23. Two Types of Confidence
Confidence touches every aspect of your business. Whether you’re working on managing your time, your team, creating systems, or deciding on pricing, confidence is a critical part of being a CEO. There was a time when I didn’t know there were multiple types of confidence, but understanding this has been a huge area of growth and evolution in my own life and business and it will be for you too.
In being the Interior Design Business CEO that you are, there are two types of confidence you need to be able to lean on: evidence-based confidence and inherent confidence. Evidence-based confidence will only get you so far, but inherent confidence is always available to you and it’s a real game-changer.
Tune in this week to discover the two types of confidence you need to cultivate as a creative business owner, and why it’s important to distinguish between the two. I’m sharing how to call on the confidence you need in any given moment so you can get into action and start creating evidence of what you’re capable of.
Out of Overwhelm is my signature six-month program designed to take you from overwhelmed and stressed to profitable, in control, and fulfilled. Applications open in mid-May and we kick off the next round in July 2023, so if you love the topics covered on the podcast, click here to get yourself on the waitlist!
If you loved today’s topic, let’s make sure you never miss an episode. Follow the show now wherever you listen to podcasts. And if you haven’t already, make the time to leave me a rating and review. As a special thank you for taking the time to share your feedback, I’ll send you a little mid-week pick-me-up in the mail, so simply screenshot your review and send me a message on Instagram!
What You’ll Discover from this Episode:
The biggest roadblock stopping you from creating the business you want.
Why past actions and results are never the deciding factor in what you’re capable of in the future.
How evidence-based confidence can actually limit your future based on your past, and how this might be showing up in your business.
What inherent confidence is and why it’s always available to you.
Why focusing on your inherent confidence will allow your evidence-based confidence to grow alongside it.
How to believe in yourself so you can rely on inherent confidence when you’re trying something you’ve never done before.
Listen to the Full Episode:
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Full Episode Transcript:
Hey, designer, you’re listening to episode 23. This is the one where I’m explaining the two types of confidence you want to cultivate as a creative business owner and why it’s important to distinguish between the two.
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. Today I’m recording earlier than I normally would be because I have a podcast interview scheduled with LuAnn Nigara this afternoon and I’m super excited about the topic I’m bringing to her. This is actually going to be the fifth time I’m going to be on the show, which is incredible. I always love talking to LuAnn.
I’ve been at High Point where we’ve done a full-day event together, we’ve done LuAnn Live together, and this is going to be a great topic we’re bringing to you today, so I’ll be sure to send out an email when that one is live. And also, if you’re interested in listening to any of the other podcast episodes where I’ve been on A Well-Designed Business, I have a link on my website that will take you to not only all of those episodes but all of the other podcasts that I’ve been on. I’ll link that in the show notes if you want to check out any of those other episodes.
Today what I want to talk to you about are two types of confidence that you can lean on being the interior design business CEO that you are. And I never knew that there were multiple types of confidence. And this is something that has been a huge area of growth in my own life and something I’ve been thinking about a lot as I continue to grow and evolve my own business, so I wanted to bring it here today.
It’s really important to understand what these two types of confidence are and it’s also important to know which one you’re using and when. Confidence really touches every aspect of your business, whether that is managing your time, managing a team, being a leader, creating systems, and how you price your services. And that makes it a critical part of being a CEO.
Before we dive in I want to give a shout-out to another podcast listener who left an amazing review. Thank you so much. They wrote, “Actionable and empowering.” And they shared, “This show provides so much value to the small business owner. Desi’s organized mindset method is approachable and once you start applying it in bite-sized increments with consistency, you will see results.
I’ve been working with Desi for over two years and in that time my business has more than doubled, as has my team. My brain feels healthier, my husband and my children have taken note and they look forward to the bits of mindset wisdom and aha moments that I share with them from my work with Desi. Knowing that I have Desi in my corner is a huge part of this process.
Even if you’re starting out as a podcast listener, you will feel her cheering you on while challenging you to look at what’s really happening in your brain and giving you the tools to do it. I’m so excited that Desi has this podcast, I can access her wisdom at any time, and it’s the perfect companion to our direct coaching work in Out Of Overwhelm.”
