167 | How To Summit LIVE Part 1

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Written By Melissa Klug

Welcome to our first ever live podcast recording! The How To Summit was an amazing two days of learning and community and fun, and the last day we hit record on a fab panel of organizers answering a grab bag of my questions. 

The panelists:

Ria Safford | Riorganize | @riorganize
Ashley Murphy + Marissa Hagmeyer | NEAT Method | @neatmethod
Mindy Godding | President of NAPO | Abundance Organizing | @abundanceorganizing
Ashley Jones Hatcher | Travel & lifestyle expert | @ashleyjoneshatcher

You can listen here, read the full transcript below, or find us on Apple, Spotify, or anywhere you love to listen to podcasts!

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FULL TRANSCRIPT

Hey pro organizers, it's your podcast host, Melissa, and I am thrilled to bring you these next two episodes because the best decision I made for my business this year and just for my overall happiness was to go to the how to summit, which was last month in my home state, Ohio. We had about 300 organizers that converged on the Buckeye state.

And we had the best time. I can't explain just the energy and the excitement and the happiness and the joy that were contained in those two days. It was so great. I was excited because we had about. 50 people in our inspired organizer program that were there. So it was awesome to be able to meet just these amazing women that I get to work with every single day and then meet so many more friends.

 I just met some of the most amazing people. I know I'm just like going on and on and on about how amazing it was. It's my favorite word. But seriously, it was a great event. So next year, please, I would encourage you for your business and just for your overall, like a general happiness, 

Check out the how to summit for next year. It is going to be September, I believe, 19th and 20th. I should have looked this up before I started recording this. But it is going to be in the end of September next year as well with a location to be determined. And, I really, really encourage you to go.

And I just want to thank Brandie and Ryan were the hostesses with the mostest. And they just did an amazing job putting this on. And they put together a panel for the last day. And I was honored to lead that panel. I had a very, very long list of questions.

Obviously we couldn't get to them all, but we got to a lot and you are going to get some really great wisdom here from some extremely successful organizers. I just hope that you are inspired by this to go out and just make the last two months we still have two solid months of the year left to make our businesses great.

 And I know that you will do that. So I've broken this up into two different podcast episodes. A lot of people say that they like them when they're little bit shorter because they can listen to them, listen to a full episode on their way to a client.

And this way you can make sure that you are catching everything that people are saying. 

 Before I hit play, I just want to say one thing, as soon as I stop talking, you are going to hear a song and Brandie and Ryan asked me, they asked everybody at the summit, but it was for me, one of the hardest questions I have ever been asked in the history of my long years on this planet. And it was, what is your walkup song? So you had to pick a song to walk up on stage too. And this is, uh, really something that stressed me out. I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna lie because you have to pick like a really cool song and it has to be like something about you and it has to be something that the audience knows.

And it was just, it was very stressful. So I came up with what. I think it's a pretty good one. And you are going to hear Run the World, Girls by Beyonce. And here's why I love that song. I, for 20 years of my career, worked in big global companies. And most of the people that I worked with were men.

In some cases, 95 percent plus were men. And the thing that I love about organizing is that it's almost exclusively women. 

This room was just filled with absolutely cool, fun, successful women business owners. And I absolutely love that. I believe as a mom of two daughters and a woman who spends every day coaching other women in their businesses, that we really do run the world.

So that's what you're going to hear when we first start. And I hope that you go out and run the world today. Here we go.

And I, we might be recording, so you know. I don't know, be quiet maybe? I don't know what you do at a recording thing. No, I do think everyone's really tired. Which I totally understand. So, I am absolutely thrilled to be here. I told a really good friend of mine when I was coming here, I said she's like, well, why are you going to Cleveland?

And I said it's the Organizing Oscars. So, earlier when you were saying, like, it's my Julia Roberts moment. No, this is like the Organizing Oscars. I have never seen anything like this. There are so many amazing people in this room. And I'm just, I'm really, really grateful to be here. So, I would like to call up.

Our panelists you have seen all of them before today. We are calling up Ashley and Marissa from the Neat Method. Woot, woot! Woooo! Mindy, the president of NAPO. And Mindy has a flight in like two and a half minutes. So she is going to have to leave a little bit early. If we have some big questions for her, we will get her on.

