Podcast Episode 18: Build a Business that Runs Like Clockwork

businesspodcast

Jul 2

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Welcome to Episode 18: Build a Business that Runs Like Clockwork

In this week's episode, I am joined by professional organizer Brie Kistler, who also happens to be my Operations Manager at Pro Organizer Studio. Today we are talking about what goes on behind the scenes at Pro Organizer Studio, as well as some tips we have learned recently to help the business run as smoothly as possible. We will be sharing our experience as students of Adrienne Dorison's new course, Run Like Clockwork.

What We Talk About:

(00:00) – Introduction to the episode
(01:01) – Introducing Brie Kistler
(02:15) – How Brie and Jen met and starting working together
(06:41) – Brie’s role at Pro Organizer Studio
(08:10) – Why we read the book Clockwork by Mike Michalowicz
(09:10) – Finding the Run Like Clockwork course from Adrienne Dorison
(09:43) – Why we decided to enroll in the Run Like Clockwork course
(10:07) – Brie’s summary of the book Clockwork
(10:55) – How even a solo professional organizer can benefit from this book
(15:17) – Easy steps you can take right now to get started "clockworking" your business
(16:04) – Recapping our favorite lessons and tools we learned from Run Like Clockwork
(22:29) – How the course has changed the way we work as a team
(27:05) – Jen explains what bottlenecks are and how to avoid them in your business
(32:30) – Brie shares why she loves her job
(33:36) – Information about the Pro Organizer Studio Retreats
(34:48) – Episode Wrap-Up

Run Like Clockwork Course
Clockwork Book
Profit First Book

Brie Kistler

Brie Kistler is an Inspired Organizer™ turned Operations Manager for Pro Organizer Studio. With a background in Psychology and HR Management, Brie brings a variety of skills to the table as she assists Jen in a multitude of community and project management tasks. She is also the brains behind the match-making for our Accountability Partner Program, which is very popular amongst the Inspired Organizer™ students.

Takeaways

Regardless of if you are running your business solo, or you have a team, getting your business to run smoothly and streamlined in essential. When your everything is operating like a well oiled machine, it makes scaling so much easier and faster.

Full Transcript

Jen Obermeier:

It definitely takes a team to run things here at Pro Organizer Studio. Today I have on professional organizer, Brie Kistler, who also happens to work part-time for Pro Organizer Studio as our operations manager. Now I've got her on the podcast to talk about a little bit about what goes on behind the scenes at Pro Organizer Studio and some tips that you can apply to helping your organizing business run as smoothly as possible.

You're listening to the Pro Organizer Studio podcast with Jen Obermeier. Thank you for joining in. Jen makes it her mission to broaden the horizons of savvy businesswomen in the organizing industry by instilling confidence and inspiring authenticity. She is a devoted business coach and founder of the inspired organizer program. Each week you'll gain new insight into strategies designed specifically for professional organizers. And now, let's get started.

Jen Obermeier:

Welcome back to the Pro Organizer Studio podcast. I'msuper glad today to have on my ... What is she? She's a little bit ofeverything. She's my operations manager. She's my assistant. She is a major,major part of Pro Organizer Studio with everything that we offer. Her name isBrie Kistler. Hi Brie!

Brie Kistler:

Hey!

Jen Obermeier:

And it's one of those podcast episodes you kind of have todo at some point where you're bringing on team members that work with you andintroduce them to your community. Brie is someone who works tirelessly reallybehind the scenes to make sure that I don't look like a hot mess. Right? Wellokay, that's one of the goals. But I wanted to have Brie on because obviouslyas a new podcast I wanted to introduce her, but we also, the two of us togetherjust finished a really cool business training over the past few months that wethought that you guys would get a kick out of hearing because it's reallysomething that for organizers who really want to get a handle on their systemsand their processes in order to grow their business or even just maintain at asteady state without losing their mind. I think you guys are going to love it.But before we jump into that, I want to just tell a short story of how Brie andI met. Brie?

