168. Taking a Sabbatical: How I Plan for Big Changes in Life and Business
Have you ever felt like you need to hit pause, take a step back, and re-evaluate? In today’s episode, I’m sharing why I’ve decided to take a sabbatical and what that means for me, my business, and you. I’ll also dive into how you can navigate your own major life changes, whether it's a sabbatical or another type of transition.
I walk you through the internal work involved in making decisions, why taking time off can actually be a game-changer for your business, and what can happen when you embrace new paths. This episode is a personal behind-the-scenes look at my decision, and I’m sharing my process to help you move through your own moments of transition with confidence and clarity.
By reflecting on my experience, I hope to offer you a new perspective on how to approach life’s big changes and trust yourself in the process. Whether you're considering a sabbatical, a business pivot, or a personal shift, the insights here will help you move forward with intention.
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:
Why taking a sabbatical can be the key to business clarity.
How to plan for big changes in your life and business.
The internal work that comes with making major decisions.
How to trust your instincts and make decisions that align with your values.
What to expect when taking extended time off from your business.
The impact of self-trust when navigating big transitions.
How to approach change with confidence and clarity.
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Full Episode Transcript:
Hey designer, you're listening to episode 168. Today we're talking all about sabbaticals. More specifically even, the one I'm going to be starting very soon. If you aren't on my email list or maybe you missed the email, then you might not know. I'm going to be taking some extended time away. And today's a chance for me to pull back the curtain for you and help you see why I came to this decision, how I've prepared for this time, what you can expect while I'm away, and also answer some of the questions I've had as I've shared the news.
Now, this is going to be a very personal episode, and at the same time, I want it to be one where you're able to take what I have learned through this process and the steps I've taken for navigating this big change, the logistics, the emotional rollercoaster, the mindsets I've had to work through, and take what I'm sharing and be able to apply it to yourself and your interior design business, whether that is you want to take some time off, you want to give yourself just some additional space, you want to navigate some other type of change in your business. This is going to be really helpful.
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. This is the first time I am recording since getting back from spring break. Our family spent two incredible weeks in Italy. We went so many places. I almost have to say, thank goodness I took a lot of pictures so I can remember what all we did. It was really special. So I am looking back on that fondly as I sit here.
Also, it was kind of fun. I got very inspired with cooking and ordered a bunch of books from the library that were waiting for us when we got back. So this past weekend, I made an entire dinner out of these Italian cookbooks, which was very fun. I gave my best shot at risotto, and I think it turned out pretty well.
So that's what's happening for me personally. And also, what's happening for me personally is that my sabbatical is coming up. This extended period of time I'm going to be taking off. And today is the time to talk about it on the podcast.
My intention for this episode is first and foremost, to share the news because some of you might have missed the email, maybe you're not on my email list. And I also really want to give you a behind-the-scenes look at this decision because it was not an easy one for me to make. And I think it'll be really valuable for you to see how I came to where I've landed, both from a logistic standpoint, but also just the internal work that's had to be done. And I know will be something that I'm going to continue to lean into as this all unfolds.
I also gave my newsletter list the opportunity to submit some questions. I've also been getting questions as I've shared this news with people, both just in my life and clients and other designers that I chat with. So I'm going to answer those too, because I figure if one person is wondering, you might be too, or at least somebody else.
So that is that. We are going to just dive right in. Starting in May, I am going to be taking a sabbatical, and I'll be stepping away from the business. And my plan is to return October-ish. And I'll share more on what I have envisioned for this time in a bit.
Before we get to that, I do want to talk about what you can expect. I know so many of you are long-time listeners, devoted listeners, and I want you to know, I was very clear when I started making decisions that in addition to ensuring that my private clients felt very cared for and very supported in this transition, I also felt like it was important for me to have some connection to all of you and to continue to support you.
That was a desire that I had, and that could be if you are a past client and we keep in touch, and it could be those of you who are new to me and just finding this work. And some of you, we will never talk, we will never work together. And there is a part of me that still wanted to be putting out some value and contribution to our industry because I do feel like that's important. And so that's one of the things that I had to navigate was how do I balance wanting to give myself this mental space, but also continue to stay in touch in some way.
So while I'll be stepping away, I'm not going to totally disappear. I know many of you who listen to the podcast are also members of my newsletter list and get Monday Mindset. And that is the Monday email that goes out. It's a weekly note for me to you sharing coaching concepts, tips, and strategies like what you hear on this podcast, and also reflections that you can apply as you move into your week. I know a lot of you love to receive that on Monday. And honestly, it's one of my favorite things that I do in my business is write those Monday Mindsets.
What's going to happen is every other Monday, you will still receive Monday Mindset just as I've been writing it for the past, I don't know, eight or so years, okay? So that will be the same format that you're used to. And then I'm going to be testing out something new that I'm really excited about.
On the weeks that you don't get the typical Monday Mindset, you're going to get a new type of newsletter with a coaching prompt to guide your week. I'm going to call it Mini Mindset. Deb Mitchell, who is a very talented copywriter and marketing expert for interior designers. She helped me come up with that. I love it. You can listen to her episode number 109, “Uplevel Your Brand Messaging.”
And the whole idea behind Mini Mindset is it's 90 seconds to change your week. It's one question designed to take 90 seconds of your time. And I know you're busy, but you have 90 seconds to really change the tone and the trajectory of the days to come. So it's not necessarily 90 seconds you have to journal. It's not 90 seconds you have to meditate or do any other heavy lift that you might be thinking of. It is just 90 seconds to read the question I prompt you with, notice what comes up, and then decide how you're going to move into the week with that new awareness.
For those of you who participated in CEO Summer School the past couple of summers, you know that I do not give you fluffy prompts. I give you questions that create change. And these are the types of questions that are going to make you stop and go, "Oh, I've been avoiding thinking about that, and now I know why." And you can remove that internal roadblock. Or maybe, "Ah, that's my next step. That feels simple and doable." Or maybe it'll spark something that says, "That's the actual thing in my way, not this other thing I've been spending a ton of time on or spinning on."
So these are going to be really impactful, even though they're going to take minimal time. And of course, if you love to journal, you can take these prompts and journal all you want. You can think about it on a walk or hear your answer in your own head as you're driving even and thinking on it. But it's going to be really good. I'm excited to invite you.
If you are not on the Monday Mindset newsletter list and you want these in your inbox, go to desicreswell.com/monday-mindset and make sure you're signed up. So you'll get those full essays every other week as we usually do, and then Mini Mindset in between.
