50: Free Workshops and False Promises
===
Welcome to episode 50 of Permission to be Messy. I'm your host, JoAnn Krall and today I'm talking about all of those free workshops that pop up in your ads on Facebook and Instagram and how some of them are filled with false promises and it can actually be detrimental.
So, if you listen to last week's episode, I went through my seven step process to get your paper and your digital files under control, and you'll know that, I share my full process with people and I have it in PDF form and then sometimes I do workshops and videos around that process. And people often say to me, Why do you give your whole process away? And for me, I think it's really important for people to see the entire process. Sure there are going to be some people that are going to take my process and run with it.
And that's fine. I mean that, isn't somebody who is my ideal client. My ideal client is somebody that would need actual guidance, whether it's through the whole process, or if it's just, when you get to those last two steps, when you have to start evaluating and creating those systems.
This episode, Is inspired by an ad that I was served in my Facebook feed. And the person said. Eliminate all of your paper, clutter in just one week and the word just was capitalized and in a different color. Now you may or may not know how I feel about the word just I've talked about it before. But the entire statement to me. Was to grab people in and you know what I joined. I wanted to see maybe this person does have some sort of magic process or bullet, even though deep down I knew they didn't because I've been doing this for 18 years. And I've helped a lot of people go through their paper and their digital files, and most people cannot do it in one week. A person that could do it in one week would be somebody who's pretty much already organized and they're just trying to clean things up a bit. But people who truly struggle. I felt like this promise was, going to be detrimental and it turns out. I think it was to a lot of people. There were a lot of people, very frustrated, confused and that really bothers me because I don't want people to feel defeated and wonder what's wrong with them.
She said it could be done in just one week and it just isn't the case. Now we all know that these free workshops and, webinars, which I've done in the past myself as well. They're trying to get people to become clients, which is fine. But I think we really need to be leery of things that make promises that, they just can't keep, because even with this person was running a free workshop that led to a membership, which also isn't going to get you organized in one week. So the entire promise of eliminating clutter in one week is a false one.
And I don't blame anybody. Like I said for clicking on that ad and thinking that, oh, that can't be too good to be true, because to be honest, I was curious, I wanted to see.
But I think like with anything in life, you know, if you see an ad that says lose 30 pounds in 10 days, I mean, there's a lot of that out there but it's preying on people that have hope or that feel panicked. I never want you to feel panicked about your paper and your digital information. As we head towards tax time this is a time when people do panic. People panic when they get towards the end of their life and they want to make sure that everything's in order when, in reality, Anything could happen to us at any point. So that should be our goal at any age to keep our information organized.
Especially if we have a business. Because there's that other layer to it. We have all our personal stuff and all, all of our business stuff. a, we want to keep things separate, but also we want to make sure that if anything were to happen to us, that it would be taken care of.
I also want to point out that if somebody's teaching a bunch of different ways to do something. And they're not giving you guidance on which one that would be right for you. The trial and error process could take you a long time.
So before you try any system. Really think about what you've done in the past, what hasn't worked for you, what has worked for you? I talked about this in last week's episode, when I went through my seven step process.
Something else that I want to point out as well is a lot of these free challenges will be filled with people going through something similar to you. Some of these people have found success and they may be giving you their advice. Just remember that they are not experts. in this. And so if somebody tells you something that works for them, And you go to try it and it doesn't work for you. There's nothing wrong with you.
We are also different cookie cutter approaches don't work. And I feel like a broken record every time I say it. But it's because I'm saying it all the time. So if this is the first time you're hearing me say that. There are so many different ways to organize your paper and you digital, and there's so many nuances.
/ And one of the thing that I picked up from going through this person's workshop was. It was start with your mindset. if that doesn't resonate with you, that's okay.
I'm a big believer that taking action first will help you by leaps and bounds to get your actual mindset, right about the whole process. I think it's really hard to say. I'm just going to change my mindset and expect that's going to be a miracle solution to what you're going through. If again, if that works for you, that's awesome. I know personally it doesn't work for me.
I need to get moving take action and see results. Before I can actually reframe things in my mind.
It's a big reason why part of my planning process around organizing projects is for you tospell out everything that you need to do, and then spell out the emotions that you're feeling and the obstacles that you're facing. Because sometimes putting these things together can help you realize what pieces you need to change.
But that said. I never ever tell people that they need to start with a plan, because like I said, sometimes taking action doing a little bit and moving forward each day is enough just knowing that you want to declutter and you want to get organized and knowing what steps that you need to take can go a long way. And you'll find naturally that you'll start to feel differently about everything.
That changes our mind by attrition is that the word I'm looking for? I don't even know. But anyways, I wanted to talk about this now because there's so many free challenges going on right now, whether it is, regarding the paper and the digital, or if it's, for physical things or if it's. about anything about life. Be wary of those it's too good to be true. And I think some of us go into it knowing it's too good to be true, but we maybe we'll get a nugget out of it and that's okay too. That could be really helpful. Sometimes one person will say something and it'll just spark it and you'll go. I saw a lot of people in that group. who were not going to go on and purchase a membership, but they got value out of that free workshop.
So I'm not saying you can't get value out of these things. But I, I can't stress enough. I saw so many people struggling in that group. So if you have gone through any free challenge this year, so far and you have any kind of thoughts or questions.
Maybe you went through it and you thought, oh, I don't know if that will work for me or, does this make sense? Feel free to book a free call with me. There's absolutely no obligation. I do a free strategy call. The link is always in the show notes.
I also have the link to my seven step process PDF it's free. And as always, I'm wishing you much progress, peace, purpose, and the permission to be messy. Thanks for listening.
