Ep 131 Transcript: How Team Culture Became a Growth Strategy with Lauren Miles
This transcript was auto-generated and may contain errors in spelling or inaccuracies in the spoken words.
Shauna Lynn Simon (01:49.964)
Welcome to the Real Woman Real Business Podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon. And my guest today spent 10 years as a competitive swimming coach, including time as the associate head coach for women's swimming at Auburn University, all before doing a home build in 2020, which lit a creative fire that she just couldn't ignore. So in 2022, she founded the interior design firm Modern by Miles, which is a full-service interior design firm based in Alabama that specializes in new construction.
major renovations and curated furniture projects. And in just a few years, she's grown from solo designer to a small but mighty team. And she's bringing that same intensity and intentionality that she brought into coaching, into how she runs her business and leads her people. So Lauren Miles, welcome to the show.
Lauren Miles (02:37.516)
Well, thank you so much. What a cool intro.
Shauna Lynn Simon (02:40.782)
I'm like, "That was me!" That's you. And I think that's always a fun thing when you hear your own bio being read back to you like, wait a minute, I did those things. And let's talk about this a little bit. So you had this whole career before this one. So take us back. What was life as a swimming coach like and what sort of led you away from it?
Lauren Miles (02:59.618)
Yeah, I fell in love with the sport of swimming when I was nine. And I knew that even though I dabbled in other sports, softball and cross country, I always came back to the sport of swimming. It was just such a special sport for me and my family, really. My siblings were all swimmers as well. I knew I wanted to be a coach when I was in college. And so while I was swimming at Duke University, I remember thinking like I'm gonna be a coach someday. I got right into it right after graduating.
I decided I had some unfinished business in the pool and went back to the sport as a competitive swimmer after graduating college, which was a little unusual at the time, especially because I wasn't Olympic caliber, but I had Olympic trial dreams that ultimately did come true. And after competing at Olympic trials in two thousand eight, I followed my coach out to California and that's where I really started my coaching career.
Shauna Lynn Simon (03:52.686)
That's incredible. I see this often, especially in creative entrepreneurs, that they had this whole other career before shifting gears. I mean, you spent a lot of years in the coaching. Did you think you were going to continue that indefinitely? And then this home renovation kind of came along and changed your mind, or did you always know that you want to do something beyond coaching? Did you have thoughts about what life beyond coaching was going to look like?
Lauren Miles (04:15.66)
That's a two-part answer to your one part question. So if you had asked anyone around me, the athletes that I worked with, the assistants that I coached alongside my family, they would have probably told you I'd die on a pool deck coaching. Okay. Okay. So, but as I got older, you know, I didn't get married till I was 36. And towards the end of my time at Auburn, I remember being on deck at NC2A's
And seeing another female coach with a stopwatch in one hand, a heat sheet in her other hand, and a baby strapped to her belly with a on the one of those sling things, you know? Yeah. And I remember vividly thinking, that's not gonna be me. I don't know how it's not gonna be me because I'm here, I'm at this big pool with the swimmers that I love and watching them compete at the highest level. But that's not the life that is ahead of me. So
During my time at Auburn, I met my husband and we dated for a couple of years. He lived two hours from Auburn and had a well-established family business. He's in the car business. And so when we got married in May of 2018, I retired from coaching with zero clue what was ahead. Zero clue. I mean, I left my previous life, as I like to call it, completely. Like I was not planning on moving to Heflin, Alabama to coach swimming.
And I certainly wasn't planning on moving to Heflin, Alabama to become an interior designer. So it was tough, you know. You you struggled with who am I? What am I doing? Yeah. I was making my own money and didn't have to answer to anyone about how I was spending it for a long time. Dropped into Heflin, Alabama, really small town, very similar to the town I grew up in. So that was not really an adjustment. The adjustment for me was now what? And who am I?
Shauna Lynn Simon (05:44.288)
Right.
Shauna Lynn Simon (06:08.95)
And so okay, so let this leads in really nicely. So this is in 2018 that you moved. And so 2020 of course we all know what happened in 2020 but you were actually building a house during that time.
Lauren Miles (06:21.63)
Yes, and it was awful. It was awful. It was so stressful. I was looking at the futures of lumber, like to see like because it was so cuckoo, our lumber package from the time that we had got the initial quote, because we had always planned to build a house. Right. from the time that we got married, almost just immediately, I mean, we jumped into what's it gonna look like? What about our floor plan?
Shauna Lynn Simon (06:31.212)
Yes, I remember that, yeah.
Lauren Miles (06:49.718)
Meanwhile, you know, I didn't know what I know now then, but it was very stressful. It costs a lot more than we anticipated. We still love where we live very much, but through the process of building, I realized how much I loved the process and figuring things out and putting the pieces together and trusting the process. I mean, there are so many parallels to coaching swimming. You can't rush it, right? Like if you're in a race and you
rush it because you're excited and you let the adrenaline take over, you're gonna make mistakes at the at the end of the race, you know? Same thing with a with a build. If you try to rush a certain process, you're gonna make mistakes. You're gonna wish you could go back, but now it costs too much money to go back. A lot of parallels. But anyway, so I fell in love with the process and I was pregnant twice during our build. So that that's how long it took. I mean, 'cause people weren't working, it was tough to get material. There were a lot of unknowns, right? So
Took forever. And I remember wanting to learn more. I remember wanting to take an online CAD course. I remember just having this thirst for wanting to learn more about the technical side of what it would look like if I did start doing this and charging people money for it. But I remember just vividly telling my husband, I'm not ready yet. You know, Mac was newborn. He's my second. And so when he was about eight months old, it was my 40th birthday.
