138. No Right Way to Grow Your Business (CEO Summer School)
Are you stuck thinking there’s a “right way” to grow your business? Maybe you’re trying to follow best practices or copying strategies you’ve seen others use, but something still feels off. What if I told you there is no “right way”—just the right way for you?
In this first episode of CEO Summer School, I’m sharing a truth I know for sure: there’s no single “right way” to grow your business. There are countless ways to run a successful interior design business, and the key is finding what works best for you. This is all about moving away from the belief that there’s one perfect method and instead embracing what fits your values, goals, and personal style.
I’ll explain how focusing on finding the “right way” can slow your progress and create unnecessary roadblocks. By trusting yourself and knowing that there are many ways to reach success, you’ll open up new possibilities and reduce overwhelm. This episode will help you start thinking about your business in a way that allows you to grow on your own terms, with confidence and clarity.
Click here to enroll in CEO Summer School! You'll receive a dedicated email resource every other week to take what you’ve learned and apply it directly to your business.
If you've been thinking about working with me one-on-one, be sure to get on the private coaching waitlist! Click here to learn more about Design to Thrive and secure your spot to be the first to know when availability opens up.
What You’ll Discover from this Episode:
How to recognize if you're stuck in the "right way" mindset without realizing it.
Why method-hopping and excessive research can slow your business growth.
The difference between following best practices and forcing yourself into ill-fitting systems.
How to evaluate business advice through the lens of what works for you.
Why embracing multiple paths to success creates more sustainable growth.
Understanding the balance between proven foundations and personal adaptation.
The importance of internal wisdom in making strategic business decisions.
Listen to the Full Episode:
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Full Episode Transcript:
Hey Designer, you're listening to episode 138. This episode is the first of the CEO Summer School series, where I'm sharing what I know for sure when it comes to growing a thriving, sustainable interior design business. The truth I want to share with you today really digs into the concept of finding the right way to grow, according to best business practices and, just as important, what you want and need as a designer CEO.
Welcome to The Interior Design Business CEO, the only show for designers who are ready to confidently run and grow their businesses without the stress and anxiety. If you're ready to develop a bigger vision for your interior design business, free up your time, and streamline your days for productivity and profit, you're in the right place.
I'm Desi Creswell, an award-winning interior designer and certified life and business coach. I help interior designers just like you stop feeling overwhelmed so they can build profitable businesses they love to run. Are you ready to confidently lead your business, clients, and projects? Let's go.
Hello Designer, welcome back to the podcast. It is officially summer break here, not just for my kids, but for me too. In a recent episode, it was episode 136, I shared how I'm reimagining the way I'm working this summer to give me the space I wanted for myself and family. So, if you want to hear more about that, go back and listen to that one. But yep, it's summer break. And with the start of summer, that also means that we're going to be kicking off CEO Summer School today.
If you're new to the podcast or catching up, CEO Summer School is a free audio series I'm hosting here on the podcast. I did it last year, and you all loved it so much that I decided to bring it back this year, but with a new theme.
This year's theme is "What I Know for Sure." If you're here listening to this show, you likely want to have a thriving interior design business. An interior design business that is profitable, where you get to work on amazing projects with great clients, and also have a life outside of running your company.
That is what CEO Summer School and this podcast as a whole is here to help you do. As I thought about what CEO Summer School would look like this year, what I came to was that I really wanted to share the truths I've come to know from my many years in the design industry as a designer myself, and also through the many, many designers I have supported throughout my years as a coach. What are those core truths? What do I know for sure when it comes to creating and growing a business that you enjoy running and leading, and really supports you financially and creatively, and as the human behind the business as well?
I went into depth about this and the theme, and how it can support you in last week's episode, episode 137. So you can also go back and listen to that one. So today, what I want to do is I want to dive into the first truth. The first thing that I know for sure.
If you haven't already signed up to be part of CEO Summer School, there are two things I want you to do before I move on to sharing this first truth. The first thing to do is follow the show wherever you listen to the podcast. Summer School is being released through the main podcast feed, so it is always there, but subscribing ensures that you won't miss an episode or have to go looking for it because these episodes really are meant to be listened to holistically. So if you don't already follow the show, now is a great time to subscribe.
