148: How to Create a Laser-Focused, Profitable Interior Design Firm
Michele 00:00
Hello, my name is Michele and you're listening to Profit is a Choice. With me today on the podcast is Desi Creswell. Desi is a coach focused on helping interior designers get out of the overwhelm and learning to live with more freedom and fulfillment. Desi is also a co-author. In the second edition of the Power Talk Friday Experts book, produced by Luanne Nigara and a well-designed business. I was in the first edition and now she's in the second. Desi, and I are going to be talking about finding focus in your business, not only in the day to day, but in the longer term as well. Stay tuned for a great conversation.
Michele 00:44
Every day empowered entrepreneurs are taking ownership of their company financial health and enjoying the rewards of reduced stress and more creativity. With my background as a financial software developer, owner of multiple businesses in the interior design, industry, educator and speaker, I coach women in the interior design industry to increase their profits, regain ownership of their bottom line and to have fun again in their business. Welcome to Profit is a Choice. Hey, Desi, welcome to the podcast.
Desi Creswell 01:16
Michele, thank-you so much for having me.
Michele 01:18
You're welcome. I'm thrilled and delighted to get to talk to you today. And to hear all about what you're doing and some of the new opportunities you have coming and all about being in the book with Luann. Like there's so many things that we can jump in and chat about. So why don't we start with you sharing a little bit with our listeners on who you are and what you do. I've introduced you at the beginning, but they always love hearing from you. So tell us a little bit about you what you do and how you got there.
Desi Creswell 01:49
I'd love to. So I'm Desi Creswell, and I am a certified life and business coach for interior designers. And I'm actually a former interior designer myself, I started out in commercial interior design and went on to start my own residential practice with kind of the vision of having freedom and flexibility and controlling my work hours and really benefiting, you know, from the profits of working for yourself. That was the reason why I started the business knowing that we wanted to start a family and I wanted my business to really blend with the life that I had envisioned. And what ended up happening was I ended up creating another job for myself, where I really will felt overworked and burned out and felt like I was never doing enough in any area of my life. And although I was busy, I didn't necessarily feel focused on where I was headed, and also felt like I wasn't as effective as I could have been both personally and professionally. Which really was what ended up leading me to coaching. I really felt like I needed to take a break after we had our second child. And I hired a coach with a question in mind of how much do I want a mom? And how much do I want to work? And really what I found was I had this limiting belief that I couldn't do both at the same time. And through a lot of my own personal work, I started recognizing that I could create the and in my life I could have the life and the business that I wanted. And really developed a skill set where I could take incredibly effective action with ease and feel very confident in the direction I was heading and really define success on my own terms. And throughout that process, I realized that really, this was something that I felt called to offer to other interior designers. And so now, I blend my own expertise in the design industry with my expertise in mindset coaching, to get incredible results for my clients.
Michele 04:03
I love that. I remember being a young mom having young children and you still have young children. And I remember having a moment I've talked about it on the podcast multiple times, where all I could think of was I'm a terrible mom, and I'm terrible at being a business owner. And if I'm doing one I'm not doing like I never felt like I was succeeding. To your point. I felt not that I wasn't doing great but when I was at work I was thinking about being a mom when I’m being a mommy I'm thinking about being at work and it was like a never, they all kept bleeding into each other. There was never a division. So then I always felt like I was scrambling from one to the other and I remember just crying. We talked about it actually on the podcast with my husband. When we went back and looked at my 20 something years in my entrepreneurial journey and how we started working and managing around that and some of the minds shifts that I had to go through to be able to sustain a business and look at seasons of life and look at what I was willing to put in to get out of each area. And, and I always say you can have it all, but we might not be able to have everything at one time. And so you might be able to have two or three things, you can have some adds, but to have every and at one time, we really takes a lot of thought. And is that really what you want for what it's going to cost you to get it? And so when I started looking at the cost of some of my add ons, I started realizing, truthfully, I could do it. But did I want to pay the price to get it? And to do what it needed to be? And then then it it actually almost freed me up to go, you know, I don't really want that. I think I thought I wanted it maybe but now I don't or Yes, I really do. And now let's go after it. So I can remember. I would say the tension and the stress point of that moment. I remember having those conversations, I remember crying and crying because I just kept thinking, I'm failing at so many things. The big joke in our family that I would always say was, I'm spinning so many plates right now. Let's hope they're paper and plastic and that if they fall, they won't break. That was what I used to always say just Oh, please let if the if one falls that it'd be paper a plastic, because it felt like I was juggling so much until I did some of the work that you you know, that you're referring to and in my own life and thought I got to I got to take stock here.
Desi Creswell 06:35
Yeah, and I think well, I think you know, your point about having it all. I think part of the problem that we run into as women and mothers is that we don't define what have it all actually means to us.
