Ep 4 - Being Outspoken

 

According to The Macmillan dictionary, an outspoken person states their opinion honestly, even if other people do not like it. This week we’re going to be talking about what it means to be an outspoken business.

We posted our company values statement on the front page of the website quite a while back and in April 2022, we published a blog post about our company values. The blog post was to expand on our value statement and this podcast episode will expand on the blog post about the value statement. It's all very meta. 

You can listen right here, on Apple Podcasts, or you can read the transcription below. Enjoy!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

All are welcome here 

The value statement is all are welcome here. Tidy Revival does not condone discrimination based on race, religion, sexual orientation, gender, physical appearance, or abilities.

Before the spring of 2020, I'd never really talked about anything that could be considered divisive on my business profile. (when I say profile I’m talking website, social media, etc)  I was coming from that corporate mindset of don't upset people. Don't risk losing potential customers.  That's the same reason I intentionally never used curse words on my page. As time goes on, I'm growing more outspoken in all areas of my life. I have come to realize over the years, that it's not everyone's cup of tea. It's not always appreciated or liked. And I definitely internalized some of that. 

My employer said no

There are a few instances back in my employee days that come to mind. In 2009, I helped organize a march in support of repealing Prop 8 here in California (which was essentially a same-sex marriage ban). I helped organize a multi-day march from San Francisco to Sacramento and was very excited about it. It took months and months of planning with this organization. I put a lot of work into it. I wanted to get time off to be able to march with everybody and couldn't because my employer said no.  They said it was a bad time for the company. 

You also need to understand that I did not have a high-level job, and I wasn't good at my job at the time. Being there or not was very low stakes. I wasn't even making a difference in that specific department, because I was no good at my sales. I couldn't get time off and I had to just suck it up. 

In the end, I was able to go for a day and a half, which really changed how I was able to participate in the march itself. You can't just catch up to a multi-day march across the state. So, I needed to be part of the driving committee instead. It was disappointing and there was nothing that I could do about it. I felt strongly about it and felt the reasons were warranted for me to leave work for a couple of days. I wasn't even asking for paid time off. I just wanted to not be at work and be supporting this thing that I'd help plan. They were able to say no… they did…and that was the end of that. 

Advocating for others wasn’t appreciated

Another time I got marked down on an annual review for “shoving my opinions down people's throats.” Now what actually happened was that I was advocating for trans rights for the students that we worked with.  It was an instance where Trans rights weren't being taken into consideration, while other students were given certain privileges. My argument was that those same privileges should extend to our trans students. I was basically reprimanded for being too opinionated. I'm going on the record to say that I was in the right for that.  If anyone wants to ever hear the whole story, I'll give it. 

Speaking up got me in trouble or told by the people who were in charge that I should not be speaking up. Something to know about me is that I grew up in a really religious upbringing. So there's a lot of stuff that I internalized from that experience too about being a generally good, pleasant, helpful, and kind person. In a lot of ways, it's easier to be that than to be divisive and potentially annoying in your opinions, but we're in a new era. As a world in general, a lot has changed since 2020. like many of you, I feel like I have changed in 2020 also. I realized that it is more detrimental to me and those around me not to speak up than it is to speak up. There might be people that I offend along the way with my value system. That's okay with me. Those aren't going to be my people and that's fine. There are plenty of people who do home organization. You'll never hear what they stand for, and that might be more your person.

As a company, we care

That's okay with me. It’s way more important to me for the people who are going to be my people to see that I give shits about supporting them. As a company, we care. That's one of our biggest things. We give shits about people, about groups of people and it's a value that we're vocal about.

I have a small but mighty team. Brittany, who you'll hear in the show credit, does content creation and edits the podcast, and does a lot for social and our private Facebook group in the course community. I also have an errand runner who helps me with my in-home organization side of things, just running errands, donations, weekly shopping, that sort of thing. So we're a really small, but mighty team. When I bring others on, I'm very transparent about our value system as a company. I confirm that the others who are coming on, care too and that we're on the same page because even though we're a tiny team, we do really need to be on the same page.

I don't want our company values to come as a surprise. Otherwise, it's just not going to be a good working environment for any of us. Now it's more transparent than ever…If they have looked on our website or done any research. I just wanna be extra transparent. So we talk about it during the onboarding or interview process. We’ve shifted over the last few years. We're just more outspoken as a company. And that is very intentional. 

