Episode 34: Empowering Women By Decluttering Their Spaces, with Allie Casazza

September 7, 2021

This was a real pinch me moment for the podcast! When I first thought of this podcast idea (years ago!), I had this vision of chatting with strong, independent and driven women and I have been BLOWN AWAY by the caliber of founders I have had on. Today’s guest is no different — I reached out to Allie Casazza‘s team pouring my heart out to get her on and today… SHE IS HERE!

For those that don’t know about Allie, she is on a mission to empower women by decluttering and simplifying their spaces (physical, mental and emotional). We start with how she came to helping people out — hint, it’s similar to many of our guests! She realized her life was hectic, things weren’t getting done and got fed up with constantly being stressed and frazzled. Allie then dives into how she turned this into a thriving business, with tangible tips — they are so worth it, and not what you might expect from someone with her success! We end up having a super honest conversation about the importance we put on formal education and if that is always the best learning tool.

Then we hit on how her business evolved, where her family plays into things and how she knew it was time to ask for help and bring people onto her team. We finish with my most favorite tip; Allie talks about her go to rule on being productive and efficient with her team. Finally, Allie gushes all about her book, how is came about, and the difference in leaving her strictly digital space. I am so fortunate to have had Allie on the show with me and I know you are going to take away so many tips just as I did! I have to give Allie an extra special shout out, because she has continued to support me and reach out even after recording which she most definitely didn’t need to do! Make sure to check out her site, Instagram and her NEW BOOK which drops TODAY (9.7)!!!!

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34. Decluttering Like A Mother, with Allie Casazza

This was a real pinch me moment for the podcast! When I first thought of this podcast idea (years ago!), I had this vision of chatting with strong, independent and driven women and I have been BLOWN AWAY by the caliber of founders I have had on.

Allie Casazza is on a mission to eradicate the “hot mess mom” stereotype by empowering other women. She has built a massive audience and a multimillion-dollar online business based on her proven, family-oriented approach to minimalism. She is also the host of The Purpose Show, a chart-topping podcast, and the creator of multiple online programs and courses that garner tens of thousands of registrations each time they run. Her platforms continue to grow every day as more women discover her life-changing approach to creating an abundant life. She was raised in Southern California and recently moved to Greenville, South Carolina with her husband, Brian, where they homeschool their four young children.

Full Transcript:

Dana: Are you dying at the thought of missing a single one of your babies first would have no idea how you’d give up the security that your nine to five job brings. My name is Dana Graham, and I had no clue how to escape that vicious 40 Hour Workweek cycle either. Until I did. As the wife of a traveling husband and mom of two tiny humans, I made the terrifying and totally bizarre leap from health insurance broker to successful newborn and family photographer, all with the amazing craziness of a two year old and the newborn in tow. But I’m not the only one. I’m so glad you’re joining me as I chat with other moms who took the leap into entrepreneurship and created the ultimate best of both worlds life doing it all amidst the chaos. Hi, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of amidst the chaos I am here today with another super special guest. I say that every episode, but today it is here to talk about her whole journey into this beautiful business and life that she has built both on the internet and in real life. And now in hardcopy, so we are so pumped to talk to her welcome, Allie. Hi, friend,

Allie:
thank you so much for inviting me. I’m really excited to talk with you. This is so great.

Dana: So Allie, give everybody just a quick overview of what you do. You’re so multifaceted, and you have all the things and you’re very The best thing about Allie, to me is that she’s so easily accessible to any mom on any platform in any form. So Allie, tell us a little bit about what you do. So we can back up and figure out how you’ve built this empire.

Allie: Yeah, so what I do online is I love to really focus on mothers, I help anyone and everyone that finds me we have girls in college, we have like dads, we have all kinds of people. But I love to focus my messaging on Mother’s because we are so much to the exclusion from so many good beautiful things. And there’s this messaging around motherhood that we can dive into that I’m really working against, and I call it the hot mess mom culture. So what I like to do is use the method that I’ve developed over the years and doing the work that I do. I like to help people start in their environment. So their physical space, their home, and work up into everything really just being purged of clutter, physical clutter, metaphorical clutter, calendar, clutter, mental clutter, all the things. And so yeah, got me coined the life minimalist, and I like it, and I’m here for it. And that’s kind of what I do.

Dana: Yes. So if you are looking right now, I know so many moms are on their phones, listening to this podcast, if you go and follow Ollie, on Instagram, you’ll kind of get a really good picture of all the different things. And I feel like that’s a great landing point for you to for everybody to bounce off of. And you can find what you need and what would work for you and your family. And obviously, you do so many things in so many different forms that not everything is for everyone. But I feel like you can reach so many moms with what you do in the different spaces that work for them. So go and check her out as you’re listening to this because it’s going to be really helpful. So Allie, I know that you have obviously all the things now but it didn’t start like that. So back me up to when you even started realizing that your mind your house, your mess, everything was cluttered. Talk to me about how you started and how you realize that first you need to change your life. But then how did you reach out to other moms to help them change theirs?

Allie: Yeah, that’s a great place to start. Because I think like for a lot of people, my business started from my own struggle, like I solved my own problem, and then started sharing it and realized, Oh, my gosh, I’m not alone, actually. And there’s a lot of women that are struggling with this. And so sharing online turned into one thing turned into the next thing and and then here we are right, um, I’m focused on building an empire based on the method that it’s not necessarily what I did, because I didn’t have it then figuring it out. But over the years coaching and doing all the things, it’s turned into what it is today. So it started when my son Hudson, he’s as we’re recording this, he’s nine, so he was like, just a few months old. And I had three under three. So yeah, it was that’s the thing is like, it was a very overwhelming time. Of course it was. And there’s nothing about my messaging that should ever be taken as motherhood should be easy or like, let’s just make it perfect. That’s not the message at all. However, it is because it is difficult, because it is so like soul sucking like it is so all consuming, that we want to bring ease into it and not make the parts that don’t need to be hard. So friggin difficult. Like we’re just making it harder for ourselves. So that’s really my goal. And the way that that started was at that point in my life. I hadn’t yet had Emmitt, so for now, I was just trying to get through the days trying to figure it out. And the thing is, I had three under three. My husband worked like 14 to 16 hour days, six days a week.

