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Episode Description:

This week, Beth interviews Shila Scarlet Griffith, NCIDQ, LEED AP, Founder + Principal Designer of SG23 Design, LLC. Beth and Shila met through the local women-owned small business community in 2018 and have been co-creators, friends, and collaborators ever since.

Shila Griffith, NCIDQ, LEED AP started SG23 Design to seamlessly combine thoughtful interior design and stellar project management. Shila and her team work on both residential and commercial projects in the Mid-Atlantic and beyond. In this conversation, she shares her tips for fun-filled trips abroad, streamlined project management, business automation, and delegating as a Type A+ Person.

To get in touch with Shila and her team, follow SG23 Design and SG23-B2B on Instagram or reach out via their website.

Links mentioned in the episode:

Podcast:

The Type A Plus Podcast Instagram

Host:

Beth Lawrence LinkedIn

Beth Lawrence & Company Instagram

Beth will be back each week, delivering bite-sized tips on how to optimize your life and work.

Episode Transcript can be found below:

Beth Lawrence: Hello there everyone. Welcome back to the Type A Plus podcast. I am thrilled today because we are having a do-over with my dear friend Shila Griffith. We have actually recorded we've recorded once before. At least once before, and our audio file got lost. So I am extremely happy to introduce you to Shila and to have her tell you a little bit more about herself and her Type A Plus Business Shila ,welcome to the Type A Plus podcast. How are you today?

Shila Griffith: Good. Thank you so much for having me back.

Beth Lawrence: Tell the listeners a little bit about yourself and and what you do.

Shila Griffith: So I own an interior design firm called SG 23 Design. This year's a 10 year anniversary, and we do residential and commercial design, but what makes us a bit different is that we really love the project management end of things. So we'll work on projects from design all the way through construction to the end of a project to make the project run more seamlessly and more smoothly.

Beth Lawrence: And let me tell you, Shila is a phenomenal project manager. My husband actually did some work for her, and he said that out of all the people he did work for, you were the one that was the most organized. He never really had to ask any questions. You had everything really buttoned up. So trust me, from all angles, you are extremely Type A and wonderful to work with.

Shila Griffith: Thank you. Yeah, that's the goal. We feel like, especially with contractors, the less questions they have for us, the better we've done our job.

Beth Lawrence: Absolutely. Yes. Obviously you and I have bonded, we've known each other, gosh, five years now, something like that.

Shila Griffith: I think so, yeah,

Beth Lawrence: something like that. And I think we bonded over being type A plus very quickly. I did some work with you on PR and I loved that our first meeting you came like with a binder full of, your highlights and your projects and everything. It was just such a dream to work with a client that was so organized.

Beth Lawrence: So how does being type A or being type a plus show up for you in your everyday life?

Shila Griffith: Every day I take a lot of notes. I definitely have schedules for work. From a work perspective, I hate when people don't read emails. That drives me nuts. Yes. Cause I like to have everything in writing. I like to have a record of everything. And then personally, it probably shows up most when I plan a trip. Like I'm the one that has an itinerary. I'm like, this is where we're going on what days. This is the hotels we're going to because they're close to all the sites. So I'm very Type A about travel as well.

Beth Lawrence: Where is your favorite place to travel?

Shila Griffith: Oh gosh. Everywhere is so different. I just went on a trip to Switzerland and I forgot how happy I am to just be on a cobblestone street with a baguette. And I'm just content.

Beth Lawrence: Yes.

Shila Griffith: But really anywhere. As long as there's good food, beautiful landscape, cool architecture, I'm good.

Beth Lawrence: Yeah, I love those three things. So if you were gonna give a tip to our listeners as far as I. Planning trips. What is your, like your number one type A plus tip for planning a trip?

Shila Griffith: The first thing I do is make notes of all the sites I definitely want to see. So I leave some downtime to just wing it. But definitely write down those top like three things you wanna see in each city or each town so you make sure you don't miss them. And also some places you have to get tickets ahead of time. Like when we went to Spain, we went to the Alhambra and. I was planning that trip, I think four or five months ahead, and I almost didn't get tickets and I almost had a cry because that was a bit...

Beth Lawrence: oh my gosh!

