How to Simplify Your Business with the 4 Pillars of Organization with Shawn Lemon

Running a business today can feel like you’re trying to keep up with a hundred things at once—files are everywhere, your internet browser is packed with tabs, and your to-do list keeps growing. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed and disorganized. That’s where Shawn Lemon comes in. He’s the founder of The Digital Organizer, and he’s here to share his simple system—the four pillars of organization—to help you clean up the chaos and run your business more smoothly.

Topics Covered In This Episode:

1. The importance of communication, asset management, project/task management, and password organization and why they are essential components of business and life organization.
2. Project vs. Task Management: Many people confuse projects with tasks. A project encompasses multiple tasks that need to be broken down to avoid overwhelm and to ensure completion.
3. The importance of focusing on one key task per day (or up to three) to avoid distraction and ensure progress, especially important for those with ADHD.
4. Keep email for communication, tasks in a project manager, and files in their designated storage system to prevent chaos.
5. Use simple but effective systems to manage both life and business tasks. Consistency and routine can significantly help in staying organized.
6. Using overly robust systems (like ClickUp) can lead to procrastination due to their complexity. Choose simpler tools like Asana to stay focused.

Find the full show notes at:  https://brandimowles.com/252

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Additional Resources:

Shawn is the founder of The Digital Organizer and has spent the last 17 years helping individuals and businesses get better at using their technology. A teacher at heart, Shawn believes the biggest reason people struggle with their tech is because of a lack of understanding of the tools, which isn't surprising because they're constantly changing as technology advances. When not helping businesses operate more efficiently, Shawn loves making pottery, riding motorcycles, and spending time with his wife, Madeline and their 2 year old son, Nico.

Where to find Shawn:

Shawn’s Website: HERE

Facebook: HERE

Instagram: HERE

LinkedIn: HERE

YouTube: HERE

Grab Shawn’s Freebie - HERE

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Transcript

253: How to Simplify Your Business with the 4 Pillars of Organization with Shawn Lemon

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[00:00:00] 

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: If you've ever felt like your business or maybe your brain is one big game of digital Whack-a-Mole files everywhere, 20 tabs open, and a to-do list that just won't quit this episode of the Serve Scale. So podcast is for you. I have a special guest, Sean Lemon on today, and he's breaking down the four pillars of organization.

Every business needs to simplify, streamline, and actually scale without chaos. Oh man, that is sexy. We're talking project versus task management. How to stop using your Google Drive like a junk drawer and even how to keep your systems A DHD friendly. So no matter if you're feeling overwhelmed in your business or your life, this is the episode for you.

So let's jump on in and meet Sean Lemon.

Hey, hey, hey [00:01:00] everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Serve Scale. So podcast. My name is Brandi Mowles and I am Your post. And today I am super excited because we have a special guest with us and I am super excited for y'all to meet him. And one thing that I love about how we're connecting is usually when we have guests on the podcast, it's because I've built a prior relationship.

And with Sean it's a little bit different and his actually came through a pitch for us and 99.5% of the pitches that we get. I never even see our assistant, Janessa. She goes through, she knows what I'm gonna what I'm not gonna she gets rid of all those. And so very rarely do I actually see the pitches come across my desk and Sean, yours came across and I was like, oh man, he's speaking my love language.

Systems, they are so sexy, and we're gonna talk about the four pillars that you really dive into. And so I'm excited to have you on the show and to get to know you as my audience is getting to know [00:02:00] you as well. So why don't you start off by telling us a little bit about who you are as a person and then about your business.

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Yeah. First off, just thank you for having me. I'm I'm excited to be able to talk to you and, and your people and help out. So my name is Sean Lemon and I started the digital organizer 11 years ago after working at the Apple Store for seven years. And I taught people how to use their tech and I'm a teacher at heart.

