Episode Summary

On today’s special episode of Make Space for More, Melissa chats with Alex Brzozowski, founder of Be Organizing. Alex shares her journey of building a digital organizing business, how she provides her services remotely, and how she scaled her services by building a team. Alex also provides insight into how she developed internal systems and processes, including a central hub for information and a sales process script, to streamline operations and maintain consistency. Stay to the end to learn about a free offer from Be Organizing, to help you better organize your business! 

Key Highlights:

• Alex began as a solopreneur and evolved her business over time to include team members and fully remote services. 
• Today, the team at Be Organizing focuses on creating customized solutions that work for each client.
• They have developed internal systems and processes, including a central hub for information and a sales process script, to streamline operations and maintain consistency.
• Be Organizing offers a free digital declutter calendar and consultations to help individuals and businesses get started on their organizing journey.

About Our Guest: 

Alex Brzozowski is a digital organizer, productivity specialist, and founder of Be Organizing. She's been featured in Better Homes and Gardens, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and many more. Her team of Digital Professional Organizers and Productivity Specialists have reduced stress, saved time, and given hundreds of businesses and individuals across the country the peace of mind knowing exactly where their files, photos, emails, notes, tasks, projects, contacts, schedules, calendars, and passwords are (and how to quickly access them!). Visit the Be Organizing website to download your free Digital Declutter Calendar today!

About Melissa:

Melissa Swink, Founder & CEO of Melissa Swink & Co., has a team of virtual assistants who provide administrative and marketing support for small businesses and non-profits.

Since 2012, Melissa and her team have helped more than 100 businesses grow through the services they offer, and she is dedicated to helping entrepreneurs create profitable, scalable businesses they love.

Her work is all about doing what works (and eliminating what doesn’t) and driving real, measurable results. Visit www.melissaswink.com to learn more! 

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Hi everyone, welcome to the Make Space for More podcast where we talk strategies for growing and scaling your business in a way that's authentic and aligned for you. I'm your host, Melissa Swink, and today I am joined by Alex Brzezowski of Be Organizing. Cannot wait to have her share all about how she built her digital organizing business and what her team looks like today, what her systems are that she uses to lead her team and run her business.

Thank you.

Thank you.

all the things behind the scenes because I know that's something that we are super curious about. I know I always enjoy hearing about exactly how people are doing things. And I know I've shared on the podcast before, this isn't so much like the what or the why, it's all about the how, because I think that that's what people really wanna know is, yeah, but how are people doing this or how are they running their business behind the scenes? So just to give you a little bit of background before I officially introduce Alex and have her share more.

Alex and I are actually connected through our business mastermind group. we will share business coach and our coaching program is great because it features a lot of one -on -one coaching and support, but we also have the benefit of a business mastermind group that meets about once a week throughout the course of the year. so Alex and I have gotten to know each other. And in fact, Alex has hosted a email workshop, email decluttering workshop for our clients in the past. And that

Thanks.

well attended, well received, because who isn't drowning in email and incoming communication these days? And she and I have just connected from business owner to business owner and CEO to CEO and talk about like how we're growing our teams and how we're doing all this. So we thought we would have that conversation with all of you today. So without further ado, just want to share a little more about her background. Alex is a digital organizer, productivity specialist and founder of Be Organizing.

She's been featured in Better Homes and Gardens, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times and many more. Her team of digital professional organizers and productivity specialists have reduced stress, saved time, and given hundreds of businesses and individuals across the country peace of mind, knowing exactly where their files, photos, emails, notes, tasks, projects, contacts, schedules, calendars, and passwords are, and how to quickly access

next week.

Thank you.

Thank you so much for joining us, Alex.

Yes, thank you, Melissa. I'm so happy to be here and excited to be here with you today.

Yes, yes, absolutely. So before we dive into all the things behind the scenes, can you tell us a little bit more about like, how did you get into this line of work? I know that's a question that I get all the time in the virtual assistant space and digital organizing is something that not many people do. So I would love to hear your story of how we got

Yes, so I'm gonna go way back. So in college, I was full blown studying law. So I was a criminology and sociology major. I absolutely loved it. And I was working at different, I worked at the prosecutor's office and this all relates to where we are today. And that's why I'm starting there. Because then I graduate and I moved across the country to, I'm in San Diego now.

