How He Built a Successful Home Staging Business After Sobriety

What does it take to build a successful home staging business from the ground up?

In this episode of the Mind Body Method Podcast, I sit down with Jason Saft, founder of Stage to Sell Home, to talk about entrepreneurship, sobriety, discipline, and scaling a creative real estate business.

Jason shares how getting sober nearly nine years ago became the turning point that transformed both his life and his company. From scrappy early real estate hustles to forming his LLC, upgrading his warehouse operations, and earning recognition from The New Yorker and The New York Times — this is a conversation about obsession, standards, and long-term growth.

We unpack:

• How sobriety sharpened Jason’s leadership and focus
 • The physical grind behind running a home staging company
 • Using real estate market data to stage homes for the right buyers
 • Avoiding burnout and creative plateaus
 • Evolving your aesthetic while scaling your business
 • Building reputation, mentorship, and industry recognition

If you’re an entrepreneur, creative founder, or someone rebuilding your life with intention — this episode offers real insight into the mindset behind sustainable success.

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Jason Saft is the founder of Stage to Sell Home, a New York-based home staging company known for thoughtful, buyer-focused design and award-winning projects featured in major publications. His work blends aesthetic instinct with real estate strategy — proving that great staging is both art and analytics. 

For more about Jason and Stage to Sell Home go to https://www.stagedtosellhome.com/

Write to me at: Questions@MindBodyMethodPodcast.com

You can follow me at @JoshGrimm_FITNUT

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Welcome to Mind Body Method, the podcast where health and fitness go beyond the weights and the workouts. I'm your host, Josh Grimm, and every week we'll dive into what it truly means to build strength, not just in your body, but in your mind and your life. From movement with purpose to building a resilient mindset, this podcast is about empowering you to thrive in every aspect of your life, inside and outside of the gym. So let's get started. Hi, and welcome back to the Mind Body Method podcast. And I am your host, Josh Grimm. If you're building something that actually matters to you, this episode is going to hit. Exceptional doesn't happen by accident. It's not loud, it's not rushed, and most of the time it's happening quietly when no one's watching. This episode is for anyone who's creating something that matters to them: a business, a body, a relationship, a vision for their life. Because what I've learned is that exceptional things aren't built in the highlight real moments. They're built in consistency, in doubt, and choosing to show up again, even when the results aren't obvious yet. I've had seasons and sometimes years when I've questioned everything I was building, and I still do sometimes, where progress felt slow, where it would have been easier to scale back a little or even stop, where I wanted to just grab a nine to five job. But for me, that's settling for something that's not my true path. And every time the work asks something deeper of me, patience, integrity, and belief. In today's conversation, we talk about what it really takes to build something exceptional from the inside out, the mindset, the discipline, the willingness to stay aligned with your standards, even when the shortcuts are tempting. If you're in a season of building, this episode is for you. Not to rush the process, but to respect it. Let's get into it. Hi, and welcome back to the Mind Body Method podcast. I am your host, Josh Grimm. This is a place where we explore what it takes to build strength, clarity, and purpose in all different areas of your life, including your mind and your body. So today we are going to be talking about drive, passion, momentum, and the mindset that it takes to build something truly exceptional. My first guest has turned a staging business into something that has not just been a thriving and big business, but also an art form and built a brand that has become the gold standard in the industry. We are going to learn today what fuels his type of success, what motivates him, what drives him, and what and how he sees his world. Please allow me to introduce Jason Saft. Jason Saft is the founder and creator of Stage to Sell Home. He has a client and a friend. I'm very excited to have him here. Jason, welcome.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_02 2:39

I'm excited to be here. So I have known you for years, um, and I have always been super like excited to talk to you about your business, talk to you about what drives your brand, what drives your passion. You're a very motivational man. And so I want you to tell me, tell the viewers, tell the audience a little bit more about Stage to Sell Home and who Jason Saft is.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

So I'm Jason Saft. I'm the founder of Stage to Sell Home. I give myself my own title of chief magic maker. So when you start your own business, you can give yourself whatever title you want. Um, so this was born out of, you know, the thing I love to do was the I was decorating my room when I was a kid. I was organizing things. It really was a hobby that happened in a in a second career in real estate a little over 20 years ago. I just started fixing up people's places and I I found that that was always when I was the happiest. I always felt like I was doing um like I had purpose. It wasn't a job. I wasn't punching a clock, it wasn't checking off a to-do list. Like it just it felt like to me it was like breathing, right? Like I know it sounds crazy, but fixing up these properties, decorating, like just just transforming the space was just this very natural thing that I loved to do.

