137 | My First Year As A Professional Organizer: Kim of Rustic Home Organizing

One year ago, we introduced you to brand new business owner Kim Snodgrass, who had just opened Rustic Home Organizing in Portland, Oregon. (Listen to that episode HERE.) Melissa caught up with her almost exactly one year later to hear about what she learned (the good and the bad!) about her first year as a professional organizer. Hear what she thought she knew--and what she learned instead, and how she grew. She also talks about being intentional in her pro organizing business and what that means for her this year.

Kim is an open book about what she thought she knew, and what she realized she didn't know at all...and everything in between. 

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FULL TRANSCRIPT

You're listening to the Pro Organizer Studio podcast with Melissa Klug and Jen Kilbourne Obermeier. Thank you so much for joining in our mission is to broaden the horizons of savvy business women in the organizing industry by instilling confidence and inspiring authenticity. You'll gain new insight into strategies designed specifically for professional organizers.

[00:00:32] Melissa Klug: Hey, pro organizers. It's your podcast co-host, Melissa, I hope that you are cruising through the first part of January. I've continued keeping to my word of the year, which is focus.

I have been continuing to eliminate a bunch of the distractions I have, and honestly, I'm feeling so much better about, just my organization and my work life and all that stuff. I hope you guys are feeling the same about your words. I got a ton of lovely dms and emails and messages about what words people have chosen for themselves for this year.

Here are a few of the other ideas that came from our Inspired Organizer® group. Someone said their word of the year is me, which I completely love, we got a limitless thoughts, build habits, ease. There were so many good words that came out of it, and I loved that people put a lot of thought into it and that it was super personal for them.

So hopefully you picked your Word of the Year and are starting off. Well, a year ago, almost to the day, we put up an episode from someone who was a brand new organizer.

 Her business had just started. She had just started reaching out to clients. It was episode 97 in case you want to go back and look at it. it was called Taking the Leap Wisdom from a Business Launch. 

What I wanted to do is have Kim back on and talk to us about what she learned in her. First year of organizing and her first year of being an entrepreneur, if you go back and listen to her episode before you listen to this, you will be able to hear all of the things.

She realized that she didn't know all the things she thought she knew, but might do differently. It's just great to talk to her and really get her impressions of her first year of organizing. We talked about so many things that I wanted to break it up into two parts so that we don't overwhelm people cuz there's so much good stuff in it.

You are going to have part one this week, part two next week. And one of the things I love about Kim is she. Absolutely genuinely loves hearing from people. So if you listen to this and you get inspired by it, please reach out to her. I know she would love to hear from you. All right, let's get started with my friend and my client, and wonderful organizer Kim Snodgrass of Rustic Home Organizing.

How are you? 

[00:02:44] Kim Snodgrass: I am very well today. The sun is shining and I'm happy to be here.

[00:02:47] Melissa Klug: Here's why I'm excited to talk to you today.

It was one year ago, almost exactly a year ago that we had you on the podcast, and you were at that time a baby organizer. You had just started your business and the other day I was like, oh, I know, because I talked to you a lot how far you have come in that year. But I want everybody to hear how far you have come in this year, and I want you to talk about all the things you've learned.

And so I'm just, I'm thrilled that you agreed to be here with us today and do your year wrap up. 

[00:03:17] Kim Snodgrass: Absolutely. I'm excited to, this is very cool to be able to share everything that has gone on in the last year. Yeah. 

[00:03:24] Melissa Klug: All right, let's just start out, let's give everyone a recap. When did you start your business?

Where are you all that good stuff? 

[00:03:29] Kim Snodgrass: Technically started in November of 21 but I launched in January of 22. So my business is technically established in 22. I went full board, jumped with both feet in and just started plugging away, listening to lots of podcasts coaching doing all the things to get myself a foundation to be able to start my very own organizing business.

Then organizing, obviously my entire life as most organizers have, with the exception of you. . That's right. . I started late. You started a little late, but so it just became more of my journey to becoming a business owner. Not as much the organizing piece of it. 

[00:04:15] Melissa Klug: So what would you give yourself on a scale of one to 10 when you first started out? So a year ago at this time what would you rate yourself in terms of like, confidence, business, knowledge, all of that kind of stuff? 

