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Staging Diva

Home Staging Business Report

Information, Tools + Inspiration to Grow Your Home Staging Business

Home Staging Marketing: Your Home Stager Headshot

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home stager headshot
Staging Diva Grad Suzanne Manlove

Your home stager headshot is a critical piece of your overall home staging marketing strategy.

Most of us hate getting our picture taken.

We put if off  with any number of excuses like waiting for the perfect hair day, or when we’ve caught up on our sleep or when we’ve dropped another 10 pounds.

Or is that just me? 🙂

Fortunately, photo editing programs can be used to minimize wrinkles, camouflage those bags under our eyes or even get rid of other people we no longer want in the picture.

Why Your Photo is a Key Piece of Your Home Staging Marketing

As a home stager, you’ll be going to someone’s home. It’s a very personal service. After all, you’ll be opening all the closets and hiding places, even their closest relatives have never seen.

In other words, your clients are hiring YOU not just your company.

To help put them at ease, they need to see what you look like when they visit your website. And with sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc., you need a head shot to represent your public/social identity.

Wondering how to have your head shot show up whenever you comment on a blog?

Home staging is an image business and your personal image is part of how you market your home staging services. This doesn’t mean you have to look like a celebrity! After all, how many people would be comfortable working with you if you did?

What Your Home Stager Headshot Should Say About You

Your head shot communicates a lot about you and gives your prospective clients a sense of what it might be like working with you.

Subtle things like the lighting, angle of your head, and your wardrobe and hairstyle communicate a bit about your personality.

People make assumptions, rightly or wrongly and it happens in an instant.

Here are some of the adjectives you’ll likely want your potential clients and the public to think about you when looking at your head shot.:

  • Professional
  • Stylish
  • Contemporary
  • Friendly
  • Open
  • Personable
  • Easy to talk to
  • Trustworthy

Wouldn’t you agree that Staging Diva Grad Suzanne Manlove of Arlington Home Interiors (pictured above) did an excellent job of communicating all this in her own headshot?

In Part 2 of this series, I’ll share specific tips for getting a great head shot taken for your home staging marketing package (whether you use a professional photographer or not). I’ll also share some examples from Staging Diva Students.

Home stagers, decorators, real estate agents, have you had a professional head shot taken or did you get a friend to shoot your photo?

What tips would you share with other home stagers and interior redesigners?

Please share your experiences in the comment section and I’ll share the best in my next article about this topic.

Debra Gould
Debra Gould, The Staging diva

Internationally recognized home staging expert Debra Gould created the Staging Diva Home Staging Business Training Program to teach others how to earn a living doing something they love. She has staged millions of dollars worth of real estate and is the author of several best-selling guides. With 30,000+ students in 24 countries, Debra is celebrated as one of the most influential people in the home staging industry. She appears on: HGTV, CBS Radio, CNNMoney, The Wall Street Journal, Woman's Day, House & Home, Style at Home, GlobalTV, This Old House and more.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Trish Mohring says

    Interesting. This was one of the questions I was going to ask you when I get to speak with you for the 60 min. Accelerator Coaching Call. You seem to post the right information when I need it. Thanks Debra.

    • Debra Gould says

      Trish you are most welcome, I’m so glad this info was timely for you!

      Looking forward to our Coaching call in 10 days. You’ll be amazed at how much ground we can cover in our time together. You’ll be on fire with ideas, I promise 🙂

      • Trish Mohring says

        I am so excited for this conversation. I already have a bunch of questions that I’m sure we won’t even be able to get to, but I have them in priority sequence.

  2. Karla Mall says

    Debra, Second time this week, your blog post has been exactly relative to my biz builiding process! YESTERDAY, I wrote in my calendar..to do today….get a head shot appointment. THIS morning, Debra sends out her blog entry regarding headshots….I’m trying to decide if this is cosmic or spooky? I’m going with cosmic. Ha! As I responded on your procrastination blog, thanks for the kick in the rear. It helps me remember I’m moving in the right direction and I have support!
    P.S. I do have a photo session scheduled next week! You’re great at what you do, Debra. (Will your Part 2 headshot advice be posted before Thur Feb7?) Hope! Hope! Thanks much.

    • Debra Gould says

      Karla, I love that! Thanks so much for commenting. It IS cosmic and not spooky at all 🙂

      Have you ever noticed that when you take a bold step in the direction of your dreams the universe rises up to support you? That’s exactly what’s happening here.

