As a designer and stylist, Katherine helps small business owners simplify their wardrobe and gain back their confidence.
In this episode, she shares how she designed her career around spending time with family, what it was like building a business with five kids at home, and why she chose to leave behind her lifelong dream of designing custom wedding dresses to pursue something new.
WILDFLOWER SHOWNOTES : shannaskidmore.com/katherine-bignon
📌 RESOURCES MENTIONED:
The Blueprint Model by Shanna Skidmore
As a designer and stylist, Katherine helps small business owners simplify their wardrobe and gain back their confidence.
In this episode, she shares how she designed her career around spending time with family, what it was like building a business with five kids at home, and why she chose to leave behind her lifelong dream of designing custom wedding dresses to pursue something new.
WILDFLOWER SHOWNOTES : shannaskidmore.com/katherine-bignon
📌 RESOURCES MENTIONED:
The Blueprint Model by Shanna Skidmore
Speaker 1 (00:00):
It was a week before everything shut down. I drove down to Virginia. I showed up and I did her shoot and I'd put together a style guide and she put that on her stories after the shoot and she flipped through it and talked a little bit about what I did. And while I was driving home that night back to New Jersey, I got a call from somebody else saying, Hey, I have a shoot coming up in two weeks. I have no idea what to do, and I just saw the style guide and I think that's what I need. And so I was like, okay. And so I got home and I scrambled and I put together a really quick pricing and packages guide that seemed like it would meet the baseline of what she needed and one that was a little bit more, had some extras, a little bit more visionary almost, and let her choose between the two she booked. And so the first client just rolled straight into the second and then that snowballed into a third pretty quickly and suddenly I realized this is a thing
Speaker 2 (01:03):
You are listening to consider the Wildflowers the podcast episode 56. Welcome back to our student series. Over the span of four weeks, you'll be hearing from four of my past students sharing their journeys from money, fears, insecurities, and uncertainties to financial empowerment, freedom, and joy. Whether you consider yourself a lover of spreadsheets or terrible with numbers, I hope this series sheds light on how simple but transformative knowing a few key numbers in your business can be. Today's guest is Catherine Beon. As a designer and stylist, Catherine helps small business owners simplify their wardrobe and gain back their confidence. In this episode, she shares how she designed her career around spending time with family, what it was like building a business with five kids at home, and why she chose to leave behind her lifelong dream of designing custom wedding dresses to pursue something new. If you dig professional bios, here goes.
Speaker 2 (01:50):
Catherine Beon is a designer and stylist specializing in strategy driven styling for small business owners. She claims frenchness by marriage and she lives with her husband and five almost bilingual littles in Virginia. Her technical background is in fashion design with a design degree from the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City. While at F I t, she began designing custom bridal gowns, which had been a lifelong dream. She pivoted her business at the very beginning of 2020 to launch a styling and design strategy studio in order to help small business owners strategically curate books for brand shoots and lifestyle needs, and to meet women in the midst of closet overwhelm and anxiety, providing them with simple and lasting solutions designed to hand them back their confidence. Okay, formal introduction's over, let's dive in. Hey, it's Shanna and this is Consider the Wildflowers, the podcast. For the past 15 plus years, I've had the honor to hear thousands of stories from entrepreneurs around the world.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
As a former Fortune 100 financial advisor turn business consultant, I have a unique opportunity to see the reel behind the highlight reel. I'm talking profit and loss statements, unpaid taxes, moments of burnout, and those of utter victory, or as my husband says, the content everyone is wondering but not many are talking about. And now I'm bringing these private conversations to you. Hear the untold stories of how industry leaders, founders, and up and coming entrepreneurs got their start, the experiences that shaped them and the journey to building the brands they have today. Stories that will inspire and reignite encourage to redefine success and build a life in business on your own terms. Welcome Wildflower. I'm so glad you're here. Hey, Catherine, welcome to the show.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Hi, Shanna.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Hi. I'm so glad that you're here.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
So glad I'm here.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Will you just tell everybody who you are, what you do, and then we'll dive in?
Speaker 1 (03:34):
Yeah. My name is Catherine. I am a stylist and designer based out of Virginia now. We were up in the New Jersey, New York City area for 10 years and two years ago we moved back home to Virginia to raise our kids here, and I'm a stylist who specializes in brand shoots and strategy driven styling for small business owners and entrepreneurs.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
Okay. When we met, you were doing fully, you weren't into styling yet.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
I wasn't the first round of blueprint model that I did. I was fully in the custom bridal design world. Actually, it's funny, I was at the last blueprint summit that you did 2019, fall of 2019, and it was right when I was really feeling the urge to shift and I was trying to figure out how to do it, and I knew I needed to pivot because bridal design wasn't working for a lot of reasons, and I knew that styling was where I was supposed to be, but I couldn't let go of the bridal design. It felt like a failure to let go of it. Do you remember when you had us write a letter to ourselves in a year and you mailed it out and I remember what I wrote, but when that letter came in a year later, I was like, I don't want to open this. And I tabled it. I let that letter sit and I actually in prep for the podcast interview, I just opened it.
