19. Where is Your Time, Money, and Attention Going?
How are you investing your time, money, and attention, and using your brain to make decisions as the CEO of your interior design business? I love working with designers around getting better results in their businesses, and this always requires that they think differently.
This episode is going to be a little more personal than usual. I’m showing you behind the scenes in my business, but more importantly, I’m letting you behind the curtain in my brain, sharing how I audit my investments of time, money, and attention as the CEO of my business, and showing you how you can start to use a new understanding of these resources to create better results with more ease.
Tune in this week to discover how I’ve optimized my business to get better results with less effort by doing a resource audit, and I’m sharing the details of an experiment I’m undertaking around no longer marketing on Instagram, and how you can apply the same principles in your own business.
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:
How too many people are living out past decisions that they’ve made, instead of consciously deciding if those decisions are still serving them.
My process for reviewing how I spend my time, money, and energy in my business.
How to know when it’s the right time to consider doing a resource audit of your own.
What happens when you fight with reality or resist change as the CEO of your business.
Why the most important returns on your investments won’t always be financial returns.
How to decide on the most needle-moving activities you can do in any given moment, being more effective with less effort.
Listen to the Full Episode:
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Full Episode Transcript:
Hey designer, you’re listening to episode 19. This is the one where I’m sharing about my recent resource audit. I’ll share what that is and the resulting experiment with going off the Instagram grid.
Welcome to The Interior Design Business CEO, the only show for designers who are ready to confidently run and grow their businesses without the stress and anxiety. If you’re ready to develop a bigger vision for your interior design business, free up your time, and streamline your days for productivity and profit, you’re in the right place. I’m Desi Creswell, an award-winning interior designer and certified life and business coach. I help interior designers just like you stop feeling overwhelmed so they can build profitable businesses they love to run. Are you ready to confidently lead your business, clients, and projects? Let’s go.
Hello designer, welcome back to the podcast. This week I’m getting back in the swing of things after being gone for a week in Mexico with my husband. We negotiated with the grandparents one week of freedom. And oh my gosh, was it amazing. The sunshine, the warmth, and let’s be honest, just not having to be responsible for anyone but ourselves. All of you parents out there know the incredible feeling of being free in that way.
We actually went to a resort that we’ve been to, this is our third time going there because we love it so much. And one of my favorite things to do at this particular resort is go to breakfast. They have the most beautiful setting where you’re sitting outside. You’re sitting next to the lagoon that runs throughout the property. There’s all of this delicious fresh fruit that you didn’t have to cut up yourself, I mean someone is pouring you coffee.
It was awesome. I read lots of books. So, so fun. And also so glad to be back. When I don’t have a week where I’m recording a podcast it feels like it is forever since I’ve talked to you.
So today is going to be a little bit more of a personal episode where I’m going to be sharing some behind the scenes in my business and also behind the scenes of the brain and how I think about the way that I invest my time, money, and attention in my business. Which is really talking about how I use my brain to make decisions in my business.
So much of what I work with designers on is how to think differently about running a business and being the leader of their business so that they can get better results with less effort and more ease. And I want you to be able to use what I’m sharing today here and apply it to your business and the decisions you make and see how this experiment that I’m going to be running, and testing, and possibly changing, could be applied to some of the things that you’re doing in your business as well.
Before we dive in I want to give a shout-out to Haley Christian, who left me an incredible review on Apple Podcasts and I so appreciate it. She said, “Calm to the storm. Each time after I listen to Desi’s podcast a wave of relief comes over me. Desi has a brilliant way of showing us how it’s very possible to achieve your dreams and goals. Her bite-sized actionable steps and advice is so empowering. This business tends to feel so complicated and hard, but Desi helps me get out of that thinking rut and instead, into taking action. Thank you, Desi.”
Thank you, Haley. Haley is a past client of mine and just such a wonderful human. And so thank you, Haley, for taking the time to leave that note. I would love to send you a midweek pick-me-up. Send me a message on Instagram with your address so I can get something in the mail to you.
And if you want to get a little treat from me in the mail, leave a review wherever you listen to the podcast. I would love, love, love to hear from you. And a review means so much in that you’re going to help another designer find this show and help me spread the word about using these mindset and practical strategies to transform your life and business.
