We recently connected with Amy Kear and have shared our conversation below.

Amy, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happy running your own firm? 

I absolutely love running my own business as opposed to working for someone else. I’ve always valued freedom over anything else, so I knew this was the best move for me. Not to say you will not be extremely busy running your own business, but I can pick and chose which projects I have the most passion for. That makes me work even harder to ensure my business succeeds! My motto in life is “Choice, Love, Passion”. If something doesn’t fall into those categories, I steer away from it.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I got into organizing and staging by creating a visionboard for myself about what I REALLY wanted to do in my life after becoming a single mom. I knew I couldn’t survive in Colorado as a master level social worker. I focused on organizing and literally the next day, I saw an ad for a professional organizer who needed help. I started working with her, and 3 weeks later our client fired her and hired me!
After that I knew this was a clear path, so I spent about 1 year networking and meeting people for coffee. My real estate agent also gave me a big break by asking me to help a client downsize, declutter, and stage a home for a wealthy hoarder. It was a 10K sf home filled to the brim!
She was so impressed that she recommended me to many real estate agents, and here I am!
I think my master’s degree in social work differentiates me from others in this industry, because I know how to work with hoarders, difficult life transitions such as death, divorce, and mental illness.
I’m extremely hard working and I’m proud of myself for starting this business and putting in the blood, sweat, and tears to ensure it continues to succeed!
Now I stage homes for real estate agents, declutter and organize homes, and help with moving preparation. And I LOVE what I do! It combines my love for helping others, my creative side with staging, and my love for organization.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Resiliency is key to the success of my business. There’s a lot of competition out there, and you have to find ways of keeping clients loyal to you. I try to educate agents on the fact that cheap isn’t the way to go in staging a home. Experience and knowing what buyers are looking for when they see photos of a home are critical. Sometimes my industry can be slow, especially with the housing market fluctuations. You have to plan for the slow months and keep persevering. If you can master this, you’ll be ahead of the game!

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

My parents always pushed me toward a college degree, and at the time I was unsure what I wanted to do with my life. I just went with what they told me. While I do think a college degree can be helpful in some careers, I think it would have been better for me to spend some years traveling or joining the Peace Corps after high school to explore my passions that way. Also, you don’t have to use your degrees even though you worked hard for them. Go another direction if you find a passion, life is too short to settle for a soul-sucking job!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.houseinorderbyamy.com
• Instagram: @houseinorderbyamy
• Facebook: Amy Blumenhein
• Linkedin: Amy Kear