

It’s not just about the budget—it’s about who you really want to help and why. Your client needs to feel you’re the perfect fit.

• Packages over hourly rates.

How to flip the conversation and focus on selling solutions and results, not just hours.

• Do what you’re great at and let the rest go.

Want to grow without getting bogged down by day-to-day tasks? Discover the power of delegation and staying in your zone of genius.

• Social media without the stress!

Smart strategies to stay visible online without spending all day on it. Learn how Marc’s ‘11 Design Principles’ can level up your social media game!

🔑 Conclusion: This episode is PACKED with powerful insights to help you grow your interior design business, streamline your processes, and most importantly: attract the right clients. This is your chance to be a true gamechanger in the design world! 💥

Stay tuned for episode 42, where we’ll dive even deeper into more of your burning questions. I’m here to help you take your business to a whole new level. 🚀

Transcript

  Okay.  Hi everybody. Welcome to the beyond interior design podcast.  Episode  41 already. And this is going to be a special one because the last few years, we got so many questions from interior design professionals about  how to come to the next level,  how to delegate tasks, how to increase your value, how to attract the right clients the ideal clients lots of topics that are coming our way, and I'll think we had to create.

A podcast about all these questions to answer your most frequently asked questions. So here I am, I've prepared a lot of questions for you today. And you should be very curious to the answers because this might be  an immense mindset shift. Or it might include the keys for you to come to, to go to the next level.

I should just take pen and paper and your favorite notebook and make sure you write like crazy because, um, let's see what can happen. After you've listened to this podcast.  So let's get started. Thank you for being here. And let's start with the first question  and that is, how do I attract the right clients?

How do I attract the right clients? Where do I find them? And how can I get more projects? Designers tend to focus on the client acquisition process. But  what happens  if a client  Your ideal client is calling you right now.  Your phone rings right now and an ideal client is calling you.  Are you absolutely sure what is your next move?

Are you really prepared?  If your answer is not completely yes, then please listen, because let's say you're looking for new clients and you don't know at this moment exactly what to do next.  Then actually, where are you going? You need to have a pricing structure. You need to have processes in place.

You need to know exactly the first next step when the call, when your phone rings, or when you get a new  question in your inbox.  All right. That's a very good question. Powerful to have in your business. You are a designer and besides designing the most beautiful interior designs, you need to design your business for this as well.

So  let me ask you another question, because who are you actually as a designer?  Who are you  and who is. Your ideal client, actually, because we can talk about ideal clients and I'm don't want to talk about clients that do have a big budget or that are listening about your to you and create the design exactly as planned,  but no, I'm not talking about this kind of ideal clients.

Of course it can be part of the recipe of your ideal client, but who is your ideal client? Really define your, as we like to call it, awesome client. Who is that?  Who do you want to work with?  Is it are those families restaurant owners senior people, young professionals?  And then the second question is who you want to work with is why you want to work with them.

Why are you so interested in them? Or why is it that you really want to help them? What is the kind of impact you're trying to make?  And this impact, this is the thing that will align with your design ethos, because I know you are in this business because you want to create beautiful environments and you want to create impact and you want to help people.

That's what we do, right? We are designers, but what is it? What is it that you really want from the core? From who is it that you want to help? Why do you want to work them?  This is really, if you have clarity about this, And well, one guy, one of my most biggest coaches told me clarity is power. So make sure you have absolutely clarity about who  do you want to work with?

What you focus on. Some designers are focusing on every interior design. They like everything. They love everything. Yes. We are designers. We love everything to design and to improve, but choose focus.  Imagine you are an hospitality owner and you're visiting a website  for, from a designer, you're looking for an interior designer for hospitality, and you see a website with a designer who says this is my, a restaurant idea.

This is a residential home idea. Oh, yeah. And also I did an office.  Do you feel as a client you are  on the right place?  Do you think this is the  designer that can help you the best? Do you think this designer is the professional for your restaurant project?  No, of course not. Because you're focusing on everything.

