How A Finance Day Job Sparked A Luxury Home Staging Brand

We tell the behind-the-scenes story of how Linden Creek grows from a creative side project into a luxury home staging company, then evolves into a franchise. We unpack the real pivots that matter, from validating demand to building systems that run without us and turning constraints into scale. 

• building design skill by studying spaces and learning repeatable patterns 
• using furniture builds and house flips to sharpen vision and execution 
• spotting a home staging opportunity through market feedback 
• testing proof of concept by pitching agents and builders directly 
• making the decision to leave a stable nine-to-five 
• shifting positioning after landing luxury listings 
• setting nonnegotiable family boundaries and hiring to protect time 
• creating SOPs, training, and operations that make work replicable 
• facing the “worked myself out of a job” identity shock 
• choosing franchising to share systems and create owner community 

Love design, but think like a business owner. If you're ready to leave your 9 to 5 and want to do something that's buildable and scalable, check out linden-creek.com/franchise and see if Linden Creek is the right fit for you. 

If this is something that interests you and gets you excited too, I'd love for you to follow along on our journey and subscribe. Learn more about the design industry, the staging industry, and what it really takes for ownership. Subscribe and let's continue that conversation. 

Transcript

How Linden Creek Began

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Linden Creek didn't start as a franchise. It started as an idea and grew along the way through hard lessons and an evolving vision. Today I want to share with you the true story of the behind the scenes of how Linden Creek came to be. But in that nine to five, as much as I loved the financial aspect of it, I found myself in this scenario where I was always looking for a creative outlet. And I would find it in a lot of different ways. In my free time, I would study every blog and magazine that I could. And when I saw a beautiful space, I would stare at the photo and I would study it and try to figure out why it actually made sense. How many items did they put on the coffee table? Were they square or were they round? How tall did they sit? How many sections did they group together to make it make sense? And I would find these patterns within it that kept replicating themselves and slowly started to teach myself design skills using that framework. Now, as that creative itch continued, I tried to find new ways to really bring it to life. I would find a beautiful picture of a coffee table in a magazine and think, I want that in my house and I don't want to spend that much. And so I would go to the local lumber store and I would buy all the lumber and I would spend a few hours in my garage building a replica of the same thing and bring it into the home. This caught fire and suddenly I was in a situation where people were asking me to build furniture for them. And so I'd spend my Saturday mornings with a cup of coffee in hand, covered in sawdust, building these beautiful new pieces of furniture that could make sense in somebody's space. In addition to that, I also found myself falling in love with real estate. I would scour all the MLS listings and these photos of these ugly, ugly houses. And when I found the ugliest one, I would fall in love. Because the moment I stepped foot in that door, I didn't see what it actually was. Well, everyone around me was cringing. I saw the potential of what it could be. I saw what it was gonna look like in my mind when then it had new paint and fresh colors and fresh flooring and a beautiful tile detail. And I would spend years bringing that vision to life. And as soon as the home was beautiful and everything I imagined it to be, the project was done. And so I would sell it until I could find the next ugly home again. What's interesting is in that journey, on the second home that I had renovated and flipped, I found myself in a scenario where we were putting it on the market. And the feedback that we were getting was that the staging was really good. Except it wasn't staging, it was just my furniture that I had collected over the years and made look beautiful in the space. But it was this sudden moment for me where I always had this belief that I couldn't possibly be an interior designer because I didn't have the degree, but maybe, just maybe, I could stage houses. And so I took this wild idea and I thought maybe there's potential to it and decided to start exploring the idea. I built out some initial SOPs because that was the first thing I thought to do when I was building a business, and some concepts around who I wanted this potential company to be. And then I would take Fridays off and I would go and I would knock on doors. I would get in front of as many real estate agents and builders as I could on that Friday and show them a sample portfolio. And at the time it was of my own home of what this could really look like if they used us for staging services. I figured there's no better way to test proof of concept than to actually get in front of my potential customers and ask them, is this something that would serve you well? Well, after a few months of persistence and conversations with these people, it turns out the answer was there was a market opportunity for this after all. I