How To Upsell Interior Design Clients with 3D Renderings

Mina Duque (Guest): [00:00:00] Right now, there isn't anything that does what we do exactly like I would say what's out there. Depending on your needs, it can still be helpful for interior designers. But what we do is so detailed every last finish, and color and shadow and placement. Even if you use ai, there's so many tools you could try to do it yourself, but.
What we're doing is a done for you in great detail, high quality and easy process.
Intro (2): Have you hit a wall when it comes to growing your design business? Then welcome to Designed by Wingnut Social: Helping Home Professionals accelerate their success with proven industry practices and expert advice.
Darla Powell (Host): Hey kids, and welcome to Designed by Wingnut Social, the Interior Design Business podcast.
Hi, I'm your host, Darla Jethro Powell. On today's show, we talk about renderings, three dimensional renderings. Why you need them. Do you need them? How much you should charge for them? Are they a line [00:01:00] item? Are you baking 'em in? Should we make profit on them? And how they're going to help you grow your interior design business to attract reach and market to high-end clientele. You're gonna wanna stay tuned for that. But before I get into that, I wanna remind you that Designed by Wingnut Social, this podcast is sponsored by Wingnut Social, the digital marketing agency for you guys, interior designers, architects to the trade, furnishings, and home professionals.
We do full Done-for-you high-end social media marketing. You don't have to lift a finger. Let us handle all that for you so you can focus on what you do best, running your interior design business. We also offer search engine optimization so you can get found on the Googles, on the Bings. Is anyone using Bing? And, the latest development - You can get found on ChatGPT by your keywords on your website. And we are getting found by clients on ChatGPT left and right, let me tell you, it is a thing. So head on over [00:02:00] to WingnutSocial.com and let's hit that "Let's chat" button, work with Wingnut, and let's see how we can help.
Alright, guys, today's guest, Mina Duque of Duke Renders, is an expert on this topic, but before I get into my conversation with Mina, I gotta tell you about her. Here we go. Mina Duque is the head of client success at Duke Renders and is an interior designer based in Tulum. What began as her husband Fernando's renderings for her own projects quickly evolved into a thriving business after starting a family.
Mina joined Fernando to help scale Duke renders and support fellow designers with firsthand design experience. She ensures each project runs smoothly and every rendering exceeds expectations. Wingnuts help me in welcoming Mina Duque to the show. Hey there, Mina Duque. Welcome to the show. How the hell are you?
Mina Duque (Guest): Hi, I am great. I'm having my coffee and ready to talk.
Darla Powell (Host): Oh, coffee. It's like noon. Where are you?
Mina Duque (Guest): It's never too late for coffee. [00:03:00]
Darla Powell (Host): That's true. Do you ever do iced coffee? That's my favorite.
Mina Duque (Guest): Oh yeah. But it's dangerous 'cause I can drink too much of it. The hot. Makes me past it.
Darla Powell (Host): Dunkin' Donuts or Starbucks.
Mina Duque (Guest): Actually, I like my homemade coffee. I make it better than them.
Darla Powell (Host): That's a great answer. So Mina, thank you so much for joining us today and you are of course are an owner at Duke Renders, right? Which is a 3D rendering firm. For interior designers and the like. Right. And we haven't done a show on renders in quite a while and a whole hell of a lot has changed in the industry since we've done that.
So I'd like to do a, a deep dive into how Renders can help interior designers sell their services, market, their services, convey value to their interior design clients, and also some of the changes that you see going on in renders and how we're keeping up with it. Are you game?
Mina Duque (Guest): Yeah, totally.
Darla Powell (Host): [00:04:00] Alright, cool.
So I guess let's start with the first one. So, when I had Darla Powell Interiors back in Miami, we were a newer firm, especially in the very beginning, right? We didn't do a lot of renders because there was a cost associated to that, right? If we had larger projects, I would kind of farm that out and have someone render it and do that.
