Born and raised in the Washington, DC Metro area, Andrea graduated with an Accounting degree from the University of Maryland at College Park. An active member of NAPO (National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals), since the start of her business in 2010, she works with her team to help their clients to work hands-on with their clients from strategy, implementation, and (for those who are open to creating positive change) organizing coaching.

• CEO Hack: Sticking to habits, systems and routine
• CEO Nugget: Stick to one system, master it, and hone it down
• CEO Defined: Chief executor of your life

Website: https://www.dexterousorganizing.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BDexterousOrganizing/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/b_dexterous
IG: https://www.instagram.com/b_dexterous/

Appointment booking: https://www.bookdexorg.com/

FULL INTERVIEW

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Transcription

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[00:00:02.20] – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

[00:00:29.89] – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gretch from the I AM CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Andrea Hancock of Dexters Organizing. Andrea, great to have you on the show.

[00:00:39.70] – Andrea Hancock

Thanks for having me. Great to be here.

[00:00:41.89] – Gresham Harkless

No problem. Super excited to have you on. And before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Andrea so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Born and raised in the Washington DC metropolitan area, Andrea graduated with an accounting degree from the University of Maryland at College Park. An active member of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals since the start of her business in twenty-ten. She works with her team to help their clients work hands-on with their clients from strategy to implementation, and for those who are open to creating positive change, organizing coaching. Andrea, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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[00:01:14.50] – Andrea Hancock

Absolutely. Let's do it.

[00:01:15.79] – Gresham Harkless

Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit, hear a little bit more about twenty-ten or even sooner, and hear a little bit more about your CEO story. We'll let you get started with the business.

[00:01:25.29] – Andrea Hancock

Well, I love business. I love entrepreneurship. And, I didn't think that would be I'm pretty much creative, but I have this, you know, the logical serious side that, loved accounting. And that's kind of ironic because I hated math throughout my educational history. But my mom is actually the one who kinda pushed me into accounting. The only reason I did it is because when I was in high school, they had a a business program where in your senior year, you went to school half a day, and then you had to go find a job in an office.

[00:02:03.50] – Gresham Harkless

Cool.

[00:02:03.70] – Andrea Hancock

And so I kinda minored, if that's not the correct term, but in high school, I took accounting and I was just like, okay. This is not too bad. And I kinda stuck with it and, pursued that at the University of Maryland r h r h Smith School of Business. Mhmm. And, it was funny because a lot of people started off in the accounting tracking college, and that accounting 01:01, like, people drop like flies, but I thankfully took it in high school and already realized that I liked it and then, survived and got a degree in accounting. And I started there for a while, but even when I was in college, I was in, the entrepreneurship club, and that's actually something we students started. And now that I think about it, I was the only female and the only black person in that club.

[00:02:53.19] – Gresham Harkless

Sure.

[00:02:53.59] – Andrea Hancock

But, yeah. And, oh, and, actually, in high school, you know, the superlatives in your high school yearbook, I went back, and I was voted the most likely to be in business.

[00:03:06.30] – Gresham Harkless

Oh, really? That's awesome.

[00:03:07.59] – Andrea Hancock

It's so weird because no one in my family and my immediate family are business owners. So, anyway, I, tried a couple of, like, direct sales things. And, actually, those I won't, you know, poo poo on those. I think those are a great way to get started in business, especially when they help you to focus on a business mindset. So I read a lot of books, during that phase in my business history, like, Rich Dad Poor Dad, and How to Win Friends and Influence People. And those really changed my mindset because I think, not to get too philosophical here, but school kinda indoctrinates you to be an employee, to work for somebody. So those books help kind of get other wheels spinning and help you to understand that it's not an easy road, but it can be done.

[00:03:57.50] – Gresham Harkless

I love that you do that. So for people that maybe aren't as familiar with organizing what exactly that is, could you take us through exactly how you're working with the clients and and how exactly that process goes?

[00:04:07.69] – Andrea Hancock

Basically, you're editing out the things you don't need. You're putting together the things you do. Then you're finding the best place to store things based on how you use them, and then, contain them based on that usage as well. Labeling is also a pretty useful tool to have in that. And then the equalizing piece is the maintenance. So I remember you saying, you, like what I said. It's not about the bin. It's about when. So that's a lot of times where the wheel falls off the cart for a lot of people is they can get organized Mhmm. But they can't stay organized.