So both law firms I was at were 100 % paperless. we would have mail. Don't get me wrong, we'd have mail, but everything had a system. Everything had a place to go digitally. And there was a process. There was file naming conventions. There was expectations on the team on where things go and how to keep up with it. And I became really into it. Yes.

Now was that ahead of their time? Like was that fairly cutting edge at the time? Like I know we become more more digital as time has gone up, but in 2008, I still remember tons of paper files around our corporate office.

Very cutting edge.

Yep, tons. Even to this day, law firms are still slowly moving to that, but some of them are resistant. We do have some law firms that are still resistant and they have paper everywhere. And the courts, like the courts weren't paperless, other than the federal courts were starting to become paperless. So like bankruptcy court, was more, they were a little bit more ahead, but still, like even on that level, like you couldn't digitally file something.

for the most part, except for very specific chords. Like it was very few and far between. So like even that you'd have to print or whatever. And I would, like I'd be there printing, you know, and we'd have version control. We'd have, then our CRM played an important piece as well. And just, I mean, it was so, it really was ahead of our times. Like I didn't realize it because that was what I obviously grew up. I grew into it, I will say.

And it was crazy though. So the one thing that I kept seeing were the clients struggling with, obviously when you're doing something typically with a law firm, it's not a happy, typically a happy situation. It's usually pretty upsetting. the second law firm I was at, saw even, I mean, bankruptcy, did see it. We represented the banks, which was also really difficult because we'd have like, you know, the debtors calling us and...

Right. Mm -hmm.

trying to work out deals. But then moving to the small law firm, we represented the clients, like the individuals, not in bankruptcy, but just like if their loved one passed away, now what? Like they're the trustee or the executor, depending on if the person had a will or trust. We'd also draft all that for people who were still living. people were going... And business law as well. like business law, of course, have to... There's usually management of

Maybe that would be the happier side of the legal business. Especially creating new businesses and things like that, but hey.

That's the happier side. That's so not agree. Exactly. That's a little bit happier or it's like keeping up with compliance things. And then if there's like a dispute or something, we will help them with that. But it typically wasn't as in depth there. But the conservatorship and the guardianship and the estate planning stuff, the probate court, all that, that

That was rougher. And then the civil litigation, of course, that comes along with that if there's any disputes. what would happen is we'd be like, all right, client, I'm so sorry for your loss. Can you please send me all your person who, you your father, your mother, your sister, your daughter, your whoever who passed away, can you please send me all their bank information, all their credit card information, their subscriptions, their this or that, that, that. And they just looked at me like I'm crazy.

And because it's like, of course they don't know where this is. They have no idea. for like, because people don't have this stuff prepared. And meanwhile, we, you know, I'm seeing internally our office, we're like, boom, boom, boom, know, everything has a place and everything goes here and this is how it goes. And this is the file naming. And they're going, we don't have that. We don't have any of that. And so I would have to, like, I went with my, one of my bosses to a client's house.

Yes.

Yes.

And we actually, and it was her, she was living with a family member who had passed away. So she, and she was a trustee. And so we went into that home and actually left with two drawer fulls, huge drawers, cabinet drawer, like full of paper. And just of her, her family member who passed away. So we, and it was my job then to go through it and make sense of it. But not only that, but also figure

Wow.

Is this stuff still active? Is it inactive? So now they're spending so much money with us just trying to pick up the pieces.

Yes.

I was just thinking about how many billable hours that would be.

So many, so many. And this was consistent. Like this was a normal, typically a normal thing that people just, unless the person was very organized and thought of it, they didn't have this stuff together. Like, and that's very few and far between, I'll tell you. Like it just wasn't. So we, you know, it was a lot of putting the pieces together. So I saw a huge need there. And I saw that all this stuff could have been digitally really easily done.

Yes.

Yes.

if they had a system or they had somewhere to put it and they felt comfortable using it and had some sort of guidance to do it. Because we'd also draft an estate plan. And let me tell you when an estate plan does not include that people think it includes, but it does not. It's something that some attorneys will do for the kindness of their heart, I think. I don't think it's actually something they include in the estate plan. It's at the end of the estate plan. There's a couple of sheets of

And in those sheets of paper, it will say, this is where my passport is. This is where my safe deposit box is. This is where I'm at my funeral home or the ceremony. I want to be cremated. These are my actual assets. Because the estate plan says who you want your assets to go to. But it doesn't talk about where those things are. Yes.

where all this important information lives. Yes.

