More than a decade ago, a color analysis inspired Jeannie Stith to change careers from voice-over acting to starting a company from scratch. During the journey, she completely redefined what it means to add value to the world and what success looks like.
Join Jeannie and Nicole in this inspired and joyful conversation about the surprising ways that colors can empower you to become more efficient in your daily life, avoid decision fatigue, and feel confident being who you are.
Have you doubted an idea or vision? Tune in to find out how to get clear about your vision while deepening your self-worth.
Jeannie Stith is the founder and CEO of Color Guru. The Color Guru team analyzes your hair, skin, and eye color to match you to your ideal color palette for clothing so that you can look and feel beautiful and confident in your clothes, shop more simply, and create a coordinated wardrobe. Jeannie’s exclusive color cards have simplified choosing clothes for people in 27 countries and counting!
Color Guru has been featured in DesignMom, The Spark Joy Podcast, and Apartment Therapy.
Jeannie is a mother of two girls in Arden, Delaware. You can most often find her playing in the creek with her daughters, salsa dancing, or watering her current collection of 65 house plants.
“I love efficiency and wanted to make shopping more efficient. My clothes all started to coordinate together and this impacted my wardrobe big time. My overstuffed closet and drawers became streamlined because I had some boundaries around what I was bringing into my closet. I had never had boundaries before and was an impulse shopper. Nobody really teaches us how to shop for what’s right for us.”
“I knew it had provided real value in my life, and it wasn’t direct value like clothes are such an important thing. It was the value of being able to put outfits together so easily that I’m really happy with, which means I have an extra 20 minutes in the morning to spend doing a meditation or having breakfast with my daughters. It was a real time saver.”
“I learned so much about what I consider value is. It’s not just saving the planet or feeding starving people; there are so many ways to provide something really positive in the world. I think I struggled with that though because I felt like maybe this won’t be enough or maybe I’ll be judged in some way. But at the end of the day, I had to say, ‘You know what? This is enough and this is what I have to offer, so I’m going to offer it.’”
“I was really clear on the lifestyle I wanted, and starting my own business was the way to get there. I wanted time freedom, so I’ve grown the company slowly. I could have really hustled and worked 12-hour days and on the weekends, but I didn’t do any of that. I’ve taken the slow path because I feel like I deserve to have the type of life and pace that I want. For me, it’s not being on someone else’s schedule; it’s being on my own schedule and being in control of it. It’s growing at a pace that suits me. So that has been my guiding principle.”
“A common rut is wearing safe colors and neutrals all the time. Some people genuinely love wearing neutrals, but a lot of people are energized by wearing color. Some of those people are stuck in a rut of grabbing the safe colors all the time and at the end of the day, they don’t really feel good in their clothes. When we give them a palette of colors, they often feel like it gives them permission to try it.”
“We’re eliminating a lot of decision fatigue because there are just so many options when it comes to clothing. For most of us who’ve never been taught how to pick anything for ourselves clothing-wise, it’s a relief. There’s freedom in the boundary that we create.”
“One of the things I really encourage people to do, and this is linked to self-worth because it takes some work upfront but it pays off forever, is to get to know your best colors, body shape, and how to dress in a way that makes you happy. Just dig in a little bit to your personal style and how you want to show up because dressing is not hard. You can break it down into those 3 things, and if you can get a handle on them, you can know exactly what to buy.”
“Trends are not your friends. Trends are created intentionally to make us buy more clothes. They are manufactured to make us spend money. Once you know what works on you, color and shape-wise, and once you have some sense of your personal style and how you want to show up, you don’t need trends.”
“The thing about learning which colors are best for you is really about learning the exact shades that are best on you. Everybody has a shade of red that looks amazing on them, but it’s not the same for everybody. There will be certain shades of red that really light you up and highlight all of your natural beauty. One of the things about color analysis is that our focus is on highlighting you, not the color. There’s a yellow for everyone, a red for everyone, blues for everyone. Most colors have at least one shade or several shades that are really good on you.”
“We get so many people who feel like they’re coming home, almost like they knew what they didn’t know. Their eyes are opened and it’s so much fun because their confidence is really boosted, mainly because they now know with certainty that these are things that are going to work for them and look really good on them. They can see the difference.”
“It really is incredible when you see somebody in their perfect colors and what it can do for them.”