I love teaching things. I love figuring out processes and, and just getting in the thick of things, figure out what. Is this mess? How did we get here? And what do we do about it, whether it's in tech or other things. And come to find out, I have a DHD is just found out a few months ago. It's oh, no wonder.

I like figuring out all the patterns and some of these things. So I can probably align with a lot of your struggles if you have, a hard time sometimes getting focus or traction or getting messy. I build systems to help [00:03:00] me make sure that I function really well and that's what we help other people do.

And I have a, a 3-year-old next month, and I live in Franklin, Tennessee. And I love basically anything that really gets my heart pumping. So motorcycle riding. Downhill skateboarding pottery. Actually there's a lot of risk in pottery and yeah, that's just what I like to do.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: Okay, so we are actually really close to each other in the world. So I am in northern Georgia, so we're probably only about three hours away from each other, and I have a 2-year-old. So going through a lot of the same things. And 

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Yes. 

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: business. So one thing that I love that you said is we've actually had a lot of women coming lately, especially in my mastermind, that are struggling with A DHD,

and a lot of them feel like this is their biggest hurdle, is how with how our brain works, how do I stay organized?

How do I make it all work? Because that's not. Their default right [00:04:00] now, and that's not where their attention is going. And for me, I am someone who is highly strategic and organized in the sense of, I'm not the person who puts my laundry in the laundry basket, but I'm the person who my business runs very efficiently.

And because time is everything. And so I think it's so good to hear other people who have a DHD and are navigating running a business. Because I always see it as that's a superpower that you have, and I never want anyone to think that they can't have a business because of something that's out of their control.

So I'm excited to dive into this conversation when I was looking through your stuff, one, you have a quiz. I love taking quizzes, and I was like. Oh man, I feel like I'm pretty organized. And then I took you a quiz and I was like, maybe I'm not. So I love that you have the quiz, but you talk about these four pillars that we need to focus on when it comes to systems and organizations.

So can you go over with [00:05:00] my audience what those four places are and systems?

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Yeah. In business and in life, we are always communicating. We have to store things in different places. So some sort of asset management. So putting your stuff in Google Drive, we're creating things. So where are we storing and where are we retrieving things? And we gotta keep track of what we're doing.

So that's project management or task management. So task would be more like our own stuff. And project is, when we're collaborating or we're dealing with big things. And then. Pervasive throughout. Everything in tech are passwords, and so these are the four pillars that really cause the most friction throughout the day to really get what you need done.

We've gotta have vision, we've gotta know where we want to go, but in order to get there, we're having to deal with these four things every single day. And these are the ones that I really wanna focus on in our business. We used to do a whole bunch of stuff and we just brought it down to this four. To, because if you do those really well, [00:06:00] you don't need so many other apps.

You don't have to spend all this money, and you certainly don't have to look in so many different places to find what you need.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: I love this. 'cause my whole philosophy is kiss. Keep it simple, sweetie. And the simpler we can make our business, the easier it is to run. But as my audience is mostly moms, it's not just so much of keeping the business running. And maybe they even have that on lockdown, but it's like, how do we manage.

Everything. Life, business. And so when you're talking about these four pillars, do you really incorporate them as, Hey, this is our, like this, everything flows together. Life, business, it's all one thing? Or are you someone who's no, we have these systems for life. We have these systems for business.

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: It's all the same core concepts. It's, it is how we think about how we process communication and what we're doing when prioritizing what we're dealing with at different [00:07:00] times. And, project management, it's the same thing. Whether it's, building out a little playground for your kids in the backyard and making something creative to, doing a social media campaign or something along those lines.

They're all the core principles and because we're teachers, we're focusing on what those principles are, and then when we're working with people one-on-one or with business, we're focusing on that system and teaching them, okay, this is what you want to think about. Now how do we apply this to one selective piece so that you get experience. Learning how to do it. Moving in through these different apps, consolidating things together and building out what you thought was a task, is actually a project. And that, then we can expand it and anything that you learn for business, it all applies to life and vice versa. Sometimes people are like, I actually can't let you come in and and do [00:08:00] my work files or email, so let's work on my personal stuff.

