We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Liz Baynard a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Liz, appreciate you joining us today. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

I took a leap of faith when leaving a challenging albeit rewarding position as an educator in the public school system to pursue a true “dream job” in the world of home staging and design. I wasn’t aware that I could make a living doing something that felt more like a fun hobby than a career, but I’m so grateful that I gave it a shot. I’m not sure I ever dared to imagine myself owning my own business, but with a much-needed push and vote of confidence from my now partner, I decided to go for it and have truly never looked back. There are times that I occasionally miss being able to fully “take off” from work the way one might in a regular job. I recall a time that my family and I packed up for a week’s vacation at the beach. I’d spent the previous week obsessively organizing the schedule for the time I’d be gone, making sure my team would be covered and prepared for any scenario that might arise in my absence. On the first day of our trip, I headed out for an early-morning run along the water only to be interrupted by a call from the moving company cancelling our help for the day. We are a staging company, so we rely heavily on our movers in a typical day. Without their help, we’d be forced to in turn cancel on our many clients for the day, risking not only our reputation for dependability but also losing out on the day’s revenue. Thankfully after several frantic phone calls and brainstorming solutions, my fabulous team worked with me long-distance to scrap together a plan to save the day. In that moment, I sorely missed the freedom of calling a substitute and sticking my feet into the sand without a care in the world! It was a rude awakening and a lesson learned that a small business owner is never really on vacation. All that said, the flexibility that comes with being your own boss is well worth that sacrifice.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I was born and raised on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, where I inherited an avid love of home design from my mother at an early age. I earned a Bachelor of Arts and a master’s degree from the University of Virginia and went on to teach special education in the public school system for ten years. During that time, I dabbled in some private decorator consulting as a “side hustle” until eventually my love of working with people and designing on-a-dime led me to the home staging business – a perfect fit! Since co-founding Maxwell & Edison Interiors, I’ve been thrilled at the opportunity to work with clients to create beautiful spaces and get top dollar for each home by maximizing its full potential.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Social media was entirely new for me when I became a business owner. I didn’t even have a Facebook page when I started out, let alone an Instagram account, which would eventually become one of our most powerful marketing and networking tools! We are a highly visual business so I understood the importance of getting comfortable with social media and diving in with both feet. One key step I took early on was to meet with a colleague in my area whose social media presence and style I admired. I asked candid questions about how to decide on what content to post, when to post it, which audience to target, etc. Some of the best advice I received was not to worry too much about posting “perfection” but instead to simply be active and to show different facets of myself, not just as a business owner but as a well-rounded person with interests outside of my industry. This has helped me make connections with people not solely for “networking” purposes but for our genuine similarities and commonalities. You never know which friend or follower may open a door that leads to a new opportunity – professional or otherwise! My own advice would be to keep things light and positive in your posts; there’s plenty of superficiality, conflict and competition to be found in the world of social media and I’d rather be contributing uplifting content that brightens others’ feeds.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

One of our earliest staging jobs was a high-end new build that we were approached about at a time when we had absolutely no appropriate inventory and a shoestring budget. We were staging primary row homes in the city – small scale, modern furnishings. The sellers – a stager herself who lived out of state and her son, a builder – were requesting a sophisticated coastal design complete with a massive sectional for the living area, two dining areas and a king bed. Seeing this for the potential marketing and growth opportunity that it was, I said yes and then set out to shop with the pressure on. I spent hours combing the basement clearance sections of our local stores hoping to find diamonds in the rough. We spent all of the profits we’d be making on the job (probably 10 times over!) but we knew the inventory would come in handy for future stages and wanted to nail the look so that we could get great photos to use in future ads and marketing. I was a nervous wreck on the day of installation and even asked my mom to drive about two hours to assist that day – in part because she has a fabulous eye but in truth mostly for moral support! – but it went off without a hitch. The client wrote to tell me that the finished product was perfect and had captured her exact vision. The property sold quickly and the buyers loved the design so much they even purchased several pieces of the furniture, allowing us to recoup some of our losses. Most importantly, the photos were phenomenal and we use them still in our marketing materials to this day. When we were featured in a local real estate publication, those were the first images we pulled to make a great impression on readers. I was elated and still love thinking back on that time when we pushed fear aside and it paid off in a big way!

Contact Info:

• Website: maxwellandedison.com
• Instagram: @maxwellandedisoninteriors
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maxwellandedisoninteriors