Building Your Online Business and Personal Styling Success with Sarah St. John and Amanda Wood45 min read

Bryan Hyde
Welcome to the Janine Bolon show, where we share tips from around the globe. As we guide practical people with their finances using money tips, increase their incomes through side businesses, and maintain their sanity by staying in their creative zone.

Janine Bolon
Hi, and welcome to the show. This is Janine Bolon and you may or may not know this, but the Janine Bolon show is a syndicated program of four podcast shows, which we combined and syndicated in October of 2021. I mean, up until then, me and my team, we have been running four separate podcast called Three Minute Money Tips, The Thriving Solopreneur, The Writers Hour, Creative Conversations and The Practical Mystic Show. So what is wonderful is we’ve combined them all together, we bring on authors, we bring on creatives, solopreneurs, entrepreneurs, and also mystics onto the show. So there’s a wide variety of things that you can pop into. And today we are going to be highlighting one of our entrepreneurs that has a lot to share with us. She is one of the many thriving solopreneurs. And I’m interviewing her and others over the course of this year to receive their guidance and perspective on how to get your message, your story or your products and services out to a larger audience. Now, many of you have been told, hey, you need to write a book, or dude you show need to have a podcast or Hey, you don’t have a YouTube channel? I mean, we’ve all heard this right? Well, today’s guest is an expert in helping you get your message out to that larger audience through podcasting. Welcome to the show, Sarah St. John.

Sarah St. John
Well, thanks so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

Janine Bolon
It’s always a delight to have another pro on it’s like a bunch of comedians getting together in a room when you have a bunch of podcasts together. It’s always like, you start giggling. It’s great. Let me tell you a little bit about Sarah before we launch and that is she’s an entrepreneur, podcaster, online course creator, and author. She has created several startups through her entrepreneurial career as over a decade. And she currently owns a podcast production agency called Pod Seam like you’re sewing a seam on a dress. So Pod Seam, S E A M. She is also a podcast host of Frugalpreneur Building a Business on a Bootstrapped Budget, which aims to show people how to launch and manage an online business on a budget. So Sara, thank you so much for being with us today.

Sarah St. John
I’m excited to get started.

Janine Bolon
Okay, so we both were friends of Mike Capuzzi, Mike Capuzzi. Not to be confused with Jacuzzi is the man who started Bite Sized Books, he really kind of launched what was called the short helpful book, which is a shook is what he called it. And he started the whole process of write your books in 100 pages or less, because if people couldn’t read them in less than an hour, or maybe an hour and a half tops, they really weren’t getting the meat. You were just doing a lot of storytelling. And what’s really neat about Sarah, is she kind of stumbled upon that process all on her own. So Mike had her on his podcast, and hey, hi. He was like, Janine, you got to have this guest on yours. And I’m like, ooh, so exciting. So hey, tell us did you come from a broadcasting background? I mean, what got you into podcasting, Sarah?

Sarah St. John
Actually, no. Well, you know, it’s kind of funny because I majored in journalism, I only got as far as my associates, which I’ll explain in a minute. But the plan was to go actually into radio and film, and broadcast or writing, you know, journalism for a newspaper, something of that nature. But yeah, turn of events, that all changed. But anyway, so then I got in the job market, and I had like six different jobs, and this was 2008. So over the course of the year, I had six different jobs realized I didn’t want to work for other people, and so I started my own business. It was a photography business. And while I realized I like taking photos of animals, architectural landscapes, I don’t like taking photos of people. But that’s where the money is. I was doing weddings and portraits. But the bigger issue than that was actually just the expense to maintain the equipment and all that, so I decided to switch to an online business model, but I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, so I tried a bunch of different things like drop shipping, blogging, affiliate marketing. And it was in this process that I discovered all these free or affordable tools, resources and software that people can use to run a business on a budget. So then I decided to write a book called Frugalpreneur to kind of talk about the different types of online businesses and how to run them on a budget, and it was while I was doing that, that I decided to launch a podcast with it, but it was just gonna coincide with it be about 10 episodes or so just as another marketing avenue. But I got more leverage and traction from the podcast actually, then the book and I love the connections I was making and the networking, and so I’ve kept that up and see, I think I have like 140ish episodes, been doing it for probably three years now. So that’s how I got into that it was kind of a long roundabout way of finally getting there.

