24: The Power of Image Consulting

In this episode, we dive into the art of balancing personal style with professional branding. Join us as we explore how Shine Image Consulting helps individuals elevate their image by aligning their wardrobe with their personal and professional goals. Discover the transformative power of style, the importance of consistency in branding, and how to make impactful first impressions. Whether you're a real estate agent or a corporate professional, learn how to present yourself with confidence and authenticity. Tune in for insights that will inspire you to rethink your approach to personal and professional style.

Takeaways

• Branding is not just about clothing; it's about identity.
• Self-confidence plays a crucial role in how we present ourselves.
• The way you show up matters in business.
• Real estate agents need to reflect their brand through their appearance.
• COVID has changed how professionals approach style and presentation.
• Investing in personal style can save money in the long run.
• Understanding your body type is essential for effective styling.
• Color theory can enhance personal branding and presentation.
• Consistency in appearance builds credibility and trust.
• Jewelry can elevate even the simplest outfits.

Looking to connect with the gals from Shine Image Consulting? Visit them here— www.shineimageconsulting.com

✨ Let’s Keep the Conversation Going
We’re all about building rooms where agents can grow, collaborate, and thrive.

Rebecca brings 33+ years of real estate experience into RebeccaGreen.co
where she coaches agents on the four pillars of success: Health + Wellness, Operations + Systems, Community + Collaboration, Marketing + Branding. Inside the CEO Agent Community, you’ll find coaching, courses, done-for-you marketing tools, media days, implementation sessions, and the strategies that help agents scale smarter—not busier. You can also connect with her local Oregon + Washington team at SellingPortlandRealEstate.com
.

Kim is the founder of Hey Clever Collective —a community designed to help agents build businesses they actually love. She’s all about collaboration, creativity, and showing agents how to tap into their unique strengths.

Together, we’re creating conversations, sharing strategies, and opening doors for agents who want more—more balance, more profitability, and more community. Come hang out with us, learn with us, and let’s build something bigger than a business… let’s build a life you love.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Real Estate Branding
• 2:56:46 The Importance of Personal Branding in Real Estate
• 5:47:46 Shine Consulting: Transforming Image and Confidence
• 8:46:46 Engagement Process with Shine Consulting
• 11:36:46 Building a Personal Style Foundation
• 14:37:46 The Concierge Experience of Styling
• 17:24:46 The Role of Appearance in Real Estate Success
• 20:19:46 Navigating Post-COVID Style Challenges
• 23:23:46 The Importance of Dressing for Success
• 25:57:46 Consistency in Personal Branding
• 26:45:46 Identifying the Ideal Client
• 28:39:46 Top Style Tips for Elevation
• 32:24:46 Understanding Investment in Style Services
• 37:12:46 The Value of a Curated Wardrobe
• 40:05:46 Color and Personal Branding

Transcript

Rebecca Green (00:00)
Welcome to How to Real Estate Today. I'm Rebecca Green and I'm here with my co-host Kim Borjardin. And we're super excited about our guests, Jacqueline and Laura from Shine. They're gonna talk to us about style and branding and all things good for our business when it comes to our image. So Kim, I'll let you take it away.

Kim Borcherding (00:20)
All right. Perfect. Thanks. Well, so excited for the session today. So actually I first heard about Shine Consulting probably two years ago, I was at a real estate conference that actually Christine Cantrell put on and a few of the speakers on stage. Well, they were all great, but a few of them were styled by Shine and on their social media when they were posting, they tag Shine. And then from there I started following them and I was like, Oh,

okay, these speakers who look incredible on stage, somebody help them look like that. And then I started following them and taking some tips. If you ever see me actually now belting things or trying to layer jewelry, it's because I've learned it on or not wearing black shoes. It's because I learned it from Shines Consulting's Instagram page and I was kind of stalking them.

for a while and then ⁓ as I've kind of been retooling my life, it was on my vision board to, yeah, to kind of work on my exterior appearance and I knew exactly who I wanted to work with. So I personally worked with Shine, these ladies, we did an engagement this spring. It was incredible. tell you guys about it here shortly. That was incredible. So I feel like this is a service that, and an experience that people,

should know about. I've actually worked with stylists in the past. Actually, my husband was the first one to engage a stylist probably back in 2009. So for me, I don't like shopping. I don't like clothes. It's not my thing. I will spend a lot of time choosing things and feel like it still looks bad. And it's just not gonna be my time. And I have the philosophy of staying in your lane and what are you good at and what you're not. I'm not good at choosing clothes.

figuring out what fits my body. I actually had, to working with Shine Consulting, I've worked with two stylists in the past, again, over 10 years with great success. So if you ever saw me with cute outfits, it was probably because somebody else picked it out. And I would tell people, like, it's not, and so, so anyway, so Shine Consult, ladies, can you actually tell people now what exactly, how do you describe what you do?

Rebecca Green (02:20)
You

Laura Sweitzer (02:34)
Well, first of all, I love it you said that you like stalked us like that's the kind of stalking we're into, you know, so like, please give us a follow. So my name is Laura Spitzer. I am one half of the duo of Shine Image Consulting. you know, I think we, we set out on a mission coming from corporate America, we worked in

Kim Borcherding (02:38)
Okay.

