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Hello and welcome to episode 155
of Design Curious Podcast. 

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I'm your host and mentor, 
Rebecca Ward. 

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Today on the podcast, we are 
talking about getting that 

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breakthrough in your business. 
Maybe you're feeling stuck and 

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you know that your business and 
you as a designer could be 

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better, but you're not sure how 
to make that happen or when, or 

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you're just feeling overwhelmed.
Well, here's the truth. 

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Your biggest business 
breakthrough probably isn't 

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hiding in your inbox or your To 
Do List. 

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It's going to come when you step
away from the day-to-day grind, 

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get around the right people and 
give yourself space to think 

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bigger. 
If that intrigues you, you're 

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going to like today's episode. 
And so let's get into it. 

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You're now listening to Design 
Curious, the place where you, 

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Creative one, are here to learn 
about what it really is like to 

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be an interior designer. 
And I'm your host and mentor, 

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Rebecca Ward. 
If you're worried about how to 

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succeed in a creative career, if
you're ready to learn your next 

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steps to become an interior 
designer, and if you want the 

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satisfaction of doing something 
you love every day, you are in 

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the right place. 
Grab a coffee, a notebook and 

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let's dig into today's episode. 
So we're going to break today's 

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discussion into three parts. 
First of all, why you need to 

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step out of your daily routine 
in order to get breakthrough in 

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your business. 
Then we're going to talk about 

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the power of proximity, who's 
around you, who you surround 

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yourself with. 
And then we're going to talk 

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about the value of time. 
So let's get started on that 

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discussion. 
First, we're talking about your 

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environment and why you kind of 
need to go away in order to make

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change happen. 
When you're in your day today, 

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you have a routine, and routine 
is great. 

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You want routine, You want 
systems, You want to keep 

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following what you're doing. 
That's the right thing. 

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But rarely do you make time to 
evaluate and see, is this the 

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right thing or is this the best 
thing that I should be doing 

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right now? 
Because you're in that system 

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and in that routine. 
Research from the University of 

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Utah found that spending just 
four days away from your usual 

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environment, and especially 
without digital interruptions, 

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can boost your creativity by 
50%. 

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That's crazy. 
So if you haven't taken a 

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vacation in a while, I am giving
you permission right now to book

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that four days away if you can, 
even if it's just going over to 

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the next town, going over to the
beach or some destination not 

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too far away just to get you out
of your usual environment. 

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New environments trigger your 
brain's default mode network, 

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which supports problem solving 
and innovation. 

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For me, travel is one of the 
things that my heart loves. 

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So in my full focus planner, I 
use the Wellness version of it 

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now and there is a heart check 
couple of pages at the beginning

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that you do every quarter to see
what is motivating you in your 

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life and what makes you happy. 
Where do you find the most joy? 

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And one of those things I 
consistently put in there is 

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travel, because I love to be in 
new environments, not for 

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extended periods of time, but 
for short periods of time up to 

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a week or maybe 2, just to 
travel. 

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I love seeing new architecture 
and studying what other 

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designers and architects are 
doing in other towns and cities.

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I love the inspiration that 
nature provides too. 

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I always come back feeling 
inspired, feeling like my 

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creative juices are ready to go 
and very motivated to do the 

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best I can in my business and to
improve it and make it better. 

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And also my craft. 
I want to be a better designer. 

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I've got ideas and most of the 
time with designers and with 

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creativity, you're not always 
inventing something that's new. 

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Your creativity is kind of like 
maybe baking or cooking. 

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You're taking all these parts 
and putting it together maybe in

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a new way. 
And that, that's what I also 

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love and get inspired by food in
really fine restaurants, is 

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because of the way they plate 
it, the way they put it together

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or deconstruct something. 
They're taking all the same 

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ingredients that you might have 
at home, but presenting it to 

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you in such a unique way. 
And that's what you do with 

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design. 
Every designer has access to a 

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lot of the same materials, the 
same fabrics, the same 

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furnishings, but not everybody 
puts it together in the same 

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way. 
And so that's where your 

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creativity can get sparked. 
You can jump off of someone 

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else's inspiration, someone 
else's design. 

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And you say, you know, I love 
what they did here, but I would 

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love to change it and make this 
be a more floral pattern instead

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of geometrics. 
And but what if we use the same 

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colors or we use black and 
white? 

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And so use it as a jumping off 
point to make something that is 

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your own and unique for your 
client, for your design. 

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And you might not get that 
inspiration if you're just stuck

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in your office, in your Home 
Office, at your desk, on your 

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computer and in front of a 
screen all the time. 

