I’m Amy Slenker-Smith — business coach for professional organizers. You’ve been booking paid clients for a while now. But you’re still undercharging, overexplaining, and piecing together an income. You’re not new. You’re stuck. That’s what we fix. Sign up here to learn more.
I'm writing this from a hotel near Cleveland Clinic
|
Hey Reader, I'm writing this from a hotel room near the Cleveland Clinic. It's late. I'm tired. Tomorrow I'll be up at 6 to take my dad to his appointment. If you're caring for an aging parent, this one is for you. Pew put a number on it: 54% of adults in their 40s are helping care for an older parent while still raising or supporting a child. If that's you, you already know this season is not for the faint of heart. If you've been reading for a while, you know my dad has cancer, and I help with his caregiving. I get to help because I built a business I can run two to three days a week, doing work I love, with enough margin left over to be there for my mom and dad, and for my son Zack, who's a junior in college. This season has good weeks and bad weeks for everyone. And it seems like the week my dad has a good stretch is the week Zack has a hard one, and the other way around. Steve and I call it whack-a-mole. There's no better word for it. As tired as I am tonight, the coaching, the writing, the helping women build businesses, it's still the thing that lights me up. I have a roster full of women building real businesses. Some have young kids. Some are single. Some are in the exact season I'm in. The common thread is that every one of them has a purpose, and a 10% edge in something they know and love, and they want to teach it to other people. They want to make their clients' lives better. So they're building a business around it. And that business buys them two things: financial freedom, and the one that's harder to come by, time freedom. Time freedom is the reason I can be here this week. Here's what it actually buys: - Two days at the clinic without a client roster too full to leave it - Walking the halls with my dad at 7 a.m., with nowhere else I need to be - Being fully present for Zack's hard weeks, not just the easy phone calls - The group chat with two friends who keep me sane, answered in real time - Rest, on the weeks that flatten me - like this one When you receive this, my dad and I will be walking the halls of the Taussig Cancer Institute, where the doctors have gotten him into a clinical trial and connected us with specialists for every part of what he needs. I could not be more grateful for them. I know how this story ends. Eventually the cancer wins. But for now, I get to help my dad have the best quality of life he can, and I get to build a business I love. Both things are true at once. Financial freedom gets the headlines. Time freedom is the one that lets you show up for the people who need you, while they still need you. A while back, I made a short video about why I didn't build my business to hustle harder, and what I built it for instead. 👉 I didn't start a business to hustle harder (Watch time: under 1 minute) If you're building something, build it with margin. You'll be glad it's there when a season like mine shows up. And if you're in this season too, Gen X, aging parents, a kid still finding their footing, hit reply and tell me what's going on with you. I'll cheer you on. I'll pray for you. We're in this together. Build a business that fits your life — not one that runs it. Amy P.S. If you're trying to build a business that leaves room for the people who need you, that's the whole reason I coach. Book a call with me. Bring the season you're in. We'll build the business around it, not the other way around. |
Amy Slenker-Smith, Simply Enough
I’m Amy Slenker-Smith — business coach for professional organizers. You’ve been booking paid clients for a while now. But you’re still undercharging, overexplaining, and piecing together an income. You’re not new. You’re stuck. That’s what we fix. Sign up here to learn more.
Hey Reader, Last week I told you what I believe about pricing and leading my clients. That's only half the list. Here's the rest. It's the part about being known for what you do. Most professional organizers I coach think visibility means a polished website and a content calendar. It doesn't. For years I thought I needed a better website. Then more content. Then a stronger business page. None of that ever built my business. Conversations did. Here's what I actually do: I post from my personal...
Hey Reader, Last week I was packing for my niece's wedding in Maine. A 12-hour drive, timed during the worst possible week to be away from my dad. But then, while we were already in PA, a family friend stopped by to check on him and asked if he could take him to Cleveland Clinic while I was gone. One offer. One yes. The long trip that felt really hard suddenly had room in it. That's margin. Not an empty calendar. Just some room to breathe. We turned the drive into a two-day trip instead of a...
Hey Reader, A reader wrote back to me last week, after the purple shovel story. She told me something honest. For a long time, she kept her distance from my work. She thought I wanted everyone to throw away everything they owned. Take a picture. Toss it. Done. She wasn't wrong to think that. That's close to what the story said. Here's the harder truth underneath it: if you don't say clearly what you believe, people fill in the blank for you. Sometimes they get it right. Sometimes they don't....