Shila Griffith: ...it was a big part of the trip. So yeah, check, make sure you write down your top three sites for each place you wanna go, and make sure you don't need tickets and make sure they're actually open that day. Because sometimes they're closed on like a random Tuesday and

Beth Lawrence: yes, always a Tuesday. Why are museums always closed on a Tuesday? The actual obtaining of the tickets and making sure that you are able to go to the sites is extremely important. And we always think when we're planning trips oh, I'll just take care of it when I get there. But you can't take care of a last minute reservation sometimes, or tickets to a show or a museum or something like that. So that's great advice. What are you most type A about in your business besides the overall project management of it all?

Shila Griffith: We're Very type A plus about the intake process and our first interaction with clients because that kind of sets the tone. For the entire time that you're working with someone and all of our projects, much like your own, we're not working with clients for two weeks. We're working with them for months at a time.

Beth Lawrence: Yes.

Shila Griffith: And depending on how big the project is, it could be over a year. So our intake process is very streamlined. For example, when somebody goes to our site, they book an info call, the calendar they book from, that's synced with my calendar. So they only see this times that are available. There are no times available after five o'clock. There are no times available on the weekends. So they already know that's when we work. And then. They schedule that, and then we also have automated emails for reminders and such. The other part of it is they also get a questionnaire.: And if they don't fill out that questionnaire or their very short answers, I already know it's not gonna work because...

Beth Lawrence: ooh, I love that. Giving them a little test.

Shila Griffith: Yeah, it's like a little bit of homework because I would love to design homes and commercial spaces without anybody's input. Because I usually know the right answer. But part of my job is making sure that they love the space. I'm not gonna live there. I'm not gonna work there. They have to love it. So I need to make sure that they're okay with doing a little bit of work and giving feedback and providing information that we request. And if they're not willing to fill out a questionnaire from the very beginning of the process, it's probably not gonna be a good fit.

Beth Lawrence: Oh my gosh, that is such a good tip. And Shila, I have to say, you know this, I've admired you for years in business. I've been in business half of the time that you have been, congratulations on 10 years. And so many of the things that you have done and the things that you've established in your business have really inspired me. And the questionnaire thing is so true because, I used to do sales and we were taught you don't want to make people do too much work in order to get to meet with you or to get a demo of your product or whatever the case may be. But the reality is if you are doing something like we do where you're creating something for someone else, listening to the goals that they have, listening to what they want, the end result to look like, and then trying to build it from scratch. In collaboration with all of these vendors, you need their input and you need to make sure that they are ready to be bought in to that process. That's extremely important.

Shila Griffith: Yeah, a hundred percent. And they also have to trust your process. So that's another part of it. I'm sure as with your work, we ask for input at certain parts of the project,

Beth Lawrence: Right

Shila Griffith: for certain reasons, and if we don't get input from a client when we need it, inevitably halfway through the project they're like, oh, actually we don't want that wall there.

Beth Lawrence: And they don't realize that may seem tiny to them, but like

Shila Griffith: Exactly.

Beth Lawrence: It just completely screwed up your entire plan basically.

Shila Griffith: And they're like, why is the project delayed? I'm like, are you kidding me right now? But they don't know. They don't know everything that's happening on the backend. And really they shouldn't know. That's why they're hiring you. But for that to work, they have to also trust your process from the very beginning. Any time that I've deviated from my process, I'm like, oh, I'll be more flexible. It's a disaster from the beginning. Like I've been doing this for 15 years and it took a long time for me to be very confident to be like, no, that's not gonna work.: This is the way I've been doing it. This is the way it works. We're gonna follow this process.

Beth Lawrence: My gosh, I, it really does take a long time. Did you find that it was a process that you built over time while learning lessons? Or was it something that you knew from the start of your business: I need to make sure that this client intake process is buttoned up?

Shila Griffith: I would say I definitely learned over time, so I think I. A lot of people who don't own their own business don't realize how much you keep changing things as your business grows and as it changes. I'm always changing my processes and my contracts and my proposals and the way I present things, the way I word things, and honestly, The big push for that is when something goes wrong on a project or doesn't go as smoothly, or if there's a miscommunication, I'm like, wait a minute. What wrong here? Yeah. And that's when I change something in my process so it doesn't happen again. We all have nightmare clients. I'll just be honest about it. Anytime I have a nightmare client, It's a struggle to keep your sanity, but those are the times where you like end up upleveling your business cuz you're like, I'm not going through that again: Yes. So what do I need to change here to make sure that everything runs more smoothly on the next project?

