The Good, Bad, & Ugly of My 2023 & 3 Easy Steps For You To Plan Your Own Year

Ok friends, I'm being even more open and vulnerable today than ever.

I'm sharing with you my own year end review and the results of that. I took a deep dive into my own 2023 and found out the good, the bad, and the ugly of this past year. I found areas that went well....and then some that did not go so well.

But the beauty of a good year end review is that you learn from the past and make a new path for the upcoming year and that's what I'm doing for you today. Now, trust me, there were LOTS of good moments and I'm sharing those too, because those "wins" are just as valuable.

In this SUPER detailed episode, I'm going to share with you:
*The Good, Bad, & Ugly of My 2023
*The lessons learned and what I'm planning for 2024
* A simple 3 step model for evaluating your own year (I mean it, it's EASY)
*TONS of actionable advice for you to implement right now in your own business

I hope this episode is helpful for you to see the ups and downs of the roller coaster ride of life and business; and mostly I want you to take the time to review your own life and business with this simple model.

Head to www.johnmcclain.co for the free download exercise to plan your own year with 3 simple steps.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

What if you could finally create the interior design business of your dreams while consistently making 6 figures and doing it all with no stress? Join Design Business Fast Track today to make your Design Business dreams a reality!

www.designbusinessfasttrack.com

For all things John: www.johnmcclain.co
For more information on my online Courses & Coaching Program for Interior Designers, visit: https://designsuccessacademy.com/
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Transcript

Understand that busy doesn't always mean profit, just because your days are full, does not mean that you're making money. 
If, for instance, if you charge a flat fee, but you don't know how you came about charging that flat fee and you don't account for your hours of time that you spend on working on that client's project, then you're probably just busy, not profitable. So understand that busy. Does not always relate to profitable. I want you to be profitable. I don't want you to be busy and you need to find out what you're doing during the day. And if your day results in profitability, not just busy-ness. 
Hey, y'all, you're listening to the designer within podcast episode number 28. 
I'm John McClain and welcome to the designer within podcast, the business minded podcast created for creative entrepreneurs by a creative entrepreneur. That's me. I know firsthand the challenges, but also the victories that can come with our careers. And I'm here to sip and spill the tea with you. It's time to dive deep within yourself and redesign your own business and your life from the inside out.
Together we will uncover secrets and share valuable insights. So prepare for a transformative experience, my friend, because it's time to unleash the designer within.
Hello, my friends. And welcome to another episode of the designer within I am your host, John McClain. Thank you so much for being with me today. As we wrap up 2023, can you believe it? 2023 is over. It is gone. It is in the rear view mirror. I hope it was wonderful for you. I hope that you had a lot of great experiences in your business and in your personal life. 
And I hope that you grew. True also in both of those areas today. I really wanted to discuss with you what I learned in 2023, and hopefully sharing some insights with you about things that helped my business that helped my life, that helped me grow. But also I'm going to pull back the curtain and be vulnerable with you and talk about some of the, not so good things, which I think we should do more of as human beings and as business owners in our industry. 
and having said that I'm going to share with you the good, the bad and the ugly. Of 2023 for me. I hope that you see more of the good in your 2023 that I'm going to be discussing. But also again, I want you to look at some of the lessons that I've learned in 2023, within my own business, within my own endeavors, within my own life. 
And hopefully this will help you grow and possibly help you prevent some of these things from happening in your own business. If you need to. first of all, as we turn this corner into 2024 and 2024 is upon us. I am very optimistic about 20, 24. I love to do my end of year planning. I love to sit down and do my review. If you haven't done a year end review, go back and listen to my previous episode. 
23, where I discuss how to do your own year end review with just three simple, easy steps to reflect on your year. And I do this every year and I kind of do it even throughout the year as well, but more formerly at the end of the year where I do sit down, make my list and come up with things that went well, things that were not so great and how I can improve upon those the upcoming year. And I'm going to give you some tips, some very easy tips on how to do that yourself And three little simple steps that I use also for deciding what I want to do for the upcoming year and how those three steps that I'm going to share with you at the end of the podcast will be something that you can incorporate into your own lives and into your own businesses. 
And the beauty of these little three simple steps that I'm going to share is that they can apply to your personal life or they can apply to your business. They apply to really all situations. So hang around until the end. I will share those three little simple steps to help you decide on what you will focus on for the upcoming year. Now diving into the good, the bad, the ugly of my 2023. 
I want to of course start with the good, right. We start with the positives. We start with the good stuff. And as you guys know, I have several different divisions of my company. I have my design firm. I have my online coaching and courses program, which I'm loving. And I also have this podcast that I do So there are a lot of arms to my company and I love having those different divisions. 
It keeps things interesting. It keeps things exciting. I get bored kind of easily. With the first to admit that, and this keeps things really hopping along for me, where if I do need to stop working on one thing, I can pop into the other thing and take my mind off of that for a minute. So having said all of that, I want to start talking about my design firm and the good that happened Within my firm In 20, 23. First of all, we wrapped up some really, really fun and different and exciting and beautiful projects. Some projects that are maybe not normally the typical size of projects that we take on, but we felt that they were very, very interesting and provided us a different. Creative outlet that we wanted to pursue. 
And we had a blast with them. We did a cute as a button bungalow, a craftsman bungalow. And then we also did our first beach home. We've never done a home actually on the beach, on the water. And that was exciting as well. So we've done those two very different genres of design styles, but also what I've learned with that was that yes, they were different. 
 But we do have our underlying tone of elegance and our design style that we bring into the project. So they were different in aesthetics overall, but they still feel very true to the firms, design aesthetics that we bring to our projects. 
