53: Balancing Business and Life: 3 Big Lessons I Have Learned In The Past Year

Balancing Business and Life: Lessons Learned as an Interior Designer
Season 2, Episode 53

In this episode of 'The Designer Within' podcast, host John McClain welcomes listeners back for the second season. John discusses the importance of evaluating the profitability and time commitment of projects. He shares personal reflections on taking a summer break to recharge and cope with the loss of his dog Jax. 

John emphasizes the necessity of slowing down to avoid burnout, setting personal deliverables, and ensuring life/work balance. He talks about making significant changes to his business structure, encouraging listeners to set boundaries and reassess their time management. John also highlights the value of continuous learning and personal growth within the design industry. 

The episode concludes with practical advice for creating personal time blocks for reflection and planning.


00:00 Introduction and Podcast Overview
01:07 Season Two Kickoff and Personal Updates
03:00 Business Reflections and Changes
07:33 Lessons from the Past Year
07:54 The Importance of Slowing Down
21:09 Implementing Quick Hits and Aha Moments
24:59 Continuous Learning and Growth
28:47 Conclusion and Next Steps

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Transcript

I don't care how many projects you have. To me, what I care about is How much profit are you making from that project and how much time are you giving that project so that it is not sucking life out of you and you are working 15 hours a day just to deliver something without charging enough for it.
Welcome to the designer within podcast, the podcast where business and creativity come together. I'm your host, John McClain, and I created this podcast for my fellow interior designers, but also for creative and innovative minds alike. I've experienced the challenges and celebrated the victories that come with our careers.
And now I'm here to sip and spill the tea with you. There is no sugarcoating here, my friend, just the real deal. We are experts at getting creative for our clients. So let's channel that same energy into our own businesses. It is time to dig deep, re imagine your business, and transform your life from the inside out.
It is time to dive into The Designer Within.
Hey, you guys, welcome back to another episode of the designer within. We are officially in season two, just wrap season one a few weeks back, actually a few months back now. And if you were wondering where I went, if you didn't listen to the last episode where I said I was going to be taking a little break, I am back.
So I took a break over the summer and really enjoyed it, honestly. And I hope that you You had a great summer too, by the way, that you were able to spend time with your kids, your family, your friends, just do all the things that we are supposed to do in the summer. And, uh, I just loved it. I had a great time, enjoyed.
expanding things, other avenues of my business and really focusing on what I wanted to do in the future. Kind of just taking that break, that mental break, that physical break, that break from the grind of just pumping away every day and hustling. And I don't ever want to be that person who just hustles for the sake of hustling.
So, um, I took a break and I enjoyed it. And I spent some time and a lot of things happened during the summer. We lost our sweet pup Jax who was almost 17 years old and thank you to everyone who reached out. He was definitely a part of our family. And if you've ever lost an animal, a fur baby, who is in your family, you know, that feeling is true and it hurts and it runs deep, but we did a lot of things to heal, spend a lot of time together.
My husband Pete and I, and just really relied on our friends and our family to help us through that. And so we are. Healing every day and still working on that. As you know, it's a journey. You have to really slowly get yourself there so you don't need to sprint to the finish line.
But that grief is, is still there and he's definitely a part of us, but we are finding ways to cope. So I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who was there for us to help us out, uh, along the way.
Now, also over the summer, I was again able to look at my business, look at things that were working in my business, things that were not working in my business, and I made a lot of changes. And I'm going to tell you what those changes were, uh, as we go through this second season of The Designer Within, but a lot of them were kind of big changes.
They were kind of really, really big changes, if you want to know the truth about how I structure my business and what I've changed on. the design side of my business. But the moral of the story is I'm still an interior designer. I'm still practicing interior design, of course, just making a few tweaks behind the scenes to make myself happier and to make my business run better.
And again, I will share those with you throughout the season as we go along in, in what I call my teaching episodes that I do. And I love so much. I love being able to share my experiences with you. And I know sometimes the things that really hit home, um, It really is those experiences from someone else and hearing that story.
But, I've cranked back up now and we're back full force working on things. And working on some select projects for interior design, but really, really, really what I'm doing now is focusing on helping you, And helping students in my program and really just finding ways to stay on the pulse of the design industry.
