We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Carly Adams. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Carly below.

Alright, Carly thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. What was the most important lesson/experience you had in a job that has helped you as a business owner?

At my last corporate job, I did admin work at a video game company. I started at reception and worked my way up. When I left over six years later, I was a C-level Executive Assistant. I learned so much at this company. In the first couple of years I was there, we were in a period of rapid growth, quickly expanded our offices, and grew our staff over 5x what it was when I started.

It was a very fast-paced company, and because of the quick growth (and sometimes quick turnover), it was part of the company culture to recognize that your greatest assets were the folks who worked there, who knew the company inside and out, and were ready to do more.

The biggest lesson that I learned was by example: if you gave folks the tools that they needed to do their job well, and if you created an environment where people were encouraged to ask questions along the way, and had quick but open communication when there were missteps… as long as people didn’t keep making the same mistake – it was fine. You could let them have missteps, learn and grow. It taught me that people are capable of a lot more than what’s on their resume if they’re given the opportunity to shine. I’ve tried to take that same approach with my own (tiny) team and I credit my former boss’ for my own leadership style.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Tidy Revival is on a mission to help folks with too much stuff create clutter-free homes so they have time for the people and things they care about!

I am a former hot mess who was chronically disorganized in every aspect of my life. It was only when I started to get organized: tackling the clutter, creating systems at home, getting my finances in order, etc. that I felt things really simplify in my life. I truly felt more peaceful and streamlined in my day-to-day, and I knew that I wanted to share this with others – that getting organized is a learnable skill.

Tidy Revival started as an in-home, service-based organization company in 2017. In 2020 when everything shut down, we pivoted to online work. We’ve since resumed in-home services, but we now also have The TIdy Revival Podcast, and The Club – our private online community.

Most folks turn to us because they’re overwhelmed with too much stuff. We’re a judgment-free zone, where everyone is welcome, and we believe in using decluttering as the foundation of everything that we do, This is how we create systems that are as simple as possible, so we can get as many people in a household on board with the new systems.

You don’t need to be local to work with us, and you don’t need to have a huge budget. The Club is our private community with a monthly, no-commitment membership. We give weekly tips & prompts, accountability, and are your biggest cheerleader. Our goal is to support as many people as possible to create a true tidy revival.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

In 2020 we had to shut down operations completely for Covid (along with the rest of the world). I was coaching with my mentor at the time and she encouraged me to pivot immediately to online work. We started working with our clients remotely, quickly built out a workshop series from the content we built in the first few weeks of the pandemic, and created a course.

From 2020-2023. we tried in so many ways to scale the course community, but it didn’t take off as we had hoped. That said, the people who were actually in the community were sharing, learning, and growing – amazing things were happening. So – early this year we polled our audience to dig into the data of what people were loving, and what they could do without. From there, we pivoted again – closing down our course community, scaling back our features, and dropping our price point way down. Our revamped community, The Club, is truly created from the feedback of our audience.

Although I’m glad that we created our original course, and learned SO MUCH along the way, I know that the market for this specific niche has changed significantly since 2020. It’s been a great lesson to gather the data and let it inform our next move, vs. holding onto a product that wasn’t serving the company.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I think that our reputation has grown from the compassion that we show our clients and community members. We recognize that our market is unique, in that we’re helping people create new habits around something that has very likely been stressing them out. We’re working in spaces that they might not show their neighbors, friends, or family. To let someone into their space (virtually or physically, and emotionally) is really tough.

It’s important that we both lead the way and create open lines of communication, so our clients and community can let us know when a solution won’t work for them… when they’re feeling overwhelmed… when they’re having a tough time making a decision… when they need to talk something through… the list goes on. You have to walk a fine line when you’re an organizer, but if you can do it – you can really help someone make an impact in their day-to-day.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tidyrevival.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tidyrevival/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tidyrevival
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carlyrtadams/
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/TidyRevival/

Image Credits
Christina Best Photography Kai Skye Photography Glenn Rose Photography Lisa Bardot Geoff Bardot