104. Eliminate Business Bloat with "All Killer, No Filler"
Does it feel like your business is weighed down by decisions and commitments that no longer serve you? What if you could filter out the "filler" and focus on what truly lights you up - the "killer" elements that align with your goals and vision?
As CEOs of our businesses, we are constantly faced with decisions about what to keep, what to let go, and what to bring in. But without a clear framework for evaluating these choices, it's easy to get stuck in indecision or cling to things that no longer serve us. That's where the concept of All Killer, No Filler comes in - a simple yet profound way to assess what truly belongs in your business and what needs to be released.
Join me this week as I dive into the origins of All Killer, No Filler, share practical examples of how I've applied it in my own life and business, and guide you through the process of using this powerful filter for yourself. You’ll hear why this concept is the secret to creating more ease, how it opens up both physical and mental energy, and helps you better utilize the resources in your business.
If you're interested in working together one-on-one in the fall or winter, now is the time to put your name on the waitlist for private coaching. Click here to secure your spot!
What You’ll Discover from this Episode:
How the concept of All Killer, No Filler can help you make better decisions in your business and personal life.
3 different approaches to applying All Killer, No Filler to your life and business.
Examples of how I use All Killer, No Filler to evaluate everything from food choices to business decisions.
Why letting go of "pretty good" can be the most challenging but also the most expansive for your growth.
The importance of regularly reassessing what is "killer" and "filler" as your business evolves over time.
How to make the process of achieving your "killer" vision more enjoyable and ease-filled, even when it feels challenging in the moment.
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Minimalista by Shira Gill
Full Episode Transcript:
Hey, designer, you're listening to episode 104. In this one, I'm going to be sharing a concept that I've been using in both my personal life and in my business to really discern what is coming in and what's going out, what is staying and what is leaving. It's called All Killer and No Filler and I can't wait to share it with you.
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. So glad to be here with all of you. As always, it is just a gorgeous fall day here today. It's the day that we're doing family photos that I mentioned getting all those outfits for in a previous episode. So that is just going to be amazing. And I am kind of not looking forward to it because it's always like a little scrambly, but also knowing that I love, love, love having those images to look back and reflect on.
And as I'm saying that, oh my gosh, isn't that the same with things you do in your business? Sometimes you just don't feel like doing them, but you know you're going to be so glad that you did because of the impact that you're going to have forever and ever. And it's kind of like getting to hang that gallery wall in your house and benefit from those sweet memories and capturing that moment in time. But it's something that continues to bring you joy and pleasure and benefit down the line.
Today, what I want to talk to you about i s a concept that I have been playing with quite a bit in my own business and in my own personal life. And I knew that I was planning on outlining a new episode for you today, but yesterday I actually was like, oh my gosh, I have exactly what I want to say. So I started scribbling notes down furiously. Normally I outline these on the computer, but I've been on the computer so much this week. I've been redoing the copy entirely the past two weeks for my website. And I was like, I can't type on the computer anymore. So hopefully I can read what I wrote.
I'm really excited to bring this concept to you. And the concept is called all killer and no filler. I'm going to say that again, all killer, no filler. The way that I've been using this is as a decision filter and looking at what's coming, what's going, what's here and I want to keep, what's here and I want to let go, what I want to bring in, all sorts of things. And I've been using this both just in my and then also in some of the business decisions I've been making around both my vision going forward and also just short-term decisions for quarter four.
This concept is going to totally help you, of course, from a decision-making standpoint, which if you think about it, decisions are what our lives are made out of. It's what our business is made out of. And so when we have a decision filter, something that helps us understand what gets through the filter, what doesn't get through the filter, and you know, what we need to let go of, what we need to bring in, it frees up so much mental and emotional weight. And it also ends up saving you so much time. Saves you time in things that you're no longer doing or needing to continue to organize or manage because it's there but not being used. It also saves you time from indecision. It saves you time from carrying things out that don't even align with your goals at this point. It's such a time saver.
In addition to being a time saver, it's also a way to leverage your financial resources as well. So we'll go into all of that in a bit, but I want to just give credit where credit is due. So this concept of all killer, no filler, I picked up from a newsletter that I subscribed to from Shira Gill. Shira is a professional organizer, she's also a blogger, she is an author, I adore her. She wrote one of the books is "Minimalista", which was very popular. She's got another book coming out soon. And she's also a certified coach through The Life Coach School, which is where I did my master coach training.
Additionally, I have a soft spot for her because I did a session with her, like a one-off call back when I was blogging and wanting to do design writing. I had seen her do what I thought I wanted to do as I was looking at maybe pivoting away from design. And I don't know if I've shared this, but I used to have two blogs. There was the Imprecise Cook, which was something that I came up with to kind of help people who would come over to our house and share, you know, oh, I love this salad you made. Can you give me the recipe? Or, oh, I love this other thing. these cookies you made, or whatever.
So what I would do is I had this blog called The Imprecise Cook, and I would kind of try and outline at least sort of generally what it was, and then that was one way that I shared my food with people in a way that kind of gave them some frame of reference, but also was very true to me and that I was not going to be like, you need a tablespoon of this and a teaspoon of this because that's just not how I operate in the kitchen.
