193 | Brandie + Ryan of Home+Sort and How To: Summit
Brandie (l) and Ryan (r) from Home+Sort!
Two of my favorite people I've met in all my years of organizing are back with me here on the podcast! I am having a fun convo with Brandie and Ryan of Home+Sort in northern California, who are the founders of the How To: Summit. The summit for 2024 is moving to Austin, Texas in the end of September--and tickets are almost gone! We're chatting about everything that's in store this year for the 6th year of the summit.
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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If you come to the Summit and just leave with one good idea, that's money well spent.
That can change everything.
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Hey pro organizers, it's Melissa. And this week, I am here with two of my absolutely favorite people in the entire organizing industry, Brandie and Ryan from Home+Sort who are also the gurus behind the How To: Summit. And we are talking all about summit 20, 24. It is coming up in September.
And while you may be thinking, Hey, it's may, why are we talking about something that's happening in the end of September? We are talking about it because tickets are almost totally sold out.
I wanted to get them on the podcast so that they could tell you all about the changes that are coming to this year's summit, new things, awesome things. And just, if you're on the fence, get you off the fence and get you to the summit because I. am, so excited to meet a bunch of new people, a bunch of organizers.
It is so wonderful to be able to meet people in person. One of the things about this conversation is yes, we were recording a podcast, but basically this is just like a normal conversation with us, because throughout this podcast, we're going to interject some real life. You're going to hear dogs barking. You're going to hear doorbells ringing. You're going to hear, uh, A couple funny things that happened throughout, but that is real life.
So that what you're witnessing basically is a conversation between three friends that just also happens to have some great content. I cannot explain to you how much I love these ladies.
And in the past year, they have become wonderful organizing friends and just wonderful friends in general. Brandie and I were just together recently at the NAPO conference. We had such a great time, and it was just a reminder of how wonderful it is to be together. So I hope that you would consider joining us in Austin in September.
You can go to howtosummit.org for all the details. In the podcast. We say there are 40 spots left. There are less than 40 spots. Now I think there are 30 spots left at the time that we are putting this up, um, just in a two day gap between when we recorded, when, when I'm putting it up.
I am really hoping to be able to see you there. So without further ado. My friends, Brandie and Ryan of Home+Sort, and the How To: Summit. I have a great day organizers.
Melissa Klug: The first question I was asked was, are we filming this? So I promised to send over hair and makeup to Brandie and Ryan's home, which I did not do. They must
Brandie Larsen: have lost our address, Melissa, because no one came.
Melissa Klug: Yeah,
Brandie Larsen: I'm wearing a hat, so
Melissa Klug: I know, but your hat says, have a nice
Ryan Eiseland: day, which
Melissa Klug: is very kind of you.
Ryan Eiseland: It's a kid's hat. I have a really small head. I have a trouble finding hats.
Melissa Klug: Okay, the story no one asked for the other day, I was going to a professional baseball game with a friend of mine who's really into professional baseball, which I am not. And so I was like, Oh my gosh, I need to find a Twins hat.
So I go in my husband's closet and He has a Twins hat and I, so I go to put it on my head. It's a fitted hat. I found out my husband must have an extremely tiny head or I have a great big head or I don't know something. It looks like a little child's hat, you know, like a, like a baby bonnet. This doesn't even go over my hair.
Brandie Larsen: Like I don't. So you have a lot of hair. Brandie has the same problem. I have the same problem. Is it my hair? Do I have a giant head? What is this?
Melissa Klug: So now I have like head dysmorphia. I feel like maybe there's something wrong with my head. So this is just, you know, nobody needs to know my emotional problems.
But here we are. I'm back with my sisters from another mister, Brandie and Ryan.
Brandie Larsen: A hundred percent.
Melissa Klug: From Home+Sort.
Brandie Larsen: Okay. So funny, Melissa, I was just thinking about this. When we did the podcast together last year, we didn't even really know each other. Not
Melissa Klug: know each other.
Brandie Larsen: Genuinely, you are our person now. All the time.We laugh all the time.
Ryan Eiseland: You are the funniest, most in the best way, like entertaining and I value laughing so much and I always laugh when I'm with you
Melissa Klug: which I really, that's very, very kind. I had you on the podcast today so I could get some prop up. I could get some, you're my, like, hype women.
Brandie Larsen: we adore you. Long in our professional journey without knowing each other.
But now we're in deep and here we are.
Melissa Klug: Well, now we're here and, and we're in it. And that, I think that's our value though. There is a lesson in that of just reach out to people and just. Say hi and say, you know, it might not work with everyone, but one of my best business friends was someone that I met in a networking event.
I definitely didn't want to go to, actually, neither of us wanted to go to it, but we're like, okay, we'll go. And now I'm like, so grateful. She's an in person friend that I have that's in business. And I'm like, you just, just reach out and you just never know who you're going to
Brandie Larsen: go to. 100%.
Melissa Klug: But we are assembled here today to talk about something that's very close to my heart, which is the How To: Summit which is coming up probably faster than you guys might want it to.
It's coming up fast.
Brandie Larsen: Yeah, it's like it's far away. And then all of a sudden, it's like when summer hits when June hits. Yeah, it's like full steam ahead. But for a long time, you're like, you have these little increments of time that you're like, Oh, we need to do this, then we need to do this, then and then all of a sudden, it's Oh my gosh, it's coming.
So I feel like we're on the cusp of that.
Melissa Klug: You're close to the oh my gosh, we have so many things to, you know, but I went last year. As my first time going, if the, the dogs are going to start to go and I'm just going to lose my mind. All right. Mine are,
Brandie Larsen: mine are locked in a bedroom, so.
Okay, yeah.
Melissa Klug: People are outside and that's very upsetting to them. So, oh yeah. Hold on.
Okay. We only have one dog, but we currently have three at our house, which is too many dogs. Okay. So I went to the Summit last year for the first time.
I had the best time. Everyone that went from our group had the best time. We had such an amazing time listening to speakers, meeting each other, making connections, all the things. So I just wanted to have you back because your spots are closing up and we want to make sure that everybody who has a chance to get in can.
