This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
[Music]
Hello, hello, what's up? Welcome to Side Hustle School. This is Chris Guillebeau, your host. Welcome as well to Throwback Thursday, a weekly segment, now three years in the running, I believe, where we take an in-depth look at someone whose story has evolved since we first featured them. Now we have been going back through the archives to find all kinds of popular, interesting stories, just to kind of hear a little bit more about how they got started and what's happened since, maybe how they've managed the pandemic economy, or something totally different, okay?
So last week we heard from Joe Kim, from his home base in Los Angeles. Joe sells Catholic goods for future saints. He's been designing and selling lots of t-shirts, among other things. And today in our latest feature, we'll hear from Regina Leeds, who is also based in Los Angeles. It is a LA doubleheader over the past two weeks.
We told Regina's story back on episode 793, I believe. Actress becomes organizational director of organization. Now Regina starred in many popular TV shows, including recurring roles on Married with Children and The Young and the Restless. And as you'll hear, she eventually left that career and became a professional organizer and author. So let's hear more about that from Regina, as well as how she has adapted over the past couple years, and some advice she might have to someone who wishes to follow in her footsteps.
I'll come back at the end with a brief wrap-up. [Music]
Hi, I am Regina Leeds. I currently live in Los Angeles. My business, which started as a side hustle and is now my full-time occupation, is Get Organized by Regina. And my initial episode was number 793.
I started a business to organize people, and that was 33 years ago. At the time, I was also a professional actress, and for 10 years, I did both of them together. And then I decided to leave acting and to devote myself full-time to organizing people. And I realized that organizing is, it's not just about how to fold socks or underwear or what would be the most efficacious and beautiful container to put in your refrigerator. It is about having an environment that loves you and supports you and nurtures you.
And it is about, if you wanna go deep, it's about looking at your environment and seeing what story it tells about you. And seeing, do I agree with this? Do I see there was some trauma in my life that's out pictured in my environment and how can I heal it? And I got into the importance of, nobody talks about how do you prepare for organizing. And when my clients ask me, I tell them, well, now I'm gonna sound like your mom.
You have to eat a good meal before we start, get a little exercise. I'm talking about walking around the block with your dog. I don't mean you have to go to the gym for three hours. Make sure you're drinking lots of fresh water and have healthy snacks on hand. Get a good night's sleep because your body is your vehicle and your vehicle has to be tuned up when you're going to ask something big of it.
And organizing is fun and it's creative, but because you're making decisions potentially for several hours, it's also draining. The biggest challenge I face right now is that during COVID and I did it too, when we were first at home, what did we all do? We made bread and we got organized. And even I said, oh my God, I have to do something. So I redid my closets just for the fun of it.
So now my regular clients, instead of being open to seeing me again, they all send me pictures of what they accomplished during COVID and it's hilarious. It's like I'm their mom and they want me to be proud of them. And as darling as that is, it has forced me to go out and find new clients, which is never easy, especially when you have now a glut of professional organizers. And people very often don't want to pay for your experience. They want somebody who's inexpensive just so they can save money and have as close to what they think organized is as is possible.
The additional piece of advice that I would give is that you cannot be the shoemaker. What's the old line? The shoemaker shoes are broken because they're fixing everybody else's shoes. If you are not organized, if you don't come from a place where organization is how you live, move and breathe, you will not be able to really deeply help other people. And I believe that from the bottom of my heart.
You have to be the embodiment of what it is you're trying to teach. And really more than an organizer who's putting an environment together, what you are is a coach and you have to nurture the very being of the person who has called you in. Because if somebody is in extreme chaos, it could be that they just never were organized. They didn't have parents to talk to them. They just don't know.
But I find that eight times out of 10, if not nine times out of 10, what is out pictured is an emotional trauma of some sort. And so you're helping them understand what that is and you're helping them heal it. It's a privilege to do this work. And I think you have to go into it wanting to make a difference in people's lives, not wanting to make a buck. I don't think you'll be successful if that's your motivation.
[Music]
Thank you so much, Regina. I really appreciate those updates as well as that perspective in terms of how organization is impacted by emotional trauma and so on. I think that is really interesting. And I thought about that a bit myself as I was thinking about what do I need to organize next in my life? Not just in terms of my closet space, but in terms of my whole physical space, my environment, as well as my workflow, relationships, personality, spirituality, wellness, but I could go on and on and I won't because I want to highlight Regina's work.
So check out Regina's work at reginaleads.com, L-E-E-D-S.com. Her books, including "One Year to an Organized Life" are available on Amazon and elsewhere. And listeners, let me know what you think and who you'd like to see featured from our archives of well over a thousand stories. If you have a question or an update for us, sidehustleschool.com/questions. Thank you for tuning in today.
Ask yourself what one thing can I do to become better organized or maybe not just to become better organized for the sake of it, but to actually improve my life in some substantive way. I'll think about that too. And I hope you'll join me again tomorrow for a new episode. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]
From the "Onward Project."