Like if there's just nothing there. So they call it estate instructions is what we used to call it at the back. And we did not help people fill that out. Like people would actually ask me, I was apparently also, of course I was the one mostly interacting with the client and they'd be like, well, could you help me fill this part out? And I'd be like, no, that's not what we do. You fill that out. Yeah, exactly. Like we, and that's the way it was. It was just like, you know, hands off. So I realized

Yeah, I don't know where your things are.

people needed help doing this and accountability and some guidance to do this. And even like having, okay, even like where my doctor's information is, my medical records, like let's just say you're not even, you're not passed away yet, but something happens and you are incapacitated for a short period of time, whether that be in a coma or you're in surgery or you're, you know, just certain things that in emergency.

And having your other family members be on the same page as you or be able to know where to go should something happen is just bring so much peace of mind. That is where Be Organizing came to be. wanted to, I saw the need and I saw the way that we were able to tie, I could tie in the digital aspect of it, like the electronic piece and

Yes.

I was really good. I just really loved it. And at the same time, I didn't just walk away from law. I thought for real I was going to be in it for the rest of my life. But come to find out, there's only so much room to grow as a paralegal without becoming an attorney. I had limitation on where I could go in my career and what I wanted to be able to do with it and what my priorities shifted. And I knew then...

because we did business law, because we have formula, you know, do all this stuff. I, also the place that I worked for, they gave us such great opportunity to be part of like the smaller law firm. Just, they just did such an amazing job, including us in growing the business. So I really got to understand that. And that's not to say that that's why I was able to do it. was more that it was helpful that I felt prepared that if I did want to do that, I could. And

Yes.

It gave me the confidence that I needed to be like, okay, I can do this. So I broke off, I put in my notice and I left and I still have to keep in touch with a lot of those attorneys, a lot of my coworkers, because it was, I mean, they just, it was such a great experience. And I then started Be Organizing in 2012

was just gonna ask, like I would love to hear because I know that I speak to people frequently and you probably do as well where they're like, they're in a corporate job and maybe they have a side hustle, I'll use that term, or maybe they have an idea like I just, wanna do something else, I have a business idea, but making that leap from having a full -time, you know, paid job to going out completely on your own, that's a huge shift for people. So how did you make that

Yeah.

Yep. Yep.

Yep.

Yep. Huge. Yeah. So what I did was I gave myself a lot of time. I had a conch. It was very helpful because it was naturally done for me. But I realize now that it was like the most beautiful way to do it. So I'm like, this is what people should do. So I'm a firm believer that if you're not two feet in and you have one foot out, it's never not. It's not going to fully work. It's not you're not all in. You have to be all

Yes. Right.

to really make something work. Like a side hustle, can work to an extent, but if you really want to make it work, like you have to have both feet in. So I had a contract with the law firm I was at and it had an expiration date. So I knew that I just wasn't going to sign another contract with them. And I was an employee, but that's just the way they did it. Yeah.

Okay, I was just gonna ask you, that's interesting from an employee perspective, yeah.

Yeah, they had a sign a year contract at a time or two years. I don't remember. I think that one was a two year one that I signed. So I knew that I still had... Yeah, it was the summer before. So I had a full year to figure out what I wanted to do. But I gave and I knew I wanted to do something. I knew I wanted to start a business. I didn't know what I was going to do it in. And then as more and more time and working with clients, it was like, my gosh, this is where I'm being pulled to.

I was able to give myself all that time to make it so that by that date, I could put my two feet in. So I was like, all right, let's set it up. There's a local association associated with this, a professional organizing. Okay, let's join that. I'm gonna start going to meetings. gonna start, I'll do the legal

you know, get the business certificate and tax certificate, all that stuff set up, just even just doing it as a sole proprietorship, setting up a bank account. I just did the bare like as much as I could, the setting up part and the research that I needed to do so that then by the time that I was and started actually volunteering my time to help other organizers with their clients just to get

Yes.

That's a smart way to learn.

Yeah, and what was kind of interesting though, so you have to remember though, like you were said in the beginning, not many people are doing digital organizing. So there was one person in the chapter that's so happy to digital organizing. She has since moved. She's not even here anymore. So she's like, it's very, very few and far between. So now there's nobody doing digital. So where I got my experience was physical organizing.

