Ditching the 9-to-5: My Daughter’s Leap Into Professional Organizing Success

You are listening to the Jewish Entrepreneur Podcast with Debbie Sassen, episode number 181.

Hello my friends and welcome back to the podcast. I have a special, special treat for you this week I am sharing my daughter with you, Rahel. Lini, also known as Linii Schultz. It is such a pleasure for me because obviously I birthed my baby into the world and grew her up. Now as a mom and a business coach a little bit, I am helping my daughter birth her baby business into the world.

My daughter Lini left her job as an occupational therapist, her status job. She has a master's in OT and she launched her personal organizing business. And today we're gonna speak with my daughter. She's a mom, she's a wife, she's obviously a daughter. And we're going to really look behind the scenes on how she made her decision.

When she decided to leave her job, she had some, other life circumstances, a baby than another baby who slowed down her progress from career to launching her own business. But we're gonna speak about the mindset shifts that she needed to take on as a business owner versus being an employee. We talk about pricing, we talk about support from her husband, and we talk about the ways that Lini has grown her business, how she shows up on social media and.

Collaborations with other entrepreneurs have really been very effective for her to grow her business, get seen, grow her network, and there are so many things that I think that you're gonna take away from this episode, especially if you two are sort of deliberating. Between, do I have a career? Do I have a career and a side hustle?

When is it the right time for me to like leave my job and move on to building my own business? And we're gonna talk about all of it today on the podcast. So you're gonna have so much fun because this conversation was just so natural because, hey, we've been talking with each other. I don't know that she always listened to me 'cause that's kind of what moms and daughters do.

But now that we're adults. We have conversations and we have conversation as moms and as mothers, and also as business owners, and it is just so much fun. So without further ado, I'm just gonna introduce you to my lovely daughter, Lini Schultz. Let's go.

Hi, I'm Lini Schultz. Hello? Hello. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about yourself because this is a first for me.

That number one, I am interviewing a family member. Mm-hmm. And two, what often happens on my podcast when I have interviews is I speak with people who have been in business for many years and they already have. Six figure businesses, but you and I have a different business relationship, obviously as a mother and daughter.

So tell our listeners how long you've been in business, what you do, how you transitioned from being an employee to opening your own business, and then we'll take it from there. Okay, so I'll just tell your listeners like a sentence about myself. I'm obviously your daughter. I'm married to Josh Schultz and I have four children.

 I was, [00:01:00] or still am, I'm an occupational therapist. I have my master's in occupational therapy and I worked as an occupational therapist for six years, mostly in rehabilitation. and then. After I gave birth to my third child, yai, who is a little over two years old now, I felt like I just had to do something else.

I didn't want to work in a job where I was just waiting for my next maternity leave. I wanted to do something. I had funding that I was more passionate about, and I thought hard about. What do I love doing? What's fun for me? And I came around to personal organizing. I just love organizing spaces. So I started searching, professional organizing, I guess it would be a little two years ago, you could say.

Yeah, it was the summer two years ago, and I started looking into that profession. I spoke to different professional organizers. I got you on board as my business coach. I asked you so many questions and [00:02:00] you helped me so much throughout the way, just building a business. so first of all, I don't know what you wanted to share, but I do wanna give a shout out to Rebecca Saltzman because you took her organizing course.

That's right, and I don't know anything about the chorus. I love having a daughter as a personal organizer because we just like cleaned out tons of things from my closet. Before we started recording this episode, I was in America earlier this summer and I have a lot of new clothes from America and my daughter just stood there, stared me down, and I cleaned out.

I cleaned out stuff that I've been holding onto for like. Seriously, decades. Okay. I'm that scary. She's not scary. Definitely not scary. and I'm really, grateful that I could help you find something that you enjoy doing and that waiting for your next maternity leave, I feel that so deeply because I also felt like that when I was working for the Bank of Israel, 'cause I got to the stage where I had burnt out.

Because I was a mom of many, they had transferred me at one point from the dealing room to the economics unit. Mm-hmm. And I did not look forward to going to work every day. So I'm really happy for you that you found something that you love. You found your passion as they love to say Yes.

 but tell me about the fears you had about going out on your own. Oh my gosh, there were so many. I think, the biggest fear was probably the financial fear of am I gonna make enough money, to be fully independent? Mm-hmm. there was also a very big part of me that was afraid, what if I don't actually love professional organizing after all, what if I get burnt out really fast and, regret my decision?

there was also a little bit of like a stratosphere where I felt like working as an occupational therapist with a master's degree. Like, I know it sounds funny, but it gave me like, I felt like some sort of status. And then I was going into professional organizing, which people often confuse with like, you know, cleaning services.

 wait, newsflash. I do have to say to our listeners that my husband. He does have these things about status and master's degrees and being used. So it's, it's a real thing. Mm-hmm. And so much of the way we think about the work that we do, the money we make, how we make the money that we earn does come from our family of origin.

