How Does Someone Become a Professional Organizer?

Well, my business is about service – helping people maximize space and time.

I’ve always had in interest in working in “production environments” and working on projects (companies that produced an item, send it through R & D, and put it out to the public for consumption.) Balancing the artistic and managerial process has always fascinated me.

My organizing background began in arts administration management with McCarter Theater, a leading performing arts center on the Princeton University Campus in my hometown of Princeton, New Jersey.  For an exciting summer, I served as House Manager for The Big Apple Circus in New York City, another summer for the International Theatre Festival, Theater of Nations in Baltimore, Maryland, a season at Virgina Stage Company in Norfolk, Virgina and several years with TheaterWorks in Palo, Alto, CA.

Travels eventually took me south to South Coast Repertory, a leading Tony-award winning regional arts center located in Costa Mesa, CA.  My arts management background was a  perfect compliment when I was eventually recruited for a Production Management position with Walt Disney Feature Animation in Burbank where I worked on four animated feature film projects.

At Disney, I witnessed astonishing amounts of organization which really sharpened my leadership and deadline planning skill-sets.  I scheduled, sourced and supervised animation artists and software engineers, many of whom were artistically or technically-gifted yet completely disorganized in their physical surroundings.

One of the Artistic Department Heads, recognizing my talents, mentioned to me her Realtor gave her a few hours of a Professional Organizer’s time when she moved into a new home up in Valencia, a new suburb north of Los Angeles.  The Department Head thought I would be a natural for the organizing profession.  It took a series of unexpected events before I took the plunge and found my first client—a successful caterer from Pacific Palisades who I still keep in touch with.

Comments

[maggie]

Hi John:
I'm so glad to have found your site.
My issue is I'm a graphic designer and all my work are done on the pc.
My time is spent 75% marketing.
I need to have a good system on my pc where everything is organized and orderly.
I need help on spending less time marketing and more time designing.
Any advice?
Thanks
Maggie

[John Trosko]

Hi Maggie!

My apologies for taking so long to answer.

This is a tough question without knowing more detail.

For organizing your computer, I would expect to spend at least 4 hours of interupted time redoing your file hierarcy. And more time may be necessary. You MUST put things in folders and not haver your desktop cluttered up. I did this about 1 year ago and it's save me a lot of time. However, you must keep it up because even digitally, we get lazy. You'll also want your computer files to mimic your hard copy files. Don't have two different systems.

Now onto the marketing and design inquiry: structure your day, and structure your marketing. Dump (write) everything down on paper that you must do for marketing. Take that list and systemize the elements so you have steps and check off lists. Think about how much time each step takes. Once you've done that, dedicate that much time each week to do that. Systemizing your workday is really important to a long-term strategy.

When I hear this story, I worry you are working too hard and don't have a life. Balance is really important. Here's some unsolicated life coaching advise. Go to bed earlier, and at the same time each night. Wake up earlier. When you get up, wash your face and get into the shower. Dress. Put your shoes on. You can take the first hour of your day, but don't answer e-mail until you are ready for work, and even then, don't immerse yourself in it for hours. Put a time limit on this.

I hope all this helps-- even somewhat. I can refer you to a lifecoach here in Los Angeles, and of course my services too. I think you may need a mixture of the two.

Let me know.

- John