If you feel buried in digital clutter, overwhelmed by systems, or stuck spinning your wheels, it’s time to stop treating the symptoms and start clearing the source. In this faith and business podcast episode, Jan sits down with organization expert and coach Tracy Hoth to uncover the surprising connection between organization and business growth.

Whether you're a small business owner juggling files, planners, and client work—or a Christian entrepreneur who just wants to feel more focused and in flow—Tracy’s signature SPACE method will help you get back to what matters: doing the work God has actually called you to.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why disorganization is draining your time and your revenue
• The mindset shift every entrepreneur needs to declutter with grace
• Tracy’s 5-step “SPACE” method for organizing your business and brain
• How clutter affects confidence (and conversions!)
• Faith-forward strategies to create systems that actually stick

Guest Bio – Tracy Hoth

Tracy Hoth is a business and life coach with over 17 years of experience helping women create sustainable systems in both their homes and businesses. Host of the Simply Squared Away podcast, Tracy is passionate about helping female entrepreneurs move from chaos to clarity through her proven organizational framework. Her clients gain more than just tidy folders—they reclaim time, confidence, and vision.

Resources & Mentions:

📍 Learn more & grab her free 15-Minute Declutter Challenge at simplysquaredaway.com

📍 Learn the only 5 file folders you need to organize your digital files. simplysquaredaway.com

📍 Book: The Way They Learn by Cynthia Tobias

Take Action:

Ready to grow a more profitable business with less clutter and more confidence? Start with 15 minutes. Grab Tracy’s free guide and take back your time today.

CONNECT WITH TRACY:

Website https://simplysquaredaway.com/

The Organized Coach Podcast https://simplysquaredaway.com/podcast/

Instagram https://instagram.com/tracyhoth

CONNECT WITH JAN:

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Transcript

Hey friends, welcome back to the podcast. I am so excited that you're here today because I get to introduce you to a new friend of mine who we speak the same love language. I'm very excited about it. If you didn't know, my middle name is organization. It's really weird. I like love it. It's something that I've passed down to my children. I think organization might be genetic. I'm not sure. Anyway, I found my new friend Tracy and that is her specialty, you guys. She helps business people get and stay organized in their business, in their life, in all the things. So Tracy, welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited to have this conversation with you.

Thanks, Jan. And knowing you're organized as well, we're going to have some talk about that. But interesting you said something about genetic. It's so fun. After 17 years of doing this, I've seen complete opposites come from the same parents. And so it's interesting. It makes you wonder, like, what happens? What makes people the way they are?

It's, it's really funny because I read a book way long ago. It's called The Way They Learn and I'll try to link it in the, in the show notes. I think it's still in print that you can get it, but she talks about messies and tidies and the, it's the way that the Lord made up our brain, right? You're either a messy or a tidy. Well, I'm a tidy. My husband is a messy and we have four kids and we have an even split. So I do think it probably has something to do with genetics, but you know, maybe that's a question when I get to heaven, I don't know. So tell us about you and tell us about what you do because it is fascinating to me. And honestly, when I ran across your podcast, I had never heard of anybody who does what you do. So it, I mean, it's a space that is so needed and I think everybody is going to resonate with what you have to say today.

Yeah, it's, it's something back when I, my first, well, my last child went to preschool that I said, I want to help people get organized. So that was 17 years ago. And I started helping a friend who my youngest's best friend's mom would not let anybody in her house. And I started helping her. I just went in, she let me in and we started decluttering her house. And so it really started in people's homes. And then I started speaking on the topic of organization and productivity. And then I got coach certified and then started an online business. And when I did that, I was like, wow, I am a mess on my computer. It's a total mess. Like I got to figure this out. I'm wasting time. I just started then using my steps that I used in the physical space. And I used it on my computer in my business and created just super simple strategies, foundations, whatever you want to call them. And now I start, I started helping people do that in their businesses. And so I've been doing that for a couple of years now. So I still have a home side that I help people with and a business side that I help people.

That is fascinating to me. So when you say that you help business people get organized, I mean, I'm sure that everybody listening can identify with the needing to stay organized and get organized in spaces in your home. But talk to me a little bit about what it means to organize a business because I'm sure that there are different little pockets that you work with people, but I'd be super curious to know, like, where do you see people needing the most organization in their business?

