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A lot of degrees nowadays are 
not even teaching residential 

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design for interiors, so they 
might not even touch business 

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skills. 
But the advantages that come 

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with having business skills is 
that you can know how to price 

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your projects when you're 
starting out and you can 

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understand your margins and your
markup and how to get a profit 

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out of your each project. 
And then you can have your 

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contract and learn when to take 
a retainer and how to write 

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projects go and what to do when 
there's scope creep. 

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And you're now listening to 
design curious, a place where 

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you creative one are here to 
learn about what it really is 

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like to be an interior designer.
And I'm your host and mentor, 

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Rebecca Ward. 
If you're worried about how to 

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succeed in a creative career, if
you're ready to learn your next 

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steps to become an interior 
designer, and if you want the 

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satisfaction of doing something 
you love every day, you are in 

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the right place. 
Grab a coffee, a notebook, and 

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let's dig into today's episode. 
Hello and welcome to episode 175

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of Design Curious podcast. 
Today on the podcast, we are 

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continuing in the Design skills 
series, and this week we're 

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talking about things that they 
don't actually teach you in 

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design school. 
So if you didn't go to design 

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school and you're thinking that 
maybe you're missing out on some

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of the things that you need for 
your business, well, I'm here to

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share with you that there's a 
lot that they don't teach you in

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design school that you actually 
need to know to be a successful 

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designer. 
So I'm going to touch on those 

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today. 
And if you did go to design 

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school, then you will understand
that these things were not 

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taught to you in your design 
program. 

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But these are all things that 
the modern designer must know 

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and it's not covered in the 
classroom. 

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A lot of things have changed 
over the years too, so some of 

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the programs might not have 
adopted to the changes that are 

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taking place and that the 
mindset shifts and the thought 

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models that are now happening in
the design industry, which is 

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very much more open and giving. 
I feel like the residential 

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designers are much more willing 
to share than they were in 20-30

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years ago. 
So these are all things that 

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everyone needs to work on to 
create a great foundation as an 

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interior designer and that the 
industry really should just 

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start to focus and include 
these, I think, in the design 

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programs. 
But I understand that there's, 

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you know, a limitation of time 
and learning the practical 

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skills are probably the most 
important part of the design 

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degree, but it's just leaving 
you not fully equipped for the 

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real world. 
OK, so let's get into what those

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skills that are missing are. 
The first skill we're going to 

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talk about that you need beyond 
the degree is that you need 

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business skills. 
Business skills are not 

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optional. 
Every program for residential 

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interior design should have 
multiple business classes. 

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Because most residential 
designers end up starting their 

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own business and working 
independently. 

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It's really the best model for 
making the most profit. 

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Of course, we've talked about 
this before. 

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There's risk involved with 
owning your own business, and 

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there's no shame in working for 
another designer throughout your

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career. 
That's totally fine as well. 

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Not everybody set up to be an 
entrepreneur. 

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However, a lot of designers do 
want to have autonomy, so having

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your own business is the way to 
do it. 

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Not just freelancing but 
actually having a business. 

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And so business is a whole 
nother ball game. 

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It's something that is just not 
regularly taught and even a lot 

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of degrees nowadays are not even
teaching residential design for 

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interiors. 
So they might not even touch 

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business skills. 
But the advantages that come 

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00:04:06,120 --> 00:04:10,120
with having business skills is 
that you can know how to price 

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00:04:10,120 --> 00:04:12,240
your projects when you're 
starting out, and you can 

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00:04:12,240 --> 00:04:15,880
understand your margins and your
markup and how to get a profit 

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00:04:15,880 --> 00:04:19,519
out of your each project. 
And then you can have your 

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00:04:19,519 --> 00:04:23,080
contract and learn when to take 
a retainer and how to write 

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project scope and what to do 
when there's scope creep. 

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And having a whole mindset 
around money matters so much as 

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a skill set. 
So all of these business related

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skills are things that we 
address in my design mentor, but

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also a lot of other business 
coaches can help you with. 

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And so that is definitely 
something you're going to want 

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to invest in. 
Always be looking for 

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professional development 
throughout your career. 

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And so business skills is 
definitely going to be 1 you 

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want to spend some time on 
because it doesn't come 

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naturally for most designers. 
So that's why we need to put a 

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lot of effort and it's going to 
be one of the most important 

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things that they don't teach you
in school that you really need 

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to know. 
The next skill that you really 

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need to know that they don't 
teach you with a degree is how 

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to create a client experience 
and how to service your client 

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properly. 
Residential interior design is a

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luxury service. 
It has certain expectations and 

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it is not always understood what
the luxury expectations are. 

