Stage Happy

Flying off the Shelves... Have you heard? Homes are selling like hot cakes. Consequently, we should all be busier, right? The answer is ... yes... if you have positioned yourself as the "go-to" person for home staging for your area. What strategies can place you at the top of your industry? At the Real Estate Staging Association convention in San Francisco this February, several of the best speakers mentioned the same book. It was the short, but powerful Purple Cow. The essence of the book instructs us to do one thing... "Be Remarkable." Just being the best, the biggest, the smartest isn't enough anymore. Yes, you should be those things but also be outrageously unique. Southwest Airlines is an example of being remarkable. They go out of their way to make air travel fun... hilarious preflight instructions, for example, and their antics at the airport check-in counter are noteworthy. The SW employees recently took part in a huge April Fool's joke on all the travelers at the Dallas terminal on April 1st. It's hard not to notice them. Steve Jobs is the best example of this concept. Everything he presented to the world was not only remarkable, it changed the way we communicate. He created a demand for things we didn't know we needed. We all became "raving fans." He truly was one of the most remarkable people in the last decade in the world of innovation. Cirque do Soleil reinvented the circus. They took a fading industry and transformed it. They eliminated the costly animal acts and then added a sense of theater... outlandish, beautiful costumes and drama... to the best of the standard circus acts. They created demand for something unknown to us 15 years ago. If you have ever been to a performance, you will agree that they are remarkable. Home staging as a relatively new industry is in the process of becoming a permanent part the real estate process. Its value is becoming more evident as time passes. The demand is increasing as the word gets out. How can you stand out as a competitor in the marketplace? What do you need to do to have your own "raving fans?" The answer to these and other questions will be discussed at the "There's No Place Like Home Staging" Advanced Staging Class in Jacksonville, Florida coming in June. Read about it below...

~ADVANCED STAGING CLASS Yes, our popular There's No Place Like Home Staging Advanced Class, here in Jacksonville, Fl., will be Friday and Saturday, June 7th and 8th. The location is the newly renovated Queens Harbour Yacht and Country Club in Jacksonville, Fl. An optional dinner out at a popular Jax. Beach locale will be Friday evening. We have great new speakers joining us and many new demos and workshops. $150 for the two days includes gourmet buffet lunches and lots of extras. Our space is extremely limited and many of last years attendees are returning, so get your reservations in ASAP. The March blog post has a Pay Pal deposit option. $50 deposit saves your seat. http://stagehappy.blogspot.com/2013_03_01_archive.html Two new guest speakers: Juliet Johnson, a rock star national figure in Social Media, will guide us to better visibility on the web. My traffic has doubled since November with Juliet's help. That is a small miracle since my traffic growth has been pretty static and gradual for 6+ years. www.vizzitopia.com David Josephson, who is a business coach specializing in Real Estate, will guide us to better productivity and increased revenue. www.thegrowthcoachofjax.com Returning this year is Cyndi Rice who wowed our attendees in 2012. She made us laugh and cry and believe in ourselves. Have you practiced your elevator speech? Remember when she asked us all... not "What do you do?" but "Why do you do what you do?" We will also have speakers who can help us improve our photography skills and SEO Search Engine Optimization. TBA Sherwin Williams and Aaron's Rentals will be our sponsors again. I will be presenting a class with lots of new information on "Contracts" and also "Creating and Sustaining a Wow-Factor Life." Get your ruby-red slippers on over to the blog to reserve your seat now. See the link above. Part of the 2012 Sold-Out Advanced Class The RESAJax May meeting will be at the Floor Club on Beach Blvd. near FSC of Jax entrance. Details will be announced later. It will be a late afternoon meeting. 5:00 to 6:30 on May 2nd.