For the Love of Creatives
Unlocking the Power of Community:
Imagine a space where your creative spark is truly seen—a community where people get you. That’s what Maddox and Dwight bring each week on For the Love of Creatives Podcast. As your hosts and “connections and community guys,” they bridge the gap between solo journeys and powerful collaborations, transforming “me” into “we.” This podcast is where heart-centered creatives come to unlock the power of community and thrive.
In each episode, Maddox and Dwight share insightful dialogues and host engaging interviews with fellow artists, innovators, and everyday creatives who’ve faced challenges, found inspiration, and reached new heights. Whether through storytelling, LIVE coaching, or exploring what it means to create, collaborate, and co-elevate, you’ll discover how to fuel your own creative journey and find the support to bring your best ideas to life.
Expect practical insights, fresh inspiration, and real stories from the world of art, design, dance, culinary arts, and beyond. If you’re a creative looking for support, clarity, and a sense of belonging, this podcast is your place to connect, grow, and be celebrated.
Join us each week as we celebrate the magic of community-driven creativity, and don’t miss out on the chance to join our For the Love of Creatives Community! Tune in, subscribe, and start your journey from “me” to “we” today!
For the Love of Creatives
#034: Carla Biasi Creatively Transforms Lives Through Personal Style
What if your clothing choices were a gateway to personal transformation? In this conversation with stylist Carla Biasi, "The Closet Queen," we uncover how authentic style isn’t about trends… it’s about unlocking your value and beauty.
Carla shares her journey from teen fashion lover to financial advisor before launching her styling business at 53, inspiring anyone who feels it might be “too late” to pursue a creative calling. As she says, “I couldn’t have done this 20 years ago because I wouldn’t have had that financial education and experience to set myself up.” Every step prepared her for this path.
Carla reveals how styling goes beyond flattering body types, showing how differently we move through life depending on what we wear: “Think about how you walk in sneakers vs. pumps.” Through touching client stories — especially postmenopausal women struggling with body image — she shows how shifting focus from flaws to beauty creates change. One exercise she offers: looking in the mirror and saying “I am beautiful,” emphasizing a different word each time.
Her refreshing approach encourages experimenting and failing as part of growth: “Style is art, not science.” In a world obsessed with perfection, this grace-filled perspective is liberating. If you’ve struggled with self-image or wondered how to authentically express yourself, this episode will leave you seeing yourself… and your closet… in a whole new light.
Subscribe now and join our community exploring how creativity transforms lives in unexpected ways. We’d love to hear how this episode impacts your relationship with personal style!
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For the Love of Creatives Community
it's okay to make mistakes. That's how you learn. It's the joy of doing, of expressing yourself, kind of like maddox, what you were saying earlier, like when somebody has a really poorly put together outfit and is not projecting the right image, why do do they even do that, right? Why do they not know? It's okay, you guys, it's a mistake, right, you wore something that just didn't work, but you're willing to put yourself out there, right, dwight? Because we hear this quite a bit. It's putting yourself out there to say I'm not the best dressed, and that's okay, because I'm not trying to be the best dressed, but I'm trying to be the best version of myself and it's a process.
Speaker 3:Welcome to another edition of For the Love of Creatives podcast. I am your co-host, dwight, and I'm joined by our co-host, maddox, and today we have our featured guest, carla Biasi. Hi, carla.
Speaker 1:Hey, good morning. How are you all?
Speaker 3:Wonderful. We're so glad that you can be here. I know that we're just popping into people's earbuds and they may not have any idea what they're in for, but could you kind of orient our listener and just tell them a little bit about yourself?
Speaker 1:Sure, little bit about yourself. Sure, dwight, I'll do the brief version since we only have an hour. But I'm a personal stylist and what I think is a little different about me is I started my love of fashion as a teenager. I was just doing some local modeling, working a little bit in retail. So, to use the cliche term, I was bitten by the fashion bug at that point in my life and I graduated from college, went to work for an upscale department store, loved it, just went some different ways in my career into advertising, financial services. But I knew that I always wanted to get back into fashion. So I decided in my 40s I had to start working toward that goal and at 53, I was able to leave corporate America in the financial industry and start my personal styling business and doing something that I don't only truly love.