Dana: He’s gone.

Allie: Because he’s gone, and it was just me and the kids all day, every day Brian would we for work before any of us even woke up, he’d leave at like 530 in the morning. And then he would get back really, really late. Like, after the kids were in bed, for sure, a lot of the time after I was asleep, so the whole day, there was not a break. And I was in that and trying to breastfeed and trying to like take care of like the other kids and then snacks and, you know, just mom things. But I noticed that the regular stuff, like just keeping the house picked up, so no, I’m like, not even like clean, just like so no one was getting hurt, or it wasn’t like disgusting, like, up and keeping it maintained, doing things that we always had to do. Like we have to have clean clothes, we have to have dishes to eat off of, we have to have food to put on the dishes, things like that. Like, it just was crazy to me how behind I always was and how those things were taking so much of my energy, picking up the house was the biggest time suck for me. Because you know, the kids have like a playroom full of toys. They’re super little, they don’t know what’s going on. They walk in there, they dump everything out, they find some random toy, they decided as their favorite for the day and then toddle out there complain that they’re bored and want a snack, like it’s, it was just the same thing all the time that I would like go in there and have to clean up and put it all back like it was insane. And I noticed through this one really, really, really awful day that I had had this, like, come to Jesus moment or whatever, where I like kind of came out of my mind, and saw myself my life from an aerial perspective and realize, I have this beautiful life, and I’m not even living it. I’m cleaning up after it, and it sucks. And I don’t want it to be this way. And I’m tired of everyone telling me that this is just how it is that this is motherhood. And it only gets worse because then they get older, and they have attitude problems. And then they’re teenagers, and they don’t want to be around you. And then you’re still you’re still cleaning up after them. You’re still doing all the things. But also car pay all the DMS because it just so fast. Like it was just like this conflicting, confusing, stupid messaging that I was, I had decided that I was done with it. And I wanted to find a different way. So kind of just realizing that, okay, if this stuff is overwhelming me, and I really want to do the fun stuff, the juicy life stuff, like getting to know my kids personalities, and sitting on the floor and letting them crawl on me. And not feeling like so irritating as I don’t want to be touched. Because I’m stretched so thin, there’s so much to do get away and shut up. Like that’s what I was. And I didn’t want to be that anymore. So I figured out, okay, if I can get this mundane stuff to actually be mundane, and stop stealing the show and being the main event, then maybe I’ll have more time and more energy. And that’s exactly what happened. So through blogging and figuring this out, and my god figuring it out the hard long way, like years, I created what was the basis of values as a method. Starting in the environment, having not rules don’t do that. But guidelines that allow you to like figure this out for yourself. It’s not minimalism, it’s not here’s how many books is too many. Here’s how many genes you should have. Here’s how your refrigerator should look. Here’s what to do exactly at the end of every day, because you’re a robot, like Who am I to tell you what to do, relative to your amount of kids, your lifestyle, you know, all of your house, your personality, all the things. So creating that and sharing it and helping other women with it. And it did start with the environment only was only home. And then years later, as I started my business. I was like, Ah, my home is great. It’s working with me, not against me. This is awesome. I don’t even think about the laundry and dishes anymore. It just happens on autopilot. I’ve got this figured out things are uncluttered, the kids are getting along better because they’re not so overstimulated with too many friggin toys. I have time to pull my laptop out and work. But I’m overwhelmed with everything I have to do like in my business. Now I went from stay at home mom to not only working mom, but co mom and I my business grew really fast. We hit seven figures in less than two years. And I had a team and everything just grew. So then it became a different story. And I continue to just work through these weeds on my own and find how I could take that environment method and plug it into everything else and what needed to shift and change according to each like genre of your life if that makes sense.

Dana: It makes total sense. And I I feel like anybody that’s listening for me knows so my husband just spent a year overseas and so I have been living the boss mom life, the single parent life the all the things feel crazy, the overstimulated, everyone’s touching me. I’m the only one that can help. So you can find out how I found you. That’s a pretty clear line from meltdown mode of you know, 2020 to 2021. To like Isaza it was it’s a very clear picture, but it’s So encouraging to hear you talk about this. And I think that what’s so crazy for anyone listening who’s either on the verge of starting a business or is always wanted to, but didn’t know what they wanted to do. This is something I’ve talked about over and over and over, you had a problem in your own life, and you said, I need a way to fix this, I have to figure out a way to change my life, because I’m not, it’s not gonna change if I don’t change it. But at the same time, you recognize that this isn’t just a problem for you, this is a problem that you could solve for other people as well. And I feel like the power in that is clearly it’s clearly powerful, because you’ve built a whole business based on it. Okay, so you’re talking about your blog.

Dana: So how were you even fitting that in doing all the mom things and making that a priority? As you’re already so busy? Because I think that’s a big step into business for a lot of people is just even figuring out how to make that first step and make the time for that very first thing. So how did you make that a priority for you? And then how did you turn that into your business? Like, what steps did you actually take? Because I think so many moms have this great idea to have this problem that they see they see there’s a need for a solution somewhere a solution to a problem, but they don’t know how to take it from in their brain to onto a blog or onto the internet and into people’s hands.

Allie: So I started my blog, like 11 years ago. And it was so messy, like it just was sporadic. I didn’t have a schedule. I did like see other people. This was kind of like the beginning. Yes, blogs were they had totally taken over. But it was like, getting to the beginning of everyone has a blog. Like Remember that? time? Yeah, yep. And then. So it was just like I saw people making money and doing sponsorships and all the things. And truthfully, that never really sat well with me. I just didn’t want to do that. It felt committal and pressured. And I was just kind of having fun. And so I just was it was very messy. It was very sporadic. I would go months without posting and then come back. And then we’ve again, like it was really, it wasn’t my job at all. And I never intended for it to be ever and at the time, were you just sharing tips of Hey, this is how I’ve made my life a little bit better. So actually, it started as like a family blog to get family off my back about updating everyone about everything.