During the intro, I talked about what I was going to be sharing today and how that led to a decision to take a break from Instagram as one of my marketing strategies. And before we really dive in I want to give you a little background on how I arrived at that decision.
If you’ve listened to episode 14 on making empowered decisions you’ll remember that I’ve been in the process of reassessing a lot in my business right now around how I’m spending my time, my money, and my energy. And I’m really taking a look at past decisions I’ve made, whether that’s my services, the support I have, both in the back end of my business and the support that I hire for coaching myself, the actions I’m taking. I’m taking a look at all of it.
The way that I’m doing this, or did this, was listing out every expense that I have in my business, reviewing how and where I spend my time on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. And then I also took inventory of where I spend my mental energy. Those are the things I’m maybe not actively working on all of the time, but they’re taking up valuable brain space.
What I call this for myself is a resource audit, and I highly recommend you do this regularly for yourself, where you’re taking a look at how you’re spending your time, your money, and your attention. At the pace that we’re all moving at, so often we’re just living out past decisions that we’ve made and not consciously deciding if we want to keep those decisions or do something differently based on new information or new circumstances. A resource audit is a great little pause to say, hey, these are the decisions I have made, these are what has resulted from those decisions, and now what do I want to do with it?
One of the reasons this was a good time for me to do another resource audit was because I was feeling over capacity. In episode four I talk about client capacity specifically, and also there are so many different ways that we can look at capacity. And for me personally, in this time in my life, the over-capacity issue that I have been experiencing really is in time and emotional capacity.
There have been some things going on with my kids where I’m choosing to give them extra support, and this really speaks to the time and emotional capacity piece. There are the logistics of this where I’m making time during when I would normally be working to be of extra support.
And then I’m also providing a lot of emotional support. And that does impact the energy I have available for other things, including my business. So I’m considering both of those things when I say that this was a time for me to assess my capacity, and I did that through the resource audit.
I’m also completing my master coach certification through The Life Coach School, which is where I received my original life coach certification, and there are more call times than I originally anticipated. Quite a few more hours of calls. So between the two commitments that I’m making right now, I have less hours than I previously did to do what I normally do in my business, so it makes sense that I’m feeling like things are a little thin.
This is why I’m always reminding my clients to look at the math of your day. When I look at the time that I’m choosing to spend on these things, and then also considering no other variables have shifted, it becomes very clear that the math of my day has changed. You want to look at what are you defining as your work hours. What are your current commitments? And do those things align? And if the math isn’t working, then something needs to shift.
Often I find clients spending a lot of time and energy fighting with reality of the math, or just hoping things will change without actually changing anything. And unfortunately, this does not work. So that’s really what brought me to do another resource audit and make some new decisions and revisit old decisions about the way that I’m investing my resources.
When I’m looking at investments, whether that’s time, money, or energy, I always am looking at the return on that investment. Just to be clear, that return is sometimes a financial return, but it’s not always a financial return. Sometimes I’m making investments in my emotional well-being, where there’s a return in my level of well-being, or happiness, or level of calm I experience.
Sometimes it is a return in creating actual time where I then have time to do something that I would rather be doing, whether that is maybe going for a workout or spending time with my kids. So, again, it can be a financial return, but it doesn’t always have to be a financial return.
When I’m talking about a return on investment, I’m also thinking about, am I getting the result that I want through that investment? One of the most important concepts I teach when I work with clients in Out Of Overwhelm is results-based planning. What I mean by results-based planning is that when you plan your time, the emphasis is on what result you’ll create in a given period of time, not how many things you can cram into that given period of time.
The amount of time you give something is not directly proportional to the result you create. That’s so important to recognize. We are taught that more time equals better results, and that is not necessarily true.
This is really where I think traditional productivity methods fall short, where they’re really focused on how can I get the most done in a given period of time versus looking at what are the most important things to get done, what are the most needle-moving activities that I can get done during this time? Or even how can I do less, but be more effective to produce the same or better results?
Typical productivity methods, or even just typical ways we talk about investing resources in general, often don’t take into account if what you’re doing, whether it’s you being the one who actually does it or you’re paying someone else to do something, is even producing a desired result to begin with. I think we forget about that.
