Designing Your Home Staging Business Brand with Louise O’Kane
About Today’s Guest: Louise O’Kane
I am so excited to bring you today’s guest, Louise O’Kane, a clock designer turned branding pro and graphic designer at Lulacreates. Louise works closely with female founders and small businesses to create stand-out and holler-worthy brand identity and marketing graphics so they feel 100% confident in their brand.
Branding and marketing are important topics in the home staging world. When you’re just starting out as a home stager, it’s okay to take the DIY approach, but as you grow, you’ll reach a point where having a more united color palette and a cohesive brand identity on your website and social media can feel more professional. Louise is generous with her branding advice and tips in this conversation. You’ll learn how to build a home staging brand on a budget, a fascinating strategy for making the customer journey so much easier, and how to evoke your personality in your home staging brand so you can attract dream clients.
We also share the evolution of the Staged4more brand and how Louise played with patterns and textures to create the final concept.
Do join our Facebook group for Home Stagers so you can comment on the show! You can also comment on the show notes. I’d love to hear from you and know what you think about the episodes. If you have a chance, please do leave a review on iTunes. That will help us build our show and invite more amazing guests for the podcast.
This Week on The Home Staging Show Podcast
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Louise shares about her background and how she got into branding (00:07:40)
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A summary of what exactly is a brand (00:09:12)
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Louise’s top tips for building a polished brand identity on a budget (00:09:57)
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The importance of reflecting your genuine personality in your home staging brand (00:11:14)
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The special way Louise drills down and gets to know her clients’ personalities (00:12:20)
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How to navigate differing opinions when working with a brand designer (00:13:30)
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Building a mood board as a way to capture your home staging brand’s essence and ethos (00:14:07)
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How Staged4more evolved as a brand over time (00:15:08)
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How you’ll know when it’s time for a brand refresh (00:15:57)
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Versatility and longevity when it comes to your brand image (00:17:10)
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Louise talks through the iterations of the Staged4More branding we worked on together (00:19:10)
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Louise shares how playing with patterns and textures led to the final design concept for Staged4more’s brand refresh (00:20:37)
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The evolution of Staged4More’s brand refresh on social media and how it’s led to better engagement (00:22:25)
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How Staged4more uses the Canva templates Louise designed to make social media content creation easy and beautiful (00:26:15)
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How create cohesive brand identities across different programs, courses, or products (00:28:30)
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The essential research and Louise dives into before getting on a call with a potential client and some of the questions she asked me when we started our work together (00:29:37)
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Louise’s favorite ideal client exercise (00:31:25)
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The importance of building a strong community and how this led to meeting Louise (00:32:26)
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How to find the right brand designer to work with for your home staging business (00:35:52)
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Evoking your personality in your brand, using Virgin Airlines as an example (00:37:36)
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How my photography mentor Natasha inspired me (00:41:17)
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How Louise embodies “community over competition” in her business (00:43:50)
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How niching down has helped Louise attract her dream clients (00:45:42)
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Why recognizing where your business comes from is so important (00:48:33)
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Louise’s secret strategy for making the customer journey easier (00:50:18)
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Louise’s number one branding tip for home stagers (00:50:47)
Connect with Louise
Louise’s website: www.lulacreates.co.uk
Louise’s Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/lulacreates
Louise’s Instagram profile: http://www.instagram.com/lulacreates
Simon Sinek’s TED Talk: Start with Why
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