119. Taking the Leap: Risk & Reward When You Invest
Are you ready to take your interior design business to the next level, but feeling held back by fear of the unknown? Do you find yourself hesitating to make bold moves or investments, even when you know they could lead to incredible growth and rewards?
In this episode, I dive deep into the concept of risk tolerance and how it impacts your ability to achieve your biggest goals as an interior design business owner. I explore what risk tolerance really means, how to assess where you currently fall on the spectrum, and most importantly - how to expand your capacity to embrace discomfort and uncertainty in pursuit of the results you truly desire.
If you've been struggling to make decisions or take action because of a fear of potential risks or downsides, this episode will provide you with practical strategies and mindset shifts to help you move forward with greater confidence and clarity. You'll learn how to reframe risk, get clear on the facts, and ultimately develop the willingness to bet on yourself and your business's potential. By the end, you'll be equipped with a new perspective on risk and reward that will empower you to take the leaps necessary to level up and achieve your wildest entrepreneurial dreams.
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:
Why risk tolerance is a critical factor in your ability to grow and scale your interior design business.
How to assess your current level of risk tolerance and identify areas where fear may be holding you back.
The importance of distinguishing between "edgy risk" and "full-blown fear" when making business decisions.
Strategies for getting clear on the facts and potential ROI of an investment to inform your choices.
How to reframe worst-case scenarios and develop solutions to mitigate perceived risks.
Ways to gradually expand your risk tolerance by taking small leaps in lower-stakes situations.
The role of coaching and support in navigating risk and embracing discomfort as you level up your business.
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118. Enough Chances to Succeed: Staying Committed to Pursuing Your Goals
Full Episode Transcript:
Hey, designer, you're listening to episode 119. And this one we're talking all about taking the leap to bring your interior design business to the next level and achieve new goals. Now we can't talk about taking the leap without talking about risk tolerance. When is it really risk? And is the risk worth the potential rewards? And how do you balance that? How do you sit with the discomfort of going into an investment or your next up level? This is going to be a great episode if you know you want to invest in your interior design business growth, but the fear of potential unknowns is holding you back from taking action and getting the results you really want.
Welcome to The Interior Design Business CEO, the only show for designers who are ready to confidently run and grow their businesses without the stress and anxiety. If you're ready to develop a bigger vision for your interior design business, free up your time, and streamline your days for productivity and profit, you're in the right place. I'm Desi Creswell, an award-winning interior designer and certified life and business coach. I help interior designers just like you stop feeling overwhelmed so they can build profitable businesses they love to run. Are you ready to confidently lead your business, clients, and projects? Let's go.
Hello, designer, welcome back to the podcast. It is a really cold day here. The sun is shining so brightly through my office window, and I'm enjoying a cup of coffee. I'm glad to be here with you. I wanted to bring something that a client brought up in a coaching session recently to the podcast. I thought this was just such a great topic. What the client brought to our time together was she was asking about how to increase her risk tolerance. And as her coach, I was curious, if you've been listening, you know, I love to be curious. I wanted to know why does she want to increase her risk tolerance?
You know, I think that's not something we go around saying is like, I want to be more risk tolerant. I mean, maybe some of us do. We know that like we shy away a little bit from risk, but really the underlying desire there is that she wants to take a leap in her business. There's decisions she wants to make, actions she wants to take. And there was this internal knowing that something was really holding her back. And that's where the risk tolerance piece came in, right? It's that edge of moving forward or staying put. So I'm really excited to have this conversation with you today and would love to hear what comes up for you as we talk about it.
Before we dive in, I have a request for you, dear podcast listener. If you enjoy this podcast, and if you find it helpful, if it means something to you, if you look forward to listening, could you please leave me a rating and review? I would really, really appreciate it. We have been at 99 ratings and reviews for at least a month. So I'm really hoping you can help me tip over that 100 mark. Come on. I mean, like, I just want the 300 digits. I want to keep getting this podcast into the designers' hands who need it. And what I've seen is that the more that you share it, the more that I have those ratings and reviews, the more that the algorithm starts showing it to people and new people find it.
So I want to incentivize you because I know you're busy. And I know this feels like one other thing, or it could, but it would mean so much. And what I've decided is that for anyone who leaves a rating and review, and on Apple podcasts, you can leave a rating and review, on Spotify, you can only leave a rating, either is fine. But for anyone who does that for me, please just send me a screenshot of that review. And you can email it to me, reply to my emails, you can send it to me on Instagram, wherever. And I will send you a little treat, because let's make this happen. I want the podcast to grow even more in 2025. And this is how you can help me.
