An Interview With Sara Connell
Fear can be a big stumbling block when you’re starting a business. You might be afraid of what people will think of your adventure, afraid you won’t succeed, afraid you’re not good enough., Number three is I wish someone had told me most people feel that way at some point, you’re not alone. It makes it easier to ask for help when you know you’re not the only one. I tell people that if you fall on your face you’re still moving forward.
Books have the power to shape, influence, and change our lives. Why is that so? What goes into a book that can shape lives? To address this we are interviewing people who can share a story about a book that changed their life, and why. As a part of our series, I had the pleasure of interviewing Julie Stobbe.
Julie Stobbe is a Trained Professional Organizer and Gold Leaf Member of Professional Organizers in Canada. She started Mind over Clutter Professional Organizing and Coaching Services in 2006. She enjoys bringing happiness to homes and organization to office. www.mindoverclutter.ca
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Before we dig in, our readers would like to get to know you a bit more. Can you tell us a bit about your “backstory” and how you grew up?
I grew up in Kitchener -Waterloo, Ontario Canada. I went to university and received a degree in Kinesiology and continued on to get a degree in Education. I worked as a gymnastic coach for many years in Kingston, Ontario and St Catharines, Ontario. I taught at Brock University in the Faculty of Education as a sessional instructor. I enjoyed raising 3 children who are lovely adults. When my contract was finished at Brock , I googled Professional Organizing and found the Canadian organization, joined and started a business. I guess it was in my blood being raised by a family that owned a business.
Let’s talk about what you are doing now, and how you achieved the success that you currently enjoy. Can you tell our readers a bit about the work you are doing?
I am a Trained Professional Organizer. I work in person helping residential and office clients to reduce distracting clutter, streamline and develop systems and routines and manage their time.
I also work virtually with clients coaching, mentoring and supporting them as they work on organizing their space, life or time. Some clients like to book a series of chats where we set goals and develop a plan and then they complete the work on their own schedule. Other clients like to do the work while I am on the computer with them helping them to stay on task and discussing what to do next.
Some clients find it hard to let go of things. I have a 9 week coaching program From Clutter to Freedom to help people move from where they are to where they would like to be. Holding on tightly to things can keep them from moving forward and finding new opportunities.
I have an online course, Create an Organized Home for clients who like to do it themselves. It is a step by program with videos, checklists and resources to help them organize their home to suit their personality. They have access to me to answer questions and get them over any roadblocks.
I enjoy educating people so they can get organized. I speak to groups on many different organizing topics from Organizing your S.P.A.C.E., 6 W’s of Downsizing, Creating an Active Office, Why do I keep so much S.T.U.F.F
My success came from building slowly. As one aspect of my business grew I added another service. This allowed me to develop my skills and clientele in one area and then learn new skills to expanded into another area. Following good social media practices helped my business to grow as well as speaking engagements. My blog helps me to educate people. With consistent posting on social media sites clients began to easily find my business. Speaking engagements let people meet me and get to know me. Professional organizing is a very personal business and personalities between client and organizer need to work well together.
You are a successful leader. Which three character traits do you think were most instrumental to your success?
The three character traits that are most instrumental in my success as a leader are reliability, honesty, compassion. A lot of times you hear people say they will do something, be somewhere or follow up. How many times have you worked with people who are unreliable? I want to set the example for people I work with to know that when I agree to do something it will happen, they can count on me. If you don’t follow through, what message are you sending to that person, they are not important? Everyone is important and needs to be treated kindly.
Hand in hand with being reliable is being honest. I think it is very important to say if you don’t know how to do something. When I am working with someone they might tell me how to do something and I have no understanding of what they told me, it usually relates to technology. When I explain I didn’t understand they are very kind and helpful. This gives the opportunity to collaborate and learn from each other. It is good way to develop new skills, knowledge and relationships based on respect.
In this day and time, it is so important to be compassionate. Everyone is struggling with constant change. Change is easy for some people and hard for other people. It is easy to assume a person is cancelling appointments because they don’t think my service is important. I deal with a lot of people and assuming they are struggling, listening to what they are saying and understanding they are doing the best they can is so important to building a good relationship.
What’s the WHY behind the work that you do?
I like teaching people. I like being physically active. I really enjoy discovering how people feel and think about their things. The WHY behind my work is to help my clients learn how to take care of their life or space by understanding how they feel about their things and finding a process that works for them to reach their goals. Once they have this understanding, they can start to make changes in their lives. I have helped clients declutter and organize their offices and set up paperwork systems. They are so happy to be in their office and focus on their business, gain clarity on where they want to go and grow their business. I had a client who was so overwhelmed, anxious and stressed living in their home. There was stuff everywhere. We decluttered and organized it so they had space to sit, relax and enjoy being in their home. They were so happy to be able to have company over. They hadn’t had anyone over in 6 years.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are?
There are so many people that helped me have the success I am achieving in the Professional Organizing industry. Some people have coaches, mentors or business associates that take them under their wing. I want to suggest another group of people you can look to for support. I joined Professional Organizers in Canada and we have local chapters. There is no physical chapter in my area so I belong to the Cyber Chapter. We have been online for many years before the pandemic. Meeting with a supportive group of people from across Canada monthly is wonderful. I learn so much from how other organizer do things in other parts of Canada. I can ask for help in how to handle some difficult client situations, how to market services, learn about product and services and their recommendations. They are a wealth of information and support to me.