Can you tell us a little bit about last year, we were in Cleveland and this year we are going to Austin, Texas, which I am. Yes. Well,
Ryan Eiseland: first
Brandie Larsen: of all, we want to say thank you to you because you have been a supporter and a friend of the Summit and you are such like a, you're such an influencer in the organizing community and your words hold value.
So we just appreciate your support and.
Ryan Eiseland: We listen, you know, we're sitting there with our notepads and pens writing down everything you say, because
you really, get the organizing community and have your finger on the pulse. And so I just want to say thank you for your support.
Melissa Klug: This is
Brandie Larsen: You know, when we say like women supporting women, it's not just a thing we say. We have felt that from, you know, people like you and, you know, other,
Ryan Eiseland: organizers. So we just, we appreciate it so much.
Melissa Klug: Yeah. You're so welcome. Well, one of the things that's important to me is I only talk about things on this podcast and in my groups, I only talk about things that I genuinely actually believe in.
Because I, I only want to promote the things that I truly endorse and I truly love. And I, I mean that from the bottom of my heart. If you hear something that I talk about, it's because I love it. Cause I definitely don't get paid for this. There's no spon con on the Pro Organizer Studio Podcast. But I'm just, I'm so excited to come.
I've never been to Austin. I have been so many places in Texas and around the United States. I've never been to Austin.
Brandie Larsen: Yeah, so really cool how this worked out. We're literally sitting in the hotel room last year at the Summit. And Ryan and I just felt like we want the Summit to be more centrally located.
So more people could attend. We live on the West coast, Ohio, which has been incredible. And it's been so fun having it at the mDesign headquarters. You know, that's really far East. And so if you're on either one of the coasts to go to the other coast, it's a full day of travel. Like for us, it is, we cannot get there before evening. And, and we leave like at six in the morning here. And so we're just like, what could we do to make something more centrally located just to be able to access more organizers and make it easier for everyone to come. And out of nowhere, Erin Condren called us after the Summit and they're like, which we had not told anyone, but like a few people, you were one of them.
And a few of the speakers like, Hey, we're thinking Texas, Ryan and I grew up in Texas. We have family there. We know it. And we hadn't told anyone else and out of nowhere, Erin Condren calls and they're like, we have a venue in Austin. Would you guys consider coming here? And we were like, Like we just couldn't believe it.
Melissa Klug: Because
Brandie Larsen: it was like no one knew, like they had no idea. And so that really started the change in us just coming, which Austin is such a great spot. The Domain area where Friday night is happening, it is just cool. It's like the vibe is right. Everything about it is a place that I want to be on a Friday night.
Twinkly lights everywhere. It's clean. It's swanky. It's really cool. It's like it's stylish and the
Ryan Eiseland: food is so good.
Brandie Larsen: So good. You know, we, Cleveland, I got to tell you, people are sleeping on Cleveland because there are some, it is beautiful. It's like green and lush. But as far as if you wanted to parlay the Summit into some sort of vacation, you know, get a two for one, Austin is an amazing city.
Melissa Klug: I have a friend who's a doctor, definitely not an organizer, definitely does something a little different than us. And I was like, I just randomly the other day, I was like, Oh, I'm going to a conference in Austin in September. And she's like, wait, could I just come to and hang out while you're at the conference?
I'm like, Yeah. And I was like, absolutely. We go to Magnolia after that. I've always wanted to go to Magnolia. Like I'm going to I'm going to do some vacay while I'm there. Yeah,
Brandie Larsen: it is great. So, and we just feel you know, the journey of the Summit is funny because we started this, it was Ryan's idea.
We were at a job. I will never forget it. We're in the car, headed home. She's like, You want to start like a conference for organizers and I realize I'm a real humdrum because this is my response to most of Ryan's ideas. Sure, probably nobody will come but sure we can do it literally when she's like probably no one will hire us.
And I literally said that yeah, sure. Probably no one will hire us, but you guys, she really does say it to me a lot. It's not going to succeed, but all right, but if it was somebody like a Melissa, if you came to her with the craziest, wildest idea, she'd be like, Melissa, of course, she's going to do it.
Of course. She's so good. She's so she like believes in you. So much and other people and is such an optimist, but somehow with her and I, she's well, no, I'm always financially on the hook for Ryan's ideas. That's probably why I'm not on the hook for Melissa's ideas. You're not Ryan had this idea was Ryan is the idea person in our relationship.
I have some ideas. She has most of the ideas, but it was like, that's not true. It's no one will come. So the first year we had a great turnout. We had 130 people show up from all over it. Now this is pre COVID and it was magic. It was like, I couldn't have even, I remember Shira Gill saying to us, you guys, I had no idea this was going to be this good and yet she's our friend.
She was all in and she apparently thought it wasn't even going to be good. And so it's a good friend. Who's
Melissa Klug: all in when they think it's going to be bad. That's a good point. Who's the one that shows up even if they think it's going to be bad?
Brandie Larsen: Yeah, that's been Shira. She's had our backs since day one.
So anyways, then COVID hits. So we do year two online and that went really well. Year three, we thought, okay, like we're out of the woods. We're going to have an in person event, plan it, do all the money money, do all the things, money, spend it. Ben, oh wait, there's a Delta variant. Okay, well that threw a bomb in our event.
So there went that. So we were done. Like we weren't gonna do it anymore because we're like, we'd majorly gone in the hole that year, which just newsflash for everyone when we go in the hole. That means Ryan and I personally. Hey, which I'd rather go on a vacation than pay for a bombed event. And so we just were done and mDesign came to us.
The CEO at the time was like, we believe in you guys. We believe in this event. Will you do it again? Come and do it in Ohio. So we're like, okay, we'll just, we'll give it the old college try one more time. And it just really. It's kind of like rebirth the event. So that was the last two years in Ohio. So it's funny to say, I think this is year six and I feel like every year feels like we're just kind of getting started still.
And so sorry, you guys, someone is hold on. I'm going to mute for a second. Someone is ringing my doorbell, which
Melissa Klug: is dogs
Brandie Larsen: are barking.
Melissa Klug: So, Brandie is going to have to hold us for a while. Okay.
