Improvability Blog

I was reading just the other day that millions of people across the globe are seriously worried about their jobs right now – whether they’ll have to take a pay cut this year, whether they’ll be made redundant, and how the heck they’re going to pay the mortgage if any of that actually happens.

The survey showed that over a quarter of these people had already started to think about how they could turn their hobby into an income-producing business – just in case the worst should happen!

What about you?

Wouldn’t it be good to have your own Plan B up and running, just in case?

And if you’re sick to death of your current job anyway, Plan B could help to turn your life around this year. Just think – you could actually make money from doing what you really love – just like I do.

Do you have a dream?

What stops you from going for it, then?

Maybe it’s the people around you who tell you couldn’t possibly do what you’ve got in mind, that there’s definitely no market for what you have to offer, that you should stop dreaming and get back to the real world… Blah, blah, blah!

Or perhaps that should read, ‘Baa, Baa, Baa’?

It’s amazing how many of the people who give out such incredibly negative advice live such demonstrably fulfilling lives, isn’t it? After all, the evidence of how well they’re doing following their own advice is right in front of your nose! They have such a big house, the very best car money can buy, the most expensive holidays, all their children go to public school, the lady of the house clearly drips with diamonds… NOT!

Personally I stopped listening to such drivel a long time ago. Now I pay attention to people who’ve followed their dream, ignored the green-eyed pessimists who’ve tried to hold them back, and have now got what they wanted and live measurably fulfilling lives.

So I was riveted as Neil and I listened to Michael Flatley on TV last night.

It was a programme about his long-awaited return to take an updated ‘Lord of the Dance’ show on a massive world-wide tour.

He started the TV show, and ended it, with exactly the same message, “Follow your dreams, because you wouldn’t want it so bad if you couldn’t have it. The universe gives you these dreams because you can have them. If you’re willing to work for it, you can have anything you want.”

He talked about being amazed at how many naysayers tried to stop him following his dream, especially when he started out on his own journey to create a full-length show from the original 7-minute Riverdance act in 1994.

Everybody around him said it couldn’t be done, that he should give up and go back to his day job.

Thank goodness Michael Flatley didn’t listen to them.

Thank goodness that he never gave up on his dream or the world would have been a much poorer place.

Now he says, “Whenever I hear, ‘It can’t be done,’ I know I’m close to success.”

So what about you and your dream?

Are you ready to bring it to the world, to change lives, to set another example of how to go for it against all odds?

Do you dream of colour?

If you love colour, you could have your very own colour business up and running within just a few weeks.

I’ve tried to make this as easy and as accessbile as possible for you to follow your own dream.

I’ve taken our £1,000+ value box of Colour Analysis training materials and split it down into 4 manageable options. All you have to do is choose which one suits your budget right now.

And to help you get started right away, we’ve extended our pre-Christmas offer – but only until Sunday.

You can still save 50 pounds on Option 1 of my fabulously-easy self-paced training course, Colour Analysis in a Box

And I’m prepared to help you even more by offering fabulously reduced rates so that you can pay over the next 3 months too.

Normally we charge 20% for payment plans but to help you start the New Year with even more money in your pocket, I’m reducing this to a very generous 10% – until Sunday 8th Jan only.

Order Option 1 (or whichever option suits you best), pay the first monthly payment, and you could have your first paying client before the second payment becomes due!

Be prepared

When you have Plan B up and running, then you’ll be ready for anything!

You can use your new skills alongside your current job, to supplement a job that just about pays the bills, to replace a job that doesn’t pay the bills, to help you get rid of a job you hate, and to help you fulfil your dreams.

Don’t listen to the naysayers

“Follow your dreams, because you wouldn’t want it so bad if you couldn’t have it. The universe gives you these dreams because you can have them. If you’re willing to work for it, you can have anything you want.” Michael Flatley

Amen to that!

P.S. Make sure to order while you can still take advantage of the incredible 3-pay option. It disappears after Sunday 8th January.

In the Colour Analysis forum, we’ve been having a fabulous discussion about blonde Winters. We’ve even set up a separate section about Hair Colour  Discussions as this is clearly a very popular subject.