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There's something about being 
immersed in that environment 

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that makes a change. 
And we've also seen the studies 

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about in Asia where doctors will
prescribe people to go out into 

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nature. 
It's called a forest walk or a 

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forest bathing I believe. 
And they are healed. 

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They take in the beauty of the 
nature and it really does 

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something to your body. 
And so it's important that you 

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get out of your environment. 
You get into nature first of 

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all, but then you go to also 
places that are going to inspire

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you, whether that's man made 
architecture or natural 

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architecture, maybe the Arches 
or some Grand Canyon or 

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something that nature has done 
that's really inspiring. 

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It doesn't always have to be a 
big trip like that. 

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You could just go to your local 
lake or your local mountain and 

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just take a day and spend some 
time with yourself and get 

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inspired. 
And that's also one of the 

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points of I had mentioned 
before, decided to start taking 

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personal retreat days quarterly.
And that's part of The thing is 

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that I go somewhere else during 
the day, get out of my 

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environment so I can focus a 
little better, so I can get 

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inspired, have perspective. 
And it's really important to 

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change your environment to do 
that. 

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We all are very much aware as 
designers how much our 

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environment affects us. 
You know the expression like 

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physician, heal thyself. 
Well, designer, you need to heal

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thyself. 
You have to also listen to what 

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you're preaching and think about
your environment. 

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And if you're stuck in the day 
today, if you're not feeling 

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inspired, then you need to get 
out of there, do something new 

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and not stay at your desk. 
Your desk is designed for 

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execution, not imagination. 
If you want vision, you need to 

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be in a setting that sparks it. 
And the best part is, it's not 

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just about where you are, but 
it's also about who you are 

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with. 
So that brings us to the next 

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part, the power of proximity and
who is around you. 

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Jim Rohn is famous for saying 
you're the average of the five 

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people you spend the most time 
with. 

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Who are your top five people? 
You could pull up your phone, 

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maybe they're your favorites in 
your text contacts, the people 

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that you're talking to the most,
but who are you surrounding 

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yourself day-to-day with? 
What is their mindset? 

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Are they as motivate? 
Are they business owners? 

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Are they designers? 
Are they inspiring to you? 

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Take a moment to think about 
that because if they are not 

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going places in life and you 
want to go places, you might 

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need to change who you're 
spending most of your time with.

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Not saying you can't be friends 
with them, but I'm just saying 

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spend more time with the people 
you want to be like. 

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Harvard Business Review found 
that people in high performing 

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peer groups improved their 
results by 15 to 20% simply by 

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being exposed to better ideas 
and higher standards. 

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And this is the reason why I am 
part of a mastermind group of 

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designers. 
We get together in person now 

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every 12 months and some 
destination around the world. 

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And every six months we'll have 
a three day summit essentially 

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to review each other's 
financials, go over our business

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goals and exchange ideas. 
And then we also meet monthly to

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pinpoint topics that we might 
need help with currently in our 

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businesses or for some education
to learn. 

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And this group has influenced so
much the way that I have run my 

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business in the last five years 
since we started meeting. 

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The ideas I've gotten from them 
have been infused into the way 

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that I run my business now and 
it's only improved for that. 

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And I love when we get together.
I'm always pushed to do better, 

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pushed to be better. 
Having a support group around 

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you of like minded individuals 
who are supporting and 

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encouraging you is exactly what 
you need to go through. 

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Owning a business, running a 
business, being the best 

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designer you can be. 
You can't do this alone. 

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No man's an island. 
Proximity creates access to 

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knowledge, encouragement and 
opportunities. 

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I don't love networking per SE. 
We talked about before being an 

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introvert, like going to 
networking events locally, like 

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for my Chamber of Commerce, of 
which I am a member. 

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I always had that feeling before
I go, I kind of want to just 

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stay home or I just want to stay
at the office and not actually 

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go and talk to a bunch of people
I don't know and businesses that

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might not be of any benefit. 
However, after I go, I'm always 

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so grateful because I love 
making connections. 

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I am very much a connector as 
well and I love finding out how 

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I can connect someone with 
another person that might have 

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nothing to do with me, but I'm 
meeting the need that they have 

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because I know someone that they
might need to know. 

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That might happen for you. 
The more you're out there 

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networking with designers, 
contractors, architects or 

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people outside of your industry,
the more you will have 

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connections and the more you 
will have opportunity. 

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If I didn't have my networking 
events, I wouldn't have known 

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when I was starting out my 
business that I needed a certain

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amount of insurance. 
Like I had to set up my books a 

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certain way. 
I talked about this in the 

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mindset shift series That is 
really important to have those 

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people around me so that I could
learn and be like, oh, I'm 

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actually not doing this right. 
So I knew the right person to 

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ask. 
And even if that person wasn't 

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my long term solution, like I 
might have switched insurance 

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agents or switched banks, 
Oregon, switched bookkeepers, 

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that got me started in the right
direction of what to look for. 