Are we perfect? Not likely.

As someone who is team mixed, I'm half Mexican and I'm half white European ancestry (with family members from lots of different backgrounds.) It is important that I actively support these issues. As a company, we support Black Lives Matter. We support the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. We support our friends who are in the Middle Eastern community. We acknowledge white supremacy and we want to be part of actively dismantling it. Am I going to do this perfectly along the way? No, but I'm going to be learning and caring, sharing, and trying to do better as a human, as a business owner, and as Tidy Revival as a company.

We support the LGBTQ+ community. As someone who is bi, I found it very hard to come out due to my religious background. Even though I'm no longer religious. It took me a very, very long time to feel like I was coming out fully... It was just a lot of little conversations over many years. It's important for me to be supportive of the community. To be public with that support so that potential clients, students, and our course community know I have their back. Not just as an ally, but as part of the community. 

This work we do, helping people declutter and organize, involves a lot of trust. As somebody who is getting organized, you need to know that you're safe on that client and student side. A lot of this boils down to emotional and physical safety. why would somebody put themselves in a position of potentially experiencing hate, whether in person or in our private community? I want my students and my clients in homes with two moms who are transitioning, who have transitioned, who are non-binary… anyone who is in the community. I want them to feel loved and supported. That is the goal. 

Creating safe spaces

Going back to the religious freedom conversation. I mentioned that I'm no longer religious, but most of my family and most of my friends are too. I have many people I'm close to who are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, and more. if you're listening, we love you and support your religious rights. It's really important to us as a company. 

Decluttering and organizing can feel isolating. My goal as we grow our community is for everyone to feel less isolated as a whole. Part of this is to create safe spaces, right? I recognize that you can't just designate something as a safe space. However, it can start with words. it can start with being verbally welcomed into a space and having the person in charge of that space tell you we care about what you're going through outside of the decluttering and organizing side of things. And that you're welcome here.  I'm grateful to be in a position in which I absolutely recognize this privilege to be able to share my thoughts, to be growing an inclusive community, to be able to share what's on my mind and to be able to speak freely.

Letting go of fear-based thinking

One of my goals with this podcast is to be able to share myself and my personality fully. And again, I do realize that in the early days of my business, there was a lot that I was holding back in my personality and that's fear-based too. Right? I think that if you're listening to this podcast, you could probably relate to it too. Maybe it's not fear-based about showing your personality, but maybe it's showing your home. Maybe it's showing those spaces that bring you a lot of anxiety. For me being outspoken goes back to wanting to be liked (which the older I get, the more I have realized is a lost cause.) Some people are just not going to like you and that's fine. The older I get, I'm just way more okay with it. A lot of it was about being considered professional, but even then there is no right way to be professional.

I think culturally we're shifting the conversation away from traditional professionalism anyway. I love the conversations that are happening around professionalism because there are so many things that just don't matter, right? You can be professional and you can have tattoos. You can be professional and drop an f-bomb.

You can be professional and share about the communities that you care about. You can be professional and not perfect. the tagline of the podcast is we're going through your shit as we're going through your shit. Know that I am going through my own shit too. I always say that I am not sitting on my throne of perfection, looking down on everyone, telling you how to be. I’ve got things I'm working through also, and I want to be more and more transparent about them as well.  It can be different things, but that's okay too. We'll be moving forward together because perfection is overrated and it also doesn't exist. Right? So we're not going to worry about that. Instead, we're going to worry about sharing, caring, giving shits about others, trying, learning, growing, and generally being kind humans.

If you stick around, I appreciate you because I know you're here for that too. I want you to know that whatever you're going through, I got your back. So thank you so much for tuning in today - I appreciate you.

If you want to learn more about how I can help you get decluttered and organized in your home head to tidyrevival.com to learn how I work with people one on one or in our Clutter-Free Home Process course community. If you enjoyed this episode, please be sure to subscribe so you'll always have access to the latest episodes. I would love to hear your takeaways, your thoughts, your feelings, and your concerns. Feel free to tag us at @tidyrevival on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

The Tidy Revival Podcast is written and hosted by me, Carly Adams, and edited by Brittany McLean. The title song Maverick is by Dresden the Flamingo. And until next time, remember that…

 
 
 
 

Links mentioned in this episode

 
Tidy Revival Podcast, MindsetCarly AdamsTidy Revivaloutspoken, honesty, company values