You can't be an expert on that one. Please.  And listen to me and do this.  I want you to focus on one area,  one ideal client, one area of is it hospitality? Is it residential? Is it offices?  Pick one. The worst thing that can happen is that people call you  and tell you, Hey I saw you design restaurants, but are you designing also residential homes? 

Or in the other way around, Hey, I do. So see all kinds of residential projects. I really like them, but actually I want this style of signature or for my new restaurant. Are you designing restaurants too?  This scenario with you, you have a choice. You can choose who you want to work with,  but if you are focusing on everybody, you're connecting with nobody. 

You can't serve everyone.  So again, when you try  and you want to serve everyone. You will connect with NOAA.  Clear?  What can you do then to make sure clients don't leave your website without engaging? Have you clear target audience? Again, hey, you're an awesome client. Why do you want to help them and what can you solve for them? 

So make sure the most important part is probably your contact page. So make sure on the home already, you have some buttons over there that when they're scrolling on your homepage or in projects, they have opportunities to contact you.  You don't want to search for the contact button. So make sure it is there to schedule an appointment or to take the first next step. 

Whatever, make sure you have it  and probably let's say again, you're focusing on hospitality and maybe you have an ebook. You have something, an online document, a PDF, a checklist or whatever, something as a free gift for them. To get to know you already, to learn from you,  to to get your vision,  to feel connected already.

And that could be a wonderful first step to get more in touch with them. And as well, if they are asking for your ebook, you can ask them again, Hey, did you like my ebook? Or I saw you were visiting the website and you were commenting somewhere,  how can I help you?  Position yourself in the market through your core values.

Really do that with make it social proof, get testimonials. If you are in the restaurants, make sure you have restaurant testimonials or people at least talk about hospitality in your blog on whatever. Make sure when they enter your website, they feel  so understood.  Yeah. You might write down this sentences this sentence to  make them, make sure. 

Your client feels understood instead of they understand you.  Very important. Make your client feel understood.  Instead of the understand you,  they need to feel they are in the right place. They need  to feel like, Hey, this is  the designer who gets me what I want.  I'm in the right place. I know how this designer will fix it for me.

And yes,  it's worth the investment.  All right. Communicate your worth, especially focused on one ideal audience. Your awesome client.  So that's how you attract the right clients. We go way more in depth on it in this podcast. Stay here. I will move to the next question.  And it's about money. The N word.

Yes. I often feel like I'm not charging enough. If you feel you're not charging enough, you probably are not charging enough, but how can I really confidentially ask for more? How do I fix this?  I've never worked with an  hourly rate. To be honest, I never worked with an hourly rate.  I always worked with packages from the very first starting moments.

And  the great thing about packages is you don't talk about.  Time.  You talk about value. So it's a value over price and value over time.  Listen to me. It's not important what you charge. Normally when people say, Hey, this is too expensive  or yeah, this is too much money.  It's  all about the problem is that you didn't communicate the real value  about what you really deliver.

If you work with standard packages and that's the power of a package,  you can listen to the whole story. You can summarize their pain points. You can summarize the solutions they want. You can summarize the ultimate outcome that you can create for them.  You can advise them like, Hey, look at me.

This is, we do have, I work with three packages.  Which one  is fitting you the best or even better you can tell them like hey, I have three packages This one is way too much for you. This one will not get you what you want But this package in the middle, this is this is made for you. I think this will solve all your issues.

This will give you the outcome you you want to have. Let's start working with each other  and it might, can be this simple. Then the funny thing with packages is most of the time, it's not about yes or no, with the entire design or even worse. They need to wait for your proposal. Hey, you need to create a, you need to create this document with all your design fees and explanations.

And you probably will send them a few days later. No, when you have packages, you can sell them  at the table and they just pick the right package for them. And you can have the deal at the table.  A very powerful, very magical, right? That's the ultimate outcome. If you have a design meeting, you can drive home with a new assignment  and preferably with a good, awesome clients. 

