Latest / Overwhelmed Working Woman: Boost Productivity, Master Time Management, Overcome Overwhelm & Stop People Pleasing / #48| How Your Closet Can Shape Your Day, Chances of Success, & Stop You From People Pleasing
Transcript
- 0:04Michelle Gauthier: Hey, I'm Michelle Gauthier, and you're listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
- 0:09Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for joining Overwhelmed Working Woman.
- 0:13Michelle Gauthier: Today I have a fun guest for us, my friend Laura Sawyier.
- 0:18Michelle Gauthier: She is a stylist and she is also from St.
- 0:22Michelle Gauthier: Louis, as I am.
- 0:23Michelle Gauthier: We had two different friends introduce us and say we needed to meet each other.
- 0:28Michelle Gauthier: We took that to mean yes, we're supposed to be friends.
- 0:31Michelle Gauthier: Once I met her, I was like, I love her, I love what she has to say, I love what she's doing in St Louis and I really wanted to have her on the podcast for everybody, all the Overwhelmed Working Women out there, because I feel like it's so important for us to feel good about how we look and how we dress.
- 0:47Michelle Gauthier: But yet we have the conflict of not having a ton of time.
- 0:50Michelle Gauthier: She's going to give us some tips and we're just going to hear all about what she does and what she recommends.
- 0:56Michelle Gauthier: She works with her clients one-on-one and she also does speaking engagements on confidence, executive presence, authentic presence, all kinds of things.
- 1:07Michelle Gauthier: At the end she's going to tell us about how you can work with her - she does do virtual stuff as well as in person - and where you can follow her.
- 1:15Michelle Gauthier: That was a long intro! Hi Laura, now you can speak.
- 1:18Michelle Gauthier: Sorry, that was pretty long.
- 1:21Laura Sawyier: Thanks for the great intro and the feeling is mutual.
- 1:24Laura Sawyier: I think, for anyone that has been in St.
- 1:28Laura Sawyier: Louis or lives here knows that it can be a small town sometimes, so it was great when we were introduced and then ran into each other in person and met.
- 1:37Laura Sawyier: So here we are now, having had a few conversations about the work that you do with your clients and how there are a lot of correlations with the work that I do as a wardrobe stylist and as a speaker around this topic.
- 1:55Michelle Gauthier: Yes, yes, I'm glad you said wardrobe stylist.
- 1:58Michelle Gauthier: I should have said that because I just met someone the other day who was a stylist for events, so I guess you can be a stylist for lots of things, but you're specifically wardrobe.
- 2:06Michelle Gauthier: Yes, all right, so everybody who's listening considers themselves to be an overwhelmed working woman, at least at some point.
- 2:13Michelle Gauthier: So I think the biggest question is, why does it matter what we wear?
- 2:18Michelle Gauthier: What's the difference?
- 2:20Michelle Gauthier: How does it affect our lives?
- 2:21Michelle Gauthier: And if we're trying to just cut out things to worry about, why not just cut that out?
- 2:26Michelle Gauthier: What are your thoughts on that?
- 2:29Laura Sawyier: Well, clothing affects how we feel about ourselves, and it's a reflection of who we are, and I'll speak to, as a result of the last few years in particular and being in situations where people are either working from home or they're in hybrid situations, it really really got people thinking a lot about how they feel when they get dressed every day.
- 2:52Laura Sawyier: And so that has been sort of a very quick learning experience that I have been focused on for years, even before the pandemic, and now we're coming out of it and people are really beginning to understand that what you put on your body, how you get dressed, how you maybe style your hair, what your beauty or grooming routine is, really provides significant value in terms of one, how you see yourself, two, how you show up in your work and in your life and in your relationships, and that has a lot to do with your behaviors and your motivations and just physically and mentally being present.
- 3:30Laura Sawyier: So it's more than just what's on your body.
- 3:33Laura Sawyier: It's really about how you feel about it and how you represent yourself.
- 3:37Michelle Gauthier: Yeah, so it's almost like what you put on your body - it helps you think differently about yourself.
- 3:43Michelle Gauthier: So it helps you have more confidence, or more I don't know what.
- 3:47Laura Sawyier: The list goes on.
