Interior Design Business Coaching - Q&A with Andrea Liebross

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As part of our mandate to provide high-quality & actionable business education to interior designers, we’re recording a series of Q&A style interviews with some of the best interior design business coaches in the biz. Our first chat is with business coach Andrea Liebross.

Andrea is a business and life coach specializing in working with women entrepreneurs from a variety of industries…including interior designers.

As a business coach, Andrea guides her clients to combine big thinking with solid systems that work together to unleash their success and find the freedom of time, money, and energy they crave.

Supplementing her coaching activities, Andrea is also a public speaker and host of the Time to Level Up podcast.

As if that isn’t enough, Andrea is about to become a published author with the release of her book She Thinks Big: The Female Entrepreneur’s Guide to Moving Past the Messy Middle and into the Extraordinary in September, 2023.

In our interview, I asked Andrea the questions that - I think - interior designers need to know before even considering hiring a business coach.

I hope this helps :)

And as always, if you’ve got any questions, concerns, comments or complaints, do not hesitate to email me at douglas@InteriorDesignHer.com and put me on blast.

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So, without any further ado, here is the full (42 minute) interview I recorded with business coach Andrea Liebross.

Note: For those of you who don’t want to sit through the entire 42 min interview, I am including a video & transcript for each individual question below…so you can pick & choose individual questions.

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Q1: Why should an interior design business owner hire a business coach?

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  Andrea Liebross:
  
  So, I think when you're a business owner, and I'm a business owner, you're kind of stuck in your own peanut butter jar, okay?

  So you're inside your own little microcosm of a world, and when you're in there, you can't read the label, so you really can't get an idea of what's happening around you that might be creating what's going on inside the jar.

  You can't even figure out what the ingredients are, in a sense, and having a 30,000 foot view of a business.

  And if you've got someone that has that 30,000 foot view, right, so they're not right on the ground with you in a sense, but they understand who you serve and how you do it, that's what I think is required in order for you to kind of take those three steps forward on a daily basis.

  You've got to kind of have someone on your team helping you get some perspective because you oftentimes lose perspective when you're stuck in your own peanut butter jar.

  You can't really figure out what ingredients are working and what ingredients aren't working because you can't get out and read the label.

  So you've got a label reader in a business coach,

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Q2 : Newbie vs Experienced Interior Designers - Who Needs Interior Design Business Coaching MORE?

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  I think that no matter what stage of business you're in, you need both the right mindset and the right systems in order to run your business not just efficiently, but effectively and to continue to attract the clients that you want to work with.

  So whether it's day one or day 10,000, it really doesn't matter.

  I think maybe as you move through your business, you might need different kinds of coaches, we'll call it.

  And maybe not everybody needs just a strict business coach, but I think everybody does need a business and life coach, especially for interior designers, because their businesses and lives are so intertwined.

  In fact, it's pretty hard sometimes to separate ourselves from our business and achieve what we want as what we so called balance. Right.

  So what I find is most clients come to me wanting help in the business, but the life side kicks in.

  Kids, partner finances, all the obligations that affects your business more than anything else.

  So if you don't have your act together at home or in your personal life, you definitely won't have it in your business.

  And that is where I think someone always needs a coach to really assess business and life together.

  And really then what it comes down to is managing your mind around all the facets of life.

  And that's why I think having a coach who can address both is important, no matter what stage of your business you're in.

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Q3 : Are Interior Design Businesses Unique?

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  This isn't necessarily unique to designers, but in a sense, it is in that they can help anyone, right?

  Because hopefully the vast majority of people are living in a space that wants then they want that space to be inviting and comfortable and create a certain look and feel.

  So anyone can be a client of an interior designer, and I think that, in a sense, makes them a little unique.

  The other thing is that there's so many ways in which to do their business and things that they could provide.

  Are they a designer that just wants to provide the design only, and then you're on your own sourcing everything?

  Are they a designer that wants to start at the beginnin of a new build with you from the architectural plans?

  Are they someone that wants to come in and just do accessories?

  So there's a lot of different ways that interior designers can run their business.

  But when it comes down to it, a business is a business, right?

  And you're serving other people.

  You're serving people or businesses, right?

  You could go B to C or B to B, in a sense.

