Doing This One Thing Could Change Your Whole Day with Alison Lumbatis

I am so so excited about today's conversation with style psychology expert, Alison Lumbatis. Alison is the founder and CEO of Outfit Formulas — an easy to use style guide which has now been developed into an app.

Alison’s system will help you clean out your closet, shop your closet, work with what you already have, and slowly begin to build a wardrobe that feels very intentional and authentic—leaving you with less decisions to make and also helping you have more confidence as you get ready for your day 

We talk about how the simple act of getting dressed could be the very thing that gets you out of a funk and changes everything about how you move forward and embrace your current season of life. 

Alison shares her story of how she got to where she is today: from being a single mom in college, to reaching a career transition, to following a new path. Through her work - she continues to inspire and build confidence in women of all ages.

In today's podcast we talk about everything from paying attention to what lights you up, how pushing yourself out of your comfort zone is the key to achieving the security and stablity you crave, why it’s never to early or too late to live a more authentic life — and the most important thing — you are worthy of all it. 

You can find Alison at AlisonLumbatis.com and on Instagram at @alisonlumbatis.

You can learn more about Outfit Formulas at OutfitFormulas.com

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Transcript

Show open: "And as I've gotten older too, I found that I'm more willing to be authentic in everything, in how I speak, in what I wear, and how I show up in the world, because I want to be the truest version of myself, because I feel like that's how I can best serve everyone around me too."

Hey, I'm Angie Mizzell and welcome to More Like You. I am so excited about today's conversation with style psychology expert, Alison Lumbatis.

Alison is the founder and CEO of Outfit Formulas. It's an easy to use style guide, which has now been developed into an app. Alison's system will help you clean out your closet, shop your closet, and work with what you already have, and then slowly begin to build a wardrobe that feels very intentional and authentic. This conversation, though, is so much more than about style. We talk about how the simple act of getting dressed could be the very thing that gets you out of a funk. It can change your whole day. But what really drew me to Alison was her story. From being a single mom in college to reaching a career transition to beginning to follow a new path. And now she's an empty nester. She's in a whole new season of life. And through her work, she continues to inspire and build confidence in women of all ages. Please join me as we welcome Alison Lumbatis. 

Alison: I am so excited to be here and to finally meet you. I feel like we've been online friends for a while, but it's always so good when we get to talk face to face.

Angie: Absolutely. And I do believe we connected... It was over a year ago. I had taken your outfit formulas model and I had followed the instructions and my closet looked so pretty. And I did a little Instagram story and we connected at that point whenever I was sharing that. Then it has just been a delight to follow you on social media because you're very put together, but you just bring this energy and a realness. So your content is aspirational, but you're also showing women that they can be like this and feel more alive. What drew me to you was your story and everything that led up to where you are today. So let's just start by telling us how your business got started. 

Alison: Honestly, it was an accidental business. I was really not thinking about turning any of this into something that would be for profit. When I first started out, I was a telecom engineer for years and I started working from home, which was a dream come true. I really, really wanted to work from home. had three young kids at home at the time and one thing that I started to notice over the course of like three to six months into this working from home thing was that I really just stopped getting dressed in real clothes. I would throw on my yoga pants in the morning, know, roll out of bed right before I had to get the kids up for school and, you know, throw on the sweatshirt or whatever. And I would just go about my day, pulling my hair back in the ponytail, not putting on makeup. And I found over time that I was just feeling less and less motivated. And my mornings were just getting away from me. Everything was so hectic and so out of control. And I was, I wasn't really planning my days out. I felt like time had control over me instead of me just really having control over my schedule. So one of the things I realized is that going into the office was holding me accountable because I had to keep hours. I had to get up earlier. I had to get dressed. I had to get ready, you know, all the things that I needed to do to get out the door and get the kids to school and get to work. So one night I kind of sat down because I also, I've struggled with high functioning depression my entire life and one of my red flags with that is that, you know, I kind of stop getting dressed and things around the house start to pile up and there are all these little signs in my environment that I'm heading down that slippery slope and I was seeing all of these signs and that's when I know that I need to just pause, take a breath, step back and look at the situation and say, is there something in here that I can do differently? And the one thing that I could pinpoint was Well, I can get up earlier tomorrow morning, an hour earlier, and I can focus on showering and getting ready and getting dressed in real clothes before I take the kids to school. So I did that the next day and I was amazed how much better I felt. I just was so much more motivated. I remember driving back from dropping off at school and just feeling like, wow, this is such a great way to start the day. And as I went through that day, you know, that good feeling stayed with me, even though no one else was seeing me, I still felt better.

