Client Background

Angela discovered and communicated to me that when her son was diagnosed with ADHD, she too was diagnosed with ADHD. When a child has ADHD, one or both of the parents have ADHD. Angela was relieved to find out there is a reason why she is the way she is, and now with medication, she was eager to clear her clutter and set up systems to keep her home organized. Angela contacted me in 2003, my first year in business, and I had no clue how ADHD affects a person’s ability to organize.

Condition of the Environment

Level 1 on the Clutter-Hoarding Scale. A beautiful home. Most spaces cluttered. Paper (years of it) was kept in beautiful baskets and bags. Every time the cleaning service came to clean the home, all surfaces were swept of paper into these baskets and bags and then never looked at again.

Techniques Used to Work with Angela

We spent several days sorting those years of bags and baskets of paper. Then I set up a prepackaged file system for her and taught her how to use it by filing the papers she kept into the system. Once we completed that process, I had apparently gained her trust, because Angela said to me, “Anne, I have a room I would like to show you that I think I want you to help me with.” I said, “Great, where is this room?” She said, “Upstairs. It’s the bonus room.” For those who are not familiar with a bonus room, for the past two decades or more, American homebuilders have expanded homes from having one- or two-car garages to three or four. Above the garage, they build a vast space and call it the bonus room, meaning the homeowner can use the area however they want. And therein lies the problem; it is an undefined, un-purposed space.

I asked Angela what she wanted to do in this space. She gave my question some thought and replied, “Well, I like to decorate the house for the different seasons, so I want to store home décor here. And I like to create memory books and other craft projects. Maybe play the guitar and hang out.” Angela defined her space as her “creativity center” to give it purpose to help us determine the criteria for what would stay in the creativity center and what didn’t belong there. The technique is defining the purpose of the space and what activities will take place in the space to determine what remains and what is jettisoned.

The next week, we sorted and purged her bonus room based on those activities.

Other Techniques For Working with Clients With ADHD

Find out how and where clients work the best. ADHD individuals are sometimes distracted by sounds that may not distract others. And others with ADHD do better with music playing while they organize and complete tasks.

• Timers or an alarm clock help ADD clients to stay on schedule. Timers also help teach clients how to estimate time—how long tasks take.
• Visuals are usually a must for ADHD clients. Calendars, wipe-and-write boards, Post-It notes, or pictures are a few visuals that create reminders for the client.
• Assist clients in making homes for things where they use them. This way, they won’t get distracted looking for lost things.
• A key technique I use is to have the client ask questions out loud. Hearing what one needs to do can move the decision-making process along.
• Teach your clients to do one task at a time—no multitasking! Examples of this include collecting trash from all over the house at the same time or putting all dishes in the dishwasher at one time.

Any Resistance

Not great resistance. Angela wanted to keep more than I recommended—mostly paper, because of fear. But overall, she was highly motivated to clear out the clutter. Once she was on medication for her ADHD, everything became three-dimensional, where before the clutter was wallpaper to her, and she didn’t see it.

Results

Angela has maintained the space since August 2003, she lost fifty pounds as a result of our work together, and she has taught friends how to set up a paper management system.

More magazine interviewed Angela about the best investment she ever made in her life, which was hiring a professional organizer. A few quotes from the article I would like to highlight are:

“‘Give me a pile of mail, and you might as well strangle me,’ Angela Coel says. At least, that was the old Coel. For years, although she managed to stay ahead of the curve at work, Coel always felt as if her ‘tail were on fire.’ And when she quit her job to stay at home with her kids, her chronic level of disorganization overwhelmed her.”

“Then, in 2002, Coel was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, began taking Ritalin, and started looking at things differently. Rather than seeing her problems as a moral failing, she began to view them as practical issues to be fixed. She decided to get help from someone whose skills complemented her own—a professional organizer.”

What I Know Now That I Wish I Had Known Then

• How difficult it is for a person with ADHD to get anything done—the daily struggles they have.
• The ADHD client feels tremendous shame because they often hear that they are “lazy,” “don’t care,” and “are slobs.” They constantly feel judged.
• The value of coaching, either integrated with the organizing, or one person working with her as an ADHD coach and another as the side-by-side organizer. Clients with ADHD benefit greatly from coaching to be accountable, stay focused, and receive positive affirmations about their progress.
• An understanding of how to reduce distractions and keep clients focused and activated during the organizing process.
• Medication helps tremendously to “activate” someone with ADHD; otherwise, they know they need to be doing something but can’t get started.

