COVER PHOTO COURTESY OF: TWENTY9 DESIGNS| SEMINOLE, TX
___ ESSENTIALISM: THE NECESSITY OF NO PAGE 06
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LOVE IT. HATE IT. CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT IT. PAGE 10
STAND OUT FROM THE HOBBYIST PAGE 13
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CONTENT INSIDE THIS ISSUE
4
FROM THE DESK OF JANA USELTON
6
ESSENTIALISM: THE NECESSITY OF NO
10
LOVE IT. HATE IT. CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT IT
13
STAND OUT FROM THE HOBBYIST
16
HSRA MEMBER SPOTLIGHT
18
DOMINATE YOUR MARKET WITH VIDEO
22
Flying High in July
HSRA Executive Leader: Brandon Blake | The Staging Company
HSRA Digital Coordinator: Jill Johnson
HSRA Fearless Founder: Jana Uselton
Paige Freeman | Twenty9 Designs
HSRA VP of Operations: Laurie Graham
TAKE THIS JOB OR SHOVE IT? HSRA Elite Member: Lorelie Brown | Showhomes Charleston
Book of the Month Covert Cows & Chick-fil-A
How Faith, Cows, and Chicken Built an Iconic Brand by Steve Robinson
FLYING
HIGH
IN JULY FROM THE DESK OF
Jana Uselton
HSR
A
I’m currently at an airport in California looking at the runway and watching planes come and go. It’s very interesting to watch as they prepare for accurate takeoff and landing. Everyone knows their positions, has their checklists, and works together in unison. It is definitely an orchestration happening right in front of me. Pilots are walking to their flights. Luggage is being loaded, and ground crews are dressed and equipped with all they need.
Can you see a resemblance in our Home Staging companies and our day-to-day operations? Jobs come in, jobs go out, teams are coming and going, and everyone is equipped to run as a well-oiled machine. Right? It makes you think about how our companies must be structured to be the best of the best.
Let’s continue to compare our companies to airports. The planning, the scheduling, the services, the communication, and the feedback all help us operate at our highest and best. And in doing this, we realize that every decision matters. Every moment matters. Every penny spent or invested matters. Where can we all adjust and fine-tune?
Yes, as technology improves, we must tweak our processes as we are moving forward. You’ve heard the saying, “Build it as we fly it.” We continue to progress, we continue to knowledge- share, and we continue to keep our clients' best needs and wants in front of us to help guide our decision-making.
We hope this month's HSRA publication and resources we provide will help you identify the areas of opportunity for improvement and enhancement. Continue to share knowledge with our other HSRA members so we can all arrive together. The best is yet to come!
xoxo
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP ARTICLE
ESSENTIALISM: The Necessity of No
Brandon Blake
The Staging Company | San Antonio, TX
Hey there HSRA family! I gave a presentation to a group of San Antonio and Austin’s top Real Estate Agents last month titled “Essentialism: The Necessity of No.” The feedback was so overwhelmingly positive, I figured I’d write it up in article form and share it with you. Now, fair warning… this was a PowerPoint presentation with automatically advancing slides. So, I hope you like picture books. I’ve noticed, especially in this market – dare I say especially in this industry, our clients want everything from us and they want it now – or rather yesterday if they could. Oh… and they want it for free… forgot that part. As a business owner, I feel the pressure to have to deliver on those terms. I tend to take things to extremes. And, if you’re anything like me, those terms create a lifestyle of you working for your business instead of your business working for you. And, let me tell you, that’s not why I started in the business. I started in business so I could dictate the terms and priorities for my own life. Actually, as I write this, I’m in Cancun, my home away from home. A place where I think, regroup, reconnect with my family, and so on. So, let’s jump into it. Essentialism: The Necessity of No. This is loosely based on the book Essentialism by Greg McKeown. If you haven’t read this book, I highly recommend it. It helped me identify the key components of a healthy, balanced life and prioritize those things above all else. I suspect it could help you as well. See, by identifying the things that were truly important, I’ve now created a set of rules and filters to sort every new opportunity to see if it’s really a good fit for me, my family, and our lives. This is me. For those who don’t know me I’m Brandon Blake, Owner & CEO of THE STAGING COMPANY, and this is what’s most important in the world to me - the driver for everything I do in life.
