Mastering Content Creation for Designers: Strategies for Success

Hello. Hi everyone. Thanks for joining us. Hi. Hi. Hi. Oh, it's really lovely to

see some familiar names in the chat. Yes. Um, I'll give it a couple more seconds, but just before we get started,

want to say hello. Thank you so much for joining us. We're really excited about this session today and very grateful for

Katie. Um, just as we're kind of waiting for some last people to join, make sure that

you're using that chat function and just to kind of get us all started today. Drop a hello. Let us know where you're

coming in from today, what sort of professional you are. I'm assuming lots of designers, but it' be great to see

Yeah. how that looks. Oh, I'm seeing lots of activity. Hello, everyone. Hello. Hello. Oh, so lovely to see some

familiar names and faces as well. Hi. Hi. Oh, hi Natasha.

Yeah, lots of familiar names in there. That's really, really great to see. Um, great. Well, I'm very conscious of time.

I know that we've got quite a lot of content to cover today. So, I'm sure people are still joining, but let's get

started. So, hello. My name is Ka. I'm our communications and branding manager for House in the UK. So, I may know some

of you. I'm responsible Oh, thanks for the little reaction there. Yeah, I'm responsible for kind of all things to do

with kind of PR and marketing initiatives. So, I love doing these sorts of events. Um, and yeah, very

excited to be here with you all today. I've got Katie here who we are so grateful to have joined us for a second

year of summer session. So Katie brings with her a decade of kind of managing multi-million pound projects in London

city halls as well as seven years of experiencing running her own very successful interior design business. So

she couples that kind of wide vast experience bringing that into her coaching. So Katie is known for her

intuitive insight, strategy, and the ability to really unlock what her client's biggest visions are and how to

achieve that. So very grateful that you could join us here today, Katie. Thank you. Just before we get going,

just a couple of small housekeeping bits. So you'll see we've got that chat function. Definitely make use of that.

Drop in any questions. We will be saving questions to the end of the session today just because we have quite a lot

of content that Katie wants to cover. So, drop them in there. I will be keeping an eye on those. If there's

anything I can respond to in chat, I will do so, but if not, I will be compiling those and we'll have a session

at the end. We've also got those reactions, so feel free to use that. Um, and I think that's kind of everything.

If you have any issues, I'll be in the chat as will Na. So, if you have any kind of technical questions or anything

like that, feel free to drop them there. But I think we're probably ready to hand over to you, Katie, and let's get going.

Okay. Thank you. Um, so wonderful to be here. Honestly, it's my biggest honor to be invited back and just to spend this

incredibly summery sunny Friday in London with you guys here. So, let me just give you some context. So

when House asked me, Katie, will you come back and do another session? What do you want to talk about? I said, I

want to talk about content because in so many of my coaching spaces, this comes up again. This we're all in this world

where creating content for our business is a thing. Like if you are creating content your business, you should be.

So, but at the same time, there's this feeling that the time and energy going into it is just not being reflected in

the pipeline of projects coming through or in the money you've got in your bank account. And I'm going to share with you

today how we can actually be more strategic with it so that we can start to influence those things. So, let's

just start off with a bit of context. This is what I see across the board when I look at people who are coming into my

world. When I look more broadly at the industry, there are a few key themes. So, our industry loves creating

beautiful content and your clients, your potential clients, they want to see your work, but just sharing a pretty picture

and going, "There's a kitchen I designed," is not going to cut it. The online space is so busy now and just

sharing a pretty picture is not is not going to actually lead you to getting a client.

The other thing I see a lot is focused on you. So, dear diary, let me tell you what I've been up to this month. Let me

share my day. Let me share photos of my kids. And that stuff, I'm sure we'll get a question on this at the end because I

hear this a lot. Well, what is the balance? That stuff plays into your content, but is not the entirety of your

content. Your content should be so focused on the person you're talking to. I'm going to talk about AI a little bit,

but if it's obviously been written by AI, if it sounds like it's been written by a robot, game over. Nobody's

interested. We also really need to move away from just talking about facts and features. I'm a designer. I do this. You

can book in. We do mood boards. We do floor plans. To actually recognizing what it is our clients struggle with and

what they most desire. One of the biggest things I see is content that lacks conviction. If you don't

wholeheartedly believe that you are the very best person for the person on the other side of your content, they will

feel that that energy, that lack of certainty will be felt. So, we're always we have to work on both sides of it. The

what we're saying and the how we're saying it. You might have seen I put this thing on

Instagram a week ago or so about talking about free tips and the internet went that speaks to me. But there seems to

we've got to this place where it feels like giving away free tips is the thing. But your audience don't want free tips.

They don't want your dream clients anyway. Some people are going to love your tips, but your dream clients, if

they're a dream client, you want them to pay you, not to do it for them, not give them a DIY project of their own. And

again, a lot of like this, save this, but not actually doing that sales piece, which is converting anything into

inquiries. So, I want to give you this reframe. Hold this in your mind. Your content literally only exists to support

your ability to get clients and get paid to do the work you love. We're not going for likes. We're not going for views. We

are doing this to support your ability to win projects and get paid. So, what we're going to cover today, I'm

going to talk a bit about mindset because that conviction piece is super important. I'm going to give you my

strategy that I work through with clients that I use in my own business that underpins every single piece of

content that I create. And I want to talk about how we can move oursel away from just chasing the algorithm, which

we are all being pushed to do. All of the everything online, all of these content apps are designed to keep you

busy and chasing likes and views, but that's not where your focus should be. That is going to keep you stressed and

busy. So, how we can actually create something that's more authentic and aligned and actually leads to clients.

So, little bit quick one about me. Um, Kai's introduced me, but I'm Katie. I have run my own studio. Before that, I

used to manage multi-million pound projects in London city hall. I work with designers around the world now,

North America, Europe, um the Middle East, the UK. And my coaching is very much centered between these two places.