So let's start just by defining what organized means because a lot of people have different thoughts about it. Organized in my mind is that you know what you have and you can find it when you need it. Okay. It's great. So super simple. I feel like for a lot of people, their shoulders can relax because it doesn't mean they have to use all this extensive software and they have to be super formal or, or like business like with it. It just means that you know what you have and you can find it because what happens is people waste a lot of time. They're looking for things and they can't find it and they thought they put it in this folder and they made a new folder and they have duplicates and they just feel very overwhelmed and frustrated because they can't find what they need. Yeah.

I totally get that. So where do you see people having the most struggles? I mean, is there a common theme that you see in business owners?

That's the main one that I think comes to their attention. So for example, a client just was telling me, she's like, Tracy, you don't understand the panic I feel when I have to get something to someone. Or I have to, if I start a project, I paint, like the feeling inside her body, she said, is like panic because she's afraid she won't be able to find what she needs. Or if they have a team, they can't get what they need to the team. And the team can't work. So they're wasting money because they're paying their employee or their assistant and they can't even find what they need. So she's paying her to do work while she's not working because she can't find what she needs. So those are kind of the main things and they waste a lot of time and they waste a lot of money. Those are the probably the two main places that people notice. Okay.

Okay. So talk to me. I think people can understand with the wasting a lot of time because I do that. As organized as I am, I feel like I have little pockets, right? Right. And so I try to stay organized inside the pockets or folders or whatever, but it's interesting to me that you say they not only waste time, but they waste money. So talk to me about what you've seen in the way of money being wasted because of lack of organization.

Well, a couple of things, I hope I can remember them all while I'm talking, but one of them is that they, you know, find duplicates or make duplicates or spend money on duplicate things. So they already have it, but they can't find it. Another one is that they think they need, they're always looking for ways to organize. So they buy programs or digital software they think is the answer. Or you can see that in the home, they buy physical bins or organizing products or a new planner or whatever it is. They buy those things because they think it's going to help them get organized. And then the other thing that I don't think people think about is if you're spending 30 minutes, like in the beginning of a project trying to find things, you could be spending that 30 minutes marketing and reaching out, making connections, getting new clients. And you not doing that is costing you money because your business isn't making money because you're spending time on the back end searching for things. Yeah.

Yeah. I am making a mental note of how much money I've probably lost over the last 12 months doing all of the things that you're talking about. And I'm somebody who considers myself fairly organized. So somebody who doesn't consider themselves organized, I can't even imagine the stress that would come up, especially even maybe while they're listening to this conversation.

I mean, and the shame, I think there's more to it than that. Like the stress, but also feeling that shame. And if you struggle with executive functions or you have ADHD, it just is layering on the challenges that you have in order to be able to execute or implement the things you want to do. And then they feel bad and then they hide. So then they're not showing up. It shows up in the confidence of how they're selling because they're afraid. If I were to get a client, I don't have my onboarding set up. Like I don't have what I need in place. I don't know if I have, you know, what I, what I have to help them. Like they think of all these things and so it's keeping them from being successful. So it's, I see it in people are just so ashamed and they're hiding and they're embarrassed of the situation that they're in. And I love that. I love the helping someone and being so understanding of that situation because we all have it. We all have it in whatever our weaknesses are, whatever our challenges are. And so I just love creating a safe place for someone to say like, this is where I'm at. This is a mess. I'm so embarrassed. I feel terrible about it, but I don't know what to do.

Oh, that's so good. That's so good. And I think everybody needs safe spaces to land, and safe places, safe people to talk through these kinds of things. And so I'm, again, making my own mental list, these are probably things I need to talk to Tracy about later, off the podcast. So I know that you said, finding things and something that I really resonate with, with what you just talked about is buying things to help me stay organized, because I like organizing. I'm like, Ooh, this is a shiny new thing that I could have to help me organize better. And you're exactly right. A lot of times, it's not something that I need, it's not something that I'm going to utilize fully. And so I'm wasting money. So how do you suggest people find the right tools and the right organizational structures to work with how the Lord made them? Because that's my problem, right? I see all these things. And I think, Oh, maybe that'll help me fix whatever it is that I'm fixing. For me specifically, it's journals, or planners, right? And I've finally, I think figured out, okay, these look great. But for me, and the way that my brain and my workflow works, that is a waste of $40. I should not invest in that. So how do you help people understand what they need versus what looks like a shiny new thing that's pretty that they want to play with?

