We were lucky to catch up with Mandy Shields recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Mandy, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.

INhance It Home Staging is a family business, my husband Rick and I own the company and our daughter Ava is our lead stager. Our other employees consist of a longtime friend of the family, one of Ava’s best friends, and the rest have become like family to us. Rick & I have a corporate background where we worked hard to advance in our careers. This always included providing exceptional customer service which was always so important to us, and it still is today. We were born and raised in St Louis, Missouri and began dating in high school. We never imagined we would own a business together, especially one that is growing so rapidly. We absolutely love everything about working together and owning a family business. We attribute our growing business to hard work, dedication, and customer oriented service skills. We stage for many of the local home builders, real estate agents and investors. We have also come up things that help us stand out in the industry, one of them being the idea to invite Realtors into our warehouse for a presentation on our services and show them some behind the scenes of staging. We love having them in and have had so many clients turn into friends. They support and promote us and we do the same with them. We also promote their listings for the properties we stage on our social media to help market the property as well as themselves. Many of our over 18K followers on social media follow us for design ideas, which is a huge compliment!

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 back background and context?

I got into staging through Real Estate. I started staging my own listings because I loved to do it and also because I realized right away that if I made them look better they would sell faster and for more money. I also think my Real Estate background makes me a better stager. It helps so much having been in the agents shoes and knowing the importance of providing their clients with excellent customer service as we are a reflection of them. One of the things I’m most proud of is how much our business is growing from year to year. Each year has been a huge increase over the next. Its been such a fun (& busy) journey! I am also proud of how fast our social media accounts have grown. Our large following helps us promote our agents and their listings. We also love to promote other St Louis businesses. We love to give back!
We also have a “style” that defines our company. We have many people tell us they can tell we staged the house as soon as they walk in. One of the things that helps us stand out is the luxury look we bring to every home we stage regardless of the price point. Many people tell us they follow us on social media for design ideas which is a huge compliment!
I’m so proud of our entire team and so lucky to have them, they love this company as much as Rick and I do. It means so much to us as do they!
We have been voted top 10 stagers in the country through the Real Estate Staging Association for the past 5 years and its such an honor. We are so proud of the awards we have received for doing what we love so much!

How did you build your audience on social media?

Growing a brand on Social Media is a lot of work. It was so important to me because posting our day to day staging on our social media is a way for us to provide free marketing for our clients. We list the property address and tag the agent. We want to get the listing out to as many people as possible to help our clients. We get so many compliments on our social media and it means so much to be because a lot of blood, sweat and tears have gone into growing it! Not really – but sometimes it feels like it! The best advice I can give to someone trying to grow their brand or business on social media is to be consistent. Do what you love, figure out what it is that your audience wants to see, & have fun with it. Don’t let it stress you out, it can be a lot of work and time consuming and consistency is key!

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

My business partner is my husband and I absolutely love it! People ask me all the time if it is hard to work with my husband and the answer is no. But full disclosure – it helps that we have separate offices and that I am out on appointments for most of the day. We love growing this company together. We handle opposite parts of the business. He handles all of the finance, numbers, payroll, bids, pretty much everything that has to do with numbers. I handle all things design, shopping, organizing, the creative side of the business. Where our jobs collide is when I spend and he budgets. We are looking forward to leaving a legacy to our children. Something we love and have grown together.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.inhanceitstaging.com
• Instagram: inhanceit_staging
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/inhanceithomestaging

Image Credits
Work Play Branding for team photos