Episode 96: Inspiration for Starting Strong in 2022
Jen and Melissa open the doors of a recent live coaching event we held inside our private Inspired Organizer® community--we talk about starting this new year out right in your organizing business (and remind you to take care of YOURSELF so you can show up for your CLIENTS!)
This conversation ranges from 2022 planning to what's happening in the industry to how do you really change your mindset when you change from a nine to five job to having your own business--and much more.
LINKS FOR LISTENERS:
Information about our Inspired Organizer® community
Pro Organizer Studio resources
Join our free Facebook group for podcast insiders to get notified about new episodes (plus get behind-the-scenes access and other goodies weekly)!
If you are looking for business inspiration, we have a free workshop that is called The 4-Part Plan for Landing Your Dream Clients. Jen Obermeier leads you through that workshop. Sign up for that poroadmap.com. If you are interested in our Inspired Organizer® program, you can find us at www.inspiredorganizer.com and don't forget, we have a whole library of podcasts here, our YouTube channel, and you can find us on Facebook and Instagram at Pro Organizer Studio.
Still not sure about starting your own Pro Organizing business? Cick here to read about the 5 things you need to know BEFORE starting your organizing business.
Feeling ready to start? Great! Check out this post on how to start your business stress-free!
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Melissa Klug: Hey pro organizers. It's your co-host Melissa Klug, welcome to a brand new year, 2022. When I say it, it just sounds like really far in the future.
For some reason, I don't, I don't know why I didn't feel that way about 2021, but. I dunno, also 2022. It's a lot of ts. So I'm having a hard time saying 2022, so many times, but the point is it is a new year and I am so thrilled to be back with you on the podcast. And so thrilled that we are going to be bringing you tons of content this year for starting or growing your professional organizing business. And I know I'm like totally energized by the start of the year in my old job— I've written about this a couple of places recently, but I used to dread going back the first day of the year. And instead when I started my organizing business, And started working here at Pro Organizer Studio.
I genuinely love getting up every day. I don't mean to sound like a nerd, but I do. I love my job at jobs I should say. And, uh, I am thrilled that I am able to today bring you this conversation that Jen and I had.
When I was visiting Jen, we did a Facebook live, “ask us anything” in our Inspired Organizer group and we decided that we wanted to open things up and give you guys a little bit of behind the scenes of what happens in our Inspired Organizer community. I cannot say enough good things about this group of women. It is seriously the most supportive community. We have over 600 people from all around the world.
And it's so additive to everybody's business. This group is so supportive, truly, truly believes in collaboration, over competition.
We give advice. We cheerlead when things are challenging and we celebrate success when something goes great. We have had so many people have huge successes last year from building a team to growing their revenue over six figures, to just starting their business from scratch and starting a side hustle. Some people who have quit their full-time jobs.
I mean, we just have so many different people and so many different stages of business in our community. There is a place for everyone. This podcast only has part of our conversation. You will get a little peek into what it's like to be on these private coaching calls.
This conversation ranges from 2022 planning to, what's happening in the industry to how do you really change your mindset when you change from a nine to five job to having your own business, all sorts of things. We're excited to bring you this kind of sneak peak.
We are thrilled to be back with you. We appreciate you listening. We appreciate the energy and the excitement that you are bringing into the organizing industry. And we are ready to get started on a great year with you.
Let's get going.
Jen Obermeier: You're listening to the Pro Organizer Studio podcast with Melissa Klug and Jen 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.
So now let's get started.
I am so blessed to have Melissa in the house. Happy to be here. We, we're doing some planning for 2022. and lots of good things happen. I'm making you work hard, but then you get to be on vacation. Sorry.
So Melissa got some questions I did in for our. Ask us anything. But we want to maybe chit chat a little bit more about 2022 preparation ish, things that people are thinking about at the end of the year.
Things that are on your mind for the end of your year. In the beginning of next year, we're just kinda here to like, you know, socialize and sort of wrap up and think about what might be on your plate for January in terms of marketing, launching your business, doing something new with your business.
You know, that whole new year, new me, new year's resolution is a great time for people to be like, I'm going to call a professional organizer. Yes. Don't want to live like this anymore. I'm very big
Melissa Klug: on like, when people say new year, new you, I, for my own personal style, Hey, how come my, my current me is not good enough.
