Podcast Episode 6: Starting a Podcast with Laurie Palau
Welcome to Podcast Episode 6: Starting a Podcast with Laurie Palau.
In today's episode, I am chatting with my friend Laurie Palau, host of the podcast, This Organized Life and the creator of a partner program for professional organizers through her business, Simply Be Organized. We are chatting all about podcasting and about what she offers for professional organizers. Plus, check out where she sees herself going as an entrepreneur in this industry!
What We Talk About:
(00:00) - Introduction to this episode
(00:59) - Introduction to guest, Laurie Palau
(01:47) - What Laurie believes is the most interesting thing about herself
(04:54) - Why building a community around a podcast was a good idea
(10:13) - The most surprising aspect of Laurie’s partner program
(13:15) - The funny story of how Laurie and I met
(16:10) - How Laurie launched a podcast and book in one year
(20:25) - Laurie’s tips around self-publishing a book
(22:06) - What Laurie’s next book will be about
(25:03) - Get educated on what the clutter clinic is
(30:14) - The real life of Laurie Palau
(32:33) - How Laurie’s transitions from doing all the things to a single focus
(38:26) - How to limit yourself on social media
(43:54) - What Laurie does at this stage in business to continue to be inspired
(46:04) - The best book or podcast Laurie has experienced recently
(49:15) - Where to find Laurie Palau
Laurie Palau, Simply Be Organized
Laurie Palau is author of the book HOT MESS: A PRACTICAL GUIDE TO GETTING ORGANIZED, speaker, and host of the weekly podcast, This ORGANIZED Life. She is a go-to Organizing Expert whose advice has been featured in The New York Times Parenting Section, Family Circle, and Home + Table Magazine. She lives in Bucks County, PA with her husband, 2 daughters, and 2 dogs.
Website
Takeaways
Engaging with your audience is so important and if you are looking for a casual way to talk with your viewers than starting a podcast is a great place to start.
Related Links:
How to take your pro organizing business online
Building community with Autumn Nyby and Bethany Lockhart
Full Transcript
Jen Obermeier:
Welcome back to the Pro Organizer Studio podcast, it's JenObermeier. And I'm so excited today to have Laurie Palau on with us. And Laurieis my friend of course, and she is the host of the podcast, which you probablyalready know and love called, This ORGANIZED Life. Wonderful to have you hereLaurie, welcome.
Laurie Palau:
Thank you so much.
Jen Obermeier:
So this is, as you know, it's a brand new podcast andyou've been podcasting for a while.
Laurie Palau:
I know, I'm really excited. I can't even tell you when Isaw that you were starting a podcast. I literally think I did a little jump upand down in my house.
Jen Obermeier:
I need all the tips and advice. And you reach professionalorganizers all over the world with yours as well. So let me just start firstquestion first. What do you think is something interesting about yourself thatyour listeners don't even know about you yet?
Laurie Palau:
Okay. I don't know if I've ever been asked that question.
Jen Obermeier:
You're such an open book.
Laurie Palau:
I know, I am. That's what I'm saying. I'm trying to thinkof something that people don't know about me. They know that I hate laundry.They know that... I'm just trying to think. I'm really afraid of heights.That's a big thing. I hate roller coasters, spies. Actually, my family bannedme from going to museum parks with that because they said I'm just like abuzzkill. So I'm not even allowed to go with them anymore. It's a true story.
Jen Obermeier:
That's hilarious. So when you started This ORGANIZED Lifepodcast, and you started getting people listening to you from all over theworld, which is a surreal experience, right?
Laurie Palau:
Totally.
Jen Obermeier:
What did they say? Did they say, "Laurie, I need youto come organize my house and I live in California." What happened? Whatstarted happening when you started podcasting?
Laurie Palau:
Okay. So this is really the funny story. This is thetruth. I mean it sincerely. So when I started the podcast, I felt I was late tothe podcast game, right? There were people that had been listening and doingpodcasting for years and I was like, "I don't really understand it, butsomeone told me I should do it." And I was like, "Oh, I don't have todo video, perfect." Because, I'm much rather be behind the podcast mic.
Laurie Palau:
And I guess at the time I just thought it would be a nicecompliment to blogging, because I like to think of myself more as a writer, andthen doing video. And I like sharing my content just through kind of words andteaching in that modality. So I thought this would just be a nice extension ofthat.
Laurie Palau:
And in my mind I thought the audience would really purelybe people that needed organizing help. And that's kind of what my approach waswhen I first started the podcast, was just talking to people like, "Hey,you need help? I'm going to provide you a solution." And I think we stilldo that to some extent. But what I quickly found was that there was this wholeother audience of people that were listening to my show, that whether they werejust entrepreneurs in another business, and they just wanted business strategyand advice. Or a lot of the people that were listening to our show were otherprofessional organizers.
Laurie Palau:
And they were either saying, "Oh my gosh, I do thattoo." Or they were trying to learn some new tricks of the trade that theycould incorporate with their own business. So it really opened up this wholeother world to me that wasn't even on my radar, when I first started the podcast.And I think from there it just really helped me grow, and evolve my business inbeing able to not be so narrowly focused on the audience I was trying to reach.
