Staging Sips

Lori Fischer

The live-workshop style business podcast helping Real Estate Staging CEO's redefine success and chase big, beautiful dreams. With mini implementation plans, expert interviews, and behind-the-scenes of my own business learning curves...you will be able to roll up your sleeves, dive in and stage the heck out of your business!

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#161
Yesterday · 19 min
MVP Epidsode Slow Seasons: How To Grow When Business Feels Stuck
A slow season may be exactly what your business needs. Every business owner experiences slow business seasons when ideas stop flowing, outreach goes nowhere, cash feels tight, or the systems and team you built suddenly feel messy. It's easy to panic during these seasons, especially when we're constantly told to keep pushing, stay consistent, and never slow down. But slow business seasons are a normal part of growth. I've experienced plenty of them in my own staging business—from quiet summer and winter seasons to credit card debt, overflowing inventory, and moments when I wondered if my business would ever gain momentum again. Instead of seeing these periods as failures, I learned to use them as opportunities to step back, look at what wasn't working, and decide what needed my attention. When business slows down, your first instinct might be to push harder, but sometimes you don't need more pressure. You need grace and space. Take a look at what's working. Identify the gaps. Clean up a process. Revisit your numbers. And instead of trying to fix everything at once, focus on your next step. Books, podcasts, coaching, and conversations with other business owners can also help spark new ideas and motivation when you're feeling stuck. Most importantly, remember that the season you're in is temporary. If your business feels like a boulder you're pushing uphill right now, take a breath. You may not need to push harder. You may simply need to pause, pay attention, and decide what comes next. LEARN MORE ABOUT STAGING BUSINESS SCHOOL HERE WHAT YOU'LL LEARN FROM THIS EPISODE: Why slower periods are a normal part of business growth When you need grace and space instead of more pressure How focusing on the next step can reduce overwhelm Practical ways to identify what's working and what needs attention How intentional learning can re-energize your ideas and motivation RESOURCES: Atomic Habits E-Myth Revisited The Gap and The Gain Join the Harlowe Inner Circle Waitlist here: https://waitlist.harloweco.com Apply for Private Coaching: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/privatecoachingapp Enroll in Staging Business School Accelerate Track: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/accelerate Follow Harlowe on Instagram: www.instagram.com/meetharlowe Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram: www.instagram.com/stagingbusinessschool If you want to learn how to market and grow your staging business, enrollment is open for Staging Business School Accelerate Track. This is a year-long mentorship program where I help you and other staging business owners plan, grow, flow, and thrive with the results that you've always wanted. The doors are open and I would love to see you in the classroom! ENJOY THE SHOW? Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts so that more Staging CEO's find it. Also, include links to your socials so that more Staging CEOs can find you. Follow over on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Audible.
#160
August 22 · 18 min
MVP: How to Get Your CEO Time Back in Your Staging Business
Your brain may be the reason you can't escape the daily demands of your staging business. You hired the team. You built the systems. You finally have enough revenue to get some help. So why are you still answering every question, managing every installation detail, and stepping in whenever something goes sideways? Your brain has become really, really good at keeping you busy. When your days are filled with mover coordination, client messages, invoicing, item pulls, and last-minute fire drills, your brain adapts to that environment. Reactivity becomes its default setting. Even as your business grows, you may keep finding new ways to insert yourself into work that someone else could handle. Meanwhile, the work that actually requires you, like strengthening partnerships, refining your pricing, planning future revenue, and leading your team, keeps getting pushed to another day. In this episode of the Staging Sips podcast, I'm exploring the neuroscience behind reclaiming your CEO time and why waiting until you feel "ready" to let go usually keeps you stuck. You'll learn what happens in your brain when you operate in a constant state of urgency, why that makes strategic thinking harder, and how buying back your time can retrain your brain for higher-level leadership. I'm also sharing the two filters I want you to use when deciding whether a task still belongs on your plate: math and mission. What is your time worth, and is this task beneath that rate? Does this move you closer to your vision, or keep you buried in the weeds? Because busy is a warning light. And protecting your CEO hours is how you begin building a business that can grow, flow, and thrive without requiring you to hold every single piece together. WHAT YOU'LL LEARN FROM THIS EPISODE: How your brain becomes wired for reactivity when your days are consumed by urgent tasks. Why waiting until you feel ready makes reclaiming your time even harder. The connection between mental space and strategic CEO-level decision-making. The math and mission filters for deciding what should stay on your plate. How to choose the first tasks and hours to buy back in your business. Why freeing the right hours matters more than finding the least expensive help. The mindset shift that moves you from short-term panic into long-term builder mode. Join the Harlowe Inner Circle Waitlist: https://waitlist.harloweco.com Apply for Private Coaching: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/privatecoachingapp Enroll in Staging Business School Accelerate Track: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/accelerate Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram: www.instagram.com/stagingbusinessschool Follow Harlowe on Instagram: www.instagram.com/meetharlowe Follow Lori on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rethinkhome If you want to learn how to streamline your operations so you can grow with less stress and burnout in your staging business, enrollment is open for Staging Business School Accelerate Track. I'd love to see you in the classroom! ENJOY THE SHOW? Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts so that more Staging CEO's find it. Also, include links to your socials so that more Staging CEOs can find you. Follow over on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Audible.
