Everyone wants to become, one of the luckiest people in the world, but how do you stay lucky? This week we are joined by Bonnie Shay, owner of Mariposa Photo Organizing. She shares some of her secrets to staying one of the luckiest people in the world, and how she continued her photo organizing business through the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. She adapted and improved while using new technologies so she didn't miss a beat.
Transcription:
Kris Parsons00:01
Welcome to Changing the Rules, a weekly podcast about people who are living their best life and how you can figure out how to do it too! Join us with your lively host Ray Loewe, better known as the luckiest guy in the world.
Ray Loewe00:16
Good morning, everybody, and welcome, again to our weekly podcast, changing the rules. And just to kind of remind everybody that changing the rules is about the luckiest people in the world. And every week, we try and showcase one or more of the luckiest people in the world and talk about how they got there and how they maintain their status as lucky people. For definition purposes, our luckiest people in the world are those people who take control of their own lives. They design them to their own specs, and they live them under their own terms. That fits with our theme here of changing the rules because changing the rules is one of the things that the luckiest people in the world are really good at. They've learned that everybody tries to give you rules; but when you're living by somebody else's rules, you're not living your own life. It doesn't mean that rules aren't important. We all have to have structure in our lives, but we have to kind of pick and choose those rules that are going to be our roles. When you do that, you're living your own life. So with all of that in the background, I'm going to reintroduce Bonnie Shea and Bonnie Shea is coming to us from the magnificent city of Chicago again this morning. Good morning, Bonnie, how are you today?
Bonnie Shay01:39
I'm doing great, Ray. Thanks. I'm glad to be here.
Ray Loewe01:43
I'm glad you're here too. So first of all, Bonnie is a longtime friend. We've known each other for a long time, too many years to count. She's been on a number of our podcasts. She has been one of the luckiest people in the world ever since I've known her. She has found a way to stay lucky. And that's one of the things that we're going to talk about today. We're also going to note that Bonnie is one of the contributors to our new book that's going to come out hopefully in the next 60 to 90 days. The new book is called Changing the Rules. We'll give you details as we go through our podcast between now and the time it goes live. But Bonnie is one of the contributors in many, many ways to this book. She's been a role model as one of the luckiest people in the world forever. She's got several quotes in there, too. Last but not least, we'll get back to what you really do. Bonnie is the owner, the inventor, the founder, the chief cook and bottle washer of Mariposa Photo Organizing, a photo organizing firm in Chicago. Bonnie has always been in the business of organizing something, probably her kids to start with. So Bonnie, start with that one, right? Say, hi, and let's talk a little bit. You get in and feel free to get your commercial end of what you do, when you do, and how you do it, whenever. But let's talk a little bit about this journey that you've taken to being one of the luckiest people in the world. When I first met you, we were in a coaching program together in Chicago, and you're in the organizing business, but not specifically the photo organizing business. So tell us a little bit about how you got there how you chose to do this. And I'm sure it's based on what you're good at and what you're passionate about. But talk to us.
Bonnie Shay03:55
Absolutely. So back in 2007, my former husband and I decided to go our separate ways. And since we were having his business as our line of income, I was the manager of the photography business. He's a photographer. I came up with something that I was naturally good at which was being an organizer. I knew that was a profession out there because I knew about Nikko and that residential organizers were a thing. So one of my first clients that I worked with, you go room by room when you're a residential organizer, you're decluttering and you're reorganizing reclassifying stuff. We stumbled on this client's closet filled to the brim with photos, VHS tapes, DVDs, albums, you name it. And she said, Bonnie, can you help me with this? And of course, I said yes. Because I just spent 25 years telling people stories with event photography, weddings, bar mitzvahs, and I had the organizing gene so, I could mix those two requirements together be organized, and know all about photos. And I said yes. So right from the beginning, I decided to add photos as a specialty of my organizing business. After 10 years of doing residential organizing and photos, more and more photos, as the years progressed, I decided I'm done being a residential organizer. And not to knock my clients but I'm basically tired of cleaning up messes. I don't like messes, even though I like to clean them up, I'm done physically cleaning up, room and room of mess. So I'm only doing photos right now. I'm only doing printed photos because to me, those are the ones that are at the highest risk of being lost or damaged. We don't have backups of our printed like we do have our digital. So that's how I got to where I am right now, Ray. And I want to sort of allude to the quote, in your book that you used of mine, "It was all about being self-sufficient." I was raised to be self-sufficient, and that I had to do everything myself. And I had to be good at everything I did. We have very high standards of family. Well, I realized as I changed and hit different forks in the road in my life, being self-sufficient is not where it's great to be. Because you're not good at everything, you're maybe sort of good at a lot of things. But I'd rather be really good at something solid that I love to do, that I'm good at and that I'm passionate about. And so to me, that's where I've changed along the way to make sure that I'm doing what I love to do.