My gift from my husband was a manila envelope with the Modern by Miles LLC paperwork handed to me. And I was like, wow, he believes in me. And I think he wants me to have something, you know, to do. Cause while we were dating, he got to see me on the pool deck like every weekend. He would come to the swim meets. He saw me so passionate about that life. And I think that he maybe missed seeing that a little bit and maybe saw glimpses of it when we were
building the house. But that was his gift to me. And that was the very best gift I could have ever imagined because that really springboarded me into charging people money for for what for picking some paint colors. Because, you know, that's how it started. Picking some paint colors for somebody for two hundred bucks.
Shauna Lynn Simon (09:01.134)
And like the first time that you told me that story about your husband gifting that to you, you know, I remember thinking like so many women that you know ask for like I want a spa day or I want, you know, some sort of practical gift or some clothing or jewelry or whatever. You're like, no, no, just give me an LLC and I'm good to go here. Like it's definitely one of the most unique gifts that and probably from his side of it.
Could have also blown up in his face. Like you could have been upset that he had gone ahead and done this without you or that he had taken that initiative. Like it could have gone, I think, one of a couple of ways. And fortunately for him, it went in the right direction, but gave you the boost that you really needed to launch the business. So, like you said, you started out with just picking out some paint colors. You have come a really long way from just picking out some paint colors in just a few short years. When you look back at that first year.
What surprises you the most about where you are now?
Lauren Miles (09:58.094)
When I look back at the first year, what surprises me the most about where I'm now, I think the pace at which we grew went from paint colors to an entire new construction build on a lake in a matter of months. And classic example of you bite off more than you can chew and then figure out how to chew it. That's been on repeat for me throughout this whole journey because
I feel like if I don't know the answer, I'm always gonna go find the answer. And and I know that clients don't expect me to have every answer under the sun for every question they ask. But I think I've always taken that approach of I'm gonna figure out the answer to that and I will get right back to you as soon as I can. And so when we were building our house, I made a mental note of the subs that we worked with that I liked, who were respectful, who were fair in their pricing, who did
high quality work. And I know that I was probably a difficult client in many ways, but everyone is when they're building their dream home, right? Sure. But I relied on a lot of those gentlemen for some of those answers that I didn't know to help me grow and learn about their process and what they do and how they think about things so that I could then bring that back to the client with that little bit of knowledge that they didn't have and very easily was able to build trust.
And with trust builds a brand. And with a brand comes with the word of mouth. And that's pretty much where I am now is so I think I guess the surprising thing is starting most of my business kept coming from Instagram, from people I don't know, not in Alabama, to now it's so and so's friend. you did her kitchen. I want you to do my bathroom. Will you do my kids' bedrooms? Repeat clients. We've got a lot of repeat clients. So I don't want to say that's surprising because I know what
I'm bringing to the table. But if you zoom out, it's surprising to think that we have been able to accomplish that in such a short amount of time.
Shauna Lynn Simon (12:03.234)
I think that's the key there. It's the time frame, the duration. I mean, there are people that I have spoken to who have built businesses over, you know, a decade or or longer who just then are getting their footing and then are feeling like there's the consistency and the predictability in their business, which is something that you've actually had pretty consistently. maybe not from the very, very beginning, but pretty close to it. And I thought it was interesting what you were saying about how you had this tendency to
bite off more than you can chew, then figure out how to chew it. And what's interesting about that is in my experience and knowing you, you're actually more intentional than you're making it sound because you are quite methodical about things. You really do think things through, but at the same time you have this beautiful ability to quickly gather the information that you need and make a decision on it and move forward. And I can see that really playing to and this probably comes from
being a swim coach for that matter, you're constantly making split second decisions and things in the moment. But I mean, that really allows you to be able to help to guide your clients, help to move their projects forward, help to lead your team in a way that some people don't necessarily have that natural ability that you do. And whether it's natural or learned from your experiences, either way, it's definitely playing in your favor now, I would say.
Lauren Miles (13:20.322)
Yeah, I definitely am a quick decision maker. And that's very different from a hasty decision maker because I'm not gonna make a call without having all the data, like you said, all the information, as much information as possible. But once a decision is made in my head, it's on to the next. Okay. It is we don't go back and revisit that decision fourteen times and check TikTok and make sure and all the things. And I can bring that
decisiveness to my clients too, because we get hired because people are indecisive. And whether it's a single person that is indecisive or a couple that is not agreeing on what style of the home they want to build or the style of their bedroom furniture, you know, we can really get to the root of some of that indecision and help them be a little quicker in their decision making without pushing them.
