Patsy Sanders: How Wearing the Right Colors Can Transform Your Life

"I realized that when I tried to start my hair business that I needed to have something different. And I was about an hour above San Francisco in this town, in wine country, and there was a salon in every corner, so starting over was not an easy job."

Patsy Sanders is a hair and makeup artist who has been in the industry for over 20 years. She is also a color and style consultant and has been teaching women how to dress for their body type and skin tone for the past 5 years.

This is Patsy Sanders's story...

Patsy Sanders is a hairdresser and color consultant who has been in the industry for many years. After moving to a new area and starting her business over, she realized that she needed to do something different to stand out from the competition. She began training in color typing and started using it with her clients. This led to her becoming more successful and eventually owning her own business. During the COVID pandemic, she transitioned to doing color typing consultations over Zoom. She has found that this has been successful in helping her clients feel more confident and look their best.

In this episode, you will learn the following:
1. The impact of color on first impressions and how we are perceived by others
2. The importance of knowing your "type" in order to dress for success
3. The role that clothes and fashion play in our confidence and overall energy


If you loved this episode then you love these:
Overcoming Challenges and Being An Advocate with Antionette Logan
How To Bounce Back From Lifes Setbacks 

Transcript

Time for Tea with Mikita is a podcast about redefining self-care. It's about looking at every aspect of our life from music, career, family, relationships, and everything in between. It's about spilling tea on those conversations that are sometimes hard to have. Well, we're not afraid to have those conversations, right here.

Join me as we spill tea on every conversation you ever thought about, dreamed about, or whispered about. Hey y'all, it's definitely time for some tea.

Mikita
I wanna thank you for sharing your time, your space, and your energy with me today. Patsy is like someone that I have never met before. She has this. Energy that is so contagious, like it takes up the space in the room and she's confident she knows who she is and she knows what she wants to bring into her space, which is so, so exhilarating, and I'm so intrigued about how she uses color and how she can help other people use colors to not just show up, but.

To embrace who they are, to own who they are, and not apologize for it. I've always believed that what we wear means a lot, and how we show up in what we wear means even more. This is Patsy bold, authentic, raw. And comfortable being who she is.

Patsy
I've been doing hair forever, , and, um, and about, I don't know, about 15 or 16 years ago, we moved to a new area, uh, because my husband retired back then and, um, our kids were having their first baby.

And I wanted to live by my new grandbaby, but I was pretty unhappy. I weighed 250 pounds. I. You know, struggling to deal with that continually. And so when we moved, you know, I've been a hairdresser for a bazillion years. Starting over, finding a new church, finding new friends. That was the toughest thing we ever did.

And so somebody introduced me to a 12-step program for food. So I went from a size 2022 to a six-eight in about eight months, and I've been that way for about 13. In years. So for me, I didn't know I used food instead of drugs or alcohol or something else. So I was so happy to find out that I wasn't, just an overeater that I really wasn't a food addict.

So that kind of, that, I mean, it's, it's a 12-step program, so it's something I stay involved in because I mean, food is everywhere. You know, you can call your name. So I had my own transformation going from that size to the smallest I had ever been, uh, was, you know, getting attention and I didn't want to handle it.

I realized that when I tried to start my hair business, that, I needed to have something different. And I was about an hour above San Francisco in this town, um, in wine country, and there was a salon in every corner. So starting over was not an easy job. And they go, What do you do that's different than other hair?

So I realized in the eighties I did people's color typing in the seasons. Did you ever hear about that? You're probably too young. But that was fall, winter, spring, and summer. And I was told I was a winter. So I also later got trained in, did that off and on in my salon for about 10 years, and then it kind of ran its course to nobody else was doing it.

So I realized, oh, I could do that. So I got retrained and I tried to add that into my business wasn't going so well. And then in this 12-step program, I met this lovely woman and, and her husband, and they became my clients and she's a speaker trainer, and she said Patsy, would you come and do the hair for my speaking training event?

Uh, my stylist does the elements, and in this, in her. Six. Um, and her typing setup, she is head to toe. Your hairstyle, your shape, your face, your physical features, everything about you is included. I said, Oh, sure, I'd love to. So I was a winter, I had purple highlights on my hair, wore black all the time, showed up, and I, I do what?

Cut hair like this. So, um, we got down, my friend said, Oh, Patsy, barb color. Try if you in the elements if you want. And I said, No, I'm fine. I look good. I know how to dress good. I look nice. She said, Really, Patsy wonder if what you're wearing is stopping people from working with you. Well, I knew I could be open to possibilities, a little vulnerable, or I could keep struggling, and I was struggling trying to figure out how to start over.

I said, Fine. I just don't wanna be, wanna be a fire. Well, I end up being a fire. And they wear the colors right, not the colors I had in my, And I was not a very happy camper. And so she proceeded to explain that in the element. Um, it's different. When we did the seasonal, we match your hair, skin, and eye colors, and that's how they decided what your element, your season was.

