Profit Is A Choice Michele Williams | Business Coach | Podcaster |Speaker

196: Creating and Documenting the Procedures in your Design Firm WITH Owen McGab Enaohwo
 
With me on the podcast today is Owen McNab Enaohwo. Owen is the CEO and Co-founder of SweetProcess, an easy-to-use software that enables company executives and their employees to collaborate together to quickly document and/or improve their standard operating procedures, processes, and policies. We will dig in to where to start, how to monitor and improve processes and how to engage your team in the collaboration.
 
 Topics Mentioned: Recurring tasks
Continuous improvement
Minimum viable procedure
Collaborative approach
Key Thoughts: Because we're at home, I think companies are even more open to the idea to outsource and to work collaboratively. Or even if you're not outsourcing, we're not necessarily beside each other anymore in the same way. So, we have to find some way to get that information. Michele (8:17) 
 
People think that you have to have all the instructions and everything. I'll say, get rid of that thought, because the most important thing is to have the mindset that it is going to be a continuous improvement thing. You're going to collaborate with your employees, or your staff, or your contractors who are working with you to build this. Owen McGab Enaohwo (11:06) 
 
I have documented the minimum viable procedure or version 1.0 of this task. Now let’s go ahead and collaborate to fill out the details. With software like Sweet Process, we enable that collaboration back and forth. What happens is you can have your employees passively go into the software and start adding to the process. Owen McGab Enaohwo (12:34) 
 
If we think about it, in all of our businesses that do design, what is the minimum design that we need to do to meet the need of the client? Everything else is a layering process. Michele (17:19) 
 
Whomever you hand that process off to, will become the owner of that work, and hopefully, improve that process and change that process, which means that the process that I handed off might not be the process I get back in two or three years, it's going to be much improved. But I am trying to reduce my brain space so that I can work on something else. Michele (21:36) 
 
Contact Michele: Email: Team@ScarletThreadConsulting.com
Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting
Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL
Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com
LinkedIn: Michele Williams
Contact Owen: Email: owen@sweetprocess.com
Website: sweetprocess.com
LinkedIn: Owen McGab Enaohwo
Resources and References: Work with Me
The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss
5 Barriers to Scaling Your Interior Design Business Ep 105 with Michele Williams
52 Standard Operating Procedure Templates

195: Looking for Inspiration for Your Creative Business with Michele Williams Today, we are going to just put it on the table. Burnout, frustration, lack of inspiration, need of support. Do these words and phrases resonate at all? If so, hang around as each of these elements are discussed on the podcast today.
Topics Mentioned:  Inspiration
Excitement
Color
Joy
Key Thoughts: We all go through times of feeling like we are working in and with the mundane. But often joy and inspiration can come in the smallest and quietest of moments. Michele (3:00) 
 
What if we could be inspired by a single flower? What if we could be inspired to use a prior used item in a different way? What if we tried a new color palette? What if we found a way to make use of more with less? Michele (4:34) 
 
What matters is our attitude and mind. Michele (5:14) 
 
Inspiration is all around us. It is in a baby’s smile or giggle, sunrise, sunset, flowers blooming, rocks forming, water running. It is in our child’s art project, in best friends chatting on the back porch. It is in a soccer game or a movie. We just need to be open to looking for it and not expecting it to show up like it always has. Michele (9:47) 
 
 
Contact Michele: Email: Team@ScarletThreadConsulting.com
Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting
Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL
Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com
LinkedIn: Michele Williams
 
References and Resources: Work With Me

193: Leveraging Your Network to Build Your Design Firm WITH Pamela Durkin
 
Joining me today is Pamela Durkin. Pamela has spent over 30 years in the high-end design business serving both residential and commercial clients. She continues to practice design and also teaches other designers how to be magnetic and attract the best clients through her In Demand Designer Program. We are talking today about networking, ideal clients, and how to make an impression from the beginning.
 
 Topics Mentioned: Process building
Magnetic Marketing
Profitability
Networking
Key Thoughts: After having my first child went back to work for about a year. And to be honest with you, it was heart-wrenching and exhausting, and unfulfilling to the 100th degree. And that's that was the moment that I decided, you know, something here's got to change, and I've got to go out on my own. Pamela Durkin (8:26) 
 
It's super important for us to realize to really find the part of our career that makes our hearts sing. Michele (9:33) 
 
The goal here is for each person to understand how they're made, what their strengths are their values, what they love to do, what they enjoy doing, what their team is specialized in, and then be able to take that and serve their clients, which then ultimately serves them. Michele (11:49) 
 
I want to continue on my own and ultimately decided to just go ahead and stay on my own and really started to get involved with organizations in the area. Pamela Durkin (23:27) 
 
What I love is that you're showing the clients, how they're going to be treated before they're hired before they hire you. And that's a hard thing to do. Pamela Durkin (39:42) 
 
Time is definitely a currency. And it's not one that we get back. We do get our money back, but we don't get our time back. Michele (49:34) 
 
