CTC Ep. 49 | The 5-Step System to Organize Your Business & Reclaim Your Time with Tracy Hoth

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Welcome to from Click to Client, where we transform a confusing message into a clear, compelling story that sells. I'm your host, Chris Jones, StoryBrand marketing expert. I'm here to help you attract more dream clients with the power of story.

Kris: It is my joy today to introduce you to Tracy Ho. She is a coach and a professional organizer who helps life coaches organize their business so they can make more money while actually working less. Tracy welcome.

Tracy: Ooh. Thanks Kris. I love being here. I'm so excited to talk to you about getting organized.

Kris: I know, and we were just talking before we hit record about how when you're a business owner, if your business is organized, great, but if your personal life is organized, that also benefits the business, right? Because you can't. Divide the buckets of your life in that way, especially when you are the business.

Right. So, um, so true. So true. It really, yeah. It makes such a [00:01:00] difference. I, I am, um, a fanatic, I wouldn't say fanatic. I am diligent about clearing away clutter and donating stuff, and I'm always amazed by. That it's never done. Like how do I keep collecting all this stuff? And, and I just finally accepted like, oh, this is just more of a practice.

It's an ongoing practice, just like meditation would be.

Tracy: Totally. It is a practice. Mm-hmm. And there is the project side of it where you're really focused on. The project of a certain space or a certain part of your business or whatever. But then after that, you really do have to have a habit or a practice of maintaining that space.

Hmm.

Kris: So let's dive into you. Tell us a little bit about you and how did you get into this work in particular?

Tracy: Well, I've been an organizer professionally going into people's homes and offices since 2008, and then I started speaking on the topic and then I was growing my email list early [00:02:00] on, and I knew I didn't always wanna be doing that.

It was a physical job. Usually if people were hiring me, they thought I should do all the physical part of it. It gets tough and you're driving to people's homes. So I knew I wanted to transition. I came across life coaching in 2017 and absolutely loved it and could see that that's the addition, that how I helped people really needed because they needed their identity to.

Shift into a person, business owner who is organized, not just that their business reflects it, but that they feel that inside and believe it about themselves. So I got Life coach certified, and then I moved my business pretty much online and realized, whoa, I need to organize all my online things because very quickly they get messy and you have so much stuff, and if you don't have structure for that.

Oh my. It gets outta control and you're wasting a lot of time. So I noticed that about myself. I put my own practices into play and just created super simple structures that I could help people with, [00:03:00] and then started helping business owners and coaches on, um. Organize their businesses. So it's been this just long journey of using all the things I learned along the way and putting it into practice.

So now I do both. I help homeowners still not in person, but in my online program. And then I also help business owners get organized.

Kris: How do you go about getting things organized or helping your clients get, get organized? On their computers.

Tracy: Yes. Well, the thing, and I was gonna say this earlier, the thing that I love about my five steps to get organized is that they work for every single thing.

So they work for your computer, they work for your mind. When you're overwhelmed, they work for a project, you're planning your calendar and to-do list. Listing and your physical space. So these five steps are all you need to know to organize any single thing. And they work on your computer too. So the, the acronym is space because you're creating space and.

S is for sort. The [00:04:00] first thing you always do is to sort, and that's what we do with your digital files on your computer. When we're starting, we're sorting them. And the reason this is so important is have you ever walked into your closet and just thought, okay, I'm gonna get rid of some stuff. This is what I do.

I stand there and I look at one thing and I'm like, wow, I don't know, maybe I think I might wanna keep that. And then I'm just like, this is dumb and I leave.

Kris: Right? Right. 'cause I

Tracy: haven't sorted first. And so we always sort first, then we go to the purge P for purge. Wait,

Kris: which, what question do you ask yourself in the sorting phase?

Like, no. Good. Good. Yeah. I say, what is this? Whether, whether it's your closet or your computer, right. Let's go back to the closet story.

Tracy: Yes. So I just say, what category is this? You don't have to start with categories ahead of time. You just say, what is this? It's a long sleeve shirt. Put it in a shirt pile, a long sleeve shirt, pile, whatever you want.

What is this pants? Put it in a pants pile. I even say like in your closet. Just take out all your tank tops. Go through the steps [00:05:00] with just your tank tops, then take out all your jeans and pants and go through the steps with your pants because then you're not like left at night with a giant pile of clothes on your bed.

