Episode 106 | Jessica Litman, The Organized Mama
Jessica Litman is well known as The Organized Mama, and has built an organizing business that many of us dream of! She also has dreamed of writing a book since she was in 4th grade--and is making that dream come true in April with the publication of "Home Sweet Organized Home." She is talking to us today about her path in organizing, including working one on one with clients both in-home and virtually, as well as a super successful online brand which started with a blog and has grown exponentially.
LINKS FOR LISTENERS:
The Organized Mama website
Jessica's book "Home Sweet Organized Home"
Jessica's Instagram @organizedmamas
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
Jessica Litman: And the biggest thing I tell people because I work with them professional organizers as well. And I tell them all the time, if any single person, including myself online makes you doubt how great you are. Just unfollow me, unfollow that person, because what you're doing. Is perfect for you and what somebody else is doing is perfect for them.
So never doubt that. And any person including myself, I'm like then unfollow or just hide me for 30 days. Whatever you feel comfortable with, but I don't ever want what I'm doing to make you feel like you have to do something because.
Melissa Klug: Hey, pro organizers. It is your friend and podcast Co-host Melissa Klug. I hope that you have had an amazing week with your clients. I had a couple of new clients start this week and no matter how long I have been organizing, I forget sometimes how magical it is when you have that new client. And they're able to see how quickly.
Efficiently. We are able to get work done in their house together versus the work that they could do on their own. And I watched that magic this week with one woman in particular. And she was just so excited that in three hours we were able to do so much work in her space and that we were able to come up with so many ideas that she hadn't.
I see on her own. And I really hope that you have had a similar week with your clients that you've had some magic happen and some transformations happen. And it's just a reminder of how much I love this industry and how much I love my professional organizing job. I am so grateful that I get to be welcomed into people's homes and get to be a part of their journey in their house.
But I am also super grateful that I get to have a second part of my life, which is getting to talk to organizers and coach professional organizers to make their businesses better. And I am so honored that so many people join us every single week on this podcast. And just want to say
on behalf of Jen and myself. Thank you for trusting us with your business and with your ears. We hope to bring you great content every single week that helps your organizing business grow and thrive. Before we get started with our awesome podcast guests today. Jessica, I just wanted to remind you about a couple of things that we have available that can help you in your business this week.,
we have a brand new free workshop called the pro organizers profit plan.
It is up at poroadmap.com. You can watch this workshop 24/7 on your schedule. If you wish, if you are awake in the middle of the night, as I sometimes am, you can absolutely spend some quality time with Jen and myself in the middle of the night, or if it's your lunch break at your job.
And you're thinking about, oh my gosh, I just want to start my organizing. So badly, but I don't know where to start. Please start with our workshops, spend an hour in our free masterclass.
Another thing that I would like to mention if you haven't hit our website, we have so many resources there. We have every episode of the podcast with transcripts, we have a blog, we have all sorts of things there that are designed to help you with your organizing business.
But we just added a new page. That's titled courses. Sometimes people don't know that we have many other resources available to you to help you grow your business. And these resources come with private communities where you get daily coaching, you get feedback, live zooms, you get Facebook lives, you get all sorts of things in this group.
Support and a community. So many times we talked to organizers and they're like, Hey, I'm out here in the forest all by myself. And I really, really, really need a community and need support. And that is what we provide in these private communities. They are so. Amazing places.
One of our mentors in our inspired organizer program. Carly said something the other day that really hit me. She said, I wish I would be able to explain to people how much gold you get when you are in these groups. Like with all of the free content that pro organizer studio has out there. You know, the podcast, all those things.
Imagine what kind of gold you get when you are in our private community. I would absolutely love to meet you. I would love to be a part of your organizing journey. Let's get started today with our guest, Jessica Litman. She is the organized mama and I absolutely loved talking to her.
She has so many great things to say.