All right, now that I've got that request planted, the seed planted, if you didn't go do it now, please go do it at the end of the episode. Let's dive into today's topic, taking the leap and expanding your risk tolerance. And when you need to know, it's time to step into the unknown. But it feels kind of scary. We're gonna talk about what is risk tolerance, where you fall on the risky business spectrum, two key factors that influence whether or not you should consider investing and potentially risking in your business. And of course, how you can expand your capacity to hold the discomfort of making bold moves and really feel more confident in the face of uncertainty.
Because let's face it, that's what we're really talking about when we talk about risk tolerance. The way that risk tolerance is typically defined is an investor's ability and willingness to lose some or all of an investment in exchange for greater potential returns and to achieve a desired outcome. In this case, you're the investor. Typically when risk tolerance is discussed, it's about financial investing, but it's very applicable to your interior design business growth. Like I said, you're the investor and you're investing time and money into people, training, technology, support, physical goods, travel, all sorts of things with the intent of gaining a reward or outcome that you want that's greater than what you put in.
When we started our conversation, I was mentioning that this was brought to me by a client in a recent session. And there were some things in her business that she wanted to do, but her hesitations, or what she was perceiving as low levels of risk tolerance, were really starting to hold her back with the goal she wanted to achieve. For this client, it was around the topic of hiring. She wanted to take on more and bigger projects, but she really was at capacity and couldn't do it with more help. But the further commitment to another person's support in the business was feeling like an edge. It was feeling kind of scary.
This example might hit the nail on the head for you, or maybe it's something like a move like wanting to open a retail space. You have a dream of making this part of your business model. But the fear is investing in the monthly overhead for the potential return of selling product in that way. Or maybe you know you need to get past some internal obstacles or develop a strategy to get you to those next level goals and you know you need to hire a consultant or a coach, you believe that this other person could help you. But like with any investment, the payoff isn't necessarily immediate or guaranteed. So that's going to ping where you're at on the risk tolerance scale.
Another one that I see a lot with clients is when they're making that transition from current clientele to their up level clientele. And this can happen at lots of different stages in the business building journey. So this could look like saying no to less ideal clients to keep space open for the ideal clients you've been working on bringing in. You know it's the right next step for your business, but then there's a lot of tension as you not passively wait, but may have to give some space for your pipeline to fill in the way that you want it to.
I want you to think about how does this idea of expanding your risk tolerance apply to you and your current goals. Think of a specific example where there's something you wanna take the leap on, you know is the next step, and it's feeling pretty edgy. And then let's consider what your level of risk tolerance is currently. And we're gonna start doing that with just simple awareness.
Before we even do that, I also wanna be crystal clear that all investing involves risk. There is no amount of polling the audience, research, spreadsheets that is going to negate all risk. There's certain things you can do depending on the situation to help mitigate risk, but all investing involves risk. Starting your own business is a risk in and of itself. Even if you have very minimal financial output to begin with, the investment is in yourself. So know that as we talk about where you fall on this risk tolerance spectrum, that you do have some capacity to tolerate risk simply because you are an entrepreneur.
This is where I want you to just check in with yourself. Think about where you fall when it comes to ability or tolerance to navigate risk. There's one end of the spectrum where you're feeling very conservative, and then we could have the opposite end of the spectrum where you're very aggressive with taking risks, very comfortable with it. And then somewhere in between, moderate. So just do a quick temperature check, like where do you think you fall on that spectrum so you can start to understand what your patterns are with risk tolerance and the various ways that shows up in your business growth.
It could be interesting to explore even if there are certain areas of the business that you feel more comfortable with risk, or there's other areas where you're less inclined to take a risk. It might be consistent throughout and it might vary. And if there is inconsistency, let's say you feel really comfortable investing in this type of support or in these types of actions. But then when it comes to other types of investments or taking the leap in other areas, you're not as sure of yourself, you don't feel as confident. And that's a great place to ask why is there inconsistency?
You could ask yourself, are you less likely to take a risk when it's dependent on you, how you show up versus another person? Or if there's certain amounts of money, where up to a certain dollar amount, you're good, then there's a number that just tips you into some more fear. Get curious with this and understand what's happening below the surface because at the root of this is understanding your decision-making process and that is always so powerful because it's giving you insight into who or what, which often are feelings, are driving your business.
