Used by colour & style consultants across the globe, The Tonal Taster is a fabulously easy-to-learn, easy-to-apply script that will bring you more clients whenever you need them.
Let’s look at what the Tonal Taster is, examples of how I have personally used it to bring me more clients than I could handle, and how you can use my script to do the same. Let me also explain how Cool & Warm tones started the colour revolution, how adding Bright & Soft-muted provides the 4 seasons, and the pros and cons of Deep & Light…
“Kim, I’ve just been asked by the manager of a mining consultancy if I can run a workshop for his female staff. He wants to give them a bonding/get out of the office session. There are 6 ladies of varying age and style of dress. One is a student who only wears jeans and T-shirts. Another is a mining engineer who is very stylish and sorted colour-wise. The other ladies are translators and administrators. Given that I’ve only just started with the one-to-one colour consultations, I’m a bit stumped. He wants a 2-hour session and it needs to be informative as well as fun. I know you mention a few workshop ideas in the Colour Analysis Training in a Box course but I don’t have the tonal wallets for the Tonal Taster workshop and I’m not sure what else I could do. Do you have any pointers for what I could do? It’s seems like such a good opportunity that I’d love to try something.” Grunwalde
Dear Grunwalde,
What a fabulous boss these ladies have! And what a superb opportunity for you to show these ladies how you can help them, using the Tonal Taster script.
Here are 3 ideas to get you started:
- I know you already have a few Cool and Warm drapes so simply create a ‘Cool and Warm only’ version of the Tonal Taster script
- Take the ‘How to wear hard-to-wear colours’ workshop idea from Colour Analysis Training in a Box, using only the Cool and Warm drapes you have
- Using the relevant bits from the Tonal Taster script plus the drapes, let each attendee discover whether they are Warm or Cool. Then focus on one specific subject that is particularly relevant for the group you are working with:
- For this particular mining consultancy group, Grunwalde, it could be about ‘What to wear to work’
- For other groups of ladies you could consider focusing on make-up, hair colour, dressing to meet clients, dressing for promotion, dressing for social occasions, packing for a holiday, creating a capsule wardrobe, the list is endless…
Understanding whether they look better in Cool or Warm colours has massive benefits for our clients.
- It will probably help if I explain how Cool & Warm tones started the colour revolution, how adding Bright & Soft-muted provides the 4 seasons, and the pros and cons of Deep & Light…
Colour analysis started in the UK 40+ years ago with 2 tonal characteristics only – Cool & Warm.
Back then, I was selling a range of make-up in the UK that had been colour coded into Cool and Warm by Carole Jackson, who wrote the book ‘Colour Me Beautiful’.
When my make-up clients realised how fabulous they could look wearing ONLY either Cool or Warm make-up, it had a hugely positive effect because it helped them save time, money, and stress by NOT buying, or even considering, make-up that didn’t suit them.
Naturally, they then wanted to know if the same principles could be applied to clothes…
… and we went on to start a massive colour revolution by helping our clients discover whether they looked better in Cool or Warm colours so they could easily and quickly choose clothes, hair colours, make-up, nail, accessories, glasses, etc.
When two more tonal possibilities, Bright & Soft-muted, were added, this gave us the ability to provide a full seasonal diagnosis of Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter.
The pros and cons of Deep & Light
Then, those who were active in the world of tonal only, started promoting two more tonal characteristics, Deep & Light.
I’ve never been totally convinced that we actually need them but I include Deep & Light in my training courses because I teach both seasonal and tonal. So I explain what they are and how you COULD use them if you want to.
But I also recommend to some consultants to leave the little beggars well alone.
This is because so many beginners invariably get their knickers in a twist about how exactly to use Deep & Light, usually because they come across garbage from other consultants and trainers like, “Dark hair and dark eyes means your client has to be Deep.” No, no, no, it does not!
My advice to everyone starting out with colour is to focus on, and become confident with, Cool & Warm and Bright & Soft-muted first.
Then you could take a look at whether adding Deep & Light will actually improve what you’re already offering and, if not, simply consign them to the bin!
You do not need Deep & Light to be an excellent colour consultant.
I ran a hugely successful personal colour business for 17 years before Deep & Light were ever mentioned. And I still have a plethora of happy clients from those early days…
Cool & Warm on its own has the power to change our clients’ lives
- Cool & Warm combined with Bright & Soft-muted is all we need for a full seasonal diagnosis of Spring, Summer, Autumn, or Winter
- Cool & Warm, + Bright & Soft-muted, + Deep & Light allows colour consultants to offer clients more options by using all the combinations of the 6x tones and the 4x seasons
Grunwalde, I recommend that investing in the 6x safe tonal fans will pay dividends for the rest of your days
It’s a one-time investment and will allow you to run all sorts of workshops, presentations, etc. on a huge number of variations on this theme.
