0 (3s):
Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs On Fire brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network with great shows like the MarTech podcast. Today, we'll be breaking down how to get your image to work for you, not against you and to drop these value bombs. I brought Holly Wilensky Katz and the EOFire studios. Holly is a personal stylist style coach and the best friend you never knew you needed. When it comes to fashion and style with Holly's expertise and knowledge, you will find yourself leveling up, not only with your clothes, but with every facet of your life today foundation, we talking about what exactly is a personal stylist, how our image is holding us back, how it can and should evolve with age, the style rut.

0 (46s):
A lot of us get into and how we can get out of it. And so much more. When we get back from thanking our sponsors, according to Forbes, companies are working to fill millions of jobs in an epic hiring spree. Where do they turn ZipRecruiter? ZipRecruiter technology finds qualified candidates. It makes it easy to invite your top choices to apply. Try it free today at ZipRecruiter.com slash fire stories are what help us connect and relate, which is why hearing someone else's story to success can help us clearly map out our own. That's why I'm excited to share the female startup club podcast tune in for stories and insights from the world's most successful female founders today, listen to the female startup club, wherever you get your podcasts.

0 (1m 29s):
Holly, say what's up the Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1 (1m 39s):
What is up fashioned friends of the Fire Nation? What I think is that what, you know, most people think that what you wear actually doesn't matter. But what I believe is that what you wear does matter and is actually part of your skillset, that way you can present yourself to the world, you know, you have total control over that and you can put your best foot forward and you know, fashion and style can really benefit you in all areas of your life, personal and professional

0 (2m 15s):
And Fire Nation. That's why we're talking today with Holly about getting your image to work for you, not against you and Holly, you're a personal stylist. So we have to start with a question. What exactly is a personal stylist?

1 (2m 28s):
I am so glad you asked my personal style. A person stylist is a little bit like a personal trainer. So, you know, as, as someone guides you through a workout, what we do is we guide you through the process of doing the work, you know, to figure out the best fit and style for your age, your life phase, your wardrobe and your budget. I'm really that lost connection between the consumer and the retailer. That explains fit fabric, you know, in detail for someone's age industry in lifestyle. When you buy a car, of course, you already know how to drive, but they still sit there and explain everything to you.

1 (3m 10s):
I it's, you know, there's no one to do that. I explain all the details when buying clothes that people really aren't familiar with.

0 (3m 17s):
So Fire Nation, hope you can realize why I brought Holly on to talk about this topic specifically, because most people right now think that he personal stylish is only for those rich and famous people. Are those people who think that wrong?

1 (3m 31s):
Yes. And this is a service that is really reachable for people in any budget or tax bracket. You know, in this country, people see celebrities and they automatically feel inferior because we put celebrities on a pedestal. You know, personal styling is a service that you can seek out at any budget to help your style evolve with your age. So it's important that you figure out who can help you in your area. I help people virtually all the time. I also travel and help people, but it is not out of reach for someone who is, you know, on a regular budget.

0 (4m 14s):
So far nation hope you realize that this conversation applies to you. This conversation is not for the rich and famous it's for Fire Nation is for our listeners here today. It's for every single person that wants to make our image work for us, not against us. So Holly, how can we tell, how can we tell when our image is holding us back? What are some of those key signs?

1 (4m 40s):
First thing, if you look back at pictures from you from years ago, and you're still wearing the same clothes, your image is holding you back. If you haven't shopped in 5, 10, 25 years, if you're reluctant to spend money on clothes, or if you're trying to get out on the cheap, or if you won't clean out your closet or part with anything. And lastly, if you don't think how you, you know, if you don't understand that, how you look really does matter to the world, you know, your image is holding you back and it could be things like you won't cut your hair or you, you know, you're afraid to spend all that stuff is fear-based. And when you let fear hold you back, really in any area of your life, your image is going to hold you back to that.