It bridges this very strategic practical and this much more holistic approach to creating a business that you will

actually love to lead. So, if you that QR code, I'll share it again later, but that will take you to a way that you can

connect with me. So as you go through if you think I just want to know more, how can I work with you further? You can

always just click on that with your phone and drop in your email and that will let have us connected. Okay, let's

just I want you to tell me in the chat. I'm going to give you four content myths and I want you to tell me the answer. Is

it yes or no to these things? Okay, you ready? So number one, you need a big audience to be a big name. Is that a yes

or a no? No. No. No, no, no, no, no. Okay, cool, cool, cool. No, strong messaging will convert a tiny following

into clients. That has been my experience when I moved from running my design studio to running my my coaching

business. I had a completely new Instagram account. I had like 50 followers and I sold out all of my spots

because I was very focused on the messaging. It's exactly the same. You do not need a big following. Okay. Number

two, you need professional photos. Yes or no? This is a trickier one. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Some ideally. Yes. Lucy. Totally right. It's yes and no. Like aim to get photos. Professional

photography is going to go so far. Prioritize it. Budget for it when you're um billing and when you're setting your

fees. But a strong brand and a strong message will convert anyway. So, number three, you need video editing skills.

Yes. No. What do we think? There's a lot of lot of noise out there about all kinds of apps and all kinds of snazzy

stuff. Yes. No. Yes. No. Kind of. Okay. This one for me is a no. Like high-tech video will get a ton of views.

Often it's engaging. It keeps us hooked. It keeps us scrolling. But it doesn't always translate. In fact, in my

experience, it is my most basic content. literally text on a thing or one image and the message that converts the

highest. Not just converts at all, but converts the highest out of all of my posts. And you can see that on my

Instagram. Okay, last one. Consistency is key. Yes or no? Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. But only if what you're repeating is good. There's no point in being consistent in repeating a message that

nobody's listening to or that's boring everybody. So the messaging is so so so important before you tie up your time

saying I must post today. I must be consistent. Okay, let's talk a bit about mindset. So some of you might be

familiar with this um with this diagram. I use it a lot in my coaching, but essentially there's this process where

what we're thinking in our mind informs how we're feeling in our body. That then informs the actions that we take, and

then that has this knock-on effect on the results we get. So, you're going to have your own version of this, but

here's just some examples. If you're thinking, I don't have anything to say, you know, I'm not a content creator. I I

just want to do this design piece. People don't want to be sold to. other designers don't use their content to

sell because if you look across the board, it's quite a quiet place, the interior design world, in terms of

actually selling. Um, and this idea of people will think I'm ridiculous. If these are all the thoughts that are

going through your head, and you may have your own, you probably do have your own, then you are going to feel

inhibited. You might feel this sense of despair like, how am I going to get clients? this frustration, other people

are posting great stuff and this isn't working for me. You might be looking around envious of what others are doing.

And all of that feelings lead you to this place of inaction. So you either ghost social media completely. Or you

just post what feels safe. Oh, I just, you know, that they're doing that, so I'll just copy a similar format and the

resonance, the connection between you and the person you're speaking to is just gone because it was never your

original content. and you just end up losing hours looking at what other people are doing and worrying, I don't

have anything to post. I don't feel good enough and then that shows up in your results. So, you don't have the

visibility you want. It doesn't feel authentic. You're not creating that connection with clients and ultimately

that impacts your leads. So, if we flip this model completely and say, well, let's just change the thoughts that

we're starting with. You know, I'll work with what I have. I might not have a full portfolio of incredible

professional photos. Well, what can you work with? What can you use? Great content gets clients. So, I get to

design. Coming back to that thing that your content leads you to get to do the thing that you love to do.

People want to see and be sold the thing that they want and need. Imagine your frustration. Desperately looking for

that service that you need and you're spending all this time looking for it and you can't find it. People love being

given a solution right in front of them. And businesses sell. If you're in business, then one of your key jobs is

to sell. And content is one of the key mechanisms. You have to do it. And that they don't pay my bills. That refers to

the idea of that ex-boyfriend, that ex- boss, those old colleagues who you're thinking, I don't want them to see me

showing up. I don't want them to see me using this tone of voice. They don't pay your bills. They So get them out of your

mind. And if you have to literally get them out of your online space, you can mute people. You can have them not see

some of your content and that is okay. You need to be able to show up so authentically and shine in the way that

your dream clients want you to. So all of that leads you to feeling so much more inspired to post and curious. Treat

your content like an experiment. We never know exactly what's going to fly and why it does. It's kind if we always

have this excitement. Oh, let me see what I can think up and let me see where that goes and let me see if this thing I

posted as a real and if I turned that into a carousel, how would that work then? So, this experimental scientific

mindset will go you a really long way and it gives you this excitement and also this desire like content creation

is not going away. As small business owners, content is something to be mastered. So, and often I will have

designers say to me, well, can I just outsource all of that part? And my response is always, let that be one of

the last things that you outsource because if you are in the early or growth stage of business, no one knows

your brand like you do. So, you are the person who's going to master this right now. Longer term potentially, but right

now this is this is your job. And that gives you this this totally different energy to show up to experiment. You

learn by doing. You see what works. You see what resonates and all of that then shown up. You're visible. The fact that

you have shown up as you not worrying about who's watching gives you this authenticity and this connection and

ultimately that is what brings you the leads. So you can see how this pattern goes.

Literally start with the thought in your head. How can you change what's going on in your mind? And it has this knock-on

effect in every part of what you're doing with content and in your business generally.

