258: Why Your Talent Isn't Enough to Build a Profitable Business with LuAnn Nigara

Are you running a business, or is your business running you? In this episode, I sit down with the powerhouse LuAnn Nigara– keynote speaker, author, and host of the top-rated podcast A Well-Designed Business. 

We dive deep into the uncomfortable truth: talent alone isn't enough to build a profitable company. LuAnn breaks down why "hustle" is often just a mask for a lack of systems– and why understanding your numbers and designing systems that allow you to become a force multiplier is the only way to move from surviving to thriving. 

Whether you're an interior designer or an entrepreneur feeling stuck in the daily grind, this conversation will shift your perspective on what it really takes to scale. 

Here's what we'll get into: 

00:00 – Why Your Business Feels Like It Owns You 

04:28 – From Cold Podcast Pitch To Friendship 

05:44 – High Point Market: Disneyland for Designers 

10:57 – "I Was Just the Sales Person" 

13:22 – The E-Myth Wake-Up Call 

16:35 – "Hustle Without Systems Is Just Chaos" 

22:48 – The Two Numbers That Determine Profitability 

25:16 – "Who Else Can Do This?" 

29:13 – When Profit Meets Passion 

34:43 – You Have to Believe It's Your Right 

40:52 – Resilience, Baseball Coaches & Fire Horses 

48:09 – Your One System to Simplify This Week 

To learn more about LuAnn and keep up with her work, visit her website and connect with her on Instagram: https://luannnigara.com/   / luannnigara   

For more from Andrea on systems, watch this STB episode next:    • Four Systems That Let You Step Away and St...   

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Read the transcript 
When was the last time you felt like your business was truly running itself? Not because you disappeared for a week

and went to Hawaii and hoped for the best while you were gone, but because the systems you put in place actually

worked without you hovering, without you micromanaging, without you being the bottleneck.

Here's what I've noticed. Most of us think we need bigger clients, better

marketing, or more hours in the day. Well, we do need all of that. But what

we actually need better systems. And I'm not talking about software, although I

have some episodes on that which we'll link in the show notes. I'm talking about the way you design your business

to operate. The structures that either create ease or create chaos. Because

here's the truth. You can have the best offers, the best intentions, and the

best work ethic in the world. But if your business doesn't have systems that

support how you actually want to live, you're not building a business. You're

building a job that owns you. And the irony, most of us resist systems because

we think they'll box us in. We think structure means rigidity, that processes

kill creativity, that automation makes things feel impersonal.

But I'm going to argue the opposite is true. The right systems don't trap you.

They actually free you. They create space for the work that matters. They

protect your energy. They allow your business to scale without you having to

hustle harder. And today I'm talking to someone who lives and breathes this

philosophy. someone who's built her entire mission around helping entrepreneurs, specifically interior

designers, design businesses that are as profitable as they are sustainable.

LuAnn Nigara is an entrepreneur, podcast host, and keynote speaker who spent

years in the trenches with creative business owners. She's a partner in Window Works, a custom window treatment

company, and co-founded Exciting Windows, a membership group for window treatment pros. But where LuAnn lights

up, teaching entrepreneurs how to think bigger, price with confidence, and

design systems that create freedom instead of chaos. She's the host of a

well-designed business, one of the top podcasts in the interior design world

with over 8 million downloads. And her newest show, Window Treatments for

Profit, dives deep into the business side of the industry. LuAnn also writes

monthly for AD Pro and Window Fashion Vision magazine. She serves on the board

of the Window Coverings Association of America and runs her own coaching and education company where she helps

entrepreneurs grow their confidence, their skills, and their profits without burning out. She is all about

sustainable growth, smart systems, and building businesses that don't require

you to be everything everywhere all the time. I've been on her podcast twice

talking about worth, thinking bigger, and about what it really takes to grow.

She moderated a panel I was on and sponsored at High Point Fall Market in 2025. And I've also had the opportunity

to be a guest expert at her Power Talk Friday events twice. But today,

we're flipping the mic because if you've ever felt like your business is running you instead of the other way around, if

you've ever wondered how to build something that doesn't drain you, or if you've ever thought there has to be a

lighter and easier way to do this, this conversation is for you. I'm Andrea

Liebross and welcome back to She Thinks Big.

All right. So, should we just get into it? What do you think? I'm just going to follow your lead. You

know what I mean? When you tell me it's done, I'll be like, "Okay, I guess I'll shut up now." It's done. All right. How do we know

each other? Did Did you I applied to be I was gonna say I think you applied and

we hit it off. But did you find me or you were hire you had hired an interview

like a podcasting company? No, I I at that point I had never hired a podcast company. Um I found you

because I started to have more clients in the interior design space and I

thought to myself, who who's out there? or who are they listening to?

