September 23, 2025 • 27 mins
After almost a decade as The Organised Mum Method, we’ve made a big change: dropping the “Mum.”
In this first full episode of TOM: Extra Spin, I’m pulling back the curtain on why the rebrand matters, what it means for the future of TOM, and how it feels to let go of something that’s been part of my identity for so long.
’m also sharing a life update from our family’s epic summer adventure across Canada, from Niagara Falls to the Rockies.
This episode is part brand story, part personal catch-up, and the perfect place to start if you’ve ever wondered what’s really going on behind the method.
In this first full episode of TOM: Extra Spin, I’m pulling back the curtain on why the rebrand matters, what it means for the future of TOM, and how it feels to let go of something that’s been part of my identity for so long.
’m also sharing a life update from our family’s epic summer adventure across Canada, from Niagara Falls to the Rockies.
This episode is part brand story, part personal catch-up, and the perfect place to start if you’ve ever wondered what’s really going on behind the method.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
There we can here we give hello, Welcome back, and
welcome to the Tom's Extra Expisit Podcast. I have been
away the longer than I anticipated. Obviously, we were away
(00:21):
in the summer. We went to Canada for five weeks,
and then I think by some miracle, I didn't catch
anything whilst we were away. That was amazing. But then
the universe saved it up and I caught something on
the plane. I don't know what it was. It was
like some cold if it's COVID, I don't know what,
but it lingered around for a good two weeks. And
(00:43):
it's only just but you can still kind of hear
it in my voice. It's only just about God, and
like my top priority is preserving these vocal cords for
the Tom Rocks guiding sessions. But back we are back
with the podcast. Now. I hope you've been well. I
hope you've had a lovely summer. I've hoped you had
a really good start to September. Whatever it is you've
been doing, we have had an emotional start. But I'm
(01:06):
going to get onto that when I filly in on
what I've been up to since I've been gone. But
the first thing that I really think that we need
to chat about is a change that you might have
seen with the app, maybe in the branding, that kind
of thing. Maybe you've missed it over the summer, maybe
(01:27):
like jerm what you're talking about. Well, I'm going to
fill you in. But first, if you haven't already make
yourself a hot drink, a tea, a coffee, maybe you're
going to listen to this whilst you're pottering around the house,
So make that drink, sit down, stay out the window,
or maybe you're folding some laundry because you might have
noticed that. And when I call it Tom Tom right,
(01:49):
and I've been calling it Tim for about a year now.
And a few of you eagle eyed, why she dropped
the second m. Why are we not tmmmmm anymore? Why
are we teamed? Why we team Tom TM and not
Team Tom tmm Well, for about a year we had
been working very like slowly in the background, real like invigorating.
(02:15):
That's not the right word, that's not this is not
a good start. But we have been working in the
background to make sure that the Tom brand is as
inclusive as possible for as many people as possible. And
over the years, so I've been talking about Tom for
(02:36):
ten years online, Oh my goodness, and from time to time,
more so in the early days, people would say, hmm,
I don't like the fact that it's the mom, Like,
why are we calling this the organized Mom Method? And
the truth of that was because when I first created it,
(02:57):
all of those years ago, almost twenty years ago, now,
I was trying to be an organized mom. If you
know the story, it's because I lost myself to motherhood, etc.
And I couldn't miss the opportunity of having a little
bit of a link to my firstborn because that's how
(03:18):
it all started, and his name is Tom. So I
called myself the organized Mom, and then the Organized Mom
Method was born out of that. Now, obviously, if you
don't know that backstory and you're just downloading an app
that you see on the app Store, you might assume
that this is just for moms, and that is not
the case. It's it's not been the case since I
(03:39):
let it wild into the world ten years ago, and
we wanted to, I wanted the team wanted to reflect
that in the name. The easiest thing to do was
for us just to drop the mom from the Organized
Mom method and just call it the Organized Method. So
if you have the app, you'll noticed that a few
(04:01):
design elements have been tweaked. We've got a brand new website,
The Organized Method dot com. We have got a brand
new brand channels on Instagram and TikTok, The Organized Method,
the Underscore Organized Underscore Method. Go and check them out,
give us a follow. I am still around on all
of my Organized Mum channels. I am not going anywhere.
(04:22):
You can't get rid of me that easily. But this
is just our next phase. And it also fitted really
neatly with the fact that tom My first board. It
gets confusing. I'll call him Thomas for this podcast. So Thomas,
who was the baby that inspired this whole method to
come about in the first place, went to university last week.
(04:45):
I won't cry. I have been crying on and off.
It's like an uncontrollable tap that sometimes does itself on.
He went to university. We dropped him off on Sunday
and it felt like such a at the right time.
I think like Thomas is growing up. Tom the brand
is growing up. We wanted to include as many people
(05:08):
as possible, so that is the big news for the brand.
You'll have noticed it. It's just a few design squeaks.
It's still the same old method you know and love.
