The Pro Organizer Studio Podcast

Spring cleaning isn't just for your house--it's for your organizing business too. Jen and Melissa start a five part mini-sode extravaganza this week talking about how to take a look at your organizing business and make it sparkle and shine as you move into the busy spring and summer months. Stay tuned this week for all our tips and tricks! Today we start with GOALS...

Kate Waldo Jones didn't know when she first started Orchid Organizing that one day she would be running a 6 figure organizing business in three different cities, plus running a successful online business teaching people how to streamline the business of running a business (think emails, invoicing, contracts--all the stuff that takes a ton of time)--but on today's podcast, she tells us exactly how she did this. Kate talks to us about how she built her organizing teams, and how she learned about automations that help make the customer experience exceptional--and how you can learn all of these things from her.  Learn more about Kate's team and Dubsado CRM courses here.

Jen Howard found herself in an unfortunately very common situation--she was solely responsible for cleaning out her mother's home, which had become fully and completely stuffed from basement to top floor with hundreds of thousands of things. During this intense, years-long cleanout process, Jen learned about the history of clutter, as well as about professional organizers, junk haulers, and donation locations. She shares her personal story about how clutter and hoarding impacted her mother's life, and how it's impacted her own life, and what she learned during her 2 year long journey with her mother's home.  Jen's book Clutter: An Untidy History can be found at your favorite bookseller.  Jen's website: jenniferhoward.com  

Have you ever thought about taking your professional organizing talents to the page? Our Inspired Organizer® Hillary Zama decided to take a dream and an idea and make it a reality--she is now a published author, with her book "Spruce Up: A Professional Organizer's Guide for Your Home, Your Body, and Your Life" being out in the world. Hillary walks us through the publishing process and the goal-setting process that got her through taking her lifelong love of writing from an idea to a finished book. 

Have you dreamed of bringing a team of organizers with you to a client's home--but are intimidated by the idea of "how would I do that?" Kate Jones of Orchid Organizing, who is one of our Inspired Organizers®, has teams of organizers in three cities--and is ready to demystify the process of building teams for the Pro Organizer Studio listeners.  Click this link to find out more about the new course for building a team for professional organizers.

As pro organizers, we know that organizing can transform a house. But have you ever applied organizing principles to your financial house? There are some really smart things we do with our clients that can be adapted to work in thinking about finances, and Melissa and Jen talk about this plus how Melissa used these principles to do presentations with financial services companies for her organizing business and networking!  

Jennifer Mary of Everyday Style, our guest on our last podcast, is super passionate about customer service! When we hear the words "customer service" we tend to think about retail stores--the service that you get from a store associate or how someone helps you in a retail environment. But customer service is really what we do with our clients every single day. It's how we interact with them from the time that they first contact us to the time that we show up in their home. It's how we communicate with them, it's how we get them on as a client, it's everything we do to make them feel valued. I thought it was so important that I wanted to bring it to you as a bonus episode, because it's something that we can think about with our organizing clients as we move through 2021. She can be found at her podcast, Everyday Style School, on all podcast platforms. 

Jennifer Mackey Mary is a personal stylist for everyday women. After growing her in-person client services for years, a family move and changing priorities led her to look to taking that service business to the online space. As professional organizers expand their services to virtual services and online courses, Jennifer has a lot of great advice on how she added these services, and what professional organizers can consider if they are looking at expanding online.  Jennifer can be found online at youreverydaystyle.com, on Facebook, and at her podcast, The Everyday Style School.

Carly Adams is one of the mentors of the Inspired Organizer® program, and after four years leading a successful professional organizing business in California, she has plenty of wisdom to share with other organizers. Carly talks to us about how she works with clients, the shift to online and virtual organizing, what she brings to a client relationship, how she learned what her true north was for organizing--and we talk about how we will never go back to working for someone else!  Carly can be found at tidyrevival.com and on Instagram @tidyrevival. If you'd like to get our roadmap for success as a pro organizer, head straight to www.poroadmap.com.  (01:00) Intro (02:00) Online/Virtual Organizing (04:00) Being "everything to everyone" (05:00) Finding the right fit with clients (08:00) Setting expectations (09:30) The power of organizing (10:00) Trusting your gut (15:00) Finding your niche (17:30) Additional advice (21:00) Finding your forever job as an organizer

