Session Descriptions


Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Pre-Conference Workshops

8:00 am – 5:00 pm

PO-101 Starting an Organizing Business (PC1)
Porter Knight, CPO®

This workshop is designed for new and prospective professional organizers, or organizers who missed some of the basics, this NAPO class delivers a blueprint for launching and growing your business. Take charge of your career. Learn strategies for successful needs assessments, effective marketing initiatives, pricing your services and business basics. Students will develop a "Learning Plan" for themselves throughout the course so that they will have some clear next steps. A must take class to gain the knowledge and confidence to ensure success.

Upon completion of this course, attendees will be able to:

  • Recognize the skills needed to run a professional organizing business.
  • Identify ideas for marketing their business.
  • Understand the components of pricing their services.
  • Conduct a preliminary needs assessment.
  • Have a plan identifying their next steps in developing their business.
  • Know how to access additional resources for all the topics presented.

Note: Continental Breakfast and Lunch is included in the registration fee for PO-101.
 

8:00 am – Noon

Creating and Using An Action Plan to Achieve Success (PC2)
Casey Moore, CPO® and Debbie Gilster, CPO®

It's time to blow the lid off putting Action Plans into action. Our professional standards dictate that we develop and follow an Action Plan for our residential and business clients. It's 40% of the CPO® exam. Simple in theory; messy and complicated in practice. This session provides practical answers questions such as: What is an Action Plan and how to create one? How can the Plan guide your work with the client? What if your client doesn't achieve the desired results? What if your client keeps adding new goals and this ”scope creep” gets too “creepy” for you? How do you make potentially “uncomfortable” conversations comfortable?

With over 38 years of Action Plan experience between them, the session leaders will show you how to turn a simple Action Plan into a valuable tool. We'll do more than talk, show slides, and discuss plan templates. We'll invite volunteers to “sit on the hotseat” and get live, unscripted suggestions for identifying and resolving their Action Plan roadblocks.

By the end, you'll see how your Action Plan can become an essential sales tool. It will help you achieve success not only for your client, but for your business, as well.
 

Communicating in a Coaching Process: Add Coaching to Your Toolbox with the BE-CAUSE Model® and Strengthen Communication with Your Clients (PC3)
Denslow Brown, CPO-CD®, CPO®, MCC and Cameron Gott, PCC

Coaching conversations are different than other professional conversations because of the use of both specific skills and a specific conversational process. The communication skills used are not all unique to coaching and so may be familiar to those with communication training. What is unique is how coaching bundles those skills in a specific way within a unique conversational process. This session will introduce and train participants in the BE-CAUSE Coaching Process Model® and its four distinct elements. A complementary structure for the client is provided by the Client Preparation Form which will be available to particpants. Understanding these process elements and their purposes, hearing them modeled and practicing them will enable participants to use coaching with their clients. This understanding will transform their communications with clients. As a result, clients will share important information, sustain their motivation, collaborate more effectively and benefit more deeply from the organizing process. By using the BE-CAUSE coaching process model an organizer will be more successful in working with his/her client to create systems and change that last. This session will be taught on the assumption that participants have comfort and competence in the organizer-client dynamic.

1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Wardrobe Styling for Every Woman, For Every Day & Every Way (PC4)
Geralin Thomas, CPO-CD® and Scott Roewer, CPO®

“Productivity experts.” “Disorganization Gurus.” “Professional Organizing Consultants.”

Regardless of how confident you are internally, chances are you lack confidence when it comes to the external image defined by your wardrobe. Join this interactive workshop and learn how to successfully complete a closet audit and style yourself (or your clients) using the ‘science of styling.' While you might be the go-to-gal when it comes to helping people organize their time, their space and their thoughts, this session will help you broaden your areas of expertise. You'll learn new skills that you can use for yourself or working with clients. Discover where to look for inspiration, how to look your very best, ways to best-invest your time and money in separate, colorful, unique pieces that flatter a wide variety of female figures at various ages and stages of life, which classics you should invest in, and, which trends are age-appropriate. If you're already a well-dressed woman, learn how to apply these skills as a professional organizer. We'll even share some important rules for men, so you can help your husband, or your male clients. Expect to learn a lot and have a good time in this session.
 