[00:04:28] Kim Snodgrass: Oh boy. Confidence. I would say on a scale of one to 10, my confidence was about a two.

Okay. On a good day, . And then I think today I'm, I'm, I'm on the upper end and depending on how much sleep I get the night before, I'm anywhere between an eight and a 10. Okay. Sleep 

[00:04:48] Melissa Klug: is important, 

[00:04:49] Kim Snodgrass: by the way. Sleep is very important. But what people don't understand is unfortunately projects live in your brain, in your sleep, and so the Tetris game goes on while you're sleeping and that can sometimes interfere with the REM sleep.

It does. But definitely confidence has played a huge part in my success. 

[00:05:10] Melissa Klug: So let's last year, let's talk about that because yes, you and I have been working together for a while. Yeah. And it was it at the beginning because we all, by the way, this is not just you, it's all of us. All of us struggle with confidence on sometimes a daily basis, , sometimes an hourly basis, if I'm being honest.

Like what were some of the things that got you from a two to an eight slash 10? 

[00:05:34] Kim Snodgrass: I started to write down some notes today about things that would be important for me to share. And the very first thing I wrote down was being okay with mistakes. Yeah. And those mistakes can range from the back end of your business to being in the home and realizing when you left, oh, that was a really bad idea of what I just implemented.

I really need to fix that. But being okay with those mistakes so you don't beat yourself up over it. And the biggest thing you take away from those mistakes is learning. You have learned what you're going to move forward in in your next job. I think that is gonna be what I have learned.

The most this year is being okay with my mistakes and being excited when I make 'em, because they're getting me to a much better place. 

[00:06:21] Melissa Klug: I I would love for this needs to be like, I don't know, a t-shirt, a billboard, alike. What I, I don't know, because I think that a lot of organizers struggle with perfectionism and by the way, that's a great trait for an organizer, right?

Mm-hmm. , we want people to, you know, give people beautiful homes, but that can also sometimes manifest as like, oh, I made a mistake. I'm gonna beat myself up about it for the next 16 weeks. And being able to say, you know what? I did that I learned from it, and I'm gonna not do it in the future. Yes. 

[00:06:53] Kim Snodgrass: Yeah, definitely.

So yeah, be okay with your mistakes. I made some mistakes right off the bat. I invested a lot of money, which you don't have to, to start an organizing business. Correct. We've all talked about that. But it was important to me to do that and I, I went a little overboard. And that's okay. I'm okay with going overboard because it's helping me in this next year.

But I do wanna rewind just a little bit. So, at the beginning of 2022, I came up with a couple words. They were gonna be my words for the year. And one of them was outsourcing. And I did that and I'm so happy I did that. But it also made me realize it's important to outsource when you're ready for that outsourcing.

And as a. An organizer new in the business. I outsource so many things right away, but what I didn't realize is for myself, I wasn't ready for all of that. I didn't have the bandwidth, you know, technology is not my strong suit. So I thought, okay, I have to outsource all of it.

Everybody will do it for me. But you still need to understand when you outsource, you still have to understand it. You might be able to pay somebody to do it and get it all set up for you, but unless you're paying somebody to work for you on a daily basis, which some organizers have you have to still learn how to maneuver within those programs or apps or whatever you invest your money in on.

And so that, I, I definitely took that away from my first year. The best advice I can give to new organizers getting into business is to focus on your SEO and Google. Yep. Those are number one and 

[00:08:32] Melissa Klug: number two. and they go together. So those things, those things are interlinked. Yes. 

[00:08:37] Kim Snodgrass: Whether we like it or not, Google runs us.

 We depend on Google and you have to figure out how to maneuver within Google and manipulate Google to do, to have it work. 

[00:08:52] Melissa Klug: and I, I wanna go back cuz you've said a lot of important things and, and this goes along with the SEO and the Google piece, but I, I want to go to what you said about, you still have to understand the things that you're, you are using, right?

Even if you are not a super techy person, even if that's a struggle for you you still have to have an entrepreneurial understanding of the key things in your business. So I know for you, I, because I know you, I know one of the things you're talking about is you went with DTO as a C R M and you had someone set that up for you, but you still struggled with implementing it because it is, it's pretty complex.

