WEBVTT - Get more organized, with Laurie Palau 0:00:02.960 --> 0:00:09.240 Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning, 0:00:10.320 --> 0:00:15.560 This is Laura, Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:17.799 episode is going to be a longer one part of 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:20.680 the series where I interview fascinating people about how they 0:00:20.720 --> 0:00:23.520 take their days from great to awesome and any advice 0:00:23.560 --> 0:00:26.159 they have for the rest of us. So today I 0:00:26.160 --> 0:00:29.000 am delighted to welcome Lauri Palau to the show. She 0:00:29.200 --> 0:00:32.880 is the host of the Organized Life podcast, author of 0:00:32.920 --> 0:00:37.080 the book Hot Mess, owner of the business Simply Be Organized. So, Laurie, 0:00:37.200 --> 0:00:38.200 welcome to the show. 0:00:38.960 --> 0:00:41.560 Thank you so much. It's a pleasure to be here. 0:00:41.760 --> 0:00:44.080 I love sitting on the other side of a podcast. 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:47.320 Most absolutely, it's a totally different experience. So why don't 0:00:47.320 --> 0:00:49.159 you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself? 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:53.360 Okay, well, I'll try to give it the quick, short version. 0:00:53.760 --> 0:00:56.960 So I'm a mom to two grown ish kids. I 0:00:57.000 --> 0:01:00.760 have a almost twenty two year old and year old, 0:01:00.920 --> 0:01:05.080 so kind of in a new season of. 0:01:05.040 --> 0:01:05.880 Life for my youngest. 0:01:05.920 --> 0:01:09.560 Just graduated college and so that's bringing on a whole 0:01:09.600 --> 0:01:15.160 different type of mothering. And then professionally, I run a 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:18.360 company called Simply Be Organized, where I write teach speak 0:01:18.959 --> 0:01:23.160 all about decluttering all parts of your life, whether it's 0:01:23.200 --> 0:01:26.160 the physical stuff in your home, whether it's more of 0:01:26.200 --> 0:01:31.480 the productivity side of things where you're reducing things in 0:01:31.520 --> 0:01:35.720 your calendar, or just kind of relational things that are 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:40.360 the mental block of keeping you stuck where you are. 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:44.760 And yeah, and I have a I had a podcast 0:01:44.840 --> 0:01:49.640 for eight years, and I just made the decision that 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:53.880 when we talk about editing our lives and things that 0:01:54.120 --> 0:01:58.200 you know we need to make changes, we just made 0:01:58.240 --> 0:02:01.680 the decision that we are going to be ending our show, 0:02:01.720 --> 0:02:05.560 which is scary and exciting all the things. 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:07.320 Also, that's kind of. 0:02:07.520 --> 0:02:10.320 Where I am personally and professionally. 0:02:10.480 --> 0:02:13.200 And how did you get involved in the organizing business? 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:17.040 So it was really by happenstance. I tell the story. 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:20.440 It was very anticlimactic in a sense that I was 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:23.160 just always somebody that was very organized. When my kids 0:02:23.160 --> 0:02:26.440 were little, my husband traveled a ton, so I had 0:02:26.480 --> 0:02:30.160 to create systems and strategies for my own sanity. That 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:33.480 was it, And I guess my brain just works that way. 0:02:33.840 --> 0:02:37.680 And my past life, I was an executive recruiter and 0:02:37.760 --> 0:02:40.960 I loved working with people. I always liked working with 0:02:41.000 --> 0:02:44.240 people and finding out what motivated them, And in my 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:47.960 old world, it was although what motivated them for changing 0:02:48.000 --> 0:02:48.639 their careers? 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:50.600 Was it freedom? Was it? 0:02:51.000 --> 0:02:51.919 Status? 0:02:52.200 --> 0:02:52.800 Was it? You know? 0:02:52.880 --> 0:02:57.079 Fill in the blank. And in the recession of two 0:02:57.160 --> 0:03:00.560 thousand and eight two thousand and nine, much of my 0:03:01.160 --> 0:03:04.959 client work was impacted and a friend of mine who's 0:03:04.960 --> 0:03:08.680 an interior designer, made the recommendation of like, hey, you 0:03:08.760 --> 0:03:12.800 might want to try doing this professionally. And I really 0:03:12.840 --> 0:03:17.400 took the skills that I was using with recruiting and 0:03:17.520 --> 0:03:20.280 just applied them in a different realm. And so I 0:03:20.320 --> 0:03:22.639 started working with people to find out about their motivation 0:03:23.600 --> 0:03:26.360 for holding onto things or wanting to get rid of things. 