And then they're able to take those principles and apply it to business.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: I love that. Okay, so let's dive into this notion of the difference between project and task, because you keep coming up that there's. Is this difference? And I think a lot of my audience, they probably don't see the difference or they don't realize there is a difference. So can we elaborate on the difference between a project and a task and how we should be handling that from a business standpoint?

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: yeah, absolutely. So this all stems from a, a book called Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky. And this really turned things around for me and I. Helped me really gain traction on project management in, in getting things done because I spun my wheels for a long time. Doing great work. You get referrals and that keeps you going. But if you're trying to get initiatives done, you really have [00:09:00] to focus and narrow down your scope. And what I learned from Scott is most of us think about projects as tasks. So I'll take a a, a home thing. So when I wanted to set up Christmas lights for the first time on my house, it wasn't just putting up Christmas lights.

I had to figure out all of the different things of what lights did I want, where am I gonna string them, and how am I gonna plug them in? The whole thing was, there was actually a lot to it. And so if I just had put up Christmas lights as a task on my to-do list. It's gonna be a while before I actually accomplish that.

Or I get in and I start the process and I realize I didn't set up, set up enough time to do this. So he says, take a look at that task and think about what are all of the things that you have to do in order to get that task done. And then you take all of those pieces and you actually make those into tasks and often. [00:10:00] We are trying to attack these, these bigger things, and maybe it's not a huge project, but it's certainly not a single task. And that's why stuff just gets left on our to-do list for a long period of time and we don't feel like we're making traction because we're not being realistic about how long something actually takes. And task management, I've got a whole list of things that I need to get done. Project management. I have all of these tasks that are moving towards or, or enables us to make this project happen or this goal happen. And so realizing the difference between the two and that you have to narrow your focus is just incredibly important.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: Okay, now you're speaking my love language. 'cause I'm always telling my students, they're like, ah, I can't get everything done. I 

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Yeah. 

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: I need to set up my HoneyBook. I need to do this. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa. Setting up a HoneyBook is not like a one. Time stop. There's so many things that have to happen to get your HoneyBook set up.

So instead of looking at it like this [00:11:00] one task, 'cause that would feel super overwhelming,

let's look at it as okay, I need to upload my contract. I need to customize my settings. So when you're talking about the difference between project and task, we're looking at that the project has all the tasks within it that's gonna get you to this completed project, like setting up your HoneyBook or onboarding a client.

That's not all. That's not gonna happen in one day.

And so I love this how we're taking it and breaking it down smaller. And so when we look at a project between project and task, how many projects do you think, and I don't know if you have an answer to this, but how many projects do you think someone should have on their plate at all times?

Or is there a number that's whoa, if you have this many projects on your plate, then you're doing too much.

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Yeah. Maybe two give or take depends on how good you are at focusing and, and staying focused on a task. Get bored easily and when, so I like to figure [00:12:00] something out, and then taking it all the way to the finish line is a lot more difficult for me. And so I need to have a lot of little wins in the meantime, and I can't have too many things on my to-do list.

I. Because when I get bored or I have something more difficult to run into a roadblock and I don't want to complete that, I can conveniently find something else that's important on my to-do list and start doing that instead. And then my project starts to lose traction. So for a lot of people, I don't recommend doing like a task dump or putting everything into project management right away. I like to put it in a document. List out everything, do a whole brain dump in there, and then look at that document critically to think what is the thing that if I do it right now, is going to make the biggest difference? And, And look at that and decide. How big is this? Is this a single task? Are these a few [00:13:00] tasks?