Mm-hmm. . And what you said that I want to really touch on is do the investment and the right thing at the right time. Mm-hmm. , you may not have needed that to start out with. Is that fair? 

[00:09:44] Kim Snodgrass: Absolutely correct. We all need Google. One of the things I find in our inspired organized group, a lot of questions from the newer organizers that join us.

 Where do you go get your clients? Where do you find your clients? Well, you want your clients to find you. Yes, you do need to get yourself out there, but you also want your clients to find you as much as you want to be able to find your clients. And the only way to do that is through Google.

Yes. You just, you need to do it in your website, your seo. 

[00:10:15] Melissa Klug: Tell us a little bit about what you learned about those things this year and what you have done that has made you success. Yeah, absolutely. 

[00:10:22] Kim Snodgrass: So as far as to back up a little bit on the crm, and I don't wanna throw, do Soto under the bus. It's not Dubsado.

It's, it's not Dubsado's Fault, it's me. . Yeah. And the person that set it up for me did nothing wrong. I thought I needed it and I didn't need it. One thing I have learned in the last. Three months. So my business was a little slow the first six months and then it like grew by a thousand percent in the last half of this year.

So, what I realized is I would have been ready for a CRM this next year. I didn't need it this last year. That CRM caused me a lot of stress and a lot of frustration and a lot of money, and I didn't have enough business at the beginning to really be able to utilize it to the full potential. And 

[00:11:11] Melissa Klug: I also think it hurt your confidence too.

I think going back to Oh, absolutely. Thing. I think it made you n believe that like, oh, I, I, I am not, I can't do this. Like, it was a confidence. Mm-hmm. 

[00:11:23] Kim Snodgrass: dropper. It, it really was. And, to know that I am great at texting, calling, emailing, I, I'm good at all of that and I should have leaned on that versus expecting a system that would do it all for me. I didn't need an CRM to be able to reach out to my clients. For me, I wanted to, I wanted to initiate it. I wanted to, whatever my mood was that day or how I was feeling.

If I was in a, in a really great mood, I wanted it to be able to shine through in that email or that text or that phone call, and I just gave me a sense of control. So I don't need the automated systems. I don't want the automated systems moving forward as of now. That might change for some reason if I grow, but for now I like it.

I like that personal touch, and I think that's very important for. New organizers in business to figure out what their strengths are and lean on them. If you're a super techy person and sitting in front of that computer, getting those workflows going gives you that confidence. I say, go for it. Yep. If you are the person that wants to go out and talk to people or do a workshop, or go to a chamber meeting and talk about your business, go for it.

You, you need to. work on your strengths. 

[00:12:40] Melissa Klug: Yes, and I also think that it's it's some of that timing is the amount of business you have and what your business looks like. And so it might be your first year you actually don't need that because you actually need to develop the you know, develop that muscle strength of like, Hey, I know what it's like to respond to a client and mm-hmm , I can do all of that.

Or it may be I have enough business now that I'm starting to miss some things and man, I could really use some automated systems to make sure I'm not missing anything. It's, it's all about the season of business that you're in. And that's a really good point.

[00:13:15] Kim Snodgrass: I think when you allow yourself to have some growing pains, you learn more effectively.

Yeah. So if I would've started my c r M now, , I probably wouldn't have had such a mind block learning curve over it because it would've made more sense to me because I've had so many different situations and back and forth and different types of clients. I think it's important to allow yourself to grow before you start thinking that you need it all in place day one.

Yeah. Which is what I thought I needed, but I didn't. 

[00:13:49] Melissa Klug: And getting some of that learning process too. That can go for a lot of things. Like, one example I always think of is I do virtual consults now. I do consultations on FaceTime or Zoom, but I'm really glad that I had two plus years of doing them in person under my belt.

Before I switch to that, because I think that's really important to learn, what does the sales process look like? What is it like to talk to a client? What are the important things I need to ask? All those things. It's y it's some of that you kind of earn the right to need to absolutely things, if that makes sense.

Mm-hmm. . 

[00:14:19] Kim Snodgrass: Oh, I think so. That's a great way to put it. You know, you, unless you're in multiple spaces, other people's spaces, yeah. You're not gonna wanna, you're not gonna know how to, on a Zoom call, say, Hey, can you, you know, can you show me that corner one more time? Or wait, what's that up there? Right. You know?

