[00:00:00] Hi there. Welcome to the Wholehearted of Business Show. This week on the show, I’m interviewing the lovely Tracy Hath. She is the host of the Organized Coach Podcast, and together we are talking all things staying organized in your coach and business. We’re gonna be covering the five digital files that you need to be organized.

We’re gonna be talking about the mindset stuff that can stop you feeling organized, how to handle shiny object syndrome when it comes to tech, and much, much more. Let’s dive in.

Laura: So welcome Tracy to the whole thought of business show. I’m very, very excited because I know that you are all about organization, which is something that I think I probably like to think that I’m good at, but there’s probably a lot of things that I could be doing better, which I’m sure we’ll explore today.

But. Do you wanna get us started just by telling everyone a little bit about yourself and about your business and about how you help people? 

Tracy: Yes. Hi Laura. I’m so excited to be here and you probably really are very organized. I have been a professional organizer for 17 years and I started out by going into [00:01:00] people’s homes and helping them get their home and office and all of that organized.

And then about eight. In 2018, I realized there’s so much more mindset that people have in regards to their own identity and thinking of themselves growing up, thinking that they were a mess and being told that they were so messy and all of that. So I got Life coach certified and then began to help people online get their.

You know, mindset and their homes. I was still working with them around their home and office and paper. And then I started creating my own business online and realized, oh my gosh, this is a whole new set of problems and challenges that we have online. And so I went back to my steps and I said, okay, we gotta figure this out for myself.

And so I did that, and then I started helping online businesses and coaches organize their. Business, the backend of [00:02:00] their business. So that’s what I do all around organizing and helping people really focus on their mindset, but also super practical stuff, like how do we organize our whole computer? How do we find things when we need ’em?

How do we get a schedule that works for us and create processes that we can actually be efficient in and save time and remember what we’re doing each time we do it. 

Laura: Yeah, it’s good. I think it does make such a big difference and it, it’s probably one of the things that people wouldn’t necessarily think of immediately when they’re starting a business or when they’re wanting to grow business.

But I know from, from my experiences, I think when you have got like that foundational stuff organized, it makes such a big difference, doesn’t it? And to how you get to show up and you know, how on top of things you feel and all of that stuff. 

Tracy: I think that’s a big part of it. The, the energy that you have because of your own disorganization or organization shows up and I’ve talked to so many business [00:03:00] owners that are making good money who just feel.

All the pressure and the stress behind the scenes because they can’t find what they need. And they have a team, they’re trying to look like they have it together in front of their assistant and they’re like, oh, hold on. I gotta go find that. And then they can’t find it. Yeah. And they’re scrambling. So yeah, it is challenging and people don’t think that they should spend the time maybe, or it’s just doesn’t.

Become a priority for them until it’s like too late and it’s not too late, but until it gets so serious that they have to do something about it because they’re the bottleneck in their business and or they’re feeling burnt out because they’re wasting so much time. Yeah. You know, searching, remaking things, you know, all of that.

Laura: Yeah, I’d love to explore a bit of that, actually, ’cause I think that’s a really interesting thing to chat about. But I’d love to kind of just start off by getting familiar with what you see, especially with coaches and their businesses. Like where do you see people [00:04:00] getting stuck? Like where, what mistakes are we making?

Where are we kind of, yeah. Not quite hitting the, hitting the mark. What, what do you tend to see are the biggest mistakes that coaches are making with organization and their businesses? 

Tracy: Yeah. One thing for sure that they start. Just randomly doing things, they’ll, they’ll maybe make a new folder and they’re like, we’re gonna be organized.

Or they’ll think when they’re downloading something onto their computer, this is where I’m gonna store it. Or they’ll maybe start something. I like to think of doing the organization project, getting the foundations set up as a project and committing maybe 12 weeks I am going to focus fully on organizing and getting my business organized and then be all in on doing that.

And it’s not like you stop your business, but you’re, you have that one project I’m doing the 12 week year. Kind of format. Yeah. And it’s so helpful to reduce what you’re focusing down on. And so that could be one of [00:05:00] the goals that I’m gonna work on this project. So that’s one thing. They start and then they use that against themselves.