Laura Sweitzer (02:54)
higher level, executive level roles where we got to coach hundreds, if not thousands of men and women over their careers and talk a lot about image and the role that it plays in the way that people perceive you. So you can use that to accomplish business results because it does matter. Spoiler alert, it does matter. And we frankly just, have a passion for fashion and love to support women just like you.

Rebecca Green (03:06)
Mm-hmm.

Love that. Love that. So how long have you been in business? How long have you been running Shine Consulting?

Kim Borcherding (03:23)
Okay. ⁓

Jaclyn (03:28)
So we were in corporate America. I was there for 17 years. Laura was there for 15. And we left in, I left in late 2021. Laura left in early 2022 and we launched Shine in June of 2022. So we have been in business for a little over three years. We work with all types of men and women, but I think we have a special place in our heart for the professional woman. Because as Laura shared, you can have...

Rebecca Green (03:43)
amazing.

Mm-hmm.

Jaclyn (03:55)
all the credentials, all the degrees, the certifications, you know what you're gonna say. But if you don't have the outfit and to back you up and to feel confident and hold your head up high, a lot of that goes out the window. Or it can be the other way around, right? You could have the best outfit and feel awesome, but you don't necessarily have all the experience and the degrees and the credentials to back it up. So we really work with women on those two components. What is your...

Laura Sweitzer (03:56)
Okay.

Jaclyn (04:21)
self-confidence, what is your self-esteem, and then the cherry on top is the outfit. A lot of women and men that come to us start with the outfit, but we really start with self-esteem, self-confidence, and then the outfit is simply the cherry on top.

Rebecca Green (04:36)
love that. It made me think of when I got into real estate, I was 19. Now, many, many years later, I look back and I'm like, I'm here because I'm really not employable. So I'm running my own business because I'm not employable. And when people say, you must have had a job at some point, I'm like, I did. I worked at Ann Taylor when I was 19 because I wanted the discount on the clothes so that when I was in the real estate space, I looked the part.

Laura Sweitzer (04:43)
you

Rebecca Green (05:03)
And I totally bought into all of, like you just talked about, like the confidence. And if you don't have the experience, but you look the part, it was so important. And I had a lot of great linen suits. That was a lot of years ago when linen suits were a real thing. I had shorts with a jacket. I had every kind of combination of Ann Taylor linen suit you could imagine 33 years ago. So it's totally important. And you're right. I love your business.

Kim Borcherding (05:31)
Yeah, can you ladies can you explain exactly what an engagement looks like when somebody's like, Okay, I want to work with you. Yeah, in detail. Explain what that process might be like.

Jaclyn (05:44)
So a lot of women will come to us and they'll say, you know, I need an outfit for this occasion. And, you know, we certainly will do that. We will dress women and men for different events or milestones that they have going on. I think what we really like to do though is the full suite of services, because like we said, the outfit is simply the cherry on top. We need to really spend some time on the underlying pieces of what is kind of causing you a challenge in picking out outfits. So what Laura and I really like to do

is build the foundation of style through education. so Shine is certified from the Fashion Stylists Institute. So we come in with a very like scientific approach, if you will, when it comes to styling. Because I think we all know this, like we can get bombarded with like online shopping and influencers and all the items in stores. And it is our job to like clear the noise for people because that's how people become paralyzed with choosing an outfit, right? It's so overwhelming and then it becomes inauthentic to them. So we use our certification to

Rebecca Green (06:29)
You

Jaclyn (06:42)
take measurements of women's bodies and men and determine what their shine size is, which is AKA their body type. How do you dress for your body type? It's not about creating an ideal body that doesn't exist, but it's what are your body insecurities? What parts of your body do you feel comfortable showing? What parts do you not? How do we dress for your shine size, your body type so that you are confident and that you are creating proportion between the top part of your body and the bottom.

your body. That is really critical, especially for men and women who are on stage or in front of people. We want people looking at your face. We don't want people distracted by your outfit or how things are not symmetrical when it comes to what you're wearing. The second thing we really dive into is your color analysis. What colors look best on you based on your eyes, your skin, and your hair color.

Laura Sweitzer (07:23)
I'm sorry.

Jaclyn (07:31)
I mean, everybody loves black and Laura and I, you we wear black too. Black is actually not in our color palettes, but so we show women and men how to wear colors that best compliment them. But then if they do have favorite colors, how to bring that into and be able to use different accessories and jewelry tones so that they can also wear those colors and compliment them. Laura, I'll kind of shift it over to you after we get into the kind of scientific part, we really dive into the actual closet and then choosing the right pieces based on

Laura Sweitzer (08:02)
I think as you can appreciate and probably your audience appreciates, clothes and what you wear in your body is extremely, extremely personal. We spend a lot of time in our clients' homes where we literally come in, we help them clean out their closet, identify gaps in their wardrobe, to then ultimately source new pieces that can work for them and complete a refreshed wardrobe.

all the way from shoes to jewelry, as well as the clothing pieces. I say all that because I frankly, I think what makes us a little bit different is we love to get to know our clients. What do you do? How do you spend your free time? What is your professional day look like? What is your personal day look like? How do those worlds blend together? What's a reasonable budget to you? What will you never be caught dead wearing? What makes you feel the best? All of those things,

Rebecca Green (08:42)
Mm-hmm.