So another thing is so that's about value over price, value over time. It's about the value. Another way, what can happen with packages that you think, and you already can experience that. That you spend way more hours on the design than planned or on the creation part or whatever.  And that's not a good thing.

You spend way more hours. And I get you. You want to make it perfect. You want to deliver the best.  But if you have lots of projects, maybe even your recent project right now,  I don't know if you have a project like that you are like, okay, I'm already way over my time, way over my time, and I don't know how to charge for this over hours. 

If you have this kind of problem,  then the answer is very clear. You're not charging enough.  You don't have your process right. So that you have a really  a good moment to measure with your client. Okay, this is it. This is the package I got. And now I'm over my package. What you want right now. This is,  we didn't we didn't agree on that one.

I have to charge you for this extra hours. All right. It's all about.  Boundary setting.  So you need to learn how to set boundaries with your clients. For example, how many meetings do you have? How many revisions and how many deliverables are included to clear expectations. If you have this very clear upfront at the live meeting, at the table, when you are waiting for, to get the deal, the assignment, and people know exactly what you're going to deliver, how you do it and what they get. 

That's amazing. You will have the most smooth design process you've ever experienced.  And then,  about creating this very smooth design process, because when you have the assignment, You need to keep them on track. So make sure you have  designed the process, even the design of the design process.

Like they know exactly when is the next meeting? What can they expect? What do you deliver? Is there a moment of feedback or is it just a moment of feedback in the, in two days afterwards, or just one week afterwards, and then you continue to the next step,  if you can design it that way and you can communicate it that way.

Design projects will become so easy, so smooth and so lovely. And you will get to the outcome because you agreed up front, this is one I'm going to create for you. This is the impact we're going to create. This is one I'm going to solve.  And if they have that clear, they love to work with you and they will tell everybody how you work.

All right, instead of this messy creative process Oh, I don't have the inspiration and I don't know when I get back to you. I will call you when I have a good idea or  it doesn't have to be that way.  All right.  So  how can I increase the value of my services? That's the next question. How can I increase the value of my services? 

Yes. That's funny,  right? Because why do some clients pay 500 euro or dollar per month? For a design while others pay 50,000 euro  or dollar for a design, what's the difference? It can be the same drawing set, right?  You can deliver exactly the same for 500 or and 500 euro and for 50,000 euro. So what's the difference? 

We're all delivering a set of drawing,  right? And we're all doing the renovation, right?  But what's really important is the value you deliver after you've been there.  And maybe you're probably right now Mark, I don't know what you're talking about. I'm talking about this magical beyond layer.  Most designers, what they do at the table, how they present themselves, pitch themselves, sell themselves, it's okay, this is why I'm going to deliver.

I have a drawing set, electricity plan, light plan. I prepare a shopping list, mood board et cetera, et cetera.  But.  What is important,  the whole process of things you were doing as a designer.  No, what they really want is the end result. They want the life after  you've worked with them, after the project is finished.

That's what they want. And you're just a tool, a vehicle to get there. So don't be very of course you need to be passionate about your work. They need to feel that this is what you do and what you love to do most, but make sure, that it.  What's very important for them is the end result.

How will their life look like after you work with them, after the project is finished?  How can they live in this beautiful designed home? How will life look like? How will you improve their lifestyle? According to what they do have now, close that gap.  How will the employees feel in the new office?  Are they healthy?

Are they happy? Does this office actually work? Tell them how what the effect will be on the branding of their office.  Or tell them what would be the experience for the new restaurant, if you are going to design the restaurant.  What will the clients experience? What will happen to the employees, to the owner? 

How can you make this business thrive with you, with your expertise as an interior designer?  So  very important, right? The beyond layer. That's what we call beyond. Talk about the end results after you were there, after you did your job, your magic.  Talk about that. It's  If you know how to handle this,  you're ready to go.