I felt better because I took that little bit of time to have that self-care routine in the morning and to get dressed in real clothes every day. But what I realized is that all of the clothes in my closet really served my corporate past life. They were pencil skirts and blouses and heels and things that weren't working for my new work from home lifestyle, which was making it incredibly difficult to get dressed every day. That's why I was defaulting to yoga pants and got stuck in that yoga pants rut that I was in.

So I had to start reinventing my wardrobe. And that's really where the idea for blogging was born was as a way of documenting this journey out of my yoga pants rut and really just sharing with other women the things that I was adding to my closet. And the blog acted as my accountability partner because I didn't have to get dressed every day. I knew it made me feel good. But once I started blogging, that was kind of that gateway that opened up for me to say, well, now people are actually waiting for me to show them what I'm wearing every day.

That's holding me accountable for this action. And that's really how this whole thing got started was just me having a creative outlet through blogging and women who were coming along in that space and timing had a lot to do with it too. This was before Instagram was even around, before Pinterest was around. This was 2012 when I started. Women were going to blogs when they needed fashion advice. And there weren't a lot of women out there at that point talking about work from home or stay at home mom lifestyles.

It was really just a matter of timing and also sharing my journey that I was on. things just went from there, honestly. 

Angie: And so explain how your business has evolved to what it is today. How does Outfit Formulas work? 

Alison: Yes. So in 2014, I'd been blogging for about two years and I took a severance from my corporate job and I saw an opportunity to really just lean into what I was doing. I was loving what I was doing with blogging so much, but I wasn't making money at it. So I spoke with a friend of mine who was a business coach and she said, well, let's talk through some ways that you can serve your audience that they may be willing to pay for. So honestly, I did a survey and I said, hey, what would you guys need from me? What could I do that would make your lives easier? And there was a ton of feedback that came in. Women said, I would love for you to give me a shopping list. Tell me what to go buy so that I have a functional wardrobe, so that I have the right closet staples in place. 

So I said, I can do that, that's easy. I went through my list of closet staples that I had in my closet and I started there. And then as I was working on this list, I thought, well, let's throw in a few fun trends. It was spring 2014. So I added in some trends and then I kind of started working through this formula in my mind to kind of that engineering part of my brain kicked in and said, well, there's gotta be an easier way to do this, right? Like there's...every outfit breaks down you have your bottoms, your tops, your toppers and cardigans, your shoes and So I broke out these and started mixing and matching and creating outfits from them. 

I decided I'd be ecstatic over the moon if 50 women decided to sign up for this program instead 500 women signed up right out of the gate and I knew that this was really going to be something that was going to serve them well and we've been doing it basically every season since then we just moved into a monthly model which is super cool because I'm able to give daily outfit guidance to women we just moved into an app.

So you log in every day, you see the outfit of the day, you see the monthly calendar so you know what you're wearing every day of the month and you see your shopping list there that you can access at any time for the pieces that you need. And I always encourage women to shop their closets first because I feel like we have way more functional wardrobes than we even give ourselves credit for. A lot of us have that closet full of clothes and nothing to wear, right? If somebody can come along and say, hey, I'm gonna take these basics and show you how to wear them in new ways.