Beth Lawrence: Yes. I love that you have refined it over time and that you immediately take the lessons that you learn from your more difficult clients, shall we say. And apply them to your business so that it doesn't happen again next time. Because I think also sometimes people, whether they're freelancers or they own a small business, they blame themselves. It's almost like dating, like they blame themselves if a client doesn't work out and it's But what if you just went on a first date with someone and like they looked really attractive on paper and you had a good time talking to 'em, but then eh just doesn't mesh. Maybe you don't like the same foods, maybe you have totally different ideas of what your future looks like. And I feel like with clients or with work, we take things to heart and personally and I love your process too, because it removes that personal aspect of it. It's no, this is objectively business. I need to change something within my business process to make sure that the relationship that I'm building with the client is solid from the beginning.

Shila Griffith: Yeah. That, that took, it took me a long time to feel comfortable with that. So my first business coach, I met with her in 2019. It was when I first moved to the studio I'm in now. And I pretty much had everything I wanted. I had a team, I had my studio and I was crying like several times a day. Like I was a mess. And I was like, I just feel like I'm doing everything wrong right now. And she got to the crux of it, right? Cuz she can see everything the way I didn't have that clarity, and she said there was a problem on a project and I forget exactly what it was, but I think that the wall, there was like a wall that was built and it was like six inches off or something. It derailed all kinds of things on the project, and the client was really upset about it. And since we handled project management and the design part of it, we're the kind of liaison between the contractor and the client. So a lot of times when the client is upset with the contractor, we. Get the brunt of it. And that they're, when they talk to us on the phone they're upset with the situation, but we get like the emotional, we can hear that in their voice and they're upset. And I think a lot of type A people are people pleasers too.

Beth Lawrence: Yes. Yeah.

Shila Griffith: The sooner you can get over that, the much better your life will be. But it's not an overnight thing. And I was really upset about this, right? Cause I'm like, oh my gosh, the client's gonna think I'm a bad designer and they're not gonna tell everybody and I'm not gonna get hired again. It's gonna be horrible. And my business coach is Shila, did you draw the wall correctly in your drawings? I'm like yeah. And she's was it dimension properly? I'm like yeah. And she said, did you build that wall? I was like, no. And she's okay, so it's not your fault. And she said, we are really good at project management. We're better at project management than most contractors. So when there's an issue, we take care of it. So that's why the client always calls us. So she said, if you can't separate what's actually your responsibility and what's not your fault, you can't do this job.

Beth Lawrence: Whoa.

Shila Griffith: And I was like, holy crap. Because I've wanted to be an interior designer since I was 13. There's just been no other question or career that, that I've been so focused on. So I was like, I need to figure this out because I'm not changing careers. So from there I got very clear on, this is my responsibility. This is not my responsibility. You have to be clear with yourself. But you also have to convey that to the client too.

Beth Lawrence: Oh yeah. Yeah!

Shila Griffith: Because they don't know. They have no idea whose fault anything is.

Beth Lawrence: No. Especially when you're working with a team, like in interior design or in events, it's the same thing. Vendors, they get associated with you. So it's really hard. Yeah.

Shila Griffith: Yeah, it took a long time for me to get past that, but once I did, just even the way I converse with clients, if, I don't know, if they say, we saw that part of the floor is damaged here. We're really upset about that. Before I would've been like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I would felt, I would feel like it was my fault for a week.

Beth Lawrence: Yeah.

Shila Griffith: Now I'm just like, all right, I'll talk to the contractor about it and see what we can do. And we take care of it. But it's just even the way, even my rapport with clients is a lot different and they feel that, so they feel that I'm confident, so now they're more confident in our services.

Beth Lawrence: Yes. That is such a great point. Shila and your first business coach. Wow. To really nail the fact that you have to separate the part that is yours. That's hard for a business owner. That is hard for a type A plus person. Because the reason a lot of the times that we like to do the project management and we like to refer the vendors is because we like to have a sense of control. And in this situation, the control is knowing that you've worked with this person in the past, they have your best interest at heart. They have your client's best interest at heart, but when you're taking the brunt of it, or when you're the one that's really getting the emotional side of the client, if you react in an emotional way or react in a way that shows the client that you are taking blame, that throws off the whole balance of the relationship to your point, because then they're not thinking., "I'm freaking out, shila is gonna take care of it." They're thinking if Shila's freaking out the same that I'm freaking out, this is really bad. I can tell the way that you talk with clients, that you're extremely confident about your process. You're extremely confident and you know what you're doing. And that is a critical piece of advice. I just really wanted to highlight that because. That is really challenging. That's also why group projects suck most of the time because you wanna take it all on yourself cuz you want it to be done right? Yeah.