I mean, maybe even my clients told me to go listen. So, that's that's probably what I did. And I remember I your

application I had to include statistics or data or something like that at that

point. This is like I bet it was in 2021. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Then I was on a second time after I

published my book. Yeah. And then we met in Dallas at Power Talk Friday in Dallas and that was maybe

in 2024. Four. Yep. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And then we just got to see each other

again. Yeah. Yeah. A couple times, right? Yes. Yes. So, um audience, we were at um

high high point market in October 2025 together and I um again had the

privilege of being an expert at Power Talk Friday there and then we did a panel together. LuAnn was the moderator.

Awesome. Yeah. So, High Point Market is like Disneyland Front Interior Designers. Roughly

anywhere from 80 to 110,000 designers from across the globe will descend for a

week in the fall and the week in the spring at High Point, North Carolina, which is basically the furniture capital

of US. And um there are basically one week of visiting showrooms, sit testing

product, learning about new product and people like myself and Andrea put on educational panels, discussions,

presentations for the interior designer to get tactical knowledge about their craft as far as um how to run their

business and trends and things that are happening while they're also learning and learning about the resources and the

different furniture lines and the different brands and the price points. And um it's it's like Disneyland for

designers. I mean, so many of them been coming for years, staying in the same Airbnbs with the same designer buddies.

Um the city rolls out the red carpet. Um you know, there's go rides all over for

free. There's shuttles to and from airports for free. There's shuttles back and forth every day to hotels from 20,

30, 40 minutes away for free. Everything is geared towards making it great

experience so that people want to come. It's um it's a very really cool thing. There's other markets. There's Las Vegas

market that happens twice a year. There's Dallas markets happening this week. Atlanta's market happens. But High

Point is the biggie. You know, it's not a regional market. It was It was the first time I had been to it and it was Disneyland is a great

analogy. A great analogy. And I couldn't believe too the um

how they made everything so accessible. Yeah. Right. I mean they they go out of their way to try to make it all very easy.

Food at every stop, champagne, drinks, cocktails. The thing about it is what's funny is Andrea, it's changed um even in

the last 10 years that I've been going. And the change started probably about 15 years ago. And I wouldn't I'm not the

authority on that but I do know if you go back 25-30 years literally it was

buyers for like Huffman Cove Safia like it was a very male dominated

um buyers market. I'm coming in and I'm going to buy millions of dollars worth of furniture 10 million on inventory for

bedding and dining rooms and stuff. And over the last 10 to 15 years, it that

all still happens. We don't see it though. What we just see is all the designers running around. We're on the

street. Hi, how are you? Come to my panel. You know what I mean? And now they've got the bands. Did you go to the

band on Sunday night? I mean, like, it's crazy the entertainment they have there.

So it's really in the last 10 to 15 years skewed to include the segment of

the decor industry which is the interior designer which even if a designer is

doing five million a year is considered a small business for that market because

until that point they are accustomed people walking in and spending millions on purchase orders. You know what I

mean? So, um, making a space for a designer who, you know, isn't even going

to be able to do opening minimums of $20,000 of $50,000, which a lot of the

companies have, but will then go and order them through design trade services or something else, but they get to see

it, feel, and touch it and learn the product before they go and order it online through a third party because

they don't have enough buying power to order direct, you know. Yes, that was what I I was noticing that too. It was a lot of sort of

pre-shopping, pre-decision making, not actually deciding right then

and there, but Right. It's like fact. Fact gathering. Yes. Let's get the info now and then go home and make the

decision later. It's like Christmas shopping in September. You're not really buying anything yet. You're just like walking

around going, "What would Susie like? What would Billy like? What would Sally like? Maybe I have to remember this for

that one." You know what I mean? And that's what they do. So, it was fun because LuAnn and I were there not to do

that necessarily, but to but to help educate um the the attendees. And that's

like a that's a whole other portion or part of this market. Oh, there's just educational programming that's happening from 9:00 in the

morning till 6 o' 6:00 at night every day constantly like for what four straight day? Four, four or five days.

Yeah, you pretty much the programming goes Friday to Tuesday’ish. some things on Wednesday, but the core of it is

Saturday, Sunday, Monday, but there are the bank days of Friday and Tuesday. All right. So, tell my listeners, what are

you doing, Lan? You have so many things going on. If someone said, "Write my bio." I mean, I could write the I could

figure it out, but what how would you describe what you do? I teach interior designers and window

treatment professionals how to be profitable. And that happens in simple as that

multiple ways. But that's the core of what I do every day. It's like let's figure out how the thing that you have a

passion for, you make money, fulfill your dreams,

make a lifestyle for yourself. Sit at the end of that journey and think to yourself, I did a good job. I did what I

wanted to do. Whether that was I wanted to build a team of 20 or I wanted to stay solo but I wanted to bring an

income into my my family my myself my family it's but at the core of is I help

you make money I that's period period and a discussion but then I could do it through books and podcasting and

speaking and power talk Friday and Lan University and Bitboarding for creatives and a thousand different ways but that's

what I get up in the morning I'm like how are we going to teach them to make money today you know all right so all right so what makes you qualified to

teach someone how to do that. Tell us a little bit about like the backstory. So, Vinnie and I started Window Works in

1982. Okay. Um Vinnie, it was his third business. He's 15 years

older than me. He's got a degree in um accounting and a master's in business.

