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Marketing Luxury Design: Attracting Affluent Clients
The Design Trade’s One-of-a-Kind Guide to Working with the Best
the language
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Your One-Of-A-Kind Guide To Greater Confidence and More Success
What they say
I increased my monthly billable by nearly 40% in just the first month of coaching!I stopped sacrificing my life for my business. Thanks to Melissa, my financials are getting stronger. Melissa paid for herself 5x over!
I had my design firm for a little over 10 years, and with several new home builds and published projects, I felt like I had ‘made it’. However, all I seemed to be doing was working. There was no work-life balance, and I was turning down projects, even repeat clients. Instead of me being an entrepreneur, my business was running me.
Melissa was the taskmaster who held my feet to the fire and helped me prioritize myself and identify the three key activities I love doing most in my design practice. With these in mind, I first set out blocking time in my weekly calendar for horseback riding-a passion I’d sacrificed for years.
We added an off-site team to handle all my ordering, expediting, and bookkeeping, so I could spend more time with my coveted clients. And finally, so I didn’t turn away more business, I hired a Junior Designer to share the workload.
Melissa’s impact did not end there. She also identified ways I was losing valuable time billing hours. After instituting her recommendations, I increased my monthly billables by nearly 40%.
Since Melissa started coaching me last year, I’ve increased my revenue by 500%!
She encouraged me to charge what I’m worth and focus on my ideal clients, those who share my vision and trust my expertise. Her inspirational coaching gets me in the right headspace.
Thanks to Melissa, I’m moving into a high-exposure office and hired three new people. I’m working less, making more, and no longer stressed. Melissa teaches interior designers like me what we never learned in school.
Melissa helped me navigate and master the social media world so I could use it to market myself most effectively. She knows all the right experts to refer to me that also support my success.
Melissa is the best combination of being direct and compassionate. She’s like a boxing coach, giving me proven strategies and cheering me on from my corner.
I’ve been featured in major publications, including The Wall Street Journal and Elle Decor! Melissa is the coach who will call you out on your excuses and hold you accountable to your goals. She’s deeply invested in your success—and that’s rare.
Two years into my design business, I was still working 7 days a week with no clear game plan, carrying 10-12 projects at a time. My business was taking over my life and I felt like I was missing the mark on my design fees because I was giving so much away.
Melissa helped me pin down a better client process from discovery to big reveal, accurately estimate projects, and reclaim time in my calendar to work on passion projects like showhouses and press opportunities.
Now, I’ve been featured in major publications including Harper’s Bazaar, The Wall Street Journal, and Elle Decor! Melissa is the kind of coach who will call you out on your excuses and hold you accountable to your goals.
She’s deeply invested in your success-and that’s rare.
She inspired me to create a vision board with my goals for the year. Within six months, I managed to complete everything on my vision board!
From her own experience and working with so many other designers throughout the years, Melissa knows the best ways to run and grow an interior design business.
She inspired me to create a vision board with my goals for the year. Within six months, I hit them all!
Melissa is very energetic and excited about delving into my business. Her persistence keeps me on task. She showed me how to get clear on the scope of each project, listing everything out so I can confidently charge a flat fee that’s much higher than I charged before.
At her encouragement, I hired a virtual assistant so I can focus on what I do best and have much more time for my family. I wish I had worked with Melissa years ago. Becky Vocaire
I didn’t start growing until I started working with Melissa. Our revenues are soaring, team is growing, and we’re winning awards!
Even though I’ve been in business for seven years and had a senior designer and office manager on board, I didn’t start growing until I started working with Melissa.
Melissa has an amazing background and experience. She’s warm and open and sets expectations that hold me accountable. She showed me what was going on in the industry and what I was worth. I rebranded with a new logo and website, invested in professional photographs, and changed the way I price my projects.
The clear letter of agreement Melissa provided covers all design and legal bases so there are no costly assumptions. I’m now attracting my ideal clients—those who want a luxury lifestyle and often have more than one home.
With Melissa on my team, I’m making the right decisions to grow my business.
Some people might think coaching is an expense but, when you find the right coach, it’s an investment in your growth. With Melissa, it’s a no-brainer.
