Being Geek Chic is a blog about one woman navigating the male-dominated industries of production and tech. It's written by Elizabeth Giorgi, Founder, CEO and Director of Mighteor - one of the world's first internet video production companies. Learn more about Mighteor here.
I only do laundry once every 60 to 90 days. For some people, that may seem totally insane. Maybe even gross. Quite honestly, I feel a little embarrassed that I know this about myself. But ever since I started my business, my life has become all about efficiency and reducing the amount of shit I do in my life that is totally and completely time consuming for no good reason at all. Laundry and dry cleaning was one of those things.
It all started when I went to go pick up my “go-to” suit jackets and sheath dress from the dry cleaner and the bill was $89. For three damn items. In case you didn’t know this already: there is a lady-penalty at the dry cleaner. A men’s shirt will get the steam and press for anywhere between $3.99 to $9.99. My silk shirts? The absolutely absurd price of $19.99. It’s the opposite of economical. And it just caused me a lot of stress always trying to figure out when I was gonna pick up my wardrobe.
And then I discovered this big secret: what if I didn’t even need to own nice clothes? Besides the basics, of course. What if I could avoid understanding trends and just let someone else do that for me?
Well now that is exactly what I do. I rent roughly 75% of my work week wardrobe and it’s awesome. No laundry. No dry cleaning. No unexpected dry cleaning bills. And no worrying about what to wear. New clothes just show up at my front door. Then, after I wear them, I send them back. I don’t have to wash them. I don’t have to steam them. I just wear and return.
This is how I do it:
From Monday - Wednesday, I wear my Rent the Runway Unlimited items. These tend to be my most busy “meeting” days, so it’s a lot of high end Diane Von Furstenberg dresses and Vince and Theory jackets and blazers. These things going extremely well with my existing accessories, so it’s super simple to just throw on a DVF sheath dress with a pair of heels and nice earrings and that’s that.
Then, on Thursday morning, the UPS guy picks up my RTR items and I pick my items on Friday for the next week. The nice thing about RTR is that you don’t have to send everything back at once, so you can hold onto that romper that makes you feel like a badass and send back the other items and just get two more items that week.
For Thursday and Friday (and the occasional Monday when UPS fails to deliver on time) I wear the items from my Le Tote. Le Tote is a funny thing. It allows you to rent the whole gamut of wardrobe items from gym attire to dressy dresses. Because you get five items at a time, I tend to be a little more adventurous with my Le Tote and have even bought one of the sweaters I had in one of my first Totes. The types of items I generally get from Le Tote are things like a sassy French Connection sweater or a Free People blouse. They tend to be my Friday items, when I’m not as likely to have a bunch of meetings but still want to look good just in case something does come up.
Le Tote does require you to send everything back at once, so I do have to plan a little better and there have been a few times when I did send something back without wearing it because the fit was bizarre or I just didn’t like the item on me. But I figure, in the big picture, it’s not a big deal.
The other really unexpected bonus of this system is how much simpler traveling for work has become. These days, I pack my LeTote and RTR items on every trip I go on, wear them for the work excursion, and then have my hotel ship the items back for me. I go home with a super light bag, which means I usually just fold it up into my laptop purse, and within a few days of being home, a new wardrobe is on the way.
What does this cost me? Altogether, I spend $200 per month on these two services combined. I don’t shop anymore. I do less laundry. And I’ve eradicated my twice monthly dry cleaning bill. I am pretty confident when I look at the numbers, I’m saving money.
Of course, most of my friends are baffled by this. But here’s the thing: there are SO many things I have spent a hundred bucks or more on in my closet that I’ve worn once and then I felt tremendously guilty forever because I never wore it again. You know what items most commonly suffer that ending? Yeah, they are the things that are colors. The blue dresses. And green skirts. And that one pink blazer I bought because I was losing my freaking mind. And while I don’t think this is for everyone, I do think it’s for people who like to dress up and want to look chic and polished for their job, but just don’t have the capacity to actually pull it off.
To put it in concrete terms, these are the things I most commonly rent: Really bold patterned shirts and rompers, sheath dresses in all kinds of colors, special event dresses for parties, networking events and big deal sort of activities, blazers and skirts.