Dana: I love that.

Allie: And then I just started to like, like, I’ve always been a big journaler. And I have like, I kept diaries as a kid all the time. And I kind of started to just share my thoughts and my struggles in myself. And with becoming a mother. I was in a religion at the time. And I struggled with the societal pressures from that space on to being a mother and I really was like, internally wanting to push against it, but also externally submitting to it. So everyone would think that I was good. Like I had. This is like so emotional. And I think people don’t realize how spiritual your work is, no matter what you do. Like it’s so deep. So I was like, my blog became like my friend. And it was a processing tool. And if I didn’t need to process I didn’t use it. Ah, I never intended for it to be what it is today. So it stayed there for years. And then I we were so broke, like my husband was always gone and we were so broke like they was just crappy pay. It was never enough. It was never okay. Our story with money is extremely traumatic. And probably another episode for another day. We were at what you can find you do have an episode about this little Yes, yeah, you guys. Six of the purpose Joe will give you the fairness feel. But in that place, I was like, I started to amp up blogging a little bit and maybe I was like maybe I can make money with affiliates. Like maybe I saw I started to amp up and treated a little bit better. And at the same time I was starting to figure out simplicity. So it wove perfectly together that I started to just like hey, like let’s talk about this this week, guys, let’s do like seven days of simplifying because this is the journey that I’m on and that started to get people I mean like maybe like a few 100 wasn’t crazy but like peep I thought it was like a lot of people and what that is and

Dana: and that it to be fair like that is a lot of people when you’re starting out like any anything for up from zero that can give you any sort of clout and credibility with anybody that’s going to sponsor you or be an affiliate, you have to start somewhere. It’s not like just overnight, you’re gonna have this huge empire. So exactly, or if you’re listening and you’re in that space like I love that Alys like it wasn’t that many because now you you’re gonna be able to look back in however many years and be Alli now and be like, it was nothing but at the time This feels so awesome. And I love that it gives so much hope.

Allie: I made the cake one day to celebrate that I had 350 subscribers because I just thought I was famous. Like I love it. I made it and I still wasn’t making any money. But I had the followers and I was just sharing and so people were so interested in that and then that helps me be more consistent. Like you know, when you see some fruit, you’re like, Okay, like it’s working. And so that’s how My relationship with my blog was, and so fast and like skimming over this massively but fast forwarding to when I decided to start a business I was super done with my life super dumb with our money story. And I also broke through finally this the glass ceiling I had created for myself about I shouldn’t be paid for what I’m doing. At this point. I had probably a few Yeah, several 1000 subscribers. And I was answering a lot of questions I was spending hours because I wanted to. So as we’re praying that I would like the you asked how I made time for this. I wanted to I would let other things fall to the wayside to spend time doing this when inspiration struck. I liked helping people. I would stay up all night answering questions on my blog, hoping more comments would come in. So I get to answer more getting content ideas from these like few 1000 women and turning it into like videos and blog posts like I was in love with a job that didn’t pay me. And so in that place, I had decided that I was going to turn this into a business. So I had been doing that for years I had done people’s homes for free. I had done like digital people would show me their room and I would tell them what to do all for free. and wanted to like know that I could be the expert. And then there was a few emotional issues that people had that I hadn’t faced before. a hoarder, a widow, and somebody with like a ton of kids like it’s easier to do. We have a couple kids, I wanted someone that had like a ton of kids. So I did a webinar over and over and over again until it made money and I pre sold my program. Your uncluttered home, it was actually called purge your entire home at the time. I was like maybe we should say the word purge so much. Yeah. So I took the money, I finally had a little bit of money. And I had done that webinar. So so many times I have launched an E book that totally flopped and made no money like this is far I’m like skimming, I made a little bit of money. I flew home to California because we were in the Midwest at the time, for Brian’s job. And I did a widow’s house, I did a hoarders house, I did this woman’s house that had a shopping addiction. I did a mom with 11 kids. Wow, I did. And that’s just like the highlights, I did a bunch of other houses in between, I was also doing virtual, I did them all for free. And I found solutions to all the things I was like, I can teach this unless I get someone like this. And I was like, super poor. So I knew how to do all of this and make your home a beautiful space on a on a budget of nothing. Like I had overcome a lot of myself. But I wanted to do people that live different lives than me. And so once I did that I had this Google Doc that was 559 pages. And it was like my expertise, like what I know, and my method. And I turned that into the course that I had pre sold and released it two months later. And that was the beginning of my business.

Dana: Okay, so Wow, first off, like so many really key things that I want to talk about here, but so much congratulations to you for keeping going especially when you’re in such a stressful, scrappy season of life, right? Because when you don’t have any money, and you know that your husband was fully booked, like he was doing everything he possibly could. it lands on you now at that point, and the pressure of like, Okay, I need to make something work. If we’re gonna change our life is so high. So yeah, legit amazing that you made it through that alive because it is a real struggle. So how did you go about deciding because this is something you hear about all the time in building a business, like you’re doing too much for free? Or you can’t charge so soon? You don’t you don’t have any credentials to do this, like you obviously fell in the line of Okay, I’m going to do all this research, I’m going to build everything on the backend so that there’s no questions so that there’s no hesitation from any of my of my followers, my customers, these families I’ve worked with, that there might be something I don’t know, like you built yourself as an expert. Would you have done that differently? Like, what would you recommend for somebody kind of in your shoes, because you went above and beyond? I mean, you flew out to California, you decluttered several homes in different situations, and you did everything for free? So how do you view that now? Like, are you still really happy? That’s the way you did it. Because that’s the way I would lean, I would lean much more of like, Okay, I need to make sure that I’m doing this right. And make sure I’m doing it well. And I have answers to all the problems before I start charging. But at the same time, even what you’re doing even if it wasn’t perfect, you were offering a really valuable service. So were like that’s such a gray area for me. What do you think about that? Well,

