Blog Conference Highlights including, Is Social Media like Teen Sex?

At the Design Bloggers Conference early this week, Rhonda from All the Best gave a talk on ‘How to create your Brand’. The message that really hit home for us all was “Everyone thinks social media is a magic bullet, but it’s not that easy.  Social media is like teen sex, everyone wants to do it, no one actually knows how and then they are surprised when it’s not better.”

Interior by Jan Showers

It’s kind of like renovations. You think, how hard can it be? I know I want a white kitchen, quartz countertops and a blue glass backsplash (like my sister), but then there are all these little decisions that need to be made, that add up to your beautiful kitchen.

Like when I arrived at my sisters kitchen-renovation-in-process this week.  Her boxes had just been installed, the countertop measured, and the drywall, complete.  I walked in and said “What is this?” all the corners of her kitchen were suddenly. . . flat. Remember the rounded corners from the 90’s that were so brutal because the only way to change the colour going from one room to the next is to tape it in the middle. . . well, her corners. Flat. She said “See this is what happens when you go out of town”.

Without a designer my lovelies, the contractor, or ‘insert trade here’ potentially sways the homeowner in the direction that makes it easier for him to do his job. And the homeowner, aka. my sister in this example, says ‘Sure that sounds like a good idea’.

Interior by Jan Showers

Social media, the same.  It looks easy and you think, all I have to follow is all these great tips and I’ll have a great blog. And in theory this is true, but here’s what makes blogging hard. When you are simply not inspired write anything.  When it’s 8:00 pm on any particular evening and your post is old but you are tired.  Do you a. Flake out on the couch? or b. Go to your office to blog.  If you answered yes to the latter, you have the makings of a blogger. 

It’s not for everyone, and you shouldn’t make yourself wrong if it’s not in you to write one.  Just because your friend has written a book (for example) doesn’t mean you should too. Blogging, same thing. Okay so back to a few more tips if you are one of the bloggers reading this post. . .

Tobi Fairley gave the keynote talk on Tuesday morning with 20 great tips on blogging.  Here are some of the highlights:

Tobi Fairley & Maria Killam

1. Determine your blog’s purpose. If you don’t know where you’re going, how are you going to know when you get there?

2. Offer total design. Don’t do a little in this room and a little in that, so in the end you can’t see where the money went if you don’t complete the room.  Spreading it all around a clients home also dilutes the look and feel of the overall space.

Interior by Jan Showers

3. Blogging isn’t free. You still have to pay for photography (very important) Also, when you’re blogging, you are not designing.

4. Before’s & After’s.  Take great ‘before’ pictures from the right angles. Take every wall straight on and every wall at an angle so you can photograph it at the same angle when you take the ‘after’ photo. How many times have you NOT photographed the nothing corner 'before' you decorated the space, and then afterwards, you get cranky because you don't have that same angle.

5. People want to be entertained or inspired.You must be stylish but still have content behind it.

Maria Killam and Ruthie Staalsen

I always like to have a roommate when I’m at a conference because it’s so great to get to know my blogging friends even better. Ruthie from Ruthie’s Renewed Treasures (above) was my pal at this 2 day event and we had a great time together!

Oh, and one more thing, Jan Showers keynote presentation included a great photography tip which all of us designers should be aware of, and it is this ‘Use a photographer that uses a lot of natural light or can light a room so that it looks like there is lots of natural light.  It’s dated to shoot portfolio pictures with the lights on.’

Interior by Jan Showers

I’m off to Seattle tomorrow morning for the weekend and then Monday, I’m shopping for Spring with my amazing stylist Angie at You Look Fab.  Can’t wait.  I also popped into Crate & Barrel in LA and my colour has arrived, yaay!  So I’m going to check them out too, now that I’ll have a car to pack it in.

Have a great weekend!

If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact me.

Related posts:

7 Hot Blogging Tips from Los Angeles
Do you Choose Finishes based on Light vs. Dark?
Is Hiring a Designer; A Luxury or Necessity?

