Style That Boosts Confidence

Speaker 1: [Music] hi I'm Melanie bar welcome to the she builted experience with Melanie you're here because you want to experience the life and business that you crave join me as I talk to women who have successfully built it a career and business that they love we dive into the topic of how they built it and talk about everything from Having the courage to make career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and Infuse Tech innovation magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so let's dive in Alison Brun is a national style and image consultant with clients across the country she studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City the purpose of her work is to empower women through creating a visual brand and transforming their style to ignite A New Path of confidence and Independence thank you for joining us Allison you studied at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York York City did you always know that you wanted to go into fashion and what Drew you to

Speaker 2: it I did not always know that I did know that I was very interested in it but I grew up in the Deep South and it was sort of frowned upon to think of yourself but you were always supposed to be polished and well put together it was almost like something I ke kept hidden I decided I've been getting these mixed messages all my life about you have to look a certain way but you can't let anybody know that you're trying and I was like I love it I want to talk about it I want to help other women with it so I went to fit like you mentioned where you know ver W Michael Kors all these fashion greates went to school and learned about the science behind getting dressed not just what looks best on you

Speaker 1: but why it looks best on you isn't it great when we stop thinking about what other people think and just follow what

Speaker 2: we know yes and then help other people do the same when I was younger I had an interesting fashion sense my mother would say I'd come out of my room and she'd either say yes or no she would always say you're a Trends Setter cuz I'd wear certain things that a lot of the people around me were not wearing and then all of a sudden everyone else started to wear them too it's interesting how that changes though to your point as you get older because you have all this confidence when you're younger and then as you get older you start caring a little bit more about what people think you're really Brave when you're young and then you get less Brave as you get older when you learn about things that could happen or people are always like don't do that watch out for this it's the same thing with style you know oh that might be a little bright or is that a little too short is that all the little questions that you get at home or you can just tell when somebody looks at you they might not be thinking what you think they are

Speaker 1: thinking too right exactly and I love that you Empower people to be who they are and show that through style yes tell us about the pivotal moment when you decided to make the leap like we say it she built it and launch your business I

Speaker 2: launched my styling business when I turned 50 I decided when my daughter went to college that I've been given this gift of I don't like the word reinvention but more time to actually think about what would make me happy and what I could do to make the world a better place I um took some time and figured out what I wanted to do and then the bigger leag was when my daughter and I decided to merge our businesses and she left Barney's which was an amazing job that she had on the buying team and work with me full-time and it was a leap for sure for so many reasons but it's

Speaker 1: been an an amazing adventure and you're a motherdaughter duo in your company how does it feel to be able to work and build a company alongside your daughter I have 9-year-old Twins and I have a daughter too and I would think it would be so much fun to do something together

Speaker 2: it's so much fun they're great things obviously you can say some things to your mother or your daughter that you wouldn't say to a coworker also you know the person well enough that you can tell when it's time to back off or they need a nap or or whatever maybe you need to take on more they need to take on more it's been interesting as the some of the rols have reversed because of technology so a lot of times de is the one that has to be very patient with her mother or she'll like come on Mom you can do this

Speaker 1: I'm sure you bring different skills to

Speaker 2: the table yes most definitely your

Speaker 1: purpose is to empower women through creating a visual brand and transforming their style to ignite A New Path of confidence and Independence I love that what is your approach to working with clients and how does your approach improve their lives there are a lot of

Speaker 2: stylists that say for a set price you're going to get three looks that are going to work for your body type but after they are with that sty then they come to me and say okay I did that but I still have nothing to wear so what I do in my practice is we go deep into why they came to me in the first place and it's usually not for a fall update in the beginning it's usually something pretty dramatic has pushed them to the point where despite the fact that they feel like they should be able to get themselves dressed they they they need help at something and so it can be a myriad of things it can be a job promotion it can be a job interview it can be your a widow and you want to start over again it can be someone's moving to New York for the first time and has a tiny closet and has to build a career wardrobe and then obviously the wedding or executive styling but usually when we start with one thing it becomes sort of like this lifetime situation where they reach back out whenever they have something going on especially if they're busy people so I go into the closet and we try on a bunch of things and I have a core checklist because what most people do when they go shopping they don't go shopping for or a fabulous looking black pant or the most perfect