And then I had another blog called Light and Lux, which was something I think I was planning to maybe turn into e-commerce. So I was exploring a lot of ideas at this point. So Shira was just an awesome resource, a great sounding board. And that's why I continue to follow her, not just because she's amazing at what she does, but also I feel like I have that personal connection with her.
So anyways, she sent out this newsletter and of course it was related to clothing and going through what you already own and using this concept of all killer, no filler. It's actually something that her husband says. Before we dive into more of how I've been using this and how you might want to use it for yourself, I want to just frame how I define this for myself.
I don't remember exactly how she defined it in the newsletter, but I picked up on the phrase and have kind of made up my own. So when I think of what is killer, it's things that you enjoy or spark inspiration that you're drawn to, or maybe light you up. And then when I think of what filler is, it's things that are kind of ho-hum, like you don't really like them, but they're still around or you're still doing it that way just because it's always been done that way or because it just happens to be there and you're carrying it around like dead weight or you don't know what to do with it. You have some reasons you're having trouble letting go of it.
So that's kind of the way that I've been thinking about those two words in that phrase. And then another way that you could potentially explore this is by tuning into how these elements or how these resources, objects, decisions feel when you engage with them physically or through using them or thinking about them.
I find that this is a really helpful method for getting out of my mind. When I think about the phrase killer, I think of expansive or lightness. Maybe I feel grounded or there's a pleasant buzz. And when I think about filler, it's more of this sinking, contraction, maybe it feels hollow in the body or heavy, there's sort of that drag internally.
And sometimes our mind can be so active around what should be killer or what shouldn't be filler or vice versa, that this is another sort of backdoor approach, where you can get out of the mind when it's really trying to should you or talk you into something or where something maybe really logically makes sense to keep doing it that way or to keep the thing the way it is and you internally have a different experience and so you can kind of compare and contrast and think about like what is actually true versus what's just mind chatter.
One last way that I'll give you to think about this concept of all killer, no filler is actually related to a blog post that I had done on my interior design website. That was one of the ways that I brought in business was through blogging and then getting traffic that way. The post was called no sevens allowed.
So no sevens as in, if you rate something on a scale of one to 10, one low, 10 high. If you've been a client of mine, you know I love to rate things. But there's no seven allowed. Like as in you are not allowed to assign a seven to something. And the reason why this is really helpful is that sevens are safe and non-committal. There's not a clear in or out. It's not a clear yes or no.
And when I was talking about this through design, it was like, let's not put any sevens in your house. But now I want you to think about what are the sevens that are in your business? What I have found is that when you don't allow something to exist that's a seven, whether again, that's decisions, how you do things, the people you interact with, any of it. That is when you get the most liberation, freedom, and clarity.
When I bring it back to this concept of all killer, no filler, what I think is really interesting is that you can even have filler that's an eight. An eight is good, but not great. I think a misconception about things that are filler or just kind of like dragging along with you based on past decisions that you really haven't evaluated to date, is that we often think of a filler as like a one, two, three, even a four, right?
But if you really think about it, there are things that we are engaging with and doing that are an eight, and it's hard to let go of the eights. This even goes back to one of The CEO Summer School series that I did, it was episode 87 called Trading Good for Great. And that really was about saying, I'm going to trade an eight for a 10. I'm going to have to let go of what is pretty good in order to get to that next level of business growth. And that can be really difficult.
With something that's below a five, your answer might be clear, even maybe a six. It's probably a no, but you might have to convince yourself to release it, whether it's an object, idea, a project, an employee. But when you get to an eight, it's actually pretty good filler, but it's still not killer. And it probably will bring up feelings of attachment, maybe scarcity, comfort. And now we're getting somewhere. Now we have something to explore.
What would it look like to not choose this? What would it open up space for? And who would you be if you did release the eight or that really pretty good filler? I find that getting rid of filler that's on the top end is probably the most painful thing, but it's also the most expansive.
Okay, so those are the three ways that you can think about this. You can be very logical with it, say the phrase to yourself is this killer, Is it filler? You can logically think your way through it, just asking yourself, do I enjoy this? Does it spark inspiration? Or is this something I don't really even like and it's just kind of been sitting around and I've been meaning to get rid of it but haven't done anything? Those types of thing.
Or you can tune into your body and feel, does it feel expansive or light? Some of those more spacious feelings? Or does it feel more like a contraction or sinking and heavy? Or you could rate it on a scale of one to 10 and not allow yourself of hanging out in sevens.
Now that you have some ways to think about using this concept of all killer, no filler, I'm going to share some examples of how I've been using it both in my life and in my business, and give you some ways for you to start thinking about how you can apply this as well.
In my life, there's been certainly lots of opportunities to do this. Food for sure has been one of them. In thinking about like things that I'm eating, we have these rice crackers that my son really used to eat a lot. Both of my kids, I don't know about you, but they just tend to go in like heavy-hitting phases of being obsessed with something, and then all of a sudden they just drop it.
So these crackers, like I was eating them, and then I was using this lens of killer or filler, and I just realized, no, these are definitely not my favorite, especially after the package has been opened, and they're not absolutely as crisp as they could be. Another example would be with coffee. Noticing when I've had enough, or it's just not tasting good. And I do want more, but my brain is complaining and telling me it's deeply inconvenient to make a fresh cup. And I have to go, no, I'm totally able to make myself more coffee. It's worth the time. I'm worth it. And I don't want filler in my coffee.