Plan to Thrive, Not Just Survive in Your Business (PC5)
Margaret R. Lukens, MBA, CPO®

Have you felt overwhelmed by formal planning tools that just didn't suit your business? Do you know you need a business plan, but you're not sure where to start? Have you ever made a plan only to shove it into a drawer and never use it again?

A good plan will motivate you and help you to make better decisions every day. Now you can have a plan that makes sense for you and your business.
In this hands-on pre-conference session, you'll learn to:

  • Complete a plan that is compelling, creative, and realistic.
  • Create quarterly and monthly plans with action steps.
  • Construct vision and mission statements. (Don't worry if you don't know what your mission is – you'll get help with that, too.)
  • Calculate how much you want to charge for your services to create a sustainable business.
  • Avoid those “bright, shiny objects” that distract organizers from accomplishing their goals.
  • Ask yourself powerful questions that get to the heart of what you really want in your business.

Whether you work full-time or part-time, add focus and energy to your business. Learn from a pro. Plan to Thrive™!
 

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Thursday, March 22, 2012

8:00 am – 9:00 am

First Timers’ Orientation

Facilitators: Paris Love and Diane Sullivan

Meet NAPO’s leaders and learn how to tailor the conference to maximize your learning and networking opportunities. Conference buddies are available to welcome and mentor first-time attendees.

 

9:15 am – 10:15 am

Ask the Organizers Panel – Part I - Featuring Golden Circle Members

Moderator: Lisa Montanaro, JD, CPO®
Panelists: Jeri Dansky, Tom Nevermann, Ellen Palestein, CPO®, Standolyn Robertson, CPO®, Debbie Rosemont, CPO®

Attention All Golden Circle Members, new organizers and those with a few years experience, you do not want to miss this 10-year conference tradition.

Part I of the Ask the Organizer panel provides Golden Circle members with the opportunity to ask the tough and challenging questions of their GC colleagues. Though this advanced Question & Answer session is open to all, this powerhouse panel will answer pre-submitted questions specifically from our Golden Circle members. If you've been in business for 6-years, 10-years, or 1-year, you will not want to miss this learning opportunity at conference.

 

10:30 am – 11:30 am

Ask the Organizers Panel - Part II

Moderator: Monica Ricci, CPO®

Panelists: Janine Adams, CPO®, Romona Creel, Barry Izsak, CPO®, Sharon Lowenheim, CPO®, Janice S. Russell, CPO-CD®, COC

In 2012, there is a new twist on a perennial favorite--conference attendees will have an opportunity to submit their questions in advance. This panel Question & Answer has been one of the most popular and well-attended sessions every year because of the wealth of information shared! Be sure to attend Part II of the NAPO Ask the Organizer Panel to learn from your colleagues. This session will offer insights to newer as well as more experienced professionals as panelists share the collective knowledge they've gained while becoming leaders and innovators in the Professional Organizing industry.

 

10:30 am - 12:30 pm

Golden Circle: Reconnect / Renew / Revitalize Your Conference
Facilitator: Shawn Kershaw

As veteran NAPO, we are inclined to attend conference less “strategically” then when we were new organizers. We are sometimes so pleased with reconnecting with our old friends that we don’t take the time to set conference goals or outline conference outcomes. We may attend session by default instead of by design. After so many years of conferences, we may pile the conference literature and resources on the corner of our desk. We leave conference with information to be processed and follow ups to be implemented then jump back into business. Many times the great ideas we want to execute take a back seat to the more pressing issues of running your business after an absence.

This year, the Golden Circle Committee is offering a three-part Golden Circle: Reconnect / Renew / Revitalize Your Conference forum. Members can participate in all three parts or attend any part individually as a conference strategy.

The first part is to Reconnect by opting into a conference Accountability Partnership (AP) This would be done through pre-conference registration in very much the same way that new attendees are assigned conference buddies. Additional information will be sent via email to Golden Circle members.

Accountability Partners are a proven strategy for business success. Some documented advantages are:

  • More focused.
  • Stay the course.
  • More honest and real.
  • Make greater progress in less time.
  • Concentrate more on results.
  • Less likely to get stuck in ruts

The second part is to Renew the practice of setting conference goals. Golden Circle will hold a members only “working” break out session after the veteran “Ask the Organizer“ panel. Coffee and a boxed lunch will be available. The objective of the facilitated meeting will be a create conference goals / strategy, i.e.