They think, you know, I can’t do this. Well, they never committed really to doing it and then following a plan to get it done. Mm-hmm. The other thing is that they see new projects that, or, or softwares or things, and they think that’s my magic answer. And then they go buy that.

Yeah. But it has such a hard learning curve that they don’t end up learning it, and then they have more clutter on their computer and in their life that they’re trying to do. And so following shiny objects, I always say just. Get organized first, and then if you wanna trans, you know, start using a different software you can, but just get your stuff organized and then it’s gonna be so easy to do that.

Laura: Yeah. And I think that’s a really interesting ’cause I know, I mean, one of the things I was gonna, I was gonna ask you a little bit about is a lot of the people that I work with, they’re not massively, tech savvy. 

Tracy: Right. Is 

Laura: there a way to approach [00:06:00] organization in the, in the way that you do it with, with your clients that is not quite so tech heavy at the beginning?

’cause I think sometimes people say all these systems and I know, you know, personally I’m a big fan of notion and I’ve got various different things going on. But I’m like. 12 years isn’t in my business now, so it’s a, so it’s, you know, it’s take taken time to build up to that. But I think you, you’re absolutely right.

Sometimes people think they need all of these things to get going, but that’s probably not the case. What, what’s your viewpoint on that? 

Tracy: Right. I think use what you’re good at and what you’re used to right now. So if you’re in Dropbox, make that your hub. That’s your hub. If you’re in Google Drive or if you use OneDrive, make one hub, get everything organized there.

Yeah. And then if you wanna move it to another. Software program or you know, spreadsheet or click up or notion or whatever it is you wanna move to, you can, but use what you already know now because you’re learning a skill. An organization is a skill and you need to focus on that skill first and then you know you [00:07:00] can do the next thing.

I totally agree. Yeah, I think a lot of people will be 

Laura: reassured by that, that you don’t necessarily have to have. All of all of the, the fancy software and equipment and things like that. I know you mentioned there earlier as well about, you know, people finding themselves being the bottleneck in their business.

Tracy: Mm-hmm. 

Laura: From an organization point of view, what do you tend to see is the case around that? Like, where are people, you know, finding that their, their lack of organization perhaps is stopping them from perhaps making more money, perhaps signing more clients, you know, that kind of thing. 

Tracy: Yeah, I think it’s that when they hire an assistant, the assistant or the team member can’t find what they need to do their job, so that team member’s frustrated because they’re wasting time.

So they’re asking the owner, and the owner is searching and scrambling and stressed out. And so that is where it shows up once you get further along. Yeah, I think in the beginning when you’re not as far along. The same thing may show up, but you might [00:08:00] not have a team member that’s helping you, and so you don’t see it that way.

But if you did a time audit, you would see, oh my gosh, I spent f you know, 40 minutes trying to find this one file, or remaking this worksheet I needed for my client when I could have been doing some marketing activities and getting another client. 

Laura: Yeah. Yeah. And I mean, you mentioned they’re doing a time order.

That’s something added it a little while ago. It was really effective. But do you wanna explain a bit more about that? ’cause I think it is such a good tool for people to try to kind of see, yeah. You know, what’s going on with with their time. But would you mind describing that a little bit for everybody as well?

Tracy: Yes. In Organized Coach Academy, we’re focused on time right now, and so we are doing a time audit and there’s several ways to do it, but it’s where you’re just. Noting down what you’re spending your time on. So it could be on a piece of paper if that’s easiest. You could use a, like an app on your computer.

You could use a PDF fillable document. And so I have all of those people just choose which one’s the easiest for them to [00:09:00] use, and you just note. Oh, what did I do right there? Oh, I got it distracted for 30 minutes right there, and you’re writing down what the time is spent in your days. So do it for a week minimum, I would say, and then maybe even two weeks.

And then. I have a personal or custom AI bot in that module where you can then put your, work your time in there and say, okay, help me categorize, sort these time into what I’m spending my time doing, and then help me come up with a schedule. Here’s what the time I have available. Here’s the things I wanna focus on.