Brandie Larsen: So, and so it was like this year six just even feels like not a rebirth, but we're just like, keep building, keep morphing, keep changing and, and trying to like keep our ear to the ground of what people need and what people want.
And so going to Austin, it just feels so fun. It's going to be bigger than it seems. And yet making it bigger than it's been, but making people feel like it's small enough to feel connected and to really just get what you need from it. And so that is what we're so excited about. When we look at the numbers over half of the people coming right now.
Are new people to the Summit. So that concerns me for the people that have been before that are like, no big deal. I'm going to buy my ticket in July. And I think you're not going to get your
Melissa Klug: Brandie's kids are
Brandie Larsen: at your house. That's amazing. You know why? 'cause probably before this podcast I was telling everyone that I'm tired of my office being where everyone in the house is and everyone needs to find somewhere to go.
I didn't actually know that meant they were gonna leave and go to your house and they just keep ringing the doorbell. And I'm like, okay. That's hilarious. . Melissa, this is it in a nutshell. This is,
Melissa Klug: that's what life is because I'm on mute 'cause dogs are barking. You're on mute because your doorbell's ringing because your sister's kids are at your house
that's real life.
Brandie Larsen: Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. So that is, we're just excited about this year. It's just going to feel, you know, the saying, like same, same, but different. I think that's every year of the Summit, their same, same, like incredible energy, incredible community incredible content, but different in the, in the fact of everything is just going We're just raising the bar constantly,
how can we be better? How can we give people more of what they want? How can this be more professional? How can it be more relevant, more current more just meeting the needs? Of the people that are coming. And so, I'm more expectant about it this year than I've ever been. So, yeah,
Melissa Klug: well, and I also just want to take just really quickly before we talk about those details.
I just want everyone to take a lesson from this just in general for our businesses too because 1 of the things I've been hearing a lot lately is the things that have worked for me. In the past aren't working for me anymore. And so then the answer is the hard answer is then you have to do different things.
So you could have said, well, I guess it'll just always be in Cleveland, or I guess we will always be, you know, capped at this number of people or whatever, but you're like, no, we're going to try some different things. We're going to try different places. We're going to take feedback.
We're going to put our ears to the ground and listen to what people are looking for. And that's just a good lesson for all of our businesses too, that we've got to, I hate the word pivot, but we've got to do it sometimes. Context of friends. If it's in the context of friends about the sofa, then I'm fine with the word pivot.
Other than that, thank
Ryan Eiseland: you. Yeah, it's,
Melissa Klug: I
Ryan Eiseland: gotta tell you, it is. So I don't know what you guys were talking about. Cause I was. Letting Brandie's children, but So we did these surveys at the end of the Summit last year. And let me tell you, organizers, they love to tell
Brandie Larsen: you their opinion. And so right after the Summit, here I am reading all these surveys and it's Oh, okay.
Okay. Okay. We've got to fix that. We've got to fix that. But you know what? Feedback is so good. You have to get like some tough skin but it is so good because it helps you grow and, you know, growing hurts sometimes, but People
Melissa Klug: get
Brandie Larsen: feedback
Melissa Klug: because they care too. Yes. If they don't care, they won't tell you.
They just would ignore it.
Brandie Larsen: Well, and you have, Brandie always says this, you know, when someone's doing you know, a survey, writing it down or an anonymous one, they're giving you their unfiltered thoughts. Yeah. And so, you know, you have to take everything through that look at it through that lens of, okay, these people are being raw.
And so, you know, I gotta toughen up a little bit and that's okay because. If you know, we want to know the user's experience because we want the Summit to be the best. And let me tell you, we have taken every single one of those and I've probably read them at least 20 times each. We have written notes.
We've said, we're going to do this. We're going to solve this problem. You know, as organizers, our job is to solve problems. And we want to make sure the Summit solves every problem or as many problems as we can
Ryan Eiseland: for the organizing community. So it's going to, this year's going to be amazing.
Melissa Klug: And there's an extra day, which I love too, because last year, this was a personal problem.
I had to leave the millisecond that the event was over. And I was really sad about that because I was like, Are you taking your daughter to college? Well, I would say it was parents weekend. So
Brandie Larsen: as
Melissa Klug: parents began, so I had a flight like 14 seconds after I left or after the over. And I was really bummed about that because I was like, Oh my gosh, I just want to stay another night.
We all sat around the hotel and we were talking about business and life and all the things. Right. And I'm like, that's what the value is. And so now there's an extra day and I'm making sure I stay at the end. That's where the magic happens also. Yeah.
Brandie Larsen: Well, and, and some of the feedback was people, you know, it's hard to know Melissa.
We all work. We all have busy lives. We all have a lot of things going on. And so some times it's hard to know you do we need this short and sweet so people can get back to their lives or do people want to linger just a little bit more to connect, to just take more in. So I'm excited about just even adding the extra day and the amount of content people are going to get.
You know, Friday night is so fun. Cause that's like a come and go kind of like mix and mingle. And it's going to be at the Erin Condren flagship store. They are literally closing the store for us. Okay.
Melissa Klug: That's awesome.
Brandie Larsen: Yeah. It's really awesome. And it's in this Domain. It's in the Domain area, which is this area that we're just obsessed with.
And so that's going to be come by, you know, grab a drink, say hi to people, get, your kind of the welcome, whatever that we're going to give you. And it's just a fun way to start off the weekend and then go to dinner with your friends, go to dinner and meet up with people. That you don't ever get to see, but on social media, or you only get to text email with, and then, and I love that about even Saturday and Sunday, both days end at five.
So in the nighttime, there's all night to hang out with people, which is super, super fun. Oh, and you know what's cool this year? , so, you know, the Summit is growing, which we're so excited about, but we still want it to be that personal, connection where people can raise their hands and get their questions answered.
And so, We are adding more workshops and workshops are where you go and you kind of get the, the nitty gritty specifics of how do I actually implement that on Monday when I get back to work, what is a step one for me, because so many people just get inspiration at a conference and this year is going to be inspiration, education, Steps that you can apply.
