Mindset Artistry
Mindset Artistry Empowers Corporate Creatives and Fashion & Entertainment industry professionals to discover their purpose and achieve career fulfillment through inspiring content, personalized coaching, and a supportive community.
Mindset Artistry
Organize Your Space, Transform Your Mind
This is the Mindset Artistry Podcast. I'm Amanda DeWoe, an actor or actress per your reference, and an inner voice life coach, and I'm Janelle Pulaski, an actor and career and mindset coach.
Speaker 2:We're your hosts and we're here to flip your mindset, to teach you the artistry of what we learned, to keep your mind in check Over the course of our lives.
Speaker 1:we've taken on the journey of healing, living and being authentically ourselves, as we successfully built our individual careers in the entertainment industry.
Speaker 2:This podcast is designed for you so you can discover your goals and courageously reach them at your highest potential, while being a hundred and thousand percent yourself.
Speaker 1:What you'll get from us is real dirty and okay, a little more like a lot of quirky, along with special elite guests that nurture empathy and create a safe space without judgment. So get ready to build a mindset that is unapologetically you and excel beyond the stars. Welcome to the Mindset Artistry Podcast.
Speaker 2:That's good. Welcome back everybody to the Mindset Archery Podcast. We're so excited to have another amazing guest, ms Jennifer Q Williams. She organizes closets, is also going to teach us how to organize your mind and have mental health and peace, and all of that. So let me introduce her and we'll get into everything.
Speaker 2:For over 34 years, jennifer Q Williams has been a powerhouse in the custom closet and home organization industry, proving that women can lead, innovate and thrive in business, especially a business that is known to be male-dominated. As the founder of St Louis Closet Co, she's transformed homes and lives by creating smart storage solutions that maximize space and functionality. Beyond designing custom closets, pantries and Murphy beds, jennifer is passionate about empowering women entrepreneurs, sharing insights on leadership, business growth and the importance of balancing creativity with strategy, which we are all about. And, to top it off, may is Mental Health Awareness Month, and the importance of that is because mental well-being and educating the public about that, reducing stigma and promoting support for those affected by mental health conditions it's so important and closely tied with organizing your home change lives. Let's start there.
Speaker 3:Well, hello, janelle and Amanda. I'm so excited to be here with you guys today and hopefully your listeners can take away some tips or some ideas about organization. So I started St Louis Closet Company 34 years ago. I was in graduate school at St Louis University and I was studying marketing and public relations. Like a lot of graduate students, I had no idea what I wanted to do with that right, but I was just sort of plugging away waiting tables at a couple different restaurants. And a friend of mine moved to St Louis and he opened up a custom closet company. And a friend of mine moved to St Louis and he opened upa custom closet company. This was a franchise from the West Coast. Now this was in 1991. Custom closets and all this organizational frenzy that we live in now was brand new, right, this was a brand new industry. So he hired me and he said I think you would love this. So my mom jokes that I was organizing my closet when I was in middle school. So I started working for him and this company and literally within two weeks I fell in love with what I was doing. I instantly saw the benefits of organization. I saw my clients be so excited about the product, so excited about implementing the system that helped them organize their life. So I was like this is it? The light switch was turned on. I was ready to go.
Speaker 3:So I dropped out of graduate school, I quit working for the franchise company and I went to work at writing a business plan. I had not had any business classes, so I had decided to take a one-day class with the small business administration and they taught me how to write a business classes. So I had decided to take a one-day class with the Small Business Administration and they taught me how to write a business plan. And then I went to some banks with my little business plan. I was 25 and I had no collateral, no co-signers, and 18 different banks told me no. And finally, the Monday before Thanksgiving of 1991, I had a banker say well, that sounds interesting, why don't you come down and present your idea? So I got in my little Volkswagen bug and remember this was pre-internet, pre-google. So I had done all this research, from calling other closet companies around the country, actually driving to a few different ones and interviewing the owners really to just get an idea of the industry. So I presented it and three days later he called me at home and said I was approved for the loan. And of course he said I had to come up with some of my own money. And I was like, sure, no problem. So I went out and opened up a bunch of credit cards that weekend, which I don't recommend to new business owners. But you do what you have to do and that's how I got started.
Speaker 3:It quickly started catching on here in St Louis. So I think you guys are maybe on the coasts, we're in the middle. Some people joke that Missouri is one of the flyover states when we get to California, to New York. So we're in the middle. So we tend to get all the new things, the trends, the fashion, everything later, several years later than the coast. So it took St Louis a while to sort of grasp onto this idea. But the minute I started selling the custom closets, the repeat and referral business is what really just caused my business to, you know, just take off. And, like I said, that was 34 years ago. And here we are today.
Speaker 3:I have 43 amazing employees, we have a manufacturing facility of 15,000 square feet where we make everything right here in St Louis and we go out to the house. We measure the spaces that you want to organize and we do everything. We do primary closets, kids closets, coat closets, linen closets, home offices, pantries like you said earlier Murphy beds, garages, entertainment centers, and we also do commercial work. So there are 17 different areas of the home that we can organize. A lot of houses don't have closets and we'll come in and we'll build like a wall unit or a wardrobe for them. So all of these spaces that can be organized can really change your life. I mean, and I say every single person should have a custom closet. Obviously, that's what I sell, but I believe in it so much.