Ria, come back up. Ria, we have one hour. That's all, okay? But if you want to, you can meet her in the parking lot. And she'll beat some people up for you, too, apparently. So... And then Ashley Jones. Where is Ashley? Alright. Thank you. Ladies, have a seat. Okay, while everyone gets seated I will just say, this is my first time at the How To Summit. And yes, Brandy and Ryan and I became best friends like seven weeks ago. And all joking aside, we did invite a lot of people here. Like 20 percent of this audience is in our program.

Pro Organizer Studio Inspired Organizer family. So thank you. So you can come be besties with 843 other women across the globe on six continents. We would absolutely love to have you be a part of our group. Okay just because my love language. Is validation. How many people listen to the podcast?

Thank you. Well, you're in a live taping of the podcast, so I will start like I always do, and say, hey Pro Organizers, it's Melissa, your co host, and I am thrilled to be here with our panel. I could be up here for like 17 hours asking questions. So I'm with 260 plus of my besties and we have lots of questions. So I want to start out talking about something that I get asked about all the time and that is getting clients. Talk to us a little bit about marketing strategies, things like that, something that maybe is slept on that we don't talk about.

I'll go. Like the next doors and Facebook neighborhood pages. Don't sleep on those because people really trust their neighbors. They are listening to what their neighbors are saying more than Yelp, more than Google reviews. Not that those things don't matter, but like think about how much you take a friend's advice.

It's the same thing. And so you want your clients to share. You want your clients to be happy with their experience and share with their people. Because I feel like most of our clients, it's like These pods of friends and groups and you just, you just gotta get in there. I think most of you guys know that I came up under the Neat Method reigns.

And one of the things that Ashley and Molly and Marissa used to say to Neat Method girls is that someone needs to know you, like you, trust you, and then they'll buy from you. So, I took a lot of unorthodox approaches like, Joining the gym of the type of client that I wanted So that I could become her best friend in the locker room and take classes with her And then when she'd be like, oh, what are you doing?

You want to get coffee? Like no, actually, I've got to go organize a home Oh wait, you do that but so I think sometimes when we think about like Getting clients. We try to think of all of these other things that you have to be doing and sometimes It's about how you can integrate that into a part of your daily life cycle and look at what your life looks like and Reach out from the people that are right next to you instead of looking so far away.

Our answer might be pretty simple interior designers Make real good friends with them Okay, can I follow up on that one? Sure can. Because one of the questions I'm going to ask you later is hot takes, and my hot take is everyone thinks they should go focus on realtors, and I say absolutely not, you focus on interior designers.

So, can you talk just a bit about interior designers? Sure, so obviously like, you do work in the same space, and oftentimes I think there can be this gray area of like, oh, you're an organizer, will you also pick out my paint color? Or vice versa, with an interior designer, you know, will you Also, put all the books back and organize the kids closets.

And so, the more time that has gone on, I feel like, just, it's more of a natural, like, everybody stays in their lane. And it makes everything flow that much better. So, getting in with them and just explaining that, like, You're there not to step on their toes, you're there to kind of almost make their life easier, so they can do an installation of the furniture, the vases, the flowers, all the things, the artwork, and you're just kind of working behind the scenes and actually getting the stuff out of the way so that they can do their job.

And I, it's our number one resource at Neat. That's great. And we've had great success just encouraging our existing clients who we love and we click with. to refer us to their friends. Talking to our clients about how we're building our business on referral, making a big deal about any client who gives us an opportunity with a friend or a contact of theirs.

We just shower them with gifts. We make a big deal about it. We're so thankful. And we've built a lot of business just from client referral. Can we talk a little bit about maintenance? I heard someone talk about it earlier, but can you talk a little bit about how you focus on clients for maintenance or follow up going back after, you know, you destroy their garage, for instance?

I'm just kidding. Too soon. Oh, I'm sorry.

I'm sorry, did we just become not best friends? No. Okay. So, wait, I totally just lost my train of thought. Somebody else go. I can go. One thing or piece of advice we give for maintenance is it's not for everyone like we definitely Wait until you've done a lot of spaces before you're just offering up maintenance.

