Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
Bringing together local businesses and neighbor of the Tri-Cities region. Good Neighbor Podcast hosted by Skip Mauney helps residents discover and connect with your local business owners in and around The Tri-Cities.
Is your business serving the residents of Tri-Cities? Then, we need to talk! Visit gnpTri-Cities.com to schedule your free interview.
Good Neighbor Podcast: Tri-Cities
EP# 234: The Support Revolution: How Hello Gorgeous Is Changing Bra Shopping Forever
What makes Kim Broshar and Michelle Nailen with Hello, Gorgeous! Professional Bra Fitting & More a good neighbor?
"Everything changes when they get a bra that really fits—their facial expression, their posture, how they feel about themselves." Meet Kim Broshar and Michelle Nailen, two former educators who transformed their 25 years of teaching experience into a mission to help women find comfort and confidence through proper bra fitting.
The founders of Hello Gorgeous Professional Bra Fitting share their remarkable journey from classroom to fitting room, revealing how they pivoted careers in their 50s to create a welcoming, judgment-free environment for anyone who wears a bra. Their approach combines technical knowledge with genuine compassion—what they call a "head and heart endeavor," much like their previous work in education.
Throughout this illuminating conversation, Kim and Michelle dismantle common misconceptions about bras and sizing. Contrary to popular belief, bras aren't inherently uncomfortable—poorly fitting ones are. They explain how most American women wear bands too large and cups too small, settling for discomfort they believe is inevitable. The pair also challenge cultural sizing myths, noting that cup sizes extend far beyond the limited range found in department stores, with many women who believe they're A cups actually requiring a completely different size.
What sets Hello Gorgeous apart is their client-centered philosophy. Unlike rigid fitting experiences elsewhere, Kim and Michelle prioritize each woman's comfort and preferences. They started their business mobile-first during the pandemic, gradually building to a brick-and-mortar location while establishing partnerships with community organizations to donate gently used bras to those in need.
Whether you've struggled with uncomfortable bras your entire life or simply want to understand what proper support feels like, this episode offers valuable insights into an aspect of daily life many women have simply accepted as uncomfortable. Ready to transform how you feel in your clothes? Visit HelloGorgeousBraShop.com to discover what proper support really means.
To learn more about Hello, Gorgeous! Professional Bra Fitting & More go to:
https://www.hellogorgeousbrashop.com/
Hello, Gorgeous! Professional Bra Fitting & More
(828) 484-8878
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monty.
Speaker 2:Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast. So I am super excited today because I have two special guests in the studio and very anxious to learn all about them and what they do and what they do for the community. And I'm sure you'll be just as excited because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbors, ms Kim Broshar and Michelle Nalen, who are the owner operators of Hello Gorgeous Professional Bra Fitting and More. Welcome to the show. Glad to have you.
Speaker 3:Thank you Thanks, Skip more.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the show. Glad to have you, thank you, thanks, skip, absolutely Now, like I said, we're super excited to learn all about what you guys do and what you do for the community.
Speaker 3:So if you don't mind, why don't you kick us off by telling us about your business? So we are, fortunate enough, we have a, like the name says, a professional bra fitting and more studio. So we do complimentary bra fittings professional bra fittings to help people find the right bras and the right sizes for their lifestyles not only for their bodies, but for their lifestyles, because everybody wants something different and everybody is made a little differently. Because everybody wants something different and everybody is made a little differently and bras can be really confusing and bra sizing can be really confusing, and so we want to help take away that confusion, welcome people into a safe space and give them, literally and figuratively, the support that they need to find the right items for them.
Speaker 2:Pun intended.
Speaker 3:Pun intended.
Speaker 2:Support the support needed.
Speaker 3:Well.
Speaker 2:I got to tell you guys, I don't know a lot about bras. I know that my wife doesn't doesn't like them very much. I do know that. But so maybe she's she is a potential client for you guys. So how did? How did you ladies get into this business?