Another one is books. If I'm reading something and I'm just not loving it, no more finishing because I think I should. And then of course, just as Shira initially prompted me to think about clothes, of course, clothes. This is a really simple one of what is killer and what is filler.
I think what's so interesting about clothes is, I think it really brings up some of the identity work of who was I when I owned that? Is that still who I am? Does it align with where I'm going and who I want to be? And do I want to hold onto that past version of me or release it?
I know these are really simple examples I'm giving you, but it does create more joy throughout the day to be thinking about what is it that I really want? What is it that I don't want? And it's a way to create more ease. And when we can create more ease overall, that's just going to have that ripple effect into who you are, the roles that you play throughout the day, the things that you do, the ways that you show up in those different roles.
There's so many different aspects of you that is out there engaging with the world. And you can end up creating a lot of friction for yourself if you're trying to drag along things that really are filler.
Now I want to give you some examples of how I'm using this in business. I've been doing a lot of stuff on the back end of my business, including redesigning the client journey and looking at what platform is going to help me the most efficient in delivering the services to my clients outside of the live coaching calls, and really minimizing that friction for myself, because that makes my job as a coach way more killer.
As I've been looking at platforms, thinking through, okay, what is the step-by-step journey that a client takes from their initial reaching out to me all the way through when our time together is done. And of course, all the things in between, I've really been thinking about what would be killer for me on my back end. And also what would be killer with my clients engaging in the services as I walk them through the path that they take as a client. That's been really interesting to think about and to start to make decisions from that killer place.
Another example is thinking about the way my services are structured. What I've realized recently is that it would feel really killer for me to take the whole summer off next year. If you've been following along on the podcast, you know that I did a summer slowdown. And if you want to hear more about that and how you can create a slowdown period in your business, whether it's summer or not, you can check out episode 80. That was amazing. And I'm thinking beyond that at this point.
So how could I create that experience for myself, if that's what I really want? With that vision in mind, and using this concept of all killer, no filler, I'm thinking about how do I set things up now, in terms of the way the services are structured, the timing of enrollment, my client capacity, all those things that are going to go into making that thing happen within the coming year.
Another example is through the website refresh that I'm doing. Let me tell you, I have been deep in this project, and I've been reworking all the copy really to reflect how I have grown as the leader of this company, the work that I do with my clients, my coaching philosophy as it is today, who I work with, and how I help designers in my own unique way.
The killer version of approaching this website refresh does not water things down, I realized. She's willing to put up language that's going to create a tighter client filter. And for those of you who aren't familiar with that term, or how I teach it, it's essentially signaling to people through the language that you use online, whether that's your website and your marketing, it's through the way that you describe your services, it's through any type of intake forms, all of those things.
What we want to be doing is signaling and talking to the people who are very aligned with the way that we work, and the way that they want to be served as a client. And then also helping people self select away from your business if they aren't a fit. And if that concept is intriguing to you, you're definitely going to want to subscribe to the podcast in November. I'm going to be having a conversation on the show with Deb Mitchell, who is an amazing copywriter for interior designers. And I'm sure that topic is going to come up in that conversation. So definitely make sure that you do not miss that one.
The last example I'll give you is scheduling. What is a killer version of your schedule? When do you want to see clients? This is something I've been really thinking about versus when do I want to do business development and content creation? What is that capacity to do those things? And where is it over capacity? This is something that I frequently reevaluate and tweak based on what is working for me now, and also what I envision working for me in the future.
I really encourage all of you to be thinking about what that killer schedule is months and months out, like maybe even for the next year. And of course, you can tweak it, it can change, it can evolve. If you think about the length and longevity of the projects that you work on, we need to be making decisions about what is going to be supportive of us nine months from now. Because if we're only thinking about this capacity or what schedule could work for us right now, then that might work in the future. But you might also have a bunch of blind spots that could have been addressed and helped create more ease for you.
That's why I'm even when I'm thinking about what is my killer schedule, I'm thinking about how is that going to play out next summer, both with wanting to potentially take the whole summer off if that continues to feel like a killer option for me. But even if I do decide, oh, no, that's not actually what I want at this time. What are some of my options available, knowing that there's certain things that I am going to be committed to with our family.
Those are some of the examples that I wanted to share with you. And of course, if you're driving while you're doing this, walking while you're doing this, you could always pause and just think about this, or you could do some journaling on it of what are some of these areas in my life or my business that would be helpful for me to take a look at this concept of all killer, no filler to use to filter out what's staying and what's going and what is potentially coming in.
I want to share a few things now that will help you in implementing this concept. And also just to help frame the conversation a little bit more. One of the things you can be thinking about is what is killer, what's filler right now? Because sometimes we have past decisions that are still around that were killer before. And they just might not be killer now, because of your business goals, your life circumstances, how you evolved as the business owner.
And what's killer right now might not be killer in six months, one year or more years in advance. So I just want you to understand that this is really an ongoing decision filter that you can use in your business. And it's okay for you to change your mind. It's okay for you to evolve in what is making sense for you right now.
An example of this as an evolving business, a growing business, you evolving as a leader in your business, an example would be an employee that you hired and they were killer for you. It was a skill set you need at the time you need it and they performed at a certain level that was acceptable for you or worked for that role. And maybe now you might need something else. You might need someone who has a more advanced skill set, who has more leadership capabilities, as more desire for growth within the firm.