Speaker 3:Organization is something that it like snowballs. Once you get one thing organized and you start noticing the stress relief, the less anxiety you have over the clutter, you just start feeling better and better and better. And this goes back to you know, may is mental health week, mental health month, and here we are trying to figure out in our lives what can we do to just be a happier person? Right, we have so much stress, so much clutter. It's physical clutter, right, the stuff that's laying around on the floors of your closets and on your countertops and in your pantry. But there's also digital clutter. You know, I always say how many photos do you have on your phone? And people are like, oh yeah, I got to go through those. Or how many unread emails? And then also, just you know, we have 24, seven news. Right, it's coming at us from everywhere, from TV, from radio, from social media. So there's just.
Speaker 3:We live in this sort of cluttered world and it's hard to find peace, and I really believe that organization is one of the key stress relievers that we should all be focusing more of our time on, because you can't really function if your brain is cluttered right, if your brain is cluttered, then everything. You just can't think correctly, you can't make decisions. It's hard to get dressed in the morning if you can't find your clothes or you can't see what you have. Same thing, your family that's living in the house with you. If they're unorganized, the whole family starts. We're always running late, we can't find our homework, we can't find our keys, and then it starts the day off, stressed out. So getting organized, I believe, is not only fun. It's great to have a pretty organized closet, right, it looks great, but it really serves a bigger purpose than that.
Speaker 1:I love everything you have spoken about. Thank you for sharing, because you're speaking out of my heart, because I do love organizing, but it's not something that I was necessarily innate to. This was something that I kind of developed and as I got to know myself, I realized this is something that I needed in order for me to function in the world, as far as my environment, how I'm viewing even my room and the closets and everything. So I love that you're sharing this in this symbolism and the connection between organization and mindset. And circling back to you taking the initiative of starting this business in a time when, again, it was like you said, it wasn't well-known, it wasn't something that was like received in like that middle America, and you're like, okay, you still did it anyway, you still had a belief in it, you still had a passion about it. So I want to talk a bit about that and your encouragement and tips for our audience, who may have a passion or an idea and they just don't.
Speaker 1:No one around them believes in them. No one else is doing it. No one else goes. I don't get it. What are you trying to sell? What are you trying to do? I'm not sure. What advice and tips do you have? You were at a young age. You said I'm going to do it anyway. I'm going to get the credit cards, even though we don't condone that, because we understand credit scores and all that. Trust me. But what was it in that moment that you said you know what F it, I'm going to do it anyway because I have such a deep belief and know that this is my purpose or part of it. And yeah, so what advice do you have for others out there who may be struggling to take that first step, to take the initiative and to believe in their business idea or their creative idea?
Speaker 3:Right, absolutely Well. And you know, amanda, so many people are out there with these ideas and they just don't know where to start. Right, they just need that encouragement. A couple of things. First of all, you probably need more money than you think. Tip number one if you think you need 50,000 to start, you probably need to double that. That is key, because nine out of 10 small businesses fail in the first five years, and the majority of them fail because they're underfinanced. So you don't want to start off behind the eight ball with not enough money. So that's important. But even before that, your idea, your passion, your product, your service, whatever it is that you think you want to turn into a business, make sure that other people also think it's a good idea, right, not just you.
Speaker 3:What I always say is find a problem in your life, find something that you're having issues with and you need a solution. Right, and when you fix that solution, you can pretty much figure there's a lot of other people out there that have the same problem. Then you start with that solution. But whatever it is, it has to be something that you are so passionate about that you love so so much, because owning a small business it's not easy, it's not always fun, but you will be with it 24-7. You will be with your business more than your girlfriends, more than your family, more than your kids. You can't ever get away from it, and a lot of people I think like, oh, you're so lucky, you own your own business, you can work whenever you want and you can make a lot of money. Well, I mean, hopefully those two things eventually come down the road, but if you're only going into business for those two things, you're probably not going to get there fast enough.
Speaker 3:So have an idea that is, an idea that you think will really solve a problem. Two, have enough money. Three, make sure it is something that you love, because there are going to be days that you just don't want to do this anymore. Right, you're tired, you're exhausted, you're like, oh my God, I can't even imagine doing this again. But you don't get to stay home, right, and you have to show up. You have to show up. You have to show up when you're sick. You have to show up every day, right, and people forget about that.
Speaker 3:Because business ownership I think from the outside, especially now with a lot of social media, it looks really cool. It looks easier than it is, and although there are great times and amazing times and huge successes, there are equally as many hard times, bad times and struggles that small business owners deal with every single day. The challenge is the average person think about this makes 30,000 decisions a day. Which is the average person, right? I mean, am I going to have water for breakfast or am I going to have coffee for breakfast? Am I going to use this pen or this pencil? Every little decision.
Speaker 3:But when you own a small business, you're making all those regular decisions plus all of these other decisions for your business, and if you can't make a decision, you're holding up the progress of your business. You're holding up a decision. You're holding up the progress of your business. You're holding up your employees, you're holding up your customers and you can't ever move forward. You have to sort of keep moving forward and knowing that some days you made a really great decision and this is awesome. Some days you're like, oh, maybe we shouldn't have done that. Let's course correct and do something different, but you have to keep going down that path. You can't freeze. So if you're not a good decision maker, owning your own business is probably not a good idea.