I'm so excited about that because I love the intimate stuff of, okay. I have this one really off question. I
Ryan Eiseland: need it answered. And so workshops, you're going to get all those crazy questions answered. And,
Brandie Larsen: I'm so excited about that. That's worth it right there. To be in one of those rooms. Well, and Melissa, I might've told you when you and I were together, just even the layout of the Summit is different than it has been.
It's been Thursday was like workshops. And then Friday was just all day, theater seating, main stage speakers all day. Well, now we're doing main stage speakers in the mornings. And then after lunch, workshops are all in the afternoons. And then we'll come back at the very end with everybody together last session, but I love that too, because there's just so much that you're going to get so much chatter so much. I think just so much happens in connection and in smaller groups with people also. So I feel good about it. We want everyone, no matter who you are, no matter what stage you are in business to feel like the Summit's for you.
We don't want people to feel like they outgrow the Summit. Like, Hey, it's a great event. If you're in your first three years of business, but beyond that, they don't really help me at all. We are listening to everyone, wherever they're at and going, Hey, we've got stuff for the new entrepreneur.
We've got stuff for you. It's you're just in the middle. You've got things figured out, but , you want to go to another level and what you're doing. Perfect. We've got stuff for you. We have. Stuff for the seven figure earner, people that are hitting the million dollar mark in their business every year.
Bigger success, bigger problems. You know what I mean? Like they need support where they're at. So we are really trying to hit it. Everyone.
Melissa Klug: Yes, I saw on your Instagram the other day that you're doing the seven figure earner meetup, which I think is good because first of all, it's aspirational for people that are saying like, Oh my gosh, I didn't know that a business could look like an organizing business.
But it's also a reminder that no matter where you are in your business, this is a thing that I think Instagram does is it makes people think that Oh, all the, all these other people are having all, these wild successes. And the answer is every single one of us at all the different phases of our business that have challenges, frustrations, failures have things that we're really bad at, have things that we're really great at. No one has it all together. So no matter where you are in your business, just because you're not brand new, doesn't mean that you don't have things that you need to work on.
Brandie Larsen: Our, our laundry list of things to work on as long.
And you know, what's funny is actually the list gets longer, the more we're in business. Cause our change. Totally. So it's not Oh, we've arrived and we're just here for good. And like you said, Melissa, old things don't always work. And that is hard. Like the way I used to do things, there are things that Ryan and I, some successes we've had that we did things a certain way and it worked and those things don't actually work anymore.
And so we've had to grow. We've had to figure out these things. And that is the beauty of a collection of people with different ideas. different viewpoints is you just hear what other people are doing and you grow and it sparks something in you sometimes Oh my gosh, I never thought about doing it like that.
That's great. I'm going to go home and implement that in my business. So yeah.
Well, and think about it like this, you guys, the iPhone every couple of years to come out with a new one, the iPhone's an amazing product, the iPhone, you know, zero or whatever it was, it is amazing. But you know what? Apple goes.
But we can make it better,
Melissa Klug: This is really silly, but I just think about because I had to help a friend yesterday a personal friend asked for organizing advice and she had some really old iPhones and she's like, what do I do with these? Just think about when you're in someone's house and you see, cause we've all seen people still have original iPods, original iPhones.
And you look at it and you laugh and you're like, look at this old thing. It's only like 15 years old. You guys, it's not that old. Yeah. So just think about you're exactly right. It's an amazing product, but every single year they're like, we can make it a little bit better. And that's the same thing as our business.
Six years ago when you started the Summit, you know, that sounds like a lifetime ago. Right. But it feels like it's gone really fast and times have changed massively. So our businesses have to change accordingly.
Ryan Eiseland: I listened to a podcast and a guy always says, I can't, I can't promise perfection, but I can promise
Brandie Larsen: progress that I'm going to get a little bit better every day, each year. And I mean, the Summit's getting a lot better
Ryan Eiseland: I'm just telling you guys it's going to be amazing this year, but I think that sentiment is so good.
Yeah, I'm not perfect, but I'm going to work on it
Melissa Klug: and you're going to take the feedback and you're going to you're going to make the progress and I love that. I know someone else who says progress over perfection, and that's hard because organizers are attuned to it. Try to be perfect and try to, achieve that perfection at which I would tell people who defines perfection.
How are you going to know when you got there? Yeah, that's never going to, never going to know,
Brandie Larsen: and also Melissa, you, now that you're are BFF for the past year, you know, us, you've been to the event and the event reflects us, but the Summit is not about Ryan and I. So if there's anyone out there that's Oh, my business doesn't look like Home+Sort, how they do things, that wouldn't work. For me, it is not about us. It's about professional organizers. It's about the community. It's about whoever you are. Everybody's businesses are so different. So we have a lot for the solo business owner. I don't want a team. I'm not going that direction. We have a lot for the people who are like, 10 people work with me.
So kind of whoever you are and whatever your niche is, the event feels like us because it's fun and it's got a educational party vibe to it, but it's not. This is not like, Oh, Brandie and Ryan are just going to get up and tell you how we do what we do. It's not that at all.
Melissa Klug: I'm glad you said that because, there were people at the Summit last year, who work in You know, famous people's homes and, have huge Instagram followings and have million dollar businesses. And there are people, I think, I mean, me included, I'm a solo organizer by choice.
You know, I could look at that and be like, yeah, I don't do what Brandie and Ryan do. Why would they want to talk to me? Why would they want to oh, this thing isn't going to be for me. There are things that we can take aspirationally. You know, when I look at the people up on that stage and I Oh, you know, Ria Safford told a story about how an Elfa system fell on her client's Porsche.
By the way, I'll never forget that story.
Brandie Larsen: I think no one in the room breathed for 10 seconds because everyone was like, That one still is shocking to me. Oh, Ria.
Melissa Klug: But you know, you just, you hear stories like that and you go well, maybe that'll never happen to me, but you know, you, you have realized that even someone who works in 10 million homes and has huge Instagram followings they make mistakes too.
Some very expensive. Oh my gosh. Yes.
