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.

Petunia emailed last week, “I have had a really good study of your extensive range of delicious colour swatches.

I’ve carefully considered using the seasonal fans with 30 swatches and the safe tonal fans with 18 colours as suggested in your Colour Analysis in a Box, but I am totally inspired by the tonal fans of 45 shades each and the 30 seasonal colours on fold-down cards (both shown left).

I’m a touchy feely person and like to feel the swatches too. What do you think?” Petunia

NB. It’s always dangerous to ask me what I think because I always tell it straight!

So Petunia received this from me in reply:

One thing to consider before you make a decision based on your touchy-feely personality is that not all your clients will be the same as you. What happens if they’re not at all touchy feely?

I’ve been where you are, oh so many times, spending ages trying to decide which wallets, how many drapes, etc. and at the end of the day, the customer couldn’t give a hoot.

Why is your client coming to you?

She’s not coming to be ‘draped’ in front of a mirror or because she’s desperate to have a swatch wallet! She’s coming for confidence and if you have to order a wallet for her after the consultation “because you’re different from all my other clients” then she’s going to have received extra special service which will boost her confidence and make her feel a million dollars.

Why I use what I use

I use the 6x safe tonal fans and the 4x seasonal fans (right) for demonstration purposes only. They’ve been in my kit for 20+ years and are used virtually daily.

I don’t use the seasonal card wallets for demonstrations because they will deteriorate over time as they get handled – the cards may crease if handled roughly, the black covers gets finger prints all over them, and the swatches will eventually get dirty from being touched by sticky fingers.

At least the swatches are protected within plastic sleeves in all the fans.

Also, in my training courses, just to make a particular point, I deliberately throw two of the safe tonal fans over my shoulder, across the room and onto the floor and they’ve managed to survived this aggressive onslaught for the past 10 years!

Invest in a demonstration kit

I would encourage you to invest in a demonstration kit, so that you can show people both seasonal and tonal so it’s easy for them to understand. You will use this kit every single time you see a client or give a talk.

Investing in a kit of drapes, wallets, fabric samples, etc. will pay huge dividends over the years and you should ‘write them off’ in your books - speak to your accountant or bookkeeper for specific advice about this.

But before you do, ask yourself these questions:

• Which drapes and wallets
  do I want to work with?
• And why?
• Is this just self-indulgence or are
  my choices designed to help my clients relate to what I ’see’?
• Do I need to provide alternative
  props in case they’re different from me?

So, Petunia, if the 45 tonals and the seasonal card wallets work for you AND you’re convinced that they’ll also work for EVERY SINGLE client you’re going to encounter, then order those.

What does your client want?

Remember, every single female client comes to you for confidence, some ‘me’ time, an experience. Sure, she also wants to know which colours to wear and would rather like a reminder to take away with her but does it really matter to her which wallet you give her? And does it really warrant hours of your time poring over lists of contents, whether the swatches are in the right order, etc?

I totally understand where you are with this. I’ve been there too, wasting my time on what I now consider to be trivialities, but I learnt that…

…the important work is how you make your client FEEL

Please, let me encourage… nay, let me exhort you to put your valuable energy into listening to what your client wants and then delivering exactly that.

And I’ll bet you a thousand gin and tonics that not one of them mentions a swatch wallet when you ask them what they really, really want.

Q: If I buy your Colour Analysis home-study kit, how do I access also the following: correct style for body shape for women, make-up application, and information for men and how to dress to body shape. These seem to be the 4 areas you need to know before you can start an image consultation course. Am I correct that you used to have a “box” with all these? Petunia

Dear Petunia:

There is no law (legal, moral or otherwise) that says you have to provide every service under the sun before you start your business. 

In fact, I would strongly recommend that you DON’T follow the conventional approach of providing every service imaginable because that just puts you in the same league as the rest of them out there - nothing more than average and, in my book, average is a word that belongs to the world of mathematics and should never, ever be used to describe a human being.

You need to set yourself apart from the world and his mother, or how else will you get noticed? 

Be different and specialise:

• Some of my consultants are utterly brilliant at colour and I have advised them to stick to what they’re good at and comfortable with - providing consultations, workshops, presentations, and lots of other related services about colour only
• You do not need either a make-up kit or specific training in make-up application to be able to provide a successful colour, style or image service.  My courses show you how to either use make-up or not.  If you run an independent business, then you can choose for yourself whether you want to include make-up or not. The big colour houses insist on you learning all about make-up because they want you to sell their make-up products to your clients; that’s how they continue to make money from you for many years after your initial training has finished – but you can only access their products as long as you keep to their terms and conditions…
• Some people are great at personal shopping so need to study both colour and ladies’ style. Why on earth would they need to cloud the issue by studying men’s image too?
   
• Some people are marvellous with make-up, and colour training is all they need to add extra value and a unique slant to their business
• Do you really want to work with men? No?  Then why waste your hard-earned money on men’s image training?
• Do you want to work at corporate level? No?  Then why waste even more money on corporate image training?

The big image and colour training companies will sell you a massive package of several days of colour analysis, style and body shape, make-up, personal shopping, wardrobe planning, men’s image, and corporate image, often all together in one fell swoop. 

Why?  Well, that should be pretty obvious and, if it isn’t, then maybe being in business for yourself isn’t really for you! 