Yes.

Got it, interesting.

Yeah, so I was organizing closets and garages and I was like, you know what, because at the time I used my resources and one of my resources was my part, my boyfriend at the time and he was in marketing. So he did some market research for me and he said, look, there's not awareness around this digital aspect of organizing, but there is with the physical home organizing. Could you just start there?

and get in. You still sell the whole thing. You still sell the digital aspect. But just get clients. Just get experience and just get in the door. And then they come to love you and you can do things. And I was like, okay, let's do it. And that's then what I did. I was like, all right, I'm going to do both. There's not this intent yet because it just doesn't exist.

Yes.

Yes.

It's legit. Even to this day, there's still not many. And the companies that do, a lot of them are solepreneurs doing it by themselves versus having a team. We have a team so we can support many different clients in different types of scenarios versus a very few amount. So getting that experience in that... Again, join that association. I did everything I could just to throw myself into it. I even got on their board.

I was like, sure, maybe I extra help. was like the secretary position. And then I was on it for eight years, ended up being the president of the board. I mean, just, I was like, sure, why not? You know what? I'm just going to throw myself into it. Yeah. Just, yeah, I was, yes, and still working full time. And I did. I mean, I, it was, it was, it was a,

You were out there, you were making the plans, you were making the connections, like you were all in and building this.

Yes.

I didn't feel like, I feel like I did just enough to get myself so I could be like, okay, now that I'm on my own, I can really focus on things to make money. I didn't actually make, maybe I made a little bit, but from like one project that came through. But I mean, it was like nothing outside of my firm, like working at the law firm until I left. And then I kind of, saved up a little bit. mean, very few. And I honestly just use credit cards to,

course. Yes.

get by and I spent money on advertising and that actually worked. Google ads, I still do and it still works very well for us. The ROI, I just did that as a, through our coaching, mutual coaching that we're doing, that was one assignment they had me do personally. And

Where did you advertise in the early days?

Our return is extremely high on it, even to this day. So it really works for us. And yeah, yeah. So that's it.

That's fantastic.

So you quit the job, you're doing this, you're advertising, you're making ends meet however you possibly can, then yes, yes.

Yep, and it was rough. It was rough. mean, and my, I mean, my two feet were in and I was networked. Then I would just network. I was just jumping anywhere that I got connected, like any, just anywhere, just be like, okay, yeah, sure, I'll go. I can't even remember how I ended up going. I mean, my dentist, my dentist even connected me to a group and then connected through

I met somebody that she was close with that then connected me to another group that then connect like, so like, it just kind of like branched out. And then I started getting speaking gigs, like just started just reaching more people and talking about it and just talking. But I would talk about digital. Sometimes they'd want to talk about the physical, but so I would do both. But I really tried to push the digital and then COVID hit when COVID so

Yes.

Yes.

from 2012 up through 2020, we did both digital and physical. But I really wanted to do the physical organizing. So during COVID, it was like, this is our chance. We don't have to look back. we dropped the physical organizing, and we solely now work on digital organizing. And it expanded our clientele immediately, because we don't have to be in person.

Yes. Yes.

We can be live, but we do it via Zoom and you can give access to remote into their side to take control and actually do it with the client, do it for the We can do everything that we were doing in person better. That we're not like, cause you don't have to awkward, like that was always the thing. Like when I did have digital organizing clients that I go to their house.

Yes.

or their office, it would be like their business or something. And we awkwardly like sitting, trying to both see the screen and share the mouse because then we go back and forth like trying to work on the same thing versus this way you can sit fully in your ergonomical correct position and have your keyboard, your own mouse. And ultimately, the client has full control over us because that's the way that it works. If you're screen sharing, then the person that screen shares

can always override what we're doing. So they have full control. And if they want to stop, whatever. It's great. And then also, of course, we do have some clients that give access via adding us as either a user, if they're a business, giving us their username and stuff like that, and confidential, sharing their through their password manager, like that.

Yes. Yes.

Yes. Yes. We get those questions as well. Like, how do you actually do all of this remotely? But yes, I agree with you 100 % and thinking back to it, even in my own story where I started as a virtual assistant, keyword being virtual, like remote, but there were still plenty of clients who wanted me to come to their office even once a month to help with filing or different, like, quote unquote, in -person projects.

