In this episode of One Small Change, Yvonne McCoy is joined by personal style and image branding expert Jackie Wheeler. Together, they explore the transformative power of personal branding through authentic style choices. Jackie Wheeler shares how seemingly small decisions in wardrobe and self-presentation can spark bigger professional and personal growth. The discussion dives into why consistency and authenticity in one’s brand matter, strategies for finding and expressing your signature look, and actionable tips for using style as a non-verbal message to connect and stand out. Listeners will come away inspired to identify their three core brand words and take practical steps towards building a style that feels true to themselves.

Guest Bio:

Jackie Wheeler is the owner of Jackie Style, an image and branding agency focused on helping women in the spotlight authentically express themselves through personal style. With a lifelong passion for fashion and a keen eye for branding, she empowers her clients to project confidence and consistency in every room they enter. Jackie believes that style is more than just clothes—it’s about creating a lasting impression and communicating your unique story.

Chapters:

00:00 "Small Changes, Big Transformations"

06:33 Authentic Style and Personal Branding

10:53 Defining Educated: Appearance vs Authenticity

14:05 "Wartime Love Bracelet"

15:37 "Embracing Authenticity and Kindness"

20:35 "Embrace Discomfort, Foster Growth"

Quote from the Guest:

"You are uniquely and specially made. You are a special wonder. There is no one like you. So please do not try to be anyone else but who you are authentically."

Link:

https://thejackiestyle.com/freegift/

Welcome to the One Small change. I am thrilled that you are with me

today on this journey of exploration and transformation. And

I'm Your host, Yvonne McCoy and I bring almost 30 years of

entrepreneurial experience and a passion for discovering growth

through the power of seemingly small change. And every week

I try to bring somebody interesting to you to share their story and

their insights so that you can grow your business. And they're going to

share with you a smaller, unexpected, expected or insignificant

decisions that sparked a remarkable transformation and

growth in either their personal or their professional life. And today

I am happy for you to meet Jackie Wheeler.

Jackie, thank you for taking time to be with us.

Hi. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to get to know know

all of you and to get to know you well. So let's start

with what do you do? And then we'll find out what it was that what

happened that makes you do it so well.

Okay. So I own Jackie Style image and

branding agency and it is a personal style

branding agency where I help my women

in the spotlight show up in rooms on

signature and on brand. And so why

is that important? Well, it's important.

Well, signature brand has a

importance of like showing up with that opportunity

to have that non verbal message that is

consistent to and what you want to say. And we have so much

opportunity that we don't get to have our messages heard.

But this is that opportunity when you have your signature brand to

own the message and to show up in that message that you want the world

to see in here. And I think one of the things that people

ignore is that people make a decision

about you in a very short amount of time, seven

seconds. And if you are

bland, if you're one of the bland people,

you're not going to stand out and they're just, there's just too much

noise and clutter. And that doesn't mean that you have to go shouting from

the rooftop all the time. But there's a certain

consistency. I think when you're consistent it

helps to build trust faster. Yes. Do you know? Yes, I

agree. I, I, I just say with my clients if you, you know, if you

decide you're going to only post once a month,

which I don't think is enough, do it

once a month so that the people that are looking for you are going to

find it. Don't say I'm going to post three times a month and then not

do anything. Post one time, build up so that you can say,

okay, now I'm ready to do two and Be consistent with two.

So there are lots of opportunities. Well, let's find out. First,

how did you get into branding? Well,

I got into personal style and image consulting.

My poor mother birthed a fashionista. And

a very early age I was telling her yes and no on what I was

going to wear or not wear and telling her what to wear and

styling my friends through junior high and high school.

And right as I had graduated high school, I had met.

I had an opportunity, I was very brave and called this

lady in a. A magazine and like

a. A city magazine. It's one that's just like, local. And

it said image consultant. And I was like, what is that?

And, and I bravely just picked up the phone and said,

hey, I want to know more about what you do and what that is.

