MMAM 114 | Professional Image

How To Create A Professional Image And Make A Good First Impression With Valerie Weaver (Episode 114)

Patty Farmerpodcast


You have 20 seconds to make a good first impression with your professional image. How can you pull it off? Patty Farmer welcomes Valerie Weaver, a certified Fashion Image Consultant certified through the London Image Institute. The first thing you need to figure out is your brand and expertise. How do you want to convey your brand in your appearance? Your makeup, jewelry, and the colors you choose speak your personality. Remember to stay authentic in who you are. Want to learn more? Listen to this episode for practical tips.


Click on the icon to listen to this episode on your favorite podcast platform.


Apple PodcastsGoogle PodcastsStitcherPodchaseriHeartRadioYouTubeSpotifyOvercastRadio PublicSoundCloudPocketCastsCastBoxBreakerTuneInRSS



Valerie’s Gift: Sparkle & Style Community Invite

Pease join our interactive community of fun and fashionable women. We have contests, giveaways, sensational specials and lots more!
Click Here

Valerie’s Marketing, Media & Money Strategy

In my social VIP group, I like to teach versatility. It is about taking something you already have. Let's mix it with something new. Mix the old with the new. There's a lot of value in that.

DID YOU LIKE THIS EPISODE? PLEASE GIVE IT A RATING AND REVIEW

Leave a Review on Apple Podcasts

About Valerie Weaver

MMAM 114 | Professional Image

Valerie Weaver is a certified image consultant through the London Image Institute in Atlanta, GA. She has an extensive background in fashion and media spanning over 30 years. Valerie has served as the TV representative for the Millcreek Mall, appeared as a regular guest on STAR 104’s weekly radio show “Fashion Friday,” and was a contributing columnist to the Her Times magazine.

She owned and operated “Premier Images,” a professional image consulting business where she taught business etiquette, professional image, and non-verbal communication programs to various corporations. She is known as WJET-TV’s “Frugal Fashionista,” Valerie is a regular guest on the “Your Money” segment, offering money saving advice on everything from fashion to entertaining.

She is also currently a Senior Division Stylist with Park Lane jewelry, sharing her fashion expertise to help women look and feel their best. Valerie is consistently recognized as a Top 50 Worldwide Sales Producer for Park Lane and regularly provides training programs at Park Lane’s national bi-annual sales conferences.


Resources and Important Links


Grab Your Free Marketing, Media, & Money Assessment

Would you like a simple answer to the question “Where should I focus my time and energy to attract highly-qualified, ideal clients?” Take the FREE Marketing Media & Money Assessment and in 3 minutes or less you will know where you are excelling, where you could make a few changes and what steps to take to achieve massive results. https://M3BizQuiz.com

Meet Our Sponsor

The Marketing, Media, & Money Podcast (and magazine) would like to thank our sponsor Meg Schmitz, founder of Take the Leap franchise consulting company.

The franchise industry is booming as people look to diversify their income streams with essential businesses, without having to quit their day job. If you have ever considered what it would be like to own your own business with the security of a solid brand behind you, schedule a call with Meg. The conversation is free, and the insights are priceless. https://MegSchmitz.com



How To Create A Professional Image And Make A Good First Impression With Valerie Weaver

I'm looking forward to sharing this industry expert with you. I'm excited because we're going to talk about one of my favorite topics, which is fashion and image, but we're going to talk about it from the point of view of how important your image is, how long you have to make that first impression and what are the things you should be doing right up front to make that best impression. Whether you are a business owner, an entrepreneur, a speaker, whatever the case may be, how important it is to incorporate that into your daily lives and your business? We brought on somebody that I think is going to be able to talk to us about that from all points of view.

Let me tell you a little bit about her. Valerie Weaver is a certified image consultant and is a stylist with Park Lane Jewelry. Her background includes corporate consulting, marketing and direct sales. She hosted Fashion Friday on Star 104 Radio, was a fashion writer for the Her Times Magazine and conducted TV interviews with the Millcreek Mall stores to promote and market on WJET-TV.

