To-The-Trade with Interior Design Community

Interior Design Community
  • 4.6 (8)
  • Design
  • Updated Weekly

Introducing "To-The-Trade," the ultimate podcast for interior designers. Our mission: to provide business and productivity hacks for better work/life balance. Join industry leaders and experts as we explore trends, strategies, and practical advice. Elevate your design business, manage clients, build your brand, and stay ahead with technology. Achieve success and fulfillment in your career. Listen to "To-The-Trade" now!

  1. 23h ago

    To-The-Trade S3E22 Susan Jamieson from Bridget Beari Designs, a Paint Line, and a Color Rules Book

    Susan Jamieson founded Bridget Berry Designs, a Richmond, Virginia-based design firm named after her rescue dogs rather than herself, a branding choice she made so the business could grow and change hands independent of her own name. Over 35 years, she's built the firm into a home store, a paint line, a wallpaper line, and most recently a self-published book. Susan's move into design happened by chance. She started college aiming to become a stockbroker, then fell in love with the field while sitting in on her mother's renovation meetings with an architect and designer. She switched paths and never looked back. The paint and wallpaper lines both grew out of the same problem: she could never find the exact color or pattern she needed, so she started making her own. She encourages designers to support smaller, designer-led product lines because they offer flexibility larger brands can't, including custom colors and scaling. Her new book, Bridget Berry Color Rules, expanded from a blog into 70 rules on color theory, inspiration, and practical application, aimed at homeowners but also useful as a refresher for designers. She self-published to control pricing and margin, printing through a manufacturer in China. Susan and Laurie talk through AI's limits in design work, agreeing that AI struggles with scale and can't replace the judgment and delivery work designers provide. Susan walks through her client process, including a New York condo project for repeat clients whose usual traditional style doesn't match their new space. Asked about her biggest business mistake, Susan points to overstaffing early in her career and the payroll and tax burden that came with it. She's since scaled her design team down to three people. Her pricing has evolved from purely hourly to a mix of hourly site visit billing and flat project fees with built-in time limits, since client indecision, not design work, tends to drive delays. The episode wraps with a quick round on Susan's personal preferences and a look at what's next, including a new fabric line and a booth at High Point featuring the book, wallpaper, and new lampshade designs.

    To-The-Trade S3E22 Susan Jamieson from Bridget Beari Designs, a Paint Line, and a Color Rules Book

  2. Jul 13

    To-The-Trade S3E21 The Real Cost of Not Knowing Your Numbers as a Designer with Tara Kelley

    Laurie Laizure and Nile Johnson talk with Tara Kelley, founder of TJK Bookkeeping and a longtime friend of Laurie's, about one of the biggest struggles in the design industry: financial clarity. Tara built her career in corporate finance before starting her own firm, where she now works with several interior design clients. The conversation covers why most designers never feel like they have a firm handle on their numbers, especially without dedicated support. Tara explains the value of working with a bookkeeper who specializes in design, since industry-specific knowledge helps her spot red flags, benchmark margins, and guide better decisions around marketing and staffing. The group discusses the monthly P&L as Tara's go-to report, and why so many designers don't know what a P&L even is, largely because design software doesn't present financials in a useful way. They talk through profitability by product category, using appliances (low margin) versus cabinetry, tile, and upholstery (higher margin) as examples, and make the case for breaking revenue into visual, granular buckets so designers can see where their profit really comes from. Tara shares that nearly all of her recurring clients came to her with messy books, and most engagements start with a cleanup project. Nile highlights how important that honesty is, since fear of judgment keeps many designers from getting help in the first place. Tara reassures listeners that she never judges, she just gets things cleaned up. The episode also touches on bigger financial decisions, like investing in show houses, marketing events, and trade shows like High Point Market, and how these decisions often carry an emotional weight that can cloud good business judgment. Tara closes with two pieces of advice for designers at any stage: keep personal and business finances completely separate, and reconcile accounts every month to catch errors before they compound. The conversation ends with a discussion of pricing models (hourly, flat fee, and project-based) and how each affects a designer's ability to track and protect their profit.