August 12 · 44 min
How Harlowe's Founders Turned Frustration Into Better Business
What happens when business owners stop accepting scattered systems, manual follow-ups, and time-consuming workflows as "just part of running a business"? In this episode of Staging Sips, Lori sits down with Harlowe founding members Kishah Langham and Erin Galvin to talk candidly about the frustrations that led them to search for a better way to run their staging businesses. Kishah brings 15 years of business experience in Houston, Texas, while Erin is approaching her first anniversary as a staging business owner in Colorado. Although they entered Harlowe at very different stages of business, they shared the same goal: creating systems that would make their work simpler, faster, and easier to grow. They share how bringing scheduling, proposals, agreements, payments, client communication, renewals, reporting, and business insights into one place has changed their day-to-day operations. Erin explains how she reduced the time required to complete a consultation report and can now send a professional proposal in about five minutes, even from the pool with her children. Kishah shares how Harlowe helped streamline her staging services and educational events while eliminating the need to chase registrations and payments across multiple platforms. You'll also hear how their real-world feedback helped shape Harlowe. Kishah's staging school inspired Harlowe's event functionality, while Erin's workflow inspired new ways to use project images within proposals. Their experiences reveal what it truly looks like to help build a platform while actively using it to run a business. Kishah and Erin also share the human side of adopting a new system: finding bugs, suggesting improvements, trusting the process, and watching their ideas become features that can serve staging businesses throughout the industry. Their stories show what becomes possible when technology fits the way you actually work. Fewer disconnected tools. Faster proposals. Smoother payments. Clearer business information. More time to grow your company and live your life. LEARN MORE ABOUT STAGING BUSINESS SCHOOL HERE! WHAT YOU'LL LEARN FROM THIS EPISODE: Why Kishah and Erin prioritized better systems at two very different stages of business How bringing scheduling, proposals, agreements, and payments into one place simplified their workflows How reusable templates helped turn proposal creation into a five-minute task How automation created a faster, easier experience for their clients while reducing manual follow-up How Harlowe gave Kishah and Erin more time for business growth, passion projects, and family How their real-world feedback and beta-testing experiences helped shape Harlowe's features LISTEN TO THE FULL EPISODE: RESOURCES: Connect With Our Guests Kishah Langham Texas Stagers https://www.stagingtexas.net/about-us www.instagram.com/texas_stagers Erin Galvin Finishing Touch Interiors https://www.finishingtouchinteriorsco.com/about www.instagram.com/finishingtouchinteriorsco Join the Harlowe Inner Circle Waitlist: https://waitlist.harloweco.com Apply for Private Coaching: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/privatecoachingapp Enroll in Staging Business School Accelerate Track: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/accelerate Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram: www.instagram.com/stagingbusinessschool Follow Harlowe on Instagram: www.instagram.com/meetharlowe Follow Lori on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rethinkhome If you want to learn how to streamline your operations so you can grow with less stress and burnout in your staging business, enrollment is open for Staging Business School Accelerate Track. I'd love to see you in the classroom! ENJOY THE SHOW? Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts so that more Staging CEO's find it. Also, include links to your socials so that more Staging CEOs can find you. Follow over on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Audible.