And I'm working with some amazing partners in all aspects of the design world and lots of speaking engagements and just having a great, great time and expanding the knowledge of how I can help you to, better your company and to better yourselves.
So all that being said, we are back for season two. A couple of things have changed. Last season, my first season, I cranked out 52 episodes. And if you're just joining us and you haven't listened to those episodes. Go back and listen, they're there in whatever podcast format you listen to, but they're really great episodes.
this season, I have decided to give myself a little more grace and I'm doing two episodes per month rather than four. so you're going to see me every two weeks versus every week. That doesn't mean that the content is going to be any less valuable.
It just means that I am going to give you a little more time to miss me between episodes and I'm going to give myself also, again, more time to focus on all of these other fun things that I'm doing within my business and my courses and my coaching program. Coaching a lot of students now, having a great time doing that one on one and just really loving it.
And again, giving myself more time to accept partnerships, to accept, invites to speaking panels and engagements and that sort of thing. so don't feel like you're missing out on anything by not seeing me every week. You can just get more content and I'm going to dive deeper into the episodes since we're doing them every two weeks now.
So we are bi weekly every two weeks and we're going to have 26 episodes per year unless something changes. Now you guys know me. I tend to pivot when needed. So if I look at it and say, Oh my gosh, I really have more to say. You might see a bonus episode pop in every now and then. So just keep an eye out on your devices, on your phone, on whatever you listen to your podcast.
And also, it's important. And I've told you this before, but if you will set your settings on, Apple podcast on Spotify, wherever you get your podcast and go ahead and enable downloads.
It really helps you to stay abreast of when that new episode is out. Your phone will let you know and you can automatically have that download set. It also helps us with the podcast with other people finding the podcast to have those automatic downloads set. Um, the podcast industry is interesting. I know a lot more of you are listening to the podcast than you are just downloading episodes and, when people look at our podcast, they're looking at downloads, which I don't really agree to the whole way it's set up, but it is what it is.
And if you are able and in that position to set automatic downloads for the episodes, it will allow you to go back and grab those episodes. If for whatever reason I ever delete an episode, you won't ever have to worry about that because you will have a download. so set your podcast to download if you want to, if you will, and also if you don't mind leaving a review, you don't have to leave a written review.
Those are great, but if you don't mind leaving a review for us, it does pump us up on the list of how people can find us as well. Alrighty. That was a lot of stuff. That was a lot of homework to go through. But I'm so happy to be back and I'm so happy to talk with you today about the topic of this episode. and I will have to admit on the subject of pivoting, I have pivoted on what I was going to discuss with you on this episode. I actually had a great interview ready to go.
One that we had done prior and that interview is going to go next. I just wanted to say some things that I had learned over last year's podcast season, things that I had learned from you, about you, the listener, things I had learned about myself, things I had learned about people that I interviewed, and just wanted to touch on three quick lessons that I learned over the past year of 52 podcast episodes.
First of all. I learned that slowing down is okay. I learned that it is okay and I knew this. I knew that I preach this all the time, but I learned that taking a minute for myself, taking a minute for my family and my friends and taking a minute for my life was okay. slowing down is not only okay, it is encouraged.
If you push yourself to the point of burnout, if you push yourself to the point of exhaustion, it is encouraged. If you push yourself to the point to where you are questioning why you are in the career field that you are, then you know that you must slow down. And I spoke with so many people during my little slowdown session of the summer, my hiatus, my break, where I just was able to relate to other people.
And I saw people slowing down, and I saw people taking vacations, and I saw people taking long vacations, long by American standards, you know, unfortunately in the U. S. A week is a long vacation, but I saw people extending their time away from work to two weeks, three weeks, even a month. And it was just so wonderful to see that.
So my slowdown was intentional. My slowdown was on purpose. We were living in Las Vegas and we moved from Las Vegas back to Los Angeles, which is great. and we were in Los Angeles before, of course. So we moved back into the house that we knew, the house, the friends that we knew, the neighborhood that we knew, and it was great.
But I could not have done that, I should say, without slowing down, without pushing myself, without taking a minute to pause and just reflect on what I needed to do. So if you find yourself in the midst of burnout, in the midst of grinding away, hustling away, you know, running around like a chicken with your heads cut off, it is not worth it.