And I'm very, very proud of that. these projects were just two examples of the fun and exciting projects That we've had in 2023, we've had a lot of repeat clients. We've had a lot of new clients and with that comes learning experiences. And I will share some of those later, but really amazing projects. 
And I believe we have about six to photograph right now. If I'm not mistaken. Next we have some great client experiences on that same vein. We had some really wonderful clients who valued what we do as creatives. You guys know I've harped on us, valuing our creativity and never to rush that part of our process. 
And we had clients thankfully, who truly appreciated us for our creative talent, for our creative skills for really taking the time to prepare design plans. And it was so wonderful to listen to clients' feedback after projects were over. To get those messages from clients saying how much they love their home. 
one client, I recall said that they woke up every morning early just to sit in their house before the family woke up so that they could truly embrace everything that was done. And that was so wonderful to hear. So really, really great client experiences and really great appreciation from our clients. 
And we appreciate them as well. Of course. Next in the design from category. My team really jelled with each other this year in accomplishing project goals. I saw my team come together in ways that they have never come together before they were solving problems. 
They were fixing the issues before they came to me a lot of times, and they were really engaging in the client success and the client's project success. And they were coming up with innovative solutions. They were coming up with creative design solutions and I was loving all that I was seeing from my team and how they were working together. 
And that was wonderful. Wonderful to see. and on that note, I was also seeing my systems and processes are still working to teat my, from going strong. Not being in the office with my team at all times could create a bit of a struggle with making sure that you are following processes and that all of my systems are going and going well, because I did spend a lot of time coming up with my processes. 
But now looking back, I can see that my systems and processes are what keeps my company going so well over 2023, when I was involved in many, many other things And those systems and processes for my design firm that took me years to put together, have really come into play in 2023 to keep things buzzing along and to ensure that my team had everything that they needed to make sure every project was a success. 
And that every project had the same formula. To have that success from start to finish. So I was very, very proud of the systems and processes that I created and very, very proud to see them working and still working as well as the day that I first created them. 
Next, the good and the 2023 for my design success academy, as I said, I have online courses and coaching program, and I've loved it. 
I've had so much fun putting this together I did have a previous one called the designer within a business and I've pivoted that and changed it to. The design success academy. I have prepped in 2023 and revised a lot of the programming all year long. And I launched that in November two. Great feedback and great involvement. 
And I'm so excited for the students who are a part of the program We have over 30 designers who are in the program at the moment. And we have another one launching in February, if you want to be a part of that FYI, but this was such a great endeavor. I'm so proud of it. I'm so proud of what people are learning. I'm so proud of what I put into it and what I was able to sort of streamline and revise and hone and make it better. 
And I spent a lot of time doing that in the months, leading to the launch in November and. I'm so happy again, to hear the feedback from people that it is working in their own businesses. 
I also traveled a lot in 2023 for speaking engagements I was promoting my book. I was discussing this podcast and I was of course, discussing my business coaching and courses program. 
I had a blast doing that. Everywhere from Las Vegas market to high point market to Luann Nigara's is LuAnn live. And there are many, many more events planned for 20, 24. So stay tuned for that, but it was really great to get out and see people in person in public. To hang out at a cocktail party at dinner at lunch, and just really do what we do best, which is as human beings interact with one another. 
I loved it. I loved developing those relationships. I love sharing my stories and nothing, no matter how much we do online or how much we do on social media, nothing ever replaces that face-to-face interaction. And it fed my soul. I love helping people. And you know who you are. Those people that I rarely ever. Ever see in person, but I was able to hug you and give you a nice big hug in person. 
And it just made me feel so good. And I hope that we can continue to do more of that in 2024. So doing these in-person events and speaking engagements and panels and discussions about our design industry and all the things that surround it really has fueled my soul this year. And I hope it has fueled you if you were a part of any of those. And I will say this, that it has also helped my business as well, of course, by promoting those things. 
And again, nothing replaces that face-to-face one-on-one interaction and I loved it. and lastly, in the category of my design success academy, I've really, really enjoyed. As I said, helping other people better themselves and their businesses. I love sharing knowledge. 
I love sharing things that come a little more naturally to me and, through lumps and bumps and things along the way, things that I've learned. I love sharing those examples. I love sharing the formulas that I've created, and I love sharing my experience with people. just like I'm doing today on the podcast, this podcast is that as well, this podcast is an outreach. 
This podcast is a sharing of information. I do it to give back. I do it to help you. I do it to help my community. And the same thing goes with my coaching and courses programs. I do those to help other people, and I love those warm and fuzzy feelings that it creates when someone truly has this aha moment of, wow. 
I can bring this one element into my business and really help myself grow. Or I implemented this formula and now I'm charging more for my projects, or now I'm streamlining my projects because I'm using your systems and your processes. it really, really makes me truly understand and value that what I'm bringing to people and what I'm bringing to the world is making a difference, which is Honestly, what we're all put on this planet to do. 
Thirdly, I launched this podcast. 
That was a good one. This past year in 2023, I launched this podcast in June. It was exciting. It was scary. It was something that I had held onto for so long and I had planned to do and put off and. Delayed and waited and Mo I'll do it here and let's try it there, but I decided to do it. And I'll tell you guys exactly how I did it. 
I said, okay, I'm just going to turn on the microphone. I'm going to get the software ready and I'm going to put it out there that this podcast will be released on this date. And that's exactly what I did. And my first episode was me sharing a very personal experience with, with you guys. And I hope that you enjoyed it. 
I've heard so much feedback from you from that one episode, with all of the things that led to my success in business and that horrible story that I told in that first episode was what led to my business success was what led to this podcast success, and what led to my courses and coaching programs success. 