Through reading this book, I discovered that I really needed to reduce everything in my life down to just a few key essentials - Spiritual wholeness (my relationship with God), marital wholeness (my relationship with my wife), family wholeness, and productivity/ prosperity. All of which rested on one thing…. The health to pursue these things. And… This is me in 2016. Inspiring, right? I was 285 pounds, drinking about half a bottle of bourbon a night to deal with stress. While I didn’t have a terrible relationship with my wife and kids, it wasn’t awesome. I was always out of breath, stressed out, behind on bills. You know the drill. I was “grinding” – I hate that word – for a company for $10/hr, and just overall undisciplined, unmotivated, and out of control. I got hit with the fact that I was 33 years into life, and time was not slowing down. Time wasn’t waiting for me to get my crap together. Time stops for no one, and every day I spent out of control was another day I lost - forever. It’s a dark but motivating thought. See, we all have a finite amount of time, and in the end, what will truly matter? Well, that was enough to get me into gear, and so, over the last several months, I’ve made disciplined choices to balance my schedule to make the most room for my most important things.
My four things are built on one thing – or so I thought. McKeown calls this protecting the asset. I’m the asset, and my health is my asset. It started well. I created a series of challenging performance goals. Soon, my competitive drive took over, and I was crushing it. I started cooking and eating better. I went from not being able to run 60 seconds without stopping to running a 5k in under 30 minutes. In just over two years, this all culminated with doing a 48 hour/ 73 mile endurance challenge put on by GORUCK.
But, as anything worth doing is worth overdoing, I took too far. Who can relate? Slowly the one thing the four things are built on became just the one thing. I was training 20+ hours a week – which meant a lot of early mornings. It meant four to five hours of sleep. It meant, I was crushing goals, but my priorities were reversed. Soon, my wife felt like she was raising the kids alone – between work and training, I was never home. See, essentialism is about creating the filters that constantly keep things in priority – and graciously saying no to the things that don’t make it through the filter.
So, the filters create balance. First and foremost on my list of priorities is spiritual wholeness or my relationship with God. See, I don’t believe we have to wait till Heaven to have a thriving and fulfilling relationship with God. Revelation 4 paints this picture of an experience where everyone in the room is so in awe of the creator - all they can muster day and night is “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come." I have a passion for finding these moments through worship that started in High School. Fun fact - I taught myself 4 instruments in high school (yes, before YouTube) because I want in on that throne room experience and I want it now.
Next is marital wholeness (my relationship with my wife). I don’t get into the office until 10 every morning. Why? I’m up by 7. It’s because my wife and I have coffee together every morning for at least an hour. See, the first 2 hours of work were never disciplined productive work. That happens usually between 10 and about 3. So, why try? Convert that time to a meaningful connection with my wife. We created a regular non-negotiable date night. I’m sure some of you have heard “no, sorry, can’t make it. It’s date night.” We fiercely protect our time together.
Family is a close third priority. What’s the point of work and health if we can’t enjoy it as a family? So, we take a lot of trips. I mean a lot of trips! And we make the most of every experience together. Snowmegaddon? You mean s’mores in the fireplace? Two days in a Mexican hurricane shelter? You mean screen free family bonding time? When we plan out the year, we plan it around family trips… as many as possible.
Last on my list is productivity & prosperity. Notice a distinction? I didn’t say work. See, I used to stand at a desk for 50+ hours a week. If I’m honest, I get 5 hours of productive work done a day. The rest was wasteful time that could be invested somewhere else. Why not lean into that? Make those 5 hours even more productive, and back out of the other 5. Also in the filters, I don’t do anything unless it brings incredible value to our employees and clients. It brings me incredible joy to lead THE STAGING COMPANY and see our team do what they love. To bring it home, write out a timeline of your perfect week and see how it lines up with your current calendar. If there is a big difference, it might be time for a change. And, I want to challenge you. Buy the book – or listen to it on Audible like I did. Then, text or email me you are up for the challenge. Next write out your perfect week and text me when you’re done. Let’s live this life by design together.