Shauna Lynn Simon (14:13.698)
Yeah, and I think not only did that support your clients, but also the team that you've built as well. Because I think that from a leadership standpoint, it's, I mean, there's nothing worse than working for someone who's constantly wavering on their decisions and should we have done that? Or what do you guys think? Like, and it's not that they're not involved in the decisions or anything else. It's just that, as you said, like once you make a decision, you move forward with it. And in in my experience of knowing how you work, I also know that like if a decision isn't sitting with you right.
then it's not a firm decision. Like you will linger on it if something's not clicking and you'll work to identify like what about this decision isn't sitting right, what's not clicking and kind of work through the different elements of it to find the right answer to it. And that's something that again, I think shows a level of leadership that your team, I'm sure, has come to rely on and depend on to move things forward as well. And I want to dig into a little bit more about your team. We're just going to take a really quick break and we'll be right back after this short message.
All right, welcome back to the Real Women Real Business Podcast, where we are speaking with Lauren Miles of Modern by Miles, an interior design firm in Alabama.
And something that she has grown since 2022. And of course, we're sitting here in 2026 now. That's only four years if someone's doing the math on that. And so I want to talk a little bit about the team that you have built as well and are continuing to grow and build. Something that I noticed pretty quickly when we first started working together is that you didn't build this business the way that a lot of early stage entrepreneurs do. You actually built it with people in mind from the beginning, whether it was
Shauna Lynn Simon (16:39.874)
your clients or the people that you were working with, like people were very much at the core of it. So as much as it was about, you know, what do you want to do? What are you good at? What can you do? It was also about like how do I turn this into a bigger thing that supports other people? And I want to get into that because I think this says a lot about who you are as a leader. So let's talk about the fact that you went from being solo to having employees pretty quickly. So
When did that happen in the business and what did that transition look like?
Lauren Miles (17:10.67)
Okay, so you know, the first big house that I referenced doing earlier when we went from paint colors to a big giant leg house was actually Cindy's house. A mutual acquaintance had she had posted something on Facebook and a mutual acquaintance of ours called me out. And like within a week, Cindy and her husband were sitting in my living room signing a contract to help them build their leg house. Now Cindy's built five houses before, so if she knew what she was
doing. She just needed that "yes man" so to speak, to help solidify because this was the last time they're building a house. This is their forever home. So we got to working together and she was quite talented and had a great eye and it was very easy to work with her and we developed a certain amount of trust and rapport with one another pretty quickly. And she's a full-time pharmacist at the time. So I initially offered her just a a tiny little monthly stipend.
we'll call it because it certainly wasn't anything resembling a salary, to just kinda help me out with a few things, tag along with me at some meetings, take some notes or give some input. Because as clients started continuing to come through my inbox, I really wanted to have someone else there to kind of help figure out if I was heading in the right direction with some things. And it got to the point where we were growing so fast that I required
More of Cindy. So Cindy took a giant leap of faith and after thirty years as a pharmacist retired to come on board with me full time.
Shauna Lynn Simon (18:42.07)
Wow. And so how soon after you started working with her did she make that leap from this the stipend that you were giving her to a salary essentially? Honestly.
Lauren Miles (18:51.626)
It was about a year and a half. Okay. That's pretty cool. Exactly. That's but yeah, about a year and a half. And so then we're rocking and rolling and we put ourselves in rooms. The first trip we took together was October 2023. We went to Luann Live and we flew down to Orlando together and went to that conference. It was like three days, I think, and just got so fired up. And we got exposed to the way other designers operate and
Shauna Lynn Simon (18:54.604)
No.
Lauren Miles (19:18.462)
we were shown some holes that we had in my business and things that we could take home and immediately implement and fix. I think that's when we got design files and we were really able to kind of streamline some things. And we were just it just opened our eyes to like this whole new world of how to run, not just run the business, but run a profitable business. And so that happened and then late last year, 2025 we get an email from Jill.
We were not hiring, and I'm looking at her resume and I'm thinking, what in the world? Who is this? And how did she find me? And Cindy looks at me and she says, Lauren, I have been praying for someone for you to come into your life and business. Some I have been praying for a Jill. And so I crunched some numbers and Cindy took a little bit of a pay cut to make the hire doable.
And we have not looked back since October 2025. It has been go, go.
Shauna Lynn Simon (20:25.196)
So there's a few different things that you touched on there that I really want to dig into and I'm hoping I don't miss any of them. But one of the things that I'm gonna circle back to in just a moment is just the fact that you weren't hiring, you had to open up the budget essentially to be able to allow for that extra salary. And at the same time, because of that, you've been able to grow the way that you have. But before I get into that, I do want to touch on something because
Anyone who's ever worked with me as a coach or has listened to this podcast, I have talked about hiring numerous times. And one of the biggest things that I always caution people on is don't hire the warm body. And the warm body is the person who kind of shows up on your doorstep saying, "Hey, I can do this job for you. Here's my resume." And they may or may not be the best person for the job, but they're the person that is immediately available and there for you. And yet that's literally what you've basically done for your business.
And it has worked incredibly well for you. What do you think is the reason why those warm bodies have been the right bodies for your business? What do you think allowed for that?
Lauren Miles (21:28.322)
I mean, those were not accidental, you know, this is the Lord working and I can't explain how He works, but truly we all believe that, you know, Cindy praying for Jill and Jill just showing up and then Jill just seamlessly meshing herself into our team like she's been here for ten years, you know. And it was that way with Cindy too, you know, the way we worked together when we were building her house, I didn't always have all the answers, but the two of us typically figured them out, you know. Yeah.