Speaker 4:So Michelle and I have been friends and we were colleagues for years at a school we both worked at an elementary school for about 25 years and you know, we hit our mid-50s and kind of thought, well you know, is there something else in the world that we might like to do? And Michelle, her sister-in-law, has a business partner and they own a shop much like Hello Gorgeous in Vermont, and so they became our mentors. Michelle was on vacation with her sister-in-law and heard the story about how much they love what they do. They love the industry. The lingerie bra fitting industry is a really supportive, kind, nurturing industry for women. They want women to feel good and to feel supported and comfortable in their bras, but most women aren't wearing a bra that fits.
Speaker 4:So, coming from education, which we felt like was a head and a heart endeavor, you have to, you care about children and you love them, but you better know what you're doing to be a good teacher, this kind of fit, that same bill, and we both wanted to be purposeful in what we do in this world and be contributing members of our community and we thought, well, this might be a really great way to pivot, do something different, exciting and a little bit challenging for us and we launched Hello, gorgeous about what? Through four years ago now, maybe just almost right at four years ago now.
Speaker 2:Oh, wow. Well, congratulations, that's. That's awesome. Obviously, something's working if you've been around for four years, so yeah you mentioned, a lot of women don't wear the right size bra. I had a friend who finally had somebody at a shoe store check his what size shoe he should wear and he's been wearing the wrong size shoe his entire life. I guess it's pretty similar, huh.
Speaker 3:It can be similar and you know I think a lot of people understand the idea that you know clothing doesn't fit the same with different brands or even within the same brand. But you know, that whole idea of like a good running shoe or a hiking shoe and finding the right one that fits your foot and the right size is kind of the way that a lot of people who don't wear bras can relate to the whole bra buying piece because it's not a clear cut thing. So you know we often will say you know we're looking to find your best average starting size to help us get started, because you can be very different sizes in different bras. We can have women come in who say they get five bras. Not everybody gets five bras, but let's just, we're just playing around. Some women can come in and have five of the same bra size in different brands and other women can buy five bras and have a different size in each different bra that they buy. So you know we're just here to help them kind of take that mystery away, take the frustration away and help them find a bra that really fits them in the way that they want it to. That's going take the frustration away and help them find a bra that really fits them in the way that they want it to. That's going to achieve the goals that they want.
Speaker 3:Just like with a shoe right. Like who knew you were wearing the wrong shoe size for years. Very similar, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, what are some myths or misconceptions in the fitting industry?
Speaker 4:I think there's a misconception that bras are just inherently uncomfortable. That is usually a product of a bra that doesn't fit very well. So that might be number one. I think of one of the things that we try to help women understand. Another misconception would just be about how they should fit. I think women sometimes think we think that they think, you know, like a double D is a really large, voluptuous shape for a woman and the truth is, you know, bras come from an A cup up to an R or an S or a T. So there's a much wider range of bra sizes and band sizes than you might find at a typical department store or a Target, a big box store. They typically are just, you know, have the inventory for that median middle of the road and sometimes that's an outdated we think it's an outdated idea of the size of a woman currently. So those are the two I can think of off the top of my head.
Speaker 3:Yeah, for sure. I think those are the big misconceptions, because a lot of people come in and they think that a double or triple D is Dolly Parton. Dolly Parton is off the charts. She is fantastic and wonderful.
Speaker 3:Yes, and we love her, but she should not be your cultural measure for bra sizing and actually for most women a D or a double D is actually a very petite bra size and there are very few. You know, we often have women come in and saying I'm an A cup. It's rare Probably of all the people who come in saying that maybe a 10, maybe 10% of them are actually A cups, if that, because kind of along with what Kim was saying, for most American women they wear too large of a band and too small of a cup, because again, when they go to the big box store it ends in a double D, maybe a triple D, so they have to go up in the van to get a bigger cup and then they think it's going to be more comfortable, when actually it's usually less comfortable because it's not holding them together and it's falling off their body or riding up their back and making the straps fall down. So you know, there are definitely women who don't want a bra that fits the way that we share that with them or the way that we recommend. But they, you know, at least if we can get them a little snugger on the band so that it stays on their body, and that's another thing you know that we do.
