The Power of Storytelling: Elevate Your Interior Design Brand with Video

This transcript was generated automatically and lightly edited, so it may contain small errors.

Podcast Intro & Episode Topic

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. Hey kids, and welcome back to Designed by Wingnut Social. Today we’re talking all about video and how you should get out of your comfort zone and start doing it with 3-timer guest Jude Charles. Hey Jude, don’t sing. Okay, got it. But before I get into my

Meet Jude Charles

interview with the illustrious, talented, and super insightful Jude Charles, I want to remind you that Designed by Wingnut Social is sponsored by— guess what? Wait for it, wait for it— Wingnut Social, a marketing agency for you guys, interior designers to the trade, vendors, home pros, architects, That whole genre there. Head on over to wingnutsocial.com. If you need help with marketing your interior design firm, we can help you out. You hate social media? Too much work, too much time. You don’t want to look at it. You don’t want to deal with it. Well, guess what?

You don’t have to because we will do it for you. Isn’t that nice? wingnutsocial.com. All right, guys, you know, before I get in my chat, I got to tell you all about Jude. For over 18 years, Jude Charles has been producing documentaries for entrepreneurs. He’s produced stories for Google, Steve Harvey, and dozens of visionary CEOs. Jude is the author of Dramatic Demonstration. I love the alliteration there, Jude. This book is a roadmap that teaches you how to dig deep to find compelling stories that no one else knows and then leverage those stories to grow your business.

Jude’s mission is to lead and empower entrepreneurs to have relentless, unwavering courage. Get out there, get uncomfortable, and be great. Sound familiar? Wingnuts, Help me in welcoming Jude Charles to the show for the 3rd time. Hey there, Jude Charles. Welcome back to the show. How the hell are you, Darla? I am great. Uh, it’s a great new year. Great. And, uh, excited for what’s happening this year and excited to be back for the 3rd time on the podcast.

Yeah, I know we should get— we should get you a jacket like the 3-Timers Club, like they do on Saturday Night Live when they— but that’s, that’s awesome. And if you guys want to go back, and you will after you hear this episode, I’m sure. And check out Jude’s other interviews. Head on over to wingnutsocial.com. Just put his little name, Jude Charles, in the search engine and his lovely mug will pop up with all of his brilliant espoused wisdom for your marketing. But for the uninitiated, Jude, for those listeners who are maybe new to the show who are like, who is Jude Charles? Who are you?

Who do you help? What do you do? I am a curious individual. I help entrepreneurs tell their story. Um, so for 19 years now, I have been working with entrepreneurs like interior designers, builders, architects to help them bring their stories to life and not just stories about the beautiful projects they work on, but stories about who they are, more about who they are as a leader, as a CEO, as possibly a parent or a spouse. Um, showing who they are, not just what they do. I got started at 17 years old when a teacher, um, who taught me everything she knew about video production.

And then at the end of the school year, she was like, Jude, you should start a business. And then at the end of that school year, she purchased my very first set of business cards. And so that’s— what a good teacher. Yeah. Yeah. And so that’s how I got started and that’s who I am. I’m curious. I’m curious about not just business and entrepreneurship, but like how people do what they do and who are they to be able to do the things that they’re able to do.

Well, I got to tell you, that’s a quality that makes for an excellent storyteller because I’m sure that that curiosity helps you to get all those little details that people watching, right? And we’re going to get into that, can align with, right? And find that common ground. So it’s no surprise to me that you are so good at what you do and we’re going to dig in. So we are talking about

Why Designers Resist Video

marketing Your interior design business, your architect business, whatever that looks like through video. And I’m going to ask the most obvious blatant question here because I’m telling you, designers are sitting out there saying, hell no, I’m not going on video. I don’t want to do it. I won’t do video, even though it is their face up on their marquee. You know, this Susan McNuggets Interior Design, there she is in all her glory, refuses to do video. So, I mean, that’s a huge question, but I’d like to hear your thoughts on that to start?

One of the best things that a potential client can say to you when they come meet you for the first time is that, I feel like I already know you. And part of the reason that they will feel like they already know you is because they’ve seen you on video, whether it’s on your Instagram or on your YouTube page, about you talking about your different projects or talking about the work that you’re doing. Yes, it’s hard to show up on camera because you’re thinking about how you look. Do you sound right? There’s all these things going on. And I’m one of those people too.

I didn’t like being on camera. I didn’t like standing on stage and speaking, but I noticed that it was so much bigger than that. When you begin to speak and you begin to share and you begin to just show people who you really are, that allows them to get to know you and decide for themselves, oh, I really want to work with this person. And it’s not just they want to work with you because of what you provide. There’s something deeper. Right. And so it is hard. It is hard. It took a lot of practice before I began to show up on camera.