This will be your breakthrough with your entire design firm.  So how do you position yourself, your service  to increase your  fee to get a higher fee? That's the question. So  beyond  next one,  do I really need to do everything myself?  It's about outsourcing, doing what you love to do most. How do I know which part of my business I should focus on and what I can delegate?

Yeah. Two weeks ago I was at a Tony Robbins event, Unleash the Power Within. It was in Cologne, in Germany with 13. Thousand people in an arena. It's well, it was the fourth time I'm attending this event. Last year was in in Birmingham and in Corona time, it was online, but even then magnificent. And one of the best takeaways I got, and maybe it sounds silly for you, but  focus. 

On what works and the one liner that comes with it is like  where focus goes, energy flows, where focus goes, energy flows, you might write that one down  where focus goes, energy flows means.  If you are focusing on what's missing,  what's frustrating, what you don't know how to solve it,  what is it that you get?

You spoil your energy, actually. It's an energy drain when you're focusing on what doesn't work the whole time.  If you're starting out with your business, you're just a startup, or you are on the level right now in your interior design firm, in your business, and you're like if I knew this  10 years ago, somebody told me I'm still stuck on this level. 

You, you probably didn't even start your business, but if you are on this kind of level, maybe this might be your clue, your missing key. Focus on what works  because  you are on a certain level right now,  but  see it from a distance. Go in that helicopter and look from to your business from above. What works really well?

What is it that you do best? What is that you  love to do the most? Most of the time that's the same thing.  Focus on what works, because what is it that I told you about focus? Where focus goes, energy flows. If you're focusing on what goes well,  what do you think that will happen?  Yes, you're doing more of what works.

And what happens when you do more of what works? It works. So you go to the next level, you achieve more, you achieve better results. Your clients will be happier. Your business will thrive.  This is well, I told you, this wasn't.  I knew this sentence, I knew this one liner I knew this kind of trick, your mindset, your.

That I had to have this perspective on my business, but this changed a lot already the last two weeks. Make sure you do that and see what happens.  And more in depth on that one. How do you decide where to invest your energy and what when to let others take it over? I told you probably what you love to do most, what you do best. 

That's what you want to focus on. So do what you do best. And higher the rest.  And the funny thing is, and the result is the inevitable result is when you do what you do best. People would love to invest in you. You will raise your value. You will raise your service. You will raise the quality. You will raise the impact.

And people are willing to pay way more for you because you become the professional.  What is it when you have more money? You can invest, you can hire people. So  do what you do best and hire the rest.  And in case You want to hire somebody right now in your business and you'll think about, Hey, where to start. 

It's very important to systemize your business because if you have systems in place okay, when this happens, this is my first next step.  You can automate things or you can outsource things. So  that means if you want to focus on the creative parts of your business,  first, you need to systemize.  A little bit of your processes that you can communicate to somebody else, that somebody else can do the job for you and you will have the freedom, the creative freedom and probably the financial freedom as well  to make your next move,  where you want to be. 

All right.  Social media.  Yes. It's feels like a core, right? A job, a burden, social media, you need it.  And how do you make it easier for yourself and more effective without spending all your time in social media?  All right. What I learned from my coaches in the previous year. So I'll do things to work on, to focus on in the business. 

And  those are the two things, write them down  innovation.  That's one,  a second marketing  and well.  In terms of social media is marketing. You need to make yourself visible out there in the field, online, offline, wherever you go, you need to be visible.  And probably maybe I heard a lot of designers that are busy with marketing companies.

And of course, I told you, marketing is one of the important keys of your business besides innovation. But if you start working with marketing company,  they will ask you the same questions as we already discussed.  The first question will be, Hey, who are you as a business? What's your, what kind of business do you have?

Who are you as a person?  What is it that you deliver  and who's your ideal client?  If you can't answer those questions right now, outsourcing is a waste of money. You have to have clarity on that before you work with a marketing company. So  you need to approach this properly just once. And you probably know, or if you don't know yet at the beyond the terror design club, beyond internal design dot club check it out.