  So every business has its nuances, but the problems of every business are always the same.

  They just manifest differently. So even though interior designers might say, I don't know how to operate, should I serve everybody?

  Should I serve a niche?

  Should I do it from beginning of build to move in day?

  What should I do? What should I do?

  The same could be said if someone is in finance, like, how much do I want to get involved in someone else's finances?

  Do I just want to do their investing?

  Do I want to help them budget?

  Do I want to even help them open a bank account?

  So I think that there are things finance people, though, don't usually have creative brains. So that is something that might be unique to an interior designer, but a business is a business.

  There are unique challenges in every business, and I think if we stick to the core principles of business, it doesn't matter how you're running your business, you need to make sound decisions in order to be profitable and make things easy and flow regardless.

  So I think that there always are unique challenges, but that happens in every business.

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Q4 : Can a Business Coach Help an Interior Designer Scale Their Business?

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  Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: The vast majority of residential designers are either solo running their own shop by themselves, possibly with some virtual assistants or some outsourcing to accounting and things like that or micro teams.

  85% approximately of all residential designers are five or under employees.

  So it's definitely like almost the perfect definition of a small business.

  But there are companies that have grown past that.

  And while they wouldn't compare to the Microsoft's and Google's and Ubers of the world, they get bigger.

  Is that something that a coach oryourself specifically could help them move beyondif they decided they wanted to scale?

  Andrea Liebross: Yeah, I think my sweet spot is businesses.

  The definition of a small business that you just described to a business that's probably 100 people or less.

  So I do have some clients that are bigger that have scaled.I think, again, you're same problems but manifesting in different ways.

  I think one of the biggest problems isa s people scale, as businesses scale accountability.So people focus in on what's the chart going to look like. But

  I think something that they often miss is what if we don't have an.org chart?

  What if we have an accountability chart?

  Who's responsible for what?

  Because usually if they started as that five person team, kind of everybody might have been doing everything,but you can't have that happen as you scale.

  So that's something that is unique as businesses scale.

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Q5 : Interior Design Business Coach vs Mastermind Group vs Mentor

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  Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Comparing a business coach to working with, say, a Mastermind group or a mentor, someone in the field who has been doing this for longer and can kind of help.

  Where can a coach do things?

  What can they do for you that a Mastermind group couldn't do?

  Group of peers.

  Andrea Liebross: Okay, so a lot of Masterminds are coach led,but if you're in a Mastermind where it's not coach led, which is, I think what kind of more you're referring to just a group of peers.

  Here's the thing. I think what a coach brings to the table is that they're going to ask you the hard questions.

  A coach's job is to I like to say there's a difference between counseling, coaching and consulting.Okay?

  So a Mastermind group may act more like consultants in a sense.

  Like, hey, I've been there, I did that, this is what happened. Okay.

  I don't think anyone you described would really act as a counselor. Maybe a mentor would act as a counselor in a sense, but counselors really help you understand the past and get to the present.

  The way a coach falls into this is coaches jobs are really to take you from where you are today into the future. Right. So we help you access what I call the future you. So does the future you want to have a team of five or 100?

  What do they want? What would future you do today? Because the you of today doesn't really know,or else you would have already done it.

  So if we can ask you the right questions and kind of call you out on some stuff,at least that's how sometimes I coach. That is where the value comes in, where a mastermind group is kind of going to be more of an advisory group in a sense, or can help you brainstorm solutions.

  A mentor is more of a shoulder to lean on,but a coach is someone that's asking the tough questions

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Q6 : What about Interior Designers who transition to Business Coaching?

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  Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I'm curious what you think about a lot ofinterior design specific coaches are people who were interiordesigners and they're no longer interior designers.\

  And I've always wondered if there's a bit of that those who can do and those who can't teach.

  Yes, and without naming names or maybe you don't have the knowledge on this, but…
  
  Andrea Liebross: I think this is an interesting question.

  I think if you're working with someone, it kind of goes back to if you're in the same industry, in a sense, but that interior designer now turned coach has way and method of doing things. And it might have been amazing, like it could be the best way. Right.

  But you are really kind of locking yourself into their way, their methodology, their secret sauce,their recipe when you're working with someone who wasn't necessarily in your field right.