I'm still totally running everything like as I said, you
won't get rid of me. But I was hoping that
it won't be a barrier anymore for people who are
(05:30):
searching for a way to feel more in control, feel
a little bit calmer with everything in their lives, feel
more organized, get on top of things. When they they
will no longer see that word mom. So I'm hoping
that they will give it a go. And if you
haven't already got the app, then you can try it
the whole thing. You can try it for free for
(05:51):
seven days, and then after that if you love it,
if you like the guided cleans, if you like organized Christmas,
We've got such fun things coming for that app. I
can't even tell you this year. Then it is three
ninety nine a month, so go and check it out
in the app stores. Is available on both Apple and
also Android. So that is what I've been up to
(06:14):
from a business perspective, from a TOM perspective, and how
the brand is evolving, and what is going to be
happening over the next year or so. We're gonna be
adding lots of features, to the app. Also, Organized Christmas
have launched. We are about to go into week four.
Can you well when you'll be listening to this, It'll
be week four, can you believe it? Do not panic
(06:36):
if you've, like gem Jo, I haven't even started. Like
the algorithms can do that. They sometimes you don't see
anything like pop up on your Instagram or maybe your TikTok.
It's not your fault, it's the algorithm. So do not
panic if you haven't caught up. You can jump in
at any time. And don't forget. You can only ever
do the very best of the time and energy you have,
So just do what you can, do what you can.
(06:58):
It is better than nothing. And also don't forget that
we have the Organized Christmas catch up at the end
of November. So for any point at any week, maybe
you have started late, or maybe you're gonna have to
take a little break for a couple of weeks because
work's going to get busy, or or you get ill.
God forbid, I'm not wishing that on you, but you
get ill and you have to take a break for
a couple of weeks, we will do the catch up.
So that's also started. And also on the Tom app
(07:22):
we have had a lovely classic Tom Week drop for
you as well. So for those of you that are
trying to get back into the swing of things, go
and check that out because I will guide you through Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday of a classic Tom week just to sort of
get you back in the groove. Because around about this
time of September, I think this is universally true for
(07:42):
most people. We go back into September, We're like, yes,
it's a second new year, this is what I'm going
to do. It's a fresh start. And as always, same
with mid Johan mid September, you're like, yeah, so that's
here a perfect time if you need a little bit
of momentum. But what have I been up to? So
(08:04):
many of you have been asking questions. I thought I'll
do a little quick segment in the podcast so that
you know exactly what I was up to when we
went to Canada. So we went to Canada four five weeks,
which is the longest I have ever been away from home.
But in mind, I never went to university myself, right
or I didn't tell you. Sorry, I am getting ahead
(08:27):
of myself, right. So the Tom University thing. I'm going
to touch on this first because I know that a
lot of you will be in the same boat this year.
You might have it coming up next year. You might
be have kids a certain age, or you might have
like young and you're like, this is not going to
happen to me for years. It's not applicable. I still
(08:47):
want you to listen, because God, I wish I had listened,
Or you might be way past it your kids are
older and you're like, yeah, Jeremy, right. So I have
got Thomas who is nineteen, and then I've got Johnny
who's sixteen, and I've got Ben who is ten, way
(09:11):
out of the baby stage, right, so far past the
baby stage that I can't even remember. But what I
do remember is very specific moments in time with all
three of them, really where it was so like chaotic
and intense, and you're in the weeds and you've got
(09:34):
babysit down you and you maybe baby's got poo up
its back or whatever, and you're so so deep in
that parenthood, like in that really intense bit that you
never think it's going to end, Like it's almost unfathomable
(09:56):
in your brain that this will end. I'm not sad.
I know it sounds like I'm sad, but I'm not sad.
It's like an uncontrollable release of emotion, right, So I'm
just trying to give you something a different perspective. Really,
(10:18):
if you've got like young kids and you're like, oh
my god, I'm just longing for some peace and quiet.
So when you are in that point and your life
has been like that for maybe years because you've got
more than one kid or whatever, and your brain is
so used to functioning at that parent level, you mean,
(10:39):
you know right. And by the way, I do realize
the irony of me saying that Tom isn't just for moms.
This whole segment of me going mom anyway, I apologize,
We're not going to talk about me and being a
mom every time. I promise. This is more of a
catch up anyway. So you are so convinced that this
(11:02):
is never going to end that when it does, it
is a shock. And I think that is what, like
my body, my brain is going through at the moment.
It's like, hold on a minute, what's just happened? Because rationally,
obviously we knew he was going to university. You know,
this was really exciting. This is what he wanted. We're
(11:26):
proud of him. We've worked towards it. We went and
looked around universities, We applied to universities, so it's not
like this has just completely come out of the blue.
And then you've packed and you've gone to Ikea and oh,
by the way, Ikea, I do have a bone to
pick with you. We bought your box. It was I
(11:46):
think it was like forty nine pounds. The student kitchen box,
brilliant pan plates, all of the kitchen essentials in a
plastic box, sorted right. However, Thomas has reported back to
me that you need a screwdriver to put the pans together,
(12:09):
like the little knob on the paneld that wasn't included anyway,
went off on a tangent there. So you've prepped, you've
done all of this stuff, and then the day comes
and it's time. You've got them in their room, and
the day's busy, so your kind of mind is kind
of distracted. You're still on that parent conveyor belt. Do this?