You actually have part. Category at a time, but you pull from everywhere in your house, every tank top is gonna be on your bed that you're gonna look at. Right. And same with your digital files. Now the way I teach it is I give you five categories to start with, to sort into, but then you are gonna go and sort all your files into those categories, which we can talk about that in a minute, what those five are.

But that's what you sort just what is this put like with like Okay, got it. Okay. No, so then, then the P is purge and you are gonna go through purging and letting go of things. Now this is where it's challenging to. A, a bigger majority of people, but I like to choose your favorites first. What do you absolutely love?

What are you using? What fits with the purpose of you going forward? So that's a big one. In the future, five [00:06:00] years, three years, 10 years, what do you see yourself doing and using and in your business too, like, what will I be doing? Does this fit with that?

Kris: And you mentioned the purpose of you moving forward.

Is that part of the life coaching work that you do with people to kind of identify who is it that you're wanting to become?

Tracy: Yes, because what happens is we used to be this person. We used to like an example with clothing, since we're on that example, is I used to be someone who went into the office. This was one of my clients.

And has a whole wardrobe of, of things she used to be, but when she looks forward, she's never going back to that. She's not gonna go back to the office, she's not gonna work. So now going forward. She doesn't need those things. And once she realized her identity and she could let go of that identity of the old her and go to the future, her, she was able to let go of all of those things.

Kris: Hmm. That, that's really powerful. I, I am thinking about, and uh, and another example, my [00:07:00] partner. Used to bite his nails. I did not know him during this time, but he used to really struggle with it and he decided he didn't have a coach or anything, so I don't know how this came about for him, but he decided I am someone who does not bite their nails.

That is who I am. I am this, and. After like a lifetime of biting his nails. He hasn't bit them since. Isn't that amazing? There's, there's really power, a lot of power in that, what I call in storytelling, that aspirational identity. Who do you want to become, and then how can you step into that a little bit early, you know?

Yes. Like now.

Tracy: Yes. And there was a, I had my sister actually on my podcast and we were talking about her bedroom and how she was a piler, like she had piles around her bedroom. So she was using my 15 minute declutter challenge to declutter these piles. And one interesting thing we discovered in that talk was when her and her husband [00:08:00] got married like 25 years ago, they decided they were gonna be people who made their bed.

Exact example. Like she decided, they decided and they always make their bed. And we played with the fact that she could decide right there on the interview that she was not someone who had piles in her room. From that point on, she could be someone who walked into a room and never had piles. Wow. Like that's all it is, is deciding that you are that person.

Right. And pulling from the past or a different aspect of your life where you did that and you were successful at doing it. Right. It's so fun.

Kris: It's not. As complicated as we think it's gonna be. We fight ourselves in these things. And really, that's the beauty of coaching, right? Mm-hmm. With therapy, which I'm a big believer of therapy, but like you kind of delve into the past and you analyze it and kind of marinate in it.

With coaching, you're like, okay, let's, who are we? Who are we wanting to become moving forward and let's make that happen.

Tracy: Yeah.

Kris: Yeah. So good. [00:09:00] Okay, so, okay, so let's get back into your process.

Tracy: Okay. So sort and then you're purging. And purging has a few things. Like if you're, you're, um, organizing your to-do list or your calendar purging is delaying, delegating, doing.

Deleting tasks. So there's different aspects of purging, asking those questions, looking to your future, and then if it's a time or a task thing using the four Ds, then once we know what we're gonna keep. We need to assign homes. So the A is assign homes to things and the, the whole, we didn't even start with this.

Organizing is knowing what you have and being able to find it when you need it. So you are assigning homes now that you know what you have so that you can find it when you need it. So everything needs a home. Then the C is to contain. So this is the part where most people start. They go to Target and they get these cute containers, or they buy a new planner, or they have a new like temptation of some cool organizing software on their computer that they're gonna get.

No, we don't do any of that until we get to [00:10:00] the fourth step to contain things. And you can use, like I said, planners software program might help. Um, baskets, drawer dividers, shelf dividers, all those kinds of things. And that's to keep things in order. And then also it's your trigger when it gets to that point that you need to go back through the steps.

Kris: Right. Right. So it, and then it could, it could be a drawer or it could be a folder on, on your computer.

Tracy: Yes. And an appointment on your calendar. Mm-hmm. Is one where you have an appointment, it, there's a start and an end time. That's the container.

Kris: Right. Right. Wow.