Janine Bolon
I understand. So a lot of times, like I started off as an author ended up becoming an online course creator because I wanted to teach and I didn’t want to have to deal with a principal, I didn’t want to have to deal with administration, and I only wanted to teach people who wanted to be there. So those were my requirements. Oh, and I didn’t want to have to deal with grades. That was the other thing I despised dealing with grades and testing students because I figured either they got it or they didn’t. Their education was their responsibility. And of course, my college experience as a professor, they were like, no, no, no, that’s not how this works. And I’m like, that stinks, so I don’t want to be a part of that. So that’s how I kind of got wrapped up into this. So with you writing your book, Frugalpreneur Building a Business on a Bootstrapped Budget, what year did that come out again?

Sarah St. John
The book was 2019.

Janine Bolon
Wow. Right before things kind of… people really needed what you had to offer at that point.

Sarah St. John
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, sorry.

Janine Bolon
No, go ahead. Did you like stumble into writing books? I mean, what brought you into authorship? I mean, because you started off as a journalism degree, and usually those people avoid writing books like the plague.

Sarah St. John
Oh, really? That’s interesting. I didn’t even know that.

Janine Bolon
For the press and you know, they love writing those 1200 word stories or less stuff like that.

Sarah St. John
Oh, okay. Yeah, well, I think it was just because, actually, I remember exactly what happened. I was actually sitting in a Dave Ramsey class, Financial Peace, which is all about paying off debt and what not. And I remember thinking, okay, all these ideas are great, to, you know, help save money, pay off debt. But what about making more money? And then I started thinking, Well, I’ve kind of been experimenting with different ways to make money online, and then I kind of just said to myself, like, if I write a book about it, and then I was like, in fact, I think I will. And that’s really literally how it started. And, yeah, and what’s interesting, like you had kind of pointed out in the beginning was, so I’ve actually written three books now, but all of them are under 10,000 words, or 100 pages. And then I saw Mike Capuzzi’s podcast, which is specifically kind of about that, where that’s what his whole thing is. And I was like, oh, man, this is awesome, that maybe this really is a thing. That’s just what I chose to do. And yeah, I think you’re right about, you know, if you can read something in an hour, people are likely to consume the whole thing. But if it’s, you know, 200-250 pages, they might not finish it.

Janine Bolon
Well, and the other thing that I really loved about your writing is you do a little bit of storytelling, but you have its content, content heavy. And I think that’s the thing I loved about writing 100 page books as well was the fact that it’s content heavy, it’s stripped down, if you want the personal story other than like, the short introduction that we might have, you know, 800 to 1200 words, maybe tops. But other than that, it’s like, this is how you do it. And then it’s like, almost a how to manual. It’s not that technical. I mean, you have your humor in there. I’ve got my humor in there. But that is kind of the beauty of those shorter books. I know, some people have been complaining about how expensive things are getting. And I’m like, what I love is authors are very aware of that. So they’re stripping their books down to like, Okay, here’s the How to, unless, of course, you’re writing for entertainment, like fear, or mystery thriller, or romance or something like that. Yeah, we wouldn’t mind having a three and 400 page book to keep me out of my reality for the moment. So tell us a little bit about what might be going on next. What’s your passion project for 2022?

Sarah St. John
So I’m currently working on a course. It’s kind of been on the back burner for quite a while. But in a way, I think it’s good because I’ve developed new ideas and more ideas to include in the course but it’s going to be about well, it’s called Podcast Profit Pro, and it’s going to be about the different ways to monetize a podcast, both directly and indirectly. How to be a good host and a good guest and how to get on bigger shows, get bigger guest but then how to, you know, leverage each other’s audiences and network and potentially get clients and leads, and it’s kind of covers a bunch of topics, but its kind of generally around the concept of monetizing.

Janine Bolon
And this is where I might put us together because my book Author, Podcasting is all about how to be a standout guest and take your book on a virtual tour. And so it fits in beautifully with what Sarah is putting together as far as not only her online course, but her next book. And so you definitely want to stay tuned to not only this show, because we’ll have her back on when that project is complete, so that you know where to press the button to sign up and I recommend that. But also tell us a little bit about what you are currently engaged in as far as your podcast is concerned. Are there specific people you’re looking for? Are you going after certain entrepreneurs? Tell us a little bit about what you got going on?

