632: Power Talk Friday: John Dupra: Taking The Fear Out of Flooring for Interior Designers
Release Date: 01/15/2021
646: Aymee Kuhlman and Molly Kidd: Building a Friendship and An Interior Design Partnership
A Well-Designed Business®
Welcome to A Well-Designed Business®. Aymee and Molly of Light and Dwell, an Oregon based full service and virtual design firm were friends before they were business partners. They’re sharing what they’ve learned about themselves, about each other, and about how to mesh opposites together to grow a business from nothing to something amazing in just five short years.
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645: Window Treatment Friday: Scaling to Your First Million Dollar Year
A Well-Designed Business®
Today with Vita Vygovska Welcome to a Well-Designed Business®. On today’s WTF— Window Treatment Friday, Vita and I are talking about scaling to your first million-dollar year. As most of you probably know, scaling is not an easy task. It takes hard work and lots of blood, sweat, and tears. But when you can learn from someone who has already done it, it cuts the time and effort down and makes scaling attainable far before you thought it was possible. Today, Vita shares with us her five core pillars for scaling your business and how her course in LuAnn University, Scale Your Window...
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644: Kat Anderson: Design Build and Bookkeeping Classes for Interior Designers
A Well-Designed Business®
Welcome to A Well-Designed Business®. Kat Anderson of Material Design, an interior design business specializing in design-build projects, shares her experience as a recently-graduated interior design student struggling to find her way in the design world. You’ll hear Kat tell how she succeeded by growing her skillset in more than just design. Kat also walks through the classes she teaches at LuAnn University.
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643: Nathan Brookshire and Paul Davidge: Design More, Manage Less: Agency Representation for Your Design Firm
A Well-Designed Business®
Welcome to A Well-Designed Business®. Nathan Brookshire and Paul Davidge of Design: Agency & Management share how they help creatives develop a financially sound path to achieve their goals and run their business in such a way that they have the freedom to focus on their zone of genius.
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642: Thom Sweeney: Sage Advice About Salesmanship And The Upside of Failure in Interior Design
A Well-Designed Business®
Welcome to A Well-Designed Business®. Thom Sweeney’s unconventional path to interior design started after a 30-year career in advertising. Thom shares what brought him to design and how he lost his design business before rising again to build something even greater. He also has great advice on salesmanship and how to build meaningful relationships with clients.
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641: Celebrating 5 Years: Reflecting on the Bigger Picture
A Well-Designed Business®
Welcome to A Well-Designed Business®. Today, we are celebrating the show's 5th Birthday! It is hard to believe that there have been five years of outstanding guests, infinite ah-ha moments, and countless businesses changed. Thank you for coming along for the ride.
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640: Power Talk Friday: Ashley Connell, Founder of Prowess: Helping You Find Your Next Hire
A Well-Designed Business®
Welcome to A Well-Designed Business®. Today we’re going to talk about one of those key things you have to do in your business if you want to grow—outsourcing. We all know we need to do it, but finding the right fit is a major challenge. Ashley Connell of Prowess runs a business that matches you with your perfect fit business manager or employee. She’s sharing with us how she makes those perfect fits and the impact it can have on your business.
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639: Mina Duque: Starting an Interior Design Firm in a Foreign Melting Pot
A Well-Designed Business®
Welcome to A Well-Designed Business®. Can you imagine starting your firm in a foreign city—one where you have no connections, no network, and where you haven’t even visited? That’s exactly what Mina Duque ended up doing. Today, she’s sharing her story of how she started her business in Tulum, the unique challenges presented by working in a major melting pot, and how she grew her business even without a community and network.
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638: What Would Lu Do?: Processes and Contracts: They Aren't Made to Be Broken
A Well-Designed Business®
Welcome to A Well-Designed Business, it’s time for another riveting episode of “What Would Lu Do?”, where you ask the difficult questions and LuAnn gives the expert answers you’ve been wanting.
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637: Carley Page Summers: Lift Others As You Climb to Success.
A Well-Designed Business®
Carley Page Summers shares her journey to interior design that began only after she first built a robust photography business catering to the design trade. 184k Instagram followers strong, Carley chronicles how just nine years ago, she pulled herself out of a dark place, found hope, and is now on a mission to inspire hope in others.
info_outlineToday with John Dupra:
John Dupra, Co-Founder and Director of Marketing for Revel Woods returns to the show to walk us through how designers can offer a valuable service to their clients and increase their project profit by becoming a flooring expert. Revel Woods is known for catering to the design trade by offering substantial training, concierge level service and customizable flooring options that allow interior designers to confidently include flooring in their new-build and renovation projects.
Pick it apart:
[41:26] John and LuAnn discuss how to work around the builder so you can spec the flooring
[55:28] John reviews how the flooring selector on his website works
[1:06:07] John explains how Revel Woods has disrupted the flooring industry’s retail model
[1:08:13] LuAnn recaps the value Revel Woods bring to the designer
[1:13:09] John explains the initial education and guidance needed to specify flooring
[1:21:34] LuAnn recaps the main benefits Revel Woods offers to designers
LuAnn and John Dupra’s Ah-Ha moments:
“Revel Woods is a hyper-personalized concierge service.” - John Dupra
“For projects that designers have flooring in, the designer should be the conduit for that industry.” - John Dupra
“This is an area where there’s money left on the table.” - John Dupra
More About John Dupra:
John Dupra (pronounced DU-pray)’s father Craig started in the wood flooring business before John was born as an installer and refinisher, which he did for 24 years before eventually opening his own wholesale wood flooring distribution company in Rochester, NY.
John grew up helping his father when not in school before taking a job for Saint-Gobain, a large materials manufacturing company that made sundries for the flooring industry. He traveled the country as a sales engineer working with flooring contractors for eight years before deciding to join the family business in wholesale distribution.
It was there John saw the need to evolve the industry, by evolving its sales channels. If the correct platform was built, designers would be just as integral a part of the flooring industry as flooring stores. Making flooring a lucrative avenue for the designer, while providing a better experience to their clients. Revel Woods is that platform. Now designers are empowered to add flooring to their projects in a way that’s never been seen before.
John has been featured in a number of publications, and has been a guest on a wide range of podcasts including being recognized in Hardwood Floors Magazine’s first ever 40 under 40: https://hardwoodfloorsmag.com/2017/10/02/hardwood-floors-magazine-introduces-first-ever-40-40/
His favorite podcast to be on is A Well Designed Business and he doesn’t care who knows it.
Connect with John Dupra:
Other Shows Mentioned:
Corey Damen Jenkins #549 #388 #127
Deborah DiMare #117 #82
Kristen Scott Thomas #314
Ashleigh Esprit #136