New to this Blog? Click here ; Follow me on Facebook and Twitter; Become a True Colour Expert

7 Hot Blogging Tips from Los Angeles

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I'm here at the very first Design Bloggers Conference and yesterday Scott Hanselman gave us a talk on the 32 Ways to Take your blog to the Next Level. Here are a few of them: 

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1. Moo.com, see all these quotes?  Well they are from this great website where you can print business cards with different photos on the back, quotes, the options are endless, and completely affordable. Scott says he gets them printed for special events, etc.

2. Don't apologize for not blogging enough. 

I found a blog once where almost every post started with "I'm so busy and important, so sorry I haven't had time to blog. . . " it really didn't make me want to come back.

3. Don't be mean.  

Unless that's your job, nastiness has no place.  Enough said.

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4. Think before you blog.

You can't delete it, you can never take it down. Archive.org is where you can go and even see what your website looked like 5 years ago.

5. Make it easy to subscribe to your blog, for readers to contact you. . . after all the work you do, don't make reaching you hard to do.

6. Decide what should be 'above the fold' on your site.

Above the fold refers to placing the most important or most attention-grabbing content on the upper half of the front page of a newspaper. This means your header should not fill the entire page of your screen when you open your blog.

7. Blog interesting or don't blog at all.

The best tip is this one. He said if you can't find something interesting to write about a picture ask yourself if it's a post or a tweet.

There were lots more but many of them were very technical.  I've said this before and I'll say it again, if you want to have a great blog, subscribe to Copyblogger.  I don't know how he manages to have every post be useful and interesting, but that' pretty much how it is.

Tobi Fairley

This morning Tobi Fairley is giving the Keynote presentation, stay tuned for a recap of the conference!

If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact me.

Related posts:

Maria's Guide to Starting a Design Blog

Hotel Great room; A Trend that's here to Stay

How to get Published in 2011; 5 Rules to Follow

Kimberley Seldon and What they Don't Teach you in Design School

New to this Blog? Click here ; Follow me on Facebook and Twitter; Become a True Colour Expert

What makes a Design Blog Interesting?

I have mixed feelings on whether yesterday’s post should ever have been written. There was lots of lively debate in the comments and even a few cranky ones mixed in to the long list I received (I also lost a reader according to her comment).  Also, two emails arrived saying “Wow your sisters must be upset about that post”.  And here’s the thing, I read it to one because it was mostly about her and she said “sure no problem'” because actually I’m committed that we come to a solution that works for us all (and so is she).  My other sister was mentioned (so I didn’t read it to her in advance) and she was cranky, and we worked it out. She is the real writer in our family and she offered to write a post from their point of view, so I agreed. Stay tuned for that one.

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I wrote about ‘decorating for family’ because I know a lot of designers (and anyone who sells time) struggles with maintaining a balance with their family and friends and I honestly didn’t know the best way to handle it.  What makes me a good colourist and a designer is that I analyze everything and I do the same thing with relationships.  If I wasn’t writing about design, I would write a relationship blog because what makes people tick inside them fascinates me just as much as colour does.

And I also love a lively debate once in a while, I always learn something and I think what makes relationships great is when you work through the issues that push your buttons and get to the other side.  And forgive.  And forget. And forgetting is hard.  We hardly remember the argument that we had but we sure remember how we felt when the event or argument happened.

So what makes a design/or any blog interesting?


As Copyblogger says in this post, The first rule of Copyblogger

1. “Great content comes from craft, care, and attention, not talent.”

Image via This is Glamorous 

2. “It comes from obsessively focusing on what your reader wants. What’s bugging her? What problem is she having a hard time solving? What does she want more than anything? What’s she dreaming about? What wakes her up at 3 in the morning? What makes her feel like a beautiful and unique snowflake?”


Since a huge number of my readers are designers, I think that my post attempted to help them (and me) in the family = free conversation.  But what about all the rest of my readers who don’t care about that (because it’s not what you do) and had opposite opinions?

Or then there’s the other side of it (this part is for the bloggers reading this), written by Mike Duran; who asked this question:

3. “What kinds of comments are you looking for on your blog? Are you looking for “amens” and “attaboys”? Or are you really looking for dialog?” and then he quoted Copyblogger (like we all do):

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“In the blogging world, buzz mainly finds you in your blog comments. When you hit a hot button, that’s where you first find out. When you look at great blogs, it’s not uncommon to find that the comments become even better than the post itself — so let them.