And she told me about it. And it, like, created this

moment of like, all the things that I

knew and I do naturally and I was able, just

doing, but didn't have any words or have the right words or

right concepts to like, say, this is what it is. She gave

me that, that, that clicked, like, oh,

image consultant. That's what I want to do. I want to go to school for

fashion, and I want to show up and be an image consultant. And that

one moment of me being brave and calling

her really changed, really changed the

trajectory because I thought I was going to become a buyer and own

a store that had a clothing store because I love clothes so much and love

fashion so much. I. I have to tell you how happy.

I'm always happy when people find

what it is that they want to do, particularly if they find it when they're

young. Do you know? I, you know, because there's so.

There's so many expectations about us of what we're going to do. And, you

know, one of the things I tell entrepreneurs all the time is don't expect your

kids to want to take over your business. Right. I mean, that is

like a disaster waiting to happen. You know, if they're not showing

any interest, they probably don't have any skills for it either.

So I, Right.

I have, I'm a boy. I have a boy household. And none of. They are

not into. They're like, we do not want anything to do with what you're

doing, Mom. Yeah. Okay. So I think that

I'm going to take myself as an example. I probably

have the worst fashion in the world. Oh, no.

So, so, you know, part of it is that

at one point I weighed 440 pounds. I lost almost

200. I kept off 150.

But typically when people tell me that they love what I'm wearing,

it's because somebody else bought it because it's got color and pattern

and stuff. I'm. I'm very much a solid kind of

person, you know, And I would think that

there is some resistance to that. Do you know that.

That getting out of your own way and seeing yourself differently. I mean, when

I lost that weight, I kept buying the exact

same outfit, but in a smaller size. I did not realize that

I was actually smaller because I looked exactly the same.

To me, right inside your mind's

eye, you looked exactly the same. Yeah. So what are some of

the things that, you know, some of the things that we can do to project

our brand and, and our style and some of the things

that people resist? Let's put it to

you that way. Okay. Oftentimes when

once someone's made a decision to come and work with me,

they're. They've already had like someone

mention something or if thing has happened or

they were invited to do something and they weren't on point

and then realized that they need a little bit of extra help or they're

just exhausted and don't want to make those decisions anymore and need somebody to show

them how to create that for them in their wardrobe.

And so my process is to help really.

I want every one of my clients to show up as authentically

as possible. So if you're telling me that you feel your best and

amazing and in solids, then I'm going to figure out how

to put you in your best colors, making sure that it

fits your body really great, that it fits your

personality really, really well. But the other thing that I do,

which is that brand piece, is what are those three words

that you want someone to say,

hear, or think when you walk into the room or after you've

left? Like, how do you want to show what is that non verbal

message that you want for your brand

when you walk into that room? And then we look at what that

looks like and how we can tweak it, how we

can elevate it, how we can, like, what's

inspiring behind that and how that works best for you,

for your authentic self. We've never talked, but in my work

monthly workshop, I do a thing where it's like, what are the

three words you want to be remembered by? Yes.

100Th birthday and. And. Oh,

and. And that is what helped me to lose weight. It was like

I knew that my life wasn't the way that I wanted it and I said,

what was missing? And it was like I had no energy. I mean, just going

up and down the stairs. I went down once a day and came up once

a day. And I said, I want to be energetic. When, when I, when was

I the most en. Energetic? And it was when my, like I was in college.

And so I called up one of my college friends and I said, what if

you had to use one word to describe me, what would it be? And she

said, adventuresome. You were the most adventuresome person I'd

ever known. You would pick up and go with the drop of a hat. And

I was like, oh my God, I have no adventure in my life. I have

no spontaneity. And then I asked my husband and

I said, what would be the word that you would have used to describe me?

And he said, you were the most intriguing woman I'd ever met.

Oh, good words. So as I

was losing weight, when I got ready to eat stuff that was not

quite what I should be eating, I'd go, is this what an energetic,

adventuresome, intriguing woman would eat? Is this gonna

fuel me the way I wanted to? And so for business, I

traded out the intriguing for curio. You know, being curious.

Yes. And so I use that

when I'm posting, I use that when I'm talking about things.

And that's why I say to people, you can start right now

to start making an impact on your brand and the way that you come across.