In this, it's more about what is your natural character traits, What are your natural gifts? What are your physical features? And then when they use different textures and color and fabrics and they drape you and your eyes light up, they see you. Not what you're wearing, but they see your skin looks clear.

You look like you've got lipstick on and your eyes are bright. I thought, Oh my gosh. She said, Patsy if you could just see how beautiful you look right now. And I started crying. Oh God, it was a matter with me. She said, Look, let's do this. Let's just go shopping at some consignment stores. Buy yourself a few tops, and if people don't treat you different, You don't have to do this.

Said fine. I'll do that. Well, darn it, every time I woke stops, my clients would say, Gee, Patsy, you look pretty today. Gee, Patsy, you look nice today. Not Patsy. I like your shirt, Patsy. I like your hair. They actually saw me. And then even the guy at the grocery store said, Well, lady, you look nice. Damn.

Thinking to myself, How does he know? Then about a week later, the salon owner asked me, she goes, Patsy, what are you doing different lately? You just looked amazing. Now I still had purple highlights in my hair. I was stunned that it could make such a difference that wearing the right colors let people connect with you energetically and harmonically.

I started to begin to understand that. Well, I realized that's the work I wanted to add, and so I started getting trained by her. She got very ill. I managed for business for two years and five and a half years ago, she sold me the business. So I've up-leveled it. I have a training program for other people that have this gift.

Uh, and you know, to be a stylist, I've, I've typed hundreds of people and one of the things that I did is I manifested. A makeover studio. So I found this cute little place. , I could do people's colors, I could do their makeup, I could do their hair. I had gently used clothing that my clients would give me because they weren't their colors anymore, and I had new accessories.

So it was a one-stop shop for people and it was so fun for two years. Then Covid hit and closed. So I'm going very funny, God. Now, what do I do? And I got this down that. Pat, see everybody on Zoom. Everybody has great lighting. And so I put together a typing kit with different types of fabrics and I had a couple of ladies who said, I'll test I'll, So I did beta testing.

One lady in Oregon, and one lady in  Texas, wanted to do it. And then I had a coach and I worked a lot with coaches. I love coming alongside coaches and us helping their women look amazing. And so she had a group of friends. And so everybody came to her place and they all wore white, and then one by one she color-draped them while I was doing them on Zoom and I, it worked.

Mikta
I am in awe of Patsy's courage to try something new. It can be very scary to have a look. Have your favorite lipstick, your favorite hair, do your favorite hairdresser and everything just changed. The fact that she moved to a new place where she had to start all over with clients and now she's gonna take on a new look, new colors.

That says a lot about who she is, that she's not afraid to take a chance. Like I always say, what's the worst that can happen? You either learn from it or grow from it, and it seems like Patsy is learning to grow. Now, as you know, Patsy's color is black, and black can be a difficult color to wear. It's one of those elements where either you can wear it with success or wear it and not pull it off, as Patsy will tell.

Patsy
It's only one of the four elements, the air, fire, water, and earth that actually can wear black successfully. It's such an intense color, and if we wear it and it's not our element, it's like you're hiding in plain sight like you are there, but energetically people can't connect with you. And I was wearing it all the time and I wondered why I struggled in my business.

So my goal in my heart is too. Especially women be so confident when they walk outta their bedroom. They know exactly what they have on is gonna be amazing that day and their whole energy lifts to that. So then they can go out there and do the work they're called to do, right? To do. We're all gifted, right?

We're all amazing. And it's not that we're not dressing good, it's like we don't know we can. And have a cutting edge over the competitors. There's a lot of people out there coaching and doing all kinds of stuff, and I really want people to understand that you can know exactly the energy you're bringing to the room.

Mikita
I had another aha moment when Patsy introduced the fact that the colors that we. In our adult life are greatly influenced by our childhood. The roles that we were put into play and what the people around us had to say about choosing certain colors. Maybe you shouldn't wear that color for your skin type, or with your hair color, you shouldn't wear that.

We hear it all the time, and yet we don't. The subconscious thoughts that we have when we get older when we're picking colors and patterns and things to wear that we're greatly influenced by our childhood.

Women as young girls sometimes kind of got stuck in a role like you were expected to be this person, and so through life, you became this person.

And a lot of times we did this to please everybody. Now, we're in the era of women going, I don't wanna do that anymore. This is who I am and this is who I wanna be. But we're so used to hiding in these other colors and not wanting to be seen and CO didn't help any, you know, when everybody put on another 20 pounds, of course, nobody wanted to go out and buy new clothes and change your wardrobe.

But the bottom line is every day you have to get dressed. Doesn't matter what size you are. So I made up this saying, passion's a look. It's not a size, it's not an age. It's not a name brand. It's not a price tag. It's who you're being and what you're wearing. Approachable, confident, attractive, and knowing and feeling beautiful.

I think every woman is beautiful. I think a lot of women don't know how to be, embrace that beauty and be confident, and I found that when I knew how to wear the right colors that have the energy I wanna bring to the room, it changed everything. Like it took me a little while. I was sassy. I didn't wanna get into those color.