    To-The-Trade S3E21 The Real Cost of Not Knowing Your Numbers as a Designer with Tara Kelley

  3. Jul 6

    To-The-Trade S3E20 Morgan Finley on Video, Authenticity, and Getting Clients to Trust You

    Laurie Laizure talks with Morgan Finley of Morgan and Hatch Design about the reel series that put Morgan on Laurie's radar, "Who's Gonna Clean That," and what it revealed about why designers should show more of the real, unfiltered version of their work. Morgan explains how a single viral video, a fluted marble hood nobody wants to clean, drove roughly 3,000 new followers and kept compounding as shares and saves pushed it through the algorithm. Laurie adds a tip: repost a viral video again after about ten days, since it typically performs just as well. The two dig into the industry's core communication problem. Laurie cites a recent poll where 95 percent of designers said the public doesn't understand their value, and both agree that's the industry's job to fix. Laurie's definition of the work: designers make the plan, then hold everyone, including the client, to it, catching problems like a crooked tile or a beautiful but impossible-to-clean finish before they become regrets. Morgan shares her own shift from an aspirational content persona to a relatable one, and how showing her real, builder-grade home, instead of hiding it, made her content connect. They talk through simple production tools (background eliminators, CapCut, clean sound) and Morgan's advice to always include a "why me" statement so viewers know what makes a designer worth following. Money comes up often. Post-pandemic pricing shifts, tariffs, and supply chain issues have changed costs significantly, and both agree a big part of the job is walking clients through what things actually cost. Morgan notes that budget size doesn't predict a good client relationship. What matters is whether the client values the designer's judgment. They also discuss why designers rarely support each other publicly compared to fields like photography, and agree the real competition is homeowners who never learn a better option exists, not other designers. Morgan describes cross-promoting with contractors and subcontractors, and Laurie shares ideas for local, client-relevant content that also builds goodwill with nearby businesses. They swap examples of practical, budget-conscious fixes, such as updating cabinet hardware instead of replacing custom cabinets and honing stone countertops instead of tearing them out, to show that good design advice is often about smart choices, not expensive ones Laurie closes with a simple starting point: a clear bio with contact information, plus three pinned videos, an introduction, a company overview, and a project showcase, and mentions Interior Design Community's upcoming content challenge with free scripts and images for designers ready to start posting.

    To-The-Trade S3E20 Morgan Finley on Video, Authenticity, and Getting Clients to Trust You

  4. Jun 29

    To-The-Trade S3E19 Architect to GC: Building Houses That Actually Last with Chris Laumer-Giddens

    Chris Laumer-Giddens joins Laurie Laizure to talk about building science, the study of why homes fail and how to build them so they last for generations instead of twenty years. Chris works with his wife, Jody, who has owned LG Squared since 2006; he joined in 2012 after specializing in indoor air quality, rot, mold, and thermal failures. LG Squared handles architecture, interiors, and mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and structural design under one roof. His clearest rule: "Foam is a four-letter word." The firm avoids spray foam and other toxic, plastic-based materials entirely, building instead with natural materials and traditional joinery. Chris has seen a client collapse from spray-foam fumes on-site and has replaced mechanical systems damaged by off-gassing. His real point is that improper installation, not any single material, is what causes most building failures. Much of the problem, he says, comes from builders and architects who simply do not know what they do not know, often working from bad information that circulates as trade wisdom. He encourages designers and architects to ask questions without embarrassment, the same way architecture licensing exams teach you to find answers rather than memorize them. That gap led Chris to get his GC license, and he eventually built about half a dozen homes, including a five-million-dollar off-grid homestead. He now often works as an owner's agent, vetting builders and catching costly mistakes before clients buy or build. Pricing gets concrete. LG Squared's billable rate runs $350 to $500 an hour, padded roughly 30 percent for follow-up time, and wealthier clients tend to prefer a fixed lump sum over hourly billing. The firm now charges $2,500 for an initial two-hour site visit, down from offering it free, after giving away too many high-value ideas. Chris also shares a sobering legal story. A $7,000 liability cap meant nothing when a lawsuit landed on LG Squared, and the firm ended up roughly $200,000 out of pocket because the builder did not defend them as promised. He and Jody have weathered two lawsuits and real PTSD from the experience. The two also discuss running a firm together as spouses, working through early ego friction, and how Chris's YouTube content, which Jody avoids, became the firm's biggest source of trust-based, design-build clients. The episode closes with a tour of the couple's new apartment in a chateau in southwest France.