Speaker 2:To encourage ourselves to do the podcast. Even. I'm proud of us that we just keep going Like we try things like. Social media in the beginning was a little rough and then we learned from it and kept going and I love your transparency and the resilience you have to have. I have a good joke with my clients and I always say when we hit a little bit of rut, I say this is why people quit. Like, for example, I had a model. She got a great stand in job the night before. Wardrobe was like we need you to bring all this white clothing. And my friend, I don't have anything that they gave me the mood board for. I was like it's time to go to Zara right now, let's go. And she's like I have a dinner, cancel your dinner and we go, we get it. And I said they're not going to use any of it. And she gets there the next day.
Speaker 1:Wardrobe didn't use any of it.
Speaker 3:It's also what makes it exciting, right, because it's a challenge. It's like every day you don't get bored. I mean, I haven't been bored in 34 years. Not one minute am I ever bored because there's always something coming at you, right? And if you look at the challenges and the bad times because they're going to come as a problem solving or what did we do last time, let's see if we can fix this and move forward Then I look at that as you know, I don't know. It inspires me to do better. And so you know you have to have those challenges or you get bored, but they're there, they're there and there's just.
Speaker 3:I talk to a lot of high school kids and college kids about entrepreneurship because I think starting young is great, right, you have more energy, you're not so tired, maybe you're not married, you don't have a house payment.
Speaker 3:It just seems like you're a little bit freer to commit more of your life to it when you're younger, and I just love seeing the spark in high school kids. We give a lot of tours here of our manufacturing facility and our showroom and then I talk to them about entrepreneurship and they're just so excited, right, and it're just so excited, right, and it's just so motivating to see people, but you have to know that there are not, like you said, they're not going to be great times all day, every day, and you have to know that going in. So I think that was is that enough tips? I think that was like you know, you know, have enough money, love what you do, make sure your idea is good and know that you're going to. You know, and then keep showing up, keep showing up. Right, it's like you have to. That's, 90% of it is just showing up.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, showing up. And I always say like, showing up, show up and show out, it's just, you know, show up and show out is my thing. Now I'm like, yes, you've got to show out for yourself and and also for the, for the vision that you have for your business or your career idea, whatever it is, and the fact that you said that. I'm like, yes, I feel that what is in your opinion, because you do closet organization and I never quite understood the importance of just organizing your home.
Speaker 1:When I was younger, I was just like, of course we're younger, we're throwing things in piles, we're doing this, or maybe you're a parent of, you know kids and or you have roommates and you have such chaos happening in your home and then, all of a sudden, you're trying to maintain the outside world and you know all the business that you're doing or the goals that you're going after. You know maybe it the kids' ballet recital, but then you have to go to whatever it is that you want to do. How have you found that organizing spaces in your home has affected people's interaction with the world or just effectiveness with, like you said, decision making and showing up for themselves in ways that they didn't think was possible because they were so cluttered in their mind that was representing in their world and maybe that space, the room. So what is the thing that you found? That is a through line between organizing spaces in your home and how that relates to your real world, like your life and your interactions with not only yourself, but also with people around you.
Speaker 3:Well, especially getting a home. It's one thing when you live by yourself, right, I mean, yes, you can have stuff piling up and you just probably organize it and declutter and whatever. But the minute you are living with someone else whether it's a roommate situation or a spouse or a partner and then all of a sudden kids come into the mix, you may be the most organized person in the world, your partner may be the most unorganized person in the world and your kids may just be like, oh, I don't know, mom, and just throw this stuff right. So everybody has to sort of work together and I have found that women tend to be tend to be not always, but they tend to be more organized than men. And children, starting very, very young, are so trainable if you give them systems. And then I put men in their own category, similar to children. If you give them systems, they are also trainable, and sometimes they'll just do it just to make you happy. At least that's what my husband does. So you have to have a system, and maybe, maybe you're not, maybe you don't have a custom closet, right? I mean, maybe you just have spaces in your house and you have to figure out how can we do this. So I always like to say start with the areas of your home that everybody uses right. Maybe it's the pantry, maybe it's the coat closet, maybe it's your garage, maybe it's your drop zone or mudroom or lockers. Start where everybody is and involve the entire family with coming up with a plan or a system or custom shelving or whatever it is. And be like okay, guys, you know, maybe your room's a mess and your room's a mess and your closet is a mess, but this one area of our home we're going to all participate in developing the system and then trying to stick to it.
Speaker 3:So think about kids. Every kid goes to kindergarten right or preschool, and they all have a locker. You have a locker all the way through your life until high school. When you go to school, your coat, your book bag, your homework, everything your lunchbox it goes in your locker right. You don't walk into the classroom and just throw your stuff around, right. Even in high school. You don't walk into high school hallway and just throw your books on the floor or leave them on a table. They go in your locker.