Want to talk to colleagues about working with neurodivergent clients?

Join the POPS Circle, where organizing and productivity professionals share ideas, experiences, and encouragement.

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Working With Clients Who Have ADHD – A Case Study and join the conversation.

Wanting to better understand what does work today, I attended a webinar presented by Chelsea Lockwood, Social Strategist, and Ryan Bast, Senior Product Marketing Manager, both from LinkedIn.

My main takeaway from the session was to share useful insights that reflect your own experiences and thoughts instead of offering generic advice. The more specific you are, the easier it is to form meaningful connections. These insights may come from many places, including:

• mistakes you’ve made and lessons you’ve learned
• how you’ve responded to unexpected events
• approaches you rely on
• patterns you notice in your work
• ideas you’re currently exploring
• why you made certain decisions
• shifts you’ve made over time

As someone who’s been blogging and participating in online communities for years, this resonated with me. The posts I remember most, and the ones people tend to respond to, are usually rooted in real experiences rather than broad advice.

Here’s a great example from a recent post by Virtual Home Organizer Pam Holland:

“As a recovering perfectionist, I can say with confidence that perfectionism doesn’t usually make things better. It makes things later.”

Your posts will be most engaging when they are authentically you, so don’t worry about waiting until you have all the answers. Content grounded in actual experience tends to be more memorable and reveals more of your personality more clearly than generic advice ever could. Sharing what you’re learning can often be more engaging than sounding certain about everything.

I’ve noticed this with my own posts. In the past, I’d have avoided sharing anything remotely personal, focusing instead on business tips or links to blog posts, whether my own or others. Over the last few months, I’ve stepped outside my comfort zone and started sharing my own photos and thoughts. After enjoying others’ posts of that nature and noticing the level of engagement they received, I decided to try it myself, and it really works!

This is equally important when you comment on others’ posts. Try not to sound overly polished or too broad in scope. Instead, share your point of view and explain why it matters.

It’s essential to focus on what your audience wants to hear about. Are you familiar with the acronym WII-FM? It stands for “What’s in it for me?” and is what people are most interested in when deciding whether something is worth their attention.

This requires a good understanding of your target audience as well as what you’re uniquely qualified to talk about.

Want to connect with others who are sharing ideas, building businesses, and creating content?

POPS Circle is a great place to continue the conversation!

Although this was a LinkedIn event, many of the ideas apply just as well to other social platforms, and even to blogging. Whether you’re writing a post, sharing an update, or commenting on someone else’s content, your own experiences and perspective are often what make people pay attention.

If you’re interested in learning more, watch the recording of Turning Your Expertise into Content.

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Sharing What You Know: Turning Experience into Content and join the conversation.

But wanting the leap and being ready for it are different things. This guide covers both: the practical groundwork you need before you quit, and the emotional reality that waits on the other side.

The Honest Emotional Terrain

Nobody talks enough about the identity piece. When you work a corporate job — even one you’re ready to leave — you have a title, a team, a calendar full of meetings that signal your place in the world. You’re someone who does X at a recognizable institution. The moment you leave, that “someone who” disappears before the new identity has arrived.

Research published in 2025 in SAGE Journals on career transitions found that people navigate career change through two parallel processes: mourning the lost professional identity while simultaneously exploring what comes next. Those who struggle tend to stay anchored in the grief phase, fixated on who they used to be. Those who move forward construct a new narrative that accounts for both what they’ve left and who they’re becoming.

For organizers, this is particularly concrete. If you spent years in HR at a hospital or overseeing operations at a company, your professional identity was woven into that institution. “I work at [Company]” is social shorthand that solopreneurs lose overnight. Replacing it with “I run an organizing business” takes time, and the gap between the two can feel disorienting in ways you won’t fully anticipate before you’re in it.

Isolation compounds the shift. Your former colleagues are still in the building, living the rhythms you used to share. Your new peers (other organizers, other solopreneurs) are people you haven’t met yet. Building that community is part of the work, not a luxury you tack on later. The transition is much harder without it, which is why the mental-health section below comes back to it.

Don’t Quit Yet: Build Your Runway First

The most dangerous version of this leap is the dramatic one: a resignation letter, a big announcement, and three weeks later, quiet panic about money. The financial unprepared exit is how reasonable people end up undercutting their prices, taking clients who aren’t a good fit, or retreating back to employment before their business had a real chance.

