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Welcome to design for the creative mind, a podcast for interior designers and creative entrepreneurs to run their business with purpose, efficiency and passion. Because, well, every design is different, the process should remain the same. Prepare yourself for some good conversations with amazing guests, a dash of Jesus and a touch of the woowoo. And probably a swear word or two. If you're ready to stop trading your time for money, and enjoy your interior design business. You are in the right place. I'm your host, Michelle Lynn.
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Hey, everybody, welcome back to the podcast. I'm Michelle Lynn. And today I am running solo on the episode. I'm excited to talk to you about my word of the year. And, and why award of the year and what's the word of the year and all of those types of things. And you might be wondering, Michelle, it's March What the heck, like finally, right? And it's like, Yeah, finally. But that's okay, because it's my word of the year. That means it's my timeline. And the same thing for you girl is if you are not on a particular calendar, roll with it. Roll with it. There are usually other deadlines that are looming. And it's time to give ourselves grace and not try to be perfect and have everything just, you know, Instagram snapshot perfectly ready. On January 1, this is my word of the year. And this is why I chose it and blah, blah, blah. But like this is just keeping it real. This is just keeping it real. I start thinking about my word of the year probably towards the O towards the towards the beginning of the fourth quarter. And I'm really thinking about it come Thanksgiving and going into the holidays. And this year, I had a few I'll share those with you. And then I'll tell you what I landed on. But why word of the year for me. And I think everybody, it may be similar but different at the same time. For me, it serves as a way to make decisions. It's Who do I want to be like, Who do you need to be in order to do the things you want to do and have the things you want to have, you have to become that person, the person I was two years ago could not navigate what I'm navigating today, the person that's going that I'm going to be in two years dealing with things that I'm dealing with it two years from now, today's Michelle is not equipped for that. Whether it is something positive or something negative or just anything, we have to grow into our next iteration. And with that, I use my word of the year to kind of give a beacon something to be aiming for something to be navigating towards. I use it as a bit of a measure. Is this going in the right direction for making decisions for focus for clarity? And along that line? Let's see. Where did I start? I think I started which is ironic. In November, I started with mindful. Like, I wanted to be mindful of everything right? Like I probably started with thanksgiving, Michelle, be mindful of what you're eating. Okay. Be mindful of how much you're drinking over the holidays. Be mindful of the money that you're spending. It's simply being present. So I was going to say Be present. And I thought mindful is a little bit more encompassing, have a word of the year presents great. But when you're present, are you being mindful? So mindful, was something I sat with for a couple of weeks. And I personally, I was just just did a podcast interview with Jude Charles. I that probably came out last week by the time you're listening to this one. And he's very intentional. And I tend to operate and I share this with my husband as well. Not so long ago is give me directions how do I get there and so I don't know I just follow my instincts. Sometimes that's the same thing with my business. It's I just follow my instincts. Does it feel right? So mindful? The word did not sit right. It did not feel like it was a word that I wanted to feel Although for the year, that was probably the beginning of December, and at this point, I'm thinking we'll come on Michelle, you've only got a month to think about it. And I needed some clarity. Oh, that's a good word. So clarity, I sat with clarity for a little while. I want to have clarity in my business, I want to have clarity in my relationship with my husband, I want clarity with my raising of my five year old, I want clarity in my health, and so forth. Clarity, clarity. Another week or two, I ruled that one out. And so now here we are about to close the offices for the holidays. And I thought, wisdom, okay, wisdom that felt really good. sat with wisdom. It was kind of mindful, right, having wisdom. And then it was, if I have wisdom, then maybe it'll bring clarity. Okay, so I felt like I was moving towards the way I wanted it to feel. Holidays go by. We're back in the office. New Year's is done. And my team, we're sharing our Word of the Year, and wisdom felt it felt pretty good. So as of January, my word was wisdom. Sure enough, y'all, and I know you probably thinking okay, Michelle, you're totally overthinking this. And I wasn't overthinking it. I wasn't giving it a lot of energy, per se. Of course, you know, just filtered down into this 1530 minute, whatever this podcast episode turns out to be Yeah, it sounds like I was totally overthinking it. But no, this is just the story