  Then I don't have a recipe necessarily for how every interior designer should operate their business.My job is to ask you enough questions so that we figure that out together what's going to work for you.

  So if you've got someone who is already in your industry, they're probably going to act more as like a consultant than a coach. Whereas I can't necessarily be a consultant because I'm not in your peanut butter jar with you.I'm more of the coach helping you see what's going on.Okay.

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Q7 : Corporate Business Coaches vs Solo Biz Coaches - which is best for Interior Designers?

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  Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Looking at coaching businesses.So I've done my research on coaches and there are along the same lines of what we just discussed. There are coaches who are solo coaches or small team business coaches, and then there's ones that are larger. And maybe they're following some philosophy of some thought leader who's written a book, and now they're kind of franchising that out.

  Can you talk to that?

  Andrea Liebross: Sure.Pros and cons of yeah, I think any kind of coaching is great, first of all. Right. And a sign of a good coach is someone that's going to hold space for you and kind of give you a container, I call it, in which you can grow. Okay.So I think both we'll call them like the more corporate coaching entities and the smaller coaching entities. Both can do that.

  I think what the difference is how personal you want it to be, how personal you want the experience tobe, how much DIYing you want to be doing on your own in a bigger coaching arena. You're probably doing a little more DIYing in a smaller coaching arena or container.

  You've got someone being holding your hand a little more. A coach should really be like I call it like a guide or a sherpa to carry you from the bottom of the mountain to the top. Like you can see the top. Well, you might not even see it. It's covered in the clouds, but you know it's up there.

  So the sign of a good coach is someone that can guide you from bottom to top.It kind of depends how closely you want that person to walk next to you. Do you want them carrying your backpack, holding your hand? Or do you want to kind of go off on your own trail and then only come back when you need them? Right.

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Q8 : Hybrid Business Coaches for Interior Designers???

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  Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: And I'm sure there's I've also seen kind of hybrid offerings where they'll kind of open it up to a small group,a small group, they can receive one on one, a certain amount of one on one with the lead coach. But then there's also that mastermind aspect.

  So say there's ten people in this group so they can interact with each other. Then they have one on one time, and then there might be videos that they will watch together and then have to go and do their homework and then come back. So that kind of thing, I thought that was kind of good.

  But personally, I like the idea of the one on one. So all my stupid little questions I can get out and you understand me?
  
  Andrea Liebross: Yes. So I like that sort of hybrid method.

  Okay.I kind of like the hybrid method.I think you should have a platform where you can ask all your little questions right directly to the coach.

  So I think the one on one provides that or some type of one on one access to a coach is really important. I do think there are merits of being inside a group, though, because you recognize you can sometimes learn more from listening to someone else be coached than you getting the coaching yourself. Because you start to recognize yourself in that other person and things. You're like, well, of course they should do that, or why is that even a problem?

  But then you kind of catch yourself thinking, well,I thought I had the same problem last week. I think there's a real value in listening to others be coached. So the majority of my coaching is done in that hybrid way.

  And I kind of got to that place.I used to only do one on one and I thought something was missing. I thought people can get again, they're kind of caught up in their own selves and opening their horizons out to other people, even in other industries, is important. I always like to say to interior designers, listen,in this group, it is not all interior designers. But you know what?

  The people in this group could be your clients in the sense of ask them the questions, what would attract them? Or what would you want if you were my customer? And that's my client, and that's really valuable.

  And you're not going to get that just one on one, and you're also not going to get that just in a group of interior designers. Right.

Q9 : How to Create a Plan for a Successful Interior Design Business

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  Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: The data I've seen out of both the states and Canada, I mean, small businesses go out of business every day. Correct.

  There's a lot of churn, and with this general small size of design firms, that churn is actually quite high.

  And as we spoke to before about designers being a bit more on the creative side than on the analytical side, I assume there are aspects of running the business, an interior design business, that designers need more help with and less help with.

  Andrea Liebross: Yes, totally true. So there are specialized coaches, specialized services out there,and I think a good coach is going to refer you out when you need it.

  Right.So I think you need to have a legal person kind of on your team or in your back pocket.You need to have an accountant on your team or in your back pocket.

  I'm not going to serve as that person.I can refer you to people,but you need those team members.

