A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business Podcast

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business Podcast

In today's world being a talented interior designer isn't enough to ensure that you have a profitable and successful business. Design school curricula doesn't always equip you with the business skills to have your interior design business be everything you imagined it would be! A Well-Designed Business® is here to fill in the gaps and give you real live business skills from some of the top interior designers. Your host, LuAnn Nigara shares her 40 years of success in the interior design industry, and she finds the most successful guests to share their interior design business best practices. This podcast is sponsored by Kravet Inc and Mydoma Studio.

Episodes

1130: Jen Davidson: Running an Interior Design Business, or Just Working at One You Happen to Own?

October 10, 2025 • 62 mins
Today with Jen Davidson Today on A Well Designed Business, Jen Davidson shares the pivotal conversation that transformed her five-year-old interior design firm from successful but struggling to truly thriving. After meeting Jude Charles at a design retreat, Jen realized she'd been "living as an interior designer" instead of "living as a business owner and boss." This insight sparked a year-long transformation that included clarifyi...
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1129: BEST OF SHOW: Katie McFarlan: The Client Experience Starts with Processes

October 7, 2025 • 69 mins
Today with Katie McFarlan: Welcome to a Well-Designed Business. Welcome to a Well-Designed Business. The client experience is something we all think about. How do we elevate the experience for our clients so that they feel like we truly care about them without making ourselves crazy by bending over backwards for each client? The answer just might lie in your processes. Today, I’m joined by Katie McFarlan of Dakota Design Company. ...
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1128: Barclay Butera:The Business Behind the Legacy

October 3, 2025 • 57 mins
Today with Barclay Butera Sometimes on the show we are fortunate enough to speak with true icons of our day. And today, I am excited to chat with one of those designers—the legendary Barclay Butera. Today Barclay is back on the show to talk about the big picture, from the story of his first big break at a celebrity show house, the lessons he learned from scaling his business up to over 100 employees and then consciously scaling it...
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1127: Sponsored Show: Dezign Assist: The Smartest Way to Buy Back Time in Your Interior Design Firm

September 30, 2025 • 61 mins
Today with Reed Humphrey of Dezign Assist Is your team maxed out, or are you stuck doing $10-an-hour tasks when you should be focused on leading your business? In today’s sponsored episode, I’m talking with Reed Humphrey, CEO of Alder & Tweed Interior Design and founder of Dezign Assist, a remote staffing company built specifically for interior designers. Reed created Dezign Assist after solving a bottleneck in his own firm. Whe...
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1126: Nicole Heymer: Rethink SEO for ChatGPT and Google AI

September 26, 2025 • 68 mins
Today with Nicole Heymer Today on A Well Designed Business, Nicole Heymer returns to discuss the massive shift happening in online search that's changing how potential clients find interior designers. We're living through a pivotal moment where traditional Google searches are being replaced by AI-powered recommendations from ChatGPT, Google's AI mode, and other large language models. Nicole explains why your website information is...
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1125: Kimberly Horton: How to Turn Client Frustrations Into Smart Business Moves

September 23, 2025 • 90 mins
Today with Kimberly Horton Welcome! Today we’re talking about how to turn client frustrations into actionable change. Kimberly shares the simple but powerful tool she uses — the Frustration Tracker — to capture issues in real time, identify patterns, and make smart adjustments to her processes. From tightening contracts to setting clearer boundaries, Kimberly shows how documenting frustrations can lead to stronger systems, better...
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1124: BEST OF SHOW: Megan Molten: Another Side Hustle Success Story

September 19, 2025 • 85 mins
Today With Megan Molten: Welcome! Today we are really excited to have Megan Molten on the show with us. Megan reached out to LuAnn in an email a while ago, telling her that she learned everything she knows about the business of interior design from this show, and it’s changed her life. She went on to explain that after twelve years of being in health-care sales and having listened to the podcast every day for the last year, she fi...
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1123: Ali Faulkner: What to Do When a Client Says “No”: Lessons from a Lost Design Proposal

September 16, 2025 • 76 mins
Today with Ali Faulkner Welcome to a Well-Designed Business. We’ve talked before about conducting an autopsy of a project—looking back and figuring out exactly what went right, what went wrong, and where to improve.  But what about conducting an autopsy of projects that you didn’t win? My guest today, Ali Faulkner of AEF Interiors, lost several bids in a row, and decided to make a big change; she reached out to those potential ...
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1122: New Show: Chelsea Viau: Add Pattern (and Profit) to Your World

September 12, 2025 • 58 mins
Today With Chelsea Viau: Today with Chelsea Viau of Chelsea Lane & Company, we’re talking about the numbers behind your wallpaper—and why they matter more than you might think. Chelsea shares what every designer needs to know before sourcing wallcoverings, including the costly mistakes that can derail your budget, timeline, and client trust. We also dig into vendor relationships, client education, and the importance of working wit...
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1121: Best Of Show: Cheryl Luckett: From Side Hustle to Full Time Interior Design

