Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Erin Gehring. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Erin, appreciate you joining us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

At More Than Style, we set our selves apart from store based and subscription based stylists because we create a truly personal experience. We are mostly concerned that our clients feel really great and confident. We want the outfits and clothing that we select to bring out the best in them. We are not motivated by making commission on there purchases and we definitely do not push our aesthetic on our clients. Occasionally someone will try something on and ask “how does it look?” For us, it’s obvious in looking at their body language, that they aren’t comfortable. We challenge them that the more important question is how do you feel? We believe when you feel good in you clothing your confidence shifts. We look for the nonverbal cues that signify that shift.

Erin, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I wanted to be Rachael Green, from Friends. I graduated college with a degree in Fashion Merchandising and I was certain that I would head to NYC to pursue my buying career and live the life of Rachael. But, when you are fresh out of school with student loan debt, you go where you get a job. I landed in Columbus, Ohio which happens to be the third largest fashion city in the US. I climbed the ranks of corporate retail from an Assistant Buyer to a Sr. Director of Merchandising and lived my Rachael Green dreams. But I reached a point in my career and personal life that felt like I needed to make a change. I had a deep desire to be of service and through a series of seemingly insignificant conversations, I realized that I might be able to help people with their wardrobe. Now, I utilize my experience in curating clothing lines for brands and my clothing industry knowledge to help my clients craft a versatile wardrobe that offers them multiple outfits. A lot of women have a lot of clothes, one of our services starts with what they own. Optimizing their favorite pieces, identifying missing items, and shopping for those missing pieces. We create a digital closet and outfit suggestions from the clothing they already have. It’s fun to see our clients realize how many options they actually have. A lot of times our work together inspires them to get out of a style rut.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The most significant action that I took when starting my business was to start networking and meeting as people as I could. Although, I had never really networked before, this came the most naturally to me. Yes, some of my connections turned into clients, but more notable is the referrals that have came from the relationships that I’ve made. That’s an important distinction, for me networking has lead to business relationships and friendships that I never would have expected when I started. Telling people what I do, taking a sincere interest in them, and finding ways to support and make connections has been personally rewarding as well as helping to grow my clientele.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social Media has been one of the most difficult things for me to navigate. It doesn’t come naturally. I rarely think about documenting and taking photos of my (boring) daily activities. Prior to owning a business, I didn’t share often on social media. Last year, I wanted to find a way to show up more regularly but in a way that was easy for me. I started doing daily outfit posts. It started with the idea of making a monthly capsule wardrobe pulled from the most recent new arrivals at retail then showing an outfit each day that is created from the capsule. Its usually just under 30 items including shoes and accessories for the 30 days of the month. The intention is to showcase versatility and that you don’t need a lot of clothes to have a lot of outfits. As for someone just starting out, find something that you feels fun for you that you can do consistently. I started the outfit posts because I enjoy doing them. Sometimes they only get a handful of likes, which can be discouraging, However, there was a short period of time when I couldn’t post for several days. So I threw a message out letting my followers know. That particular post got more likes than any of the outfit posts do. What I learned is that my audience is using it as inspiration when they are getting dressed each morning. I think that’s pretty cool.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.morethanstylellc.com/
• Instagram: @morethanstylellc
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/morethanstyleLLC
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/eringehring/

Image Credits
Sarah Henderson, Desired Focus Photography