Allie: I think removing the pressure that there’s a right or wrong way is huge. Like even just saying that. I feel like my body’s like relaxing because it’s like yes to think like Yeah, what would I do? Like there is no wrong way, but I will say so. Okay, I was very new. into the world of becoming aware of your thoughts and becoming aware of what’s blocking you from receiving what you want. I just kind of entered that, like mindset world of learning about that. And I had read something about that, like I had learned about these things called limiting beliefs. And I understood what it was. And I had noticed like, Okay, I think this is one of those things. I feel like, I shouldn’t be making money doing this. Because I didn’t go to college. I didn’t go I actually started a course with the National Association of Professional organizers and stopped. Because I hated it. I felt like I was being taught how to organize crap. I want to help people do that. And I really don’t like organization. I like simplicity. So I have a difference. Yeah, that is, there’s a big difference. Yeah, totally. So it just wasn’t resonating at all. And yeah, so I was like, Okay, here’s the block. I feel like I can’t make money doing this. Is it valid? I don’t even know where I learned about, but I just remember journaling, is this valid? And I felt like yeah, it is valid, I’m not ready to charge. And so I made like, I think I made like 750 something dollars from that pre order, the first one, and it was like, just enough to fly home. So I did that. And when I came back, I was literally like, set ablaze with knowledge, and fire and wisdom. And I was so ready. And I put like a really low price tag on my course. I think it was like $39. And it was like 600 pages of notes and low that I had spent and like time and years that I had been figuring out myself the hard way, so no one else would have to like, but that was still a big deal for me. So I think that we need to understand if you’re listening to this, and you don’t have to do it so hard, don’t you don’t have to not charge you get to charge. That’s just not where I was at. However, looking back, I do see that my limiting belief was valid, and it needed to be I needed to prove myself wrong. And I was really worried like, I don’t feel good. Charging money for someone. And then someone comes into my course and they have 11 kids, and it doesn’t work for them. Like I hate true. It’s almost like doing scientific studies. Therefore you release a drug or whatever. Like I needed to know that it would work. So after that I was a different person. And I proved something to myself and I was ready to go at this time. Also, I don’t know how famous Joanna Gaines was at that time. I can’t remember. But I remember coming across her. And she wasn’t it was like a blog post or something that she was featured in like she wasn’t. I don’t believe she was who she was today yet. Yeah, that might be Yeah. And I thought that she was brilliant and amazing. And doing such a good job and making all this money doing what she was good at. And she had no credentials. And I remember clicking that into present now like, now she just keeps inspiring me because she’s like, 20 steps ahead of me and where I want to go. So I’m just saying See, she has no courage. See, she’s just taught self taught. But you have to understand that this was the beginning days of being self taught being okay, and call it kind of Yeah, hang out. So I was terrified. I was like, I had massive fraud syndrome. I was so afraid. But I do remember reading an article about her and noticing she had no credentials. Like I went and dug. She didn’t say she didn’t have any. I found it on her site somewhere. Like she didn’t that was all I needed. I was like this. I didn’t even know that’s good. Yeah, no, she didn’t go to design school. She didn’t, she just is good at it. And I’m good at seeing the root cause of things and helping people pluck it out and get it gone for good and living their better life. So I don’t need a psychology degree, I’m sure that it would help in some ways, but I didn’t have that. And I needed to change my family’s life. And I needed to get this message out to the world. That was I was not sleeping at night, like it was burning in me. And so I just I just did it.

Dana: Well, what’s so funny about this too, is that there are so many people who go to college and then the first thing they do is get a job. And guess what, they have zero experience zero. And you just spent however many years in the field learning doing exactly what you’re supposed to do to be able to provide the service for people and to be able to help them change their mindset. And I feel like there’s so much to be said for experience over professional education. I mean, of course, don’t get me wrong, like I want my doctors to go to school, many many years of school but but at the same time, like you have to recognize that there is a way for you to turn your experiences and the things that you’ve done in life into something that can help others and you have definitely definitely done that. So how did you go from having this blog and doing all these things and doing this pre launch? Right You did your pre sale for you made like 750 right and got home. How did you then go from the launch? Have this one course and then escalate from there because it took off pretty quickly after you launched, right?

Allie: Yeah, I would say I think it was my energy shifting from going to California and doing all those houses. And I was also doing virtual coaching. And then I kept doing webinars, webinars were like the new thing they were, I feel like kind of now everyone’s tired of doing them. And I’ve like, changed the way I do mine. And they’re more like video pep talks, and they’re shit. Like, they’re just shorter, because they were like, two hours and like this whole like, yeah, again, that was me giving a lot away for free to earn. Yep, the charge. That’s a big part of my journey. And so I was doing those a lot. And they were going, Okay, and finally, I had built up traction, I was getting a lot more people. But I knew that I wanted to get a ton of eyes on me. So I started to get like, obsessed. Like when I walk into something, it’s like, when the shark I’m Finding Nemo, like smells blood. It’s like, I’m there’s nothing like that that I’m locked in. And so I had decided that I had locked in on going viral viral posts where everything we had moved away at in our society, we moved away from only viral things being silly. And there were we were seeing viral stories. And I knew I had a story. I have like, 50 stories now. But the story at that time was simplicity and how it saved my motherhood and it gave me my life back. And it made me a better person. And it made me a better mom and gave me the energy and space to actually be with my kids and not be so tightly wound all the time. And it was like practical, like it wasn’t like, Oh, just like meditate and just and just like Don’t be so tightly wound No, but like, how? How would I unwind myself? And I knew that honestly, I felt like I had this secret way to do motherhood. And I had to tell everyone, so I locked in on going viral. I researched viral posts. I researched what stories went viral. I tried to figure out why I studied it for like two months while I was still just like doing webinars and trying to get like a little bit of money and like tiny little chunks of money. I didn’t make that 750 again, like I got like no sales or like one sale like for forever. Like I was really, really like struggling. And I knew that if I just couldn’t get more eyes. If they knew they knew I was here. They would stay. No, I was like my whole thing. And I wrote a post I reworked it reworked and reworked it until I just knew like I was. I’m all in that all that it’s going to go viral. So I put that post on my site didn’t really do anything. I just like kept up the positive like I know this is going to work. And then I was in a Facebook group, a business Facebook group and I posted like I