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Even things like managing 
timelines and the communication 

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with your client. 
Some of those soft skills that 

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we talked about last time are 
going to come into play here and

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creating processes and touch 
points that help each project to

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feel elevated. 
As the designer, you are the 

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guide for your client, taking 
them through a process of 

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improving their home, improving 
their life, and there's going to

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be a lot of service that happens
in that. 

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And Speaking of service, if you 
haven't read Unreasonable 

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Hospitality, it's about the 
restaurant business, but has so 

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many applications to all 
industries and that's really 

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gets to the heart of what 
service is and how it is an 

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elevated practice. 
And what are those touch points?

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What are the details that need 
to happen to make sure that 

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client experience is top notch 
and really worthy of referral? 

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Most programs don't have the 
luxury of time to spend on 

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developing those types of skills
and thinking through the 

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experience process. 
The next thing that a degree 

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probably isn't going to touch on
is the technology in interior 

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design. 
Now they will do CAT, you know, 

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like computer aided drafting and
rendering and all those 

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technology things, but there's 
so much more that goes into the 

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business side with technology 
and AI literacy. 

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Currently we are in an AI 
revolution. 

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Almost every app and program has
AI integration and we're still 

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navigating and learning how to 
appropriately use those skills 

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in interior design. 
A lot of it can be used in 

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creating copy and writing emails
and things like that that people

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have already started to use 
pretty regularly. 

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It can be helpful with marketing
and things like that. 

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But it we're also starting to 
learn the limitations of AI, so 

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really understanding how it can 
help with automations and 

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processes and maybe 
brainstorming and things like 

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that to really help cut down on 
the time spent on certain areas 

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so you can have more time to 
spend in the creative mode. 

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So that's where I think AI is 
going to really take us is 

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really cutting back on some of 
the more tedious tasks that we 

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do so that we can really excel 
in our creativity. 

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And they're not going to replace
us for coming up with a design. 

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If you ask a, you know, ChatGPT 
to come up with a design for a 

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room and then ask it again and 
again and again, it's going to 

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get marginally worse each time. 
And so as opposed to asking a 

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person to do it and re revise 
and revise and it's going to get

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better each time. 
So there are a lot of 

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limitations. 
I know it's going to look so 

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much different five years from 
now than it is in 2026, but it's

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something to definitely be 
cognizant of. 

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And I doubt that they spend a 
lot of time in that in design 

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programs today. 
But the other technology you 

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need to know is things like CRM,
which is a client management 

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software or maybe even your 
accounting softwares. 

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There's some that are just 
programmed for interior design 

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businesses because we have kind 
of a unique business model, 

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especially if you're selling 
product. 

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So there's a lot of technology 
there, but we use so many 

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different apps and programs 
within interior design that 

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there's a lot to learn and 
they're definitely not going to 

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cover all of that in class. 
So yeah, so that's going to be 

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your third area that they don't 
teach you in design school that 

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you need to learn in the rural 
world. 

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And next we'll move on to 
marketing and visibility. 

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Most design programs will have 
you work a little bit in graphic

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design. 
Sometimes we'll bring in 

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adjacent design and Fine Arts 
and things like that. 

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So you might understand, you 
know, negative space and 

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typography or things like that, 
but that's not marketing and 

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that's not helping to get your 
business visible and your 

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portfolio visible. 
Designers today really have to 

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understand branding. 
Now, you don't have to 

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understand everything about it, 
but you need to understand 

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enough to know what you need. 
First of all, one of my favorite

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branding books is The Story 
Brand by Donald Miller. 

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And so that kind of helps you 
understand how to speak to 

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people about your business and 
how to write your copy so that 

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it's not all centered around you
as the designer. 

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It's really centered around the 
client. 

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So it's a storytelling process 
and you can use that in your 

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social media and on your 
website, really important things

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there. 
So I'd recommend that book. 

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You're not going to be assigned 
that book while you're in the 

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design program. 
These are things you have to do 

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on your own outside of that. 
And then you will need help 

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marketing and presenting your 
portfolio online. 

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Now, a lot of design programs do
have digital portfolios. 