Welcome back to the pro organizer studio podcast. This is your co-host Melissa and I am very, very excited to talk to someone who is, as they would say in the entertainment, a universe, a multihyphenate you are an entrepreneur, you're an author.
You're a mom. You are a YouTube celebrity. You doing. Celebrity. It you're like all of the things. So Jessica, I'm excited to have you on the podcast today.
Jessica Litman: I am so excited to be here.
Melissa Klug: I love talking to everyone, but I'm so excited to talk to you because you have so many cool things going on.
And I think especially in the last two years have been a little tough and organizers, especially for people like we go into people's homes, right? Yeah. So one of the things that we love to do here is talk to people about other paths you can take with an organizing business and opening your mind to.
There are so many things that you can do depending on what your passions are. So I'm excited to talk to you about that.
Jessica Litman: Oh my gosh. There are so many things to do. And so many ways to branch out. Like this is something I love talking about too.
Melissa Klug: Awesome. Exciting. Well, can you give us just kind of the background of how you got into organizing all of that?
Jessica Litman: So my background is actually in education and I used to be an elementary teacher. My coworkers. I always thought I was crazy because I, if I was sick, I'm like, okay, go in the third cabinet on the right. And in the second shelf to tell them where to pull things. If I wasn't there. And they were like, how do you do this?
I didn't know. It's always come naturally to me, which I feel like most organizers that's the case. You just know how to organize it makes sense in your brain. So eventually I became a special education teacher and we had to do in home visits with families. I started helping those families with all of the special ed paperwork, because there's so much paperwork, paperwork, and.
I was pregnant with my son, decided to stay home and started writing a blog. And the blog turned into an in-home business, which, because of the pandemic, we've gone back to the blog and all other online ventures under the organized model.
Melissa Klug: Well, tell me a little bit about, cause, when I coach clients, a lot of times people are, they hear the word blog and they get like really scared, right?
Like I'm to have to be chained to my computer and I'm never going to know what to talk about. And how did you get inspired you that have you always been a writer? How do you do that?
Jessica Litman: Oh my gosh. No, I I've always wanted to be a writer, but I was always told I was not a good writer. I went to college and they put me in like remedial writing and I'm like, really, like, I don't think I'm bad.
It's hurtful. It is. And so then you just like doubt yourself. And I feel like that's so many people because school writing is different than blog writing. Like if you can write a social media capture. You can write a blog, post, people want to, hear your voice. And so I write, like I talk, my husband, it drives him nuts.
Cause he is like, old-school like, this is how words or text should be written. And I don't write like that at all. I write, like I talk, I use like honestly, and so a lot in my writing because I want you to feel like we are having a conversation, right. So, I don't think the blogging component needs to be, you don't need to think of it as school.
It is, you are doing social media just in a longer form. Yeah.
Melissa Klug: And not overthinking it too, because we're all good at overthinking. It's our super power. Totally. But just letting it come out and say, like, what would you say? Like you said, if you're just in a conversation with them, What would you say? What would you talk about
Jessica Litman: exactly?
Like, that's it, and there is a blogger who told me this way back when I first started. And she said that she writes down stupid things that she does during the day. Like if you know, every time she refills her coffee, she also like empties the dishwasher. It's like what she does together.
She wrote an entire blog post on it and she's like, But people don't always think of all of those things that they do throughout the day. And especially as an organizer, if you go into somebody's house and you're tidying up their kitchen and you notice a thing that's repetitive, you know, like maybe everybody's putting cups in a weird spot.
That's an entire blog post.
Melissa Klug: Absolutely. I was telling someone last night, I go one of my best social media posts ever. I took a selfie. I swear on my life with a bottle of vinegar. It was me and a bottle of vinegar. And I just talked about why I loved vinegar. And I was like, no, one's going to care about this.
But it was because I was like using vinegar to clean my coffee pot, whatever people
Jessica Litman: loved it because it's new information that they might not have thought of. But it's. Yeah,
Melissa Klug: so I love, but I love that tip is take something that is just an everyday thing that you do. And it's probably not something that someone else does and you can go write about
Jessica Litman: it.
