In this podcast interview, Amanda Arcone, owner and principal designer of New England Home and Interiors, discusses her journey in the interior design industry. She explains how her business evolved from initially considering virtual design to focusing on custom, hands-on work with clients in northern New Hampshire and Vermont. Amanda emphasizes the importance of being involved with textiles and creating physical design boards, which led her to transition away from virtual design to a more collaborative, in-person approach with clients.
Amanda also shares insights about her client base, primarily second homeowners from Boston and New York who own vacation properties in ski resort areas. She discusses her design philosophy, which involves custom work for everything from window treatments to furniture. Amanda highlights the importance of understanding one's worth and value in the industry, as well as the significance of branding that reflects both her personal style and the casual, relaxed nature of her community. The interview touches on her upcoming professional events, including a trip to Paris with the Interior Design Society (IDS) and plans to attend High Point Market.
Here is a bullet point list of Topics & Advice covered by Amanda Arcone & Amanda :
- Remember to Niche down and focus on a specific design style or client type to stand out in the crowded interior design market.
- Develop a clear brand identity that reflects your authentic self and design style (you don't have to cater to everybody).
- If you're new, consider partnering with e-design companies to gain experience and build your portfolio or mentoring/interning under someone (small firm or interior design studio for real-world experience).
- Hire a branding and website designer for professional + strategic graphics (aka Amandork to the rescue). Take a peek here: https://fosterdecor.wixsite.com/farmhousenewengland-
- Ditch the DIY amateur look. If you're wanting to land quality clients and expecting them to spending a lot on you - you need to invest in your website and branding to show you're serious.
- Create a strong online presence, especially on social media platforms like Instagram.
- Show your face and personality in your social media content to connect with potential clients (be apart of your brand).
- Focus on solving clients' design dilemmas rather than just sharing pretty mood boards (think about your ideal client's struggles)
- See what you're comfortable with creating physical or digital mood boards to showcase your design style and ideas to clients.
- Look into business networking meet-ups with your business cards. Everyone has homes and could use a designer's help.
- Attend interior design clubs, memberships and groups for continuing your education with the industry to learn.
Transcript:
Amanda Foster: Hi guys, Amanda here from Foster Deport Consulting. We have a very special guest on our podcast, Peer to Peer. I want to introduce Amanda Arconi. Yes, please tell us about yourself and what have you been up to and all of this exciting stuff because it's been too long.
Amanda Arcone: I know. I know. I miss you. So my name is Amanda Arconi. Like you said, I am the owner and principal designer of New England Home and Interiors. I'm an interior design firm located in northern New Hampshire. So we serve the greater New Hampshire and Vermont community, mostly second homeowners that are living in Boston, New York that come up here to ski and have second New Hampshire.
Third, fourth, five homes. And so we really work with those clients to, design and decorate inspired spaces. That's us in the industry.
Amanda Foster: Wait a second. Your ideal client now has four, five 17 homes now?
Amanda Arcone: I always say we, I call them the winter people, because where we are, we get snow, we are in that we are at the, I am, my, my studio sits at the bottom of Loon mountain, which is a big ski resort here in New Hampshire.
My farmhouse is at the bottom of another ski mountain. So we service, the ski fanatics, those folks that really invest in our community and love to ski. It. But they live in Boston and maybe they've got a a beach house on the vineyard or they summer in Europe, or, we have a wide range of clients that don't necessarily live up here full time.
We have a few of those, but for the most part, I would say 90 percent of our businesses is, this is not their primary residence.
Amanda Foster: Gotcha. Gotcha. So are these more like vacation homes that you're redesigning or renovating?
Amanda Arcone: So we do new builds in large scale renovations. And then we also do, I'm, when it comes to design for me I'm agnostic in that I'll take on any kind of project if I feel like it's the right client and the right project.
So we are working on a couple of new large mountain homes And we're working on a large scale renovation But we'll also do those small decor refreshes where you need a new black backsplash in the kitchen. You need new window treatments. Um, you need some new paint. We love to refresh spaces with paint is magical.
So that's always a really Easy. A refresh and update when you update, want to update your home. We will take on those projects as well. And we have those types of projects. So I don't say that I'm just for, big houses, I'm a minimum 7000 square feet and 4 million.