    To-The-Trade S3E19 Architect to GC: Building Houses That Actually Last with Chris Laumer-Giddens

  5. Jun 22

    To-The-Trade S3E18 Jameelah Watkins-Mallett Says It's Time Designers Talked Real Numbers

    Jameelah Watkins-Mallett, founder of Lauren Wesley Designs and creator of the CASE Collective conference, talks with Laurie Laizure and Nile Johnson about trust between designers, real talk about money, and the path that took her from doing hair at twelve years old to running a thriving design and events business. The conversation opens with a candid look at why designers hide their best work online, often out of fear of judgment from other designers rather than clients. That leads into a story about a breach of trust within a private community, where a comment in a group chat made its way back to a client. Jameelah and Laurie compare notes on the ground rules that keep community spaces safe, including zero tolerance for fraud and strict confidentiality. Jameelah shares her career story: years in bridal hair and events with business partner Ebony, the referral that became her first interior project, a feature on Martha Stewart's blog, and the pandemic pivot that pushed her fully into interiors. Her first full year in business brought seven projects, almost entirely through word of mouth. She also describes the early luck of working with a contractor who ran his job site like clockwork, a level of professionalism she later realized was rare in the industry. A large portion of the episode covers the CASE Collective conference, which Jameelah built to address underrepresentation in design. She talks through adjusting her messaging after learning some designers felt excluded by a conference designed to be inclusive, and the group discusses what it means to build community spaces around shared experience, whether that experience is rooted in race, geography, or access. The conversation also touches on how rural and urban designers face very different barriers to finding clients with design budgets. The episode also tackles money directly. Jameelah and Laurie push back against the industry's discomfort with discussing pricing, profit margins, and paying yourself, and Jameelah notes that even a modest conference budget can run close to six figures. She shares a coaching example about helping a designer in a rural market find the right neighborhoods to target. The group wraps with a discussion of content creation, weighing direct, education-first social content against rage-bait trends that can alienate potential clients, followed by a lightning round and details on the CASE Conference, happening October 1 through 3 in Atlanta.

    To-The-Trade S3E18 Jameelah Watkins-Mallett Says It's Time Designers Talked Real Numbers

  6. Jun 15

    To-The-Trade S3E17 Stop Selling Me: Sharon Sherman on What Designers Want from Brands and Showrooms

    Sharon Sherman of Thyme and Place Design has 40-plus years of experience across interior design and kitchen and bath, and that dual perspective gives her an unusually clear view of what's broken among designers, showrooms, and brands, and what actually works. The episode digs into a gap that's been widening since COVID. Clients are changing. Showrooms are closing. Brands that want the designer market often don't understand what that market actually needs. Sharon is direct: brands spend heavily on events and PR that completely miss designers, then blame the design community for being unsupportive. What designers want, she says, is to be welcomed and inspired, not sold to. They want solutions that improve projects and make businesses more profitable. She illustrates the dysfunction with a personal story. She visited a company's showroom repeatedly over several years before placing her first $45,000 order. Her rep never once reached out. The rep finally appeared after multiple large orders had already been placed. The showroom had benefited from her loyalty. The brand had no relationship with her at all. Her own approach is intentional. About 25 accounts across furniture, flooring, wall covering, and accessories, not a hundred. Deep relationships that go both ways: her showroom contacts know her well enough to advise her clients in her absence, and to tell her when a material won't work before she specifies it. She credits those relationships with saving her from costly mistakes, from wrong seaming placement on countertops to finding the right specialized installer for a gym floor. The "dinner plate" analogy she offers is one of the episode's most practical frameworks. Large vendors for core products, local showrooms for regional sourcing, and one or two specialty partners for the pieces that matter most. Managing that mix on purpose, rather than by default, is a business decision. On direct purchasing, her view is nuanced. Better margins are real, but only if the infrastructure supports it: receiving relationships, purchase volume that makes the brand care, and the capacity to absorb what goes wrong. For many solo designers, the showroom relationship is the more profitable choice once all the hidden costs are factored in. She closes with a prediction: the industry is dividing into conveyor belt design and what she calls painterly design. One fills spaces efficiently. The other curates them intentionally. The right clients, the right vendors, and the right relationships will determine which side of that divide each designer ends up on.

