Thoughts from my experience at David Neagle’s Experience the Reality of Success Because this was my second time at David Neagle’s Experience the Reality of Success, I decide to have a different experience. Instead of participating fully in the powerful experiential exercises that David presented, I wanted to simply observe. Or did I? No, I really didn’t WANT to sit back and observe. What is the point of investing in a workshop and flying across the country for a week if I’m not going to participate? So why wasn’t I fully committing to the experience? READ MORE

span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family:arial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size:large;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-weight: bold;”This post includes notes and inspiration from Heather Dominick’s class, “Greater Client Attraction by Allowing Your Prospects to KNOW You”/span/span/spandivspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family:arial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size:medium;”br //span/span/divdivspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family:arial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size:medium;”Thoughts on the big debate: /span/spanspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-style: italic;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family:arial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size:medium;”Should a designer ever do a free consultation?/span/span/spanspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family:arial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size:medium;” Heather says there is a middle ground between FREE consultations and PAID consultations. It’s not black or white. READ MORE

span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size:large;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family:arial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-weight: bold;”Today’s post gives you a summary of notes from Debbie Green’s class, “It’s All About Attitude”/span/span/spandivspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size:large;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family:arial;”br //span/span/divdivspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: arial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: medium;”"A good attitude is the foundation for a successful design business.”/span/span/divdivspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: arial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: medium;”br //span/span/divdivspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: arial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: medium;”The more you ACT happy, the more you FEEL happy./span/span/divdivspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: arial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: medium;”br //span/span/divdivspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-weight: bold;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: arial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: medium;”Attitude Improvers: /span/span/span/divdivullispan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: arial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: medium;”create and stick to a budget for your business/span/span/lilispan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: arial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: medium;”clean your desk/span/span/lilispan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: arial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: medium;”smile/span/span/li/ul/divdivspan class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: arial;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size: medium;”You must earn a prospect’s trust before you can ever expect to get a sale.   READ MORE

span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-size:medium;”span class=”Apple-style-span” style=”font-family: arial;”For the next few weeks, I am going to post inspiration from the Interior Design Summit. Using just ONE of these ideas will boost your design business. If you implement a whole bunch, you will be so far ahead of the pack!br /br /We had 12 amazing experts sharing powerful, valuable ideas for skyrocketing your design business in this market. What I loved is that there were many commonalities. When you hear the same thing from so many experts, you know it’s gold!br /br /The Most Important Success Strategies for Designers:br /br /1. Blog, blog, blog. You MUST have a blog. Even if you don’t have a website, please go start a blog. It is free. It is easy. Do it now!br /br /Then make sure you post at least twice a week. Search engines love updated material, so the more you blog, the more potential clients will find you.br /br /2. Marketing is all about connections and relationships. Don’t try to promote yourself or sell your products. Just join a conversation online, share valuable information, or help someone out. It’s amazing how much better this works to boost your bottom line!br /br /3. (to be continued…)/span/span

span style=”font-size:130%;”Can you personally affect this economy in a positive way? Absolutely! Don’t think for a moment that one person can’t make a big difference. emAnd it doesn’t take a lot of hard work or time./em/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”I have been studying what makes some designers successful – wildly successful, despite what the outside world / media / friends are saying about the economy. Many of them have doubled or tripled profits this year. They are enjoying the dream businesses that they’ve worked for, and feeling fulfilled and happy./spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”And the best part about being successful is that you actually make more people successful – emjust by being successful!/em/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”strongWhat do I mean?/strong/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”Think about it. Designers and decorators who are complaining about the economy, talking about how they don’t have enough business, and reacting to their worries and concerns are affecting the economy in a negative way. Negative talk leads to more people worrying and reacting – and spending less! Which, of course, leads to more worry, more complaining, and LESS spending. A vicious cycle./spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”The opposite is also true. Designers who have made the strongdecision/strong to think positively and focus on what is good about their businesses (okay, I know I’m sounding a bit Pollyanna here, but just go with me), are noticing that they are NOT being affected by the so-called slow economy. They are investing more time and energy into improving their businesses in creative ways, which leads to more publicity and more clients, leading to more positive energy, more profits, more improving, etc./spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”I have designer clients who have worked with me over the past year on improving their businesses – emstarting with their mindsets/em – who say to me,” I don’t get what everyone is saying. My business is doing better than ever.” /spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”Imagine if we could recruit more designers to start thinking more positively? At some point we would reach what is called “strongThe Tipping Point/strong.”/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”Then:/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”- more people would feel positive and optimistic, /spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”- people would relax and release their worries,/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”- more money would be spent, /spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”- the economy would improve!/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”emCan you imagine?/em I know I want to be a part of that! Join me, won’t you?/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”If you want to have more success, model the designers who are having wild success right now. The most important thing to do first is focus on the positive. What are you most grateful for? Now, I am NOT saying to bury your head in the sand. No, you should not ignore what is going on in the world. You NEED to keep current with business and design trends. Which leads me to the emsecond/em thing you must do…/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”The second thing you must do is learn how to run your business strongin the most effective way to create prosperity in current times/strong. Creating success in business is a emlearned/em skill. Learn a few techniques, put them into action, and you WILL see improvement./spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”If you know anyone who needs a boost -in their mindset or in their pocketbook, please let them know about the upcoming a href=”http://www.interiordesignsummit.com/”Interior Design Summit/a. This Summit is designed to help designers in both areas – emattitude/em and emprofits/em! The more designers who attend, strongthe quicker we will see an upswing in the economy/strong. /spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”You can make a difference. Let’s do it together!/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”Join me next week, and invite everyone you know:/spanbr /a onmousedown=”‘UntrustedLink.bootstrap($(this),” href=”http://www.interiordesignsummit.com/” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”span style=”font-size:130%;”http://www.InteriorDesignSummit.com/span/abr /span style=”font-size:130%;”/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”To your easy success,/spanbr /span style=”font-size:130%;”Nika/span