Love it. Hate it. Can’t Live Without it. Jill Johnson Digital Coordinator
You probably read the title of this article and are wondering what I am talking about. Any guesses? It’s 2 words. 1 word starts with E and the other starts with M…Email Marketing. Ah, what a controversial topic. Should you do email marketing or not? My answer is yes. As much as we all hate those spam emails that seem to be a never-ending sales tactic, we still want to have an email marketing strategy within our own companies. I am not saying a SPAM-worthy email marketing strategy… think more strategically, not just throwing stuff out there on a whim. Some of you may be wondering, what is email marketing? The definition, according to Google, is this: Email marketing is the act of sending a commercial message, typically to a group of people, using email. In its broadest sense, every email sent to a potential or current customer could be considered email marketing. It involves using email to send advertisements, request business, or solicit sales or donations. Speaking for myself, when I see that I got an email with a special promo code for a makeup product that I adore or my favorite clothing store, I do get really excited and want to immediately head for the checkout! However, these would be small items that are normally about $20-$100… not thousands of dollars like Staging. This is why having a clear message and a clear email marketing strategy is very important. If you have ever heard of the word “funnel” in sales, you’ll know what I mean, and if not, I am going to explain it.
Think of a funnel, you have a big opening on top and then a tiny one at the bottom. This is like your leads in a sense. When you have a big group of people that you are marketing to, let’s just say the whole DFW area, you will only have a few people that actually come out at the end of that funnel.
Those are the people that are really and truly serious about your services. In a way, that is how you would want to think about your emails going out. You are going to send them out to a mass amount of people, but only a few will come back with a response. The difference between spam email and good ol’ email marketing has a lot to do with the relevance of the topic, how personal you are, and not being salesy. A lot of the time when someone hears the E.M. words (email marketing), they think that everything has to have a product behind it. This is just not the case, especially when it comes to email marketing to a realtor or a homeowner. A good way to think of email marketing is like you would count your macros or macronutrients. There is a certain percentage of protein, carbs, and fats that you should consume; just like your emails, there is a certain percentage of education, products for sale, and just pure personal emails that should go out. Next time you meet with your marketing team to discuss your strategy concerning email reachout, be sure to bring this up. One final tip - before sending out an email campaign to everyone in your database, make sure you segment them out. Some clients have used you before; place them in their own segment. Some have just been interested in your design work - make them a segment. There will be general emails that will go out to everyone in your database, but you don’t want to bombard someone that just sold their home with more Staging promos; they won’t have any use for that. Think of another service you could offer them or even just nurture that client so when they are ready to sell their current home, they know they have a great relationship with you.
Overall, email marketing is about relationship building. You could either create the best relationship with someone, or they could get annoyed and block you and mark you as spam, which is not good for when you are trying to send out other emails to other clients. Think of the acronym ESR (just made that up)...Education. Sales. Relationships. Be sure to come up with the best strategy while incorporating all 3! PHOTO COURTESY OF: ASHLEY FUENTES | STAGING THE NEST
I hope you were able to take some nuggets away from this! Can’t wait to see you all in November!
-Jill Johnson
THE
SUMMIT
HOME STAGING & REAL ESTATE
NOVEMBER 13-14, 2021
ELENA CARDONE WHERE LIKE-MINDED PROFESSIONALS REUNITE IDENTITY. REFLECTION. RENEWAL. PURPOSE
MYSUMMITTICKET.COM
WITH YOUR HOST
Jana Uselton
The 2021 Home Staging and Real Estate Summit will be held at the Irving Convention Center at Las Colinas. DALLAS,TX
Stand Out
from the Hobbyists & SHOW OFF ALREADY! BY: JANA USELTON
YOU ARE ALIGNED FOR GREATNESS Who is in your Alliance? We continually ask this question when it comes to partners and collaborators within the Real Estate Industry. We are constantly assessing the current market and building relationships with those who are making a huge impact on real estate. It is a reminder that we must take account of whom we are aligning with and why. Our partners, affiliates, and inner circle should build us up and make us better. We encourage you to also do this audit. Who in your local marketplace should you align with when it comes to business? Who are the movers and shakers? Who are the innovators? Who knows the answers to the questions you have? These are your people. When you align with others on a core value basis and they bring such value and knowledge, skill set, and connections, lean in and continue to provide value to them as well. They need to see that you are winning, especially now! At HSRA, we have partnered with you and you partnered with us. As Members, you are trusting us to help guide and direct business decisions by providing training and continuing education to become the best company possible. HSRA also trusts you to operate in best practices, help lead other Staging companies well, and be an example by modeling, mimicking, and mastering. HSRA is known for attracting the “best of the best” Home Staging companies in the US. Just by partnering with HSRA, your reputation in our industry is impacted. Do people know that you are associated with HSRA?