That's me, I'm that guide. I'm the one that's meeting you there and saying, I want to show you how to make the most out of what you have and to be really intentional about what you add going forward so that it's something that you love, that you know that you're to get a ton of use out of and that you're really just spending your money in a way that serves you the best. 

Angie: That is one thing that I really connected with was I started my career in television news. So I would go to petite sophisticate, I believe that was the store in the mall and I all of my suits and I had a little, clothing allowance and, that's how I started my young adult life after college. a lot of suits in my closet and I'm not sure that I ever fully developed what the casual me, the not work me really even looked like. And I've been working on that, as I became a mom and things like that. And I felt like I was getting better at it, but the issue is

I didn't really know what I had, what I needed, you know, how do I pair this together? So when you go shopping, you don't know where to start. So that was one of the main things that made me become a member of outfit formulas because I really did see that I have a lot of things. But maybe I don't need 10 more tank tops. Maybe I need more toppers or, you know, things like that. 

The other thing I wanted to ask you about is the blogging piece, because I started blogging when my oldest was two and I was going through a life transition. What do you think made you stick with blogging in addition to the accountability piece? Did that light something up in you that kept you going even when you didn't know it was going to develop into anything? 

Alison: Absolutely. It was the one thing that was pulling me out of bed in the morning. You know, we always talk about the things in life that light us up, you have the things that you feel like you have to push yourself to do. And then you have the things that you feel like you're being pulled toward. And I blogging was that thing for me. I would get excited in the morning when I was even working my corporate job and still overlapping with blogging, doing it at that point in time. It was the thing I looked forward to. It was a thing that made me get up early and really just knock out a couple of hours of writing and blogging and sharing my journey. Especially when I started to get that feedback from women that were really just looking for that advice and somebody that was just like one step ahead of them on on the journey and in that process and also it was a creative outlet. I've always been equal left and right brain, which is a very unusual combination, but I didn't feel like I was really leaning into that creative part of my personality. So it allowed me to do that allow me to dabble in photography and I've always loved writing so I was able to write, but in a very informal way that was really just about connecting with other women and sharing my story. And I've always loved sharing my story. If I know that it can shortcut something for someone else or make their lives easier or any way, help them through a transition process. And really what I started to see in all of this was that it was helping build confidence in women, not only in myself where I was feeling more comfortable in my own skin and what I was wearing every day and how I was showing up in the world.

But it was also doing this for a community of women who were getting to know each other in the back then in the comments, which is kind of a lost art today because we have social media and we can access things through Facebook groups in all types of ways. But it was just a really cool time and experience to have. I absolutely loved every second of it. 

Angie: So let's back up even further. This is another piece of your story that I connected with. So you were the first person in your family to go to college.

And then I've heard you say in other interviews that your senior year of college, you found out you were pregnant. but you still, and my mom was a young single mom. And so I, I just feel your story from all the different angles in that moment when things suddenly are not going the way you planned. What kept you going? 

Alison: Honestly, I think that I just always wanted to change patterns and be kind of like that generational person that was going to change everything. And I felt that from a very young age. And I felt that, you know, really it was scary to go to college. I knew nothing about it. I knew nothing about financial aid. I started from scratch and figured everything out with that. And I had some friends along the way that were there to help me that were going through the same process, but it was just something that I knew that I always had this feeling that I was meant to do bigger things and that I was meant to leave my small town of 200 people, that I was meant to do these things and step into these new spaces. my entire life has been about stepping outside of the comfort zone. And it's funny because I so, I mean, I love stability and security. Like those are the things that are huge, huge values for me because I didn't have that growing up. And those are things that I've wanted to create for myself my entire life.

And I've also realized that stepping out of the comfort zone is really the way to do that, which is so scary and something that I have to wake up and do every single day to this day. But that's really what drove me to go to college was like, I wanted something different and I wanted something better. And I felt like getting an education and just really experiencing that would be a stepping stone in the right direction. And then of course, pregnancy, my senior year, becoming a single mom.

