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A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business Podcast

In today"s world being a talented interior designer isn"t enough to ensure that you have a profitable and successful business. Design school curricula doesn"t always equip you with the business skills to have your interior design business be everything you imagined it would be! A Well-Designed Business® is here to fill in the gaps and give you real live business skills from some of the top interior designers. Your host, LuAnn Nigara shares her 40 years of success in the interior design industry, and

business design

All Episodes

34:47

1232: What Would Lu Do: AI Gave You the Right Answer,...

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business... ·

2026/10/02

Today With LuAnn Nigara:AI can hallucinate. It can give you information that is flat-out wrong. But what happens when AI gives you a really good answer? In this What Would Lu Do episode, LuAnn Nigara explores a more subtle risk of using AI in your interior design business: getting an accurate, intelligent, well-researched answer to a question that wasn't the right question to begin with. Through examples from her own work with AI, including a lesson involving designer Megan Moulton, a real

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76:02

1231: CEO Conversations with Kate O'Hara: Closing the...

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business... ·

2026/09/29

Today with Kate O’Hara:Today with Kate O'Hara, we're digging into something every designer feels but doesn't always name: the client experience gap. Kate spent years running a luxury design firm, which means she's had a front-row seat to what actually keeps high-end clients coming back, and what quietly sends them somewhere else next time. In this conversation, we’re talking about the space between the experience you think you're delivering and the one your client is actually having. We’re

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27:11

1230: What Would Lu Do?: Are You Disqualifying Leads...

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business... ·

2026/09/25

Today With LuAnn Nigara:Qualifying leads is good business. But the qualification strategy that makes sense when your interior design firm is booked several months out may not make sense when your pipeline has room or your sales skills still need strengthening. In this What Would Lu Do episode, LuAnn challenges you to look at whether your qualification process reflects the business you actually have today. Because there is an important difference between knowing a prospect isn't right for your

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28:36

1229: MBA: The Discovery Call: Listen, Learn, Then Lead

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business... ·

2026/09/22

Today With LuAnn Nigara: You already have questions you ask on a discovery call. But do you know what you’re actually trying to learn from the answers? In this MBA episode of A Well-Designed Business, LuAnn Nigara goes into the archives to pull together sales lessons from Matt Cobb, Leah Neaderthal, Tracee Murphy, and Nikki Rausch. Together, their advice reveals a more strategic way for interior designers to think about the discovery call. A great discovery call isn’t simply a get-to-know-you

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72:11

1228: Kelly Finley: From Bigger to Better

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business... ·

2026/09/18

Today with Kelly Finley:Kelly Finley built the firm you're told to want. Nine people. Two offices, one in California and one in Georgia. Major projects, press, a team that could run circles without her in the room. From the outside, she'd made it. Then her husband's job moved the family to Georgia, and the model that got her there started costing her more than it gave back. The distance between offices. The team changes that came with distance. The quality control that got harder to hold onto

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69:59

1227: BEST OF: Michele Williams: Re-Visiting Michele...

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business... ·

2026/09/15

Today on the show I have yet another fabulous business coach who specializes in our industry! Michele Williams is with me! Michele is the founder of Scarlet Thread and Consulting in Atlanta, Georgia. Today we will learn about Michele’s background which includes the financial software industry as well as a business in soft window treatment fabricator. She also has a BS in business administration, a diploma in Christian life coaching and she is one of the few certified profit first coaches in the

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77:11

1226: BEST OF: Eileen Hahn: Scaling from 2 Million to...

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business... ·

2026/09/11

Today with Eileen HahnWelcome to A Well-Designed Business, it’s Power Talk Friday! Today, Luann and her guest, Eileen Hahn, dig into how to scale your design business from 2 million to 5 million. Going from 2 to 5 million is not easy, and it does not happen by accident.Intentionalis the name of the game when scaling at this level. Who better to take us through that than Eileen? She’s the HR whisperer from LuAnn’s firstPower Talk Friday Expertsbook. Eileen was with us all at LuAnn Live and she also

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29:48

1225: MBA: Is AI Recommending Your Interior Design...

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business... ·

2026/09/08

Today With LuAnn Nigara:When a potential client asks an AI search tool for an interior designer who solves the exact problem you solve, will your business show up? LuAnn decided to test the question on her own business, and the results were eye-opening. AI understood a lot about LuAnn Nigara Inc., but it missed one of her newest offers and recommended a one-time coaching program from around 2017 that hasn't been available for years. In this solo episode, LuAnn connects this discovery to lessons

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69:43

1224: BEST OF: Jennifer Tokatyan: Building a Culture...

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business... ·

2026/09/04

Today With Jennifer Tokatyan:Today on A Well-Designed Business, I speak with Jennifer Tokatyan, leadership consultant and partner with Eileen B Hahn. With over 20 years of experience, Jennifer shares her proven 7-step framework for building strong company culture that drives team performance and business growth. Don’t miss information about her upcoming LuAnn University course, “Build an Exceptional Team that Gets Results,” starting January 2025. LuAnn Nigara and Jennifer Tokatyan’s Ah-Ha

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59:21

1223: BEST OF: Pamela Durkin: Utilize Time Blocking...

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business... ·

2026/09/01

Today with Pamela Durkin:Welcome to a Well-Designed Business. Today with Pamela Durkin, author of Elevate and owner of Pamela Durkin Designs, we are discussing how to time block our tasks. Pamela is coughing up some great strategies on how we can set specific blocks of time for specific tasks that will help us, get this, “Get more done in one day then you used to get done in an entire week.” Pick it apart: [2:00] Pamela talks to us about time blocking to increase productivity. [8:30]

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60:31

1222: BEST OF: Robyn White: Using Your Website to...