#158
August 8 · 27 min
The Truth About Credit Card Fees and Getting Paid Faster
Let's talk about a topic that sounds boring but isn't: how you get paid. I started this episode wanting to talk credit card processing fees, but the deeper I went, the more I realized the fee is the smallest part of the story. The real question is what it actually costs your business to collect money, most of which is invisible. Checks, e-checks, Zelle, Venmo, ACH, Apple Pay, Google Pay; every payment method has a price tag, even the ones that look free. I'm walking through the hidden labor behind manual payments, the legal side of credit card surcharges you need to know, the exact math for building card fees into your pricing instead of tacking them on, and a policy lesson from my mom's very hot, very expensive 4th of July weekend. If you've ever resented that 3%, this episode is for you. What You'll Learn: Why a payment with "no processing fee" often costs you more in time, follow up, and delayed cash flow than the fee itself The real tradeoffs between checks, e-checks, ACH/PAD, Zelle, Venmo, and Apple/Google Pay for a staging business The exact percentage to add to your prices if you want to build card fees into your pricing instead of surcharging clients Why holding firm on your payment policy even when a client has a great excuse protects your business RESOURCES: Join the Harlowe Inner Circle Waitlist: https://waitlist.harloweco.com/ Apply for Private Coaching: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/privatecoachingapp Enroll in Staging Business School Accelerate Track: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/accelerate Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram: www.instagram.com/stagingbusinessschool Follow Lori on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rethinkhome If you want to learn how to streamline your operations so you can grow with less stress and burnout in your staging business, enrollment is open for Staging Business School Accelerate Track. I'd love to see you in the classroom! ENJOY THE SHOW? Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts so that more Staging CEOs find it. Also, include links to your socials so that more Staging CEOs can find you. Follow over on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Audible.
#157
August 1 · 23 min
The Business Puzzle That Took Me 10 Years to Solve
One Saturday morning, doing my New York Times Spelling Bee (don't judge me, it's a whole ritual), I decided to write down every piece of software my staging business runs on. I even had to dig through my bank statements to remember everything I was paying for. Nine or ten tools. Every one of them doing exactly what it was supposed to do. But staring at that list, I realized I hadn't built a system. I'd built a collection of tools that didn't know the others existed. That's the moment fragmentation clicked for me. None of those tools were wrong. They just weren't built for a staging business or designed to work together. Today, I'm sharing the story behind that realization, the decade of trial and error that led up to it, the conversations that nearly stopped me from pursuing the idea, and why I ultimately chose to build something from the ground up instead of settling for another workaround. What You'll Learn: What I mean by "fragmentation" and how to recognize it The question I started asking about every tool in my business Why I chose not to build on someone else's platform How years of solving small problems led to one much bigger solution RESOURCES: Join the Harlowe Inner Circle Waitlist: https://waitlist.harloweco.com/ Apply for Private Coaching: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/privatecoachingapp Enroll in Staging Business School Accelerate Track: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/accelerate Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram: www.instagram.com/stagingbusinessschool Follow Lori on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rethinkhome If you want to learn how to streamline your operations so you can grow with less stress and burnout in your staging business, enrollment is open for Staging Business School Accelerate Track. I'd love to see you in the classroom! ENJOY THE SHOW? Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts so that more Staging CEOs find it. Also, include links to your socials so that more Staging CEOs can find you. Follow over on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Audible.
#156
July 25 · 16 min
Why Home Stagers Are Still Drowning in Admin Work
This week I'm continuing our series on how I simplified my staging business and how fifteen years of lived experience is directly shaping how Harlowe is built. I walk through the full project life cycle for vacant staging: prospect, preview, proposal, sale, planning, install, and monitoring. Mind you, that last phase, monitoring, is nowhere near as passive as I used to think. There's real home staging admin work hiding in contract renewals, follow-ups, and invoicing. I also talk about why patchwork tools – my old Zapier workarounds included – were never going to hold up long-term. Lastly, I share why I'm more convinced about Harlowe than anything I've ever built, plus how to get on the waitlist before we open it in waves. What You'll Learn The full project life cycle for a staging business Why the monitoring phase is one of the most admin-heavy (and most overlooked) parts of our business Why flexibility with clients can quietly add complexity to your workload Why software built by outsiders never quite fits a staging business, and why Harlow was built differently RESOURCES: Join the Harlowe Inner Circle Waitlist: https://waitlist.harloweco.com/ Apply for Private Coaching: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/privatecoachingapp Enroll in Staging Business School Accelerate Track: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/accelerate Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram: www.instagram.com/stagingbusinessschool Follow Lori on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rethinkhome If you want to learn how to streamline your operations so you can grow with less stress and burnout in your staging business, enrollment is open for Staging Business School Accelerate Track. I'd love to see you in the classroom! ENJOY THE SHOW? Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts so that more Staging CEOs find it. Also, include links to your socials so that more Staging CEOs can find you. Follow over on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Audible.
