187 | The Right Words = Organizing Clients! Meg Mueller of The Lit Bulb

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Written By Melissa Klug

Today we are telling you why using the right words can get you professional organizing clients! Meg Mueller, owner of the copywriting company The Lit Bulb, is telling us about how important the words that you use in your organizing business are.

We are continuing with our campaign to prove that being YOU in your business actually gets you clients--it doesn't scare them away (trust us!) Today's guest is Meg Mueller of The Lit Bulb--she is a writer for professional organizers. We are talking about how much your words and your branding (not just the color palette, either!) matters to your business. I'm excited for you to listen and hear all the topics we get to. 

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

 
Yeah. Hey pro organizers. It's Melissa. And if you hear noise in the background, which I don't think you probably can, but it's my daughter's birthday today. So you might hear a lot of teenagers, maybe a barking dog. We'll see. But anyway, that's real life. And that's what this is, is we, our podcast is about having a business in real life. 

And one of the things that I am talking to my guests today about is continuing the conversation of how to be real in your business. Because being real is what actually gets you clients and gets people interested in what you do.

So my guest today is Meg Mueller. She has a company called The Lit Bulb, not the light bulb, the Lit Bulb, and she is a writer. 

And I'm going to let her tell you all about the things that she writes and the things that she does, but she and I have some very similar passions about how professional organizers can best connect with potential clients, especially now it's more important than ever, to really use the right words and really connect with clients in your digital properties. 

One of those things we're talking about is really important is what the right use of social media is in your business. So we're really having a much bigger talk about marketing. It's not really just about writing or copywriting, but a much, much broader conversation. 

One of the parts of this conversation is about real life, which is what Meg and I like to watch on TV, what we're reading, all of those things. So we have like kind of a pop culture conversation at the end. And honestly, if it were up to me, I would have a pop culture podcast every single week and talk about what I'm reading and what I'm watching and what I'm doing.

Here's my pro tip for you. If you have not started the show, The Traitors. I got Meg turned onto it after this podcast. And she texted me and told me it was a great show. Cause it is. It's on Peacock, it's reality. But even if you don't like reality, I'm telling you, it's great. So that's my pro tip for you today that has zero to do with organizing. 

So. I am excited for you to hear this conversation and to meet my new friend, Meg Mueller, the writer and just all around lovely fun person. Have a great day, organizers.

Melissa Klug: We start this out extremely easily with the easiest question possible, tell us who you are and a little bit about what you do.

And we're going to go into all the details, but give us the headlines. 

Meg Mueller: I feel like that's a loaded question.

Melissa Klug: Not the, Oh, sorry. Oh, it's not an easy question. Okay.

Meg Mueller: No, no it's all good. So, I am, well, hi, I'm Meg. I am the owner, founder, all the things of The Lit Bulb, which is a copywriting business. I have been under this name since 2019, but I have been copywriting in the business for about 10 years now.

It's been a decade in the making. And I have worked in all industries with all people. And I finally found my cozy niche with lifestyle industries like home organizing and interior designers and photographers and all the things. And so, yeah, that's what I do. I write for a living and  it's a weird thing to tell people that because they're like, Oh, you write like, where can I read your books? Could I buy them on Amazon?

Melissa Klug: That's not really what I write, dude.

Meg Mueller: No, exactly. So then it's this whole explanation of no, like the stuff that you see online, like marketing and blogs and websites, I'm like, I do those things. Like those things don't just happen. 

Melissa Klug: That is a really good point because I, until I started my own business, you, you just don't have an idea of every single thing that goes on the internet has to come from somewhere or every brochure you read as boring as it is. Someone had to put that together and it's a lot of stuff.

Meg Mueller: Yeah, it can get very technical, especially with like you said, like brochures. So think of those like industrial businesses. Yes. Who is writing all that stuff? Who's writing those like manuals? It's crazy. There's a whole like backside to that.

Melissa Klug: Yes. I will not go off on a diversion, but I used to work in industrial businesses.

That was my career and writing that stuff. I can tell you from firsthand experience, the most boring. thing that you can do. So writing for professional organizers, so much more exciting. 

Meg Mueller: Definitely. Yes. Yes. I enjoy it immensely. And I think it helps to really enjoy the niche, the genre, whatever you want to call it that you're writing for.

I have a deep, profound love for home organizing. I said it a million times, I wish I could do this, but it just, it isn't my lifestyle. But it is in my home. And so it's easy to connect with professional organizers because I love it so much. 

Melissa Klug: I think that there are a lot of deep things that we can go into, but it's about having a true passion for what you do.

And the more you connect with a subject, the better your outcome is going to be, whether it's, you're excited to go to work or you're excited to write about it, or. Whatever it is, it makes it so much better when you feel like I'm really attached to this subject. Absolutely. 

Meg Mueller: And so I've met some really incredible people just doing this because sometimes even the professional organizers, they don't know what they want to say or they want to say all the things or, you know, they don't know the direction they are in.

So I'm not just a copywriter. I'm almost a strategic coach for them to figure out what they want to come across? Where do they want to position themselves in a certain way? I've helped clients kind of make their own specialized services based on the things that they're telling me. And it really helps them stand out.

And I mean, you'd think Oh, professional organizers, they all do the same thing. They don't, they're very different. They're very unique, each and every one of them. 

Melissa Klug: I totally love what you just said because it is not just I think on the surface you could say, I am a writer. You know, I help write content for someone's website.

You don't just do that. You're actually helping them flesh out what is my strategy for talking about my services. And there is a way to present that. We're going to talk a lot about websites. I look at a billion and a half websites a year. And there are ones where you just go, Oh, I wish that they could do this a little differently because it's about how a potential user comes to your website.

And one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about is right on your, we're going to talk about your website a lot too. But on the front of your website, one of the first things is you talk about UX, which is user experience. And I want you to talk a little bit about how the user experience is really, really important.

Meg Mueller: Absolutely. So when people come to your website, as the person who has the website, you automatically just think they're coming and they're going to book right? That's the hope. But if they're not experiencing your business, to the fullest, they're not going to do anything.

So the biggest thing you can do and the biggest thing about user experience is your website is not about you. It's about them. And I have to tell people that all the time because you always want to say, I do this, I do that. It's not about you. It is about how you are serving them. And that is where the user experience comes from.

So you always want to turn it around and be of service and be a guide and be all these things. In this world of AI that we're living in. I really think it's important to have a connection with your audience, and that is basically how I view user experiences, that connection.

It's a genuine connection, and you have to genuinely be you while also serving them.

Melissa Klug: I'm probably going to say 10 different times, the most important thing. So you guys can all just count how many times I've said this is the most important thing. But we need to think about especially the people that are coming to our websites.

What I see a lot is organizers are like, I want to give every possible piece of information about my entire business. I want to talk about the process. I want to talk about everything we're doing. These people are coming to you most likely because they have reached some sort of crisis point. You know, people aren't just like randomly scrolling professional organizers websites just for fun, right?

What? I mean, they might be. But most people are coming to you because they have had a crisis. Or they have just said, I cannot take this anymore. I have to do something different. If they are already completely overwhelmed, and then they come to your website and it's Here are 75 page scrolls of stuff I have to get through.

Yep. They're going to be more overwhelmed. 

Meg Mueller: Exactly. One of the biggest things I've noticed when I, yeah, people want to say all the things all the time, or when you talk about target audiences, I work with everybody. No, you don't. No, you can't because you cannot market yourself to everybody.

Professional organizing is a very visual thing, right? So as much as you want to say the things, you need to show the things you need to show them what they're getting and then sub that with the language. Very minimalistic language that still gets across your point and gives them a sense of calm the second they get on your website because they're frazzled.

They're overwhelmed. They've got children running all over the place. They've got Cheetos on the floor. They've got dishes piling in the sink. They're done. And they don't want to be bombarded. They just want that safe, cozy, warm blanket of, I can help you.

Melissa Klug: Exactly what you just said. I think this is why having someone help you with the writing like we can all write what we do, but when you have someone from the outside come in like what you just said that connects with people Cheetos on the floor, you know, like whatever that is, we do not have to be. Perfectly buttoned up and polished all the time. People want to hear about Hey, give me the real scoop. 

Meg Mueller: Right, exactly. And I tried telling that to the clients that I work with. Like you, you don't have to be like, I create a calm home. Okay. Yes, we know that, but like how and why, why are they frazzled?

Tell them why they're frazzled. They know it, but throw it back in their face a little bit, just a little bit. 