I bought my 4x seasonal and 6x safe tonal fans 40 years ago and I’m still using exactly the same ones today.
The purpose of the Tonal Taster workshop
is to introduce prospects (potential clients) to what you can do for them:
- Some will purchase the safe tonal fan
- They may come back later for a seasonal 1-1 with you
- I’ve had clients come back to me 7 years later… so don’t ever write off anyone
- Some will want to book straight away for their 1-1 seasonal consultation
- Some will never purchase your 1-1 consultations
- so a workshop is a lovely way for them to buy into the dream at a lower investment
- so a workshop is a lovely way for them to buy into the dream at a lower investment
- Some will not purchase but will tell their friends about you
- Make sure you give everyone a handout to take away with your contact details on, because they WILL show this to their friends…
The Tonal Taster script provides you with a huge marketing opportunity
You can use this with local hair salons, beauty salons, boutiques, and with all sorts of business owners (like this mining company manager), which will bring you into contact with potential clients that you would never have fallen over by yourself…
The Tonal Taster is my secret marketing method.
If I had to start again tomorrow with no list of previous clients, I would use the Tonal Taster to kick-start my business.
What is The Tonal Taster?
The Tonal Taster is a way of introducing your clients to the world of colour analysis by using the Tonal Taster script to create workshops, presentations, talks, and more.
There are 6 tones – Cool, Warm, Bright, Soft-muted, Deep, and Light – that, in different combinations, create all the seasonal variations of Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter.
At a Tonal Taster workshop, using nothing more than hair and eye colour, every single attendee will discover their tonal dominant, and which colours to wear and which colours to avoid
- For example, if you are a Cool, then wearing Warm colours near your face will make you look drained
- And vice versa; if you are Warm, then Cool colours will make you look rather peaky!
What you wear tells other people how to treat you
Wearing the right colours makes you look more attractive and stats consistently show that when you look good, people treat you much better.
The Tonal Taster introduces each client to their dominant tonal characteristic
Swatch wallets are available containing 18 safe colours that can all be worn as soon as you know which tonal dominant you are – Cool, Warm, Bright, Soft-muted, Deep, or Light.
This could be followed up by a full seasonal colour consultation to discover the best colours to wear based on the combination of the 6 tones – Cool, Warm, Bright, Soft-muted, Deep, and Light.
The story of how the Tonal Taster came to be!
In the Nineties, when tonal colour analysis first hit the headlines, it really didn’t make much sense to me. And I knew that if I didn’t understand it, then I hadn’t got a cat in hell’s chance of explaining it to my clients.
I discovered that quite a few other image consultants and trainers felt the same.
For a while, we all gave up on tonal and decided to go back to seasonal only. But we knew that, at some point, we would have to get to the bottom of it.
Finally, after lots of trial and error, two other image consultant trainers and myself got together to create an easily-understandable approach to tonal colour analysis. This was all rooted in how…
Tonal and Seasonal are the same thing!
Don’t let anyone tell you anything different.
I can admire good marketing from afar but when some training companies declare that their tonal method is the only way, or that their seasonal approach is the one true way, then I can get really grumpy!
Tonal forms the basis of seasonal
We are simply using a variety of combinations of these 4 tones – Warm, Cool, Bright, and Muted – to create all four seasons.
Later on, we even fathomed out how to include the other two tones – Deep and Light – and yet still manage to keep it simple.
I have personally tested and refined this stuff over the last 30+ years and so my Tonal Taster script evolved.
The Tonal Taster is a simple script that you can learn
Picking someone out to demonstrate on at the front will be viewed by some of your audience as elitist – the rest feel naffed off at not being chosen, and may even switch off.
The Tonal Taster is totally inclusive
It works brilliantly in that everyone gets involved, everyone learns something for themselves, and everyone also sees, and learns from, what’s happening to others.
The Tonal Taster is a general introduction to the possibilities of personalised colour analysis; it’s not meant to be specific. It’s safe. You are not doing anyone’s seasonal colours.
You are saying, “Come and see what I could do for you if you step into my world.
When I get you in my studio all to myself, I will show you your best lightest neutrals,
best darkest neutrals, best accent colours, make-up, hair colours, best jewellery, put
outfits together, we might even go through your wardrobe but today I’m going to show
you 18 safe colours that you can wear today.”
I recommend you start out by practising with a small group because…
Practice makes perfect
You’re probably thinking, “It’s ok for you, Kim, you’ve been doing this for years, but I haven’t got your confidence to…”
Confidence is NOT required up front
- Confidence only comes from experience
- And experience only comes from practice
The more you practise, the more experience you gain, and the more confident you will grow with each experience.
I learned by practising and by making huge mistakes
Back in the Nineties, I started out showing people this brand-new tonal idea that wasn’t even properly formulated.
For several years, I was practising with a pile of disparate ideas that didn’t quite fit together.
I mucked up more times than I’ve had hot dinners!
