Authenticity In Online Branding On Instagram With Laura Muller

I was so happy to have Los Angeles based interior designer, product designer and the principal of the award winning design/build firm, Four Point Design Build, Laura Muller, join me as my most recent guest speaker on Meet The Members, discussing authenticity in online branding on Instagram and how it has helped her attract 9 new ideal clients for her firm.

Laura is the past president of the Los Angeles chapter of the American Society of Interior Designers, and the designer of the very successful Provenance Signature Collection of indoor/outdoor furniture for previous Savour Partnership client, Seasonal Living.

For those of you not familiar with Meet The Members, it is an exclusive opportunity for members of my Facebook Group community for interior designers, #DesignWealth, to meet my guests live on Zoom, every Saturday morning at 9:30 am CT, and ask my guests their questions.

What follows are my own top five takeaways from my/our conversation with Laura.

Top Takeaway #1: Feel The Fear…And Post It Anyway.

Laura has a fascinating personal story I won’t share here, but suffice it to say her vulnerability in sharing her personal story was great background intell for understanding why she had as much fear as she did when first considered putting her design work online, on Instagram.

Laura, a perfectionist - as many of you are, too - shared that what helped her get over her fear of what people might say or think and to just start posting was the realization she could always delete anything she shared, right after sharing it.

I loved that nugget because it’s so true, right? We often forget that anything we put up on online can be deleted, whether it’s on our website or on any social site.

We all start someplace, as Laura said, so don’t let your fear paralyze you.

Do the best you can, be 100% true to yourself and trust that, in time, you will attract followers and clients who resonate with what you share and who you are.

Top Takeaway #2: Genuine, Consistent, Supportive Engagement With Referral Sources Leads To New Clients.

Laura shared wonderful stories about how her consistent engagement on Instagram - both with referral sources and other designers - led her to 2 excellent ideal clients whom she is currently working with now.

Former Meet The Members guest, Lisa Peck, also shared that this strategy has worked well for her in gaining new clients.

[ MY NOTE: ] A key to authenticity in this is to make sure your engagement with referral sources is coming from you, and not someone else, as you might very easily meet the referral source offline one day. If you don’t remember what you said to them [ because someone else said it for you ], all of your hard work in developing that relationship can be ruined.

[ MY NOTE: ] It’s important to remember you don’t need thousands of followers to find new ideal clients. 10 key referral relationships, nurtured over time via consistent, supportive Instagram commenting, can lead to dozens of new client referrals.

Top Takeaway #3: Share Only Your Own Work On Your Feed.

Laura shared how she only posts her own design work on her Instagram feed, and never the work of others.

The only time she posts the work of others is once a week - on the weekend - in her STORIES, where she posts a carousel of images that have inspired her during the week. She tags the creator clearly.

She understands how hard it can be for newer designers who don’t have a portfolio of work yet.

Her recommendation for solving this problem of not having enough work to post was to stage a vignette or three in your own home [ or to rent a home to do this ] and to state the vignette[s] in several different ways so you have enough content to post.

She said she knows it’s a ton of work to do this in one day, but that the investment would pay off.

She also stressed how important it was to hire the best photographer you can afford for that one day staging blowout.

It was mentioned that splitting the cost of this with a home stager might be a cost effective way to do this, especially if the stager has inventory you can use and if the stager also needs to stage different types of vignettes for their own marketing purposes.

She also mentioned that she felt that reposting your own design work - cropped a bit differently or even posted the exact same way - was fine because every day you reach a new audience on Instagram and people forget what they see from one day to the next.

[My Note] Don’t worry about what other people think about posting your own work over and over again. Come up with a new story angle about that image to share in your caption that educates, entertains or inspires your audience, and people will not care if the work is the same - and your account will grow.

Here’s a screenshot of Laura’s Instagram account. As you can see, she has a distinct point of view in her design work that’s authentic to her brand’s tagline of #CleanFreshModern.

Here’s a larger image of of one of the images you’re seeing above. This is Laura’s Provenance Signature Collection of indoor/outdoor furniture for Seasonal Living, styled by Laura in her own backyard.

As you can see, it’s 100% authentic to her brand.

[MY NOTE] If you need indoor/outdoor furniture, see the link to Laura’s Provenance Signature Collection for Seasonal Living at the end of this post.

Here’s a further look at another part of Laura’s IG feed, which shows more of her design work. Laura’s REELS are a thing of beauty. Study them to see a master of authentic online branding at work.

Top Takeaway #4: Write In Your Real Voice

Laura shared that another key to authenticity is writing your captions in a way that, if people were to meet you offline and hear you speak, they would know it was the same you they were meeting.