Yeah. You need to be able to give yourself knowledge before you start diversifying what you're gonna use to control 

[00:14:43] Melissa Klug: that knowledge. 

I wanna go back to it you touched on it, but I really wanna talk about SEO and Google. How did you learn about those things this year? And how did it impact your business? 

[00:14:54] Kim Snodgrass: Yes, definitely. First of all, in the Inspired Organizer group is where I was connected to Brie, and she does website design, but then she also had a team that did other aspects to setting up that website and that was where I was introduced. I didn't even know what SEO was, by the way. Yes. And that's where I was introduced to that.

I've had a few people reach out to me this last year wanting to know how to start an organizing business. And that is a huge question. And I always, that's always my response. That's a really big question. Yes. , my best advice is to start picking up the breadcrumbs, follow the breadcrumbs, and pick 'em up.

And so that's basically what I have done in this whole Google, SEO trail is, I just keep taking one piece at a time and moving forward. And so the gal who set up my seo she also has an Instagram account that she throws out SEO tips. Mm-hmm. free SEO tips all the time. So I follow that. I read her newsletters.

I listen to other people. It's big, like, SEO to me is very complex. It's very big. And I don't understand all of it. I just know it's very, very 

[00:16:04] Melissa Klug: important. So, but you don't have to understand all of it as an organ. I don't, 

[00:16:09] Kim Snodgrass: no. I don't have to understand all of it. And I think if I had the patience, I probably could have sat in front of my computer and figured out how to.

that integration going, and I probably could have had some help within our inspired organizer group. Everybody's always so willing to help each other. But I didn't, I don't have patience, so I just, I did, I paid to have it done and I'm glad I did. Now, that's not to say I just do it one time and that's it.

Right. It evolves and I have to, my, my website will become stagnant if I don't continually tweak it, add, take away, change pictures, and you just learn all of that along the road. But I, I will say all of this knowledge, most of my breadcrumbs come from our inspired organizer 

[00:16:52] Melissa Klug: group. They just do, there's so much knowledge there.

People have so many things that they're able to throw out that I was so many I didn't know about that. That's amazing. Yeah. 

[00:17:01] Kim Snodgrass: It, it allows you to go, oh, wait, I wasn't aware of that. I better go and do a little investigation on that. Again, more breadcrumbs, follow 'em and. , it will lead you in good places.

Really. As far as you know, the SEO piece has been for 

[00:17:16] Melissa Klug: me, and I will say too about seo. When I said you don't have to know everything about SEO as an organizer, because the thing that I love about organizing is, , you can know that, like the teeniest tip of the iceberg about seo and it will help your website just Sure, sure.

A little, little bit like we are not running Facebook here, . We are not. No. You know, running a digital platform that is so complex that we have to pay someone a ton there are a few SEO things for organizers. There have been, we've done prior podcast episodes on it.

Definitely go back and listen to those. But it is so critical, to have that digital foundation of your business. And by the way, digital foundation does not include social media. It includes mm-hmm your website, S e o, Google Business Profile, that your digital foundation, and that is where the bulk of your business is gonna come in.

[00:18:08] Kim Snodgrass: You are so Right. We're trying to hit local. Yes. I mean, as an in-home organizer, I, I should say for myself, I'm trying to hit local, so your SEO is a little tighter and not quite as complex, so it's definitely doable.

[00:18:21] Melissa Klug: Has there been anything that has surprised you about your own ability to handle things or how you've been able to handle your business this year? 

[00:18:29] Kim Snodgrass: You know, that is a really great question and that, that's a question I should really reflect on.

For 2023. I've had a few moments. I've had a few panic moments of I can't do this. Yeah, yeah. You know, Chad, my better half has met me for a beer close by many jobs to talk me off the ledge. And he's come in and saved me on a few jobs too, being my handyman. What I have learned from those situations is I just need to take a breath.

I need to take a step back and I need to take it one piece at a time. Yep. I had a garage that basically knocked me over. It was so intense. And it took me a little bit to wrap my head around it, but I surprised myself when I started to, to pick a way at it that, oh, I can do this. Yeah.

