Are you walking around with a destructive label inside your head that determines the choices you make and how you live your life?

This week I met “Cynthia” (not her real name) by phone. She has been dabbling at being a home stager. I say “dabbling” because she’s done a few free projects for friends and spent money on advertising her staging business with no paying clients to show for it.

She told me about how she has always loved decorating and people have been telling her for years that she has God-given talent.

Cynthia has never used her decorating talent to earn a living before. Now that she’s 49 and her kids are self-sufficient, she really wants to create a real business and had thought that home staging would be it— except that right now she can’t seem to make money at it.

“I really need your staging business training,” she said, “but I never follow through on anything so I’m afraid to invest in your courses.”

After more discussion it turned out that she felt she “never follows through” because she did nothing with the medical transcription training she’s already taken and gave up a multi-level marketing (MLM) business selling weight loss products because she hated hassling friends, family, and anyone else she ran into to, to buy products.

Personally I could relate. I’d be hard-pressed to think of a less creative way to make a living than medical transcription and I’ve never been interested in MLM because I hate hard selling and cold calls (home staging requires neither of these).

“Can you see any similarities in the two previous things you haven’t followed through on?” I asked.

“I wasn’t passionate about either of them,” Cynthia replied.

So I asked her how her life might be different if she had a formula to follow to make money from her passion for decorating and whether she thought that would hold her interest so she could follow through. After some additional discussion about what it’s like being a home stager, she decided to order the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.

The next morning, she left a message asking whether it was true that I offer a money-back guarantee (I do), and within 2 days (even before her program arrived in the mail), she asked for a refund.

Apparently she discussed it with her friends and everyone said, “Why did you order that? You never follow through on anything!”

I have no problem giving Cynthia her money back because I only want happy students who plan on taking action with the training they receive from me. What breaks my heart about her story though is that she’s lived up to her friend’s expectations rather than standing in her own power and moving forward with what she wants to do!

As a person who “never follows through,” she couldn’t allow herself to follow through on listening to the training program.

She could have listened to the entire Staging Diva program over a day or two in the comfort of her own home. Then she could have started implementing the many ways she would have learned to turn her staging hobby into an actual money-making business for an entire month before deciding if she wanted to keep it! But she didn’t. She closed off that possibility while the training package is still in the mail on its way to her door.

You see the labels we give ourselves (or empower others to give to us), are something we live into.

If you walk around telling yourself any of the following, you’ll find them to be true:

• I never follow through on anything.
• I’m not smart enough to have my own staging business.
• No one will ever pay me for my decorating talents.
• I can’t be a home stager unless I lose weight.

What negative thought or label are you walking around with?

Please enter it in the comments below so you can see how harsh and unproductive it is! After you write the negative thought, list 3 pieces of evidence that it’s not actually true, then let it go so you can embrace all the joys and new experiences that lie before you!

Seriously, play along with me here. I know you’ll find that negativity loosen its hold on you AND you’ll inspire and empower others too!

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®
President, Voice of Possibility Group Inc.

Debra Gould has been an entrepreneur since 1989 and knows how to make money as a home stager. She developed the Staging Diva Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love. There are now more than 7,000 students in over 20 countries learning from her many products and services for home stagers.

I love flipping through color books and paint swatches, it totally brightens my mood and gives me energy. Sometimes I bring some of my color books to a client’s home to help them figure out what look and mood they’re drawn to before I recommend paint colors for their home.

That is, if I’m doing a color consultation as part of an interior redesign discussion.

When I’m choosing colors for home staging, I don’t really care too much about what the client likes or will feel comfortable living with, because in a staging situation it’s all about decorating for home buyers.

Over the past week, I’ve done two color consultations and this book by Leatrice Eiseman came in handy. It’s called Colors For Your Every Mood: Discover Your True Decorating Colors and has sumptuous photos of different rooms in a variety of decorating styles.

My first appointment was at a luxury home in Forest Hill that had been totally gutted top to bottom. It was really a challenge because the place was still a construction site, with none of the furniture or final lighting installed! The owner had her iPad with photos of things she liked, and we went from there.

In this case, I had to stay fairly neutral because I had no idea what precise colors her furniture and art actually were.