And so, he comes into it fully formed, right? Like, I know how to make money. I know how to run a business. All the

things. Me, I'm a salesperson. I've been studying sales since I'm 10 years old. It's not a I'm not exaggerating. Been

reading books on sales and how to do it and all the things. It's like it's what I like to do. I was always interested in

it all through my young years. It was just the thing that that lit me up. So when I come into Window Works with

Vinnie and we do this, I am released in the sales lane. Vinnie manages the business. He does all decisions. I just

sell. I drive I drive sales and that's that. And what I know is over the course

of doing business with him side by side, there was a point probably between five and 10 years where I started to pay

attention to how he was running the business and the reasons for decisions.

Before then, I was a passenger. I wasn't when I say I was a passenger, I had real responsibility and quotas and it wasn't

easy because my husband is a son of a gun and he's very driven. Okay. But that

was all I had to worry about it. To a designer, as I love selling the way a designer loves creating beauty in a

room. So to a designer, the analogy is I get up every day and I just design. And

it's like somehow magic behind the curtain, the payroll gets done, the bills get paid, all of that stuff. But

when I started to pay attention and maybe I started to want things in the business and I thought we should do a

thing and he'd be like, "No." And I'd be like, "Why?" And then he would explain to me like, "Oh, there's a chess game happening here. I wasn't aware of that.

I thought we just sell stuff and keep it rolling." And so I'm very much like many

of the interior designers that I've met over the years where it's very typical for most businesses

for the owner to be the operator and to them it's it's the it's the premise of

the E-Myth book. When I read that book, I was like, "Oh my god, that's us." Right? It's like you're very good at

your craft and because you're good at it, you create sales and you create revenue and you quote unquote create a

business. But until you pay attention to operations and you pay attention to finance and you pay attention to

marketing, you're not really running a business. You're doing what you do. And

maybe you're really good at it. So it looks like it's happening. But that was

when I started to realize, you know, when I when I came to do the podcast, I was like, designers, I was like them.

Like if I didn't have Vinnie next to me, if I wasn't next to Vinnie

around five to seven years, I would have been like, what the actual why is this

so hard? Why do I make every sale? why do I make good profit but I don't understand what's happening with the

money or I don't understand why I can't buy a building yet or I don't because I wasn't in tune to that. So I had a huge

leg up by being able to do my passion to have it be rewarded because it we

brought in sales but then the safety net of learning it watching and doing and

not making a decision and making a mistake and then costing us our business. And so then I couple that for

me it's that particular compassion that I understand that the business side

isn't always the first thing we think of. But you can't do it for any length

of period of time if you don't lock that down. And it's not easy when it's not

your inclination. It's not easy when you're creative. It's not easy when you're right brain. But you know you can

do hard things like we tell the kindergarteners. You can Yes. Yeah. So you So I think that's such

a good observation. I see this with my clients too. Yes. They're passionate about what they're doing, but that only

lasts so long, so to speak, right? In order your business cannot survive based on passion alone or or honestly a skill

set that is just in your lane. like you you you you can stay in your lane if you

want to, but then you've got to have these supporting pieces or you've got to

stay in your lane and learn the supporting pieces so that then you can figure out who's going to do them. Exactly.

Right. I mean, it's kind of one or the other. So, okay. So, you and I have a a shared love, I'll call it, for systems. So,

making this all happen, I guess, is a good way to think about it. You can't just reinvent the wheel every morning.

What's the difference really then between hustling and having systems that actually work for you?

Hustling to your point, Andrea, is reinventing the wheel every day. It's like, okay, I've got grit. I've got

stamina. I've got smarts. I've got brains. I've got ability. I'm just going to dig it out every day. And a system is

I've got all that, but I'm going to spend the time to build it so that every day I can do a percentage less because

the system is relying. I mean, it's so funny because over the break, I spent

eight hours, one day, literally head down creating a highly evolved, highly

um detailed special GBT. Yes. You could you could have been there for 18 hours, too.

