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That Is A 2023 Problem

Okay, guys, today I am joined by Crystal at home. Crystal is a Fung Shui designer and clutter expert who helps work-from-home entrepreneurs declutter and design a workspace that empowers them to create the business and life they want. Using her proprietary framework, the Design Life Method, and Mind Body Soul Home, she helps her clients design spaces and lives that they love. Crystal shows women how to use their workspace as a 3D vision board to help them design the person they are becoming and the life they want. All right in their space. Welcome to the show, Crystal.

 Hello, Crystal, and welcome. Thank you so much for joining me. 

Thank you for having me. 

Awesome. So tell us a little bit about you and how you came to own your business? 

Well, that's always such a big question, isn't it? 

We always start with a good one. Right? 

I've kind of always wanted to have my own company and own my own business. My grandparents owned their own business when I was growing up. So, like, that was where I went after school when I was little, right? I was always in the office playing boss, I guess is what you would call it, right? With their little, you know, adding machine, I'm playing. I own the company. And so that was sort of always my thing. I tried numerous different ventures into what is this thing? Nope, maybe not? Not so much. Oh, is this worth it? Nope, not so much. Right. I had a few different experiences before I finally found—or, I guess what I would really call it, wrapped all of my passions up into one thing and created something out of it. And so yeah, it took me a lifetime. You know, it takes a lot of experimenting to figure out what really is my passion and how do I wrap all of those things up into something that helps humanity?

So yeah, it's interesting how, you know, and I think in the case of COVID, the word pivot kind of became a word. And so now I'm like, Oh, I don't want to use the word pivot. So realistically, as we go through these journeys and create our businesses, do we go through these, you know, is it this? Maybe not? And so you kind of go through these different processes, but you end up kind of taking a piece of each one with you—"Oh, I like this, "Oh, I want this"—and taking it with you. And sometimes they're bigger changes. And sometimes they're small changes. I laugh because I love the color. I love the color black, which isn't the color but, you know, I love black. Before I started my business, my first set of branding was black, beige, gray, and white. Oh, yeah. Not good for Pinterest.

 Everything that I'm wearing today.

There you go. Yes, neutrals. I loved it. It was so me, but it was kind of not. It was really tough in certain places because it was so neutral. And I laugh because, as my business has evolved, you know, the colors are just one example. But realistically, you know, we went to the agency like an orange with branding. And you know, the podcast is obviously very loud—blue, purple, pink—all of these things that I thought I would never be. So it's interesting how things evolve and change. So tell me, what did you bring through on your journey from each of these pieces? Like, what is an example of something that you liked about the first business? What was that business? And how does that impact your business today?

Ladder to being your own Boss

Well, my first one really was, like, on the front porch when I was like six. So, you know, that was just more of, I think, the vision that someday I will be my own boss, right? I think that was sort of the initial vision. But what I've taken through even from the real beginning—my first company as an adult, my first two companies were MLMs, right? I joined in on somebody else's product. And what I really took from that was especially the second one—not as much as the first one, but the second one, which was mentorship and how important it is to have someone there to teach you what to do. I mean, I don't know about you. But I learned nothing about owning a business in school; I didn't even learn about owning a business growing up in a business, like, really, you know, like, I ran around this shop all day, every day; that was my place. And even then I wasn't taught anything about running a company, right? But luckily, I did have a mentor in the second, quote-unquote, business that I started. And so I think that was probably a big thing: just having someone ahead of me say, "Oh, you want to get here; let me just show you what to do. Because, I mean, it makes the journey so much shorter, as long as you can take it in.

That, for me, was a big part because I had a lot of healing to do along the way too. Just in order to be able to really step up and put myself out there with all of the sometimes backlash that comes with that, as well as even being able to receive, I had a lot of that to go on. But that mentorship helped me there too.

You know, it's interesting, the whole MLM process and the negative connotation that often comes with it. You know, people are Oh, MLM, and so, as I was leaving my corporate job, I joined an MLM. And I don't necessarily share that with many people because it was relatively brief. And I determined right away that I was really not that great at selling things. And that was going to be an issue, and I needed to work on it, but I loved the camaraderie and the mentorship that came with it. And, you know, people asked, "Why'd you join MLM?" And it was really—I said, I just love the people; I love that you have this group of—mostly women.