Speaker 1: white silk Camy I mean you know they just don't do that so when you go to their closet they have all these wonderful statement pieces but they have nothing to wear no B right and they don't even know where to find the basics I know the basics in their price point at their body type so once we pull all that in then we can start putting the looks together after we do all that then we talk about okay what is still missing that we need in order to make multiple looks and it might be you need a gray booty you can't just wear black booty with everything you know especially these SC neutrals or one piece that literally is the thing that opens up the the gift where they start really getting to play and and have fun and show their personality and my goal is to teach them how to dress for themselves so in the future when they go shopping they know nope not my neckline or I love that crop jacket but with body type I need to go towards a longer Blazer whatever it is and then they can go on and do it themselves a lot of my clients though reach out and they're like I know I know you you know you told me how to do it myself but I'm really busy and I'd rather you do it for me that's fine too but that is what I learned with doing this program at fit because it really does teach you what the um the brain and the eyes of the person who's looking at you or thinking not like they're judging you but actually what they're thinking when they see you and first impressions are so important but so is the first impression every time they see you and so is the last impression people will say oh it doesn't matter what coat I'm wearing because I'm going to take it off when I get there I'm like that's your entrance to the party and that's your exit no you can't wear the yellow rain coat to the black di in or whatever right it might be I feel invisible we're going to figure out why you feel that way and what we can do to make you not feel that way anymore or I feel like people in my office look at me this way well when you wear this this is how they're thinking we want your inside to match your outside because if if it isn't besides just not being authentic you're going to be distracted the whole time you on the inside aren't feeling

Speaker 2: that you are being honest I love that you go deeper than just the clothing and the style and you're right about the way people shop I just went on a cruise to Mexico and my shopping was Cruise driven we don't always go in and make sure we have those Basics and then can build off of them and how do you think style can make someone feel style can make someone feel better than any drug if you're wearing the wrong thing you don't leave the house people have said to me I just didn't go I literally sat down and cried and I just didn't go I had clothed Stone all over the floor let me help you that's such a stressor you have multiple choices in your closet that you know will good on you from the back from the side from the front they're not too short they're not too long they look like who you want people to know you are and then you feel on the top of the

Speaker 1: world I mean it's crazy how different what you put on your body can make you feel and people put that last they put it last when they're doing anything even when they're not getting married for the wedding day but for all the parties leading up to it or especially like the mother of the groom abro they're that's the last thing they think about and then they're G to panic what am I gonna wear so true because you wait till the last minute it times and then it becomes stressful rather than

Speaker 2: fun yeah totally I was working with somebody the other day she's doing a photo shoot for her new website and she had ordered all the clothes that we talked about and she had tried them on once but then when she started trying them on again oh ah didn't realize this fits me like this or I didn't realize this top was too low when the clothes fit right and you have the right thing that also makes the photo shoot fun oh exactly instead of a stress totally just had a speaking engagement she had multiple things to do so we came up with the looks I was like now I want you to go Google head shot and I want you to screenshot some that resonate with you and then I want you to send them ahead of time to the photographer I want you to sent him three words that describe your business outside of the bio that you gave him and that way when you walk in he already will have his creative juices going about how he wants it to look so you don't walk in there and you are looking at what he's taking and you're like no no no this isn't what I was thinking so all the steps you can take to guarantee success and it's the same thing for anything if you are doing a zoom interview or if you ask you to speak publicly or make a video this is

Speaker 1: about your personal visual brand yes having a plan is so important this is great advice from doing family photos to getting photos done for your brand or a speaking engagement right and some of the things you don't think about this is really resonating because I just went through this through Co we didn't get any family photos done and so I have a friend at the beach she does mini family photos so I said we are doing it that day we had a baseball game soccer photos a soccer game and I got home and I had 45 minutes to get the whole family together so I just went through this and I was pretty planned but not quite planned enough for the 45 minutes so as you're talking about this it's for business I tend to plan a

Speaker 2: little more you're right it could be such a stresser you were paying for someone to take pictures of you and then you're thinking why didn't I why didn't I give myself more time for this but that's why I very much love to take that away from people and my main advice always is give yourself longer than you think you're going to need especially if you're dealing with kids so true so true