U.S. Bank’s guidance for aspiring small business owners recommends saving 12 to 18 months of personal living expenses before leaving employment, and that figure is separate from any money your business needs to operate. For a service business like professional organizing, startup costs are lower than for product companies, but you still need cash for marketing, liability insurance, software, and the months before your client roster is consistent.

A simple framework for building your runway:

1. Calculate your real monthly personal expenses: rent, food, utilities, insurance, debt payments. Be honest; this isn’t a time to round down.
2. Multiply by 12 to 18 to get your personal runway target.
3. Add 3 to 6 months of projected business costs on top of that.
4. Open a dedicated savings account for this fund and treat it as untouchable until you’re ready to use it.
5. Set a specific launch threshold (a savings milestone or a recurring revenue number) and commit to it before you start counting down to your last day.

The runway buys you something more important than time. It buys the freedom to set your prices honestly, turn down clients who aren’t a fit, and let your business find its real shape instead of a desperate one.

Validate Before You Leap

The SBA’s Office of Advocacy found that only about 27% of high-propensity business applications actually became employer firms in 2021. The gap between intending to start a business and actually building one is real and wide. Most people who file that application, who feel the pull and buy the domain name, don’t make it through validation.

The research is clear on what helps: test your idea with paying customers before you quit. Neri Karra Sillaman, writing in Harvard Business Review, argues that validating with actual customers while still employed is the most important thing an aspiring entrepreneur can do. Not a business plan. Not a logo or a website. Paying customers.

For organizers, this means taking clients on evenings and weekends while still employed. Charge something. Free work doesn’t validate a market. What you’re trying to answer is simple: will people pay for this, and will they come back or send referrals?

This period also teaches you things you can’t learn from planning: how to describe your work to a stranger, what your ideal client looks like, where they find you. A 2014 study by Joseph Raffiee and Jie Feng found that entrepreneurs who keep their primary job while launching reduce their business failure hazard by 33.3% compared to those who quit immediately. Treat the side-hustle bridge as evidence you’re taking the business seriously, not as evidence you’re hesitating.

Building Visibility on a Solo Budget

You don’t have a marketing team. You have a phone, a few focused hours each week, and the work itself. Here’s how to use what you have.

For professional organizers, visual platforms are your strongest asset. Before-and-after photos of spaces you’ve transformed do more for your credibility than any brochure. Post them consistently on Instagram or Facebook. Ask clients for short testimonials and share them. Let people see exactly what working with you produces.

Short-form video is increasingly how new clients discover local service providers. A 30-second walkthrough of an organized pantry, a 60-second tour of a closet transformation, a brief introduction to who you are and what you do. These hold attention in ways that static posts don’t. Short-form video is one of the most cost-effective visibility tools available to solo founders, and you don’t need professional equipment or a production team to start.

If video production feels out of reach, AI tools have lowered the barrier considerably. Adobe Firefly’s AI video generator lets you create polished short-form content from text prompts or images, which makes it practical for a solo organizer who wants to show up on video before she has the bandwidth or budget for a full production setup.

The strategy is straightforward: show up consistently, show your actual work, and make it easy for the right people to understand what you do and how to reach you.

Protecting Your Mental Health Through the Transition

This section is not a nice-to-have. Dr. Michael Freeman’s UCSF research found that entrepreneurs are roughly twice as likely as the general population to experience depression. The conditions of solo work — financial uncertainty, isolation, the absence of external structure, the constant blurring of personal identity and business performance — create real psychological risk.

Three things help significantly:

Build a peer community before you need it. Joining a group of fellow organizers or solopreneurs before you exit corporate life means you’ll have people to talk to when things are hard. Don’t wait until you’re struggling to find your people.

Separate your self-worth from your monthly revenue. A slow month does not mean your business is failing. A difficult client does not mean you’re bad at this. New solopreneurs often treat business outcomes as personal verdicts, and that habit is corrosive. Learning to hold the two things separately, the business and the person, is one of the more important skills you’ll develop.

Keep something in your life that has nothing to do with work. Exercise, a friendship, a hobby. Anything that gives you structure and satisfaction that isn’t contingent on a client saying yes. The loss of enforced separation between work and the rest of life is something corporate jobs provide automatically. Solopreneurs have to build it on purpose.

Quick Q&A

Do I need a formal business plan before I start? You need a clear picture of your target client, how you’ll reach them, and what you’ll charge. A formal document is optional. A spreadsheet showing how you’ll cover your costs for the first six months is not.