If you’ve written something that’s whipping up controversy, don’t hide from your comments. Embrace the buzz, both positive and negative. Learn from it. Dive in and chat. Your readers will thank you (and become even more loyal on account of it)” 


4. To have a good blog, pretend that your perfect client is on the other side of the desk while you’re writing.  Write to her.  So when I’m writing posts about money, I’m talking to the designers that attend my workshops.  When I talk about “How to have a great blog” I’m talking to other design bloggers.  When I talk about design, colour and atmosphere, I’m talking to my future clients, readers that love design in addition to designers and bloggers.

Image via the Beautiful Shelter 

I created this blog because I’m passionate about colour and design and because it took me so long to figure it out on my own, if I can, I like to make it easier for everyone else. And sometimes I write ‘about me’ because whenever I read a personal post on a blog that I follow it makes me feel closer to the blogger and it makes her blog more interesting to me.

There was lots of talk in the comments in yesterdays post (almost 100 by the time I’m posting this) analyzing my relationship with my sisters and whether it’s ‘healthy’ or not so let me be clear, for the record.  I love my sisters deeply, we are very close and at the same time, we most certainly argue and occasionally hang up on each other, but it generally never lasts long. Is our relationship perfectly healthy? Well that is up for us to decide and for you to analyze, should you care to.

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Over to you, what makes a blog interesting?

If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact me for on-line or in-person consultations.


Related posts:

3 Things I Learned about Design while Decorating for my Mother
6 Uninteresting Things about Me
10 Things I Hate/Love/Share about me

New to this Blog? Click here ; Follow me on Facebook and Twitter; Become a True Colour Expert

Maria’s Guide to Starting a Design Blog

The New Year is here and if you have been thinking about starting a blog, now is the perfect time. If you are a decorator/designer/stager and you need more business, (who doesn’t?) a blog is a great advertising medium for you and it’s free—except for your time of course. Writing a design blog on a regular basis also keeps you, the design professional, really current as I mentioned in this post; Why your Designer should be a Blogger. It’s like giving yourself ongoing continuing education every day.

Images from Ralph Lauren Home

Here are my best tips with all the links to the previous posts I’ve written all in one place so you can get started:


Blogger, Wordpress or Typepad. 

If you’re not sure which blogging platform you should use, read this post first: 10 Tips that will take your Home Design Blog to the Next Level.

Ready to choose the Name?

Read 9 Lessons from a Two year old Blogger. If the name that you want is not available, you can add blog to the end like I did.  Colourmehappy.blogspot.com was taken so my URL is colourmehappyblog.blogspot.com. 

Try to keep it as short as possible without dashes, etc. You might want to have it on your business card.  Although you can always buy the .com URL and transfer it to your blogspot address.  My business card says colourmehappyblog.com, I have also bought truecolourexpert.com which goes to my blog.  My URL will change this year anyway because I’m switching to Wordpress, so then everything will be under mariakillam.com which is currently just my design/portfolio website.

Now you are ready to start writing and will need to read this one: 10 Things Every Blogger should Know.



Determine your niche or area of expertise  and write about that


If you’re confused and not sure, then just start writing. Writing will help you figure it out. Just don’t get discouraged if your number of readers don’t increase as fast as you’d like. Your readers either want to learn something or be entertained. A series of pretty pictures is usually not enough to keep them coming back.

If you don’t know exactly what your design style is, then keep writing, after a while it will become obvious by the photos you post on your blog.

If you don’t know exactly what your niche is, then keep writing.  You’ll discover what you are passionate about by the posts you are inspired to write. And if you need an idea or two here are some blogs I wish someone would write.




Post pretty pictures


Beautiful images are still second in importance (besides your writing) to having a successful design blog.  It is crucial that you consider each photo you post very carefully.  Every photo on your blog tells a story about your taste and design aesthetic—whether it’s your photo or not.

Crediting Images


Link to where you found the image. If you find an image you like and aren’t ready to post it yet, open an email and save it in drafts with the headline of the future post in the subject line.  Then cut and paste the URL into the email until you are ready to use the image.  If someone has a more effective way of keeping track of the source, please post a comment below!