And still till this day, like I was editing a video with one of my editors the other day and it’s me on camera and it’s like, I don’t like how this looks, but when you put it out there, that’s all that matters because you get the responses, you get the engagement. And the thing that you’re worried about, other people don’t even notice it. That’s exactly right. Nobody cares. Nobody gives a shit what you look like. People only really care about themselves. And I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you, Jude, we get interior designers who come to us at Wingnut because we’re a marketing agency.

We do video, we do all kinds of social media, SEO, all that stuff. And that a lot of interior designers are resistant to be on video. They’re like, oh, I have to be perfect. I have to be a certain way. And I’m like, when you get that interior design project and you show up to those people’s house, home to do that, that’s you. That is you. That is what you look like, right? So there’s no, you just embrace it. Just accept it. Just love it and go ahead and do it because you are going to resonate with your ideal client.

When I first started doing video for Darla Powell Interiors, which was a long time ago, seems like now, I was terrified, you know, paralysis by analysis. But I just said, you know what, let’s just do it. Just do it. Because someone else told me people care more about themselves and what they look like. They don’t care what you look like. But when I started doing that, I had clients that would reach out to me and say, I feel like I know you from following you on your videos, to your point. So I have experienced that firsthand and that’s so true.

So interior designers are doing, this is another question, YouTube Shorts, they’re doing Instagram Reels, some of them are doing TikToks, right? So that is video content creation for their brand and it’s helping with their marketing, but you do something that’s a step above. That, right? So you do these beautiful long-form interview pieces that can go on an interior designer’s website hero page. You did Luann Nigara’s whole life biopic recently, which was incredible.

So talk to me a little bit about elevating to that level of video, that piece of marketing content, where interior designers can use that and why would they need that in addition? To the short-form stuff. Yeah. If you haven’t watched Luann’s docuseries,

What Is a Docuseries?

you should absolutely go watch that. Search for it, um, either through her website or on YouTube, but the purpose of a docuseries, and I want to break that down before I talk about like what it is that I do. A docuseries is literally just following an interior designer around for a few days. Um, with Luann, it happened to be 8 months, so we wouldn’t do that, but following them around to document what real life is like. The idea behind it is that this is what a day in the life is like.

And that day in the life might be filming them at home, like as they’re getting their kids ready for school, or it might be walking on a job site to see how you interact with other vendors or see how you’re interacting with the client. There’s one interior designer who I, we did a design presentation. She was presenting to the client. Her ideas of what, how she would remodel this home. And we just filmed that entire thing. It was a 1-hour-long conversation. We filmed the entire thing and turned that into an episode.

But the goal of it, there’s 3, there’s, depending on the interior designer, where they are in their business, there’s, there’s usually 3 things that they want. There’s either they want to go for higher, bigger projects, so a higher caliber of client. Number 2 is connecting with other collaborators, whether it’s builders, other architects that bring them clients. So they want to fulfill their pipeline, right? Or number 3, it’s going after brand deals. And what that means is like working with another rug company or working with a manufacturer that you create a line with.

But this opens the door to that. So ultimately, a docuseries helps you uplevel your business. You’re doing really good in business, you’re making money, of course you want to continue to grow. This helps you take it to the next level. With Luann, she was taking it to the next level. With, um, there’s an interior designer out of Chicago, Jen Davidson. She specifically was taking it to the next level, but she was looking to connect with builders and architects because that’s her greatest source of referrals. A docuseries allows people to get to know you intimately.

So now, while you may be creating videos on YouTube, or you may be creating videos on Instagram, and they are videos of walkthroughs of your homes and different things like that. A docuseries allows that person to get to know you intimately. It’s almost like taking a book, a biography that you’ve written of yourself, that we then turn into a film.

Docuseries Goals: Higher-End Clients, Collaborators & Brand Deals

And that film again allows them to know you in an intimate way that then makes them really feel like, I have to work with this person. Because now I really know who this person is. Is that what you mean when you say it’s more business development than just marketing, right? It has that aspect to it is because you did mention brand deals and collaboration and giving interior designers that gravitas, that credibility for a more high-end kind of collaboration. Yeah.

You reached a point in your business where sometimes it’s not, you can’t do more marketing in the sense that like, Of course you could put out hundreds of Instagram posts. You could do more, but there’s, when you’re reaching, when you’re trying to reach a higher caliber. So, so for example, you’re trying to, um, let’s take Cheryl Luckett who is working with Wildwood, right? Like you’re, when you’re reaching that next level, you want to be, you want them to see you in a way that goes beyond just, I’m an interior designer. Right.

And so yes, you can always do more marketing, but then there is that higher level that you’re trying to reach where This person may not see your Instagram page. They may not see, um, the work that you’re doing, because we know on social media, they don’t see every single post, right? And so this, so let’s take Jen Davidson, for example, Jen Davidson is looking to connect with more builders and architects. Specifically what she’s doing is reaching out to those builders and architects.