Michele 06:48
That's right, I would agree.
Desi Creswell 06:50
And so what is all? Do we like you to your point? Do we want it all? Like what are the all that are the most important to us, we don't need to have every last thing that's not necessarily having it all. What I mean is having all of the things that are important to you, and and what you really value and the way that you spend your time and energy aligning with those values.
Michele 07:16
Absolutely. I think some of it you came with. I mean, I'm certainly older than you. And so I'm in that age group where I'll lot of my friends never had jobs, you know, after they had children that they just they did it, a lot of moms were still coming home and not starting, we didn't really have a lot of side hustles back in the day. And I can remember after I left corporate and came home to raise my children, I was one of the few in my friend set that started any type of job or worked out of my home, they didn't do it. And so if that was already a stressor, even among my women friends, because I didn't quite fit into the corporate friendship group, I didn't really fit into the stay at mom stay at home mom group, because I was working maybe when they were having a playdate. So I that created a tension. So I kept thinking, to your point, what is the all right, and what I see now happening though, at least in my coaching practice with a lot of designers that I work with you perhaps you see it too, is the all is defined by their interpretation of what their life should be, yeah, based on Instagram or, you know, something that they've seen. So they are piling on this should want need have instead of pushing it all back and going, but what do I really want? What do I really need? or What does my family need? And what does it need in this season? Because what you might need in the season when your children are in elementary school might not be what you need or want when they're in college or high school?
Desi Creswell 08:59
Yes, yes. And I think that all becomes very externally defined instead of internally defined. And, and that's why with my one on one coaching partnerships, we always start with the business and life vision because I want to bring it back to the designer. And what it is that she finds important or he and really taking that time to think and possibility and think in values and really lean into what could be for them if everything's available because everything is available. And that's a lot of what I wrote about in my chapter for Lance latest book is creating that business life vision or creating what I call an aligned business where one is supporting the other. They don't have to necessarily be in contradiction.
Michele 09:46
Exactly. We don't want to live in conflict all day long. And if we don't place to be it's an awful way I've been there. It's an awful place to be. And you know what's also interesting about that is I remember doing a workshop a couple of years ago with some designers, we were on our yearly design retreat. And it was time to do their business planning for the year. And the first thing that I asked, Well, one of the first things that I asked them in that process was okay, how much time are you going to take off? You know, how many of this are you going to do? What are you going to be doing with your family? They're like, we're planning our business. I'm like, we're planning your life. Mm hmm. If we plan the business, it's just like, I call it profit. First thing, your life profit. First thing, your time, the way that I take profit, first of your business, it's take the profit, pull it out, let the business live on what's left? Well, if we don't pull your family life, the life that you want to have overall, if we don't start pulling that out of the calendar, it will get sucked up with business. It just will. Absolutely. And so we have to start looking at what are the most important things for us? What are the things that at the end of the year when we're being reflective? What was it that mattered to us? You know, it was kind of like the old adage at the end of our life, nobody's going to say, Well, I wish I'd worked more. Okay, so what would you say? And what is it that you want? And then how do we protect those things and protect that time? Because if we don't build it into the plan, it won't be in the plan? Yes, won't?
Desi Creswell 11:16
Nope, it doesn't. It doesn't. Whether it's Yeah, time with your family, or specific with your girlfriends,
Michele 11:22
or whatever it is, it doesn't matter.
Desi Creswell 11:25
Or even just, I mean, I think one of the things that I think is so funny that comes up sometimes with clients is like, they're like, I just wish I had some time to sit and like, leaf through the latest house beautiful. Like, we can plan for that, right? And then let's plan for it. And then you can actually enjoy it. Instead of feeling like Well, I'm kind of playing hooky on my job that I'm supposed to be doing. And then you don't really enjoy the magazine. And you feel like you haven't been doing what you're supposed to do in your business.
Michele 11:54
You're going through it really quick. So you can check it off the list. And then you felt like you weren't supposed to do something like you're getting caught and get in trouble. Exactly, you know, you you use a word that I use, as well, a lot. And that is ease. And I was sharing with the book that has been instrumental over the last couple of years. I talked about this a couple of years ago on the podcast, Who's in Your Room. And it's where you're setting boundaries around relationships, and I look at it as processes and who you work with, and just all throughout your entire life. And one of the things that he talks about in there is about living and working and having relationships that are in ease, and the opposite of ease being disease, which means not with ease. And so, you know, I offer to my clients all the time, do you want to work with ease? Or do you would you like to have a diseased business? Because we don't think about it that way? Mm hmm. Right. And they go, Well, I don't want a business that's diseased. Okay, then we need to build in ease. Oh, tell us a little bit about, I know that you've mentioned ease on occasion. So how do you see ease filling into your process of kind of creating that focus around what you want to do?
