Designing Success

Rhiannon Lee
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Designing Success from School to Studio by Rhiannon Lee is dedicated to filling in the gaps in your design course to encourage you to build a sustainable business that supports your dream lifestyle. Are you searching for strategy, systems and support? Looking for a community to bounce industry issues around in?  In this podcast, we will cover the interior design business infrastructure you need to supplement your design school curriculum with practical insights and actionable advice. We also cover all things marketing, product innovation, client acquisition, and more. Go beyond the theory, filter through the stuff that doesn’t serve you and get on with creating. You will find real talk with industry professionals, practical tactics from business realists that leave you reenergised and focused on exactly how to improve the current landscape of your own business. For more behind the scenes of the interior design industry, check out oleander and finch in Instagram https://instagram.com/oleander_and_finchor head to www.oleanderandfinch.com

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    “You’re Behind” Is the biggest lie in AI right now.

    Text me and tell me what you think of this ep.  AI is not replacing interior designers — it's replacing average ones. Rhiannon Lee, AI strategist for Australian interior designers, breaks down why "AI killed my industry" is lazy marketing, how pattern recognition software produces sameness not taste, and what designers need to document right now before AI flattens the industry. Practical, operational, and built for real studios — not theory. RESOURCES MENTIONED → Pre-AI documentation checklist: https://ripple-coat-1f1.notion.site/B... → Rhiannon at The Design Show, ICC Sydney, June 2026: https://designshow.com.au/agenda#site... → Studio Build — 6-week AI implementation intensive for interior designers: https://rhiannonlee.myflodesk.com/stu... ABOUT RHIANNON LEE ────────────────────────── AI strategist for Australian interior designers. Former Oleander & Finch. Creator of the Studio Suite — Studio Learn, Studio Build, and Studio CEO — operational AI implementation for design businesses, not productivity theatre. → Instagram: @the_rhiannonlee Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.  Grab  more insights and updates: Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/oleander_and_finch Like Oleander & Finch on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/oleanderandfinch  For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub  on my website ; https://oleanderandfinch.com/ Ready to take your interior design business to the next level? Check out my online course, "The Framework," designed to provide you with everything they don’t teach you in design school and to give you high touch mentorship  essential to having  a successful new business  in the industry. Check it out now and start designing YOUR own success THE FRAMEWORK  ( now open)  https://www.oleanderandfinch.com/the-framework-for-emerging-designers/ Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations...

    26 min

  2. 22 APR

    Where to actually start with AI in your design business (and what to stop doing)

    Text me and tell me what you think of this ep. Interior designers who feel overwhelmed by AI typically don't have a tool problem — they have a prioritisation problem. Australian AI strategist Rhiannon Lee recommends three starting points: spend four minutes meeting Claude, do a five-minute audit of your most repetitive business tasks, and invest time in free AI literacy resources. Chasing AI image generation is the biggest time drain to avoid. EPISODE OVERVIEW The noise around AI is loud right now. Everyone's screaming that Claude killed interior designers, that you need to understand MCPs and managed agents and agentic workflows — and meanwhile you're just trying to run a studio and not lose your mind. This episode is not that. Rhiannon Lee, AI strategist for Australian interior designers, cuts straight to what actually deserves your attention this week — if you're starting from scratch, if you're overwhelmed, or if you've been dabbling but can't see a clear path forward. Three things. Fifteen minutes. Actual forward momentum. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN IN THIS EPISODE Why the overwhelm is real — and why it doesn't mean what you think it means The wave of AI experts, the screaming headlines, the feeling that you're already behind. Rhiannon talks about why it feels like going from zero to hero overnight, why that's disorienting even for people who are genuinely across it, and why the existential stuff is worth sitting with — without letting it stop you. Claude vs ChatGPT: the honest comparison interior designers actually need Not a feature list. A practical frame. ChatGPT is your dinner bestie who knows your history — great for thinking out loud, voice memos, and unpacking what's in your head. Claude is Lord Business from the Lego Movie — your chief of staff, your executive assistant, the one you brief every morning and who executes without needing to be managed. They're not interchangeable. They work better together. How to use both tools without burning through tokens Rhiannon's actual workflow: think out loud in ChatGPT, get a tight synopsis, take that synopsis to Claude. Minimise spend. Maximise output. It's a small shift that makes a big difference. The five-minute business audit that unlocks everything else Before you build anything in AI, Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.  Grab  more insights and updates: Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/oleander_and_finch Like Oleander & Finch on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/oleanderandfinch  For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub  on my website ; https://oleanderandfinch.com/ Ready to take your interior design business to the next level? Check out my online course, "The Framework," designed to provide you with everything they don’t teach you in design school and to give you high touch mentorship  essential to having  a successful new business  in the industry. Check it out now and start designing YOUR own success THE FRAMEWORK  ( now open)  https://www.oleanderandfinch.com/the-framework-for-emerging-designers/ Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations...