And in some cases, I didn’t even have floor color as a reference because the hardwood hadn’t been installed yet! For this home I relied exclusively on the colors I recommend in the Staging Diva Ultimate Color Guide: The Easy Way to Pick Color for Home Staging Projects. I know they work in a wide variety of homes and with different lighting and furniture styles.

Standing there with the wife (at a workbench in what will soon be the family room off the yet-to-be-built kitchen, shown in the photo above), wearing my coat because there was no heat, I somehow managed to choose a color palette for this 5 bedroom, 3-story home in only two hours!

Since her husband had written out my check in advance before driving off to keep their son amused during our meeting, there was no way I wanted to go over-time. I believe in being paid for my advice, so I kept it short and sweet so we could finish within the deadline!

One of the ways I made it easier for myself to work in this situation was by opening one of my color fan decks and having her help me choose what color she thought the furniture for each room was.

Naturally, her visual memory of the actual colors may not be accurate, but I needed something to go by! When evaluating wall color options, I’d put them up against the “red” of the couch, or the “blue” of the dining room chairs, for example.

For my second color consulting client, I did a home in the Beaches area that was built in 1919. It had lots of dark wood trim (which they didn’t want to paint) and leaded glass windows.

The couple was very nice and the husband really warmed up to the whole process about 30 minutes into my visit.

When I arrived he had his arms crossed over his chest, but once we hit the kitchen and he got to show off his new restaurant-style 6 burner gas stove, and tell me about the chef certificate courses he’s taking for fun, he became much more open. It turns out he’s a very talented (amateur) photographer and we had fun hanging many of his works in various rooms of the home.

His wife served tea, and together we finalized which glass tile to use for their newly renovated kitchen, selected drapery for the living and dining rooms (from the many options she’d bought ahead of time), and selected paint colors for the entire house. In this client’s case we could have more courage with color because I could see what they liked and all the furniture and lighting were in place.

We came up with a fabulous color palette that really pulls the rooms together and works with the dark wood trim.

It was a lovely afternoon for all of us (I know because she hugged me at the end and said all her questions were answered) and I left with a check equal to what many people make in an entire week after only 2.5 hours work. I don’t say this to brag, but to emphasize that it’s possible to be REALLY well paid for your creative talent when you understand the business of home staging and color consulting!

It really is a joy to do work that you love, help people and be well-paid for it at the same time. If you’re struggling to get paid what you’re worth, I encourage you to listen to Course 2 of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program.

I hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at two of my color consultations for clients who aren’t selling their homes and I’d love for you to share some of your own experiences by commenting below.

Also, I’m taking a poll and you can vote by commenting below. The question is: Do you have trouble choosing colors for your own home even if it’s “easy” to do it for a client? It’s really hard for me, how about you?

Debra Gould, The Staging Diva®

Debra Gould has been an entrepreneur since 1989 and knows how to make money as a home stager. She developed the Staging Diva Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love. There are now more than 7,000 students in over 20 countries learning from her many products and services for home stagers.

Not Candice, just a typical interior designer:)

Have you ever watched Candice Olson of HGTV’s Divine Design? When she has to pull together an interior design concept from her impressive collection of fabric swatches, tiles, furniture catalogs etc. all within easy reach of her clean desk?

We all know that the “reality” in TV “reality shows” is quite scripted and what makes a great TV show often has no resemblance to real life.

Regardless, as home stagers, we don’t need massive collections of fabric swatches and product samples because for the most part we’re working with what clients already have. Even when we do an interior redesign project, we don’t need to draw from such an extensive array of possibilities as you’ll see on TV.

If you’re like me, much of the business clutter you have to deal with is stacks of paper filled with ideas, business receipts, business cards from people you’ve met, rough sketches of ideas or measurements of clients’ rooms, etc.

In other words, we collect information as opposed to objects!

The piles of information on my desk often makes me feel overwhelmed as soon as I walk into my home office! I keep generating ideas for new marketing methods for my home staging business, or new products or course ideas for teaching home stagers, or ideas to add to one of my 10 websites, and they get added to one of the piles.