Jen Obermeier:
That's fascinating. So you and I have talked before about,what we really have in common is that we're pretty just obsessed withentrepreneurship. And all of the ideas that we have, we don't have enough timeto get to in a day. So how did you decide that building the community aroundthe podcast, and then bringing other professional organizers into it? How didyou decide that that was a good idea? That was something that you had thebandwidth to give time to with everything else that you had going on as anorganizer?
Laurie Palau:
Well, I think it's a matter of just being deliberate andmaking choices. Because we all have so many hours in a day. And I like torevisit my goals and how I'm serving other people and how that relates to whatI want to be doing in the bigger picture. And when I first started my business10 years ago, my goal at the time really was to be able to be rolling up mysleeves, hands on helping other people.
Laurie Palau:
And to some extent, I think that's still true. I justthink that I'm a doer by nature. I'm an eight on the Enneagram, so I'm just allabout doing, doing, doing. But what I found is that I enjoy helping people. AndI don't mean that to sound altruistic, that's not at all what I mean. But Ifeel the value I can bring to people, as I starting to feel a little bit morelike a veteran in the organizing space, is that there's a lot of people thatare coming up the ranks, that are really good at organizing but lack some ofthe experience, and the knowhow on the business side of the business.
Laurie Palau:
And you and I've talked about this offline, is that wereally enjoy the business side of the business. And not everybody does. And Ithink that that holds true for a lot of people that are entrepreneurs. Whetherthey're a designer, a jewelry maker, you could kind of fill in the blanks whereyou start your business out of a passion for something that you're doing, butthat doesn't necessarily translate into knowing that you know how to run abusiness, and all the many hats that that requires you to wear.
Laurie Palau:
But I happen to enjoy that part. I like that part. I likethe strategy of how do you build a business? How do you scale a business? Whatdoes that look like? And so I said, "Well, since I have this organiccommunity of people through the podcast and other modalities, why am I notleveraging those talents to help people in those areas that they'restruggling?" Just like 10 years ago, I helped people organize theirpantries and their closets.
Jen Obermeier:
That makes so much sense. So how did that all cometogether? What did you create?
Laurie Palau:
So in 2017, was probably the biggest turning point yearfor me, because I released the book and launched the podcast in the same year,which I don't recommend to anybody. It's like getting married and buying ahouse in the same year, just don't do two big things. But I did it. And so Istarted trying to figure out a way that I could organically connect the dots.And I knew that there were people out there in podcast land, or social mediaworld, that lived in other areas outside of my geographic footprint that reallyneeded accountability support from a professional organizer.
Laurie Palau:
I knew that there were other professional organizer's kindof coming up the ranks that were trying to build out their brand. And I wantedto help them be able to kind of expand their footprint, because I think thatthe stronger we are as a holistic community of organizers, the better it is forour industry. So I want to be able to help them. And I realized that I could bethe conduit between those two points.
Laurie Palau:
So I created a partner program, which was a way for me toalign other professional organizers in other geographic markets with myaudience. Just like if you were to move here tomorrow and you said you needed ahairdresser, and OB/GYN or a painter, I would be the person that you would cometo. This was no different. And that's really kind of how I saw it. And I said,it's a collaborative group of people, not so different than Pro OrganizerStudio, but just kind of focusing in on different areas.
Laurie Palau:
And really complementing the other areas. It's like,"Okay, great. I built this website. I have an idea of what I want to bedoing. I know what I want to be... Who my target audience is, but now what? Howdo I go out there and get them? How do I do these things? How do I grow mypresence out there?" And so we're just kind of helping them navigate that.Because I know when I first started, it was a totally different landscape ofthe industry. And in some ways it was better. And in some ways it was worse,but I just kind of had to figure it all out.
Laurie Palau:
There weren't as many resources out there. And so I wantedto be able to say, "Listen, if you can learn from some of my mistakes,then have at it." And that's really how it... And it just sort of grownand evolved from there.
Jen Obermeier:
What's the best part of this so far? Or what's the mostsurprising aspect of growing your partner program?
Laurie Palau:
That's a really good question. So I think for me, when Ifirst came up with the idea and the concept, I felt like the responsibility ofgrowing the program, and cultivating it really fell on my shoulders. And Idon't mean that in a bad way, I just felt like it's my responsibility. I'mbringing these people into this community, and it's up to me and my team tocontinue to foster that relationship.
Laurie Palau:
And what I saw was, we opened the door, but the organizersin our community of our partners have developed their own independentrelationships and friendships. And they support one another without me havingto be the person leading it. So for example, we've got a few differentpodcasters. We have a few different partners who also have their own podcast.So they just willingly invite other members of the program to be on their showas guests.
