I Quit All Social Media for my Professional Organizing business: Amber Ehrlich of The Tidy Bungalow
Can an organizer survive and even thrive without any social media? Amber Ehrlich of The Tidy Bungalow in Phoenix, Arizona is here to talk about her experiment in saying goodbye to Facebook and Instagram.
In 2022, Amber embarked on an experiment to see whether she could delete her social media, take the pressure off of herself and still have a great professional organizing business, and still be able to get organizing clients. Did she get FOMO, or did she go back to social media after her year was over? We find out today in The Pro Organizer Studio Podcast!
LINKS FOR LISTENERS
Amber's organizing business, The Tidy Bungalow: thetidybungalow.com
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] I'm Jen Kilbourne. And I'm Melissa Klug, and you're listening to the Pro Organizer Studio Podcast. We want to broaden the horizons of savvy business women in the organizing industry, and to give you the confidence you need to grow the business that you want, with strategies designed specifically for professional organizers.
We hope to inspire you wherever you are on your journey of entrepreneurship. We're so happy you're here with us now. Let's get started.
[00:00:31] Melissa Klug: Hey, pro organizers. It's your podcast co-host, Melissa. We are back with another brand new episode for you, but I just wanted to start out by saying I've been getting the nicest messages.
I'll tell you one of the things about being a professional organizer that I was not prepared for versus some of my prior jobs. How much just love and kindness is in this job and this community. So obviously I love it when I go to a client's house and get a hug from them. This weekend I was presenting at a home and garden show.
I got a lot of hugs from total strangers because it's just nice to talk about organizing and try to take some of that weight off of people, but I wanted to just say thank you to everyone who reaches out, who sends an email about, oh, I love listening to the podcast and it makes me feel like I'm part of a community. That was an email that I got today, which really makes my heart happy. I am happy to have you as listeners and it's just nice to know that I'm not alone out here. I'm not like talking into a microphone into nowhere.
So if you don't mind, I would absolutely love it if you could leave us a review also that really helps people find our podcast if you go to Apple Podcasts and click review. That is awesome and appreciated.
The other thing I wanna tell you about before we get started with our guest today is our Organizing Essentials program is staying open until April 17th. So you've got two weeks to decide if you're going to join us in this new cohort.
Organizing Essentials is a program that teaches you all about what you do inside a client's house or business as you're organizing them. So a lot of people ask, what's the difference between Inspired Organizer and Organizing Essentials. Inspired Organizer is our business building program where we teach you everything you need to know from start to finish about how to actually build your organizing business.
And organizing essentials is what do I do when my client answers the door and I am in charge. Organizing Essentials is an absolutely awesome community of women. We have been together for a couple of years. We do monthly Zooms where we talk about everything relating to your client work. We problem solve, we cheerlead, we give you lots of ideas,
and the program itself is full of video modules and learning, and expert organizer interviews and lots of other stuff. You get lifetime access to this program. So once you join, it is self-paced. You can do things as quickly or as slowly as you wish, and it's just an absolutely awesome community.
We would love to have you join. So this is closing April 17th. Anyone who has joined from the time we opened in March until April 17th, you are going to get your own very special private Zoom coaching with me, and I am excited to meet every single one of you. So if you go to pro organizer studio dot coms, Slash links or you can just go to the show notes and I will have all of the details
I promise you it is the best $249 you're gonna spend this year. You get a lot of value for that, for your business. Okay, my guest today, we are continuing a little bit of our conversation about social media and marketing for your business and how you actually go out and get clients.
So welcome to my friend Amber.
I always say this, I always start out saying, I'm so excited to talk to my guest today, and that is factual, but extra excited when I get to talk to someone who not only has something interesting to talk about, but who is an actual personal human in real life friend of mine.
And just the quick little backstory. Amber and I have known each other since 2018 and we started businesses around the same time and I happened to be visiting a friend in Arizona and I was like, oh, I think there's a, a KonMari person that is in [00:04:00] Arizona. I'm just gonna reach out and say hi.
And we met for coffee and the rest is history. We became, we, what we call our, our KonMari nesties. And so one of the things that we always tell people is find someone in the organizing industry that can be your buddy, because sometimes growing a business can feel very lonely. And if even if it's someone you don't get to see physically, in person all that much, it like really makes a huge difference.
[00:04:25] Amber Ehrlich: although you're very good at appearing in Arizona on my birthday, so Yes, yes.
