What Worked this Year: Takeaways for Your Design and Remodeling Business

A year of experiments revealed a simple truth: design businesses grow faster when they trade constant posting for consistent systems. We open our playbook and revisit the strategies that delivered real results—using social more strategically, running an email newsletter that actually brings referrals, and treating PR as a core engine rather than a nice-to-have. Along the way, we unpack what we learned from KBIS so you can talk trends with clients even if you skipped the show floor, and we share a step-by-step plan for staying visible when inquiries slow.

One highlight you’ll love: a designer from our academy set a bold goal and landed Architectural Digest by following a clear PR routine—tight stories, strong images, and calm, timely follow-up. That story anchors a bigger shift we’re seeing across search. As AI-driven platforms source answers from trusted outlets, media placements now do double duty: they win client confidence and help search engines understand and elevate your expertise. We connect the dots between E-E-A-T signals, local visibility, and how a single placement can ripple through your website, newsletter, and proposals.

If you’ve felt stretched thin by social, we lay out a low-burn approach: fewer channels, batched content, and posts aligned to real business goals. For slower markets, we map a 90-day “momentum sprint” that refreshes your site, activates past clients, and turns one helpful email per send into booked consultations. We also touch on our reintroduction—who we are, what we teach, and how we support designers and remodelers with marketing that respects your time and protects your energy.

If this resonated, tap follow, share it with a colleague who needs a calmer plan, and leave a quick review to help more design pros find the show. Then tell us: which 2025 episode was your favorite and what should we dig into next?

If you would like to get the links and show notes for this episode, click on the link below:​

• www.designerdiscussions.com/episodes/episode-156-What-worked-this-year-in-2025

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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

Episode Transcript

Mirjam Lippuner (00:00):
Hello, and welcome to Designer Discussions
with Jason and Miriam.
Today we are going to talkabout our favorite moments and
episodes of 2025.
Welcome to the DesignerDiscussions podcast with Jason,
Maria, and Miriam.

(00:21):
Tune in each week where we talkabout marketing PR and business
advice for designprofessionals.

Jason Lockhart (00:29):
Awesome.
This is one of the episodes Ilove because we get to recap
what happened over the year andjust get to talk about all of
the episodes we went over andwhich ones we like the best.
I'm going to actually startwith episode 140, how to break
up with social media.
That is where Maria and I, wehad talked about how what

(00:52):
happens is that a lot ofdesigners and remodelers get
stuck on having to do so much onsocial media, it gets
overwhelming.
They feel like they have topost every day, they have to do
all this.
And it's not all about that.
It's more about how to bestrategic and do just enough to
have the effect without havingthe overwhelm.
So that's one of the episodes Ilike.

(01:14):
And then also uh episode 137where we did the K-Biz overview.
That one we always have on Jan,who attends K-Biz every year,
and she walks all three daysover to see what is happening.
And I attend KBiz a lot, but Idon't have the energy to do

(01:35):
everything that Jan does.
So we actually appreciatehaving her there where she can
where she goes into each of theareas, she overviews what has
happened, she talks about thetrends.
So if you do not have a chanceto attend K-Biz, you can listen
to that episode to hear whathappened in a high-level
overview.
And that that helps a lot.

(01:56):
Another episode is episode 141.
I had talked about what to dowhen your business starts to
slow down.
This year, I had traveledacross the country that one of
the topics they wanted me tospeak on is when the economy
slows down, how do you doeffective marketing?
So that was one of the things Ihad talked about, and I had I

(02:18):
gave some high-level oversights.
Those are just some of thethings I had talked about, and
I'm gonna hand it off to Miriamso she could talk about some of
the episodes she liked the best.

Mirjam Lippuner (02:27):
Okay.
Yeah, Jason, you stole a coupleof mine.
So now I have to find otherones.
Um I'm gonna start with my mostfavorite episode of the year,
which is episode 151, whenRobbie Maynard um joined us to
talk about um actually what shehad learned in the three or so

(02:52):
years that she had been workingwith us in our academy program.
And it was so fun to have hercome on um and talk about what
she learned and how herconfidence grew and and how she
really generated results.
And she is she's actuallyprobably my star student when it

(03:17):
comes to PR and getting thosequick press placements that I so
often talk about.
And it was amazing becauseright after the episode, she
ended up being picked up inarchitectural digest, which had
been ever since she startedworking with us, that had been

(03:39):
her ultimate goal.
So it was uh it was it's justso it was just incredible to see
that that actually came tofruition.
And she worked hard on it.
Um, but it just goes to showthat you can't what you can once
you start and you're consistentwith what you do in your in

(04:00):
your marketing and especiallyalso in your PR, you there's no
limit to what you can achieve.
You can set your your goalssuper, super high, and
eventually you will get there.
So that was that was super fun.
That was my top one.
Then um one I really liked toois episode number 144, where

(04:23):
Jason, you talked about thenumber one referral tool, which
people say, wow, what is that?
I'm like, it's email marketing.
And you just you have somereally great case studies that
you talk about in the episodethat goes to show how how

(04:44):
effective it really is if you doit well without putting um a
ton of time and effort into it,but just consistently putting
out content that's relevant andand staying in touch with people
really can make a difference inin the number of leads you

(05:05):
bring in.
So you talk about that a lot,but I think it's something
that's really um kind ofunderappreciated by a lot of
people because they say, oh, Ihave to do social media, or I
have to, I don't know, we couldargue about this, but maybe you
should do email marketinginstead of social media at this
point.
We also had a couple ofepisodes about, you know, just

(05:28):
evaluating the importance ofsocial media this year, which
were also good, but the but thenumber one uh referral tool one
was another one of my top ones.
Then I also really likedtalking about the secret to AI
search, which um nowadaysactually is PR and media

(05:53):
placements.
That's um episode number 147.
And I like that episode becausethis is really a very recent
development, and it's importantfor all of us to stay on top of
it.
And it it really for me as a asa PR pro, it's it's kind of

(06:18):
gratifying to see because PRalways is like a nice to have
sort of, but that is changingwith what's happening in search
because media placements and thethe the implicit third-party
credibility they that they bringwith them because they're
they're it's high profile umonline placements, it it really

(06:44):
makes PR much more of anecessity if you want to be seen
in in today's search.
And so much of search, I don'tknow what the percentage is, but
so much of it happens um on AIplatforms.
And I'm sure that that itthat's a trend that's only gonna
increase.

(07:04):
So I I thought that it wasreally important to share that
with our audience.
Yeah, those were, I'd say thosewere my top three.
I also loved Jans Cabusepisode.
I think it's just um, and Ididn't get to go this year
either.
So it was just great to hearabout all the stuff that was

(07:25):
happening.
So I definitely I hope we'll dothat um every year so we can
stay on top of of the trendsthat are coming out at the show
every year.

Jason Lockhart (07:36):
Okay.
Uh, the last episode I want totalk about is episode 150.
That's who we are.
We did a reintroduction intowho we are so you could learn
just a little bit more about thewhole.
Those were just some of ourfavorite episodes of this year,
and we want to hear from you.
What episodes did you likehearing from us this year?

(07:57):
So let us know, send us anemail, we'll be happy to hear uh
from you.
So this is it for this year.
So we want to tell you MerryChristmas and Happy New Year,
and we look to seeing you herein 2026.
We hope you enjoyed thisepisode of Designer Discussions
and all of the helpfulinformation.
Subscribe to our podcast, leaveus a review, and share it with

(08:19):
your friends.
We look forward to having youback next week for more
information on the podcast andthe marketing studio.
Visit designer discussions.comand follow us on social media.