Episode 186: It's less about you and more about the people that you're helping when running a business with Andrew Mitchell of The Design Coach
In today's episode, Fiona talks with the fabulous Andrew Mitchell, a successful interior designer who goes by Mr. Mitchell and founder of The Design Coach. They discuss ideas, insights, transparency, and honesty in his business journey. Tune in!
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
On marketing
Looking outside your direct competitors
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Resources and Recommendations mentioned in this episode:
Mim Fanning
Dylan Farrell
Paul Hecker
Hamish Guthrie
Kimberly Seldon
David
Jillian
John O'Donohue
Krista Tippett
In the coaching space, I was starting from scratch. That question that we all dread, “Who are you? Who do you think you are to be doing what you're doing?” It kept popping up now and then. Even though I coach designers on how to deal with that, it's something quite challenging for yourself. It's something that I keep coming back to the fundamental. Anyone who's wanting to do the same thing needs to come back to the fundamental question of why you're doing it.
Welcome to episode 186 of the My Daily Business Coach podcast. My name is Fiona Killackey. I'm your host. I'm also an author, speaker, business coach, mom, friend, sister. Today, I am an interviewer. I am talking to an incredible small business owner and I can't wait to get into that episode. It's a good one. Such a lovely person has come on and shared his story, his tips, challenges, wins, and all sorts of good things.
Before we dive into that, two things, the first is I've had a couple of DMs about the podcasting course or about people wanting to start a podcast and saying, “Do you have any courses or ideas for this?” Yes, we do. We have a short course, which is quite long, called How to Start a Podcast. It talks you through everything from microphone setup to tools that we use.
The big thing, which is the most important and probably what's lacking from a lot of other stuff that you can find online, is how to set up a system & process so that you can continue a lot of podcasts. People realize, “This is taking quite a lot of time.” There's no process set up to help support the output of this content, which is going out at a frequency or whatever you choose. For our frequency, it goes out twice a week.
It can be one thing to start a podcast, it's quite another to keep it going. To keep it going, you need a system and process and that is what the How to Start a Podcast course does. You can find that over at MyDailyBusinessCoach.com/podcast. You can go into the shop, MyDailyBusinessCoach.com/shop, and find it there.
Before we get stuck into our beautiful interview with a lovely guy, I wanted to also pay my respects to the traditional owners and custodians on this beautiful land, the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin Nation. I pay my respects to their elders, past, present, and emerging, and acknowledge that sovereignty has never been ceded. I also pay my respects to any other people reading from around the world, from different tribes, and indigenous groups, welcome. Let's get into our small business interview.
I am talking to the fabulous Andrew Mitchell, who is a successful interior designer and goes by Mr. Mitchell. He is the Founding Director of The Design Coach. I have a lot of interior designers and interior stylists that follow this show because they send me lots of DMs, which is lovely. If you're in that space, you may well know The Design Coach.
The Design Coach is the place to go for interior designers, anyone in that space who wants to understand business. Maybe they've studied interior design but they haven't studied the nuances of running a small business, from finance, legal, all sorts of things that can trip you up. When you are coming into a creative industry, quite often, that's what you're passionate about. These other things sometimes can fall by the wayside or not get the love that they deserve.
As an interior designer himself, Andrew went through a whole process of learning about business. In this wonderful interview, he talks openly about how it felt to be running this business and not understand the business side and how he felt like he had to fake-it-till-you-make. He didn't want other people to have to go through the mistakes, setbacks, and the journey that he went through. He's been vulnerable and transparent about his early stages in business.
I love that he's now created a whole business, The Design Coach, to help other people not have to go through those pitfalls but also to create a community around them. Quite often, in the interior design space, like many service businesses and other product-based businesses as well, you can be working by yourself.
Yes, you see your clients but, predominantly, it's you behind the scenes from doing social media, bookkeeping, keeping the clients happy, account managing, marketing your brand, getting yourself out there. There's so much that is expected of small business owners. It's brilliant that there are places like The Design Coach that offer coaching, memberships, classes, and retreats so you can form that community around you.
We're getting to The Design Coach in this episode. We also talk about other things that have become a part of The Design Coach that Andrew is passionate about, including wellness and spirituality. It's lovely to have Andrew on. He is a client. We've worked together for a couple of years. We started in 2019. It's been wonderful to work with him, especially through this pandemic and through all the different things that he's launching. His business is doing so well. No part of me. I have been guiding him. He has done all that work along with his incredible team.
