My Childhood Love of Organizing (Matchbox Cars!)Turned Into a Career
What do Matchbox cars, a racetrack rug, and an alphabetized movie collection have to do with running a business? In this video, I’m sharing the childhood quirks that became the foundation of my career — and how my love of tidying, organizing, and creating systems became the heart of Calibrated Concepts.
From lining up toy cars to designing streamlined onboarding systems, I’ve always found comfort in bringing order to chaos. And as it turns out, that coping mechanism (hello, undiagnosed anxiety!) turned into my superpower as a systems strategist for small businesses.
This video is for anyone who’s ever wondered how their weird little habits might actually be a gift — and a reminder that the things we loved (or needed) as kids often point us toward the work we're meant to do.
💡 If your business backend feels more like a racetrack than a library, I’d love to help. Check out the links below to work together or connect.
Transcript below!
-
0:00 You know how certain TV characters are all about having fun in a really organized way? Monica Geller, Claire Dunphy, etc.
0:10 They think organizing is playing. That's me. When I was little, me and my dad and my little brother used to play matchbox cars.
0:21 And my dad and my brother are racing the cars around that, you know, infamous 90s rug that is shaped, or that has a racetrack on it.
0:28 And I'm sitting there playing in a different way, because I am lining all of the cars up by size, shape, and color.
0:35 Uhm, essentially creating a little parking lot instead of playing. And what I didn't know at the time, and what I didn't even know for a long time, was that it was the start of something much bigger.
0:49 My name is Ellie, I am the founder and CEO of Calibrated Concepts, and I help small businesses behind the scenes with all things techie, uhm, just to make all the admin, all the stress, all the things web, feel so much easier.
1:07 So when did this love of tidying, simplifying, organizing, and all this stuff start making sense? It was way before I ever opened a business.
1:18 So as you know, when I was a kid, it was the cars, when I was really little, and like, organizing all the Legos and Lincoln Log Tools, um, loved all of that.
1:29 When I got a little bit older, I was maybe 11, and I decided to organize every movie and every book in the house, and make everyone check them out to me like I was the librarian.
1:39 Because I did want to be a librarian. I loved that idea. I read constantly, um, yeah, super alphabetized. So looking back, I always knew that I was a bit of a weirdo that way.
1:53 But what I didn't realize is that this was a coping mechanism. Um, I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder when I was about 17.
1:58 Um, and it was a way of controlling my environment, of making it feel safer, of making it feel understood. And looking back, I, was only diagnosed when I was 17, but I've probably had anxiety my entire life.
2:16 Those skills, though, have followed me into adulthood. They've served me really well. Um, obviously, I've had to learn to handle my anxiety in different ways.
2:26 I can't always control every situation. But the skills of creating order, making things pretty, making things feel functional, making things easy to use has gone into creating this business.
2:39 I now create and organize Google Drives, Asana boards and projects, standard operating procedures, websites, onboarding systems, scheduling tools, email marketing and content creation tools and systems.
2:55 So, thank you. That is, I genuinely don't think I'd be here without having that journey and having those skills behind me that I started at a very, very young age.
3:07 Uhm, when I did start my business, I started after moving to Ireland and feeling a little out of place and a little, again, I kind of felt like I needed to control a bit more of my environment.
3:19 So, by creating a journey job that I had control over, I was the boss, uhm, it made my whole world over there feel a lot more comfortable and safe.
3:29 So, I started out as a tech virtual assistant because I knew I could get that right out of the way, uh, that I could, I'd had loads of admin roles in various companies all the way through college and was able to quickly start helping people with things like email marketing, social media marketing.
3:44 accounts, uhm, setting up these same types of systems I do now on a more elevated level. And then I pivoted to doing website design, uhm, with the systems in the background, really still focusing on that tech behind the scenes thing.
4:02 And now I do that as well as helping deeply with back-end systems. Uhm, strategy, coaching, because I know what first, I know firsthand what chaos feels like, and I know how powerful it can be to build order from the mess.
4:19 And to also create the systems the way that your own brain works, and to create things so that your nervous system feels really happy.
4:29 So, I cannot be the only one who's turned my childhood quirks or coping mechanisms into a career. Maybe you bossed your siblings around, maybe you tore apart all of your toys until you figured out how to put them back together again, uhm, tell me about it.
4:49 I want to know what was your version of lighting up matchbook cars or organizing the DVDs in the house. What childhood habit ended up being a part of your work or who you are today?
5:01 Uhm, and if the back end of your business feels more like a racetrack to you, rug than a well-organized library, that's literally what I do.
5:13 So I'm here. There are links below if you want to connect. Uhm, thanks for hanging out with me today and hearing a little bit more of my story.
5:20 I hope you can find relatability in it. Uhm, yeah. Oh, and I'm always really appreciative if you like, share, subscribe.
5:32 Uhm, it grows tiny channels like mine and it really helps other people to find me.
Ready to become a Calm CEO?
Inside the Calm CEO Starter Pack:
I'll walk you through the most common tech and system mistakes I see in a short video workshop
You’ll find your unique version of a simple business with a guided journaling session.
Plus, you get a special discount code for my online shop!