The other thing that is changing is that this podcast is going to go on a full pause. This was another hard decision to make because I do love sharing these, and honestly, everything I think, I'm thinking, okay, how is this a podcast episode? How can I teach something from this? What can I share with you?
One of the things that I want to do with this break is give myself some space, and I'll talk about that in a little bit. But I want an opportunity to not be in the teaching cycle so much. So that is why this is going to go on pause. And with almost 170 episodes, you will have lots to revisit or listen to for the first time. Scroll back through the feed. I'm going to give you some ones from today that'll be good to revisit or listen to, and you will have plenty of content there to continue to support you. And then, like I said, timeline of this is I plan to return in the fall. What I'm thinking is October-ish, so stay tuned for that.
The best way to keep in touch is going to be through my email list. That's desicreswell.com/monday-mindset again. So make sure you're on that list because that is where I am going to share anything that I'm finding over this time. It's also going to be where announcements are going to land because we won't have this regular cadence on the podcast. So if you're not subscribed, make sure you do that, okay?
So those are the important logistics. And of course, if you have questions about this, simply reach out. I'm happy to answer your questions. You can reply to one of my emails, send me an Instagram DM. I'm always happy to hear from you. Truly.
Now I want to transition from basically what to expect to some of the things that I personally want to share about this decision, and also answer some of the questions that I've received as I have shared this news.
The very first question and the most prominent question was, "Why am I choosing to take this time?" And also, "Am I burned out?"
Of course, as with anything, it's never just one thing, right? There's no one reason, really. It's a very layered decision, and I think that's part of what made it a challenging decision for me to make. So I mean, I can say no, I'm not burned out by my work. I still love coaching. I love my clients. I have some incredible clients I have in the past, and right now I have some lovely, lovely women who are making incredible shifts for themselves in their businesses, and that is a complete honor to be able to be a part of that. And I also know I have so much more I would love to teach you and share.
So I've built my business that really serves my clients at a high level. It's very high touch. I contribute to the design industry in a way that I'm proud of and I find meaningful. I've had some great PR moments lately. And at the same time, I still want to take this time. So in a lot of ways, in many ways, this decision doesn't really make sense, right? When are we taught to walk away for a period or permanently or anything like that, with something that's going so well? Right? We don't. We don't ever hear that message. And it's something that I really wrestled with and had to get a lot of coaching on, coached myself on. And was a big piece of the internal work that I needed to dig into to come to this point.
Because what I found was, and I want you to pay attention to if your brain does this too, is that I was wanting the decision to make sense, or at least my brain was. And taking a pause from something that's going well isn't something that typically you hear of people doing.
So I noticed that my brain wanted to go and look for ways that things maybe weren't working, that were bothersome or find problems to try and justify this internal knowing and desire. And as soon as I realized that's what it was doing, I was like, yeah, there's no problem there that needs to be fixed. This is just something that I know is right. So I had to then work on my willingness to trust that level of certainty that my body felt, but that the logic brain didn't necessarily understand.
There was one day when I was out walking and what I heard in my head was, "It will only make sense after the fact." And it was like a light bulb moment for me of, oh yeah, I'm wanting this to make sense now, but I don't have what will become the future wisdom of this. And that was really clarifying for me.
The other piece of this is that the last few years have really required a lot of me on a personal level, in my personal life. And I'll just clarify real quick. I'm not getting divorced. I love my husband very much. He is a super big supporter of my business and me taking this break. I'm also healthy. That was another question I received. I don't have a diagnosis, and that's not the reason why I need to take this time. But there has been a lot that I have given to my family, and it's something that I want to be there for and be present for and giving my time and energy. And it has required a lot of emotional bandwidth.
As you all know, there are seasons of life, and some seasons of life are more demanding, and that has definitely been where I have been in the past few years, and it feels like a long season. As a fellow business owner, you know that your business requires a lot of time, mental capacity, and emotional resilience. And as a human, we have so much of that. We can work to increase it, we can work to rejuvenate and care for ourselves in so many different ways.
And at the same time, there is one of me, there is one of you. And as much as I have shifted my business over the past few years to support how I want to be showing up in my personal life, you know, there's still a business to run. There's financial milestones to meet. There's marketing that needs to go out if I want to keep working with these incredible clients that I call in, right? And I've been making it all work. And also, there's constraints around how I balance all of this, just like there is for you.
So really what I see is this time away is an opportunity to open up some more space for creativity and that zoom-out perspective to rest and reset that I haven't had as much of as I would really like to for how I want to be running this business and to, you know, continue to really evolve as the business owner and to evolve the business as well.
I also want to revisit my personal why for this business. It is something that I think has shifted, and some of the pieces are absolutely still true. And I think there's more there to uncover and to bring to current status, if you will. This is something I talked about in episode 63, “Two Whys to Fuel You.” It's the two whys you need to have a fulfilling design business. If that's something that intrigues you, definitely go listen to that episode.
It also piggybacks on wanting to again revisit my business and life vision. This is something that I do with all of my private clients. And I want it to be where I get to put everything out on the table again and decide what stays, what goes, what gets brought into this room that I'm designing, right?
Because it's important to revisit these visions that we have, these goals, because as we evolve, as our children grow, as, you know, we have other responsibilities that come and go, we can't expect ourselves to be adhering to a similar position in our own selves in relation to the business when there's radically different life stages or your identity has shifted a ton.
One of the things that kind of came up in the background was I was worried about anyone perceiving me as being flaky or being disappointed in this decision. And what I then came to realize is this is just me walking my talk. It is me checking in with my why, my values, my vision. And I'm using the tools that I share with all of you and with my clients so that I have space to evolve. And that feels really important and true to me. And I hope that you all, whether it's, you know, you give yourself some sort of formal break, or it's just making sure that you're checking in with yourself on a regular basis, it's really important, okay? So I'll leave that there.
The next question is, what was the moment or catalyst where you, in quotes, "knew" you had to or wanted to do this, or were ready to do this? I thought this was a really interesting question to think about because at first my brain said, "Well, there was no one point in this." And that's sort of true, but sort of not true as I started to think about it. And I actually think some of the things that have led to this probably started a couple of summers ago.
One of the instances that came to mind was we were on an Alaskan cruise over the summer. I was walking on the treadmill, which, talk about a weird experience of walking forward on a stationary thing while the ocean is moving past you. But the word that came to mind just as I was walking, and all of a sudden, I heard the word "nimble". And that was the start of really starting to realign some of the things in my business that I wanted to shift in terms of service offerings and client profile, and some of the way that my team was structured, right?