Melissa Klug: People want to be heard. And if you on your website can say, I know you just stepped on a Lego and it really hurt. Yep. And you're sick of stepping on Legos or whatever, like that. That's a big deal. 

Meg Mueller: And it also depends on, again, your target audience, and I can, I can take an example from one of the most recent websites I worked with. She's a very luxury brand. She specifically said, I work with people that live in mansions. I work with people that require NDAs. Okay, we're not gonna talk about Cheetos on the floor, because they probably don't have any of that, right? They still want that polished look in their home. So now your language has changed, right? It's not the same stuff as the girl next door organizer. There are different organizers out there. And so your language really needs to match your personality. And if it's not, you're not going to connect with your audience.

Melissa Klug: Yeah. Matching your personality and matching, like you said, your ideal client. That's really important. I used to believe this way at the beginning of my business when I knew nothing. I always said my ideal client is anyone willing to pay me money for my service. And I really truly believe that.

And, and then you realize you cannot be everything to everyone. You just can't do it. And so if you are talking to everyone, you're talking to no one. 

Meg Mueller: Exactly. And I've been there too. I've been there in my own business because. When you start out, isn't that the point you need to make money to be successful, to make it work?

So you just market to anybody you can. And I did that for a long time. And sometimes I still find myself doing it because I'm such a go-getter and I'm like, Oh no, I can do that. That's fine. Yeah. 

Melissa Klug: I'm guilty of that too, very much. So I'm like, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, totally. I'm totally good at that. No, I'm not.

Meg Mueller: No. But I think the intention is there, which is nice, but it's really, it's having somebody who is brave enough to tell you that although your intention is there, you need to step back a second and really, really think about who you want to serve. And so I have to do that constantly. Yeah.

Melissa Klug: Well, it's hard because I think you get going and you're just like, Oh, I'm on a roll. And I have all these things I want to say. And then you realize I have to take a step back. And am I in my own head? Am I really talking about my client? And that's the benefit of having someone help you with it.

Meg Mueller: . Yeah. And you know, bounce it off people in your life too. I'm not saying everybody, but my husband has to ground me so much because I live in the sky. Right. That's where I live. And he's like, you can't do that. 

Melissa Klug: I mean, you're saying so many things that I just violently agree with, which is perhaps why I invited you on my podcast. I don't usually have people on here that I'm like, nope, that's, that's not how we do things.

But. I, I just, I, I want people like, one of my passions is websites and digital presence, just your D and I'm not talking about social media. I'm talking about all of the things in your digital life that help clients find you. And I just feel like people would be doing so much better if they really just showed their personalities, showed who they truly are and really talked to that specific ideal client.

Meg Mueller: Absolutely. And I like that you bring up social media because there's also this misconception and I've worked with many clients in and out of the industry who think that the job of your social media is to consistently get leads and that is not the job of your social media. The job of your social media is to be a brand awareness of brand presence, right?

So it's consistently posting with the goal of creating a community. Your website, your blogs, your newsletters. Those are your leads. Those are where you have to gain your next client or to get your client to say, hey, have you seen this person? Check out their website. Check out this newsletter. I'll forward it to you.

That is where you, like you said, like you really need to pour your everything into those channels and just be present on social media. And I think people think it's the other way around now, granted, some people do get a lot of leads on social media. And that's great. Bravo to them. They're doing something right.

But I guarantee you they're showing up with their personality. 100 percent 

Melissa Klug: Absolutely. Yes, that and being. It's not just showing up with their personality, but talking about who they really are. Like I was actually working with one of our IO. Members today, and she is a minimalist. Her business is MinimalistToOrganizing.

That is her brand. Her website is very clean, very minimalistic. She does not want a lot of bells and whistles. Her social media is the exact same way. It just expresses all of that entirety of her brand. I can also think about someone else in our group who is expressed. Her social media is just funny.

They try to be funny all the time and that's how they make their connection. If Amy tries to suddenly start being super funny. It doesn't work as well. Or if Cabri tried to be a minimalist, that wouldn't work as well either. You have to be authentically who you are. Right. 

Meg Mueller: 100%. And I think people struggle with that or they want to, there's still people who are stuck in that.

My Instagram has to look perfect. No, it doesn't. We're not in that age anymore. We're not perfect. Social media feed anymore. We're in the age, come on and be like, this is what you're doing wrong. Do it better. 

Melissa Klug: It's the messy chaotic, it's the messy chaos era of Instagram. 

Meg Mueller: It is, but sometimes people just don't know how to do that.

But the same again, back to the websites, people don't know how to express themselves in a way that would be really well for them. And so the other thing about. That is your business is going to evolve, right? You might not be the same person you were when you started your business two, three, five years ago.

You need to refresh that website copy as your business evolves and changes. And people don't, they do it and they're like, I'm done. Yeah. 

Melissa Klug: Right. I'll never have to do this again. 

Meg Mueller: It's something that definitely needs to be revisited. If you're going to stay on your brand or maybe your brand shifted, maybe you're different now and maybe you're not a solo organizer and now you have a team. Maybe your language on your website is all I, I, I, me, me, me.

And now it's not we or our team. And now things. Need to change. 

Melissa Klug: Is there a timeline that you think let's say nothing really has changed. Do you still say at least once every six months, once a year, you should be refreshed or do you have an idea of what it should be every quarter.

What would you suggest? 

Meg Mueller: I feel that if you're, so if you went in and redid your whole website, right? Brand new, it's fresh, it's great. I think that you should at least be auditing that once a year. The main messaging, right? I also think it's beneficial to have a blog. People don't always think that. You don't need to come to your blog with these crazy ideas.

You just need to show up. But that is where SEO comes in, right? Those fancy terms, but that's behind the scenes, my favorites, right? People don't understand that, but that's where you build that because you can't constantly be adding new keywords to your website.

It's actually going to be negative because you can't change that all the time, but those blogs are very important to keep your presence updated with Google and all the things and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like all the technical stuff, nobody cares. 

Melissa Klug: Right. Well, one of the things you do for people is you help write blogs, right?

Yeah. Okay. So blogging, I will tell you about it for a lot of the people in our audience. It is a mountain that they just can't imagine scaling. Yep. And It does not matter if I go, here are 10 tips of how to, how to do a blog, I've, I've given all the tips, right? Right. There are some people that this is just a hurdle they can't get past.

So maybe you have some wise words, but tell me a little bit about, you know, when you work with someone, what are your blogging strategies 

Meg Mueller: So I think it really depends on the client, but for me, I'm a, I'm a collaborator. I never liked to be like, just give me it.

I'll do it for you. Yeah. Right. Because I don't feel like you're learning anything from that process. When I work with people on their blogs, we sit down and I'm like, let's talk about some topics. that you might want to talk about. We can do very broad topics and then I'll show you how you can take those topics and break them down, make them bite sizes, you know, organizing a playroom.

That's a big topic. But what if we talk about 10 tips for storage solutions for your playroom or this is why you should be doing toy swaps or stuff like that. So you break down a large topic into small bite sizes, right? And you can then, if you have say six major topics, you now have a bunch of bite sizes.

You can cover yourself easily by doing one blog a month for 12 months. And don't forget to throw in those holiday ones. By the time you're hitting October, Now we're talking about gifts to give, holiday organizing, easy things that are relatable at that time and make sense to your audience. That's one thing that I talk about is to keep it like that.

Also, stop researching how long my blog should be or what's the best this, what's the best that. Right. My general rule is like around a thousand words. It's a good sized blog. If you go too short, that's not a blog. Google doesn't care about it. At this point, you're just writing a paragraph and having some words.

Sure. And then within the topics, I like to just break that down to bite sized chunks within the blog? If you have 10 tips for this, now you've got 10 sections in your blog. It's very easy. You just write about each section. You throw in a few pictures. Use Grammarly to edit it and you've got a blog.

It doesn't have to be perfect. You can do blogs where you're just doing thought dumps. Maybe you had an epiphany about something. Throw it in a blog. It's okay. Not every blog has to be keyword centric, but you need to have a few. 

Melissa Klug: I, I just think that people, and by the way, organizers are great at this. We are overthinkers and over complicatiors.

And I think that we have taken, you know, because there are people who are professional bloggers, right? Yeah. Who are doing the perfect 3,500 word blogs with the perfect amount of keywords and the perfect amount of pictures and all that kind of stuff. That's not what we're trying to do really. We are, we are trying to wake up our website.

We're trying to do all those things, but done is always going to be better than perfect. 

Meg Mueller: Exactly. And, and the, the biggest thing you can get from your blog, if you have a solid 1000 word blog, is you now have content for your other channels. 