Laurie Palau:
We did guest blog on each other's platforms. So there's somuch social sharing, and organic connection that's happened, that's not likepart of the responsibility with my air quotes. You know, nobody's under anyobligation to support the other organizers, but the people that we are bringingin all have that same mindset. And so we really believe in the mindset ofcommunity over competition. And not that I coined that phrase, but it'ssomething that we use, and we kind of all practice that and walk the walk. Andjust seeing that organic growth of the 37 women who are in our program rightnow is just fabulous.
Jen Obermeier:
It sounds like a vision that you had for a long time aboutbuilding community beyond just who you could serve in home. Sounds like yourdream really coming true, right?
Laurie Palau:
Oh, 100% and I think community in general is just superimportant. And I think we have two different types of community that cancertainly intersect. I think we have our in-person community. How are youserving your community of the people that you do life with every day? Andwhether that's school friends, church friends, work friends, whatever it is.Your neighbors, who is your community of people?
Laurie Palau:
But then we would all be re-missed to not acknowledge ourcommunity of people. I mean, I think for as negative press, a lot of timessocial media gets, I mean, I think there's so much good that can come of it. Imean, you and I became friends through social media. And I value yourfriendship and your wisdom and I think that there's so much that can come ofit. And I think it's great when you can have your real life community intersectwith your online community.
Jen Obermeier:
Can I tell our audience a funny story?
Laurie Palau:
Yeah.
Jen Obermeier:
Laurie says we met through social media, which is true,but if you guys have listened to Laurie on her podcast before, she has a veryblunt and straight forward style. And the first time that Laurie and I evertalked was when she actually replied to a mass email that I'd sent out, and shewas asking to unsubscribe from it. And I said, "Oh no, I know who thisgirl is." I was like, "Hey, Laurie." But she was so funny. Shesaid, "I want to stay on the email list. I just don't want this particularemail series." And I was like, "Yep, that's her." I was like,"All right-
Laurie Palau:
Was I offensive? I didn't mean to be mean.
Jen Obermeier:
No, not at all. No, not at all. Like I appreciated it.
Laurie Palau:
And I remember that. I remember-
Jen Obermeier:
I'm sure you are on an unsubscribe spree that day, which Ithink probably a lot of organizers do that. But it was just so funny because Inever, and my audience knows this, I never pass up an opportunity to meetsomebody and network with somebody. And I just thought, "Oh, well I'vebeen meaning to reach out to her anyway." And so I replied and I thinklike within a day we were on the phone with each other, and then we've beenbuddies ever since.
Laurie Palau:
Totally.
Jen Obermeier:
You're very special to me.
Laurie Palau:
Oh well, likewise.
Jen Obermeier:
Because I feel like I can talk to you about almostanything when it comes to business and just this industry we're in, and lifeand all that stuff.
Laurie Palau:
Well the feeling's mutual. And I think the key, Iobviously can't speak for you, but for myself, I think there's just a mutualrespect. I respect everything that you've built for yourself. I know thatyou're working mama, I'm a work your mama. We both value buildingrelationships, and being able to realize that we don't have to hoard theinformation that we have, or the knowledge that we have. And that doesn'tdiminish who we are.
Laurie Palau:
And the more that you can lift other people up, it reallycomes full circle. And so I see that in you and everything that you've builtwith Pro Organizer Studio, and just in your own life. And so for me, those arethe types of people that I want to surround myself with. Because I think we, ingeneral, and I mean that collectively, it's our job to lead by example. And themore that you can lead by example, the more naturally people will follow suit.
Jen Obermeier:
Well, I think we must be like sisters separated in someway because we are so much alike.
Laurie Palau:
You're the sister though, I'm like the old sister.
Jen Obermeier:
Well, you're the cool sister for sure. And you're the onewho will say anything, whereas I'm more like, "I got to get to know youbefore I would say anything," you know? Anyway, our personalities aredifferent, but we definitely have very similar interests and I don't know, justI'm always thinking of the next big thing. And it sounds like you are too.
Laurie Palau:
Always, always trying to think.
Jen Obermeier:
Always.
Laurie Palau:
Yes.
Jen Obermeier:
Yeah. Yeah. All right. So on that note, let's go back andtalk about, you said you launched a podcast and a book in the same year. Thatis exactly the kind of thing that I would do. I will tell you I have a bookidea. I'm not planning to do it this year, which everybody in my life is like,"Thank God, because you've got..." I have way too much on my platealready. But going back to, you launched the book and what was that... I mean,what was that experience like for you? By the way, Hot Mess is Laurie's bookand it's really good.
Jen Obermeier:
And I say that, and I want everybody to know that I havenot read every organizing book out there. Laurie's is really good because it'svery to the point, and it's very well organized and it's valuable. I recommendit even to other organizers that are just starting. And I'm like, "If youjust need a framework for how to approach a space, this is really good."Even though it was really meant for a more general audience. Right?
Laurie Palau:
Yeah. Well, thank you for that, I appreciate that, and italways means a little extra something special when it comes from somebody who'sin the space, right? Because, you're looking at it through a discerning eye.But really the story kind of behind it was, I wanted to be able to provide apractical resource for people. And there's a lot of organizing books out there,right? I mean, I've read a lot of them. I know that there's tons of them outthere.