That's it. That's not who I am. I'm I'm really for me as a designer I really like to work with people that really want to work with us and want to help and we're pretty intentional about who we work with. So we like to work with people that like us and we like them so we've been really lucky to so the niche or the ideal client is good people.
Oh, we're good people that like to serve good people.
Amanda Foster: Talking about niche, if we rewind, I think it was it in 2022 when we started working together.
Amanda Arcone: Yeah, or 2021, maybe even I have to go back and look, but it could have been even 21 where we started some early conversations about the website we do.
Amanda Foster: Wow. Okay. So it's been obviously some time now. And yeah, where were you back in 2021 when we first were working together?
Amanda Arcone: Yeah, I was trying to figure out what I wanted to do interior design because I was leaving a corporate career after 30 years. And, I was really falling into the creative side of myself.
But what has evolved over time is while I have this creative side, really building a firm. Based off my professional experience. So I think I really went into it heavily creatively. Like, how am I going to, how do I want to work with a client? And I think originally we were looking at things from a virtual perspective, because it's where the world was at the time.
And as I got into some early projects while I was still doing my corporate career, one of the things I realized that I really love about interiors is that. Textiles and that became a key piece for me in figuring out where I wanted to go with my design business because I need to, as you can see behind me, I've got probably 2000 fabric samples in my studio now is really important for me to touch and get really involved with textiles.
So I started one of my first big projects virtually. It was someone in Boston that was building a home here in This northern part of the state, and we were trying to figure out her couple of things that were custom, right? Sofa, chairs, window treatments. And I was like, I need to really get a bit more involved from a textile perspective in order to design the way I want to design.
I couldn't deliver a virtual design and we tried, but she was really lovely and working with me. But I just knew for me to be the designer I wanted to be, I needed to step away from the virtual aspect of design and really get involved collaboratively with the client on a one to one basis. My design boards are physical boards.
I will do some early inspiration digitally, but we build out old school.
Both: Design
Amanda Arcone: and we present those to clients because that I'm a tactile person and I knew my design firm for me to build and do things the way I wanted to. I needed to have that experience to be passionate about it was to be much more physical in the business than digital.
So that's the big evolution really is how we were starting things. But I do use the digital tools. Those are really important. And so in. In determining my niche custom being doing things from a custom perspective were really important. I'm not just selling a pottery barn. So I don't do anything retail.
Everything is custom here. Custom window treatments, custom sofas, custom chairs. We do everything custom.
Amanda Foster: Wow, that is amazing. That's so cool. I didn't know that you branched off in that direction. So that was another reason why I was like, we need to get on a podcast and talk about this. Yeah,
Amanda Arcone: because I felt like that's that would for me to stand out from the crowd.
I was like, how do you do that? And I, what I think in interior design is a fairly crowded market. Markets marketplace. So how do I stand out as me, my person, the one and only Amanda, just like you're the one and only of you and you're amazing. And you have this brand, but my brand is a very collaborative getting to know my clients, letting them get to know me being in their spaces a lot and having them be in my studio.
So having a studio space was also a piece of that was critical. Which then led me as I was getting into more projects to, as you do get more involved with the clients, they're relying on you. Okay, now I need, okay I'm buying 3, 000 wallpaper. Okay. I need a certified wallpaper installer, not just, so and so's great aunt that, likes to put up wallpaper, our neighbor's friend of a friend.
Yeah. So as I got more involved in these things, I needed a really great. Tile guy, like someone who, if I'm going to buy thousands of dollars in tile, I need a really good tile guy. So it just, all these things evolved and getting involved in the community and just being that person that could deliver not just a beautiful design, but executing on it too, that becomes the brand is who am I bringing along with me in this journey?
And that's really important.
Amanda Foster: Awesome. No, I love that. When we rewind and we go all the way back, it probably was in 2021 when we were still coming off COVID and everyone was working from home and I was getting a lot, of people coming to me I want to learn e design and that's where it was like, okay, yeah, the world is going virtually, but I didn't want for any of my clients and you to just rush into, let's just make the logo.
Let's just make the website, we'll just. Jump ahead and wait a second, let's learn more about you. Because like you said, there's only one Amanda Arconi. So we really want you to be a part of your brand and discover what makes you excited. And as we were going in that direction, it sounded like after we finished you, Went in another direction, but it was still part of you and your personality that we were trying to pull from, because a lot of people are hiding behind their logo or not really embracing this is my business.