Speaker 1:I really feel like this is what I was meant to do. It's something that comes easy to me. I feel like I'm very good at what I do. I think that I can educate people as well as entertain a little bit, but really help them make that shift into what they need me to do, which is usually some type of image creation, right. So I try to talk a lot about how you present yourself and how that affects your life, because I feel like that's truly what I do. It's not so much about matching pieces and colors, it's really about affecting people in the way they live. So that's a little bit about me and why I'm here, what I do, and I hope that's answered your question well.
Speaker 3:Beautifully, beautifully, and it really makes me kind of curious about how it is that you were able to carry that, that spark for so long. I mean you, you mentioned having that draw toward toward fashion as a little girl, but you, you walked a very traditional path and didn't find your your way back to what it was you wanted to do until much later in life.
Speaker 1:Um, what was that process of, of unfolding and getting back to it, like the funny thing to write is that I really feel like I never left it. So, even though I was working outside of the fashion world, I was still. I tell people I unofficially, was styling people for decades. So even if you know I was doing something completely out of fashion, I was still, you know, dressing the part and helping my colleagues. You know dress well.
Speaker 1:So I feel like I never really left it. It's just now I can really kind of own it and do only that and get paid for it, versus all that free advice I gave away for years. But you know, I think, when it's something that you love and probably you and Maddox feel that about you know this podcast it's just something you enjoy. It's, you know, something that comes easy and natural and you feel like you're giving to others and just giving, you know, allowing this kind of outlet for your talent, and so I feel like it's always been there, like I've always been doing it, but I finally got to, you know, shut everything else out and just really focus on this.
Speaker 3:And that's amazing. It sounds like you, you really had a sense of that was what you needed to do and what you were doing all along, and it's a little different from the kinds of things that we usually hear where everyone's just kind of gun shy or they, you know, they think well, you know, no one's really going to care what I've got to say, or I'm just not good enough yet. Did you ever have any of those moments of self-doubt?
Speaker 1:No, not as far as my career I. It just is something that's so Natural to me. You know, I get up in the morning and I start my day and getting ready, just putting together that image and that mindset I need for the day to do what I want to do is so ingrained in me. Probably the biggest challenge, being a former financial advisor, I did have to reach some financial goals before I could leave the corporate world. And that was really hard, Dwight, because that's all I'd ever done. I mean, for 30 plus years I've been employed by a corporation, had full benefits, very used to that kind of structure.
Speaker 1:So I have to give big kudos to my husband on that one. You know, leaving that security, but I had to make sure he was comfortable with that as well and he's just such a lovely, like easygoing guy. You know he's not the kind of person that will ever say no, but it is a responsibility when you have other people in your life a spouse, children you know the bills are coming in. I mean there's just a certain amount of responsibility. But because of that financial I could do it and I could do it safely, safely and securely, because that would have been the tough part.
Speaker 1:You know, if I couldn't have pulled the trigger on that, then there probably would have been a lot of self-doubt and a little fear every month on the first when the bills come in and that kind of thing. But I do truly believe in what I do and I think when you hear people say and I've heard some of your past podcasts, that is, I think, a common thread with people is I believed in what I was doing, I believe I had to do it, I believed it was a calling and I feel that that way. So you know, the self-doubt was not so much there, but it was the you know, earning the income factor that had to come quick.
Speaker 3:And it's great that you had that set of skills that you honed from working in financial services. Financial services, I mean, you really set yourself up to be well you know, uniquely equipped when going into, looking at, going out on your own.
Speaker 1:Yes, and I'll say this too, because my best friend and I have this conversation all the time about why didn't I know that then? But I believe that life is a journey. I think you know God has laid out this path for us. So I'll tell her things like well, I couldn't have done that, I couldn't do this, if I didn't have that right. So I couldn't have done this 20 years ago because I wouldn't have had that financial education and experience to set myself up to do this.
Speaker 1:So I say that because people listening might say, oh gosh, you know it's too late for me to start, or they kick themselves for not doing it at an earlier point in their life. But you've got to remember every little thing that you've gone through has put you to where you are now. It's steps we have to go through this right. Not all of us came, you know, out of school and just immediately lived our dream, but I think every bit of that just makes you more comfortable. You know, using kind of your words, self-doubt and taking that away, because you've traveled, you know, to get where you are, and without the travel I just don't know that you'd have the success.