Melissa Klug: Yes. Yes. Repurposing content. 

Meg Mueller: Yes. It's the way to go. I mean, it's so easy and then you don't have to think like you can take at least five to six bits from that one blog and scatter them in your social media and return that back to your blog.

You could make mini blogs and stick them on LinkedIn because really people need to be on LinkedIn. That's the one social that I see people like are lacking in. LinkedIn is gold for networking, especially local networking. 

Melissa Klug: Let's talk about LinkedIn because I, this is the second time in I, this, this podcast will go up probably a couple of weeks after we're having this conversation, but in my world, when we are recording this, the podcast I put up this week, we talked a decent about about LinkedIn, and it is something I will be honest with you.

I do not do a good job on LinkedIn. I think I have like corporate hangover, like PTSD about LinkedIn, which is not healthy, right? Like I am a leader of an organization of organizers. I want you to talk to us about LinkedIn. 

I have so many connections because of LinkedIn now, and not just like with other copywriters, I've got marketing.

Meg Mueller: So anything within my realm, and then scattered out, I now have a lot of connections. For organizers, you want to be connecting with the people in your local vicinity, right? Because especially for those that offer staging, Yep. Or moving services. You want to connect with businesses related to that.

And so as long as you start building those connections and like nurturing them, you cannot just ask somebody to be a connection and then comment on the stuff that they're doing, like stuff that they're doing. And then you start sharing, like I said, your blog posts as articles, or you start putting in.

I mean, this is not the place to put organizing tips. They don't, that's not going to work for you. This is where you're really just upping your business. You're talking about how you're a leader in your industry, right? And so I just think LinkedIn is this missed opportunity because again, professional organizing is so visual.

Instagram makes sense. Yep. I get that. But are you getting the leads your business needs? Are you connecting with businesses? That's how you build your business.

Melissa Klug: And LinkedIn also we have talked many times on this podcast about the concept of being five mile famous in your community.

If your concentration, and again, a lot of the things we're talking about today, Is if your concentration is being an in-home organizer, you know, you need in-home local clients, right? If you want to be an influencer, that's a whole, whole different ball of wax, but LinkedIn is a great way to do that. Five mile famous strategy, connect with other businesses in your local area.

It's again, it's not necessarily about organizing. It's about getting your name out, connecting with other businesses, connecting with. With other organizers in your area, which is always a good thing to do. Like you said, interior designers, people that are in those adjacent businesses to us, connecting with those people and being like, Hey, I'm out here.

Meg Mueller: Yeah. Big deal. And those referrals will come in, right? If I know a copywriter, that's amazing at sales copy, and somebody came to me and asked me for a sales page. Why would I do that when I know somebody who's really good at that? Now I've referred to them. What are they going to do in the future?

Probably refer to something my way. Exactly. Those connections are so important. They're going to build your business a lot faster. Then Sheila, who likes your kitchen on Instagram.

Melissa Klug: Yep. Totally. And I, the other thing, too, is that you don't have to recreate content. Like we said, you do not have to go recreate something for every one of these platforms.

No. You can take one piece of content and expand it out to your whole multiverse of digital properties. 

Meg Mueller: Absolutely. Like when I create content calendars for people for social media, I usually do one big caption, right? That's like the Facebook, Instagram caption, because you could get away with about the same thing for those two platforms.

You just add the hashtags in for Instagram, and then you just change it up a little bit as you go on to the other platforms. As long as you're aware of what is good and bad. I cannot tell you how many no nos I still see about stuff on Instagram. People putting in links. Please stop putting in links.

You don't need links. You can't click on them on Instagram. You can't. Yeah, there's nothing clickable there. They're not helping you. Please stop putting the dots between your caption and the hashtags. They're not doing you any good. You don't need to do that anymore. Instagram lets you space. Yeah, right. So, I don't know.

There's just a lot of platform specific stuff that I think people forget about or that change. And You, you just have to know what you're doing on those platforms to make sure that you're being nice to the algorithm and still doing what you're doing. 

Melissa Klug: I think that's the, you're getting to the crux of the problem though, which is in.

All of these things change. Google changes every 12 milliseconds. Instagram changes. The rules change all the time. It's virtually impossible to keep up with, right? But social media, the social media changes. Are usually faster and harder to keep up with. Yeah. Then the changes that happen in the Google algorithm, which we know pretty well what to do with that, right? Yes. And it is, it's more of a standard. You do these things and Google says, I enjoy this. Thank you so much. Right. . Whereas on Instagram or Facebook or any of the others, it's like a moving target all the time. 

Meg Mueller: Yeah. Which is why, and that's why. Yep. Sorry. I was gonna say, that's why you don't.

You can't put all your eggs into the social media basket. It's just, it's, it's too hard for everybody to keep up with. And it's too hard if you're, if you're cross-platforming, which most people are, you're, you're usually on at least two or three platforms, but yes, like you said, your website. There are certain things to your website that need to be there to keep it visible to Google and that, that probably won't change.

If there's a major change, you're going to hear about it. Correct. Your website designer's going to tell you, your writer's going to tell you, Google will tell you. Yes. But mostly, yeah, it stays the same. Are there little nuances that change? Yeah, okay, your blog should be a thousand words. Oops, now it's 800, now it's 1200.

Well, if you're in that realm, you're fine. Right. Um, so yeah, stick with the truth and study Google. 

Melissa Klug: Yeah, it's just, I think it's like a combination of, I need you to do the basics all the time, right? Like the basics are over here. We're doing them all of the time. Over here are the fun, nice to have things.

Please do those too. If they strike your fancy, if they spark your joy, right? Do those things, but I need you to keep doing the basics all the time. And I need you to do a refresh of your basics because one of the things you said earlier that I love is having someone, you need to have someone else look at your stuff.

You know, if you are, for instance, if someone's working with you, you're going to do it for them. But if that is not the case in the cards for you right now, you've got to ask other people and really honest people because I absolutely appreciate this so much the other day. A good friend of mine, I do not enjoy unsolicited feedback.

I'm going to be honest with you. It's not my favorite, right? Solicited feedback. Totally fine. Unsolicited. Thank you so much. But my friend, I sent something to a friend of mine. I was like, Hey, I made this thing. And she's I totally love it. I just feel the need to tell you that this picture that you have on there, like Jen's head is cut off.

And I'm like, thank you so much for letting me know that I did not see that. And I appreciate it. So you have got to give it to someone else to like, let them, let them help you with that. And it is just like when a client. Has a very, you walk into that client's house and you're like, Oh my gosh, this is going to be so easy.

I know exactly what to do. And that client is I, I don't, I don't see it. I don't, I don't know how we can do it. You've got to have someone outside of yourself. Look at it. Yeah, 

Meg Mueller: I think that goes, like you said, the client doesn't see it. So this happens with me with websites too, though, because I'll ask one of them, the big thing on my questionnaire is who's competitor websites.

Do you like it? There's lots out there. Go look at them. It's okay. Go look at them and tell me, what do you like? Well, what ends up happening? And I think it's because organizers are so visual, right? You guys are very visual and that's where you stem from. We'll start talking about what they look. I love how clean this website looks like.

I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no. What do you love about the copy? Yeah. And so that actually becomes my biggest hurdle with organizers is they're not looking at the copy. They're not thinking about the copy, but you have to think about it. Your message, your visuals will do nothing if you don't have a message.

So yeah, it's. It's a crazy back and forth game that I play with organizers when we work together, and sometimes it's great. Things are 100 percent like we're on the same page. There have been other times I've completely missed the ball. But, that comes back to the organizer not knowing what they want.

Melissa Klug: Or trying to please all the people. And, I also think when something is really hard, the work that you're doing with people could be really hard for some people. Like you said, they're not looking at the copy or that's something that they're like, la la la. It's hard for them. And so the hardest things we have to do in our business are the things that are the most important.

And I struggle with this myself because there are things I'm like, I don't want to do it. And then you go, Oh no, the thing that I'm avoiding is the thing that is the most important thing for me to be doing. And so if, if someone's working with you. And you're asking them those hard questions and they're like, damn, these are hard questions.

Yeah, we got to dig deep because that means that's where the important work is, I think. 

Meg Mueller: And we've, I've had plenty of that are like, apologizing. I'm sorry. I just don't know. I'm like, it's okay that you don't know. But that's why I say I'm more than a copywriter at this point, like in the beginning of the work, we're like a strategy session, which is something else.

I think people could benefit from their copy on anything to have those strategy sessions throughout the year. Yeah, maybe we're not writing together, but hey, maybe you book a call because you're like, I really need to talk my way through this. Why is it working? What can I do differently?

