As a business owner we often get caught in the rollercoaster of market, market, market… fulfill, fulfill, fulfill… Marla Stone was faced with the challenge of customer demand vs staffing. We talk about Marketing vs Fulfillment this week on In The Bunker with Marla Stone. Marla and Joshua dive into this topic along with how clutter can disrupt our lives.

Our episode highlights:

• Always be looking to hire! What is the criteria that they need to fit? Do they reflect your company values? Do they live out the company values?
• Always be marketing!
• Pick your clients, DON’T let them pick you!
• Knowing when to “Off board” staff is key.

Bio: Marla Stone, MSW, is the owner of I-Deal-Lifestyle INC, which provides decluttering, design, corporate training, and lifestyle coaching services. She is a former social worker and psychotherapist turned professional lifestyle organizer who helps people live an ideal lifestyle by getting to the root of their mental, emotional, and environmental challenges.

Check out her new book The Clutter Remedy: A Guide To Getting Organized For Those Who Love Their Stuff. > https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/1130791302

Links:

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/i-deal-lifestyle/
• Website: https://www.i-deal-lifestyle.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marlabstone
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/idealorganizer
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/ideal_organizer

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Every business owner has faced challenges and

we love to share those stories.

Today.

We have Marla stone in the bunker with us.

Marla faced the challenge of really having customer demand versus staffing issues.

As small business owners, we've all seen this.

It's the rollercoaster of market, your business and market market market.

And then you get a bunch of customers and it's fulfill.

And then as soon as the fulfillment is done, it's back to marketing.

However, despite the odds of running a business, Marla has really succeeded

in this over the past 11 years, she's had the experience and being able to

really help her customers and her clients declutter and organize to make sure that

everything in their home has its own home.

She's a published author and has helped over 2000 plus clients

organize their lives and homes.

There's so much to learn here and I'm super excited to jump in and have this.

Great to have you on the show.

Thank you.

Thank you for having me Joshua.

Awesome.

So let's get started and walk through your background.

Who are you?

How'd you get here?

What does it look like?

I'm a native California.

I live in orange county now.

I was a social worker, psycho therapist for 17 years, 10

years in private practice.

And my specialty was trauma, serious mental health challenges, schizophrenia,

bipolar disorder, panic disorder, PTSD.

And after 17 years of sitting and listening, I wanted to

still use my background, but I didn't want to sit anymore.

It was getting old.

And so I found professional organizing, which, there's a big mental health

component to people being chronically or perpetually disorganized.

And so I thought I can do Tupperware.

And I didn't really understand all the mental health challenges that

came with this industry, but it's been great because I get to use my

background and my psychiatric social work background and help still help people.

It's really like old-fashioned social work going into the home, getting Mary

or Bob out of bed, getting the wheels turning again so that they can keep up

their home and have a home that is clear.

And designed well and where they can enjoy, an aesthetically

pleasing, functional home.

Yeah.

There's so much with inside of that.

Like I know for me, like my own desk, if I've got stuff piled all

over my desk and I've got a bunch of email, I'm not as motivated.

But if I haven't got a clean desk and everything's in

its place, I'm more focused.

And just from a business aspect of having a file drawer to put your papers

away can allow you to be more focused.

Now that gets exponentially larger.

When you go from.

A little three-foot wide desk to your whole entire home.

And that's, I can totally see that with, stress and there's so much other stuff

that can cause and be a symptom of.

Yeah, it could be it's a lot of it's some

depression, motivation, anxiety.

I always say the outer is a reflection of the inner.

And the thing is that once a person starts.

Get uncomfortable with their environment.

It actually means they're actually getting a little better on the inside because.

Before when everything was cluttered and they were okay with it, there

was obviously some level of, mental health challenges or grief and loss.

It could be trauma, disappointment, whatever it is, where they,

Whatever's on the inside, just spewed into their environment.

But when they start to feel uncomfortable with that environment, it actually

means there's some clearing on the inside at some of the emotional clutter

has been clear so that they can, have the motivation to say, I don't want

to have this environment any longer.