Speaker 2 (04:57):
Stop it.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
I did. I did. I opened it and read it, and I did everything that I told myself to do and I knew that I needed to do it. Then I sat in so much fear for so long about actually making the switch, but I mean, I
Speaker 2 (05:14):
Have tears in my eyes. I know. I mean, it's 2023. You wrote that four years ago. I
Speaker 1 (05:20):
Did, and then I just let it sit and I did. I made the shift that next year,
Speaker 2 (05:25):
But
Speaker 1 (05:26):
I think that when the letter came in, I was still scared. Maybe I didn't do it fully. The opening line of it said, I asked myself, it was just a list of questions. I asked myself, did you have the courage to pivot? Did you have the courage to walk away from what wasn't working and start fresh? I was like, I did. And living it out a couple of years later, it's just so cool.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Catherine, I'm kind of in tears over here a because I Miss Blueprint summit.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Oh my gosh,
Speaker 2 (05:53):
So much. We have got to get together. We're going to do 2020. I tried so hard to do it in 23, but things are so much more expensive now. I just was like, I can't force y'all to pay $2,000 to be here. You took the blueprint mount in 2018, blueprint Summit. 2019 was 2018 your first year. So I always remember when we first met because my grandmother was a wedding dress designer, and that always made me so happy, and it's just been such a treat to follow your journey and the ways that you've grown. I have one more question before we actually kick off this podcast. You moved from New Jersey, New York to you said Virginia.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Virginia.
Speaker 2 (06:34):
Will you tell me about, can I go off script and ask
Speaker 1 (06:37):
You about that
Speaker 2 (06:37):
Decision to do that? Oh my
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Gosh. It is been the biggest blessing in our lives. We were up in New Jersey. My husband worked in Manhattan. He had an hour and a half commute each way, so he was spending three plus hours a day commuting to work in midtown Manhattan. We had four kids at that time. Our fifth was born shortly before we moved, so we had five kids. I was running a business but also wanted to be really present with my kids, and so I was the one who was home all day and he was at work all day. And we just sat there looking at our future thinking, how do we do this? What kind of life are we giving our kids
Speaker 1 (07:19):
As they get older? I want them to be able to play sports, but does that mean that I'm the only one who's ever going to any of their games? Because you don't get home till almost 7 45, 8:00 PM at night. But then also, the cost of living was so high and the property taxes we were facing were so high that I also thought, I am not going to be the parent who controls where my kids live later in life, but I would like for them to have the option of staying close to home if they want to.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
And I just thought, what sort of life are we signing them up for? If this is where we live, if this is the house that we are paying off, I mean by the time we're done paying it off, we're still going to have a monthly tax payment that's higher than our mortgage payment. How is this sustainable and what are we setting our kids up for? And I had grew up just in an amazing community in Virginia. I have a lot of cousins who've stayed here, and they all had kids, have kids my kids' age. And actually I grew up across the street from my cousins that I'm closest with, and our dads actually our business partners, they run a business together. So we just grew up doing life together. And they'd always asked, when are you guys moving back? When are you moving back? And I was like, my husband is in computer science, but specifically within the finance sector. And so that's a New York City job, and he didn't see any way out. And I prayed for years that something would open up, and then there was covid and he worked from home for a year, and it was the biggest blessing in our lives to suddenly have us all home together. Never had that.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
And after our fifth was born, we were blessed with his company, had a paternity leave policy that gave him three or four months off.
Speaker 1 (09:03):
And so we just had this beautiful time at home together. And round Thanksgiving of that year, we came south for Thanksgiving in 2020, and a couple of my cousins had actually just moved back to the neighborhood that we all grew up in with their kids. My parents still live here, and it sits on a bunch of hiking trails. And my cousins, we were all going to hike together one day and they were like, oh, we have to start from this specific trailhead, this backyard that you have to see. It would be perfect for you guys. And I was like, I mean, yeah, a lot of things can be perfect for us, but we're not moving. It's still not an option. And they show us this beautiful backyard. It's like three acres. It's huge. It's clear and sits on hiking trails. It was like our dream. And I was like, yeah, that's great, but again, okay, whatever. And two weeks later, my husband opened up Zillow or Trulia, and he texted me a link. He was like, Hey, I think this is a house in the neighborhood. We had decided if in the future we ever moved, it was this specific neighborhood or maybe the one next to it where we wanted to be.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
He's like, Hey, I think this house is in the neighborhood. And I clicked on the link and it was the house that she'd shown us the yard for.
Speaker 2 (10:14):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
We had no idea what was going on the market, but she told us that day. She was like, I walk in the neighborhood every day praying that there's going to be a house for you guys. And then two weeks later, this house went on the market and nobody else wanted it. It was the height of the crazy house stuff at the end of 2020 going into 2021, and no other offers came in on this house,
Speaker 1 (10:37):
And doors just slowly opened for us to take it. My husband's boss was like, yeah, I think that that would work for you to do a long-term work from home situation. Let me take it to upper management. And there were enough doors that were open and we just really felt at peace with the decision that we decided to move forward with it. We closed on the house and the day after we closed, his boss actually got back to us and was like, actually, you're not going to be able to do it. If you move, you won't be able to keep your job when we ask everyone to come back in. And we were so at peace with it because he had been frustrated in his job long enough, but we hadn't seen a way out. And then we finally felt like the doors had opened for the way out, and it was like, this is just the next step to the Lord clearing this path for us. And a couple months later, he found another job and it's been perfect for our family. Our kids run around with friends and cousins all day long. They hike the trails all the time. It's perfect.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
Yeah, I love hearing this story so much because entrepreneurship isn't just about doing work. We love making money. It's about designing the life that we want, and sometimes that feels a little bit unclear, and then in other seasons, it sounds like for you all became really clear. I love that.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
Yeah, it did. Yeah, that's been good.
Speaker 2 (11:52):
Hey, Catherine, let's kick it back to life before your first business,
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Then
Speaker 2 (11:58):
I want to hear about
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Back in the same neighborhood
Speaker 2 (12:02):
Starting business, starting getting into the bridal industry. I just want to talk through the trajectory. So take us back before life, before business, what were you doing? Did you think you were going to own a business?