Laurie Palau:
And for me, the way that I kind of built my businesspractice in general, if anybody's listened to my show, or knows anything aboutme. My big thing is I like to get to the root of the clutter, right? When Italk about clutter, it's really kind of getting to the root of it. Because, Ithink we could talk all day about strategies. You can talk all day aboutsolutions, but until you really identify kind of where the root of your problemis, it's only just really putting a bandaid on it.
Laurie Palau:
And so that's just how I've approached business with myclients. And when I talk to other professional organizers, and I'm not sayingmy way's the right way or the only way, because clearly it's not. But I thinkthat for me it's how I differentiated myself in the marketplace, that wasreally my focus. And so when I wrote the book, I wanted to break it down intosections that were just easy, manageable chunks.
Laurie Palau:
So I structured it so that the first section was all justdedicated to clutter. Defining it. What is clutter? Because it's not just thephysical stuff that you see, it's the stuff that holds you back emotionally.It's being over-scheduled with calendar stuff, and activities, whether it's foryour kids or just volunteer stuff or whatever. So let's just even identify whatthat clutter is, and what that looks like.
Laurie Palau:
And then the next part is how do you deal with that? Okay.So now we've identified it, which is step one. Okay, now what? So now you knowit. So what do you do with that information? So talking about some generalpractices, because again, I don't believe in a one size fits all approach. Ithink everything has to make sense for you and your lifestyle, and what's goingto resonate with you. So we talk about some different solutions.
Laurie Palau:
And then the third part is organizing room by room. And itjust kind of gives a snapshot. And I would say the first two I encourage peopleto read section one and two in its entirety. And then section three you can poparound. So if you live in a apartment, you don't need to read the section on garages.Or if you are a single professional, you don't need to read something aboutplayrooms because it's not going to apply to you.
Laurie Palau:
So I think the third section is just here's some specificsolutions geared towards these spaces. I would say it's a quick read. I don'twant this to be something it's not the gospel, it's not the Bible, it's shouldbe fun, lighthearted and just something that people could reference back to ifthey need. And another thing was, I know that a lot of the people that areprobably listening to this show are entrepreneurs, and may be thinking aboutwriting a book themselves. I personally went back and forth a lot about how topublish this book, how to get it out there. And I know this isn't a podcasttalking about the book, but I just want to say like for me, I wound up goingthe self publishing route and I did it primarily because it was important forme to be able to maintain my intellectual property.
Laurie Palau:
It was more important for me to be able to say, "Iwant to say this message the way that I want to say it. And I wanted to be ableto get it out and use it as a resource." As much as I would love to be aNew York times bestseller, because who wouldn't be, I don't really think that,that's my end goal. My end goal is to be able to provide my audience withactionable solutions that they can incorporate. And so, it was more importantfor me to get the content out there, than sit on it.
Laurie Palau:
And I sat on my book for a long time because I had lots ofself doubt. Is this something that I want to put out there? Is it not? But atthe end of the day, I had a conversation with myself and saying whether I serveone person or I serve a million people, I think that there's value in thiscontent. And so, it's important to get it out there. So if there's anybody outthere listening that is thinking about writing a book about whatever, Iencourage you to do it and just stay true to the reason why you're writing thatbook.
Jen Obermeier:
So what is your next book going to be about? [crosstalk00:21:12] this is?
Laurie Palau:
Okay.
Jen Obermeier:
I'm sure you can't say it but-
Laurie Palau:
I am not going to say, but I will tell you offline becauseI do have, yes, I do have something. And it's still within the organizingrealm, but it speaks both to entrepreneurs and to clutter.
Jen Obermeier:
I love that.
Laurie Palau:
So, it's a little hybrid.
Jen Obermeier:
Ooh, that makes me really excited. That's right up myalley.
Laurie Palau:
Yes.
Jen Obermeier:
I've noticed you have a series on your podcast that isgeared towards entrepreneurship. Is that right?
Laurie Palau:
No, you're totally right. So, again, when I started thepodcast, it was really with the intent of serving people and giving themorganizing tips and strategies and having guests on that either have a productor service to help you with your daily life. And that's still true. But becauselike I said, I started incorporating this audience of other entrepreneurs. Iwas getting asked questions about building your brand offline. I was gettingquestions offline about how to build your brand.
Laurie Palau:
So I decided to just launch a mini series called ThisEntrepreneur's Life. It was an eight episode series and you could just go rightto my website and binge it. And we ran it actually as bonus episodes right offof the same feed of this organized life, because we really wanted to make iteasy and just attract our existing audience that were already subscribed to ourshow. And that way for people that were interested in the content could easilyjust consume it. And if they weren't, they didn't have to listen to it and theysold their regularly scheduled programming. But we launched season one inJanuary and we're probably going to be working on season two and this comingsummer when my schedule permits.
