1. What is Hothouse?
Hothouse is a free professional development group for ambitious interior designers, built around the Hothouse Method of Business Growth: Design – Declare – Deliver.
✨ Design – we plan our businesses with care and creativity
✨ Declare – we set bold goals and targets in public
✨ Deliver – we track progress and celebrate results
Hothouse is for designers who want more than inspiration – it’s for those ready to take action.
At the heart of my work is a theory of interior design business evolution - my Business Growth Framework™️. Over time, practices move through four distinct tiers – startup, growing pains, maturity, stardom – each with its own challenges, mindset shifts, and growth opportunities.
My coaching is designed to help you level up, to elevate your business with intention, so you’re not simply drifting forward, but actively shaping the next stage of your business.
Wherever you are now – starting out or refining a mature practice – Hothouse brings structure, momentum, and community to help you get to the next level. 🌱
Join the Hothouse Group HERE :-)
2. How to Work With Me
Whether you’re just starting out or ready to level up, there are several ways we can work together:
🌱 Hothouse (Free Membership Group)
A private Facebook group for practising interior designers. I check in regularly to offer input and answer business questions alongside our brilliant peer community. JOIN HERE.
💬 One-to-One Consultations
Book a focused session to tackle a specific challenge or explore a new opportunity in depth. Available via the Coaching page of my website.
📦 Blocks of Consultations
Ideal if you’re working toward a long-term business goal or want consistent support while establishing your studio and working with your first clients. Ask me about my ‘6 for the price of 5’ offer.
🚀 Business in a Box
A structured, supported 90-day programme designed to help you launch your new interior design business with clarity, confidence, and strong foundations. Sign up here - the Early Bird expires soon!
📈 Recipe for Success Bootcamp
My flagship business planning course, blending one-to-one coaching with peer group sessions. Designed to help you push up into the next tier of business evolution – with a clear plan, defined targets, and the momentum to grow. Drop me a line if you’d like to join the waitlist.
3. 📣 This Week's Blogpost: Interior Design Marketing - You don't have to be everywhere, use this filter instead...
One of the most common pain points for interior designers - at every stage of business - is marketing overwhelm.
But here’s the truth:
You don’t have to be everywhere. You just have to be in the right place for your business.
Focus on what fits – your business, and your tier.
This will be our jumping-off point for the Marketing Brainstorming Session on Tuesday 12 August at 10.30am. Find the link to join in the Hothouse group, under the 'Events' tab.
4. ⏳ Do You Have a Toxic Relationship with Time?
When you run your own business, time can distort.
The constant stimulation of social media, the pressure to show up, and the flicker of other people’s progress can send you into a state of hyper-vigilance - where every day feels like a referendum on your worth. You refresh, you compare, you react. And in that heightened state, you lose touch with the deeper rhythm of your business.
There are two kinds of time:
The fast, chaotic time of digital life.
And the slow, steady time where real progress lives.
In Bootcampers’ Board Meetings, we return to that slower time. Month by month, we track what’s real: the seeds planted, the lessons learned, the traction gained. It’s the antidote to frenzy - a practice of healthy presence. It's a reset.
Here are some tips to help you shift towards healthy presence in your business - for times when it all feels overwhelming.
🧘 Antidotes to Hyper-Vigilance
1. Create Rituals, Not Reactions
Instead of impulsively checking results, create set review times (e.g., every Friday at 3pm). This reinforces calm structure over compulsive feedback-seeking.
2. Anchor to a Longer Horizon
Daily effort makes more sense when it’s placed in the context of quarterly goals, or even (as we do in Bootcamp) a 3-5year vision. Step back. Zoom out. See the shape of the thing you’re building. Play a role in shaping it!
3. Rebuild a Sense of Play
Hyper-vigilance is the enemy of creativity. Bring back joy, play, and experimentation - try new things without the pressure for them to “work.”
“What if this post wasn’t a verdict on my business, but just one brick in the house I’m building?”
4. Journal, Reflect, Acknowledge Progress
Hyper-vigilance erases wins. Reflection reclaims them. Keep a progress journal - not of tasks, but of moments you’re proud of. Remind yourself how far you’ve come. Make a monthly habit of observing progress.
5. Detach Self-Worth from Metrics
Remember: you are not your likes, your enquiries, or your inbox.
The business is a creation, not a mirror of your worth.
5. ✍️ How Blogging Has Grown My Website Traffic 400% This Year
If you’re a Tier 3 or Tier 4 designer - established, experienced, and building a reputation in a particular niche - you’re perfectly placed to use blogging to:
-
Showcase your unique thinking
-
Build authority in your specialist area
-
Hold your ideal client’s attention for longer
You’ll know that blogging is good for SEO.
But:
🚫 Blogging won’t help if you’re just parroting what everyone else says.
🚫 Blogging won’t help if you’re writing for other designers, or writing what you want to write instead of what your ideal client wants to read.
🚫 Blogging definitely won’t help if it’s full of generic lifestyle filler.
What does work?
✅ Blogging with precision - writing for the client you actually want to attract (use AI to brainstorm your clients' pain points).
✅ Blogging with purpose - to answer the real questions people ask before they’re ready to hire. What do your clients most want to know about your services?
✅ Blogging to sell transformation - conveying how your services will change your clients' life, the emotional power of your work.
✅ Blogging with personality - so that when someone reads your words, they feel like they’ve met you.
This year, my website traffic has grown from 600 views a month to over 2,500. It’s not magic. It’s not ads. It’s not viral posts.
It’s just consistency. I write one useful post a week, share it on social, link to it in my newsletter, and make sure it speaks to the kind of reader I want more of.
Is your blog doing that?
6. 📅 What’s Coming Up in Hothouse
OMG how is it August already?
Now - brace yourself - I have huge plans for September!
I want to gather an elite force and hit Q4 with laser focus, commercial firepower, and unstoppable momentum 🚀
I'll share more about this initiative in the coming weeks, but let me know if you are in! No strings, I just need pure ambition and determination.
Meanwhile, August - with the kids off, the market quiet, and people coming and going - is low key. But we do have a main event planned for the group:
-
Marketing Brainstorming Session – Tuesday 12 August, 10.30am - find the link under the 'Events' tab in the Hothouse group.
Meanwhile, I am very much looking forward to our:
-
Bootcampers Board Meeting (2025 group) – tomorrow (Monday) at 1pm - by invitation only.
7. My Week In Hothouse
There were some significant family challenges in July, and my good intentions for the year were seriously tested. I’m proud to have kept going - to have met my consistency targets and stayed on track - but I won’t pretend it’s been easy 😕.
If you follow me on Instagram, you might have seen I’ve been leaning into a daily gratitude practice - it really does help. I recommend it, especially when life gets messy.
That’s real life, isn’t it? A timely reminder to keep an eye on the big picture - because sometimes, just not giving up is the secret sauce. 💪
8. 💬 Final Thought
Have a lovely August 🌊☀️🍹...because I'm coming for you in September!
Responses