Added to that, I’ve kept literally thousands of emails and I often have 20 web browser tabs opened at any one time, all things I want to get back to but don’t have time now. Over time, I forget what they are and why I wanted them and there’s no way to keep it all organized. Or at least I didn’t think so until I discovered Evernote 2 days ago! Here’s a quick intro video to this FREE web-based application that will give you a flavor for what it can do for your home staging business:

I’m really excited about this and have already started setting up “notes” for the different webpages I wanted to refer back to and read, emails I need for later and more. What’s most helpful is the ability to “tag” each item. Within minutes I set up tags for things like:

• Home staging blog post ideas
• Marketing ideas for new home staging course
• Jean’s home staging project
• Cheryl and Peter’s color project
• Updates to my FREE report on the economy for home stagers
• Template ideas for new website

I also love that when I’m viewing my “notes” inside of Evernote I can look at everything tagged with only one of these choices and that it shows me a visual of it as well as the start of the text in a preview window. Since I’m a visual person, this really works for me and is better than looking at a stack of To Do items on paper or an inbox filled with hundreds of subject lines of emails.

When you’re inside Evernote, clicking on a particular “note” reveals all the content. In the case of a webpage that’s the full page, with all the hyperlinks preserved! Now I don’t have to keep all those browser tabs open which always slow down the application.

If you have a smart phone or iPad, you can also put Evernote on those and all your content will be automatically synced between your devices. Imagine shopping for a client and immediately taking a photo of the parking receipt with your phone and putting it into that project’s folder right along with photos of items you’ve found while shopping, or whatever!

Have any of you used Evernote before? Did you find this review helpful? Please share your ideas for how you have used , or might use, this FREE application by adding your comments! I’d also love it if you share this post with your friends and fellow stagers, after all who doesn’t want to start the new year all organized for whatever lies ahead?

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

Debra Gould has been supporting herself from a home office since 1989. During that time she lived in 8 different homes and had to set up many new ways to keep things running during her moves. A home stager since 2002, she developed the Staging Diva Training Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own money-making home staging businesses.

What a journey it is becoming a home stager! Many of us are born home stagers, we just don’t realize it for many years. What I mean here is that it’s a journey discovering who we are and what we are meant to do. Along the way, we take hundreds of baby steps that take our dream and make it tangible by bringing it into the world where we, and others, can see it.

There is something really empowering about manifesting our dreams into something that exists outside of ourselves.

For years I had wanted to be an artist. I used to spend hours at craft shows hanging around the exhibitors, like a groupie hungry for any piece of information that would help me figure out what their secret was. How had they found the courage to create and to put their work out there for the world to see, judge, and hopefully, buy?

Eventually I gave up my six-figure business to find out and do it myself. Everyone said I was crazy, after all I was a single mom with a mortgage! I just realized one day that life is too short and that our passion doesn’t just show up one day and say “Here I am!,” it’s actually something you CHOOSE!

I built my first website to promote my art in 1999. I knew I needed a photo of myself to put up there so I did my makeup, propped my digital camera up on a bunch of books on a table to get the right height, and used the timer to take a bunch of shots of myself.

It took me hours to get it right— running back and forth between the camera and where I would stand, trying to get the angle right and the lighting! How much easier it would have been to have professional lights or a tripod (I couldn’t afford either one) or even someone around to help, but I was new in town and didn’t know a soul (except my kid who was under 4 feet tall)!

After kindergarten pick up that day, I showed her my live website (a project I’d been working on non-stop for about 3 weeks), complete with artist photo.

She burst into happy tears and said, “I’m so proud of you Mommy!”

That was definitely one of those great “Mommy Moments,” not only because she was proud but because I knew I had taught her an important lesson about following your dreams! She had witnessed the power of taking action rather than sitting around complaining or waiting to be rescued by someone else. This is a critical lesson for everyone, but I feel it’s especially important for girls!

I was reminded of this story recently when one of my Staging Diva Graduates took my advice about setting up a Gravatar so that her photo would appear next to her blog comments all over the Internet and she wrote, “Thanks! It was so fun to see my picture pop up everywhere. I didn’t realize how vain I was until I saw my picture and loved it!”

It’s not vanity though! It’s the thrill of seeing a tangible example of your dreams being out in the world. It’s scary at first, but it’s really gratifying and gets easier with every step you take.

Staging Diva Graduate, Traci Sampsell of The Finer Stage wrote, “I saw the first draft of my business cards today and I haven’t felt this proud since I graduated from nursing school! This is completely different, though, because it’s all my own!”

Yes, another step in the journey made tangible by having an actual business card. They cost under $100 but their value is priceless in the confidence boost they give you, and the money-making clients they can bring you!