So it was a very important episode to share. And again, I just said, I'm going to stop dilly-dallying turn on the microphone and get started. And once you commit to something like that, and once you put it out into the world that you're going to commit to doing that, it really does force you to do it. 
once I started it, I could not stop. I'm enjoying it so much. As you know, I do an. Episode every week, which is a big commitment. It's a big commitment on my part. There's a lot of planning to do for every episode. There's a lot of post. Production to do. There's a lot of promotions that have to go around it. 
it's not just turning on the microphone and saying, here we go, we're done this takes hours and hours of work to do, and I hope that you are enjoying it. And I hope that you appreciate that as well, because I am loving it. And I am appreciating all the feedback from that. 
And by the way, if you are enjoying it, I would love it. If you could add a review for me on whatever platform you're listening to please give. A review, a written review would be great Letting others know why you are listening to the podcast, what you are learning from it. 
That would be so great to help, to further share the news of this podcast would really, really make me happy. It would be the best Christmas present you could give me. So please. If you don't mind, leave me a nice review. And on that note, I've loved the feedback that you guys has have given me on the podcast. You have sent me information in my DMS. Do you sent me requests, you sent me notes about things to include in the podcast and I've implemented those. So please continue to let me know what you want to hear on the podcast. 
This is for you. This is, definitely cathartic for me to share, but I want you to also of course learn from this and I'm really enjoying the process. It's been a process. I won't lie. There's been lots of issues with, you know, recording and microphone issues. And when I have a guest and all those fun things that go along with any new endeavor. You know, I remember once I recorded an entire episode and it was not even the correct microphone, it was a different microphone across the room. 
So I sounded like I was in a hole, but you guys were so nice and didn't even care. So thank you for that. But it's been a process and I am enjoying it and I'm loving again, being able to share it. And it's been one of The best things that I've done this year, to be completely honest with you. I love just sitting with you. Chatting with you at the gym or on your walks or on your runs, or while you were doing household chores. 
I love being in your earbuds and being a part of your business success and your, hopefully your success in life as well. So thank you for letting me be a part of that journey with you. And I have so much lined up for 2024 for education and entertainment for you. 
We're going to bring in more entertaining episode. I know you want to learn a lot, but also I want to keep it fun and I am a fun person. I know I'd get a little businessy on these podcasts, but I'm a very, very fun person, sometimes more so with a couple of cocktails, but that's another story. But I do love to have fun and I want to bring in a bit more entertainment. 
So I've got some great, great guests lined up for 2024 for not only helping your business grow, but just some really fun people to interview and to discuss their trials and tribulations and their business, and to discuss their successes as well. they're just fun people to interview. 
So stay tuned. 2024 is going to be a banner banner year for the. The designer within podcasts, and I really want you to come back and definitely listen to every episode. If you haven't set the podcast up, by the way for downloads, please add those automatic downloads on your podcast system. 
If you're listening on apple podcasts or Spotify, whatever, you're listening to go ahead and set up those automatic download so that it automatically downloads into your podcast system. And you can have that popping up every time that there is a new episode. that's an easy way to remember that there was a new episode coming out and they come out every single week and from the business side of things. I am amping up the podcast as a revenue stream as well. I'm not really focused on that. It's not really been a huge thing for me, but I want to think more about it as a business endeavor. And you guys will appreciate this as business owners. 
I really want to look at the podcast as a revenue stream. I'm putting a lot of work into it, a lot of time into it, and I'm talking to a lot of people for sponsorships as well. So it's going. And to be a good, good year for a lot of reasons. There won't be tons of commercials. Don't worry about that. 
But there will be things that I think that will help you. And I'm only going to partner with businesses and companies that I feel will help you grow and businesses and companies that I would align with myself. And I probably already do align with myself. and I will share some of those adventures with you too, so that you can see. Some behind the scenes of how I decided upon sponsors how I basically turned my podcast into another revenue stream for my business, because that is the overall goal of anything that I add onto my company is to not only help other people but to also turn it into a profitable revenue generating stream. 
All right. 
We've talked about lots of good, right? That sounded great. And it was great. Really, really good things have happened in 2023, but there were some bad, and this episode is about the good, the bad and the ugly. 
So let's talk about the bad before we get to the ugly. So the bad. launching my coaching and course program. And my podcast Great. But it did mean a bit less time involved in design projects. Right. So I was hyper-focused on. Really getting my coaching and courses programs honed in really getting this podcast honed in writing great episodes, choosing categories for the episodes for you guys. working on all of the technology that goes behind that and with working on my coaching and courses, and the podcast meant that I had less time to be involved in design projects. 
What this resulted in was less knowledge of the projects. I had less knowledge of what was being chosen in the projects. I had less knowledge of what the schedules were for projects. I had less knowledge of any issues that were going on with projects and some of this was. Good because my team was able to handle that and I did. Trust them to handle that. 
And they did handle that for the most part, but because I had less knowledge of it, I felt removed from a lot of that. So I couldn't speak. As intelligently about the projects as I should have been able to. And as I was able to in the past, and we do have meetings, we have meetings every single week with my team. 
I have office hours set up with my team. But even with that, I was so inundated with all of the things that were going on with my coaching and courses, and this podcast and speaking, and traveling and all of the things that it did take up way, way, way more time than I had anticipated. 
And I had pretty much just threw my team out there to follow. My systems and processes so there did, was, they did good with that, but the bad was I had less knowledge of those projects. And were there some things that I would have tweaked and possibly change? 
Yes, there were. Unfortunately, I skipped a few steps in my own process and I don't recommend doing this. I skipped a few steps. As far as me reviewing some of the work. I skipped a few steps as far as me checking in, as often as I should have my team didn't really step any steps, but I did on my end of things, because I was trying to take care of so many things on my plate. 