Sometimes in these larger projects, you gotta just look at one corner at a time. Yep. As a solo, I'm a, you know, I'm a solo. Organizer. I don't have a team. I don't think anybody would wanna work with me, but except my daughter, she's the only one that can handle me 

. But yeah, that I think for me problem solving this last year surprised me. I, I was able to problem solve. 

[00:19:45] Melissa Klug: That's a great one because I never really realized that when I started. Your job is essentially like an organizer is just mm-hmm. , a constant problem solver.

And the problems can come at you in a lot of different directions. . Yes. And there might be new problems every [00:20:00] five minutes. , 

[00:20:01] Kim Snodgrass: kinda. And for, for ladies or gentlemen going into their business I think it's important to know you don't have to run into these places and you're not on a stopwatch.

I used, I I like to refer to it as, you're not on the prices. Right. The clock isn't ticking. Take your time. Don't rush. Yes. They don't have anything to compare it to. And I did that in some of my beginning jobs. I literally felt like I was in that grocery store. Yeah. Games or whatever it is where you just had to run and grab like certain items and get to the checkout.

That's how I felt. And yeah. And it's really important to take your time, give yourself some momentum buildup, because it comes after you've sat in that project for a couple hours. It just starts to. , 

[00:20:47] Melissa Klug: I find my personality is I always wanna have the answer and I wanna have the answer like immediately.

 And one of the things I had to learn for myself is sometimes you have to stop and take a step back and say, I need to think about this for a minute. Mm-hmm. , I need to stop and look at this room and figure out my plan. And I'll say it to clients sometimes, like, Hey, I just, I need a second to think about a couple things.

Mm-hmm. , I'm not, I'm not ignoring you. I just, I need to think about this. And stopping and giving yourself a little bit of that space to figure something out. Nobody expects you to have every single answer at your fingertips perfectly. And that, that was something that I had to get over too. Yeah, definitely. 

[00:21:30] Kim Snodgrass: Can I touch on one more thing?

[00:21:31] Melissa Klug: Oh, absolutely. 

[00:21:32] Kim Snodgrass: I want to throw out my social media. 

[00:21:38] Melissa Klug: Take. I'm ready, . 

[00:21:40] Kim Snodgrass: Okay. I talked earlier about finding your strengths and using those to give yourself confidence within your business. And if your strength is social media, like it comes naturally to you, you love doing a real, and you can just, like, it's easy for you.

I say go for it. But what I think is important for new organizers and even ones that have been in business for a little bit, this is something I I really have just finally had a light bulb go off. Social media is an extension of networking only locally though. Unless you have an online offering or you have an online course, that's a whole different ballgame.

And that's, I, I can't speak on that because that's not what I'm doing. But if you were just organizing in-home, I think. , it's important to understand that the bulk of your business is not going to come from Instagram or Facebook. Correct. It's an extension of your SEO on Google . Yeah. Because what they're gonna do is they're gonna find you and then they're gonna go head over onto your social media.

Now, your social media might seal the deal. 

[00:22:48] Melissa Klug: It might confirm what they're already thinking about you. Oh, sure. And 

[00:22:51] Kim Snodgrass: I've had a couple clients say they picked me because my social media was real. They, I showed my family, they could get an idea of who I was. Yep. And that's great. But they found me from Google.

Right. So I have decided moving forward into 2023, my social media is another extension of networking locally. So my social media falling for me is important to be local people so that I can promote other businesses and show support for them and hopefully in return, they'll think of me in the future. It's very dangerous to get stuck down into a rabbit hole of followers and links and postings and all of this stuff. And I do think you need to have some value to your social media for sure.

Definitely some value, but just be really careful not to put too much time into it. Put your time into your SEO integration into your website, and then have the social media be just a byproduct 

[00:23:54] Melissa Klug: of, of you. I think that so many, especially newer organizers, [00:24:00] they just think they have to do it and they think they have to have tons of followers and by the way, Instagram is a fricking hamster wheel, so the faster you go on that wheel, it's gonna keep speeding up and then they're gonna go, oh, oh, you learned how to do wheels?

Cool. Now you have to learn how to do this other thing over here. Oh, you learned how to do that other thing over here? Oh, we actually are gonna, now we're, we're reprioritizing still pictures. You are constantly going to be chasing something and. The other thing that I look at on my own social media, cuz I, I enjoy doing social media, but I do it, you can check any of my feeds.