Stories around money and status and what is acceptable and not acceptable. So it's a real thing. Some people would be like, who cares? Master sch, masters. It doesn't matter. But that is the environment that you grew up in and it makes so much sense. Yeah. Yep. And it was real, So how did you decide any way that you would go ahead and say, this master's, I mean, I don't know, do you feel like you threw it into the garbage can?

I don't feel like a third in the garbage can because honestly, there's a lot of skills, and knowledge that I have from being an occupational therapist that really enhance my job as a professional organizer. because there's a lot of, teaching and guiding my clients. when it comes to executive functioning, which I have all that background knowledge for my degree in work is that. 

Occupational therapist. and I also don't feel like I threw it in the garbage just because, all that knowledge and experience is part of who I am today and who I am today is what I bring to my clients. Like I am the vessel that helps them, reach their goals and it's part of me. It's part of my journey.

So it's definitely not in the garbage. And also it leaves, the door open for an opportunity. Maybe in the future, maybe I will wanna go back and be an occupational therapist again. And I always have that. I love that. I love how you said you brought what you learned into the business that you do now, but what about those fears that, like what if it doesn't work?

What were your thoughts about that? Well, I think that I talked to you a lot about it when I decided to leave my OT position and pursue organizing fully. and you really helped me to get over those fears. I mean, I don't wanna say get over because they're still there. I'm still, a new business owner and is still the beginning of my journey, but I don't remember,your wording, but I just know that you played a big role in it.

In helping me jump into the water and take that risk and, telling me that it's gonna be worth it and I don't have to stick just to organizing physical homes that, taking that jump into being a business owner opens many, many doors and I could take my business in so many directions, and yeah, just grow it however I want and that I can make it work.

Like, I think that's what you basically told me, that, if I put in the work, I can make it work. Totally. And I do remember that we had a conversation, and I mentioned to you that I knew a couple of people who had organizing businesses who were making a million dollars a year or more in their organizing business, and that's not because they were going to work with like movie stars and actresses and organizing their homes.

For a hundred thousand dollars a shot. And so they just needed like 10 clients a year. It was because they had actually built a business where they had a scalable business model where they could be working, not just trading like hours for dollars or hours for shekels, which is what you're doing today, but there was going to be a scalable, leveraged business model that you could create in the future.

 So that you wouldn't have to rely exclusively on one-to-one clients. That's right. Right. There's just so many opportunities. Once I'm independent and once I own my own business. and that's less so, I mean, when you're working for an employer, depending on who your employer is, and a lot of times, and, and you had some independence as an occupational therapist, you ran a program for the, the Kule for the HMO here in Israel.

But there's so much more independence and you can bring so much more creativity in your business when you're in charge, when you're the CEO and there's not some huge like, operation on top of you. Right, exactly. I mean, even like I had some independence, as in my job as an ot, I could initiate programs or groups, but the salary was always the same.

 so the independence was, maybe a little bit in what I do with my hours at work, but the paycheck in the end of the day was gonna stay the same. and it goes up like one or two shekels every few years. It's not a big difference. I hear that. So let's talk about, 'cause you started this, business in personal, in home organization a couple of years ago, but you've also, as a mom, you've had like fits and starts with it.

So tell us a little bit about how you got started, what happened, and where you are today. Okay. So like I said, I started, pursuing this after I gave birth to my third child, Yasi. And I started growing it really slowly, but I still worked as an OT at the time, so I didn't have a lot of time to put into my business.

'cause I was working three or four days a week as an OT and one or two days a week as an organizer. Mm-hmm. And then a few months in, I found out I was pregnant with. My fourth child, Alicia. Yay. and that kind of, when I found that out, I mean, obviously it's very exciting that I have another baby, but in terms of my business, I was like, okay, I just really can't scale this right now.

Like, I know I'm going to. Be giving birth in a few months, and then I wanna take a long maternity leave. And I was also just exhausted from the pregnancy and being a mom of three and having a baby at home. so I didn't put a lot of effort into growing my business during my pregnancy. but I still worked.

People still reached out and I worked one or two days a week throughout the pregnancy. and then when I came back for my maternity leave, after giving birth to Alicia,Which was about May like a few months ago. I even started a little bit in March. I really decided to go all in. I left my OT job and I put all of my time and effort now into growing my business as a professional organizer.

