We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Bridges Conner a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Bridges, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?
My worldly view is to declutter the world one house at a time! I am very passionate about my profession and the fact that clutter weighs my client’s down and creates a very “stuck” feeling in their life. Having always been an organized, clutter free person, I want to share with my clients what an amazing feeling it is to live in a clutter free world. As I meet with clients, I come up with an action plan to suit their needs and in order to do that I create the perfect team for their project.
A little background, I am a past president of NAPO-AZ (National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals). I jumped in with both feet as soon as I entered this profession. I believe that as a business owner you need to support your industry. To this day, I still stay plugged in as an Ambassador to the new boards of NAPO. I provide insights and past decisions to the new professionals entering the industry and volunteer in like organizations.
I have had my professional organizing business for 12 years now and I have a team of almost 20 organizers. This has evolved over the years, and it gives me great pleasure and satisfaction to know I, along with my expert teams, are helping improve home environments and lifestyles of many clients by providing them with more time to enjoy the good things in life.
We also provide a free service to haul away the client’s donations on a daily basis so they can immediately begin to see progress. This gives them an immediate sense of accomplishment and satisfaction knowing they are on their way to a more functional space. An important step in their declutter journey!
Over the years I have also created a great network of resources. Whether it is a closet company, a window cleaner or a housekeeper, I always have resources for my clients. This makes the process more manageable and trouble free.
Along with decluttering, we also work with our clients to create systems for productivity and efficiency purposes. There is no “one size fits all” organizing. We work with each client to best understand their habits and lifestyle and help them create a system that best works for them. Tweaking after we are done is also an important part of the process!
One quote I share with my clients is “delayed decisions create the clutter in your life.” This really makes them think about their habits of leaving their clothes on the floor, dishes in the sink or whatever habit has been instrumental in getting them to their cluttered state. Dealing with papers/mail is also a very universal problem I see almost every day. To counter that habit I explain to my clients to “stow as you go.” If they get in the habit of putting things away as they use it, they will avoid a much larger project down the road. I use the example of using your Saturday morning to clean up after a week’s worth of leaving things around the house. I don’t know about you but I would rather be out for a hike Saturday morning rather than be a slave to my clutter.
Here’s to a well-deserved clutter free life!
Bridges, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
What you have to know about my business is that I love what I do every single day! I have a team of organizers and we are able to help declutter and get people “unstuck” in their lives. How much better does that get?
Are you curious yet?
With 12 years of experience in this industry, I help people declutter, purge, set up better systems in their homes and small businesses. We also help Seniors downsize and get down to what they love and need in the next phase of their lives. We help them purge, consign, conduct an estate sale or whatever it takes to find great homes for their “stuff” they are leaving behind. We also help them get unpacked and organized in their new living situations within a day or two. How much easier can that get?
Do you need a garage makeover? We loves garages and have worked miracles. Just a hint that it amounts to creating verticle space in your garage to get everthing off of the floor. Just remember, your car(s) have more value than the stuff that is filling up your garage!
Do you need a “Pinterest” perfect walk in closet? We can do that also. Or do you just need a functional walk in closet to share with your spouse. I have great resources if you need to have a “make-over” on the structure of your closet so that your closet can flow and can be more efficient to use.
Has someone died? We can do estate clean outs! Are their valuables? We can conduct an estate sale. My team is flexible and knowledgeable on all of the above projects.
Are you aware there is an “organizing authority”? If you are not aware, NAPO (National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals) exists and the industry is international. I am a Past-President of NAPO-AZ and I am still involved to this day. I am a firm believer that you support the industry that you are in. For more informaiton check out www.NAPO-AZ.com.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
Like I have mentioned, I have owned by business, Get Organized with Bridges + CO, for 12 years now. After my divorce about 8 years ago, I decided that I wanted to hang onto my business and make it thrive and support me. Originally it was a PT business as I was raising young kids.
With that said, I hired an amazing business coach, Vanessa Shaw, and we headed on a journey to grow my business and thrive. Little did I know she was instrumental in allowing me to pivot, get out of the weeds and become the CEO of my business. I leaned how to leverage my business and hire independent contractors to work with my amazing clients. It was hard to let go but it made me realize that I love being the face of the business, conducting all of the consultations, getting to know my clients and coming up with an action plan that worked for them and their budget. I knew what I loved to do and I focused on that. I also connected with some amazing women and networking groups and a lot of those women are still friends to this day. I also found some awesome other business that are top notch and I added them to my toolbox of referrals.
It worked! Now I have almost 20 independent contractors and a virtual assistant that helps me with lot of my administrative work. Life is good!
Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?
You have to be a likeable, genuine person that truly cares about your clients. Like I said I LOVE what I do every single day. I follow up with my client, send them a thank you note when we are done. A lot of my amazing clients beg to do a testimonial for me because they have loved the experience so much.
I think it is also important to be a think-leader in your industry. I work on staying on the cutting edge of the industry, keep up with my TV segments, send out a monthly newsletter with some great tips and tricks for my clients and have hired a marketing company to help put out some great social media.
I think it is important to have multiple ways for people these day to connect.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.getorganizedwithbridges.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/getorganizedwithbridges/?hl=en
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bridges.conner
- Linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/in/bridgesconner
- Twitter: http://twitter.com/organizebridges
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=get+organized+with+bridges
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/get-organized-with-bridges-phoenix-6
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