But the client was always. Like, oh my gosh, you know, another 500 or you know, whatever it is, X dollars for a render. Oh my gosh. You know, that's the thing. So I know a lot of interior designers in the audience are doing - this is the smaller right, the newer interior designers - are doing jobs without renders.
They're using Pinterest boards or other visual or mood boards. Available to them now. So I guess let's start out with talking about how important having a 3D representation of your space is a game changer for you, your client, and your business in general. And then we'll just dig in. [00:05:00]
Mina Duque (Guest): There's so much to cover there.
But first I wanna say just addressing to the point of like, you know, people, clients with their concerns about the cost of renderings for sure. That's a major issue, I guess for when you're starting out with using renderings and maybe you're not communicating the value to the client well enough or you know, in the case when it's optional.
So. One of my favorite quotes is, I might mess it up, but it's something like, price is only an issue when value is absent. Ah. It's something like that. And basically when there's extreme value, you understand the price and you understand the, that it's worth paying because of the extreme value, but when you don't understand the value, then that's where you might be like, oh, well this is a little expensive or so I think.
When you are starting out, it's important to experience the value firsthand. Otherwise it's difficult to communicate that to your client. And that's what I would say would be the most important thing in terms of, and it, but it also depends on the project. Not every project, to be [00:06:00] honest, you don't need renderings for every project.
Darla Powell (Host): Exactly.
Mina Duque (Guest): So you need to know which projects it's important for, which clients it's important for, and then how to communicate the value. But. Yeah, things are changing like crazy. I think most designers that we talk to, you know, they learn to do some kind of renderings if they went to design school. They learn to do that in design school, but it's really time consuming and most designers fit a certain profile in the sense that, well, it's a lot of women as you know, and a lot of times women in general tend to just.
Take on more than probably they can or should. We're
Darla Powell (Host): People pleasers? Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
Mina Duque (Guest): Yep. And we do it all ourselves and don't ask for help. So renderings, among other things, is one of those aspects of your business that you can outsource and you can take it off your plate. So, you know, today we're gonna talk about renderings, but just in general, I think like as a mindset for designers, it's good to think about.
What can you take off your plate so that you start to grow your business and you're not doing it [00:07:00] all in the beginning, you have to, but try to start finding those tasks and those areas that can be outsourced or delegated. And renderings is part of that.
Darla Powell (Host): Yeah, and that's what I did when I started my firm.
I didn't go to interior design school, so I didn't really know how to do renderings. I dabbled with it. I'm like, yeah, no, I, my time could be spent much more wisely doing large picture and building the business. And I hired a junior interior designer who did have that and some knowledge - not to the level that Duke Renderers does.
So I a hundred percent agree with that. If that is not your wheelhouse skillset, you don't have the bandwidth or the time to absolutely delegate that. So I wanna go back to what you said about building the value of having a rendering. And we'll get into some of the higher-end interior designers right now, but I, I wanna speak to the solopreneurs out there who maybe don't want to add that bottom line to the invoice for the client or don't feel that they need that.
What are some of the [00:08:00] challenges or advice that you would give to interior designers to convey the value of having a 3D rendering? Four. Those projects?
Mina Duque (Guest): Yeah, that's a good question. I also wanna say I'm an interior designer, so I, oh, cool. I'm coming from a place of, you know, I actually have done this, do this.
So it's not just theoretical on top of the fact that I talk to them all day long, but I would say that. What I did in my design business, it depends on where you're at in your business. If you're not charging what you wanna be charging yet, you know, if your fees are down here, you know they should be up here.
It is gonna be difficult to justify high-quality photorealistic renderings because it is costly, just like anything that is well done. It's an investment, so you have to be at least somewhere where your fees, you know, it makes sense to include this.
Darla Powell (Host): Yeah,
Mina Duque (Guest): So that's number one. And until you get there, maybe it does make more sense to do it yourself or something that isn't quite at the same level of quality.
Maybe that's up to [00:09:00] you. But
Darla Powell (Host): Yeah,
Mina Duque (Guest): Once you decide that you wanna level up your presentation, your businesses, and include this quality of photo list renderings, then I would say. What I would do and what I recommend for people that are just getting started is you have it as a separate line item. So even if you don't use them in a project, it still makes you look good in the eyes of your client because.