  But speaking about small businesses going out of business, there'sa statistic out there, and I could pull it out if I had to, but it's something like 30% of all businesses never make it past the first year.

  Okay.But the businesses that have a business plan have a much higher percentage or success rate. They're not as likely to go out of business.

  And I think what I see a lot in new businesses are that they're just starting because they don't know what to do 1st, second, or third.

  They maybe are turning a hobby into a business or something that they were doing on the side into something full time, and they don't have a business plan.

  So I highly encourage all my clients to create some sort of business plan. Not every business plan fits every client, too.

  Like, there's different styles and ways of doing it. But I think that's kind of the number one thing that you can do to help ensure that you don't go out of business.

  Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Right. And speaking as a non creative, I love process,I love business plans, I love all that stuff.But almost every time I've spoken with a designer or somebody else in a creative industry, it's almost bringing up that topic gives them anxiety.

  Andrea Liebross: Yes.

  Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Like, where do I start? How do I do this?So then they go looking on websites and saying,okay, and they find some form they can fill out, and it creates a ten page business plan,but they don't really understand what they've just done.

  Yes.So that's kind of what Iwas getting with the last question.You led into that perfectly where something like a business plan, organizing that is something where a little hand holding, I think, could go a long way for years to go in that business.

  Andrea Liebross: Yes.We could totally go online and print out 20 templates.Right.

  And if we were disciplined enough, wecould sit down and create the businessplan right by ourselves at our desk. I think that although that is better than nothing, it's really not effective.

  I think the way someone should be creating a business plan is in a more of a dialogue format. Someone asking questions, someone helping you think through the process. And unless it's the type of business plan that can serve as a working document that you refer to on a monthly or quarterly, maybe even daily basis, there isn't really a purpose in doing it.

  So it's not the plan necessarily. It's how you use it.

  So when I do a business plan with clients, oftentimes I'll do a VIP day, and we'll just spend the whole day creating the plan.

  Right.And nine times out of ten, I'll say to them at the end, okay, so you can go on your merry way and go for it. Have a great time.

  Or would you like help continuing to work through this consistently over the year? Yes, I would like help using that document.

  That document serves as kind of the foundation or the reference point that we go back to over and over again to kind of check in with ourselves.Are we on track?

  What did we say? Does this still make sense? And it doesn't have to be something that's static. It's changeable as you change.

  But you've got to have some sort of map, and that serves as the map. I mean, interior designers know that better than anyone else. You've got to map out your room to see if everything's going to fit right and are all the colors going to coordinate? So what's the plan?

  So this is just a different kind of plan?

  Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Yeah, 100%.My wife is the principal designer for our residential company, and as excellent as she is at designing,she has a memory of all of these details. That just boggles my mind, the amount of balls that are in the air every day. It's crazy.It's crazy when I say that designers are creative and maybe not analytical.I think I'm not being accurate, because they do handle the business side of the business very well.

  But maybe not the number crunching and the spreadsheets and the business plans and all that kind of stuff.

  Andrea Liebross: No. And I think a good business planhas both just two parts to it.It's got a part, which is the visionfor the business, and interior designers are usuallypretty good at that part, but then the second part is more of the action part. So what do we need to do in order to make this vision a reality. And that's sometimes where they need a little more help, a little more guidance, a little more prodding and support to make that happen

Q10 : What Makes an Excellent Business Coach?

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  Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: to look at coaches specifically in your mind, what do you think makes an excellent business coach versus an okay business coach? What are the skill sets?

  Andrea Liebross: So I think the skill sets are well, there's not one specific skill set, but I think what makes a good coach is someone that is willing to ask you difficult questions to help you question your own thinking.

  I think an meh coach is someone that commiserates more with you and doesn't necessarily push you out of your comfort zone. A good coach is going to push you into the uncomfortable. Right?

  So there's something called in the coaching world, it's called the motivational triad. So as humans, all of us want three things.

  We want things to be safe, efficient, and easy, which means that we just want to stay in our comfort zone and kind of keep doing what we've been doing, even though we might have the best intentions of changing things up.

  We go back and this kind of goes back to cavemen. Like cavemen.Didn't want to leave the cave.It could be scary. But a good coach is going to continue to assurey ou that we are not in the caveman era anymore.