[00:04:29] Melissa Klug: Also next door, if you guys are really nice to Amber and connect with her, you too can come to her awesome December birthday party, which is always fun. So, but definitely get yourself an organizing bestie because it really, really helps you to be able to just go to someone and say I had this crazy thing happen to me today.
Do you wanna hear about it ? Can you tell us a little bit about your business, The Tidy Bungalow?
[00:04:50] Amber Ehrlich: Yes. As you said, I'm a KonMari person, so I did my training in 2017, started my business pretty much full-time in 2018 and it's been really great.
I achieved master status right along with you pretty quick. I think we did in about two years,. And yeah, just kind of been writing that ever since. And sometimes I con Murray for reels with people and I'd say most of the time we just, we do organizing, whether it's gonna be unpacking a house, packing up a house, just kind of hitting spots.
But, you know, KonMari, regular organizing and everything in between.
[00:05:24] Melissa Klug: One of the phrases that you use that I really like is compassionate decluttering. And I've always liked that phrase because I think sometimes people can feel really overwhelmed like my mother-in-law, for instance, if you ask my mother-in-law what I do for a living, she would say, you yell at people to get rid of things.
I'm pretty sure that is what she thinks I actually do. So , I've always loved that phrase that you use though. ,
[00:05:45] Amber Ehrlich: thank you. Yes. There's always the organizing who can do for people, and then there's the organizing you do right alongside, and I prefer to be right alongside people. I like the longer term relationships, the bigger projects, and I like really getting to know my people and then they in turn become, supporters and fans of me.
And it's just, it's a really nice, it's a really nice mix. I like that a lot more than, oh, I'm not a big fan of putting things in boxes and labeling them. I can do it. I don't like it. Yeah. I don't get to know the person and kind of be more of their, you know, therapists.
[00:06:14] Melissa Klug: therapists. Right. I love that. There are people in our industry that do love making a gorgeous pantry. And then there are people like you and me who are like, give me all the psychology. I want to dig into why you are the way you are, and I want to help you change. And by the way, there are some people that really, really don't like that.
And you can be whatever,
[00:06:35] Amber Ehrlich: somebody that I will start working with tomorrow, and we had our first consult call last week when she inquired. I was like, so tell me about your family. And then there was a big, you know, silence and a big breath in, and then she just started crying and I was like, oh, like I know she's in a lot of pain and we're gonna get to a much better place.
But I was like, oh, I'm gonna love her. Yeah, I'm gonna love her. Yeah,
[00:06:54] Melissa Klug: absolutely. Well, so one of the things that's really important, and something that you said is you have been doing this business full-time since you started, that's over five years ago. And so you're pretty experienced, but you and I also were very fortunate that we were able to build our have them be true full-time businesses pretty quickly.
And so the way we did that was by using social media, right? That's how we solely built our businesses.
[00:07:19] Amber Ehrlich: No, I, I've had a client, I know a client has verified who I am on Instagram like four years ago, but I've never, no, I did. I got one client, I got one client that did one session from Instagram. Okay. Once
[00:07:33] Melissa Klug: congratulations.
Well, all joking aside, what we wanna talk about today is Amber undertook are we gonna call it an, I don't know if we call it an experiment or just a lifestyle change? It was an experiment. Yeah. Okay. So what I wanna talk to Amber about is, she and I have been aligned from the very beginning that social media is just a tool that you use in your business, and it is way down the list, like at the bottom of the list of what we did to [00:08:00] grow our businesses or to get clients.
Right. But what I wanna talk to you about today is you just very boldly over a year ago, undertook an experiment and I wanna hear all about it.
[00:08:11] Amber Ehrlich: Okay. So, social media causes me like a lot of performance anxiety and comparative anxiety.
And as a recovery perfectionist, that's really the last thing that I need. Doom scrolling. Definitely. A thing and, well, I'm definitely, you know, was the person that was the top of my game and had confidence. I just, whenever I'd scroll through, I would just get angry. And I think one of the reasons I would get angry, You see what you see online, but then you know the real story behind things and that kind of drives me nuts.
And I just, I was over it. I was also over computers in general. Actually, today I had to reinstall Zoom because apparently I haven't been on a Zoom since I bought a new computer. Fascinating. I love that. So, yeah, it was the end of November, 2021 and I was just like, I hadn't posted on Instagram for six months, not like I did much before.
Hadn't shared anything on Facebook for quite a long time, and I just made a post. I was like, so we're coming down to the end of 2021 and I'm just gonna not do any social media whatsoever in 2022. So I was like, you can find me in real life. Here's my phone number, here's my email address, here's my website.
