What choosing a paint color taught me about leadership

My husband and I are moving into our new house this month. It’s a historic home—it’s more than 100 years old—and we’ve been remodeling it for almost two years. It’s the first home we've designed together, and I am so incredibly excited to move in and begin this next chapter in our lives!

While I’ve enjoyed the process of remodeling a home, I quickly learned that it’s not my strength. I get overwhelmed by all of the potential choices. My husband, on the other hand, is so good at it and has led the way in choosing the style and direction of our home.?

For the most part, our decisions have come together fairly easily (thanks to him!). But there was one room that proved to be very difficult: our home office. Knowing that I would be the one spending the most time there, I wanted to choose the paint color. But when it came time to make a decision, I got really stuck.

When I first started looking at options, I thought about my brand. The colors I’ve chosen to represent myself and my work are really bright and colorful (just look at my website), and because my office will be my background for many virtual speaking engagements and meetings, I thought it would make sense for it to echo that light and bright feeling.

But then, I thought about the actual purpose of my office. It’s not just the place I’ll be giving speeches and doing my day-to-day work; I envision writing my next book (and lots of books after that) in this office, and I want it to be a place that really inspires me and helps me connect to my creativity. When I think about the kinds of places that inspire me the most, what comes to mind are rooms that use dark colors and are really cozy, almost like an old-fashioned study. I’ve done some of my best writing and had some of my most creative ideas in dark and moody hotel lobbies and ski lodges.

I found myself torn between painting my office white and having a ton of bright and colorful furniture that matched my brand or going with something dark and moody—the total opposite of my brand.?

I asked so many people what they thought I should do. I asked our architect. I consulted our interior designer. I brought the topic into dinner conversations with friends. Surprisingly, there was consensus: They all agreed I should paint it white and then decorate with colorful books, furniture, and art.

So that’s what I chose: We painted the room white.

But then, the first time I walked into my office after it was freshly painted, I didn’t feel inspired or excited. I felt bummed. It didn’t feel like what I really wanted deep down. I didn’t want to cause extra work for anyone—or incur the added expense of repainting the room—so I told myself to suck it up and hoped that maybe the feeling would eventually go away.

It didn’t. Every time I walked into my office during the renovation process, I felt that same bummed feeling. Deep down, I wished I had followed my gut and painted it dark.

I shared my dilemma with Monique, our Chief of Growth. Lucky for me, Monique has a gift and an eye for design, and she also has a degree in it! Monique started helping us in the early phases of our renovation and then took some time off to go on parental leave and welcome her newest baby into the world.

Now that Monique was back and helping us again, I told her about the office and how I wished I had gone with my vision of a dark study. The first thing she said was, “Well, what are you waiting for? Let's do it!” My husband also graciously supported that choice.

So we repainted it—and it was an expensive lesson for me.

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