Speaker 3:So imagine if you had a space in your home where every family member has a locker right. All of a sudden, now kids are like this is where my stuff goes. And when they don't get it there, you're like, hey, sweetie, remember, put that stuff in your locker. So organize the areas that affect everybody and then all of a sudden the whole family is sort of functioning, I think, a little better. So not only can you leave the house and be, you know, clearer headed to do your work, do your job, run your business, but your, your kids, can too. I mean, imagine if you're like trying to come home at night and you want to do homework and you want to have a nice space to be able to lay your books out and your homework out, but all the surfaces are cluttered, your room's cluttered. You know that's not a good learning environment right For the kids either. So start small and start with areas that affect everybody, so that all of a sudden you see your whole family start functioning in the world better. And then all of a sudden it's like, wow, another thing that I think is really fun.
Speaker 3:I used to do it with my kids. My kids are now 22 and 25, but we used to have like Saturday mornings I was like, okay, we're setting a timer, 30 minutes, everybody go to their room and clean up and they all had a. They all, of course. My kids had a custom closet so they knew where to put their stuff right. If you just open up a normal closet, it has one shelf and one pole right, and where does most things go? They open the door, they throw it all in in a pile on the floor and close the door. But imagine if you don't have this big open floor anymore. You have baskets for dirty laundry, you have shoe shelves for your shoes, bins for the toys, so the kids have a place to put the stuff. So do that for 30 minutes. Everybody goes and does their own space and then they come back.
Speaker 3:The other thing is we have we live in a world we talked a little bit earlier about this clutter. We buy too much stuff. So many of us shop online, we shop at the big box stores. You don't buy one pair of socks, you buy a pack of 12. We just have so much stuff. There is this movement, this fast fashion. My daughter is very guilty of that one, especially when she was in college. I called them dress in a bag. She would order. She'd have a dance to go to and she would order like seven of them. They'd come these like dresses, wadded up in little bags, and I was like, oh my gosh, and then they wind up wearing one and then the rest of them just lay there because they never get around to returning them, or they're not that expensive, but they just start building up clutter. So we just have to work on the decluttering part and then the organization will follow.
Speaker 3:So the physical clutter you can deal with it in lots of different ways. You know there's all these different tips. It's like the one in, one out rule. Right, if you buy a new pair of shoes, an old pair of shoes has to come out. You know there's the do you use this item or wear this item, whatever it is 90% of the time, and if the answer is no, well then you're probably not going to use it right?
Speaker 3:Have you ever heard about the turning your hangers backwards? So you hang all your clothes facing one way on your hangers and then, as you wear the items and you put it back, you put the hanger the other way, and then at the end of the year, any hangers that didn't get turned around means you're probably not going to wear those clothes, and so it's all about just figuring out ways to reduce the clutter in your home for all the people and then figuring out ways and putting in systems whatever those systems may be for everybody in the home to get organized so that they can all leave. And all of a sudden it's like you know, if your house is cluttered, your garage is probably cluttered, your basement's cluttered, and then guess what? You get into your car and your car is a mess. And then you get to work and your desk is a mess. It just keeps snowballing.
Speaker 3:So it's also true if you start out organized, your car gets a little more organized. You get to work and you're like, oh my gosh, I got to clean up my desk, I'm going to be able to be more efficient. So I just really think, once you get it going and you don't have to do it all in one day, right, start with a drawer, start with a junk drawer in your kitchen, one junk drawer. Take everything out. Clean that drawer. Maybe put in some drawer organizers only put in things that you use. Or maybe you go out and you buy yourself like some matching ice cream scoopers or straws or something fun and colorful.
Speaker 3:Organize that drawer and I swear, you're going to take a picture of it, you're going to send it to your friends Every time you walk by that drawer, you're going to open up that drawer and look at this drawer, then you show it to everybody in the family. And then all of a sudden, that like, let's do that with the coat closet. And then also remember there are so many people in the world today who don't have clothes, they don't have shoes, they don't have coats, they don't have hats, and we're sitting here with these closets that are overflowing with coats and hats and gloves and things that we never even wear. So you don't have to throw it away. Donate it.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Some of my friends used to make fun of me for organizing my closet per color. So all my shirts and I would do sleeveless and then I would do sleeves and then I would do long sleeves, but then they will all be color coordinated. So it would be all my white shirts, all my blue shirts, all my blue like. It would be color coordinated. Only because I was just always on the go and I needed to know, like if I can just get oh, I want a white shirt I don't know which one, but I can go in there and grab it and I didn't realize how effective that was for me moving in the world and just the cluttering my life, and it helped open up my mindset to look at my life and go this part of my life, whether it's career or family or relationships. It's a bit cluttered here. I don't know what it is, but I need to make sure that I'm tending to this so that I can feel better. I can also give myself space and time to attend other areas of my life that I'm not giving so much attention to. So by that one closet, I mean that one drawer that you talked about. It made me think of how symbolic that is for our life and how joyful it shifted. That joy shifted and going. Oh, great, now I can do something else. It's that one small step that leads to other small steps, that lead to bigger steps than accomplishments that we go and we undervalue. And I appreciate you sharing that because it was so beautiful of a story to go. Oh, that is like very relatable to my real life. And that one step, that one drawer, is symbolic to every other space in my life and it also encourages you to go I can do it. I can do it, I did it already. Great, it's exciting.
