• 649 - Planning to Care For Abby & Grayson After Abby's Back Surgery
    Apr 25 2025

    Well the time is here! Abby is finally getting a back surgery we knew would need to be done despite all the cortisone shots and physical therapy. I don’t share this so you can plan when your next family member needs you for a surgery. I’m sharing all my planning thoughts and iterations because where else do we hear this stuff? How do you learn how others plan? This is for any event you have coming up that requires a lot of shifting and planning. I’m going into a time where there will be a plan and I can not just “not feel like it.” I have to do what is on the plan in order to have success.

    Operation “Take Care of Grayson”

    What does this mean for me? Full time primary care giver to Grayson. Honestly, I’m using the lens that this is a unique opportunity to spend these months with Grayson and support Abby.

    The first thing I knew I needed was to think about how I was going to entertain this active big 4 year old. I have a routine I am going to try out based on tiny details of care that Grayson needs and what he’s used to. And I’ve thought about a lil lunch box I can pack for on the go, what all needs to be in my purse at all times for Grayson, and a backpack in the back of the car with things we may need when we are out. The routine is in small chunks of time that I can start to give back to Abby as she recovers.

    Next Layer: The Family

    When going into a time of new demands on your time and capacity, you need to look at it in reverse order to figure out how to still meet as many personal and family obligations as possible. So next my brain went to the rest of my family. How will I care for Greg, Joey, and help Abby through recovery. Greg has this trip to the Keys planned to take with Joey and his dad. It’s important and I encouraged them to still take it. It’s during the first week after Abby’s surgery. I’m asking Greg to take on a few tasks to make sure we all get fed and Grayson gets to and from Daycare.

    I’ve been reading up on this surgery and the recovery process. I have tried to consider the physical things Abby may need to aid her in her recovery. But I have also been considering the emotional toll this may have on her. Might be tough watching me play mom to her child for a while. I will do my best to include Abby to keep her spirits up. And the physical therapy! Likely I will have those scheduled before the surgery takes place.

    I’m sneaking in an adult field trip before surgery to fill my cup and one after Abby’s surgery to give me something to look forward to. I also looked at work and rearranged the things I need to be in person at, to the mornings, when I will be in the office. I’ve decided to work from home for the first week. And Saturday showed itself as a day I can take advantage of being in the office because Greg can be home with Abby and Grayson on Saturdays. I will be working on my dissertation starting now because I have time and then Saturdays. Please cross your fingers all the research I’m going to do in advance about Prospective Memory will be worth it because I have not got the green like on this yet. But it’s a risk, for times sake, that I have to take.

    How Will My Planning Day Workbook Look This Time?

    So after taking 32 minutes to tell you all about my planning, I opened the Planning Day workbook. I walked through the workbook and shared, off the cuff, my thoughts about how I will plan according to each page. Ha! I was actually caught off guard on a couple of upcoming things like birthdays and our anniversary. Yeah, Abby needs an oil change and I checked but my car is good for a while. These are the things you should be thinking about going into something this big, what can I get done now to make this upcoming busy time more smooth?

    I am trying to think of everything. I will continue to mull over my calendar and rearrange things as necessary. This is a ridiculous amount of planning that my future self will thank me for doing. This is the kind of detailed planning we do in Planning Day!

    EPISODE RESOURCES:

    • The Sunday Basket®

    • Planning Day

    • Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter

    Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

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    53 mins
  • Coffee Chat -Embrace 2025 Add On
    Apr 23 2025

    We work fast! So excited to share the Embrace Add on that we created in collaboration with Heather S. As you heard in the previous episode, Transformation with Heather S., she has a 6 step process to help you really process life, understand where you are now because of events you have gone through, and ultimately move beyond those emotions. Emotions can hold us back from moving forward.

    Step 5 is realizing you are worthy! And now you need to ask yourself, “What you want from life?”

    And finally, Step 6 is getting to a place of realizing your value. And since you have so much to offer, ask yourself “what can I give or contribute to life? How can I use my gifts?”