And the bot, the assistant, will help you come up with a schedule and then you can test it. Then you can take it back to it. The assistant and say, okay, this, this worked, this didn’t work. And you keep going until you have the CEO schedule that works for you. 

Laura: Yeah. That’s amazing. Yeah, it sounds really, really effective.

Yeah, I’m a big fan of doing that and I think it’s one of those exercises that I think everyone should do [00:10:00] every so often. Yeah. Just to, just to reevaluate the way that they’re spending the time. Because I think you can get into these time sucks without realizing it. And again, like I think as your business shifts and grows, and that’s something funny enough that I’m like at the moment on my to-do list, I’ve got.

Systems because of like, I feel like the growth that I’ve had recently. So I’m reevaluating a lot of the systems and things. This is very timely. I think having this chat good. But yeah, I think that’s such a good tool for people to use. So that’s definitely a really good takeaway. Something as well that I mean I work with a lot of people who are newer diverse, who have a DHD 

have you got any thoughts around supporting people who might be new or diverse around their organizations? Anything that you’ve seen with any of your clients that might be helpful? ‘

Tracy: yes, and I have a person, well, I have a couple people, but one specifically is a specialist in A DHD, and she’s in my organized coach Academy. And she says, Tracy, it’s good. So I said, what makes it good? And she said, well, you have lots of different ways to learn. You have the video, you have a tutorial, you can read it, you [00:11:00] have captions.

You have. Short videos and so all of those things are helpful. Yeah. But I also think as far as organizing to have a plan and then to, to have short things that you can work on or things that you can plan out and just dive deep into to get. Really good things done and, and on one topic, I guess Yeah, would be good.

I, the other thing for me when I work with someone is just to really customize it and so we look at what is working, ’cause we don’t wanna change it. You don’t have to do it this certain way. What is working and then kind of add onto that and go with that flow if that’s what’s working. And then look at, you know, what’s not working, what do you need there?

Why is it not working? And then figure those things out for that person, not for someone else. It doesn’t compare, so. So organizing is knowing what you have and being able to find it when [00:12:00] you need it. And that doesn’t mean it has to look like the pictures that everyone else. Posts or whatever. So it really is individual and it’s how your brain works and, and what, but all it means is you know what you have and you can find it when you need it.

Laura: Yeah. And that’s a really lovely way to, ’cause I think, again, it can be blown out of, you know, in people’s minds it can be blown out of proportion thinking it’s this whole thing. Yes. You know what we’re so used to, I think an organization, when we think of it, we think of the Marie Kondo kind of like, you know, like.

You know, these massive projects, obviously, you know, not quite in business, but I think sometimes people have got that thing stuck in their heads, haven’t they, about how it needs to look or how it should look when actually can be a lot simpler. Yes. But I’d love to chat a bit about the mindset side of things.

I know that you brought that up as well, that you, that, that that’s a, that that’s the thing that comes up. And you know what the, one of the things that. It stuck with me and the work that I do with my clients is how when they’re not organized, they kind of almost [00:13:00] subconsciously hold themselves back from putting themselves out there and actually actively sell ’em because they don’t have the systems to support the clients when they come in.

So the panicking about that, and then it kind of like leads to this like, well, I’m don’t feel like I’m ready because I haven’t done that. And it kind of snowballs and gets really stuck. But what other mindset kind of things do you see around the organization with coaching businesses? 

Tracy: Yes. I think a lot of it comes from what they were told their whole life.

And so I look at the identity that they have. Do they believe it’s possible? Do they think they are? What are those sentences that keep them in the identity of a disorganized person? And we just break those down and dissect those and then we, we build up. So what I love about looking at the mindset first is that we can then come up with some.

We can look at other people, we can say what would, she might think if, because she thinks she’s organized, you know, and it, she probably doesn’t look that much different in the background or he but they ha so they can come up [00:14:00] with some ideas, some beliefs and thoughts and we look at what other areas of their life and so often.

It’s so amazing. People have different areas of their life where they’re organized. They don’t even realize it. But then when we start working on a specific area of their business, they have, they are building evidence to support like, okay, it’s possible for me. I actually am more organized. Here’s some evidence, and then they build that.

