Home > Blogs > Leslie Godbold > You are not alone! With God in our life and business, the possibilities are endless!

New Stagers..Why are you so special?

By Leslie Godbold

Home Stager with WZGM AM1350 Independent Asheville Radio

November 11, 2009 02:54 PM

My name is Leslie Godbold and I am suppose to write Blog #2 in a series for New Stagers. This blog is suppose to tell you tips and important info on setting up and maintaining your office. (I will get to those, just not today)

I am suppose to write this blog in the morning but I jumped out of bed and told my husband," I have to tell them now before I lose the passion".

What I am going to write about is a great tip, and yes, it can have an impact on your office. A positive one! But if you don't have this , you don't need office procedures anyway. No work, No need.

#1....... The BEST.......... The One and Only...... Why does she stand out?!?!

The tip is: What makes you so special? What is it about you that will make home staging skeptics hire you?

Oh you have the talent? You have the eye? Almost every woman and a lot of men, I have ever spoke with about home staging , say they have staging talent. Seriously! They know, they watch HGTV's and TLC's staging shows and they could do that hands down...... even better than the show's stagers. That is what they believe!

You have to deliver a great service and results but that is NOT enough. Something else has to push you out of the crowd. So what is special about you and your business? So special that you get hired over and over again, despite all of your clients knowing how to do your job!

All of the established stagers, that I have known for years , have a special "IT" and know how to use it to their advantage. I know what has made me succeed, my clients know......but you are not me. You have your own talents , abilities and unique value.

Tell us about IT! Yell it from the roof tops! If you have the IT to succeed then You MUST have the passion and ability to let the world know! But I will explain that part later. Right now, Proclaim your uniqueness here!

If you are too shy or quiet to write it in a comment, How are you going to convince potential clients to trust you with their biggest investment....their home, the home that their memories were made in, the home where their love ones lay their heads down at night. They aren't going to trust just anyone, you have to be special. You are! Tell us why!

Are you going to be one of the up and coming ( or already on the rise) leaders for the staging industry? Let us hear you ROAR!

Tell us how you are special and then start yelling it to the world!!

Note: This blog is in a series to try to offer tips and ideas for new stagers. To read the previous blog, please click New Business Owners- Are you Ready? Thanks

Re-Blog

Comments(12)

Comment

Show All Comments

Sort:

James K Barath, CMPS

Canopy Mortgage, LLC - Crown Point, IN

FICO Pro, Certified Military Housing Specialist

I guess I missed it. What makes you so special as a home stager?

Nov 11, 2009 03:11 PM

Leslie Godbold

WZGM AM1350 Independent Asheville Radio - Asheville, NC

Motivation Speaker, Radio host "Positively Living"

Hi James, Thanks for asking but I don't want This blog to be about me, only for the benefit of new stagers or business owners. This blog is in a series of blogs , helping new stagers set up and grow their business.

They have to have great staging ability/results and MORE to succeed in their businesses. They must have a unique "something" to stand out from the others.

Thanks for stopping by and commenting. Have a nice evening, Leslie

Nov 11, 2009 03:18 PM

Jackson West

Reveal Estate Home Staging - Vancouver - Vancouver, BC

Hi Leslie,

I enjoyed reading this post and you are absolutely correct ... you don't have to be better than your competition, you have to be different.

Nov 11, 2009 06:01 PM

Leslie Godbold

WZGM AM1350 Independent Asheville Radio - Asheville, NC

Motivation Speaker, Radio host "Positively Living"

Exactly Jackson! You have known that for a long time. That is why you are still such a success!

Thanks for showing, this is not just hype, it is the truth:.)

Nov 11, 2009 11:50 PM

Palma Minnich

In2itive Design - Charleston, SC

Home Stager, Charleston, SC

Thank you Leslie!

Your own Niche is so important. As a kitchen designer my strength was LISTENING. Not just "doing what they said to do", but deciphering what they were trying to say, but couldn't. It had to do with picking up on what was really important to them IN SPITE OF what they were actually saying. For example, a customer once wanted to add a window that overlooked their side porch, where they often ate outdoor meals. The door to the porch was off the family room and was quite a hike when carrying things back and forth. The customer suggested that the kitchen sinkbe placed under the window "to make it easier to pass things back and forth". In the customer's mind, "window" and "kitchen sink" went together. I pictured the homeowners straining to reach over the sink to the window and having no place to set things on as they were passed back and forth. I designed a shallower "buffet", 15" deep, with all counter space and cabinets surrounding the window. WORKED SO MUCH BETTER. Customers usually try to work out the issues beforehand so that they can "communicate" what they want. In essence they suggest their own solutions instead of expressing their needs and letting me find the best solutions. I can't tell you how many times I heard, "I would have never thought of that!" If you're not really listening, you can blow it big time. This "talent" has gotten me more jobs than anything else I do. People think you are a "genius" if you can think of something that they didn't.

