Thinking about how I might support Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I asked Staging Diva Dispatch subscribers if any of them were also breast cancer survivors who might want to share their personal stories about fighting this disease and going on to reinvent their futures.

My intention was to gather stories that would:

• empower others to strive to reach their dreams no matter what adversity is standing in their way
• increase awareness of breast cancer
• attract funding for breast cancer research
• celebrate the stories and successes of the women who shared their stories for others to benefit from

As the responses started coming in, I was afraid to read many of them.

They were filled with the awful medical realities of fighting this disease, fears of leaving children behind. In a week leading up to spending the day with my family to honor a cousin who recently died of cancer, I wondered why I’d set myself up to have to read even more about cancer by actually requesting these stories from my readers.

Well the truth is, you can’t catch cancer by reading about it and knowledge is power.

To say I’m humbled by the stories I’ve received would be an understatement. I feel sad and inspired at the same time. One response came from Danielle who said she would love to share her story, but she has just undergone two surgeries and is going through chemo and didn’t feel she could give a good enough response.

Gloria Salvetti writes that she’s proud to be a survivor and pleased with the direction her new life has taken as she grows her Virginia-based company East Coast Stager.

Staging Diva Graduate Patty Osterhout of First Impressions Staging Services LLC started her home staging business with partner Tiffany Winkler about a year after being diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 46, “I tell people to stay as positive as you can. Don’t forget to live and laugh. Surround yourself with good things. I had so many beautiful and inspiring cards from family and friends. I strung them all up on a wall in our house so I could see them every day, what a lift that gave me.”

Perhaps most tellingly, Patty adds, “I do not look at having breast cancer as the worse thing that ever happened to me. In a way it has made me a better person. It was just our ‘bump’ in the road.”

Beverly Forte lost a mother and best friend to breast cancer, but she is 10 years past her own diagnosis. She writes, “I kept my life as normal as one could as I went through chemo and radiation. Here I am today after that crazy winding road and I found my path. I have a love for design and staging.”

Jamie Anne McClellen writes that her story “pales in comparison to so many others”, but she’s a breast cancer survivor and I don’t consider that any small feat.

Two years ago, at the age of 55, she was diagnosed after a routine mammogram. After surgery she continued working as a freelance photostylist during her radiation treatments.

Jamie Anne believes a special part of her experience was the fact that she never wavered from her conviction that everything would be okay. She remained positive the entire time and saw the entire ordeal as one “blip on the radar screen” of her life. She believes if she had a negative mental outlook it would have lead to a different physical outcome.

This brave woman recently decided to pursue a career in home staging which was a natural transition from her 20+ year career as a photostylist and set designer. Her home staging business, Practical Magic Home Staging, is based in Chicago. She’s currently working on building a website.

The advice she offers women is to get regular mammograms which is what caught her cancer at its most treatable stage. She also advises women facing this disease to focus their energy on positive healing instead of negative worrying.

Another story came from Bay Chamberlain of Your Space/Their Space (New Orleans) who was also diagnosed at the age of 55. Like Jamie Anne, Bay believes keeping a positive attitude and drawing on the support of her family and friends helped her cope and resulted in a “very rich experience”.  Bay wrote of her husband’s passing one year ago and described as a blessing the fact that they were able to experience “the same wonderful love and support during his illness.”

Bay has returned to work to fill the time and fight the “tanking” economy. With a fine arts degree, post graduate degree in interior design and several successful informal staging projects done for a real estate agent friend, she is working on building her home staging business.

When I read Linda Stoltz-Foster’s story I was truly touched by the sense of humor she maintained through her experience or at least the telling of it.

Linda and her husband purchased a vacation resort in need of repair. They invested a lot of time and money into restoring the property and it paid off with lots of business and a great reputation. In less than a year (and despite a previously “normal” mammogram result), Linda discovered a lump that turned out to be breast cancer. Without insurance because of diabetes, she took only a week off during her surgery and treatments.