And now she has, even though they’ve never, they probably have never heard of her, she now has a better introduction, not just, hey, I’m an interior designer. Look at my portfolio. She now has a 3-part docuseries that says, this is how we work. This is who I am. You know, this is how I got into this industry, but now this is how we work, which she was the one that I mentioned. We filmed an hour-long design presentation. Now we didn’t show the full hour-long thing.

We edited it down into, I think it was a 5-minute video, but that 5-minute video shows so much more than just here’s the pretty designs that we do. Yeah. And so, yeah, when you’re looking to uplevel and you’re looking

How a Docuseries Uplevels Your Business

to go to that, that next level and there’s something, there’s a door that you’re looking to open that is not easily opened, this is what you create. You create that docuseries that helps you to open that door and make it easier to open that door. I’d have to say that if I was hiring an interior designer and I was seriously vetting them, going to their website and I saw a video of them doing a consultation or how they work, That would really intrigue me. I would love that because when they came to do a consultation at my home, I would be like, oh, you know, I feel more comfortable.

So that, that actually is a really, really good idea. So here’s another question. So we’re talking about, I mean, the work you do is stunning, right? It is super professional, elevated film, right? When you’re doing these, is this only appropriate for higher-end interior designers or can Interior designers that are maybe more, you know, decorating or they serve a, a wider demographic, maybe their price points are, they have some lower as well. Is that something that would work for them too, going this kind of high-end video? Yeah, normally I would say it’s

Who Should Do a Docuseries?

for the higher-end interior designer because there’s, there’s a few things you want to have in place before you consider a docuseries, something as high level as what I’ve created with Luann or other interior designers. You want to make sure you know who you’re talking to, right? So like, if you’re talking to a general audience, wider audience, and, and maybe that’s worked for your business, it’s going to be harder to pinpoint the messaging for this docuseries. So you want to know who you’re talking to. You also want to know that you want to have experience having shared your message before.

So not necessarily that you need to be comfortable on camera because you’ve done it 1,000 times, but You also just want to be able to, to know like, okay, this is who we’re for, this is what we’re about. And, and the stories that you have shared before over and over with your clients in one-on-one meetings, you now shared on camera. Before we ever get started, I work on a roadmapping strategy session. And in that roadmapping strategy session, I go through your core stories, your core values, and your core philosophies and beliefs. And you want to know those things.

And usually at the higher end level is where you know that in detail, because you’ve not only had to share it with your clients, you’ve had to share it with your team so that your team is on the same page with what your brand is. And so, yeah, the docuseries is mostly for an interior designer or architect or builder who’s at a higher level. Yeah. And they haven’t packaged what they’ve done in this way.

Like they might have an amazing website, amazing portfolio pictures that they’ve invested in over years, but to be able to tell that story and package it in a way like they’ve never done that before. And so that’s why you would want to do a docuseries. Is that the only level that we’re talking about as a docuseries? Are we doing, I’m not

Using Video on Your Website

short form like Reels or YouTube Shorts, but are we doing like when they go to their website, maybe the hero image is that sweeping video. Thing, right? Is that— do you recommend that? Is that a thing? Most importantly, I recommend that you use video, period, right? Okay. And I don’t recommend that just because I do video. I recommend that because it is the medium that will make life easier for you, especially when it comes to marketing. Okay.

It’s easier when clients are, um, like you mentioned, if I’m going to look at different interior designers to come look at my home, the first thing you’re going to go look at is their website. There’s one or two things that’s first, website or Instagram. But in those 2 things, you should have video, right? And so definitely recommend for anyone have video, especially because nowadays you have, whether it’s an iPhone or Android, you have a very great camera in your pocket. And so I highly recommend that.

And then, you know, the other thing too is like, it’s video is important because there are these 3 elements that video allows, which is video, audio, and then music, right? And then that person also gets to see and feel your body movements and like what you’re communicating through that. Hey, now wait a minute. We’re still talking video, I hope. Yes. Yes.

But it allows them to like really, again, it’s when a person says, I feel like I know you already, it’s because they’re seeing so much more than just words, they’re seeing so much more than just, um, they’re seeing the care that you have, right? Like when I talk about showing an interior designer who’s in that consultation session, it’s not just what the pretty pictures that they’re showing off. It’s like, how are they communicating with their clients? If their client is asking a question, like I know in part of that docuseries, what I show is the client asking a question.

How do you respond to the question? Do you make them feel stupid or are you speaking at a higher level than them? Right? Like, we should put that on video. How dare you ask that? Get out. Right. But people want to know because this is, this is one of the greatest investments, the biggest investments that they’re going to make. Yeah. And they want to know, like, what is this experience going to be like?