You can also ask yourself if you're making decisions against something in the past that you don't want to experience again, or fearing something in the future. This is a further way of understanding that decision-making process around risk. While we can absolutely use those emotions and circumstances, whether they're actual facts we can recall or put on paper or imagined, so things we're fearing might happen, the stories that play out, we can look for the lessons and insights. We can bring them to the surface so they're not left uninvestigated. Because if we don't take a look at those, you're gonna be leading the business and your decision-making process around risk and investment with reactivity and resistance, which is very exhausting and not very effective.
With your new awareness, let's look at how you can work with yourself to expand your tolerance for risk. And I'm gonna call out that I just said, work with yourself, right? We wanna be supportive in this process, and I'll talk a little bit more about that later on. So this is where you're at that point when you feel like you're ready for a leap, and it could be just what you need, and you need to help move yourself beyond that edge. I'm gonna give you several angles to explore, and then you can use these approaches depending on your specific situation or what resonates most.
The first thing I really encourage you to do is just get clear on what your brain thinks it's actually risking. It's probably gonna fall under the category of time, money, or reputation, or status. We could kind of put those together. Get specific and clear. Like write this out on a piece of paper and just say, what does my brain actually think I'm risking? Name it for yourself and then get to know what that real fear is. Sometimes this alone, this awareness, can just be enough where it's like you put the daylight on it and then it doesn't feel so big and unknown and scary. And that can be enough.
Sometimes that's not enough though. And then that's where I'd suggest you do the second thing. And that is where you let yourself go to the worst case scenario. What I often see clients doing and expending a lot of mental energy around is worrying but then not closing the worry loop, which just then ends up perpetuating anxiety. So when you let yourself go to the worst case scenario, what I want you to do is list out all the things you're afraid will happen. Every last one of them, let your brain have its say, right? It's kind of like when you've got that little kid, not that I have kids who talk a whole lot, but it's like they want to be heard. They want to have their say in the conversation. And if you keep shutting them down or dismissing them, they just get louder and louder and louder.
Same thing with your brain. So list out every last thing you're afraid will happen. And then go back to that list. And for each of those scenarios, what you're gonna do is go through and write a solution to each of those worries or fears. This is gonna slow down your thought process, which is gonna calm your body down. And it's also going to show yourself that you actually could figure it out if something that you didn't want to have happen happened. Usually what you find is that either the scary stories that your brain is telling you aren't actually that bad. You might find out that the worst case scenario is just basically being in the same place you are now, which probably isn't the worst.
And three is that you can figure it out. You show yourself you can figure out whatever happens. If those feared situations actually come about, you are a capable business owner, a capable human being, and you can create solutions to get yourself out of whatever comes. This can be so, so helpful. The third thing you could do is play with the ROI math, meaning play with the potential numbers and facts of what the return on the investment could be, what the investment numbers are and what the potential returns could be. I do not want you to stop and allow yourself to tell the story of this is so much to invest. I mean, the number might be uncomfortable, but so much is very subjective.
And let me tell you, as you continue to expand your risk tolerance so much, you'll see the number changes. So don't leave your brain unattended without getting clear on the facts. Do the math, get the numbers. The client I was talking about before, we could look at how much would it actually be to bring on the hire that she wants? What would she pay that person? She could also look at how many ideal leads she's currently turning down. What would the design fees and product sales mean to her business? Also, is that enough work to sustain the employee for a while. There's so much to be gained by slowing yourself down and getting the math set.
So you can look at what is the amount I need to put in here. And then you can also look at the upside. How would investing, in whatever way you're thinking of investing, impact your business positively? For her, it was how would this impact the amount of projects and profitability in her business? It also meant what could this mean, not just for her business, but her personal lifestyle as well? Is the amount being put in worth the potential upside? Is the amount being put in actually as much as you were thinking it was going to be? Or maybe it's even less and not as much of a risk as you're thinking it is.
One thing to call out here when you're assessing your risk tolerance, you not only need to have that willingness inside to invest, you also need to have the ability to invest. So you can take into account your personal financial situation. Do you have business reserves where you do have a financial safety net or cushion? Or are there other personal resources that you have to invest or use as a backup? Because let's face it, cushions help us feel more secure. The actual amount isn't what helps create the feeling of security, because for each of you, that amount is going to be different. But I like to think of, when can I give myself a circumstance that's gonna make it easier for me to think and feel a certain way? And so in this way, creating a financial safety net, if it does feel like a big risk to you, can certainly help. And if you don't have a cushion or you wanna have more of a cushion, then you could ask yourself, how could you make a plan and start creating that for yourself?