How many clients do I need before I can quit my job? A reasonable threshold for a service business is enough recurring or repeat revenue to cover your monthly personal expenses, not your future goals but your actual costs right now. If you can hit that mark consistently for two to three months while still employed, you’ve validated something real.

What if my employer finds out I’m running a side business? Review your employment contract for non-compete or conflict-of-interest clauses. Most organizing businesses don’t overlap with an employer’s operations in ways that create legal issues, but you should know what you’ve agreed to. When in doubt, ask an employment attorney before you start marketing.

How do I handle the identity shift when I meet new people? Practice saying “I run a professional organizing business” out loud before you’re doing it full time. The awkwardness of the new identity fades faster when you start using it regularly, not just internally but in conversation.

The people who navigate this transition well share a common pattern: they built their financial runway before they quit, they got paying clients before they bet everything on the idea, and they built the support structures to sustain them through the emotional reality of going it alone. You can do this in that order, and you’ll be better positioned because of it.

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Making the Leap: How to Transition from a Corporate Career to Running Your Own Business and join the conversation.

What does this mean for you?

• Twice as many meetings to choose from (or attend them all, if you like!)
• A chance to connect with a wider network of professionals and expand your circle beyond the organizing and productivity community

Our meetings focus on conversation and relationship-building in both small and large groups. Last month, we talked about summer and what it looks like for our businesses, and the answers were different for everyone.

If you help people with organization and/or productivity, you’re very welcome to participate.

Upcoming Virtual Networking Sessions​

• Thursday, June 11, 2026: 1:00 to 2:00 PM EDT
• Thursday, June 25, 2026: 2:00 to 3:30 PM EDT

Summer meetings will be held twice a month:

• 2nd Thursday, 1:00 to 2:00 pm Eastern (the usual GHVA time)
• 4th Thursday, 2:00 to 3:30 pm Eastern (the usual POPS meeting time)

There will be a new meeting link for these meetings, so be sure to register, even if you’ve joined us before.

Members consistently share that the greatest benefit they receive is the information, support, and connections they gain through these meetings, so I hope you’ll join us this summer and see what the buzz is all about!

Visit Your Organizing Business to read More Summer Networking Opportunities with POPS Circle and join the conversation.

For next month’s Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival, the theme is Life in Flow.

What helps life run more smoothly for you or your clients? Maybe it’s a simple routine, a well-organized system, a mindset shift, or a way of reducing friction in everyday life. Perhaps you’ve written about creating better habits, simplifying schedules, organizing spaces that support daily routines, or finding ways to move through busy seasons with less stress and more ease.

You might share tips for getting back on track when life feels chaotic, ideas for working with your natural rhythms, or strategies that help create momentum without burnout.

If it helps readers create more ease in everyday life, I’d love to see it!

How it Works

1. Write a blog post about the monthly topic – in this case, Life in Flow. If you’ve written one in the past, most of your work is already done!
2. Submit your post using the form at the end of this post no later than 11:59pm EDT on Wednesday, June 18.
3. You’ll receive an email once the Blog Carnival is published so you can come back and read some or all of the posts contributed by the other bloggers. They’ll be reading yours too, so get ready for lots of comments and social media shares!

Participating in the Blog Carnival is a great way to generate traffic to your blog and it only takes a minute. Many contributors return month after month, earning special ranks like Star, Superstar, Megastar, or even Ultimate Star Blogger.

To see how it works, take a look at some past editions.

Do you offer a product or service that would interest professional organizers, productivity consultants, or their clients?

Why not sponsor an upcoming edition of the Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival?

Submission Guidelines

1. You may submit an article you’ve written and posted on your own blog, a post you’ve written for someone else’s blog, or a guest post on your blog.
2. Multiple entries are allowed if you publish posts by multiple bloggers or guest bloggers on your site, and each entry is by a different author.
3. All submissions must fit into the theme Life in Flow.
4. Submission deadline is 11:59 pm EDT on Wednesday, June 18, 2026.

The Blog Carnival will be published on Thursday, June 19, 2026.

Please use this form to submit your post. I’m looking forward to reading it, and to helping you get free exposure for your blog!

By participating in the Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival, you agree to receive Your Organizing Business once per week and From the Desk of Janet Barclay no more than once per month. You’ll be able to unsubscribe at any time.

Photo © Janet Barclay

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Call for Submissions: Life in Flow and join the conversation.