Melissa Klug: One of the things that I would talk about a lot is, you know, as much as you can to niche down, you know, like how did you decide that you were going to go with your brand?
Jessica Litman: Ooh, that's a good question. My blog was originally called something else and then. It was called coffee and chaos because I had when I first started, my son was six months.
I found out I was pregnant with my daughter and we just moved from the city into the suburbs, like a suburb house, and things were just crazy, but I spelled chaos wrong in the U S. And so, which just goes to the point of how chaotic those years
Melissa Klug: when you have a six month old and you're pregnant. Yes, of course you spelled it wrong.
Jessica Litman: Of course I did. So when we changed names and like URL and everything, I'm like, okay, well then this is just how I'm going to go. I'm going to do the organized mama and that's how I'm going to. Or like, because I knew education kids and I knew how to organize for kids. So that's kind of where it.
Melissa Klug: To start the blog and how did it start to take off? What are some of the things that you did to make it take off or did it just kind of take off on its own?
Jessica Litman: You know, it's been work to take off because I started blogging in 2013. And so back then you could post something in a while.
You know, you just get a lot of traction just because it is what it is. And now there's a lot more work that can go into it. If that's the route you want to go, not everything needs to be this. So I want to make that clear because I know a lot of people are like, oh my gosh, well now it's just, you said it's going to be too much work, but it doesn't have to be, it could be the resource for your clients is on your blog.
Where for me, my blog is making me money. So I have to put in the extra effort for. Well,
Melissa Klug: and this is something that comes up a lot with organizers is sometimes they see. And I think it's important to make this distinction with you is sometimes they see people doing things and they're like, oh my gosh, well, I have to do that too.
And oh my gosh, I don't know how to do that. And I'm not creative or I'm not this or not that you don't have to do all these things that happened to be the path that was good for you. And that worked for you and that worked for your business. It does not mean that everybody should go do this.
Jessica Litman: Oh, a hundred percent.
And the biggest thing. I tell people because I work with them professional organizers as well. And I tell them all the time, if any single person, including myself online makes you doubt how great you are. Just unfollow me, unfollow that person, because what you're doing. Is perfect for you and what somebody else is doing is perfect for them.
So never doubt that. And any person including myself, I'm like then unfollow or just hide me for 30 days. Like whatever you feel comfortable with, but I don't ever want what I'm doing to make you feel like you have to do something because. I
Melissa Klug: love that I would like, I would like you to, you're listening to this, please rewind.
We're going to hit that. Please hit that back button that listened to that multiple times, because truly comparison is the thief of joy. If you look at you are always going to be able to find someone that's doing something else or something different. And if you get spun up by that, it's really like.
Spiral that you can get in very quickly. So totally,
Jessica Litman: totally.
Melissa Klug: Tell me a little bit about your business now. So we'll talk about your books that you've just written too, but like, what is your physio? Do you at home? What do you do with clients
Jessica Litman: right now? I'm only doing virtual because of the pandemic I switched to virtual and have found that's perfect.
I've also been doing business coaching. So some professional organizers, some small businesses looking to get more online. I'm also coaching them as well. Plus with the blog continuing content with that sponsored content the book and I have products and digital courses. That's exciting.
Melissa Klug: So you're not really doing anything.
You have
Jessica Litman: nothing going on, nothing at all, a lot of stuff. You guys
Melissa Klug: it's all a lot of stuff. Well, so what have you found with the pandemic, in terms of organizers that you work with, or even just your own business? Has it been hard to move that online or have you really enjoyed
Jessica Litman: it? I have enjoyed it.
So I love the virtual component of it because now I can coach you through the computer. And a lot of times I found when I was going in home working with a client and they're like, okay, well, I got this. And so then I'm like, okay, does that mean our sessions over? Or because sometimes there might be something that triggers them in their home that then, I need my break there and doing it virtually it's much easier to allow time to process and so that they don't feel like, okay, well I slept this time, but you can tell that they've shut down or.