Speaker 1:And then you start getting excited about organizing, which is me. I get excited about organizing. I can't. Janelle knows I love organizing. I gotta have a drawer for this, I gotta have a book bag for that. I need to have like my go bag, just so I know I'm like yes, so for those that aren't so excited about organizing, like myself, they feel overwhelmed with organizing.
Speaker 1:What did I know you talked about like, just start with that one drawer, but what is the mind shift that they can start thinking about, to implement in that small dose or in their daily life? That can go okay, I have to do this, I should do this and I can do this and get going to start it. Because, like I said, I find it exciting, but not other people do. And it also is a symbolism to holding on to things longer than we need to, because it holds memories and we think that if we let it go or if we throw it out, that is a symbolism of our memory no longer is there or that value is no longer there. So what are your thoughts on that and how can they just shift that little bit of a mindset to go yeah, okay, I'm going to do it and I can do it.
Speaker 3:I am doing it. Well, similar to starting with the drawer, right. Start with a small amount of time, right, let's just say 10 minutes a day, okay. So Rubbermaid did a study several years ago that said if you have an organized closet, it will save you 10 minutes a day. So think about that. Times a family of four, that's 40 minutes a day. That's a lot of time.
Speaker 3:10 minutes in our life each day really adds up. So start small. Start 10 minutes in a day. Say, okay, I don't like this, I just can't, but so maybe I can't organize it, maybe I'm not a, I don't have a labeler and I don't have all the bins and I'm not somebody like me who's all about that, and maybe Amanda, you too. Let's just start with 10 minutes a day of decluttering. Go to the pantry, pull out spices that are expired, go to cleaning closet and get rid of old mops or broken brooms or go out to the garage, just slowly and just set to say 10 minutes, like little, tiny steps add up over time.
Speaker 3:So for people who don't like doing that, start with the decluttering part, don't start with the organizing part. Start with the decluttering part, start with the getting rid of things. Then I really, really recommend either bringing in a really good friend who's going to be super honest with you, or hiring a professional organizer and have them come in. And these are people that are going to stand there and be like, okay, try on this blouse. Nope, it doesn't fit you. When was the last time you wore it? I mean, they're going to hardcore you and force you, because if you're just standing in your closet and you're just like overwhelmed, you're like I don't know. I mean, yeah, I love all those clothes. I don't want to get rid, you know. But when you have to take them all out, try them all on and you have like somebody there, your best friend, going sister no, not that you know that one's going right. And so get help right. If you are not the type of person employ help. You know, a custom closet company is great. What St Louis Closet Company does, it's great. But if you still have a problem with clutter and you still have a problem with buying too much stuff or hanging onto too much stuff, a custom closet is not going to fix that. It's just not. You have to get through the stuff first. So there's no way to just totally change overnight somebody's personality and how they live.
Speaker 3:But you can do little things, take baby steps, which I think and then once again, it goes back to that one drawer. It just starts bleeding into everything else and you're like, oh, wow, you know what I cleaned out underneath my bathroom sink? And look at that, I got rid of all this stuff. I mean, we're all guilty of it, right? I mean you get like one of those free gift bags when you go buy makeup, right, and it's got like the free little lotions and all that stuff, and you think, oh, this is great, and you stick it in a drawer or stick it under the sink and then you might use one of the things out of the free bag, but you don't use the rest. And then you get another one and you're like, oh, this is such a cute bag, but how many of those do you need, right? And people don't realize cleaning supplies expire, spices expire, all the food in your pantry expires. You know, maybe you have a cabinet that's like cleaning rags or old blankets or old linens. Go through there, pick something that maybe is easier for you to declutter than maybe your own closet.
Speaker 3:Like you said, people are very sentimental about clothing and we're all guilty. I am guilty and I have a very organized closet, but I have my kid's baptism dress. So, once again, my son's 25, my daughter's 22. I wore that dress that many years ago for their baptism and it's still hanging in my closet. 22. I wore that dress that many years ago for their baptism and it's still hanging in my closet Now. I haven't worn it once since. I was but we call it the baptism dress and I was like I just can't get rid of that. I mean, I was like that's when you know they were baptized and it's still hanging there. But what I've seen with myself is okay.
Speaker 3:Maybe there are things obviously sometimes your wedding dress or there's certain things that you have that you don't want to get rid of. Move them out of your main closet or your main living space to, I call, like a holding area, right, sort of out of sight. But it also, once again, is then decluttering the space that you wake up to every morning. Right, we wake up in the morning and we go to our closet, we go to the bathroom, we maybe go to the kitchen. Those are the three areas you go to in the morning and you want to start your morning with these cleared out, decluttered spaces. So start with the areas that you touch the most throughout the day and work on those spaces. Or, on the totally opposite, pick an area that you don't go to, you don't care about. It's like the basement. You've thrown all stuff in there and you're just like, okay, we are cleaning this out. I'm not attached to any of it, but just start somewhere. Right, start somewhere.
Speaker 3:But I always like to start in the places that either, like I said, affect the most people in your family the mudroom, the kitchen, where everybody's using it, or the places that you go to in the morning. My Instagram feed lately has been like, you know, the 5am club. People that wake up at 5am and get their day going earlier and faster and better, more successful People that wake up and make their bed are more likely to become millionaires, right? So all of this is the same thing. It's starting your day off in a good way, in a joyful way, in a stress-free way, whatever that is, but you are taking control of the space. You're not letting the space take control of you. Oh, my gosh, that is amazing.