[00:04:44.30] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. That's extremely powerful. Yeah. That was one of my favorite quotes when we connected. And I think, you know, so many times as, you know, busy, especially entrepreneurs and business owners that are listening to this, you're juggling so many different things and not realizing sometimes how being disorganized can really hamper your productivity and hamper your ability to

[00:05:03.10] – Andrea Hancock

Absolutely. So, there may be people who are neat but not organized. There may be people who appear to be messy, but they're a little bit more organized because the definition of organized is finding what you need when you need it. So the person who is neat and, you know, you come in and everything's off the counters and are put away, They may be in drawers. They may be in cabinets, in files, and they still don't know where anything is. It's just put away. So it still lacks a system. And then you might have a person who's creative and they may have, you know, sticky notes all over the wall and they might be color coded and it may look like a lot's going on, but they if you were to ask them, well, where is x? They could put their hands on it within five to ten minutes.

And so there when we talk with a person, we gotta understand what's bothering them because really, it could be I've talked to some person over the phone as a consultation, and they are just so distressed. And they have, like, maybe two bins of paper that they just get you know, seem to get together. Whereas you have some people to say, oh, I just have a room that just needs some, you know, some attention. And you go over there and, like, not just that room needs attention. You know? So it's not only about, you know, the system, but how do you function in the system? How does it make you feel? How does it make you productive? Because, you know, that's, you know, the part about being organized is also about being human. And I even think about myself. Like, I'm a be I'm a be one hundred percent transparent. I had a bag. And I just moved, into this home maybe, six to nine months ago.

[00:06:47.10] – Gresham Harkless

Mhmm.

[00:06:47.50] – Andrea Hancock

You know, with COVID, I don't know where in relation we are at the time. But, there was this one bag that I just was like, I'll get to it. You know? I put everything else away. I'm like, and weeks go by. And I'm just like, you know what? I'm gonna tackle this back. This morning, it took me five minutes to organize it. Five minutes, and I was putting it off for months. So it's about that human piece that sometimes we just can't get over. And so a lot of times with some of our clients in that sort and purge piece, it's a decision-making process that they just need help with. And I mentioned in my bio that, we did organize coaching, and I took several courses to be trained as an organizer coach, because a lot of the time, it's about awareness.

Because when you coach, you see the person as naturally creative, resourceful, and whole. They have the answers. You know? And a lot of times, they think we have the answers, but they have the answers because when I leave a person's home or office, they're gonna have to find they need what they need. And that's me and Posey. This is how it should go. So those answers should come from them. So we coach them to find to, you know, bring awareness to maybe a habit or a thought process or, a perspective that they may have that may be hampering them moving forward. Just like I talked about I you know, to step down and coach myself into organizing that bag, it's only five minutes. But in my mind

[00:08:20.60] – Gresham Harkless

I'll take that. Pick her up. Yeah. Well, no. That's extremely powerful. And it feels, like, you know, empowering, you know, for people too because I think so many times you wanna be able to drill down into that human aspect. Because I say that a lot of times about businesses that, you know, we look at for accounting, we look at numbers, we look at data, we look at all these things, and that's business. But sometimes we forget that human aspect of it. And as you kinda spoke to is I completely changed my, I guess, paradigm or perspective on organizing and the impact that it has because a lot of times there is that human aspect that we can kinda overlook. It's not just, you know, a stack of papers. It's not just that thing that is here, there, or where it should be or where it shouldn't be. There's so much involved in in being able to kinda understand that process, understand that human aspect and exactly how you're, impacting those people, those places, and, of course, the feelings and everything that goes along with them.

[00:09:11.50] – Andrea Hancock

Absolutely. And as our as if you if I had, as you were talking, it made me think about that with the human aspect, and, you know, with productivity and being a business owner's priority is the key to, you know, getting things done. And because of life and because of things that happen and we know this with the pandemic, priorities shift. Things that were important, you know, when we put it on the agenda may not be so important later on in the in when we are about to address it. So, you know, that's part of the coaching piece is, like, sometimes we hold on to things that may not necessarily be should be a priority. But for some reason, we we think it we think it should be.

[00:09:56.50] – Gresham Harkless

Yeah. And not even being able to kinda step outside of yourself to be able to recognize that or really ask those questions is great that you're able to kinda, you know, provide that that coaching, aspect. Do you feel like that I was gonna ask you for what I call your secret sauce, which can be for yourself or your organization, but that's the thing. You feel kinda sets you apart. Do you feel like that coaching perspective and the ability to kind of, not just say, hey? You should put this here or put this there, but actually, to empower the people is what sets you apart.

