Megan Tobler (00:00.566)
All right, Conni, I am already fired up. Even before we hit record, we were just having the most stimulating conversation. So welcome to the Self-Starter Podcast.

Conni Jespersen (00:08.568)
Thank you, Megan. I’m so happy to be here.

Megan Tobler (00:10.876)
Me too, and you know what? think my husband’s going to be very happy that you’re here as well because he desperately thinks I need some help in the wardrobe department over here. So with that being said, I’d love for you to just start off by introducing yourself to the audience.

Conni Jespersen (00:25.934)
Hi, okay, well I am Conni. My brand is called Art in the Find, because I think there’s an art to finding unique things for people, every person is unique in their own way. And I do wardrobe styling for a living. I call myself an educational stylist, which means that I take an educational approach to teaching and helping to empower women to get dressed every day. I feel like you deserve that, at the very least.

And I have a background in education. I was a teacher for eight years before I went into what I’m doing now. And I’ve been doing what I’ve been doing now for 12 years almost. I can’t believe it. And I live outside of San Diego in Encinitas, a small city there. And I have one daughter who is six. And we have one dog as well, who’s like my child as well. He’s eight and a half. His name’s Miles. He’s a dachshund and he pretty much goes everywhere with me.

But yeah, I love serving women and helping them dress for the everyday and the in-between.

Megan Tobler (01:27.64)
Well, what’s so interesting about what you said, I mean, obviously everything is interesting. I love every bit and piece of everyone’s story, but that you were previously a teacher, but even though you’re no longer a teacher, you are still in the educational space. So what kind of made you leave the teaching world and jump into more of the fashion space?

Conni Jespersen (01:42.318)
Absolutely.

Conni Jespersen (01:49.806)
Well, I’ve always had a creative drive, been very ambitious. I’ve always been somewhat of an entrepreneur. I made my, like did lemonade stands when I was younger. was, my sister is almost nine years younger than I was and she was going on a trip to the East Coast. It’s something that West Coast schools typically tend to take their eighth graders to the East Coast for American history. And I was a chaperone for her trip.

because I was nine years older than her, so I was in college at the time. And I, know, my parents didn’t have a lot of money to send both of us there, and I was in college, and I worked at Olive Garden as a waitress. And so I would go to Costco, bags of candy bars, and bring them to my shifts at work. And I would sell the candy bars to all the employees on every shift every day, and made hundreds and hundreds of dollars to save up to go on this trip, because I wanted to travel, I loved to travel.

I’m so inspired by, used to love photography. And so there is this drive that I saw in myself that if I was gonna do something, I was gonna do it really well. And then when I was in college, I was studying education because I actually wasn’t aware that wardrobe styling even existed as a career. I went up to college in Northern California. And so I just was always good with kids. I also started a babysitter’s club because I read the whole series of books. And I just thought,

being with kids and teaching was the natural next step as being good for, sorry, there’s miles in the background, as being good as a career, a next step career. And because of that, as I was going through college, then I kind of, I don’t know, I didn’t know what else was out there. So as soon as I graduated, I started teaching down in San Diego, which is where I live now, and through the course of teaching.

I just, knew I loved to educate and the depth of the education that existed there and I wanted to teach people, after like year over year, I don’t know if it was kids that I wanted to teach. You know, I mean, education is an honorable profession. I just didn’t, I saw some other stage for myself that involved me possibly talking with adults instead of children. And then Rachel Zoe came out with a show. She’s a celebrity stylist.

Conni Jespersen (04:10.006)
And as she was coming out dressing celebrities, I thought, there’s something visual that’s connected to what I do, both in teaching, I actually, caveat with, I was a history teacher. And so there is a connection between history and also what happens in fashion throughout the course of history. And that really like lit me up. What are people wearing throughout the course of time? Why certain people wear certain things as certain events are happening?

And so that was really exciting to me. And then Rachel Zoe came in. I also intersected with, I started babysitting for a family who the woman was a philanthropist and also took a lot of care into what she put on her body. And that was really my model for all of these things like aligning and colliding at the same time and me realizing like, well, I don’t wanna teach anymore, but I do wanna teach in a different way. And so I think in 2012,

I started a blog, kind of came up with a name and just my last year of teaching started writing a blog and talking about all of this stuff and aligning with style and then tried to style interiors a little bit and tried to style for editorials a little bit and then realized I really wanted to just do one-on-one and educate the individual person to help them dress a little bit better. So all evolved over the course of a few years, but it led to.

