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September 11, 2025 18 mins

Ever wondered why design school taught you everything about color theory but nothing about growing a successful business? That glaring gap in education is exactly what The Designer's Academy addresses—and after two incredibly successful years, we're opening enrollment for our third session this October.

The Academy began as a simple PR membership but evolved when we realized designers needed comprehensive business education covering digital marketing, public relations, technology implementation, and now AI integration. What makes our approach unique is that you're learning directly from three specialists who actually work in these fields daily: a digital marketing agency owner, a boutique PR firm founder, and a tech-savvy interior designer who developed her own app. This isn't theoretical knowledge—it's practical expertise you can immediately apply.

Our members' success stories speak volumes. One secured a prestigious Forbes feature just one month after implementing our PR strategies. Another established strong Google Maps rankings within six months of following our Google Business Profile guidance. When members faced technical hurdles—like discovering duplicate business profiles online—we provided step-by-step support that saved them countless hours of frustration. Perhaps most transformative has been our AI implementation training, where we've broken down complex technologies into manageable processes that members describe with visible relief as "pretty easy" to integrate into their workflows.

The Designer's Academy runs for 12 months, providing structured learning that starts with quick-win fundamentals before building to more sophisticated strategies. Weekly video calls and fresh monthly content keep your entire team updated on best practices, with direct access to ask us questions at any time. This personalized guidance drastically cuts the learning curve compared to pre-recorded courses where you're left to figure things out alone.

Ready to fill the business education gap in your design career? Join our waitlist through the link in our show notes to access the early bird special before we launch in October. Don't just outsource your marketing and PR—master it with expert guidance from people who understand your industry challenges.

Links referenced in this episode:

Transform your marketing with Designer Discussions Academy. In weekly face-to-face sessions, we equip busy business owners with cutting-edge PR strategies, marketing insights, and time-saving tools to not just work in your business, but on your business. Join us to outshine competitors and elevate your business.

Join us for our weekly live sessions and workshops: https://www.designerdiscussionsmarketing.studio/pages/academy

Designer Discussions is an educational interior design podcast on marketing, PR and related business topics. We also provide in-depth, actionable products in the Marketing Studio including time-saving templates and guides to help design professionals grow their businesses.

Download our FREE Client Avatar Guide https://designerdiscussionsmarketing.studio/store.

Designer Discussions is a partnership of three experts: Jason Lockhart, CEO of KABMS; Maria Martin, founder of DesignAppy; and Mirjam Lippuner, founder of Get Ink DIY




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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Jason Lockhart (00:00):
Or well, I mean, that's fine.

Mirjam Lippuner (00:03):
It's all.
We can just all talk.
It can just be like aconversation, Okay.

Jason Lockhart (00:09):
Hello and welcome to Designer Discussions
with Jason, miriam and Maria.
Today we are talking about theAcademy.
We're opening up a new sessionand we're going to talk about
what has happened over the lastyear with what we've talked
about last year with what we'vetalked about.

Mirjam Lippuner (00:30):
Yeah, well, this is an exciting time because
this is going to be our thirdyear of teaching the academy and
we just want to go back andtell our listeners a little bit
about where it all came from andhow it has evolved over these
two years.
If we go way back, the way itstarted is that I had a PR

(00:58):
membership that was solelyintended to teach designers, and
mostly interior designers, howto get their own PR, and Maria
actually was one of the membersof my membership, and Jason, I
don't remember somehow youbecame part of it and were half

(01:21):
teaching, half attending, and sowe did this for a while and
then we really all became goodfriends and I mostly realized
that it's a big ask for somebodyto spend to really focus on PR
solely Because there's otherareas of marketing that are also

(01:41):
very important and everythingneeds to work in tandem.
So a couple of years ago, Italked with Jason and Maria and
I said why don't we make themembership bigger and we cover
everything that involves digitalmarketing and PR, business and

(02:03):
tech?
And that's how we decided toget started with the academy.
And, yeah, it's been two years.
So, jason, what do you think?
How has it evolved?
And obviously we believe in itbecause and we know it works,

(02:27):
because we've seen it work forour students and members.
But give me your, give me youroverview of how you have seen it
develop.

Jason Lockhart (02:38):
I think overall, it's been a success for the
members involved.
We've actually had a couplemembers that have joined the
second year and that's how weknow that they were happy with
it, because they went throughthe first year, then the second
year.
They said they learned a lot,but they really wanted to have

(03:01):
re-emphasis on some of thethings, like on AI, which always
changes, and that's somethingthat is no matter.
If we did something in monthone, by the time we do it in
month four, it will change, andthat's just how AI is.
But they wanted to join thesecond year because they wanted

(03:23):
to really get expertise in someof the areas like SEO, pr, and
so they even have said to usthat they have success with it.
On our side, we've evolved howwe would teach us some of the
things, some of the topics, whenwe reorganized, when we would
teach aspects of it, so theyeach tie into each other

(03:45):
seamlessly.
So overall, I think it has beena success.
What's your thoughts on it,maria?