Laura Sweitzer (08:59)
play a critical role in identifying a wardrobe that is authentic to you, while also still pushing you. But if it's not authentic to you, our clients aren't gonna wear it. So because of that, we take a very, I would say deeper approach in really getting to know our clients, who they are, and what brings them to life so that they feel great when they put on new pieces.

Rebecca Green (09:09)
Thank you.

Kim Borcherding (09:23)
Yep, totally. And can you share, or maybe I should share. Well, I'm just going to say in a real, because I tell the story all the time, ladies, to people and they're like, wait, what? So when I engaged with Shine, essentially what they did, again, they spent a lot, we had a few calls up front, how I spend my time, what was my vision for myself, my body understanding that. And then,

Rebecca Green (09:24)
Amazing.

Kim Borcherding (09:47)
which this seemed crazy because I had not heard of this before. And I actually interviewed a few other stylists to consider when making this choice. But then they did an on-site engagement, was me. Like I love great service, which was like, my God, you're going to come, you know, they're based in Arizona. You're going to come to my home for two days. They shipped.

boxes and boxes, like I tell people, people are like, wait, what? This was unheard of. They shipped clothes to my house, which would have overwhelmed me, but I just, like they said, they just said, put it in the garage. So they shipped boxes of clothes to my home that they thought I had no input on that. So they just showed up. I think my husband's head was like, like smoking every day. I assured him that I was going to be returning much of this.

Rebecca Green (10:31)
Yeah.

Kim Borcherding (10:41)
So boxes stacked, they come on site. We go through my closet, again, getting to know me, going through pieces, understanding what I have, understanding the gaps. The second day, so then that night they unbox all the things. They have a staging area, so I use my guest room. They unbox all these clothes again. My husband walking in like his, like anybody was like, my Lord, this is so much stuff. Organize it all. And then next day was try on session. And I tried on a bazillion things.

You have to be like really ready for it. mean, it's a lot of, particularly if you don't like, like for me, I don't like, it's emotionally exhausting. Like it's not fun for me, but I was prepared for it. This was an investment I was excited about. I was here to do the work. I tried out a bazillion things. Some of them were so ridiculous. Like that literally had me crack. And they're so fun to work with. I mean, it's like you're hanging out with your best girlfriends. Like you're, we're.

having fun, we're laughing and Jacqueline's coming out picking out the outfits for me to try and Laura's on her laptop tracking the returns because 90 % of the things were not a fit. I mean, like these crazy things, but I love that they were challenging me. Like this one dress that I wore my last event, Rebecca. It's like that cream one.

Rebecca Green (11:54)
I

knew immediately when I saw her, I'm like, your side girls hooked you up. She had legs for days in this dress. She looks so hot.

Kim Borcherding (12:00)
I'm really enjoying this.

gotta run back and wait until you see me my next 10 events. I have so many great outfits I'm gonna be wearing you'd be so jealous. And because for my events like I want to look cute like I feel like I'm always like stressing what I'm gonna wear the last minute I pick up something lame I'm like, my god, I have a room for the people like I've been preparing for this I've been like, thinking about every other detail like my logo on the coffee cart but not what the frick I'm gonna wear, you know, so I wanted to have outfits that I could be wearing for the next year. Anyway,

Rebecca Green (12:11)
I love it.

Kim Borcherding (12:34)
So then we try outfits and then Laura is literally doing returns. So they have boxes. So they also shop from a range of stores where other stylists, they only like shop like one, Nordstrom's or wherever they are shopping. So for me, we did Anthropologie, we did Diller. We did a lot of different stores, Free People and Express Women, which I'd never shop. Actually, they chose this. This is from Express. I love this shirt. I wear it all the time.

And then they're doing the returns right there. So the boxes, so if it's not a fake, it goes returns. And then before they fly out, they return, they ship the returns back. So again, I assured my husband and it happened. So I put all the stuff on the credit card knowing a lot of it would be returned. It was. And now I have great pieces that I love and I'm wearing over and over and over again. And again, I have, have tell, I tell anyone that would listen like.

Rebecca Green (13:09)
Welcome.

Kim Borcherding (13:28)
you need to do this if you care about how you look and you don't like to shop. But it was this high level concierge level, a high level concierge experience with styling and consulting. then, and now I feel great. Now I don't want to shop. Like literally I will be paralyzed. We will do it another engagement this winter because right now I only, I only got things for like spring, summer and fall. I've no, you know, so,

And I feel like I have partners to work with. And again, if I have a great event that I'm going to, like I have a team that I can like lean on who knows me, knows my body, and knows what I feel good in. And anyway, it was amazing. It was amazing.

Rebecca Green (14:08)
Yeah.

So that kind of prompts a question. Kim was really talking about her brand. She was talking about her event and she was keyed in on the logo, on the copy and all of those things. So how are you helping women? I can only assume you're really helping your men and women, but you're really helping clients hone in on their brand and hone in on their ideal client.

Laura Sweitzer (14:23)
Yeah.

Rebecca Green (14:35)
through how they look and present themselves.

Laura Sweitzer (14:39)
You know, we see this as our job and responsibility and frankly, like clients or prospects can like take it or leave it. But our philosophy is that the way in which you show up absolutely matters. It especially matters in business. takes like research is saying like two seconds for something like literally two seconds for somebody to make a judgment about you. Listen, we can all agree on this call. We hate that. Like we wish that people did not do that.