And then also, like, go with your favorites, obviously. Not just go out the gate with, and then we'll come back and do maintenance. Because you might hate your life after that. Yeah. And I think some people might feel like, Oh, is it weird that I'm offering to come and, like, fix spaces I've done? Does that not, does that mean I'm not doing a good job?

No. Just because you go and organize something doesn't mean these like magical fairies are keeping it that way. They have to do the work. They have to upkeep it. And there's nothing wrong with that. If you get a nice, delicious, deep clean in your house, like, it's not just gonna stay clean forever. You have to keep showing up.

And so that's all you're explaining. Like, hey, we're here to show up for you. And offer it as a seasonal change. The season's the perfect time to transition. Let us help you with that. You know, we know your little kids, they're growing so fast right now. Those four T's are gonna be five T's. If you want us to come in and switch those, keep notes on your clients and the transitions they have coming up because that leads you in to a, 

Hey, new touch point, holiday is coming or I know Zach's birthday, probably got 

a ton of stuff.

We don't know if we figure 

and maintenance is a perk. Maintenance is a perk. It's something that we offer to our best clients. 

And we are constantly talking about maintenance. From the very first appointment, we're telling them, you know, a lot of our clients find it useful to have us come back at periodic times during the year.

We use, you know, clever language around it, like tune up, refresh, we don't always use the term maintenance and we have a contracted agreement for maintenance. So, it's a commitment that we're expecting a certain amount of sessions over time with that particular client. What kind of services outside of just traditional in home organizing.

So, you know, something outside of maintenance, concierge services, things like that. any things like that that you guys have that are like a magic?

I would say kind of similar to what Ashley said earlier. Interior designers give you the ability to span, expand more into like space planning. So, there can be another arm of your business where you're starting to meet with the clients from the time that they're getting their architectural designs in and you're really helping them to build out their spaces and really starting to expand into the design area, like foray.

I think it has to be something that you enjoy and that you're passionate about. But I think that's a really great source of revenue generation because you can start to charge for those design fees that you have for your clients. We just created a new product because we were working with a lot of downsizing clients.

And the community would refer us in. We usually generally work with continuing care. Which is, you can walk in the door. But these are folks who are downsizing out of the houses they've lived in for three, four, five decades. Into, you know, 800 square feet. So, what we were realizing is that we would go out, we would have a meeting with the client.

They'd be like, oh my gosh, we love you, this is great. But I'm on the wait list for three more years. And so then it was our burden to try to stay top of mind until they finally were ready. And of course the client's always like, Oh, I've got tons of time. So we actually created what essentially is a subscription product.

We call it downsides with abundance. We come in, we do a whole house consultation just like we do for our organizing clients. We give them a booklet that we've created again, like that idea of kind of packaging materials together to add more value. And then we have a monthly check in. with one of our organizing consultants, and we help them work towards their goals.

 And they get discounts on our regular services if they're part of the program. So there's an incentive to stay in for that one year, two year, three years until they move into their new place. And it's been a really exciting and popular Awesome. Can we talk about networking a little bit? What is everyone's favorite, or at least, I know sometimes people don't like networking, but what are some things that you guys love in the networking space to try to get clients outside of what we've already talked about?

I'm so bad at networking. No, but let's talk about that. This is, I'm networking. This is like, I pick capacity right now. This is like, what this is like a natural thing for you. I feel like. This is, yeah. Yeah, that's probably true. That's probably true. We, gosh, it kind of runs the gamut. So again, to get in the door of like a real estate place or an interior design firm we'll have a lot of our owners like bring very thoughtful like branded Cupcakes or cookies or what am I forgetting?

Like just, Swatch rings. Yes, just to basically get in the door of just like, I'm here just to like introduce myself, like here's what I do. I feel like our services could work really well together. Cause it's kind of hard. It's intimidating to obviously walk up to some big, Berkshire Hathaway and say, hey, I'm an organizer.

Like, who, who wants to give me clients? So networking, I think, is a a lot of people because I think we think of it as like, we have to go to a chamber of commerce and that's really not what modern networking is.

It's about using, you know, the people around you. It might be your personal network too. So, yeah, I think it, I think it can be your personal network. I think you can network online. It was constantly going to. Events that were happening in the in the DC area So whether they were put on by interior design come of firms or whether they were by building company gathered That's an opportunity to talk about your business and what you can bring to the table.

 Ashley kind of touched on this, the whole no like, trust buy. We really, when you are intimidated by these things, what we tell our owners is we're like, just walk in being like, all I need to do here is let them know me and like me. I don't need to tell them everything about my business.

Like, I don't have to rattle out all that I do and what I can provide. You just want to get to know someone and let them like you, and that's a much less intimidating way to approach a conversation. Yeah, and I would add that you're really there at a networking meet. There's no way you can make meaningful connections with 50 people in a room and during an hour, right?

So make Three to six meaningful connections and take their information. Don't foist your business card on other people. Take their information back with you and then follow up and ask them to have coffee. You're going to get the referral when you start having the more in depth conversations, which you just can't have when you're, speed dating essentially.

I'm going to add to that. So really short. As long as you want. Also, I would say that it's important to tell people what you're going to do for them and how you're a value add for them. No one wants to sit in here about you and all the things about what you're doing. It's okay, but here's my value to you and here's how I can help your clients and make your life easier.

That's what people want to hear. I also think it's about making sure that you're showing interest in what they're doing as well, so that it's about a partnership and what you both can do for each other, rather than asking them to constantly do something for you or bring you clients. Love that. Mindy, I want to ask you as president of NAPO, what are some trends in like the fourth quarter of 2023 and into 2024 that we need to be thinking about or looking at?

Okay. Big trend is environmental sustainability. I'm sure that's a surprise to no one. But I believe personally that it's our Our responsibility is global citizens of the world to help our clients identify how their actions and inactions are impacting the environment. And we are uniquely positioned because we work with people in their environments to help them be more conscientious givers when they're letting things go, making sure that we're trying to reroute as much as we possibly can out of the landfill and helping our clients with those consumption habits.

That contribute to their problem, but also contribute to excess in our environment. So that's the biggest one I could say. There are a lot, but. Okay, can you give us another one? Aging boomers is another really big one. So people who are living in their houses for decades and decades and now starting to downsize into senior living, that's a huge market potential.

And what we're also finding is that as our boomers are making those transitions, their children are not taking their stuff, right? So we are now facing as a profession Some future generations that are coming into the consumer space that have a completely different relationship with their stuff than our boomer clients.

Right? So, it's requiring really a paradigm shift of our profession to make sure that we're clear on how we can provide value to each generation in the way that they interact with their things and their space. I love that. It's like a combination of what Dina works on and what like it because there's a lot of psychology about hurt feelings and anger and resentment and all sorts of things.

So there's a lot wrapped up in that. Yes. Family mediation. It's like I have a minor in it. Yeah, right. Who said we saved marriages? I can't remember someone said that. Yeah, so Can we talk a little bit, so senior, you know, aging, boomers, that type of thing. Can we talk a little bit about niching down? Like what is the value of developing a niche or a concentration or just a specialty to try to market yourself?

Well, I really believe that everyone should be working on specializing their services and figuring out what lights you up, where are you an expert, what type of client, type of project. You're absolutely performing at your highest level and then stop trying to get everything else.

One of the great reasons that these opportunities are so valuable for all of us. It's not to figure out how we're all the same, it's to figure out the nuances between our businesses so that when a customer comes into me and they're not quite the right fit, I can refer them to Ria because her service is different than mine.

So if we start doing that as a population, as a community, Then guess what the client experience becomes, right? Guess what happens to our market? Guess what happens to our fees and rates? Because we're all working in our specialty areas and we're all operating as experts. Love that. Who just said yes? Yeah, okay.

Pinky's excited. Pinky's excited, you guys. Let's talk a little bit about and we've talked about it a lot today, but just pricing, and I know we're not gonna get into a lot of details, but pricing, raising rates, what are we worth? I did a podcast, that just was titled raise your rates.

Yes, you raise your rates, right? So let's talk a little bit about the fear that comes with, you know, Hey, am I raising them too high? One of the biggest things with pricing has become that as a business, they're kept being more and more that.