Thank you so much. That was just such a lovely review to read because one of the things that I absolutely love about the work that I do with clients in their business is the ripple effect. And as you can hear from what this podcast listener and client was also sharing is that this work touches your life, it touches your business and you will become a better version of you through the process.
Leaving these reviews is one of the top ways that you can support the podcast. Writing a review, subscribing, that really helps the algorithm bring this podcast to more eyes. And of course, sharing the episode with a friend, you can forward the email you receive about it, screenshot it, share it on Instagram, send it over. That is so, so helpful for me as I continue to spread the message about this podcast because I really want to get it into the hands of as many designers as possible.
Before we dive into the two types of confidence, I want to lay a little groundwork from a mindset perspective. One of the biggest roadblocks to creating the business you want is the way that you are thinking. It is not that you don’t have a particular skill set at this moment.
And the thought that comes up so often when I see designers getting in their own way and putting up those stop signs for themselves is this belief that I’ve never done it before. I see this pop up when clients want to start working on a new project type, start working out of state, open a retail shop, hire a bigger team, set higher fees. They’re embarking on a new phase of their business.
I even see this with planning too. I’ll have designers tell me that they really want to join Out Of Overwhelm or maybe they even do take the leap and they join Out Of Overwhelm. And they want to get their schedule under control and achieve some balance in their lives. But they tell me that they’ve never been a planner before. Or that they’ve tried to plan or bought planners in the past, but they’ve never been consistent.
This is all just a version of I’ve never done it before. And because they haven’t done something in the past, they don’t feel confident that they can create the result in the future. This feels very, very true when I’m speaking with new clients or clients who have never encountered my work before.
Now, I don’t see the fact that you’ve never done it before as a problem because I’ve had so much experience with myself and my clients show me that past actions and past results are not ever the deciding factor in what you’re capable of doing in the future. This is not what we’re taught though. Society teaches us to rely on what I call evidence-based confidence.
Evidence-based confidence is where we use evidence that we’ve created or collected in the past to bolster our belief or allow ourselves to believe in what we can do or create in the present or future. I’m going to give you an example that’s sort of outside of business because sometimes I think when we’re not as in it, it can be a little bit easier to see the perspective.
So here’s the example I want to give you. Every night I make coffee and prepare it for the next day. I get it all set in the machine. And just a side note, I never, ever want to do this. And this is where my future self always is so happy that I did it in the morning when I get back from my walk with my dog and I’m so happy all I have to do is press the button and the coffee magically starts coming out. I am always so grateful to past Desi for that. So, side note, but think about that when you don’t want to do something.
All right, so back to the example. I make coffee every night. Because I’ve used the scoops, because I’ve filled the water, because I know where the paper cones are located and stored, I can do this process without much thought. If you asked me, how confident are you that you can make a cup of coffee? It’s a 10 out of 10. I for sure know that I’m going to make some coffee.
I know how many scoops I put in, I know how much water I like to have in it. It’s a very repeatable process. I’ve done it hundreds and hundreds of times. So I’m using evidence-based confidence, meaning I’ve done this many times before and have been successful at it, to create confidence that, yes, I can totally make a cup of coffee.
The other part I want to point out here is it also means that the days where I spill the beans, literally, I don’t make it mean anything terrible about me. I don’t start thinking, “I’ll never be able to make a cup of coffee. You’ve really messed up. Who do you think you are?” No, I sweep up the mess. I might feel a little annoyed. But I make the coffee and I still believe I can make coffee in the future.
This is evidence-based confidence at its core. We’re saying I’m pretty sure I can do this because I’ve done it before. I have the evidence. There’s no reason I can’t do it in the future. This can work really well until it doesn’t. Relying solely on this type of confidence is a mindset roadblock because it limits your future based on your past.
This could be showing up in a wide variety of places in your business. For example, you don’t go for the big project because you haven’t done it before. You don’t even bother making a plan for your schedule for the day because you haven’t done it before or you’ve made a plan and then completely dismissed it.
It’s like you’re putting yourself in a do not go position. You only allow yourself to believe you can do something and then have the confidence to take action only if you’ve done it before. And what that means is that you are likely to only create more of the same results you’ve created in the past, versus creating new results you have no evidence to support whether or not you will succeed.
