Cassandra Aarssen, founder of Clutterbug, is a home-organizing inspiration, and is the true definition of the expression “do what you love, and money will follow,” with her business impacting over 500,000 families worldwide.
From a busy mom who ran a daycare and lived paycheck to paycheck, Cassandra is now an organizing expert who operates a successful business that consistently brings in seven-figures. She teaches people on Thinkific how to become a certified organizational specialist so that they can declutter their homes and build their own businesses teaching others how to do the same.
This blog dives into the slow burn of Cassandra’s 15 years-in-the-making success story that has inspired people across the world. We’ll explore how her passion-turned-hobby-turned-business didn’t see any profit for the first five years, and then how she made more money in one year than she would’ve made working a normal job for 10 years.
“Being able to do what you love while staying home with your kids and earning an income is such a gift – my goal was to help others do the same.”
Here, she shares how persistence and consistency were key in her journey of developing the career of her dreams.
Learn how Cassandra turned her passion into a paycheck:
- She found her niche
- She kept her content creation process simple
- She remained consistent
- She launched an online course
- She marketed her courses organically
- She figured out her value
- She developed a thriving community
- She honed in on the right mindset
Clutterbug was born from Cassandra growing tired of being a “super slob” who struggled with unnecessary clutter. Finally, she thought enough is enough and said goodbye to the mess that was consuming her life. A newfound passion was born once Cassandra realized how life-transforming it was to get your home under control. She wanted to help those who feel like they’re failing because maintaining their house is a part-time job.
Cassandra shared how the creation of her business happened very organically; she was so inspired by turning her own life around that she started helping friends and family, which eventually led to her getting clients and creating a wonderful business teaching people how to get control of their homes so they can focus on what’s important.
When asked how she determined if there was a demand for her expertise, Cassandra laughed and said that she did not even give a second thought to this, she simply started because she was extremely passionate about helping others declutter their lives. This passion project of hers slowly but surely grew into a thriving business. And how, might you ask?
Cassandra said that the key to her success was simple:
“Be honest and vulnerable with your followers. Staying true to yourself is how you find your core audience.”
Before launching her two successful online courses with Thinkific, which are just a small part of her organizing empire, Cassandra spent years organically building a loyal online community. She emphasized that by coming from a place of “I want to help people,” creating content with the only goal of making her followers’ lives better, she earned a committed and engaged audience.
Cassandra’s passion and genuine excitement is the driving force behind the longevity of her community and business. Again, she embodies if you do what you love, money will follow!
Cassandra’s passion for organization started 15 years ago, and for the past 10 years she has made a profitable business out of sharing her expertise and educating people. When asked about her content creation process, Cassandra said she has always kept it simple.
Her trick to content creation is to add value.
Consistently adding value is how Cassandra built a loyal following. Producing content – whether people can afford it or not – establishes trust and connection. Using free content through sales funnels draws people in and lets them see you as a trustworthy and credible source of information.
Leveraging free content such as online handouts, guides, and printables that contain helpful advice provides value to people’s lives. So, when it comes time to say “hey, if you want more information, I have this online course available,” there is an extremely high conversion rate as people already trust your content.
Cassandra actively creates weekly YouTube videos and podcasts, then repurposes this content for Instagram reels and TikTok. While she utilizes different social media channels for her business, she said that she never gets caught up on following what’s trending online. Chasing trends can be exhausting, and if you do it for a long time it’ll start to feel like work you don’t enjoy anymore.
She stressed this key message:
“Make things that YOU like making. Create content that YOU would want to watch.”
It can be easy to get lost in the numbers game. Cassandra says that she knows creators with a lot more followers in her niche who earn a lot less money than she does – simply because subscribers and followers do not equal money… an engaged audience does.
Bottom line: Keep your content creation process simple.
Cassandra’s best piece of advice to those looking to create content online is to not worry about perfection – even if you think you are making bad, sh*tty content, just put your stuff out there. Don’t wait for the perfect plan or outline or until you invest in high quality tools. You get better by being consistent. The most successful creators she knows are the ones who put the least amount of effort and money into their creation process.
When asked about her content creation process, Cassandra said the key is to remain consistent.
She puts no pressure on herself and commits to putting out one YouTube video and one podcast a week, which has proven to show constant and consistent growth. Cassandra doesn’t plan her content in advance, she does what she feels in the moment, which has led her audience to viewing her as authentic and genuine.
She expressed how she’s never had any viral videos or overnight success, which many creators hope for (although this doesn’t always last long term). Her slow and steady process has led to a committed and engaged audience who has stayed with her for years and years.
