speaker-0: Almost everyone who undergoes a renovation or a new build project says that the experience was very overwhelming. Most people even say they were burned out before the project was finished. And as a society, we have just normalized this as a result of going through a construction project. But this does not have to be the cost of a renovation or a new build. Because oftentimes it's not even about the decisions being made that's overwhelming people. It's about the structure or lack thereof. Welcome to Return on Design, the podcast where beauty meets strategy and interiors become assets that perform. I'm your host, Rachel Niegerhofer, designer, investor, and builder of high impact spaces that deliver real results. Alongside my husband, I run both a design firm and a real estate investment company. Where I live at the intersection of creativity and ROI every day. Each week, I'll be unpacking what most people overlook: how strategic design decisions can grow your investment, elevate your lifestyle, and unlock the full potential of your property. You'll get real tools, proven strategies, and unfiltered conversations with industry experts who are doing it right. So if you're ready to invest with purpose and leverage design as a powerful tool, this podcast is for you. So today I want to visit on this topic specifically and break down what it is that leads people to this overwhelm feeling, and more importantly, how you can actually mitigate it and be proactive during the process. So thanks for joining. Let's dive right in. So why is it that people feel so overwhelmed, get so bogged down, and have this decision fatigue? It's very real. And most people experience it. I mean, there's hundreds of decisions that have to be made throughout the process of any type of renovation or construction project. And that's really where it starts.

speaker-1: You also have endless options, things to go through like to make those decisions. Like are you looking at Pinterest? What mood boards? What showrooms? I mean, the the possibilities and choices could be endless.

speaker-0: Yeah. And oftentimes it starts when somebody asks, you know, what are you trying to accomplish? And you're already thinking of the end before you've really defined how you're going to start in the beginning. And then in addition to that, you've got opinions of others. As soon as you tell somebody, I'm remodeling my kitchen, you're probably gonna get more experts. than you've requested in terms of how you should do it, who you should hire, and all the opinions that come along with style.

speaker-1: Should make what styles?

speaker-0: Yeah. Another very real overwhelm is a lot of people underestimate construction process in overall, I guess, in the sense that some people think they can live in a construction zone and their life isn't going to be completely turned upside down.

speaker-1: Yeah, and that's if you're believing that then we need to have a little secondary chat, but you know.

speaker-0: So kind of, you know, biting off more than you can chew, taking a step before you really understand the process of how this is all gonna work, you know, that can be very overwhelming and it requires a lot of strategy throughout execution to be able to actually stay on site and live in the place where the construction's happening.

speaker-1: And another, you know, part of this is, you know, most people, if they do this, may only do it once or twice in their lifetime. And so you're going through it and trying to learn the process at the same time.

speaker-0: Yeah, it becomes very reactive. Yeah. And oftentimes if you don't have the right team, you might be getting questions from maybe a contractor or your builder about selections and you know, you're almost getting ahead of the game and not really understanding again that process. Yeah. So it's really easy to fall victim of this though. I mean, because to your point, if you've never been through this process and you don't have a solidified Team around you who has, you are you are trying to figure it out as you go. And you know, you don't always know the order of operation. And oftentimes people lose sight of what they're actually trying to accomplish, anyways. And if this is the method, if this is the process this that you're going through, you're going to feel overwhelmed. Like this is like a guaranteed, you're going to your whole experience, you'll, you're going to be overwhelmed. And I think this is why the statistic is so high of people feeling overwhelmed and the narrative of like, you know, just buckle up, get ready because it's gonna be a horrible process.

speaker-1: Yeah, and it really doesn't have to be. Except I mean there's a lot in if you're going through a remodel renovation, there's a lot going on, but there can still there should still be an order to it, a a level of order operation, just fluid movement. And and if you get if you're way ahead of yourself in the process, you're gonna feel overwhelmed. If you're way behind in the process, you're gonna be overwhelmed. It's it's learning to Be right in that flow and in that balance with where it sh where the process is, where you should be and where you're going next.