So that was something that came up. Then last summer, I took some more time off. I was still working, but I wanted to have some more open space to be with our family during, you know, busy time and also lots of family visiting and friends. And I realized at the end of that, hey, I want to experience some more of this. And alongside that, I started reading about seasonal businesses. That was part of what prompted that time off or reduced work schedule over the summer, and it still really intrigues me how we could have a cyclical business. And so I think that was planting some seeds in the back.
The other thing that came up for me was after I finished recording the podcast, where I announced we were going to go to an every other week cadence, I had a really, I don't even know how to describe it. It was a sinking, heavy, weighty feeling in my body. And what I identified was part of that was a subtle intention to move back to doing some marketing on Instagram. And I realized I really did not want to fill that space and take that next step. So that was another piece.
All right. So then last fall was when I really started considering this as what it is today, as this extended period of time. And while I didn't make a decision very firmly in that moment, I did start shifting some commitments so that I would have the option if I wanted it.
And then, see, this is not a simple answer. But what happened in Costa Rica this year, we went for our winter break trip, and we were staying at a hot springs place, which was amazing. And I was walking back to our room through these hot springs with my family. Sometimes I feel like we're little ducks in a row. And I thought, "I'm nobody here." That just came to my mind, right? Sometimes I just, these things pop in my head, right? And I thought, "I'm no one here."
And that's not to say that I get recognized in public all the time. It's happened a bit, but it wasn't about like, oh, people know me or identify me, right? It was about me releasing the identity. And what happened with that is that the question of who am I without this business or without this identity started to become a more intriguing question to me versus something that felt threatening.
And I think it's very common for our sense of mattering or importance or purpose, right? It can be very tied to the roles that we hold. In the past, I've definitely done work with separation of me and my business that's been hugely helpful, but I felt it drop away even more in that moment. And so in some ways, this feels like a pattern interrupt for me to explore myself further. And I've been working since I was, I think, 15, and I want to have a chance to redefine what ambition looks like right now in this stage and season of life and really see what emerges when there aren't some of those outside work achievements constantly coming in.
Lastly, what I'll say about this is I'm not sure I was really feeling ready until maybe a month ago. This has been a really hard decision for me. It's been one I've waffled on. It has been one where I have really had to do a lot of coaching, a lot of personal exploration, a lot of digging into that well of emotional willingness. So it hasn't really been one moment, but rather a series of moments that has brought me here. So that feels like a long and windy response, but it kind of has been a long and windy way that I have arrived here.
I also got some questions about logistics, like how did I plan for this? How could you prepare for taking some time off? And the number one thing I can say for you if you are thinking about doing something similar is to give yourself space to consider what you really want before you dive into any type of planning. Play with the ideas of what this could look like, and don't get bogged down in the hows and the what ifs, because that will derail you and have you settling in ways that aren't necessarily necessary, or there could be a solution to some of these roadblocks your brain's going to throw up when you start to express this desire. So give yourself time to think about what it is I really want. And I certainly did that.
And then once I had a better idea of what would feel best, that's when I started planning this time like I would any other project or initiative in the business. And it's the process that I teach my clients in the goal-setting workshops and all the other things that I teach. It is the same process that I've had for many years.
The first thing was taking a look at this is what I want, so what are the decisions I have to make in order to help me get there? And there were a lot of decisions to make, the timeline, how I would support my clients in this transition, how will I make this announcement, what will happen with my team? Will I completely pause marketing? What needs to be updated on my back end in order to support this transition?
There were so many things that I had to look at. And we want to get those all on the table because those become the action items, those become the plans. And also, we can start to see where our edges and where we're feeling uncomfortable about these things. So we can either get coaching or figure out why it doesn't feel quite right and come to a place of either, yeah, this is just something that's going to feel uncomfortable, and I can move forward with it anyways, or it's because yes, something feels out of alignment here and I need to come up with another path forward.
A sub-question of the logistics of this was someone asked me how did I decide on the timeline. So I'll just sneak that one in here. Six months to me felt like a good amount of time that I could have that space I wanted, and it felt spacious, and it also just felt like a good length of time personally for me to say, I'm going to revisit some decisions at the end of this. So six months also felt like a time that I could wrap my head around. How will this actually work? Am I really going to do this? Am I going to fall off the face of the earth? What's going to happen, right?
And also, I liked the timing of it. I knew that after last summer, I really wanted even more time off over the summer. So I wanted to have some time before the kids got off school and then some time after the kids went back to school. It's like an extended runway. Some of you've heard me talk about that. And I think it'll be really helpful to have time to sort of downshift and then, you know, again, recalibrate once the business of summer has passed.
After I've made a lot of decisions, I used my to-do to done method to map out all those mini results. I set the timelines and communicated with the people that I needed to talk to, you know, according to what those timelines were. And I will say that some of these decisions I knew I could make right away, but some of them did unfold over time. So even if I didn't have an answer to, this is the way I'm going to do this, in the initial planning, I had it earmarked as this is something I need to revisit and make note of. Because there were some decisions that I just was not ready to make and there were some that I were.
And if you listen to episode 150, I highly recommend that. That is from summer school last summer. And it's called something like “Build Momentum through Decisions,” something like that. I can't remember. But the idea is when we decide, we move forward. That is the way that we make progress. We get new information, and we keep the business growing and ourselves growing too.
So at this point, I know myself well enough to know when I'm delaying a decision or an action because it is just simply uncomfortable, and when it's because the next step doesn't feel clear and settled in my body, and it actually is better to wait. Of course, while I'm still coaching myself to keep the integration and the processing moving forward.
So that's important, too, of like, we want to know what our decisions are, we want to know what the action steps are, and we also want to know ourselves well enough to know when is the time to embrace that discomfort and move forward anyway, and when it's okay or when it's actually more useful to let that decision marinate.
Another big piece of this planning puzzle are the financials, of course, right? You're in business to make money, to pay yourself, or at least you hopefully are. So you need to look at what are the expenses that are just going to be there. So for me, that was looking at some of the software that I use to run the business, that it wouldn't make sense to shut down, or I still need the platform that I use to send out emails and where I've hosted courses and all of that. So that's just going to be there and I need to plan for that to be an ongoing expense.
There's other things, though, that you could look at and say what could be paused or reduced. So that was another part of my planning and analysis is looking at what am I going to need for support from my assistant during this time? What about the podcast? Could that be paused? What's my contract like? What are my options? What would work for the person who provides those services to me and what's going to work best for me? How can we create a win-win? Those types of things.
