207 | Tackling Panic Moments, and How To Sustain Your Pro Organizing Business: Day 4 of the Week of Cabri Carpenter!


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Hey Pro Organizers, this is Melissa Klug and you are listening to the Pro Organizer Studio Podcast. Professional organizing changed my entire life. After 20 years of working at huge companies, I started working for myself, opened an organizing business and grew it to six figures. And now I spend all day every day here at Pro Organizer Studio teaching professional organizers around the world how to grow the business of their dreams.

I'm so excited that you're here and I am ready to get started.

Melissa Klug: Okay. It is the end, the last episode of our wonderful week of Cabri Carpenter if you have missed the other three episodes please go back and listen to them. But I wanted to thank Cabri for being a huge part of what we do every single day at Pro Organizer Studio and for sharing her wisdom with us I am going to do a little bit of a loop of part of the last podcast, because we. Move that into what we're talking about today. Basically, we're going to start by talking about how you can not panic in your business. I know it's hard, but sometimes, uh, sometimes we reach those panic moments and Cabri, and I are talking about it. 

I appreciate you listening to the podcast we adore you. And if there's anything we can do for you, please let us know. hello@proorganizerstudio.com. All right. Here we go.


Melissa Klug: But have you seen that reel? That is, it's actually one of my favorite things. It's someone who's man, I'm just really I'm exhausted. And then they're like, well, have you had enough water today?

No. Have you exercised? No. Have you slept? No. Have you eaten? Well, no. It's like this series of things. What could you be possibly doing that is contributing to this? That's one that I will say too, is when people say I'm slow, it's the slowest time I've ever had. When you start asking have you done this?

Have you done this? Have you done this? Have you done this? They're like, no, I haven't done any of those things. So we also have more time than we think we do. To be doing some of those things that we are just sitting here in a panic mode, which I understand, but you're in a panic mode. And so your body is not going Hey, there are some things I could do to help solve this problem.

And that's one of the, that's one of our jobs to push people on. Yes. Have you done the things side 

Cabri Carpenter: caveat? Because I would not be doing my job with this podcast if I don't at least mention this. We teach organizers how not to panic when those slow times come. Correct. How to set up package pricing or proposal pricing or different ways to price yourself so that you can create a little bit of a nest egg if you randomly get sick, if your team randomly gets sick, if you have a family emergency.

And those are things that, again, not being talked about out in the real world or in the business world of it does not always have to be a Panic in those situations, you can create systems where you are selling packages that you might not work until January, like in Kim's situation, but she's still getting paid in December.

Yes. There's opportunities for those. And so, sorry, I had to throw that in there because I like that. 

Melissa Klug: That's a good segue, actually, because what I will frequently tell people is take one day to panic and just have a freak out. Okay. Take a day. Go take yourself out and get dinner or like whatever you need to do have the freak out day.

But then we're going to have a, then we're going to say, what are we going to do to go fight this? We are never, ever going to have a time where we go, yeah, that's tough for you. Good luck. I had way back in one of my corporate days, I worked for this guy. Who he was the vice president of the entire division, his job was to do everything in the division and you would bring him a problem, a legitimate problem.

And he would look at you and he would listen and he go, and then at the end he would laugh. This was 100 percent of the time he'd laugh and he go, I just don't know how you get yourself in those situations. Good luck with that. And you were dismissed. He never helped. Ever. That is not what we do in our group.

We are going to be like, totally understand why you feel that way. Here is what we want you to think about. Here are actions we suggest that you take. Here are the things like, we're never going to go, good luck with that problem. And that is. That's one of the things we wanted to talk about is there are a lot of people that don't realize we have this podcast and a lot of people listen to the podcast and they don't know like we offer a lot of different things to help people in their business because we don't want people to be on the struggle bus.

We do not want you to not have clients coming in. We do not want you to be like, what am I supposed to be doing here? What, how am I supposed to do X, Y, Z thing? We help you with the X, Y, Z things. It's really important to us. And it's 

Cabri Carpenter: again, this is probably one of the things I can see you're passionate about.

