Episode #0055 How to Implement Consistency Within Your Interior Design Business with Desi Creswell

Desi has worked at world-renowned design and architecture firms prior to establishing her own design practice. Her personal experience with burnout and the competing interests of work and home led her to transform her own life. She then used this new knowledge to provide support to the interior design community. 

Her training as a life coach aims to help interior designers stop feeling overwhelmed so they can intentionally build profitable, fulfilling businesses that enrich and support their lives as a whole. 

Crystal and Desi discuss how consistency in business is crucial in all areas of our life and business. We need to be kind to ourselves when it comes to implementing consistent practices. We have to give ourselves grace and not “should” all over ourselves. Bringing awareness to our slip-ups is the first step, then with this awareness, we can begin to be more consistent in habits we want to make.

Any type of habitual change starts with a mindset and setting realistic goals that are actually attainable. There is no use in setting unrealistic goals that one would have a hard time completing or committing to. Start small and build on your wins. These wins build over time, and eventually, the habit/change becomes routine.

So join in as Crystal and Desi as they chat about Desi’s journey on being a life and business coach to the interior design community and having the right mindset when it comes to consistency in business. Then, “Do something today that your future self will thank you for” and get Desi’s planner and attend their upcoming workshop.

If you enjoyed the episode, show your support by buying me a coffee buymeacoffee.com/TPDpodcast

How to reach Desi:

Website – desicreswell.com I Instagram – @desicreswell

Desi Creswell as guest in TPD episode How to Implement Consistency Within Your Interior Design Business

Resources mentioned:

Interior Designers Get It Done Daily Planner (Free)
Goal Setting For Busy Interior Designers
Friday, December 3 at 11 am central

Episode #0054 Looking for Entrepreneur Freedom? TPD chats with Peter Mohr, Host of the Simplifying Entrepreneurship Podcast

Peter is a serial entrepreneur, owning several businesses, he is also a business broker helping people buy and sell businesses. Peter uses his entrepreneur background by helping other business owners create turn-key businesses so that they can enjoy the entrepreneur freedom and have the majority of their time working “on” their businesses, not “in” it.

Crystal & Peter discuss in order to have a successful business and enjoy entrepreneur freedom,  you need the four P’s of business, Product, Process, People and Profit. Stating how important it is to understand the problem you’re solving and by showing your customer how life will be “after” your product or service. 

As a Business Made Simple Certified Coach, a framework Peter developed. He has simplified entrepreneurship. Depending on where you are and what you need, he can best suggest the best framework to help you in your business. 

So, join Crystal and Peter as they chat about Peter’s coaching business and how to gain entrepreneur freedom in your business. Check out Peter’s website for a free business assessment test which will take 15-20 minutes to complete. However, you will get a very detailed 50-60 page PDF document. Outlining what you’re doing really well with your business and what you need to work on. So, “Do something today that your future self will thank you for” and take Peter’s assessment test.

How to reach Peter:

Website: simplifyingentrepreneurship.com

LinkedIn: petermohr     I     Facebook: SimplifyingEntrepreneurship

Peter Mohr on TPD episode titled Looking for Entrepreneur freedom?

Recommended podcast: Huberman Lab, Genius Network

Recommended books: Business Made Simple by Donald Miller

Resources mentioned: Assessment Test

Episode #0053 West of Main’s Sasha Lafleur on Organically Growing her Interior Design Services

Featured in this week’s episode of The Productive Designer, host Crystal Collinson, chats with fellow designer and the Principal Lead Designer and Co-Owner of West of Main Design, Sascha Lafleur.

Sascha had a passion for design for as long as she can remember so she  moved to Montreal to study Interior Design. She is committed to design spaces that are not just a valued addition to the client’s varied lifestyles, businesses, and environments. She believes that spaces are a true reflection of who they are, where they’ve been, and where they are going.

West of Main was initially established as an interior design services business. Over time it organically became a multi-faceted business. I includes a brick & mortar furniture store as well as a newly added e-commerce store. By launching an online e-commerce store, it allows the business to reach audiences across Canada & the United States. 

Sascha shares how her amazing team collaborates on the concept development to nail down the design direction.  When moving on to the planning phase, this allows for the implementation phase to run smoothly as possible. When you implement something completely unorganized in your interior design services, people live in chaos for a year to two. Which is extremely frustrating for the client, construction, and the design team. Take the proper time to plan the entire project before starting construction. Then the implementation experience can be a pleasurable journey for everyone involved.