My problem now is - how to use this talent as a stager. Certainly, I can see how to use it as a redesigner. But staging? I'm stumped. I am sure there's a way, but it's not coming to me. Isn't that funny. It seems I'm not listening to myself! Maybe someone out there can pick up on it and give me a hint! ;.)

Nov 12, 2009 01:15 AM

Leslie Godbold

WZGM AM1350 Independent Asheville Radio - Asheville, NC

Motivation Speaker, Radio host "Positively Living"

Oh Palma! Your talent is very important in staging. Yell it from the Roof Tops!

With occupied staging, a professional stager must LISTEN to the home owners. In many cases the owners must still reside in the staged property. So you must know their lifestyle and the highly used stations(routine) in their home. Occupied staging is a compromise between showing a desirable property and living their everyday life. You have to listen to know your client. You can be the expert occupied stager whose staging her clients can happily life with. (As you know, Many homeowners, do not stage because of that fear.)

Listening is important in redesign for the same above reasons.

Vacant Properties's feedback from showings must be figured out. When they say the house is depressing...is it depressing or is it dark. When someone says A ,it might be B.

I have 10,000 ideas going in my mind for this niche to be utilized but hopefully this guides with a few suggestions.

You got your niche figured out , now flaunt. Good Luck

Nov 12, 2009 01:33 AM

Connie Tebyani

Platinum Home Staging, Inc. : RESA-Pro - Calabasas, CA

Platinum Home Staging, Los Angeles and Ventura County

My "it" factor I would have to say is my confidence, and I've never really thought of it that way... but recently I have had several people say straight-up that I exude or portray a certain confidence. Not only in myself, but my work and the finished product that THEY then become confident in ME.

I wanted to finish your sentence above, "If you are too shy or quiet to write it in a comment..." with "...then you need to find a new profession." Home Staging and Interior Desgin is not for the meak. ;)

Nov 13, 2009 03:16 AM

Leslie Godbold

WZGM AM1350 Independent Asheville Radio - Asheville, NC

Motivation Speaker, Radio host "Positively Living"

Hi Connie, Yes, The ability to display and share confidence is a strong asset in this business. Placing a home on the market is very stressful and filled with uncertainity for the owners. Our services,attitude and professionalism can relieve a large percentage of that.

This industry can be very demanding on a stager, emotionlly and physically. So definitely not for everyone :.)

Sometimes With an increase in knowledge, skills and experience, a new stager's voice will increase. In fact I think I might have another blog that needs to be written. Thanks Connie!

Nov 13, 2009 04:15 AM

Linda Thompson

Selling By Design-Staging - Fresno, CA

I am new to staging and am marketing like crazy to get clients, which as you all know in this economy is soooo difficult. But I digress. My "it factor" is my sense of humor and my life experience. As a high school teacher for over thirty years, I had to do many parent conferances. I taught mildly learning disabled students, many who though very intelligent, had emotional and, or behavior problems. I had to begin each parent contact with a sincere( sometimes difficult to find) compliment about their child. Often the parent was the child's biggest problem.

Finding the good in all of my students is not so different from finding good points about someone's home, no matter disgusting the decor (or behavior) may seem to me, the homeowners love their homes just like the parents loved their children.

By the end of the session, be it a parent conferance or home consultation, we were laughing and swapping horror stories of our children's text messaging bills or messy rooms.

Empathy and humor are essential qualities in a home stager. And we could use a good economy.

Nov 19, 2009 07:56 AM

Leslie Godbold

WZGM AM1350 Independent Asheville Radio - Asheville, NC

Motivation Speaker, Radio host "Positively Living"

Linda, I agree your added value is important in our line of work as well as most others. In fact to all people!

Most staging clients are very nervous with a stager coming to "critique" their home. The first statement out of my mouth is to reassure them that I am there to stage their house to sell , not to make it a home. They have already accomplished that nicely :.)

Your clients are indeed lucky to receive a wonderfully staged house and a stager that understands where they are.

Nov 19, 2009 09:48 AM

Allegra Dioguardi

Styled and Sold Home Staging and Staging Training - Westhampton Beach, NY

Home Staging & Training, Suffolk Co. Long Island

Simply put, I KNOW that what I do works. I KNOW I can help my clients. I have no doubts. So yeah...Connie is right...confidence.

Nov 21, 2009 07:54 AM

Leslie Godbold

WZGM AM1350 Independent Asheville Radio - Asheville, NC

Motivation Speaker, Radio host "Positively Living"

Allegra, I can see.....Your confidence is shining through! Your proven results benefit so many. So.....

Keep your light shining for those homeowners that are lost in this market!