They offer this, they know the latest technology, they have all the tools. Whether or not I use it is another thing. So you can still have it as an optional, like in my onboarding calls and in my, I have an investment guide that I would send that goes over everything. I put their cost of photorealistic renderings, and then when I discuss it with the client.
The way I usually describe it is it's like insurance. So basically I think that's the best description is that the photorealistic renderings guarantee 100% that we're on the same page. Okay. And that you are 100% happy before you make this major investment because [00:10:00] it's a major investment. Financially, emotionally, projects can take a long time and the renderings just guarantee that.
There are no surprises. And I know like with HGTV, it's cool to see the big reveal moment and it's like a big surprise and that's great for tv, but really we don't always want surprises when it comes to these projects because we want them to be 100% happy with everything and not. Once it's purchased or installed, to be like, oh, you know, that wasn't exactly kind of what I was picturing.
And that's what can happen when you don't use the renderings. If you're only presenting mood boards and sketches and design boards, granted, I mean, that can still work and there are plenty of designers that can do that. But the renderings are a tool, like I said, it's like an insurance. It guarantees. And also when you wanna level up.
You wanna provide every last detail to have it be the highest possible quality. Yeah. You don't wanna just get away with good enough. So I would say based on what we see in [00:11:00] our work that nowadays not using renderings, you're doing something good enough. But using renderings is starting to go above and beyond set you apart.
But one day, very soon, it's gonna be the standard.
Darla Powell (Host): I think we're already there. And I wanna backtrack a little bit. So you offer it as an option for the clients as a line item, right? And this has triggered this question in my mind as I was listening to you speak. And so I'm sure if I'm thinking of this, interior designers listening are thinking of this as well.
So you're like. Interior design client. This is an insurance policy to make sure it's exactly what you want. I'm thinking that if, you as a professional interior designer, without the rendering, shouldn't it still be exactly what I want?
Mina Duque (Guest): Well, that's a good question.
Darla Powell (Host): Yeah.
Mina Duque (Guest): But this is an art and, hopefully it is exactly what you want, but any designer who's done more than a few project knows that sometimes things get lost in translation.
Sometimes even us who are [00:12:00] good at visualizing, sometimes even we're wrong, and renderings actually help with that too. Mm-hmm. Sometimes you think that something is gonna be perfect, and then when you see it in the rendering, and that's the other side of it, it's not just for the clients, it's also for the designer, because then when you see it in the rendering, you might realize, oh, actually.
It's not quite working the way I thought, and you might wanna make some tweaks. So even designers who've been doing this who are seasoned designers, one of our clients is Studio McGee, for example. They know what they're doing and they have a bunch of very capable people on their team who know what they're doing as well.
But they use renderings more and more and more because it still does. It does so many things. I mean, well, I'm sure we'll touch on it all, but it, it cuts to the chase. It gets them on board right away. Especially with those high end clients who don't have a lot of time. It saves a lot of time explaining and showing different materials, so there's so many benefits to it.
Even if you're good at your job.
Darla Powell (Host): There's one thing that I experienced as an interior designer is the client thinks they know what they want and they think [00:13:00] even with mood boards, aside from the designer being able to see it in 3D being helpful for us professionally, they think they know what they want.
They don't really know. What it's gonna end up, you know, and they give pushback or no, let's put this and let's put that there. And you're like, no. And if it's in the ether or if it's in a mood board, you can more clearly show them, Hey, this is why this isn't gonna happen. So I would ask you. So adding it as a line item on there and giving them the option, I'm thinking it'd be better just to bake that in, right?
Bake that into your pricing and not be a line item at all. That would save a lot of headaches. What do you think about that?
Mina Duque (Guest): Yeah, and that's the best way to do it.
Darla Powell (Host): Yeah. Okay.
Mina Duque (Guest): Putting it as a line item is more like if you're dipping your toes into it, if you're just getting started with it, or if you're not a hundred percent sure if the client needs it, but you still wanna give it as an option.