So you can always re-decide what is killer and what is filler, that's always on the table. I think another obvious example of this would be projects. I think that's one of the hardest things as you grow in your business is the projects you would have absolutely said yes to, six months, a year, three years from now, are no longer what is killer, they are filler for you.
And that can be really hard to feel like you're leaving people behind or saying no to something that was absolutely a yes for you. But again, I really want to empower you as the CEO of your business to understand that you always have the power to read a side. And that doesn't mean that your decisions that you make in the now are easy, or that it's going to feel amazing, they might not.
But on the other side of that discomfort in honoring where you are at right now, that is where the ease and freedom comes from. The other point I want to make around this is that just because you identify something as filler for right now doesn't mean you have to immediately do anything with it. You don't have to go off to the races implementing this or just trashing everything, right?
This does not need to be immediate. If immediate feels like it's not actually the best idea for you and it's something that you want to take some time with in transitioning, or it feels like it is just so emotionally activating that it's going to put you in some type of freeze or shutdown response, then we got to take it slower and that's totally okay.
I think a great example of this is if you're in a position where maybe business is a little bit slower, projects aren't as big as they used to be, or maybe you just are having a little bit of a blip where projects are kind of in between things and you decide that you want to take on quote-unquote filler projects, meaning you wouldn't normally say yes to this project, but the opportunity has presented itself. And maybe you've decided it's something that you want to move forward with because of cash flow. Maybe you're going to use it for developing an employee and helping them learn some skills in leading a project more independently. It might be because you decide you want to develop that relationship for some purpose, as in it's like a connection that you want to establish because of a network, it will help you get into or maybe a neighborhood that you're wanting to get into.
And I think what's interesting about this is you could say it's a filler decision. But also what appears to to be filler at the surface level might actually be a really killer decision for you to make right now, because that filler, all of these, I want to put in quotation marks, but because that filler has a specific job or purpose, it's very aligned with where you're going, what your vision is, what is good for the health of the business.
And so maybe it actually is a killer decision. As I mentioned, sometimes knowing that something is filler, and knowing that you want to disregard it or undo that decision, move on with a new decision that can bring up a lot of mental drama or heightened emotions. And this is really a great opportunity to gain some self-awareness, do some self-reflection, explore what's really going on there behind the intention to release and let go and get support.
And that could be a trusted colleague, it could be a coach like myself, it could be a friend or a partner. Take the time to get clear on what's really behind the heightened state. You don't have to just tear the band-aid off if it doesn't feel like the right time to do that or what's right for you right now. And that's something that you can decide for yourself or again, enlist somebody else to help you understand what's right for you right now.
And that's not the same as them telling you what they think is right for you right now, but it's helping you explore what's going on in the bigger picture to then help you gain insight into yourself and make a decision that feels very aligned for you right now.
Lastly, what I want to say is there is no shame if you want to keep the filler for right now, for a while, for whatever reason. If you don't want to deal with the mental drama or emotions that's springing up, you can always make that choice, But before you make that decision, I do encourage you to just offer yourself a tiny bit of exploration and help yourself understand what's going on for you.
Because what I don't want is for you to just disregard that awareness that you created by sending something through this filter and make a decision based on a limiting belief that you're just believing is true, right? Like a belief that you hold like I can't do that because it's just something that your brain is used to telling you and has this knee-jerk reaction of spitting out whenever you bump up against something that feels kind of uncomfortable.
Often, what your brain is offering is not true. It's just a habitual pattern of response. So poke some holes in your story, look at the data. That's always a really great thing to do is bring it back to the facts and then you can make an informed and empowered decision.
Okay, and I know I said lastly, I forgot I have one more piece that I want to add to this. As you're thinking through the filter of all killer, no filler, I want you to remember that killer might not always mean I want to do this thing, or I like this thing in this now moment.
In terms of your interior design business, you could know that setting up a process, engaging a new employee, learning a new skill that you're going to bring to the table. You can know that is killer for your business and is going to be killer for you once you get over the hump of not wanting to do it or feeling uncomfortable about doing it. That can be killer, but that doesn't always mean that you are excited about it in that particular moment and that there might not be some internal resistance, a little bit of dragging your feet, all of those things.
So what you can do then is if you know that is like your next step, it is your killer version, but you're noticing that you do have some internal angst about it or resistance, you can always ask yourself a powerful question like how can I make the act of doing this or achieving this more killer?
So the day-to-day grind sometimes of just doing the things that need to be done to continue to uplevel your business might not always feel killer, but what we can do is look for ways to help the process of doing feel killer.
As we wrap up, I really want to consider you to think about how you're going to use this concept in your life or your business. Pick a specific area that you feel like could use a little bit of reassessment and decide to give yourself a little bit of time and you can just do a brain dump of all the things that you want to assess and go next to him and just say killer or filler. Start to create some awareness around the decisions that you've been acting out and the decisions that you want to make for your future.
You can even put this phrase somewhere like a sticky note or make a little screensaver for yourself to help you remember to check in with what is killer and what is filler. I would absolutely love to know what you think of this concept and how you're using it. It's been something that has been really fun for me, and I hope that it's going to be really fun for you as you start to think about it as well.