And and it's not a need to get organized.

People think, oh, I need to get organized or I need to go to the market or I need.

I took the need out of getting organized because it muddles the thinking,

the clarity of your thinking about what to keep versus what to toss.

And so I tell people.

Not a need it.

You either want to do this or you don't want to do this.

You will do this.

You won't do this.

So I've brought will back into the language.

It's something that we have discarded from our language we use need, or have to,

or got to over almost an every sentence.

So we're needling ourselves to death to do the things that

we dream about that we want.

And then we end up not doing it because we get derailed.

I believe the subconscious process knows the true meaning of need, which

is necessity, which is air food, water, shelter, sleep elimination, and sunlight,

the seven things that keep us alive.

That's cool.

Yeah, it's really just, focusing on, I know for me, Focusing on

the aspect of, at the end of the day, creating a better life.

I'm really allowing people to do that.

Zach, I know before, before we hit record, we were talking a little bit

about, business challenges and the aspect of customer demand versus staffing and.

Obviously that's something that so many businesses face on a almost daily basis.

But I want to talk about that a little bit and break down some of that challenge

that you faced and what that looks like, overcoming that for your business.

I created, I really revolutionized the way organizing

as done, so we don't do piles.

It's a very systematic.

We line up Claire bins, we take everything out of the space.

We categorize into broad categories.

I have a criteria for how the client goes through their things, will you use it?

Does it serve a purpose?

Is it sentimental?

Do you love it?

Then once we know what they're going to keep, we fine tune.

So it's not a random process of just making things look

neat and tech and things away.

And, picking up after a person we're not, we're not Molly maid

and we're not personal assistance.

We are there to create a long term system.

And it's the training process of training.

The way we do it.

That's one issue challenged because people I found today people have listening skill

challenges, communication challenges.

So that's an issue.

And then yes.

I've paid marketers, I've done marketing.

I, I do a lot of social media marketing.

So the business comes in and these waves and then you're correct.

We're fulfilling.

So that's when I'm scheduling the organizers and then.

Making sure they're doing it with my clutter remedy strategies.

And so it is this back and forth process that I've been doing for well now it's

12 years and over 2,800 properties and I'm struggling still with that.

Got it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And that's, I think, some of the challenges, I will say that,

me owning a digital agency, we face a little bit as well.

There are some industries and some businesses, the, if you own a

warehouse and you need someone to sweep the warehouse, the duration

of training on that is this is a broom and this is how it works.

Go sweep the whole warehouse and that training should last all of, 30 seconds

to, maybe two minutes, but training someone on a process that your business

does, that you have standards, you have, close to 3000 clients that you want to

make sure the project that you do next week matches the quality of the project

you did last month or last year, because you don't know if that person is a

referral or what, how they came to you.

And so if there were a referral and.

That new employee ends up providing a sub har service.

Now, all of a sudden it was a bad referral and it just, bad referral

ends up creating just a lot of other issues with in regards to customer

satisfaction and other aspects.

And so ensuring that, that training is done and that you're able to

have an onboarding process for that.

Do you, or have you created, or what does that look like maybe for the business

of an onboarding process or training?

What does that look like for your team?

I've been an independent contractor business.

Because I meet the ABC criteria for that.

These are seasoned organizers that, before they come on the

requirement, as they read the book, they now I have a manual basically.

And then really it's just an for me as a business owner and observation of is this

person actually following the strategy.

That are outlined in the book.

It's they hit the ground running training is, a sensitive subject when

you have independent contractors.

So I have guidelines and then it's just a matter of seeing if

they're following the guidelines.

And I've had situations where I saw an organizer put a

regular ladder on a staircase.

Not a staircase ladder, but, and she was like, yeah, I'm just going to get up here.

And I looked at the owner and I said, I can't tell them what to do.

And I said, but you can, so the owner's no, you are not doing.

But it was just bizarre stuff that people do.

And no matter I've realized, no matter how much information or training,

cause I've also had employees as a therapist, I employed social work

and marriage and family interns.