But I still got clients, because I had the sense to admit that I was showing them something new and I apologised for using them as guinea pigs.
They loved it!
And most of them are still my clients to this day, 25+ years later!
Your audience learn to love and trust you when you’re honest with them.
I don’t pretend that I know it all – because I don’t! Nobody does!
I’ve personally used the Tonal Taster for:
- Small group workshops for 4 – 6 ladies
- Corporate training courses for groups of 6, 12, and more
- Reciprocal business deals by presenting to other business owners’ customers
- e.g. local hair salons, beauty salons, gyms, health clubs, slimming groups, privately-owned boutiques, etc.
- The business owner finds the customers and provides the premises, I deliver the edu-tainment, and we both gain new customers
- Corporate loyalty day for a group of 280 men and women in a marquee
- The company hired me to ‘entertain the wives who won’t want to play golf’
- You have to laugh at the stupid assumptions that go on out there. There were at least 60 gentlemen in the group that didn’t ‘want to play golf’…
- Working with 1-1 colour clients
- An events company who run team-building events for other companies
- The CEO wanted a thank-you day for his staff. He told me, “We need an all-inclusive networking day to include the introverts for a change. Before we’ve had thank-you days doing very much what we do for our own customers – 4-wheel drive, bungee jumping, all very active stuff but we’ve not been catering for the quieter backroom staff.”
- The CEO wanted a thank-you day for his staff. He told me, “We need an all-inclusive networking day to include the introverts for a change. Before we’ve had thank-you days doing very much what we do for our own customers – 4-wheel drive, bungee jumping, all very active stuff but we’ve not been catering for the quieter backroom staff.”
- Talks and presentations to associations and groups, e.g.
- For 2 years running, I was invited to present the same Tonal Taster talk to a group of ladies considering returning to work as accountants or lawyers
- I managed to talk a number of the attendees OUT of returning to these professions
- because their dominant tonal colouring made it really clear that they were never meant to be accountants or lawyers!
You will change lives with this stuff!
The stuff you can do with colour alone to help people discover what they’re actually here to do on the planet is mesmerising and immensely satisfying.
And you will earn loads more while you do that!
Over the years, I’ve refined and updated the Tonal Taster.
Through trial and error, I’ve learned what works and what doesn’t. You now have the benefit of all my mistakes and the learning that came with them.
You get to work with a proven script that’s easy for you to follow and deliver, and that’s easy and fun for your audience to learn from.
This one marketing method has brought me more clients than any other
And you could do the same. So I recommend you use the Tonal Taster to promote your business too, with blog posts, newsletters, social media posts, talks, presentations, webinars, etc.
If I had to urgently earn money right now
I would be on the phone/email/whatever, inviting everyone I know (and their friends) to come to a workshop for a small, select number of ladies so that they can learn:
- How to save money, time, and stress when shopping for clothes, accessories, make-up, etc.
- How to look and feel fabulous wearing only Cool or Warm colours
- How to wear ‘hard-to-wear’ colours
- How to pack for a holiday
- How to create a capsule wardrobe that caters for every occasion
And then, once I was back on track, I would use the same concepts from the Tonal Taster in all future 1-1 consultations, group workshops, presentations, and other promotional activities.
Where to get the Safe Tonal Fans
You can purchase the 6x Safe Tonal Fans here
Where to get the Tonal Taster script – your marketing made easy
The Tonal Taster – Original Script
- Colour Analysis Training in a Box contains the original 4-page script detailing exactly how to run a Tonal Taster session
Your audience will never forget you because every single person in the room learns their Tonal dominant together with which colours to wear and which ones to avoid.
If you choose just one person to demonstrate on, that person will feel fabulous but the rest will be peeved, won’t be able to see, and some (especially Red personalities) will be downright obstructive because they weren’t the chosen one!
This approach makes you stand out from the crowd of all the other image consultants out there who are churning out the same elistist talk over and over again!
The Tonal Taster – Advanced Script
- For the Fabulous Advanced Colour Analysis training course, I expanded my original 4-page Tonal Taster script to 17 pages, bursting at the seams with loads of my personal notes, examples, and insider tips
The Tonal Taster script is not available on its own
Hundreds of years ago, I made a promise to those who purchased Colour Analysis in a Box and Advanced Colour Analysis that we would never allow the Tonal Taster script to be purchased separately. And I do not break my word!
In its own right, The Tonal Taster script is worth thousands
This is my SECRET marketing method and is exactly what I’ve used personally to kick-start my image consultancy on numerous occasions!
Simply use this utterly brilliant tried-and-tested marketing method yourself
- to find your first clients
- to expand your existing colour business
- to promote your services
- to increase your bookings
- to earn the income you deserve
Used by colour & style consultants across the globe, The Tonal Taster is a fabulously easy-to-learn, easy-to-apply script that will bring you more clients whenever you need them.
Just Flippin’ Do It!