Brie Kistler:

Okay. So I have a two and a half year old now, but when she was around 12 months old, I had been staying home with her. And I was really getting an itch to work again. And I had been in an administrative sort of, but also HR role at another company. Well, the particular industry I was in was very stressful and so I knew I loved organizing, but I never really thought it was a thing to start a business, but I had had a lot of encouragement from family and friends to look into it. And then I started going to moms when she was 12 months old and in my moms group a professional organizer came to speak to the group about decluttering your house and stuff like that. And I was just like, oh my gosh, I didn't know this was a thing, but wait, I don't need to do this. I've already done it. I needed to teach other people how to do it. And it just really got me excited. And so I just started doing some research and I found Jen on Pinterest and on YouTube, and I could not stop watching her videos. But I didn't want to write to her. I was intimidated because I heard in one of her videos that she lived 30 minutes away from me. So I was just like, I can't talk to this girl. She's my competition or whatever. It made me really intimidated, but after six weeks of scouring all of her content, I finally wrote to her and I was like, Hey, we have all this stuff in common. I just wanted you to know that I really think you're awesome. And I'm here 30 minutes away from you." So yeah.

Jen Obermeier:

Well Brie, let me just give you my recollection of gettingyour email that day. I remember exactly where I was because I was like, oh mygosh, I need somebody. I was basically like, can I hire you essentially rightaway because I was like, I need somebody to come organize me. And what I meantby that was not organize my life per se, but really I was at a point in mybusiness where ... This was at the end of 2017. So I was at a point in mybusiness where I had already been doing everything. I was wearing all the hatsat Pro Organizer Studio. I was the student, the teacher, the coach, the techsupport, the social media manager. I had not outsourced anything at that point.So I had really been flying on my own and I just was kind of like, I've got somany projects coming up.

Jen Obermeier:

I know because it was coming up at the end of the fall. SoI was already thinking about the next year. And I asked Brie, I was like,"Well can you just come to my house because I need some admin sortof" ... I just needed even one day of just help me just organize my adminand all my thoughts because again, it was like me constantly having papers spreadout everywhere and post-it notes of all my ideas and things I had to do. So,Brie went from being scared to talk to me, to me being like, well, are yougoing to come to my house or not? And it was like one week later, which wasawesome. And to me it was the most natural thing in the world. I think she was...

Brie Kistler:

Oh my goodness. I ran into my husband's office jumping upand down. I was like, "Oh my gosh. Not only did she write me back, shewants to meet me. What the heck?"

Jen Obermeier:

That was awesome. No, you just, you came at the righttime. So, that was wonderful. Fast forward, Brie ended up working with me as asubcontractor to help with various projects with Pro Organizer Studiothroughout the rest of 2018. And then as of January 1st of this year, 2019 Briebecame my very first employee, which was great.

Brie Kistler:

Yes.

Jen Obermeier:

And we knew for a long time that eventually that I wouldwant her to move into an employee role. But for a while there it was just sortof like, hey I'm going to need help with this kind of project and she wouldessentially kind of charge me for a package of hours. And she was kind ofhelping me here and there. So by the time she became my employee this year wehad already had well over a year of working together.

Brie Kistler:

Yeah.

Jen Obermeier:

But with her moving into an employee role, which by theway her official title now is operations manager. She's my only employee. Soshe is my only other person who truly helps support all of our programming. Soshe's a support person for the inspired organizer community. She handles a lotof support requests from current students or potential students. And she alsois my right hand person when it comes to leading our retreats that we're nowoffering, which she is amazing at.

Brie Kistler:

Yes.

Jen Obermeier:

So it's been wonderful to really Brie, see you developinto all of these different roles. But as we started through the beginning ofthe quarter this year and we're working together and it was me learning how tomanage an actual employee and not just someone who is working with me on aproject basis. It was a whole new ball game. So here's what I want to tell youguys about the business program that Brie and I just went through together.

Jen Obermeier:

If you guys remember, I have talked on the podcast beforeabout a book called Profit First by Mike Michalowicz. Now it's a great book andif you're into finance and you're kind of like that ... I almost think itreally appeals to people who also like Dave Ramsey for their personal finances,but Profit First is kind of like Dave Ramsey but for your business. And Mikewrote a somewhat new book. It hasn't been out a very long time even as of now,I think just about a year called Clockwork. And Brie and I both read this book.When did we read that? Probably the end of 2019?

Brie Kistler:

Yeah, late in the fall. Yeah.

Jen Obermeier:

Yeah. And as we were working together at the beginning ofthis year, this quarter, I said to Brie, it's a big priority to me to use thatbook as sort of a roadmap for how to implement a lot of systems and stuff thatwe really wanted to kind of formalize and bring to the next level for ProOrganizer Studio. And that definitely fell under Brie's role of helping doproject management and helping create systems.