speaker-0: And not only are you going to feel overwhelmed, but it's gonna cost you because if you are out of order or out of alignment, you're gonna be making decisions that are literally going to cost your financial bottom line. So you might be making an upgrade and not fully understanding the ripple effect of that upgrade or you know, renovating something or replacing something that doesn't need to be replaced.

speaker-1: Yeah, and and that's where I think a lot of this process and going through like knowing what needs to be fixed or what needs to be replaced. Yes. That you know, 'cause if you don't understand it, you're just gonna replace everything.

speaker-0: And we're gonna get to a solution oriented for that for our listeners. Yeah. But I just wanna give a little more context to how this can actually cost you more than just the emotional fatigue. I mean, this is how projects run over. This is how timelines get out of control, budgets get out of control because you're making decisions on the fly. And a lot of times you don't you don't have. enough of the concept of what is the outcome of this decision? Why am I making this decision? Is this actually going to produce what I'm trying to accomplish? And the same token, put yourself in a sort of safe category where if you're, as an example, if you're having to make decisions on the fly and your primary focus is the budget, the numbers, and you're not understanding what's the outcome if I don't do something, because I'm only looking at what's the cost of doing something. that's how you typically will end up dissatisfied with your project at the end. And oftentimes this is when we see people return back to the project a few years later and do it all over again because they didn't execute what they were trying to accomplish in the first place. So you you equally can overspin by making upgrades or unnecessary improvements that are not really going to, you know, move the needle, but you can alternatively, miss things that will significantly move the needle and be worth investing in at the same time.

speaker-1: Yeah, like we've talked about before, sometimes the the piece that you can leave out, but you're still prepped for that I can come back and add later. Yeah. You know, that that cost of planning and having things done and ready, even though I'm not gonna fully implement every aspect of this design, I'm ready to that when I when I revisit and I come back at a later date, I can pick up pretty much right where I left off and not have to redo things I've already done once.

speaker-0: Yeah. Having that proactive forethought of the future of this space too. So I see I see this all the time where people are making decisions based off of symptoms without ever really identifying well what's causing the symptom. So somebody might come to me and say, I want to change this kitchen. I just don't like it. Or it feels too dark, or it feels cramped. Something around the feeling. And so they're describing to me a symptom that they're experiencing from this space, which all of that's valuable information. And that's where everybody should be starting in terms of understanding why you feel a certain way about a space. But the premise is that I have to understand, well, what's the actual cause? And if you don't identify the cause of why you feel that way. You can't ever get to an actual goal. And this is really, really critical for the proactive structure when you're undergoing a renovation, a new build, any type of construction project. And this is how you're going to get ahead of that overwhelmed feeling. This is like step one, essentially. Yeah. Because if I am only focused on my symptom, what I feel. And I'm trying to, you know, solve the symptom without ever having identified a problem and a goal to the symptom. I'm like going about it backwards. And that's when you're going to end up in this overwhelm feeling because you're making decisions on the fly, hoping that it's actually going to cause or it's going to actually improve the cause. When you haven't even identified the cause, you're focused on the symptom. Does that make sense?

speaker-1: Yeah, kind of like you're you're trying to fix a problem, you don't really know what the what the problem is. And that's where, you know, we talked about I guess you get into this for pair versus replace. If I know what the problem is, I can fix the problem instead of just changing everything. The change everything becomes a shotgun blast effect. And I don't really know what one thing I did that actually solved my problem. Shotgun blast is what is

speaker-0: And that shotgun plus overwhelm. And that's the overwhelm. Because I mean, that's actually a great analogy. If you think about the ammunition of a shotgun, it's got all these little, what would you call it?

speaker-1: Yeah, babies.