Yep.

Yep.

Yes!

And I did it. then to your point, once COVID hit, it was like, we're not really doing that anymore. And so I think that just kind of was that little push that some of us needed to fully go online.

Totally. And feel comfortable with it. think the clients, like immediately clients started feeling, not immediately, but like six months in, people were comfortable with it. Like, okay, yeah, no, I get this. I can just jump on Zoom or I can just, you know, whatever. So it was very, a nice transition. And again, totally. And then we started getting clients in like Europe. I mean, literally,

Yes.

Yes!

Yes.

Yes, it opened up that opportunity.

everywhere. Yeah.

That's awesome. That's awesome. So now that's kind of a perfect segue. So like what types of services do you offer as a digital organizing company? Do you work with individuals, businesses,

Yeah, so we have both. So we work with both. We work with your team. We'll work with you as the CEO or your leadership team individually or in a group setting in any way we can do trainings, even where we go in and actually we actually are creating programs for that currently. But we'll actually go in and implement things for you, get things done. So and it could be on an individual basis or business. And so you could be an individual.

individual like a mom or a dad who's like, Hey, my photos or my emails are a mess, my personal ones, and we'll help you. We're going to actually go in and set up a system. So we help people with their photos, their files, their emails, their password management, their task management, their note taking. Businesses especially will help with

when to have a meeting and when not to have a meeting and when to use email versus not to email versus when to use like a messaging tool like Slack or a project management tool. We kind of set guidelines with that and expectations and email alone really translates into time management, which is really interesting. People don't think about that, but it's very tied to time and task management. So a lot of times

Yes.

We'll start there and we end up in your calendar, in your scheduling, in how you're managing your time. Hence the productivity aspect of what we're doing is really getting back your time so that you can do what you love or actually grow your business. Like we help put in systems and processes in place and structure so that then you individually or your team or you as a leader on your team can start following and disseminating.

Yes.

to actually be more efficient and not waste time and be able to scale your business, be able to grow your business, but also then be able to hit your goals personally too. We have people that will come to us and say, I just want my kids. I just want to take my kids to school again. And I'm just drowning in all this stuff. My files are all over the place. I can't find what I'm looking for. Things are slipping through the cracks. I'm overwhelmed. I'm stuck.

Yes.

We and it could be your, mean, literally the things that we help people with, even people's bookmarks. mean, how many tabs do people have open on their internet browser, on their phone or their and or their computer? And let me tell you, we've seen it all. Where there's like hundreds and they have to, they don't want to, I mean, we had somebody who didn't want to shut down their computer because they didn't want to lose their bookmarks. They were worried and come to find out they can actually save them. Yeah.

Yes.

yes.

All their tabs, those tabs were their bookmarks. They were not saved, yes. I know exactly what you

Yeah, but both. Yeah, yeah, but the tabs, yep, the tabs, the different tabs that were open. So we help like and you can reopen those. is a way to do that. That's not an issue, but they shouldn't even know. Like they don't even know. And then also, you know, like getting that comfort of, OK, where does this actually go? Does this qualify as a bookmark? Like what's your system on? Where does this information that you want to look back on go?

Yes!

Yes.

Is it worthy of that? Why are you keeping it up? So like we really dig in deep into all of that and come up with a, you know, a structure system that works for you. And I'm not talking about building programs. We don't do that. I'm talking like, what's your flow? Like where, like where do things live? Where do you access them? If it's this, where does it go? What's your process for that? Like how

Yes.

Right, because it sounds like what you do is very customized because it's got to make sense to the person who's ultimately going to be maintaining and using this every day. So it's not a cookie cutter, one size fits

hearing.

Exactly. No, it is never a one size fits all. People want it to be and they want us to just tell them to do it a certain way. And it's like, no, because you might call it like I use the car example all the time. So let's say you let's say we're doing your personal files and we have car insurance as a folder name title, auto insurance as another name, Alexis insurance, Ford insurance,

Hold on, that's four different names for car insurance, for insurance for your vehicle, vehicle insurance. Like, I mean, it could literally be so many different things. And we would actually, we have found that people will overthink it and create numerous things for the same, less or too many that are the same thing, that are ultimately the same thing. And it's like, wait a minute, take us, you know, we have to like take a step back and,

Too many categories, like too many labels and categories.