It was my absolute joy to bring him on to talk about how did he build this business, what have been some of the challenges, how did he overcome them, and how has he managed to bring in his outside values, beliefs, and systems into his company. Sometimes people struggle with that. They may have things that they're interested in outside of business and they keep those two lives separate. I love that Andrew merges them and brings his whole self into his business. Here is my interview with the wonderful Andrew Mitchell, the Founding Director of The Design Coach and Director of Mr. Mitchell.
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Hello, Andrew.
Hi, Fiona.
It is lovely to have you on the podcast. I can't wait to get into it. How are you feeling? Can you tell us where you're meeting me from?
Firstly, thank you so much for having me. This is a little professional dream or goal that I had that I would love to be on your podcast. This is exciting for me.
Thank you.
I'm in my office in Abbotsford working from home. I set that up in early 2021. I didn't even know that we were going to go into that extended lockdown. I'm incredibly rested and relaxed because I've come back from a ten-day road trip.
You look tanned.
I went up to my favorite place, Seal Rocks in New South Wales, and had ten days to rest and relax and did a bit of a road trip in the car.
You did mention the lockdowns. You're also a fellow Melbournite. This is a strange question to start with but for anyone who's reading this and is super jealous, stuck in lockdown, stuck in some quarantine situation, or a bit anxious about going out and there's a lot of that around. Can you give us any tips about creating a bit of a sanctuary at home or even in a hotel room or some space to chill out if somebody is listening to this and they're not in the position to get out of their house?
It's not a strange question at all. Everyone in Australia can relate to the fact that the last few years have been a little bit upended. Even if you work from home or don't work from home normally, you've been working from home. I agree that your home office should have some degree of sanctuary to it. Firstly, a disclaimer, I don't have kids. My heart goes out to all of those who've been working from home and looking after kids and managing a whole household that is normally probably getting breaks from each other. Hats off to you and all the other business people out there that have got to manage all of that on top of it.
My recommendation to create some sanctuary would be to have a separate space if you can. Firstly, physically and mentally, to have that shift going from an everyday living space into a workspace helps get your mind in the space of doing work. Also, I've created a new eBook called Business Detox. A few other things that we talked about in that is to look at the physical space. Declutter. Try to have a minimal amount of stuff around you. As they say, “A clean space makes for a clean mind.” That can help with workflow.
Also, you want to add in some decorative elements so that it does feel personal to you. There are things that make you want to be in that space, whether it's a bit of greenery or beautiful photos of your friends, family, or loved ones. Nurture that space. Don't look at it as a workspace because we spend so much time at work. There's got to be a good space as well.
I love how you said to nurture that space. By nurturing that space, you’re nurturing yourself as well. I had to laugh when you're saying clutter because you can't see it. We are sending out welcome packs to everyone in group coaching. There is a production line on my desk and I hate it when there is stuff on my desk.
I've got the same. I've got a heap of books that I'm sending out for book club and for my retreats. We don't live in sterile environments. It's a work in progress. As long as you can bring it back to some degree of decluttering every so often, it's good.
I'm that person. I'm always like, “Let's get it clean.” I feel good when it's clean. I asked you that because I know that you're an interior designer, a coach, and an educator in the design space. For those of you who don't know, Andrew, can you tell us a bit about your company and what your business offers people?
First and foremost, I am still working as an interior designer. I've been doing that for more than 25 years and I still love it. I love working with people to create beautiful spaces, residentially, commercially, and hospitality. I’m still doing that. In 2018, I launched The Design Coach, which started as a little passion project but it has grown hugely. With the help of people like yourself that I have gone out to for some business coaching, it's a degree of luck with everything over the last couple of years forcing me to work from home and go online. The business has grown exponentially.
The Design Coach offers a big range of services. It started as one on one coaching but now it's one on one coaching and group coaching. I've got a premium group coaching program. I also host classes. That started in 2018 with 10 to 15 people face to face. Now I've got up to 30 to 40 people online from all around Australia and overseas. I don't teach people how to interior design spaces. I teach people about the business side of things. It’s more the soft skills side of things about systems, processes, how to charge, managing projects, managing project finances, all of the things that you don't get taught in business school.
From personal experience of making a huge amount of mistakes and also carrying a lot of shame over several years about my inability in those areas, I know how important those areas are for people who run businesses. That's my big thing. I want to share that information. I want to share all of the stuff that I've learned over the years. I want to share the mistakes so that other people don't make the same mistakes. There’s a whole range of different services. One of the more exciting things I've got coming up is the retreat in May 2022 in Byron Bay. This is our fourth retreat. Also, I’m excited to launch the first-ever international excursion with The Design Coach. That's a trip to Milan Furniture Fair in 2023.
