It’s crazy to think that it is already that time of year – but also fun to think of all of the great things we can do for our clients during this time! 

Another fun thing – the online video training that I have developed. I have had a lot of great conversations about it – and wanted to share with you just a little taste of what is included!

In redesign, shopping for your client and adding accessories to a home is a great add-on service you can offer your clients.

Watch this video, part of my “Live” video series as I talk more about accessories…

Click here to view the embedded video.

Don’t forget you can get full business training that comes with a certification, but also very specific “LIVE” video training on how to stage a home for sale, including the walk through and evaluation, AND specific “LIVE” video training on how to redesign a client’s room using what they already have.

Here’s to Designing Your Success™,

-Mary Larsen

Beside the fact that the show makes me laugh and laugh, I love seeing the completely different homes the main characters live in – and lucky for them, they all have style!

Not everyone is so lucky – which is good for business!  Nothing is more fun than meeting someone who says they can’t decorate, and all they want is for you to make their home beautiful – my favorite kind of client!

This is especially true for “non-decorator” types who need to get their home ready for resale – they just can’t “see” what needs to happen.

If you aren’t offering Home Staging to your clients – you really want to consider it.  And if you have “stage fright” – For the past year I have been working on an online training program that can be accessed immediately to help you add Home Staging and Redesign to the services that you offer.

I am very pleased to say that the training is now available, and at a GREAT introductory price!

I am offering full blown all out business training that comes with a certification, but also very specific “LIVE” video training on how to stage a home for sale, including the walk through and evaluation, AND specific “LIVE” video training on how to redesign a client’s room using what they already have.

I sincerely do not believe that there is any training like this available any where else!

In a hurry? Go here.

In honor of the launch of this training, I will be spending the next several newsletters going over some of the most important aspects of running a successful business – and as you know, I think sending newsletters to your clients is one of those important things!

So enjoy the article below on “Stage Fright Part II” and please let me know if you have any questions by contacting me directly – mary@ Marylarsendesigns.com or just hitting reply to this newsletter.

Enjoy your TV “home tour”!!!
Here’s to Designing Your Success™,

-Mary

PS – welcome to all my new readers!

PS. If you’re worried about your business outlook, consider adding home staging or redesign to your business – learn how by clicking HERE.

Stage Fright?! – Part II

Stage Fright can most commonly be defined as “the fear of performing in front of an audience or group”.   Now, I know you aren’t exactly “performing” in front of an audience or a group when you are staging a home for sale but you are performing for an audience, that audience being the potential buyers of the home.

So why do we have “Stage Fright” when we first start staging homes?  It’s because you have been hired as a professional to help your client prepare their home for sale and you are a key player in the first impression a potential buyer has of the home.  This is a big responsibility and can be a little frightening in the beginning, especially if you’ve never actually taken part in a real, live home staging before.

That’s why I created my “Live” Staging videos; to help take some of the fear out of the home staging process and to give you tips and ideas.  Put yourself in Sterling’s shoes as you watch the “Live” videos of her and me staging a home.

Speaking of tips and ideas…as promised, I am going to share more of my tips and tricks of home staging with you.  In Stage Fright – Part I, we talked about Location, Location, Location.  Well, it is such an important topic that I am going to give you a few more ideas and suggestions on “Location” as it relates to staging a home.

Nothing makes more of an impact on a room than the placement of the furniture and accessories. While in business, you are going to see rooms filled with beautiful individual items, yet the arrangement, and therefore the overall feel, diminishes these elements.  You also will see rooms filled with dated and ugly furniture and accessories, and with the help of your correct placement, they will end up looking amazingly good.

The key to a successful room is achieving a sense of balance and proportion with furniture and accessories.  Your goal is to create a room that feels harmonious, balanced and connected.  The secret is to work with the pre-existing planes, lines, and angles of the space and your items to create your great look.  The following tips will help you achieve this goal:

Hard and Soft – When placing furniture in a living or family room, try to alternate hard pieces, such as tables and armoires, with soft pieces, such as upholstered chairs and ottomans.  Too many hard pieces together will make the room feel hard.  If hard pieces must be placed next to each other, greenery and plants can be used to soften the edges.