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:29.200 And I found that there was a lot of overlap 0:03:29.639 --> 0:03:31.079 in the work that I was doing. 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:33.600 It was just showing up differently. 0:03:34.240 --> 0:03:37.680 Yeah, And one of the things you talk about, I 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:41.080 love the big phrase on your website, it's not about 0:03:41.120 --> 0:03:44.560 the bins. So for those of us who think that organization, 0:03:44.680 --> 0:03:47.600 you know, we like our bins, perhaps why is it 0:03:47.640 --> 0:03:48.480 not about the bins? 0:03:50.240 --> 0:03:54.280 Because for me, and this is where I always put 0:03:54.320 --> 0:03:57.520 the disclaimer that I pretend I'm a fake therapist, I'm 0:03:57.520 --> 0:03:58.000 really not. 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:00.080 So with all and. 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:04.280 The utmost respect to anybody that has letters after their name. 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:04.840 I do not. 0:04:05.600 --> 0:04:08.040 But after doing this for fifteen years and just kind 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:12.839 of being a student of personalities and human development, I 0:04:12.880 --> 0:04:16.800 really find that clutter is the symptom and disorganization is 0:04:16.839 --> 0:04:17.719 the symptom. 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:23.479 And really I can give you the tools to meeting 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:24.880 the bin, the. 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:29.800 Basket, the filing, cabinet, whatever, and we can create those systems, 0:04:30.440 --> 0:04:33.760 but ultimately it's about how it makes us feel. How 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:37.160 does this stuff make us feel? What is driving our 0:04:37.200 --> 0:04:40.840 behavior to make the decisions or not make the decisions 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:44.040 to either act or not act on our stuff. And 0:04:44.080 --> 0:04:48.560 once we have that light bulb switch, that's when change 0:04:48.560 --> 0:04:51.640 really happens. And so many people think, if I just 0:04:51.839 --> 0:04:54.520 had and I know for myself, right, if I just 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:57.880 had the beautiful built in closet, if I just had 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:00.800 the custom budroom, if I just had the fill in 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:04.760 the blank, then my problems wouldn't be there. And we 0:05:04.839 --> 0:05:07.360 all know this in so many different aspects of our lives. 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:09.760 That's just not the case. We have to really kind 0:05:09.760 --> 0:05:12.480 of get in beneath the surface. 0:05:12.160 --> 0:05:14.719 Well, what is cluttery symptom of? Then if that's the 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:16.520 if that's the symptom, what is it. Yeah. 0:05:16.600 --> 0:05:18.680 I mean I think for a lot of people, it 0:05:18.720 --> 0:05:21.960 can range right, it can range anywhere from it's a 0:05:22.000 --> 0:05:26.400 symptom of chaos. It's a symptom of control. It's a 0:05:26.480 --> 0:05:30.200 symptom of you know, I have like these like five 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:34.320 kind of c's. You know, it's confusion, it is, you know, 0:05:34.360 --> 0:05:37.599 people are paralyzed where they are. There's all of these 0:05:37.640 --> 0:05:42.200 different reasons. There's not just one reason why we get stuck. 0:05:42.400 --> 0:05:46.200 And you know, I think the key to unlocking what 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:51.080 clutter where your own clutter pitfall is is doing some 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:54.599 self discovery. And sometimes, you know, when I go deep 0:05:54.640 --> 0:05:58.120 and we look at sometimes it is situational. I call 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:03.120 it like situational clutter versus crime clutter. Situational clutter is Listen, 0:06:03.680 --> 0:06:06.440 we're in a busy season of life. We've got kids, 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:10.119 we're running around, We're using our home as it drop zone. 0:06:10.200 --> 0:06:13.240 So we're not really spending the time to put this 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:16.320 stuff away, put the laundry, you know, do the laundry, 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:18.599 put it away, go through the mail, and we just 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:21.240 need to kind of get back on track. That's situational clutter. 0:06:21.279 --> 0:06:25.600 And maybe it is something as benign as hey, let's 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:29.000 get this bin or basket, and it's gonna solve the problem. 