(12:31):
Do this is? Everyone says, everyone fed blah blah. And
then you've put the room together and it's time. That
is the weirdest feeling it is. The emotion is physical,
and I was like very conscious of not crying on
(12:53):
the day or in front of him, because obviously it's
hard enough, isn't it. When you you know you're starting,
you know you're nervous, you've got he's got other stuff
on it. He didn't want his mother wailing like in
the all of residence. So I kept together. Was super
proud of myself for that. But it is like a
(13:13):
gut punch. And the only reason why I think it
feels so different is because like it's a different kind
of emotion. It's it's not prescribable, is because you've spent
so long making sure, like this sounds really silly, making
sure you haven't left them anywhere. It's like have you
(13:34):
ever had when you've got young kids and they've just
died school and then you like you temporarily forget that
they're in school and you're like, where are they? Oh? Yeah,
they're in school. So you spent so long. I used
to have to be all the time. You spent so
long making you sure you knew where they were, everyone
(13:57):
was safe, And obviously as they grew up, they go
and spend time with their mates and like Tom has
been like you know, he stayed away from home obviously,
but this is different because it's like, okay, bye. In
that moment, you don't know anymore the man you shy
of their life. Have they eaten properly? And it is
(14:21):
such it messes your head, like you're like, okay, my
legs have got to walk away. Now your mothering instinct
is totally confused. It's just like what what what we're doing? So? Yeah, God,
what an absolute roller coaster of emotions. That is so
(14:44):
to conclude, my little like I want to tell you
about this is just to say that this isn't, by
the way, taking away any of like the frustrating times
that you know that in the depths of motherhood, like
where you're like, oh my god, like this wires is
so hard. I'm not taking away I'm not going to
(15:06):
go mate the most of it because it doesn't help
when you're in the moment, does it. It doesn't help. It's
like that's not helping me. What I'm trying to say is,
I know it feels like this is never going to end,
Like this phase of your life is never going to complete.
It does complete, and when it does complete. It is
(15:27):
the weirdest feeling because I genuinely do not know where
the past nineteen years have gone. I couldn't tell you
so that it's been when I say, I no wonder.
I couldn't get rid of my blooming cold or whatever
it was, because for about two days I was just
(15:49):
I was walking around, but perfectly fine again, not sad.
He's happy, he's having a whale of a time. You know.
I've spoken to him and he's like, he's like he
taught me through his Aldi shop. You know, it's amazing.
I love that. I would much rather it be this
way around, him loving it, enjoying it, settled in, made
new friends, already, loves his housemates, etc. And then me
(16:11):
sat here a little bit sad. Obviously I'd much rather
it be that way around. But I just thought, you know,
if you're feeling like that, then same same. Isn't it odd?
It's so weird and I think they need to invent
a new name for this emotion. I know people call
it empty nest, but I haven't got an empty nest
because I've got Johnny and Ben and it's hard because
(16:34):
they miss him too. New topic, So Canada five weeks,
so many questions from you guys. It's longest have ever
been away. As I said, never been to university, never
been to Canada. I've been to America a handful of times.
Canada is the most beautiful place I have ever been
(16:57):
to in my whole life. Like all the pictures, everything
you think about it correct. It is absolutely how you
would expect it to be. So I've got some questions
here that you asked me. I'm going to go through them.
The question one, what was your itinery? And how did
(17:19):
you plan it? Well, Mike can I planned it with
chat GPT. Essentially chat GPT was invaluable. It came up
with some amazing ideas what to do, what not to
do because I don't really have time to sit here
(17:41):
and research for hours and hours and hours and hours,
and neither does Mike. So it really helped us to
cut through all of the noise. So we went. We
flew into New York and oh my god, oh my god.
We got to I can't remember we flew where we
flew from. Was it heat old gat with I can't remember. Anyway,
(18:02):
we got to the airport and we were queuing up
at the gate and they gave us our tickets and oh,
there's a problem with a ticket. And I'm like, oh
my god, we haven't even started and there's already a problem.
They went holding, let we're just sort of out anyway.
They gave us his new boarding passes whatever, and we
walk on the plane and Mike looks at me and
(18:24):
he goes, Jim, we'll go in left, and I'm like,
what do you mean we're going left? I have never
turned left on a plane in my life, right, I've
always always flown economy, and they had upgraded all of
us to premium and I'd never I was like, oh
(18:45):
my god, they've made a mistake. So we all sat
down fully expecting in about five minutes and say I'm
really sorry, can you actually go back? Never happened. So
the trip started off phenomenon phenomenally and for us, like,
we're all quite you know, the leg room is normally atrocious,
(19:06):
isn't it on economy? So oh my god, it was
so nice to have some decent leg room. I don't
know why they upgraded us, but really really really really
grateful for that so amazing start. We went to New
York for a couple of nights, New York is I
think a bit like marmite for a lot of people.
It's so it was hot. I mean it was thirty
(19:26):
five degrees. We went in the summer. I've never been
in the summer before. Normally when I go to New York,
it's December and it's snowy, or it's a bit rainy
and grizzly or slushy. It's cold like you need eighty
five layers on. But it was hot, so it was
a completely different vibe than I'd ever seen. New York,
very busy. The kids absolutely loved it, you know, we
(19:49):
did the usual things or only their two nights. And
then we went from New York to Niagara Falls, which
was stunning. I have been there four years and years ago,
but I just really want to take the kids. And
where I went I was like a poor student, so
I couldn't really afford anything there. And so this time
we went on the boat that goes into the waterfall,
(20:11):
and it was I'm not going to ruin it if
you've never been on it and you were planning to
go on it, but it is not what you expect,
and it is a thousand times more fun than you
I don't think I've laughed so hard, and I don't
think I've ever got quite as like I was drenched.