I would say that that really was kind of the moment in my life where I realized that the decisions that I was making weren't just impacting me anymore. And I started to live for someone else and living for my son became my driving force at that point of, know, I don't, I don't have the luxury of a lot of things right now. I have to become resourceful. I have to make my own way and I have to you know, find a job and find a way to pay for an apartment and find a way to buy a car and all of these things that I'm doing on my own. But again, I feel like it's that grit and resilience and resourcefulness that just kept coming through and allowing me to get through some of those really hard times. I would say that I've been kind of reflective lately and my kids are older now. We just recently became empty nesters, my husband and I. And so I have been thinking back upon those pivotal moments in my life and the way that things went back then and how I never even really stopped to feel the hard in those moments. And now I'm able to go back and view it through the lens of compassion for my younger self and saying, wow, that is incredible. What was going on then that you were able to just kind of persevere and just keep pushing through? I don't wear it as a badge of honor in any way, but I also am just really proud of my younger self for making those decisions and for moving to Texas. I picked up and moved to Texas with $50 in my bank account. I lived in Pennsylvania my whole life until I graduated from college and moved my son here when he was six months old. My sister was here and I had somewhat of a support network here. So, you know, just really making that scary move to go halfway across the U S and start a new life was.

Again, another one of those really huge pivotal moments and we still live in Texas to this day. So, yeah, it's kind of a cool journey when I think back on it and it was hard, but totally worth it. 

Angie: So in your book, hold on, I'm going to grab it. This is such a cute book. The ultimate book of outfit formulas, but the introduction is so powerful where you share a lot of your story there and in that part of the book you talk about when you were a teenager, that you felt like you got a message from God that you would one day impact the lives of other women. But as you learned, we all learned, I learned the path is not linear. So when you were going to college, then you're a single mom, you're starting out in your professional life, you're a telecom engineer and doing different things, starting your family, did you feel like you were searching for something? Did you feel like maybe you weren't doing what you were supposed to be doing? How did that feel? 

Alison: Yeah, that was, it was difficult because I did feel that direct message when I was 15 years old that I was meant for more, that I was going to be in some way used to inspire women in the area of confidence, which I thought was so weird because I was so shy and so awkward as a teenager and really just struggle with confidence in so many ways. And I thought, why me? Like that does not make sense at all. yes, I did journey through life all the way until my forties thinking I had this promise tucked away in my heart, but not seeing any evidence of this. Just really going through a lot of difficult experiences and a lot of hard things and a lot of good things. You know, I ended up getting married when my son was two years old and my husband raised him as his own. We have two girls together. I went right into being a mom, a busy mom of three kids very quickly. And that time in our lives just seemed like it flew by in the blink of an eye. Yet I always was had this nagging like I'm supposed to be doing more and thinking, but I can't. like, I'm a telecom engineer. What am I supposed to be doing here? What? I don't understand this. Like this doesn't make sense to me. And now I can see how all of those experiences have led up to where I am right now and what I'm doing now and the things that the ways that I'm able to build community now. And it's just, it's been crazy and it's been amazing. And if you get a message like that, if you have that nagging feeling, if you feel like a square peg in a round hole, listen to it. Your gut is trying to tell you something and it's something very important. That's true to you. That is authentic to you. And I think that's the beauty of getting older is that we can't ignore that voice anymore. We start to tune into it and say, what are you trying to tell me here? I'm feeling this friction and the friction is getting harder every day. And the pain of living in that is harder than taking the steps to figure it out. 

So really engagement is part of this process and trying out new things. And you may try and fail, but that's okay. They keep leaning into that, keep listening to that intuition and keep following through with it. Cause it's the best thing you'll ever do.

Angie: I was going to ask you, what would you say to someone going through a life transition? And I feel like in part, you've answered it because that is the same thing I've found that it's really just a process of learning to listen to yourself. and what I found is even when I do that, that doesn't mean the outcome is going to be exactly what I thought, but I really do think that is the path to going through the transitions and also realizing that there's going to be more than one. It's almost like life is more transition than it is not transition. 