But the best is baking it into your fees. But that's where I said it's important that your fees are where they should be, that you're charging enough, [00:14:00] obviously, because you don't want it to inflate your feast. Too much, but that is the best. And actually with certain clients in my firm, you can do a hybrid.
Like if I just have all the signs of this person gonna be indecisive or just very bad at visualizing, then I'll bake it in. And it's not even optional, but. Otherwise I can just have it be there in case they want it.
Darla Powell (Host): Like if you have a project that's kind of teetering and maybe it's a moderate budget client and you have a pretty good grasp of what's gonna happen, what that looks like, and give them, Hey, do you wanna elevate this?
Yeah, just to make sure. Yeah. Okay.
Mina Duque (Guest): And then the other side of it, too, is if you have a client who's a developer, for example, or if it's a commercial project, then the renderings. Go out of being just useful for approvals and go into becoming a part of the marketing budget because those renderings are then used to promote or to pre-sell or whatever it is.
Darla Powell (Host): Yeah. So just off the top of your head, what kind of dollar amounts kind of project makes it worth building it into the [00:15:00] pricing? Right. Are we talking 50,000, 25,000? What does that look like?
Mina Duque (Guest): I think it's more about the type of client, because again, interior design is already a luxury service.
Photorealistic renderings is a luxury service as well within that. So it only really makes sense with luxury clients and they're typically the ones that are onboard for it because it makes little difference to them anyway. And it does provide all this extra value. And it depends. 'cause sometimes, for example, we have a client right now, she's gonna start this big project, but they're starting just with the kitchen.
This is that luxury client, like no budget. And so we're starting with just one kitchen. The idea is that this is gonna help her win the bigger project. And so it's not just about necessarily the dollar value or how many spaces, it's more the type of the client I.
Darla Powell (Host): Yeah. Because if you deliver on that, that high value, those touch points, and you have this gorgeous rendering in the work.
Yeah, for sure. That's gonna build that confidence and that trust and that excitement and continuing on to be like, oh, [00:16:00] this interior designer knows what the hell they're doing. Exactly. Yeah. For sure. So let's get to the marketing piece of that. So. We get a lot of interior designers inquiring about Wingnut Social.
We, you know, we do social media marketing for interior designers and that requires some content. Right. So tell me a little bit about how interior designers in your experience, are using these renderings that they're investing in for their marketing piece, for their design firm.
Mina Duque (Guest): Yeah, so. A lot of times renderings, we typically think of it just being for the client and getting their approvals, but there's so many other uses.
Like I said, it can be for marketing material for the client's client. It can also be for your trades in the backend, and it can be for your own marketing as well. So we have these packages that are great because it comes built in with multiple deliverables. So those are great when you want marketing material or you wanna build your portfolio because instead of just one view of a space, you get multiple, you even get like a [00:17:00] closeup.
And we're also just launching a new product soon that's gonna be IG reels. We're gonna start doing like short little animation. So if we have like a bedroom or kitchen or even multiple spaces, we're gonna just add a touch of animation, maybe like a little movement through the space, or maybe like a light turning on something like that.
And those are gonna be really short clips that can then be used for Instagram.
Darla Powell (Host): Nice. And you're doing those from the renderings that you're doing for the clients? Exactly. Oh, very cool. That is super nice.
Mina Duque (Guest): Yeah, because that's the next step. A lot of times people have these renderings, of course they use it in their presentations and then they wanna start using it on social media and Yeah, for sure.
I. And their portfolio.
Darla Powell (Host): You know, what I love to see is when the designers post, and we do this for our clients as well, they do the rendering, and then they have the after, after the rendering, you know, to show so you can compare them and that. Those are so cool. I love to see those, the
Mina Duque (Guest): Real photographs.
Darla Powell (Host): Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.
Mina Duque (Guest): We have some of those, we call it internally. We actually play around with that a lot [00:18:00] internally. We say real versus render, and we have some examples too that we share with clients. But it's great because. Sometimes we can't tell which one is which.