#155
July 18 · 20 min
End Your Staging Proposal Friction With One Workflow
For years, every time a client wanted to move forward, I found myself jumping between multiple tools, entering the same information over and over again, and waiting for the next step. I'd send the proposal, wait for a response, send the agreement, wait for a signature, then figure out payment. It was just the way I thought the process had to work. Then I tried something different. I combined two of those steps into one. The very first time I sent it, the agreement came back signed within the hour. It was one of those moments when I thought, "Why have I been making this so much harder than it needs to be?" Today, I'm sharing what that process looked like, what changed when I simplified it, and why I eventually realized there was still one piece missing. If you've ever felt like your staging proposal workflow involves too much waiting, too much follow-up, or too many moving parts, I think this conversation will give you a different way to think about it. What You'll Learn Why treating your proposal as its own standalone step creates friction instead of removing it The exact process I used for years, and every re-entry point that was wasting my time The one change that got me a signed agreement in under an hour How what I have built finally closes the gap for good RESOURCES: Join the Harlowe Inner Circle Waitlist: https://waitlist.harloweco.com/ Apply for Private Coaching: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/privatecoachingapp Enroll in Staging Business School Accelerate Track: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/accelerate Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram: www.instagram.com/stagingbusinessschool Follow Lori on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rethinkhome If you want to learn how to streamline your operations so you can grow with less stress and burnout in your staging business, enrollment is open for Staging Business School Accelerate Track. I'd love to see you in the classroom! ENJOY THE SHOW? Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts so that more Staging CEOs find it. Also, include links to your socials so that more Staging CEOs can find you. Follow over on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Audible.
#154
July 11 · 24 min
The 10 Things I Wanted in a Staging Report Tool
For years, I was convinced I just hadn't found the right tool for our styling evaluation reports. So I kept searching, rebuilding, and starting over. Every new solution fixed one problem while creating another, and every switch demanded more time, money, and energy than I ever expected. Looking back, I wasn't really searching for better software. I was trying to create a workflow that actually fit the way staging businesses operate. What I didn't realize was how much opportunity I was losing while trying to force tools to do a job they were never designed to do. Today, I'm sharing what that journey taught me. Not just about technology, but about systems, opportunity cost, and why the right solution isn't always the newest one. What You'll Learn The hidden opportunity cost of forcing software to do a job it wasn't designed to do What worked and what didn't with paper checklists, Google Docs, Dragon Dictation, GoCanvas, and Jotform The features I was searching for but couldn't find in any existing platform Why efficiency matters just as much as presentation when creating client deliverables RESOURCES: Join the Harlowe Inner Circle Waitlist Here: https://waitlist.harloweco.com Apply for Private Coaching: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/privatecoachingapp Enroll in Staging Business School Accelerate Track: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/accelerate Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram: www.instagram.com/stagingbusinessschool Follow Lori on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rethinkhome If you want to learn how to streamline your operations so you can grow with less stress and burnout in your staging business, enrollment is open for Staging Business School Accelerate Track. I'd love to see you in the classroom! ENJOY THE SHOW? Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts so that more Staging CEOs find it. Also, include links to your socials so that more Staging CEOs can find you. Follow over on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Audible.
#153
July 4 · 48 min
The Six Figure Stager: Big Announcement With Heather Cook
When you think about growing your staging business, it's easy to assume the next step is better marketing, more social media, or a steady stream of leads. But what if those aren't the exact things holding your business back? This week, I'm joined by my friend Heather Cook, founder of Social Savvy Stager, to talk about a realization that completely changed the direction of her business. After spending the past year helping stagers with marketing, Heather discovered that the real challenges weren't content calendars or Instagram posts. They ran much deeper. Business owners were struggling with brand positioning, systems, leadership, and building businesses that could actually support sustainable growth. As we unpack what she learned, we also have two exciting announcements to share. Heather introduces her brand-new mentorship program, The Six Figure Stager, and I share why I've decided to officially pass the torch on something many of you have been waiting for. Sometimes the best way to serve our community isn't by creating something ourselves, but by recognizing when someone else has built exactly what our industry needs. Whether you're brand new to staging or you've been in business for years, this conversation is a reminder that building a successful staging business takes more than becoming a great stager. If you've also been looking for guidance on building the business behind your staging business, you'll want to hear this conversation from beginning to end. What You'll Learn The four foundational pillars of a sustainable six-figure staging business How strong brand positioning helps you compete on value instead of price How to identify what makes your staging business different from everyone else Why mentorship can accelerate your growth more than another online course My exciting announcement about the future of Staging Business – Growth and why I'm so excited to support Heather's new program RESOURCES: Join the Harlowe Inner Circle Waitlist Here: https://waitlist.harloweco.com Apply for Private Coaching: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/privatecoachingapp Enroll in Staging Business School Accelerate Track: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/accelerate Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram: www.instagram.com/stagingbusinessschool Follow Lori on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rethinkhome If you want to learn how to streamline your operations so you can grow with less stress and burnout in your staging business, enrollment is open for Staging Business School Accelerate Track. I'd love to see you in the classroom! ENJOY THE SHOW? Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts so that more Staging CEOs find it. Also, include links to your socials so that more Staging CEOs can find you. Follow over on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Audible.