- 3:47Laura Sawyier: Confidence, presence.
- 3:49Laura Sawyier: You know, it helps you do a little bit of self-discovery, too.
- 3:53Laura Sawyier: I promise I won't go super geeky on the science part of all this too, which is part of how I approach my work as an individual stylist and also from a speaking and writing perspective, which is through the applied psychology of fashion.
- 4:07Laura Sawyier: But there is research that points to how what you wear can affect your behaviors, your moods, your motivations, how you show up in your relationships with others, your relationship to yourself, how you're talking to yourself when you get dressed every day.
- 4:22Laura Sawyier: So it really is an area with significant value.
- 4:27Michelle Gauthier: Yeah, that makes so much sense to me.
- 4:29Michelle Gauthier: Even when I had a corporate job, I worked from home.
- 4:32Michelle Gauthier: I would say since about 2000, I've been working from home, so for a really long time, and people would ask me all the time, like long before the pandemic, so do you just like work in your pajamas all day?
- 4:43Michelle Gauthier: And I never did, because I never felt good.
- 4:46Michelle Gauthier: I felt like I needed to take a shower, and I don't always have to like fix my hair perfectly or put on makeup, but like put on something decent that I feel comfortable in.
- 4:54Michelle Gauthier: I can tell, for sure, it makes a huge difference to me.
- 4:58Laura Sawyier: It does and it establishes delineation in your day which is a really real thing that people can use through clothing.
- 5:05Laura Sawyier: I'm hesitant to use
- 5:08Laura Sawyier: 'getting dressed' and 'having personal style' as something that's easy, because it's not easy to a lot of people, but making that change in the morning or in the evening then really signals to your brain,
- 5:19Laura Sawyier: "it's time to shift from one thing to the next".
- 5:21Laura Sawyier: And so I've written, and I talk about it a lot, in terms of you wake up in the morning, you've got your pajamas on and then, as soon as you're awake, and maybe you have a household with kids or parents, that you're caring for other family members or animals and you've just got all these things that are all of a sudden coming at you at once and you need to get moving and get dressed.
- 5:44Laura Sawyier: And getting dressed for the day sets the tone, and it's the same thing.
- 5:48Laura Sawyier: At the end of the day, you come home from work or you're at home already, and working from home, you know, change back into something that really signals it's time to turn off or, turn down, perhaps, because not all of us are able to turn off the work as soon as a certain time happens in the evening, but it starts to signal to the brain, really, just, it's time to shift from one thing to the next thing and get into that cycle.
- 6:13Michelle Gauthier: I love that so much.
- 6:14Michelle Gauthier: All geeky science-y points are welcome.
- 6:18Laura Sawyier: I love it.
- 6:19Laura Sawyier: There's more.
- 6:20Michelle Gauthier: So buckle up, okay, okay, good.
- 6:22Michelle Gauthier: I do think that's true, though, because one of the things that I work with my clients on is the idea that, in this modern world, where a lot of people do work at home, and sometimes they're even parenting at the same time as they're working, there's just this big mishmash of what your day is, and so I love the idea of signaling to yourself and your brain now, this is work time, and it's not that you can't step out of your office and get yourself lunch in your kitchen or something, but these are my work hours.
- 6:50Michelle Gauthier: I think that's really helpful, because what I find is, when people live like that, they feel overwhelmed all the time because there's not a specific time for anything.
- 6:58Laura Sawyier: Right, and I think what's important to share with listeners and the people that you work with and I work with, and really everybody, is that it's not going from one extreme to another, either.
- 7:10Laura Sawyier: It's actually fairly attainable, right.
- 7:13Laura Sawyier: And so if you are in a position where you're working from home and perhaps you are on video, you're on calls where you need to show up, it's still a thing where you can have a Zoom top on.
- 7:25Laura Sawyier: There's nothing wrong with putting on some soft pants, which I like to call them, which could be a varying degree of a pair of fitted yoga pants or a jogger or a pull-on pant that is a little bit more polished, if you will, that you could get away with wearing with a nice pair of boots or a sweater and get dressed that way.