    37 min

  3. 9 APR

    Stop charging for the process (and other things I'm yelling about while the kids trash the house)

    Text me and tell me what you think of this ep. Join the email list to get the business restructure challenge, 'Studio Build'  updates HERE  The kids are on school holidays, there's a triple bunk being installed, and I'm stealing 20 minutes here and there to talk about the pricing shift that's quietly happening in the interior design industry and why you need to get ahead of it.  This one's recorded live from the chaos: paint swatches, tent pitching, and small people interrupting every second sentence. It's unpolished, unedited, and exactly the kind of bonus episode you didn't know you needed.  What we're talking about:  The home reno update no one asked for (but you're getting anyway) — triple bunks, colour drenching, and why I'm not taking myself seriously with this one  The 15-day Easter challenge happening on Instagram right now — 20 minutes a day, tidying up the operational side of my business so AI can actually do its job properly  The pricing conversation that came up in Studio CEO this week and hasn't left my head since — what happens when you can do in 24 seconds what used to take 2.5 hours? Do you charge less? Spoiler: absolutely not  Why billing by the hour is a trap in an efficiency economy, and why you need to stop itemising your scope and start pricing for the outcome  The thing to remember:  You're getting better. You're getting faster. You're finding smarter ways to run your business. That doesn't mean you charge less — it means you protect your pricing and articulate the value you bring, regardless of how long the admin takes.  Where to find the Easter challenge: Instagram — search the highlights, watch along, steal the prompts, and give your own business 20 minutes of attention each day.  Next episode: Not for two weeks. I'm with the kids. See you week commencing 20 April.  Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.  Grab  more insights and updates: Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/oleander_and_finch Like Oleander & Finch on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/oleanderandfinch  For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub  on my website ; https://oleanderandfinch.com/ Ready to take your interior design business to the next level? Check out my online course, "The Framework," designed to provide you with everything they don’t teach you in design school and to give you high touch mentorship  essential to having  a successful new business  in the industry. Check it out now and start designing YOUR own success THE FRAMEWORK  ( now open)  https://www.oleanderandfinch.com/the-framework-for-emerging-designers/ Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations...

    16 min

  4. 1 APR

    Posting AI slop isn't saving you time, it's costing you clients.

    Text me and tell me what you think of this ep. AI adoption jumped dramatically in the first quarter of 2026 ... and so did the slop. In this episode Rhiannon gets into the conversation she's been sitting on: what AI-generated content actually looks like, why it keeps happening, and what the real fix is.  Rhiannon takes a straight-from-the-machine AI caption and edits it in real time, cutting line by line and explaining exactly what to look for. The before: The AI slop tells to watch for Negative parallelism it's not because of X, it's because of Y The rule of threes dressed up as wisdom  Motivational non-statements that sound profound and mean nothing Emojis doing the emotional heavy lifting The empty in, empty out rule AI is a language model. It predicts the most likely next word based on everything it's ever read. Give it nothing No opinion, no story, no specific point of view & it gives you the average of everything on the internet. Which is, without exception, beige.  The knowledge base argument Using AI well is downstream of knowing things. If your marketing knowledge is underdeveloped and you ask AI for a strategy, you'll get something that looks like a strategy | and you won't be able to tell if it's good. The actual investment: micro-learning. Borrow the book. Go to the seminar. Ask AI to teach you things, not just produce things for you. When your understanding goes up, everything you bring to AI gets better. The workflow that actually works Voice note in the car → bring that raw material to AI → let it help you find the structure → edit it back to sounding like you → feed the final version back to the tool and say: this is what went out. Learn from that. The responsibility question Rhiannon's honest answer: she's not going to police anyone's feed. But she's also not going to pretend the bar hasn't dropped. The most useful thing any of us can do is hold the standard in our own work. The one question to ask before you post: did a real person think this? Resources mentioned DM CEO to @the_rhiannonlee for the AI context checklist  everything you need to tell AI about your business to start getting results that actually sound like you. Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.  Grab  more insights and updates: Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/oleander_and_finch Like Oleander & Finch on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/oleanderandfinch  For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub  on my website ; https://oleanderandfinch.com/ Ready to take your interior design business to the next level? Check out my online course, "The Framework," designed to provide you with everything they don’t teach you in design school and to give you high touch mentorship  essential to having  a successful new business  in the industry. Check it out now and start designing YOUR own success THE FRAMEWORK  ( now open)  https://www.oleanderandfinch.com/the-framework-for-emerging-designers/ Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations...

