Improvability Blog

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.

"I’ve meant to to ask about the lighting in the room  when you do the colour analysis. Here in Finland, we are blessed in the summer with  plenty of sunlight. BUT during the winter we have only 3 hours of  daylight. That is not enough time.

So are there any artificial lights that would be sufficient for the analysis?

Then I have at my house a back room with a tiny little window. Is it  possible to fit with enough lamps to do any work? I also have a space at my mother-in-law’s with two windows facing south. So plenty of  sunlight (when we happen to have any). So should I preferably consider  using that?" SN, Finland

Dear SN,

I wouldn’t get too worried about insisting on natural light for your colour analyses.

At the end of the day, your client will be buying her clothes under artificial lighting unless she shops at open-air markets!

In the olden days (!), we used to get ourselves all worked up about this but you can only work with what you’ve got.  Yes, it would be perfect to do all your consultations outside in the garden in full sunshine but that’s just a fantastic dream.

Stay firmly rooted in what’s real, try all the options at your disposal and find out what works for YOU. 

If you find you really can’t see what you’re doing in the light available, you could consider using daylight bulbs.  However, a word of caution. These were originally designed to light display cabinets in shops; they were not meant to illuminate human skin!

If you search for daylight bulbs on the internet or in your local telephone directory, you’ll also come across those designed to help with seasonal affective disorder (SAD). They claim to emulate the colour of daylight so they may be worth looking at.

There will, no doubt, be new versions available all the time but I would only spend money on things like that if you are either struggling with the light or have loads of money to invest. 

If you’re intending to visit clients in their own homes, you also need to consider how you’re going to get these bulky items in the car, and then how long it’s going to take you to set them up, take them down again, set them back up at home… sounds like a load of extra work that may not be necessary at all.

By the way, we offer daylight bulbs in our wholesale catalogue but they are designed for UK fittings only, - choose from bayonet or screw fitting.

The Tonal Taster

If I was starting out in Colour Analysis right this minute, I would use the Tonal Taster to jump or kick start my business.

It’s such a simple concept, easy to learn, and everyone (groups and individuals) loves it:

• Everyone comes away knowing the colours that they could wear right there and then to make them look fabulous
• I’ve used it when I’ve been asked to provide a networking strategy as it gets people moving around the room
• I’ve used it with groups of 4, 15, 87 and even with a huge gathering of 204 (the four were hotel staff who delivered some badly-needed ice on an overbearingly hot day so we all agreed they should stay!)
• It works for single-sex groups, mixed groups, across all ages, and for when you’ve got both the office junior and the CEO in the same room
• It works brilliantly with your one-to-one clients too

When I wrote the original version for one of my consultants who needed to learn it overnight, I typed madly into the wee hours and crammed the whole thing onto 4 sides of A4 paper so she could print it off quickly.

And every single person who’s trained with me since (either in person or via Colour in a Box) has been given a copy - exactly as I wrote it all those years ago.

It was high time for a re-write and now I’ve added all sorts of other hints, tips and information to create a new version of 17 pages.

SEVENTEEN pages?
Yes, I know! I got a bit carried away

As you probably know, I can rattle on for England about such fabulous subjects, and this one just went on and on and on…

I included my own particular success story from using this method - which caused my reciprocal business partner to blow her top at me - , and I’ve expanded the script itself, added some great images, and given away some of my personal hints and tips about how to turn the Tonal Taster into a money spinner for you and your business…

… because if I had to start MY business all over again, this is exactly what I’d use to get new customers, new business contacts, and to get the income rolling in.

Learn how to use the Tonal Taster in YOUR business

plus loads more fabulous hints, tips and technique
with my brand-new 6-DVD self-study
Advanced Colour Analysis for Image Professionals

Consultants have been reporting that they’ve been late for work, burnt the dinner, and are still glued to their screens in the wee hours of the morning - all because of my new 6-DVD self-study course, Advanced Colour Analysis for Image Professionals.

ORDER your own copy of Advanced Colour Analysis for Image Professionals today and get over FOUR and a HALF HOURS‘ worth of stuffed-full-of-brilliant ideas 6 DVDs together with over 175 pages of comprehensive course notes and extra bonus materials including the updated Tonal Taster.

When you’ve digested the massive amount of tried and tested information on these 6 DVDs, you’ll find it so much easier to find new clients, work with and develop existing ones, and earn much more money - all because you’ll be so much more confident about what you’re actually doing!

The Tonal Taster could revolutionise your business. Get it today

But what you do with it is key to your success…

Michelle England trained with me in Colour Analysis about 5 years ago and then, madly, came back for Ladies’ Style and again for Men’s Image.

It was for Michelle that I wrote the original Tonal Taster script

A group of ladies from an accountants’ office in London decided that, instead of the usual ‘go out on the town after work’ ploy, they would say goodbye to one of their pregnant colleagues by having a colour workshop.

As it seemed incredibly silly for me to travel 150 miles to the Big Smoke when Michelle was just around the corner from their city office, I passed the work on to her.

The only problem was that the original invitation came to me on a Wednesday, Michelle agreed to the gig on the Thursday, and the actual event was due to take place on Friday, the very next day.

I suggested that she use the new tonal approach that I’d shown her on her Colour Analysis training course.

I’d come up with a simple way of demonstrating the concepts of colour to groups of potential clients without ending up telling everyone in the room what season they were.

In the olden days (!), we didn’t have the tonal methods so when we presented to ladies’ groups (and the like), we either told them everything about seasonal colour or we told them nothing.

• When you tell them everything, you believe (wrongly, as it happens) that no-one will ever book with you for a personal consultation
• When you tell them nothing, the audience aren’t likely to book with you at all. Now, I wonder why that could be…?

So, armed with the seeds of a great idea from my image mentor of the time, I devised the Tonal Taster - to give potential clients a ‘taste’ of what they would experience when they came for the full seasonal colour analysis.

At the Tonal Taster:

• there’s none of this silly ‘Now who would like to volunteer to come out to the front?’ business. When you do that, the majority of people in the audience are pretty fed up that THEY weren’t chosen - so they go home grumpy
• every single person in the room gets some really useful information about the colours that they look great in, so it’s much more inclusive - and everyone goes home happy

“So what do I do now?”

We’re great friends so Michelle felt quite able to give me a bit of an ear-bashing, “It’s all right for you. You devised the whole thing but I won’t be able to remember it all in the right order. So what do I do now?”

So I sat down on Thursday night at the computer and typed madly into the small hours. I emailed the resulting Tonal Taster script to Michelle which she practised (probably just as madly) on the Tube on her way to the workshop the next day!

What a trooper!

Was the workshop a success?

What a daft question. Of course it was. It always is when you step out of your comfort zone, push the boat out, and have a go. And that’s the absolute essence of Michelle.