PR Essentials for Interior Designers (Amy Flurry)

Welcome to the Creative Genius podcast, Amy. I’d love for you to share a little bit about your journey into the design industry. I know it wasn’t traditional. You’re not an interior designer by trade, but tell us about that.

Well, my entree is through journalism. And I was a journalist and a freelance writer for 20 years. And I wrote about so many interior designers and interior designers who had boutiques. And when I, that’s kind of my perspective. So when I decided I’m going to transition into a new season of my professional career, I wrote a book called Recipe for Press. It was in response to just how many coffees I had had with people who wanted to know

how to get press on their own, how could they make what I did happen, especially if they didn’t have the budget or were not ready yet for a publicist. So as someone on the receiving end of so many pitches, I wrote a book that was basically, is what every editor everywhere wants to tell you, but they’re not gonna tell you. These small mistakes can really mean the difference between getting published and not.

because it shows the editor that you get it. You understand how to, the reciprocation that goes back and forth when you are doing the dance of pitching a project or pitching a product. And so I wrote that book, Recipe for Press. From there, I got out into the major design centers and markets across the country, speaking to this and sharing the book. And the…

the number one audience that filled the seats were interior designers. And I took note of that. The reason being is because they have more opportunities than any other audience that I’ve come across. And also because they’re operating in beautiful imagery that everyone needs. so I wrote a second book, Recipe for Press Designer Edition in 2018. And for a decade now, now I’ve been advising interior design firms.

And that’s even expanded to advising manufacturers and showrooms on how to position their business through communications. Wow. Well, it’s a big job and for sure it has changed quite a bit over the years. And maybe you want to touch on that a little bit about how the industry has changed in terms of media, because we are now in this age of social media versus just the traditional media, which was magazines that were in print.

So do you want to chat about that a little bit and just share what you see? Yeah. worked for a number of those major publications, they meant big impact. They had big impact. you were in the pages that we were talking about before they all went online, it was very impactful to the businesses that were shared.

It meant more jobs, it meant more clients. Sometimes it was so much attention it could break websites. So they had to, these places had to start preparing people for that kind of attention and for that kind of visibility. Now what’s happened is that there is so much opportunity across so many channels that none of them are really the heavyweights anymore. I mean, they are heavyweight in title.

but they don’t impact, most of them don’t have the impact that they did 10 years ago, 15 years ago. So the idea to me is that that’s changed in video. I would say video has come onto the scene pretty quickly. My thought, even back in 2010 when I wrote my first book, is that

You need to work at this to not in fits, spurts and fits, you know, like with a consistency that you create relationships that you end up having a presence all the time across a number of different outlets. It’s not just one big happening, one big event or three big events because because you worked out it for a month and then you got tired, you know, that you

Stay with it. So you almost create this cloud effect and you know, sometimes it drools, sometimes it rains, sometimes it pours, but that’s because you’re working at it. It’s a part of your business. Right. And it is hard, especially for our industry, for you to find time because you’re so busy designing that sometimes it’s really hard to work on the marketing piece or the PR piece.

so that you’re getting out there, so that you’re getting those clients. And it’s really hard to manage all pieces of this business. Yeah, I know. Especially someone who has a product-based business. And for the first year, we did a full-on gift guide push, because that happens in July when you have a product because the editors are working six months in advance. you would think I would have gotten it.

together before now to do that for my own business. But we finally got organized. We said, we’re going to do it. And we committed to doing it. I think part of it is, and the interior designers I advise and that come to me sometimes just for a one-on-one consult, they’re not ready for a publicist, but they know they can do something. What we do together is just simplify, simplify the approach.

understanding you don’t need to know personally 100 editors. know, you need to begin to create your editor list who you are going to who these are people who are good fits for your work, whether they are regional, locally, regionally, nationally to the trade, who are these people, you know, and who makes sense to me, not who makes sense. In theory, really, you know, looking at the work that you’re doing.

and matching it to places where you see like work and beginning to create your list, really customizing your list. And when we simplify and create roadmaps, it actually works for starters. People are capable of that, but just getting started sometimes on that seems overwhelming. This can be a two hour commitment a week and it will move the needle.