This is my brand. I'm a part of it. And you totally have. And I'm so excited for you. Thank you.
Amanda Arcone: Yeah, and I think that's a good discovery to when people work with you is going through. Don't hide who you are, even though I'm designing some of these mountain homes are a little bit more rustic than I would go or a little bit more modern than I would normally go.
Go. I have an appreciation for so many different design styles. Like I, that's my problem, man. Like I love all the things, right? Like I think as designers, we say we love one style, but I'm not going to lie. Like I love a good white sofa, just like anybody else. I think that it's really important.
It's funny. I want to show you something. We just had custom thank you cards made up for our firm. Let me grab one. Even though we're like this, I or interior design firm people know, like I, and I think people have to really dig into what is. Yeah. Okay. You can have your niche, but your niche doesn't mean anything if you don't know what your value is.
So you really have to understand your worth and your value. And that goes to so many different things, like how you charge, how much you're charging, how you bill, like all the things, but. Even though you're helping someone build a 7, 000 square foot, mountain home and you don't live in one, or that's not your favorite style.
You can still tell them what you like, and you can still put your touches in their home because they appreciate that it's a lot of decisions to make. But anyway, so yes, we're New England home and interiors, but they know that I'm Amanda and that they've hired me to do a certain job. And I live here and I'm local.
So what am I? Really big values is that I live here. I have resources. A lot of people do bring their Boston and New York designers up, but I'm here, I can run over to the job site. I can do all the things to be present for. When things arrive and arranging schedules. So that's really a lot of the value I bring.
But still, I'm Amanda who lives in an 1800s farmhouse. So we had our little, our thank you cards. My, my other designer, our little thank you, but we still have our, our cute farmhouse. And then, pictures from inside my home. Because, it's, it's my, it's from me to you.
One I'm appreciative, but I'm appreciative because of who I am now, because I'm pretty appreciative because of who I am and that you've allowed me to come in your home and help you with,
Amanda Foster: And that's why we did so much with your branding so that it really represents you. And I'm so glad you're still using like the color palette and the fonts and the photos and everything.
It's just
Amanda Arcone: Yeah, we do a lot of work. Because even though I'm marketing myself to builders and trades people and to clients, it's still who I am, and it's also indicative and I think people need to think about that too, is where are you sitting? Who, what is your community like?
What is your community like, or what do you want that community to be? We're a very casual community. People come up here. They're not coming up here in their high heels and their expensive suits like they're coming up in their And their casual clothes and they're coming up here to relax So it was really important for me to also have a very relaxed casual
Both: To fit that
Amanda Arcone: because I didn't want to also weren't muddy job site.
So sometimes I have to wear my muck boots but um you still want to look professional and be professional, but you still want to you don't want to put on be something that you're not You know, you really have to be yourself
Amanda Foster: And I, I honestly miss your home, because I remember so many gorgeous photos.
It was like walking into a fairy tale. So I just wanted to ask are you still a super host and doing the Airbnb stuff with your farmhouse?
Amanda Arcone: It was, it became too much for me, with this business, the business really took off and having a physical, brick and mortar, having a studio it was, it became too much to balance with the property, so it was it was a little too much and it really went all in on my business.
So it was, it was more than I can handle.
Amanda Foster: If I come out there, can I see the fairy tale farmhouse?
Amanda Arcone: There's always a room for you. Absolutely. Absolutely. And
Amanda Foster: I just, I love those pictures. They were so vibrant and colorful and just, almost like this maximalist cottage, decor style.
And I just want to ask do you miss that? Or are you like, you know what, my client projects are one thing, but in my home, I'm still able to. Blunt and design and decorate and add to it.
Amanda Arcone: Yes, my poor you know I think this is what all interior designers would say is that my because i've been so busy with client projects That my poor house has fallen to the wayside But we do have some projects coming up.
I have i'm going to redo a lot of my window treatments so I am you know, one of the one of the things I did with my business is I expanded into custom window treatments both hard treatments and soft treatments so I have a window treatment designer on staff now. And so I keep telling her, I'm like, can you come to my house and measure my windows so we can do my windows because I need your window treatment.
Yeah, it's, I'm still, I love that. That is absolutely my style. I'm so happy to be working on another project where she loves wallpaper and like mixing patterns and things. So I'm excited to get that done this fall. So it's definitely, that is at my core. I love, what do they call it?