First piece of like getting the five file structure set up on their computer. And then they’re like, oh, I can do that. And I had someone say, Tracy, the whole thing just makes sense now. And she said, I’ve spent two hours sorting my files into that. And it was so fun. And like who would think that someone who just thought they were a mess?

She’s one of ’em that had a DHD too. And now she’s saying it’s. Fun and that she spent two hours getting her file sorted into the [00:15:00] structure, you know? And it made sense in her mind too. So she has that evidence now. She believes, okay, this is possible for me. 

Laura: Yeah. Yeah. And that’s the thing, isn’t it? People need to kind of have that experience and ensure themselves that they can do it.

And I think when they’re presented with something like you, and obviously we’ll talk about, you’ve got a free gift that you, we’ll put a link in the show notes around the five digital files that you need to get organized, which I’m really excited to take a look at. Yes. Which I’m missing. ’cause my Dropbox is a bit of a mess at the moment, but, yeah, I think it’s having that simple way to approach it. ’cause again, I, I feel like exactly what we were talking about earlier, with all of the different tech tools that you can use now, I think it’s very easy to get overwhelmed. You know, when it comes to organization, which is another thing I, was really interested to get your perspective on.

’cause I feel like this is the, the organization side of things is so linked with our mental load and, you know, the amount of bandwidth that we feel that we have to kind of get to that point anyway. And it’s almost like a chicken [00:16:00] and egg situation, isn’t it? Where it’s like, oh, I need to have some headspace so I can get organized.

But then once you organize, you get the headspace. You know, and I know again, you know, I’m a mom. I’ve got two children, I’ve got, you know, many clients who are mothers as well. And it’s obviously, it’s not just mothers who we’ve got high mental loads. But have you got any kind of thoughts on that side of things around that?

First of all, like that, that chicken and egg situation, but also just how do we get through the, the mental load, not just in our businesses, but also in our lives and how that also kind of advises for our attention in our businesses as well. 

Tracy: Yes it is. It is challenging to look at that and think, okay, I don’t have time for that.

Mm-hmm. And that’s where if you just take part of it, if you just look at your digital organization and you say, okay, I’m gonna set up the file structure so that I can start sorting into it. And that may only take, maybe you only have five minutes a day. And back when I was organizing. In the home online.

And I was helping a lady do that and, and she could commit to sorting, she, she was doing paper, but she could commit to [00:17:00] sorting five pieces of paper a day. That was it. And she literally. Sorted and organized all the paper in her whole house and she had piles all over the place. And I look to her a lot because I’m like, it’s totally possible if you just sort five files every night before you close your computer.

It’s possible to be able to do that. And you’re gonna make huge progress. And sometimes you’ll do a few more than five and, but you will do the five and. Her thought was, I have a plan, and if you have a plan, you can do it. But it is give yourself grace too. People that have a lot going on.

It is gonna be a process and that will, that’s why if you stick with the process and you finish the process of just your digital files, that will be so helpful. Yeah. You know? And then you can move on to the next area or the next part of your organization. 

Laura: I just think it’s, it is just such a tricky situation [00:18:00] sometimes that I find a lot of people get in is that, you know, life feels really full and they want to be growing the business and, and they do become that bottleneck, but something’s got to change.

And I think, again, like we get caught up in our heads thinking it has to look a certain way. It has to be this big project where we sit down all day and we, yes, look at all day. And for some people that will undoubtedly work well for them, but for others it just needs to be that little bit at a time, doesn’t it?

Tracy: A little bit. Yep. And just break it down to focus on one part of the organization and complete it. And I don’t know if you’re gonna ask me, but I’ll tell you the five files so that people can get Yes. Yeah. Amazing. Immediately. I didn’t wanna, I didn’t 

Laura: wanna spoil what was 

Tracy: in, what was in the no. But yeah, tell us.

I’m dying. You’ll still wanna go to the workshop just to watch it and see like examples and pictures of the files on a Google driver on my computer and what those look like. But this is so. Helpful. It’s like creating and training your brain to go through a flow chart. And so things that come into your computer either are home and business we all probably have, are personal and business.