speaker-0: Little BBs inside one bullet. But when when you shoot it, right, it's got a bunch of little projectiles. Similar concept of I'm making that shotgun decision while not realizing it's got a bunch of different Pieces. Pieces to that one decision is I often refer to as the snowball effect. And when that happens, that's when you start to feel very overwhelmed because you're like, my gosh, there's so many more decisions and I'm not sure and I don't know what to do. And that that's how

speaker-1: Another way to think about it is I'm throw I'm throwing darts at the wall to see which one sticks. Right. Which one which one piece is the one piece that actually hit and did what I was accompl I'm trying to accomplish.

speaker-0: And this is really the foundation of the structure that has to be established. This is what what I outlined in the blueprint, the return on design blueprint. This is how I assess every property, every project. It always has to start with identifying the root problem so that a goal can be established. So for our listeners, if you're if you're feeling a symptom, you need to write that down. Hone in on what you feel. And then the next is why am I feeling that way? And what is it that's creating that symptom? So, as an example, let's say you're like, it feels really dark in here. It just feels kind of dingy. It feels sad. You know, these are real things that you could describe from a symptom. The next thing would be, well, why does it feel that way? What does the lighting look like? Do you have natural light? Do you have fluorescent light? Do you have enough light? What color are the walls? What color are the floors? And you kind of start going through this analysis of the root to the cause, the root to the cause. And as you begin to go root to cause, right, you will then be able to determine a goal. So playing on the same storyline here, we're talking about lighting, root to cause. I know I want it brighter. I want to feel maybe more alive in the space or whatever. now I have a goal of what I actually want to achieve. So in this case, it the goal is going to be I want to update it so that it feels brighter, more airy, more open, and maybe just more livable for me.

speaker-1: Well, I think in that you sense you've kind of decided you've determined that first cause or that first issue. Okay, what what are the what are the ways that I can solve that? And I think that's gonna point to a few other issues or problems to to determine. Is it just my natural lighting? Like do I just need do I need to update my windows or do I need to change the lighting? Right. You know, and and you you just kinda you keep breaking it down until you get to, you know, deeper into that. And you can you'll see the ways to solve it and move forward.

speaker-0: And then you have a solidified target, if you will. So you know what you're aiming to do, you know what you're trying to accomplish. And that's going to help mitigate this overwhelm, this fatigue, this ripple effect, this, you know, shotgun blast, if you will. And not only is it going to help mitigate that, but it's going to help you determine where to focus your energy in the decision making process.

speaker-1: Because not every decision throughout the project deserves the same weight and attention to the detail. The things that are hard to come back and change later, you know, where is the sink gonna go? Where does the stove where you know where are these big fixtures gonna go? How are they implemented? Is a whole lot bigger decision than what light am I hanging from the ceiling. Because change the change later.

speaker-0: In addition to it's also gonna help you determine your financial allocation. Because wherever the weight of your decision is, that weight should be the bigger weight to influence the goal. And the goal is ultimately the driver. So that weighted, you know, category of what's gonna get your your bigger attention is also gonna typically get the bigger resource because it's accomplishing the goal. It has it has a bigger weight. I don't know what what's another word I could I could throw in there, but more pull on its ability to actually

speaker-1: It carries more influence. It carries more just strategy. Right. You know, it's the found the foundation is where you spend the time building because that's what supports everything else in within the project. You

speaker-0: Yeah.

speaker-1: know, you're building those foundational pieces and making the foundational decisions that support to go up to the supporting.

speaker-0: Yeah. I think about it from a new construction standpoint. If you're if you're gonna build a house or go through the process of building, maybe you even picked out like a prefab floor plan or something, there's still a weight to what deserves more attention. Like the floor plan, once it's been defined, everything has to support that floor plan. So you're not gonna create some strange obstruction that's going to counter or contradict.

speaker-1: Well you're gonna spend more time working on a floor plan than you are picking out what lights you're gonna hang over the kitchen table. You didn't build the house around the kitchen table, you built you picked the pieces that are gonna go over the kitchen table that fit the house.