Maria Martin (03:53):
Well, as small business owners, we aren't given
a business class.
Before we start a kitchen andbath showroom, an interior
design business, a remodelingcompany, a building and
contracting company, and sincewe don't have a structure of
education around that, wetypically have to outsource,

(04:14):
right.
We have to outsource all of ourPR.
We have to outsource all of ourmarketing, have to outsource
all of our PR.
We have to outsource all of ourmarketing.
And then we have to either signup for classes or learn on our
own how to use AI and how toimplement it within our business
.
So we feel like we're up todate, right, and so what we have
done is provided something thatno one else is doing, and we're
providing these once a weekvideo calls with content once a

(04:38):
month new content each month andthen these firms can catch the
call with everybody in theoffice, right.
The person who's doing theirsocial media can be their PR
outreach designers, anyone whois involved in the marketing
process for the business.
Everybody gets brought up todate on what's what they should

(05:00):
be doing, what they shouldn't bedoing, and if you've been
listening to us now for yearsand our podcast, you'll
understand that we have alwayssaid these are the things you
need to focus on and even withevery upcoming, newest, latest
and greatest trend, we have comeback to how everything we've
been teaching you is still themost important, foundational

(05:22):
parts of how all the new andmore popular things can be
applied.
Right Like when AI rolled out,everybody's like how can I get
suggested in the searchgenerative AI?
Well, it's because of your PR.
It's because of your marketing.
Your marketing should involvethe PR and your business should

(05:45):
have all of the elements thatare putting your messaging out
there in a way that you arepicked up and suggested or
recommended.
So, even though we may havebeen talking about all these
elements for years, on thispodcast, we are seeing the
results of everything that we'vebeen teaching is.
We have had you prepped forthis time.

(06:06):
We have been working oncreating all of that backlinks
and recommendations this wholeentire time so that your
business is ahead of the gameand that you're on target with
what you should be expecting thefollowing year.
And, realistically, when youlook at having access to the

(06:27):
experts to try to get all thesethings done, it's a reasonable
price.
Like we said, you can havesomeone in your office being
trained by us with these classes, and it's really a no brainer
for someone who wants to makesure that their business is
healthy and growing.

Mirjam Lippuner (06:45):
Yeah, I love it how you wrap that all up with a
bow.
That was nice.
So let's, if we think back overthe last two years, can each of
us think about a favorite, ourfavorite thing?
That happened like when one ofour members learned something

(07:06):
specific, and for me, somethingreally stands out.
It's when one of our members whoactually, who have re-signed up
for the second year becausethey felt like they wanted to
learn more it's like the firstyear when I taught how to get
quick press, which is a reallycritical, foundational piece of

(07:28):
the PR that I teach in theacademy the first year they
didn't do anything.
It was just too intimidatingand too overwhelming.
It was just too intimidatingand too overwhelming.
And then, when they were stillthere in the second year, they
actually started implementing itand I can't remember if it was
the first month or the secondmonth they were proactively

(07:54):
submitting to these PR queriesthat they got a hit in Forbes.
So that was huge and it's likethey couldn't believe that it
was actually happening.
And it wasn't a superhumaneffort or anything.
It was just following up anddoing the things that we had

(08:16):
taught them to do and I mean theresults were just outstanding.
So that was amazing.

Jason Lockhart (08:24):
I was going to actually say that when.
That that's what I was going tosay, but I'll choose another one
, cause that was amazing, causeit was actually one month after
one month after they had becomeactive they got that hit and it
was like wow, like yep.
And so we had a member alsothat I had talked a lot about

(08:45):
Google Business Profile andabout how if you post
consistently and within aboutsix months they saw themselves
ranking on maps and it wasconsistent where they were in
the maps and they were startingto get calls from that.
And we had another member thathadn't they had not done Google

(09:07):
business profile at all, so theydidn't realize how important it
was.
But then, when they saw theother member get hits, they were
like, okay, I need to set mineup.
So they set theirs up, foundout that there were a couple
other profiles that had theirname, that they had to.
So it was a task to actuallyfind the other profiles, take

(09:30):
them down, get their profile up.
But the beauty of that is wewere there the whole step of the
process, every step of theprocess, to help them, whereas
if they did this on their own,they wouldn't have known what to
do, they wouldn't have knownhow to contact Google with the
profile.
We were able to walk them stepby step, and that is the beauty

(09:54):
of the program is that you haveprofessionals that have been
down this road, helping youthroughout that process to help
set you up for success.
Love it.
How about you, maria?

