Ozarks Profile - Denslow Brown

What is your job?

"I help people get organized so that their life is more full, easy, productive and expressive of their values and goals. Except for administrative support, I am the entire company," Brown said. The company is found online at www.organi zercoach.com.

Tell us about your company.

Brown founded The Organ-izer & Coach in 1974.

"For the first two decades, I worked hands-on, helping people physically sort through and organize their offices and homes. In the last eight years, I've done less actual hands-on work and more on-site assessment and recommendations. Brown added that she also supports clients via ongoing telephone and e-mail coaching, which now accounts for 50 percent of her business.

Specifically, what do you do?

"I help individuals identify their needs, strengths and weaknesses specifically relating to paper flow, information management, time management, communication patterns, storage, and systems of all kinds. I recommend and design solutions and plans of action to improve existing order or to set up new systems completely. In addition to creating new systems, I stay involved during implementation to assist with fine-tuning and establishing maintenance procedures. The initial work is usually face-to-face and on-site," Brown said.

What's the most unusual situation you've been asked to address?

"I've worked in a wide variety of settings: Fortune 500 corner offices, a highway on- and off-ramp engineering firm, and an organic blueberry farm," Brown said. Her clients include attorneys, doctors, writers, musicians, psychics, philanthropists, a world-class corporate artist, many non-profits, elected officials, professors and sales representatives. Brown also has specific training to coach adults who have attention deficit disorder. She said a recent unique situation was a client who had two sets of twins and needed help getting organized.

How did you become interested in this field?

"My business was actually first conceptualized for me by other participants in a 1972 seminar designed for underemployed women college graduates. Various exercises had served to highlight our individual strengths. Others saw in me what I couldn't at that time: an enthusiasm and patience for untangling chaos and creating order. They convinced me that there was a market. At the time, we thought we were inventing the wheel. Of course, other people were inventing that same wheel, all of us unknown to each other. Now the National Association of Professional Organizers has over 1,600 members," Brown said.

What kind of training is needed for what you do?

When Brown began, there was no training. "Now NAPO has annual conferences where we develop industry standards and principles, and share techniques and tools As a coach, I received 18 months of intensive training from The Optimal Func-tioning Institute," Brown said.

What can you tell us about your family?

"I make my home with Linda Smith, a retired philosophy professor and massage therapist who is now an ordained minister. We designed and helped build our dream home in a residential community on 300 beautiful acres that are part of the Ozarks Regional Land Trust. I grew up in California, the middle of five children of Arla and DeVillo Brown."

by Maria Hoover