That is
Ryan Eiseland: the truth. Well, speaking of actually, nevermind. Nevermind. I was going to say speaking of speakers, but I'm like, wait, we haven't announced those yet. When are you announcing speakers? Great question. They're, it's coming soon, if I can, if I can give a vague answer, we are waiting on one of our keynotes.
to confirm some things and then we will announce it's taken a little bit longer than we thought, but that's okay because we can be flexible because this speaker, you're going to want to hear I'm excited. Yeah,
Brandie Larsen: we have I mean, Melissa, you're speaking. We can say that. Okay. I was going to say that, but then I
Melissa Klug: the famous keynote speaker that you are waiting on?
Brandie Larsen: Here's the truth is Melissa
Ryan Eiseland: wants more money, you guys. I do, yes. This one is
Brandie Larsen: negotiating all day long. Her demands are too high. Her, her rider, her list for her Only blue
Melissa Klug: M& M's or I riot. Okay.
Brandie Larsen: Yeah. And to be honest, we're having a struggle finding them. Okay. Because America has some issues with food dye right now.
And it's
Ryan Eiseland: because we, we need her there,
Could you talk a little bit about some of the topics that are going to be covered some of the sessions?
Melissa Klug: Because I think, you know, people, like you said, they really do come to this. We come for community, but we also come to learn stuff. So I'm ready to learn stuff and I'm ready to talk about stuff. So what are we going to begin?
I am most excited about, well, there's, there's two things that I'm excited about.
Ryan Eiseland: The first one is we are going to do a whole workshop for everything you need to know about your first five years in business. This is going to be like nuts and bolts.
You know, again,
Stuff you can apply on Monday when you get back from the conference, that's going to be like so much information in the best way, so much information.
And then on the flip side, I am so excited about the seven figure meetup because there's nothing more powerful than sitting in a room with people in the same business and same stage as you and going, Hey, what's your problem? Hey, what'd you do to fix this? You know,
Brandie Larsen: having a round table discussion, honest, open, we're not coming in and, and, you know, holding all of our cards to our chest.
Like nobody can see, no, this is going to be like, we're all going to be very vulnerable and real. And I'm very excited about that. We have someone coming to talk all about relocations. I'm excited. Moving the logistics of that, how much, I mean, there is money to be made in that, in that niche of organizing.
And so we're going to get into the nitty gritty nuts and bolts of, Hey, how does this work? How does this person do it? So one note about that, Ryan, even if you're someone listening to this podcast and you're like, I've chosen to be a one woman business. I could never do relocations.
That's not true you could manage them. You hire out all these things. Like it is a money maker. If I
Melissa Klug: know we're not detouring down this path, but solo organizer, I do moves by myself and I have made so much money. If I added up, I've never done this comparison, but if I added up all moving related revenue, it's, it absolutely is one of the biggest pieces of my business.
It's, it's,
Brandie Larsen: Us too, for sure, for sure. And it parlays into more work. And so, and I believe this person that's all. I think they started out on organizer and now they just do relocations. And so, so anyways, I'm, I'm excited about those things because I think it hits some problems that people are having as far as, Hey, I don't know how to solve this and, or, Hey, I don't know what to do about this or, Hey, I feel alone in this area.
And so, I'm excited about
Melissa Klug: those. Moving is a great example. Even if you do the things, I always learn from other people. I'm like, oh man, that's a great idea. Why have I never thought about that? If
Brandie Larsen: you come to the Summit and just
Ryan Eiseland: leave with one good idea, that's money well spent.
Melissa Klug: That can change everything. Everything is, Oh yeah. One idea is going to pay dividends. So
Brandie Larsen: I, I remember we were doing relocations, but we were not doing them to the level that we do them now. We were newer in the business and literally someone just asked us if we did moves one day and we're like, yeah, sure we do.
And I remember maybe like a year later, I think I was watching Rachel Rosenthal. From Rachel and company organizing company. She is so incredible. We look up to her in every way. And she talked about doing inventories for her moves. It had never crossed my mind that doing an inventory would be a great thing to give some people.
I don't know. if Ryannd I saw it at the same time, or which one of us brought it up, what we were like, we should start doing an inventory. Imagine when you're at a Summit with people telling the things they do that was a game changer for us. And so, yeah, Ryan's right.
Okay. What am I excited about? Well, we are talking, we have a whole mainstay session. That's going to be on finances. And I can tell you this, Melissa, you mentor people all the time, do coaching. Women in business want to talk about money because that's what we're here for. That is a big money makes the world go round and that's.
You know, I'm not here to volunteer. I'm here to do something that's profitable. And so that is so important. I think that a lot of people they just, they need help in that area, but they don't even know the questions to ask. So I think getting really down to the nitty gritty about finances and how to break it down, no matter who you are, where you are with your business is.
So great. I'm excited about that. And what I love about that is that is a main stage topic. And then the same day there is a workshop about it. So if you listen to the main stage and you're like, that was great, but I need more. Then you go to the workshop and you're just going to go in deeper, ask your questions, get your more personalized answers, all that.
Melissa Klug: We have to get more real about a lot of things in our business. And finance is one of them. We're all afraid to talk about money and women don't negotiate. I mean, this is a proven fact in business. Women don't negotiate money very well. Whenever I talk to people about, Hey, you need to raise your rates.
Ooh, I don't know. Like we, we're afraid to talk about all those things. It's, it's really important. No matter what your business goals are. I want people to make money. Yeah, yeah, absolutely dollars a year for fun.
Brandie Larsen: Yeah. Yeah, I agree. Totally. Totally. Because if we're going to do fun, I'm going to maybe spend my time a little differently.
We're just doing fun. And so I just like for the record to show that another one of Brandie's children just showed up with a dog.
Melissa Klug: Everyone's out
Brandie Larsen: of her house.
Right. I'm, I don't even know what to say.
Why? That's a great question. Oh my gosh, Melissa. Okay. The, another thing that's happening at the Summit, we've never done this before is we are doing a mainstage session about mental health and we've talked about mental health, but we talked about it in regards to our clients. We're going to talk mental health in regards to us, being an entrepreneur, owning your business is stressful.
How do we make edge? stress. How do we manage the anxiety that we feel? How do we manage hard conversations? How do we do all these things and stay in a really good, healthy place ourself? And I am so looking forward to that because I need the answers to those questions. You can't give someone, your clients, your family, anything you don't have.