And you know, is a great time to look at the overall health and financial status of the business, especially do you want to be paying yourself while you take this time? Is it the same amount that you've been paying yourself? Is it something different? Do you have savings and reserves? Is this is something that you need to save for and build towards so that it's possible in the future?
All of those things are going to be completely individualized, but it certainly is part of the planning process for me and it would be for you. I also have to acknowledge that this decision is coming from a place of privilege. I know that not everyone in the world has the opportunity to make these types of decisions. And I'm grateful that I do. And I would encourage you that if you immediately think, "Nope, I can't do that," to question yourself. And I'm of course not in your financial realm, so I don't know exactly what your financial status is for your business or your family.
And at the same time, if that's the immediate objection, maybe that's not true. Maybe there is a way that you could make it work. Maybe there is a way that you could give yourself more time off or space during the day where you're not having such a high level of client load that could actually work. So like, what if it is possible to give yourself that space you want? How would that be possible then? If that's true, if you're believing that it is possible for you to make these changes, then what? What do you do next?
Another very, very key component of this planning, and I highly encourage you all to do this as you're planning to make any big changes in your business, is to coach yourself. Identify obstacles, think about what you're worried about, what are those fears that you have, and either work with yourself to process those, work with someone like myself who's a coach or a therapist, to talk through what it is that's going to get in your way and keep you stuck.
Another question that I was asked very pointedly when I shared this news is, "Well, aren't you worried that's going to ruin your business?" And yeah, of course, that came up. Of course, that was a fear that I had. Or that if I stopped the podcast specifically, would it just be way too much work to re-engage people when I wanted to bring it back? And that's a real concern. I don't know exactly how this will impact the business. I do know that I really trust that I've put out a ton of value into our community for many, many years at this point, and that value will continue to serve you and other people who tune in. And I also can't predict the future.
So one of the things that I did as part of my planning is to do a fear inventory. I talked about this in episode 156. And essentially, this is putting all of your worries, your doubts, your fears on paper and identifying what could be potential solutions and how you are resourceful enough to overcome this. If I had not taken a look at what these fears are and the potential obstacles and gotten crystal clear on why I was afraid and what I could do about that fear, what I had control over and where I could lean into self-trust, this decision would not be playing out because for sure, it would have stopped me in my tracks. And that requires a high, high level of self-leadership and self-trust.
So I want to acknowledge, yes, there's a lot of planning, a lot of intentionality, and a lot of forward thinking in order to give myself the on-ramp to take this time. And also, the internal work of this has to be addressed as part of the planning process. And the work of trusting that you have the ability to create what you want when you want to with whatever circumstances you have at hand. And I do trust that I will figure this out when I get to that point if I need to.
So that's huge. Do not skip that. You can also look too at the obstacles because, of course, there will be things that are going to get in your way of executing a big change, such as taking a sabbatical. I talk about this in episode 65, “Why You Should Plan to Fail.” The reason you want to do this is because obstacles always have solutions, and you can make those solutions a part of your plan and action item list, okay?
So one of the things that I looked at for this decision to take time off is that an obstacle will definitely be that I will be tempted to veer off course, to undo my decision in different ways, right? So I am a creative at heart. I have lots of ideas. I'm seeing other people doing things that I would want to be doing if I wasn't planning to take this break.
I am being asked even, you know, I've gotten a couple of requests to moderate a panel at High Point. I got asked to submit a pitch for being a keynote speaker at a conference. All of these things seem exciting. They're things that I would be interested in potentially doing. And they're very clearly not in alignment with the path that I'm headed on right now. And that's not to say that I couldn't make decisions that, yes, I want to do these things if I loved my reasons for it.
But I also was very clear up front with myself that a potential obstacle would be, I'm firm in this decision until I hear about something fun and exciting and sparkly, and I want to go run after that, and that's going to take me off this very intentional space that I'm trying to create. So it's important to acknowledge what those obstacles are, both the internal and the external, and be ready for them because they will present themselves.
I'll wrap up here with one last question. This one's a fun one. What will I be doing with this time? I have lots of plans and very few of them are going to include work. There's lots of different types of sabbaticals that you can take. I really don't even know that I resonate with the word sabbatical. It just seems like the best term for me to be using right now. I picture a very stuffy Ivy League professor toiling away on a massive project while they're on sabbatical, and that is not what this feels like at all to me. But for lack of a better term, that's what we'll call it.
I am not planning on doing a specific work project during this time. I do plan to remain open, though, to whatever pops up as potential ideas. I'm going to be giving myself things to interact with and respond to because there are some questions that have been rolling around in my head about some of the things that are in my business that I'm wondering what to do with in the future or kind of want to see a new iteration of potentially. So I want to be open and curious about what I notice. And I want to continue to coach myself to see what has been percolating but really hasn't had that time to come forward yet. So that's one of the things.
I'm also going to be with my family a lot this summer. We, I'm sure, will have a busy summer because it always is, and it's already starting to shape up that way. So that'll be part of it, being at the lake as a family. I've got some creative projects that I want to do. I really want to work on some of our family photo albums that I have not gotten to in the past few years, some home projects like updating some furniture and refreshing our living room area.
I definitely plan to be doing some meditation and diving into that a little bit more. Last year, I really recommitted to that practice. So I want to lean into that some more. And I'll still be working with, we have a rental property business that I run and manage. And I'll definitely still be hands-on with that. But there won't be a specific work project that is happening during that time.
So like I said, the purpose of this really is to give me space, and I don't want to have a huge agenda of what's supposed to happen from this time because then I will miss the potential lessons. So that's what I have for you today. Those are the questions we'll cover, but it really just is a time for me to reset. It's time to reimagine, and it's time to see what emerges. And I don't know exactly what will come of this time, but I do know that I'm going to get what I need, and I already know that it was a great decision. I've already decided that. I trust that it's true. The last time I took this kind of space, the seeds of this coaching business really firmly took root, and I think that turned out pretty well.
I want to thank you for being here with me, whether you're new to my space or if you've been here since the very beginning. I also want to remind you to sign up for Monday Mindset at desicreswell.com/monday-mindset. And that'll get you those weekly notes and prompts, but it'll also make sure that you are just kept in the loop on all of the latest of what's happening and make sure you don't miss any announcements.
You'll also want to subscribe to the podcast here today if you're not, so that way you'll be alerted when a new episode pops up at some point in the future. And if you haven't left a review ever, but you love the show, it would really mean the world to me if you would take a moment and leave a rating and review. This has been such an amazing space to be in with you and share ideas and hear from you all how you are changing things in your personal lives and your businesses. And I want others to know about that. So if you would, please take a moment to do that. I am very, very grateful if you have already done that. So thank you.