Megan Tobler (05:35.714)
But it makes so sense when you’re talking about it because clearly you had this pull to be able to help people. And especially in the history space because history is storytelling. It’s the same thing we’re telling stories year after year, making sure that we’re able to learn from this. But if you really think about what you’re doing today, what you’re wearing is also telling a story.

Conni Jespersen (05:42.082)
Yes.

Conni Jespersen (05:47.809)
yes.

Conni Jespersen (05:58.559)
Absolutely. Absolutely.

Megan Tobler (06:00.792)
So that’s kind of what I was thinking about when you comparing history and like the education space to kind of what you were doing now. You’re helping your clients tell their own personal story. And what you put on your body is very telling about kind of what’s going on in your life, how you’re feeling. And I will say for me right now, this is where I started this episode. My wardrobe these days is pretty much sweatpants and a sweatshirt because I’m on the floor with a toddler, but I know.

there’s a better way to be able to be comfortable and well-dressed rather than kind of looking like a bum every day. And so this is why I was, again, really excited to have this conversation with you because there are different ways to be able to present yourself in a way that you want to put yourself out there, but also in a way that is very comfortable for you, whatever that may be. So I definitely want to dive a little bit further into that today to be able to make sure that

Conni Jespersen (06:51.214)
Yes.

Megan Tobler (06:57.206)
People are able to dress based on their unique style.

Conni Jespersen (07:00.43)
Mm-hmm and to also Support a little bit about what you’re saying, especially when you’re in the new mom space So I have a six-year-old so I’m a little bit farther removed from that But one thing I tried to do as a mom

as of a young infant was still at least aim maybe once a week to try to get dressed for just myself. Because that is one thing that we as moms really forget is who we are as we have children. And it’s not bad, we let ourselves go towards our children and they take up a lot of our time and energy and it’s very exhausting. And so then what you put on your body goes on the back burner, but then.

That also is a reflection of kind of how you’re feeling. We don’t have a lot of energy to put into getting dressed. We want to.

And so I tried to aim once a week, if I could just get myself dressed, if it’s even in a dress, I happen to have a baby in the summertime. And so it’s a little bit warmer, it’s easier to put on a dress. But if you could pick one outfit formula, some outfit formula by what I mean by that is, what do you like to put on your body? Is it pants? Is it a pull-on pant? Is it a dress? And you just do that once a week to start. That’s something, right? Like that’s getting you somewhere because it is a reflection.

weighs heavily on our mood if we’re consistently in clothes that don’t make us feel great every single day. Even if, yes, it is. And if you even, you know, I get a lot of clients that say like, during COVID, I was in athleisure a lot, like every day. And that was really fun for a while, but now I’m ready to get out of athleisure and I don’t know what it looks like.

Megan Tobler (08:26.85)
It’s true.

Conni Jespersen (08:41.378)
There isn’t anything wrong with being in athleisure if you feel like that’s the best version of yourself. But if you’re ready to show up as a different version of yourself, you have to get back to like, what do I want out of my style? What do I want out of my clothes that I’m gonna put on my body? That’s like a good place to start, because it feels overwhelming. Like where are you supposed to start? So.

Megan Tobler (09:02.904)
Well, and that’s a really big question to ask yourself. So when you’re working with your clients, how do you actually get down to the root cause or the root of who do they want to be? What image do they want to put out into this world?

Conni Jespersen (09:12.087)
of who they are.

Yep, it starts for me with your personality. You can’t deny your personality, right? Like you, all your life have maybe either had people telling you or you knew you were this type of person. I’ve always been, my dad used to say that I walked like a cow and what he meant by that was I walk really heavy with a big presence when I’m walking into a room. He didn’t mean that to be offensive. It was more like, wow, she’s loud. And I am, I command a

And I know that so how would you describe that as a personality descriptor? You’d say that’s an extrovert right like we know what that is and so as an extrovert what that looks like as clothing is potentially bringing in a print versus bringing in a neutral or a solid or wearing a bold color versus wearing a minimal neutral again, and You look at that and you say who am I how would I describe myself? How would my friends describe myself, but ultimately?

you can’t continue to rely on others to ask you what it is that you want out of your style. You have to start with who am I as a person? How would I describe myself if no one knew who I was, have never met me before? And you have…