  • form strategic alliance,
  • meet certain organizer(s),
  • find members for a master-mind group,
  • meet with chapter members
  • explore Specialty Interest Groups
  • find a particular resource.

For members who have opted for an Accountability Partner (AP), this meeting will give them the opportunity to work on that coalition. Guidelines for accountability partnerships will be introduced during this session. If a member has not opted for an AP, they will have the opportunity to work individually.

The final part is to Revitalize your post conference follow through by attending a guided Golden Circle break out session on the last day of conference. The objective of this session is to measure the success of your conference strategy, organize conference notes, consolidate next steps, discard irrelevant information and make plans to continue (if desired) the accountability partnership relationship.

1:15 pm – 2:30 pm Welcome and Opening Keynote (GS1)
How to Think Like an Entrepreneur
Bill Rancic

You know Bill Rancic as a successful entrepreneur. He embodies the entrepreneurial traits that are translatable to any business that wants to increase its return on investment, improve market-share, or enjoy a more productive, motivated workforce. It's Bill's way of life.

In this powerful speech, Bill Rancic discusses how to bring entrepreneurial skills and traits inside a company to deliver results and specifically, how to take smart risks through "Innovational Thinking," to get the most out of your organization.

2:45 pm – 4:15 pm Concurrent Workshop Sessions

Speaking NAKED-Stripping Away the Barriers of Effective Public Speaking (1-1)
Renee P. Walkup

Every professional organizer knows that to build her/his business, the ability to speak in public is essential to growing an organizing business. Running workshops, delivering presentations to civic, non-profit, and networking groups is critical to gaining exposure, developing leads, and closing more deals.
In this impactful, content-rich, interactive program, each organizer will learn how to effectively plan, deliver, and execute a presentation she will be proud of!

Play Bigger: How to Get Started Landing Lucrative Corporate Clients So You Can Earn More Money & Have a Greater Impact (1-2)
Angelique Rewers, ABC, APR

Are you ready to finally take your professional organizing and/or productivity business into SIX FIGURES and beyond? If you're focusing on selling your services primarily to the cash-poor consumer and small business markets, then you already know reaching that six-figure (or more) goal takes a lot of work. But there is another market that many of today's micro business owners are overlooking: Corporate America.
The truth is, not only do Big Companies spend BIG Money with small business, but working with them can be fun, rewarding and simple to do.

Life Keeping, Not Just Bookkeeping®: Advanced Financial Organizing for Seniors (1-3)

Rebecca R. Eddy, MBA, PDMM and Gideon Y. Schein, MBA, PDMM

Financial organizing and related services for seniors is a terrific business opportunity for those professional organizers who care about seniors. Through case studies of complex issues, participants attending the seminar will learn in great detail how to assist clients in making care and living choices in terms of the short-term and long-term financial consequences. They will become comfortable discussing Medicare, secondary health insurances (given the potential changes created by the Affordable Care and Health Reform Acts of 2010), Long Term Care Insurance, Medicaid, and Pooled Income Trusts; and develop more advanced tools to help them address senior issues as they arise. They will also learn in depth about professionals assisting seniors and what specifically the organizer needs to know in order to assist these professionals (including other types of professional organizers) in their work with clients and to coordinate those efforts as a team leader. This session builds on the 2008 introduction to financial organizing for seniors, but also will be useful to other professional organizers who need more in-depth knowledge in order to enhance their work with seniors.

Stand Up & Be Counted! Support a Hoarding Task Force! (1-4)

Pazit Aviv, LGSW, Elspeth Bell, PhD, Maureen Herndon, Alisa J. Levy, Emily Rainone, Beth K. Shapiro, LCSW-C

Would you like to learn how to give back to your community and possibly get paid for it? Do you know what a hoarding task force (HTF) really is? What is the professional organizer's role as a member of a task force?

This session will introduce you to the City of Gaithersburg, MD's Hoarding Task Force which has played a vital role in serving some of their local government's most challenging clients. The panel will suggest components of a HTF and how to assemble one. Learn how a task force can help you serve chronically disorganized clients and how it can benefit the professional organizer.