So tell us about that. Like what were your fears about leaving your OT job or maybe there were none. I don't remember the conversation. I know we talked about it. No, there definitely were. I mentioned them a little bit before, like, what if the organizing business, what if it doesn't take off? What if I don't bring in enough money to replace leaving my OT job?

 also, being an employee, like I had that steady income every month and like, an organizer, it fluctuates. I don't have the promise of having a certain amount of money in my bank account every month. Mm-hmm. So there was a lot of financial fear. And I mentioned a little before, like also like a little bit of the stratosphere, and fear also, that I'm not gonna enjoy working as an organizer five days a week.

Maybe I'm gonna regret doing that and I'm gonna miss my OT job, but then I won't be able to go back to being an ot. Like what if my employee doesn't wanna take me back? so there were definitely fears leaving that job. Listen, even if your old employer doesn't take you back, if you ever wanted to stop what you're doing, there's such a need in our system.

I'm sure you would find something and you're really good at what you do. But three months in, how do you like what you're doing now? Full-time. I am so happy with my decision. I have not regretted it for one minute. Uhhuh. I don't look forward to my next maternity leave. If that was like, the thing I was going by before, I don't know where we should talk about that, but anyway.

'cause kids are really cute. But nevermind, my kids are really cute, but it's not like I'm waiting for the next maternity leave. Like, I get you. I get you. I enjoy what I'm doing. I have fun doing what I'm doing. I don't dread going to work. I have to work at night. Almost every day of the week. And it doesn't bother me, which was something that really bothered me before, like as an ot, if I had to write up any paper at night, I like dreaded it.

 and yeah, I don't dread work. it's not like Chavis goes out and I'm like, Ugh, another week. I have fun. I just love what I'm doing and I'm so happy that I made this decision. I think that's great. What do you do at night? Why are you working at night as a mom of many, tell us. So after going to my clients, I send them a recap by email with just everything we did and if we discussed any important things while organizing, I want them to have like bullet points of what we discussed so that they can have it, always to look back and remember.

 I also just send them information like when our next session's gonna be, payment. So that takes up a little bit of time also because I'm Running my business solo. I have to do all my social media by myself. Hmm. So I do that at night. finances, any admin work has to get done at night because I'm working during the day.

Right. I hear that. But, okay. So we're gonna talk about your social media and stuff like that in a second, but I just wanna ask you, in terms of your systems and processes in your business And the recaps that you're giving your clients, are you leveraging the power of AI to give them that summary of your meetings and their next steps?

Definitely. And that saves me so much time. I didn't use to, I used to write it every time from scratch. but now I definitely do like I paste it into chat, GPT if you have my recap, so that it could see my style. And now what I do is I go into that same thread of chat, GBT, and I record everything I did and then chat, GPT writes it up.

 but I still edit it and add my personal touch because chat GPT can never get it fully Right. But you might try Claude. I think Claude is a little bit better on the personalization, but I don't think Claude remembers. Who you are. Like sometimes I ask Claude, do you remember who I am?

And they're like, no. Every conversation is brand new. but be that as it may, there's also a possibility that you could create a form so that you just would have to fill it in. Like, this is what we did today. And then you would go through so that you don't have to keep recording everything from scratch.

We'll talk about that. Not now, but just think about in your business, like anybody who's listening To this interview, there are activities that you perform in your business over and over and over again, like the same things. And you might go to a client and today's session you might be working with one client in the kitchen and the other client like me, you're cleaning out her bedroom wardrobe, or maybe you're cleaning out the toy room, the playroom, the basement.

But there are things that you do. Every single session you're always sending recaps and there are parts of that that you can have on repeat so that you don't have to reinvent the wheel every time and you just have to fill in a few extra things and that would help you to also, really reduce the amount of time you're spending doing your.

 follow ups at the end of the day. and that's also, by the way, with your finances, 'cause I did that a lot with my finances earlier in 2025, is that I was really following my process. What do I do in terms of collecting my expenses at the end of the month in terms of my income at the end of the month?

How do I measure my profit and. And everything that's repeatable. I did work with Chatt PT to give me a system that it makes it so much more efficient for me to follow this system. So what, just anybody think about the little, little things you do every single day or every single time you're working with your clients so that you don't have to start from scratch every single time.

So let's talk about social media. 'cause I know [00:15:00] that that is where your clients find you. It's not through ads in the local papers, it's not through the telephone book. 'cause nobody publishes their ads in the, in the telephone book anymore. Whatever a telephone book is. Tell us about how you got started there, even as, long ago, as two years ago.