And I said, I'm gonna go all of 2022 with no social media and. Maybe I'll return and maybe I won't. And of course it was weird at first but oh my goodness, by the end of 2022, like no need, no
[00:09:31] Melissa Klug: need whatsoever to return. So you, you not only didn't post, you didn't go on at all, is that correct?
[00:09:38] Amber Ehrlich: I didn't go on, no. I, before I quit everything, I did go into all the Facebook settings and I downloaded every single picture that I had ever had. And then I did try to go on mid 2021 to completely deactivate and delete everything. Okay. But since after you are inactive for so long, you can't even get back on.
I don't even know how to verify. I am who I am. So it exists out there. People can find me with my last message ever, but, yeah. I don't even know how to get on at
[00:10:04] Melissa Klug: this point. Now you were never a huge Instagram person. , you weren't on it all the time anyway. But when you first started, did you have any sort of like, fomo, what have I done? I miss it. What was the first month like?
[00:10:16] Amber Ehrlich: Not so much because by the time I decided that I was going to Levi's, really only using it for personal reasons, I had realized a, a good two years prior that I didn't get any business from it.
I said Gina verified, she liked my character and my morals from an Instagram post that she found me on. And you know, I say that Facebook, the one thing I did miss from it is the Kaari community, just because that is, where people would connect us in Facebook groups. So that was really the only thing I missed was the groups.
But it had been years past that I realized that that's not where actual business came from. . Okay. It's not mine. And I didn't need to be an influencer and I was definitely not a daily poster. So it's kind of just, you know, the final conclusion of let's just go here and, yep.
Haven't missed it. I like to connect with people in my life so much better. Yeah. I talk to my real people in real
[00:11:11] Melissa Klug: time. So you decide to stop altogether and you didn't necessarily miss it, but no business impact, just, you still have clients coming in, right? Yes. There
[00:11:21] Amber Ehrlich: was zero business impact but I've always asked people where did you find?
And 99% of the time it's Google. And the other 1% of the time it'll say like other, or it'll be a referral something. But it's always Google.
And something I was gonna say, is that Instagram is like, you know national, it's international. And my ideal client lives within 10 miles of me. I can't just like Instagram only to 10 miles of me.
Google my business, I can target, like I actually have a set point that's not my house, that it's a little bit northeast. That's my set point. Yeah. And I really don't wanna go outside that area. Yeah.
[00:11:56] Melissa Klug: Nor do you have to, you have built a very successful business without having to drive very [00:12:00] far.
Another difference between you and me, I will drive four hours to a client. , you don't like to drive more than four minutes.
[00:12:06] Amber Ehrlich: And I also have the world's like largest metro area. Yes. A bazillion people right here. So I don't have to,
[00:12:12] Melissa Klug: one of the things that it, I did an episode about, you know, you don't need social media for your business. And the, the marketer that I had on with me, she was talking about how when she tells clients.
You do not need to be on social media. She said not one time has anyone come back and said, oh, I'm really sad that I don't have to do social media anymore. Everyone's just relieved. So do you feel a sense of relief that like it's not even something that's hanging over your head at all?
It has because
[00:12:40] Amber Ehrlich: it's just something that would stress me out. It's like well, people like me, oh my goodness. It's only really mattered if like the people I know in real life like me. It doesn't matter how many like something online would get. But still, you see that and there's just. So much comparing, there was comparing myself to others and I know other people have felt that. And then of course we only put our best foot forward when we put it out online. But yeah, don't miss it at all. No business impact.
And it's just been nice to not think about that. I actually. Funny thing. And part of a volunteer organization that has a Facebook page and they're like, oh, you can post on there. I was like, I, I don't Facebook, I just tell them I don't have a Facebook account, which consider I'm the youngest person in there by 20, 30 years is really funny.
They're confused by this,
[00:13:19] Melissa Klug: so you don't have the pressure to do anything on social media. What do you do instead for your business to keep it operating?
[00:13:26] Amber Ehrlich: So I have a Google Business ad that runs, so I don't do anything right. Like it, it works for me.
[00:13:32] Melissa Klug: As long as I've known you, you've kind of done the same ad, like for Infinity. Is that fair? Yeah. And
[00:13:39] Amber Ehrlich: so it, it does the work for me cuz I, it knows how to reach people. It's magic. I don't happy to pay for that. And then the big thing for me is, it goes to my website.