Sarah St. John
Sure. So each year, I kind of do something slightly different. I started out with a podcast doing interviewing like CEOs and what not of different software programs that I used and recommended in the first book, then I switched to the following year, interviewed people who started their business with under $1,000 and grew it to at least a million, not per year, but total without any kind of outside venture capital loans, debt credit, whatever. This year, I’m doing a few different things, but I’d like to interview some Shark Tank contestants. There’s a few I have in mind. I’d also like to interview kid entrepreneurs, if I can find any. And then the other thing and more of people who start with $1000 or less, and built it to a million or more. And then also there are a few specific entrepreneurs that I would like to get on the show. Like the sharks actually, for example, and some others. So yeah, just kind of writing I’m also gonna do some solo episodes as well.

Janine Bolon
And that is Sarah St. John of the Frugal Entrepreneur, author and podcaster. Stay tuned because when we come back, we’re going to be talking about some quick tips that you too can have as you bootleg that business of yours see ya after this break.

Janine Bolon
Hey, welcome back. I am here today with Sarah St. John on the Janine Bolon show, and we were talking about frugalpreneurs, those wonderful thriving solopreneurs who start off a business with very little cash and do their best. And as we wrapped up, you may have noticed I said bootleg instead of bootstrapping. Yes, yes. My brain is not necessarily where it needs to be today, but Sarah St. John was kind enough to go okay, Janine, you may want to change that, and I’m like, No, we’ll leave it in. We’ll talk about it later. But that’s one of the fun, funny games of doing stuff when you’re recording with these wonderful podcasters. They understand what’s going on. So what we’re here to do today is talk a little bit about being a frugalpreneur, and Sarah tell us some things, like the top three things that you’ve noticed that a lot of folks don’t know what they need to do to start an online business. And basically, if you’re running a business, unless you are selling tacos out of a food truck, even then you’re going to need these three things. Whether you’re, it doesn’t matter, people are looking for you online. So talk to us about what the basics are of an online business these days.

Sarah St. John
Yeah, so the bare minimum would be start with a website. A lot of people think that you just need a social media presence, and of course, that is important. But if you’re depending solely on social media, I mean, you never know what could happen with social media. MySpace went away overnight, Facebook was down for a couple days. I mean, you just never know which ones are going to come and go and their algorithms are always changing, so people might not even see your stuff and what not. Plus, with social media, you don’t really have a way to I mean, you could direct message someone but aside from that, you don’t really have a good way to contact them. So I definitely recommend having a website and another thing is to start an email list so that you have a way to connect and market to those people. There are several okay, well going back to the website, you could get a website for free through WordPress. That’s what I use, though you do have to pay for hosting but that’s as little as $3 a month depending on who you go with. Or you could do like Wix, Weebly, Squarespace. I think a lot of people when they hear website, they think, Oh, now I got to spend $5,000 to have someone create it, and you could go that route, but if you want to be a frugalpreneur, you could just, do one of those options. I think the others are like $10 or $20 a month. And then as far as email marketing, the platform I use is called Send Fox, which is actually free up to a certain amount of subscribers. And what I like about it, at least for a podcaster, blogger or a YouTuber is that you can put in your RSS feed or your link, and anytime you have a new episode, it automatically sends out a newsletter, with that latest episode. So that’s pretty neat. But another one I recommend that’s also on the budget and would be MailerLite, they also have a free plan up to 1000 subscribers, I think, and they have more bells and whistles, you can create landing pages and what not with that one. So okay, so a website and an email list. But to kind of link those together, you need a lead magnet of some sort a way to get people on your email list, which this is another benefit of having a website versus just putting on social medias because you can have a lead magnet. And that would be like, you know, a free ebook, checklist, guide, there’s a million different things you could do for your lead magnet. And you can create some of those actually straight through your email marketing platform, depending on who you use, or there’s like www.sumo.com, which is actually free, you can create a lead magnet. And the thing I like about that one is you can actually upload your, say it’s a PDF of some sort, you could upload it to there to where when someone enters in their email, they automatically get that PDF versus having to take like another step. So yeah, a lead magnet is basically just something you’re giving away for free, that someone has to give you their email address to get. So I would say those are the three things that any business no matter what kind of business you have, it’s a must have. And it’s really affordable as well.

Janine Bolon
That’s one of the things I love about people like yourself, who you write books, you have these lead magnets, and yet you still are constantly educating because you know how much help people need. And one of the things that you and I were talking about before we came back on was the fact that there are a lot of challenges for entrepreneurs and you talked about the top two that you see over and over again. So go ahead and tell us about the two that you see. And you kind of want to alert people to Okay, look, this is gonna happen, we know what’s going to happen, and maybe give us some suggestions on how to save us from ourselves.