NICOLE
Well, I am so excited to be here with Jeannie Stith, the CEO of the Color Guru. Hi, Jeannie.
JEANNIE STITH
Hi, Nicole. It’s so good to be here.
NICOLE
So good to see you. The last time we were hanging out, we were at a leadership training where we had a really nice long dinner and shared stories about relationships, our companies, businesses, and lives. I’m delighted to have you here on the School of Self-Worth.
JEANNIE STITH
I’m so excited to be here. I love chatting with you and I’m sure we’re going to have a great conversation today, for sure.
NICOLE
Jeannie, will you share with everyone a little bit about your journey to starting your company? We’re going to get into what your company does in terms of color, but I’d love if you could share a little bit about yourself. As you talk about your own journey, where has self-worth come into play for you, and how has that affected your ability to start your company, and what you decided to do by launching the Color Guru?
JEANNIE STITH
Sure. It really started 15 years ago when I was introduced to color analysis, which is what we do at Color Guru. My aunt told me that I had to get my colors done and that it was life-changing. At first, I didn’t think much of it. We looked for someone who provided the service in the Philadelphia area, but we couldn’t find anyone. A year or so later, I stumbled upon a retired woman who was doing it out of her house. I had my first color analysis done and started trying out the colors she gave me. I could immediately see that I looked better in those colors. What I didn’t expect were the bonuses that came with that.
Yes, I started to look better in what I was wearing, which felt really good. It was also nice to be able to go shopping and know exactly what to pick. I love efficiency and wanted to make shopping more efficient. My clothes all started to coordinate together because we do this color matching with a family of colors. This impacted my wardrobe big time. My overstuffed closet and drawers became streamlined because I had some boundaries around what I was bringing into my closet. I had never had boundaries before and was an impulse shopper. Nobody really teaches us how to shop for what’s right for us, so we’re all kind of flying blind out there. This idea of starting a business that would refresh the whole color analysis concept really stuck in my mind for years.
I thought it would be fun to make the color palettes modern, because the color palette given to me was a bit dated, and some of the colors I couldn’t even find in stores. But I saw the impact it was having, not just on me, but on my friends who wanted the service too. So, I took seven of my friends to this woman who was doing it out of her house. I was like, ‘How is it that nobody’s offering this service, and me and seven of my friends all wanted it, you know?’ So anyway, that’s kind of how it started. That was the inspiration for starting it. I saw what a difference it made in my own life. Then, I started to help my friends figure out their colors and their friends heard and wanted their colors. It just kind of grew organically from there.
NICOLE
So cool. I love that story because it would never have occurred to me to get my colors done. And I will say, since I met you, and for those of you watching on video, I’m wearing a bright color because I was like, ‘I’m seeing Jeannie, so I should wear my color.’ Since meeting you, I came home and realized that I have a lot of black in my wardrobe, neutrals, and grays. I try to wear colorful earrings, but the base is really neutral. It’s like I should really get my colors done. And I’m curious about you. So, I love that you were inspired by your own experience.
And I know you were in voiceover before, right? That was the work you were doing then. Could you share a little bit about that journey from being in voiceover, to deciding to start your own business? Because that is a big leap in terms of your own self-worth and saying, ‘I feel confident in this.’ Did you have entrepreneurial tendencies? How did you get the confidence in your own mind to say, ‘OK, I’m really going to do this?
JEANNIE STITH
Yeah, well, I was always a freelancer, even with voiceover work. So, in some sense, I was running my own business. I mean, I was doing my own marketing, getting myself jobs, and doing my own billing and things like that. So it was sort of like light entrepreneurship. But I did have entrepreneurial tendencies. I ran an eBay business right out of college where I would buy vintage clothes and sell them for a profit on eBay, back when eBay first started. And I was always finding these little side businesses to do fun stuff with. So what happened with voiceovers? I mean, I loved doing voiceovers for a good 15 years right out of college. It was a great career. But then, in the last five years of the 20 years that I did voiceovers, I just wasn’t feeling challenged by it anymore. I felt like I was just doing it for the money, and that’s fine. But for me, I really wanted a new challenge and something that made me excited to get up and work on it every day. I had started a couple of little things that didn’t really pan out in terms of businesses, and then this just stuck.