One of the things that it's important to remember when we're doing this math is that there's going to be risk involved either way. There's the risk of investing and then there's also the risk of not investing. There's gonna be some outcome of not taking that leap. That outcome might be staying status quo and that might be fine. But we also wanna remember there is an outcome either way. The brain's always gonna be more focused on what you have to lose or give up versus what you might have to gain. It's really up for you to consider, is what you have to “give up” worth the potential upsides?
A private client who recently signed on with me even said, like, we cannot afford to not do this with you, right? It did feel like a leap to sign on for private coaching, but both the business and her personal ROI of mental wellbeing, the impact on their life and how they were showing up for their family, the upsides of it were so huge. It was a turning point, and that is where we have to have that willingness.
The fourth way you can play with expanding this risk tolerance is to look for areas where it feels a little bit more safe, a little more accessible to dip your toes into risk and give yourself evidence that you can do it. Consider this maybe not taking a giant leap, but taking a little hop or a skip. So you can brainstorm some ways to test that out. And it could very much be even just in your personal life. Maybe it's in your purchasing decisions for household items or even just what you're ordering for lunch or something like that. Maybe for you, it feels like a risk to potentially order the thing and then regret the choice. Cause that's the other thing, when we talk about risk tolerance is we're trying to drive away any potential regret. So that's something that you could experiment with on a daily basis.
This is where it's just so important that you know yourself and also really where coaching can help. Everyone's level of risk tolerance or their desire to expand that capacity to take leaps is really individualized. We talked about where you fall right now on the risk tolerance spectrum of feeling pretty conservative, moderate, or aggressive, you wanna know what that is for you and specifically what it is for you in the thing that you're considering investing in.
I always encourage and help clients explore what is edgy risk? Like it feels like, oh, this is kind of uncomfortable, but I'm feeling capable, I'm willing to lean into this versus just full-blown fear. There is a point where I think pushing yourself to take leaps that you haven't developed the emotional capacity for is really unuseful. Because if we go past that edgy risk into full-blown fear, we're gonna send our bodies into a state of shutdown. And when we are in that heightened emotional state, we have less mental resources. We're not making as clear or effective decisions as we could be making. And while taking some huge leap can be flashy and like in the moment, it's like, yes, I'm doing it. We wanna consider what's the impact of that. Because if you do that and you get into that full-on shutdown state, you're not gonna be able to capitalize then on the investment you just made.
And it is kind of this balance and dance and you can explore this for yourself. And of course, like I said, this is really where coaching can be helpful in terms of the mindset, emotional and strategy component in looking at what makes sense for you, where you're at now and your specific business.
As you lean into this concept of risk tolerance and how you can use it in your business, what's gonna end up happening is that those edges that I just talked about, the edgy risk into full-blown fear, those edges expand. And as it continues to expand, you're going to be able to feel more certainty and more confidence in when you make decisions to invest and when it's the right time to take those leaps. It's also gonna help you plan for your next steps in your business. What is it that you wanna go after and what is it that's gonna support you in getting there? You're gonna be able to make those decisions and then take actions on those insights really a lot more swiftly because risk tolerance, there's that resistance to the fear that we're feeling, which is really us wasting time swimming in the worry and what ifs. And what we end up doing is we can move through those more swiftly with more decisiveness and more clarity and really give yourself more chances to succeed.
Going back to last week's episode, I really believe that you are not meant to know everything. You're not meant to do everything on your own. And because of this, you're going to be required to invest in yourself and your future and engage with your level of risk tolerance in the lifetime of your business. Risk is just going to be inherent in making these leaps. There's risk in giving your business the resources it needs to fulfill the potential you have for it. And there's risk in not doing that as well. The uncertainty and the risk, it's just part of the deal. And so is the reward. You have to keep reminding yourself of that.
Because of this, working on your willingness or that tolerance, and if you haven't listened to episode 89 of the podcast, Are You Willing? It's part of the CEO Summer Schools. I highly recommend that you go back and listen to that if this topic is resonating. It's such a worthwhile practice, not just even around risk tolerance, but everything in your business. The more willing you can be for taking those next steps, making investments when it makes sense for your business, it's just such a worthwhile practice and will create so much more internal peace with the growth that you want to experience. And that's not to say that it's gonna always feel like Zen and this is easy, but there is a grounded quality that you develop when you stop trying to make it not uncomfortable for you. So go check that one out.
