Soul Seed Academy

Seed to sprout

BUSINESS HIGHLIGHT

Melissa built Sunflower life organizing which focuses on helping neurodivergent people organize spaces that support and feed their creativity, and let them arrange things according to what works for them. 

Branding

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Website

Question 1

Tell us a little bit about you.
Where are you from?

I was born and raised in Utah. I’ve lived elsewhere, in Idaho and Oregon. Melissa and her partner have two kids that keep them busy.

Tell us a little bit about you.
Where are you from?

I was born and raised in Utah. I’ve lived elsewhere, in Idaho and Oregon. Melissa and her partner have two kids that keep them busy.

Question 2

Why do you do what you do?
What motivates you?

As a person who has ADHD I've tried my whole life to get organized and every time I’d try a new method I would say oh this is great I’m gonna do it and it’s gonna solve all my problems. And I’d do all of it and just found that all of the methods were lacking, mostly in the support to keep organized. Lots of things for how to get organized, but not a lot for how you stay organized. As a person who struggles with that, I had to go through and look at it and ask, “What am I doing wrong? What needs to change? What‘s gonna work for me or for other people in staying organized? Just knowing, that I am not the only person that struggles with this and knowing that this is something that I figured out, inspired me to start a business t help other people. I would talk to my friends or my family members and then I’ll be like oh yeah, I need to help them out to get things working better in their life. I think this is fun! It is something that I enjoy doing and I can help other people.

Why do you do what you do?
What motivates you?

As a person who has ADHD I've tried my whole life to get organized and every time I’d try a new method I would say oh this is great I’m gonna do it and it’s gonna solve all my problems. And I’d do all of it and just found that all of the methods were lacking, mostly in the support to keep organized. Lots of things for how to get organized, but not a lot for how you stay organized. As a person who struggles with that, I had to go through and look at it and ask, “What am I doing wrong? What needs to change? What‘s gonna work for me or for other people in staying organized? Just knowing, that I am not the only person that struggles with this and knowing that this is something that I figured out, inspired me to start a business t help other people. I would talk to my friends or my family members and then I’ll be like oh yeah, I need to help them out to get things working better in their life. I think this is fun! It is something that I enjoy doing and I can help other people.

Question 3

Where did your passion come from?

So I grew up in a house that was very disorganized and very chaotic. My mom struggled with a lot of the same things that I struggle with.

As I was growing up I could notice that things would be good for a while and then things would kind of fall off and I kept coming back so whenever things were feeling good, I felt better. I felt more mental clarity. I felt more able to do things that I needed to do because there was a little bit of space.

It’s stupid but I remember vacuuming my moms like living room carpet one day as a kid and being like I feel so much better in this space. I have noticed that a lot as a grown-up like as an adult not just noticing that mental clarity. I to help other people to get to that point, whatever their space looks like to have them come and be able to then say OK I could do what I want now, and not say. “Oh my goodness I have to clean the space or else I’m gonna go crazy, or not knowing where to start with cleaning the space.

What I love is being able to use home organization to help people focus on their passions, to focus on learning the skills that they want to do. Whether that is “I want to do a craft”, “I want to start a business”, “I want to spend more time with my kids” or whatever it is that they want to do.

I want to help people to create routines and structure in their life so they do not have to focus on the small things so they can focus on the bigger things in life.

Where did your passion come from?

So I grew up in a house that was very disorganized and very chaotic. My mom struggled with a lot of the same things that I struggle with.

As I was growing up I could notice that things would be good for a while and then things would kind of fall off and I kept coming back so whenever things were feeling good, I felt better. I felt more mental clarity. I felt more able to do things that I needed to do because there was a little bit of space.

It’s stupid but I remember vacuuming my moms like living room carpet one day as a kid and being like I feel so much better in this space. I have noticed that a lot as a grown-up like as an adult not just noticing that mental clarity. I to help other people to get to that point, whatever their space looks like to have them come and be able to then say OK I could do what I want now, and not say. “Oh my goodness I have to clean the space or else I’m gonna go crazy, or not knowing where to start with cleaning the space.

What I love is being able to use home organization to help people focus on their passions, to focus on learning the skills that they want to do. Whether that is “I want to do a craft”, “I want to start a business”, “I want to spend more time with my kids” or whatever it is that they want to do.

I want to help people to create routines and structure in their life so they do not have to focus on the small things so they can focus on the bigger things in life.

Question 4

What did you build in Soul Seed Academy?

Soul Seed Academy helped me to build my brand and focus on my ideal client. They also help me build the tools. I needed to succeed with a social media presence, and a website, to be able to find more clients and share the knowledge that I have with other people I also feel like I gained a social support network because there were other people in the cohort who were going through the same things and so we had that camaraderie. The support from all of them has been really great.

What did you build in Soul Seed Academy?

