Seasonal Colour Analysis, Fashion and Frameworks in Your Business
Ep. 7 On Colours, Fashion and Frameworks
Every piece of your business, from your offers to your visuals to your messaging, comes back to one thing: the inner message you’re here to express.
In this episode of The Midnight Edit I’m sharing:
My journey with fashion and how it relates to frameworks in business
Why your message often gets buried under trends, shoulds, and strategy noise
How to use frameworks as scaffolding (not cages) for your creativity
The difference between structures that harmonize your expression vs. those that stifle it
Why clarity on your inner vision is the first step to designing a business model that truly fits
Mentioned Resources
My incredible colour analyst Gabi
A great overview blog on the Kibbe system
Episode Transcript
Welcome to episode seven of the Midnight Edit. It is 2:16, so let's do this.
Backstory for today's episode
I had three separate conversations very recently. One was about the visual strategy for a framework. So how are we going to visually represent this client's intellectual property?
One was about the strategy behind launching email content.
One was about a new brand photo shoot.
And despite these things seeming a little bit different, everything came down to the same starting point. What is the inner message that is wanting to be expressed out in the world?
So when it came to the visual strategy for the framework, it's like what are we communicating through this visual? How do we want people to feel? What do we want them to understand about your work, about your IP?
When it came to the launch email content, it's like what is the message? What do we want people to be thinking? What do we want them to know? If they could only know one thing.
And when it came to the new brand photo shoot, that inner message — what is wanting to be expressed? What are you wanting to share? What are you wanting people to understand? How are you wanting them to feel?
Now, what may seem like a simple question is often the one that is really fricking hard to hear because it's the one that gets buried under other people's opinions, under strategy, under shoulds, under pretty colors and fonts that are trendy but aren't actually you.
It's the one that at some point, I think it probably was really clear for you, but it's shifted and it's evolved just like you have.
So now it's feeling murky and quiet because that inner message, often we can feel it. But we can't necessarily articulate it. We can feel it, but then we're very quick to logic our way out of it.
We're like, wait, no, that can't be it. Or wait, no, that's not what my content strategist told me I should say. That's not what the gurus are saying. Or like, no, I think I like, you know, these sad beige brands, or like super trendy. Like that's what it should actually be. Or, or you know, for the photo shoot, it's like, oh, well if I'm a business owner, I better be holding a laptop.
It's that inner message that often just gets layered and covered and buried under things, especially when we're going through an evolution and all of a sudden, our original message, our original audience, the original pieces that we wanted to share have now evolved and everything has become a bit unclear again.
And this is where I find having strategic structure and a framework to support you can make so much of a difference.
So I wanna use my color and fashion journey as a fun example for what I mean by this.
As I've mentioned in previous episodes my whole life, I've never really felt good in my clothes. It didn't really matter what I tried something. Just fell off and I could feel internally how I wanted to feel. I could feel, I was like, oh, I just, you know, I can't articulate it, but like I'll know it when I know it.
And it wasn't until I got my seasonal color analysis done by the brilliant Gabi, I will drop her links if you're ever wanting to get your colors done, like she is the best. It wasn't until she did that, that something clicked.
I had spent probably, I would say most of, if not my entire adult life, defaulting to black, because at least that looked somewhat good.
So when I found out that I'm actually a dark autumn, who's meant to be wearing the juiciest richest jewel tone colors, it was a little bit mind blowing.
I was prepared. I was like, Ooh, like maybe I'll be like a soft summer. Like they're so pretty. They're so soft, like really nice, like gentle colors.
And instead I got these powerful, dark, rich, like really warm colors. And honestly like once you see it, you can't unsee it.
I remember trying to explain the process to some of my family members, and all they could hear was the potential constriction.
But what if you wanna wear black? Why box yourself in with these specific colors? Like, what if you wanna do this, you wanna do that?
But for me, getting my colors done was a huge piece of the puzzle in harmonizing what my inner expression of what wants to be known and bringing it to the surface.
I even remember this moment when Gabi had draped me in my purple, we call, she called it my magician purple, which is also, yes, the same color as the purple dress I wore in my photo shoot.
Yeah, she said she felt like she could talk to me and I could pull all the pieces out of her brain and weave it into something magical and strategic for her.
Did I mention that she had absolutely no idea what I did for a living that was the first piece of the puzzle for me.
The second piece of the puzzle clicked when I got my Kibbe done, which I could nerd out about for like a ridiculously long time.
So if you are listening to this episode and you're like, I wanna talk more about colors and fashion, like, please send me an email, message me on Instagram. I could talk about this for a long time.
The Kibbe fashion system was a game changer for unlocking my style.
CliffNotes version of The Kibbe system is all about harmonizing the yin and yang element. Of your body, the softness, the sharpness, the dramatic, the classic.
And for me, I landed in a soft dramatic, which can basically be described as diva chic.
And the key thing with soft dramatics is that we are not meant to be wearing jeans and a t-shirt. In fact, crew necks are basically a no-no for us, which is the only thing I've been wearing.
I've basically been living in black active wear because I just couldn't find what worked for me.
And getting my Kibbe done allowed me to go from feeling weird and uncomfortable and like there was a part of me that wanted to be expressed, but I didn't really know what it was or how to put a name to it, to feeling like this glowing goddess in a purple silk dress that.
It had nothing to do with losing weight or gaining weight or any actual changes in my body and everything to do with feeling like what I knew on the inside was actually properly being expressed on the outside.
Because the right framework allows you to harmonize the inner and the outer, and in that harmony, in that support it creates. A scaffolding where you can be seen and where you feel comfortable being seen and where you feel comfortable in that outward expression.
Because there is that harmonization.
Now the wrong framework is claustrophobic and overly controlling, and we could see that if it was like, you know, you can only wear two colors and if you deviate from that, like your garbage or you know, oh my gosh, you've got curves on your body.