I hope I'm not the first to tell you, but it is not worth it. To push yourself so hard to only have one goal in mind, to only focus on your business, to only focus on that client and to forget your friends, your family, your home, your needs. If, if starting your day slowly is important to you, start your freaking day slowly.
I do it every day. I wake up, have three cups of coffee. I know you can judge me if you want. I don't care. I love my coffee in the mornings and I will start. In the living room, watching my morning shows with my coffee and then I will eventually get to my desk and I usually finish the third cup of coffee at my desk and I have no regrets for that.
No apologies to make for taking the time for myself. If you start your day in this panic state where you barely have time to take a breath. And you don't stop to give yourself time to exercise throughout the day. If taking a walk is important for you, but you've put that by the wayside, you need to find that space, that time and give it to yourself.
One thing that I told the student that I coached was put the time on your calendar and hold yourself accountable to yourself, just as you do to clients and just as you do to important meetings that you have set. We are our number one client. So remember, put your appointment on your calendar and hold yourself accountable to that.
And don't waver from it. Do not let things get in the way where you're going to push that appointment aside or, skip it or change it.
I know how we are. We always put other people before us, but I will tell you, you have to set appointments with yourself. Put them on your calendar. don't let anything push that aside. And of course, you'll figure out when the right time to do that is. But in the meantime, just choose a time that you feel would work for you.
If every day at 4 p. m. is good for you to stop and assess your business and work on marketing and work on different parts of your business, And by the way, I'm not saying work for client projects. I'm saying work on your business, work for yourself, work on things that you want to do. Go to the gym if that's something that's important for you.
You know, I really became lax with going to the gym. I really became lax in exercising and it was gross and I felt gross and I felt yucky about it. And I'm not saying you have to do that, but for me, that was important. and by putting that time on my calendar and holding myself strictly responsible for that time, I felt better by doing it, and I've since lost weight, my health is better, stopped having as many cocktails that I used to have before, I really rarely ever have any now, funny enough.
But, you know, I just feel better about that. And I took a break from my mental health, my physical health, and I just feel better about it. And all of the other things is just kind of like icing on the cake, right? It just feels good to do that. And then all of the other reasons come into play like For me, I was able to stop taking my anxiety medication.
I don't have that anymore at the moment, and I feel great about it, and I found other ways to deal with it. And I was just so reliant on a quick fix. I was so reliant on something that would make me feel better in the moment versus something that would make me feel better long term. And I want you to stop.
Take a look at your life. Take a look at your business. Ask yourself where you're over committing on time. Ask yourself where you are overextending yourself and trying to get more done in a day than you really could. And ask yourself by maybe taking a Friday off or maybe working three days a week.
If that's something that you can do, do it.
What was amazing for me to see. Was when I extracted myself from just the process of letting other people dictate what my schedule would be, letting other people, clients or demands on my time when I really pulled back and said, here are my time limitations. Here's when I want to work. Here's what I don't want to work.
The other people in your life, the other people in your business have nothing to say. They have nothing to do, but either adhere to that or not adhere to that. Basically, I set my standards, I set my timeframes, and that is when I was available. That's when I worked, and that's when I wanted to work, and that is the type of projects that I wanted to take on, and the type of people that I want to work with.
You do not have to work for other people based upon what they tell you that they are looking for from you. Now I will say this, if you don't sit down and take the time to figure out what's important to you, when you want to work, what type of projects you want to work on, what type of businesses you want to work with, what type of brands you want to work with.
Then all of those people, the clients, the brands, the vendors, the GCs, the contractors, they're going to tell you how you're going to work. I preach this all the time. If you don't stand for something, you're going to say yes to everything. And if you don't put your values first, and your family first, and your mental health first, and your physical health first, then other people will start to.
slowly infringe on your time and make demands of you that you constantly say yes to because you are their yes person. They are looking for something that will make themselves better, right? They're looking for something that is a fix for them, a win for them, which is great.
I love when partnerships pull together and you are able to provide something to a client and you are able to provide something to a colleague or a brand or any sort of. Relationship partnership that you're working on. I love When that is a win win, if you allow other people only to set and dictate time to you, and dictate their standards to you, and dictate what they want to you, without considering what's in it for you, what's important for you, then I can tell you it turns into a negative situation where you're going to do that for that person, do that for that client.