    What if we just started to dream again? Even if you have done Embrace in the past, you are a new person than the last time. You have lived more since then and it may be time for you to rediscover what you are uniquely created to do. You can now get the Embrace add on which has water colors, special markers, water color paper, and other goodies to process your emotions through art therapy. Heather will take 2 hours to walk you through the prompts and activity to get the most from your Embrace experience.

    EPISODE RESOURCES:

    • Embrace Add On

    • Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter


    Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media.

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    3 mins
  • Transformation with Heather S.
    Apr 23 2025

    In this episode, I introduce you to Heather S. She is a mental health counselor who is married and mom to 5 children. They have their own little “farm” they call home. Heather was in a hard season of life when she heard Sara Dean interviewing me on the Shameless Mom Academy Podcast and I was talking about the Sunday Basket®. Heather was a grad student, her dad was ill and Heather was his primary caregiver, not to mention she had a 21/2 year old at the time. Her brain felt very busy and she thought the Sunday Basket® could help. Heather believes that planning and organization is one of the best gifts we can give ourselves.

    Sometimes, as women, it seems as though we are expected to know how to keep a house. It’s ok if you don’t know how and you need to hire someone or purchase a course to teach you. We both agreed that organization is self care! There’s one component of being a household manager that negatively impacts a person and it’s the emotional. It’s based on how well we think we are at the managerial and cognitive pieces of running the home. And there’s a lot of negative internal chatter about it! The Sunday Basket® quiets those comments.

    Heather had been successfully using a DIY Sunday Basket® with her large family, so Heather and her husband agreed to invest in the Organize 365® Sunday Basket to get additional support. She shared about how she does Christmas. She shared her hacks on how not have to wrap presents the night before, how she makes her kids lists, and how to not overspending! And wait till she explains her sick box, genius solutions! And since that was such a success, it made sense to invest in the old All Access program to get their house in order to sell. It made $20,000 in sense! Once they decluttered and met with their realtor again, they added $20,000 to the selling value of their home by just painting and decluttering! Then they moved, Heather got her Masters, added some dogs, and a child!!

    The last half of our conversation was about Embrace, currently the self-guided retreat until I am done with the PhD. She pointed out how important it is to do the journaling and coming to terms with your past. Through journaling we can all notice what we say to ourselves, the lies we tell ourselves, and look at what we wrote to decide if it’s true. We can journal to explore what we want. And specifically with Embrace, it made so much sense to Heather because she’s done that hard work of journaling and reflecting. And there is are many scientific benefits of pen to paper. The reality is you can’t get to “What is my unique purpose and how can I share it?” until you have accepted that you are worthy and have great value to give.

    She lost her father shortly after having her 5th child. How does one grieve and celebrate a new life at the same time? Heather had to use her planning and journaling skills to work through that grief while still taking care of her family the way she wanted to. She scheduled her grieving time and you may need to do the same. Take the time to process your past to get to the place where you can feel worthy of organization. You can then realize you have so much to offer this world. And finally with embrace, explore how you can impact the world with your unique gifts and talents. Heather has this great 6 step art therapy journal prompting process that she takes her clients through. She really shared a lot about the process and I believe so many people would benefit from doing the internal work before diving into Embrace. We are all worthy and valuable.

    Heather’s advice is, “We need to start with the internal work. Sitting and taking time to do the internal work first will let you stay motivated and on track to do what you need to do.”

    Heather shared her desire to do so in collaboration with Organize 365® someday. If you liked Heather and her ideas, you DON’T want to miss the next Coffee Chat!!

    EPISODE RESOURCES:

    • Embrace

    • Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter

    On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday.


    Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

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    49 mins
  • 648 - Planning for the next 120 Days
    Apr 18 2025

    We’re spending all this time invisibly planning. I desire for it to be more visible. For home, I have always planned in these trimesters, 120 day chunks. You can hear all about it in ep. 132. I call these chunks summer, fall, and winter. When the PhD is finished (hopefully in Dec.) I will have planned 9 chunks. Each chunk of time starts with this natural break in the hustle of life and gives us these organic bursts of energy to declutter, organize, and reset. It became very clear to me the energy of each season during this PhD journey. What did I plan? How did it go? And how am I leaving this PhD phase of life?

    Summer (May-August)

    Sing it with me “Schoooooool’s out for summer”...these are the more relaxed months of the year. The invisible work you would have done for this chunk was planning how to keep the kids busy, summer vacations, and this is usually a personal development time for me. The PhD is all personal development. Summer of ‘23 was “Busy” because I’d applied and been accepted into the PhD and lil Grayson turned two so he was into everything! I had each minute planned with the goal of getting my PhD that I basically missed summer! This summer was the hardest. I took less time to plan because Greg and I went to England. And I don’t regret it! Grayson was 3 and he was on to me. He KNEW when I was home and he wanted to play. But I’d made the choice to pursue this PhD and I had to choose it over Grayson for this season. So I moved almost everything to the office. Another lost summer.

    Fall (September-December)

    Fall seems to be an easy chunk of time for me. This season you have planned for back to school and the holidays. Things seem to go easier and thank God for football. Because Greg loves football and that means I don’t have guilt getting in a few more hours of studying or completing more assignments. I’d only taken 2 classes which lightened the PhD demand on me. In fall of 2024, I had to ask myself “How do I not do again, what I just did in summer?” I took a trip with Greg, I only took 2 classes and focused on the holidays.

    Winter (January-April/Mayish)

    Winter starts with all of us coming back from Christmas/Holiday breaks. In 2023, I planned to change all my habits and routines to be a PhD student, you can hear all about that in ep. 519 and/or the Monday PhD episodes I did around that same time. I knew it was going to take me 25 hours so I blocked that time off my calendar. It's no good to set a goal but not set aside time to achieve it. For my 2024 winter chunk, I’m calling it “treading water”. This was a really hard chunk of time because Greg had rotator cuff surgery, we’d remodeled Joey’s condo, and we were planning to remodel Abby’s space downstairs next.

    How I’m Ending My PhD Phase

    I’m calling this last chunk of time “the grind”. I have finished the classes portion of completing the PhD. As I see the finish line in sight for the PhD, I am walking away so happy and proud! I’m proud of myself for the mental capacity I’ve grown. I am so proud that I put earning a PhD as one of my priorities. I would cheer anyone on in my family to do the same for themselves. It forced me to set better boundaries with my family. I encourage you all to do Planning Day and I do it for myself too to make sure I am pouring into my marriage and family, that I am prioritizing self care, to travel, and breakdown a big project I want to accomplish. Sometimes you get that project done in one 120 chunk and sometimes it’s multiple chunks over the course of 3 years. Just make sure you prioritize your family and have good communication so they have accurate expectations. None of this happens accidentally, like a PhD, you have to plan for it!

    EPISODE RESOURCES:

    • The Sunday Basket®

    • Home Planning Day

    • 120 - Productivity #6 - 10 Ways to Find More Time
    • Ep. 519 - Organizing my PhD journey Part 1

    • Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter


    Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

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    42 mins
  • Coffee Chat - 20% off ALL Planning Days and more!
    Apr 15 2025

    PLANNING…it’s the one thing that you can control in these unsettling times. Planning Days are now 20% OFF! The best part is, when you sign up for the subscription, that price is locked in for future planning days. Planning will help you to make better choices and establish routines and new habits. Routines and habits take a little more time to become second nature. Routines and habits change your character of who you are over time through intention and discipline. That’s what we do in Planning Day. There are three types that Organize 365® offers; Home, Friday Workbox® and now the little sister…Teacher Planning Day.

    Planning days help you to look at your time and plan ahead for the next 120 days for the Home or 90 days for Work. You will establish routines that will lead to habits that end up freeing up your cognitive load. You will look at how you are currently spending your time and think about how you want to spend your time. Each planning day comes with a workbook to work through what your next 120 or 90 will look like.