She's a top sales producer with Park Lane Jewelry, consistently earning sales awards and incentives. She's a regular guest on WJET-TV’s Your Money segment series, where she offers advice on how to save money on everything from fashion to entertaining as their frugal fashionista. We are going to be talking about a lot of really good, fun things and how important it is to get your image. Valerie, thank you so much for being here with me.

Thanks for having me.

I'm so excited. In that right there, there are so many things we can unpack from that. I want to dive right in, but I have to say, from being on TV, in magazines, being this Frugal Fashionista, a certified image consultant and being a stylist for Park Lane Jewelry. All of those things are interesting. I know there's a story there and I love a good story. Can you share a little bit there on how that happened? How did you go from this to this? Honestly, what was the incentive for you to do it? What was your passion for doing it? Why you're still doing it?

It started back in 1989, Patty. I was working at a bank. I always liked fashion and dress, but I saw an ad in the paper for a direct sales company, BeautiControl Cosmetics. They were looking for image consultants. I thought, “That's interesting.” Long story short, I joined the company. They taught us how to be image consultants and we sold cosmetics. That's where we draped you and told you your colors and the best style to wear. I worked with them for a couple of years and decided to take it to the next level.

I went to the London Image Institute in Atlanta, Georgia and got certified on a different level so that I could expand my horizons and go out and do corporate consulting. That's what led me to that. I did a lot of corporate consulting. Along the way, of everything you mentioned that I've done, I've always been in the direct sales space, which has always served me well. Being an image consultant along the way has helped me in every facet of my career.

I love that because I think it doesn't matter what you do a lot of times. Working in a bank, I actually started my career in the mortgage industry. I became a realtor and I did a lot of other things. I went into marketing and realized that was what I was passionate about. A lot of times, what happens is we have this meandering trail that takes us through that we don't know where we're going to land.

Lo and behold, all of these things that we have, these skills that we acquire along the way, not always knowing that that's going to be the thing that we're going to do, but it's all about being of service. It sounds to me like all those different things you did led you to where you are now and skillsets from all of those as well.

Those are the things that I believe differentiate you. Let me ask you that question. You answered it a little bit, but I'm going to give you an opportunity to expound on it a little bit. For someone who is in direct sales, no matter which direct sales they're in, as an image consultant, how that's the thing that I would say differentiates you. You're a certified image consultant. You can work with them to help their image in all areas. How has that differentiator affected you when you're going out and serving?

I'm sure you have men who buy things too, but I mean, when you're serving other women, whether with jewelry, but helping them with the image part. It's not like, “Magically buy this necklace and all of a sudden, you're a fashionista.” There's a lot more of it to that and how we show up. How would you say your journey has affected you? How did it lead you to your purpose and your passion? Why are you still doing all these other things, not just that? How has that perfected along the way, you being that image consultant in other areas?

That led me to all the other things that I've done and it's served me well. Being in the direct sales space for many years, if you say the word serve, I love the word serve because I feel that helping women, you assume women know how to put it together. I don't know how to put anything together in the kitchen. I couldn't do anything like that, but I know how to put things together I've learned. I’ve been educated on fashion, the right earrings to wear, the right necklace or the right color.

When you help women look the part, making them feel good can change their world. I look back over the years, the women that I still run into who said, “You did something for me back,” or, “I heard you speak at the Garden Club or whatever.” I love the fact that all this education and my passion have helped so many women particularly feel so much better about themselves. That, to me, is what my purpose is, truly.

A lot of times, when you feel good and you know that you look good, it makes us feel more confident. When we're more confident, we show up better. I know that I hired an image consultant early on in my career when I became a speaker. Learning things like when should I wear a short necklace and when should I wear a long necklace and how should I dress. Should I be in monochrome colors? What are the best earrings to wear when you're on camera?