Linda said one reason they kept their business open during her treatments was that she isn’t one to enjoy “a pity party” and with all of the major decisions about treatment being made for her, she felt the only thing she could control was her business.

Four years past her diagnosis, Linda’s advice is to “trust your instincts – you know your body better than any machine or highly trained individual. Take action – don’t wait.”

Linda and her husband have since sold their resort and moved to Driggs Idaho where Linda started a staging and redesign business to compliment her real estate practice.

Like the others who wrote to share their cancer survival stories,  Linda advises women remain as positive as possible.

Besides personal stories, there were a couple of resources sent to me. Ellen Dixie wanted everyone to know about Dr. Susan Love’s armyofwomen.org. Dr. Love has taken a unique approach to eradicating breast cancer by encouraging healthy women to participate in studies to determine what causes cancer.

Another resource that was brought to my attention by Deborah Wickel is myleftbreast.ca. Started by a breast cancer survivor, the company provides post-mastectomy and carcinogen-free products.

Women to Women, founded by Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP,  Christiane Northrup, M.D. and others pioneered the combination of alternative and conventional medicine in women’s health, bringing science and discipline to natural and preventative methods. They have an excellent discussion about breast cancer sent to me by Kim Johns.

Many thoughts and emotions ran through me standing in the cemetery this past Sunday seeing “1963 - 2008″ on my cousin’s tombstone. It really made me think how short that dash between the year we’re born and the year we die is, and how none of us knows how long it will be.

If you’re not living your life to the fullest and doing what you love for as many days as you can, what are you waiting for?

It’s my sincere hope that some of the tips from these heroes of home staging will help others seek prompt attention for any lumps they find, regardless of previous mammogram results. I also hope these inspirational stories help to empower women.

These survivors have demonstrated such courage. If they were able to come through cancer and start their own home staging businesses, imagine what someone not facing such an unthinkable challenge is capable of doing.

To donate towards finding a cure, in Canada visit the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. In the US, you might consider donating to Susan G. Komen For the Cure.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva is president of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company that is frequently profiled in the media. Debra Gould has trained over 1000 women and men grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.

Technorati Tags: home stager, home staging, home staging business, breast cancer awareness, breast cancer, empowerment, Women to Women, Army of Women, Staging Diva

I had an awesome birthday this week which has left me feeling very grateful for things big and small, friends and family.

First of all I had my child to celebrate and eat chocolate with and my mother, who survived cancer this year, was able to visit.

I received calls from Australia, California and Bermuda and wonderfully thoughtful gifts and cards from my team.

I’m also grateful for the lovely emails I received from Staging Diva Dispatch readers wishing me well and from the friends and students who popped by my Facebook page to write on my wall.

My horoscope said that “You may be of the opinion that there is nothing you can not do - and you are absolutely right. A Mars-Jupiter aspect on your birthday and tomorrow’s new moon in your sign indicate great rewards for those Scorpios who dare to take chances. Be one of them.”

Well, anyone who knows me knows that I do dare to take chances and always encourage others to do the same. If you’re an entrepreneur as I’ve been since the 1980s, you have to be someone who is continually willing to step out of your comfort zone and take on new challenges. To me that’s part of the thrill of being alive.

I love when the universe sends me little signals, and as if to confirm my generally feeling of gratitude (and if not to also confirm my horoscope), on my drive home the rain stopped and the sun poked out.

Looking eastward towards my neighborhood there was a huge arch of a rainbow against a darkening sky with the ending just where I was headed. Miracles like this really are little gifts from God, and I never tire of the beauty and colors that can be found in nature.

I also saw the rainbow as a metaphor for what’s important to me, home and family. “Real estate”, which I talk about often, turns a home into an investment. But it’s the only investment we can actually live in and how we live in it is so important.