So join in as Crystal and Sascha talk about Sascha’s interior design services and how she has expanded her team and furniture store . Then, “Do something today that your future self will thank you for” and listen to this episode. 

How to reach Sascha:

Website – westofmain.com

Facebook – Westofmainshoppe I      Instagram – westofmainshoppe

Sasha Lafleur on TPD episode on how she organically grow her interior design services

Recommended podcast : Gut podcast

Episode #0052 Designing for Mental Health with Carrie Leskowitz

Featured in this week’s episode of The Productive Designer, host Crystal Collinson, interviews fellow designer, certified life coach and author, Carrie Leskowitz.

Carrie is an award-winning interior designer with over 20 years of experience. As the founder of Carrie Leskowtitz Interiors, she helps clients nurture the holistic connections between their homes and their physical, emotional, and spiritual health. Through self-exploration and reinvention for beautifully created homes. Focused on designing for mental health connections to promote overall well-being and abundant life.

Carrie shares the journey that led her in being a life coach. She believes that things happen for a reason. And that we don’t always know what they are when we’re in them. She decided to become a life coach to help herself to change her perspective. She started her coaching her design clients because she had seen how the interior space of home mirrors their minds. 

In Carrie’s book, OM for the hOMe, she shares her holistic approach to intentionally curating an environment where you’ll thrive physically, emotionally, and spiritually. It is your complete guide to designing for mental health space with your authentic self in mind to achieve Zen. Full of design philosophy, creative lifestyle tips, and introspective activities.

Carrie also shares that she’s working with people and companies where sustainability is of importance. She likes to use non-toxic paints which every company makes now. She also recommends reducing cleaning supplies by applying the 80/20 approach. Finding more and more people are interested in going green in cleaning supplies & beauty products.

So join Crystal and Carrie as they talk about Carrie’s book about designing for mental health, her interior design business, and the holistic connection between our homes and our health as a whole. Then, “Do something today that your future self will thank you for.” and pick up Carrie’s book.

How to reach Carrie:

Website : carrieleskowitzinteriors.com I Instagram :  @carrieleskowitz

Facebook : carrieleskowitzinteriors I LinkedIn : carrie-leskowitz

Carrie Leskowitz as guest on TPD episode Designing for mental health

Recommended podcasts: 

A Well Designed Business, The Genius Life and Meaningful Conversation

Resources mentioned – OM for the Home – A Holistic Approach to Interior Design for Your Overall Wellbeing, Body, Mind, and Spirit

Episode #0051 Our Sense of Smell and Depression, How They are Related

Featured on today’s episode The Productive Designer host Crystal Collinson interviews TEDx speaker, author of WHY the NOSE? and Chief Executive Officer at The Scented L’air, Tracy Pepe.

Tracy has over 30 years of experience developing her superpower, which is the connection between mental health and our sense of smell. She is a perfumer specializing in essential oils, aromatics and chemicals. She created various scent solutions to rethink practical synesthesia (Tracy explains what synesthesia is) in architecture and interior design. Most of her design collaborations explored the idea of sensorial expansion. Adding the intertwinement of scent strategy and color to create nearly deepened ways of visitor sensation.

In this episode, Tracy breaks down scent design and essential oils for consumers to understand that scent design is more than a scented candle.

Tracy talks about her book which was her personal journey as a perfumer and the fear of getting COVID. And the chance of losing her sense of smell would be like a Designer losing their eyesight. Tracy explains how COVID impacts the central nervous system. In which the number one symptom is people losing their sense of smell and their sense of taste. Noting that the unfortunately the medical community downplay this. However, in the scent world, that’s a huge red flag. She shares the research information about people who loses their sense of smell is close to 76% chance to experience some form of depression.

So join Crystal and Tracy as they talk about Tracy’s scent business, the relation of smell and depression, and the qualities to look for in buying essential oils.

Then, “Do something today that your future self will thank you for”. And contact Tracy to get your copy of her new E-book, free smelling kit, or workbook.

How to connect with Tracy

Website: smellingpink.ca

LinkedIn:  Tracy Pepe

Tracy Pepe as guest on TPD episode Our sense of smell and depression

Recommended podcasts/books

My Love Story by Tina Turner

Greenlight by Matthew McConaughey

Resources mentioned:

Free workbook on how to regain sense of smell

Episode #0050 – The Planning Fallacy (Solo episode)

Featured on today’s solo episode of The Productive Designer podcast, host Crystal Collinson dives deep into something that we all fall victim to, the term “planning fallacy”. It’s a familiar experience that is explored by social psychologists since the term was coined by Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky in 1979.