And we're going to talk more about that in a second, but having less knowledge of what was going on with my projects was a bit disconcerting for me as the business owner. And because my company's name of course is John McClain design. it is something where my clients expect me to have knowledge of their projects. 
Even though we have lead designers and we have people who are fulfilling their projects for them. I still want them to know that I'm involved in the projects. And so I do wish I had more knowledge of the projects in 2023, even though I'm very proud of how those projects turned out overall. 
Another bad because of my full schedule with everything, I had less client interaction and I love our clients. Many of the clients were onboarded with me, some of them began with a discovery call with me, some of them with my team, but all of the clients have spoken with me at some point. 
However, because I was so inundated with work on other things, I had less interaction with the clients, which meant that my team had to have that interaction with them more. So. of course the trust with the clients and my team grew and grew and grew. But if I had to step in and solve a problem, or if I had to step in and fix an issue, It was something where I had to gain their trust a bit more to solve a problem because my team were the one who had the trust with the clients versus me, because I wasn't dealing with them on a daily basis, as much as my team was. And even though this has happened in the past, where of course, again, we have lead designers on a project. I am normally speaking with clients a bit more and a bit more involved in their projects, thus getting more trust from them. 
So I really do wish that I had had more client interaction. instead of only having conversations with them when there was an issue or when we needed to discuss something important. I wish I would have set more milestones for conversations with clients and had more interactions with them directly from me as the owner of my company. And another bad was less growth for my company because there was less of me. We had a good year. We didn't have a great year And I attribute that to the fact that I was not as involved. I did not go to as many functions where we could bring on new clients. I did not do as much marketing for my design firm as much as I was marketing for my other endeavors. And because of that, because there was less of me as John McClain, as John McClain design, there was less growth from our company. 
Did the projects we have Excel and do great. Absolutely. But the growth of my company for new. New projects was a bit stagnant because I was not directly involved in that. And I'm going to give you some tips on how to avoid that happening with your own company in a minute. 
but I do urge you to have more involvement in your company. Of course, if you were still low preneur, you're going to be involved in your company regardless. But if you have a team of people, definitely be involved in your company, be involved in outreach programs, be involved in the community, be involved with your clients projects and be involved with your clients. 
Communication. But your clients want to hear from you. And your community wants to hear from you as well to know that you are still leading. Of course I do a monthly newsletter. I do this podcast. I do lots of outreach programs, but what I do know that I neglected was outreach programs, leading to more clients and more projects. And I do regret not walking that path in 2023, as closely as I have walked that path. 
And previous years. 
There were a few interesting scenarios with some projects that cause me to alter my processes as well. That's falling in the bad category, but you could also look at that as a good category as well. 
Just scenarios where you want to tweak your processes, things that you want to change, things that you want to adjust in your agreement, things that are always popping up in our industry, of course, things that you can never prepare for fully even. Though, I feel like I've seen everything and done everything. 
There's always that one little thing that you're like, wow, that came out of left field. So there were some interesting scenarios that came up this past year that I really felt that I needed to adjust my processes for. And I did. And I'm looking forward to implementing those in 2024.
Okay, we've done the good we've done the bad. Now let's do the ugly. And there was some ugly. Again, if you know me by now, you know, that I'm pretty open. I'm an open book. I just tell you like it is with clients. You know, that this is true with my coaching program with my students, you know, this is true. And hopefully with this podcast, you know, this is true as well. and with that being said and ugly for 2023 was that we had a decline in fourth quarter sales, fourth quarter revenue for my design firm probably attributed to all of the reasons that I mentioned above with less involvement for me, I can. take responsibility for that. 
When it was due to me, there were other issues of course, which we don't have time to go into here. 
But we're part of my year end review that I'm going to revise for 20, 24, but we did have a decline in fourth quarter revenue and fourth quarter sales. And our design firm, but however, the revenue for my business coaching program was up. 
So it's a give and take with everything but knowing that it does show where my focus was, it does show where I have focused more of my time as the owner of the business, as the leader of my company. I can definitely tell that my focus was on my business coaching. Coaching program and my courses and this podcast versus in my design firm. And I regret not being a better leader for my design firm, for my team and for my company and because of the less focus on the design from my part. We had a reduction in sales for fourth quarter. Another ugly. 
I took on too much. Really. I'm telling you guys. I did. I took on too much on my own without delegating and I decided that I was going to start this podcast. . And I decided that I was going to edit the podcast and I decided that I was going to promote the podcast. 
And I decided that I was going to create my course. And I had decided that I was going to record my course. And I decided what platform and I had to investigate all the platforms. Of course with some help from some coaches and some online programs that I subscribed to as well. 
But. I did take on too much personally. And I'm the first to raise my hand and admit that. And it's almost like, hi, I'm John. I take on too much. 
And it is not a good thing. I know that because it almost led to burnout for me, it almost led to the point of what are you doing to yourself that you were doing so many things that you enjoy in the moment, but it is leading to less enjoyment overall. 
And that was not a good feeling. consider myself a good delegator and I do what I call diligent delegating, and I delegate in a way that idea of all of the details of things that I want to have accomplished. What I failed to do was even get to the point of delegating. And I would just say, oh, you can do this, just take that on and do it in 10 minutes. 
And then that 10 minutes were turned into an hour when I really, really should have delegated that to a team member. Uh, I did have some issues this past year with some team members and changing team members and revising roles and that sort of thing. And I did take on more because of that as well. Just to sort of keep things going, but I can be the first to say that I did take on too much on my own. 