1 (5m 26s):
Your image is that last piece of your resume of your skillset. That really sets you apart from the rest. I mean, even with, you know, even before COVID coming back from COVID, now people are going back to work. People are more casual than ever. And it doesn't mean that you have to give up on your image or think that you just are blending into the wall. You have to really separate yourself from others. You have total control of your image, and that's a great way to separate

0 (5m 55s):
Yourself. Now we've already upon this a little bit, but I really want to dive deeper into this, should our style evolve with our age. And if yes, how so

1 (6m 6s):
Style has to be evolving with your age? I mean, it has to be, you have to figure out the who, what, when, where, why of you, who are you, where are you in your life today? What do you need? What do you want? What do you like? And when I work with people, you know, I'm like, what's your style. People are like, I don't have a style. You don't have a style because you don't know what that is. And that's okay. I mean, in people that grow up with parents that don't know end up having children that don't know, and I do corporate styling a lot. I work with HR people and they're complaining about kids out of college that they're, they don't know how to dress their, your office wants to present a certain image.

1 (6m 51s):
And in kids coming out of college, don't know how to do that. And it's because they've never been shown. So it's okay. If you don't know, the first step is awareness, but it's important to either get professional help, like someone like myself, or, you know, do some research, look at blogs, look at websites, department store websites. You know, it's easy to figure out kind of what you like and start from there, but your style, the same way you don't wear clothes, you know, from when you're a kid, you just, you have to keep going and evolve as a person in general.

0 (7m 20s):
I mean, I know if I was wearing the same things that I was wearing in high school, I mean, Fire Nation is a little cringe-worthy som thank you for that. I've evolved over time. And one thing that I will say kind of an interesting story is I was very basic and I had really just bad style. My freshmen, sophomore, junior, and half of my senior year of high school. I just had other things that I was focused on sports school, et cetera. But I remember my second half of my senior year school was kind of winding down. I already gotten early admission to the college of my choice, who I was going, and I just had more time on my hands. And so I actually started for some weird reason, kind of getting a little bit into clothes and style for like the really the first time in my life.

0 (8m 1s):
And throughout the second half of my senior year in high school into the summer before I went to college, I just had a massive upgrade in my wardrobe, a massive upgrade. And when I got to college, nobody knew me. I went to a college that I didn't know, a single other person, except for one person. There was one person in the over 4,000 people in my college that I even knew on any level. So I was basically starting a fresh and I had the most interesting experience because my reputation was like so different than it was in high school. In high school. I was just like the athletic person who just kind of got away with like, you know, jeans and like a little baggy sweatshirt. But in college I literally began to like be looked at as this kind of stylish personal kind of a hip person.

0 (8m 45s):
And I'm from Maine. And I was going to school in a city, Providence or islands. And everybody was like, oh, where are you from? Are you from New York city? Are you from like, like Los Angeles? Like just cause like the way they dress, they were assuming that when I told them I was from Maine, nothing anything's wrong with me. And I love me. And, but people were just assuming that I was from some like sophisticated city type area when they heard us from mans are just like, wow, I never like had a assumption that somebody from Maine would like have this kind of style. And I wasn't through the roof. Let's not get carried away. I was just dressing pretty nice. Like button-downs callers, form-fitting jeans, nice shoes. I mean, things like that, but that was enough to really take that and have that new experience.

0 (9m 26s):
And that really opened my eyes for the first time of like, wow, this really matters what I wear. And the F in the initial perception, the first impression that I'm making with other people and, you know, some people may be like, oh, that sounds kind of shallow. And all these different things. Like, no, like your first impression is real. And that allowed me to carry that through. And I really enjoyed having that new persona, that new reputation. And I can remember carrying that all the way through. And you know, really now that I'm Puerto Rico, I pretty much just wear a bathing suit every day. So it was kind of different, but you know, once everything settles down here a little bit more with everything that's going on, you know, it's back to like dressing nice and looking good and feeling good. And we're gonna be talking about the style rut that people get into.

0 (10m 8s):
We're going to talk about, get excited about shopping and closet disorganization. And when we get back from thanking our sponsors, it's hard to be we're approaching the end of another year and now more than ever. It's so important that we, as business owners are connecting with our customers. It's a busy buying time and the more touch points you can create the better. So how do you create these touch points with a HubSpot CRM platform, a platform ready to help you connect the dots with your business and your customers, whether you're just getting your business up and running or scaling to what's next, a couple of ways a HubSpot CRM platform can help you connect. The dots is with brand new custom behavioral events in their operations hub enterprise.