It had to sticking power for me. I was really interested in doing it. And when you ask about the self-worth question, what’s interesting to me is, the biggest challenge was that I had a very strong voice in my head saying, ‘This isn’t a big enough thing to do.’ And I don’t mean big as in the size of the business, but big as in helping the world. You know, there was a part of me that was like, ‘Are people just going to think this is superficial? Why should we care so much about what we wear?’ And I had some of those thoughts. But then, what happened was, I just felt deeply compelled to do this. And then I found so much value in it. I knew it had provided real value in my life, and it wasn’t direct value like clothes are such an important thing. It was the value of being able to put outfits together so easily that I’m really happy with, which means I have an extra 20 minutes in the morning to spend doing a meditation or having breakfast with my daughters. It was a real time saver. And then I started getting emails from people saying, ‘This just made my week. Getting my colors done has made me so happy. I’m really enjoying shopping again and clothes feel fun again because now it’s like a treasure hunt for my colors.’ And I just started to get this feedback that also gave me a lot of validation that this is a big enough thing to do. You know what I mean? And I also came to the conclusion that even if it’s just a delightful thing for people, it’s a very fun business. It’s colorful and friendly, and we have an amazing team. And I found a lot of value that I didn’t expect in creating a team culture where people love to work because we have a team of 10 people now. Even just that, I learned so much about what I consider value is. It’s not just saving the planet or feeding starving people; there are so many ways to provide something really positive in the world. So yeah, I think I struggled with that though because I felt like maybe this won’t be enough or maybe I’ll be judged in some way. But at the end of the day, I had to say, ‘You know what? This is enough and this is what I have to offer.’ So I’m going to offer it. That’s what comes up for me when you ask about self-worth.”
NICOLE
Thank you so much for sharing that because I can feel that for so many of us, regardless of the choice we’re making, it’s like, ‘Is this really enough?’ I think that’s such a question for women in roles like, ‘Is this enough, what I’m doing?’ Even if you have a job at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation or you’re working on something that you might perceive as really saving the world, it’s like, ‘Am I doing enough?’ And I think that is such a question for so many of us. So, I love how you resolved that for yourself. And I’m curious about you. Well, first, I’d say what I really get from your company is joy because the colors bring that. And joy is not something to be underrated in this world and in this life. We really all need that joy. Like, when I put on my bright yellow sweater or something with color, I definitely feel more joy, which I think is important. Anyway, I’m curious about you. The journey of entrepreneurship also requires a lot of valuing yourself. And I’m curious if you would mind sharing a little bit more about what you found for yourself, and how you kept doing it, because some of the women listening are curious about that. They’re wanting to dabble in the idea of entrepreneurship or just starting to do something on the side or having a side hustle. How many people these days are starting side hustles? So how did you do it? What has that journey been like for you? Like, ‘OK, I have the self-worth to start this company. People might judge me, but I’m going to do it anyway.’ And then to grow a team and build it as big as you have.
JEANNIE STITH
Yeah, well, a couple of things come up for me. The first one is that I think I was really clear on the lifestyle I wanted, and for me, starting my own business was the way to get there. I wanted time freedom, so I’ve grown the company slowly. I mean, I could have really hustled and worked 12-hour days and on the weekends, but I didn’t do any of that. I’ve just kind of taken the slow path because I do feel like I deserve to have the type of life and pace that I want. And for me personally, it’s not being on someone else’s schedule; it’s being on my own schedule and being in control of it. It’s growing at a pace that suits me. So that has been my guiding principle. Like when my girls get off school, I pick them up at the bus stop at 4 o’clock and my workday ends, period.
I don’t work in the evenings or on the weekends, and I don’t ask any of my team to work in the evenings or on weekends, unless it’s an absolute emergency, which we’ve maybe had two in eight years. So I really value that. And even when we take a team retreat, we’re like, ‘Oh wait, we run an online business where we sell packages 24 hours a day. We can’t just stop delivering results. So how are we going to do this?’ You know, I had already planned the retreat and then it occurred to me that we can’t just stop taking orders. We then put a message up on our website saying that ‘we’re on a team retreat and your results are going to be two to three days late’. And people actually appreciated it. They appreciated that we value our time and that we’re not constantly working on someone else’s schedule or always hustling. You know what I mean? It’s like we intentionally take breaks. What really comes up for me is that I had a really clear vision of what I wanted to achieve, and I did achieve it. And that is still a value that we have as a company.