And what has changed recently for you. So I mean, two years ago when I started, I was very afraid of social media. I opened a social media camp purely for my business, so I was clueless and I didn't know anything about it before. and I just always felt like, this isn't me. I'm not a social media person.

I had a very hard time putting myself out there and posting. I was very shy and afraid, I guess also of like judgment. it also took me a lot of time to edit. A single post or a single reel. I had like a perfectionist thing about it also, where it would take me like three or four hours to make one post or one reel because I felt like it had to be perfect, which looking back now, they were so not perfect.

Well, listen, [00:16:00] if your posts from three months ago or two years ago aren't making you cringe, like even mine, I'm like, oh my gosh, how did I do that? Right? It's not making you cringe. It means that you haven't grown, you haven't gotten better. So it's a good thing if you're like, oh my gosh, they weren't perfect.

So it's actually a good thing you were doing it all. Exactly right. and then when I started,putting like everything into my business back in May, I took like a little mini social media course by Rebecca Sigal. she's a former client of mine. She's great. Yeah, so it was great.

It was like three meetings on Zoom and that really, really, really helped me, to realize what my fears were like. I had this belief about myself, like, I'm not a social media person. This isn't me. Or I was very afraid of people's judgment. And it really, really helped me to be less fearless and put myself out there and like, I think the modo that I actually got from you, but I tell it to myself probably daily is done is better than perfect.

Something is better than nothing. Yes. and that I for sure got from you. And so I've really been working hard to post this often as [00:17:00] possible. Like as often as possible. I mean, at least a few times a week. Preferably once a day, not like as often as possible, a few times a day.

and I'm also getting a lot better at just putting posts or reels out there. they take me a lot less time. in the past it would take me three or four hours and I was like, this is crazy. It's a full day work for one post. How can I do this a few times a week? and now it takes me about an hour to an hour and a half, which still seems like a lot of time, but for me it's a huge improvement.

And I know that I'll keep getting better, just like I've gotten better. I'll keep getting better. I think that putting an hour into each piece of content, and maybe you can get it down to half an hour It's actually a good thing because what too many people do with their social media is they're very vague.

Like people like, oh, I'll help you organize your home and then you're gonna live your best life. you know, something like that. Or, then you're gonna feel great or awesome or you're gonna stop tripping over your, the kids' toys that, that actually gets specific. But when you spend a little bit more time and you actually.

Put your thought into it to [00:18:00] understand what's your client's pain points? Where are they now? What's their problem? What's going on in their life right now? But into the nuances and specificity and your stop being vague and broad brush strokes. And that can only come by you thinking about their personal journey, where they are and where they wanna go.

And that because your content is what is connecting you with your people. So I don't think putting an hour into a piece of social media content that is going to live on your feed for a long time, I don't think that's a bad thing. If you can get it down to 45 minutes or half an hour, that's great, but until you're fully booked in your business and you have a waiting list.

People need to know about you. You need to be putting more effort into your marketing, into your advertising, and into your content, because that's how you spread the word. I like to say that people have two problems in their business. But the first one is getting the word out there.

Which is all marketing. That's a marketing problem. If people aren't coming to you, you're not having sales calls, then not enough people know about you. So you gotta [00:19:00] do something to ramp that up. Mm-hmm. And we'll talk about the collaborations that you did in a minute, so People need to know about you.

You need to get the word out, and then you need to get the money in. So that means you need to refine your sales skills and you need to work on your money mindset, because you might be getting some money in. But there might be underlying beliefs that you're not worthy, you can't charge more, whatever.

We'll talk about your prices in a, in a second, but marketing and sales are the bread and butter of every single business. So if you do not have clients five days a week The post, another post, another post. Let's go. Right? Yeah. So that's what I asked you, like, It was a few weeks ago where I had a quiet couple weeks, where I only had one or two clients.

 and so I reached out to you and I'm like, mommy, help. How do I up my game? And you gave me great advice, which I still have to work on and actually do, but yeah, I'm, I'm trying. So let's talk about that. What's the difference between trying and actually doing it?

In what way? Well, you said like, I'm [00:20:00] trying. Right, and I know, I'm like, I've got you at a, between a rock and a hard place. Now you can't run away 'cause you're on the air. But when you say I'm trying, right, there's a difference between trying actually doing it.

There's a difference between trying and then at the end of the day, you're like, okay, whatever. I didn't get around to it today. The kids were this, that, and the other thing. And there's another thing. Which is, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna put a deadline. Done is better than perfect. I'm going to get a post out today and that's it.