This group of people is all working towards common goals, chatting with each other, and coming from corporate, where, you know, I often joke that it is the old boys club, like, I am so tired of the old boys club. And, you know, being the only woman at the table and really feeling like I was kind of the black sheep And so the MLM piece for me was so much more about the camaraderie in the group and the connection in the community. So, you know, when it wasn't, it wasn't a great fit. And I knew that I had other things I wanted to do. But I definitely think that the mentorship piece is so key. Nobody makes mistakes unless you go to business school. So, I mean, I have a business degree, I did my MBA, and all of these things. But that's still not the stuff you learn. What you learn is not what you're using every day in your business; I'm sure, you know, if we want to dig into strategies and big concepts and all these things, these are the kinds of things okay, we learned in business school. But, you know, should I do this social media post or that social media post? What do you know—what is the trend right now? Should I be working on marketing? Should I be working on sales? What do you know—that cold email is the right thing right now? All of these different pieces—none of that is covered in school; everybody's kind of just working with experience. And so mentorship is super key.

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So how would you say now that you are working with your business? And how would you say that the journey has really, you know, brought you to where you are today? And I'll frame the question by saying, you know, you talked about the healing that was needed and being willing to, you know, stick yourself out there, which is, is a huge part of entrepreneurship, and being willing to put yourself out there and be passionate and free forward and all of these pieces. So how has that journey really contributed to now? This more open, you know, current version?

Oh, well, I mean, I think that was a big part of it, right? The mentorship that I got right from my first business included, you know, obviously, sales training. There was also more personal development sort of stuff, which helped me get started overcoming a lot of the baggage that I was carrying around from my childhood. I was super introverted, and I'm still super introverted, but I was super shy when I was little.

I also grew up in a really abusive home, and I learned from a very young age to, to kind of hide and keep it quiet and pretend and fake it till you make it and all of this sort of stuff that I was taught, that really kept me playing small, right, I was, I was terrified of being able to put putting myself out there and having, you know, people come at me with whatever calling me a liar or telling me I didn't know what I was talking about, or, you know, all of these things, because that was stuff that I had experienced, so frequently growing up. And so for me, I had a lot of healing and growth to get through to be able to move past that and say, "Not just this is who I help and what I do, but why I help them, and how do we get to some of these deeper levels of that work? Because I think we all sort of have thatcold, dark night of the soul" that we have to heal from, especially as women, we get beat down from so many different directions that when it's finally time to really step into this place, which is where entrepreneurship is, right? It's like the road less traveled, right? It's this new place. And it's, it's, it can be very brutal out here, right? So having that strength, that core of resilience and inner—I can't think of the word—I want just that inner core of that feminine power, right? But we have to heal so much to build that back up, right? Because in so many places, at least in my experience, everywhere I turned, it was always like, Oh, you're a woman; you're less than us, right? And so you can't possibly know anything, right? For whatever reason—like you have boobs, which means your brain does not work— It's sort of like this: And so overcoming all of that and being able to really step into and stand in that place of power—I think that was a big part of my healing journey.

And I think it is more common than most people want to admit. To be honest, I think, you know, I talk to business owners, especially through the agency, of all different sizes, industries,  and levels of experience, and not one person has ever not had a moment of like, "Oh my goodness, can we really do this? And at different times and different things, you know, some people that are showing up on video and, you know, putting themselves out there, they're like, "No, no, no, I don't want to do that. And for other people, it's blogging and trying to show a more personal side; you know, it's always a different piece. But always there are these moments of, "Oh, can I and can you see that?" It's like, "Hey, no, we're on it; we can do this. Let's keep going. And, as I often say, you know, we can't, you can't stay here. The business is kind of, you know, you can either say, Okay, we're not going ahead, and we're going to go back. Or you have to keep going forward; you can't just stand still in that moment of fear. And often, to me, the two most common ones are our technology and people saying things like, Oh my gosh, I don't know how to do this. I don't know which button to push; I'm going to break it every night. I said, "Nothing's going to explode. You know, you can't really break it. We can fix it; we can always fix it. And then there is the insecurity of being vulnerable. Right?

We stumble along very publicly with our imperfections and just put it out there because, you know, I'm human, right? I do these and other podcast interviews like this all the time. Sometimes, like, I'm crying on a podcast, and it's like, Well, that wasn't what I intended to do. But, you know, it's just that here I am being human and just doing it very publicly. And, for a lot of us, that is a big boulder to get up and over, right, because yeah, from what I mean, especially for me when I was really young, I had some, you know, just whatever different life experiences that happened, and then to have everybody point and laugh, and you know, Crystal did it, you know, kind of things, and the humiliation that goes with it, and then to voluntarily, like, put yourself out there for it. Yes, that is difficult and requires a lot of concentration. And I think there are little bits of healing that have to happen. And sometimes there are big bits of it that have to happen in order for us to be able to just step out and say, Yeah, I don't care if you laugh. Tony, you go right ahead and laugh your little ass off, because it doesn't matter. Right? I'm out here doing things, and you're not. So?