Tracy: Sort, purge, assign homes contain, and the last step is energized.

So when you have decluttered and organized, you now have energy to spend in other areas. You wanna maintain that energy mm-hmm. To do the things that you wanna do. By keeping the order. So this is the habit step where you put something in place so that you maintain that energy. And I, the secret to maintaining is to tie things to something you already do.

So think about what you do. Easy example, I go to the grocery store. When I come [00:11:00] home from the grocery store, I wipe out my refrigerator, clean anything out of it, tidy up the pantry, and then I put the groceries away. Or I do taxes every year. So I go through my paper. When I do taxes and get rid of that. So you're maintaining your organization.

Kris: Right. And it doesn't have to be every week or every month. Right. You would, you do that tax prep once a year, but it's part of, you have a routine around it.

Tracy: Yeah. Or seasonal with the weather changes in your clothing, that kind of thing. Yes.

Kris: Yeah. Oh, I love it. So tell, tell us a story about a client that.

Got to experience like really wonderful results after working with you.

Tracy: Yes, so the one that comes to mind, I have organized Coach Academy, and that's where business owners, small business owners, entrepreneurs online. Coaches, they come in and they go through six modules where we start with the mind and then we do the computer.

We find, we set up a business dashboard so they can find all their business assets really quickly, and so she. [00:12:00] Is one that does what she signs up for. So she literally went through, organized her files, created her business dashboard, and she just emailed me, I don't know, a week ago, two weeks ago, and she was like, Tracy, I'll come on anytime and talk about how this has helped me, because she feels like.

She has so much more freedom and can use her creativity. So she's written a book since then. She's created a new program since then. And the cool thing is both of those things are very organized now, and she can find everything that she needs when she needs them. And so what I hear a lot is people just saying either they didn't.

Know how to create those structures ahead of time on their own. They felt like they had an organization gap, maybe because they have a DHD or executive functioning gaps. But once they have it and understand it, it's so much, um, relief or frees up so much of their brain space that now they can use that.

Energy, uh, and that time and space to focus on their clients and focus [00:13:00] on marketing activity so that they're creating results in their business versus all that time wasted looking for things and feeling disorganized.

Kris: Yeah, it, it's, it's really two twofold because it takes up space in your brain to try and remember where things are and identify like what you're looking for and where it might be, but it's also a.

Doubled because of the frustration that comes with that. Like we all, you know, time feels, um, often scarce, right? And we're all like, we wanna make the most of our time. And I'm, I just wasted 15 minutes digging around. Now I'm frustrated. Now I'm not in a very good mental state to be hopping onto a podcast or doing a marketing activity.

Tracy: Yes, and when you just said that you set an appointment on your calendar to work on a project, and then you get to that appointment, you're trying to be good at time management, you get to that appointment and you can't find what you need to do the project. So you were looking for that for 30 minutes.

Then all of a sudden piled on top [00:14:00] of all that frustration is the proof that you're bad at managing your time. When really it was just because you weren't organized, you couldn't find what you needed.

Kris: Right, right, right. Okay. So you mentioned five folders. Um, can you delve into that? Is that related to space as well, or is that, what are the five folders that we all need?

Tracy: Yeah, that's separate, but Okay. One of the biggest areas return on investment of investing your time organizing I've found for your business is to have digital files in an organized manner. So I've set up five folders that are, that work with everyone I've worked with. I mean, maybe someone has to change the name of one or add one more, but pretty much works with everything.

So the first one is operations, and that's anything behind the scenes in your business. Marketing is the second one, and that's outward facing anything your clients are seeing or people. The third one is my content, anything you create. And the fourth one is education. That's everything that everyone [00:15:00] else creates.

All the free downloads, the freebies and the courses and the certifications. And then the last one is clients. So anything related to clients, oh my gosh,

Kris: how simple. So, yeah. Simple. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. I, I have to confess, I am somebody, okay, now I'm like aware of my language around this. I am somebody who will fill up my desktop with like.

Recent files and folders and activity, and then it will start to overflow. So they'll start to double up on each other. And then I create a folder that says November, 2024, and then I select all and I put them into that folder. And I have been doing that for years. So what do you do if you've got like years under your belt of this kind of behavior?

Tracy: Well, Kris, you're not alone. I've seen that a lot. Or the title might be stuff to deal with or, you know. Totally, yeah. All of those, yeah. Uh, [00:16:00] first of all, set the structure up. Then you can sort into like, deal with, uh, sort later where you could put all those files into the sort later so you have that sitting there.