Right? Right. Well, what I meant when I said what I was, I was trying was I wasn't just gonna like ride the wave of like, okay, I just don't have a lot of clients now. I'll wait until I do. I was like, no. Like this is giving me a signal that I need to do more. so I'm very lucky that you're my mom and I can just WhatsApp you and be like, mommy, what do I do?

How do I up my game? Something's not going right and you can just answer me and give me great advice. and then the next step is obviously is the doing is I have to put that advice into action, right? Which, you know, bar Hashem the next week I got [00:21:00] a few new clients and now I'm so busy that I haven't been able to put that into action yet.

But I know that as soon as I, work, on my next posts and reels that I will start putting it into action. like now that I'm busy, I haven't posted as often as I wanted to. and that's also something that I need to figure out is how to find the time to do that because I have my family and my home and four little kids at home who aren't very independent.

And as we're recording, you also have your mother-in-law. Thing with you, which is helpful, but it's just another person who needs like food and laundry and stuff like that. So, it's and, and add thing that you're working on at the moment. Yeah. But have you ever thought about batching your content?

Like rather than booking clients five days a week, taking one day out of your week and be, this is the day that I batch my content and like a Sunday, and then Monday through Thursday you'll go to clients. have you considered that? I have considered it, and I guess, I just haven't been great at managing my time that way because I have marked myself a few times a day to, if I didn't have clients, I'm like, okay, this [00:22:00] is my admin day, this is when I work on my business and on my social media, and then.

Things come up and I end up booking appointments that day or running errands. And I guess, that's my problem is prioritizing. Okay. But, but I think, no, I think, I think it's great that you're very open and you're talking about this, and this is something that so many women in business deal with.

'cause we have the kids and this one needs the dentist. And this one just fell down and needs to go get stitches. Or my 20-year-old dislocated his shoulder. Thank God he's recovering and he's doing great, but he's old enough that he could take himself to, all of his medical appointments by himself.

But this is a real issue. So when you have something that's in your calendar, it's like, okay, let's pretend it's Sunday morning. The kids go off to school and as we're recording, it's summer holidays, so the kids are in camp. Camp starts later, it finishes earlier. It's definitely not as, your time is not as much your own, but.

If we pretend that Sunday between 10 o'clock and one o'clock you [00:23:00] are going to batch, create your content for the week, but then something comes up, what are you thinking when you decide to book something in that timeframe? so that it ends up happening. The result is that you don't end up batching your content.

What's going on in your mind? Ooh, that's a very good question. I think, I just think to myself like, alright, I'll just do the social media another time. I'll do it at night. I have to get this thing, whatever. The other thing is, I'm like, I have to get it done. I have no other time to do it.

This is the only time I have, which obviously I can question all of those things. Right? and this is important. I'm not gonna say that one is right and one is wrong. Because we are. Human beings. We do have lives and we're moms and there are a lot of things that come up, but we do have to ask ourself for the long-term viability and sustainability of our business and the amount of money that we want to bring in into our businesses.

And you get to figure out how much money your family needs and how much money you wanna be putting away in savings and in investments for your future, right? It [00:24:00] has to be that this also is a priority. And where does it fit on your priority list? And we all have that tendency with anything, whether it is the laundry or whether it's cooking for shabi, or whether it's putting up a post on social media or sending an email when you say, I'll do it later, do you really mean that you're gonna do it later?

And that there is just no excuses except like, I like to say blood or fire. Like if your kids are bleeding, like you can do it later, or you know your house is, God forbid, on fire. But if you say, I'm gonna do it later, do you really not go to sleep that night until you've done it, or do you keep kicking the can down the road and then it never happens?

And, and it's a really good question. sometimes that, and sometimes that, there are nights where I'll be like, I have to do this no matter what. And there's nights where I just go to bed. I'm saying, which is also a juggle. I know that, going to bed late is gonna affect my productivity and my mood the next day.

So yes, something has to give somewhere. and yeah, it's a question of what [00:25:00] gives. how do you and your husband decide what gives? This is a personal question, and if you don't feel comfortable answering on the podcast, you don't have to. Well, if my husband decided what would give it would definitely be our house being tidy.

But he's married to a personal organizer, so that does not work. But I can't because that affects my mental state so much. So I do spend about an hour every night cleaning up our house. He would tell me like, it's okay, kids live here. Like, go do your social media and let the house be as it is. 

 but maybe he's right actually. 'cause maybe you would do that and then you would wake up in the morning and you would zip through it faster. What do you think? It is funny actually, I had that thought literally yesterday where I was like, you know what? I want to try to experiment for the next week or two.