Mm -hmm.

So it make it work for how your brain thinks because what happens is that they did that thinking that that was gonna be easier. But what they really did is that they didn't think like that. So it wasn't maintainable at all. Like it wasn't manageable.

And then there they are wasting time trying to search for all these things. Or even like, I know we talked a lot about how much time we spend trying to look for that piece of paper for my insurance, or I'm trying to find that login for that program. And you waste all this time and you, not to mention you get frustrated, but I also think too about like all the missed opportunities that you have as well, especially like as a business owner, if you don't have a good system

Yep.

keeping up on potential clients or things like that. If you just have this email where there's like thousands and thousands of unread messages in your inbox, you can't keep track. Realistically, your brain cannot keep track of all the different people you need to follow up with and all the things that need to be scheduled and the person never got back to you with the time. Just all this stuff is just endless. Systems and organization touches everything.

Exactly!

Exactly.

Totally.

everything, literally everything. it's, mean, even even so going into like growing the business, I apologize if you can hear my dog in the background.

I would imagine you're getting like a shipment of some kind probably. UPS or something like that, Amazon's there.

Yes, I'm pretty sure it's something. I heard a truck and then she's doing her job. So I tell the guys, she's normally very quiet.

That's okay. This is real life on this show. We have pets, we have kids, we have parents nearby. Yeah, totally, totally. That's a perfect segue though because the overarching theme of this show is really growing your business beyond you. You took us through, here's corporate, here's how I

Yes. It's...

I started with doing kind of a hybrid model of in -person and digital, and now we're just digital. But your team has also evolved because just like so many of us, we start working on our own and we get to the point where we reach our own capacity. We're full. We can't take on anything else. But we're like, there's still so much opportunity or I'm only one person. I don't want to be doing all the things. So like I would love to hear like, what was your first hire in your business and what does your team look like and how has that changed over

Yes.

Yes, so I, my first hire was a physical, it was a dual organizer. So, my gosh, I am so sorry again, everybody. If you can hear that, I can't believe she's doing this and I want to yell, but I know that's not the appropriate thing to do.

Thank you for saving our ears. We'll just ignore it. It'll go away. It'll stop.

Yes, I'm like, I want to shut the door and I. Anywho, so I my first hire was a organ organizers who did both physical and digital, and I hired two and only they just. You know, first hires are always difficult or, you know, it's the first time I've hired anybody and I started that route because and I needed to have that was the other thing, too. I had to do.

get the hiring stuff in order. Like how do I hire? Like coming up with a process for that and a process for, really I just started there, was creating a process internally for that hiring. And I hired those two and then I taught them by just having them come with me. I didn't really have, I mean

Yes.

like things written out in the sense of like, this is what we do. We utilize this method to organize. But I really didn't have one for digital, a digital organizing method written out yet, like fully. It was different than the physical one because you have to think about different things. I knew... So I started off like very slim, basically, like very slim having processes in place. And then from there, especially during COVID,

We hired somebody else to those two left for whatever reasons. And then I had one person who was with me during COVID. And then I hired my third hire like third person that then we put on on the team at that time was the virtual executive assistant. having, yes, and that was huge because I realized

not realized. I always wanted to own a business. I didn't want to give myself a job in the business. And I had given myself a job, many jobs in the business like most of us do. And I said, you know what? I don't want this anymore. I refuse to let this be. So what can I let go of and pass along to make this run without me? And one of those things was the intake, the sales process. And so

Mm -hmm.

Yes, we talked about that at one of our calls. Yes.

Yeah. Yes, we did. Just recently even because it's a big... Because it's one of those that you're like, my gosh, this is really obviously very important and critical to the business success and everything. But I also was spending weight. What would happen is they'd find out I'm the owner and be like, I just want to work with you. I have access to you. And immediately starts this relationship off in a really bizarre place. And also,

Yes.

it left me unable to be able to have what I want, which is run the business. I couldn't just focus on managing the business and focusing on the things I needed to focus on marketing more so and fixing certain processes that weren't working or whatever. So I wrote out my whole sales process, the script, which has been modified many times to this day. We go to improve it all the time.

Yes.

Mm -hmm.

I wrote out like we made as much automation as possible for signing up with us so that then it's like, okay, click this button, sign the service agreement and pay. And then you get a link to schedule with us and a welcome packet. Everything. As much as we possibly could. And because the team was also growing, I was like, this needs to have a central hub that's easy to find everything. So, and I'm obviously techs...