It's exciting. It's exciting to have feedback with a business owner who may be doing things differently than you would and you get to say, Hey, that's a good idea, but have you done it this way? Or have you made sure you're planting your seeds and communicating the value that you bring for this? Or maybe you have a service that is super niche unique to you.

Let's call it like Homeschooling moms for dummies. Like moms who are homeschooling, but managing a household. Like you may have this super simple thing, but you never talk about it on your website, in your email newsletter, on social media. And we're just like, Hey, promote this. Put it out there.

If we don't see it when we look at your website or your social media channels, none of your potential clients are seeing it. And this could be a very quick influx of some cash and teach them how to do the thing or do the zoom call with them or give them a digital course or there's so many opportunities to make money.

Melissa Klug: So many. Going back to talking about who you are, and we will help you think through all of these things. Are you a mom of a kid with special needs? There is room out there for you. Are you an ADHD mom? Are you an ADHD non mom? This is another thing that's really important. Maybe you are, we talk a lot about serving moms in this group maybe you are not a mom, and maybe you are not married, and maybe you are not, all of these things that you think everybody is.

You need to talk about that too, because there are a lot of people out there that are like, hey I want the person who is very aligned with where I am. I don't want the organizer that's going to come talk to me about my kids and their Legos, whatever that looks like for you. It is very much wide open to very specific niches that you have.

 But you've got to talk about who you are. It's your secret sauce. 

Cabri Carpenter: It's the magic that makes you who you are and your business what it is. And it's going to be the thing that past website copy and social media graph sites and all the other things, that's going to be the thing that they're like, yep, take my money.

You're hired. 

Melissa Klug: And that is why we do what we do. And that's why we want people to know a little bit more. We're doing this partially because we want people to know we offer a lot of these services, whatever you are struggling with. And I'm going to talk a little bit more about that in a minute, but I'm going to talk a little bit more about how you can do this in your organizing business.

We are passionate about helping you find a way out of it. And we're going to do that with a combination of ideas, but it's also going to be, like you said, holding people accountable, a little bit of tough love, a little bit of, have you thought about this? Have you thought about this? You are not going to be alone.

And that's one thing that I think is incredibly important is you have got to know that you have people that are out there on your side that want you. So I might want you to succeed more than you want you to succeed. That is a 

Cabri Carpenter: Real thing that I sometimes have to detach myself from. When we are working with specific organizers who you're coaching and training and you're walking through the trenches with them, and you have to step out of the trench, shower off, and you'd be like, They're going to do what they're going to do.

I have helped as far as I can help. I can stand here and love on them from the sidelines. That's the real thing. 

Melissa Klug: Absolutely. So, I am very grateful though. Like even if there are people who decide that all they ever want to do is listen to the podcast and they, you know, they don't need any additional help.

They just love listening to the podcast. I'm so grateful for everyone that pays attention and that are just trying to make their businesses. Better like legitimately, like I get emails from people that are like, Oh my gosh, I just love the podcast so much. And first of all, thank you for sending those because every once in a while, you just think I might be talking to myself.

And so it was really, it's very enjoyable to hear. There are people who like really appreciate hearing what we have to say, but. If you are in a place where you feel like, Hey, I need that extra level, whether you've been in business five years, we have people in our group that have been in business for 20 years and still are learning and growing in our group.

If you are brand new there is a place for you. And Cabri and I are happy to talk to you live. I rarely talk to people on the phone, but I will talk to people. I don't think the phone should be used as a phone. That's another podcast, but I love talking to people about give me the lay of the land at what you're dealing with.

And let me figure out if I have a way to help you because like I said, I just want people to succeed and I think both of us, my life has been changed because of organizing my professional life, my personal life, all of those things. And I am just so passionate about talking to people about if this is something that is in your heart and you really feel passionate about.

I want you to figure out a way to do it.

