Ep 87 Creative Women Need Different Structures: Building a Business That Supports Your Nervous System

Welcome back to the podcast, my gorgeous souls.

Today’s conversation is a really important one because we are talking about something I see so many creative women quietly struggling with behind the scenes, nervous system overload, overwhelm, emotional exhaustion, and trying to run a business inside structures that were never built for creative minds.

Because the truth is, I don’t believe most interior designers are struggling with capability.

I believe they are struggling with capacity, structure, and trying to force themselves into routines, schedules, and expectations that simply do not support the way their brain naturally works best.

In this episode, I share my own experiences of working late nights, running on adrenaline, pushing myself right up against deadlines, and operating in survival mode during the earlier years of my business. I talk honestly about the shifts I had to make to build a business that actually supported me creatively, emotionally, and energetically, rather than constantly draining me.

We dive into understanding energetic capacity versus time capacity, identifying your peak performance levels, time blocking, building white space into your diary, and separating “on the business” work from “in the business” work.

This conversation is about giving yourself permission to stop building your business around burnout and start building it around sustainability.

Because your creativity deserves structures that support it, not systems that punish it.

Join Lisa-Marie and the women inside the Design Boss Diary world, follow on Instagram HERE and discover more about how you can work with Lisa in 2026 and beyond.

Other episodes are available on our YouTube channel HERE.

Ready to build a business that actually supports your creativity, capacity, and wellbeing?

If you know you’re wildly talented but craving more structure, clarity, boundaries, forecasting, systems, and support inside your business, there are several ways we can work together.

From high-proximity 1:1 mentorship to supportive group programmes designed to help women build sustainable and profitable interior design businesses, every space has been created to support you differently depending on where you currently are in your journey.

To explore what support could look like for you, reach out directly at designbossdiary@gmail.com and start the conversation. 2026 currently has a limited amount of spaces remaining.

And as always, if you have loved this episode, we would absolutely love for you to leave a review, and if you screenshot this podcast and share it on your socials tagging @Design_Boss_Diary, then we have a special gift waiting just for you.

See you in the next episode, from your Interior Design Business Strategist and Soulful Leadership Mentor x