You probably don’t need to know that, but if you have a business and/or a website, there are facts about domain names that you should know. In this post, I share answers to some of the questions I’m asked most often.

What is a domain name and why do I need one?

A domain name is the name that identifies a website, e.g. yourorganizingbusiness.com. Without a domain name, your website address will look something like 209.34.78.419/~yourname, which is ugly and next to impossible to remember, or yourname.wordpress.com, which is only slightly better.

Having your own domain name is important for branding and helps your business look established and professional.

How can I get a domain name?

To register a domain name, you need to go through a domain registrar such as Namecheap or Hover.

Please note that your domain name and your website hosting are two separate services. The domain is your website address, while hosting is where your website files live.

Many domain registrars also offer website hosting, but you don’t need to purchase both services from the same company. There are both advantages and disadvantages to keeping them together, but that’s a topic for another day.

How much do domain names cost?

Domain name registration usually costs between $15.00 and $30.00 and must be renewed annually.

Watch out for hosting companies who tempt you with free domain registration when you host with them. One of my clients wanted to move her site to a faster hosting service, but learned that her domain name belonged to her web host, not her! Domain registration is relatively inexpensive, so don’t cheap out!

What happens if I don’t renew my domain name?

It’s important that your domain registrar has your current contact information so you receive your renewal notice on a timely basis. I recommend that you use an email address that’s not connected to your domain, because if it does expire, they won’t be able to contact you.

To be on the safe side, I recommend enabling auto-renewal and keeping your payment information up to date.

If you don’t pay your renewal fee, your domain registration will expire, which can be expensive or even impossible to reverse. Most registrars offer a grace period after expiration, but the exact timeline varies. If your domain isn’t renewed, it may eventually become available for someone else to register — or even be purchased by a domain reseller.

Be cautious about domain renewal notices that arrive by mail or email. Some companies send official-looking notices designed to look like invoices, even though they’re actually trying to get you to transfer your domain to them at a higher price. Make sure you know the name of the company that handles your domain registration and renewal and always log into your account to check for billing information if something seems off.

How should I choose a domain name?

A domain name which corresponds to your business name will make it easy for people who already know about your business to find your website, but only if it’s easy to spell and remember. It’s quite a mouthful to say, “my website is at annmariewilsonclothing4children.com” — and just try and fit that on your business card!

If you’re a solopreneur, I recommend registering your personal name, even if you also have a business name. For starters, people are more likely to remember you than the name of your business. Secondly, I can’t even count the number of people I know who have changed their business name or direction since they started (myself included). Using your own name right from the beginning makes that type of transition much easier.

If your ideal domain name isn’t available, think hard about what else might be effective. Using hyphens to separate words is one option, but keep in mind that you’ll have to mention those hyphens every time you tell someone your website address.

Ideally, your domain name should also align reasonably well with your social media usernames, so your branding is consistent across platforms.

Do some brainstorming with your business coach, accountability partner, or a colleague.

Want to talk to colleagues about branding your business – or anything else?

Join the POPS Circle, where organizing and productivity professionals share ideas, experiences, and encouragement.

Should I get a .com domain, or something else?

The most common extension is .com, but it’s becoming more and more difficult to secure a good .com domain. Many Canadians use .ca, either because .com with their preferred name was already taken, or to make it clear that they are a Canadian business. Other countries have similar domain extensions, but .us has not caught on nearly as well.

There are over 1000 other TLDs (top level domains), and new ones are introduced every year. Read Domain Extensions: Types, Uses & How to Choose the Right TLD to help you decide which one is best for you.

How many variations do I need?

Because domain names are so inexpensive, many business owners register several variations to ensure that they’re not available to competitors. You can also register several options and only renew the one(s) you end up using.

What is Domain Privacy and do I need it?

Information about registered domain names is listed in the WHOIS database. Depending on the type of domain and the registrar you use, some of your contact information may be publicly visible.

In the past, this often included your name, address, phone number, and email address, which could lead to spam emails, phone calls, and privacy concerns.

Today, many domain registrars include Domain Privacy protection at no extra charge, and privacy regulations have reduced the amount of information that is publicly accessible. However, the level of privacy varies depending on the domain extension and registrar, so it’s still important to check what information is being displayed.

If you run your business from home, Domain Privacy can provide an added layer of protection by helping to keep your personal contact information private.

Unfortunately, registering a domain name is still a bit like putting up a tiny “spam welcome” sign on the internet!