This is where the second type of confidence becomes so important. As a business owner, you are constantly doing new things that you’ve never done before. This second type of confidence is what I call inherent confidence. This is confidence that comes from within, and it’s a type of confidence that’s always available to you. It’s something that you can generate on your own in the absence of evidence.
I call it inherent confidence because it’s something that really exists already within you. It’s something you just need to nurture and help it grow. Consider this, you wouldn’t be thinking, “I want something more, I have bigger dreams for this business,” if you didn’t have at least a seed of belief that you could be successful. And that’s the belief that comes from within. And that means you already have some of this type of confidence.
If you remember from episode two where I walk you through the coaching tool, The Model, you might remember that thoughts create feelings. Your actions and results are not what create your feelings. Your feelings are what drive your actions and create results.
Even with evidence-based confidence, just because you’ve done it before, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen again. But in that instance, we do give ourselves circumstances, which are the evidence, that make it easier for us to have thoughts that generate the feeling of confidence, certainty, maybe trust. You can get started by creating this inherent confidence by the way you choose to think about yourself. It is really that simple and the impact is really that profound.
One of my go-to beliefs about myself is I know I’ll figure it out. This has served me so, so well over the years. I actually think back to when I transitioned from being a commercial interior designer to having a residential business. Or when we bought our rental properties. Or even just when I started my coaching business.
I really had no business thinking, “Oh, I’ll just start a design business,” or “Oh, I’ll just buy these rental properties and figure out how to market them, lease them, the legal piece of it, and how I’m going to create systems around tracking rent.” I really had very little evidence, if any, that I could do that. And yet, I had a strong belief that I know I’ll figure it out. And that was enough to get me into action and start creating the evidence.
Another belief you might want to try on is I’ve created things in my life that didn’t exist before, I can do that again. I want you to really consider that one. Think about this, when you started your design business you had no evidence that you could be a design business owner. So you must have had some of that inherent belief in yourself, that inherent confidence to just get started. You’ve created a business that never existed before, so you can certainly count on yourself to create even more new things that never existed before.
Another confidence belief could be feeling challenged means I’m on the right path. Or I’m a person who is willing to try new things. And lastly, you could try this one on, all I need to do is commit, have the courage, and I’ll develop the capabilities.
I think so often we think that if we don’t know something or don’t have the skill right at this moment, that something has gone wrong. Versus it’s just part of the process, and that’s where we can lean on this inherent confidence to start developing the capabilities and creating that evidence.
This is going to be something you actively have to choose to remind yourself of because while we’re told you can do anything, there are so many conditional rules we absorb about doing it right and getting the gold stars, especially for my clients who identify as perfectionists, that these sentiments are often just nice sayings or maybe a nice graphic you see on Instagram, not truths that we take in for ourselves.
Now I want you to consider a new result you want to create in your business right now. What are some of your goals? Maybe it’s your business running like a well oiled machine. Maybe it’s doubling your revenue, or purchasing a storefront, or creating a three or four day workweek. Whatever that goal is, I want you to think about it now.
Then I want you to ask yourself, which type of confidence have I been relying on to take action toward that goal? It could be the evidence-based confidence, inherent confidence, or a bit of both. Ask yourself is the type of confidence you’re relying on beneficial? Is it helping you take action or is it keeping you stuck? Which one needs to get a little bump up in the priority?
Just be honest with yourself. As always, this is never a moment to judge yourself when we evaluate what’s happening. We want to use this information to serve us and support us. If you’re going after goals you’ve never hit, you’re going to have to try new things, learn new things, do things you’ve never done before. Meaning you’re going to have to rely on inherent confidence, which is that belief in yourself in order to get into action. So this is just going to be a part of the process.
So decide what you want to believe about yourself. Believe you’re capable of figuring things out. Believe you’ll know the next best step. Believe you’re going to have your own back and be your best supporter. That isn’t to say that I totally dismiss evidence-based confidence. You can also absolutely leverage that as much as possible if it’s supportive.
You could think about your big goal again and at first glance you might not think you have evidence because it’s a new goal. But I also encourage you to look at some of these other three areas where you might be able to leverage the evidence-based confidence concept a little bit more.