I do it haphazardly. There's no strategy whatsoever to it. What I find too is, and by the way, I love, love connecting with other organizers. Most of the people that like and comment on my posts are other organizers. Mm-hmm. . And I love that because I love community and I love working with organizers and meeting other organizers.

But those people are not hiring me for organizing jobs. , they're not coming to home by 11 because they really want me to organize their house. And so that, I just wanna make sure that you're careful about, you know, it's a little bit of an echo chamber. And then I think this will lead us to something else too, which is comparing yourself against what other organizers are doing.

Because if another organizer is doing seven reels a day, then you go, oh crud, maybe I need to be doing seven reels a day. And you start on a different hamster wheel. 

[00:25:27] Kim Snodgrass: Yes, absolutely. And speaking of community there really is a great community out there of organizers Absolutely. Throughout, absolutely not just in our inspired organizer.

And last year when I did the podcast, one of the things I said was, reach out to people. Tell them if they've inspired you. Yes. I shy against asking organizers how to start your business, but let them know you inspired me. I listened to you. Thank you. I appreciate that. And I still believe in that wholeheartedly.

I still do it to this day. Other organizers in your area, reach out to them. Say hi. It's not as cutthroat as you think. I hurt my leg a week ago and I had two organizers locally ready to jump in Aww. And take care of my clients. That's ready. So nice.

Ready to jump in. Yep. I fortunately was able to adjust them enough that I didn't have to utilize that, but they were doing that out of the kindness of their heart. And it is so important to connect to other organizers locally and globally. I, there's quite a few that I, I go back and forth with on a regular basis.

And it's nice. It's really. . 

[00:26:35] Melissa Klug: One of the things that I personally had a, a hard time adjusting to, and I mean this in the nicest way possible, is like, I came from businesses where it was cutthroat. Like you hated your competitors, you didn't talk to them. First of all, it was illegal to talk to them in some cases, but but also like you would see them at a trade show and be like, oh, it's that guy from blah, blah, blah.

Like, I'm gonna give him a dirty look. Whatever. Organizers are so nice. I have local organizers that I have helped build their businesses. I have local organizers that, I mean, theoretically they're my competition, but I send people to them. I'll say, Hey, I'm not taking new clients right now, but I would love to send you to these two or three people.

 Developing that local network of other organizers is a beautiful thing and we really don't compete. There is enough business out there for all of us. 

[00:27:24] Kim Snodgrass: Yes, yes, there absolutely is. I haven't overlapped with anybody. Not even close. 

[00:27:29] Melissa Klug: Let's talk a little bit about one of my favorite subjects, comparisonitis, because I don't think you'll mind me saying, I know this was something that you struggled with at the beginning was well, that organizer's doing that, and that organizer's doing that 

 tell us a little bit about your journey on comparison. 

[00:27:44] Kim Snodgrass: Absolutely. Yeah. Very easy to do. At the beginning you see all of these warehouses and their garages are their inventory and you see vans and you see, teams and you see, mock speed reels of them organizing, thinking you [00:28:00] have to be that fast or cool.

T-shirts, cool hats. I do have cool hats by the 

[00:28:05] Melissa Klug: way. Fantastic. I'll be looking forward to mine coming in the mail. , 

[00:28:10] Kim Snodgrass: I love my hats. But. There's so much that can be wrapped up into that. Yeah. That could be years of experience. It could be simply a show. You just don't, you do not know. What that person that has the van and maybe storage in their garage or their own storage facility, maybe they started their business five years ago, but were they doing it on the side prior to that? You don't know what the lead up was to get to that point. And I, for the first time in about 10 months and at peace with that, and this year, I'm so happy to be where I'm. , my steady growth. I don't have to parade it.

I do like to show before and afters. I know quite a few of my local people like that. They enjoy seeing before and afters and mine aren't always glamorous. But those are important to me to show. Sometimes the, you know, inaction during a, an organizing job that's fun to show. 

But being okay with where you are, the pace you're going and what you're doing behind the scenes. It's just the most important part. And if you're following those accounts that tend to get you into a spiral, unfollow 'em, just unfollow 'em for a period of time. It's nothing personal against them.