Video allows them not just a docuseries, but you doing video allows them to understand what that experience is going to be like when you are doing a walkthrough video or you’re showing a progress video of, you know, a a new build that you’re doing, when you’re showing that progress video, what is it like? What are the challenges that come up and how do you, how are you solving those challenges as they come up? Um, that’s what video allows. Video allows that person to come into your world and to experience it.

Um, hopefully experience it in a way that they will then want to come and work with you. Yeah, 100%. And at Wingnut Social, we encourage our clients to do that raw video behind the scenes, even if it’s just, here we go, we’re, here’s the dust, here’s the hard hats. And just to show that, build that story of that project they’re working on. And those posts always do so much better. We’ve had designers that have been like, no, I’m not going to do it. I’m not going to do it.

And then finally, maybe they say, you know what, let me get out of my comfort zone, you know, get out there, be uncomfortable and be great. And they do one and are shocked with how well it does and the feedback. And then their confidence is boosted and then they believe us. And then they say, you know what, this isn’t so bad. I, let me, let me start trusting you guys for sure. So Jude, do you have any examples maybe off the top of your head, or maybe you came with some of an interior designer that worked with you, invested in doing this video to whatever end they were searching for?

Did it, published it and got the work or got that collaboration or whatever it was they were going for? Yeah. So I think of, um, Marianne Hibner, who runs Hibner Design Group in California.

Case Studies: Marianne, Luann & Brad

And she, we did her docuseries last year. She released it online and Marianne’s one of the greatest case studies because she did such a great job at marketing the docuseries. So part of what we do when we produce the docuseries is at the end, I will consult and say, hey, this is exactly how you should use it, right? Because you don’t want to just buy a beautiful car, but you never drive it. And many people will invest in video and have a great video, but then they won’t, they will just put it online and say, hey, look at what we did. And then that’s it.

Well, I create a plan that allows them to, to know exactly what to do and how to use it moving forward. And one of the things that Marianne did is that she was pitching a client on doing a project and the client loved— she started with this video. This is part of, I think it was part 2 of her docuseries that she started with. She started the presentation with that. And the client loved it so much that not only did she hire Marianne and her team to design the project, but then that client reached out to me to also do a brand story for them, a docuseries for them, for their company. Right.

And so like, that’s the power of a docuseries is like this, this client had never worked with Marianne before, Marianne and her team. But then she saw the video and of course, Marianne, I’m sure had beautiful designs and outlined that. But because she was introduced to who Marianne is in the beginning, how their team works in the beginning, that’s what allowed them to say, yes, we want to work with you. And I believe Marianne’s on her 4th or 5th project with them now. Right. So there you go. That paid for itself. Exactly. Right.

And, and that’s just one, that’s just one, but like these designers, architects, and builders, Like right now in this, in the moment, as we’re recording this, I’m filming Brad Levitt’s docuseries. Brad Levitt is an architect, uh, sorry, not an architect, a builder out of Phoenix, Arizona, Scottsdale, Arizona. And he works on amazing luxury homes, very, very high level. But even for him, he’s looking at how do we continue to grow? He has a team of almost 30 employees and he’s looking at how do we continue to grow? How do we continue to uplevel and show clients what our process is like.

And part of what we’re doing with Brad is we’re not just showing the beautiful homes. Of course, he’s working at a high level, but we’re showing how does he show up as a leader? This team of almost 30, what does a production meeting look like for that team? Right? Uh, even we’re interviewing team members and talking about like, there’s, there’s a few team members we’ve interviewed and they’re like, we’re not going anywhere. We love working for AFT Construction. That’s the name of the company, AFT Construction. And we’re not going anywhere. And that’s, that’s hard to describe and explain.

Yeah. Even on a website, just saying, oh yeah, these are great employees that we have. Of course you’re going to say they’re great employees. But now we’re not just telling Brad’s story. We’re telling the story of the employees and how did they come to AFT? And what is it that they love so much that they can say, I’m not going anywhere, that this is where I want to work. There’s one person, um, we interviewed who’s a superintendent on the, uh, project manager on, um, Brad’s team, and he owned his own construction business and closed it down to join Brad’s team.

You have to get me a meeting with Brad. He sounds like someone I want to work with for sure. That says a lot though, right? Like there’s these rich stories and that’s the, that’s what you want to pull out because it’s easy to talk about the beautiful projects you work on. It’s easy to talk about, you know, how you might’ve designed a certain area in the home, but There’s so much more to you. You’re, you’re marketing who you are, right? So much more than your portfolio.

Going back, you mentioned that some interior designers have aspirations of getting licensing deals or working, getting collaborations with other accounts, and they’re looking, you know, for the right style, the right level of professionalism, that interior designer, whatever that looks like.