Planning fallacy refers to an optimistic prediction bias in which people underestimate the time that it will actually take to complete a task. Despite knowing that similar tasks that you’ve performed in the past have typically taken longer. We tend to exclude many variables that are out of our control and only think of some parts of the task that we can control. Therefore, we grossly underestimate how long something is gonna actually take to complete. When it comes to projects this depends on what type of fee system you are working with. Whether you’re on an hourly or a flat fee, we are all guilty of not charging for every hour that we have worked.

There are studies that show how we can overcome this fallacy. That is learning to break down our projects into more bite-size and manageable tasks. By doing so, we have a much better idea of estimating the amount of time each of those specific tasks is going to take. This is where time blocking comes in. The challenge is actually sticking to what you planned to do in that specific time. Because there will always be something that will try to distract you from your intended action.

There is really no one-size-fits-all approach to overcoming the planning fallacy. Things are going to happen that are not on your schedule, but has there ever really been an actual “design emergency”? The answer is NO! The trick is breaking things down into bite-sized pieces, setting out your intentions on when and where to do these tasks and then sticking  to actually following through…yes easier said than done.

So now go do something today that your future self will thank you for and listen to this short episode.

TPD solo episode titled The Planning Fallacy

Resources mentioned:

Time Blocking episode

THE PLANNING FALLACY: AN INSIDE VIEW

Why do we underestimate how long it will take to complete a task?

Episode #0049 How to Generate Referrals for your Business Without Asking with Stacey Brown Randall

Featured on today’s episode The Productive Designer host Crystal Collinson interviews multiple award-winning author and podcast host Stacey Brown Randall.

 Stacey is the multiple award-winning author of Generating Business Referrals Without Asking. She’s also the host of the Roadmap to Grow Your Business podcast. She has been featured in national publications like Entrepreneur Magazine – Investor, Business Daily, Forbes. CEO World and Fox News.

Stacey shares her high-level philosophy on how to generate referrals which always comes from relationships. And relationships have to be maintained by frequent connection. Business owners are juggling both professional and personal life, and in order to maintain connections, you need to create a referral process so that you can do it consistently. The best way to maintain these connections is through touchpoints. This ensures that we’re connecting the right way, with the right language. And the right amount of times in a year.

We have been taught on how to generate referrals that we must ask for them. Stacey & Crystal discuss easy and effective ways to stand out amongst your competitors. And how to easily receive more business referrals without asking.

Honoring the relationship with referral sources is more impactful when using the right language to direct how they think about us, which is ultimately how the referrals consistently happen. Additionally, the piece that most people miss is that referral generation needs to be strategic with a system in place so that you maintain those consistent touchpoints. 

So join Crystal and Stacey as they discuss on how to generate referrals and hope to inspire you to think differently about growing and maintaining your business through referrals. 

Then, “Do something today that your future self will thank you for” and reach out to a past client.

Connect with Stacey

 Website – staceybrownrandall.com

 Facebook – StaceyBrownRandall

Stacey Brown Randall as guest on TPD episode How to generate referrals for your Business Without Asking

Recommended podcasts/books

 Podcast  – The Simple Life Gardener

Book – Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls

Being the H.O.S.T of your life with Andrea Freeman

Featured in this week’s episode of The Productive Designer host Crystal Collinson interviews mindful business coach, Andrea Freeman.

Andrea is a celebrity event planner turned mindful business coach. She works with service-based entrepreneurs around the world to help them up-level their businesses to multiple 6 to 7 figures through a couple of different vehicles like authentic thought leadership and visibility and mindset. Cultivating the habits, practices to create a business that is soulfully sustainable.

Andrea shares that her personal journey as an entrepreneur where she had a number of different businesses. Andrea realized that going through her business evolutions really helped her to cultivate a new mindset. She also mentions how she created her coaching program which is based on the idea of being at a party. Andrea points out that there are two ways to be in life, to be a “guest” or be the “host”. When you’re a guest at someone else’s party, you don’t have a say in a lot of things about the party, but being the host you have the choice to create something that’s uniquely and authentically yours.

Andrea is the creator of the H.O.S.T your life Accelerator program. A program to learn how to honor your why so you get really clear about why you do what you do. So that you can build a business that makes a massive impact, stands the test of time, and creates true entrepreneurial freedom.

Andrea and Crystal discuss the topic of burnout. Andrea believes that you cannot talk about burnout without the discussion of boundaries. Which she thinks is going to be a critical part of being able to come out of burnout, and be successful. Andrea mentions that the more you cultivate your mindset, the easier it is to get there.