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yeah, so it's funny, I actually think I always knew that I wanted to start my own business. My dad is an entrepreneur. He owns a real estate and land development business, and he's owned that my whole life. And so I saw what it looked like to run your own business and also run the life that you want and have that freedom. And my mom stayed home with us. And so I always had this really clear vision of knowing I want to be creative, I want to follow my own path, and I want to loved the business aspect of it. I want to run my own business, but I also want to be home with my kids. My mom was,
Speaker 1 (12:55):
I grew up sewing. I'm from a long line of women who made their own clothes, made their own wedding dresses, sew quilts, all of the crafts. And so my mom taught me how to sew from a young age, and I was making a lot of my own clothes. I would make friends' clothes in high school. I graduated in a very small class from a private school, and there were probably, I think there were like 56 of us in our graduating class. And so if you split that between guys and girls at senior prom, I think there were five people wearing my dresses, which is a pretty big percentage of where our class was at. And I loved doing it. I loved designing and being creative. And so it was a journey of figuring out how do I put those together? And I knew that I wanted to go into fashion, but it was never about looking for a job with an industry job. It was going into fashion so that I could have a creative outlet of designing clothes and run a business doing it, but also design my times so that I could be home with my family.
Speaker 2 (14:04):
Yeah. Okay. So after you graduated, what was your next step?
Speaker 1 (14:07):
So after I graduated high school, actually, I moved to France for a year. I took a year off in between high school and college, and that was where I met my husband
Speaker 2 (14:16):
In France.
Speaker 1 (14:17):
In France. He's French. Yep. Oh,
Speaker 2 (14:19):
Catherine, I think I forgot that.
Speaker 1 (14:21):
Yeah. And so he was actually already living in New York City. That's how I ended up in New York City later. But he had gone back to France to visit his family, and we were introduced by the family that I was living with, and so we were so cool. Yeah. Introduced, set for your first
Speaker 2 (14:37):
Day. How does your husband, ps, how does your French husband love living in? Well, I don't know if it's small town or big town, Virginia. It's like
Speaker 1 (14:44):
Midtown Virginia. He loves it, loves it. He never really liked the hustle and bustle of the city. I liked New York City more than he did, but he was also the one trekking in every day, slogging through it and working there. And so he was done with it, but I also never imagined that he would turn into the Carhartt wearing tool owning zero turn mower owning to mow our three acre backyard.
Speaker 2 (15:15):
Does he wear Carhartts?
Speaker 1 (15:16):
He does
Speaker 2 (15:17):
Stop. I can't. He does. That's amazing.
Speaker 1 (15:20):
And now that he works from home, I mean that's what he works in too for
Speaker 2 (15:24):
Absolutely fantastic. Okay, so you're in France, you meet your future husband,
Speaker 1 (15:29):
And so we started dating long distance for a little while to finish out my year in France, and then I moved back to Virginia. I was starting art school in Richmond that year, that fall. And so we continued dating long distance for a while. He was working in Manhattan. I was in Richmond going to art school, and by the end of that year we knew that we were going to get married. Neither of us were willing to wait the next three years that it would take to finish school in Virginia. And his job was in Manhattan. And so I started researching schools in New York City to figure out, obviously if I want to study fashion design, that's the place to be.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
But
Speaker 1 (16:07):
When I was in my senior year of high school, my parents' request was, please do. This is the tuition that we've budgeted for we're going to do unless there's an absolute reason to not be in-state. And I felt like, I think I found my absolute reason to not be in-state because I would like to get married. And so I applied to F I T and found out it was actually a state school. It's not a private art school like Parsons and Pratt and some of the other ones. It's a state school. And so I did a lot of research and figured out what the process was to get in-state tuition qualified for New York. And so around that time he proposed, we were engaged, we started planning our wedding. I applied to F I T and got in and found out later that the class that I got in at had less than a 10% acceptance rate. It was a portfolio based entry, and again, it just felt like the Lord was opening all of these doors. There was just confirmation. And so I moved up in January because that was when my program was starting and we were getting married in June, and so I found a room to rent for the first semester. We planned our wedding and then we got married that summer. And so I was in school in university while being married. That was around the same time that I decided to start my business. And then while doing all of that, we also started having kids. So it was a very, very crazy couple years.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
No big deal, just all at once. Okay. Tell me about the early days of the business. Were you like, I'm starting a business, or was it, Hey, can you make this thing for me and I'll pay you for it?
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Right. That's kind of how it started. It wasn't set up like a business. It was more pursuing individual clients. I knew what I wanted my end goal to be. I wanted to be doing bridal gowns, and one day I wanted to have a collection that could be customized but could be shopped as a collection. And so I started, it was in the phase where we had a lot of friends getting married, and so I was the friend who was talking to everyone saying, Hey, have you ever considered having someone design your wedding dress for you? We could custom make it. And so I didn't go into it to start a, I don't think I knew I was starting a business. It was just one step at a time, one dress at a time,
Speaker 2 (18:32):
And it probably, I don't know if you would say this, Catherine, but maybe took some of the pressure off in that season of I'm doing school, that's what I'm doing, but you're really starting a business without really knowing on this side as well and doing these projects, it's like, I don't know if that kind of made it to a list.
Speaker 1 (18:50):
There was no need to go out and get X amount of clients
Speaker 2 (18:54):
To,
Speaker 1 (18:55):
It was what I had room for and what I felt like I had the bandwidth to take on.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Yeah. So how did you figure out pricing in those days? It sounds like clients were mostly friends of friends or friends, but how did you figure out those early days of pricing? And then I want to hear about when did it become like, okay, this is my business.