So when you’re creating content for them, how does that content strategy differ from the interior designer that is trying to appeal to high-end residential clients or commercial clients versus someone who wants to show up for those licensing deals or for those collaborations or those influencers or to be on HGTV? Is there— what are we showing that’s different? It’s not— it’s very nuanced. So it’s not different as far as what we’re showing. It might be different what we’re saying. Okay. For each docuseries, I like to focus on showing that person in a 3-dimensional way.

I like to show what family life is like. What is it like as who they are as a CEO, and then what hobbies that they have. What that does is allows, especially for a brand, when you’re going after a licensing deal, we want to show that you’re more than just an interior designer because brands want to invest in, for lack of better terms, celebrities, people that have interests that go beyond what they do, right? Because then that makes them a little bit more well-rounded.

So we, we become more intentional about sharing the extra things that you’re into, that it may even feel like this isn’t related to interior design. It’s not, but it makes you more marketable. And so that’s what we’re looking for is like those things that you’re interested in that might make you a little bit more marketable. Yeah. There’s also like, well, if you’re a seasoned interior designer, the legacy story of like, let’s just say you’ve been designing for at least 10 years, 15 years. What is that legacy? How did you get here?

There’s one of my favorite shows on Netflix is called Chef’s Table. Oh, I love Chef’s Table. Chef’s Table doesn’t focus on the food though. They focus on, they focus on the journey of how that chef got to where they are today. Like what challenges did they have to go through? Um, and like one of my favorite episodes, I can’t remember his name now, but, uh, he showed, they show off one of his favorite cars that he, he was literally just washing his car. Right. But like.

There are those things that makes you more relatable, that makes you more marketable, that would then to that brand, it’s like, oh, they, they represent what we believe in. And so that’s what we, we become intentional about saying those things. And that’s why we go through the roadmapping session to be able to show that on camera. Can I, let me tell you a little story about that. So the, speaking of The Gray, and if you haven’t watched it, it’s just beautifully shot. It’s just so well done, but there’s a restaurant in Savannah called The Gray.

And the chef’s name escapes me right now, but I watched an episode of that and I was like, I have to go there. And I actually got my ass up and went to Savannah, Georgia and made reservations just to go to that restaurant because of that storytelling they did. And you’re right. It was all about her and how she, she grew up with her love for food. And it, that, and let me tell you, that was one of the best meals of my life. So if you’re ever, if you’re in Savannah, hit up The Gray. But yeah, that, that is a really excellent point. I love that.

Getting Started: Tips for Smaller Firms

And one of the things we do here at Wingnut Social is if interior designers are wanting to break out of that, I’m just an interior design, interior design, interior design, and they want to grow outside of that and get the collaborations or be on HGTV or whatever outside of that looks like, is we start to nudge them, judge them to becoming more of a lifestyle brand that includes the interior design to show more of that storytelling, that personality. Who are you? And kind of celebrity them up in a way, right? In order to get that, because you’re absolutely right, they want that personality.

That someone that aligns with their brand, that can speak for the brand or to the brand or whatever, you know, they have going on. So that’s an, that’s an excellent point. Jude, what would you say to the interior designer listening who’s like, I just, I’m a small interior designer. Sure. I want to attract high-end clients or whatever, but I don’t want to do any more marketing. I just don’t have the time for this. Where can they, where can they find the time? How can they get started? Let’s say they’re maybe not at the spot to work with Jude Charles, right? But they, they want to start.

They hear you. They’re like, okay, I need to start doing some video. I’m just overwhelmed. Yeah. Marketing is intimidating. Um, yeah, it is. That’s why you should hire Wingnut Social. That is absolutely, no, that is absolutely why you should hire Wingnut because it’s, it’s, it’s intimidating. It is overwhelming. There are so many steps to it. Um, even myself, my first 5 years in business, I struggled to make $20,000 a year. And because of not doing marketing, I was just like, I don’t need to do it. It’s not what’s important.

The work— I remember saying to myself in the beginning, the work will speak for itself. It won’t. And so like, I, even today doing marketing can feel like there’s so much time spent in marketing. But honestly, you cannot have a business if you’re not marketing. Marketing in a very simple term is showing people what you have is valuable, so much so that they will then believe that it’s valuable for themselves and buy into it. Right. But that only happens, like I mentioned with the car analogy, that only happens if you actually take the action to put yourself out there. Right.

Taking that action is part of the business. You don’t have a business unless you’re taking that action to market yourself. And while it’s overwhelming, it’s intimidating, it’s a lot of work, it can over time make your life easier because you have built— through marketing, you have built a brand for yourself, you have built a name for yourself where now more people are coming to you and you don’t have to do it as much.