That’s super exciting. I’m going to support you.
What's going on?
There’s so much going on. You were saying that it was a bit of luck. No one knew there was a pandemic coming. You had set yourself up two years prior to being able to do this work as well as the interior design stuff. Given we are still trying to figure out life with COVID, how did COVID impact you and your business? Was it like, “I've got everything set up. It's all good.” Did it have major impacts?
Also, did you find that more people came to you? I work with interior designers as well and I feel like some of them were busier than ever. People were at home and are like, “We do need to fix this. Maybe this is a good time to fix the kitchen or do X, Y, Z.” The first question is, how did COVID impact your business and your life? The second question is, did you feel like you had more work because of everybody being at home? Was it the opposite?
Firstly, 2020 was a pretty rough year for me. I don't know anybody who hasn't been impacted negatively by COVID. I look back retrospectively and the things that I struggled with in 2020 were small in comparison to some of the businesses that have been hugely affected in the events and hospitality industry. My heart goes out to those people, first and foremost. I was due to be married in 2020. My wedding was scheduled for the week after the pandemic hit Australia. That was a tough period. Following that, the relationship broke down. That was a tough time.
Aside from that, there have been huge, positive things that have happened to me across the last couple of years. I'm not going to say because of COVID, despite COVID. COVID and the lockdowns forced me to get out of my comfort zone. I was quite tech-phobic prior to that. The idea of doing even FaceTime on my camera freaked me out. Now, I'm Zooming dozens of times every week. I'm hosting Zoom meetings. I'm about to do a group coaching session. One of my free group coaching sessions is with 30 designers. I’m managing that. It’s been an amazing opportunity to be able to learn new skills and grow my business in different directions.
Also, something that came out of those periods of having a tough time personally was being reminded how beautiful and kind people are. My community of designers, architects, and decorators that I've got in The Design Coach were supportive and got me through the tough period in 2020. Having all of those classes and coaching programs that I had to continue to host enabled me to pull myself out of a funk and get on with things.
I love that you casually say that you do Zoom calls. You do them and you have a great camera setup. You got a great background. You're doing them very professionally as I would expect from you, Andrew. I love that you talk through that. If anyone had seen you on a Zoom call, they would think you're in your element. How could this person ever have been worried about or not understood all of that technology?
Another thing is I'm a naturally introverted person. I'm not comfortable getting up in front of groups of people. It doesn't matter whether it's a Zoom call or in front of crowds. In 2019, getting up in front of 120 designers to introduce a guest that we had on that I flew over from the US to present to everyone is getting me out of my comfort zone.
In terms of business, did you feel like it did increase because of the pandemic?
Yes. I've been working with you since 2020 or maybe even late 2019. The business is over 4 years old. I've been working hard to get the word out there. A wonderful thing that's happening now is that my lovely members are spreading the word. I'm getting a lot of referrals from people. I have been working hard to put a good, solid marketing strategy together. I've been getting the word out there.
There is a definite need for people in pandemic times and stressful periods, professionally and personally, for business coaching and professional coaching. It’s a combination of the fact that I've worked hard. There is a need. I've found a niche in the industry that's not being serviced by a lot of people. It's good timing as well, even though there's nothing good about a pandemic.
There's a silver lining in a lot of things. Thank you for being open and sharing what you went through in 2020 as well. It's been wonderful to see it fully blossom again. You have been an interior designer for over a quarter of a century, which is massive. A massive congrats to you. You've been running this new business for quite a while as well. I'm not an interior designer but interior design appears to be a competitive industry and it's constantly growing. I'm sure you must have seen huge growth over 25 years in the number of people who are going into that space. Am I correct in saying that?
Absolutely. It's hard to quantify because I did a period where I worked for a pretty big online interior design company. They're still going. One of my jobs was to set up all of the training and the processes for them. I was also then mentoring those people and also managing those designers. I was managing over about 90 designers from all walks of life, from all experience levels.
From having done some teaching work myself at a local college, there's a lot of interest from people wanting to get into the interior design industry. There are a lot of schools out there. Every year, we're churning out more and more interior designers, interior decorators, architecture as well. There are a lot of people in that space. There's a lot of work out there for people but it's a competitive space.