Quick, know 30 seconds to describe who you are to a group of people so you could say, okay Well, I’m quiet or I’m reserved. I am organized or I am disorganized or I and so as these words come out You are starting to describe who you are that is related to what you want to put on your body Because you can instantly recognize when you put something on and it doesn’t feel comfortable to you There’s a reason why it’s not like a lining with your personality and then there’s a reason why when you put something on

Conni Jespersen (11:02.892)
and it feels just like you, there’s a lot of alignment with who you are. And it’s asking that question, well, what’s, or moreover, describing who you are as a person first is the kind of baseline that you start at. And that’s really hard for women who focus on other people all the time to do that for themselves.

Megan Tobler (11:23.604)
Absolutely, I’m nodding my head yes because I can understand how it’s difficult because I typically put other people in my life first and I’ve definitely put myself on the back burner, at least in the last couple of years here. But the other thing I was thinking of is that I typically gravitate when I’m shopping towards the neutral colors. However, if I were to describe myself, for the most part, I’m pretty bubbly if you were to meet me in real life.

I wouldn’t say that I’m a total extrovert, but I’m like an introverted extrovert. I can talk with anyone. I’m very social and for the most part warm, but my wardrobe is reflecting something completely opposite. Today I’m in very bright colors, cause this is my company brand. So that’s what I try to do when I’m on camera. But when I’m not, almost always I’m in like a black, a white or a gray. And I noticed sometimes when I put those on, it’s sometimes easier to blend in.

Conni Jespersen (12:20.92)
Yeah.

Also, it’s what’s available to, like brands most of the time have the colors that a majority of people are going to buy. So they’re looking at it from a marketing standpoint. And what sells the most is usually white, black, gray, know, those colors that just kind of, again, blend in with everything else because it’s cheaper for them to manufacture. And so they just continue to make those things. And there isn’t anything wrong with that unless it starts to feel like it’s not

Megan Tobler (12:24.376)
Mm-hmm.

Conni Jespersen (12:52.368)
reflection of who you are. And sometimes you choose those colors, not you personally, but we might choose them because it’s just easier. Like it’s easier if I just throw this black on with this black and not have to think about it a lot. But if you start again asking yourself, what do I want out of my style? Is it that I’m wearing black because I want to show off as being powerful? I want to be the CEO role in the business that I am. I want to be chic. Those are words that then align with the color black.

or even hiding, right? There was a designer in Fashion Week a few weeks ago that had said, I wear black so I’m not being noticed because I want people to notice the clothing that I’m producing and or creating. And that makes sense to me. When it makes sense, that is an alignment. If you’re doing it just as a default, then you have to do a little bit more investigation, I would say, into yourself and again, what you want.

Megan Tobler (13:46.646)
And I would say for me personally, it’s just the convenience of not having to think about it like you were talking about at the beginning of that. It’s because I don’t know how to put things together. I’m accessorizing is the last thing I think about. For me, just to even, if I have to go anywhere, my husband knows that literally my whole entire closet is on the floor because I’m stressed out on what I’m going to wear because my entire wardrobe is athleisure these days.

Conni Jespersen (13:53.998)
Please.

Conni Jespersen (14:12.76)
Yeah. No, definitely not.

Megan Tobler (14:12.886)
So I need some serious help in this department. And I know that I’m not alone because there’s a Athleisure brand and like Empire for a reason because it’s comfortable and convenient, but we’re out of the pandemic area at this point. We’re back or really trying to transition back into like normal life still. And we need to be able to have some go-to outfits. So how would you recommend that we start thinking about our wardrobe?

Conni Jespersen (14:21.986)
Yes.

Conni Jespersen (14:38.328)
race.

Megan Tobler (14:42.552)
once we decide, what is our personality and kind of build it from there.

