Meridith Baer Home: Meridith Baer. She Started Over at 50 and Put Home Staging on the Map.

0:08 I find That white sofas only exist in staged homes. I mean yes, some people have them, but Like people have White Sovas A have no ch small children. Or their children are so well behaved, or they always wear latex gloves or they have no pets.

0:25 Or they don't care about red wine. Have you ever heard of slip covers? Welcome to How I Built This, a show about innovators, entrepreneurs, idealists, and the stories behind the movements. They built. I'm Guy Raz and on the show today, how a frustrated screenwriter brought her storytelling to real estate.

0:56 Built Meredith Bear home. One of the biggest staging companies in the industry. In the late 1990s, something subtle, but seismic, started to shift in American real estate. For decades, buying a home meant spending your weekends driving from open house to open house, picking up paper flyers, and trying to remember which layout belonged to which address. But suddenly, homes were being listed on the internet, and that changed everything. Because for the first time,

1:32 Buyers could tour dozens of homes in a single sitting. Scrolling through bedrooms and backyards. long before they ever stepped inside. And with that shift came a new challenge. An empty room in an empty house simply didn't sell the dream.

1:48 And it didn't photograph well. So a new idea Barely a concept at the time. began to emerge. It was called staging.

1:57 The art of giving a home just enough life. To spark imagination. trendy or artful furniture that could show what it would be like to live in that house. And that staged furniture also helped in another way. It tended to increase the sale price, sometimes by hundreds of thousands of dollars over asking.

2:19 And one of the people who helped transform staging from a clever trick into an entire industry? was Meredith Baer. Meredith discovered the idea almost by accident in 1998. She was fifty years old, frustrated with her career as a screenwriter in Hollywood. and pouring her energy into a house she was renting.

2:40 She furnished it with tasteful pieces, she added art and plants to make the space come alive. So alive that when the owner showed the home to a potential buyer, It sold immediately. And almost as quickly, Merith realized she might be onto something.

2:57 Today, her company, Meredith Bear Home, is one of the best known staging firms in real estate. But in this episode We're also gonna learn about Meredith's pre-staging years, because her life story Is a story in itself, almost like a movie. She was a teenage mom who was forced to give up her child. She acted in Pepsi commercials, appeared in cigarette ads,

3:20 She wrote for Penthouse, she dated Patrick Stewart. The staging work just happened by chance. It wasn't supposed to be a business. But Meredith eventually turned her brand, Meredith Bear Home. into a major force in real estate. Now long before she built the business,

3:38 Meredith lived the early part of her life in one of the most unusual places in America. A notorious maximum security prison. From about six and a half. Till I was almost thirteen. I lived on the prison grounds at San Quentin.

3:55 Beautiful piece of real estate. It's incredible, right? Anybody who knows it knows it's right on the water and we're in counting it. Yes. beautiful, but of course it's a Very scary place. Tell me how Why were you Living and why were you why'd you grow up on the grounds of San Quentin?

4:11 My father was a sociate warden there. We lived on the grounds because we could get very close to free rent. And uh There was a one room schoolhouse there where I went from first through eighth grade. Wow.

4:23 And uh we had a walk f sort of from my end of the prison. across this long path that looked down at inmates exercising in the yard. And then we arrived at the other end of the prison where the schoolhouse was. And uh we were just a bunch of kids hanging out. Playing Kellerball.

4:41 Baseball? And I was usually the only person in my grade, so I was clearly the smartest. person in my graph. So do you remember, I don't know, just the security measures that had to be taken just to secure your I mean Your home, for example, right?'Cause in case there was like a prison break or somebody escaped was it. You know, it was pretty much go out and play and come home when it's dark.

5:05 that kind of a childhood and I felt very safe. There were guards all over the place. I mean the one thing I do remember is that when we came home, if we went into the city or went into San Rafael When we came home. They would check our car.

5:21 Stoways. Yeah. And there was one instance where my next door neighbors He was also an associate warden. We're tied up. And an inmate got

5:31 Oh, I don't know, a few blocks before he was. Caught. Wow. And I guess you were there until as as you say, until about eighth grade, and then you moved to Iowa because your dad got a Yeah.

5:44 In that state's prison system, is that right? Yes, he he became head of the prison system in Iowa. He was director of corrections for Iowa and we lived in Des Moines. Yeah. So your dad, he was running the prison and your mom was kind of her s her project was Flipping homes? Well she did she had a lot my mother was an interesting woman. She she uh when we were living at Sanquetin, she was bored out of her mind. So she got a law degree.

6:11 And then she used to drive around looking for something to buy. My father had inherited some money and he was quickly Losing it all. in his investments. So my mother took what was left and bought a thousand acre ranch up in Gold Country. And we would go up every weekend and kind of stay in this little cabin up there. This is in California. Yes, three miles from Kaloma where gold was discovered.

6:34 Mm-hmm. In the eighteen hundreds. In the Sierra Nevadas, yep. That's right. Sierra Foothills. And so then when we moved to Des Moines, my mom

6:42 took the worst acreage we had like fifty bad acres and traded it for this mansion with thirteen bedrooms. Uh so that was she liked real estate. All right, you go to college in the mid sixties'cause you're gonna be like a young woman right at this kind of m moment in time when when there's all these huge cultural changes in America. And you went to the University of Colorado. Yes.

7:06 And what was that like in the mid sixties? Was it I mean I think I'm thinking sixty five is the beginning of like the free speech movement at Berkeley and then late sixties it gets crazy, right? Yeah. But was the University of Colorado more conservative, or was it did it feel like things were changing? Oh things were definitely changing. I th I mean certainly by sixty seven or so Everybody was going to sit ins. We were all just and it really changed dramatically. I mean I pledged a sorority my freshman year, but by my junior year I was a hippie. And while you're in college.

7:42 I guess you did a little bit of sort of versions of what your mom was doing, which was Not necessarily flipping houses, but I guess you kinda got involved in in like helping sort of people decorate their homes, tell me a little bit about what you would do for for extra money. Oh, so first of all I had always had jobs.

8:00 You know. dress store, a travel agency. And then Whatever money I could save, I started flipping houses. And

8:08 At that time in Boulder you could buy a little house for Two thousand dollars and I'd flip it and sell it for eight. And all I would do really is to make it look cuter. I might add shutters, I might paint the door a nice, you know, interesting color.