Ray Loewe06:39
Okay, show your satellite here. And let's go back because I think that people who want to be the luckiest people in the world, think that you do it once. And it's done. You and I know better than that. That's the same thing. It's true with your photos, isn't it? Let's talk about maintenance. Let's talk about change. Let's talk about the fact that if you want to be one of the luckiest people in the world, you got to stay on top of that, the world around us is going to change and you have to change with it. Not only is the world around us going to change, but we're going to get better and better at what we think we want to do. So talk to me a little bit about this change concept and how you've dealt with it.
Bonnie Shay07:26
So great, I have really good ideas about that. So one is because I'm genetically wired to be organized. For most of my younger life, I wanted everything to go as planned. I wanted everything to stay in a place. I didn't want to move because that sort of bread chaos in my mind. I wanted everything very well organized and structured. So surprises always threw me for a loop. Because I didn't want surprises. I didn't want things to change. So that's that. And then Ray, you shared a book with me called 1000 places to visit before you die, which is a great book. My favorite part is the introduction where it said something to the effect: 'There's no such thing as a bad trip, just good stories to tell when you get back home. Well, to me, I have taken that concept, it was such a gift and I keep receiving that gift. I've applied that universally to my life. It's not just about trips, it's about life in general; you went to the grocery store and it was closed, you didn't plan on it being closed. So you have to come up with another way around. So you go to a different restaurant, different grocery store. So it's universal. I've used that in my business, that expect change, not different or deflected or say you don't like it. Because sometimes Plan B is better than plan A and you don't know until you get to that fork in the road. So I think that's my sort of new way of not so new anymore of approaching life and accepting change. But stay focused on what I want to be doing. And make choices along the way with all the new information that you get every time you wake up.
Ray Loewe09:16
So before we get into your focus and your vision over here, let's go back to this change. You know, I think you're wired a little differently than I am. But I look at life as life without change would be really boring. You know, one of the things that you've had to do is you've had to change as different things derail you. Everybody does this. Most people have kids, guess what, kids get in your life and create changes, right? A Marriage, Divorce, gets in your way and creates changes. The world changes, we have wars unfortunately, we have diseases going on that change the way we have to structure life. So, talk to me for a minute about what happened with photo organizing, when all of a sudden you couldn't get out and get the photos.
Bonnie Shay10:11
Right. So luckily, I had a lot of backlog in my office of photos that I was working on, and they're all printed. But I made arrangements where I'd go, and I picked up the boxes and boxes of photos from my clients. And then we would work on Zoom. You know, I could show them pictures and say, "Hey, who is this?" So technology has been our best friend in this last couple years of extraordinary times. It allowed us to do more than we ever thought we could do before, outside of the pandemic. So that to me was awesome. I also, Ray, have sort of thrown away what I always thought that perfection was my goal. Perfection was where I wanted to go. And you know what, it's not all what it's cracked up to be. So I now say that I'm recovering perfectionist because perfection is not what it is, you want the best of the best, you don't want perfect, and don't be afraid of making a mistake. Right?