So we're going to figure out how, as business owners, we can give out of a surplus of our, you know, positive emotions out of our strength and all that. So, and another thing I'm looking forward to is this year we've offered something called the next level experience. And this is just for someone who wants a bit of an elevated experience.
Our main stage Summit sessions will be theater style seating, but the next level experience is tables and chairs. It's a little more spacious. It's a little roomier. Just a couple of things about it that are elevated included with that as a leadership lunch with Ryan and myself and Jen Roban of LIfe in Jeneral we love talking leadership, so we're excited about that. So this is just an add on to your ticket. Well, and if you are anybody that has a team or you feel like you need to get better managing, you know, whether that's your business, people you definitely want to be at this leadership launch. And I want to say this. Melissa, I think that we just sat on here. We did reveal one speaker and that is you and I'm super excited about what you're going to talk about because as Ryan said to you in our text message, could we get the notes in advance?
Yeah. The answer is yes. I will give you some extra special. I will give you. Like maybe next week.
Melissa Klug: You know. Yeah. Your own VIP experience with me teaching you all of our things because I love
Brandie Larsen: doing it. Okay and tell us about it.
Melissa Klug: Yeah. So, I mean, kind of the boil down is you know, there are different kinds of coaches and there are different kinds of people that you need in your business life. And, you know, I definitely believe in mindset coaching and I believe in, you know, all, all of those kinds of things.
I also am just a big fan of do this, this, this, this, and this here's your formula, a plus B equals C and what I see. And a lot of organizers that I coach is, we know maybe some of the basics of the things we're supposed to be doing, but there are, and I say this with love, a lot of mistakes that and they're there.
And I'm talking about, yeah. And I'm talking about some very simple things sometimes that you can tweak in your business, mostly in your digital life. that can really help transform. And we're talking about some really concrete, you are going to leave with concrete, again, things that you can go change in your business the next day that are going to help those clients find you.
Because that at the end of the day, our whole business exists on how do clients find you? How do total strangers in a random house in a suburb next to you go, Oh, I have this person. She is going to come to my house and she's going to fix my life. There are ways that that happens that can sometimes be overwhelming to people.
So we're going to talk about some of those business details of what to do and what not to do, mostly in your digital business. And by the way, it has nothing to do with social media. I love that. I rely on myself and not on an algorithm.
Ryan Eiseland: That is so good.
Brandie Larsen: Well, and everyone think about this, like TikTok apparently is going to go away, like social media
Ryan Eiseland: is, it's important, but it is not, it's
Melissa Klug: not a good foundation.
Sometimes it goes down. I mean, and the thing that I just want to preach to people is do all you can do all the things if you genuinely love social media. If for some people, it is for you guys. It's a big part of your business. It's important to your business, but I want you to do the other things. I want you to set a foundation.
And that's the other thing is I just want to teach you how to get the foundation. And by the way, this is also this is not for new organizers. Trust me. I see people who have been in business for 10 years who make some of these mistakes. So I'm yeah. Extremely passionate about, you know, just teaching some of those basics that nobody really ever taught us.
Cause a lot of us just threw our businesses together on a wing and a prayer.
Brandie Larsen: Totally. Well, and Melissa, again, what we keep going back to social media is the moving target that like every year at the Summit, we could talk about it and it's different than the year before. Genuinely, what works, I don't even know, I don't think it works now.
And so what are things that we can be doing that we, what are the controllables? Like social media, I can control what I put out there. I can't control what happens with it. But the things that you're teaching us, like these are controllables that you can do that are going to benefit your business.
And I, I love that because that's for anybody.
Melissa Klug: I am when I tell you some of the things I will keep to my proper time limit, but when I tell you some of the things that I want to talk about, I could talk about for the entire length of the full Summit. If you just want a three day Melissa Summit, boring you to death,
Brandie Larsen: we do, we do, but only Ryan and I are invited.
Yeah, all the other people find your own time with Melissa. Yeah, I was going to say people will fight us for that. Yeah. Well, the homecoming queen of the organizing community 100%. I was thinking about that. I'm like, she's our Miss congeniality. It's who she is. Well, we have,
Melissa Klug: I have to check. So one of the reasons that we want to do the, the, one of the reasons that we're doing this podcast right now is because you only have 40 spots left because you are very clear.
You are capped at an attendant and it's like super serious. This is not like a scarcity kind of thing. You're literally like, no, seriously, after these 40 spots, there are no more spots. We cannot squeeze you in. We cannot, there's, there's nothing.
Brandie Larsen: Oh, yeah. There's no squeezing there. I know people say that as a marketing tactic.
I promise you that we are not. We don't have any more. That's that's really all we can do in the building because we've got main stage. We have so many workshops. There is so much happening at the Summit. And so we did not actually realize we were going to need to cap it at 325. And after we went in January and we started listing out the experience we wanted to give people, it was like, okay, this is not going to be a cattle call.
Nobody enjoys that experience. So we've got to cap this to be able to give people. And we want to make sure some things like sound room temperature because those have been a little bit of an issue at some of the Summits that we are solving those issues and making sure the space is, , not far enough away where you can hear the speaker and, you know, we are solving some of those problems.
Melissa Klug: Also, this is just a reminder that in case you think that running an event like this is just a thing that you just throw together in a weekend, it is, it is, there are a lot of things you have to consider.
Brandie Larsen: It's kind of amazing actually how much we work on this throughout the year.
Like it is. Oh yeah.
Melissa Klug: Absolutely. Absolutely.
Brandie Larsen: It's it's a lot. But you know what? I'm I believe in it. I'm excited about it. And the magic of the event is everybody that comes. It's like we work hard and we try and give the outline and the the bones of what makes something great. But when people show up and the energies in the room and people are excited to be there.
It's warm. It's friendly. I've been to other events and this just feels different. I don't know why it's this way, but it is. And I, I feel so proud, even though like I, we always know we have growth and we're doing with the Summit, the same thing we're always saying to people doing your business, get better, improve, you know, hear that honest feedback, don't let it have you in the fetal position in the corner, let it.
Make you better. And that's what we're doing. And so again, I've never been more expectant than I am about this year.