- 7:44Laura Sawyier: But it's just like get out of your pajamas, get out of your sleeping clothes, your workout clothes, if you can, and it's just those small things.
- 7:54Laura Sawyier: And there are days, in fairness, where people ask me, they're like, do you get dressed, get really dressed up all day?
- 8:01Laura Sawyier: Is your hair always done?
- 8:02Laura Sawyier: Do you have makeup on?
- 8:03Laura Sawyier: Are you always in something really polished and put together?
- 8:06Laura Sawyier: I would be doing others a disservice if I was like yeah, of course I'm always done up, but the reality is that it takes a lot of time.
- 8:14Laura Sawyier: It takes time to blow dry your hair, it takes time to get dressed.
- 8:18Laura Sawyier: But when you can spend a little bit of time just setting yourself up for success in some of these areas, I think it can pay pretty significant dividends.
- 8:29Michelle Gauthier: Yeah, absolutely, For me, I see clients on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday - so basically, not on Tuesday would have been an easier way to say that, and I find that on Tuesdays, I do still take a shower and I get dressed, but it's in much more comfortable clothes and I don't put makeup on and I wouldn't, for example, blow dry my hair.
- 8:48Michelle Gauthier: It's just kind of my at-home workday and I've noticed that that signals to my brain okay, we're going to be doing a lot of writing today, or maybe I'm recording a podcast or whatever.
- 8:57Michelle Gauthier: And it's nice to have a day off, so to speak, where I don't have to get completely Zoom ready, ready to look my clients in the eye.
- 9:10Laura Sawyier: And that's the reality, and you're already creating that delineation - and this is what Tuesday means to me, and I can still be productive, but it allows me to not have to spend time doing some of these other things, where you still feel good about yourself, but you're being efficient, because we all need that.
- 9:24Michelle Gauthier: Yeah, exactly, exactly, Okay.
- 9:27Michelle Gauthier: So one of the things that we've talked about on this podcast before is the idea that clutter in your closet or your kitchen or wherever equals clutter in your brain, and we talk a lot about trying to reduce the number of decisions that we make in a day, because a lot of the listeners, and me, and you, are women who have big jobs, are managing other things in life as well, like families, etc.
- 9:50Michelle Gauthier: And then they don't want to have to make so many decisions, and sometimes that falls into the well, I don't want to have to decide about what to give away, or to clean out my closet.
- 10:00Michelle Gauthier: So tell us why it's worthwhile to do that and how you help people.
- 10:05Michelle Gauthier: I'm so intrigued by your job.
- 10:07Michelle Gauthier: I'd love to know how you help people pare down their closet to be things where they can - just, I'm just picturing that your clients, when you're finished with them, they just walk in, and they're like, oh, I could put on anything in here and I would feel good today Is that
- 10:19Laura Sawyier: It is true.
- 10:19Laura Sawyier: It's definitely very cathartic for people - after the fact, is what they say, and it's a nice sigh of relief.
- 10:27Laura Sawyier: You know, I'll point out firstly that physical and mental real estate is a really real thing, and decision fatigue is as well, and so this is a huge area of my business.
- 10:39Laura Sawyier: When I establish working with someone for the first time, before we get into shopping and styling extensively, it's really about removing what is not serving you at all anymore.
- 10:51Laura Sawyier: And so you know people will be all excited or not when they call me, but they have enough, you know, sort of spirit with them then to say I'm calling you because I'm interested in having some help,
- 11:03Laura Sawyier: And the first thing is we need to clean up your space and we need to get rid of the noise.
- 11:07Laura Sawyier: And so, from a new client perspective, we walk into your closet and we begin to go through, item by item, you know, rack by rack, shelf by shelf, drawer by drawer, and start to talk through - fairly efficiently, and not to overwhelm anybody about this process, you know there's a sweet spot in my work that I've learned that usually it takes about two hours for people.
- 11:31Laura Sawyier: You know, I don't know what everybody's closet looks like on the inside.
- 11:34Laura Sawyier: But it's usually a sweet spot of time that we can get through things very efficiently.
- 11:39Laura Sawyier: And we talk about it.
