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In this episode, we’re diving into how creating an intentional office / work space can completely transform your success as a business owner.

A cluttered workspace often reflects a cluttered mind. When your workspace is disorganized, it can lead to feelings of overwhelm and frustration, potentially impacting your productivity and business growth. Having an elevated office and work space not only creates a more visually appealing environment, but it also helps to clear your mind, making room for innovative ideas and creative thinking. 

In this episode, we’re discussing the significance of intentionally crafting a workspace that mirrors your values and goals. A workspace that allow you to FULLY step into the next level version of yourself. A workspace that motivates you to show up every day, work towards your goals, and ultimately, grow your most successful business.

I can’t wait for you to listen in and to use these ideas to create a workspace that feels FULLY aligned with your vision! ✨

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I’m so excited to announce my newest 30 day challenge, the Confident Creative! In this challenge I will be helping you implement the strategies that will not only help you feel more confident as a creative business owner, but I’m also giving you access to the exact tools that I use to bring in more joy and money to my growing business every day. And as soon as you join, you’ll get immediate access to:

• The challenge information
• The guided PDF workbook 
• The daily journal prompts
• A beautiful daily checklist to help you track your results

There’s honestly no better time to join me than right now. So if you’re ready to gain massive clarity, unleash your inner confidence to create that life and business that you’re proud of, I’d love to have you join me!

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READ THE FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Hey there and welcome to the she Calls Her Shots podcast. Every week, we chat through different business building topics that will help you gain clarity around your goals, find inspiration in your journey and also help you create a life and a business that you love. My name is Krista and I’m a wedding and brand photographer and you’re a go-to no fluff business coach. In these episodes, we talk through both the tactical strategies, habits and the mindset work that will help you take those really big leaps, and we always focus on the real talk and the behind the scenes of what it takes to create a sustainable and a thriving business, because, let’s be honest, the work isn’t always glamorous, but it’s always worth it. So, girlfriend, let’s make some moves and start calling our own shots. Hello there and welcome back to this episode of the she Calls Her Shots podcast.

I am recording this today inside of my office, and my office has gone through a big transition over the last couple of weeks, and I want to start off this episode by asking you this simple question what does the workspace look like that you are working from? So, wherever it is that you do your work, maybe if you’re working from a laptop, if you’re working from home, even if you’re working in an office. Maybe you’re listening to this as you’re sitting in your workspace. I’d love for you to just take a second and look around. What does your workspace look like? And not only what does it look like. How does it make you feel? What are the feelings that come up when you sit in your workspace, when you look around, when you really lean into this space and I’ve talked about this a lot on the podcast, but I really every time I experience it, I just realize again how true it is. The space that we create from the place that we work, from what our workspace looks like and how it makes us feel has such a big impact on the work that we put out into the world. It just makes sense when you think about it. Having a cluttered workspace or having a workspace that doesn’t inspire you or feel good to you is going to affect how you show up. Maybe you’re not as motivated to work from it, so maybe you’re not as productive in getting as much done. It’s these little subtle things that sometimes I think we don’t really think about, but they make such a really big impact.

And this all started for me a few weeks ago when I realized my workspace was just, it was okay, it was a place where I could work from and have some productivity, but it didn’t feel inspiring. It really didn’t. So I shared on Instagram that I wanted to do a complete office makeover and a good friend of mine responded who is amazing at interior design. She’s wonderful at creating very intentional, purposeful, beautiful spaces and she responded was like yes, let’s do this. And what I didn’t know at the time and here’s the key here that I want to stress in this episode what I didn’t know at the time was that I was in that moment just by putting out into the universe that I wanted to create a new dream office space. I had no idea that that was the first step in really leaning into the person that I wanted to become.

Let me break that down a little bit for you. So, a lot of times, as business owners, we have this dream of who we want to be. We have this ideal version of ourselves, this person that’s, however, many months years ahead, who kind of just seems to have it all together, who has this level of confidence, who is doing the things that they want to be doing, that’s, making the money that they want to be making this ideal dream version of ourselves that we feel like we’re not that person yet. How often do we have this idealized version of ourselves that we keep trying to catch up to or keep trying to grow into? And I’ve talked a lot in length on the podcast about how we can start to bridge that gap, of really leaning into and becoming this version of ourselves that we want to become.

