Episode Transcript
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Jason Lockhart (00:00):
Hello and
welcome to Designer Discussions
with Jason, miriam and Maria.
Today we are talking about theDesigner Discussions Academy
launch Welcome to DesignerDiscussions podcast with Miriam.
Maria and Jason Tune in eachweek where we discuss marketing,
pr and business advice fordesign professionals and
(00:22):
business advice for designprofessionals.
Maria Martin (00:25):
So over here at
Designer Discussions, we have
learned from everyone that talkswith us that they are
struggling with how to implementthe topics that we talk about
here on Designer Discussions.
People are having a highbarrier of entry to start
producing the PR that they wantand getting a handle on their
(00:48):
marketing, or understanding howto manage and maintain high
quality marketing for thehighest value at the lowest
pricing, and so what we havedecided to do is start a program
called the Designer DiscussionsAcademy, and I like to talk
about it as your minor inmarketing from our fabulous
(01:12):
professor Jason.
What is it that you callyourself?
What's the term that you usefor your professor status?
What is it?
What's the term?
Jason Lockhart (01:26):
Yeah, associate
professor.
Maria Martin (01:29):
No, the one that
you use.
It's quirky when you madepeople fail.
Jason Lockhart (01:33):
Oh, Dr
Flankenstein.
Maria Martin (01:35):
Yes, yes.
So we bring to you your mostfavorite and beloved Dr
Flankenstein, and that's perfect, because October's coming up
and we all want to be able tohave that in our back pocket.
And so what we're doing iswe're providing a weekly
accountability and Q&A sessionwhere we are teaching about one
(01:59):
topic each month, and then we'remeeting each week to help
support that understanding andasking of questions about what's
coming up and why, and so weopened this up last year for a
12-month session and we've had alot of really good results for
the groups that we've beenworking with.
We have designers, we havelarge kitchen and bath
(02:22):
remodeling studios, and thegroup of people who come and
work with us that we choose havebeen just really amazing people
, and we're working across thecountry with these people to
help change their understandingof marketing and PR and up
leveling their brand withtechnology so that they are the
(02:45):
go-to companies in town.
So why are we different?
What's unique about it?
Well, number one, it's areasonable price point for
people who are truly interestedin it.
You get access to me, miriamand Jason, and we have a
comprehensive curriculum thatbuilds on itself that at the end
(03:05):
of it, you're going tounderstand how to get your PR
that you need.
We like to summarize thingsdown so that you're not wasting
time on things that are brightand shiny at the time, but we
focus specifically on the thingsthat will make a change for you
, and Jason helps with all ofthose questions that we have
(03:26):
what's our SEO?
What's the blog?
What's the website?
What's our favorite and bestsocial media platform?
And how do I actually do it?
And having access to someone whohas a marketing agency, asking
someone who is the head of a PRfirm to help each week with what
you have a problem with withina group setting is really not
(03:50):
affordable for someone on aone-on-one basis.
So we have created this programto help support you with your
business if you're looking togrow and you're looking to
produce new results and, like Isaid, we have found it to be
very successful for the peoplewho have participated in it and
we are a little network and afamily that is unique and
(04:14):
available.
Now we are going to start overagain in October to begin the
process again, and we wouldreally love for you to check out
what we're doing and see if wecan get you on board so that we
can help support you Some of thetopics that we cover, miriam,
I'll give you a summary, andJason will as well, and I'll
(04:36):
talk a little bit about what Icover and what we are doing, as
we're making this ascomprehensive as we can so that
you are not handling thingsalone.
Mirjam Lippuner (04:49):
Okay, that was
a great summary of what the
Academy is all about, maria.
Actually, the origin story ofthe Academy is kind of
interesting because it sort ofevolved out of a membership that
I used to have.
That started, I don't evenremember, three, four years ago
(05:11):
and was focused on PR only, andactually Maria was one of my
founding members and that's howwe met more or less right, and
Jason also actually was.