I'm going to sleep by 10 30 every night no matter what. Okay. trying to, finish up, pick up the rest of the pieces in the morning. So I'll let you know how that experiment works. We'll see. Okay. Looking forward to hearing. Yeah, so last night I [00:26:00] went to sleep at 10 30. I didn't fall asleep for a while, but.

 you know, we're trying. We'll see how that works. But what I heard you say is that he's actually supportive of your business and he wants you to get out there and he wants you to share with people so that more people find out about you and work with you. Yeah. He's been so supportive. 

That's really what's allowed me to do this, where he really believes in what I do and he supports, all of my decisions and he really, really pushes me to go out there. And I was nervous he was gonna like be nervous about me posting a social media, but not only is he not nervous about it, he's always giving me ideas of what to post.

And I always tell him he should be managing my social media. Oh yeah. That would be great. Can you imagine? I love it. Family business. he doesn't wanna go on social media. I hear. I hear you. Yeah. But he's very, very supportive. And without that support, I wouldn't be able to do what I'm doing for sure.

 that's amazing. So tell me about the collaborations, 'cause that was such a great way for you to get your name out there when you started back in your business again just a few months ago. [00:27:00] Yeah, so actually the idea of collaborations came from a client of mine who worked as a social media manager in America.

She's not working currently, but, when I started working again, I reached back out to her and I was like, contemplating hiring her because we had such a great relationship.and she gave me suggestions. She's like, why don't you do this? And she gave me a whole list of people I can reach out to.

 so I reached out to some and some actually reached out. Well sort of reached out to me. And Yeah, and I did a few collaborations. it was great. It got me more followers. It got me some clients also.Are you open to collaborations now? Definitely. So what kind of collaborations work best for you and why?

Well, let's say for example that there was somebody who had a bakery business or somebody had a clothing business, or somebody had a hardware store. Right? Like, What type of people does it make sense for you to have collaborations with so that you're able to help them in their business and they can help you with your business?

 [00:28:00] so I think location matters. so, people who are obviously in Israel and. their followers. Really what matters a lot is who their followers are. because I love working with other moms. now I have worked with men also but my favorite clients are other moms with kids at home.

So, people who have a lot of, I guess, women with, families and kids at home.and have a lot of followers. I'd be happy to work with them. What they do for their business matters a little less to me. Like, I've collaborated with the political commentator.

People have seen a, collaborated with me, or college, think that's her last name now. and I've collaborated with them as seus therapists and there's some other people who I We're scheduled to collaborate with, you know, within the next few months also. And they all have different types of jobs and what they do for their business matters less to me.

 what I want is obviously for them to have a lot of followers who are, in Israel, within like an hour's drive of Beit Shem so that, because you're not gonna drive like to a lot, are you? No, not to [00:29:00] a lot and not to the Golan. Okay. But I did drive to Ranana, which was like an hour and a half drive for me.

 In the morning, the way back was obviously a lot faster. There was less traffic. and I'm happy to drive. I guess within an hour, more or less. And I love working with other women. Amazing. actually, I see some of your reels or your stories when you're driving.

You're like, I'm on my way to Ana, I'm on my way to Bhava. Yeah. That's how I know where you're going. That's how I keep track of you because I, I see you on social media. I'm like, oh, she's on the road again. I love it. so let's talk a little about, bit about money, because I can't not talk about money on my podcast

You setting your prices, how you did that, what were your fears? Were even having those sales conversations and saying, this is how much I charge. Tell us about that. Yeah. So that, that's probably something that, I do, I have a lot of fear around that. and I've been gradually, very gradually raising my prices as I get more experience.

Mm-hmm. I have to say that in the beginning I was suggested to charge a certain [00:30:00] amount and I had a very strong belief that I was worth more than that. And I charged more than I was recommended. Ooh. You know, your mama likes that. Yeah, and it was fine. But then with that said, I didn't raise my prices.

 I guess fast enough or as my experience grew. And then recently, I spoke to Rebecca again and she was like, hello, you have to raise your prices. So I did. And you know, I have to say it still is like difficult, telling on consultation calls, telling potential clients what my prices are.

 especially because every few weeks I have someone who tells me, who asks for a discount or tells me it's too expensive or tells me, oh, I reached out to other organizers and they charge less. Mm-hmm. And I know I'm not overcharging, like I know that for a fact. but every time someone tells me that it does.

 it does make me feel a little insecure. I do notice that when I have consultation calls, I often rush through that part of the consultation, telling potential clients what my prices are because I'm nervous about it. I feel self-conscious about it. so here's, I'm gonna give you [00:31:00] some pricing advice.