Let's come up with a solution for you. Let's come up with a plan. Just like Professional organizers make DIY plans for people who don't want them actually organizing their home. Let's make a DIY plan for your strategy on your content that you can do as you have time, but at least we know it's going to get done, right?

Melissa Klug: What is the hardest part? So, I mean, I think you've kind of touched on a little bit, but what is the hardest thing that you find organizers struggling with? Like when you guys work together…

Meg Mueller: Okay. So there's three organizers. I feel like I work with, there's the people that literally have no clue who they're marketing to.

That's a struggle, because we have to take them, create that very specific person. Then there's the people that are so specific, that I feel like nothing you do is going to be good enough, because they're so specific, and it's okay, let me just take a step back, because then that's where I have to just. It's almost going bit by bit, right?

I can't give them the whole website at a time. Let's focus on one page at a time, because if we can get this one page done, then I can get the idea of what the rest of the pages are going to sound like. And then there's the, the, the easy ones that are just like, I kind of know my target audience.

Here's my services. I'm like, okay, I could do this. Right. Sometimes it's a lot harder for new organizers. Yeah. They don't have a website that you're looking at that we're refreshing. They don't have any socials yet. You have no idea what their brand voice is yet. They have no idea what their brand voice is.

I was going to say they don't know either. They don't. They know maybe what they want to sound like. Here's five organizers I like. Okay, that's great, except all of those people are different. Yes. So who, who are you? So I think that is probably the most challenging, is working with brand new organizers. But it is also the most necessary.

Melissa Klug: Totally. 100%. Double stamp that one. Because starting out on the right foot, there are absolutely, I believe so strongly, there are some things that you can absolutely just throw together and bootstrap at the beginning of your business easily. But if you want to start out on the right foot, having these properties in place with exactly what you want to say and exactly how you want to say it and doing that hard work of Who am I serving and who, who am I talking to that to start you out so that you don't have to this is going to sound silly, but just go with me for a minute.

Before we started, I was talking about my daughter who is in college and I just gave her a little lecture at the beginning and I was like, please go have fun. However, I would like to say something, start out with really good grades, your first semester, because if you start out with really good grades, it's easier for the rest of your semesters.

You're not starting from a hole in the ground. Yep. Okay. Good news. She listened, but I remember when I was in college, there were a bunch of girls in my dorm that were like, well, it's my freshman year. Who cares? I got three D's. Okay. You then have to work all of college to get yourself out of that hole.

Same thing with the business. You are going to be starting from a minus. situation, right? Do this one thing really, really well and work with someone who is going to help you hone this message if you struggle with it. 

Meg Mueller: Yeah. Yeah. 100%. And that website that is just, that's your goldmine. Yes. That's where everybody's going to come back to.

Whether you decide having a digital presence is important in your business or not, you need the website. Because then you can give out business cards. If you're old school, that's fine. That's cool. Business cards are great. It works. But you can be less strict with yourself on social media because that's testing the waters, right?

You figure it out as you go. But that website is so freaking important. So important. And knowing who you are through that website, so important. 

Melissa Klug: And I want to talk about your website because I, again, I love, I'm, I'm I love websites. I look at 80 billion of them a year and my friend and organizer Kim recommended you for the podcast.

She was like, you have got to talk to Meg. You gotta get her on the podcast. And I'm like, okay, I don't know Meg. Tell me about Meg. And she's like, here, here's her stuff. And so she sent me a link. I immediately went to your website. Okay. I knew nothing about you and I went to your website and I was like, I would like to be best friends with her.

Right. The second. Okay. I was like, check. She said check, check. I'm like, yep. I like that too. Survivor check. Love it. And guess what? You are maybe, maybe not everyone's going to come to your website and go. I've never watched a season of Survivor in my whole life. I don't care about Survivor, but there's going to be something there that they connect with.

And if they don't connect with it, they're probably not a person. 

Meg Mueller: Yeah. And I'm going to be honest, 100 percent honest. I struggled with my website when I first started because it's your stuff and I also thought I was supposed to be a certain way and I want to get that message out so my original website, very clean, very calming colors. And it was like that for a few years. And I'm like, this is not me. This is not me. I don't do this. I go to concerts and I scream my lungs out and I have a pop punk background that is me. That is my husband. We're into photography. We're into artistic stuff. And I'm like, I can't do this website anymore. I was literally loathing my own business because it wasn't me. And now it's me, and I'm so much more comfortable in who I am, what I do, and how I serve people.

Melissa Klug: Because you're not pretending to be something that you aren't. It is exhausting, you guys, because one of the other things, again, when this comes out is different than when we're recording it, but one of the things that I talked about in my podcast with the founder of Pro Organizer Studio is for a while, when I started working here, I was trying to be her.

I was trying to hear her voice. I was trying to have her aesthetic. I was trying to have all of her things and we are not the same person and we are not like I was not authentic and I was not getting my message across because I was busy trying to be her. She couldn't be me and I can't be her. It's. 

Meg Mueller: It's trying to fit into that realm too.

It's trying to like, feel like, Oh, I have to be this to do this. You don't, but you have to almost come to that conclusion yourself. Totally. Yep. Or if you work with somebody before you get started, maybe they'll just hit you on the head a few times until they're like, can you please be you?

Melissa Klug: Yeah. And in the same way too, like someone might come to your website and go well, I'm not really interested in these things. I'm not interested in true crime podcasts. That doesn't mean you're still not a great person to help them. You're not trying to create clones of you either.

Meg Mueller: Absolutely not. I'm trying to create an inviting open environment with the way that I am. I'm very real. I'm down to earth. I'll tell you like it is. I'm not going to tiptoe around your problems because that's not going to help you with your business. Correct. And so, when I'm talking to people, I try to get them to understand that.

Now, I worked with this mother daughter duo recently. Oh, that's fun. Yes, but they're very different. So that was a really fun challenge because we had to take mom's vibes and daughter's vibes and create a business that spoke to both of them. 

Melissa Klug: Okay, that sounds really hard. 

Meg Mueller: It is hard, but I relish those challenges.

Yes. They're so fun. I'm like, no, no, we're gonna do this and it's gonna sound great And you guys are gonna love it and they did. I mean, I still talk to them. They're fantastic But yeah, it's, it's being real, but doing the work to do that, you have to do the work. You have to dig deep. And I like doing that with people.

Like I think I would love being a coach because I just 

Melissa Klug: Yeah, I was going to say, you might want to think about that. Cause I actually think you probably have way more. It's sort of like, I always say organizing is 90 percent therapy and 10 percent putting things in bags. What you really do is very different from what it looks like on the surface.

Meg Mueller: Yeah, well, and I actually had somebody a long time ago, she's a copywriter that I know very, very good at what she does. She even wrote for SNL for a while. She's very good at what she does. Oh, wow. But I had her, when we were talking a lot, she's you know, if writing doesn't ever pan out for you, maybe you should go be a coach.

Yeah, that sounds great. Let's just pivot everything, but I'm good at writing. In my business now, I'm trying to find a way to offer services that also are able to do that for people. Because I think that the strategy coaching side is really nice. Can you have somebody in your back pocket that you can call and be like, I need your eyes.

I need your guidance. Yeah. And somebody that understands the industry, not your husband who's sitting on the couch and goes, I don't know, babe, it sounds good. 

Melissa Klug: Yeah, right. Looks great. Great job. You don't even know what I'm doing. Right. 

Meg Mueller: And so I feel like there's nobody that does that. I don't think other than having like your group, like your, your powwow of organizers, there's no outside perspective that can help you talk through the issues you're having in your business.

Melissa Klug: Before I forget it because of my Swiss cheese brain, I do want to go back to something that earlier I was, I meant to, I meant to hit on it, but one of the things that's also important when you are trying to find someone to help you with these things is you earlier flawlessly were, were talking about organizing services and you're like, do you do blah, blah, blah.

And you were talking organizers language. And because you work with organizers and you understand what we do and you don't have to read, we don't have to explain it to you 10 different times, right? Finding someone to help you with these things that actually know what we do in our industry also shortens your timeline by a lot.

Meg Mueller: It does. I don't know of any other, I mean, I'm sure there's some out there, but I don't know any other writers that specify in professional organizing. But I do follow this girl that specifies in photography, right? She only works with photographers and that has made her business so good because everything that she does on her Instagram or on her page speaks to photographers.