Jen Obermeier:

And so I thought this was an incredible resource. And sowe both were going to read the book again. And right when that happened it wasjust the right place, right time, I saw that they were running their first evergroup coaching, eight week program for Clockwork. So you could enroll in itonline, and do a guided walkthrough of Clockwork in your business. And thecatch, well the big thing for me was not only was it going to be for me, theowner of the business, they said, yeah, bring one other team member too. And Iwas just like, oh my gosh.

Brie Kistler:

Yay.

Jen Obermeier:

It was like the sun came out because I'm like, this wasexactly what we needed in order to really I think properly sort of assess wherePro Organizer Studio was. That sort of the processes and systems that we didhave in place. And then also really strengthening and creating systems for thethings that we didn't have in place that we were sort of always reinventing thewheel. Right? So Brie, how would you summarize for somebody who doesn't knowanything about the book Clockwork, what really the premise is and what it'sabout?

Brie Kistler:

So I think whether you read the book or not, you know thatcreating efficiency in your business, it doesn't happen overnight. It'sdefinitely a process. And so this book and this course really teach you how toevaluate your business and your time. How you're spending your time in yourbusiness, and if that meets the priorities that you have for the goals of yourbusiness and how to kind of shift tasks or shift your time or shift your teammembers to fit better into the right roles and to use your time moreefficiently for the health of your business.

Jen Obermeier:

Brie, why do you think that even someone who is aprofessional organizer who's listening, who is a solo business owner anddoesn't have employees or assistants and doesn't necessarily plan on having anyin the near future, why would she ... What would she get out of reading thatbook?

Brie Kistler:

Anyone who's starting a business has goals or hopefullyyou have some goals for where you want your business to be five years from nowor even a year from now. But a lot of times what happens with entrepreneurs isthat they try to do everything themselves. And it's like you're just running ona hamster wheel. And you're not really thinking about ... Even though you havegoals or dreams for five years from now, you're not necessarily doing the workit takes to get there right now. And so I think that this book really helps youslow down and take the steps you need to put the systems in place so that youcan get to that point a couple years down the road.

Jen Obermeier:

Yeah, I totally agree. And I think too that there'sdefinitely a happy medium somewhere for the kind of person out there who theycan run an organizing business all by themselves, but there's going to becertain things that they never were going to quite get around to putting extratime toward. So I think even reading the book and kind of getting anunderstanding of, okay, here are what my weekly and daily business tasks shouldbe. And am I on track, and do I have ways to measure whether or not I'm doingthose?

Jen Obermeier:

And then I think too that it helps you identify areaswhere if you wanted to, or if you got to the point where you're financiallyable to outsource something to a social media manager for example, you justcome to the point where you just say, this is important for my business, but Ido not want to be the one who dedicates the time to it myself. And I use thisexample because it's such a good one. It's something that you can do the bareminimum or you can do nothing, and then other people choose to put a lot intoit, right?

Brie Kistler:

Yeah. Yeah. And one of the things that Adrienne said inthe course, Adrienne Dorison co-wrote the book Clockwork with Mike Michalowiczand she actually runs the course Run Like Clockwork. And one of the things thatshe said to kind of get your mind in the right place is, what will you do whenyou have more clients than you can handle? Can you make your thousandthcustomer feel like your first customer? Can you give them the same level ofattention? So when you've gotten to that point where you are successful, haveyou outsourced the right things or put the right systems in place so that youcan give them the same level of attention?

Jen Obermeier:

Yeah, definitely. So, let's talk about what that mightlook like for a professional organizer. Because since we're always saying,every person in project is so different that a lot of the time, I knowespecially new organizers feel like they are starting from square one withevery single person because you're learning a little something new witheverybody. But I think that going through something like a book like Clockworkor just educating yourself on business processes in general will start to openyour eyes to the commonalities of okay, there's always going to be an intakeprocess. There's always going to be sort of a project planning part of the project.Whether it's a small one or a huge one. There's always going to be themid-project check-in things that you can do. And then there's always going tobe the project wrap up.

