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.
BONUS: Profit First Success Stories with Tracie Bresnahan
Tracie holds a Bachelor’s degree in Apparel Engineering and a Master’s degree in Quality Assurance Technology from Southern Polytechnic State University. She worked in the apparel and the consumer products industries for 12 years. Tracie opened Custom Creations in 1996, fabricating custom window treatments and accessories .
Tracie will share her journey to good money management using Profit First and the Master Your Profit course.
033: Sober is the New Black
Natalie Reddell, also known as the ‘COMMANDER in CHIC®’, is a Richmond, Virginia based interior designer who has earned a reputation for her passionate approach to creating elegant interiors that feature layered styles, textures, colors and patterns. Specializing in luxury residential interiors, Reddell translates her love of travel, fashion and art into vibrant, tailored spaces that reflect the personalities of the people that reside in them. Over the past eighteen years Reddell has designed homes nationally and internationally, including modern beachfront properties, classic mountain retreats, updated-traditional farm estates, eclectic city apartments and warm, inviting family-friendly homes. Reddell’s strength lies in her ability to pair classic style with custom details and functionality tailored to each client.
032: Taking Responsibility Makes You Profitable
Susan Woodcock owns Home Dec Gal, a how-to sewing resource and custom workroom in Western North Carolina, and is a Bluprint (formerly Craftsy) instructor and international speaker. Susan’s publishing credits include Singer® Sewing Custom Curtains, Shades and Top Treatments. Together with her husband, Rodger Walker, Susan co-produces the Custom Workroom Conference, an annual educational event and trade show. In 2017, Susan and Rodger founded Custom Workroom Technical Center or “Workroom Tech”, a hands-on training facility dedicated to the workroom industry. She credits her mother with teaching her to sew and inspiring her career of creativity.
BONUS: Profit First Success Stories with Annette Faber
Annette Faber is the owner of Kaylees Creations in Greenville, SC. She is a to-the-trade workroom focused on high end fabrication and dress maker details. Annette strives to add value to her design teams by working hard, being trustworthy, collaborating and living the core values of her business - integrity, transparency, excellence, dependability, and leaving a positive fingerprint on each person she interacts with.
Annette shares with us her financial journey before, during and after the implementation of Profit First.
030: Blogs Are Still Relevant
Jaquilyn Edwards is a writer, artist and the founder of Ochre & Beige, the blogging studio responsible for ghostwriting 150+ blog posts and several websites in the interior design industry last year.
031: Art is for Everyone
Michele Seekings is the owner of SPIRE Art Services in Charleston, South Carolina. After 26 years in the medical/pharmaceutical industry, Michele founded SPIRE to pursue her passion for art. Michele is an avid art collector and supporter of local art initiatives including curating INTRO, an annual pop-up show featuring the area’s top 10 emerging artists. She actively serves on the Board of Directors for the Gibbes Museum of Art as the Chair of the Visiting Artist Program. Michele is also involved with local organizations such as Historic Charleston Foundation, the Preservation Society, and Spoleto USA.
029: Branding to Create Your Narrative
Nicole Heymer is the founder of Curio Electro, a boutique creative agency specializing in intuitive branding, compelling design and actionable strategy. Since 2011, Curio Electro has worked with a wide variety of clients at every stage in their development, from nationally known interior design firms to local craft breweries.
028: Niche Accounting For Trusted Advisement
Peter Lang, CPA, is an accountant who specializes in the unique accounting challenges faced by artistic professionals. Designers and other artistic professionals may find that ordinary CPAs are simply unequipped for their needs, but with 16 years of tax and accounting experience under his belt, Peter is a proven expert in helping interior designers do their taxes and all the other financial duties that art school didn’t teach them.
027: Referrals Without Asking For A Full Pipeline
Stacey Brown Randall is a member of the business failure club, a contrarian on how to generate referrals and a supporter of the entrepreneurial dream. Through her programs, she provides a roadmap to take control of your business.
026: Faster Than Normal Can Be a Gift
The New York Times has called Peter Shankman "a rockstar who knows everything about social media and then some." He is a 5x best selling author, entrepreneur and corporate keynote speaker, focusing on customer service and the new and emerging customer economy. He is recognized worldwide for radically new ways of thinking about the customer experience, social media, PR, marketing, advertising, and ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.)