- 11:41Laura Sawyier: You know, I shared before I approach my work through the lens of the applied psychology of fashion and so I am not a therapist, I do not have those designations, but I would say to a certain degree there's some therapizing that's going on during these sessions.
- 11:56Michelle Gauthier: I would bet.
- 11:57Michelle Gauthier: Absolutely.
- 12:00Michelle Gauthier: Like, why don't you want to let go of these jeans that fit you when you were 19 years old?
- 12:05Laura Sawyier: Absolutely, or when was the last time you wore this?
- 12:08Laura Sawyier: What does this mean to you?
- 12:09Laura Sawyier: Or, the reality is that, you know, people are holding on to things because they really do hold a significant moment or person or time in their life and it's worth doing some discovery on that with them, because sometimes it's necessary that we hold on to those things.
- 12:27Laura Sawyier: But to really think about how to pare down, it's all about getting rid of the noise, because if you have the physical real estate in front of you say, when you walk into your closet and you go to get dressed for the day and most of the things you look at and pull out, you're just like, ugh, this is, I don't like this, this doesn't fit me, this isn't working.
- 12:46Laura Sawyier: It's going to create and take up a lot of mental real estate for you and you're not going to find the answer that you want and that sets the tone for the day.
- 12:55Michelle Gauthier: Yeah, starts off being annoying and like having to make a decision where you don't like any of the options.
- 13:00Michelle Gauthier: So what are some of the items that you see a lot of times when you do that closet clean out?
- 13:06Michelle Gauthier: Like, what are you getting rid of?
- 13:08Michelle Gauthier: Just in general.
- 13:10Laura Sawyier: Oh, that's a great question.
- 13:10Laura Sawyier: I mean, everyone is fairly different and I work with a lot of different people with, you know, age and physique and lifestyle, and so everyone has something different.
- 13:21Laura Sawyier: But people hold on to things with holes in them or don't even realize that there are holes in their clothing.
- 13:27Laura Sawyier: And I find that, actually, most often is that I hold something up and it's either a hole - or a stain, I would say, too - and I'm like, do you see this on here?
- 13:35Laura Sawyier: And they're like no, I've never noticed that before.
- 13:37Laura Sawyier: And so we're doing some closer inspection.
- 13:40Laura Sawyier: And you know, we want to make sure that, you know, we as in myself and when I'm working with a client, that you know we're looking at everything to make sure that it's modern and it looks good and you're not discovering that hole or stain, you know, all of a sudden, at 4 pm, when you're walking out the door to go meet someone for a coffee or have a meeting for presentation.
- 14:01Michelle Gauthier: Exactly.
- 14:02Michelle Gauthier: Oh my gosh, I can't imagine the weight that comes off their shoulders when their closet gets down to bare bones, even before they start shopping with you for new things just to be like okay, I've gotten rid of that.
- 14:14Laura Sawyier: Right.
- 14:14Laura Sawyier: I would add really quick to that too, Michelle, that, you know, people that I work with, a really common theme is how surprised many are in terms of what remains in their closet and what kinds of outfits that we put together.
- 14:28Laura Sawyier: So during this initial edit that I do with clients, we are going through everything, but simultaneously I'm also styling a few looks together and asking you to put things on your body together that maybe you haven't before.
- 14:41Laura Sawyier: And so we talk about that, and how you feel when you try it on and we walk away, you know, where after this session has happened and you tend to have a few new outfits with things that you've already owned before, and I think that that surprises most people is that you know you have a lot of these things in your closet already.
- 14:59Laura Sawyier: It's just, what's the fresh, new perspective, and you know, not being afraid to try it.
- 15:06Michelle Gauthier: Yeah, that's amazing.
- 15:07Michelle Gauthier: You've saved them money already just by helping them restyle what they've got.
- 15:11Michelle Gauthier: I don't ever - I mean, if I think about the things in my closet, if I have a sweater, for example, there's probably like two things that I might wear it with.
- 15:18Michelle Gauthier: I don't look in there and think, well, how could I restyle this with something modern?
- 15:22Michelle Gauthier: What if I put it with this skirt or whatever?
- 15:25Michelle Gauthier: I just don't think like that.
- 15:26Michelle Gauthier: So that's amazing that you can bring that perspective as well.