Speaker 1 (19:15):
The first one started off as a, if you'll let me do this for you, it was the portfolio work. I'm trying to build my portfolio. You cover costs and I'll make your dress. And so I did that for the first one. And then the second one, I set a really low fee, so it was always, they had to cover costs, and then I would add a fee in that I had some people who would reach out and say, oh, you're a student, and I was wondering if I could find a design student to make my gown for me. And so they're trying to get a cheaper gown,
Speaker 2 (19:52):
Which
Speaker 1 (19:53):
I needed the portfolio work. And so I let that be okay, whether or not I would do it again that way or whether or not that's okay in the grand scheme. I let that be okay. That was what I needed in that season. And so just as long as my costs were covered, I was okay with it in that season because I was doing what I really wanted to do. I loved it.
Speaker 2 (20:15):
When would you say, Catherine, that that started to change?
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Probably post graduation. That was how I got through school was small one-off projects for people. And then right around the time that I graduated, I was, I was pregnant with our third, yeah, we had two babies
Speaker 2 (20:35):
Fast.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
I did, our first three are very, very close together. Right now they're 8, 9, 10, and so they were very close together, and so I'm
Speaker 2 (20:43):
Kind of speechless over here.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
After our first was born, I switched to part-time, and so I slowed my schedule down because the schedule at F I T was so demanding, and so I switched to part-time because most of the classes were only offered once a year, and so if you missed it, you had to wait a year. And so it was easy to break down. I'm going to finish this portion of my year this year, and then this portion of my year next year. And so I split each of my years into two like that. And so by the time I walked at graduation, I was pregnant with our third, he was due two months after graduation. And I also spent that summer putting together a collection that I sent with a photographer to Paris, and she coordinated the shoot and photographed the collection in Paris for me. And my goal with that collection was to have designs that I would be known for, so to have a very specific style that I was known for. So less people coming to me saying, Hey, I really want a custom dress and this is my vision. And handing me tear outs from a magazine and saying, can you just recreate this for cheaper?
Speaker 1 (21:50):
That wasn't what I wanted to be doing. I wanted to have a specific style that I was known for and have people come to me for that. And so that was what I did that summer. And then I had a baby, and so I was back on maternity leave for a while, but I started to get traction. I was known for a specific style, and it did have the result that I wanted in terms of what I was known for. It did not turn into the business that I needed it to be, which is one of the reasons why a couple of years later I was able to pinpoint this really isn't working and I need to shift because I was home with our kids. My husband was gone all day, and I was working out of a studio in our house, and I had a professional studio set up. It was a beautiful space, all of the gear, all of the machines, and I could sew. I mean, I could create any of these gowns, but the price point that I wanted to be hitting with them was not the price point of a shopper who wanted to be in my house,
Speaker 1 (22:56):
If that makes sense. And so there was a disconnect there, and it took me a while to see it. I would have really good leads with clients, and I did. I made some incredible dresses. I worked with some amazing clients, and I also was for marketing, I was doing a lot of styled shoots. And so instead of putting together more and more collections to shoot, I would do just one more dress and send it off for styled shoots. That was all the rage within wedding photography at that point.
Speaker 2 (23:26):
Tell me what year this was, just so I have a reference.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
This is probably 2016. So the first part of the collection that I put together was photographed in Paris during the summer of 2015, photographed right after you graduated, right after I'd graduated. And it was a two-part collection. And so we photographed the second half of it, middle of the next year in 2016, I think, once maternity leave was over. And then I was sending lots of things out for styled shoots and trying to learn how to grow a business at the same time as I was growing babies
Speaker 2 (24:02):
And
Speaker 1 (24:03):
Also still growing up myself. So it was a lot.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Yeah. And so you feel like through 20 16, 20 17, 20 18, when we met in 2018, well, I think we met, I
Speaker 1 (24:14):
Think I did blueprint in maybe 2017. It was the year that, because I did it with Ashlyn. So it was the year that you took a year off social media
Speaker 2 (24:24):
2017.
Speaker 1 (24:25):
2017 and had other people doing Right.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
Helping promote
Speaker 1 (24:32):
It. Yes, helping promote it for you. And so I actually signed up under Ashlyn and went through the first portion of the program with her. And so that was at the point where it was like I knew something wasn't working. I have to figure out how to make this profitable because I know what I'm doing and I love what I'm doing, and I really want this to work, but something isn't working right now. And it was easy to lie to myself and pretend that it was because at the end of the year, there were other projects that I was taking on throughout the year so that I was still seeing profit in the business at the end of the year, but if I actually broke down is the bridal section where the profit is coming from, it's, it took a while to come to terms with that. That was what I had always wanted to be doing, but I was also in a season with really young kids and having to pick and choose where my time could go.