I love running articles, here’s my blog, would anyone like to have any guest post. And this woman named Robin long who runs a Pilates website called the balanced life like a wellness brand, she said yes, and she actually said could you put this article on my site and it was the one I had written. And I was like, I am in it’s on my side already, is it okay and she’s like yeah it’s great. I put it on her site, and it wasn’t a big deal like she, she is now because of the viral posts, but like and like all her amazing work, obviously, but that viral post changed our businesses like together so it was really cool so she has an amazing, but it went viral, and it’s crazy because she told me this after it went viral on the day that her site was down, like, three months after I put it on her site, her site was down because it was getting worked on like it was physically impossible for it to go viral that day. It went viral overnight, it was trending above the first Hillary Trump debate in 2016. It was everywhere there was reporters finding my house coming to my door, the phone was ringing off the hook. I was on Good Morning America, ABC News like that today’s show, like everybody was freaking out about this story of motherhood and that and I had intentionally written it for my business and put links to my worst like all my stuff in there. And so I woke up the next day with like 20k and PayPal. COMM And I had never, I had never even seen more than like $2,000 in any account ever, and that was even like Wow $2,000 Or hey,

Dana: so yeah, so what do you guys attribute to it being picked up, I mean obviously what I think is important here to know is that this wasn’t something like you just went viral overnight like oh she’s, she’s an Internet success, a mate like this, like this is years of work and expertise that has gone into this but what do you think made that switch flip like, how do you even see that that happening, like if your site was down like what happened to bring somebody there that shared it with one person who shared it with three people who shared it with 10 Like how did that happen.

Allie: Okay, this is Whoo, but this is what I have it down for, like, I know, no one could say anything to me to, to prove otherwise. I know that because I had decided, this is going to go viral. And because I think that God universe whatever likes to play. It went viral on the day that it couldn’t go viral, to show me. Look at what’s possible, focus, decide. Put the intent into something, we are in so much more control than we give ourselves credit for because I think giving ourselves credit for being creators, for being in charge is terrifying, because then everything would be our fault, and that doesn’t need to be that way. But I know because I had decided and I was really at a point in my, in my own spiritual journey where I was. I was struggling, I was going through a lot. I know that it went viral on that specific day, so that months later, Robin could tell me and when we met. It was impossible, like our site was down and literally we had no views on any of the site no blog posts, it was impossible Pinterest pins weren’t going anywhere because everything was getting worked on, but that page. It went viral anyway. And I just, I know that it is magic, and when we get, we get intentional. We literally make things happen that shouldn’t have happened, because we needed it to, we wanted it to when we decided it would. So I think that’s why when I teach business I teach both the strategy and the energetics of it.

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I love that. Okay, so obviously you are a business coach and do all these extra things that we haven’t even talked about or touched on yet. Okay, so this happens the post goes viral, you have 20k a day in your bank account overnight like how, what did you do from there because I’m sure after the shock and awe of the 20k were off you were like, holy crap I need.

Allie: Yeah, I gotta go, yeah, yeah, I was terrified. I was so scared that it was all going to go away and that was like my belief about money, it always leaves, it’s never and actually money is literally created to support us. So, yep, we have so much say in this. So the first thing that I did was I wanted to do like minimalism with my business, so I didn’t create a course again for years, I focused on your uncluttered home I renamed it your uncluttered home, we moved back home to California like right away we bought a camper towards the country for like 10 months he went back home to California. I got out there and I was like in my element I was so happy. I recorded the whole thing because I had initially recorded it on my like $50 Toshiba from Craigslist, and you could hear the fan in the background of all my audios. And you can also hear like, I don’t know you know when you grow, I like would listen to the lessons and I sounded so depressed like I was struggling and I could just feel it, so I was like, No, I’m gonna do this like fruit with the fire version of myself now, and I recorded all new videos I redid the whole thing I added a bunch of new expertise I had learned because I was still coaching I was charging $2,000 to coach people, then making money doing that, so that was another revenue branch that I had, but everything was about the environment, I had no other elements of my framework yet. And so yeah I really focused on growing that and getting the word out there, I continue to blog, I started my podcast, That was a big, big, big revenue surge. That was a huge shift in my business, like massive, I think that I do better being heard, than I do being read.

Dana: Yeah and that’s fair to I mean that’s a fair thing to say like, for some people it’s just, you have a great voice and like you’re, you have tons of inflection and I feel like that’s something that people really grab on to and really resonate with. But at the same time, your podcast started back before it was it was just like your blog, it was like right before everybody in their mother had a podcast. Yeah, like you did it right before that happened.

Allie: Yeah, totally. So yeah, I was getting I initially had a podcast with a co host and forget where we’ve been called it but it was with Kelsey van Kirk and we podcast for a year together, and then we kind of went on did her own thing and I started the purpose shell so even like doing that with Kelsey having a co host bringing in her audience, she had connections to other people to have on, I had connections to other people, and that really helped, then branching out to the purpose show on my own was huge. That was when I hit six figure months. And I was like, like trying to stay there. But hold on, hold on. Eventually I did, and honestly even now there’s months that it’s like, oh I didn’t really hit what we needed to hit but that was when it was like, bam, we’re heading for Empire. I knew we were and that was when a big shift happened then, I had so many more people in my audience, I had so much more feedback so much more of like questions and I was just sharing like I love sharing my life on social media. And so because I do that people were like, oh, like, how do you do the calendar, what what do you do about this, what do you do about that. And then that became the second wave of the framework which is the unburdened program, which is like your life, your weeks your days, how you’re doing, how you’re feeling when everything happened, automation and delegation, all those things.