But yeah, the the warm bodies that just happen to work out that can only really be explained by above, you know.
Shauna Lynn Simon (22:04.41)
And I'm not going to downplay that by any means, but I do think there's a little bit of another explanation as well that you kind of touched on. And it was the fact that you weren't necessarily looking for them. And I think what ends up happening in a lot of businesses is people wait too long to hire. I often say, like, by the time you realize you need to hire, you should have already hired. And that's usually how most people work. And I think what's been great about the way that you've built this business is
I think because of your overall personality, the way that you approach life, the way that you approach business, is you have this openness to you, that you are open to the opportunities, you are open to the ideas that are out there. So when the right opportunities do land on your lap, you again can evaluate them pretty quickly. I don't think you just jump into them as like, you're here. Okay. Like you do evaluate like how would this person actually work on my team? How can I actually get the value out of them in a way that I think leads itself to the next opportunity?
And so I think that having that openness to those opportunities before you think you're quote ready for them, I think is a big part of that key. Because like I said, I think so many people wait until they need to hire. So the warm body just looks really, really good. In your case, you weren't looking to hire. So that made it a bit more of a strategic and intentional decision. Well, if I am going to hire, does this person make sense and really evaluating it from that standpoint?
Lauren Miles (23:24.63)
Yeah, I'm always thinking and I was like this way when I was was a coach, like I always want to know how it can be done better, you know, and when I was coaching college, like I always wanted to go visit other teams where coaches were having some success and see how they were doing things. So I feel like I've always been open to exploring, you know, and keeping an open mind about who may fall in my lap and figuring out a way to
see if they could work because I'm all about a team. I mean, I did the team sports growing up. Like I don't know anything other than team and culture is incredibly important to me as well. And creating a team that can be on board with the end result and not, well I did that, I did that, I did that is really important to me. Well that
Shauna Lynn Simon (24:14.37)
dig into the culture part of this a little bit though because I think this also kind of lands itself to what I was saying about how you know the team that you have not only like you know at first you were I don't want to say concerned about whether or not you could the affordability of it because obviously you wouldn't have moved forward if you didn't think that you could manage it, but you still needed the work to show up as a result of those hires which it has done in spades for you. So let's talk about the culture
That you've built. Because again, as I mentioned earlier, like, you know, people have been at the core of this business with you pretty much since day one. And one of the things that you said in one of our very first conversations was how important this team is to you and how much you value them and how much you want to make sure that they feel valued as well. And you said this in a way of like not just about compensation. I think that this is something that is covered in.
A lot of books that I don't even need to get into, like this is not a new concept by any means. Studies have confirmed this that monetary compensation is actually not the most motivating factor for team members. And so if you want to get the best out of someone, just promising them more money isn't necessarily going to get better work out of them. And so you focused on not just me ensuring that they're well compensated, which of course they are, but that they're also seen. Where does that come from for you? Is that from your coaching?
Lauren Miles (25:31.084)
Yeah, I think it was from coaching, you know, one of the hardest things as a coach to do is pick the relay team, right? Like you've been working with thirty women all year and now you're selecting a relay team that happens on night one before you've seen anybody, you know, at the big championship meet, there's the taper and then you shave and everybody's just swims lights out, hopefully. But you're having to select a relay team when you've got seven candidates and you can only pick four. And figuring out, you know, a way to communicate
the good news and the bad news without overplaying either. I think deep down I'm an empath, so I really do try to put myself in other people's shoes. And so wanting the culture to be strong no matter where you fit into it, somebody who may not have made that relay team may show up the next morning and swim lights out and put themselves on the relay team that night. And which is all related to mindset, which is probably a whole nother conversation. But I know
That chemistry is incredibly important for a team to succeed at the end of the season. I don't care if we're talking about swimming or basketball or golf, but any team sport, any sport in general, requires a certain amount of chemistry to perform. Cultivating that chemistry and maintaining that positive culture where people want to show up to work, they want to go do the thing, they want to exceed expectations is
really important to me. And so yeah, compensation is part of that. But also I try to make sure my employees feel seen by giving them thoughtful gifts along the way, especially if we've had a really solid month where we all just worked our tails off and the end result was a really beautiful outcome for a client who's been building a house for two years and they got to turnkey it and walk into their fantastic, beautiful space.
Shauna Lynn Simon (27:23.51)
Yeah. And so okay. So going back to the team part of this, you touched on something that really kind of triggered something for me because I found it really interesting. And that is about talking about that chemistry. And when we look at Olympics, I think it's a great example of teams are put together pretty last minute. Like you can grab all the best players from a particular country, but that doesn't make them a good team necessarily. We have seen some teams that have been put together with some absolute all stars that you're like,
They've got to be unbeatable and they just can't mesh together. They just can't bring it together. And that's where I think the leadership, anytime you see these teams winning, the teams are often they're referring to the leadership, whether it was the coaches or assistant coaches or the team captain or just the other team members in general. If everyone kind of has their own sort of spot and role in it, that meshing, that chemistry is key to their success. It doesn't matter how good each individual player is. And that is exactly what a team
is all about. But I do want to dive into a little bit more about these gifts that you've talked about because you've kind of blown me away with some of the things that you've done. Now I understand that, you know, our listeners, not everyone might have the budget to do extravagant gifts for their team members. But I'd love if you could share a little bit about what some of these gifts have looked like and how you decided to get those gifts. So even on a smaller budget, someone might be able to kind of apply some of the process that you've used for this.
