How To Tidy Your Consulting Business (And Spark A Little Joy)

Can you handle one more viewpoint on Marie Kondo and her tidying phenomenon?

Because her concept has deep relevance for our consulting businesses as well.

Sidebar: she’s also proven the point my podcast partner Jonathan and I keep making: that you can become an/the authority on almost any big idea if you work it correctly.

I first wrote about this back in 2016 after an attack of moths cut a wide swath of destruction through my closet.

The results came so fast that I stayed committed to applying her principles not only to my “stuff”, but also to my business and my life.

The concept is simple: determine what sparks joy and gratefully let go of everything else.

Kondo recommends touching your objects to feel your connection with them—which is pretty darned hard to do with consulting services.

Instead, try this.

Take a few moments to run through each client in your head: What sparks joy about working with them?

Be honest with yourself—tune into what you really value and trust your first gut reaction (Kondo always has clients start with clothes first since they are easily replaceable—the consulting equivalent would be to start with your lowest value services or products).

Are there clients who just don’t fit with your business model or point of view? Imagine if you swapped them out with your sweet-spot clients or buyers. How much more good could you do with your work? How much more joy might you experience?

Ditto with products—is there a way to bring more joy into the work required to launch and maintain them?

What has already served its purpose? What are you ready to let go (or gift or sell to someone else) that will allow you to focus on what has the deepest meaning for you?

Just last week, I did a thorough review of every marketing or landing page on my site. I didn’t add a single page—instead, I subtracted.

Those deleted pages had been hanging on from work I wasn’t feeling anymore.

It was, in a word, liberating.

Why shouldn’t I focus on the options where I can make the biggest impact AND have the most fun?

Yes, I said a quiet thank you to the people I’d served from those pages and to the learning we’d all experienced.

But a funny thing happened, yet again. I sent the email off to my webmaster to make the changes, and boom! A new sweet-spot client appeared out of nowhere in my inbox. And another the next day.

Coincidence?

I don’t believe in coincidence.

Here’s the thing. We didn’t start our businesses to endure a miserable slog—we hung our shingles to be high impact, high performing, happy people.

So deleting anything that keeps us from that is essential.

Whether you call it tidying up or keeping your sanity, you AND your business deserve to align with what brings you the most joy.

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