If you’ve been reading this newsletter since the beginning of the year, you know I started a new hobby to push me out of my comfort zone.

Stand Up Comedy

It has nothing to do with home staging, except that both require me to notice details. And, it is definitely creative.

About 3 weeks into my 7 week course, I suddenly remembered how my daughter teased me for years about my inability to deliver the simplest punch line. I burst into hysterics that night.

Between laughs and some tears I wondered how I had managed to forget this basic fact. Wondered how I had managed to get myself into “this situation.”

I wrote all my own material for a 5 minute set and performed it in front of an audience of 200 at a professional comedy club a mere 4 weeks later.

> Watch my first Stand Up Comedy performance

Even sharing this link with you is scary. I’m known as a home staging and marketing expert, not a comedian.

And I’m certainly no Tina Fey or Jerry Seinfeld. Yet, I got some pretty great feedback and a lot of laughs.

Judge your progress by where you’ve been not where you’re going

If I judge my own performance against comedy professionals with thousands of hours of experience, I’ll be depressed and want to give up.

But if I judge my performance by what I would have done two months ago before taking the Stand Up course, I’m proud of how far I’ve come. Which motivates me to continue.

If you’re measuring your ability to grow a successful home staging business against what you see Staging Diva Graduates achieving and coming up short, stop that line of thinking.

You need to measure where you are now versus where you were last week, last month or last year.

Every one of us starts from “nothing”

We had no home staging business, no experience staging client’s homes, no portfolio and plenty of fears about going forward. If we only focused on what we didn’t have, none of us would be where we are now.

As a new home stager, I struggled for 2 years learning everything the hard way. My students get my big shortcut to their own success because they don’t have to make the mistakes I did.

Growing your own home staging business is still work. It’s just much easier and faster when you know which paths to follow.

When you don’t waste months or years going down blind alleys. Or spinning in circles not taking action because you don’t know what to do.

In this month’s issue, you’ll discover:

How to get more of what you want from your staging business (freedom, enjoyment and profits), 5 tips for boosting your confidence, and you will meet a Staging Diva Grad celebrating 5 years in her staging business. She’s very candid with her home staging business results.

You’ll also get the opportunity to join me for a free evening of training, called 5 Simple Secrets to Making More Money in Home Staging.

I love this time of year. My phone, and those of my students, have been ringing with new home staging and redesign projects.

While I still stage homes and do color consulting projects, I refer most of my clients to Staging Diva Graduates.

These projects come in from all over the world, because I’ve been in the staging industry for 12 years and have several websites.

I also offer the only worldwide Job Board for Home Stagers.

Did you know that you can get free project referrals from me when you’re a member of the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers?

If you’re one of the 500 creative people who joined our home staging community this month, welcome!

Please keep your comments and questions coming. I’m always looking for new topics to address in my newsletter and blog, Home Staging Business Report.

Worried About Building Your Website?

The majority of your clients will come to you, rather than you having to chase them.

That’s if they can easily find you.

Don’t worry about having to build your own home staging website. Or learning the finer points of how to get ranked by Google.

I created the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers just for you.

That way you an focus on serving your customers, not learning a bunch of technical stuff.

Here’s what 3 members say about participating:

“I had my first project within 2 weeks of joining the Directory. That one client more than paid for all my training, my listing for a whole year and some profit too. Anyone considering a listing should not hesitate to join because the Directory is a powerful marketing tool.” (Susan Atwell)

“The day my page went live on the Staging Diva Directory I got a call from a Realtor who found me on Google searching for a home stager in Myrtle Beach.” (Jaime Stanton)

“Developers have found me on the Staging Diva Directory which has lead to multiple staging projects.” (Rob Reinhart)

If your business isn’t growing as fast as you’d like, now is the time to join the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers.

You’ll have a strong web presence that the Staging Diva Team will create for you. And I even throw in a custom brochure for your company when you get a profile listing and sign up for a year.

Your listing will pay for itself with your first client.

> Learn how to join the Staging Diva Directory of Home Stagers