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 – see the new tiered categories below! – Hothouse is here to help you thrive and push your business to the next level.
Hothouse brings structure and momentum to help your business grow. 🌱
2. June Intentions and Focus
This month we’ve been deep-diving sales strategy, specifically the mindset and practical shifts needed to engage successfully with high-net-worth clients.
Our two webinars on luxury sales have sparked realisations, breakthroughs, and momentum. If you missed them, catch up below.
3. ✨ Which Tier Is Your Design Business In?
In this week’s webinar, I encouraged you to think about:
Q: Where is your business really at, and where do you want it to go?
I’ve developed a four-tier model of residential interior design business, “From Startup to Stardom”, to help you benchmark your business honestly and see your next steps clearly. To help you plan the intentional growth of your business.
👆The draft document - it's a work in progress, and will become the basis for new theories of interior design business growth - is available to download from the Hothouse Facebook group, you'll find it under the 'files' tab, at the top of the group.
📈 Why does this matter now?
Because moving upwards – to better projects, aligned clients, and higher fees – will be vital as agentic AI systems begin encroaching on lower-value design work. Your unique excellence is your competitive advantage.
Your business needs to occupy the ground only you can hold.
🪴 Reflection for this week:
Which tier does your business currently operate in?
What transformation do you want to see in the next year?
💬 Your reflections shape the resources and live sessions I create in Hothouse. Let me know what would help you level up.
Download the Tiers model, under the 'Files' tab in HOTHOUSE.
🪖 DON'T FORGET: My Bootcamp programme is designed to help you push your business upwards in a structured and supported way - working as part of a supportive peer group, and with one-to-one input from me.
I'm planning the next run and have names on the waiting list - let me know if you’d like to be added, or if you'd like to know more about it.
4.💎 Want Better Clients? It’s Time to Rethink Selling
Do you want better clients - more appreciative and collaborative clients with greater sums to invest? You need to rethink how you sell design.
Here’s the truth:
🛑 The sales strategies that work when you’re building your business in Tier One and Two (see above) will actively hold you back when you try to step into Tier Three and Four.
🛑 The mindset that helps you “win the job” in the early years is exactly what will repel the very clients you most want to attract.
And the worst part?
‼️You probably don’t even realise you’re carrying that mindset with you‼️.
🚀 The Shift from Selling to Guiding Transformation
This month, we’ve run two game-changing webinars on Luxury Sales for Interior Designers. And the response has been remarkable.
Designers have told me:
“This has changed everything about how I see my business.”
“I finally understand what has been blocking me.”
“I didn’t realise how much I was undermining my own aspirations.”
Why? Because selling to UHNW clients requires a complete shift:
- From transactional, adversarial thinking ➔ to collaborative partnership
- From seeing yourself as selling a service ➔ to guiding a client through transformation
- From seeing fees as awkward ➔ to seeing them as neutral information, no more loaded than “pass the salt”
- From service as a checklist ➔ to service as selfless, anticipatory care
As part of the necessary mindset change, we also introduced the Japanese concept Omotenashi – the quiet, calm authority that high-level clients are searching for.
If you have the aspiration so many designers share - to get better clients, to grow your business, to move into the top tier of your field - these webinars are essential viewing.
✅ Watch Webinar One: The Psychology of UHNW Clients
✅ Watch Webinar Two: Practical Shifts to Sell to UHNW Clients
These materials are new, deeply practical, and created exclusively for residential interior designers serious about working with HNW and UHNW clients.
5. Who Do Your Clients Want to Become?
High-end clients don’t invest in a beautiful new home simply for aesthetics.
They are seeking interiors that will unveil a version of themselves they most wish to embody and share with the world.
They want spaces that do more than reflect their self-image; they want spaces that elevate it. Spaces that surpass even their own aspirations for who they can be.
In Webinar Two, we explored how to uncover this hidden, aspirational self-image using storytelling and conversational discovery rather than transactional brief-taking.
✨ In his book 'Living Bright', couturier turned interior designer Matthew Williamson shares the 20 questions he asks clients; how he encourages the conversational discovery that invites his clients to dream aloud.
His questions are crafted to draw out precisely the kind of aspirational, layered insights you need to create interiors that feel like a home and a revelation.
✨ If you want to work at the highest level, learn to move past transactional brief-taking and transform your next client conversation from a checklist into a revelation.
Download the questions from the Hothouse group (under the 'files' tab).
6. 🧠 Money Mindset Game
On Instagram last week, I shared a money mindset game that struck a chord - here’s how the game goes:
Me: 🧳 I limit myself to one hold suitcase - or just cabin baggage.
My client: 🏎️ Flies his car with him on holiday so he can enjoy driving it in new locations.
Me: 🕯️ I’m thrilled to receive a scented candle for my birthday.
My client: 🎁🎁🎁🎁🎁 Spent £500 on bath products, and didn’t notice that the store had accidentally charged £50,000 - for months.
Me: 🚗 I share my partner’s second-hand car.
My client: ✈️ Traded in one of his Aston Martins for a Lear jet - the clutch was too heavy, and his leg got tired.
💡 It took me a while to realise: what I think about money has absolutely no relevance for my clients.
(What my partner and I think about money is often miles apart, and we've been together 20+ years!)
🤦♀️ If I price my services through my own lens - through my upbringing, values, or financial limitations - I may underprice the full extent of services needed - adjusting down to what I think my client might be willing to spend - good grief!
So here are my rules:
✅ Always remain respectful of a client's money, but...
🚫 Never second-guess a client’s response to financial considerations (to anything, actually!), and
🎯 Price based on value of services delivered, not my personal comfort zone.
It’s a mindset shift that will transform your business - and your confidence.
Curious: have you ever underpriced because you wouldn’t pay that much?
7. 📆 Coming Up in Hothouse
With summer holidays approaching, our formal programme will pause, but I’ll still be in Hothouse daily for questions and guidance.
✨ This autumn, webinars in the pipeline include:
-
Contracts and T&Cs with a lawyer
-
Expert input on an Instagram strategy for designers
-
Styling and finishing touches with an expert stylist
-
Plus, with the BIID, two workshops on AI for Designers and Fee Clarity
And, more to follow on the big initiative for September - setting goals for the year-end, and pushing hard in Q4 to finish 2025 with a massive flourish!
8. 🌿 My Two Weeks in Hothouse
Last week I took a week off walking in Galicia with girlfriends - it was beautiful, quiet, soul-refreshing.
I'm glad my batteries are now recharged because it’s amazing how quickly your business’s energy can drop without your foot on the pedal. I have work to do - those ever-present Meta Ads goals - and will use the summer’s lighter client load to rebuild marketing momentum and prepare for the Q4 push mentioned above.
9. 💬 Help Shape What Comes Next
What would you love to learn in Hothouse? Let me know on Instagram, LinkedIn, or by email at [email protected].
Your input is invaluable - 🙏
10. 🪴 Final Thought
“Growth demands a new mindset.”
The systems, beliefs, and practices that brought you here might not be the ones that will take you to the next level. As your business evolves, give yourself permission to evolve too.
Don’t let yesterday’s thinking limit tomorrow’s success.
Wishing you a fantastic week ahead :-)
Julia
Founder - Hothouse
Responses