Hello and welcome to episode 35 of design cures podcast.
I'm your host and Mentor Rebecca Ward this week on the podcast we
are talking about CEO mindset. What is it?
And why do you need to have it or manage it?
Or what if you're just going to work for someone else?
So we answer all of those questions in the episode today.
And before we get into that, I want to remind you the you might
want my download of the three things.
I wish I had known before I started My career in interior
design. So you can go to the show notes
and click on that link and get the download.
We also have a download available for you.
If you are trying to decide, if interior design is your career,
you can download the roadmap to becoming an interior designer.
And I'll show you all the steps along the way.
And you can also go back to podcast number 23, where I
talked about that a little more in detail, so as we are getting,
you nowhere episode 35. Now, And so there's a lot of
good information if you go back in the episodes I highly
recommend. Even if you're just going to
start out at episode 1, where I even talk about an intro to
Interior Design what it is, and how I got on the path to
Interior Design as a great place to start.
So you might want to start there or you might want to start here
and work backwards. If you haven't been listening
along, but I think all of them are great and you're going to
get something out of each episode.
Alright, now, let's get into CEO.
Set. You're now listening to design,
curious a place where you creative one are here to learn
about what it really is. Like, to be an interior designer
and I'm your host and Mentor Rebecca, Ward, if you're worried
about how to succeed in a creative career, if you're ready
to learn your next steps to become an Interior Designer.
And if you want the satisfaction of doing something you love
every day, you are in the right place.
Grab a coffee, a notebook. And Let's dig into today's
episode. Okay.
CEO mindset. Let's get some definitions in
place because because I know you guys are just curious about the
career and you might not even be even familiar.
What CEO is CEO stands for chief executive officer?
It is the highest position in a business, the top dog, I guess
you could say it's where the buck stops and you know could be
president of the company but CEO is pretty common term and one
that is tossed around even for solopreneurs entrepreneurs.
And so, what we are talking about today is the CEO mindset
and the definition of a CEO mindset, would be a set of
psychological traits, which form the makings of a successful
business leader. And those might include
confidence resilience. Or ambition.
So why do you need to have a CEO mindset and today, I guess I'm
speaking more for people who are thinking about going into
business for themselves as an interior designer, and if you're
just starting out in the career, you might be working for
someone. It's good to understand what
your CEO is thinking about. But also you might think about
going out on your own someday, maybe you're just getting
experience working for someone so it's good to be Mindful of
this. Okay, so the reason why this
comes up a lot and I've noticed it a lot in coaching programs
and podcast that I listen to is because when a designer gets
into their own business, they are doing it.
Because and I've talked about this before because they love
the craft, they want to be a designer.
They want to have the autonomy. Maybe.
And so they are thinking mainly about Doing the design work but
when your own your own business, someone has to do all the
business part of it. And it's likely going to be
used. Someone needs to make those
decisions, someone needs to organize it, someone needs to
think about The Branding in the messaging and processes and
procedures the finances, tracking expenses, and making
sure your income exceeds your expenses.
So that is typically not the fun part for designers.
If you remember back in episode 32, if Andrea libres, she talked
about coaching a designer who really did not want to be pinned
down by processes and procedures.
She said, every client every project is different, I don't
need methods and really Andrea wasn't able to help that person
because if you're running a business it has to have
structure. And I am not naturally a
structured person. I would say I enjoy it.
I definitely Enjoy, but setting it up myself.
It's not my forte. Now, I do love business, I love
being an entrepreneur. I Love Thinking creatively about
new ideas, I could do for my business new offerings, how I
can make the client experience better, but when it comes to
spreadsheets tracking finances, but keeping all of that
processes and procedures. Painting everything that is not
for me so knowing that I definitely have delegated it and
out sourced it to my employees. Now I didn't always have
employees, I worked for the first several years by myself, I
would occasionally have interns and that was helpful to have
just someone else to work with to have them filing papers or
whatever running get samples and things like that.
So interns were Ice. And then I hired someone
part-time and then I hired her full-time and eventually was
able to start delegating tasks. That were not my favorite.
That maybe my employee was much more suited for.
That's when I first started having to think about being the
CEO of my company, I'm actually in a position of leadership and,
you know, I'll jump in here and say that you are in a position
of leadership even if you are a solopreneur because As of the
way that our job in industry is set up that we have to work with
a lot of other trades. People, there's many people that
come into our quote-unquote team and so you are managing those
people for your project on your client's behalf and so you are a
leader, whether you have employees or not.