The second thing you're going to want to do is sign up to receive the bonus content. It's completely free, but you do need to sign up for it. All you have to do is go to desiid.com/summerschool, and there's a quick form. Enter your name and email, and then every other week, a new episode in the series will go live. And when you sign up using that link I just gave you, you'll receive a quick email from me with a way to implement what you're learning.
The key to making sustainable, impactful change as a CEO is shifting from consumption to integration on a consistent basis. And by signing up for CEO Summer School to receive that bonus content, you're going to be putting yourself into that cycle. And of course, this is all very low lift but high impact. I know it's summer, so I'm not going to give you a laundry list of homework to do. But I am going to give you a couple of great questions in each one of these emails to make sure you're not just listening to these and thinking, "Oh yeah, that's nice," but you're actually doing something with what I share. If you're not signed up, I highly encourage you to do that now. Again, the link is desiid.com/summerschool, and you can pop your info there and start getting those emails.
Alright, with that, let's dive into "What I Know for Sure," truth number one. And that is: there is no right way. There is only the right way for you. I'm going to say that again. There is no right way. There is only the right way for you.
As we go throughout this episode, I'm going to explain what I mean by this truth and how believing that there is a right way, and then going about your days and weeks, months and years searching for it, is, first of all, something you might be doing without even realizing it. And second, hindering your growth and creating some real internal roadblocks where you're getting in your own way. We're also going to discuss how it's actually great that there are a plethora of options available to you.
The fact that there are a multitude of ways to run a successful interior design business—and I have seen so many different ways to do it—is not a reason for confusion and overwhelm. I want you to be able to take this truth and leverage it in your business as you grow and evolve. And the first thing is accepting that this is the truth. When I say there is no right way, there is only the right way for you, what I mean is that there are many ways to work that create the business you want to have.
There are, of course, business foundations and best practices for your design business. And then, within those foundations and best practices, you have so many different ways to create results. So, when I say that there's no right way, I'm not suggesting that you don't have any systems or ways for tracking your finances or haphazardly go about your days hoping you just might hit your goals. No, no, no. But what I am saying is there's actually a lot of ways to do that. And so, we want to find what's right for you.
Let me give you some examples. So, we know marketing is absolutely necessary in some capacity if you want your ideal clients to find you. Now, some designers do paid advertising. Some lean into Instagram. Some prefer to bring in projects based on relationships with trade partners or other referral sources. There can be any combination of these marketing tactics.
Or another example: we know you need to have a defined service or product to sell so that you can generate income for the business. Some designers do this full-service. Others do "Designers for a Day." Some designers charge for consultations; others swear you should never, ever do this. Some charge a flat fee, some charge hourly. I mean, I could go on and on and on in this category.
One last example here is even in how you plan and manage your time. Some of you might want to time-block the entire day or week. Sometimes the way that planning and management is done is incredibly specific, and sometimes it's more broad. Even when you do your actual planning and management work can really vary. It could be at the end of the day Friday, it could be Monday morning, or a totally different time. There are a lot of things that work within these broad categories.
And often, we get stuck in these cycles of believing that there is one right way. That you have to market in a certain way, that you have to charge for your services in a certain way, that you have to manage your time in a certain way. And maybe you do to get what you want, and maybe you don't. But when the focus is so much more outside of you versus inside of you, believing that there is this right way that exists out in the ether, what you end up doing is putting yourself on an endless search-and-find mission.
I will say, most designers don't actually come to me and say, "I have to figure out the right way." So, as you're listening to this, you might be saying, "Well, I don't really think that there needs to be a right way." But you might be having some beliefs like, "I'm looking for the best option. I need the most optimized option. I need to know how other people are doing it."
There's an underlying belief driving actions. And those actions might look like lots and lots of research without taking action. Or method-hopping. Doing one thing, then another, then maybe back to the original way, or another option. Not really giving any particular method enough time to gain traction or tweak what you've already put in place based on your learnings to further get the result that you want.