Maria Martin (10:08):
I think implementing AI was such a
mind-blowing experience for mostof these businesses Just the
idea that they could if they hadmultiple showrooms, multiple
clientele bases that they weretrying to communicate with being
able to take a structure likeand have a formula on how to do

(10:32):
the right thing, get themessaging across.
You know how we talked about ifyou're doing like a blog post
or an email newsletter, you canuse these AI tools and roll it
out to your different marketinggroups, right To your vendors,
to your clients, to newprospects, and you can just take

(10:52):
one step and roll it out rightand honestly, just how much they
loved having the explanation on.
This is what AI looks like andthis is how to use it, and then
be like, wow, that was prettyeasy.
Then say, but we're going toimplement it because the problem
is with AI.
I believe most people areoverwhelmed by thinking how much

(11:15):
it could possibly do for youand maybe they think they're not
doing it right.
But you know, just having these, these like little baby GPTs
that we've been using, where welet people perform one request,
one task, and then it just doesa series of solutions for them,

(11:39):
it's so easy to implement forthem it takes a load off of them
.
You can just see the relief andthe ease that comes from the
use of AI in their businesses.

Mirjam Lippuner (11:50):
Yeah, I love it .
That's a great example too.
Okay, so now that we've talkeda little bit about the cool
things that people have learnedand achieved in the program, and
maybe some people are listeningand saying so what exactly is
this academy Jason?
You, as the professor of theteam, the former professor,

(12:13):
still professor, academyprofessor.
How would you describe it in anutshell?

Jason Lockhart (12:24):
In a nutshell, I would say it's the that are in
your industry that are here tohelp walk you through the
process and help you havesuccess in your marketing PR
efforts.
In in a nutshell, so like, likeI had explained earlier, with
the Google business, with theGoogle business profile example,

(12:46):
a lot of the steps that themember went through were cut in
half in terms of time andfrustration, because we knew who
to talk to, who to have themcall, what to do.
So it not only saved them time,but it saved them a lot of
frustration and money because wewere able to help them cut

(13:09):
through all of the noise and getto the exact issue or the
problem and have it resolved.
So, as opposed to just taking aclass that a lot of the classes
nowadays that you'll see onlineare already pre-recorded and so
you're learning that way butyou may not have access to the

(13:31):
experts that actually wrote thecourse, whereas where we have
the academy, you actually haveaccess to us to ask us questions
about the topics, to getanswers immediate.

Mirjam Lippuner (13:43):
Yes, that's a great point.
Great point, yeah, and I justfor the people who don't know
anything about the Academy,really it's a 12 month program
that includes all the basics youneed to know to run a
successful business, from themarketing side of things that

(14:04):
with regards to digitalmarketing, to digital marketing,
with regards to PR and withregards to business development,
tech, ai and each of us arespecialists in this area, and I
think that's what reallydifferentiates our program from

(14:24):
pretty much everything else I'veever seen out there, not just
for this industry, but ingeneral, because Jason is a
digital marketing professional.
I mean, you own and run adigital marketing agency.
I'm a PR professional.
I run my own boutique agencyand I've been.
I have a lot of industryexperience, as we all do, and

(14:47):
Maria is not just an interiordesigner, but she created her
own app and is just a thoughtleader when it comes to AI and
tech in general.
So I think that our collectiveknowledge and experience really
makes it different and valuable.

(15:08):
Maria, what would you say?

Maria Martin (15:13):
I mean, I think having people you can ask
questions of is so impossible tofind these days.
I mean you can't really get anyinformation from someone by
asking a question through DMs onInstagram.
There's a lot of stuff that canbe very frustrating about PR

(15:34):
and marketing when you don'tknow what the next step is and
there's really no resources outthere to help you just have that
like structure of steps youneed to be taking and kind of
being pushed along in theprocess.
One of the things that I reallylike about our program is that

(15:54):
we do start off with, like yourbase level, foundational things
that you need to know how to do.
That can start getting youthose small results that we want
.
And then we add in later on inthe game the bigger, more heavy
tasks that seem to be a littlebit more cumbersome to someone
when they're first starting out,and so what we have done is

(16:16):
we've created something that'seasy to implement because you
have those easy small baby stepsin the beginning that can
produce some results, and thenwe build up to the bigger,
harder tasks that most peopledon't know how to even start.
So, and we don't throw you in tothose tasks and say, you know,

(16:38):
hurry up, get these things done.
We already know your process,we know what your limits are.
We know how much time you have.
Most people aren't spendingenough time marketing and not
setting aside enough time to domarketing, and so we are not
here to just we're to help youwith the baby steps, but also to
create that time in your day toget the tasks done and create

(17:01):
some accountability and help youget through anything you might
be stuck with.
So it's just the way it's setup is really perfect for anyone
who's looking to understand themarketing and grow their
business through marketing.

Mirjam Lippuner (17:16):
Exactly yes, and with all that being said,
it's now September.
The Academy opens up for thenew year of learning and fun
with the three of us, so we'llput the link in the show notes.
If you're interested, sign upfor the waitlist.

(17:36):
We'll have an early birdspecial and the new curriculum
starts, as I said, in October.
So you can get all theinformation by going to our
website and we'll put it all inthe show notes, and we hope to
see a lot of you there.
And if not there, we'll see youagain in two weeks for designer

(17:57):
discussions.
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