Darla Powell (Host): Yeah. I don't know if you used to watch Candace Olson.
On HGTV and I'm dating myself, but she used to do that. She did hand drawn renderings, right? And she would go back and then they would fade out to the real one. That was always, I love that. I'm getting like little goosebumps talking about that. Okay, so let's get to the elephant in the room. Ai. With renderings, you know, there's Mid-journeys, terrible at this.
This is wouldn't be the right thing. And I have, I've been out of the interior design space in a while, so I don't even really know what's out there for renderings. But ai, I mean, tomorrow is a new day. The next day after that is another new day. It's just growing by leaps and bounds, and I see all over social and interior designers who have this program can do this rendering, or I put in my rough sketch of this room and here's what.
X AI thing gave me for a rendering. How are we adjusting for that in the rendering business and as interior [00:19:00] designers? Well, how is that changing the whole space?
Mina Duque (Guest): That's a good question. We get asked all the time because of course we're always on top of it seeing what comes out. Because every day is a new day.
I. But right now, there isn't anything that does what we do exactly like I would say what's out there. Depending on your needs, it can still be helpful for interior designers. But what we do is so detailed every last finish and color and shadow and placement. It's just so much detail that AI could give you something probably good enough at the moment or something good enough for inspo, for example.
I think it's really good for inspo. I don't think it's quite at the level, and I don't know that it ever will because even with all the information that we have, we still have back and forth with our clients. Things still get interpreted certain ways, you know, even though you think, oh, a lamp is just a lamp or whatever, but there still is a level of interpretation involved and there still is some back [00:20:00] and forth soap.
The way that we see AI is not as scary, but it has a lot to do with our outlook in general in life and in business. I think that it's disruptive, like how the internet was when the internet first came out, and a lot of people are gonna be very successful if they learn how to use it properly.
Darla Powell (Host): Agreed.
Mina Duque (Guest): And we believe that for ourselves as well.
So for example, with the IG reels, we're trying to see how to use AI to make that a little bit. Easier and quicker. And you know, it's about using it as your friend and then always being open to adapting and adjusting. If things change, doesn't mean that maybe in five years we'll be offering the exact same service.
It'll probably pivot and adjust. But we're always open to that and we're always looking at what's happening and seeing how we can help people. Because at the end of the day, this service is meant to be a done for you because you could do it yourself, but we're doing it for you. And even if you [00:21:00] use ai, there's so many tools you could try to do it yourself, but.
What we're doing is a done-for-you in great detail, high quality, and easy process.
Darla Powell (Host): Plus there's so many prompts you have to learn to do it correctly. And there's also the library issue, right? So back in the day we used Chief Architect, and I know it a lot's changed, but we were always frustrated with not having the right product to put in. It'd be like, here's a lamp. It's not gonna be the lamp, but you gotta get the idea, right?
Mm-hmm. So I think that we, even though AI is growing, I think we are a ways off from it becoming that human touch and that fine tuning of pulling the projects in renderings. I see AI even in the marketing space as a tool.
Systems and processes and the team and, but at our level for interior design, especially the high-end work that we do, and I'm sure that you do as well, that human touch has to be there. Even when we get to the point where our robot overlords just totally take over. Yeah. We're still [00:22:00] gonna have to have that human design brain to be able to command and just do all that.
So you're right. It, it's changing.
Mina Duque (Guest): Yeah.
Darla Powell (Host): But we're far from being there yet. Right?
Mina Duque (Guest): Yeah. And. I even know some clients who've come to us that have tried, there's so much out there, but who've tried different softwares that promise to do basically what we do. It's like, oh, you give us everything and then within minutes or whatever, you'll have these perfect images and have tried things out like that.
But they've come to us and said, it's not doing the job, and it's. Costing a lot of time from us as well, so, yeah,
Darla Powell (Host): Exactly. I've done that. I've been like, oh, how hard can Midjourney be? Not for renderings, but just for images, and I've been like, Nope. And everything comes up wonky and you have, you know, strange things happening with your bar stool feet, you know, being like looking, yeah.