But do that for that general contractor, but you get nothing out of it. And slowly, but surely you're going to begrudge yourself for doing that. You're going to begrudge yourself the time that you give that person. If you're not charging for it, the, effort that you're putting into that, the money that you're wasting, just giving your time away for free, giving your time away without anything in it for yourself.
Never, ever, ever pays off. So I took an inventory of what I was enjoying. I do this every so often and I tell you guys to do the same. Take an inventory of what you're doing in your business. If you're running around like crazy. If you are not finding time for yourself.
If you feel mentally unhealthy or physically unhealthy. If you feel that you are being deprived from time with your friends, that you're saying no to things on the weekend because you have to cram in that extra time for your client. Number one, you have to stop the madness like I did and you have to stop and say, what do I want?
What am I looking for? What is important for me? What would make me happy right now? Not what is going to make me more money. Not what is going to allow me to get more clients. Not what is going to make that general contractor or that client happy or that partnership that I'm working on
not what is going to make them happy. What is going to make me happy? And then what happens is easily everything falls in alignment because you have set the things in place that make you happy and you know, one of the things I'm really big on is deliverables to my clients and deliverables to anyone that I work with.
But really sat down and said, what are the deliverables to myself, and if you just create a list of deliverables for yourself, just as we do for clients, when you work on a project, you say, I'm going to give you a floor plan. I'm going to give you a furniture plan.
I'm going to give you elevations. I'm going to select all the furnishings. I'm going to help you set those up in your home, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Yeah. Those are deliverables. What are the deliverables to you? What are the deliverables for yourself on a daily basis? When you wake up every day, what are you going to deliver to you?
What are you going to deliver to yourself, to everyone that you come in contact with that day, and if you are on the grind and on the hustle train and just out to collect as many project as you can. You are not going to deliver to yourself. You're not even going to be able to serve yourself or your family and your friends and your social calendar.
You're probably not going to have any of that. And if you do have it, it's going to suffer, all for the sake of collecting more projects. Now this could go down a whole other avenue, I know, and I could go into the fact that you're probably not charging enough for those projects. You're not charging enough for your very, very, very valuable time.
And you're just giving your time away as if it is a buy one, get one free, right? This client buys time with you. Oh, I'm going to give you another free hour. Do you really have another free hour, another free minute to give to people without charging them for it? No, you do not. So that is one aspect of it.
You know, you can say I have 10 projects right now. I don't care how many projects you have. To me, what I care about is How much profit are you making from that project and how much time are you giving that project so that it is not sucking life out of you and you are working 15 hours a day just to deliver something without charging enough for it.
This is why in my business and I teach it to my students in my program and you've you've listened to me for any amount of time or even if you're new, I set aside a creative fee for our clients Where I tell them, I want you to appreciate my creativity. And then I had set aside another, I don't call it project management.
You guys know I call it project fulfillment. This is really a term that has changed so many lives from people that I've, expressed it to and defined it to. But we don't manage projects. We fulfill projects. And once I did that and was able to really clearly explain to a client to appreciate me for what I am doing for them, which is my creativity.
Yeah. It flipped the script. It changed everything from the way that I was experiencing relationships with clients, from the way that my team was experiencing relationships with clients, and from the way that vendors and contractors and general contractors and GCs and tradespeople architects, anyone involved on a project and this could go into any industry, right?
If you're a graphic artist, it could go into your industry easily, right? you could really decide to say, here's what I want you to value. I want you to value my creativity. If you're a landscape designer. Here's how I want you to value my creativity. It's all about putting focus on what you want that client to really understand and appreciate and put a valuable price tag on it.
So when you do that, you can charge more. When you do that, you can spend less time because you've set those deliverables in place. They're not expecting you to do things because they're not on your list of deliverables, right? So you have to hold yourself accountable. You have to hold your client accountable and not let every single person that's involved with you in your business life.
And by the way, this also goes into personal life too. people will set their own expectations if you don't set those expectations for them. I'm totally going off on a tangent today, and this is not the direction that I was planning on going, but I really feel like I'm just sitting here talking with you guys and I love it.
And I love Just kind of shooting off the hip with this and, letting you know what's on my mind and hopefully it is resonating with some of you and maybe you're looking at your own businesses and your own life and you're like, yeah, I am working nonstop and I don't have a lot of profit to show for that.
