Do you have confidence in your calling? It’s challenging to do what you feel called to do when you feel insecure about your appearance. We know we need to focus on our inner beauty; however, intentionally caring for our outer beauty is also helpful in fulfilling our purpose in ministry. In this episode, Shari Braendel discusses the concept of color analysis and how it can help women determine the colors that look best on them. She shares her journey in the fashion industry and how she felt called to bring fashion into the church. Shari also talks about the impact of fashion on women’s confidence and self-esteem and how it can be a tool for ministry. She highlights the Women Matter Initiative, which offers free color confidence workshops to organizations serving distressed women. Shari emphasizes the importance of loving ourselves and embracing who God made us to be fully.
Takeaways
Color analysis helps women determine the colors that look best on them, considering their hair color, skin color, eye color, and contrast level.
Fashion can significantly impact women’s confidence and self-esteem, and it is not a frivolous or shallow pursuit.
Loving ourselves is essential to fully embracing who God made us to be and walking in our calling.
The Women Matter Initiative offers free color confidence workshops to organizations serving distressed women, helping them build confidence and self-worth.
Fashion can be a powerful tool for ministry, allowing women to express their inner beauty and reach others through their outward appearance.
Sound Bites
“Color analysis goes way deeper than that.”
“I think I’m supposed to take fashion into church.”
“This was better than ten self-help books.”
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Personal Experience with Color Analysis
02:09 Shari’s Journey in the Fashion Industry
04:34 Developing the Ministry and Vision for Style By Color
09:44 The Women Matter Initiative and Impacting Lives
19:44 Sponsoring Missionaries and Reaching Communities
24:28 The Biblical Concept of Love and Loving Ourselves
27:33 What Shari is Loving Right Now
29:32 Closing Prayer and Conclusion
Transcript
Rachael Adams (00:01.452)
Well, hello, Sherry, and welcome to the Love Offering podcast. I’m so happy to have you.
Shari Braendel (00:06.242)
So happy to be here, Rachel. Thank you so much.
Rachael Adams (00:09.536)
I had already enjoyed our conversation before we hit record, and I was sharing with you that recently I was at a writer’s conference this summer. I had my colors done for the first time I had heard of you, and I knew of it, but I had never worn the scarf. I wish everybody could see us right now. It was such a fun experience, but it was beneficial. I found out that I’m a deep. So I’m trying to wear the colors that you recommended for me, but for those unfamiliar with this color analysis and what I’m even talking about, tell us exactly what a color analysis is and what it is not.
Shari Braendel (00:47.066)
Well, you had your colors done by one of our trained consultants, and they’re all so excellent. But I love Holly. She did your color analysis at a conference, right? At a speaker and writer conference. Yes, color analysis helps a person determine the best colors for her. Color has been around for a long time. Color analysis, Rachel, has been around for a long time. And a lot of women would know the term.
Rachael Adams (00:58.892)
Yes.
Shari Braendel (01:15.226)
I’m a summer, an autumn, you’ve heard that, right? And so, color analysis goes way deeper than that. So when you ask me what it is not, we are not a seasonal method. We take it deeper. We’re looking at your hair color, skin color, eye color, contrast level even, and the difference between your hair and your skin. So we take all those things into effect and then determine a color code for you. Cool colors from specific seasons to have your palette. So that’s what color analysis is: just helping a woman know what colors look best on her so that she can be wise in her shopping decisions and clothing choices. So we’re confident in what we purchase.
Rachael Adams (02:09.91)
Yeah, I want to get into more of that as the conversation continues, but I’d love to hear your beginning. Have you always been, you know, a grown-up? Did your parents say, “Gosh, she just had a player of fashion?” I’d love to see the old snapshots of little Sherry, you know.
Shari Braendel (02:29.766)
My mother was really fashionable. We grew up in a really small town in Ohio, and there wasn’t a lot of fashion. And so if you wanted fashion, even if you went to the local mall, it was whatever was trending, right? But my mom and my dad were actually really stylish. I remember them going out on Saturday evenings with friends, and they would just dress to the nines.
One of my favorite things to do was on Sundays after church; we would often, usually maybe once a month, drive to Cleveland, about an hour away, and shop in the big city. And I would wear things there that I would never wear to school. And first of all, I’m five ’11”, I was tall, always going through school, probably not 5 ’11”, and, you elementary and junior high, but 5 ‘9″, five ’10”. So, where I wouldn’t wear heels to school, I would put on high heels and wear things I would never wear. So I’ve always, it’s been in me. It has been in me. But not too long ago, I found my second-grade photo and the class photo, and there I was, standing with a matching purse and dress in the back row, of course, because I was tallest. And I thought, my goodness, who runs to their cubby to get their matching purse for the photo shoot, right?
