How To Grow A Home Staging Business Through Real Relationships

“Digital is dead” sounds scary until you realize what it frees you to do: stop chasing clicks and start building a business people actually talk about. We dig into what we’d focus on first if we were launching a home staging or interior design business from scratch today, and why relationship building beats paid ads for long-term, repeatable growth. If you’ve felt like Meta ads and Google paid search don’t hit like they used to, you’re not imagining it. The online space is louder, more expensive, and harder to win with pure spend. 

We break down grassroots marketing in plain terms: show up, network, and have authentic conversations that aren’t sales pitches. The three questions that change everything are simple but powerful: what keeps you up at night, how can I make your life better, and how can I help propel your business. For home staging marketing and interior design lead generation, we explain why real estate agents and builders are often the best “hub” relationships to build first, even if your end goal is more design work. Realtors know who is moving and what they need, and that referral web can fuel steady projects. 

We also talk through the common fear of hearing “no.” The fix is to stop asking for the sale too early and focus on becoming useful: improving listing photos, supporting tough client moments, and making your partners look good. Over time, staged homes become your live portfolio, other agents see your work in person, and word of mouth starts compounding into a true referral snowball. If you’re in the early grind, this is your reminder: you’ve got this, and the labor pays off. Subscribe, share this with a business owner who needs it, and leave a review with the relationship-building tactic you’re trying next.

Transcript

Finding The Real Question

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Alright, sir, I've got a question for you. Okay. What would you I was very enthusiastic? I was bringing the What would you focus on?

SPEAKER_01 0:09

No, I think we have to start over because this isn't.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

No, no, this is good. They wanted authentic. They wanted like laughing.

SPEAKER_01 0:16

We're not professional podcasters. Alright, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 0:20

I've got a question for you. Okay. Uh I've got a question for you, Mrs. Sparks.

Start With Relationship Building

SPEAKER_01 0:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:42

What would you focus on first if you were starting this business today?

Why Digital Ads Lose Power

Defining Grassroots Marketing

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Oh, I like that. Okay. This is a fun little game. Um, if I were to start this all over tomorrow, I would hyperfocus on relationship building. Um, you and I got to go on a fun little conference a couple weeks ago to the International Franchise Association, um, IFA. And my one of my biggest takeaways from it, as I sat in on lots of marketing sessions and roundtables and learned from others in um in totally different brands that have hundreds of locations all over the country, um, is digital is dead. Um and I will tell you, it was interesting for that sounds scary. It's not scary, it's actually very exciting. But it was interesting for me to hear that again and again. Um what's kind of happened is I think, you know, COVID happened. We all, you know, hid and had our independent time. We learned digital ads are great. We learned that Google clicks are fantastic and everybody hyperfocused there. But because of that, um, your meta performance, your Google paid ads, all of these things don't perform as well as they used to years ago. Um, and all too often, business owners are relying so heavily on like, let me dump money in and then just get money back out. Um, but the secret sauce in growing a big established successful business is not that at all. Um, the biggest resounding feedback that I actually heard from marketing people that are in paid ads is grassroots works better than anything else does today. Um, and so that's exactly what I would do. Grassroots simply meaning building relationships, networking organically, attending um B and I's and networking groups, finding opportunities to get in front of my ideal client or anybody that is willing to listen, um, and having authentic conversations of like one, what keeps you up at night? Two, how can I make your life better? And three, like, how can I help propel your business? When you ask those three questions, the game changes.

SPEAKER_00 2:39

Who is your ideal client? Would you say?

