Embrace Breakthroughs 2022 - Part 2

Welcome to the Organized 365 Podcast. I'm your host, professional organizer, productivity expert, and motivational speaker, Lisa Woodruff. This podcast will help you embrace progress over perfection and create lasting, functional organizing in your home. I have so much to share with you. So let's get started. I can hardly believe that we actually did it. We said that we were having the last Embrace. So at the end of June, I had the 5th and last live and virtual Embrace that we're going to have in this season. And in the next couple of weeks, we're going to share with you the breakthroughs that people received as they went through that 2-day experience in community in the Organized 365 app. But good news, good news. While I am not going to do Embrace Live next year, I don't know what Embrace will become in the future. I know that right now, some of you may be ready to embrace. Embrace this next season, embrace your next golden window, embrace the next phase of life. And you're wondering, how does Lisa do that? Like, how does Lisa live in a positive world? How does she think about things that aren't out there and then just create them? How does she create her company culture? Like, how did Lisa do what she did in the last 10 years? That is the Embrace Experience. This 2-day-long, or you could do it in one power day if you want to, experience that's now available on demand will guide you through your current present reality at home, how you're feeling about the phase of life that you're in, the fact that you can love where you are today and still think about where you might be going in the future. We address, you know, the hard times of life and things that you're going through that are not easy to get through. And how do we set goals? And how do we dream again? And how do we not just dream really, really big dreams, but little dreams that will be really big for ourselves, for our family, for our community? How do we do that? How do we take action? How do you believe in yourself the way that I believe in you? You know I do. I totally believe in you. How do you start to believe in yourself as much as I believe in your potential? What are the steps that you take? That is the Embrace on-demand experience. I'm hoping that you'll go through it for yourself. I'm also hoping that you'll do it in small groups all over the world. So let's take a listen to what the Embrace attendees at the last in-person and virtual Embrace in 2022 had as their breakthroughs.

Hi, I'm Kristen Blevins.

Oh, I know you, Kristen.

I know. I, um, well, you know me. Uh, I've been following you, you know, back on the blog and Pinterest days before, you know, when it was you in your bed and your longer burger basket. And you came into my life because I got paralyzed. And I'm gonna try not to cry. Um, I've done read a lot this weekend. So I said on your podcast too that like you were always kind of like a Going to the doctor, it's like when you need your first set of glasses. It's like, I can see, but I just need you to fine-tune things. And so you came into my life when I got paralyzed, and my whole life at 21 with a 7-month-old baby, I didn't know what I was going to do. I didn't know how to manage all of— you know, I went from being like perfectly healthy to not. And so I didn't know how to manage and get it all together. And so I started with a laundry basket, like you said. And sort of, I went from there and then, you know, just kind of progressed as time went on. But I've never done the Embrace. And then when I started listening to your podcast and you were like, oh, it's going to be the last round, I was like, what? No, I've not got to experience that yet. I need to do this. And I was kind of bummed. And I know that we chat sometimes on Instagram and you were like, it's going to be the same experience whether you're here in person or not, because I was so bummed that with all the challenges that I face. Of being in a wheelchair, it just wasn't an option. And you were like, you know, you can either not come and wonder what's gonna happen, and, or you can come, like, you know, you were like talking about how you have to experience that. It's hard to explain exactly what it is.

Mm-hmm.

And you're like, this isn't gonna be like a planning day. This is like gonna be like a you day. And so it was really hard to like invest in myself, but I feel like you gave me that permission through all these years to just take what I want to do You're kind of like that, uh, that mentor that I've never had. So you're like the guidance counselor that you go and talk to, and, you know, you don't know they changed your life until you're like in your 30s and married and have a family. And so yesterday you said that 15 to 25 was the most informative years of your life, and I didn't realize that, and I moved out at 15, in 10th grade. And so my biggest takeaway this weekend is that It's not my fault that I don't know what I don't know. And following along with the books and like listening to you chat, I'm like, oh, I don't, I don't think I have any dreams, or oh, I don't think I can do that. Oh, poor me, I'm in a wheelchair. That's kind of the mindset I went into with this. Like, there's no way this was going to change my life. But then the breakout sessions started happening, and then I started like connecting with people on the app, and I've never used your app as much as I have. Until now. And so it's just like the breakout sessions. I think I found some people that for once I feel seen, and for once I don't feel like, like a nuisance, like, or like a, like a gnat at a barbecue. I don't have people saying, oh gosh, there she goes again talking about budgeting, you know, or like all the things that make me mean. And I feel like I can share I went from being strangers with people to shoving Subway in my mouth yesterday in front of people talking like as if we had known each other our whole lives. And so I just, I thank you for believing in me when I didn't believe in myself and just teaching me the things that I didn't know I needed to hear. And there's lots more I could go on, but I just, I didn't think I was gonna get this emotional. So I'm just gonna hand it back to you and say that—

Thank you.