- 15:29Michelle Gauthier: One of the things when we first met, I was asking you about style and you said something to me that was really profound, and it's that people sometimes are afraid that you're going to make them too stylish.
- 15:42Michelle Gauthier: So it sounds like your goal isn't necessarily making them stylish, like cover- of- a- magazine stylish, but like, what are you really going for when you're helping your people?
- 15:51Laura Sawyier: Making sure that you are expressing yourself as you are within context of your lifestyle, your physique, and your budget, and making sure that you look modern while considering all of those things.
- 16:05Laura Sawyier: I'd say, lastly, that it's not as complicated as we make it out to be.
- 16:12Laura Sawyier: What I mean by that is sometimes all it takes is the right fit and the right items.
- 16:19Laura Sawyier: I'll call them ingredients.
- 16:21Laura Sawyier: Making sure you have the right jean and making sure that you have the right blouse, and they fit, and showing you what shoe, and maybe a pair of earrings, to put together with it.
- 16:33Laura Sawyier: It doesn't need to be over complicated or over fussy.
- 16:36Laura Sawyier: A lot of, if not most, of the people that I work with - I work with women and men as well - but they'll say to me, I don't want to look like I walked out of a store and I bought all the things that I was told to buy, that the top goes with the pant.
- 16:54Laura Sawyier: I say overly styled, or we say overly fashionable.
- 16:59Laura Sawyier: Most people want to look put together and polished.
- 17:04Laura Sawyier: My job is to help you elevate yourself within body, lifestyle, and budget.
- 17:12Michelle Gauthier: Yeah, that sounds like such a fun job.
- 17:15Michelle Gauthier: What are some of the results that your clients have gotten when they finish working with you?
- 17:21Laura Sawyier: I have this virtual closet that everyone gets when I work with them.
- 17:26Laura Sawyier: That's the physical product that comes out of the work that we do together, which is hugely valuable for people.
- 17:33Laura Sawyier: It's not my proprietary app.
- 17:35Laura Sawyier: It's built for people that do the work that I do so that I can better service and more efficiently service my clients.
- 17:42Laura Sawyier: So many people are so visual and a big struggle is "well, you told me to wear this top with those pair of jeans, or put this shoe together with these three different dresses, and I can't remember.
- 17:55Laura Sawyier: "
- 17:55Laura Sawyier: I take that remembering or guesswork out of it for you, through this virtual physical product.
- 18:02Laura Sawyier: To paint a picture, it's a web-based platform that you can bookmark on your phone or your iPad or tablet or computer, and there are three sections to it.
- 18:14Laura Sawyier: One of them is the closet and that is what it sounds like.
- 18:17Laura Sawyier: And again, in this initial edit that I do with clients, we're taking photos of the items that are remaining and they're getting uploaded into this and I build it out based on this section.
- 18:26Laura Sawyier: So you're going to have a shoe section, you're going to have a bag section, a jewelry section, tops, sweaters, a suit, the list goes on - whatever is applicable to what's in your specific wardrobe collection.
- 18:37Laura Sawyier: A nd then you're going to have this really great look book section, and that is this sort of just amazing, wonderful space that people open up their phone in the morning, or if they have an event coming up, or they're going on a trip and they're getting ready to pack, they open, and I've personalized their looks for them based on what is existing in their closet, and then I can incorporate new shopping purchases from Amazon to Nordstrom and everywhere else in between, so that it also shows people not just how to get dressed visually, with groupings of all the items that go together with my commentary, but also suggestions on new purchases for them, so that they can be really, really intentional with what it is that you are bringing into your wardrobe in the future.
- 19:26Laura Sawyier: I'm not a stylist who's like, let's go out and buy all these things, because that's not serving you.
- 19:32Laura Sawyier: We're just going to put you back in the situation that you were in before you called me, and so it's really about being intentional with people.
- 19:39Laura Sawyier: So that's the physical takeaway.
- 19:41Laura Sawyier: The emotional and mental takeaway that I hear all the time is feeling confident, is feeling at ease, is feeling efficiency.