if we just stay consistent like that. I agree with you. Yeah. Consistency is everything. And if people just do it and they start and then all of sudden it’s three months later and they have it, they’re just now getting back around to it. You don’t have any momentum if you’re just doing it occasionally. Right. And I get it that we have so much exposure to so much, so many names, you know, and you

might be on social media and you’re like, my gosh, there’s an editor, there’s another one. And you kind of try to grasp at this, these things, but really at the fundamentals of book one, and that was written almost 15 years ago. It, they still apply. It’s like read the publications you want to be a part of, put two together side by side. You will see there is a formula to the way those go together. Similarly,

online start to look when you see work like yours and you have that feeling like gosh that could have been me that’s a good sign but be realistic you know be realistic could it have been are are we does do your images look like they could just be replaced could replace that and belong that’s a good sign and just looking for those opportunities one shortcut to this which i always like

to share and remind us that we don’t have to start from scratch all the time. But if you have a peer or somebody that’s just in front of you who is doing well, I mean, I could rattle off so many designers that either have just helped nudge along and they’ve taken it from there, or they’ve done just a good job on their own. They have a good sense or they have a communications background or something that just gives them a little extra understanding. But if you see someone

maybe even in your region who is getting press. Look at their press page. Where are they getting press, especially regionally? Look at the bylines, those are your regional writers and editors. Start there, get to know them. Look at what they’re writing. That’s how you begin to create those, your customized editor lists. They’re kind of creating a roadmap in front of you.

if your work is really as distinctive as theirs. But every designer has their own point of view. But if you are ready, if you think you’re ready for those steps. Okay. And today, I know things have changed. We talked about that just a little bit. But in the last three to five years, we’ve seen so many shifts in the industry and what’s available and where you can put your work. So

What is different today than it was three to five years ago and what are some of the best practices? Okay. Let’s see. The fact that there are just so many opportunities. You’re not looking at just print media. You’re looking at the online version of that same title. You’re looking at their newsletters. You’re looking at designers who have

blogs or newsletters. You’re looking at custom publishing, which there’s a magazine that just comes to mind in kind. They write about interior designers and feature projects, but it’s an independent publication. Your manufacturers now have newsletters. Some of them have custom magazines, Urban Electric,

has the most beautiful magazine, Futures Designers. So that’s what I mean when I say there are so many opportunities. Gale, I have seen churches have their own magazines and feature interior designers simply because they went to that church. Your sorority national magazines. I’ve seen designers get the cover of their national soror magazine. Alumni magazines.

There is no business that escapes communications anymore. And they all need content. So when you are operating in beautiful images that can make somebody else’s publication look better usually, and it makes sense, then you’re actually very helpful to them.

Well, I found that it was, especially when I was running my design business, I just made it a point to get to know the editors and the local and regional magazines. And I was able to get featured all the time. They would come to me and maybe they might just do a quote, but at least I was constantly in the magazine. So that was really important when I was running my business and that was many years ago. And that’s what I mean by that was, it was a natural, it, it took effort to

Show up and support them. I’m sure you you did that if they were that there are opportunities to do that at design centers People we advise I say just show up and support they need people filling their seats too and They want to meet new designers That is one opportunity where editors are out from behind their seats in front of a lot of designers It’s not the time to pitch an editor, but it’s the time to say hello Thank you so much for bringing this message here. I’m I’m

excited to share something with you, you know, in the coming weeks, but it does become this organic, this, you normal relationship, especially when you are all of the things I mentioned in recipe for press. And some of those would be a quick responder because they’re often on deadline. not a crybaby. If they don’t publish you or you give them all this information and they just put a little bit of it in there, that’s

that’s still being published, you know what I mean? If you have great images to work with, there’s simple things. There are reason why, if you’re just pleasant and a pleasure to work with and actually think, is this a good quote? Am I giving good information for them to share? That’s the kind of designer editors go back to time and again because they’re on deadline.