Speaker 2:I agree. I believe that everything happens in its own time and had it come about back then you wouldn't have been ready and likely wouldn't have been successful. Agreed, carly, you said something that I really, really resonate with. I don't know if Dwight has told you this, but I had a 40-year career as a hairdresser, makeup artist, and at one point during that career I did some fashion consulting for a period of time, and I love what you said about the philosophy of it's just not putting colors together and the things that we think of. It's not just the pieces, parts, it's the energy behind it.
Speaker 2:In my career as a hairdresser, I met few, few colleagues that saw it that way. You know, it was like a new, fresh haircut would come on the scene, some celebrity would pop out with a new, fresh haircut and, you know, every client got some version of that, and I would watch this in the salons I worked in and I always felt like, you know, what's going on on the outside needs to be a reflection of what's going on on the inside, and I can see that that's part of your philosophy. But what I'd like to know is but what I'd like to know is how did you come to that? Was it something that just naturally flowed it was no question or was there something that taught you that there was this deeper meaning and that you know? I've always said to clients.
Speaker 2:You know, our appearance plays a really huge impact on the way we move through life, and one of the things that I always say is think about how you walk in a pair of sneakers. You walk a certain way in a pair of sneakers. Think about how you walk in a pair of pumps. You walk completely different in a pair of pumps, and that's just a metaphor, for you know, a casual outfit to a dressy outfit, or a down hairdo for an up hairdo, or evening makeup with daytime makeup it all affects the way we respond to life, and so I get that that's part of what you're doing, but I'm curious as to how you discovered that deeper meaning. Your cat's going crazy with one of your garments back there.
Speaker 1:I would say this For me it was very personal. I felt it, I lived it. When I started and I was being styled for fashion shows, I could relate to the way I felt when I wore certain things, when people who haven't gone through the experience may not realize the powerful impact of image. And once you have the right image and yes, that's wearing the clothes and having the right you know hair and makeup and colors but you get a different response from people. And when I started seeing it myself, that's how I realized this is making a whole difference in the way people see me.
Speaker 1:But it's also, and most importantly, the way I felt about myself feeling confident, feeling pretty, being noticed. You think about the days that you've gone out and people have complimented oh my God, I love that color on you, you look great today, and sometimes they can't even put their finger on it. You know it's like, oh, how you doing you look so good, I don't even know why. So I think for me it was living that image creation and seeing how the world responded to me and how I felt about it, that I just believe in it so much, you know, and how it can affect your life. It's just a great experience, for you know people that haven't gone through it, just to see that and to feel it, and it does affect your self-confidence. I mean, let's just be honest, right, who doesn't want to feel better about themselves? And a lot of that can be the way the world perceives us and the response that you get from others.
Speaker 2:I do think that response that we get is only partially because of the visual aspect. I think it's more about that we show up differently. Yes, you know, our energy is different and that's what they're really responding to. The visual is a part of it, a little part of it, but yeah, oh, I love what you're saying and I, you know, I just love that you are really approaching this from a true sense of creativity. You are creating something for each client that is specifically for them and suited to them.
Speaker 1:Yes, because it's all personal, it's really built about that person. You know, I was reading an article and I'm sure you're familiar with the actress, megan Fox, who I just think is one of the most beautiful women in the world and she was saying at one time she had worked with a stylist and she couldn't stand anything that she was wearing. She didn't like a bit of it. And I thought here's one of the most beautiful women in the world who's unhappy with her image. She's unhappy with the way she looks, she's unhappy in those clothes. And I thought what a shame. You know, it's our job not only to create the right image, but you have to own it, you have to feel comfortable in it. I can tell women a hundred times what to put on, but if they don't feel it and see it, it's not going to make a difference. So for me, when I'm helping a client, I ask them a lot of questions how do you feel in this? How do you think this looks? If I'm doing something to slim or to shape or to highlight, I explain that because I want them to see what I see. I say this a million times Every single person in this world is beautiful, every single one, because God only makes beautiful things.