So going back when I had employed.
So I learn very slowly because like I said before, I didn't
have coaching right away, how to be a good.
Learned how to delegate and it is hard.
It is hard to let go and I even let go of the designing process,
which I found that was fine for me as long as we did it
collaboratively. I still got enjoyment out of it.
I didn't have to be the one actually drafting up the floor
plan. I could just come in and talk
about it with them and then they could draft it for me.
So, learning to delegate is challenging because you're not
really letting go of control, but you also are, So you're not
not losing control of the project are not losing control
of the design, because ultimately your names on the
door, right? And so you have full control
over it and but it is really good for you and for your team,
if you can let them have some autonomy in the design process
and in the tasks that you've given them.
So learning how to be a good leader, is a part of that CEO
mindset and just understanding that you are a leader.
You need to be caring for your team, whether that is in house
or if that is contracted virtual, you need to make sure
that you are checking in with them.
Just even on a personal level, sending them gifts on occasion
and celebrating milestones. And when they've done a good job
because that really goes a long way for you and for them to help
the projects, run, better help the team work together, much
better. One thing is is as we're
thinking about all of the business things that you need to
be doing as a business owner, some designers have gone the
route of having a partner in the business so say that you're like
no I really just want to be on my computer drafting all day.
Our I really just want to be out pulling samples all day.
I want to be face-to-face with the clients.
That's what I love about design. And that's what I want my
business to be like, then. Perhaps you bring in a partner
who really excels more At running the business side and
you can then split the profits of the business.
They can do what they're good at.
You can do what you enjoy and that is another way for having a
company of your own, but not actually having to do all of the
more business managerial side of it.
As a CEO, you'll still or, as partner of the company, you'll
still have decisions to make about the direction of the
company and things like that if you want.
But it's definitely a levy. Hated by bringing in a partner
so that might be something for you.
And another thing I'll bring up that I learned from Kimberly
Selden who is going to be on the podcast next week is that even
if you are a solopreneur speak to the public and to your
clients in a plural form. So because they as a business we
do this, this is our policy and in order to help you kind of
have more conviction and saying that is a plural because you has
the company is an entity is also understanding that your contract
she'll say, is, is really your partner is the backbone and
you'll be like talking to a client and they'll be
complaining about having added Freight fees, or something that
and you say, well, our policy is and can see it's here in the
contract is that we charge you for Freight fees and so that's
really something that Can back you up and that you can really
have confidence saying we, which helps you kind of get into the
CEO mindset. When we kept seeing our company,
we do this, we do that really well, kind of elevate your
mindset to be thinking about it on a more global scale rather
than just you as the worker in the company.
And I'm not going to get too much into the employee side of
companies, because I know most people listening to this podcast
are Starting out and they're not even thinking about having
employees right off the bat. But you will probably want to
consider delegating a few things.
So, if you can delegate even drafting or 3D rendering
Services, you can delegate your social media content creation
can delegate measuring the house or anything, really.
You can delegate can bring someone in and or hire someone
virtually. And so, that is a way to really
help you grow as well. So you wouldn't think about your
company it and it should grow over time and you're not going
to want to stay small forever. You want to stay manageable so
you can do that by delegating things to other people.
So there you have it, CEO mindset, hope you have a better
idea of what it is, why you need it and start practicing saying
we if you own your own business, just a lot of good food for
thought there, as you're considering going into the
career and, you know, working for someone else and then maybe
eventually getting your own business.
So don't forget, we have my design Mentor, my membership
program that you can join. And Monthly coaching calls with
me as well as there's 12 topic career guides in there that you
can download and work your way through to explore all of the
different topics that you might need to face as you're getting
into the career. There's also a business starter
kit available for purchase inside of that program so that
sounds like something that you might want to do.
Go ahead and check it out on our website under my design Mentor.
Like I said, next week, we have Kimberly Selden my coach from
business of design on the podcast and she's going to talk
about her story, but she is definitely a proponent of this
CEO mindset in your business, because you have to take control
of what's happening and work on your business as well as in your
business. We can all get the satisfaction
of being designers but we also have to have a business that
runs well or else we will no longer be in business.
So we'll get all of her. Well, With of information next
week is so excited to talk with her.
So stay tuned for that and until then stay creative, thanks for
listening. If you loved this episode,
please leave a rating and a review.
This helps me reach other curious creatives.
Like you, if you have a topic request or would like to contact
me, simply head over to my website, our Ward design.com or
email me at podcast at our Ward design.com.