And that is going to change in 2024 cause we are one person, I am one person. You're one person. We are just one person. And there are only so many hours in the day and you just cannot do it all. Even though we are self-starters and I love being able to do so many things, you just sometimes cannot physically. Do those things and do them well, something is going to suffer. And in my case, it was not only my physical health. 
It was also my mental health in a lot of ways in 2023. So I can raise my hand again and say that I did take on too much, But I have out a way to not let that happen again. In 2024. 
Another ugly, less time to be involved with my team directly meant that assumptions were made that were not necessarily what I would have done. 
Even though I teach my team to make decisions and that we will handle the consequences. There were some things that were decided because They knew that I was still involved with other things and they did not really want to bother me with that. 
Even though I have this open door policy. there were things that they did that were not horrible, but just probably were not the way that I would have done them. And some things that I would have changed along the way, And I'm not faulting them for this at all. This is directly back on me. This is directly on my shoulders because I was not there as much as I should have been. 
Dan I'm freely admitting this. I'm freely saying that this is my fault. And I do tell my team to please make a decision, I let them work autonomously. I teach them to come to me with solutions rather than the problem. having said all of that, they're not the owner of the company. 
They're not the leader. They're not meant to be making some decisions. Some decisions are only to be made by the leader, by the owner, by the manager, whoever that role is and your company. That is who should be making certain decisions. And because I removed myself from so many situations, unfortunately, It forced my team to make decisions on their own, which were not always the way that I would have made them. 
It was not detrimental, but sometimes it was a little financially straining in situations that I feel that I could have avoided. Had I been more directly involved. 
We also had some ugly situations with products and with vendors because I wasn't directly involved. 
As I said, as the owner of the company, you have to let your vendors know that you are around. And sometimes, unfortunately it just has to be the case. the vendors have to know that there is a person of power managing the situation that you are the one. Handling it that you're the owner, the buck stops here and I've had to intervene several times in my career. 
And especially in 2023, unfortunately in 2023, at the point when I intervened, it was a little too late in some situations because the problem had already grown to the point where it was , past the point of being fixed in a way that was helpful for anyone. I know that had I been involved earlier and had I been directly involved throughout the process and had the vendor known that I was involved throughout the process it probably would not have grown to the level that it did. And these ugly situations with products and vendors were something that were definitely avoidable. 
And I think that my team did their best. Unfortunately, it was just something that had to be done by the owner of the company, which is where I dropped the ball.
Now Let's turn to some positive things. Let's turn to what I have analyzed for 2023 and what I'm going to do for 2024. and I want you to use my 2023, my vulnerability, my openness, my open book of 20, 23. Good, bad and ugly as a guide for your own 20, 24. I hope that these things are not things that you have endured in 2023, but let me tell you, they could be things that you could endure at some point that could happen to you at some point in your businesses. 
And if I can help you avoid that, then that is why I'm here. So. Let's talk about what I'm going to do for 20, 24 to not let these things happen again. First of all a lesson I learned was the face of your company, not just online, but in person. 
It's very, very, very important. That the public knows that you are the face of your company. There has to be someone at the helm. There has to be someone piloting the plane, you have to let people know who the leader is, and you have to act as the leader and you have to act as a leader, not only online on social media, don't cower behind social media. 
You have to be that leader in person. You have to show up at events. You have to show up locally in your community. and by the way, I'm speaking to myself, I should just be talking into a mirror right now. Actually, but I'm hoping again that it helps you, it is very important to show up and to show up in person and to shake hands and to give hugs. And again, I did that with certain arms of my company, but not with the design from division of my company. And I wish I had done more of that. And now I'm seeing the results of that, but in 2024, I want to show up in person more. I want to be the face of my company even more. I want to be the leader of my company even more and show. To my clients, to my team and to my community, that I am the face and the leader of John McClain design. 
And I want you to do that for your own company as well. the next lesson I learned was be involved with your team. Now we do have meetings weekly, but I will be the first to admit sometimes I would say, oh my gosh, you guys, I'm so busy. I need to rush through this meeting today. Please keep it short. That is not cool. 
That is not the way this should be done. We have meeting agendas. We should have followed those agendas as I always recommend, but I am going to go back to my formula of weekly meetings. I also have office hours set up so that anyone can come to me. They know that I'm available during these times. 
They can ask me questions. I can come to me with problems I can help them develop a solution to that problem, hopefully. and I'm also going. To do more random check-ins with my team just to say, Hey, are you okay? Is there anything going on? anything specific? 
Do you want to talk about, these are just sort of those pop-up meetings that you can have throughout the week, throughout the month, and just let them know that you are involved with what they're doing. Your team needs to know that you are a part of the process and that they are not sitting on an island working alone without your input. 
Next be involved with your vendors. Let them know that you're around and reachable again, vendors. Unfortunately have to know that the person who signs the check is the person making the decision. Sometimes they do not always listen to the authority of your team members. 
And I hate this, but it is just a fact of life. It can be a trades person, AWS, someone that you buy a product from. Sometimes that problem is not solved or that is not resolved until you step in as the business owner. So I urge you to be involved directly with your vendors, with your trades people. Anybody involved on your client projects or in your business whatsoever? They need to know who you are. 
if you can't meet with them in person set up a video call or a phone call, do some regular check-ins with them just to say, Hey, I'm here. How are things going? 
I'm around, but you need to have regular check-ins with your vendors and with your trades people just as you do with your team members, because. Your team members are dealing with those trades people and with those vendors daily and weekly, and you are not. So your relationship is going to falter with those vendors because you were not developing a trusting relationship with them. 