Magic Number Three and the Pleasing Triangle – When placing accessories and lighting, your eyes like sets of three.  That is why so many accessories you can buy today already come in a set of three.  And just like three, your eyes like triangles.  You will see this in shapes with high, medium, and low, as well as in lighting, having three points that can create the shape of a triangle throughout the room.

Too Much of a Good Thing – As you work on putting like things with like things, do not go overboard.  If you have a wall with three doors in it and two tall windows, placing an armoire on that wall that is virtually of the same shape will just be too much.  Try to break up the hard lines of the doors and windows with shaped draperies and strategically placed artwork to help move the eye up and down.

Follow these tips when staging your client’s home, and your work will surely impress your client – and all of the people who come to view the home!

For training, be sure to visit www.certifiedprohomestaging.com !!

Here’s to Designing Your Success,

-Mary Larsen

The weather has been beautiful, my customers have their wallets open, and I am really looking forward to a great holiday season!

For the past year I have been working on an online training program that can be accessed immediately to help people add Home Staging and Redesign to the services that they offer.

I am very pleased to say that the training is now available, and at a GREAT introductory price!

I am offering full blown all out business training that comes with a certification, but also very specific “LIVE” video training on how to stage a home for sale, including the walk through and evaluation, AND specific “LIVE” video training on how to redesign a client’s room using what they already have.

I sincerely do not believe that there is any training like this available any where else!

In a hurry? Go here.

In honor of the launch of this training, I will be spending the next several newsletters going over some of the most important aspects of running a successful business – and as you know, I think sending newsletters to your clients is one of those important things!

So enjoy the article below on “Stage Fright” and please let me know if you have any questions by contacting me directly – mary@ Marylarsendesigns.com or just hitting reply to this newsletter.

Happy Happy Fall!!!
Here’s to Designing Your Success™,

-Mary

PS – welcome to all my new readers!

PS. If you’re worried about your business outlook, consider adding home staging or redesign to your business – learn how by clicking HERE.

Stage Fright?! – Part I

We’ve all had it; our first school play, first spelling bee, first time speaking in public….  Stage Fright is a difficult obstacle to overcome.  But I’m not talking about the fear of being on stage; I’m talking about the fear of staging…Home Staging.

Even if you’ve been in the design business for years and feel comfortable and confident talking to clients, even if you’ve taken training classes and become certified in Home Staging, you know what to do, you know how to do it, but your “Stage Fright” is stopping you.

I heard this from so many of my Home Staging and Redesign students that I decided to come up with a solution; a solution that brings you as close as you can to get to a “real, live” home staging without actually being there.

Walk with me and Sterling, a Home Staging student, as we stage a home for sale.  We take a look at everything from curb appeal, the exterior of the home and then move inside and begin the transformation.

You have heard that Location, Location, Location is important in selling real estate, well, we as Home Stagers can’t do anything about the location of the home but we can place furniture and accessories inside the home in a manner that shows off its features.  In the “Live” videos, watch me and Sterling as we discuss and decide upon furniture and accessory placement in order to draw the potential buyer’s eyes to the focal point and highlights of the room.

While we’re on the subject of Location, Location, Location, let me share one of my favorite trade tips…It is not what you have – it is where you put it. A successfully staged home will have a sense of balance and proportion with the furniture and accessories.  Here are a few tips to help you achieve that goal:

Reading the Room – You read the room from left to right, just as you read a book.  Keep your eyes moving smoothly around the room by creating highs and lows, much like an undulating wave or the shape of an S curve on its side.  Use accessories, artwork, and window treatments to help build the highs and lows.

Let Shapes Lead You – Use the shapes of the room and the shapes of the items in the room to help guide you in your design process.  For example, an angle built into a room, such as a fireplace built into a corner, dictates that you place a piece of furniture in the room on a corresponding angle in order to achieve a sense of balance so the room can “feel” right.

Like with Like – Similar shapes work best when they are together.  If you have a short wall and a tall wall, typically your short furniture piece will go on your short wall, and your tall furniture will go on your tall wall.  This also works with a horizontal piece of art over a long sofa or using small accessories in a small room and large accessories in a large room.  Think tall with tall, small with small, narrow with narrow, wide with wide.