So like myself, I tried it for myself. I try to say like, I am enough, but truly positive thing of what people, when people do have that mindset is a hundred percent of the time they are thinking about how to improve themselves. And a lot of times that's their,
Jen Obermeier: yes, because as we've said a million times before, our environment is a really, really big deal.
You guys know that we know that, and even being organizers, do you still have to kinda like take step back sometimes and be like, my, my own self in life has to be organized enough to be able to do this for other people. So it's, it's not easy work, you know, it's it's something that I really think, you know, staying ahead of in terms of not just your schedule, but like your own desk and your own papers and your own self care, like it cannot pile up.
So I do hope that on your list of priorities for the coming year, number one is taking care of you because if you are your whole. Without you, you don't have a business. So that's really, really important.
Melissa Klug: Yeah. Well, and I got a message today from someone in our group who was struggling a little bit with a client that she had gone to and had really taken on that client's emotion and, and said like, she's a newer organizer.
And she's like, Hey, is this common? Does this happen? I'm like, yes, absolutely. It happens. And so the key thing is with what we do, everybody has a different level of taking on that emotion or taking on those feelings. But if you are a person who takes on those client feelings a lot or environment, or really struggles to like to decompress after a session.
Yeah. You have to be even more careful about protecting yourself. So
Jen Obermeier: true. I had organizer, I was coaching one time called out like a client hangover. Oh, I liked that. That you sort of have to, like, you have to plan some time for yourself, especially if you are. Sensitive or you carry that, that emotion more strongly to like let yourself detox and turning the brain off a little bit.
Yeah.
Melissa Klug: Sometimes with clients, I'm able to just say like, when I leave their house and I'm done with that, like I have to shut it down because otherwise I don't want it to start to affect my work if you know how you are with a certain client, finding those self-care things to do, whether it's something simple or whether it's something like more complex that you have to take care of yourself, take care of clients.
Jen Obermeier: Comments, something that when you look back over your year, you think if I would've just done this one little thing, then I might not have been so stressed. And I will tell you that I asked myself as like almost every year and it's just put the phone away and go to bed.
Like I tell myself this all the time and sometimes when we talk about new year's resolutions in you're saying about like the me, the way that I am is good enough. It's like the smallest tiniest tweak, just to take better care of myself would have had a massive impact.
Like the, it was like really high leverage. Cause it's like an everyday little habits. That's something that I think the more that we can bring awareness to for ourselves, we are not just better at serving other people, but like better at balancing everything that goes into running a business by yourself.
And yeah, I mean, it's.
Melissa Klug: Well, and I, I love that because I have been, I think I've talked about this before. I'm really bad at setting boundaries with clients in particular. And I had two clients this weekend that were like tattoo organizing clients that were texts bombing me. And I just really politely was like, Hey, I will totally get back to you on Monday.
Because I'm trying to be better about, I think with our businesses, it is incredibly easy to feel like you have to be on 24 7 and to feel like I have to respond to a client, even if it's seven o'clock on a Saturday night and I'm hanging out on the couch watching TV and, and you don't. And so I think putting the phone down or just saying, like, I'm not gonna respond to the text messages, I'm not going to respond to business messages until the next day, whatever works for you.
Like I've had to remind me. Yeah, that's so true. That's it? You've got to, you've got to set those boundaries, but I'm talking to myself right now.
And then, you know, if you've got those clients too, where you kind of cross a boundary, a little bit of friend versus client, that gets a little bit harder. That was one of my text bombs this weekend with someone who, who is a friend and a client, but she was texting me about client D things. Yes. And so having to kind of take a break from that for me is really important.
Jen Obermeier: Yeah. That is huge. This huge, it's hard to, you know, and this is a never ending process. So it's not like there are, don't think to yourself, well, there are other organizers out there who have this all figured out and perfectly all the time, just, you know, walk in, be amazing, walk out, turn it off. Like they're never disorganized and they have everything together.
That person doesn't exist. So if you're doing that to yourself and you're telling yourself that you're failing, because those people exist, it is not true. And we would know because they tell us all of their secrets. Yeah. We know
Melissa Klug: we are all of the dirty laundry is absolutely and
Jen Obermeier: figuratively. Absolutely.
