Every owner wants their business to be a success. But not every owner is willing to do the work and make the changes necessary to achieve that success. That includes making changes in one’s mindset and being open to new ways of thinking and doing things. A coach can help. They can motivate, challenge and guide you. They also will support you and join you in celebrating your achievements.

In this podcast, Erin talks with Drue Lawlor. A long-time interior design business owner, Drue, like Gail and Erin, pivoted some years ago to training interior designers to be better at operating their businesses. Later, she joined Gail Doby Coaching & Consulting, now Pearl Collective, as a coach and contributor to the weekly email newsletter. She also has a long history of volunteering with the American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) at the local and national level. She is the co-author, along with Michael Thomas, of Residential Design for Aging in Place.

Drue started out her interior design career working with her mentor. It wasn’t until later, when her mentor retired, that she went into business for herself. She soon realized that, while her mentor taught her much about design, she didn’t teach her anything about the business side of running a design firm. She’s had a calling ever since to convey to other designers the importance of having business knowledge.

“I tell them,” said Drue, “you either need to find a partner who is very good at business or learn it yourself. Or you’ll go out of business.”

One of her favorite things to talk about with designers she coaches is changing their attitude toward marketing. “It’s always surprising to me that people do not like marketing,” she said.”They look at it as if it were some terrible roadblock.” Her approach is to get them to see that they can tap into their strengths and get really creative with their marketing.

Another area that Drue likes to work on with her coaching clients is team building. For her, it starts with knowing what your values are and what the culture of your firm is. Then you build a team to fit that. “You can train for skills,” Drue advised, “but hire for attitude.”

Erin and Drue talked a lot about the value of working with a coach and what it’s like to work with a coach. Before ending their conversation, Erin asked Drue what advice she had for someone thinking about working with a coach. Drue posed three questions:

• Are you willing to grow your business and do what it takes to get where you want to be?
  
• Are you coachable? Are you willing to give up trying to do it all yourself?
  
• Can you feel that you’re worthy—of investing in a coach, of finding the value in what you have to offer clients?
  

To learn more about how working with a coach could help transform your business, listen to the full podcast.

If you’re listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full shownotes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s7e4-shownotes

Drue listed several books that she found useful in her work as a business owner, trainer and coach:

• Be Your Future Self Now: The Science of Intentional Transformation by Dr. Benjamin Hardy.
  
  • Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time by Brian Tracy.
    
  • Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne.
    
  • Profit First: Transform Your Business from a Cash-Eating Monster to a Money-Making Machine by Mike Michalowicz.
    
  • The Pumpkin Plan: A Simple Strategy to Grow a Remarkable Business in Any Field by Mike Michalowicz.