My website's integrated perfectly with HoneyBook. So the moment somebody inquires, I get the notification on my phone and I, pops up on my Apple watch and I go, oh. And I think the biggest thing is being responsive to that. If I'm with a client, obviously I can't get back to somebody right that moment, but if I'm not, then I do.
First of all, it's always funny. Do you get this? People go, you called me back. Yeah. .
[00:14:10] Melissa Klug: Yeah. Weird. Yeah. That, that's kinda the
[00:14:12] Amber Ehrlich: point of that. That's why I also ask for your email address and your phone number. Always, always, always a phone number, not just an email address. You called me back.
I did. Oh, you called me back today. Yes, and I did. So I'd say that's a big thing is just, responding to people in the most timely manner possible or, you know the people that they're freaking out about their house and they inquire at like 11:00 PM right? Yes. Well, I can't call them back at that time, but I emailed them back if I'm awake.
Yep. You know, something personal. Google does my marketing that I don't have to think about. And my job is to respond in a timely manner, in a very personalized manner. Cuz people always write, you know, what's going on, make that very personalized and just having a really genuine phone call.
The lady that I start with tomorrow just an overwhelmed mom of three, very, very classic, client. And it wasn't like, hi, I'm Amber. This is all the things I can do for you. Just, with what she wrote. And I was just like, hi, this is Amber.
She's like, hi. I'm like, tell me about your family. You know, that was my first, the first thing I said, it wasn't anything about me. She knows who I am. She's been on my site. Right. Yeah. Tell me about your family.
[00:15:14] Melissa Klug: I think sometimes I think that's a really important point because I think sometimes we feel pressure of like, I have to sell myself.
No, people wanna talk about themselves. . I start out with, tell me a little bit about why you contacted me. I wanna hear what's going on with you.
[00:15:28] Amber Ehrlich: But I would say, just not having this, you know, this need to be, ready every day or camera ready every day or posting or doing anything that, like not having that pressure that allows me to be a better version of me. And then when I'm with my clients, I'm a hundred percent full on whether that's on the phone or whether that's in person with them.
But then I don't feel the need to give any more of myself beyond that. And I think that's a big thing with, posting on social media. It's always this expectation of I have to give and I have to give. And, you know, I'm a big fan [00:16:00] of being self-preserving because that's how I do best.
That's how I do my best for others, and I show up for others, is if I have a completely full tank, I don't think I ever run less than three quarters full. Self-care is like my number one value, maybe . Yeah. So, you know, I just, I don't have that, I don't feel like I'm ever giving anything of myself beyond what I really want.
And you also know that I am good on boundaries. And so I think just saying goodbye to social media has helped me really preserve those.
[00:16:25] Melissa Klug: You just said something that I have never, ever thought of in relation to social media, so I've thought about it in terms of sometimes you're putting a lot out there, but I've never thought about it in terms of you really have to keep giving and you're putting a lot out there in terms of your energy or it's just, it's another burden versus something that's fun. So we've, we've turned it into a burden instead of something that is truly supposed to be social or fun or connect.
[00:16:51] Amber Ehrlich: Because I show up to my neighbor's house on a Sunday morning, honestly, in my pajamas and eat breakfast with them, and they will fully accept me who, for who I am. But I, I don't think, that's really a personality we cultivate on social media. I don't think, here I am like with, you know, my jammies and messy bun.
Like some people that's like their whole pretend and stuff, but I don't think it's organizers. That's something that really, always works for us. Yeah. With what we do, there are higher expectations of who we are and how we have our homes ourselves. Yeah. And I just, I don't, I just can't do the performance.
I just, I don't, I, well, I can, I don't want to. I've decided that's really, not for me. It's not
[00:17:26] Melissa Klug: for you. The other thing too that you just made me think of and I do not want to offend anyone with what I'm about to say, which I might, but I also think what you said about showing up 100% for your client, I do think sometimes if you're constantly thinking about what content I can create out of my client project, , it can also, it puts a different pressure on you.
It might actually put the wrong expectations on the client project and it could just create you like taking your focus off of how do I create this best experience for the client and how do I create the best result for the client because I'm trying to get the most perfect picture for my
[00:18:06] Amber Ehrlich: Instagram.
So 95% of the time I forget to take before and after, so it's just like not something I same never thought of. And I'm like, I'm really good at like a mid-project after . Yeah, before and after. But it's, I like to do that just for myself or to show my client, how much progress they've made.