Speaker 3:Skip, is that we really want women to feel comfortable. So there are definitely, you know, bra fitters who are like no, you have to wear this bra and it must be this size. Well, we also know that if they're not going to wear it and it's sitting in a drawer and they're cursing us and not feeling good about themselves, it's not doing anybody any good. So we really try to work with women to help them get to the place where they feel comfortable. They're achieving the goals that they want to achieve from how they want to look and feel in the way that they want to look and feel, not the way that we want them to. So we're very open to working with people to say what's best for you.
Speaker 2:You know, and here's some consequences that may come from that- so well, my, my wife is definitely a candidate and she would kill me for telling you guys on a podcast. But when she gets home, I mean she literally only owns maybe two or three bras, and the second she gets in she's a teacher as well. And the second she gets in she's a teacher as well. And the second she gets home at three o'clock, that thing's coming off, you know, she's like it's just so uncomfortable. So I think she could definitely benefit from from what you guys do well and skip kim and I were what?
Speaker 3:52 years old the first time we had a real, true bra fitting to find bras that really fit us. So we're so fortunate to be honored by women who walk through our doors and allow us to do this with them. We understand it's a very intimate and vulnerable experience and we want to be there for women in a safe space during this time. So we have women who come to us who are 75 or 80 years old, who've never had a fitting before a real fitting and gotten a real.
Speaker 3:But then we're so happy when they're younger and they come in and we're like you're ahead of the game. You get to know this now. Whether that's for their very first bra or whether that's, you know, their first real fitting at 25 or even 35, you know we're like let's go. This is fantastic. You're figuring this out now. You're already ahead of the game. So it makes us really honored to do that and also very happy for them. And what we see is when they get a bra that really fits, everything changes. Their facial expression changes, their posture changes. They just feel better about themselves and we love that. That. We love that. We just love it. Well, my wife's 55. She desperately needs to come see you guys.
Speaker 4:I'm sure, I'm sure Well outside of work, ladies what do you, what do you guys like to do for fun If there is time for fun like to do for fun if there is time for fun? Um, let's see, I'm a walker. I love to be out walking. Um, do a little bit of yoga. I'm in a couple of book clubs, love the movies. I don't go as often as I used to since the pandemic, but I do love a good movie and being with my family and friends. Just cooking is one of my other favorite things to do with family and friends. Get together and cook together and have a lovely meal.
Speaker 3:Yeah, very very, very similar Love to read, love to be outdoors and I've got a big 80 pound dog who loves to be outside and walk and play and swim and garden and you know um and cook and be with family and friends. And especially I have five grandbabies so whenever I can I want to get my hands on them. They they live in the more Eastern part of the state but um, yeah, so love to get my hands on those cuties A little jealous of that Not going to lie. Yeah.
Speaker 4:My kids aren't ready to have kids, but when they are man, I'm ready to be a grandmother. I'll tell you that.
Speaker 2:You said you have four. You have four grandkids Five.
Speaker 4:Five grandkids.
Speaker 3:Wow.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so kind of two.
Speaker 3:My daughter has three and my son has two, and daughters are older, like older and like 11 and a half and 10. And then I've got babies two and seven months.
Speaker 2:So Wow, Now where? Where do they live?
Speaker 3:My daughter and her family live in Fayetteville. In the Fayetteville area, my son-in-law's in the army, so they're stationed there and, but they're loving life there. And then they're just an hour away from my son and his wife, who are in the Durham area, so they're close enough, you know, they're not so far away.
Speaker 2:Well, let's switch gears for just a second. Can one of you describe a hardship or a life challenge, either professionally or personally, that you've overcome and how it made you stronger in the end?