Laurie Palau:
And it's really giving entrepreneurs some basics andthere's tons of business podcasts out there. Of course. I mean, I listened tomany of them, but I've had guests on about streamlining, business practices,whether it's email marketing or hiring a business attorney or social media,hiring a virtual assistant. So, there's a lot of different kind of checkpointsthat we touch upon, but we just want to do it as a launch to see if people wereinterested in it and they seem that they were. And so, we are going to be inthe talks... We're in the talks of season two.
Jen Obermeier:
That sounds amazing. I love how you have so many differentthings going on within your platform. You have something else called clutterclinic. Tell us what that is.
Laurie Palau:
So the clutter clinic's really an extension of thepartner... No, it's actually an extension. Let me take that back. It's actuallyan extension of my business. So, one of the things as an organizer when I wasjust growing purely my organizing business that I wanted to do is I wanted todiversify my service offerings. Which I think anybody who's an entrepreneur,regardless of your field, understands the value in having diverse revenuestreams. Because if you have all your eggs in one basket and that particular,whether you go through a recession or there's a shift in the market, you don'twant to just be reliant solely on one revenue stream.
Laurie Palau:
And I happen to enjoy speaking, and it's something that Ilike to do. And I decided that I knew that I couldn't always be out therepitching businesses on hiring me to come speak because I was out in the fieldorganizing with other clients. So I developed a speaker program that I producedmyself, and I started to market it and I called it the Clutter Clinic. And it ahybrid way for me again, because I like hybrids as you do. I had a largefollowing of people that followed me on social media, read my blog, subscribeto my newsletter.
Laurie Palau:
But for whatever reason, they were not going to convert tobecome a client. Whether they didn't have the financial resources to hireprofessional organizer, they had too much embarrassment or shame. Not thatanybody needs to, but people inflict it on themselves. Or maybe they just feltlike I should be able to do this myself. So, I had this large following ofpeople that I knew I could never convert in a traditional sense, but I knewthat there was a value and they were interested in the content I was consuming,I mean that I was putting out there.
Laurie Palau:
So I decided to come up with a way that I couldcommunicate with them in person, by hosting a lunch and learn series, sharingsome of these tips and actionable strategies. Allow them to grab a girlfriendand for two hours have lunch, have a glass of wine if they so choose and learnsome specific organizing tips and strategies. And in a way follows butobviously on a much broader scale, the outline of the book. We talk aboutclutter, we talk about strategies, we talk about solutions, but people can alsobring their questions. There's a large Q&A, so people can really addresstheir questions and it's a fraction of the cost of hiring a professionalorganizer for people that struggle with shame and guilt and embarrassment, it'scertainly a much less threatening environment.
Laurie Palau:
And it was again, a way for me to be able to leverage myexisting audience without having to spend time pitching my business out toother companies and reaching an audience when I had this community already inmy backyard. So, really when I looked at it, I was like, "I have thiscommunity, how can I serve them?" And so, that's how the clutter clinicwas born. And then what happened was, when I launched the partner program, alot of my partners were talking about having, they wanted to incorporatespeaking into their business, but they either didn't have the time or reallyknow how to structure a presentation, put that together because again, they'regreat at organizing, but they may struggle with some of the other businessacumen parts.
Laurie Palau:
And so I said, "Well, why don't we license this? Sothis could be a speaker program that you could then take, customize it, tweakit to your own branding, your own messaging and allow you to serve youraudience in another way while revenue." So that's how it came about.
Jen Obermeier:
That is brilliant. So, is it only open to the ladies inthe partner program?
Laurie Palau:
It's actually not. It's open. It's obviously specific to theprofessional organizing industry. All of our partners, any of the things thatwe offer, mentoring or clutter clinic, we offer obviously a discount to thepeople that are in our partner program. But the clutter clinic and my mentoringare both other services that I offer to anybody that's in the professionalorganizing industry that could find value in it. And there's links on thewebsite. So, I'm sure at the end you're going to have show notes of wherepeople can go. So yes, if you just go to my website, you can find informationall about the clutter clinic and there's a closed Facebook group.
Laurie Palau:
I'm always in there, you can ask questions and you know,it's great because not only is it the presentation and gives you the slides,but I also include handouts, feedback cards suggestions on how to market andpromote it. Again, some of the areas where people might struggle because again,if you're an organizer, you probably know how to organize and you're good atthat. But maybe some of the other strategic parts you may struggle with andthis allows it to be a little bit more turnkey for you.
Jen Obermeier:
Well, I think you're an incredibly brilliant businesswoman for coming up with all of these different things going on. And on thatnote, I want to switch and talk about you a little bit. I want to know a littlebit more about the real life of Laurie Palau now. So you have a daughter goingoff to school to college this fall. Like what is life like at this stage whereyou're not dealing with being, you mentioned being a working mom, but now it'snot about little kids. Now it's about helping them transition to adulthood. Howis that like?
