I have something very exciting to share today on the Joy Living Home podcast. I have been doing this podcast for three years, and I have never had any form of interview as part of it, but it was something I was really wanting to strive to learn how to do in 2025 and then just look for really wonderful guests that would enrich what I'm trying to share with the podcast. So first, I had to learn the technology.
And for those of you who have been listeners for a while, you know that that can be a struggle of mine. So I had one of our wonderful group members agree to sort of be my guinea pig as I recorded my first ever interview.
And we just wanted to talk about what it would be like to be part of the membership, how she came about finding me and getting into the membership and what she gets out of it in case that was something that you ever wanted to sort of peel the curtain back on and see what that might be like.
And then as a way of me being able to now learn how to handle that audio, I am able to do other interviews, which is super exciting because coming up very, very soon in early, early February, I will be doing an interview with Dana K. White. And for those of you that are sort of in this organizing world with me or have searched how to declutter, you have most certainly come across her name. And she is the author of many books, but a brand new one that will be coming
out in February. And that is actually the subject of what our interview will be about. And I get to ask her other questions too. So very excited about that. But in the meantime, as a way to start sharing interviews as part of the Joy Loving Home podcast. This is the first. So I am very grateful to Jessica and I hope that you will enjoy it.
Please, if you have never before listened to my little musical opening, we actually refer to it and that way you won't be confused when you hear what that's about. It will start right after this. A wise person once said, everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it's stupid. Well, Fish, quit trying to climb trees while getting advice from well-intentioned monkeys.
It's time to jump in the water and learn how to swim with the current of your life. I'm Joy, a professional organizer, mom of four, and fellow Fishbrain. If you're looking for a place to get understanding, encouragement, and ideas for your home that actually fit how your brain thinks, then I'm glad you're here. Let's ditch the type A advice and embrace what makes our brains and our homes unique. Together, we could have a joy-loving home.
Jessica, welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited you agreed to join me here. Sure. You are my first member I'm interviewing, and I just wanted to have a few minutes to talk to you about how your experience in the group has been. Absolutely. Thanks for having me. This is really exciting. First of all, just so that people know, we're all over the place. You don't have to give exact location, but where do you join me from or at least what time zone? Yeah, I'm in Kansas.
Any trouble ever like participating in the activities when, when I'm hosting different things? Oh, no, it's really easy finding times because you offer a lot of options. So, so in the morning, I can jump on to your, your later ones. Awesome. So I have to ask, how did you like find me in the first place and decide to join the group? It was New Year's Eve. I was driving home with my family and looking for podcasts to help me with my New Year's resolutions.
And I downloaded like five of them just to have when I had no signal. And you were one of them. Oh, that's fun. And you like search a certain thing? Like, how did you stumble upon? Because I actually don't advertise anywhere. I don't know. I think it was, I think I just looked up like New Year's resolution kind of things. I might have put ADHD in there just, or mom. There must have been some keywords that might have helped to get there, but.
That suggested me in some capacity. Yes. So what made you decide to take the leap to actually join the group once you'd listened to the podcast? Honestly, I think the fish metaphor got me.
Like compared to like i listened to a lot of them that that same time and everybody seemed to be pitching their memberships at that time and i was like i know i needed something beyond the free stuff offered by everybody and there was something that just like hit home with the fish metaphor, for those who are like what is she talking about listen to the intro of the podcast i think people skip over the musical intro but it's literally a quick
synopsis of how i feel about our brains so I'm glad that it hit home for you. Curious, have you tried other groups and maybe not participated before? And what do you think the differentiator is? Because you are an active member, which is why I chose to interview you. Because it's like, why are you participating when a lot of us will join 20 things and not participate in any of them? Yeah. I think it helped that I had skin in the game this time.
I really had, I am a member of so many different groups and I've downloaded so many different freebies from newsletters and all these things and even bought a couple digital bundles, but I knew I needed the accountability that you pitched and I got it. So I think you said at one point, you get in what you put out, wait, put into the, you got what you put into the group. So I don't know. All the things lined up well this time, and it was perfect for me. So how long have you been a member?
One year. Yeah, I was going to say, I thought it was right around a year, so I wanted to make sure. And you were one of my early adopters. So I'm learning while you guys are learning. So for those of you out there listening, it is not some polished, like, oh, she's there for five seconds, and the rest is whatever. I'm learning with you guys and I participate with you guys because I'm always talking about how I don't have any answers.
I'm just like, join me as we go through this journey as I figure life out too. But I guess my question is, do you have a favorite part that has kept you in it for a year and kept you participating over the year? I'd say what was work with me Wednesday is now tackle it Tuesdays. The Zoom calls where we get that one-on-one, let's just tackle this together idea. I don't know. It became very personal, I guess. And it felt like you get you get just to know
each other through digging out together. Yeah. Well, and it's funny because one of my fears and it's a silly fear because like who am I or whatever, but is if the group continues to grow, how do I manage it that it feels this great? Because right now we're a small group and I do feel like I know the people who take the time to actually put in so that they're getting out. And even when we have our like our more people in a Zoom call, it's still right now intimate enough.
So it'll be interesting how I can manage through it. But right now I do my what used to be work with me Wednesdays the first year. Now we've moved it to Tackle It Tuesdays the second year. I do four different or I try to do four different times every time because we've got folks in Australia who are regular attenders and we adore them.