So if you're using it, or even if you have questions about it, send me a message. I am on Instagram @desicresswell, or you can just reply to one of my emails. If you're not on the email list, definitely do that. I'm going to drop the link in the show notes for Monday Mindset. That is the best way to stay in touch and know what is coming up, what is going on the podcast, all the good things.
It's also a great way to know what is coming up in terms of ways to work with me. And of course, if you want to work with me one-on-one, definitely get on the waitlist for private coaching. The URL for adding your name to the private coaching waitlist is desiid.com/privatecoachingwaitlist.
So now go out, get using this concept. And I promise you, you are going to feel lighter, more aligned. It's going to open up physical space, mental energy, actual time for you. And you're going to be able to better utilize your resources overall, including those financial resources in your interior design business.
I'll be back next week with a brand new episode. And until then, 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 www.desicreswell.com. And if you’re ready to take what you’ve learned on the podcast to the next level, I would love for you to check out my signature group coaching program, Out of Overwhelm.
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. So glad to be here with all of you. As always, it is just a gorgeous fall day here today. It's the day that we're doing family photos that I mentioned getting all those outfits for in a previous episode. So that is just going to be amazing. And I am kind of not looking forward to it because it's always like a little scrambly, but also knowing that I love, love, love having those images to look back and reflect on.
And as I'm saying that, oh my gosh, isn't that the same with things you do in your business? Sometimes you just don't feel like doing them, but you know you're going to be so glad that you did because of the impact that you're going to have forever and ever. And it's kind of like getting to hang that gallery wall in your house and benefit from those sweet memories and capturing that moment in time. But it's something that continues to bring you joy and pleasure and benefit down the line.
Today, what I want to talk to you about i s a concept that I have been playing with quite a bit in my own business and in my own personal life. And I knew that I was planning on outlining a new episode for you today, but yesterday I actually was like, oh my gosh, I have exactly what I want to say. So I started scribbling notes down furiously. Normally I outline these on the computer, but I've been on the computer so much this week. I've been redoing the copy entirely the past two weeks for my website. And I was like, I can't type on the computer anymore. So hopefully I can read what I wrote.
I'm really excited to bring this concept to you. And the concept is called all killer and no filler. I'm going to say that again, all killer, no filler. The way that I've been using this is as a decision filter and looking at what's coming, what's going, what's here and I want to keep, what's here and I want to let go, what I want to bring in, all sorts of things. And I've been using this both just in my and then also in some of the business decisions I've been making around both my vision going forward and also just short-term decisions for quarter four.
This concept is going to totally help you, of course, from a decision-making standpoint, which if you think about it, decisions are what our lives are made out of. It's what our business is made out of. And so when we have a decision filter, something that helps us understand what gets through the filter, what doesn't get through the filter, and you know, what we need to let go of, what we need to bring in, it frees up so much mental and emotional weight. And it also ends up saving you so much time. Saves you time in things that you're no longer doing or needing to continue to organize or manage because it's there but not being used. It also saves you time from indecision. It saves you time from carrying things out that don't even align with your goals at this point. It's such a time saver.
In addition to being a time saver, it's also a way to leverage your financial resources as well. So we'll go into all of that in a bit, but I want to just give credit where credit is due. So this concept of all killer, no filler, I picked up from a newsletter that I subscribed to from Shira Gill. Shira is a professional organizer, she's also a blogger, she is an author, I adore her. She wrote one of the books is "Minimalista", which was very popular. She's got another book coming out soon. And she's also a certified coach through The Life Coach School, which is where I did my master coach training.
Additionally, I have a soft spot for her because I did a session with her, like a one-off call back when I was blogging and wanting to do design writing. I had seen her do what I thought I wanted to do as I was looking at maybe pivoting away from design. And I don't know if I've shared this, but I used to have two blogs. There was the Imprecise Cook, which was something that I came up with to kind of help people who would come over to our house and share, you know, oh, I love this salad you made. Can you give me the recipe? Or, oh, I love this other thing. these cookies you made, or whatever.
So what I would do is I had this blog called The Imprecise Cook, and I would kind of try and outline at least sort of generally what it was, and then that was one way that I shared my food with people in a way that kind of gave them some frame of reference, but also was very true to me and that I was not going to be like, you need a tablespoon of this and a teaspoon of this because that's just not how I operate in the kitchen.
And then I had another blog called Light and Lux, which was something I think I was planning to maybe turn into e-commerce. So I was exploring a lot of ideas at this point. So Shira was just an awesome resource, a great sounding board. And that's why I continue to follow her, not just because she's amazing at what she does, but also I feel like I have that personal connection with her.
So anyways, she sent out this newsletter and of course it was related to clothing and going through what you already own and using this concept of all killer, no filler. It's actually something that her husband says. Before we dive into more of how I've been using this and how you might want to use it for yourself, I want to just frame how I define this for myself.
I don't remember exactly how she defined it in the newsletter, but I picked up on the phrase and have kind of made up my own. So when I think of what is killer, it's things that you enjoy or spark inspiration that you're drawn to, or maybe light you up. And then when I think of what filler is, it's things that are kind of ho-hum, like you don't really like them, but they're still around or you're still doing it that way just because it's always been done that way or because it just happens to be there and you're carrying it around like dead weight or you don't know what to do with it. You have some reasons you're having trouble letting go of it.