All of those things were super important for me. I saw the difference. I saw having somebody help me with that wasn't just, “Are you selling me a piece of jewelry that I like?” It’s that you're going to show me how to wear it and how to wear it with other pieces I may have. How to feel better about me and be more confident? I feel like that is important. I have heard that we have this amount of time that we have to make a good impression. It's like some amount of seconds. Do you know the answer to that?

MMAM 114 | Professional Image

Professional Image: Best-dressed women spend two-thirds of their wardrobe budget on accessories and only one-third on clothing.

I always said twenty seconds and I don't even know if it's that long, Patty, but it's very quick. We all know we don't have a second chance to make that first impression. It is crucial in business and personal to make that first impression positive and make it count. In this day and age, especially in the digital world that we work in now to stop the scroll. Your online presence on all your platforms needs to be branded. That's your expertise. Being that image being consistent at everything you do in person or online and having that positive professional first impression is crucial, I believe.

I absolutely agree with you. A lot of times, when you can benefit from having somebody who knows how to help you with that image is important because those are assets. Those are your brand assets. Your brand, however, is not. You need to know what your brand is. What do you stand for? The question is and being able to go to a consultant and say, “Here's who I serve. This is how I want to show up. I want to be confident. I want to be this and that.” Somebody may come and say, “I want people to know that I'm approachable,” or whatever their thing is. Being able to have somebody say, “This is how you're going to do that.”

How are you going to do that? This is the kind of jewelry you're going to wear and the image you want to have. Those colors are not the best colors for that. This is how you could show up in person, but we live in a digital world right now. Sometimes, we have this little square right on Zoom or whatever other platform you use. We need to make sure that when you're showing up there and when they see your social media profiles, remember back in the old days when people used to say, “How come all your pictures are glamour shots? Nobody would ever recognize you.” We don't want that. We don't live in that world. Now, you need to be able to share what you do and how you do it and who you are in a way that they recognize. You have to use your words.

Sometimes you have to use pictures and you have to do it in a virtual space. Let's go there. There are so many things I want to ask you, but could you share with us a couple of tips? I want to make sure those people who are writing notes right now, what are a couple of tips you could give us for we are spending so much time on Zoom nowadays. We are virtual. We do only have that little square. What are a couple of tips that you would say that people need to keep in mind when they are dressing for success?

Nowadays, they call it tabletop dressing because it's the Zoom. On a side note, I'm a firm believer in not just tabletop dressing. I'm sitting here talking to you in my home office and I have my high heels on and a dress because I think you feel good when you're dressed head to toe. You project your confidence. It comes across.

To me, it's a head-to-toe thing, but some of the things, your personal style, Patty, the components, especially for women, if you're in your little box, number one is your hairstyle. That should be up-to-date. That can date you quicker than anything else. Your makeup needs to be complementary. The colors you wear, there's a lot to be said about the colors you wear. Back when I started image consulting, it was all about the swatch books. It’s the little books we had in store with you.

There's a lot to be said about the colors we wear. It can make us look more vibrant and young. Your accessories, your jewelry, those are the components that are important as far as appearance. Appearance is one of the components of a professional image. Probably the number one is appearance, but there are other components to that as well. That’s the appearance piece of it.

Also, your communication skills, how you gauge your audience and how professional you talk. That's part of your first impression and image as well. Your body language, I used to teach that. It's interesting. When you learn body language and eye contact, that's all part of this first impression. All these things come in the 20 seconds you're doing business or first meeting someone.

I have heard you say that there are five important elements to creating a professional image. Can you share those five with us? Everybody, you're going to want to know these. We have a certified image consultant here. This will give you a chance to be able to go a little bit deeper into some of those, if you’d like.

The first one we said is building your brand and that is your expertise. That's something that we all need to do. The second one was appearance. That is the hair and the makeup. The color of that truly is so important. People might think, “It isn't that. When they look at me, they got to dig a little deeper.” We're talking first impressions here. It’s different once they get to know you. They want to know you're authentic. You have to come across to be authentic. That's a very important buzzword now, but I think that's important in first impressions as well. The third one was communication, how you speak and how you engage with people. Those twenty seconds.