speaker-0: That's one example. You know, think of it too, and trying to give the listeners context of like, okay, great. Well, I'm not renovating. So I'm doing a new construction project. Like, how is this relevant to me? There's still a million decisions that have to be made. And to your point, you're gonna spend more time on the floor plan. That's because everything has to be established at that time before construction ever even begins, you know? But yes, okay, with the lighting fixtures, you're going to. There that's gonna come later down the pipeline. And you're probably not gonna spend as much time or as much resource as you are on the lighting plan. Or same with plumbing, plumbing fixtures, knowing what it is that you're trying to solve, knowing what it is that you're trying to accomplish is going to help with the time, the fund allocation, and everything points back to what you're solving. So once you've determined, like we said initially, once you've determined, okay, I have this symptom. What's causing the symptom? Where's the root? Okay, now I'm establishing a goal. Well, how much energy do I need to put into every decision? Everything's gonna point back to the goal. So that's the knowing what you're solving. Yeah. Every decision has to be able to answer. Is this actually serving the goal? Is this solving what I'm trying to accomplish or contributing? Because if it's not, you don't need to spend a ton amount of time on it or a ton of, you know, financial resources on it. Because that's also where that overwhelm kicks in. It's like you're picking up things you don't need to pick up. And when you have that clear goal, it helps define questions, you know, lots of questions into one question. You can filter it all through the funnel, if you will, of so if your contractor says, Hey, do you want, you know, a 36 inch sink or a 24 inch sink? That might be too too technically detailed there, but there's a different size. So you go back to well, what's the purpose of the space? Like what am I trying to accomplish for the space? So that question, even though it's a technical size question, shouldn't just be randomly decided. Like, you know, is that going to be your primary prep sink in your kitchen? What are you going to be doing in it? How much do you how much time do you spend washing dishes? How much food prep? You know, those are the type of multiple questions that can help everything point to the goal. Just as an illustration. Yeah.

speaker-1: It's it's just laying it's laying everything out through a very detailed oriented process and making sure that you've you're going through and checking your boxes, solving the problem and contributing everything to the end goal. Yes. But making sure that you're going in order and not picking, you know, the the last thing first and the first thing last. Because when you get backwards, that's where you start to really get overwhelmed. You start to question and and then you get this fatigue of, well, how's that gonna affect this? And does it make me re have to redo this? And you know, you actually start making certain decisions multiple times 'cause

speaker-0: Yes. A lot of protections.

speaker-1: you've you've gone you've gotten out of order.

speaker-0: That's why having more options is also not the best solution. Like sometimes people think, I'm hiring a team of people, a design team or whatever. Yeah. And I'm only seeing two renders. Well, there's a reason why. There's a there's a very strategic reason why things are presented in that fashion. And it's because what we're describing has already been accomplished. I mean, we've already gone through the root, you know, analysis, define the goal, determined what's gonna suit and serve that goal and serve you. And then you boil it all the way down to now, okay, we have two choices. Or sometimes we have one choice. This is going to fulfill all the check boxes for that goal. And so having more options isn't better. That usually stirs up the overwhelm.

speaker-1: You know, options options are good, but there's a point where too many options becomes information overload. Right. When you get it when you're at an information overload or too many options, too many decisions to make, you shut down. Exactly. And when you hire someone like yourself, a designer that can that just that's what you're doing. That's what you're actually paying that person to do, is go through a lot of that, boil it down to hey, these are your two maybe three option best options. For the goal that you want and the implementation and the design and everything that we've discussed and we've kind of gone through all of these processes, you're paying them to actually help you get out of that so that the process does become more enjoyable. Right. And you get to like you you don't have to make work as hard to accomplish your overall goal. Right. You have somebody that this is this is like just some way that I think or I do this. This is, you know.