NICOLE
Yeah, that’s beautiful. I love that you were able to just see like, ‘We can take a break and tell everyone we’re just taking a break’.
JEANNIE STITH
Yeah, we do the same thing at the holidays. We just put a message on our website saying that ‘We’re spending time with our families and your results are going to be a little late’ and we’ve had people email us saying that they love that we’re just, first of all, reminding them that we’re real people with families. We’re not just a business, you know what I mean? And we’ve never had one complaint about it because they know, going in, that the results will be a few days late before they purchase. So yeah, that’s been really great.
NICOLE
That’s awesome. Well, I love hearing that that’s the way you’re running your business because I think it’s important for us to always model that too. Like sometimes, I’ll do that too. I’ll send an email saying, ‘Hey, I’m going to be out for two weeks and you’re not going to get an answer right away.’ And then people are just like, ‘OK, that’s fine.’ It’s not a big deal. So I love that you’ve embraced that as a culture for your team. Well, I’m curious then too. What do you find? Like you were saying, people are trying to get results from it. And I’m curious about the tie between color and self-worth for you. I don’t know if you’ve been asked this particular question before, but that’s what I’m curious about. What have you noticed for people when they start to really recognize and understand what flatters them and what makes them feel good?
JEANNIE STITH
I think we’ve all noticed the difference between wearing sweatpants and baggy T-shirts, and then the way we feel in our favorite dress and shoes. We feel different. We show up in the world differently, and I think that with color, we see a lot of people saying they’re stuck in a rut. We all get stuck in ruts in different areas of our life, but a common rut is wearing safe colors and neutrals all the time. Some people genuinely love wearing neutrals, but a lot of people are energized by wearing color. Some of those people are stuck in a rut of grabbing the safe colors all the time – gray, black, white – and at the end of the day, they don’t really feel good in their clothes. When we give them a palette of colors, they often feel like it gives them permission to try it. They didn’t need permission, but sometimes to get out of a rut, we need someone to give us guidance. They’ve got this guidance that these colors will highlight their natural beauty. When they start trying them on, it’s a delightful experience because most of the time they can see what a difference it makes. We hear people all the time say that they branched out and discovered this world of color and are loving it. It’s making them feel energized, good, and confident when they leave the store knowing they bought something that’s a great choice for them that they’ll probably keep for a long time.
We’re eliminating a lot of decision fatigue because there are just so many options when it comes to clothing. I mean, we have endless options, and this kind of narrows the options. There’s a great book called “The Paradox of Choice” that basically says when we’re given a hundred options, like salad dressing for example, we’re confused and usually way less happy with the one we chose because there were so many options and we didn’t know which one we wanted. We might think that maybe #57 would have been way better. It’s the same thing with clothes. If you’re given three options, you’re pretty sure you picked the right one. Do you want Italian, 1000 Island, or Ranch? You know what I mean? And you’re like, I know that I like 1000 Island or whatever. The same thing with clothes is that it makes shopping much more intentional. For most of us who’ve never been taught how to pick anything for ourselves clothing-wise, it’s a relief. We hear people say they’re afraid they’ll be restricted to those colors if they get their color palette, but just the opposite happens. There’s freedom in the boundary that we create. We’re like, I’m only going to buy my best colors and my best colors are these on my color card. Then it’s so easy to choose and they look good. Now everything in my closet works together. It solves all these problems and it’s really lovely. It helps people feel more confident and excited.
NICOLE
Thank you for saying that because I feel like one of the stores I like always has a very limited color palette. It’s only their seasonal palette, and then there are a lot of options for shapes and sizes. I like it a lot because of that. I’m like, OK, there are colors here and I only get to pick from what they’ve got right now, whereas if I go to a department store or something, I’m like, oh my gosh. It’s like anything we buy these days, right? You open up Amazon for the thing you want and you’re like, holy crap. And now I’m expected to read reviews. I was like, this is too much.
