Adding an Outside Expert to Your Team

Arriving to new client, she was breathless, saying, "You can't tell anyone."

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A man was buzzing frantically throughout her home, moving things.

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Huge problem.

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Her husband, nor interior decorator could know what was happening.

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Mega bucks had been spent decorating her home, it was a disaster.

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A few days earlier she had been in a home for a luncheon and knew she had to hire their interior decorator to 'fix' her house.

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This was the man buzzing.

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He was, indeed, a magic bee.  

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Sadly, variations of this story are common in my job.  How to make happy endings?  I added an interior decorator to my team years ago.  And I never give her name, it's always asked for.

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In the realm of interior design my place is well trod.  When the budget is zero I'm excellent at choosing colors, placing furniture, creating flow, and etc blah blah.  When the budget is comfortable, only an expert will suffice.  There is no ego in this, only fear, knowing my limitations.

A current client is renovating home & garden, and mentioned her decorator wanting to put a sofa in the bay window, with its back facing their expansive woodland.
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'Danger Will Robinson.'
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I had just seen this pic, below, and mentioned its furniture plan, then emailed it to her when I was back in my office.
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Complications.  She also wants 'color' in the view.  My suggestion is, above, fresh flowers on the table in her bay window.
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The woodland can have oakleaf hydrangea, spring flowering trees, bulbs, fall color, winter flowering trees, but we will use interior decorating for the major 'color'.

In reverse, I'm hired by homes with incredible interiors, and expensive landscapes of little beauty and most often zero interaction with the home & its axis views.  I dread these because my magic must truly be done on a dime, the bag of gold already spent on disaster.

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My favorite fix was for a gay couple.  Their curving front had been done exactly in the shape of a uterus.  When I pointed this out as a starting point for change, we were on the same page.  Laughter was rich in irony too.  Their first designer was a gay man.  With great pride, and joy, I redesigned their landscape using only what they already had. 

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Why do most interior decorators stop at the threshold?     

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Garden & Be Well,    XO Tara

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My new Beautiful Easy Landscape courses include interior decorators as a target audience.  How to work magic with no budget, as I do for interior decorating, and how to include a landscape design expert for your team.

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Interior decorator?  Interested?  Tell me what you need, courses are being outlined this winter.  Would love your input.

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Have taught at the local college and Atlanta Botanical Garden for decades and look forward to this new venture.

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Top pics Pinterest, bottom pic mine.

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For a beautiful garden & home filling you with joy, become my client, local/on-line.

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Award winning speaker, hire me for your group, local/out-of-state.

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Books by Tara Dillard, Amazon

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Tara Dillard & Associates Design: farm to city pied-a-terre.

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Construction by Award Winning

Shaefer Heard Construction, licensed home-builder, renovation - new construction.  Heard's Landscaping a unit of SHC.  3 decades of service.

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NOTE to my gardening friends... look for changes to come. 

Knew before computers/cell phones, sitting in Atlanta traffic on way to a client, 'I must reach a larger audience with the same amount of effort.'   Soon after that epiphany I signed my CBS-TV, and, books contracts on the same day.

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Then I read an article in the NYTimes about something called 'blogging'.  Saved the article for a year before reading it.  Studied all the blogs they mentioned, hired a computer expert they quoted, and attended a blogging seminar.

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Blogging 2.0 has arrived, my knowledge is 1.0.  A believer in copying the best historic gardens across the globe it flows into every arena of life.  Watching Maria Killam grow her career/blog/life over the past 3 years made its impact.  Signed up  for a year's course with her blogging expert, Jon Morrow. 

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Changes will be slow, plodding is my adored method.  Pulling triggers here/there is spice in the mix.
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What do YOU want?

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Nothing is too small, too big, or too ego crushing to mention.

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Passion lies in sharing what has filled me to the depths of grace, joy & atonement, the best landscapes created over the last 2,000+ years.

Just so you know... 
 I  welcome your input.