Staging Diva Graduate Katherine James of Set Sale and Go Home Staging wrote after her first project, “Debra, I had them eating out of the palm of my hand using your tips. The job went incredibly well and I could not tear the smile off my face after I left. I had to strongly resist the urge to skip back to my car in case the clients might be watching from their doorway.”

Staging Diva Graduate Red Barrinuevo of Redesign4More compares the excitement of starting his staging and redesign business to the day he got his first bike from his dad. Special moments we never forget because even as they’re happening we know they are life affirming and life changing.

Staging Diva Graduate Jodi Whalen of Pear Tree Home Designs shares that she realized how far she’d come when she closed her books on her first 3 years as a home stager and realized she tripled her revenue every year!

Perhaps you’re thinking it’s different for us, that this couldn’t be your story too.

Maybe you believe I don’t understand how hard it can be. I’ve never publicly shared my whole story, but I do not lead a charmed life where everything just “falls into place.” I’ve worked my way back from abuse, serious health challenges, and more.

I do know what it’s like to feel hopeless. I also know life is the adventure you make it and that you are the one to choose your adventures.

So the first step is to choose. The next is to find some (even small) way to make your dreams real each day. Whether it’s:

• Taking your professional picture.
• Going out to a networking event to talk about your business as though it exists (even if you’ve never had a client before).
• Learning from others who have already done what you’re trying to accomplish.
• Or any one of a thousand things you could do today, tomorrow, the next day, next week and on and on.

I promise one day (not so long from now) you will look back in delight and amazement at how far you’ve come!

Home stagers, please comment below and share any action you’ve taken this year towards realizing your dreams, I know you’ll get a kick out of seeing the progress you’ve made while inspiring others just starting out.

If you’re totally new to home staging and just beginning this journey, please share what baby steps you plan to take in the months ahead to take your dream and make it tangible by bringing it into the world where we, and others, can see it. You’ll find your transformation begins just by declaring it!

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

Debra Gould has been writing about marketing for small businesses since the early 1990s as a frequent contributor to Profit Magazine. A home stager since 2002, she developed the Staging Diva Training Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own money-making home staging businesses. There are now 4,000 students in more than 20 countries following her formula for business success.

Too many home stagers hold themselves and their staging businesses back because they’re afraid to make a mistake. We want everything to be “perfect.” It’s a natural tendency— we don’t want to look foolish, make a mistake or disappoint someone.

But here’s the thing, if you’re not making mistakes in your home staging business, then you’re not moving forward! In this video, Derek Severs shares some great examples of why we need to allow ourselves to fail.

Personally, I think women suffer from “perfection-itis” even more than men. After all, we’re told from the youngest age to:

• Keep our things neat.
• Color inside the lines.
• Make sure our hair looks pretty and our clothes are clean and matching.

What does this have to do with building a successful home staging business?

Since I’ve been a home stager for 9 years and teaching others for nearly as long, I know that home staging appeals to perfectionists. After all, there are few jobs that reward you for obsessing over the precise location of a painting, the angle of a throw over the side of a chair, or how neatly the bathroom towels are hung. Being the perfectionist I am, I LOVE that!

Watching Picasso paint “Bullfight Horns Attack Matador” in this video was such a great example of how a “master” doesn’t get everything right the first time (and how our assumption that they do holds us back from even trying).

How about that surprising study of which group in the ceramics class made the best pots! Seriously, if you skipped past this video, take a few minutes and watch it. There are some real insights that will help you move forward as a home stager and grow your staging business.

We are all capable of so much more than we imagine.

If we always play it totally safe and don’t allow ourselves to fail we never find the outer limits of what we can do. I agree with Derek that “everything is an experiment.” Coasting through life gets incredibly boring after awhile. Are you bored yet? What new thing can you try to put you back in that “growth mindset”?

Has being afraid to fail held you back? Have you been comparing your “inside” to others’ “outside” only to always come up short and convince yourself that you’re not good enough to even try?

I really want to know if any of this strikes a chord with you, please share your thoughts below!

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

Debra Gould has been an entrepreneur since 1989. Some ideas and businesses have worked out better than others, but each has brought “lessons” that made the next thing better. Debra knows how to make money as a home stager and she developed the Staging Diva Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love.

