Episode #40: My Deep Dark Secret (And Why It Matters to You)
In today’s episode, Part 3 of the Getting Ahead in Your Business in 2021 series, I’m letting you in on something I’ve never told anyone before. Let’s get real (and really embarrassing) as we talk about why you don’t have to be an organized person to embrace systems and organization in your business.
An Embarrassing Personal Story About the Importance of Organization
Normally on the podcast, I usually focus on a strategy or a tip for making your business feel doable. This week, though, I’m sharing an embarrassing personal story with you. Why? For two reasons. One, I want to share because it’s the opposite of who I am today. But I also want to share for another reason.
A lot of times we have this skewed view of who these people are that we are following or listening to. I don’t want that to be the case here. I am a very real person with very real problems and very real issues, and I never want you to see me as somebody that I’m not. So in the spirt of transparency, I’m going to share a story about when I was in college.
First, let’s set the scene. I had just graduated from my undergrad program with degrees in English and Communications. I had also just been accepted into a master’s in teaching program, and I had a period of about six months that I could use to fulfill some prerequisites and basically do everything I needed to do in order to start the graduate program. Even though I knew I needed to take the classes in order to check some things off my list, I didn’t really care about them at all. My attendance was minimal, I didn’t care about my grades, I basically just did the bare minimum and skated by.
At this point, I should tell you I haven’t always been an organized person. In fact, not to brag or anything, but I once won an award in 5th grade for having the most stuff in, on, and around my desk. So take that, haters!
Anyway, back to the story. So it was the first day of my master’s program and I was pumped. I was living out my lifelong dream of becoming a teacher, I felt equipped and ready after my 6 months of prerequisites, and I was in the right headspace for getting started. I walk into my first class, and I hadn’t been seated for more that 2 minutes when one of the professors pulled me into the hall and said I needed to stay after so they could meet with me. I had no idea why, but I just assumed I needed to fill out more paperwork or something, so I didn’t worry about it.
But then class ends, and I’m escorted to a room with 3 professors, basically the heads of the program, and they sat me down for a talk. “We’ve heard from other professors in the college that over the last 6 months, you haven’t been going to class very often, you’ve kind of been skating by and doing the bare minimum. We just want you to know you’re on our radar. They basically told me they didn’t know if I could handle the program. I was MOR-TI-FIED. Totally humiliated.
Even though I haven’t always been super organized, I’ve always been an achiever. So this intervention was extremely humiliating for me. All they knew about me was that I was this girl that didn’t really seem to care at all, which of course wasn’t true. In order for me to get to stay in the program, though, I had to agree to a weekly binder check. I was 25 and I had to submit to a weekly. binder. check. As a full-grown adult! They said I wasn’t organized enough, didn’t have it together enough, and they needed to monitor my progress. It took at least two months of showing my binder each week to prove that I could actually handle the program.
The Power of Systems for Your Business, Even if You’re Type B
I wanted to share this story of me having to submit to a weekly binder check as a grown adult because I wanted to show you that you don’t have to be a naturally organized person to embrace systems.
“You don’t have to be a naturally organized person to embrace systems, to use them, and to love them.”
If you’re a Type B person like me, you were made for systems. I know that sounds weird because when we think Type B, the last thing we think of is organization and systems and order. By my Type B friends, you were who systems were made for!
Systems are for people like us. So if you are someone who hears the word framework, or spreadsheet, or organization or any of those buzz words, and you want to run the other way, please sit tight. You were made for systems.
Think about all the strategies I talk about on this podcast. Batching things? I do a lot of things at once because I’m a naturally lazy person. I don’t love to do work. It doesn’t come naturally to me to be organized or efficient, so I love to batch. Repurposing items? That’s a great hack for working less than you have to.
A Good System is Rooted in Disorganization
I truly think that systems are rooted in disorganization. Think about this. The very need for a system is born from someone being fed up with how unorganized something feels. Already organized people don’t just sit around being like, “Hmm, I’m already organized. Let’s get organized again.”
The need for systems started because people were unorganized in the beginning. Systems are the cure to our disorganization. So if you are somebody who is not organized, and you hear about systems, it’s not just a fairy tale. It’s something real and something you can do.
And obviously for my Type A friends, I’m not leaving you out. You already know you love systems. So your job is to call all your Type B friends and tell them to listen to this episode so they can finally cross over from the dark side and join us in this wonderful world of systems and organization.
Type B friends, we need systems. They shouldn’t be scary. They’re there to help us, and if you just take the first step in embracing them, you will see a world of difference. And the reason I’m feeling so strongly about this lately is because we are getting ready to launch the Finishing Framework course again.
How Can the Finishing Framework Course Help with Systems?
It’s an easy misconception to make that in order to have systems and organize your business, you have to be an organized person. And that is just not the case. In the course, I teach everything from mega batching to how to organize all your business assets. Mega batching allows you to get a ton of stuff done, leaving you with a ton of free time at the end. I set up everything in a way so the systems I teach can be used for anything you’ve done in the past, things you’re doing now, and anything you’ll do in the future. It’s a really easy, sustainable way to make sure your business is organized.
I would hate to alienate people from the course who think it’s not meant for them. Because the truth is, the Finishing Framework is meant for everybody. It doesn’t matter if you’re Marie Kondo, or you’re Erin Waters circa 2009 getting your binder checked every week. If you are someone who is teaching, running a teacher seller business, you have a family, a personal life, hobbies, etc., then you need systems!
Check out the Finishing Framework and sign up for the waitlist to be the first to know when the course opens again. Spoiler, it’s February 1, 2021, but you didn’t hear it from me. Type B listeners, you should go ahead and sign up so you’ll get a convenient reminder without having to commit the date to memory.
What should I do while I wait for the Finishing Framework course to open?
I realize that this episode didn’t do a whole lot other than make me look pretty ridiculous and feel a little embarrassed, but there is something else I want you to take away from it too. There are so many messages coming at us from all these different angles everyday, and a lot of these messages can give us the underlying feeling that we’re not good enough. I want you to know that you are good just the way you are and you can find happiness and organization and peace in your business no matter where you start from, what your past looks like, or what your business looks like now. Any day is a good day to start organizing your business.
“You are good just the way you are, and you can find happiness and organization and peace in your business no matter where you start from, what your past looks like, or what your business looks like now. Any day is a good day to start organizing your business.”
I encourage you to come on over and check out the Finishing Framework, and then try out a small system or two. If you come over to the School of Sellers Facebook community, we have tons of ideas floating around there and tons of willing and helpful community members who are constantly sharing their amazing systems and ways of organizing their business. And the best part about this all is that we really focus on making things feel doable. So if you’re looking to start your journey into systems, I highly recommend starting with the School of Sellers.
In the coming weeks, we have a couple more segments on how to get ahead of your business in the new year. We’re going to be hearing from some Finishing Framework alumni members, and I’m also going to give you a more peeks behind the scenes as I pull back the curtain more on my own business. Talk to you soon!
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