And I'll tell you, no matter how much training or how much is coming out

of your mouth to another human being, it doesn't mean it's going to happen.

Like I said, I've figured out the listening skills and

communication skills has dwindled.

I think a lot of it has to do with this language thing.

I figured out that we're needling ourselves to death to do things

instead of willing ourselves.

The other thing that came up in the language department and it's in the

book, I think that's why the book is in all the libraries in the U S and Canada

is this language thing that I figured.

That decreases motivation and productivity.

So the second thing besides need is people use a lot of indecisive

language, like I'll try, or I try to do.

Or maybe, or sorta that was the weirdest one.

I don't know where that came from.

It's sorta, what does that even mean?

And if, but could, should maybe possibly.

And so we've eliminated indecisive language from the process of getting

organized, because if a client says maybe I'll use the knitting again.

I don't know what to do with it.

I don't know where it goes.

I don't know.

There is no category called maybe we have a category called product.

And that puts things in perspective because I say, okay, knitting, you used

to knit when you had grandchildren.

Now you said that you haven't used the knitting for five years.

And you're telling me it's a potential project potentials even indecisive.

So I'll say, will you do this project within the next three to six months?

Or will it be two years from now?

Only because I want to know where to.

'cause what you use the most days closest to you and what

you use the least goes furthest.

I, in no way ever want to put my will or opinion on somebody's stuff,

it's not my business to tell somebody whether they can keep something or not.

That's totally up to them.

I just want to clarify when, how, where it will be used so that I make

sure it gets to the proper home.

Got it.

Yeah.

And as you're talking through that, I'm thinking I actually, my wife and

I moved into the house we're in now about a year, a little over a year ago.

And I recently my team and I, we had we had an office and when COVID hit

and then we moved that all closed down.

So I.

Six or seven boxes in my rafters of stuff from the office.

That was like eventually once we do that again, and now with everybody working

remote and home office, our teams pretty much not going back to that aspect.

And those boxes have been there for a year.

And I last weekend pulled them all down and started going through the mall and

it's okay, has it been used in a year?

Do I see myself using this in the next month or two?

And if the answer is no, then it either needs to get out of my house or.

Yeah, it doesn't need to, it doesn't need

to, you want it to, and there's so many good sales

groups now, Facebook marketplace.

Yup.

Next door.

And as you realize, you're not going to move back to an office.

There's somebody opening an office right now.

I guarantee you and they're going to want that stuff and they'll pay

actually they'll pay what you paid for it because everything's gone up so much.

Especially steel.

So if you have like steel desks or desks, various furniture has gone up, everything

has gone up, you will most likely re.

The money you paid for those things.

And, and then, it's been a write off for you, but then you'll have

a sale on your taxes and you'll have some income from that.

But guess what?

You're not storing it any more in your space.

Yeah.

That's the good thing is having space and not having stuff

stuck in places in your home.

It actually frees up your energy altogether, know, and

that's a funkshway principle

of.

There's also the aspect of, I've got a cabinet in my garage and being

able to open the cabinet and slide a box over to, easily move stuff

around rather than being like, cool.

There is no space on this shelf.

Those are the aspects of it's just so hard.

To get anything out of that shelf.

Forget it.

I'm not even going to use anything on there.

It's if I'm not going to use anything on there, then why do I have all

the stuff in the first place?

Yeah.

I say, what's that doing in your real estate?

Yeah.

And boxes.

If you mentioned boxes to me, I get this closed in feeling it's

really, so I always say, take everything out of boxes and bags.

If you've got stuff in bags or boxes, you don't even know what's in it anymore.

Take, go get some clear.

From target or Walmart or wherever you can get, you can find them online

and get everything by category really fine-tune category and find the

proper container for that category.

So that you can see it and you don't have to label.

I have not labeled in 12 years.

People are like, what?

You're the only organizer that doesn't label.

I said, because the label does not ensure that you're going

to put it back in that bin.

I guarantee you.

But when you see it's a category and you take something out of that

category, you're going to will yourself to put it back in there.

That's how your life is going to change.