Another way this shows up is asking for opinion after opinion or listening to all the podcasts, and then what that does is it creates a lot of stops and starts in your efforts because you hear something, feel certain it's the solution to everything. And then you hear something else, and you get confused and sidelined.
So, even if you don't necessarily think you believe there has to be a right way, and you're sending yourself on that search mission, I want you to consider: how is this actually showing up for you in maybe a belief that sounds a little bit different, or some of these behaviors that I just described that would really indicate that you're looking for that right way outside of you versus inside of you?
That's not to say we don't gather information, look to trusted experts. Of course not. And we also have to remember that we want to focus on what works for you.
When we look across the wide spectrum of operations and pricing structures, and marketing strategies, whatever it is, it can feel almost a little aggravating or infuriating at times. Kind of like, if we could just agree there was one right way and a right option, couldn't we just do that and then move on with our lives? Except, I don't believe it would ever be that easy.
Because when we're trying to follow advice or processes that don't align with how we want to run our business and the way that we work best, or follow advice without the necessary context, what ends up happening is there's so much friction and frustration created. Not only is this unpleasant, it really slows your growth down. I don't actually believe that we want there to be one right way. Even if, in the moment, a right way being presented on a silver platter could feel like a magic bullet.
What we want to do is take best business practices and balance that with adapting them to ourselves, our goals, and the experience we want to create for ourselves through our business. You'll find countless podcast episodes with people telling you that their way is the right way. And it is the right way for them right now. And it might be the right way for you, too. But this is where you, as the designer CEO, need to step into your self-leadership to determine what methods, processes, and practices align for you and where you're headed.
The question isn't: "Is this the right way?" The question should be: "Is this the right way for me?" "Is this right, right now, based on where I'm at and where I'm going?"
When you accept that it is your job as the CEO to discover the right way for you, you invite in curiosity and deeper levels of self-knowledge and effectiveness in what you implement. That's a skill set that will continue to serve you for the entirety of your business.
When you focus on not "a right way," but what's best for you, you create space for your own evolution and growth. Because when you find a way that is right for you, you create the conditions for change and growth, and adaptability. You really do want to have this space to access your own internal wisdom alongside all of the wonderful, wonderful resources we have at our fingertips.
This internal discernment is how you're going to make new decisions, though. It's how you're going to take new actions and change alongside your business and your growth goals. If there was only one right way, what that would mean is for the vast majority of people, they would be paddling upstream and against their own current in the natural progression of their firm.
When there are many right ways rooted in sound business practices, you have permission then to decide how you work best, how you want to spend your days, what you want to be doing with your time, and continually evolve into new levels of growth, both personally and professionally.
I encourage you to start to think about business advice or business practices like a big box of markers. Essentially, the box that the markers come in is the business-building practice that you know you need. So, maybe you know you need to tighten up your systems, or you need to revisit your pricing structure for greater profitability, or you know you need to get some new leads, and so you've got to do something with marketing. Okay?
So, those are all just the box of markers. But then you get to open the box, and you get to see and pick from the rainbow of colors, and choose what is your favorite and what is going to work for you right now. You can mix, and you can match, and then you release the pressure of having one right way, of having to color with a marker that isn't your favorite color or is kind of worn out and doesn't feel like it's where you want to be coloring.
Owning the right way for you is liberating, and it builds self-efficacy, which is really your belief in your ability to perform. And that is going to give you traction towards your goals that you did not even know you were missing.
As we wrap this up, I want you to reflect on this truth for yourself. How might you be more focused on finding "the right way" instead of dialing in the right way for you? What's been the cost of that approach, and what could open up for you if you turned your attention inward?
There truly is no right way. Growing your interior design business can definitely be challenging. I think we could all agree. There's a lot of intricacies to how this business works. And what I want to encourage you to do through today's truth is to look at how can you create more ease for yourself in the way that you grow, in the way that you scale and lead, whatever that looks like for you, so that you can enjoy it more. And that really starts with believing there is no right way; there is the right way for you. And balancing those best business practices also with what are best practices for you as the CEO.