Lauren Miles (28:47.352)
So I think just spending time getting to know them, first of all. Of course Cindy's sixty years old. She's a grandmother of four, almost six, and Jill is twenty six. I'm not gonna gift them both the same t-shirt you know? I can't even gift either of them my freshly milled homemade bread because one Cindy makes her own and Jill is celiac. So you know, that's my favorite go to
Shauna Lynn Simon (29:10.395)
I mean I'll come to Alabama to get your bread. I mean I'll come for it, yeah.
Lauren Miles (29:15.95)
So, you know, when I gifted Cindy the MacBook Pro last summer, it was after a really excellent month that we had had, a lot of har it represented a lot of hard work, and she was lugging around this giant dinosaur of a computer in this most hideous bag, and it weighed like thirty pounds, and it had to be plugged into work. I'm like, We have got to get this woman something easier to carry around. So that was a no brainer.
You know. And I want her looking at the same apps the way that I'm looking at them, you know, when we're working together and stuff. So that was a no brainer, totally blew her away. That was very unexpected. And then this year, right around the same time as last year, we had a really successful month and we had just put in hours upon hours of procuring and sourcing and decisions and all the things. And so, you know, yeah, you can gift your people an extra whatever
on the payroll but it's gonna be taxed and it's gonna amount to a little less than you really want them to receive. And so I really try to dig a little deep. And for Cindy, I bought her a pair of Tiffany's pearls and wrote her a nice letter about what pearls mean and how what they represent, like persistence and hard work and dedication. And so that was
my gift to Cindy along with a gift card to this place that we like to shop for clothes that does like monthly subscription boxes so that she can keep her wardrobe up to date and she enjoys that. So and then for Jill, she's twenty six, you know, she's at a wedding like every other weekend. She needs a nice clutch. So I checked out the Prada website and found this hot pink that represents her personality and
Yeah. her style and got her little hot pink clutch from Prada and then a gift card to a really fancy restaurant right up the street from where she lives that she can take her parents to when they come visit or something. And just have make memories, you know.
Shauna Lynn Simon (31:13.964)
And those are incredibly thoughtful. And I think, like you said, like if you didn't know your team members the way that you do, you know, those could have been complete misses. But I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't think anyone listening to this would be like, I'll take a Prada purse. Like I don't think anyone would say no to that by any means, or to a MacBook Pro for that matter, but it does take an element of really paying attention. And like you said, I mean, like you could have just given them some money, you know, you could have given Cindy money to go and buy her own computer, but you're taking away
all of the indecision, you're taking away the research she has to do. You already know what a good computer is. You know, you've got kind of that covered. And then also to your point of like, it's not taxing. Like it's not, it's not taxed that way. It benefits both you as the employer and the employee to get the gift in that sense as opposed to just a monetary gift. So I think that's really valuable. So even like if someone doesn't necessarily have the budget to buy a product purse, like I get it. Not everyone has the budget to, you know,
gift a new computer to a team member. And of course no one's joining your team thinking, I'm gonna go join Lauren's team because I'm gonna get a free computer. Like that's not the process, I'm sure. Like it
Lauren Miles (32:21.654)
Right, but I mean, if you just pay attention to the little things that your team is talking about here and there, you know, 'cause there's always chatter or you just check their social media and you kinda climb into what they're doing on a daily basis and something that, you know, Cindy likes dressing up. She likes looking nice. And so the nice pearls just make her eyes pop, you know, and Jill with the clutch, I mean, like I said, you know, I was noticing she's always traveling and
going on these short little weekend trips to go to these rehearsal dinners and weddings, like the girl needs a really cute purse that is gonna stand out and people are gonna be like, Whoa, that's really cool, you know? so just pay attention. It doesn't have to be a a thousand dollar gift. It it really doesn't. It just if it comes from the heart, it's so much more meaningful than adding a couple hundred dollars to the payroll that month.
Shauna Lynn Simon (33:10.542)
I think that's so true. And I know another thing that we'll just touch on really briefly too, that also just helps with the culture. It helps them to feel seen, I'm sure, is that you have a bit of a structure in your compensation. And of course, I don't want to reveal what anybody's making in terms of money or salaries or anything like that, but there is an incentivized element to it, that they've got a little bit of skin in the game, that they want you to have a good month because the better month that you have and the better quarter that you have, the more they get out of it.
Of above and beyond these gifts. Like these gifts are extras that are not a part of their compensation structure. These are just extras on top of that. But you give them the opportunity to have a little bit of skin in the game as well, which helps them to improve efficiencies and concentrate on the profit that the company's making and be more invested in that, as opposed to saying, like, no, no, like let's cut our price so we get this job. They're saying, like, no, no, let's raise our price so that we get this job so that we all benefit in the end as well. Like they understand that they're.