Desi Creswell 13:12
So I think one of the things that I always work with my clients on is how our thoughts really create our feelings, and our feelings fuel our action or inaction, and that produces a result or an experience for ourselves. And so even just taking a look at when you are feeling at ease, then if that's hard to grasp, in your business, right now, there's likely some part of your life where you do feel at ease, and taking a look at what you are thinking or believing when you feel ease. And so one of the things that I even like to ask my clients is like, how can we make this easy? Or if this was easy, what would you be doing? Because I think we often think business has to be hard, or we have to be pushing really aggressively or taking all the action. And of course, those are just belief systems, a lot of which are getting fed to us from today's business culture. And that's what's creating that dis-ease as you're talking about. And so if we just flip it and ask ourselves a really powerful question, like, how can we make this easy? What would ease look like in this moment? What do I need to let go of right now to make tomorrow easier for me? And we start asking ourselves better questions, and we're going to get better answers. And so I don't ever presume to know what would ease look like in my clients business, but I do know how to help them figure it out for themselves. And so that's one of the very first things that we can always do is just starting to ask better questions.
Michele 14:48
Mm hmm. I love the book, Atomic Habits and he talks in there a lot about your similar to what you said how, what we believe fuels, our eyes. identity, and then our identity feels our action. So what we believe about what we're doing our actions, just like with anything, go all the way back to a belief system, our why goes back to a belief system, our values go back to a belief system. And so sometimes we have to challenge that belief system. Because I've also seen in my life where I was doing some things, they weren't bad, but they were not creating ease for me. And they were fueled by a belief system, that if you had told me that belief system separately, I would have told you I disagreed with it. Right. But when I followed back kind of the thread in my life, I realized that I was acting as if I believed it, even though deep down, I would have said to you, like, with my head, I would have said to you, I didn't believe it. But my actions were showing something different. And that was a hard moment. Because then I had to go, what do I really believe? Like, what what do I do I really believe that it like, to your point, with that example, do I believe it should be hard? Do I believe that I shouldn't be hustle, hustle, hustle. And I mentioned, you know, to myself and to others, I can't live my life on the Peloton in business. Because at some point, I'm tired, and I've got to get off, I've got to have rest, I've got to give my body my mind. Rest, I've got to create this alignment or this balance, you cannot do it by doing one action repeatedly over and over and over. Nobody can. And there's nothing in our life that we do one action repeatedly, that does wear us out or stress a muscle or cause a problem. Or screw up our alignment.
Desi Creswell 16:42
Yeah. And I think it's interesting, because some of these belief systems will find that at some point in our lives, they did serve us. And they were producing something for us that was useful. Or maybe it was a coping mechanism, or it was producing an actual result in that we wanted. And so sometimes we just unconsciously decide that we're going to carry these same belief systems through the rest of time. And at certain points, they may not be serving us anymore. And when we look at beliefs and our thinking process, what you're saying is, they're optional. And I completely agree with that. But if we don't ever take the time to question them, we can't see that there are other options available that would lead us down different paths.
Michele 17:31
Yeah, I was so busy. I mean, just speaking from experience, you know, and like you, we work with our clients through this all the time. But it's because we've had to work through it to, like, I wouldn't have known to have to work through it at the same in the same deep way. If I didn't already do it for myself. And I even made a comment to my husband yesterday, I said, I'm starting to find myself overburdened again. So that means I need to create some time on my schedule, to stop and look and ask myself why. And I need to work back out of it. Because at times, we put things on autopilot, and we keep going. And you know, we're not trying to micromanage, we're going to talk a little bit more about focus in a second. But, you know, in a different way, but we're not trying to micromanage a calendar either, like I don't want to live that life. And so I kept saying to him, I think I need to go back and go, alright, wait, gotten out of alignment, kind of like we go to the chiropractor, right and said, they always said, Michele quit sitting on your foot, because I like to sit on my foot.
Desi Creswell 18:37
I do that too.
Michele 18:38
I know, every time I go to the chiropractor, or to my massage therapist, she's like, you're sitting on that foot again, I'm like, I'm sorry, I can't help it. And so the same thing happens in our businesses in our life, we are doing some of these things that you don't almost don't even notice that you're doing it until you go Oh, wait, something's hurting and not feeling good. And mine is when I start feeling like my schedule is too full. Or I'm saying yes, a couple of times when I should have said no or, or sometimes where I've created busy work or added things in that I think will make it better, which is fine. But then I added in and six places and so that becomes overwhelming. Um, where do you find from your work and Desi in your own career and with your clients? Where do you find that interior designers add in busy work or start to really lose focus?
