State your style
Two words have never meant so much

BY LINDSAY LEWIS

Choice can be a luxury. Though associated with a word that connotes ease and grace, choosing is often challenging. The right decision is seldom glaringly obvious.

Enter Carrie McCarthy and Danielle LaPorte and their compass, anchor and editing tool: the Style Statement. It’s a two-word reflection of the real you and is used as a guide to help you make decisions. Based on the general interior design principle that décor should convey more than one message, the first word in the Style Statement is your 80 per cent, your foundation. The second is your 20 per cent, your twist. It’s what gives you your edge, or, in other words, makes you complex.

Confused? Here are some examples: Classic Bold; Constructed Natural; Timeless Bohemian. The people summed up by these Style Statements make decisions based on whether or not 80 per cent of the outcome matches the first word and 20 per cent matches the second. For instance, if Classic Bold is hoping to buy a sofa they will feel comfortable sitting in and looking at, it will have to be fairly traditional but also striking. If they are choosing a business card, the same philosophy will apply, but altered to fit the context: the text and images will need to be elegant but also a little daring. “Here’s the test,” says LaPorte. “It’s got to apply to how you interact with people and your couch. And then you know it works. It can’t be too emotional and abstract or too material.” So how do McCarthy and LaPorte arrive at this all-encapsulating descriptor? A little pop psychology, the ability to read people accurately, and a lot of questions. Forty-five minutes worth, in fact. Each $500 Q&A session covers subjects as seemingly superficial as what you would wear to the Academy Awards and what you’d buy for your wardrobe if you could afford whatever you wanted, to deeper ones including where you feel or have felt most at home and what you yearn for.

Using a questionnaire as a way to get to know someone better was originally McCarthy’s idea. She spent about a decade as an interior designer. After being interviewed by clients, McCarthy realized that, though clients now knew quite a bit about her, she didn’t know a lot about them. She came up with an inquiry that could guide her when designing their homes. After meeting Danielle, the inquiry process evolved to help guide people in designing their life. The critical mind might ask as how two entrepreneurs without counseling or psychology training boil down 45 minutes of responses into two words that are supposed to revitalize someone’s whole world. McCarthy explains, “Danielle and I are very interested in growth and we are very committed to our own growth, our husband’s growth, and our families’ growth. We don’t read novels. We read Harvel Hendricks. He talks about how to have a great relationship. Or we read a book called Ask and It Is Give, which is all about…how we create what we want, and if we ask it is given. We read Wayne Dyer. We’ve spent many years asking questions.” If the success of a company can be measured by the satisfaction of its customers, perhaps McCarthy and LaPorte aren’t exaggerating their innate skill. Kate Stevenson, a 33-year-old ex-pat New Zealander, writer and mother with the Style Statement ‘Enduring Bold’ says she “felt the Style Statement hit on a truth that had been hidden for years. It just felt right. People who were close to me felt it really nailed the person that I am, and the style that I put across.” At first Stevenson applied her Style Statement only to what she wore, slowly adding jewellery to her outfits. She soon found herself using it to choose the type of writing she wanted to do.

Sheila Martineau, a 61-year-old researcher, writer and book editor says “the instant that I heard my Style Statement, Cultivated Story, I knew it was absolutely true. I was expecting something like, ‘comfortable recluse’ and, instead I was given this delicious statement.” Martineau feels it’s the nature of the Q&A session that enables McCarthy and LaPorte to harvest revealing answers. She explains that many of the questions caught by surprise’ is what made the interview so useful because it forced me to be spontaneous. Rehearsed responses would probably have blocked the revelation.”

Like Stevenson, Martineau has put her Style Statement to good use and felt the effects. “I wear a lot of black and I have stopped apologizing for it! My one-bed-room apartment is being transformed from bedroom, living room, and patio to studio, salon, and lanai. The walls are going from blah beige to deep charcoal and dark chocolate. The writing studio is now finished and within weeks of completion several new projects cam my way.”

Sheri Radford, a children’s book author in her early 30’s, says her Style Statement, Timeless Play, reflects her one hundred per cent, as does 44 year old entrepreneur and self-proclaimed “start-up junkie” Melody Biringer. Both women say they now make decisions, ranging from business-related ones to personal shopping ones, based on their Style Statement. Radford sums it up: “If it doesn’t fit, I don’t buy it.”

McCarthy and LaPorte have bestowed over 300 Style Statements, but they’re not stopping there. There’s a jewelry line, and e-mag and a how-to book in the works and regular appearances at various venues to give inspirational talks. Think the two are starting to sound like Canadian Oprahs? The queen of inspiration and affirmation is number one on their dream client list.