Speaker 2:I love that specifically. Well, all you've said, jennifer, and all these tips, but empowering our listeners, you're taking control of your life and speaking to the mental health component, which are a little bit about decluttering and feeling more at peace. But I've been in this position many times. I have anxiety and ADHD and genuinely before it was cool and trending and you genuinely feel like you can't. And then there's shame on top of that because it's easy for these other people and you should just do it, and we've grown up in kind of the society. Declutter first, I think, is a big thing, but so many people get overwhelmed with that Something else that's helped them beyond, like these amazing tips, and just to tie it in with the mental health component that you've found over the years, the starting small to engaging, help from others.
Speaker 3:Right, not being embarrassed. The number one thing we hear is people are like, oh, I'm too embarrassed to have you come look at my closet and I'm like, okay, but if your closet didn't look that bad, I probably wouldn't be in business. So it's like, really get in and you, yes, it's hard but you have to realize the benefit at the end. So if you can start once again with this drawer and see how it makes you feel right, and if that cleaned out, organized drawer that you weren't, that you're not going to be that emotional with the junk drawer in your kitchen or whatever, right, you're just not. But if you can do that, I'm telling you it just snowballs into other areas of your home. But also, having other people help you, other people that maybe you live with, get involved, that's huge because you make it a game, you make it 10 minutes a day, you do little things. But we have clients. I mean we've all watched and get addicted to Hoarders, right, the TV show. It's a real thing, it is a real illness, it's a real thing. And we definitely have clients like that and a lot of times we go into homes and we're like we can't help you until you clean this out, right? I mean, it's real and over time it can become a real health hazard, a real issue.
Speaker 3:And if you have a bunch of clutter in your and I'm not the hoarders TV show, obviously is the extreme. But let's just say you have areas in your basement or your garage or even your closets where you just have boxes of shoes piled up or bags that you never returned or whatever. Right? You're going to get spiders. You're going to get mice. You're going to have who knows what crawling around in those, because that's what they love, right? I mean, bugs come inside when it gets cold, so do mice. Where do they go? Do they go to these places where there's extreme clutter?
Speaker 3:So, maybe by telling yourself maybe I'm not the kind of person who likes the plastic bins and the labor rollers and that's too much for me, but I am not a person who's going to sleep five feet away from a pile of paper bags and boxes and have spiders. Right, it's sort of like figuring out what is it that is going to motivate you, and each person is going to have something different that motivates them. But I also think you know, looking at you know, get on Instagram and look at you know St Louis Closet Company and other, you know the home edit and all these trending organizational things. And you start seeing these beautiful pictures like Amanda people that you know, organized by color, and all of a sudden you're like I don't need another white blouse because, look at them, they're all. I got two feet of hanging space of just white blouses. So you know, when you go shopping again, don't need a white blouse covered, right? So when you start sorting it and getting more and more organized, one, you realize you're going to start saving money because you're not buying the same thing over and over.
Speaker 3:The other thing is is that your clothing, your shoes, your purses, belts, ties, those are investments, right? You spend money on that? And if you bring it all home and then you just junk it up in a closet or you jam it in and it gets wrinkled or you can't see it, it damages those clothing. I see so many women. They have the most expensive shoes I've ever seen and they're just in piles on top of each other on the floor getting scuffed up and scratched.
Speaker 3:So does saving money motivate you? Does cleanliness motivate you? Watch a show of hoarders, get you know, get a friend in there, get other people in your family to help you. Just, I don't know, you just have to find out what works for you, right. And you also have to be happy with yourself, easy on yourself, right. Maybe it's not perfect, maybe it's not color coordinated and a rainbow with labels and all this stuff, but you know what you got rid of? I don't know a trash bag full of clothes that you took to your local charity and you donated it. You know, is that enough to you? Don't have to be perfectly organized all the time, so you have to sort of give yourself a break too, right? You can't like then beat yourself up because it's not organized enough, but maybe just do a little bit and say, okay, that's, I feel good about this.
Speaker 2:What I'm hearing is a lot of awareness and bringing yourself back to the moment.
Speaker 1:Then what made me think is like practice kindness with yourself, like really be kind to yourself throughout this process as well, because you're going to discover things that you didn't want to like. Just these piles that are kind of very symbolic and I keep saying symbolism today is because it is a representation of how you see your life and how you're viewing life and how you're moving through life. If, mentally you see a pile of clothes, maybe mentally you are so cluttered and you don't have the ability to gain clarity on the next steps or the next goals or actually what you want out of your life, because that pile of clothes is the pile of thoughts and on your mind that's the pile of just maybe disappointment or shame or guilt that you're living with, that you haven't quite addressed and gone through and are aware of. To let yourself process it, Be kind to yourself, forgive yourself in that process and then take the step to go. I'm ready to let it go.
Speaker 1:And that is literally what I got from organizing your closet, organizing your space and organizing your business too. I really I wanted to go back to business before we kind of wrap this up a bit and then talk a bit more about how they can find your closet and what are some cool like designs you've created, because I know I see the picture behind you and I'm like that is a dream closet of mine. I always had a dream of doing like the clueless closet. I was like that is my dream, the clueless closet, and what? Yeah, what have been your favorite designs and what are some cool designs that maybe surprised you, that you created based on some client's vision or client's need?