It's just, no, I don't have the bandwidth or the time or any desire to go in and learn all those prompts, so I love the delegation piece. Mina, let's [00:23:00] say there's interior designers who want to step up their game. They wanna start offering renderings to uplevel their service for high-end clients. 'cause high-end interior design is what you should be aspiring to, to recession-proof your business.
There's just so much, and we could have a whole show on this. What kind of budget range of investment are we looking at in order to provide that for your business and for your client?
Mina Duque (Guest): That's a good question and I wish I could give a straight easy answer. It is a little bit of a depends. Sure. I will say that we have different pricing strategies depending on what you need really, and the volume and the size of the project, but for, let's say a kitchen, we do a lot of kitchens, like a kitchen, single kitchen, not open concept.
For the first view, it's about 7 99. Oh. That's reasonable. And then we do basically like a base price for the initial view and then a price for additional views. So if you only want one view, then it would just be that. And if the space is bigger, like open concept, it can be more. If it's smaller, it can be [00:24:00] less.
But like I said, we also have packages. So…
Darla Powell (Host): Yeah. That's very reasonable. Mina, I mean if you, a kitchen would be a hundred grand. And even if you have multiple views, I mean that is, that's a no-brainer.
Mina Duque (Guest): Exactly. And it's funny though, because a lot of times people, I've heard, some people are like, oh. Oh, wow, that's, that's really expensive.
And some people are like, oh. Oh wow. That's so reasonable.
Darla Powell (Host): That is very reasonable. Raise your prices. No.
Mina Duque (Guest): Okay. Nevermind. Scratch it. It's 1000. No,
Darla Powell (Host): That, like I said, that really is a no-brainer to help to add to your professionalism and to help to reach those high-end clients and. I understand the line item thing for those Midland clients.
I think that's a really good place to kind of start and get your feet wet and feel that out. And then if they buy it, I mean, you'll have to get the rendering yet. You may, okay, there's your funding for the rendering. Right. And then just kind of play with that and grow into it as your business grows and you start raising your prices and…
Mina Duque (Guest): Exactly.
Darla Powell (Host): Are you finding most interior [00:25:00] designers are doing a markup on that rendering? Like they pay you X amount of dollars. Are they making a margin on that as well? I mean, that seems smart.
Mina Duque (Guest): That's a good question. Yeah, definitely. I would say if they aren't, they should, because you still are investing some time in the back and forth with us and in collecting, you know, it, it still is time for you.
So most designers mark up between 10 to 50%. It depends. All right. I
Darla Powell (Host): like the 50%.
Mina Duque (Guest): Yeah, that's good. That's if you're charging what you should be charging it probably. Or even a
Darla Powell (Host): Hundred percent, maybe, right? Just you're baking, maybe not the line item, or maybe, but you know, baking that in. So you can tell I'm really all about people charging what they're worth and making that.
Mina Duque (Guest): Exactly. And we advise people to mark them up as well. And there is actually one more thing I wanted to add as well, please. Another way to consider going about this is you can always offer. Let's say that you're doing a project, and ideally you'd have multiple spaces baked into your fees to offer the renderings for everything, but that's gonna inflate your fees a [00:26:00] lot, and maybe you're not even really sure if it's necessary.
Another great way to do it is and to show the value upfront to your client. You bake one space, like one hero image, you know, the kitchen or the master bedroom with one view, and you just say, look, you get this included, and if you want more you can add in more, but. That way it gives them, they immediately see it.
And the number of times that I've been told that our clients who do that, then the client comes back and wants everything rendered like down to like the smallest little bathroom. And the designer's like, well, you don't necessarily need that. And they're like, no, I want it. 'cause then they understand, oh yeah, this is really, really great.
So that's a good way to also.
Darla Powell (Host): I love that. That's a great tip. And I love that even better than just doing the line item is just bake in the one room. Yeah. And then that's like a foot in the door. That's what we call that in marketing, right? That's like a foot in the door with that. And then I love it. And yeah, do a 50 to a hundred percent markup.