8:25 And take my furniture out from wherever I was and put it in there. So I was sort of doing that without giving it much thought. When I was in college. Right. Actually I've skipped a few things because actually what happened is I got pregnant my freshman year in college. And

8:43 Uh my parents made me give up my son. They were pretty brutal to me. And It was a pretty Awful emotionally.

8:50 Experience Just the way my parents reacted to the whole thing. Sorry, I'm just a So you Gave up your son for adoption or they okay.

9:00 They did. Yeah, I was not really given a choice. qu I can't imagine how traumatic that experience was when you were a young woman Pregnant and your parents Demand that you

9:13 give the child up for adoption. Um Did you ever reconnect with that person? Well, as a matter of fact. I adopted him last year. 'Cause both of his parents have long passed.

9:24 And he's now a grown man, he's in his fifties. He's a grown man, he's in his fifties. Yeah. So At one point I hired a detective and I found him and I corresponded with his mom. And she asked me to stay away and I did.

9:38 Until they turned eighteen and then Just send him a note if you ever had any questions. Um Here's how to reach me. What an incredible story. So he and and so now he you have a r obviously a relationship with him.

9:52 I do, I do. Uh, we're very close now. We had our ups and downs over the years because I think He never really forgave me for quite some time for giving him up. Yeah. Things would be great with me.

10:04 But You know, I don't think it would have been Necessarily 'Cause I was so young. Yeah, you were like twenty years old. Twenty one may be nineteen or

10:13 I was eighteen when I got pregnant and nineteen when I gave birth. Well. Right. Okay. Um so so I just want to go back to your to your time in college for a moment, because as I understand it, I think right before you graduated, you met a guy named Jerry Bruckheimer, uh who would go on to to become obviously like a legendary movie producer, d American Jigelo, Top Gun, and Parts of the Caribbean and you know tons of other movies.

10:38 But when you met him, I think he was just starting out. Like I think he was making TV ads, right? Yes, he's an ad guy. and came up to me and asked me to be in a Pepsi commercial and I went, Yeah, right. Was Jerry Brookhammer what was he doing in Boulder, Colorado? They were scouting for talent. Alright, he was an ad guy, he and he was a young guy And he finds you and he says

11:00 Hey, you look pretty g I mean, w were you like a he thought you were cute and thought. Yeah. And I had I had uh really long hair. You know, down to my waist practically. You know like a cute hippie, you know, with mascara, a a mascara kinda hippie. And so I did I think three or four different commercials.

11:19 for them over a couple of weeks. Wow, okay, so you are so you do these Pepsi commercial and they were filmed in Boulder, like on campus or in town? Oh yeah, all over in the mountains. I mean I I they had me riding a horse You know drinking water out of a stream. being twirled around by a guy with children in front of a campfire. It was all kinds of very colorad and situations. Right, okay, so you do those ads, and I guess you decide to relocate.

11:46 To New York City. Not to pursue acting necessarily, you just go to live there, right? Yeah. I ended up packing up a You haul and

11:55 Driving to New York and Living there. But I needed a job. So I looked in the village voice. And it said British periodical needs editorial assistance.

12:07 Mm-hmm. So I went for an interview. And it was Penthouse Magazine. Okay. And There was this six foot four man with a booming voice. He said, I'll let you know.

12:17 And I got the job. Okay, so this is the early 70s, 70, 71. You get to New York and you get a job as an editorial assistant with Penthouse Magazine, first of all. I mean It wasn't even Playboy, it was Penthouse, which was way more explicit. I mean did

12:33 W first of all w did your pa what'd your parents think? You're like, Hey, I got a job. It's called Penthouse Magazine. Like I can't imagine calling my parents when I'm twenty two and saying, Hey, I'm working at this place called Penthouse I mean because It's a pornographic magazine. Okay, well first I should tell you that Jim Good used to be with Playboy. And Jim Good was your the editor who hired you. Yes. And and he was he created the Playboy interview. So I mean

13:02 My dad thought it was fabulous. He you know, he wouldn't Your Dad was happy that you were working at Penthouse? He thought it was cool. And and my baby br my younger brother, who was twelve years my junior, was in boarding school and I would send him, you know, a subscription and he loved it. But but what but your job was not to like Vet photographs. Writing but was the writing

13:25 Racey, was it sexual, or was it just like, you know, regular articles were in there? You know, the articles that guys who wanted to look at the pictures would read and justify looking at the pictures. This was the old saying back in the day where people say, Oh, I subscribe to Playboy for the articles. That's right. And Penthouse was sort of I would say probably a poor man's version

13:49 Of that. Right. And I was really working on trying to Fine writers and articles that were interesting on all kinds of subjects, whether it was cars or whatever would be interesting to the men who'd want to read that magazine. And that would justify their being able to have it at home and look at the pictures. Mm-hmm.

14:07 And then Guccioni. wanted to put me in the magazine. He wanted He wanted me to be naked in the magazine and I This is Bob Guccione Junior who founded the the magazine, right? Yeah. And um

14:21 I said, Are you kidding me? What I could I would never do that. Nobody I know would speak to me again. You know, I mean I was a feminist. Yeah, probably a good move. Yeah. On your part. My father would have had a heart attack. Alright, but you decide, of course, this is not the right place for me. You're not gonna pose in the magazine. I think when I said no, I experienced a little bit of being just treated I could see I was headed down a road I didn't want to go down.

14:47 Right, today it probably would not pass muster. There'd probably be a lot of lawsuits. sexual harassment lawsuits. But but back then, I guess there was it was just different time. Okay. So you you decide to leave and and Jim Good, who's your mentor editor there He helps you get an appointment with Eileen Ford. This is the Ford modeling agency. Right. Right. And so you wanted to be a model, but uh not a nude model, but you thought

15:10 I should maybe I'll do some modeling to make make money. More for commercials. I mean Jim was saying gee, you did these commercials. You should be doing more of them. And with commercials the key was to learn to smile while you're talking about the item that you're selling. So I kinda got that down. And so

15:30 In the course of time I did about a hundred television commercials. And also I read ads like for Winston and Kent's and Benson. Yeah, so they started to also send me out on print. So I was like the Winston girl, the Kent girl I went down a rabbit hole looking at cigarette ads from the seventies last night, looking to see if I could find you and you you must have some of them, but it's kind of amazing. The ads are totally nuts, so you can't even imagine a magazine printing them today. They're literally beautiful, glamorous, healthy looking people. With a cigarette hanging out of their mouths, and the caption would read like, If it weren't for Winston, I wouldn't smoke, or you know, like just ridiculous. You know, just the most ridiculous things just these healthy, vibrant, flourishing people smoking cigarettes in these ads. That's what they wanted. They in fact with my Winston ads, the government made them tape my ads down.

