Excellence Reporter: Jane, what is the meaning of life?

Jane Stoller: For me the meaning of live is living with Purpose and Passion. I am lucky enough to feel purposeful everyday through my business, which is based on my passion.

I feel my purpose in life is to help people and businesses get more organized. I know it sounds quirky or geeky, but I am truly passionate about the subject of organizing and all things processes. So where does my organizing knack come from? I believe it must be my Swiss roots. My love for organizing began when I was six years old: As a young girl I would often be found happily lining up my cats by size, (they never stayed put) my stuffed animals by color, and my books by publication date. It was at this early age that my passion developed and has grown into giving me purpose.

I don’t think your passion has to be a business or even a part-time side hustle. It could be a something that you do just for fun that brings you joy. Prior to launching my organizing business, I worked at many different jobs. Although I had discovered my passion at an early age and wanted to share it with the world to help people, it was a nerve-wracking jump into entrepreneurship. I did this after realizing I wanted to live life to its fullest and follow this passion for organizing.

It hasn’t been an easy road, and I’ve had plenty of struggles and setbacks, some practical, and some related to self-doubt. I don’t always find it easy to talk about myself, but my branding coach tells me authenticity is the new perfect—let’s hope she’s right! Like all of us, I’m still a work in progress. But with each year that goes by, I grow more confident that in our ever-busier world, we need a simple process to keep us organized. And I know from experience that process needs to start with us taking a long, hard look at ourselves.

And what started as helping out friends has become a viable business; I now have clients across the globe. I wrote my first book, Organizing for Your Lifestyle, to put my passion on paper, and share how simple it is to be organized. I can’t be everywhere at once, helping out the friends I’ve made all over the world. But even when I’m not there to personally guide old and new friends through the process of becoming organized, I can give them a copy of my book.

As you can probably tell, I love organizing everything – from things to processes and everything in between. When I’m working on organizing challenges, I barely feel like I’m working, or that it’s even a business—that’s the beauty of passionate work. Yet making your passion your business also has its drawbacks. For a long time, I didn’t treat organizing as a business. I downplayed the importance of what I could offer people, and I still sometimes struggle with this. At first, asking people to pay for something I love doing seemed crazy and unfair. Yet over time, my passion had transformed from mere hobby into a well-honed and researched skill. Without really realizing it, I’d become an organizing expert. And experts in a field deserve to get paid for that expertise. But, as we all know, what we deserve isn’t always what we get—more often than not, we need to fight for it. And in that fight, your own worst enemy is sometimes yourself.

Take it from me: Whether your passion is a side hustle, a full-time business, an idea for a business, or even a hobby, never discount its value, or think it isn’t worthwhile. In fact, most passionate side hustles or hobbies teach you plenty of transferable skills, and they almost always help you grow a network of people who want to see you succeed—which is the best kind of network to have!

Despite the fact that everyone seems to have opinions about organizing, few people really know where and how to start getting organized. I am in shock that not everyone shares my passion for developing new and better ways to get organized (just kidding). Yet this is why I have a successful organizing business—because people need my help and I have made it my life’s purpose! I truly believe it’s my mission to make organizing fun and an organic part of everyone’s life.

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~Jane Stoller is a Swiss-Canadian lifebizz organizer, speaker, author and university instructor whose passion is in de-cluttering spaces and organizing business processes. Jane wrote her first book Organizing for Your Lifestyle in 2016 to help friends get more organized. It ultimately gained international attention, and this allowed Jane to turn her passion into a profitable business. Stoller travels all around the world working with clients ranging from individuals looking to revamp one space, to large corporations needing a complete business overhaul. Her favorite spaces to tackle are closets and helping clients pack for trips – yes, Jane also organizes suitcases! To make her organizing tips and tricks more accessible, Stoller is launching a four-week online coaching course in the fall of 2018. Stoller also offers one-on-one consultation calls for those looking for advice.“My goal is not to turn someone’s home into a magazine perfect image, it is not sustainable,” says Stoller. “I work around a client’s specific lifestyle, or an aspect of their life they want to focus on, and develop a custom an organization system from there. The end result? Reduced stress, increased productivity and happiness.”

When Stoller sets down her pen and paper, she puts on her teaching hat. Stoller lectures at Vancouver Island University in Canada for part of the year, helping students learn management skills.
www.OrganizingForYourLifeStyle.com

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