Desi Creswell 19:32
I'd say one of the big places is that we and I'll say we because I'm a former interior designer too, but that we want to do it all and we want to do it all at once. And as creative entrepreneurs, we have a lot of different ideas. And sometimes they're all really good ideas. And so it can be incredibly challenging to say no to ourselves or Right now, and we want to have our foot in every last little thing. And that is a sure way to not get anything ever completed. So that's something that I work with my clients a lot on, especially in my group program out of overwhelm on really learning the skill of constraint. And constraint can make people a little a little itchy when I mentioned it, because they're like, well, I want to do everything, I want it all I want it all now. And what I teach really is a process for kind of reining in and collecting those ideas, breaking them down into really small, doable tasks, that so that you're really going to see that project or initiative, or system that you're putting in place through to completion. Because when we can tackle one at a time, and get it to completion, we will get far more much done within a given year in our business than we ever would if we were trying to dabble in all of them at once. So there's that where I see people losing focus, another big one is really allowing ourselves to get distracted, because we're avoiding some emotion that we don't want to be experiencing. So often it will be something like boredom, right? We don't want to deal with the invoices, because those aren't as fun as the fabrics. Or it's anxiety about maybe, you know, presenting your highest fee yet to a client. And so you delay putting the proposal together because you don't want to see that final number that you know, you should be charging on the piece of paper that you're going to send over. So that's another place that I see focus really getting diluted by by those things that you're trying to avoid or also in attaching to the quick wins of checking the email, checking Instagram, getting those quick dopamine hits of feeling like you've crossed something off the list, but you haven't crossed the most important thing off the list.
Michele 22:07
It makes me think of that book. If you know it, Eat That Frog.
Desi Creswell 22:12
I'm familiar with the expression, I have not read the book.
Michele 22:15
And so the point behind the book is look at the thing that that you've been putting off, but then you need to do and just do it first just eat the frog. Because then the rest of the day is good. And then instead, what many of us do without thinking is to your point, we want that dopamine hit, we want that quick wins, we're like, I'll check the email, I can do this, well, I can do this. And then we end up by the end of the day, we've done all the little things that could have waited three to four days. And the one big thing that we didn't get done, or you know, work on is the one that's probably due tomorrow. And now we're scrambling or it's creating even more anxiety. And you know, I I have kind of have figured out in my mornings how I like to do that. So I like to, you know, get up and I check my email after I've done my like my Miracle Morning from my home, I come in and do my Miracle Morning for my business, which is here's how I go through my day. And I I do I use Asana I keep list I keep task. And then I loved learning about Rory Vaden. If you know Rory Vaden, he talks about doing what is significant over what's urgent and important. And really creating because the doing this significant creating focus for those things that are really going to move us forward in our business in our life, even though they're difficult. And sometimes they may take a little bit more attention. Putting that attention into significant gives you time later to not have to do all of their urgent and the important because it starts to solve the problem. And but it's so easy to go after the urgent and the important and not craft out that time to fix the broken process to do the things that take a little bit more digging, but that ultimately are going to relieve us of stress later.
Desi Creswell 24:11
Yeah, I think that challenge with those significant pieces is that we don't necessarily see the immediate return on the investment of our time and energy. And one of the ways that I like to sort of, you know, flip that around, is because this is another way that I see designers losing focus is that we don't break down our significant projects into mini results.
Michele 24:37
We look at it as the one big list as the end result, not as the incremental tasks that are going to get us there.
Desi Creswell 24:44
Yes. And so one we get overwhelmed because of course you're not going to sit down and overwhelm your entire set of business systems in one day. That's just not possible. And then also, we you know, don't know where to start. So that feels overwhelming. So Again, the email is easier. And then we don't get the little bit of satisfaction of crossing that thing off the list or checking the box on Asana or whatever project, you know, management software you use. And so one of the ways we can do that is taking that bigger, significant task as you're calling it, and breaking it down into many results. And so like, let's say it's you're wanting to revamp some systems in your workflow. Well, first, we have to define what the systems are, is it every last system or is it maybe you want to create a welcome packet for your clients, there's a big difference between those two. So let's say it's a welcome packet, maybe the end result is you're first going to create an outline for this packet. And another mini result would be you're going to create an outline for the opening sequence of the mini packet, then another result would be you're going to set aside a certain amount of time to write that paragraph. And then you're going to have another mini result of editing the paragraph. So we've got all of these mini results that we can then start crossing off and actually see the progress that we've made, as opposed to it feeling like it's one little tiny drop in this ocean of a huge pride.