We all probably have personal stuff on our [00:19:00] computer and and business stuff. So they go into either one of those two. So when you’re in business, then I like only five files. You have operations, which some people might call admin or. Someone called it inward.

It’s anything inward facing behind the scenes of your business. So operations and then marketing, marketing’s, anything outward facing. Then my content and then education. Education is other people’s content and then clients. So operations, marketing, my content, education and clients. Yeah, those five files so simple, it flows into one of those five.

And then once you get everything on your computer, your hard drive, your Google drive, your documents and downloads sorted into those five, you’re gonna go back into one of them at a time and you’re gonna sort it. Into categories, and you might wanna make sub folders. I like broad titles for [00:20:00] folders like money, so anything in operations that’s related to money, you could put in that folder.

And then if you eventually wanna sort that folder into subcategories, you can, but you have those five folders and only if needed you have things sorted into categories within those five. 

Laura: That sounds so simple. I’m definitely gonna do that. I’ve got various Dropbox files for all sorts of different things, from my point of view is someone with like loads and loads of files and, you know, business has been running for, like I say, 12 years.

What I love about that is that it would, I, I would automatically know where everything is. 

Tracy: Yeah. 

Laura: And that’s the point, right, exactly. Of being organized is, you know, where it is. I would, I would automatically, I would have a lot less folders in my Dropbox and I would automatically know where to go to get anything.

Whereas at the moment I’ve got quite a lot of different files with different things like brand home, whatever that means. Yeah. Like, you know, and like opt-ins and various things. But whereas with this, I feel like if I had that in [00:21:00] place, I’d know exactly what, what I would need to get into for each one. So I love that. Thank you for sharing that. And like I say, you know, you’ve got the full trend on it, haven’t you? So the link will be in the and the description for everyone to go and check that out. ’cause yeah, I think it’s a, a great way to organize it It’s 

Tracy: so good. And then you also, I’ve started. Okay. I’ve trained my brain. Now I know those five files. Now some people are gonna think of something and it could overlap. It could be in my content, it could be in marketing. You just say, where would be the first place? I’d look for that. And that’s the home for you.

It doesn’t remember. It doesn’t matter what other people do, but that’s helpful. I now use that in my email. On the side of my email, I have those five folders there. If you’re gonna make your hub, let’s say your Google Drive. Mm-hmm. I have those in my Google Drive, but I also put ’em on my computer, my desktop, just in case I have something on my desktop that I, I don’t know.

But make your one hub, the one place where everything’s gonna live, and then use the file structure in other areas [00:22:00] of your business as well. Even hanging files. Someone who’s like, what if I still have paper? Well do the same thing in your hanging file. 

Laura: Really good tip there that you’ve mentioned about having one place that is the main place.

Yes. Because again, I think it’s very easy to have, you know, desk files on your desktop files, on your laptop files and Google Drive files. And you know, for me, files and notion like, but you know, I’ve kind of got like d different things in different places. But knowing that there’s one key place that is kind of like the anchor for everything, 

Tracy: It relieves decision fatigue. ’cause now you’re not thinking, oh, where is it? I need to make a decision. Or where am I gonna house this? I need to make a decision between five places. You’re like, Nope. One place. 

Laura: Lovely and straightforward and simple and a really good way to get started with organizing everything.

Yeah. And then for people, when they do start to kind of go out of that and start to look at some of the systems and tech things, have you got any advice about the way that you might want to tackle that? ’cause I like. You said earlier that shiny object syndrome can be really [00:23:00] overwhelming, but do you find that there’s any strategies that people could use for them to navigate like that next kind of step successfully in terms of, right, I’ve got my five folders, I’ve got my hub and know where that is, and I need like a CRM, or how they might use what they’ve got in those, or that system that you’ve got in the five folders and kind of start to branch out from that.

Tracy: Yeah. Well, I, I mean, I guess it’s pretty specific with what mm-hmm. I like if they have a coach that uses a certain thing, like if I was gonna, now I have everything organized. If I was working with you, I’d be like, okay, Laura, what do you use? What, what do you, and. Kind of learn from them, but go search at it.