An HTF promotes the professional organizing industry while making available a variety of community resources. Participating in or starting a local HTF will introduce you to new ways to serve some of your most difficult clients, support your marketing efforts, and offer an occasion for community service.

Stay Organized in the Cloud - Tech Skills for You and Your Clients (1-5)
Ivan Drucker and Caroline Green

These days everyone in technology is talking about the cloud. What is the cloud, and how can you use it to be more productive as an organizer? We will discuss topics such as syncing your contacts and calendar with the cloud, so you can work from anywhere using your mobile device, netbook, or iPad; using tools such as Google Docs and Dropbox for document sync and sharing with clients or colleagues; cloud-based customer management systems that help you manage relationships with your clients; and whether the cloud is secure enough for backup. We will also allow time for Q&A, so come prepared with your tech questions.

 

4:30 pm - 5:30 pm

Moving Forward: Certification and Recertification for Professional Organizers
Moderator: Helene Segura, MA Ed., CPO®, CPES™
Speakers: Julie Bestry, CPO® and Audrey Lavine, CPO®

As BCPO® certification evolves, take this opportunity to get clarification on what it takes to become a Certified Professional Organizer®. Session will include:

  • A brief overview of the development of the BCPO® program
  • Overview of eligibility requirements for certification and re-certification
  • Tips on how to prepare for the examination
  • How to determine just what makes a CEU eligible
  • and other frequently asked questions

This important and informative session is designed to answer the questions of audience members.  We invite your participation!

 

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Friday, March 23, 2012

9:00 am – 10:30 am Concurrent Workshop Sessions

Don't Be Afraid of the Big Bad Law: Using the Law as a Protective Shield for Your Organizing Business (2-1)
Lisa Montanaro, JD, CPO®

The law is often feared by business owners. Indeed, it can be complex, confusing and downright scary! But don't fret -- the law can be used to protect you and your business. From business entities, to client agreements, to the differences between independent contractors and employees, to copyright and trademark, this session will cover the top legal issues that you should be aware of and use to protect you and your organizing business. Led by an attorney-organizer, this workshop will unveil the cloak of complexity of the legal world involved in running an organizing business. Learning the basics of the legal side of running an organizing business from a fellow organizer who "speaks your language" will prove to be useful as organizing businesses, and the profession as a whole, grow and flourish. Armed with basic legal terms and knowledge, participants will be aware of when it may be necessary to seek professional legal advice, what type of attorney to contact, and what issues they may be able to handle on their own. Learn how to raise your legal shield to garner the most protection possible for your organizing business!

Stop Selling Your Time for Money: Business Beyond the Billable Hour (2-2)
Deborah Gallant, MBA

If you are stuck in the classic organizer rut--selling time time for money, you'll want to come to this session to break out of your chains!

Deborah has worked with many organizers and will present real-life examples to help you think about different ways to approach your organizing practice to: Diversify your revenue streams---what else could you sell? How could your repackage what you sell, price it differently, create ongoing income from clients? What new products or services could you develop? How can you generate passive income streams? Who could you partner with to create innovative offerings that are profitable for everyone?

Deborah is an inspirational brainstormer and will facilitate this session where you are guaranteed to come out with some eye-opening new ways to approach your underlying business model so you can make more money!

Helping Your Client Eat a Frog.....Understanding the Causes, Consequences & Cures for Procrastination (2-3)
Sandy Wright, CPO®, CPO-CD®

You may be a gourmet willing to try exotic foods, but for most people, eating a whole frog would not be a pleasant experience. When you hear “helping your clients eat a frog”….what comes to mind? Awful, disgusting, unpalatable! Those can be the same descriptive words which affect a person's behavior in starting or finishing a task that is perceived to be unpleasant. Eating a frog is symbolic of a challenging or unpleasant task, much like the elephant is symbolic of a large or overwhelming one. The mere thought of the task can hold back any action to get started. By giving our clients tools to reframe how they view their tasks, they can get beyond the thinking stage to the doing stage. Procrastination is a behavior that we have all done at one time or another. We rationalize it and even convince ourselves that we do our best work when under pressure to meet a deadline! Experience tells us that this faulty thinking can lead to disastrous outcomes. In this session we will explore the reasons why clients procrastinate; examine the consequences of putting off tasks and be empowered with techniques for getting past barriers to completing tasks.