She empowers me to do my best and I’m excited about the future. I am extremely grateful for her and am always recommending her to others.
After working as an interior designer at Lee Meier for four years, I purchased it. In the past, we offered design services for free, as a complement to the furniture and accessories our clients bought.
Melissa coached me into charging a separate design fee. That first client project paid for Melissa’s six-month coaching program and then some. I would never have had the confidence to do that on my own. I now understand the time-saving, money-making value of outsourcing jobs to qualified individuals who can efficiently complete certain tasks while freeing up my time to focus on other details.
Melissa is so dynamic, and her positive energy is infectious. She’s also patient and sensitive to when I have too much going on and need a break, so I never feel pushed. She loves what she does and enthusiastically welcomes the opportunity to help me solve any of my problems.
Melissa has given me the tools to manage, grow and sustainably move my business forward.
I had been working hard as an interior designer of luxury homes in the Naples market for almost 20 years. I realized I wanted to work less, make more and enjoy my life. Melissa gave me the confidence and courage to do it.
Melissa looks at things differently. Melissa’s network of expert resources, including a copywriter and a website designer, have been invaluable. My beautiful, new website speaks to the ideal clients I want to attract.
Our minimum project investment is $350K. By working with ideal clients, I can attract and retain a team of top designers who appreciate the more rewarding, larger projects.
My clients trust me. I now charge a flat fee, instead of tracking and wasting time on detailed invoices. Since working with Melissa, I’ve had my best year yet, with a 25% revenue growth.
She’s caring and understanding, another set of eyes, a true partner, and friend who swoops in with the answers when I face challenges. I have more weekends and nights off and I’m spending more time with my friends. I have a sense of calm and peace. Melissa has given me the tools to manage, grow and sustainably move my business forward.
There is no one like Melissa for interior designers. She's the best in class.
At Melissa’s Go Beyond Intensive, I was surrounded each day by extraordinary women. Melissa created a safe place for us to share our doubts and fears so we could all grow. In the evenings, we’d go out and laugh and bond. We continue to keep in touch with nearly daily group texts.
In an industry that can be very closed and competitive, I never had that before. Identifying my ideal—client a sophisticated, earthy professional—was a game-changer for me. Melissa is the perfect combination of inspiring motivational speaker and nuts-and-bolts expert. Her rolodex of resources-from copywriters to photographers-is like gold.
If you’re an interior designer who’s ready to prioritize growth in your business and confidence in your worth, Melissa is the coach for you.
Melissa is a great role model. She validated a lot of what we were considering doing, like charging flat rates, and helped us implement a model for this that worked. It saved us valuable hours on invoicing.
Since working with her, we have the confidence to ask for more money and are more selective about our clients. We have expanded our team, enabling us to provide an even better client experience. Our updated contract is thorough and organized, leaving nothing to chance.
Accountability with Melissa is key. She pushes you to find the time to focus on your business and growth, not only the day-to-day of project management. Every meeting together is productive. She has good business sense and conveys a level of professionalism and expectations that gets results. We never want to disappoint her.
2x revenues, better delegation, fewer bottlenecks, streamlined operations. What a difference!
I had started with a floral and event business and moved quickly into full service interior design with a showroom. Our growth has been fast, and I had not had time to address operations, and plug the holes we had until I hired Melissa.
She is no nonsense, to the point and moved quickly to get us additional revenue streams on every project by implementing design fees. We didn’t have any guidelines in place for the team, and it was nearly impossible for me to get anything done at the office with constant interruptions. Melissa provided simple strategies that worked quickly to end the interruptions and make us all more productive. She improved my delegation as well as provided key guidance on team building. I feel more in control.
I hired Melissa to take me to the next level. That was a game-changer!
After running my interior design business for 15 years, I hired Melissa to take me to the next level. One of the things she convinced me to do was to take the first of many business retreats for some deep thinking without the distractions of my work and family. That was a game-changer!
She showed me how to create a comprehensive proposal with specific timelines and deliverables that has given me the confidence to pursue larger jobs. I now do time blocking and she consistently holds me accountable. Melissa is always to the point, calling me out on my excuses and keeping me from overthinking things.