It's you get that weird kind of component. And a lot of the people that I was working with, they had either lost in their life. So they're looking to declutter that stuff, or just the amount of kids, stuff that they had for their kids, because there's a lot of emotions that go behind that. Like why you're buying things, why you have so much.
Those components have really helped me get to the, like, I can do a 15 minute session with somebody virtually, and then we can come back the next day for another 15 minutes to check in versus driving all the way to their house, being there and then come back. And like
Melissa Klug: you said, if you have a session scheduled with someone, if it is three hours, then you're using that three hours, then like you said, they may be shut down and nothing's really getting done.
The other thing too about virtual is you can do it a lot of different ways. You can do it in 30 minute chunks where you're online with them for 30 minutes. Then they go do a project. You can be online with them for two hours and just have like, kind of a therapy session. Exactly. There are a million ways you can do it.
Jessica Litman: Exactly. So you have to find what and how you work best virtually. And that does take some time. And that takes some there. Cause there is, there's some learning curves with the online organizing.
Melissa Klug: Yeah, for sure. But I definitely like you though, when I first started doing it, I'm like, Ooh, I don't, I don't know how I feel about this, but I'm just going to give it, I'm going to give it a try.
And I did find that I was able to have, almost more meaningful and richer conversations with people. Like you got a little bit deeper into the psychology, which.
Jessica Litman: Oh, me too. I feel like you kind of have to, and our field of work because there's so much behind.
Melissa Klug: It's the stuff under
Jessica Litman: the stuff. It is totally up under that stuff.
Melissa Klug: Do you do a lot of one-on-one clients or is that just a very small part of your business
Jessica Litman: now? You know, because winter right now in Chicago, it's kind of tapered off, but it ebbs and flows, but that's the piece with an online business. Things do ebb and flow and because I've been doing it for so long, I know when to expect it.
And I know when to. Start being like, okay, maybe I need to pivot in this other direction. Yeah.
Melissa Klug: How do you make those decisions? How do you kind of see, like what's coming down the pike and say, Ooh, I need to pivot because I think the pandemic taught us well, you can have things that come out of the blue and you are very not prepared for them.
Right. Totally. None of us were prepared for that. But how do you, how do you come as a business owner? How do you kind of see that.
Jessica Litman: So I think the second something hits you just have to ask yourself, okay, am I still serving my audience? Am I still serving my clients? When the pandemic hit and nobody wanted anybody in their house.
So how are you now going to serve your clients? What things could you do? So I started doing lives on Instagram. I started doing Tuesday tips. I started writing more blog posts. I started. Reaching out to other organizers to do things online so that we could still serve our audience and provide service.
And then that just kind of led to, you know, more writing. And then people were like, well, do you offer virtual organizing? And so, there we go. Like, this is how we'll kind of get back into this. Cause they did offer it for a little bit. I didn't love it, but I also didn't love the structure I had set up versus the actual virtual Oregon.
Melissa Klug: And that's an important point because you can change. Nothing is ever written in stone. So if you try something and then you go, Ooh, I don't love doing this. Well, what don't I love about it. Kind of figure out a different way to do it.
Jessica Litman: Totally. So if you're like, okay, I don't understand virtual organizing.
I don't like it. Don't treat it like a regular session. Change up how you do it until you find, this way works for me. Yeah, absolutely.
Melissa Klug: Did you decide that you were going to write a book during this, Hey, what should I do next time? Or how did that come about? Oh,
Jessica Litman: the book has been something I've wanted to do since I was in for.
Nice bed. Like I will be an author. I had no idea on what, and then during the pandemic I got in touch with a publisher that was like, okay, we want a book on organizing in your perfect. And so I'm like, yes, let's go. Well, it's
Melissa Klug: probably a little bit more sophisticated than what you would have written in fourth grade.
You probably have better tips.