They know you’ll respond, know, all of those things. So it really becomes natural. think one thing you said that is very important is you started with your local and regional editors. National editors often times I hear, I’m going to be in House Beautiful and El Decor. You don’t just suddenly turn up in House Beautiful and El Decor. It is a road. It is a journey to those. And they want to see that you’ve been vetted by your regional

editors and that you’re you’re in in well respected in your own On your inter this is a question that I’ve heard so many times and I want to see if this is still true Can designers put the projects that they’ve shot on their website before getting published in? especially national magazines Right. This is this is a question that the designer

needs to ask, this is not a yes or no answer, but they need to ask themselves first. How important is it for you, for the designer to be published? Or do you need that project to work harder to get clients first? Because the truth is no, the editors don’t want to see it splashed on your website and definitely, definitely not on your Instagram or social media.

They’re okay, mostly. I’ve seen designers handle it, all handle it a little differently, but some of the ways that are really smart is that maybe you put under your projects on your gallery page, you put one image, not a main full house image, but an image and you say, Smith project under press consideration, but you give a flavor. say it’s there.

and you let your clients know potentially and like the style or could I see that or you just show a very small gallery but just not main images. If you don’t have huge following on social, most of them are not going to be bothered by that and if it moves so forward and is, you know, to be, if it moves forward and it’s going to be in a major magazine, they’ll just say, could you just take that down for now? But more importantly,

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They don’t want to see it splash all over social. They will consider that published. a way to still use part of the project, so to do behind the scenes, put it on stories so it will go away. Do smaller vignettes. Just try to avoid sharing the whole, you know, doing a whole house tour if you’re trying to get published. How does an editor want to receive a pitch? In an email. Always in an email.

even if you DM them, which I would not, but sometimes that could come up casually, or sometimes they may see that story that you just posted like behind the scenes and they may DM you. That’s fine. But ultimately they’re going to say, email me the project. That’s step one. I bet you’re going to ask what does it look like? That’s a big part of step two. Sure. Well, what should the pitch include?

Okay, it’s got to be brief. The more concise, the better. And in the body of the email, I would always include maybe four to six images of the best images. So it’s not your entire catalog from that photo shoot. But basically, their eye is going to drop to the image when they open the email, and then read. So they’ll have some

flavor and they’ll kind of know if I should read it. The subject of the email should have exclusive pitch, know, slash beach New Jersey shore project, something like that. So they know what they’re receiving and that it’s just for them. And then the body of that email is

If you can get that story of the backstory into two sentences, like here’s a project and a little bit about the owners or the situation that they entered, you know, if it has a story. And then we want to know almost in bullet points, some of the major things that were done in some of the major vendors, because that might be important to them and the vendors that advertise in the magazine.

but it’s really about conciseness and getting them. And then the last question is, might you see this as a good fit for your future pages or for your 20, 25 pages or something like that that indicates you get, it takes time to place these projects. It’s not, it’s never, it’s never this though. I think this is a good fit for your pages.

There’s a difference between one of the things that hits the delete button for the editor. Yeah, yeah, that’s, that’s when you just know. It’s my you because that is the editor’s job is to process it and put together issue after issue that has their point of view. And they’re looking for things to fit into their point of view and to the

issue that they’re putting together. And that’s why I say give them that, you know, respect and acknowledgement of might this be a fit for the pages you are pulling together. Okay, great. are great. hope it’s a fit. Exactly. Is there a best day of the week to pitch? Yeah, I would always pitch on Tuesday or Wednesday morning. And same with follow up because Monday’s just lost on every, all of us.

too desperate. Friday of course is when we’re going to get the energy somehow to put together a pitch and then you’ve got it and you are so tempted to send it on Friday. I would just hold it till Tuesday morning really early. Okay. Well, and you can set it up if you’re using Gmail, you can set up to deliver on Tuesday morning at eight o’clock or whatever time. Okay. Well, one of the things that I know you have a resource for this is

How do these designers find the editors and their contacts? We do have a resource. Recipe for Press has a media list specifically for entrepreneurs and interior designers. And we put that together because after speaking at these design centers, inevitably people would come up. I mean, I think somebody even told me, can you please do this?

that’s how we got a lot of ideas, for the pitch full also, like I can’t remember when to pitch. So we created that little tool. it’s just, I was trying to create with recipe for press, the most simple tools that you could use effectively to, pitch. this media list that we’ve had going for 10 years now is a true, true labor of love. It is, 1500, names. It’s not tens of thousands of names. These are.