The end. 

Cabri Carpenter: The end. No, we're not done. Okay. Just kidding, not the end. JK. You don't get to call the end. I'm calling the end today. Sorry about you. Okay, fine. Okay, so we talked about growth and evolution. Yes. For Organizer Studio. 

So, let's talk about, and I'm gonna let you Be the storyteller here, but let's talk about, we've talked about just things in organizing industry as a whole, but like, where is Pro Organizer Studio, Inspired Organizer, the Organizing Essentials course, the Google My Business, sorry, Google Business 

Melissa Klug: Manager.

They shouldn't have changed the name, the new name. It's so hard. It's hard to say and I don't like it. Let's talk about 

Cabri Carpenter: where Pro Organizer Studio as a whole is and some of the other little pieces of that, what that looks like over, over the next year or so. 

Melissa Klug: Yeah. So a lot of people find us because of the podcast, we have people that, you know, the podcast has been their entree into, organizing or thinking about an organizing business and all of that, but pro organizer studio.

So the podcast started in 2019, but pro organizer studio started with Jen in 2016. She had an organizing business and she saw, there was a gap of education about how to start. This really great business in a great industry. And so she was really the OG of teaching. But Jen started Pro Organizer Studio. She had a small set of students in the beginning.

It has grown really quite tremendously over the years, which we are so grateful for people that put the trust in us, but we have to evolve just like any business. And now I am taking the mantle of making sure that we can move into the next 10 years of the organizing industry and do that in a way that really helps women figure out what kind of business they want. So it used to just be that Pro Organizer Studio had one thing and it was Inspired Organizer

that was the original that's it's our signature. But Inspired Organizer is a business building course. It teaches you a system for growing and organizing business. That was always the one product that we had. One of the reasons that Jen hired me originally was because I have a very particular passion for actually organizing with clients.

I am so into, I love talking about organizing. I love actually organizing. But one of my first jobs was to start something called Organizing Essentials, and that was something that people had asked for a long time. So it's not about business building. It is just about what the heck do I do when the client opens the door.

And there is pure chaos behind that door. We all know those people. So that is something that I am super, super proud of because it was really something that I was able to get. It was part of a creative outlet for me. But really it was something that people had been asking us for a long time is I want an organizing course.

I want you to teach me what do I do with clients. How do I do certain things? How do I design a closet? What if a client asked me to do this? What if a client needs me to organize this? We really get into the deep. Details of actually organizing. Then we also know that there are other parts of organizing that need education.

So one of the things that people really struggle with is their CRM. So we teach people, if you want to use HoneyBook, but you are like, Hey. Remember, we might not be super techie, or we just want to do that little easy done for you button. We will teach you how to do your CRM from top to bottom.

We also are starting a lot of new things with, I just called the mini courses. So the first one that I tried out was about Google business profile, and 19 course that taught you every single thing you could possibly need to know. About Google business profile and how to use it in your business. So what we want is a whole suite of products, a whole suite of things that will help you with your organizing business, whether you need a little bit of help or whether you want a lot more help and a lot more support and a community behind you.

So we are trying to learn and grow what our audience needs. And I am always open to emails, DMs, anything like that. Talking about Hey, I love this, but have you ever thought about this? Because our job is to serve the organizing industry and make sure that we are offering everything out there that helps you with your business.

 I feel like I'm doing a disservice if I don't mention this, but the ways that you have created the many courses, they can kind of build on each other as new things come up. If Google completely shifts tomorrow, what that looks like, or they decide to make you Google business profile.

Cabri Carpenter: A social media platform with a feed and like they're already kind of pushing towards that. I have no doubt that you will be on the cutting edge of here's the new updates. Here's what they changed. Here's what this looks like. Here's how you can use, utilize it in your business. Here's how you can optimize it to find new clients.