And the more trust you have with them, the more they're going to be on your side, the more they're going to help you solve problems. And the more those problems probably won't even come to a head because they know that you are involved. So I do urge you and myself to be more involved with vendors in 2024. Set financial goals and share these goals with your team. 
This is something that I preach with my own students, but it is really important to set financial goals, financially achievable goals, not just pie in the sky goals that you hope to happen. These are goals that you can track and that you can reach and you need to figure out of course, how to reach those goals. always review the goals that you have set, set milestones that weekly milestones, monthly, quarterly, and annually, and review those. 
And if you're not working towards those financial goals, those milestones that you set adjust to hit the goals as necessary. So if you're working toward a financial goal for the month And one project on your roster is really taking a lot of time, but you're not making as much profit off of that project. Pivot to another project where you are making more profit and, hit that weekly goal, which will allow you to hit that monthly goal. 
 You need to be able to adjust your weekly and your monthly and your quarterly Workload to hit your goals. Your goal will be there. It's how you were going to hit that goal is what matters. 
And also by having these meetings and understanding where you are, is going to really help the matter to so understand what your team is going through, understand what they have sold, that we'd understand what the revenue is coming in. And then if there isn't enough revenue in your product category, and you have that money allotted. To be coming in for your product category, adjust it and figure out how to hit that number for the week, for the month for that product revenue category, so that you hit it, don't brush it off and assume that you're going to replace it the following month. Because that does not always happen. 
Set your weekly goals. Set your monthly goals set your quarterly goals and set your annual goals and hit those goals and adjust them as needed so that you do hit them. 
Next do what you love. Sounds easy enough. Right. But it is important. Follow that part of your business that you enjoy doing. If you don't enjoy doing a certain category in your business, don't do it. Don't do something that you hate. if you're doing a lot of renovation projects, because that is what you feel you have to do, but you load it. You hate site visits, you hate going out with tradespeople for some reason, done, don't do it. 
Don't do things that you hate. You should have a passion. You should have an energy. You should have a drive. You should be so excited to wake up in the morning that you get to do what you love to do. That you cannot wait to get out the door or turn on your computer to get started. Find out what you love to do and your business and what is working in your business and do more of that. 
and sidebar, this also works in your personal life as well. Find out what you love to do in your personal life and who you love to be surrounded with and your personal life, and do more of that too. 
As I said before, the next point is something that I touched on, but it's okay to pivot. And as a matter of fact, it's expected as business owners and as human beings, we are going to pivot. A million times throughout our life, not a million, but you know, thousands at least. But this pivoting is part of being a business owner. It is part of understanding what is working, what is not working. part of being a good business owner is knowing when you need to pivot. look at what's working, look at what's not working. And again, I'm going to give you a little formula in just a moment, but look at what's working and what's not working and pivot if you need to, because it will happen. And there will be a point when you need to change course. 
And with 2024 being a predictably crazy year, it's an election year and people could be a little timid to purchase things. So perhaps you need to change your revenue streams and come up with a different model than what you're doing now. Perhaps full service design is not going to be where you focus on in 20, 24. 
maybe you need to bring in another design service that you can focus on for 2024. That you might not charge as much for, but you might be able to do more of, so it might be a lesser price service, but maybe you're able to do 15 in home consultations every month versus a full service design project that will take months and months To complete. So just look at what you're doing. Look at what's working in pivot. 
If you need to. Next don't take on too much. And remember. I'm holding this mirror in front of my face right now. But don't take on too much. Right. so look at what you're doing. Thinking about what your workload is thinking about what you want your work day to be prioritize your schedule, but outsource as well. 
I'm working on outsourcing so many things for my company in 2024, and so many different divisions for this podcast. Outsourcing that I'm going to do for my design firm outsourcing, then I'm going to do for my coaching program. And it is very, very exciting to see all of the talent that's out there. 
When you really start to look at virtual assistants and any other person who can work for you As a virtual employee who is not on your payroll, so look at outsourcing especially if you are a solo entrepreneur, find ways to outsource, to take the things off your plate that you are either not good at, or that you do not enjoy doing. 
And you will be free to work in that blesseds zone of genius. That is so wonderful that I'm going to talk about in a moment. Next delegate, delegate, delegate, delegate. If you are lucky enough to have a team, or if you have a virtual assistant or someone that you have outsourced to start to delegate to them, find a project management system where you can delegate a task to them. 
Be very specific in how you delegate, let them know what you're looking for, but start to delegate. It's going to take some time. To delegate. And that first step is always the hardest where you're having to sit down and come up with all that you're looking for and all the things that you want done. 
And you're thinking, oh my gosh, I could just do this myself. And I've been there too. I was there in 2023, as a matter of fact, where I said, I might as well just do this myself. But if I had just stopped and wrote down the simple steps to get that done, It would have taken me an hour to come up with that process to do that task, but it would have been done and complete. 
And then anyone could do that. And the way I like to think about my systems and processes for my own company is sort of. As a franchise model, if someone were to buy my company, Quote, unquote, air quotes as a franchise. How would they operate it? Could they pick up a document and understand how to fulfill that task without any outside help, other than that document Or video that I created for them, should they do that? That is how I like to set up my processes. And that is how I'm going to start delegating tasks for these other parts of my company. 
I have those really honed in for my design firm. And to be honest with you, I do not have those honed in as much for my coaching and courses and this podcast. So those are areas that I'm really going to start delegating for. On those two arms of my company for my podcast and for my online coaching in 2023. 
so ask yourself what tasks in your own business can you delegate to other people that you are doing right now that you either do not enjoy, or that you could have someone who is probably more efficient and better at it? 
And speaking of more efficient and better, I want you to stay in your zone of genius. 
Gay Hendricks wrote a book, 
The big leap. 
and it's a great book. 
