a note from my desk....
This week, I had a conversation with a designer about a challenging client situation.
Her clients were feeling overwhelmed by the number of decisions involved in their renovation. They asked her to send her design presentation in advance so they could review everything before their meeting.
On the surface, it sounds like a reasonable request.
They were overwhelmed. They wanted more time.
But the designer had intentionally built her presentation process differently.
She presents the design live so she can walk clients through the concept, explain why selections were made, show how the individual pieces work together and answer questions within the context of the complete design.
Sending the deck ahead of time would remove much of that context.
And here's where the situation became interesting to me.
The clients didn't necessarily need the presentation in advance.
They needed permission not to make every decision during the presentation.
Those are two very different problems.
The designer could respect their need for processing time without abandoning the process she'd thoughtfully created to guide them.
And that conversation reminded me of something we don't talk about enough when we talk about systems and processes:
Creating the process is only half the work.
At some point, you have to be willing to lead people through it.
Let's dive in! 🌊
This Week Inside the Method
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This Week's Blueprint
📐Your Process Needs Leadership, Too
Accommodate the need, not necessarily the request.
A client may ask for one thing when what they actually need is something else.
“I need the presentation beforehand” might actually mean:
“I’m worried you’ll expect me to make decisions before I’m ready.”
Instead of immediately changing your process, ask yourself:
What problem is my client actually trying to solve?
Perhaps the accommodation is simply giving them 48 hours after the presentation to consider their decisions..
📐Client experience doesn’t mean unlimited accommodation.
We sometimes confuse exceptional service with saying yes.
Yes to another revision.
Yes to three more options.
Yes to another meeting.
Yes to changing how we present.
Yes to squeezing in another showroom visit.
But every yes has an operational consequence.
And sometimes the request itself changes the scope of the service you’ve priced.
A thoughtfully designed client experience has flexibility but, it also has structure.
📐Know when you’re being asked to change the scope not just the process.
This became another part of the conversation with this designer.
The clients weren’t only asking for a different presentation experience.
They wanted more options for selections. More in-person meetings. More showroom visits. More reselections. More frequent meetings.
At some point, that’s no longer a small accommodation.
It’s a different level of service.
And when the service changes, the scope and potentially the fee needs to change with it.
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This Week's Workshop
🛠️ The Client Request Test
The next time a client asks you to change something about how you work, don't immediately answer yes or no.
Run it through these questions:
What is the client actually asking for?
What need is underneath the request?
Can I meet that need without dismantling my process?
Does this request add time, deliverables, meetings, sourcing or revisions?
If I say yes, does the scope or fee need to change?
And perhaps most importantly:
Am I making this decision because it's genuinely better for the client or because I'm uncomfortable saying no?
That last question is often where the CEO work begins.
🛠️ Find Your “I Guess We Can…” Moments
Think back over your last few projects.
Where have you heard yourself saying:
“I guess we can…”
“I guess we can add another meeting.”
“I guess I can show you a few more options.”
“I guess I can send that over tonight.”
“I guess we can make another revision.”
“I guess I can meet you at the showroom.”
Now choose one and ask:
Was this actually part of the service I sold?
If not, decide what should happen the next time that request comes up.
Maybe it’s a boundary.
Maybe it’s an additional-service fee.
Maybe your contract needs to be clearer.
Maybe your process needs to change.
Or maybe you simply need to become more comfortable saying:
“That’s outside the scope of our current agreement, but I’d be happy to provide that as an additional service.”
The goal isn’t to become inflexible.
It’s to stop allowing small, unexamined yeses to quietly redesign your business for you.
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CEO Reflection
☕ Where are you giving your clients more authority over how you run your business than they actually need?
After we worked through the situation and I helped her put her response into words, she sent me this:
“Marsha?!?!!
That draft did something for me I didn't expect. You didn't just write a better email ; you reminded me this is my business, run on my terms, not theirs. I felt my own worth in that document.
Thank you. 😎💪”
And that is the work I do with designers.
Yes, we talk about processes, pricing, client experience, scope and boundaries. But underneath all of that is something bigger.
It's helping designers recognize their own expertise, trust the businesses they've built, and confidently step into the role of leading them.
Because we weren't really talking about an email anymore.
We were talking about leadership.
There comes a point in business when having the process isn't enough. You have to believe enough in your own expertise to stand behind it.
You can listen to your clients.
You can accommodate reasonable needs.
You can change something when changing it genuinely creates a better experience.
But you don't have to hand over the way you run your business simply because someone challenges it.
And perhaps that's one of the harder transitions we make as business owners:
Moving from wanting the client to be happy with us to confidently leading the client we've been hired to serve.
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📐 Keep Building
There's a phrase I kept coming back to during this conversation:
The right decisions, at the right time.
It was something this designer was trying to establish with her clients because construction was already underway and the trades needed certain decisions in order to keep moving.
And I think the same principle applies to running our businesses.
Not every client request requires an immediate yes.
Not every uncomfortable conversation means you've done something wrong.
And not every boundary makes you difficult to work with.
Sometimes being the professional in the room means listening carefully, understanding what someone actually needs, and then using your expertise to determine the best way forward.
Your clients hired you because you know how to design.
But they also hired you because you know how to lead them through the process of getting there.
A thoughtfully designed business needs both.
I'm grateful you're here.
Until next Friday, 💛
Marsha
Helping interior designers build businesses as thoughtfully designed as the homes they create.