speaker-0: But if you are not working with a design team, not everybody's gonna present that to you. You might be with a contractor and they might say, You get $125 a square foot for countertops, go pick. And that doesn't help somebody who's never done this before understand I don't even know where to begin. I don't even know where to start. And so defining the goal, this, you know, the structure, what you're actually trying to accomplish. Is going to help be proactive in mitigating how many choices. So now if they say you get a level one, you know, grade countertop for 150 square foot, and that's all they give you, well, you can now go to the fabricator supplier and say, I need a level one, I don't want it to be over. this price per square foot and I want it to either be, you know, in the white palette, color palette, or gray, whatever it is you want. So now you've you've provided three directives that should narrow 300 options in the plant down to yeah, maybe

speaker-1: Yeah.

speaker-0: exactly. So that's how you can proactively Create the structure yourself. And remember, don't deviate. Like you've got a goal. Part of the goal in this situation is to, you know, get the price. So you're not running over budget. Accomplish the aesthetic. And, you know, you might also want to make sure the material is going to serve your lifestyle, if, you know, whatever. So yeah, you've now narrowed it down. Your the goal's been defined. You know what the target is. You have a specific goal in mind. Don't just go in there and Walk around for two hours and look at everything and overwhelm yourself and leave having made no progress, no decision, and no selection.

speaker-1: Yeah, sometimes fewer options is actually a is a much better option.

speaker-0: Yes.

speaker-1: As many options as we've looked at over the years, it can be very exhausting even for somebody who does this all the time.

speaker-0: And the next big point here is you need to understand who owns the decision. Who's responsible for what? Because that can also send you down a spiral of overwhelm where you don't know who to talk to, or you've got four people asking you the same question, and you know, no one's obviously talking to each other. Who has the final say? You know, if it's you and a business partner or someone else making decisions for you, like who's the primary point of contact? I'm a huge believer on primary, like a single point of contact or also known as like a project manager. You know, who is the one that there should be one person that you're primarily dealing with and everything's being deployed from there. This is actually how we structure our job sites all the time can help mitigate confusion on both ends on the you know consumer end or the client end all the way up to the construction side, the tradesman. Yeah. One point of contact, one directive being rolled out in terms of communication. All of that helps. And also defining that upfront is gonna help mitigate like Or I shouldn't say mitigate, but cut through the noise of opinions. Yeah. You know, because not everybody needs to be included on every final decision. Yeah. Not everyone is going to be able to understand every decision or even what the end goal is, too. This is really what return on design is all about. Yeah. Is proceeding with clarity when it comes to design and strategy. It's not just about. making a lot of decisions or spending a lot of money. It's about really solving problems, leveraging that creativity to solve the problem. If you haven't identified that, you can never establish a goal and make good choices.

speaker-1: It's not making fewer decisions. Every project has a lot of decisions that are going to be made. But it's making the correct decisions in the correct orders and knowing which decisions actually have to and require more energy and which ones require more time and which ones can be made a little easier. And so that and that's that's again, you know, as we talked about earlier, where people get burned out of everything, if everything has the same weight, I'm stressing over every little detail. You know, no, there are certain there are certain aspects, certain decisions that definitely require more more of my energy and some that don't.

speaker-0: And it's not going to be the same for every single project. No, it's not. Which is why this is it's really about establishing a framework of how to approach each project because that's going to differ between project, between person, between all of it. But yes, having that framework order procedure is also gonna help manage that cost and make the cost Produce a financial return because you're going to get that return. You're going to have the intentionality. You're not going to have, you know, renovation regret in two and a half years because you didn't do it right the first time. I don't want our listeners to feel overwhelmed. Like if you're already halfway through renovation and it's a disaster, you are feeling this overwhelm, this decision fatigue, like you just want it to be over. Just take a deep breath. You can still recover. Yeah. There's still a way to rein it in, get control over the project, and Shift the experience and the outcome. It still is the same foundation, same principle. Like that would be my suggestion. If anyone right now is in that situation, just put a pause, just pause and still go through the same scenario all the way back to the beginning. What's the symptom? What's causing the symptom? What am I trying to solve or accomplish? And you may might take you some time to like evaluate it piece by piece by piece. And if it's really like if your project's really getting out of control, don't be afraid to put it on hold for a minute and like establish that structure. Sit down with the team that you've hired.