Advice for shooting your own Images


For photos that you take with your camera, the number one rule when shooting interiors is ‘Flash is not your friend’. It washes out colour and atmosphere and makes the room look flat and lifeless. Here’s a post I wrote on What Every Designer should Know about Photography that show a few good images of the difference between a novice vs. a professional photographers photos look like.

Kate at Centsational Girl recently wrote two excellent posts on shooting interiors here and here.  Read them both and invest in a good camera, she makes recommendations on which one to buy as well.




How do your readers know if you can help them? 

You need to let them know on each post, more on this here: Do you make this Mistake in your Business/Blog?




How do I make money with my Blog?


Well as you can see by the lack of advertisers on my site, I don’t focus on the advertising side of ‘monetizing’ my blog. $50 per month for a small photo ad—which seems to be the going rate on the design blogs--is simply not enough (in my opinion) to clutter up my site with ads. How I ‘monetize’ my blog is through my design and colour consulting services and my colour workshops. Your blog gives you credibility and establishes you as an ‘expert’ in your field. That is how most people make money from their blog. So don’t focus so hard in the beginning on ‘how this blog will make me money’ your focus needs to be on great content, period.

A blog without great content is pretty hard to ‘monetize’ so keep writing (have I mentioned that already?). If you still think that you will get rich blogging, read this post for a serious reality check.

 

How much time does writing a successful blog take?


This post, 6 Ways I’ve Grown through writing a Blog, will fill you in.

What to do with Negative Comments? This post outlines what I do with them and it’s personal for everyone.

Images from Ralph Lauren Home

If you are reading this and you already have a blog?  Please post a comment below and let us know how many months (or years) it took before you started making money from your blog and how; is it though consulting or advertising?  Thank you – your comment contributes to us all!

Happy New Year my lovelies! Thank you for reading my blog.

If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact me.


Related posts:

Does your Blog Header reflect your Personal Brand?
Who Else wants an Inspired Website?
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New to this Blog? Click here ; Follow me on Facebook and Twitter; Become a True Colour Expert

4 Interior Design Blogs I wish You would Write

You know what they say, if you want to have a blog that people will read, you need to write passionately about what you know and inside of that, find your niche. So, if you are still looking for yours, the following have my vote:

1. Tile
I’m a Decorator, not a renovator. I help clients choose their finishes because that falls into the realm of undertones and colour but there are so many weird angles and problems that come up in installations, I would devotedly read a blog that addressed those issues.

 

2. Window Coverings
I do a lot of drapery but if you look at my website, most of them are straight panels, simple boxed pleat valances, roman blinds, etc but generally very clean and simple. The West coast is very different from the East.  We don’t do a lot of traditional swags, cornice’s and formal, fancy applications, but I would be fascinated by a blog that taught me about those things.

3. Provenance
I’m totally embarrassed to admit this (don't tell anyone), but I only just discovered what this word meant about 3 months ago, so if you wrote a blog dedicated to the history of furniture (but not so it sounded like a professor was writing it), I would subscribe immediately. When I wrote this post just last week, I had to do some heavy googling before I discovered that the chairs in my clients vignette were ‘Regency Style’.

 Above Images and Photography by Jeremy Samuelson

4. Art
I would love to read a blog that taught me about Art. I did not grow up around it, am intimidated by it, and would love to sound more intelligent when discussing it.  If you could do this for me, I would love you forever!

Well those are the top 4 on my list. What are yours?  Which design blog would you love to read that you can’t find?

If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact me for on-line or in-person decorating and colour.


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Your Christmas Tree is You (maybe)
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5 New Ways of Looking at Colour; From the Experts

New to this Blog? Click here ; Subscribe to my free Monthly Newsletter; Become a True Colour Expert

9 Lessons from a 2 year old Blogger

I started my blog because I had spent 2 days listening to webinars for designers on-line. One of them was about blogging. The speaker said every designer should have a blog. It’s the live version of your website and gives people a sense of your personality at the same time. It happened to be Halloween when I wrote my first post and 2 years ago it landed on a Friday night. I wrote 7 posts that weekend and couldn’t sleep I was so full of ideas on what to write next.