Transcript

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Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Design Boss Dialogue Podcast, the Interior Design Business Podcast for women who are ready to build businesses that feel as good on the inside as they look on the outside. And today's conversation is one that I have wanted to record for quite some time actually because we are diving into the soulful leadership work that I believe women in business creatives, founders, and visionaries need to be doing alongside the strategy. And yes, strategy does matter, structure matters, sales matter, visibility matters, but it cannot just be about strategy alone. And if you're listening to this thinking, oh my god, Lisa, I have downloaded the courses, I've listened to the podcasts, I've saved the Instagram posts, I've bought the 999 downloads and the 50 pound masterclasses, I've bought the planners, I've written the goals, but somehow something still feels disconnected. Then this episode is going to be for you. Because what I have realized through my own journey, through mentoring hundreds of women, and most recently through taking seven gorgeous, incredible women away to Ibiza for our reset, realign, and rise retreat is that so many women are trying to build externally whilst internally feeling completely disconnected from themselves, disconnected from the joy, disconnected from the clarity, disconnected from the safety, from their intuition, and disconnected from the woman they are actually trying to become. And this is where soulful leadership work becomes so incredibly powerful because the internal work, the energetic work, the mindset work, the identity work, the nervous system work is often missing the piece that allows women to truly expand. So today I want this episode to feel like a deep exhale for you. And I want you to sit back, relax, grab a cup of tea if you need one. Maybe you're even listening to this cooking the dinner. Maybe pause and come back to it, or maybe you're driving and you really want to take this in. So it's okay to pause and come back, but I want this to be a little bit of a reset for you too. Maybe even get your journal out. And I want us to have a real honest conversation about the power of soulful leadership, higher self-work, joy, alignment, feminine energy, and why women cannot continue trying to build businesses whilst abandoning themselves in the process. That's the key to this. Because the most sustainable businesses are not just built through pressure, they are built through alignment. And that is exactly what we're going to dive into today. And that is exactly what I do with so many of the women that I coach and mentor, building businesses that feel good on the inside as good as they look on the outside as well. And I think for such a long time, the business world has glorified hustle culture and is something that I'm really massively against. And I'm leaning more towards the alpha feminine split, so the alpha masculine and the divine feminine. The hustle culture is push harder, work longer, do more, achieve more, produce more, wake up earlier, sleep less. And whilst I absolutely believe in ambition, resilience, and drive, because you all know I'm deeply passionate about the women building profitable, powerful businesses, I also think we've normalized exhaustion in somewhat. We've normalized burnout, we've normalized pressure, and we've normalized women abandoning themselves in the pursuit for success. And what I see so often inside the creative industries, particularly amongst women, is women trying to operate purely from the masculine energy perspective. Constant output, constant doing, constant pressure. And eventually what happens is they disconnect from themselves entirely. The creativity drip up, the joy disappears, the nervous system becomes overwhelmed, the confidence starts wavering. And this is why soulful leadership matters so deeply, and matters extremely to me in the work that I do, the work that I do in my own inner, and the work that I do with the women's businesses as well. Because soulful leadership is not about abandoning the business strategy route, it's about creating harmony between the masculine and the feminine. Now, the masculine gives us structure, it gives us direction, it gives us leadership, foundations, and systems. But the feminine, this gives us intuition, creativity, expansion, connection, flow, joy, all of the things that we should be learning to lean into more. And women need both. Because a business without structure feels chaotic, but a business without soul feels completely empty. And I think so many women are secretly building businesses that look successful externally, whilst internally feeling exhausted, disconnected, and deeply unfulfilled. And I know this because I've lived through this too. Now, last week when I took some incredible women away to Ibetha for reset, realign and rise, and honestly, some of the breakthroughs we witnessed were just absolutely profound. They were such beautiful moments of watching a woman move through transformation, coming onto the island and coming into the retreat, one woman, and leaving as someone else, someone else that's stepping into her higher self. And of course, yes, there was business strategy involved. There always is, you know, we looked at foundations, direction, growth, visibility, structure, offers, leadership. But the biggest, deepest breakthroughs, they came from the soul work, the stillness, the reflection, the vulnerability, the releasing, the shedding, the remembering. And one thing I realized very deeply whilst being there is how desperately women need space to reconnect back into themselves. This is actually really, really important because most women are carrying so much. They are carrying the pressure, the mental load, the responsibility of the house, the children, the caregivers, the expectation, the fear, the self-doubt, the people pleasing. We have 90 million tabs open in our head, and we're doing, you know, everything for everyone else, but we're not doing enough for ourselves. And actually, they never actually stop long enough to ask themselves, what do I truly want now? And as a woman, I want you to pause and actually ask yourself, what do I truly want now? What does that mean when you ask yourself that question? Not five years ago, not what everybody else expects, not what society tells success should look like. But what do you actually desire? So I want you to say to yourself, what do I actually desire? What does that look like for me? And when was the last time you actually stopped and asked yourself that question or gave yourself, you know, the time to ask yourself that question? And this is why resets are so powerful. And we should learn to live into the feminine more and allow ourselves to reset. Because every 90 days, every six months, every year, we completely evolve. And if you never stop to reconnect with yourself, you end up building a business that no longer aligns with who you're becoming. And that's why obviously the retreat was called reset, realign, and rise, because before we rise, we often need to reset, and before we rise, we often need to shed. And shedding the identities, the beliefs, the stories, the fears, the expectations, the survival patterns, these things that are no longer serving the next version of ourselves. So I want you to look at your calendar. We've got six months left of the year, and I want you in the next two to three weeks to think about how can you take a moment out to reset? How can you take a moment out to look at what you