And if you're thinking now, "Well, alright, I believe you, Desi. There's no right way. And then what do I do?" "How do I know which direction or method to pursue if there is no right way?" And that's what I'm going to be diving into with a quick episode next week to follow up on this truth.
Before we sign off, if you aren't signed up for CEO Summer School, now's the time to do it. Go to desiid.com/summerschool. Enter your name and email, and then you'll be signed up. Totally free. And you'll get the bonus content, including the brief summary of the truth for you to refer back to over time, and then a couple of prompts to really help you integrate this lesson.
Until we talk next Wednesday, I'm wishing you a beautiful week.
Thanks for joining me for this week's episode of The Interior Design Business CEO. If you want more tips, tools and strategies visit DesiCreswell.com, where you’ll get immediate access to a variety of free resources to help you take what you learn on the podcast and put it into action. And if you love what you’re hearing, be sure to rate, review, and follow the show wherever you listen to podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. I’ll talk to you next week.
Welcome to The Interior Design Business CEO, the only show for designers who are ready to confidently run and grow their businesses without the stress and anxiety. If you're ready to develop a bigger vision for your interior design business, free up your time, and streamline your days for productivity and profit, you're in the right place.
I'm Desi Creswell, an award-winning interior designer and certified life and business coach. I help interior designers just like you stop feeling overwhelmed so they can build profitable businesses they love to run. Are you ready to confidently lead your business, clients, and projects? Let's go.
Hello Designer, welcome back to the podcast. It is officially summer break here, not just for my kids, but for me too. In a recent episode, it was episode 136, I shared how I'm reimagining the way I'm working this summer to give me the space I wanted for myself and family. So, if you want to hear more about that, go back and listen to that one. But yep, it's summer break. And with the start of summer, that also means that we're going to be kicking off CEO Summer School today.
If you're new to the podcast or catching up, CEO Summer School is a free audio series I'm hosting here on the podcast. I did it last year, and you all loved it so much that I decided to bring it back this year, but with a new theme.
This year's theme is "What I Know for Sure." If you're here listening to this show, you likely want to have a thriving interior design business. An interior design business that is profitable, where you get to work on amazing projects with great clients, and also have a life outside of running your company.
That is what CEO Summer School and this podcast as a whole is here to help you do. As I thought about what CEO Summer School would look like this year, what I came to was that I really wanted to share the truths I've come to know from my many years in the design industry as a designer myself, and also through the many, many designers I have supported throughout my years as a coach. What are those core truths? What do I know for sure when it comes to creating and growing a business that you enjoy running and leading, and really supports you financially and creatively, and as the human behind the business as well?
I went into depth about this and the theme, and how it can support you in last week's episode, episode 137. So you can also go back and listen to that one. So today, what I want to do is I want to dive into the first truth. The first thing that I know for sure.
If you haven't already signed up to be part of CEO Summer School, there are two things I want you to do before I move on to sharing this first truth. The first thing to do is follow the show wherever you listen to the podcast. Summer School is being released through the main podcast feed, so it is always there, but subscribing ensures that you won't miss an episode or have to go looking for it because these episodes really are meant to be listened to holistically. So if you don't already follow the show, now is a great time to subscribe.
The second thing you're going to want to do is sign up to receive the bonus content. It's completely free, but you do need to sign up for it. All you have to do is go to desiid.com/summerschool, and there's a quick form. Enter your name and email, and then every other week, a new episode in the series will go live. And when you sign up using that link I just gave you, you'll receive a quick email from me with a way to implement what you're learning.
The key to making sustainable, impactful change as a CEO is shifting from consumption to integration on a consistent basis. And by signing up for CEO Summer School to receive that bonus content, you're going to be putting yourself into that cycle. And of course, this is all very low lift but high impact. I know it's summer, so I'm not going to give you a laundry list of homework to do. But I am going to give you a couple of great questions in each one of these emails to make sure you're not just listening to these and thinking, "Oh yeah, that's nice," but you're actually doing something with what I share. If you're not signed up, I highly encourage you to do that now. Again, the link is desiid.com/summerschool, and you can pop your info there and start getting those emails.