SPEAKER_02 3:59

And so what was step one? How did you start the actual business itself? What was the journey?

SPEAKER_01 4:05

Um, it's been a long, long one. I mean, it's it's been over 20 years. And I think, you know, the the biggest part is I didn't always, I never, I never really believed it would be here for a very long period of time. It was just something that I love to do. You know, I I would go into these properties, they weren't selling, and it was very clear it was like problem solving by design. And so, you know, design was the one thing I wanted to do as a young kid, but it's not really, it wasn't really a career path for like a young boy growing up in the 80s, the the 1980s, not the 1880s. I mean, but what you do just to be clear on age.

SPEAKER_02 4:43

I know I'm a little but but what you do though, it is it is design, do you?

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Right, right. Oh yeah, 100%. Um, but you know, I just I was told, you know, like you're gonna grow up to be a doctor or a lawyer, which neither of those things like I had the capacity for. Um, but you know, I started in PR, I went into real estate, but it was it was like digging into these projects was the part that just felt so incredibly amazing. And I realized it it took a bit of time to understand like the thing I kept gravitating towards, the the um instead of like just an open house, like I wanted to prepare for the open house. I wanted to like when I really started to boil it down, like that's what I was doing in my room when I was 10 years old. So that's the passion that that it and it took me a while to figure that out. It wasn't as obvious as it may seem, but you know, it was it started to work. And when I started in real estate, you know, like if you don't have connections, if you don't have, you know, a family name, if you didn't go to the right school, like you have to be really scrappy. Again, this is over 20 years ago. This is before, you know, people had iPhones. Like you, you had to like dig for these clients. And so by fixing up these properties, that's how I stood out. And I started to build a business as a real estate agent from being the one that could go in and say, I know why this didn't work. Let and let me show you, right? Like I didn't just tell someone, I would say, why don't you go stand aside for 10 minutes and like let me just be in the space and I would make changes and bring them back in.

SPEAKER_02 6:18

Did you ever have any kind of doubts or were you nervous that this is something that would not work? Because you know, whenever you are in a career or you're doing a job and you know it's not really kind of connecting or working out for you well, but there's something else that you found a passion.

SPEAKER_01 6:30

Like that's sometimes when people get scared or lost in that was the first probably I would say 13 years of this. Like I I was the king of self-doubt. Like I, you know, I I never believed it would be in this place. I didn't think I could start my own business. Um, I didn't think I was smart enough. I didn't think I had the skill set. I didn't, you know, I look at the designers I look up to, and I never um I would never even consider that I could design like that or be anywhere like that, and I didn't want to embarrass myself. And I sort of, you know, I grew up in a way where I was told, like, you know, you can't do this, and like not everyone gets to a certain place. And so the the before I got sober, which was about nine years ago, um, I doubted everything. And that's why it wasn't a business. It didn't, I only formed my LLC, you know, after I got sober. I I only started really taking on clients other than the project I was doing after I got sober. I did not believe that I could do this. Like I just didn't think I had the skills or was smart, and I just talked myself I spent more time talking myself out of things than I did like just try this.

SPEAKER_02 7:44

So the sobriety was a defining clarity moment for you. A thousand percent. Um, I find that interesting because a lot, I mean, I I'm not well versed enough in sobriety to understand, you know, the dynamics behind it, but I feel like that would also be a very scary place to be able to go from being sober and also diving into a new career path and following something that you're really passionate about in this new sobriety as well.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Well, it also was more than that. I also became a parent at the same time, and then I was responsible for a child who's who's sitting right here, who's sitting here in the who's watching me, smiling at me. Um, and so everything like my whole world and what I knew was completely different. And you you do have that like come to Jesus kind of moment. And you start thinking, like, what am I gonna do? And how am I gonna do this? And so, you know, when I got sober, I I had this capacity to start to process things and to focus things. And the truth is, like, I also like those isms of alcoholism and that time and that, you know, that need to fixate on something. Like I channeled into my work, like, you know, uh alcoholism, drug addiction, it's not just like the addiction to the substance, it's like there's a whole mindset to it. And you, you know, you like zero in on something, you're obsessive about it, and you have to do it. And I gotta tell you, like it really works out really well if you can channel that into your passion, into your art, into your work. And I really just started to hunker down. And it it was a, it, it was an instant night and day difference. I mean, it was also helpful that I wasn't waking up at 11:30, like on a Tuesday, you know, and like and like two drinks in by three or four o'clock. Like that's where I was up until that's where we're almost at the nine-year anniversary. We're like three weeks away from it.

