Epic Entrepreneurs

From Chaos To Calm with Jess Reed Green Mountain Space

• Bill Gilliland

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Imagine walking into a home that felt chaotic yesterday and feels peaceful today. That’s the promise behind luxury organizing done right, and we brought back Jess Reed of Green Mountain Space to unpack exactly how her team delivers one‑day transformations, even across seven counties in Western North Carolina. From the first consult to the final label, Jess shares the systems, values, and leadership habits that turn a deeply personal service into a scalable, resilient business.

We talk through why her model keeps inventory and vendor management in‑house, how a warehouse and pre‑planning make rural logistics workable, and what “concierge‑level” actually means for moves, renovations, and holiday setup. Jess opens her playbook on SOPs and training with Loom, regular audits that keep quality high, and the role of project managers, lead organizers, assistants, and an inventory manager in delivering consistent results. The conversation also gets candid about entrepreneurship myths—early reinvestment, thin paychecks, and the long game—and how networking and vendor partners quietly fuel sustainable growth.

What stands out is culture. Jess’s PEACE values—People, Education, Accountability, Communication, Evolve—anchor hiring, feedback, and client care. We dig into adaptability on the job when emotions and decisions shift, hyper‑communication that prevents surprises, and calendaring that ties goals to actual time, especially as a new parent. Expect practical takeaways: planning in October for the year ahead, keeping a “hopes and dreams” brain dump, scheduling joy alongside work, and building a team as committed as your most committed member. We wrap with expansion plans toward Hendersonville and where to connect if you want your time—and your space—back.

If this conversation sparked an idea or helped you rethink your systems, subscribe, share it with a friend, and leave a quick review so more builders can find it.


Guest Contact Info:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greenmountainspace
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Thanks for Listening. You may contact me or our team at https://billgilliland.biz/

All the best!
Bill

Thanks for listening. Please hit the subscribe button, leave us a 5 star review, and share this podcast. You can reach me at williamgilliland@actioncoach.com or at https://billgilliland.biz/

All the best!

Bill

SPEAKER_00:

Hey there. Welcome to this week's episode of Epic Entrepreneurs Podcast. I'm Bill Gillilan, your host. I am the owner of Action Coach Business Growth Partners and one of the founders of the Asheville Business Summit. But this is not about me and Action Coach. This is about our guest. And today I'm super pumped. We have a repeat guest. We don't, we you know, we haven't had a repeat guest in a while. We've I think maybe maybe you might be the second one ever. So uh that's pretty exciting. I've got Jess Reed from Green Mountain Space. So, Jess, tell us a little bit about you, your company, and uh, you know, what's how you you know what your services are to our community.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Thank you so much, Bill, for having me on again. It's always nice to see you. Um we are a professional luxury organizing company. Um, we're based here in Western North Carolina. We do serve seven counties. Um, we do have a team of professional organizers that includes two project managers, um, lead organizers and assistant organizers and an inventory manager. We specialize in transforming homes through concierge-level moves, um, organizing, packing, unpacking. We do small business organizing, we do holiday setup and holiday teardown. Um, and then we also have renovation support services.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow, you've come a long way.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

We have I couldn't count, I couldn't keep up with it all. It was that you I mean, you were you were like, oh, we do this, we do that, we do this. Yeah, I love it. So what does it mean to be a luxury luxury service?

SPEAKER_01:

So as far as the we call it a luxury service because we try to keep everything here in-house, um, meaning that organizers run businesses differently. Um, most organizers that I know of that have a really great relationship with, they have more attainable um purchasing options. And so with that, um they're able to go to the client house, they are able to leave the house, go buy product. And we just don't have that luxury here in Western North Carolina. So we try to get everything ready before we enter into your home. So we have all of the products. Um, if your project needs a vendor, meaning a painter, a real estate agent, a mover, a donation specialist, if you need a foundation, which a lot of people are needing foundation specialists right now, um, even a year after the hurricane. Um, hopefully we don't have to bring that up because I know a lot of people are still traumatized about that, but that is again part of our service. So we just try to keep everything in-house. So we are the one-stop shop for all of the things um regarding organizing, because our ultimate goal is to help you save time and help you save energy.