You know, if you need something from the past, you can go in there and look for it or search, but set the structure up first. Sort all your current places. So I teach people sort your desktop first because it's what's visible. Put it into the structure, then open your documents, sort everything in there into the structure, which is just like on your desktop.

Make those five files. Uh, and then go to your downloads. Go to your Dropbox, go OneDrive, like wherever all the places are, sort into those five categories. Got it. Merge 'em all together in your one hub. So you always decide like, what is the one place, the hub of my business gonna be? And how and where is that gonna be?

And merge everything into that place. And then the sortings done. So then you go to the next step

Kris: when you talk about the hub of your business. So [00:17:00] that is usually either Dropbox or Google Drive. Is that right?

Tracy: Or if nobody needs to get to your stuff, you could do it on your computer. Right. Right. So either of those, or some people have MyDrive or OneDrive, sorry.

Right, so that is, it just depends what, but one of those four places typically is where it is. Okay.

Kris: Because I've like, I've got half my stuff in Dropbox and half my stuff in Google Drive, and I'm always hunting around. Yes. To what I need. Yeah. Hunting

Tracy: around. So I just worked with a, uh, one of my clients and she, we took all her stuff in Dropbox, moved it into Google Drive.

And so now she no longer, she's like, yes, and I'm paying for that. She went and stopped her subscription to it because she decided her one place was gonna be her Google Drive. She's saving money now. She's never having to go try to find where, in which spot of those four or you know where it is. And so, such a relief on your mind and your time.

Have you And your money.

Kris: And your money and Yeah. Yeah. And your energy. Just like I, this is kind of [00:18:00] back to the clothing piece, but it's true in business or in personal life. The physical lift that I feel when my closet has been cleared out and. Only the things that are, there are things that I love. The physical boost that I get is, is so incredibly tangible, and I'm always, I'm struck by it again and again.

And I always say, God, it's like stronger than any antidepressant. Just clear out my closet. I know like there's a, there's a place for antidepressants of course, but like, I don't think we realize. How affected we are by our space. I, I am aware of that. I'm very influenced by my space and I know that about me, but I think all humans really are, whether it's your closet or your kitchen or your living room and what a tangible effect that can have on our mood and our general sense of wellbeing, and then our ability to show up more free and more energized in our business.[00:19:00]

Tracy: Yes. And there's such, in what you were saying, there's such a feeling of shame in a lot of it that people think it's not even possible for them 'cause they're just messy and as you were saying it, like they don't even know first that it's possible for them, but also that, that it will have that effect and the confidence that comes from that and their ability to.

To be who they're meant to be and reach and make the impact that they're meant to make because they feel so much different and have such a different structure and background in their business. Mm-hmm.

Kris: Well, what, what would you, what would be your best advice for a business owner who's overwhelmed, feeling buried, whether it be with their calendar or their files, or their schedule?

Um, what would be your advice to them?

Tracy: Well, I, I would say to think of it like a project, I think that's the most helpful. So in Q4, I am going to organize my computer or. [00:20:00] In the beginning of the year, that is gonna be my first priority in Q1. So now they have a plan. And then of course, whenever you're learning a new skill or you have a new goal, get support.

So whatever that looks like, if you need someone to walk with you one-on-one, if you're good at. You know, following videos to do it. Whatever it is. If you need an accountability buddy, like whatever it is that you need to develop that skill and accomplish that goal, then get it and know that it's completely possible.

Kris: I love that you attached a Q1, right? It's not like it has to happen on a Wednesday, but like this is like my vision for this quarter and it's gonna happen, and I'm gonna focus on that one big thing.

Tracy: And imagine at the end of that quarter. Yeah.

Kris: Like you're

Tracy: gonna look back and go, I accomplished something.

Kris: Yeah. Yeah. And you have four of those a year. That's four big, big things that you can accomplish that are, aren't gonna be overwhelming. 'cause you're gonna get support and you're gonna, [00:21:00] you're gonna build momentum Right. To do it again. Right. Once you get one thing done and then you're excited about the next,

Tracy: and you have that skill with you for the rest of your life.

Kris: Mm-hmm.

Tracy: So it's a complete investment in yourself. In whatever, wherever you start, if it's with your home or if it's with your business, it doesn't matter. You're investing in your brain in that way, in your identity and it's gonna overflow for sure.

