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Hello and welcome to episode 151
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're 
continuing in our series of 

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mindset shifting. 
This is the third installment of

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that. 
And today we're talking about 

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going from being the creative in
your company to the CEO and 

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learning to think like a 
business owner. 

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Most interior designers are are 
also business owners, but not 

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everyone. 
But we're going to address those

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who are today, and we are going 
to help designers shift from 

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seeing themselves not only as 
the creatives, but to fully step

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into their CEO roles by 
embracing leadership, strategy, 

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financial awareness, Envision 
building as essential and 

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empowering parts of the job. 
Don't be intimidated by the fact

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that you might need to see 
yourself as ACEO. 

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And that's what this whole 
episode is about. 

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Is that mindset shift gonna get 
you over that hump so that you 

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can have a very successful, 
profitable business that 

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supports the life that you want,
the life that you're designing 

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for yourself? 
Before we get into the episode, 

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I want to remind you we have 
some great downloads for you in 

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the show notes. 
We have three things I wish I'd 

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known before starting my career 
in interior design. 

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I talk about those three things,
and then we also have a quiz for

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you. 
You can find out more about my 

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design Mentor, which is my 
online mentorship platform that 

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gives you both education and 
support as you're starting out 

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your career. 
OK, now let's get into the 

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episode. 
You're now listening to design. 

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Curious. 
A place. 

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Where you creative one are here 
to learn about what it. 

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Really is like. 
To be an interior designer, and 

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I'm your host and mentor. 
Rebecca Ward. 

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If you're worried about how to 
succeed in a creative. 

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Career. 
If you're ready to learn your 

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

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satisfaction of doing something 
you love every. 

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Day you are. 
In the right. 

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Place grab a coffee. 
A notebook and let's dig into 

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today's. 
Episode So if you love the 

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creative side of design, as we 
all do, we wouldn't be in this 

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if we didn't. 
But maybe you're feeling 

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overwhelmed by business 
decisions. 

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You're not alone. 
But here's the truth. 

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The most successful designers 
aren't just artists, they're 

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leaders. 
And here's the great news. 

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You can be both a leader and a 
creative. 

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Imagine that. 
OK, so we have talked about 

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building a business that 
supports the life that you're 

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designing, designing a life that
you love. 

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We've talked about shifting your
mindset on being the expert and 

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showing up at your initial 
consultations to secure that 

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project and give the client 
confidence. 

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So now you have the project, 
you've got to run your business.

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And so let's talk about the 
whole part of the business and 

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running your show like ACEO. 
First of all, why are creatives 

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resistant to having ACEO role in
their company? 

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Most common things that 
designers might say is that I'm 

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not a numbers person. 
I'm terrible with numbers or 

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accounting. 
I just want to design. 

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I don't want to manage anybody. 
I don't want to be in the weeds 

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about running the business or 
business is boring or confusing 

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or overwhelming. 
So what happens when you have 

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these mindsets going on in the 
background of being an A 

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designer that runs their own 
business? 

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The result can be burnout. 
Don't love that undercharging? 

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Well, that's very common. 
And chaos behind the scenes. 

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Maybe you've had this 
experience, You stepped into a 

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project that a previous designer
had been working on and the 

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client just couldn't handle it 
anymore because there was so 

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much chaos going on in that 
designer's process that they 

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would meet with the client and 
then they'd meet with them five 

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more times to decide the tile. 
And then they wouldn't hear from

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the designer for four weeks. 
And then they'd get a bill for 

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$5000 and all of a sudden that 
they're ready for the 

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consultation. 
So there's chaos going back and 

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forth. 
There's no system, no 

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communication. 
And unfortunately, that is a 

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common path for creatives to 
fall into. 

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So many creatives don't like to 
be confined or controlled by 

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systems and organizing. 
They feel the chaos. 