You and, and all of our listeners today is number one, like when you wanna raise your prices, 'cause you get to a certain level, let's say, I know these aren't your prices, but we're gonna pretend that your fee is a thousand shekels a session, okay? Mm-hmm. And you're like, I've been doing this. People are saying, yes, people are coming.

It's great. And now I wanna raise my prices to 1200 shekels a session. And you're, every time you get onto the call, it's a new level for you, and you're gonna rush through it because you're afraid of judgment. You're afraid of rejection, you're afraid of people saying no, and then, oh my gosh, my calendars are gonna be empty, then I'm not gonna have money, and then I'm not gonna have food to eat and then I'm gonna have to live on a park bench.

Like that is really where your primitive brain. Goes, I like to say, mm-hmm. No money, no food. I'm gonna die. Mm-hmm. But before you raise your prices, it's really important for you as a business owner to sit down with yourself. We don't just like raise prices, but sell yourself on why the work that you [00:32:00] do and the results that your clients get are valued at that price.

Because we could just raise our prices because somebody says, oh, it's time to raise your prices again, but it's not sitting in your body. You have to embody the value of your, of the work that you do, and just like you need to sell your potential clients on you and the work that you do and the results that they're gonna have in their life and their house.

In whatever you're doing for your business, like you have to sell yourself first. 'cause if you are not totally sold, then it's gonna be hard for you to sell that to somebody else. So when you help someone organize their life, their house, like you were just here, you like stared me down while I was cleaning out my closet.

I'm like, another thing, another thing I'm like flipping through all the things on my hangers. We didn't go through the drawers yet, by the way. That's like really Pandora's box next time. But like I pulled things off of my closet and I was like giddy at the end of it. Like, oh my gosh, I have so. So much space.

Look at all these hangers. There's nothing on them. This is so much fun. [00:33:00] And when I have that, just really that feeling of spaciousness in my life. And how much time do I save in the morning? I don't know. It's, it's like in the seconds, minutes, I dunno, milliseconds, whatever it is. But there's less decision fatigue when I don't have to continually skip over the things that I'm not wearing anyway.

And when you as a business owner go into the nuances of how valuable those results are for your clients. Mm-hmm. You're like, oh my gosh, it's not 1200 shekel a session. It's $1,500 if, well dollars. Sure, for sure check, but whatever it is, yeah. But you all of a sudden realize how much value your clients are getting.

'cause even those milliseconds that I'm saving every morning, not looking again at those like. Very old clothes that I'm not even wearing anymore, and I, and I don't have that spaciousness, those seconds add up over time. And I could be saving hours in my life every single year because I'm not looking at [00:34:00] the same.

Worn out has been closed over and over and over again. That's a lot of decision fatigue that you're mm-hmm. Saving me from and it's that kind of right. Understanding of the value of the work that you do, that you wanna sell yourself on, so that you feel 100% rock solid on those calls. and people feel that and they hear that in your voice when you give them the price.

 I think that also really connects to like the most recent social media advice that you gave me of creating problem awareness, posts, you know, and really like. Digging in deep and figuring out what is the exact problem that I'm solving for my clients, mentally and emotionally, not just like the clutter, the physical space.

 and also when, yeah, when I have that confidence of like, I am solving these problems for you, I think that'll also. Up my confidence so that I feel good about, the price I charge. But whenever I have those moments of insecurities, I remind myself, I'm like, wait, Leni, like, no, like you do offer more than other organizers.

You do this and you do that, and you [00:35:00] have this experience, and you have that experience. And you know, I, I do know that I offer a lot, and that my price is worth it, but. I think that it's natural. I think a lot of people are like that, and I am too. We have a lot of insecurities around money and charging.

 Especially the women. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so as we wrap up this podcast, I want you think about, What are three things? Mm-hmm. You would like every new business owner. To know and even, and I'm sure that whatever you'd say will also be applicable to people who've been in business for a year, five years or whatever.

But if there are three things that you could go back to your younger self, whether it was her two years ago, who was deciding to jump in and build this business, or the version of you three months ago who said, that's it, I'm leaving my employer, I am opening these thing, this business. What are three things that you think every business owner should know and like change in the way she's approaching her business?

Ooh, that's a great question. I think the, the first thing that came to my head when you asked me that is it's okay to take [00:36:00] it slow. I had a lot of fears around like taking it slow while I was pregnant, and until I was ready to go back in. but it's okay. we, especially as young women, we have lots of different phases of our lives, bringing more babies and maternity leaves and working and.