Ray Loewe11:09
Correct. When you start thinking about this journey that you've taken, and I think this is really important for other people to understand, the journey is not going to be smooth. You do have to make changes to the bumps in the road. And, and making those changes come from two places, I think they come from within you. But they also come from the people that you hang out within the support group that you have. So talk for a minute about the importance of a community, in supporting you and in your goals of photo organizing, and in supporting you as one of the luckiest people in the world.
Bonnie Shay11:48
So I'm a member of the photo managers, which is our industry association for photos. I've been a member for over 10 years. We have a very solid group of collaborating professionals worldwide, we're not just the United States and Canada anymore. We all share our ideas with each other. We're not so competitive; it's all about helping each other and collaborating. We have a conference. My annual conference is coming up in a couple of weeks, I'll be there in person, finally, again. And we have Facebook groups within this industry, and we have masterclasses, which we do retreats. So all through the year, we have different options to reach out to each other to ask for help or take a survey. Because especially technology impacts our world directly. And technology's always changing, you blink your eyes, and there's some new app or technological device. So that's a big community, Ray, that I'm a member of, and very proud of. We're friends. And we're professional colleagues altogether.
Ray Loewe12:49
And I think the point here is that if you're going to go on this journey of being lucky, and if you're going to design your life, and you're going to live it on your own terms, you need help. In other words, there are going to be times when the world crumbles. And you got to get back on track, and you got to get back on track pretty quickly. So somewhere, you have to have this support community; whether it's a technical support community, whether it's just friends that you hang out with, whether it's other people who are trying to do what you do, sometimes it's who your competitors are. But the idea is to bring you back so that you can continue on your journey. So and I think that that's a key part. Let's talk about your vision for a minute. Because when you started this whole journey 20 Some years ago, you had a vision of what you wanted to do. Now, I don't think that you've changed the vision, I think you've tweaked it, but talk a little bit about what's happened with his vision as you've gone through your story.
Bonnie Shay14:03
Well, my vision has always been there. And I think I've edited along the way. I haven't changed my vision, but I have edited it, or tweaked it, or narrowed it because I find rain. You know, this might be wiring, as you already talked about wiring can be different for different people. I don't want to do a whole bunch of stuff. I don't want multiple choices. When I wake up in the morning, I really want to go right to the niche of what I want to do and focus on that. Because that's where I feel like I'm really the expert, and I really do things well, and I love it. So I think my vision was that I always had to learn. I always had to do and love what I'm doing. I think a recent fork in the road is that I want to give back to other people who need some assistance, or resources, or are newer at this job than I am or are younger than I am. It's so rewarding to now be able to be helping others not just focused on what I needed for myself and what I needed to be successful. And you just get more because I learned from younger people now, instead of maybe always feeling like I was gonna learn from the older people in my world. I'm learning from any age person. And it's all good.
Ray Loewe15:25
Good. Okay, so talk a little bit about the role of podcasts in your journey here.
Bonnie Shay15:33
Role of podcasts has lots of perspective, a lot of characters that I love, that you're always gonna learn something new. And to me every day is a new day to be learning. Who cares how old I am, or how young I am, I'm gonna learn, you know, a lifelong learner. And then I might have heard that message on the podcast before, I might even have heard that specific podcast before. But sometimes repetition is the best thing. And when you hear it at the right time, it really sinks in and really gives you what you need that nugget of boldness and the nugget of truth or information. And I'm learning about new opportunities. And once again, it's taking our technology and allowing us to be so many places in this world without even leaving my house.
Ray Loewe16:27
I was sneaky about that because Bonnie is one of the regular listeners to our podcast, I wanted to get that in here. But you also listen to other podcasts too. Podcasts are a great way to stay involved to learn. And I think, you know, part of this process of being lucky is you got to have this continuing learning as part of it too. And one of the neat things about podcasts is you can listen to them in the car as you drive. You can listen to them as you exercise. They fit in a lot easier than sometimes reading a book.
