Ursula Hurn is an expert in digital organization and systems. Being a lover of people, she understands the frustration and time-wasting that digital disorganization causes, especially when business owners don't believe it's a skill they can learn! With a burning desire to help SMEs succeed, her student- and client-base is international and she believes everyone has the ability to get digitally organized. She is only as far as a Zoom call away.
Ursula Hurn, Digital Organizer
Introduce yourself! Please tell us about you and your life, so we can get to know you better.
My life starts off a little like the movie Out of Africa with Robert Redford and Meryl Streep (two of my favorite actors of all time)—I was born in Zambia in 1961, where my parents farmed for 30 years from 1945 to 1975. Originally from South Africa, they moved to Zambia shortly after getting married in 1944, to start an exciting new life—farming in central Africa.
It was indeed an exciting life—one full of challenges and hardships. Where they went to live there were no roads, no houses, no running water. They were true pioneers.
After several years of Dad working as a farm manager for other farmers to establish himself, Mum and Dad finally bought their own farms which had to be developed from scratch. Bushveld had to be cleared to build houses, roads; create fields in which to cultivate crops such as seed maze, tobacco and sorghum and also paddocks, to feed livestock including cattle, goats and sheep. Dad also had pigs, which he penned in a brick piggery, for which they more than likely made all the bricks themselves.
They lived in pole and daga (mud) houses, had outside ablutions, used wooden tomato crates for tables and chairs and had to deal with lions, snakes, scorpions and a variety of other trials and tribulations including droughts and losing homes through fire—one of them on a Christmas Day just as they were about to sit down to lunch.
I was one of four siblings, my sister Anette—8 years older, my brother Thys—6 years my senior, my late brother Leon, 17 months older than me and then there was me, the baby. We were far away from 'civilization' and after having sent Anette and Thys to boarding school at too young an age, my mother home-schooled Leon and myself.
When I was 10, Leon and I were sent to boarding school back in South Africa and after returning to boarding school at the end of one school holiday in 1975, I never went home to Zambia again. My parents decided it was time to leave and I never got the opportunity to say goodbye.
Fast forward through boarding school; 3 degrees including a MBA; being introduced to computers in the late 80s; having worked in many different industries gathering more pieces of paper; a marriage, two kids and one granddaughter; over the years developing a 'nails, shoes and red lippy thing'; getting divorced; finding a love of riding motorbikes, diving and flying; meeting and marrying the love of my life and spending time with family and friends—I got to 60 knowing I was here to do something different.
What inspired you to create IG OrganiSZer®, and how did you get started in this business?
During mid to late 2020 I dabbled in photography, creating a website selling digital images online, as well as on print-on-demand products such as T-shirts, hoodies, shower curtains, neck gaiters etc., through a variety of online platforms. Not being a fan of Facebook, I decided to use Instagram as my marketing platform of choice.
In learning how to "Instagram" for my photography business, I realized there was a magnitude of content that had to be created to build an online presence and if I wasn't organized about it, I would never manage to be consistent with putting content out there for 'my people' to find.
Jump back to the late 1980s and the first computer I laid my hands on. Even though the cost escapes me, I remember it was an Olivetti M21—the first, or one of the first 'portable' computers. The screen had a protective surround, into which the keyboard fitted and clipped onto, turning it into a 'luggable', which weighed about 15 kgs!
As a 1983 release, it had an amber screen of 600 x 480 pixels, ran on MS-DOS, had two floppy drives and 128Kb of memory. Back then a mouse was definitely only a rodent, so the keyboard was king—and just there, my love of technology was born!
Only having 8 characters to build a filename required some creativity, because I wanted to know what the file was for, purely by looking at the name. It took some practice and I soon figured out systems which worked for me and since then, I've never had a role where I didn't perform a big part of my job using a computer.
Back to learning to Instagram in 2020—many of the students on the course I was taking, used to ask where to store and save all the content they were creating and what to call it, so they could find it when they want to post it. After hearing the question a few times on the Q&A calls, I realized, I had built the system they were looking for and so the IG OrganiSZer® emerged like a butterfly from a chrysalis—or maybe just a beautiful moth to start with! Oh, and by the way it's spelled using both the S and the Z because I knew my clients would be international and I wasn't going to fight the spelling. I've since trademarked it.