So we're here to tell you it's all good. I saw a thing
Melissa Klug: the other day that was like, none of us know what we're doing. We're all like, like we're all faking it basically. And I love that was like the entirety of it. Wasn't an organizing thing. And I'm just like, that's actually true. Yeah. Because when, whenever you go to someone and you're like, oh my gosh, that person has them all together.
They have stuff.
Jen Obermeier: Well, yeah. And it's like, they have also trial and error their way to get to wherever they are. Yeah. So you can use names. I was feeling
Melissa Klug: personally attacked. When you said that you have to make sure that your stuff is organized because I guess just rifling through my purse or something like right before we started this and I'm like, oh, I must not be fitting up.
Jen Obermeier: Was organized. Not
but Melissa, I want to ask you a question. Yes. Do you see a 20, 22 trend in the organizing world? And if so, what is it? Yeah.
Melissa Klug: So I am I'm a business nerd unapologetically.
I love trying to bring some like economics and finance into the world of professional organizing because I spent a lot of time in that kind of a world. But what I will tell you is that so some of the measures that you might hear about on the news that you're like, well, I don't know. I don't want to listen to that.
Like there are really good economic trends. So despite the world being kind of a disaster, like, and COVID still being very much a thing there is still, the economy is still really good. And the economy specifically for service-based industries, like. There might be a slow down at 2022, but the important thing is the economy now is still really good at the stock market is still really good.
So even though there are some challenges out in the world, it is still a really good time to have a service based business. And especially as we go into 2022, when people are changing the, so the demographics of work are changing probably forever. I mean the number by the way, just my husband still works at home, right?
Like, and maybe forever, it seems like he's never going back to work. But a lot of my friends that are in businesses that have never been working at home businesses, they have very much been, you come to the office are now super flexible about people are working at home three days a week, or maybe they're working at home full-time or they are allowed to make their own schedules and make their own decisions.
So some of the permanent changes that we have seen from COVID affect home life. And so as much as possible, as much as you can start to create a business and services that thrive. I want to make your home life. So your home and your home work life more sustainable. People are willing to pay for that.
People are willing to pay for that peace of mind, the self care, all of that. So just know that service businesses are still really important. You can also look at just the trends of, I don't know if you guys are tried to hire a handyman lightly, like either for yourself or for clients. It's really hard.
They are, those people are booked solid. And so just again, knowing people are spending money in their homes and that's something that you can capitalize on. So that's what I would say. Be confident that people are still spending money on top of it.
Jen Obermeier: Yeah, that's a good point. And then the time for all that you're do not have time for it.
Say 20, 22 people will still be buying too much stuff and still not have enough time to deal with it. Everything. So it's the same trend is always, it's like, it's like every other season when the magazines put out the diet stuff, because they're like, this is a forever,
Melissa Klug: always going to happen in January.
The other thing I would tell you too, is there is actual scientific research about. Brain fatigue and how we physically feel, because the last two years of stress in our lives, and even if COVID has not affected you personally, it still has affected us as the whole world. Right. And so there is stress about things are different.
You can't find things on the shelves. Like I went to the store the other day and I'm like, where's all the blah, blah, blah, blah. Like the supply chain stuff is all of this now stress that we're not used to. Right. And so that's another sign that people want that calm that good feeling of their home and they're willing to pay for that.
Jen Obermeier: Since you know, working from home became more of a thing in the last year is people, it probably at first we're just like making, do with the corner in the living room or whatever, but now that it's becoming like that, and Melissa was saying, her husband was like, oh, this will be just a few weeks.
It'd be like, I will be out of America. You know, people at first weren't really preparing and creating, like these are dedicated spaces and places for kids to do virtual school. It was like, oh, this will just be for a couple of months. Well, now, the people who were never used to working from home before who now we're like almost two years into this and it's like, I I'm home all the time.
I'm home, I'm home. I go out to do errands and then I still come back home. They don't have. People don't realize the effect that it has to like literally kind of have that tab open in their brain about I should be working. It could be working, it could be checking email. Like the computer is sitting right there in the family room or whatever.
Those types of things in the home environment. It, you really do. I mean, again, this is my personal opinion, but like at home really does have to have specific space carved out for peace and restoration. Now what that means is logically speaking, if you're working from home, you need to have that space carved out with ideally a door that you can close, because it does do something psychologically in your environment for you to be able to put a bookend on your time.