16:23 Because I always looked young through my age. They thought I looked sixteen. And that it was just wrong for my image to encourage children to smoke. So wild. All right, so you're you're in New York and I guess in the mid seventies You decide to move out to LA and I I have to imagine you go out there thinking, Hey, I'm getting some work in commercials, maybe I can break into TV.

16:47 Yes, but in fact well actually the the agents sort of push you there. I mean once they see you doing Something they start sending you on. Auditions and so I then would get parts in movie. I got some parts in movies and You did chips, I think. You did Happy Days. Yeah, yeah. I was on the very last episode. Of happy days.

17:07 Oh yeah. I can't remember the the girl on it. Joni Joni. Joni. Yeah. So they made me look just like Joni. And then they break up Chachi and Joni and they they walk into a restaurant and they're both with someone who looks like the other one. Yes.

17:22 And so All right, you're having s a little bit of success, but doesn't sound like you were really breaking through. As an actor. Do you know I never liked it. I never was particularly talented and But when I started reading the scripts for television and for movies, I started thinking You know, I could write this stuff.

17:40 This isn't like brain surgery or anything. So I decided I w I wanted to write my first script. And this was based on this idea that what you were seeing was just not that great and you had experience as a writer and you thought Hey, I could do this. I could be a screenwriter. I didn't take a class or anything.

17:57 But I Well, everybody found it so interesting that I grew up at San Quentin Prison. It is, yeah. So I thought, hm, okay. And I wrote a movie called Prisoners. About this girl who grew up her father was the warden. And about her friendship that she formed with this inmate that worked at their house as a gardener.

18:15 And w what what happened to the script? Well I I sold it for a quarter of million dollars in nineteen eighty. That's About a million dollars in today's money. That's a lot of money. That's correct. It was a lot of money. And initially Adrian Line was gonna direct it and we had people like Richard Gere who wanted to play the inmate and Diane Lane was gonna play the The girl and then, you know, what happens in Hollywood is then that

18:42 that executive leaves and then it the project gets dumped and It ended up being Purchased and made in New Zealand. But they completely rewrote my script and it wasn't what I wrote. And uh

18:55 When they finally let me see it, I went to the bathroom and threw up. Well, tha that being said, just uh as an aside, I mean you're you're like thirty three, thirty four years old. You've made a million bucks on a script. That's pretty awesome. I mean equivalent. to today's money. No, no, it was unbelievable. Yes. I bought a house.

19:13 I bet. And You probably thought, Okay, I'm well on my way. And you did. I mean this begins a long period of time where you become a screenwriter And you had some success, you were able to sell.

19:26 Screenplays. Yeah, I pretty much was paid for everything I ever wrote. Right. And I think I mean you even made a film that was starred George Clooney, Unbecoming Age, is a very obscure George Clooney. Oh my god. When I met him, I called every friend I had and I said, You gotta go Sign up this guy. He was just the most charming, funny Guy e Ever meet.

19:51 You could ja I you could just see that he was gonna be a movie star. Alright, so you are Again, I mean got this burgeoning career as a writer. And this is your this is what you're doing in life. I mean this you're in your thirties and you probably I would imagine.

20:05 You're thinking, great, this is you know, maybe one day I'll win an Academy Award and I'll get recognized for my work, right? That's the aspiration. Of course, of course. I think that's everybody's aspiration where in truth You know, there are few people that make it in Hollywood, and most people are just working writers like I was. All right. This is just an another interesting crazy part of your life because you are writing screenplays, you're interacting with all these celebrities, right? I mean George Clooney or Tatum O'Neill, Sally Field.

20:33 think you even dated Michael Crichton, the author, for some time. Yes. Um In the early nineties. You are set up on a blind date with Captain Jean Luc Picard.

20:44 Patrick Stewart. That's right. Uh, you know, I open the door and here's this bald guy. And by the way, I had never watched Star Trek, and then you know, I sat down and started talking to him and I went, He's actually very handsome. And very charming.

20:59 And uh we fell in love. I mean this is uh there's I I looked it up and there's paparazzi pictures of the two of you together and uh you know, red carpet photos and This was at the height of his fame. I mean, well he continued to be famous, but I mean Star Trek Next Generation was a massive show. He was a m highly recognized person. I found it often annoying because like we'd be out to dinner and everyone felt like they could come and just interrupt and say, could I have your autograph or I loved you and this and that and that and that. The other thing for me, it was the only time in my entire life I gave up myself for those few years.

21:34 To be with him. 'Cause he was making movies all over the world. I traveled with him. And so I really put my career on. The back burner.

21:43 And then We started living together and then A few weeks after Yes. He

21:50 Told me to get out. Leave. Did it come as a surprise? Were you stunned? I was stunned. You know, Patrick wasn't really successful until his late forties.

22:02 And all of a sudden, bam, he was a star. Huge. And so he I think he had a lot of w women who wanted to sleep with him because he was a movie star. And I think he wanted to kind of have it all. And then I think once he had Done a bunch of that. He wanted me back and

22:17 I said not gonna happen. So you were part of that ride. You were on that kind of roller coaster with him. I was, and it was uh you know, he was wonderful when he was wonderful. Let's just put it that way. But that was when I I rented a little house in uh in Brentwood and I had a

22:36 Figure out how to get back. into the Writing world. Mm-hmm. And uh my heart wasn't in it. Was it hard to break back into it? I mean, I think it's a it was very hard. You know, Hollywood changes so rapidly, the people, the positions

22:52 And You know, I think That screenwriting was ultimately not gratifying at all for me. Yeah. I j I just stopped.