Does your home envelope you in comfort at the end of the day, or does the clutter, chaos and state of disrepair leave you stressed out? When people move they look for their dream of the ideal home and as home stagers we create that environment for them to fall in love with.

We owe it to ourselves to create that same feeling for ourselves in our own homes.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva knows how to make money as a home stager and has taught over 1000 others to use their decorating talents and run their own home staging business.

Technorati Tags: home stager, home staging, home stager course, home staging business, learn home staging, make money in staging, real estate staging, house staging, Staging Diva, Debra Gould

I have a client in Hermitage, Tennessee in need of a professional house stager immediately. This furnished, 2600 square foot home has been on the market for 6 months and has a list price of $234,000. After 30 showings there have been no offers on this home. The seller says that though overall feedback about the property is positive, the backyard is “less than desirable” and the kitchen is on the small side. Since their new home will be ready for them in one month, an expert home stager is needed right away. What an opportunity to prove that home staging works!

We’ve made it really easy for your to apply for this home staging project. All you need to do is complete the form at the Staging Diva Home Staging Project Referral Service.

Please include “Hermitage, TN Staging Project” as the project location in the first line of the form.

You must be a Staging Diva Graduate and have a professional Internet presence and/or a page on the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers to be recommended for this position. The reason for the latter being, I can’t convince someone to hire you if they can’t study your portfolio.

If you get any paid work through this referral, there will be a $250 referral fee. This real estate staging project could be a fantastic addition to your portfolio.

Because of all the traffic I get to my two sites, SixElements.com and StagingDiva.com, I get lots of leads on projects from all over the United States and Canada, and as far away as England, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, South Africa and Israel! I will only refer them to Staging Diva Graduates.

I generate tons of traffic for anyone listed on the Staging Diva site. Only one good project would more than pay for your entire Staging Diva Training Program plus building and hosting your web page on the high traffic Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers for an entire year! When clients find you from your listing in the Staging Diva Directory, I do not charge you a referral fee.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva is president of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company that is frequently profiled in the media in both the US and Canada. Debra Gould developed The Staging Diva Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.

Learn more about the Staging Diva Home Staging Training Program.

You can get your company listed in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers. We build your page and all the code to help search engines find you!

Learn more about the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers

Technorati Tags: home stager, home staging, home staging business, home staging TN, home staging Hermitage TN, home stager, home stager Tennessee, home stager TN, Hermitage home stager, staging diva, real estate staging, home staging training, directory of home stagers, home staging directory, home staging jobs, Staging Diva

I decided to shake off the “I’m getting old blues” with a Staging Diva Birthday Blow Out Bash this week.

All of my home staging training courses, home staging guides, sales scripts, business coaching etc. are priced at 10% to 30% off between now and this Friday, October 31, 2008.

It’s a great time to load up on products that will help you learn how to really make money in your home staging business, give you more confidence promoting yourself as a home stager and more.

No matter what you buy, you can save at least 10%.

If you’ve been wondering how I was making up to $10,000 a month staging houses in my second year in business, why not save $5.90 on the Staging Diva® Sales Script: How to Avoid the Free Estimate Trap and Turn Homeowners into Home Staging Customers in One Phone Conversation.

Your savings go up from there, if you spend up to $150, you’ll save a full 15%.

When you order the Staging Diva Ultimate Portfolio Guide and Staging Diva Ultimate Color Guide for example, you’ll save $22.50. Or if you wanted to try a single Staging Diva Course like “Cash in Decorating Homes To Sell” you’ll save $37.35.

For any purchases $500 or more, there’s a 20% discount on everything you buy.

For example, order the complete Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program get $199 off. Imagine for only $796 you can learn how to start a home staging business and make enough money in it that you’ll never have to work for anyone else again. You can make that investment back with your first client so it’s really a very small price to pay if you’re serious about being your own boss.

For any purchases $1500 or more, there’s a 30% savings.