But I truly believe one of the first wonderful steps that you can take in becoming that person is changing your physical environment, and one thing I did a couple maybe about a month ago, a month and a half ago is I went through our entire house and decluttered, and one of the beautiful things about moving every few years, I haven’t really been in one home for a long, long period of time. There’s some pros and cons to that. One of the good things about it is it has forced me to pare down on things, so I don’t really have a ton of old items, but things do still collect over the years and what I found was that every space in our house felt cluttered Our bedroom, things on the countertops, things in my office, things on my desk, things were just kind of shoved into corners there just felt like there was this underlying clutter everywhere. And I say this again because I truly feel like the first step to becoming this person that we want to become is changing our physical space. Because what I noticed is when I started decluttering and literally what that looked like was taking everything out. So, whatever space I was decluttering, taking everything out from it, putting it out in the open, being able to see all of it in one area, and then tackling it one by one. Which things do I know I don’t want to keep? What do I know I want to get rid of or sell or donate? Start with the easy things. First, get all of that out of the way, set it aside into its designated space. Then you can kind of go into the okay, do I actually need some of these other things? Oh, look, I have 50 packs of sticky notes. Probably don’t need that many. I didn’t actually have 50. But you get the point. You can start to narrow down and pare down things that you may or may not need. And so at the end of this decluttering process, what I realized one was that the space just felt so much more free. But the second thing that I realized is, after I decluttered, I realized, oh you know what, now I have an opportunity to make these spaces feel more intentional. So I’m going to use our kitchen as an example quickly and I promise I’m going to bring this back to your business. You’re like Krista, you’re talking about decluttering in your house. What is this? What are you talking about? I promise we’re going to come back around and just stick with me In our kitchen.

Once I decluttered, I realized, after clearing the cabinets, after clearing these things off the countertops, some of the things that we had in place did not, did not feel elevated or, as Marie Kondo would say, they did not spark joy. So, for example, we had this plastic container that held our like scrubbing, like sponges and things that we cleaned dishes with, and it was not pretty, it did not look good, it needed to be cleaned, and I had this realization of oh my gosh, there’s such an opportunity here to not only just like clean this, but to actually elevate the space. So I went on Amazon and purchased a little wooden block with some really nice ceramic like soap holders and I’m going to probably do a poor job of describing this, but I took something that felt really not pleasing, didn’t spark joy, didn’t look good, and I removed it and I replaced it with something more elevated. Now, when I go to wash the dishes, we have this beautiful wooden block with these ceramic pieces on it, with these nice glass containers for the soap Right. It’s no longer in this like plastic container, it’s in these beautiful glass containers with our hand soap and our dish soap, and when I look at it now, it just it sparks this feeling of joy, and I realized that there’s so many opportunities for us here in our lives and in our business to be able to use these same principles to lean into that next version of ourselves. And so when I wanted to re renovate my office, it was for that exact same purpose.

Number one I knew I needed to declutter. There was just so much as a photographer. Being a photographer over the last 12 years, I have acquired so much equipment, whether it’s light stands, backdrops, flashes, cameras, right lenses. I have all of these things that I need to use for my business, but none of it was stored properly. I don’t. I don’t say none of it was stored properly. All of the really valuable things were stored properly. But I have like eight light stands right like six different colorful paper, seamless backdrops. The boxes are ginormous, right, I had these things just kind of shoved into corners. And so, number one I was like there’s an opportunity here to declutter. And so I started decluttering.

And then, once I decluttered, I took that same principle and realized I have an opportunity here. Yes, this workspace is okay and I can be productive in it, but I don’t come into it feeling inspired. I don’t look around feeling like it is a place that brings me joy and creativity, joy and creativity. And so, coming back to this question for you is, when you look at your workspace, what feelings come up? Do you feel like it is a place that is Creative? Do you feel like there are elements and pieces here that feel so authentic to you that bring you joy? And I it’s.

It’s funny because, even though it’s still very much a work in progress, I’ve painted the walls, I got my new desk, I’m actually going today, as I’m recording this episode, my friend that’s helping me redecorate is coming over and we are doing our first shopping trip to look for some new lighting of A new rug, some decor that feels you know, feels like me, some storage Spaces. So we’re actually doing kind of our V1 shopping trip today, but the the space still feels a little cluttered, because what happened was I got this new desk, I have this new space, but all of the clutter from my old office is still here. So I need to go through and continue decluttering and paring down. But just because I have taken the first few steps of Repainting, starting to put in some plants, some decor, some things that that feel really good to me, I had this burst of creativity this morning. I came in here and I sat down and I thought you know what I feel inspired to record some podcast episodes.

And it’s so interesting because I know that it’s directly related to the fact that I am being really intentional Intentional about creating a space that serves me, about creating a space that feels really good. And so, coming back to this idea of Leaning into this person that we want to become, what I did not know a few weeks ago Was that, by posting that story on my Instagram and asking for help in decluttering and elevating my office space, what I didn’t know is that that one simple act Was a huge step in me, in my own growth, in me leaning into becoming this person that I want to become, because here’s some other things that have happened. Not only have I decluttered and started doing more things around the house to make the spaces feel intentional, I’ve been waking up earlier, I’ve been getting in my workouts, I’ve been more thoughtful about going on walks so that I can reflect every single day and give myself space and Groundedness and just time to be in nature. I have started to do all of the things that that future version of me did, the things that I wanted to do, the habits I wanted to implement, the the things that I knew make me feel like full, the things that really Lead me to feeling like the fullest, most successful version of myself. I had all of these things that I wanted to do and just by creating an intentional space around me, it allowed me to then step into becoming this person. And I didn’t even do it consciously, I wasn’t doing it thinking like oh, here we go, I’m gonna start doing all these things now to lean into this person that I want to be like. That Wasn’t really the thought process at the time, but it has helped because, again, our physical environment, how we feel when we look around in our spaces, is Oftentimes a direct reflection of who we want to become. They always talk about this.