Like grandma style or something. Like I'm totally grandma style. I love to me, it's British style, French, it has color to it. I definitely love I'm at Uber. We were talking about events coming up, like high point and I'm a member of IDS and DSA, and so I will be going to Paris with IDS in a couple of weeks to Maison objective.
Yes, I know. Very excited about that. There are some really lovely women. I think it's about 40 women that it that belong to ideas. And that's obviously 1 of the largest interior design. Associations, which I always recommend belong to a couple of belong to a couple of associations. I actually got into New Hampshire magazine because someone found me on DSA.
So if you're looking for a publication, that's a good way. I know I find, I go to associations to find like wallpaper installers that are certified and so forth. So plus you can get good insurance and so forth, but yes, I'm excited to go to IDS in Paris. With ideas in Paris and then I'm looking forward to High Point in October.
I'll be bringing my window treatment designer. We have quite a few meetings that we've got set up with vendors.
Amanda Foster: Wow. Okay. So on the topic of Paris, I remember when we were doing your website, we had pictures of Paris and your travels. And so that's just like full circle.
Amanda Arcone: Amazing. Yep, I love Paris. It's my favorite city.
I went to Paris the first time when I was 18, and I just I love the city. It's to me very, it's one of those, I think all
designers can say, oh, why did you become an interior designer? One of those, is,
Both: You actually
Amanda Arcone: To move your bedroom furniture around, but I was very inspired by at a young age traveling and experiencing different architecture and flavors.
And I was just talking to my Norwalk furniture rep. She was here actually yesterday morning. We were doing some things with my fabric and I remember I was telling her, Oh, I went to, when I went to Paris the first time, I the bedding was so beautiful. I was just overwhelmed by the gorgeous bedding in the hotel.
And I never looked back, I never looked back. I was like, I will always have nice bedding.
Amanda Foster: That's awesome. Yeah. I've gone a couple of times now and it's like a fairy tale, you're just walking through some kind of dream, the furniture, the food,
Amanda Arcone: everything. Yeah, it is. It's really, it's lovely.
Yeah. It's really lovely. So I definitely
Amanda Foster: see those little touches in your home. And I wonder if you do that in your clients projects, add a little bit of that Parisian cottagey coziness to those little touches. Maybe clients that are open to it.
Amanda Arcone: Yep. I sneak it in. I do sneak it in. And I try to find it different ways, whether it's through a wallpaper or a fabric or we do a lot of custom kitchen cabinetry I've got a really great cabinet company that a custom cabinet that I work for so whether it's a color or a blend of colors and try to let ask I tried to, I remind people that you've hired an interior designer to bring you inspiration.
To step outside of the box and at least listen. And sometimes they're like, Nope hard pass. And other times they're like, Oh, actually, you know what? I think I would really like that. You just have to, I think you just always have to ask the question. I really want to share this with you and I really want you to think about it.
And that's another. Reason why I like to be in the spaces with people because, we We're doing this new build and I wanted to do a wall treatment with a textured wall with an artist in Houston She comes up here a few times a year and she's an artist and she does like textures on walls and ceilings You know gold leaf and all the things like you name it.
She does it And she brought me some samples and I was like, I think this I Wonder if my client would like this i'm going to take it to the house And we're, I'm going to show her, I'm going to put the sample board on the wall. I said, now just think about it. And you guys sell a little, right? Being a salesperson and we cannot lie about that.
Like you are a salesperson and I'm like, just, you're sitting at the dining room table, you're looking at the wall and look at the texture and the colors. And she's Oh, you're right. That's really beautiful. I'm like, okay, so there, so I think that's another reason why I like being in person and touching the things and showing the things is that I'm a better salesperson in person.
I think I do better presentations in person than I do. So that's, it just looked full circle for me about how I run my business and work with clients.
Amanda Foster: No, that's exciting. I'm always about your brand and niching down and, being You definitely have evolved, and all designers do that every few years.
We're morphing, we're changing, we're going with, this trend that we really like that has affected that it's, and it's resonated with us and we learn constantly. So I am super proud, very proud to see your transition, because I remember when you were still working your nine to five and, in the corporate world and you had those dreams of I just.