It's a, it's a you problem. And, and also, if it doesn't bother you, glean off of what they're doing. Take some ideas. Use, use some of the product. Oh, I haven't seen that product before. You know, use it for good, not evil. Don't let it get you 

[00:29:39] Melissa Klug: down. For sure. Use it to energize yourself. And then if you see something where you're like, oh my gosh, that is an amazing idea.

I wanna go implement that. Cool. Then you go, how do I do that? What does that look like for my business? How can I tweak it for my own clients, my own area. But yeah, if you have something, I love that advice. If you have someone that you are just judging yourself against so hard, , and it's making you feel bad about yourself, by the way, that goes for personal social media too.

If there is someone in your personal social media that you're like, this is really draining me. This is taking, this is an energy suck for me. Just gratefully say thank you so much. I just need to take a little bit of a break. 

[00:30:21] Kim Snodgrass: Yeah, just like Marie Condo, thank, give it, thank it for giving you the joy for its service and send 

[00:30:26] Melissa Klug: it on its way to go.

You by the way, for some people I have advocated I'm thinking about one person that I love in my life specifically, I advocated, get off all social media. Do not look at Instagram. Do not post on Instagram. Do not post on Facebook. Don't do it because it's so detrimental to how you feel about yourself and your business.

So you can take, and you can just take a break. It doesn't have to be forever, but you can just take a break. . Yeah. It can definitely 

[00:30:58] Kim Snodgrass: be 

[00:30:58] Melissa Klug: toxic. I know an organizer who said she was shutting off all of her social media for this entire year, and she has stayed off.

And by the way, she's not suffering one bit from it business-wise. There's nothing that says you have to be on it and looking at it all the time. 

[00:31:14] Kim Snodgrass: And another, you know, another point on that too, and, and looking at some of these organizers doing really big, amazing things, you have to decide, is that what you want?

For me, this year came to a decision. , I'm a grandmother for the first time. My last daughter is a sophomore at University of Oregon. All my kids are out. I I wanna enjoy some time. Yeah. I don't wanna be tied to an, an inventory list. I don't wanna be tied to employees. I don't wanna be tied to a whole bunch of stuff.

And so for me, I'm keeping it very simple and I'm still doing very well. I, you know, I just have super low overhead, so. It's about 

[00:31:55] Melissa Klug: it really. Like, it's simple, but it's complex, right? It's about what do you need [00:32:00] to get, so what does your business need to provide for you, whether that's financial, social, whatever.

And then it's about how do you get there? And then it's about what are your stretch goals. You need this, but man, it would make me really happy if I got this, like example, I have a child going to college next year, so I'm like, Hey, where are all those organizing jobs?

I need all of them. , right? . But exactly, you know, four years from now, I might be in more in your neck of the woods where I'm like, you know what? I wanna slow down a little bit. I don't need to to do that. Y it's about the season of your life and where does your business fit into there? And you don't have to say, oh yeah, I would like a team of seven, unless you want a team of seven, and then go do it.

But the comparisonitis goes for a lot of different things, and it's gotta be about what you want and what you need. 

[00:32:47] Kim Snodgrass: and what's your bandwidth? This, you know, a team of seven means a lot of backend business stuff that will probably put me into a tailspin. So why would I even wanna put myself 

[00:32:55] Melissa Klug: through that?

Right? Versus there are people listening to this that are like, oh my gosh, that sounds exciting and I want that. Awesome. Love it. Yep. Love that journey for you, . 

Yeah. 

Well, I wanna go back to something you just said, which is, really getting out and talking about your business. I've said it a million times before, I'll continue to say it. I have never had a job in my entire life that people wanted to talk about more than professional organizing. There is not a person who is not like, wait, tell me more about that.

Wait, what do you do? What, even if it, by the way, there are, I'm just gonna say it. There are some men in my life that are like, wait, you get paid for that? Yes, I do. Actually quite well. , am telling you, if you just tell people, Hey, I'm a professional organizer, oh my gosh, you are gonna have, you actually might have to cut off the conversations.

So telling people what you do in your personal network, making sure that everybody knows what you do for a living. I'm telling you that is the best weapon you have in your arsenal. 

[00:33:50] Kim Snodgrass: Absolutely. I love going out and talking, and you're right, you do have to cut people off.

