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johnmcclaindesign

@johnmcclaindesign

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Designer • Author • Entrepreneur • Speaker
Building fuller lives + better businesses.
Founder: @themcclainmethod ✨
Soul Over Should. ↓

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When your client decides to order custom furniture on their own. 😆

I saw this window in a mall in Bangkok and knew I had to share it wtih you lol. A boutique display with two comically oversized chairs beside a mannequin. Text: When your client decides to order custom furniture on their own.

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Heading to high point!!

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AI is my assistant.
It is not my brain.
On the newest episode of The McClain Method Podcast, I’m sharing the 10 ways I’m actually using AI to run my business right now. Not the “write me a caption” stuff. (Yes, I see the irony.)😂
A few of the things we get into:
ChatGPT and Claude together. One leads, one executes. I still make the final call.Projects and skills. So you stop explaining yourself to AI every single morning.My AI chief of staff. A daily brief that tells me what needs me before I even ask.AI renderings. Your client can create a gorgeous room in seconds. But who figures out the dimensions, the specs, and the install? That’s where we shine.Everything I teach came from years of real clients, real projects, and real mistakes. AI just helps me put it to work faster.
Your expertise works the same way, y’all.
🎧 Listen now wherever you find your podcasts. Link in bio too.
So tell me, what’s one task in your business you’d hand to AI tomorrow if you could? FOR REAL! I WANNA KNOW ☺️🧐

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Most interior designers only get to see the finished photos.

Which is lovely.

But the finished photos do not tell you what happened when the scope changed.

Or what the agreement actually protected.

Or where the time went.
Or what the client pushed on.
Or what I documented well.
Or what I would absolutely do differently now.

That is the part I wanted to open up.
Inside a $1.35M+ Interior Design Project is a written + visual case study built from one of the biggest projects my firm has completed.

I went back through the real project files, numbers, decisions, documentation, procurement, scope changes, client moments, and all the hindsight that comes from looking at it years later.

Not the Instagram version.
The business version.

And because I know nobody needs another video course sitting in their account judging them, this one is designed to be something you can actually read, reference, search, and use.

There is also an AI-ready Markdown edition included, so you can upload the project into ChatGPT or Claude and start asking your own questions.

Comment SECRET and I’ll send you the details.

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Gardens at Villa Carlotta, Lake Como #homedesigns #interior4inspo #minimalisthome #realestateagency #wallartgalleryideas

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When Dolly Parton passed, I knew I needed to sit down and talk about just a few of the things she taught me.

Because when I really started connecting the dots, Dolly’s fingerprints were all over so much of what I believe about business and life.

In this new podcast episode, I talk about:

• dreaming bigger
• branding and being memorable
• kindness and boundaries
• money and what success actually means
• reinvention without losing yourself
• giving back
• taking calculated risks
• and actually creating a life you have time to live

One of the moments I talk about is Dolly’s famous Barbara Walters interview and the way she refused to let anyone else define what her image, her background, or her choices meant.

She knew exactly who she was.

And she never apologized for it.

🎙️ New episode: What Dolly Parton Taught Me About Business and Life

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51 today. Please be kind to old people. 👴🏼

My husband flew halfway around the world to join me on my “sabbatical” to be here in Hua Hin, Thailand, and had this cake in the room when we returned today…so I am thoroughly spoiled.

The hotel used my passport to write the cake.
Happy Birthday “Johnny.” In quotation marks. Like I’m traveling under an alias.😂

Since I’m the one getting spoiled, designers get the gift.🎁
My new Client Guide Collection is 51% off through Sunday. Four documents you send clients over and over: Client Proposal, Menu of Services, How We Work, Install Day Guide. Already written in real interior design language, so you’re not staring at a blank page at eleven at night trying to sound professional.
Vertical and horizontal, and all of it edits in free Canva.
Code BDAY51. Link in Bio 😘🎁

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Protecting your peace was never weakness. It was always the stronger choice.

Save this for the next time someone makes you feel guilty for stepping away.

And always choose your soul over the should.

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I’m going to say the thing.

Your flat fee is a guess.

Not because you’re bad at this. Because nobody ever handed you a way to build the number. So you took what a designer in a Facebook group said, or what you charged the last client, or what came out of your mouth at 11pm when you needed to get off the phone.

And then you just kept charging it.

Here’s what’s behind the paper.

The Designer Calculator went live this morning. A year of building, breaking it, rebuilding it. It’s a real online tool, not a spreadsheet you download and forget about. This beauty lives online and can be used by your entire team!

You scope the project room by room. Every task, every hour, the extra site visit, the second rug option, the powder room that eats more time than the primary bedroom. It builds your flat fee from the work you’re actually doing.

Then it hands you a proposal with your firm name on it and a signature line for the client.

Sixteen years I wanted this thing to exist. And y’all. It’s here.

Comment CALCULATOR and I’ll send you the link. #interiordesigner #flatfee #interiordesignpricing

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Any interior designers interested in an AI app that combines pictures of your client's existing tired old kitchen, your architectural drawings, pictures of any samples (paint swatch, hardware, etc) and your description of the design concept for their future kitchen AND then works with you to get all the fancy interior design photography settings just right...resulting in a concept image that your client will actually understand right away.

We've been testing it for months as a laptop combination of Claude & Nano Banana and while it works perfectly, it required the designer to go back & forth between claude and google.

Having it work just as well but in a simple one-stop AI app that you can use on your tablet or smartphone has been our holy grail. And it's working. I've been using it all day and it's so good.

Super excited. Have to tell everybody...gonna burst.

Please excuse the cheesy Ai generated text...I couldn't wait to share the news 😁

#interiordesign #interiordesigners #interiordesigner #ai #aiforinteriordesigners #artificialintelligence

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Anyone else speak this language?

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🎉🎉🎉 Throw the confetti and sound the horns! My podcast, The McClain Method just hit 100 episodes! Three years. And I almost didn’t make it past episode 10. 😬

I recorded this one on my iPhone, at a makeshift desk, in Bangkok, where I’m living and running my whole business for the next four months.

I’m not saying this to sound boastful, quite the opposite actually. I’m saying that to let you know you too can step away from your business (no, it does not have to be four months lol).

A business that cannot run without you is not freedom. It’s a job you can’t quit.
Here are a few of the 10 things 100 episodes taught me:

Build your systems now. They feel slow. They’re the thing that eventually sets you free.Say no more. Boundaries are what protect your time. Good manners don’t mean no boundaries.Stay the brain. AI is the taskmaster. You’re still the one with the taste and the judgment.You don’t have to do any of this. Take what serves you and leave the rest.
More than anything, this one is a thank you. You’re still right here, and that’s not lost on me for one second. You truly are the best!

Episode 100 is live. Link in bio.

Any of these hit you like they did for me? Let me know :)

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