  It is okay to leave the cave. We don't always have to be safe. We can do things that are hard, and they're going to help you move beyond where you are now.

  A meh coach or an okay coach is going to allow you almost to just stay in the comfortable. And the way usually you get pushed out of the cave is by not they can't force you to do anything, and they honestly can't necessarily hold you accountable.

  You have to hold your self accountable, but they have to help you recognize what's possible and how to turn what might seem impossible into possible and then into inevitable.

  And that's kind of I call it like there'sa little bridge over the there's a river.

  It's called the river of misery.

  And there's a little bridge over the river of Misery.

  And on one side of the bridge, you're inthe Land of Impossible, and on the other sideof the bridge, you're in the Land of Inevitable.

  And that coach is going to guide you plank by plank. It's a little wooden bridge. Plank by plank, from the Land of Impossible, the peak of the little wooden bridge is possible and then over to the Land of Inevitable, they're thereto hold your hand through that process, and they're not going to just push you into the river of Misery and let you float downstream.

  They're going to walk over with you.

  Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I think you also just described the difference between an excellent designer and a meh designer. There you go.

  Because I've heard that a million times. Having to hold the client's hand to make them take a leap when something they don't truly understand.

  Andrea Liebross: Right.We're building a house right now. We got four months to go, and we've been working with the designer since day one. We just ordered all of our furniture. It's very exciting. We ordered that probably two months ago. But anyway, that was kind of the last step.

  But I don't know, I can't envision some of the things. And she's definitely pushed us out of our comfort zone.

  And when working with her now for what seems like two years, it's probably been almost two years.And she's definitely been able to help us see what's possible and then make it inevitable by using her skills, talents and resources.

  So it's kind of fun to watch that process.

  Yeah.And being able to paint that picture in your mind to help see it 100%.And that's sometimes we'll say to her, help us paint this picture. What look and feel do you envision? Help us experience that, even though it hasn't been necessarily created yet.

Q11 : Big-Name Business Coaches vs No-Name Business Coaches

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  Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: As in interior design, there are designers and coaches who have more brand recognition than others.much, but does it really matter if someone is famous?

  Do I want to work with that person?

  Do I not want to work with that person?

  Does the fact that they're famous really make a difference other than possibly their price?

  Andrea Liebross: I don't think it makes a difference. Okay. I think there is something to be said. Just like in any industry, coaches get better at coaching the more they coach.So I continue to hone my craft.I continue to try to think about my clients in ways in which I can explain things, ways in which I can help them see what's possible. I continue to try to do that on an ongoing basis.

  But in terms of brand recognition, you could havesomeone that's only been around for a year, have excellent brand recognition if they've dumped all their moneyi nto PR and branding and everything else. Right.

  So recognition isn't necessarily as important, I think, as whether or not this coach you connect with them,first of all, but not in a chummy way.In a way that's like, I think this person is going to be good for me kind of way.

  So the connection, their ability to ask you the right questions and put you on the right path, their ability to pivot with you. I like to say I work with clients in three stages of their business.

  Not beginning, middle and end,but good, better and best.

  Or as they move into the I call it the zone of extraordinary. Right.

  So I like to see someone progress.I'm happy to do that.

  Some of my clients are running seven figure companies. Some are six figures and some are making their 1st 50K. But a good coach, that has nothing to do with brand name.It has to do with experience, I think, and ability to guide their clients. Okay.

Q12 : Should Your Interior Design Business Coach Be Local?

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  Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: In this day and age, does it matter that the coach and the client are geographically near each other? Does there need to be face to face or does this work?

  Andrea Liebross: I think there is. You can work with someone anywhere in the world. Anywhere in the world, it doesn't matter.

  People say, I like face to face more. So there's pluses and minuses to face to face.

  Sometimes I don't even use zoom anymore. I do majority of time, but once in a while we'll call it we'll go old school and we'll just do phone.

  And even when I'm on the phone, sometimes it's easier to listen to the other person, like truly listen. There's nothing distracting you. There's no face. Right.

  So I think you can receive coaching from anywhere in any format. If I do in person events and I invite my clients to come in for them and I think that is there's benefits to that. Right.

  You've got a different kind of connection if you're all sitting in the same physical room. But to get what you need from a coaching relationship, you should be able to get it from anywhere at any time through any modality.