That where you're like, all right, now I'm shutting that off. I'm leaving the office and now I'm spending time with family or I'm able to cook dinner because I don't have all my work stuff out here. Like, I think that's an important thing to keep talking about in your, in your personal conversations, in your marketing or whatever ways to make people consider.
How organizing really is not just about organizing, but it's about creating dedicated spaces so that we can mentally like deal with all the things Melissa's kids just came back to virtual school for a little while because of staff shortages. That's another thing that I think is going to continue to have an impact, is it, won't just be about, you know, like we're saying the supply chain stuff and everything, there are not enough people to do the work of all the things.
And so that stress clutter is timeless stresses forever. Yes. Well like diamonds at diamonds, but but you know what I'm saying? Like, as long as, as long as people have stress, like the stuff will pile up and that's something that you can physically come and do something about it is going to bring relief to people.
And so that that's yeah, that 2022 trend is just more stress. Well,
Melissa Klug: and I will tell you, just based on my experience, working with clients, some clients are still working in, I would call them very temporary work situations. Like they're acting like it's March, 2020, and they're still working at the kitchen table.
And so if you can bring some of your resources, one of the things I see all the time when we talk about this in organizing essential students, I'm very big on this is sometimes people don't see their own spaces. Well, so I turned my dining room, my formal dining room, which we use once a year into my office.
And some people would be like, well, no, it's a dining room. What this does, it has to be a dining room. Or I have a client on a very small, so some houses in Minneapolis are like their pre-war, they're tiny, tiny trunky rooms. And she has this guest room downstairs. That is lovely. I'm like, well, how often do you have guests once a year, repurpose that once a year, repurpose that room into your own. And yeah, like if you have a guest, great, we're going to get a great air mattress. They're going to love that room. But like use that
Jen Obermeier: space for
Melissa Klug: the clients can
Jen Obermeier: see that sometimes they can't that's so that's so funny because like, I like the fact that you didn't just make the dining room, your office, like it's decorated, like your office is dedicated as your office.
And so like that, that for you has to really have an impact on feeling like, Hey, this is my, this is my space. This is why I'm productive. I enjoy sitting down here to work. I mean, that's making a huge impact on your every single day. Absolutely. Yeah.
Melissa Klug: So in 2022, don't think that your clients have figured out where they're working. A lot of them have not. So
Jen Obermeier: like making space for hobbies too. It's not just about work work, but Hey, you know, is it convenient? All of your sewing stuff out of like a trunk that you've stuffed it down in, asked me how I know this.
No, it's not convenient and it's not fun. Right. But like, if I had dedicated space for that, then I can sit down and do it and work on it and it can be part of my self-care because it's just something that I do for fun. And I think reminding clients do that, that's important. Like, Hey, how can we, how can we make this work for you?
The things that are going to bring you enjoyment and restoration are critical. It's not just all about, you know, the family and the kids and schedules. Yeah.
Melissa Klug: Okay. So this is the question that we got at first, she was asking about what is the transition from a nine to five mentality to running your own business alone? So I call it moving from nine to five to a 24 7, cause I just got done talking about people, texting me.
Saturday night and
Jen Obermeier: you know what too, I mean, I think we can have an entire podcast topic about justice, because I love the fact that she included I'm assuming from your notes, she included that word alone because the thing about being in a nine to five corporate world type of environment is you're so used to having other people around you.
You know what I mean? Like a team approach has to be just has to be a committee and a meeting for everything. And in some ways that is fun and it can be there's printing comfort, but it makes, it makes life go real slow. And we all know that some coworkers are amazing and you love them like family.
And otherwise you want to just beat as the kids say,
Melissa Klug: Way to bring in the kid language. It's excellent. I'm feeling good.
Jen Obermeier: So this is actually like multiple questions in one, but the transition from the nine to five mentality, Melissa, I want you to talk about that. Cause you spent way more years, many more years in the corporate world than I did.
I did. So,
Melissa Klug: A lot of what you said is absolutely like everything you said was correct, because you have a little bit of a safety net of it's decision, but they're not often your decisions. There are team decisions and you're like, I'm just a part of the team that's making this decision.
Versus when it's your business, you have to say, yep, I am going to make this decision. And I'm petrified because I'm not sure if it's the right decision or the wrong decision. And I'm not sure that I have anyone to
Jen Obermeier: talk to about it. That's such. We don't even realize that no, we have always had that decision-making tree that includes other people, or you have
Melissa Klug: the ability to go to a coworker and be like, Hey, I have this idea.