So that's kind of the way that I've been thinking about those two words in that phrase. And then another way that you could potentially explore this is by tuning into how these elements or how these resources, objects, decisions feel when you engage with them physically or through using them or thinking about them.
I find that this is a really helpful method for getting out of my mind. When I think about the phrase killer, I think of expansive or lightness. Maybe I feel grounded or there's a pleasant buzz. And when I think about filler, it's more of this sinking, contraction, maybe it feels hollow in the body or heavy, there's sort of that drag internally.
And sometimes our mind can be so active around what should be killer or what shouldn't be filler or vice versa, that this is another sort of backdoor approach, where you can get out of the mind when it's really trying to should you or talk you into something or where something maybe really logically makes sense to keep doing it that way or to keep the thing the way it is and you internally have a different experience and so you can kind of compare and contrast and think about like what is actually true versus what's just mind chatter.
One last way that I'll give you to think about this concept of all killer, no filler is actually related to a blog post that I had done on my interior design website. That was one of the ways that I brought in business was through blogging and then getting traffic that way. The post was called no sevens allowed.
So no sevens as in, if you rate something on a scale of one to 10, one low, 10 high. If you've been a client of mine, you know I love to rate things. But there's no seven allowed. Like as in you are not allowed to assign a seven to something. And the reason why this is really helpful is that sevens are safe and non-committal. There's not a clear in or out. It's not a clear yes or no.
And when I was talking about this through design, it was like, let's not put any sevens in your house. But now I want you to think about what are the sevens that are in your business? What I have found is that when you don't allow something to exist that's a seven, whether again, that's decisions, how you do things, the people you interact with, any of it. That is when you get the most liberation, freedom, and clarity.
When I bring it back to this concept of all killer, no filler, what I think is really interesting is that you can even have filler that's an eight. An eight is good, but not great. I think a misconception about things that are filler or just kind of like dragging along with you based on past decisions that you really haven't evaluated to date, is that we often think of a filler as like a one, two, three, even a four, right?
But if you really think about it, there are things that we are engaging with and doing that are an eight, and it's hard to let go of the eights. This even goes back to one of The CEO Summer School series that I did, it was episode 87 called Trading Good for Great. And that really was about saying, I'm going to trade an eight for a 10. I'm going to have to let go of what is pretty good in order to get to that next level of business growth. And that can be really difficult.
With something that's below a five, your answer might be clear, even maybe a six. It's probably a no, but you might have to convince yourself to release it, whether it's an object, idea, a project, an employee. But when you get to an eight, it's actually pretty good filler, but it's still not killer. And it probably will bring up feelings of attachment, maybe scarcity, comfort. And now we're getting somewhere. Now we have something to explore.
What would it look like to not choose this? What would it open up space for? And who would you be if you did release the eight or that really pretty good filler? I find that getting rid of filler that's on the top end is probably the most painful thing, but it's also the most expansive.
Okay, so those are the three ways that you can think about this. You can be very logical with it, say the phrase to yourself is this killer, Is it filler? You can logically think your way through it, just asking yourself, do I enjoy this? Does it spark inspiration? Or is this something I don't really even like and it's just kind of been sitting around and I've been meaning to get rid of it but haven't done anything? Those types of thing.
Or you can tune into your body and feel, does it feel expansive or light? Some of those more spacious feelings? Or does it feel more like a contraction or sinking and heavy? Or you could rate it on a scale of one to 10 and not allow yourself of hanging out in sevens.
Now that you have some ways to think about using this concept of all killer, no filler, I'm going to share some examples of how I've been using it both in my life and in my business, and give you some ways for you to start thinking about how you can apply this as well.
In my life, there's been certainly lots of opportunities to do this. Food for sure has been one of them. In thinking about like things that I'm eating, we have these rice crackers that my son really used to eat a lot. Both of my kids, I don't know about you, but they just tend to go in like heavy-hitting phases of being obsessed with something, and then all of a sudden they just drop it.
So these crackers, like I was eating them, and then I was using this lens of killer or filler, and I just realized, no, these are definitely not my favorite, especially after the package has been opened, and they're not absolutely as crisp as they could be. Another example would be with coffee. Noticing when I've had enough, or it's just not tasting good. And I do want more, but my brain is complaining and telling me it's deeply inconvenient to make a fresh cup. And I have to go, no, I'm totally able to make myself more coffee. It's worth the time. I'm worth it. And I don't want filler in my coffee.
Another one is books. If I'm reading something and I'm just not loving it, no more finishing because I think I should. And then of course, just as Shira initially prompted me to think about clothes, of course, clothes. This is a really simple one of what is killer and what is filler.
I think what's so interesting about clothes is, I think it really brings up some of the identity work of who was I when I owned that? Is that still who I am? Does it align with where I'm going and who I want to be? And do I want to hold onto that past version of me or release it?
I know these are really simple examples I'm giving you, but it does create more joy throughout the day to be thinking about what is it that I really want? What is it that I don't want? And it's a way to create more ease. And when we can create more ease overall, that's just going to have that ripple effect into who you are, the roles that you play throughout the day, the things that you do, the ways that you show up in those different roles.
There's so many different aspects of you that is out there engaging with the world. And you can end up creating a lot of friction for yourself if you're trying to drag along things that really are filler.