Absolutely. Absolutely. One of the experiences that I think really had that moment for me was when I actually went back and taught a big training session at my old high school. And so high school was not the greatest time for me; I was super shy and introverted, and I am still very shy, but I have learned as an adult how to, you know, show up when I need to show up and put myself in situations that I enjoy, you know, these types of podcast situations where I can connect with other women and men and business owners and entrepreneurs. But certain things about high school—had someone said, You'll be podcasting, I probably would have said, Not a chance.

But you know, so I went back, and we had this corporate training event. There were about 150 people. And so we've got the slides, we've got multiple screens we're standing in, and, you know, I'm going to be leading this training event, and I went to the bathroom just before I was going to go on, and, you know, walking down the hallway and staring at the bathroom, it still smelled the same. I know, that's going to sound super weird. Not a bad smell. But, like, whatever the cleaner was, that's that. And I stood looking in the mirror. And it was like, Whoa." It was this moment of like, you know, because I was standing there dressed very professionally and wearing heels. And I felt more calm. I felt confident to go on. I knew what I was, and I was talking about being very confident and passionate about the subject. And but looking in the mirror and standing in my high school, staring at the mirror was this moment; I can tell you it changed so much for me just standing there, washing my hands, and looking in the mirror; it was crazy.

Yeah. Yeah, I think we all have those—just those moments that it happens. And it's like, the world just changed. Something shifted in, like, the whole universe just then, and now everything is different, even though it looks the same. And everything on the outside looks the same. But this massive shift just occurred internally. And, yeah, that's right, it happens to all of us. That very magical moment of stepping into who you were meant to become always

Absolutely. I love the way you put that. I love that.

So talk to me now about your business,  who you're helping, and why you're passionate about it.

Well, because that's what I get to do, I get to help them become who it is that they want to be. So I am a functional designer and a clutter expert. And I help women to declutter and design their workspace in a way that really empowers them to create the life and business that they want. So we dig into the way I do design. I don't think we design for who you are today. Because today is a combination of all of your yesterday's rights, we design for who you are becoming next on your journey. And so I like to call it really creating this 3D vision board out of your space that makes room for you to become who it is that you are trying to become.

That's incredible. It kind of comes back to that saying, "Don't dress for who you are; dress for who you want to be." You know, it's taking it to the next space, and you're applying it to your space. I love the concept of, you know, your office space, setting you up for success and that future life. So what types of things are your go-to's? Obviously, it's very personalized for each person. But what are things that you consistently see across the board that help with that process? What changes or recommendations are you making consistently for people?

The design life method

Well, over the course of, you know, a couple of decades, I've really developed a whole framework around how to do this with clients. Right? And because what I see consistently is you, what I see consistently is you. We've got our clutter, right? Everything's cluttering up the space that we're in. And we don't really have time for that. Because we're so busy trying to drive the bus towards the goal, we're just stepping over the clutter and kind of ignoring it. And the same thing is happening in our business, right? We learn all these new things, but we don't really implement them yet. We've got to go the hard route for some reason. And so with, like, my clients, I have this sort of method, right? I call it the designed life method, right? And it's sort of like four pillars, right? Mind, body, soul, and home—your environment is an energetic extension of your energy frequency.

So when we look at your space, we can really see, like, what's going on internally, right? Mentally, emotionally, physically, and spiritually, all of those things are reflected in your space. So when I'm working with clients, I always start with decluttering; we start with decluttering, all of those things that are keeping us stuck where we are, because your physical clutter is not just physical clutter, right? It's just a reflection of the mental and emotional clutter. That's really keeping us stuck. So we always start by decluttering first; that doesn't mean we get rid of everything, but it does mean we declutter the clutter.

 And I have a whole method for that, right? There's a five-step process that I teach to them, which really becomes more of a tool in their arsenal for them to use at any time going forward, and then the next thing we do is really dive into designing that space for who she is. We first have to figure out what she's like, and we all do a lot of visioning. Right, I want to visualize the future. But we visualize in this very abstract way. I want this house and this car, and, you know, I want whatever kind of looks like this, and I want to, but we don't really get down to the nitty gritty of what everyday looks like. And when we do that, when we really start honing in and zeroing in on what does your day look like, right? In your office space? Like, what kind of business do you run? Like, what does that look like? And we start honing in on Okay, now and then, what do we want it to look like? Right? What does it look like right now? What would it look like? If it were in your ideal situation, Right, whatever that might be, right? So that we can then use that as the foundation for our design process. Right? The process of design is kind of the same, right? We space plan, and then we decorate, right?