    To-The-Trade S3E17 Stop Selling Me: Sharon Sherman on What Designers Want from Brands and Showrooms

  7. Jun 8

    To-The-Trade S3E16 Beyond the Showroom: What Brands Really Want from Designers, with Jenny York

    Jenny York, VP of Marketing at Currey & Company, joins Laurie for a conversation about what it actually takes to build a brand that designers want to work with. Currey is approaching its 40th anniversary as a second-generation family-owned business, now led by founder Robert and Suzy Currey's son Brownlee. That independence shapes everything, including creative risk-taking, the decision to hold real inventory, and the culture of high-touch relationship-building that makes their showrooms feel like a reunion every market week. Jenny brings nearly 30 years of experience in the home furnishings industry to her role, including 20 years in editorial, covering trade shows, market centers, and the rise of designers as a major distribution channel. That history gives her a different lens. She saw firsthand which companies made the shift to being designer-friendly and which didn't, and she watched Currey become an early adopter of that change. Some of the most practical takeaways in the conversation: being genuinely designer-friendly means restructuring your warehouse, customer service, and sales team, not just hanging a welcome sign. It means valuing the small orders, not just tolerating them. And it means being honest that some people on your team won't make that cultural shift, and being willing to act on that. What makes a designer stand out to a brand like Currey? Coming to market in person always matters. But the tip Laurie and Jenny return to is simpler: photograph your finished project, own your copyright, and share those images directly with the manufacturers who made it. Currey can't shoot thousands of products in real homes. When a designer shares installation images and does so freely, that's genuine brand partnership, and it tends to pay off in relationships that hold up when things go wrong. On the industry at large: Jenny sees a real shift toward quality and away from fast furniture, AI has a place in analytics and projections but not in Currey's creative voice, and the consolidation of trade shows means every in-person interaction counts more than it used to. Currey is expanding carefully into adjacent product categories, most recently cordless lighting and bath vanities, with a new addition coming this fall. They'll be in Atlanta, Dallas, and Las Vegas this summer.

    To-The-Trade S3E16 Beyond the Showroom: What Brands Really Want from Designers, with Jenny York

  8. Jun 1

    To-The-Trade S3E15 Renovation Decision: Architecture, Process, and Market Trends with Kimberly Kerl

    Kimberly Kerl is an architect and designer based in South Carolina with thirty years of experience, and her episode with Laurie and Nile covers a lot of ground: client process, billing, trends, and an honest read on where the market is right now.   She starts with video. Kimberly has been documenting a live renovation at her own home, posting unscripted walk-throughs from the job site multiple times a week. Her audience is hooked. The value, she says, is in closing the knowledge gap. Clients have no idea what a pocket door actually involves until they see the framing and the electrical relocation happen in real time. Video makes that visible and, eventually, makes billing conversations easier.   Her intake process is tight. Every inquiry gets a free 15-minute discovery call, followed by a paid on-site consultation ($375 to $600) where she requires both decision-makers to be present. She's evaluating communication styles, priorities, and who the real decision-maker is, all before she writes a single word of a proposal. The proposal arrives within one to two days, ties directly to her contract, and breaks the project into four phases with clear fees attached to each. She doesn't collect a retainer and has never been burned doing it that way.   A recurring theme in her work is the renovate vs. move question. Clients come to her undecided, and with today's interest rates, the math often favors staying put. She helps them work through it, and most do continue forward. Multi-generational living is also driving more projects, with adult children back home and aging parents needing accommodation. Kimberly designs proactively for privacy, acoustics, and flexibility even when clients aren't thinking about it yet.   On trends, outdoor living is fully mature in South Carolina. She's installing dishwashers, ice makers, retractable screens, and layered lighting in spaces that function year-round. Health and wellness is the next wave, with saunas showing up at every trade show and home gyms becoming genuinely well-designed spaces. Smart home tech is valuable when it works quietly in the background, and a good integrator makes all the difference.   The market has slowed. Inquiries are down, contractors are calling her rather than the other way around, and clients are cautious. Kimberly sees it as a market correction after an unusually long run, not a reason to panic. It's cyclical, and it always has been.

    To-The-Trade S3E15 Renovation Decision: Architecture, Process, and Market Trends with Kimberly Kerl
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Ratings & Reviews

4.6
out of 5
8 Ratings

About

Introducing "To-The-Trade," the ultimate podcast for interior designers. Our mission: to provide business and productivity hacks for better work/life balance. Join industry leaders and experts as we explore trends, strategies, and practical advice. Elevate your design business, manage clients, build your brand, and stay ahead with technology. Achieve success and fulfillment in your career. Listen to "To-The-Trade" now!

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