Who are you without your suit?

I stopped doing interior design because I couldn’t make any money with it.

Well, that’s a lie – I could, but I did not want to because it bored the life out of me. 

I loved doing interior design as an employee, because I got to do the actual design work, the project management and I got to see the progress of an idea becoming reality.

Then, due to life circumstances, I was forced to start my own business and it all changed – I couldn’t do it.

See, the way interior design is traditionally set up – as a business model – only works/ is profitable when it’s about the ‘bling-bling’.
When you can create ‘haute-couture’, which means: stunning wearable art. Amazing to look at, but for most people useless and unattainable.

…and even if you have those clients….with time it became quite frankly, predictable and I couldn’t stand my clients because it was all a shallow ego-show.

So I started asking different questions that many ‘traditional clients’ did not want to be asked, like:

• what does home mean to you?
  
• What are the memories you yet want to make?
  
• What comes hard to you? and let’s design home so it helps with the those things. 
  
• What are you afraid to miss out on? And let’s see if we can find a way to keep you engaged and active where it matters most. (That’s not always where you’re already great)

Yeah. 
I didn’t close the ‘traditional clients’ with those kind of questions.

And the people that did like those questions, that are inspired by exploring what is truly significant – well, they usually don’t end up buying tons of pretty, high-end, haut-couture kind of stuff for their home.

So yeah, I sucked as an entrepreneur in interior design.

I ask questions like: 
Who are you when you strip out of that suit, or costume?

See, a high achieving individual in the work environment understands that their performance is the basis of their power. The better you do what you do (can show and prove it)the more power and authority you’ll have.

But who are you when you come home?

Who are you when there is no reason to perform anymore?

Imagine this:

I’m inviting you for dinner.

There will be 8 of us but you will only know me.

It’s going to be a gorgeous meal and I’ll promise you the others are truly inspiring people with quite some character.

The conversations we’ll have will be epic, the only rule is:

you can’t talk about work.

You can’t talk about what you do for a living.

In fact, at the end of the evening everyone will have to guess what the others do for a living and if someone finds you out, that is: if someone guesses right, you loose – you won’t get invited again.

What would you talk about?

How would you participate and add so that this evening truly becomes EPIC when you’re not allowed to talk about your work competence and work achievements?

I truly believe everybody has something that is so WOW that can floor everyone in the room.

You have something that makes others say: “When it comes to ____ you’re the coolest person I know.”

And if you haven’t instantly had an idea what that ____ might be, let it sink in and ‘walk pregnant with the idea’.

What do you want to become known and appreciated for?

Because you are more than the title you carry, the role you fulfill and so much more than the ROI you bring in.