Michele 26:14
I think you're absolutely right about creating those mini mini checkoff points as well as places to celebrate our success along. I had Jeremy and Chandler Quarles on the podcast. And one of the things that I had shared with them in our coaching was that they're running this company by themselves. And they, you know, when we work for corporate, there are certain things like you might have a quarterly meeting and somebody is recognized, or you get an Attaboy or whatever. And when we own our own firm, sometimes it's easy to not recognize all of those. It's the day to day that's really getting us where we want to go, right, we're not making these big leaps, every day we're doing, it's the steady Eddy do the work day after day after day, that consistency that working through, but that's not what we always celebrate. So number one, we don't always break it down. But number two, we don't celebrate the success. And I had challenged Jeremy and Chandler and on that podcast, we'll link it in the show notes, to set some milestones and those bigger significant projects in those longer range plans and goals set some places that when you attain that you're going to create a celebration, it could be a celebration of taking the afternoon off like so everything doesn't have to cost money. It could be a celebration of going out to dinner, though. But it could be whatever you want, right getting the new, something that you want for your firm. And so it was pretty cool to hear them talk about on the podcast, how they had started setting it and they realized what it did for them. It was its own, you know, dopamine endorphin hit when they did that, because then they're like, okay, we can celebrate that we are 1/3 to the goal, we can celebrate that we're two thirds to the goal instead of only celebrating when you reach the goal. And there's a saying I can't remember who says it. But it talks about being as dedicated to the process of attaining the goal as you are to the goal. Mm hmm. Yeah. Because it's the dedication to the process of achieving that actually helps you reach the goal.
Desi Creswell 28:18
Yeah. And it's what lays the foundation for you getting better at achieving any other goal that you set for yourself, which I think is also really fun to think about. of like, it's not just about that end goal. It's who you're becoming, as you achieve the goal. And then who that new version is of yourself that goes out and creates something else,
Michele 28:38
Right? Because it becomes the foundation for the for the ongoing growth and the ongoing work that you're going to be doing. I sometimes even think about, I want this goal, but am I willing to do what it takes to get it? Yes. Because sometimes back to the point of that, you should have this or you should get it all or do it all or be at all, or whatever that looks like. I think sometimes we at least I've seen in my practice, and I've done it myself, taken on a goal because I thought I was supposed to have that goal. And then I look at it and I go, that's going to cost me and I don't know that I'm willing to pay the price to get that goal. So I don't know how much I really want that goal. And I think even that questioning allows us to say do I really want to be focused on that? Is that really my focus? Or is that a focused imposed to it externally?
Desi Creswell 29:31
Yeah. And I think that goes back to where we started about what the why and having a why for yourself that is truly compelling. And it doesn't need to be anything noble or anything impressive to anyone else. It just needs to be compelling to you so that even when is what I like to say even when things are hard, even when things are challenging, even when things go wrong. You're still feeling compelled to move towards that greater Why? Because it is so compelling to you. And I think, you know, like, I think that I often use like food or exercise examples. But you know, the example of do I actually want to put in the effort to get the result? Well, you can see that kind of at the beginning of the year with people going to the gym, like they want to lose the weight, but they don't want to go get on the elliptical machine.
Michele 30:23
They don't want to do all the work necessary to get it.
Desi Creswell 30:25
Yeah, exactly. And so one of the questions that I love to ask clients is, like, Am I a level eight commitment, on a scale of one to 10 or higher, because if you're not feeling at least an eight of level of a commitment towards your goal, like, forget it, so many things are going to be thrown at you and things are going to come up that you're going to need to overcome. But if you don't have that level of like compelling desire for it, and commitment, it's not worth your energy to try and go after it until we get you there.
Michele 30:56
Yeah, that's why I know I've even thought about it in my own business, you know, because, look, when we have some level of success with one thing, we do start to do. Oh, so what if that one thing were to expand? Mm hmm. Well, that's almost like saying one piece of cake is really great. But what if I ate the whole thing? thing made me sick, but that one piece was really good, like, how far? How far can we go? Without the cost outweighing any benefit that we derived from any action writing? You can go much further and sometimes not.
Desi Creswell 31:34
Yes, that's true.
Michele 31:36
And so I usually ask myself, is, when I'm trying to think about where I want to focus my time, effort energy? What is the best place to focus it? What is it that's going to get me closer to where I want to get into? Where is it that I want to get back to your whole starting with the vision, but I don't have a vision, I don't even know what I'm aiming for. So then everything is just by the seat of my pants, but I can't live like that. But I also look at what is what is the cost? What's the reward? But what is the cost? And am I willing to pay the cost to get the reward again? Am I willing to do all the things that need to be done to get that? And then sometimes it I start shifting it? Well, yeah, I'm not really willing to pay that. But I'm willing to pay this. And I don't mean just money. Right? We're talking time, effort, energy, release of focus on something else that I might like and enjoy to do. Am I willing to what am I willing to give up? That's a big question. I asked, What are you willing to give up to make this happen? If if you were required to give something up? Because you want we only have so much time? So if you have to add more focus here. It's got to come from somewhere. Where's that coming from? Are you willing to make that swap? And sometimes when we look at it that way, we go, yeah, I'm willing to make the swap? Or no, I'm not. Right, but, but if we don't even ask the question, that's how sometimes we can get overwhelmed. Because we're just like me, like me last week, adding on more and more and more without realizing it's got to come from somewhere.