I want to skip ahead to now. So you started this business when your kids were small and now are they all out of the house? So you're an empty nester and how does that feel? We're about the same age. My, oldest is about to go to college. He will be in college when this podcast airs. My youngest, just because I had her later, is 12. So I am just beginning to be on this path of my kids growing up and starting their own life. So what is life like for you now? How has it felt to be, have this business evolve and grow up as your family has?

Alison:
So it's been interesting. The past few years have been kind of an emotional roller coaster to be completely honest. When our middle daughter went away to college, that's when it kind of really started to hit me that there is life after parenting. And what does that look like? Because we were just so in the trenches for so long. And I think my husband went through this too, probably to a lesser extent, but we both experienced this feeling of what is next? What is next in this chapter of our lives? And it was really just an opportunity for self discovery, really leaning into personal development and also embracing the white space in my life. I feel like I was so busy for so many years that when white space in my calendar came along, I felt like I just had to fill it all back up with something, anything just to keep that busyness going and really just learning to slow down and embrace those moments of saying, no, it's okay. It's okay to have downtime. It's okay to step back from things.

And honestly, that is what's helped propel the business forward because I've been able to have that clarity and been able to kind of step away to see the whole picture, not just be in it every day and not just working in the business, but being able to work on the business has been a game changer. Totally. I've been able to rise up to be a visionary in that space. And, and I also feel like on the flip side of that has helped me to be a better parent. You know, I'm, learning what my role is as a mother of three adults and how has that changed? They still need you, but they don't. You're becoming more of an advisor than you are a true parent, in a sense, and really just kind of working through redefining those roles. Nobody gives you the handbook for parenting adult children. And I don't think we talk about this enough. I don't hear enough people talking about this because it is just a whole different landscape. 

And there are different sets of issues that you work through with adult children and launching them into the world. It's not like it was when we graduated college. Like it was, the path was very linear back then. It's not so much now. And kids in their twenties or adults in their twenties, early twenties, especially are really struggling and really just learning what it's like to be a mother of that stage and learning everything that I can and really trying to not only be there for my kids in the way that they truly need it, but also working on my marriage and leaning into our relationship more. We're discovering so much more about each other and it's a really cool opportunity to do that. And also as a leader just in my business and leading my team and looking at that role through the lens of what ways can I do a better job of this? it's been fun. Honestly, it has. I dreaded it. I was scared to death. I'm not gonna lie. I was terrified of the empty nesting period, now that I'm in it, I'm really embracing it and loving it. 

Angie: I can relate to that. When I started blogging, my oldest was two and I didn't write about everything that was happening in our lives, but I loved blogging through the lens of being a mom of young kids because they're funny and they're all these teachable moments and it teaches you to be present.

All these little takeaways are the things that I would share on my blog. But I noticed that, you know, as I get older and it's what you're saying, we don't talk about it as much because I wasn't going to take the issues I was dealing with with my teenager to my blog or at least not the way I was blogging in the past because that would have been such an invasion, you know, of his privacy. And also, I don't think I was ready to talk about it because we don't know that many of us are going through the exact same thing. So I think it is important that we're talking about this, at least in this context, that it is difficult to raise our kids and have them go into the teenage years. And then as they leave the house, you know, what happens within us in terms of having to once again, figure out our identity and who are we now? 

The other thing I can relate to is keeping myself busy. But at the same time, I'm always talking about, need to say no more. And I know the value of slowing down, but sometimes when you slow down, you realize why you stay busy because feelings come up. So this is just so important because this really translates to the work you're doing because it is more than getting dressed, you are empowering women to embrace where they are, their age, their body type, and even kind of face some of their insecurities to realize that they're more beautiful than they even think they are. I've heard you say many times, people will ask you, is this outfit or is this particular look age appropriate? And you're always talking about, it's not about whether it's age appropriate. Is it you appropriate? Can you expand on that? 