Jen Obermeier:

How can I make enough of those decisions in advance sothat every time I have a new client that I don't feel like I'm just startingfrom scratch and just flying by the seat of my pants? Because I think that'sprobably the number one thing that is contributing to anxiety with organizersis their first anxiety is just getting any clients. And then their secondanxiety is, oh my gosh, I have more than one client and I have to figure outhow to fit it all in.

Jen Obermeier:

And how to have this amazing level of customer service.Now, all of that is a major chunk and component of the inspired organizerprogram. So if you want to learn more about that, you should definitely get onthe waiting list for the inspired organizer program. But even now what you canstart to do is go ahead and audit what are my basic processes. And don't justhave them in your head, have them written down as if you were going to teachthem to someone else.

Brie Kistler:

Yeah, it reminds me of working with our clients. What arewe doing with them? We are trying to help them simplify their lives, reduceanxiety and automate systems. Create systems in their house so that they cansave time.

Jen Obermeier:

Yes.

Brie Kistler:

So it makes sense that that is something that we need todo in our own businesses, to automate things and create efficiency in ourbusiness so that we can spend more time with our clients and focus on what theyneed. It makes sense, it just takes time.

Jen Obermeier:

So true. And I will tell you too that going through theactual hands-on, we got some amazing coaching in the Clockwork program that wewouldn't have gotten just from reading the book. But going through the program,it really helped us see that a lot of the decisions, especially when there'stwo of us, I was making a lot of decisions based on criteria that had lived inmy head, right?

Jen Obermeier:

So I, through the coaching of the program ... And this iswhere I think we really benefited beyond just reading the book. Through thecoaching and the program I was really taught how to get things and decisionsout of my head onto paper because it was basically like they said, Adriennesaid, the decision making process already exists. It's just not in paper form.It's not in a checklist form. It's not in something that I can share with Brieso that Brie knows what the expectations are and all that. And so that wasgenuinely for me the biggest takeaway, is that it's not like you have to sitdown and create all this new stuff in order to create sort of an operationsmanual for your business. It was more just a matter of documenting what wasalready happening.

Jen Obermeier:

And I'll definitely be honest. It was uncomfortable attimes too for me to have to slow down and do the Clockwork homework. But it wasactually really ... It relieved so much stress on my part because it helped mesee that a lot of the anxiety that is in my head about wanting things to beperfect ... And guys I'm just like you, I don't ever want to make a mistake inmy business. And so I hold on to a lot of things like, oh, I'll just be the oneto do that. Rather than trusting Brie or trusting anyone to help execute onthose processes. I was holding onto a lot of that myself because I assumed thatit was too complicated to teach to somebody else. And it turns out that I justhad never taken the time before just to sketch out here's how I make thisdecision.

Jen Obermeier:

One of the things I shared in Clockwork was, one tool isyou can make a ... You can kind of draw out a decision making tree. If this,then this, and kind of like a flowchart or a yes/no tree, so that now even ifyou're the only one in your business, you kind of have your processes visuallylaid out in front of you so that you don't feel like you have this hugedecision weighing on you all on your own. You're just sort of like, hey, here'show I've done it before. It's fairly simple to do it again. And then if youever do have an assistant in your business, then you have something to startfrom as far as, here are the standards and here are the things that I wouldlike upheld across client projects or branding, social media, all that stuff.

Brie Kistler:

Yes. And it's so much easier too for me to be like, oh, ifI get an email from a customer and it's something I haven't seen before, it'sso easy to be like, oh I just need to ask Jen for every single little thing.

Jen Obermeier:

That was our default before, right?

Brie Kistler:

Yes.

Jen Obermeier:

Yeah.

Brie Kistler:

But if she takes that step and like writes down if this,then that for general scenarios, then it really helps me to make thosedecisions on my own with confidence and know that she will trust what I dobased on the guidelines that she's given me. So it's definitely, definitelybeen helpful. I agree.

Jen Obermeier:

Another big thing I want to share that I got out of it isone of the things that we were required to do that was also very painful for meto do was to slow down and take the time to track what we were doing basicallyminute-by-minute every time we changed a task for three days.