#152
June 27 · 19 min
The Note Under My Door That Changed My Staging Business
Some moments stop you cold. This episode is about one of those moments and it came in the form of four words written in my youngest son's handwriting, slipped under my closed office door on a Sunday night. This is one of the most personal episodes I've ever recorded, and I hope it lands for you the way that night landed for me. Because what started as a wake-up call became the question that changed everything about how I run my business. What You'll Learn Why the closed-door boundary I set with my kids showed me how broken my business really was How going from asking how do I get more done? to how do I make this easier? changed everything How I audited my business without a formal spreadsheet, but by focusing on 3 things The first operational change I made that began reducing my workload RESOURCES: Join the Harlowe Inner Circle Waitlist Here: https://waitlist.harloweco.com Apply for Private Coaching: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/privatecoachingapp Enroll in Staging Business School Accelerate Track: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/accelerateJoin the Staging Business School Growth Track Waitlist: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/growth Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram: www.instagram.com/stagingbusinessschool Follow Lori on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rethinkhome If you want to learn how to streamline your operations so you can grow with less stress and burnout in your staging business, enrollment is open for Staging Business School Accelerate Track. I'd love to see you in the classroom! ENJOY THE SHOW? Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts so that more Staging CEOs find it. Also, include links to your socials so that more Staging CEOs can find you. Follow over on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Audible.
#151
June 20 · 16 min
Staging Business Software: The Six-Stack Problem No One Talks About
Have you ever opened your computer in the morning and immediately found yourself clicking between six different tabs just to figure out what's happening in your business? As we've been onboarding founding members into Harlowe, I've been asking our staging business owners a simple question: How many tools do you log into every day to run your business? The answer is almost always the same…at least three, usually more. The reality is that most of us didn't build these systems intentionally. We solved one problem at a time. We added a booking tool, then an email platform, then project management software, then invoicing, then file storage, then proposals. Before we knew it, our clients were living in six different places. In this episode, I'm giving a name to that problem: the Six-Stack Symptom. I'll talk about why it happens, what it's really costing your business, and why adding more tools is rarely the answer. What You'll Learn What the Six-Stack Symptom is and why so many staging businesses experience it How disconnected tools quietly create more work as your business grows The difference between automation and true integration What a unified operating system for a staging business can look like RESOURCES: Join the Harlowe Inner Circle Waitlist Here: https://waitlist.harloweco.com Apply for Private Coaching: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/privatecoachingapp Enroll in Staging Business School Accelerate Track: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/accelerate Join the Staging Business School Growth Track Waitlist: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/growth Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram: www.instagram.com/stagingbusinessschool Follow Lori on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rethinkhome If you want to learn how to streamline your operations so you can grow with less stress and burnout in your staging business, enrollment is open for Staging Business School Accelerate Track. I'd love to see you in the classroom! ENJOY THE SHOW? Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts so that more Staging CEOs find it. Also, include links to your socials so that more Staging CEOs can find you. Follow over on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Audible.
#150
June 13 · 25 min
The 3-Role Framework That Instantly Clarifies How to Run a Staging Business
I want to talk about a question I get asked all the time: Where does the admin role stop? Where does the lead stager role begin? And where exactly does the CEO fit into all of this? The truth is, most of us never learned to think about our staging businesses this way. We started because we loved staging. We learned the craft. We got clients. We grew. And then one day we looked up and realized we were running a company with real complexity while still trying to wear every hat ourselves. What I see over and over again is that businesses often grow faster than their structure. We hire people without clearly defining the role they're stepping into. We add services without assigning ownership of the operational pieces that support them. And before we know it, everything feels heavier than it should. Today, I am breaking down three core roles that exist in every staging business—whether you have one person on your team or twenty. Understanding these roles is one of the fastest ways to identify where your business is creating unnecessary complexity and where you may be carrying work that does not actually belong to you anymore. What You'll Learn What the CEO should actually be focused on (and what they should not) Why the Admin Ops function is often the most overlooked role in a growing business How operational ownership impacts everything from scheduling to inventory visibility The hidden mental load many staging business owners carry every day RESOURCES: Join the Harlowe Inner Circle Waitlist Here: https://waitlist.harloweco.com Apply for Private Coaching: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/privatecoachingapp Enroll in Staging Business School Accelerate Track: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/accelerate Join the Staging Business School Growth Track Waitlist: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/growth Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram: www.instagram.com/stagingbusinessschool Follow Lori on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rethinkhome If you want to learn how to streamline your operations so you can grow with less stress and burnout in your staging business, enrollment is open for Staging Business School Accelerate Track. I'd love to see you in the classroom! ENJOY THE SHOW? Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts so that more Staging CEOs find it. Also, include links to your socials so that more Staging CEOs can find you. Follow over on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Audible.