And I don't have. free time, if any, to show for that. And that is not a good place to be. And it is time that you pull yourself back. Stop saying yes to everything. Stop saying yes to everyone, to every project, to every potential partnership, to everything that comes your way, you can say no. And when you say no, it makes time for the things that do matter to you.
so slowing down is important. That was my first thing that I wanted to talk about. But the second thing learned over the past year of doing the podcast and really analyzing my business and my life was that, quick hits are not always the best.
I know you guys listen to the podcast, my podcast, other podcasts out there for quick hits. We all do. We all want something to take away. And I love that. I love being able to give you something that you can say, Oh my gosh, what an aha moment. I love an aha moment. You know, Oprah gave those to us when she her show and she still does, but I love giving aha moments and I love where it is a moment of clarity for you and me.
And I love having those in my life. But I will say this, those quick hits, those aha moments, are worth nothing if you don't take that aha moment, that quick hit, that thing that you just was like, Oh my gosh, that is a great thing. Right. And I hope, and really wish that you have gotten some of these from this podcast.
And in the future episodes, I know you will continue to get those. But what is on you now? The onus on you is to take that quick hit, take that aha moment and figure out a way to build it into your business. Those moments are not any good unless you take the time to analyze Why it resonated with you, what is important about it for your life and your business, and then how are you going to take that moment and develop steps to move forward to a goal.
So if you have an aha moment and you have this quick hit, quick win, this quick, Oh my gosh, that's amazing. That is something that I really want to do. Don't stop there. Figure out a way to bring that into your business and into your life. And that could be having a coach help you with that and figure that out.
If you want to just sit down on your own and write those steps out of what you are looking for, what that moment meant to you, what the goal is, and then that bridge in between. is that bridge of how to get there. And you really can make the steps to get there and figure out why that was so important to you.
But, just having a quick hit from a little, uh, you know, an Instagram reel or a tick tock reel. I'm not really on tick tock as you know, but, those reels on Instagram, right? So you have this quick hit where you're like, Oh wow, that's really cool. Or that, that quote was really, really cool. That was important.
Don't just move on with your day and say, Oh, that was fun. You know, I learned a lot from that. You didn't learn a lot from it. You learned one thing and it was eye opening. So your eyes were opened, but it's up to you to figure out how to parlay that into something that is substantial in your business and your life.
As a, for instance, today, if it was eye opening to you for me to say, I slowed down and I loved when I slowed down and I'm happy to still be partially slowed down. If that's a moment for you where you're like, Oh, I really want to slow down to figure out a way to do that. Use some of the tips that I gave you today to systematically write a plan and put that plan in place.
Dolly Parton says, and I love it. She says basically that if you don't put wings on your dreams, then they're never going to go anywhere. And the goal is what you get by putting wings on that dream. If you dream something that you love and you really want to do something
and you think, Oh, wow, I would love to do that. If you don't set it as a goal, if you don't write it down, if you don't write the steps down to get there and look at it every single day, you don't have to do anything fancy, even if you want to just put a post it note on your computer that has the goal on it and you look at it every day, do that.
Don't make this overly complicated. I know. You guys know I love a system and I love a process for working with clients. and I have my 18 step process that we follow like the Bible. But I want you to not get overwhelmed with thinking that, Oh my gosh, it's so hard to do that.
And never really put the wheels in motion. And I know sometimes we get into our head. We're so timid about starting something. We're so afraid of how much work it's going to be that we never even get started. Just get started. Don't overcomplicate it. Again, if you have a goal, write a little post it note, put it on your computer right now and if it was to slow down, put that you're going to slow down.
If it was that you wanted to charge more, put, you want to charge more. If you want to take less projects that are worth more, put that on your note And put that as your goal. Put that as the goal that you want to achieve. And every single day I want you to look at it.
So that's number two. The third thing that I learned over the past year, and I knew this, I knew this lesson, but somehow, it really resonated with me over the past year was we're always learning. We're always learning no matter where we are in our lives, no matter where we are in our business, no matter where we are in our relationships.
We're always learning, right? Like I mentioned to you, my beloved dog Jack's passed away and I don't think I've ever felt that pain before. And it was a hard pain to deal with. But also I learned something about myself. I learned that I can work through that and I can figure out a way to try to start healing that.
