As a Home Stager, I’ve always been passionate about color, and doing color consultations has been an important part of my business since I started staging and redesigning client homes in 2002 with my home staging business Six Elements Inc.

So far this winter, I’ve had a surprising number of projects from people who aren’t selling or moving and are just asking for help choosing the right colors for their home. I take you through two of my latest projects in this blog article, Color Consultations: A Behind the Scenes Look from Staging Diva.

For this client, the workbench was actually the cleanest spot in the house which was being totally gutted and rebuilt. I had 2 hours to choose colors for this huge home, without the benefit of proper lighting or furniture to reference. In many cases, I didn’t even have a floor sample! Talk about a challenge.

These were sub-optimal conditions for choosing colors, but it can be done.

By the way, if you’re worried that you won’t be able to choose colors for your client because your own home has had swatches taped to the walls for months, you’re not alone! I asked my Facebook Friends and the consensus seems to be that we can choose colors much easier for clients than for ourselves. Isn’t that always the case?

One of my Facebook Friends and Staging Diva Graduate Lois Ward of Goodlines (ON) said she lets her husband play the role of client so she can choose her own colors with less difficulty. And JoAnne Lenart-Weary suggested we all go on a field trip to do each other’s homes! That was a really fun suggestion.

> Read how I handled the tricky client situation of choosing colors in the middle of a construction site, and add your comments here

The spring real estate market, which starts in February and runs through June in North America, is the busiest season of the year for home stagers. Now is the time for you to lay the foundation to capitalize on all the potential sales coming your way.

For example, you should be looking for ways to get noticed by home owners, real estate agents, builders and the media. There are tons of ways to do this that don’t involve expensive advertising and I discuss all of these in Course 4of the Staging Diva Program.

If you already have “Sales and Marketing Secrets to Boost Your Home Staging Business,” now is the time to re-listen to the 2-hours of recordings. You’ll definitely find new ideas you haven’t tried yet or ways to fine-tune those you have. If you don’t have this course, the most economical way to get it, is as part of one of our 5-course packages,which offer savings of $700 to $830.

Looking for ways to perk up the marketing you’re doing already? You’ll find 14 bonus marketing ideas you can implement right now inside 14 Marketing Ideas to Rev Up Your Home Staging Business. These are all no-cost or low-cost ideasto help you attract new clients, summed up in a $20 report!

If you need help organizing your many marketing ideas and determining if your ideas fit together properly, the Simple Marketing Plan Companion will be a huge help. It will save you a ton of time and wasted effort when you follow the simple steps I outline in this easy-to-use guide. Even if you already have Course 4, you’ll find tons of new ideas for creating your simple marketing plan here.

Getting your marketing ready for the busiest staging season also means having a professional web site and/or a listing in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can get by with a website that’s an obvious ‘do it yourself’ project, because you only have one chance to make the best possible impression with your target market. Quite frankly, if you don’t look like you’re prepared to invest in your own business, why should anyone else be prepared to invest in you?

From my very first home staging project in January 2003 right through to today, at least 90% of my income as a home stager comes from people finding me online. I know the same is true for other home stagers. This is also how I’ve been “discovered” by the media all these years!

If you want marketing help directly from me, please join the next live Staging Diva Dialog call coming up on February 16 (7pm Eastern / 4pm Pacific) — your participation includes a recording of this semi-private coaching call with me! There will be a small group of new and experienced home stagers on our call and you’ll benefit from my answers to their specific questions too!

Media coverage is a huge help in building your home staging business because it helps get the word out for free to a huge audience (you could never afford to buy the same coverage), plus it reinforces your position as a home staging expert (being in the news gives you instant credibility).

Here are 3 tips to help you get the media coverage you want:

1. Include original content on your website or blog that the media will want to quote. For example, this week I heard from REALTOR® Magazine requesting permission to include some of the content from my Home Staging Glossary in an upcoming issue.

