Today we’d like to introduce you to Tasha Moody.
Tasha, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
Fresh out of college I accepted a position in the trade show industry which was an excellent job, but not something I felt I could do for the long term. I started to open my mind to all types of concepts of what I might be good at, asking God to let me see what He might have for me instead of only what was right in front of me.
During that time I noticed friends would call me to help select their paint colors, shop for bedding or rearrange their condo. My brother was also selling his house and it looked so bad, I spent the entire weekend completely re-organizing and staging every nook and cranny, unpaid. On Sunday evening I looked up covered in dust and sweat and was so satisfied and filled up by what I had just accomplished, I’m pretty sure my journey was set in that moment.
During this same time I was addicted to HGTV shows, and while the tv designers are extremely talented – and I’m not claiming I’m an equal – at the big reveal I would always think to myself “I know I could do that!” This was back in 2005 when staging wasn’t nearly as prevalent or well known as it is today, and I wondered if it was actually a service I could turn into a career. I began asking real estate agents I knew, and the resounding answer was “YES”! That’s all I needed to hear.
With that, I quit my trade show career, booked a ticket to Minneapolis, MN to get certified and decided in my head I was going to be a stager and designer, no matter the obstacles. Boy, I’m glad I drew that line in the sand because there were obstacles indeed. I dropped off literally thousands of flyers to offices across the city, held countless presentations and training sessions where I would teach Realtors about the value and skill in staging, placed endless cold calls and requests for coffee to try and get my foot in the door and ask potential clients to just give me one chance.
Fast forward 13 years, and it’s amazing what determination and innovation can accomplish. Operating under my original business name of Simply Staged from 2006-2019, we’ve recently re-branded to our new company name Iris & Oak Interiors in order to better represent the broad range of services I never anticipated offering that day I started my business out of my little condo in West Midtown. Now having over 50 vacant homes staged across the city at any given time to residential interior design for some truly amazing clients to commercial interiors and office spaces, clubhouses and model homes – it has been an amazing journey that has landed me somewhere I never dreamed.
Iris & Oak Interiors is still very much a work in progress – I think that will always remain a fair statement – but it is all for good. I couldn’t be more proud of the growth we’ve seen and the quality of service and experience we’re able to offer our clients today.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Smooth road…that’s funny!!! Goodness, it has been bumpy, and twisty, and muddy and rocky, but every time it seems that if we just keep our focus ahead, doing the right thing and driving the best we know how we always find smooth open road in the end.
The truth is the majority of our struggles stem from trying to stay ahead of growth. In the beginning, it was just me and I had full control over every aspect of the business. That was great if I wanted to stay small, but with growth came its own set of problems – namely my being pulled in too many directions and unable to fill each of the demands well.
That tension led to expansion in terms of building a team, which of course has a separate set of challenges in the way of training, maintaining cohesive aesthetic, ensuring consistently positive client relations, and everything in between.
Part of our mission statement is to leave a lasting thumbprint with our clients both aesthetically AND interpersonally, and we take both sides equally as seriously. Accomplishing this well in the face of year-over-year growth is the source of most of our struggles…and our triumphs.
Please tell us about Iris & Oak Interiors.
Iris & Oak Interiors {formerly Simply Staged} is a boutique Home Staging, Interior Design and Finish Selection firm based out of the Brookhaven area of Atlanta. Our signature style is a layered neutral, transitional style that aims to bridge the gap between functionality and beauty. We have two arms of our business – Home Staging and Interior Design.
On the Home Staging side, we bring in furniture and decor to stage vacant homes, work alongside builders and developers to implement model homes and also conduct consultations with homeowners of occupied homes to provide a checklist of everything they can do to aesthetically prepare the home for sale.
On the Interior Design side, we specialize in residential design helping with everything from finish selection to custom furnishings, rugs, art, and decor as well as commercial design of office spaces and clubhouses.
I believe what sets us apart from others in the industry is that we have an extremely down to earth approach to everything we do. First and foremost – the type of people I have carefully selected for our team. Not only are they hard working and willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done, they’re also great listeners with a heart for both interiors AND people. Each client is so incredibly different from the next, we aim to truly learn our clients, what makes them tick, how they like to work, what their specific goals are, and then we set out to implement those goals as efficiently as possible. We also try to have some fun along the way – because this is design, and we believe it *should* be fun!
The other thing that sets us apart is simple – we do what we say we’re going to do, and we try to maintain fair rates along the way. Caring about our clients means caring about their wallets too, no matter how much disposable income they may have. Don’t get me wrong, design is a luxury service and working with highly frugal clients can make the process quite challenging (if not impossible)! However, there is a balance that includes making smart choices that add up to great results that won’t take your breath away when you get the final bill.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
Honestly…honestly…there is not a lot I would change. Not because I didn’t make some pretty painful mistakes that would seem nice to have avoided, but because I know without a doubt that without those mistakes, I wouldn’t have had the lessons and the opportunities to be introspective that led to such important growth, it outweighed the pain of the mistake.
Listen, we continue to learn so much all the time, and it usually comes from what appears, on the surface, to be a really unfortunate situation. These situations create tension, and tension creates growth. It’s amazing how many times over the course of even just one week I go from being on the most optimistic of highs to the most discouraged, defeated of lows.
Maybe I’m naive and it should be different, but for me, I feel like that’s just part of running a small business. You have to roll with the punches, but you also can’t just get punched and then sit around feeling sorry about the bruise. You have to figure out why you got hit, admit what part you personally played in that punch, figure out how you could have avoided it, and then create a system or process the ensure it doesn’t happen again next time.
Pricing:
- Home Staging – $200 – $6000
- Interior Design – $100/hour
- Finish Selection – $150/hour
Contact Info:
- Website: www.iris-oak.com
- Phone: 678-595-8969
- Email: book@iris-oak.com
- Instagram: irisandoakinteriors
- Facebook: irisandoakinteriors
Image Credit:
Josh Vick, Home Tour America, Jnelly Photography
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