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Sometimes people are in your 
life for a season to mutually be

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beneficial to each other and 
then you can move on. 

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So if you get overwhelmed at the
thought of having to have like 

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hundreds of new friends, that's 
not what I'm saying here. 

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I'm saying surround yourself 
with people who are like mine. 

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So reach out to your local 
design groups. 

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Think about joining a 
mastermind, Go to retreats or 

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even conferences. 
The furniture markets usually 

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will have learnings and places 
where you can meet and greet 

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people. 
I'm going to say right now that 

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if you're in the Sacramento 
area, I'm talking about this 

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because I'm coming up with a 
solution for you. 

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We have a retreat coming up in 
November, 13th and 14th, and I 

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want you to be there because you
need this. 

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You need to change your 
environment. 

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First of all, even though we're 
keeping it in the Sacramento 

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area. 
But you're going to get out of 

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your office and you're going to 
go to a new place and you're 

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going to surround yourself with 
designers and with people who 

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are maybe farther ahead of you 
in systems or mindset who can 

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share ideas with you. 
That is going to push you to 

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breakthrough to get to that next
level. 

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If you're not satisfied with the
way it is running right now, 

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then this retreat is going to 
push you to the next level. 

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I cannot express how important 
it is to be surrounded by the 

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people that you want to be like 
and then also getting out of 

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your usual routine in order to 
make that happen. 

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OK. 
So if you want to reach a higher

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level business, you need to be 
in the same room, the room where

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it happens as the people already
operating there having candid 

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open conversations about what is
actually working. 

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Now you might be saying your 
hesitation might be like I can't

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take two days out of my work 
week to go to this retreat 

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specifically that I'm planning 
for you or any retreat or any 

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mastermind group. 
I told you I take 3 days every 

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six months to meet with my 
group. 

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When we meet in person, it's I'm
usually gone for a week, a week 

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and a half because I might be 
going Australia or Boston or 

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someplace like that. 
Next we're going to Canada and I

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want to make sure I have enough 
time to visit the place that I'm

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traveling to as well. 
So I'm taking time off of my 

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business. 
How am I doing that? 

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Because I have first of all 
valued that the time away, I put

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a lot of value on that time 
away, put a lot of value on 

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being with the people that are 
going to make the change happen 

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that I want to see. 
But also I understand that I 

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don't always have to be working 
in my business for 50-60 hours a

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week. 
I don't even work in my business

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40 hours a week right now. 
It's exactly the way I designed.

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If we go back to the first 
episode in the Mindset Shift 

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series, I talked about how I 
design a career that supports 

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the life that I want to live. 
Research shows that productivity

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drops sharply after 50-5 hours a
week, meaning that more work or 

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working more hours doesn't equal
more output. 

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It drastically declines after a 
certain amount of time. 

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Got to cut yourself off first of
all, because you're doing not as

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good work, you're not as 
creative, but then you're only 

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working in your business and 
you're not working on your 

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business. 
But you've heard this expression

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so many times. 
All the coaches out there right 

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now are going to say this to 
you. 

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You got to work on your business
and not just in your business. 

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The most profitable design firms
aren't necessarily working more 

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hours. 
They've intentionally built 

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pricing processes, boundaries to
deliver high value design in 

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less time. 
I know it sounds crazy, but it's

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possible. 
I didn't think it was possible 

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for the longest amount of time. 
I hassled a lot. 

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But now I find that the way that
my pricing is that we capture 

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all of our time when we're doing
our hourly time as well. 

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That was a big part of it, 
creating boundaries, the time of

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day that I'm meeting with 
people, and that just made it so

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much better. 
My profitability went up and my 

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work hours went down. 
So it is possible. 

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I'm here to tell you that it is.
So you can dream for it and it 

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can happen, but you have to make
time to work on your business to

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make it happen, which is what I 
eventually learned that I had to

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do. 
For the longest time, I didn't 

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seek out coaching. 
I didn't go to conferences. 

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But once I started doing that, 
the more I realized I need that 

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and I make time for professional
development, quite a lot of it 

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in my work near. 
And it's also really important 

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to pause to review your numbers,
review what your client mixes, 

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the type of projects you're 
working on, your service 

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structure, and how to create 
that business that supports your

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life like we talked about in the
Mindset Shift series. 

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So I highly encourage you to 
take these words to heart and 

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think about signing up for the 
Thrive Retreat in November with 

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me and Kathy Tonks and Sierra 
Collins. 

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I'm going to have both of those 
ladies on the podcast in a few 

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weeks to talk about in more 
detail this retreat. 