I mean, I think most employees understand that the ability for the business to generate consistent and predictable revenue helps to dictate how long they get to have a job for, essentially, at the end of the day, right? Yeah. So that was a big part of I know how your culture was also developed as well. And then I kind of want to talk about the pricing element of things a little bit as well, because you had a bit of a pivotal moment around pricing. I think it was just earlier this year.
And you and I were talking the one day and you talked about how like this pricing no longer exists. And so I want to go back to like when you first started building this team and by building this team, I mean like beyond Cindy. Like Cindy, you gave her like a small amount and then moved around to salary. But when Jill came along, you were like, like I could really use a Jill, but can I afford a Jill? And part of the way that we afford and make the budget available for these employees is to ensure that we are operating a fiscally sound business.
And a big part of that comes back to our pricing strategy. And so you had a this pivotal moment one day when we were on a call and you said to me, This price no longer exists.
Lauren Miles (35:13.267)
Does not exist. The limit does not exist.
Shauna Lynn Simon (35:15.798)
It was in the rearview mirror that like this is what we used to price things at. That is just no longer the price. It's just not even a factor. It doesn't exist anymore. And I think this is something that so many people struggle with. As you grow as a business, as you grow as an individual person and whatever that zone of genius you're in. In your case, it's interior design. For someone else, it might be, you know, photography or real estate or whatever that zone of genius looks like. When you
continue to grow your own skills, you start to identify what your worth is that much more. But the mistake that I think a lot of people often make is especially with previous clients, like, well, this client used to have this pricing. And so I'm going to honor that pricing from five years ago that no longer reflects my value, but because I feel obligated in some way to accommodate that client or that their budget or whatever. But you know your value and you don't look in the rear view mirror at what things used to be like this is where I'm at right now. And this what
they're paying for me right now. Tell me a little bit about that moment where you're like, that this that price no longer exists. Like it just no longer exists. It doesn't, it's I can't give it to you because it doesn't exist.
Lauren Miles (36:21.366)
Right. I mean, first of all, I'm just glad I had an expiration date on the fee proposal. Right. And I think that if there's designers listening and that don't do that, do that. Like on page one, this expires on give them three weeks, okay? Give two weeks.
Shauna Lynn Simon (36:37.633)
Give them a week, whatever. Yeah.
Lauren Miles (36:39.778)
But when I started looking at the old fee because they circled back around, you know, everyone knows like new construction often there's pauses and there's holdups, there's permits, and there's utilities that you might have to run and all that takes way longer than anybody ever thinks it's gonna take when you start the process. And that's what happened in this case. And so I'm looking back at the old fee proposal when they emailed that they're ready to get going and I I knew that it had expired and I
Had to have that conversation with myself and with you of okay, that sounded like a lot of money at the time a year ago. And now that is not enough money to do this particular job. Thank goodness I had an expiration date. Okay, let's rework this. And I'm gonna have to have the card conversation with the client of, listen, we are in such a different place in July 2026 than we were in August 2025.
So much growth. You know, we've got personnel now. We're capable of CAD drawings that make everything so much easier for the contractors. And that's worth something. You know, we're that much better than we were a year ago. And that has to be reflected in the price that we're giving on this project. We all have suffered from imposter syndrome and we've all had shied away from those hard conversations. And this was one of those points where I was like, I
And standing firm. I worked it through it with you and we gave them some options because your idea was to either scale back on the scope somehow to get them where they needed to be. That was a little closer to what the original proposal was. And that was super helpful for me because I don't know that I would have come up with that idea on my own. You know, I probably would have convinced myself to just add a few thousand here and there. Right. But
Back to the people being the most important thing. Like it's very important to me that they're happy and that they want to continue working with us because the amount of work that we had done with them previous to this, but things have changed, like my pricing. And so giving them options so that they were in control of how much they really wanted to have us help them was pretty cool. And I think they very much appreciated it. And it kind of diffused the whole tension of well, Lauren's raised her prices by double since last year. We can't do this project.
Lauren Miles (38:56.322)
Well, no, you can do the project, it's just not gonna be to the extent that you thought it was gonna be.
Shauna Lynn Simon (39:02.358)
Well one thing that that does, yeah. And I you know, I've talked about this often about having some sort of tiered pricing, especially when you know that the client is on a budget. Their budget doesn't necessarily dictate how much you charge for your services, but their budget can dictate what they can get for that amount of money. And in my experience, one of the things that I found with clients is that their budget can often change when they're presented with multiple options. Like, you don't have
the budget up here, okay, well, based on this budget, here's what I can do for you. And when they see what the different scopes look like, sometimes magically the budget the budget's bigger than they thought it was.
Lauren Miles (39:38.902)
That's exactly what happened. They're spending a little more than they initially said they wanted to, but they met in the middle with me because of the support offered. They knew what level of support they needed based on what they were accustomed to. And so they increased their budget to get that level of support that they really felt like they needed from us that we provided for them on previous projects.
Shauna Lynn Simon (40:02.03)
Well, what offering multiple options does is it changes it from a simple yes or no answer that you're putting the clients into. And when you put clients in that position, what ends up happening, this is how you end up often getting pushback from your clients or negotiation tactics where they feel that there's an opportunity to suddenly negotiate things here. When you go to the table with the negotiation kind of already planned out, of like, all right, I've got three options for you or two options, depending on what type of service you're offering or what it is that you're pricing out here.