On a 5 or 10-day course, my big question has always been, “How on earth will you remember what you learned on day two?”

Believe me, on a 2-day face-to-face training course with me, your head will seriously hurt at the end of day one.

And after day two, your brain will be full to overflowing and you may need to lie down in a darkened room when you get home. 

Just take a look at some of the testimonials from those poor darlings who’ve tried it! 

“Thank you for a brilliant course - I haven’t had time to draw breath since I got back! Yes, my brain HAS been working overtime,  I’m going to sit down over the weekend when I’ve got some peace and quiet, read through my notes, download all the bits and pieces I need to and begin to put my newfound knowledge into operation. 

I feel that I gained a wealth of know-how this week, so thank you for your expertise and guidance, and for the fun way that you put it all together!  I am still really excited. P.S.  I think you’d be very pleased with the dramatic / creative look I am sporting today!” Sara, Reading, UK

Learning in bite-size chunks clearly works as more than 40% of these lovely people come back to me later for more training.

Try the modular approach

Learn the bits you want, when you want, and then spend time becoming excellent at each subject before you move on to the next one. 

As you start to attract more and more clients for one service, you’ll have them ready and waiting for the next one you choose to learn (but only if and when it suits you!).

By the way, Petunia, these are the ‘boxes’ you were asking about.

Self-study DVD-based training courses

1. Colour Analysis in a Box teaches both seasonal and tonal colour analysis for beginners

2. The Complete Colour Analysis Training Kit contains Colour Analysis in a Box plus all the colour supplies used in the course itself:

The only other things you would need to start a colour analysis business are a mirror and a chair for your client to sit in!

3. Advanced Colour Analysis for Image Professionals was launched last month. 

This is not for beginners. 

As the title suggests, it includes masses of advanced colour analysis techniques, plus how to get what you’re saying over to your client (or you’re both just wasting your time), plus a whole load of marketing ideas that actually work (and a few that are dead ducks too!).

4. 3 Steps to Success for Image Professionals

Live event running 16th August in Chesterfield, UK.  Just a few places left on the course itself, plus you get the 6-DVD set free.

We’re recording the whole day to create a 6-DVD self-study pack with all the notes from the day.  You can pre-order this right now, for release in November.

Learn how to attract more clients, more sales and more profit with this extra special business training for image professionals.

5. September sees the last live event two-day Ladies’ Style training course of 2010.

We’re recording the entire event to create Ladies’ Style in a Box, covering body shape, scale, style personality, etc. 

This will be ready for release in December. Right now, we have 25 kits to pre-order at a special discount. Once they’re gone, they’re gone!

STOP PRESS!

Don’t order any of the above until you have checked out my mad sale to celebrate 30 years in this incredible business.  Ends 12th August 2010.

Susannah Atherton trained with me in Colour Analysis and then returned for the Advanced Colour Analysis training event on April 26th this year.

Susannah received the 6-DVD pack from the event and sent this in with just two days left of June:

“I have watched most of the Advanced Colour DVDs (and had a chuckle or two) but on the whole amazing how much you don’t remember. So good to see it all again and take in the information once more.

Well all has been fast, amazing, frightening and at times somewhat unmanageable here, but I love it.

I realised it had taken over the whole family’s lives when my 5-year old asked her friend, “Are you a Summer or a Winter, because you are Soooooo not a Spring or an Autumn?”

“No idea,” replied the friend.

My little daughter reassured her, “Don’t worry, my mum can sort you out.”

What a laugh my husband and I had at that one.

“I have yet to advertise…”

Since April 26th I have done 32 colours, I have 7 more booked in this month, so business has been very good and I am getting a reputation for being fun, fair, but above and beyond anything else ‘Great at my job’.  I certainly couldn’t ask for more.

I have yet to advertise, as word of mouth has been so good.

Stepping into the unknown

Tomorrow night (and now comes the….

I really am scared stiff) I am doing a tonal taster to Chailey Heritage school teachers… I have made my bright, soft muted, light, deep, cool and warm boards up.  Spent a number of evenings perfecting them (just can’t help myself) and tonight I shall stick them all down.  I have make-up and kettlewell products and a beautiful assistant to help me.  I am still bricking it (terrible phase!).  I need the evening to come so I can wing it (because then I am at my best).

I’ll report back on the tonal taster on Wednesday, I am sure.

Just wanted once again to thank you for all the information and the Tonal Taster info.

Regards, Susannah”

Did you GET those figures?

Just wanted to make sure you’d noticed the amazing stats from Susannah’s story:

• 32 colours already completed in exactly 2 months - that’s an average of 4 per week
• 7 more colours booked in with just 2 days left in the month
• plus a Tonal Taster evening in the same time period

What I can’t get my head around is the number of consultants who continually tell me there’s no work out there.

Pardon?

Susannah has quite clearly demonstrated that there’s PLENTY of work out there, but maybe it only shows up if you’ve got the right attitude to go out and find it. Remember what she said, “I have yet to advertise, as word of mouth has been so good.”

Susannah - a huge well done from me for being so successful; not that I expected any less from YOU. Kim.

HOW TO CONTACT SUSANNAH ATHERTON - If you would like Susannah (or perhaps her 5-year-old colour savvy daughter?) to help you with your own colour, style and confidence, then email her at susannahatherton@hotmail.com or telephone 01273 401233. Susannah is based in East Sussex, UK.