Laurie Palau:
Oh my gosh. Well, it's great. First of all, I actuallylike big, I like little kids and I like big kids, but it's completely, yourexhaustion comes from a different place. It's a lot more mental exhaustion, ifthat makes sense. Like when your kids are little, you're tired because you'reconstantly doing dishes and picking up toys and giving baths and all of you'refeeding these people and wiping butts and all that stuff. Just physicallytiring when you collapse at the end of the day. And as they get bigger, I lookat this season of life that I'm in now, and it's a lot more mental exhaustionwhere your kids are trying to find their own identity. My girls are 18 and 15,and they're very independent and I think that's part of who they are.
Laurie Palau:
And it's part of how Josh and I have kind of empoweredthem to take ownership of parts of their lives. But there are times where theywant to talk or they're struggling with stuff. Whether it's pure stuff, friendstuff, college stuff, all the life things that really requires you to bepresent. I actually feel like I was a better, I know there's all these thingslike you shouldn't multitask. It's really not good to multitask. I feel likewhen my kids were younger, I was a much better multi-tasker because I didn'thave to necessarily think about the things I was doing. It was like, yeah Icould juggle three things at once. But I feel like I really need to be superpresent with my kids when they do need me because they don't need me all thetime. Does that make sense?
Jen Obermeier:
It does. So, how for you do you transition from doing allthe things into single focusing on your child when they need you and beingpresent?
Laurie Palau:
It's deliberate. I mean like it's a discipline, and Ithink for someone like me that's a little type A and thrives on structure androutine. It bodes well with my personality. But it is something that I have tobe disciplined about, like really kind of time blocking in my head whether I'mwriting down or not knowing like, "Okay, I'm turning work off, I'm puttingmy phone away, I'm at a certain time. I'm going to go to my daughter's lacrossegame later, and I'm not taking my phone out. And then maybe I'll check it laterafter that." But I will also in the same token tell my kids like if thereare certain things that they want me to do something and I know that I have toprioritize or I'm choosing to prioritize work without guilt, they understandthat too.
Laurie Palau:
So, I think it's trying to realize that you can't be allthings at all times and that you have to really just say, "This is thebest I can do right now, and I'm going to focus my time and energy here andthen I'm going to put that on the back burner and I'm going to focus my timeand energy here as opposed to kind of doing them halfway.
Jen Obermeier:
Do either of your girls have any entrepreneurial genes inthem?
Laurie Palau:
It's funny. My little one is very creative. She's myartist musician and, but she would need like an organized, like she needssomebody to run her life because she is just a hot mess. Right? She's such ahot mess. And the poor kid, if you ever listen to my show, like I call her outall the time because she's just, not only is she my ADD kid, but she's just,she's a magical thinker. Everything has feelings. So, that is justice forsomebody who's organized, where a kid who wants to hold onto like every brokenpencil because it needs a friend. It's tiring. And my older one is much morestructured and like me and discipline and just kind of her approach to life.
Laurie Palau:
She's like my athlete, my go-getter, the type Apersonality. But she's a little bit more of a follower in life. I mean sheleads, she's like student council and all that, but she looks to other people'sapproval more than I do. And I think if you're going to be an entrepreneur, andI don't know, again, I could be generalizing. I think you have to just not beafraid of what other people think. And maybe in time she won't care as much.But I think you have to trust your gut because if I listened to people, when Iwas starting my business, I wouldn't have started it.
Laurie Palau:
I started my business in 2009 at the height of therecession. And really I was starting a luxury business, you don't need aprofessional organizer. "Yes, it helps you with self care. Yes, there'sbenefits to it, but let's be honest, you don't need to hire professionalorganizer." And people were like, "People are losing their jobs.They're not sure what's going to happen and you're starting a business?"I'm like, "Yep, I am." And I think if I listened to all the naysayersout there, I probably wouldn't have been here. So just word of advice toanybody out there listening, if you believe in your messaging, just just gowith it.
Jen Obermeier:
So it takes a little bit of tough skin to even get thething going. Right? I mean, do you agree?
Laurie Palau:
100% and I think it's harder nowadays again, becausesocial media, and obviously everybody wants to put their best foot forward.Nobody wants to see the failures or the things that aren't working.
Jen Obermeier:
Absolutely.
Laurie Palau:
But I think that there's a lot of distraction that candraw out a lot of insecurities in people, present company included. And I thinkyou just have to be mindful to recognize that. You're looking at a onedimensional or two dimensional picture. You're not looking at where they'restruggling behind the scenes. You don't know what's going on. You don't knowhow long it's taken them to build something. And so if you can look at peopleon social media, or in your real life, and look to them and draw positive stufffrom it, that's great. But if it's bringing you down... I just did a wholesegment on a digital clutter, and it was geared towards, a lot of it towardssocial media and the negative effects that it can have.
Laurie Palau:
And again, not that I'm hating on social media by anystretch of the imagination, but I'm not a spark joy person, but if you want touse that language, are these people that are on your social media feed, arethey sparking joy for yo? A You know, or are they bringing you down? Are youlooking at somebody and feeling inferior or insecure? And if they are, thenyou've got to just turn that outside noise off, because it's going to be thereone way or the other. And it's up to you to decide, is this something that Iwant to let into my life and let into my mind.