I'm going to be back with a brand new episode. That's going to be our last episode till this break starts. And I'm going to be sharing the framework that I have developed over the years as a master certified coach and used to guide my design to thrive private coaching clients. I want to bring these foundational lenses to your awareness before we sign off because I truly believe this holistic approach is the way to create a thriving, fulfilling business that supports you as the human behind the brand.
This was a little bit different of an episode. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any questions about what I've shared today, about what's coming up, or one of the questions that I answered, I want to know. Tell me what came up for you during this episode. Maybe you had an aha or you're going to take something I shared and run with it. I really would love to hear from you. You can always reply to one of my emails or send me a message on Instagram. And until we talk again, 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.
Now, this is going to be a very personal episode, and at the same time, I want it to be one where you're able to take what I have learned through this process and the steps I've taken for navigating this big change, the logistics, the emotional rollercoaster, the mindsets I've had to work through, and take what I'm sharing and be able to apply it to yourself and your interior design business, whether that is you want to take some time off, you want to give yourself just some additional space, you want to navigate some other type of change in your business. This is going to be really helpful.
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. This is the first time I am recording since getting back from spring break. Our family spent two incredible weeks in Italy. We went so many places. I almost have to say, thank goodness I took a lot of pictures so I can remember what all we did. It was really special. So I am looking back on that fondly as I sit here.
Also, it was kind of fun. I got very inspired with cooking and ordered a bunch of books from the library that were waiting for us when we got back. So this past weekend, I made an entire dinner out of these Italian cookbooks, which was very fun. I gave my best shot at risotto, and I think it turned out pretty well.
So that's what's happening for me personally. And also, what's happening for me personally is that my sabbatical is coming up. This extended period of time I'm going to be taking off. And today is the time to talk about it on the podcast.
My intention for this episode is first and foremost, to share the news because some of you might have missed the email, maybe you're not on my email list. And I also really want to give you a behind-the-scenes look at this decision because it was not an easy one for me to make. And I think it'll be really valuable for you to see how I came to where I've landed, both from a logistic standpoint, but also just the internal work that's had to be done. And I know will be something that I'm going to continue to lean into as this all unfolds.
I also gave my newsletter list the opportunity to submit some questions. I've also been getting questions as I've shared this news with people, both just in my life and clients and other designers that I chat with. So I'm going to answer those too, because I figure if one person is wondering, you might be too, or at least somebody else.
So that is that. We are going to just dive right in. Starting in May, I am going to be taking a sabbatical, and I'll be stepping away from the business. And my plan is to return October-ish. And I'll share more on what I have envisioned for this time in a bit.
Before we get to that, I do want to talk about what you can expect. I know so many of you are long-time listeners, devoted listeners, and I want you to know, I was very clear when I started making decisions that in addition to ensuring that my private clients felt very cared for and very supported in this transition, I also felt like it was important for me to have some connection to all of you and to continue to support you.
That was a desire that I had, and that could be if you are a past client and we keep in touch, and it could be those of you who are new to me and just finding this work. And some of you, we will never talk, we will never work together. And there is a part of me that still wanted to be putting out some value and contribution to our industry because I do feel like that's important. And so that's one of the things that I had to navigate was how do I balance wanting to give myself this mental space, but also continue to stay in touch in some way.
So while I'll be stepping away, I'm not going to totally disappear. I know many of you who listen to the podcast are also members of my newsletter list and get Monday Mindset. And that is the Monday email that goes out. It's a weekly note for me to you sharing coaching concepts, tips, and strategies like what you hear on this podcast, and also reflections that you can apply as you move into your week. I know a lot of you love to receive that on Monday. And honestly, it's one of my favorite things that I do in my business is write those Monday Mindsets.
What's going to happen is every other Monday, you will still receive Monday Mindset just as I've been writing it for the past, I don't know, eight or so years, okay? So that will be the same format that you're used to. And then I'm going to be testing out something new that I'm really excited about.
On the weeks that you don't get the typical Monday Mindset, you're going to get a new type of newsletter with a coaching prompt to guide your week. I'm going to call it Mini Mindset. Deb Mitchell, who is a very talented copywriter and marketing expert for interior designers. She helped me come up with that. I love it. You can listen to her episode number 109, “Uplevel Your Brand Messaging.”
And the whole idea behind Mini Mindset is it's 90 seconds to change your week. It's one question designed to take 90 seconds of your time. And I know you're busy, but you have 90 seconds to really change the tone and the trajectory of the days to come. So it's not necessarily 90 seconds you have to journal. It's not 90 seconds you have to meditate or do any other heavy lift that you might be thinking of. It is just 90 seconds to read the question I prompt you with, notice what comes up, and then decide how you're going to move into the week with that new awareness.
For those of you who participated in CEO Summer School the past couple of summers, you know that I do not give you fluffy prompts. I give you questions that create change. And these are the types of questions that are going to make you stop and go, "Oh, I've been avoiding thinking about that, and now I know why." And you can remove that internal roadblock. Or maybe, "Ah, that's my next step. That feels simple and doable." Or maybe it'll spark something that says, "That's the actual thing in my way, not this other thing I've been spending a ton of time on or spinning on."
So these are going to be really impactful, even though they're going to take minimal time. And of course, if you love to journal, you can take these prompts and journal all you want. You can think about it on a walk or hear your answer in your own head as you're driving even and thinking on it. But it's going to be really good. I'm excited to invite you.
If you are not on the Monday Mindset newsletter list and you want these in your inbox, go to desicreswell.com/monday-mindset and make sure you're signed up. So you'll get those full essays every other week as we usually do, and then Mini Mindset in between.
The other thing that is changing is that this podcast is going to go on a full pause. This was another hard decision to make because I do love sharing these, and honestly, everything I think, I'm thinking, okay, how is this a podcast episode? How can I teach something from this? What can I share with you?
One of the things that I want to do with this break is give myself some space, and I'll talk about that in a little bit. But I want an opportunity to not be in the teaching cycle so much. So that is why this is going to go on pause. And with almost 170 episodes, you will have lots to revisit or listen to for the first time. Scroll back through the feed. I'm going to give you some ones from today that'll be good to revisit or listen to, and you will have plenty of content there to continue to support you. And then, like I said, timeline of this is I plan to return in the fall. What I'm thinking is October-ish, so stay tuned for that.