Is this a project? And then I'm gonna take that and put it into my project management and build it out with due dates and who's supposed to do it and whatever. So there's usually only two or three people on my team who would be doing it, and I do a lot of it. 'cause the other people are focused on clients and such. Yeah, I'm just pulling things in little bit by little bit so that I'm not exposing myself to everything. And I can actually get things done into the finish line.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: I love that because I think what you just described is what a lot of my audience struggles with and it's hard for me 'cause I'm that person. I don't know if you watch The Big Bang, but where Sheldon has to finish everything. That's me. Like I will continue to watch a show that I don't like because I've started it.

I'm like, now I have to finish it. There's no turning around. And like even if I don't wanna do it, I have to, 'cause I have to get to the finish line. But I think more entrepreneurs experience what you experience

Like I get bored or I get stuck. So besides [00:14:00] like creating the dump, I love that in a dock instead of putting it in a sauna or clickup or whatever.

What are some other ways that you overcome that? Because that is a real challenge, but there are some tasks that like, it doesn't matter if you're bored or you're hung up, like you just have to finish it like it's gotta get done to make the project move forward. So have you found things that help you get through those?

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Yeah. My father-in-law has this company called Full Focus, and his main product is a, is a planner called the Full Focus Planner. And the main thing is figuring out what your top three things are to do for the day. And then you can list out some other tasks and things like that you can put in your schedule for the day. And that sort of worked for me. I've broken it down to one.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: Oh, I 

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: I have one task that I have to get done. I'm gonna get all kinds of stuff done in a day. I just can't help but just keep working and figuring out other things to do during my period that I've set aside for [00:15:00] work, but especially if there's something that I don't want to get done. It's just one thing, and sometimes that's a sticky note on my monitor that's covering stuff up and, and blocking my view. And it doesn't come off until it gets done. And then I finally sit down and say, okay, I am gonna do it, and it takes me 10 or 15 minutes. It's usually something along those lines that I've just been avoiding. So keeping it at one important thing that's going to push things forward. It's, it feels like it's not that much probably hearing this, but when you stack them together, it, it makes the biggest difference.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: Yeah, and so this is so funny because I tell everyone, put three because now I know who your father-in-law is. That's where I learned it, is like you have three things, and that's what I focus on is if I can get these three things done every day, then my day is a success. And people are like, how can you only get three things done?

I'm like, I get more done. But if those three [00:16:00] things get done. Then like my day is a win. No matter what happens, like kids throwing up, whatever it is,

like I've got those three things done. Everything else at the end of the day doesn't matter, and that keeps us moving forward.

I love yours of just having one thing because at the end of the day, if you do that one thing.

Every single day getting one task done, you get to the end and it's like amazing where most people try to put too much stuff, they don't accomplish anything. And then at the end of the month, week, year, whatever it is for them, nothing's accomplished because they were trying to accomplish too much in one day.

So I love that you're just adding one thing to your list. Get that one thing done. Okay. So when it comes to project management, I know my audience is gonna wanna know, 'cause this is a hot debate.

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Yes.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: Is what is your go-to project management system?

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Mine is Asana. So that's what we use internally. I like it because it's on rails, it's, you have teams. And even if you're [00:17:00] only a, a person of one, you might have a contractor. Your goal is to first start hiring contractors to take things off of your plate. You still wanna be thinking about different teams. This is operations, this is marketing, this is client delivery. Oh, this is financial, and things like that. And then within those teams, you have projects. So you gotta have taxes, you gotta submit taxes, you have to do things like that. And so they're broken up in there. And inside of that there are different sections and you can create milestones, tasks, and subtasks.

So it's very clear of how it's supposed to be structured. But we also support two other project management platforms that would be Clickup and Hive

and Clickup. It's cool for, for nerds who have already figured out what their system is and they really want to create the perfect project management software. And if you're not a DHD and you can actually get this to the finish line, it may [00:18:00] be a good option for you. 'cause it's, it's cool what it can do. There's a lot. And then Hive is right in between the two. So our, I hired a project management. Expert to, to work with our clients on project management because it is not my favorite thing to do. And she's just she was always an Asana girl and now she's into Hive and she's yeah this is, this is my new love. So she's gonna gimme a demo of it soon to, to take a look. I, I kind of wanna look at it, but I don't because I don't wanna redo

my entire system on. 