Bonnie Shay17:02
I agree. And I'm gonna put it out there. I've told other people this, but I have to put it out on the airwaves because maybe it'll hold me accountable. I would like to do my own podcast. It's a conversation, right? We've talked about it, it's really a conversation. It's not so much an interview, or being a guest, or being all nervous, "Oh my gosh!". No, no, it's having a conversation about what you enjoy talking about. There might be an opportunity that I will do my own podcast on storytelling or something along those lines.
Ray Loewe17:37
We'll stay tuned for that one. Let's kind of finish up because we're getting near the end of our time over here. But I did want to bring up one other thing. And this is typical, the luckiest people in the world. You brought this up in a conversation recently. You know, you exude confidence. You exude passion about what you do. People naturally want to link to you and get involved with you when you have that kind of an attitude. You had a new client not too long ago. One of the things that happens with your clients, is they give you keys to their apartments when they're off in Florida, or Arizona, or other places. So what was the question that came up? And how did you handle it? And you really didn't need to handle it, I don't think.
Bonnie Shay18:26
Well, it was such a surprise. But it turned out wonderful. People find me on Google. It's not even a personal reference all the time that people call me and want to ask about my services. I offer a zoom opportunity to have that conversation when we first want to meet instead of just always on a phone. So it's a little more personal. This gal and I were speaking, and she lives in Chicago. She loved what I said and she says 'yeah, Bonnie, I want to hire you. Great. 'How about next Tuesday at one o'clock?', I said 'great and it's available on my calendar'. We have a date, she gave me her address, gave me all the details about parking. And then just about as we were to sign off of our zoom, she said, Bonnie, how do I know that you're legit? And I had to laugh at myself. Because I've never had that question asked to me because I know I'm a trustworthy person. But I praised her. I said 'Barbie, I get it, why you're asking it. You found me on Google'. But luckily, I was on zoom in my studio, my office and I could point behind me to the boxes and boxes of client photos that I have in my home where I work on them. Then I'm a member of the photo managers. Then I'm working with some other out-of-town clients who are not home when I work in their house. And that's all she needed to hear. We had a great session. Then at the end of this three-hour session in person, she says 'So what's a good next step? We're gonna be out of town for a couple weeks. Can you come and work in my home while we're gone?' And I said 'of course, I do a lot of my work on my own while working my magic'. So I was driving home after that session, I'm cracking up in my mind at first she asked me, 'How do I know you're legit?' And then she said, 'Bonnie, can you come into my home while we're not here and work by yourself.' And so it was just a fun story, a happy ending. And it gave me such insight into people, that they're being safe and careful. But then the minute we connect, I'm trusted, and I love what I do, and I'm working magic on their photos.
Ray Loewe20:31
Alright, let me sum up here. There's a lot that went on in this particular podcast. Here, we talked to Bonnie who's one of the luckiest people in the world. We talked a lot about how her life has changed over time. How, in fact, the luckiest people in the world don't just sit down and design their own lives and have it all come together all at once; that there's maintenance involved in this. But one of the things when you're living in the area of your passion, and you are in fact performing with items where your skill levels are high, everything comes together. And even this idea of asking for credentials is kind of second [nature]. If people feel like they have to ask that, but when you exude what you do, the way you do it, that's just kind of naturally taken care of. And it's one of the features of the luckiest people in the world that occurs. We're running out of time, but I just wanted to thank you again for being here. And you can go back and listen to Bonnie's other podcasts. You can reach her at Mariposaphotoorganizing.com. Thank you for being one of the luckiest people in the world. And thank you for contributing to this book that's coming out. I think it's going to help a lot of people. And thanks again for being you. Taylor, sign us off, please.
Kris Parsons22:03
Thank you for listening to changing the rules, a weekly podcast about people who are living their best life and how you can figure out how too! Join us with your lively host Ray Loewe, better known as the luckiest guy in the world.