The physical energy charge

 At my firm, we have the added bonus of the functional aspect, right? That's the next part, once we have the vision, right? We know who she's becoming, we know what her goals are, and we know what her vision is. Now we can design around it, we can do the Fung Shui part, and we can get her into alignment with her space, right? Energetically, we can put her in her power position so that the space that she's in is not just a space; it's literally a battery. Like it's energetically amplifying her right. So I'm not. I don't know a lot about human design. But there's some similarity stuff right with what's blocked and what's open, and how it uses its charge. Your space is similar; you can use it to really charge up your physical energy. And so that's what we do in the space: we align you with it.

 And then we decorate the whole thing into being right. We add all of the functionary remedies that will correct any misalignments where the energy is not flowing. And then we really bring it to life. So, like you were talking about at the beginning, I want my branding. Well, sometimes we don't, don't you know what I mean? Sometimes I have clients that come to me with no idea what their brand is. But we work that out in the process, right? So, you know, all of them. All of those colors come together so that they really have a space that they love. Right? Because I mean, I've had clients that I've worked with that, like them, don't want to go in their office, like I've got a home-based business and I've got a whole room. I don't want to go where my business is because I don't like it there. Like, how are you ever going to grow a business if you cannot go to your office? You know, the goal really is to have a space that you love that inspires you to work and make the impact that you're here to make, but also energetically supports you so that you have the power to be right as a woman, and this is a little tangential here, right? We're powered by estrogen. Estrogen is a diffuse awareness thing; our brains are meant to be everywhere. But as an entrepreneur, when we are single-focused, which is a very testosterone-based way of being, right, it throws us off, like, our energy. So when we can get the space that supports us energetically in our feminine, so that we are inspired to create and birth whatever it is that we are creating, it makes a huge difference in the impact that we are able to create in the world. It's the foundation, having your energy supported.

And it's so interesting. I never even contemplated it from that perspective at all. Very interesting. What is your biggest pet peeve about people's space?

Oh, goodness, I'm going to have a better answer for this later. I know that for sure. There's a few things, you know, but the thing that really makes me cringe is this I'll do it later attitude. I see women struggling so hard to lift this empire that they're trying to create; it's like heavy lifting, right? We're trying to lift that Empire State Building, right? It's not like we're doing these minor things. And we're just like, Oh, I'll, I'll deal with it later, I'll decorate my office later. Like when I deserve it. And so now we're always swimming upstream, fighting against the current, like we're doing it backwards. Right? You deserve it upfront, first of all, and you don't have to wait until you've earned it. But also, if you would, if we would just do it energetically up front, we wouldn't have to lift so hard. Right? So that drives me crazy. When it's like that, you know, we do it in reverse, because we feel like we have to put everybody else first and then ourselves last. And then they think that it doesn't matter, because then it's just decoration. But it's so much more than that, energetically.

It's literally draining you, but it's just a sign of how deeply embedded the idea is that you have to put yourself last, even your own business you have to put last, and even your own office space yet. So that really does. That is really one of my biggest pet peeves; probably about the whole thing is that we think we have to wait until we've reached the pinnacle before giving ourselves what we deserve.

Yes, I think it comes down to that. It's also the links and feelings that you know—powerful and confident—and the energies working the right way. And then there is the value that comes with investing in things like, you know, office space and whatnot. I came from it. From a technology standpoint, which is more my area of expertise, I often see people working on a laptop with no additional monitor, no keyboard, and no mouse, and then they find themselves being like, "Oh, everything's taking so long. And it's like you're not set up for success; you need the tools. So you need the space, you need the space to be set up correctly, and you need the equipment to do the job. You know, if you're spending, you know, six hours a day on your computer and it's not what you need it to be, you know, this is just wasted energy and wasted time. And I always think, you know, what could that time be spent on? What could that be, you know, what opportunities could be? You know, we are exploring these types of things. So, you know, looking at this process and the decluttering and whatnot

 How can people take that first step? Where can they meet with you? Where can they see your content? What, where's that next step for those that are thinking, Oh, my gosh, Crystal is speaking to me?"