It’s an active list, so we’re able to update it in real time and not just do a once a year because there’s so much movement with the editors. So, you know, you and it drives, it drives my coordinator crazy. She’s like, I just put them up there and now they’re married and they’ve changed their name. So their email has changed or something like this. You know, there’s just a lot of movement, so it needs to be updated and often. And we do those line by line updates. We have a lot of

publicists who are helping us with this or who are on the ground in New York and some of the bigger cities and they share they come to us and share these are outdated now or this just happened. They have a new group of Editors because they’re using it because nobody really wants to pull together this list you try you try to put interns on it It just doesn’t work out. So we we took it on and it’s been a good tool and it’s a

annual subscription and it’s very reasonably priced at $150. So that’s one of the tools of recipe for press. It’s a great way to, that’s where you find the correct contacts, their emails, their social handles, and even in the notes, submission notes from them on how to pitch or here’s the portal that we need you to pitch or whatever they give us after we.

check in with them. So that’s one way. The other way is to you do the research, you look at the masthead, you address their social to see what is most active. Sometimes they put them there. Sometimes these are freelancers. There’s a whole section that is freelancers and that’s gold because these freelancers are writing for 15, 20 magazines at any one time.

We just do the work. It’s really about being a detective of information. Well, that’s a great service because I know that having done this myself in a very small scale in my own business has a lot of work and just finding the right people. And I never worried about the national publications because as you said earlier, I was more interested in getting work. So to me, that was important. But it was also important to have

local and regional publications because that does give you credibility. So once you get published, how do get the most out of it? That is almost to me as significant as the whole path to being published because you’ve done all the work and you’ve gotten published and you just don’t want to let it

You just don’t want it to come out and your mom congratulates you and sends you the issue and you know you’re you you do one little post and you let it sit flat. You know it’s that’s the time to make it work for you. So you want to create a little plan on how you will get this out into the world in kind of how you will drip like a little bit of a slow drip.

out into the world for people to see and to also, because it was a collaborative experience with the writers, the editors, the photographers, you want to thank them, you want to mention them, you want to put the article in your newsletters, I’m sure you encourage designers to have newsletters, you want to just be a good collaborator.

You don’t just basically you don’t just want to post it once and think You know, done because it could really go so much further you can pull out pictures and then of course tag the manufacturers that are in those images and tag the Magazine and the editor and the writer and photographers all over again every one of those But that’s what I mean kind of a slow drip and it’s really a slow drip of thank yous but I I do

see designers do it well and when it’s well done, it’s always not just about me, the designer, it’s about the whole team and giving them credit. then what happens is they share and they share and it takes some time to put together a few posts. You just want to take that time to remember who to thank and like that.

and probably you can do some videos and you can do some social media posts. There are so many different ways you can utilize that and repurpose that content. So I think that’s really important to do. And you come back to it. Sometimes you hit a little dry spell and there’s not a whole lot going on. Go back to it. Be creative about how you, just posting it once is, don’t think you’re done there. And you can really maximize it by.

by creatively thinking of how you can share and again like some video and just you know being excited about it is fun to see. All right so we’re going to switch gears and let’s talk a little bit about you personally. I know you have a textile line so tell me about that. Yeah I do after advising a number of different product-based companies as well in the interiors I had an opportunity come to me to partner

in a company, a soft furnishings and furniture company. The name is Aloka. We really started with the trade. We started at High Point and these are 80 year old quilts that were hand stitched in India. They were made of repurposed materials. They were saris originally and the families would layer them sometimes seven, eight, you know, layers deep, hand stitch them together.

80 years goes by over the years they’ve patched and these pieces have remained strong. The integrity is there because they were so well made to begin with. And we’re coming along and creatively refreshing them with all kinds of different applications ourselves to kind of make them a more modern piece that people are proud of and enjoying again today. And then also enjoying that they were repositories of stories and

makers and memories from so long ago. we, they’re, they’re fascinating pieces of material that we also upholster with and make pillows from. And they’re beautiful. I’ve seen those in your showroom at High Point Market. So for those of you that haven’t seen her line, you definitely should check it out when you’re there. And if you haven’t been to High Point, you need to go to High Point because those are places where you can find great resources that are not.

