I’m back to blogging and am writing my book!

Well, it appears I am back to blogging! It’s so funny because I haven’t written a blog post in over 3 years and I’m ready to dive back into the blogging world. Why, now, You ask? Let’s go through my reasons.

The first reason is because I am half way through writing the book I have promised to write and if I want to sell books, I need readers. So my first reason is purely selfish, but since many of you have asked me to start writing again, I’m guessing you are fine with my selfish motives? An author needs a blog and since I never took mine down, I thought, hey, lets go back to my roots. Of course I need to update the look of my blog, but I have decided to start posting before it looks the way I want it to look. If I wait until it looks “perfect”, it may take me another month to start blogging.

I turn 50 on September 11, of this year and writing “My Journey with Tiara” is my gift to myself. I can’t afford to have a big extravagant party, or travel to some exotic place across the world, so I decided writing a book would be a memorable way to commemorate turning half a century. It also forces me to stop dawdling and making excuses for why I haven’t finished “the book”. Plus, now I have a specific deadline to work towards. I need deadlines. As you can see from this website, I still have up the “my Journey with Tiara” series, but the book will be much more comprehensive than the series and will also dive into exactly what happened during her brain surgery which resulted in us living in the hospital for almost 3 months.

The second reason I have started blogging and writing again is because I am exhausted from my home staging business. The physical labor is taxing and I have decided I need to slow down a bit. So to catch you up to the present, here is the cliff note version of my life for the past 4 years.

After Tiara passed away I spent the first 6 months praying, going to daily mass, doing Pilates almost everyday, paddle boarding and spending time with my family and friends. I knew I needed to move and keep my mind busy, so I started looking for job opportunities. I mentioned this on Facebook and tons of wonderful people contacted me with potential job opportunities. A friend who was also a real estate agent asked me to join his team as a consultant. He said he would pay me to meet with the homeowner’s of his new listings and provide them with suggestions for getting their home market ready. I loved that idea! The first one didn’t go great because the woman wasn’t open to any changes or suggestions but I still liked the idea. I have always loved interior design and it is one of the talents I was born with, or inherited from my Mother. I mentioned this idea to several other agents and all of the sudden I landed a big job in Dover Shores. You may be wondering how I got such a big job in Dover Shores without any experience or a true business?

Well, it was September and I had just received birthday cash from my parents. I felt really conflicted about my life because so many different people were presenting me opportunities and I didn’t know what I was supposed to do. I went to Sunday Mass and put $250/ half of my birthday money into the till. I prayed for God to show me what I was supposed to be doing with my life, now that Tiara was gone. Literally within 2 hours after Mass, I received a call from a real estate agent. She was the daughter of a friend, whom I had told about my idea of working with homeowners to get their house ready to sell. She called me and said, ” You remember that idea you told me about?” “Yes”, I responded. She then said, ” Well, I have this client and she really needs your help. Can you go meet with her tomorrow?” “Sure”. I replied. And the rest is history. I worked with the homeowner for 3 weeks decluttering, adding accessories, art, new bedding and rearranging the layout of her furniture. She was thrilled with the results and that is when I knew I was meant to start twig DECOR. While trying to figure out what to call my business on Christmas day, my uncle came up with twig, tiffani whitaker goff interiors and I loved it! I just added DECOR, so people would realize it was an interior decorating/design/staging business.

The day after Christmas, 2015 I started working on my website, twigdecor.com. I figured I needed a website first and then I would figure out how to get new clients. I used the professional pictures from the Dover Shores house and another job I did in Irvine, which gave me enough material for my website. Then I decided to compile an email list of practically every real estate agent in the Newport Beach/ Costa Mesa area. I imputed a few thousand email address into a server and sent out a funny email to all of them. From that email, I received 3 jobs and from there, my business just took. One referral after another. It also helped that I charged less than every other stager in the area, worked harder, and had better results. Was I scared, YES! But I did it anyways.

After 6 months, Lou said it was time to lease me a cargo van because he was tired of me renting uhauls, just so I could bring home an oversized piece of art I found on sale at TJ Maxx. The first 6 months of my business, I only staged houses with furniture in them. I decluttered, moved items around, changed out pillows, art, bedding and accessories but then my real estate agents kept asking me if I could stage an empty property. I finally said YES!. I started buying inexpensive couches, side tables, chairs, dining tables, etc. At the height of my business, I had 10 houses on the market, all filled with my staging items. As you can imagine, buying, loading, storing, maintaining, loading, loading and more loading of furniture and accessories, is rather exhausting. I refused to hire labor unless I had no other option. It seemed impossible to make money if I hired movers for each job. I begged Lou, Tabitha, Trinity and Chandler to help me on more than several occasions. I can tell you that everyone in my family HATES my staging job. As Lou describes it, “I am a gloried mover/slave.”

In the middle of 2018, the real estate market started to slow. As it slowed, I decided I would change my business model to focus more on interior decorating and less on staging. Interior decorating doesn’t require me to purchase items which will remain in my inventory and there isn’t much lifting, so it is better for my bottom line and my back. I reduced my inventory from 2 large storage units, into one unit and decided to refocus my energy into getting design jobs. God provided again and somehow I was given a job as the interior designer for several remodels and they all turned out great with happy homeowners. And now to the present. I still have my staging/ interior design business BUT it is really slow, so I’m writing. I have my monthly expenses down to a minimum, which allows me to keep the business up and running, without losing money each month.

I think God wants me to take this time to write, while real estate is going through its changes, so I am embracing it! Of course, my bank account is suffering but what’s new? Lou has told me to ignore the money issues and focus on my book. So, I’m doing it and as a result you will be hearing from me. Trinity has informed me I am not at liberty to write about her life, now that she is 17 and a junior at Mater Dei, but that’s fine. I still have PLENTY of material. I’m still me, with my never ending thoughts and opinions. So excited to be back and thanks for having me!!!

xoxo tiffani