Sometimes only two options makes the most sense, but you've given them these options. So now instead of a simple yes or no, it's a which one. Right. And they get to feel more like they're in control. They get to decide based on the amount of support that they need, based on the scope that they need, based on the essentials, the must-haves versus the nice to haves. They get to choose all of that. So it's not about them trying to push you on the price as much as it is saying, like, okay, well, we can meet your price here, but this is what you get for it.
And it really does change the conversation that you end up having with your clients. But one of the things that you had to do in order for that to work was let go of the past price. And that was huge though, to just say, like that price isn't even a factor in that it no longer exists. I cannot do that work for that price and holding your value. And I know someone listening to this might also be saying, well, sure, like, you know, you've got overhead, but that's not your client's issue that you have the overhead of these extra staff or whatever.
But when you were explaining that, you weren't talking about it as, well, we've got these extra expenses, so much as look at what we added to our team to add value to our clients. And I know your business is very, very concierge focused in the sense of your goal with most of your clients is to basically eliminate pretty much all the work from them. Like, yes, they still have to make certain decisions along the way, but you are handling all the conversations, all of the deliverables, all the project management. You're taking it all on essentially.
And making sure that everyone knows what they need to do, when they need to do it, where they need to be through every step of the process. When you take that much of a load off of someone, that is worth something. So you know the worth that you bring, and you know, to your point of what you were saying, like you can't do that project for less than what you charge for that project because of what you get and because of your team. Like it's because of your team that you can offer that level of service.
Lauren Miles (42:21.762)
And it wouldn't be fair to my team either, not because of our bonus structure or anything, but it just wouldn't be fair because we're so busy. It wouldn't be fair to add to all of our plates a project that requires a certain level of support if we couldn't offer it and feel like it's gonna be profitable at the end of the day. You know, because you're heading into the project already with maybe some resentment or
wishing you had held your boundary and communicated that the prices have gone up.
Shauna Lynn Simon (42:54.178)
And I do know that there's a number of interior designers that are listening to this, but even if you're not an interior designer, I do want you to hear what we're saying here when it comes to having these boundaries on what is it you can and you cannot do. And for your team, one of the big things that I know that you you told me on our very first call, you're like, I'm not tracking my time. Like this was a big thing. Like if you are continually trading time for money, it's more difficult for you to be.
profitable in the way that you need to be. Like for you to be able to provide the level of service you provide, you need to not be counting hours and minutes for your team. You need to be able to just say to your team, go and do the work. And you need to be able to feel comfortable just going and doing the work without feeling like, how many hours did we budget for there? Five hours and we're already at four and a half hours. We only have 30 minutes left of time. Like you don't want to be focusing on that.
Lauren Miles (43:41.334)
No, I don't want any part of that. Now when we show up in person, that has really helped because we're able to take that data of however long we've been doing that and approximate how many hours we are putting into the in person stuff. But that's so much easier. Like when you're getting in your car and going to meet a client, it's easy to, you know, hit that button, right? Like we're on our way. But when you're in the creative zone.
The last thing you want to do and you get an email and go over here for two minutes and then come back for five and then go over there is keep track of that. And I know that what we charge our design fees are profitable based on me being in the know with our financials. We must be because it's working and yeah, I just don't want to keep track of my time anyway. When we're being creative.
Shauna Lynn Simon (44:20.792)
Of course, yes.
Shauna Lynn Simon (44:29.506)
Yes. And I think that's exactly what the key is by not tracking the time. I and I know most people say, like, you gotta track your time. And there are cases to be made for when it does make sense to track time. But to your point, if you're doing that for every little five minute task, you're getting out of the flow. It's not necessarily it's good data to have, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to price things on that exact way every single time because this allows you to ensure that the job just gets done. Like the focus is what's going to get this job done.
At the quality and level that modern by miles can stand behind, as opposed to just making sure that we're fitting the budget and we're spending the amount of time that we said we were going to spend on it. I think those are two very different things. And it allows your team to also feel like they are empowered to do what the work that needs to be done, as opposed to having to check in and say, like, do we have the allotment of this time? Like, does this make sense for us to do? They know what needs to be done and they get it done.
Mm-hmm. Without question. Definitely. Okay, so we covered a lot of things today and we've definitely gone a little bit further than I had planned to in terms of time, but this has been such a great conversation. I do want to talk about really briefly because you did mention about the mindset. Mindset could be a whole other thing. You've actually got an event coming up soon about Mindset and Momentum. Can you tell us a little bit about that? What's inspired it? Who it's for?
and we'll put a link in the show notes. I know it's coming up like right around the corner. So if someone might not be able to get into it in time, but I'd still love to hear a little bit about it.
Lauren Miles (45:53.57)
Yeah, so I did the first one last September. This one's coming up soon and I was in a mastermind at the time with a business coach who wasn't a design specific coach. And there were some other ladies in there doing some things with their businesses and getting women together and it just dawned on me like I could do something like that here locally for female entrepreneurs. I live in a really small town.