 
If you haven't read it, talks about staying in your zone of genius. There's a lot in the book that he talks about, but. the important take away is stay in your zone of genius versus your zone of excellence. So your zone of excellence is essentially where you can do something and do it pretty well. 
And that's probably for a lot of us, right. We didn't do a lot of stuff and kind of do it pretty well, but it's not what drives us. It's not that thing where we wake up in the morning and get so excited about doing it, that we just can't wait to get dressed and get out the door and start doing it. and your zone of excellence is also where you're not going to live your fullest life. 
You're not going to live your fullest potential as a business owner, but your zone of genius is that top level place where you are working, you're buzzing along. And it doesn't even feel like work. that hour can pass so quickly and you have accomplished so much in that hour of time because it comes so naturally for you. 
And so. So easily and you are enjoying it. And I want to stay more in my zone of genius in 2024 and start to delegate those tasks that fall outside of my zone of genius. And I do not want to fall in that zone of excellence, which again, are those things that I'm pretty good at. And then I could do, but do not make the best use of my time because the best use of my time and the best use of your time is always, always in Arizona. Zone of genius. 
So think about what your zone of genius is, what that thing is that. Excites you so much that. You're so good at that. You're so passionate about that. You love to do that never ever feels like work. And that is your zone of genius. That is what you should be doing. 
Okay. I mentioned to you, I was going to give you three easy peasy, simple dimple steps to do to help you in 2024, to know what to do, what not to do And to understand what is working for you. This is a super effective framework for organizing your business. 
It is called the start, stop and continue model. You may have heard this. I love it. I use it all the time. This model encourages you to assess your current practices, identify areas for improvement and implement positive changes. It's a tool that provides a structured approach for your business to evaluate your operations. 
The three components are as follows. Start this involves identifying new initiatives. New processes are strategies that you should begin implementing. It's a proactive approach to innovation and growth by exploring untapped opportunity. So you are going to ask yourself, what can I start that I'm not currently doing now that will help my business, or if you're looking at your personal life as well, remember this to apply to both what could help your business or your personal life grow? 
Stop ask yourself what you need to stop. 
This step requires you to critically evaluate your existing practices and activities that may be hindering progress. By stopping ineffective or even obsolete processes, you can free up resources and redirect your efforts towards more productive endeavor. So what are you going to stop doing that is hindering the growth of your business or your personal life. Continue. Continue means recognizing and reinforcing successful practices. 
And this is really crucial for sustaining your success. So what is working for you? The continue aspect of the model involves identifying what is working well and making sure that you continue to do these for ongoing success. so really take some time, spend an hour and think about your business. Think about your life. If you need to. And what are you going to start? What are you going to stop doing? And what is working that you are going to continue doing 
and truly the start stop and continue model is basically a mindset of continuous improvement You are looking at this now at the end of the year, but frankly, you can do this quarterly. You could do this monthly, whatever the milestones that you set, you could definitely do. 
I suggest that you at least do this annually. I like to do it. Actually quarterly because I can stop myself from doing something that is not working and pivot to do something that should be working. So the start stop and continue model is wonderful. 
It's relatively simple. And it's a great retrospective exercise that helps you decide what you're going to start doing, what you're going to stop doing and what you're going to continue to do. 
You can bring in your team to help you bring in certain aspects of this, to understand what is working and what you need to stop and continue to do. But it is also an exercise that you can work on on your own if you choose to do so. 
And back to those goal setting exercises that we talked about when you do set those financial goals, those are great markers to decide. 
If you need to start, stop or continue to do something, if you're not hitting those financial goals. Do you need to pivot? do you need to start something new? Do you need to stop what you're doing? Or can you continue doing something that is working? And here are the simple questions to ask yourself when you are looking at the start, stop and continue exercise. these are just open-ended questions to get you and your team thinking and working with each other. under the star category, what do we need to start doing? Easy right. Is there a tool? Is there a process? Is there a resource that would help us hit our goals? What strengths do we have that we aren't currently using? So what do we know? what strengths do we have that we are not using at the moment? 
Under the stop category. What do we need to stop doing? Are we doing something that is holding us back? What do we do? That takes up a lot of resources, but doesn't produce significant results. That is a huge question. 
And it's sometimes hard to answer if you're putting in a lot of time into something. If there's a project that you're doing that is taking up so much manpower from your team. but it's not producing significant results. What other things in your company are also falling under that category? Is there a tool or process that isn't working the way that it was intended to. 
as I said, I've looked at my processes this past year, I've revised them. These were not working their best. So I revised those processes, and I invite you to do the same within your own company to ask yourself what processes are not working the way that you wanted them to, or is there a tool in your company, a software, for instance, that is not providing the results that you were looking for. Four. And lastly under continue, what are you doing right? 
That you want to continue doing? This is a big one. This should make you feel happy. This should make you pat yourself on the back that you were doing something well and that you want to continue to do it. 
So why again is working so well that you do not want to change it. 
I'm going to give you a start, stop and continue exercise. And this is a simple exercise that you can do yourself. You just fill the blanks in and ask yourself these various questions that I just pose to you. You can head to John mcclain.co and to the podcast category and download that for free, or just go to my Instagram page and to the download section. 
And it will take you right to the freebies for this podcast. And I will give you your own start, stop and continue exercise that you can do for your own company. But I gotta tell you, it is so helpful. 
It is still beneficial to take the time to ask yourself what is working, what is not working and what you want to continue to do that is working.
Here are some final thoughts. As I wrap up this long episode, I know it was long, but it was important. It's important for you to think about your business this past year to really plan for 2024. To plan as much as possible for the lumps and bumps that are going to come along the way. And my tips for you are to make time for development. 
