Welcome to Power Talk Friday! Keeping things organized is often the Achilles heel of creatives, so today we are very happy to have Jennifer Burnham, an organization coach, join us on the show. Jen helps people by providing the space for them to be creative, de-clutter and get organized. She believes that organizing is about more than color-coordinated baskets and pretty labels. It's really about productivity, so she helps her clients to dive in and discover the specific experience they're looking for in the way that they want their home, office, and in their life to be organized. Listen in today to find out how you can increase productivity in your business by having an organized space.

Jennifer has appeared on Charlotte today, spoken at IKEA, at community organizations, at high-end real estate events, and she's also run home estate sales. On the show today she talks about how important it is to have your workspace organized, and she explains how to go about getting that done. Listen in and find out how an organization translates into productivity, which then translates into more business.

Show highlights:

• Jennifer's awesome relationship with Cheryl Luckett, of Dwell by Cheryl.
• The challenges of organizing a design studio.
• The first step is always de-cluttering.
• Organizing in the right way.
• Looking at the emotional reasons for de-cluttering.
• First, put things in a space in the middle of the room, then sort them into broad categories. (Eg. pens, paper clips, notepads, product samples)
• Evaluate what you need and what you can get rid of.
• After you have de-cluttered you organize what you have decided to keep, putting everything in its place.
• The kinds of push-backs that Jen has encountered.
• Organizing takes time, and it's never really done, so you want to get it finished as soon as possible.
• The way that organizing changes your energy and the energy of the space.
• Things to watch out for that can bring the de-cluttering process to a halt.
• Donating unused items to charity can make the decision to throw things away a bit easier.
• If necessary, get new containers, storage items, or cabinets.
• Keep it this way by picking up each week as you go and not letting things get out of control.
• Jennifer explains the basis of her philosophy of organizing.
• The connection between organization and productivity.
• The way that Jen thinks in terms of shapes.
• If your business is feeling stagnant it's a good time to start organizing things.
• Owning less is better than organizing more.
• Do you respect your space?
• Tips for working with your client's clutter.
• Closing the loop when you're de-cluttering is important, so you need a system.
• Keeping the balance and staying organized.
• Looking at the things that threaten an organized space.

Previous shows mentioned in this episode:

Cheryl Luckett: #291 and #397

Kim Kuhteubl #73

Links and resources:

To see Cheryl Luckett's line of furniture: Sylvester Alexander

Jennifer's website

Jennifer is offering 20% off her services for all A Well Designed Business listeners

Our friends at Kravet Inc. are having a big furniture sale. Starting January 14th, get 10% off Kravet Furniture, Lee Jofa Furniture and Holland MacRae furniture. Start shopping now- the deal runs until March 4th! Go to Kravet and make sure to use the code W7 at checkout to redeem the offer!