Improvability Blog

Before I got totally hooked on training and mentoring image consultants to build their own businesses, I used to run Colour Confidence workshops for the public. 

How my Colour Confidence workshops came about

I was never totally comfortable running one-to-one consultations but I really thought that’s what image consultants had to do!  Talk about being daft!  Who on earth told me that one? Actually, no-one had ever said those words. I just ‘assumed’ that’s what you had to do - and we all know what ‘assume’ means, don’t we?

It only took me around 17 years to fathom that one out, so don’t beat yourself up if you’ve just had that lightbulb moment for yourself.

I much prefer the dynamics of a group and so devised my own Colour Analysis workshop and workbook for up to 6 ladies.

I particularly remember the first Colour Confidence workshop of 2005 because it was so fabulous.

It still makes my day in a training course to see the light dawning as ladies start to see how and why certain shades just do nothing for them, and yet others make their eyes sparkle. I love what I do!

One of the ladies on that cold January day was a colour consultant who had recently trained with another company. Petronella arrived at our workshop a little confused about how to she was supposed to use the colour drapes with her own clients and had come along to see how I did it. 

• She was amazed when I only used about six drapes - and that was only towards the end of our 2-hour session
• In turn, I was amazed that image consultants are still being trained (by others) to use these darned drapes to distraction!

Making a rod for your own back

I have to admit that at one time I used to have over 180 colour drapes in my collection.

The problem with this is that when you’ve started going through 63 different shades of yellow on a particular lady, she wants to know why you’re not going through the 74 different shades of green as well. You’re just making a rod for your own back.

The brain can only absorb so many different shades, tones, and tints of one colour.  That’s why the swatch wallet is such a good aid to shopping. I found that:

• my clients were totally confused by the end of the endless draping session
• and I was excruciatingly bored by the whole process

so I stopped doing it!

You don’t have to use ruddy drapes!

These days, I wouldn’t dream of spending so much time on using the drapes. I can easily demonstrate the right shades for you to wear using lots of other methods which appeal to all your senses. 

I might include some drapes and, then again, I might not. It all depends on the individual client.

This is so much more fun than just draping someone to within an inch of their life.  And your client then only takes away information about the colours that she looks absolutely fabulous in - and isn’t that what she really wants to know?

Petronella went away from my workshop feeling very relieved that:

• there are several other ways to diagnose her client’s colouring
• she didn’t have to use the drapes at all if she didn’t want to
• she certainly didn’t have to use every single one of them on every single client!

And I reaffirmed all over again that interminable draping is just a pile of old balderdash and should have been slung out years ago!

If a loud bell has just started ringing for you, then you can learn all about these methods (plus lots more great content too) with my Advanced Colour Analysis for Image Professionals self-study DVD pack.

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Part 2/2

Over the last year and a half, we have got rid of loads of ‘stuff’ in our lives and in our business:

• I have been ruthless in getting rid of clothes, shoes, etc. that we never wear. They’ve been donated to people who can make much better use of them
• I thought it would break my heart to get rid of a pile of books because I am total book junkie. But, do you know what? It was incredibly therapeutic; it was great to see friends poring excitedly over the boxes choosing what they were interested in
• I’ve sorted out kitchen cupboards and got rid of crockery, pots and pans that haven’t been used in donkey’s years
• I’ve filled two full bin liners with old videos and DVDs that we haven’t watched in many moons
• I’ve even ditched a pile of rubbish that had been rusting away in the garden shed - and yes, of course I had my rubber gloves on at the time

Getting rid makes way for massive change

In our business, we’ve totally changed direction (as you may have noticed) and have got rid of a lot of the products and services that we no longer need or want to pursue.

We’ve still got a long way to go in both our lives and our business but we have made some massive changes during the last 18 months. 

One of my mastermind group members picked this up from a graph of our business turnover that I took to a meeting a couple of months ago.

She marked on the graph exactly when our income had started to noticeably increase.

She pinpointed that it all coincided with signing up with our new business mentor which also started us on our current clearing-out regime.

Do you want to know how to attract more good stuff in YOUR life and business?

Then prepare yourself for a shockingly simple answer.

You need to start making changes NOW because they don’t just happen all by themselves. 

As Tony Robbins is always saying, ‘”You must take some action.”

Just a little change here and there will make all the difference.  We know, because it’s happening to us personally and to our business right now.

If you want more abundance - money, great health, better relationships, etc. - then starting making room in your life and business for more of the good stuff. You can start by getting rid of the things that you no longer use, need or want.

If you WANT change, then START MAKING changes

Because if you carry on doing what you’ve always done, you’re always going to get what you’ve always got.

And that will be more than a tragedy… It’ll be a total waste of your talents and skills.

Read Part 1 ‘How to attract more good stuff in YOUR life and business‘

Part 1/2

Neil and I are covered in muck, dust, grime and filthy, dirty cobwebs. We’ve just spent two whole days clearing out our loft ready for some new insulation to be installed tomorrow. 

I’m absolutely shattered.  And, yet again, I conclude that I was not put on this earth for manual labour because, after all, I am a 4-star-minimum girl with beautifully manicured nails! And before you ask, Neil totally agrees with that statement.

We discovered all sorts of stuff that had been slowly rotting or rusting away for the last goodness-knows-how-many years:

• What made me think that a solitary black bin liner would keep a quilt and pillows clean and dry for the last 5 years?
• Why did I store my old Olympic typewriter up there without even a cover over it? This reminder of the ‘olden days’ when I had to keep my nails short or the heavy keys wouldn’t go down is now sadly covered in rust
• Why on earth didn’t I give them all to a charity years ago?
• And why did we save at least 20 humungous cardboard boxes from our last house move 16 years ago?

We now have a whole yard full of stuff to take to the tip, so that’s going to mean even more hard work; we reckon on 4 back-breaking car loads…  I’m beginning to feel faint at the very thought.

What a waste of our valuable time when we could have saved ourselves all this stress by not hoarding all this rubbish in the first place.

I know what you’re thinking.  You live and learn. But sometimes lessons like this cost far too much. I’ve got:

• aching limbs from running up and down our extremely steep Edwardian stairs carrying impossibly heavy boxes
• a throbbing head from constantly looking up just in case something should come flying out of the loft hatch without warning
• a sore throat from swallowing a pile of grit that DID fly out of the loft hatch without warning. I reckon that stuff has been up there since the house was built in 1906
• a very sore finger from having an extremely heavy dumb bell dropped directly onto it from a great height - and Neil had the audacity to laugh. Good job he was out of reach at the time or I’d be doing time now for GBH!
• and a scraped shin from sliding too fast down the loft ladder with a thundering great box in my hands

If only we’d videoed it all – at least I’d have earned £250 from ‘You’ve Been Framed!’

Unlike what those highly-suspect ‘dosh in the attic’ TV shows may suggest, hoarding hasn’t produced any little treasures for us. All it’s done is caused us loads of hard, physical, time-consuming work for no monetary gain.

And from a business point of view, it’s robbed us of two whole days which could have been spent creating or improving a product or service to help our customers and provide more income for our business.

Every cloud has a silver lining

But we have achieved an awful lot too.

We’ve started the clearing out process ready for our next house move and, in getting rid of the rubbish which was taking up valuable room, we’ve made space for a whole lot more good stuff to come in.

Part 2/2 - Getting rid makes way for massive change