Jen Obermeier:

And that was very eyeopening guys because it helped merealize actually how much time I was spending "working." When reallywhat I was doing was sort of jumping between tabs, not really making a decisionon things, trying to figure out how I felt about it. And that spins your wheelsfor a long time because you're not really committing to just, hey I'm on thisone task and I'm going to finish it, and I'm going to make a decision by 3:00today. Versus you're not ever setting a constraint for yourself. So I know forme, because I'm definitely an idea person, and I tend to get new ideas just outof nowhere that I have to set constraints for myself or otherwise the bigportion of my day, I'll look back at my time tracking and be like, well I spenta lot of time thinking about something, but I didn't actually decide. And Idefinitely didn't get to the point where I could do it or delegate it because Inever set that constraint for myself. What'd you think about time trackingBrie?

Brie Kistler:

I did it for two weeks, but that just shows the differencein our personalities. Not trying to say I overdid it on purpose, but it wasvery helpful for me because it did help me to stay focused. And also just tosee what I was spending my time doing. And it fits into the whole coursebecause first you're tracking the time, then you're kind of evaluating it andseeing what fits in your role, what doesn't fit in your role, what is your roleperiod, and how to spend your time better. Or remove tasks that are unnecessaryor tried to consolidate tasks that ... I'm going in to Facebook for fiveminutes. Going in to the email for five minutes, going into this other project.And then you're going back and forth rather than just doing a chunk of timehere and a chunk of time there. So there's definitely a lot to be gleaned fromthat process.

Jen Obermeier:

Yeah. Oh I think if nothing else, just the fact that I hadwritten down what I was doing, I was like, well I don't want to switch the taskagain because then I'm going to have to rewrite it and rewrite it and rewriteit. So just saying, okay, I'm doing this even if I thought it was only going totake me 15 minutes. That kept me from jumping around, which is huge becauseI've been telling people for years now, right, single tasking is the best wayto get things done. But I am the queen of thinking that that rule doesn't applyto me.

Brie Kistler:

Jen needs an accountability partner just like anybodyelse.

Jen Obermeier:

I do. I do.

Brie Kistler:

It was your spreadsheet accountability partner.

Jen Obermeier:

That's true. I'll take all the help I can get for sure.Okay so Brie, what else would you say have you gotten out of this and feel freeto be honest, it won't hurt my feelings. One of my goals was for us to continueto strengthen our working relationship. Did you see a positive change yet? Andhopefully you see me be a little bit more calm, but overall what would you sayhas been the biggest change for just your daily work and like how we interactand everything?

Brie Kistler:

I just think yeah, trust and communication is definitelygrowing. It's definitely a process. And clock-working our business is not ...Just because we finished the course, it doesn't mean we're done. It could takeanother year. It could take as long as we keep adding employees or whatever,it's going to keep taking time to implement it. But just so far, I have. I feellike we communicate a lot better, especially in the exercise we did of justwriting out the company vision. I think for any employee it's so important tohear that from the owner of the business. What is the vision of the company andwhat are your goals for growth? Because as employees or contractors orwhatever, if we don't know what that is, then we might not have as muchinvestment in it or we might be able to make decisions with as much confidence,not really knowing what your goal is or what you want to get out of the companyor what you're trying to deliver to your audience.

Brie Kistler:

So that helped a lot too. But definitely yeah, ourcommunication has gotten a lot better. Things are a little more categorized Iguess.

Jen Obermeier:

Yeah.

Brie Kistler:

I think it's more efficient. I guess that's the best wayto put it.

Jen Obermeier:

Well, and that's awesome. That's as it should be ofcourse. I think definitely you and I have gotten better at understanding eachother's learning styles, which we are different. And this is interesting toobecause there's a lot of businesses that are two girls running it together orsomeone who actually is managing a team of employees or subcontractors. I knowthat solopreneurs are not the only organizers listening to us.

Jen Obermeier:

And it's interesting I think especially if you are theowner of your business like I am, is that because I am an organized person andI have worked as a professional organizer, as has Brie, that you would assume,okay, we're both organized so we'll never have any friction because we'llalways be on top of everything. Well that's not true because our communicationand our learning styles are still different, right? And our processing ...

Brie Kistler:

We're on top of things in different ways.

Jen Obermeier:

Totally true. And we see priorities differently, which istotally fine.

Brie Kistler:

Right, right.

Jen Obermeier:

But I think going through the Run Like Clockwork course,we got really clear actually really early in the program what are some thingsmaybe that I was even expecting Brie to learn how to do that weren't really herstrengths. And didn't make a lot of sense efficiency-wise for me to train herand have the expectation of her taking on certain job roles that were not trulyher best, best skillset.