Speaker 1:We as humans can ugly it up real quick, but we're not ugly, we're beautiful, and when I work with a client, the first thing I see is how beautiful they are. It could be a facial feature, it could be their shape, their hair color, it could be anything, but that's what hits me first, and I make sure that they see what I see, because so many of us have a tendency to focus on what we don't like. Right, especially postmenopausal women, and that's kind of a focus for me. You know, that's really a niche that I like to work with, because of that whole shift in body and mind that happens to a woman, and I hate the fact that they think that there's an extra five or 10 pounds. So now I am less than that. Right, I don't look the way I used to look. I don't feel the way I used to feel. It doesn't discount you at all. You are still the beautiful, vibrant woman you used to be, and so now my job is to make sure you see it the way I do, that's beautiful.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, that's really beautiful, carla.
Speaker 3:That really hits me and I love the way that you just you called it out you didn't use the overused euphemism a woman of a certain age.
Speaker 1:No, no, and I'll say, you know, women hit menopause at different times in their life. I mean, some women hit it in their 40s. I mean I know people who are close to 60 who are dealing with it. But it's not just that, it's new moms, you know, they have a lot of body issue because, you know, now I have the baby belly. Well, you know what you have a beautiful baby, celebrate your body. You know, love who you are and what you have. You know, yes, nobody likes to gain weight, none of us like the you know postmenopausal pooch. But look what it took to get you there. You've had this amazing, beautiful journey through life. You've probably, you know, had a spouse and a career and children and these things that have brought you so much immense joy. So why would we discount that because of our shape or some extra skin? But you can hide those things easily and especially, you know, maddox, with your background, I'm sure you can attest to that. It's all an optical illusion.
Speaker 2:It is all an optical illusion, it is all an optical illusion Hair, makeup, color you name it and the clothing. You can change somebody's complete figure by just the right shape of outfit, the right silhouette. I want to shift gears for a minute. I want to go back to a really, really early time in your life and hear what your first. If you look back, what was your first introduction to? Whether it had anything to do with with wardrobe or clothing, but your first introduction I can't talk today introduction to anything that looked or tasted or smelled like creativity. What was that like? How old were you and what was it? So those, those fond memories, you know.
Speaker 1:Yes. So what's really funny, maddox, is I do not see myself being a creative person. I because I'm very, in certain aspects of my life, very black and white. Right, and that comes from the financial side of me right, it's all black and white, it's numbers. They have to add that whole whatever. Right brain versus left brain.
Speaker 1:So for creativity, that even though I know for what I do I am creative, I don't know that I've ever had that moment of, oh my gosh, I just created something. You know where I think things came together for me were when I was, I'm going to say, junior high and I was doing some modeling and to see how the stylist would put things together. That I thought, oh, that's interesting. And then I started seeing, you know, colors and shapes and things like that a little differently, instead of being so, you know, structured, and this goes with this. You know it's seeing it through other people's eyes, and I am just a firm believer in that's why God put us here right. He wanted us to create a community and there's so much value in learning from others, and that's, I think, what really formed me into what I'm doing now is watching other people do it, seeing it through their eyes, learning and observing from other people.
Speaker 3:Do it, seeing it through their eyes, learning and observing from other people, and I think a lot of people find themselves, especially now that we've been we've all been wrecked by the pandemic and lockdowns They've. They really are out of touch with what it is to be in community. What advice would you give to someone who wants to join a community, creative or otherwise, that feels like they just can't, for whatever reason?
Speaker 1:Gosh, I mean really, dwight, that's such a good question, because I do see people in my life that are so just against asking for help when they need help. Let me just say that I think people have to realize that God didn't mean for us to do this journey alone. And I don't mean necessarily, you know, romantically, like with spouses, but he created us to be social creatures, and the minute you start seeing community as a strength and not a weakness, you know, oh, I can't do it on my own, I'm expected to do this. You know, I have to learn it by myself.
Speaker 1:When we can get past that and see the beauty, and the value of others, helping us succeed, and you know it's like a domino effect. You know it's like a domino effect when you can really understand that that community is a source for you and not a hindrance or anight, because nowadays everything is so DIY, right, even when you get hired by a company, you're supposed to do all your own onboarding. You know it's so, you have to know it, do it, learn it, produce it, and I think that's part of what takes away from people wanting to be part of a community because it's looked at as a fault. Right, I should know how to do this. If I don't know how to do it, I better get on social media, better look it up, better get on chat, gpt, because that's what I do and it's just. It's such a problem to me because we've taken that connection. I'm just going to use that word because that's such an important word to me, both professionally and personally. We've lost the value of connection.