Is this a crazy idea? If that idea of that idea, like what should I be thinking about? And so when you're on your own, and I want to remind everyone, you have a group here in this group is because we have like, there's, there are very few things that we have not seen,
But when you are moving from a nine to five job, it really does, like sometimes entrepreneurship can feel very lonely. And so making sure that you have people to reach out to and understand that you are alone, but you're not really alone, I think is really critical, but kind of to what I said earlier, when you do work in you know, any sort of a nine to five job.
You're able to shut off your work. At some point, even though I know today with cell phones and everything else, like everyone feels like their job is kind of all the time, but I think when you're running your own business, it's very easy to say like, oh, it's Saturday night at eight o'clock I should be working.
I should be creating social media. I should be, you know, working on getting clients. Like you feel like you have to work all the time. And that is an excellent recipe for burnout. Yes. Excellent. Yes, I had, for years, even in my corporate job, I had a home office and what I would find is I had to physically shut the door at a certain point to that office because otherwise I even in that job would feel like, oh, I should be doing emails right now.
I shouldn't be doing that. No, you're allowed to just sit on the couch and watch project runway if you want to. So it's really setting those boundaries of okay. And it's setting boundaries multiple ways. And here here's the other thing. It's also easy not to do anything at home. So it is really easy to just be like, you know, I'm just not going to do anything today.
And so what I have told people before is if you're, especially if you're starting your business, pretend that you have a client, like pretend you have a client session. And for three hours that you would be spending on that client or six or whatever time you spend a clients work on your business during that client session.
And then you can shut it off and put it away. But it it's, it's really, it's like a discipline that you have to, to set up with yourself. So it's setting boundaries, both the positive direction and the negative direction. That, that makes
Jen Obermeier: sense. Yes, it is exactly the advice that I give in module seven about projects and time management is essentially create a schedule for you and yourself because everybody's different.
Like what are my, like my time blocks during the week that I could even have a session that I could, whether you're there three hours, four hours, whatever, doesn't matter. And then when you. When you, whether you're full-time in your business or not, when you keep those appointments with yourself, just like you would, if you had a client and you go and you do what, like say this is a marketing block of time, or this is a website work block of time or research, whatever.
The, when, when, when we got this question about the nine to five mentality, you know, the thing that jumped out at me was about the time there is a bookend on that time. And, and when, and now the word mentality might mean many other things about the corporate world. And like we're saying, it's like a loaded question, but first and foremost, that your T your time management and how you schedule, whatever you like to use to do that, I think is the most vital thing to one feeling in control of how you're spending your time and to having a bookend where like you can clock out and say, I've done my job today.
I've checked off my most important things. That is critical. And then yes. And then to circle back on the second part of the question, running a business alone, it's a beautiful thing to not be alone in her, have this group to have people to bounce things off of and to, and if you're the one doing, you know, wearing all the hats as a solar preneur, then having somebody else to kind of help you, you know, have an accountability partner and say, I'm setting my priorities.
I want to put this out there to somebody that is, that will know if I didn't do it, which that's the other benefit of working in a team environment like in the corporate world is like, Hey, I can't just like, not do my job. So,
Melissa Klug: and that accountability thing is good because in a corporate environment you're going to have in any environment, by the way, we're just using the word corporate.
It can be any job that you have, but you know, you probably have quarterly reviews with
Jen Obermeier: your boss. Yes, you
Melissa Klug: have. And I mean, I make jokes about like, I'm having a review with my boss and boy she's really mean and whatever I make all those jokes in my own house. But
Jen Obermeier: no, not me,
Melissa Klug: no about myself. Yeah, that was a really good clarification.
So me and you guys,
Jen Obermeier: But
Melissa Klug: you, you don't have those same check-in points. And so then you don't have any like time-based deadline based things. So you could say, if you want it to, you could take a year to build your website. Well, you could also take three weeks to build your website and get something out there.
And so setting deadlines for yourself, deadlines, being accountable to those deadlines, because otherwise you could cycle on the same thing over and over again, get analysis paralysis, and then never launch a business or never launch your new product or never launch your good service for whatever
Jen Obermeier: true.
And I just have a little comment to make. I think that the reason why most people quote, unquote, most people will never even think about venturing out on their own and will always work in a corporate job. And I am not saying this is a negative thing. I'm just saying that the majority of people can't or don't want.