I'm sharing. I was I was wrestling with wisdom. The show. It's, it's it's January, just stick with wisdom. It's not that big of a deal. It's not, you know, we're not curing cancer, you're not going to have to worry about this word of the year. There's no test over it. Right. So I sat with wisdom for a little bit. And I thought, well, this just No, no, no, just surrender, surrender, surrender to the process. Like, oh, surrender is a good word to, okay. You know, this is like my fourth word, surrender. And to me, that surrender came from the relationship that I want to continue to develop with God, right? You surrender to Him surrender to His ways, you know, surrender my myself. And, and it just felt from a, from a spiritual perspective, that this was the direction that I wanted to go. And of course, if you've been around for a little while, I don't I don't go into a lot of detail. But, you know, my relationship with God is just such a blessing. And it continues to grow and evolve. So I thought surrender, I'll surrender my business to almost surrender my my daughter to almost surrender my marriage to him. But, you know, at the end of the day, that that was on repeat, because that's something I try to do on a regular basis. And, again, it just didn't feel right. And my human design, from from what I understand my friend, Nicole lleno, she's got a badass podcast, the be unshakable, the unshakable entrepreneur. I think that's what it is. And then my friend Nicolette does human design and my fractional CFO, her name is Mei like they, they are all into this human design thing. And I lead with my gut. And they've all confirmed that Michelle, you have to go with your gut, what does it feel like? And I've always lead with instinct. I never realized that that's just the way my human design is. After knowing myself for 50 something years, well, actually, I probably finally figured myself out maybe last year. No, just kidding. But yeah, we're all still continuing to evolve. I've just learned if it doesn't feel right, then you got to roll with it. Imagine trying to bake a cake without a recipe. You kind of know what the ingredients are, but you don't know how to put it all together. After lots of hard work and trying different combinations, all you are left with is a sticky situation and a stomachache behave. Running an interior design business can feel exactly that same way. That is why I created the interior design business bakery. This is a program that teaches you how to bake your interior design business cake and eat it too. If you don't want to figure out the hard way and you want guidance to follow a recipe that has already been vetted, someone that has already been there and done it and will help you do it too. Then check out the year long mentorship and coaching program. The interior design business bakery. If your interior design business revenue is below 300,000 or If you're struggling to make a profit and keep your sanity, this is the only program for you. You can find that information at designed for the creative mind.com forward slash business dash bakery, check it out, you won't regret it.
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So, I think it was end of January, I found I landed on the word that I have kept for the past couple months and anticipate keeping for the rest of the year. It sounds like a puppy doesn't it? I adopted this word. And I'm gonna keep it. The word this year is align, align. And the way I have found this to be effective, and will probably always be a guide or a measure in my life and in my business and in my relationships. And in my spirituality practice, align. It's not as much does this align with my business goals? Does this align with my beliefs does this align with? It comes down to how does it make me feel? does it align with how I want to feel, because a choice or a decision or an investment or something could very well aligned with my business goals. But if it doesn't feel right, I believe it's not the right time. If it doesn't align with how I want to feel, I am not going to do it. If it does align with how I want to feel. I'm going to do it a good example. Like literally just came up. I'm recording this up probably about a week or so before it goes live. So it was the end of February, beginning of March, my husband and I were talking and we were talking about our house and we've got 5200 square feet. It's a beautiful home. It's very unique. It's what Giuliana my designer would call a special snowflake. They filmed Robocop they filmed some scenes of Robocop in it. It was like the first smart house in America. It's been in Science Digest or popular science or something. It was on TV shows and whatnot. So it's a really badass house. And when we moved in, we've just made it our own. And it's very, it's unique like you walk in. And it's fun. As a designer, it's really fun to see the reaction that people have when they walk in because it is just really cool. And it sits on a creek. So you walk in, you walk down a couple of stairs, and this entire like jungle is outside of our doors. It was it was it was it was a house that I literally manifested we moved in right before the world shut down. So it was January of 2020, the world shut down. i My husband and I both credit the house to us keeping our sanity and