Every year there are more and more classes going online. The students benefit in a multitude of ways, such as lower fees, total flexibility, total convenience, the ability to work at their own pace, the ability to get a 1:1 student/teacher ratio. My daughter took 3 online courses in college and they were excellent classes, which she enjoyed very much and learned a tremendous amount.
Interior Redesign and Home Staging is being taught very effectively online as our many students will attest to, so don't let anyone try to convince you that it isn't effective. It most certainly is effective - and best of all it's the most affordable way to learn too.
Each person brings their own uniqueness to the equation. We all know different people, come from different backgrounds, have had different levels of training in a wide variety of areas, have different goals and desires, different work ethics, different personalities and living in different areas. That's one of the reasons that makes redesign/staging so intriguing, so easy to learn, so profitable.
Examples
I get regular inquiries by phone and from email from people looking for a stager. One gentleman had a 100-year old boat he needed staged. Another lady had a 4500 square foot home and needed staging help. She is an investor and needs help on a frequent basis. I get calls from realtors looking for stagers all over the country. I pass the referrals on to my Gold or Diamond level trainees only, because they are the most highly trained and have invested the most in getting properly trained and I figure they deserve it more than those that just buy a basic tutorial. Something to think about. And these are just a few examples. I could go on and on. Many students know people in the real estate business and many have agents just waiting for them to get trained. If there's one thing I've learned, it's that the opportunities are definitely out there and I'll teach you how to capitalize on them.
Myth #1 - Every trainer claims to have the most comprehensive training you'll find. Well, this is obviously a sheer impossibility. It is a fact that I have written 13 books for the home staging and redesign industries and no other trainer even comes close to such a record. I've also been in the industry for 40 years, have trained over 12,000 students since 2002 and most others have been around less than 4 years with dubious backgrounds, short histories, and questionable tactics. Claims should be made based on provable facts - so look for facts and evidence of a trainer's claims.
Myth #2 - It is advertised on TV so it must be ethical and a great product. TV programs don't care whether their advertisers are ethical nor whether the products advertised are good or not. They are merely interested in the advertiser's dollars. The only voices the TV show will listen to are the voices of their collective advertisers. TV ads are merely shortened versions of infomercials or moving brochures - looking good or being on TV is no guarantee that a company is ethical or able to train.
Myth #3 - The most well known organization must be the best. The most well known organization merely has gotten the most media promotion, may have been around a little longer or has spent the most money on advertising. This does not mean it is the best.
Myth #4 - The website looks very professional so their course must be good. While a well designed website is important and may be a clue to quality, it may not represent the quality of the actual trainer at all because third party designers are often hired to create websites. Well designed websites are a testimonial to how good the designer is. (BTW this website was created in its entirety by the author and trainer - not a 3rd party designer.)
Myth #5 - If it's new it must be better. New does not mean better. Oldest does not mean better. "Better" is decided by content and service. "Best" is decided by content which is supported with vast experience coupled with high integrity, quality control and the ultimate in service.
1) The Buy a Book Approach - Buying a book on the subject allows you to get exposure to the industry of choice with minimal investment. Depending on your background, this may be enough or may just be an introduction from which you branch out into a course. We offer many books to help you.
2) The Take a Seminar or Class Approach - Taking a seminar or class can be very expensive and statistics prove you'll probably only retain about 10% of what you hear. You'll be dependent upon the quality of the individual instructor, which can be great or poor depending on the person you choose. But there is usually the ability to get a little "hands on" experience which some people find useful and others find a complete waste of time. Annual fees are assessed and business independence is restricted. Expect to have to pay extra for promotional aids, books and tools and anything else offered, in addition to travel, hotel and meal expenses, and time away from family and other obligations.
3) The Study Strictly Online Approach - An online course, depending on the one you choose, can be good - even quite good, but if you don't handle long hours at a computer well, it's a really tough way to get an education. You'll also be totally dependent on that company remaining online and in business for the long term and you'll face annual or monthly renewal fees you have to pay routinely to stay active and in touch and keep what you've built over time - again all over the computer increasing eye strain.