0:06:29.480 --> 0:06:32.239 But what where it starts to become a pain point 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:34.560 for people is when it becomes goes into more of 0:06:34.600 --> 0:06:38.200 the chronic, like this is an ongoing issue in our home, 0:06:38.760 --> 0:06:43.440 and this is I'm constantly the only one, you know, 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:45.479 I'm filling in the blank, right, I'm the only one 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:48.919 that cleans up after everybody or nobody listens to me, 0:06:49.279 --> 0:06:53.320 or you know, why can't I No matter how much 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:56.680 I declutter, it just keeps creeping back. And then it's 0:06:56.800 --> 0:06:59.719 let's look at, well, what are the patterns of behavior? 0:06:59.720 --> 0:07:02.880 How you communicating? Is it a problem with yourself? Is 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:06.320 something that you're not holding yourself accountable? Is it I'm 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:10.480 not communicating the expectation clearly with the other people in 0:07:10.560 --> 0:07:13.560 my house, which is oftentimes the case. And so when 0:07:13.640 --> 0:07:17.840 we look at kind of all the different nuances, that's 0:07:17.880 --> 0:07:21.000 when we can start to develop an actual system that 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:23.880 is going to hopefully be sustainable for you. 0:07:24.160 --> 0:07:26.840 I must say, is one of those c's children, yea, 0:07:26.840 --> 0:07:32.280 because I feel like, I mean, I can have a 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:36.120 good grasp on my own stuff and it's fine, but 0:07:36.600 --> 0:07:39.680 I have many many other people bringing things into the house. 0:07:40.640 --> 0:07:43.600 Yeah, and that, and that's real, and that's a struggle 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:47.040 that most of my clients and most of the people 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:50.200 that I work with are struggling with. 0:07:50.240 --> 0:07:51.880 And I get it, you. 0:07:51.760 --> 0:07:53.840 Know, and that's why I always kind of lead with. 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.080 And I only had two humans. You have five kids, 0:07:57.200 --> 0:08:02.960 you know, and so everyone's coming with their own stuff 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:06.640 literally and figuratively. That is going to get in the 0:08:06.680 --> 0:08:09.040 way of how you want to get that done. 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:11.280 Yeah, all right, Well we're going to take a quick 0:08:11.320 --> 0:08:12.880 ad break and then I will be back with more 0:08:12.960 --> 0:08:23.520 from Louri Palou. Well, I am back talking with Louri Palau, 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:27.360 who's the owner of the business simply be organized, all right, 0:08:27.440 --> 0:08:30.960 So I love practical tips on this show. We've talked 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:33.760 about the deeper issues of clutter. But if somebody's like, Okay, 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:37.400 I want, you know, some quick solutions, some things that 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:42.480 I can do maybe today to help with the organization 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:45.600 in my life, whether that's you know, stuff or whether 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.680 it's temporal or whatever it is, what do you have 0:08:48.760 --> 0:08:49.120 for us? 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:50.120 Okay? 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:54.439 So, I mean there are some basics which are I 0:08:54.520 --> 0:08:58.720 really think doing a sweep of your house on the 0:08:58.800 --> 0:09:05.520 regular is really important, and that could mean you know, sweeping, 0:09:05.840 --> 0:09:09.040 getting if you have little ones at home getting the toys, 0:09:09.600 --> 0:09:12.120 you know, corralled and wrangled. And I'm not saying you 0:09:12.160 --> 0:09:14.200 have to be doing it ten times a day, but 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:17.839 have a couple of like design pockets in your day, 0:09:18.120 --> 0:09:22.040 whether it's first thing in the morning, obviously before bed. 0:09:22.440 --> 0:09:25.080 Maybe there's a midday sweep if you're home, just to 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:27.440 kind of keep things at bay. I'm a big fan 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:30.600 also of not having dirty dishes in the sink. That 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:34.360 might be my thing. I like to create a system 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:38.959 for running the dishwasher. And it's funny now that I 0:09:39.480 --> 0:09:42.480 used to always, you know, say, run the dishwasher every day, 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:44.440 run the dishrusher every day, and when I had a 0:09:44.480 --> 0:09:48.040 busy household with lots of people, that was a no brainer. 