Alright, with that, let's dive into "What I Know for Sure," truth number one. And that is: there is no right way. There is only the right way for you. I'm going to say that again. There is no right way. There is only the right way for you.
As we go throughout this episode, I'm going to explain what I mean by this truth and how believing that there is a right way, and then going about your days and weeks, months and years searching for it, is, first of all, something you might be doing without even realizing it. And second, hindering your growth and creating some real internal roadblocks where you're getting in your own way. We're also going to discuss how it's actually great that there are a plethora of options available to you.
The fact that there are a multitude of ways to run a successful interior design business—and I have seen so many different ways to do it—is not a reason for confusion and overwhelm. I want you to be able to take this truth and leverage it in your business as you grow and evolve. And the first thing is accepting that this is the truth. When I say there is no right way, there is only the right way for you, what I mean is that there are many ways to work that create the business you want to have.
There are, of course, business foundations and best practices for your design business. And then, within those foundations and best practices, you have so many different ways to create results. So, when I say that there's no right way, I'm not suggesting that you don't have any systems or ways for tracking your finances or haphazardly go about your days hoping you just might hit your goals. No, no, no. But what I am saying is there's actually a lot of ways to do that. And so, we want to find what's right for you.
Let me give you some examples. So, we know marketing is absolutely necessary in some capacity if you want your ideal clients to find you. Now, some designers do paid advertising. Some lean into Instagram. Some prefer to bring in projects based on relationships with trade partners or other referral sources. There can be any combination of these marketing tactics.
Or another example: we know you need to have a defined service or product to sell so that you can generate income for the business. Some designers do this full-service. Others do "Designers for a Day." Some designers charge for consultations; others swear you should never, ever do this. Some charge a flat fee, some charge hourly. I mean, I could go on and on and on in this category.
One last example here is even in how you plan and manage your time. Some of you might want to time-block the entire day or week. Sometimes the way that planning and management is done is incredibly specific, and sometimes it's more broad. Even when you do your actual planning and management work can really vary. It could be at the end of the day Friday, it could be Monday morning, or a totally different time. There are a lot of things that work within these broad categories.
And often, we get stuck in these cycles of believing that there is one right way. That you have to market in a certain way, that you have to charge for your services in a certain way, that you have to manage your time in a certain way. And maybe you do to get what you want, and maybe you don't. But when the focus is so much more outside of you versus inside of you, believing that there is this right way that exists out in the ether, what you end up doing is putting yourself on an endless search-and-find mission.
I will say, most designers don't actually come to me and say, "I have to figure out the right way." So, as you're listening to this, you might be saying, "Well, I don't really think that there needs to be a right way." But you might be having some beliefs like, "I'm looking for the best option. I need the most optimized option. I need to know how other people are doing it."
There's an underlying belief driving actions. And those actions might look like lots and lots of research without taking action. Or method-hopping. Doing one thing, then another, then maybe back to the original way, or another option. Not really giving any particular method enough time to gain traction or tweak what you've already put in place based on your learnings to further get the result that you want.
Another way this shows up is asking for opinion after opinion or listening to all the podcasts, and then what that does is it creates a lot of stops and starts in your efforts because you hear something, feel certain it's the solution to everything. And then you hear something else, and you get confused and sidelined.
So, even if you don't necessarily think you believe there has to be a right way, and you're sending yourself on that search mission, I want you to consider: how is this actually showing up for you in maybe a belief that sounds a little bit different, or some of these behaviors that I just described that would really indicate that you're looking for that right way outside of you versus inside of you?
That's not to say we don't gather information, look to trusted experts. Of course not. And we also have to remember that we want to focus on what works for you.
When we look across the wide spectrum of operations and pricing structures, and marketing strategies, whatever it is, it can feel almost a little aggravating or infuriating at times. Kind of like, if we could just agree there was one right way and a right option, couldn't we just do that and then move on with our lives? Except, I don't believe it would ever be that easy.