Speaker 2 (25:27):
What's so interesting, I love this conversation because I mean, I don't love that you went through this struggle, but sometimes it gets to this point where it's like, should I not be in business or It sounds like for you, the model, the business model in your season of life particularly, that's where the fit wasn't. I think that's something I love about numbers and looking at data and is it a pricing issue? Is it a marketing issue? Do you just not have enough people coming in? But for you, it sounds like maybe it was just a business model, this custom model, but in a season with tiny toddlers working from home, how did you start coming to terms with it? Did you think, okay, I just need to do it this way, or maybe if I went into a bridal shopper,
Speaker 1 (26:19):
There was a lot of brainstorming, a lot of trying to dip my toe in and try different things, and then realizing, okay, either I don't have the time for this, or B, I can't front that much of an investment and I don't want to take a loan out in this season. I mean, that's the way that a lot of fashion design businesses are created. It's a huge, huge upfront cost,
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Which
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Is part of what I was avoiding by doing custom work is that I was making sure that I wasn't doing too much at once. I was making sure that my expenses were covered, but where I really started to realize maybe that something wasn't working was starting to understand. You talk about your motivators, your core motivators, and mine really come down to time and impact. I want time with my family. That's why I started a business in the first place. But I need to see the impact of that business if it's going to take away
Speaker 2 (27:19):
From
Speaker 1 (27:19):
The time that I spend with my family. And with bridal design, I was hitting the point where I was losing time with my family. I love sewing when my kids are in the room with me. I love having them around while I'm working. But when you're working with very expensive white silk and lace, they can't be in there. And so I was losing,
Speaker 2 (27:38):
Especially toddlers with their fingers.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Yes, their fingers, their fingers
Speaker 2 (27:42):
Always have something on them,
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Always. So I was losing time with my family, and I also couldn't see the impact that I was having. Maybe I wasn't finding the right brides. I don't know. I couldn't see the impact that I was having in the way that I had hoped that I would when I started the business. And just doing it to be creative wasn't a strong enough argument to lose time with my family.
Speaker 2 (28:11):
Right. Yeah. Okay. Tell us about the turning point, the shift, and did it feel like, I have so many questions. Did it feel like you were letting go of a dream?
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (28:23):
Yes. And it's never as public as you think it is, but it also felt like I was having to let go of a dream publicly because I had been working towards this with social media in front of my friends for so long and thinking, oh my gosh, am I just a failure? But it was interesting, I started to have friends reach out to me saying, Hey, I have something coming up and you're so good with clothes, you're so good with shopping. I don't know what to wear. And then I would help them, and then the next time they would, I might get a second call. Or by the third time, they're like, I felt really bad asking you again because I know this is kind of your job. You're in design. And so I didn't want to feel like I was overstepping. I was like, no, I love this. This is fun in the strategy behind it. So not helping someone find the next super trendy thing, but helping them set themselves up so that what you're buying for this also might work for that and also might solve some future problems. And so I started getting these calls and requests from friends, but then also realizing they hit a certain point where they felt bad asking me, and so they would ask someone else. And I was like, I don't like that you're asking someone else.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
I
Speaker 1 (29:41):
Want to do this. I love this. I love the strategy and the thinking behind it, the fact that this seems like I can balance it. I'm not losing time with my family.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
I can do this. And so it was right around the point where one of my really dear friends, she was actually going to, she was having headshots done, I think, and she hired a stylist because she felt bad asking me to help her. And so when I found out that she'd actually hired another stylist, I was like, wait, I would've done this for you. I would've done this. And then I saw the project that the stylist did. I saw the end results, and I was like, I don't think this works for you. This is not what I would've done for you. I don't think that this is quite right. I could have done this better. And that was where I knew that I had hit the point of this is what I want to be doing. But there was still a tug of, but that was what I wanted to be doing too.
Speaker 2 (30:37):
How did the transition happen? I mean, did you just slowly let the bridal side go? Did you revamp your whole website? Talk me through. And also, did you ever think, I just want to stay home with my kids? What made you start a new business? Does that make sense? What was the motivator of starting a new business?
Speaker 1 (30:58):
So there was definitely a little bit of fear over, well, I can't just walk away from everything. This is what I always wanted to do and this is what I said I would do. And so I have to have something. But I also, I knew that I wanted a creative outlet. I didn't want to saying, just be home is, that's not the right way to put it at all. Exactly,
Speaker 2 (31:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Because that's beautiful. And there are seasons where I have done that, where I have stepped back and just not taken clients for a couple months so that I could be home fully
Speaker 2 (31:31):
And
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Rest and be with our family. But I knew that I wanted a creative outlet and I wanted to have influence, not in an influencer standpoint, but in terms of your core motivator. It's funny, I actually, I remember sitting at Blueprint Summit in 2019, and I was sitting there with all of my notes around me and thinking, okay, if I had one last ditch effort to make bridal work, this is how I would do it. And this is also what I really want to be doing with styling. And I sat there for a couple hours one day trying to figure out how to website map a website that would contain both of those things. I
Speaker 2 (32:10):
Remember this, I feel like I remember
Speaker 1 (32:12):
And trying to figure,
Speaker 1 (32:15):
I want it to be both things, but I'm speaking to an entirely different client. And so that can't exist under, it doesn't exist under one business. So it was trying to figure out how do I do this? And still just a lot of fear about walking away from bridal because I loved it so much, but I just really knew that it wasn't working for our family. And around that time, January of 2020, a friend reached out saying that she was doing a brand shoot. She was going to have a brand shoot done, and she wondered if she could pay me to do the styling. And I was like, absolutely. But don't pay me. I don't have this set up as a business right now. Let's trade. Let's do a trade because she's a brand photographer. And I knew that if I was going to be launching into something else, I was going to need images done.