4) The "I Am a Movie Star" Approach - Then there's the "new generation" approach - name dropping famous actors for credibility, offering 80% off of a bogus "retail" price and then 30 days later charging a monthly renewal fee over and over again, dragging the training out to 6 weeks. Slick Madison-Avenue marketing, high pressure sales tactics. Evaluate everything very carefully - to quote a famous saying, "The cheap often comes out expensive." So always ask yourself, "What's the catch?" - Not a recommended option.
5) The Guaranteed to Qualify for Employment Approach - The "guaranteed employment" approach isn't guaranteed employment at all but a guarantee to "qualify to be considered for employment". Fortunately the company fostering this misleading promise has been forced to withdraw such offers after huge amounts of backlash from the public.
6) The All-Around Student-Centered Approach - Lastly, there is the tried-and-true combination approach - by the veterans in design and home business development. The "new generation" types disrespect the veteran trainers, claiming they need to get "updated" but, then, what else can they say? The "new generation" group doesn't have the credibility and sustainability history of the older pros, so they have to find some way to distract you into believing "new" is automatically better - when in reality what veterans teach works and continues to work, day in and day out. Veterans teach what worked in the past and also what works now so you get everything that has ever worked or will work. And you won't have to be bombarded with thousands of sales gimmicks all geared to separate YOU from YOUR MONEY either. This is our approach to courses.
We have increasingly been contacted by a growing number of unhappy students from other training companies advertising on the web and also on popular TV programs. We are not surprised and have been trying to warn consumers to be careful for many years. Please read about our thoughts, recommendations. Periodically we may offer a special discount to those individuals. If we currently offer one, you'll find the details here: Possible Solutions to Consider.
Many of our competitors only teach one business. We teach both staging and redesign. Many of our competitors offer no design training at all (or very little) - we offer the most extensive design training in the industry (written by us, not some third party). Our marketing training is second to none. And we also give you training in topics no one else offers at any price. That's why we legitimately can claim we offer the most comprehensive guidance and can back up our claims with proof.
Our competitors all charge monthly or annual renewal fees. We don't (except for websites - we have a nominal renewal fee of $75 because we are charged as well). We don't charge students to keep what they have purchased when it costs us nothing to keep them in the system. We think this is unfair to students. Can you imagine paying USC or Harvard an annual fee to keep your diploma? So why do online companies charge you membership fees and other fees to keep what you already paid them to give you when you signed up?
Most of our competitors have copied us or taken training from us. We obviously are the standard and mentor to most. Do you want to learn from an imitator or from the original source?
Quite frankly there can only be one "best" course. We believe we're the only company that can claim "we are the best" legitimately. We believe we offer the most training and the absolute best overall value. We are student focused - and we refuse to nickel and dime students or charge extra fees that only benefit us and not our students. Our focus is on our students and not whether we're the largest or have the most well known reputation or a "flashy" website. We strive to be ethical, informative and fair in all matters.
Yes, you need to know some important interior design concepts so that you do a beautiful rearrangement for your client, but it's not the same as doing surgery on someone's gall bladder, so don't be fooled into believing it's a difficult process that can only be learned in a face-to-face classroom or noisy seminar. I wasn't trained that way. When you become an adult you develop many different capacities of learning and no one should make you feel you can only learn their way.
However, at the Diamond Deluxe and Diamond Ruby Level we'll give you a 5-7 page brochure website, in a domain name of your choosing (so long as it is available). Here are examples of what you can get: (Examples). We'll host it for a year and then you can renew it with us or not for a nominal charge, your choice. At the Diamond Standard, we'll give you a custom webpage for your bio.
We will, of course, optimize your website for the search engines and link to it from two directories, not just one. Our directories are divided by country, state and city, making it super easy for consumers to find your listing. Far too many directories supported by our competitors are so confusingly laid out, consumers instantly go away without even hunting for someone in their vicinity. But bear in mind that you should not overly rely on a website or a directory to build your business. In a consulting business, it is the face-to-face encounters that build your business best. That's why we also have plenty of offline marketing and promotional strategies in the manuals and in our courses that will help you garner business in very effective, time proven ways beyond directories and websites.
The websites we offer are clean and simple for a reason. You only have 2 seconds to keep a visitor's attention, so it has to load fast and help them find what they want quickly. Studies prove flashy websites don't work as well as simple, clean websites. Don't fall for the "fluff". It means nothing. WARNING: Don't buy any course which demands you sign a 3-year contract for your website (hidden in their terms of use section). One such course demands $150 per year every year for 3 years whether you keep the website or not (payable annually). That's $540 in addition to your course fee. And if you don't set it up within 30 days of starting the course, you lose the website feature altogether with no refunds. You might even be held liable for the 3-year $540 fee regardless. Beware! Beware! Beware! We have no contracts, no minimums, no time limits and renewal of our student websites is only $75 per year.