Conni Jespersen (14:46.21)
Yep. So the next step, is what I would say is like you first you’re defining who you are. Next thing is you actually have to take a deep look at your lifestyle and this shifts like anytime you go through a lifestyle change. So just having a child or moving, retiring or

getting a new job somewhere. Each of those things requires a lifestyle shift. So that means what you start doing from Monday to Sunday isn’t the same. The pandemic totally upended what people were doing Monday through Sunday. And suddenly you’re now at home a lot more than you are going into an office. So your wardrobe has to shift and reflect those changes, which we get caught up. It’s a little bit overwhelming. And so I ask my clients specifically to actually list out three to five lifestyle

activities that they do during the week. What do you do on a regular week? So for me, let’s take yesterday. I drop off my daughter at school and then I come back and have a 9 a.m. with my assistant on Zoom. Neither of those things necessarily require me to get…

dressed up or anything for that, but I can choose to if I want to. I typically tend to wear like a matching sweat set or something when I’m dropping my daughter off with like a cool layering piece and a hat. And then if I come back after the meeting, then I might jump in the shower and then get on calls or go to into my office. When I’m doing that, I want to get dressed for the day. So then I’m jotting those things down. All I’m walking my dog, I’m going into the office. And then you can do one of two things, either just

list out actually what I’m wearing. So the sweatsuit matching sweatset hat and Adidas Sambas. And then I’m going to the office. I’m going to wear a blue layering piece with a cream shirt and I have a pair of cheetah print pants on and flats. And you’re literally listing these things out. You could also take a photo of yourself in a mirror.

Conni Jespersen (16:44.992)
about with what you’re wearing. So you’re cataloging and just really getting the data out there and being absolutely realistic with yourself about what you do wear. And when you’re listing your lifestyle activities, what you do from day to day and what you actually put on your body, you start to see, there’s this alignment of I’m doing this every day and I’m wearing these things. And so this is what I either need to buy or this is what I need to focus on styling. Or this is where I feel deficient because I don’t want to wear that for these things.

And now what does it look like? So what do I want to wear? Well, I know that I wear lot of bottoms, meaning jeans or pants, so I’m not gonna suddenly wish to have five dresses in my wardrobe. Maybe I need to then experiment with adding in a few more bottoms, but I’ll just put bottoms as general, because I don’t really know what kind of bottoms yet. There’s a little bit more to that.

But to answer your question in long-winded form, it’s that you have to look at your lifestyle and list out your activities. And yes, it does take a lot of work because you cannot mentally remember this all. And then you have to match what you actually put on, be realistic and take pictures if you need to.

Megan Tobler (17:56.13)
So what happens though if your current reality is different from what you would like it to be in the future?

Conni Jespersen (18:03.17)
Yep, it’s gonna consistently shift, right? So you can, for right now you might be in athleisure five days a week, but two days a week you wanna focus on bringing in pieces. It’s a slow.

Acquirement, I guess if you will of things we think for some reason if we go through lifestyle shifts So we suddenly have to have like all the new pieces right now Because we live in a culture of quickness and ease We don’t if you just slowly take in one piece at a time that feels a lot more balanced and meaningful and intentional Than you trying to get everything right away. You just start noticing. Okay, I want to Dress like maybe I want to add in again. I keep

referring to a pair of bottoms and like a nice top, right? What does that look like? Well, that’s where I then encourage clients to go into the mood boarding phase of, after we’ve gone through these activities, the mood boarding phase of their kind of style journey, if you would call it that. And that is just getting inspiration from everything around you, whether it’s places you like to travel.

magazines that you like to read or Instagram or Pinterest, those visual places, and you’re just starting to collect visual inspiration. But you don’t want to do it in a super aspirational way. Again, back to I said earlier, I don’t wear a lot of dresses. So if I went and had on my mood board 17 dresses,

I’m not actually probably gonna wear them if I don’t wear them from day to day. So I go back to my lifestyle and I say, okay, if I think I wanna be in bottoms, I might go to then to Pinterest and type in bottoms, outfit, winter or spring 2025.

Conni Jespersen (19:44.43)
for a working mom or for a stay-at-home mom. And so you’re starting to use Pinterest as a driver, like a Google search, if you will. And then you are trying to align your desirable outcome with what you want to wear with some visual inspiration, but you’re using search terms that might make a lot of sense to you.

Megan Tobler (20:05.612)
And I like what you said too about building your closet slowly because I think we’re in an age and it might be shifting a little bit, but fast fashion is just kind of coming at you and it’s inexpensive, but you literally wear it once and it’s trashed. But I personally, think this is probably why I’ve had difficulty in the past like purchasing things is because I’m not really a fast fashion person. I typically like the nicer timeless pieces that I can

Conni Jespersen (20:09.038)
this.