Make time for your business. Make time to work on your business. Not only in your business, make time to develop your business model. 
Make time to develop your systems and your processes and make more time to work on yourself. Ask yourself what you need as a human being, what you need as a person. 
Do you need more free time? Do you need to stop your work day at a certain time? Do you need to start your work day at a certain time? Do you need to stop in the middle of the day and go to the gym to take your mind off of things or go for a walk, ask yourself what you need to do and what you're doing now. 
That is. Not working for yourselves because so many times we just give ourselves in totality to our businesses. And That is to the detriment of our own health, both physically and mentally. 
Get comfortable being uncomfortable. 
This is something that I subscribed to my own business. Coach tells me this all the time and I truly, truly believe it, but I want you to get comfortable being uncomfortable. There's lots of uncomfortable moments in your life and in your business. Especially in our businesses and 2024 where the fluctuations in the real estate industry with the election year, it could pose an uncomfortable year 
I just want you to get uncomfortable and prepare yourself mentally for that. And you can be ready for anything. and in that category of uncomfortableness I want you to do one thing every day that feels scary or uncomfortable. Don't just live in this complacency zone of just doing the same thing over and over and over call somebody every day, ask someone something. Asked to be on a podcast, ask the magazine to do an interview. 
asked for a new client. 
Introduce yourself at a chamber of commerce meeting, do something that feels uncomfortable or a little scary for you. Every single day, you will start to hone that skill set to get you over that fear of uncomfortableness and you will slowly, but surely start to get better and better at being uncomfortable. 
And those scary situations won't be so scary anymore. Try a new service experiment with a new marketing technique. for instance, you could try in-person marketing versus only online marketing. If your online marketing isn't working head out to some in-person events, but try a new service experiment with some new techniques, Try something new for 2024. This goes back to that start, stop and continue model and who knows by braining. And I knew service and trying out something new for your marketing. It could bring in an entirely new revenue stream for you. next, understand that busy doesn't always mean profit, just because your days are full, does not mean that you're making money. 
If, for instance, if you charge a flat fee, but you don't know how you came about charging that flat fee and you don't account for your hours of time that you spend on working on that client's project, then you're probably just busy, not profitable. So understand that busy. Does not always relate to profitable. 
I want you to be profitable. I don't want you to be busy and you need to find out what you're doing during the day. And if your day results in profitability, not just busy-ness. 
On that same note and know the difference between your revenue and your profit for 2024? Just because you bring in certain amount of money every year does not mean that money results in profit.
It's pretty simple. It's pretty cut and dry. You have your revenue, you have your expenses, and then you have your profit. that is the easiest way to explain that. And if that profit is not enough, or if that profit is not what you had planned on or expected, then you need to figure out. Why that is not working, but this will help you to determine what is working and what is not working and adjust or remove what is not working. 
So you will stop. Doing what is not working. If there is a part of your company that is not profitable, you will remove or stop doing that part. Okay. My friend, whew. Deep breath. Wow. This was like a therapy session, right? I feel like I had just unloaded on you. With all of the things of 20, 23, but also I'm very optimistic. About 20, 24. I want you to come away with this with excitement. I want you to come away from this, with ideas and their duration and asking yourself what you are going to do for 20, 24 to make it a great, great year. And it will be a great year 
if you do take the time to work on your business rather than always in your business. And what that means is, is just simply thinking about how your business operates, not just always doing the work of your business, not always going to shop for clients or picking out products or working with vendors, it is working on the nuts and bolts of how your company operates. 
You owe it to yourself as a business owner. It is not always fun. I can tell you when I did my year end review, it was not all peaches and sunshine with me. It was a little, little scary and not so fun, but it helped me. It helped me to see the things that went wrong. And I know now what I need to. Stop doing. 
I know now what worked well, what I need to continue doing, And I know what I need to start doing. So there's a whole list of things on my stop start and continue category. And again, head to the download section on John McClain.co or to my Instagram page, you can grab it there and the links as well in the bio. 
And you can grab your own start, stop, continue worksheet to help you out for 20, 24. But I am so excited for 2024. I'm so excited for you for your own company. I hope this episode has made you think more. I hope by being vulnerable and sharing the ups and downs of my own business has helped you to understand that not everyone is perfect. Even though you might put us on a pedestal and you might think everything is hunky Dory. 
We all have our ups and downs, but I don't want to forget the good, that is why my good category and my bad category and my ugly category Are all there looking at me and I'm equally investing in all three because my good category is smiling at me. My bad category is winking at me. Telling me that I should have done a bit better. And my ugly category is giving me the ugly evil eye. 
And I'm going to get rid of that ugly category ASAP. And I want you to do the same. I want to help you make it a fantastic 20, 24. Let's do it together. Let's work on our businesses together. Let's grow. Let's be better business owners. 
Let's be better leaders. Let's be better interior design professionals and led serve our teams and our companies even better than we did in 2023. And we will do it together. 
Thank you so much for listening today. I hope you've gained some insight from this. if you have tell somebody about the podcast, share this episode with other people, feel free to send it along to others. And again, if you're so inclined, please leave a review for me. I would so appreciate it. And I will see you next week on the next episode of the designer within thanks so much, my friend. 
Thanks for sticking with me to the end of the designer within podcast. It means the world to me. If you're ready to dive deeper into the topics that we've discussed here, be sure to check out my online coaching and courses program, design success academy. com here. I will teach you everything you need to know to run your interior design business.
From starting the project all the way to the end, including marketing and pricing your services for profit. And for more information on this podcast, including how to be a guest or my design services in general, go to johnmcclain. co. That's johnmcclain. co. See you soon, friend.