One of the things I was going to say is that someone could be reading this and check out The Design Coach and be like, “You are essentially helping your competition.” I've had a few clients who decided that they want to do something similar. They have their own business and now they want to teach people and be a business coach in that industry. What are some of the obstacles that you have had to work through to start a second business? Also, have you ever had any blocks around, “I'm giving people a roadmap to do what I'm doing in the same industry.”
That's not a problem for me at all. I'm naturally someone who enjoys sharing. That's the foundation of everything that I designed. The Design Coach’s to-do was to share experience, share information, share knowledge. That's part of who I am as a person. I don't have a scarcity mentality that there's not enough work out there or anything like that. I tend to jump into things without giving them too much of negative thoughts about what could go wrong and so forth.
Hearing that question reminds me that over the first couple of years, I did have a bit of my imposter syndrome. I had managed to get over that in my interior design career. I've been doing it for over 25 years. I'm pretty confident that I know what I'm doing. I've got a good right to be charging my worth for the things.
In the coaching space, I was starting from scratch. That question that we all dread, “Who are you? Who do you think you are to be doing what you're doing?” It kept popping up now and then. Even though I coach designers on how to deal with that, it's something quite challenging for yourself. It's something that I keep coming back to the fundamental.
Anyone who's wanting to do the same thing needs to come back to the fundamental question of why you're doing it. I'm doing it because I've made enough mistakes to have something to be able to give to people to say, “Do it this way. Don't do it that way. If you do it that way, it'll result in X, Y, and Z.” That's where it started.
The business is growing all the time. I'm finding that I'm coaching people that have got twenty-plus years of experience like me. I have to pinch myself that I'm still being able to offer those people something valuable. A big part is you've either got a passion and a bit of a gift for teaching people and coaching people or you don't. I'm fortunate that I’m in that space.
So are the people that you coach, no doubt. One of the things that you've already talked about is, in 2019, you had to stand up in front of this big audience and you'd flown this expert in from the US. From what I can see, you're amazing at connecting people, sharing your networks, and your contacts, even books that you're reading.
For anyone listening who is in some business, whether it's a service or product base, and they are wanting to start bringing in experts to their work if they're in the service space or products. Maybe they have a homeware store and they want to start bringing in people like you to come and talk to people or they want to collaborate on products or even on their services on things like coaching or ebooks or whatever. How have you done that? You've worked with some huge names in the design space. Can you talk us through the process? Do you find them? Do you pitch an idea? Are they friends of yours? How does that work and asking people to collaborate?
Firstly, thank you for your kind words about how far and how successful I've been with that networking side of things. I do have to stop and pinch myself and go, “Wow.” I've worked with Mim Fanning from Mim Design, Dylan Farrell, Paul Hecker, Hamish Guthrie, FLEX Studio, Aesop. That’s to name a few. I've got all these exciting people that are coming on board.
First and foremost, you have to put the request out there. You have to ask people. I'm surprised but I'm also not at all surprised. One of the things that I've learned about people is people want to contribute, help, and share. I'm the conduit. I'm the person that's putting these amazing thought leaders and these amazing industry influences in front of my members. That's what I'm excited about doing. I don't take any of the credit for the incredible wisdom that they're putting forward. I'm going out there and making the request to these people.
To this day, I've only been pushed back on by a couple of people. I'm going out there and asking the big names in the industry. I'm a huge fan of Kimberly Seldon from the Business of Design and everything that she stands for. She's in the same space as me. She's a business coach. She does amazing things for the industry. She's based in the US. I got on Instagram, sent her a message, and said, “What would you think if I flew you out to Australia? You've got heaps of fans out here. Come out here and meet all of your Australian fans.” She was like, “Yeah. Why not?” It's incredible.
I'm talking to Kelly Wearstler’s people and I want to do something with her. I can't say that I've got anything in the pipeline at the moment. Dream big. Put the request out there and you’ll never know. The worst thing that can happen is that they can say no. The people that have said no to me have said no graciously. Don't be afraid to ask.
That's what we don't do enough. We put people on this pedestal. This is crude but somebody used to always say to me, “Everyone goes to the toilet.” That's why lower classy than you are, Andrew. I remember her saying that and I was like, “You're right.” My dad used to always say, “People are people. They're not jerks.”
The exercise that they get you to do is if you're nervous about public speaking, look out into the audience and imagine everyone naked. At the end of the day, everyone is a naked person that's feeling vulnerable. If we can look at it that way, everyone's the same. Those people aren't friends but I would say that I've developed close relationships with people like Mim who's been on our 2020 retreats. Dylan Farrell has presented for me a couple of times. Getting to know these people incredibly well. They're people like everyone else.