0:09:48.440 --> 0:09:51.200 Now when it's just my husband and myself, we're not 0:09:51.240 --> 0:09:53.199 necessarily running it every day, but I still get in 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:57.400 the habit of running it at night when I do 0:09:57.559 --> 0:10:00.240 run it, and so that way it gets unloaded first 0:10:00.280 --> 0:10:03.360 thing in the morning, and so any dirty dishes throughout 0:10:03.400 --> 0:10:07.439 the day can just funnel themselves into there. Another quick 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:10.160 tip that I have for people is go through the 0:10:10.160 --> 0:10:13.040 mail every day. I try not to even bring in 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:15.600 the junk mail. I would put it right in the 0:10:15.640 --> 0:10:19.160 recycling bin. But I go through the mail every day 0:10:19.320 --> 0:10:23.160 and if you and this is obviously space dependent, but 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:25.440 one of the things that was a huge game changer 0:10:25.480 --> 0:10:28.280 when it came to that paper clutter was we moved 0:10:28.280 --> 0:10:32.559 our shredder downstairs into our I have a desk command 0:10:32.640 --> 0:10:35.520 center in my kitchen. Totally get it that not everybody 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:40.360 has this space, but I moved my shredder there, and 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:44.720 that eliminated that extra step of going, oh, I need 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:47.120 to go up to my home office and have this 0:10:47.280 --> 0:10:49.320 pile of stuff to shred. I could just do it 0:10:49.360 --> 0:10:54.000 on the spot. So just making things super, super convenient 0:10:54.600 --> 0:10:59.240 and easy so that you're adding fewer steps to get 0:10:59.280 --> 0:11:00.080 your stuff. 0:10:59.880 --> 0:11:02.120 Done, yeah, because if it takes a lot of time 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:02.760 and effort, you're. 0:11:02.679 --> 0:11:03.920 Not going to do it right. 0:11:04.320 --> 0:11:08.160 Absolutely, Yeah, No, I love that. That's good. I'm curious 0:11:08.200 --> 0:11:11.640 if you have any particular routines that make you more productive. 0:11:11.679 --> 0:11:14.880 I mean, so we start to transition into scheduling here. 0:11:14.840 --> 0:11:18.439 Yeah, I mean this, And again I always feel like 0:11:18.480 --> 0:11:21.720 this sounds so obvious, but maybe it doesn't. 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:22.400 I'm not sure. 0:11:23.160 --> 0:11:27.280 I have always gotten up earlier than my kids. I've 0:11:27.400 --> 0:11:32.880 always created an extra buffer. I'm a morning person, but 0:11:33.360 --> 0:11:36.520 I like to have that even if it's fifteen to 0:11:36.520 --> 0:11:39.480 thirty minutes, where I could have a cup of coffee, 0:11:39.600 --> 0:11:42.679 I could just sit with my thoughts. I've gone through 0:11:42.679 --> 0:11:45.160 different seasons of my life. Sometimes I would journal, sometimes 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:49.120 I would read, sometimes I would scroll. Whatever it is 0:11:49.160 --> 0:11:52.839 that you are going to do for me. Having that 0:11:53.040 --> 0:11:56.839 little buffer allows me to then when I had a 0:11:56.920 --> 0:11:59.720 kick into mom mode or going off to work mode 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:02.800 or mode or whatever it was, I could then flip 0:12:02.840 --> 0:12:03.280 that switch. 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:04.800 But I needed that break. 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:07.800 I call it putting the margin in my day, and 0:12:07.840 --> 0:12:12.960 so that always has helped me. So that's kind of 0:12:12.960 --> 0:12:15.640 like my morning routine. And then I'm a big time blocker. 0:12:15.840 --> 0:12:18.080 And I know you're a productivity person, so I'm sure 0:12:18.080 --> 0:12:19.840 your listeners are familiar with that. 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:23.880 But I like to just chunk my time into so that. 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:28.480 I I know, when I know, like I'm in work mode, 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:33.720 short of an emergency that's coming up, I will just 0:12:34.200 --> 0:12:37.760 tailor any personal stuff or volunteer stuff or stuff that's 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:41.280 not related to work later. And I give myself that 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:44.360 permission because I know that this window of time, whatever 0:12:44.400 --> 0:12:48.319 that window of time is, allows me to be focused 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:50.120 in on that task, and I do the same when 0:12:50.160 --> 0:12:53.280 it comes to decluttering a space. You know, I'm giving 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:57.320 myself x amount of time, whether it's twenty minutes, thirty minutes, 0:12:57.360 --> 0:13:02.440 an hour, four hours, whatever that window is. I'm like, 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:06.240 I'm setting aside this time to do this task and 0:13:07.280 --> 0:13:10.600 everything else can wait. That means laundry, meal prep whatever. 