Speaker 1 (33:07):
And so I said, let's swap and I will do the styling for your shoot. I'll do all of the prep styling for clothes, and I'll also show up on shoot day and do onset styling, and I'll trade you for a brand shoot later this year. And she was like, okay, great. And I knew that I'd seen how other stylists approach projects, and I knew that I wanted it to be different because I didn't want to just tell people, okay, here's three really great looks that you can buy. Go buy them, wear them, and then you'll never wear them again. I needed it to have more strategy behind it. One of the things that I really focus on is how do we find the merging point of your style and what your target audience needs to see in order to connect with you and believe that you say what you can do. And so there's a lot of strategy behind that. And I also, I wanted people to be investing their money wisely and not just buying clothes to throw them away,
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Which is a huge issue within the fashion industry. And so how do I help people do all of these things? And so I came up with what the approach for the project needed to be and some of the things that I wanted to include in it as kind of my secret sauce to say, this is how I'm approaching styling and how it's different. And so I made sure that that first project did all of that, and it was so much fun. I loved doing it. And I showed up for her shoot, and it was actually, it was a week before everything shut down. So I remember traveling south for her shoot. I drove down to Virginia and we were watching the news, and she was a wedding photographer, and we were watching, the news was getting scarier and scarier, and I mean, that was a week before things shut down.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
So I showed up and I did her shoot, and I put together a style guide, which was part of the tangible part of the project that I really wanted to include that had a lot of the strategy that I put into it, kind of down on paper so that they would have a resource moving forward for how to dress for their brand and have some really great go-to solutions. And she put that on her stories after the shoot, and she flipped through it and talked a little bit about what I did. And while I was driving home that night back to New Jersey, I got a call from somebody else saying, Hey, I have a shoot coming up in two weeks. I have no idea what to do. And I just saw the style guide that Abby posted, and I think that's what I need.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
And so I was like, okay, I'll reach out to you tomorrow. And so I got home and I scrambled and I put together a really quick pricing and packages guide that seemed like it would meet. It gave her two options, one that I felt met the baseline of what she needed, and one that was a little bit more, had some extras, a little bit more visionary almost, and let her choose between the two. And I worked through that package with her, she booked. And so the first client just rolled straight into the second, and then that snowballed into a third pretty quickly. And suddenly I realized, this is a thing. This is making a profit an unintentional profit, and I love doing it. I don't feel like my time is pulled in a way that I can't manage it anymore, but also I have no website. I'm not advertising this at all beyond other people talking about it. And so after the third client, I sat down and really quickly put together just my website is on show it. And so I just put together a plus, or no, it wasn't even a plus site, it was just another page linked on the website
Speaker 1 (37:01):
For styling. And it talked through the whole styling process. And I just stopped putting updates on the rest of the website. And so I stopped updating anything else, and I only paid attention to the styling page. And that was kind of where it started.
Speaker 2 (37:16):
I just think that's amazing, and it's really grown and snowballed. So that was 2020,
Speaker 1 (37:21):
That was 2020 working through. Yeah. I remember sitting on my porch in the spring of 2020 while the kids are all home and we're trying to manage school at home and toddler running around. And I was pregnant with our fifth, and I'm sitting there trying to write out this website because I had a photographer say, Hey, I have a client that I really want to refer your away, but if you don't have a website, she won't book you.
Speaker 1 (37:47):
And I was like, okay, I've got 24 hours. She needed to send the email to this client. So I was like, I've got 24 hours to put this page together. I've done two shoots so far. And in the bridal design years, I had also co-hosted a couple workshops in France that were designed for photographers, and I was co-hosting them, partially based on my background in France. I speak French. And I was also teaching on the artistry side, the becoming known for a signature design style in some of those things. And so I had helped put together a number of shoots for those workshops, and I had curated a lot of things for them. And so I pulled from a lot of those images for the website too. So I was able to pull from two shoots plus those images to have enough portfolio work to put on a single page website that could be sent out.
Speaker 1 (38:44):
And then every time I would book a client, I was very strategical with how I approached the packages. And so I did, like I did for that second client, I would look at what I had done for the previous client, evaluate what worked, what didn't, where I hit the needs and where I didn't. And then also, what is this new client hoping for? And I would kind of tweak the packages guide each time to make sure I was sending out three package options where I was pretty sure that at least one of them would nail what they wanted, one would provide less and probably not enough to satisfy what they needed. And then one was visionary to provide more that would include what I wanted to be doing as well. So it started with the one shoot which turned into another, which turned into a bigger shoot, and then a client who wanted a full closet redo, and then a client who wanted a full closet redo, but didn't want the enormous upfront investment of a full closet redo. And so that was kind of another big turning point. That was where I took my largest package and I actually broke it down into an annual retainer.
Speaker 3 (40:06):
And
Speaker 1 (40:07):
I said, okay, if you want this full redo, but not with the upfront overwhelm of redoing an entire closet at once, we're going to break it down into four seasons, and we'll do a subscription model where I'll step into your life and closet once a quarter with a small collection, and by the end have built a foundational closet that will take you through all four seasons. And that was just, I mean, it was a package that was almost on a whim because I knew that a client needed something, but what I had previously offered to satisfy that wouldn't work. And that kind of turned into the thing that I was known for. They immediately booked it. And once I started going through it with them, I had a number of clients after who would book it. And I started seeing this trend of clients who would come to me for a brand shoot. And so the initial investment was just an easy write off because it was for a brand shoot. And then they would sign on for the annual program after that because they saw the transformation. And so I started working with a lot of entrepreneurs who had had a couple kids, and they hit the point where nothing in their closet fit. They didn't know what to do, so they really needed help for a brand shoot, but then they also just still needed help. It didn't solve their full closet program or closet need. And so being able to step into their life and just help hand them back their confidence
Speaker 1 (41:35):
Was life-giving for me. It just felt like we had finally hit the sweet spot of, I had time with my family, I could see the impact that I was having and there was profit. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (41:49):
Catherine, thank you so much for sharing your story. I think sometimes what feels like letting go of a dream is something we mourn
Speaker 1 (41:59):
And
Speaker 2 (42:00):
You instead focused on continuing to create a business that works for the life you want. And it turns out you found that when one door closed, one opened, and I just,
Speaker 1 (42:16):
It's so cool. And it's been so cool to see it come full circle because I mean, my technical background is in design, which gives me a different angle to approach styling with because I understand how clothes are made, but also when we can't find the right thing for a client, we design it and I can make it. I've been able to pull that aspect back into it in a way that fuels creativity.