So, I’ve always loved it and thought I would want to be. In high school, I thought I would be an English teacher. I had no idea you could have a career in fashion. And so I wanted to be an English teacher because my English teacher dressed so well. And I thought, well, there’s one way I could utilize getting dressed well. So that’s it. I found the college I went to in the back of a fashion magazine and headed to Miami, Florida, by myself. I had convinced another girl in my class to go with me. And so I got on an airplane and flew to Miami. I studied fashion merchandising in college and stayed in Miami for 15 years. And that’s how it got started.
Rachael Adams (04:34.722)
Well, and so then from that point, when did you actually develop this company now that you are running? Like, I’d love to hear like when you first had this kind of epiphany of that you were going to do this for ministry and for a living.
Shari Braendel (04:48.601)
Okay, yeah. So I opened up an image consulting firm in Miami, and it was in the early 90s when color analysis blew onto the scene. I was one of the very first color consultants in the country to be trained in color analysis when it was trendy. So, I had an image consulting firm in my 20s, but it was about that time when the Lord took hold of my life. And so I grew up not attending church every week but not having a personal relationship with him. A woman invited me to Bible study, and I said no for many months. I was working behind a cosmetic counter at the time. It was before I opened my business. I finally went to this Bible study with her, and God just got ahold of me there. From there, I still worked in fashion and had the business of dressing female executives and helping women with their best colors, makeup, clothes, shopping, etc. And then, I ended up moving to North Carolina. And I remember sitting in what I call my prayer chair. We all have one, as Christians, a place where we just sit and spend time with the Lord. And if we don’t, we should, right? At least a place where we can be alone and quiet with him.
And I remember him prompting my heart to take the fashion message into the church. And it was like, wait, I didn’t hear that right. Indeed, I didn’t hear that right. And so I just kept praying about it and journaling about it. And so it wouldn’t go away. So I remember going to my husband and saying, I think I’m supposed to take fashion into church. And he was like, well, then do it. If you’re going to be obedient, just do it. But I didn’t do it right away. I kept praying about it, I kept journaling about it, and I would talk to my prayer team together about it at Bible study when I would go. And I remember I actually joined Mary Kay because somebody at church invited me to have my makeup done. So, I joined Mary Kay and used all of my skills with color analysis to make my appointments. I earned three pink Cadillacs in my first seven years in the business. I was only in seven years because the Lord still kept impressing upon my heart, like take this into the church. So I resigned from Mary Kay and had my first speaking engagement with a woman who was in my Bible study and said, you know, we’ve been praying about this thing for seven years now.
We’re having a conference at church. Why don’t you come? It’s on outer beauty, or it’s on inner beauty. Why don’t you go and do some tips? You know, intermission or whatever, here are some style tips. Well, it went over so well that I started getting invited to other churches and being the keynote speaker from, I mean, from that one event. And I would go to the next one, to the next one, just from people being in the audience, like they had never heard of the connection of inner and outer beauty. And then, in 2000, I don’t. I guess it was around 2007, maybe. I got this just as an idea. I thought, you know that Proverbs 31 is close to us. So it’s not far from since Charlotte. Let me just call and see if they need a speaker for anything. I think about this now, and I think this would never happen today. Like they’ve grown so much.
I probably wouldn’t have the nerve anymore. Back then, you were young and dumb and all that. Am, you know, I picked up the phone. Lisa TerKeurst answered the phone and said, well, we have a speaker conference in a couple of weeks. We need another speaker. Why don’t you come?” She said I’d call you back because we have a board meeting. Let me see. So she called me back, and she said, well, they don’t really know who you are, but our speaker team, our speaker and writer team, we’re getting together a day early. Why don’t you come and help our speaker and writer team to know how to dress for stage? And so I said, okay. And she said, if we’re doing that, you can come to this event for free as she speaks and do a breakout session for women’s ministry leaders. And that’s what I did. And that’s how it got started. When I did that breakout, I was bombarded by two or 300 women in the audience. For the next year, I did 52 speaking engagements from that. And then, I ended up on the Proverbs 31 speaker team. I was on that for five years. My first book came out in 2010 with Zondervan and, you know, dressed from a Christian perspective. You know, so I don’t know that was as much as you wanted, but that’s the story.