Contact Michele: Email: Team@ScarletThreadConsulting.com
Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting
Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL
Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com
LinkedIn: Michele Williams
Contact Pamela: Email: pam@pamela-durkin.com
Website: www.pamela-durkin.com
Instagram: @pameladurkin
Facebook: Pamela Durkin Designs
Resources and References: Work with Me
The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks
Elevate by Pamela Durkin

192: Cultivating Leadership in Your Design Firm with Michele Williams Today we are going to talk about leadership. As many of us are growing our teams, we should consider how our role, and perhaps that of some of our team, is shifting into more of a leadership focus and not simply executing details.
Topics Mentioned:  Leadership
Influence
Intention
Key Thoughts: We all have the ability to influence someone–but what makes great leadership great is the ability to influence others for good. Michele (2:41) 
 
Imagine if we all considered who we are influencing daily. We are leading based on our character, our abilities or competence, our actions, and our connections–who we know and what we know. Michele (3:44) 
 
As leaders, our teammates need to believe in us, next the goal is for them to believe in the goals we are trying to accomplish. They must know that we will do our best to lead them well. Michele (5:44) 
 
Creating the vision is great–but holding to it and seeing it come to fruition is key. Moving forward with intention towards the larger goal and influencing your team to come with you–even when they cannot see what you see–but their trust is in YOUR ability to see. Michele (10:12) 
 
Contact Michele: Email: Team@ScarletThreadConsulting.com
Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting
Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL
Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com
LinkedIn: Michele Williams
 
References and Resources: Work With Me
The Go-Giver by Bob Burg and John David Mann
The Go-Giver Leader by Bob Burg and John David Mann
Developing the Leader within You by John C. Maxwell
How Successful People Lead by John C. Maxwell

191: Seeing What is Possible in Your Design Business WITH Katie Menon
 
Joining me today is Katie Menon of Stephenson House in Edmonton, Canada. Katie has had impressive growth and has been willing to take some risks to do things, perhaps, before their time. Listen in as she shares her business trajectory.
 
 Topics Mentioned: Risk
Growth
Team
Business Journey
Key Thoughts: It's more common nowadays that people are coming to career paths in multiple ways. Starting a business later in life or not following in your family footsteps and inheriting a family business but starting your own instead. Katie Menon (6:49) 
 
What's also interesting is the idea of triage, which is what happens in the ER, you're looking at all these things happening at one time; what's most important now? What's the next right thing to do? How do you keep calm when everything around you is going out ahead? There are so many lessons to learn. When you walk into a job site or a construction site where things are happening, and lots is going on, and you've got to immediately take all that information and parse it out and kind of form a plan of action or calm down somebody on the other side. Michele (9:23) 
 
I think the concept of going into another winter, as the fall was, approaching was still so much uncertainty around COVID. People not being able to get away to Hawaii or Mexico or Florida. They were saying, let's go, this is the perfect opportunity to, not stare at that living room wall any longer. Katie Menon (20:23) 
 
There's something really exciting about bringing on team members. But there's also something really weighty about bringing on team members. Michele (25:10) 
 
Once you catch sight of what's possible, wow, that's where the dreaming really starts to happen. Michele (31:25)
Contact Michele: Email: Team@ScarletThreadConsulting.com
Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting
Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL
Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com
LinkedIn: Michele Williams
Contact Katie: Email: katie@stephensonhouse.co
Website: www.stephensonhouse.co
Instagram: @stephenson.house
Resources and References: Work with Me
How to Build a Design Business that Fits Your Strengths - Ep 184 with Carol Lang

190: 5 Website Essentials for Interior Designers WITH Katie O’Brien
 
On the podcast today is Katie O’Brien. Katie is a brand and website designer for the interior design industry. We are going to talk about the 5 website essentials that are needed, how to tell if you have outgrown your website, and the most common portfolio mistakes that people make. Enjoy!
 
 Topics Mentioned: Strategy 
Flow 
Ease 
Photography 
Key Thoughts: I love Katie, how you created the life that you want. The life you and your husband talked about creating, and then built your business around that life. Michele (6:32) 
 
I had a mindset problem in the beginning because I thought, who would pay me and when I looked up website designers and developers their businesses had beautiful websites. I had that imposter syndrome thinking that could never be me; I could never have that business. Katie O’Brien (10:52) 
 
Finally, during a call with my coach I made the decision. I'm going to rebrand, I'm going to change all my copy, all my marketing, and I'm not going to take any new clients. I'm going to focus on interior design websites and projects only. Katie O’Brien (14:09) 
 
One of my favorites to see on a website is what design problem did you solve. Michele (37:23)
Contact Michele: Email: Team@ScarletThreadConsulting.com
Facebook: Scarlet Thread Consulting
Instagram: @ScarletThreadATL
Website: ScarletThreadConsulting.com
LinkedIn: Michele Williams
Contact Katie: Email: ko@katieobrien.com
Website: katieobrien.com
Instagram: @katieobrienwebdesign
Facebook: Katie O'Brien Web Design
Pinterest: Katie O’Brien Web Design
Resources and References: Work with Me