Shila Griffith: You want the control cuz that's how you feel like, okay, this is all taken care of. It's really funny. That's another thing about entrepreneurship, cuz you do wanna do everything by your, on your own.

Beth Lawrence: Yes.

Shila Griffith: I have a team now and delegating in the beginning, oh, it was so hard because I'm used to doing everything by myself and I know exactly how it's gonna turn out. I know exactly what I expect, and my team is fantastic, but I have 15 years on them. I do everything better and faster. Like I better if I have 15 years of experience. So letting some of that go is really hard. And even now if I'm really overwhelmed. It was funny, I was on the survey with my junior designer. She's fantastic. She's awesome, and she was measuring a room, I was measuring a different room, and she finished her stuff faster because the room she was on was smaller and I was still measuring my stuff and taking notes, and she's Shila, I'm just standing here. I can do something. I'm like, no, I'm fine. I'll do it. And then she's but I'm here to help you. My team is awesome because they'll call, they will call me out on stuff. It's a trip. And I'm like, why am I like that? And I said it to myself, but I said it out loud and she's because you're overwhelmed. And when you're overwhelmed, you wanna do everything yourself, because you only wanna do it once. You want it to be completely right the first time.

Beth Lawrence: Wow. When your team tells you about yourself and you don't even realize

Shila Griffith: I didn't know I stress cleaned until I had an intern. She was like, are you stress cleaning right now? I'm like, I don't stress clean, as I'm scrubbing like one of the conference tables.

Beth Lawrence: Love that your team not only helps, alleviate the work for you, but they also are like Hey Shila, you're taking on too much. You're doing too many things.

Shila Griffith: Yes. I am so fortunate. That's helped me with delegation as well because sometimes we have to schedule walkthroughs with contractors and that's. That's an inefficiency I have not figured out how to look really nailed down. Cause you're, you need the homeowner on site and the contractor, and then I need to be on site. So you're coordinating between three people.

Beth Lawrence: Yeah, at least three people. That's wild.

Shila Griffith: Yeah. That's bananas. So I used to do that and I'm like, I don't have time for this. So Melissa she's my office assistant. Now she does all my scheduling for that kind of stuff. And it's. Fantastic. So that takes that task off my place, but on off my plate. But on top of that, sometimes I'm like, oh, I can do a walkthrough. I can squeeze that in on Thursday, and the girls will look at me and they go,...

Beth Lawrence: Shila, that is hysterical because we set our own boundaries and then we ignore them sometimes because people pleasing.

Shila Griffith: Yes. Yes. And I think another important thing to point out is when I hired a team, I'm very cognizant of being a good boss. I'm always checking myself and making sure that they are, that they love where they work and they treated it fairly and they're not overworked and burnt out and all those things. But I am more protective of my team than I am of myself. Like a hundred percent. If something, if we get a crazy deadline and, or if a deadline moves or something like that, they're still leaving at five. If they're here at 5 0 2, I'm like, what are you doing? But I will stay late if we need to get to a deadline. When companies don't run well as far as scheduling and they're just like winging it and flying by the sea of their plants and they're always, crazy deadlines and too many clients, I really think it happens because the owner of the company's not managing their clients well.

Beth Lawrence: Yes, and they probably at that point have hired in their mind someone that takes away the client work, but they hired them at a point where they weren't ready to train them yet, or they hired them at a point where they're not able to do the things they need to do to make sure that they're successful in their business.: I feel like that happens a lot and. A lot of the times job descriptions, especially in startups and small businesses, like if you're not buttoned up on what you need, then you wind up just piling a bunch of stuff onto someone's plate because either you're in a place where you just can't do it or don't feel like doing it anymore, or you think I hired this person, this is what they should be doing. So I feel like as a type A plus leader, making sure that your team has a better experience than you've had in the past is awesome. And you have to find a way to also, apply those same boundaries to yourself. In my email signature, it says, please allow 48 hours for a response as I work toward achieving balance, I don't think, unless I'm out of the office, I don't think I've ever gone more than 24 hours without responding to someone. But it is funny because I set that boundary for myself cuz I have to like, see that boundary and double check myself.