All these components come into that first impression. The body language and then having your own personal style. I call it your signature look. It goes into the branding, but that becomes part of your brand if you have this consistent signature look. That's part of the first impression as well because when you're comfortable with what you're wearing, people can tell. Your confidence level is up. We all know how we feel wearing something that isn't us. You put it on, buy it, and go, “This isn't me.” Make sure it's you. It's what expresses your personal style. It expresses your personality because it is all personal. The first impression is personal. Did that answer your question?

It does. Everybody reading, we all have what we like to call our go-to outfit. If you're going to go do something, you're like, “Here's my go-to outfit that makes me feel good.” Whether it's going to an important meeting or maybe you're going out and being introduced to somebody important or whatever the thing is. You want that thing. You have this go-to outfit. A lot of times, we may have created this go-to outfit of how it makes us feel without ever thinking about our image. We just innately knew that either that color looked good or whatever the case may be. That's our look.

For example, I think if somebody saw me on the stage or somewhere and I was wearing a dress, they would literally have their jaw drop because nobody's ever seen me in a dress. I'm only 5’2 1/2 and I do wear heels all the time. I have heels on now, too. I agree with you about that whole thing and stuff, though. I'm always in heels, wedges, boots or whatever the case may be, but I'm not very tall. I learned early on that as long as I have heels on, whether they're wedges, sandals or boots, what is the look that makes me feel good? There are a lot of different ways, but I'll give an example. As for me, I like wearing monochrome unless I'm wearing animal prints.

If I'm wearing animal print, which I love, other than that, I'm usually in a monochrome color for me. I like using my accessories to do my pop color. For me, I use my brand colors in my jewelry. I use my brand colors when I'm going out, whether it's in my shoes or the signature purses that I use. I love that for me. Is that the only way to do it? No, but I feel good when I wear all black or all blue or whatever the case may be and then have a turquoise suede jacket.

I make my statement pieces mostly with my jewelry but with my other things too. I'm known for that and I feel good when I do it. What are a couple of other ways that maybe people do have a go-to outfit that they don't realize and how they can use it? What should they be thinking about when they're building that outfit? Sometimes we do it and sometimes there are questions we should ask ourselves about building it.

MMAM 114 | Professional Image

Professional Image: Your accessories speak your personality.

I always say create uniforms, a signature look. Keep it simple is what I have learned being in the jewelry business all these years. I always say dress in a solid color and decorate. You put on great jackets and jewelry. Those are two of your secret weapons, ladies. My signature look is pretty much in the winter. I have a great turtleneck on, gray leggings with a poncho and my silver jewelry. I'm ready to go out the door. You need to keep it so simple. Your wardrobe should be simple. I'm not saying boring, but the simpler you keep your wardrobe, then you can use your jackets, belts, purses, scarves and jewelry.

The best-dressed women spend 2/3 of their wardrobe budget on accessories and only 1/3 on clothing. I live by that rule. People think I have a lot of clothes. I don't. I use my jackets, jewelry, scarves and ponchos to create the look and you'll find it so much easier to get out the door and dress when you simplify things.

I absolutely agree with that. Not only that, but in the networking world, I hear women tell me all the time, “Patty, I’m an introvert. I'm shy.” I say, “Great because there's an easy way to work around that.” They're like, “What?” I'm like, “If you go to an event, whether it is virtual or in-person and you don't feel comfortable going up to people, the best way to do it is to get people to come to you. The best way to do it is to have a statement necklace on and the hottest pair of shoes. If you're in person, a super cool purse, but I'm going to tell you, women love to go up to and say, “I love that necklace,” and here you have a conversation.