You will learn even more tips and tricks of Home Staging in the “Live” Home Staging videos.  Learn why we do the things we do and most of all, gain the confidence that you need to stage a home on your own.  And, just like the fancy TV shows, we even captured the homeowner’s reaction when they walked in to see their newly transformed space.

You can get fully certified in Home Staging or Real Estate Staging – or -

if you’ve always just wanted to know and see the process for home staging OR redesign – you can get THAT video online training too!

Check it out at www.certifiedprohomestaging.com for ALL of the info – and let me know what you think!!!

Best,

-Mary Larsen

PS – the actual videos are much more clear and crisp than the samples shown on the page.

I actually learned about The Tipping Point in a class I attended at the Expo several years ago [I'm speaking at the next one in May - hope you can be there!] and it was so good that I made it a point to continue to look out for his new books.

For Christmas this year I asked for his new book - Outliers – The Story of Success. And not surprisingly – I loved it!  The man is an incredible story teller, and he looks at things differently which makes you think about things differently – and I truly found the book fascinating.  So I decided to tell him.

I found his website online, went to the contact us page and sent him an email.  Told him I loved his book(s) and if he was ever in town I’d be happy to host him for dinner.  (My sister pointed out that Holden Caulfield from Catcher in the Rye said something to the effect of  “you know you’ve read a good book when you want to have dinner with the author.” I do love J.D. Salinger so I decided I keep good company.)

And not too long afterwards – he wrote back.  He hit reply – he wrote back.  He said thanks for taking the time to write – I appreciate it.   That was it.  And it knocked my socks off.

I immediately forwarded it to all of my family and told them that I want Malcolm to be my new best friend.

So that’s it.  Simple but Powerful.  All the man did was reply graciously to an email.

Think about what’s going on in your life.  Who has been in touch with you that you haven’t gotten back in touch with?  What potential client called and you didn’t return the call?  Who sent an email – maybe even a potential client- and somehow you let it slip through the cracks?

I talk to a lot of designers and when I ask them about this – getting back in touch with people who they have let slip through the cracks – they often say it is too late, too much time has gone by and they missed the chance.

Personally, I don’t believe there is any such thing as  “only having one chance to do something right.” I think there are lots and lots and lots of chances, new ones every day, and no matter how long ago the contact was made - you can STILL get back in touch. As always- simply be truthful.  Try “I don’t know how this slipped through the cracks.  Are you still in need of some help with your design project?  If so – I’d love to speak with you.  If not, good luck with your project and hope it turns out great.”

It is these simple yet powerful things that really make a difference for people – it is why they remember you later.

What simple thing have you done lately?  Tell me about it below – I’d love to know. I’d also love to know if any of you now take the opportunity to get in touch with someone you let fall through the cracks – leave your comment below!

Here’s to Designing Your Success,

-Mary Larsen

PS – If you read last week’s blog you know I am a fan of Art Sobczak – well, he and I are on the same wavelength again!  Check out is story about “doing the little things” - Low-Tech, high touch for Big impact.

When these moments happen, it reassures me that I am where I am supposed to be, doing the things I am supposed to be doing.

This week my moment was about – of all things – making phone calls! And yes, it can apply to you too.  It all started with a phone call of my own.

1. Last Thursday I called a past client and was very happy when she was ready to start another series of consulting calls with me.

2. The next day my handyman called to tell me he didn’t have any work, and what should he do.  I often coach him on business practices, and I often tell him he needs to reach out to past happy clients – those clients are your best source for new work or new referrals.  I asked him how many past clients he had reached out to (this is an ongoing discussion with us, so I knew the answer) and yep, not one.  I told him I wasn’t going to talk to him anymore until he called 3 past happy clients. I also told him this call was easy to do – ask about their past work, and ask if they have any new work.

3. Jokingly he says to me – So Mrs. Larsen, I know you love your backsplash, do you have any other work around the house, cabinetry, handyman, painting that you might want to have done?

4.  And I DID – I had been meaning to call him for several weeks about some cracks in my ceiling – and had totally forgotten so I lined up some work for him that weekend.