Sandra started it back in mid November wanting a list of celebrity blonde Winters. I’ve added some personal notes about my own journey as a blonde Winter, and Nicky has just written,

“I too have a blonde winter. Bright white blonde hair, bright blue eyes like jewels, and cool cool skin. a typical example of not being able to put people in boxes. She looks fabulous in red, black and white, with a bit of royal purple. Her personality and style completely winter too. Dramatic, bold, simple. I feel like screaming into books I see where white blonde hair is not classed as Winter. We cannot shove a round peg into a square hole!”

Amen to that, Nicky!

And, as is my wont, I wrote a typically long-winded reply that I thought you might enjoy over a glass of mulled wine and some fat Christmas pudding.

This reminds me of a Christmas long ago…

I had been modelling (yet another story to tell at some point) alongside an image consultant who was trained by another well-known colour company, and she invited me to a Christmas party for her clients.

All of the guests (apart from me) had been ‘colour coded’ by Brunhilde into the 4 seasons (no tones, just the 4 seasons).

One lady had beautiful silver blonde hair and was clearly a Cool Winter but was dressed from head to toe in the same soft raspberry colour – dress, jacket, stockings, shoes, handbag – and looked very bland and dour indeed.

• Where was the contrast she needed?
• Where was the brightness she so desperately craved?

Gone down the tubes, it seems, based on a ruddy ‘system’ that doesn’t put the client first.

The poor drab-looking client told me, “I was a Winter when my hair was dark but now that I’ve gone grey and had my hair coloured silver white, Brunhilde says I have to be a Summer.”

I nearly choked on my mince pie!

My Mum brought me up properly so I didn’t explode right there and then but I seethed inwardly for the rest of the evening and went home with a headache that had nothing to do with alcohol!

Oooh, this rubbish makes my blood boil.

Needless to say, I arranged to see this lady separately and showed her how she had not suddenly morphed into a soft-muted Summer at all.  Her Bright Winter colours had become Cool Winter colours.  She hadn’t changed her season one jot!

Unfortunately, all this lady’s friends were part of Brunhilde’s neat little circle of clients and as she was anxious to be included in the future she felt she had to conform to Brunhilde’s diagnosis.

The power of peer group pressure must never be underestimated

Personally, when the peer group says go this way, I have always deliberately gone in the opposite direction but I have had to learn that I am in a very small minority.

I am being serious here!  You must weigh everything in your client’s life:

• her personality
• her colouring
• her budget
• her lifestyle
• her own moral baseline

What is going to be affected when you tell her to wear different colours?

What are the consequences for your client?

Not for you.

What are the consequences for your client?

You have to understand the power of the work we do

We are changing the way people feel about themselves; if nothing else, we give our clients a moment in time to consider, to reflect on where they are, what they’re doing, and whether they’re happy with all that.

Oh, I could tell you so many stories about this very subject, how some women feel they have to dress to please their husband, father, mother, great uncle Mordred or whoever… And what happens when that is challenged.

I don’t say this with any great pride but this demonstrates what can happen – two of my clients left their husbands after discovering their colours, their true personalities and what they really, really wanted from life.

Your client has a choice to make

Based on the work we did together, Brunhilde’s clearly-Winter client had a choice to make.  She could embrace the real Cool Winter she truly is or play the blend-in-the-background Summer role and stay with her friends.

My job was to point out the consequences, discuss them where appropriate but leave her to make the decision.

She chose to fit in.

And that’s fine.

Because we are not dictators.  We are consultants.  Our clients consult us for our best advice and opinion.

You know me! I would love everyone to do as they’re told (!) but I’ve had to learn and accept that just will not happen 100% of the time.

• Our goal is not to be right
• Our goal is a happy client

We won’t be able to help them ALL look and feel utterly fabulous – because the choices they may ultimately make for themselves might scupper any chance of that.

But you never know…

Some clients will muse on what you say for weeks, months, even for years afterwards, and one day, they might just become the person they were always meant to be.

So, just in case… keep on keeping on!