If you’ve had your eye on the new Home Study Kit, you can add an hour of Staging Diva Accelerator Coaching and the Staging Diva Ultimate Portfolio Guide or Ultimate Color Guide and save $304. That’s the same as getting the coaching time plus the guide FREE and still saving another $79!

Learn more about each of these home staging resources and how you can save hundreds of dollars getting your staging business growing in the Staging Diva Birthday Blow Out Bash.

This offer is only available at StagingDiva.com between now and October 31, 2008.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva knows how to make money as a home stager and has taught over 1000 others to use their decorating talents and run their own home staging business.

Technorati Tags: home stager, home staging, home stager course, home staging business, learn home staging, make money in staging, real estate staging, house staging, Staging Diva, Debra Gould

For the past several months, I’ve been busy developing a brand new Staging Diva website and I’m finally ready to reveal all that hard work to the world!

This new site, ExpertHomeStagingTraining.com, was built to promote the new Home Study Kit version of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program and I’m very proud of it. (Please check it out, it’s gorgeous!)

If you know and love StagingDiva.com, don’t worry, it’s not going anywhere! I just wanted to let my blog readers know about this new home staging resource. You can learn all about the Home Study Kit there and read about my personal story of how I became a home stager.

The process of developing this new site made me remember one of the reasons I created the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers to help Graduates of my program. Building a website is a huge undertaking if you want it to look professional and create the right image for your company!

If you still don’t have a website to promote your home staging business, or your site doesn’t look as professional as you would like because you’re still struggling with the technical aspects of how to build a site, you should consider joining the home staging directory.

A full profile gives you a place to forward your own domain (for example, www.YourBusinessName.com) so you can advertise your ‘website’ on your marketing materials right away.

No more feeling sheepish when you hand out your business card and have to explain that you don’t have a website yet (which immediately tells everyone you are not very experienced in your business - not the message you want to convey when you’re trying to inspire confidence in your services!).

Your Profile Page on the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers serves as a portfolio with your contact details, before and after photos and lots of space for your “sell copy” which is where you explain why you are the right home stager to choose in your geographic area.

You’ll even be listed under 10 locations plus up to 4 states or provinces. When a Directory visitor types any of those locations into the handy search box at the top of the page, they’ll immediately find you and learn more about your business.

A Profile Page in this home staging directory is more than enough to serve as a website for you until you get your own finished. Many members never even get around to doing their own site. Some companies have been listed in there for three years now and that’s all they’ve needed to promote their home staging company.

Even if you already have a website, a listing on the directory gives your potential clients another easy way to find you.

Don’t make the mistake many others are making when they cut back their marketing because the economy is slow. If you don’t invest in promoting your home staging business, you won’t have a business. Cut back anywhere else you can that won’t effect how much money you make.

Now more than ever before you should do everything it takes to give you a leg up over the competition and to help get your business found online.

Learn more about how to join the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers and how it can help boost your business.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva has taught over 1000 men and women how to make money as a home stager. She is president of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company that is frequently profiled in the media in both the US and Canada. Debra Gould developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.

Technorati Tags: home stager, home staging, home stager marketing, home staging business, house fluffing, real estate staging, house staging, expert home staging, real estate market, real estate enhancement, Staging Diva, Debra Gould, experthomestagingtraining.com, home staging business training

If you’re among the thousands of people who got a real estate license when the market was hot, are you starting to think it might not be as easy to make money as it looked back then?

According to the 2007 Real Estate Trends Report, there is one licensed Realtor® for every 90 Americans. There couldn’t possibly be enough work for all of you, especially in today’s real estate market.

With such a saturated market of Realtors, it’s hardly surprising that they aren’t making much money either. According to Realtor.org, the median salary for a sales agent in 2004 was $37,600 and for 2008 that number is down to $31,000. For newer agents, salaries can be as low as $13,000 a year.

