Improvability Blog

You’ve missed a treat this week. The ladies on my Ladies’ Style course this week are having a whale of a time. We spent the first day on Style Personality which is my favourite bit as I believe understanding your client is the key to understanding what to deliver - none of this silly ‘by rote’ stuff for me, I’m afraid. Find out what makes her tick, what makes her happy (and absolutely what doesn’t) and give her the information and encouragement she needs, and you will have a happy client and friend for life.

Yesterday we took on the tricky subject of body shape. Oh boy! I remember when I first had my body shape ‘diagnosed’ hundreds of years ago - and then, by the way, lived the next 14 years wearing totally the wrong fabrics, shapes, etc. until a massively gifted consultant who treated everyone as an individual put me right. But when I attended my very first Style consultation I had to strip down to my unmentionables - well, I won’t go into how horrid that was again. I felt quite ill when I was telling my story to the ladies yesterday and that’s more than enough trauma for one week, thank you.

I showed them yesterday how to work out anyone’s body shape without having to touch them and absolutely without having to measure them. And they loved it.

What they didn’t know was that I was trialling a new range of body shaping garments under my normal clothes to see if it made a difference to their diagnosis. I’ll be going through this in a bit more detail with them this morning so I’ll report back to you.

But what I discovered for myself about wearing these incredible underthings was worth talking about too. Haven’t got too much time right now as they’re due to arrive in the next few minutes to start our last day together but suffice it to say that my expensive black tailored-to-fit-me trousers gaped at the waist by at least an inch compared to the day before…. What a dreadful problem to have, I can hear you say.

Today we’re looking at how to use fashion trends, how to put a program together for their clients and how to create a sustainable, long-term business relationship with each client which will, naturally, lead to a predictable and substantial income. Must run…

I remember having my style ‘done’ hundreds of years ago and having to change into a leotard in front of one colleague (not even a good friend) and 4 other perfect strangers.

Glory me! What an absolutely hideous experience and I swore there and then I would never do that to MY clients.

At the time, I was a young whippersnapper in my early twenties with a not utterly revolting body but, even so, I was mortified by the experience. 

I don’t remember a word of what the image consultant said or her final diagnosis but I DO remember feeling ugly, horrible and exposed.

Gordon Bennett alone knows what or how the other 5 older, larger ladies felt…

They say that you should always treat people as you would like to be treated.  Well what about treating them even better than that?

Why didn’t that woman make me feel fantastic, fabulous, gorgeous, like a princess? As it happens, with that particular image consultant, I could sit and explain exactly why but I won’t bore you with her history, my history, or even OUR history here. 

Suffice it to say that I learnt a huge lesson that day and if we don’t learn from these experiences and move on, then we may as well stick our heads in a bucket of sand and shuffle off this mortal coil - sometimes only Shakespeare can express my deepest emotions and I apologise profusely for tainting his brilliant words with such a dowdy one as ‘bucket’!

Back to the story…

Why did we have to change into a dratted leotard in the first place?

• So that the so-called expert could pin you against a wall and measure you to within an inch of your life!

And for what reason exactly?

• So that she could then compare your measurements to a drawing of the ‘perfect’ body shape.

Yeah, I can see it all now; it’s as clear as day.  We were all plunged into abject misery at the very thought of our own personal measurements and knew without a doubt that we would never measure up to the ‘perfect’ woman even if we stopped eating for three hundred years!  So, naturally, we all felt fantastic, fabulous, gorgeous, and just like a princess - NOT!

Good grief and glory! (Believe me, this is a severely watered-down version of what I originally wrote)

What a revolting way to treat people and the stupidity of it all is that there is absolutely no need to do any of this.  

I was determined that I would never ask my clients to strip to their undies or measure them or degrade them so I had to search around for other ways of working out whether you’ve got a straight body shape, where your waist is, how long your neck is, whether you’ve got escaping hamsters or bat wings…

I now teach at least 3 different ways of working out what body shape your client is WITHOUT HAVING TO TOUCH HER.

None of this silly measuring nonsense; it’s so unnecessary, so invasive and can feel so humiliating.

The same goes for scale, proportion, whatever you want to call it.  I usually brandish a tape measure around just to demonstrate that I will NOT be using it, and you can see everyone visibly relax straight away.

Let’s be real here.  There’s no such thing as the ‘perfect’ woman anyway.  What is perfect to one person will be imperfect to someone else so let’s stop this holier-than-thou attitude in our industry and treat everyone as an unique individual who is ‘practically perfect’ just as she is - rather like Mary Poppins.