Yeah. And I'll give some advice to new organizers. The first question you're gonna get asked is, what's the craziest thing you've ever found? Hundred percent. And I, I won't tell you what I have found, but even if you haven't found something, make something up because it just, they think it's the coolest thing in the 

[00:34:12] Melissa Klug: entire world.

The second question you're going to be asked is, so how many hoarders do you work with? Everybody loves the H word. Yeah. 

[00:34:21] Kim Snodgrass: Yeah. That's a whole nother, that's a whole nother podcast 

[00:34:24] Melissa Klug: I just, tell people, you know what, I think it's what, what you're missing is, like, that's a very small part of the population.

And I know it's been popularized on television, but it's not really who we work with. I work with just normal people every day that need a little bit of help. But yeah, you start to get like scripts that you can say to, to all the questions that you get. Yeah. Yeah. Start working on your scripts . Yes, exactly.

What are you happy that you learned in the last year about yourself?

[00:34:52] Kim Snodgrass: I am so happy that I confidently can walk into a home and know that I can solve the problem. Yep. There truly isn't a problem. I can't solve. I'm not saying that I can do it all on my own, but there literally hasn't been, and I don't feel like there's going to be a problem, an area that I can't solve. And I think my biggest challenge this year was doing my camper van.

You know, like a Oh yeah. Like a, a sprinter van style. That was my biggest 

[00:35:27] Melissa Klug: challenge. That was sometimes the smallest challenge. The smallest spaces are the biggest problem , so yeah. Yeah, 

[00:35:34] Kim Snodgrass: that one packed a big punch. But definitely being able to walk in and know that I can help anybody that wants my help.

Not saying I want to help everybody. There are some clients that I don't want to help. They're not your favorites. But the, no, for the most part though everybody is so wonderful that I've 

[00:35:51] Melissa Klug: worked with. , I will tell you there's a line, I think I've talked about it on the podcast before. There's a line from the show Seinfeld, which was one of my favorite shows [00:36:00] when it was on, but they're talking about how you can't really ever do a charitable act because you get something from it too.

You know, you can't just selflessly do something cuz you're like, oh, I feel good that I helped someone. And so I feel that way about my work at Pro Organizer Studio, like I love doing it because I love seeing people grow and change. So I feel like selfish that I get a lot out of seeing people, but I mean this so sincerely, from the first time that I met you.

Versus just one year later, you are a, you were a great person to start out with, but you're even greater now. You have grown so much, you have changed so much in terms of your mindset and you have done the work and it's so rewarding to be able to see like what one year can do to someone.

So I just, I love it. 

[00:36:50] Kim Snodgrass: Well, thank you. That is so 

[00:36:52] Melissa Klug: sweet. I mean it so sincerely and I feel it about so many people that we get to work with, but one of the reasons I wanted to have you on the podcast is because people heard from you a year ago and just being able to see like what you have learned in the space of one year, 365 days, you could do a ton of stuff in one year. you 

[00:37:12] Kim Snodgrass: can and you can grow so much. And yes, I thank you for that reminder because I am very excited this year to see where I go and, and see what I learn. Yeah. I just can't believe how much I've learned,? Never stop learning. You can't learn enough. Just fill 

[00:37:28] Melissa Klug: her up. Absolutely.

. Okay, we're gonna end it here today with Kim, but next week we will bring you all of the rest of our conversation with her. I adore her honesty and her straightforward way of looking at her business, and I hope that you enjoyed it too. If you want a little bit more goodness from Pro Organizer Studio, please check out po roadmap.com.

I give you. Free one hour workshop called the Pro Organizer's Profit Plan. I would absolutely adore to spend another hour with you. This is 24 7 365. If you wake up in the middle of the night and wanna spend some time with me, that's great. If you wanna take a lunch break with me, that's great too. Just make sure you order something good for me for lunch, and I look forward to seeing you guys there.

Have a wonderful week, organizers. 

Thank you so much for listening in to the Pro Organizer Studio podcast. If you'd like to get our roadmap for success as a pro organizer, head straight to www dot po roadmap dot.

Thank you so much for listening into the pro organizer studio podcast. If you'd like to get our roadmap for success as a pro organizer, head straight to www.poroadmap.com.

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138 | 1 Year As a Professional Organizer: Kim Snodgrass

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