SPEAKER_02 9:40

Do you feel like then building and like going towards this business, is it, you know, was it out of necessity for healing and growth? Or was it just that you were ready at this time of clarity that you thought that you believed in yourself more, that you were able to pull the trigger?

SPEAKER_01 9:55

It's probably D, all of the above. Um, I mean, like I I wanted to do it. I needed to do it to survive and to grow and to to bring in money. Um, but it it also like having that bandwidth and that clarity, like it again, it it I didn't look at it as a normal job. I had a job while I was doing this, and it was very different. Like in the way that I viewed tasks, responsibilities, a to-do list, communicating with people, like that, that always felt like a job. Um, whereas the the stage to sell home, it it didn't. It was like this, it was just like a part of me, like you know, and again, it was just like fixing up people's apartments, painting. And like, you know, it was very the early days of it. Like now I have a this amazing team of 12 people. We have a warehouse, like, you know, I've gotten these write-ups and you know, like the New Yorker. But the early days, which was again like sort of pre-getting sober, and then just like nine years ago, it was just like me on a bike, like getting a can of paint and like painting someone's entryway at 10 or 11 o'clock at night, because that was when I was free and I could do it, and just fixing it up and like going room by room and getting everything done and running around the city and picking up towels and hand soap and like uh, you know, running over to Housing Works and finding like one piece of furniture because we needed it and there was no budget. Like it it was so scrappy, but the results and the way that it all came together was incredible. You know, it was sort of like putting on like a theatrical production, like just out of thin air.

SPEAKER_02 11:30

I mean, I've been I've been watching you for years and your drive is insane and it's it's so commendable. Uh, do you ever feel tired?

SPEAKER_01 11:39

Um, yeah, all the time, but it's um it's just it's different, right? Like I'm I'm tired, but it's not um like I I don't want to quit. I always want to keep challenging myself. What I what I am learning is how to to find balance, how to um listen to your body when it's like you need to take a break. Listen to your body when it's like, okay, it's 1.30 in the morning, like you need to stop working. Like it's but it, it's I love it. Like last night, I I had fallen asleep early. I woke up in the middle of the night, I couldn't sleep, and I'm working on this little project. And I just was like, I opened up my laptop and I was so into it. And I look back at the clock and it was two, and I was like, shit, like I need to go to bed. I was like, but five more minutes. Like I just I want to do it.

SPEAKER_02 12:27

But is there ever a place where you feel that you have to drive yourself so hard because there's a fear of going backwards? Or is it that you just you're just that passionate about what you do that it's just like you're you're happy for the forward trajectory?

SPEAKER_01 12:42

Um, I don't know about a fear of going backwards, but you know, you are only as good as your last project. And so for me, like I'm, you know, like we do these projects, I'll photograph them. I like I look at the images and I study them and I look at something that was two years ago and three and four years ago, and I see the growth in it, and then I'll go to, you know, an art exhibition or something, and I I see new ideas or something I've never thought of, and I think of how do I incorporate that into there. So it's not a fear of going backwards, like that that that doesn't even come into my mind, but it the the fear of maybe not exceeding all expectations, that's something that scares me. Or when someone doesn't, we're working on something right now where like the the developer didn't like where we started. And it was it was a very odd experience to have someone come in and be like, I don't like this. Right. Um, and the truth is there were elements of it that I didn't like that I was working on, and that I I felt I I understood because of the parameters of this project and the timeline why it wasn't an immediate, like, oh my God, this is incredible. And that's often what happens. Like we we will walk into a space, we've had the time to prepare it, which sometimes is just like a week or two weeks. Um, but we start to just shape it with you know what's been planned. And it it is an immediate, like you're just standing there moving these things, unwrapping the furniture, putting it together, and you know, within the course of an hour, you're kind of like, oh my God, this is like wow. And then sometimes, you know, if it doesn't feel right, like I know I need to dig in and figure out like what is not working.

