Hello NAPO Nation! My name is Gayle Goddard, and I’m a CPO in Houston, Tx. At NAPO’s Summit in Las Vegas the end of March, Jill Yesko of Discover Organizing was awarded the NAPO Founder’s Award for 2023. The Founders’ Award is presented to a NAPO member for outstanding innovation, inspiration, and creativity both within, and outside of, the field of professional organizing and productivity consulting. Jill missed accepting her award at Summit because she had family commitments at the same time, but she has since received the award by mail, and I had the very great pleasure of speaking with her about her win and the innovations she’s working on to further the organizing and productivity industry.

Gayle: We’re sorry that you didn’t get to receive the award in person! What was the first thing that crossed your mind when you heard the news that you were announced as the winner of The Founders’ Award?

Jill: Absolute shock! Being nominated along with industry builders like Mindy and Naeemah was such an incredible honor and to discover that I was the winner was a complete surprise to me!

Gayle: What does receiving this award mean to you?

Jill: This award means very much to me, as I have endeavored to embody the mission of the Founders’ Award for my entire career as a Professional Organizer. I remember being in the room and watching my predecessors of the award go up and accept this prestigious award, and I hoped one day that I would do something that would elevate our industry as much as they have. 

Gayle: What prompted you to start your business?

Jill: 20 years ago, organizing for a profession was not a mainstreamed entrepreneurial path. I needed to transition to a career that was going to offer me the opportunity to be a more present parent to my children, who were then only 8 and 10. I was in a senior executive position at the time, working impossibly long hours.  I knew that my skills could transfer into professional organizing and consulting somehow, and one day, I saw Patty Kreamer’s billboard on Banksville Road in Pittsburgh, with a message that said, “Say Bye Bye to Clutter!”. I almost wrecked the car. I called her the next day asking for a job, and she said she didn’t hire people, but I could come to the Pittsburgh Professional Organizers group the next time they met. I was hooked! It was everything to me to be able to have a balanced life of parenting and career. I achieved that. In fact, my son Nathan has worked for my company since he was 15. He is 30 now!

Gayle: What was your biggest fear going into business for yourself? And what are you most proud of?

Jill: The biggest fear I had was definitely losing the salary that I could count on every two weeks. That fear was a motivator for me when things got slow in my business. Anxiety of failing after taking such an enormous leap forced me to not only be creative in my marketing efforts, but to provide stellar customer service, despite my lack of time and resources to do so. I am the most proud of all of the lives we have impacted over the last 20 years, not just with clients but with the many team members that I helped to develop. Our clients continue to reach out to us repeatedly not only for referrals but to thank our team for giving them the gift of the skills we taught them so that they could stay organized. 

I think I have always believed that what I would be able to give to the world in my business journey, and the time and effort I gave to my clients and employees would never be enough. I had so much to give, but not enough time to make a difference. Now it feels at least adequate to me. There is more work to be done, of course.

Gayle: Is there a mistake you made (that you’re willing to share) when you first began organizing? 

Jill: I was always a big thinker, and there were times that my goals exceeded my resources — that included time and finances. Being educated in social work, I was never terrific at managing money or creating expectations and strategies around financial health. I think as a business owner, there needs to be more education involved to learn how to not only manage cash flow, but to create a savings strategy to help you through the slow times — because there WILL be slow times. My earnestness was NOT enough to keep me going financially, so I had to work harder until I learned how to work smarter. You will be barraged by ads on social media and advertising companies that may not be the best use of your hard-earned dollars for marketing. I found that getting out and teaching classes in the community was my number one way to spread the word about what I did until the word-of-mouth referrals came in. That took some time, but it paid off and established my expertise in the community.

Gayle: What has been your most gratifying NAPO experience?

Jill: Being at the conferences each year not only as an attendee has been wonderful, but being of service to NAPO at the chapter and national levels has been so rewarding. Being on a board such as NAPO taught me so much – how to think more strategically as well as to work collaboratively. I was a very active part of my Pittsburgh Chapter, attending regularly and volunteering as often as I could.  They will always be my family even though sadly, the chapter had to close. Being among the colleagues that understand the walk we were on every day — the challenges of working with a resistant client, grieving our losses and celebrating our wins — was very powerful for me. I have never taken my relationship with my NAPO colleagues for granted. NAPO is a lighthouse that was always there to show me the way, as it has for many thousands of members, and I feel like my membership is a privilege, not a cost. 