found myself just a few months into the business in a scenario where I had to make this key decision of do I quit my nine to five safe, secure job that I did enjoy that was doing beautiful things for my life and make this massive leap of faith and start Linden Creek? Or do I let Linden Creek go and I focus where it's safe? And I remember kind of mulling over this decision, and it wasn't even a thought of, oh no, what do I do? And this is a massive decision. I remember my gut pulling me so heavily towards building and creating something of my own that I made the decision and transition and I never looked back. Love design, but think like a business owner. If you're ready to leave your nine to five and want to do something that's buildable and scalable, check out linden-creek.com slash franchise and see if Linden Creek is the right fit for you. And so that really started Linden Creek. And fortunately for me in that season, it built and it grew very organically and naturally. At the time, in full transparency, I remember thinking I'm gonna be that like cost-effective stager that's functional and you find ways to do this really budget-friendly, and I'm gonna work well with investors, and that's where I'm gonna sit. And interestingly enough, one of my very first properties that I staged happened to be a million-dollar listing. Now, in Raleigh at that time, that was a big deal and a high ticket home. And I remember being so excited about landing the job, and all I could think about is I have to serve this client right. And so I went out of my way, bought this stunningly beautiful furniture and art and accessories and thought through the designs. We staged it, it sold right away, nailed the project. And I remember thinking, Phew, glad that's done. That was luxury. Let's go back to where we really should be focusing our time. And then the next phone call came and it was another million-dollar listing. And I remember thinking, like, this was not in the plan, but I'm not gonna say no to another opportunity. We did it once, we can do it again. And so we went through the process again. I designed this beautiful space, the results were fantastic. It was really exciting to see this transition. And again, I finished it and I thought, phew, another million-dollar listing done. Let's go back to where this business is supposed to be. But in that process, I got a phone call from a real estate agent that I really admired. And she called and she said, I don't know where you have been all this time, but you are the thing that we've been missing in this market. And I sort of scratched my head and she said, You do luxury in a way that we've been looking for in this area. And all of a sudden, it clicked for me. I thought that I needed to be this budget conscious, investor-friendly sort of staging company. And I realized that there was this underserved market in the luxury area that somebody needed to serve. And all of a sudden, it shifted for me. I changed my business model. I focused then on luxury and realized somebody needed to serve these real estate agents and these builders that were looking for a solution. And that somebody was gonna be me. And that's really what started the concept and the idea around Lending Creek. Now, about a year into my journey, um, I found myself as a single mom. My husband and I at the time had separated, um, and I wished all the best for him. We have a fantastic co-parenting relationship, but I found myself in a season of doing it just as me. And I remember being in a scenario where I knew the most important thing for me as a mom of two little girls that were three and four at the time was to be able to be in that carpool lane and pick them up from school every single afternoon. There wasn't somebody else that I knew in the area yet because I was new to the town that I could really trust to take on that sort of responsibility. And so it became a non-negotiable. Every day when I would work, if there was something that I started to do that would get closer to that like 2:30 kind of time frame, I would quickly hire somebody, I would train them to do it, and they would take on my 2:30 to 4 or 5 p.m. slot in scenario so I could be in the carpool lane. I remember thinking during that season and at that time, this is something that's definitely gonna slow down my business growth. This is something that's gonna make it more challenging for me to build kind of what I was imagining as a company. And it's really neat at this point in the journey to look back and reflect on that and realize that was actually the biggest thing that propelled Linden Creek to be what it is today. Because what happened behind the scenes is every time I got busy, I would hire and train. Is it forced me to not be the person that was physically in my warehouse 80 hours a week because I would have been that person. It forced me to lean on my team. And if my team didn't have the skills and the resources they needed, it forced me to think through training, to think through systems, to think through operations so that they could replicate the work that I should have been doing during those times. Now, because this happened, about five years into the business, I found myself in this really unique scenario. I remember sitting down on my couch and I was looking at my previous week and my calendar, and I realized we had done a bunch of installs, we were handling design clients at this point in time, my clients were happy, my