Shila Griffith: Yeah. One of the best things about having my design studio is I have an office phone. So before, when I first started my business, all my clients had my cell phone number. Cause that was the number that I had. They'll call you in at night on the weekends, like everything's an emergency. And I'm like, this is not an emergency. And When I first stopped giving clients my cell phone number, I would think I would be, I was being mean.

Beth Lawrence: Me too.

Shila Griffith: No, that's just a boundary. And honestly, it's not been a problem. If there is quote unquote emergency, they will call the office and my team will get to me. And then to your point about working, like with hiring and working with the team and all, I really had to work on my systems because when you h when you hire someone, it's like the chicken or the egg, right? To make sure you bring enough, bringing in enough money to compensate them, but you're also really busy, so you need to get work done to get more money.

Beth Lawrence: Yeah.

Shila Griffith: Really if it's, and I learned this a hard way, it's ideal to hire people before you're too busy. Cuz by the time you're too busy, you don't even have time to interview people.

Beth Lawrence: No.

Shila Griffith: And on top of that, you have to train them. And I took for granted, I'm Type A, I like things in a certain way. People cannot read my mind. And I would just assume they would just want, they would just know, I want this done this way. And I had to get a lot of systems in place to say, if you're working on a CAD, drawing you, this is a checklist. Make sure you have all this done. I had to put all those systems in place, but like I I learned that after I hired my first employee, I'm like, oh crap, now I have to go back.

Beth Lawrence: Yeah, you're like building the train while you're running it or whatever the thing is.

Shila Griffith: Exactly. Which is terrifying. But that's what makes, especially with really big companies, that's what makes thing, makes things run more smoothly. And it allows your team to help you more. Yes. Because if not that they're floundering, they don't know what the heck to do and a really good example of that, I've worked for people, oh my god, their files or CAD files, or Photoshop files, whatever final super final. Super final. I'm like, you can't do that. So one of the rules we have in the office is you have to title all of your documents. First of all, we have a format for how we title all of our documents. We have templates for each new project file folder. But the rule is if someone new started tomorrow and I ask them to do something, they should know where to find that file.

Beth Lawrence: Love Shila, I love it.

Shila Griffith: It's like a simple concept, but you'd be surprised how many companies are terrible at it.

Beth Lawrence: I would not be surprised cuz I've worked for startups, so I actually have more, I'm doing work for startup right now and they are incredible. Like they had it. Buttoned up even using things that are freemium tools like Google Drive and Asana. Like they had templates to your point, like I could really hit the ground running. And then I've been in startups where I'm like, I have five more hours of work to do today, and. You're not giving me anything. Either they're not giving me anything or I don't know how to do it. So then I wind up having to ask them. I've also been on the other end of that as a leader. I can look back now at the time of the pandemic and say Beth, you hired too quickly. You hired at a terrible time and you hired too quickly. And there were so many times where I had to check myself and say look, if they gave you this output, it's because you didn't give them the right instructions the first time and that is why you're gonna be so successful, whether you have two or three people working for you, or when you have 20 people working for you because you've already laid the foundation and you laid it super early and you always double check yourself. And you have a team that always double checks themselves too. This is all so important. You're giving advice that you don't get anywhere else. A lot of entrepreneurs it seems like they just came alive one day and are successful, but you really are bringing us behind the scenes in what it's like to build and grow a business over 10 years from yourself, in one office to owning a studio and running a studio and having a team and wow.

Beth Lawrence: I'm just super grateful you were on the podcast today Shila.

Shila Griffith: Thank you so much.

Beth Lawrence: How do people get in touch with you?

Shila Griffith: We're most active on Instagram at SG 23 design, and we have links to our website, of course, into booking and info call. And then if you're a business owner, you're looking more for like business tips that website is SG 23 design-b2b.com.

Beth Lawrence: Oh yes. And if you're a business owner looking for business tips, that is a fantastic resource. As you've learned from listening to Shila she is a wealth of knowledge whether you're an interior designer or not. So thank you so much, Shila for being here again. And thank you listeners for joining us. We will be back next week with a new episode of the Type A Plus podcast.