Thank you, and I appreciate this. I for once don't feel like my wheelchair is embarrassing anymore. So because of the breakout rooms, I have shared things that I've never talked about with anybody. And instead of trying to run away from what happened to me, I can now— no pun intended— I can embrace it and just be like, this is me and this is my story. And the right people who are meant for me will find me, and the ones who aren't won't be there. So that's me. Thank you.

Kristen, thank you so much for sharing. Thank you. Yes, we do talk on Instagram.

Quite a few of you that I talk on Instagram too, by the way.

Hi, Arda.

We also sometimes chat on Instagram, and you have left messages for my son who is now 3. It was so cute. He was in here earlier and he said, Mommy, I really like this song. He's so cute. It's interesting because my husband and I, we do a lot of the self-improvement things and we have long conversations about what we want and how we're going to get there. And we've done goal setting for a long time. And somehow we've adopted so much of your systems before we even ever bought anything of yours because the shipping cost is insane. But we decided it was worth it and it has been worth it. And we love the Sunday basket, which amazingly I thought, I'm never gonna use that. And now the Sunday basket time is one of the most important things. So we have, like I said, we have Sandy who's 3 and we have Ellie Rose who's 7 months old. And the past few days have been so hard. They have been so hard. The children have been horrible. And I was really upset yesterday. And I said, husband, I don't even want to go to Embrace. And he said, well, you have to. You have to. You've been looking forward to it. And it helped to— I know you always say if you have kids under the age of 5 or whatever, go take a nap.

Yeah.

But I've never done that. Really. And I've always just had more and more and more and more goals. And somehow I felt yesterday, really, that it's okay. And this is enough. And this is important enough for right now. We need to enjoy this. And I can still achieve some of my goals right now. And some of them just have to wait for longer. But I know we still need to do the 100-day program at least twice. We've only done one full round, and it has just really helped. And it helps to watch you every day, and you're such a positive person. And really, next time I take my children traveling and we go to the United States, I definitely will come by Cincinnati, and I will expect to be able to take you out for a drink.

Okay, great.

Or a coffee, because you've done so much for us. And thank you so much.

Thank you.

Hi.

So this is my first Embrace. I've been following— my name's Jenny. I'm in Tampa, Florida. I've been following Organized 365 for about a year. And in that year, I've bought all the things. And so my biggest breakthrough actually came from my breakout group. I'm a teacher. I've taught elementary for about 7 years as a first grade teacher. And I'm at a really good school, but I think just in education in general, the mindset right now is very like negative. Like people are stressed out, people are leaving. It's just been really hard over these past couple years. And so last year I moved from a first grade teacher and I got— I'm teaching STEM now, which is science, technology, engineering, and math for first through fifth grade. And they come to me once a week and I absolutely love it. And I'm not used to loving it. I, because I think I was really like on the edge of burnout in first grade and a lot of my team was. So my breakthrough was that it's okay for your work to be your dream. And that came from my group is for some reason I was like, oh, I know what my goals are with work. I know what I want to do with work. What's my dream? And I think I internalized that message that like, you can't love your work because everyone's stressed out and everyone is always just complaining. At least in my— it's common in my field. And so I wrote down for myself that it's okay for my dream to be work-related and that's a good thing. And then I think of you, Lisa, with Organized 365, and that's your work.

Yes.

And I just, I don't— it might seem so obvious, but I just never thought about it that way. your work can also be your dream. And I'm like, oh, that's why they call it a dream job, you know? Like, so I just feel really lucky, but it took my breakout group to kind of shift my mindset and give me that, like, realization. So thank you.

You're welcome. And that's why I think going forward, when this is on demand and you could do it with groups, it's going to be so powerful when you could get just a small group to do it at any time. I'm excited to hear what comes from that.