The other thing I want to say too that has helped and for anyone who's wanting to make connections is that the masterclass’s primary focus isn't about making money. We've always made sure that we have had a charitable element to it. We donate 30% of all the profits from every single masterclass to a charity of the designer’s choice. The person who's hosting the masterclass gets to choose a charity. It's not a money-making thing for us. For me, it's about that collaboration with people that are in the industry that have got a similar attitude of wanting to give back to people.
I love that you made that point as well. I'm one for the buyer cycle. I often talk about money-making and brand-building marketing, sometimes you'll have both but often you don't. I love that you're saying that this is part of getting the brand, networking, connecting, and getting these great thought leaders to provide inspiration for your audience and it's not necessarily this huge money-making exercise. That’s another thing where people think, “If I have to fly somebody out and if I have to do this, I better make a huge return.” They’re not thinking of the long game. People are now working with you multiple times and what that does and the credibility and authority that builds as well.
Thank you.
A lot of people who follow this podcast and who I work with are in that design and creative space. I know because they all reach out, which is lovely. You're giving so much of yourself to others, your clients, your customers, and even in the content that you put out. Sometimes when we’re talking, you're talking about, “I've got this retreat. I've got this.” I'm like, “He is working on a lot of things.” Where do you get your inspiration from? You're creating these situations where other people can come and do a masterclass and get this huge amount of inspiration. Where do you seek inspiration and advice?
I don't think the problem is the inspiration. For me, it's keeping a cap on it. I've got a mind that never stops. I'm big picture. The problem is not so much about the inspiration but it's the facilitation. David and Jillian who work with me are the ones that have to help with making those dreams and those inspired, exciting ideas come to life. Also, an exciting part for me is the practicality of crunching numbers. With Milan 2023, there are many moving parts. It's crazy. In combination, there's ground transport. There are many different things that need to be considered and are all in a different country and all in what is probably promising to be a continued pandemic period.
I love getting feedback from my members. I'm constantly seeking formal feedback but also talking to people when we're at any of our events. I've developed this incredible community of people that I'm proud to call friends. They're honest with their feedback about what they would like more of and what they'd like less of. I listen to people. I get my inspiration from the beautiful people that I have in my community. They're telling me constantly, “We want to see this designer hosting a masterclass,” or, “Can't you do this as an event or an excursion?” “We need to learn more about this.”
My design lab classes, which are business-focused classes that I host, started as 3 to 4-hour face-to-face sessions. From 3 to 4 hours, they've moved to full-day classes. This 2022, we're launching an online version of that. I'm listening to people all the time saying, “What do you want more of? What do you want less of?”
You've mentioned listening and getting into the detail. I know that you've got a great team with David and Jillian. One of the topics or themes that are popular on your website is wellness. That's another form of listening, looking at the analytics. Wellness is a huge part of your life and your business. It is a real point of difference with what you do in the interior design space as well. It sounds silly, why is wellness important? We all have an idea but why is it important for you to infuse wellness into your work, your boot camps, and all these things that you do? I like to get your take on that.
Firstly, let's throw it out there and be honest about the fact that wellness is overused. Everyone from soap manufacturers to snack food companies make claims that they're going to provide long-lasting wellness. From my perspective, the word wellness means pretty simple things. It means looking after your health and that's your physical health, mental health, and emotional health. There are lots of different things that influence that.
Ultimately, I don't believe we can separate our personal life from our business life. We are our business. If you're a small business owner, even if you're running a small team, the way that you approach your life is going to be influenced by how healthy you feel, how rested you are. If you're rested, you’re feeling your creativity. Also, how well are you managing your stress levels? I don't think that there's a way that you can separate the two of them.
From my perspective, I like to walk the talk. For my programs, whether it's one on one coaching or one of my group coaching programs, I factor in the wellness side of things. I ask the questions. In my questionnaires, I've got lots of questions about how they're feeling about their mental health, their physical health, and their emotional health.
The other thing that I wanted to say is that I've been in the business for over twenty years. In the early stages of running my business, I didn't focus enough on having a good balance in all areas of my life. I worked long hours. Also, I didn't have the right systems and processes set up to run an efficient, profitable business. I was in financial strife. I was physically burnt out. I was emotionally stressed off my head. I went into probably one of the worst periods of my life. I'm driven by the fact that I don't want anyone to enter into that space in their life.
