5 Reasons I Love Being a Christian Image Consultant
Becoming a Christian image consultant is not what I planned but it’s the perfect job for me.
Today I’m going to have a little bit of fun talking about what I do and why I love it so much. So if you’re curious about the behind-the-scenes of what it’s like to be a personal stylist or image consultant keep reading because today I’m going to peel it back and talk about what a Christian image consultant is and why I love it so much. I’m going to share the things about it that make it an awesome job.
I was really just frustrated with the process, and my body was uncomfortable. I was struggling with an autoimmune flare after having a baby that was really young. There was just a lot going on with my body and the solution for me was just to start wearing dresses. I had several nursing dresses and they were the only thing that felt good.
So that’s what I started wearing. I was struggling to think about the idea of creating a capsule wardrobe based on this one concept of dresses. Then I started looking and researching, because I’m a big researcher, and everywhere I looked people kept telling me that I needed separates for variety because the whole idea of a capsule wardrobe is that you “need to have variety in your wardrobe”.
But this just didn’t mesh with me because I wasn’t feeling like I wanted variety. I was just feeling like I wanted something really simple, comfortable, and authentic to who I was and where I was in my life. About this time, I was talking to somebody and she told me I should just start a blog about what I was going through.
I thought, okay, I can do that. I’ve started a blog before. I have an older food blog that’s pretty well abandoned at this point. I mentioned in another episode that I was on one of these free blogging platforms like 20 years ago when it was first a thing. So I’ve been blogging for a long time.
I have been a writer in many instances. I’ve been to grad school and I’ve written multiple 20-page papers really quickly. So writing is not something that is foreign to me in any way. Which is why I knew I could start this blog. It’s such an interesting evolution of what’s come about since I started because I thought I was just going to be a style blogger about capsule wardrobes.
Then as I got to thinking about what you actually need and how to actually recreate this process, I began to peel back the layers and see that it’s such a dynamic journey and each person approaches it at a different place and with a different mindset. There’s so much that goes into it.
Three years later, I’m still learning that there’s just so much foundational work that has to be done before you get there. That’s kind of the purpose of this podcast, to really address some of these more mindset-type things, and body image things that aren’t so much style-related, but end up affecting your style in so many ways.
A little backstory on me. I do have a bachelor’s degree in communications studying some public relations and branding – how you present yourself to the world. So I have that foundation as well. I have a master’s degree in biblical studies. Focusing on spending four years actually studying the Bible and looking at God’s perspective on everything, which is another part of my business and what I do, and how I work with people.
I’m also a certified image consultant. That is something that I added to my educational resume once I started this business and realized that I needed more education. I’m a color analyst. I’ve studied that piece of the puzzle in depth. I’ve done over a hundred virtual color analyses for people, and I’m currently enrolled in a trauma support, trauma-informed coaching program.
As I began working with people more and more, I realized that there’s this level of internal struggle that a lot of us have about our bodies, how we look, and how we present ourselves. I wanted to be more educated on that. So that’s ongoing. I’m always learning something. I’m a big believer that coaches need coaches.
I’m always involved in something. And this is just the image side of things. This doesn’t go into all the business things that I’m constantly learning and doing. I want to talk about the five things that I really love about my job right now, based on the past few years of working with clients, and, and creating content here and there.
Plus learning what works and what doesn’t and what women really want and what they don’t want. Learning what resonates with me to create for people and what I absolutely hate doing and will not do because I don’t believe in it. So without further ado, here are five things that I absolutely love about this job as a stylist working with Christian women.
Table of Contents
As a Christian image consultant, I get to be creative
Number one, I get to be creative. I am such a big believer in God as a creative person who created the universe. The original creator has passed this on to us since we are made in his image. He has given us that same gift of creativity, and each of us probably manifests that in different ways.
You may actually hear this and think that you’re not creative at all, but I guarantee there’s something in your life that involves making something from nothing, which is essentially what he did with the universe. Making something from nothing is what creating really is. This manifests in other areas of my life as well. I really enjoy the process of cooking.
It’s one of those areas where I sometimes let my kids be involved, but often I kick them out of the kitchen because it’s just this great process for me. I get to start with these ingredients and turn them into something that tastes good. This job gives me the same thing because I get to be creative in an artistic way, especially with the color parts of this. It’s a very creative process.
I get to be creative when I’m creating new content for my people. I’m very much in creator mode right now. I get to take all of these ideas and concepts that are all over the place and synthesize them into something that’s cohesive and makes sense for people and then helps them get a win on their journey. It’s really fun for me and it gives me that outlet.
I used to be big into crafting but with six small kids, that’s actually more of a headache than a help at this point because they get into my supplies and I can’t get anything done. This gives me an outlet for that creative nature that God has instilled in all of us. And it just allows me to feel like I am mimicking him as I take something then take nothing basically and create something out of it.