Or sometimes when something is a really good after, I'll take that one photo and maybe on my year end recap. So I don't do social media, but I, here's my little thing that I, I've done. . I actually do post photos, but I post them once a year. You know how we all used to send a Christmas letter with like five or six photos?
Like this is okay back in the day when it came to Christmas letters. But I will do essentially a Christmas letter on my website and I send all my clients and on my family and on my friends at Christmas card and I direct them to my website. And now I get to show my best pictures of the year.
But it's pictures of me and my family and what's been going on or travels and there might be, two, maybe three pictures of clients' homes, like a really nice after with something, but it's not the focus of things. It's like, yes, this is what I do. But the nice thing about that is they get to see me in my pictures throughout the year and it drives people to my website, which is great for seo.
[00:19:15] Melissa Klug: Yep.
[00:19:15] Amber Ehrlich: And then my clients, you know, there's the about me page on my website, but if they click on the years, because some people are more curious than others, they're going to get the full view of who I am as a person. Mm-hmm. . , but they didn't have to go on Facebook or Instagram
[00:19:28] Melissa Klug: to do that.
I wanna talk a little bit about I mean you've kind of touched on it, but the mental health aspects of not being on social media.
A little bit of the comparisonitis, that type of thing. Cause I know a lot of people struggle with that. .
[00:19:39] Amber Ehrlich: Yes. I think you know that, especially because we were so much online during the pandemic times, and it was just so interesting to see what people post versus like knowing, you know, what's going on behind the scenes.
I think, you know, throughout 2020 and 2021, having those in-person connections became even more valuable and. , [00:20:00] I just got computer burnout in general. I don't like to sit in front of the computer much anymore. This is a very, very special occasion now . So I'm honored. I've been like, I know
[00:20:09] Melissa Klug: that this, this is like actually like hard work for you to do this and I genuinely appreciate
[00:20:15] Amber Ehrlich: it.
Yeah. I definitely like to be in-person, getting my hands dirty. Like, I don't know if anything makes me much happier than throwing legit trash away from out of people's houses. Like taking actual trash bags and putting the trash can makes me very joyous sitting in front of computer. Very hard.
Yeah. But I think in 2020 and 2021, we were so much on Zoom and everything and it just made me dislike, sitting in front of a screen even more. And so I didn't want to be in front of a screen or social media or anything. And because the in-person interactions were fewer and more far between, they became more valuable.
It definitely changed who I was cuz I was definitely more of a computer person before that. But, I don't know it, I think I discovered a lot about myself in those two years. I'm sure other people have as well. Yep. And I don't know, it just reamed my focus into real life. mental health is always, you know, it's a, it's a huge thing for me. And it's interesting even in the organization I volunteer with now when we're going through the books and having our book sale, my category, my subcategory and all the bazillions of books is health and wellness.
And we have so many books on mental health, which is really important. And I've made a subsection , and that's like my wellness, where it's like wellness, joy, happiness, meditation. And so, well, you might think that Marie Kondo's book, the life changing magic of Tidying Up would go to Home and Garden.
Mm-hmm. , they don't do so well over there. But I keep them in my section because for me, taking care of your home is such a reflection of your mental health and almost everybody I talk to, , that's why they're calling me because they're on the upswing from depression or coming out of something really dark or it's just, it's just really amazing to see how much they tie hand in hand.
So yes, I keep books about tidying and happiness and having less and being less cluttered. I keep them in my section of health and wellness because that's where they belong to me. It's not just things, it's so much I, what do I call it? Therapy
[00:22:08] Melissa Klug: through. . Yeah. Well, and it's not functional. I think home and garden sometimes is a functional thing, you know, versus what we all know from what we do is that, decluttering, organizing, it is a self-care.
It's the most radical act of self-care. It is your home. And so it's where you spend the most of your time. It is about wellness. It is about the overall happiness that you feel in your life. So I love that. Yeah. And so many
[00:22:34] Amber Ehrlich: of the conversations, when women contact me, which is, that's the majority of our clients, but I always tell them, I'm like, I'm so proud of you.
I'm so proud of you for making this phone call and reaching out, cuz it is so hard for us to ask for help. Yeah. And so I know it's, a great act of humility for them to ask and for them to say, I can't do it all. And, and I get it. Cause, I also think I should be able to do it all. And then I have to step back and say, you know, there's other people that are so much better at all these other things and they're more than happy to help me.