I got to a point where I was so burnt out and in such a state financially that I had to go to an accountant to say, “What do I need to do?” He looked at me and said, “You need to file for bankruptcy.” That was the turning point for me. That was back in 2003. I thought, “I need to get my stuff together. I need to get organized. I need to ask for help.” That was the big thing. I needed to get out there and learn from other people. I need to ask questions about how to run a business successfully and systems and processes.
I started from that point to incorporate all of that but I learned that I needed to look after myself physically, emotionally, and mentally. There aren’t many people that can run a successful business unless they're well balanced with their approach to it. I'm passionate about it, so much so that the retreat in Byron Bay has got a complete wellness focus. We have wellness activities. We have a nutritionist that comes. He's designing a special menu that will leave the delegates feeling lighter and healthier.
We also have beautiful sound bath treatments. We offer morning yoga. It's a holistic approach. We're also talking about design and we're going out and seeing beautiful properties that are incredibly inspiring. Yes, we can have a bit of both. We're also giving people cocktails on the retreat. It's not like I'm subscribing to the idea that you have to give up everything. I'm all about balance.
I couldn't agree more. Thank you for being transparent in talking about the challenges that you've gone through. There might be someone listening to this who is in some financial hardship or challenge. The fact that when you said, “I needed to ask for help,” that can be such a hard thing. Whether it is financial, mental health, all sorts of things, it's like, “I need somebody else. I can't do all of this by myself right now.” Thank you for sharing that. I completely agree with your approach. I love it. There's such a hustle culture out there. I'm anti-hustle. I don't think it's necessary. People need to work hard at certain times like with your retreat and when you've got big launches happening. I don't think it needs to be a 24/7 hustle.
I listened to your podcasts. I’m listening to something that you said that resonated. You said that you don't believe in work-life balance because it puts too much pressure on people. There's enough pressure and enough stress. I'm 110% in agreement with that. We do need to listen to the warning signs that our minds and bodies are giving to us that say, “Slow down,” or integrate a little bit more downtime into your program.
I've created The 12 Areas of Life Balance Self-Assessment. For me, that is not about telling people, “You need to have perfect balance across all areas of your life.” It's about saying, “When you're not feeling 100%, maybe take the Life Balance Assessment and focus on where the areas are that need a little bit of TLC.” We also provide some simple actions that you can take to help to get back into balance. That's a big thing that I've been working on as well. That's a passion for me. There's no financial outcome from that for me. It's been countless hours of writing copy, writing content. It's mainly because I want to be able to help people.
You're genuine in that as well. I know that you are genuine because I've worked with you and seen how you operate. Thanks for listening to the podcast, Andrew. I always think of work-life integration. It has to integrate in a way that is good for both your work and your life, ideally. You help a lot of people, that's what you do. With this life-balance piece, it's all about helping people. There's no financial kickback to that. Have you had mentors or coaches or even a book? Is there any mantra that you've lived up to or had on your desk or anything like that, that has helped you build your business?
Firstly, hello, My Daily Business Coach. I've been working with you for over three years. I'm a big fan. I, 100%, walk the talk. I believe in coaches and mentors. I've had lots of different coaches, personally and professionally. I can't get enough of learning and personal and professional development. I love it.
You'd probably be able to relate to this. All the time, the stuff that we're teaching people is stuff that we want to have confirmed. We want to make sure that it's being completely programmed into our way of working and our way of living. I find that through my coaching, my coaching programs, and through all of the classes that I do, I'm learning as much as I'm teaching.
The people in my amazing coaching community teach me as much as I teach them through the coaching classes, which is a big honor to have that. I'm also fortunate to have some incredibly successful friends who I'm lucky to call friends who are great mentors to me. I'm all about having big, open, robust conversations about what our plans are and giving each other honest feedback. It's a big cycle of sharing as far as I'm concerned.
I love that idea. I was listening to you and I was sitting here smiling and going, “I feel the same.” Even if it's not anything to do with business, sometimes you could have a conversation and somebody says something about their relationship with their mom or something else and you're like, “That's an interesting way of looking at it.” You get all these different lenses that you're able to look through the world at because of all the different variety of who you're working with. It's such a great thing. We are lucky.
What you're doing with everything across all of the services that you offer is incredible for many different industries. I sent you a crazy, excited, direct message on Instagram after I listened to that incredible podcast that you had with Brooke on highly sensitive people. I was like, “That's me.” Thank you so much. It has changed my life with that perspective. Thank you for bringing her to us and also for you sharing openly and honestly and making it normal to be sharing like that.