September 9, 2025 • 74 mins
Today With Cheryl Luckett: What does it take to leave behind the security of a corporate job and build a thriving design business? For Cheryl Luckett, principal of Dwell by Cheryl, it took vision, courage, and a commitment to excellence. In this conversation, Cheryl shares how she transitioned from her career as a registered dietitian and HR professional at a Fortune 500 company to becoming one of Charlotte’s most sought-after in...
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1120: Sponsored Show: Ron Henderson & Kevin Plumb: Ciana x Varaluz: Building a Lighting Partnership with Purpose

September 5, 2025 • 68 mins
Today With Ron Henderson & Kevin Plumb: Today on A Well Designed Business, Ron Henderson from Varaluz and Kevin Plumb from Ciana Lighting share the story behind their recent acquisition—and what it means for designers. This isn't your typical corporate takeover. When their planned 30-minute meeting turned into four and a half hours because they instantly felt like "family," you knew something special was happening. We cover the pr...
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1119: What Would Lu Do?: This Is the Difference Between Business Owners Who Wait and Those Who Act

September 2, 2025 • 33 mins
Today With LuAnn Nigara: Right now, the economy feels shaky. Projects are slowing down. And if you're like a lot of business owners, you're wondering: Is it just me? Is something wrong? Should I be doing something—or should I be bracing for impact? In this WWLD episode, LuAnn walks you through what truly separates business owners who ride out uncertainty with strength—and those who quietly slide into chaos. You'll hear: 3 fr...
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1118: Sponsored Show: Jamie Gasparovic: Why I Invested in the Interior Design Standard

August 29, 2025 • 61 mins
Today With Jamie Gasparovic: Welcome to A Well-Designed Business. What comes to mind for you when you think of investing in yourself for the benefit of your business? It’s something we talk about a lot on the show—it’s no secret that I believe every designer, every business owner period, needs to be investing in themselves as soon as possible. But too often, even when business owners do invest in their own growth, it stays behind...
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1117: Best Of Show: Joshua Smith: Sell the Experiences, Not the Commodity

August 26, 2025 • 63 mins
Today With Joshua Smith: Joshua Smith’s journey from interior designer to high-performance coach is one packed with lessons every business owner needs to hear. In this episode, Joshua pulls back the curtain on what it really takes to design a life and business you love—one that’s profitable, sustainable, and in alignment with your values. We talk mindset, boundaries, and the courage to make big changes when your business model is...
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1116: NEW SHOW: Juliana Ewer: How Networking and Volunteerism Can be the Biggest Return on Investment for your Business and Your Heart

August 22, 2025 • 62 mins
Today With Juliana Ewer: Today with Juliana Ewer, president of the Houston IDS chapter and owner of J Squared Home Designs, we explore how strategic volunteerism and intentional networking can become your most powerful business-building tools - without spending a dime on marketing budgets. LuAnn Nigara and Juliana Ewer’s Ah-Ha Moments: "If you're gonna go to something, don't be a tourist, jump in, right? Don't just show up to ...
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1115: Best Of Show: Laurence Carr: Design Your Business Plan

August 19, 2025 • 71 mins
Today With Laurence Carr: Laurence Carr may have launched her interior design business less than two years before we recorded this conversation, but you’d never know it from the way she runs her firm—with vision, clarity, and purpose. In this episode, Laurence shares how she built a strong business foundation from day one, the intentional strategies she uses to keep her pipeline full, and how her commitment to sustainability and h...
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1114: LuAnn Featured: Window Works - A Finer Touch Construction Podcast

August 15, 2025 • 64 mins
Today With Brad Leavitt (A Finer Touch Construction Podcast): Join me for a special re-airing of my conversation with Brad Leavitt on the AFT Construction Podcast! We dive deep into the world of entrepreneurship, sharing insights on building strong relationships, setting expectations, and the importance of systems in business. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or just starting out, this episode is packed with practical advice and a fe...
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1113: NEW SHOW: Jamie Young Jeter: Feel the Fear and Build It Anyway – Growing a Global Design Brand

August 12, 2025 • 65 mins
Today With Jamie Young Jeter: Today with Jamie Young Jeter, founder and president of Jamie Young Company, we dive deep into what it takes to build a creative business that thrives on "strategic creativity." From selling cement pots out of her truck while pregnant to running a multi-million-dollar home furnishings company, Jamie's 28-year entrepreneurial journey is packed with lessons every designer needs to hear. LuAnn Nigara a...
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1112: Best Of Show: Claire Staszak: Winner of Best Blog Writing by Design Bloggers Conference 2017

August 8, 2025 • 60 mins
Today With Claire Staszak: LuAnn really loves the process of how these designers create blogs to serve as a marketing arm for their business and a lead generator for their design firm. Listen in today to get some really great, actionable tips that you can duplicate. Today we're bringing back Claire Staszak's episode. She won the award at the Conference for the best blog writing of 2017. She is a Chicago-based interior designer wh...
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1111: LuAnn Featured: Coaching Through Chaos Podcast: The Well-Designed Business with Luann Nigara

August 5, 2025 • 38 mins
Today With Dr Colleen Mullen (Coaching Through Chaos Podcast): I’m so excited to re-share this incredible conversation I had with Dr. Colleen Mullen on her podcast, Coaching Through Chaos. Colleen and I dive deep into the journey behind Window Works, what it really takes to build a business that lasts, and the mindset that’s helped me through over 40 years of entrepreneurship. This isn’t just for interior designers—this episode i...
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