SPEAKER_02 14:20

So I'm sure people are probably curious. So I know that you have a massive warehouse where you house all of your stuff. Tell us about your warehouse. It's big.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

Um, it's a fun like it's a fun, it it's like I think of like Pee Wee's Playhouse. Um it's a fun creative space, and I've never had that before. Like I, you know, when the business started, it was one storage room at Manhattan Mini Storage, a few blocks from where we are, which is essentially a prison cell. It is an eight by eight like cement cylinder. There's no light. There's one of those steel doors where there's not even like a latch to see the eyes or slide, you know, bread and water through. There's no electrical. Like that's what I worked in. And I would, I would sit there and like fold pillowcases and organize and get things prepped. And that's where it started. And now it's been five years. We had a smaller space, but we're an industry city. It's just it's a beautiful facility. There's incredible. Um, we have like incredible neighbors. The Future Perfect is is our next door neighbor. Um, Roman and Williams Guild is in the building. So they're like, there's all these great people, and then it's 24,000 square feet. We have windows, which is great. We have uh another, well, we didn't in the in the first warehouse, there wasn't a single window. So it's like a hundred degrees, and you're moving furniture and climbing on a ladder and dig, and it's it was a lot. Um, and now so we have windows, we have bathrooms, we have a little like kitchen, like we have a refrigerator where you can put food and sit down and eat. And it's funny, like those things sound, but five years ago, I was sitting in a cement block with like an egg salad sandwich in my pocket, you know, sitting on a milk crate, folding pillowcases. And so, like those little things of the bathrooms, and we have um um heating and cooling, like it's a big deal. And it, it just um, you know, I'm working with the warehouse team now to get it in a at a place of how I want it to be, like organized, the like a level of cleanliness, a way that you can walk through and sort of understand the materials that we're working with and see things that are interesting and inspiring. Because, you know, it's not just me anymore. Like I have three designers. Um, and so when they're there, like the the experience I always had of being in those storage units, because that's before there was organization, like everything was just out. But the the like the joy of that was you could sort of see it and you understood what was there and you could start to design with it. And I love having a space that you can walk through and you can see some of the different pieces and understand like what we're working with.

SPEAKER_02 17:03

So, what is okay, so you know, what is the mindset that you're gonna keep and retain that's gonna keep you from plateauing? Because I'm sure since I know you, I know that this is probably not the end all be all where you are right now. You know, in five years from now you're gonna have something bigger or better, or you know, two spaces or whatever it is. So, what keeps you from staying where you are now? Are you happy where you are now?

SPEAKER_01 17:24

I'm very happy where I am now. Um, you know, I have other things in my life, like I'm a parent, I like being involved and present. So it's not like I'm looking to bring this to 10 other cities or go like intergalactic, right? Like I just when I look at what we're doing, and when I look at where we were five years ago and doing uh a fourth floor walk-up one bedroom apartment where like I was maybe getting paid, I maybe wasn't getting paid. Maybe they like made me lunch and that was payment. Um, you know, we're working in such different things and the design and the the capabilities we have are so different. So for me, it's sort of like how do I continue to grow naturally what I'm doing? Um, and then working with like there's some product I'd love to design and bring to market. And, you know, a lot of through Instagram, I get a lot of people that say, like, I I wish somehow like I could work with you even though I'm not selling my home. Like I bought this because you know, you always use it or you talk about this. So like right now I'm just sort of exploring like different products and I'm I'm working on um just mapping out a book.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

So there's definitely something there, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:33

There's definitely Yeah, there's a lot. You know, I think sometimes people they succeed in something and they get a little bit of attention for it. And then it's like, okay, now what's next after this? Where it's like, okay, what what's the next level of what I'm doing? Like, how do I there are certain types of projects I want to work with, different work on, different agents I want to work with.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

But you're able to hold space for where you are right now and really enjoy where you are.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

You sound like Cynthia Revo. Is that the like the wicked like holding space interview thing? That that was a big like that's a big thing now, holding space. Okay, well, I haven't seen it. So all right. You can hold space.