I'm gonna recap now what I said before about how to increase or understand your level of risk tolerance and how you can use that to make decisions. So the first one is to get clear on what your brain thinks it's actually risking. The second one is list out all the worries and fears, those worst case scenarios, and then for each of them, write a solution. The third one is to get the math, do the ROI math, get the facts, write out what it is you'd actually need to invest and figure out what the potential upside is with real numbers. And then the fourth one is dip your toes in areas where it feels a little bit less confronting to risk and give yourself some evidence you can do it. Show yourself that you can develop that capacity for tolerance of the discomfort.
All right, that's what I have for you today with a little bit of a longer episode, but so much to cover. And I'd really love to hear what you think of this topic and how you're going to apply this to your own interior design business. I'm gonna be back next week with a brand new episode and I encourage you to subscribe to the show or follow it, however, your podcast app mentions that so you don't miss an episode. This is yet another way you can help me get the tools and concepts in the hands of more designers.
And lastly, a quick reminder to share the podcast and leave a rating and review. Send me a screenshot or e-mail of your review. You can do @DesiCreswell for Instagram, or you can reply to one of my emails. Desi@desiid.com is my e-mail, and I will send you a treat. Each and every one of you as a thank you for supporting the show and supporting my mission as a coach. Until we connect again, I'm wishing you a beautiful week.
Thanks for joining me for this week’s episode of The Interior Design Business CEO. If you want more tips, tools and strategies visit 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. It is a really cold day here. The sun is shining so brightly through my office window, and I'm enjoying a cup of coffee. I'm glad to be here with you. I wanted to bring something that a client brought up in a coaching session recently to the podcast. I thought this was just such a great topic. What the client brought to our time together was she was asking about how to increase her risk tolerance. And as her coach, I was curious, if you've been listening, you know, I love to be curious. I wanted to know why does she want to increase her risk tolerance?
You know, I think that's not something we go around saying is like, I want to be more risk tolerant. I mean, maybe some of us do. We know that like we shy away a little bit from risk, but really the underlying desire there is that she wants to take a leap in her business. There's decisions she wants to make, actions she wants to take. And there was this internal knowing that something was really holding her back. And that's where the risk tolerance piece came in, right? It's that edge of moving forward or staying put. So I'm really excited to have this conversation with you today and would love to hear what comes up for you as we talk about it.
Before we dive in, I have a request for you, dear podcast listener. If you enjoy this podcast, and if you find it helpful, if it means something to you, if you look forward to listening, could you please leave me a rating and review? I would really, really appreciate it. We have been at 99 ratings and reviews for at least a month. So I'm really hoping you can help me tip over that 100 mark. Come on. I mean, like, I just want the 300 digits. I want to keep getting this podcast into the designers' hands who need it. And what I've seen is that the more that you share it, the more that I have those ratings and reviews, the more that the algorithm starts showing it to people and new people find it.
So I want to incentivize you because I know you're busy. And I know this feels like one other thing, or it could, but it would mean so much. And what I've decided is that for anyone who leaves a rating and review, and on Apple podcasts, you can leave a rating and review, on Spotify, you can only leave a rating, either is fine. But for anyone who does that for me, please just send me a screenshot of that review. And you can email it to me, reply to my emails, you can send it to me on Instagram, wherever. And I will send you a little treat, because let's make this happen. I want the podcast to grow even more in 2025. And this is how you can help me.
All right, now that I've got that request planted, the seed planted, if you didn't go do it now, please go do it at the end of the episode. Let's dive into today's topic, taking the leap and expanding your risk tolerance. And when you need to know, it's time to step into the unknown. But it feels kind of scary. We're gonna talk about what is risk tolerance, where you fall on the risky business spectrum, two key factors that influence whether or not you should consider investing and potentially risking in your business. And of course, how you can expand your capacity to hold the discomfort of making bold moves and really feel more confident in the face of uncertainty.
Because let's face it, that's what we're really talking about when we talk about risk tolerance. The way that risk tolerance is typically defined is an investor's ability and willingness to lose some or all of an investment in exchange for greater potential returns and to achieve a desired outcome. In this case, you're the investor. Typically when risk tolerance is discussed, it's about financial investing, but it's very applicable to your interior design business growth. Like I said, you're the investor and you're investing time and money into people, training, technology, support, physical goods, travel, all sorts of things with the intent of gaining a reward or outcome that you want that's greater than what you put in.