Being a system that has been developed specifically for users of Instagram, it's easy to implement and once you’ve learnt the principles they can be applied to any digital files that need organizing. The system consists of a custom OneNote for instruction and the home for your written content, notes and much more, a folder structure and naming conventions that keep everything in order.
All my diverse industry experiences and my love of simplifying things led me to create a self-paced, online course with instructional videos that teach users how to download and install the OneNote (free with a OneDrive or Office365 account) and provides the required folder structure and naming conventions. I give support either through responding to their questions in the lessons or a free, weekly Q&A call, where students can come and ask their questions in person.
Can you describe the core values and mission of IG OrganiSZer®, and how they influence your approach to helping clients?
The mission of the IG OrganiSZer® is to empower digital creators by providing comprehensive organizational solutions that enhance productivity, streamline workflows and foster creative excellence.
The core values of the IG OrganiSZer® align exactly with my own, which are freedom, passion, trust and love.
I need the freedom to do thing things that make my heart sing, such as help business owners with the organizational struggle and chaos in their digital content creation world. The IG OrganiSZer® gives them freedom by empowering them to take back their time, increase their productivity and reduce their stress levels around digital content creation and their social media presence.
I am passionate and committed to helping business owners succeed in getting their content out there quickly and easily, so that they in turn, can find the people out there who need them. The IG OrganiSZer® restores their control and ownership of their content allowing them to share, passionately with the world, what they are here to do.
Through trust, honesty and reliability, the IG OrganiSZer® and I provide support and help to business owners who have been buried under the chaos in their digital domains to calmly regain control and allow them to focus on the things which are important to them, family, business and ultimately financial success.
Last but not least, I love seeing the relief and the dissipation of stress that comes from knowing there is someone who actually cares, actually can and definitely wants to help, sort out this digital mess that they are in. The IG OrganiSZer® provides a home and a structure to nurture their digital organizational growth.
What are some common challenges your clients face, and how does your organizational approach address these challenges?
Some of the challenges my clients face are actually quite simple to overcome, they just seem like such huge barriers at the time.
The most common one is: "It's going to be too difficult to get organized". It really isn't. The difficult part is not having a system and if you're not able to figure one out for yourself, that's a big wall to climb. That's why I created a system, it's like organizing by numbers, just follow the system and the provided steps and the rest will fall into place.
Another one is: "My brain doesn't work like that". It doesn't have to; the system solves the problem for you. Even if you have a busy brain, you can follow a system and if you need help, I can personalize it, so that it will work for you.
Other challenges are: "It's going to take too long"; "It's going to cost too much"; "I don't have the time", probably pretty standard objections and challenges for most issues people have. Realistically though, having a system takes care of all those obstacles.
It's like having a map. If you have a map, you're going to get to the right destination provided you follow it, without one—not so much. Also, how much time have you wasted looking for that file or worse, how much money have you paid someone else to look for that file? How much more time do you want to waste being digitally disorganized? All questions that probably should be addressed in the name of efficiency and economics!
After developing the IG OrganiSZer® and putting it out there, I realized that there were some potential clients who just did not want to do another course that they thought they would have to battle through on their own. They wanted someone to just do it for them or at least hold their hand, guiding them while they waded through the quagmire of their digital chaos.
To satisfy that need, I created 1-2-1 digital organizational sessions which provide that service. Through a Zoom call, as my clients are international, they can share their screen; we take a look at what files they need organized and we come up with a system that is tailored specifically to the way they think and the way they do things. After all, there's no point in me developing a system that works for my brain and not theirs.
Many clients also struggle with keeping their Canva accounts in order and not being able to find designs once they've created them, so I have created a short course to provide a solution there. In under one hour, you will learn five key, easy steps to ensure that your Canva workspace will no longer be the nightmare it can so quickly turn into!
At the end of the day, I care. I care that business owners waste too much time searching for files, getting their social media content out there, finding Canva designs or not being able to find that email they are looking for. Yes, I have created the IG OrganiSZer® specifically to assist with Instagram content creation and posting, however, I can and would love to help with ANY digital organizational issues they may be having.