Low Cost Marketing For New Businesses

Handling No Without Pitching

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Um, in this industry specifically, both for interior design and home staging, real estate agents and builders tend to be our greatest client base. Um, they're the ones that really provide referrals. So it's interesting. Um, oftentimes we'll get franchise owners in and they like figure out the home staging game and they're like, got it. I talk to real estate agents, I talk to builders. How do I get to designers or get interior design jobs? And we're like, talk to realtors and talk to builders. Um, there's no one that knows that somebody is moving into a new property better than a real estate agent. Um, and most people, when they move into a new property and they need a plumber, they need an interior designer, they need help with landscaping, who do they ask? They're a real estate agent. Um, and so we found it's a beautiful little network. 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. I think one of the other things that you have to be mindful of when you're a baby business and you're just starting is you don't have a lot of cash. Um definitely one of those situations where like every penny you are watching and paying attention to and every penny matters. And so one of the other reasons I love grassroots marketing and relationship building is it doesn't really cost anything. I mean, unless you're delivering, you know, donuts and coffee or things like that to a potential client, your only cost is your time. And although your time is very valuable, it also technically is free. And so I love this approach early on because it gives you a chance to like get out there, see results, get an ROI on the lowest possible cost investment that you can make. Um, and I think oftentimes people overlook that. Um grassroots marketing is not easy, it's not necessarily convenient. It requires you to get out of your comfort zone. It requires you to do a decent amount of driving as you build these relationships and find your ideal clients and grab lunch with them and do these things. But the grassroots marketing is also the thing that is technically pretty dang close to free. And there's not any other digital ad campaign or billboard or you know, press page that is gonna have that low of an introductory cost for you and generate that kind of ROI.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

I think in the grassroots marketing would be really cool if you could clarify like, what do you do when you go to a client and they're an ideal client and they say no, or they say not right now? You know, how do you handle that?

SPEAKER_01 5:09

You know, I think if they say no, you've already missed the mark. Um, for me, grassroots marketing isn't saying, hey, I'm Elisa, I own Linden Creek home staging and I'd like to stage your property, and they say no. Like that's dumb and that's not successful. Grassroots marketing is about building relationships. And so I don't even want the conversation of how can I service you and you should buy my product. That's not part of this conversation. The conversation is how do I get to know you better? How do I help and support you? How do I build your network? How do I further you in your business? And hey, if I can help in some way and be an asset in that process, if I can help your digital marketing look better as you're photographing your MLS photos, if I can improve your days on market, let me do so. If I can take away some of the headaches you're dealing with or tough client conversations that have to come, let me be there for that. That's what those conversations should be. So I would say this isn't the time that you get the no, because if you're asking for something, you're doing it all wrong.

Referral Snowball And Trust

SPEAKER_00 6:04

That's fair. Well said.

Summary And Final Encouragement

SPEAKER_01 6:06

I think the other reason that I love grassroots marketing and relationship building is it's the most powerful snowball effect. So what's really fun is in our industry, um, we do free marketing every time we stage a property. So a home is staged. Do you know who walks through the home? Potential buyers. But do you know who else walks through the home? Real estate agents. And so it's a chance for realtors, our target audience, to see a portfolio in person of our work and happen to have some marketing material on the counter that says, here's my contact information. And so a combination of that, plus a simple fact that realtors and builders are really closely networked. I think that's something I love about them is they're competitive, they want to land the listing, what have you, but they're also so beautifully collaborative. And so we find in this season of our business, now that it's more established, that the majority of our work of our leads come from referrals. Hey, I heard about you from so-and-so agent who said I needed to call you. Um, and we get that on a daily basis. And so what's really beautiful is once you've built these relationships and you've really nurtured these relationships, word of mouth starts to become a thing. Um, and it becomes this beautiful, gorgeous snowball effect that's compounding over and over. And all of a sudden, your heavy lifting and hard work of like pushing this rock up a mountain becomes bigger and bigger and bigger. Um, and suddenly the effort that you're putting in versus the results that you're getting out is changed completely. I think to kind of summarize the conversation, um, you asked, what would I do? I would spend less time trying to compete with the noise online because there is a lot of noise, and more time really investing in valuable relationships, because relationships and trust, those are the things that truly last. Thanks for the conversation with us today. If you are in that early journey of your business where you are building and growing and you're going, what do I do? Um, my simple answer is you've got this and do more. Um, because one day all of that labor does really pay off. Um, and it's a beautiful thing. If this conversation added value to your life, we'd love for you to subscribe and continue more conversations with you. This is in good space.