It took me eight hours to do and I just piece by piece built it, you

know, it was like and whatever the point is. And Vinnie two or three times during

the day, he's like, "What the heck are you doing?" And I'm like, "I'm building a GBT." And he's like, "How in the world

is that worth your eight hours?" I'm like, "Do you understand? This eight hours I spend will

exponentially save me trillions of hours in the next year

because now it's all there." And I'm going to tell you, it's it's the same

with any system in your business. It it's hard to do it. It doesn't feel necessarily intuitive. You put it off

because you can manage your business and run it without doing it. And it's hard to stop time to do it. And not every

system takes you eight hours to build for crying out loud. But and sometimes you pay somebody to build it. Just, you

know, we have doz dozens of people in our industry that will do a done for you system. You pour it all out into their

brain and then they come back to you with the system. I don't care how you get it. But hustle for the sake of

hustle. Look, you got all your systems in place. You add a little hustle to it. That's a successful s recipe. But hustle

without a system, hustle for the sake of hustle, that's just chaos. Oh, that's interesting. If you have the

systems and you add a little hustle, if you got hustle and no systems, not so good. That's it.

Not so good. So what what are the systems in your businesses that you feel

are just essential? Like where have you seen what's something that you've put into place that you've seen a huge

difference from? Have you started using this chat this GBT that you built? Oh my god, it's the output is so much

different. It's I have been you know it's funny because I got some notification from GPT. I don't know how

I got it but that I started in January of 2022 and I think it came out like in

November or December of 21. I had no idea it was brand new. I am an early adopter though. I hear see new thing and

I'm like, "Hey, let's try that. How can we make that work?" Right? But what I found out in the last four months, so by

October of 25, I was like, "Oh my god, it's like I was riding a bike sideways

instead of straight." I was like, "I have been I found out the way I was

using it, I thought was good. I felt like it was getting better and better. I felt like my outputs were good, but I

still had so much judging to do on everything. And then I became of

whatever came across my thing. And I think one day I just sat down and I was like, "This is how I use you. Is this

how I'm supposed to use you?" And it was like, "Well, not really." And I was like, "Whoa." And so that's when I

started to go back and rebuild my GBTs. Gpts. And the point of it is is that

every system in our business is always going to be tweaked. It's always And so

Yes. Yeah. Why do people think that they're never going to change and they have to get it all right the first time? I mean,

no, no, no, no. It's Yeah. So, every area of my business, all of the

businesses are systemized. There's no question. There's a system for every part. Now, does every system what I say,

hey, that's an A+ system and it's fail safe. No, they're living breathing

businesses. You know, all three of the businesses are living breathing businesses and as people are added and

new initiatives come on, but it's the always taking the time to reassess and

to like it's a normal thing, especially at Window Works. Window Works is a big business. I don't own it any longer.

sold to my son-in-law and my daughter three years ago, but I'm still there um in some capacity, certain roles over

there. And in that business, 17 18 employees, five million, almost five

million in revenue every year, tons, you know, hundreds of customers a month that we interact with that business. It is so

typical during a team meeting for me to say, "Okay, somebody has to go to the SOPs and rewrite the process now. Now

that we've got a second showroom coordinator, we're changing the process." or in a team meeting, the same

problem keeps coming up and I'll be like, "Guys, I I mean, I only come to two out of four team meetings a month,

and this is like this is a problem we've been talking about for two months. Like, when are we going to change this process?" Like, something has to be

addressed. So, it's just it's not expecting perfection, but it's also understanding be aware every day what

needs an improvement. A little tweak is so much better than just ignoring. I also think noticing how can you make

this simpler, right? So simplifying things without sacrificing the output at the end is

something that you need to continue to look at. I think that's something I've

noticed too is we tend to develop systems that are way too intricate so

that they're not necessarily repeatable. Right. Right. Right. And that's where you run into the whole like, oh, this is a special case.

Well, and that's funny that you say that. That's funny that you say that because when I have my five chairman of

the board coaching clients a year, I only take five. They're one-on-one for the whole year separately, not together.

And when they either have no systems or have some systems or whatever the the

situation is, I can't tell you how many times we have a conversation about, okay, we need to

have a system around this thing, one slice of the business, and then we'll come back to the next coaching session. I'm like, how's it going with that

system? I'm like, I don't know. I tried I started it's just so complicated because I have to say if this then that

and if that then this and I'm like and years ago with one particular coaching client I noticed that the magic was

saying you're building a sess a system for 80% of the time the 20% of oh but

what if when the contractor does that or the client does this or the vendor we don't worry about that because that's

20% of the time and you will in real time manage and do that just build it

for the 80% of the time that it goes like it does for 80% of all of your clients. And that's very freeing because

when you go to create a system, if you try and plan for every contingency, it's like if you were going to somebody

going to make, you know, say you're going to make chicken catchuri, right? And it's like, oh, I don't have any

mushrooms. Oh my god. No, how about you just make it without mushrooms? It's

fine. Add more onions. It'll be fine. Add some peppers in there. Nobody will

know. You know what I mean? It's like just keep it rolling. Don't get bogged down. It

I think it's interesting, too. It's like structure paradoxically creates more freedom, not

less. But if you get into if you make things complex like it must have mushrooms, then you're just not going to get to make the chicken catchori.