Melissa Klug: Yeah, it's fun. But that's why we wanted to do the podcast because we knew that because there are only a few spots left. We just want people to get in. And like you said, you cannot decide in August that you're going to go
there won't be spots. So Oh,
Brandie Larsen: yeah, no way. If you have never been before, I think a lot of people are worried about just going to an event by themselves. Melissa and I just met up at a conference together.
Ryan had hurt herself, so she ditched me and I was so glad that I had Melissa. We had the best time together, but had I been, it like made me feel what people feel a little bit when you go to an event by yourself. Like I'm going here. I don't really know anybody. And so. I promise you the Summit is a welcoming and friendly place to be if you're on the fence, you're like, I want to go, but I don't know anybody.
I'm nervous. We are connecting people this year in advance. If you are someone that's new to the Summit and you're like, Hey, I want to meet up with somebody. I want to have a dinner plan or have people to hang out with or whatever we are helping connect people in advance. So that just takes some of the apprehension and anxiety that someone might feel.
Melissa Klug: Listen, I, so, the conference that Brandie and I went to, I was there a little bit before she arrived. And so I totally had the, it's the first day of school. You're at a new school. You don't know anyone. I walk into the conference room and I'm like, I'm by myself. I don't know. My friend isn't here.
And it is, it is scary. Right. And I mean, like I have that and I'm, I'm pretty comfortable talking to random strangers and whatever. Like we all have that anxiety. Right. So just embrace it. Please do not stop that from coming because it is a welcoming environment. You can find me. I will talk to you.
I will talk to anyone. Now, yeah, that's what I
Ryan Eiseland: always say. Someone find me. I will happily sit, talk to you, you know, that I love nothing. I actually do better one on one than
Brandie Larsen: in big crowds. So I am not a big crowds person. Find me and we can, we can hang out.
Melissa Klug: I will also say as a certified extroverted introvert, I am very, I'm actually pretty introverted.
I like at the end of the night, going back to my own room and cocooning and whatever. I will say and I mean this, it takes a lot for me to be like, okay, I'm going to a thing like going to how to Summit is a pleasure. I am excited to go. You go to the event and you are genuinely happy to be there.
The energy is amazing. Like it's just, it feels good to be there. And I say that as someone who I would rather not leave my house ever
Brandie Larsen: You and Ryan are kind of the same people, which is why I get along so well with both of you because I've never felt better about myself.
Thank you.
Melissa Klug: No, that's why I pretended to be her when people were like, are the sisters here? Yes. Right. Yeah, we
Brandie Larsen: are. We are like she wears glasses. Yep. She does now.
Melissa Klug: Yep.
Brandie Larsen: Absolutely. I love that extroverted introvert because that's what I am. I can
Ryan Eiseland: be very extroverted, but I am actually very
Melissa Klug: much an introvert.
I, I refer to the dark days of COVID as my ideal lifestyle when you were not allowed to leave your house like legally, that was totally okay with me. So,
Brandie Larsen: Perfect. The government is on my side now. Perfect. Yeah,
Melissa Klug: finally. Okay, so give us the details. September 20th through 22nd.
Brandie Larsen: So Friday night Friday night it's from 5 30 to seven, which is like just the come and go.
And then Saturday and Sunday, nine to five. And for people that are traveling, cause I feel like we get to ask this a lot so when are people traveling? A lot of people will fly in Friday, which is the beauty of Austin because it's more centrally located. You can get there and still attend an event on the same day with.
You know, a time change if you're coming from the West. And so a lot of people fly in Friday and some people will stay over and leave Monday. Some people leave on Sunday night. We're actually leaving on Sunday night cause we're coming in on Thursday. But Yeah, it's just over the weekend and there are hotel deals through our website.
There's special rates and yeah, those are the dates. It is going to be the best where the hotels are that we're offering are about 13 minutes from the Saturday, Sunday venue. And so a lot of people rent a car and just hop in together. People, Uber people on our Facebook group. We have details of people want to meet up and figure out ride shares and things like that.
So, you know, the great part about a city like Austin, you're not going to have a hard time meeting an Uber. You're not, it's, it's, it's such a tourist destination. It's a great and easy place to travel to. All right.
Melissa Klug: I want to say a couple of things too, and this is important to me. So the first thing is it's 500, 500, which is.
I am telling you right now, the steal of a lifetime. What you get for that investment. And I understand you're going to have some travel and hotel, but I'm telling you, if you are talking about the value and the ROI that you get from something like this, like you said, you walk away with one idea from three days.
Trust me, you get more than one idea. If you don't get more than one idea just from me, then I have not done it.
Brandie Larsen: We are offended. Yeah.
Melissa Klug: But I'm just saying 500. I, I know about a lot of conferences that are out there and I know how much they charge and it is A lot of multiples more than that. So please just think about it's an amazing investment.
And the other thing I'm going to talk about an investment is I know a lot of people that are organizers are moms take the time for yourself. I know that it seems like, Oh my gosh, three days away from my family and I have to leave and I have to get childcare and I have to, I get it.
Please do this for yourself and don't feel guilty about it. You are doing it for yourself, it is an amazing thing.
Ryan Eiseland: Yeah, absolutely. And you're going to make more money after you do it.
Brandie Larsen: You are going to leave with ways to make more money. We did last year at the Summit, our own event, we're like, we changed some things and it has genuinely impacted our bank account.
Ryan Eiseland: Yeah,
Brandie Larsen: absolutely.
Melissa Klug: So ROI is something that I care a lot about. And I'm telling you, I would not tell you to go spend the money and do this if I did not really stand by it. So I am so excited. I really can't wait.
Brandie Larsen: It's going to be so great. It's I want it to be here tomorrow, but I'm not ready for it to be here.
Tomorrow.
Melissa Klug: We won't, we won't get it here tomorrow. Cause it wouldn't be very good if it were tomorrow because you have things to do.
Brandie Larsen: Yeah, exactly. And things do. So Melissa, I'm just thankful. Thank you for being a believer in the Summit and a believer in what it it's all about. We're super grateful for you.