And the thing that I love since I started doing that is when people

call to have a call with me, they say, I love your

energy. Which means that the people who don't love my energy

have self selected out. So I could use the three

words as well. I love that and

intriguing man. I kind of feel like I need to put that one in my

little how I want to be shown up. You need to have

that body head connection, like yeah, yeah,

make it, feel. It all over the place.

So the other thing is, I think one

of the mistakes that people make is

that they lead with, you know, I, I, I have

this degree, I'm certified in this. I do this, I do this, I do this.

And honestly, they don't care

because if they can't get the vibe from you, you know, the connection

from you, they don't care how educated or how, how much

expertise you have. And so where does that, in

terms of the way you dress and you know, that kind of thing

come in? Well, if you, let's say that you

want to, we'll use the word educated

or you know, if that's something that's important to you and you want to be

like, you know, I am educated in this. What does that look like

for me? You know, like, what I see inside my head for what

educated might look like may not be the same thing as what educated looks

like for you. So in that process, we talk about, like,

how does that look when you think of somebody who is educated?

How are they showing up? And so that you don't have to say the words,

here I am, I'm educated. You're putting that

information, that vibe out without having to say

a word. And so we, like, just really thinking about,

like, what does that mean to me? Is educated mean

wearing glasses? Does that mean I need to get my fake pair because I want

that? Or, you know, that's not necessarily what I would recommend, because that's

not very authentic. But this is an example. Right.

How does that feel? How do you. How do you

come across authentically in that? And it doesn't mean you have to be in

the oxford suit. It doesn't mean you have to wear, you know, but it might.

It might mean that for you. So, you know, is a bow tie mean,

educated? Maybe to somebody? It

depends. But more importantly, is coming authentically and

caring about the person that's in front of you than

wanting to give out your titles? That's my personal

opinion. And. And I think, you know, like, for instance, one. You know, one

of. One of the best pieces of advice I got was

wearing red. Really makes me stand out when I'm.

I'm doing zoom calls. And so I always wear red when I do my workshops.

And, you know, part of what I. I say is, you don't need to be

fixed. You just need to be found. And I have a slide that has all

white balls except one red one. Right. So I go,

see, you found me. I love it

because I'm goofy. Right. I love that. Me too.

So I'm looking at you. You've got on a purple top. You've got on purple

glasses. Yep. And I'm assuming that you probably have a lot of different

colored glasses. Yes. But

this is my favorite one. And I actually only have one pair

of glasses with fun

toppers. Yes. Because it's easier.

Yes. Well, you know, and so, you know, so for me,

you know, my kids are always, mom, you should get different. I'm like, no, this

is, like, too much work. I mean, I'm just going through this thing where I

had cataract surgery, so I actually don't need glasses for Long

distance. And I'm like. But I've always had glasses.

I just, you know, so I, you know, I wear them anyway. I mean,

I need a computer, but. But. But I think that there are lots of

fun things that you can do

that are part of you. So. I'm a jewelry person,

so I always like to wear jewelry. I have

a bracelet that I. I kind of have stopped wearing it, but I. I used

to wear it for everything. It's like this huge, chunky bracelet.

And, you know, that was like, me. I mean, I didn't leave the house

without it. It was. If you saw me, I had this bracelet on, and people

always talked about it. And the thing that was weird about the bracelet is that

it was made during World War II for my mom.

And. And a guy who was, like, really in love with her made this bracelet

for her out of welding, you know, wires. And so, of course, when she

married my dad, she stopped wearing it. And I was like. When I was in

college, I was like, oh, I want this, right? And so that was kind of

my signature piece for, like, forever. So you

don't have to do big things, you know? And the more

it is that you like it so that you want to do it,

the more it really, I think, reflects. And I think that's the part

that,

you know, we're talking about being authentic, and I'm talking too much. I should let

you talk a lot more. But. But

can you do. Can you define that? Because I think people

think it means something really mystical,

okay. And not practical.

So to some of the. Some of the things that you were just saying,

for me, purple is a signature

that you will always see me in some kind of purple. And in fact,

I have my tips purpled right here. So if I'm wearing something else,

I still have my purple. My glasses are purple. That is authentic

to me. If I. If I'm pretty sure if I walked into the

room and I had no purple on and my. Not my purple glasses somewhere,

I think my friends would be like, what is wrong? Are you okay?