I want to decorate. I want to leave, this job and we started doing those small steps of let's discover, your design style and who your ideal client would be. And just dream big, we were trying to dream big into what all that meant. And now look at you, you have your own firm with your own design assistant.
I heard. You
Amanda Arcone: got your
Both: yeah,
Amanda Arcone: we have a few on staff. I've got a part timer that does, decorating and staging and that kind of thing. For me, I have a full time window treatment designer. I have a part time, she's in college, but she's going to design school. So she's a couple of days a week. So she does all my mark.
She does a lot of my marketing content. She does some of my sketch up. Training her and working with her, and then I have I have an installer. So I have a team of people that are the trades that I bring onto projects as necessary. There's a whole group of guys on that side of it.
You have a team. You have an empire.
Amanda Foster: We have a team. You're building the
Amanda Arcone: Antony empire. I know, we are a team and that's important. Like I was saying, I don't want to go buy a European wallpaper and then just have Joe Schmo put it up on the wall. I need a good guy. I need a really good guy, so.
Amanda Foster: That's awesome because you're learning more about your values, like you said, which is a part of your brand and part of your niche. And it all ties together because they could go with somebody off of thumbtack, but they keep coming to you because you're all about quality and those values. So I think that's something, that our listeners can learn because you can go in a.
Completely different direction, if you want to work with people with smaller budgets, that kind of need that maybe thumbtack person, and can provide reliable people or apps or services or things like that. But for you, I'm just. Blown away. You have an empire, you have a team.
Look at your, look what's behind you. Look at all of those samples. It's
Amanda Arcone: a little bit of a mess right now. We've got a lot of things around us right now.
Amanda Foster: That is not a mess. That is like eye candy. That is an interior designer in a candy store is right behind.
Amanda Arcone: I know. I know we're squirrels too.
We're a bunch of squirrels here. So we try to stay focused, which is why we've got like fabric and everything all over the place. You don't even see half of it over here.
Amanda Foster: Oh my gosh. If you're anything like me, I'm always just maybe I could use this, for a different project. And it's maybe I need to get rid of some of these, but I just always think, someone else will like this.
Someone, I know this.
Amanda Arcone: I know. We, I know we're like, we're not giving up. We're not giving up on this fabric. We got to put it on somebody's wall or somebody's Windows, so yeah
Amanda Foster: Oh my gosh, i'm just so excited and happy that you're able to speak to our listeners today Do you have any advice for maybe the people who are like you and they're nine to five daydreaming about?
Maybe e design or interior design And what advice would you give? Kind of them, AKA your past self, right? Just stuck in that job and wondering, what should I do? How can I break free of this? Like you did.
Amanda Arcone: Yeah, I know. I think it's understanding how you like to work. I think that's really key and I didn't like working virtually.
So it was important for me to have the physicality of a design firm was important to me. I also worked for about nine months for another interior designer in her studio and shop. She did she really was a window treatment designer and she did some design work, but she had You did custom furniture and so forth.
So working with her and learning how she works and how she doesn't work and I learned a lot about what client I have, I've known obviously having a corporate career and working with business to business, so you know what the expectations are and how to communicate. So I had all of that down. So I did see some of the flaws in her business model that I knew I wasn't going to be doing in my own firm because it didn't align with my values.
We send, we're constantly sending gifts. We sent chocolates to one of our window treatment vendors. We sent thank you cards. We sent, we do a lot of thank you. Thank you. We're, I think you have to take, you have, and I see a lot of this interior design and this may be a controversial, but You got to take the ego out of it because it is not all about you It is about the people who are paying you a lot of money to execute a design and so While it is your craft and your magic that you bring this design together it is big money They are paying you and i'm not saying the client is always right because they are not always right And you sometimes have to adjust and work around that
Both: But
Amanda Arcone: you have to take your ego out of this and I think that's really important.
Is that yes, you want to execute a design something in there. The client may not like you have to respect that as much as it kills us inside. You've got to really respectful. So I think, just. Build your team as you're doing this, I hired you, we work together, you have to make an investment in your business.
I went and got an interior design certification, again, controversial. I believe in education. I think you have to get some kind of education at 30 years of business experience, and I went to my local university and took an interior design certification for a year. Hire professionals. You cannot make your own logo.