We've got folks all over the U.S. And the fun thing for you, Jessica, I hope like I can cut this out if you didn't want to be personal, but we have gone through like not knowing you are pregnant, a whole pregnancy, baby is now here and you're still chipping away. Like, are you feeling progress from being part of the group? Absolutely.
And it feels like I just have a whole new set of tools over this last year that helped me in like just I feel like I've almost reprogrammed my brain a little bit to like not be afraid of I only have five minutes or like I hear these little like.
Memorized bits from the different times like oh I could do a blitz a five minute blitz here or literally I just set a timer for my kids and I was like guys for my first five minutes I'm gonna do this like I proclaimed it just like we do in our group like so it just kind of has and all the strategies have started integrating into what I'm doing now so like I don't know if that answered your question no that absolutely did and I guess my question to you is like my goal for interviewing
you today is if there was anybody out there listening to the podcasts and have thought like, yeah, it's just one, it's another one of these things I'm not going to get anything out of, or it's just another one of those things where I'm hopeful. Like, would you have any advice about getting them off the fence?
That's a great question. I think this is a group where I've, this is probably one of the first groups I felt like I can authentically be myself and, we can troubleshoot anything any week like or like whatever I have and we're like or whatever kind of pile I'm or issue I'm kind of trying going through we are able to tackle it and, I don't ever feel ashamed of any of the mess I don't ever feel like I mean there's sometimes I have to turn off
the camera because my kids are like a little bit distracting for all of us But like I this is the place I think I've been able to not only like feel OK with where I'm at, but also like I feel encouraged to improve where I need to where I need to go and dream big, but also get tools to get to those things. So to summarize, I would say it's worth jumping in because you can not be afraid to be yourself and like be kind to yourself,
but also be equipped with the tools to dream big and reach those goals. Yeah. It's very real. I appreciate that. No, I love that. And I was going to say the other interesting thing for me is when I thought up the podcast and I was in my little like learn how to podcast group, we were told pick out your specific person. Like who are you hoping to speak to?
To be honest, you don't fit my demographic because in my head, I wanted stay-at-home moms with school-age kids because I didn't want moms with kids underfoot to feel frustrated that, okay, well, she says this should be possible and it's not. And it's like, because they always talk about trying to like get yourself organized with kids underfoot is like brushing your teeth while eating Oreos, right? Like there's no progress that's going to be done.
And yet here you are with kids underfoot, many kids underfoot, and you're still doing things. And it's not like it's going to stay that way forever. You're living life. But have you ever felt not welcomed because you weren't necessarily that demographic I was talking about? Or has anything I've said been frustrating of like, well, great joy, but that doesn't work for me? I don't think so. I at least my flavor of ADHD is like, I can easily like apply and be creative with what's presented to me.
And nothing has been like out of range with your advice and the challenges and things. Yeah. I'm hoping if nothing else, like I welcome and love anybody who wants to listen and join the group. They don't have to fit what in my brain is the ideal person. But I also know how swamped I was. And I never want a mom with kids underfoot to feel like they have to do anything but mom, you know, like the house will wait, babies don't keep, but the house keeps.
So it's like, knowing that you in spite of all of that still feel like you can have progress in the midst of everything, or it's still it's something to, to like, I always call them experiments, we're experimenting together, some are going to work. Some have been less than ideal, but we keep trying and it keeps entertaining our brain because we keep trying new things all the time.
So I guess as we're wrapping up, because I like to keep my podcast short and sweet and I am on a time crunch, a little aside, I'm about to head off and help my daughter pick out a prom dress. But any other sort of closing thoughts that I didn't ask or you would have liked to have shared. I always tell my friends that this is the best $10 I spend every month. It definitely is something that is worth a try. And the fact that you can cancel anytime, I think, takes away some of the risks.
I love that. Yeah. And I'm very thankful I did. And I'm so thankful for how much you've done for our group and the inspiration that you've kind of sprinkled in your podcasts and online. And I'm just really thankful for you, is what I like to say. So on behalf of the group, we want to thank you. I appreciate it. I appreciate your time. And I'll end us here, but looking forward to seeing the group tomorrow for another Tackle It Tuesday.
And if anybody is interested in joining with Jessica and me, you can get to us by going to joylovinghome.com slash membership. It is open for a little bit longer. Thanks. Talk to you later. I hope you enjoyed that interview. I'm so grateful for Jessica for taking the time to just have a quick chat with me about what it has meant for her to actually take that leap and give it a try and see what she could get out of the membership.
She has put so much into it. She's a regular attender of all of the Tackle It Tuesdays, what were formerly the Work With Me Wednesdays that we do, which are just body doubling Zoom calls. But you get stuff done because you have to kind of declare your attention. And we do three 15-minute sessions every single time we do one of those. And they're offered four times a day just so that we can reach everyone. I also have members in Canada. I don't want to slight them. So I only mentioned
the U.S. and Australia. But I also have some Canadian members in there. And it's just, it's a really warm and welcoming, wonderful community. And I'm so glad that I've been able to have that as part of this podcast. But like I mentioned, I am gonna go ahead and leave the membership open until the end of January.
Some of us are slow to start our year and if you felt like, oh, it's too late to do anything kind of new this year and you've been on the fence and wanted to still join it, like I said, you can get there by going to joylovinghome.com slash membership. I'll put show notes in, links in the show notes for you all. But yeah, thanks for hopefully enjoying our first interview ever here. And until next time, continue to choose joy.