The best way to keep in touch is going to be through my email list. That's desicreswell.com/monday-mindset again. So make sure you're on that list because that is where I am going to share anything that I'm finding over this time. It's also going to be where announcements are going to land because we won't have this regular cadence on the podcast. So if you're not subscribed, make sure you do that, okay?
So those are the important logistics. And of course, if you have questions about this, simply reach out. I'm happy to answer your questions. You can reply to one of my emails, send me an Instagram DM. I'm always happy to hear from you. Truly.
Now I want to transition from basically what to expect to some of the things that I personally want to share about this decision, and also answer some of the questions that I've received as I have shared this news.
The very first question and the most prominent question was, "Why am I choosing to take this time?" And also, "Am I burned out?"
Of course, as with anything, it's never just one thing, right? There's no one reason, really. It's a very layered decision, and I think that's part of what made it a challenging decision for me to make. So I mean, I can say no, I'm not burned out by my work. I still love coaching. I love my clients. I have some incredible clients I have in the past, and right now I have some lovely, lovely women who are making incredible shifts for themselves in their businesses, and that is a complete honor to be able to be a part of that. And I also know I have so much more I would love to teach you and share.
So I've built my business that really serves my clients at a high level. It's very high touch. I contribute to the design industry in a way that I'm proud of and I find meaningful. I've had some great PR moments lately. And at the same time, I still want to take this time. So in a lot of ways, in many ways, this decision doesn't really make sense, right? When are we taught to walk away for a period or permanently or anything like that, with something that's going so well? Right? We don't. We don't ever hear that message. And it's something that I really wrestled with and had to get a lot of coaching on, coached myself on. And was a big piece of the internal work that I needed to dig into to come to this point.
Because what I found was, and I want you to pay attention to if your brain does this too, is that I was wanting the decision to make sense, or at least my brain was. And taking a pause from something that's going well isn't something that typically you hear of people doing.
So I noticed that my brain wanted to go and look for ways that things maybe weren't working, that were bothersome or find problems to try and justify this internal knowing and desire. And as soon as I realized that's what it was doing, I was like, yeah, there's no problem there that needs to be fixed. This is just something that I know is right. So I had to then work on my willingness to trust that level of certainty that my body felt, but that the logic brain didn't necessarily understand.
There was one day when I was out walking and what I heard in my head was, "It will only make sense after the fact." And it was like a light bulb moment for me of, oh yeah, I'm wanting this to make sense now, but I don't have what will become the future wisdom of this. And that was really clarifying for me.
The other piece of this is that the last few years have really required a lot of me on a personal level, in my personal life. And I'll just clarify real quick. I'm not getting divorced. I love my husband very much. He is a super big supporter of my business and me taking this break. I'm also healthy. That was another question I received. I don't have a diagnosis, and that's not the reason why I need to take this time. But there has been a lot that I have given to my family, and it's something that I want to be there for and be present for and giving my time and energy. And it has required a lot of emotional bandwidth.
As you all know, there are seasons of life, and some seasons of life are more demanding, and that has definitely been where I have been in the past few years, and it feels like a long season. As a fellow business owner, you know that your business requires a lot of time, mental capacity, and emotional resilience. And as a human, we have so much of that. We can work to increase it, we can work to rejuvenate and care for ourselves in so many different ways.
And at the same time, there is one of me, there is one of you. And as much as I have shifted my business over the past few years to support how I want to be showing up in my personal life, you know, there's still a business to run. There's financial milestones to meet. There's marketing that needs to go out if I want to keep working with these incredible clients that I call in, right? And I've been making it all work. And also, there's constraints around how I balance all of this, just like there is for you.
So really what I see is this time away is an opportunity to open up some more space for creativity and that zoom-out perspective to rest and reset that I haven't had as much of as I would really like to for how I want to be running this business and to, you know, continue to really evolve as the business owner and to evolve the business as well.
I also want to revisit my personal why for this business. It is something that I think has shifted, and some of the pieces are absolutely still true. And I think there's more there to uncover and to bring to current status, if you will. This is something I talked about in episode 63, “Two Whys to Fuel You.” It's the two whys you need to have a fulfilling design business. If that's something that intrigues you, definitely go listen to that episode.
It also piggybacks on wanting to again revisit my business and life vision. This is something that I do with all of my private clients. And I want it to be where I get to put everything out on the table again and decide what stays, what goes, what gets brought into this room that I'm designing, right?
Because it's important to revisit these visions that we have, these goals, because as we evolve, as our children grow, as, you know, we have other responsibilities that come and go, we can't expect ourselves to be adhering to a similar position in our own selves in relation to the business when there's radically different life stages or your identity has shifted a ton.
One of the things that kind of came up in the background was I was worried about anyone perceiving me as being flaky or being disappointed in this decision. And what I then came to realize is this is just me walking my talk. It is me checking in with my why, my values, my vision. And I'm using the tools that I share with all of you and with my clients so that I have space to evolve. And that feels really important and true to me. And I hope that you all, whether it's, you know, you give yourself some sort of formal break, or it's just making sure that you're checking in with yourself on a regular basis, it's really important, okay? So I'll leave that there.
The next question is, what was the moment or catalyst where you, in quotes, "knew" you had to or wanted to do this, or were ready to do this? I thought this was a really interesting question to think about because at first my brain said, "Well, there was no one point in this." And that's sort of true, but sort of not true as I started to think about it. And I actually think some of the things that have led to this probably started a couple of summers ago.
One of the instances that came to mind was we were on an Alaskan cruise over the summer. I was walking on the treadmill, which, talk about a weird experience of walking forward on a stationary thing while the ocean is moving past you. But the word that came to mind just as I was walking, and all of a sudden, I heard the word "nimble". And that was the start of really starting to realign some of the things in my business that I wanted to shift in terms of service offerings and client profile, and some of the way that my team was structured, right?
So that was something that came up. Then last summer, I took some more time off. I was still working, but I wanted to have some more open space to be with our family during, you know, busy time and also lots of family visiting and friends. And I realized at the end of that, hey, I want to experience some more of this. And alongside that, I started reading about seasonal businesses. That was part of what prompted that time off or reduced work schedule over the summer, and it still really intrigues me how we could have a cyclical business. And so I think that was planting some seeds in the back.
The other thing that came up for me was after I finished recording the podcast, where I announced we were going to go to an every other week cadence, I had a really, I don't even know how to describe it. It was a sinking, heavy, weighty feeling in my body. And what I identified was part of that was a subtle intention to move back to doing some marketing on Instagram. And I realized I really did not want to fill that space and take that next step. So that was another piece.
