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Business of Home Staging is the podcast for aspiring home stagers and entrepreneurs in any field looking to grow and scale their businesses. Hosted by Joké Durojaiye, a Small Business Consultant, Business Coach, and Mentor with extensive experience as a Real Estate Broker. Joké is an award-winning home staging expert, a Director on the National Board of the Real Estate Staging Association, a Licensed Real Estate Instructor, and three-time nominee for the Most Influential People in Real Estate Staging.
Whether you're in the industry or just curious about what goes on behind the scenes of a home staging business, this podcast delivers practical, field-tested lessons from a fully functioning small business. It offers proven methods to build a thriving business in any industry. The business insights, personal stories, mindset, check and strategies in this podcast applies to most small businesses.
Each episode is packed with no-nonsense, actionable tips on attracting clients, streamlining your staging processes, and boosting profitability. Whether you're dreaming about starting your own home staging business, preparing to launch, or are a seasoned pro ready to scale, you'll find proven strategies and inspiring, candid conversations designed to fast-track your success.
This is not a get-rich-quick business. If you are ready to roll up your sleeves and get things done, tune in to turn your creativity into a profitable reality!
Business of Home Staging LLC does not guarantee any specific results and is not responsible for any losses incurred from the use of the information provided in this podcast. The content shared is based on the author's experiences and personal insights. Neither the company nor the author offers financial, tax, legal, or professional advice. Listeners are advised to conduct their own research and seek guidance from a qualified accountant, financial advisor, attorney and other professional.
Joké Durojaiye (00:13.623)
Yes.
Joké Durojaiye (00:30.464)
Okay. Okay, I'll see you soon.
Joké Durojaiye (01:13.057)
Hello?
Can hear me? Can you see me?
Joké Durojaiye (01:23.95)
Can hear me?
Yes, there you go. Can you hear me? I can hear you now, but I don't see you though. Okay. Yeah, I don't know why. there we go. Do you have to see me because I wasn't prepared to look beautiful because I thought it was just voice recording. We're going to record this as video, but we're going to just post it as audio. okay. That's fine. That's totally fine.
Joké Durojaiye (01:58.412)
You went off. You are muted.
There we go. Okay. Now I don't see. Now I hear answer you. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. I don't have the script in front of me though. If we're going to do it like this. No, no, no. big deal. I'm just having a conversation and I'll just ask questions that you can answer. mean, it's freestyle and it's supposed to be just a conversation. don't sweat it. Yeah.
I just have a script to guide me so that we can stay on track and in case we start talking smack quick and pull ourselves. I think just that I just think that alone will work if you can if you kind of guide and steer the conversation. Exactly. So I'm here for that. So we're going to start. It's going to be it's recording already. And so I'm just going to start and then I'll introduce you and you can introduce me.
Okay, sure. is that the lamp you grabbed from my warehouse? Yes, that's the one. Okay, no worries. I just didn't know if that happened or not. It looks good. It looks good. Yes, yes, yes. Okay, so let's get into it. Today I'm
going to talk about something that's very, very close to my and dear to my heart. Collaboration over competition. And who better to join me than my dear friend, colleague, and creative, my partner in creative crime. And Dave, let me start over. I'm just talking to you, Bri. No, that's OK. That's fine. I love it, though. Yeah.
Joké Durojaiye (03:53.9)
Today's subject is dedicated to something that's very close and dear to my heart, the idea of collaboration over competition. And who better to join me than my dear friend, colleague, and partner in creative crime, Chan Davis. The lovely Chan is a licensed real estate agent and CEO and principal stager of Stella Interiors.
She's also an incredible mom of two adorable little boys who keep her on her toes. Chan brings a unique personality to everything she does in her personal life as well, because she loves experimenting in the kitchen as an amateur chef. Amateur chef. I'm thrilled to have her here for a fun girl chat. Chan, welcome.
Thank you for having me, Joke I'm really, really thrilled to be here on your podcast. I'm very, very excited. Thank you so much. I love the collaboration that we have. Whatever we're doing, it's always a great time. Wonderful. And this is one of those things again. And talk about...
Okay, about your your chefing and cooking thing, we have to talk about that because you know, I am not I don't enjoy cooking as much as you do. So you will have to cook and then invite me to it because I'm not going to take any recipes. It's useless to me. Sure. Yeah, I'd love I'd love to have you over and I cook all types of cuisines. I love making what most people know as pho.