#149
June 6 · 16 min
How Better Scheduling Systems Can Help Your Staging Business Scale More Smoothly
Most staging business owners don't wake up in the morning excited to think about scheduling. Yet somehow, it becomes one of the biggest invisible jobs in the business. As I've spent countless hours mapping workflows and talking with staging business owners, one theme keeps showing up. Most scheduling systems work beautifully when the business is small. The challenge comes when growth introduces more team members, more service types, overlapping appointments, public booking links, warehouse logistics, and multiple moving pieces that all need to stay connected. If you've ever felt like you're the glue holding your calendar together, this episode will make you feel seen. I explore why scheduling becomes increasingly complex as businesses grow, where traditional systems begin to break down, and what it could look like when your scheduling system starts doing more of the work for you. What You'll Learn: The two key variables every scheduling system must balance How multiple calendars, color-coding, and manual processes can create hidden points of failure The difference between client schedules and team schedules in staging businesses A simple scheduling strategy Lori used with her first team member to reduce back-and-forth communication RESOURCES: Join the Harlowe Inner Circle Waitlist Here: https://waitlist.harloweco.com Apply for Private Coaching: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/privatecoachingapp Enroll in Staging Business School Accelerate Track: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/accelerate Join the Staging Business School Growth Track Waitlist: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/growth Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram: www.instagram.com/stagingbusinessschool Follow Lori on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rethinkhome If you want to learn how to streamline your operations so you can grow with less stress and burnout in your staging business, enrollment is open for Staging Business School Accelerate Track. I'd love to see you in the classroom! ENJOY THE SHOW? Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts so that more Staging CEOs find it. Also, include links to your socials so that more Staging CEOs can find you. Follow over on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Audible.
#150
May 23 · 19 min
The Stair-Step Hiring Framework for Staging Business Growth
If you've ever hired someone and still found yourself overwhelmed, still turning away work, and still wondering why your capacity hasn't moved, this episode is for you. We were recently talking about hiring, growth, and capacity when one business owner shared that she had successfully hired and trained team members, stepped back from doing everything herself, and yet she was still turning away work. Her spring felt better personally, but the business still hadn't truly expanded capacity. Not only her, but that is what most staging business owners do not realize: having a team does not automatically mean having more capacity. That one distinction is exactly why I built a framework around it. Today I'm walking you through what I'm calling the Stair-Step Capacity Framework to act as a guide for how to think about hiring at every stage of your business. Once you understand it, your hiring decisions start to make so much more sense, and a whole lot of the frustration and self-judgment disappear. What You'll Learn: The four distinct hiring stages in a staging business and what each one accomplishes. Why replacing yourself as the lead stager doesn't automatically increase your capacity. The critical moment when your business can truly begin to expand its volume. Why simultaneous hiring often creates organizational whiplash instead of smooth growth. RESOURCES: Join the Harlowe Inner Circle Waitlist Here: https://waitlist.harloweco.com Apply for Private Coaching: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/privatecoachingapp Enroll in Staging Business School Accelerate Track: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/accelerate Join the Staging Business School Growth Track Waitlist: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/growth Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram: www.instagram.com/stagingbusinessschool Follow Lori on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rethinkhome If you want to learn how to streamline your operations so you can grow with less stress and burnout in your staging business, enrollment is open for Staging Business School Accelerate Track. I'd love to see you in the classroom! ENJOY THE SHOW? Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts so that more Staging CEOs find it. Also, include links to your socials so that more Staging CEOs can find you. Follow over on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Audible.
