42: Dress for Success with Gerlinda Stella

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Gerlinda Stella on Business Breakthrough Podcast - Estie Rand

Imposter syndrome is a problem for many entrepreneurs, especially those who began their business on the back of their own talent, skill or ability. Today Gerlinda guides us not only in her expertise as a personal stylist on how to build a good professional wardrobe [for men and women], but also gives some great tools on how to combat imposter syndrome when it rears its ugly head.

We also discuss the all-too-common issue of time-optimism, the trait of thinking everything will take the shortest amount of time possible and then being constantly overbooked and chasing our tails.

 

Teaser: 


My Guest: Gerlinda Stella

Gerlinda has a strong background in retail beauty and fashion, and has seen the challenges women face in the dressing room. Along with her own frustrating fashion experiences, she developed her personal styling services to celebrate everyday women. The best part is, you don’t have to be rich or famous to work with her.

Now, through her weekly Cairns Post fashion feature, blogs, style workshops, presentations, newsletter, e-course and one-on-one consultations she reaches over 100,000 people each week helping them create stunning wardrobes that are time saving, money saving and confidence building.

 

Pivotal Moments:

Worked for ten years in a retail department store and saw the challenges women faced in the dressing room.
Started her styling service as a business-hobby while caring for her three young children.
Received extreme support from friends and family in the initial days, but began to feel imposter syndrome kicking in as she took on more clients.
Took an image consulting course in Melbourne to help her feel more qualified.
After five years in business went through a nasty divorce, forcing her to put the business on hold.
Got a part-time job after the divorce to supplement the income from her styling business and help with her new financial situation.
When her part-time job started interfering with her clients, she quit the job and went full-force into her personal styling business.

 

The Advice:

Many entrepreneurs are plagued by imposter syndrome at some point, and feel unqualified to work in their industry, no matter how successful they really are. Here are two effective methods to combat imposter syndrome:

1. If you feel under-qualified, get some education, a certificate or qualification that gives you a leg to stand on and an easy way to prove yourself.
2. When you are confident that you can provide an excellent product or service, don’t be hesitant to guarantee your product or service. A guarantee assures your clients of what you will provide and stops them from questioning your capability.

 

When you open a new business, don’t keep it under the table and hidden from friends and family. You will need the support they provide and often they can hold the key to publicity and lead generation. When looking to get your name out and find new clients, reach out to the local press. The press needs to fill up their pages and they are always looking for a new story. Put your story out there, explain how you can provide value and start gathering leads and clients. [See link below for press opportunities.]

 

The Struggle:

Gerlinda is a time optimist. She figures out how long a task should take according to the shortest time frame that she has ever managed to complete that task in. She therefore overpacks her schedule and is always pushing herself to achieve more in less time. How can Gerlinda manage her time better to avoid over-exerting herself and keeping to schedule?

 

The Breakthrough:

Since Gerlinda is a solopreneur, nothing gets done in her business unless she does it, so the drive to get things done is a great asset. But it can also be a huge headache and cause pressure and stress. To help avoid the pressure that time optimism brings, Gerlinda needs to become more in tune with how long tasks really take. Once she has figured out how long a task will take, she should then allow double that amount of time to complete the task.

Another important thing to remember is transition time. It takes about 5-7 minutes to transition from doing one task to another. Planning her schedule without leaving any time for transition means that Gerlinda is always running late, so another way to improve her time management is to allow for transition time in between tasks.

 

Resources and Links:


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About the author, Estie Rand

I love turning ideas into money, and helping others do the same. I help small business owners with everything from marketing to fiscal management, business plans to staffing, database architecture to work/life balance coaching and I love it all! What do you need help with today?

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