Now I want to give you some examples of how I'm using this in business. I've been doing a lot of stuff on the back end of my business, including redesigning the client journey and looking at what platform is going to help me the most efficient in delivering the services to my clients outside of the live coaching calls, and really minimizing that friction for myself, because that makes my job as a coach way more killer.
As I've been looking at platforms, thinking through, okay, what is the step-by-step journey that a client takes from their initial reaching out to me all the way through when our time together is done. And of course, all the things in between, I've really been thinking about what would be killer for me on my back end. And also what would be killer with my clients engaging in the services as I walk them through the path that they take as a client. That's been really interesting to think about and to start to make decisions from that killer place.
Another example is thinking about the way my services are structured. What I've realized recently is that it would feel really killer for me to take the whole summer off next year. If you've been following along on the podcast, you know that I did a summer slowdown. And if you want to hear more about that and how you can create a slowdown period in your business, whether it's summer or not, you can check out episode 80. That was amazing. And I'm thinking beyond that at this point.
So how could I create that experience for myself, if that's what I really want? With that vision in mind, and using this concept of all killer, no filler, I'm thinking about how do I set things up now, in terms of the way the services are structured, the timing of enrollment, my client capacity, all those things that are going to go into making that thing happen within the coming year.
Another example is through the website refresh that I'm doing. Let me tell you, I have been deep in this project, and I've been reworking all the copy really to reflect how I have grown as the leader of this company, the work that I do with my clients, my coaching philosophy as it is today, who I work with, and how I help designers in my own unique way.
The killer version of approaching this website refresh does not water things down, I realized. She's willing to put up language that's going to create a tighter client filter. And for those of you who aren't familiar with that term, or how I teach it, it's essentially signaling to people through the language that you use online, whether that's your website and your marketing, it's through the way that you describe your services, it's through any type of intake forms, all of those things.
What we want to be doing is signaling and talking to the people who are very aligned with the way that we work, and the way that they want to be served as a client. And then also helping people self select away from your business if they aren't a fit. And if that concept is intriguing to you, you're definitely going to want to subscribe to the podcast in November. I'm going to be having a conversation on the show with Deb Mitchell, who is an amazing copywriter for interior designers. And I'm sure that topic is going to come up in that conversation. So definitely make sure that you do not miss that one.
The last example I'll give you is scheduling. What is a killer version of your schedule? When do you want to see clients? This is something I've been really thinking about versus when do I want to do business development and content creation? What is that capacity to do those things? And where is it over capacity? This is something that I frequently reevaluate and tweak based on what is working for me now, and also what I envision working for me in the future.
I really encourage all of you to be thinking about what that killer schedule is months and months out, like maybe even for the next year. And of course, you can tweak it, it can change, it can evolve. If you think about the length and longevity of the projects that you work on, we need to be making decisions about what is going to be supportive of us nine months from now. Because if we're only thinking about this capacity or what schedule could work for us right now, then that might work in the future. But you might also have a bunch of blind spots that could have been addressed and helped create more ease for you.
That's why I'm even when I'm thinking about what is my killer schedule, I'm thinking about how is that going to play out next summer, both with wanting to potentially take the whole summer off if that continues to feel like a killer option for me. But even if I do decide, oh, no, that's not actually what I want at this time. What are some of my options available, knowing that there's certain things that I am going to be committed to with our family.
Those are some of the examples that I wanted to share with you. And of course, if you're driving while you're doing this, walking while you're doing this, you could always pause and just think about this, or you could do some journaling on it of what are some of these areas in my life or my business that would be helpful for me to take a look at this concept of all killer, no filler to use to filter out what's staying and what's going and what is potentially coming in.
I want to share a few things now that will help you in implementing this concept. And also just to help frame the conversation a little bit more. One of the things you can be thinking about is what is killer, what's filler right now? Because sometimes we have past decisions that are still around that were killer before. And they just might not be killer now, because of your business goals, your life circumstances, how you evolved as the business owner.
And what's killer right now might not be killer in six months, one year or more years in advance. So I just want you to understand that this is really an ongoing decision filter that you can use in your business. And it's okay for you to change your mind. It's okay for you to evolve in what is making sense for you right now.
An example of this as an evolving business, a growing business, you evolving as a leader in your business, an example would be an employee that you hired and they were killer for you. It was a skill set you need at the time you need it and they performed at a certain level that was acceptable for you or worked for that role. And maybe now you might need something else. You might need someone who has a more advanced skill set, who has more leadership capabilities, as more desire for growth within the firm.
So you can always re-decide what is killer and what is filler, that's always on the table. I think another obvious example of this would be projects. I think that's one of the hardest things as you grow in your business is the projects you would have absolutely said yes to, six months, a year, three years from now, are no longer what is killer, they are filler for you.
And that can be really hard to feel like you're leaving people behind or saying no to something that was absolutely a yes for you. But again, I really want to empower you as the CEO of your business to understand that you always have the power to read a side. And that doesn't mean that your decisions that you make in the now are easy, or that it's going to feel amazing, they might not.
But on the other side of that discomfort in honoring where you are at right now, that is where the ease and freedom comes from. The other point I want to make around this is that just because you identify something as filler for right now doesn't mean you have to immediately do anything with it. You don't have to go off to the races implementing this or just trashing everything, right?