So, point for you to reflect on here. How does it feel to think about content as connection, not as something that,

oh, I have to do that today. I haven't posted. Oh, I haven't been on my stories. I have to do this. Or as this

awful, awkward place that's nagging in your brain. I I should be doing video content. I should be showing my face,

but I don't want to. It is about connection. It is a tool for you to connect and to support your ability to

get clients. So, think of it in that term. Let me know if that feel if that shifts anything for you in the way that

you've been thinking about it. Okay. The first place when we think about content strategy, the very first place we start

is who are we talking to? This is so so so critical because you can do all of the other stuff. You can do the

consistency. You can have the nice images. You can even have great messaging, but if the messaging isn't so

targeted to the right people, it won't go anywhere. So, we have to start with clarity here. And

this reminder, your content is not for you. And it's also not to impress people with how brilliantly you're doing. It is

to connect with the people who you want to serve. And that doesn't mean every single person under the sun who might be

renovating or might have a property. It is the very specific ideal client that you have for your business. And when I

say be obsessed with them, I literally mean be so obsessed with what are they thinking? What are they feeling? What

are the problems that you solve for them? Because all of that is your content.

And I love this this sentiment here. This comes from Blair Ens. But the goal is not to go as narrow as possible. So

when we talk about ideal clients and we talk about niching down and we can tie ourselves up in knots over this, but

it's not about going super super super laser. It's just, you know, be as be as broad as is practical. There will come a

point where you're just talking to everybody and it's going to stop resonating and your ideal client won't

see and feel themsel in that message. feel into what that means for you. So when you've got this picture of your

ideal client in your mind, they have whoever they are, whatever kind of property, location, project, whatever it

is, they are imagining this future. They have this beautiful imagined place and it's, you know, I have this vision for

it and I see myself there and I'm feeling and it's very emotive and they might tell you the more surface stuff.

Well, we need more storage and you know we we need to create an extra shower room and that's all true but it will be

led from a much more emotional place. Then they have this struggle. They have this, "I've got this wonderful vision,

but I just don't know how to get there. I don't have time. I don't have the contacts. I'm really scared about

getting it wrong. I hate feeling out of control." That is true for so many of clients I've worked with, my clients

clients now. And particularly in this economic climate, but any economic climate honestly, is people want to know

that the end result will be worth the money they're going to spend and the journey to get there. A renovation

project is not nothing for anybody. So they really want to know, will this be worth it? And all of that is a struggle

for them. It's causing them stress and it's causing them struggle. We are wired to avoid discomfort. We are

wired to go after what feels good. So you've got this on your side that people want to get away from this struggle and

they want to get towards the thing that they're imagining. Otherwise that struggle would be too big. They would

never do it. It would just the time, the cost, the stress, the fear, the they would never move. So what's going to

pull them towards working with you and embarking on their project is their vision. It's what they are imagining in

their future. And your content is the bridge. Your content bridges where they are now, the

struggle that they're sitting in, the literal physical premises they've got on their hands, and this beautiful imagined

future. So in bridging, what we need to do with our content is be specific. And when I say be specific is you've got

this ideal client in your mind. You've got the the type of property, the type of location, the type of place, the type

of person, the aesthetic that you design to all of these different strands of around what would be an ideal project

for you. We don't want to get into well, but I'll just keep it quite broad because I don't want to shut off any

potential opportunities. If your client cannot see themsself in what you're saying, they're not going to engage with

it. There's way too much else pulling at their attention. and go for hearts over minds. So this is coming back to that

feeling thing. This is coming back to the things that are going to move them out of their struggle and towards that

future is okay. I can trust this person. This is going this is going to work for me. It's going to feel like this. Coming

back to this idea of what are they imagining? How will it feel? Paint the picture for them. and paint the picture

in in such a way, you know, almost like someone could create a movie of the picture you are painting for them. And

that can be through showing work that you've done for other clients and helping them to see, you know, this is

what you could have or it could just be through stories that you tell. But we really want to speak to that much more

emotional part of them. That is where they're making decisions from. We want to be really real about talking about

actual barriers and perceived barriers. you know, be upfront. You know, all of my clients have these kind of questions

before they work with me. Let me answer some of them here. And there are so many different content formats. We we'll talk

about that. But we we don't want to embark on creating content just going, "Well, it just looks really beautiful,

so I'm not going to talk about all the barriers." There are so many barriers to your clients embarking on their project,

that struggle we talked about. So, acknowledge them. And then there are also these perceived barriers. It's

going to be a nightmare. Well, is it? How can you put their mind at ease? You know, it's going to cost so much more.

Is it? How are you? How do you manage budgets to make sure that they stay on track with that? So, speak to actual and

perceived. And we want to give them some momentum. So, the consequences of them not doing the thing which is contacting

you now. Like you are a small studio, so you're going to get booked up. So, if you're booking for now, be clear about

that. We've got one slot available for a big project. I have two spots available for a design consultation. You know, if

you you know, if not booking this now means my next opening is going to be January. We want to make it really clear

that we're not just sitting around waiting for people to go, okay, I'm ready now. We are moving and our

availability is limited and release the need for approval. If there's anyone who if you there's any feeling of I need

this to be liked, I need this to get so many views. not important. Imagine that you know you are just speaking to your

ideal client and that is all that matters. One really important thing here is be careful about not projecting your

reality onto your clients. So if you think that something is going to be really expensive or that feels like it's

going to be a nightmare or that could be really tricky, your clients may not think that at all. Your clients may be

totally comfortable or your your dream clients are totally comfortable with spending money to solve problems and to

delegate to somebody who's going to take all the stress off their hands. So every time you feel yourself projecting a

truth of yours onto theirs, pull back and give them the next step. It's we don't want to just say I understand

where you are and you know I understand what you're imagining and this is how I design for clients and this is how we do

this beautiful work and I've got all of these spots or I'm taking bookings for projects now and all the thing end give

the feed them the next step this is how you get in touch with me this is how you progress your project this is how you

can work with me whatever that looks like for you feed them the next step be direct about it And this all comes down

to messaging. This all comes down to the fact that people do not want to be educated. This is the tips piece again.