Jen Obermeier:
Do you have any really good tips for limiting yourself onthe amount of time you spend on social media? Because if you share one, I'llshare mine.
Laurie Palau:
Oh my gosh.
Jen Obermeier:
People ask me this all the time.
Laurie Palau:
Yeah, no and I'm always trying new things to be honest,because I question like, "What did I do with my life before socialmedia?" And the majority of my life was spent before there was socialmedia. So like I know I filled my time. I'll be honest with you, I actuallyhave to put my phone away from me because it's become so innate. So I'll in theevening, I will have my phone in a different room to just not even be tempted,because what'll happen is we'll be watching something and I'll just like glanceover and pick it up. And the next thing I know, I'm scrolling throughInstagram. So if I don't physically have it there, I don't miss it.
Jen Obermeier:
That's a really good tip.
Laurie Palau:
What do you do?
Jen Obermeier:
All right, here's my thing. Well, I have an iPhone. And soI have all my apps organized into categories. So it's all on-
Laurie Palau:
In folders.
Jen Obermeier:
... scroll through page after page. Yeah, exactly.
Laurie Palau:
Yeah.
Jen Obermeier:
So I have one folder and it contains Instagram, my email,my text messages, Facebook, and a couple of other random apps that I use fortexting. And the name of this folder is it has a bomb emoji.
Laurie Palau:
Okay.
Jen Obermeier:
And then it says one time a day. And the reason why I havethis set up this way, is it's to remind me that if I am on my phone, because Itend to like, if I'm really working and I'm supporting my students, or reallyreplying to an email, I would much rather be sitting at my computer so I canactually think and type. So if I'm on my phone, what I tend to do is I tend toclick into those apps and just consume but not really get anything done.
Laurie Palau:
Correct.
Jen Obermeier:
So the bomb and the one time of day is to remind me that Ishould treat these apps as if I'm running into a building that is on fire, andit has a bomb inside it. And then I need to get in, get out as soon aspossible. It shouldn't be like I go in for one thing and then get distracted bythe newsfeed, or by somebody comments or by somebody new text message. It'slike, "Get in and get what you came for and they get the hell out ofthere." So it's working for me.
Laurie Palau:
I love it. That's great. Can I tell you another? Well,here's what-
Jen Obermeier:
Yeah, give me an another one.
Laurie Palau:
Well, this isn't for me. So my Zoe, my older one, shedecided... And I will tell you in truth, it did not last. But she decided thatfor lunch she was going to give up social media, and I was like, "Really?You're like 18 years old. How are you going to communicate with anybody?"But she just said it was really more... And it was really more Instagram thananything. They don't consider Snapchat... I'm not a big Snapchat person butthat's a whole other story. But she was like, "I'm going to give upInstagram." And so what she did, because she's not a big Facebook person,she went into the settings in your phone, and this is for everybody, it's notlike a separate app. It's like in your settings in your iPhone.
Laurie Palau:
And it says you can limit your screen time on a certainapp, and you can and the minimum is like you can't turn it off entirely, butyou could set it to like the lowest setting I think is one minute a day. Andthen it like shuts off. I guess it's more of a parental setting. And remembermy kids are older, so by the time like... I didn't have a little kid with aniPhone because it just wasn't a thing. So she set it to one minute a day andshe's like, "Yes, I could go back in and turn that off." But it waslike work. It was like a three step process.
Laurie Palau:
So I would have to really want to undo it and turn it off.So she went without it for I think like two full weeks. And then she was like,I'm going to have to. So it was a little bit of a-
Jen Obermeier:
That was like a mini cleanse.
Laurie Palau:
I know, I know. But I thought it was really cool how shekind of set that setting to make it more difficult for her to even access it.
Jen Obermeier:
That's really smart. That's a good tip. She's a smart one.
Laurie Palau:
She is.
Jen Obermeier:
So what will it be like when you have one child in collegeand she-
Laurie Palau:
I don't know. I'll have to let you know. It's going to beweird. I mean, she's super independent, and she drives. So that's not a big todo. But I think it's going to be different. I only have two children. So halfof my population of kids is going to be gone. I have friends who have four orfive kids, whatever. So it's like you lose one, you still have a large network.I'm going to be like losing 50%. But I think it's going to be... I mean, we'resuper excited for her because this is, I think the way things are supposed tobe. But it'll be definitely a shift. And I know her sister's going to miss herbecause, Zoe picks up a lot of slack for Logan, so Logan's getting hot seatnow.
Jen Obermeier:
Nice. So all the ideas that you have, I know you have nointention of slowing down anytime soon. What do you do still at this stage ofyour business journey to grow and to learn and to be inspired by new things?
Laurie Palau:
So I'm not super social, like out on the weekends andstuff. I like to retreat. I'm a home body. So I really recharge as much as I'man extrovert, and I get my energy from other people. I definitely need time tothink, come up with content, come up with ideas, things like that. So Idefinitely really cherish alone time. I don't get it that often, but now as mykids are getting older, you'd think I'll probably be getting it a little bitmore and more. I like to learn from other people, I think it's reallyimportant.