SPEAKER_02 19:10

So, okay, so you know hold space and hold my drink. What is something maybe a little bit unglamorous about your day-to-day? I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of grit grime.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

The bulk of it, I mean, it's not um, you know, I'm racing around the city, as you know, on a bike. Like sometimes I'm in, sometimes I'm in three places, sometimes I'm in seven or eight different places. Like it's still scrappy. Like, yeah, the photographs on Instagram look beautiful. And yes, we are in really spectacular places and we're doing really special things, but it's fucking hard work. It's like backbreaking physical labor. Like I'm schlep, I'm still schlepping stuff all day, every day. Um, and I love it. Like it, I'm not looking to stop that. But the in order to make all of this, like it is very unglamorous. It's like um when I hire someone, I tell them, like, you're going to feel pain, like you're going to be tired. Not because total, well, that's that's a different podcast. But um that that no, it's a very physical demanding job. And it's like, you know, we're also working in time constraints. Real estate is not sort of like, sure, tell us how long you'd love to take what you want to take away. Like, we're turning some of these properties around in like a day or two.

SPEAKER_02 20:28

Right. So it's probably really hard to just take a step back and even appreciate what you've done until that.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

I try to. I've like, you know, that's something like as I get older and like enjoying content. Well, and also like listen to what my therapist tells me to do. Like, it's um, you know, like especially recently, of there have been a lot of really wonderful things that have happened. And I my my natural inclination is just to keep barreling through it, like, okay, that happened, great. But I have had some things where I just I took like an hour and I sat and was just like, wow, and I will go through my phone and look at pictures and sort of see, like, wow, this was five years ago, right? You know, which is not a long period of time.

SPEAKER_02 21:10

What is one of your favorite parts of the process? Is it working with clients? Is it the end result? Is it the process? Is it, you know, getting the job? What is it that you like the best? Is it the design?

SPEAKER_01 21:21

All of the above. Um within each of those, like there's so much I love. And that's the that's the thing about when I talk about like when it this doesn't feel like a job, where you know, when I was a real estate agent or a publicist, like I I could say, I like this, I didn't like this, I like this, I didn't like this. But but this work and the design, like I like again last night, like I am happy to be up like well into the morning working on a project. I love being like the one thing as the business grows and I get busier and get pulled into different things, like I miss physically installing the project. Like I love the physical labor labor of it. I I truly like there was a point years ago. Where the movers used to say to me, like, you don't need to come out to the truck and like take the furniture. Like, I like to go to the truck, I like to pick the piece of furniture, like carry it in, bring it in, cut the blanket open, set it where it goes, and like start to build around that. And it's funny, my friend Shannon, who's uh one of the photographers I work with, she said to me once, and I remember it, she's like, You you want to have your hands in everything. Like you want to, and I do and I control. Um, but I I sometimes like if I'm not setting it up and I'm not there and I'm not part of it, I feel disconnected from it. And I I don't like that feeling. Like I I truly love like knowing that, you know, like I not only did like I source this, um, I, you know, have a team that helped get it to where it needs to be the database on the truck into the space, but I also want to like take that piece of art that I fell in love with um, you know, at a gallery, and then I want to hang it on the wall and make sure like the composition is perfect, and then I want to go there a week later with the photographer and shoot it.

SPEAKER_02 23:04

Do you notice your aesthetic for design and style and staging changing and evolving through the years? And does it coincide with where you are in your life?

