138 | 1 Year in Business: Being Intentional + What She Learned with Kim Snodgrass (Part 2)

This is the second part of my conversation with Kim Snodgrass of Rustic Home Organizing in Oregon. We interviewed her on the podcast last year when she was brand new--and we wanted to check in with her on what she learned in her first year of organizing.  LINKS FOR LISTENERS Connect with Kim: CLICK HERE Learn more about Inspired Organizer®: CLICK HERE Transcript: Melissa Klug: What have you taken from that kind of learning to help you moving forward as you start into your second year and hopefully third and fifth and 10th year Kim Snodgrass: Oh, I'll be there. For me, so my new word, I would like to share my new word.  Melissa Klug: I'm excited. Drum roll.  Kim Snodgrass: Are you ready? My new word is intentional. I love that. This year is all about being intentional in my actions. , I will be thoughtful in what I'm doing. I'm giving myself time to process. I'm not making quick decisions.  I'm gonna allow myself to think for myself until I feel like I need to bring in another opinion which will bring me to another subject of other organizers around the country. But I'm gonna be intentional about my time. I'm gonna be intentional about my shopping when I do it. This last year was really difficult for me to go shopping for like, two projects at a time. Okay. But this year I, I've figured out a process about how am I gonna shop for two projects at a time when I'm at the store or at, I'm online. So just being very intentional about my actions. And that goes for anything that I'm gonna put my money or my time or my brain into as far as apps, programs, whatever it might be. Any sort of groups. Anything that I'm going to give my time to. Why am I doing it and what am I hoping to get out of it? And that I think is very important for anybody looking into resources within the business to figure out why am I doing it and what am I hoping to get from it? And, and knowing that you've gotta, they need, you need to put the energy and the time into it. Things aren't gonna be done for you. It's very  Melissa Klug: important. . And that's an important thing because I found myself last night scrolling, for whatever reason, I don't know if it's the end of the year and everybody's selling a billion things. I was scrolling through Instagram and I kept getting fed all these ads about courses and, and education and do this, you know, try this funnel and that, I mean, things that are more relevant to my work at Pro Organizer Studio. And I found myself feeling a little bit of fomo, like, oh, maybe that's magic. Oh maybe that's magic . And then I'm like, no, no, no, no, no, no. I need to step back. And I love what you said about, how would I use this? When would I use it? Am I going to use it? Cuz there are a million things out there and, you can buy, you can buy a thousand things. But if you're gonna spend that money, then how are you going to use that thing?  How are you going to implement it in your business? What are you gonna learn from it? And then what gaps does it fill in your knowledge and your education, whatever that looks like for you. ,  Kim Snodgrass: you know that. I'm so glad you brought that up. I was thinking about that. I almost wanna say social media newsletters, whatever emails you might be signed up for is like a feeding ground. And you have to be careful. You have to be really careful on what you decide is gonna be your magic potion to get your business, because the energy that you're putting into all of the things could be put into a YouTube seo tutorial that you could just zip over to your website and make it sound so simple. I wouldn't even know how to do that right now, . But you could be putting your time and energy into learning the seo. To get your website more exposure. And I was told at the beginning how important that was and who told  Melissa Klug: you that? Just asking  Kim Snodgrass: this lady, this one lady, this one lady that wears red glasses. I think it's so easy to get sucked into so many different rabbit holes. So easy. Yes. And, and to try and avoid those at all costs is really, really important. I think we have to be careful on what advice we throw to newer organizers. On how to find their business. What one organizer did at the beginning of her business versus what she's doing right now on year four, five, or 10, is going to be so different than that new organizer is gonna be doing on, you know, in year one. So what happened four years ago is different, and what's happening for that organizer right now is very different. And I, I find this trap of newer organizers feeling like they have to depend on third party people to get them their business. Mm-hmm. , oh, I need to go visit this real estate office. I need to go visit this real estate agent. Oh, I found this designer and they're gonna, it's not, it's that, that really truly is. Going to be where you're going to find your clients. First of all, there are so many real estate agents out there, and they're all clawing for business. Especially right  Melissa Klug: now in this, especially right now. Right now. I mean, yeah,   Kim Snodgrass: putting really bad right now, putting in a, in a basket with, with a, an agent that might only have exposure to 10 different people, you aren't most likely going to get business off of that. Now, that isn't to say that it's not somebody you should keep connected with. Sure. I think they, you need to change your thinking and that these third party professionals are gonna bring you your business. And I just, I just don't think that is where you should put your energy at the beginning of your business. .  Melissa Klug: Referrals are such a huge part of so many organizers businesses, but when we say referrals, what we mean is a very happy client refers you to all their friends. I fell into the real estate trap at the beginning too, and one of the reasons we're talking about this is cuz it, it comes up in, our inspired organizer Facebook group a lot. And newer organizers naturally, cuz I did it. I thought, oh my gosh, realtors, what is the most natural place? Who's in homes all the time? Oh, it's realtors. Right? And you, by the way, full disclosure, used to be a realtor, so I, I was a realtor. , you know, you know better than everyone. But you know, it, it seems like it's a natural fit, but it's not in actuality. And does that make sense? Absolutely not. But relying on that or putting all, like you said, all of your eggs in that marketing basket and that networking basket is not going to yield you the client base that you often think it would or should.  Kim Snodgrass: When you interviewed Cori from Meat and Potatoes recently, she talked about her BNI group her chamber and, I do think that there is something for putting energy into those smaller.  Melissa Klug: Local groups where you're cross, you're cross referring, I know I talked about this recently, my clients, I cannot believe the number of times I'm called upon to provide referrals for people like handyman and you know, all of these things. I know. And so, I mean, I have a handyman that I adore. If you're in the Minneapolis area, hit me up cuz he's amazing. But like really that local referral group because it's not just one type of people, it's not just one type of business person. It's many different types of business people in a chamber or a b and i group. And so we have a lot of people in our group that are really, really big on in-person local networking. And if that is something that is your jam, absolutely do that.  Kim Snodgrass: Yes. Yeah, definitely. That was one of my notes I wrote down is being an organizer, you're a resource manager. Yes. And so you need to be that one, figure out how you can be that person that is that reference person.