As a Christian image consultant, I get to encourage other women
The second thing that I really love about this job, which is surprising to me because of my personality, is that I get to encourage other women. It’s funny because I never really thought of myself as an encourager. I’ve always really thought of myself more as a judge, one of these tough love, hard love kind of people. But I’ve discovered as I’ve gone through this process that is not something that feels good to me.
It used to when I was younger and I was following the world’s way of doing things. I was a little bit more liberal in my mindset and I just never thought of myself as an encourager. I’m still probably not the greatest encourager. That’s why I have some great admins and helpers in my business that fill those gaps as well.
I love seeing forward progress and I love helping women see the small wins because that’s something I’ve learned is so crucial in this journey. It’s not an overnight fix or a quick fix. It’s not even really something you can fix in 30 days or even three months with a program. This is a journey and each woman is in a different place, and I get to encourage her right where she is.
I get to say, this is great and keep moving forward. I even have learned about myself and how to encourage people and also give them feedback in a way that’s not harmful, which has been such a growth journey for me. Taking that hard line of “this is what’s wrong and let’s fix it” to something softer that I think could work better like “I think that you should try this.
And if you don’t like it, that’s fine, but hey, it’s a great idea, worth trying.” Getting to encourage people, especially as an introvert who doesn’t get out much with small kids and who doesn’t go to a lot of large places and gatherings (which would drive me crazy anyway). I get to encourage women in these smaller settings and these more one-on-one conversations.
It just makes me feel like I am fulfilling in some ways God’s call to us to be an uplifter of others and to live in peace with people. Especially as I’m getting older, to the Titus 2 calling to mentor other women. I feel like this is much more in alignment with who God’s calling me to be.
As a Christian image consultant, I get to share what I’ve learned over many years
The third thing I love about this job is that I get to share all of this crazy knowledge that’s been in my head for so many years. As I mentioned earlier, the first time I ever came across the concept of capsule wardrobes was back in 2015. Eight years of focusing on this one concept and trying to tweak it and make it work and failing so many times, like a million times.
There’s a quote, “Fail forward faster.” I mean, that’s what it’s felt like for me. It’s really nice and honestly, the truth is it’s still a journey. It’s always a journey. I am still on the journey. I have not arrived at capsule wardrobe perfection. I’m like maybe 95% of the way there at this point. I don’t even know what a hundred percent looks like, to be honest with you. I don’t know if anyone has ever reached a hundred percent.
It’s just so nice to be able to take these experiences that often can feel really vain in a way, when we think about clothing and wardrobe, depending on your mindset and how you feel about it. It can feel like a vain pursuit and something we shouldn’t approach. You know, the Bible has a lot of things to say about modesty and vanity and how we shouldn’t focus on that.
On the flip side of that, we have to get dressed. It’s a societal standard, thank you Eve for the fig leaf. There’s a social aspect of this too, and it’s got so much overlaid in it. Being able to just share all the things that I have picked up and learned and all the advice that I’ve gotten from so many wise people, things that I have read from business books or decluttering experts, or all these different things that I’ve taken and picked up and getting to share all of it.
I share, share nutrition stuff in my intensive program because all of it comes into how we feel about our bodies. I get to take this whole body of knowledge, everything in my head, and I get to just dump it out in a way that makes sense in a holistic style perspective. I think that we all love to share our knowledge. There’s probably a vanity in that as well, but for me, it is fun to get to see the dots connect for people and take what they need from it and move forward.
As a Christian image consultant, my faith has a place to shine
The fourth thing I love about this job is that my faith really has a place to shine. And when I talk about faith, I’m specifically talking about the spiritual gift of faith mentioned in the Bible. I don’t know if you’ve ever taken one of those spiritual gifts assessments, but I have taken many throughout the years, and I have constantly and consistently gotten faith as my primary spiritual gift.
But what does that even mean? Some of them are really easy to know how to take this and use it to serve the kingdom. But with something like faith, it’s an internal schema about how you view God and the world, and it’s a little bit harder to think about how to take this concept and turn it into something that benefits the body of Christ.
For me, this is really been one of those things where especially in the deeper part of my program, when I’m working with people closer and more one-on-one. I’m getting to peel back a lot of the layers and really dig into a lot of the things that they’ve been conditioned to believe about themselves and break those barriers down.
I get these moments where I get to just encourage women that God is who he says he is, and he’s who he says he is for you. And to just let that faith be a strong part of my message to them. When we are in these moments at times I get to pray for them to have greater faith. I get to share my faith as a gift with other people which has always been a little bit of a harder thing for me to do.
I’m good with praying for you to have the faith that I have, but I don’t know what to do with it. Getting to use it in my business has been really impactful for me along with my second and third gifts: knowledge and teaching. I’m on my own faith journey and feel like I’m in alignment with who he is calling me to be and how he created me to be, and the gifts that he’s given me and using them effectively and wisely in the kingdom.