SPEAKER_01 23:13

Oh a thousand percent. I mean, that's the like that's the beauty of all of this is is learning, right? Like I so I recently did a project not far from here on 13th Street, and it was the penthouse of a very prestigious condominium, very expensive apartment. Um, but what was interesting, it it's four doors down from the building where I got my start 20 years ago. And it was like where I got my first uh rental listing. It was a 200 square foot one bedroom for like $2,300 a month. And my career in stage cell home started in this building. And from um from the primary wing, right? Like I used to be climbing up and down stairs into 200 square foot apartments that haven't been renovated in 40 years. Now there's like a primary wing. Um, you could see the building and you can see into the apartments, and so it it really became very present like 20 years ago. And so I found some photos of what I was doing in that little rental building versus what my team and I came in and were now doing in this, you know, very special condominium. And it it really was this powerful thing to look at. Um, there were two, I looked at the the bedside of the primary, which Ty, who works for me, really helped sort of grow from the initial idea, um, but juxtaposed against the bedside of what I did almost 20 years ago. I was so busted. But like 20 years ago, I was so proud of that. And so to compare those two images, like the bedside manner, I love that. And I I actually, you know, try and show that in my work where a lot of people in design, like they don't want to acknowledge or look at things that they did that that's kind of cringy now. Yeah. But that's that's the growth, right? That's life, that's being a parent, that's the difference of you know, where my life was 10 years ago versus now. And it's the same thing within my work.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

I think being transparent with like who you are as a human being, transparent, transparent with your growth and your evolution of your career, I think is actually what probably draws a lot of people to you as you know, they want to be your client, they want to be your friend, they want to be around you because of your openness and your transparency of who you are, your faults, your mistakes, but also your successes. So speaking of it, speaking of which, I know you've had a lot of success. Let's get into your failures. I know you've had a lot of success. You've had a lot of success lately, um, and continue to. So tell me a little bit about some of the accolades that Stage Yourself Home has recently. Like it seems like every every week there's something I'm seeing on social media or in a magazine or or whatnot. You have a lot of projects, a lot of things happening.

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Shit's good. Um, the this year we won um, which was really cool, the best luxury and best home staging uh by our trade organization, which was really good. And then uh just got profiled in the New Yorker, which was really just kind of wild, like to get profiled there and to have someone uh writer was following me on Instagram and just reached out and it was really funny. And I still remember the call, and she's like, you know, would you consider like talking? And I was like, oh my god, this is in New York, like like who who would say no to talking to the New Yorker? Um, and then the New York Times came and covered the warehouse sale, which was a wild experience. Like it just it it I never imagined we'd have like a thousand people like storming the warehouse and getting online at seven o'clock in the morning to, to, to buy out all of our sort of cast-offs and stuff. So yeah, it's been a great uh, it's been a great year.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

So whenever you look at the different successes that you've had, you know, is there one that is kind of outshining another? Or like what comes to your mind right away whenever I, you know, ask you about success? Like what is forefront in your mind? Is it is it the warehouse sale and is it the recent like write-ups and the recent attention?

SPEAKER_01 27:07

Um I think it's just you know, it it's a combination of a few things, like um working on a project with some of my team and just like having the team and and being able to collaborate with people and have things grow and like just seeing how big this all is and like how many people contributed to it is great. And I will say that the New Yorker, like it really um the like the people who came to me after reading it was really just a wonderful thing because I don't I do just get lost in the work and I you do I don't always take the time to appreciate it, I don't think of it that much. Like I'm just I'm constantly so mired down by it. And so just so many different people reached out and people within the industry that I respect and that you know, I feel like for years I was jumping up like, hi, I'm here, hi, hi, talk to me. Now came to me and were like, wow, this is really impressive, like what you've built in your story and proud. Oh, I'm beyond proud because it's not easy to look, it's you know, the thing that came out of it, it you know, I built this from scratch with no resources. Like, I I I I don't come from really much of anything. Like I had a single mom who worked two full-time jobs, a deadbeat dad who like I rarely ever saw in my childhood and didn't never gave a nickel in child support. Like I started working on my 14th birthday and I haven't stopped since. A lot of that work was just to survive, to pay rent, to eat. And it was like hand to mouth and paycheck to paycheck up until like I would say maybe six, five or six years ago.

SPEAKER_02 28:48

Have you had anybody um come to you yet and say, you know what, you're my unspoken mentor, you're someone that I look up to, you're someone who I want to be. Are there like young up-and-comer, up-and-coming stagers that have reached out to you?