Megan Tobler (20:34.808)
keep in my wardrobe for years because it never goes out of style for the most part. So I think that’s what I really liked about, well, I like a lot about what you just said, but building it slowly so it doesn’t feel like it has to be overnight and a drastic shift to everything, just to be able to really condense it down to, this is what I would like it to look like. This is like maybe do an audit of your closet. This is what’s missing. And then from there, when you do go shopping, to be able to…

find those pieces when they pop up that are the right addition to your closet staples.

Conni Jespersen (21:08.706)
Yes, and just again, allowing yourself.

the permission to say, this isn’t gonna come easy. And I am going to have to devote a little bit of time to it. And there’s gonna be a lot of trial and error and experimentation. And that’s gonna be okay, because it’s part of the process. Because in addition to you going and trying new things, you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for right away. But you probably can tell the difference between, hate that, and I really like that. Like you can start to trust a feeling and that,

to the little bit of the trend conversation that you’re saying is, we are getting so caught up in trying to follow the trends and the micro trends that we don’t even know who we are and can’t even recognize that feeling anymore. And that is what I’m trying to get back to with my clients. How do you recognize who you are? You gotta stop trying to follow all these things, stop trying to get everything immediately and sit with yourself. And it is so uncomfortable to sit with yourself because even I move at a really,

fast pace and for me to have to sit and think for a while about what I want is hard. It is so hard and it is going to come with time and you just have to give yourself a little bit of grace to say it’s not gonna come right away but at least me educating myself and researching a little bit about this I’m gonna know way more than if I wasn’t trying at all and that is the biggest takeaway there.

Megan Tobler (22:36.504)
I appreciate what you are putting out there so much because before we hit record, I was telling you that I happened to stumble upon this reel that a woman did where she was saying that if you’re basically, I’m not gonna give the whole thing away just to call her out, but basically it was, if you are wearing clothes like this, then it’s time to donate them to Goodwill. for a woman to see that that is wearing like that, instantly you kind of hide a little bit and you crouch down.

Conni Jespersen (23:05.388)
I’m still wearing that and I’m a stylist and that doesn’t make me some like upper echelon anything. It’s like but I’m wearing clothes like that all the time and and so to support what you’re saying there is again another reason why you’re feeling lost with what you should do because someone is suddenly telling you not to do that and the bigger question is do I still feel good doing this?

And if the answer in yourself is yes, then go and do it. And I have a lot of clients during closet edits ask, is this still in?

And I don’t want to answer that question because I don’t care if it’s still in. Do you still wear it? Do you still like it? Yeah, yeah, okay, yes. Then you still are going to own it when it’s on you. And that’s the biggest thing because ultimately people want, they’re buying into a vibe, right? When you see something on somebody and you really like it you might be attracted to wanting to buy it, they’re selling a vibe. And what you want is the vibe. But what it actually is is a self assurance inside to say, I can do this or I can’t.

And it’s the same with like, I wear a sweater over my jacket. Like I’ll have a trench coat, I was just up in San Francisco for a client the other day and I had a trench coat on and a big sweater over it.

And someone commented and said, every time I try the sweater thing, I just feel so odd and awkward. I don’t want to do it. OK, you actually don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. I like it. So I’ll do it because it feels cool to me. But if you are trying something and it feels so uncomfortable, you get to say, it’s not in alignment with what I want to do. So yay for them and yay for me because I get to say I don’t want to do it. And that is.

Megan Tobler (24:46.2)
I relate to that because I grew up in the skinny jeans era and I’m a petite female so I’m all of 5’2 on a good day. So the new trend of the super baggy ones, it, I just feel on some people they look great but when I put them on I feel like I’m just swimming in them. So I’m trying to find a nice middle ground between like the really baggy ones and like the maybe looser than the skinny jeans. So it’s doing what makes sense for you and

Conni Jespersen (24:50.36)
Thank

Megan Tobler (25:14.412)
whatever makes you show up more confidently. Because I think that’s ultimately what you’re providing these women is confidence because of what they’re putting in their body. But it’s also a mental shift that you’re putting them through too. We’re not just talking clothes, we’re talking about how do you feel. And I talk a lot about this on the podcast about putting your blinders on, ignoring what the outside, what your competition’s doing per se, or

Conni Jespersen (25:26.37)
done.

Conni Jespersen (25:32.109)
Yes.

