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A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design  Business Podcast

679: John Robert Wiltgen:Hard Conversation, Marketing and Luxury Clients

A Well-Designed Business® | Interior Design Business Podcast

LuAnn Nigara

Arts, Design, Business

4.9810 Ratings

🗓️ 22 June 2021

⏱️ 88 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today with John Robert Wiltgen:   Welcome to A Well-Designed Business. My guest today is John Wiltgen. John has, for the most part, retired, from his 40+ year career as the principal of John Robert Wiltgen Design Inc., based in the Chicago area. John and I touch on many topics today, (I mean, after such a long and successful career, there s a lot of ground to cover!) We start by talking about how to manage client expectations when you are faced with delays, missed deadlines, disappointed clients, all the way to attracting luxury clients, servicing luxury clients as well as raising your prices when you have returning clients. John had a lot of wisdom to pass on to us and it is no wonder, so tune in for a jam-packed episode!   More About John Robert Wilgen: The integration of art, architecture and design is fundamental at John Robert Wiltgen Design, Inc. This inclusive approach applies to a residence being designed from the ground up, the ingenious restyling and updating of an existing home and the selection and installation of finishes and furnishings. In addition, JRWD creates the construction documents and wields impressive construction management skills, often acting as a general contractor. The result is always a distinct, luxurious residence expressing the owner's personal style. "Everyone says our work is dramatic," reveals John Robert Wiltgen. "No matter the scope of any given project, our ultimate goal is to create something extraordinary that's exclusive to our client." Obsessing over making their client’s worlds beautiful has taken them across North America and halfway around the world – from Chicago’s Gold Coast to Africa’s Ivory Coast. His firm’s name is synonymous with its reputation for excellence and superior quality in design, styling, and craftsmanship. Some of their client’s include talk show host, writer, producer, and actor Steve Harvey, producer, director and actor John Cusack, Chicago Bulls general manager and NBA Hall of Famer Jerry Krause, and former Governor and First Lady of Lagos State (Nigeria) Mr. and Mrs. Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu. Their clients also relied on the JRW team to assist them develop sophisticated art collections. They have placed an artist’s proof of Picasso’s “The Cranach”, a bigger than life size Botero sculpture, a complete suite of Warhol serigraphs, and two Monet paintings in their client’s homes – just to name a few choice pieces. John’s own private collection includes a Henry Moore drawing that, after his purchase, was featured in a 5-museum tour curated by the Henry Moore Foundation (Much Hadham, England). He is also a collector of ancient Egyptian faience, Attica and Roman ceramics. Discerning real estate developers across the country and in Canada often hired John Robert Wiltgen Design to evaluate and revise architectural layouts of new, not yet built, multi-unit housing projects to improve the utilization of interior space. His award-winning sales centers and model homes consistently generated increased revenues and have been featured in local real estate periodicals, as well as national shelter and design magazines, bringing valuable third-party endorsement to his commissions.   The completed projects of JRWD have been featured in over 200 newspaper and magazine articles including Newsweek – an unlikely place to find copy about a residential home designer. His commissions also appear in numerous hardcover books. He has been seen on HGTV’s Homes Across America, I Want That! Baths, I Want That Kitchens, NBC’s Open House, as well as Fox TV and WTTW. A comprehensive library of JRWD press and many of their completed projects, awards, etc. can be viewed at www/jrwdesign.com. Connect with John Robert Wiltgen: Website Instagram  Facebook  YouTube What’s new with LuAnn Nigara luannuniversity.com insidevoiceoutsidevoice.com http://www.luannnigara.com/cob Get The Goodies! For checklists, resources, and extra goodies from A Well-Designed Business sign up for free here. To Get on LuAnn’s Email List, text the word designbiz to 444999! Purchase LuAnn’s Books Here: Book 1: The Making of A Well – Designed Business: Turn Inspiration into Action Book 2: A Well-Designed Business – The Power Talk Friday Experts Pre-Order Book 3: A Well-Designed Business – The Power Talk Friday Experts Volume 2 Connect with LuAnn Nigara LuAnn’s Website LuAnn’s Blog Power Talk Friday Like Us: Facebook | Tweet Us: Twitter | Follow Us: Instagram | Listen Here: Podcast A Big THANK YOU to Today’s Podcast Sponsor: LuAnn University: the summer quarter of LuAnn University classes kicks off in early July. Registration opens on June 11th. If you need help establishing processes, Sara Brennen is your girl. Her class, How to Build Systems into Your Services, begins July 7th. If you’ve got your systems locked down but could use help with video – Arianne Bellizaire is here to help. Arianne’s class, Video for Creatives, starts July 6th. And there’s so much more – go to LuAnnUniversity.com to learn more and to register. Take a class, take some time for yourself, do what you need to do to get your business in shape for Fall. Decide to be excellent! Other shows mentioned: #642 Thom Sweeney #668 Marlo Thomas #74 Candace Olson #34 Mary Fisher #465 Jan Showers #40 Meryl Santopietro $485, #325, #237 Claire Jefford #297 Mikel Welch #549, #388 Corey Damen Jenkins

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, are you getting ready for Thanksgiving? Maybe you're hosting and you're busy getting all of your dishware organized and your menu organized. Or maybe you're like me. You're at the season where you just get to ring the doorbell with a pie in your hand, right? Either way, I hope you are planning to spend some quality time with friends and family, whether that means it's a big,

0:21.1

raucous crowd and lots of carrying on or downtime. Either way, I'm wishing you a happy

0:26.5

holiday season. And, you know, what happens after Thanksgiving, we have Black Friday.

0:31.6

And on Black Friday, Luann University is officially opening registration. And here's the thing. Because it's Black Friday,

0:39.2

we got some Black Friday deals for you. All right, first of all, let me explain this. Early Bird for

0:44.0

Luann University is open from November 29th through December 31st, 2024. So that is the entire early bird

0:52.4

period. And during the early bird period, you get two bonuses.

0:57.2

Number one, you get the early bird pricing.

0:58.8

But you also get, if you buy, whether you buy a five-week course or a three-hour intensive,

1:05.2

if you purchase and register during the early bird period, you are going to be enrolled in the workshop that

1:13.4

Amber DeLegarza and I are hosting together live. It's called Success by Design. Strategic

1:20.6

Goal Setting meets Time Mastery. Okay. So this is going to be a live workshop. It is going to happen in real time on january second

1:30.4

twenty twenty five and we're going to spend part of the time mapping out how do you set your goals

1:37.1

what do you do how do you decide if it's a legitimate goal if it's a reach goal if it's a too easy

1:43.2

of a goal what should your goals be?

1:45.5

And then Amber will take over and she will help us figure out how to carve that time in our

1:52.9

work life to work on our business. Okay. So it's managing the expectations of the hours

1:59.6

you have available so that you can get it all done.

2:02.3

So this is going to be a fantastic class that you are going to take real time and ask us real questions.

2:08.5

Okay, so those are two bonuses that you get if you sign up any time during the early bird period,

2:14.3

November 29th to December 31st.

2:16.4

But there is an extra bonus if you sign up during

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