I do make that and I sweat over in the kitchen for it. One of my specialties is making steak as well. I have a sous vide machine that I'm very proud of and I love the process of making it and it comes out perfect every time. So every chance I get to sous vide something, I will do it. Sorry, just put me on your guest list for next time. Most definitely.
Joké Durojaiye (06:12.13)
You know, see, this is how I invite myself to things, right? I'm like, okay, I don't wait for invitation. just invite myself. Anyways, the door is open. You have a key to my house. You can come anytime. my gosh. That's crazy. So let's talk about, we often hear this idea that as, as, as entrepreneurs were supposed to protect our turf.
The competition, that competition is a battle. But I think that we both know that collaboration can be so much more powerful than competing. Even though we're in the same kind of business and we have like, we're in the same market really, our friendship started as, let's talk about that. How did we even meet? Maybe you have a different perspective than I do, but from the, I'll tell you from how I remember it.
We started out as warehouse neighbors, except instead of boring sugar, we were boring sofas and trucks. I think it was 2019. You had just moved into the building and we were both housed in this ginormous facility and Chan would walk past my warehouse on our way to her warehouse and she'll stop by to say hi and chat.
And that just kind of morphed into unintended collaboration and great friendship. And so that's how I remember it. Do you have a different perspective? That's exactly how I remembered it too. And it was just kind of, you know, because I feel like staging is such a new, you know, business in the industry that we really kind of leaned onto each other, you know, talking.
you know about business and you know, I've always respected you as a business owner. You're always so knowledgeable. You know, sometimes for me, I get caught up in the creative so much that you know, you you you've also kind of helped to guide me into seeing things from a more business perspective as well. You know, just kind of one of the things that
Joké Durojaiye (08:27.764)
I kind of talked to you about, you know, and I always peeked into your warehouse to see what goodies you have in there. But one of the things I remembered in our friendship is you kind of saying to me, Hey, would you like some, you know, some of these items, you know, and I just said, Sure, why not? And, you know, you just kind of mentioned to me, you know, you wanted to simplify some of your processes and
And so from there, you know, we just kind of started our friendship in, you know, just talking about our business, learning from each other. And from there, that nature of collaboration came so easily for the two of us, because we felt we had each other. And of course, you know, our personal relationship sparked from that as well. But, you know, we just
learned so much from each other, I feel, in every single process of our business. Yeah, so for me, from that perspective as well, yeah, we exchange ideas and things. Because they have been like, and now my office is located where I can actually walk out and look down into your warehouse. And I'll be like, girl,
That sofa that you said was out, I can see it, it's right there and I want it right now and I'm gonna get my people to and pick it up. So you can't tell me that something is out there anymore, because now I can see it. Well, we do have the keys to the kingdom. I do, I do and I love it. So the idea of, you know, it just speaks, the idea of a concept of collaboration, just...
For me, it's so meaningful, not just in the business part, but in life, because it speaks to our fundamental need for community and support. And there is a Nigerian proverb that my mom often said. I'll say it in Yoruba, which is my language, and then I'll translate it. It says, Ojo or Otoye, for life, fara, kora. It just really translates into the sky.
Joké Durojaiye (10:46.604)
wide and big enough for birds to fly without ever colliding with one another. Which means there's plenty for all of us. It just speaks to the abundance mindset and against that feeling of I have to hold everything for myself like there is not enough for everyone. There's plenty of business to be had and we both understand and we know this. And there are times when maybe I'm too busy and I have
somebody looking for staging and it fits what you offer and I send them to you and you do the same as well. Maybe it's a different style they're looking for because let's face it. Let's talk about that for a moment. You and I have different styles but similar in a way. Our designs are very clean because I do the contemporary minimalist and you are like the glam girl. I can always rely on you when I need something like
I need a gold stool, y'all. If you ever need a gold stool, gold stool, I'm telling you. I had this kitchen, that was new construction, and they had gold accents. And in my warehouse, I looked around, I had nothing gold, and I'm like, okay, I know exactly where to go. And of course, my girl hooked me up, and we borrowed that gold stool, and some other gold accents, so she is like the glam queen. So I know that.