23:02 liking being in a room by myself, sitting there, you know, in front of the computer All day. In my head. And I was in my later forties at this point. You know, being a woman and also being that age.

23:16 Just what I wanted to write. wasn't what the young guys that were execs at the studios wanted to make. Yeah, makes sense. I mean that's I don't think that story's changed much. Um So you are I mean now at this point you're on your

23:29 own again, right? Uh renting this house in Brentwood. And I guess not sure if you're gonna continue trying to do screenwriting. And this is actually the time that you wind up Starting your staging business. Which I guess at first was just sort of an accident, right? Like it just kind of happened.

23:45 Yeah. I found myself Fixing up this little house I was renting. and rearranging the furniture and then I went out and bought about a hundred and fifty huge pots and grew trees and plants and flowers and I was

24:00 I just want to be in the garden and make things pretty and The owner of The How was leasing Came to town.

24:07 It's about Three years. I'd been there. Mm-hmm. And uh He said, Oh my God, I

24:14 Love what you've done. I want to show it to my friend. And then he called me the next day and said You're gonna need it. Get out. I just sold the house.

24:23 Wow. I because you had made it so nice. This is I think around ninety seven, ninety eight, so you are just turning Fifty. I had turned fifty. Yeah. How was your I'm just curious, how was your financial situation at that point? Were you okay? I mean, because you had done years of screenwriting had you to have I was just okay.

24:44 You know, as making a living. Yeah. I wasn't rich by any means. So I rented a a room in a friend's house. And um

24:53 It was a shock. I was devastated. devastated by just everything going on in your life. Well, it kinda felt Nowhere. Mm. You know, I'm fifty

25:03 I'm not gonna raise children. I'm sick of relationships. I'm you know, I I'm sick of my career. I was just kind of a really low point for me. And uh I had a friend who was A neighbor of mine back in the seventies, and he was a

25:21 an actor. We were all actors living close to each other back in the day. And he he now was an interior designer and he'd built Building houses. And I had all these potted plants.

25:33 And I said, How about I put all my plants in the courtyard and someone who's looking at the house can see how beautiful it could be. And then I said, Also I have all this furniture and he went, you know, I was gonna ask you if I could borrow some of your furniture, you know, for the house. So the house sold in a matter of days for half a million over asking to the head of one of the studios. Yes. So let's just pause for a second. I want to ask you about your sort of taste. I mean Like how did you pick furniture? Did you just have an eye for really beautiful pieces? Did you buy used pieces, new pieces? Do you know something? Way back when I was in Iowa when I was twelve or thirteen. Kid, yeah. Yeah, and my my mom would buy these big houses. I would be with her and I'd say, Oh, I just saw a picture of a table. That's what we should put in our breakfast room. I don't know how I knew that. And I in New York I had I don't know, I'd go into a thrift store and

26:35 Buy something every place I ever had everyone loved what I did. Everyone always had said, would you do this for me? Would you help me? I always said yes. And I never took a course, anything like that, and so It's just something that I enjoyed. I never took it very seriously. Alright, but this was I mean I'cause I'm trying to imagine this is the late nineties.

26:57 Your still your whole identity, the way you think of yourself. is I am a screenwriter. Correct. I was a writer. But Because there has to be a transition point.

27:09 How did you Go to Doing another house. Did somebody ask you? Yeah, a broker who would come through The house that sold in a few days said

27:19 Would you do this for me? And I said Sure. And

27:24 Then I started to say, Okay, now If I can live in this house. I'll give you a better deal. Because I was now homeless. Okay, but still at this point you're not thinking

27:36 Hey, this could be an interesting career. No, not at all. No. Not at all. You're still thinking I'm just doing this as kind of a side thing. Yeah. But still working on screenplays. And it gives me a place to live. All right. You know? The first house, you know, this broker said to me, Listen, no one's gonna buy it. So y you can live there And uh you'll probably be there for ages. Even though it was on the market, this house. Well no, it was it was about to go on the market.

28:02 It's about to go in the market, but you can move your stuff in and make it your own and you could have free rent there. Not only free rent, they'll pay me. All right, so it's a pretty good deal. You're gonna have about a year of free rent, what happens? Uh. It sells the first month.

28:17 Wow. Now so another broker says Listen. I have a house you can move right into under the same terms. It's a weird house.

28:27 and they're gonna have a lot of trouble finding a buyer. So you'll be able to be there for a long time. Just come and put your furniture there. Right, and they'll pay me to do that and I can live there. And did they call it staging or no? Okay, what happened was the broker started to call it staging.

28:43 Had you heard that word before? Never. Never. All right. My understanding is that at this time

28:51 You were asked. to possibly work on a on writing an adaptation of a novel. For this is Barbara Streisand's production company. Right.

29:03 Potential movie. What happened? I had to say no. I had to decide that I was gonna go in this other direction. How did you do that? I mean

29:14 Because In Hollywood and it's in any industry, and I come from the world of journalism, right? Where I remember when I left journalism You know, people are like what you're lean you know, now I do podcasts around business and But The people who are in certain worlds, they can't see beyond it.

29:31 You're leaving screenwriting To do what? To stage houses like Did a part of you feel like God I've just I'm I'm a failure like I'm or was part of you th worried about that? Well no, I mean I I had a lot of times in my life where I felt like a failure, certainly after having had a child. And definitely in the film industry I often felt like a failure, even when I was fired off the script that I wrote and sold for so much money.

29:57 But You know, now it was just kind of like I take this cup. And I move it from here to here. And they think it's brilliant.

30:05 This feels good. I think I'm gonna do this. When we come back in just a moment. H Meredith gets a van, opens a warehouse, and begins to build an unexpected side hustle. into a business.

30:19 Stay with us, I'm Guy Roz, and you're listening to How I Built This. Hey, welcome back to How I Built This. I'm Guy Raz. So it's 1998, and Meredith has left the film industry behind. to start a home staging business. And as word spreads, she starts doing more than just one house at a time. And you know, I needed to know

30:55 Buy a a van. I started driving the van myself and by the way I would go to home depot and pick up some Workers and Uh I had a buy All kinds of

31:06 supplies and things I never thought I'd be a girl who'd own those things, you know. I just and if you were standing there, I'd ask you if you like to if you'd like to work with me. Because I mean I needed help. Yeah, let's dive into the to this business for a moment, because you did not invent staging. I mean you you really popularized it and you turned it into helped turn into a huge industry, but

31:28 It had existed, it just wasn't as common. Like there Mostly when you'd go buy a house before staging became a common thing, You go and look at an empty house. It was just an empty house, empty walls, empty rooms. And the person would have to imagine what it could look like.