What’s the oldest domain name?

The first domain registered was symbolics.com, on March 15, 1985. The Symbolics Computer Corporation is no longer operating, but the website has some interesting historical information.

Did I miss anything?

If you have any other questions about domain names, please let me know.

Photo © NiroDesign / DepositPhotos

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Domain Names: What You Need to Know and join the conversation.

It’s a good reminder that when it comes to time management, more isn’t always better; sometimes what we really need is clarity.

That’s why I invited my readers to share their time wisdom in this edition of the Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival. They’ve come through with tips and tools to help you and your clients focus on your priorities and make the best use of your time, and their posts are listed below. As you read their posts, please connect with the bloggers on social media, leave comments, and share your favorites with your own network.

Big thanks to everyone who participated!

The Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival is a such great way to grow your network and generate traffic to your blog that many people submit posts on a regular basis, earning the rank of Star, Superstar, Megastar or Ultimate Star Blogger. You don’t even have to be a professional organizer or productivity consultant to take part.

Do you offer a product or service that would interest professional organizers, productivity consultants, or their clients?

Why not sponsor an upcoming edition of the Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival?

The topic for next month is Life in Flow, and you have until 11:59 PM EDT on Wednesday, June 17th to contribute your post.

Image by tomert / DepositPhotos

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Time Wisdom – Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival and join the conversation.

It is also important to communicate your business practices and policies to your clients in writing so there are no misunderstandings during your work together. Set clear expectations with clients at the beginning of the process about what they can expect from you, as the professional, and what you expect from them, as the client.

To help you be prepared here are a few situations to consider:

Business Hours:

When are you off the clock? It isn’t healthy to be available to clients 24/7. This pertains to client sessions as well as phone calls, emails, and texts. So, spend some time deciding what are your office hours and stick to them.

Fees:

• If your client asks to end your scheduled session early, are you going to charge for the time scheduled or the time worked?
• If your client is late for your scheduled session, are you going to charge for the time scheduled or the time worked?
• How are you going to handle post-dated checks or bounced checks?

Role Boundaries – are you going to:

• Care for your client’s children, elders, or pets if your client needs to leave during your working session?
• Run errands for your client during your working session?
• Perform housekeeping services?
• Perform handyperson services?
• Remove or transport hazardous waste for your client?
• Accept gifts from your clients?

Personal Boundaries – are you going to discuss the following subjects about either you or your client:

• Family members?
• Sexual preference?
• Marital status?
• Religious or spiritual preference?
• Political affiliations?
• Physical or mental health issues?

What strategies do you use to establish boundaries with your clients? Please share in the comments.

Want to talk to colleagues about challenging client situations  – or anything else?

Join the POPS Circle, where organizing and productivity professionals share ideas, experiences, and encouragement.

Image by mentalmind / DepositPhotos

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Setting Boundaries While Working With Clients and join the conversation.

Self-promotion is especially challenging for introverts. The thought of talking about ourselves, especially to total strangers, is enough to send some of us running for cover.

Some will say that we need to act like extraverts in order to succeed, but I disagree. Although it’s been helpful for me to step outside my comfort zone from time to time, even doing a fair bit of public speaking over the years, you just can’t force yourself to be someone you’re not.

You’ll be both happier and more successful in your marketing if you develop strategies that tap into your strengths as an introvert. Here are a few that have worked for me.

1. Build your business around your passion.

Once I discovered my passion for WordPress, I no longer had to work hard at selling my services. I was so enthusiastic about what I did that people “got it” just from hearing me talk or seeing my online activity. No sales pitch needed!

2. Put yourself in the shoes of your ideal client and target market.

When I started my business, I didn’t have an ideal client in mind. Like many new entrepreneurs, I was delighted to work with anyone who was willing to pay me. Gradually I came to recognize that I was happiest and best suited to working with professional organizers. Having been an organizer myself for a few years, I have a good understanding of their needs, so it’s easier for me to tailor my messages to that group.

3. Share your knowledge.

Since you’d probably rather read and write than talk, write articles and blog posts to establish your credibility and demonstrate your knowledge.

Sharing knowledge is what content marketing is all about. There’s so much information that can help your clients and potential clients to reach their goals. When you write out your own ideas in the form of blog posts, they can see that you’re knowledgeable, and when you share links to what others have said, they can see that you’re resourceful. It’s a win-win!