Just like I'm more than happy to help everyone else. ,
[00:23:07] Melissa Klug: I'm terrible at asking for help, like really, really bad. And becoming an organizer has made me realize how important it is to ask for help and to admit that, no, I don't know how to do all of it. I do not know how to do everything. And me trying to act like I do is a detriment to me.
Oh, and
[00:23:26] Amber Ehrlich: talk about starting a business. Yeah. Like how do we know how to do anything? Right. Like I think, you know, some stuff is kind of innate, but so much of it is learning from others and really finding what has worked for others. And we're talking about no social media. There's some people that love it and they absolutely kill it and they're fantastic at it and it gives them energy and oh my goodness, more power to those people.
But I think it's also really important to recognize, for those of us. It does not spark joy. We can let it go. Yeah.
[00:23:56] Melissa Klug: And I also think too, that knowing yourself, like [00:24:00] what you're really talking about is actually like going deep and knowing yourself and knowing what works for you versus what you are think you're supposed to check the box for.
And so you were able to say, I know myself and I know this isn't good for me in, several different ways. It's actually not helping my business, which is what is important to me and I don't need it. And the FOMO is I can get over the FOMO because I know that it is what I actually need. It's what's good for me.
It's none of us like eating vegetables, but it's good for us . So
[00:24:34] Amber Ehrlich: yeah, it's, it's so important to know what works for us. And even today, I'm like writing a small copy for, the NPR station around in my area, and I'm like, oh my gosh, it's like 30 words or less. And here I am like. Okay. Have to make these 30 words just right.
It's just very interesting, even creating 30 words, like you're an amazing writer cause you're just so prolific and. what you can write. And you know, it just, that's a huge skill and talent that you have and something that I'm completely envious of. And just knowing that that's your skillset and that's your talent, and I have to admire it.
I, on the other hand, will just edit things to the bone. That's right. my
[00:25:11] Melissa Klug: skillset. Listen, you. But that's another thing that we just know we're good at. Right? Like I sometimes when you and I did a lot of work together, I would write and then you would edit and you would make it a lot better. So, yeah, we're, that's why it's why you gotta, you have to find someone that compliments your skills, but it's sort of just like,
[00:25:26] Amber Ehrlich: Experimenting with business, right? You have to experiment with what works and what doesn't. You know, in the beginning I built my business on, home advisor, which I guess is Angie now or something.
It is, yes. And it worked really, really amazingly well for the first year and then, something on there and changed, but, you know, I had to give things a try. So I think with social media, people are gonna give it a try, but when it causes more stress than than joy when the ROI is just crap.
It's time to reevaluate and say, maybe it's not for me. It's like, home Advisor was fantastic for a year and some people do really well on Thumbtack and we have to try them all, but I've just found that, for me, Google is, Google's my friend and now here I'm, venturing into, why not try a little bit with the the NPR station around me.
I don't know if it's gonna work or not. Yeah. , but I'm gonna give it a try for two months and just kind of see what happens and then I'll reevaluate. But I know that I'm, you know, not married to a long term, just Google. I'm only married to Google. Yes.
[00:26:17] Melissa Klug: And we, we all need to be married to Google. Is there anything that you feel like you have learned from this that you're like, I think everybody just needs to know, but like what would you encourage an organizer to do if they're really, really struggling
[00:26:34] Amber Ehrlich: with social media app?
I think, you know, saying you're gonna give it up for a year is really hard, but why not say, I'm just gonna, not post anything for 30 days and see what happens. Mm-hmm. , try those 30 days and see how you feel. I don't think you're going to notice some, any detriment to your business and you probably will get some happiness as well.
Yeah. Maybe you don't, maybe you just don't post for 30 days or maybe you just don't go on for 30 days. I don't know. Everybody has to start, baby steps somewhere. And I had just stopped posting so much at all that just saying goodbye. It wasn't like post, post, post. And all of a sudden one day I was gone.
There had been a slow decline. But I think if you are going to exit, when people, we disappear from people's lives virtually, it can kind of free people. That's why I had my one, my big last post, right? Like, Hey, I'm not doing this. These are all the ways you can contact me and I'd love to hear from you this way instead.
[00:27:27] Melissa Klug: Yeah. Your organizing business, where do you see that going in the next. year or two years, are you still excited about organizing or where are you on that road?
[00:27:39] Amber Ehrlich: I am definitely excited to be in people's Houses and creating those relationships.