So join Crystal and Andrea as they talk about Andrea’s entrepreneurial journey and her coaching business. Then, “Do something today that your future self will thank you for”.

How to connect with Andrea:

Website – andreafreemanconsulting.com I Instagram – @afreeman_insta

LinkedIn – afreeman-consulting

Andrea Freeman as guest in TPD episode Being the H.O.S.T of your life

Recommended podcasts:

Revisionist History I Get Rich Lucky Bitch

Episode #0047 How to effectively use local SEO for your Interior Design business

Featured in this week’s episode of The Productive Designer host Crystal Collinson interviews local SEO Expert, Jessica Morrison. 

Jessica runs a local SEO agency where she helps small businesses really increase their search engine rankings and their online visibility. Her passion has always been local business and not just local but small businesses across the world. She talks about a class of really large companies that will have a completely different SEO strategy than a business that exists in a city or a smaller town. And there are definite advantages to really increase your ranking locally. She thinks that it’s often a benefit that’s overlooked by small businesses. Because they think that SEO is kind of one of these things that only big companies do. Listen to learn why it is beneficial for small local companies too.

Jessica discusses the three different pillars that you want to look at with local SEO. Your first one is optimizing your website. Where you want to take a look at your website and make sure it’s optimized for mobile viewing. Because most people are now looking at things on smartphones. The second is social media even if it has an indirect effect on your SEO. What it does is it’s increasing your brand awareness allowing your company to be “top of mind”. She continues to discuss the third factor which is the local ranking factor,. Which would be having a Google my business profile. And it can go so far as to text you if people want to interact with you. If you’ve optimized GMB then you can show up in the top three on the map.

So join Crystal and Jessica as they discuss positioning your business through local SEO efforts. Then, “Do something today that your future self will thank you for” and head on to her website to check the PDF free resource to know more about the three pillars Jessica mentioned.

How to reach Jessica:

Website seasidedigitaldesign.com     

LinkedIn – seasidedigitaldesign     I     Instagram – @seasidedigitaldesign

Jessica Morrison on TPD episode How to effectively use local SEO for your Interior Design business

Recommended podcasts:

Speaking Your Brand      I     Sales Maven     I     Hello Seven

Episode #0046 Learn how to focus with “Focusologist” Penny Zenker

Featured in this week’s episode of The Productive Designer host Crystal Collinson chats with Focusologist, Penny Zenker. 

Penny is, an international speaker, business strategy coach, and best-selling author of the book “The Productivity Zone” which was an instant Amazon Best Seller. And her TEDx, “The Energy of Thought”, has gained attention around the world. She is featured on NBC News, Forbes, Inc, ESPN, and Wharton Business Radio among others.

In this episode, Crystal and Penny discuss how we need to bring awareness to life and works’ distractions or how and why we lose focus. Penny explains how can we start to take steps towards being more focused. And being more intentional with where and how we direct our attention. 

Crystal believes habitual change is tough, and it is going to take a real effort to make these changes happen. 

What is a “Focusologist”?

Penny explains what a Focusologist is, it is someone who focuses is on the right things at the right time. It is someone who studies and practices the art of controlling and directing the energy of our thoughts, our feelings, and our actions to produce a positive, meaningful result. At the simplest, it’s the art of studying how to focus so that we get the results that we want. 

She emphasized that humans are a thousand times more driven away from pain than we are towards pleasure. Where, avoiding the pain by doing almost anything other than what we are supposed to do.

Crystal asks how Penny works and what are methods she uses to help people to stay focused. Penny mentioned that the first step is awareness. She has a distraction quiz. Where she invites everybody to take a look at. And find out whether they’re a squirrel or a time zombie. What the quiz meant to do is to create that heightened awareness as to what’s distracting us. People should be aware that we’re being distracted. And, that we’re impulsively behaving in a certain way.

Listen in on this episode where Crystal and Penny talked about the ways how to focus and be a little bit more productive. And, “Do something today that your future self will thank you for”. And learn to notice what your triggers are for losing focus. 

How to reach Penny:

Website: pennyzenker360.com I LinkedIn: pennyzenker I Facebook: PennyzPerspective

Mentioned Resources: Distraction quiz

Books:  Productivity-Zone-Stop-Tug-Time by Penny Zenker and Ruthless-Elimination-Hurry-Emotionally-Spiritually by Jon Mark Comer 

Penny Zenker on TPD episode how to focus

Recommended podcasts: Tim Ferriss and Brene Brown