Takeaways From My 2024 Solo Quarterly Business Retreat
After my restorative and impactful solo business getaway in January, I decided to make it a tradition to get away for a few days every quarter to focus on the business and reset. I just wrapped my second “getaway,” and once again, it was amazing.
A little backstory before we dive into my takeaways:
I work from home and I am an introverted homebody - so when given the option of going out or traveling vs. being home, I choose the latter 99% of the time. But, because everything in my life takes place in one setting, it’s absolutely necessary to get away every now and again to gain a new perspective and re-energize.
So, I booked a hotel in downtown Chicago (The Langham, so luxe, HIGHLY recommend!) and stayed for two nights.
I had a few things on the schedule while I was there (and yes, I also had some work stuff on my task list; note to self: be sure to clear my work calendar during my next getaway), but my calendar was pretty much open and the goal was to reflect on some challenges I’ve been facing and feelings I’ve been having around my company.
After three days and two nights of reflection, I had some epiphanies. Some were like, “Oh yeah, duh.” Others came to me like a shock to the heart, with me thinking, “AND THERE IT IS.”
I’m going to share a few of my solo business retreat takeaways with you and hope you can gather some takeaways as well (since I know it’s NOT easy to get away by yourself!).
01 | I’m overwhelmed by all my ideas.
If you’ve read the book Rocket Fuel by Gino Wickman, you’re familiar with the idea of a visionary and an integrator and how an effective relationship between the two is key to business success. The author says,
“Visionaries have groundbreaking ideas. Integrators make those ideas a reality…Without an Integrator, a Visionary is far less likely to succeed long-term and realize the company’s ultimate goals. Likewise, with no Visionary, an Integrator can’t rise to his or her full potential.”
When I read this book years back, I recognized traits in myself of both a visionary and an integrator. I have big ideas and I also make those ideas a reality.
As I was reflecting on my business during my solo getaway and thinking about what’s working/what’s not, I realized a big thing that’s not working is the overwhelmed I feel by all my ideas. Because I don’t have time to implement them and bring them to life, I have this quiet internal pressure that weighs on me.
Here’s the thing: I have a place to collect and store all my ideas. And, I have a process for reviewing all my ideas.
I have a project in Asana where I store all my ideas as tasks and I have a weekly task to review and scrub the idea list and prioritize any ideas that are sensible to move forward on.
BUT, here’s where things get overwhelming.
I put due dates on some of the ideas AND I also have a few other places where I store my ideas. Like a stack of notecards next to my computer. On sticky notes on my wall calendar. On my bulletin board (you can find them almost completely covered by my kids’ artwork). And in other Asana projects where they seem more relevant.
And that’s what causes me to be overwhelmed: knowing there are SO many things I want to do in my business to help interior designers, and the list continues to grow as I am unable to bring any of these ideas to life.
The solution I’m going to test?
I went through EVERYTHING in my Asana and in my workspace and put all the ideas into ONE single project. I digitized all my paper notes and then threw them away. Now, all of my ideas are in a single project in Asana and feel much more organized. I then put due dates on ideas that are similar so I can tackle those as one single project at one time, rather than as 100 little tasks throughout the next few weeks/months.
My process for reviewing all the ideas that are NOT in motion takes place on Friday during my “Follow Up Friday.” A task pops up every Friday that says to review idea list. At that time, I review my ideas, scrub them, and see if there’s anything that is relevant and timely and could be moved to the to-do list.
As I review the idea list each week, I’m considering these five things:
Does this idea align with the goals I have for the company?
Where does this FIT with my other offerings?
How long will it take me to bring this to life?
Are people asking me for this?
What does this idea look like, once it’s “alive” in a week, a month, a year? ← I find that I sometimes move very quickly and don’t always consider the ramifications something may have on my day-to-day or overall work life balance. IYKYK
02 | I don’t give myself enough time to do things.