JEANNIE STITH
One of the things I really encourage people to do, and this is linked to self-worth because it takes some work upfront like most things that affect our self-worth, but it pays off forever, is to get to know your best colors and body shape and how to dress in a way that makes you happy. Just dig in a little bit to your personal style and how you want to show up because dressing is not hard. You can break it down into those three things, and if you can get a handle on them, you can know exactly what to buy. They have to fit those criteria.
The shape thing is a whole other one. I resisted the body shape stuff for a long time because I felt like there was so much weird, judgy stuff about it. But once I learned the styles of clothing that look great on my particular body shape, I started to really love my body shape instead of wanting somebody else’s. I learned what worked on it and now I wouldn’t trade it for anything because I know how to dress it. I’m no longer taking clothes into a fitting room that will never look good on me simply because they’re the wrong shape for my particular body. A little work upfront in those three areas and you can really match your closet very easily.
NICOLE
I feel like so many of the women listening are high-achieving and ambitious. Like you said, they want to look good. I don’t know anyone who doesn’t want to, right? It’s just a matter of the effort and energy you’re putting in, and a lot of times it feels like too much effort, so they don’t want to do it, whether it’s the shape of your clothes or the color or whatever it is. All of us, myself included, have to think about it to some degree or another, right? Like if I’m going on TV, I have to think about what I look like because it’s just better that way. It’s funny, it reminded me of a suggestion my sister, who used to be in fashion, made to me once when I was looking for wedding dresses. She said to look at all the shapes in my closet that I already have and then look for wedding dresses that are shapes I already own. My wedding dress was totally like a dress I already had, just a much fancier version of it. But it’s so true. Like what you’re saying, once you start to know what feels good or looks good on you, then I was way more confident at my wedding because I was like, oh well, I know this looks great on me.
JEANNIE STITH
Yeah, exactly. Once you get to know those shapes, you really have them forever. I mean, most people’s bodies don’t really change. Our body shape is pretty much based on our skeletal system. Even if you lose a lot of weight or gain a lot of weight, your basic shape generally doesn’t change, so it’s information that you learn one time and then use forever. Colors are the same. They don’t often change. Once in a while, they do for certain people, like if they let their hair go gray or something like that, it could potentially change their color palette. But most people, even though natural hair color changes, have the same color palette their whole life. So it’s kind of a one-time thing that pays off for years.
NICOLE
I love how you’re saying that because it is really true. Then you can really also be timeless no matter what’s happening in fashion and seasons, to wear what works for you.
JEANNIE STITH
100%, I am very big on not following trends. I have a phrase: trends are not your friends. Trends are created intentionally to make us buy more clothes. They are manufactured to make us spend money. Once you know what works on you, color and shape-wise, and once you have some sense of your personal style and how you want to show up, you don’t need trends. You don’t need wardrobe essentials lists because your wardrobe essentials would be obvious – based on your color, shape, and personal style. Every time I look at a wardrobe essentials list, I get so frustrated because they say I should have a black blazer, but I don’t wear black and I don’t wear blazers. They say I should have a button-down, but I’m curvy and button-downs always gap between the buttons. It just doesn’t work on me. Create your own wardrobe essentials list.
NICOLE
I love that. And then, what would you say about the simplicity and ease? Could you speak a little bit to the joy of color? I don’t know if there’s any science about it, but I feel like there must be something associated with how we feel in relationship to color.
JEANNIE STITH
Correct. This has been studied for so long. In fact, an interesting thing about colors and how they affect us is that branding has been using it for years. Businesses have been using it for years to make us feel a certain way. For example, when we were kids, all the fast food places you would go inside had oranges, reds, and yellows – those warm, intense colors. It’s because those colors make you want to eat and make it hard to relax. They want you to come in, eat, and leave. They don’t want you to sit around. It’s pretty unusual for living rooms or spaces for relaxing to be painted those colors. You see a lot more grays, whites, creams, and blues, which are more soothing colors and have that effect on you that makes you want to relax and take a deep breath.
It’s very interesting. You can dive into how colors affect us, but it’s really fun to start learning that for yourself. What colors really energize you when you put them on or what colors make you feel dragged down? How do colors make you feel? There are some generalizations, like yellow is a very happy color. For most people, yellow causes a happy, joyful feeling when they look at it. So yeah, it can affect us in a lot of ways. In fact, on our color cards that we give to our customers, we have some mood colors. So it’s like how that color feels or if you want to show up projecting a powerful color or a soothing color. That’s been kind of fun to give people as well.