Speaker 3:Well, probably one of our most recent and definitely, for me, coolest projects was are you guys familiar with Nelly, the rapper and the singer? Okay, so, he's from St Louis and very proud of St Louis. Well, his studio is here and he is redoing the entire studio and this is where they keep all their show clothes, their performance stuff, all of his dancers. This is where, when they're going on tour, they bring the tour bus there and they load up, they pack all this stuff and, once again, just like your closet. He was like we can't find stuff, we're trying to get on the road, we can't stop. So he hired us. Now, first of all, we have to say, biggest fan, biggest fan right here I dreams to meet Nellie, right? Well, he called St Louis Closet Company and he had us come out and design this enormous area of his studio into basically one giant closet to house all of their stuff. It was so exciting for me just because I was such a fan, but it was also so cool to sort of see our product. Yes, it's basically like another closet, but it was designed for all of the performance clothes, right, and to be able to see that space and then afterwards to be able to go in and meet him and him and I did a little HGTV reveal. So you know, go to my Instagram page. You can watch the Nelly video. It's really cool. So that's exciting.
Speaker 3:The other thing you mentioned, jenna, I think you said earlier on my little intro thing Murphy beds. We have been doing so many Murphy beds because a huge segment of the population, the baby boomers, are all downsizing, right, they're moving into retirement communities and they no longer have a three or four bedroom house but they still want to be able to have a guest bedroom. They just don't have the space maybe in their new living arrangements. So we've been installing a lot of Murphy beds so that when they have the grandkids over or their kids come stay with them, they have a bed. But then the Murphy bed when it's not in use is folded up and then that room now becomes a flexible room that can be used as a home office, a workout room, a TV room. But then, when you trending now much higher because of the aging population, we sell Murphy beds to anybody, but that's where we're seeing them installed the most lately.
Speaker 3:Then boutique closets are really a big deal. These are people that have an entire room, a wing that they want their closets to be a showpiece right, crown molding islands, crystal chandeliers, slanted shoe shelves, so they display their shoes, jewelry, drawers, and I mean these closets are showpieces and they're beautiful. People love looking at them. But I always like to remind people you don't have to have a giant closet to have a closet company. The people that actually have the smallest closets, I think, benefit the most from a custom closet system because they need the most amount of space. Yes, it's wonderful if you have a big, huge walk-in closet, that's great and you want it organized, great. But if you have a tiny closet, get that organized and really utilize the space better and that will make your life much better.
Speaker 3:We service just the St Louis metropolitan area, but there are other custom closet companies like mine around the United States. But the one thing I always say is try to find a locally owned small business. That is one of my big things. Going back to the business part of me, that has always been something that I've been really, really supportive as women business owners. Small business keep your money in your community. Of course, there are times where we have to buy something on Amazon or a big box store, but when you can shop locally. It makes a huge difference for your community, no matter where you live.
Speaker 1:That's great, and what are some upcoming events that you'd like to share and how can the audience connect with you and your business and get those creative tips that I'm sure will change their life for the good I wouldn't say better, but for the good.
Speaker 3:For the good Right. Well, yeah, I think for the better, definitely. So you can find me on. Our website is stlouisclosetcocom. You can email me at jennifer at stlouisclosetcocom. We're on Instagram, twitter, facebook, pinterest, youtube, so you can find us somewhere. Lots of videos.
Speaker 3:We don't have many events, but what we do have is I founded a charitable arm of St Louis Closet Company in 2020. And each quarter, we partner with a local charity and what we try to do is figure out a way whether we're donating a portion of our sales or we're rallying our customers to help donate things from their closets, usually to help local charities. And we just this past week wrapped up a clothing donation drive for a charity called Dress for Success, which is women and men who maybe are homeless or are getting back on their feet again and they need interview clothes and work clothes and they just can't afford them. So, once again, I have a database of 50,000 clients with lots of stuff in their closets, and so we had them bring their clothes to donate here, and it is heartwarming when you see the community. Once again, it goes back to we're helping them get organized and declutter, but by taking those clothes and giving them a place to donate them and drop them for a really good cause.
Speaker 3:Janelle, this goes back to if you're just not the kind of person who can do it, right, you have anxiety, you can't figure it out, but all of a sudden now there's a really good cause. Right, somebody is collecting winter coats for the homeless and you're like, oh okay, well, so now I have a reason. So I really like to talk about closets for a cause as much as I can, because I have been involved with trying to get other locally owned closet companies around the country to do the same thing in their area and I think that you know, if we could join together across the United States, we can make a huge difference.
Speaker 1:Yes, everyone, make groups in your community and donate. I think that's so incredible because I love thrifting, but I'm constantly going through my clothes and, like you know, one does it make me happy. Two, does it even fit, or am I really going to wear this one more time? And then I, you know, put it together and I donate it because it also makes me feel better. So the little things that matter, it doesn't.
