It’s intimidating sitting down to write the 100th edition of Staging Diva Dispatch.

What to say? How do I properly mark this milestone?

Tossing and turning in the middle of the night I realized it’s a great opportunity to revisit “my why”.

Why did I become a home stager 12 years ago? Why do I continue to teach the home staging business through the Staging Diva training program after 10 years?

My daughter was 8 and I’d given up a successful marketing career to follow my dream of making a living from my creativity.

I’d always loved decorating and color. I needed a business that would support us, while giving me the flexibility to walk her to school everyday, and evenings and weekends off.

Home staging, interior redesign and color consulting were a perfect mix of my natural talents. They gave me the buzz of real estate (which I also love), and I didn’t have to be “one call” 24/7 the way agents are.

Since I was on a very limited budget as a single mom, I also loved that it cost next to nothing to get into the business. Especially when you follow my model of not owning your own inventory.

My home staging company, Six Elements, was born. I never could have imagined where that decision and dream would take us.

In addition to making a great living and having enough time to be a super involved parent, my daughter witnessed countless house transformations and the impact they had on my clients’ lives. She sat in the control booths of a morning radio show and a TV news program. She was behind the scenes of an HGTV show taping.

Pretty cool stuff for a kid, and her mom too.

My daughter did not grow up with the idea that you have a boring job to pay the bills, and live for weekends and retirement.

She witnessed that it is possible to make a living from your creativity. That following your dreams isn’t just a feel-good slogan they print on T-shirts.

Life is far too short not to do work we love.

As my staging and redesign business grew, I heard from a growing number of frustrated home stagers who had no idea how to make a living from their talents.

Staging Diva was born 10 years ago out of my desire to help others achieve the success I had experienced. To help others realize they could harness their own natural talents and turn it into a business too.

Together we can bust through the scary “starving artist” paradigm and prove that life doesn’t have to be that way.

My fear had kept me trapped well into my 40s. I didn’t want others to suffer that same fate.

In this month’s articles:

We’re celebrating some of the “wow” moments 10 Staging Diva Graduates have experienced since starting their own businesses. I want you to see what is possible because others have done it.

All they had at the beginning were:

• Creative instinct and natural talent.
• The courage to move forward despite their fears.
• The right information on how to channel their talents into a proper business model.

You’ll also learn:

• How to create a beautiful color palette from nature, and watch a surprising video of Shark Tank member and real estate mogul Barb Corcoran.

Turns out she’s just as afraid of looking stupid as the rest of us.

Click here to read this month’s home staging articles.

Please join me for a free evening of training on a conference call April 13.

Keep your comments and questions coming. I’m always looking for new topics to address in Staging Diva Home Staging Business Report.

Wishing you every success in your home staging business, and this bigger thing called life.