All right. So then last fall was when I really started considering this as what it is today, as this extended period of time. And while I didn't make a decision very firmly in that moment, I did start shifting some commitments so that I would have the option if I wanted it.
And then, see, this is not a simple answer. But what happened in Costa Rica this year, we went for our winter break trip, and we were staying at a hot springs place, which was amazing. And I was walking back to our room through these hot springs with my family. Sometimes I feel like we're little ducks in a row. And I thought, "I'm nobody here." That just came to my mind, right? Sometimes I just, these things pop in my head, right? And I thought, "I'm no one here."
And that's not to say that I get recognized in public all the time. It's happened a bit, but it wasn't about like, oh, people know me or identify me, right? It was about me releasing the identity. And what happened with that is that the question of who am I without this business or without this identity started to become a more intriguing question to me versus something that felt threatening.
And I think it's very common for our sense of mattering or importance or purpose, right? It can be very tied to the roles that we hold. In the past, I've definitely done work with separation of me and my business that's been hugely helpful, but I felt it drop away even more in that moment. And so in some ways, this feels like a pattern interrupt for me to explore myself further. And I've been working since I was, I think, 15, and I want to have a chance to redefine what ambition looks like right now in this stage and season of life and really see what emerges when there aren't some of those outside work achievements constantly coming in.
Lastly, what I'll say about this is I'm not sure I was really feeling ready until maybe a month ago. This has been a really hard decision for me. It's been one I've waffled on. It has been one where I have really had to do a lot of coaching, a lot of personal exploration, a lot of digging into that well of emotional willingness. So it hasn't really been one moment, but rather a series of moments that has brought me here. So that feels like a long and windy response, but it kind of has been a long and windy way that I have arrived here.
I also got some questions about logistics, like how did I plan for this? How could you prepare for taking some time off? And the number one thing I can say for you if you are thinking about doing something similar is to give yourself space to consider what you really want before you dive into any type of planning. Play with the ideas of what this could look like, and don't get bogged down in the hows and the what ifs, because that will derail you and have you settling in ways that aren't necessarily necessary, or there could be a solution to some of these roadblocks your brain's going to throw up when you start to express this desire. So give yourself time to think about what it is I really want. And I certainly did that.
And then once I had a better idea of what would feel best, that's when I started planning this time like I would any other project or initiative in the business. And it's the process that I teach my clients in the goal-setting workshops and all the other things that I teach. It is the same process that I've had for many years.
The first thing was taking a look at this is what I want, so what are the decisions I have to make in order to help me get there? And there were a lot of decisions to make, the timeline, how I would support my clients in this transition, how will I make this announcement, what will happen with my team? Will I completely pause marketing? What needs to be updated on my back end in order to support this transition?
There were so many things that I had to look at. And we want to get those all on the table because those become the action items, those become the plans. And also, we can start to see where our edges and where we're feeling uncomfortable about these things. So we can either get coaching or figure out why it doesn't feel quite right and come to a place of either, yeah, this is just something that's going to feel uncomfortable, and I can move forward with it anyways, or it's because yes, something feels out of alignment here and I need to come up with another path forward.
A sub-question of the logistics of this was someone asked me how did I decide on the timeline. So I'll just sneak that one in here. Six months to me felt like a good amount of time that I could have that space I wanted, and it felt spacious, and it also just felt like a good length of time personally for me to say, I'm going to revisit some decisions at the end of this. So six months also felt like a time that I could wrap my head around. How will this actually work? Am I really going to do this? Am I going to fall off the face of the earth? What's going to happen, right?
And also, I liked the timing of it. I knew that after last summer, I really wanted even more time off over the summer. So I wanted to have some time before the kids got off school and then some time after the kids went back to school. It's like an extended runway. Some of you've heard me talk about that. And I think it'll be really helpful to have time to sort of downshift and then, you know, again, recalibrate once the business of summer has passed.
After I've made a lot of decisions, I used my to-do to done method to map out all those mini results. I set the timelines and communicated with the people that I needed to talk to, you know, according to what those timelines were. And I will say that some of these decisions I knew I could make right away, but some of them did unfold over time. So even if I didn't have an answer to, this is the way I'm going to do this, in the initial planning, I had it earmarked as this is something I need to revisit and make note of. Because there were some decisions that I just was not ready to make and there were some that I were.
And if you listen to episode 150, I highly recommend that. That is from summer school last summer. And it's called something like “Build Momentum through Decisions,” something like that. I can't remember. But the idea is when we decide, we move forward. That is the way that we make progress. We get new information, and we keep the business growing and ourselves growing too.
So at this point, I know myself well enough to know when I'm delaying a decision or an action because it is just simply uncomfortable, and when it's because the next step doesn't feel clear and settled in my body, and it actually is better to wait. Of course, while I'm still coaching myself to keep the integration and the processing moving forward.
So that's important, too, of like, we want to know what our decisions are, we want to know what the action steps are, and we also want to know ourselves well enough to know when is the time to embrace that discomfort and move forward anyway, and when it's okay or when it's actually more useful to let that decision marinate.
Another big piece of this planning puzzle are the financials, of course, right? You're in business to make money, to pay yourself, or at least you hopefully are. So you need to look at what are the expenses that are just going to be there. So for me, that was looking at some of the software that I use to run the business, that it wouldn't make sense to shut down, or I still need the platform that I use to send out emails and where I've hosted courses and all of that. So that's just going to be there and I need to plan for that to be an ongoing expense.
There's other things, though, that you could look at and say what could be paused or reduced. So that was another part of my planning and analysis is looking at what am I going to need for support from my assistant during this time? What about the podcast? Could that be paused? What's my contract like? What are my options? What would work for the person who provides those services to me and what's going to work best for me? How can we create a win-win? Those types of things.
And you know, is a great time to look at the overall health and financial status of the business, especially do you want to be paying yourself while you take this time? Is it the same amount that you've been paying yourself? Is it something different? Do you have savings and reserves? Is this is something that you need to save for and build towards so that it's possible in the future?
All of those things are going to be completely individualized, but it certainly is part of the planning process for me and it would be for you. I also have to acknowledge that this decision is coming from a place of privilege. I know that not everyone in the world has the opportunity to make these types of decisions. And I'm grateful that I do. And I would encourage you that if you immediately think, "Nope, I can't do that," to question yourself. And I'm of course not in your financial realm, so I don't know exactly what your financial status is for your business or your family.
And at the same time, if that's the immediate objection, maybe that's not true. Maybe there is a way that you could make it work. Maybe there is a way that you could give yourself more time off or space during the day where you're not having such a high level of client load that could actually work. So like, what if it is possible to give yourself that space you want? How would that be possible then? If that's true, if you're believing that it is possible for you to make these changes, then what? What do you do next?