And so they know. 100 percent working with her, they don't have to worry about explaining their business. She knows their business. Now it's all the nitty gritty. It's, well, what kind of a photographer are you? Do you like moody stuff? Do you like this? So that's, I feel like, where I'm at with this. I've been in this industry a long time now. Yeah. Obviously not where I thought my business was going to lead me. I love it. It's great. And because of this, again, I can talk to interior designers. I work with a cabinet company. It's all about interiors. I'm always doing stuff with interiors, which is crazy because.

And I don't get to tell people this a lot. When I originally went to college, I went to school to be an interior designer. No kidding. I did. I did a whole semester. One semester. One semester until I realized that the interior designers at my school were very stuck up. And I just couldn't do it. So I'm like, well, I'm going to go be an English major.

And my dad's what are you going to do with that? 

Melissa Klug: Dad, what was I going to do with any of these? Dad, come on. 

Meg Mueller: I'm like, I want to be a writer. What are you going to do with that? I'm like, I don't know. I'll figure it out. 

Melissa Klug: You showed him. I'm really glad about that. 

Meg Mueller: He's been a great support system, but I get it.

I get it because I was good at interior design. I was good at CAD drawings and stuff. But I also think that that's full circle now. Now I understand. What professional organizers are doing and what interior designers are doing and I have a deep understanding and love for the industry. Yeah, well, I only have your best interest at heart.

Melissa Klug: Well, one of the things that's important for me to say is I only will have people on the podcast or I will only recommend things that I truly believe in. Like I get pitched constantly with all sorts of stuff that I'm like, that's a hard pass for me.

So that all of these connections, first of all, reminder networking. But also, you know, we want to give you resources that are really, really good for your business. 

Meg Mueller: Absolutely. And again it's easy to be like, now, because I've been working so long, when I get these organizers that are like, Oh, these are the other organizers websites I like, I can be like, Oh, I've worked with her.

I did that. I've done that. I'm like, you know, oh, we did this really cool thing on so and so's website. Let's do something similar for you. , let's turn this into this for you. So it's been fun, especially people who have a really fun name for their businesses. I'm like, let's play on that.

Let's have some fun with this. We don't need to, not every single word. It needs to be clean or tidy. Let's do it. Yep. So, parachute home organizing. We got hers and we really played off that idea of the parachute and it was a lot of fun. We had a lot of fun.

Melissa Klug: Having fun is important. One of the things that I wrote down if you're watching this on YouTube, I love Post it notes.

I write all my notes on Post it notes. So one of the notes that I wrote down was on your website. You say your website can be professional and have personality. And I love that because I do think that's a misconception that in order to be a professional and really have a, I have to have this button up website and I can't you know, demonstrate personality or I can't really show things. And I think that that's a really important distinction is you can be professional and be fun or whatever. And by the way, you don't have to be fun. That doesn't have to be personal. You can be very serious and still show your personality on your website.

Meg Mueller: Absolutely. I mean, you've seen my website, I drop a few F bombs, I drop a few words, that's me, to a T. Like, that's how I am.

You don't need to pretend to be stuffy if you're not stuffy. Some people are stuffy. That's fine. That's okay. But be you, be you. 

Melissa Klug: And again, if that doesn't connect with you, if someone comes to your website and they're like, oof, I'm uncomfortable with that.

Cool. There are other people and that's totally okay. We do not have to be for everyone. 

Meg Mueller: No, we don't have to be for everyone. And I, and I know by putting that on there I'm like, I'm already isolating myself from some people. And that, that's okay. But you could be willing to give somebody a shot too. Yeah.

Because they're different. Yeah. And you might find some magic there. 

Melissa Klug: That might be just the exact person that you need. Yeah. 

Meg Mueller: Sometimes we need to step outside of our comfort zone and be like, you know what, this person actually might know what they're talking about. F bombs aside. Yeah, right. I'm not gonna drop them on a client call, guys.

Come on. Right. 

Melissa Klug: I mean, like I said. I just really connected this right away. I'm like, every time, every time I clicked on your website, and by the way, an important point, you do not have 75 pages on your website. No, I don't. Your website is very minimalistic in terms of the amount of information that's there.

I found everything that I needed. And then some, I was able to be like, Oh, she loves reading books. Guess who else loves reading books? I love reading books. She loves podcasts. Guess what? I love podcasts too. I love it, there was so much about your website that I'm like, Oh, I can't believe I didn't know about her earlier and now I'm glad I do.

So yeah, 

Meg Mueller: Yeah, we talked about that, I talked about that with the clients too. I'm like, let's do a little on the about you section. It doesn't all, and we try to do it differently for each one because I don't want everybody's website to look the same, obviously, but although your about page is not about you, that is like my number one thing that I tell people, I'm like, we're going to work on your about page.

It's not about you. Yeah. We're like, what? What? Pardon? No, your about page is not about you. It's about how you connect to the people that are on your page right now. And so you have to put a little bit of your personality, but nobody wants your 20 year backstory. Please don't put it. They don't want it.

They don't want to read it. It's really long. It's okay. Like you can share that with them if you want, but please don't put that there. Let's keep it short and sweet and let them know why you're the best person for the job.

Melissa Klug: The other thing too is on the be who you are, but I had a conversation with someone who was talking about some of the similar topics that we're talking about here, but really just about you. don't have to be perfect to be an organizer.

You know, like my background is, as I say it, I was a trash panda for 42 years and I found religion. Okay. Like now I got it. Right. And there are people that think Oh, I have to say that I've been organized since birth and whatever. Nope. You don't have to say that either. You can. You can say I feel you because I was you and I reformed. If that's your story, if your story is organized from birth, that's an important story to tell and be like, I'm the perfect person to help you because I've been doing this my whole life.

Meg Mueller: Right, and I'm sure you've seen it. You've probably walked into client's homes who say they're not organized, and you can see, you can see the start of some organization, right? They're not completely disorganized. They're just lost. Right. They just lost their way for a moment.  

Melissa Klug: They just made a little hand out of the forest.

Meg Mueller: Yeah. And so you could be that person too. You could be like, yeah, I'm sort of organized or yeah, I do this for your house, but you should see my, I mean, yeah, I don't know. There's just the authenticity that needs to be there. That's the one, the true goal of these websites is to just really be authentically you because that's going to shine more than anything.

Melissa Klug: Totally. I think authenticity as a word is sometimes overused and I, it bums me out because that is the word that is important. Yes. No, that, that is the word. I think it's been co-opted by people who don't actually know what the word means, you know, like it's from princess bride. I don't think that word means what you think it means.

But that is a hundred percent the word that I hope everyone thinks about is the authenticity of your message and who you are and what you do and who you serve. Please don't say I serve XYZ person. If that's not a person you serve, like I hear a lot of people say I feel like I should serve moms, but I don't really want too, cool.

That doesn't have to be your ideal client. If you, if your client, yeah, if your client, like you said, only goes into 5 million homes, that's who you are. Awesome. 

Meg Mueller: But you also have to commit to something. Yes. So I've had people go, I work with busy moms, right? I work with busy career driven moms and then we'll start writing their copy and we'll gear it towards that.

And they're like, well, I don't want to, this is for, I don't want to just talk about moms. And I'm like, All right. Okay. Let's go back to what you said originally. So there's this fine line. This is why it's so important to work with somebody because if you do it on your own and it's fine, I believe in you, you can do it on your own.

I have faith, but the message can be lost. If you don't have that person that's Hey, are you sure that's what you want to say? Yeah. Are you 100 percent sure if you say this, this is what you're doing. Is that what you want to do? And so it's like this, it's like a check system, I guess it's, it's somebody, it's somebody to be there for you as you're going through probably the most important aspect of setting up your business.

Melissa Klug: And probably the most stressful. 

Meg Mueller: Yes. 100 percent people put off this part of their business all the time. They'll throw up something just, I have something, but it's not great. I'm like, well, then it's not helping you. 

Melissa Klug: Or they, what I see more often is people are so afraid of it that they don't do it at all.

And then it's a year later and they haven't put anything out there. So they've lost. Who knows, tens of thousands of potential dollars and that, that is absolutely the thing that makes me the most sad when I see it happen in business is people who just can't commit to the thing. Because I just see so much lost in the way I think about it. It's not just about money, right?

It's not just about the revenue that you've lost. You've lost out on helping families that need you. You have lost out on helping people that really could be living a better life that really needed you and because we're not able to commit to this thing. There are always resources out there to help people. You can DIY it and you can bootstrap it if you want, but there are amazing people that can get you there potentially a year sooner than it would take you otherwise.

So you can start making money right away. Yeah. 