Here are a few steps to realign with HSRA so your clients see a difference in your company. Q: Does your website have the current HSRA Member logo with the “Alliance” in the badge?
Q: If you are an XL Growth Member and are investing in additional resources such as John Maxwell and Grant Cardone, have you updated your member logo on your website?
Q: If you are on our Elite Leadership or Executive Leadership Team, have you updated the badge on your website?
Q: Are you keeping up with and posting about your HSRA Continuing Education Credits you are earning within our industry? HSRA gives credit for membership and additional resources you are using. In fact, you receive awards every year at The Home Staging & Real Estate Summit each November to display. Make sure you post and remind your clients you are earning this during the year as well. Your Realtors understand how important Continuing Education is, and this will set you apart from others in our industry.
..AND ANNOUNCING OUR HSRA LOCAL PARTNER PROGRAM! Many HSRA Members also work together in their local market. If you have not already, begin to connect with other Home Staging companies and see how you can be part of our Local Partner Network - a business referral community. Within the Local Partner Network, you also are rewarded for your referrals. Each company is vetted to ensure they can provide the adequate services needed for your clients. When you are part of the HSRA Local Partner Network, you will receive another badge to distinguish and set you apart. More details are at www.HSRALocalPartner.com!
Q: Are you scheduling and teaching HSRA CE classes? Did you know that HSRA has a CE program, and you have the option to teach several CE courses within your local area and/or state? This is a huge advantage that is waiting for you!
SPOTLIGHT MEMBER
Paige Wilson Freeman Twenty9 Designs Seminole, Texas
Q: TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF AND WHERE YOU ARE IN BUSINESS TODAY. Hi there! My name is Paige and I am the owner of Twenty9 Designs. I am new to the staging community, only to have been staging and redesigning since October 2020. My business is in smalltown west Texas, but the majority of my work is done in the neighboring larger town. Q: FROM THE BEGINNING UNTIL NOW, HOW HAS YOUR BUSINESS CHANGED? From the beginning, I was mostly focusing on staging, but my redesign business has picked up tremendously. I love doing both, so I’m very thankful for that!
Q: WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE SOMEONE STARTING OUT? If you are just starting out, be patient and don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. With a not-sosubtle push from my daughter, I discovered you can start your own business at any stage in your life. Q: HOW ABOUT SOME ADVICE FOR THE PERSON DOING MOST EVERYTHING IN THEIR BUSINESS? I’m still doing most everything myself, (with some help from my husband and son moving the big stuff). It is doable. You don’t have to have it all figured out to start! Q: WHAT SUGGESTIONS DO YOU HAVE ON MANAGING INVENTORY AT AN EARLY PHASE AND MOVING TO A MORE SEASONED BUSINESS? (if you have inventory) When you are trying to manage your inventory, get organized upfront before you have too much. It will make it easier in the long run. #lessonlearned
Q: WHAT PROCESSES NEED TO BE IN PLACE IN A BUSINESS SUCH AS YOURS? Since I am fairly new, I am still working on getting the right processes in place. That is something that is still changing, but explore all of your options to find what works best for you. Q: WHAT ARE SOME LESSONS LEARNED? If I can give you one piece of advice: be authentic and transparent with your clients. You need them to know, like, and trust you. Building relationships while building your business will get you future business/clients, and that’s what we all want, isn’t it?