Speaker 3:Yes, I agree.
Speaker 2:I love that you use that word, because a running joke that we have is that we don't use the N word in in our household, and that's that's network so you know I have lost count on the number of featured guests that we've had on the podcast that have said, hands down, their most successful projects have been collaborations. Yeah, you said something a few minutes ago. I'm going to backtrack a conversation back. I just want to say, from my perspective, you are highly creative. Oh, thank you. You know, and I encourage you and this is a conversation I have a lot. I encourage you and this is a conversation I have a lot. I encourage you to own that. You know more so than just I'm a wardrobe consultant or a dress or whatever people use different terms. I would encourage you to own that. You're a creative. I mean, look, you've got a backdrop of a rack and clothing behind you. It's part of building your brand and you have completely curated your look for our call today and you know you are highly creative, thank you.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I think there's something very magical about when we can own something like that, that it becomes something that's intentional rather than just happens naturally. It becomes something that we can wield like a sword rather than just wondering is it going to happen this time or is it not going to happen this time, if that makes sense.
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, absolutely, Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I love the way you own it fully. When we go and check you out on social media, you are the closet queen.
Speaker 1:Thank you, Dwight.
Speaker 2:I love that, you know, as two gay men, we love that. As two gay men, we love that Closet and queen are two terms that are very, very well known in our lives.
Speaker 1:So how has creativity changed the way you understand yourself? I think one thing, probably the most, max, is what you just hit on Me always thinking I'm not creative, but knowing that, yes, I am right, in order to do what I do, I need to be creative. But I have never thought of myself in that way. So to, I guess, to acknowledge that I'm creative is I don't, it's probably a little hard for me.
Speaker 2:I just You're not alone, it is. I have this conversation a lot, you know. I literally will corner somebody and say look me in the eyes and say with conviction, I am creative, or I am a creative. And there's always this massive shift as soon as they do. I can feel it, I can see it and their shoulders drop a little bit. As they do. I can feel it, I can see it and their shoulders drop a little bit and they exhale and it's just like it's magic. It's magic.
Speaker 1:It is. I do that exercise. I did a post on this probably a couple of years ago with women postmenopausal women in particular looking in the mirror and saying to themselves in particular, looking in the mirror and saying to themselves I am beautiful. And being very serious about that, because you know, sometimes that's hard to do. It sounds simple, I know, it sounds a little silly, but to look at yourself in the mirror and say I am beautiful, and then I ask them to run through that sentence emphasizing different words. So we start with I am beautiful, I am beautiful, I am beautiful and I am beautiful. It's so empowering and just that simple exercise can really make people see themselves differently because they're believing it. And I'm probably aging myself when I say this, but there used to be a sketch on Saturday Night Live. I can't remember the character, stuart.
Speaker 2:Yes, Stuart Smalley.
Speaker 1:He would do his daily affirmations, was it?
Speaker 2:Stuart Smalley. Was that what his name was? Yes, I can't believe. I even remember that. I wasn't even a big fan of Saturday Night Live, but I remember Stuart Smalley.
Speaker 1:Yes, we just need to all Stuart Smalley a little bit in our lives.
Speaker 2:You know, I think most human beings struggle just to look into their own eyes in a mirror and say nothing.
Speaker 2:I agree, but to speak to themselves on that level is increasingly even more challenging. Yes, yeah, you know. I know from my own experience that when you're working with a client, you work with some people who have not just no image, but they have a really bad image, and what you do is, in the truest sense of the word, transformation. Yes, because it doesn't only change the way they look. It changes the way they feel about themselves and in turn it changes the way people see them. It is truly transformational.