0:13:11.080 --> 0:13:14.080 Do people wind up with cluttered schedules in the same 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:15.840 way that they wind up with cluttered homes. 0:13:15.880 --> 0:13:17.160 Oh? Absolutely. We call it. 0:13:17.240 --> 0:13:20.280 Yes, we call it calendar clutter. Here when I teach 0:13:20.280 --> 0:13:23.800 about clutter, I talk about three main types. The physical clutter, 0:13:23.840 --> 0:13:26.040 which is the stuff that you see, the emotional clutter, 0:13:26.080 --> 0:13:29.000 which is like guilt or fear that holds people back, 0:13:29.040 --> 0:13:31.960 and then calendar clutter. Obviously there's other clutter, like digital 0:13:31.960 --> 0:13:36.040 clutter and things like that. But those three areas if 0:13:36.080 --> 0:13:38.760 you were to look at like a you know, a 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:42.640 diagram like, you would see them as like concentric circles overlapping. 0:13:42.720 --> 0:13:44.720 That's kind of the visual that I give to people, 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:50.760 and that calendar clutter will indirectly oftentimes lead to the 0:13:50.800 --> 0:13:53.560 physical clutter because if you are so busy and you 0:13:53.600 --> 0:13:57.680 are constantly on the go, it doesn't leave time for 0:13:57.760 --> 0:14:02.600 you to address the physical stuff that needs attending to laundry, dishes, mail, 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:03.880 what have you. 0:14:04.400 --> 0:14:05.800 So how can we get rid of some of that 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:06.600 schedule clutter. 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:09.480 I think it comes down to prioritizing what are your 0:14:09.480 --> 0:14:16.360 goals really and how important is this thing to you? 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:20.000 You know, I make a lot of analogies about working 0:14:20.040 --> 0:14:26.440 out and you know, health and fitness to decluttering your life, 0:14:26.800 --> 0:14:31.600 whatever that looks like. And if you're you know, something's 0:14:31.640 --> 0:14:34.280 going to give. And I'm always here to tell people, 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:37.960 like listen, if you want to be scheduled constantly, then 0:14:38.000 --> 0:14:42.120 you have to be okay with either outsourcing and paying 0:14:42.160 --> 0:14:44.440 somebody to do the things that need to get done, 0:14:45.160 --> 0:14:47.960 or come to a piece of acceptance that you're. 0:14:47.760 --> 0:14:49.720 Going to have that if you are. 0:14:49.800 --> 0:14:53.120 And like, you know, a realistic analogy would be it's 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:55.960 summertime now, at least at the time that we're recording this, 0:14:56.480 --> 0:14:57.720 people want to be outside. 0:14:57.840 --> 0:14:58.240 I get it. 0:14:58.280 --> 0:14:59.320 You want to go to the beach, you want to 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:01.800 go to the lake, you want to or wherever. And 0:15:01.840 --> 0:15:05.400 if you're gone all weekend, every single weekend, and you 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:09.320 work during the week, that leaves you little time to 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:12.400 get done those things. So maybe giving yourself a past 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:14.080 that Okay, our house is going to be a little 0:15:14.080 --> 0:15:15.920 bit more messy, but if that stresses you out, then 0:15:15.960 --> 0:15:19.720 you have to be intentional. I have that discipline because 0:15:19.920 --> 0:15:24.040 really so much of organizing, once you find that system 0:15:24.080 --> 0:15:26.920 and strategy that works for you, it's really just about 0:15:27.000 --> 0:15:30.280 Vinson repeat, it's the discipline of doing it. Just like 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:34.080 if you were to work out or eat healthy, it's 0:15:34.200 --> 0:15:36.480 just to say, Okay, I'm not going to eat the 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:38.280 ice cream, or I'm not gonna have dessert, or maybe 0:15:38.280 --> 0:15:40.320 you want to have it, and that's okay, but then 0:15:40.360 --> 0:15:42.960 you have to just accept the fact that maybe the 0:15:43.000 --> 0:15:44.480 scale is not going to move in the direction I 0:15:44.520 --> 0:15:47.000 wanted to, but I enjoyed the ice cream. So you 