31:44 Now It was hey, maybe if we make it look like how it could look like as a home. That could make it more appealing, which in fact it does. How did you Like when you started out, right?

31:56 and you'd walk into an empty house with nothing on the walls, nothing on the floors, just a house. How did you in your mind's eye Start to see Where what to get, where to go, like oh a a rug here. A large sofa here, leather, no leather sofa. Let's put a print on this wall, let's put a console here. Like how did you start to picture that in your brain?

32:19 Well in the beginning I just had what I had. and I had to make that work. I learned quickly ask to get paid up front, and to this day I'll only do the job if I'm paid up front,'cause then I had to run around and Buy things. And I would shop the way I always shopped, you know, whether it was Estate sales or thrift stores or

32:40 Whatever. I even at times borrowed I met a rug dealer. And I said, listen. I need beautiful rocks.

32:50 And if you will let me But your rugs in my house and I said, No one's living there. This is for display. And people are wanting to buy my furniture. I will put them in touch with you and you can make the sale. So basically my homes will be showrooms for you.

33:07 And this one gentleman gave me, I mean, probably at one point a million dollars of rug to use. On consignment. And so you would basically get paid up front and how m how much would it would it cost? Let's say I guess r range, but Roughly.

33:22 I named some big numbers right off the bat. I was doing big houses. So maybe twenty five thirty. Thousand dollars. To install.

33:31 And then a monthly rent. If I wasn't living there. Meredith, how did you know how to ch what to charge people? 'Cause essentially you were a consultant, right? You were consulting people on how to stage their homes and you were offering to rent them furniture during that time. It's hard for people to figure out like what do I charge?

33:50 First of all I thought What I'm doing. Is gonna sell their house. And it's gonna sell it. Fast.

33:57 And so I figure Their monthly mortgage has to be X. And every month that it's on the market. They're paying that. So do they want to sell it in one month or do they want to sell it in one year?

34:11 So I kinda took that number. And played with it. You know It's a bargain if you pay me thirty thousand dollars to do this. Because

34:20 Otherwise It isn't gonna sell right away. And you're just gonna be paying the monthly nut. Right, and you're gonna sell this house at a premium, so you're actually You're gonna make the money back and and more. Okay. So yes.

34:32 So in the early days, would you like rent a U Haul truck and Just load up the truck and then unload it into a house and then return the U Haul truck? Yes, in the very early days that's what I did. And then I then I bought my first van. And then I bought my first truck. I mean I now have thirty six trucks.

34:51 But I never thought I'd be a girl who had thirty six trucks. Yeah. And where did you store the furniture in the early days? Did you get a warehouse right away? In the beginning. I would

35:03 Door the furniture in the garages of the homes I had staged. My clients did not appreciate that. And then at one point I actually rent a little store. On Fourth Street in Santa Monica. Да а<unk>уз май офис.

35:22 And then everything that I w didn't have in a house at the time. was for sale if anyone wanted to come in and buy it. And so that was my storage. And Then I finally got my first I went to a warehouse and I rented a thousand square feet of space.

35:37 Which quickly turned to five thousand square feet. Well. Tell me a little bit about your aesthetic. I mean You know, there's all kinds of looks, especially in Southern California, you know, there's that sort of that Canyon kind of

35:52 Rustic. California modern look, there's mid century modern, there's the farmhouse look, there's You know, more of an Ikea style. I mean Well, I sh I should go backwards a little bit. Uh in nineteen ninety eight. Uh my mother passed away. And she was a collector of everything.

36:11 She used to drag us to antique stores and to yard sales and we hated it. But w you know, when she passed, my brothers and I like divided everything up and then all this stuff in her garage, I just said could I take it? because I've just started doing some of this stuff staging. So I had my mother's mid century furniture and I had a bunch of her antiques. So I had a little of everything.

36:37 And then when I started manufacturing pieces I had an upholsterer move into my warehouse and he started making furniture. I just started to buy antiques, this that whatever the look was, whatever the house needed. I just started to buy it, so I can do almost any style.

36:55 Because I have a little of everything. So It wasn't necessarily a specific style. It depends on the one the one thing that was specific is the white sofa. I always found that if I had white sofas. They were neutral and I could bring in all kinds of different art and different looks and it would all work.

37:14 So that was one of the things that I started out doing and I can see that all the people who have since become stagers do the same thing. I find That white sofas Only exist in stage tomes.

37:28 I mean yes, some people have them, but like people have white sofas A have no ch small children Or their children are so well behaved, or they always wear latex gloves or they have no pets. Or they don't care about red wine. Like Have you ever heard of slipcovers? Yeah, but that's weird. Like you don't know. Yeah, but you when you have people over you want them to see the sofa and it's a white sofa. You know, we have a white rug, I don't know why, we got two dogs, two cats, and two teenagers. I mean it's nuts. But I get it. Like when you go into a staged home

38:00 You look at it like wow, this is awesome. I want to live here. Because there's no crap, there's no like stuff on the refrigerator and just like accumulated junk in the kids rooms from all the you know camps they went to and the water bottles and it's an idealized lifestyle. Oh man. Yeah. Yeah, so for kids' rooms even from the day one We would do that idealized kids' room instead of

38:25 fifty thousand toys all over the place, we would have two or three really cute toys. Yeah, the only kids who live like that are like the royal family kids. Right, right. Yeah. When I first started I would do all kinds of props I wanted to make people laugh or just feel good when they walked into a house. So I would like With the bedroom I'd throw negligee on the bed and I'd throw high heels across the floor and do do little scenarios like that. I think having been a screenwriter, I I sort of like making it up and just to give people give them a chuckle.

38:56 Yeah, I fet I had almost my whole wardrobe. In different closets. in my staged houses initially. Hm. I've never

39:04 getting a phone call from this woman on the freeway saying I just loved that black dress in the such and such a house and I've gotta have it. One of the things that I'm curious about is how you make a house Look. You know, you get a house, it's okay inside.