      You are exactly the kind of Staging Diva Graduate I live for. You take the tools and knowledge I share and then you take action. I know you’ll be joining my successful alumni like Susan Atwell, Donna Dazzo, Leah Fritz and countless others who didn’t sit on the sidelines and jumped in instead. In this month’s newsletter I feature 10 of them who are Finalists in the 2013 Home Staging Awards.

      Now to your photo question, I’m not sure if Part 2 will be published before your shoot. However, you already have the Staging Diva Ultimate Portfolio Guide and you’ll find LOTS of great tips for your head shot in there.

  3. Lucy Arruda says

    Debra, one of the first things I did professionly for my business !!! Thank you Debra for being such an inspiration for us ….. you are my daily fuel of motivation …..

      • Lucy Arruda says

        Hi Debra !!………… Sure you can quote me !!!………….actually just working on putting my notes and thougths together for your directory. Debra I had a home staging video done and am so excited about it !!!……..How can I share this with you ?…… Good Night !! , seem to do my best work when everyone is in bed ………….ah…. peace and quite ………Love it !!

          • Lucy Arruda says

            Hi Debra !!!
            Thank you , Thank you !!!!………..I will aim for this weekend sending you all this information …. I just uploaded my picture per your instructions , lets see if it works !!!……..

          • Debra Gould says

            Lucy, yes, it worked! Wonderful and congratulations for taking action on that suggestion! Isn’t it cool to see your photo beside your comments? That’s a great shot by the way, you can use the same one on Facebook and Twitter!

            Too many talented people sit on the sidelines doubting their abilities and that can become paralyzing. With every successful step you take you gain more confidence for the next one. Congratulations again and I’m looking forward to seeing all the wonderful things you do with your new staging business!

          • Lucy Arruda says

            Hi Debra !,
            I just filled in “Share your story”, I complted and submitted it all with my picutre, but unfortunetly could not submit my video , Im sure it is due to the size. Please let me know what is best way to send you my staging video which was part of my success story ..lol
            Good night !!

          • Debra Gould says

            Hi Lucy, Thanks for sharing your story! There really isn’t enough material there for me to write a full article however, I might be able to weave it into a larger story or use it in the newsletter.

            I’m not sure from your comment if your intention was to have me watch the video to then create a story about your company for you from that. If so, I’m afraid that’s beyond the scope of what I can offer here as a free service.

            Congratulations on your new staging company and for finding a way to turn your passion into a business! I wish you every success and will mention you in a story using the material you’ve already provided. Or, if you prefer, you can do a second submission with more detail, perhaps putting into words some of the material you wanted me to know from your video.

          • Lucy Arruda says

            Hi Debra, actualy my intention was just to share my video and staging success story with you, not for you to create a story …lol
            Thank you for your well wishes , you continue to be my ” daily fuel of motivation”…. if you are interested in seeing my video you can go to youtube , under “staging to list’ …. Weaving it into a larger story or use in a newsletter as you mentioned is great !

  4. Susan says

    I actually found my photographer when I saw a headshot from a local professional organizer. One day, when I thought I might need the help of an organizer I called her. Ironically, it was the professionalism of her materials and headshot that lead me to call.

    The organizer gave me the photographer’s information and raved about her. It was not cheap to have the pictures taken, but it was well worth it.

    It was a lot of fun and I invested an extra $100 to have my make-up and hair done as well. The make-up artist even stayed for the entire shoot to ensure that my hair was right (we did 2 different looks) and even adjusted my clothes if they happened to be buckling in the wrong places. I had a great time knowing that I was in good hands.

    So my advice is to look for people that do similar work – Real Estate agents, Professional Organizers, and even other Home Stagers in your area – and if you like their headshot, find out who took it. And, if you can, have your hair and make-up done professionally. You may also wish to consult in advance with the photographer about wardrobe options. Finally, make sure that they will touch up the photos as part of the package.

    And above all – have fun and enjoy the experience. Feel like a super model for a day!

    BTW – The headshot later became the inspiration for my new website header, so if anyone wants to see it, please visit me at http://AtWellStagedHome.com.

  5. Stacy Goade says

    Hi Debra!
    So surprised to see my headshot in your post and thought I might reply to your question. I went to a professional photo studio and had a series of shots taken. Those that turned out best are the photos I have been using for the past two years on a variety of marketing materials, Facebook, my website, Gravatar, etc. It was worth the time, money and effort! I feel strongly that professional photos are essential if you want anyone to take you seriously. As home stagers we are all about enhancing spaces and beautifying other people’s homes. We need to spend time doing the same for ourselves. How we present ourselves is how others will respond to us. Thanks for this great post. I’ve been thinking its time to get new professional photos done and this post just reaffirms it for me! Best!