Dominate
your market with video Laurie Graham Creative Director | VP of Operations
Did you really think that video would go away? No, me neither. So how do we keep our social media marketing fresh and new and most importantly, attracting more customers? Well, just like most things in life, we have to review, reset, and repurpose our material, branding, and goals. Let’s first hit the facts, then we will hit the “how-to” phase: FACTS: Video content is one of the most engaging forms of content and will soon dominate social media. Whether it is short-form videos like those that are popular on TikTok (like our girl Amy Barton-Cotney) and Facebook/Instagram Stories or long-form content like YouTube, videos are the future of social media content. As a result, you can now convert social media followers into your loyal customers with the right video marketing strategies. In 2020, the number of people purchasing products or services directly from social media content was over 2 billion. That means 1 in 4 people in the world are looking for services and products on social media platforms. According to YouTube, their platform has over two billion users. One billion hours of YouTube videos areOprah consumed Whinfreyevery single day. 72% of customers prefer to learn about goods and services via videos. About 80% of video marketers say video has increased their sales, while 84% of customers say they bought goods or services after watching a video. https://www.bigcommerce.com/blog/social-media-video/#video-is-now-more-important-than-ever
So, it is time for you or your marketing team to capitalize on the power of video content to scale your business. Here are some ways you can do that: First, you want to make a social media video content calendar. Start with all of the platforms you will be posting on: Facebook Instagram Twitter LinkedIn YouTube Second, find out through your platform insights when the best time of day or night to post these videos on the platforms is. You will need that later when your Social Media Coordinator schedules out your posts. Third, start creating your video content categories that are starting with types of videos like these: Videos that convert viewers to customers Inform them of your products, make announcements, and show behind-the-scenes footage. When they see real faces behind your brand, they feel more affinity for your goods or services. Videos that build affinity & trust - these types of videos can be: Videos that show what goes on in your company Maybe an office or warehouse tour Videos that exhibit your company culture Maybe a video of your morning alignment where you go over a core value of your company Videos testimonials from happy clients Videos that show a day in the life - in the field with your team Once you have created the type of videos you will create, then schedule a marketing meeting with your team to determine what will be filmed for each category. You can knock out a complete month's worth of videos in just a day or two depending on your office/logistics team. Don’t take all the burden on yourself to come up with video content for each of these categories. Involve your team, your team leads, and your customers if possible. At your marketing meeting, you can assign videos to them and then make your schedule to shoot key videos especially for you, the Owner of the Company.
ARE
YOU
READY FOR STR?
Birgit Anich
BA Staging & Interiors
The STR Mastermind in San Diego blew my mind!! I walked in with some idea about STR opportunities but came out with a so much more expanded view and understanding and knowledge of the actual opportunities. Masterminding with the best of the best in the staging industry and actual STR investors was such a valuable experience. Don't miss out on the next STR Mastermind if you are interested in getting involved in STRs....really, you don't want to miss it!!
Sandra Holmes
Luxe Home Staging and Design, Inc.
We have learned so much with Jana & J. Massey. A lot of ah-ha moments and I am so excited to put all of this into action
Blair Hamaty
Setting the Space
This whole HSRA experience is like nothing I have ever seen before. The energy is so powerful, everyone that we are around is the best of the best in this industry. This whole short-term rental thing is so important to be doing for our businesses and we don't know what we don't know. You have to be at these event.
Barbara Heil-Sonneck Design2Sell Interiors & Home Staging
If you are thinking of Short-Term Rentals as just a vacation rental you are thinking much to small, there is an immense amount of opportunity for all of us to transform our businesses. If you did not attend this mastermind, you need to be at the next one.
Kim Dombrowski
Impressive Home Staging
Mindblowing is the first thing! There is so much more about short-term rentals than we thought. There are so much more opportunities than just vacation rentals. We really dug deep into all of the things you need to know to operate them.
Johnatham Miller
Jsquared Interior Staging & Design
You gain so much insight, so much knowledge those who are not here are really missing out right now by not being at this short-term rental mastermind. It's something a little new, a little fresh. An opportunity for a new revenue stream which we all always need.