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A lot of times they'll say the 
chaos helps them to be more 

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creative. 
And sometimes, I don't know, 

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sometimes I think I've heard an 
expression where if you have a 

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messy desk, that means that 
you're creative on the inside or

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something like that. 
However, having been in this 

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business for 18 years, my 
experience has shown me that 

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having systems in a clear, easy 
process that you run your 

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project every single time is the
winning strategy for profit, for

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not getting burned out and 
overwhelmed and to enjoy your 

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career and to have your clients 
enjoy the process. 

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That's what we're talking about 
today, that being ACEO is not a 

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role that you earned someday. 
It's a hat that you can put on 

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today and you can have that 
company that you love, that your

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clients love. 
And maybe if you have employees,

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they're definitely going to love
that too. 

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OK, so let's put on our CEO 
hats. 

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The core mindset to adopt is 
having a visionary think. 

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Well, there's there's several 
mindsets, I guess here. 

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So you want to have visionary 
thinking, which means you need 

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to see the big picture and plan 
ahead. 

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This should not be news for us 
as designers, as creatives. 

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We can see a client's house 
completely transformed in our 

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minds the moment we step into 
the house, and you can visualize

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it to the NTH degree. 
And then of course, it's 

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communicating that to the 
client. 

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But we have such an ability to 
visualize and casting a vision 

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for that house, for that client,
for that project. 

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So why can we not apply this to 
our business? 

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Well, there's no reason why not 
to. 

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So first of all, see the big 
picture. 

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Treat your business like a 
project. 

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Where do you want to take care 
of business? 

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What should the end goal look 
like? 

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What do you want your business 
to look like? 

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5 years, 10 years? 
I mean, maybe you've just 

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started out and you want to do 
this for another 30 years. 

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Let's plan ahead, have that 
vision, and then you start 

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working backwards and creating 
structure just like you would a 

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design project. 
OK, so let's have visionary 

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thinking. 
Let's also have decision making 

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confidence. 
How do you have decision making 

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confidence? 
You have to trust your data, but

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also your instincts of where you
want to take your business, 

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right? 
But the data is going to show 

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you much more than what you feel
like is happening in your 

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business. 
You're going to look at your 

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profit and loss statement and 
that's going to show you 

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actually how much money you made
the last year. 

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And not that like, oh, I feel 
like I didn't make anything. 

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And you look at your profit and 
loss like, hey, you actually had

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a quite a bit of profit. 
Or the opposite could also be 

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true. 
Your feelings about your 

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business aren't necessarily 
accurate. 

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It's the data about your 
business or how many leads are 

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you getting, How many of those 
are turning into consultations? 

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But then more importantly, as we
talked about last time, how many

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consultations are converting 
into projects? 

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So that kind of data helps to 
drive decisions and gives you 

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confidence moving forward. 
OK. 

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Another mindset we need to adopt
is leadership really important. 

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We are all leaders. 
Leadership means that you have 

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influence over someone. 
So whether it is A-Team member 

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and maybe it's not even an 
employee, maybe it is a 

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contractor or subcontractor that
you're working with or another 

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designer that you collaborate 
with. 

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You can have leadership in that 
relationship or indefinitely 

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like we talked about last week, 
having leadership with the 

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client because you are the 
expert and you can lead them 

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through the project. 
You can guide them like Obi Wan 

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to a beautiful finished project.
So you are leading whether you 

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like it or not. 
People are looking at you for 

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leadership. 
So you need to adopt A 

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leadership mindset. 
And then most importantly for 

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being a business owner is 
financial ownership. 

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So you need to know your 
numbers. 

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They are the fuel, not the fear 
in your business. 

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You shouldn't have a fear of 
numbers. 

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You should look at them as a 
fuel to getting you to where you

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want to be. 1020, thirty years 
out in your business. 

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Financial ownership is golden 
for CEO mindset. 

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It is, I will be honest, 
something that I ignored for 

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probably the first 5-6 seven 
years of my business. 

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I mean, I had an idea of what I 
was bringing. 

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I had no vision as to how much, 
I was like, yeah, I'll just make

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as much as I can, which was way 
too open-ended. 