I want you to wear a tent and cover them up because God forbid you're a woman with curves.
The wrong framework is claustrophobic and overly controlling and pulls us out of our inner knowing.
Just like with business models, just like with strategy, just like with everything.
But in order to find the frameworks, in order to find the models that support you first, you have to really do the inner work to connect to what message wants to come forward, what expression is longing to be felt.
And you might not be able to articulate that for yourself, but you need to be able to lock into the feeling so that you have some barometer, some lens of discernment that you can bring forward to really go, oh. That's it.
So for instance, with my clients, whenever we are looking at, we're evolving your offers, your ecosystem, we're designing your frameworks.
The very, very, very first thing that we do is we connect to the vision for the life that you wanna live.
How do you wanna feel? What sort of impact do you wanna make? Who do you wanna serve? What is important to you?
Because the wrong framework, the wrong model is going to completely overshadow and squish that out.
And, and this is where we see the problem with how a lot of those kind of online bro marketers and boss Babes are teaching is they're going, there's one model for success. It's mine. You know, the only way to succeed is a membership. The only way to succeed is with a self-study course. The only way is X, Y, Z, which is conveniently what they're selling you on.
But what we actually wanna start with is what is most important to you? How do you wanna feel? How do you wanna be expressed? How do you wanna be seen in the world and, and how do you wanna live your life?
Because someone who wants to prioritize being at home with their kids, with their family, someone who wants to travel the world and have lots of flexibility, someone who like their entire soul gets lit up when they're on calls with clients.
Someone who wants to go. Really, really deep with a handful of people versus someone who wants to get their message out there on a global level.
Someone who wants to be in making as much money, as much overflow as possible because they want to fund a charity for their local community kitchen.
There are so many variables.
And so in order to feel supported by the strategic infrastructure of our business, we have to be clear on what matters most to us, because then what we can do is we can design a framework that holds your body of work, that captures all the elements that wanna be expressed, that balances, that harmonizes, all those different pieces of you.
And then that framework can hold the offer ecosystem can hold the various ways that you serve your people.
So I've talked a lot in, in previous episodes and, and in this one as well about these evolutions that happen and also these different aspects of ourselves that want to come forward that want to. Be seen that want to be celebrated, and I recognize that it can feel really scary.
It can feel really like, how do I do that in a way that makes sense? That flows.
I think flow is the word that I hear the most from my clients. I want things to flow. I want them to fit. I want to feel seen, but I don't want it to feel like this, like piecemeal kind of whiplash inducing experience for not only for myself and for my audience.
So I know I'm sounding like a broken record at this point, but this is where I'm such a believer in frameworks.
So whether it is in, you know, in this example I shared in this episode of the framework of the colors and the fashion that gave me elements and guidelines of what to look for, but still gave me enough room to play creativity to, to really make sure that it worked for what I needed and how I wanted to feel.
Or when we look at our business, it's having the strategic infrastructure in your business that it can hold you and it can hold all parts of you in a way that makes sense.
And I'll be honest, it, it is pretty fricking hard to do that on your own.
You know, in this case, like I wouldn't have been able to do my own colors. I had to hire an expert and I hired someone to do my, um, my Kibbe.
I'd done an intensive Pinterest vortex and I decided to, to hire someone to support me in figuring that out.
And it also took time. It took probably almost a year of living in my colors and living in this fashion and pulling things together for it to click in the same way with our business model.
Having the support of a mentor, having the support of a community like a Mastermind can really help you in making sure that you're constantly being guided back to that inner knowing, to that way that you wanna feel, because along the way, we're going to get pulled in other directions.
I know for myself in my own fashion journey, I kept being pulled into the these trends of like, Ooh, like that looks so good on that person. And then you try it on, you're like, mm, does not feel like me, does not look good on my body. I have a totally different build than that person that's not gonna work.
And same with business models. We can really get pulled into the next shiny thing of like, oh, well, like that person has a membership that looks fun, or that person's doing a live event that looks fun.
And being able to have a strategic mentor, being able to have a coach who is able to really bring it back to like, here's the vision that you told me.
Here is the plan and the architecture that we're building in your business and your body of work and, and being able to hold those pieces so that every single element is strategically architected to very much support you and hold you.
That is what is so key and so important, because I've said it before and I will say it again.
There are a million ways to build an offer ecosystem. In fact, I'm gonna do an entire episode talking about the different ways to build an ecosystem and the different levers that can pull and, and it can feel a little bit overwhelming when you're trying to balance all those things on your own.
But just know that the support is available to you if you need it, and you don't have to do this on your own.
And also know that there is not one right way.
A supportive infrastructure, a supportive framework will feel like you are harmonizing that inner knowing, that inner message that wants to be felt with your outward expression.
And the wrong one will feel claustrophobic and overly controlling.
Now I recognize a lot of the examples that I shared in today's episode are quite visual. So what I have done is actually made some posts over on Instagram sharing the before and after, sharing the transformation of what it, how I used to dress and what my colors used to look like, and the process and, and, and the after.
So I encourage you to head on over to Instagram and check those out. I'll drop a link in the show notes and you can also find me at @emily.mwalker on Instagram.
And if you have questions about this process, if you have questions and just wanna nerd out about colors and Kibbe, or if you're really wondering like, how do I start bringing this strategic infrastructure into my business so that I, I can really feel held as I evolve, as I bring more parts of me to the surface.
I encourage you to send me an email, send me a DM, let's chat. This is very much my jam. I could talk about it all day, every day, and I would love to support you.
✨ Let’s keep the conversation going
I’d love to hear what stood out for you in this episode - feel free to send me a DM on Instagram @emily.mwalker (it's my fav place to hang out!)
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