Many of us are born home stagers, it just takes us years to realize it.

No matter what our natural talents are, it’s a journey allowing ourselves to do what we’re meant to do.

Along the way, we take hundreds of baby steps. With plenty of second guessing along the way.

The Staging Diva community is filled with thousands of women (and some men) with who see home staging as a dream career.

Manifesting our dreams into something tangible out in the world is very empowering.

I Had This Creative Dream For Years

Growing up, all my favorite activities were creative. From building blocks to Etch a Sketch and making doll furniture. Almost every 4 or 5- year old will put up their hand if you ask, “Who likes to build stuff or paint?”

At what age, do we become afraid to say we’re creative? It took turning 40 to re-embrace that side of myself.

I spent hours at craft shows and interior design 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? How were they brave enough to show their work and try to sell it?

Eventually I gave up my six-figure business to find out. And to 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 not to try new adventures. We’re not meant to do the exact same thing for our entire adulthood, unless we truly love it.

Building my first website (to promote the Debra Gould Home Collection in 1999), I had no idea what I was doing.

I needed a headshot for my website. This was before smart phones with cameras or selfies. I couldn’t afford a photographer, and who had tripods back then?

Propping my camera on a stack of books on the table for the right height, I spent hours running back and forth using a timer and trying to get the angle and lighting right.

I was new in town and didn’t have a soul to help me (except my kid who was under 4 feet tall)!

Being an Example to Our Kids

After kindergarten pick up that day, I showed my daughter my first-ever live website. A project I’d been working on non-stop for about 3 weeks, complete with artist/designer photo.

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

That was definitely one of my greatest “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 over 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!

Home Staging Dream Begins with a Baby Step

I was reminded of this story recently when a Staging Diva Graduates took my advice about setting up a “Gravatar”. An app that makes your photo appear next to your blog comments all over the Internet.

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!

Seeing a tangible example of your dreams being out in the world is thrilling.

So gratifying and it gets easier with every step you take.

Staging Diva Grad, Traci Sampsell of The Finer Stage wrote,

“I saw the first draft of my business card 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 provide. Not to mention the money-making clients they can bring you!

Staging Diva Grad 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 couldn’t 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 Grad 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. Even as they’re happening, we know they’re life affirming and life changing.

Staging Diva Grad 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 of home staging and realized she tripled her revenue every year!

Is a Home Staging Dream Possible For You Too?

Perhaps you’re thinking, “It’s different for me.” That this can’t be your story too.

Maybe you believe I don’t understand how hard it can be.

Mine has not been a charmed life where everything just “falls into place.”

I’ve worked my way back from childhood abuse, assault, depression, serious health challenges, and more.

I know what it’s like to feel hopeless and powerless. And yet, deep down I believe we can start a new chapter and reinvent ourselves. That we can choose where we put our attention. What actions we take.

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 a course so you don’t waste time chasing your tail and feeling overwhelmed.
• Rearranging our own home just for the practice and to get a start on a home staging portfolio.
• Talking about being a home stager (even if you’ve never had a client before).
• Finding out how much home stagers make to know if it makes sense as a career.
• Or any one of a thousand things you could do today, tomorrow, 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!

One Way To Make Your Home Staging Dream Feel Real

If you’re a parent, you probably remember how much fun it was to come up with possible names for your baby.

You’d try on the names in your head, imagine calling that little person over with it.

One way to make your home staging dream feel like it’s possible, is to come up with names for what you’d call your business.

When you go through the exercises and examples in the Staging Diva Business Name Handbook, you’ll start seeing yourself as a home stager.

You’ll feel what it’s like to have your dream manifest in the world. And the personal pride that comes from that.

Learn More About the Handbook Here

Please comment below and share any action you’ve taken this year towards realizing your home staging dream.

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, please share what baby steps you plan to take in the months ahead. How will you 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!