Yes.

Yes, just simplified everything and automated so

Yes.

Like I said, we are not IT specialists. We are not web developers, nothing like that. But I'm savvy enough and comfortable enough that I can figure some things out. So was like, you know what? I'm going to create an internal website for us using Google Sites. We're using Google Workspace for our email and our files like Google Drive and Google Docs. And we're just using all the G Suite for all of our business

Mm -hmm.

And they give you Google Sites with that. So why not just use Google's created Google Site for internal processes and procedures that then can just be updated really easily. The team can update it. They can find what they need.

and everybody knows where to go to find information. So they're not asking you or your assistant, like go here first. And if you're still unclear, then ask. Because I know too, like one of the things as I was growing my team and I'm sure that you can relate to this, it got to a point where it was fantastic to have all that support and helping our clients and things, but I was answering questions all the

Exactly.

Then

Yes.

Me too. my gosh,

because I was the main point of contact for questions. And so I just felt like I was answering things all day

Yep, totally. That's exactly what it turned into because there's that transition stage of you were that for so long. And I'm like, I'm trying to remove myself from this. don't want to do like, this is not no, no, don't come to me. Like, go there first. And we have the operations manual, but I just made it. I just made it so that it was searchable through this Google site. And we still have the operations manual, manual, manual. Like we still have, we update both.

Yes.

That's incredible.

We just like that's the executive that's my what my executive assistant on our team, she does that as well. Like she makes sure that if we have an update there that she's updating over there. And it works. So like you're meeting with a client, you want to have the checklist up. There you go. Of like what to cover, how to close out the meeting, your end of day checklist, your you know, all of that stuff lives on there and they can just reuse it and go to it whenever they want. So it's been very helpful. And recording videos too.

Yes.

Mm -hmm, yes.

And so when we onboard, when we hire and onboard new people, they actually train themselves through using going through our hub, our internal hub of information. Like we actually have like, Hey, look at this, look at this, like check it off, check it off. Did you do this? Okay. Now you can start doing this. you, know, we actually have a whole system in place for that. And it was, it's super helpful. And then I had to really suck it up to be quite frank and push back on people too.

Yes.

you know, transitioning from, you know, just like those questions that you were asking all the time being like, well, did you look there? I don't know. Or they would want a different answer. Like we have a cancellation policy with our clients. When I remember we had an organizer at one point who would always ask me every time a client wanted to reschedule or cancel on how to do it. And I'm like, nothing has changed. Absolutely nothing has like, I don't know.

what you want me to do. Like she just, don't, I don't know why I had to keep saying it. So I actually pushed back and said that I said, I, nothing has changed. It's where you know what.

Yes. You know what? Yeah. I love that central hub of like, here's where all the information is. But I think the other thing too, so that we're not answering questions and it's very clear where to go. But the other thing that I think we have found on our team, cause we do have something similar. It's a team member toolkit where we cover a lot of the same information. And we certainly have a client or excuse me, a team onboarding, like orientation and things like that. But it's also that consistency.

Yep. Yep.

Like as the business has grown and we're onboarding more team members to work with our clients, we want everybody to be on the same page and we want every client having as uniform as experience as possible. So that consistency in the client journey is very helpful as

Exactly.

That's dead on, dead on. Yep. So important. So really coming up with all of that, like literally wrote out every process and we're still, like I said, it's still being built. Like we're creating

This is always evolving people. I promise you that. Like as soon as you finish it, there's something else that needs to be updated. This is just, it's ongoing. Yes it is.

I say it's a living breathing. It's not a document anymore, but there's a document side of it and the Google side of it. is living and breathing all the time. I just added, we even have just a resource list for apps that we love internally or that we found. And there was one, a client mentioned the other day that was awesome. Such a great tool. because there's so many out there, so we don't know them all. That's also, again,

We will help you find what's going to work for you. like, ultimately it's really, there's just constantly new things coming out. So anyway, she was talking to an organizer, the organizer shared it and was like, this is so cool. And it could be helpful for other clients. And I was like, put it in the B block. Like we call it the B block. And it was like, put it in, you know, let's put it in there. And immediately it was added into our list of resources. Because it's like, this is great. Like now we have this, I can look back at this and find it and be able to use it. And it's