Rebecca Green (14:51)
Yeah.

Jaclyn (15:08)
step.

Laura Sweitzer (15:09)
I think we all can agree on that. But there's a practical reality that it happens. So you can either meet that reality or you could just refuse to try to control it. And one of the best ways to control the way in which people perceive you is control the way in which you show up, which includes what you wear and put on your body. So when we work with clients, you know, we'll talk about clothes, but we'll ask them,

Hey, if something was to interact with you, whether it was at a professional or personal event, what are the three adjectives that you want them to walk away with when they think about you? What are the three things that you want people to think or feel when they're around you? And then we back into, okay, those three adjectives, what are the clothes? What is the image? What is it that you put on your body that will actually reflect that?

Because when you wear clothes that emit an illicit kind of this response and this description, people buy into that. there's just, again, we can like it or we can hate it, but people are buying you. They are buying you every single day. And you do have some level of control that you can influence. And clothes is a really great tool to do that.

Kim Borcherding (16:27)
Absolutely. So tell me, so I could see this again in many years of business, particularly real estate. So, and it's funny, I actually taught an open house class recently and somebody was like, I like to just be really casual myself. And I was like, I have like open house dresses that I wear that are specifically for open houses. So I don't have to think about it. And I know they look good and I know I feel elevated in them and I want to be elevated. So do you work with a lot of real estate agents and

Laura Sweitzer (16:32)
Mm-hmm.

Rebecca Green (16:43)
you

Kim Borcherding (16:54)
Yeah, in particular, would think that too much, yeah, like branding and luxury, I would think very much so.

Rebecca Green (16:55)
What are you talking to them about? Yeah.

Just in general, mean, we prep homes and we stage homes and it's all about the presentation, right? Like getting a house to market, it's all about the presentations. It's all about what you were talking about, Laura, the two second, you know, we have three, I always talk to people, we're in a three second world. And again, like you said, like it or not, that's the reality. So you have three seconds for somebody to, you know, be interested in a home. When we're out looking for business, it's the same thing, we have three seconds, you said two.

to for people to decide whether or not they're in. So here we're prepping houses, we're doing all of this and maybe we're falling short when it comes to ourselves. So yeah, I'd love to know more like Kim said, what kind of, are you working with real estate agents on?

Jaclyn (17:45)
So I think with the real estate agents that we work with and frankly, anyone really in a professional field, it's, know, as Laura shared, like what are the words that you want people to to describe you after you walk away? But it's also like you are representing the company, the home and yourself. And I think, and I'm gonna say something that's probably gonna be a little bit controversial. I think COVID did a lot of things to this, to everywhere. I think COVID when it comes to style,

Rebecca Green (18:00)
huh.

Mm-hmm.

Jaclyn (18:13)
and I'll just say this, people really got lazy. so, know, and Laura and I fell into that. Like we are not, you we were, we fell into that. We literally would roll out of bed when we were in corporate America. We'd put on a blazer. I had on sweatpants. I put on lipstick and jump on calls. And I did this for weeks. And the way that that affected my self-confidence, self-esteem, the way I showed up, I had to have my husband call me out on it. And this is someone who loves fashion.

Rebecca Green (18:29)
Mm-hmm.

Jaclyn (18:39)
I share that because I think we fell so much into comfort and I don't need to get dressed. I can just be comfortable. And Laura and I, it's our job to make sure that we are tying what people do every day. We're not gonna have you wear a prom dress to an open house. You need to be able to move. You need to be comfortable, but you also need to be elevated. And so we have some conversations with people. We do this very respectfully, very kindly, but like...

Rebecca Green (18:44)
Yeah.

Jaclyn (19:06)
you're doing some damage to yourself when you don't plan your outfits, when you don't think about the accessories that you're going to include. It's not about necessarily showing up and being above people, but it's about showing respect for yourself so that people want to work with you. Because if you don't show that respect for yourself, your credibility is going to be instantly questioned whether you like that or not. So we'll have clients say comments to us like, well, you know, I don't want to be too dressed up, but

Rebecca Green (19:24)
so much.

Jaclyn (19:36)
It's like, okay, let's really unpack that. All right, so maybe you don't wanna wear heels, because you're gonna be walking around all day. Okay, but there's probably a better shoe that's more elevated besides sneakers. Okay, right, like you wanna be able to move, because you're lifting things, you're moving things. Okay, but leggings, those are probably not the answer. How about a casual work pant, right? Or how about a cool boot to go with that?

Rebecca Green (19:48)
Thank

Jaclyn (20:00)
How about adding jewelry? And those are some conversations that we've really had to have, especially with real estate agents, because just because you are humble, you are appealing to all different types of people, you can still make adjustments in how you show up, where you're gaining respect and people are listening to what you have to say in the product you're selling versus questioning your credibility. The last thing I'll say, and Laura and I have a lot of conversations,

Rebecca Green (20:19)
Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

Jaclyn (20:27)
about this when it comes to the professional men and women we work with, not just real estate agents, but we have a lot of clients who will work with us on rebranding or redoing their website or shooting, know, branding photos or changing everything, which we love. It's exciting, it's creative, it's fun. But we have a lot of conversations with men and women about, okay, you're investing a lot into these new photos and this new brand.