39:22 How do you make it so that a person coming in to look at the house is like, Wow, this is Amazing. You make the house what it wants to be. I think we always Imagined who was gonna buy it.

39:34 Most likely. But we also wanted to open the aperture to make this house appeal to as many people as possible. So We always encourage a paint. to the o homeowner, invest in that, but don't build a new kitchen.

39:48 The first thing I did When I came into my house is rip out the ketchin they had just put in. To help sell it? So It's really

39:56 What is this house wants to be and how do how do I give it the love it deserves? To show it. At its best. Part of what you do also like Manipulate's not the right word, but you you're touching or you're kind of

40:10 trying to Connect with somebody's psychology. For sure. It's sort of like a sales rep when they're selling you something. They understand human psychology so well, and they already have a script and they know what you're gonna say, and then the the script points them into the next thing and the next thing and the next thing until you're finding like alright, fine, I'll take that eighty-five percent off deal that you've offered me, but in fact they knew you were gonna get to that point. In your case, You are thinking about who's gonna buy this house and what's gonna appeal to them.

40:37 And so There are like I don't like the word tricks, but there are like kind of tricks. Like you will have Dried pasta next to the the stove. You'll have like an open cookbook in the kitchen on a beautiful cutting board, right? Exactly. All the things that make a house feel like a home.

40:55 Obviously w we want when they open the door. Whatever they see. Із ртенф. Is when you fall in love. You're starting with the entry.

41:06 They want to see, oh, that's exactly where I'd put my keys. You know, you have the bowl there for their keys. They can say, Oh, that is where we would sit. That's where I would sit with friends. when did you first I mean you you kinda launched this in nineteen ninety eight as a business and You probably have a steady stream of jobs, but but at what point do you remember it being like I can't do this alone. I've got a hire

41:31 some full time people to join me. I can't just go to home depot and get some day labors, you know, every week. Well, I would say probably within a year I had to have regular people that were working for me and in the beginning I I had kinda put together a crew. But so it it took me a while to figure out Honestly, managing people and figuring out and hiring people I think is the hardest.

41:53 That's hard. And now also Toward the end of ninety nine, I was thinking I can't keep moving every single month. I just can't do it. So I started to try to look for a house to buy.

42:06 And I figure that I could take my tension that I had as a writer and take an early retirement so I had some money to put down on a house. So I started making offers and it was just the houses were just flying off the market at that time. You know, bids, bids, bids, bids coming from everywhere.

42:24 And I finally in uh the spring of two thousand. I bought a house. And so with my crew When I wasn't installing

42:34 I had them doing work at my house. Yeah. One of the things that I read about was that You know, and this is very common, right? You're starting a business and it kind of happens

42:45 And in your case really ha happened unexpectedly. There's a lot of especially in in high regulation states like California, there's a lot of compliance that you have to deal with as a business owner. And I guess like three, four years into the into running this company You get contacted by the state board of equalization because they're saying you have not been charging tax.

43:09 on the work you're doing. Even though you probably were paying tax on your wages. Tell me what happened. Oh. It was devastating. I was supposed to be charging tax on rent. On renting of the of the furniture that you were the furniture. Staging. Okay. Yep. You know, I had no business background. I mean I didn't know Any of this.

43:29 So it was It was really a scary moment, actually, the very same day. I got this news. I found out I had colon cancer. Oh wow. So it was a big

43:40 Double blow. This is in about two thousand one. Yes, around there. Yeah, so So it was like coming at

43:48 in every direction, but you know, I ended up getting this wonderful guy who came in literally to my house where I was living and went through boxes with me of paperwork to help me find everything I needed. negotiated with the state. for me to pay over time. And then I went and had a foot of my colon taken out and went back to work a few days later. When we come back in just a moment.

44:11 Meredith takes her business to reality TV. but then decides to pull the plug. Stay with us, I'm Guy Roz, and you're listening to how I built this. Hey, welcome back to How I Built This. I'm Guy Raz. So it's the early 2000s and Meredith Bear has recovered from a bout with colon cancer, and through much of the next decade,

44:48 Her home staging business. Keeps growing. Oh, it at least doubled every year for the first ten years. Okay, so that's pretty great. Yeah, I mean I mean no, it was it grew and grew and grew and grew. What happened is the LA Times Sunday di you know did a story on me And then the New York Times. All of a sudden we're getting phone calls from Connecticut.

45:12 Manhattan. So we open up shop there. And then you know people want us to come to Florida. So we opened up there. And when you opened up a new location, how would you do that? Cause you're in LA. It's your name on the companies and I'm sure a lot of these designers want you specifically. How would you open an office? How would you identify the people who could run it and manage it?

45:36 I think like for example with New York, because that was our first secondary location You know, I went there, I interviewed some people, I found someone I liked, I walked and I found a ware a little warehouse. I started to fly out there myself and do the installs initially. And then I found some designers. How did you find people who had a good aesthetic?

45:59 I found people that I thought had I like the way they put their own homes together. And it wouldn't be I wasn't hiring interior designers. No one's gonna walk around in high heels and a cute dress. And do staging. It's hard work. Yeah.

46:13 So I just started to, you know, ask people and give'em a shot and if they were good, I kept them and Then I'd ask them, Do you know other people like you? You know, a lot of companies who talk to their sort of defining moments are like or the early two thousands, if it's a dot com company, right, there's a bust. And then the financial crisis of two thousand eight. And for many companies it just it was really tough. In your case you ac it actually forced you to

46:41 expand your business to actually focus on Uh,'cause you were doing high end homes. But I guess during the financial crisis there was an opportunity to charge less And to do, you know, sort of more modest homes because people needed to sell their homes. Yes.

46:57 Although we did find that the Mormonist homes weren't As profitable. And sometimes the clients would be even more demanding. So we do we came up with a minimum. For a job that we would do. I think it's ten thousand dollars, right?

47:11 Yes. Now speaking of that financial crisis Up till two thousand and seven we would double almost every year. And then that was the first year that we were flat. In two thousand and eight.