In Good Company: Building Professional Collaborations and Organizer Teams (2-4)
Sara Bereika, CPO®, CPO-CD® and Mindy Godding, CPO®, CPO-CD®

Are you feeling stuck or unsupported as a sole-proprietor? Do you lack resources when your client requires additional support? Have you had a negative experience with organizing teams in the past? In this workshop, the self-proclaimed "collaboration junkies" of Abundance Organizing will share proven success strategies and lessons learned from years of leading team jobs and working with other professionals. They will guide you through the business systems they have created to allow them to partner with each other and other organizers without worry. This session will offer practical tips on how to collaborate with other professionals while protecting the interests of the client and the company, including: partnering options, best practices, policies, and billing procedures. This class is designed for sole-proprietors looking to invigorate their business, organizers who want to tackle large scale or extreme clutter jobs, and organizers who are already collaborating but need structure and business systems to support this type of client service. Workshop will include discussion on collaborative therapy and work with mental health professionals in support of chronically disorganized clients.

How to Build Your Business with YouTube Marketing (2-5)
Rich Brooks

Creating online videos and posting them to YouTube can greatly increase your online visibility, search engine rankings, and your conversion rates. In this session we'll learn how to create compelling videos that engage your audience, how to develop a branded YouTube channel, how to use advanced YouTube tools for better engagement, and how to improve your ROI (return on investment) by leveraging your blog and other social media platforms.

2:15 pm – 3:30 pm General Session (GS2)
Reboot - How to Stay Focused, Energized and More Productive
Joanne Lichten, PhD, RD (a.k.a. "Dr. Jo")

Do you ever run out of energy? Join PhD nutritionist Dr. Jo as she reveals scientifically proven health tips in the way you eat, sleep, and think that can help you stay more focused at work and still have enough energy for fun when you get home.

3:45 pm – 5:15 pm Concurrent Workshop Sessions

Solopreneurs: Who Are They? What Do They Need? And How Can We Help Them? (3-1)

Susan Kousek, CPO®, Nancy Kruschke McKinney, CPO®, CPC®, Elaine Quinn, CPO®, Donna D. McMillan

Do you organize offices? Do you know there are thousands of solopreneurs who need our help?

More and more people are starting their own businesses, many of them solopreneurs (one-person company, no employees, no intention of becoming larger). They're good at what they do. But they don't have the resources they once had and they're not good with detail. They're not sending invoices. Their files are a mess. They're missing deadlines, not following up with clients. They are overwhelmed! We, as organizers, can help them.

In this session, you will learn: - what skills and knowledge are required to work with solopreneurs; - the kinds of services provided to solopreneurs by organizers; - best practices (what to be aware of, what to make sure you do, what to avoid); - the areas where most solopreneurs need help; - how solopreneurs are different from other small business clients; - where to find them; how to market to them.

The session will be based on results of surveys conducted by NAPO's Small Business SIG – one survey of organizers who work with solopreneurs; the other of solopreneurs who have worked with an organizer. Case studies of actual solopreneur clients will be presented.

BUSINESS BLUEPRINT: How Exactly to Earn $100,000 per year as a Professional Organizer (3-2)
Michael R. Charest

You LOVE being a Professional Organizer. And you're good at it…CONGRATULATIONS! Yet you question the business side of things. You constantly wonder, “What exactly should I be doing in order to grow my business?” “How do I best spend my time for maximum results?” “I hear about others serving more people and earning $100k per year, how do I do that?”

Well wonder no more! You will learn EXACTLY how to convert 40 hours/week of work into a thriving $100,000+ per year business! You will learn:

  • The “Big 8” ways to spend your time
  • How long exactly to spend in each area, including marketing and sales
  • What marketing strategies to execute and WHY
  • Exactly how each of these strategies tie to $100,000+ per year in revenues!
  • How exactly to integrate these strategies into your time management system
  • How to measure your results and fine-tune for never-ending performance improvement!

You don't need to wonder, question, or struggle any more. You will leave this section knowing exactly what to do, why, how, and for how long in order to create and maintain a thriving business!