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business... ·

2026/08/28

Today With Robyn White: We all know that marketing matters. But so often when I’m talking to newer designers, I realize that marketing is misunderstood—especially when it comes to the luxury client. My guest today, Robyn White, understands that. Today, she’s here to talk about what marketing really is, how marketing for the luxury client is unique, and how to incorporate your personality and story into your messaging. Pick It Apart [2:26] Robyn and LuAnn reflect on what marketing really

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73:51

1221: BEST OF: Deb Mitchell: Attract the Right...

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business... ·

2026/08/25

Today with Deb Mitchell:Welcome to A Well-Designed Business, it’s Power Talk Friday! LuAnn shares a conversation with Deb Mitchell on today’s show. You may know Deb on Instagram as DesignWriterDeb. She’s a writer specializing in serving interior designers. Did you know that your own writing style can differentiate yourself from other designers in the way it reflects your personality and your style? And that the most impactful way of writing speaks to the client? Listen in for tips on how you can

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54:40

1220: BEST OF: Deborah Rosenberg: Tailoring Your...

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business... ·

2026/08/21

Today with Deborah Rosenberg:What happens when your personal beliefs become part of the way you run your business? In this Best Of episode of A Well-Designed Business®, LuAnn sits down with Deborah Rosenberg, principal of DiMare Design, to talk about her decision to build a design firm committed to humane, cruelty-free interiors. Deborah’s approach grew out of her own evolving awareness of how animal-derived materials are produced. Eventually, she began looking at the leather, wool, down, and

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95:19

1219: CEO Conversations with Kate O'Hara: Stop...

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business... ·

2026/08/18

Today with Kate O’Hara:Kate O'Hara is back on A Well-Designed Business, and if you have never heard our past conversations with her, go find them after this one. They are some of the most listened to episodes in this catalog. This time we go straight at the conversation that makes emerging designers freeze. A client asks to see your trade invoices. A client asks what your markup is. And instead of feeling entitled to run your own business, you feel like you have to defend it. Kate spent 20 years

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82:11

1218: Overheard: Mae Reedy, Abigail Kahan & Jennifer...

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business... ·

2026/08/14

Today with Mae Reedy, Abigail Kahan & Jennifer Arteaga:Three interior designers. Three multi-million dollar firms. Jennifer Arteaga, Mae Reedy, and Abigail Kahan all built their businesses in under 10 years, and not one of them stopped hitting growing pains once the revenue got big. In this Overheard episode, LuAnn sits down with all three to talk about what actually gets hard once you're running a firm beyond the $5 million mark. Fee structures and profit margins that look nothing alike but all

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25:49

1217: What Would Lu Do?: Your Net Cost Isn't the Point

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business... ·

2026/08/11

Today With LuAnn Nigara:Last week's episode on interior design and trust got a real response, DMs, comments, one designer admitting she wouldn't have known what to say if a client brought up that arrested designer by name. So this week, LuAnn goes deeper. Two real conversations designers actually have to navigate, a client referencing a headline, and a client asking to see the receipts, and the exact words to use in both. Along the way, she digs into what ASID actually requires, what state law

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67:26

1216: Sponsored Show | Sandra Funk: The Season That...

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business... ·

2026/08/07

Today with Sandra Funk:Every business owner is one bad month away from finding out what their business is actually built on. This year, Sandra Funk found out. Her mom got sick. Two surgeries down, more to go. Her daughters started needing her in a different way. And in the middle of all of it, Sandra learned her own thyroid had been failing her for years, dismissed as just getting older. It was, in her words, everything happening at once, with no gap in between to catch her breath. This isn't a

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30:02

1215: What Would Lu Do?: Can We Stop Apologizing For...

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business... ·

2026/08/04

Today With LuAnn Nigara:Somewhere on a coaching call this week, a designer told LuAnn the same An interior designer was arrested a few weeks ago. Grand theft, diversion of construction funds, a client out $67,500 and no kitchen to show for it. That part isn't in question. What happened next is. An industry publication covered the story, and somewhere between reporting the crime and quoting the outrage in the comments, the conversation shifted. It stopped being about catching a criminal and

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62:52

1214: Liz Lidgett: A Smart Way to Source Art for...

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business... ·

2026/07/31

Today with Liz Lidgett:Art is one of the most overlooked ways designers can elevate a project and expand their own margin, and most designers are sourcing it the hard way. In this episode, LuAnn sits down with Liz Lidgett, gallerist, art advisor, and author, to talk about what actually happens on the business side of a gallery, and how designers can work with one the smart way. Liz breaks down how trade programs are structured, what questions to ask before you trust a gallery with a client's

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84:59

1213: Overheard: Being a Great Interior Designer...

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business... ·

2026/07/28

Today with Kathleen Reynolds & Lauren Vallario:Being a great interior designer and being a great CEO are not the same skill set, and Kathleen Reynolds and Lauren Vallario both learned that the hard way. Kathleen has run Kathleen Reynolds Interiors in Greenville, South Carolina for eighteen years. Lauren has run Lauren Vallario Designs in Stamford, Connecticut for over ten. Both built real, busy firms. Neither one had actually learned how to run a business until they got coaching. Kathleen carried

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