I think it’s like habits, talking about habits and and building new habits is there has to be this belief that happens first before you can successfully implement a new habit. So what do I mean by that? People who want to Run a marathon. Let’s say they want to get more fit and healthier and they want to start running. You can create habits and goals to go out for a run on a day-to-day basis, but you won’t truly be successful in creating those habits until you first adapt the identity of being a runner. You have to become and identify with that person first before you can really start leaning into and and successfully implement those habits that it takes right to eventually run a marathon. You can’t it’s very difficult, I will say to you show up every day for your run if you don’t believe at your core in your identity. You are a runner and so it’s kind of the same idea here.

Our physical space is kind of a physical representation, of visual representation of the things that we’re allowing in our life. And one thing that I noticed about myself I was allowing the space around me to dictate my energy. It felt cluttered, it didn’t feel necessarily inspiring. I will say my office the lighting in here has always been so dim and that does not give an abundance of energy, right. It often makes me tired or makes I have a couch in here, makes me want to nap or not do the work that I need to do. And so I found that my space was dictating my identity, the type of person in the way that I was showing up in the world, and just by going through the motions of intentionally creating this new space, I have subconsciously then started to lean into more of that person that I want to be, the life that I want to be living, and not to say that it’s going to just come this easily all the time, right, like as you start to Shift out of some of your old habits and lean into new habits and new identities and starting to to do new things that might push you out of your comfort zone.

Of course, there are going to be times where you might revert back to your old habits, right. There will be times where I come into my office and, even though it’s a beautiful, inspiring place, I might be like you know what low energy today, not feeling it. I’m going to take a nap, but that has nothing to do with my identity and so much more to do about my energy for that day. Right, that doesn’t dictate who I am as a person or my trajectory of where I’m going. That’s just my energy for the day. I’m tired, I’m not feeling creative, I need to give myself a rest day, but on a day to day basis, having a space that gives you energy to be creative and feel fulfilled and feel like you are growing into the person you are actively wanting to become, really just changes the game, and so I. This is going to be a quick episode today, but I just I want to float this question to you and I’d love to encourage you if you feel like your space is not one that brings you joy.

Number one the first suggestion I have we already talked about it is to declutter. Start with the easy things. First throw out the things that you know that you don’t need or that you’re gonna donate or get rid of, and then start to pare down the things that maybe you have too much of or things that you don’t necessarily need anymore, and then ask yourself can I elevate this space, even if it’s just a few small little tweaks? Right, what are some things that I can bring in that actually elevate the space? Maybe it’s a new candle, maybe it’s some fresh flowers, maybe it’s fake flowers. That’s what I do, right? I said my office is dark, but I wanna have flowers in here, but I also don’t wanna be stressed about having to buy flowers every week. Okay, well, get some beautiful looking artificial plants and put some plants in there. Maybe you want some new lighting. Maybe the office space around you, the lighting, isn’t good, right?

How can you slowly but surely start to create this more intentional space that allows you to live into the person that you’re becoming and those two things? Once you start doing that, you will be surprised at how it starts to just shift. The way that you’re showing up, your energy changes. Your beliefs slowly start to change, right, because you’re taking on an identity of. I am someone who creates intentional spaces. I am someone who cares about how things make me feel, and when we start to give ourself that gift, magical, magical things happen. So, all that to say, I’m excited to hear about how you’re going to tweak the space around you.

Send me a message on Instagram at HeyChristinMarie. Tell me either one thing that you’re getting rid of, or one thing that you’re adding into your office space. I would love to hear, and I’d love to get inspiration. I’m always looking for more inspiration on how we can make our spaces beautiful and feel really just true and authentic to ourselves. So send me a message on Instagram, let me know If this was helpful for you. I’d love for you to share it with a friend and, all of that said, I just thank you so much for being here, for being a part of the community. I am just always so honored to get to connect with you on this really intimate basis and to just share life together, to share this process, the behind the scenes of being a business owner. It is a challenge sometimes right, it’s a challenge to grow a business.

Sometimes we feel like we are in this by ourselves. We feel like we’re the only ones experiencing and going through these challenges and these and the opportunities. We feel like we’re the only ones here and I’m here to tell you and welcome you officially whether you’ve listened for a long time or maybe this is your first time listening in welcome into my community. I am so honored that you’re here and I’m so excited to learn more about how I can support you as you grow your business moving forward and, all of that said, I can’t wait to chat again and I will see you over in the next episode. One last thing before you go I’d absolutely love it if you left a review on Apple Podcast, or if you’ve already left a review, I’d love for you to share this episode with your business bestie. I love getting to shout out my listeners on the show, and the more listeners that we have, the more that I can help others create a thriving and sustainable business too. Thank you so much again for being a part of this community, and I can’t wait to hear your takeaways from today’s episode.