He wasn't an official member,he was more of an advisor, I
would call it, and it justturned out to be that Maria and
(05:35):
Jason it's like they helped merun the group.
So they were not really just init as students, but they were
there and answered all thequestions regarding technology
and advertising technology andadvertising, social media,
(05:59):
marketing, and after a while itmade me realize that I mean,
people need, nobody can, onlyfocus on PR, and that's never
what I had taught.
Anyway, I'm a big believer in aholistic approach that
integrates PR into marketing,and so after two years or so, we
decided to join forces andmorph the PR membership into a
(06:21):
much more comprehensive programthat really teaches people
everything they need, it's morestrategic, it includes
everything that involvesmarketing, pr and business
development, and it is reallytruly unique because of each of
our experiences and the way thatwe understand how to leverage
(06:43):
it all and make it all worktogether, while keeping things
simple enough that you canactually manage it on a
day-to-day basis.
You can actually manage it on aday-to-day basis.
So that's just a little historyabout how the Academy came
about.
But for me, my focus obviouslyis on PR, and I keep it super
(07:09):
simple for this program becausenobody needs to be a PR
professional to get the resultsthat you're really looking for
to leverage it, and we're mostlytalking about businesses that
focus on developing theirbusiness regionally and locally.
So this is not focused ongetting coverage in AD or
(07:30):
Eldecore or any of the nationalmagazines, coverage in AD or Al
Decor or any of the nationalmagazines, not to say that that
cannot be an outcome.
If you go through the programand you're passionate about
getting more PR, that'ssomething that I can help you
with.
But that's not where we start.
We really start with teachingpeople how to get quick press,
and there are a few platformsout there and it's constantly
(07:52):
changing, so it's actually veryhelpful to have somebody guide
you and tell you what theplatforms are out there that are
relevant right now.
But that's a big part of how Iteach people to get their feet
wet and actually getting somecoverage.
We do a lot of work on mindset,because PR is scary.
(08:15):
It's scary to reach out topeople, put yourself out there,
and I try to keep it supersimple and super manageable and
sort of take the dread out ofthe whole process.
So I teach about getting quickpress and that's probably the
most successful element of thewhole PR component in it.
(08:41):
It's also what helps Jason onthe SEO side, it helps with
content, it helps on manydifferent levels and it's really
not that hard to do.
So that's the most importantthing that I teach.
Then I also go into pitching andyou know what goes into a pitch
.
How do you find the people topitch, what makes sense to pitch
(09:06):
.
You know what types of assetsdo you send when you pitch a
project, because really the nextstep after these quick PR wins
is to get pick up in someregional ideally print or online
publications.
That's really what, what, what?
It's sort of the gold standardfor for a regional business to
(09:28):
have a feature placement in aregional magazine.
So we go into that as well, andthose are really the two big
buckets that we cover in theprogram.
That's as far as it goes.
We talk about PR not justduring the months that I teach
those topics, but we talk aboutit on an ongoing basis.
(09:49):
If somebody has an issue orwants to get more out of it, we
were always open to talkingabout any of the the issues, the
problems or the efforts thatour members have.
Yeah, so that's what I do forPR in the academy Jason.
Jason Lockhart (10:10):
All right.
So obviously I talk about themarketing side, having a
marketing agency so we gothrough a lot of information on
that side.
I usually start with web design, saying what you should have,
what the best practices are,what you need to have on the
site and all of that, and then Ialso go over SEO search engine
(10:32):
optimization, talk about what is, what is SEO, why you need it
and what are the basics of it.
Because a lot of marketingagencies like to go over your
head in terms of what you needto know in SEO and it's a lot of
technical jargon that I like tocut through all of that and
just let you know what are thebasics that you need to know and
(10:53):
what you need to do if you'regoing to handle it on your own
or if you're hiring an agencywhat you need to know so you're
not having somebody try to talkover you to let you know this is
what is all about and all that.
So we talk about, on the SEOside, the analytics.
We talk about Google businessprofile.
We talk about how you need tohandle that.