It was like i'd been in a actually well standing
under a waterfall. I mean, he would think. So we
(20:33):
went to Niagara and then we went to Toronto, which
is beautiful. Johnny has like he now wants to live
in Toronto. It's a really lovely city. Went to Toronto
Islands and then went to Vancouver Island, which was by
far my most favorite bit of the trip, absolutely beautiful.
(20:56):
So you get we've got a fair essentially, it's like
a two hour ferry to so from the mainland to
Vancouver Island, and Vancouver Island is big, like it's a
big place, and we were very lucky. We saw whales
(21:17):
on the way on the ferry and Vancouver Island. If
I had to pick one place to go back to
it it's difficult, but I would pick that one. It's just
so calm. The scenery is stunning, like there's waterfalls. It
doesn't feel really busy either, Like the whole of Canada
(21:37):
is the same really, you know, like when you're in
England and you're go on holiday and the roads are
always busy, and there's always traffic jams. There was never
really any of that. Considering it was peak summer season.
We never really experienced any of that at all. Even
in like the big the big cities know that there
was the od traffic jam, but no like sat for
two hours on the M twenty five. But Vancouver Island
(21:59):
was by far away my most favorite place. And we
stayed there for a few days and then we went
back to Vancouver. This is going to be the controversial part.
I was so looking forward to going to Vancouver, and
I now know that we stayed in the wrong place.
(22:21):
We stayed in the wrong bit. You know how every city,
every place has got like a place that don't stay
here and like kind of thing. We stayed in that place.
Luckily we're already there a couple of nights. It didn't
like massively spoil off fun because we were able to
get out, you know, and go and see staff, and
we went to Stanley Park and we did lots of
all of the touristy things that you would expect. But
(22:43):
it just kind of it was it was our un
fault because chat GP didn't didn't come up trumps with
that one. Let me tell you that and luckily, like
I say, we were already there two nights, but I
was so looking forward to Vancouver. So if you're heading
to Vancouver were my top tip the city is, please
do your research and make sure that you are staying
(23:07):
in like an area where you feel comfortable, especially if
you have got kids. And then from Vancouver we went
to other rockies like you will never get like I will.
Don't think I'll ever get bored of those mountains. We
went and we sort of hopped around a little bit.
We went and it's so difficult to remember where did
(23:27):
we go. We went to Invermere, which was beautiful. We
stayed there a few nights, and then we sort of
went up near Mount Robson and that was really quiet,
like that town was so quiet, so like a real
mix of places. And then we went to can More
so we chosen not to stay in Banff. We chose
(23:51):
and chat GP advisors to do this. We stayed in
Camel which were really glad we did. It was it
was much more. It was really much quieter, much more
chilled out, same similar sort of vibe to Bamff. So
lots of hikes with lots of hikes in that kind
of thing, but not quite as touristy, not quite as busy.
We did like the day trip to Bamff, and then
(24:11):
we did Like Louise and we did Moraine Lake. My
advice is, if you can get to Moraine Lake, it
is by far the most It's stunning. I've never seen
water like that in my life. I much preferred that
to Lake Louise. So we stayed there for about ten
days in Banff, sorry in Canmore at the end of
the trip, and then we finished off with a night
(24:33):
in Calgary. But let me tell you this, the whole time,
the whole time, not one bear, not one bluming bear.
Like we were convinced, and like everywhere you went there
was signs saying bear in the area or the area
(24:55):
where we were staying in. There was a high concentration
of bears, apparently this year because there was more berries
around because of the weather they had had, and therefore
bears were just feeding more on the berries. No, not
when we were there. Not once we had a can
of bear spray that set us back sixty dollars or
whatever that we carried around the whole time. It's like
it's like a miniature fire extinguisher thing, and I don't know.
(25:23):
Mike was in charge, he'd read the instructions about how
you're supposed to deploy it. Is that the word I
don't know set it off. I don't know if a
bear comes near you, but there's plenty of signs bearing area,
bearing area, but we didn't. And it actually got to
the point where on our last day in Calgary we
(25:43):
had some time to kill because we were on a
night flight. No, we didn't get upgraded on that flight.
We went we went to the zoo to see a bear.
So we did see a grizzly and we did see
a black bear, but we had to go to Calgary
to see them. An absolutely fantastic time. Canada is expensive
(26:06):
like it is, it is expensive, especially with all like
the tariffs and stuff at the moment. So it was
more expensive than we thought it was going to be.
And as with anything, obviously we learn our lesson. Make
sure that you do as much research as you can.
Speak to people, get onto forums, ask questions of people
(26:30):
that live there. The start of our trip was quite
fast paced, like New York two nights, Nagra, two nights,
Toronto two nights. You know, we luckily slowed down as
we got into the rockies, and like with the kids
as well, they were like, oh God, desperate to slow down.
So we did live out of it. We did live
out of suitcases, obviously for five weeks, because when we
(26:52):
were only there two nights, there's no reason really to unpack.