Meg Mueller: It's important. I mean, and that's what you guys do, right? That's you guys are there to support people through their process and beyond. Because, again, like we said before, your business is constantly changing, it's constantly evolving. Maybe you're growing, maybe you're scaling back.

Because people do scale back when it's too much. And so, that's what all of these resources are for. And so, I think, when it comes back to, again, the messaging and stuff, it's really, it's a present thing. And so, like we said, auditing your website, you know, changing those things. Becoming who you really are is so important to the people that you're going to work with too.

Melissa Klug: It's, and as always, it's about them. 

Meg Mueller: It's not about me. It's always about them. 

Melissa Klug: I always, I have a phrase where I say I am great at making everything about me. And so I have to put it on my computer. Actually, it's not about you. It's about them. It's about them because it is all the time, no matter what we're talking about, organizing clients or anything else.

Meg Mueller: Yeah. I mean, and you got, if you got into this industry, you're here to serve. Yes. And, and usually that's why people end up in this industry. Not even just the love of, I love to organize. No, if you're in here, if you decide to do this, something in your body wants to serve others. Absolutely. And that's my business too.

Like, I can't just sit here and write for myself. I'm not going to do, what's that going to do? I'm not going to do anything like that. I'm here to serve people and help them uplift their businesses. Because this is the way I serve. If I could have been a nurse, I would have gone and did that. Yes. 

Melissa Klug: I don't like names. I could not.  

Meg Mueller: I don't like blood.  

Melissa Klug: It’s a hard, hard pass for me on anything blood related. 

Meg Mueller: Right. Yes. Same. So I had to find another path because we can all serve in our own way and everybody needs those services. Somebody might need my writing and somebody needs your organizing skills. 

Melissa Klug: They just don't know it yet and we need you to, we need them to find you.

So, tell me a little bit about how, obviously we've spent most of our time talking about websites, but how are, what are all the different ways that you serve people in the organizing industry?  

Meg Mueller: So obviously websites is a big thing for me

So I've mostly done that. I have done blogs with people. I, I do. It's really hard. So I did work with a few people who I felt like they did their own writing better sometimes. And this is something like I do tell people that If your personality is so much you that somebody else cannot be you.

Don't hand that off. Don't run your business to the ground. If you have a very specific voice that nobody else can emulate. So I do tell people that. So yeah, blogs and websites, I do social media content for people. I have phone calls with people who just need direction. Oh, okay. So I've started doing that a little bit more where I do strategy calls.

I've put together content plans for people who want to do it themselves and kind of help them have a checklist of where to go next. Well, here's your content calendar for the next three months, but here are the side things you need to work on. Update your LinkedIn profile, do this, get in on Pinterest and give them small bits that they can do.

So it's not overwhelming because this social media world and the digital world is overwhelming. It is. When you are so hands on in your job, you don't have time for it. And I understand that. And so I try to do the things that can help you make the time or just do it for people.

Melissa Klug: And I love that too, because, you know, you might be feeling pressure from all the things we've talked about.

Oh, great. Now I have to start using LinkedIn. Like what we want, I think what both agree is we want you to do the things that you can consistently commit to. Yes. And it's not as we used to call it in my old life, a spray and pray approach. You have to be strategic. And if you say, listen, I have this amount of time.

The only thing I'm able to do in a given week is going to be LinkedIn or only Instagram or whatever. You've got to know that too. 

Meg Mueller: Yeah, absolutely. And I'm glad you mentioned that because I don't know how many people, and I'm going to make it very obvious that I've been asked, Oh, do you do reels. Yeah.

Look, I don't do Tik Tok. I know how important it is for some people. It is not important for my business and I don't do it and I have no interest in learning it and you can be like that too. 

Melissa Klug: Yes you can. 

Meg Mueller: You can decide this is not for me. I don't want to put my energy into it. I'm going to put my energy elsewhere.

Do I think you have to have a presence somewhere? Yes. Yes. Yeah. But you don't need to be in all the places all the time. You are going to get burnt out. 

Melissa Klug: And if you, I will always tell people to go back to, and by the way, I tell my organizing clients this too. What was your goal? What's your goal for your house?

I always want people to go back to what is my goal for my organizing business? And if the answer is. I want to be an organizing influencer. I want to make a bunch of money to know it. And I want to recommend products and I want to make funny tick tocks, all that awesome. I would like you to go forth and prosper on a very great Tik Tok account.

And please make sure you do all those things. If your answer to me is I just want to take in home organizing clients and build my team. I am going to tell you, you do not have to waste time on Tik Tok. 0%. You spend 0 percent of your time on TikTok because that's not where it is. And what I see sometimes is people spending time on all of the things.

Like I said, when we don't have the basics established, it's sort of like you don't get to eat dessert unless you eat your vegetables. I need you to eat your vegetables. And do your basics. Yeah. Your website or Brussels sprouts. Brussels sprouts are delicious, by the way. I'm talking about good Brussels sprouts.

Okay. And then let the fun stuff come. If that is a bigger goal. And if you genuinely have time for it. Yeah. 

Meg Mueller: And you know, organizers, we want to. As organizers, you want to simplify things, right? You're simplifying people's lives. Let me Simplify your approach to your digital presence.

Your website is up here and it trickles down. It is a funnel marketing is a funnel, but you don't. If you focus on the website, make it perfect, near perfect, nothing's perfect, make it you. Then focus on the blogs. Again, they're living, they're not going anywhere. Social media is constantly changing. Your blogs will live on your website.

They will help your website. Always, because you're building in your SEO, then from those blogs, if you want to make life really easy on yourself and you're not into social media, just take snippets from the blogs and create your social content that way. 

Melissa Klug: And now you have a very easy to follow plan that doesn't require you to go dance in front of something for it to crack unless that's just your jam.

Meg Mueller: And unless that's your jam, go do it. Because honestly, some of those people are like, I wish I could do that. 

Melissa Klug: I do too. I look at, I look at that stuff sometimes and I go, I really admire that those people just put it all out there. Yeah. And I laughed and I enjoyed it and I hit it with a like, and I don't have that same chutzpah, but I'm glad they do.

Meg Mueller: You know, I watched last night. I like stand up comedy, so I watched Taylor Tomlinson's new stand up comedy. It was hilarious. I absolutely love her, and she talked about that. She talked about how all these teens are on TikTok dancing in front of it, and if our parents would have walked in on us dancing with our brush in our bedroom, we would have died.

Melissa Klug: Died. Died. I would have been like, wait, she, she's absolutely right. And they put it all. They put it all out there in like kudos to you.

Meg Mueller: And if you're an organizer that does that, if you're able to get on there and do that, kudos to you. That's amazing. Again, those are those influencer types that you're talking about.

Right. And they're great. And I think they're fantastic. And I think that they're on another level than like your normal basic home organizer that needs this step by step to start their business the right way. And I think that starts with that website and is this small funnel that really can be a consistent process for them and not be this other burden on their business.

Melissa Klug: Do the thing. Put it out there because there are plenty of people out there who need our help. And if you're not out there, there's so much opportunity. 

Meg Mueller: I don't even know that many organizers in my area and guarantee you that the same can probably go for you. Yes. If you live in a big area, but if you live in a big area, like I live near Chicago, even if you're near a big city, how many towns are around that city?

Melissa Klug: So many. So many towns. 

Meg Mueller: Yes. So you don't need to market. I don't, I wouldn't market myself as a Chicago organizer. I would market myself as one of these suburbs around here and add those suburbs into My SEO, for sure, because now I've niched out of this area. Yes. And so again, that's another thing. I think some organizers feel overwhelmed by, Oh, there's so many people in this area.

There are so many more people than you five or you 10 or whatever it is, 

Melissa Klug: I had a client a few weeks ago where they basically, like when I pulled up to her house and I've been working with her for a while. I really appreciate this airplane that's flying over right now really loudly. And then the smoke just went by and I'm like, of course it's perfect.

Anyway I pulled up to her house and I'd been there a few times and I remember thinking I'm guessing her neighbors have no idea what's going on in this house and like she really needed me. Yeah. There was a lot going on in this house, right? A lot of chaos. And I just remember going like from the outside.

You wouldn't know that that chaos is going on. And so then you look at all the other houses in that neighborhood, which is a very nice neighborhood. And I go, I bet every other one of those houses probably needs an organizer. And there is plenty of work out there. And by the way, this woman, I had gotten her as a client because she worked with another organizer and they didn't connect.

Their personalities didn't connect. And she picked me because she's like, you seem like someone I could connect with. And I'm like, great, let's give it a try. So there are people out there for every single one of us. And, and it's just a matter of, it doesn't matter how many people are in your area. You have a way to stand out and be unique and be you.