5. About 30 minutes later he called me back and said - it worked, it worked! The very first client he called said she didn’t know he did all those things, and she had a whole list for him to do.

6. Then one of my consulting clients called for her weekly call.  I asked her what she had done since our last call to try to get some work and she said – you mean besides pull my hair out? So we talked about the fact that she has never not once in her 6 years of business – beyond initial follow up right after a project – called a client to see how they were doing and was there anything she could do for them or was there someone “just like them” that they would introduce her to by facebook or email to see if she could help them.  I told her the handyman story for encouragement.

7. All of these things took place between Thursday and Tuesday.

8. And Tuesday morning I received a marketing newsletter from one of my favorite marketers - Art Sobczak – titled “Here’s the Best Time to Call a Prospect.” I swear I burst out laughing. A list of the BEST TIME to call someone.    Talk about reassurance that I am in the right place, doing the thing I am supposed to do!  Here is a link to his newsletter – you might want to check it out for even more ideas. And here’s a little secret – the real answer for calling a past great client is any time – because you need to take action to make action happen in your business.

9. My favorite tip from his list – A buyer wishes they could find a vendor (replace designer for the word vendor) who “gets it right the first time”. Ah, I love that!!!

So.  How long has it been since you CALLED a past client? How long has it been since you reached out rather than waited for someone to call you?  Don’t overthink it -just pick up the phone and call. Really. That simple.  And comment below and let me and everyone else know how it goes – I’m confident it will be great.

Here’s to Designing Your Success,

-Mary Larsen

I am very pleased to say that I was recently featured in the latest issue of Window Fashion Vision magazine.  It was on my favorite topic – helping women in the design field make more money – and not just give all of their talents away.

This was one of those great articles where I was asked to submit the article, went to bed that night, and woke up with a whole LIST of things that can be done.  I love it when that happens.

In fact, that was one of the reasons I went into consulting with people in the design field.  I started having ideas about how to make my business better and more profitable show up  in the middle of the night - and -those ideas worked. It’s very cool.

Just click HERE to enjoy the article in full – I know you’ll like it.  And please leave me a comment and share what you think!

Here’s to Designing Your Success,

-Mary Larsen

The book is GREAT (and I highly recommend it as a gift to any woman in the corporate world who needs a bit of encouragement and support) and was filled with very valuable lessons.  But ONE thing really really REALLY stood out for me, and was found in Lynette’s opening remarks on page 4.

” We are all waiting and yearning for something”

Regardless of the situation we are in – how great it seems to be or even how bad – we are all always waiting and yearning for something.

Lynette goes on to say it is the tension between our VISION (that thing we are yearning for) and the Challenges of WAITING that often bring discouragement and stress. And I don’t know about you – but yes!  Waiting for the vision to become reality DOES bring discouragement and stress.

The book is intended to help you become more satisfied in your what you do with the majority of your time -work - and the 10 lessons shared can help you do just that.  The first several chapters work on the theme of “Finding Meaning in the Job You Have NOW!” – not yearning and waiting for a better job or a better situation that will surely bring you that meaning – but finding the meaning in your current job.  Later chapters work on moving from “Great Ideas to Dreams Come True. ”

I think the final chapter is one of my favorites – “Different than What I Thought – Better than What I Imagined.”  Cause really – when does IT show up just like you thought?

Having just been through a serious case of burnout (and taking a good 10 days off to cure it!) this book was just what I needed – a compassionate look at appreciating and enjoying the work you do now, as you prepare for what comes next – since we are all “waiting and yearning” for that elusive “something.”

What is it that you are “waiting” for – what do you think it will “get” you – and is there maybe, maybe, just a chance that what you have now is giving you some of what you are waiting for?  When you find some of that in where you are now… perhaps the wait won’t feel so long.  Feel free to leave a comment!!

Have a great week!

-Mary Larsen

However, I have found over the past week that though I have eaten a dozen Kit Kat bars and many other delectable chocolates – it’s not that easy. I truly, really need a break.   And perhaps not surprisingly, one of the outward signs that I actually do need a break is the amount of chocolate I am consuming!