And I think I've probably tried more washing machines and
tumble dryers in the space of five weeks and I
have in my whole life. But we are back now.
I'm getting over whatever we caught on the plane. We
are in the swing of organized Christmas. It's so lovely
(27:15):
to be back with you all. Don't forget to give
the Tom brand a follow. Look for the Organized Method
on TikTok, on Facebook and also on Instagram, and I
shall speak to you very soon. Here we
There we can here we give hello, Welcome back, and
welcome to the Tom's Extra Expisit Podcast. I have been
away the longer than I anticipated. Obviously, we were away
(00:21):
in the summer. We went to Canada for five weeks,
and then I think by some miracle, I didn't catch
anything whilst we were away. That was amazing. But then
the universe saved it up and I caught something on
the plane. I don't know what it was. It was
like some cold if it's COVID, I don't know what,
but it lingered around for a good two weeks. And
(00:43):
it's only just but you can still kind of hear
it in my voice. It's only just about God, and
like my top priority is preserving these vocal cords for
the Tom Rocks guiding sessions. But back we are back
with the podcast. Now. I hope you've been well. I
hope you've had a lovely summer. I've hoped you had
a really good start to September. Whatever it is you've
been doing, we have had an emotional start. But I'm
(01:06):
going to get onto that when I filly in on
what I've been up to since I've been gone. But
the first thing that I really think that we need
to chat about is a change that you might have
seen with the app, maybe in the branding, that kind
of thing. Maybe you've missed it over the summer, maybe
(01:27):
like jerm what you're talking about. Well, I'm going to
fill you in. But first, if you haven't already make
yourself a hot drink, a tea, a coffee, maybe you're
going to listen to this whilst you're pottering around the house,
So make that drink, sit down, stay out the window,
or maybe you're folding some laundry because you might have
noticed that. And when I call it Tom Tom right,
(01:49):
and I've been calling it Tim for about a year now.
And a few of you eagle eyed, why she dropped
the second m. Why are we not tmmmmm anymore? Why
are we teamed? Why we team Tom TM and not
Team Tom tmm Well, for about a year we had
been working very like slowly in the background, real like invigorating.
(02:15):
That's not the right word, that's not this is not
a good start. But we have been working in the
background to make sure that the Tom brand is as
inclusive as possible for as many people as possible. And
over the years, so I've been talking about Tom for
(02:36):
ten years online, Oh my goodness, and from time to time,
more so in the early days, people would say, hmm,
I don't like the fact that it's the mom, Like,
why are we calling this the organized Mom Method? And
the truth of that was because when I first created it,
(02:57):
all of those years ago, almost twenty years ago, now,
I was trying to be an organized mom. If you
know the story, it's because I lost myself to motherhood, etc.
And I couldn't miss the opportunity of having a little
bit of a link to my firstborn because that's how
(03:18):
it all started, and his name is Tom. So I
called myself the organized Mom, and then the Organized Mom
Method was born out of that. Now, obviously, if you
don't know that backstory and you're just downloading an app
that you see on the app Store, you might assume
that this is just for moms, and that is not
the case. It's it's not been the case since I
(03:39):
let it wild into the world ten years ago, and
we wanted to, I wanted the team wanted to reflect
that in the name. The easiest thing to do was
for us just to drop the mom from the Organized
Mom method and just call it the Organized Method. So
if you have the app, you'll noticed that a few
(04:01):
design elements have been tweaked. We've got a brand new website,
The Organized Method dot com. We have got a brand
new brand channels on Instagram and TikTok, The Organized Method,
the Underscore Organized Underscore Method. Go and check them out,
give us a follow. I am still around on all
of my Organized Mum channels. I am not going anywhere.
(04:22):
You can't get rid of me that easily. But this
is just our next phase. And it also fitted really
neatly with the fact that tom My first board. It
gets confusing. I'll call him Thomas for this podcast. So Thomas,
who was the baby that inspired this whole method to
come about in the first place, went to university last week.
(04:45):
I won't cry. I have been crying on and off.
It's like an uncontrollable tap that sometimes does itself on.
He went to university. We dropped him off on Sunday
and it felt like such a at the right time.
I think like Thomas is growing up. Tom the brand
is growing up. We wanted to include as many people
(05:08):
as possible, so that is the big news for the brand.
You'll have noticed it. It's just a few design squeaks.
It's still the same old method you know and love.
I'm still totally running everything like as I said, you
won't get rid of me. But I was hoping that
it won't be a barrier anymore for people who are
(05:30):
searching for a way to feel more in control, feel
a little bit calmer with everything in their lives, feel
more organized, get on top of things. When they they
will no longer see that word mom. So I'm hoping
that they will give it a go. And if you
haven't already got the app, then you can try it
the whole thing. You can try it for free for
(05:51):
seven days, and then after that if you love it,
if you like the guided cleans, if you like organized Christmas,
We've got such fun things coming for that app. I
can't even tell you this year. Then it is three
ninety nine a month, so go and check it out
in the app stores. Is available on both Apple and
also Android. So that is what I've been up to
(06:14):
from a business perspective, from a TOM perspective, and how
the brand is evolving, and what is going to be
happening over the next year or so. We're gonna be
adding lots of features, to the app. Also, Organized Christmas
have launched. We are about to go into week four.