Awesome! Let’s now jump to the primary focus of our interview. I’m an author and I believe that books have the power to change lives. Can you please tell our readers about “The Book That Changed Your Life”?
The book that changed my life is called “how to start a home-based Professional Organizing Business” by Dawn Noble. It is one of the books in the “how to start a home-based” series. When I decided to be a Professional Organizer and start a business, I joined Professional Organizers in Canada and took a leap of faith. This book contained everything I needed to know, marketing my business, setting fees and services, suggesting organizing products, how to organize anything, how to set up a business and an office. With this step by step information I could start from nothing and build a successful business. The thing I liked most about the book was it gave scripts for answering calls from leads. It was so nice to be “told” what to say when I talked with my very first client. It also had forms to use so I had a starting point. This book reduced the fear about being an entrepreneur and gave me all the systems to succeed. Without the book it would have been easy to get overwhelmed and give up before I even got started.
What was the moment or series of events that made you decide that you wanted to take a specific course of action based on the inspiration from the book?
I had known about the industry of Professional Organizing for about 25 years before I started a business. Part of my delay was being a mother of 3 children and not wanting to be too busy to enjoy being part of their lives. There is this myth that when your self-employed you can set your own hours. That is true to a point but you still have to put in a lot of hours when you’re running your own business. The other change was that an employment contract ended and I was free to explore other opportunities. The time was right for me to follow the steps in the book and make my passion a business.
Can you articulate why you think books in particular have the power to create movements, revolutions, and true change?
The power of books is that when you read them you will “hear” something that will have meaning to you at that time. The next time you read it, you will be ready to” hear” something different because you’re not the same person. One book will have the power to reach many people in many different ways at many different times to impact change. Think about how many books have been written and the impact is exponential.
A book has many aspects, of course. For example, you have the writing style, the narrative tense, the topic, the genre, the design, the cover, the size, etc. In your opinion, what are the main, essential ingredients needed to create a book that can change lives?
Your questions have highlighted many important aspects about books. Many people reading e-books and listening to audio book size, cover and design have less of an impact. I am a big supporter of public libraries. Not everyone can afford to buy books. For me an essential ingredient needed to create a book that can change lives is accessibly. It needs to be in libraries so everyone can read it in print, electronically or listen to it.
What are your “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me Before I Started My Career” and why?
I moved from being an employee to being self-employed. The first thing is to get your bank loans, line of credit and credit card limit increased while you are employed. It is harder to do when you explain you have no income and you’re starting a business.
The second thing is to look at programs that help you to start a business. There are many government sponsored business centers that have courses for starting a business with funding equivalent to one -year of salary. It is like being paid to start a business. However, if you have had a client, you no longer qualify for the programs.
Fear can be a big stumbling block when you’re starting a business. You might be afraid of what people will think of your adventure, afraid you won’t succeed, afraid you’re not good enough., Number three is I wish someone had told me most people feel that way at some point, you’re not alone. It makes it easier to ask for help when you know you’re not the only one. I tell people that if you fall on your face you’re still moving forward.
Number four is very practical. When you’re doing your branding and getting logos made, get the electronic file in every form you can think of from the designer. You will need your logo in black and white, colour, for clothing, for advertising, in different sizes, with a transparent background. You’ll need it as a .gif.jpeg, vector, many more formats. Pay once and have all the files. Otherwise, every time you design something you will pay a charge to get your logo into the format needed for that project.
Lastly number 5 is to do your business for the joy, fun, learning experience and personal growth of creating something that is beneficial to others. You have a starting point, enjoy the ride. Where you will go maybe unexpected.
The world, of course, needs progress in many areas. What movement do you hope someone (or you!) starts next? Can you explain why that is so important?
I have followed and supported women’s movements for years. There are so many times it feels like progress is being made and it has in policy for equality. On the day to day level and in so many third world countries women have to live in very difficult situations where they have little control over anything. I hope for continued change in attitudes towards women and their worth and value. If you don’t have power it is easy to see who does. A movement towards informing and teaching those with power to recognize they have it and others do not is the first step. Once it is realized it can be shared.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
You can follow my work online reading my blogs at www.mindoverclutter.ca/blog and www.mindovercluttercourses.ca/blog Join my Facebook group Organizing Mind and Space https://www.facebook.com/groups/organizingmindandspace
Follow me
Twitter https://twitter.com/Julieorganizer (@julieorganizer)
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/mindoverclutter/
Pinterest https://www.pinterest.ca/juliestobbe/
LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/juliestobbemindoverclutter/
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/juliestobbe/
Online Courses www.mindovercluttercourses.ca
Thank you so much for taking the time to share with us and our readers. We know that it will make a tremendous difference and impact thousands of lives. We are excited to connect further and we wish you so much joy in your next success.
Julie Stobbe Of ‘Mind over Clutter’ On The Book That Changed Her Life was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.