Rachael Adams (09:44.044)
That was, I want more. It was just so. There’s so much to that story about God’s faithfulness, your obedience, his sovereignty, and your courage. I just love so much about that. And I loved to; I was even honest with you before we hit record. I’m like, this is a Christian podcast, and I want to make sure that we’re talking, know, so often I think, you know, in the Bible talks about, you know, not focusing so much on your outer appearance and you focusing on your your inner self. Still, there is a correlation between whether we feel confident and the way that we look externally, and then it does affect how we relate to others externally. Do you think?
Shari Braendel (10:29.19)
I don’t know because I hear from women that they don’t like how they look. They look in the mirror, and we’ve all done it, Rachel. I still do it. I’m not looking at this right now; there are no filters. I mean, you go through the thing, and it’s, and you don’t like what I see. I don’t like my nose. I don’t like my hair. I don’t like my stomach. Don’t like whatever. I’ve gained 10 pounds or 20 or 50 or whatever it is. And I genuinely believe that the Lord has me in this business, number one, to train up other women so they can share the gospel through the avenue of fashion. That’s what I’m called to do. If I can free up or if my consultants can free up a woman to feel confident in her outer appearance, to know what colors to look for, to know what styles look best on her, then she is freed up to have the confidence to do what God has called her to do. It isn’t here. This is just our outer appearance is a part of who we are. You it says, and you even mentioned, know, God looks at the inner beauty. The problem is the world can’t see our inner beauty. He sees our inner beauty. So that’s why it’s essential for us to cultivate our inner beauty, spend time with him, and get to know what he has for us in our lives. And so that we can do what he’s called us to do. We all have gifts and passions. But if we are so caught up in how we look because it is of the world, it is. If we stop there, we never move forward in obedience to our calling.
Rachael Adams (13:15.074)
So do you have any examples of maybe a woman that you have helped along the way that it really did transform her heart and her life for the better? Do you have any examples of that? Or maybe it’s even yourself.
Shari Braendel (13:32.601)
Well, I often think, and I’ve shared this story before, not on your podcast, but there is one woman who comes to mind anytime I get asked a question like that. And there have been, I’ve probably done color analysis on, I don’t know, close to this point to 50,000 women. I mean, I’ve been doing this for a year, and that’s why we now have an academy to train other Christian women with the same passion. I can’t do everybody, right? It’s got to, you know, but when I first developed it, I had a resource that anybody can access on our website. It’s free. It’s called the signature style worksheet. And I remember when I first developed this because I knew that first of all, women, if they don’t have a personal stylist who’s working with them, they’re doing it on their own. And many times, personal stylists have gotten a kind of a like it’s a scary word, and you think, I have to be wealthy to hire a stylist. And we want to make sure that it’s affordable for everybody. So, I had a woman, so let me back up a minute. So I knew that if somebody was trying to do it on her own, that she needed somewhere to start. So, I developed this worksheet, which has adjectives and nouns.
And I wanted somebody to work through, choose two adjectives, choose a noun, look up scripture to words that are similar, find out what the word means, see if there’s a verse that goes along with, look up the definition of the words, but really so that when you get dressed in the morning, that you can think of these words and know that this is how you are presenting yourself to the world.
So if someone is a leader, she isn’t going to put on, you know, shorts and a T-shirt and even go to the grocery store unless they look like a leader who’s casual, right? We all look casual occasionally, but it’s just helping a woman identify some words that show how she feels and what she wants to represent. So I got an email from a woman shortly after I developed this, and she said, have, she said, I just want to tell you, she said, I grew up and I was very overweight. I was a chubby girl, and my sister was not. And she said, every time we would go out, her mom would always pick on her about her weight. And she said every time they would go out in public, her mother would introduce the two of them. And this is a true story, Rachel. Her mother would introduce them and say, this is my beautiful daughter, whatever her name was, the other girl and she said, this is my elephant.
Rachael Adams (16:30.86)
Mmm.
Shari Braendel (16:32.39)
She said, I have struggled and struggled and struggled until I did that worksheet. She said, this was better than 10 self -help books. And I just think back to that and I think, thank you Lord for giving me the idea for that. And we’ve developed it over the years, but it is, a free worksheet on our website. Anybody can download it and do it. Yeah, there are, and I hear from women all the time. We get emails, and I hear them from our consultants and our independent consultants. When I say consultants, we’re not like a franchise or anything like that. If you want to take training, you go through training, and it’s your own business. But I hear from them all the time, from women that they have helped and how they’re just, they have a new lease online. And can I give you one more example? So I work with women who come out of incarceration and I’ve taken, last fall I took a couple of them shopping and you can see on their faces the change that happens when, because when you’re in prison, you have clothes that are just, I mean, you’re in the same clothes all the time and they just come out and they’re generic, right? But.