Speaker 2:I had a young woman one time that after I finished cutting her hair, I said just let me touch up your makeup. She wasn't wearing any makeup, there wasn't really anything to touch up. So I put a little makeup on her and turned her back around to the mirror and she was like oh, oh, that's not me. And I could tell she was really nervous and I just put just a little bit on her and I squatted down the chair next to her and I looked her in the eyes and I said why are you so unwilling to be pretty? And she burst into tears and just sat there and sobbed and I just held space for her. I never saw her again that she didn't have just a little bit of makeup on her face. It changed something for her.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that's so important with what you just said, because it's the allowing themselves to be pretty, because for some people, men and women they have not allowed themselves to be that way, to feel that way. You know, it's kind of goes back to it's it's all in here, right? What's in here produces what's out here. So that's one reason I love what I do, because I get to know people. So it's something as simple as a closet audit.
Speaker 1:As we're talking, I'm starting to see the internal. You know, I can't let go of those. Carla, those are clothes I'm going to wear when he'll lose 40 pounds. Oh, bite a nickel for every time I'd be retired. We don't hold on to those things because they're making you just feel bad Every time you look at those clothes you're looking at I'm a failure, I'm overweight, I don't deserve. We let go of all of that. But all of that is emotional. Yes, it is In our mind, it's in our heart and it shouldn't be that way. We should love who. We are right there in the minute because, again, we're beautiful.
Speaker 2:I have a burning question and this is a little bit off topic. It's less about creativity and more just about what you do. But when you see somebody that has gone out of their way to create an unattractive image and I see a lot of this, especially in the creatives community what does that tell you about them? When you see somebody that's you know, I laughingly and this is probably I shouldn't feel good about this, but I laughingly will say to Dwight oh my God, look at that outfit. I mean, did they just stand in the mirror this morning and say, oh my God, I look fabulous Because it's just the worst outfit that you can possibly imagine? I mean, how did they look in the mirror and walk outside wearing that?
Speaker 1:What does it tell you when somebody goes out of their way to look unattractive. It's usually come from one of two places and I would say 99% of it happens this way. One is that it's something they were told or taught from their past. So they're typically holding on to something that was told to them 20 years ago, 30 years ago. Told to them 20 years ago, 30 years ago, and again it's the emotion. You see it a lot with folks who you know hey, the 80s or their 90s was their heyday, right? That's when they were young and hip and attractive and living the life. And they're just not really accepting getting older. So they're hanging on to that old style, thinking they look younger, better, more attractive and all you know mags from what you did. All it's doing is aging them and it gives that little sense of desperation. But it says I'm not happy with who I am. I want to go back into the day where I was. That that's where I was happy. So it's either that where there it was something from their past, or I see a lot of I just don't know you and I have that creative eye to look and say, hey, we can do better, right, this isn't flattering, but for so many people they honestly, truly just do not know, and I mean either they don't have the eye for it or you know, I'm going to go back to kind of the right and left brain. You know where some people are, just more kind of that right brain. I think was not the creative side. So image is a something they do because they have to right, I have to get understand or want to do better. But when I start asking the questions, what are your goals? Oh, I want to get promoted.
Speaker 1:You know, I want to meet somebody special when you start asking those questions and then you can kind of relate what their image is to where they are and help them see that that's where the change starts, like when I do a lot of public speaking, and so one of the first things I do when I sit with a group is I'll say let's do an exercise. I want everybody to write down three things about themselves. Right, so three words or phrases. If you met somebody new and they said, hey, maddox, tell me about you.
Speaker 1:What are three things that you would say? Right, then I ask them just to take a selfie. Simple, let's just take a selfie. And then I'll say, before you end your workday, I want you to pull out that card of your descriptions and I want you to pull out your phone of your selfie and I want you to look at those things and tell me if they match. Do the three things that you have said about yourself describe the picture of you? If there's a disconnect, then we need to talk right, we need to fix that.
Speaker 2:Oh honey, you are so creative. Oh my gosh. I mean that's brilliant. And you know, I'm sitting here realizing that one of the hats that you wear as a professional dresser is you're coaching these people yes, absolutely. And not just on what to wear. You're coaching them on something that's going on more deeply inside of them.
Speaker 1:Yes, my goal is to educate my client. I don't want you to hire me for a job. I come in and do it leave and then we don't speak. I want to educate you. So if I'm telling you a high-rise dark wash jean is what looks best for you, I'm going to tell you why. And I'm going to show you why. Because I want you to be able again see what I see, know what I know. If I've done that for you, then I've done my job. Anybody can come in into a closet and walk out the door.