Have that level of self-discipline over their own time, because it is vastly easier to have somebody else set your schedule and to be like, oh, well, I've got to show up for that. Like you, I mean, I'm the same way with myself. Like still today, if it's an appointment with just me, I always deprioritize it, but I will never let somebody else down, like sure.
That is on my planner. Right. And, and so, you know, you guys are an extra special group of entrepreneurs in that you don't have to be a time management like guru in order to do this business, but you have to at least be organized enough to like want to organize other people. So it is a it's not just an assumption that like, we make that like, every organizer is great at managing their time, but it is something that you can apply your organizing skills to your calendar and to the way that you set appointments with yourself and really like, you get to reap the benefits because it's your business and you get to.
What those parameters are like, like I won't be on social media after 8:00 PM and I'll be with my family and it's like, nobody's requiring you to do this thing. So you're not, not doing your job by setting some boundaries with your time. Does that make sense? Absolutely. Yeah. So be it be a good boss
Melissa Klug: to yourself.
Yes. Be kind to yourself. Don't report yourself to HR hot, take two. When you do what Jen is talking about, and when you start to set those rules and those boundaries and priorities, you also can teach your clients with things. I have had very few clients that don't come to me and say, I can't keep my kitchen clean.
And then I give them the tools that I use in my own house as to what I do. And I am like, I do a 10 minute routine before I go to bed and blah, blah, blah, blah. Like when you set those, those things up in your own life, you're able to teach your clients that and the sufficiency and teaching clients like how to develop habits to keep their house out.
Yeah, all of those things are really important.
Jen Obermeier: It'll be it. That really goes back to that concept of like living your business, like living out that identity as a professional organizer. I talk about that a lot in the course, like inspired organizer, like this, isn't just my job. This is something that I do.
Like I, I am this person. Yeah. So I think that's something that like on a personal note really helps with not only transitioning from a nine to five job, but also like thinking about self care in the new year and blocking out that time, really like honoring those appointments with yourself is going to keep you from feeling like you're losing your mind when you have so many different things going on.
Kim's question is she says I continue as I continue to enter into my career and overcome all the challenges.
I began to worry about getting consistent business. I came right out of the shoot with some low hanging fruit, which was great and exciting. I've started to shift my thinking to focusing on business goals, instead of worrying about where the business will come from. Is this thinking backwards? No, I think that's awesome.
Kim and I wanted to, like, this is sort of a coaching moment. How did you make that shift? How did you do that? Like how did you make that shift from. Like focusing on business goals and what you want to just like a general worry, because that's, that's critical. I mean, that whatever you did to get yourself refocused and feeling energized, instead of feeling worried, that's like a magic pill essentially for entrepreneurship, because there's plenty of things we could worry about literally all day long if we let ourselves constantly.
Yeah. And, and here's the other thing is focusing on what went right with your clients so far. I'm not sure cam exactly. When you started your business, you know, top of your head.
Melissa Klug: I only recently. Oh, okay. Like four seconds
Jen Obermeier: ago. Oh, okay.
Melissa Klug: Well know he already has people.
Jen Obermeier: That's great. Yes. Great. Like, like what, what what works, like where did that low hanging fruit come from?
Is there a little more over there? Like what do you like about these clients? What do you want to do you want to find more clients that are just like this one particular one you've had like, think about what is working and thinking. How to reverse engineer more of that that's essentially the entire business model for any business is, don't try to solve every problem in the world, but instead of worrying about getting consistent clients, thinking about what do you do best, what do you enjoy most?
What gives you energy instead of draining you and, and keep going in that direction? I
Melissa Klug: also feel like turning worry and like turning anxiety into something productive is something that I try to do for myself. And it's something I try to coach people on because turning, turning that anxiety into like, okay, what am I worrying about?
And starting to peel back those layers of like, okay, I'm worried about having consistent business, but I have to worry about like, do I have my foundation brush? Right. You know, do I have my foundation pieces in place for. And then am I building from that foundation of stone? And, and so, okay. If the answer to that is not quite yet, maybe that's where the anxiety has come from.
So I need to go take action on those things. And I need to spend three hours working on whatever that foundation is. So turn, when you create that foundation, then the clients are going to come from doing that work. It's just worrying about where clients are gonna come from and then not actioning on that is a recipe
Jen Obermeier: for challenge.
That is funny though, because when she, she replied back and said three sleepless nights in a row, I think she said that was the catalyst for switching her method of thinking. Cause it, three sleep was nice. Doesn't make clients come. But I think what it did was it made you realize I can't live like this.
Right? And, and that your mentality is literally everything and everything that you can do to shift yourself in the direction of what you want, instead of all the things that you don't want to have. Is a really good thing and it will help you sleep at night. I promise and
Melissa Klug: concentrating on what is important to you in your business.
And like Jen said, you have already gotten some clients. So how do we replicate that success? Do the, are those clients happy? Will they refer you to other people starting a referral network right out of the bat. And having people start to recommend you to their friends, all that, some of that networking, you can start even before you have some of your other pieces in place.
So concentrating on what your goals are. And it is, you know, I want to work with three clients a week, or I want to make $10,000 in three months, whatever that looks like, like concentrating on those high level goals and then reverse engineering of like, how do I get there?
Jen Obermeier: Yes. I love that. Okay, good, Kim. I hope that that helps.
That was a really, really great question, actually, Kim, it was not. No
Melissa Klug: Kim is doing awesome work and it's, but when you start out, it's like, I mean, I started my business from nothing. Yeah. We all started our businesses from nothing. Yeah. And you're like, well, this is kind
Jen Obermeier: of scary. And every single person who was doing this was in the same position once.
So don't like, don't compare your, chapter one to somebody else's chapter 12. Yeah. You know, so just know that you were in good company and we're all. Yes. We've not just been, been through it, but still there's always new levels to go through. And it just like this, going back to what Melissa said, we're all kind of making it up as we go, but we're learning and tweaking as we go too.
We're not just like literally flying by the seat of our pants all the time,
Melissa Klug: even though it might look like that just really quickly. I'm to, I'm going to add on. I was listening to a podcast recently and they were talking about the sales cycles, right? Like sometimes you have peaks and sometimes you have valet.
Sometimes you have like I remember there were days that I was working seven days a week with organizing clients and in one case three clients a day in my very busiest month that I ever had. And so in months like that, when you're like, oh my gosh, I am killing it. Everything is amazing. I made this much money.
Like you also have to prepare for the fact that like, sometimes there are going to be valleys and making sure that you're still doing client acquisition things, even in your most busy times. So the most busy time is the time that you're like, I don't have time to go look for new clients, but then you have to keep kind of that sales funnel rolling and making sure you're still doing the right things to get those clients in so that you can
Jen Obermeier: level out those peaks and valleys a little bit.
And I think too, that doing amazing work in being present to the clients that you do have is a big part of how you get referrals, which are the best marketing anyway. So I don't think it's something that I would never say it's not worth losing sleep over, but focusing and doing the best job you can do with what you have.
The cards that you have today is going to open more doors for you in the future. And I know you might sometimes feel like, Hey, actually being with the client is, you know, not doing those other things that I need to be doing because you feel like you're really busy and you're really slammed, but you have to remember that the experience that you're giving them should be one that is calming to them and bringing them, you know, a lot of peace.
And that is going to be an experience that they will talk about and share with other people. Just like them
Melissa Klug: always pretending they're your only client. Yeah. Yeah. Making them feel like super special. Yes.
Jen Obermeier: But not letting them text you all. They are not responding to every text. So beside his harming, you're like this would be when, when to expect
Melissa Klug: to hear from me.
Jen Obermeier: Kathleen says it's so weird to go from only watching older podcasts to getting lot of answers. She says it's surreal. And she says,
Melissa Klug: That's my major goal in life.
Jen Obermeier: People laugh. Well, you need to have such a good job with that, but you are very supportive as well. You are, you are a blessing to the podcast as a permanent fixture.
And as a part of this group,
Melissa Klug: I legit love helping people. It's not like I love it. Oh, I know. Like I love helping my clients. I love them.
Jen Obermeier: That's why you do have, you have a lot of wisdom.
A hundred percent. So, kim said,.
She said, I feel like I need to move fast at each of my jobs and I feel guilty because it's on their dime. And, you know, she said something you need to overcome. I think just remembering that the goal of every client is not for you to move as fast as possible. I learned that that was one of my hard lessons learned.