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They help you develop, but it's 
all going to be of course your 

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projects from school, which are 
great, you know, renderings and 

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floor plans and things like 
that. 

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But it's not going to be any 
real world experience. 

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And so once you get that, you 
have to then learn how to hire 

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the right photographer and how 
to stage the photos and all 

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those things that go into that 
you're not going to learn with a

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design degree. 
And then also learning how to 

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network with in the industry, 
but especially outside of the 

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industry with referral partners 
with other adjacent businesses, 

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architects, engineers, people 
like that. 

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They're not going to tell you 
how to network with those 

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people. 
So that's another thing you need

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to develop that skill outside of
the design degree. 

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OK, moving on. 
The next one is leadership and 

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decision making. 
He definitely didn't spend any 

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time teaching me how to be a 
leader in my design program. 

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But leadership is so important. 
We've talked about this before. 

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Even as a solopreneur, you are a
leader on your project. 

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You are a leader to your 
clients. 

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You are a leader to anyone who 
might be looking to you as a 

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mentor and there's just so much 
that goes into learning how to 

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be a great leader. 
There are ways to not be a great

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leader and it it becomes evident
over time. 

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So that is something you need to
develop a skill that is really 

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helpful. 
One person that I love working 

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with to help develop my 
leadership skills is Sierra 

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Collins and I've had her on the 
podcast a couple times and so 

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she is great at leadership 
development and you can seek out

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a coach like her to do that. 
There's also so many great 

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books. 
I'm sure I have a lot on my 

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00:12:39,600 --> 00:12:44,000
list, my book list that you can 
go look on Amazon, my shelf and 

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00:12:44,000 --> 00:12:46,360
see all the books that I 
recommend or if you're in my 

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assignment or we have our book 
club. 

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And so they will all be in there
as well because there's so many 

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great books to help you develop 
the leadership. 

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It's might be something that 
doesn't come naturally, might 

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not be a natural leader. 
And so it's something that you 

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00:13:00,360 --> 00:13:04,040
can build on over time. 
But you definitely are a leader 

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in your projects and in your 
life and with your clients. 

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But it helps to build confidence
and authority when you're in 

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meetings and then making and 
communicating decisions clearly 

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comes along with leadership, 
another valuable skill to 

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develop. 
And then another skill you want 

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to work on is personal skills 
that support success. 

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So this would be things like 
time blocking and your workflow 

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habits. 
How do you manage overwhelm? 

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You might be take growing and 
taking on more projects than 

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you're used to and you might get
overwhelmed. 

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How do you manage that? 
Do you call in a lifeline, have 

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another designer come and help 
you or an intern? 

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Or do you look to a coach or do 
double down on your systems? 

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But it's really important skill 
to learn how to manage your time

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and your workflow and your 
habits, and that it helps to 

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support your business and it 
helps build resilience. 

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So these are all different 
areas, the six of them that I 

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identified that are not 
something that you will learn in

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design school. 
And these are the things that we

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all need to work on. 
I've been working on these for a

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long time and I still am. 
I'm always learning, I'm always 

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growing and trying to improve. 
It's exciting to me because I 

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always think how I can improve 
the client experience, improve 

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my enjoyment of the experience 
as well. 

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Because this is my life. 
This is what I do in day in and 

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day out and I want to make sure 
I'm enjoying my time and make 

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sure it's spent wisely. 
So developing these skills will 

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definitely help with that. 
So if you're needing help to 

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identify areas that you might be
lacking of anything that I might

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have said and or just develop 
those more, or if you're just 

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starting out and you're like, I 
have no clue that I needed all 

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of these things to be an 
interior designer, then I 

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suggest you get into my design 
mentor. 

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It's my mentorship program and 
we definitely talk about this 

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and there there's 12 learning 
modules that covers a lot of 

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this. 
What I'm talking about here, 

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skills to develop. 
You can meet with me one-on-one 

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and we can talk about ways to 
work on these skills and how to 

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develop them further. 
All right, that's all I have for

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you this week. 
Next week I'll have another 

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great episode for you and until 
then, stay creative. 

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Thanks for listening. 
If you love this episode, please

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00:15:45,240 --> 00:15:48,000
leave a rating and a review. 
This helps me reach other 

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00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:51,720
curious creatives like you. 
If you have a topic request or 

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would like to contact me, simply
head over to my website 

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ourwardesign.com or e-mail me at
podcast@ourawarddesign.com.