I arrived home to a box from my publisher. Inside was a bottle of wine and a galley copy–my first–of my branding book Branding + Interior Design. As I’ve said before, this book wasn’t the book I originally started to write but it is the book it was supposed to be. It also represents the culmination of a lot of work, change, growth, and all that I’ve learned in supporting so many clients.

One of the biggest complaints I hear from designers is that they got published and nothing happened. Well, what did you expect to happen? Because the fact of the matter is that the nature of running an interior design business means that you’re going to have to get published, again, and again and again for it to really matter, for it to start to pay off in a way that is meaningful to your bottom line.

When you’re on the hamster wheel, the vacuum is a fast-moving circle of sameness that can only be sustained for so long until something gives. And it probably won’t be you, not anymore, because you’re exhausted.

Decorex International is a trade show for interior design professionals. Events for the 2016 conference include keynote speakers, panels, and exhibitors. The conference will be September 18-21 in Syon Park, London. Designing Brands 2.0 will be held on September 20 at 1pm BST with book signings by Martyn Lawrence Bullard and Kim Kuhteubl immediately to follow.

As women, we are deeply affected by emotional stress and we easily remember the details of emotional events. Our brains are wired for heightened empathy and we can read the emotions of others simply by looking at their faces or interpreting their tone of voice. It’s why you’ll often hear women say, “I don’t like conflict.” Our brains are massively triggered by conflict, violence, brutality because it puts us at odds with our urge to stay connected, be in harmony with, to nurture and so we would rather defuse it. It is not instinctual for us to solve problems that way.

I know. You’re convinced your branding problem is a nuts and bolts aesthetic issue and you just want to zhush your website and get a geek to tweak your SEO. It would be so much faster. So would buying an online ad or paying for advertorial in a magazine, right? (I’ll save my thoughts on those things for another post.) But is it a guarantee that oodles and oodles of clients will start beating a path to your door? For the sake of argument, and your resistance, let’s just say that they do.

Think about it. Snapchat says its users are 13-34 which means ten years from now, the oldest user will be 44, smack in the middle of their highest income earning years. Although depending on what part of the country you live in, you might be a 28-year-old tech mogul with some cash, a new penthouse and not a whole lot of education when it comes to design right now.

When it comes to doing business and doing life, we are schooled from a young age on the importance of other people’s opinions and perceptions. Many of us live in fear of negative feedback and reviews, staying silent in the face of mistruths so that we can avoid confrontation, not look like a bitch, be good, perfect, nice and all of those other things mostly women are taught to do.

It’s official. As some of you already know, my first book Branding + Interior Design will be published by Schiffer Publishing this Fall. It’s been a long road and I’m excited that I will FINALLY get to share this book with you.

We’ve had some big news in the design industry over the last few weeks, starting with High Point and North Carolina’s HB2 bill, which revokes the protection of many in the design community. Leaders like Mitchell Gold of Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams, one of the most prominent furniture makers in the country and leadership […]