One of the things that I loved about, um, beginning to speak and beginning to become a guest on podcasts is over time, people recognize you when you’re out at the events and they’re like, hey, I heard you on such and such podcasts. Right? Like that to me, but it makes it easier to have that conversation. Like Jen Davidson, I mentioned her earlier. She was one that had heard me on podcasts. She had heard me speaking. She didn’t mention specifically which ones, but she had heard me speaking on podcasts. And she was like, yeah, I’ve kind of known who you are. I’ve been to your website.

But that made the conversation easier because now she had already knew who I was and this was just more of formalities at this point. Right. And so when you’re putting yourself out there, there’s multiple ways to market. It’s not just Instagram. There’s ways of marketing where you are going to events. Right. And so you’re going like, one of the strategies I like to recommend is going to an event that your competitor is not going to go to, but your clientele is there. And what I mean by that is like, imagine going to a mom blogger conference, right?

Going to, uh, I think one of the biggest ones is Mom 2.0 because they are obviously moms, they have homes and they are constantly probably watching HGTV and thinking about redesigning their homes. But other interior, other interior designers are not going to be there, right? Or going to a wealth planning conference, wealth financial management conference, right? Like, I’d like that much better than a mommy blogger conference. I think I’d die a little.

But, but the point is like showing up, you don’t have to just do— now, of course, we recommend social media because social media makes it easier. You don’t have to show up to events. There’s investments that comes with showing up to events. Sure. But find what’s comfortable for you. And do it. Just do more of that. What’s been comfortable for me is podcasting. So that’s why I do a lot of it. What’s been comfortable for me too is going to events. That’s why I show up to High Point and I show up to— I was at KBIS last month, right?

So figure out what’s important, what’s easy for you, what’s important to you, and do that. But there isn’t any excuse. Like, if you own a business, you own marketing. They go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other. Yeah, you have to. And at the very least, you have to be on social media. You just have to anymore or you’re dead in the water. I mean, unless you’re retiring tomorrow, selling the business, it just— it’s a necessary evil. And interior designers hate social media.

I mean, not everybody, but I see it every day when I’m talking to potential wingnut clients or existing clients are like, oh my God, I’m so glad you’re doing this for me because I hate it. Or will you do this for me because I hate it? I don’t even want to look at it. So basically We’re saying, okay, if you’re a small team and you don’t have the time, make it really. There’s no, we’re not buying you more time. There’s no secret trick here. It’s just, just, you’re going to have to kind of make the time to do it, to show up. So it doesn’t have to be perfect. You just need to show up.

Done is better than perfect. Just turn on the camera. You know, I have a team now, but in the beginning when I was doing video, I just used my cell phone to show behind the scenes. Right. I just set up the phone and it captured what it captured. And then I put something together to put it out there. And it wasn’t even me on camera at first. Now, when you look at some of my videos, yes, it’s me on camera talking about what we’re doing, but I didn’t start there. And so you, you, you want to get started somewhere, but make it easy, make it easy to just get it done, get it done, get it published.

And then as you grow, as you hire more team members, then it becomes easier and someone else can take it over like me. Yeah. Right. Hey, Sally, can you do, can you take some video? Okay, great. Thanks. Exactly. Exactly. Awesome. Jude, what have I forgotten to ask you on this topic before we get into the fire round for the 3rd time? I’m going to ask you some different questions, by the way. The other, I’ll say this one thing, there’s 70 different ways that I’ve come up with to repurpose video.

Repurposing Video

Holy cow. Now, of course, you don’t have to do all 70, but the reason that I came up with that is because that is the other power of video, is that it allows you to repurpose it in multiple ways on different platforms. I talked about going to events. Um, when you’re at those events, you can be showing video on an iPad or showing video in the conversations that you’re having with people. Video a lot. Like, there’s so many things that you can do with video, not just a docuseries if you come and produce one with me, but even the videos that you do on Instagram.

Before I came on this podcast, I did a video on Instagram of, uh, behind the scenes with Brad Levitt. Before I came on this podcast with Darla, I sent Darla a link to Instagram to say, hey, this is one of my latest projects, it might come up, right? And so that’s just— it’s small, But it’s also like it provided more context to this conversation, so we’re not just randomly talking. Although Darla and I know each other, but still, like, when you meet someone for the first time, share your Instagram video.

Maybe share one of your most popular ones that you are really proud of and that other people engaged with. Just because you put it out a year ago doesn’t mean you can’t reshare it now. And so like, that’s something else that I want to make sure people understand about marketing is like You can make it easy. Yes, it takes some thought, but you can make it easy. The only limitation you have is the one that you create.