May 16 · 32 min
AI for Staging Businesses: What Most Owners Are Missing
AI has become one of those conversations that instantly makes people feel either excited or completely overwhelmed. This episode is for the staging business owner sitting somewhere in the middle. The tools available right now are changing the way businesses operate in real and practical ways, and there is so much opportunity in learning how to use them intentionally instead of avoiding them altogether. This week, I'm walking through the AI tools I'm personally seeing used well inside staging businesses and sharing practical examples of how they fit into real workflows. ChatGPT, Canva Magic Studio, Plaud, and Notebook LM all have the ability to remove friction from parts of the business that normally take hours. The opportunities with these tools are only growing from here. What is however most important to know is that AI is not actually the missing piece for most businesses. Infrastructure is. A generated layout still needs somewhere to live. Notes still need to be connected to the project. Presentations still need to be easy to find and share with your team. How then do you combine AI and systems to work together to make your staging business feel lighter and more efficient? Come find out. What You'll Learn: Why most people are already using AI without realizing it How AI can help you with hiring and capacity planning, image generation, client communication and so much more. The difference between AI tools and business infrastructure What I am considering in my own staging business about AI while building Harlowe RESOURCES: Join the Harlowe Founding Members Waitlist www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/harlowefounderapp Apply for Private Coaching: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/privatecoachingapp Enroll in Staging Business School Accelerate Track: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/accelerate Join the Staging Business School Growth Track Waitlist: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/growth Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram: www.instagram.com/stagingbusinessschool Follow Lori on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rethinkhome If you want to learn how to streamline your operations so you can grow with less stress and burnout in your staging business, enrollment is open for Staging Business School Accelerate Track. I'd love to see you in the classroom! ENJOY THE SHOW? Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts so that more Staging CEOs find it. Also, include links to your socials so that more Staging CEOs can find you. Follow over on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Audible.
#146
May 9 · 13 min
The Hidden Emotional Weight of Running a Successful Staging Business
There's a very specific kind of exhaustion that comes with running a staging business. People often see the finished installs, the styled shelves, the walkthrough videos, and the polished final product. What they rarely see is the operational side happening late at night after the installs are complete, where the CEO is trying to hold everything together with proposals, invoices, scheduling, client communication, bookkeeping, and operations through systems that were never actually designed for the way staging businesses function. The responses to Harlowe echoed "I thought it was just me." But like I have always said, it is never just you. In what ways does running a staging business overwhelm CEOs like you? In what ways do you expect relief with your systems and processes? Let's talk about that! What You'll Learn: The invisible workload behind a "beautiful" staging business Why so many stagers feel like they're constantly white-knuckling operations The emotional weight of holding an entire business in your head What happens when systems finally support the way you actually work RESOURCES: Apply for Private Coaching: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/privatecoachingapp Enroll in Staging Business School Accelerate Track: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/accelerate Join the Staging Business School Growth Track Waitlist: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/growth Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram: www.instagram.com/stagingbusinessschool Follow Lori on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rethinkhome If you want to learn how to streamline your operations so you can grow with less stress and burnout in your staging business, enrollment is open for Staging Business School Accelerate Track. I'd love to see you in the classroom! ENJOY THE SHOW? Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts so that more Staging CEOs find it. Also, include links to your socials so that more Staging CEOs can find you. Follow over on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Audible.
#145
May 2 · 22 min
The Hidden Revenue Leak Quietly Hurting Your Staging Business
A missed renewal, a lost proposal, a delayed payment… we often brush these off as "one of those weeks." But often, these tiny, mundane moments are actually red flags pointing to a much larger problem. Working more closely with staging CEOs lately, I've noticed a pattern: a quiet drain on time, energy, and money. It's not that these Stagers are disorganized; it's that their systems are failing them. Running a staging business on fragmented, disconnected tools creates a massive, hidden mental load and operational bottleneck. Instead of trying to "duct-tape" a broken backend, it's time to build systems that support your growth. Let's talk about how to implement a functional fix that serves you for good. What You'll Learn: Why a booked-out, thriving staging business can still be one admin's resignation away from chaos. Four shifts that make the biggest operational difference, regardless of what tools you're currently using. What "designing for delegation" means and why it matters even if you're a team of one. What Lori has been quietly building for staging businesses and how to be part of the founding group. RESOURCES: Apply to be a Harlowe Founding Member: www./rethinkhomeinteriors.com/harlowefounderapp Apply for Private Coaching: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/privatecoachingapp Enroll in Staging Business School Accelerate Track: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/accelerate Join the Staging Business School Growth Track Waitlist: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/growth Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram: www.instagram.com/stagingbusinessschool Follow Lori on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rethinkhome If you want to learn how to streamline your operations so you can grow with less stress and burnout in your staging business, enrollment is open for Staging Business School Accelerate Track. I'd love to see you in the classroom! ENJOY THE SHOW? Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts so that more Staging CEOs find it. Also, include links to your socials so that more Staging CEOs can find you. Follow over on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Audible.