Here are the biggest lessons I have learned in the past two years and exactly 450 posts later:

1. Pick a Name that resonates with your Brand

As a design blogger, I learned that technically your blog should be the same as your name (if that’s what your business name is). Better for branding, etc. And I wouldn’t have it any other way now. Colour me Happy is me (which is why I chose it) and the right colours make every one happy, so it fits with my ‘brand’. When choosing your blog name a good test on whether it’s the right name for you is if you still like it when you say “Hi it’s [your name]from [your blog name] calling”.

All Images from Ralph Lauren Home

2. DIY, Luxury Designer or Somewhere in Between

If you look closely, many of the number one blogs are Do-it-Yourself, why? Because unless you have unlimited discretionary income to decorate, even high end, million dollar homes have many empty rooms to fill without the high-end budgets to go with it. Martha Stewart got rich teaching us all how to do it ourselves. So depending on which clients you want to attract, you may decide to either increase or limit the amount of DIY you present on your blog.

3. Write Consistently

I have averaged one post every second day for the past two years (approximately 16 per month). Usually I’m in bed by 9:30 pm (hey I’m a morning person) and there are many nights around 8:00 pm where I would love nothing more than to relax in front of a movie but if my post is more than 2 days old I go up to my office where I might be until midnight writing the next post. The reason everyone says you need to post 3-4 times a week is that eventually when people start searching for information in your area of expertise, they are bound to hit a post you’ve written and find you! That’s hard to do if you only post once a week.

4. Write like you talk

Before I started blogging I was absolutely convinced that I was not a writer. If I had to send out a professional letter it would take me forever and I would usually get it proofread by someone else. And it was probably better that I didn't have any preconceived notions about being a writer because I just started writing like I talk and along the way I discovered that it’s the way you’re supposed to do it anyway.

5. Find an Editor

I also have an editor (my best friend). When I write posts that I think are more reactive or controversial I read them to her. Many times she has said “That’s not colour me happy, nope don’t post that, or say it this way instead.” She makes sure my writing voice stays consistent with who I am and what I stand for on my blog.

6. Tell Stories

I have always been a good storyteller. The people closest to me might have called me a drama queen in my younger days because I always had a new drama to share. My mom still says “Oh good, you’re here, tell us the latest, now we’ll be entertained”. It’s the stories you share from your life and your business that help your readers relate to you as another human being instead of words on a computer screen.

If you think you’re boring then read this post; “If you’re boring, it’s because you’re scared and you’re hiding your best stuff. Getting un-scared is the hardest thing you’ll ever do, but since you need to do it anyway in order to have a great life, you might as well get started now.” Sonia Simone

7. Teach us Something

You are either entertaining your readers or teaching them something. If your blog is just a serious of posts promoting your business no one will read it. Some bloggers worry that if they give away all their ideas then no one will hire them. Angie from You Look Fab gives it ALL away. Yet I still hired her to shop with me because I was clear, reading her blog that she knows fashion and I knew I would still make mistakes shopping on my own. When people read your blog, what do they learn? Are they clear about your area of expertise?

8. Be Happy

Unless you’re blogging for the sheer fun of it (not for your business) be positive and upbeat. No one will hire you otherwise. Enough said :)

9. Be Authentic

I learned the most about being authentic from reading Penelope Trunk’s blog. She has the most brilliant way of taking ordinary farm life and turning it into a lesson in communicating, risk taking or time management. And it’s interesting because she’s just talking about her life. But the real stuff that most of us would be scared to death to ever post on a blog--whenever she posts it--I love her just a little bit more and wish she lived closer so that we could be friends. And she has almost 60,000 subscribers. When I read this post on Marketing Lessons from Esther Williams on her blog, it inspired a similar post that I wrote called Design Lessons from Elizabeth Stevenson. So take half a day and read her blog, trust me you’ll learn something.

All Images from Ralph Lauren Home

I’m just amazed that it’s been two years already! My life is so much richer now because of my blog and the community that comes with it! What are the best lessons you’ve learned about blogging?