This does not need to be immediate. If immediate feels like it's not actually the best idea for you and it's something that you want to take some time with in transitioning, or it feels like it is just so emotionally activating that it's going to put you in some type of freeze or shutdown response, then we got to take it slower and that's totally okay.
I think a great example of this is if you're in a position where maybe business is a little bit slower, projects aren't as big as they used to be, or maybe you just are having a little bit of a blip where projects are kind of in between things and you decide that you want to take on quote-unquote filler projects, meaning you wouldn't normally say yes to this project, but the opportunity has presented itself. And maybe you've decided it's something that you want to move forward with because of cash flow. Maybe you're going to use it for developing an employee and helping them learn some skills in leading a project more independently. It might be because you decide you want to develop that relationship for some purpose, as in it's like a connection that you want to establish because of a network, it will help you get into or maybe a neighborhood that you're wanting to get into.
And I think what's interesting about this is you could say it's a filler decision. But also what appears to to be filler at the surface level might actually be a really killer decision for you to make right now, because that filler, all of these, I want to put in quotation marks, but because that filler has a specific job or purpose, it's very aligned with where you're going, what your vision is, what is good for the health of the business.
And so maybe it actually is a killer decision. As I mentioned, sometimes knowing that something is filler, and knowing that you want to disregard it or undo that decision, move on with a new decision that can bring up a lot of mental drama or heightened emotions. And this is really a great opportunity to gain some self-awareness, do some self-reflection, explore what's really going on there behind the intention to release and let go and get support.
And that could be a trusted colleague, it could be a coach like myself, it could be a friend or a partner. Take the time to get clear on what's really behind the heightened state. You don't have to just tear the band-aid off if it doesn't feel like the right time to do that or what's right for you right now. And that's something that you can decide for yourself or again, enlist somebody else to help you understand what's right for you right now.
And that's not the same as them telling you what they think is right for you right now, but it's helping you explore what's going on in the bigger picture to then help you gain insight into yourself and make a decision that feels very aligned for you right now.
Lastly, what I want to say is there is no shame if you want to keep the filler for right now, for a while, for whatever reason. If you don't want to deal with the mental drama or emotions that's springing up, you can always make that choice, But before you make that decision, I do encourage you to just offer yourself a tiny bit of exploration and help yourself understand what's going on for you.
Because what I don't want is for you to just disregard that awareness that you created by sending something through this filter and make a decision based on a limiting belief that you're just believing is true, right? Like a belief that you hold like I can't do that because it's just something that your brain is used to telling you and has this knee-jerk reaction of spitting out whenever you bump up against something that feels kind of uncomfortable.
Often, what your brain is offering is not true. It's just a habitual pattern of response. So poke some holes in your story, look at the data. That's always a really great thing to do is bring it back to the facts and then you can make an informed and empowered decision.
Okay, and I know I said lastly, I forgot I have one more piece that I want to add to this. As you're thinking through the filter of all killer, no filler, I want you to remember that killer might not always mean I want to do this thing, or I like this thing in this now moment.
In terms of your interior design business, you could know that setting up a process, engaging a new employee, learning a new skill that you're going to bring to the table. You can know that is killer for your business and is going to be killer for you once you get over the hump of not wanting to do it or feeling uncomfortable about doing it. That can be killer, but that doesn't always mean that you are excited about it in that particular moment and that there might not be some internal resistance, a little bit of dragging your feet, all of those things.
So what you can do then is if you know that is like your next step, it is your killer version, but you're noticing that you do have some internal angst about it or resistance, you can always ask yourself a powerful question like how can I make the act of doing this or achieving this more killer?
So the day-to-day grind sometimes of just doing the things that need to be done to continue to uplevel your business might not always feel killer, but what we can do is look for ways to help the process of doing feel killer.
As we wrap up, I really want to consider you to think about how you're going to use this concept in your life or your business. Pick a specific area that you feel like could use a little bit of reassessment and decide to give yourself a little bit of time and you can just do a brain dump of all the things that you want to assess and go next to him and just say killer or filler. Start to create some awareness around the decisions that you've been acting out and the decisions that you want to make for your future.
You can even put this phrase somewhere like a sticky note or make a little screensaver for yourself to help you remember to check in with what is killer and what is filler. I would absolutely love to know what you think of this concept and how you're using it. It's been something that has been really fun for me, and I hope that it's going to be really fun for you as you start to think about it as well.
So if you're using it, or even if you have questions about it, send me a message. I am on Instagram @desicresswell, or you can just reply to one of my emails. If you're not on the email list, definitely do that. I'm going to drop the link in the show notes for Monday Mindset. That is the best way to stay in touch and know what is coming up, what is going on the podcast, all the good things.
It's also a great way to know what is coming up in terms of ways to work with me. And of course, if you want to work with me one-on-one, definitely get on the waitlist for private coaching. The URL for adding your name to the private coaching waitlist is desiid.com/privatecoachingwaitlist.
So now go out, get using this concept. And I promise you, you are going to feel lighter, more aligned. It's going to open up physical space, mental energy, actual time for you. And you're going to be able to better utilize your resources overall, including those financial resources in your interior design business.
I'll be back next week with a brand new episode. And until then, 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 www.desicreswell.com. And if you’re ready to take what you’ve learned on the podcast to the next level, I would love for you to check out my signature group coaching program, Out of Overwhelm.
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