Because when we're trying to follow advice or processes that don't align with how we want to run our business and the way that we work best, or follow advice without the necessary context, what ends up happening is there's so much friction and frustration created. Not only is this unpleasant, it really slows your growth down. I don't actually believe that we want there to be one right way. Even if, in the moment, a right way being presented on a silver platter could feel like a magic bullet.
What we want to do is take best business practices and balance that with adapting them to ourselves, our goals, and the experience we want to create for ourselves through our business. You'll find countless podcast episodes with people telling you that their way is the right way. And it is the right way for them right now. And it might be the right way for you, too. But this is where you, as the designer CEO, need to step into your self-leadership to determine what methods, processes, and practices align for you and where you're headed.
The question isn't: "Is this the right way?" The question should be: "Is this the right way for me?" "Is this right, right now, based on where I'm at and where I'm going?"
When you accept that it is your job as the CEO to discover the right way for you, you invite in curiosity and deeper levels of self-knowledge and effectiveness in what you implement. That's a skill set that will continue to serve you for the entirety of your business.
When you focus on not "a right way," but what's best for you, you create space for your own evolution and growth. Because when you find a way that is right for you, you create the conditions for change and growth, and adaptability. You really do want to have this space to access your own internal wisdom alongside all of the wonderful, wonderful resources we have at our fingertips.
This internal discernment is how you're going to make new decisions, though. It's how you're going to take new actions and change alongside your business and your growth goals. If there was only one right way, what that would mean is for the vast majority of people, they would be paddling upstream and against their own current in the natural progression of their firm.
When there are many right ways rooted in sound business practices, you have permission then to decide how you work best, how you want to spend your days, what you want to be doing with your time, and continually evolve into new levels of growth, both personally and professionally.
I encourage you to start to think about business advice or business practices like a big box of markers. Essentially, the box that the markers come in is the business-building practice that you know you need. So, maybe you know you need to tighten up your systems, or you need to revisit your pricing structure for greater profitability, or you know you need to get some new leads, and so you've got to do something with marketing. Okay?
So, those are all just the box of markers. But then you get to open the box, and you get to see and pick from the rainbow of colors, and choose what is your favorite and what is going to work for you right now. You can mix, and you can match, and then you release the pressure of having one right way, of having to color with a marker that isn't your favorite color or is kind of worn out and doesn't feel like it's where you want to be coloring.
Owning the right way for you is liberating, and it builds self-efficacy, which is really your belief in your ability to perform. And that is going to give you traction towards your goals that you did not even know you were missing.
As we wrap this up, I want you to reflect on this truth for yourself. How might you be more focused on finding "the right way" instead of dialing in the right way for you? What's been the cost of that approach, and what could open up for you if you turned your attention inward?
There truly is no right way. Growing your interior design business can definitely be challenging. I think we could all agree. There's a lot of intricacies to how this business works. And what I want to encourage you to do through today's truth is to look at how can you create more ease for yourself in the way that you grow, in the way that you scale and lead, whatever that looks like for you, so that you can enjoy it more. And that really starts with believing there is no right way; there is the right way for you. And balancing those best business practices also with what are best practices for you as the CEO.
And if you're thinking now, "Well, alright, I believe you, Desi. There's no right way. And then what do I do?" "How do I know which direction or method to pursue if there is no right way?" And that's what I'm going to be diving into with a quick episode next week to follow up on this truth.
Before we sign off, if you aren't signed up for CEO Summer School, now's the time to do it. Go to desiid.com/summerschool. Enter your name and email, and then you'll be signed up. Totally free. And you'll get the bonus content, including the brief summary of the truth for you to refer back to over time, and then a couple of prompts to really help you integrate this lesson.
Until we talk next Wednesday, I'm wishing you a beautiful week.
Thanks for joining me for this week's episode of The Interior Design Business CEO. If you want more tips, tools and strategies visit DesiCreswell.com, where you’ll get immediate access to a variety of free resources to help you take what you learn on the podcast and put it into action. And if you love what you’re hearing, be sure to rate, review, and follow the show wherever you listen to podcasts to ensure you never miss an episode. I’ll talk to you next week.
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