Home staging is a powerful part of the real estate industry. In fact as much as a decade ago, Forbes Magazine called home stagers the “dream weavers of the real estate world.” I quite loved that label and quoted it in my very first website for Six Elements Inc., the home staging business I started in 2002, after profitably buying, decorating and selling 6 of my own homes.

Despite the fact that this is not a totally new industry, and it’s not hard to argue that savvy home sellers have been decorating their houses to sell faster and for more money for at least the past 25 years (I know I have!), there are still people who don’t properly understand the role of a home stager.

There are others who misrepresent that role for their own marketing reasons as happened this month on mega real estate site, Trulia.com.

Before going into the truly bizarre claims made by San Francisco real estate broker Tara-Nicholle Nelson, I’d like you to consider her marketing motives! One of the best ways to get lots of comments on a blog post (ie: attention) is to stir up controversy.

If you make crazy or misleading claims while doing it, people will flock to their own defense. If you make wild statements masquerading as education, people who know better will comment in an effort to set the record straight. They’ll also share your content with others and encourage them to visit and make comments too (as I did when I shared a link to the original post on my Staging Diva Facbook page).

In case you didn’t see the original post, the real estate broker was apparently trying to warn gullible home buyers not to fall for the 5 “hypnotic” techniques home stagers use and position herself (and by extension all buyer’s agents) as the buyer’s savior in any real estate transaction.

Let’s face it, with so much real estate information on the Internet and an increasing number of buyers going the FSBO route, the real estate community has to keep reinforcing how essential their services are lest they follow the path of travel agents (another industry completely transformed by the Internet).

As a marketer I take my hat off to the broker, she did a great job of using two important and dare I say “hypnotic” triggers— Generating Controversy and Creating a Common Enemy.

As a home stager, her article was totally offensive. But it was designed to be controversial, so that lots of comments would follow! It’s no coincidence by the way that you have to set up a profile on Trulia to be able to comment, and they make their money by selling contact info.

According to this real estate broker in her post “5 Hypnotic Home Staging Techniques and How to See Through Them”, home stagers employ these tactics to negatively manipulate buyers:

• Tiny furniture
• Camouflage and cover-ups
• Activity props you’ll never use
• Items used strictly for appearances

And my personal favorite:

• Neighborhood staging!

Yes home stagers, it seems we even have the power to get everyone on the street to collude with us to hide the fact that there are normally “cars on the lawn and screaming schoolkids” up and down the street! Wow, sometimes I can’t even get my own client to repaint a bathroom, I must be doing something wrong!

I really enjoyed one of the hysterically sarcastic comments left on Facebook by home stager, Susan Pfeuffer-Powell in reaction to the claim that we use tiny furniture, “I’ve been using my daughter’s American Girl doll furniture for years! Not only is it perfect in size to make those small rooms look huge, it also comes in dozen of period styles to fit the house style and target audience.”

There’s nothing wrong with a home stager’s goal being to have the home sell for as much as possible, as long as we’re not deliberately hiding real flaws. After all, isn’t that the goal of the listing agent too? In ANY transaction, real estate or otherwise, the seller wants to sell high and the buyer wants to buy low. It doesn’t mean unethical tactics need to be involved.

So while you may get all riled up reading the Trulia.com story, remember there is a marketing agenda at work, at least that’s how I see it. How about you?

Please share your thoughts below!

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

Debra Gould knows how to make money as a home stager and she developed the Staging Diva Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love.

Running your own business is not all tea and roses. It takes work whether you’re a home stager or any other type of entrepreneur.

It doesn’t help that the economy has been in such horrible shape over the past few years. But, we’re all living in this economy no matter how we choose to earn a living.

It’s important to remind yourself why you became a home stager in the first place and consider what else you could be doing to earn money instead.

• Would that other thing bring you more personal satisfaction, meet your various needs AND make you more money?
• Would you be happier doing something else or running a home staging business?