I never want you to do just for the sake of doing. You always want to take action in your business to produce a specific desired result. When I was reviewing my audit, I was especially paying attention to how I invest my time, money, and energy into marketing because that is something I devote a significant amount of resources to, whether that’s collaborating with others to provide workshops in their communities, being on other people’s podcasts, creating content for Instagram, producing this podcast that you’re listening to right now. There’s a solid piece of my week that I spend on all of those activities.
If we go back to this idea of results-based planning, we have to ask, why do I engage in marketing activities? Why do you engage in marketing activities? And I think the answer would be the same for us both, it’s to connect with and eventually work with our ideal clients. For all of you who have negative thoughts about marketing, not liking it, thinking it’s something you have to do, I want to quickly offer a reframe.
And this is perhaps a whole other topic we could talk about on the podcast. Here’s the reframe, I want you to remember that marketing is the reason we get to do what we love. When I put myself and the value that I offer out into the world, it makes it possible for me to do what I really love, which is to help designers have profitable, fulfilling businesses.
When you invest your time, money, and attention into marketing your interior design services, you’re making it possible to design spaces and work with clients who are willing to trust you with your expertise and create incredible environments. Marketing is the way that we do more of what we love.
So I personally love marketing because it provides me with opportunities to serve you and help you create the transformation in your life and business. We, of course, have to remember too, that we are in business. We are creating the result of working with clients. That’s the result of marketing.
That was what I was looking at with my resource audit. Where am I inputting marketing activities and what is the output for me? When I looked at what I was doing for marketing, a lot of what I was doing was creating those desired results. However, Instagram stuck out loud and clear. I write all of my own content for Instagram, for all of my marketing, and have been consistently posting on the platform for the past few years.
And during that time I built up to five posts per week and sustained that for quite a while. And during a previous resource audit that I did, I experimented with dropping to three posts per week because what I’m going to be sharing with you was a hunch I’ve had for a little while and I’ve been testing it just to see how reducing my input there would impact my results.
If you follow me on Instagram you’ll see that my posts are very well thought out. I provide tons of teaching and value. And, I mean, really, you could shift so much for yourself if you just took one post and applied what you learned there. They’re very, very valuable. And while I have developed a system for capturing my ideas, fleshing them out, editing the content, and overall just batching the work, there’s still a significant investment of my time on a monthly basis for this platform.
And that’s just for me actively producing the posts, that doesn’t even account for the mental energy that I spend thinking about the post. Jotting down ideas, sorting out my ideas, thinking, oh, that’s a good idea. I need to go write that down. There’s a mental load that comes with creating content for me on every platform that I use.
I also invest money in Instagram, because while I write all of my posts, I’ve delegated the rest of the process to someone who specializes in social media management. So what they do is they take my written words and they create the graphics, they add the hashtags. I have a system for how they upload those and I review them and provide edits and feedback. And then we schedule the posts, or I should say they schedule the posts so that I don’t have to do that piece of it.
And this is a great example of effective delegation because I was using my time to devote to what I do best, which is teaching, creating concepts, and bringing coaching to designers. And then I was paying someone else to do what they do best so I could be free to do other needle-moving activities in my business.
As with anything we do in business, it’s always an experiment of sorts. We’re like scientists in our business. And, just like a scientist, we can never be certain of the outcome we’re going to create until we try, iterate, collect data, and come to some conclusions.
Over the past couple of years I’ve been willing to invest the time and money into Instagram because I know that is definitely a place where I can connect with you all, the designers I want to serve. So it made sense that I would be on that platform.
And as I’ve been testing and changing on this platform how I show up, the types of content I produce, the way that I engage, what the data is consistently showing me is that when clients are first exposed to my work, and then eventually decide to work with me, it is because I’ve interacted with them through a podcast, or a speaking engagement, or a webinar. Not Instagram.
Are there outliers? Absolutely. It’s not to say that I have never worked with a client who has found my work and we’ve connected on Instagram. But the majority of my results, which remember my results are working with my ideal client, do not come from something that currently I’m devoting significant resources to. And this is what my resource audit showed me.
And that is why as I’m finding myself over capacity, I’ve made the decision to stop posting on the Instagram grid. This is a lever I’m pulling to bring myself back to the level of capacity that I currently have given my current circumstances. I also know I can make more of an impact and connect more deeply through other mediums, including my own podcast, which is something new that I also added into the fold at the end of last year.
So here you are, along for this ride as I take a six-month break from posting in the feed. I’m deciding to make this change as a way to recalibrate. And I’m going to do this experiment for six months and I will see what new data shows me.