Well, I have my five steps that spell the word space because we are creating space. And so you go through the steps of organizing. And the first step is sort. So you always sort first, you just put things into like items that are alike into piles. And once you have everything sorted in that category or area, now you know what you have. And so you can go back through. The second step is to purge. Now you can go through and purge that category because everything is there. And I always think about choose your favorites. Like you want to pick your favorites from that category because you use them, you love them, you know they work. And then you can start asking other questions to make decisions on the rest of the stuff. So sort, purge, those are the decluttering stage. And then what you're keeping, you're going to assign homes to them. Where are they going to live? And then the fourth step is to contain. That's the step where you would buy a container or see what software you need. So the key to not doing that first is to say to yourself, wait, I have three steps first before I have to decide that before I'm allowed to go to that step. Because then you know exactly what you need. You can measure it. You know what will work. You've worked through and decluttered so you know what you're keeping. And then the final step is to energize. This is the step where you get to go back and look at it. You get to be energized by it because you've created this space. You have room to breathe. You have less decision fatigue. And I think about in this step, it's the habit step where you are maintaining that space. And the secret to maintaining is to tie it to something you already do. So you find something that you do that you can tie that to. And I give two easy examples like your refrigerator. Every time you go grocery shopping, you tidy up your refrigerator before you put your groceries away. Same with your pantry. You could do your pantry too. Or with paper, every time you do taxes each year, you clean out your file cabinet or the area wherever your paper is held if it's not in a file cabinet. So tying it to something you already do. So sort, purge, assign homes, contain, and then energize.

That is so good. I love that. So I have many questions based on those things. I was madly writing notes. So if, if somebody, and I know this probably is widely varying depending on the state that someone to organization would be in, but how much time would you say you need to dedicate to even start doing something like this? Okay. So.

my first tip is to think of your project or think of your organization like a project. You are going to create a project with a start and an end date. Then it's not just this continual endless slug of organizing everything in your life. You're like, nope, I have a project. This is what I'm focusing on for Q1 or whatever it is. I have a start and an end. I break the project down using the organizing steps. These organizing steps work for literally everything for a project for your brain. When you feel overwhelmed, use the organizing steps, but you break the project down, you assign tasks to your calendar in Q1 and then you begin. And it can be as much time or as little time as you have on your calendar. So each week or day or whatever, look and see what you have. And I want to give this example. A client had paper all over her house and she was extremely busy. She worked a lot. She had a teenage daughter and she had a husband that she cared for full time. And we decided we made a plan and then she committed to organizing or sorting, I should say five pieces of paper a day. She's like, I can commit to that. And her new belief was I have a plan and which was so exciting because she had nothing before and she was completely overwhelmed and she could commit to five pieces of paper a day. And when you start, you do five pieces of paper and that night she had like extra time. So she kept sorting more. The next night she didn't and she sorted five pieces. Eventually her entire house was free from paper. It was all sorted, purged, assigned homes to it, and she had the project complete. And it was so exciting because she thought she had no time. That's it.

That was my belief. I love that. I love that. So basically, you can start wherever you're at with the time that you have available. You just have to have a plan to do that.

Yes, and so I made a 15 minute declutter challenge. It's a freebie that I offer. Your audience can get it and they can take that. It has the steps to organizing. It has it explained. They can see some pictures, you know, that kind of thing and they can set their timer and do 15 minutes.

Oh my gosh. So great. Okay. We're for sure going to link that in the show notes, you guys, make sure you go there and get that. Okay. So when you say purging, I know that I am not a sentimental person. I'm not like the hoarder, so to speak. I don't like keeping things. Some people probably think I throw away too much, but I know there's a lot of people who are not in that camp and they have a really hard time letting go of anything because maybe I'll need it someday. So talk to me about how you help people understand the purging piece when so many of us have a hard time letting go of things because of the someday we might need it.