Dana: I love that. I mean, anybody listening, know all my people that are listening know me and know that they are, it’s a very clear path of how I found you, because my life has been crazy the past couple of years and it needed to change for sure. So talk to me about, not the how, but the environment that made you be able to do this like how did you build your because you went from zero to here, like how did you build your team how did you find people that you could trust. How did you find people to watch your kids did your were your kids school age at this point, like how did you build your life to be able to grow the empire from there because this is exactly what you teach. Anyway, but this is a question I asked pretty much everyone regardless, but also it was the first time you did it like this was, that’s the first time you started a business, so yeah, really no I mean you knew principle wise like what what may work, but how did you turn what you already knew into making this work for your business before you started anybody else’s.

Allie: Yeah, I think that’s what’s so terrifying is that being self taught was brand new, like me, having it be okay, and worthy enough to be self taught was brand new courses were brand new online business was brand new, none of this was proven like I just didn’t know I was so scared that I might and then my husband quit his job, like, early, early on before it was really safe to, and that and that was my answer to the childcare thing. Agreed. I just didn’t want the kids to go to school, we had homeschooled at the time and I like, I have a love hate relationship with homeschooling. It really sucks. And then for the lifestyle of it is so freeing, and that’s my vibe, free, I don’t want to be on a schedule I don’t wanna be told what to do I don’t want to be told what my kids need to do I want to figure it out for myself so we were doing that and I really didn’t want it to stop my kids did go to school for one school year when I was starting the business and then I think we pulled them out halfway through, they hated it, we hated it. The teacher didn’t like us because we were high scores before, and we just were like, It’s okay, it’s not meant to be the businesses going okay now that was after we had gotten things going and we’re going to move them back anyway so anyway. But Brian and I decided that we would keep the kids with us and that was the lifestyle we chose. And so my kids were with me they would falling on the floor when I was doing webinars Brian would take him out to the park and try to keep them quiet, He would be working on editing photos because he learned photography and is still my photographer who shot the cover of my book, photographed and like real simple magazine and like Harper Collins and all kinds of things now, so we kind of grew up together, we were doing this together, the kids were loud they were in the way, for sure, and it’s fine, I just decided that it’s not actually in the way they’re just, they’re part of the business. So that’s, I think what’s unique about the bit my business right with the kids is that they were there the whole time and it was okay. It wasn’t a problem and we never yeah we just never had help. It was just the kids are so connected to the business and I’m just realizing when you’re talking that that’s why, because they were there for everything, like they were a part of it. So, because it’s made our family closer, but with my team. The first person I ever hired was Kenna, she still works with me. She if you email me, that’s who you’re talking to. I hired her in the fetal position on the floor in my house in Arkansas, because, like 7011, something, emails, and they were mean, because they were Oh noes, and out of them were me and I’m sure most of them are nice but of course I focused on the mainland of course, right, and I didn’t know what to do. I regretted everything, and I could feel my energy closing up to all of this like I was going to. I was going to be so afraid of what was happening that I would not be able to keep this going, and I had worked so hard to get what I had and I reached out and that same business group I don’t remember what it was was like some business Facebook group, and I was literally like help just SOS, I don’t know do these emails and Kenna was the nicest, she was so sweet. She was like, we’ll figure out payment later, just let me get in there and I’ll help you. And she had like a VA business, and she got in there, she answered all of them in a day, answered all of them.

Dana: Wow, yeah she knew nothing about your business prior, I mean,

Allie: I mean I gave her like a quick I think I sent her like a voice memo or something and just was like, it was like 30 seconds, like, this is what happened. Here’s the article, how right. And here’s my course like if allowed like send them here. And she made me so much money from, from sharing the course with people on email, and I hired her on the spot. And, yeah, from there, I still did everything myself because my whole belief you got to work to earn. I even had a hard time having Kenna there. I got to a point where I started to have adrenal fatigue, I had cystic ovaries, I was, they were rupturing and I was bleeding, and just keeping working. Goodness gracious. I had like horrific acne, I still struggle with that it’s a stress thing it’s like my body’s just like, yeah, we’re stressed, here it is, and just all the things I was breaking down, literally, and I went to dinner at a friend’s house, this is the thing like when you trust and you just, You can be messy. You can do it so wrong. You can be so controlling and so afraid to let go, and God will still swoop in and pick you up. I went to dinner at a friend’s house and we were talking and the husband of my friend asked how my business was going and I tried to be normal, but I wasn’t I started sobbing. I was like, I hate everything. And I’m a designer and a coach and a coder like I taught myself how to code, you know how long it takes to learn how to code because Squarespace was just came out after I learned how to code, things of course but for that was my Oh, yeah, and I just I learned everything I’m trying to be on, I’m doing video I’m doing webinars like I am the breaking down I don’t even know how I’m standing because I have cystic and my back hurts and as my body is holding everything, and he was like, Damn, you need a Haley, And I was like who is this person. What are you saying, and he’s like well she used to work for me, she’s like a project manager, she’s just brilliant. She knows how to do everything here’s her number. And the next day I called this woman, and I cried again it was super embarrassing. She was just she was just like, wow, well, if you just give me your login for this, this isn’t this all just like poke around and see what I can do. And I hired her for like 10 hours a month, and now she’s my CEO and literally runs the business, so I can show up,

Dana: amazing, and it’s and that’s exactly what it is. Right, and I love that you found both your people through just trusting it and being like, Okay, I am going to reach out for help and be super vulnerable and say, your first was a Facebook post SLS like I need help, like being able to admit it, is the key for sure but then on top of that, like you were landed, you were given the right people right away, which is really rare I mean that is really, really amazing and I feel like it probably has to do with the fact that you waited and waited until you really needed it, and then you were like, Okay, we have to have somebody that’s actually going to do the right thing and you never would have hired them full time, if it didn’t solve your problems and I think hiring out is hard though like it is hard to let go of your business especially, and I think your story is unique too because you kind of went viral and you made money and you were there where you. It wasn’t comfortable to pay somebody probably but you could do it right and seeing, and adding them you were ready when you added them you were ready for the additional revenue they would bring you had all of that you had the course done, you had your, your, you knew your message you knew what you wanted to say, and you were ready to kind of roll out content all the time. So you have the infrastructure to be able to be like okay I can hire somebody, because you can’t hire somebody, if you don’t have everything ready on the backend and if you don’t have your voice ready to be heard.