Laurie Palau:
And so whether I'm listening to podcasts from other peoplewho I respect and admire, or I'm reading books from other people who I respectand admire, who have done things... And it doesn't have to be in my industry,it's just in life things where I feel like people are successful, however youdefine success and, and financially is only one small piece of it for me.
Laurie Palau:
That's how I guess, continue to stay fresh. And I thinkultimately I'm always trying to figure out how can I serve people? What is itthat they need? What the value that I can bring? And whether it's to myclients, whether it's to the partners, whether it's to colleagues, how can Icontinue to bring value? And I think if you just quiet yourself and listen alittle bit, the answers are right there, you know? So all the evolution of mybusiness has really come from me listening to what people want, and just beingable to kind of connect those dots.
Jen Obermeier:
100%, what's been the best book or podcast for you inrecent memory?
Laurie Palau:
So that's a loaded question. Okay. So right I'm on thisreally big Enneagram kick.
Jen Obermeier:
Oh, interesting.
Laurie Palau:
So are you an Enneagram person?
Jen Obermeier:
You know, I was just asked that exact question earliertoday and I certainly know what it is, but I am more of a Myers-Briggs person.
Laurie Palau:
I would like you to read the road back to you.
Jen Obermeier:
Okay, I've heard of that.
Laurie Palau:
Okay. And we can talk. We can reconvene. Because I thinkit's really important to not only have this... And I'm a Myers-Briggs persontoo. I'm also really big into the four tendencies, which was Gretchen Rubin. Ijust had Gretchen Rubin on my show and we were talking about that. I think understandingnot just who you are, but who the other people in your community are, right? Inyour life, whether that's your spouse and your kids. Whether that's yourcoworkers, your boss, your clients, your customers, whatever. That's beenreally eyeopening for me.
Laurie Palau:
Not just how I process information, and how I deal withsituations, but to understand and have a little bit more grace and mercy forpeople that don't see life the same way I do. So that has been something thatI've been really kind of devouring recently. And there's a couple of podcastsabout Enneagram stuff. So I was listening to that and obviously your podcastbecause-
Jen Obermeier:
Oh thanks.
Laurie Palau:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Jen Obermeier:
So on that note you said you were kind of like my cool bigsister, which you are. So what cool big sister advice do you have for the ProOrganizer Studio podcast?
Laurie Palau:
Be authentic. Continue to be authentic to who you are,because the people that you want to attract are going to be the... The peoplethat are going to join Pro Organizer Studio, or listen to your podcast, andread, and consume the material that you're putting out there are going to do itbecause you're striking a chord with them. And there's always going to be peoplethat are going to like it. There's always going to be people that don't. Andthat's not your problem. Your goal I think, is to be who you are, and use thegifts that you've been given to serve people.
Laurie Palau:
And the people that appreciate that are the people thatare going to show up. And whether that's 10 people or 10,000 people, or 10million people. You want the authentic people that are going to get it. And Ithink that's really... If people can focus on just staying true to who theyare, and not lose sight of it with all the other bells and whistles that areout there. I think that's probably my best advice.
Jen Obermeier:
That's solid advice. You're good.
Laurie Palau:
Preach it sister.
Jen Obermeier:
You're very wise.
Laurie Palau:
Am I?
Jen Obermeier:
Oh yeah. You're a pro. So tell everybody where they canfind you online just in case they are not following you yet.
Laurie Palau:
Yeah, sure. Probably the best place is you could justshoot over to my website, which is simply B organized, and that's just theletter B, simply B organized. And that's where I am all over social, so you canfind me there as well. And there's links to all the stuff that we talked about,the book, the podcast, clutter clinic, all that is on the website.
Jen Obermeier:
Awesome.
Laurie Palau:
Hit me up there.
Jen Obermeier:
Oh girl. Thank you so much for joining me today. And Ican't wait to give you a big hug in person.
Laurie Palau:
I know.
Jen Obermeier:
You're going to be down this way, like-
Laurie Palau:
Now that-
Jen Obermeier:
... much more often.
Laurie Palau:
I know. Now that Zoe's going to be going to school inSouth Carolina, I'm going to have reason to be down there, so I'm super excitedfor that. Yay.
Jen Obermeier:
She's going to love it here. She's really going to loveit.
Laurie Palau:
Oh, I've no doubt. We're super excited for her.
Jen Obermeier:
Awesome. Thank you so much for joining me, Laurie, and Ican't wait until our next conversation.
Laurie Palau:
I love you, friend. Thank you so much for having me.
Jen Obermeier:
I love you too. All right, y'all take care.
Join our free Facebook group for podcast insiders to get notified about new episodes (plus get behind-the-scenes access and other goodies weekly)!
Get on our waiting list for more information about the Inspired Organizer® course.
Download the Professional Organizer's Roadmap to Success.