What I’ve decided to do in lieu of posting on a regular basis is that I’ve created a series of nine posts that is essentially going to act as a landing page that tells designers a bit about me, how I can support them, and also directs you to a lot of free resources. All of the incredible content I’ve created over the past few years will still be there for you to revisit.
I have to say that when you do your own audit if you find yourself resisting letting go of something, you are not alone. My brain has had so much to say about not posting on Instagram. Now, if you remember, I’ve already done a little experiment with this when I went from five posts to three posts. So I’ve had this inkling for a while and it’s taken me a while to get my brain on board with the decision that I knew I ultimately wanted to make.
So this is something that you might experience, and I just want to normalize it. Everyone has resistance to change. So if that’s what’s coming up for you when you do your own resource audit, you’re right on track.
I also want to offer that when you’re over capacity, sometimes you’re going to find things that are “working” for you, as in giving you the desired result, but you’re still in a position where you might need to decide to let things go or do them differently so that your resources are more effectively utilized within the container of capacity that you’ve established for yourself.
And this can bring up a lot of resistance too, but it is so worthwhile to take a look at and wade through that resistance because, on the other side, you’re going to show yourself how to be more effective. Meaning how do I create the business I want within the capacity container that works for me in my current situation?
All that’s happening is your brain trying to protect you from doing the wrong thing. Just like my brain is kind of afraid of this change of Instagram, your brain is going to do the exact same thing. So, like I said, I’m going to make this adjustment for the next six months. As always, I’m going to be collecting data along the way and see what the data shows me.
Now, my hunch is that this isn’t going to make a difference in my business. But if it does, I also trust myself to make a new decision based on any new data that I receive.
Now, I’m not quitting Instagram altogether, I’m still going to be on the platform for fun. And I’m sure I’m still going to post in stories, whether that’s my vacations, or walks with Olive, or maybe a little teaching here and there. But primarily, what I want to use the platform for right now is to get to know you and stay connected to past clients, and it’s going to look a little bit different the way that I’m doing that. As always, I invite you to send me a DM to introduce yourself if you’re new to me or say hi if we’ve already connected.
While I’ll continue to use Instagram just in a different way, I also want you to know that the best way to stay connected with me, learn from me, and be the first to know about upcoming events and Out Of Overwhelm enrollment is going to be on my weekly newsletter, which I call Monday Mindset.
I send it out every Monday. Designers tell me they look forward to it every single week. And it’s bite-sized wisdom to get your week started off on the right foot. To sign up, you can just go to desiid.com/mondaymindset, and I’ll also have the link for that in the show notes.
So that was the peek behind my business and my brain, and I’d love to know what you think about these types of episodes and if you’d like me to share more of them like this. Send me a DM on Instagram, @DesiCreswell, to tell me what you liked, what you’d like more of, if there’s a certain topic you’d love to know or hear me speak to. I’m always open to ideas.
Next week, I’m going to be talking all about how to take time off from your business. I thought this would be a good one with spring break right around the corner. I can’t wait to dive into that topic, as always. And 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. This week I’m getting back in the swing of things after being gone for a week in Mexico with my husband. We negotiated with the grandparents one week of freedom. And oh my gosh, was it amazing. The sunshine, the warmth, and let’s be honest, just not having to be responsible for anyone but ourselves. All of you parents out there know the incredible feeling of being free in that way.
We actually went to a resort that we’ve been to, this is our third time going there because we love it so much. And one of my favorite things to do at this particular resort is go to breakfast. They have the most beautiful setting where you’re sitting outside. You’re sitting next to the lagoon that runs throughout the property. There’s all of this delicious fresh fruit that you didn’t have to cut up yourself, I mean someone is pouring you coffee.
It was awesome. I read lots of books. So, so fun. And also so glad to be back. When I don’t have a week where I’m recording a podcast it feels like it is forever since I’ve talked to you.
So today is going to be a little bit more of a personal episode where I’m going to be sharing some behind the scenes in my business and also behind the scenes of the brain and how I think about the way that I invest my time, money, and attention in my business. Which is really talking about how I use my brain to make decisions in my business.