Jessica Litman: Just a little bit, I mean, my tips back then would have been very different. Make your bet, but then again, no, wouldn't have, they actually might, now that you say that I'm like, no,
Melissa Klug: I probably wouldn't be you guys. One of the biggest life changers, honestly. When I finally decided to get organized with making my bed every day, it's a big deal.
Jessica Litman: It is a big deal. So
Melissa Klug: fourth grade, you and current, you are aligned on that. So tell us a little bit about the book itself. Like what, who's the audience, what's it for? Tell us all about it.
Jessica Litman: Yes, it is called home sweet, organized home, and it is my tips on how to organize. And my tips are really about functional organizing.
I love the pretty organizing, and if that's going to help you keep things organized, that's what we're going to do. But it's about functional organizing. It is geared towards families because we do talk a lot about organizing kids and toys. Always so many toys. And we have checklists and guides in the back too, because I am a very visual person.
And with my teacher background, just checklists, make sense.
Melissa Klug: What do you find that most moms struggle with? So when I think about like the people listening to this, we're working with moms who may not have kids, or like I don't have little kids anymore. And you forget sometimes what are some of the best things that you've found about working with moms?
Jessica Litman: Just to one, know that they can only do so much. So if you put something in place that involves many steps, it's not going to stay. It's not. And especially if many people are going into an area, just because it's, you know, organized with a word label doesn't mean that young kids or even teenagers are going to read that.
Correct.
Melissa Klug: I've seen some places that do, and I think this is brilliant. And honestly, I wouldn't have ever thought about it as do pictures as a label and stuff for little kids and stuff. And I'm like, oh my gosh, that's so smart.
Jessica Litman: I love it. I love real pictures, not the cartoon pictures, especially if you're adding the real picture and the word underneath it so that they can correlate.
Melissa Klug: And I think that right now, moms, especially if you, if you're a mom of little kids, life is really overwhelming right now, overwhelming. And when you think about, when you say functional organizing, when you think about, we don't want to add more. Things to a mom's
Jessica Litman: plate. Yes.
Melissa Klug: One of the, one of the mentors in our inspired organizer program talks about don't over, or don't easy for me to say over organized.
So if you, if you go down too many layers or you have too many systems, it's not going to remain. Helpful to that family. Oh
Jessica Litman: my gosh. Totally. I say, steps, they're all the same thing. I've seen some of these gorgeous boxes that people put on their coffee tables for the clickers are remote and I'm like, nobody's going to be doing that.
Now, take the lid off and then just be like, put it in here. Yes. With the sign it goes in here, like all the arrows and everything grows and like, Yes. Like it needs to be that easy. Yeah.
Melissa Klug: When you talk about functional organizing it's actually something that came up on a zoom. I was doing last night about people who are saying, when my clients don't want, they don't want the home edit pantry is.
And this person felt like they weren't giving them the organizing experience and I'm like, oh no, no, no, no, no, no. You're, you're giving them a great experience. Talk a little bit about what functional organizing means
Jessica Litman: to you. I love this topic because I do, I feel like a lot of organizers see the home edit pantry, right?
It's an easy example. You see the home edit pantry and you're like, okay, that's the organizing experience, but that might not be the bar for everyone. So. Every single one of my clients. I'm like, what do you want, what does organized mean to you? Get crystal clear on that.
Before the pandemic. I had a mom who wanted me to organize her daughter's doll, clothes and bedroom. So I came up with just basic, you know, we had a bunch of bins under her bed. We had one entire shelf in her closet was for doll stuff. And then a week later she's like, it didn't stay organized.
And I was like, what are you talking about? Everything had a spot and she could keep up with it, whatever. Well, she just got a whole bunch of new stuff and the mom wasn't making her put it away and I'm like, what she needed was not an organizing. What she needed was a routine and that was her functional organizing every night.
These are the steps you have to take for her daughter who was nine, who could do this stuff. You pick up your. Put your toys away and put dirty clothes in the hamper. Like it's three things, but that was what she needed to organize. And that was her functional organizing.
