Co-Founders
www.carrieanddanielle.com

What kind of statement about yourself are you making today – by the way you dress and decorate your home, by the nature of your business, the style of parties you throw and how you spend your time?

Carrie McCarthy and Danielle LaPorte make the case that your life could be richer and more rewarding if you “communicate who you are in all you do.”

That’s the tagline for Carrie & Danielle, their consulting company that creates Style Statements for its clients.

What’s a Style Statement? The two words that best describe you. You can use them to help guide your decisions on anything and everything – from major career moves to how to have your haircut. For Farah, 34, a PR executive, it’s “elegant playful.” For Megan, 30, a social worker, it’s “Graceful Heritage.” These words are their style statements: Affirmations or mantras– the more you refer to them, the more consistent your choices become.

Meet Carrie and Danielle at Ladies Who Launch LIVE in Vancouver, B.C. and discover below what Danielle has to say about how she and Carrie landed one of the world’s top literary agents and publishers.

Putting Beauty and Friendship First

Danielle: “Carrie and I were both entrepreneurs doing our own thing separately. Carrie was an interior designer for over 10 years, and I had my own communications agency. When I met Carrie, I had just finished a three-year stint in D.C. running a think tank.

“When I moved back to Vancouver, some friends told me about her… that was four years ago. She did my Style Statement and I was very moved. Our friendship grew and all of our success we have had today is because we made the simple and profound decision that we wanted to work together to make beautiful things.”

Which Two Words Best Describe YOU?

“Your Style Statement is your life trademark. It’s two words that are a guide to help you design a life that reflects your whole self. This works for your haircut and how you design your living room and how you are in relationships and how you manage your business. It’s about communicating who you are in all you do. That consistency, that kind of authenticity, is incredibly magnetic.” Carrie’s Style Statement is ‘Refined Treasure.’ My Style Statement is ‘Sacred Dramatic.’”

The Style Statement Experience

“Clients come to us for personal growth reasons or because they want to look better and either way, you get an amazing experience. It’s a 90-minute interview based on what works and does’t work in your life. It’s part science, part art. At the end of that session we present you with your definition, and the layers and the meaning of those two words. The combination of them is the magic formula.

“Your Style Statement operates on the 80/20 principle. The first word is the 80 percent -
that’s the foundation, the core of who you are. The second word… that’s the creative edge and that’s what gets you the results you want in your life.”

What Your Style Statement Might Do for You

“(Your Style Statement) seems to have a time-release effect for most people. It’s like a tool that they realize they can use more and more all the time. Some people go home and throw out half their wardrobe. Some people decide they need to quit their job. For some people, it’s after months… that they realize they are making more powerful choices. Their choices are easier, less stressful. You save time, money and energy when you know who you are.”

Women Say: I Want It, I Need It, I Gotta Have It NOW!

“After the first story that broke on us in The Globe & Mail in January 2006, we got 200 calls and e-mails in 10 days. The volume wasn’t surprising, but what was surprising was the intensity.

“Women were like, ‘I need (my Style Statement) today. How soon can you get me in?’ One woman said, ‘I’m getting shot for my album cover this weekend and I don’t want to do it until I have my Style Statement.’ She was dealing with a lot of stylists and having to tell them, ‘You’re really not getting me’ until she had her Style Statement.”

Greatest Challenge

“Because we want creative control, we’re paying for the design of our book, which costs many thousands of dollars. To be in that creative, philosophical space, that spiritual space, and simultaneously to have to go raise capital… every muscle we have is being stretched. But we do it. We are ‘do-whatever-it-takes’ kind of girls.”

Their Keys to Raising Capital

“Credit cards, family, friends. Most of it is ‘love money.’ It helps to go get love money when we’re being published by one of the most prestigious publishing houses around and being represented by one of the most powerful literary agents in the business.”

Landing Top Agent and Publisher – On the First Try

“We always start at the top, That’s how we ended up getting the book deal we wanted. (Through Internet research), we found who we thought was the best match for us. Instead of following the rules and sending her the standard query letter, we created a beautiful package – it was a linen-bound book that we made pitching our concept. It was so noticeable and striking that we got her attention. We were consistent – we communicated who we were in all that we did.

“She’s Malcolm Gladwell’s (author of ‘The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference’) agent. We actually even contacted Malcolm Gladwell. We figured, ‘Why not?’ We have nothing to lose. We wrote him a very funny e-mail, thinking he’s either going to think we’re totally crackers or totally cool. He actually forwarded our email to (the woman who is now) our agent.

“He gave her a ding that she should look at us, but at that point she had already gotten our beautiful package and was paying attention to us. Our book ( targeted for a late 2007 release) is called ‘Style Statement: Communicate Who You Are in All You do.’”

Measuring Success

“We have worked with over 350 clients now and received a six–figure book advance, which is a great thing these days.”

Favorite Books

“Two books… influence us on almost a daily basis. One is, ‘Good to Great’ by Jim Collins. Knowing our ‘Hedgehog Concept’ ( www.jimcollins.com/lab/hedgehog) is a rudder for us. Another is ‘Ask and It Is Given,’ ( by Esther Hicks and Jerry Hicks ) which is a purely spiritual text and a belief system that is core to the way we operate.”

Favorite Reads for Fun

“Carrie and I are both magazine junkies. We read lots of magazines. Carrie loves Vogue Living. A big favorite of ours is Dwell. I really like Utne and O, Oprah’s magazine. One of my guilty pleasures is the trashy stuff – People magazine is my window to the world.”

Lessons Learned

“You have to plan for the best case scenario and the worst case scenario. Planning for the worst case does not mean that you don’t believe in yourself, but it helps you to make a more solid plan.

“There’s a Buddhist (saying) that says ‘As in the beginning, so in the middle, so in the end.’ A thin slice of how someone shows (herself or himself) to you or your insight into them in the beginning can be enough to make your decisions on. Don’t second-guess your insight, because may be very costly.”

Best Practice: Giving Thanks

“We have our weekly to-do list, and always within that to-do list is a line item for gratitude. It’s as important for us to meet with our graphic designer and accountant as it is for us to send out thank-you notes .”

Quotes for Inspiration

“Carrie’s favorite quote is, ‘Do or do not. There is no try, ‘ from (’Star Wars’ character) Yoda. Our other favorite quote has to be our own, ‘Simplify, beautify and prosper.’”