NICOLE
Do people have tendencies around colors that may not actually work with their skin tone or have preferences around that? Does that make sense? It’s a question because sometimes, like my teacher, will say don’t wear red, because it’s one of my go-to strong colors, but it may not work for everybody, right? So is there a tendency for people to have to help them work with a color that works for them, even if it’s not their preference? Does that make sense?
JEANNIE STITH
As a question, I think so. Here’s what I think when you say that about red, for example. We’ll just use you as an example. The thing about learning which colors are best for you is really about learning the exact shades that are best on you. Everybody has a shade of red that looks amazing on them, but it’s not the same for everybody. There will be certain shades of red that really light you up and highlight all of your natural beauty. One of the things about color analysis is that our focus is on highlighting you, not the color. There are certain shades of red that look amazing on you and different shades that look amazing on me. There are very few shades that are off-limits because, of course, it’s a personal choice, but there are some colors that we say aren’t the best for you in any shade, but those are different for everyone. There’s a yellow for everyone, a red for everyone, blues for everyone. Most colors have at least one shade or several shades that are really good on you.
But we do get people who sometimes feel like their color palette doesn’t fit their personality. The most common one is when people have very soft, muted coloring and they look best in softer, muted colors because bright, intense colors like you would wear very well – like an intense green or sapphire blue – will completely overwhelm them and you end up looking at the color and not at them. They have to adjust a little bit because sometimes. if they have a super outgoing personality, they’re like, well, I want to show up in a room and be like, damn, look at my color! It’s interesting to see how they adjust. Some people obviously just keep wearing those colors, but some people really come around once they see how good they look in the softer colors. They’re like, oh, this doesn’t have to affect my personality in any way. It’s just highlighting me. You can see my eye color because I’m not overwhelming it with something too bright.
NICOLE
You totally answered my question because I didn’t know what it was until you said it, but it was that sometimes we gravitate towards certain colors and we really like them. I feel like sometimes I gravitate to saturated ones because I know they work well with my skin tone, right? Versus what actually looks best on you and highlights who you are. You said there is a red for everyone because that would make sense. What would work on me would not work on you, for example, right? We have very different skin tones.
OK, you answered my question. Great! Because I wonder if for people, once we start, if that also affects their confidence when they realize what feedback they get from people around them, once they really start to step into their shades?
JEANNIE STITH
Yeah, I mean they love it. We get so many people who feel like they’re coming home, almost like they knew what they didn’t know, you know what I mean? People mostly consciously know two or three, maybe four of their best colors and they’re right. But then we give them a bunch more shades that, for whatever reason, they never tried or weren’t sure about. Their eyes are opened and it’s so much fun because their confidence is really boosted, mainly because they now know with certainty that these are things that are going to work for them and look really good on them. They can see the difference.
We show them the difference in our color comparisons with their photos and deliver that to them. Then they can see it in the mirror. We often get comments like, “I just can’t believe how good I look.” Like this one woman who’s actually featured on our website now with before and after photos. She said she feels so sparkly. She kept using the word sparkly and I was like, you look so sparkly! It’s almost like her eyes came alive. She was wearing super muted colors, which are great on some people – nothing wrong with muted colors – but she looked amazing in warm, bright, saturated colors. The difference was astounding.
NICOLE
That’s so cool. Well, I have sort of a left-field question for you. I know you have daughters. Do they allow you to help them with this in the way they dress? Do you dress them? Or how do you start to tell other people, like let’s use your family as an example, that these colors would actually look better on them? Do they listen to you on this or are they kind of like, whatever, mom?
JEANNIE STITH
Well, they’re 7 and 10, so they have some knowledge of it. They know their color types, but I’m not big on forcing them to wear their colors all the time. Like if it’s a hand-me-down, I’m like, that hand-me-down is just fine. But it is interesting, my younger daughter, who’s 7, is especially very visual and has an eye for design. She’s already tweaking her own clothes. She had this shirt with long sleeves and she took the sleeves up and tied them around her neck. It looked amazing, like a halter top. It was the coolest thing. She will often comment like, oh, that color is particularly good. And I’m like, yeah, it is. So I’m just trying to gradually get them into it, but I’m not too strong about it because they’re just so little.