SPEAKER_00:

Love it. Time save energy. So when you said we don't we can't do that in Western North Carolina, is that because of the the distance that we have to travel to get things? We're not like in a in like an urban area. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Correct. Correct. So most of the time, what our clients want, um, we can't go to the store and get. And so we purchase materials and we have a warehouse that we manage, um, that's our inventory manager that she takes that on. And our goal is to be able, um, and we do this very often, depending on the volume of items that we're organizing, depending on how large the space is, um, if we're doing multi-spaces, our goal is to do that one-day transformation. Because if you can think of an area in your home that is just feeling really chaotic, that you just feel like you just can't get to because life is getting in the way. We want to offer, and we do offer that one-day transformation where you're instantly organized.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow. So you'll clean out any space. I mean, you clean out garages, dens, it doesn't matter. It's just, yeah, okay. Get it organized. I love that. I love that. All right. Well, let's switch gears a little bit, talk a little bit about business here. So um, you know, when I first met you, you were kind of just getting really off the ground. So if you had to start over again, what would you do differently?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh Lord. Um I think starting over. Oh my apologies. So sorry, somebody just called our business line. I'm gonna take that down. We are a project manager that's answering the phone. Um I would say documentation of SOPs and then more regular audits. Um, and I think that is just in the midst of what I'm doing right now, because as I started adding team members and as I started to grow, um I oftentimes ask for feedback from them and I say what's working, what's not working, what feels messy. But it's about having the key players to help me develop those processes. And so the actual written documentation is not always on me. Um, because right now that's that's where we're at. If I had to start over. So I would have um found Loom a whole lot earlier um because Loom is like my best friend. Um, I'm just in the midst of right now of revamping two trainings um for our lead organizer and our project manager, because that those are the two positions that we're in desperate need of.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, if you're not familiar with Loom, Loom is a a great program where you can uh record yourself and your computer, you can use it for uh sending a video email, but you can also do it to record uh standard operating procedures or any kind of systems or anything where you can need to show somebody else how to do it so you can do it once. So uh yeah, Loom's awesome. So it's uh it's a it's a it's a great software that's that that's multiple useless. So what have been a learning or two that you've had as an owner and employer since you started?

SPEAKER_01:

So um I would say the number one way to expand your business, I would say, is through networking. Um, and I have a partner that always invites me to things. She gives us so much opportunity and so much exposure that to really have those key partners to take care of them in such a way that you want to take care of your vendors just as important as taking care of your team because your vendors are gonna be also out there speaking about you top of mind. Um, and they, I feel like ultimately help our business grow. Um so I would say that that's been one of my biggest key learnings um as far as marketing. Um, and I would say also evaluating your time and your capacity. I am I'm the number one person with shiny squirrel syndrome, is what I call it. Um it's like, you know, this is a really great idea. Let's develop it. But then it's really nice to put that in a holding place where you can constantly reference and you can constantly go back to whenever you do have really great ideas, but you don't have the time to develop it. So I make it an active practice because since we've met, I um we had a baby, she's 10 months.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, congratulations.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that's exciting. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So the biggest thing is what is my goals? What are my goals for the year? And how much time am I actually um devoting to reach those goals? And there is a thing about goal setting um and writing everything down of all the things that you want to do, but attaching that to time is really, it's kind of what makes or breaks you, at least what I think in business and entrepreneurship.

SPEAKER_00:

I love it. Yeah, attaching a time to the goal or a task or yeah, a lot of people skip that step. They write down the task, get the to-do list, but they don't put the time that it's gonna take to do it. So you end up with a to-do list that's pretty deep and pretty long and pretty hard to actually live into. So um Yeah, that's yeah, that's that's uh that's that's great. Yeah, well, congratulations on the baby. That's that's fun. That's fun. A 10 month old's fun. So what are yeah, yeah. So given all that, what is what are some of the common misconceptions about running a business?

SPEAKER_01:

Ooh. You know, I'm gonna have to think about that. I don't know, what what of your what are some of the others? Maybe um if you share with me some of your other Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

The one I always get is that the business owner is rich. Um or that, well, like, you know, that the employees all think the res you know got it made. Right. Or that it's easy. That's that's the one, you know, that because it it, you know, oh, the owners got it made because it's yeah. So um there's a lot of other ones, but those are the two biggest ones that I hear.

SPEAKER_01:

So yeah. So I would say it's definitely not easy. Um I think it's just oh Lord. I think it's just something that you just have to be excruciatingly passionate about and you have to be able to work at it every day. And common misconceptions, I think, you know, rich, no, no. Um, I am I barely, you know, in transparency, I barely took a paycheck my first three years because I reinvested, I reinvested everything. I reinvested into my team, I reinvested into building our warehouse. Um, and having a personal cushion allowed me to do that. Um, so a common misconception is you have to invest all of your money, no, but you are gonna make some sort of investment, whether if it's you know, finance or time. And what I had was time. I had a little bit of money, but you know, and I would think that even as a business owner, because I'm looking at the sheet on the back, I would say I'm probably at like the maybe manager stage, maybe self-employed. I would say I'm like teetering in between that. Right. Um, that if you're gonna do, if you are gonna be an entrepreneur, you have to play the long game.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. No, I I love that. A lot of people don't realize that or the other thing that happens is after they after uh business owners and entrepreneurs are successful, they don't the people tend to forget that there was the three years of no paychecks. There was the the or small paychecks or getting by or squeaking by or trying to I, you know, I remember, you know, writing payrolls on Friday and hoping that I could cover it by Monday, you know, when the checks were all gonna clear. So, you know, interesting. Yeah, it's a it's uh uh back back in the day when there was a little bit of float. So um, yeah, it's good. So what do you what do you attribute your growth to?