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Even if you're not in the 
Sacramento area and you want to 

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travel, you want to take those 
four days that I talked about to

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maximize your creativity by 50%,
then I'd say it's definitely 

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worth it. 
You can find more information 

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about the retreat in the show 
notes. 

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I'll leave a link for you to 
find that, but it is exactly 

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what this podcast is talking 
about. 

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It's the right environment, it's
the right people, and we're 

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going to give you the right 
strategies to help make those 

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big shifts in your business 
without burning out. 

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Some highlights from the tree 
that I know we're going to go 

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into detail in a few weeks, but 
we're going to have some 

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breakout sessions with yours 
truly and the other ladies. 

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Talk about mindset shifts and 
also business practices. 

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We'll have Q&A. 
We can get your most burning 

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questions answered in that time.
You're going to be surrounded in

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a beautiful environment away 
from your desk by other like 

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minded designers who you might 
be able to create a support 

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00:18:22,080 --> 00:18:24,360
group with. 
You could do a follow up group 

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with them, which would be 
wonderful. 

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Yeah, you're going to be away 
from your emails and away from 

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job site visits and whatever you
might have going on, but that 

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stuff can wait. 
This is so important. 

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The workshops, the sessions on 
streamlining and pricing and 

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scaling, it's all going to come 
together for you. 

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00:18:44,320 --> 00:18:46,520
You're going to be so inspired 
and you're going to jump back 

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into your work a new designer. 
OK? 

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So if you have been stuck in the
weeds and you're ready for 

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clarity and connection and a 
plan that gives you more freedom

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00:18:56,760 --> 00:18:59,440
and income, then I encourage you
to join us. 

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And if you can't join us, then I
encourage you to reach out to me

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and we can talk about if my 
design mentor is a good fit for 

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you or some other retreat or 
location that might, I might be 

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00:19:12,640 --> 00:19:15,840
able to suggest to you just to 
get you going. 

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And as always, reach out to me 
if you have a different pain 

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00:19:20,720 --> 00:19:24,200
point that I didn't bring up 
today that is maybe holding you 

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00:19:24,200 --> 00:19:26,560
back from attending these 
things. 

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00:19:26,560 --> 00:19:29,560
And breaking out of your 
environment and being around 

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people who are going to lift you
up. 

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So I'd love to hear from you. 
And let's get you on the 

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shortcut to working less. 
Get you in the room where it 

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00:19:38,640 --> 00:19:42,120
happens, because you know that 
it's not going to be happening 

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00:19:42,120 --> 00:19:52,320
at your desk. 
So hopefully you've learned that

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00:19:52,480 --> 00:19:57,080
stepping away from your desk has
a huge ROI when it's 

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00:19:57,080 --> 00:20:00,120
intentional, when you're 
surrounded by the right people, 

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00:20:00,640 --> 00:20:04,280
and that you're just going to 
have a boost in creativity when 

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you're taken out of your 
environment. 

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Designers are always on, right? 
Or always like thinking about 

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our clients or on client calls 
or on site visits, sourcing. 

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00:20:15,680 --> 00:20:19,840
Doing admin and I know that the 
idea of stepping away feels 

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00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:21,640
impossible. 
It's not. 

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I've done it. 
Lots of other designers that are

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00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:27,800
doing it too. 
Part of the purpose of this 

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podcast is to introduce you to 
concept and ideas that maybe you

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00:20:32,040 --> 00:20:35,000
haven't before. 
I like to think of it as like if

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00:20:35,040 --> 00:20:39,680
I were in my career 15 years ago
and I just kind of had my head 

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00:20:39,680 --> 00:20:42,800
in the sand, I was just doing 
whatever I would want to be 

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00:20:42,800 --> 00:20:44,920
hearing all of this. 
And so that's why I'm telling 

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00:20:44,920 --> 00:20:47,200
you this. 
Hopefully you've enjoyed it. 

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00:20:47,520 --> 00:20:49,600
Don't forget in the show notes, 
we have a lot of great things 

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00:20:49,600 --> 00:20:52,560
for you. 
And I look forward to seeing you

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00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:56,600
at the Thrive Retreat. 
And also next week, we'll have 

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another great episode for you. 
And until then, stay creative. 

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Thanks for listening. 
If you love this episode, please

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00:21:04,960 --> 00:21:07,720
leave a rating and a review. 
This helps me reach other 

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00:21:07,720 --> 00:21:11,440
curious creatives like you. 
If you have a topic request or 

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00:21:11,440 --> 00:21:14,760
would like to contact me, simply
head over to my website 

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00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:21,120
awardesigncom or e-mail me at 
podcast at awardesign com.