That's right. Then you have all the other ingredients that would make a perfectly wonderful dish, but you don't eat it because you're stuck on that

thing. And I guess if we think about recipes, that's probably how all these new recipes develop because they've got

freedom to add new ingredients or change things up, right? And if they didn't, then we wouldn't have these new recipes.

I mean, I don't know, right?

Um All right. Tell me your thoughts on delegation. I mean, this is like a whole

topic in and of itself, but it does apply to systems. I mean, oh, 100%. Yeah.

Yeah. Have you found you any masterful words on delegation? I talk about a lot

like Nike, just do it. Like, yes. Literally, literally, literally, almost

every day, like I say to a chairman of the board client, I say to somebody on my team, I say to the people that I I uh

coach at EW, who else can do this for you? Who else can do like who else can

get this done? Like, I don't do anything if I don't first ask myself, who else

can do this? And it's the thing about it is is it's listen I get up every day

excited to go to work. I'm not like who else can do this so I can stay home and watch TV. It's like who else can do this

so I can do something no one else can do in my world. And you will be surprised.

You It is like it's it's like our grandkids were doing a plank contest

yesterday and stand there trying to like hold I didn't do it with them. I it was just the kids. Oh, I want to see you do

it. But the thing is it's like the thing about it is is it's that you you want to

get down and you want to think to yourself, yeah, I can do this thing, but

if I get somebody else to do it, then I can do something else. And so,

just like a plank, you're going to do it 10 seconds one day, 25 seconds another day. One day, you're going to get to a

minute. It's not the first day. You're not going to hold a plank for a minute or for four minutes or for five. But and

so when if I say to you, start asking yourself who else can do it. If you genuinely ask yourself that today, you

will forget it tomorrow and you will start doing crap that only you could do. You got to put it on your computer. You

got to put it on your mirror. You got to train that muscle to say, "Who else can

do it?" Because the more you can get other people to do things for you, the

more your business can grow and the more you can pour into your clients the magic

that's only yours. And the other thing that I love about the byproduct of this is I can't tell you the number of times

where I've said, "Okay, who else can do this?" And I'm like, "Well, all right, this person isn't going to be able to do

it as good as I am, but like high level. Does it need to be done as good as me?" All right, Lyn, let that person do it.

And then I'm like, oh my god, you did it better than me. Like,

oh, I never would have known that if I hadn't had the open-mindedness to ask

you to do something that I've never asked you to do before. And I have found I mean Marali and Diana in my business.

My god, it's just like the the things that I have learned that they are way

better at than me that I previously thought, oh, I have to be the one to do it. No. No. There's no

no. And I think there's something to be able if you want to talk about systems and delegation, you've got to train

yourself as the delegator to share with them the vision. If you want if you want to move to a

higher level of delegation and not a toddler level where you're telling them to sit down, tie your shoe, put your shoe on, tie it, get up, right?

Then you've you've got to really share that vision. And I think that's sometimes where people get tripped up because they don't even know what they

quote unquote want. They they'll say, but that's you know enough. You know enough. Yes. Yes. I'll say this is the outcome

I'm looking for or this is the result or this is what I'm hoping to achieve or blah blah blah. And I think it would

happen this way, but I'm asking you to do it. Maybe you're going to get there a

different way, but let go see what you come up with. And then we and you don't let them like run a muck and do it 20

times and find out they've been doing it wrong 20 times. You do it once or twice and you check it, you know, and then you

tweak it together, you know. Yes. 100%. Yeah. Because you can't you if you check in enough but not too much,

then they're going to keep perfecting that. And then I think in the end it is a timesaver. Okay. So if we're talking

about systems delegation and you're all about profitability, what do you what are some tried and

trueue systems that you swear by for profitability? What what do you need to

be looking at? I know we could spend three weeks on this, but like if you were to say to someone, these are the

two things that you need to keep your eye on in order to remain profitable. What do what would you say to that one?

Well, look, there's an answer from an accounting standpoint like you got to look at your P&L, you gota look at,

right? But I think before that is before that, let's go before that is you have to I think you do have to

know your non-negotiable cost to be open number. What does it cost to run your business, right? So your your tech

stack, you know, if you've got subscriptions to my doma studio or you've got, you know, whatever your, you

know, ClickUp chat GPT, whatever your tech stack is, you you know, Vinnie and

I were just going through my final P&L and he looked at me and he's like, you have $14,000

in technology and he's like, how is that possible? I'm like, oh no, sir. I have more. I just did mine.

I Yeah, I literally just did this this morning. And I said to him, I said, "No, sir, that that I said," listen, every

January, Mari, my executive assistant, has to go through the entire tech stack.