And I think that those things are really important because you pay attention to those things and you know them, you are techie, you are very techie, and you're always on the cutting edge of whatever that new next thing might be, whether it's a platform or a CRM, or even just a strategy and technique, like I have seen you talk about something in the group, and then two weeks later, there's a module in the course talking about XYZ, that maybe we had not ever heard of.

Thought about to talk about previously, you know, and so it covers like ways to grow your business. It covers that people aspect of what do I do when I'm actually standing there? And maybe this is the first client and I don't know what I'm actually supposed to do, but it also covers the grow a team at a CRM, how to build my business, how it is an over encompassing resource when it comes to ways that organizers can continue to grow and thrive.

And I think too, like it's important to mention. You give so, so, so much free advice, whether that is like Instagram DMs, or in the Facebook group, or on the podcast, like you give so much, and if I wish I don't have a magic ball, but if I had just like a set of binoculars that I could hand to somebody and be like, just take a peek inside the paid stuff.

If you're getting all this for free take a look at that and think about how much value is there. 

Melissa Klug:  I don't gatekeep anything in our, inside our group. There's nothing that's gate example, I love doing presentations. I would talk to a rutabaga about organizing. Okay I don't know why I picked rutabaga because I'm not sure I could pick one of those out of the grocery store.

But anyway, I'm really passionate about that. And so there are people that are in our group. They're like, Oh my gosh, I was just asked to speak at a thing. I don't even know what to do. I'm like, here is a whole presentation that I have already put together for you. You can use all the slides. I was someone on their social media the other day, like I said, Oh, I'm giving a presentation.

I go, Oh, that's my slide. Literally you just take my stuff and you can just repurpose it rather than rebuilding it on your own. And that's the biggest thing for me is especially about Inspired Organizer I feel so strongly that like you only have to have one client that you ever get from one client pays for a lifetime, literal lifetime membership in our course, and you get things all the time.

So my goal would be that you repay that this course repays you so many times you can't even do that math. Because you, whatever it is that you are needing, someone is available to give it to you. The other day someone gave, and it's not just me giving things. Someone was asking the other day about Hey, I really want to focus on realtors.

I, I really want to do X, Y, Z, this presentation for them. Someone goes, I have a presentation that I give realtors. I'll send it to you. Just send me your email address. And 10 people are like, Hey, can you send it to me? She did. And I just think that's really beautiful. Like the people in the group are so giving of their advice, their time, their links to organizing supplies.

You know, we're not gatekeeping, you know, the best organizing supplies. We're not gatekeeping anything in our group. And that is one thing that I just absolutely love about it. 

Cabri Carpenter: I agree. And I, so it's been. We haven't even talked, we have not even scratched the surface on the community aspect. We've talked about this Facebook group, but when I say the Facebook group is active and constantly people are posting new things, whether it's, Hey, look over my website and tell me if you think I should fix something, or, Hey, I have this client that has red flags.

How do I tell them I don't want to work with them? Or, Hey, my. Sales have gone down. I don't know what's wrong, and maybe I'm doing consults wrong. There's so much information in the group that is a complete separate entity from the course itself. But there is power in community, and I don't know what episode it is, but Sarah and I did episode It's early.

Yeah, it's an early episode. It's years, but part of the reason that we even did that episode is because we were matched as accountability partners. So, it's another aspect of the community that you can get matched with somebody who is in the same stage of business or same niche or you can get grouped with somebody who will help hold you accountable and that to us was Huge.

Melissa Klug:  I think that's another thing that helps with your longevity is finding people. Who know what you're going through the good things and the tough things. Yes. And that community is seriously. It's so, and by the way, we do fun things too. Like on Fridays, I like to ask people, tell me good things that happened to you this week.

Even if it's just I had a good cup of coffee today. Like it does not have to be the biggest client I've ever had my entire life. Right. But then there are people who share this was my first 10, 000 a month. Or I just had my first consult with a total stranger, someone who wasn't a friend or a family member.

You know, we just, we celebrate big things and we celebrate small things because they're all freaking important. They're all important. I 

Cabri Carpenter: really think like the community piece of it is huge. Like the modules and the actual education is a big thing. And that's the piece that people want. That's the piece.