So much of what I work with designers on is how to think differently about running a business and being the leader of their business so that they can get better results with less effort and more ease. And I want you to be able to use what I’m sharing today here and apply it to your business and the decisions you make and see how this experiment that I’m going to be running, and testing, and possibly changing, could be applied to some of the things that you’re doing in your business as well.
Before we dive in I want to give a shout-out to Haley Christian, who left me an incredible review on Apple Podcasts and I so appreciate it. She said, “Calm to the storm. Each time after I listen to Desi’s podcast a wave of relief comes over me. Desi has a brilliant way of showing us how it’s very possible to achieve your dreams and goals. Her bite-sized actionable steps and advice is so empowering. This business tends to feel so complicated and hard, but Desi helps me get out of that thinking rut and instead, into taking action. Thank you, Desi.”
Thank you, Haley. Haley is a past client of mine and just such a wonderful human. And so thank you, Haley, for taking the time to leave that note. I would love to send you a midweek pick-me-up. Send me a message on Instagram with your address so I can get something in the mail to you.
And if you want to get a little treat from me in the mail, leave a review wherever you listen to the podcast. I would love, love, love to hear from you. And a review means so much in that you’re going to help another designer find this show and help me spread the word about using these mindset and practical strategies to transform your life and business.
During the intro, I talked about what I was going to be sharing today and how that led to a decision to take a break from Instagram as one of my marketing strategies. And before we really dive in I want to give you a little background on how I arrived at that decision.
If you’ve listened to episode 14 on making empowered decisions you’ll remember that I’ve been in the process of reassessing a lot in my business right now around how I’m spending my time, my money, and my energy. And I’m really taking a look at past decisions I’ve made, whether that’s my services, the support I have, both in the back end of my business and the support that I hire for coaching myself, the actions I’m taking. I’m taking a look at all of it.
The way that I’m doing this, or did this, was listing out every expense that I have in my business, reviewing how and where I spend my time on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. And then I also took inventory of where I spend my mental energy. Those are the things I’m maybe not actively working on all of the time, but they’re taking up valuable brain space.
What I call this for myself is a resource audit, and I highly recommend you do this regularly for yourself, where you’re taking a look at how you’re spending your time, your money, and your attention. At the pace that we’re all moving at, so often we’re just living out past decisions that we’ve made and not consciously deciding if we want to keep those decisions or do something differently based on new information or new circumstances. A resource audit is a great little pause to say, hey, these are the decisions I have made, these are what has resulted from those decisions, and now what do I want to do with it?
One of the reasons this was a good time for me to do another resource audit was because I was feeling over capacity. In episode four I talk about client capacity specifically, and also there are so many different ways that we can look at capacity. And for me personally, in this time in my life, the over-capacity issue that I have been experiencing really is in time and emotional capacity.
There have been some things going on with my kids where I’m choosing to give them extra support, and this really speaks to the time and emotional capacity piece. There are the logistics of this where I’m making time during when I would normally be working to be of extra support.
And then I’m also providing a lot of emotional support. And that does impact the energy I have available for other things, including my business. So I’m considering both of those things when I say that this was a time for me to assess my capacity, and I did that through the resource audit.
I’m also completing my master coach certification through The Life Coach School, which is where I received my original life coach certification, and there are more call times than I originally anticipated. Quite a few more hours of calls. So between the two commitments that I’m making right now, I have less hours than I previously did to do what I normally do in my business, so it makes sense that I’m feeling like things are a little thin.
This is why I’m always reminding my clients to look at the math of your day. When I look at the time that I’m choosing to spend on these things, and then also considering no other variables have shifted, it becomes very clear that the math of my day has changed. You want to look at what are you defining as your work hours. What are your current commitments? And do those things align? And if the math isn’t working, then something needs to shift.
Often I find clients spending a lot of time and energy fighting with reality of the math, or just hoping things will change without actually changing anything. And unfortunately, this does not work. So that’s really what brought me to do another resource audit and make some new decisions and revisit old decisions about the way that I’m investing my resources.
When I’m looking at investments, whether that’s time, money, or energy, I always am looking at the return on that investment. Just to be clear, that return is sometimes a financial return, but it’s not always a financial return. Sometimes I’m making investments in my emotional well-being, where there’s a return in my level of well-being, or happiness, or level of calm I experience.
Sometimes it is a return in creating actual time where I then have time to do something that I would rather be doing, whether that is maybe going for a workout or spending time with my kids. So, again, it can be a financial return, but it doesn’t always have to be a financial return.