Another very, very key component of this planning, and I highly encourage you all to do this as you're planning to make any big changes in your business, is to coach yourself. Identify obstacles, think about what you're worried about, what are those fears that you have, and either work with yourself to process those, work with someone like myself who's a coach or a therapist, to talk through what it is that's going to get in your way and keep you stuck.
Another question that I was asked very pointedly when I shared this news is, "Well, aren't you worried that's going to ruin your business?" And yeah, of course, that came up. Of course, that was a fear that I had. Or that if I stopped the podcast specifically, would it just be way too much work to re-engage people when I wanted to bring it back? And that's a real concern. I don't know exactly how this will impact the business. I do know that I really trust that I've put out a ton of value into our community for many, many years at this point, and that value will continue to serve you and other people who tune in. And I also can't predict the future.
So one of the things that I did as part of my planning is to do a fear inventory. I talked about this in episode 156. And essentially, this is putting all of your worries, your doubts, your fears on paper and identifying what could be potential solutions and how you are resourceful enough to overcome this. If I had not taken a look at what these fears are and the potential obstacles and gotten crystal clear on why I was afraid and what I could do about that fear, what I had control over and where I could lean into self-trust, this decision would not be playing out because for sure, it would have stopped me in my tracks. And that requires a high, high level of self-leadership and self-trust.
So I want to acknowledge, yes, there's a lot of planning, a lot of intentionality, and a lot of forward thinking in order to give myself the on-ramp to take this time. And also, the internal work of this has to be addressed as part of the planning process. And the work of trusting that you have the ability to create what you want when you want to with whatever circumstances you have at hand. And I do trust that I will figure this out when I get to that point if I need to.
So that's huge. Do not skip that. You can also look too at the obstacles because, of course, there will be things that are going to get in your way of executing a big change, such as taking a sabbatical. I talk about this in episode 65, “Why You Should Plan to Fail.” The reason you want to do this is because obstacles always have solutions, and you can make those solutions a part of your plan and action item list, okay?
So one of the things that I looked at for this decision to take time off is that an obstacle will definitely be that I will be tempted to veer off course, to undo my decision in different ways, right? So I am a creative at heart. I have lots of ideas. I'm seeing other people doing things that I would want to be doing if I wasn't planning to take this break.
I am being asked even, you know, I've gotten a couple of requests to moderate a panel at High Point. I got asked to submit a pitch for being a keynote speaker at a conference. All of these things seem exciting. They're things that I would be interested in potentially doing. And they're very clearly not in alignment with the path that I'm headed on right now. And that's not to say that I couldn't make decisions that, yes, I want to do these things if I loved my reasons for it.
But I also was very clear up front with myself that a potential obstacle would be, I'm firm in this decision until I hear about something fun and exciting and sparkly, and I want to go run after that, and that's going to take me off this very intentional space that I'm trying to create. So it's important to acknowledge what those obstacles are, both the internal and the external, and be ready for them because they will present themselves.
I'll wrap up here with one last question. This one's a fun one. What will I be doing with this time? I have lots of plans and very few of them are going to include work. There's lots of different types of sabbaticals that you can take. I really don't even know that I resonate with the word sabbatical. It just seems like the best term for me to be using right now. I picture a very stuffy Ivy League professor toiling away on a massive project while they're on sabbatical, and that is not what this feels like at all to me. But for lack of a better term, that's what we'll call it.
I am not planning on doing a specific work project during this time. I do plan to remain open, though, to whatever pops up as potential ideas. I'm going to be giving myself things to interact with and respond to because there are some questions that have been rolling around in my head about some of the things that are in my business that I'm wondering what to do with in the future or kind of want to see a new iteration of potentially. So I want to be open and curious about what I notice. And I want to continue to coach myself to see what has been percolating but really hasn't had that time to come forward yet. So that's one of the things.
I'm also going to be with my family a lot this summer. We, I'm sure, will have a busy summer because it always is, and it's already starting to shape up that way. So that'll be part of it, being at the lake as a family. I've got some creative projects that I want to do. I really want to work on some of our family photo albums that I have not gotten to in the past few years, some home projects like updating some furniture and refreshing our living room area.
I definitely plan to be doing some meditation and diving into that a little bit more. Last year, I really recommitted to that practice. So I want to lean into that some more. And I'll still be working with, we have a rental property business that I run and manage. And I'll definitely still be hands-on with that. But there won't be a specific work project that is happening during that time.
So like I said, the purpose of this really is to give me space, and I don't want to have a huge agenda of what's supposed to happen from this time because then I will miss the potential lessons. So that's what I have for you today. Those are the questions we'll cover, but it really just is a time for me to reset. It's time to reimagine, and it's time to see what emerges. And I don't know exactly what will come of this time, but I do know that I'm going to get what I need, and I already know that it was a great decision. I've already decided that. I trust that it's true. The last time I took this kind of space, the seeds of this coaching business really firmly took root, and I think that turned out pretty well.
I want to thank you for being here with me, whether you're new to my space or if you've been here since the very beginning. I also want to remind you to sign up for Monday Mindset at desicreswell.com/monday-mindset. And that'll get you those weekly notes and prompts, but it'll also make sure that you are just kept in the loop on all of the latest of what's happening and make sure you don't miss any announcements.
You'll also want to subscribe to the podcast here today if you're not, so that way you'll be alerted when a new episode pops up at some point in the future. And if you haven't left a review ever, but you love the show, it would really mean the world to me if you would take a moment and leave a rating and review. This has been such an amazing space to be in with you and share ideas and hear from you all how you are changing things in your personal lives and your businesses. And I want others to know about that. So if you would, please take a moment to do that. I am very, very grateful if you have already done that. So thank you.
I'm going to be back with a brand new episode. That's going to be our last episode till this break starts. And I'm going to be sharing the framework that I have developed over the years as a master certified coach and used to guide my design to thrive private coaching clients. I want to bring these foundational lenses to your awareness before we sign off because I truly believe this holistic approach is the way to create a thriving, fulfilling business that supports you as the human behind the brand.
This was a little bit different of an episode. I hope you enjoyed it. If you have any questions about what I've shared today, about what's coming up, or one of the questions that I answered, I want to know. Tell me what came up for you during this episode. Maybe you had an aha or you're going to take something I shared and run with it. I really would love to hear from you. You can always reply to one of my emails or send me a message on Instagram. And until we talk again, 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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