Fellow business owners, unite. Raise your hand if you’re like me and grossly underestimate how long things will take you to do. ✋🙋🏼♀️
Before we paused 1:1 client engagements, I was obsessed with tracking and reflecting on my time. We based our prices on the time it took us to do the consulting and implementation. I could easily look at the numbers and see if we were underpriced or overpriced, and I could easily price custom projects based on prior data.
But, since we paused 1:1 services in November, I have NOT been so good about tracking my time. So when I have something on my to do list, I estimate how long I think it will take and it ALWAYS takes more time than I think it will.
So what does this do to my brain as a business owner? It pushes me into overwhelm and causes feelings of burning the candle at both ends and never being able to cross things off my list.
I realized I treat projects like tasks and tasks like projects. (Task being something that is completed fairly quickly, a “one and done”. A project is something that consists of many tasks and has a beginning, middle, and end.)
Because of this, I look at my to-do list and think I can get SO much done, when the reality is, these are projects and require lots of tasks and team involvement in order to get them done.
On the flipside of this, I realized that I look at tasks as projects, and then avoid them because they feel “too big” to work on and like “I don’t have time for that today”. So they keep getting moved to the bottom of the list.
Before my work retreat, I started tracking my time again, to the T. And it was EYE opening to see the numbers. The things I have resistance around doing are ALWAYS the things I think will take forever. But in reviewing the numbers, these particular things actually didn’t take that much time.
The solution I’m going to test?
I am going to put more structure to my days and put time allocations to each thing. AND, the things I have resistance around, I’ll either break into smaller tasks, outsource them, or set a cap for how long I can work on them.
The other thing I started is to have a printed calendar page next to my desk that outlines the ONE big thing I want to focus on that week (not the 732 things) and then my normal daily batched tasks (like marketing, consulting in our private communities, responding to emails, admin, etc.).
The visual alone brings peace of mind.
03 | I have a few critical skills I need to hone.
I’ll be the first to admit when something isn’t in my wheelhouse. We get asked all sorts of questions in our private communities for The Designed to Scale® Method and The Studio, and I’ll share what insights I have, but I’m always very clear when something is outside my area of expertise.
So when this epiphany came to me (that I’m lacking in this one particular area), it was a little shocking, because I thought I DID have this skill dialed in.
What’s the skill I need to develop more?
My writing.
It almost pains me to write because I absolutely love to write. I write thousands of words a day, sending The Weekly Install®, writing blog posts, putting together Instagram captions, writing for company projects—I write so much.
But, I realized that just because writing is EASY for me, does not mean I don’t have opportunities for improvement.
Here’s what I mean (and I want you to pay attention because what I’m about to write is EVERYTHING IN BUSINESS).
We get the best results for our clients, and they are most satisfied when they get exactly what they need.
So it is OUR job as business owners to make sure we increase the likeliness of this happening on every project.
How do we do that?
We must be CRYSTAL CLEAR on who we can help, how we can help them, and what they get when they work with us.
I want you to think about any clients you’ve worked with where you did a great job but the client was still unhappy.
Was it because you didn’t provide them a good service? You’re not a good designer? No.
It’s more likely they were not a fit for what you were offering, and therefore, they did not need or value what you gave them. They were not in the right place. Being in the right place IS ESSENTIAL to getting exactly what you need.
Here’s an example:
You sign up for a yoga 101 class only to realize it’s an advanced heated vinyasa flow class. You’ll be upset and think it was a horrible class. But it’s not. It’s just not the class you need.
Or, you sign up for a vinyasa flow class only to realize it’s a yoga teacher training camp. So you are upset. You were expecting a workout and now you’re being taught about yoga.
None of those classes are bad. None of those people are bad. They’re just NOT A FIT. These people are in the wrong place.
So here’s what I’m going to try:
I’m going to read more books about writing and practice being more clear in my writing (being more concise wouldn’t hurt either!).
And I’m going to be CRYSTAL clear at describing who I can help with each of my products and programs. Now, I think we are pretty clear, however, my writing tends to be lengthy, and so some of these things could be getting buried. So I’m going to be better about calling out WHO THINGS ARE FOR right at the very top, so i) people can ignore when it’s not for them and ii) so they know they are in the right place immediately.