    You all may be familiar with Home and Work Planning Days but I want to share with you a little bit about what to expect in the Teacher Planning Day. You will look at the personal development goals you have for yourself, not the ones given to you by your administrator. You’ll look at theme days, your planning time, and how to be productive. I’ll go over the Teacher Workbox with you and we’ll talk about the pink slash pockets and what you want to do for personal development or ideas for your classroom. The purple slash pockets used for 3-5 projects you want to complete. With the blue slash pocket you’ll think about a communication goal, your team, and maybe a goal you all set together. And then the green slash pocket, I’ll explain how to use it for administrative tasks and your checklists.

    OOOPS…we made a mistake and I have decided to roll with it. I know how planning will help you to feel in control in a time when you may feel uneasy. So the Complete Home Organization Bundle accidentally got included in this sale. I feel so strongly that planning is what we all need right now so I’m keeping this on sale too. If you have been interested in the bundle, now is your time to get it. And at this price your planning day is almost free. You will get the Productive Home Solution® as well as a Sunday Basket®, the Paper Solution, Binders, and the workbooks, check out the link below for full details.

    If you wanna be around other go-getters, driven, and positive people then Planning Day is the day you don’t wanna miss. Once the Planning Day has happened pricing will go back up. So take advantage of this deal and get in the driver’s seat and get the Planning Day that is right for you!

    EPISODE RESOURCES:

    • Home Planning Day

    • Friday Workbox® Planning Day

    • Teacher Planning Day

    • Complete Home Organization Bundle

    • Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter


    Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media.

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    12 mins
  • 647 - Productivity Comes from Habits & Routines
    Apr 14 2025
    Happy Monday! Today we’re talking all about habits like what ones do we have, how they are established, some really interesting studies about habits and routines, and how you too can reprogram yourself to have productive habits. Brown University defines a habit as a repeated action that becomes an automatic behavior with little to no thought. Life Long Intentionality Setter As a child, I was in charge of my fun. I remember going to the stationary store and getting planners about three times a year. Anna pointed out the coincidence of Friday Workbox® Planning Day happening three times a year as well. I like to maximize my time. I get my planner out and fill in the tasks that need to be accomplished and then I start thinking about what I want my routines to be. I intentionally set routines to include somethings I’d like to end up as a habit with the understanding these things will make me more productive and achieve my goals. I feel like a person can successfully add a new habit each Planning Day. On average it takes a person 66 days to establish a new habit. Effortless Self Control Habits are stronger than your beliefs. You may believe fruits and vegetables are better for you. However if you habitually eat cookies…that habit will likely continue unless you make environmental changes. Remove the cookie jar and put healthy food in its place. Now when you habitually visit where the cookie jar was you will grab a piece of fruit. And with our habits we have lower emotional reactions. We talked about a study where students’ habits were questioned. They determined 43% of their day was habitual. Your emotional response to waking up early on daily is reduced when you have done it for a long time. And once you decide to clean your kitchen, the routine is habitual and you can sing along to music or think about something else because you have a routine to how you clean your kitchen. Context Clues also support effortless self control. If you have a habit of putting on your deodorant after you brush your teeth, your toothbrush is the clue. But let’s say on vacation you have all your toiletries in a bag. You brush your teeth but because your deodorant isn’t in plain sight, you go sight seeing and remember you forgot to put on deodorant. Prospective Memory This is the theory I’m thinking I will do my dissertation about. It’s something you are reminded you need to do but in the future. Say you are talking to someone about the grocery store and that reminds you that you need to pick up a card for a wedding next time you are there. It’s like you are trying to remember things for the future. They are related to a location or a time. You could be reminded about the card by time as in the wedding is a 5pm and you need the card by then. Are You Maxed Out on Habits? A person can only do so much everyday, even the amount of habits they have. Are you programmed correctly? Planning Day, with Organize 365®, really helps you to analyze your time and look at what you are currently doing. You may see some changes you need to make and then plan how you will do it . To do lists and diaries have been found to be inefficient because there’s no place for holding things like a card for an upcoming wedding or ideas you are simmering on. When you write one task on an index card and throw it in your Sunday Basket®, you are able to categorize, make a plan of completing those tasks, and delay decision making until necessary. I hope you can join us May 3rd for Home Planning Day or June 6th for Friday Workbox® Planning day to get productive habits in place so you have more cognitive space for other areas of your life. EPISODE RESOURCES: https://www.brownhealth.org/be-well/why-habits-can-be-good-thing https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2023/04/230417155750.htm https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/11/career-lab-habits https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/ejsp.674 Wood, W., Quinn, J. M., & Kashy, D. A. (2002). Habits in everyday life: Thought, emotion, and action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83(6), 1281–1297. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.83.6.1281 Sunday Basket® Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media.
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    47 mins
  • 646 - The Impacts of Tariffs on Organize 365®
    Apr 11 2025