Thank you. That means a lot. I was a bit worried about that episode. You have to walk the talk. If you're asking the people that you're coaching to be vulnerable and put themselves out there and do that, you have to do that as well. I could imagine that you'd have lots of answers to this question but what are you most proud of from your journey in business so far?
Firstly, that's kind to say that I would have lots of things to be proud of. Thank you. Ultimately, I am incredibly proud of that period that you worked with me through 2020. It was a tough time personally. I pushed through to create probably the most powerful programs that I offer at The Design Coach. I did that real pivot to taking everything online. That took me way out of my comfort zone. It was a big financial investment to do a lot of the stuff that I was doing. There was a lot that I put on the line emotionally as well, putting myself out there.
Looking back at that period that was a bit tough, it was probably one of the most transformational periods of my life. That's gone to set me up so well. I’m more so incredibly proud that I've set this vision with the help of people like you of what I want the business to be. I'm meeting my targets and exceeding my targets. Every year, it's growing.
It's not about making money. The targets are there because I genuinely believe that if I'm reaching more people and more people are coming to my classes, I can help more people. I can help more people make successful businesses for themselves that are profitable and enjoyable and that they don't make the same mistakes that could have had catastrophic effects on me in the past. It's amazing to be able to have that impact on people's lives.
You should feel proud of yourself, Andrew. I hope you take a minute. I'm all about taking a minute to celebrate your wins. It's incredible what you've gone through. I’m honored to have been a tiny, teeny part of your journey. You've done it all. I remember one time you were talking about Instagram Live and I was like, “Let's do it right now.” You're like, “Right now?” I was like, “Let's get on Instagram Live. If you haven't done it, let's do it.” You were like, “Okay.”
You came on and you were a professional, easy talking, and looking like you've done 15 million Instagram Lives. That's an example of what you've been open to, “I'm going to try this. I'm going to do this.” Yes, you had this horrible situation in 2020. John O'Donohue is one of the best poets that ever lived. I might have sent you the On Being podcast with him.
Yes, thank you. I still listen to Krista all the time.
It's one of my favorite, Krista Tippett, On Being. I remember he talked about that when something horrible happens to us, our life is torn and we can never go back to having an untorn life. By being torn and we go into the next stage, we’re more empathetic and understanding. We have a deeper connection to life, in general. It's incredible that you had that in 2020 and you were able to take it, work through everything, and come out where you are now. You’re helping even more people. It's amazing.
Thank you. The highly sensitive personal thing is if you're going to be a business coach on the level that you are or that I am, you need to have an element of that because you need to be able to have a strong sense of empathy for the people that you're coaching. Otherwise, you're doing it as a robot or doing it for the money. I love that you also put me onto that On Being podcast. It was a perfect time. It was the Irish poet episode that you encouraged me to listen to.
You are a business coach. You have a huge amount of empathy. What is next for you? Where can people connect with you? If they're reading and they're like, “My hand is up. I want to go to Milan. I want to come to Byron Bay.” I don't know if you've got any spots left. Where can they connect with you? What's happening? What's next?
We do have a couple of spots left for the Byron retreat. That's kicking off on the 20th of May 2022. Only because of the lovely COVID situation, we had to delay it from February, which is meant to start in February but we've now delayed. The good thing there for your readers is there are two places remaining.
Get on them, people.
In Milan, we only have 1 spot left out of 15. That went fast. There are exciting things coming up. I've got a premium group coaching program. I’m working with you on some concepts about creating a more advanced-level premium coaching program for 2022. That will probably kick off in about September 2022. I’m bringing on board my favorite industry experts, people like yourself, other people from business development, and people from the finance side of things. It’s focused on taking people's business to the next level. I'm excited about that. I don't know what that looks like yet. David and Jillian are probably thinking, “You haven't even told me about this.”
They’ll be listening to this podcast and sending you a text, “What is going on, Andrew?”
I've started working out in my head what it looks like but I want to create an online portal for our members that make the whole process of estimating their fees and creating a project budget a lot more simple, streamlined, efficient, and accurate. I am excited about that. That will probably be a 2023 or 2024 thing.
That all sounds super amazing. Is the best place for people to connect with you is TheDesignCoach.com.au? Are you super into Instagram? What’s best?
I'm not as social media savvy as you are with your instant DMs and all that jiggy things. We do put a lot of love and attention into our Instagram. We'd love people to follow us on @TheDesignsCoachAU or straight through the website. If people want to reach out to me directly, they can book a free twenty-minute discovery call to talk about anything like coaching, any of the programs that we've got, any of the classes courses, Milan, Byron.