Speaker 2:We are twins that were separated at birth. This is exactly what I did with my clientele. I literally believed an educated client is a better client.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:And I constantly got comments like no hairdresser's ever told me this before or nobody's ever taken this much time with me. It was the way I set myself apart and sounds like the way you set yourself apart. It's brilliant and it's creative. Learning how the ways to set yourself apart is part of the creativity.
Speaker 1:You're right, it is yeah.
Speaker 2:Hugely Wow.
Speaker 3:I love the way that the work that you do is so it's like, internally driven, like the way that you phrased that people have that innate beauty, that that innate worth, and somehow along the way they lost sight of it. Somehow they're they're not able to appreciate it, and you keep steering them there. What do you do to overcome those people who are so wounded that it's hard for them to make that connection, to really have a chance of being able to see that spark and that beauty that you see?
Speaker 1:That. I will tell you this, dwight. I really had this experience. So I had this client, beautiful woman, had the most beautiful blue eyes, amazing skin and this dark red hair, and I mean I really couldn't stop looking at her. I just thought, oh my God, you're beautiful.
Speaker 1:She had gone through menopause, had gained some weight and, as we're talking and working together, all she could do was focus on her weight. If I heard one time that she gained 20 pounds, I heard a hundred times. So I realized this is not an easy. I'm just going to tell you and show you why this looks good on you. We have to dig deeper and, of course, I don't have that much time.
Speaker 1:So what I really try to do in that situation is focus on one thing that they can agree with. So I put it in front of a mirror and I said okay, I get it right. We go through menopause, we're not happy with our body Totally understandable. But tell me one thing you do like about yourself. Tell me one thing that you think is truly attractive about you, regardless of the weight gain. There's got to be something that you think is pretty. Well, I like my hair color. I agree with you.
Speaker 1:So I told her all the reasons that I loved her hair color and what it did for her. So I said then why don't we look at some things that really play up your hair color, right, don't? Let's not look at tags and numbers and letters. Let's just focus right now on some things that really play up your hair color. Because, I agree with you, I think you have the most beautiful hair color. So we took it that way and I've had people come back to me I style for a boutique here at home that I haven't seen in a year and they remember me because of that. Why? It's not because I put her in the right color, it's because of the way I made her feel. It's because of what I showed her that she sees. Is that woman still complaining about her weight gain? Probably, as we all would, but I hope I left her with a bit of beauty, something that she wasn't focusing on that she can focus on now.
Speaker 2:Carla, creativity is oozing out of every pore of your entire body. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1:Max, you are so good for my ego, I'm telling you.
Speaker 2:I mean just your way of looking at things and your way of relating and communicating. It's all highly creative of relating and communicating. It's all highly creative. I mean you are a master at problem solving. They come in, they've got a problem and you are immediately working to solve that problem. The workarounds, the things that, wow, you know I can tell you're very good at what you do. Thank you, thank you so as a creative, as a stylist. What does success look like to you? How do you define success? Find, success?
Speaker 1:You know I have struggled with that question.
Speaker 1:In fact today on the way home I was thinking about that and I thought to be successful and I'm sure a lot of us go there is these things would have to happen right, and part of it is usually financial, part of it's professional.
Speaker 1:As a Christian I know that's not the right answer. I know to be truly successful is to. I believe, for me to leave people feeling their best, not even so much looking their best, but I think about my friends and how much I love them and how much they mean to me and I hope that I give them the joy and the love that they bring to me. So success on the personal end is that, but professionally as well, I hope that when I work with people I have made a difference, a positive change, even if it's small, something that they walk away with, and now they're a little bit better off than when they first came to me. If I could do that for every client I have, I really feel like I'd be successful, because I believe if you do the work and you do it right and you do it well, the other stuff comes the income, the money, the recognition, all of that, but you got to get it right on the front end. So that's what I hope that I'm doing.
Speaker 2:You know the money comes and goes and at the end of your life you won't be looking back on how much money you made, but you'll be thinking about the people whose lives you've touched.