You can’t shop those. That’s right. That’s right. And we will be, we’re going to be at a brand new space this fall market, 313 space. It’s owned by Schwang, which a lot of your designers probably know and love. And it’s going to be a great opportunity to be in front of, you know, designers again, in a fresh new space there, which is always exciting because that’s what you’re looking for. Every market is like, what’s new? What’s new?

We won’t be alone. think there’ll be 40, 40 to 50 new vendors. Okay, great. I’ll have to check that out. Well, let’s talk about a couple of other personal things. I think it’s fun to touch on that. So what is your biggest life lesson you’ve learned? I think one, one is, whether this is the biggest or not, I don’t know, but one is that there are seasons for things. And sometimes we think those seasons, like one might look like failure.

When in fact, you’re transitioning into a new season or something didn’t work out, but the next season built on it. at the moment, it feel, it might feel devastating or, know, when I left journalism, it was during the recession and magazines just went upside down there. They didn’t have a plan for this was the, this was a 2008 recession. but,

But it was, was not a good time, you know, and I didn’t see a future. it’s the only thing I had ever thought I was going to be was a writer. I loved sharing stories. I loved, I could get into other people’s things as much as I could now can my own. Now I see that I was building on something that that’s me now. I have a product based company. I have the advisory. I have the knowledge and I love to share it.

in the same way that I love to share it when I was writing one by one. So that what it felt then like, wow, this is really brutal into something is now blossoming fully. That’s so great. Well, thank you for that share. And at the very end, we always like to end with three takeaways that you think you would like to highlight from what you shared with us today. Okay.

I may have forgotten to share the most important thing at the very beginning. So I’m glad I got a chance to do it. One is the why, why are we, why are we trying to get press at all? Sometimes people cannot give me an answer to that. And if you can’t, can’t, you need to think about it before you put the disheartened time on it. What do you want it to do for you when you get pressed? Because that will

direct the roadmap that you create. So for example, if you need more clients locally, then the house beautiful placement is not going to get to that. It’s the local and the regional placements. And so that makes it lot easier than to create a roadmap. If you can just tell me or tell yourself like when this is published, what do I want to happen? Then that will tell you back where you, what eyes you need to get in front of. So

I think that’s one takeaway. The second photography is still king. I see a lot of confusion, however, right now around, wow, I see everybody needs the photographer and the onus is on the interior designer. So before you really sign up for having that project photographed, I would advise get in. And if you plan for that to be published and want it to be published, I would advise to

do an editorial buyout so you know that you have the rights to share with those publications. But good photography is the difference between being published and not being published. Sometimes those publications are gonna have the budget for publishing. More often than not now, they’re gonna use the images that you bring to them.

And the third is that consistency. If you just work at this, like if you just see this as a slow build, it will, it will come. It will come. I mean, read recipe for press. So you know what not to do, how not, not to overwhelm designer, editors, what those little, little mistakes, you know, that you think you’re doing the right thing and it’s like sending all the wrong messages. No, no, those things. but that,

that consistency will end up with results. I think people just get, once that is demystified, I see people get very good results from going at it on their own and then getting to a place where they want to enlist the help of a publicist. And at that point they are good.

partners to publicist because they’re not going to get in the way of that success. They’re going to know what it takes to get press. And I think those are my three. Okay. Well, thank you very much. And thank you for being on the podcast. was a pleasure as always. It’s so much fun to hear all of your adventures. I, again, I encourage you all go to market for sure. And when you go to market, go look up Amy’s showroom and you said it was a LOCA and we’ll make sure that that’s in the show notes as well.

and go see these beautiful textiles. They are gorgeous. Thank you for all that you’re doing for this community too. have seen people just, I think blossom is a great word, but just really grow in themselves and grow in their business over the years. And it’s a tremendous resource that you and your team, you and Erin and the team offer. So I’m really proud to be here.

All right. Thank you so much, Amy. It’s great to see you as always, and we’ll see you at the market, hopefully. Yes, I hope so. Okay.