  It's a matter of the format of the coaching in terms of how people connect. Right.

Q13 : How to Find YOUR Interior Design Business Coach

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  Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: How would a designer, if I'm looking fora business coach, are there any best ways to go and start that search?

  Because I go on Google and I type in interior design business coach, I'm going to come up with a list and then how do I filter that list down?

  How do I find my person?

  Andrea Liebross: I think we're lucky living in the world where the age and world we're living in now that there are podcasts.

  And I think a great way to figure out who the coach is for you is to listen.If they have a podcast, go listen. If they don't have a podcast, see if they've got video on YouTube. Just see if you think that they're going to get you.

  I think Googling is awesome, but I think that voice and hearing them is even more important than any written word that you can see.

  Douglas Robb: Referrals.

  Andrea Liebross: Referrals are great. Referrals are great. I love referrals.

  Ask other business owners and I don't think you have to ask other interior designers.

  You can ask any business owner because if they're a good coach, they should be able if they're willing to coach in any industry,then they should be okay coaching you.

  If you want someone specific to interior design,f irst of all, I would ask yourself why?

  What do you think you're going to gain from that?

  It could be the right thing. It might not be and kind of be curious like. What if I worked with someone that didn't live around the corner for me that wasn't an interior designer?

  What might that be like?

  So be more curious about it than fearful.

  Douglas Robb: Fair enough. So I'm still doing this search for a business coach. Are there any things that I should look for? Any red flags?

  Like, this isn't going to work for me, whether it's just the interpersonal or things they're saying trying to push me in a direction,possibly anything I should be aware of? Negative.

  Andrea Liebross: Yeah, well, I think you need to have some sort of interpersonal connection, and that's important. Right. And we can probably all figure that out pretty quickly, I think.

  Second, they should have a recommendation for what they think is best for you.

  Right.I just did a consult call with an interior designer right before we got on this. And I work with people in a number of different ways, but in the end of the call, I was like, listen, I work with the people in a number of different ways, but here's what I think is best for you, and here's why.

  And this is what I want to offer you.

  If they say you've got 62 different options, a confused person never buys.

  So I think you should look to see if they have a recommendation for what they think you need.

  And it shouldn't be a pushy thing. It should just be coming more from a confidence standpoint.

  Okay.And I think sometimes people get into the whole,well, let's say the coaching calls are Tuesdays at four, and Tuesdays at four are horrible for you.

  You kind of have to ask yourself, does that matter? Do I have to be live on the call? What if this is the right person? And that's the only roadblock?

  You've got to be determined as the client that you're going to get exactly what you need regardless of any roadblocks, because we don't even know what the roadblocks are going to be in the future for sure.

Q14 : Let's Talk Money

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  Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: I assume for solo designers especially, one ofthe roadblocks is going to be cost.

  How does that relationship work between you and your clients in terms of money? Is this a monthly fee they pay for task? How does the relationship work?

  Andrea Liebross: Yeah, I'll start by saying every client money is a roadblock, because in your brain, there probably wasn't a line item that said coaching.Like, in the budget.

  There's no coaching line necessarily.

  There might be something maybe a little bit,but probably not as much as you expected. So one of the things that I think is super important even to work on with my clients is understanding cash flow, especially interior designers, because you're putting out money before you may get paid.

  There's a whole science of that. So I think recognizing helping the client first recognize that this is something that we're going to work on money mindset, but also the nuts and bolts of understanding your cash flow.

  And I even have a separate team of coaches that work under me.That's their specialty.

  How I do my payments, I call it investment.

  How I work with the investment with my clients.I do have one service that is a VIP day, that's kind of a standalone one time payment for that VIP day.

  That VIP day is included in some of my other packages. If it's another way we're coaching and working together, it's always a twelve month commitment.

  But I always divide that twelve month investment into twelve monthly payments. Because I think as a business owner, it's healthy to think about cash flow in terms of what's coming in each month and going out each month and be able to allocate funds for coaching.

  For another thing that you're going to want to invest in for taxes, you've got to kind of think about that on a monthly basis.

  So that's how I've broken out my payments. And the twelve month comes from the fact that being an entrepreneur is really a journey in personal development, kind of disguised, I call it as an entrepreneurial roller coaster.