You also have to make sure that you're continuing to invest in how you show up daily after that is over. So when, when men and women are looking at your social media or they're watching your podcasts or they're looking at your reels and you're all dressed up and you look amazing, but then you show up in something completely different and super casual and maybe didn't take a lot of effort. They're like, wait a minute, which one is the real person? Is it the super casual one where I'm questioning the credibility or is it this really fancy one? And so we have a lot of conversations with.

Rebecca Green (20:58)
Right.

Jaclyn (21:21)
men and women about how to bridge that gap and how to make your clothing realistic for your everyday lifestyle while also keeping it elevated.

Laura Sweitzer (21:31)
There's this element where consistency matters. The way in which you show up on your website, on your social should be consistent from day to day. And frankly, it should be consistent with your brand. So if you are a higher end, like luxury real estate agent selling multi-million dollar homes, you should look like a million bucks, right? Like there's an element of that. There's truth to that.

Rebecca Green (21:36)
always.

Laura Sweitzer (21:56)
ensuring consistency with the way in which you show up all the time and matching that brand that you're trying to represent. Even if it's a self-made brand, you're a real estate agent building your book of business, it should be consistent and it should match.

Kim Borcherding (22:11)
Yeah, I very much agree with that. Can you tell me who's like, who do you have most the most success with? Like what's your dream client? Like the client that is X, Y, and who's like not a good fit for you? Like I'm sure you've had clients that this doesn't work well with.

Rebecca Green (22:11)
Yeah. ⁓

Laura Sweitzer (22:28)
That might be like such a poignant question. I

love it. You know, because admittedly, I think we as a relatively new business, I think we've evolved and just learning frankly, like who is an ideal client for us and who is not. Two things immediately come to mind. First and foremost, ideal for us is someone who sees style and clothes more than just like the clothes.

Rebecca Green (22:54)
Mm-hmm.

Laura Sweitzer (22:54)
they

see a deeper level of meaning behind it. It's part of a larger transformative process. So what I mean by that is a client that comes to us and is like, hey, I am looking to evolve the way in which I show up. I am going through a huge personal transformation versus the client that comes to us saying, hey, can you help me like shop? There's a very big difference between the mentality of those two clients.

Rebecca Green (23:16)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Laura Sweitzer (23:22)
And then I would say somebody that is open-minded and trusting of the process. People hire us to push them. If you are not ready to be pushed or to be challenged, you're just not ready, right? And we've certainly had prospective clients where we will be honest to them to say like, hey, it's a lot of money to invest. Like here are the readiness factors that we need to see. You're just not quite there yet and that's okay.

Rebecca Green (23:32)
Yeah.

Mm.

Laura Sweitzer (23:51)
So those are the two things that immediately come to mind for us.

Kim Borcherding (23:54)
Yeah.

Jaclyn (23:56)
And Kim,

Rebecca Green (23:56)
Whatever,

⁓

Jaclyn (23:57)
I would say you embodied those qualities that little bit. Right? Cause the reality is like, you, tried on everything we asked. were very open-minded. listened to the feedback. You were very comfortable sharing with us what you liked about certain things, what you didn't like that we were able to adjust. So I think people.

Laura Sweitzer (24:01)
Mm-hmm.

Rebecca Green (24:06)
Yeah.

Laura Sweitzer (24:07)
Mm-hmm. ⁓

Jaclyn (24:18)
The last word I would say is that people who trust us and are looking to relinquish control of that area of their life, and you embodied all those qualities.

Laura Sweitzer (24:28)
grade.

Rebecca Green (24:28)
was having

so much fun. was living vicariously

through Kim's Shine experience. She was sending me text messages and pictures and videos. I was like, what are you doing? And clothes everywhere. It was awesome. It was awesome. What are three, you know, can each of you shoot three tips that you would give anyone who's looking to, you know, up their ante from a style standpoint, whether it be hair, makeup, clothes, colors, you know, what are your three top tips?

Jaclyn (24:59)
would say the first one is, this is a little bit deeper, it's not like a quick and easy, think about if there's reason why you're not maybe getting dressed every day or elevating your style or you're gravitating to the same things over and over again, asking yourself, why is that? Am I not happy with a part of my body? Do my clothes not fit right? Are they not comfortable? Are they from?

10 years ago and they no longer serve me. Like really thinking a little bit deeper is like, why am I not making the effort on a daily basis? And depending on what the answer is, how do I tackle those different areas?

Rebecca Green (25:38)
I love that one.

Laura Sweitzer (25:40)
The base of immediate style tactic tips, one is shine the waistline. Kim, I you mentioned intro, like, you know, you might see me like wearing belts and belting things like that is an immediate like a strategy, frankly, that we teach women. And here's, here's the here's the gist. We have worked with hundreds of clients. And we will ask our clients what part of their body are they most maybe self conscious about?

Rebecca Green (26:05)
Mm-hmm.

Laura Sweitzer (26:06)
The number one area without fail from like 99.9 % of our clients is the midsection. Men too. Yep, not just one, yes. Men too.

Jaclyn (26:12)
Men too.

Rebecca Green (26:13)
Yeah.

Really? Interesting.