Sarah St. John
Yeah, so these are both ones that I’ve experienced time and time again. And when I’ve talked to other entrepreneurs, I’ve noticed it’s a trend, that they’ve all expressed this. And one is shiny object syndrome, where you’re constantly thinking of new ideas, or even just hearing about ideas. You’re like, oh, maybe I should try that or do this or, and that’s what I was doing for like over a decade. I don’t know how many different businesses I have started, and how many different types of businesses. And I guess that’s okay, when you’re trying to learn or figure out what you’re wanting to do, but it wastes a lot of time ultimately. And if you’re I mean, you can think of it like a pie or like a pizza, I guess if you’re focusing on one thing that’s 100% of the pizza, but like if you’re doing 10 different things, then you can only dedicate a slice of it to each thing. So like 10%. And so yeah, shiny object syndrome would be one thing to look out for and be cognizant of and try to kind of reel it in when you notice it. Another thing would be Oh, spending so much, I knew I lost it for a minute there because I was so focused on a shiny object. But spending so much time learning and not enough time implementing what you’re learning. It’s important to learn, you know, through books, courses, podcasts, whatever it might be, but at a certain point you need to implement what you’re learning because if you’re not then first of all, it’s pointless. And secondly, I mean by the time, like if you learn one thing, and then you learn another thing, and another thing, by time you ever try to implement one of those things, you’re gonna have probably forgotten exactly what to do. So basically, what I try to do is for every hour I spend learning something, try to spend another hour implementing it. There’s more of a balance that way, and you’re not just always consuming. And it’s allowing time to create versus consume.

Janine Bolon
Right, exactly. And that’s one of the things my listeners have heard me talk about the thriving solopreneurs podcast, but it was based on the book, which was there’s a four hour a week system, you spend an hour, spending time prospecting, you spend an hour doing follow up, you spend an hour connecting with people, and spend an hour training yourself. And in that hour of training yourself, I love what Sarah is telling you and sharing with you guys. Take that second hour, and then make sure you’re implementing it. But we were actually just trying to get them to help entrepreneurs nurture their business in four hours a week or less, because I started so many of my businesses as a serial entrepreneur, which started on Saturdays I had from 8am until noon to work on my business. And then I was engaged in other things. And so I’ve always had a side hack. I’ve always known how to build it up and do that and so that’s how I had that four week system. And it was like very segmented, I knew exactly what I had to do in each hour. So tell us a little bit about how do you decide what you need to do next? Like every entrepreneur has a system, and if you don’t, that may be something you want to start off right off the bat. But like, when you wake up in the morning, you just don’t sit down at your computer and go okay, what do I feel like doing today? You know, what is your system?

Sarah St. John
Yeah, so I usually have, well, I have a whiteboard of a list of a bunch of things I need to do and kind of their priority. But as far as the daily, I usually the first thing I do, and some people say you shouldn’t do this until the end, but I you know, I check email and social media to see if there’s any kind of things that I’m tagged in or something like that. So I actually tried to get all of that stuff out of the way. And I can usually get it all done within like 30 minutes, or no more than an hour for sure. But definitely around 30 minutes on average. So that’s the first thing I do, I guess, because it would bug me if that was like hanging on until the end of the day. I just keep thinking about it. But so I do that, and then, you know, I usually have a specific I usually focus on like one thing, maybe in a given day, whether it’s podcasts related, or now the course that I’m working on, or if I’m you know, back when I was writing the books, or, you know, I try to versus and everyone’s a little different, like some people might be applied two hours to one thing, two hours to another thing. But I kind of am more like have days, I guess, like maybe a podcast day, a book day, a course day, whatever it might be. So that’s how I operate anyway.

Janine Bolon
And do you find that you’re most creative in the mornings or evenings?

Sarah St. John
I mean, it might depend on the day. I don’t know, I would say evenings, probably.

Janine Bolon
I actually have a reason why I’m doing that. See, I create really well from 4am to 7am. So I’m a early bird, okay. And I wake up, usually I wake up without an alarm clock by four or five. It’s like almost on the dot every morning, I wake up at four or five, and I get out of bed. And that is my writing time. So you won’t catch me on social media. But I’ve noticed that if people need to kind of engage with life first and then they get creative, like my night owls or later evening. And so forgive me you kind of fit perfectly into my little paradigm, unbeknownst to Sarah. Thank you so much for your time today, Sarah. It’s been lovely to have you on the show. If somebody wants to connect with you, where’s the best place for them to find you?