That you're gonna sell and put a price on. That's what they pay for, right? Exactly. But the added benefit of the group and the community that's your thing that's priceless. You couldn't put a number on that because that's how 

Melissa Klug: important it is. Also, we're fun. I mean we are so 

Cabri Carpenter: much fun.

We're so much fun. I was telling a really personal story in the group the other day and everybody was dying. I don't want to share it on here, but this will not make this a family friendly podcast, but it was just so funny because everybody was like, Oh my gosh, totally been there. Or they're like, Oh my God, how did you handle that?

And I'm like, right, this is what I mean. You get. The struggles behind running a business, being an organizer, the things you see with clients in their home, like y'all get it. And so it's good to have those people that you can come back to and bounce ideas off of, or ask, you know, help for, or just have a community with.

Melissa Klug: We also do a live zoom once a month. So if you have something that you need live in person, like face to face coaching on, we do that too. And sometimes you get some great stories from that. I will send people, if you email me and you want to see an example of one, I will be happy to send you one.

But we had one I can't remember if this is for organizing essentials or IO now that I come to think of it, but we do a zoom once a month for both courses. And there was a woman who talked about, she had a police officer that was supervising her organizing client because they were getting divorced and they needed supervision.

And I'm like whoa. We're gonna have to tell please, let's back up. Rewind. You are glossing over a lot. Let's tell that story. Right. So we were able to talk about it, by the way, had a happy ending. Everything was fine. But there is nothing when I say there is nothing that you can bring to that group that we will not talk about and talk through.

Anything, bring it up and we will be there for you and we might, like you said, we might care about the outcome more than you do. 

Cabri Carpenter: Oh, multiple times, you know, in some months where I like see a post and then a couple of days later I'm like, I don't even know what happened there. And I have to go back and find it and be like, hello, can you please update us?

Can we please have an update? I need a story update. I'm very curious. I need to know all the things. 

Melissa Klug: Yes. I love knowing all the things. Side note, I really want to start, this would not be proper, but I really want to start a podcast that is all anonymous of like people's client stories. You couldn't do it 

Cabri Carpenter: anonymously because we know your 

Melissa Klug: voice.

Yeah. I'd have to, I'd have to do something different, but I want people to come on and tell their craziest client stories because there are some good ones out there, man. There is. There is. This is a never a dull moment kind of work in a great way. We 

Cabri Carpenter: gotta add it to our list of future things that we, you know, continually 

Melissa Klug: have to do.

That I don't have time for. 

Cabri Carpenter: I know. We always have these conversations of Oh, we should do this. 

Melissa Klug: Just kidding. None of us have time for that. You know, only if we didn't need to sleep. So, this is. It's, you know, and we want to come on here. This is not a sales pitch by any stretch of the imagination.

This is just a, we want people, you know, we've done a lot of work of, relaunching rebranding re, you know, this is kind of a renaissance of Pro Organizer Studio as we move into the next few years. And we just want to tell people we have resources out there. So if there's something that you are struggling with.

Come to us. Ask some questions because we have things that will help you and we want you to succeed and we want you to have that ROI because we are financially savvy. We care about your finances. We want you to have successful businesses. I want people to pay themselves. I want people to have the goals of, whatever their financial goals are or their personal goals are for their business.

I want you to go succeed in those and I want to help you get there. So. so much.

Cabri Carpenter: I don't think you could wrap that up any better. 

Melissa Klug: Well, thanks. See, she's a good hype woman, you guys. You need her on your side. 

Cabri Carpenter: I am super glad that you mentioned not a sales pitch, but also you, I'm not lying, you give so much information for free I would be doing you and other organizers a disservice if I did not be like, Hey, you need this.

It has so much value in it. 