Alison: This really started a few years ago. Actually, probably when I turned 40, all of a sudden in my own mind, all these alarm bells are going off like, can I wear this? Is this age appropriate? And I just started questioning myself in ways that I hadn't in the past. And even with trying trends, things just got harder. And I kept getting stuck in my head about things. And so I just kind of sat down and I thought through it.

And some of the questions I asked myself were, what are my intentions for wearing this? If it's because I feel good in it and it makes me feel more confident, then who's that hurting? No one. And as I've gotten older too, I found that I'm more willing to be authentic in everything, in how I speak, in what I wear, and how I show up in the world because I want to be the truest version of myself because I feel like that's how I can best serve everyone around me too.

So this really, when I kind of started to dig into this whole concept of age appropriate style and landed on the fact that it doesn't have to be age appropriate. There's no such thing. Like who's saying that a 20 year old can't dress like she's more mature or a 50 year old can't dress like she's less. Like it doesn't matter. It really doesn't matter at the end of the day. If it feels you appropriate, that's what matters. If you look in the mirror and you feel like a million bucks, when you walk out the door,

Don't worry about what anybody else is thinking because their judgments are not about you. Their judgments are about the things that they are telling themselves and the judging that they're putting on on their own selves, honestly. So as long as it feels you appropriate, you are a okay. You can wear whatever you want whenever you want and don't worry about what anybody else has to say. 

Angie: So we talked a little bit about our professional style story, like how we started off in our careers and that sort of dictated our wardrobe. And then we kind of had to relearn how to get dressed. Our ideas about style actually start much younger than that. And I have memories of being a teenager, maybe even in college, and I would be in limited or express and trying on clothes and none of the pants would fit me.

It always made me feel bad about myself. just remember those dressing room moments where I would be so down on myself and it takes some time to find styles that actually fit your body. I worked with a stylist years ago and she took me shopping and she took, like I noticed how she would take like every pair of jeans off the rack.

And she would have like 10 pairs in the dressing room. And then once I tried on a pair that helped her get a sense of my body shape and what was going to work. And then she would put some back, but she was like, it's not you. It's the clothes, but I still think it's me. So that is something that I have had to really unhook from that. If I try something on and like, if I was feeling good about myself before I put on the thing and the thing makes me feel bad, it's not me. It's the pants. It's the shirt.

So that's something I've really had to work through. What would you say are some of those younger thoughts that you had about style that you had to let go of? 

Alison: I've had similar experiences and it was very difficult. feel like growing up, you know, in the late 80s, early 90s as a teen, it was difficult to find pants that fit me because I was always curvy. I have, I'm a pear shape and I have small waist and larger hips.

So none of the pants fit me and like the ideal body type back then was, you know, just really straight up and down, no curves. So, you know, I had a few friends that were built like that and I always felt like there was something wrong with me because clothes fit them right. And they never fit me right. And I always had like a gap in the back of my pants whenever they would fit over my hips. one thing I love about today is that we have so much more diversity and styles and, and a lot of, you know, fashion gets it now. retailers get it now. They have curvy fits and they have all of these other things that make jean shopping easier in a sense because you can find jeans that fit you. You still have to make the effort because it is hard and you still have to try on a lot of pairs. But that was one of the things that I also experienced and just feeling like I just never felt stylish and I really struggled with trying to figure out what my own personal style sense was and You know, I would look to my friends and see what they were wearing. And then maybe I would try something out and be like, this doesn't quite feel right to me, or I don't think this looks right on me. And going through that, that experimentation phase, I didn't really get to do that at much as a teenager. 

I think around 14 or 15 is when most of us really develop our style identity. And that's only if we are able to experiment. And I wasn't, and I didn't have that capability. And a lot of us don't for whatever reason, maybe it's financial or, you know, there's chaos at home or whatever, for whatever reason, or even wearing uniforms has a huge impact on teenagers that are trying to develop a sense of style. If you wear a uniform to school every day, it is that much more difficult to develop your sense of style. So I didn't develop mine until much later in life. Like I was in my thirties before I was really figuring out, wait, I have a leaning toward this style, or I really like classic items with a little bit of something fun thrown in, or like...