Jen Obermeier:

We got pretty clear early on what Brie was so good at andwas going to definitely continue to want to do at Pro Organizer Studio. Now sheand I, we're planning for the time when we have many more than just twoemployees. Now, we're not there yet and that's not necessarily going to happentomorrow. But we I think are preparing ourselves ahead of time for thatinevitable growth so that when we have, say if I had four team members and Iwas just now trying to figure this all out, I wouldn't just be learning Brie'spersonality, it would be everybody.

Brie Kistler:

Yeah, oh my goodness. A lot more opinions.

Jen Obermeier:

Yeah, so I think there's definitely something to be said,and this is true for organizing businesses as well, is to really hone in onwhat are my workflows, what are my systems and processes? Get those somewhatsettled. They don't have to be perfect, but get those settled early in yourbusiness before you have so many clients calling that you go, oh my gosh, Ireally need a process and I don't have one.

Brie Kistler:

Yes, exactly. Do it now. Do it now. I always say, I thinkI got this from Dave Ramsey, but he always says, pay now, play later.

Jen Obermeier:

I like that.

Brie Kistler:

Your business might be young, but you won't regret doingthe work now.

Jen Obermeier:

So true. Okay, so the last thing I want to share fromClockwork ... And again, I really could not recommend more that you guys gograb a copy of this book from Amazon. It is absolutely incredible, is the ideaof getting to the point where you can identify what the bottlenecks are in yourorganizing business. Now, here's what a bottleneck is. It means that maybe forexample, your capacity to serve more clients is there, but your ability, youdon't have enough people calling in order to fill up your calendar.

Jen Obermeier:

That would be a bottleneck where you're like, okay, I justdon't have the number of leads. Another example of a bottleneck could be youactually are so, so booked every day that you're not ... That is a bottleneckfor you to be able to work more on your business versus you being the one whois doing everything, and you're totally burned out. That's actually a badbottleneck to have, right? Because you can get so burned out, and if you're theone wearing all the hats, then when you have to take a week off, your wholebusiness has to stop for a week.

Jen Obermeier:

So goodness, that could be a whole nother podcast episodeentirely. But just taking some time to really almost ... I'm a very visualperson guy, so if you were to almost sketch out your business as it standsright now, often of course when you're starting, your thing is okay, yourbottleneck is just, I haven't even put myself out there yet so nobody knowsabout me. So the most important thing to do is just get the word out, whetherthat's with your website or talking with people that you know already, askingformer clients that you've kind of worked with on the side casually just to lettheir friends know that now you're really launching a business and you wouldlove to have them refer you. That can be a way to move past that initialbottleneck.

Jen Obermeier:

But here's an example, and Brie you can chime in on this.Often people I think are freaking out about the wrong thing. So if for exampleyou're that person who hasn't even launched yet, but you're worried about nothaving processes and systems laid out for your entire business, that actuallyisn't the right thing for you to be stopping to figure out right this momentbecause it only makes sense for you to get a client or two first to get someexperience to base your systems and processes on, right?

Brie Kistler:

Yes.

Jen Obermeier:

One other way to get around that if you haven't startedyet, is to join the inspired organizer course because we lay out the businesssystem essentially for you. Now, you still are going to customize it based onyou and your style, and you'll have to tweak those processes and workflows andeverything to fit you. But we teach you how to do project management for whenyou have multiple projects and that kind of thing. We give you the salesprocess, we give you all the nurturing and contact processes that people arelike, I'm just now starting, but I've got a question that's miles down theroad.

Jen Obermeier:

So that's one thing that inspired organizer helps you dois to just kind of settle in, know that you have the roadmap with the pieces tofollow in order so that you're not stressing out from square one aboutsomething that kind of needs to come later.

Brie Kistler:

Yes. So it's like when you start your business, you're notjust working, working, working with some clients and it's not just working,working, working on everything to make it look perfect on the computer, onsocial media or whatever. It's kind of a balance. And I think that the coursehelps guide you through what that looks like to have a healthy business, toknow when to launch based on what you have already done.

Jen Obermeier:

And then another example of kind of a bad place to focuson I think is, say you've gotten a couple clients already, but you're stillobsessing over your website.

Brie Kistler:

Yes.