Speaker 1: and it's funny because I put a shirt on my son and it didn't fit and I had ordered something on Amazon was at the beach it's in the sand they were going to have have sand all over them by the end of it anyway and of course the Amazon was delivered as we were going to the car the package I had another shirt that he could wear but I thought of course this happens my husband hands me the package as we're getting in the car to drive to the beach that is such a good example and also have backups for everything at least in your mind and also kids are so funny my son's in this in between where the his size pants don't really fit but the next size up don't really fit so I think that was my biggest problem with the shirt I thought well the shirt it fit two weeks ago what happened right my husband's 6'5 so he's going to be very tall oh yeah but your this conversation is reminding me of that moment yeah and I will be honest I love clothes but I am the worst Shopper and I think it got worse during covid if there's a box that shows up at my house

Speaker 2: I am all for it on your site you say you support women to take the stress out of getting dressed tell us more about how

Speaker 1: you're able to do this so when you have the right pieces in your closet then there's not going to be as much dress getting dressed so what we do in the front end is go over all that what is your lifestyle why do you have so many cocktail dresses why do you have so many workout clothes what's your everyday look why I just wear that to the grocery store why I just wear that to CVS or you know that's my Saturday clothes I'm like okay we have this many Saturday clothes and you have this many in Real Life clothes and where do you see most people especially if you're like a stat home mom you see him at the grocery store you see him at CBS you see him at the soccer field and you still want to feel good when you're in those places right and what's wrong with a jean and a booty and a great sweater as a mom of twins I admit there was a time I had a lot of black in my closet exactly and then one day you wake up and you think where is all the color and it was funny because one day in Co I went out and I bought a really bright sweater I brought a really bright phone cover and all of a sudden I looked down and I thought this is a phone cover that like my 9-year-old daughter would have would have bought but I thought something is telling me I need more color in my life something cheerful and bright and you wake up and you have those moments and you're just ready for more sure absolutely the two things I love to watch in the process one is when usually when I come sometimes people burst into tears too because I say what are our goals and if it's a young mom or something or whatever it is and then when I leave sometimes they cry again because they're so relieved we always put ourselves last and then we don't give enough ourselves enough time and if you have the right pieces in there that you can mix and match for sure you have these core pieces and even with those core pieces you can put together 20 looks and then when you start adding on your fun pieces with it there's no limit to how many looks you can come up with I'm sure it makes your closet much more fun too entering the closet to get ready to go

Speaker 2: somewhere totally I was telling my daughter today what it's it's it doesn't make sense but it is true every single time the less you have in your closet the more you have to wear and it's fascinating and usually in the process too it's oh well now that you've cleared stuff out I for God I had this look the tags are still on it I didn't even remember because it was like crammed in the back and probably because you focus on the things that you like and the things that you feel good in right right oh totally you keep going back those same things so why not have more of

Speaker 1: those things yes Magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy what is one way that you make sure to find and live your joy each day

Speaker 2: I do what I love I love helping other women and I love working with my daughter those are both incredibly rewarding and also I'm an optimist by Nature so if I'm not waking up getting my coffee excited about the day then I know I need to check in with myself and say what's causing you to be anxious what's going on here do you feel like you have too much on your plate because that's not my nature so it's easy for me to find things that bring me joy we had a meeting about this and we decided that we are going to find a way as entrepreneurs on Saturday we are literally going to take the day off and do at least one thing that we that we enjoy and not talk about the business and and be with friends and sleep whatever it is that we need to do and I think especially for my daughter it's going to be hard but it's gonna be amazing as entrepreneurs it's so hard because normally we go into something that we love to do and if you love to do it it's hard to shut it down and even if that means going to do something fun or like you said taking a day of rest you

Speaker 1: are building a very fun business thank you for empowering women so great what you're doing can you share with us how

Speaker 2: we can find you sure the Hub of our website which is the style that binds us.com and it has our podcast sign up for our newsletter that comes out once a week with style edits and we have 24/7 stylist that's the things that I'm picking out for my clients right now so if you feel like you can't afford a stylish or you don't want to styish but you're C ious to know what's working for other people you can shop from there social media is at the style that binds

Speaker 1: us thank you for joining us today I'd love to hear from you reach out to me at hello Sheil it.com on our shetit website or at Sheed on social thank you to my editor Rich draino who always makes us sound good until next time let nothing stop you from experiencing the life and business that you crave [Music]