Sarah St. John
Well, if they’d like to check out the podcast, it’s Frugalpreneur. It’s on all the podcast directories, you just type that in and it should pop up. And then, as far as you know, earlier, we were talking about lead magnets, well I have one and just being honest. And that’s at www.theSarahStJohn.com/free, that’s Sarah with an H and the S T J O H N. And that’s actually all three of my books, the PDF form of them.

Janine Bolon
Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for giving us a bit of your time because I know you’re as engaged as I am and you’ve got a dash off, so thank you for stopping by and letting us interview you for just a little bit today.

Sarah St. John
Well, thanks so much for having me. It’s been fun.

Janine Bolon
Alright, and stay tuned because we have another guest coming up after the break.

Janine Bolon
Hey, welcome back. I am so glad you decided to tune back in because my next guest is amazing, and I’m not just saying that because she’s my guest. I’m saying it because I have found her to be a truly a remarkable person that I’m thrilled that I got to know. We have up next, Amanda Wood who is a personal stylist with over 15 years of experience. Listen, this lady trained at the New York Institute of Art and Design, and she has made it her personal mission to empower her clients to realize not only their goals, but she wants them to be confident, and she wants them to be happy by discovering what is their best style and image. And you know what? You may be trying to dress in the latest styles, and you really need to be vintage 50s to really work, rock your style. And this is what Amanda does. She began her career in retail fashion and after a few years in corporate America, she founded her own company called the Haute Edit in 2019. Since then, she’s been in Inspiring Lives magazine. She’s got interviewed on RV and MTV. This Is It TV, and she’s been featured on numerous podcasts and taught at Immaculata University, given webinars on style, and she’s been at events with Banana Republic, Kendra Scott Luxury apartment complexes and spoken at Drexels University’s fashion department. Say that five times fast. Now we’re lucky enough she’s coming to us from King of Prussia area, Amanda is dedicated to helping her clients find their best style in person and online because you know, 2020, she is now the queen of virtual styling. Believe it or not, ladies and gentlemen, people used to think in order to have this kind of couture, you had to go to Paris, or you had to head out to New York City or be in LA, and she is right here in your own home working with you. Thank you for being on the show, Amanda Wood.

Amanda Wood
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me. I love the intro. Thank you.

Janine Bolon
You’re welcome. Okay, so one of the thing you folks need to know, is that Amanda and I happen to be on a networking group. And we were just kind of chatting back and forth. And next thing was we both found out that we are in careers that have nothing to do with what we went to college for. So tell them a little bit about how you and I are birds of a feather in that whole corporate America gig. Talk to us about what you’re trained in Amanda.

Amanda Wood
Yeah, yep, birds of a feather in science together.

Janine Bolon
Both geeks, we were the Geek Girls, we were the ones that were wearing pants and heels in the lab, right, you know, with the lab coats and everything. Oh my gosh. Okay. So tell us why you got into science. What started that career?

Amanda Wood
So science, science was from just my childhood love of dinosaurs, basically. And I was the, you know, girl digging in the dirt, climbing forts, climbing trees, you know, making mud pies, and then it evolved to catching newts from the little stream that was in back in my home, and then, you know, terrorizing poor little frogs in the diagrama that I had made for them, and I just loved being outdoors and loved dinosaurs. So until I found out what dinosaurs were and found them absolutely fascinating, and then obviously, when Jurassic Park came out, it was the realization of so much more and to see them, you know, quote, unquote, walking, talking, breathing and moving and knowing what Jack Horner and Robert Barker, who are two amazing Paleontologists that I love and idolize, and just reading their books and reading a little bit about some of the groundbreaking work that they had been doing and finding out that dinosaurs are not cold lumbering lizards, and that they are so much more than that, and that they are known pretty much birds. And then when I went to college carrying that, and where I went, I was able to create my own major. So I carried a double major of Paleontology with a specialization in genetics and just absolutely loved, it found it fascinating, and like the lab coats with the heels, it was me with my dry safilo, my gland gaster, my wild type test tube, and then my what is it test tube, figure it out, and write up a paper about it and tell me what it’s genomic makeup is, that I just labs, absolutely loved it. But then as you graduate, and you’ve come to the realization that you have rent, but you quickly find that in the paleontological field and or the genetics field. It’s either, you know, teaching at the college level, curating a museum or begging for grant money to go dig in the dirt with dental tools, or I thought about being a histological technician for a little bit, I did a stint at Northern Diagnostic Laboratories and did some ICD nine coding. And they came up with this histological technician position, but then I realized did I really want to cut frozen tissue, cell by cell each day, or test on animals. And it kind of very quickly came to the realization that I was not going to be a renowned geneticist, and I was not unfortunately, going to be a renowned paleontologist until I retire and can, you know, walk the halls of a beautiful natural history museum somewhere in the world, and tell people all of the bits of info in my brain. So corporate America, and a bit of real estate, and retail, and I really got to know different types of people in different types of working environment. And I have always been an artist, I, as a child, while digging in the dirt. I was also at the art museum, taking art classes, and growing up with my mom who teaches art. And it was just very much an appreciation for, you know, Michelangelo, and Van Gough, and I can’t think of some of the other ones at this moment they got and just all of you know, the multi sculptures and paintings and different artwork and the life and the love that breathes into that, that in corporate America, I was very much using only my left brain. And I wanted to use my right brain. And I had been styling clients on the side, my bosses, my co workers, my friends, my family, and it was my passion, and it was my love, and I found that they were getting, you know, promotions and somebody compliments and, you know, dates, and they are like you’re really good at this. And I felt such energy, and such just giving, and such just a you know, confidence building that I can help somebody and just that feeling of being able to help and show somebody that they are a piece of artwork that hasn’t been finished. That it just was I loved it. And I know that’s the long short answer. But that’s the long short answer.