If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact me for on-line or in-person decorating and colour.

Related posts:

10 things Every Blogger should Know

10 Tips that will take your Home/Design Blog to the next Level

6 Ways I’ve Grown through Writing a Blog

My take on Negative Comments

New to this Blog? Click here ; Subscribe to my free Monthly Newsletter; Become a True Colour Expert

Why your Designer should be a Blogger

If you are about to hire a designer to help you with your house, it’s best if your designer also has a blog. Design bloggers really are on the cutting edge of what’s cool and current (maybe). Here’s why. Yesterday I posted about IKEA bookshelves and then Erika from Bluelabel Bungalow posted a comment saying “Check out my IKEA done right” post. So I did. And this is what I saw. A home office by Sarah Richardson:

Any good decorator is certainly not going to buy everything from IKEA but there are some things you just can’t get for a better price and when you are decorating an entire house (like I am) you need to get some bargains somewhere because there’s so much to buy! Anyway, I recognized the legs on the table in the image on the left but I have never seen the TV console on the right so I was convinced it wasn’t IKEA. I emailed Erika and she was kind enough to send me this link; here. I didn’t like it on the website at all and worried that I had to buy the upper storage unit too but I hung on to the image in red (above) and when I arrived today I happily bought it in black (I have enough white at the moment). It’s real slim and long enough to look good under a larger TV (I didn’t win that battle :).

Anyway, every room should technically have one expensive (the bling) piece of furniture because it upgrades the look of everything else in the space and in my living room, it’s definitely my sexy sofa. Sigh. I love my new yellow sofa, I’m so happy with it.

Photo by Maria Killam

This week and next I’ve been trying to keep my schedule light so I can shop for my own place (and enjoy the summer weather). Today I walked into Consignment Canada here in North Vancouver (where I live) and scored 6 of these dining chairs (above) for $250! They won’t be as cheap in the end because I have to re-do the frames and recover them of course but I’m so excited. I have always loved this image from Stephen Shubel Design. I mostly love dining rooms where the chairs don’t match the table, I just think it looks more creative and like a designer’s been there.

Finding chairs that fit so close to the idea of this room made me want to re-think my current colour scheme of yellow, raspberry and kelly green because I love orange too (aaaak, see this is why it’s so hard to decorate my own place, it's like having to choose between your kids!) I haven’t committed to the fabrics yet although I’m close. I love dinner parties and the idea of sitting at the table, in comfort for hours with my guests. Also, having a different pattern on the back of the chair is so much fun!

flickr

If I wasn’t a blogger, I would never have discovered the entertainment console, because I’ve walked right by that section at IKEA thinking it was all too cheap looking anyway. Being a design blogger keeps you exposed to all the possibilities in furniture (although I’m not giving up my magazines—I still love them too) including the latest in colour because you are constantly looking for new images to support the post you are writing! As a blogger in the design community reading other design blogs daily as well is just like reading a new decor magazine every day! What a great education!

If you have a blog, do you think you are a better designer now than when you started?

If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact me for on-line or in-person consultations.

Related posts:

10 Things every Blogger should Know

10 Tips that will take your Home Design Blog to the Next Level

2 Questions to ask before you Renovate or Decorate

New to this Blog? Click here ; Subscribe to my free Monthly Newsletter; Become a True Colour Expert

Do you make this Mistake in your Business/Blog?

If you are a blogger (or are about to start one) and you want to be really good--subscribe to Copyblogger. I think it’s one of the best blogs to improve your blog daily. There’s a reason he has over 100,000 subscribers. It was when I read this post called “Could your Blog be Ruining your Business” that I realized there was a very important paragraph missing from each of my posts.

And it was this one: If you want your home to have atmosphere including colours that flow to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, Contact me by email info@mariakillam.com for on-line rates or call me at 604.318.9725 if you are local.

Why did I add that paragraph? Because this post reminded me that “A blog is supposed to create more interest in what you do or what you sell. It’s supposed to bring you more credibility, more readers. It’s supposed to show off your expertise.” So if someone finds your blog because a friend sent them a link or they stumbled on it while surfing the web and you don’t let them know you can help them? Then they will simply get the information they came for and. . . leave. So it’s important to let your potential customers know “What you do” so that your blog can do for you what it’s supposed to do, bring you more business!