2. Learn who the reporters and editors are in your market and build a relationship with them if you can. One way to do this is with MuckRack which includes the Twitter feed of thousands of journalists. Use this tool to find out who to follow and what they’re talking about. If you’re helpful to a reporter on a deadline, you’ll get coverage.

3. Write your own introduction that includes the keywords and phrases you want to highlight. For example, last week I heard from CBS Radio who will be interviewing me next week for the Money101 show in LA. I emailed a 50 word introduction for them to read on air to ensure they get my name right and send listeners to StagingDiva.com.

> Read more tips on dealing with the media here

Helping Staging Diva Graduates stay motivated through the winter season can be a challenge. November through January are always less busy times for stagers in the US and Canada— unless you’re also doing interior redesign, color consulting and holiday decorating. Get ready though because we’re heading into the best time of the year for home stagers. This time of year is when home staging opportunities get real exciting.

I did a coaching call with a home stager yesterday who was losing hope. I asked, “Would you close your ice cream store in early June because business was slow in the winter?” She thanked me for “talking her off the ledge” and left our call with a solid marketing plan to put in place right now as the spring real estate market gets underway this month. She’ll be well-positioned to take advantage of it. Sometimes you need to take a step back to see the bigger picture.

In this month’s posts: you’ll learn 3 tips to get the media to promote you, how to put your marketing in high gear for the spring real estate market, how to choose from so many yummy paint colors, and you’ll enjoy the work of two Staging Diva Graduates celebrating their 5th year as home stagers! Make sure you subscribe to receive updates from this blog by signing up using the box on the right sidebar.

Also, don’t forget to send me any questions or story ideas you’d like to see covered in this blog. Without that input, I’m only guessing about what you want to learn!

I hope you’ll continue to let me be the Voice of Possibility™ for you as we push past our fears and self-limiting beliefs and find our passion!

Best wishes for your continued success on your journey as a home stager!

“When we conquer our fears, we discover a boundless, bottomless, inexhaustible well of passion.” – Steven Pressfield

Congratulations to these Staging Diva Graduates who renewed their Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers membership for a 2nd year!

Visit their profiles and get inspired:

Noel Storm is the owner of Noel’s Home Staging and Redesignin Illinois. Noel’s listing serves as her home staging website since it has all she needs to showcase her talents as a home stager. It features three sets of before and after pictures, sales copy about her business and her company contact details

Winnipeg, Alberta Home Stager Miriam Neuman owner of Reveal Your Homealso uses her Directory listing as her main web presence. This allowed her to get her business on the Internet fast!

We would also like to welcome two new members of Directory of Home Stagers:

Lisa Paquette Yee owner of Resourceful ReDesigns Home Staging and ReDesign serving areas in Central Alberta.

Victoria Eves of The Home Staging Touch in Ontario Canada.

To find out how you too can enjoy the benefits of a listing in the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers visit: http://www.stagingdiva.com/stagingdirectorygetlisted.html .

My house doesn’t always look like a home stager lives here (especially since I don’t have a cleaning lady), but for the most part my environment is free of unnecessary objects and the usual dust collectors you’ll find in most of your clients’ homes. As most of my students and readers know, I hate clutter.

I don’t buy gadgets, lots of clothing, purses or shoes, but I compulsively collect information and ideas! I’m afraid to throw any of it out because “I might need it later!” Yes, that does sound like the usual excuse people give for compulsively hanging onto thousands of pounds of “stuff” they’ll never need! It’s really all hoarding.

It was a personal breakthrough as a home stager when I finally began to see that hanging onto too many To Do items, or ideas, was in fact what was getting in the way of realizing my dreams.

Feeling overwhelmed too often means we just don’t move forward at all. We become paralyzed by the myriad of choices and opportunities available. There will never be enough hours to accomplish everything.

It’s important to make conscious choices about how we spend our time and what we put on our “stop doing” list to make room for what’s truly important to our dreams. This requires a lot more discipline than most people realize. As a home stager, being able to filter out the noise of “shiny objects” and focus on what’s essential is a skill that must be developed.