Right. and I think that is just one aspect of it, but when you bring it into business, Oh my gosh, the great interviews that I've had on the podcast over the past year, We're so eye opening. I learned things from people two to three years in their business, as much as I had learned from people who were 25, 30, 35 years into their businesses.
And that is something that we all need to remember, we never stop learning and It doesn't have to be laborious. You can just still learn and every single day, keep your eyes and your ears open. They say that, we have two ears in one mouth, right?
Because we're supposed to listen twice as much as we talk. And. it's hard to say that when I'm a podcast host, especially on a solo episode, but I do listen a lot and I love learning new things. And I love listening to people and seeing their side of things. And, I just had, speaking of aha moments and listening, we just, had Jennifer Stoner on the podcast.
That episode will be out in a few weeks, but She just dropped some really amazing, amazing things that I learned and speaking with her in her years, in business. I just want to remind you that it is never a process that you're just like, oh, yep, I've completed it.
it's like working out, right? Like you work out to get into shape and then when you get into shape, you don't stop. Because if you stop, then you lose all of the hard work that you did to get there. The same thing is true with learning and growing in our lives and in our businesses. If we get to the point to where we feel secure and we have processes in place and we have our pricing down for our clients and 
, we've developed this time for ourselves and we have a great balance between work and life. that is not the point to rest on your laurels. Don't stop there. Keep, keep going, right? Keep figuring out other ways that maybe even you can enhance that process that you have. I teach my students in my program, all of my processes and how I work.
But I'm also constantly evaluating them and I'm constantly figuring out ways to hopefully make them better and hopefully help them to do better. And it's things that I try myself. So as I'm working on my digital courses online, right, I will go back and I will totally revise a course or I will add in a video note Of things that I had learned or if I change my agreement, you know, I put that in there And it's just a constant constant learning process Again, it doesn't have to weight you down. It doesn't have to be this thing that you dread Just listen and try to be a sponge and soak all of that in when I first started my business I Listen to everything.
I truly, truly was a sponge. I listened to good things and sometimes not so good things, but I figured out a way to make those things that were good, that I really wanted to try to work for me. so remember to always be learning, always be listening, attend webinars, attend seminars, keep listening to podcasts, keep listening to anyone who has any bit of more knowledge about what you're doing, about what you want to do than you currently have, and always surround yourself with people who are smarter and people who know more than you.
I, all of my team members, keep listening to questions that concern you on the web. This is an educational video and therefore should not be used as a structural device. To deploy this special equipment, Visit www. stemcenter. ca Anytime I've hired a team member, I always look for someone who is much more intelligent on a factor than I am.
And I have always learned from them. So you can always learn from anyone, whether they are your superior or your subordinate, it does not matter. They are still a human being with life lessons and business lessons and things that you can take and apply directly. To your life and your business. All right.
, I do want to say that I appreciate you being with me on the podcast and I appreciate you tuning in to listen. And I'm so thankful that you're here. next episode, I'm going to do an interview episode.
But I hope this episode has resonated with you and you have maybe found a way to stop and think about your business. And. If you don't take anything else away from this episode, I want you to create a space, a block of time in your day for yourself. And that does not mean a structured necessarily meeting with yourself every time.
It could just be that you are stopping. to allow yourself 30 minutes to take a walk and to dream and plan and grow your company and your life. And once you do that, once you take that time to really stop and look at it in a very, nonchalant, non forced way, you will be amazed at what will happen.
You will be amazed at what will come to your mind. Ideas that you never, ever, ever dreamt were possible will come into your mind. And then you can turn those ideas and those dreams into goals and find your way to achieve those. All right. That is today's episode. Thanks again for coming back with me on season two.
I will see you in two weeks with the next episode. And I love that you are a part of the designer within community. I'm so happy to have you here. Can't wait to see you next time 
and remember to make changes on the outside. Sometimes we have to look within. have a wonderful rest of your week. I will see you soon, 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 courses and coaching program. You will join other like minded creatives in various phases of their own businesses.
Whether just starting out or career veterans who are enjoying the freedoms and profits that can come from an organized and structured business. Now's the time to make the change for you and your company, and I'll be right by your side the entire way. Learn more at john mcclain. co. That's john mcclain. co.