    This important update is being recorded on April 8th at 3pm. I hope there haven’t been too many changes by the time you listen to this episode. There have been so many economic changes and the atmosphere is starting to feel a little uncertain like it did about 5 years ago when Covid reared its ugly head. There are 3 types of responses to what’s going on. Those who know too much and they are thinking way too far in the future, those who stick their head in the sand and don’t want to know about any of it, and those who know just enough to make positive, proactive, profitable choices for their homes. As a CEO I am in the last category. I’m in preservation mode to preserve Organize 365® and my employees' jobs. I tried to give you different perspectives of what is going on from the overall economy, from a CEO, and as a household manager.

    Job Security & The Stock Market

    There are three things people are worried about right now. Two of them are job security and the stock market. Come to find out federal jobs aren’t secure! In 2008/2009, people didn’t think it was possible to lose your house. In 2020, people didn’t think we could be locked in our homes.

    I told you in a previous episode that I don't understand the stock market so I don’t have much advice. Greg and I decided long ago to invest in the stock market, Greg takes care of that. Our children are invested in the stock market. And historically the stock market always comes back.

    Supply Chain

    There was never a toiler paper supply issue. We had plenty of toilet paper because it’s made here in the U.S. Size was the problem…it was only available in industrial sizes for like schools and stadiums. But where we are going to see supply chain issues will be from items that come from China. We are in an economic war. My recent order from China is going to be tariffed at 121%!!! That’s right! Half of this episode is about sourcing my supplies and how & how it has changed. Due to the tariffs, expect to see fewer choices at come point and quantity available to decrease if it comes from China. I explained a lot about how the tariffs came to be, how they added up, and what they mean for the American supply chain. I offered solutions to keep your household supply chain supple.

    How is Organize 365® responding?

    As a CEO that looks into the future, I always have an 18 month to 2 year supply of physical products. Organize 365® isn’t going anywhere! We aren’t passing the tariff expenses to our customers, we don’t have to, as I explained, because of the way I have financially structured Organize 365®. And we aren’t ordering from China for now.

    I am anticipating working with an American company for our Sunday Baskets® in addition to other products and may continue to work with them once this whole thing blows over. I speculate it will be a good 18 months till our economy stabilizes again. We’re running leaner with daily operations. And we’re thankful we didn’t raise expenses by moving like we wanted or getting the ERP system.

    And most of all, always wondering as economics are changing, how can we meet our customers where they are. So, we have decided to offer upcoming planning days for home (5/3) and Friday Workbox® (6/6) and Teacher planning day (7/9) for a 20% discount from $250. You will get the planning prep day, additional videos, the 4 hour planning day live webinar with replay access for 6 weeks, and the workbook. Stop spiraling, think about the root cause of the supply shortage you experienced during Covid, and start planning. The sky is not falling. Planning is the one thing you can do that will give you more time, help you make better decisions, make your money go further, and make you feel like you are in the driver’s seat.