She has to verify, "Are we still using it? Do we still need it?" Because like we'll find out like we were paying for

hopp copy and none of us used it for four months. So at least once a year, she's got to look at everyone and blah

blah blah. I said, "But with without the January audit, I'm telling you that's a

good number, right? But that's for the year, not for the month, right? But the point is, what is your cost to be open

number? Do you have a studio? Do you have a car that you're paying for? Do you have insuranceances that you're paying for? Do you have like IDS

subscription you're paying for? What's your cost to be open number? Because if you don't even know that it costs you

$3,000 a month to be open or $35,000 or like in the case like big businesses

like Windows works, $200, $300,000 a month. What What are you getting up to do today? And what I like with a smaller

business, you know, businesses that are under a million, like if your cost to be open number is say a lot of business is

like 3500, like if you're working out of your own home, it could be that or less. Um, which is a legitimate thing to do,

right? Um, now when you haven't had like a sale or an inquiry, like my brain is

like, I gotta make 3500 a month. That's what I got to do. After that, it's gravy. So, you know what? Let's just put

the positive spin on. Let's get back into sales mode because that is what I know as a salesperson. It is so much you

are so much more effective if you're in positive sales space, not in I need

money space. I'm here. I'm here. I'm giving you a proposal for design fees.

It's $25,000. Oh, it's too much money. You thought it was going to be less. I don't know what to tell you. Right? But the person who

is needing to make money will negotiate with themselves. The person who's in sales mode is like, "This is what I'm

worth. This is a good fair price for this design fee, and that's how much it's going to be." But in the back of

your mind, if you know you already cut your cost to be open number, you you're more likely to stand firm. Whereas, if

you have no idea what it is, you're just like, "I need a sale. I need a sale." And of course, designers say, "I I want a proposal." They don't realize always

they they're coming better to know but they're salespeople. So I would you need to know your cost to be open number and

then this the other thing for profitability is you do have to do the autopsy on every project. I I mean I've

said this from the beginning at the end of every project you must go through and

figure out your exact net dollar earned period because I have worked with

designers that you know they love kitchen renovations and they also I

don't know some some maybe they don't like to do furnishing projects they would rather do hardcapes and stuff like

that but when we do the analysis we're Like you make on average 25% more profit

every time you do a furniture project than when you do a kitchen reno. So how

much do you love those kitchen renos again? Like and okay, you love it. It feeds your soul. So why don't we do

three a year, but let's make sure we get five furniture projects a year. And so

that's the thing because the accountant's going to look at the hard numbers, but I like us to look at what

actually earns us money at what level of profitability compared with what's the kind of work I like to do. Because if

you only stick to the type of work that's the most profitable, but you pull away from the work you enjoy the most,

I'm sorry, that's a job. That's not an entrepreneurial journey. That's I'm

paying. I'm showing up. I'm doing the thing for the man. I'm coming home at the end of the night pissy and crappy

because I'm not doing what I love. You know, you could do that for somebody else and not have all this on your head.

So, to me, if I can get you to a place where you're doing what you love and

you're making money at it, but we can't do that if we don't know what projects

how what kinds of money you make on what kinds of projects. You got to know, right? You got to know. So what do you

Okay. So you know I talk a lot about belief, right? You know you know that. So what what do you what's a what do you

think you have to believe or what's a belief system that supports you running

a profitable business that you love? I mean have have you have you gotten into that at all? Because I think some people

don't believe that it's necessarily possible. They think they have to work for the man or they're a little

delusional in what they believe. I mean where do you I just have to I my simple feeling on it

is you have to know in your core and you have to believe that it is your right to do it that you are in business you have

the risk on your head you have a talent and a skill that even though there's 80,000 interior designers in the US

alone no one has the talent and skill that you have it's not a better or worse

evaluation it's a unique talent and skill to each person. And when you

believe and know that you have that and then you match that with good business

skills, it all works together. And it just it's it's it's when you don't

one of the things over the years that I've learned through the various conversations with designers and I think

it's changing like it's 10 years that I've been having these conversations on the podcast and I do think it's changing

a lot now but very much in the beginning it was

like a surprise to a designer that what they can put together in a room isn't

easy for anybody else because they hang with designers, their colleagues are

designers, they go to designer events, they go to beautiful places like High Point where everything is magnificent.

Their entire worlds aesthetically are gorgeous. And so there is this little

tiny disconnect because they don't hang out with regular

mortals like us that they forget that they have a thing that the rest of us

don't have. You know what I mean? It's funny because it's like I've been recently watching

Grey's Anatomy reruns and you know like back in the day the way they talked about like Derek Shepard

world and then as the later years went on it's like well you're Meredith Gray, you've won a Harper Avery or a Katherine

Fox award. It's like those people those professions they get so much outward

recognition that you are the man. You are the person. And I think designers

because design has been in their blood since they're little kids, moving their furniture around, going with their mom to the store to pick out the pretty crap

that it comes easy to them. So they forget how ridiculously talented they

are. And if you can can you like Michael Jordan never forgets that he's Michael

Jordan. like the man, you know, when he was playing, he never walked onto a basketball court

and thought everybody here has, you know, talent like me. Everybody this I

don't know if I should charge that much because, you know, we all could hit the basket, you know, all throw the ball into the basket.