[00:10:23.20] – Andrea Hancock

I think that is one of the reasons why I've built Dutcher's organizing over the years and why people have been attracted to work with me, because I always say, you know, having a professional organizer is kinda like having a personal trainer. Some people want, you know, the hardcore in your face. Whereas, you know, some people, and myself included, I'm not one to respond to someone like pushing me, so much as I am to, like, more of the yoga, like, do you know, I'm self-motivated. So, usually, when someone's pushing me, it's, you know, it's less appealing. I laugh at sometimes people who are super competitive because I'm not.

I compete against myself. So it's just like, okay. You know, like, someone's like, oh, you know, we joked that Duolingo sent my friend a message like Andrea's in the lead. Are you gonna come back at her? And I was just like, that would I said, they must know my personality. I haven't got a message like that. They must know them like, I don't care what so or so do it. I'm streaking for fifty-seven days. So with that thought, some, and we work with a lot of busy professionals, a lot of business owners, and with that personality type, they are already kind of a type personalities.

They are directors and, leaders in their communities in their jobs, or in their families. So, respecting that they have the answer. Sometimes they don't and I think sometimes they get decision fatigue because of all the things the roles that they play. So they kinda want somebody to come in and say, no. You should do that. But, you know, I kinda flip it in like, well, if you moved it there, would that benefit you? Or, you know, the questioning and and the, helping them to see the the best way. And a lot of times, I've noticed you when I do say this is what I think you should do, that type of personality will say, well, I don't know. I don't think they were they're gonna push back in. So it just works out.

[00:12:27.20] – Gresham Harkless

I think that's extremely, powerful. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

[00:12:40.00] – Andrea Hancock

I am a lever of routines. Mhmm. And I think that's probably why I like organization so much because, I feel like increment incrementally doing something, over time and creating that habit sets you free to then, be spontaneous when the per when it when the opportunity presents itself.

[00:13:02.29] – Gresham Harkless

Exactly. Yeah. That's extremely powerful. And, I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. So this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be a piece of advice you would give to a client, or if you were to hop into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

[00:13:15.39] – Andrea Hancock

I think I started my entrepreneurship journey thinking that if I just hit the ground running, you know, I would see results immediately, like, within a few months.

[00:13:26.20] – Gresham Harkless

Mhmm.

[00:13:26.60] – Andrea Hancock

And I think I would have probably focused more on building relationships than, you know, spending, a lot of money on, say, someone trying to tell me that, oh, if you work with me, then you'll be making six figures in, like, four months. Right.

[00:13:43.50] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO, and we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on the show. So, Andrea, what does being a CEO mean to you?

[00:13:53.39] – Andrea Hancock

For being a CEO means to me, being the chief executor of your life. I feel like, you know, most entrepreneur entrepreneurs would gladly work longer hours not to work fewer hours for someone else. And, I mean, oh my goodness. I've learned so much over the years. It's a wonder it's been a wonderful journey. And, most of all, I think I it took a while, but, just enjoy the flexibility that entrepreneurship gives you. Now granted I do have to sacrifice sometimes and work when I don't really necessarily wanna work. But as I grow and set those boundaries, which is another organizational tool and just being better at setting boundaries, you find that when you feed yourself and that was one thing I probably would tell my younger self or my, yeah, younger self when I started my business is, feeding you doing self-care and feeding yourself gives you better tools and it sharpens your tools to be more successful.

[00:15:01.50] – Gresham Harkless

Truly appreciate that, perspective and that definition. I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best people can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

[00:15:14.89] – Andrea Hancock

Well, we can be found at dexterous organizing, d e x t e r o u s organizing dot com. And, we have our blog there. When there are events, they'll be posted as well. I'm or we are both on I'm on Twitter, and my company is on IG, at the handle at b underscore dexterous.

[00:15:37.29] – Gresham Harkless

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. And we will have the links and information and show notes just so that everybody can follow up with you. And you can work with people in any area or just in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area?

[00:15:45.20] – Andrea Hancock

Well, right now, we have been working with some clients virtually. So at that point, yes, we can definitely work with people in multiple areas or different areas outside of the DMV. And, we do provide moving and relocation services. So, if the client is so in love with our move management systems here and if they're moving out of the area, sure. We'll travel.

[00:16:12.50] – Gresham Harkless

There you go. Well, awesome. Well, I'll definitely have that information and then show notes as well. But I truly appreciate you again, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

[00:16:19.70] – Andrea Hancock

Thank you. You too.

[00:16:21.60] – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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