November 16, 2017

Meet Kathi Burns, CPO® of addSpace To Your Life!

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kathi Burns, CPO®.

Kathi, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Living My Life With Freedom. I feel like the first half of my life was spent looking for a sense of purpose. After college, I tried several careers but never quite felt like I was doing what I was put on this planet to do.

My mind was constantly on the quest to find my dharma / life purpose. I could frequently be heard muttering – “I wonder what I should be when I grow up?”

Finding the right path, which meant for me “a career with purpose” was a constant struggle. I wanted this so badly that I literally tried 13 different careers! I didn’t realize it at the time, but now I know, that I was cluttering my life and my psyche trying to find purpose.

As a serial entrepreneur, I jumped careers and created new businesses simply based on making money because I thought that’s how I could find purpose. It took me literally losing one of my larger businesses in the tourism industry after 9-11 to figure out what it really takes to find life purpose / dharma. It takes space and time to become clear about what is important.

After losing my business, downsizing and moving from Florida to San Diego, I had a lot of time to begin again and reevaluate what makes me happy and what are the special gifts that I can offer to others. This is what I think makes people feel a sense of purpose, doing what comes naturally to them and helping others who might struggle with that aspect of their life.

For me, the gift I have to offer is the ability to change. I didn’t realize it until I stopped and took (or literally was made to take) the time to realize that change is super easy for me but for others it is not.

I also realized that without the space I created from downsizing and moving across the US, and the free time to reevaluate my life, created from losing my business, I would have never seen the path to launch my professional organizing consultancy – addSpace To Your Life!

As a Board Certified Professional Organizer, I now spend my time happily helping clients eliminate their excess and get organized so that they are able to eliminate the distractions that keep them from seeing and knowing what is most important for their happiness.

This work is super rewarding because I watch clients grow and transform right before my eyes once they remove the blocks that have distracted them from what they truly want. In essence, I help them do what I did to get to this place myself. They get the job promotion, find their mate, start new companies and begin to live life with a new sense of freedom.

There is so much more to this story, but these are the basics.

I create easy to follow systems to give clients more time. With more time they get clear on what is most important to them. I also help them clear the unnecessary clutter from their life. After that process they begin to see clearly how they can create a life filled with purpose and much more freedom.

The amazing thing to me is that this work of decluttering and creating systems happens on the surface level of my client’s lives but, in reality, it is working on a much deeper level and that is why I LOVE what I do!

Trust me, when you add space, you gain clarity and your world turns from black and white into an amazing kaleidoscope of opportunities and new found freedom!

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Launching a new business is always difficult especially after bankruptcy and no money to promote or advertise. I started addSpace To Your Life in 2003 with $49. I printed door hangers, added rubber bands with a hole punch and literally walked door to door in nice neighborhoods. At the end of each day (walking 5-7 hours) I would get a phone call and usually one new client.

After I had a few clients, I began building my website. I was super fortunate to launch my agency just when TV shows about getting organized. Like Clean Sweep were starting to air. It took a few years to build a steady client base and I was amazingly blessed when media outlets like Good Morning America and local news stations featured me and helped me spread the word.

Another challenge was creating a brand that encompassed both services of professional organizing and image consultancy. As far as I know I was the first Pro organizer to also offer image consulting services. To me, it makes total sense to combine these services because I work on the external surface of my client’s lives but it was difficult to create a brand that expressed both aspects. Now there are a lot of young organizers who are also stylists and I LOVE that!

In 2009, when the economy took a hit and many of my clients lost their investments, my company also suffered. My website was doing well and I was blessed to have a lot of continuing publicity with my tips featured in national magazines like Oprah, Real Simple and Better Homes and Gardens.

My largest business obstacle was when Google changed their algorithms and launched Penguin and then Panda. This was the biggest challenge I have ever experienced and thank goodness I had laid the groundwork with a steady local client base. I went from the top search phrase in the US for getting organized (even above my National Association ~ NAPO) to page 7 on the search engines. At that point my online presence was obliterated and no one could find me when they searched for ‘professional organizer’ or ‘getting organized’.

These have been the main obstacles I have encountered and here I am, 14 years later and still going strong! I am one of the old-timers in the industry and am now working on launching online courses so that I can help more people around the globe organize, streamline and simplify. Their home, business and life.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with addSpace To Your Life! – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
addSpace To Your Life! is a professional organizing and image consultancy that helps home owners and businesses create systems for success by eliminating clutter and unnecessary distractions.

My goal is to help clients create more space because I know that when you have space, you have clarity and when you have clarity, you are closer to finding your purpose and this is what I believe almost everyone yearns for.

As the author of a best-selling book How To Master Your Muck and also Home Organization, the Smart Guide. I am proud to be a professional speaker and have been thrilled to be a paid speaker for national and local conferences.

I am most proud of my most recent endeavors which are my online self-paced organizing courses which I have spent the last 5 years developing.

My Home Organizing Made Simple Society helps clients organize their entire home from the front door to their back door and even their garage with step by step formulas that I use in the field every day.

My second online course ~ Home Office Organization Course is designed to help small business entrepreneurs create systems so that they can focus on generating more business and doing what they love and less time stuck in minutia that frequently sidetracks them from success.

So, what’s next? Any big plans?
I am currently in the process of launching my new website which offers free and paid online trainings to help people to become and feel better organized!

It will be loaded with tips and tactics to transform lives while organizing their homes and workspaces.

Organized and Energized is a work in progress with much more to content coming soon including online home and small business organizational training programs!

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