When I’m talking about a return on investment, I’m also thinking about, am I getting the result that I want through that investment? One of the most important concepts I teach when I work with clients in Out Of Overwhelm is results-based planning. What I mean by results-based planning is that when you plan your time, the emphasis is on what result you’ll create in a given period of time, not how many things you can cram into that given period of time.
The amount of time you give something is not directly proportional to the result you create. That’s so important to recognize. We are taught that more time equals better results, and that is not necessarily true.
This is really where I think traditional productivity methods fall short, where they’re really focused on how can I get the most done in a given period of time versus looking at what are the most important things to get done, what are the most needle-moving activities that I can get done during this time? Or even how can I do less, but be more effective to produce the same or better results?
Typical productivity methods, or even just typical ways we talk about investing resources in general, often don’t take into account if what you’re doing, whether it’s you being the one who actually does it or you’re paying someone else to do something, is even producing a desired result to begin with. I think we forget about that.
I never want you to do just for the sake of doing. You always want to take action in your business to produce a specific desired result. When I was reviewing my audit, I was especially paying attention to how I invest my time, money, and energy into marketing because that is something I devote a significant amount of resources to, whether that’s collaborating with others to provide workshops in their communities, being on other people’s podcasts, creating content for Instagram, producing this podcast that you’re listening to right now. There’s a solid piece of my week that I spend on all of those activities.
If we go back to this idea of results-based planning, we have to ask, why do I engage in marketing activities? Why do you engage in marketing activities? And I think the answer would be the same for us both, it’s to connect with and eventually work with our ideal clients. For all of you who have negative thoughts about marketing, not liking it, thinking it’s something you have to do, I want to quickly offer a reframe.
And this is perhaps a whole other topic we could talk about on the podcast. Here’s the reframe, I want you to remember that marketing is the reason we get to do what we love. When I put myself and the value that I offer out into the world, it makes it possible for me to do what I really love, which is to help designers have profitable, fulfilling businesses.
When you invest your time, money, and attention into marketing your interior design services, you’re making it possible to design spaces and work with clients who are willing to trust you with your expertise and create incredible environments. Marketing is the way that we do more of what we love.
So I personally love marketing because it provides me with opportunities to serve you and help you create the transformation in your life and business. We, of course, have to remember too, that we are in business. We are creating the result of working with clients. That’s the result of marketing.
That was what I was looking at with my resource audit. Where am I inputting marketing activities and what is the output for me? When I looked at what I was doing for marketing, a lot of what I was doing was creating those desired results. However, Instagram stuck out loud and clear. I write all of my own content for Instagram, for all of my marketing, and have been consistently posting on the platform for the past few years.
And during that time I built up to five posts per week and sustained that for quite a while. And during a previous resource audit that I did, I experimented with dropping to three posts per week because what I’m going to be sharing with you was a hunch I’ve had for a little while and I’ve been testing it just to see how reducing my input there would impact my results.
If you follow me on Instagram you’ll see that my posts are very well thought out. I provide tons of teaching and value. And, I mean, really, you could shift so much for yourself if you just took one post and applied what you learned there. They’re very, very valuable. And while I have developed a system for capturing my ideas, fleshing them out, editing the content, and overall just batching the work, there’s still a significant investment of my time on a monthly basis for this platform.
And that’s just for me actively producing the posts, that doesn’t even account for the mental energy that I spend thinking about the post. Jotting down ideas, sorting out my ideas, thinking, oh, that’s a good idea. I need to go write that down. There’s a mental load that comes with creating content for me on every platform that I use.
I also invest money in Instagram, because while I write all of my posts, I’ve delegated the rest of the process to someone who specializes in social media management. So what they do is they take my written words and they create the graphics, they add the hashtags. I have a system for how they upload those and I review them and provide edits and feedback. And then we schedule the posts, or I should say they schedule the posts so that I don’t have to do that piece of it.
And this is a great example of effective delegation because I was using my time to devote to what I do best, which is teaching, creating concepts, and bringing coaching to designers. And then I was paying someone else to do what they do best so I could be free to do other needle-moving activities in my business.
As with anything we do in business, it’s always an experiment of sorts. We’re like scientists in our business. And, just like a scientist, we can never be certain of the outcome we’re going to create until we try, iterate, collect data, and come to some conclusions.