Laura writes all of her own captions, although she said she does have someone who helps her organize her images for posting at the ideal times, based on her INSIGHTS, times that are more likely to reach her potential clients.

She always works to inspire and educate through her captions.

[ MY NOTE] Shorter captions are often touted as better by the experts, but Laura’s long captions have worked for her, because they are authentic to who she actually is…a designer who has a lot to say and who takes the time to generously share her wisdom with her audience.

Here’s an example of a caption, written by Laura. Notice her use of paragraphing, and how she creates a headline.

What do you feel when you read this caption?

[MY NOTE] For paragraphing, I either post from my desktop, which allows for paragraphing which mobile doesn’t, or I use the Caption Writer app.

Top Takeaway #5: Photography Is Key

Expressing authenticity online is about how clearly your photographer is able, through their images of your work, to communicate your vision online.

Laura stressed the importance of finding a photographer whose own work is in alignment with the way you want your vision expressed, online.

For instance, if you are about expressing your vision through subtle lighting, like Laura is, but your photographer’s portfolio is full of work with bright windows flooded with white light, then that photographer would not be the right choice for you.

But, you have to know - ahead of time - how you want your brand vision expressed visually so you can clearly communicate to your photographer the emotion you want your images to evoke when others see them.

Here’s an image of Laura’s work for her brand collaboration with DXV, the luxury division of American Standard, now Lixil. This image was featured in a past issue of Seasonal Living Magazine which my company produced for several years.

As you can see, the subtle interplay of shadow and light on white and the layering of neutrals and textures are all key features Laura expressed here, features that are authentic to all of her design work for her clients, too.

Bonus Takeaway: Love. Inspire. Educate.

Laura’s uniqueness lies in her ability and willingness to spread love wherever she posts online. She shared how important it was for her to let people know she loves them, in the most genuine ways she can, while at the same time inspiring and educating them with her images and content.

For Laura, love is the secret sauce to her authentic voice, the voice that her 12,000 + Instagram followers appreciate.

She’s had some of her images shared hundreds of times by people who love her work but more importantly, feel the love she pours out to them, every time she posts, and want to honor that by supporting her work through shares.

For Laura, who finally got over her fear of what will they think, the past several years of Instagram interactions have now led her to her ideal clients, clients who know what they are getting when they hire Four Point Design Build, because Laura’s earned their trust by being exactly the same person online as she is offline.

Thank you all for reading this long post. I hope Laura’s generous sharing has given you some nuggets that will help you grow in your own ability to be authentic in how you present yourself online.

One last note from me:

If there’s anything I’ve learned in the past 14 years of helping others with their digital marketing initiatives and the millions of online interactions I’ve had, it’s that people will genuinely only learn to trust you when your online presence matches the experience they have with your offline real world self.

Laura is the epitome, to me, of someone who has nailed this completely, and I look forward to sharing some exciting news with you …that will extend this conversation… in the near future.

Links To Laura

I invite you to follow Laura on Instagram here:

https://instagram.com/4ptdesignbuild

and to visit her website [ being newly re-launched very soon ] below. Don’t miss visiting her new SHOP when her new site launches!

https://https://fourpointdesignbuild.com/

See more beautiful images of Laura’s collection for Seasonal Living in the Summer 2022 issue of Seasonal Living Magazine here, where you will find a link inside the magazine to her entire collection.

https://issuu.com/seasonallivingmagazine/docs/seasonal_living_magazine_summer_2022

More Learning For You!

Don’t Miss These Previous *Meet The Members* Top Takeaway Posts:

Carla Aston: Monetizing Your Website or Blog For 24/7 Income

https://www.savourpartnership.com/blog/2022/6/10/an-interview-with-carla-aston-her-top-takeaways-for-you

Veronika Eagleson: Influencer Marketing

https://www.savourpartnership.com/blog/2022/6/14/5-top-takeaways-on-influencer-marketing-from-veronika-eagleson

Lisa Peck: Growing Your Instagram Following and Acquiring Your Ideal Clients

https://www.savourpartnership.com/blog/2022/6/21/lisa-peck-5-top-takeaways-on-instagram-growth-and-new-client-acquisition

Robin Baron: Product Licensing

https://www.savourpartnership.com/blog/robin-baron-5-top-takeaways-product-licensing

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NEWS FLASH! In early September, I will be delivering the keynote speech at the inaugural conference, being produced by Furniture Today magazine, called The Innovation Event.

See more here: https://theinnovationevent.com . There will be more to come on this and again, thank you for reading.

I appreciate each of you, and if you’re interested in working with me professionally on your digital marketing initiatives, please reach out to me via any of the above methods or via the contact form on my website.

In Gratitude.

Leslie Carothers
Principal, Savour Partnership