This weekend I was having a conversation with a good friend at a birthday party. I told him that I was cranky that the last three potential clients I had spoken to in the last week had not hired me. Once they heard what my rates were, the response was “I’ll talk to my husband and call you back”, and they didn’t. Normally, when someone has been reading my blog for a while it’s pretty much “When can you come?” not “You’re too Expensive”. (I’m not that expensive by the way, I just don’t list my rates because they vary depending on what you need, also I haven’t decided if they are exactly right and it’s harder to change them if they are posted—in other words—get me now while I’m still a bargain!).

Selling a service is very different from selling a can of paint. You buy it, you know exactly what it’s going to do. Easy. A designer? Different story. However, reading a blog like this one is like getting a referral (which is one of the best ways to hire a designer) because you can get a sense of my style and personality by reading this blog.

So, back to the story. My friend gave me some excellent advice; he said “Maria you are trying to sell them something, instead of letting them know what you do so that they can decide if you are the right fit for them”. He suggested that instead of ‘selling’ or ‘explaining’ my service, let people know “If you work with me, this is how you will feel. For example, “What I do is help people love the experience of being in their home”.

And you know what’s funny? That is essentially what I have written at the end of each post “If you want your home to have atmosphere including colours that flow to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact me”. What’s missing is that I didn’t say that when I was talking on the phone with potential clients.

And not everyone is my customer or necessarily wants what I provide and that is okay too.

The story isn’t over yet. It get’s better. Today a friend sent me this video by Simon Sinek it’s 18 minutes but well worth it!

Here is his book:

Simon Sinek (who works with people on how to be inspired leaders) discovered a very important principal that profoundly changed the way he operates in the world and this is the short version (watch the video to get all of it):

“The part of the brain that’s responsible for all decision making has no language. It’s where trust and loyalty and gut decisions come from. Sometimes you can give somebody all the facts and figures and they will still say ‘I get what you’re saying but it just doesn’t feel right’. And because that part of the brain does not have language, that’s the best we can come up with.

If you don’t know why you do what you do, how can you get people to buy something from you or vote for you, etc. or more importantly be loyal, and want to be a part of what it is that you do?

“People don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it. And what you do simply serves as the proof of what you believe. People do/buy the things that prove what they believe.”

According to Simon, if you talk about what you believe, you will attract those that believe what you believe, why is it important to attract those that believe what you believe? It’s called the law of Diffusion of Innovation. (When I heard this I realized this was the reason my entire experience of design has changed since my blog—people that are attracted to my personality [and subsequently hire me] have similar traits that I have—which is what makes my job so amazing these days).

Those who lead inspire us, we follow those who lead not because we have to but because we want to, we follow not for them, but for ourselves and it’s those who start with why that have the ability to inspire those around them or find others who inspire them.” Simon Sinek

One of the reasons I’ve chosen images from Ralph Lauren Home on this post is because he is a master of creating atmosphere in his interiors and I study his interiors as well as countless others because I also strive to create uncontrived yet styled, clean, and comfortable spaces for my clients when I work with them on decorating their home from scratch and if I’m hired for a simple consultation to walk through how to do that: which colours for the walls? What colour should my furniture be and so on, it’s the look and the feel that I’m hired to create.

After listening to his talk I asked myself what my “Why [I do what I do]” is and if it should be different from what I’m already saying (there's a reason my blog has 'happy' in it, I love it when my clients are happy from the right colour and decor), so here’s the way I’ve been saying it:

If you want your home to have atmosphere including colours that flow to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, Contact me by email info@mariakillam.com for on-line rates or call me at 604.318.9725 if you are local.

And here’s how I might say it his way:

[Why do I do what I do?] If you would like your home to fill you with happiness every time you walk in, contact me for on-line or in-person consultations.

Related posts:

10 Things every Blogger should Know

My Take on Negative Comments

10 Tips that will take your Home Design blog to the Next Level

Authenticity. . . The Currency of the Future

If you are new to this blog, click here to see the Best of Colour me Happy