- 19:50Laura Sawyier: You know, there's just - it's almost priceless to be able to get dressed when you need to get dressed and feel like you're making the right decision.
- 19:59Laura Sawyier: You feel really great about yourself and you know that what you're wearing is serving you whenever you walk into the physical or virtual room that you're walking into next.
- 20:10Michelle Gauthier: Yep, yep, exactly.
- 20:12Michelle Gauthier: Priceless, totally priceless.
- 20:14Michelle Gauthier: I have to say this, because I meant to say it, but I didn't want to interrupt you.
- 20:18Michelle Gauthier: I love how - I'm on Laura's email list and she has a great newsletter, so we'll link to that, for sure, so you can sign up for her newsletter - but on Black Friday or maybe the day before, when we were getting all these ads of sales and things, I love that your newsletter was like, do not buy things if it is not on your list of things that you were looking for.
- 20:38Michelle Gauthier: If there's something that you know that you need and it happens to be on sale, and today's the day to buy it, fine, but don't just go out there and spend a bunch of money.
- 20:46Michelle Gauthier: And I was like, I love that.
- 20:47Michelle Gauthier: It' s the opposite perspective you would think from somebody who's a wardrobe stylist, like you know, get all these things, and you're so intentional about it, so I love that.
- 20:57Laura Sawyier: Thank you.
- 20:58Laura Sawyier: We as human beings are so influenced by each other and, all of a sudden, you know marketing does what marketing is supposed to do, as does advertising, and you know there are moments where it's important,
- 21:10Laura Sawyier: you know, that we have the reminders, particularly for overwhelmed and really busy working women.
- 21:15Laura Sawyier: You know there's a lot of noise coming at us all the time, and you know, it was one of those moments that I felt like, this is a lot.
- 21:24Laura Sawyier: You know, for me, as also as an entrepreneur and a working woman, I was like this is a lot, and I can only imagine how other people are feeling right now.
- 21:33Laura Sawyier: And so let's just pause and, like, pump the brakes a little bit, and don't feel in this moment where it's so easy to be, you know, and not in a bad way, like, tempted by reductions.
- 21:44Laura Sawyier: I mean, we also in our culture, in America, we love a sale.
- 21:47Laura Sawyier: It was definitely a pointed, you know, moment for me to say to people you know, just worth considering, don't fall into this, you know, focus on the other things that you need to get done right now.
- 21:58Laura Sawyier: Yeah.
- 21:59Michelle Gauthier: I love that.
- 22:00Michelle Gauthier: That was great advice and I definitely recommend following her newsletter and getting that email.
- 22:05Michelle Gauthier: So tell us about working with you.
- 22:09Michelle Gauthier: What is the minimum thing that you do?
- 22:12Michelle Gauthier: If somebody wanted to engage with you in a small way, then just for fun, if somebody's out there and they want to do a complete and total overhaul and have you like as their, I guess can't be their full-time stylist.
- 22:24Michelle Gauthier: But like as their person.
- 22:27Michelle Gauthier: What does that look like?
- 22:29Michelle Gauthier: Just give us the smallest and the largest options?
- 22:33Laura Sawyier: Yeah, absolutely.
- 22:34Laura Sawyier: That's a great question.
- 22:35Laura Sawyier: All of it applies and I work with people at both of these capacities and everything in between.
- 22:41Laura Sawyier: So a way to begin to work with me is either in person or virtually - it's the same process.
- 22:49Laura Sawyier: We have an initial call that I set up with people.
- 22:53Laura Sawyier: It's 20 minutes on Zoom so we can both get to know one another, and this is in both cases for any client.
- 22:59Laura Sawyier: I have you complete a pretty extensive questionnaire.
- 23:02Laura Sawyier: That's everything from what is your shoe size, to what parts of your body do you find yourself covering or wanting to accentuate, and what are your personal and professional goals, short and long-term, and so it's really comprehensive in that way and it's meant to be thoughtful.
- 23:16Laura Sawyier: But the small package I would say is that we do the initial virtual closet edit or in-person edit, and that's the two hours and what you'll get out of that is then your page on this platform that I've shared, as well as probably about five, six, seven outfits for you to start to put into effect right away.
