Meeting Agenda
10am Chapter Announcements
10:30am Professional Development Program
11:30am - 12pm Group Discussion
Featured Program: Ask the Experts: Curated Closets for Organizers and their Clients
Presented by: Linda Goldman,CPO® (Altogether Organized), Michelle Kinney (The Closet Factory), Leslie Hatch Gail, PhD. (Declare Order), Mary Clare Johnson (The Real Real)
This panel discussion will include four industry experts who will share strategies and tips for curating our wardrobes and those of our clients to meet the needs of this post-pandemic era. With a focus on thoughtful and sustainable philosophies for wardrobe styling and storing, attendees will come away with a new perspective on clothing. From insider tips on modern consignment to resisting the allure of fast fashion (the “junk food” of the clothing world), we will cover many facets of this organizing niche. Q&A with the panel will be offered after the presentation.
Our “Ask The Experts” series features the vast professional knowledge and varied expertise of our chapter Business Partners and NAPO Chicago Chapter Members. Get to know more about the great services these members provide, and tap into their deep experience from different aspects of working with our clients and supporting our industry.
This Zoom program will feature a moderated expert panel and open meeting format. There will also be an opportunity to choose between Q&A with the experts or open topic networking time immediately following the program.
Key Takeaways from this program:
- Discover the benefits of a curated closet and discuss how we can help our clients (and ourselves) make wardrobe decisions to reflect a desired style. Examples of particular styles will be defined.
- Define a capsule wardrobe and learn the benefits of having a closet full of clothing we love. A versatile color palette can facilitate mixing and matching separates to make several outfits. How does one create a thoughtful wardrobe as opposed to succumbing to impulse buying and the pitfalls of “fast fashion?”
- Learn from a resale expert a five-step strategy for assessing, organizing, and selling your wardrobe to curate a wardrobe that works for you and not against you. Get inside tips on the best pieces to consign.
- Hear from a professional closet designer how a custom-designed closet can help your clients stay organized and help them adapt when their wardrobe undergoes a transformation.
Linda Goldman is a Certified Professional Organizer and the owner of Altogether Organized. For 20 years she’s been helping her clients transform their spaces, no matter how cluttered or chaotic, to ones that are orderly, productive and visually pleasing.
Before becoming a professional organizer she worked for more than 15 years in corporate training, human resources and management and holds a Bachelors Degree in Business from the University of Illinois Her company has been featured on radio and in a variety of Chicago land publications, was a Best of the North Shore winner for North Shore Magazine, and is a 5 times Angie’s List Super Service Award winner.
Leslie Hatch Gail, PhD. uses sensitivity, patience, and a dose of wit and whimsy to help families reduce stress and take back control. She recognizes her clients are the experts and ultimate authority in their own life process and works with them to create organizing systems to meet their unique needs.
Leslie presented, “Shift Your Mindset: Tapping into Client Strengths” at NAPO’s 2022 conference in Baltimore. Her course, "Working Smart Together: Preparing for Conversations with Clients Living with Diagnoses" is one of the required client interaction courses for NAPO’s Brain-Based Conditions Certificate. She is the 2022 recipient of the Service to NAPO Award.
Leslie posts regular content to her wide-reaching community on TikTok, and she invites you to join the conversation @declareorder.
Mary Clare Johnson was born and raised in Cleveland but has called Chicago home for the past 9 years. As a former Vogue intern and personal stylist for the past decade, you can say her fashion habit is 24/7. After graduating from the University of Cincinnati with a Business Degree, she’s worked in several different parts of the Fashion Industry including merchandising for American Eagle Outfitters corporate offices and working for the Chicago based start up Trunk Club as a personal stylist and sales trainer. She loves helping people discover their personal style and in her spare time you can find her creating outfits for her personal shopping clients or posting on her blog The MC Edit.
In her new position as Business Development Manager with The RealReal, she strives to extend the life cycle of luxury goods so more people can own and appreciate them while giving the original owners the opportunity to maximize on their investments. She believes that The RealReal has the power to affect wider social change to move us towards a world where all consumption is conscious consumption.
Michelle Kinney has dedicated 30 years of her career to customer service. With her training as a professional organizer, she excels at providing a comprehensive approach to design that includes both form and function. Michelle loves to take the extra time to understand how her clients live to create the perfect solution for every space in the home. She is not only a NAPO member but also a Certified Productive Environment Specialist.