keeping our marriage on track while we were in lockdown trying to I was trying to run two businesses with a toddler and he's running his sales business. And thankfully, the house was big enough that even in the midst of the dead of winter, it was still plenty of space. And then we had moved out of the studio for ml interiors group, and just let the lease run out when the pandemic hit. And when things started opening back up the house was big enough. We had this suite of rooms that my designers at the time could operate there. We had our samples all upstairs and whatnot. And the House has such a pretty pretty view and the way it's set up. We were able to help host our clients there. We were able to give design presentations there. And it's been a fantastic house. We've entertained we I've redone the kitchen. It's just it's wonderful. So this brings me back to align. It was starting to feel too big. It was starting to feel like a burden. It was starting to feel I don't know house heavy. Is that a word? Is that a term? And so when we were talking about it, I thought I just threw out the idea. Well, let's just sell it. No, we're not married to it. And as soon as I said that, that idea was aligned with how I wanted to feel. Brian, my husband was very surprised that I was willing to move as well. At the end of the day, y'all it's just a house right? It's a home it does not define who I am and if it feels better to to leave, then let's sell it was aligned. And this just confirmed that this word of the year is a great place to base My decisions off of to, just to give me clarity to give me a guide for decisions and for goals, goals, my goals are to start taking more time off in big chunks this this year, I have the entire month of June, blocked out as do not book. I don't know what I'm gonna do. But if I send you a calendar link, you cannot book with me. I am not booking any podcast interviews, I am not booking May I don't know. So I don't know what that looks like. But when I when I blocked those dates out. It's because my goal is to feel aligned. Like how do I want to feel, I want to feel some whitespace. In my life, it's been a busy, busy, busy last couple of years, good and bad. I don't know good and bad, challenging and celebratory. Let's do that instead of good and bad. Because it just is. So some whitespace in my life, is how I want to feel. So my goal is to take off basically the month of June. And that is aligned with how I want to feel. It's also aligned with my business outcomes. Because I know myself well enough that my brain is going to be coming up with some great ideas, some clarity, right? So I'm looking for clarity, I will get clarity because I'm making decisions that are aligned with how I want to feel so aligned, align aligned. I don't know I don't plan on getting this word tattooed on my arm, I did get one tattooed on my arm on my wrist a couple of years ago, it's be still just reminding me again, be still and know that I am God. It's Psalm 34. Psalm 34, something. And it's just it's just a good reminder. So I'd love to hear from you. If you have a word of the year, what it is, drop me a DM in Instagram. That's the easiest place to find me designed for the creative mind on Instagram. Drop me a DM, let me know, did you create a word of the year for yourself this year? If not, honey, there's still plenty of time. That's the cool thing is even though you flip the calendar, and all of a sudden it's January 1 2024. That's still the same as yesterday, it is a chance to start fresh every day, every morning hack every minute, you can make that decision. Don't wait. Don't wait to come up with a goal or a direction or a measuring stick that you can use. And if you don't like it, change it. If you don't like it, change it. But it's not going to be as easy if you do tattoo it on your arm. I think they have think they have means to do that now anyway. So I hope you enjoyed my little solo ramble. I've been wanting to actually share that with you for a few weeks now. Just got the chance to sit down and record it. And it actually makes more sense, especially after making the big decision of selling our house when I really envisioned raising Genoveva and for a long time to come. But now I'm really looking forward to a neighborhood that is more family centric. Yes. Probably move into the burbs. But that's another podcast. So thanks for being here. I really appreciate y'all. If you get the chance, drop me a review. It's appreciated. And I'll see you guys next time. Love ya mean it. Hey, y'all. If you love the show and find it useful, I would really appreciate it if you would share with your friends and followers. And if you like what you're hearing, want to put a face with the name and get even more business advice. Then join me in my Facebook group, the interior designers business launch pack. Yeah, I know it's Facebook, but just come on in for the training and then leave without scrolling your feet. It's fine. I promise you'll enjoy it. And finally, I hear it's good for business to get ratings on your podcast. So please drop yours on whatever platform you use to listen to this. We're all about community over competition. So let's work on elevating our industry, one designer at a time. See you next time.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