If you want, we have created several training and coaching programs where we get to the core of this, to get to the core of your message of who you are as a designer, what you deliver and who's your ideal client. And if you know that. This is becomes easy.  For example we do have to have an 11  and have an 11 are our 11 design principles.

And our coaching members that are in the beyond the design club, they see once they have this design principles in place, they it serves as a kind of foundation for social media as well. If you do have 11 a year has 12 months, obviously, so if you have 11 design principles, you could say you have every month you can post a design principle  and the principle design principle is about you as a designer, what you stand for, what you solve, your kind of secret recipe.

To see how to feed things, how to solve things with interior design.  So if you have 11 posts, I told you once a month you can post already, but you can leverage that big time. Because you can make a graphic out of it with a picture or an infographic, or you can put the text out there.  You can create a video of it.

You can use the same captions behind the video. You can give a present the kind of case study and tell them what kind of design principles are active in your portfolio project. You can do so much about it that I'm sure if you have this, have an 11, your design principles in place, you already have every week a post and it doesn't take much time, only once  you need to fix this.

And then you are set and you can go and you can even hire a marketing company because now you can explain who you are as a designer, what you want to achieve, what kind of impact you want to create, and who is your ideal audience, your awesome client.  You get that?  Perfect. So my take, if you don't have clarity on your brand, social media becomes a waste of time. 

Tried that myself. A total waste of time and energy. Getting clear on your brand message simplifies everything. 

All right, let's continue with the next question.  I just want to design, but the rest of it feels like a distraction. How do I solve that?  Yes. How can I set up my business so that I can focus on design and the rest runs smoothly?  In the background. That's our ideal scenario, right? Ask yourself, what kind of tools and what kind of Workflows do you have right now in your company, in your business to maintain the balance between creativity and operations? 

Is it you just see what happens during the day or  your accountant will call you like, Hey, I know I need this receipts or I need this this numbers from you, please. Can you send them over to me? And you're just, that's determined your task for that day.  Are you the manager of circumstances? 

Or are you the creator of your life? That's the question.  Most of us, most designers, we are creative minds, sometimes a bit messy.  And we just go with the flow because that feels right. Go with the flow, right? But is that really going into the right direction where you want to be? Are you closing this gap of where you are right now and where you want to be in a few  Yes.

So even when in one year,  you have to tell yourself is the task that I'm doing right now. Is this bringing me to this next level? Or again, can somebody else do the job?  You need a system for that. You are a designer. So that means you can design your own business as well.  Make sure you have processes in place.

So it will save you great amounts of time and you can focus on your design if that's what you're up to.  So if you feel a bit overwhelmed about all this tasks of being this entrepreneurial designer with administration, with assisting the construction about creating shopping lists, the styling, the photo shoots, the marketing, the social media the Google ads, probably with your marketing,  if this is  If this feels a bit overwhelming right now,  make sure  you get a clear focus on what it is that you would love to do and what somebody else can do and see  again, do what you love to do most  and hire the rest. 

Number eight,  how do I grow my interior design studio  without losing personal touch or creativity? Yes, this is a kind of a  subtitle with this question. How do I grow my interior design studio without losing personal touch or creativity?  We all do want to go to the next level, right? Because growth is part of happiness.

When there is a process, when there is growth, when things are going in the right direction, you feel more happy, you feel fulfilled. You are in the right path. There is lots of reason. If you look at the world, there are lots of things existing in this world, but  if they don't grow,  they die.

There's nothing in between. You don't stay somewhere, right? You're dying or you're growing. That's it.  You need to grow to be happy, to feel fulfilled. Some It's, it has a little bit to do with the previous question, but with a different outcome,  now you need really, you need to focus on designing your bid business towards growth instead of you  as your growth as a designer, I know it's very tempting to.

Improve your design skills,  teaching a new software program, or maybe you're a big fan of handwritten drawings or  whatever you can come up because you feel  from the inside out, you feel like, Hey, I need to bet to be a better designer because then  I will come go to the next level. But I know so many.

