Improvability Blog

Over these last few weeks where I’ve had to take time out to rest and recuperate, this has given me a chance to do some deep thinking about what I’m going to be doing in my business in 2012.

• Should I run a live event?
• Maybe I should expand my mentoring opportunities?
• Perhaps I should run an Image Academy for 6 months, or even a year?

I could do so many different things – create new products, design new training courses, update the old faithfuls… The list could easily be as long as your arm but with only 5 weeks left of 2011, I really must start whittling down the options.

You probably realise that I’m a bit of a drama queen and, from time to time, I just have to get out there and drarm (just say it out loud and it will start to make sense):

• To drarm, or not to drarm?
• There is no question!

So I thought you might be able to help me with this.

What do YOU want?

This is your opportunity to have your say, to let me know exactly how I can help you and what you want.

Please help me to help you by answering 3 simple questions. Blether on for England if you want to, or just tick a box here and there if you prefer.

This online survey will take you a couple of minutes at the most. And thanks in advance most muchly!

Are you sitting comfortably?
Then I’ll begin…

Once upon a time, thousands of years ago, I took a client to a well-known department store to help her choose a foundation to complement her cool colouring.

The assistant was very helpful but clearly had no idea about cool and warm colouring at all. The latest addition to her particular make-up foundation range was ‘Toffee’ and she had clearly been given strict instructions from some dimwit supervisor to promote that before anything else.

I gently tried to explain that we were looking for something ‘less golden’ but she was obviously on a mission to finish her sales pitch, so we let her rabbit on until that fateful moment when she suggested that my client ‘try it on the base of your thumb to see if it matches your skin tone.’

I think the whole shop must have heard me, because I was well and truly angry now. I won’t bore you with the whole tirade here but I ended by shouting, “If I was buying a pair of shoes, I wouldn’t try them on my elbows. So why would I try foundation on anywhere but my face?”

And, leaving her with her mouth gaping open like a goldfish, we flounced out.

Surely, anyone with half a brain cell can see that…

The skin on your face is nothing like the skin on your hands

Look in a mirror right now.

Hold your hand up next to your face. Do they look anything alike?

I think not.

Over the years (and I’ve been around a long, long time so I’ve seen most of them by now) I’ve had all sorts of colour analysis techniques shown to me and some of them are just plain daft.

One of the daft ones is to place your hand flat on top of a gold or silver drape, ostensibly to discover whether you’re going to look better wearing warm or cool colours. It doesn’t matter whether you place it palm down or palm up because the results only show how good gold or silver look NEXT TO YOUR HAND!

You might look fabulous in cool colours near your face and still manage to wear gold rings and bracelets because your hands display warmth. I am the perfect example of this. Put gold anywhere near my face and I look like a tart *. Silver worn around my neckline makes me look elegant. Yet I can wear gold rings and bracelets because the skin on my hands display warmth.

So the moral of this story is…

Focus on what looks good
on or near YOUR CLIENT’S FACE

That’s where other people will be looking when they meet and speak with her. They won’t be looking at her hands right away so why would you prioritise what looks good near her hands?

Try this…

The second of 23 techniques that DO work, taken from my Advanced Colour Analysis for Image Consultants training pack:

#2. Look at the jewellery your client is wearing near her face

• Does gold look warm and rich,
  or does it look brassy?
• Does silver look cool and sophisticated,
  or does it look dull and grey?

Please remember that we are looking at her face, not her hands, or the backs of her knees… Please look at the poor darling’s face!

* By the way, I don’t recommend you tell all your cool clients that they will look like a tart if they wear gold near their face. You might just get a slap in the mouth for your trouble!

Use the words that work for your personality and that will help your client understand how she won’t look as gorgeous as you know she could…

After all, it’s not always what you say; it’s the way that you say it!