When professional organizers work with clients, emotions and psychology often come into play. Our guest today is Dr. Ania Schwartzman, who combines her clinical psychology degree with a lifetime love of fashion into her personal styling business The Fashionologist. Ania joins us to talk about what professional organizers can learn from a client's closet, and how we can better help our clients through the organizing process by listening and asking key questions. She also tells us a little about how fashion is changing and gives us ideas about pro organizer work wardrobes as a bonus.  Ania can be found at thefashionologist.com or on Instagram at @thefashionologistnyc.  (01:00) Introduction; working with clients (04:00) Why people work with a personal stylist (05:30) What questions to use with clients when organizing to help them make decisions (09:00) What deep things closets can tell you about your clients (15:30) Fashion changes/current trends (18:45) Fashion for professional organizers (24:00) "Enclothed Cog

Jen and Melissa are talking about one of our favorite topics--when is it time to make some investments in your pro organizing business? "Investment" doesn't have to mean multi thousands of dollars--it can mean "when is it time to hire a web designer" or "when is it time to stop using a free spreadsheet and start using an accounting system." Knowing when to invest--and what to invest in--is important, and Jen and Melissa talk about their (sometimes very different!) philosophies on spending for your business. (01:00) Topic intro (02:00) Jen's philosophy on investing (04:24) Keeping promises to yourself (06:00) Investing in yourself  (08:00) Melissa's lessons on under-investing (10:00) Jen's guideposts on investing (12:00) Doing the work to get value out of an investment (14:00) Delegating-not doing everything yourself  (16:00) Freeing yourself to be a better entrepreneur (18:30) Your business goals (20:00) Wrap-up 

Entrepreneurship can sometimes feel a little lonely. Developing a network, and finding people who can be a professional support system is important--but can be overwhelming. Today Melissa Klug and our guest Laura Brown of The Sisters of Industry podcast talk about steps you can take to build a network and a personal "board of directors" to strengthen you as an entrepreneur and a person.   

Your website and Instagram are often the first ways a potential client has to connect with you--and showing your best self there is important. We offer you specifics on how to look at your website and Instagram feeds a little differently, all to provide a simpler and better experience for your dream clients. For pro organizers, your online content is key--make it fantastic! Join our free Facebook group for podcast insiders to get notified about new episodes (plus get behind-the-scenes access and other goodies)! Learn more about our Inspired Organizer® course + community Check out our brand new workshop, The 4-Part Plan for Landing your Dream Clients in 2021.  The rest of the show notes can be found here: proorganizerstudio.com/podcast

Jen and Melissa break down the serious (and not so serious) things we learned this year, and what we can take with us into 2021 for our professional organizing businesses. 

Kay Patterson is also known as The Organized Soprano on YouTube, where she makes fun videos about home organizing, cleaning and life as a professional classical singer in Boston. She is a professional home organization and clutter coach, helping clients both virtually and in-person. Her co-star Clover is the most organized dog in America! Kay invited Jen on a YouTube Live recently and we are happy to have it here today for you to hear their conversation.  She can be found here on YouTube and here on the great internet!

Dalys Macon is the entrepreneur behind D'Vine Order, an organizing firm, and the Instagram handle Black Girls Who Organize. Dalys is passionate about many things, and our wide ranging interview covers her background, how she came to the organizing business, and how important representation is to our industry. 

Carly Tizzano is a professional organizer and life coach who specializes in New Year's Resolution coaching. She joins Melissa Klug of Pro Organizer Studio to talk about how we can do realistic goal setting for 2021--even when things might still be in flux.  You can find more information on Carly here: FREE RESOLUTION WORKSHOP https://www.carlytizzano.com/workshop-sign-up-page   WEBSITE www.carlytizzano.com EMAIL carly@carlytizzano.com FACEBOOK www.facebook.com/carlytizzano INSTAGRAM www.instagram.com/carlytizzano/?hl=en LINKEDIN www.linkedin.com/in/carly-tizzano-88180517a

Continuing on our thread from last week--we are talking about whether now is a good time to start a pro organizing business. For Thanksgiving week, we present one of our most popular episodes: "Make Your First $1k on a Budget." We believe it's a great time to start a business in the organizing industry, and this episode is a great primer on how you can start your business with very minimal investment. We'd also love to see you in our new free workshop, at poroadmap.com --learn even more about the pro organizing industry from two experts. 

Jen and Melissa discuss whether now is a good time to get into the organizing industry. If you have been contemplating a career change or starting a side hustle or part time business, but question if now is the right time in crazy 2020--we give you our wisdom (along with things we've learned from our Inspired Organizer community.) 

Kate the Socialite of Socialite Vault joins Jen and Melissa to discuss her passion--marketing for home professionals. Kate works with organizers, interior designers and stagers, and knows home pro entrepreneurship backwards and forwards. She joins us to talk about why marketing isn't scary--and to provide actionable tips on how professional organizers can more successfully market their businesses to clients, even in the crazy 2020 environment.  Kate's website: https://socialitevault.com For a free workshop for professional organizers: poroadmap.com/free-workshop