Speaker 4:Let's see, I would say the career change was a pretty big obstacle and, you know, a shift for both of us to move away from. You know, being at the same school for 25 years and having that familiarity, that community, all of that and just embarking on starting a small business. We started just as the pandemic hit and so we decided to start mobile and not invest in a brick and mortar to start and just bought inventory and would set up open houses in our own homes or like if there was a book club or a prayer group or something like that, and they would like for us to come and do a fitting as a part of a party for them. We could do that. So we did that for a while and and it just all went so well, we had such a good time doing it. We saw the need for our community for women to have, you know, good fitting bras and lingerie and, yeah, I think that our sort of calculated, measured approach to starting a small business and our eagerness to learn and be open to mentors and people in our community, other women who have started businesses and who were generous with their time and their advice for us, we really appreciate that. So that's the thing that comes to mind right now.
Speaker 4:We both are quite fortunate. Our children are well, our families are good, you know. So I would say that, just you know, taking that leap of faith and starting a small business, we've loved it. We really have enjoyed it. We've been here now about four and a half years and feel like we're doing a nice job supporting our community. We have connections to community groups such as Our Voice or the Buncombe County Schools or Helpmates, and we do some volunteer work with them and we offer up gently used bras to them. So we just kind of feel like we found that new head and a heart adventure and we're just so grateful that it's worked out. You know, there's a lot to learn and starting a small business during such uncertain times was not easy, but we stuck with it. We had a game plan, we were patient, stuck to that game plan and we really feel fortunate about where we are today.
Speaker 2:Well, no doubt it is not easy, regardless of what's going on in the world Forget a pandemic but it's not easy to start a small business at all, especially, you know, this is my small business and I mean it's very rewarding in the end. You know, I love working for myself and enjoy it Scary, but it's also, again, very rewarding, so I totally get it. Yeah Well, kim, if you could think of one thing you would like our listeners to remember about, hello, gorgeous, professional bra fitting and more what would that be?
Speaker 4:That we really are here to serve anyone who would like to wear a bra, wear a very safe, open, welcoming environment. You are in charge of your fitting when you come to see us and we are as involved as you are comfortable with us being involved, meaning we can stay in the room with you and do the fitting. We can step out if that feels a little too vulnerable. But we really are here just to help women and anyone who wears a bra to feel comfortable and supported and just be a part of our community, Even if you just want to come by and see who we are and check out what we're doing. We would love to have that.
Speaker 2:Awesome, awesome. Well, for those of us who you know and I specifically have my wife in mind that are interested and have a need and would like to come check it out, how can, how can we learn more?
Speaker 4:So we are. We have a website at Hello Gorgeous. I mean info at Hello Gorgeous. Braopcom is our website, Our phone number is 828-484-8878 and our email is info at hellogorgeousbrashopcom. Don't do all that.
Speaker 3:Yes, and we're also on Facebook and Instagram. There you go, hello, gorgeous Brashop.
Speaker 2:Hello, gorgeous Brashop. We will definitely get my wife to check it out. Her name is Angie, I will tell her to tell you guys. I said her so well, awesome. Well, I, ladies, I can't tell you how much I appreciate your time and joining us and talking to our listeners about what you do and how you serve the community, and wish you guys, and your families and your business, all the best moving forward.
Speaker 4:Well, thank you, and we're not sure who nominated us, but whoever that is, thank you so much. This really helps us grow our business and be a bigger presence in our community. So thank you so much. We appreciate it. It was an honor to spend some time with you, skip.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Well, the honor was mine and maybe in the future, maybe after your fifth year anniversary, we could have you back.
Speaker 4:We would love that We'll be in touch. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:Sounds good, thank y'all.
Speaker 1:Y'all have a great rest of the day. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptry-citiescom. That's gnptry-citiescom, or call 423-719-5873.