TAKE THIS JOB OR SHOVE IT? A GUIDE TO DECIDING TO ACCEPT OR DECLINE “RED FLAG” PROJECTS
Lorelie Brown
Showhomes Charleston Charleston, SC HSRA Elite Leadership There is a country song that is more accurately titled, “Take This Job and Shove It”, but the phrase that humorously runs in my head when I run into a worrisome project is, “Take This Job or Shove It?”. As staging professionals and business owners, we occasionally encounter a potential client who is more than likely going to be difficult, if not impossible to please, a home that has bigger problems that staging can resolve, or another mitigating factor that makes a prospective job troubling. Deciding whether or not to accept these challenging projects can be stressful while weighing risk versus reward. Here are a few navigational guideposts to help you in making the best decision for your business.
There are valid reasons to politely reject a project-- not every project is right for every staging professional. When we are a part of a local network of stagers and have good relationships as well as a mutual understanding of one another’s businesses, we may know that another colleague may be a better fit for a client. Alternatively, if your schedule or inventory may not accommodate a prospect’s needs or budget, another staging professional may be able to provide the services needed and the industry wins as a whole. These are not necessarily “red flag” projects. The projects I am referring to are where you see warning signs and genuinely feel that a project may be a disaster waiting to happen. In most instances, you may be right, and respectfully declining that project is the best course of action. However, there are often times when you should take the job and proceed confidently. Here are a few guiding principles for “red flag” projects. 1.Trust Your Gut There have been several exciting projects through the years that I genuinely had a gut feeling were not right for me, my business, or my team. I would have cringed at the thought of not entertaining these projects, except for a tiny little feeling in the pit of my stomach that whispered, “Walk away.” These gut feelings are real, and you should rely on them. These emotions may stem from the way a prospect treats you in the quoting process, information about the home or the agent, or anything else that leads you to feel uneasy or nervous. It may not be anything you can put your finger on, but you know something isn’t right. Whether or not you believe in a higher power, these feelings come from somewhere and should be trusted. 2. Trust Your Talent and/or Team Conversely, there have also been times when your gut says, “You’ve got this.” The job may seem overwhelming or challenging, but it is a pinnacle project that you need to take on with conviction. In these instances, recognize and affirm your own tremendous talent and abilities, and if you have a team, their abilities will rise to the occasion and exceed expectations. The opportunity at hand may be worth the risk and could bring rewards, and further your reputation.
Utilize projects such as these to teach and train; the benefits of taking on these projects far can outweigh the initial “red flag” risk factor 3.Trust Your Realtor® Relationship You have heard how important Realtor® relationships are in this business. These connections fuel referrals and future business. At times, concerning “red flag” projects come from those agents and it would be incredibly difficult to decline the project without affecting the rapport and affiliation with the Realtor® or agency. In these instances, rest assured that the agent will more than likely have your back by supporting you and your work and promoting your expertise and talent. When you have proven your skills to your Realtor® fans, time and time again, regardless of the scope or difficulty of the projects, their loyalty grows. That loyalty results in powerful alliances that will benefit your business in the future.
Here, the risk of losing that Realtor relationship by not taking on the project is heavier. Calculate the risks versus benefits wisely. It is important to note that if you choose to take on these exceptional projects, be prepared to charge accordingly for the extra time and difficulty you will likely encounter. Given the challenges, these projects should not be discounted or charged a standard fee. Because of the added strain on you and your staff, you may also want to consider increased wages to those who work on these projects.
Navigating the decision-making process can be stressful in and of itself. Trust your instincts, your team, and your relationships, while making the best decision carefully. Be abundantly prepared with agreements, policies, and procedures to manage the project well, should you choose to “take the job.” Should you choose to “shove it,” have a well-crafted response to decline with integrity and respect.
If you have a team, their abilities will rise to the occasion and exceed expectations
Lorelie Brown
ELEVATE YOUR HSRA MEMBERSHIP
ASHLEY FUENTES OWNER: STAGING THE NEST HSRA EXECUTIVE LEADER XL GROWTH MEMBERSHIP
I am so loving being a part of the XL Growth Membership program! During our last meeting, we did a high-level check on our business growth over last year and I am excited to share that Staging The Nest's revenue is up over 77% over last year - year to date! I am so proud of our amazing team!
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CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS HSRA INC. 2550 114th St. Suite 170 Grand Prairie, TX 75050 855.85. STAGE myhsra.com | info@myhsra.com