EP #08 Rhiannon Lee - 'Don't give AI the stuff you actually love doing'

Rhiannon Lee is the founder of Oleander & Finch Interiors, a mentor, podcast host, and AI strategist who helps creative business owners integrate tools like Claude and Notion into their workflows without losing what makes their work distinctly human.

With a background in corporate business and a hard won design career, she brings a rare combination of commercial clarity and creative fluency to everything she builds. In this episode, Rhiannon shares the surprisingly personal origin story behind her design career, and why the spaces she creates for clients carry more emotional weight than she had ever publicly acknowledged.

She unpacks the real purpose of AI in a design business, not to replace creativity, but to protect it and makes a compelling case for why documented businesses will outlast the platforms they run on.

She also walks Karyn and Helen through the thinking behind ‘Studio Build’, her course that's helping designers finally get the back end of their businesses as considered as the work they put in front of clients.

Key Takeaways

Staying active as a designer (even with just one client) is what makes mentorship credible. Real experience can't be faked from the sidelines.
AI isn't a threat to your creativity, it's a protection for it. Keep AI out of the work you love; deploy it on everything you don't.
The people selling 'AI mastery' after two months on Claude are building a distraction economy. You are not behind. Nobody is.
Documented businesses are the future not because of AI, but because documentation is what lets you delegate, automate, and eventually step back without everything falling apart.
Don't hire a VA when you're drowning. Build the documentation first. The problem is almost always coming from inside the house.
Design education teaches craft. It doesn't teach P&Ls, systems, or how to run a profitable studio and there's no shame in that gap.
Flooding client floor plans and home details into AI tools without disclosure is an ethical issue the industry needs to take seriously.
The more seamlessly a designer executes, the less the client understands the complexity behind it. Educating your audience about the process is good business.

To find out more about Rhiannon Lee, her 'Studio Build' course and more, connect here:

STUDIO BUILD

WEBSITE

INSTAGRAM

CONNECT with McRae + Lynch Design

Visit our website: www.mcraeandlynch.com.au

Planning a Build or Renovation and in need of design guidance? If you are getting ready to build or renovate, now is the time to get organised and move forward with confidence. Our online course, ‘Build It Right’: Renovation and New Home Guide, shares over 20 years of our design and construction knowledge.

Find out more via the link here: BUILD IT RIGHT Hit the link

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See you next time for more insights from the world of design.

Karyn + Helen xx