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: I'm sitting here oh man, and I know my assistant's gonna listen to this. And she's oh my gosh, Brandi is already Googling hive. So we were clickup diehards. I actually worked with the founders of Clickup

to when, oh gosh, seven years ago. To get where you could actually have templates. For projects like that was it.

And I got on the phone and I was like, we have to have this. And we were diehard clickup. And then it just got to the point where it was too robust. And as [00:19:00] someone who loves systems, I found myself using it as a procrastination tool. And so that's when we made the decision to move to Asana. 'cause like you said, there are like these.

It has everything you need. It doesn't have all the stuff that would keep you in procrastination mode. Really customizing it in everything. And I think for most of our listeners listening, Asana is plenty. You don't need more than 

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: It's more than enough.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: It's more than enough. 

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: do so much.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: Unless you're working with massive teams, you're in SaaS, something like that.

Asana is perfectly fine. And what I find is more people like Clickup that like to spend time procrastinating and I was one of them. 'cause there's so much stuff you can do. It's too robust actually for I think most of our listeners listening right now. Okay oh, oh gosh, don't even get me down. I spent so much time building out my custom and once again, procrastination.

We all have our. Procrastination. And for me it's like digging into systems and funnels. That's where I like to [00:20:00] procrastinate. So when we can identify this, we can take those out. Asana. I have no desire to go in there. Like it's just enough where there's nothing for me to really play with and so I don't procrastinate and my project management anymore.

And so I think for most people, Asana is like one, it's affordable. It's just, it's got all the basics. You're not gonna get overwhelmed in there. Okay. So I love the project management aspect and the task. My last question about project management before we move into like document storage

is, do you keep your business in your life in Asana?

Like in the 

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Hmm. 

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: like house?

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Yeah, I do not,

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: I don't either, but people do. But what 

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Some people can do. 

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: that?

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Yeah, some people are, are good at that and they like being able to see everything in one place. Um, again, I just have such a hard time focusing on things that I don't want to do that if I have my home list, I work from home,[00:21:00] 

I'm gonna want to go do something else. And I'm to the point now where I just know that I can't afford to do that,

and so I won't. But that means I have to actively resist. Not doing something by, if, if I'm constantly exposed to home tasks as well, so I have to, to really put up a lot of rails for me or blinders to, to not see other things that that could allow me to procrastinate or do something that's not what I should be doing right now.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: I agree, and a lot of the times, especially in my mastermind where they have one-on-one support with me, they'll come and they're like. I have to do laundry and everything, and I'm like, no, not during these hours. Laundry will be okay. Like we have to create times where, yes, maybe laundry hasn't got done right now, but like it's not the time to do laundry.

It's the time to focus on our deep work and getting things done. And so that's especially hard when you work from home. So with your life, do you actually put [00:22:00] that in a project management system or is that in like for me? I'm on the computer all the time, like you. If it was in my computer, then that's where my brain would go.

For me, I actually use a paper planner to write out everything,

which is very strange 'cause I'm not a paper planner person, but it's how I found that I can separate being at home, working, having the kids home, homeschooling, all that. That's all done on paper and then business is done on the computer. How do you separate the two?

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: I use Apple's tasks or the Reminders app, and so I use Siri to tell me, um, or to remind me. I. At specific times, remind me tomorrow at three o'clock, remind me today at noon and, and some of those things so that they pop up when I need it. Because, with a 3-year-old, it's there's nap times, bedtime, and waking up. I have very little time to myself right now, so there's not very much that I can do. [00:23:00] And so it's in a much more simple. Platform,

uh, because that's where I'm at, so it's the, the least amount that I can do and keep track of the better.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: I love that. Okay, so let's switch gears real quick. 'cause another one is your of your pillars is the document organization. And I will say this is where I scored the lowest. And I think for me. It's always one-on-one clients. It's, they have their folder. I drop everything in there. It's fine. I feel like it's all the other business aspects where I'm good 

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: The administrative. 