They don't want to be told certain things. They just want to feel seen. They want to feel the biggest question

your clients have is, "Do they get me? Will they get me?" And this comes down to your brand DNA. So how they see you

as meaningfully different and exceptionally aligned for them. So your ability to make them feel seen will come

down to who you are, your skill set, your past experience, the stories that you tell, all of the the things that you

weave into your messaging. That means your ideal client is looking at the the sum of all of that and going, "Yes, that

is the person for me without doubt." And storytelling is your friend here. So, and we, you know, you'll hear the term

storytelling a lot and it can well, what does it mean? My principle is always we want to bring it back to what's the

point. And what I mean by this is the point is always your ideal client's current reality and their desired future

and moving them from reality towards their future. That is always the point. The point is never that your dream

clients need to know what you had for lunch today. It's not that they need to know. So, whatever it is that you're

sharing or noticing or talking about your services, you will find multiple angles at which to tell stories, but

always ask yourself before you embark on creating that post or doing that story sequence, what is the point? What is it

that I want them to do next? What is it that I need them to think or feel or do as a result? And the answer can be I

just want to engage. I just I just want to create connection. And that might mean, you know, sharing something about

my kids as a small percentage of very small percentage of your content. That is fine. The point gets to be that you

get to create connection. We are humans. We want connection. But just ask yourself that at the beginning of

anything. stories that just drift along as a I went here today and I went there today and then I saw this supplier and

look at my desk and what what is the point? So keep that in mind. And then the last thing is that that call to

action. Allow your client to continue their story. So as you're telling the story and allowing themsel to see

themsel in this future, give them that call to action. Make be so direct with it. It's it's amazing how we can be

vague and we can well you know if maybe you're kind of interested no DM me fill out this form you know click whatever

for the link just be super clear about that okay let's just talk briefly about

different content formats because there's a ton out there and I get that it can feel really overwhelming what

should I be creating what's going to get the most traction works for me and Oh well, reals are going to get the most

views and nobody engages with carousels and nobody engages with single images. The fact is all of these things can work

for you. All of these things and all of these platforms can work for you. But the key thing is to align what works for

your energy and your audience. And that comes back to the testing. See what works. See what people resonate with.

And when I say align your energy, I go through phases with my content. some days or some weeks, some months, it

feels really good to be doing quite a lot of video and talking on camera and then I go into a phase I'm like actually

no, I'm making all these really punchy carousels and that's just the rhythm I've got into and I allow all of it to

exist because I genuinely think that the energy behind your content will be the thing that carries it forward. So, if

you've got the right message, it kind of doesn't matter what exact specific content format you're using.

In my experience, carousels work better than reals. Reals get views, they get, you know, they'll get a lot of

likes, they'll get people watching them. They don't tend to engage. And by engage, I mean have people actually take

the next step in the same way that carousels do, but this could all change. We're, you know, we're on a platform

with with algorithms. And you might be thinking, well, I'm not Instagram's not really my place anyway. LinkedIn is

where I prefer to be. And so play around with what works there. Short form, long form, sharing visuals. You know,

LinkedIn can be a pretty dry place. So I think if you've got some beautiful images, that's going to support your

content. But you, it's about aligning what feels easy for you to produce in any day. What can I do quickly that

conveys my message with the velocity that I want to? We want to maintain that brand messaging and consistency. So, we

don't want to be all over the place. And I when I say all over the place, I literally mean we're on Tik Tok one day,

we're on YouTube another day, we're back on Instagram, but we're sort of spread ourselves so thin, we're not really on

any of them. We need to find the places that are so aligned for our client and the place that honestly there's going to

be a lot of what just feels like a platform you want to be on. If you enjoy being on that platform, it will be felt

in your content. And then again, we want whatever format that you notice through your experimentation actually engages.

And I don't mean likes, I don't mean views, I don't even mean follower count. I mean actually leads somebody to DM you

asking for a link, inquire about a consultation spot that you're offering, ask about your next full service

project. That is proper engagement that leads to clients. When it comes to thinking about the

algorithm, I think that we are in this place now where content creation is a game. It is a skill. It could be a

completely allconsuming full-time job for you. And at the same time, you are a creative and

you want your best content will come from you feeling free to express yourself in a way that feels really

good. And I really think it's important to talk about this and get this balance between them. So the way that I approach

this, the way that I recommend you do is write for one person first. And that one person could be you. If you've got the

experience of going through a project and you know how your clients think and feel based on your experience, turn to

that. Write for that one person or that client that you did a discovery call with and they shared everything they

were hoping and dreaming about. Use that. Obviously, don't name them specifically, but use that in your

content. Think hold that person in your mind. that keeps it feeling connected and feeling personal as opposed to just

broad algorithm pleasing stuff. Trust your insights and your voice. This comes back to your brand DNA. When you know

with certainty what makes you from your experience, your skills, the journey you've been on, the clients you've

handled, the projects you've done, when you know that that's what makes you meaningfully different and remarkably

aligned with the client you want to serve, you can trust your voice around that. Again, speak to the struggle and

the desire as we talked about. This is what your content is here to bridge and ignore the vanity metrics. So, we want

to be focusing on conversion. So, having people take that first step, DM for a link, fill out a form, whatever it is,

and having conversations. Views do not care about views. Views don't matter. You know, I have people who've come to

me and said, "Well, I've got 30,000 or 40,000 followers and none of them ever engage or ever do anything. You know,

I've got no money in my bank account." It does not matter how many views and how many followers if they're not

actually leading to conversion and conversation which leads you to your next project. So that is what to focus

on. All of these platforms are specifically set up to make you think the opposite is important and it is not

and use tools. So many chat is great. If you guys don't know manyhat it can automate link sending. So, I think a lot

of you guys here might I put something on where you just had to DM for or comment for a link and then it gets

automatically sent out. This can also be a great tool to build your email list. So, it just takes some of the pressure

off you constantly being inside an app responding to things, sending things. If you set this up, you can just have

something automat you post the piece of content and it automatically gets set up. You can integrate that with