You cannot build your own website. Just, you cannot hire a professional, right? Like you cannot do these things. You need to hire people. So there is no business ever in the world created in anywhere. If you look at any of the fortune 500 companies that started their business by the CEO, scrapping it and building everything themselves.
So look at this for what it is. And it's a business. So hire the people, get the certifications. You're going to be asking people for large sums of money. You want to feel confident when you ask for that, money.
Both: So
Amanda Arcone: That's my advice.
Amanda Foster: I love that advice because that helps people like me who are here to give you good branding, good websites, good social media, all the things that really Here's at the end of the day, do not need to worry about, put your creative juices with your clients and your products and not in the marketing because a lot of times people don't know how to market themselves very well.
And like you said, do you think maybe big companies like apple and Steve jobs was, doing every single thing. No, he delegated things out. And that's how Apple is what it is today. Instead of just no, let me perfect it, even though I have no idea what I'm doing. So I appreciate what you just said and wish a lot of my clients would feel the same way.
Sometimes people like to be involved in every single thing. And I think that is if you got out of your way, for some things you could have a stronger business, a stronger brand, a stronger company, and a team. Delegating out is very CEO mindset, even for those beginners out there.
And I think with the scarcity mindset Oh no, maybe I'm, I'm not going to make very much money and I'm not going to get very many projects and I just need to, protect myself and be overly cautious. Having more of an abundance mindset is so crucial in business. I don't know if that has affected you and your business or not.
Amanda Arcone: Yes, absolutely. I don't know who said it, but I can agree because I've been into enough houses now in the last four years. There are enough ugly houses for everybody. Okay, there are enough. I promise you, everybody, there's enough ugly houses for all of us, and there's enough different design styles. That needs
Amanda Foster: to be a bumper sticker.
That was by
Amanda Arcone: Amanda. Exactly. And you will get to a point where you walk out of an ugly house and you're like, oh, please don't hire me. I don't even know where to start. There is so much out there that we can bring to them. And that's why I say, I know some people will say I'm a full service interior designer and I only offer these services.
I think you need to be open to listening to a client and maybe meet them where they're at. And if you didn't like doing it, then don't do it again. But I think, in the beginning. Yeah, I'm working on a house doing the exteriors. I do not like picking exterior finishes. I don't fashes and soffits and roofing and not, no way.
I hope I don't have to do this again. I'm getting through it. So I think you have to just meet them where they're at. If someone says, I really want to work as a designer, ask them, what it is, understand what that scope of work is. And give it a try. I think that's important, but I think you have to, and it's really hard, right?
Like the mindset piece of it is that's a tricky one. You really do need to understand that there is enough work out there for everyone and you're not for everyone. That's a key point. And they're not for you.
Amanda Foster: That's probably my favorite key point is. You might not be for everybody, but that's okay because you're going to be perfect for somebody else.
Amanda Arcone: You're making space. I feel and it's really hard, we lost a really big opportunity at the beginning of the year. And I was in that spot of Oh my gosh. You know what, and for every interior designer, the first six months of this year, it was really hard, the marketing, I mean, the housing market, like all the things, the interest rate I know all of us are like, we're on just waiting for September and the interest rates to drop and the housing market to have a shift and people feel more comfortable spending money on things like this, but, and that's a whole nother thing, but the reality is that we lost that project.
But then all of a sudden, we just got so busy and I was like, Oh, that we had to lose that project because it cleared space for better projects and for us to do the projects that we already had to do a better job on those projects that we were already in. So it just, I think sometimes I know is just. Is can be a really positive win.
I think sometimes. No, we don't see it at the moment, but it can be actually a really good thing. So you just have to get through the nose. It's painful. I'm not going to lie. It took me a month to get over it. But, uh, You just have to just, if you really love this work and you're passionate about it, you got to stick with it.
And I think those are the people that succeed are the people that are just dig in and stick with it.
Amanda Foster: So when things turned around, was it because you finally let it go and you're like, okay, you know what? We don't, I don't give them all. It happens. Not every client is going to move forward and that's okay.
And yeah, after that, things just snowballed.