We’ve gone through a complete rebrand, expanded with a second location, grown the team, and are winning more awards, serving more clients, and increasing our revenues and profits with every project.
I reclaimed a full day per week, trained new clients to respect my boundaries and doubled my net profit by 50%!
I wasn’t getting the ideal clients I wanted and was stuck in a terrible rut of taking on a lot of small jobs. I’m a people-pleaser so I was trying to make the client happy by saying yes to everything and everyone who was referred to me.
Melissa helped me realize I did not have policies and procedures in place to protect my personal time. And she gave me all the tools and systems to help make that a reality. She helped me see that taking personal time to rejuvenate benefits the client because you can’t be creative when you’re overwhelmed.
I love the fact that she’s real and no fluff. She’s been in business and reiterated just like my dad used to, you get out of it what you put into it. She wasn’t afraid to give some tough love advice and even though it might not be what you want to do, it’s what you know you need to do. She’s a great sounding board! It’s still a journey for me, but I’ve come a long way!
In only 8 months, we've grown from me to 5 employees. I'm in love with my business again.
Before Melissa, I was the poster child for workaholism and flying by the seat of my pants. I was skipping lunches and living on coffee, missing out on family time because I was working so late, and feeling mentally zonked. What I loved most about working with Melissa was I always felt like I had her FULL attention. She delivered potential solutions right on our calls, so I could implement them right away, which resulted in quadrupling my revenues!
She helped me better define my client process and totally revamped how I write project proposals. Now, clients understand that we’re doing more than fluffing pillows and choosing fabrics-and we’re getting compensated for the real value we deliver!
In only 8 months, we’ve grown from me to 5 employees. We took our first family vacation in forever and I’ve been making it home by 6pm every night. I wouldn’t be the mature business owner I am today without her help.
Daily, I ask myself: What would Melissa do? I’m in love with my business again!”
I was able to do $250K in my first year and then it's just gone up from there every year.
One of my first goals with Melissa and in my first year of business is I wanted to get into a six-digit business quickly. I had a lot of financial and business experience and now, I needed to apply that to my interior design business. And I think one of the things that Melissa said was that I know how to build a business, it’s just that I needed the help on the interior design side.
I was able to do $250K in my first year and then it’s just gone up from there every year. It’s just been really great to be able to look back and be so thankful that I got a coach and that Melissa was my coach and I will be forever thankful to her. Bethany Palmer
Melissa helped me speed track everything that I needed to get me to the position that I wanted to be in.
When I started with Melissa, one of her requests was making a vision board. So what I put on my vision board were things like getting published in magazines, submitting projects to Georgia Design Awards and the ASID Awards, and just building more relationships with trade partners and to get jobs that I really wanted to do. Within six months, I managed to complete everything on my vision board!
Went from severely undervaluing myself to charging premium prices and crossing $1M in revenues in less than 12 months.
Melissa is my business partner, as far as I’m concerned, in that she is there shoulder to shoulder with me. I know she has my best interest at heart and I never had anyone that was my coach, my cheerleader, and it’s invaluable. Best decision that I’ve ever made. Missi Youngblood
I sold a $200K Design Fee Contract, moved into my dream home with my husband, and I work with incredible clients... all because of Melissa.
Hiring Melissa as my business coach was the best decision I’ve ever made. Someone contacted me, a Letter of Agreement was signed and almost a $200K design fee! Yes, that was because of Melissa 100%. And I have continued to get more clients because of her. Julia Lewis
Melissa's coaching skills were top-notch. I was able to double my rates and find more time in my life to do the things that matter to me.
She really helped me to establish my actual worth with my clients and allowed me to raise my rates and hone in on my ideal client, and ultimately what that did was help me to double my rates and find the time to travel the world.
I've got my life back and we've grown more than 2x in revenue year over year.
Even beyond the numbers, but the fact that I know what those numbers are is such a milestone for me to move from just a principal designer to owner of what I now would say is a beautifully run business. The catalyst for where I’m at today was Melissa. Ampersand Design Group Window Studio