And these are things that I don’t rent: Bras and underwear, accessories and jeans or my black skinnies. Socks, obviously. Shoes or footwear. Also, my purses usually last the whole year or two, so those I skip too.
The last, and perhaps, the most emotional reason why I just can’t imagine stopping this lifestyle switch any time soon is because fashion is so, so wasteful. When I think about how many crappy items I have purchased from Forever 21 and H&M over the years, only to donate those items one season later, it makes my stomach hurt. While wasting money sucks, ultimately, it’s the fact that most of that clothing winds up in a landfill somewhere that really gets to me. I literally can’t handle it. So while some people might be weirded out that I’m essentially “sharing” a wardrobe with hundreds of other women - that doesn’t bother me one bit. The way I see it, we share our cars, our homes and now, we share our closets.
Never in one million years did I think this would be a topic on this blog, but it’s turned out to be this great thing in my life. I love how it simplifies my life. And I love how it gives me space to free my brain of wardrobe questions and instead look at how to spend my energy on my business every week.
If you want to try one of these services, I’ve got coupons, because why the hell not ask, right?
Le Tote will give you $25 off your first tote (50% off) if you use THIS LINK HERE . OR the first three people to email me with the subject line GIVE ME A TOTE at elizabeth(at)beinggeekchic(dot)com - I will send a free tote to you!
Rent the Runway will give you $30 off your first rental or $30 off your first month of Unlimited if you use THIS LINK HERE.
Share economy, FTW.
I’m sorry this week is just one giant promotion fest for all the things the Mighteorites and I are working on. I promise, very soon, we will get back to the business of talking about entertainment, feminism, business and life and career. But for now, I need to promote one more thing. And if I’m being honest, I’m very excited about this thing.
Today I am introducing the Internet Video Masterclass. A new web show that my team and I have brought into the world to help give brands, businesses, nonprofits and everyone in between, the tools they need to make better internet video for any and all platforms.
You can watch all of the videos here on our website.
Or, better yet, you can Subscribe to our YouTube channel so that you get all the latest. If you like these, I’ve already written season 2. And Beyonce may or may not be the theme of one of the episodes.
This is what we do every day at Mighteor: we make great internet video and we come up with ways to get it seen. I would be kind of failing myself and the entire premise upon which my business was formed if I was not growing and continuing to expand the usefulness of video content. Many of the things we talk about in the series are topics that we regularly discuss with our clients in planning their video strategy, and while I’m nervous about giving away all our knowledge, I’m truly hopeful that it opens the doors of possibility for other big things in Mighteor’s future.
So here is how you can help me out this week. Share the series with your friends. Your professional contacts. Your Twitter feed. The more we get this out there, the happier I will be.
And yes, I am aware that I’m a total goober in these videos.
No. I don’t know how to be less of a goober.
Here’s a thing I hate about business consultants: They always behave as if there is some big magic secret to being successful. And if you only HAD THIS SECRET THAT WE’VE PACKAGED INTO A $2,000 WEBINAR - you’d be successful.
That’s just not true.
In the last month, I’ve had several conversations with mentors, meetup participants and friends about the exact details of “how” my business went from solopreneur venture to a company with a few employees, vendors and contractors on the books. Perhaps more importantly, the real questions was how we built a client base and continue to work to build it to support that kind of infrastructure. It’s not something you’ll find in our business plan or an enterprise software I picked up. It was something quite simple.
It really just comes down to one big thing I always, always do: I put a great deal of thought into my follow-up.
We all do it. We set up countless networking meetings. We attend dozens of meetups and “get to know you” coffees every month. But have you ever thought about what comes out of those conversations? I am constantly amazed at how few people I meet with as a favor or for a casual conversation never reach out ever again. And you know, that bothers me. Because it communicates clearly that because I wasn’t immediately helpful to them - I wasn’t worth continuing a conversation with. I have put a ridiculous amount of thought into what I want to achieve out of these meet and greets. And here is what I’ve learned:
1. Have an internal agenda for every meeting, even if it’s just a casual coffee.
It is never stated out loud, but in my mind, I go into every networking event or meeting with a clear internal agenda about what I want to accomplish. Usually it’s that I want to talk to a specific person OR I want to make a connection with someone in a new industry or potential client space. If it’s a one-on-one meeting, my agenda is usually to figure out how we can help each other succeed. It’s not printed on paper, but it’s present in my mind.