Amazing, amazing designers that do probably there are, they are way better designing than me. I do see it really that way.  But they are not visible. Nobody knows them. They are hidden in attics or even in the mom's home or  They are busy for years creating the most exciting amazing mesmerizing interior designs But  they are stuck  with this kind of glass ceiling. 

So how do you make sure that? You create a business that you are focusing on growth, that you do all the things that are going that make you go in the right direction.  So again, it comes down to processes, to systems, to structurize and organize your business because we can all design. I assume you can design, you can create the most beautiful interior designs,  but how good is your, are your entrepreneurial skills? 

So  most of the time we ask, how  can I do this right? Same like this question. How do I grow my interior design studio?  But here comes the magic.  Replace how  or who?  Who can grow my interior design studio?  Or who can do my administration? Who can do the things that I don't like? Not the how, but who.  Please find out yourself and see what happens if you look after the who instead of the how. 

This is what gave us this gave us the last few years, major breakthroughs. And now with the Beyond the Terminal Design Club, our team is already I think about eight people right now who could have imagined that with a kind of in fact, it's a kind of online business, but I have way more people than with my other internal design firm.

Because it worked with another direction, but now we're with a team of eight persons working every day on the beyond the terrorism club on the Institute.  And it's because  the success  is part of, we changed the question of how can we get to the next level? How can we grow this beyond the terrorism club with this international, on this international levels with a community of two or not 33, 000 eternal design professionals worldwide. 

It was not how can we do it, but who can grow our entire design firm.  Now we have a social media manager. We have some, somebody for the administration. We have a salesperson. We have a, we have people that are managing the community. We have a CEO Google search words marketer. We have a kind of IT service.

We have.  This is how we went in already three years from zero, which from just an idea of a creative mind to this global institute. Think you will get the message. Change. How? For who?  And if you are at the point, Of considering hiring additional designers or assistants that could be right it's important for you to know where your strengths are. 

Are you is your strength? That you are the ultimate creative  then you need help with the business side  And if you're more interested in entrepreneurship, then you may hire people that help you in the design process, but make sure you are focusing on your strength, what you do best and what you love to do most  and hire the rest. 

Stay true to your original vision. That's very important and design philosophy because authenticity wins always stick to your true core values, because if you're doing.  Things that feels like a trick or feels like a well, somebody told me that if I do that my business will go to the next level if you don't feel it if it's not really you it doesn't work Maybe it works for a while, but in the end it will comes back to You will be stressed frustrated and hey, where is my interior design studio going?

I'm losing my personal touch This is not me anymore. I'm losing my creativity. I'm just doing a kind of business trick. Don't do that You  With our institute, with our training programs, we make sure we will use your authentic powers because that is in fact what makes you unique, right? This is you.

This is your special power. Nobody has it. So we always make sure we can reach your full potential. We can work with it.  All right,  Althea, we are I'm only halfway, have a look at my questions. And I want to share a lot of you  about  everything about all this frequently asked questions we got so far.

And yeah, I have prepared lots more. So I will suggest we cut this special episode into parts. And I'm really hope I do see you the next time on episode.  42 of the beyond the territory podcast, where I want to  give you so much clarity. I want to give you the tools for your new breakthrough breakthroughs, probably probably, and I'm going to make sure that you  see our profession, never the same again, as you did before, before you listened to this podcast.

Thank you for listening. Thank you for sending us all those questions. If you are a part of it, you know it. If you have reached out to us in before via email, direct messages on social media. Thank you very much for that, because this is the way how we can improve our business and how we can serve you even better.

This is what I love to do.  This is the energy I'm I wake up every morning to serve all the internal design community, besides of course, my own running my own internal design firm, because I still love to, to create the most beautiful designs, but Helping others on this scale internationally to make their businesses thrive to make you, to go beyond. 

This is what I love. Hope to hear you next time. Let's see you next time in the next episode with the most frequently asked questions of interior designers. Thank you very much.  Bye for now.