Speaker 2 (42:43):
This is so good. And just a sweet reminder for all of us listening that when we put, I really truly believe my kind of motto is business built for life. And when we're clear on, which is why I started the blueprint model with your core motivators, what does success look like to you? And we're clear on what we want. You can design a business that works with that. And this is just cool. I'm going to fast forward us a little bit because I know we could just chit chat so long
Speaker 1 (43:11):
Forever. I know.
Speaker 2 (43:13):
I do want to hear before we go into a quick fire round, I think your story is so empowering, and I know there are people listening that this has given them a lot of permission. So Catherine, thank you for sharing the hard and how beautiful this story has turned out. I always like to ask, what would you say is the best thing that you have learned about money?
Speaker 1 (43:37):
It's a piece of advice that was modeled to me by my parents and a lot of people that I respect about how they've dealt with money and it's let money destroy relationships, value relationships over money. And I get that there's different ways to approach that, whether you're approaching that personally or in business, but just the concept of holding money with an open hand and open communication and valuing relationships over money. And I think the way that I've really seen that modeled for us was there was a season where we were trying to make a payment on something and someone stepped in and said, Hey, I would really like to help you with this. I think that this is a payment that you need to make, that you would like to make, but not going to be able to get there on your own. And so this is a loan, but if you never repay it, we will not let this stand in the way of our relationship. So we would hope that you can repay this, and if you can't, this is our gift. And that was really life-changing to see that they really wanted to step in and help, but they were never going to let what we did with that take control over our relationship. Does that make sense?
Speaker 2 (45:02):
Yeah. Powerful. Yeah, that's really amazing. I think sometimes we feel like we have to have money to have relationships, and I think that's an interesting, money is such a complex subject.
Speaker 1 (45:13):
It's so complex. And obviously the example that I just shared is more of a personal example. You approach it differently in business, but in personal finances in our life, just kind of how we've strived to approach it.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
Yeah, I love that. Okay. Because you have five children, I do have to ask you this question and then we are going to quick fire. Quick
Speaker 1 (45:37):
Fire. Yeah, let's do it.
Speaker 2 (45:39):
In a world that asks us to do it all really well. I think just in your story, you have shown us how the importance of finding harmony in your work and life has been for you, but what would you say has helped you find harmony between your work and your life, especially as a mom of five? Yeah.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
It's funny actually. I've been thinking about that a lot this week and just the concept of harmony. I mean, my husband and I are both musicians, and I was thinking about what does harmony in music sound like? And sometimes the best harmonies come when there's a dissonant note that's played and then it's resolved, so it's not this perfect beautiful sound the whole time. It ebbs and flows. But I think so much of it goes back to asking myself, why did I start this business? And also why did I start a family? And making sure that the answer to both of those is at the forefront of all of our actions. And so I started a business because I wanted to be able to spend time with my family, and I started a family because I wanted to be able to spend time with my family. And so keeping that at the forefront of focus. And so I are both really intentional about calling each other out to rest with the family and not rest like a vacation, but rest. Making sure that not all of our Saturdays in a row or crazy
Speaker 1 (46:58):
Deciding to block some so that we can sleep in with the kids and let the kitchen stay messy and make a bonfire in our backyard and go hike the trails. And there's definitely seasons for both of us where it gets crazy and we have to be flexible, and there's not always as much room for rest, but just reminding each other, this is what our goal is, our end goal is to be with our family. So one of the things that we've been intentional about over the last couple of years is removing boundaries that make it harder to do the things that we really want to do or the things that we value, and simple things like the little things that make daily habits easier. So for example, we love playing board games as a family. We've always loved playing board games. We have a massive collection, and our kids have been playing strategy style board games since they were like four.
Speaker 1 (47:48):
But shortly after we moved, I realized we weren't playing games anymore. We were really busy with other stuff. We weren't taking that intentional rest time. And I realized our games had been, when we moved in, they'd been stuck in a basement closet in a room that we never went into. And I was like, okay, that has to change. And we have this beautiful, huge pottery barn bookshelf in our living room. So instead of filling it up with tchotchkes and really beautiful design details, it has our game collection. Now, when dinner is put away, it's really easy to just grab something and say, okay, guys, 15 minutes, we've got a 15 minute slot before you need to start getting ready for bed. Let's just sit down and play a game. And they're right there. And so removing that boundary of having to walk down the stairs and find the right one in the closet made a huge shift in our ability to just do something together easily.
Speaker 2 (48:41):
Yeah. I love that so much. Catherine. Your story is so inspiring, and whether people listening have the same values as you or not. I know we all value our time in different ways, but it's just really inspiring to see that you have become clear, and I'm sure it's not perfect, and you can point out all the ways that it stopped
Speaker 1 (49:04):
Where
Speaker 2 (49:06):
You've intentionally chosen what you value most and then worked your work around that. So good. Okay, let's quick fire.
Speaker 1 (49:14):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (49:14):
What is one thing you would be embarrassed if people knew
Speaker 1 (49:17):
I delivered a wedding dress once before getting paid, and then she never paid me.
Speaker 2 (49:26):
It hurts.