2. Leave every meeting with a REASON to follow-up.
Sometimes I just want to make a new industry connection. Other times I am looking for a new client or partnership. Which is why people who have spent time with me in these settings know: I end every one of these meetings with a clear list of things I’m going to do after that meeting. Oftentimes it is something as simple as: I’m going to introduce you to another helpful person in the industry OR share an article with you that reminds me of our conversation. In the best case scenario, I am following up with a project proposal for future video work together. Whatever it is, I always say to that person: “I’m going to follow up with you about x, y or z.”
3. Follow up! Follow up! Follow up!
You know what my clients have told me again and again? That they have met with countless people who have never bothered to follow up with them. This actually amazes me. It takes 2 minutes to write a thoughtful email. Five minutes to put together a thank you card and throw a stamp on it. If you value people and the connections you’re making, you’ll show them with these simple gestures.
4. Be strategically helpful.
There is making introductions and connections because they are valuable and there is making introductions because you want to appear to be helpful. Be the first person. Find ways to add value and before you know it, you’ll have the reputation of being the kind of person that makes things happen.
5. Be open to change and feedback.
When a project doesn’t happen after we put together a proposal at Mighteor, I used to get frustrated. Now, I view it as a learning opportunity. I’m not afraid to follow up with our potential client and ask specifically what we failed to deliver in the proposal and what they would have liked to see that was different. Sometimes, people are too shy to be honest. But, I do think that it has made me better at personally developing plans for our future proposals that results in a higher success rate.
As we work to hire our summer interns, I’m shocked at how many people seem really excited about the job when they come in for the interview, but when I actually follow up with them with more questions or information - it takes days to get answers back. On top of that, so few people actually follow up with questions about why they didn’t get the job, that it’s actually disappointing to me. We can ALL be better about how we approach our lives and our business.
The most important part of all of this? Don’t treat business like it’s about some magic secret clue hidden in a temple behind a web server in TRON. We ALL want to succeed. Helping each other do that is the key to fruitful relationships inside and outside your business.
When I was growing up, I always remember my mom saying: Have an attitude of gratitude and you’ll always be happy. I know my mom was not the first person to come up with this, but I’ve been acutely aware of it this week. Over the last two months, I’ve been thrown into a washing machine of intensity between my grief and my growing business.
In many ways, it’s been a blessing. Having work to do in beautiful locations like Evergreen, Colorado and West Palm Beach, Florida makes it really hard to feel sad. The mountains and the oceans have a calming effect, even when you’re hauling massive gear bags through the sand and woods. And the work is beyond gratifying.
But if you’re an entrepreneur who has had to keep your nose to the ground and get mounds of work done over several weeks, resulting in giving up weekends and long nights in the office - you know that it’s hard to feel that grace. You know that it’s hard to feel at peace with that insanity. And you long for it like a sweet from your childhood that’s no longer in production.
You just keep working. And you forget to check in with yourself.
Here’s a theory: Emotional things happen when on airplanes. (Amy Poehler explores this thoroughly in her book, so I know I’m not alone!)
As I made my descent home on Wednesday night from our latest shoot, I was disconnected from my phone and my immediate technology. This is such a gift. It refocuses my mind away from: WHAT MUST GET DONE RIGHT NOW and allows me to focus on: WHAT I’M FEELING RIGHT NOW. I was struck by two feelings:
1. I love what I do. When I think back to my days of working in a cubicle and compare that to holding a $10,000 rig on the beach, I almost can’t believe there was a day when I did the former.
2. I have successfully built a life I’m really proud to live. When I think about the people in my life, the circles I’m a part of, the work that has my name on it and the legacy I am trying to build, I’m proud of that.
And letting those feelings in is not something that I allow very often. Maybe it’s my Midwestern humility or maybe it’s fear of being considered shallow or egotistical. Or at my worst moments, I think it’s my fear that it will all go away if I don’t keep my nose down and my fingers typing furiously. Either way, this was an important thing to feel, because since I started my business three years ago, I’ve NEVER felt it this profoundly. An intense sense of peace that has not existed in 39 months washed over me and I slept better on Wednesday night than I’ve slept in years.