If I had $1 for every person I met in a bathroom that started over a conversation and said, “Those are the cutest shoes. I love that necklace.” Pretty soon, they're telling you where we could get, “I got it on sale here.” Those are conversation starters. For men, it could be a tie, but the reality is if you're one of those women who love to wear black, I always say, “Do you wear a lot of blacks?” I'm like, “Until they come out with a color darker.”

I happen to like black and gray, those kinds of colors just like you. I like having a canvas and using all my accessories. I’m probably 70 and it says about my accessories, so I agree with you. If somebody is in the networking world, wouldn't you say that picking and using your accessories there to open up that conversation and how it can make a difference in business.

The number one thing to wear to start a conversation is a statement necklace. The shoes are great. The purse is great. All of that is great, but we have different zones in our bodies. This is called the impact zone. Your face and around your shoulders, that's your impact zone. When you meet someone, that's what you notice.

You notice their earrings. They frame their face and you notice their necklace. When you're speaking to someone, the number one accessory to start a conversation is going to be a statement necklace because they're going to say, “I love that necklace.” It caught their eye. To your point, when you're networking, that is great. When you're in the jewelry business like I am, if I go out to the mall or out to the store, I always make sure I have a wow necklace on because people are going to say, “I love your necklace.” It’s conversation and it's great.

One of the things I loved in a conversation I had with you was I shared with you my love for jewelry. As women, we have that go-to outfit. We also have the go-to jewelry that we tend to wear. I have a diamond necklace that my husband bought for me. I very rarely am not wearing it, but I have learned all of my other jewelry can frame it. I will remove it occasionally when I want to wear something that is colored or whatever, but the reality is I love that. I know how to take scarves and frame them. I know how to do other things, but that statement necklace piece is so important.

Whether you're somebody who likes to wear a statement thing all the time or something a little bit more subtle, you can have something. A lot of times, people think when you say a statement that it has to be this big, huge, humongous necklace. I don't think that's true. Statement, that's not what that means. It means you're making a statement. It's also the opportunity to make a statement about you.

Your accessories speak for your personality. Ten women put a black dress on and we gave them jewelry and scarves and said, “Here, accessorize.” We'd all walk out a little differently. The beauty of accessorizing is it creates your own look. To your point about your necklace, I want to comment on that because I do a lot of events and shows. Women will have a sentimental necklace, such as yourself, a diamond necklace. Maybe it's something that was given to them. That's important to them. Here's the key. When we say statement, it doesn't have to be that big necklace, but you take that diamond necklace, you frame it with another necklace and maybe frame it with another necklace.

What happens is the focal point now becomes that necklace that is important to you, but you framed it like a picture. Now, they notice it more. It's an interesting visual. They say, “Did you just get that necklace?” You're like, “I wear this every day.” All of a sudden it was framed. Again, statement, meaning, just that visual interesting necklace, whether it be a couple of necklaces together or a statement. Even earrings in your impact zone. It’s what people notice when they look at you.

I love that too though because we all live in a world where not everybody, but we're not stuck with only having one earring anymore. Now we have the opportunity to have several holes in our ears, even if we are not a Millennial. I have three holes. I wear diamonds in my top hole, hoops in my middle hole and then wear my statement earrings on the bottom. Sometimes I switch it up. We have the ability to be able to do that when we want to. A lot of times, when I'm purchasing jewelry, I like buying things that I can take my diamond ones out. That's how I pull the color together.

There are a lot of different things, but I do believe that when you're creating that statement, it does say something about you. Not just for somebody who's going to like that because I always find something like when somebody's wearing something. To your point, when we are in a virtual world, this is all we're seeing. We don't get to see your shoes or your purse. We're seeing that.

That's why that is important. When people see me, usually I'm wearing something bold. It doesn't have to be a big necklace, but it's something bold, whether it's bold with color or got kinds of metals on it or whatever, but I have a bold personality, and it fits me. Maybe somebody who's quiet or whatever isn't going to feel comfortable wearing that.

