The Buyer's Brain™
How clients really make decisions.
Clients don’t hire with spreadsheets and logic. They hire with instinct, emotion, and trust, and only rationalize the decision afterward. The Buyer’s Brain™ workshops take you inside that process and show you how to work with it.
In this track, we’ll explore the shortcuts and biases that shape client behavior and how they appear in real design conversations. You’ll learn how loss aversion influences budgets and approvals, how identity and trust position you as the safe choice, and how framing techniques move clients from hesitation to action.
By the end, you’ll understand exactly how psychology and behaviors apply to design sales — and you’ll have a practical way to use them.
The result is simple: you’ll stop over-explaining and defending, and instead lead decisions with authority so your proposals land as the obvious yes.
Scroll down to see when the next workshop begins.
JOIN US!
Workshop FOUR
Designing the Decision: The Science of How Clients Choose
(and How You Can Shape It)
COMING SUMMER 2026!
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:
- Pull from behavioral economics and real project case studies to show you exactly how anchoring, loss aversion, and the three-option framework work in interior design pricing.
- See our actual numbers and give you the tools to build your own three-option structure before you leave.
- How to stop losing projects to indecision with verbiage for the money conversation that will keep you out of the "discount" trap.
- Gain the confidence to present your fees without apologizing for them.
Workshop ONE
Say It So They Believe You
JOIN THE WAITLIST FOR THIS WORKSHOP
When your business is stuck, the problem is often not strategy. It’s positioning.
The words you use shape whether clients see your price as stewardship or sticker shock. This workshop teaches you how to communicate your value so clearly, so consistently, and so confidently that clients stop asking for proof and start asking for proposals.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:
- Refine your Value Bank™ into client-facing proof points that sell without overselling.
- Replace weak phrasing with authority-driven Language Swaps that reinforce trust and expertise.
- Use narrative and case study storytelling to defend your price without sounding defensive.
- Prevent the Itemization Trap by shifting focus from tasks to transformation.
- Keep your website, proposals, and consult language aligned — so your message always sounds like a business, not a plea
Suitable for Designers with at least 2 years of solid experience.
Workshop TWO
The Psychology of Yes
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Clients don’t make decisions by logic—they make them through emotion and instinct, then justify it later. In this workshop, you’ll learn how to recognize the patterns behind how people decide and how to use that understanding to guide clients with confidence and ease. We’ll explore the natural “shortcuts” clients take when choosing who to trust and what to invest in, things like avoiding loss, seeking validation, or wanting to see themselves in the story you tell. You’ll learn how to weave these principles into your consults, proposals, and presentations so decisions happen faster, with fewer stalls, and more yeses to your process and pricing.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:
- The ways cognitive triggers show up that cause hesitation.
- What we do to prevent stalls and lack of commitment by the client so they move forward without pressure.
- How we redirect fear into forward motion without dumbing our value down with discounts, stupid coaching scripts, or high pressure sales tactics.
- Share the specific ways we connect long before we ever meet the client. ( yes ideas!!!)
Suitable for designers with at least 2 years of experience.
Workshop THREE
The Client Code™
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The 8 Client Archetypes & How They Shape Trust, Communication Approvals and the Project Dynamic
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN:
- My 8 client archetypes which are personality profiles I've developed from decades of working with every kind of buyer imaginable and my 30+ years of research into behavior analysis.
- How to spot who you're dealing with in the first 10 minutes of a discovery call, and more importantly, what to do about it.
- How to adjust your language, your cadence, your proposals, and your boundaries based on the actual person sitting across from you.
- A framework for knowing when friction is fixable vs. when it's time to say a graceful no.
THE IDEA
ECONOMY™
SELLING BY
DESIGN™
DESIGN
DELIVERED™
PROJECTS
WITHOUT PANIC™
Christine D.
SBTB & WORKSHOP ATTENDEE
"Thank you for all you do for us. By the way, my new Junior designer really loved listening to you and talked about how much expertise and knowledge you have and that your teaching style is very easy to follow. "
Lois R.
WORKSHOP ATTENDEE
"You are terrific, and I feel your passion, that’s what I love about you, besides your no nonsense intelligence…you are a breath of fresh air in a business filled with smoke and mirrors. And…I’m into the psychology, it’s also my passion, and desperately needed when partners are not on the same page or having a tug of war in front of you. You had some great lines that I wrote down to use with my upcoming job."
Brittany Z.
WORKSHOP ATTENDEE
"I’ve been meaning to write you and tell you just how much of a game changer the client archetypes has been. I’d been batting around my “favorite” clients / projects and trying to find similar characteristics between the people, the project, the style, etc and you just laid it all out there. Made it make sense & then you went even further and added the value of how to speak to each type, something I’m still going back over and reviewing against my copy and all my marketing, ensuring I’m only attracting those ideal archetypes.
I’ve never regretted paying for one of your courses, you provide so much value and insight, I really appreciate you breaking out the bits and bobs from your full scale coaching program, to one off courses for those of us who don’t need the full program. Thank you again!!
Liz P.
COACHING CLIENT
"I appreciate the explanation and think it's awesome how involved you are. So many of the coaching are just trying to sell another revenue stream and don't seem to care much."
Ashley D.
COACHING CLIENT
"I kept finding myself thinking this is so good. I've never heard any of this explained this way, and it makes a lot of sense. It was refreshing because I can see the things I'm doing in this workshop that I can fix right away."
Diana L.
WORKSHOP ATTENDEE
"So much to takeaway! Worth vs Value. "What is in it for them?" is life changing. I'm taking an inventory of my skills and experience so that I can remind MYSELF."
Success is for those who are willing to put the time and effort into being prepared and learning how to run a business. And not let the business run them.
Meet Cheryl Clendenon
A serial entrepreneur and owner of In Detail Interiors, a 7 person, multi-million dollar design firm based on the Gulf Coast. In addition to winning dozens of industry awards throughout her 25 years in business (proving she's a dang good designer who knows her stuff), she also has actual knowledge and experience in business that head and shoulders above the rest of those who currently coach and teach within this industry.
That’s why, instead of bringing you more fluff about how to sign luxury clients or social media marketing (🙄), she is going to teach you what you really need and WANT to know, which is how to increase your bottom line WITHOUT adding more to your workload.