I was overwhelmed because my all-black, minimalist wardrobe didn’t match where I was in my business, and I wanted a strategic, intentional closet. So I brought brand stylist Jackie Wheeler on the show to go through her entire process, starting with the core idea that your personal style is your most powerful nonverbal brand message. You’ll hear us go through my color analysis and right into my closet, where Jackie showed me how to build combinations and a strategic shopping list. This episode is about ditching decision fatigue and gaining the kind of confidence that makes getting dressed feel like a strategic move.
Timeline
00:19 Personal Style and Business Alignment
00:40 Meeting Jackie Wheeler, Brand Stylist
00:52 The Styling Process Begins
02:10 Understanding Personal Style as a Nonverbal Message
03:06 My Closet Woes and Minimalism
04:02 Discovering My Colors
05:32 Aligning Style with Brand and Personality
06:45 The Benefits of Working with a Brand Stylist
Resource Links
Jackie’s website
Follow Jackie on IG
Listen On Apple Podcasts
Listen on Spotify
Lately I felt like my wardrobe didn’t really match where I’m at in my business or personally, and they are very much intertwined.
I didn’t want a makeover, but I knew I wanted help knowing how to put things together and what I needed to get to create a more minimalistic inventory of clothes because I travel a lot, plus I just like that. And then bam! Along comes Jackie Wheeler, brand stylist. We met in a local networking group; she was the first person to come up to me and welcome me at my first meeting.
This episode (er, this post) is a little different. I’m sharing what the experience was like, and you’ll also hear from Jackie herself because what she had to say about the body shape, brand alignment, and confidence is very informative.
We met up at a local coffee shop and she started asking me questions about everything from how I dress now to how I wanna feel when I walk into a room. And it took me a minute because I had to give some intentional thought to this because I never really thought about my brand from that perspective. I mean, sure, I go into my closet and I look for something professional to wear, but not in a way that was like, I want to come in a room this way or that way.
Personal Style is Your Nonverbal Brand Message
Before we even got into my closet, I had to understand the “why.” What’s one thing that business owners should know about personal style?
“One thing that business owners should know about their personal style is that their personal style literally is that nonverbal message for whenever they walk into the room… A person has that opportunity to take control of that message by how they’re representing themselves with what they’re wearing. And that message could be any message that you want.“
Jackie’s description of personal style as a nonverbal message made a whole lot of sense to me, especially because my current “message” really just felt like decision fatigue.
My Closet Woes
Here’s the story behind my closet woes:
I like wearing the same things over and over because I don’t like the decision idea, because a long time ago I would spend so much time in the morning trying to figure out what to wear. When I stopped doing that, I found so much relief in my morning that I didn’t have to deal with that anymore.
I like minimalist also from the perspective. Not only that, it reduces my decision friction, but I also don’t like stuff. I definitely do am a self-described minimalist. I mentioned to Jackie that she was gonna get a kick outta my closet… It’s all black!
After our chat, we moved out to the physical first step of the styling process: figuring out my colors.
The Color Analysis (Spoiler: I Was Wrong About Yellow)
Not long before I met with Jackie, I thought I had figured out what my color might be, like yellow. It’s so happy! I found these really cute yellow pants with white daisies at the bottom. Definitely not something I would’ve worn in the past, but evidently I just had to have them. When I saw them, I was visiting with my friend Mel in Minnesota, and she confirmed they looked good on me. They are really cute.
Then Jackie starts with the analysis:
“…You are making the decision before, or we do your color.”
“Yes, I am. That might change.“
“…So right now, based upon your skin tone, eye color, and hair color, you are cool… what that means is that you have the blue undertone in the skin, and colors in the blue undertone look the best on you. If you were warm, it would mean the yellow undertone colors are your best colors, but you’re cool.“
“So under the cools are winter and summer. Winter is like the jewel tones. It’s the deep purples, the deep blues, the royals, the emeralds… but you are a cool winter.“
So I learned yellow isn’t actually a good color for me on the top half of my body, but she did tell me it’s okay on the bottom half, so I can keep my pants! Yay.
Defining My Brand Personality Beyond “Cool Winter”
Finding out I was a cool winter was just the start. Jackie made it clear that being a brand stylist is more than just colors. It’s about matching your clothing with your actual business brand and personality. So that’s where we went next.
“So this piece is about your personal brand and what nonverbal message you wanna send every time you walk into the room, when you’re on stages… what three words would you want whenever you met somebody and you haven’t said a word yet? This is how I’m showing up and this is the message that I’m giving you.“
“She wants quality over quantity, meaning that whatever she wears, she wants from 10 years ago to now, from 10 years from now, she wants it to be still relevant. And so that classic.“
“I always think of also, Audrey Hepburn, they’re very, their wardrobes, you know, again, 10, 20 years ago to now, like they’re pull ’em out and we can wear ’em and they would not be outdated.“
The Takeaway
Confidence and Clarity
Okay, so that’s all fine and dandy, but I wanted to know what is the real benefit that Jackie’s clients walk away with? What does she provide outside of the bullet points of her services?
“I think that many, many women when they walk into their closet get overwhelmed, even if they’re fashionistas. What I give is relief to decision fatigue and an opportunity to really be able to know that when they’re in their closet, after they’ve met with me, that they have that confidence and that tools to pick an outfit for what they’re doing. I think a lot of it is there’s this underlying confidence that they didn’t realize.“
And that confidence is what I felt when we wrapped up our session. We spent a couple of fun hours together. She took those concepts of Cool Winter and Classic Style right into my closet, showing me combinations of clothes I already owned that I never would’ve thought of putting together. She gave me a shopping list to complete my wardrobe. She even treated me to snacks!
It was a full service experience that made getting dressed feel more thoughtful versus a drain on my energy. And that underlying confidence is really what stuck with me. When you get rid of the friction of getting dressed, you free up so much energy to focus on your business or other things. And Jackie helped me realize that a truly minimalist closet doesn’t mean boring, it means intentional.