When we started our conversation, I was mentioning that this was brought to me by a client in a recent session. And there were some things in her business that she wanted to do, but her hesitations, or what she was perceiving as low levels of risk tolerance, were really starting to hold her back with the goal she wanted to achieve. For this client, it was around the topic of hiring. She wanted to take on more and bigger projects, but she really was at capacity and couldn't do it with more help. But the further commitment to another person's support in the business was feeling like an edge. It was feeling kind of scary.
This example might hit the nail on the head for you, or maybe it's something like a move like wanting to open a retail space. You have a dream of making this part of your business model. But the fear is investing in the monthly overhead for the potential return of selling product in that way. Or maybe you know you need to get past some internal obstacles or develop a strategy to get you to those next level goals and you know you need to hire a consultant or a coach, you believe that this other person could help you. But like with any investment, the payoff isn't necessarily immediate or guaranteed. So that's going to ping where you're at on the risk tolerance scale.
Another one that I see a lot with clients is when they're making that transition from current clientele to their up level clientele. And this can happen at lots of different stages in the business building journey. So this could look like saying no to less ideal clients to keep space open for the ideal clients you've been working on bringing in. You know it's the right next step for your business, but then there's a lot of tension as you not passively wait, but may have to give some space for your pipeline to fill in the way that you want it to.
I want you to think about how does this idea of expanding your risk tolerance apply to you and your current goals. Think of a specific example where there's something you wanna take the leap on, you know is the next step, and it's feeling pretty edgy. And then let's consider what your level of risk tolerance is currently. And we're gonna start doing that with just simple awareness.
Before we even do that, I also wanna be crystal clear that all investing involves risk. There is no amount of polling the audience, research, spreadsheets that is going to negate all risk. There's certain things you can do depending on the situation to help mitigate risk, but all investing involves risk. Starting your own business is a risk in and of itself. Even if you have very minimal financial output to begin with, the investment is in yourself. So know that as we talk about where you fall on this risk tolerance spectrum, that you do have some capacity to tolerate risk simply because you are an entrepreneur.
This is where I want you to just check in with yourself. Think about where you fall when it comes to ability or tolerance to navigate risk. There's one end of the spectrum where you're feeling very conservative, and then we could have the opposite end of the spectrum where you're very aggressive with taking risks, very comfortable with it. And then somewhere in between, moderate. So just do a quick temperature check, like where do you think you fall on that spectrum so you can start to understand what your patterns are with risk tolerance and the various ways that shows up in your business growth.
It could be interesting to explore even if there are certain areas of the business that you feel more comfortable with risk, or there's other areas where you're less inclined to take a risk. It might be consistent throughout and it might vary. And if there is inconsistency, let's say you feel really comfortable investing in this type of support or in these types of actions. But then when it comes to other types of investments or taking the leap in other areas, you're not as sure of yourself, you don't feel as confident. And that's a great place to ask why is there inconsistency?
You could ask yourself, are you less likely to take a risk when it's dependent on you, how you show up versus another person? Or if there's certain amounts of money, where up to a certain dollar amount, you're good, then there's a number that just tips you into some more fear. Get curious with this and understand what's happening below the surface because at the root of this is understanding your decision-making process and that is always so powerful because it's giving you insight into who or what, which often are feelings, are driving your business.
You can also ask yourself if you're making decisions against something in the past that you don't want to experience again, or fearing something in the future. This is a further way of understanding that decision-making process around risk. While we can absolutely use those emotions and circumstances, whether they're actual facts we can recall or put on paper or imagined, so things we're fearing might happen, the stories that play out, we can look for the lessons and insights. We can bring them to the surface so they're not left uninvestigated. Because if we don't take a look at those, you're gonna be leading the business and your decision-making process around risk and investment with reactivity and resistance, which is very exhausting and not very effective.
With your new awareness, let's look at how you can work with yourself to expand your tolerance for risk. And I'm gonna call out that I just said, work with yourself, right? We wanna be supportive in this process, and I'll talk a little bit more about that later on. So this is where you're at that point when you feel like you're ready for a leap, and it could be just what you need, and you need to help move yourself beyond that edge. I'm gonna give you several angles to explore, and then you can use these approaches depending on your specific situation or what resonates most.
The first thing I really encourage you to do is just get clear on what your brain thinks it's actually risking. It's probably gonna fall under the category of time, money, or reputation, or status. We could kind of put those together. Get specific and clear. Like write this out on a piece of paper and just say, what does my brain actually think I'm risking? Name it for yourself and then get to know what that real fear is. Sometimes this alone, this awareness, can just be enough where it's like you put the daylight on it and then it doesn't feel so big and unknown and scary. And that can be enough.
