Brandi Johnson: Personal Stylist and Image Coach
Brandi Johnson is one of those people who lights up the room the minute she walks in. She has a beautiful smile, a bold personal style, and a calming but charismatic personality. She went from being a partner at a national consulting firm to training as a stylist with Stacy London from TLC’s What Not to Wear, and eventually opening her own styling business, Brandeis Nicole.
Learn more styling tips from Brandi on the Unburdened by Hope Podcast.
Southern Style in California
You could say that Brandi was bound for greatness from the start. She was named after the former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, Louis D. Brandeis. He served from 1916 to 1939, was appointed by President Woodrow Wilson, and was the first Jewish person to be on the Supreme Court.
Brandi grew up in California in the Bay Area and moved to the East Coast for her Bachelor’s degree in Afro-American Studies and Educational Studies from Brown University. She then moved back to California to complete her Master’s degree in Education from University of California, Berkeley. After graduation, she headed to New York and lived there for nearly 15 years before landing in Houston, Texas, where she currently resides.
Style was a part of Brandi’s life from the start. Her grandmother was (and still is!) very stylish and she remembers her sewing room had faded magazines with suit patterns from Vogue in the 1980s that she would make for herself.
“I grew up in a family of matriarchs from the South. I was fortunate enough to have my great grandmother in my life until I was about 13. We wore church hats, church purses, church shoes, everything coordinated. I was always aware that we had ‘house clothes’ and ‘neighborhood clothes’ like if someone came to sit on your porch or to have a glass of lemonade. It was very Oakland, California, but it kind of felt like the 1950s somewhere, you know, just like my great grandmother and her friends.”
Rediscovering Her Own Style
Diagnosed with endometriosis at 14, Brandi had known it was something she would have to manage her whole life. In her mid-20s she was put on a new medication that caused her to gain weight rapidly. She couldn’t fit into any of her clothes and found herself crying on her bed every morning when she was trying to figure out what to wear.
“I convinced myself it was temporary, and I was punishing myself for gaining the weight by not buying cute clothes. Six months later the weight was still there. For someone like me who loved style, it had been soul crushing to put on the same boring clothes every day.”
That Spring, Brandi had a pivotal moment where she realized she could either continue to be unhappy with her current body and wardrobe or she could embrace them and buy new clothes that fit and would make her feel good about herself.
“For the first time, I was really exploring my style. I realized that I wanted to be more playful and have bolder colors. And then ‘fit’ was the other piece of it. I had to figure out what worked on my body. That’s what started my framework around ‘fit’ and ‘style’ coming together.”
Style for Hire
When Brandi was living in New York after graduate school she found herself climbing the corporate ladder quickly, but working in several toxic environments. She eventually decided to move to a position as an Assistant Professor, which would allow her to have a more reasonable work schedule. She also decided to explore her interest in style and signed up to take a class from Stacy London, a well-known stylist and fashion consultant.
“Stacy London had a company called Style for Hire. It's no longer around, but she was going on tours across the country and holding a three-day workshop. Anyone could attend, you just had to pay the registration fee and at the end of it they actually selected people to join her team and be featured on the website and get clients.”
Brandi wasn’t aware of the selection process, but she greatly appreciated the education and training around styling. She participated in team challenges and individual challenges.
“There was a team challenge where Stacy zeroed in on this particular choice and asked, ‘Who did this?’ It was my choice and I was standing in a room with 75 people and had to explain it.”
Fortunately, Stacy loved it and Brandi was selected as 1 of 5 from the group to be offered the opportunity to apprentice with other stylists who had gone through Stacy London’s certification program.
“It was great. I had a really amazing experience with three different stylists. And what was really great about it was that it really affirmed for me the whole framework that was in my head but I just didn't have the language for it. And so my approach of being very ‘fit’ specific and ‘fit’ focused really resonated with the way that she styles, versus the ‘fashion’ of it.”
Brandeis Nicole
“I make the distinction between ‘fashion’ and ‘style’ very intentionally. My thing is ‘fashion' is something that is done to us and often makes us feel like we're not doing it right, whatever it is. ‘Style’ is a personal expression. It is however you decide on any given day to have a visual calling card that hopefully aligns with what you have going on inside or what you'd like to express.”
Brandi initially started her styling business, Brandeis Nicole, as a side hustle.
“When I first started out, I had friends who would just host me at their house. I would do a little presentation for their friends and that's how I started to get clients. They were living in Baltimore or Denver and it just was not a thing they had ever considered for themselves. And then to be like, ‘Oh, here's this person and I really like her.’ That approach worked perfectly for them.”
Eleven years later, Brandi now runs Brandeis Nicole as her full-time job and has worked with hundreds of clients across the country. She works with clients both in-person and online. Some even fly to see her!
Services
Signature Style Intensive
A VIP Day to learn the “greatest hits” of styling. You learn about your particular body shape (no fruits allowed!), find clothes that fit and flatter at any size and how to ditch the negative body talk.
Getting Dressed Again
A curriculum-based group coaching program for busy women who want to learn how to achieve effortless, authentic and confident style without sacrificing comfort, losing weight or spending a ton of time shopping.
Retainer
A La Carte shopping and/or shopping for events throughout the year.
“I've been styling people virtually since 2015, so way pre-pandemic, and I have this very cool platform that’s for stylists and it's invite only. And so, it's kind of like a combination of Pinterest and Facebook. You get the pictures which are clipped from the retailer you're shopping from and if you click on the picture, it takes you directly to the retailer, but then there's also a comment section and there's a closet.”
Advice for Women
On Finding Your Personal Style
“Before you get to the style part, I'd get really clear on what it is that you want out of life because I think so often we jump to the clothes. But usually if you're actually with it enough to know that you want your personal style to be different, you're usually searching for something else in life or something else has shifted and your closet is not keeping up.”
On Owning Your Own Business
“Running a business is work. I have learned that I am capable of finding joy in my life, and that it is actually just as hard to continue to prioritize my own happiness and joy as it is to work in a job that I hate. I think we really think that when you pursue your passion everything is just rainbows and ponies, but there’s a reason it’s called a business. I keep doing it because the upside is so huge, but I don’t think I really fully understood that one starting out. There are moments that feel just as hard as they did working for someone else. The difference is that I get to figure out how I feel about that and make the change if I want to.”
On Investing in Yourself
“Sometimes it's hard for us to invest in ourselves in a lot of ways and style can be seen as this thing that's frivolous or we have shame or guilt around it because we feel like we should know how to do it. And none of that's true. So, I just invite anyone who if this is a struggle for you, and getting dressed feels less fun than it should, just know it's completely possible to turn that around no matter what your brain is telling you about why it's hard.”