I’m embarrassed to admit that I’m heading into 2012 with many of the same piles of paper I’ve had on my desk since this time last year! I’ll be sharing my strategies for dealing with this in the weeks ahead on my blog, Home Staging Business Report.

> Read the full article on getting rid of too many To Do items

Opportunity works in mysterious ways. On my own journey of reinvention, I’ve read hundreds of books, listened to more hours of inspirational recordings than I can count and traveled across the country and back in search of “my home.”

Along the way, I’ve heard this sentiment repeated in various forms but it generally goes like this, “When you decide your mission and start moving in the direction of your dreams, the universe will rise up to meet you half way. Opportunities will suddenly appear because you’ll be ready for them.”

It’s really a variation on Louis Pasteur’s quote about “chance favoring the prepared mind,” and an underlying principal of the whole Law of Attraction movement.

Depending on whether I’m feeling depressed and pessimistic, or inspired and hopeful, this whole idea hits me differently.

In my darkest moments I just think, “That’s just magical thinking, real life sucks.” At other times, I can be more receptive and open and easily see countless examples of its truth in my own life. I agree with Wayne Dyer’s observation that “I will see it when I believe it.”

In November I spoke at the Stevie Women in Business Awards in New York where I was a finalist in 4 categories, including: Best Coach/Mentor of the Year and Best Entrepreneur of a Service Business Under 100 Employees. It was an expensive trip but I went with the belief that being there would lead to new opportunities for me— even though I had no idea what those would be.

After my presentation the head of PR and Social Media for Century 21introduced himself and asked me to write for their blog. This is a huge opportunity because they’re the largest real estate company in the world and it will bring tons of traffic to the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers which will benefit my graduates.

I didn’t speak at this event hoping to meet that particular contact, but it only happened because I was there. Read my first C21 article “Less is More When Selling Your Home Over the Holidays Says Staging Diva”.

Staging Diva Graduate Imogen Brown of Home Staging Brisbane saw a tweet from Century 21 on Twitter linking to my first blog post for them and tweeted congratulations to me.

A real estate/social media consultant in Australia saw Imogen’s tweet back to me and contacted her with an invitation to write a blog post for him that is syndicated across 40 real estate offices.

Imogen writes:

“Two lessons from all this:

1. You’ve got to love Twitter

2. Just keep connecting with people and great things will happen!”

If you’re feeling intimidated by the idea of being on Twitter or blogging, I have two products to help you.

The Home Stagers’s Guide to Twitter is written for absolute beginners and also contains advanced strategies as you get more comfortable with this medium.

Staging Diva Chronicles Volumes 1 and 2 include 24 articles/blog posts that are already written for you! You can use them in full or use parts to liven up your own writing in your blog, newsletter, etc.

Home stagers quite often get frustrated in their efforts to promote home staging to real estate agents, and are left with the feeling that agents just don’t “get it” and, worse, don’t even want to get it.

Many new and aspiring home stagers even allow themselves to be talked out of starting a home staging business in the first place by the misguided and misinformed advice of an often well meaning real estate agent.

It helps to remember that all these agents and brokers are sales people working on 100% commission in a market where it now takes far longer to sell a property than it used to. Here are 5 key selling points you will want to communicate to real estate agents to help them realize “what’s in it for them” when working with you:

1. When dealing with listing clients, Home staging is something you can recommend to them as a faster way to sell their home, but it’s not a service you personally have to be responsible to pay for.

2. As a home stager, I will tell your clients the changes and improvements you don’t want to mention for fear of offending them and losing your listing. Plus, as an unbiased independent third party, I save you from having to get in between spouses who have different opinions about how to best show their home for a speedy sale.

3. With 70% of US home buyers searching online (that number is 90% in Canada) before ever calling a real estate agent, you will attract a lot more leads with better looking photos, not only for the staged listing but from active buyers who will want you to show them other properties as well. Attractive listing photos do a lot to increase your own agency’s status and credibility.