Sometimes that's not enough though. And then that's where I'd suggest you do the second thing. And that is where you let yourself go to the worst case scenario. What I often see clients doing and expending a lot of mental energy around is worrying but then not closing the worry loop, which just then ends up perpetuating anxiety. So when you let yourself go to the worst case scenario, what I want you to do is list out all the things you're afraid will happen. Every last one of them, let your brain have its say, right? It's kind of like when you've got that little kid, not that I have kids who talk a whole lot, but it's like they want to be heard. They want to have their say in the conversation. And if you keep shutting them down or dismissing them, they just get louder and louder and louder.
Same thing with your brain. So list out every last thing you're afraid will happen. And then go back to that list. And for each of those scenarios, what you're gonna do is go through and write a solution to each of those worries or fears. This is gonna slow down your thought process, which is gonna calm your body down. And it's also going to show yourself that you actually could figure it out if something that you didn't want to have happen happened. Usually what you find is that either the scary stories that your brain is telling you aren't actually that bad. You might find out that the worst case scenario is just basically being in the same place you are now, which probably isn't the worst.
And three is that you can figure it out. You show yourself you can figure out whatever happens. If those feared situations actually come about, you are a capable business owner, a capable human being, and you can create solutions to get yourself out of whatever comes. This can be so, so helpful. The third thing you could do is play with the ROI math, meaning play with the potential numbers and facts of what the return on the investment could be, what the investment numbers are and what the potential returns could be. I do not want you to stop and allow yourself to tell the story of this is so much to invest. I mean, the number might be uncomfortable, but so much is very subjective.
And let me tell you, as you continue to expand your risk tolerance so much, you'll see the number changes. So don't leave your brain unattended without getting clear on the facts. Do the math, get the numbers. The client I was talking about before, we could look at how much would it actually be to bring on the hire that she wants? What would she pay that person? She could also look at how many ideal leads she's currently turning down. What would the design fees and product sales mean to her business? Also, is that enough work to sustain the employee for a while. There's so much to be gained by slowing yourself down and getting the math set.
So you can look at what is the amount I need to put in here. And then you can also look at the upside. How would investing, in whatever way you're thinking of investing, impact your business positively? For her, it was how would this impact the amount of projects and profitability in her business? It also meant what could this mean, not just for her business, but her personal lifestyle as well? Is the amount being put in worth the potential upside? Is the amount being put in actually as much as you were thinking it was going to be? Or maybe it's even less and not as much of a risk as you're thinking it is.
One thing to call out here when you're assessing your risk tolerance, you not only need to have that willingness inside to invest, you also need to have the ability to invest. So you can take into account your personal financial situation. Do you have business reserves where you do have a financial safety net or cushion? Or are there other personal resources that you have to invest or use as a backup? Because let's face it, cushions help us feel more secure. The actual amount isn't what helps create the feeling of security, because for each of you, that amount is going to be different. But I like to think of, when can I give myself a circumstance that's gonna make it easier for me to think and feel a certain way? And so in this way, creating a financial safety net, if it does feel like a big risk to you, can certainly help. And if you don't have a cushion or you wanna have more of a cushion, then you could ask yourself, how could you make a plan and start creating that for yourself?
One of the things that it's important to remember when we're doing this math is that there's going to be risk involved either way. There's the risk of investing and then there's also the risk of not investing. There's gonna be some outcome of not taking that leap. That outcome might be staying status quo and that might be fine. But we also wanna remember there is an outcome either way. The brain's always gonna be more focused on what you have to lose or give up versus what you might have to gain. It's really up for you to consider, is what you have to “give up” worth the potential upsides?
A private client who recently signed on with me even said, like, we cannot afford to not do this with you, right? It did feel like a leap to sign on for private coaching, but both the business and her personal ROI of mental wellbeing, the impact on their life and how they were showing up for their family, the upsides of it were so huge. It was a turning point, and that is where we have to have that willingness.
The fourth way you can play with expanding this risk tolerance is to look for areas where it feels a little bit more safe, a little more accessible to dip your toes into risk and give yourself evidence that you can do it. Consider this maybe not taking a giant leap, but taking a little hop or a skip. So you can brainstorm some ways to test that out. And it could very much be even just in your personal life. Maybe it's in your purchasing decisions for household items or even just what you're ordering for lunch or something like that. Maybe for you, it feels like a risk to potentially order the thing and then regret the choice. Cause that's the other thing, when we talk about risk tolerance is we're trying to drive away any potential regret. So that's something that you could experiment with on a daily basis.