I want everyone who works with me and my team, buys one of our products, joins one of our programs, or downloads our free resources to feel like OMG this IS exactly what I needed.
How does this apply to interior designers?
SCREEN PEOPLE OUT OF WORKING WITH YOU IF THEY ARE NOT A FIT. IF THEY DON’T HAVE THE BUDGET. IF THEY DON’T HAVE THE PROJECT TYPE YOU EXCEL AT.
BE CRYSTAL CLEAR IN YOUR MARKETING THE TYPES OF PROJECTS AND BUDGETS YOU WORK WITH.
04 | I go dark when I lose sight of my mission.
Running a business requires a lot of time and energy. It can be exhausting at times, especially because no one is making you, the CEO, do anything. You call the shots. You market. You create. You sell. You serve. You show up every day and do the thing to grow your business, serve your clients, and fulfill your passion.
No one is making you do anything.
So, when you experience setbacks (like people stealing your products, copying your program names word for word, copying your client’s website copy that you wrote for them, you get shitty emails from random people who were unhappy with your FREE downloads, and all those other fun things) it can feel like it would be easier to just quit. Get out of the game. Focus on something else.
BUT, I realize, people who have no integrity, people who steal, people who “cheat”, people who send nasty emails and write nasty comments…they do not get ahead.
They are not my focus; they are not my mission.
I have TWO missions with my company.
One: to help interior designers run more profitable and elevated businesses. I want to put more money and confidence in the hands of creatives who are making people's lives better through good design. HOME IS EVERYTHING.
Two: to model for my three daughters what is possible when you are willing to focus, do the work, and persevere.
When I remember my missions, the copycats, the thieves, the “bad guys” and the jerks…they have no power over me.
They can keep copying the stuff my team and I have developed and refined for years…and they’ll continue to be years behind.
I can’t stop them.
I just need to remember my mission and not let THEM get in the way of it.
05 | I can’t lose focus on what works.
Shiny new objects are fun. As an entrepreneur, we are born to fix problems. If there are none, we find something to break so we have something to fix.
So when things are moving along steadily, or when things feel hard, it is easy to think “Let’s try something new.” Let’s add this thing here, learn about this topic, etc. And while, yes, you should always be improving your skills and setting aside time for professional development, you must (as I always say) practice IN TIME LEARNING (meaning, only consume the content/information you need at the time you need it). This way you can figure out a resolution to one problem at a time, versus consuming 289 podcasts and webinars at 1.75x speed and sending you straight into overwhelm.
I’ve been really good at this (quieting the noise, only reading books on topics where I have gaps, cross training my brain, that type of thing) so this epiphany came more from me trying new things in my business.
So yes, while it’s exciting to grow and have all the bright shiny new objects, it’s also important to continue to serve your audience and stay true to what works.
It’s ALWAYS best to double down on what works (you’ll know this by tracking data) and then remove anything else.
There are marketing efforts and activities that work well in my business AND bring me great joy - and there are things we have tried that have very little return or that suck the life out of me. So even though sometimes it can feel easier or more fun to change things up, it’s important to look at changes/improvements/additions through the lens of is this already working and if so, how can I bring in some new energy to it so it feels fresh and exciting at the same time?
Changes I hope to make?
I’m planning to do more reels and fewer Instagram feed posts. I’m planning to do more complimentary live events and trainings for interior designers. And, of course, I’m going to continue to serve interior designers through the blog and The Weekly Install®, two of my absolute favorite, tried and true marketing activities that fulfill me and serve my audience at the same time.
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I’m still getting takeaways from my solo business retreat, so this list is not inclusive. But, if you can, I would strongly encourage changing up your environment and clearing your schedule, even if this just means working from a coffee shop or a hotel lobby for a few hours.
As an interior designer, YOU KNOW the power of your environment, so don’t forget to apply that to your business as well.
Want to do your own annual or quarterly planning retreat? Be sure to check out my Annual Planning Guide for Interior Designers for exactly WHAT I do during these getaways to gain clarity.