Here’s why I decided to become a home stager in 2002 (in a hot real estate market where most people said, “Why would I need a home stager, my house can sell if I just put a sign on the lawn?”):

• Knew I loved decorating because I’d been doing it as a hobby since I was a kid.
• Loved the buzz of real estate, having bought and sold 7 of my own homes, but I didn’t want to be a real estate agent on-call 24/7).
• Knew from buying houses in 4 different cities that most people don’t have a clue about how to show their homes well.
• Knew from experience that people will bid against each other to buy a home they’ve fallen in love with.
• Made solid money flipping homes because of the cosmetic changes I made to them. This proved to me that I had staging talent.
• Knew that even in a hot real estate market lots of houses don’t sell as fast as they should or for as much money as they could.
• Knew the real estate market would eventually slow down and people would need even more help decorating their homes to sell.
• Realized that home staging was a marriage of two “sexy” topics that more and more people were talking about, “decorating,” and “making money in real estate.” I could see that the field would grow (at the time I started there were no TV shows on staging, but HGTV was already huge and decorating shows had hit the mainstream).
• Wanted to earn money from my creative talents and needed to make a lot of it because I was the sold provider for my family.
• Didn’t want to work for anyone else (when I was an employee I had to put up with sexual harassment, and bosses with anger management and addiction issues)
• Needed to have control over my time because I was a single parent of a 7-year old.
• Knew that having a staging talent that could help home sellers and real estate agents make money would be something I could make money from and get paid very well for.
• Needed a low-cost business to start because I was in debt when I started.

The first year was especially tough and as my Staging Diva Students know, I wanted to give up many times. Mostly because I wasn’t making enough money. I hadn’t figured out the right pricing and marketing strategies to grow as fast as I needed to. I’m glad I didn’t give up because once I figured out my formula, I was making up to $10,000 a month staging homes. I had also been featured on HGTV, CNN, The Wall Street Journal and many decorating magazines.

This was something I never would have predicted and if I’d know that was around the corner, I wouldn’t have felt so much like giving up!

This week I read the eulogy that Steve Jobs sister delivered. I have been a huge fan of Apple since I bought my first computer in 1989 to start my first solo business. I know that I could not have had all the success I’ve had over these years as an entrepreneur without my various Macintosh computers. When Steve Jobs died I was sad for many reasons and I also couldn’t help but think of what amazing gifts he would have brought to the world had he not died at such a young age (only 4 years older than I am now).

One of the lines I found very poignant from his sister’s eulogy was that “we all die in the middle of our stories.”

What story are you in the middle of? Is it the right one? Do you feel that you’re living some else’s story/life or your own? What should you change right now, since you don’t know how long you have to finish this story or start the next?

Please share your thoughts below. I know it’s hard to stay motivated when you feel like you’re struggling. I know it’s hard to always find our courage. I battle with these demons myself. We need to keep each other motivated to do our best work and live our best life.

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

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould is President of Six Elements Inc. and creator of the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program. An entrepreneur for almost 25 years and author of several guides, Debra has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate and uses her expertise to train others worldwide.

I recently wrote a post that has struck a chord with my readers called, Is Negative Self Talk Killing Your Home Staging Business? In it I confessed to realizing that I have been operating from a belief that if I don’t keep pushing myself to conquer ever more challenging business situations, my business will stop growing and I’ll stop accomplishing anything.

Even writing it here, I have a little voice saying, “But that’s true!” Perhaps the difference is “how” we keep ourselves moving forward.

Do we do it with an imaginary whip that says, “Get back to work you haven’t done enough to build your staging business!” Or, do we motivate ourselves from a place of self-love and compassion that says something like, “Remember how important your dream of building a staging business is to you and how much you love decorating houses to sell? Why don’t you turn off the TV and stop looking at Facebook and take that next step you promised yourself instead.”

Since 2005 I’ve dedicated much of my working life to inspiring and empowering others who want to make a living from their creativity. I’ve taken what I know about building a successful home staging business, marketing and being an entrepreneur and I share it with thousands of people every day.

Yet, when I can’t think up a topic for another blog post for the Home Staging Business Report, or my monthly newsletter, Staging Diva Dispatch, or I’m too tired to work on my next home staging training product, I beat myself up that I’m not doing enough.

Deciding to enter the 8th Annual Stevie® Awards for Women in Business was a great exercise in reminding myself of what I have accomplished over the past 12 months. I had honestly forgotten so many of the projects I finished until I had to document it all to prove I was worthy of an award for the 4 categories I entered:

• Best Coach/Mentor of the Year
• Best Blog of the Year
• Best Canadian Entrepreneur
• Best Entrepreneur of a Service Business Under 100 Employees

I’m proud to say I’m a Finalist in all 4 of these categories and the only non US-based company to be considered for Best Entrepreneur of a Service Business Under 100 Employees! This last category is probably a long shot since my competitors have pretty “big” organizations. I still operate out of my home office with 3 virtual assistants and no employees, but I did make the Finalist list out of 1300 applicants overall!