    49 min

  5. 25 MAR

    The AI data conversation nobody in the design industry is having... but should be.

    Text me and tell me what you think of this ep. You've probably pasted a client brief into an AI tool this week.  Maybe a site visit transcript. A proposal draft. A mood board description with the client's full name, address, and renovation budget attached.  And there's a reasonable chance you've never read the terms of service of the tool you pasted it into.  This episode is about that gap .. and what to do about it.  Interior designers hold some of the most sensitive personal data of anyone in a professional context. Home addresses. Security system details. Access codes to properties mid-renovation. Renovation budgets. Insurance information. Family composition.  Most of that data is flowing through AI tools right now with terms of service nobody has read. And the AI education space — including me — has been almost completely silent about it.  This isn't an anti-AI episode. I use AI every day in my studio and couldn't go back. This is the episode I wish someone had made two years ago, before most of us clicked yes to everything and hoped for the best.  We cover:  > What data you're actually holding as a designer and why it's higher-risk than most industries  > How free-tier AI tools handle your inputs  > and what 'training on user data' actually means in practice  > AI agents, connected permissions, and why the hiring analogy matters more than people think  > What Australian privacy law says and what it means for your studio — Training AI with your creative work  > and the IP question nobody has a clean answer to yet >  Four steps to audit what you've already connected and make deliberate choices going forward  Plus the three questions I ask before connecting any AI tool to a client-facing part of my business.   The three questions:  Where does my data go — and does it stay there?What access am I actually granting — and can I revoke it instantly?If this tool was compromised tomorrow, what's the blast radius? DM me privacy on Instagram (@the_rhiannonlee) to continue this chat  Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.  Grab  more insights and updates: Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/oleander_and_finch Like Oleander & Finch on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/oleanderandfinch  For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub  on my website ; https://oleanderandfinch.com/ Ready to take your interior design business to the next level? Check out my online course, "The Framework," designed to provide you with everything they don’t teach you in design school and to give you high touch mentorship  essential to having  a successful new business  in the industry. Check it out now and start designing YOUR own success THE FRAMEWORK  ( now open)  https://www.oleanderandfinch.com/the-framework-for-emerging-designers/ Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations...

    38 min

  6. 23 MAR

    Build your Interior Design Project databases automatically with AI

    Text me and tell me what you think of this ep. I uploaded a six-month-old transcript from a client consult and got a complete Notion project dashboard in about eight seconds. Find out how HERE  Every action item, every room, every design direction we discussed — colour-coded, categorised, with checkboxes and notes. I hadn't touched the output. It just built it. This is for you if you finish a site visit, come home, and three weeks later you're trying to remember whether the client wanted warm oak or white oak on the joinery. This is not a client-facing tool. It lives entirely behind the scenes — your own running record of every promise you made in that room. You need: a transcript, Claude connected to Notion, and one prompt. That's it. Four steps. The full instructions are in the comments — grab them, try it today. 🔍 In this video: Claude + Notion for interior designers | AI project management for design studios | how to use Claude with Notion | interior design workflow automation | AI tools for interior designers 2026 | turning client consult transcripts into Notion databases | project tracking for interior designers 📩 Get the full instructions + prompt: [link in comments] Timestamps 0:00 The problem this solves 0:45 Live demo — the Notion dashboard 2:30 Filtering by room and priority 4:00 The exact prompt to use 5:15 How to connect Claude to Notion Rhiannon Lee helps interior designers integrate AI into how they actually run their studios — not just how everyone else uses it. Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.  Grab  more insights and updates: Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/oleander_and_finch Like Oleander & Finch on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/oleanderandfinch  For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub  on my website ; https://oleanderandfinch.com/ Ready to take your interior design business to the next level? Check out my online course, "The Framework," designed to provide you with everything they don’t teach you in design school and to give you high touch mentorship  essential to having  a successful new business  in the industry. Check it out now and start designing YOUR own success THE FRAMEWORK  ( now open)  https://www.oleanderandfinch.com/the-framework-for-emerging-designers/ Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations...

