What are you leaving on the table with your disorganization?

 Hi there! 

Reading over my last bog post, one sentence popped off the page for me. I was sharing my “after” story about what happened on the first project I used the design roadmap on.  I said, 

“Referrals from the contacts we made on this project have become our main source of work these days, have led me to hiring two employees and a virtual assistant, and are causing us to uplevel our work in every way.  This is what I was leaving on the table before when I was so disorganized.  I didn’t even know what I was missing! “

It got me thinking about how I didn’t even know what I was missing out on before I got my projects organized with the Design Roadmap System.  I knew I was stressed and I couldn’t work that way any more.  Mostly I was focused on not disappointing my clients and all the things I didn’t want anymore - stress, chaos, exhaustion, burnout.  So I set about solving those problems, but I had no idea that in solving them, I would gain so many amazing positive things in my business.  Yes, I gained more calm and control, which was priceless, but I also gained so many other things that I couldn’t have even foreseen.  

I definitely didn’t realize I would gain two employees and a virtual assistant, and what that would mean for my sanity.  Heck no!  In fact, I’d had so many failed attempts at trying to hire help in the past (“more work than it’s worth!  Impossible to find good help!”) that when I hired a coach to help me with planning that very first project where I created the Design Roadmap, I specifically told her I was not interested in hiring help.  “I just need to make a plan to get the work done myself. Hiring help is too much work,” I told her.  

So she told me to plan out my project from start to finish using just the time I had available myself.  Which I did.  And then I quickly realized that it takes forever for a single person to design an entire 5,000 sf house.  Like forever.  And suddenly it was clear - I needed to hire someone.  But just as suddenly, I had the confidence to do so because #1 - I had a plan, so it seemed doable to be able to delegate that planned work to someone.  And #2 - I could see that I had a good 6 months of income ahead of me, so I felt confident that I could pay someone to help me.  

When I reworked the plan with a helper, suddenly the timeframes seemed much more reasonable, and it all made sense.  With that confidence and clarity, it was easy to hire my first employee.  It just took all the guesswork out of it for me.  Now Emma’s been with me for 5 years, Dani’s been with me for 2, and Heather, my VA, has been with me for a year and a half.  I can’t imagine life without them.  They make everything work, uplevel our design work in every way and free up my time for higher level work.  Oh, and did I mention how much more fun it is to work with a team?  It is.  Funny how that all works out! 

So this brings me to where I am today.  Because of the Design roadmap system, I have calm and control in my business, which is enough of a win on its own.  But because of this calm and control, I’ve been freed up to work on my secret dream of taking what I’ve learned over the past 20 years and coaching other Designers.  Now I’m calmly running a full-time design business and starting this new coaching business, which is lighting me on fire and adding so much energy and fun to my life.  I’m able to move forward on my dream. 

What about you?  Do you even know what you’re leaving on the table with your disorganization?  I’m not saying this to lay any kind of stress or guilt on you - god knows you have enough of that on a daily basis in your business.  I say this with love - you don’t even know what you’re missing by being disorganized now.  You are meant for higher things, and when you get organized you’re going to find out what they are.  It might just be creating a higher level of design that feels impossible now when you’re constantly putting out fires.  It might be loving on your clients and giving them the amazing customer service you know would be possible if you weren’t chasing your tail.  Maybe you want to up your marketing game and finally find time to start that blog or connect with your clients on social media.  Or maybe, like me, there’s some other secret dream in there - that big, hairy audacious goal that’s waiting to come out and set you on fire, if you can just create space for it.  

What is that thing that’s calling you?  That thing you’d have or do if you could just stop chasing your tail for a minute?  I’d love to hear about it in the comments!