S8 Ep.207 Lessons From Our Biggest Mistakes
Designed for the Creative Mind™
Release Date: 12/31/2025
Ep 218: The Client Red Flags Costing Designers Thousands (And How to Catch Them Early)
Designed for the Creative Mind™
The Client Red Flags Costing Designers Thousands (And How to Catch Them Early)Designed for the Creative Mind Podcast You can have incredible talent, a full calendar, and stunning projects—and still feel like your business is harder than it should be. In this episode of Design for the Creative Mind, we’re diving into one of the most overlooked reasons interior designers struggle with profitability and burnout: saying yes to the wrong clients. Because the truth is, not every client is an opportunity. Some are a liability. And the real problem? Most designers don’t realize it until...
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Ep 217: Booked Solid...But Where's the Profit? The Interior Designer's Hidden Business Problem
Designed for the Creative Mind™
Why Busy Designers Still Struggle With Profitability Designed for the Creative Mind Podcast Interior design is one of the few professions where it’s incredibly easy to build a business that looks successful on the outside but quietly struggles behind the scenes. Beautiful projects. High-end homes. A full calendar. And yet the numbers still feel tighter than they should. In this episode, Michelle Lynne pulls back the curtain on a common issue she sees when auditing interior design firms: businesses that have grown busy but were never intentionally structured to be profitable. If you’ve...
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Ep 216: The $50K Hiding Inside Your Design Process
Designed for the Creative Mind™
Episode Description Most interior designers assume they need more clients, more marketing, or higher design fees to increase their income. But often the real issue is something much simpler. Their process. In this episode, Michelle Lynne breaks down where interior design firms quietly lose money through unstructured discovery, unlimited revisions, procurement administration, underpriced phases, and furniture margins that are far too small. These “small” decisions can easily add up to $30,000–$50,000 or more in lost revenue each year. The good news is that fixing these leaks doesn’t...
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EP 215: The Real Reason Your Marketing Disappears When You Get Busy
Designed for the Creative Mind™
WHY YOUR MARKETING DISAPPEARS WHEN YOU GET BUSY There’s a lot of advice out there about getting more leads and increasing your visibility. But almost nobody talks about what happens after real life gets busy. If your marketing disappears during install weeks, deadlines, or full client schedules, you’re not alone. Most interior designers rely on motivation and inspiration to stay visible, and that approach almost always leads to inconsistency. In this episode, Michelle Lynne shares how she markets her own design firm even during busy seasons. Instead of relying on inspiration, she uses a...
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EP 214: You Wanted More Leads. Now What?
Designed for the Creative Mind™
You worked hard to get the lead. You posted. You showed up. You marketed consistently. And now your phone is ringing. So why aren’t more of those inquiries turning into paying clients? In this episode, we’re talking about the part nobody glamorizes in the interior design business: what happens after the inquiry. Because getting leads is not the win. Converting them is. If you’re booking discovery calls but hearing: “We’re going to think about it.” “We’re talking to a few designers.” “Can you send over pricing?” Then this episode is for you. Inside, I’m breaking down: ...
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Ep 213: If Your Leads Are Price Shopping, You're Teaching Them To
Designed for the Creative Mind™
If you’re constantly getting inquiries that sound like this… “How much do you charge?” “Can you give me a ballpark?” “What do you charge per room?” You’re not alone. And no, it doesn’t automatically mean your leads are cheap. In this episode, we’re getting real about why price shopping leads keep showing up in your inbox, and the uncomfortable truth most designers don’t want to admit: If your leads are price shopping, your marketing is teaching them to. Because when your messaging is vague, your process isn’t clear, and your content only shows the finished product,...
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S8 Ep.212 From MTV to High Point: How Rhobin DelaCruz Built a Design Career by Design
Designed for the Creative Mind™
In today’s episode, I’m sitting down with interior designer, creative instigator, and community builder Rhobin DelaCruz. Rhobin has worked with brands like GQ, TED, and MTV, but what really stands out is how intentionally he approaches both design and business. From the way he talks about community to how he shows up at High Point Market, everything he does is rooted in purpose, clarity, and connection. This conversation covers a lot of ground—from career pivots to nonprofit work—and it’s one of those episodes that reminds you how powerful design can really be. In this episode, we...
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S8 Ep. 211 From Design to Staging: The Income Stream You’re Missing with Guest Marianna Cherico
Designed for the Creative Mind™
In this episode of Designed for the Creative Mind, Michelle sits down with home staging coach Marianne Cherico to explore how staging can become a powerful extension of an interior design business. With decades of experience in real estate and staging, Marianne shares practical strategies for building relationships with real estate agents, shifting mindset, and positioning staging as an investment rather than a luxury. You’ll learn how designers can diversify income streams, stand out in a competitive market, and communicate value in a way that attracts long-term clients and...
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S8 Ep.210 When Design, Wellness, and Leadership Collide with Natalie Froom
Designed for the Creative Mind™
In this episode of Designed for the Creative Mind, I’m sitting down with Natalie Froom, founder and principal designer of Studio 180 Design. Natalie and I go way back—she came through the Interior Design Business Bakery shortly after the pandemic, back when she lovingly calls herself a “baby designer.” Fast forward to now, and she’s running a growing studio with a team, a refined process, and big plans for the future. This conversation is one of those full-circle moments I absolutely love. We talk about how Natalie’s background in psychology and nutrition led her to interior...
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S8 Ep.209 How Smart Designers Use Paid Ads to Stay Fully Booked with Shelby Fowler
Designed for the Creative Mind™
In today’s episode of Designed for the Creative Mind, I’m sitting down with Shelby Fowler Moss to talk about something that makes a lot of designers nervous: paid ads. Shelby is a paid ad strategist and sales expert who’s helped businesses generate tens of millions of dollars through advertising, and she brings a refreshingly honest, no-fluff perspective to this conversation. If you’ve ever felt like paid ads are risky, confusing, or something only “big businesses” can afford, this episode is for you. Shelby and I break down what actually makes ads work, why so many business...
info_outlineAs this year comes to a close, I wanted to have a very honest conversation—one rooted in experience, not perfection. In this episode, I’m reflecting alongside another seasoned firm owner, Katie Decker Erickson, on the mistakes we’ve made, the lessons we learned the hard way, and what actually matters when you’re trying to move your business forward with clarity instead of chaos.
This isn’t about beating yourself up for what didn’t work. It’s about looking back clearly—without ego or shame—so you can recalibrate your direction, trust yourself again, and make smarter decisions as you head into 2026.
In this episode, I talk about:
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Why you can’t change direction in your business without honestly looking in the rearview mirror
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How growing just for the sake of growth often leads to stress, misalignment, and regret
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Why busyness, headcount, and “looking successful” can hide deeper operational problems
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The real cost of ignoring your intuition—and why it always shows up eventually
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How intuition becomes powerful when it’s supported by data, not separated from it
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Why avoiding your numbers only creates bigger problems down the road
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What I call the “toll of the soul,” and why some profitable work still isn’t worth it
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How letting go sooner—clients, projects, models, or people—can lead to faster alignment
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Why leadership requires hard conversations, not avoidance
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How reflection is meant to recalibrate your business, not keep you stuck in regret
This episode is for designers who know something needs to change—but don’t want to burn everything down to make it happen. My hope is that this conversation helps you look at your business with more honesty, more confidence, and a lot more self-trust as you step into what’s next.
You don’t need to have all the answers for 2026 right now. But you do need to be willing to look clearly at where you’ve been—so you can choose where you’re going on purpose.
If you’re ready to move forward with clarity instead of guesswork, this episode is for you.