I remember talking with a client who had started her own interior design business.
She was a year in, and the cracks were starting to show. Her energy was running low, clients weren’t falling in her lap, and she was out of ideas. She was struggling with her confidence and in particular with selling.
After talking with her and asking lots of questions later she admitted to feeling that no one wanted to buy from her because of her age.
She was in her mid-50s, still a whipper snapper so to speak, and her kids had flown the nest (although one in particular kept coming back)! However, she was comparing herself to the younger women who were starting out already knowing the up-to-date marketing tactics. The ones seemingly reeking of the magic wand waff, Tik Toking and reeling away like pros. Whereas she felt like just showing up on her Facebook page was challenging enough and caused a lot of procrastination and angst. Including feeling like a fraud and a failure.
She started to show up to impress the collective group of designers around her. All of them trying to one-up each other when posting on Instagram and sharing vanity metrics in interior design-only groups. She was in fact allowing the younger gang to disarm her and so she gave away her power.
The issue with losing one’s power is not just the obvious reason. But most importantly you start to forget about the ideal client and the problem you solve. You keep thinking the pretty things, the bells and whistles of marketing fancies, will keep you on top of the A-list wannabes.
Instead, you are alienating your prospective clients due to not reading the room, making it all about you and thus destroying a vital pillar in business. The pillar of understanding is owning your unique selling point. Which starts with identifying your client’s problems and offering a no-brainer solution.
Because my client was pedestalling these competitors and their tactics and pretty things, she was minimizing her skills. I wanted to share with her what I saw as her competitive edge as a potential client. I offered her a reframe.
If a potential ideal client (a couple with kids) was going to be spending, on average, around $5,000 on spatial planning, design, and fabric choices, it would be most likely they would appreciate what she had to offer. This is, the life tapestry of a professional who had, not just design qualifications, but hands-on experience of having, and running, a busy household.
Once we unlocked this wisdom, her literal understanding of what she could bring to her clients was a skill, and skills last longer than a new marketing tactic. I could feel her perspective shift.
She could see her understanding of fabrics and how to choose ones not just for beauty, but longevity would be money better spent. Having the rubbish bin just under the island was a better placement when cooking and would make it a more pleasant experience.
Her newly gained insight that younger, newer, and trendy weren’t always a winning combo. That experience, street cred, life lessons, and communication were skills and competencies people still valued, especially her ideal demographic.
Her living knowledge alongside her developing marketing skills was enough for potential clients to choose her over the emerging next generation. I asked her to wear her pearls of wisdom not just as an accessory but as a statement piece.
What about you? Have you forgotten to wear your wisdom as your statement piece, with pride?
Natalie Tolhopf, the author of Become Unstoppable
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