But no, he was like, I am the dude. I I am amazing at this. And every single

designer should walk around thinking that because I promise you as good as you know I've spent 40 years in the

industry as well as I could attempt to put a room together it's like a tenth of what a designer could do like and just

because like if we go back to Meredith Gray just because she went to through all those years of schooling and

residency like that sometimes I think people think that's what equates to the worth

and when you're a designer you might not have gone through eight years of schooling But that doesn't mean that

you're any less worthy, right, of whatever you're charging.

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I I don't care if you're so brand new at design and so

entry level and so just working on your skill set that the only thing you're going to capable of doing right now is

selling a paint consultation for $350. I'm going to come in, Mrs. Smith. I'm going to bring my paint deck. I'm going

to pick all your paints. you understand the difference between that and what like you know Corey Damon Jenkins is

going to do for a client. So the designer thinks, "Oh, it's not a big deal. I'm picking paint colors." But the

client could also go into the box store, go get the paint deck, and do it

themselves. But there is a skill set involved. I don't care how entrylevel it

is. And so when you have that belief that what I do is different, it's

unique, it's valuable, it's worthwhile, it's wanted,

then everything else then you realize, oh, and because I have that amazing

talent, technique, and it's valuable and worthwhile. I have to honor it by creating good financial systems. I have

to honor it by creating good, you know, client management systems. I have to honor it by creating good employee

management systems because that talent is the queen bee. That talent has to be out there and all these other things

have to happen so that talent could be out there because if I just bring the talent alone, no matter how much I

believe in it, I'm not going to last long enough. To your point, it's not sustainable. Right. Right. That's true. Like, but you

have to honor I love that how you put that. You have to honor that talent by having all of these other things in

place. Otherwise, the talent actually loses its um

vitality first of all and feasibility. Yes. It's wasted. It's wasted because you

can't manage to keep the business going long enough to get to the point where you really are seeing the external

validation of the world with the magazines and the, you know, the the bigger projects and all of that stuff.

So true. So true. All right, this has been awesome. To wrap up, I want to ask you a couple rapidfire questions. You

ready? Yeah. All right. Okay. Um, what's one thing you think every

entrepreneur needs to practice every day? I think resilience. I think that's

number one thing, resilience. It's um the last couple of business years have been up and down. some businesses, you

know, some businesses, you know, at Exciting Windows, we oversee 82 businesses and we are kneedeep and privy

to their P&Ls and their profit margins and everything. And it's crazy. There's so many that had their best year ever

and others that had less than last year. So, it's been difficult. And the thing

for me is with designers that I've talked to with live events where they've said to me,

"Oh, it's hard. It's this and that." And I'm like, "How many years are you in business?" 05, 07. I'm like, "Sweetie, you're just getting your teeth kicked

in. Come on." Like, stand back up again. Like, it's not all easy every day. You know what I mean? Like, it's hard. You

know, like, you want some more stories? Sit down. Tell you the times where I almost didn't get up again. But that's

the thing. I think if you practice resilience every day, which means showing up when it feels scary, showing

up when you feel like you screwed up something, showing up when you know you screwed up and you dropped the ball and

the whole thing blew up in your face and you know darn well it's because you didn't create a system, but you stand up every day, stand up again and today

create the system. So I think I think the resilience has got to be the number one characteristic you got to show up

with every day. I love that. All right. And if you were starting over in 2026, starting all over

again, what would you do differently? I don't know that I would do anything

differently, Andrea. Oh, I I mean, see, for me, when I when you ask when

you ask me personally, right? Like, okay, so so here's the thing. If it's

not me personally, I've had situations where I've had people say to me, "Oh,

I'm thinking about hiring Andrea, you know, what do you think? She's been on your show before, but I'm only in

business three years, so I don't know if I'm ready yet." Or I've had people say to me, "Oh, one day I want to come to

your Power Talk Friday, but I'm only in business five years, and so I don't think I'm ready yet." So, if I didn't

have the life I had where I had a business coach next to me from day one,

I would say don't wait to hire somebody smarter than you that's been down the

road ahead of you to walk beside you on that journey. Whether it's a six-w week

program, a six-month program, a year program, because why invest

you're not hitting the ball yet? No. You put them on a team. You get them group coaching. You send them to a clinic. You

do all these things. But no, we put our life savings on the line. We open a

business and then we're like when I'm really really 5, 10, 15 years in, then

I'll hire somebody to help me run the damn thing. It's like bonkers to me. It's bonkers. It is bonkers.