Kris: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, so a lot has happened, like you and I worked together.

You were a client of mine, which was so fun. Um, but that was kind of pre ai. I feel like it so much has happened with AI in the last couple of years. Um. Are there any tools related to AI or even non-AI tools that you find really helpful for for any entrepreneur?

Tracy: Well, this is fun that you asked that, 'cause I hadn't even thought about that.

But in my Organized Coach Academy in every single module, I have an AI assistant that helps you. So the mindset assistant helps in the mindset, the digital files. It knows my [00:22:00] mind and system and practices, so it helps with that. The systems when we're developing and documenting our processes, it has you tell it what it is, what you're documenting, and it shoots it out so that it's exactly the layout that I would recommend, and you paste it into your Google Doc, you know exactly where to put it, you know where to link it on your business dashboard.

So it's all. You know, 10 times faster. And as we've worked on different clients' processes through this, it helps you, um, think of things maybe you didn't think of. And so it's so fun to say, oh yeah, I hadn't even thought of that step in breaking that step down, so,

Kris: right.

Tracy: Yeah.

Kris: Wow. It's like having a very intelligent

Tracy: intern

Kris: help you.

It's so

Tracy: fun. I, I just think, what did we do before? I mean, I can barely think for myself anymore. I'm like, oh, let me ask, what should I write?

Kris: You know, like, what, who do you work? How should I, do you work with the chat, GPT or cla, or I chat GPT? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh my gosh. Awesome. It's, it's

Tracy: been good.

Kris: So, um, two more questions for you.

I wanna hear about the 15 minute [00:23:00] declutter challenge, and then I also wanna hear about your new freebie.

Tracy: Yes. Well, if you are listening and you want more help with the five file folders and you wanna listen like you didn't catch all that, I have a free training for you to get. It's at simply squared away.com/the number five files, and then my newest freebie is the 15 minute Declutter challenge.

And that walks you through the steps, space in space, explains everything and teaches you how to pick an area to work on. Set your timer work for 15 minutes, and it's been so fun. I have organized Life Academy also, and in there I've had. Uh, the women, they're all women who are decluttering, downsizing their home and getting organized and they have been doing it.

We've set up, um, bonus calls where we do that. It is so fun seeing before and after pictures, and they just are talking about how it. Getting you from stuck to started. So if you're feeling stuck, you can even use it to, to [00:24:00] do your digital files and follow those steps and everything's spelled out. But it's been exciting, like it's been a year or two since I've created a, you know, a free offer like that, and it's super successful.

I, it's blowing my mind at how exciting

Kris: it is for these women. That's amazing. Well, I am going to download that as well. Yes. Because I need, everybody needs a little lift. Like I, I, I'm gonna touch on like the fact that you said. Get some help, have someone hold you accountable. Like I think that's the piece that people forget or they think I should just be able to do this by myself, or I'm a little bit embarrassed of this situation, so I don't want anybody to witness what's going on for me here.

Exactly. And it's just, it doesn't serve anybody, right? You just, we all need help with this.

Tracy: Well, I think the part that I see all the time is I should be able to do this. And I am like, why? Why should you be able to do it? Nobody teaches us these things. And when I'm working one-on-one with someone organizing their computer and setting their business [00:25:00] dashboard up, I can see what they're doing and teach them these little shortcuts and show 'em, oh, this is why it's not working.

'cause this tech setting was wrong. But you sit there and shame yourself thinking you should be able to do it. No, you can have someone walk you through it, get it done 10 times faster, and learn things you didn't even know about how you're doing something on your computer or something. That'll be the biggest shortcut you ever Right.

Thought you, you know, needed.

Kris: Right.

Tracy: But

Kris: yeah. Uh, Tracy, thank you so much for being here today. Let our listeners know where we can find you.

Tracy: Yes, at simply squared away.com. That's my website and I'm on Instagram at Tracy Ho and I have a podcast, uh, the Organized Coach podcast. We just hit a hundred thousand downloads, so I'm super excited about it.

Oh my gosh, definitely check that out.

Kris: All right, thank you.

Is your website turning away Potential clients? I can help you turn that around. Book a moneymaking messaging call with me today and we'll transform your story into your most [00:26:00] powerful sales tool. That's all for this episode of From Click to Client. Don't forget to subscribe and follow. I'm Chris Jones and I'll see you next.