don't want to do and what you do want to do, what you want to desire, and what actually does the next six months look at? Because it it's frightening that we're already six months into the year, and we've got six months left of this year. So, how do you want to make an impact? How do you want to create a difference? And that doesn't have to be big or profound, that might be small, maybe a a difference to your structure, a difference to your calendar. Maybe that's sitting your partner down and talking about how you both can work together in the home rather than it all being on your shoulders. Maybe it's the way you work, maybe it's the way you deal with your clients, maybe it's your mindset. You haven't done mindset work before and you know you need to. Maybe it's re-looking at your business because actually you haven't got anywhere in the last six to twelve months, and you know you've either hit a ceiling or you're just not moving this business forward and you need support and help. So, what is no longer serving the next version of you? And I want you to really think about that. Now, when we talk about soulful leadership, there often is a science behind it. Now, I know sometimes when people hear the words like manifestation, alignment, higher self, or energetic work, they instantly dismiss it as oh, this is too spiritual, it's not for me. No, it's too woo-woo, I'm not listening. But what's really fascinating is science is now supporting so much of what soulful practices have spoken about for years. And research around neuroplasticity shows that the brain can literally rewire itself through repetition, which means your thoughts, beliefs, and emotional patterns, they're not fixed. You can actually reshape them. And this is why subconscious scripting, affirmations, visualization, journaling, EFT tapping, meditation, these can all become incredibly powerful tools that you use within your business because repetition changes identity, and your brain begins creating new neural pathways based on what you repeatedly focus on. And there's also extensive research in positive psychology around gratitude, joy, and emotional regulation, and studies show that gratitude practices can reduce call to soul, the body's stress hormone, whilst increasing emotional resilience, creativity, and overall well-being. And honestly, it completely makes sense. And actually, if we're constantly practicing the art of gratitude and what we're thankful for, and actually stopping and having a moment to just be and saying, I've really loved today. I've loved that I've been able to serve my clients, I've loved that I've been able to do this, I've loved the fact that I dictate my structure. More please, universe, give me more of this, please. I love this. Give me more aligned clients, let me do more of what I love to do. It is going to reduce the cortisol and it is going to support your nervous system regulation. Because when your nervous system is constantly in spiral mode, your body cannot create properly. And creativity is one of the greatest assets we have as women in business. When women feel safe internally, their ideas expand, their confidence expands, their visibility expands. And this is why nervous system work matters so much in business, because if your body does not feel safe receiving more, you will unconsciously sabotage that expansion. So we do this work, we practice the art of gratitude and practice the art of joy whilst opening up to the abundance and the alignment of what we want to receive. Because we're telling the universe we're so grateful for what we have, but more please, more pleased at this beautiful work. We raise our internal vibration and watch the magic that will start to come. Now, one of the practices I personally love the most is higher self-visualization work. And in Ibiza last week, the women got to experience a new higher self-practice called Lumina, which is a sacred oracle practice that I released out in Ibiza and I'll be releasing into my work in the UK shortly this year. But I do this because I truly believe that so many women are trying to build a next level business while still emotionally attached to an old identity. And this creates huge internal conflict. You want the visibility, but you fear judgment. You want the premium clients, but you question your worth. You want the financial abundance, but carry fear around money. You want growth, but your nervous system fears responsibility. And this is why identity work is so important. Because your business can only grow to the level you emotionally feel safe holding. And that sentence changed my life when I first truly understood it. Your business can only grow to the level you emotionally feel safe holding. Think about that. Let that land. Your business can only grow to the level you emotionally feel safe holding. That's really powerful. And often women think they need another strategy when actually what they need is internal safety, safety in being seen, safety in earning more money, safety in leadership, safety in success, safety in expansion. And higher self-work brings and helps bridge that energetic gap between who you are today and who you are becoming, not from fantasy and not from bypassing reality, but from intentional embodiment. And you begin asking, how does she lead? How does she protect her space? How does she speak to herself? How does she protect her energy? How does she care for her body? How does she make decisions? How does she hold boundaries? How does she create joy on an everyday basis? And slowly you stop making decisions from survival and you start making decisions from alignment. And this can become so powerful, so powerful. And I want to also talk about joy because honestly, this has become one of the most important lessons in my own journey recently. And I used to think joy was something that arrived after success. Once the business grows and once life has calmed down, and once everything feels sorted, oh my god, I'm gonna feel so much joy. But what I've realized is joy is not the reward at the end. Joy is the medicine throughout the journey that we experience. And I think so many women are living in this constant cycle of pressure. You know, they wake up, they work, they push, they perform, they repeat, they start again. And somewhere along the way, women truly stop living and they stop noticing beauty, they stop resting without guilt, they stop laughing deeply, they stop being present. And recently I had to ask myself, what are we actually doing all of this for? That's such a powerful question when you allow it to land. Because if we build businesses that disconnect us from ourselves completely, then what's the actual point? Like, what is the actual point? For me, joy looks like these simple little things. Most of you that watch me on Instagram and see them on stories, you'll know I'll stand barefoot in the garden, I'll watch the birds with a cup of tea, I'll go on a sulphur walk, I'll have a bath and read a book, I'll put my 528 Hz healing music on. I love deep conversations, I'm not here for the surface level. I love belly laughing with my girlfriends, I love making silly content, I love just being me with my friends and laughing to things that just we forget what we're laughing about. I love the sunsets, I love being present, I love being still, I love hugging my husband for more than 20 seconds, even though sometimes he tries to pull away and hug him tighter. But these moments really, really matter because joy regulates us, joy reconnects us, joy raises our emotional state, and joy reminds us that life is happening now, and