So that has been key and also finding what also started to naturally happen as then the systems were in place and I was turning more into my leadership, turning into a leadership role. We naturally started attracting people to work for us and beyond the team that understood that culture and we brought that culture

Look, we're not micromanaging you. This is a remote team. all over. None of my team lives here with me and anywhere close to me. And that's fine. Like it's not an issue at all. I don't, you know, I'm not, it's like each of you are in charge of your own kind of destiny here. you can, like there's things that you need to do, but ultimately

If it doesn't work out, we're going to let you go. But ultimately it's up to you. And just starting to create this culture, kind of it helped having those things in place really helped cultivate the culture that we wanted. You know, like it just really streamlined all that and attracted that because then we attracted people who really. Naturally, like, mean, organization is huge for us, obviously, because we do it for people. So you have to have that skill set. But being organized ourselves.

And there's so many businesses.

And self starters and problem solvers, all of

everything. It's helped in so many ways. So many ways.

Well, Alex, this has been super interesting just to hear about how you got started, how you made the leap from corporate to owning the business and how the business has evolved over time and what the team looks like now and all the different things that you use internally to help kind of guide the team and keep things running smoothly. But I know I want to give you a chance to talk about

this special gift that you have to our listeners for a free digital declutter calendar. And you also do free consultations as well. So I would love to have you share more about that and where we can find

Yes, yes. So we have our digital declutter calendar, which is basically a checklist of different areas, very broken down into, today let's work on this. know, once, you know, Monday do this or once a month or we kind of break it down by monthly, quarterly, annually on what to work on. So it's in bite -sized pieces and not overwhelming. For example, it's like, okay, look at your downloads folder and let's clean that up. You know, like stuff like that. So it kind

when I'm thinking when was the last time I've done that personally? Okay, so apparently I need the digital declutter calendar also. And then I'm gonna pass it on to my assistant as much as humanly possible and be like, can you just make sure that these things are done and just let me know what you can't do remotely? Yes.

Yes.

Yeah, make sure. Yes. Yes. Exactly. Exactly. Like we even cover photo. It covers like everything from like your business stuff to your personal stuff. Of course, pick and choose what's relevant to you. But ultimately, it's just a nice free guide to help you stay on top of those things because people just don't know where to start. So this just kind of gives you a framework to get started somewhere because just even kind of go into the flow and momentum of it and just puts you in a really good place.

And then if you want help and you wanna work with us or you wanna do more, we also have like different groups, programs. We've got so many different things that we're doing and have offerings. schedule a free, we have a free consultation. We'd love to talk with you. There's no commitment to it. It's just free. Book it when you can, if you're interested. Obviously if you're ready

make that change in your life to actually finally get that freedom and that peace of mind that you so deserve and are worthy of. So you can spend time doing more of what you love, whether it be in your personal life or your business, your team. I mean, we get in there. We do all of it. We're really in all of that stuff. And you can go find all of that at our website, on our website, be organizing dot

And yeah, it's all

Yes, and we'll make sure that we link that in the show notes as well so that you have it at your fingertips and don't have to spend time searching for where to go for something like that because we're all about eliminating that time and frustration of trying to find things. So Alex, it has been a delight. Thank you so much for joining us today and sharing your story and your knowledge and just openly about how things operate behind the scenes at Be Organizing and at your company.

Nice!

Yes.

I want to thank all of our listeners also for tuning into today's episode. And if you know someone who could use a little organization in either their personal or business life and side note, that's probably like everybody, you know. But even if you can think of one person who you're like, this is something that they mentioned to me where like maybe they

Yes.

a relative who isn't doing so well and maybe this is a good starting point to start getting some of those things in order or, you know, I don't want to burn in my own children with having to try and sort through like, where's my bank account information or like on the happier side of things, even like I spend way too much time in my email and I can't find anything and I've got 3000 unread emails. Like all of these things are clues that you probably need

Yes.

Alex's help with organizing and so she's got those resources for you and certainly do a consult, but certainly encourage you as a first step to share this episode with that person that you can think of and have them check it out and maybe figure out on their own of like, this is what I need help with and go from there. and I will see all of you in the next episode where we'll continue to share more tips and success stories and strategies for growing your business beyond you.

Absolutely.

Thanks so much everyone.

Thank you