Sometimes it doesn't need to be this grandiose. Thing and not everything's going to be Pinterest worthy or Instagram worthy. Yeah.
Melissa Klug: And I think too, particularly in, in kitchens, one of the things I talked to, especially busy moms about is I will happily give you the full pantry experience.
But when you, I want you to think about when you get home from the grocery store, do you want to decant everything you want to take the time and take everything out of its box? And if the answer is yes, Proceed. Let's do percent, but functional is you have to know your client and what they will
Jessica Litman: actually do.
Exactly. Yes. Like the shelf risers are great for canned things in a pantry, but if they don't put it back then it's just a thing taking up space on the shelf. Yes. Yeah,
Melissa Klug: absolutely. What is your favorite thing to organize, or work with people?
Jessica Litman: I love playrooms. I think they're so fun. Yeah.
Melissa Klug: It doesn't not stress you out.
Cause every once in a while I get really stressed out. Okay. That's interesting.
Jessica Litman: Well, I have had one client. I did get very stressed out with her and then I told her she was, she told me, just have free reign. We have too much stuff. And when we did like the giant, I mean, I had my team, we did like the giant, like collect everything, make a giant pile.
All three of us were like, Okay. We might have bit off, more than we can chew, but then I reminded myself, she said I had free reign. So about 50% of that stuff we put into bags and we were like, we're donating.
Melissa Klug: And I think too, especially with toys, cause like things sometimes can be so little I'm like, oh, okay.
We got, we have 7,000 Barbie shirts or whatever. And I'm just like, I have to take a minute. I have to just take a hot second, like, okay, Nope. We can do this.
Jessica Litman: Exactly
Melissa Klug: categorizing things. What else do you think that families are struggling with right now? Or what are things that organizers can really do in terms of reaching out to families, moms particularly.
Jessica Litman: Oh, I think just being there and being that support to like, listen to them as they say things and reassure them that one, their house probably isn't that bad. Like in a
Melissa Klug: hundred percent people always think
Jessica Litman: it's worse than it is. Yes. Reassure them. It's not that bad.
Tell them, they're doing a great job. Show them what systems they already have in place, because they all do. And if this system maybe, the kids put all of their papers on the kitchen counter, that is a system it's not an effective one, but it's a system. So maybe just be like, this is all we have to do to tweak it.
It's just this one thing. But you have a sense. Yeah, just pointed out to reassure because everyone is doing their best and just little tweaks is all moms need in order, just to kind of feel that calm. Yeah.
Melissa Klug: And I think that what we do is such a service, particularly to moms right now. And you don't have to have your own kids.
You do not have to be a mom yourself to be able to help a mom. Out because I have lots of friends with little kids right now. It's a rough time. It is
Jessica Litman: totally I'm for moms. Reach
Melissa Klug: out to a mom, you know, and say, you're
Jessica Litman: doing great. Exactly. That's all they need. That is the, everybody just needs to hear. Yeah.
Melissa Klug: Can you tell us a little bit, because a lot of organizers now, obviously you have a incredible social media following, and a lot of organizers get worried about social media. I'm not doing enough and I'm not doing that enough, blah, blah. And I don't have 40,000 followers or whatever. Like, can you give people who are, you know, have a normal size following some tips and tricks about how to de stress social media?
Jessica Litman: Oh, totally one. Don't do them all. Pick
Melissa Klug: one. Is everyone here that pick, pick
Jessica Litman: one? If you like Tik TOK, fabulous. Stick with pick talk. If you like Instagram, fabulous stick with Instagram. Guess what? All of those things can be shared across all the platforms, but you don't need to be doing all different things.
We have to think smarter, not work harder.
Melissa Klug: And I think too, I don't, I don't know how you think about this, but also figure out what your goals are for your business. So your business, you, Jessica, you are an online, you know, online is a huge part of what you do and blogging and that type of thing.