025: Biz-Ability Just Do It
Rachel Moriarty is a leading home style expert, best-selling author, speaker, brand ambassador, product designer and cohost of the popular Design+Style podcast. Recently, named one of "2018 Most Influential People" in Real Estate Staging, Rachel is also an award-winning designer with more than 13 years of experience redesigning the houses, vacation and investment homes of successful professionals in and around San Diego County and nationwide via her online services. Her work both as a designer and stylist has been published in home furnishing catalogs and industry and shelter magazines. A treasure huntress since the age of 12, her specialty is elevating spaces by incorporating her client’s family heirlooms and is known for her use of playful patterns, bold strokes of color and serious style. Rachel's current projects include a new tile line with Elegant Mosaics, the design and launch of The Design Network’s new eDesign platform, a new podcast called 'Visibility with Rachel' and the renovation of three homes for a new HGTV series focused on short term rentals scheduled to launch in early 2019.
024: Learning the Craft of Upholstery
Cynthia Bleskachek has been doing upholstery professionally since 2001 – before that, she grew up making buttons and pulling staples in her mom’s home upholstery shop. Her journey has cultivated a deep love, and appreciation for the character, and quality of older furniture – in a market overwhelmed by disposable options, re-upholstery provides a viable alternative.
The Funky Little Chair began as a Facebook blog of sorts, providing bits of education from whatever project was on the “horses” in the upholstery shop. In 2016, Cynthia opened The Funky Little Chair in order to focus on hands-on education for hobbyists and aspiring professionals.
On our podcast today we are really discussing the upholstery industry, the struggles they face, the future of the craft, and what can be done to keep this industry viable in our current economy.
023: Success with Systems to Alleviate Stress
Matt Malouf is a passionate business coach, entrepreneur, speaker, author, and podcast host on a mission to help entrepreneurs around the world break the shackles of mediocrity and reach new levels of personal and business success. On the podcast today we focus on the mindsets that keep us stuck and unable to delegate and work in our zone of genius. Matt has lots to share on this topic and it is so important for us to consider as we are business building.
022: Diving into the Deep End of Business
Lindsey Cheek is the owner, principal designer, and creative director for Gathered Group located in Wilmington, North Carolina. Lindsey’s work has been featured in Southern Living, HGTV magazine, Martha Stewart Magazine, The Huffington Post and many more. Lindsey shares with us how her business took off quickly after using photos of her personal home renovation and how this meant diving into the deep end of business quickly!
021: Possibility Understood
Diane Preston, Owner of Diane’s Interior Creations, has over 23 years of experience creating custom window treatments and soft home furnishings. She values customer service and educating her designers to be successful in the workroom and with their clients. Preston lives in Murfreesboro, Tennessee and enjoys having her son and daughter in the business with her. Diane shares with us the possibilities for success in a workroom that she did not know were even reasonable when she started.
Bonus: Setting Goals that Matter
Jennifer is joining us again on the podcast to talk about goal setting. As the creator of The Best Planner Ever, Jennifer specializes in productivity, strategy and mindset surrounding goals and planning and moving business forward. Enjoy this freeing conversation and then go set some goals!
020: Year in Review with a Look Forward
Ceil DiGuglielmo of The Sew Much More Podcast and I join forces (and podcasts) to review our year, share our strategies, look forward, and create space to understand our businesses in a new light. Listen in and maybe create your own action plan for review and forward dreaming and planning.
019: Sourcing and Procuring with Efficiency
Heather Gillette is the Founder and CEO of Designer Inc. and has over 25+ years in online start ups. Heather previously worked at YouTube as the Founder and Head of Content Review, Copyright Enforcement, Abuse & User Support Teams as well as localized YouTube operations in 13 countries. A fun fact about Heather is if you Google ‘Heather Gillette YouTube’ you can find interesting case studies and articles about the work she did at YouTube. Her expertise is in building teams, automation and scale, localization and leveraging user community. She loves solving the impossible challenges and we learn in this episode what happened when she turned her attention to the interior design industry.
018: Sustainable Design Through Connectedness
Renee Carman is the owner of Mandeville Canyon Designs. Their philosophy is to design in balance with nature. They carefully weave a refreshing collection of color into the five earth elements further reinforcing their unique style by using renewable resources and tapping into the wealth of local artistry. Since 2004 Renee and her team have specialized in interior and exterior design with a special emphasis on Biophilic design. The company also has a strong social conscience and looks for opportunities to volunteer in the local community and beyond.
017: Accidental Business that Became Intentional
Ann K. Johnson is the owner of Sew Easy Windows specializing in decorative soft goods such as panels and draperies, cushions and pillows, tablecloths and napkins and much more. Ann is also a speaker, author and instructor known for creating ways to be efficient in the workroom. She is the author of a two volume book series, The Professional Workroom Handbook of Swags. Listen in as she shares how her business accidentally started but how she moved towards intentionality to keep it going.