Allie: Yeah, my whole focus was passive revenue and I say that with cringing because it’s not passive, but you know what I mean all the work has been done right and I and it can just be resold and resold I can change it later but it can be read and read and read on without me having to be like, Okay, here’s how we declutter the bathroom like it’s already recorded, and I wanted that because I didn’t want to start a business on simplifying, everyone else’s life and for me to be working all the time, which is ironic, that’s what I got into and had to get myself out of that again. But having that done, meant that I could hire people and now my team oh my gosh I think we had like 20 people on our team now. And now it’s like okay, everything is automated everything I do is automated, even when I go live, I automated into something else later, and the team just is like an assembly line, Everyone knows what to do. I show up where I have what has to be my voice and my face and my energy. And then, they do everything else. Have you heard of the 10 8010 rule. No. Okay. It’s like my favorite thing of all time, maybe we could do like, I feel like we need to have a lot of episodes or something because I honored. Okay, so 10 at 10 will change your life. It’s the first 10% of any project, you as the founder in the face and the energy all the things come in, you talk to your team, you map out what it’s gonna look like you outline it and you cast vision to everyone else like I’m the visionary, and then 80% They do all the heavy lifting, they do all the doing all the planning all the creating all the things, and then last 10% You come in and you look over it, you make sure you approve you make tweaks like whatever you needed to do, and you do the thing. So here’s an example of that. And just one tiny part of the business. What I want to make a new video about something, I will kind of like tell Amy on my team, what the vibe is what the intention is, and I’ll say like I know I have talked about this a million times before. Can you find those pieces of content for me, and write the bullet points of the points I’ve hit in the past and send it to me. She writes me like a script of bullet points of for this video, and then I go in I look at it, it gets my brain spinning, I add some other things and then I record the video so 10 8010 Make sense love

Dana: yes makes total sense and it doesn’t have to be on a huge scale like that’s not a huge scale, I mean that’s not like a six month project in the works like I love that you can use it for that but tip,

Allie: I mean, let’s be real, especially for me as a mom, I’m just not looking to do huge things like that. The money comes from the little daily ways that I show up for people.

Dana: I love that it makes so much sense. And so, okay, so at this point you’ve kind of turned the business into something big and you’re working now on people’s mindset you got through yours and how you had to kind of get there and not let this whole business take over like the rest of the clutter in your home had before. And so, how did you then really pivot and make it relatable to the people that already cared about you because I feel like so many businesses grow and evolve most do you kind of have to, especially if you’re a content creator, it has to evolve and grow. But how did you justify the pivot right because you have to move from one thing to the next you have to move from just decluttering your home to decluttering, something else, I’m sure. But when you went to do that. How was that received by your audience were they like, oh yes, totally, like you found something kind of in their lane but not the same, like Where was your mind to make that change happen.

Allie: Well first of all I think it’s really helpful than a personal brand. I struggled a lot I still sometimes think about this I struggled a lot to not like name my method, and make it its own entity, and then just like I’m the founder, I stayed, Alli Casazza my method doesn’t have a name like I was literally just journaling about this yesterday and like writing some ideas down because I may I may evolve to where I want that. But in the past, like I said it’s just owlie, it’s just me there’s no name, there’s no label there’s no title it’s just me doing this and helping you. And so I think the fact that like I’m just as it feels good to me which is the key pieces of my life. This is a lifestyle that I actually live, and I might be 100 levels past you, but I’m still, this is what I did. And so, when I was ready to share more, they were freaking out, they were so happy. I think our goal is, when new people come in the gate, and they’ve never heard of me or anything that I do and they’re like, Whoa. Where do I start, right, the messaging that I’m like well this is why it’s a method that starts with the environment. Start with your uncluttered home. There’s no wrong way like you could start with business women you do you but if you’re asking me if your environment is not aligned with who you want to be no changes are going to stick.

Dana: Yeah and I love that I love that like the way you’ve pivoted your business and you’ve added a new things all kind of lead back to the start, and that there is a clear defined path again you don’t have to do it that way but having that defined path in your business I think does help, especially with those new followers as you’re getting them. Okay, so now you’re like rocking and rolling you have your whole life like going pretty hard into these courses into this business and you’re keeping it for yourself you’re keeping your life for yourself so you’re still really making time to do what you want to do and making sure that your mindset is right. So, I know that you have always wanted to write a book, I know that about you, but talk to me about how this kind of came to fruition because this is a pivot, but it’s not an online pivot like this is a pivot into a book, and that is a big deal. So talk to me about how you’ve made this happen.

Allie: It is so crazy going from 100% online, like everything can be edited and re edited, like anytime I mean your money yo many times I’ve looked at a blog post on my 2014 and then like, delete, like, I know, control Yeah, book that goes out the window. And so going to paper has been terrifying for sure, but I’m getting the book deal itself was even just like so much, I started getting small publishing houses reaching out and offering me book deals like in an email that’s a red flag. First of all, don’t offer me a book deal in an email. And they’ll be like, we’ll give you $5,000 And like they like we’re trying to Yeah. I even like would have like a good communication with a company or a publishing house and have meetings and stuff, and they would offer me like a low amount of money, and want to have a contract that basically meant that everything I did moving forward was partly theirs. Matt didn’t feel good so I was always saying no. Yeah, I was always saying no and looking out for myself, and I’m thankful to my intuition for that for that decision because it’s hard to say no when you feel like, oh my gosh, but like publishing, and that was always like my dream, so it was hard, but um, I even like had talks with another big top five publishing house years ago, and I just didn’t feel good about it, They didn’t do anything wrong. Just, I did it, my gut was screaming at me to not sign that deal, and it was a low blow deal compared to the one I have now. And this is the thing with money, you should absolutely be paid, what you are worth and what you are worth will shift and evolve as you do because you’re the one deciding what you’re worth, not anyone else. So what anyone thinks of your book deal, what anyone thinks of your pricing is literally none of your business and has nothing to do with you. So and money also like money creates jobs money creates freedom money empowers women to do what is safe for them. Money is a resource, it provides everything that we need. So, I’m about to say a lot of things and if anyone has any money issues work on that because it doesn’t need to be that way. So, this neutral resource that is money. I knew that I wanted to get a lot of it with this book deal, because this was going to go for a lifetime, out into the wild and not be edited, and I know where I’m going. So I wanted it to be like, I’m going to get paid a lot for this, but also because of where I’m headed with my career. the publisher is getting a really sweet deal, because I’m not stopping and I will be in everyone’s head. I know that I’m going to take this message to where everyone’s heard about it, everyone knows what it is, the household name situation. So I want I felt really good about that mindset that I’m getting paid so much and it’s so good for me, my family and my business, but also your, I’m not lucky you’re lucky because I’m fighting with you and I’m going places. So I had that frame of mind as I went into this when I finally was ready and I got an agent and I was like I’m ready to publish a book like i My business is good, I’m ready to do this. And that really served me well in all the meetings and making the ultimate decision to sign with HarperCollins Nelson, which is a HarperCollins subdivision,