The reason I “forgot” what I’d achieved until I was forced to document it is that I’m usually jumping on the next idea rather than also pausing to celebrate “the mountain” I’ve just climbed. Perhaps you do that too?

I can tell you from experience that it’s important to celebrate your victories and recognize how far you’ve come.

Otherwise it begins to always feel like “work” instead of the joy of doing what you love. So I invite you to add your comment below. Share whatever successes you’ve had in moving towards your goal of running your own home staging business. Remember that what your inner critic might call a “baby step”, can actually be huge for you. We all start somewhere and every step we take brings us closer to our goals.

If you’ve been a home stager for awhile, share your latest accomplishments and perhaps some words of encouragement to the new home stagers that are coming up behind you! There are so many WOW moments when you’re your own boss and doing work you love. Take a moment now to remember and document some of them.

And if the idea of adding your comments is triggering that little negative voice in your head says, “It’s wrong to brag,” remember that you aren’t bragging when you’re speaking the truth of what you’ve accomplished. Besides, I know this community will get inspired and appreciate your sharing!

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

Intrepid entrepreneur Debra Gould has been self-employed since 1989 and reinvented her career many times to suit her interests and passions. She knows how to make money as a home stager and developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love. There are more than 4000 Staging Diva Students in the U.S., Canada and 20 other countries. Debra is frequently profiled in the media for her home staging expertise and is the author of 5 guides for home stagers.

I talk to hundreds of home stagers during home staging business coaching calls and I’m always struck by how much negative self-talk is going on. In a single 30-minute conversation, I’ll hear someone say “I’m so stupid when it comes to xyz” 4 or 5 times.

Imagine how many times they’re saying it to themselves when no one is there to hear it?!

I’m guilty of negative self talk too, we all are! Most of the time I know I’m not consciously aware of that voice inside my head that can suck all the joy out of a situation. For example, I’ll take a break from working to walk the dog around the block. It can be a beautiful sunny day, one of the few we have left before winter rolls in. Ten minutes into it, I’ll suddenly realize that I haven’t stopped to enjoy the sun on my face or the fact that I don’t need a warm coat, because I’ve been too busy fighting with someone inside my head, or berating myself for not working hard enough.

Last night I was listening to an interview with Rev. Karen Russo, author of The Money Keys: Unlocking Peace, Freedom and Real Financial Power, and she made a suggestion that really helped me around this whole issue of negative self-talk in terms of realizing how debilitating it can be. If you’re a mother like I am, you’ll probably really relate to this.

Imagine saying to a 9 year old girl:

“You’ll never amount to anything if you don’t work harder. Too bad, if you weren’t so stupid about xyz you might be able to run your own  home staging business, but given who you are, it will never work. If only you were smarter/prettier/skinnier your life would be perfect, but you’re not, etc.”

Doesn’t that make you want to cry?! Would you expect that 9 year old to have confidence and be inspired and go out and do big things in the world? We’d never talk to a child that way because we know the long-term damage that would cause to her self-esteem and ultimately her chances of living a happy and successful life.

So why are we so verbally abusive to ourselves?

Karen said something that really hit home with me. I’m paraphrasing here, but it was something like,  “Speaking to yourself with a voice of compassion doesn’t make you weak and you’re ambition won’t dry up because you’re nice to yourself.” In that moment I realized that I have been operating from a belief that if I don’t keep pushing myself to conquer ever more challenging business situations, my business will stop growing and I’ll stop accomplishing anything.

Does this resonate with you? What negative messages have you been listening to that are killing your home staging business and more importantly, your spirit and happiness? Please share your thoughts by commenting below. I know this discussion can lead to insights and inspiration for others.

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

Intrepid entrepreneur Debra Gould has been self-employed since 1989 and reinvented her career many times to suit her interests and passions. She knows how to make money as a home stager and developed the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love. There are more than 4000 Staging Diva Students in the U.S., Canada and 20 other countries. Debra is frequently profiled in the media for her home staging expertise and is the author of 5 guides for home stagers.