The first area is where are you discounting or not seeing evidence that you do actually have to bolster your belief? I’ll give you a personal example here. When I was starting my coaching business, one of the things I was doing a lot of was reaching out to podcasts to pitch them on how I could support their audience. However, I had no experience on how to pitch a podcast host on a topic or suggest that I be a guest.
I could have used that to mean that I don’t know what I’m doing and I don’t know how I’m going to make this work. But instead, I thought about where have I done something similar that I could apply those skills now? And for me, that was in the fundraising and nonprofit committee work that I had done years prior, where I had written press releases, pitched local businesses on supporting some of our fundraising efforts. So I had some of those skills, but I had initially discounted or not even seen them until I took a pause and looked.
The second thing is asking yourself how you already do that thing, or have done the thing or skill in another area? I see this a lot with clients who come to design as a second career. Interestingly, I’ve had quite a few clients who have had backgrounds in finance and then started their interior design practice. I see them thinking that because it is two different industries, that there isn’t an overlap.
yes, it’s not exactly the same thing, but there are for sure transferable skills that you can leverage. And this might not be in another career. Think about even selling, or sales, or marketing. A lot of clients say they don’t like marketing, or they’re not good at selling. But then I find out they’re parents, and as a parent you’re constantly selling your children on getting their shoes on, on doing their homework, on why this fun family activity is something they’re going to enjoy. So look for those transferable skills.
And the last one I want to point out is to ask yourself, who else do I know, either personally or from afar, that was able to do the thing I want to do? And then consider if they were able to do it, how could that be equally as true for you as well?
One last thing I’ll share, and this is one of the things I work with a lot with my clients, is creating mini results. Mini results are all the results that have to happen along the way to create a big goal. And not only does this help with planning and execution when you’re busy, it gives you traction for a quicker cycle of wins.
Once you start taking action, which doing new things will require some of this inherent confidence, you will start to get bits of evidence that you’re on the right track. And so what ends up happening is your evidence-based confidence grows right alongside your inherent confidence. The two support each other and both expand.
What I really want you to take away from this is that so many of you believe that you have to hit the goal, or get published, or land that dream client before you can start feeling confident. I’m here to tell you that that is not the case. Confidence is always available and you can start to build it today. Using a blend of evidence-based and inherent confidence, and knowing when it’s helpful to lean more heavily on one or the other is really the key to continuing to grow your interior design business and create new levels of personal and professional success, however you define that for yourself.
Now, in the next episode I’m going to experiment with a slightly different episode format. It popped into my head and I thought that could be fun. So I’m going to try it out, prepare it for you, and I want to hear what you think. And as always, if there’s anything you’d like to hear about on the podcast, send me a DM on Instagram, @DesiCreswell. Until then I’m wishing you a beautiful week. I’ll talk to you in the next episode.
I’m going to make the bold assumption that you enjoyed today’s topic. Let’s make sure you never miss an episode; follow the show now wherever you listen to your podcasts. If you haven’t already, I would really appreciate it if you’d make the time to leave me a rating and review. This is how I know what you’re loving so I can share more of it.
And it’s also how you can help others find The Interior Design Business CEO. As a thank you for leaving a rating and review, I want to send you a little midweek pick-me-up in the mail. Simply screenshot your review and send me a message on Instagram, @DesiCreswell. I’ll talk to you next 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. Today I’m recording earlier than I normally would be because I have a podcast interview scheduled with LuAnn Nigara this afternoon and I’m super excited about the topic I’m bringing to her. This is actually going to be the fifth time I’m going to be on the show, which is incredible. I always love talking to LuAnn.
I’ve been at High Point where we’ve done a full-day event together, we’ve done LuAnn Live together, and this is going to be a great topic we’re bringing to you today, so I’ll be sure to send out an email when that one is live. And also, if you’re interested in listening to any of the other podcast episodes where I’ve been on A Well-Designed Business, I have a link on my website that will take you to not only all of those episodes but all of the other podcasts that I’ve been on. I’ll link that in the show notes if you want to check out any of those other episodes.