Speaker 1 (49:27):
It hurts, it hurts. And I spent so long living in shame about that, thinking that was a terrible business decision that I made. No one would trust me if they knew that. And then I told someone that once, I think I've told one person that before, and they were like, oh my gosh, that makes me feel so much better about myself. I was like, yeah, I sent it off to her. I sent it off to her, and she got it and then just never paid. Catherine.
Speaker 2 (49:55):
That hurts,
Speaker 1 (49:56):
Mark.
Speaker 2 (49:57):
Okay. Any regrets or wish you could do over moments?
Speaker 1 (50:01):
I don't have a lot of regrets. I stay pretty chill, and I mean, I will revisit a conversation over and over, but there's not tons of things that I wish I could redo. However, our first apartment, it was like giving a toddler finger paint. I was so excited to have my own space to decorate for the first time ever, I had lived in my mom's house, and then I lived in the other house in France in a dorm room, but I'd never had a space that I could decorate. My mom puts together a beautiful, calm, peaceful house, and all the walls are the same color. And I was like, I don't understand this. I want color. And this was a tiny apartment, tiny one bedroom apartment. You open the door and you could see into all of the space. I made every room a different color, but not colors that went together. It was so bad. And our super walked in one day and he was like, oh, it feels like a bag of Skittles in here,
Speaker 2 (51:03):
Which is just so shocking now,
Speaker 1 (51:06):
Seeing
Speaker 2 (51:06):
Your style.
Speaker 1 (51:09):
So I feel like you have to exercise your rights. Yes. But it also ruined a lot of my husband's trust in my ability to make design decisions for our home for years. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:21):
Oh my goodness. That's hilarious. Well, you got it out of your system.
Speaker 1 (51:24):
I got it out of my system. That's how we put it. I got it out of my system.
Speaker 2 (51:28):
Okay. Big win or pinch me moment.
Speaker 1 (51:30):
I mean, every time I see someone wear something that I made that was my lifelong dream, and while I gave up the bridal part, I still, it just still feels like a pinch me moment when I see someone wear something that I designed.
Speaker 2 (51:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (51:45):
Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (51:46):
That's awesome. Best advice or just really good advice that you have received?
Speaker 1 (51:51):
It's not so much a specific piece of advice. As much as an example of a life and family life that was modeled to me when we lived up in New Jersey. We didn't have any family close to us, and we found another family that they were raising six kids. She was a doula, so she actually ended up helping deliver all of my kids. She delivered one of them. My second was born accidentally at home on the bedroom floor, which is a whole nother story, and she delivered him. But we spent years just constantly eating dinner at their house. Their house was fully open for us. She would arrange her daughter's homeschool schedule around my college schedule so that they could nanny my kids so that I could go to college and graduate. And just the encourager that she was and the way that she modeled motherhood and home life and marriage, all of it put together is what I would have to pinpoint as the best advice that I've ever received.
Speaker 2 (53:00):
Yeah, that's beautiful. Generosity of your life. Okay, last quick fire and then we'll send it off. What are you working on now or one resource you would like to share?
Speaker 1 (53:10):
Yeah, so I'm actually working on writing a course. I will be launching a course soon that's designed to help teach women how to take their closet from nothing to wear to confident and joyful and feeling like you can always open your closet doors and have something you love to wear, no matter the occasion without needing to constantly shop.
Speaker 2 (53:33):
I love it.
Speaker 1 (53:34):
So I'm really excited about that.
Speaker 2 (53:35):
Can't wait. Let us know when
Speaker 1 (53:36):
It goes
Speaker 2 (53:37):
Live because
Speaker 1 (53:37):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (53:39):
Your girl needs it. Okay. Let's send it off. Catherine, what would you tell yourself and you can choose, what would you tell yourself on day one while you're in school doing bridal
Speaker 1 (53:51):
Launching
Speaker 2 (53:52):
Into the bridal world, or what would you tell yourself 2019? Sitting at the blueprint summit?
Speaker 1 (53:58):
Yeah,
Speaker 2 (53:58):
Of going towards a new dream.
Speaker 1 (54:02):
I think way back at the beginning, I would tell myself to just slow down and put some boundaries firmly in place from the beginning. And don't let what you'll do be defined by what you see other people doing, and by the dreams other people chasing your business is not in competition with theirs and you're not. I think I just needed to understand you're not in competition with anyone else if you're living out your own calling, they're living out theirs. That's their role. That's their race to run, and just put your head down and run yours and don't worry about it.
Speaker 2 (54:40):
That is so beautiful. I'm writing this down. Your business isn't in competition with anyone else's. Yes. Catherine, thank you for your time today. Thank you for sharing
Speaker 1 (54:48):
Your
Speaker 2 (54:48):
Wisdom. I just want to come hang out with you and your five kids. Yes,
Speaker 1 (54:52):
Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (54:53):
Doing go hiking.
Speaker 1 (54:54):
Yes. Oh my gosh. Let's do it.
Speaker 2 (54:58):
Hey, wildflower, you just finished another episode of Consider the Wildflowers, the podcast. Head over to consider the wildflowers podcast.com for show notes, resource links, and to learn how you can connect with Catherine. A Little sunshine from our wildflower of the week. C c s and VA says, great business encouragement, love listening to these interviews, real life business, encouragement. I need to hear the practical, the emotional, all of it. Can't wait for more episodes to drop reviews, help others find the show, and we appreciate each and every one. Thank you. One final thought for today from Louisa May Alcott, the power of finding beauty in the humblest things makes home happy and life lovely. As always, thank you for listening. I'll see you next time.