Your audience is wide and broad. If you are looking to do in-home organizing your goals for social media are vastly
Jessica Litman: different. Oh, I completely agree with that. And also, what is the point of your social media? That's another question. Like when I was doing in-home organizing my Instagram was solely my portfolio.
I wasn't looking to get new followers. I wasn't looking to like, because it didn't have anything else to sell.
Melissa Klug: And then like Tik TOK is an example, by the way, I'm obsessed with tech talk and, oh my gosh, I love it.
It's like my happy place every day. But tick-tock is a great example of, if you are stressed out by tic tat and there are people that are like, we're not going to dance, I'm not going to do, I'm not going to try to be funny. I'm not going to do all those things totally fine. Because Tik TOK may not be replaced.
Because you may not have a digital product to sell them, or you may not have a virtual service to offer them. Then Tik TOK might not be your platform. So give yourself a check that I don't have to do
Jessica Litman: that. Exactly. Like I hate Twitter. I'm going to be totally honest. But as a writer, you're supposed to be on Twitter.
So I just learn this not to like today. You can send your Instagrams to Twitter. I didn't know. I didn't know that. I didn't know this. You can link it up. So I'm like done. So it's automatic because that's what I do with Facebook. I also don't love Facebook. So Instagram goes to Facebook and it's the same thing.
Well, affection, right? There you go. I created great content on whatever it is and now I'm sharing it to all these platforms, but I'm only posting one place.
Melissa Klug: And the other thing too, is people think that they have to create new content all the time. Now you can take one piece of content and then repurpose it in many, many different ways.
Jessica Litman: Totally. For all of my videos, like my short form videos I created and make it, and it. It goes on Tik TOK first, then like a week or two later, it goes on reels. And it also goes on Pinterest stories, ideas, and YouTube shorts, like one 15, second or less video is in four different places. I think come up with new content.
I'm just scheduling it out differently. Right.
Melissa Klug: And there are tools to do all these things for you. Totally all of them. So use technology to your advantage. A hundred percent so where this may be a hard question, but where do you see the organizing industry going? What do you think in the crystal ball for like this year?
Next
Jessica Litman: year? I feel like the amount of people getting into this profession is incredible. And I feel like that's going to increase and. I don't want any current organizer to see that as competition, because it's not, it's validating what you're doing. Yeah. And it's making you more legitimized. Back when I was young, like having a cleaning lady was what the, you know, those things that are , what, fancy people had, but that service benefits everyone.
And it is something that more and more people are now investing in because they see how important having that cleaning support in your house is. And I feel like that's how the organizing industry is going to go. We are going to be a service that is needed for people. To me, we have a cleaning lady and she is my mental support.
I love her to death, anything she wants and like, what do you want? What do you need? You get it all because you help me be a better person. And knowing that when I talk about my team, like no joke, she is considered part of my team because I couldn't do what I did if I didn't have that.
Melissa Klug: Absolutely. We provide a mental health service. We provide self care. And I think that people now are getting more comfortable with paying for services. You know, I do think it started with cleaning support. That is something now that people are like, Nope, this is a legitimate thing that I, I need to do.
And I think organizing is on that track too, of, this is a critical, home service that I'm ready to pay for.
Jessica Litman: It totally is. And I feel like it is also in line with a personal trainer, or a therapist or all of those mental health. Areas that we don't always consider mental health, but they are.
I think that's where I see the organizing profession.
Melissa Klug: And I like what you said too about not viewing it as competition, because I do believe that the more people who get into this industry, it is going to raise the visibility of what we do, because I still have people that say, wait, what, what may you for that?
Yes, they do. And so the more that we can get people into the industry and talking about it, the more people know this is a standard thing. It's a regular thing. It's not a
Jessica Litman: competition. Exactly. It just helps when I first started. In my town, there was me and there was another woman who specialized in hoarding and I was like, okay, well I have to compete with her.