speaker-1: Sometimes sometimes that pause that you're talking about right there, putting let's put this project home, get you know, and you know, even had to do it like, hey, give me a day here, we'll come back and revisit on this. But that that cost right there can sometimes be so much mm so minimal as compared to just trying to push through it and just get it done, get it done. Yeah, rush, rush, rush. Rush through it. And then yeah, you again, you come back to it in two years and you're like, I gotta redo this whole thing because I just I don't like it. Whereas I could have taken a day and been like, hey. Let me let me regain my thought process. Let me get my clarity. Clarity is one of the biggest keys in solving the problem and making sure that your project actually achieves what you want it to achieve. Right. You know.

speaker-0: Glad you brought up the rush, rush, rush, because that is a very real thing that happens. And it happens a lot with contractors and tradespeople. And where there will be a tangible pressure that people feel like once you're on my job, I gotta keep going. Cause if you leave my job, you're gonna go to a different job and you're not, you know, you're not gonna come back. You're not gonna come back for a period of time. Which there's a level of truth to that often. That's just the nature of the business. Like these people are getting paid. It's it's a very labor and two, you know. It's very labor intensive process. So if they're not working this job, odds are they're gonna go to a different job. Yeah. But you can't view that through the perspective of this is a fail. I have to rush through the decision and, you know, do the shotgun approach and you know, not have the clarity. Because yeah, that's gonna backfire. It's not gonna re relieve your overwhelm or decision fatigue. And it's probably not going to save you any money or heartache. It's much better to pause, let them go, make sure you have a defined plan, you've re-established the communication, you've reestablished, okay, who's in charge, who's the point of contact, how are we doing this? And if it's your project, you know, you're the one paying the invoices. You have the authority to do this.

speaker-1: And you need to be certain that you are getting what you're wanting. And

speaker-0: Exactly.

speaker-1: not pressured into just make this decision, make this decision, make decision, just

speaker-0: Yes, that's a red flag. If you're feeling constant pressure, red flag. Now, on the flip side, if you are working with somebody, there it does require trust too. So if they're if they're taking you through the the process and it requires you to relinquish control and trust that they are the expert and you aren't, you have to do that too. Cause if you don't trust who you've hired, like You'll never feel satisfied. It will always feel overwhelming, no matter how much structure you've created. Yeah. You have to trust. So don't hire people you don't trust. I don't think that renovating or building has to feel like survival mode. You know? It can be a smooth process that's very manageable and executed very well. I think sometimes people who don't have the experience of it. mistake the reality of construction as hectic, overwhelming, or survival mode when in reality everything's right on track, moving very smoothly and things are being executed very well. I mean, would you agree to that? Because construction demo all of it. Like it's messy.

speaker-1: It's messy and it can be over, especially if if you are actually living in that. And I'll say if if you are gonna do a remodel and you're going to be living in that space, you need to protect certain areas of the home for yourself. Right. While you're in there. Because if you go and demo every bit of the house and you're trying to live in it, one, it's just not functional anymore for you. There's there's every bit of its chaos, there's nothing that feels You know, right, and then you're, you know, everything's constantly mess, you know, messy in a crazy state. Right. But if you, if you go through the project methodically and and that we're gonna do it do this in phases, we're gonna do this side of the house, and then we're gonna do this side, and we're gonna do this for last. And it protects you and allows you to keep some semblance of normalcy.

speaker-0: Right.

speaker-1: I mean, you are living in a construction zone, so there's some things that are gonna, you know. displace you a little bit, but it doesn't have to completely uproot and upheave everything in your life. Right. That

speaker-0: Yeah, have

speaker-1: that's going to actually add and tack on to the confusion and the hectic and the chaos overwhelm.

