FEATURED ON THIS EPISODE:

• Follow Katie on: LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook

• Access the full video interview with Elana Steele of Steele Appliance here

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN IN THE EPISODE:

• Why scaling before your processes are solid usually backfires
• What agility actually means in a design business and why rigid processes create paralysis
• The “lonely work” that positions you for growth before the big clients arrive

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This week I’m doing something different. I’m re-airing one of the highest-listened interviews this podcast has ever produced — my conversation with Katie Decker-Erickson. And I want to tell you why, because I think it makes the case for why replaying good content actually matters.

When my team flagged this episode, I went back and listened. And I have to be honest, it hit me completely differently this time. I’m in different projects. I’m thinking about different things. Two ideas jumped out at me that I didn’t carry with me the first time around. And that is exactly what good content does. It meets you where you are.

So whether you’re hearing this for the first time or coming back to it, here’s what I want you to listen for.

Two Things I Want You to Watch For

The first is the conversation about agility. Katie talks about the need to be agile in your business, and what I keep coming back to is that agility lives in discretion — the ability to make a sound judgment call on the fly, when the project is moving fast and the answer isn’t in any playbook. I see designers get so locked into their processes that they cause their own paralysis. There is no one-size-fits-all approach when you’re working with humans. Agility is how you stay effective when reality doesn’t match the plan.

The second is something Katie said that I carry with me every single day: always be curious and kind. I’m not kidding, that’s my North Star. And what I love about where it comes up in this conversation is that it’s not about clients. It’s about the trades. Curiosity and kindness on a job site will win you the respect of the people building your projects. I just did a whole episode on trade relationships, but I could have put those three words at the center of it.

Who Is Katie Decker-Erickson?

Katie and I first met at High Point Market in October of 2024. She was on a panel discussion and, to be blunt, she shined the brightest. I snuck in late and stood on the side just to hear her finish.

Katie has been in the design industry for over twenty years, working nationwide with a remote team of more than a dozen people. Her firm focuses primarily on commercial and multifamily work, and she has built her business on something most designers skip entirely: systems and processes that run in the background so she can focus on what she actually loves.

She’s also a business coach for interior designers through her brand Success by Design, helping other designers bridge the gap between creativity and entrepreneurship. And if you listen to this conversation, you’ll understand immediately why she’s the right person to have that conversation.

The Myth That More Projects Equals More Profit

One of the first things Katie pushes back on in this episode is the assumption that scaling means taking on more work.

Most designers jump to hiring — an assistant, a junior designer, a project manager — before the foundation is solid. But if you don’t know your numbers, if your onboarding is inconsistent, if your processes are being reinvented on every project, adding people doesn’t solve the problem. It amplifies it.

Katie’s framework is simple: let the business drive the scaling, not the other way around. Your clients and your leads should be what pushes you to grow, not you deciding you want to grow and then trying to manufacture the demand.

The question she asks every designer she coaches is: what’s your why? Why do you want to scale? Is it for more money, more time, more creative freedom? Because the answer changes everything about how you approach it, and whether now is even the right time.

What Processes Actually Do For You

Here’s the reframe that I think is most valuable in this episode. Processes aren’t about rigidity. They’re about freedom.

When your systems are solid, you stop reinventing the wheel on every project. You stop spending mental energy on the operational details and get to spend it on the design decisions. You stop being reactive and start being strategic. And perhaps most importantly — you show up to every client interaction with a confidence that people can feel.

Katie makes a point in this episode that I haven’t stopped thinking about. She said she genuinely can’t remember the last time a client asked whether she has staff. They don’t ask. They don’t need to. She shows up prepared, informed, and in control, and that’s all they need to know.

That’s not luck. That’s what years of building and refining systems actually produces.

The 80/20 Rule of Process

One thing Katie is refreshingly honest about is that no process is perfect one hundred percent of the time.

Her rule is 80/20. Eighty percent of the time, your systems will be exactly right. Twenty percent of the time, you’re going to have to adapt. And that’s not a failure — that’s agility doing its job.

The designers who get into trouble are the ones who treat their processes as law. Every client must fit the same box. Every project must follow the same steps in the same order. And when reality doesn’t cooperate, which it never does indefinitely, they freeze.

The goal isn’t a perfect system. The goal is a strong system that you know how to flex when you need to. Knowing the difference between when to hold your process and when to bend it is a skill, and it develops over time.

The “Lonely Work” Nobody Talks About

Katie talks about doing what she calls the lonely work, the behind-the-scenes operational building that nobody sees and nobody applauds. Getting the right software. Tightening your onboarding. Reviewing your contracts. Building out your marketing strategy beyond Instagram. Finding a bookkeeper. Understanding your numbers.

None of it is glamorous. None of it shows up in your portfolio or on your highlight reel. But it is the work that builds the stage — so that when the big client comes, you’re ready to step into that space and deliver.

The designers who skip this work often find themselves scrambling when the opportunity arrives. The ones who do it — quietly, consistently, before it feels urgent — find that the business starts to carry itself.

When to Scale and When to Wait

Katie’s answer to the scaling question is more nuanced than most designers expect.

Sometimes the right move is to stay exactly where you are.

She shares that she spent the first decade or more of her business not growing her firm intentionally — because her kids were young, and that was where she wanted her energy. She stayed in her lane, did excellent work, and kept her processes tight. And then when a major client came to her and asked her to take on interiors in addition to the work she was already doing for them, she was ready.

She had done the work. She had the team. She had the systems. She was able to say yes without it unraveling everything else.

That is the version of scaling that actually works. Not forcing growth before the infrastructure is there to support it, but doing the quiet, consistent work so that when the moment comes, you can meet it.

Curiosity, Kindness, and Why They’re a Business Strategy

I want to come back to something Katie said in our conversation, because it’s the thing I’ve carried with me most.

Always be curious and kind.

She said it in the context of how she approaches her team, her vendors, her contractors, and her clients. And what she was pointing at is this: when you lead with genuine curiosity, when you ask questions instead of assuming, when you stay open to learning something from anyone on the project, you build relationships that make everything else possible.

The same is true for kindness. It’s not a soft skill. It’s a business strategy. Kind people find kind people. And the team you build from that foundation is the one that stretches for you when the timeline gets tight and the scope triples.

The Bottom Line

The through-line of this entire conversation is simple: you cannot get back to doing what you love if you haven’t done the work to support it.

Processes, systems, financial clarity, the right team, none of it is as exciting as the design work. But all of it is what makes the design work sustainable. And sustainable, over time, starts to feel like joy.

If this conversation sparks something for you, share it with a designer who needs to hear it. And if you want to go deeper with Katie, you’ll find her at successbydesign.coach.

Like this Episode?

Be sure to check out Episode #287: What Interior Designers Get Wrong About the People Who Build Their Projects

Be sure to check out Episode #285: What Interior Designers Get Wrong About Capacity (And Why It’s Not Project Count)

Be sure to check out Episode #259: Building a Business That Fits Your Life: My 2026 Plan