And because I know that I don't feel the need to stock up on those things because I know I can get them from you. They're not things that I normally use in my everyday design, but when I need it, I know where to go get it. And the same thing with you as well. You know the kinds of things that I have that will work when you need it and you know where to find it. And we're always willing to share. And the good thing is that you actually started this, which is so awesome.
Cause I remember the first time I was going to borrow something from you, I came with, can I rent this? And we started with, okay, we were just getting to know one another. I'm like, okay, rent it and just give me whatever amount makes sense. And then later you came and you wanted to borrow something. We just looked at each other. We're just like, what are we doing? What's the point of the renting? And you were just like, you know, we're just taking and that's how it all started. And we would just like borrow things back and forth like that. So.
Joké Durojaiye (13:10.919)
Let's go back to your journey, because I want you to share a little bit about how did you get here from agent team to staging. And we have an inside joke where I call you the stage and in the groups, we hear all the time on Facebook, like where stages are mad at agents who stage and they're like, stay in your lane.
I know you have opinions about that since you're wearing both hats very, very well. So I want you to talk about your journey, how you got into the staging business and what, yeah, just tell us what you want to talk about. Yeah, sure. I mean, I, yes. So I started out as an agent first. and when I had my first listing, I went ahead and had the home professionally staged.
It was a little bit of a sticker shock to me and I really liked what they did. I thought they did a good job, but parts of me thought, okay, I think I can do it too, you know? There's no reason why I can't do it. And so after that listing, when I had another one, I went ahead and rented furniture to stage for myself.
But for me, I never really liked partial staging. I always wanted to be very full, very beautiful because as an agent, I understood that a beautiful full professional looking stage is going to sell the house for the greatest ROI. And I valued staging and I purely really thought that if anybody was
ever on a tight budget, the one thing to always do is just to always stage it because I always had felt that staging was a game changer. So I staged my first listing and it looked amazing. I absolutely loved it. I got so many compliments. A lot of my agent friends were like, my gosh, who's your stage or really like your stage? And I said, it's me, but I'm not ready to stage.
Joké Durojaiye (15:35.566)
I said, I said, I'll only be staging my own listings. Well, after that happened a few more times, I finally decided to open up to staging for everybody and go ahead and open up a staging business. And it's been, you know, it's been a beautiful thing. I absolutely love staging and I always want my staging and all of us, stagers to rise up and just be professional.
you know, charge what you're worth, you know, it's an expensive business to run, we have to charge in the expectations that to let people know that you're a professional, you have insurance and that you are also setting up enough money aside to grow. Because as time goes by, styles change or you need to add more stuff.
Because when we're staging and we're moving things, there's somewhere in Terran our furniture. So I love the direction that the home staging is going and being professional. every day I'm seeing more photos come out with stagers really knocking out of the park. And it's just really kind of become the norm now. And it just kind of needs to be that way in all markets across the world, really.
Yeah. Yeah. So when you think about how does, how has collaboration helped your business and what do you, how do you advise somebody who is, for example, shying away from collaborating with other people because the concerns are real. There are people who are like, what if they copy me? I don't want to give away my secrets, but my own thing with that is
So what if somebody copies you and they actually do something good with it? That means we're all rising together. So what do you say to someone who is still holding out on collaboration and what other ways of collaborating can people do to help them advance because we all know that we can do more together. Right. So for me, when it comes to collaboration, it is about lifting
Joké Durojaiye (18:00.278)
you know, us all up as a community and it lists you up as, you know, someone else too. But I truly do believe too, that as individuals, you know, businesses, we all, and as an individual person, we all bring something different and unique to the table and something that's not been considered. Without collaboration, we're not sharing in those things, which is so important because
We all have so much to learn and from each other. And it just really puts us in a professional stance when we collaborate. you can have fun and have friendships along the way. Otherwise, it would be very lonely if you're just doing it all by yourself and just looking at everybody as competition. You can't grow that way. And even with
you and I, Joe K, in our collaboration, you know, we've we found there were times where I, I showed you this is my quote, this is how I send it up. And you're like, I need to step it up. And there's times where I've asked you, well, what do you do with this? And I'm like, I need to change some of my, my my structure here. So, you know, it's just, it just, it's just
better when we all get better together. I think really the community of it is better. I think when we share in each other, we, we, get more creative ideas. Like you mentioned, also, I'm the glam queen, and you are the contemporary queen, you know, and together, we can have a better product together.
which is, you know, from my perspective is why when I wanted to offer holiday decorating, you know, I decided to ask you if you would collaborate with me on that because I feel together. Together, when we work together, it's magic. Our styles just mix well together.