We had to be able to pay for. When I first started, I mean, I was running Reorganize out of my back pocket. I was like, keeping notes on my phone and like, maybe not even remembering all the products I put in clients homes and sending like, pretty janky invoices. I mean, it was, it was fine. But like, it was just, there was no overhead.

I mean, except for my time. And then as things started to grow, So, that money has to come from somewhere, and so that's a lot, too, of what you're having to consider with your pricing. That all has to do with your client experience. If you don't have these softwares, if you don't have this insurance for your employees, if you don't have these things making each team member's experience great working for you, but in turn giving your client an amazing experience, then you don't have You don't have it.

You need to have all the pieces as you grow your business and you need to be able to cover all of those costs. And there's always going to be that like, oh my gosh, someone's going to be like, who does she think she is charging that? What is she, a lawyer? Like, I charge much more now for me, personally, it's totally different pricing than my team because it is a whole thing to remove me from my home to another state, get me on a plane, I'm leaving my kids, I'm missing a, like, softball game, like, You're going to pay for that, and I don't feel bad about it, but it took time to feel that way, and once you do, you've just got to change it, be able to justify it to yourself, you don't need to justify it to your client, your work.

So here's what I want people to say about me. If you can afford her, she is the best there is. I love that. And you should be losing about 10 percent of your leads because they cannot afford your rates. That's the sweet spot. If everyone's like, heck yes, let me sign on the dotted line, you're too low. I also think that we often times are very quick to say who's gonna pay that?

Like, would I pay that for somebody? And so I think sometimes it's really just about getting out of your own head and getting out of a position where you're spending someone else's money for them. You know, you value yourself accordingly, and the right person will find you, you know. And again, like, even if it's not everyone, doing few clients that are higher price brings you a higher quality person.

It brings you a repeat clientele business, and you can still have a very profitable business with fewer people. It doesn't, it's not necessarily about trying to serve everyone in the world. Love that. I had a client that paid me once 187 to go get her oil changed in her car because that's what she needed done that day.

That's insane, right? Like, I would never do that. That was ludicrous, right? Like, she shouldn't have done that. But I was like okay. It was like an emergency situation, right? So, to her it was. 187 and I think 50 cents. I'd have to look back at the invoice. Okay, so what is, if you had to pick one single piece of advice for organizers, what would it be?

Shoot your shot. The biggest opportunities that have happened in my life is because I freaking went for it. The biggest client that I got, I literally DM'd, thank you so much for following me because I just about pooped my pants I was so excited that you followed, and the next morning I'm making pancakes for my kids and she was like, hey we'd love to have you for a consult the next day.

Just because I was like, Oh, thanks so much for following. If you ever need organization, it's best like trust yourself and trust that like, you know, what's best for your business and believe in yourself.

I mean, it's so simple, but it's so many of us don't. I feel like maybe even especially as women, sometimes you just belittle yourself and you know, it's best. I'm going to let everybody else, can I, can I pick on that a little bit more? Can you talk a little bit more about how you develop that trust?

And a partner. Okay. I actually think it is your community. It's your support. It could be anyone from like your best friend to your significant other your mom. Just people that will uplift you and those that are not. Let's maybe not tell them all the things that you're daydreaming about and wanting to grow.

So, yeah, I think just find your support, for sure. I mentioned this this morning, but invest in yourself. If you're not willing to invest in yourself, who else is going to invest in you? So good. I think mine, if you've been to prior how to summits, this will come as no surprise, but know your numbers. I think that like oftentimes organizing is something that can be a hobby and a business and every one of you that's sitting in here, you're sitting in here because you own a business.

And so I think we often times focus so much on the organizing aspect that you forget about the behind the scenes and running an actual business. And it's that part that's really gonna allow you to have, you know, long lasting sort of, in the industry. 

All right. I left you on a little bit of a cliffhanger there, but the great news is if you were listening to this live or live ish, the second part of our conversation will be up on Halloween. If you were listening to this after that, or two years later, congratulations, both episodes are up and they're ready to go.

So I realized that on this panel, it was hard to know who was talking. If you weren't sitting in the room, I will list in the show notes, all of the people that were on the panel, so you can go follow them on social and find out more information about them. But I will be back tomorrow with the second half of our conversation, 

and I hope that you have an absolutely fabulous day running the world. 

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Melissa Klug
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