We have no contracts, no minimums, no time limits and renewal of our student websites is only $75 per year.
In addition, no webmaster can know the full extent of another site's traffic for comparison because other companies may (and of course, we do) have multiple sites and multiple sub-domains, all drawing traffic. So it can be misleading (and probably untruthful) to boast that one has the most traffic over another.
We also give you a highlighted, more prominent listing in the two directories. You do not need to absorb any of the advanced training to pass the exam and we tell you exactly what to study first and foremost, so we've made it as student friendly as possible. While there is a time commitment to getting certified, you will at the same time be creating your own professional portfolio of your own work which you will use to help garner new clients.
So our whole process serves to benefit you in these specific ways: 1) give you affirmation of the new knowledge you will learn; 2) make certain that you have properly understood the material covered, the all-important design and business concepts so you'll be able to answer client questions with authoritative answers; 3) assist you and push you a little in creating your own "proof of talent" by way of before and after pictures; 4) assist us in safeguarding your progress and the dignity of the designations we promote; 5) affirm your talent by making sure you are working at a professional level and giving you feedback if necessary; 6) creating a one minute musical slideshow of your work to feature on our website and to link to from your two directory listings; 7) making sure all candidates operate with the highest standards and ethics and are deserving of such a coveted designation.
Your entire training fee can be paid for by your first two clients or less, no kidding. That gives you a profit almost immediately. Sound too good to be true? Well, it is true, so I guess it breaks the rule.
How long does the Silver, Gold or Diamond Program take? Well, that is different for everyone, depending on the time commitment they give to it and their personal sense of urgency. Obviously if you just get a basic tutorial in staging or redesign, and that's all you get, then it will take as long as it would to read a good book. But if you're training at the Silver, Gold or Diamond level, you'll want to invest a bit more time. I suggest you study through all of the design training, much of which you can do before the rest of the course arrives, because some of your training will be on the computer with our ebooks, which you can get immediately upon placing your order.
It is possible to be starting your business within 7 days, but the average trainee takes longer. Again, it's really up to you and how quickly you study. Some people have projects waiting for them right away, so they will naturally want to move through the material at a faster pace.
This training program is now ranked the #1 Redesign/Staging Combo Program in the world. There's a reason for that. I train more people in a single month than most of my competitors train in a whole year. And not just because I'm so affordable either. I'm #1 because I'm good at explaining the concepts and showing you what to do and how to do it. I've spent untold hours developing my entire one-of-a-kind system for both businesses.
Thank you Barbara for helping craft my talent into a profession that offers service to others in a tangible way. As a side benefit of being trained by the best, I will have an article appearing in a magazine next month and have been listed as the home stager referred and selected by some of the most prominent real estate agents in my area (San Luis Obispo, California). All this is a direct result of your training. - Maria Skelly"
As an author, I've been told my writing style is personable, easy to read and understand and I have received numerous compliments on my abilities to communicate and teach. If you find reading this report to be easy to understand, you'll find my training materials are too.
My entire training program is tailored to your individual need. If you want just basic training, I have that for you. If you just want advanced training, I have that for you too. You can pick and choose what aspect of the training will best meet your goals based on your personal background and experience. No one else offers such fantastic flexibility. Some trainers s-t-r-e-t-c-h it out and some scrunch it down till you hardly get anything at all. We believe you can't have too much at your fingertips and that's why ours is intensive, but gets you going right away too.
No one else offers the benefits of my "A La Carte", or our three Diamond "Combo" Training Courses (Standard, Deluxe, Ruby) because no one else has all of the expertise, concepts, strategies, and business tools to offer you at such an affordable investment. You won't find anyone who has a program that is as thorough, as broad, as specific, as helpful AND as affordable and flexible as mine all rolled into one. That's a promise.
Have you heard the saying, "When the student is ready, the trainer will appear"? Yes, I certainly understand how confusing it all is. So many people claiming to be experts with many deceptions out there. Perhaps this will help.
