Staging Sips

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.

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.

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.

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.  

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

_EPISODE REPLAY_ Have you ever heard business advice that just didn't make sense for you? Or tried a "proven" strategy that just never worked for you? Maybe you've been confused by a lack of results doing something that a fellow business owner reaps tons of results from. Well, there may be a very clear and tangible reason why and today's guest, Human Design Expert and Certified Life Coach, Stacy Rowan of Custom Built Life, is going to dive into what might be going on. I have personally been working with Stacy and I have to say, the revelations, the validation and the understanding of myself and how my energy impacts the people around me have been fascinating and powerful.   WHAT YOU'LL LEARN FROM THIS EPISODE:  What is Human Design.  Why so much business advice can be completely wrong for you.  Why Imposter Syndrome can impact some people way more than others and what to do about it.  How to get started learning about your Human Design.  How to work with Stacy.   RESOURCES Join Rethink You Accelerate Follow Lori on Instagram Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram   Free Human Design Chart & Short Report:  http://bit.ly/BG5FreeShortReport Stacy's Website:  https://www.custombuiltlife.com/ Stacy's Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/custombuiltlife/ Stacy's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stacyrowan/ If you want to learn how to market and grow your staging business, enrollment is open for Rethink You Accelerate. 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 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.

_EPISODE REPLAY_ Have you ever wondered why--even when you know what you should be doing to grow your staging business--you don't do it?  Today, we're going to dig in and start to uncover the mystery of your inaction.  If you learn nothing else from any other episode in this podcast, this one thing will be a game changer!   WHAT YOU'LL LEARN FROM THIS EPISODE: What our business results are made up of My Result Triad for evaluating my business results  What to do when you find yourself undermining your own goal How to stir up your brain to achieve big things in your business   RESOURCES: Join Rethink You Accelerate Follow Lori on Instagram  Follow the Staging Business School on Instagram  If you want to learn how to market and grow your staging business, enrollment is open for Rethink You Accelerate. 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 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.