Ask your colleagues, see what they love. Post in a group just to see, to get an idea. Mm-hmm. And then go trial it yourself and see which one you wanna move to or which one you like. Yeah. And if you can get by without using it. [00:24:00] So for me, I’ve been tempted like, do I need a CRM? Do I need this? Do I need to change this?

And so I’ve had. Worked with someone who is an automation specialist, just on a call, and we walked through my process and he was like, I don’t even really think you need it. And I’m like, oh, thank you. Thank you for telling me that. I don’t need to switch. I don’t need to add one more thing. If it’s working, use it.

Use it until it’s not working anymore. Yeah. And then ask around. 

Laura: Yeah. 

Tracy: You know? 

Laura: No, I think that makes, and again, I think what the helpful thing about that is if, if you’re asking someone who’s got a bit of knowledge about your business as well, and that is something that I support my clients with. This kind of, you know, when, when they’re looking for tools and they’re starting to kind of think about what is it they need again, like that kind of backend, what was it Like the internal stuff?

Yes. What it is that they need to have in place. That’s some, that’s a conversation that we can have. . Like you say, when you do have that shiny [00:25:00] object syndrome and think that you need all these things, that’s when the overwhelm can really creep in, isn’t it for people?

Well, 

Tracy: and then you get it, and then you don’t know how to use it, and then you’re transferring all your information there and then you realize, oh, I don’t even know. So now all your stuff’s half in there and half on your computer, and it becomes just this problem. So make sure, and this has been so helpful, and I’ve already mentioned the 12 week year, when I look at a new 12 weeks.

I have a whole list of ideas of things I wanna do, and I’m like, no, I cannot do all that because I will finish nothing. It’s like taking six balls down the soccer field instead of one. 

Laura: Yes, 

Tracy: I need one thing and I’m gonna reduce it down to that. So if moving to a new software is one of your things, maybe put that off till next quarter and then make a decision.

Can I handle that? Is that my priority at this time? 

Laura: Yeah. 

, I 

think that’s really good advice. ’cause as you say, the learning curve that comes with some of these things can be really quite [00:26:00] steep and can take quite a lot of time in its own right. And it is that kind of is that sometimes that tricky decision, like, you know, that something could save you time in the long run, but actually having to get, to get to that point it takes a bit of discernment, doesn’t it?

But yes. But like I said, if you’ve got those initial kind of folders set up, I think it just gives you such a good foundation to, to have. A bit organization, a bit less overwhelming. You look at your Dropbox or your Google Drive. I know. 

Tracy: Yeah. And then you’re just slowly training your mind. ’cause organization is a skill and I just hope everyone hears that, that it is a skill and you just take one part of the skill at a time and you practice it until you get good at it.

And you are gonna have your business organized. Yeah. In the way that works for your mind. 

Laura: Yes. Amazing. Oh, well thank you so much Tracy. It’s been absolutely lovely to chat all things organization. I am absolutely gonna make some changes to my own Dropbox. Like I said, I think those five folders and just having.

That is like just a starting point. 

Tracy: Mm-hmm. 

Laura: Know, automatically, kinda know what needs to go under there so then I [00:27:00] could, I could organize all my, all of my files under that is really simple and everyone knows they can go and check out the link for that training in the description. Yes. But would you like to tell us where people can find you online?

Tracy: Yes. My business is simply squared away.com. And that training is at slash five files, but simply squared away.com. I have a podcast pitching process and organization on there. I have that, the training for five files on there. And I have Organized Coach, which is my signature program to help coaches get their business organized that’s on there.

So, and I have the Organized Coach podcast, that’s my podcast. So lots of resources for people that’ll help them. 

Laura: Amazing. Although everyone do go and check out Tracy stuff. I’ve been on the website and it’s fantastic. I’m gonna check out the podcast pitch and stuff as well. Oh yes. It’s the top. It’s wonderfully so, so I’m never gonna check that out.

Thank you so much. Thank you. Thanks, Laura. [00:28:00]