Not by a label I go into Roger's where another organizers bin and

everything's labeled, but guess what?

Nothing's in the right spot.

Oh yeah.

That's the worst.

I was looking for a hard drive box and my brother wanted to borrow.

I had to take down that's part of what started the whole process

of going through all the boxes.

Cause I took the first one down that said that's where it was, but I'd

moved some stuff around in boxes and it was no longer in that box.

And I just didn't grab a Sharpie and relabel things and the clear tubs.

That's what we have on our shelving units now in the garage.

And we even did my wife found ones that have.

Purple lids or just gray lids and the purple lids.

One ones are more like decor stuff.

And so it's just by okay, it's a purple lid tub.

And it's that instantly goes from, it's not all 20 of them.

It's one of these three.

And so it's like rather than having to actually put labels on the side.

And I think that's all good stuff.

Yeah.

I want to wrap up our time a little bit.

And I want to talk about what are some of your big advice elements when

it comes to, now don't want to go specific on organizing, but when it

comes to more like customer demand and staffing issues, like what are

some of your advice elements on that?

When it comes to business owners.

So what I am always recruiting.

It's not a oh, I'm going to recruit.

This, this week it's a constant recruiting, always looking for

ideal organizers, ideal folks that, have compassion, good listening

skills, communication skills.

So that's a forever thing, I think in all businesses, because you don't

want to ever stop that process.

You always want.

To have, least 20, 30 people to call upon especially in a per diem type of business.

And the other thing is always market your marketing every day that's where

I've come to now to solve some of the challenges that I have, whereas before

it was marketing on demand, oh no more clients, the phone's not ringing.

So I'm going to go to town this weekend.

And instead of doing that and putting all that pressure on myself, in, in

three, four days, I realized now it's a constant thing to keep up that and

to find, to have a criteria for what you want in an ideal employee or

contractor, that's very important.

If you don't really have a criteria.

Of all these, at least 30 things you want in an ideal worker that,

then you're just shooting in the.

Yeah.

It was like, oh my gosh, there's a body.

I'm going to take it no matter what.

And there's been episodes where business was so busy that I was like, it was like

body snatching, but it's never ideal.

And and just really, you want to have the person working with

you to reflect your values and.

How you want the, the work performed and you want them to

emanate having an ideal lifestyle.

Now you want that person to be having an idea.

If they're not having an ideal lifestyle, then how is that

going to help, your clients?

That's really good.

Yeah.

I'm taking notes as you're chatting.

I think the.

Always be looking to hire aspect is so key because you don't know if you're a small

business and you have five employees.

You don't know if one of your employees is looking to leave.

Exactly next week.

My company, we had a situation where Monday morning had a

conversation with an employee.

We were making a 30 day, 60 day, 90 day plan for, Hey, here's some stuff that's

going to get done over the next 90 days.

And we were talking about what that was going to look like.

And then Thursday afternoon resignation letter.

Yeah.

And the employee had been with the company for almost a year.

And it was just no to hopefully didn't see that coming and go on

vacation.

I did.

I did not.

I used to be a thing where I would say, okay, I'm going on vacation

and somebody who worked for me six months or three years, for whatever reason, as

I'm either boarding the plane or getting off the plane, I'm getting a resignation

notice or that they're moving on.

And I don't know if it was like a trigger, but it was a thing

that's weird.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's crazy.

Yeah.

I think the always be looking to hire and always be marketing are two

critical elements really that every business owner should think about.

They want to,

I think the always be marketing and always.

Always be looking for the next customer.

Literally our team was having this conversation internally,

actually the other day.

It's the idea of, when you're on an airplane and they explain the oxygen mask,

put it on yourself first, then help the person next to you, a child, whoever else.

Exactly.

And I feel.

As business owners, that child, or that person next to us as the client.

And we used the oxygen maps mask pop out of the ceiling.

And the first thing we do is stick it on them and go, okay,

I'm going to help you first.

And, but then as business owners, we end up missing out because we end up

starving ourselves of oxygen or starving ourselves of the next potential customer.

And so I think focusing on making sure.

