Last year after a meeting with my daughter's Middle School Counselor, she had asked me about what I do for a living. I explained that I'm a Professional Home Stager and she immediately seemed interested. After a brief synopsis of what I do she asked if I'd be interested in being involved with Career Day next school year and I said sure, not really giving it another thought.

Fast forward to last week and another meeting with the counselor.  After our meeting she said, "I have something for you". Excited I said, "Oh, really, what is it?" What could she possibly have for me?

It was an application form to sign up for Career Day, November 13th 2008!

Although I had completely forgotten, she remembered and was a great sales lady (on top of already being a great counselor)! She said, "we'd love to have you here all day, we set up a wonderful lunch and many of the past parents have come year after year because they love it so much!"

How could I refuse???

Well, part of me knew what my 8th grader's reaction would be. "UGGGHHH! My mom is coming to my school to talk about staging!!!"

And partially that was the reaction. 

For anyone with teenagers, how many of them actually like to know that YOU'LL BE there at their school, all day TALKING TO THEIR FRIENDS about what you do?!!! 

Mine isn't let's say, thrilled.

This is where YOU come in.

I'd like YOUR help fellow staging professionals. 

While I want to share with them what I do, I want to really share with them what THEY can do to "stage" their spaces at home even if they aren't selling a house of course. I'm tossing around ideas with my daughter, who in her teenage way, isn't being very cooperative about what her friends will or won't like to know. According to her, they'll all "be talking to each other and ignoring you and won't care about staging".

I take that as a challenge to rise to the occasion, not as criticism!

So, dear staging friends, I'll give you some of my ideas and I'd LOVE YOU TO OFFER SOME OF YOURS AS WELL!

Career Day Ideas for the Middle School Set:

• Stage "My Space" - they all know that site and I figure use a play on words and encourage them to consider why they should keep their rooms neat and tidy (for better time management, study skills and stress relief - but do they care?)
• Set up a before and after bedroom room (Have them help with the after possibly but we may not have time)
• How to personalize without going overboard
• What does your room say about you? Ask them to describe their rooms and then ask others in the room to give feed back on what they think about their classmates spaces
• Get a small gift certificate or item for organization (basket, file box etc) for a giveaway from Container Store or Office Depot (I'll have them fill out little cards with 3 questions to answer about what I talked about and only the ones who have the right answer will be eligible for the prize. NOTE: This is something I learned from my friend Beth Patnode, when she told me that if your students can remember three things you taught them at the end of a class, then the instructor has done a pretty good job.

Any and all feedback, ideas and suggestions welcome! I have plenty of time to think on this and I've been given about 25 mins. to talk to them and then another 20 for Q & A.

One more thing.

For any of you who may have been hesitating to get in front of a crowd to present what you do as a home stager, this type of Career Day opportunity is a great way to get your feet wet - you can't mess up! While I've already been doing presentations and teaching on the adult and college circuit - this younger set wasn't even on my radar until I was asked by the counselor. Call your local schools and see if they have Career Day offered and if you could present to the class. From Elementary to High Schools, most schools do offer this to their students and apparently they are looking for people to come and share their careers with their students.

Thank you!