There are plenty of other reasonable ways to distinguish a lady’s scale, shape, etc. without having to grope her and that’s what I now teach on to other ladies who want their own clients to have lots more fun and feel fantastic, fabulous, gorgeous, and just like a princess in their Style classes.  I hope yours do too!

A Ladies’ Style class or consultation should be fun, not a nerve-wracking experience and the best bit for me is style personality. I just love showing ladies who they really are but also how they can use different style personalities to dress differently for different parts of their life.

In a Style class, I get to show:

• the quietest, shyest lady on the planet how to dress for an interview and get that job BEFORE she even opens her mouth
• the most aloof, powerful-looking lady on the planet how to dress to NOT frighten a potential partner away
• the most uninterested-in-clothes lady how to dress to IMPRESS her other half’s boss and his corporate clients

It’s incredible what you can achieve when you know what you’re doing, and when you understand the power of clothes to help you get what you want.

Even after 30 years as a style consultant, I still find this utterly fabulous stuff and when you start to receive feedback from your extremely happy clients, you just want to help more and more ladies to get what THEY want.  Then you find that go and recommend you to all their friends and that’s how I ended up with more work than I could cope with. How perfectly dreadful!

I’ve also been fortunate to teach this on to lots of other lovely consultants who have been experiencing similar results:

“I carried out a style course on Tuesday and the ladies absolutely loved in and in fact want me to do colour and shape with them. Its exactly as you say…theatre! all great fun and lucrative too!” Yvonne, London, UK

As Yvonne has discovered, you earn lots more money by providing Style classes or consultations to your existing Colour clients.

Then you’ll be able to consider offering personal shopping services and wardrobe weed-outs too - and earn even more money, doing what you love, helping ladies to look and feel absolutely fabulous.

If this is what you’d like to do, you can learn right now with my one and only 3-day training course in Ladies’ Style of 2010. 

But be warned - this is heady stuff and you may end up becoming as infatuated with the whole subject of colour, style and image as I am!  Heaven help you!

I’ve been receiving lots of emails over the festive season from consultants who have seen great success in their business during 2009 - remember, this has been touted as a year of ‘recession’…

If you’ve not been so fortunate, you might like to take inspiration from these ladies who just got up off their butt and took some action to ensure the success of their business.

This first one is from Jane who lives on the south coast of England. She completed our Colour in a Box training course about two years ago:

“Thought I’d let you know that business is going well for me; growing with confidence all the time and often replay your words in my head, Kim, ”it’s about what we SEE in the mirror” when faced with those ’unique’ colourings! ” Jane, UK

My reply: “I am so glad to hear that you are doing so well with your business.  There are several ladies like yourself writing in at the moment to say how well their business is doing but I also know from the deafening silence elsewhere that many are just hiding behind the curtains waiting for the recession to miraculously go away.  What a waste!  They could be out there, changing lives, increasing someone else’s confidence (never mind their own), and earning good money!  It’s only those who have the get-up-and-go like you that move on, so very well done!   Sharing your successes is such a major part of being in a solo business so keep emailing me.” Kim

“Thanks Kim… you’re absolutely right, clients don’t just drop through the letterbox  - you have to get out there and be seen, build relationships and trust and then the business starts to come your way. For me, the most important thing is ENJOYING the ride, something I need to remind myself of sometimes, given the ‘perfectionist’ in me! Lots of plans for the New Year, as I’m sure you have… enjoy!” Jane, UK

The second one is from Judith who came to a face-to-face Colour Analysis course here with me in February 2009:

“Everyone told me that I was mad to set up business earlier this year, but actually I have done quite well, especially given the constant doom and gloom about the economy and everything else!  I have started doing cosmetics parties (I also sell some jewellery as well) and they are very popular and I am getting to meet loads of ladies, getting known and getting business!  I have lots of plans for next year - I think you have to be really focused and keep getting out there.” Judith, UK

My reply: “I’m so glad to hear that your business is doing well but then I expected that you would do very well.  You’re focused, determined and business-minded so you just couldn’t fail.  It’s such a pity that there are so many other so-called consultants out there who have just taken to hiding behind the curtains while this so-called recession fades away.  But then, that has created more work for you.  Well done!” Kim

What about YOUR business plans for the New Year?

Do you have any plans at all?

If not, then maybe this is the time to start thinking about what you want from your business in 2010?