Today what I want to talk to you about are two types of confidence that you can lean on being the interior design business CEO that you are. And I never knew that there were multiple types of confidence. And this is something that has been a huge area of growth in my own life and something I’ve been thinking about a lot as I continue to grow and evolve my own business, so I wanted to bring it here today.
It’s really important to understand what these two types of confidence are and it’s also important to know which one you’re using and when. Confidence really touches every aspect of your business, whether that is managing your time, managing a team, being a leader, creating systems, and how you price your services. And that makes it a critical part of being a CEO.
Before we dive in I want to give a shout-out to another podcast listener who left an amazing review. Thank you so much. They wrote, “Actionable and empowering.” And they shared, “This show provides so much value to the small business owner. Desi’s organized mindset method is approachable and once you start applying it in bite-sized increments with consistency, you will see results.
I’ve been working with Desi for over two years and in that time my business has more than doubled, as has my team. My brain feels healthier, my husband and my children have taken note and they look forward to the bits of mindset wisdom and aha moments that I share with them from my work with Desi. Knowing that I have Desi in my corner is a huge part of this process.
Even if you’re starting out as a podcast listener, you will feel her cheering you on while challenging you to look at what’s really happening in your brain and giving you the tools to do it. I’m so excited that Desi has this podcast, I can access her wisdom at any time, and it’s the perfect companion to our direct coaching work in Out Of Overwhelm.”
Thank you so much. That was just such a lovely review to read because one of the things that I absolutely love about the work that I do with clients in their business is the ripple effect. And as you can hear from what this podcast listener and client was also sharing is that this work touches your life, it touches your business and you will become a better version of you through the process.
Leaving these reviews is one of the top ways that you can support the podcast. Writing a review, subscribing, that really helps the algorithm bring this podcast to more eyes. And of course, sharing the episode with a friend, you can forward the email you receive about it, screenshot it, share it on Instagram, send it over. That is so, so helpful for me as I continue to spread the message about this podcast because I really want to get it into the hands of as many designers as possible.
Before we dive into the two types of confidence, I want to lay a little groundwork from a mindset perspective. One of the biggest roadblocks to creating the business you want is the way that you are thinking. It is not that you don’t have a particular skill set at this moment.
And the thought that comes up so often when I see designers getting in their own way and putting up those stop signs for themselves is this belief that I’ve never done it before. I see this pop up when clients want to start working on a new project type, start working out of state, open a retail shop, hire a bigger team, set higher fees. They’re embarking on a new phase of their business.
I even see this with planning too. I’ll have designers tell me that they really want to join Out Of Overwhelm or maybe they even do take the leap and they join Out Of Overwhelm. And they want to get their schedule under control and achieve some balance in their lives. But they tell me that they’ve never been a planner before. Or that they’ve tried to plan or bought planners in the past, but they’ve never been consistent.
This is all just a version of I’ve never done it before. And because they haven’t done something in the past, they don’t feel confident that they can create the result in the future. This feels very, very true when I’m speaking with new clients or clients who have never encountered my work before.
Now, I don’t see the fact that you’ve never done it before as a problem because I’ve had so much experience with myself and my clients show me that past actions and past results are not ever the deciding factor in what you’re capable of doing in the future. This is not what we’re taught though. Society teaches us to rely on what I call evidence-based confidence.
Evidence-based confidence is where we use evidence that we’ve created or collected in the past to bolster our belief or allow ourselves to believe in what we can do or create in the present or future. I’m going to give you an example that’s sort of outside of business because sometimes I think when we’re not as in it, it can be a little bit easier to see the perspective.
So here’s the example I want to give you. Every night I make coffee and prepare it for the next day. I get it all set in the machine. And just a side note, I never, ever want to do this. And this is where my future self always is so happy that I did it in the morning when I get back from my walk with my dog and I’m so happy all I have to do is press the button and the coffee magically starts coming out. I am always so grateful to past Desi for that. So, side note, but think about that when you don’t want to do something.
All right, so back to the example. I make coffee every night. Because I’ve used the scoops, because I’ve filled the water, because I know where the paper cones are located and stored, I can do this process without much thought. If you asked me, how confident are you that you can make a cup of coffee? It’s a 10 out of 10. I for sure know that I’m going to make some coffee.