Janine Bolon
Well, and that was one of the things I wanted you to talk about. One of the things about the Janine Bolon show is it’s an amalgamation of four podcasts, and we used to do the three minute money tips. And one of the things that kept popping over and over with the clients that I had was, they didn’t know what they wanted. And so what was interesting is you and I both went after the scientific career, because it really engaged that section of our brain that needed engagement that we knew would atrophy if we did not pursue this path. But once we got there, and we saw what the day to day life was that wasn’t the life we wanted to live. So we had to pivot, and in your case, you started styling people. So what I love is that you brought in your mom and your mom had some of that art in background. I did not have that, but I had the more of those situation of just an appreciation. I knew how ignorant I was, I had been raised in other countries that saw beauty in a very different way than Americans did. And so by having that background, I loved learning with this culture in joy. So talk to us a little bit about how you learned to, like you said, you started dressing people like you know, big mannequins, living organic mannequins, but you see people very holistically and that’s quite different. So what are some of the top three questions, you ask people about their style? Because a lot of times people don’t know what their style is. So how do you even get them thinking in that way?

Amanda Wood
So I do it very, I guess you could say like, energetically. And I start from a very different perspective, because I want to get to know you, and then we move into more of the styling questions in the styling bits of it. So I love just when I’m chatting with a client for the first time getting to know them. You know, tell me about you. Tell me about what your hopes, your dreams, your goals, what are your aspirations, you know, where do you see yourself going in five years. And through talking with my clients and getting to know them and hearing what their aspirations are they don’t realize that they’re telling me the person that they want to be. And they don’t realize that they’re giving, you know, adjectives and feeling, and I’m feeling their thoughts and their emotions come through. And I usually do this with a Zoom call now, because of the pandemic, I used to do it a lot more in person. But I’m feeling that energy. And they are telling me so much more than they would think that they were telling me just by answering these simple questions, and I’m able to, you know, craft a very, bespoke curated for them, look by these questions. And then we obviously get into more of the nitty gritty of what colors do you love? What colors do you dislike? What patterns do you love? What patterns do you dislike? And what style icon might you have? Or might you not have, and then I run through a few different style boards of the classic board, the preppy board, the Bohemian board, and just gives me the ability to see what their eye is drawn to and what they’re already gravitating to. And then I always ask my clients, what three words do you want someone to think of you the minute that they are meeting you, in person, in a professional capacity, in a personal capacity, and just what is that first impression that you want to make? And with all of these answers, and the energy that I feel off of my clients, because I can tell when they’re obviously gravitating more towards something, or they’re a little bit, you know, like with some trepidation, they’re gravitating to a style, and they want to move towards it, but they’re not sure. So I’m able to take all of that and create what I call a personalized style mood board to show them your gorgeous piece of artwork, and here’s the style trajectory that I know would be amazing for you. What are your thoughts for going on this journey together, and I’m here for you.

Janine Bolon
And that is not all that Amanda Wood wants to share with you. We will have her back on the next segment. Now if you’re struggling with who you are and what you want. She is the person that’s going to help you get there. So don’t hesitate. Stick with us. Don’t switch that dial. We will be back with Amanda Wood after this break.

