Hothouse Week Twenty-Seven - Confidence Is Your Superpower💥✨

1. What is Hothouse?

Hothouse is a free professional development group for ambitious interior designers, promoting the Hothouse Method of Business Growth: Design; Declare; Deliver.

✨ Design – we plan our businesses

✨ Declare – we set goals and targets in public

✨ Deliver – we measure and watch our businesses grow

Hothouse isn’t about theory, it’s about action. Whatever stage your business – startup, lightweight, middleweight, heavyweight – Hothouse is here to help you thrive, and push your business up to the next level. Hothouse brings structure and momentum to help your business grow. 🌱

👉 Join the group here.

2. July Intentions and Focus

👆 We are on the second row of the loyalty card 👆but there is still half the year to play for! 

In July I'll be in the group, helping with any questions and consolidating work done so far this year.

I'll be preparing the way for the big boost that's coming in September, both with the launch of Business in a Box, and with a gang of designers who are determined to move the dials on their business before the end of the year.

If you want to spend Q4 of 2025 working on levelling up (see the business 'tiers' categorisation 👆 under the 'files' tab in the FaceBook group) taking your business up a tier, don't forget you can book a private one-to-one with me, and we can plan your business growth together. 

See you in the FaceBook group! 

3.✨ Confidence: The Most Underrated Strategy in Your Design Business

At Friday’s Bootcampers’ Board Meeting, I was struck by one thing: confidence levels.

It’s the same in my private consultancy. Designers often report that, regardless of their client pipeline, they feel positive, buoyant, and confident simply because they’re working intentionally and strategically, and they feel great about it.

Confidence creates a virtuous circle. It’s attractive. It draws clients in and leads directly to sign-ups.

👇 Here are some favourite ways to nurture it:

a. Marks out of 10

Each week (see ‘My Week in Hothouse’ below), I rate my confidence out of 10 (with 10 being bullet-proof self-confidence). It’s not scientific, just a sense check. I consider 7 the minimum for a functioning entrepreneur; below that, it’s hard to operate positively for long. Tracking it weekly while taking small actions to build it has worked: I’ve moved from 7 to 8.5 in six months.

b. The Curtain

I used to trash-talk myself internally. Then I imagined a curtain in my mind and threw undermining thoughts behind it without looking back. A year on, those thoughts have largely stopped. The curtain worked.

c. Blameless Postmortems

Reviewing your mistakes is essential but can feel painful. A “blameless postmortem” helps: examine what happened as a neutral scientist, not to assign blame but to find better systems for next time.

d. Acting As If

Imposter syndrome often means you’re growing. The fear of failing at something new is part of progress. Susan Jeffers’ 'Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway' captured this before 'imposter syndrome' was even a term. Her advice:

• Take action despite fear.

• Trust that confidence often follows action, not the other way around.

• Use affirmations and visualisations to reprogramme fear-based thinking.

• “Feel the fear and do it anyway” is an invitation to act as if you can cope, even when you don’t feel ready.

Research consistently shows that higher confidence levels are directly linked to improved business performance, influencing decision-making, resilience, and the ability to pursue growth opportunities (Harvard Business Review, 2018; OECD, 2019).

This week, ask yourself: How would things be different if I was already at 8/10 confidence?

4.  Hate Speaking to Camera? You're Not Alone.

...Yet raising your profile is essential if you want to attract better projects and higher fees as an interior designer. The good news? You can build trust, authority, and visibility without ever speaking directly to camera.

🙏 A plea from the heart: make sure that your public materials (website and social media) have at least one friendly photo of you, and that your given name is clearly revealed. 🙏 

In this week's blog I share tips on how to do it, step by step, in a way that feels true to you.

👉 Read the full article here.

5. 🌿 What Now? ...Business in a Box!

If you’ve just finished your design training, you might be wondering what now?

It’s a big, exciting moment - but it can also feel overwhelming. So many new designers stall here, trying to build something perfect before they even begin, terrified of making mistakes.

But the truth is, the best way to learn is to start.

That’s why I’ve created Interior Design Business in a Box - a clear, structured, practical toolkit to help you take those first brave steps into running your own design business. No fluff, no overwhelm. Just the essential tools, guidance, and encouragement you need to start working immediately with clients and gaining experience. And with an expert in your corner so you can confer when you are unsure. 

We launch on 15th September, and I’ll be there, live online, you as you step into this next chapter. You won’t find better support anywhere.

👉 Because: You don’t need to be perfect to begin. You need to begin to get perfect.

📦 Find out more here.

6. 🏡 Home Swapping: Work From Anywhere, Live Like a Local

This week in stories I shared that, since the pandemic, my partner and I have worked to build businesses that let us work from anywhere (as long as there’s excellent internet). We aren’t in our twenties, so combining work with exploring new places while we can still carry luggage up stairs felt important. To make this lifestyle sustainable, we home-swap. I’m writing this from our beautiful ‘home’ in the centre of Paris (photo below). 

It’s like having friends to stay, not like Airbnb. You don’t need to clear out every cupboard; your home’s quirks are fine as long as there’s a workaround. Just leave it clean, tidy, and with space for your guests’ things.

We’ve done over 80 swaps, nearly all positive. Staying in someone else’s home while they stay in yours sharpens your instinct for care and respect.

Thinking of trying it?

• Start at www.homeexchange.com. Expect to approach 20 hosts for each ‘yes’.
• We filter for second homes, and avoid young families in term time for flexibility.
• Scrutinise photos carefully for cleanliness standards (we’ve learned this the hard way 💩).
• Try a short swap locally to test the waters.
• We Zoom with hosts before a reciprocal swap, but only if we share a language!
• You can swap simultaneously, at different times, or host for points.
• We put away private papers and trust our guests’ discretion. So far, so good.

Some of our favourite swaps:

• Sydney: A month across two luxury apartments in prime spots.
• Paris: Multiple visits, each better than the last (writing this from our current Paris swap).
• Venice: Two Januarys spent in the same cosy flat near the Rialto.
• Vienna: A spacious, contemporary gem in the city centre.
• Rome: A chic all-white pad in Trastevere (a little scary - I mean, everything was white! - but hugely comfy).
• Istanbul: A month overlooking the Bosphorus.
• New York: A stylish apartment on W83rd St.

Home swapping has made working abroad financially feasible while giving us rich, lived experiences in each location. If you’re curious, I highly recommend giving it a go.

7. Coming Up in Hothouse

As summer arrives, the formal programme pauses, but I’m still in Hothouse daily to support you.

Autumn preview:

✨ Contracts & T&Cs with a lawyer

✨ Instagram strategy for designers

✨ Styling & finishing touches with an expert

✨ Two BIID workshops:

– AI as Your Thinking Partner – 8 October

– Fee Clarity for Interior Designers – 12 November

8. My Week in Hothouse

We started our summer migration last week, heading north through Spain and into France, to reach our first house-swap of the summer. Travelling is disruptive, but now begins a period of consolidation. 

In the coming weeks I'll be preparing for a Q3 marketing push, building towards a strong final quarter for 2025, and getting everything ready for the launch of Business in a Box. 

9. 💬 Help Shape What Comes Next

What would you like to see in Hothouse next? Your input is invaluable.

DM me on Insta, LinkedIn, or email [email protected] with your thoughts and requests.

10. 🌿 Final Thought

“Confidence is not a personality trait. It’s a practice.”

When you carry the responsibility for your business’s success, confidence is not a luxury – it’s your fuel.

Nurture it. Build it. Protect it.

Because the most successful designers aren’t the ones who wait to feel ready; they are the ones who take action while building confidence along the way.