Megan Tobler (25:43.992)
what other people think and just doing what feels good to you. And so this is just like building a business, but you’re building your wardrobe. And in turn, it’s this like deep personal process at the same time.

Conni Jespersen (25:48.248)
Yes.

Conni Jespersen (25:57.45)
It very much is. Yeah.

I was thinking about like my process of me editing personally my closet is kind of a constant ongoing thing. And funnily enough, I’ll relate this back to the Constitution. As being a history teacher, they call it a living document for a reason because it is ever changing and shifting with our times. And that’s how I look at my closet. This isn’t actually my closet. It’s just a wardrobe rack I use to showcase things when I’m talking to clients. But I’m constantly assessing how I feel.

in a piece the day I am wearing it. And if I am feeling uncomfortable, I’m tugging at something, it doesn’t feel good, it’s tight that day or whatever, I will give it another chance.

And then if it still doesn’t feel good, it’s out of there. And when I say it’s out of there, I usually try to bring in clothes that I know I can consign when I’m going to give them, you know, when I’m done with them. And so I feel good in knowing if I’m gonna give something up, it’s gonna be consigned, or I can probably donate it to some, like someone who is also going to appreciate it. But I’m assessing daily.

to make sure that I’m feeling great about what I have on and if it isn’t making me feel good, I don’t need any dirty talking exes in my closet. They’re out of there. Like that.

Conni Jespersen (27:16.142)
I say with clients, you’re creating a space that should feel like a friendship, that you walk into that space and they wanna give you a great hug, you wanna have a good conversation with them, you can’t wait to be in a room with them and have a glass of wine or a cup of tea and just be with them all the time. That’s how your closet and clothing should feel to you and if it doesn’t, you gotta ask, why am I still letting them in there? Why do they, and sometimes it’s because they don’t, I don’t have any idea of what I should be bringing in

or what I shouldn’t be bringing in. Then it gets back to again, you, go back to you. Who am I? What do I want? What’s my lifestyle like? What’s my vision board? Do those things match? Well, I actually just gained weight or lost weight or had a baby or did this. And so I’m shifting a little bit. Okay, that’s okay.

You still have all the data. You’re still the same person, even though you might look different, feel different, be a different age. You still have your lifestyle to go back to. So there’s again, all those little points of data that you can refer back to, to ground yourself and ground yourself constantly. And it is a constant amount of work. mean, think about we as women, how often we’re judged, how often we judge ourselves. I mean, it’s never ending. And so I think what I’m asking my clients to do is develop almost like a little bit of equilibrium.

in their closet with themselves, a little balance, little graciousness, and just to make sure they have ownership over who they are and what they have in their wardrobe.

Megan Tobler (28:43.55)
So good. Now you mentioned that like your closet is your, it’s a friendship at this point. And I feel like this conversation is very friendship like too. So I know that your clients must feel that. So if someone’s listening to this and they’re wanting to figure out how to work with you, I know there’s different ways and that you can actually help people grow their closets.

Conni Jespersen (28:48.79)
It is!

Conni Jespersen (28:54.222)
Yes.

Conni Jespersen (29:06.285)
Yeah.

Yes, I do both one have well both one I have a style course that people can take online They can start at any time they have forever access to it It’s called signature style method and it walks through all the things we’ve talked about there are four very quick lessons I’m a mom I don’t have a lot of time either and so I wanted to be able to develop quick lessons where you could drink a cup of coffee and Listen to the lesson. There’s a little ebook that they can print out that what they get

to write all their data points down in their little style DNA, I call it as well. And so four lessons and at the end of taking the course, the goal is that you have established your style DNA. You have a greater understanding of who you are, words to use, style words or style descriptors. You have listed your lifestyle activities, your outfit, ideas and formulas, your preferences. I didn’t talk a lot about that, but sometimes it’s also like, okay, if somebody tells me that I should be wearing a V-neck, but I really like to

crewnecks, great, you get to wear crewnecks. Write down that that’s a favorite thing of yours. You take ownership over that. You take that information and develop a mood board and then you can take that and compare it to your closet to make sure that everything’s in alignment. And so that’s the Signature Style Method and I love this course. I make all of my clients who work with me do it before they work with me. And then if you wanted to work on a deeper, greater one-to-one level…

I offer both virtual styling as well as packages for clients in person where we go through everything from a closet assessment or edit, personal shopping, and then my favorite, which is outfit planning and taking something you have and showing you the potential that it has.