Instagram and AI. Let's let's be honest. AI can be fantastic at refining and repurposing, but I would never ever use

it as the starting piece. I would never say, "Hey, chat GPT, can you can you write me a post that's going to speak to

this dream client?" What will come up will be terrible. So, trust your voice. Write for that one person and then use

AI to hone it. AI is brilliant at turning something that's I was with a client the other day and looking at a

piece of content and the messaging was great but I was like this is four times too long. Post it into chat GPT and get

it down to a quarter of the length. Brilliant. So start with your voice. That's how you will maintain that

authenticity and that connection. Okay. So, let's just recap what we've gone through and start thinking about

what questions you've got for me because I'm really excited to answer them. But, we've talked about your mindset. And

this is the most important thing when it comes to actually having that conviction in your content. If you're turning up

and investing time and energy going on camera, posting things, posting pictures, and it feels like you don't

believe how good you are, that will be felt. So, you have to do that inner work to think I am without shadow of doubt

the best person for the client I'm here to serve. And that is that's the mindset piece. We've talked about the strategy.

So that clarity on who you're talking to, that bridging between their struggle, their reality now, where they

are, and that beautiful imagined future. Your content exists to move them, to pull them out of their struggle, and

help them say, "Look, here is the solution. I get where you are. I get how it feels. This is the solution." And

understanding your brand DNA is what underpins this. So having the messaging and those really powerful call to

actions so you're not overthinking content. You you know how to create messaging that does that bridging piece.

We've talked about aligned content formats. Really allow your your intuition and your energy to to lead you

in what type of content you're producing on any day. I genuinely believe that will be the best format for the thing

you're creating. And then use that strategic part of your brain to think more well what are the right platforms?

We talk about this a lot in my group coaching program align for growth is actually a marketing strategy so that

we've got the right platforms and the right marketing channels. Do that strategy piece but in terms of format is

it a real is it a carousel? Trust your energy on that one and stop trying to feed the algorithm because it will just

ask for more. It's it's a never- ending, never never sated hunger. It's really about you leading with your magic and

believing in your magic. And you will be able to stoke that from so many places. From what clients have told you, from

the photos you've got, from testimonials, from, you know, one thing one contractor said to you on a site, a

you did a brilliant job of solving that problem. Allow yourself to believe in your own magic and lead with that rather

than this constant desire for views and likes and and all the things. So, this is that QR code again. If you would like

to connect with me if we're not already connected, I know I already have a number of you in my world, which is

amazing. But if we're not connected, then you can just pick up your phone and scan that. It will take you to a landing

page. Just drop your email address and I will be in touch. Then we will be connected. Again, I am so happy and

excited to answer your questions on this. I think Ka's been she said she was going to field questions for me. So, um

yeah, tell me what you've got. Drop them in the Q&A function on the right hand side of your panel, but we do already

have a couple in there. So, we have a great question from Lucy. Um really interested to hear Katie's view on using

scheduling software such as Later to post identical content across multiple platforms.

So, I've played around with all of these types of things. They don't they're not something that works for me and

I think be guided by your energy. The reason they don't work for me is I'm a very I know something will capture my

attention or I'll have this spark of an idea and it's that's the piece of content I want to create. So, I'm very

intentional about making time in my day, in my week for creating content. That doesn't mean I post every single day. I

usually post about two, possibly three times a week. So, it's not a very heavy posting schedule and I will just

repurpose across different platforms essentially the same content. I love the spontaneity of thinking, I

know I'm going to create a post today and I don't know what that's going to be yet, but I'm going to go for a walk in

the morning and I'm going to have an idea and that's going to become my content. Or I will read the news in the

morning. I'll think, well, that's interesting. you know, house have published this report into whatever or

the FT is saying that about house pricing or, you know, somebody's launched something and that sparks an

idea. So, for me, that's the most natural way of creating content. I'm not saying don't use them. If you find them

a helpful tool, then do. But I really invite you to consider the energy of every piece of content you

create. If you feel like stuff is just going out and it's just you're going through the motions, I would invite you

to reconsider that and think, well, what if I didn't use that for a time? What if I did allow myself to be more

spontaneous? How how would that feel? And just compare them. Treat it like an experiment. It's it's your your

schedule, your energy, your content. Yeah, great advice. I love that experimenting piece. I will say I think

on the different platforms, platforms can vary so much. you touched on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a very different

platform to Instagram. So, I think there's definitely a space for posting identical content across platforms, but

I think also it's worth considering, do I actually think this is the right type of content for here? Can I have a

slightly different voice here? So, I think there's lots of similarities between Instagram and Tik Tok. it makes

more sense there. But when you're looking at the broad spectrum of social media platforms that we have available,

it's definitely worth considering kind of tailoring your tone and message. 100%. And this is where AI is just

amazing. It's saying you've got one piece that you've written for Instagram, now turn that into a LinkedIn post. So I

think using AI in that way is amazing, but always just coming back to yourself. You know, for me, Instagram is my number

one platform because it's where my ideal clients are. Just ask yourself, am I on platforms because I think I should be or

because it's genuinely where my audience is, where potential clients are and I've got traction and I can see myself

getting that engagement and building an audience. We We don't want to be anywhere just because we think we

should. We We don't have time for that. Yeah, great advice there. Um, moving on. So, we've got another

great question from Louise. So, that kind of heart over mind that you were speaking about, she asks whether you

think that also applies to commercial clients. Yes, I do because I mean, I've done a couple of commercial projects in

my time and it is exactly the same thing is, you know, that business owner wants to feel really proud of their space.

They're imagining, you know, they're lamenting the fact that their team are all in their office and they sit at

their desks, but they don't talk to each other. And imagine if we had this breakout area. Imagine all the kind of

buzz and conversation and innovation that would happen. They've got exactly the same idea of a vision and a desire,

which is built around connection and creativity and their brand and how proud they are going to feel of their space.