Gayle: What are you working on currently (business or NAPO)? I’m particularly interested in hearing about your 501(c)3 organization, Safe Moves for Seniors. Can you explain what that organization is all about?

Jill: I recently created a division of our company called OpsDriven. Operations are very important to me – workflows go way beyond the best practices and create the ability for us to grow and scale (and eventually sell your company properly). Our team has been offering operations manual kits and forms for a few years to professional photo organizers, and in late 2023, we will be introducing these robust customizable operations kits to professional residential organizers who are truly intent on growth. 

I’m also currently working on changing the class codes for Workers Compensation as well as for Commercial General Liability Insurance for our industry. We don’t have a class code that accurately describes what we do! This is a change that needs to happen, and I am making headway in our state (Pennsylvania), which has put us into the inappropriate categories for years, such as professional cleaners (because we are exposed to chemicals in the home) and moving and storage (because we contain items into bins). Before I retire I am hoping to have this created nationally and I’m looking for an insurance company that is nationally based that will help me in this mission. 

The nonprofit I formed a year ago, Safe Moves for Seniors, was originally structured to help economically disadvantaged seniors to move to safer, more affordable housing without any barriers to a dignified transition. For years, my company, Discover Organizing, would get calls from people who could not afford our services and we would reduce our prices to accommodate their ability to pay, or we would do pro bono projects. The calls increased, and we were running low on funds! There is nothing in place to my knowledge that allows a low-income older adult to receive decluttering, organizing, or transition services through insurance or a third-party provider. This nonprofit’s aim is to create a type of conduit so that the nonprofit can receive the funds and deliver them directly to the subcontractors that provide the services. NAPO is a nonprofit too, and in service as a board member, I learned about board roles, bylaws, and structure. As treasurer for our chapter, I learned about the tax filing process for a nonprofit organization, and so much more education was earned in my other board positions. I am using that knowledge to grow this nonprofit to a national level, so that professional organizers and move managers can be a part of this awesome organization with me and receive their full rate of pay for their expertise. 

Gayle: Producing operations kits for new organizers, working on new class codes for Workers Comp and General Liability Insurance and a nonprofit to support senior moves! That is a long list of innovative activities — what you’re doing is truly amazing!

Gayle: Do you have any advice for newer NAPO members? 

Jill: If you are a professional organizer, take the business decisions you make seriously, and create structures and systems that will help you to grow and scale. Learn from your NAPO peers, ask a lot of questions, and always give your clients your best self. You achieve this by always honoring your health and your values. Stay curious and always endeavor to learn — sitting in complacency can be dangerous to your businesses. I don’t believe in mistakes, because without failing (and I have failed a LOT) I would never have grown as a person or entrepreneur. Every time I failed, I wrote the solution down and it became our operations manual. We work on it regularly, because it is a living document and needs to stay open to change and improvement, just like us!

This industry is not going anywhere and will continue to become important as the Baby Boomers retire and need help to declutter and downsize their possessions. Baby boomers want a partner — they don’t want you to do things for them and they teach us an excellent lesson when it comes to transferring skills and not enabling clients.

Finally, get involved in NAPO! Even at a micro-level, you can help to set up for a meeting, do some social media posts for your chapter, or help to green newcomers, even if you are one yourself! 

Gayle: Tell us something about yourself that we would never know just from looking at you.

Jill: When I was very small, I aspired to be a novelist. I wrote many short stories in school and for fun in the summer. While my three published books are all non-fiction, my true hope is to finish the adventurous mystery thriller novel series I have been working on for three years. Anyone know a good agent? 🙂

Thanks so much to Jill for telling us her story – she is doing creative and innovative work for the organizing industry, and she certainly earned the Founders Award! Since she missed her acceptance moment at Summit, we asked her to record an acceptance speech instead. Please watch the video from Jill