Meg Mueller: And that starts with your website. It sure does. 

Melissa Klug: It sure does. Well, like I said, I connected with you right away and I didn't even know what you were going to say on this podcast. And it turns out we're besties on almost everything, like almost every single thing. I'm like, yep. Check, check, check it.

Yes. All of these things. I appreciate you validating what I believe. So thank you so much. I would love it, because you have worked with a lot of people that are in our Inspired Organizer group, one of the other things when I first went to your website, I was like, Oh, I know her. Oh, I know her. So you have worked with a lot of people in our group, but tell people about how they can get in touch with you and talk about how you can help them.

Meg Mueller: Yeah, so obviously you can find me on my website. My business name is the lit bulb, not the light bulb. Yes. Okay, so it's LIT and I'm on Instagram all the time. I am happy to email and message and all the things with people. I talk to organizers. All the time. I talk to Kim all the time.

I talk to Kelly all the time. So that is literally the best way to find me is my website, which is, should be the best way to find you guys. 

Melissa Klug: That's correct. That's a good, that's a good plug. 

Meg Mueller: Yeah. Yeah. So I'm, I'm in all the places 

Melissa Klug: Total detour. How did you name your business? The lit bulb? Cause I really like it.

Meg Mueller: You know, I didn't want to use my name. And so I just kind of started thinking about stuff that had to do with knowledge and having that light bulb moment.

And that's what I went with. And. Sometimes I look back and I'm like, well, maybe I should have gone with my name because people can just Google your name, but I don't know. It's not me again. I like to complicate things a little bit. Yeah. 

Melissa Klug: Well, I wanted to ask because I really like it. And also I figured that there was some sort of story and I, people struggle with their business names a lot.

And I love when people come up, like you were talking about parachute, you know, how more guys, or I love when people come up with like really unique names 

Meg Mueller: and I have not helped in the organizing realm, but I have worked with some clients where I helped them come up with their branding names, which is.

Can be very helpful if you don't want to go with your name. If you want to go with your name, that's great because your brand will always be you. Totally. Simplest way to do things. Yes. Clearest way to do things. But if you got a little spunk and fun and you want to just do something different and you need to bounce some ideas off, I like to refer to myself as an ideas person. Let me be your ideas person. 

Melissa Klug: Well, you, you have the light bulb moment. Yeah. That's what you are. You're the light bulb moment. I totally agree with you on this, just use your own flipping name if you want to. Unless like me, you have a name that is not that, not that melodious.

Kluge is not a beautiful last name. So if you do not, I've seen a couple of real doozies of last names recently. So if you, if you do not have a beautiful flowing last name, then be something else.

Meg Mueller: Right. Yeah. Maybe, maybe go with something else. I mean, my, see, and another thing, my last name is Mueller. I mean, that name is everywhere.

Yes. So to me, it's not very unique. Could somebody find me? Yes. But could they probably find another Megan Mueller? Totally. I think so. 

Melissa Klug: I think that maybe if your name is Smith, maybe I will also say last night. I happen to be. I'm not going to say the name because it'll be obvious, but like I was searching for an organizer's website and it was like name and co and.

I like what popped up. We're like a wedding planner. There was a snack company. I mean, it was 25 down because all I knew was the name. I knew kind of the common name that I thought the business was. And I was like, Oh, that's a great reminder to if you have a very common name or whatever, or just Google before you do anything with your business.

Right. Google. 

Meg Mueller: Yeah. And that, and that was one of the things that I did too, when I would come up with business. So I had a blog a long time ago that I like stopped doing, and it was called the nerdy nest. Oh, I love that. It was so cute. Cause I talked about all things, pop culture and stuff like that and it was, it was cute.

But before I did that, I'd sit and do domain searches. Yeah. That's the one thing I always tell people, make sure you're searching for your domain because if it's not an easy one, you might want to go somewhere else. You might want to do a different direction for your name. You don't want somebody having to type in this long ass thing just because you decided to string 50 words together.

Yes. Because that's what was available. 

Melissa Klug: Yes. 100%. 

Meg Mueller: Especially if you want a dot com. You don't need a dot com these days. Everybody has different stuff. But yeah, domain searching is hella important. 

Melissa Klug: It is. It's super important. I feel like we could talk for 85 hours about all the things that are important.

I do, I would like to end though if I could pressure you on, you had a social media post that was like, what I'm reading, what I'm watching, what am I listening to? Tell me, tell me a little bit about your pop culture. Give me your pop culture highlights. For the last couple I'm doing right now.

Meg Mueller: Yeah.

Let's see. Cause yeah, my other one it's changed a little bit. So before I was buying a house, I believe. Yes, you were. And I'm still, I needed a break from the medical stuff. So I'm currently binging Heartland. I don't know if anybody else watches that. I don't know that one. I'm a horse girl at heart.

They're on season like 18. It's a Canadian show. 

Melissa Klug: Oh, crazy. It has some great shows, man. 

Meg Mueller: I told my husband, I'm like, man. I think I want to move to Canada.  

Melissa Klug: Yeah, they're lovely. I used to have to go to Canada for work and then your Netflix changes, you know, to Canadian Netflix. And I was like, wait a minute, they've got great stuff on Canada's Netflix.

Meg Mueller: Yeah. So that's my current show. I'm currently reading a book called rock, paper, scissors. 

Melissa Klug: Okay. Um, yes. So good. Yes. 

Meg Mueller: I'm probably a quarter of the way through. I really like it. I'm enjoying it.

Melissa Klug: That book is bonkers good. It was one of my favorite books of a couple years ago and anything by Alice Feeney, honestly, her whole, all of her books. 

Meg Mueller: Absolutely great. I'll have to check them out. I have a to be read pile, probably a mile long.

Melissa Klug: Yeah. I probably shouldn't tell you what to read because I know you probably have plenty, but yes, high fives on Alice Feeney to anyone listening to this podcast like mysteries. 

Meg Mueller: Yeah. Speaking of books cause I used to have these beautiful big bookshelves and then when we moved I'm like, I'm gonna buy new ones eventually so let's just sell these.

I never bought new ones. I have what I like to refer to as my Harry Potter closet under the stairs in my basement. Fun! Stacks of books everywhere.  

Melissa Klug: I feel like Harry would agree that that was a good use of the Harry Potter closet. 

Meg Mueller: I know it's hysterical, but yeah, so that's that. What else? Podcasts. Okay, so I have still been binging Dark Down East.

Melissa Klug: Yes, I just started it. I saw it on your Instagram. I just found it the other day. 

Meg Mueller: Yes. Still listening to that. Also did the retrievals by Serial. I don't know if you've done that one. I haven't. It's five episodes long and it is insane. It is a whole medical thing that happened with these women who had egg retrievals done.

Melissa Klug: Yeah. Okay. I did hear about it, but I didn't listen to it. It's really good. Okay. 

Meg Mueller: So I pretty much bounce between Dark Down East, Prime Junkie, and The Deck. Those are my three go to’s.

Melissa Klug: The Deck is good. The Deck is good. Okay. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited. Follow, show, done. 

Meg Mueller: And then, music wise, you can pretty much find me listening to a lot of pop punk.

I've been really into Taylor, Taylor Acorn lately. Don't know if anybody knows her. She's fantastic. I have heard of her. Obviously, everybody knows Swift has her next album coming out. I listen just for the heck of listening because I like to see how her progression is.

Melissa Klug: Yeah. Well, so one of the things that I love about it, we have kids the same age.

And I told my kids one day I go, Never in 80 million years would my parents have been listening to the same music that I was like, so you should appreciate that your parents actually listen to like similar, but I love when my kids, every once in a while, my kids will tell me about something that I've never heard of before in my entire life.

And it's fun. 

Meg Mueller: Yeah. You know, we listened to a lot of stuff in my house, like a lot of different stuff. And I really like it because now my teenager, you can catch her listening to Taylor Swift. Okay. You can catch her listening to Halsey. And then she's listening to Fleetwood Mac. Totally. All right. Cool.

I can dig it. 

Melissa Klug: That’s it. The kids, the kids, the youths, they, they are listening wide. Like of course people have their genres like that, but my older daughter for her birthday last year she said all I want are Elton John tickets with dad. So she went to Elton John with dad. She loves Fleetwood Mac. I think probably helped by the absolutely amazing 1997 silver spring video where Stevie is singing to Lindsey Buckingham, which if you don't know what I'm talking about, Google it.