I if I didn't personally hire a coach, that's the one thing I would change. Except I did, so I can't say I would

change it. Like Vinnie was the coach. He was the mentor. Yeah, you had him with all the experience, right? You got lucky.

Yeah, I did. Or you were smart. How about that? Smart is a better way to think about it. I want you smart.

That's what it is. Yes. All right. What are you most excited for in 2026?

Oh my god. It's the year of the fire horse and I feel it through me like I can't even tell you.

It's crazy. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's so crazy. So, it is so crazy. I'm like I

I I I in my entire life, I've never been aware of what year of the animal it is.

I was impressed. I was like, "Wow, Jesus." No, I've never been aware of it. said to me, "Do you think this is

something Luan pays attention to?" I would say absolutely not. Absolutely not. Right. Exactly. Right. Like I've

never and I mean maybe somebody they be oh it's the year then like whatever. I don't read about it. I don't care about

it. It's it's like the it's like people who have a word, right? Like this is my word for the year. I respect it. I have

many good friends that have it. It's not anything I've ever been called to do or have. I've never ever, except probably

when I was 12 years old, written a list of New Year's resolutions. It's like I

haven't run with any regularity since my hip was replaced five and a half years

ago. And in the second week in November, I went, "This is ridiculous. It's been

five. You have run since you were 14 years old, 13 years old. You have not run in five years. This is it." And I

put my sneaks on and I went out the door and went for a run. I'm not like, "Oh, well, in January 1, I'll start running."

You know, on Monday, I'll start running. So, I am not the person that does goal

setting like, you know, like New Year's resolution or taps into that stuff. But Andrea, I'm gonna tell you what

something came across thing about on Instagram two or three weeks ago that it was the year of the horse and it said

and specifically the fire horse and it's about momentum and its energy and its

intensity and I am all these things just regular by the way but it's like I said

to Vinnie I said to my daughters I just I just feel it in my gut. I feel it like it's a fire in my chest and I'm just

like 2026 is the year, man. We are busting this crap out. We are. I love this. I love this.

It's so crazy. And it's so funny. We just spent two weeks off practically, right, for the holiday. Yes. And at one

point I had I explained this to Vin one night over dinner and I'm like, you know, you got to And he's like he looks at me

goes, "Wait, so you're going to be even more intense than you usually are?" And I'm like, "But it's not me. It's the

fire horse. It's in me. there's it's just there, right? So then it was like a couple of days later and we were talking

and we were doing something and all of a sudden I looked at him and I he says, "Well, do you feel like you want to do that?" I'm like, "Hell yeah." He's like,

"Oh, really?" I'm like, "It's a fire horse year. We're doing it. Let's do it. We're doing it." Well, I can't wait to see what comes of

2026 and the fire. This is so fun. I'm gonna I I don't know. Maybe I should

tell my husband that, too, because sometimes he's like, "Should we? Shouldn't we?" And my usual thing is just like, "Let's go." Oh, like what are

we waiting for? But he sometimes pushes back. Now I'm just going to say nope. It's fire. We're fire horse here. We're

doing it. There's no options. No options. No options. Where should people find you? We will have all of

this in show notes though. Oh, easiest is lanannigara.com. There you'll find lan university. Pretty soon

the boardroomforcreatives.com site will be live. Um that's in Q1. But

laniggar.com you can find chairman of the board coaching. You can find the speaking engagements that I'm going to

be at. You can find Power Talk Friday and Luan University. All the things. Love it. I can't wait till I get to see

you next in real life. I don't know when that's going to be, but in real life. I love it. That's right.

Thank you so much. You're welcome. Thank you, Andrea. All right. So, here's what I want you to

take away from this conversation with LuAnn. Systems aren't about restriction. They're about freedom. 

And if 2026 is going to be different, if this is the year you finally stop

hustling and start running light, it starts with one decision. What's one

system you could simplify this week? Not overhaul, not perfect, just simplify.

Because that's how big transformation actually happens. One small simple

choice at a time. If you enjoyed today's episode, it would

mean so much to me if you took a moment to leave a review and follow the show. And if you're watching on YouTube, yes,

we are on YouTube. Hit subscribe and leave me a comment letting me know

what's the one area in your life or your business you want to start simplifying.

Thanks for listening to this episode of She Thinks Big. I'm your host, Andrea

Liebross. If you're navigating big decisions, building something real, and you're ready to stop spinning and start

leading with clarity, this is your reminder that you don't have to go it all alone. For real-time tools, straight

talk, and insight to help you think big, and run light, follow me on Instagram at

andrea.liebross.coaching. And if you're ready to make 2026 your

year, the year your life and your business get bigger than they've ever

been before, I'd love to hear from you. To book a call and learn more about working with me, head over to

andreal.com. See you next week. And in the meantime,

remember to Think Big.