Speaker 3:The impact and that ripple effect. I think that now would be a a good time to take a look at your definition of success and think about how there might just be the right person listening that could do things to really push you toward what it is, that you need to really be at the pinnacle, to have achieved everything that you want, to unlock everything, and so I'll pose what's really kind of the big question what is your biggest pain point? What is the challenge that, if solved, would be the game changer?
Speaker 1:Of course, dwight, you had to ask me that hard question. So I would really say the pain point for me is to for it's getting people to realize the value of themselves, to understand how strong and powerful their image is and, again, not to talk about the clothes. And I'm going to quote one of my very favorite icons in the world, stacey London, who I don't know if y'all know who she is, but she's a professional stylist. She used to co-host what Not to Wear and she said it a hundred times it's not about the clothes, it's never been about the clothes, I agree. Clothes, it's never been about the clothes, I agree.
Speaker 1:What I wish is that I could get every person to see their own inner strength, their own inner beauty and therefore liberate themselves and I use that word quite a bit from you know the chains of life, if you will. You know the chains of life, if you will. But the things holding them back insecurity, self-doubt, not knowing their self-worth, not knowing their own inner strength and value to others, how they can positively affect their community, whether it's family, friends, whatever. If I could really get people to understand that, that's truly what I do, dwight. That is my pain point. It's really getting people past the idea of Carla can put me in clothes. I mean, anybody can put you in clothes. An app can put you in clothes. You know, it's kind of that whole like AI can do what I do, but I can truly make a personal difference in your life that makes a personal difference to others.
Speaker 2:Wow, I think you've just sold it. I mean what you just said if it's not already needs to be part of your marketing. I love the quote, your icon. It's not about the clothes. That's a beautiful starter. It's not about the clothes. Let me tell you what I do and why it's so valuable. We do do clothing and it's not about the clothes. Yeah, you will crack that nut. As creative as you are and you know you get the value of community and not trying to figure it all out on your own, there'll be somebody that will contribute and help you crack that nut.
Speaker 3:I've got to say that this has been a wonderful and moving experience for us, and I would hope that anyone who is listening might listen a few times, because there are lots of beautiful pearls in this and please share this with people who need to hear it. I think that there are a lot of people who have a lot of things that are holding them back and making them feel less than and they they really need the kind of encouragement and the kind of way that you shine a light on on their beauty, to show them there's another way.
Speaker 1:Thank you, dwight. Yes, and I did want to just add this one thing too If you look at really successful people in life, they will tell you this it's okay to fail. To fail means you tried. So I tell people experiment with your style. It's style is an art, right, maddox, it's. This is art. This is not science, it's art. I tell people.
Speaker 1:Look at some of my past posts. I posted stuff and thought what, why, why was I even wearing that? Like, what did I have on that day? I specifically remember driving home one day and I called my best friend. I was like, if you could see what I have on today and I told somebody what I do, they would be like get out of here you.
Speaker 1:It's okay to make mistakes. That's how you learn. It's the joy of doing, of expressing yourself, kind of like, maddox, what you were saying earlier. Like when somebody has a really poorly put together outfit and is not projecting the right image, why do they even do that, right? Why do they not know? It's okay, you guys, it's a mistake, right, you wore something that just didn't work, but you're willing to put yourself out there, right, dwight? Because we hear this quite a bit. It's putting yourself out there to say I'm not the best dressed, and that's okay, because I'm not trying to be the best dressed, but I'm trying to be the best version of myself and it's a process and it's okay if I'm not there today. It might take me years to get there, but I can have the joy of going through the journey, getting there and making some really lovely contacts along the way and making some really lovely contacts along the way.
Speaker 2:Beautiful, you know, I just want to leave you with this, carla, you absolutely are changing lives. You know, I think it's Maya Angelou who says people won't remember what you did, people won't remember what you said, but they'll remember how you made them feel, and I know how you have made me feel in this hour of being with you. And we didn't touch my wardrobe. So, you know, I just think that you are on track. You know, I just hope you hear that you are really on track.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much.
Speaker 2:This has been such a pleasure. I've so enjoyed this conversation.
Speaker 1:I have too. I have too. I just cannot thank you both enough for allowing me to come in and pop into your world for an hour today. I've just, I've truly enjoyed it and very honored and blessed to be here. So thank you.
Speaker 3:Thank you.