47:23 But I the uh boy, two thousand and seven we could see it coming. We had a lot of really big developers. who weren't making their rental payments. and were owing us more and more money and a lot of them went bankrupt. So you could see it happening already a year before. Yeah. Um

47:40 But okay, you you get through the recession, right? And then on the other side of it This whole industry, this whole like home staging industry really starts to take off. I mean you guys Again, I mean you aren't the first, right, but you're in LA. A lot of celebrities are using you to stage their homes and

48:00 Now this becomes Des regards like if you're gonna sell a house, like staging becomes part of the cost of doing business. Definitely. And it also makes the brokers. Job a lot easier, they make more money and they make it faster. And they're the ones Encouraging their clients to stage.

48:18 Yeah. And by twenty twelve, from what I read, you had about a hundred employees. You got a hundred and thirty thousand square foot warehouse in LA. You've uh got one in Connecticut and Florida and you're expanding into Manhattan. And that year you get approached by HGTV to do a reality series, which I know it just ran for one season, but It must have really transformed your business.

48:43 'Cause all of a sudden you're on TV doing this stuff. I don't know if it did or not. It actually was a lot of work. And took us away from running business as usual. And To tell you the truth, we you know we're a high-end company.

48:58 And we we didn't want to present drama. And so it really was a show I don't think that could go more than One season because It really was about what we do, and I think you kinda get it after A season.

49:14 'Cause we have been approached other times and I've just made a decision not to do that. Yeah. Just to be clear, you never raised any money, right? Outside money. You know what? I never did. Uh I have two warehouses in LA now, but I borrowed money from my house, you know, for the down payment on those.

49:33 I didn't know how to ask for money. I didn't Yeah. I mean, in some ways you it's the perfect business to do that because it reminds me a little bit of one eight hundred got chunk, which we profiled about seven or eight years ago. Which is they it's a junk removal service. He bought a truck. You know.

49:50 for eight hundred bucks within a couple weeks the truck was paid off from removing people's stuff. And dumping it, he buys another truck and that's how the business grows. In your case, you actually didn't need that much upfront cash because you had your furniture. You were using your own furniture and then You get paid and then you buy some more furniture, and then you get paid more and you buy some more furniture and eventually you've got warehouse costs, you've got you know personnel costs, but

50:15 It's not like you're manufacturing, you know, that you've got a factory in China that's manufacturing products and you need just tons of cash up front. So It is actually a business. That doesn't necessarily require outside funding. Right.

50:31 I was always able to take our profits and grow and build from there. Now we do I one of my warehouses along the the road, the first warehouse I bought is now solely manufacturing. And uh we did at a point Manufacture in China.

50:47 Yeah. As you found I mean, you you start to find different, like revenue streams. For example You eventually started to make your own furniture for the houses, right? You and not all of it. Like s m uh what percentage of the furniture in the houses that you stage do you make? I would say sixty to seventy percent of our upholstered furnishings we make.

51:08 Oh well. And when I go into a home that is staged by you, by your your company Everything is for sale. I can buy anything. Well everything except we do not sell our mattresses, we call them props. And we generally don't sell like sheets and towels and things like that. Right.

51:26 Although we will if someone wants us to do a household package. and do the buying of that for them. Is that a significant part of your business or is is the overwhelming majority of your your revenue still coming from just staging homes? I would say the majority of our revenue comes from staging, but it we do very, very well in sales.

51:46 Boy, especially when Covid hit and Things were just hard to get. Yeah. And now with the tariffs and all of that. We sell a lot of furnicure.

51:57 So you had started this this I think it's called insta home service. You had started that earlier. Yes, we started Instahome because what we realized is it'll A lot of people were asking us for interior design. And you know, someone can take two months to figure out what fabric they want on a sofa. And a lot of our clients are just super busy.

52:19 And they don't really wanna go through that process, but they want a house full of furniture. So we Have them go through our website. And then we charge them f an install fee to install a house full of furniture. And then we give them a price list. And

52:33 They buy what they want and anything they don't want, we pick up. And you also lease furniture, right? You can rent furniture from you guys. Right. We have a product called Luxury Lease. And that is we provide furnicure. to people to live with. Well, it makes sense because furniture is one of those things where the depreciation is just dramatic. Like you buy it you can buy it a really expensive piece of furniture.

52:57 And then when you want to resell it, it's not easy. The options are limited. It's like Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist, but then people are coming to your house or you just sell it to a consignment shop and they're gonna give you pennies in the dollar. Exactly. So leasing actually might make sense for a lot of people. For a lot of people I think it does. No, it also some t a lot of clients are um is it second home or third home. And it does make sense for a number of people. So Today I think you're the biggest

53:27 Home stage or in the country. Yes. Um, and uh how many people do you have working for you total? About three hundred and twenty. Right.

53:36 At any given time how many homes are you working on concurrently? Like two hundred, one hundred and fifty, more than that? Oh no, more like we usually have about Seven to nine hundred homes installed at any given time? And people are paying anywhere from the m absolute lowest ten thousand, but all the way up to what, a hundred thousand plus? We're just finishing a home right now as we speak.

53:58 That was a hundred and eighty five thousand dollar job. Just to stage it. Yeah. And you're concentrated also in high high value areas. San Francisco Bay Area, LA. New York, Hamptons, and Miami, right? Yes.

54:13 So At what point did it become Very difficult for you, Meredith Baer, to be doing the staging. And for you to step out of that. I mean I continued to install up until maybe

54:27 Maybe ten years ago. Mm-hmm. I just Couldn't do it all. I you know, I couldn't be sort of running the business and

54:35 Doing the buying and mi and as I got older it's physically It is physically hard. It's hard physical work. Yeah. I mean when you'cause you were in LA, you're in LA and so many celebrities have used the

54:48 Your services Bob Dylan, Harrison Ford. Reese Witherspoon, apparently Scarlett Johansson uh used you and liked what you did so much you decided to take her house off the market. I know, I loved that. Wha what happened What would happen when Harrison Ford or a celebrity who was like or Brad Pitt is like

55:08 I need Meredith to do my house. You mean me personally? Yeah. They don't get me. They don't know. Nobody gets you anymore. No. I mean at this point I pretty much

55:17 Work from home. And I am on email usually ten hours a day. Yeah. You are still the CEO of Meredith Bearholm, right? Yes.