I know how many scoops I put in, I know how much water I like to have in it. It’s a very repeatable process. I’ve done it hundreds and hundreds of times. So I’m using evidence-based confidence, meaning I’ve done this many times before and have been successful at it, to create confidence that, yes, I can totally make a cup of coffee.
The other part I want to point out here is it also means that the days where I spill the beans, literally, I don’t make it mean anything terrible about me. I don’t start thinking, “I’ll never be able to make a cup of coffee. You’ve really messed up. Who do you think you are?” No, I sweep up the mess. I might feel a little annoyed. But I make the coffee and I still believe I can make coffee in the future.
This is evidence-based confidence at its core. We’re saying I’m pretty sure I can do this because I’ve done it before. I have the evidence. There’s no reason I can’t do it in the future. This can work really well until it doesn’t. Relying solely on this type of confidence is a mindset roadblock because it limits your future based on your past.
This could be showing up in a wide variety of places in your business. For example, you don’t go for the big project because you haven’t done it before. You don’t even bother making a plan for your schedule for the day because you haven’t done it before or you’ve made a plan and then completely dismissed it.
It’s like you’re putting yourself in a do not go position. You only allow yourself to believe you can do something and then have the confidence to take action only if you’ve done it before. And what that means is that you are likely to only create more of the same results you’ve created in the past, versus creating new results you have no evidence to support whether or not you will succeed.
This is where the second type of confidence becomes so important. As a business owner, you are constantly doing new things that you’ve never done before. This second type of confidence is what I call inherent confidence. This is confidence that comes from within, and it’s a type of confidence that’s always available to you. It’s something that you can generate on your own in the absence of evidence.
I call it inherent confidence because it’s something that really exists already within you. It’s something you just need to nurture and help it grow. Consider this, you wouldn’t be thinking, “I want something more, I have bigger dreams for this business,” if you didn’t have at least a seed of belief that you could be successful. And that’s the belief that comes from within. And that means you already have some of this type of confidence.
If you remember from episode two where I walk you through the coaching tool, The Model, you might remember that thoughts create feelings. Your actions and results are not what create your feelings. Your feelings are what drive your actions and create results.
Even with evidence-based confidence, just because you’ve done it before, doesn’t mean it’s going to happen again. But in that instance, we do give ourselves circumstances, which are the evidence, that make it easier for us to have thoughts that generate the feeling of confidence, certainty, maybe trust. You can get started by creating this inherent confidence by the way you choose to think about yourself. It is really that simple and the impact is really that profound.
One of my go-to beliefs about myself is I know I’ll figure it out. This has served me so, so well over the years. I actually think back to when I transitioned from being a commercial interior designer to having a residential business. Or when we bought our rental properties. Or even just when I started my coaching business.
I really had no business thinking, “Oh, I’ll just start a design business,” or “Oh, I’ll just buy these rental properties and figure out how to market them, lease them, the legal piece of it, and how I’m going to create systems around tracking rent.” I really had very little evidence, if any, that I could do that. And yet, I had a strong belief that I know I’ll figure it out. And that was enough to get me into action and start creating the evidence.
Another belief you might want to try on is I’ve created things in my life that didn’t exist before, I can do that again. I want you to really consider that one. Think about this, when you started your design business you had no evidence that you could be a design business owner. So you must have had some of that inherent belief in yourself, that inherent confidence to just get started. You’ve created a business that never existed before, so you can certainly count on yourself to create even more new things that never existed before.
Another confidence belief could be feeling challenged means I’m on the right path. Or I’m a person who is willing to try new things. And lastly, you could try this one on, all I need to do is commit, have the courage, and I’ll develop the capabilities.
I think so often we think that if we don’t know something or don’t have the skill right at this moment, that something has gone wrong. Versus it’s just part of the process, and that’s where we can lean on this inherent confidence to start developing the capabilities and creating that evidence.
This is going to be something you actively have to choose to remind yourself of because while we’re told you can do anything, there are so many conditional rules we absorb about doing it right and getting the gold stars, especially for my clients who identify as perfectionists, that these sentiments are often just nice sayings or maybe a nice graphic you see on Instagram, not truths that we take in for ourselves.