Unleash the Organzier within Your Clients (3-3)
Michelle Santaferraro

Hidden inside every person is a unique way of bringing order to chaos. It's part of their DNA. By understanding a client's personality, personal preferences, work style, and environment, you can deliver an organizing solution that works for them. Your client's personality leads them to process inside or out, think in lines or circles, like things open or closed, and make decisions based thoughts or feelings. In addition, their work style is based on touching and feeling things around them, seeing and sensing their surroundings, or hearing in order to internalize. Some will be highly verbal and others highly number oriented. Based on personality and work style, most people formulate a set of preference on how they like to organize. Preferences vary, including colors or none; fanned or staggered; flat or ascending; clear or solid; plain or creative; smooth or textured; modern or classic; containers or drawers; shelves or boxes. In addition, their environment includes a unique set of work that they need to do and the space that they have to do it in. Learn how to bring all of these individual characteristics into a single organizing system that works just for your client.


It's 10:00 pm: Have You Done Your Homework Yet? (Tips, Tools and Tricks for Teaching Time Management to Students) (3-4)
Leslie J. Josel

School, homework, activities, jobs, friends...When students are in school their time is managed pretty well--by everyone other than themselves! In this workshop, you will be provided with exercises to teach students how to understand the concept of time and how to manage their schedules by using time marking exercises, daily planners and current technology. We will discuss specific tools, techniques and strategies to assist students in organizing their time, increasing motivation and diminishing procrastination.

How to Build Your Business with Blogging (3-5)
Rich Brooks

In the age of Facebook, do blogs still matter? Absolutely! In this session you'll learn how to uncover what your ideal customers are searching for and create killer content that will attract and engage them. You'll learn how to greatly increase your online visibility, integrate your blog with your social media activity, and generate online leads. You'll see the best tools, learn advanced tactics, and get expert tips that will help turn prospects into customers.

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Saturday, March 24, 2012

8:30 am – 10:00 am Concurrent Workshop Sessions

It's Not Business, Unless It's Personal: The Keys for Gaining & Retaining Clients (4-1)
Eric Reamer and Angel Tuccy

You've heard the phrase, It's not personal, it's just business. Today's consumers are smarter and more connected than ever. Every interaction with your clients is a chance to create a memorable experience that will create loyal customers who will outperform your marketing efforts, but only if you create a system to keep your company at the forefront of their minds. You are competing with 3800 advertising messages every single day. Eric and Angel will help you stand out and teach you how to compete in this experience economy. It's not business, unless it's personal.

Angel Tuccy and Eric Reamer will help you create a revolution in the way you market your business, starting today... with the customers you already have!

  • Eliminate cold-calls
  • Drive more people to your sales process
  • Increase customer retention
     

How to Use Standard Project Management to Organize Just About Anything (4-2)
Kimberly A. Wasson, CPO®

Project management – we all do it, one way or another. Getting it out of our heads and onto paper, covering all the bases, communicating the plan and progress to the client – that can be tricky. Formal project management terms and forms have their place, particularly for use in business environments where people know the lingo, but it can all be translated to everyday terms. Knowing the concepts, terms, and what pieces of project management to use in a given situation can help get things out of your head and onto paper – and will help you and your clients know you've considered all the factors and understand (and are prepared for) any risks. This session will explain the concepts and terms in plain English, describe breaking a project down into its component pieces (not just the tasks - the whole nine yards), demonstrate building a project plan suited to each project, and talk about communicating the plan and progress to your clients (both business and residential). We'll run through a real life project to explain the breakdown and put together a project plan interactively – to put the steps together into the right dance.

Implementing Harm Reduction with Hoarding Clients (4-3)
Debbie Stanley, LPC, NCC, CPO-CD®

Hoarding has exploded into cultural consciousness and the professional organizing industry is called upon to help address it. Hoarding clients can benefit from a professional organizer within their support system, but because the behavior so often derives from mental illness, the risks to the client are profound. In this session, presented by an organizer who became a licensed therapist specifically to treat chronic disorganization and hoarding, participants will gain an accurate, ethical picture of their role within the hoarding phenomenon, learn to utilize the approach called “harm reduction” to help their hoarding clients, and walk away with a finely tuned understanding of what hoarding is, what it is not, and how to avoid inflicting harm on this highly vulnerable client population.