Amanda Arcone: Yeah, we just started getting really good calls and really good projects, some smaller, some bigger. And it, we, it just, that, that went after we lost that one a few weeks later, we got. This large scale renovation that we're working on and it has been so fun and so much more creative and so I that's why I just say like you're gonna you're getting a no for some reason and I don't know to get too woo on people but I do believe that we just we're where we are for a reason and I think if you're aware of that and you're grateful for that and you can try to let go of certain things that and it's it's a practice right like it's a daily practice like brushing your teeth Like you're not going to have you know Great teeth if you just brush your teeth every other day or every three days like you've got to do this every day You got to be grateful every day Even though you're hurting your teeth grateful you have to be grateful For what you have.
And if you're, because if you're not grateful for what you have, you're not going to get any more.
Amanda Foster: Yes, that is definitely something I just talked about when I was coaching one of the other girls in the bootcamp right now, she. We all have those misses. We all get imposter syndrome. We have negative days.
Celebrities who make millions and who are at the top of their game, it's still not enough and they're still feeling imposter syndrome. So I try to remind like, okay, it's okay to have a bad day. It's okay to, cry and, let it all out and have that frustration moment. But like you said, it is like a daily habit that, the next day come back with a positive attitude and not just because I said so, but because do you want to live negatively?
And then yes, to get a little woo that brings, your frequency gets lowered. And so those opportunities in your life, even with friends and family, they're like, Oh, I don't want to be around you. And then that trickles to other opportunities in the universe for your business and just the momentum of where life is taking you.
So yes, like brush your teeth and make it a habit to be kind to yourself. Because then your goals can start like getting on a higher vibrancy and be like, wow, okay. The universe is going to be sending me like with you, all these projects. Yes, you didn't get that big one, but you know what I'm letting it go.
Something else and someone else is going to come in its place. And you got what? Like three, four, five other projects that just, like you said, we're more creative, we're better for you. And it's thank you universe. Maybe, you have my back.
Amanda Arcone: Yeah, it is so true. And I think it's Maya Angelou's take the super glue off the back of your hand and off your forehead.
Oh, woe is me. And the world is like negative. And I forget what her saying is about that, get that super glue off the back of your hand. It's. Have your pity party for a few minutes and get over yourself. It's it is definitely it's a practice and But it's something that in this business or any business for that matter, because interior design is not an easy business, right?
There are so many details and nuances and you have to be all the things to all the people and you have to manage expectations and communication. And so it's incumbent upon you. To really present yourself very positively. No one wants to hire Eeyore to redecorate their house. Come on, we love him and he's cuddly, but it's exhausting.
So I think that's really important to consider.
Amanda Foster: Yes. The universe is all about Tigger. He's jumping up and down. He's positive. He's happy. The vibrancy is like just, radiating. It's almost like laughing. It's contagious. So it's like yawning, right? Yawning is contagious too. So which do you want to put out
Amanda Arcone: into the universe, into the world?
Yeah. Yeah. Laughing is endorphins and all the things. We sometimes after bad projects or something's going on with a client and especially if my, if I'm here with, my Christine my window treatment designer, we just, we start making fun and laughing and try to get, laugh it out, just try to shed it in a way that's.
That's more positive, nothing if you're getting involved, especially in anything with construction. I think this is really good advice for any interior designer. That's getting in. If anybody's just moving a wall or like chipping tile off a wall. It doesn't matter if it revolves dust or trades person.
Nothing will go a hundred percent. There's going to be a problem. There are going to be issues. It's just it's by virtue of what happens when you do things and in someone's home, like it just, it's too many people doing too many things. So I think it's setting the expectation, say, Hey, I'm here to do what I can, but there are probably going to be some challenges that will come up, but I'm going to be here and.
Fix things and organize things the best I can, so
Amanda Foster: it's I actually saw a really good bumper sticker that said i'm tired, but i'm here And I loved that because I think, a lot of times, sometimes you just don't want to get out of bed or, you could be focusing on the negativity or just all of the bad things, but it's just show up even for those new designers out there, interiors or e design, like just show up and learn something and, Whether it's a bad day or not, shake it off.
And I love that you said, even with your team, you're like, let's just laugh it out, let's just be positive and laugh it out. I love that. I think I'm going to steal that and try to do that. Just
Amanda Arcone: yeah it's really important. Cause it's not, interior design is not an easy, it is, it's not an easy business.
It really is. You got to. Put your feet steady on the ground and you really are digging in. So I think that's an important one for people to remember is that it's not as, as I tell my, my, my intern that's here a couple of days a week, it's not all glamorous, it's not all glamorous.
