The Profit is a Choice Podcast

Part of the Design Podcast Network

Owning every choice in your business is not for the faint of heart. Each Monday, join Michele Williams, strategic profitability coach for the interior design industry as she interviews guests who are taking control of their business one decision at a time to increase their profits. If you are an entrepreneur who wants to make money while working in your passion, this is the podcast for you.

Leadership Michele Williams Leadership Michele Williams

244: Get Uncomfortable by Choice in Your Design Firm

Joining me on the podcast today are Joann Kandrac and Kelly Kole of Kandrac & Kole Interior Designs based here in the Atlanta area. Kelly and Joann have been together for about 18 years, and they do something every year that has just really been inspiring to me. They go on a mission trip to Guatemala to help others in need. On the podcast today, Kelly and Joann are going to share about the process of how they came together as business owners, how they implemented and embraced this mission trip, and how they look forward to it every year. There is truly profit in giving to others and you're going to experience that on the podcast today. 

Read More
Leadership Michele Williams Leadership Michele Williams

242: Dressing With Confidence in Your Business 

Joining me on the podcast today is Angela Foster. She is a style coach who is going to help us focus on how to be confident in what we're wearing no matter where we're going, and no matter what our sizes. We can all dress to accentuate our best features. Listen in and learn how.

Read More
Leadership Michele Williams Leadership Michele Williams

241: Creating Space for Your Business to Grow

Joining me today is Rasheeda Gray of Gray Space Interiors. Rasheeda started her business 7 years ago as part-time and then evolved into full-time business ownership. In this episode we will discuss the journey to growing a business and leading a team. Rasheeda shares her lessons learned, and you don’t want to miss them

Read More
Leadership Michele Williams Leadership Michele Williams

238: Diversifying Your Business

With us today is Anastasia Harrison of AHD&CO as well as with AHD Trade. Anastasia is a licensed architect and an interior designer with a primary location in New Jersey. Her business has grown and changed since she first started and we're going to be talking about how it has diversified with a trade-only showroom. Join us and listen in. I hope there are some great takeaways for you. 

Read More
Leadership Michele Williams Leadership Michele Williams

222: Quiet Quitting in the Workplace

Have you heard of quiet quitting? Maybe you have seen or felt it in your business or when speaking with a colleague. Quiet quitting is defined as an emotional quitting instead of physically doing so. On the podcast today we are exploring quiet quitting. What it is, how it occurs, how to spot it and hopefully stop it before it escalates. 

Read More
Leadership Michele Williams Leadership Michele Williams

198: Rest, Recharge and Reset You and Your Business

Let’s talk more about burnout. Last month we looked at being burned out and looking for inspiration in different ways. But this month, I want to talk about being exhausted – in all the ways: mentally, physically, emotionally and even spiritually. And – what we can do about it. Enjoy the podcast.

Read More
Leadership Michele Williams Leadership Michele Williams

173: How to Cope When Being the Boss Sucks

Today’s podcast is a request by more than one client of mine. You see, owning a business is not all roses and profits – it means owning the hard and sometimes yukky parts, too. Let’s dig in to learn some coping mechanisms and strategies for dealing with the parts of business that suck.

Read More
Leadership Michele Williams Leadership Michele Williams

170: The Scarlet Thread Origin Story

On the podcast today I’m going to share my origin story. Some of you have reached out to me and asked me to share more and that you want to hear more. And so I thought it would be a great thing to just put my story out there beginning to end. That's what I'm going to do today. I hope that there's something that you can take away from it and that it inspires you.

Read More
Leadership Michele Williams Leadership Michele Williams

151: How to Conduct a Midyear Employee Check Up for Your Design Team

Years ago, employee reviews were done yearly, and they were so very formal that most people entered with some form of fear. Even those who were high performers. Why? Because you never knew how they were going to go – and the sentiment was that the reviews were always done in favor of the company.

Listen in as I break down how to do a mid-year review with each of your team members, why this is important, and how to balance the scales between what the company needs and what the employee needs.

