Are You Fixing The Wrong Thing?

As an interior designer, you’ve likely faced tough business challenges—whether it's pricing your services, generating consistent leads, or scaling your operations. When tackling these problems, it’s easy to get stuck in analysis paralysis, focusing on details that don’t actually move the needle. Enter the Monkey and the Pedestal framework—a problem-solving approach that can help you identify where to focus your energy.

What is the Monkey and the Pedestal Framework?

If you can’t solve the hardest part of the problem, then everything else is irrelevant.

Imagine you have a challenge: teaching a monkey to recite Shakespeare while standing on a pedestal. The pedestal is easy to build; the hard part is getting the monkey to talk. If you can’t solve the hardest part of the problem (the monkey), then everything else (like the pedestal) is irrelevant.

Many businesses, including interior design firms, waste time perfecting the pedestal—working on branding, website tweaks, or a curated social media aesthetic—without addressing the core problem: getting clients, pricing services effectively, or delivering projects profitably.

Applying the Framework to Interior Design Business Challenges

Let’s explore how you can use this approach to tackle common challenges in your interior design business.

Am I teaching the monkey to talk, or just building a prettier pedestal?

1. Getting More Clients

• The Monkey: Can you generate leads and turn them into paying clients?

• The Pedestal: Updating your website, tweaking your logo, or creating a fancy welcome packet.

If your biggest struggle is lead generation, don’t start by perfecting your website or branding. Instead, test strategies that bring in clients—networking, running targeted ads, optimizing your referral system, or refining your sales pitch. If these strategies don’t work, no amount of website polishing will fix the problem.

2. Pricing Your Services Profitably

• The Monkey: Are clients willing to pay what you need to charge for your services?

• The Pedestal: Spending weeks perfecting your pricing spreadsheet or designing a glossy pricing guide.

Before you create an elaborate pricing structure, test your rates in real conversations with potential clients. Do they balk at your fees? Do they immediately say yes? Gather real-world feedback and refine from there.

3. Scaling Your Business

• The Monkey: Can you delegate effectively and maintain quality while growing?

• The Pedestal: Hiring a VA, investing in new software, or redesigning your client onboarding materials before knowing what truly needs to be systematized.

Before hiring a team or investing in expensive tools, test your ability to delegate small tasks. If you can’t offload smaller responsibilities successfully, adding more complexity won’t help.

How to Identify Your Monkey

1. Define the core problem. What’s the single hardest part of achieving your goal?

2. Test the hardest part first. If it’s a dealbreaker, you’ll know early without wasting resources.

3. Avoid pedestal distractions. If something feels like productive procrastination (e.g., reworking your logo instead of following up with leads), refocus on solving the real challenge.

Final Thoughts

The Monkey and the Pedestal framework helps you cut through the noise and focus on solving the most important problems in your interior design business. By tackling the hardest challenge first, you can avoid wasting time on details that won’t make a difference. Next time you’re faced with a tough problem, ask yourself: Am I teaching the monkey to talk, or just building a prettier pedestal?