I had that mindset from the get-go and one home I went into I'm like, I can't do this. This is w so I contacted her and I was like, okay, I have somebody that's calling you. They're coming from me. They knew me . They didn't know her because of that. They're very anxious about it.
She was like, okay, come with me. And I was like, what? So blown away by this. And when I went and, we eased the person's mind and I slowly weaned off because that was not something I was comfortable with. No, I learned, okay. That was her expertise and nothing about that invalidated what I was doing.
I just have a different expertise and that's how you have to look. Any other organizer in your area or online that their expertise is just going to be, even if it's just a hair different. It is totally.
Melissa Klug: And there is enough out there for all of us. I mean, when you just drive through your neighborhood, I don't care where you live.
I don't care if you live in a small town, a big city, you just drive through and you go, all these people need us there. Exactly. Plenty
Jessica Litman: of work to go over. Oh, my gosh, we were driving the other day and the car next to us was piled with stuff. And my kids were like, mom, he needs your help. I was with
Melissa Klug: a friend, we were out, we were having lunch.
And I looked at there was a you know, those electrical trucks or whatever. And they have like all their tools in them. And I just. I want to go help him, like not leave lunch to go organize someone. And I'm like, but he really needs my help. Fuck. Is up mess. Yes. Yeah. I was at a client the other day and I looked across the street and it was one of those garages where you can see the boxes and I was like, oh, I want to help them too.
Yep. Yep.
Jessica Litman: Can you
Melissa Klug: tell us a little bit about when the book comes out and where people can find it and all that good stuff?
Jessica Litman: Yes. The book comes out in April. End of April, they're saying now, before it was early April shipping and all of that fun stuff is so April. It is on Amazon Barnes and noble and Books-A-Million
Melissa Klug: so a little known fact about me. I used to work in the book publishing industry years ago, so we will put links in the show notes.
But it really helps an author if you pre-order their book. So even though the book is depending on when we put this out, it may not be out, but if you pre-order, it, it really, really, really helps an author. So totally that all those links in the show notes. And then where can people find you and connect with you in the world website and Instagram and all that?
Jessica Litman: Yes on my website is theorganizedmama.com Everything is linked there on social media. It's organized mamas with an S on all platforms, including Tik TOK. Would it take talk? Well, now I have to
Melissa Klug: follow you that text. I really, you guys, if you're not on Tik TOK, it's really it's. It's my serotonin boost of the day,
Jessica Litman: every day.
It is.
Melissa Klug: I love it. You can just get on for five minutes, like C3, dog videos, and there's a woman right now that I'm following who has a baby goat that I'm obsessed with. Oh my God. I love it. Seriously. It's just,
Jessica Litman: it makes me so happy. Oh my gosh. I follow some that you'd like these sound baths. Yeah. It's like all of these suits and I'm like, this is the best I listened to before I go to bed.
I'm like,
Melissa Klug: Yeah. So if you're sitting here going that's for teenagers, like almost all social media, it used to be for teenagers. And now it's for people of our age.
Jessica Litman: Exactly. We have stolen
Melissa Klug: all of the things from the teenagers.
Jessica Litman: Exactly.
Melissa Klug: So great. Well, we will be excited to connect with you in all of the places and we are extremely happy to see what comes next for you. Thank you for joining us.
Jessica Litman: Thank you so much for having me. And just a total side note. I have been following pro organizer studio since you guys started. Cause it was right around when I was like out of the homes.
So I have loved everything that you guys have put out. It's me.
Melissa Klug: We are super passionate, Jen and I are super passionate about helping women figure out that this is a great
Jessica Litman: career. And it's amazing. Everything you put out has been absolutely just so helpful. So if you are on the fence about any of their stuff, hands down, great
Melissa Klug: investment, very kind.
Thank you so much. We genuinely love what we do. Like organizers. We want you to love what you do when you go everyday. We love what we do every day, so it makes a huge difference. Who love it. Thank you.
Jen Obermeier: 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 dot poroadmap.com