- 23:37Laura Sawyier: And that's the initial - it's focused on, let's get rid of the noise, let's start to see what you have existing, and maximize what's in your closet and get you comfortable and familiar in that space and reduce all the things that aren't serving you anymore.
- 23:50Laura Sawyier: And then, if we go to the other side of the spectrum on my services, I, like I said, do the upfront with everybody, which is the edit, and then from there, whether I am based in St.
- 24:03Laura Sawyier: Louis and then I'm in New York City every about seven weeks and I'm servicing clients there, but I work with people all over everywhere.
- 24:10Laura Sawyier: There is no limitation to that, and so some clients I work with virtually, but then if you're not in St Louis and you're not in New York City or that metro area, I will fly in for clients.
- 24:22Laura Sawyier: There are fees obviously associated with that, but I will go anywhere as long as we have some scheduling time available to us.
- 24:30Laura Sawyier: And we do shopping.
- 24:32Laura Sawyier: Most of it I do virtually for people.
- 24:35Laura Sawyier: There's just so much more efficiency when it comes to online shopping and I work with tons of retailers and have partnerships, for instance, like with Saks, and Bergdorf Goodman, and Neiman Marcus, and various others, where I can get items in for clients as well, and we do shopping.
- 24:54Laura Sawyier: I put together look books.
- 24:55Laura Sawyier: I have clients who have look books that are these virtual look books that I shared on this platform that are within a certain season, we'll say of spring/ summer, or fall/ winter, and they have upwards of 100 outfits for each, and that is three plus months of daily outfits that they can get dressed in.
- 25:14Laura Sawyier: And then there are aspects of that where I also dress people for special events, and that could be, you are getting married, or you're going to a wedding, or you maybe have a child who's getting married and you're the parent of them, or you have a fundraising event that you're going to or a cocktail party.
- 25:32Laura Sawyier: I also do travel itineraries and look books for people, so anyone that's traveling, they send me their schedule or their travel itinerary and they'll get the equivalent of that in clothing that they need for them.
- 25:45Laura Sawyier: And I'll say lastly, from a packing perspective, I do have people that bring me into their home and their closets and I do pack for them physically as well.
- 25:55Laura Sawyier: So that's the spectrum, and then everything else in between, and all of it is valuable and meaningful.
- 26:04Michelle Gauthier: That is the dream.
- 26:05Michelle Gauthier: I'll take that latter package.
- 26:07Michelle Gauthier: That sounds amazing.
- 26:10Michelle Gauthier: Oh my gosh, I just went on a trip myself where I had to do a whole bunch of different things, like there was a casual dinner, then I had to be dressy for something, then there was going to be like a, you know, sporty workout thing.
- 26:21Michelle Gauthier: So I can't imagine having you be like here's this, this, this and this yeah.
- 26:26Laura Sawyier: I will say that, it was last summer, I packed for a client and she was going to Europe for two weeks and she was like, I only want to pack in a carry-on, and we needed to pack her to go skiing in Switzerland and then go to Rome and they were high temperatures and she needed to be able to have clothing for both environments.
- 26:49Laura Sawyier: And she did it all in a carry-on for two weeks.
- 26:51Laura Sawyier: She was very, very happy during and when she got home.
- 26:55Michelle Gauthier: Oh my gosh, I'm so impressed.
- 26:57Michelle Gauthier: You must be a very good folder as well.
- 27:00Laura Sawyier: There are different techniques.
- 27:02Laura Sawyier: I have tips for everybody in a lot of areas, but packing is depending on the item, depending on the piece of luggage.
- 27:09Laura Sawyier: But you know there's some good general rules.
- 27:12Michelle Gauthier: Yes, yes, you should, if you haven't already, put that in your newsletter.
- 27:15Michelle Gauthier: Yes, everybody needs that.
- 27:17Michelle Gauthier: I talk about packing too, just from the decision-making perspective.
- 27:21Michelle Gauthier: Like people will say, I can't, I have to bring a bunch of stuff because I don't know what I'm going to wear.
- 27:26Michelle Gauthier: I'm like, you're just delaying the decision.
- 27:28Michelle Gauthier: Just decide ahead of time and then don't take all the stuff with you.