All new business owners struggle with choosing the right company name, it’s no different for a home stager who needs the right business image.  Here are 4 key considerations when choosing a company name for your home staging business:

Is your business name easy-to-say and spell?

You really don’t want to have to constantly spell your company name or repeat it for people to be understood. This poses a challenge every time you’re introducing yourself by phone, doing a media interview, speaking at an event, or even in casual conversation.

Besides, if no one can figure out how to spell your company name, they’re unlikely to find you in a Google search.

My corporation is called Six Elements Inc., which “works” on many levels, but it also forces me to have to say “s-i-x not 6 like the number” when I’m saying the name in a media interview, or providing my website address to potential clients.

Is your company name memorable?

This is really a tough one and not absolutely necessary, but if you can come up with a memorable name, it will help you stand out. In Course 4 “Staging Diva Sales & Marketing Secrets to Boost Your Home Staging Business,” I teach my students that a potential client has to see your name 7 to 10 times before they’ll actually notice it. That’s because we’re bombarded by so many marketing messages, it’s hard to stand out in the “clutter.”

If you have a memorable company name, it’s much easier to get noticed and for people to assume you’re well established because they’ve heard of you before.

After all, when they think, “I’ve heard of them already,” you’re much closer to having credibility as a home staging expert. Early in my home staging business I found that when I wandered into a real estate open house and said, I’m Debra Gould from Six Elements Home Staging they would often say “Oh, I’ve heard of your company!”

I chose Staging Diva® as a brand name for my home staging courses, guides, etc. It’s easy-to-say and spell, and many find it memorable. There’s also the playful use of the word “diva” that makes the brand more approachable (unless you have no sense of humor and send me an email explaining that being a diva is not a good thing!).

I’ve had reporters say, “I was searching online for someone to interview for my home staging article, and when I saw the name ‘Staging Diva,’ I just had to call you.” Another media example is when I was featured on the HGTV show The Decorating Adventures of Ambrose Price. Check out this media clip to see how “Staging Diva” fit right into their opening script for the show!

Is your business name intriguing or a conversation starter?

Amazon, Google and Yahoo are easy-to-spell and memorable. We all know what businesses they’re in now, but when they were just starting out, one can imagine lots of people hearing them for the first time asking, “What do you do?”

When you’re in a networking situation (who isn’t a bit tense and shy at those?), it’s easier for people to start (or continue) a conversation with you if they have an obvious question to ask. In my case, many people ask “What are the six elements?” Then I can list them (energy, form, style, design, color and passion), which opens up a dialog about my beliefs about staging, decorating and running your own business.

Other names I like are: Velvet Plum, PostStone, and Digital Connections.

Does your company name convey the right image for your home staging business and what you do?

Here are 2 examples of memorable and easy-to-spell business names that are total failures when it comes to conveying the right business image. I remember them because I’ve seen their company vans on the road, and actually wince every time.

Would you hire a custom carpenter whose business is called, “Nine Fingers Left”? I don’t want him bleeding all over my home, thanks very much. Is it only me who sits in traffic behind this guy thinking, “I wonder which finger is the worst to lose if you’re a carpenter?” Of course I realize the name was chosen for memorability and he probably has all 10 fingers, but I don’t really want to find out. The bottom line is I have negative thoughts associated with the company making it unlikely that I’ll ever hire him.

Would you hire a painting company called, “Splish Splash Painting”? Anyone who has ever hired a painter before has probably experienced the annoyance of paint splashes and drips left behind on windows, fixtures and floors. Thanks for warning me ahead of time that you might be sloppy. I think I’ll hire someone else!

Here are some examples of home staging business names that work based on the criteria I’ve mentioned so far:

Perfect Place Home Staging
Rethink Home Interiors
Pear Tree Home Designs
Designed to Appeal

Have you come up with a great name for your business? Please share it in the comments below. Are you ready to start your business but coming up with the name is what’s holding you back? Let me know in your comments, perhaps I (or my readers) can help by voting for our favorites out of the possibilities you’re considering!

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

Debra Gould has been writing about marketing for small businesses since the early 1990s as a frequent contributor to Profit Magazine. A home stager since 2002, she developed the Staging Diva Training Program to create opportunities for others to grow their own money-making home staging businesses. There are now 4,000 students in over 20 countries following her formula for business success.