That's part of working with an image consultant too, who's going to ask you questions. You're going to get to tell them, “This is what my personality is. That would be too much for me.” You're going to help them. This isn't like when you go to the store and you get something. You have no idea. You get to have somebody help you with what it is you want to do.

MMAM 114 | Professional Image

Professional Image: Use statement pieces, but you don’t want to look cluttered or have your accessories fighting each other.

Would you say that sometimes you work with people who will have, “These are the accessories I wear when I'm speaking?” It may not be the ones I wear every day when I'm going to the grocery store or just hanging out. These are things that I want when I'm going to be entertaining. There are different kinds of accessories that you can wear when you're wearing different things.

When I'm wearing boots and I'm wearing this, I have different stuff on how I want to feel on that day. When I'm putting on leggings and high-heeled boots and I got something super cool, I want my jewelry to reflect that part of the look. There are a lot of people in corporate. There are entrepreneurs.

We are here on Zoom, but we're also going out and doing meetings with people. We're meeting with potential clients. We have a goal or an objective for what that is. Do you work with people? Do they say, “What should I wear when I'm doing this? What should I wear when I'm doing that?” Is that a service that you help them with?

I do. The biggest things women ask are a couple of things. I show them all the different options and then ask them, “What's your comfort level? What are you drawn to? What's catching your eye?” We like the bolder. Most women like a little more casual or smaller jewelry, which is absolutely fine. What I try to do is take them out of their comfort zone a little bit. “We're not doing surgery here. We're just putting a necklace around your neck. It's okay.” They wear it around and they're like, “I like this.”

They need to be led a little bit into trying something different. They've never had maybe the expert advice on this is going to look great on you. I have noticed over the years, Patty, that I see women now that go, “I would have never worn these before.” I talked to you or always at your show, but now their confidence level is there. The other question I get all the time is, especially during the COVID, “Where am I going to wear that? I don't know. I'm not going out. Where am I going to wear it?”

Do you know what I say? “You need to wear jewelry when you're sitting home because it makes you feel good. Get up, dress up and show up every single day even if you're not going anywhere.” Jewelry should be worn. I played this little game about how many places we can wear jewelry. It's everywhere. I don't care if you're going to the store. You don't have to be going to that special event. Every day should be a special event.

I find even when I'm at the grocery store when I look nice around there and I'm in line, if I'm going in there in my sweats and I've got flip-flops on and it's 50 degrees outside, but I flipped on a pair of flip flops, which doesn't happen to me, but I see it at the store. Not me, though, but it’s how you show up. When I'm standing in line at the store, it's not that we're judging. You're attracted to something similar. If I'm going to have a two-minute conversation in a line that I'm going to have, believe me, I'm looking at the other people in line and choosing which one the person is that I want to have the conversation with.

I want to know that for me and what I do for a living, if you're a business person, I want to set myself up for success to make sure that when other people are in line and they're thinking about who they're going to talk to, they’re going to be like, “I want to talk to this girl.” There's a way to do that. Also, I want to get back to something that you said that I think is important. Even if you think you know, we can always get a little bit of help. I know that I've considered myself a fashionista for decades. There's always something and one of the things that I came to you and I've always talked about is like, “How do you wear mixed metals?”

Mixed metals for several years ago became big. It became big, so it was okay to do it. What I would see all the time, which was always my struggle is that I would see so much jewelry that was in silver and it wouldn't have looked as good in gold. They only made it in silver. A lot of times, they make it in both. I was like, “That's so beautiful.” There's a lot of black things and I'd be like, “That needs to have silver.”

My wedding ring is gold. I would go through this whole thing about, “I do love that, but is it going to be worth me taking off all my other jewelry so that I'm wearing silver?” Finally, I went and said, “What are the best ways to mix that up, so it looks like I did it, not like, ‘She doesn't match. All of her stuff is gold, but then she's wearing this one silver necklace and it doesn't look good?’”

People do ask that a lot. Matching matches out. Remember back in the day, our earrings match our necklace. We had the pearl bracelet and the pearl ring. Nowadays, it's not on trend accessorizing. Number one, it's okay not to match. It's more on-trend not to match, but to your point with the mixed metals, I get that question a lot.

Here's my advice on that. I might have a complete silver set around my neck and ear and then I have some gold bracelets I want to wear. If you have one component on you, and I'm going to say bracelets because I love arm parties, if you have the cohesive part, which would be the arm bracelets, gold or silver bracelet and you mix them, now you've got one cohesive part, so it looks like you meant to do it. You can either wear silver or gold on your ears, neck, or rings. It doesn't matter because you've got that one piece that is cohesive.

As I said about loving animal print, I love animal print. I have a lot of animal prints. I know that when you buy pieces, they'll say, “Here are the earrings. Here's the necklace. Here's the bracelet.” It is much if you wear bold statement jewelry, this statement animal print and the big, huge earrings and the bracelet and a ring. What I love is when I buy things that have sets, I love it because maybe now I'm wearing something golden. I'm only wearing the ring in the earrings and maybe the next time I'm only wearing the necklace and the ring. I don't ever wear them all together, but I do love to be able to have them so that I can decide which ones I want to. What do you think?

Animal print is still on-trend. It's been on trend for years. It's more of a neutral and statement look. You can overdo animal print. If you have the animal print jacket on, that's good. You don't have to have animal print shoes, a purse and earrings. Make that your statement piece. That one element is going to be the eye-catching piece. Maybe the next time you want to wear those, you wear these great animal print earrings. I wear them in black. They look great with a black turtleneck.

You don't want to confuse the eye. I always say, once you get dressed and accessorized, go to a mirror and put your back to the mirror and then turn around. If there's something that doesn't look right, take it off. Less is more. We want to have those statement pieces, but you don't want to look cluttered and you don't want your accessories fighting each other. I'm not sure what to look at, that belt or the shoe. You don't want to look like a costume. I call that costume dressing. We don't want that. That’s a little trick. Look in the mirror. If you go, “I'm not sure about that,” take it off.

MMAM 114 | Professional Image

Professional Image: Get rid of everything else you don’t want to keep.

Your example is a good example when you're talking about that jacket. I do have some beautiful animal print jackets. I wear them all black too, but when I wear those animal prints, here's the thing. Sometimes, you take the jacket off when you get to where you're going. You don't always have the jacket on. If you did that and you’re on camera, maybe you're not going to sit here on Zoom with your jacket on. I always ask myself whenever I'm having a jacket be one of my accessories. I look at that jacket and say, “What's one way that I can tie it together if I take the jacket off so then people aren't just looking at me and say, ‘All she's doing is wearing a black with black, with gold.’”

Now, I look blasé. Where is the little bit of the kick going to be? You can overkill it, too, because it looks like you don't know what you're doing. What is your brand? What is it that you're trying to say in that conversation? Being able to have pieces that you can take off. I know that a lot of times, when I do recording, I put myself in my metals and then I get on here. You can't see them, but I have several necklaces. I'm able to go from call to call if I need to by just changing my necklace. That's what I love about a statement necklace. You can wrap yourself in everything else and be neutral and then I'll be like, “I'm on this call, but then I'm going to be on this Zoom call and then I'm going to be on this.”

I just change my necklace. I have them laid out on my desk. It's all about how do I want to show up for this one. This bold animal print necklace is beautiful for what I want to do here or whatever the case may be. Having somebody to help you is good. Being a certified image consultant and then having all that background, you've been on TV and you've been in corporate and you can do all of these different things, having somebody help you, this isn't like, “Let me give you a catalog and let me know if there's something.”