At that time I was starting to meet some other female business owners around, whether it was a Pilates studio or the dentist. And I thought it would be really cool to bring women together and hear speakers talk about their specific strength was and empower these women to take this back to their business, to improve their business, be more profitable maybe in their business so that they could have more time with their family, because that's really the struggle with most moms, especially like who have businesses, who run businesses, is
How can I set some boundaries so I'm not wearing 14 hats and learning how to set that up? So this year we've got some great speakers. One in particular, her specialty is sales. I never really considered myself to be in sales, but I absolutely am. So I'm really looking forward to hearing her talk. And we've got a sound bath plan. Just it's gonna be a really cool day. The room is filling up quickly. We've got about sixty women coming right now who Amazing are just from all over the southeast, really. Some from Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, of course, Alabama.
Tennessee. That sounds exciting. That sounds exciting.
Shauna Lynn Simon (47:15.384)
Wonderful. Well, yeah, we'll make sure that there's a link to that in the show notes for anyone who's interested in learning more. If there's still tickets, of course, by the time this episode is airing. So appreciate you sharing that. Okay, before we leave, if someone's listening to this episode today, I'd love for them to get like kind of the one really good final takeaway from you. What's one thing that you wish someone had told you earlier about being a business owner?
Lauren Miles (47:38.722)
That you would spend more time on the back like in the weeds solving problems than doing your actual thing. Meaning I spend about five percent of my time actually designing and ninety-five percent of my time either putting out fires or whatever. And you know, you figure it out as you go, but had someone told me that early on, maybe I would have just been more mentally prepared for that to be the case.
Shauna Lynn Simon (47:42.36)
We
Lauren Miles (48:06.122)
And also I will say this, like know what you're doing with your money, because I didn't start keeping a spreadsheet until I was two and a half years into it. Had no clue if I was being profitable. But as soon as I started putting it in a spreadsheet and keeping track of the design fees and all of that expenses, I was really able to manipulate other things in my expense line items or increasing my prices on design fees to make sure that the bottom line was black and not red.
Shauna Lynn Simon (48:32.854)
Yeah. And I think I think that's a really good point. oftentimes we'll look backwards on our money, but we also need to be looking forward on our money. What's happening today, what's happening tomorrow, what happened in the past, like all of those things, you know. I look at my money every single day. Every single day I'm in there somewhere figuring some things out. And I will say that when I stop watching my money, that's when my money stops watching me. Like it disappears.
pretty quickly. And it's a matter of like the more aware you are of it, the more you know your worth, the more you you ensure that you are filling up that pipeline when you need to fill it up. And the less you feel the pressure sales, like you're not in this feast or famine mode so much as you're being very intentional about where the money's gonna be coming from next. So that you don't feel like you're stressing about it. So I think that's much.
Lauren Miles (49:17.654)
It's much easier when someone doesn't book, when you know your status, right? When someone doesn't book with you, it's so much easier to be like, they weren't the ideal client. There'll be another one. Things are fine. We're great. It wasn't meant to be. And just move on. Whereas, like you said, feast or famine. It's like, when you don't know your financials and you get a "no."
Shauna Lynn Simon (49:27.736)
Yeah.
Shauna Lynn Simon (49:41.198)
Absolutely. Absolutely. You can decrease your prices
Lauren Miles (49:43.042)
and start doing desperate things. But, we don't wanna do that. We don't wanna do that.
Shauna Lynn Simon (49:48.706)
No, I've literally done entire episode on exactly that about like if the money didn't matter, how would you make decisions? Because it's a very different mindset. It's not that the money doesn't matter, it's not that we don't want to pay attention to it. It's that when you aren't focused, when you don't feel as though like you need the money, you make better decisions, plain and simple. So thank you so much for sharing that, Lauren. Honestly, this conversation has been a wonderful conversation. It's a great reminder of like how we lead both inside our business and in front of clients and how that matters.
more than what most people actually talk about. And the way that you've invested in your team isn't separate from your success. It is your success. It's a big part of where your success has come from. And that's something that is incredibly powerful for any women entrepreneurs to to understand and incorporate into their own businesses. So thank you so much for sharing so much real data with us today about exactly what it is to be a leader. So thank you.
Lauren Miles (50:38.03)
It was fun. Thank you so much for having me.
Shauna Lynn Simon (50:40.3)
And if you're listening to this, of course, and what we're saying today is resonating with you, I do hope that you will continue to tune in and allow us to be a part of your journey each week because it means a lot to us. And I'm sure that it means a lot to you as well to know that you've got this support in your back pocket. Of course, if you want more support, you can always reach out to us as well. And look at joining our Real Women Real Business Mastery program. This is where you get 24 calls with me in one year.
And the support that you need and the accountability that you need to really move your business forward. So if you're interested in checking that out, simply go to aboutshaunalynn.com/coachme to set up a call. And so don't forget to subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts and be sure to tune in week after week and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform because it really does help the algorithm. But as always, the best way that you can show your appreciation, not only for this show, but your support for your fellow women entrepreneurs is to share this episode.
with someone that you know needs to hear Lauren's message today. Share it with them. They're gonna be so grateful that you did. And of course I will appreciate it as well. And until next time, keep thriving.