And it's okay to adjust like your business to those periods in your life. And it's okay to take it slow and there'll be time to shine and there'll be time to, you know, put it on the back burner. Yeah. I put a lot of pressure on myself back then telling myself like that it wasn't okay. but I know that it is.

 so I also want other women to know that, that you could take it at your own pace. Mm-hmm. there's no should. and so that's one thing. The second thing that popped into my head when you asked me that was. I would want everybody to know that their clients are out there. I get like very hooked up on like, there, I have so much competition.

There's gonna be no clients left for me, but every person offering a service is a little different and they're gonna speak to a different crowd. And one organizer's clients are not gonna be my [00:37:00] clients because I'm different and I'm gonna attract different people. And so I'd want other business owners to know that your clients are out there.

Don't look at your competition, just focus on who you are and what you have to offer.yes. Stay in your own life. So impact your clients. Mm-hmm. And what would be the third thing I wanna say? I guess I would say, you know what I tell myself almost daily and that is done is better than perfect. and I got that from you.

And anything is better than nothing. Put yourself out there. Do something for your business as often as you can. I also tell this to myself when it comes to working out, and I think it works really well with that analogy, but if you look at two people, one who never worked out because she only had 10 minutes, and the one who worked out twice a week for 10 minutes.

 how are their bodies gonna be different in 20 years from now? Like those 10 minutes, twice a week will make a big difference. And it's the same thing with business. If you have, you know, done is better than nothing, something's better than nothing. Do something whenever you can. and you'll reach your goals eventually.[00:38:00] 

I love it. I love your wisdom. I love the fact that you jumped into your business. And I say the thing about your clients who are out there slightly differently is that my clients are divinely contracted to work with me. Like, really, God has it all figured out like nobody else can take my clients from me.

Just like your people are gonna be connected to you. They like your energy, they like their, your the fact that you can bring your OT executive work into the work you do, or they like your blonde hair. Not all of us have blonde hair, so whatever it is, I hope they hire me for better reasons.

You just never know. You know, social media, it's all about the externals these days. Okay. But anyway, thank you. Thank you so much for being here. We're going to put your contact deals into details into the show notes, so people who are within an hour, hour and a half drive of Bemish can find you. If anybody says.

I would love to do a collaboration with Leni. Listen, her collaborations are really good 'cause she comes and she helps you organize your house and she stands over you while you clean out your cupboards and things [00:39:00] like that. Mm-hmm. So don't tell and I take the clutter with me. That's true. All those things I cleaned out in my closet today, she put them into an IKEA bag and she's gonna get rid of them for me.

Do you realize how much headache like that in and of itself is worth that $1,500 a session that we know you're not charging yet? One day. One day. Alright. Thank you so much for being with me. Yes. Thank you for having me. And thank you for all your guidance and support and I really would not. Have done this without you.

I can say that for a fact. Like you and my husband Josh, have been the two things that have helped me and pushed me through this. You are so welcome and I think we're gonna maybe invite you on again so we can hear about the late, the latest updates and if you're making time for batching content or, or other things in your business, because I think we have a lot of wisdom to share that is so beneficial for all of our listeners.

So thank you very much everybody, and I will see you next week on the Jewish Entrepreneur Podcast. Bye-bye for now.

Thank you so much for joining us on today's podcast. I know that there are so many takeaways that you had, and I think the number one thing That I want to reinforce is if you're a married person, like having your partner on board. I know for me, when I left my job in corporate at the Bank of Israel and I opened up my own business, I had my husband's support.

Now he was a little bit more analytical and wanted me to run the numbers, and he did believe me. He knows that I'm very tenacious. And I will go after my dreams. But he also understood that this was something that was really important to me. I had waited till after I'd had my eight kids [00:03:00] before I left my government job, and my daughter did it sooner, and I'm just so proud of her and I'm so grateful to my son-in-law.

He's a wonderful person, her husband, who really has been the backbone as she's described, and really helped her to build the business, both like morally and support and helping her with ideas for her social media. It's just such a beautiful thing to watch as a mom, to see someone thrive in her relationship with her husband, to thrive in her business, and I hope that you just take a lot of stuff away from this.

If you have fears, overcoming your fears, showing up, being bolder, just getting out there and doing the thing. Thank you so much for tuning in, and I would really, really love it. Especially because I'm a mom. Yeah. If you would go to your podcast platform, whether it's Spotify, iTunes, and give this episode a five star review, like let's show Laney that we are so much behind her, we back her.

We're so grateful that she took the leap, building [00:04:00] her dreams and help us spread the word because you just pour a little bit of love onto this podcast episode and more people get to hear it. Thanks so much for joining us, and I'll see you next week on The Jewish Entrepreneur Podcast. Bye-bye for now.