That's great. Mina. This has been terrific [00:27:00] advice. I really appreciate it. Now I have to ask you, are you ready?
Mina Duque (Guest): I'm ready for…
Darla Powell (Host): the What Up Wingnut that round. Alright. What would the hashtag on your tombstone be?
Mina Duque (Guest): I thought about this a lot, and I think my hashtag would be "no regrets."
Darla Powell (Host): I love it.
Very, very nice. What is your desert island food?
Mina Duque (Guest): I couldn't choose between two. It would be either a Greek salad or stir-fried rice.
Darla Powell (Host): I love Greek salads.
Mina Duque (Guest): I've been eating Greek salad almost every day for like at least eight years or something. I just, that's
Darla Powell (Host): Probably why your skin looks so gorgeous. All those olives are so healthy.
Mina Duque (Guest): Oh yeah. It's just, I never get tired of it.
Darla Powell (Host): Yeah, it's great. I'm a vinegar girl. I love that kind of, you know, that punch of anything that has vinegar in it, but like. Pickles, Greek salad, pickled eggs. Yeah. I love it. Last but not least, please recommend a book that's impacted you.
Mina Duque (Guest): Okay. This book really changed my life and my business.
Yeah, it was the Actually I Reddit right before we started Duke Renters, and I would say a hundred percent we can [00:28:00] attribute a lot of our success to this book. Okay. Alright, let's go. It's called Rocket Fuel. Have you heard of it? Rocket Fuel by Gino. Wickman. Yeah.
Darla Powell (Host): Wickman. Yes. I've heard of it and I started it and didn't finish it.
And now I'm gonna finish it,
Mina Duque (Guest): dude,
Darla Powell (Host): Because with that kind of endorsement,
Mina Duque (Guest): Yeah, I mean, for me it was such an eye-opener. I mean, can I tell you a little bit of why I love it so much?
Darla Powell (Host): Yeah, of course.
Mina Duque (Guest): Okay. Because for me it really taught me a, the importance of, so just a little background, my husband and I, we are very different and we both.
Helped start Duke. He is a visionary and they go over this in the book. There's visionaries and there's integrators. He's a visionary. I'm very much an integrator. We see things very differently, which. We've always used it to our advantage, but then this book really solidified the fact that it's actually necessary and important for businesses to have those two types of thinkers.
And it's not just any visionary, any integrator. You have to [00:29:00] have a synergy. You have to get along. But when you have that, those two ways of seeing things, that's when you can really take business to the next level. Because just a visionary or just an integrator alone. It's a struggle. So the book opened my mind to the fact that it's not only super important, it's necessary, but also we should always be respectful of how different the other's opinions are, instead of like hating it.
'cause sometimes let's be real, sometimes it's annoying. You're like, no. I am right about this. Yeah.
Darla Powell (Host): Visionaries can be a lot. That's me. I'm the visionary. My team are the implementers for sure. I don't have anyone else running it, so it is just me. But yeah, without that implementation, yeah, you're right.
And without the vision, that would be sunk. Yeah, for sure.
Mina Duque (Guest): You need someone to ground you. And then also in the book, it really talks about, it teaches you how to run meetings, weekly meetings with teams, which in the beginning it was super, you know, it was just. But then it's been growing, growing, growing.
And now we have large weekly meetings. And so the template [00:30:00] that the book gave, that the author gave in that book, we still use to this day and Oh, okay. Yeah, and it's been super helpful to stay on track and. Aligned with everybody. Alright, I'm gonna go revisit that for sure.
Darla Powell (Host): Bad Darla, bad bad host.
Definitely should, Mina Duque, please tell the Wingnuts where they can go to find out more about you and Duke renders, and I think we were talking in the green room, that you have more of an entry-level kind of solution.
Mina Duque (Guest): Yeah, so go to dukerenderers.com/call and you can book a call there if you're interested to discuss a project or learn a little bit more.