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I had nothing to analyse or look
at. 

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I didn't look to see that, oh, 
I'm under charging for this or 

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oh, I didn't make enough profit 
on that type of a project. 

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Maybe I shouldn't do that 
project again. 

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So I had my head in the sand, I 
would say, for the first part of

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my career. 
And like I've said before, I 

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didn't seek out coaching. 
I didn't seek out any mentorship

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in my early days. 
I just went off of previous 

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places that I had worked before 
and kind of guessed at what they

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had been doing in their business
and tried to adopt that. 

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I had some books, Of course, the
Internet was just getting up and

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running as far as the research. 
So I'd go get books and maybe 

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talk to a few people who might 
have told me the truth or might 

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have just pretended that they're
doing well too when they 

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weren't. 
But I couldn't have a lot of 

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great financial advice. 
I probably got the most from 

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networking groups that I 
belonged to where there was an 

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insurance agent, there was a 
financial bookkeeper and people 

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who was like, oh, hey, you 
actually need to set up your 

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books this way so that you can 
run your numbers at the end of 

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the year and not just have a 
spreadsheet. 

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So I kind of baby stepped into 
my CEO mindset and it really 

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doesn't have to be that way. 
I'm sure I would have been 

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farther along in my journey had 
I even set out to have a vision 

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to plan from the get go. 
But no, my, my vision was very 

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short sighted. 
I just wanted to have my own 

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business. 
I wanted to make some money and 

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that was about it. 
So don't be like me. 

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Learn from my mistakes. 
And that's why you're here, 

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right? 
So learn to love your profit 

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margins. 
Don't be scared by these 

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financial terms. 
They're just a new language per 

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SE. 
Designers might talk about 

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elevations and floor plans and 
section cuts or something like 

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that. 
People might not know what we're

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talking about, so it's just 
learning that vocabulary. 

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Profit margins, project 
forecasting. 

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If it is overwhelming to you, 
then hire someone to help you 

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with it. 
Get some financial coaching, Get

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a financial advisor, get a 
mentor, get a coach in design or

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business and that is going to 
get you over that hump of being 

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intimidated by the numbers. 
So put on that hat. 

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What are some practical shifts 
to step into this role? 

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Well, you're going to want to 
schedule CEO time every week to 

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review your goals, your 
finances, your strategy. 

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You can't just be in the project
all the time. 

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You actually have to take some 
time during the week to run your

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business as well. 
You have to make sure you're 

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billing and getting paid, but 
you also need to be filing your 

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taxes. 
There's a lot of things that go 

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along with owning a business, 
but if you schedule it weekly, 

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then it's very manageable as 
opposed to putting it off and 

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then at the end of the year or 
will come tax time and you're 

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trying to do all those things, 
it's definitely going to be 

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overwhelming. 
So set weekly time to review 

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your goals, your finances, your 
strategies for your business. 

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Get help where you're weak. 
So understand if you're not 

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great with numbers, get a 
bookkeeper. 

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Well, do that anyway. 
I don't think that designer 

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needs to be their own 
bookkeeper. 

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Get your systems in place, hire 
a virtual assistant. 

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We've recently talked with 
Ranisha about having a virtual 

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assistant in all areas of your 
design business. 

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So you can listen to that 
episode and hire one if you need

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it. 
You can use tools that make you 

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feel in control, so 
spreadsheets, dashboards of 

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different softwares or even 
sticky notes if that's what you 

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need. 
You need something tangible and 

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you need a wall of sticky notes 
to remind you. 

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Whatever your system that works 
for your brain, do that and 

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create systems so that you're 
not reinventing the wheel every 

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time. 
For the longest time, I had no 

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standard operating procedures or
SO PS as we'd call them for 

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short, I would get a new project
and be like, Oh yeah, OK, so now

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what do I do again? 
How do I start this floor plan? 

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OK, let's do the floor plan. 
Oh, I need to go measure first. 