And so if you don’t create the limitations by saying, oh, this is too hard, I don’t want to spend time on this, I don’t have the time, you will be able to continue to grow your business to a point of whether it’s hiring Darla and Wingnut or hiring me and my company and doing a docuseries. Yeah, those two go hand in hand really nicely, by the way. They do. They do. And the last thing I’ll say is like the work that you’re doing is important as an interior designer, architect, or builder. The work that you’re doing is important. You are literally shaping lives.

And the way Brad says it, he’s saving one marriage at a time sometimes. Right. Yeah. And boy, that’s true. It’s the work we’re doing is spiritual. Business is spiritual. And I don’t mean that in a religious aspect. I mean that in the sense that we are literally changing lives. You’re literally impacting lives. And when you can go home and feel fulfilled in that way, that’s amazing.

Well, don’t allow your business to die because you’re not willing to do marketing and you’re not willing to put yourself out there because you’re worried about how your nose may look, or you’re worried about how your eyes may look like. No one cares. That’s how they look in real life. And people still work with you. No one cares about that. Just get out there and put yourself out there because There are, there are people literally waiting for you. They just don’t know that you exist. So put yourself out there and let them know that you exist. Yeah.

That reminds me of a point my menopause brain forgot during our conversation. My ADHD menopause brain was that a lot of interior designers will say nobody cares. Nobody really cares. You know what? My day in my life behind the scenes. You’re selling yourself short because they really do care. I mean, look at HGTV is a whole channel. For, for this kind of thing, right? How you work. Let’s see. Let’s see it on video. So people really do care, especially potential clients or collaborators. They really, they’re invested. They really get in there and they want to see.

All right, Jude Charles, for the 3rd time, are you

What Up Wingnut: Rapid Fire

ready for the What Up Wingnut round? I am ready. I’m gonna throw some curveballs at you because I realized that my producer probably sent you the questions that we ask all the time. So I don’t know if you’ve had these before. If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be? Oh, that’s a great question. My Barbara Walters homage. I would be an apple tree, um, because apples are sometimes sweet, but they also have seeds in them that allow it to continue to grow. So to continue to spread, I would be an apple tree. That’s so sweet.

If you could only have one superpower, what would it be and why? Oh, that’s— I don’t know that one. I don’t know. To be able to answer questions quickly. No, just kidding. No, seriously, I think, you know what it would be to— it would be able to read faster. So I love reading because it expands my mind to like how other people think and live. So it would be to read faster because I feel like I don’t read enough. Have you ever checked out Evelyn Woods’ speed reading course? I have not. No, but I will now. Google that one. There you go. I just gave you a superpower. You’re welcome. Thank you.

You said Evelyn Woods, right? Evelyn Wood. Yeah. Speed reading. I did that when I was a kid. I was obsessed with reading. So, so we have that connection. Last but not least, please recommend a book that’s impacted you on a personal or professional level. Hmm. I will recommend Life is Good is the name of the book. I can’t remember the authors, but how dare you? I can’t, but it’s a brand as well, but they tell the story of how they built the brand. The brand was called Life is Good. Um, I’ll tell a really quick story because that one’s special for a lot of reasons.

I received an email from a designer, but she ran a drapery business. Um, and the email, the first line of the email says, my dad died a week after walking me down the aisle. Oh, we had no idea where she was going with this email. It was a very long email. But she mentioned how she was very close to her dad, and then her dad passed away in 2010. But recently her uncle passed away, and her uncle was her dad’s brother, and she felt like she was losing this connection to her dad.

And so on one of the— after her uncle had died, she’s driving from project to project, and she is feeling sad, but she’s like, she needs to hear a calming voice. So Darla, she goes on her podcast app and she looks up my name. Now, I don’t have a podcast. I’ve just been a guest on other people’s podcasts, but she decides she wants to listen to a podcast that I’ve been on. And she looks at, at the time, one of my most recent podcasts that I had been on, which was about Etsy. I think it was like how to grow your Etsy business. And she listens to the podcast and this is an hour-long podcast.

And she’s thinking about her father because her father, uh, helped her in growing this business. The business she took over is a business she took over from her mom, and her father helped her grow that business. They used to have business meetings, but towards the end, almost a month before he died, he started wearing a hat. He never used to wear a hat, but he started wearing a hat, and on the hat it said, life is good. Well, the designer didn’t know what that hat was or what it meant. But as she’s listening to this podcast, it’s an hour-long podcast.

Towards the end of the podcast, the podcast host asks me a similar question, what books are you reading right now? So I tell her 2 books and then she tells me, well, there’s a book I want to send you. And the book is called Life Is Good. And this designer listening to this podcast is what she needed. Oh, wow. To feel like she had a connection with her father again. Wow. I’m telling you, we live in a matrix. We really do. That is such a cool story. And it’s like, what are the odds of that?