Desi Creswell 33:07
Yeah, because we're not recognizing that there's a trade, right? Mm hmm. It's just a more and more and more. But unfortunately, or fortunately, there is a math equation at play
Michele 33:21
So when you're working with clients, and you're sharing your brilliance with all of our listeners, and we're talking about creating this focus to move forward, we've talked about all the different ways and looking at focus and thinking about it. What would you say is the number one first thing to do? If we're looking to really create focus to move our business forward? Where do we start?
Desi Creswell 33:44
Yeah, I think really, it comes back to what is the vision? Or like, what is your goal for the year and being very clear on what it is that you want to create?
Michele 33:55
I want to make more money. That's not a whole vision, though by itself. Right.
Desi Creswell 34:01
But it's a really important piece of it. It's an important piece.
Michele 34:05
My point and that is, we have to break it when you say very clear, that's kind That's it, that's it out there, it's not very clear. So there's some levels of breaking it down. To be even more clear, more granular?
Desi Creswell 34:21
Yes. So we have the we have the overall vision of what your business and life wants to be. And then within that, I suggest the clear goal being your profit, because the profit is what's going to allow for you to hit what you want in your business and in your life. And then within having that clear goal for the amount of income that you want to be bringing in. Then we break it down into projects. So I like to look at things quarterly and having say one to three projects that support the quarterly vision, and then having those all add up throughout the year to ultimately get you To that your long goal. But the reason that's of course important is we have to know where we're going. And it essentially becomes this filter for you in terms of how you make decisions and how you prioritize your your time, your energy, the way the funds that you invest in the business. So like, if you're, you know, priority is to increasing your sales capacity in the business, you know, like, what do you need to invest in, in order to create the capacity, you might not want to be investing in PR at that time, because that doesn't really relate to the ultimate goal of capacity. It will help you fill the capacity once you can sustain it. But it's like not that it's not what you're focusing on in that moment.
Michele 35:51
Right? Is the timings not? not right for that goal. The reason I threw that out there about I want to make more money is sometimes when I'm talking to people now we're working through where they want to go and what they want to do. I will say to them, let's talk about lifestyle congruence. How much money do you want to make? How much money do you need to bring in before taxes into your home? To be able to sustain what you need in your home? And it is often that they tell me they don't know. I will ask how much time do you want to take off with your family? Do you still have young kids? Do you take spring break? Do you take some time in the summer? How much time are we working? I don't know. And so I have found that when we don't sit down and think about those things the way we would if we were in corporate, we'd have to think you get two weeks off, you get four weeks off, you get this, you get that. And now we've got it in a managed amount that we have to manage throughout the year, when and I'm not saying that we're not trying to be flexible in these businesses that we build. But if we're overly flexible, and we're overly like law, then it's a struggle to actually attend. We have a goal over here, but we don't have definitions.
Desi Creswell 37:06
Oh, I am 100%.
Michele 37:10
Even just starting there with how much money do I want to make? How many hours Am I willing to put into this? What do I love to do? You know, what is my why my compelling belief what gets me up in the morning when everything else is telling me to stay in the bed, what makes me put my feet on the floor and get up and go back down there and fight for it. And when we cannot articulate those things, and we cannot put them together and understand. What it does is I think it creates create, it creates the overwhelm that you're trying to help everybody get out of. But it also sets us up for failure in so many ways. That's what sets us up to have that feeling of, I'm never enough, or I'm not doing enough, or I'm not being enough. And I'm saying this from personal experience, like I've done that I've done all that. Where I didn't really know and I didn't give a number and then I didn't sit down and say, can the business that I'm building even give me what I want like is what I'm putting out there for packages and services, whether it was in a design field or any other field. Does that even allow me to earn what I need to earn so that I can manage the money to get the profit that I need to pay myself to be able to step into my home? Do you know what I mean? They're all pieces that have to be answered. And I just, you know, I just want to encourage our listeners, just start with asking yourself what you want and what you need in your home and in your family. Because these businesses that we're building, they're supposed to be helping us live, not our whole life. And sometimes we're building these businesses that are sucking the life out of us and they're not paying us they're draining us. And we're all just like on this Peloton. Get off the Peloton.
