Newbie Pitfalls and You’re Never Too Old to Learn

NAPO (National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals) Seattle Area Chapter has an extensive lending library. It lives under my bed. Inconvenient, you might say. Unless you’re me, a data geek who can’t get enough to read. First dibs on donations from colleagues! And thus I just finished Newbie Pitfalls: 50 Obstacles on the Road to Success as a Professional Organizer and How to Avoid Them! by Debbie Stanley, one of the most highly-regarded, Elder members of the professional organizing community. The link is to the 2020 second edition; I’m holding an original from 2004, enjoying the feel of a ground-breaking book in my hands.

Ground-breaking because Debbie only lightly touches on the “how to be a business” basics most such titles examine, the cues that you’ll need to market yourself, need to go to waaaaaay too many networking events as you build up, and you can’t avoid email. She looks at why we do this, how we can do it better, conversing helping professional to helping professional, inviting us to observe our efforts from our clients’ outlooks. Her prompts are heartfelt, encouraging and uplifting. A wonderful reminder that what we do is powerful. I’m approaching Elder myself, disconcerting though that is. And I’ll thumb through Debbie’s book for inspiration.