#144
April 23 · 15 min
Feeling Guilty Delegating? This Is What's Really Going On
Today, let's dip into the world of mindset to talk about something I see come up over and over again as most CEOs grow their staging business. Not strategy, not pricing, and believe it, not even systems. It is guilt. And not in the way you might think. I am talking about the guilt that creeps in when you try to step back, when you hand something off to a capable team member you trained really well, and then you become what I can only describe as a weirdo lurker. Checking in, hovering, making sure it all got done. Sounds familiar? In this episode, I share my own experience delegating, how I thought I set my little bird free and then very much did not, and what I eventually understood about why. I have found the thing about guilt that nobody really talks about: it is not a character flaw and it is not a sign something went wrong. It is a signal, pointing you directly to the belief that has not caught up to where you are going yet. Once you understand that, everything changes and you can be what your staging business needs you to be. What You'll Learn: Why stepping back feels uncomfortable even when your team is fully capable How guilt disguises itself as "being a good business owner" The identity shift every staging CEO has to make as they grow The one question that reveals the belief driving your guilt RESOURCES: Apply for Private Coaching: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/privatecoachingapp Enroll in Staging Business School Accelerate Track: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/accelerate Join the Staging Business School Growth Track Waitlist: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/growth Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram: www.instagram.com/stagingbusinessschool Follow Lori on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rethinkhome If you want to learn how to streamline your operations so you can grow with less stress and burnout in your staging business, enrollment is open for Staging Business School Accelerate Track. I'd love to see you in the classroom! ENJOY THE SHOW? Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts so that more Staging CEOs find it. Also, include links to your socials so that more Staging CEOs can find you. Follow over on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Audible.
#143
April 18 · 25 min
Client Selection for Home Stagers: How Better Clients Help You Grow
Think of client filters as your business's "red velvet rope." They're not about turning people away. They're about creating alignment between your home staging services and the clients who benefit most from them. When that alignment is clear, your staging projects run more efficiently, expectations are easier to manage, and your team can focus on delivering the high-impact results that you actually want to render, If your staging business feels harder to run than it should, your client mix may be the issue. In this episode, I talk down what client filters are, when to use them, and how they help you build a profitable, scalable home staging business that operates with clarity and consistency. I also cover a critical question many home staging business owners face: should you be using client filters while you're still growing? Or is it more valuable to work with a wide range of staging clients: homeowners, real estate agents, and investors, to gain the experience needed to define your ideal client first? Listen in to find out! What You'll Learn: When to implement client filters as a staging business owner How to identify ideal staging clients (realtors, investors, and homeowners) The Client Filters we have at Rethink Home Interiors Why refining your client selection leads to stronger referrals and repeat staging business RESOURCES: Apply for Private Coaching: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/privatecoachingapp Enroll in Staging Business School Accelerate Track: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/accelerate Join the Staging Business School Growth Track Waitlist: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/growth Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram: www.instagram.com/stagingbusinessschool Follow Lori on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rethinkhome If you want to learn how to streamline your operations so you can grow with less stress and burnout in your staging business, enrollment is open for Staging Business School Accelerate Track. I'd love to see you in the classroom! ENJOY THE SHOW? Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts so that more Staging CEOs find it. Also, include links to your socials so that more Staging CEOs can find you. Follow over on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Audible.
#142
April 11 · 26 min
Fixing the Wrong Problem? How to Solve What Actually Matters
If you feel like you're solving the same problems on repeat, this episode is your wake-up call…in the best way. In this staging CEO Reset episode, we're unpacking a powerful shift: moving from reactive problem-solving to intentional leadership. When your staging business grows, your old ways of fixing things stop working. And what once felt productive can quietly keep you stuck in cycles of overwhelm, rushed decisions, and temporary fixes. This conversation will help you pause, step back, and ask a better question: What is this problem actually a symptom of? From missed items on installs to team frustration and time pressure, we're getting underneath the surface to build real solutions that last. You'll also learn the Fix-It Protocol—a simple, repeatable framework to help you diagnose root issues, implement smarter systems, and lead your staging business with clarity (not chaos). WHAT YOU'LL LEARN FROM THIS EPISODE: Why solving the same problem repeatedly means you're fixing the wrong thing How your brain defaults to quick relief instead of real solutions The difference between people, process, and tools problems A step-by-step breakdown of the Fix-It Protocol (F.I.X.I.T.) RESOURCES: Apply for Private Coaching: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/privatecoachingapp Enroll in Staging Business School Accelerate Track: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/accelerate Join the Staging Business School Growth Track Waitlist: www.rethinkhomeinteriors.com/growth Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram: www.instagram.com/stagingbusinessschool Follow Lori on Instagram: www.instagram.com/rethinkhome If you want to learn how to streamline your operations so you can grow with less stress and burnout in your staging business, enrollment is open for Staging Business School Accelerate Track. I'd love to see you in the classroom! ENJOY THE SHOW? Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts so that more Staging CEOs find it. Also, include links to your socials so that more Staging CEOs can find you. Follow over on Spotify, Stitcher, Amazon Music, or Audible.

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