Janine Bolon
Hey, welcome back. I am Janine Bolon, your host and this is Amanda Wood, who is the personal stylist. This woman has 15 years of experience in the styling industry. Not only that, she happens to be a dinosaur scientist. Yes, yes, she love dinosaurs. So to say that she knew what she wanted and pivoted her life in the area she wanted to go is totally true. And she has a passion project, meaning she really wants to help people get into alignment with who they are and their personal style. And it used to be that in order to have something like this, you would have had to pay anywhere from $15,000 to $20,000, to have somebody do this now with the virtual world being what it is, costs have gone down, Amanda’s not having to fly and drive all over the country. She is the queen of the virtual styling kit that she can offer you, and today we’re going to talk a little bit about the confusion in styling. Right Amanda? A little bit of confusion when it comes to men and women. Like oh my gosh, how are we supposed to know how to style ourselves when, I feel for men too, if they’re not this body builder or if they don’t have six pack abs or if they’re a computer geek, they’re not really given a lot of opportunities on styling and the women too. The women is like I’m sorry, I am not a size 00 which is the model that I see on the cover of this magazine. So, how do you help your people out going from the huge amount of media that is pummeled at them? That is not who they are. How do you help them figure that out? Because they’re confused?

Amanda Wood
Yeah, yeah, it’s absolutely horrible. And the design industry is you know, finally, finally starting to understand that you know, most women are size you know, 12-14 and up, most men are not, you know, a perfect spelt model type figure with huge muscles all the time, you know, never not having the perfect body and it’s just so nice to see that so many designers are starting to incorporate size inclusivity with even their runways, within their marketing, within their understanding that people are actually people, and they come in different sizes, and they are not walking mannequins. And I do find it so interesting when I work with men, and women is that men come at it at a very different approach. And men have these same thoughts that women have, but they have it in a partially different way. Men will see the clothing as the obstacle, and see the clothing, not fitting them correctly, it’s not their body that’s the issue, it’s the clothing, that is the problem. Whereas women, unfortunately internalize it in a much more, you know, just for me, I just, I feel so much for women, because they just internalize it. So you know, to them, like hurtful, I guess you could say, in a way, because it’s always, you know, I’m not good enough, my body is not good enough. Why can’t I fit into this? I used to be able to fit into this, and it just breaks my heart. Because I see every single one of my clients, as you know, you’re gorgeous, you’re just don’t know it. And I am here to help you and to show you and I just love showing them that when you shop online, which is just, you know, super fun. Right? That only nowadays you have a little bit more size inclusivity. But 9 times out of 10, for the ladies, you know, the model is going to be 5’9-5’10 and a size 2, 0, or 4. And that you may or may not be, petite, or taller or curvy, or you know, very, very tiny. And what you see is not how the clothing is gonna fit on you. So I love when I’m working with my clients, in person, or virtually really digging into each of the online stores and talking to them, like you might be a size extra small here, you might be a size large here, you might be a size 6 here, but then a 10 here and really letting them know that your size is not specific. That it will evan flow, and that you just have to make the clothing fit you, and not you fit the clothing and that balancing out and wearing the right clothing for your body type is the best way. And I just love seeing my clients when I work with them, especially in person because I’m able, you know, to touch and judge, and roll a cuff and pop a collar and do some of the stuff that I love doing and love showing them when I’m in person with them, and just really explaining to them that everything is about just proportions. And you control how your proportions are if you want to enhance a body part that you love about yourself. And this is how you enhance it. If you want to balance out your frame, this is how you balance out your frame and just really showing my clients the best way to achieve the best look so that they see themselves. And I absolutely love it when my clients see themselves in the mirror for the first time as the person that they want to show up as. And I love just feeling that energy from them and feeling that twinkle and feeling that glow. And I’ve had so many clients because each time I put them in an outfit, I’m taking a picture of them for them to not only have to take with them so they can see each of the outfits we did that day, but I’m also reinforcing and changing their mindset to a positive body mindset, and showing them after each look the picture so that they start to see themselves as that other person and seeing clothing that is fitting them the correct way and is right for their body type. Because I know how frustrating it is, and how daunting a task to go into a store and or a website and be inundated with so many options. And so many choices. And it’s just frustrating. And I love being able to, you know, send over virtually here the specific items because I know what I’m looking for. And I am going to help you and take you on this journey and talk to you about the right cuts in the right styles that are perfect for your body type. And or when I work with them in person, and I have that dressing room all curated and set up and I have their drink, and I have their snack and really walk and talk them through. This is why this cut this style works for your body type, and this is the best way to pop it on, and this is how you can dress it down, and dress it up. And I just love showing them. You don’t have to fit the clothing, make it work for you. Make you happy with it, make it work, not you work for it.