team was happy, sales were happening, but I was not involved in any of it. And I remember thinking, well, that's kind of strange. And then I looked at my week ahead and sort of assessed what was going on, and I realized I could not show up next week to work. And there was not a single thing that was going to be any different. No one needed me, everybody knew their role and their responsibility, and they were really, really good at it. And all of a sudden, I panicked. I went, I have accidentally worked myself out of a job. And that was the never the goal. I never wanted to be in a scenario where I'm sitting by the pool sipping margaritas. I know that that's a beautiful thing for some people, but I love what I do. And so it became this almost identity crisis of what is my purpose in life? What do I do with this now? And as I was in this moment of panic, I was getting messages from other interior designers and home stagers on Instagram asking me questions about how we do things. Hey, I have a client, and how do you handle these pricing objections when they say you're too expensive? I find my art is getting damaged. How do we better protect our art in the warehouse and in the move in a way that it's not going to get scraped and scratched? And I realized we had really come up with a lot of systems to solve some of these problems that others in the industry were really looking for. And it got my brain thinking of what do I do with this knowledge and this information? But there was one thing that I knew in that season. And that was that when I reflected on my own personal life, I loved every ounce of it. I loved the fact that I had control over the work-life balance that I wanted with my kids and with my job. So that there were seasons where maybe I was working a lot and busy, but it was because I made that decision, not because somebody else did. I remember thinking I loved the compensation that I was getting for what we were doing every day. I loved the industry that we were in. I loved serving our clients. And it made me realize there are probably other people out there in the world that have the same passion and desires that I do to be part of this industry that were on the other side of the journey where they're still in their nine to five corporate positions. And maybe they want to make this shift into an industry that they love. Maybe they want this kind of ownership. And I had done it once. Maybe I could teach them the lessons I learned along the way, the systems that we use so that they could get there faster. And that's really what started the decision to actually franchise London Creek. One of the things I loved about the idea of franchising was not just, hey, here's your playbook and systems, because yes, that's important. But I also remember what a lonely journey it sometimes is in ownership, especially when you're starting your own business. And I loved the idea of building a community within this franchise where business owners can be there to support and encourage each other every step of the way, through the good, through the wins, the celebrations, but also be there on those tough days where it feels like a very true struggle. And so franchising kind of became this potential concept that I was wildly excited about. I brought it to my team. It was one of those crazy wild ideas. I have lots of them. And I thought, kind of, we'll see if it sticks and what everybody thinks. And my director of home staging at the time came to me and she said, Alisa, if you're gonna do this, I've always wanted to live in Charlotte. Could I be your first franchise owner and we just see how this goes? And for me, that was the biggest blessing because I remember thinking if there's anybody that's gonna give me brutally honest feedback of what's working and what's not, it's gonna be somebody that's been by my side that I trust and that trusts me. And so we made the decision to kind of launch this concept and idea out in Charlotte. And for a year, I just watched her. We'd meet, we'd discuss, I'd find out what was working, what wasn't working, where she felt like she needed more training, what her pain points were, and we would solve and fix those along the way. And after the 12 months, we both kind of sort of looked up. And I remember reviewing her profit and loss statement, and I looked at how much money she had made in the year, and she had 3X'd what I did in my very first year of business. And it was that moment that was this aha of she was able to take all of the lessons I learned and the systems and implement them to get there so much faster than I ever did. And in that moment, we made the decision to really take this and expand this as a national opportunity so that we can reach as many potential men or women that are interested in that similar journey of building something of their own, but they want the framework so they can get there faster. When I look back on my journey of Linden Creek, it's wild to see how every one of these unique nuances and challenges and pain points that I felt like I was going through along the way were actually the biggest blessings to allow us to build what Linden Creek is today. If this is something that interests you and gets you excited too, I'd love for you to follow along on our journey and subscribe. Learn more about the design industry, the staging industry, and what it really takes for ownership. Subscribe and let's continue that conversation. This is in good space.