Can you well when you'll be listening to this, It'll
be week four, can you believe it? Do not panic
(06:36):
if you've, like gem Jo, I haven't even started. Like
the algorithms can do that. They sometimes you don't see
anything like pop up on your Instagram or maybe your TikTok.
It's not your fault, it's the algorithm. So do not
panic if you haven't caught up. You can jump in
at any time. And don't forget. You can only ever
do the very best of the time and energy you have,
So just do what you can, do what you can.
(06:58):
It is better than nothing. And also don't forget that
we have the Organized Christmas catch up at the end
of November. So for any point at any week, maybe
you have started late, or maybe you're gonna have to
take a little break for a couple of weeks because
work's going to get busy, or or you get ill.
God forbid, I'm not wishing that on you, but you
get ill and you have to take a break for
a couple of weeks, we will do the catch up.
So that's also started. And also on the Tom app
(07:22):
we have had a lovely classic Tom Week drop for
you as well. So for those of you that are
trying to get back into the swing of things, go
and check that out because I will guide you through Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Friday of a classic Tom week just to sort of
get you back in the groove. Because around about this
time of September, I think this is universally true for
(07:42):
most people. We go back into September, We're like, yes,
it's a second new year, this is what I'm going
to do. It's a fresh start. And as always, same
with mid Johan mid September, you're like, yeah, so that's
here a perfect time if you need a little bit
of momentum. But what have I been up to? So
(08:04):
many of you have been asking questions. I thought I'll
do a little quick segment in the podcast so that
you know exactly what I was up to when we
went to Canada. So we went to Canada four five weeks,
which is the longest I have ever been away from home.
But in mind, I never went to university myself, right
or I didn't tell you. Sorry, I am getting ahead
(08:27):
of myself, right. So the Tom University thing. I'm going
to touch on this first because I know that a
lot of you will be in the same boat this year.
You might have it coming up next year. You might
be have kids a certain age, or you might have
like young and you're like, this is not going to
happen to me for years. It's not applicable. I still
(08:47):
want you to listen, because God, I wish I had listened,
Or you might be way past it your kids are
older and you're like, yeah, Jeremy, right. So I have
got Thomas who is nineteen, and then I've got Johnny
who's sixteen, and I've got Ben who is ten, way
(09:11):
out of the baby stage, right, so far past the
baby stage that I can't even remember. But what I
do remember is very specific moments in time with all
three of them, really where it was so like chaotic
and intense, and you're in the weeds and you've got
(09:34):
babysit down you and you maybe baby's got poo up
its back or whatever, and you're so so deep in
that parenthood, like in that really intense bit that you
never think it's going to end, Like it's almost unfathomable
(09:56):
in your brain that this will end. I'm not sad.
I know it sounds like I'm sad, but I'm not sad.
It's like an uncontrollable release of emotion, right, So I'm
just trying to give you something a different perspective. Really,
(10:18):
if you've got like young kids and you're like, oh
my god, I'm just longing for some peace and quiet.
So when you are in that point and your life
has been like that for maybe years because you've got
more than one kid or whatever, and your brain is
so used to functioning at that parent level, you mean,
(10:39):
you know right. And by the way, I do realize
the irony of me saying that Tom isn't just for moms.
This whole segment of me going mom anyway, I apologize,
We're not going to talk about me and being a
mom every time. I promise. This is more of a
catch up anyway. So you are so convinced that this
(11:02):
is never going to end that when it does, it
is a shock. And I think that is what, like
my body, my brain is going through at the moment.
It's like, hold on a minute, what's just happened? Because rationally,
obviously we knew he was going to university. You know,
this was really exciting. This is what he wanted. We're
(11:26):
proud of him. We've worked towards it. We went and
looked around universities, We applied to universities, so it's not
like this has just completely come out of the blue.
And then you've packed and you've gone to Ikea and oh,
by the way, Ikea, I do have a bone to
pick with you. We bought your box. It was I
(11:46):
think it was like forty nine pounds. The student kitchen box,
brilliant pan plates, all of the kitchen essentials in a
plastic box, sorted right. However, Thomas has reported back to
me that you need a screwdriver to put the pans together,
(12:09):
like the little knob on the paneld that wasn't included anyway,
went off on a tangent there. So you've prepped, you've
done all of this stuff, and then the day comes
and it's time. You've got them in their room, and
the day's busy, so your kind of mind is kind
of distracted. You're still on that parent conveyor belt. Do this?