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: creating a document and it just lives in my, like normal.

Here's Brandy's documents in my assistant going logging into my Google Drive, like looking for stuff. I'm not putting it in where it's supposed to go. So can you talk about some tips to really help with document organization when it comes to having a business and we're always in Google Docs and Excel sheets and all that kind of stuff.

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: [00:24:00] Absolutely. Before we get in, I want to talk about the freebie that I'm gonna give you

guys because it's specifically for this. So we're about to get taxed. And talk about some, some things that you're gonna wanna remember. So because of that, I'm gonna give you a download of this and it's my file organization guide.

So everything that we talk about in this is in that guide and you can follow it along. I have video tutorials explaining the concepts and the whole thing. It's really packed with a lot of good stuff to get you fully organized in your file system. So go and get that freebie from the show notes. That way you don't have to take notes during this podcast. Files where you store your files, all of that sort of thing. Where do you want me to start?

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: Just some tips, I think because I did look at the freebie. It's excellent. There's so many videos and I think a lot of people go in. They

have the good intention and they set up all these folders, but then it comes to the practical aspect of getting in there on the day-to-day and opening up a Google Doc, and [00:25:00] then it doesn't go to the place where it's supposed to go.

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Yes. Okay, great. So first off, most people are trying to organize in too many places. So the concept that I want you to think about is I, behind me, I have a closet. In that closet is a filing cabinet. I. And that's where I store my stuff. And I have one place that I store important documents. That's how you want to think about the files for your business and for your personal life.

Even if you put those into separate places, all of your business stuff is one place and all of your personal is another. That doesn't mean that because I use Google Drive that I don't have Dropbox, OneDrive, box and cloud.com and all of the different accounts, but those are like FedEx, U-P-S-U-S-P-S.

I don't care what delivery service, someone sends me files. And if you want me to send you something via Dropbox, cool. But it doesn't mean that the files that I put in there for you

are their home. [00:26:00] I'm giving you copies. I. So not everyone can do exactly that, and that's where shortcuts come in and other more advanced things for managing files.

But I really want you to have everything consolidated into one place. And that's the, the first milestone in organizing your files is consolidating everything. So if we're talking Google Drive or really anywhere, but usually Google Drive users because we like to use Google Docs and Sheets. I open up the folder where a file should go and then I create the doc. So I don't just go to docs.google.com or Docs do new and just go to create a new document and just anywhere hit file new because it puts it right where you start it. And if you don't specify, like doing docs new, which is a cool little trick then it's just gonna put it in my drive. And we need to put it in the right place the first time so that we don't have to organize later on down the road.

Especially for a DHD [00:27:00] people, routine, stuff like that. Not our favorite thing unless we're procrastinating. So I actually designate where I want files to go. So when I'm gonna have a conversation with a client, I go to my client's folder, I open up that client's file, and if I don't already have a notes document that I'm adding onto, I create a new one. I. And I don't have to save it anywhere else. So that's a, a good tip in creating shortcuts and bookmarks to all of the places that you go to most in your Google Drive. So I've got probably 10 different shortcuts to different areas of Google Drive or docs in my bookmarks bar.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: And I think that's so smart and these are like simple tips that like actually make a big impact. Because for me, I know I go straight to the docs new and then I'm like, oh, just creating docs and nothing gets put where it's supposed to be. And then we're recreating, which takes more time. 'cause I'm like, oh, I forgot we had that already.

And so having those. And then I love the [00:28:00] bookmark idea, especially for those who are working with one-on-one clients. Just put the quick links in your bookmark bar and anyone who doesn't know, it's super simple. If you're in that folder, just drag and drop it down to your bookmark. Bar and it's there, it lives.