  So being an entrepreneur is a journey in personal development disguised as an entrepreneurial adventure. So you're on a journey, and to go the farthest, the fastest, honestly, you have to kind of be in it for the long run.

  Douglas Robb: Yeah, I would guess that a year really isn't even it's not a long time go by.

  Andrea Liebross: I have clients that I've worked with for five years, so a lot of clients continue.

  It's not a one and done.

  But in the initial onset, I say you've got to emotionally and financially commit yourself for a year.

  And that makes sense on a whole bunch of levels.

  Douglas Robb: It used to be not too long ago, that when designers would go out for an initial consultation with a homeowner that was expected to be free. Right.

  And for a variety of different reasons. Podcasts for one. For sure, coaches talking on podcasts about this, hammering on designers, saying you have to charge for your consultation because people do not respect free no.

  Andrea Liebross: And usually a designer, you're kind of in that consultation, you're giving them your knowledge likey ou're already giving them something in that consult.So 100%, I think designers should be charging for consults.

Q15 : What kind of Return on Investment (ROI) can you expect by hiring an Interior Design Business Coach?

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  Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Have you had clients wonder about return on investment or ask you about return on investment? I'm sure they all wonder about it,but…

  Andrea Liebross: Everybody wonders about it, right. Sometimes it's a question that actually comes out of their mouth. Yeah.

  My goal is always that you ten x your investment, at least. Okay.

  And I actually recorded a podcast this morning for a guest to be on my podcast who's a client of mine, and she literally has ten x’d her revenue in her business since we started coaching.

  So that was kind of fun.

  But what's the guarantee? Okay, like what's my guarantee?

  The only thing that I really can guarantee you is that you're going to think about things differently and that you are going to have way more tools in your toolbox to face whatever comes your way in the future.

  And the tools that I give you are not just business related tools. We may be talking about something in a business sense,but you can use that tool in your personal life.

  I always say that your family doesn't know it, but they're about to get an upgraded you. And I've had people say, my kids just told me I've been a lot nicer, right. Or my husband says, like, I seem much calmer right now.

  Those are like the hidden benefits of coaching.

  I can guarantee that that is what will happen.

  That I can guarantee that you're going to have a whole new perspective on how to look at your business and your life.

Q16 : Interior Design Business Coaching - Andrea Liebross - Final Thoughts

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  Douglas Robb - Interior DesignHer: Is there anything you would like to add? Anything I've missed that you think an interior designer who is either looking for a coach or maybe they know their business needs something,but they don't know what they need.

  They don't know who to go toand they're freaked out by it.

  Andrea Liebross: Okay.So I think there's two things I'm going to say to that.

  You don't need to know exactly what you need. If you're with a good coach, that coach is going to help you figure out what you need.

  So that's kind of a benefit of working with someone that is a business or business and life coach versus someone that's super specialized in email marketing.

  That's like a whole different kind of thing.

  Email marketing or things like that are more Band AIDS you're putting on problems. They're not long term solutions.

  So if you're looking for long term solutions, you definitely should be looking more for coaching than for the specialist.

  The specialists will come and you might need those and we'll get to that.

  But you definitely should be looking for someone that's more of a coach that's not just about duct taping things together or using Band AIDS.

  And that's about more long term solutions and long term thinking.

  So the other thing to think about is if you're considering this, I always like to ask what's the worst thing that could happen? Right?

  So someone's like, well, the worst thing that could happen is that I don't get any return on my investment.

  And you will get a return on your investment.

  Exactly what that's going to look like for every client, I can't tell.

  But your thinking is going to be different. You're going to have more tools in your toolbox. You're going to be nicer to your family, your employees. You are going to benefit from this.

  So is the worst thing that can happen worse than it is now. No, it never is.

  So with that, I think that they should also they can waste tons of time and energy tryingt o make a decision on who right.

  Go with someone, just do it.

  And I guarantee you'll probably be thankful in the end.

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Alright…there’s our first Q&A interview on interior design business coaching. I hope it helps.

I also want to thank Andrea Liebross for putting up with my first interview awfulness. I promise to get better.

If you want to contact Andrea to inquire about her coaching services or just ask her a question, you can reach her at her website.