I had a client who scolded me. And that was the day that I learned I wasn't paying attention to her cues emotionally. And I didn't know that she wanted everything just like, like take the time and hang it just right.
Because I was like, we've got
Melissa Klug: this little house to do,
Jen Obermeier: you know, but that, you know, it's a, it's an experience thing. And also it's a checking in specifically with each client to kind of say, how are we doing? Are we moving too fast? Are we going too slow? Like, and some, sometimes at different parts of the project, you might have a client who's been like, zoom, zoom, zoom, ready to go.
And all of a sudden, the next time you come, you notice something's a little off. I think that's a great question to ask them is like, how has your energy today? Like, are you feeling good about, you know, the progress we're making and you know, Kim, that if somebody had wanted to come and blitz it all and get done in a day, they would've called the, you know, the 10 person moving team or organizing team or whatever that was just going to basically come in and like, like almost in a a clean sweep, meaning.
Yes, I do. It's like my favorite one out of all the organizing shows, I really liked to clean sweep because I don't know why. I think it's because they made so much progress.
Melissa Klug: But I, the, on the speed thing Jen's point, which is one of, I think a hundred percent, one of the most important things you have to do as an organizer is the super. In tune to what people are giving you and paying attention.
Paying attention to their cues, like I remember I had one client one time that was like legit having an anxiety attack during our session was sweating was like, and so a client like that, you have to really be paying attention to, she doesn't want us to go super fast.
Like that's stressful for her. So not every client wants that. And also one of the things that I had to get over Kim is I think this is a huge investment of money. And so I'm like, I want to make sure you're getting every penny of your time. Not every client cares about that. They don't, I cared about that more than the client cared about it.
So it's not to say that you want to just sit down in their living room and just like watch Netflix with them. But by the way, I've done that with clients. Some clients just want to
Jen Obermeier: be the friend. They really wanted a yes. Yeah.
Melissa Klug: But you also can say like, Hey, we need to do this at the speed that works for the client and that client, that speed might not be mocked.
Jen Obermeier: Yeah. I mean, think about it for a lot of people. It's like we talk about in the program, it's a luxury experience when you go and get a massage, I don't want the, the massage therapist to be like, you know, okay, I'm going to like, relax you as quickly as possible. It's like, no, they keep him there for that. And if you are not bringing a peaceful and organized energy to their chaos, then really you're just adding to the chaos and that's not helpful and that's not what they need.
So if you are that sort of like type a you know, boom, boom, boom, we need to be productive. We need to be efficient with like every second. Know that about yourself and realize that that is not the best match for every single person. Not like, clearly they're not calling you because that is their favorite way to be either.
So what they need is sort of like that balance what you don't need to add to the situation is more stress about time because they probably are already hard enough on themselves.
And so it's urgency, it's moving with urgency, but not frenzy.
Melissa Klug: Right. And pushing at the right time. So the client that is. Let's just chat might be avoiding starting the work. So reading their cues and then saying like, Hey, let's, let's go sit here. Let's go chat in your closet while we go through some clothing or whatever.
Like knowing when it is time to push and say like, Hey, let's, let's get something done today. But hot, take two. If the client could do this themselves, it wouldn't have hired you. And you even at what you and I might determine to be a slow speed, might be faster,
Jen Obermeier: or
Melissa Klug: they could do themselves because almost everyone I work with that is like, I try to do this on my own.
And then after five minutes, I was like, yeah, I don't want to do this anymore. So if you give them three hours of your time and then they work with you. And then so it's like six hours, they've gotten 200 times more done than I would have gotten them on
Jen Obermeier: their own. For sure. And it might just be something that you said, or just casually did while you were there.
That makes a huge difference for them. It might not be the speed literally at which you pulled everything out. Yeah. Put things in garbage. Got everything back in it's like it, that might not be what was the life-changing moment. It might've just been like the casual way you were talking about, you know, Melissa was like, yeah, share tips about how I keep my kitchen in, in the way that she's just like, I just always have this routine that stays with that client, like for the rest of their life.
Like that's huge.
Yes, this has been a fantastic conversation by the way, and really good way to hang out with you guys. A little bit while we're working,
Melissa Klug: So anyway, 2010, she was going to be great.
Jen Obermeier: Wherever you guys are in the world thank you for tuning in we really enjoyed being here and take care of yourselves.
Happy new year.
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.