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:51.080 just have to kind of recognize you you necessarily can't 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:53.240 have both things at the same time. 0:15:53.520 --> 0:15:57.440 Yeah, I mean, it's the reality that household management and 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:01.600 life administration take time, and we can tell ourselves that 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:05.600 they don't, but then they're going to stack up and 0:16:05.960 --> 0:16:08.240 create this this sort of schedule clutter, or you can 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:11.320 sort of have the time built in to deal with 0:16:11.360 --> 0:16:13.720 them and understand that this. You know, if you don't 0:16:13.720 --> 0:16:15.840 want it to take time, that doesn't really matter. It's 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:17.600 like it's either your time or somebody's time. 0:16:17.880 --> 0:16:19.840 Right, Absolutely, absolutely. 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:23.200 I used to I haven't said it much recently, but 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:27.280 I used to talk really about be looking at yourself 0:16:27.280 --> 0:16:30.320 as the CEO of your home, and the CEO of 0:16:30.520 --> 0:16:34.360 like in any business, oversees everything and then they have 0:16:34.520 --> 0:16:39.880 different people that facilitate different aspects of the business. And 0:16:39.920 --> 0:16:41.640 if you look at your home that way, and you 0:16:41.680 --> 0:16:46.200 can itemize, okay, who is being in charge of this 0:16:46.280 --> 0:16:49.920 particular area and maybe that's you, maybe that's a pay professional, 0:16:50.120 --> 0:16:52.560 maybe that's your kids, maybe that's your spouse, whatever that 0:16:52.600 --> 0:16:57.080 looks like, but really identifying it because we can't do 0:16:57.360 --> 0:16:59.280 all of the things all the time, just like a 0:16:59.680 --> 0:17:01.840 just like in a business, you can't have one person 0:17:01.880 --> 0:17:02.640 just running the show. 0:17:02.800 --> 0:17:05.000 Absolutely, all right, We're going to take one more quick 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:06.880 ad break and then i'll be back with more from 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:16.960 Louri Palou. Well, I am back talking with Lauri Palou, 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:19.959 who's the owner of the Simply Be Organized business and 0:17:20.000 --> 0:17:22.720 has also been the host of the Disorganized Life podcast. 0:17:22.760 --> 0:17:26.119 But we learned earlier that you are you know, going 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:28.520 to be ending that I wonder if you can talk 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:29.360 about that decision. 0:17:30.040 --> 0:17:33.280 Yeah, It was probably one of the hardest professional decisions 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:35.960 I've had to make. So I don't know if there's 0:17:36.000 --> 0:17:38.480 a lot of you know, entrepreneurs that are listening to 0:17:38.520 --> 0:17:38.800 your show. 0:17:38.840 --> 0:17:40.000 I'm imagining that there are. 0:17:41.000 --> 0:17:43.280 But anytime you have to walk away from something that 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:50.240 you like and that you are good at is really hard. 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:54.840 And you know, I wrote an article afterwards, you know, 0:17:54.880 --> 0:17:57.520 I wrote a letter to my to my listeners to 0:17:57.840 --> 0:18:00.040 just again not only thank them, but to say I 0:18:01.400 --> 0:18:04.960 really put my organizer hat on and try to channel 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:08.520 how my clients feel about getting rid of things that 0:18:08.560 --> 0:18:12.080 they might still love but maybe aren't serving them the 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:13.360 way they once were. 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:16.119 And it's okay to grieve that. 0:18:16.240 --> 0:18:18.800 And so for me, it really came down to the 0:18:18.800 --> 0:18:23.159 fact that I was entering this new season of life 0:18:23.280 --> 0:18:25.040 I've been talking about on the show and also on 0:18:25.040 --> 0:18:28.320 my social media. We bought a little cottage that we've 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:32.040 been renovating, and that is taking up a lot of 0:18:32.080 --> 0:18:36.920 my time and attention, and I needed to create space 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:40.920 for something new and I don't even know what that is, 0:18:41.160 --> 0:18:45.480 and that's really scary also in its own right. But 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:49.199 I knew that my calendar was full with all the 0:18:49.240 --> 0:18:51.960 things that I was doing and what was required of 0:18:52.000 --> 0:18:56.119 the podcast, And as much as I love it, I 0:18:56.240 --> 0:18:59.160 felt to a degree, I've said all of the key 0:18:59.240 --> 0:19:01.320 things I want wanted to be a resource for people, 0:19:01.359 --> 0:19:06.720 and it's still there. But I needed to say, Okay, 0:19:06.960 --> 0:19:09.320 let's let's give space for something new. 