So, it's exactly the same thing. It's understanding the human that you're speaking to. Now, the one thing I'll say

with commercial is that sometimes it depends who you're speaking to. If you're speaking, you've been brought in

by an architect or a structural engineer or the CFO of a business, it may not be their heart and mind that you're

speaking to. So, and this does go for any project resi as well. Understanding who the end client is is really key. And

I would always be creating content from that place because the chances are even if you've been contacted by the CFO or

by an architect, they've shown your they they've seen your stuff and gone, you would be perfect for my client because I

know that's what they want. And at some point, they'll show your social media profile to that client and go, "Hey, I

found this person. What do you think?" So that's the the ultimate decision maker is always the person that you are

creating content for. Yeah, absolutely. We've got quite a few questions in there, so we'll try and kind of roll

through these quite quickly. So Sarah asks, "Does all of your content need to have a compelling hook to stop the

scroll?" This is I should have put this into my um my algorithm thing. Honestly, hooks

are good. Hooks are good. And I so the way I will do it is I'll have an idea for a piece of content and then I will

use AI and say give me some options for a hook for this and I will start from that place. So

you it's always sense checking it always come back to thinking does this feel like me like AI will spin you out a load

of words use your your intuition like does that sound like my tone of voice and the more you use it the more you

will train it you know you say that that's not how I would speak I wouldn't use language like that so never just

take what it gives you as well that's going to be my hook use your own you know what feels right to you what feels

but sometimes we don't know you know that that post I made a week ago about um your ideal clients don't want your

design tips. I'd had the idea for that piece, but I had no idea it was going to be my most popular piece of content I've

ever created. Sometimes things just fly. So, I think start with your idea. What is the thing that you really want to say

to connect with your ideal client? And then you can create the hook around that. And AI is great for that.

Definitely. And it could be many different things. It's a beautiful image. It's text. It can yeah vary

depending on kind of the type of content that you're creating too. So doesn't have to be. Yeah. I was I think an image

can be very scroll stopping but we need to really be moving people into the caption then. So and really that first

line of the caption is so important because otherwise you get into like like save save forget forget forget. So

actually really thinking what is it that's going to grab somebody's attention that very first line of text

that they can see is important then that's going to make them actually bother to read your caption. Yeah,

absolutely. Um we have a question from Clemens asking if you have any shortcuts that help make you faster at posting.

So what has worked for me especially is not doing anything because I think I should, but coming back to that I want

to create from this place of I want to connect with the people in my world. I'm excited to connect with people. If I had

that thing in my mind like I must post on a Tuesday, I could probably spend four hours sitting about trying to think

up a post and it wouldn't be coming. So if the energy is not there for it, if the idea is not there, if the writing is

not flowing, just leave it, come back to it, just post another day. Getting that place where you are in a really good

space. You're like, I've got the idea, I'm creating it, I'm doing it, let's go is for me has been the the best way to

actually just speed it up and not sit there pushing myself to create if I'm just not in the right space. And I'm,

you know, you'll experience this with all sorts of creative parts of your business. AI is great for just refining

something. So take something that you know I've either sometimes I will voice speak an idea of a post um into an app

and then I'll just put that into AI and say turn this into a post. And the other thing is just making my posts um pretty

short pretty snappy um rather you know if you've got quite a lot of words on your actual carousel or on your image or

in a post play around. You don't need a long caption or in LinkedIn it doesn't always need to be really long. It can be

quite short and quite snappy. So, I think allow yourself to be really free with the format. Release yourself from

any idea of it should be this. Like, oh, I've had this idea. I've created the real, but oh god, now I need to write a

caption for it. Well, do you? Or does the real do enough? Does it just speak for itself? Just send it out there. See

what happens. So, release the shoulds. Create when you've got the energy and you will be so much faster at doing it

because the energy is there. And release the pressure if it's not. Yeah. That is so true. That blank page syndrome. If

it's not coming, move on to something else. I am a big advocate for that. Yep. Yep. Um, so Claire is asking, "Is it a

good idea to do a direct why choose me post or should that come through indirectly in all of your other posts?"

Okay, I'm not advocating for any why choose me because I think there even in that language there's a kind of please

choose me vibe. We don't want to convince anybody. What I really invite you to do is to and you will definitely

get this inside powerful positioning is that make visible the things that are so captivating about you. make it known and

seen how brilliant you are so that there's no need to do a hey please pick me post. People are just seeing your

stuff and going well it has to be them. They're they're different to anybody else. They've got this experience or

they've done that or they've been through this or whatever it is. You will have your story. We we unear that in

powerful positioning. But I'm always for sharing your opinions, sharing your experience, showing people what's magic

about you and allowing them to be drawn and think, "Yes, this is the designer for me." No, no convincing posts. Yeah,

people love that authenticity for sure. Um, Alexandra is asking, "What are your views on combining organic content and

advertising content?" So I think that generally ads

there's a sort of jewel thing to ads. They are great for visibility and they also take quite a lot. You know it's so

noisy now. Ad creative can be a whole work in itself just keeping ad creative fresh. So I think ads are a really good

place. They it works both ways. You can test what works with an ad and see, you know, is this ad getting clicks? Is it

getting traction? Okay, how can I use that idea in another format? Equally, if you've got a post that converted

brilliantly and you got so many inquiries or link clicks or whatever on the back of turn that into an ad and see

if it goes the other way. But I personally I I I like combining both. I think all of these platforms now,

they're there to make money. Nobody's giving you much for free. So just trying to grow it organically, it is possible,

but it's going to be slow and you're going to need to have other levers of growth. So however you're getting eyes

onto your content, there has to be a mechanism that's not just you pressing post. So it doesn't have to be online

ads like Instagram ads, but there has to be some way of bringing people to your your platforms. Otherwise, how will they

ever know that you exist? And I think just use the two organic content that does brilliantly turn into an ad and and

vice versa. See what works. Yeah, definitely. I think actually that's kind of answering a question that