0 (10m 49s):
With custom behavioral events, you can get into the details of what makes your customers tick track site behavior and understand customer habits. So, you know, what type of messaging to use and when and their operations hub enterprise will give your operation leads. The ability to curate data sets for faster and more consistent reporting, keeping everyone on the same page at all times, learn more about how we HubSpot CRM platform can help connect your business at hubspot.com. There are some things in life that I like to pick out myself. So I know I've got the one that's best for me, like an avocado for the market or my next pair of running shoes. What if you could do the same thing for hiring choose your ideal candidate before they even apply.

0 (11m 29s):
Now you can thanks to ZipRecruiter's invite to apply. And right now you can try it for free at ZipRecruiter.com/fire. How does invite to apply work? Well when you post a job on ZipRecruiter, they send you the most qualified people for your job. Then you can easily review the candidates and invite your top choices to apply Lauren web S VP of talent acquisition for medulla health raves about ZipRecruiter's invite to apply. She says, I love that feature because we have a much higher follow-through rate. If I invite the candidates, it's easy for me. And it's easy for them. In fact, according to ZipRecruiter internal data jobs, where employers use ZipRecruiter's invite to apply, get on average two and a half times more candidates, which helps make for a faster hiring process.

0 (12m 9s):
See for yourself, just go to this exclusive web address, ZipRecruiter.com/fire to try ZipRecruiter for free that's ZipRecruiter.com/fire. One more time, ZipRecruiter.com/fire, ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire Holly we're back ends. Let's be Frank. A lot of people get stuck in the style routes. So we've all been there. How do we get out of this rut?

1 (12m 34s):
First of all, don't feel bad. Most people are, but if you're in a style rut, you know, it's because you're afraid of change or you really want to change, but you don't know how to start. So it's too hard. It's too emotional. You're building it up to be this giant thing. And it it's really not. You just need someone to guide you through it. And you know, again, when you look at pictures, you look at inspirations going on, any department store website, it says what's new, what's trending, you know, look, books, style ideas, where with this, they've really made it very easy for people who aren't familiar with shopping and style, how to, you know, start at zero.

1 (13m 22s):
And it's, it's so beneficial to kind of start at one area. Maybe you need a pair of jeans. Let, I'm just throwing that at you. You, you can't try on two pairs of pants and then leave and say, nothing fits you. Or my body is too weird. You know, you have to literally try on 20 pairs of jeans to figure out what you like. And you start with baby steps, one bite, maybe you want new jeans. Maybe you want new shoes. You can't dive in, you know, to the deep end and expect to S you know, to keep afloat, you've got to just start small and get help. But like I said, the first step is awareness.

1 (14m 2s):
If you're looking in the mirror and you're like, well, I look okay, well, no one's ever told me, I look bad. You know, that doesn't necessarily mean that you're on the right track. It means that you're feeling this energy kind of stagnant, that you want to make a change. And that's the first step. And looking online, getting help is the first way to get out of that. Cleaning out of your closet, cleaning out your closet is a second way to get out of that. So, I mean, people have mass disorganization. You, they either overshop or they own nothing. And I will say that people that don't own a lot, think that they're ahead of the game because they have very little, but they're just really doing themselves a disservice by not experimenting or going out of their circle.

1 (14m 48s):
People that shop too much, that they don't know what they, they don't know what fits. And they're afraid to give anything away because of that. They have a financial block. Everybody has a block. Sometimes it's, you know, laundry systems, you know, for, to have your stuff, come back to you and present themselves to you. Sometimes it's money. You're worried about the money, but, you know, it's, it's just as you know, detriment to have the clothes in your closet that you don't wear than buying new ones, because that's holding you back as well.

0 (15m 19s):
And that's what I want to move into next is, you know, when we want to get out of this, right, obviously we got to go shopping. We got to get excited about shopping. So what advice do you have for people who, and I'll be Frank, I just don't love the experience of shopping. How do you get them shopping? How do you get them excited about shopping?

