How Interior Designers Can Stop Being the Project Manager and Contractor Babysitter, and Finally Get Paid Like the CEO.

Featured in Architectural Digest · Better Homes and Gardens · HGTV Magazine

A 2-Day Virtual Event for Interior Designers

How Interior Designers Can Stop Being the Project Manager and Contractor Babysitter, and Finally Get Paid Like the CEO.

You’re booked, running real projects, and keeping a sliver of each one while everyone else’s problems end up on your plate. In two sessions, see exactly where your profit and your time leak out, what has to change first, and how to get back to doing the design work.

Powder room with botanical wallpaper, gold mirror and a dark stone basin

Custom dressing room in deep navy with brass hardware and a mirrored vanity

Bedroom with floral wallpaper, a velvet bed and a gilt mirror

The Math at the End of the Project

You’re Booked Solid. The Money Isn’t Showing Up.

If you run a design business, you already know the feeling.

You finished the project. You sent the final invoice. Then you added up all the site visits, the costs you absorbed and the extra rounds of revisions you gave away for free.

The number was not what you expected.

You’ve tried working more hours. Maybe you tried hiring help and ended up managing them instead. Then came the boundary you held, the trade account you opened, the promise to charge more on the next one.

Some of it helped for a week or two. Then the same pattern came back.

You’re running $15-30K projects and keeping a sliver of each one.

Meanwhile the clients you took on to grow the business are texting you at nine at night, changing their minds for the third time and expecting you to eat the cost of it.

You’ve become the designer, the project manager, the accountant, the client therapist, and the babysitter for a contractor you didn’t even hire, all in one person.

And somewhere in there, the design work you started this for got squeezed into whatever hours were left.

Some nights you look at the firm you built and wonder if you just built yourself a job. One with worse hours than the one you left, and a boss who texts on Sunday.

Here’s what this is costing you.

The Fridays you never take off. The years with your kids sliding past while you answer one more email. Discounts that fund everyone else’s vacation but never your own.

You want a calm, profitable firm that keeps running even when you step away from it.

Proof

In Their Words

Designers Emily has worked with.

After completing the Business Edit, I opened my first slew of wholesale accounts confidently, changed the system and software I used in my business which gave me back SO much time and completely improved my workflow and efficiency as a designer. I think most of all my confidence and understanding how to be profitable has changed the most.

Vicki W.

Emily Yeates is a fantastic resource! With her help and guidance, I have been able to identify vendors that are a good fit for my clients and open trade accounts. Being able to place direct orders with vendors who are truly “To The Trade” has been a huge game changer for my bottom line and lets me offer products that my clients can’t find themselves.

Daryl S.

The information I received on shipping and receiving was a GIANT benefit! That alone paid for the class.

Ali Brooks

Before the Business Edit, I was spinning wheels, felt a lack of motivation, not knowing where to start. Now I have a clear action list and much better direction. I’m so happy with the entire experience.

Grace

Over the three days spent with Emily, we learned her entire process from start to finish. The confidence we now have, armed with all the steps and processes to implement in our own business, has truly exceeded all our expectations.

Ariel R.

As a designer, I feel like this is the master class I’ve been looking for, now that I’m 5 years into the industry. There are so many valuable resources coming from this program, it is a must-do for any designer looking to grow!

Lisa W.

Why Nothing Has Worked

Why Every Fix You’ve Tried Stopped Working

Many designers assume the problem is their pricing. Or their clients. Or that they just need more work coming in.

That makes sense, because those are the pieces you can see.

So they reach for a single fix. More hours. One new hire. One boundary set in the middle of a project. A trade account. Hourly billing, because it felt safe. A bigger number on the next proposal.

Each one feels like the answer. None of them moves the needle for long.

And underneath every one of them is the same sentence. It’s just easier if I do it myself.

Here’s why. You cannot out-work, out-hire, or out-price a leak that lives in the structure of the business itself.

If the money leaks at the intake, in the scope, on the revisions, and in the furnishing, then every extra hour and every bigger price drains straight back out through the same holes.

The problem sits underneath every one of them.

The structure meant to hold them together does not exist yet. Nobody teaches designers the business, so you were handed the craft and left to run a firm on instinct.

Until you can see the whole structure, it’s easy to keep pulling one lever at a time, harder and harder, while wondering why nothing changes.

The profit is already inside the clients you have.

Your clients are already spending it. It just reaches someone else before it reaches you.

Once you can see the leak clearly, you can stop pouring effort into a bucket that cannot hold it, and start running the business like the person who owns it.

That is the shift this event is designed to help you make.

The Event

Two Days on Where Your Profit Goes, and How to Keep More of It

The CEO Interior Designer is a 2-day virtual event for interior designers who already have clients and can feel they’re leaving real money on the table.

Across two focused sessions, you’ll discover exactly where the profit is leaking out of your business, understand why the fixes you’ve already tried kept you stuck and see the structure behind a design firm that runs like a business instead of a job you cannot put down.

By the end, you’ll have a clearer picture of what it’s costing you, and what has to shift before your business can start keeping more of what it earns.

This event is for you if you’re ready to stop guessing at your numbers and start seeing your business through the eyes of a CEO.