It is my pleasure to have you on here, Andrew. I know many people are reading and taking away all sorts of things, from financial, going and asking for help, wellness, thinking bigger, and thinking outside the box. Thank you so much for coming on and sharing all your wisdom.
Thank you so much for having me. It's exciting to be here. I look forward to working with you.
Me, too.
There were many ideas, insights, transparency, and honesty in his business journey. It was a pleasure to have Andrew on this podcast. I'm sure that I'll be getting some DMs. You can always find me, @MyDailyBusinessCoach, on Instagram. You can be old school and send us an email, Hello@MyDailyBusinessCoach.com.
I know that people will be reaching out and be like, “It was lovely to see somebody being honest about their financials and that it wasn't all smooth sailing from the start.” It takes a lot of courage to talk about that. Probably even more courage to then take those challenges and turn them into an actual business to help other people prevent them from going through the same hardships. It’s amazing to talk to Andrew.
I would love to know what stood out for you. For me, two things come to mind. The first is when Andrew was talking about the imposter syndrome and going through that and having this question coming up in his mind, “Who are you? Who are you to do this?” He talked about how he was comfortable with the interior design business, Mr. Mitchell. He's been doing that for so long. He understands what could go wrong, what is going right, and how to overcome things that come up quite often in any interior design business. He's comfortable with that. He doesn't feel like an imposter.
He was talking about when he was starting The Design Coach. Quite often, he kept coming back to, “Who are you?” I loved that he then grounded that thought, the imposter syndrome, “Why are you doing it?” That is such a profound way of looking at it, to go from, “Everyone's thinking X, Y, Z about me,” through to, “How can I make it about other people? Why am I doing it? I'm doing it to prevent others from going through the stuff that I've gone through, help them learn, and help them build a community.” I love that idea.
If you are sitting there and whatever type of business you have and you are going through your own imposter syndrome, “Who am I to start a podcast? Who am I to write a book? Who am I to pitch myself to this media? Who am I to X, Y, Z?” There are all sorts of things we could be thinking, “Who am I to do that?” Come back to, “Why are you doing it?” If you can do that, it alleviates. It's less about you and it's more about the people that you're helping, which was clear in what Andrew was talking about.
The second thing that I loved that he talked about was getting feedback from people. It’s understanding not just, “I can help people. I've gone through these challenges. Let me help them so they don't have to go through them.” Also, it’s continuously improving on the business that he started, “What do people want more of? What do they want less of? What resonates with them? Who would they love me to bring out? What things do they want me to teach? What is a burning question that they've had that we could create something around to help them?”
I loved that he talked about getting feedback all the time. We talk to our clients. We talk to people at events. We talk to the people who are speaking at the events. We're getting feedback from everywhere. Often, especially as a business goes well and we can scale, we can forget to get that feedback. When you start a business, it's easy to put those things in place, like, “I've got to send a survey. I've got to have a focus group. I've got to ask people questions and follow up.” As we scale, sometimes we can get a bit complacent with that. It's incredible that it is part and parcel of Andrew’s business.
If you are interested in connecting with Andrew, you can do that over at TheDesignCoach.com.au. If you're interested in the retreat in Byron Bay in May 2022, which looks beautiful, you can find that at TheDesignCoach.com.au/retreats. If you are listening to this in real-time, Andrew’s business boot camp is about to kick off. It launches on the 21st of March 2022. It is coming to you live on the 17th of March 2022.
If you are keen to know more about that and get into one of the few spots that are left, you can find that at TheDesignCoach.com.au/business-bootcamp. Andrew is also on Instagram. He's living to the truth of wellness. I don't believe that he spends a whole lot of time there. He does have a great team that is on there. Make sure you connect with them. You can find that at @TheDesignsCoachAU. It is a great source of information, a lot of good tips. Of course, you'll be able to find all the different ways that you can work with Andrew over at @TheDesignsCoachAU.
Thank you so much, Andrew, for coming on and sharing your wisdom. Thank you so much for reading. If you're interested in the show notes or any of the links that we've talked about for connecting with Andrew, you can find them at MyDailyBusinessCoach.com/podcast/186 as this is episode 186. Thank you so much for reading. See you next time.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Coach Podcast. If you want to get in touch you can do that at MyDailyBusinessCoach.com or hit me up on Instagram, @MyDailyBusinessCoach.