And the greatest thing about my business is that it allows me to work with as many clients as I want or not, which has been really great as I develop, you know, a romantic relationship in the last year that's taken a lot of travel and I think that's what I love [00:28:00] most about this is just the flexibility I get to do what I love.
I get to choose who I work with that make me, you know, really happy. I develop these with, and my time schedule gets to be mine. So I know that this business will support me, and the next year as my relationship deepens and we join houses and I'm really glad to have the skills to help him unpack and move and unpack.
And I've been, decluttering and clearing up my space cuz I have to make space, for a second person in my home. And so I definitely have enjoyed having that skillset, although it is always harder to do for myself than to do for others. So, my business, I think, you know, as my, as he moves in and my travel lessons, I'm going to be taking on more clients,
but I'm also. Sounds kind of crazy, but I'm excited to get into some more garages even as it heats up. I love those sweaty hot garage days. Interesting.
[00:28:52] Melissa Klug: Tell me why ?
[00:28:53] Amber Ehrlich: I just feel like I've worked so hard at the end of the day. Yeah. And it's nice to come home and jump in the pool and take a shower. And I'm also excited that he has a truck and he really admires what I do and it's gonna be really great in these messy, sweaty hot garages to have somebody that I enjoy spending time with help me haul things away.
Cause I think there's gonna be, not most of the time, but there's gonna be different projects that, he'll probably step up and help me with, which is gonna be, you know, really great to have. I'm excited that my business is that flexible time-wise and the fact that I can bring him in and he can support me and I think that's gonna be a very interesting phase to have, somebody in my life that supports me in person in my business, cuz I do, I do it solo.
[00:29:34] Melissa Klug: Yeah. We call Tim Mr. Home by 11 because, sometimes he helps me on jobs, he doesn't do as much as, as he used to, well, like when I first started. But he also calls himself Mr. Home by 11 around the house. And so I'm excited for you to have a Mr. Chatty bungalow. This is very exciting.
It's very
[00:29:49] Amber Ehrlich: interesting because he's actually so much more picked up and tidier than I am. Really. Cause he got a single thing outta place in his home.
[00:29:58] Melissa Klug: Interesting. Has he always been like that? Yes.
[00:30:01] Amber Ehrlich: Okay. Yes. He keeps a very neat home and I'm definitely, I'm cleaner, but he's tidier, so we're a really good compliment there.
Also, he has no social
[00:30:12] Melissa Klug: media.
Okay. Oh, interesting. This is something I meant to ask you. Like, so when you said earlier, when you were talking about your volunteer thing and you're like, Hey, I don't do Facebook. Do you have people that are like, what do you, what do you mean you don't have social media? Like, do you have people that question you about it?
Oh yeah. They're
[00:30:26] Amber Ehrlich: like, you don't have Facebook? I was like, I don't have Facebook, but you can just log onto this. I'm like, but I don't have Facebook. Yeah. I'm not putting effort into it. Yeah. So I exist in Facebook ghostland or something, but yeah, some people are confused, but I think more and more people our age are just like, oh yeah, I get it.
Oh yeah. I think a lot of people would leave, but they think they have to stay for their business and you don't, if you don't wanna be there personally, you don't have to be there for your business. Yeah,
[00:30:55] Melissa Klug: Well, is there anything that I didn't ask you that you would like to talk about?
[00:30:59] Amber Ehrlich: No, besides personal things in life I'm just, I'm really, I just wanna say I'm really happy for you.
You know, we had our businesses, you know, kind of started, here, they came together for quite a while. Now they've diverged and I'm just really proud of you and all that you've created because you have, you know, your work ethic is 180 degrees from mine, and it's just amazing what you have created, you.
The master of work ethic, and I am the master of relaxation. Listen,
[00:31:26] Melissa Klug: yeah. , we, we, we both found happiness in it. That's right. We, we both had to figure out where our happiness lay and we did, and that's important. And by the way, we both learned things from each other. I learned a lot about, how I need to chill out a little bit.
And self-care is important. And I actually, I love that because I think, especially in the work that we do, it is so important to make sure that you're taking care of yourself and you cannot take care of a business and you cannot take care of clients if you are not taking care of yourself. It's incredibly important.
[00:31:58] Amber Ehrlich: So I just wanna say I'm [00:32:00] very proud of you and I love all that you've created and how many people you have. Like people have businesses and livelihoods because of you and that's amazing.
[00:32:08] Melissa Klug: Well, we were very, very lucky to be able to find each other and I just, I really cannot explain to people how important it is to find someone that you can connect with and you do not have to start a business together like we did.