First of all, let me just say thank you so much for the embrace and for everybody sharing. I think that has been part of the experience is just hearing other people sharing, everybody being open to it. You know, it, it's just, it's just great. But I want everybody to have a chance. So I wrote down what I wanted to say because as I, I brought my sign over that says, hold on, I've got to overthink it. And so that's kind of been my life. And I think that that's Something that was my biggest takeaway. So I wrote it down so that I remembered to say everything. First of all, I wanted to say to the lady in the beautiful dress, um, not that all of your dresses were not beautiful, but the one with the stripes, like, I need to know where that dress came from. But I love the fact that you called it an on-ramp.

Amazon.

Good to know. But I love the fact that she called it an on-ramp. At no point would we all try and get on the interstate without getting up to speed. And I think that Sometimes in life, like, that's what we think. So a little bit of back history. I've been a middle school teacher, counselor, and now administrator for my life. And I think COVID has brought about some things that I knew I needed to make some changes in my life, but I've been kind of scared to do it because it's my life. I told myself I wasn't gonna cry. But anyways, I have always been Joe's wife, Pearson Kennedy's mom, the principal. I've never been Jamie. And so I'm looking forward to being okay to improve myself and just making it purposeful and creating the time to— I've had all these great ideas, but I've never taken the steps to actually implement them. They percolate in my, in my brain. And so I think my biggest takeaway was That I need to get out of my own head and out of my own way and taking leaps and quit worrying. Your story about your daughter and how she would worry about everything, going to a doctor or whatever, and then get there and something that she hadn't even thought of was the thing, you know, that came up. Like, I've got to get out of my own head and I've got to— like, I know what I'm wanting to do. I know I need to videotape myself and those kinds of things, and I worry. About like what I'm looking like, and I see people making comments, and, and then I think of you, Lisa, that you're just like, I don't even care. I'm just gonna go find— it's, it's on the way to the beach and it's awesome, and I don't care. I want to be that person and quit worrying about the worst and thinking, okay, so what's the worst? Somebody tells me no, or somebody, you know, I'm, I'm in debt a little bit. I think that was my biggest one. And then Something, and I don't know, honestly, Lisa, I don't know if it came from you. I feel like it, it did in some fashion. But thinking of, thinking of things brings them to the front. I heard a long time ago, this I know didn't come from you, about something like if you're thinking about buying a new car and like, for example, I, my next car might be a Kia Telluride. I hadn't seen them anywhere. All of a sudden I am seeing Kia Tellurides everywhere I turn around because it's on my mind. So my mind's like, oh, this is important. So I think like this embrace, so many different things have come up that have been on my brain. And then you've said little things, or people in the breakouts have said little things that are like, this is where you're supposed to be headed and quit getting in your own way and just do it. So for that, I want to say thank you to everybody, not just Lisa. Lisa, we love you, but the breakouts have been phenomenal too. And, um, just get out of your own way. Do what you need to do for you. And it's okay. It's okay to take care of ourselves. Thank you for everything to everybody that has made this experience. I know you say it's the last Embrace. Hopefully it won't be, but I get why you're changing it. But, um, you know, saying that it was the last one was what finally was like, oh, I want to— I'm going, like, I'm making this happen. So it's just this great experience. So thank you.

Hi everyone. Hi Lisa.

Hi.

My name is Robin. This weekend has been just so instrumental for me. Last year I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and during that time I read all 4 of your books, Lisa. I read them during chemo. I read them while I was relaxing on the couch and I just really couldn't do anything else, and I loved them. So after I found out that I was cured and I have all these years ahead of me, the next question for me, because I'm this planner person, so now that I got more time and I got my life back, what do I want it to look like? How do I want to live it to the most? So this weekend for me has been amazing. It has allowed me to dream. Even about things that I never thought I was interested in. The breakout groups have been so wonderful and helpful. I got my Sunday basket while I was going through treatment, and I'm so proud to say I didn't miss one doctor's appointment, one, uh, blood test. I missed nothing because of my folders. They kept me organized, and that was such a relief for my brain to know that Only I could take care of the physical stuff, but if my family was looking for something, go look in the box. It's in the box. So that was just a huge relief to me that I knew where things were so that I could concentrate on getting better. So thank you, Lisa. Oh, you're amazing.

Congratulations.

So glad that you're recovered.

Thank you. I'm too. So is my family.

I'm sure.