You can rename it in everything. So Google's made it super simple for us in Chrome. And so having those shortcuts just makes our life so much easier. And it's something that I'm gonna take from this podcast and implement today because that is one of our biggest struggles is when we don't have these systems in place, we end up recreating the wheel.

And that's the worst thing we can do because we are already short on time and now we're adding more tasks or projects to our to-do list when we don't need to.

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Yep.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: So what other quick tips do you have for someone who's just struggling to really stay organized when it comes to document, organization, email or project management?

I know most of us with password are using LastPass. That's something my audience is [00:29:00] very familiar with and clients and all that kind of stuff. But I know email docs and project management are their biggest

like struggles. 

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: so keep your folder structure smaller and archive everywhere you finish and you post that blog post or that newsletter, archive it. Just create a folder right in your newsletters folder called Archive or. Posted or whatever, and put that file in there so that you can move on to the next one. And you have a very focused filing system. So we archive all over the place to just make, make it so that we don't have to create a ton of sub folders. And the other part of that, especially for files, is. A really good naming convention, and I go through that in the guide as well, so that you know if something is relevant or not, because it usually has the date. You can see kinda what the category is and a description, so whether you like to click through folders to find what you're looking for or you prefer to search, [00:30:00] you can find it either way, and it's really important to do that when we're working with a team. But overall, less organization. More focused.

It's not in all, all different kinds of places. In my email, I have two folders and fi and emails automatically go in there

using a service. I called, uh, I have called SaneBox, and then when something is done, it gets archived. If. It's not due right now, and I can, and I need some more information, but I'll have that tomorrow.

I snooze the email for later. I don't create a whole folder system to put this folder here for action items today and whatever. That just means I have more inboxes to check and if it's outta sight outta mind for me. And I don't like checking a ton of different places, so I just need it to pop up when I need it. And so just less things. Don't file an email files, go in files, you get it down, you get an [00:31:00] attachment. It needs to go in your filing system. You get a to do that isn't something that's really like appropriate for a, a snooze, but it's part of a project. It goes in your project manager. So let's keep email for communications tasks in your tasks and files need to go into files so that we don't have to create a whole organization system in email.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: I love this and I think like a lot of moms when I'm hearing this, and my listeners are moms mostly, I think about like when you have too many toys everywhere, the best way to start organizing them is. They each get their own bins. And this is the same thing, like we're not putting magnetize with the Barbies like magnet.

Go with the magnetizes, the Barbies go with the Barbies.

And so just knowing we're doing that for our kids, why aren't we doing that for ourself and staying organized for our business? And I love how simple these tips are. They can be implemented immediately, especially with your freebie that you're giving our listeners and how this is something you could go implement and it's [00:32:00] not gonna take a lot of time.

So Sean, thank you so much for sharing this. One thing we always do before we end is I do some rapid fire. So are you ready for this?

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: I'm ready.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: Okay, so the first question always throws everyone off. What is your favorite type of taco?

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Oh

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: I told you.

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Yep. Man, that, that is a tough one. I'd probably say a street taco.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: What do you like? Corn flour? Tortilla

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Oh, corn, the, the smallest corn?

tortillas from like the, the really authentic

Mexican restaurants with onions and cilantro. And then I love it if, and, it's legit if they've got the pickled jalapenos and carrots and everything. And so I like to have a little side of that and loaded up with their hot, hot sauce.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: And are you getting chicken, beef? What are we doing? What's in 

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Um, El pastor is my favorite, but often I find that I just order a bunch

to see what's the best one. And then from there I'll order that more [00:33:00] hugely.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: I love it. Okay. I love tacos and that's, you can even see I have a taco painting behind me, and so I always ask my guests like, what's your favorite taco? And it always throws 'em off. So now back to more businessy questions. What has been your favorite business book ever? I.

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Hmm, probably the E-Myth.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: I haven't read that one.