4. Offer to speak.

I’ve given a number of presentations, seminars, and workshops over the years. Of course, I was terrified at first; that’s common even for extraverts. But what I’ve discovered is that it’s challenging for me to catch people’s attention, especially in a large group of people. However, when I’m the speaker, I already have their attention, so all I really have to do is stand there and do Steps 2 and 3. And when I’m really into my topic, I don’t fall into the trap of reading my notes; I just talk.

5. Make the most of your meetings with potential clients.

Do some research in advance so you have at least a basic understanding of your prospect’s situation and how you might help them.

Create a standard list of questions you ask every potential client. Not all will apply every time, but it will save you a ton of prep time and stress if you don’t have to reinvent the wheel every time. You also won’t find yourself fumbling for what to say next.

Be sure to ask open-ended questions – and really listen to their answers, so you can learn more about your client’s wants and needs. This will also help you build rapport. Just be careful that they don’t hijack the conversation, or you may not learn everything you need within the allotted time. Running over isn’t good for your energy level or your schedule!

6. Don’t avoid in-person networking.

If you’re overwhelmed by large after-business cocktail party-type mixers, choose small, structured networking events instead.

When you do attend larger events, offer to sit at the registration desk or help out in some other way. You’ll get to meet a lot of people without stepping so far outside your comfort zone.

Plan in advance what you want to say, especially if you have to stand up and introduce yourself. You’ll feel more at ease, and you’ll be more interesting too.

7. Keep in touch with your network.

Take advantage of social media to stay connected to people you meet, while remaining in your comfort zone.

Seek out one-on-one opportunities as well. Make a point of scheduling a lunch or coffee meeting with some of the people you meet, so you can get to know each other and explore how you can help one another’s businesses.

One-on-one conversations are gold which is why I build them into everything I do, including POPS Circle. Join us to talk about building confidence – or whatever’s on your mind!

Additional Resources

Self-Promotion for Introverts: The Quiet Guide to Getting Ahead by Nancy Ancowitz

The Introvert’s Guide to Successful Business Conversations by Avery Harper

What’s Your Story? by Meghan Wier (how to prepare for a networking event)

Why Introverts Can Be Great Networkers by Ivan Misner

Let’s Talk!

I’d love to hear from you. Please answer one or both of these questions in the comments.

1. As an introvert, what marketing strategies have been effective while allowing you to be your natural self?
2. Have you ever decided not to do business with someone because their introversion kept you from understanding how they could help you? What would it have taken to win you over?

Photo by Goodluz / DepositPhotos

Visit Your Organizing Business to read What this Introverted Solopreneur has Learned about Marketing with Confidence and join the conversation.

In response to my email announcing that this month’s topic for the Productivity & Organizing Blog Carnival would be Time Wisdom, Judith Kolberg, who is well-known in the organizing industry, sent me a funny story about time from her own life.

Normally, I only accept submissions that have already been published on a blog, but I loved her story, so I’ve shared it here (with Judith’s permission), and I hope you’ll enjoy it too.

Throughout most of my life, my mother wore a watch, not always as a timepiece, but more as a fashion accessory.

As the years went by, she wore the watch less and less. By the time she was 100 years old she was pretty atemporal, not taking much interest in the passage of time at all, and it aggravated her skin which was becoming quite thin as she aged. Ultimately, she put the watch aside altogether.

And then when she was 101 years old, she asked me, “Where is my watch? I want to wear it.”  Not everything a 101 year old says is logical, but my desire to please Mom in her final years always trumped making sense of what she said, so I went on a hunt for her watch. She had a massive amount of jewelry, nothing expensive, mostly thrift store finds and costume jewelry accumulated over many decades. I found her favorite watch, a large-faced one with a wide band that was, remarkably, still working.

She was delighted. Several days later she called me. “It’s broken. The watch is broken” she said. I figured it’s probably the battery. I mean the thing has got to be as old as my bell-bottoms. When I visited her at the assisted living center, she held up her arm showing me the watch on her wrist. “See”, she said, “It’s broken. Every time I look at it, it says a different time.”  I could not help laughing out loud.

Stifling the laughter, Mom and I scoured her jewelry box and found an appealing watch with a rundown battery. The hands were stuck at 2:00. She wore it until a few weeks before her death at the age of 103.

Time waits for no one, but it did hang on a bit for my Mom.

Image by Sabine van Erp from Pixabay

Visit Your Organizing Business to read Time Waits for No One (except when it does) and join the conversation.