Dana: amazing, I mean it’s so true, though it is and it’s and I, and I love that you waited and you had that intuition because really like once it goes to print like that’s it and then everybody that wants to buy your book when you’re big and huge and even more famous and have even a bigger following like they will always have that resource, and you will still always get paid that same amount that I mean if I was getting paid the same amount to do sessions that I started with. I would be so poor, Like I can’t it makes I can’t even talk about it clearly like I’m literally choking on my own words because you don’t want that for yourself when you’ve grown, it is and so I love that, that you recognize that shift and anybody out there looking to write a book like this is incredible advice because you’re if you’re planning on keep if this isn’t your like last stand like hey, I’m headed to retirement like you need to be able to think from your future self and that future perspective of how much I would have wanted this at that point. So anybody listening, this is actually launching on the same day as your book alley so we’re so excited that it’s going to be live and you can get it in your hands. Talk to me about the book a little bit and for anybody that’s listening how it could help them.

Allie: Yeah. So what’s really fun about this book is it’s well it’s called to clutter like a mother, and it is going back to the first part of my method. So it was really interesting for me as a creator, to, I have created so much more like we I just created a program about like, your relationship with your body, like I’ve gone into this like lifestyle niche, so going all the way back to like simplicity and your environment was really really cool for me, and the content that came out of me for the book was so much of it was new, so much of it was like, oh my gosh I just didn’t realize how much more I have gathered just by talking about this every week for however many years, like all the, all the expertise just pour it out so it was really cool to go back to that topic, and pour fresh life into it and actually put pen to paper and create something that’s like has that finality around it, and the audio book like even the audio book I was like adding extra tips that I’ve even learned since I wrote the book to record the audio, like I just keep going.

Dana: I love that I was literally gonna ask you I saw your eyes was watching your Instagram stories the days you were recording the audio book. Yeah that was, I was wondering I was gonna I was gonna be my next question because for me, like even looking back at any old posts or blog posts or anything I’ve written I’m like this was actually great, but like, who I also want to say something else like

Allie: yeah I want to make me some lady the moderator in the studio, probably like she seemed to really like me but she probably secretly hated me because every, every patient will be like hold on. And I’m like, I would like go like this and like download like okay like Get it together in my head, and then I’d be like, also I’m just wanting to like go off, I think I say, I say this the most than anything else, I say, I just want to go off script for a second, like so many times because I kept adding stuff, and even sometimes I wouldn’t say it I would just add it. But yeah, it’s just, you’re always learning, you’re always growing and that’s the terrifying part of publishing but you have to just remember that this is Mike Haley always tells me this might freak out about that show he says, this is just a snapshot of your expertise at the time. No one can read this in five years and be like, that’s everything else he knows about this like it’s not. So, anyway, it’s a great book, it’s got so much heart in it and so much like just heart and inspiration that you’re going to want to like get up and do something about your space and your life, and knowing that when you change your space to change your life is so beautiful, it’s so therapeutic and then we do get like super strategical and there’s specifics of like how to do this and what to do and all that stuff which is normally only in my courses so I’m very very very excited for women to get their hands on this book.

Dana: Well I’m so excited for you and for anybody listening, it’s been a huge goal of valleys to get it her book and target. She’s been like, legit manifesting this for years. And so today is the day as this is, this episode airs that you can go into Target and grab her book declutter like a mother So Allie i It’s physically hurts me in my body right now like I’m actually having pain, being like, Okay, we have to wrap this up because I could just abscond your whole afternoon and it would be fine for me, so thank you so so much for doing this I truly can’t tell you what it means to me to have you on here and I am so thrilled for you and your business and it’s so funny how the internet can make you so proud of a person that you first off have never met and second off has like a kajillion times more success already than you but I’m still like I’m so proud like I’m so happy for you.

Allie: I feel that way about people too and it’s really beautiful like it really brings us together, so that, that means the world to me that you would have me on here and say that so thank you so much.

Allie: Of course, well thank you so much for doing this and tell everybody really quick your website and where they can find you Instagram all the places.

Allie: Yeah, alliecasazza.com pick your own adventure there what do you need help with, how can I support you, and then with Instagram just search Allie Casazza, It’s the account with the blue badge and a Facebook to whatever, wherever you like to hang out on there.

Dana: And also in target. Alright guys, well thank you so much for another great episode and I hope you go check it out and we will talk to you guys again next week. I am so honored you spent any minutes of your day listening to me babble about living this entrepreneurial life amidst the chaos in any mom’s normal day to day. If you love what you heard and more snippets of knowledge about this mom Boss Life, head over to our website at amidstthechaospodcast.com For show notes and links to anything mentioned in today’s episode. If you’re really feeling inspired, it will mean the world to me and my family if you take the time to read it with you. Thanks for joining me, amidst the chaos.

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