What are the odds of someone going to listen to a podcast that I don’t have my own, but she decides to listen to this podcast and gets the answer that she needs. And that’s why I said earlier, business is spiritual because while I may be thinking to myself, oh, I’m just getting on here to talk about storytelling and video and All these things, it’s like, no, sometimes you’re getting on to give the person the answer to something that they have been grappling with. It may not be death, but it may be getting— being afraid to show up. It’s not even just about showing up on camera.

Sometimes it’s just showing up for your clients who are really depending on you, who just need you not because of the design work, but they need you because of you, because of who you are. Yeah. And so life is good. We can complain about a lot, but life is good. That was a very good book recommendation and one of the best stories behind the recommendation I think I’ve ever heard. Now, if you only had the author. Yes. I have it here. Life is good. Okay, let’s see. I have it here. Bert and John Jacobs. Bert and John Jacobs. Life is good. Thank you so much.

Jude Charles, it’s always a pleasure to have you on the show. Please tell the Wingnuts where they can go to find out more about you and Jude Charles and Company, and we’ll call it a day. Yeah. So go to judecharles.co/wingnut.

Jude’s Resources & Darla’s Takeaway

There you can download the 10 storytelling prompts for interior designers, um, to be able to tell your stories and be able to show up on camera and not be afraid. I walk you through how to do that. Plus there’s examples of others who’ve done it. Um, but judecharles.co/wingnut, that is where you can find me. All right. Sounds good, Jude. It’s always wonderful to see you. Thank you again. Thank you, Darla, for having me again. All right. I will sing this until the cows come home.

And speaking of cows, my wife wants one of those little fuzzy ones, you know, when we move to our little farm somewhere in Piddle. But I digress. I will sing this until the cows come home video. Show up, get out there, be uncomfortable, be great, right? Which is kind of a simple way of saying to show up, to be yourself.

You’re going to be uncomfortable in the beginning, maybe, but showing up on video and starting to embrace that storytelling and that relationship building with your ideal client, with courier company, with HGTV, whatever that looks like for you and your business is going to make all the difference in the world. I cannot tell you how many clients that work with us here at Wingnut Social who have been with us or for a year or maybe a year and a half, 2 years. Who didn’t put themselves on video.

Now granted, we did a great job with organic marketing in spite of this, but decided, you know what, I’m going to start being on video. I, let me do it. Let me just take that plunge and do it. Game-changing, right? It’s game-changing. And what we can do with that video for marketing your business is just through the moon. It just makes a huge difference. Now the synergy of video on your social media, maybe video on your website, maybe doing a documentary-style storytelling video that you can have done super high-end professionally by Jude Charles, and networking.

And it’s all a big synergistic thing, and it can be overwhelming. That’s why I am the queen of delegation, right? When I was starting my interior design firm in Miami, Darla Powell Interiors, I didn’t do all that shit. I delegated. I was high overview, high-level initial interior designs. But when it came to— I did do the my own marketing. My own marketing, that’s why we’re here. CAD delegated, other stuff delegated, because otherwise I would have pulled my hair out. I would have had more gray hairs. See, that’s probably 4K, you can probably see some gray hairs there.

I would have had more gray hairs there, but you have to do it. You have to have that synergistic marketing if you’re serious about your business. If it’s just a hobby and you just want to do a little bit here, a little bit there, and you don’t want to scale that, and you’re okay with that, That is something that you want from your business, more power to you. But if you want to grow and you want to scale and you want goals, you have to, you have to put yourself forward because when you go to, you know, Larry McGillicuddy’s house to do his interior design presentation, you are there.

This is what you look like, right? So don’t be afraid of video and there’s always lenses. There’s always lighting. Just Google or reach out to Jude and say, hey Jude, you know, what do you recommend? Sorry Jude, I don’t know if that’s putting you on the spot, but I’m sure he would be happy to help, right? For that relationship building, right? You’re welcome. All right guys, that is it for this episode. If you haven’t had a chance to check us out on our YouTube channel designed by Wingnut Social, head on over there. You can see all of our interviews in high resolution on YouTube.

We have a brand new set behind me. I don’t know if you can see. Uh, there, it’s a little bit out of focus, but I have my whiskey. I have my Little Debbie cakes. They’re right there. And we have B-roll. We’re showing our guests’ work and all kinds of super, super cool stuff. So you want to go check that out. That’s Designed by Wingnut Social. And remember, until next time, to get out there, get uncomfortable, be great.

Outro & Contact Info

You’ve reached the end of this episode of Designed by Wingnut Social. But that’s only the first step into accelerating your business the Wingnut way. Head over to wingnutsocial.com or call us at 786-206-4331 to see how we can help take your business from meh to amazing. We’ll see you on the next episode of Designed by Wingnut Social, your digital marketing tightly fastened.