Jaclyn (26:17)
We just did one on Saturday, he said the same thing.

Laura Sweitzer (26:20)
Same thing. And because of that, sometimes, and again, we have fallen victim to this too, we want to hide that area of our bodies. And what that often means is like wearing shirts untucked, larger pieces than are necessary. And frankly, what that does to us visually is it makes that part of our bodies stand out even more than if we shined our waistline.

So we spend a lot of time coaching and educating our clients on the difference, like visually showing them the difference between shining and not shining their waistline. It's a huge, huge difference because it creates proportionality. I would say second, like third, third tip, wear the damn jewelry.

Rebecca Green (27:03)
You

Laura Sweitzer (27:06)
There are clients that save like their Sundays best for like never. They actually never wear it on Sundays. It's just like sitting there and they're waiting for like an occasion. We see that especially with jewelry. Jewelry is the immediate like outfit elevator. It can take like a very, what we would identify as basic outfit to like very elevated by just putting the damn jewelry on. So we really encourage our clients to embrace your jewelry, wear it.

Stop saving it. And frankly, that applies to clothes too. People will buy something and wait for an event. And it's like, if you love it and it makes you feel great, wear the damn outfit. Stop being worried about what everyone else is going to think. Because the reality is, when you feel great, you show up great. And that should guide you more than, frankly, what other people think of that outfit.

Kim Borcherding (28:01)
Yeah, that's a tip I did learn again from your answer on page like you'll see me in like a jumpsuit like a you know, like I have this one piece jumpsuit that I love from Abercrombie and then I'll totally add jewelry to it. But from you guys. Yeah. So yeah, no, I love bracelets. All Yes. And and I will say though I was impressed because I know you did an engagement with Chris Cantrell.

Rebecca Green (28:02)
Mm-hmm.

Laura Sweitzer (28:15)
Yep, it makes a big difference.

Rebecca Green (28:20)
Yeah.

Jaclyn (28:21)
Sorry.

Kim Borcherding (28:27)
And I saw on her social media, she had like all these layered necklaces. I was like, that looks so cool. I've still yet to get like really comfortable with all the layers, but I'm working towards it. So, all right, before we wrap up any last things that we wanna share that cover.

Laura Sweitzer (28:37)
Mm-hmm.

Jaclyn (28:37)
You're getting there.

Rebecca Green (28:45)
question for people who are

listening. What should somebody expect to spend on services or revamping? What is the investment? I believe investing in ourselves is priceless, but for somebody who's like, what is the nuts and bolts? What's the range?

Jaclyn (29:01)
So I would say first, there's maybe like a little bit of a misconception with stylists that like, you have to spend a lot of money. And one thing about Laura and I, like our fee is flat. So like our fee that we charge is a flat fee, no matter what you spend. So people will come to us and they'll say, my budget's 500, my budget is a thousand, my budget is 5,000. And I share that with you because Laura and I, we make any budget work. Like, because since our fee is flat, we're not charging

Rebecca Green (29:10)
Yeah.

Love that.

Jaclyn (29:29)
Piece of like the total revenue or anything like that that we bring in So I share that with you because I think a lot of women and men may think like that's out of my range It's like no like yes We have a flat fee that we work with clients on and that that varies depending on the service whether we do things Virtually whether we travel to you like we did for Kim, but the actual service or I'm sorry the clothes We make any budget work. That's just a part of like our consultation process. So Rebecca. I would encourage people

who want to have deeper conversations with us, we do offer complimentary consultations where we just really ask people a lot of questions as Kim shared, like we do a lot of time with clients ahead of time to understand like, what are their goals? What are they looking to achieve? How can we possibly help them? How can we make their budget work, whether it is virtual or in person? So I would encourage people to do that. We love doing our complimentary consultations because we really can dive deep with clients and then determine whether the service will work for them.

Rebecca Green (30:21)
Yeah.

One of the things that I gleaned from what you were saying is that style is accessible in any price range. Back in the day, expensive clothes were expensive clothes and you needed expensive clothes because the other clothes were like, you're not wearing them. There was such a gap. What you just said is awesome because there is great style in all price points. And the fact that you're working towards that is awesome.

Laura Sweitzer (30:31)
Mm-hmm.

Jaclyn (30:32)
Yes.

Yes.

Kim Borcherding (30:50)
Yep. ⁓

Rebecca Green (30:53)
And I love that you're shopping in different places. Like I'm still thinking about Kim, Express Women. I mean, I used to shop at Express Kids for my girls when they were young. I didn't even know that that was a store.

Kim Borcherding (31:04)
I didn't know. And I'd say in this about the, I will say, to be honest, I thought they delivered such value for what they chart and what I spent like above and beyond. mean, here's what I people like, okay, you're gonna invest in new clothes for, now I have great pieces. I'm not gonna continue to buy stupid stuff. What I do, I buy stupid stuff over and over and none of it looks great. I'm replacing that. maybe I'll get in for color. Like I'm buying dumb things. I'm wasting money.

And then forget about the time I'm spending. Like I go to a conference, I'm gonna spend 20 hours trying to put together cute outfits for these conferences that still never look great. So I feel like it more than pays for itself. They deliver such value. And again, it's very, what did I spend? Again, I ultimately was a decision on how much clothes I got to keep and some things I was like, okay, have more. And then I sat with it for a week and I was like, actually, I'm not gonna wear these. I'm gonna return it. So you have a little bit of.