55:27 And do you are you actively looking for a somebody to run it or do you like being the operational leader and CEO and do you like Doing that. I would say

55:39 At this point I'm seventy eight. I'm working longer hours than I'd like to. Mm. It's ten hours a day. And there are some other things I would like to do. I'd like to spend I'd like to have more time for friends.

55:52 And I see my grandson more. So what now I mean, d obviously this gives you a sense of purpose and your name is on the brand, but it sounds like you also want some time to do other things. Are you looking to Sell the brand? I've thought about it. I haven't really quite gotten there yet.

56:11 Hm. You know what, if the right situation arrived. I probably do it. Mm-hmm. Again, you know, I was didn't have any training as a businesswoman or as a interior designer. And again, I don't I certainly don't have any experience as

56:26 About selling the company. Yeah, I mean it is amazing'cause you had a completely different life. Before age fifty. Right. And really before age age sort of thirty, too, you were kinda more into acting and bit parts and then you got into into writing. So

56:41 Who who at age fifty wakes up and says, You know, the next thirty years of my life are gonna be completely different than what I was doing the previous fifty year, you know, thirty years of my professional life. So It is kind of remarkable, right? I mean if you think about like you could not have imagined, I mean, I guess, when you were Fifty. That this would become this thing.

57:02 No, I I never could have imagined it. And I I do think we all are capable of reinventing ourselves. We're not stuck doing the same thing. We've always done. You know, we might love something for a while, but after a while we don't.

57:16 Doesn't mean we have to stay on the same path. I think we're all all taught that we have to choose a career. And then that's Who we are, that's what we are. Yeah. But I think the truth is I think we're a lot of things, all of us.

57:29 Meredith, when you think about All that you went through. And what you've achieved. Now. How much of it do you think was because of the work and the grind that you put in and how much do you think has to do with

57:40 Just luck and fortune. Well, you know. I think there is luck. involved in most success. I mean The fact that I was

57:50 walking along and Jerry Brukheimer asked me to be in a Pepsi commercial changed my life. Big time. And the fact that I had gotten kicked out of a house. And I needed a place to put my plants in my furniture.

58:06 You know, was luck. But I also think One has to seize the opportunity. I think that we probably all trip over luck. At times in life.

58:15 I just learned to say yes. Yes I can. And then I'd figure out if I really wanted to or if I could. But I'd say yes. And then do it.

58:26 That's Meredith Baer. Founder and CEO. Meredith Bear Home. I need you to come to my studio and stage it because it is really a mess. I've got like protein bars here and I've got like wires everywhere and just crap and old computer on the ground. I yeah can you come stage my stage it, but I don't w I don't want to sell. I just wanna s want to live in a staged world. Okay, yeah, we'll s we'll do that. Just remember ten thousand's our minimum.

58:53 Oh my god. Hey, thanks so much for listening to the show this week. Please make sure to click the follow button on your podcast app so you never miss a new episode of the show. And if you're interested in insights, ideas, and lessons from some of the world's greatest entrepreneurs, please sign up for my newsletter at guyros.com or on Substack. This episode was produced by Alex Chung with music composed by Ramptina Rablui. It was edited by Neva Grant with research help from Noor Gill.

59:21 Our engineers were Patrick Murray and Quasey Lee. Our production staff also includes JC Howard, Casey Herman, Chris Massini, Sam Paulson, Carrie Thompson, Catherine Seifer, Ramel Wood, Andrea Bruce, and Elaine Coates. I'm Guy Roz, and you've been listening to how I built this and don't stop the podcast just yet. Пика з райна You're about to hear an amazing small business story that you

59:45 don't want to miss. This segment is presented by American Express. With a business platinum membership, the best just got even better. Back in the early days of COVID, Jess Burger, like many of us, started spending a lot more quality time with her dog. Our great dame Winston was really the center of our home during the pandemic. And with all that extra time with Winston, Jess started noticing something.

1:00:12 He kept having a lot of skin and digestive issues. Jess had spent years working in the pet industry, as a buyer and a marketing executive, and she knew some dogs could develop allergies and sensitivities to certain ingredients in their food. I personally have my own gut and allergy issues, and so it's only fitting, right, that my dog would have the same issues. I just started an elimination diet just like I would do for myself. And chicken was one of the things that we had cut out. And almost instantly, she saw a difference. Winston's skin started looking healthier, he scratched less, and his digestive issues disappeared.

1:00:53 But Jess had a problem. The problem was that I couldn't find a lot of products out there without chicken. Which, if you think about it, is kind of wild. Chicken is one of the most common ingredients in pet foods. So with Winston as her guide, Jess decided to launch her own brand. called Bundle Enjoy.

1:01:11 I thought what if I built a pet brand that was all about gut health and sensitivities and allergies. but also gave back and was so much more than just pet food. Jess had a vision for a brand with a strong sense of community built around dog moms like herself. So she spent about 18 months on RD. and made plans to launch at a big trade show in California, Expo West.

1:01:35 But There was a problem. To say that the pandemic caused disruption would be quite a statement for all of us, right? We had all these best link plans to launch in March of 2022, and then we quickly realized that there were some delays. And we had no real product. No real product.

1:01:54 But What could you do? Just Not show up to the trade show? We had already made the commitment to show up. And I said, all right guys, we are gonna fake it till we make it.

1:02:05 No product, no problem. Jess's team rolled up to the trade show with a handbuilt display, mock products, and a little something extra to stand out. We found some roller skates that look like our brand and our colors and decided to wear roller skates for the entire tree show. And here's the amazing thing, that bold approach. It paid off.

1:02:27 Immediately, grocers like Sprouts and Whole Foods love the idea of gut conscious dog food and offered just deals on the spot. Eventually, the product delays worked themselves out, and today Bundle Joy has expanded to retailers like Walmart, Costco, and soon We are about to launch into PetSmart, which is where I started my pet career in 2007. By the way, Jess's dog Winston, who inspired the company, has since passed. But a new generation of pets has come along to inspire her.

1:03:01 Now with our new great Danes, brother and sister, Sol and Luna, I want them to live the longest they can possibly live. That's Jess Berger, the founder of Bundle<unk> Joy. Her small business story was presented by American Express. To build a business like no other, you need a card like no other. There's nothing like business platinum.

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