Decluttering your mindset

Yes. If I am speaking to you and you need to start with decluttering first and foremost, go to declutteryourmindset.com and download my five-step method. It's going to walk you through the right way to declutter. So because most people want to go from step one to step five, they discover Oh, I have some clutter, and then you name exactly the problem: there are no shortcuts. So the problem with going from step one to step five, which is a very patriarchal attitude, by the way, going from step one to step five, is that you skip all the magic of steps two, three, and four, which is where all the beautiful things happen; it's where the growth happens. It's where the releasing happens; it's where everything shifts; it's where we literally energetically make the shift in space. And so you have to go through all the processes. Otherwise, you're just wasting your time. And you're just going to continue on this hamster wheel of doing it over and over again and getting nowhere.

 And then I did actually launch a YouTube channel, which is full of free content for you know, just little bits at a time, to be able to help you through that process of decluttering the space and really designing the space. too. exciting, exciting. 

I'll be sure to tag the YouTube channel in the show notes and description. That's fantastic. And how have you been enjoying YouTube?

I love it. I absolutely love it. Yes.

That's awesome. You know, each social platform really has its own vibe. And so I always, you know, on YouTube, find people loving it. Or they're just not interested in it.So I also love YouTube, and what's going on? I think there's so much amazing content being created with so many different topics and whatnot.

Yeah, I tried to launch the first time back in 2019. And I wasn't ready. It wasn't the right time for me. So this time, I launched a few about a month ago. And so this time, I was definitely in the right place. And the content definitely shows that. Right. And I'm so much more excited about it. I'm so much more excited about what I'm putting out there. And what people are wanting. Right. So yeah, that's a big difference.

Have you noticed a shift since people have been working from home more than that? Is this the need? Is it increasing for what you're talking about and your service? I mean, so many people started working from their kitchen tables. And it's only recently that I've seen a lot of people not talking like, Hey, I finally have to get off the kitchen table. I know, this is more permanent. And so you know, it's a transformation that's been a journey, and no one's really known exactly the destination with this work from home and whatnot. So, has that changed things for you?

The corporate work-from-home style

You know, um, yes and no, right? I started the work-from-home thing a few years before all of this when I got hurt. And so my clients have always been work-from-home entrepreneurs; that's, that's always been the people that I have been geared towards. What I've noticed with this shift in, in the pandemic, is that I feel like there are a lot more people that need me for sure. Because and I think it does and will continue to change the way we live, like not just the way we live right now, but you know, people are shifting to a one: I'm going to move and I'm going to get a house with an extra bedroom," or "We're going back to like when we used to have dens," you know, back in like the 50s and 60s, right? They built houses with dens; we're going to have a need for that again, right? People are going to just work from home; things are not going to go away. No, and I think more and more people are going to continue this trend of leaving corporate America to start your own business. And people that are in corporate America working from a home-based office are also going to continue because it's just better for our mental health. I think it gives us so much more freedom. And I think people just like it that much more. So it's been great for me and for my business. We just need to be there.

When you figure out how to do that, Please let me know. Please let me know. I think you'd be very rich. So if you have one tangible tip to share that someone can implement today and see a difference tomorrow, What would that be for you?

Take today, and I don't care what you are doing. Put it on hold and declutter your office. Like seriously, dig into it; don't step over. Are that pile of crap for one more day? Like, declutter it, go through and throw out the trash, sort the clutter, like, do the process. Even if it takes you a whole week of not being productive, keep going with your work. By the end, when you do dive back in, it will be so much more productive; you will more than make up for the lost time by taking the time off to declutter and clean your space. Just the shift energetically will make a huge difference in how you feel and in how the money flows in your business and how the clients flow in your business. It'll make a shift.

Awesome. I look forward to trying that out myself. And also some of our listeners tried it out and really saw that transformation. I find the transformation For me, the most exciting part of any business journey is watching as people and businesses transform everything so that everything works together. So if we want to connect with you, Crystal, let's chat about that YouTube channel.

What does it call a crystal TV? Crystal TV loves it. Yep. So the best way to find me is actually just to watch cable TV. It's a link. Bitly watches Crystal TV.

Fantastic. All right. Well, thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate your time. It's been fantastic. It's my pleasure to be here, and well, we are all out of time for today. If you guys have not joined the service-based business society Facebook community, make sure you head on over to Facebook so we can continue the conversation. Be sure to also follow the show by going to any podcast app and searching surface-based business society. Click subscribe, click the fifth star, and leave us a written review. Have a great week, and we will see you soon.