Rebecca Green (31:34)
doing it.

Thank

Kim Borcherding (31:59)
of the gas pedal, you know, what your budget is and what you can work with. I felt again, compared to I interviewed a couple other stylists. It was more than more than fair, more than reason. Honestly, guys, you can probably charge four times as much. mean, like, for people who are like, I don't have this part of my brain, I'm never going to have it. And the only way if I want to look have great outfits is have somebody help me with it. So that's

Jaclyn (32:24)
Kim, you

bring up a good point about, because clients will say this to us often, and I honestly don't think like Laura and I talk about this much, like clients will say to us, I actually spend less money now. And that's because we do spend the time building the foundational pieces. And we send clients look books after their sessions that has every item that they purchase and how to style them. So they literally have a visual cue of what they need and what they, we have clients that print it out to get dressed every day.

Rebecca Green (32:36)
Uh-huh.

Jaclyn (32:53)
so I share that with you because it is our goal is to, mentioned earlier, like weed out the noise. It is our goal for clients to shop less and less and stop like, smilling all of these different pieces from in their closet. And then they end up with stuff they don't like rather build the foundation. And then they know, okay, going into winter, I'm going to need a few sweaters to go with these jeans. I'd love some few winter dresses. Let's get one or two pairs of boots that will go with everything and we're done. Right. Like that is our goal is like.

Rebecca Green (33:01)
Yeah.

Kim Borcherding (33:18)
Yeah.

Jaclyn (33:20)
How do we get clients to actually shop less? Just be smart.

Kim Borcherding (33:23)
Yeah, well you were

Laura Sweitzer (33:23)
Mm.

Kim Borcherding (33:24)
successful.

Rebecca Green (33:24)
Amazing.

Kim Borcherding (33:25)
It's like a wash like glitter. If you're going to spend any money on clothes like it is a wash. If you do what they say and you're a good student and you follow their directions and you're open minded and let them work, you know, so

Jaclyn (33:34)
No, you are a student.

Laura Sweitzer (33:38)
I think we hopefully leave clients with full outfits. Because when we clean clients' closets out, if we had a quarter for every time a client said, I got this on sale, but I never wear it, we would be good billionaires. We're not even joking. And those are the pieces we end up usually donating because it's not complete. Yeah.

Jaclyn (33:46)
Thank

Yeah, I just bought it because it was on clearance.

Rebecca Green (34:00)
right fit. It's not. Yeah, it's not. It was just

Jaclyn (34:02)
That's right.

Rebecca Green (34:04)
something I mean, I'm sure I have 17 shirts I could get rid of right now because like, why did I mean, did people have a hard time getting rid of things? Do people actually have a hard time getting rid of stuff? Do they do they resist you on that?

Laura Sweitzer (34:10)
Right. I visually liked it like while I was.

Sure. think that varies to degrees, right? And like we will educate as to why it's time to get rid of something. But I would say again, ideal client for us, they're usually ready to like relinquish control. And honestly, I think a lot of clients are, they're seeking permission from somebody that's like, not as attached to them to come in and be like, it's time, it's served its duty, it's ready to move on. Like you could get ready, get rid of it.

Rebecca Green (34:33)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Laura Sweitzer (34:47)
There's something better waiting for you out there.

Kim Borcherding (34:50)
Yeah, I would say I'm the somebody historically I have a hard time letting go. I'm a bit of a keeper of things. I think I did a pretty good job. think I like 10 bags of things I will say. And this was a hard piece. Like I had some things that I had invested in particularly like mother Jean like expensive like $275 jeans that this was hard for me to hear because I'm tall finding jeans that fit me. So I actually I love the crop.

Laura Sweitzer (34:58)
You did great!

Kim Borcherding (35:19)
because I'm like, okay, they're not long up with their crop. And they were like, it's the right crop. They're like too short. And I was like, I thought they worked. And getting rid of some expensive pieces. But for the first time, I'm actually consigning clothes now, which I had never done before. I now, I'm in shop, but I can bring 15 pieces at a time. And I'm slowly consigning some of these things. Some of these things I just donated or gave away to friends. I did other things I felt really guilty.

Rebecca Green (35:34)
Good.

Kim Borcherding (35:47)
because I invested money in all those clothes, 10 bags, I'm getting rid of, so I have lot of guilt with that. And I'm consigning things and I'm giving them away and then I donated, but that helped me feel a little bit better about that because that was a hard piece. Like, my God, predict for me these expensive jeans that I invested a lot of money in. yeah, that is, yeah.

Rebecca Green (36:06)
Yeah.

And then one other question I have, one last question. What about color? Color are, know, people, when we talk about brand, you know, people are so honed in on, when you say brand, immediately people are like, it's my brand colors. Like they go straight to the color and it's a whole package, right? It's like your colors, it's your font, it's your everything. So color plays into your brand in what you're wearing too, right?

Laura Sweitzer (36:22)
Ahem.

Rebecca Green (36:33)
So do you find that most people have it wrong?

Jaclyn (36:37)
Yes,

Laura Sweitzer (36:37)
Yes.