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:10.960 And so it was. 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:15.520 Really hard and we're i'll see what. I'll see what happens. 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:19.840 I always say, never say never. I love this medium, 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:22.919 I love this platform. I mean, I love helping people. 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:24.560 So we'll see. Yeah. 0:19:24.840 --> 0:19:28.240 Well, I say that open space invites opportunity in a 0:19:28.280 --> 0:19:30.639 way that a cluttered calendar can. I mean, it's just 0:19:30.680 --> 0:19:33.639 you can't say yes to new things if you feel 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:36.040 like every minute is spoken for. So I mean, it's 0:19:36.080 --> 0:19:38.840 always exciting to see what comes next. But I've been 0:19:38.840 --> 0:19:40.840 interesting to see with your business. I mean because with 0:19:40.920 --> 0:19:44.280 a business like organizing, obviously, there's only so much that 0:19:44.359 --> 0:19:46.600 you personally can do right and if you you know, 0:19:46.600 --> 0:19:48.560 there's only so much it can grow if you are 0:19:48.840 --> 0:19:51.639 you know, in people's houses for a certain amount of time. 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:54.400 And so you've you've come up with some interesting ways 0:19:54.400 --> 0:19:58.800 to scale a business that is based around you. So 0:19:58.840 --> 0:20:00.399 I wonder if you could talk a little bit about that. 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:05.600 Yeah, thanks, And I it's very interesting because I started 0:20:05.680 --> 0:20:08.159 in this business in two thousand and nine, and I 0:20:08.240 --> 0:20:11.960 tell people all the time, especially for newer organizers, just 0:20:12.000 --> 0:20:14.720 to put it in context, there was no Instagram and 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:18.120 there was no Pinterest when I started. So you think 0:20:18.160 --> 0:20:22.760 about how these platforms, especially in my world of organizing, 0:20:23.080 --> 0:20:26.040 have helped people start, scale and grow their businesses like 0:20:26.080 --> 0:20:30.679 that didn't even exist back when I started. And you know, 0:20:30.760 --> 0:20:33.840 I think when you're in any type of hands on 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:39.199 business where it's a time for money trade, scaling has 0:20:39.240 --> 0:20:40.679 a couple of different ways they can do it. You 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:43.360 can either scale it by bringing in a team and 0:20:43.480 --> 0:20:47.719 basically duplicating yourself or other versions of yourself. And I 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:50.879 didn't necessarily. I had assistance, but I didn't want to 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:54.600 necessarily go that route because then your life becomes a 0:20:54.600 --> 0:20:57.280 lot of management and project management. 0:20:57.560 --> 0:20:58.320 Of other people. 0:20:58.680 --> 0:21:01.640 And I really love the relatetional piece that one on 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:05.280 one and so in order for me to scale, because 0:21:05.320 --> 0:21:07.159 like you said, there are only so many hours in 0:21:07.200 --> 0:21:11.600 a day, I had to basically develop other revenue streams 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:18.000 that could complement an offset, either peaks and valleys within 0:21:18.359 --> 0:21:22.680 the business of like when times were, you know, slower 0:21:22.720 --> 0:21:27.240 with clients, or just other ways that I could tap 0:21:27.280 --> 0:21:31.960 into different markets. And so, in my specific case, I 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:36.920 started a speaker series called the Clutter Clinic, and it 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:38.440 was designed as a way. 0:21:39.000 --> 0:21:41.520 I've noticed early on that. 0:21:41.400 --> 0:21:44.960 There were a lot of people that were very interested 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:47.440 in what I was saying. They were that this is 0:21:47.480 --> 0:21:49.880 back in the blog like when blogging was in its heyday. 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:53.919 They were subscribed to my blog, they were getting my email, 0:21:54.040 --> 0:21:56.720 they were on my email list, all the things, but 0:21:56.800 --> 0:22:00.439 they weren't converting to be a client. And maybe they 0:22:00.480 --> 0:22:04.199