That takes it to another level. , you do not have to go to that level if you do not want to. But just having someone on your side that you know you can just go to and be like, listen, I need you and this is what is happening to me. I need you to talk me off the ledge. And also to offer some tough love
[00:32:38] Amber Ehrlich: I have sent you some really hilarious, horribly made graphic memes, sayings, posters.
Basically, I make the ugliest graphics wise post I can possibly make in Canva. And I I do send those to you occasionally. They're very you for another one.
[00:32:55] Melissa Klug: She is also an extremely thoughtful gift giver. The last gift she gave me, I cannot show you because it would not be proper, but it was hilarious and it was great and it was very accurate.
What is so tidy bungalow in Phoenix, Arizona. You have a lovely website that I always encourage people to go to as a great example of what a wonderful organizing website looks like. So please check out, do not check out her social media because it does not exist, or it does, but you can't contact her that way.
So how can people get in touch with you if they would like to chat?
[00:33:28] Amber Ehrlich: They can find me on the tidy bungalow. You can always, email me directly from there or else you can fill out a contact form and I will get back to you in, if you're an inquiring client, I'll get right back to you. If you're inquiring about life in general, I will get back to you within about 48 hours.
Perfect. Because I'm not so much computer
[00:33:46] Melissa Klug: person. Yes. And also, by the way, this is another thing that is important. So when so Amber's business is called the tidy bungalow because she lives in this adorable house. It's seriously, it's one of my favorite houses on the planet.
And so this is a really great example of if you are newer to your business and you are trying to establish a business brand name and you are struggling, look around you, because the answer may be literally right in your backyard, literally and figuratively. Don't overthink it.
[00:34:16] Amber Ehrlich: This is how it started. I'm, yeah, I, I can organize for people. Ooh, this is a thing. I'm going to be the tidy bungalow. So Yes. Business name, you know, I'm going to start a business, business name. Thought of in about, you know, 30 to 60 seconds website registered in the next 60
[00:34:34] Melissa Klug: seconds.
Yep. So yes, you do not need to spend a year thinking about your people. Not a
[00:34:39] Amber Ehrlich: clue. Cause I know how to get clients. Not a clue, but I had a name and I had a website Target. That's right. It used a domain
[00:34:45] Melissa Klug: name. Right. . So do not because professional organizers are professional overthinkers just Okay. Look around you and your perfect business name might be right in front of you and you just don't know it.
[00:34:57] Amber Ehrlich: And oh, by the way, my website gets an occasional update by a few words, but my website has looked exactly the same for about five years now. Yeah. It's built on such an old Squarespace platform that it does not have like the whole dynamics of different things you can do now. Yeah. That old spacers.
[00:35:17] Melissa Klug: So, and it works great. I will tell you, I am, I have decided to take the leap and update my website, but I, same thing. I have done updates to it. Okay. But I have kept it. Largely the same as when I first built it and you and I built our websites ourselves. We learned how to do it. Did we, were we gifted at this before?
Absolutely not. I worked for corporations who, I had people that did things for me. So it, you can do these things. You have the ability in you. Neither Amber nor I had ever started a business, we had never built a website. We had never registered a domain name, we had never registered for an L L C. We were able to do these things and you can as well, I promise.[00:36:00]
Hundred percent. Well, thank you so much for joining us and talking about your adventures in being off of the internet. I am very excited for you. YouTube. I'll tell you, I have gotten so much feedback on this, like you don't need social media stuff and that's why I knew I had to have you on because you like really took it to another level and I just, I'm excited for people to listen to this and feel like, wow, I really, really can let the pressure off.
[00:36:25] Amber Ehrlich: That'll be interesting to see if people, you know, take the leap offline. You know, we all took the leap online at some point, but great point. Back to real life. Great
[00:36:33] Melissa Klug: point. Well, thank you for telling us your story. We appreciate it.
[00:36:36] Amber Ehrlich: Thank you for having me. Melissa,
Thank you so much, Amber, for joining us. I appreciated learning all about your journey with social media and just your business in general. I wanna remind you, if you'd like to spend another hour with me, I would love to spend an hour with you. We have a brand new, we have a free workshop. It's called the Pro Organizer's Profit Plan.
It is available 24/7/364 at poroadmap.com. I would love to spend a little bit more time with you talking about my favorite subject, organizing. See you there. Have a great week, organizers.
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.