Rebecca Green (36:39)
I thought you were going to say that. Should I have changed

my shirt? I feel like I should have called you before we recorded this.

Kim Borcherding (36:45)
We're totally judging you, Rebecca.

Laura Sweitzer (36:46)
Well, feel like

so that here the practical reality is like when people started business and by the way, we did this too.

Jaclyn (36:53)
We did this. It

just happened to work out.

Laura Sweitzer (36:56)
Yeah, it just happen to work out. You go and you build a logo and you build colors that complement the logo. And like the last thing you think about is like, what personally looks great on me? That is 90 % of the clients that come to us where they've already built like this branded palette and then they want outfits to match now. Style is what we we love to do and frankly, we're skilled at is finding complementary colors. So you don't have to have your brand.

Rebecca Green (37:06)
Go.

Yeah.

Laura Sweitzer (37:25)
match your personal optimized color palette, but it is more ideal. And frankly, it shows up in, we see it in photos where it's like, they're wearing an outfit that is their brand color, but it does not compliment them at all. We could certainly help our clients with that.

Kim Borcherding (37:44)
Yeah. Rebecca, have you had your color? Have you had a color consultation?

Rebecca Green (37:44)
Interesting.

Not for a very long time. Like I can't remember.

Kim Borcherding (37:52)
All right,

have you ever worked with a stylist?

Rebecca Green (37:57)
Well, I have, I mean, I've worked with personal shoppers at department stores and whatnot, but I've never worked with a stylist, no.

Laura Sweitzer (38:03)
store.

Kim Borcherding (38:06)
No, image consult. say this is more inside. You guys are image consultants. It really, yes, I've worked with Silas before, but they are more image consultants. It's a different experience. Yeah. I think.

Rebecca Green (38:09)
Image consultants, yeah. I think that's really, yeah.

Yeah. And the interesting thing you saying about people coming

and they're like, here's my business color and here's my logo and here's my vibe. Like I'm thinking about my own brands and looking back, you know, and yeah, that's interesting. Like there are some colors that

Jaclyn (38:35)
We had a client who came to us. was doing a whole rebranding and we ran her colors and she ended up like switching out some of her branding colors to match her palette. So we make anything work, but she didn't go to the exact colors on the palette, but she went to more of the tones. Cause that's really what this, the palettes are all different seasons, right? Winter, fall, spring, summer. And then you have three options within that season. like there's a, there's a decent.

Rebecca Green (38:42)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Laura Sweitzer (39:00)
Mm-mm.

Jaclyn (39:01)
colors

out there. It's really about pools versus warm tones. And so if we can at least anchor to like if you're a warm palette anchoring warm tones for your business, that will make such a huge difference.

Rebecca Green (39:10)
Yeah.

Kim Borcherding (39:12)
Yeah. And then, and I'd say, and then the other thing with the colors also is the body shape. I had never, again, working with other stylists in the past, no one had ever told me I'm a, what am I, inverted triangle, I think. Is that what it's called? The, I'm an inverted triangle. Never heard that term before. And there is ways that I need to be styling as an inverted triangle and fitting my clothes that's proportionate to what makes my body look better.

Jaclyn (39:17)
Yeah.

Laura Sweitzer (39:24)
Yes. Yeah.

Jaclyn (39:25)
Yes.

Kim Borcherding (39:37)
and didn't know that. And now I'm like, ⁓ okay, that's like that dress or like, like will notice like, that would be good or not good on me. So yeah. Yeah. I cannot read.

Rebecca Green (39:46)
It's education, right? It's a total education. It's a total education. Yeah. And it doesn't

Jaclyn (39:46)
Because once you do it, it's once you do it, all. Yeah.

Laura Sweitzer (39:50)
Yes.

Rebecca Green (39:52)
mean you can't buy clothes on sale. You just shouldn't buy the wrong clothes on sale just because they're on sale.

Jaclyn (39:55)
That's right. Exactly. That's right.

Laura Sweitzer (39:56)
Wrong, yes,

Jaclyn (39:58)
That's a great way saying it. Yes.

Laura Sweitzer (39:59)
yes.

Kim Borcherding (40:01)
Yeah, mostly.

Rebecca Green (40:01)
Okay ladies,

as we wrap it up, how do people find you?

Jaclyn (40:05)
So we're on Instagram, at Shine Image Consulting. We are pretty active on there. We put style tips on there. We feature clients if they're comfortable with it. have a lot of people message us all the time. They can sign up for consultations there. That's probably the best way to find us. Then we also have a website, shine image consulting.

Rebecca Green (40:24)
Great, I love it. I will definitely be booking. I know a lot of ladies that you've helped and I see them show up and I'm like, ooh, that's a damn, that's a good outfit.

Kim Borcherding (40:34)
No, it needs to be on your vision board, on your roadmap Rebecca. Yeah.

Jaclyn (40:37)
No.

Rebecca Green (40:38)
It

does. It does for sure.

Kim Borcherding (40:41)
Okay, awesome. Thank you so much for your time and sharing. All right, thanks.

Jaclyn (40:42)
So, hopefully.

Laura Sweitzer (40:44)
⁓ thank you.

Jaclyn (40:46)
Thank you, ladies.

Rebecca Green (40:47)
was fun.

We'll see you soon.

Jaclyn (40:49)
Bye.