Soul Seed Academy helped me to build my brand and focus on my ideal client. They also help me build the tools. I needed to succeed with a social media presence, and a website, to be able to find more clients and share the knowledge that I have with other people I also feel like I gained a social support network because there were other people in the cohort who were going through the same things and so we had that camaraderie. The support from all of them has been really great.

Question 5

Tell us about your business.
How does it work?

Customers can learn a lot on my TikTok and Facebook pages. My website is a good place to start. And you can sign up for my newsletter and a free printable that talks about the steps to organizing so that anybody can do it. I have a monthly meeting where we go through the steps of organizing and I usually will demonstrate a project that I’m working on and people share what they’re working on. I help them kind of think through their process. I offer consultations where I will go and look at the space and give clients a plan that they could do on their own if they wanted to try and do it on their own. When I am hired to work with people it may be on a room-by-room basis.

When I have a two or three-day project I am I will always leave the space as organized as functional, at least as functional as it was when I got there. That’s a big concern for a lot of clients, to not have a kitchen for three days, but not that’s not how I do things. I will always stop at a point so that they’re functional Once we get to the end of the project and a job is done. We come up with routines for them to keep the space organized. How to organize after shopping gets done or how to meal plan. Some clients like a monthly check on others prefer a weekly service. I have different packages to take that into account. In the end, I’m always open and willing for people to ask questions or to come back in and re-organize or adjust things as necessary to help make it so it’s working. Sometimes I will come in and tweak something and then it works great.

Tell us about your business.
How does it work?

Customers can learn a lot on my TikTok and Facebook pages. My website is a good place to start. And you can sign up for my newsletter and a free printable that talks about the steps to organizing so that anybody can do it. I have a monthly meeting where we go through the steps of organizing and I usually will demonstrate a project that I’m working on and people share what they’re working on. I help them kind of think through their process. I offer consultations where I will go and look at the space and give clients a plan that they could do on their own if they wanted to try and do it on their own. When I am hired to work with people it may be on a room-by-room basis.

When I have a two or three-day project I am I will always leave the space as organized as functional, at least as functional as it was when I got there. That’s a big concern for a lot of clients, to not have a kitchen for three days, but not that’s not how I do things. I will always stop at a point so that they’re functional Once we get to the end of the project and a job is done. We come up with routines for them to keep the space organized. How to organize after shopping gets done or how to meal plan. Some clients like a monthly check on others prefer a weekly service. I have different packages to take that into account. In the end, I’m always open and willing for people to ask questions or to come back in and re-organize or adjust things as necessary to help make it so it’s working. Sometimes I will come in and tweak something and then it works great.

Question 6

What has been the hardest part of your journey so far?

The hardest part so far for me has been finding people to connect with who want the service. Finding them and connecting with them. The other hard thing is that I’m really good at organizing and being in there and setting things up with clients. I am less good at things so I kind of need another me to tell me the steps you need to take to get there. That’s why I love Soul Seed because they’ve been every time I get to that point I get on and talk to [a coach] and she’s like OK what are your next steps or “Let’s talk through your next steps”. Having somebody that’s gone through business and been able to say, “Here’s some direction”, and not like she’s doing it for me but there’s some direction in things that need to be done that would be helpful for me.

What has been the hardest part of your journey so far?

The hardest part so far for me has been finding people to connect with who want the service. Finding them and connecting with them. The other hard thing is that I’m really good at organizing and being in there and setting things up with clients. I am less good at things so I kind of need another me to tell me the steps you need to take to get there. That’s why I love Soul Seed because they’ve been every time I get to that point I get on and talk to [a coach] and she’s like OK what are your next steps or “Let’s talk through your next steps”. Having somebody that’s gone through business and been able to say, “Here’s some direction”, and not like she’s doing it for me but there’s some direction in things that need to be done that would be helpful for me.

Question 7

What does healing the world look like to you?

My ideal goal at the end of the day is to create a commune of like-minded people to live together and work together and help each other that’s not a today goal. Healing the world to me looks like helping people recognize that just because our brains work differently doesn’t mean that we don’t deserve to have the things that we need and helping people to understand and create a life vision that is feasible for them.

What does healing the world look like to you?

My ideal goal at the end of the day is to create a commune of like-minded people to live together and work together and help each other that’s not a today goal. Healing the world to me looks like helping people recognize that just because our brains work differently doesn’t mean that we don’t deserve to have the things that we need and helping people to understand and create a life vision that is feasible for them.

Question 8

Any last-minute thoughts?

You can call or text Melissa Pistorius at (801)330-1647 to set up an appointment. Or you can learn more and follow her on her website and socials: Sunflowerlifeorganizing.com @sunflowerlifeorganizing on FB, TikTok, IG

Any last-minute thoughts?

You can call or text Melissa Pistorius at (801)330-1647 to set up an appointment. Or you can learn more and follow her on her website and socials: Sunflowerlifeorganizing.com @sunflowerlifeorganizing on FB, TikTok, IG
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