1 (15m 33s):
Look, the only reason you don't like to shop or anyone on the planet is because you don't know what you're doing. And it's okay. I mean, I am in the stores all the time. I can, I live, breathe, eat, sleep this, okay. So if you don't know what you're doing, you don't know what to look for. Then of course, you're not going to enjoy it, but when you do it, you know, like I said, when you take small bites, it makes it much easier to figure out what you like, whatever your industry is, or your life phase, you know, most people's life do not require expensive clothes. So, you know, people's again, it's the comparison to the celebrities.

1 (16m 14s):
Well, this is what's hot. So I'm S I should get that, that doesn't necessarily translate to you or your lifestyle. So figure out what you like and who you are today, not 10 pounds. You know, then I get another thing, you know, when I lose weight, I don't want to buy all these clothes. You know, it's just another block that you have because you need to dress for the body you have today. When you dress for the body you have today, then you present yourself on, Hey, this is who I am. This is who I want to be. You can always improve on your style, but that's, you know, it's about the journey. It's not about the destination. I feel like I'm pretty in style, but I always want to look better. But if you don't enjoy shopping, you have to get a professional to go with you to sort of guide you through the process.

1 (17m 0s):
When you develop a style plan, it's kind of like a grocery list. You know, as the same way you don't go to the grocery store, hungry, you know, don't go to the store and say, well, I need everything. Well, then you're just, then you throw in the towel too early. You know, you have to just really go where you're comfortable, get help, ask for help. That's the first step,

0 (17m 20s):
Get help, ask for help. And again, you just don't know what you're doing. Fire Nation. And my hand is being raised. I don't know what I'm doing. When I walk into a mall, I'm so overwhelmed. I'm just like, there's big discounts here. They're super expensive clothes here. I don't know what's going on, but let's move into something that you know, is actually, frankly probably made your life easier. Recently is just everybody wanting to have less. And to really just wants to say, you know what? Less is more, let's go simple. Let's have the art of giving up things that really I can now look at. Let's say, for instance, my closets and my clothes rack, and just not hate it, not be overwhelmed, but look at it and be like, oh, that's clean.

0 (18m 1s):
That's organized. That just feels right. So talk about closet disorganization and how it can work against us. If

1 (18m 9s):
You use your closet as a dumping ground for storage, if you are sharing the space with your partner, that makes it hard. If you, like I said, if you don't have laundry systems in place, you know, I go into people's homes and I'm like, who does the laundry? And they're like, well, sometimes I do it. Sometimes they do it. If you don't, it's just flailing around. You've got to have systems in place because clothes are energy. And if you don't treat your clothes with respect, then they don't come back and serve you the way they should. And it doesn't mean you have to be a neat freak. But what that does mean is that you have to have enough respect for yourself and for your clothes to get your act together, to have one area in your home that only belongs to you.

1 (18m 58s):
No kids' stuff, no storage, no this, no that, no, you know, a lot of problems that I see are like, when, when someone dies and then they keep the items from that person as keepsakes in their closet. And again, it's just energy. That's holding them back because of the guilt and they don't know what to do with it, or they don't know where it goes. And you know, it always, when I work with people, it's never, it is about the clothes, but it's always about something deeper. Right? And so that's why, you know, I don't claim to be a therapist, but I sort of am one, I act like one, because people really have deeper issues that are causing them to be disorganized.

1 (19m 40s):
You know, keeping the laundry intact, keeping it clean, having it come, come back to you, having a designated place for your dry cleaning, making sure it gets to the cleaners and comes back. You know, delivery service is like amazing sign up for that, you know, and just having your things, matching your socks, putting your workout stuff separate from your other things. These are all little tidbits that can really help you stay organized. I mean, I could tell you stories for hours about the problems that people have, because they don't know how to match their socks. They don't know, you know what, they're separate underwear, workout underwear from regular, you know, or even getting fitted for a bra.

1 (20m 27s):
Like a lot of women have never done that, or haven't kept that up, you know, for men, it's, it's all about grooming and, you know, making sure you have undershirts and making sure you, your dress socks are separate from your sport socks and, you know, good jeans and going out clothes versus working work clothes. I mean, there's just a lot of different areas that people maybe haven't thought of. And so all they're closed or together, and it's just much, you know, needed. It's, it's a lot of chaos. So it's important to just try to stay as organized as you can changing the hangers. You know, I ran a real big advocate of velvet slimline hangers because they really do save you a lot of room.