Thank you.

I am Sarah, and I was thinking about, you know, what would constitute as like a breakthrough, even just through these last few days. And I think it kind of came definitely, um, actually not just kind of, with the question of if I can believe in myself as much as you believe in me or in everyone, what would that look like? And it was interesting for me because Just the brief background. I'm— let's— a couple years ago, like early, early 2020, I dealt with family crisis with my mom, health crisis, and just a lot of unknowns with her background and mental health status. And just a lot of, like, a lot to take on and a lot that I had to make happen in a short period of time. And that kind of fell on me alone, and I didn't— It wouldn't seem like something that I could have managed, gotten through, and dealt with. And I did. And I managed it and just made the things happen and got back from that and was like shell-shocked, like, what just happened? But it hit me at that point that I was done living reactively and was ready to live intentionally. And it was like an epiphany. Like, I had turned 40 in 2019 and it was like, I am 40 now. Like, I get to be my own person. I am done reacting to everyone else's needs and everything else, and I am going to be intentional. And then, like, I want to say maybe the end of— it was already probably into 2021 when I think I ran across you, Lisa. And that was almost identical to what you've said so many times about not living reactively and like living your unique purpose and being intentional with life. And it hit me like that. And so through those connections and through that point where I was like, I'm done being reactive, I had started to really just adopt this so what attitude. Like, I'm 40, so what? Someone says I can't do that, who cares? Right? Everything about my life looks very different than my neighbors.

And So what?

You know, I've got 4 kids and all 4 of them have one version or another of special needs, either ADHD or autism spectrum or both. My husband and I are not different on that, even with that ADHD background too. And so everything is different in our household. And I was done spending my entire life reacting to all of that and somehow feeling like I wasn't meeting a standard. And I just had to keep going and keep going to meet the standard. And it was finally the realization that like, no, I get to be intentional and it's about being and not just always trying to reach someone else's standard. So that was the background. So yes. But so I had kind of reached that point where I was like, hey, I can— if I want to do something, I'm going to do it. It is hard and life is still super difficult, but I'm just going to figure it out one way or the other. So when I first asked myself that question, what if I believe in myself, what does that look like, you know, as much as you do? And I was like, I kind of had this experience and am I kind of already here? And then it really got to me to think about what's that leveling up? What does that look like? And as much as this sounds super obvious, my epiphany was that if I believe in myself much as others do, or as you do, then I can believe in Others so that they will believe in themselves. Again, it sounds super obvious, but with my kids and their needs and things that I'm always needing, I'm always the fixer, the doer, the mom that does all of the things and doesn't take enough time for myself. But I have to take the time for myself, and I have to do the things so that they will do the things, because they're never going to be able to know what they get to do as themselves if I'm not doing that for myself. And so it was this, you know, again, it sounds obvious, like if I believe in myself, others can believe in themselves too. But it really hit home as I thought through that. So thank you very much.

Thank you.

Oh my goodness, I cannot believe that we have been able to do the Embrace Conference for 5 years in a row, and now we have the Embrace Conference available on demand. I have so enjoyed curating all the information over the last 5 years and creating this wonderful online and in-person experience that we host the end of June, and now the gift will live on. So what I love about the Embrace Conference is the ability for us to come together and dream and have a community experience. But I had this idea as I realized that this was going to be the last conference. I thought, you know, this content is good. Like this self-guided retreat is good. And I would love for people to do the self-guided retreat on their own. But also, just like we have the certified organizers that do small workshops and small in-person paper organizing retreats where you can get a smaller more intimate group of people and more one-on-one attention. I can just see, I mean, I could just see in my mind as I close my eyes and dream a million dreams as we talk about Embrace, I can see people using the Embrace on-demand conference as a way to bring together small groups of people, having a whole bunch of cousins do it when they go and hang out in a cabin one weekend, or maybe your small group or Bible study, or your family would do this, or your girlfriends, or— Bringing small groups of people together to be able to go through the Embrace experience and choreograph it, oh, I think that's where Embrace is going. If you want to learn more about the Embrace Conference, download it on demand for yourself or buy it for your small group, just head on over to organized365.com in the events section and you can find the Embrace Conference on demand or under the program session. We would love to have you join us and email us about your experience. Tag us, tag Organize 365 inside of your Embrace replays and the experiences that you're having on Facebook and Instagram. I would love to take part.