Can you provide examples of success stories or notable results that clients have achieved through your services?
I can't sit here and say hand on heart, that I have saved my clients thousands of dollars. What I can say, unequivocally, is that I have saved them hours of time and given them back their sanity and control regarding their digital organization.
I have provided a few quotes from some of the testimonials I have received from happy clients.
"Ursula's system of organizing images, captions, colour choices, and fonts for Instagram posts is thorough and gives me a competitive advantage.
I have not found anything comparable on the market." Anna Nolan, Alternative Therapies Instructor, Australia
"I'm a non-technical, technology-phobic person, who has been amazed at how easy the IG OrganiSZer is to set up and use." Sonya Nicol, Coach & Celebrant, New Zealand
"When I first heard about the OrganiSZing Canva course I thought it might be too long or expensive but I was pleased with the length and the information and I thought it was a fair price."
What I liked most about the course, was why it is important to name things and how Ursula encouraged students to not look at the huge page of designs but go just to our folders.
I would definitely recommend this course because it was clear, not too long but covered a lot of good organizing information." Liz Geeslin, Better Lifestyle Solutions, USA
"I put off for years what Ursula was able to help me unpack and get clear, on what I needed to do, in under an hour.
Her warm, kind nature made my novice technology-challenged self very comfortable to ask all my silly questions and get great insightful answers." Casey Schmidt, Mind, Body and Eating Health Coach, USA
How do you stay updated with the latest trends and techniques in organizing to ensure your clients receive the best guidance possible?
The IG OrganiSZer® is a system based on principles and these don't really change over time. What does change, however, is technology.
I am a bit of a geek and I love technology, so I am forever looking at the new apps that are being developed and released to assist business owners improve the organizational systems they are using.
I do comparisons of available organizational apps with the ones I have chosen to build my system on and of course these are not exhaustive, just as way of assisting those who are in the process or close to deciding on what to use and haven't been able to come to a decision. I do pros and cons and give my informed opinion, as to why some are better than others to use in certain circumstances.
I am also constantly looking at ways to improve what I am doing and as the apps evolve that I have aimed my courses at, i.e. Instagram and Canva predominantly, I update the course material when and where required, adding new tips and tricks as and when I discover them.
Blog writing and putting out content on social media is also a way to provide organizational information regularly to my followers and I also do giveaways, where I give away up to 3 digital organizational sessions to people who register. I encourage them to bring any digital organizational issues they have and I will help.
What are your future plans for IG OrganiSZer, and how do you envision the business evolving in the coming years?
Right now, I want to get it into the hands of as many business owners as possible to save them time, money and their sanity by getting their digital worlds organized for Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn or just generally. As I said before, the IG OrganiSZer® system was developed for use with Instagram. However, it's so adaptable, it can be used successfully for any social media content creation and I can help with that.
Who knows what it can evolve into in the future—all I know is I want to help people stop wasting time looking for digital files, eliminate the stress that goes with maintaining a social media presence and free up their brain space to focus on things that matter to them like their families and financial success.
Tell us about a pivotal moment in your life that brought you to where you are today.
As with most people in the world, there have been many moments in my life that have steered me in my current direction—many are memorable, some barely noticeable. The one which has propelled me more than any other to take action and make this work, was the sudden and unexpected death of my older brother Leon, on the 6th of March 2021.
Technically he didn't die that day. He was put on life support after suffering a cardiac arrest and subsequently receiving multiple bouts of CPR and electric shocks to restart his heart. He suffered irrecoverable brain damage due to an extended lack of oxygen and we eventually made the decision to turn off the machines on the 11th—for me, he died on the 6th.
That was 20 days before my 60th birthday and although I hadn't really planned anything, I was just going to can it all and do nothing. It struck me at some point, that even though my parents lived to 96 and 97 respectively, if Leon died that young it could happen to any of the rest of us. I know too on another level, our souls decide to leave when our work here is done—I don't think mine's done yet—although, neither did Leon.
Anyway, I decided that with the possibly one score and 10 years I may have left, based on Mum and Dad's longevity, I was going to bust a gut to make this thing work and help people out of their digital misery. So, two years down the track, I am doing things differently to get my IG OrganiSZer® out to the world of people who need to be more digitally organized.
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