Janine Bolon
And I love how you do that, and one of the things that I’ve noticed is some of the little tips that you’ve given me over the course of several months has been wonderful. And one of the things I wanted to share with you is remember I was talking to you about I don’t like dealing with patterns and I don’t like you know, I just want a monochromatic look and it’s because I’m very utilitarian and it’s like I don’t worry about my clothes, but I want to look good and so you were totally rockin that you’re like okay, this is how you go about doing it. So I got this kelly green outfit And what I love about it is I just feel awesome in it. And I had this person come around the corner and go, Oh my god, I thought it was a leprechaun, because this is this bright kelly green, and I turned to them and I said, and I am a lucky person. So you want to stand next to me and kiss me on the cheek. Right? It was like, it didn’t even bother me had I not had that confidence that look, I know, this looks good on me. The fact that you see a leprechaun makes me giggle and laugh and I was able to blow it off. Whereas before in my lack of confidence about my ability to dress myself so to speak, sounds odd, but it’s true. I just threw clothes on that I could afford right? Anyway. But now that I’m picking and choosing it is amazing. And I have people responding to me differently, and my favorite part is I’m responding differently. And I know that you see that with a lot of your clients. So with all the confusion that we have, one of the things I got to brag about Amanda about, she takes a lot of time to work through outfits and when you hire her, she can actually walk you through 10 different outfits that will work for you. And what’s great is after you have that education, you can walk into any store with confidence and go that won’t work, that won’t work. You can get rid of 90% of the stuff you see on the racks, because you know she has educated you into what will work for you. So talk to us a little bit about body types if you don’t mind. How people will not dress to their body type. Like you were telling me I needed to have more triangles because I have the slender shoulders but I got the big hips and so I needed more triangles. When do you need to use more circles or something like that? Do you mind sharing that with us?

Amanda Wood
Sure. So you have inverted triangle, you have triangle, you have rectangle, you have oval or apple and you have hourglass. Those are kind of like the most basic and obviously there’s, you know, levels on levels into that. And it’s all about you know, balancing out your proportions. So as you were mentioning, you are a triangle so you have you know a little bit of a slender top and a little bit more of a curve to your hips. So with that you would be doing, and when I do V’s up top and also deemphasizes a chest and then you would also do a little bit of a you know shoulder pad or you know more of your patterns, if you like patterns, more of your patterns would be up top to draw the eye up top. And then having that emphasis on your shoulders is the way that you balance out the hips. And so then with a rectangle for those people that don’t really have that much of a defined waist, you’re just very much your shoulders, and your waist and your hips are all about the same. So that person will do a lot of you know cinching in, and a lot of belting, and a lot of emphasizing the waist in order to achieve that hourglass figure, because that’s what you kind of are always looking for is that harmonious balance of your bottom half and your top half. And so then you would have apple, and with apple, I’m gonna do this real quick. With apple, you just want to always create a waist, because most people that are apple shaped gentlemen or ladies, but the gentlemen I do a lot of layering and I will do you know darker and lighter and with the layers to give definition and to change the proportions of the body. With the ladies, I will do a lot of emphasis on the waist and creating a waist and I love doing monochromatics with the ladies, and the gentlemen I love doing a little bit more of fun definition and punches of color. And let’s see hourglass, gorgeous in a wrap dress everybody and just balance it out. You will find it and I love working with people to show them how.

Janine Bolon
Thank you so much for being with us today, Amanda. I really appreciate it. How can we get a hold of you?

Amanda Wood
So, everybody can hop over to either my website or to LinkedIn and the website is www.thehauteedit.com and haute is H A U T E and LinkedIn is the same. So that would be www.thehauteedit.com or Instagram, same, the Haute Edit.

Janine Bolon
Thanks so much. We appreciate you for being here, Amanda. Stay tuned with us next Sunday when we will have Amanda on for three more segments so that you can learn more about design and how to style yourself. Have a great day. See you next Sunday.

Bryan Hyde
Thank you for listening to the Janine Bolon show. Be sure to subscribe to our show notes by going to www.theJanineBolonshow.com, where you’ll find additional resources as well as the opportunity to sign up to receive our program in your email each week. Be sure to visit our sponsor at www.the8gates.com.