> Read the rest of this story here

Donna Dazzo on HGTV episode of Selling New York explains how once you're selling your home it becomes a product, and getting rid of the hundreds of baby photos is part of what's needed to depersonalize.

Congratulations to Staging Diva Graduate Donna Dazzo of Designed to Appeal on her appearance on HGTV’s Selling New York where she provided her staging advice for a $5.75 million townhouse.

I have to admit I’d be intimidated by a client’s home with that high a price tag!

The funny part is, when I saw the clip, I realized that even people “with more money than God” (as my mother would say) have the same problems as the rest of us/our clients.

Here is Donna explaining to the owners that they have too much clutter and why they need to depersonalize. Then she’s out on their deck discussing the need to paint over a rusty railing, and add attractive outdoor furniture and flowers to the barren concrete space.

Let’s face it, what we do as home stagers isn’t rocket science— but it may as well be because we bring an eye and a vision that the average person just doesn’t have! For proof of that you only need to look at all the ugly homes on the real estate market owned by people hoping to sell at the highest price, like these New York clients with a $5.75 million townhouse and absolutely no clue!

Donna has been a member of the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers for more than 5 years now. She became a stager after losing her financial services job in her 50s. I’m sure at that time she believed it was the worst thing that could happen to her. But, that was before she discovered all the new adventures and unique experiences that lay before her once she decided to reinvent herself and use her creative talents to make a new living, and a new life! I’m sure she could never imagine all the that lay before her.

If you’d like to learn the exact home staging business formula I taught Donna, these products will help you:

Staging Diva Home Staging Training Business Program

Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers – Profile Listing with Free Brochure

Staging Diva Ultimate Portfolio Guide

Staging Diva Ultimate Design Guide

If you’ve just joined the 20,000-member Staging Diva community, welcome and if you’ve been here for awhile, thank you for your participation! I look forward to helping all of you make 2012 your best year yet!

I don’t generally make New Year’s resolutions because I know how often we fall off course and think, “Oh well, never mind, it’s too late now!” Instead, it’s important to remember that every day can be a new beginning. There really is no “magic” to January 1st.

“The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.” – W.M. Lewis

This quote by W.M. Lewis holds special significance for me because I’ve worked with thousands of women (and a few men), who have let fear stop them from moving forwards on their dreams and really living.

For example, I spoke to a 54-year old woman yesterday who just lost her $70,000/yr job, knows she won’t get another in her field, feels a calling to use her passion for decorating but asked me, “Do you think it’s better to do a job you hate because you know it will pay the bills or is it better to do something you’re passionate about?”

Frankly that’s like asking me, “Should I close up my box of dreams, stuff it in the attic along with my God-given talents and continue living someone else’s life?”

Believe me I understand how important it is to pay the bills but I also know that the biggest regret people have at the end of their lives is not for things they tried (even if they “failed”), but for all the paths they never took.

Throughout my childhood I was taught, “Don’t ever depend on anyone to take care of you.” I took that to heart; got 3 college degrees, including a Masters in Business and Marketing, had an unfulfilling career for almost 20 years, and was (at best) mildly depressed for much of it.

It wasn’t until I neared my 40th birthday that I finally decided my life wasn’t a dress rehearsal and I’d better get busy living and enjoying it. That was 1999 and I never would have imagined where stepping off my familiar path would take me!

In this month’s posts, you’ll learn 5 secrets real estate agents need to hear from you, how the owner of a $5.75 million town house isn’t that different from a typical staging client, how to declutter your desk to make way for achieving your dreams, how a speech I made in New York led to a big marketing opportunity for a Staging Diva Grad in Australia, plus you’ll meet 6 inspiring home stagers!

As we start this new year together, I suggest that we all make 2012 the year we make decisions from a place of strength rather than fear. I too have many new dreams and challenges and plan on taking baby steps to gradually accomplish them. I hope you’ll continue to let me be the Voice of Possibility™ for you as we move towards a life we want and discover the magic that awaits us on the other side of our fears!