(12:31):
Do this is? Everyone says, everyone fed blah blah. And
then you've put the room together and it's time. That
is the weirdest feeling it is. The emotion is physical,
and I was like very conscious of not crying on
(12:53):
the day or in front of him, because obviously it's
hard enough, isn't it. When you you know you're starting,
you know you're nervous, you've got he's got other stuff
on it. He didn't want his mother wailing like in
the all of residence. So I kept together. Was super
proud of myself for that. But it is like a
(13:13):
gut punch. And the only reason why I think it
feels so different is because like it's a different kind
of emotion. It's it's not prescribable, is because you've spent
so long making sure, like this sounds really silly, making
sure you haven't left them anywhere. It's like have you
(13:34):
ever had when you've got young kids and they've just
died school and then you like you temporarily forget that
they're in school and you're like, where are they? Oh? Yeah,
they're in school. So you spent so long. I used
to have to be all the time. You spent so
long making you sure you knew where they were, everyone
(13:57):
was safe, And obviously as they grew up, they go
and spend time with their mates and like Tom has
been like you know, he stayed away from home obviously,
but this is different because it's like, okay, bye. In
that moment, you don't know anymore the man you shy
of their life. Have they eaten properly? And it is
(14:21):
such it messes your head, like you're like, okay, my
legs have got to walk away. Now your mothering instinct
is totally confused. It's just like what what what we're doing? So? Yeah, God,
what an absolute roller coaster of emotions. That is so
(14:44):
to conclude, my little like I want to tell you
about this is just to say that this isn't, by
the way, taking away any of like the frustrating times
that you know that in the depths of motherhood, like
where you're like, oh my god, like this wires is
so hard. I'm not taking away I'm not going to
(15:06):
go mate the most of it because it doesn't help
when you're in the moment, does it. It doesn't help. It's
like that's not helping me. What I'm trying to say is,
I know it feels like this is never going to end,
Like this phase of your life is never going to complete.
It does complete, and when it does complete. It is
(15:27):
the weirdest feeling because I genuinely do not know where
the past nineteen years have gone. I couldn't tell you
so that it's been when I say, I no wonder.
I couldn't get rid of my blooming cold or whatever
it was, because for about two days I was just
(15:49):
I was walking around, but perfectly fine again, not sad.
He's happy, he's having a whale of a time. You know.
I've spoken to him and he's like, he's like he
taught me through his Aldi shop. You know, it's amazing.
I love that. I would much rather it be this
way around, him loving it, enjoying it, settled in, made
new friends, already, loves his housemates, etc. And then me
(16:11):
sat here a little bit sad. Obviously I'd much rather
it be that way around. But I just thought, you know,
if you're feeling like that, then same same. Isn't it odd?
It's so weird and I think they need to invent
a new name for this emotion. I know people call
it empty nest, but I haven't got an empty nest
because I've got Johnny and Ben and it's hard because
(16:34):
they miss him too. New topic, So Canada five weeks,
so many questions from you guys. It's longest have ever
been away. As I said, never been to university, never
been to Canada. I've been to America a handful of times.
Canada is the most beautiful place I have ever been
(16:57):
to in my whole life. Like all the pictures, everything
you think about it correct. It is absolutely how you
would expect it to be. So I've got some questions
here that you asked me. I'm going to go through them.
The question one, what was your itinery? And how did
(17:19):
you plan it? Well, Mike can I planned it with
chat GPT. Essentially chat GPT was invaluable. It came up
with some amazing ideas what to do, what not to
do because I don't really have time to sit here
(17:41):
and research for hours and hours and hours and hours,
and neither does Mike. So it really helped us to
cut through all of the noise. So we went. We
flew into New York and oh my god, oh my god.
We got to I can't remember we flew where we
flew from. Was it heat old gat with I can't remember. Anyway,
(18:02):
we got to the airport and we were queuing up
at the gate and they gave us our tickets and oh,
there's a problem with a ticket. And I'm like, oh
my god, we haven't even started and there's already a problem.
They went holding, let we're just sort of out anyway.
They gave us his new boarding passes whatever, and we
walk on the plane and Mike looks at me and
(18:24):
he goes, Jim, we'll go in left, and I'm like,
what do you mean we're going left? I have never
turned left on a plane in my life, right, I've
always always flown economy, and they had upgraded all of
us to premium and I'd never I was like, oh
(18:45):
my god, they've made a mistake. So we all sat
down fully expecting in about five minutes and say I'm
really sorry, can you actually go back? Never happened. So
the trip started off phenomenon phenomenally and for us, like,
we're all quite you know, the leg room is normally atrocious,
(19:06):
isn't it on economy? So oh my god, it was
so nice to have some decent leg room. I don't
know why they upgraded us, but really really really really
grateful for that so amazing start. We went to New
York for a couple of nights, New York is I
think a bit like marmite for a lot of people.
It's so it was hot. I mean it was thirty
(19:26):
five degrees. We went in the summer. I've never been
in the summer before. Normally when I go to New York,
it's December and it's snowy, or it's a bit rainy
and grizzly or slushy. It's cold like you need eighty
five layers on. But it was hot, so it was
a completely different vibe than I'd ever seen. New York,
very busy. The kids absolutely loved it, you know, we
(19:49):
did the usual things or only their two nights. And
then we went from New York to Niagara Falls, which
was stunning. I have been there four years and years ago,
but I just really want to take the kids. And
where I went I was like a poor student, so
I couldn't really afford anything there. And so this time
we went on the boat that goes into the waterfall,
(20:11):
and it was I'm not going to ruin it if
you've never been on it and you were planning to
go on it, but it is not what you expect,
and it is a thousand times more fun than you
I don't think I've laughed so hard, and I don't
think I've ever got quite as like I was drenched.