Something that Cassandra is proud of that shows how her consistency has paid off is the Clutterbug quiz that helps people discover their organizing style. Over four million people have taken this quiz every year for the past five years.
Cassandra’s takeaway: “If you’re consistent and stick with it, it will always be worth it in the end.”
To reach your target market, embody the mindset of “I love this, and I want to share it with you.” If you put yourself out there as much as possible and make content you enjoy, you’ll find your online tribe. And the best part is that they will want to support you because you have supported them.
Cassandra found that YouTube, podcasts, and social media content was more “to-the-point” and about entertainment, so she wanted to create something more in-depth that left a bigger impact. Developing an online course would take her business to the next level.
“There’s something really special about an online course – it’s almost like working one-on-one with someone and teaching them how they can actively change their life,” she says.
Cassandra created an online course that was video-based with ebooks and printables, teaching others how to declutter and organize. Upon completion of the course, her students become a certified organizational specialist, which allows them to start their own business with confidence. Over 5000 people have started their own businesses after taking her course. While this is not a regulated industry, sometimes, having a certificate is the difference between trying and not trying.
Cassandra chose Thinkific to host her online courses because of the easy all-in-one process that takes care of landing pages, sales, and checkout for students. She also loved that she could offer free courses and set her own prices. She revealed that the landing page feature was simple to incorporate into her own website, seamlessly linking to her course page.
Creating an online course is something that you can do once and never have to touch again. Cassandra has the freedom and flexibility to follow other passions (for example, she just became a firefighter!) now that she has recurring passive income that will continue to support her for the rest of her life.
Since Cassandra has grown such a loyal following, her online course success wasn’t due to insane marketing tactics, but rather from organic leads. Her audience is made up of mostly women between the ages of 30 to 70. Her sales are thanks to the community she created online.
Although, Cassandra said that the greatest business tool she has is her email list. It has the highest conversion rate, and you own it forever. Her current email list is at around half a million subscribers, which she regularly edits down if people aren’t engaged.
Cassandra is often met with bewilderment when she says that she didn’t earn a dime for the first five years she started sharing her passion for organization. She loved it and did it for free.
Looking back, if Cassandra could do anything different, it would be to start treating her passion as a business sooner. Cassandra expressed how for a long time, she felt uncomfortable selling to people and charging money for her expertise.
She learned that offering her expertise for free was a mistake because not only was she not earning money, but her followers didn’t take her seriously. Cassandra saw the biggest change in her community when her followers started paying to learn the skills needed to get their house under control.
“Something incredible happens when there is an exchange of dollars – it makes people more committed to actually doing the work to change their lives.”
When Cassandra released her first online course, she charged $24 and made over $100,000 during her first launch. She exclaimed that at the time, this was more money than she had ever made in an entire year – it blew her mind and changed the way she thought about her business as a whole. Suddenly, her hobby business turned into a real business!
Cassandra’s biggest challenge was recognizing her own value and putting a dollar amount on her time. She had her first online course priced at $24 for years and realized that it wasn’t being taken as seriously as she had hoped. On a whim, she changed the price to $150 after considering how the time, effort, resources, and the certification in her course was way more valuable than she realized.
The crazy thing? MORE people bought her online course.
When Cassandra started valuing her expertise, other people saw it as a viable course and valued it more as well. Not only did she earn a lot more money, but she was also able to help a lot more people.
Cassandra’s Clutterbug philosophy is that organization isn’t a one-size fits all. Through this philosophy she built a thriving community among multiple creative outlets.
People have taken her online courses and have stayed very active in the course group and community. For her first course “Organizing Expert” she doesn’t upsell, but for her second “Take your House Back” she has a $10 yearly renewal fee to stay in the community, which has proven to be very effective. Her two courses complement each other, and she is looking at adding membership options for the future.
Not all her community are paying members, but Cassandra finds that balancing paid and free courses and content keeps her community active and engaged. Again, her goal is to provide as much value as possible to everyone.
Cassandra has a genuine passion for what she does, and the best part of her day is when reads her followers’ comments on how they have changed their lives for the better.
Content creation should be about inspiring and educating people, and once you make something it will continue to help people in the background. Cassandra knows that she’ll never be bored from turning her passion into a business.
“You don’t have to constantly nurture old things for them to continue to be effective – this is one of the best careers because you get to do something new every day.”
A message from Cassandra to aspiring course creators is to resist overthinking your creative process and to come from a place of genuine passion and excitement about what you’re creating.
Ready to jump into the world of online course creation? The time is now – get started with Thinkific for free today.