Speaker 1:You don't have to do these big, extravagant things. It's a small things that you consider humanity. You can others, and I love that you're doing that and I appreciate you for doing that. So, spread the word, you know, make giveaway parties or exchange parties or, you know, with your friends and family, because you just don't know who needs help, and why not be that helping hand for others? So I really appreciate you sharing that and doing that because it matters to people. It also allows those who feel unseen to be seen and to be supported and feel like they have someone out there who's thinking of them, even if they have no one around them. So that's really powerful, especially in this mental health month.
Speaker 2:Yes, and giving people their time back, because I think people that don't understand anxiety and all of that, it's because you don't feel like you have the time to do it. If I take time to take care of myself, what about all this other stuff? Thank you so much, Jennifer and Amanda the two organizing.
Speaker 3:Queens actually yeah, amanda could do it as a job.
Speaker 2:She's a dream. Oh, and the Murphy beds. I love that too. I thought it was so funny. So, andrew, I call my husband Tetris, because he's so good, because he lived in New York for so long, and you get these studio apartments and I can't tell you how many Murphy beds I've put up and taken down again, just us, which is kind of a job. But I love that flex room because people don't think how much shelving and using the vertical space. He always talks about this closet.
Speaker 3:This is my actual closet and you can see I do the color thing too. I'm going to get out of the way. You can see I do the I do the color thing too, because it makes it maybe getting ready so much easier.
Speaker 1:Like I'll decide before I even get to my closet okay, today I'm going to wear jeans and a black top and then I go to the black tops. I mean, it's just easy. Yeah, Listen, I'm here for all of that too. And speaking of just downsizing, I think because I moved from New York to LA, I really had to be aware of and Nell knows this because she travels a lot for work and things like that and has moved a lot this was my first time actually looking at all the things that I had and going what do I want to bring with me and what can I throw away and what can I store in New York? But it has to be a value, it has to mean something.
Speaker 1:So I still have baptism clothing from when I was a kid. Yes, I'll store that, but I put it in a specific bin and I was like this is valuable pieces. I want to keep everything my bib or anything like that but the pieces that I really want to pass down, sure, but other fast fashion stuff, I was like do I really need this? Am I going to wear this, or should I just wear it now? Don't wait for that special event, and I tell people all the time, because that's a part of your mental health is stop waiting for those big moments to wear these things. Do it yourself. Take yourself out on the date, Go to that event that you want to go to, even if it's by yourself, because you're celebrating who you are and your mental health. So don't wait and then maybe do an exchange.
Speaker 1:I've exchanged a lot of clothes with my mom. I was like, mom, I don't think I'm going to wear this. Do you want to try it and see if it fits? Cool, Great, it's in good condition and you value your pieces more, like you said, to your shoes, your clothing. And then I got like Nell knows about this too of having like a uniform, your weekly uniform. Oh, yes, so that also transitions into just organizing and again, I didn't know that until I moved and what I actually valued over you know materialistic things. So I appreciate you sharing that. Yes, I love organizing, but that's not something I was always into until I started recognizing the benefit, the long-term benefits, of staying organized. And you know, having a business with Janelle and you, of all people, should know organizing your life helps you organize your business and keep you aware and able to handle the challenges.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. And it's funny. You said what are you saving it for? I always tell people when I walk in I'm like, take those shoes out of the shoe boxes. What are we saving them for? You can't see them. It's such a hassle to take shoes out of a shoe box. Take them out of the shoe box, look at them, wear them. If you buy something new, don't save it, wear it. Or if you buy it and you don't need it, should you be buying it to begin with, right?
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, organizing again allows you to see what you actually do need, but you're not over buying and you save money. You can put your energy into things that you value more or makes you happier. So I appreciate you, jen, for, like you are like my little spirit, animal spirit person, because you're speaking my language and I'm always trying to help my friends and family. My mom and I struggled this. I'm like mom, can I help you organize please? She's like no, no, no. And I'm like, all right, let's do small steps. And I had to learn how to speak her language for her to feel safe enough to organize, and so I'm pretty sure you understand that as well. Again, I appreciate you and thank you for coming on here. Any last words that you would like to leave with our audience and let them think about, ruminate on and take.
Speaker 3:Well, you know, we've we've spent most of the time talking about organization and mental health, and I think that's great. But I want to circle back around to, you know, women, business owners, and just encourage your listeners. If you're sitting there, you thinking you have an idea, you know. Just, you know, workshop it, get it out there and go for it. You know, don't hold back. Life is short and you never know what tomorrow brings and you don't want to ever get to a point where you're looking back and you regret not doing something right. You don't want to. I wish I, you know, 10 years ago I had this great idea and I just just it wasn't the right time, I didn't have the money. You know you have to be ready to do it. But I think, you know, today is as good as any to get started and I really encourage people to you know, to just go for it.
Speaker 1:Yes, go for it, everyone, go for it. Don't hold yourself back. Women, we need more women. We're powering each other and keep us afloat in a world that sometimes feels like it's against us. So I appreciate you and I'm valuing that, and thank you so much, everyone, and until next time we'll see you again. Thank you, bye-bye, thank you, and that's a wrap on this episode of Mindset Artistry Podcast. Don't forget to like share and subscribe.
Speaker 1:Catch us every Thursday for a new episode to help you master the art of your mindset. Yeah, we got it. Yes, okay, cool.