Instead of heading to McDonalds® for an application, (a manager at a fast food restaurant earns $30,000 to $35,000 per year and doesn’t have to work 24/7) if you’re not making your fortune as an agent you might consider a career in home staging.

Home stagers can grow their businesses regardless of whether the real estate market is hot or not,  because people will always want to make more on the sale of their property. And in a buyer’s market, they need our help even more, if they want to sell quickly.

Even the FSBO (for sale by owner) market is open to us as home stagers. The same sellers who don’t want to pay real estate commissions, and instead try and sell their homes privately, will invest in home staging services to decorate their home to sell faster and for more money.

As a real estate agent, you already know the real estate market and you’re probably used to giving home owners tips on getting their homes ready to sell. I hope you’re not making the fatal mistake of staging your vendors’ homes for free as an added service.

You could actually be making more money on giving staging advice than you do right now in real estate commissions!

In my second year as a home stager I was making up to $10,000 a month staging my clients’ homes and that was starting from the ground up without a real estate license. It’s interesting to note too, that the majority of these home sellers hadn’t chosen their agent yet when they hired me. Had I had a license I would have had many of those listings myself rather than recommending them to other agents.

If you’re a real estate agent accustomed to driving around all day showing properties and not getting paid until you actually sell something, the income you can make as a home stager may surprise you. For example, $300 to $600 is close to industry standard for a home staging consultation, depending on where you live.

Assuming the low end, at $300, if you were to do four of those a week, that’s over $60,000 at the end of the year. At the high end you could be making $124,800 a year and that’s just doing home staging consultations where you walk around the client’s home and give them staging advice so they can do the rest of the work themselves.

Now, let’s assume only a quarter of those consultations turn into full blown staging projects. You’ll earn another $4,000 to $8,000 per month, or between $48,000 and $96,000 a year on top of the consulation fees you were already making! And you don’t have to share any of that income with a broker.

If you’re making less than the average fast food restaurant manager, watching your meager income get eaten up by fees and large advertising budgets and you’re tired of being on call for your clients 24/7, isn’t it about time you started looking at other options that leverage the real estate knowledge you already have while allowing you to make double or triple what you’re earning now?

Consider the current economy and slow real estate market your wake up call. Maybe you should recession-proof your real estate career by enrolling in a home staging training program and start earning the kind of money that lured you into the real estate profession in the first place!

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva has taught over 1000 men and women how to make money as a home stager. She is president of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company that is frequently profiled in the media in both the US and Canada. Debra Gould developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.

Technorati Tags: home stager, home staging, home stager marketing, home staging business, house fluffing, real estate staging, house staging, property styling, real estate market, real estate enhancement, Staging Diva, Debra Gould, investing in home staging training, real estate agent career change, home staging business training

As a society, we are a skeptical bunch. Today’s consumer almost instinctively sees sales pitches as scams and are afraid those products that do sound worthwhile must be too good to be true.

There are thousands of valuable and reputable products available to us thanks to the power of the Internet. Yes, there are bad products out there, and those that over-promise, but there are also genuine resources which end up being even better than you had hoped for. The best way to avoid purchasing something that will end up disappointing, is to simply do your homework before you buy.

Google is a powerful tool to research your options – use it!

Many students come to the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program directly from other programs to get the business skills they still desperately need.

I’m surprised people aren’t more careful when investing in training. When I hear people tell me they have completed home staging programs but still don’t know how to start a business using those skills, I always wonder if they thoroughly researched what they were getting into before pulling out their credit cards.

What differentiates my training program is the emphasis on building a profitable business. It’s the only home staging training program taught by someone with an MBA in marketing (me) who has built their own home staging business into a success.

Given that home staging is a completely unregulated field, where anyone can offer training, I advise anyone planning to enroll in a home staging course to do their homework before handing over their hard-earned money.