Megan Tobler (30:51.372)
And I have to say, I’m gonna highlight for anyone that’s in the San Diego area and California, you’re opening up your own studio. So that way you can actually have that in-person styling feel. So congratulations.

Conni Jespersen (31:00.46)
Yes. Yes. My hope is.

Thank you. My hope is to be able to invite package clients in to either do a color analysis or even a makeup consultation, potentially hair consults with consultants who are going to be helping me, but that they can come and meet and have, I might have trunk shows a couple of times a year so they can try on my favorite brands. I might bring them in to have that experience too. But yes, it’s a great space that I am very excited to have clients come and visit. Yeah, so I’m looking forward to kind of all that this year has to offer.

for.

Megan Tobler (31:34.784)
Look at all the education just keep coming. Seriously, history teacher to full circle moment back to all the education that you’re bringing all these women. It’s incredible. So I know that if I was listening to this, I would wanna know where to find you. So where can we find you?

Conni Jespersen (31:38.222)
Yes.

Conni Jespersen (31:52.616)
Everything is art in the find on my website and on social media I am active I run all of that stuff and so yes, that’s where I am on Instagram mainly

Megan Tobler (32:05.186)
Perfect, well, we’ll be sure to give you that follow. do you have any advice for those women that are looking to start a business of their own? What kind of last minute advice would you give them?

Conni Jespersen (32:16.578)
I would say one thing that has helped, think what I first did if I was going back to 12 years ago, I reached out to community groups. I wanted to be around other like-minded people. And I think that’s the biggest thing is this, none of what you can do, you can do alone. And there is a great book called The Who or Who Not How.

Being able to bring in the right who’s to help support you, you might not have a big budget for it that’s okay right now, but I went out and found creative community groups where I could exchange services, I could bring in a photographer and I could go do a style shoot for them.

and we can kind of go back and forth at first just to develop the, like get the feet wet and really learn how the industry works. But having a community of people who are either like-minded or even not, like nothing to do with your niche, but that they are also small business owners or are doing something. You’re reaching out to people and trying to create your own community, almost like creating your own, I guess, mastermind group of people to bounce ideas off of because there’s,

There is no guidebook for how to do it. I’ve had people ask me how to become a stylist and I did it my own way and this is 12 years later and I’m still always learning. I would say also another thing, always be open to learning and reading and growing and educating yourself and don’t ever stop that. I think as a business owner or small business owner, it comes naturally more to want to learn.

That’s who we kind of are, driven to wanna grow things. And that every time that I’m stuck on something, reading, getting out and doing a creative day, or surrounding myself with people who I can ask advice to, it has been the best way to make me feel like I’m growing and supporting my business.

Megan Tobler (34:09.112)
Well, and I know that you practice what you preach because before we even hit record, you gave me multiple book recommendations. So clearly you are really consuming this. You’re not just giving this advice. It’s actually things that you’re implementing in your own business.

Conni Jespersen (34:19.47)
next

I read at night before I go to bed. read a novel of some sort and then in the morning I read a business book for a little bit even if it’s five minutes, but reading is so important to me It’s just something that I personally love to do No, I was not doing this when I had my four-month-old in my hands As she’s grown and now is in first grade I have a little bit more morning time and evening time But I it’s just something where we as women we need to focus on ourselves. It is not selfish It is not selfish to

focus on yourself. You will be a better mother, a better partner, a better person when you start focusing in on you. And it doesn’t again mean a selfish thing. It just means a quality thing.

Megan Tobler (35:04.214)
And part of that is focusing on your wardrobe. So I’m also gonna do a little shameless plug here because you mentioned community and finding people that are like-minded. If you’re not already signed up for the Self-Starter’s new community called the Together Community, make sure you get on the wait list right now because it is exactly what you just described, Conni. So for that, thank you so much for this conversation because now I have a lot of things to go back to to think about in my own personal style journey.

And not only who I am today, but who I want to be tomorrow and the year after. you know, it keeps going. It’s ever evolving. So, Conni, thank you so much for joining us today.

Conni Jespersen (35:40.59)
It does. It’s a constant evolution. It is. It is. That’s right.

Conni Jespersen (35:48.312)
Thank you, Megan, and thank you to the community of your listeners for being here too.