It was like i'd been in a actually well standing
under a waterfall. I mean, he would think. So we
(20:33):
went to Niagara and then we went to Toronto, which
is beautiful. Johnny has like he now wants to live
in Toronto. It's a really lovely city. Went to Toronto
Islands and then went to Vancouver Island, which was by
far my most favorite bit of the trip, absolutely beautiful.
(20:56):
So you get we've got a fair essentially, it's like
a two hour ferry to so from the mainland to
Vancouver Island, and Vancouver Island is big, like it's a
big place, and we were very lucky. We saw whales
(21:17):
on the way on the ferry and Vancouver Island. If
I had to pick one place to go back to
it it's difficult, but I would pick that one. It's just
so calm. The scenery is stunning, like there's waterfalls. It
doesn't feel really busy either, Like the whole of Canada
(21:37):
is the same really, you know, like when you're in
England and you're go on holiday and the roads are
always busy, and there's always traffic jams. There was never
really any of that. Considering it was peak summer season.
We never really experienced any of that at all. Even
in like the big the big cities know that there
was the od traffic jam, but no like sat for
two hours on the M twenty five. But Vancouver Island
(21:59):
was by far away my most favorite place. And we
stayed there for a few days and then we went
back to Vancouver. This is going to be the controversial part.
I was so looking forward to going to Vancouver, and
I now know that we stayed in the wrong place.
(22:21):
We stayed in the wrong bit. You know how every city,
every place has got like a place that don't stay
here and like kind of thing. We stayed in that place.
Luckily we're already there a couple of nights. It didn't
like massively spoil off fun because we were able to
get out, you know, and go and see staff, and
we went to Stanley Park and we did lots of
all of the touristy things that you would expect. But
(22:43):
it just kind of it was it was our un
fault because chat GP didn't didn't come up trumps with
that one. Let me tell you that and luckily, like
I say, we were already there two nights, but I
was so looking forward to Vancouver. So if you're heading
to Vancouver were my top tip the city is, please
do your research and make sure that you are staying
(23:07):
in like an area where you feel comfortable, especially if
you have got kids. And then from Vancouver we went
to other rockies like you will never get like I will.
Don't think I'll ever get bored of those mountains. We
went and we sort of hopped around a little bit.
We went and it's so difficult to remember where did
(23:27):
we go. We went to Invermere, which was beautiful. We
stayed there a few nights, and then we sort of
went up near Mount Robson and that was really quiet,
like that town was so quiet, so like a real
mix of places. And then we went to can More
so we chosen not to stay in Banff. We chose
(23:51):
and chat GP advisors to do this. We stayed in
Camel which were really glad we did. It was it
was much more. It was really much quieter, much more
chilled out, same similar sort of vibe to Bamff. So
lots of hikes with lots of hikes in that kind
of thing, but not quite as touristy, not quite as busy.
We did like the day trip to Bamff, and then
(24:11):
we did Like Louise and we did Moraine Lake. My
advice is, if you can get to Moraine Lake, it
is by far the most It's stunning. I've never seen
water like that in my life. I much preferred that
to Lake Louise. So we stayed there for about ten
days in Banff, sorry in Canmore at the end of
the trip, and then we finished off with a night
(24:33):
in Calgary. But let me tell you this, the whole time,
the whole time, not one bear, not one bluming bear.
Like we were convinced, and like everywhere you went there
was signs saying bear in the area or the area
(24:55):
where we were staying in. There was a high concentration
of bears, apparently this year because there was more berries
around because of the weather they had had, and therefore
bears were just feeding more on the berries. No, not
when we were there. Not once we had a can
of bear spray that set us back sixty dollars or
whatever that we carried around the whole time. It's like
it's like a miniature fire extinguisher thing, and I don't know.
(25:23):
Mike was in charge, he'd read the instructions about how
you're supposed to deploy it. Is that the word I
don't know set it off. I don't know if a
bear comes near you, but there's plenty of signs bearing area,
bearing area, but we didn't. And it actually got to
the point where on our last day in Calgary we
(25:43):
had some time to kill because we were on a
night flight. No, we didn't get upgraded on that flight.
We went we went to the zoo to see a bear.
So we did see a grizzly and we did see
a black bear, but we had to go to Calgary
to see them. An absolutely fantastic time. Canada is expensive
(26:06):
like it is, it is expensive, especially with all like
the tariffs and stuff at the moment. So it was
more expensive than we thought it was going to be.
And as with anything, obviously we learn our lesson. Make
sure that you do as much research as you can.
Speak to people, get onto forums, ask questions of people
(26:30):
that live there. The start of our trip was quite
fast paced, like New York two nights, Nagra, two nights,
Toronto two nights. You know, we luckily slowed down as
we got into the rockies, and like with the kids
as well, they were like, oh God, desperate to slow down.
So we did live out of it. We did live
out of suitcases, obviously for five weeks, because when we
(26:52):
were only there two nights, there's no reason really to unpack.
And I think I've probably tried more washing machines and
tumble dryers in the space of five weeks and I
have in my whole life. But we are back now.
I'm getting over whatever we caught on the plane. We
are in the swing of organized Christmas. It's so lovely
(27:15):
to be back with you all. Don't forget to give
the Tom brand a follow. Look for the Organized Method
on TikTok, on Facebook and also on Instagram, and I
shall speak to you very soon. Here we
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!