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Secrets to Our Fabulous Working Relationship

Kelly and Joy's FUN studio shot

Love and respect is at the heart of our working relationship.

Our Working Relationship ‘works’ because we:

  • Respect each other — We both have ideas and expertise to offer, and value each other’s contributions.
    • Honor honesty — We try to be quick with compliments and slow with criticisms.
  • Know our strengths — We let each other do what we do best, and speak up when we need each other to pitch in.
  • Love each other unconditionally— Note that this doesn’t mean we LIKE everything about each other!
  • Love to laugh — Working together can create conflicts, but a sense of humor transforms any contentious moment into a  warm one in which be both accomplish more.

Because Joy was a single parent and I am her only child we have always been very close. Let’s be clear, though — Joy’s was the solitary parenting voice: what she said WENT, so there was little opportunity, nor room, for conflict.

Joy is a wise, confident, unwavering parent who created a warm, loving environment that welcomed creativity, individuality, and humor. Without siblings to divert or demand Joy’s attention we spent lots of time together — by choice. Our house was always full of friends of all ages and lots of strong women. We don’t really spend a lot of time together doing our business, instead we focus our meeting time on running the business; administrative details, preparing for workshops, and attending conferences together!

Since we both like to meet clients for an initial walk-through, whenever possible we attend the first consultation together. We find that’s the best way to establish a comfortable, trusting working relationship from the start. With the client, we identify needs and goals, and each of us works within our specialty area to serve them best. Working within our areas of expertise — at separate appointments — allows clients to easily ‘switch gears’ on their organizing tasks. Since Joy is our fashion diva, she is better at wardrobe assessments and helping prune clothing collections. Kelly is more savvy with technology, and storage, and paperwork systems. Both of us are great at general decluttering. Joy has a better eye for furniture arrangement, Kelly is our company ‘colorist’; between the two of us, your rooms will be stunning and comfortable.

Kelly calls her mom by her first name in professional settings… but outside of work, we go back to our mother/daughter roles, where Joy is always the boss!

Our Secret

“We’ve always had a good relationship — even when Kelly was a teen! We each have our strong points and respect that in each other. While maintaining our professionalism, we inject some humor into our work which our clients seem to love.” Joy — mother

“We are good sharers! Rarely do we work hands-on together. More often, we share clients like we share clothes — we focus on finding the right fit.  Kelly — daughter 
Secrets to Our Fabulous Working Relationship is our 3rd organizing post of 2013.

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