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OK, let's measure. 
Oh, I need to make sure that the

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window covering installer is 
there so he can measure the 

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windows. 
And these are just things I had 

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to remember every time I didn't 
have a list written down of the 

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standard things I need for every
project and each step that we go

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through. 
And once I did that piece of 

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cake every project, no problem. 
I just set up the task and 

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assign a date and then off we go
getting that project done before

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I had those, SO. 
PS I would inevitably forget a 

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step or forget a part of the 
process. 

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You don't want to be doing that.
That creates chaos. 

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We don't like that. 
OK, so structure supports 

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creativity. 
And when you know your business 

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is steady, you show up with more
confidence and less chaos. 

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And of course, being ACEO 
doesn't mean that you're doing 

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it all alone. 
So real leadership includes 

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delegating, finding someone else
to do it, setting boundaries so,

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you know, doing it within a nine
to five so you're not going 

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crazy. 
So you actually have family time

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and you enjoy your life and 
you've designed this life that 

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you love. 
Creating a culture, even if it's

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just for you right now. 
Maybe you have a vision of 

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having a studio with five 720 
employees working under you. 

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You need to think about that 
culture that you're going to 

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create now to make sure that it 
gets easily implemented as you 

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hire along the way and then let 
go of that martyr mindset. 

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Exhaustion is not proof of 
success. 

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And just because you would maybe
do this for free because you 

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love it so much and you're so 
passionate about it, doesn't 

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mean that you should, right? 
And doesn't mean you should 

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sacrifice all of your own 
personal time and money to 

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please the client. 
So your clients will feel your 

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energy that you're bringing to 
the table. 

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A well resourced designer does 
better work. 

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So you want your clients to 
recognize that you are the boss,

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that you're in control of a well
run, well oiled machine of a 

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company. 
OK, So what should we do with 

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all this information? 
Block out one hour CEO date with

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yourself this week. 
OK, so sit down and say what do 

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I need to do in my business to 
move the needle right now or how

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can I make it better? 
At least one part of the 

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business this week and choose 
one of the following to either 

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maybe review your financials to 
audit your process or set a new 

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90 day goal. 
Start practicing vision planning

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if you haven't done that before.
All of this is going to take 

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practice and you're going to 
improve over time as you do it 

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more. 
OK, so those are all of the 

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things about being ACEO. 
Don't forget the different hats 

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that you have to wear. 
ACEO wears different hats right,

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'cause we have different 
mindsets we need to keep in 

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mind. 
So that is visionary thinking, 

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decision making, confidence, 
leadership, and financial 

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ownership. 
So those are the key things for 

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shifting your mindset into being
the CEO of your company. 

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And you're going to love it, I 
promise you. 

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So what do you think you're 
feeling like ACEO now? 

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Might take some time to work on 
it and really get to feeling 

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like that you are the owner and 
that you are here to make a 

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business run successfully, not 
just be an interior designer. 

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So which CEO hat are you putting
on this week? 

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Are you a visionary, a leader, 
or ACFO? 

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Tag me or DM me on Instagram and
let me know. 

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00:18:20,440 --> 00:18:24,840
And be sure to tune in for our 
final episode in two weeks of 

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the series, How to Deal with 
Imposter Feelings. 

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00:18:28,640 --> 00:18:31,760
And remind yourself that you're 
not alone in this. 

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OK? 
Next week we're gonna have 

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another great interview, and 
until then, stay creative. 

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Thanks for listening. 
If you love this episode. 

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00:18:42,280 --> 00:18:43,920
Please leave a rating and a 
review. 

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00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:47,720
This helps me reach other. 
Curious creatives like you if 

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00:18:47,720 --> 00:18:50,280
you have a topic request. 
Or would like to contact me? 

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00:18:50,680 --> 00:18:55,520
Simply head over to my website 
ourawarddesign.com or e-mail me.

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00:18:55,840 --> 00:18:58,720
At podcast, at our award. 
Design.com.