speaker-0: Well. Mm-hmm. And having a realistic understanding of it's still a construction zone. Yeah. I mean, we've executed projects like that where we very intentionally have to divide up the execution because people are living there. It can seem like it takes longer when you do that, but there's there's a method to the madness. There's a reason. So just like establishing the goal for the project. If if the goal is that you are able to live on site, that needs to be factored into that goal. And every decision you make is still pointing. I mean, that's part of the goal. So if it now it becomes we're going to do a kitchen renovation and we're going to live here while we do it, that's a key aspect to the goal. So every decision you're making is now pointing to that, also, yeah, we're going to live here while we do it to your point. So then now you have a very methodical execution process and it's not. compartmentalize like no one's living here. Yeah. And be mindful that it's going to take a little longer because they're going to have to go a little bit slower.

speaker-1: Yeah, and also think think about this. You're trying to complete this full aspect of this project. Like, okay, if we're remodeling the house and we're living here, I want to get this kitchen done so that I can then move over here and demo out this extra bathroom. Not demo the kitchen and I'm working on it a little bit while I'm over here demoing this out because now I've got two projects that are messed up. So yes, it can slow your project down and spread that time out a little bit. Right. But It also allows it

speaker-0: It's almost like a perspective.

speaker-1: yeah, it's it's a perspective the way you're looking at it.

speaker-0: Because to your point if you demo it all at once and now everything's in disrupt. Everything's in disrupt you know, you're still waiting. now I

speaker-1: should have gone and work at a hotel or you know, get an apartment. Like, okay, that factors into your cost too. Mm-hmm. You know.

speaker-0: Yeah. So making sure all s all aspects are being evaluated for the symptom, the root cause, and establishing the goal so that you can make, you know, or have that strong foundation developed in your process, you know, to create the structure, to maintain the order, to be able to have clarity in your decision making and maintain that that. nice control. It's a it's a nice control over the project.

speaker-1: And control and control over the project doesn't mean I have a tight grip on everybody and I'm telling you how to do this. It's

speaker-0: Very much collaboration.

speaker-1: very collaborative. I'm still letting the people do what they're supposed to do. Right. But I know what's going on and I know and you know, at each milestone within the project, go walk through it. Go check everything out. Ask, am I still on track to solve the problem initially? Is there something that needs to be changed now while the decision is cheap?

speaker-0: Yes. Those are all proactive disciplines that you need to work into your project. Yeah. Yeah. So that you catch things up front. You have open conversation. You're yeah, you know what's going on, you're understanding. But also to your point, remember it's collaborative. If you've hired experts, don't expect to be an expert on your first go-around. Like there are going to be things that are going to feel a little more out of control to you than to someone who knows. you know, that's been doing this for a really long time and it's not necessarily out of control. So being open minded too of understanding that it might feel out of control, but that doesn't mean it is out of control. Or it might feel another very real perspective is when people are like, it doesn't seem like anything's going on. No one's been here in three days. It's like what might feel like nothing's happening to you, but there is a lot of things happening on the back end. And a lot of logistical things that have to happen in order for the execution to happen. So take your feelings with a grain of salt, too. And remember, it's not about having fewer decisions. It's about knowing which decisions are going to move the needle, which ones are going to, you know, accomplish the goal. And those are the ones that are going to have your attention. So I hope that helps our listeners. think about their project from a different lens. It doesn't have to be this, you know, overwhelming, regrettable, miserable experience. Just maybe you have to be a little more proactive about structure. And this is exactly what our Return on Design Blueprint does. It establishes the foundation to help walk you through, to assess your situation, create that framework, establish the goal, and then filter everything back through it. Throughout the execution, so that you know things are moving along track. It's gonna help you with that decision fatigue. It's gonna help you with that overwhelm. it's just gonna help you succeed and feel more confident going into the process, like a professional would. So hope you're feeling encouraged and make sure you are subscribed to hear all of our podcast content at Real Return on Design. You check us out online at audaciousdesigns.design.

speaker-1: And we appreciate you guys being here and look forward to talking with you some more. Send us ideas from your projects and let's let's dive into them.

speaker-0: Thanks for listening.

speaker-1: See you next time.