Two good friends who also happen to be the two co-founders of a creative consultancy for designers, Gail Doby and Erin Weir share how their long and enduring friendship impacts the way they inspire each other and work through whatever life and business challenges come their way. In their own honest musings, and also in their open conversations with speakers, authors, and influencers, they further their own journey as friends and founders, causing us to further our own journeys, too.
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Two good friends who also happen to be the two co-founders of a creative consultancy for designers, Gail Doby and Erin Weir share how their long and enduring friendship impacts the way they inspire each other and work through whatever life and business challenges come their way. In their own honest musings, and also in their open conversations with speakers, authors, and influencers, they further their own journey as friends and founders, causing us to further our own journeys, too.
Project Management is the Key to Happier Clients (Kimberly Graff)
Creative Genius Podcast
37 minutes 32 seconds
6 months ago
Project Management is the Key to Happier Clients (Kimberly Graff)
What’s the secret to transforming a chaotic design project into a streamlined, stress-free experience for everyone involved? If you’ve ever struggled with managing client expectations, juggling trades, or keeping projects on schedule and on budget, this episode is packed with practical wisdom you won’t want to miss.
In this conversation, Erin Weir sits down with Kimberly Graff, Chief Operations Officer of Charbonneau Interiors to talk about the systems, tools, and mindset shifts that have helped her take control of her projects and create better outcomes for her clients and for herself. Kimberly opens up about her journey of learning how critical project management is to the design process, sharing lessons learned from difficult experiences and the changes she’s made to avoid those pitfalls in the future.
In this episode, you'll learn about the essential role of clear communication and documentation in keeping projects on track. Kimberly shares how she now uses a dedicated project management software to handle everything from schedules to budgets to client communication, saying, “If it’s not written down, it didn’t happen.” Erin and Kimberly also discuss the importance of onboarding processes, client education, and setting boundaries from the very beginning of a project.
You’ll also hear about:
How Kimberly creates a project roadmap to set expectations with clients.
The tools and tech she uses to stay organized.
Strategies for managing trades and subcontractors effectively.
Why tracking time and expenses is key, even if you’re not billing hourly.
What Kimberly wishes more designers knew about project management.
And the one piece of advice she’d give any designer who wants to elevate their client experience.
Whether you’re a solo designer wearing all the hats or part of a larger firm, this episode is a must-listen for anyone ready to bring more structure, clarity, and professionalism to their projects.
If you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, view the full show notes here: https://thepearlcollective.com/s13e5-shownotes
Mentioned in this Episode
Kimberly mentioned a number of software applications that she uses at Charbonneau Interiors:
Asana (project management)
Harvest (time tracking)
Forecast (project management)
Quickbooks (accounting)
Slack (instant messaging)
Google Sheets (spreadsheets)
BambooHR (human resources)
Episode Transcript
Note: Transcript is created automatically and may contain errors.
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Well, welcome to the Creative Genius podcast, Kimberly. I'm so excited to have you here today.
Thank you for having me.
I'm going to go ahead and just let you introduce yourself. I know that we've been friends for a long time. You were one of our OG boardroom members back in the day. But please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you do.
I am the COO at Charbonneau Interiors and on a daily basis my hands are involved in just all sorts of areas of the business. So I mean from human resources to finance to sales to even
connecting with the clients and giving them updates and sharing installation information with my team and chatting with vendors and subcontractors. So a little bit of everything.
Creative Genius Podcast
Two good friends who also happen to be the two co-founders of a creative consultancy for designers, Gail Doby and Erin Weir share how their long and enduring friendship impacts the way they inspire each other and work through whatever life and business challenges come their way. In their own honest musings, and also in their open conversations with speakers, authors, and influencers, they further their own journey as friends and founders, causing us to further our own journeys, too.
