FEATURED ON THIS EPISODE:

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT RICK BY VISITING HIS WEBSITE HERE

FOLLOW HIM ON IG @designbizsurvivalguide

MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE:

UNREASONABLE HOSPITALITY BY WILL GUIDARA

 LEADERS EAT LAST

THE GAP AND THE GAIN

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THE EPISODE:

THE POWER OF CONFIDENCE IN YOUR BUSINESS

THE POWER OF LEADERSHIP IN YOUR BUSINESS

THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNITY

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If you went to interior design school, then you know they don’t teach you the skills of confidence, leadership, and the power of community. I am excited to share the conversation I had with Rick Campos, where he gives his practical advice on these critical skills all designers need!

Rick Campos is a self proclaimed recovering interior designer, podcast host, and design business coach on a mission to support and promote the rise of the interior design community.

Before becoming a leader in the design industry Rick championed his own residential design business for six years and then joined forces with a fellow designer and practiced for another 6 years, first as an associate designer and ultimately as a director of business development. His daily interaction with clients, builders, architects, vendors, and artisans contributes to a broad perspective of the design industry. 

In 2018, faced with an opportunity for reinvention, Rick traded his tape measure for a microphone and launched DESIGN BIZ SURVIVAL GUIDE, a multi faceted platform that includes a podcast, business coaching, and a lecture series all designed to inform and inspire interior design professionals. 

With literally thousands of conversations with designers and industry experts about the business of design under his belt, Rick leverages lessons learned and the generous advice of his peers to inform and empower design entrepreneurs across the country and abroad to build better more profitable businesses. 

Rick is proudly a past president of ASID Orange County, a past leader for NKBA SoCal, and is currently the president for the Orange County / Los Angeles chapter of IDS. 

When he’s not on air or on stage he spends his free time in the woods of Washington with his husband When he’s not on air or on stage he spends his free time in the woods of Washington with his husband John and their Portuguese water dog Lucy where he plans to one day raise goats and chickens while continuing to inform, inspire, and empower design professionals near and far on the designbizsurvivalguide.com platform. 

The Beginning

When Rick started his business, the last thing he thought of was NOT having the resources and support around him. Like I’m sure all of you relate to this as well, he just assumed that there was already this community that would support him, rally around him, and he could ask any questions that he wanted to. And, ofcourse, that was not what he experienced.

Rick learned that the more he learned and the longer he was in this industr,y the more he wanted to give back because he didn’t want any other designer to experience that isolation.

Confidence

The best way to learn confidence is from your peers. So, you’re not giving away any secret sauce to teach someone tips, strategies, and skills to be confident and a better leader on the job site. That’s not even creative. Those are just people and business skills that are so necessary for you to grow your business and be successful.

These are business skills, and the majority of us come to this business with our creative skills. And most of us are trying to ‘catch up.’ This was not taught in our design schools. 

Being confident doesn’t mean everything is going right. And this also doesn’t mean you need to have an immediate answer when things go wrong. Typically, that causes you to give a bad answer because you’re terrified of making the wrong decision, and so, therefore, they make the wrong decision. And for the most part, our clients are business people, and they can see right through a half-ass answer. 

Leadership

Leadership is one of the most important skills NOT taught in design school. Rick says he always tells designers, especially young designers who are launching their own businesses, to read Leaders Eat Last, learn how to protect yourself, your business, and your team, and be a strong leader because really that’s what our clients are hiring us for. 

A lot of times, designers want to neglect this role, but the moment you embrace it and demonstrate to your clients, ‘I’m in control. I’m leading the ship. Regardless of whether things are going good or bad, I have a handle on it.’ Once you establish that trust, then you are off to the races. If you compromise that, you get nothing but problems. 

Rick shares that he has designers come to him saying that they launched their business five years ago, and it’s going incredible. I started with two people, and now I have ten! And guess what I realized – I don’t know how to manage or lead people. I had no idea. So we need to have a conversation about it, unpack it, and strategize so that we make them the leader that they are or empower someone else to be the leader that they need in their team. 

Community

You don’t realize how much you need other designers until you’re surrounded by other designers, and they can relate to everything you’ve gone through. When you think you were the only one, you find out there’s probably a bazillion other designers who’ve experienced the same thing as you. It’s that camaraderie and connectedness that we all need!

Rick talks to a lot of different business people. He says a lot of small businesses all have the same challenges. They have similar solutions to overcome those challenges. So sometimes, it’s a lot of fun to speak to people outside of the creative industry to get their perspective and open your mind a little bit. But when it comes down to the nuances of the design businesses, you really want to keep that between designers! Because anyone else will tell you that you’re crazy when you say, well, you know, we’ll just have to order them another sofa and eat the cost of this sofa. And they’re like, what?? That just doesn’t make sense on any business level. But this is not a normal business. 

“Interior design is not a transactional business. We are in the relationship business. Even a short project for us is still several months, and a big project for us could be years. So we learn things about our clients.” says Rick

Rick shares how he recently became certified in what the book Unreasonable Hospitality by Will Guidara teaches.

“All of those things that we learn about our clients are touch points that we can keep track of and leverage throughout the client experience to have a bigger impact and make it a 5-star experience. These things that may be a problem for our clients or, a challenge or a thorn in our side during the process are all opportunities. You just have to find a way to leverage the craziness and turn it into something incredible.” says Rick

Rick, as well as I have, especially when I worked in New York City, worked with very wealthy, luxury projects.

Rick shares how he didn’t come from money, his family, or anyone he knew who had ever hired an interior designer. So, working on multi-million dollar projects takes confidence. To be in the room and be confident, to listen, absorb information and not look intimidated. 

You’re an equal. And if you don’t see yourself as that equal, you won’t be treated as an equal. 

It was intimidating to me because I was thinking, I’ve never been in these environments. How can I possibly relate to these clients? How could I possibly be of service to them at a level they’re expecting? But at the end of the day, you just have to take all of that out of the equation and focus on just being of service to them. Going back to the leadership, leading the project, delivering great service. That’s what they’re hiring you for.” shares Rick.

No matter how wealthy a person is, they still are people, and they still have issues, challenges, and problems. Some life occurrences happen, and they apply to everyone. It makes it a little easier if you bring it back down to that level to manage that type of client. 

Benefit of communities

Now, with all of the ability to be in communities, all of that is so much easier to manage because you’re not spiraling in your head alone, or one or two people in the office with you who are also spiraling. You just need that one person to talk you off the ledge and give you a different perspective, allowing you to go back to the job with a new understanding and a higher level of confidence. 

Designers biggest struggles

From all the conversations Rick has with designers, he hears a lot about what they‘re going through, so I asked him what comes up the most for designers in regard to their struggles, and he said that it always has to do with pricing. 

“Marketing is a challenge, but it can be fun. And there are so many different ways of doing it and resources available that it’s not as big a thorn in the side as pricing can be. Designers are always struggling with pricing for profit, growing their team, and growing their business.” says Rick

What Rick wants to express to designers is to embrace the tried and true business model that is design. It’s design, construction, and furnishings.  Those are your three streams of revenue that create a whole. “Double down on what you’re good at and outsource what you’re not so that you can offer the whole package. That way, every project will be successful and profitable,” says Rick