(11:16):
In addition to that, I talkabout social media.
Give a little bit on thataspect, what you need to know
the basics there, how to look atthe competition and analyze
what they're doing, so you cansee if there's any gaps in your
local market that you couldcapitalize on.
Also, on the marketing side, wetalk about email marketing and
(11:38):
we usually have a month whereit's called marketing strategies
, where it's a catch-up, becausein the 12 months we may not be
able to get over every topicthat may be vital for you.
But with the marketingstrategies month, that's where I
like to give an overview of alot of the topics that we may
not have a month dedicated on,but it's where we go over what
(12:01):
is happening now, or what ishappening what's relevant at
that time in terms of marketingstrategy implementation and all
that.
And so in there we may talkabout the content generation, we
may talk about podcasts oranything like that.
So that marketing strategiesmonth is what's actually
relevant at the time.
(12:21):
So that is not alwaysprescribed that we're going to
teach ABC, because we're goingto look at whatever is happening
at that time to actually teachon that aspect.
So that's what I like to talkabout in the marketing aspect.
And then, maria, how about you?
Maria Martin (12:37):
So we have Dr
Flankenstein and we have Mrs
Perfection PR and I I'm yourcheater friend.
I like all of the cheat codes.
I like to make things as easyand simple as possible, so we
talk a lot about how tointegrate some technology and
how to simplify what it is youneed to do.
I know your time is moreimportant than just making sure
(13:02):
you have a million posts outthere.
We really focus and hone in onwhat's your goal and how AI has
impacted the industry and how tonot get left behind while also
not being distracted.
And so me, I am technology andI teach it from the inside out
(13:23):
as an interior designer and assomeone who owns their own
business.
And so we talk about what issocial media like?
What's really important aboutsocial media?
What are the trends lookinglike?
Where are they going to go?
We talk a lot about if you'regoing to create content.
We want the right kind ofcontent to be landing during the
right time, and we want you tobe prepared for the implications
(13:48):
of using too much AI and whatthat makes your business look
like from a brand perspective,and so we cover a lot of the
things that we are concernedabout wasting your time, and so
that's what I do.
I'm your cheat codes, I try tomake you save time, I try to
minimize all of the noise, andtogether it covers a lot of how
(14:15):
we can tie things together.
Miriam is here to make yourmarketing better.
Miriam is here so that whenother people contact another
design firm, they compare you toa higher-end celebrity status.
She is the person to help youget to that status level that
you're aiming for.
(14:36):
Jason is all about if there'snot results, then we don't focus
on it.
We also don't go with trends.
We talk about them, but wedon't push them.
We have found you really wantto only leverage and lean into
the things that are going tocreate results, and I am here to
(14:57):
help you with any of the stuffthat you want to save time with
and integrate technology.
Mirjam Lippuner (15:05):
So that is the
gist of what's happening in the
Designer Discussions Academy and, like Maria said, we are
starting our new curriculum inOctober and we'd love for you to
join Doesn't mean that, if youhear this after October, that
you can't join.
It's really an ongoing program.
(15:25):
It's just that it is laid outto cover the most important
things in one year, so you canget what you need if that's what
you choose to do.
If you want to stick aroundlonger, that's, of course, also
an option, and we'd love to haveyou either way.
So check out our website,designerdiscussionscom, for more
(15:47):
information and if you have anyquestions, never hesitate to
reach out to us, and we hope tohear you back here in two weeks
for more designer discussions.
Maria Martin (15:59):
Did you know that
your client learns 80% of what
they will know about you beforethey ever contact you?
Now imagine when your potentialclient searches for the perfect
kitchen remodel.
Will they find you or yourcompetition?
We can help you make sure it'syou.
Our Designer DiscussionsAcademy membership with your
favorite podcast hosts provideweekly steps to simplify your
(16:22):
marketing and boost yourbusiness.
Sign up atdesignerdiscussionscom or follow
the link in the show notes.
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For more information on thepodcast and the marketing studio
(16:44):
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