Charlotte has about reaching your ideal client when your color current following may not have those people. So paid ads

may be a way of kind of helping increase that reach. But do you have anything else to add there? So I would say start

you know we can really get into speaking speaking to the people who we might have spoken to at the very very beginning of

our journey and we have evolved and we have changed always be making sure that you're with any content you're speaking

to the person you are designing for now and in the future. So, and that will change as you get more experiences, the

type of projects that you're capable of handling of the budgets, the way that you will learn things about yourself on

this journey that make you think, I actually really want to go more down that path. So, always be creating for

your future client, not the person you have now. If you've got an audience full of people who are just they're not

really your people, then ads can be a great way. It doesn't just have to be ads. You know, you can go to networking

events, you can speak on a panel at a trade show, you could go on podcasts, you you know, there are so many. And

again, we we cover all of this in a line for growth is exactly which marketing channels are going to be best for you.

But finding a way to get eyes onto what you're doing, any kind of paid marketing in that respect is going to just pour

fuel on it. But my caveat for that, and we've talked a couple of times about ads, is your ads will only work if the

messaging is solid. Otherwise, it's just wasted money. So do the messaging piece first. Be so certain that your message

is really strong before you spend money on ads. Yeah, definitely great advice. Rick Mey is asking about newsletters.

Should people be sending out newsletters and if so, how often? Okay, so there's I'm a big fan of

building an email list. It's a really valuable asset for your business. It's a way that you completely control of

having a conversation and having a connection with your clients that takes you outside of any of these other

platforms. If your Instagram account got hacked, if LinkedIn disappeared overnight, if Tik Tok gets banned, you

know, all of these things are completely out of your control. And if you've put all of your energy and attention into

building an audience there that could disappear tomorrow that your business is vulnerable, your email list you control

directly. But I also think if we're asking people to come onto our list, a you know, we're probably paying for

software to have that list. And I think people deserve to, you know, they've signed up for a reason. As long as we're

always saying, you know, people can decide, okay, this is no longer for me. Unsubscribe. That's a given. That's

something we've got to do. But keeping that connection with people is the best way to keep you top of mind. Now the

cadence with which you send out newsletters, it comes down to your preference. I have clients in my world

who I've got somebody who writes a really like kind of quite a comprehensive and really beautifully

aligned very seasonal newsletter. So she does a kind of spring edition, a summer edition and she pulls in all sorts of

things. You know, this is what's caught my eye. this is how I'm spending the whatever upcoming holidays. It's quite

chatty. It's quite personal and it also talks about projects. So that's four a year. I have another client who is an

amazing writer. Everything she writes like she's so good with words and she sends them out far more frequently and

every single one I'm sure people are looking at and going, "Oh, I just love her writing." So I think it really

depends on the medium that you love. But if someone's signed up to your list, you've got their details. you've got a

way of staying in contact with them. Again, let them know that you exist and you can help them solve the problem. And

all the principles I've talked about here apply hearts and minds. Connect their current reality to their

beautifully imagined future. You can show examples in your email of how you've done that for other clients. Give

case studies, show photos, all the stuff. It is definitely a way to deepen that connection with people who are

thinking about you. I think there's a there can be quite an initial surface level of interest in a social media

platform that once you're in somebody's inbox, you're just it feels like a more personal conversation. Yeah. No, so

true. Um, we've got questions from Alexandra and Claire about being on camera, something that they're obviously

a little bit nervous about. How important is it to be on camera? So, people like people. People love

people. People want to connect with people and for you as the owner, founder, you lead creative who's going

to be in charge of their project, they really want to know that you're someone they want to spend the next 3 months,

nine months, two years of their life with. And I genuinely believe that the brands who bring that personal element

will expedite that connection with clients. It's entirely possible to build a completely faceless brand, but if you

look at the designers who have built the biggest brands, so Amber Lewis in California, Kelly Worler, um Sophie

Ashby, there's always always been that personal element of storytelling and connection. And one tip I'd love to give

you is if talking on a real or posting something feels like, oh, that feels scary, just go on stories. You know,

there's stories a, you know, it's only a small percentage of your audience who look at your stories anyway and in 24

hours it'll be gone. So, just practice with it there and build up your comfort and then you might feel like actually

putting something more on your website or onto your your social media that lives there for a longer time. Yeah. No,

100%. That's so true. One other thing I will add to that. So I do more and more speaking on camera now than I used to

and it's not something that I've always loved. I don't think it comes completely naturally. But one thing that does help

me is no one else cares as much as I do. No one else is going to be judging me in the way that I will judge myself. Most

people are nice and will just see it as like, "Oh, that seems like a nice person." And they won't think anything

more of it. So do not feel like you have to overthink every word, every action because no one else cares that much.

Nice. Um Juliet is asking about using other people's image. So for inspiration

example, like sharing, oh, I loved this. That sort of type of content. I don't love it to be honest. Um, if

you're showing other designers work, it kind of begs the question, why are you not showing your work? And if you don't

have those professional images, then just think, well, how what can I do now? Um, you know, there's the term clever

corners. What can you photograph? What if you've just done a couple of rooms, what can you photograph now? But I think

there's a difference between showing sources of inspiration. And so talking about nature, talking about art, talking

about history, talking about historic buildings that you've visited, and drawing inspiration from those places,

always with that thing in mind. What's the point? Nobody just wants to hear about your day out, it's what's the

point to this potential project I'm going to be doing. But I think just sharing another designer's image and

going loved this work by Studio Ashb. All you're going to do is take people to to their profile and it takes the it's

we want you to be the magic. You are the magic. You are the one who is creating for your clients. So, we want to keep

that attention on you. Yeah, definitely great advice. We have a couple more questions. I know we are at the hour

now. We will hopefully Katie, you've got a couple more minutes to just last these last few ones. We will be sending the