As a Christian image consultant, I get to see ashes and beauty
My fifth thing, my favorite thing, is that I get to see beauty from ashes and I get to see it in a way that still takes my breath away at times. If I could only have one thing, this would be it, and I could talk about it endlessly for hours. The thing about this process, that we spend the first month of the Radiant Woman Intensive focusing on, is discovering your unique beauty, and doing that in a way that honors how God created you from a color perspective, an essence perspective, and how God created you from your body perspective.
We focus on all of these things. What I have found, and this came up the very first time I ran this program back when it was called something different, is that the way we think about ourselves is so complex and complicated and goes back to many things that have been said to us and how we view ourselves.
It’s one of the reasons why I also picked up trauma certification as part of my process because I didn’t want to feel so inept at times because women have come to me in these moments during small group coaching. You build this intimacy with these other women and you get comfortable enough to talk about why you hate your arms.
It could be that you were in a car wreck and had this terrible scar and hate it But these things are deep-rooted and they are painful in a lot of ways, and it is normal and common for me to cry with my clients when we’re in this phase of the process because I see the ashes and I see the hurt and I see the trauma.
I get to stand there and hold the space for them to say that it’s okay to feel broken and it’s okay to recognize that this brokenness is affecting your image of yourself. In the end, of course, this affects how you look, how you get dressed, and how you present yourself and your testimony in the world, which is all part of our overall image. And I feel humbled in a way that I don’t have words for, and so privileged that I get to be a part of this journey.
I am at a loss for words at times. It’s such a deep experience for me. I’m almost about to cry right now just because I am humbled that I get to be a part of this journey for people. It’s a beautiful thing. It’s a painful thing. And I get to stand with someone for several months as we go through this process.
At the end of this process, I get to see the transformation and I get to see the healing that is taking place. I get to see the changes they’ve had in themselves. Honestly, at the end of this, we have this process and it’s about simplifying your wardrobe and making it really easy so that you can just get up and get dressed in five minutes and go on about your day.
You know, go take care of your kids, go to that job, go do your calling, like do what God called you to do. That’s the whole purpose of this. Even if my clients feel still feel really overwhelmed with the process because it’s just so much information I still get to see the healing that’s taken place. I get to see that they’ve become a different person. I get to see increased confidence.
To me that is such a gift to see brokenness being healed, to see God’s hand. This process of taking something that was just destroyed and this mental thought of themselves was destroyed and God making it beautiful only the way that he can do. I’m just the facilitator as always. I just facilitate and ask the hard questions and encourage you that God is still good when you feel terrible. And that’s just what I do.
Final Thoughts on Being a Christian Image Consultant
It’s so ironic to me because I started in this place where I felt pretty broken, at least physically. I took this journey and I took people with me. I’ve learned and grown as I have been in this process. It’s changed me and it’s changed the people that I work with. Even the people that are in my free Facebook group that I haven’t worked with directly.
I see their transformation. Some people have been in that group with me since day one. I see their small wins, and it’s just beautiful to me to get to see them taking confidence back in themselves and using that to become who God has called them to be. I just wanted to share a little behind-the-scenes of what it’s like to be an image consultant or personal stylist or wardrobe consultant or whatever you want to call me.
Don’t call me a style blogger. I’m not big on that one. I’m definitely not an influencer because I don’t share any of that stuff. I am just a facilitator of authentic beauty, I suppose, that is what I would call myself at this point. Helping women to find God’s path for them and to see themselves as God sees them. And it’s really a beautiful process.
If you’re still here and listening to me talk about my job and why I love it, thank you for being here. If this resonates with you and you would like to be part of this journey I would love to have you. I would love to see your transformation. I would love to stand in the space for you while you heal some of these thoughts and patterns in your head and be your encourager and help you see yourself as God does. If you are interested in the intensive, I will tell you can at least go look at the sales page.
I do want to leave you with this little nugget: who you are, how you see yourself, how you present yourself, the clothes you put on your body, the way you wear your hair it is a journey. How many clothes you have in your closet, and whether or not you like them – it’s not like you step over a line and suddenly it all makes sense. It’s an ongoing process that’s going to change with you as you change, as you grow, and as you age, inevitably, as we all do. And it’s going to be an experience.
My encouragement to you is just to be authentic. Listen to God, pray and ask him, seek his word, and search out what he has for you. The calling he has for you, how he wants you to present yourselves, and how he wants you to show up in the world. I hope that you are blessed by what he has called you to do and who he has created you to be.
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Those are just 5 reasons that I love being a Christian image consultant.
Stacey is the owner and creator behind Radiantly Dressed. She is a certified image consultant and AICI member focusing on creating simplicity in wardrobes via color and style.