That we have that oxygen mask on, or we are marketing ourselves and we'll

something possibly, I don't want to say fall through the cracks, but maybe

take a slight bit longer for a client.

Yes.

But the client for the most part is going to respect that.

And if they have a huge problem with you marketing your own business, You

probably shouldn't be working with them as a client in the first place.

Yes.

That's another great point that I've learned as a business owner that I

would like to share, pick your clients.

They don't pick you, you pick your clients and that's why I give a

free 30 minute phone consultation.

It's not too.

Waste my breath.

It's really to listen and see if this is a client that I want to engage with.

And the other piece of advice I can say is just as important as onboarding

people to work with your company off boarding, knowing when something is

not going to work out and not giving what I say like chances are too many.

Passes.

That's always, usually when somebody is doing something drastically wrong

fairly quickly into the time that they're working with you, that's a

sign that it's not going to get better.

Generally it will get worse.

So really self protection as a business owner is so important and not

putting yourself in situations that.

Or just going to cause you grief and pain, I think it's really important

to have boundaries and to have a criteria for who you work with

on both ends client and worker.

There's a phrase that I've heard in regards to

the sort of offboarding of staff.

And it's hire slow fire fast.

So the hire slow aspect is.

Go through two interviews.

Do you know, do have a process.

And I know for me when I've hired, when I've done interviews in person,

I'll always ask the, the prospect to bring their favorite candy bar.

It's something that is very minimal cost.

Typically you can buy a candy bar for under $2.

It's not a huge deal.

If it's their favorite one, then when you tell them they can use.

They are going to like that anyway.

And it also makes sure that the person goes out of their way to do it exact.

So it's a very low cost element.

And are they going to take it serious?

And really, those are, those types of elements, silly silly tests like that,

that seem insignificant, will really help to tell, a business owner about

the personality of that prospect.

And it's really something that I think what that sort of hire slow and it's

not hire slow as in take nine months to hire an employee it's hire slow.

As in making sure you vet them.

Yes, and that they follow through.

So that's simple request of the candy bar is a great idea.

I, and I'm going to borrow that.

Awesome.

Go for it.

It's been a really good conversation.

Appreciate the time today.

I know there's been a ton of value.

I've been taking notes as we've been going, through our conversation today.

Your bio, your website, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook.

All of that will be in the show notes.

In addition to you have a book what was the title of that?

Yes, it is called the clutter remedy a guide to getting

organized for those who love their stuff.

And it's an, all the libraries in the U S and Canada.

And you can get it on Amazon.

It's on audible.

It's on it's at Barnes and noble.

I'm actually back on my book tour.

Now my book tour started a month before COVID started.

So I was touched short.

And but I'm back at all, going from, a state to state at Barnes and noble

and doing book discussions and signing.

And so it's a great read.

It's really first about taking care of emotional clutter and

then the how to, how we do it.

It actually replaces my services and then there's a whole chapter on space

design and then seasonal organizing, and also any challenges, mental health,

grief, and loss anxiety that will prevent you from not only getting

organized, but remaining organized.

Long-term.

That's awesome.

Yeah, that's cool.

Yeah.

So that the Barnes noble link I'll have that in the show notes as well.

But as Marla said, it's also available in public libraries.

So if the financial cost of buying the book is something.

That's a struggle.

She's made sure it's in public libraries, so that's not a

hindrance, which is super awesome.

I, I wish more authors would do that cause it's, I think that's really cool.

So

yeah.

There's only certain books, the librarian system, the librarians in the system pick.

So it means that your book has some real depth and value to the public when

they choose a book to be in the library.

It's been super good having you on the show, like I said,

and for anyone who wants to connect with you, what's the number one spot for them

to reach out and connect with you on,

My website is www dot I hyphen deal, hyphen lifestyle.com

or www.i-deal-lifestyle.com.

Awesome.

So for those of you who want to reach out, there's a great spot

to do and that website link will be in the show notes as well.

Awesome.

Good to have you on the show.

Thanks

for your time.

Thank you, Joshua.

Take care.

Bye.

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