Melissa Klug: Thank you. I don't know how to argue. We do. I mean, I teach people how to sell things, right? Like I want you to sell your organizing business, not sell. I want you to get clients is what I'm trying to say. I also would not be doing my job if I didn't say, I also have things that I sell that can help you.

Yes. Just like organizing services help people. And trust me, I'm a lot less expensive than organizing services. A lot. True. I charge a lot less money for my services than you do for yours. 

Cabri Carpenter: So. Yes. Absolutely. Absolutely. 

Melissa Klug: So the wrap up is Pro Organizer Studio has lots of things to offer, lots of changes coming.

Cabri and I are going to be out there talking about it on social media. We are going to be talking about it all over the place and we are open. For questions, comments unsolicited advice, feedback phone calls, DMs, emails, whatever it looks like, we are here because we want you to succeed. 

Cabri Carpenter: No phone calls, but all the other things are open and available.

And honestly, too, this is another thing of sometimes we have those people who have zero interest in. Purchasing a course or maybe they're not going to become an organizer. They just really love organizing. They will ask some of the like most off the wall questions that us as organizers were like, well, man, we haven't thought about that.

Like we need to create a resource for that. Or we need to, you know, talk about this a little bit more. And so even feedback kind of from the outside world, whether you're on the fence, whether you're already an organizer, like. The feedback, the questions you ask, like those give us more insight into the life of an organizer and ways that might need to be connected to some help or some resource or some missing gap.

And so I love the feedback. I love going back and looking through comments. I love when some of those people that come on strong and you're like, I like the passion. Let's talk about it. Let's do it. 

Melissa Klug: Absolutely. Well, and our job is to serve you.

And so there are, and we can't possibly know every situation that's out there. So if you have something that you are going through, please bring it to us and just say, Hey, I've never heard you guys talk about blah. I had someone the other day, pitch me something on a podcast, as a podcast idea. And she goes, I just never hear you talk about this thing.

And I go, cool. How about you come on and talk about it? She's Oh, no, I didn't mean me. And I'm like, well, too late. It's you. Be careful. 

Cabri Carpenter: You start offering up advice. We're also going to make you be the one to give it to us. Right. But 

Melissa Klug: I appreciated that because she was just saying I always hear you talk about this, but I never hear you talk about this.

And I go, you're absolutely right. So let's talk about it. So we are we are really open to hearing what the people that listen to us want to talk about. And I really mean this from the bottom of my heart. I am not just saying this. I appreciate people who listen to my voice because sometimes I go, why does anyone listen to my voice?

 But I appreciate people that tune in every single week and that really just want to be better in their business. And so any way that we can help you, we want to be there. It's a great ending. Now, can I say the end? Now you can say the end. You said you were going to say the end. So 

Cabri Carpenter: no, I don't think I want to.

You summed it up so well a second ago that I was like, there's no need for me here. 

Melissa Klug: Okay. Well, we look forward to seeing more of Cabri. If you want to connect with her, she is Minimize Then Organize. She is quite, she and her team. Not just her, because you have hilarious people on your team too. They are just lovely on social media and I am just excited to see what you have going on in your organizing business this year too.

And I'm happy to have a, happy to have a like ringside seat for it. Oh, 

Cabri Carpenter: same in reverse. I can be on the ringside seat of this, all of this. 

Melissa Klug: I have had so much fun on the week of Cabri and I hope that you did as well.

I am very fortunate to get Cabri every day in our Inspired Organizer group. 

And you can too, we would love to coach you in your business. Whether you have been a business for 15 minutes or 15 years, we have wonderful things for you. Please contact me at hello@proorganizerstudio.com. If you would like to have a zoom with me about what kind of things we can do to help your business. You can join us for a brand new workshop also called How Professional Organizers Can Get Clients Without Using Social Media. That is at poroadmap.com.. All right. 

Thank you as always for listening to the Pro Organizer Studio Podcast. And I hope that you have an absolutely spectacular day. 


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206 | Simple is BETTER + Working with ADHD clients with Cabri Carpenter of Minimize Then Organize