Clutter Clearing the "Fun" Shui Way (4-4)
Debbie Bowie, CPO®, MA, MS

In this session you will learn a new clutter clearing strategy for your organizing toolbox. Most of us can remember the client who refused to part with anything. We pulled out every purging strategy we could find and still nothing worked. In this session you will learn how to use the principles of feng shui to make purging progress with even the most difficult client. You will also learn the Love It, Use It or Lose It method of clutter clearing and how to read the energy of objects so you can help clients release their emotional hold on them more easily and more quickly. Clutter clearing will be transformed from a tedious, onerous task into a treasure hunt -- both more interesting and more fun for you and your clients. Feng shui is art of arranging your space to enhance your life. Using feng shui principles as a guide for clutter clearing will not only help you with the time and energy-consuming process of clutter clearing, but will also help you make a more consciously significant difference in the lives of your clients.

Tech Skills Every Organizer Should Know (4-5)
Nicole Chamblin, CPO®, Alix Longfellow and Karen Simon

Technology is here to stay. It is in the best interest of professional organizers to have an understanding of the technology that their clients use and identify when and how technology affects their clients' organizing issues. Additionally, organizing experts need to be able to assess when technology can be used as a solution and be aware of various types of products available to solve organizing issues. The session is presented by members of NAPO's Technology Organizing Special Interest Group (Tech SIG). These speakers are organizers whose businesses primarily focus on the use of technology to solve organizing issues. They discuss areas where technology affects the organizing industry, tech skills organizers can teach their clients and how organizers may consider adding some technology organizing services as a value-added service or as additional sources of income.

10:15 am – 11:45 am Concurrent Workshop Sessions

Networking Know How - Focus Leads to Success (5-1)
Ellen Ely

In these economic times, networking may be one of the most important skills a professional can possess. Networking is not about being a "smooth talker," it's about knowing how to genuinely connect with people. It is about being more concerned about what you can give than what you can get.

In this workshop, participants will learn tips for networking from the door and getting names right, what a "networking uniform" is exactly, how to look for lost souls, techniques for unique conversation openers and the true value of asking who, what, when, where and how.

Many huge business deals are closed more because of the relationship with the customer than with the quality of service. By developing relationship building skills, participants will recognize the things that will bring them closer to any customer. By attending this workshop, participants will understand the "Art of Networking" and how to hook new prospects the first time they meet.
 

Golden Circle: Reconnect / Renew / Revitalize Your Conference (5-2)
Facilitator: Shawn Kershaw

The final part of the Golden Circle series is to Revitalize your post conference follow through by attending this guided Golden Circle break out session. The objective of this session is to measure the success of your conference strategy, organize conference notes, consolidate next steps, discard irrelevant information and make plans to continue (if desired) the accountability partnership relationship.
 

The Photo Organizing Dilemma: Meeting the Needs of Your Overwhelmed Clients (5-3)
Catherine G. Nelson

This presentation will help the organizer identify their 3 most likely customers, Debbie Digital, Sally the Senior and Tom who loves technology. 2.The attendee will recognize the top challenges each of these customer experiences including too many digital photos, a lifetime of printed photos and lots of media on obsolete media formats (home movies. VCR tapes) 3. The organizer will learn how to complete an intake assessment over the phone and in person using the ABC'S of photo organizing. From the assessment the organizer will create a plan that meets the unique needs of their client. 4. The participant will also learn different ways to price this type of service from monthly packages, subcontracting to area specialist to a one-time project price. We will not discuss actual hourly pricing but the concept of packaging.

Organizing the ADHD Brain Using Executive Functions (5-4)
Ari Tuckman, PsyD, MBA

Many people with ADHD struggle with getting and staying organized. They know the value of being organized and often know many of the basic steps, yet somehow aren’t able to reliably translate that knowledge into action. We will discuss the executive function (information processing) weaknesses that underlie ADHD symptoms. This will give you a much deeper understanding of why your clients with ADHD struggle so much with organizing. More importantly, we will discuss specific strategies you can use which will be more effective because they work around these weaknesses.