It's no commitment, it's a short call just to go over a little bit more about our service and what we can do. And also we do have a new, uh, special offer for first time clients if they wanna try it out. And it's low commitment and it's basically a medium-sized space. So it could be kitchen for example, or a master bedroom with two views for $499.
Oh wow. Which is obviously insane 'cause I [00:31:00] just told you how much it costs for one view.
Darla Powell (Host): That is insane. But that's terrific. What a terrific offer to get that foot in the door to build that interest from their client to get more, wanna see more. I mean, it's such a sexy thing, right? It's so exciting to see it because when you're an interior designer and you're showing them the mood board, that's when they're super excited about it.
So if you can just amp that up. Yeah. It gives them that fuel to live through the renovation. Exactly.
Mina Duque (Guest): It does. And it's like, someone told me this one time, it's like a business card in a way because they go show all their family and friends 'cause they're excited about it. And then you have people like, oh, who did that for you?
Oh, you know. They're talking about you all of a sudden. So it is,
Darla Powell (Host): Yeah. I love it. Mina Duque, thank you so much for joining us and sharing your wisdom.
Mina Duque (Guest): You're welcome.
Darla Powell (Host): Alright, kids. So what did you think about that? Right. A lot is going on with the technology, with renderings and everything. Mina made some really good points about.
Leveling up your design business. [00:32:00] Using these photorealistic is what they are, high-level renderings to build that confidence in you and your business and what you're providing the client, which I think is super important, especially for talking about raising your prices, right? You want, it's a mindset thing.
You want to be able to see that end game and that value, and why engaging with you as an interior designer is worth it. Look here, client, look at this. This is gonna be stunning. Of course, it is here. This is why I charge X amount of money. Or if you're a newer interior designer and you wanna get your feet wet in there doing that, that foot in the door with the one room, I think it's really a really brilliant tool.
And when you're working with someone who's professional like Duke renders, or a rendering firm, hopefully they have their shit together, then they're keeping up on the AI and on the details of that, and you can delegate that to somebody else. So they're worried about the nitty gritty and you don't have to worry about, they can go out and do the [00:33:00] networking or engage with wing of social for your social media, or you know, build the actual business.
I think it's a no-brainer. And remember to head on over to dukerenders.com/call. To set up that little chat with them and that intro offer for $499 for the two render views. I mean, that's a no-brainer. Folks. You, that way you can see what that looks like. You can put that in front of your client. You can build that into your pricing and get your feet wet for not a huge inve.
I mean, that is nothing for showing your interior design work, showing how brilliant you are, building that confidence with your clients, and also avoiding some headaches down the road. Right? We've all done the Pinterest, we've all done the mood boards, and we've, and then we've run into stuff with a client where they're like, Hmm, that isn't quite what I was envisioning.
It doesn't matter how good you are, it's gonna happen. And if you can avoid that and then bake that into your pricing and build the marketing tool, build that relationship, building that confidence tool, showing them the final [00:34:00] product with your selections and your talent, I think it helps to avoid a lot of headache in the middle.
Right. And mark it up. Why not mark it up? Like Mina said, it's your time, your meeting. With the renderer, you're showing them the project. You have elevations, you have the rough stuff of your design, so that is gonna be some time of yours. And time is money, right? Even if you're flat rating it, just bake that in.
All right, guys. That is it for this episode. Remember to head on over to WingnutSocial.com. You can check out our lovely new website, refreshed by Nicole Heymer of Glory & Brand. And don't forget, we're on YouTube, Designed by Wingnut Social, so you can see us in all of our glory. And that is it for this week, guys.
Remember, until next time, to get out there, get uncomfortable, and be great.
Outro: You've reached the end of this episode of Designed By Wing Nut Social, but that's only the first step into accelerating your business the wing nut way. Head over to wing nut social.com or call us at 7 8 6. 2 0 [00:35:00] 6, 4, 3 3 1 to see how we can help take your business from meth to amazing.
We'll see you on the next episode of Designed By Wing Nut Social, your digital marketing tightly fastened.