    12 min

  7. 11 MAR

    rethinking how we renovate, with Bradley Montag

    Text me and tell me what you think of this ep.  In this episode of Designing Success, I sit down with interior designer Bradley Montag to talk about the intersection of design, property, and town planning.  Bradley began his career as a town planning lawyer before transitioning into interior design, giving him a unique perspective on how homes should be renovated, extended, and designed. We explore how understanding planning regulations can influence design decisions, why heritage homes deserve thoughtful renovation, and the common mistakes people make when buying or renovating property.  We also discuss the reality of renovating older homes, honoring architectural history, and why designing a home purely for resale often results in bland spaces with no personality.  Finally, we dive into marketing for designers — including social media, thought leadership, and how creatives can communicate their value more confidently when pricing their services.  If you're interested in interior design, property renovation, heritage homes, or building a design business, this conversation offers both practical insight and honest industry perspective.  Find Bradley on Instagram @bradleymontag or on TIK TOK @bradley.montag  Download the free guide mentioned in this weeks BONUS  episode:  https://oleanderandfinch.myflodesk.com/aicontext  Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.  Grab  more insights and updates: Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/oleander_and_finch Like Oleander & Finch on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/oleanderandfinch  For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub  on my website ; https://oleanderandfinch.com/ Ready to take your interior design business to the next level? Check out my online course, "The Framework," designed to provide you with everything they don’t teach you in design school and to give you high touch mentorship  essential to having  a successful new business  in the industry. Check it out now and start designing YOUR own success THE FRAMEWORK  ( now open)  https://www.oleanderandfinch.com/the-framework-for-emerging-designers/ Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations...

    1hr 7min

  8. 7 MAR

    How to set your studio up properly to use a variety of AI tools

    Text me and tell me what you think of this ep. AI is everywhere right now — ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity, Midjourney, Nano Banana — and interior designers are being told they need to learn all of it. But the real problem isn’t the tools. It’s the lack of context. In this episode of Designing Success, I break down how interior designers should actually be using AI inside their design studio, including: • the AI Studio Stack and what each tool is best for • why ChatGPT isn’t the best tool for photorealistic renders • how tools like Claude, Gemini and Perplexity fit into a design business • the mistake most designers make when experimenting with AI • how to prepare your studio so AI tools actually understand your business If you’ve tried AI and thought “this is kind of helpful but not life-changing”, this episode will explain why. The secret is something I call the AI Context Layer. AI performs dramatically better when it understands: • your studio processes  • your services and pricing  • your brand voice  • your client communication  • your frameworks and intellectual property That’s why I created a free guide to help designers start preparing their studio knowledge for AI. Download the free guide here:  👉 How to Prepare Your Design Studio for AI https://oleanderandfinch.myflodesk.com/aicontext Inside the guide you’ll learn: • the AI Context Drive every design studio should build • the key documents that help ChatGPT behave like it works inside your business • how to organise your Google Drive so AI tools actually understand your studio This episode is for interior designers, decorators, and creative studio owners who want to integrate AI into their business without getting overwhelmed by tools. Thanks for listening to this episode of "Designing Success: From Study to Studio"! Connect with me on social media for more business tips, and a real look behind the scenes of my own practicing design business.  Grab  more insights and updates: Follow me on Instagram: https://instagram.com/oleander_and_finch Like Oleander & Finch on Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/oleanderandfinch  For more FREE resources, templates, guides and information, visit the Designer Resource Hub  on my website ; https://oleanderandfinch.com/ Ready to take your interior design business to the next level? Check out my online course, "The Framework," designed to provide you with everything they don’t teach you in design school and to give you high touch mentorship  essential to having  a successful new business  in the industry. Check it out now and start designing YOUR own success THE FRAMEWORK  ( now open)  https://www.oleanderandfinch.com/the-framework-for-emerging-designers/ Remember to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. Your feedback helps me continue providing valuable content to aspiring interior designers. Stay tuned for more episodes filled with actionable insights and inspiring conversations...

    36 min
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About

Designing Success from School to Studio by Rhiannon Lee is dedicated to filling in the gaps in your design course to encourage you to build a sustainable business that supports your dream lifestyle. Are you searching for strategy, systems and support? Looking for a community to bounce industry issues around in?  In this podcast, we will cover the interior design business infrastructure you need to supplement your design school curriculum with practical insights and actionable advice. We also cover all things marketing, product innovation, client acquisition, and more. Go beyond the theory, filter through the stuff that doesn’t serve you and get on with creating. You will find real talk with industry professionals, practical tactics from business realists that leave you reenergised and focused on exactly how to improve the current landscape of your own business. For more behind the scenes of the interior design industry, check out oleander and finch in Instagram https://instagram.com/oleander_and_finchor head to www.oleanderandfinch.com

Information

  • Creator
    Rhiannon Lee
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    180
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Designing Success
  • Show Website
    Designing Success

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