What This Is Not

This Isn’t Another “Charge Your Worth” Pep Talk

And it is not a pricing course that tells you to raise your rates and hope the confidence follows.

You already suspect you should be charging more. Raising the number still leaves the structure underneath it untouched.

This event is built to help you see the whole operating structure of a design firm, the intake, the pricing, the furnishing, the timelines, the team and where yours is leaking.

Instead of handing you more tactics to bolt onto a business that’s already stretched thin, I will walk you through the picture that rarely gets shown, taught by someone who runs an active firm at the level you’re working toward.

If you’ve tried the usual advice and still feel like you’re keeping too little of what you earn, this event will help you look at the problem through a clearer lens.

Home study with built-in bookshelves, a papered nook and a striped rug

The Two Days

Here’s What We’ll Cover

Day One

Where the Money Is Leaking

In this session, you’ll discover why a business this busy can still pay you so little, and what it’s costing you.

How to spot exactly where the profit leaks out of a project you thought was making money
Why more hours never changed what you take home, and what those hours drain instead
The role your intake and pricing play in scope creep, before a contract is ever signed
What many designers misread about the difference between “booked” and “profitable”
The real cost of staying busy and underpaid for one more year

Why this matters: Once you can see where the money is going, you can stop blaming yourself and start seeing the problem with clear eyes.

Day Two

The Structure That Keeps the Profit In

In this session, you’ll be introduced to the structure I built inside my own firm, and why the order of it matters more than you’d think.

What has to be in place for your firm to keep more from the clients you already have
How to recognize which leak is costing you the most right now
Why the usual fixes, one boundary, one hire, a trade account, an hourly rate, keep so many designers stuck
What has to change before a firm can keep running when you’re not in every detail
How to think about your next step with more clarity than you have now

Why this matters: You’ll leave understanding the bigger picture behind why your business runs the way it does, so you can make a more informed decision about what needs to shift next.

Qualification

Who These Two Days Are For

This event is for
interior designers who

Already have clients but feel like they’re keeping too little of what those clients spend
Run real projects, often $15,000 and up, and still can’t point to the profit
Have tried working more hours, discounting, or billing hourly, and are still stretched thin
Want to keep more from the clients they already have, without chasing cheaper ones
Need a clearer next step, not another pile of random tactics

This will be
especially helpful if

You’re tired of being busy, booked, and still not paid for the work you pour in
You suspect the chaos isn’t random, and that something underneath needs rebuilding
You want a business that could keep running if you had to step back from it
You’re ready to see your firm the way a CEO would

This is not for someone still trying to land their first projects. That’s a different problem, and this event is built for designers who already have clients and want to keep more of what they earn. It’s also not for anyone treating design as a hobby. This event is for designers ready to run it as a business.

Emily Yeates working over drawings at the table in her studio

Emily Yeates · Founder, Urban Revival

Your Host

Meet Emily Yeates

Hi! I’m Emily. I help interior designers keep more profit from the clients they already have, by running the firm instead of working inside it.

I didn’t come into this the polished way. I dropped out of college and flipped my first three homes myself, learning every lesson the expensive way before I built the structure I run today.

I’ve spent 19 years building Urban Revival, my design firm, with projects featured in Architectural Digest, Domino, MyDomaine, Better Homes and Gardens, and HGTV Magazine, and work carried on Forbes Global Properties.

My client roster includes C-suite executives, professional athletes, real estate investors and entrepreneurs.

What makes my approach different is that I’m not just teaching theory. I share the actual structure I run, the pricing, the intake, the furnishing process, and the systems that let my firm keep moving without me being in every detail.

After watching so many talented designers stay busy, booked, and underpaid, I built this event to help you see where your own business is leaking, and what a design firm looks like when the business behind it is built on purpose.

From the firm I still run

Floating oak staircase with a glass balustrade

Open kitchen shelving against emerald zellige tile

Utility room with patterned tile floor and dark cabinetry

Nursery with hand-painted wallpaper and a rattan crib

Details

Questions

How long is the event?

This is a 2-day virtual event. Each session is approximately 90 minutes.

When is the event?

The event is happening on Tuesday, November 17 and Wednesday, November 18, 2026, from 4:00 to 5:30 PM ET / 3:00 to 4:30 PM CT / 1:00 to 2:30 PM PT.

Will there be a replay?

Yes. Replays will be available until the end of the week.

Is this for beginners?

This event is designed for interior designers who already have clients and can feel they’re leaving money on the table, but need a clearer understanding of why it’s happening and what to pay attention to next.

Will this work for my situation?

Every firm is different, but this event is built to help you understand the common patterns, mistakes, and blind spots that often apply to designers who are busy, booked, and still not keeping enough of what they earn.

Last Word

Keep More of What You Already Earn

If you’re tired of running real projects and keeping almost none of the profit, this event will help you understand where the money is actually going.

You’ll walk away understanding

Why more hours have not changed what you take home
What may actually be draining the profit out of projects you thought were paying you
What needs to shift before your firm can start keeping more of what it earns
What it takes for contractors to manage construction while you go back to designing

Join us for The CEO Interior Designer and take the next step toward running your firm like the CEO of it.