What the words that they say and the things that they say about how they feel so different, it’s a feeling that just something comes to life in them when they put on clothes that make them look and feel pretty. And so, just using the skills to serve that population here in Charlotte just is dear to my heart.
Rachael Adams (18:45.814)
I love so much about what you’re doing. And the words I was searching for earlier, it’s like, is sometimes fashion, right or wrong, it’s like, well, that’s shallow or that’s, you know, like we shouldn’t be focused on that. But what I’m hearing you say is anything but that. This can transform people’s lives. And you know, we know as Christian women that we’re created in his image and that we’re his workmanship and we’re fearfully and wonderfully made, but so many times we do not feel that way.
We don’t see ourselves as other people visit us, so what you are doing in people’s lives is transformational. I appreciate that so much about what you’re sharing. In fact, you also have a nonprofit arm, Style By Color, called the Women Matter Initiative. So, can you talk to us about the vision behind this initiative and how it impacts women’s lives both within and outside the Style By Color community?
Shari Braendel (19:44.528)
Thank you. Yes, thanks for asking that. We have, and we’re not a nonprofit, and that’s not a nonprofit, but we serve nonprofits. So we have, it’s called Women Matter Initiative and any organization that serves women in distress or abuse or any, anything really, we will go and do free color confidence workshops for them and we’ll send out someone. So all anybody, if you’re involved in an organization that would be served by one of our independent consultants, all you have to do is go to our website. There’s a form to fill out, and we will connect you with someone. And they’re not all trained in the Women Matter Initiative, and we have specific training that they need to go through, and we don’t charge for that, our consultants to do that, but they have to go through it so they know how to speak to the women what to say, how to touch or not to touch, right? There’s a whole, it’s a unique demographic of very hurt women. And so if we can do anything to build them up, is what, that’s what we do.
Rachael Adams (21:01.602)
Yeah, well you also through your work have been able to sponsor several missionaries. So I’d love to hear more about that.
Shari Braendel (21:08.646)
Yes. Well, if a missionary comes to us and says, I want to share fashion through their mission field, we will train them for free. And so, in fact, we have a significant initiative coming up in 2025 where we will train a missionary for every consultant that gets trained for free. And so because we know what happens. And some of the gals that we’ve trained are undercover. They can’t even share their real name, but this is the way they can reach their communities. And it’s been so amazing. I mean, one of our gals is, you know, she was Muslim, and she reaches out. Now she’s, you know, a believer, and she has a whole ministry to reach out to the Muslim community, and they do it through fashion because there are a lot of well-dressed women there. And we’ve got, I I trained her probably 10 years ago and she’s just done amazing in her ministry and nonprofit. I mean, it’s incredible that how they’ve taken that in their mission field. And so, you know, my heart would be for every church in America to have someone trained in this because we have women in our churches who are struggling.
And so, maybe a church could sponsor them or that kind of thing. Yeah, that’s the end goal. I would love to have one in every church. Mean, that would be amazing. But right now, what we can do is for every consultant that gets trained, she gets to sponsor a missionary on our dime in some part of the world. So, if you’re a missionary and want to do this and you’re listening to this podcast, reach out. Or, if you’re not a missionary and want to do this, reach out.
Rachael Adams (23:05.92)
Yeah, you know, it’s just something that just struck me. I’ve heard from more women than I’d like to admit that they sometimes don’t want to attend church because they don’t feel they have the right clothes to wear. And so going back to how much this matters if women start to feel it’s preventing them from, you know, walking out in their ministry and their talents and what God’s calling them to do and even attending church sometimes and within their relationships, their friendships, you know if you’re going out to dinner. If you think everybody else looks better than you, you’re not going to want to go. We’re going to a conference. Like this is so important. And I was too thinking about, you know, talking about we are God’s workmanship as far as how we look on the outside. But this whole podcast is about how are we offering our love, our gifts and our talents and our resources to other people as our love offering to the Lord and our love offering to them. And what I’m seeing in your life is God has gifted you so mightily in this area and it is just ripple affecting all across the world to help so many people. And so I love this example in your life of how you are living out that the greatest commandment.
And so that leads me to the next question for you, which I’ve been asking all of my guests is, is there a biblical concept of love that you feel like applies to this theme today?
Shari Braendel (24:28.806)
Well, you just touched on it. We have to love God first and love others, but we have to love ourselves to be fully who God made us to be. And like you said, there are so many scriptures that say, “Know, Psalm 45, you know, 11, the king is enthralled by your beauty, Psalm 139, 14, know, I’m fearfully and wonderfully made.”