Digital Disorganization and New Organizing Skills (5-5)
Judith Kolberg

Digital disorganization refers to the challenge of getting and staying organized in a society characterized by free, endless, intangible and unrelenting digital information. People who are digitally disorganized require more than just technology tools to manage their lives. They need to cultivate new organizing skills to contend with lack of time for leisure, frustration with completing tasks and projects, difficulty planning ahead, and being overwhelmed by e-clutter. This workshop describes the phenomena of digital disorganization, the clients most vulnerable, and the new organizing skills professional organizers must transfer to their clients to provide relief.

1:45 pm – 3:15 pm  Concurrent Workshop Sessions

The Mobile Workforce - Organizing by Lifestyle (6-1)
Chantale Bordonaro, CPO® and Joshua Zerkel, CPO®

Are your clients "on the go" all the time? If so, they're not alone. The mobile workforce is growing, and the systems and tools we recommend to our clients to keep them organized need to keep pace. In this workshop, you'll learn what makes mobile workers different from their desk-based counterparts, and how to assess their needs, establish their individual systems and processes that match their lives and their work. This is an interactive session with hands-on exercises that will give you a chance to share your knowledge and with your NAPO colleagues!

Taking Your Organizing Product to Market - What You Need to Know (6-2)
Clare Kumar

Professional organizers are creative problem solvers. Naturally this leads to ideas for products that simply don’t exist. We are also knowledgeable service providers with the opportunity to turn our knowledge into saleable products. It can seem a complex and daunting process to bring a product to market. There are as many risks as rewards - but it is possible. In this presentation, you will learn key steps and things to consider in bringing physical and virtual products to market.

Organizer's Favorite Things - Tools of the Trade for the Modern Home and Home Office (6-3)
Allison Spitzer Carter, CPO® and Krista Colvin

Look Out Oprah!! We've got the "Organizer's Favorite Things," a dazzling parade of the latest and greatest in organizing products and resources. Join Krista, Allison and your peers as we celebrate your "favorites" for residential organizing (including home, home office, and family.) We've included recommendations from PO's worldwide. Several of your peers give their own mini-demonstrations. It's a little bit show-and-tell, with a touch of how-to. Bring a pen and paper, because you won't want to miss these tips. You will get a chance to share your favorite thing and we'll tell you how. What you get: * An amazing resource list featuring a slew of organizing products, services, online tools, apps, and books. * A chance to share your own favorite tool. * Entertaining emcees who love all things new and shiny!

Do You Know Enough About ADHD? (6-4)
Kate Varness, CPO-CD®

Even if you are not an organizer who specializes in ADHD clients, you probably have some clients with ADHD symptoms. Recent data shows that 9.4% of children aged 4-17 have ADHD. That's over 5.4 million! Some estimate that 85% of those children carry symptoms of ADHD into adulthood. What does that mean? Chances are you have clients with ADHD. Do you know enough about it? This presentation will cover the top five myths about ADHD, as well as essential information organizers should know about it. We will look at organizing case studies of the three sub-types of ADHD and provide a checklist of strategies to be more effective as Professional Organizers with each sub-type.

Sure-Fire Success Strategies to Skyrocket Your Professional Organizing Business (6-5)
Ivy Slater, CPC

"Sure-Fire Success Strategies to Skyrocket Your Professional Organizing Business" This session will cover the creating and understanding the specific goals you desire to achieve for your business. You will understand what the meaning of success is to you and your business. Once the goal is created training will cover the relationship and the energy behind creating a sale. Understanding of the product you sell, your competition and how to communicate effectively in delivering the above information. The reality of a support team in business and how to use this team to help to build the successful business that is important to you.

3:30 pm – 4:30 pm Closing Keynote Address (GS3)
Success in Action
Dan Thurmon

Dan’s flagship keynote program, Success in Action, has inspired and propelled many thousands of individuals to achieve greater results in the midst of change. Are demands for your time and performance making it difficult to focus on what you are trying to achieve? Dan will help you regain control of your accelerated life. Success in Action is an inspirational program that teaches and illustrates how to effectively manage multiple responsibilities. You can do more than you think you can, and during this presentation you will learn how to accomplish more of your important tasks in less time with precision, confidence and satisfaction!

Key Outcomes:

  • Increased commitment from team members
  • Sensational energy boost for the meeting
  • A powerful call to action
  • Long term retention of key concepts
  • Increased capacity and improved attitudes
     

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