Yeah, so I first look at your identity. If you look at the goal, like you want to declutter your home or your business, you want to have an organized computer, whatever it is, and you have an identity that I'm sentimental, I keep things, I have a hard time making decisions. I don't think you're going to create the result that you want because you're holding on to that identity. And I just recorded a podcast episode because I had an identity in my own business that I don't do things I'm not good at. I never have my whole life. And all of a sudden my coach pointed that out to me. I bet that's not true. I bet you can find evidence that you did do things that you weren't good at and you pursued and you, you know, got better and better at them. And I was like, huh, I've had that belief my entire life. I didn't even know it wasn't true until someone pointed it out. I helped clients do the same thing. I was laughing because I'm like, duh, Tracy. Why haven't you thought of that? So if you have a belief that you're sentimental, where I would start for you is just to say, what is the opposite? And how can you find some evidence that it's not that it's the opposite is true and just relax your brain? There's no race. But try to think of some examples like you threw away something. You gave something away to someone in need. Here's a really good one that people that think they're sentimental often give things. If they know someone needs it, they'd be willing to give anything up. So they've given stuff away to someone who needs it. There is the exact point. Like you do give stuff away. You just like to find someone that needs it. And a good, a good thing that we've talked about before in my group is that when we give some away, we think that giving it to a specific person that we know needs it is really important to us. Like if we knew that we'd be willing to give all of our stuff away. I like to think about you can drop your stuff off at Goodwill or Savers or whatever your donation place is that's closest to your house. And there are people that go there that need it. There are people that go there that buy things and resell them to make money for their family. And so how do you know that giving it to that isn't also giving it to someone that needs it? If you trust that God's going to deliver your little item to the person that needs it, it's kind of cool that you can donate it to just the easiest place and also someone's going to find it that needs it. So in that instance, you're you're re creating your identity or rewriting that the belief that you have that's keeping you from your goal. So that's the first thing I like to help people do.

Yeah, that's amazing. I love that. So where do you, where do you say that if, so I'm trying to put myself in the shoes of somebody who's listening today. Yeah. And this all sounds really, really great. But I look at my computer, that's a mess. I have 11,772 emails in my inbox, and I don't even know what's there anymore. I am afraid to even look at my notifications because it is just overwhelming. And so if you had one place to tell people to start as a business owner, what would you tell them to do?

Okay, so create the project, just decide when you're gonna work on this project. That would be my first thing, but that's like, okay, give us something practical. Okay, I will. I think that working on your digital files and organizing them is the place I help most people start because that's where they're wasting the most time. And so I have a free class you can listen to, but creating the five file folders on your computer, and then starting to sort into those. So my five folders are operations or admin, behind the scenes, marketing, which is outward facing, my content, which is everything I create, education, which is everything anybody else creates, all my coaches, certifications, freebies I've downloaded, and then the fifth folder is clients. And that works with almost every business. Maybe someone would, like a business with a lot of products might have, instead of my content, they might call that products or something like that. But those five folders, now your brain, when something comes into your computer, is like a flow chart. It's like, oh, it goes into business and then there's five folders. Oh, it's like so relieving. And so make those five folders and start sorting everything on your desktop into those. Everything on your documents, everything in your downloads, just get them sorted first.

one. That's great. I that makes me feel better. Like I'm going to go back and listen to this again and take mad notes. And I'm going to actually do it because I although I have everything in a folder like my desktop is not messy because it makes my brain go crazy. I think I have too many folders and it still keeps me stuck. So I think that just goes to prove that even people who consider themselves organized can get better. There's always levels to get better, right?

Yes. And I like to think too, if you are functioning at 80%, so organization doesn't mean that you're going to be perfect at how you function. But if you're functioning at below 80% and you want to work on organization, then 100%, choose that as a project for your next quarter and work on it, get the support you need, do the work that you need. But don't be discouraged if sometimes you still can't find stuff because that's all of us. We all have situations like that. So it's not like we're going for perfection. We just want to function. We want to know what we have 80% of the time and be able to find it. That is so.

So good. So good. This conversation has been so helpful, very practical. And I want people to know how to get more information from you. First of all, everybody right now needs to go and follow your podcast because it's amazing. So I want you to tell us about your podcast and then tell us about where else you would send people to get in touch with you.

Yes, my podcast is the Organize Coach podcast. It's everywhere. And then my website is simply squaredaway.com. That's the name of my business. And then I'll give you links to the two freebies. The one is the class for business file folders. And then the other one's the 15-minute declutter challenge. Perfect. We will.

make sure that you have all of those in the show notes, everybody. So make sure you go listen, follow Tracy, all the places. And thank you so much for being here today. This conversation has spurred me on, want to make a plan to get organized for the next quarter and beyond. So thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate you.

Thanks, Jan. It's great to be here.