But the last part of that verse is, know that full well. And we don’t know full well. And we’re not embracing that full well. And so I pray that that’s what we do every day in helping women right where they are to feel better about themselves so they can walk out what God has for them.
Rachael Adams (25:23.064)
Yeah, you know, I’m thinking Sherry, I have a 13-year-old daughter and just her friend group, and I’m thinking, gosh, if I could have had you speaking into my life as a young girl, as a 13-year-old girl, would have saved me so much heartache. You know, I’m just thinking about this. We’re talking about women, but I’m even thinking about, you know, young girls, teen girls. It’s a big deal no matter what age you are.
Shari Braendel (25:41.188)
Yeah.
Shari Braendel (25:50.684)
exactly. I’ve done more teen events than I can think of back when I was doing a lot of events. But think about if we had someone in each church who made that her mission. Because we have people in churches who do have a passion for fashion, but they’re sometimes afraid to even talk about it because they don’t want others to think they’re frivolous. I flipped the whole idea on this and set them up as a mentor and said, and they held regular classes, you know, not just so we’re not just talking inner beauty all the time, but let’s equip our young people on outer beauty. So when they go off to college, it’s ingrained in their heads because it has to be; they have to decide for themselves, but at least they feel confident. They want to walk out their calling and who they are as a young person with that, you know, the dignity that they are, the beauty that each of them has.
Rachael Adams (27:00.802)
Yeah, it’s just occurring to me. Know to love the Lord God with all your mind, heart, body, and soul. That’s part of your body. We are His temple, and we care for ourselves.
Shari Braendel (27:08.74)
Otherwise we’d be walking around naked. Right? We have to take clothes into consideration. It’s not frivolous.
Rachael Adams (27:16.908)
Yeah.
Yeah, absolutely. I’m excited to hear your answer to this next question. Is there something you’re loving right now? I mean, this one is like anything. There are no rules to this one. So, just the first thing that pops into your head.
Shari Braendel (27:33.732)
The first thing that popped into my head was College football. It’s that time of year, and I love College football.
Rachael Adams (27:38.633)
Thank
Rachael Adams (27:46.336)
No, I’m surprised by that. don’t know why, but actually I love football too. My son is in high school and he made he’s a freshman and he made the varsity football team. And so we are like living for Friday nights right now. We are so excited.
Shari Braendel (27:51.225)
Yeah.
Shari Braendel (27:55.599)
you
Shari Braendel (28:00.39)
What are your school colors?
Rachael Adams (28:01.88)
So we’re maroon and white. So maroon is okay for me, is it? That’s how I need to tell him to choose his college if he wants to play in college. I need to select something with deep colors,
Shari Braendel (28:05.678)
It’s a good color for you. Absolutely, yes.
Shari Braendel (28:14.432)
Absolutely. no kidding. My son went to West Point and so they were black and gold. He was a basketball player and so, I had the whole thing. You know, you can always tell the college moms when the first kids go off, like all, mom, mom, mom, right? So, so great.
Rachael Adams (28:31.373)
I love that. I love that and I have loved today’s conversation. I have been personally encouraged by it and I know and I’m confident that listeners will be as well. So Sherri, would you pray for us as we close?
Shari Braendel (28:42.51)
I will. Father God, we are so grateful for who you are and how you have made each of us. You have given Rachel the gift of communication; she can reach the world in a way that others cannot. Lord, you’ve made each woman listen to this with gifts and talents only she has. And so, Father, I pray that each one who hears this is encouraged in her own personal way and that she feels blessed by the beauty that you gave her because you have given each and every woman a unique beauty. We’re just grateful that you are so individual and unique with us. We love you so much. Jesus name, Amen.
Rachael Adams (29:32.304)
Amen. Well, Sherri, I know I want to stay connected with you. I’m sure listeners will, too. If I haven’t done the style or color analysis, they’ll want to. Tell us how we can best contact you and follow along with what you’re doing.
Shari Braendel (29:47.706)
The best way? Stylebycolor .com. You’ll find all kinds of resources there. So that’s where you go.
Rachael Adams (29:56.178)
Okay. Well, Sherry, thank you so much for your time. I have just loved every minute of our conversation. I appreciate you.
Shari Braendel (30:02.079)
You have such a sweet spirit about you. I’ve listened to some of your podcasts, and you’re just so great with your guests. I am honored that you allowed me to be on. Thank you.
Rachael Adams (30:15.746)
Thank you so much.
Connect with Shari:
https://www.stylebycolor.com/
Take the Color Quiz:
https://www.stylebycolor.com/color-quiz-1