You have such influence. And so just having like your stamp of approval on it means everything to us. And we know that if something were not good, you would tell us. Yes. Because you have good relationships. So this is not like a, a blind stamp of approval. So I don't believe in that much. Yeah.
Melissa Klug: Well, I appreciate you right back.
And I'm just, I'm grateful to be your friend and I'm grateful to be a supporter and I'm excited to be a speaker and we have my last count. Is we have 62 of the people from my Inspired Organizer® group that are going and then a couple more were signing up. I told them they got to get in the spots so you can come unbelievable loveliest people that I know.
I am excited to meet new people because you said a lot of new people. Maybe you said it earlier. I don't know if we said it before we were recording. You said there are a lot of people coming. We
Brandie Larsen: have a huge number of new people coming, which is So fun because that in itself every year, it just changes it up, you know?
So yeah, there are new speakers. There are some returning speakers. There are some wham, bam surprises it's going to be great.
Melissa Klug: Look, every once in a while with the location, I am sworn to secrecy, and I hold that very dear. I did not spill to a single person about Texas, because trust me, I had people that were like, I really want to go, but I don't know if I can go to Ohio again, and I was just like, hmm, yeah, okay.
But listen, you did know
Brandie Larsen: before you knew about Erin calling us before. Yeah.
Melissa Klug: Yes. So I, I have, I've kept the secrets in the vault, but what I'm trying to say is every once in a while, I know some secrets and they're really good. So just
Brandie Larsen: on this podcast, you found out some other secrets that actually literally no one else knows besides Ryan and I were talking
Melissa Klug: about.
And I will release the record.
Brandie Larsen: I wouldn't even blame you. I'm like, are we getting What a good business model.
Melissa Klug: You can reach me at my Venmo. Just kidding. So is there anything that we did not cover?
Brandie Larsen: Well, do we tell people where they can sign up?
Melissa Klug: Oh my gosh, we totally do not.
Brandie Larsen: Go to the website howtoSummit. org. You can sign up for Obviously get your ticket, get the next level, which is a hundred dollars. And then you can also sign up for the seven figure earner meetup. That is free. It is just, we, we need you to sign up because we want to know how many people are coming so we can accommodate everyone.
And
Ryan Eiseland: we're going to
Brandie Larsen: say something about the Latina leadership lunch.
Yeah, I didn't advise, you know, I hadn't mentioned it yet. So we're doing a leadership lunch with Estafania Mora and she has a huge organizing business in Ecuador.
She's done things that just, you know, Literally no one in her country has done. And just wanting to talk, you know, a lot, some of the Latinas doing business in America there's just some dynamics and some, just some things they face
and so the encouragement from her and the advice from her and the wisdom on how to make this business successful I think is going to be really powerful. The luncheon, there's no extra price to it. It's just like a neat way to connect that group. So I'm, I'm really excited about that.
Melissa Klug: That's awesome. I love that, we're really recognizing we have a lot of different people in this industry and we have people that have challenges that we might not all understand.
And so I just, I love that. Well, I will link in the show notes. If you're watching this on YouTube, it will be in the description. It will be in the show notes, which if you've never looked at show notes from a podcast, there's actually a lot of stuff down there. So just click, click all the words and there are links and all sorts of things.
You just click. Click and go. You will also be available on the pro organizer studio website, proorganizerstudio.com/links. You can find all the things, but it is howtosummit.Org and the word to is spelled out T O and you can go there and register and we're going to watch those spots tick down because there aren't any left.
That is my goal. Thank you, ladies. Thank you, Brandie and Ryan. Or should we say Ryan a brain? I feel like Brandie always gets good first. She does. I always do. I'm actually the one that always puts her first. She's the
Ryan Eiseland: older sister. Yeah. Well, it's like, it's like
Brandie Larsen: a silent roast from Ryan. It's like people look at her.
She's elevating her sister and deep down. She's no, she's older. And I want everybody to know it. I don't know. That's We are very strongly in birth order in our family,
Ryan Eiseland: and
Melissa Klug: that's, I feel like you need a couple's name though. You know, Angelina and Could be Randy. We could be Randy. Yeah. I feel like I want it to be more exciting than that.
So I'm gonna workshop that. Oh,
Brandie Larsen: Brian, work. Work on that, Melissa, and all your spare time, please. Okay, I'll do
Melissa Klug: it. So, yeah,
Brandie Larsen: it's like when I boss Ryan around, if anybody looks at me, Ryan's this has been like, this isn't weird. She's been doing this for 40 years. So it just.
Melissa Klug: I had a friend that my brother and I have been chatting a lot lately.
And I had a friend who my brother and I are really close. And I had a friend who is an only child who sent me an article. And she's she just said that you should send this to your brother. And it was like people with siblings, extend each other's lifetimes. And I was like, I'm pretty sure my brother would tell you.
I've probably lessened his lifetime expectancy is probably lower because of me.
Brandie Larsen: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Let's depend on the sibling. Oh, I think maybe only children have it there, but
Melissa Klug: I'm just, I'm grateful to have you guys. And I'm grateful to be the fake fakes, other organizing sister.
Brandie Larsen: Oh, a hundred percent. You are, there's
Melissa Klug: another sister, but like I'm the fake organizing sister.
Brandie Larsen: Well, and you're going to get to meet the other sister. Cause she's coming. Oh, I'm so excited. I have our families are all coming. Like my kids, my son, that's away at college. He won't come, but like our kids, everybody's coming.
Melissa Klug: Oh, fun. We get the whole family. That's exciting.
Brandie Larsen: I know it's, it is going to be exciting or it's going to be very revealing and telling. So they leave good or it's going to humiliate us. It could really go two ways here.
Ryan Eiseland: Yeah. Brandie's daughter is out by the pool and.
Brandie Larsen: And I just want to laugh on our, on my text of all the kids. Brody told me he's now actually headed to your house at noon also.
So, All my kids over.
Melissa Klug: This is amazing. They're all like the
Brandie Larsen: college kids that apparently, I don't know when they do education, but
Melissa Klug: I want to fly out because it sounds like it's a lot of fun. So
Brandie Larsen: it absolutely is. You guys are the best. You're the best. I love you.
Melissa Klug: Love you right back.
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