This is where it's just so important that you know yourself and also really where coaching can help. Everyone's level of risk tolerance or their desire to expand that capacity to take leaps is really individualized. We talked about where you fall right now on the risk tolerance spectrum of feeling pretty conservative, moderate, or aggressive, you wanna know what that is for you and specifically what it is for you in the thing that you're considering investing in.
I always encourage and help clients explore what is edgy risk? Like it feels like, oh, this is kind of uncomfortable, but I'm feeling capable, I'm willing to lean into this versus just full-blown fear. There is a point where I think pushing yourself to take leaps that you haven't developed the emotional capacity for is really unuseful. Because if we go past that edgy risk into full-blown fear, we're gonna send our bodies into a state of shutdown. And when we are in that heightened emotional state, we have less mental resources. We're not making as clear or effective decisions as we could be making. And while taking some huge leap can be flashy and like in the moment, it's like, yes, I'm doing it. We wanna consider what's the impact of that. Because if you do that and you get into that full-on shutdown state, you're not gonna be able to capitalize then on the investment you just made.
And it is kind of this balance and dance and you can explore this for yourself. And of course, like I said, this is really where coaching can be helpful in terms of the mindset, emotional and strategy component in looking at what makes sense for you, where you're at now and your specific business.
As you lean into this concept of risk tolerance and how you can use it in your business, what's gonna end up happening is that those edges that I just talked about, the edgy risk into full-blown fear, those edges expand. And as it continues to expand, you're going to be able to feel more certainty and more confidence in when you make decisions to invest and when it's the right time to take those leaps. It's also gonna help you plan for your next steps in your business. What is it that you wanna go after and what is it that's gonna support you in getting there? You're gonna be able to make those decisions and then take actions on those insights really a lot more swiftly because risk tolerance, there's that resistance to the fear that we're feeling, which is really us wasting time swimming in the worry and what ifs. And what we end up doing is we can move through those more swiftly with more decisiveness and more clarity and really give yourself more chances to succeed.
Going back to last week's episode, I really believe that you are not meant to know everything. You're not meant to do everything on your own. And because of this, you're going to be required to invest in yourself and your future and engage with your level of risk tolerance in the lifetime of your business. Risk is just going to be inherent in making these leaps. There's risk in giving your business the resources it needs to fulfill the potential you have for it. And there's risk in not doing that as well. The uncertainty and the risk, it's just part of the deal. And so is the reward. You have to keep reminding yourself of that.
Because of this, working on your willingness or that tolerance, and if you haven't listened to episode 89 of the podcast, Are You Willing? It's part of the CEO Summer Schools. I highly recommend that you go back and listen to that if this topic is resonating. It's such a worthwhile practice, not just even around risk tolerance, but everything in your business. The more willing you can be for taking those next steps, making investments when it makes sense for your business, it's just such a worthwhile practice and will create so much more internal peace with the growth that you want to experience. And that's not to say that it's gonna always feel like Zen and this is easy, but there is a grounded quality that you develop when you stop trying to make it not uncomfortable for you. So go check that one out.
I'm gonna recap now what I said before about how to increase or understand your level of risk tolerance and how you can use that to make decisions. So the first one is to get clear on what your brain thinks it's actually risking. The second one is list out all the worries and fears, those worst case scenarios, and then for each of them, write a solution. The third one is to get the math, do the ROI math, get the facts, write out what it is you'd actually need to invest and figure out what the potential upside is with real numbers. And then the fourth one is dip your toes in areas where it feels a little bit less confronting to risk and give yourself some evidence you can do it. Show yourself that you can develop that capacity for tolerance of the discomfort.
All right, that's what I have for you today with a little bit of a longer episode, but so much to cover. And I'd really love to hear what you think of this topic and how you're going to apply this to your own interior design business. I'm gonna be back next week with a brand new episode and I encourage you to subscribe to the show or follow it, however, your podcast app mentions that so you don't miss an episode. This is yet another way you can help me get the tools and concepts in the hands of more designers.
And lastly, a quick reminder to share the podcast and leave a rating and review. Send me a screenshot or e-mail of your review. You can do @DesiCreswell for Instagram, or you can reply to one of my emails. Desi@desiid.com is my e-mail, and I will send you a treat. Each and every one of you as a thank you for supporting the show and supporting my mission as a coach. Until we connect again, I'm wishing you a beautiful week.
Thanks for joining me for this week’s episode of The Interior Design Business CEO. If you want more tips, tools and strategies visit 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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