"I believe each house has a soul, an essence that one connects with. I have a passion for decorating and designing which began when I was a child. I would drive my parents …
“Debra, I’ve been on such a high ever since I spoke to you today and then I printed and devoured all your Staging Diva course notes in one session. They will save me a ton of trial and error and addressed issues I was wrestling with, such as furniture inventory, the staging consultation and alliance ideas.”
“Thank you for doing the home staging business justice. There’s a lot out there that’s really nowhere near the caliber of where the home staging and interior redesign industry can go.”
“I give the Staging Diva Training Program a 10. I did hours of research online, and Debra Gould’s course stood out on multiple levels:
- Taught the practical business of starting and successfully managing a home staging company.
- Was completely honest. No misleading claims that she was offering accreditation or initials to attach to our names as if we had some sort of legal license to practice a profession that is completely unregulated. Also, is a fellow champion in promoting the idea that one should only use your own photos, not course-provided or stock, to market your design services, since photos are the very evidence of your portfolio and skills to potential clients.
- Offered tremendous access to coursework. Other programs require expensive travel and week-long, in-person visits. She harnessed the power of technology to allow us to save her seminars on our computers and listen to them at our leisure, and as often as we like. The downloads even include Q&A sessions with live callers who opted to listen to seminars via conference calls, which were also beneficial as they usually asked the same questions I would have.
- Specificity in all areas is included, from how to market, price, consult, and improve profitability. Each course is accompanied by pages of detailed outlines with which to follow along.
- A relative bargain compared with other programs that I researched.
- Optional ongoing support, as well as continued demonstration of caring for her students, even when making no money. It speaks volumes to me that, despite selling memberships to her own Staging Directory, she forwarded me information on Active Rain, which I could join for free.
- Never claims to ‘be better’ than other course offerings. Simply differentiates that she is teaching the ins and outs of starting a home staging business, assuming her students already have a skill in design.
“The home staging profession is lucky to have Debra Gould as a leading innovator in our field.”
~ Lisa Kauffman Tharp, Boston Home Staging (Massachusetts)
The field of home staging is completely unregulated. Anyone can create a home staging training program even if they have no personal experience as a home stager, and even if they know nothing about how to properly structure a course so students actually learn the information.
There is also no such thing as an official home staging credential, because it’s an unregulated field.
Before signing up for a home staging training course, it’s important to thoroughly research the company and the instructor first. These articles will get you started:
