So many delegates come through our doors and what sets apart the women who go on to be successful personal stylists to the ones that simply don’t is their confidence or rather their belief in themselves. Surprisingly it is not always the ones who grasp all the knowledge straight away or even the most stylish ones; that’s why even I can’t tell during the training what each delegate’s success rate will be.
Sometimes I wish I had a magic wand to transform every delegate into a confident personal stylist but confidence doesn’t work that way, it’s one of those things that you simply can’t buy. However confidence is definitely something you can build for yourself and this is in any area of your life that may be a challenge for you. So how do we build confidence?
Prior to anything else we set the goal, asking ourselves what do we want to achieve? For some that might be leaving their current full time job within 6 months whilst for others it might just be a part time salary. Either way this will define how much effort is going to be required to build the business. For anyone that attends the Intensive Training course together we work on your business plan to establish what you want to achieve and then put in an action plan to actually make that happen.
Up until this point most delegates are very confident, probably as they are still within my world of styling and my confidence in them is probably quite contagious! It’s when they get home, back to their normal routine that doubt can often creep in. This is why having me on the other end of the phone to motivate them post training, helping them with anything they’re struggling really makes all the difference. My personal goal is for every one of my delegates to become confident successful and paid working stylists; with my reputation in line I make it my business to push them all the way.
These are the 5 steps that I believe you need to build your confidence:
1) Accept your Flaws – don’t dwell on them, just work out what they are so that you can improve on them.
2) Acknowledge your Assets – what are your skills?
3) Believe in yourself and trust that you are on the right path.
4) Practice, Practice, Practice! Think about something that comes most naturally to you, it might be driving a car or even tying your shoelaces with everything you can now do unless you had practiced it you would never have been able to do it!
5) Never let compliments get to your head (because if they stop coming your self esteem will be shattered) and never let criticism get to your heart.
The above can easily be applied by any delegate post training. For example:
Step 1: If she didn’t grasp all the theory that’s fine at least she now know that’s a flaw that needs working on.
Step 2: She focuses on her assets; which could simply be: she’s great with people, she’s determined, she’s hungry to learn, she loves helping people.
Step 3: She has to remind herself how far she has come; from the initial idea of becoming a stylist, to booking the course, to attending her training trusting everything is working out for her best interests and not necessarily in the way she envisaged!
Step 4: I can’t stress this enough but she has to practice every single day until looking at clothes and people’s body shapes becomes an algorithm in her head! Knowing there’s no harm in getting it wrong, this is how we learn! Luckily I’m there to keep testing her knowledge until it becomes second nature.
Step 5: If anyone doubts her and her ability to never let it get her down; remembering that is just their opinion it’s not a fact and if anything use it as ammunition to prove people wrong!