Now I want you to consider a new result you want to create in your business right now. What are some of your goals? Maybe it’s your business running like a well oiled machine. Maybe it’s doubling your revenue, or purchasing a storefront, or creating a three or four day workweek. Whatever that goal is, I want you to think about it now.
Then I want you to ask yourself, which type of confidence have I been relying on to take action toward that goal? It could be the evidence-based confidence, inherent confidence, or a bit of both. Ask yourself is the type of confidence you’re relying on beneficial? Is it helping you take action or is it keeping you stuck? Which one needs to get a little bump up in the priority?
Just be honest with yourself. As always, this is never a moment to judge yourself when we evaluate what’s happening. We want to use this information to serve us and support us. If you’re going after goals you’ve never hit, you’re going to have to try new things, learn new things, do things you’ve never done before. Meaning you’re going to have to rely on inherent confidence, which is that belief in yourself in order to get into action. So this is just going to be a part of the process.
So decide what you want to believe about yourself. Believe you’re capable of figuring things out. Believe you’ll know the next best step. Believe you’re going to have your own back and be your best supporter. That isn’t to say that I totally dismiss evidence-based confidence. You can also absolutely leverage that as much as possible if it’s supportive.
You could think about your big goal again and at first glance you might not think you have evidence because it’s a new goal. But I also encourage you to look at some of these other three areas where you might be able to leverage the evidence-based confidence concept a little bit more.
The first area is where are you discounting or not seeing evidence that you do actually have to bolster your belief? I’ll give you a personal example here. When I was starting my coaching business, one of the things I was doing a lot of was reaching out to podcasts to pitch them on how I could support their audience. However, I had no experience on how to pitch a podcast host on a topic or suggest that I be a guest.
I could have used that to mean that I don’t know what I’m doing and I don’t know how I’m going to make this work. But instead, I thought about where have I done something similar that I could apply those skills now? And for me, that was in the fundraising and nonprofit committee work that I had done years prior, where I had written press releases, pitched local businesses on supporting some of our fundraising efforts. So I had some of those skills, but I had initially discounted or not even seen them until I took a pause and looked.
The second thing is asking yourself how you already do that thing, or have done the thing or skill in another area? I see this a lot with clients who come to design as a second career. Interestingly, I’ve had quite a few clients who have had backgrounds in finance and then started their interior design practice. I see them thinking that because it is two different industries, that there isn’t an overlap.
yes, it’s not exactly the same thing, but there are for sure transferable skills that you can leverage. And this might not be in another career. Think about even selling, or sales, or marketing. A lot of clients say they don’t like marketing, or they’re not good at selling. But then I find out they’re parents, and as a parent you’re constantly selling your children on getting their shoes on, on doing their homework, on why this fun family activity is something they’re going to enjoy. So look for those transferable skills.
And the last one I want to point out is to ask yourself, who else do I know, either personally or from afar, that was able to do the thing I want to do? And then consider if they were able to do it, how could that be equally as true for you as well?
One last thing I’ll share, and this is one of the things I work with a lot with my clients, is creating mini results. Mini results are all the results that have to happen along the way to create a big goal. And not only does this help with planning and execution when you’re busy, it gives you traction for a quicker cycle of wins.
Once you start taking action, which doing new things will require some of this inherent confidence, you will start to get bits of evidence that you’re on the right track. And so what ends up happening is your evidence-based confidence grows right alongside your inherent confidence. The two support each other and both expand.
What I really want you to take away from this is that so many of you believe that you have to hit the goal, or get published, or land that dream client before you can start feeling confident. I’m here to tell you that that is not the case. Confidence is always available and you can start to build it today. Using a blend of evidence-based and inherent confidence, and knowing when it’s helpful to lean more heavily on one or the other is really the key to continuing to grow your interior design business and create new levels of personal and professional success, however you define that for yourself.
Now, in the next episode I’m going to experiment with a slightly different episode format. It popped into my head and I thought that could be fun. So I’m going to try it out, prepare it for you, and I want to hear what you think. And as always, if there’s anything you’d like to hear about on the podcast, send me a DM on Instagram, @DesiCreswell. Until then I’m wishing you a beautiful week. I’ll talk to you in the next episode.
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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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