But I, every time I wore stuff, people complimented me. I'm thinking, Well, that's gotta be working.  beautiful and dynamic, and Move over men.

Mikita
Sometimes life happens to us in unexpected ways. I'm sure Petsy never would've thought that her husband retiring and then wanting to be closer to. Their grandchildren would lead her to her true purpose and change her life forever.

Patsy
Oh my gosh. It changed everything. And what happened is I became so passionate about doing this work.  that I am semi-retired now doing hair. I still, even though we've moved, I still travel back to where we used to live four hours away to do my hair clients cause I didn't wanna give them up. And um, and I do some of my style clients, I act.

She do their hair like their hairstyle needs to align with their thing. And if they want that to be part of whatever package they get, we do that too. So I think it's just having enough knowledge and confidence that what you're doing is gonna make a difference in your world. Right. And so for me, it's like I get dressed and I walk outta my bedroom and all I.

Just touch up my look color after lunch. I don't think about me anymore. I just do. I get to be present all day long. I get to be with my clients, with my family, with my friends, or my grandsons here. I have five grandsons, so I think that that's, that's confidence. It's like I, I don't have to even think about it, and I only buy something that I have to love it now.

It can't be, Oh, maybe I think I'll wear this. No, it's like I'm not leaving the store, them. But I've been doing it for five years now. So now I know my style, I know the look, Even now I'm going through things in my closet that I bought that work for a while, but I don't find I'm wearing 'em. So it's not, I've kind of up-leveled my style to something else, and so you can easily rotate things down.

Right. So it's really quite fun to be able to know what to do when to. And just, just enjoy being you.

Mikita
Patsy's, not just talking about colors and textures. She's talking about the energy. The energy you want to bring when you step out, whether you're stepping out on a personal date. Or you're stepping into a business meeting, or you're about to go to an event or hang out with your friends.

The colors that you wear bring a certain type of energy, and that energy can build confidence. That energy can make you show up as the boss that you want to be, with the confidence that you need to just be your.

Patsy
Oh, this is the energy I wanna bring to the show today. This is the energy I'm taking to work today. This is the energy I'm stepping out on the town end. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. So that's what's different is knowing you get to choose the energy and the vibes you wanna bring into the, to that environment.

If you think about it, color is very magical. Like you think about how you look at color, uh, at something like, you know what I mean? Y you have a feeling about it like a bride. She wears white. Oh, like a little girl in a tutu.  So we, we do have a reaction to color. We don't think about it.

Think about it. You don't buy a car. Furniture, paint a wall without deciding about the color, right? I mean, it infiltrates every part of our life. We just take it for granted, right?

Mikita
Just imagine if color can help you feel this deep connection to who you are and help people to notice you, to stand out, to give you that competitive edge.

How could it show up for you in your personal? To give you more confidence.

Patsy
You know, people that are dating, people that are looking for a new, you know, going through divorce, like when you have life changes, you change careers, you're changing wardrobes. Why not know how to do that? I just worked with a gal that lived close and we went through her wardrobe and we went shopping.

She's moving to Florida. She left all the stuff behind that didn't serve her anymore. Like she knew what to not. And she was so happy. We went and picked up some stuff that was her colors and she could see like, Oh, this is how you shop. And we found great stuff at thrift stores, and a consignment shop.

So you know, she's going to Florida, she needs tanks, tops, and shorts and dresses and things were changing. So it's just refreshing. It's refreshing to know that there's a way to do it in a way that is affordable and life-changing. It's really. It's really you're young. Like I suggest to you, I'm 71, right?

 I'm so glad I found this a few years ago because I feel like a new woman, right? Losing all the weight, changed my life, changed my health. Nobody thinks I'm that age, and I think it's because I eat soda unhealthy now and it was easy for me to step into this because I already felt good about me.

But when you don't feel good about you, you seem to push it off. And I'm here to tell you. It doesn't matter. You get to dress your body every day. Why not feel beautiful? Why not feel confident? Why not think I love that shirt? I love that. You know, why not?

Mikita
Why not? 

It's a bold question and it's a true question.

Why not go for it? Why not take a chance on you to show up as your true self in colors that represent who you. At your best that make you feel good about who you are, whether it's professionally or personally, you deserve to be the best version of yourself In any situation, this conversation is leaving you wanting more.

You can definitely connect with patsy@embracingyouressence.com. And don't forget to stay tuned for some key takeaways. Here are the key takeaways from today's episode. When choosing colors, make sure you wear colors that speak to your strength and always remember that the colors that you wear give off the energy that you want to bring into the room.

And most important, own your power. Own your strength, and never, never be afraid to try something. Now that was a lot of tea and a lot of amazing conversation. But most importantly, I want you to show up as your true self, and I want you to take this conversation and join me on my Instagram page at Time for Tea with Nikita, and you can also email me a thyme4teamikita@gmail.com.

Now I wanna leave you with this quote. The best color in the whole world is the one that looks good on you. Coco Chanel. All right, you guys, that is all the tea that I have to spill today. But don't forget to join me next Tuesday as we spill more delicious hot tea. Until next time, namaste.