And that's. That's when that authenticity comes, right?

Is when the people that you are closest to know and love you.

And you're out of line of your authenticity

that they're concerned, right? A

authenticity is being who you truly

who you. Who you know you are deep down. And,

you know, that's, you know, are you kind

will show up kind, you know, you don't have to be or to be

a big, you know, bully, blah, blah, blah, like, be kind, like

My, one of my sons, he's very much a tender heart and

I love that about him. And I've had to tell people, stop

telling them he needs to be stronger or whatever, because who he is

is a tender heart. He's tender hearted, he loves deeply.

And, and that is a good thing. So. Right.

And if you are naturally just strong and have

resilience and those kind of things, it's okay to

be strong and resilient, but. And then

figure out a way how that's going to show up and how it's going to

message. So clothing and style is just a way

to show up authentically. It is not the only way.

It's in our nonverbal language. It's. It's in our

posture, it's in our smile, it's in our handshakes. And it's

also in that vibe that you put off that your energy

and the, and how you treat people. That's a part of

authenticity too. And, and your messaging.

And, and I hate to do this because I am enjoying this conversation

immensely. Yeah, I'm gonna run out of time and get kicked out. Okay,

so tell me about your gift and, and three things that people can do,

you know, to, to put it to work. Okay, so

I have a style freestyle guide that is for

you. It's at my website, thejackystyle.com

backslash free gift. And it's.

There's just some tips and tricks and things to think about as

you're going through your personal style, trying to figure out where

you're at. Any questions, just let me know. And

three things that I want to take have you just take away from

that is, you know, figure out what are your three words that

you want to. How you want represent when you walk into a room. How, how

you want to be remembered. That's a part of the brand, right? Brand is how

you're remembered when you're not in a room. And then think

of like, look at your closet. Is your closet

representing that as you look at that? Look at the closet. And if it's

not, the third thing is get rid of the stuff that doesn't

speak to you authentically. Who. Speak to who you are authentically. Yeah.

Yeah. And. And my quick tip

is if you take, you know, this is one of those old classic things is

like if you put on your turn all your hangers back. Yeah. And

if after a while you haven't touched, you know, turn them back around, then get

rid of them. And my sister helped me get over my hoarding

and she Said when I give things away, it makes me feel

rich. I like that.

Which is a wonderful, wonderful sentiment. Okay, so

when was the last time you did something new for the first time?

I was trying to think about that because I'm constantly out and about and doing

stuff. Oh, you know, we went to a new restaurant

and it was one of those conveyor belt sushi places. And we just did that

last week with my boys. And that was the first time that we'd ever done

that. That I. I would like to do that. I

would like to do that. All right, I got to put in the commercial and

we need to wrap up. So make sure that you subscribe,

share and engage on social media about the

podcast. And the reason I'm doing it is this is my way

of giving back to the community, to introduce you to people

that know a lot of different things about a lot of different things

so that you can fuel your quest for growth and impact. And I hope that

you'll continue to join me with the one small change.

You know, see how these tiniest shifts can really yield

monumental trans transformations. And you should listen to

the first episode to see why I did this and also to hear

the quarterly Clarity chat that I do every quarter.

So what are your last words of wisdom?

You are uniquely and. And specially made. You are

a special wonder. There is no one like you. So. So please do not

try to be anyone else but who you are authentically.

Didn't someone say you can only be the best you that you are?

Nobody else can be you. Nobody. Yeah, nobody else can be

you. You are the only you. You are the only you. So you

are the only you. Yeah. So I. I

would say remember that change is simple, but it's not always

easy. It requires courage, resilience, and a

willingness to step out of your comfort zone if you're not uncomfor,

are probably not growing. And if you are not growing, the

world is moving forward and you're going to be left behind.

You're going to stagnate. So I'm telling you, you know,

be uncomfortable and see it as a badge of courage. So I hope you will

continue to join me for the one small change as we

go on this journey together and come up with

some innovative possibilities and a bold vision for ourselves and our

business. And until then, stay very curious.

Jackie, thank you so much for. For your insights and spending time

with us. Thank you for having me.