Jen Obermeier:

And my advice as your business coach is, if you're notplanting seeds actively, if you're not marketing actively before you need it,then later on down the line you're going to have this bottleneck where you'relike, okay, I don't have any money coming in. And so all that time that I wasspending on my website making tweaks that probably didn't make a hugedifference could have been spent towards doing your daily marketing tasks andgetting your name out there so that later on hopefully you've got a pipelinefull of people who know about you. Or past clients that you can reach back outto, to either have them sign on again or refer you to their friends, that kindof thing.

Jen Obermeier:

So, that would be another good example of something whereI see ... Because of organizers they tend to have that perfectionisticpersonality with a lot of anxiety, is that they find something to place theiranxiety on that is not going to solve their bottleneck.

Brie Kistler:

Right.

Jen Obermeier:

So if you take one thing away from this podcast today,that's kind of the concept that I would like you to really hear from us is,from this Clockwork book that it's not just about laying out perfect processesand obsessing over the processes. They're there in order to kind of free you upto not have to make so many decisions every single time you have a new clientwhere you just feel like you're starting from scratch. That is going to wearyou down. It's going to take up all of your energy.

Jen Obermeier:

But if you have repeatable processes for everything thatyou do in your business, everything starts to get easier. And every time youhave any client you can give her really more personal attention because you'renot freaking out about actually delivering the service, yeah.

Brie Kistler:

How do I do that again? Yes, exactly.

Jen Obermeier:

Really give her that luxurious attention that shedeserves, right?

Brie Kistler:

Yes, yes.

Jen Obermeier:

Okay. So Brie I would love for you to end this by tellingeveryone how your job is the best job ever.

Brie Kistler:

It seriously is. For me, organizing is awesome and I'vespent a while in my own business organizing with clients and working as asubcontractor for another organizer. But for me, it's about relationship andwhether you're working as an organizer or working for Jen Obermeier, it's aboutrelationships. And so I feel fulfilled in this job because every day I get toconnect with inspired organizers and hear what they're going through or whattheir current victory is in their business, and encouraging them and givingthem tips and guiding them. And for me that means so much. Just being able tobe a voice in someone's life as they're going through a very scary time to justbe encouraging.

Brie Kistler:

And what's made it even more fun and even more real for meis being able to connect with these women at our retreats. It is such a gift tobe a part of that and to see how just women getting together can make such adifference in each other's lives. And just being able to huddle around eachother and hear what everyone's going through and just have these intenseaffirmation sessions is amazing both in the behind the scenes, getting it allprepared and then also delivering it and being there for those women isawesome. I love it so much.

Jen Obermeier:

Well, Brie is amazing at that. Our retreats are not onlyabout affirmation but about super strategy and really bringing your organizingbusiness to the next level. So Brie, are you excited to take it to Las Vegas?

Brie Kistler:

Yes. I've never been there. That's going to be crazy.

Jen Obermeier:

And if you guys are interested to get on our interest listfor any future live events like those retreats, which we are planning tocontinue taking around the US and maybe beyond, who knows, in 2020. We do havea waiting list sign up just so you can get notifications about it. If you go toproorganizerstudio.com/events. Well Brie, this was awesome for you to come onand bring you out from behind the scenes. I know it's not the easiest thing,but I really wanted everyone to really see that I do not do all this alone.

Jen Obermeier:

Brie is a major part of everything that I am able to dothrough my business coaching, through this podcast. All of the free stuff thatwe have going on as well, the YouTube videos, Brie has a role in all of thosethings. So I hope you guys know that while I'm not doing all this alone, thatyou're not expected to do it all in your business either. So that's why we arehere to help support you. So please take advantage of everything that we haveto offer in order to make your business run more like Clockwork. Run moresmoothly and help take the weight off of you because nobody should wear all thehats. Even if you are a solo business owner and you have no plans of hiringyour Brie yet. It's still worth investing time and knowledge into your businessso that it keeps your life as balanced as possible.

Brie Kistler:

Yeah.

Jen Obermeier:

Well thanks again Brie.

Brie Kistler:

Thank you so much. It's been awesome.

Jen Obermeier:

And you guys will see Brie around of course. And also youcan say hello to her inside our podcast group on Facebook. We do now have afree Facebook group just for podcast insiders so that you can chat about thisepisode, ask Brie even more questions or get even more information abouteverything we talked about with Clockwork today. So thanks again Brie. Talk toyou guys soon.

Brie Kistler:

Yes. Awesome. You're welcome.

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