recording out with all of this. So, if anyone does need to drop, you will get these. So we'll try and get these done

quickly. So Lucy is asking just for a rough estimation of how much time you're spending on content creation just to

give a bit of a benchmark. H okay. So writing a carousel post like the probably the two my most recent ones is

about 30 minutes of time probably. Um the key thing for that the reason it's 30 minutes is having the idea and having

the energy to execute. As I said, if it if if it wasn't coming, it would be like seven hours. So, when it's working, you

know, I've got the idea, create the post, create the graphic, download it to my phone, choose a piece of music I

love, post it 30, 40 minutes max, and then I will aim to be on my stories once, maybe twice every day, and that

again maybe 30, 40 minutes. So I for me I would say an hour to an hour and a half of content creation every day

balances out some of that I've just talked about Instagram but maybe the next day I don't post anything but I

think I'm going to take that content and I'm going to post it on LinkedIn now or I'm going to take the thing that I wrote

on my email list and I'm going to break that into a smaller piece of content. So as a benchmark I think we should be

thinking about marketing and creating content and building our audience visibility and actually bringing people

again I talk about this a lot more in a line for growth but the mechanism to bring people from seeing you to becoming

your client. We should be giving that time and focus every single day and for me that looks like about an hour and a

half of content. Yeah, thank you for sharing. And so one thing I'll just add is if if I've got something that feels

like a more substantial idea, feels like something that I haven't I know it's a really good idea or I know I've got

something I really want to talk about and I want to do it in different ways, I will spend more time creating that piece

of content because that's if that one piece of content ends up getting me I don't know 50 people ask for a link and

then you know se so many of them say okay can I inquire about this and I end up on a call with several of them. That

is 100% worth me investing this couple of hours. So, play around with it. I'm not a fan, any of you know in my world,

I'm not a fan of timing your every second. That feels incredibly unfreeing to me. But just as a rough guide,

allocating time to marketing every day is is valuable time. It's it's time worth spending. Yeah. especially I think

in the market that we're in at the moment, any time that you can spend on getting yourself out there is a good

investment. Um Cla is asking about images. So rather than just posting a single image versus a carousel, is it

more powerful to have the message just in a caption of a single image or over kind of the course of the actual

carousel itself? I mean, this is where we're kind of being slaves to the algorithm a bit, isn't it? I mean in my

experience and Instagram have long said this but my experience has been single image things do not tend to fly. So I

would and I think also what makes a great user experience. I think for whatever reason just skimming through a

carousel and you can always have that same image as the background to your text. I would probably spread it out

that way. So just create the carousel whatever your wording is could be a really showstopping image and then I

don't know anywhere between three and 10 slides after that but keep it punchy. People don't want to sit and you know if

you think most people are looking at their phone when they're waiting for the bus or sitting on the toilet or you know

they're not they don't want to read vast amounts of stuff. They just want something easy to digest. So if if that

works and then just keep the caption pretty short. This is what it is. This is how you get in touch. Done. I would

single images just don't tend to work for whatever reason. Unfortunately, Instagram doesn't love them. So,

carousel will perform better. Um, Hanine is asking about Yeah, going back to us kind of talking

about begging for work versus just being confident in yourself. How can you figure out that fine line between

wanting to advertise your services and being upfront about that, but not coming across as beggy?

by not begging. And it all comes it comes down to messaging. It comes down to your the conviction that you if you

believe truly that you are without a shadow of doubt the very best person for your client's project, you will talk

with that conviction and that tone of voice and that's how they will receive it. If you're doubting that and you're

thinking, "Oh, there's, you know, so many other people and there's a local competitor and they're so much better on

social media and they're more experienced and they've done this and I've not done that." That will be felt

however you show up. So, it really comes back to that that messaging piece and that conviction that you have. So,

powerful positioning would be the place to to do that work. Yeah, absolutely. And I think this is our last question.

So Sarah is saying she feels quite stuck with content creation, not feeling too inspired. Is there a framework that she

can use to help her come up with some ideas? Okay, so use use what I've given you

here. And I think, you know, if if you've not been through powerful positioning, that's going to give you a

ton of ideas because that's really going to be the place where we connect you to everything that you bring, your story,

your experience, and we join the dots between that and what your ideal client wants and needs. That will give you a

lot of ideas. Um, but the other thing is put yourself in spaces where you're going to feel inspired. So many of us

have come into running our business coming out of a corporate world or working for somebody else in some kind

of nine-to-five pattern and we fall into this way of working which is sitting at our desk in our studio or in our home

office for eight hours a day or six hours and then we run and do the school pickup and we're not creating this

space. There are so many ways that inspiration can come. So whatever that looks like for you, being in a space

where you're connected with other people, you know, spending an hour to go and walk around some showrooms, going

for a run, going for a swim, whatever it is, consider that. That's not this, oh, it's just a nice to have and oh, you

know, me time. That's actually a really essential part of your creative process. So building that into your day and

giving yourself things to be inspired by is a great place to start as well. Yeah. Fantastic advice. Yeah, we're all slaves

to the desk trying to get out there and not here. Not here. We won't be after this. Um, I also think

what you said about speaking to that one person, put yourselves in the shoe of that one person. What do they want to

look at? What do they want to hear? And use them as your framework to help build you content specifically for that

person. Yeah. often in I'm sure sometime some sometimes clients of mine send me messages and go I think I see myself in

this piece and and sometimes it will be an amalgamation of two or three conversations that I've had but I will

I'm always I've got somebody in my mind when I'm writing a piece of content because I and there's it's never at all

about you know let me take that and use that experience and share it with the world. is always completely impersonal.

But I do truly believe if there's one person with that struggle or one person has expressed that desire or that

frustration in the conversations you're having, there is a hundred more who who share that. So it's just amplifying

that. And it's also, you know, a good way for you to test your own listening skills in your own in the discovery