We do get to work with beautiful fabrics and go in really beautiful homes and do those things. But the reality is it's not a glamorous. It's not a glamorous business, when you're running a business.
Amanda Foster: For sure. And I'm just, I'm super excited to see where you are and where you came from.
And it gives our listeners a lot of hope that you could be doing that nine to five feeling stuck, but you can break free of that and be running an empire like Amanda here.
Amanda Arcone: Yeah, no, you can do it. You just gotta, it takes a lot of grit and patience because it does take time, on the marketing side of it is get your act together and make it look professional work with professionals, I'd say.
If you're working a corporate job and you want to switch over, you've got to save your beans, you've got to, you've got to have, some understanding of what the investment looks like to get started on a full time basis. So really hatch a plan, you need a business plan, sit down and write a business plan.
Go to your local SBA office. Small business administration and have someone help you. That's free stuff, build a business plan. Then what next steps you need to go. And okay, I've got to have X, Y, Z for a marketing person and da. So it's really important to build a plan. And you do a lot of that in your programs is that you're trying to understand if we're going to market you, what are we marketing?
Think I can't stress that enough. You do, you gotta hire and it's painful in the beginning because you're like, I'm not really making any money, but you've got to have some money set aside to do it.
Amanda Foster: Yes. That's the big thing that I try to get people to understand. It takes money, to make money.
And if you want to still be stuck. He's stuck. That's fine. But if you want to get to that next level, hiring people that know more than you, cause you don't know everything. And I hate breaking that to other designers. It's just like reality check, our brains, you are.
They're trying to help us. They're trying to keep us safe. But sometimes that gets in the way of wait, maybe I don't know how to do graphic design or how to do a website or how to do marketing or social media. And just because designers try to attempt to do it doesn't mean they're doing it well.
So I really appreciate you saying hire people, work with people, other people, because alone you can do so little, but with a team you can do so
Amanda Arcone: much. You can and, once you can get on the other side of uncomfortable, that's where the glory is, right? Being, getting on the other side of that.
So saying, yeah, do I need, for, I don't know what I would have done if we didn't do the website the way we did, because it became the entry into my business. It allowed me to then understand Google ads. And especially in the world of AI, if people think they can build their own website and how Google is managing websites and as AI evolves, like you need to have a real website built on the rails of a really good system, like a Wix or whatever, and it needs to be cohesive because that is how, and especially virtual designers, I, because I, at least I have a front door and a commercial address.
So I have that, you get a little bump on Google when you have a commercial address but you really need to have that. I still get a lot of leads do come from referrals now, but I get a lot from Google, from my website. So it's, yeah, that's really important that they have, the blogging and the things that you talk about.
So you've got to get that built. Correctly.
Amanda Foster: Yeah. And I work with a ton of full service interior designers. I market myself to help e designers, but so many full service want my help too, because they understand that this is the digital age, it's not about being in the yellow pages anymore.
And not everybody has a brick and mortar and they're just like This means that there's more weighing on my branding, on my social media, on my website to get me that discovery call. So you can only make one first impression. And so if you have a rickety logo that you made yourself for a one pager website that still has stock images, like you're not really setting yourself up for success.
And like you said, if you want to charge premium, you gotta, have. Your stuff looking premium, and that's why you're not using people off Thumbtack or Craigslist to do those tile, right? The tiling for your company.
Amanda Arcone: Yeah, exactly. So it's just an important part. I think important even first step really and taking
your business to the next level and helping you figure out where you're going to go, people still, they're going to the Googles to find, interior designer near me.
Or however, they're going to find you is it's just important to figure that out.
Amanda Foster: Yeah. Okay. Any last, takeaways that you can give us or even shout outs to certain people out there?
Amanda Arcone: No, I just, I say, like what I'd said before is, you're building a business and you need business resources.
And you really need to get yourself into that mindset. Interior design is 80 percent business, 20 percent design. I hate to break that to people, but when you're actually running a design firm, that's where it lands, I'll say 80 percent of my day. Maybe 70 percent depending on what we're doing But your days are never 100 creative if you're trying to run a business, unfortunately So you've got to think about those back end systems and processes and your marketing So I leave it at that, you know as much as I hate to say that because I think it was one of the first things that broke my heart i'm like Oh, wow, I got to really do a lot of work I can't just color and play with fabric all day