It's amazing. But yeah, they like Billy Joel. She was. So angry. My husband and I saw Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks in November, and she was so mad she was at college and couldn't go. Like I, but you know, she's also going to be listening to, you know, all the teen music, you know, like Taylor and Gracie and all different Yeah.

Meg Mueller: And you know, I think part of it is like modern music is so, it's not great. Yeah, there's a handful of people that are great. And so I feel like a lot of people, a lot of the teens these days are like reverting to some older stuff because there's so much more of a variety to listen to. Totally. So yeah, like my kids just listen to what we listen to because I'm not putting wheels on the bus on in the car.

No, I don't listen to that. Sometimes to calm them down, Moana will go on, but that's about it. That's fine. Moana's fine. I've got a range of ages in my house. Yeah. I've got a 16 year old. I've got an almost nine year old. I've got a two year old. 

Melissa Klug: Yeah, that's a big range. That is a big range. What, do you have any business books that you really like?

You can say no, it's okay. 

Meg Mueller: No, I, it's not, no, I, I just, I have a pile that I'm like, go, like in the process of reading, so I do have the StoryBrand book that I've. dove into it a few times. Again, I have a, I have an understanding for StoryBran. I don't love every aspect of it, but I see the potential for why people do.

And then I just picked up a copywriting book by this copywriter. I forget her name, but her book is called Tough Titties, so. 

Melissa Klug: Oh, it's Laura Belgrave, probably. 

Meg Mueller: Yes, it is. And it just spoke to me. The title spoke to me.

Melissa Klug: Yeah, I think you're really gonna like her. I get her emails which are great.

She's a great example of everything you're talking about, about you just really need to very much be yourself. And yes, she, she definitely is her, like her group is called Talking Shrimp. There's a reason for it. But she is so authentically who she is, and that's a great, great example for it.

And I feel like just based on this I feel like you're really connected. 

Meg Mueller: I got that one for Christmas. I don't read a lot of business books. I probably should. I know a lot of people do. I like to tune my business out when I'm out of, not working. Completely agree with you. I am a fiction reader and I love poetry, and so I read, I always have a poetry book I'm reading and a fiction book, and like the business books are here.

I can see them. 

Melissa Klug: I feel like, so I call myself a book polygamist. I will read five or six different books at one time. It just depends on what I'm, what I'm in the mood for, and. People are like, how do you do that? I'm like, it actually helps my brain because sometimes I'm in the mood for a business book.

And so I'll put it on, I'll go for a walk and put it on, you know, my phone on an audio book. Sometimes I'm like, I need to just I need to just smile and laugh or I'm ready for a serious, you know, Norwegian mystery where terrible things happen to people in the snow. Like it just depends on what I'm in the mood for.

Meg Mueller: No, I get that because I actually just got into auto audio books recently. Oh, I love audio books. I only listen to ones that are like memoirs that the actual person is reading. Yeah. Like I did. I did Spare that way. 

Melissa Klug: Interesting. 

Meg Mueller: Okay. Incredible. I did Jill Duggar's book that way. Oh, okay. Yeah. Also really good.

And I'm currently listening to Grimoire Girl by Hilary Burton.

Melissa Klug: Interesting. Okay. I've heard that's really good. She's a really interesting person. So good. She's very interesting.

Meg Mueller: Yes. And so that, I don't know, that's what broke me in audio books is like, well, if I can listen to the person who wrote it, I'm really into it because to me it feels like a podcast.

Melissa Klug: Yeah. I'll tell you one that this is going to sound crazy, but Matthew McConaughey's book green lights. Yeah. First of all, he's got a great voice. 

Meg Mueller: Right? Like he does have a great voice. 

Melissa Klug: It's a great voice. I didn't connect with everything in that book, but the fact that he was reading it like, and he had a lot at the end of it, I'm like, I'm into this.

Like I love what he's saying, even if I don't love all the individual parts. So it is, there is something different about when the person actually reads their own stuff. It's really cool. 

Meg Mueller: Yeah, it just feels, again, that word authentic, it feels very authentic to me to hear it in there. And because the tones that they're using when they're reading it, they're theirs.

They're their words. So I don't know, that's just what got me into the audio book thing. I'm not sure that I could do a fiction book audio book because I feel like you have to have that right voice. 

Melissa Klug: You might want to give it a try though. I'll tell you. I love reading. I love listening. Just give it a try.

Just, just but the other thing I'll tell you is there are some business books that are read. This could be like your, this could be like your gateway of, there are some business books that are read by the author. There's a guy, John. John ACUF that I've talked about on this podcast before. I love him.

He is just a really humorous guy and he always injects humor into his books and he reads them himself. And so every once in a while, I'll just tell myself I'm still working. If I go on a walk and listen to a business book, I'm still working.

Meg Mueller: Gary Vee reads any of his stuff. Cause I bet he does. I love his stuff.

Melissa Klug: I have a hard time believing he doesn't read his own stuff. I

Meg Mueller: But I still feel like he does a lot of his own social. 

Melissa Klug: Yeah. Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. But theres, I love asking people this question because I do think and not everyone loves to read. Like it seems like you and I do, but I do think it's.

Really fun. Just pick something up that you're not used to because I've I used to say I hate business books and I'm like, no, I don't hate business books. I hated bad business books, you know, or I'm not into I don't know, a bunch of people are into like fairy stuff. I can't say I'm not into fairy stuff because I've never tried it.

I don't know. I might love a fairy book. I have no idea.

Meg Mueller: Yeah, I think you definitely have to be in the mood for it. But yeah, you might. I mean, I used to read a lot of fantasy when I was a kid. Yeah, a lot. And it's very hard for me to read it now. And I'm like, Oh my god, I've lost my childhood. And so I'd like to tell my husband, I'm like, I like to watch fantasy.

Yeah. Oh, totally all the Game of Thrones. I have no interest in reading that garbage. It's too hard. 

Melissa Klug: The books are great. I have to say. 

Meg Mueller: I read the first one and I just found, I feel like I need a crime scene map on my wall.

Melissa Klug: A hundred percent. It's so confusing. 

Meg Mueller: Of all the plot lines. Yes. Because I made it about halfway through the Wheel of Time series before I'm like, I don't, I don't know what anybody's doing.

Melissa Klug: Well, my husband just started watching Outlander on, I think it's on Netflix now. And I, of course did the gross thing that people do where I was like, I've heard some of the books. And I was just, but those books are like, 

Meg Mueller: I have the books. I think that there are like a thousand pages. 

Melissa Klug: Yes. And so I'm like, I feel so sorry for the people that make this show.

Same thing with Game of Thrones. I don't know how you take that book and they go, we're gonna make a TV show out of this. 'cause it's very complex. 

Meg Mueller: Right, right. Well that's why characters get cut out, which is something that my husband always says about Lord of the Rings, they cut so, so out. That guy was never in the movies, blah, blah.

I'm like, well, I mean like, it's three hours long on its own, right? We have to add him in. 

Melissa Klug: I can't make it 200 hours long, sir. You're right. So go read some books, you guys. That's what we're saying. Go read some books. It's really enjoyable, especially when it's freezing cold. I know not everyone lives in a freezing cold climate, but it's great in the winter.

Meg Mueller: Ugh, this is why we need to move. That's right. 

Melissa Klug: Okay, we have talked about all of the things. I feel like we could have talked about 2000 more things. So I might have to have you on another time and we can rant about all the things that we both believe in. But I will put all of your information in the show notes. For people to connect with you and say hello over at the Lit bulb.

And I just, I appreciate this is your very first podcast too. 

Meg Mueller: We should say, Oh my gosh, I bought a microphone for this and I'm like, I might have to start one of these. 

Melissa Klug: You should honestly. You have a lot to say. Here's what I can tell you when you start a podcast, because it goes back to all the things.

I'm going to wrap it all up for you guys in a beautiful little bow. When you start a podcast, if you have a lot of things to talk about and you like to talk as I do, then you take that content and you turn it into a blog post. And then you can turn it into social media posts and you have, you have a lot of content already built up.

So yeah.

Meg Mueller: And hey, I'm pretty sure I haven't seen too many organizers podcasting yet there.

Melissa Klug: So there are a few but not a ton. 

Meg Mueller: Yeah. Yeah. It's still an open realm for that. 

Melissa Klug: Yes. And another thing too, is if you have a specific niche that you serve in, then you can have a very specific podcast about a very specific subject.

So go do it. So welcome to the world of podcasting. Congratulations. Your first podcast episode is done and dusted. So excited. So excited. Well, thank you for joining us today. Thank you for having me. 

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