SPEAKER_01:

I would say compassion. If I had to sum it up in one word, it would probably be compassion. Um, you know, we are we are a team of women. My husband is the part owner um for you know legal and financial reasons. He's 49% and I'm 51. But I call him our RHR because whenever I have you know certain dynamics and situations, like he is always there to support me. Um but with being a primarily, you know, women-based, um, woman-based company, and knowing that everybody either has a partner or you know, maybe they have a child, um, having compassion whenever they come to me and they say, hey, like I I either need a break or today was a really hard day, or I have things that are going on personally. I don't ever make them feel that they can't come to me because I never make them feel bad for going through things because we're all human. And I want people to really love their work. I want because to hire an organizer, you are extremely vulnerable, um, you know, from a client perspective. And then from an organizer's perspective, you're going in and you're helping by helping a person go through something. Um, we do position ourselves as lifestyle organizers. So, what a lot of people hire us for um is because a life event happened or a series of life events happens and things just became really chaotic and they just don't even know where to start. Um, and so I think that I have hired a team of compassionate people in order to hold space for our clients. And we do, we hold space for them no matter what. Um, we hold space for them in their con in their consult. You know, we follow back up with them. Um, if they say, Oh, my daughter's getting married in October, well, we make sure that we send emails out or we send out a text message and I'm like, hey, I hope you have a really great weekend. Um, we've had clients be with us. We are about to be in year five. We've had clients still with us from the beginning because we make an investment of who they are as a person. Because again, what people want most in this world is time.

SPEAKER_00:

More valuable than money, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So we give people back their time. And I think that's what really, you know, attributes to our growth and our success, and that as a team, we're constantly evolving. Um, it's one of our core values, um, is through education. So our core values are um they spell the word peace because yes, I came from a corporate background, and so acronyms are just ingrained in me. Um, but so P is for people. So you have to put people first before anything, because if we don't have people, then we don't have a business and we don't have each other. So it's people before anything. Um, next is education. Uh the A is for accountability, um, having personal accountability for ourselves and being okay, being wrong, being okay and like celebrating being right, you know, we can celebrate accountability too. Uh C is for communication. Um, I'm a hyper communicator, and so I think that more information is better than not enough information, especially whenever it comes to client development, client experience, team member development, and team member experience. And then the last E is for evolve. If we do all of those things, then we can evolve as a company, but we can also evolve as people.

SPEAKER_00:

Love it. Love it. Peace. People, education, accountability, communication, evolve. I love that. I love that. So you've got a family. How how do you balance your personal life with demands of running the business?

SPEAKER_01:

A lot of calendaring. A lot of calendaring. Um so I um and it's taken me about four years, especially now, um, that we have a child in the mix, is I found that even with nap times, I'm like, okay, what can I get done in two hours? You know, am I focusing on my business today or am I focusing on my house today? You know, um, or am I focusing on myself? And so I think the balance of that and really being regimented about my schedule um and having very firm boundaries um that my family does come first, um, and then my work family comes second. I think what has helped me a lot is releasing and delegating, a lot of delegating. Um, and my team really stepped up for me. Like I was, I came back, you know, this is the not glorious side of entrepreneurship and being a mom. I came back at two weeks. It was only two weeks postpartum, and I came back because there was just a lot of change and a lot of growth, and we were converting to employees, and I was like, okay, I gotta get all of this stuff to the bookkeeper. And so because I want to progress every year, um, but look at me going on a tangent because I typically tend to do that, sorry. Um, but I would say what has helped me balance the most time is I update my calendar for what my plan is for the week. But then at the end of every day, I actually update it for what happened. And then if I couldn't get to something, then I just move it to the next available slot. And sometimes that's three weeks from now.

SPEAKER_00:

Love it. Love it. Yeah. Well, um, it's good for an organizer to be organized. So, and the best way to get organized is with a calendar. So, well done on that. So, what qualities do you look for in employees and how do you foster a positive and productive work environment? You've touched on this a bit already, but I'd like to hear a little more in depth.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Um, so can you repeat the question more time, Soris?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, what qualities do you look for in employees and how do you foster a positive and work productive work environment?