Over the past couple of years I’ve been willing to invest the time and money into Instagram because I know that is definitely a place where I can connect with you all, the designers I want to serve. So it made sense that I would be on that platform.
And as I’ve been testing and changing on this platform how I show up, the types of content I produce, the way that I engage, what the data is consistently showing me is that when clients are first exposed to my work, and then eventually decide to work with me, it is because I’ve interacted with them through a podcast, or a speaking engagement, or a webinar. Not Instagram.
Are there outliers? Absolutely. It’s not to say that I have never worked with a client who has found my work and we’ve connected on Instagram. But the majority of my results, which remember my results are working with my ideal client, do not come from something that currently I’m devoting significant resources to. And this is what my resource audit showed me.
And that is why as I’m finding myself over capacity, I’ve made the decision to stop posting on the Instagram grid. This is a lever I’m pulling to bring myself back to the level of capacity that I currently have given my current circumstances. I also know I can make more of an impact and connect more deeply through other mediums, including my own podcast, which is something new that I also added into the fold at the end of last year.
So here you are, along for this ride as I take a six-month break from posting in the feed. I’m deciding to make this change as a way to recalibrate. And I’m going to do this experiment for six months and I will see what new data shows me.
What I’ve decided to do in lieu of posting on a regular basis is that I’ve created a series of nine posts that is essentially going to act as a landing page that tells designers a bit about me, how I can support them, and also directs you to a lot of free resources. All of the incredible content I’ve created over the past few years will still be there for you to revisit.
I have to say that when you do your own audit if you find yourself resisting letting go of something, you are not alone. My brain has had so much to say about not posting on Instagram. Now, if you remember, I’ve already done a little experiment with this when I went from five posts to three posts. So I’ve had this inkling for a while and it’s taken me a while to get my brain on board with the decision that I knew I ultimately wanted to make.
So this is something that you might experience, and I just want to normalize it. Everyone has resistance to change. So if that’s what’s coming up for you when you do your own resource audit, you’re right on track.
I also want to offer that when you’re over capacity, sometimes you’re going to find things that are “working” for you, as in giving you the desired result, but you’re still in a position where you might need to decide to let things go or do them differently so that your resources are more effectively utilized within the container of capacity that you’ve established for yourself.
And this can bring up a lot of resistance too, but it is so worthwhile to take a look at and wade through that resistance because, on the other side, you’re going to show yourself how to be more effective. Meaning how do I create the business I want within the capacity container that works for me in my current situation?
All that’s happening is your brain trying to protect you from doing the wrong thing. Just like my brain is kind of afraid of this change of Instagram, your brain is going to do the exact same thing. So, like I said, I’m going to make this adjustment for the next six months. As always, I’m going to be collecting data along the way and see what the data shows me.
Now, my hunch is that this isn’t going to make a difference in my business. But if it does, I also trust myself to make a new decision based on any new data that I receive.
Now, I’m not quitting Instagram altogether, I’m still going to be on the platform for fun. And I’m sure I’m still going to post in stories, whether that’s my vacations, or walks with Olive, or maybe a little teaching here and there. But primarily, what I want to use the platform for right now is to get to know you and stay connected to past clients, and it’s going to look a little bit different the way that I’m doing that. As always, I invite you to send me a DM to introduce yourself if you’re new to me or say hi if we’ve already connected.
While I’ll continue to use Instagram just in a different way, I also want you to know that the best way to stay connected with me, learn from me, and be the first to know about upcoming events and Out Of Overwhelm enrollment is going to be on my weekly newsletter, which I call Monday Mindset.
I send it out every Monday. Designers tell me they look forward to it every single week. And it’s bite-sized wisdom to get your week started off on the right foot. To sign up, you can just go to desiid.com/mondaymindset, and I’ll also have the link for that in the show notes.
So that was the peek behind my business and my brain, and I’d love to know what you think about these types of episodes and if you’d like me to share more of them like this. Send me a DM on Instagram, @DesiCreswell, to tell me what you liked, what you’d like more of, if there’s a certain topic you’d love to know or hear me speak to. I’m always open to ideas.
Next week, I’m going to be talking all about how to take time off from your business. I thought this would be a good one with spring break right around the corner. I can’t wait to dive into that topic, as always. And 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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