That was when I was able to kind of start that experimentation phase when my kids got a little bit older, I had a little bit of disposable income and I was able to finally start digging into that process. But yeah, it's, it's, it's something that I just want everyone to know that it's always worth exploring. Even if I have women in their sixties and seventies that say, I'm just now figuring out my style. And I am just so happy to hear them say that because it is always worth exploring. And your style evolves too as as you get older, you realize that your preferences start to change, or maybe there's a new trend that you wanna try, and that's okay. Allow yourself that opportunity to express yourself through what you're wearing and to just continue to explore and experiment with it. 

Angie: When you said this about women saying that I'm just figuring out my style, I felt myself exhale, because the other belief is that we peak at a certain age and
there was always this timeline and there was this rush in work and in everything to kind of get all the good stuff and before what we expire. And that's just ridiculous. And I love that you have women in your community that are still doing that. And like you said, it may not be that they're just figuring it out, but they're letting their style evolve as their tastes and their lifestyles and their bodies change. And that is,

That's amazing. What would you say to the woman who has found this podcast episode at the right time? She's in a little bit of a rut going through a life transition and just needs a little something to want to have the energy and inspiration to move forward. 

Angie: First off, I would tell her you are worthy of a wardrobe that makes you feel confident. I think that a lot of us have that worthiness factor in there that really just comes into play and really realizing that we are worthy of the investment of time, of energy, of whatever it takes to have a wardrobe that makes us feel good is such an important thing that you have permission to do that and to explore that. I also wonder and know that style is a skill that anyone can learn. I think that that again is super important because I had to realize that myself. I'm not a naturally stylish person. I didn't pop out of the womb knowing how to put an outfit together. was something that really took effort and learning how to piece things together. And anybody can learn that. It's just like math. It may come easy for some people, it may come hard for some people, but you can learn it. And that closet contentment is possible. I have seen this over and over again with so many women. If you put forth the effort to get the right foundation in place, if you focus on those heck yes items that really just make you feel good when you put them on.

That is what you need to be focusing on in order to build your functional wardrobe and to have your basics so that you can then start to add in the trends and start playing around with some different styles and really just having fun with it. Style is meant to be fun. So I want women to have fun when they're doing this. 

Angie: You recently started a podcast and I saw you on your Instagram stories talking about before it launched that it was a little bit harder than you thought or just the learning curve kind of threw you for a loop.
I think there's value in being willing to be a beginner. And since you are still learning and growing and evolving and trying new things, would you like to expand on that before we go? 

Alison: Absolutely. Yes. I think that all of us need to go through that period where it's okay to suck at something and it's hard. It's hard to be in that beginner's mindset. Isn't it? Like it's really difficult to be at the beginning phase of anything, but just small steps in the right direction every day are really the key to that. I'm learning Spanish now and it has been the most humbling experience of my life. And I have to embrace that suck because I know that's the only way that I'm going to get better at it. And it's the same thing with the podcast is just don't allow that to be the thing that holds you back. Know that beginners always suck. There's no better way of putting it.

and you will get better and it will get easier and you will grow confidence and all the things that you want are on the other side of just embracing that beginner's mindset and knowing that it's okay not to do it perfectly and it's okay not to know it all. 

Angie: I just loved that conversation with Allison. I appreciated how she shared her story and her vulnerability and reminding us that something as simple as getting dressed can transform your day and maybe even your life.

You can find Alison on her website at alisonlumbatis.com. She's also Alison Lumbatis all across social media platforms. I love to follow her on Instagram. You can also find her Outfit Formulas app in the app store and at outfitformulas.com. Everything is linked in the show notes as well as all the links to connect with me, Angie Mizzell. If you enjoyed this episode, I invite you to subscribe and leave a review.

Thanks for listening to More Like You. We'll see you back here next Thursday.