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: just, it's a classic. It's one of those things that it, it helps you realize that there are three primary, functions in the business. You usually have the entrepreneur, the artist, and the manager, and realizing where you fit in that and, and they, he's got different names for it.

I think one of, instead of the artist, he calls it the technician. And most of us who start businesses were technicians or we were doing the function. We decided I can do it better and I wanna do it on my own and start a business and then. Realize, oh my God, I started this to do more of what I love and I'm doing less of what I [00:34:00] love. What do I do? And this is, it's all about that. And figuring out what the core functions of your business are, what you wanna offload first, and and figuring out structure for yourself and for the business.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: I love that. Okay, two more questions. What has been the best piece of business advice that you've ever received?

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: It's business advice that I really didn't take for a long

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: That's okay.

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: And it was I needed to prioritize revenue over operations.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: Hmm. and and it's stop focusing on operations. You find out what people want and you go and sell it, and then you figure out how to deliver. And I really hated that advice because I do not like creating chaos in my life. And and it freaks me out not having everything, um, lined up in perfect before I go to sell something and that I can [00:35:00] deliver, but then people may not want it the way I was delivering it. And so taking more time to, to focus on bringing in revenue than operations, uh, was. You know, it's, it's the business almost died very neatly. And and so I had to flip that around and do a lot more marketing and and then the operations, I'm so good at it, it just follows

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: and that's usually the technicians we can figure that out and how to solve that really quickly.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: And I'm so glad you said that. 'cause I'm the person who's go find clients. Don't worry about all the knowledge, what's set up. We can figure that out along the way. But so many people wanna have everything figured out. But at the end of the day, until you actually do it, you don't. Still even know the systems that you need.

You don't know what you don't know until you start working with a client. So I think that that's great business advice. And then my last question for you is, what does success mean to you?

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Satisfaction. So it's, it's [00:36:00] knowing that. I've done good work. My needs are more than met, and and I'm feeling fulfilled in what I'm doing in my personal life and in my business, and it's really important that having a family and being close to them, I, I want to create a phenomenal environment for us and I want to serve clients and feel like I'm winning. And. And doing really great work. So for me, it's not really about the money, which is also the hard part of figuring out the operations and working with the clients and not as much chasing them down. So for me, yeah, it's, it's just being satisfied in what I'm doing and having my needs met.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: I love that, Sean. Okay, tell my audience where they can connect with you, the best places to reach you. We'll also have everything linked up in the show notes, but what is your favorite platform?

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Yeah, so straight to the website, the digital organizer.com, and if you go to. The digital organizer.com/ss, that's where you'll get that download. From [00:37:00] there, you'll be able to find the quiz and and connect with us. Ask a question. I usually always reply to people's answers to that, and we can get connected and you can find us on social media.

We're active there as well.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: Perfect. Thank you so much, Sean.

shawn-lemon_1_03-27-2025_090231: Oh, thank you so much.

brandi-_1_03-27-2025_100231: Whew. That was a good conversation with Sean Lemon. I don't know about you, but I'm feeling truly inspired to go clean up my digital chaos and actually use my systems the way they're meant to be used. Like going in and just not creating a document just in anywhere, but going in the file where it actually goes in putting it there.

Those simple tricks can make all the difference when it comes to running a business. We talked about the differences between projects and tasks to file organization tips that don't require a tech degree to implement. Sean gave us so many simple, doable strategies that can truly make your business. And life run way smoother.

Make sure you grab his freebie that he's giving to our [00:38:00] listeners. We'll link that up in the show notes, the digital organizer.com/ss. Go on and grab it. I've grabbed it. It's fantastic. Your future self will. Thank you. And as always, if you love the episode, take a screenshot, tag me on Instagram at Brandy Mouses and let me know your biggest takeaway.

And until next time, go out, serve your clients, scale your business, and soar into the success you deserve. I'll see you next time on another episode of the Serve Scale SOAR podcast.