Before enrolling in a home staging training program, be sure you look into the following details before committing to anything:

Who’s the teacher? Is the program you’re considering being taught by someone who has built a successful home staging business? If not, how will they teach you to build one? Are they quoted anywhere in the media as home staging experts? What happens if you pick up the phone and call them, will you actually get the trainer?

Home staging credentials don’t exist. If you’re trying to decide which program to take depending on the weight their credentials hold, you’re wasting your time. The home staging industry is not regulated and there are no official home staging credentials. Any home staging training company, or private individual for that matter, can offer you their own set of initials to put after your name. You also want to find out if you’ll be charged an ongoing licensing fee to say that you have these so called “credentials.”

What are people saying? Spend lots of time going over testimonials from graduates of the program and contact some of them directly to make sure they really exist. Do a Google search to see what people are saying about the program, and the person who will be training you, in discussion groups and elsewhere on the Internet.

What is the quality of the information the company or trainer gives out for free? Are there ways for you to sample the program? Are there any resources for you to read or audio clips to listen to before signing up? If what you can get for free doesn’t seem very informative, how do you know the quality of the paid material will be any better? If what you can access for free is of high quality, it’s reasonable to assume what you pay for will be even more informative.

Is there a refund policy? Find out what happens if you aren’t happy with your purchase. Do you get any or all of your money back?

What happens after you complete the training program? Is there any ongoing support available to you or does the company just offer one product and once you’ve got that you’re on your own? If job guarantees are being made, be careful to read the “fine print” and find out how it all works.

If the state of the economy has you ready to take control of your own employment destiny by starting a home staging business, you’re making a great move. There is already lots of demand for real estate staging services and it will continue to grow as more home sellers realize the profit they can make by hiring a home stager.

But be sure to find out if the training program you’re considering will provide you with the tools you need to grow a successful business. In this, as in any unregulated industry, buyer beware applies.

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Six Elements Inc. Home Staging

Home Staging expert Debra Gould also known as The Staging Diva has taught over 1000 men and women how to make money as a home stager. She is president of Six Elements Inc., an internationally recognized home staging company that is frequently profiled in the media in both the US and Canada. Debra Gould developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own profitable home staging, real estate enhancement businesses.

Technorati Tags: home stager, home staging, home stager marketing, home staging business, house fluffing, real estate staging, house staging, property styling, real estate market, real estate enhancement, Staging Diva, Debra Gould, investing in home staging training, buyer beware, home staging business training

SEO Professional - 71%

I built my first website in 1999 to promote the Debra Gould Home Collection and was amazed when I was able to sell my art and home accessories across the US and Canada.

Since that time I’ve personally built a number of other sites including SixElements.com to promote my home staging and interior redesign services, and StagingDiva.com to promote my home staging training program.

Along the way, I’ve learn quite a bit about how to get found by search engines using SEO (search engine optimization) and SEM (search engine marketing). I never stop studying and reading about it.

This is a steep learning curve that never ends because technology and the internet keep evolving, while millions more websites come online every week making the task of getting found even more complicated.

I discovered this cool online free quiz you can take to test your abilities. At the end you get your score and a badge you can put on your site. I received this “SEO Professional” one after answering their 30 minutes of questions. I’m pretty proud of it, this was one tough test!

Most home stagers don’t want to invest the time and effort it takes to keep on top of this because they’d rather be out decorating their client’s homes to sell rather than sitting at a computer. I confess I like both because I am a bit of a computer geek! That combined with my desire to help Graduates of the Staging Diva Training Program get found by home sellers and real estate agents wanting to hire them is what prompted me to create the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers.

As one advertiser, Leah Fritz of Perfect Place Home Staging said, “I’m in my third year in the directory. I don’t want to learn all about how to build a website or how to get traffic to one, that’s what I have Staging Diva for! I’d rather focus my energy on home staging.”

I was really happy when I found this SEO Quiz that can help anyone test themselves on what they know about this topic. With all my hard work, it was great to have some external validation that I do know what I’m talking about (mind you