On Thursday, I walked into the office with joy in my veins. I was so happy to sit down and edit and work with clients. And in the middle of a music selection, I just started tearing up. Now, I am a firm believer in not crying at work, but these were tears of joy. I turned to my colleague Chase and said: I’m so grateful that this business journey has worked out. And I really hope that it continues to work out.
He laughed. Because he often knows what I forget: We work really hard and do amazing work.
For the last three days, I’ve allowed myself to bask in gratitude bombs. Because that’s how it feels. The shockwaves of finally, finally allowing myself to feel a shred of joy about what I’m building and the success we’ve experienced to date has given me whiplash from the peace that settled in the air around me.
If you’ve been working your ass off like me, I recommend you allow yourself to feel a sense of joy for the journey, because it’s all your own. And it’s worth celebrating.
Next week, I’m giving a talk at the Women in Entrepreneurship Conference at the Carlson School of Management on the topic of being a vulnerable badass. If you’re around, it’s a free conference and I’d love to meet you in person. But here’s the real rub of this whole thing: In prepping for this talk, I’ve been doing a lot of reflection on how I see myself. Self-reflection - to me - is the art of taking in a lot of other people’s opinions, keeping the ones you like and discarding the ones that suck. As a result of going through this exercise, I’ve come to the conclusion that this is how I see myself:
Yes, that is a cotton candy wearing a leather jacket. I know. It’s weird. But it’s truly revolutionary in terms of my understanding of myself. Here’s why:
For years and years in various jobs, I excelled at my work despite not always excelling at interpersonal relationships in those settings. Don’t get me wrong, I always loved my team and we always did amazing things together. But then those annual performance reviews would come around and people who didn’t work with me every day or the boss of my boss would get to chime in on my performance and I would hear things like: Liz is Aggressive. Pushy. Forward. Harsh. Intense.
The quality of my work was never in question. My ability to do my job at a high level was always understood. But those other things, they stuck. And I couldn’t understand why I was seen this way.
I saw myself as: Driven. Excited. Passionate. Engaged. And Invested.
Over time, the things I saw myself as became less and less top of mind and I started to feel like I was taking on these negative identities that were ascribed to me. After years and years of hearing the same things over and over despite my every effort to evolve and change, I gave up on being less aggressive, pushy, forward, harsh and intense.
Instead, I decided to own it.
Because this was the thing that I knew deep down: I really gave a shit and that was better than not caring about the work at all. Some bosses and colleagues got it. And some didn’t. And that was OK.
I have to tell you: since starting my own business, that leather jacket identity has been my floatation device, my security blanket and my most comfortable skin. It has helped me deal with the fear, isolation and doubt of being an entrepreneur like a champ.
However, what I’m slowly learning is that the soft is OK too. The soft can be comforting. It can be a quiet refuge when you just don’t want to boss anymore. It can be a safe space to admit that you don’t know what you’re doing. And it can be the door to asking a mentor for help.
The soft… it can also be for others. For the people you hope to inspire, engage and collaborate with.
A few months ago, I was struggling with an employee and I was at a crossroads. My tough decision about how to proceed with this personnel issue had a unique overlap: It tapped into both my sense of investment in my business AND my desire to engage others in it. And yet, I knew what I had to do - I had to part ways with this person. To my team, I was decisive and probably insensitive. I told them bluntly why we had to move forward the way we did and I could see that they were longing for a softer side to the situation. Truthfully, I was devastated. But showing people that side of my personality had not been my forte.
I won’t tell you that it was an ah-ha moment. It wasn’t. But it was the beginning of a series of long conversations I’ve had with myself about the value of sharing the soft. Over the last year, I’ve decided to let my team, my clients and my business partners see the softer side of me more often, sometimes even in unexpected ways.
I talked about loving kittens and shared adorable dog videos. I gushed about the elaborate dates my boyfriend would plan. And I cried openly after my stepmom died. I still cry about it sometimes.
You see, I’m soft. I’m soft as a puffy cotton candy on a warm summer day. But I reserve that side of myself for very few people and situations.
However, it’s time for a coming out party. It’s time to be more willing to share that side of myself with everyone. And the way to do it is by positively reinforcing the good in it.
If you’re a manager or boss who is about to tell a woman that she is too aggressive, too pushy, or too rude - think again. I’m guessing she has a ball of sparkly yarn somewhere in her heart. She’s just waiting for the right moment to reveal it.