- 27:34Laura Sawyier: Right.
- 27:34Laura Sawyier: I mean, it's like procrastination at its finest, and that's no fault to anybody, but it just shows up that way.
- 27:40Michelle Gauthier: Yeah, exactly, oh gosh, okay, this has been so fun and so awesome.
- 27:45Michelle Gauthier: I love hearing about your work.
- 27:46Michelle Gauthier: It sounds like such a great time and I think everyone could benefit from that two hour edit from you.
- 27:54Michelle Gauthier: I'm sure there's so much gold in people's closets that they don't even know about, so thank you for sharing with us.
- 27:59Michelle Gauthier: Where should people go if they want to follow you or sign up for your newsletter or do that intro session
- 28:07Laura Sawyier: If people want to find me, they can go to one of three places.
- 28:10Laura Sawyier: The first is my website, which is lauraksawyier.
- 28:12Laura Sawyier: com, and my last name is spelled S-A-W-Y-I-E-R.
- 28:18Laura Sawyier: And then on Instagram, I have two accounts One is @lauraksawyier and the other one is @sawyierstyle, and that one mostly has shopping and styling recommendations.
- 28:30Laura Sawyier: My account is all of the above and some personal things that I'm comfortable sharing publicly.
- 28:37Laura Sawyier: And then, lastly, is my newsletter, which you have mentioned, thank you, and that is called Style and Substance and it's at stylesubstance.
- 28:45Laura Sawyier: substack.
- 28:45Laura Sawyier: com.
- 28:49Laura Sawyier: That's a lot of S's.
- 28:51Michelle Gauthier: Okay, that's a mouthful, but we'll put it in the show notes so people can just click on it.
- 28:55Michelle Gauthier: That'll make it so much easier, right.
- 28:57Michelle Gauthier: Okay, wonderful, thank you.
- 28:59Michelle Gauthier: If you had to give just one piece of advice to an overwhelmed working woman with regards to her style or anything in the realm of what you do, what would your just number one little thing be.
- 29:13Laura Sawyier: Document photos of what you're wearing each time you wear them.
- 29:18Michelle Gauthier: Interesting, okay, and how does that help us?
- 29:21Laura Sawyier: Because it allows you very quickly and very efficiently to catalog for yourself what you put on your body and what's working for you.
- 29:32Laura Sawyier: And this is for anybody who works with me or doesn't work with me.
- 29:35Laura Sawyier: This is for everyone.
- 29:36Laura Sawyier: And so when you get dressed and you say, walk out the door and you are working, or you're out doing what you need to during the day and the evening and you happen to either, one, notice that people are responding to you and they're saying really nice complimentary things about how you're showing up, or two, you feel like you rocked whatever meeting, presentation, parenting moment, whatever thing you did, and you're feeling great about what you have on.
- 30:07Laura Sawyier: That is a noteworthy outfit that you're wearing.
- 30:11Laura Sawyier: And we all have our devices in our pocket or our bags.
- 30:13Laura Sawyier: And if you take a quick photo of yourself if you're looking in a full length mirror if possible but just take a photo of yourself and store it in an album on your phone and save it for later, because when you are having one of those moments where you need to get dressed and ready, whether in the morning or later in the day, for something in the evening, you are already establishing what I call a look book for yourself that you can reference without having to think about it.
- 30:39Michelle Gauthier: I love it.
- 30:39Michelle Gauthier: That's such a great tip.
- 30:40Michelle Gauthier: I would not have thought about that at all.
- 30:42Michelle Gauthier: I'll do it.
- 30:43Michelle Gauthier: I'll take your advice from this day forward.
- 30:45Michelle Gauthier: Okay, thank you so much.
- 30:49Michelle Gauthier: I really appreciate you being on.
- 30:52Laura Sawyier: It's been a pleasure, Michelle, thank you.
- 30:54Michelle Gauthier: Thank you for listening to the Overwhelmed Working Woman podcast.
- 31:01Michelle Gauthier: If you want to learn more about my work, head over to my website at MichelleGauthier.
- 31:05Michelle Gauthier: com.
- 31:07Michelle Gauthier: See you next week.