Desi Creswell 38:56
A hamster wheel. That's what I hear from. Yeah, and I think and that's and that's partly going back to the business like vision. It's not necessarily just this like big, airy fairy like, Oh, I'm going to be frolicking around. But it's going back to what you were saying of like, these are my working hours. This is what I'm going to stop for the day. And this is the specific amount of money that I want to bring home. Because I do often hear very vague sort of responses like what your you're telling me, you hear where it's like I want to take my business to the next level. I want to make more income. I want to grow my business.
Michele 39:38
But they don't find what that is yes, we have to get really specific,
Desi Creswell 39:42
You know, a lot of clients come to me, and they have the desires to hire an employee but they haven't done the numbers on what that will even take to bring someone else on. And I think yes, we need to have something to measure uh, when we've done enough or when we've quote unquote arrived and By putting those constraints or containers around the goals, it also allows us the opportunity to be creative. So if we take a look at, well, okay, so my numbers goal is this, if I am bringing in the certain number of projects that I have now at the design fee that I currently charge, and that's not going to get me there, then what needs to happen, and then we can get into that solution focus of, well, maybe I need to raise my rates, or maybe I need to streamline my processes. So I'm more efficient and the project is more profitable, maybe I need a lower level support staff doing the drawing, so I can be out marketing more, like we just start looking at all these solutions. And so I'm 100% on board with getting specific.
Michele 40:44
You know, one of the things that I've also noticed is that it is so easy to be stopped by fear of setting a firm vision, because many people, again, from my experience, personally and with my client base, it's almost like if I say that, that's what I want, then I don't attain it, I'm somehow a failure. And I'm sure you've seen that because I'm watching your body language. And our listeners can't see your body language. But you're. And I think some of that, too, comes down to but what if we're closer we would it I've not attained every single goal I ever put out in clear definition every single time. But I got really close to them closer than I would have gotten had I not put it out there. I felt good about what I did do. And sometimes that could have attained the goal. But I was willing to make a different choice and willing to let the goal go. Because I was changing directions or didn't want to invest or whatever. So what it did was by stating what I wanted, and then I call it doing a stress test on your business, can the business support the goal? You know, like, I'll have people tell me, well, I'm going to make 150,000 in profit, and how many hours a week? Are you planning to work about 15? I'm like, how many weeks? Are you going to work about? 20? Okay, that is good, we're going to have to have a really killer model for that to work. So let me see what your model looks like. Will Is it even possible to earn enough do enough and you know, a portion of the time that most people would get from working full time, like, right stress test this thing to see if it's even going to work. But when we do stress, test it, and we see that it is possible. That energizes me to then measure to it, try for it, go for it, and work towards it, and then recognize it. Even if I don't hit it. I got closer than if I had not done all that work.
Desi Creswell 42:41
Yeah, totally. And I think often we're just afraid to be disappointed, or maybe embarrassed, or, you know, name the negative emotion here, right, of not hitting the goal.
Michele 42:53
know, fear of failure of all.
Desi Creswell 42:55
We have to remember that we are the ones that would create that for ourselves, we get to decide what it means for us to be at point, you know, whatever point it is along our goal creation journey, we decide what that means. So if you're, you know, at 99%, instead of 100, we get to decide if that means we failed? Or if we've if we are, you know, am I within tolerance? Yes, exactly. You know, and, and then again, just to like, like you were saying who you get to become along the process, if we don't set the goals, we don't have the opportunity to work through all those challenges and obstacles that come up in the event of, you know, actually going after the goal. And so we're Of course going to be benefiting ourselves and our business, regardless of the outcome. And then we always get to decide. And I think it's good to decide ahead of time, what you're going to think about yourself and your efforts and your goal, whether or not you hit it. So that way, once we get to that finish line, you're not creating unnecessary drama for yourself.
Michele 44:06
I totally agree with you. So Desi, as we wrap up our conversation, is there anything else about focus that you think we need to be aware of, as we are kind of creating it and thinking about it? With regards to business success?
Desi Creswell 44:23
Yeah, I think, you know, one of the one of the things we didn't really do was even define focus.
Michele 44:30
So define it.
Desi Creswell 44:32
So the way that I like to define it is really as it's a single point of interest or the center of your attention. And the reason why I like to define it that way is because we get to take full responsibility for it. And it means that we are giving it our attention and the external world does not need to conform in order for us to show up how we want to show up And I think it's especially important in this time, when so many of us are at home more, we've got other obligations such as schooling children in the house, that kind of thing of, we can wait for the stars to perfectly align. And we have four hours of solid time where it's totally silent and no contractor is going to call us and no one's going to come knock on our office door needing a snack. But that's likely not going to happen. And so let's put it back in our own control and create the focus for ourselves. And so there's so many different ways that we can do that. And it can be communicating expectations, setting other people up for success, whether it's maybe a junior designer you have and working with giving them the proper information upfront or even empowering them to make decisions on their own. So they're not interrupting you. Or it can be with family members who are you know, in close quarters at this point still, and saying that I'm this is going to be my solid block of our here and I will come check on you when that time is up. So I like I like to remind people, just that focus, which is within your power, and we have to just be intentional about it. And the more that we can be proactive about it, the less, we have to be at the effect of it.