SPEAKER_01:

So I would say one of the number one qualities that we need is adaptability. Because we are dealing, yes, with things whenever we are in client homes, but we're also dealing with emotions. So what, for example, what a client may say to us during a consult, um, yes, I'm ready to get rid of this. We can show up on the very on the day of organizing, and they're like, oh no, I changed my mind. Or, oh no, my my partner is not ready to let this go. Um, or oh, I'm selling it to somebody, but they're not going to come and get it for a couple weeks. So I think adaptability and being able to go with the flow is our number one trait. Um, and being able to receive feedback and being able to give feedback. Like I ask for feedback all the time. And I think that's that open communication and fostering that with our team has been really helpful because people can call me out and I'm not going to be mad at them. And I'm like, okay. So I think that. Um, and then that compassion piece and knowing that everybody is going through something. And just because, you know, if somebody, we never want to, you know, accept people that are being rude, but um, Jefferson Fisher, if you know him, um, his book, The Next Conversation, is really helpful um when knowing how to respond to someone um going through something that's emotional because most of the time it's not really attacked to you. So, and then the next one was about teams, right?

SPEAKER_00:

Sorry. Um, I mean you've you've answered the question. I think you're good.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, good.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I think you've I think you've answered it. So we also have an acronym, and you've heard it from me probably, B Epic. And um I've uh so I want to I want to get this is a quick fire round. So a couple of sentences or words about each one. And so uh B, bring the energy.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

So what is what are what are a couple of sentences or words or your thoughts on bringing energy?

SPEAKER_01:

Bringing energy um as the owner you set the tone.

SPEAKER_00:

Love it. How about you've got in your acronym and my acronym, we both have education. So give me a quick give me a quick education thing.

SPEAKER_01:

Um make it consistent.

SPEAKER_00:

Love that. How about P planning?

SPEAKER_01:

I think everybody should plan in October for the following year.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I would agree. October, November, December, somewhere before the end of the year. Love it. I inspiration.

SPEAKER_01:

Walk the walk.

SPEAKER_00:

Love that. And C is commitment.

SPEAKER_01:

You're only as good as your most committed team member.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow, that's big. That's a big deal. You're only as good as your most committed team member. That's right. It's the weakest link thing, right? Yeah, yeah. I love that. I love that. So thank you for that. You're welcome. So, what words of advice would you offer other business owners who are looking to grow?

SPEAKER_01:

I would say words of advice would probably have a brain dump list of all of your hopes and dreams. And keep it regularly available, keep it at the forefront of your mind. If it's on your notes app, if it's somewhere on a Trello board, if it's in a Google Doc, if it's handwritten, keep it regularly available because things are gonna creep in. Um, and also journal daily if you whether it's you know tactily or digitally. Um because not only you're taking time in order to decompress so you can't have that separation from business and home and business and life. Um, I feel like you just gotta get it out sometimes, you know, and it's really hard for entrepreneurs to put it down. You have to equally, yes, schedule everything out, but you also have to schedule joy and happiness and fun. And, you know, like Jesse or is it Jesse Itzer? I can't ever, yeah. Yeah, so the big so the big ass calendar, like schedule, schedule your fun. That's important.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I actually had to make it one of my three big goal categories because I would have just worked all the time. So because work was fun, but it was for me, but it there's you know, that doesn't work for everybody in my family. So uh yeah, it's an it's an it's an interesting thing. So so maybe I'm gonna get one of those things on the brain dump hopes and dreams list here. But what's the next big thing for Jess in Green Mountain space?

SPEAKER_01:

I would say the biggest thing um right now, aside from solidifying our positions within our training and developing our team members, we would love to expand to Hendersonville and have a team. Um, because what we have found in traveling, I would love me personally, one of my big dreams is I want to just travel. I want to travel and organize and travel for fun, but not everybody wants that. And so I think our next step is to build out a team in Hendersonville because the drive out there sometimes to like flat rock and it's just uh it makes for a very long day. And so I think having a team out there is gonna be our next step.

SPEAKER_00:

So love it. Love it. So last thing, what's the best way for someone to find you?

SPEAKER_01:

Um, best way to find us is um two platforms. Uh, one is Instagram. So I do try to share what the team is up to almost every day. Um, sometimes it ends up being a little bit late. And I would say our website, um, so that way you can see about all of the services that we offer. And you can also contact us um directly from there.

SPEAKER_00:

What's the website?

SPEAKER_01:

It is greenmountainspace.com.

SPEAKER_00:

Nice. Okay. It's easy enough. Greenmountain space.com. You heard it there, or check her out on Instagram. Hey, thank you. Thanks for being part of this community. Um, we appreciate all you're doing. Really know you're going to continue to grow and be successful. Um, yeah, you're doing the things you need to do. You're learning and you're growing. So that's what that's what it takes. So appreciate you being part of our community.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you so much. I appreciate you too.

SPEAKER_00:

And until next time, all the best.