NICOLE
Yeah, I mean, is it with other people too? You’re just sort of subtly say that’s a nice color on you, like you just mention it, when it works.
JEANNIE STITH
Yeah, I definitely mention it when it works. And I never give unsolicited color advice ever. But I do love seeing people in a color that’s amazing on them and being like, yeah, wow, that is truly highlighting your coloring. Your eyes are popping and it’s amazing. It really is incredible when you see somebody in their perfect colors and what it can do for them. That’s so fun.
NICOLE
I love it. When you first shared about your business, I was like, oh, it’s just so fun. And again, I think that joy is really important in our lives. So I feel like what you’re doing is so awesome. I’m curious, do you have a tip for anybody who’s trying to boost their self-worth in any way? What would you give them as a suggestion for something they could start to practice or look at for themselves to help with their self-worth, whether it’s color or in their daily lives?
JEANNIE STITH
The first thing that popped into my mind is actually food, which I’ve been working on in the last year. I’ve really changed what I’m eating and I think it’s a self-worth thing. I really tuned in to how different foods make me feel, and I think valuing how you feel is pretty critical to self-worth. Being conscious of how food makes you feel, like for example, last week my daughters made brownies. They love to bake, and I ate 3 brownies and felt so bad afterward. My stomach was hurting, and it felt like a rock in my stomach. I was just thinking that I want to mentally remember that it didn’t feel good and that I don’t want to do that again.
I want to become more intentional and slowly, slowly, slowly, I am becoming more intentional about what I eat and eating a higher proportion of foods that make me feel really good when I eat them. It’s become really clear as you practice presence with your body and what feels good. It’s become super clear what feels good and what doesn’t. So it’s been a very slow journey for me with food, but I think it’s a journey of self-worth and it’s been really interesting to discover that.
NICOLE
I think it’s so true that there are so many areas for all of us around self-worth. I used to always think when I was younger that once you have self-worth, you’re just done, like now you’re done with it, right? And as I’ve gotten older and wiser, I’ve understood that there’s a journey for each place and that journey is never really complete. Once that one door has closed, there’s always a new one that will open for you for that next place. So I love that you’re sharing that for you, it’s been around food for the last year. And I think for all women, body image and food is such a journey. It’s a lifelong one. It’s not like we’re ever completely healed, but we’re always in a place where we’re like, is this better? Can I be at the next level on this one?
JEANNIE STITH
For me, it’s just been about developing awareness, taking the time to actually develop the awareness, and think about how I’m actually feeling in my body. That’s been really helpful and a very interesting journey for me.
NICOLE
Yeah. Beautiful. Well, thank you for sharing that with us. Are you ready for rapid-fire questions? They’re easy. Promise. The first one, what was the last thing you watched on TV?
JEANNIE STITH
I watched a movie called ‘The Worst Person in the World’ and it was really good.
NICOLE
Good. I’m always taking advice. Ok, what is on your nightstand?
JEANNIE STITH
Oh, a candle is on my nightstand, a light, and a book.
NICOLE
And then when was the last time you tried something new, and what was it?
JEANNIE STITH
Well, I took a Pilates class, and I really liked it, so I’ve gone back a few times. That’s probably the newest thing that I’ve tried as far as activities are concerned. I loved it. You can lay down and exercise, which is working for me, especially in the morning. I’m like, I’m the president laid down on the reformer.
NICOLE
And then what are the top three most used emojis on your phone?
JEANNIE STITH
Oh, I love the shruggy. I use that a lot. I use the one with hearts around the face and usually the red heart. I send that a lot.
NICOLE
Well, Jeannie, it’s been so fun to have you on. I love this topic. I feel like it’s just such a good, rich topic for all of us. So what is the best way for people to reach you and find out more about Color Guru?
JEANNIE STITH
We’re really active on Instagram, so on Instagram, we’re @yourcolorguru, and then our website is colorguru.com.
NICOLE
Jeannie, it’s been so much fun having you here. I know I’m going to go get my colors done and get the whole assessment done now. I just have to! I love seeing women thrive and succeed in their businesses, so thank you for coming on and sharing so much about it. You’ve been such a great addition to my life, and I love our connection. Thank you for being here in the School of Self-Worth.
JEANNIE STITH
Me too. Thank you so much for having me.
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