SPEAKER_01 29:01

Yeah, it's I will say there's just people in general, like especially through Instagram, who just who reach out constantly and it, it, it is really nice. And that's something like I know that there's so many people that I've just messaged over the years, like of how I much how I respect them and I look at their work and what they've built. And it, it does, it it's probably one of the best feelings when people you don't know um, or stop you on the street and reference something from years ago that you did that they remember, or like they'll ask me about my daughter Leora, or they'll they've met her on the street and they know little things. And it's it is really sweet that um again, when you think about it, like I I'm a home stager, right? But it's like the the business, how I built it, the story behind it, like people are connecting to that. It's not just like I got the home sold, it's like the the story behind it and the work behind it and that they are connected to you. Yeah, knowing that people see more than just like a pretty space. I thought you were gonna say a pretty face. Well, clearly not. I'm a six and a half on a good I'm not on a really good day with with a facial, a haircut, a beer trim, and and a vegetarian diet for two weeks. And and my gym routine and a trainer if I show up. I'm in I missed Friday. Somebody's in trouble. So training.

SPEAKER_02 30:25

Do you make do you make decisions?

SPEAKER_01 30:27

You knew I was gonna sing once on here. Just once. Just once.

SPEAKER_02 30:30

Maybe make decisions um on your design and your style based on obviously instinctual and your gut, and you have, you know, it's it's second nature to you. But do you ever use like actual data from past performing spaces?

SPEAKER_01 30:43

A lot, a lot of it is based on. So I talk with my clients who's coming, who connected with it, who didn't like it, who made the offer, what is their profile? Um, that like who have you met that's moving into the neighborhood? Like, that's information I'm always researching and trying to find out because that's what helped guide it. Like, I look, you know, but you also have to keep listening to what's happening out there in the marketplace. There's shifts, there's changes, we all get busy. And so, you know, in the early days, it was very easy for me because I was the agent in the property. And I could say, look, it's only been families coming through the door. Like, you know, I know this is your bachelor pad, I know you like this, but like every single person that's come through is like a family of three, right? And they're not connecting with it. I remember once I did a house down the block from here. It was very funny because they were in real estate and uh a beautiful house. They spent years renovating it. It was so meticulous. It was on the market. I want to say for like I still remember some of the numbers. It was like on the market for like 260 days, couldn't sell. And uh, so I went to meet him there and we're like walking through the house. And I was like, Who's coming? He's like, Everyone's a family. I'm like, what kind of family? He's like, like with kids, and I'm like like a heterosexual family, and he's like, Yeah, I was like, Yeah, this is a house of like gay erotica. Like, of course, no one's connecting with it. Everything is like an oil painting of like a naked young man. Like, it's odd. If you have, you know, like families of five coming through here, and this is like, you know, the eagle, it's not gonna work. Like, we need to make a change. Made that change, made the kids' rooms, the house sold in two weeks.

SPEAKER_02 32:22

Wow, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:23

Well, so obviously we hear, you know, that not that there's anything wrong with it. There's nothing wrong with a house of gay erotica. Right. Like the eagle. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:33

Nothing wrong with it.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

My apartment. No, just your apartment.

SPEAKER_02 32:37

So obviously, you're super driven, you're super passionate with your work, with your family. What else inspires the drive? Like, is there something out there? Is there, I mean, I know you're a big foodie. I know that you love food. Food, travel, like what else, what else kind of gives you the inspiration to create the aesthetic of the design that you like to portray?

SPEAKER_01 32:54

Um, I just like learn, like I love design. I love seeing new things. I love traveling and exploring. And I really love antiquated objects. Like I always have, I grew up in, you know, our house, like we didn't have that much, but there were always antiques. Like there was an old, um, I forget what you would call it, but like an old phone on the wall. Not not the one. No, no, no, no. Not like a not like a corded phone, which we grew up with, but like the old wooden box with like the tiny little receiver on the string with the two bells on top. Like, we always had things like that in the house. And so that was always very um like a space that I like, seeing things that didn't exist anymore. And so I love just like going out and searching and looking for things that maybe just aren't around and like bringing them back into life and stuff. How would you rate my design aesthetic?

SPEAKER_02 33:45

Scale of one to ten.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

Um, I think it's very you. It's um, I would give it, it's clean. I would give it like an eight and a half. Oh, you would not. Girl, what am I gonna, you know.

SPEAKER_02 34:01

This podcast is over.

SPEAKER_01 34:03

It's just that I'm like the accent wall thing is like just drives you nuts. Yeah, I'm not into it. I'm sorry. I don't want to be rude.