1 (21m 9s):
I mean, you could, there are so many ways, especially if you have a small space that you can take advantage, you know, of the space that you have by changing your hangers, putting your dry cleaning somewhere else, organizing your drawers, folding your clothes a certain way. So they stand up in the drawers. I know I'm throwing a lot at you. It sounds like a lot of work, but this is why when you do this, then you're set for life. I mean, when you jump in and you clean out your closet for one day, you know, give away your clothes that don't serve you anymore, you know, then you just keep the best of the best. And that's what you should be wearing is the best of the best. You should not be wearing clothes from 10 years ago or 15 years ago.

1 (21m 53s):
You know, if you want to keep a couple things that are still in style that's okay, but you should, like I said, you should be evolving and then rotating, taking out what doesn't serve you and donating that because there are so many programs in this world with people coming out of the prison system, people coming to this country, women who are pregnant, who cannot afford to buy maternity clothes. I mean, if you're done having kids and you can give your maternity clothes away, that's just a huge, huge gift that you can give to someone else. So you can free up that energy. So new things can come to you.

0 (22m 29s):
It's like the death by a thousand paper cuts Fire Nation. I mean, do you want it day after day, like be walking in and just being like disgusted with your closet or with your clothes or with this, or with that, or this is with any single task that you do. You take one day, just like Holly said one day and you just get things right? And then you have that for the rest of your life. So Holly, with everything that you shared today, which has a ton of value bombs, what's the one key takeaway you really want to make sure Fire Nation gets from our entire conversation. Then share any call to action you have for our listeners, ways that we can connect with you. And then we'll say goodbye,

1 (23m 6s):
Great. Look at Fire Nation. I feel you. I hear you. And I see you. You're worried about spending money on clothes. You're worried about losing way. You don't have enough room, every excuse under the sun, but when you start you, it is addicting. And let me tell you, the people that work with me, they are drinking the Kool-Aid start with one area. If you need new clothes, start there. If your closet is a hot mess, start there. You know, if you need better systems in place, start there do one thing. And I will say this for everyone. Who's worried about their weight when I'm done with you.

1 (23m 49s):
You're not going to say that you need to lose weight anymore. Because when you wear the right clothes, you don't feel like you have to lose weight. Every single time you look in the mirror, I do have a very exclusive, most common mistakes made video that is just specially for the Fire Nation. It is Holly Wilensky Katz styling. That is hollykatzstyling.com/fire. This is a very exclusive video made just for the Fire Nation. Do not make these common fashion mistakes. Watch the video, drop your email in, watch the video, try to make sure that you're not making these mistakes and last get your outside to match your inside

0 (24m 35s):
Fire Nation. I really hope you take these words to hearts. I feel very fortunate. I made this transformation and back in high school and I've had to go through multiple iterations over the past 20 years, since then, believe me. It's easy to get stuck in that style rut. And you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. So hopefully they're looking good on the dressing side of things. And you've been hanging out with HWK and JLD today. So keep up the heat and head over to EOFire.com type Holly in the search bar. And the show notes page will pop up with everything that we've talked about here today. Holly, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today, for that we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side.

0 (25m 17s):
Hey, Fire Nation today's value bound content was brought to you by Holly and Fire Nation. What can 3000 of the world's most successful entrepreneurs teach you? How about how to achieve financial freedom and fulfillment? My first traditionally published book, The Common Path to Uncommon Success is a revolutionary 70 several map that will lead you to the lifestyle that you've been dreaming about. This book took me 10 years of accumulating the genius of the world's top entrepreneurs. And you can get it all in one place. When you visit UncommonSuccessBook.com. UncommonSuccessBook.com. I'll catch you there. Or on the flip side, according to Forbes companies are working to fill millions of jobs in an epic hiring spree.

0 (25m 60s):
Where do they turn ZipRecruiter? ZipRecruiter's technology finds qualified candidates. It makes it easy to invite your top choices to apply. Try it free today at ZipRecruiter.com/fire stories are what help us connect and relate, which is why hearing someone else's story to success can help us clearly map out our own. That's why I'm excited to share the female startup club podcast tune in for stories and insights from the world's most successful female founders today, listen to the female startup club, wherever you get your podcasts.