    EPISODE RESOURCES:

    • The Sunday Basket®

    • Home Planning Day

    • Friday Workbox Planning Day

    • Teacher Planning Day

    • Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter

    • Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!

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    1 hr and 8 mins
  • Transformation with Julie D
    Apr 9 2025
    In this episode, I introduce you to Julie D. Julie and her husband have, in their home, a daughter, a son, and Maggie their dog. Julie heard someone talking about the Sunday Basket® and was intrigued and figured she could figure it out. Julie wasn’t looking for organization as much as she desired systems. Before the interview, Julie drew out a mind map. She wanted to make sure to share ALL of the products and ways that Organize 365® has benefitted her life. Make sure you catch the episode to hear all the areas that have been impacted in Julie’s life. Julie came from 20 years in the retail space where she used to be in charge of 13 week projects that consisted of resetting a store or setting up new stores. The way the Organize 365® systems break down 90 (for business) and 120 (for home) days, was familiar to Julie. That is how they would organize the resetting of the stores. They’d make a plan and then run that plan for the next chunk of time. Your home is like a small business right? So your family members we joked are like employees uninterested in the success of your small business. It’s harder to get them motivated to keep things organized. We talked about how men from the Boomers generation who witnessed a stay at home mom, AKA the primary parent taking care of the home and children and a dad “bringing home the bacon.” So their expectations were similar for their families. The systems let her do just that as they’d planned. The kids program has helped her to have them do some of the organizing. She’s invested in the kid program to which the kids know a lot of “what Lisa says.” Julie has thoughtfully implemented all of the Organize 365® systems. She has multiple Sunday Baskets® and even got her mom and big sister to invest in Sunday Baskets®. She loves spreading the “gospel of Organize 365®.” It was a way for them to do life together till her mother passed away. Of course, she inherited her moms. She feels the Sunday Basket® is so important in her life that when they remodeled her kitchen she had to make sure she knew where she’d be able to put it once it was finished. During the remodel, she had a Sunday Basket® dedicated to the remodel and it was convenient for her and her contractors. It kept the remodel moving along and organized. Julie’s son, John, has level 3 autism and that has added to the demand for systems. She values the Warrior Mama binder to have in DON (determination of needs) meetings. She made a point to put a picture of John as a baby on the front to remind administrators and physicians in the meetings that her son is a person and he has come a long way. She’s got a Friday Workbox® for her daughter in regards to Julie being leader of the parent council (Canadian speak for the PTO), being the pizza mom, girl guide leader, and as the registrar for speed skating. Once she realized she wasn’t going to continue being the leader of the parent council, she could see taking off that train car gave her more capacity for something else. She’s got a financial binder for each kid to keep track of receipts and medical visits. And John throws her plenty of challenges too, but, she has peace of mind that she’s basically created playbooks for everything so when the wheels start to look like they may fall off she knows how to prevent it and get back to smooth sailing. Julie often wonders how 20 year old Julie would have benefited from the Organize 365® products and systems. She was in a chaotic period of time and wonders how things would be different. What’s different now? Julie has more peace of mind and capacity to prioritize her crafts. She’s able to “do more projects that make me feel like me.” This is one line item in the budget that will not go away. Julie’s advice is, “Do a blitz. Then it’s not a huge commitment to some ongoing system you have to learn.” EPISODE RESOURCES: The Sunday Basket® The Paper Solution® The Productive Home Solution® Household Manager 21 Day Bootcamp Sign Up for the Organize 365® Newsletter On the Wednesday podcast, I get to talk with members of the Organize 365­® community as they share the challenges, progress, missteps and triumphs along their organizing journey. I am grateful that you are reaching out to share with me and with this community. You can see and hear transformation in action. If you are ready to share your story with us, please apply at https://organize365.com/wednesday. Did you enjoy this episode? Please leave a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Share this episode with a friend and be sure to tag Organize 365® when you share on social media!
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    56 mins