SPEAKER_02 34:10

You didn't realize that you're gonna be staging this apartment for part two of this podcast.

SPEAKER_01 34:15

I do where is the truck? I will tell you, I love the um the line of paint, and I like that it's not even. I like that it's like a third. I'm I'm super into that. I made that line. I'm just the accent walls, I'm just like a it, they gotta go.

SPEAKER_02 34:28

The hard no.

SPEAKER_01 34:29

Yeah, it's a hard no.

SPEAKER_02 34:31

So, what is something that you're actively working on right now, like internally or externally, to kind of build up to the next chapter? I mean, is it what you mentioned earlier about dabbling in with products and well, if we're gonna take this very literal.

SPEAKER_01 34:45

If I'm working on what what am I working on that's about the next chapter? Is I am putting together uh pitch deck for a book. Amazing. Yeah. I'll read it.

SPEAKER_02 34:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:55

There's no words, just pictures. All right, so even better.

SPEAKER_02 34:59

We are gonna do rapid fire. We're gonna do a little rapid fire. Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 35:03

Let's let's let's let's have people call in.

SPEAKER_02 35:06

Okay. Where's that wood wooden phone thing that you're about?

SPEAKER_01 35:09

Totally.

SPEAKER_02 35:15

One habit that has changed changed everything for you.

SPEAKER_01 35:17

Like adherence to a calendar and scheduling.

SPEAKER_02 35:20

Your biggest creative inspiration.

SPEAKER_01 35:22

My biggest creative inspiration, I I would say Madonna.

SPEAKER_02 35:25

Madonna, okay. Favorite type of space to transform.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

Oh, in a state, like a busted, disgusting, broke down, like the just like the the the more poor condition and like fearful you are for your safety of being in it, like I'm into it.

SPEAKER_02 35:39

A mindset belief that you swear by.

SPEAKER_01 35:41

I think you just you have to like stop waiting for perfection and just do it. Like, just stop. If could I just just do it, like try some version of it and go.

SPEAKER_02 35:53

A piece of advice that you'd give to younger Jason Saft.

SPEAKER_01 35:56

Oh my god, put down that drink, girl. And that cigarette and that ape and that ape ball. Rose and thorn for today. My rose is that I get to come here with my daughter, and we're gonna go have a little adventure afterwards. My little manager, she's my publicist over there. My thorn, you know, my only thorn is that like I had to leave my neighborhood today. Like, I really it's been so non-scataiwest Chelsea. No, no, no. I'm not, I'm not anti-I I have to say, like, I because I'm all over the city all the time and I'm in constant movement, there is something so just grounding about just staying home, like and not getting on the bike, not getting in a car, just like I live in Brooklyn Heights, a great neighborhood. Christmas decorations are out, like it's beautiful there.

SPEAKER_02 36:49

It's homie.

SPEAKER_01 36:49

Yeah. I so not to, you know, I'm I'm thrilled to be here, but I but I prefer not to be. So you're not staging today, not not staging today, but I am going to, we're gonna go to Field and Supply. We're gonna go, I'm gonna show her the Empire Diner. We're gonna go Nosh. Amazing, and then we've got a holiday party tonight. Um Christmas in Brooklyn Heights.

SPEAKER_02 37:10

I want to thank you so much. I loved learning more about your business and about you, and I'm sure the viewers and the listeners are gonna be inspired about your drive and your passion. And you know, like you know, we always look for your success, and it just seems to always be climbing and climbing. You're you're an inspiration, and I love you, and I'm I'm so happy. You're the meaning in my life. You're the inspiring and on that note, if you want to learn more about Judy Sin Sas, you can find more Instagram to sell home or at stage to sell home.com. Oh, wait, it should have been. If you have questions or comments, please send them to questions at mindbody method podcast.com and or look at me at social media at josh grimm underscore fitnut, um, and I'll be happy to answer. Thanks. Thank you for joining me today on Mind Body Method. This podcast is part of Pride House Media, hosted by me, Josh Grimm, produced and edited by Josh Rosensmike, original music composed by Mel Balabin. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts. And while you're there, leave us a rating and review. It really helps others to discover the show. I'd love to stay connected with you, so join the conversation by following me at Josh Grimm underscore fit that on Instagram and by emailing me at questions at mindbodypodcast.com.