Joké Durojaiye (20:11.992)
Totally. the unique, I feel like even though we're collaborating and our styles are meshing, and we're doing better together and more and bigger things together, there's still room for our unique style and personality to keep shining because we both have unique approaches. And so I don't feel, you you don't feel threatened by me. I don't feel threatened by you. And we just blend our individuality.
for strength, right? And there is one person who said, you're not going to do it exactly the same way that somebody else does it. And no matter how much you share with them, they're not going to become you. So there's still that thing about having your unique proposition, things that you offer and do differently than somebody else, regardless of whether you're sharing. The sharing doesn't take anything away from you and it doesn't stop you from getting what you need to get.
it. It just makes things better. So let's talk about one of my favorites. Yeah, you just mentioned it because I was going to talk about that. You came to me and you said, let's do this together when it comes to the holiday decorating because that's something that we have offered in the past. But it's kind of something that you want to get into. And we built something and when you offered your house generously,
And we combined resources. brought my pumpkins and things. And we created a full decor all over your house. And we did the table scaping and everything. Anyone following us on Instagram, Stella Interiors, Genesis Homesage, we're constantly putting stuff out. And then you got an.
And the collaboration can go beyond just the two of us, because you brought in a videographer as well, just a friend that you knew that helped us, that filmed the whole process. One thing that I wish that we filmed that I forgot was, you know, James, when he was filming it, he was like, wow, everything just changed before my eyes. First of all, we had the fall decorations and then we took everything out and it became Christmas. And it was like, what? Right before his eyes, I wish we had filmed that process.
Joké Durojaiye (22:29.208)
But that's the thing we're always so busy. Yeah. We're always so busy doing stuff. We know better for next. Yeah. anyway. So that was fascinating to see. So another aspect of collaboration is running a business. Like you said, can be overwhelming and then it can be solitary, you know, because you're, it's different when you were
maybe incorporate and you had coworkers to talk to. I know that we have a lot of like late nights phone discussions after the day is done and you're so stressed maybe about a crazy client that you were dealing with or something not going right or something. It is so comforting and we do this three ways sometimes with Katherine. Shout out to Katherine. need to get on the podcast too. We love you Katherine.
I know I love my girls. It's like we have these staging sisters and Catherine is on the other side of town, but sometimes she to get so busy that she'll send clients me, especially if they're in my market. And the beauty of it is that she and I do this so well that she would send someone to me because they want something in my market or she's too busy. But next time that client comes back to me, I'm going to send them back to her. Like,
hey this is your client unless she's too busy to take it i'm not going to take over her client so we trust one another that way that we work well so
What else?
Joké Durojaiye (24:15.99)
I don't know. Did we go through everything in the script? feel like we kind of did. I'm just going freestyling. I'm not even really keen at that, but I just have a few points. I'm going to cut out all of this nonsense. yeah, I know you will. I know you will. No worries. Collaboration has a way of opening doors because when you team up with someone else, you're connecting with them.
in so many different ways and reaching their own clients too. This is not like a client takeover. example, we're also having this weekend coming. We're having a warehouse sale, combined warehouse sale. This time, it's not even just the two of us. are other two, I think one or two other stages that One other stage. Yeah. Yeah. One other stage that's going to be part of that. Talk to us about that. Yes. Collaboration helps in that way too because
we're helping each other with that as well because...
Joké Durojaiye (25:20.75)
Are you okay? Yeah, I'm okay. I just, you'll have to cut this part out.
But yeah, I'm glad you brought that up. Let me see. Let me think about that. yeah. Yes, collaboration in the way of the warehouse sale is working spectacularly, not only just for us, but for our clients as well and for shoppers because now they just have a larger inventory. It's going to be
more worth their time to come and check out all the inventory between three stagers. I mean, that's really amazing and almost kind of unheard of to be able to stage, to be able to shop the inventory of three staging companies. Yeah, and it's kind of that time of year where we're all either overstocked and
On top of being over stock, you're planning to get new inventory, refresh for the new season. So it's a time that we're all going through the same thing. And that's what I'm saying about finding your tribe, people who are experiencing exactly the same thing that you are, and then join forces to find ways to leverage that unity for the advantage of everyone involved, not just us, like you said, even the clients, now they have a
bigger pool of things that they can, you know, shop from. Yeah, so I'm looking forward to that. And also I want to mention too, you know, the great thing about collaboration too is when, you know, when you're talking to agents and you're, you know, submitting a bid or whatever, you know, just when you're talking to them and, and when you show agents that you can play nice and work well with other.
