We had the good fortune of connecting with Michelle Minch and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michelle, do you have a favorite quote or affirmation?
My favorite quote is “Big doors swing on little hinges” by W. Clement Stone. In life and in business, the biggest wins or losses all come down to one small thought, decision or effort. Making a small change or exerting a small effort can change the trajectory of your business.

For example, in 2015, I realized that there were many home stagers that had no idea how to buy their furniture wholesale. I offered to take a bunch of stagers around the Las Vegas Furniture Market and show them how to navigate the market and who the best vendors were. That morphed into a 2 times per year class in Las Vegas that people travel to from all over the US & Canada to take. I’m known as the wholesale shopping expert in my industry and am asked to speak at home staging conventions. I just published an online class. So that one small decision to show a group of home stagers how to navigate buying wholesale furniture has morphed into a profitable business.

Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
I’m a professional home stager and interior designer. I used to work in the film industry as a Production Designer for films, television (Beverly Hills 90210), commercials and music videos). When I started my staging business, I was able to use all the skills and expertise I had developed in the film industry.

Owning a home staging company, I figured out early on that I better up my marketing game if I wanted to be successful. I had to figure out what makes my company unique, then market the heck out of it. Even though I’ve been in business almost 18 years, marketing is still an important part of every day. I am either writing blog posts or posting on several social media sites daily. I’ve always considered myself lucky, but owning and running a home staging business isn’t easy. There are a lot of moving parts: employees, warehousing, trucking, and backend stuff like overhead, insurance and all the requirements of the State of California and the City of Los Angeles.

Our greatest differentiator from our hundreds of competitors is that we know what makes homes sell and we get results for our clients. Most of the homes we stage, good market or bad market, sell for over asking price, sometimes hundreds of thousands of dollars over. A lot of stagers know how to make a house look pretty, but we know how to stage them so they sell for more money.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Depending upon the time of the year I’d take an out of town visitor to (in no particular order): Grand Central Market DTLA – interesting people watching and great foodie scene
Manuela Restaurant DTLA – food is great and I just love the atmosphere
Old Town Pasadena – lots of great restaurants, lots of great stores
Huntington Gardens – beautiful gardens and museum
Norton Simon, Broad and Getty Museum – art and architecture
Hollywood Bowl – a night of music under the stars
Disney Hall – amazing architecture and music
If they’re here on New Years Eve, we’d walk over to Orange Grove Blvd in Pasadena to watch them setting up the Rose Parade floats
Crypto Arena for an LA Kings Hockey Game – it moves fast and it’s really fun
Dodger Stadium to see a game – Iconic LA
Venice Boardwalk for people watching
Segway tour of Marina del Rey

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d like to recognize my friends Todd McAllister and Ryan Marsh of On Stage in Portland, Oregon. They have very generously shared so much information with me about best practices in running a home staging business. I also love the book Building A Story Brand, by Donald Miller. No matter what business you’re in, knowing how to sell your ideas and products for maximum engagement is priceless.

Website: www.movingmountainsdesign.com

Instagram: www.instagram.com/movingmountainsdesign

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/michelleminch

Facebook: www.facebook.com/michelleminch

Image Credits
Kevin Edge Lacey Wood

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