Read More
Leadership Michele Williams Leadership Michele Williams

149: Ways to Make Your Interior Design Business More Fun

The last year and a half have been taxing for businesses, and for business owners. The time we used to take to create a great team culture and to do things together was changed to how do we all do things apart from each other. On today’s podcast, we are going to dig into why it is important to have fun in the workplace and how to do that in a multitude of ways. I hope you can take away a few new ideas for your team to build fun again.

Read More
Leadership Michele Williams Leadership Michele Williams

141: 5 Ways to Attract & Keep Good Interior Design Employees

With me today is Jessica Harling of Behind the Design. Jessica loves to work with organizations to create training and operational systems to inspire their employees, streamline costs and develop a Rockstar culture. On the podcast today we are going to tackle the topic of employee retention. What are the 5 big tips to creating an environment where our employees want to hang around and work for the success of all? Enjoy the podcast.

Read More
Leadership Michele Williams Leadership Michele Williams

133: How to Build the Best Team for Your Interior Design Business

How often do you consider the idea of a team in your business? Perhaps you are a solopreneur and think you work alone. Or maybe you have a huge group of employees and sub-contractors. Either way, and everywhere in between – we work as teams to get things done. On today’s podcast, we will look at the 5 areas to focus on for our teams to be strong.

Read More
Hiring, Leadership Michele Williams Hiring, Leadership Michele Williams

119: Building a Leadership Focus for Your Design Firm

On the podcast today is Kris Plachy of Kris Plachy Coaching. Kris’s focus is to guide leaders through the tricky path of learning to lead a team. We talk about her Five-Step Management System on the podcast as well as many other aspects of leading, coaching, and managing a team. This is such a great topic because many of you are growing your teams and focusing on this aspect of your business. Kris and I think alike on these topics so it was fun to dig in.

Read More
Financial, Leadership, Systems & Strategies, Marketing Michele Williams Financial, Leadership, Systems & Strategies, Marketing Michele Williams

114: Creating Barriers to Entry for Your Design Business

If you have ever read the book, Book Yourself Solid, by Michael Port, you may be familiar with his velvet rope policy. This policy is created to establish boundaries for working with your ideal client. You identify your client and give them access to cross the velvet rope to work with you. In this podcast, we are going to dig into creating barriers and then removing barriers for entry to working with your company.

Read More
Leadership Michele Williams Leadership Michele Williams

100: How to Integrate Faith in your Design Business

On the podcast today are Erika Ward from Erika Ward Interiors, and Veronica Solomon of Casa Vilora Interiors. Both of these women have a very strong faith. They are living it out in their day to day transactions including how they respond to people. They are very transparent with what they believe, and how it drives their lives and their businesses.

I invited them on the podcast to talk about how they integrate faith and business. Whether this is what you believe, or what you don't believe, I want to invite you to listen with an open heart. Then maybe ask yourself, "What do you believe, and how does that fit into how you live your life and run your business?" Again, we can all respect each other, and we can believe different things, but it is interesting to listen and to understand. As I love to say, seek first to understand and then be understood. I hope you find today's podcast different and interesting, but also enlightening. I also hope that it gives you food for thought for your own business. Enjoy the podcast.

Read More
Systems & Strategies, Leadership Michele Williams Systems & Strategies, Leadership Michele Williams

098: How to Stop Worrying About Your Interior Design Business

On the podcast today is Katie Baldwin, the founder of Katie Baldwin Designs out of Lakeville, Connecticut. Katie is an awesome designer who has started shifting her business just a little bit to focus on some of the areas that she really loves, instead of doing what she thought she had to do. She's following her heart, her strengths, and skill set and finding that her joy has been increased. In addition this focus has brought great opportunities for collaborations with other professionals.

I hope that you enjoy listening today. Maybe consider taking a step back and looking at your own life and your own business. Ask yourself where you're doing what you think you have to do, and maybe where you have an opportunity to do what you want to do.

Read More