Joké Durojaiye (27:22.038)
Stagers, they love that or that you're knowledgeable about another stager and their inventory or how they work. It's just a great thing to do. It shows unity, again, within the staging community to others that are professional businesses too. Yeah. And the fact that you just mentioned that because there are some jobs that
will come my way and I'll be like, this is over glam and this is chance. So I will send that to you. And the thing is, you know, it just makes everything so much easier when you can take care of your clients in that way. So they come with a, a project that is way out of your league or out of your realm, or you don't carry that kind of inventory, but you can still hook them up with the right person.
people that you know and trust, but without knowing and trusting that person, I'm not going to send them to a random stage. I'm going to send them to somebody that I know and trust their work and the integrity of what they do. And so this is where, you know, just partner with people, especially if you're like, then don't make it a one-sided thing because everybody has something to give.
Like you said, I can lean into you for so many different things. You can lean into me for business and, you know, processes and systems and just everybody has something to give. But if you come with the mentality of just taking, of course that relationship is not going to work. Right? Yeah. Yes. And I also think it's really important, especially for newer stages too, to lean into each other because
you may have not built up your inventory yet or as Jo K mentioned, maybe a home came to you, but it might be too big or a different style than what you usually choose. I know a lot of times starting out, like a luxury level, if you're not able to make it or you just haven't built up the inventory to have that much furniture yet,
Joké Durojaiye (29:39.992)
these are great opportunities to partner up with another stager. That way you could still have the job, but also, you you have, you can elevate yourself too and just, you know, and in that way, be able to take on the job. You have photos for your marketing and then you build on that experience as well. You know, and you're learning to work well with others and
once you do that, you know, it becomes a referral type of thing that, you know, Joe K has been talking about. And there's definitely times in the spring where, you know, we're, so booked up that, you know, we don't really want to turn down someone, but we want to make sure we're taking care of them too. So that's where, you know, the trusted referral back and forth is just so important. So find someone you admire and, and those are
the best people I feel to reach out and build a relationship with. A lot of people are willing to help. But if you don't reach out and you have this mentality of, know, I'm guarded, I'm guarding my secrets, because honestly, there's no secrets in business. Everything is out there. You can just, you can learn anything you want to learn. And nobody's ever going to do it the same way that you do. So I will say, yeah. So that was,
A good discussion, I think. Do you have anything else to add? I think we've done great and we've hit on a lot of things. And I think we've pretty much said it. mean, the only thing is, like you said, you know, pretty much the business is pretty much the same clear across the board. You know, there's going to be slight variations, but
Again, know, collaborating, bringing things together is so great. Even for me, sometimes within my own business, I love it when I have, you know, new employees coming in, just kind of like also the collaboration, just because every individual brings something different. And sometimes when I want to have a new employee and they come in and they do something a little different, I'm just like,
Joké Durojaiye (32:01.29)
I really like that. I've been staging for a long time, but I've never thought to use that item that way. Yeah. So, you know, the same comes from businesses collaborating with each other. just, you know, that you just see things in a new, different way. And, you know, it just, you can never stop learning. There's always so much to learn and be appreciative of. agree. And to talk about
you know, how our people sometimes maybe you have, wait, you're so busy, you need help. I send you my people and vice versa. So it's, mean, there's just no limit to the level of collaboration and the things that you can gain from one another from that community. So I love that. So thank you, Chan. Thank you.
for joining me on this discussion. That was so fun. And let's go out there and keep making all the connections and create something beautiful together. I want to leave with this final words from the Bible that I live by. Two are better than one because they have good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. That is from Ecclesiastes 4.
nine to 10. And we are all designed for fellowship for community. It is how we're created to live, work and thrive. And that it's a wrap. Thank you. Thank you so much, Joke. I appreciate the invite. Thank you for joining me. I'll see you at the warehouse. Bye. See you later. Bye lady.