not just when we hit the next milestone or things get hard, joy should become part of our everyday, soulful leadership routine alongside the mindset because we connect the feelings that connect us to the success that we're building when we can practice the art of true joy. And I had such a beautiful moment in Ibiza that I want to share with you with my coach and mentor. She came out to run a workshop, and she came out to very much be part, both my coaches actually did. They they came out to run workshops, be a huge part of the retreat, and there was a moment with one of them. We were watching a little bird on the grass, actually, and we we were both studying this little bird, and we were like, How beautiful is that? That that that bird is just hopping around near us, and he's just minding his own business, doing his thing, and we get to experience what he's doing, and we're just taking a moment to be still, we're not rushing around. And that was such a lovely moment we had that day. Then we had the most dreamiest long lunch where we all got to sit together and we laughed and we cried, and we also got to dance, dance our hearts out to songs we love and sing. And we both looked at each other and we started crying, and we were like, This is joy, this is true joy. We're doing things that we absolutely love, and we're getting to experience joy together today. And when you get to experience the art of joy, your cup becomes so full. So, I want you to kind of take stock. If you're listening to this episode today, thinking, oh my god, Lisa, where do I even start with all of this? I want to give you some simple, soulful leadership practices that you can begin integrating daily into your business. Now, the first one is a morning energy check-in. Before touching your phone, I want you to ask yourself, how do I want to feel today? What energy do I want to lead from? Who am I becoming today? I just want you to ask yourself those questions. So, you know, how do I want to feel today? What energy do I want to lead from today? And who do I want to become? Who am I stepping into today? Those are three powerful little questions that actually, once we affirm those, they set the scene for the day. Another thing is journaling. Get your thoughts out of your head and onto paper. So many women are mentally overloaded constantly, and actually, yeah, but I've got it all up here and it's great. But actually, we create a natural release when we get it down onto paper. And actually, I love daydream journaling as well. I love putting my thoughts down, I love setting my desires, my alignments, my affirmations, but I also love daydream journaling. It's just such a beautiful thing you can do. Daydream about the perfect day in your work. And I remember when I first started this business, I used to daydream about I'm gonna have over 50 women coaching and mentoring at any one point of time. I'm gonna be able to support hundreds of women across my business. I'm gonna get to go from my coaching calls to talk on stories to selling in the DMs. I'm gonna be able to take Mondays off. I'm only gonna work four days a week over a three-week period. I'm not gonna really work the last week of the month, and I'm gonna create a business that really works my structure. Lo and behold, today I'm sitting here, and that's very much what I'm doing. The next thing is higher self-visualization. So I want you to spend five to ten minutes visualizing the future version of yourself. And I do this through some of my group practices, uh, my one-to-one practices and my workshops and my events that I do. And we walk through a really powerful visualization technique. But if you are just spending a couple of moments on your own now, I want you to think about how does she think? How does she lead? What does she look like? Her dress, her movement, her smell, how does she protect her energy and her peace? What is she saying to you? And visualize her. And you can do it with some 528 hertz music. I've got a great episode podcast link. Uh, I believe it was episode 53, and it's Christmas Day, and it's meeting your higher self. You can go back in and look at that, and that is a powerful one. One that I absolutely love is the EFT tapping, and this is incredibly powerful for releasing emotional blocks and fears and nervous system overwhelm stored within the body, and it's a beautiful practice. You can find it on YouTube. I've got an amazing friend, Danielle Hobson, and we've done many a podcast on tapping, and she is just the powerhouse when it comes to tapping as well, and it's a beautiful practice that you can do, and I absolutely love doing it maybe two, three times a week. I I will always practice it. The next thing is joy practices. Stop treating joy like a luxury and schedule it into your life intentionally, meeting up with friends, scheduling that bath in, reading that book, saying to yourself right on Monday, Wednesday, Friday at You know, seven o'clock in the morning if I can, I'm going out for a walk, or 8 pm in the evening. Now we're getting into the summer evenings, kids are down in bed, the husband's back in. I'm gonna go and schedule a half an hour walk in, and you'll realize actually that half an hour walk will bring you so much joy because you will have so much white space in your head. But I want you to start scheduling what brings you joy into your diary and start to practice it. Then we have gratitude work. Now, even scientifically, gratitude shifts your focus from scarcity to abundance, but how much are you actually doing? And if you are to be thankful for one thing every day and just practice three to four minutes of gratitude, that compound effect over the week is absolutely phenomenal. So think about what you're grateful for and what you're asking for more of based on what you're grateful. And then we have our nervous system support. We have our sleep, our hydration, nature, stillness, music, reset, breath work, nourishing food. These are not luxuries, these are the foundations of what you should be putting into your body and giving your body on a daily basis, on a very regular basis, in order for your body to function. So if I leave you with anything from today's podcast, I want it to be this your business is not separate from you. The way you lead yourself, the way you speak to yourself, the way you regulate yourself, the way you honor yourself, these all directly impact the way your business grows. And I truly believe the next era of leadership for women will not be built through burnout, 100% not. It will be built through alignment, through embodiment, through joy, through safety, and through that soulful leadership piece. So if you've been feeling disconnected lately and you've lost your spark a little and you've been stuck in survival mode, then this is your reminder to come back home to yourself, to really embody the reset, realign, and rise. Remember the woman you are becoming. She already exists within you. She's simply waiting for you to reconnect with her again. So allow yourself, give yourself that permission to see her, embody her, be her, step into her shoes. Thank you so much for listening to today's podcast and the episode of the Design Boss Dialogue podcast. And if this conversation has resonated with you, I would absolutely love for you to share this episode on Instagram, screenshot it, tag me, send a little message, let me know what landed the most for you. And until next time, keep building businesses that feel as good on the inside as they look on the outside. Thank you so much. And I will see you next week for another Powerful Packed podcast.