Michele 46:19
I love that. Beautifully said. That's why I think that we're so complimentary in the way that we see things. Not complimentary, like, oh, Desi, you're great, but you are great.
Desi Creswell 46:30
Well, I think you're pretty swell too.
Michele 46:34
Because you know, my tagline is what you own, you can change. Yeah. And so when we own our beliefs, when we own our finances, when we own other decisions, when we own our choices, when we own our business, that if we don't like the trajectory that we're going, we change it. And you know, the more intentional we can be, without letting fear disrupt us, the more we're going to get what we want. The more we define what we want, the more we go after what we want, the more you're going to get it. But when we sit and wait on things to come to us and take what's left over. That's when a lot of times, right we're not really happy or we're doing work for others that we don't enjoy, or we found ourselves doing a process we don't even like and so, you know, we have to Marie Kondo our businesses, what sparks joy, what do we love? What do we want to do? And now how do we do it in the best possible way to get the outcome that we desire? And just being very clear, and intentional and strategic? And doing that work is what's going to create success? Otherwise, if even if we get success, it can be accidental, and we don't know how to recreate it. I've seen that too.
Desi Creswell 47:47
Yeah. Yeah. And, and even just taking I think even, that's something that I hear from a lot of clients is like, well, I kind of accidentally fell into this career, or clients have fallen in my lap, and even taking a look at Okay, so let's say that that's not really possible because clients don't fall out of thin air. What did you do to create those and starting to really take back your power and create your confidence in your ability to create those clients yourself?
Michele 48:19
To have it happen again?
Desi Creswell 48:20
Yeah, I think that's so important. So important.
Michele 48:23
So does he tell us where you're hanging out online and where people can find you and get more information about your programs and offerings?
Desi Creswell 48:30
So I hang out on Instagram a lot. You can find me there @DesiCresswell. And for any listeners who want to pop in my DMs and just say hi, I love to connect to there. I also would encourage everyone to head over to my website and download the interior designers daily get it done planner. And you can go to DesiCresswell.com/daily planner. And this is my scheduling approach that is going to make you loads more efficient, and make time for the priorities in your business and in your life. And it's really a blend of scheduling techniques and mindset. Because it all starts with our mindset. The reason we do or don't do anything in our days or in our in our lives, starts with our thinking and so we have to address that as well. So that's really a blend of those two, and it gives you a hint at what you could expect if you were to be interested in my group program out of overwhelm. So it's a great way to sort of dip your toes into this style of coaching.
Michele 49:31
I love it. I love it. Well, thank you so much for that resource for having me. Oh, you're welcome. And we'll put all of that in show notes and people will be able to connect with you and I'll make sure that that I had right over and go look at your daily planner. I think it sounds awesome. Thank you for sharing your expertise and everybody go get LuAnn Nigara second or third book that you're in as well the Power Talk series and Which chapter Are you in? Does he do you know?
Desi Creswell 50:02
Oh, gosh, that's a good question. Um,
Michele 50:05
I remember in and in the second book on chapter three, page one, I think page 111. Like, I tried to memorize the chapter and
Desi Creswell 50:12
another thing to do that I should have done that, I think I might be to chapter eight. It's called creating your ideal life and business. So fortunately, there is a table of contents in that lovely book. And everyone will be able to take a look at the page numbers since I can't tell you off the top of my head.
Michele 50:29
I bet you when we hang up, you're gonna go look at what jack regardless, read the whole book. The whole thing is great.
Desi Creswell 50:36
I can tell you it's Volume Two.
Michele 50:38
Volume Two, that's perfect. Well, thank you again. Desi. I appreciate your time. And you have a great day.
Desi Creswell 50:44
Thank you so much for having me, Michele.
Michele 50:46
Thanks Desi for joining us on the podcast. Finding focus is really essential to creating a business that we love, not just one that we endure, our businesses should work for us, not only as working for the business, so maybe spend a little time asking yourself where you may be out of alignment in your life and business, and then make a plan to correct that. My clients are enjoying the freedom of strategically planning the business they desire, and then putting in place the action steps needed to accomplish this dream. You can find out more by visiting ScarletThreadConsulting.com sign up for a discovery call if you want to chat about how we can be of service. be intentional about your focus, because that will lead to profitability. And we all know that profit doesn't happen by accident. Profit is a Choice is proud to be part of the designnetwork.org where you can discover more design media reaching creative listeners. Thanks for listening, and stay creative and business minded.