The power and the differentiator of having somebody like you in your pocket are priceless. How good can I feel knowing that I could run by something? “This is what I bought at the store and I thought this. Valerie, what do you think? This is what I'm thinking.” It leads me to one of the things that I love that you do, which is that you have this amazing Facebook group. You do these videos and you open up these conversations. Every time I get to see stuff, we get to ask you questions and you're sharing new things and ways to wear that we would never have thought of before.

You do it every single day. I always like to be there live when I can, but when I can't, I can go back and look at it because it is a video. One of the things that you talked about once that I never forgot was how you can still build that in if you have a favorite necklace. Do you have a favorite necklace? It doesn't matter whether they bought it from you or not.

You're going to show them how to make that necklace look even better if they like it and what are different ways you can wear it just like with clothes. How many times when a woman buys clothes will we spend a little more money and we're like, “I'll be able to wear that with this. I'll be able to mix and match this. I'll be able to do this?” We see more value in that because the same thing can be said for jewelry.

In my social VIP group, I like to teach versatility. It is about taking something you already have. Let's mix it with something new. Mix the old with the new. There's a lot of value in that. I talk about face shapes. What earrings go with different face shapes? A lot of women don't know that there are different earrings for different face shapes and that's an important part of the look. I do teach that on a daily basis every day at 4:00 and it's not just jewelry.

I took a trip down memory lane and I pulled out some things in my closet that I can never get rid of because there's a story and a memory behind them. I'm big into getting your wardrobes down. Number your clothes 1 through 10 and only keep the 8s, 9s and 10s. The ones that fit, flatter and feel good are the ones you want to keep. You get rid of everything else. Now, we're going to teach you how to accessorize and change up your look. You're saving time and money. You feel and look fabulous. That's my goal with my group.

That’s good though because then you're spending less time buying clothes, which gives you more money to spend on the accessories. You're going to get more value, more looks. I'm getting ready to go do a photo shoot. I love the idea that they're only going to let you change clothes so many times, but you can change the jewelry. That could change the look, “Put this poncho on or change this jacket quick to go with this jewelry.” This has been phenomenal, Valerie. We could go on and on.

I'm sure Valerie will share some other information with us, but the reality is, and I want you to know, that you will get so much value from being a part of that group. It doesn't cost you anything. You're going to learn so much from her expertise. You're going to learn things like closets, how to take things that mean something to you and how you can incorporate those. How can you accessorize? How can you show up?

Take advantage of the fact that she is a certified image consultant. We are in the day where we're doing a lot of digital stuff. Remember the day when we talk about how to go from day to night? That's a good question, but now it's like, “How can I go from Zoom to being at this networking meeting to then after that I have to stop at the store and then I'm going out to dinner?”

What are all those things? Sometimes it may not be dressing. Maybe it might be throwing an extra something in your purse that when you're going here to here, you do that. Those are the things you help people with and the value you provide. You don't even charge for that, which I think is amazing. I'm going to encourage everybody to take advantage of that. This episode was great. I know, Valerie, everybody is going to want to connect with you. What is the best way for them to do that?

ValerieWeaver.com. There are links to join my group, know more about Park Lane Jewelry, request a catalog, and request a private consultation. My platform is ValerieWeaver.com From there, you'll find links to all the things that we've talked about.

I appreciate you being here so much, Valerie. You were phenomenal and very generous in sharing your brilliance and your zone of genius. I get to catch you here for a lot longer with all the questions that came up for me. I'm sure it did for the people who are reading and the people who took notes. Go to the group. You're going to get your opportunity to be able to ask her. Check out her website. Do all of those things. Believe me, it is going to be something that is going to be fun as well as profitable even. That is great. Thank you again, Valerie, for being here with me.

Thank you, Patty.

Everyone, thank you so much for joining us on the show. If you enjoyed this episode and I'm sure you did, please subscribe and review the show on your favorite platform. Thank you so much for being here with us. Make sure you go check out her group, go learn some good stuff and get your statement on whatever that may be for you. I appreciate you spending a little part of your day-to-day. Please go and have a phenomenal day. Thank you so much for being here.