Design Consultant + Stylist to Beijo Bags!

About a month ago, on Saturday, March 5th at the Eaglewood Resort + Spa over in Itasca, Illinois, I was a guest speaker at Beijo's Regional Team Conference. Tami Banno, one of the Regional Sales Director of Beijo, got a hold of my information through a string of colleagues. And after a few emails and a phone conversation, she felt I was fit for the guest speaker role in talking about fashion, color, design and purse displays. I must say, I was excited and nervous at the same time. First of all, I haven't given a formal presentation in over a year since my days back in agency life, and this was the biggest group yet, 40-45 individuals. But thanks to Tami and the great group of Beijo consultants that I met prior to my presentation, I felt very welcomed and comforted by the surrounding environment.

The conference began at 8:30AM, and I was there from the very start of the event though I didn't have to go on 'til 1:30PM in the afternoon. I wanted to be present for the most of the day to really learn about the Beijo brand and family....

Beijo was started by Susan Handley, the founder and sole designer of all the purse lines. At one point, Susan was a struggling single mom trying to make ends meet. Susan started the Beijo bag line with no prior business experience. With the encouragement of her friends and family, she was determined to make a better life for herself and son, Kyle. It was her son who provided the name for his mom’s company. —“Beijo,” which means “kiss” in Portuguese. It was his second word and he would always say to his mom, “Beijo, Mama, Beijo”. Initially, Susan sold bags by the armload out of her car, and today, a few years later, Beijo bags are now sold by the tens of thousands at home parties. She has declined department store offers to carry the bags nationwide, Susan is committed to her vision that home parties remain the core of her company. Many of the women who host Beijo parties are in the process of gaining their first measure of financial independence. A portion of the Beijo donation program is committed to organizations and projects which support the health, education and development of mothers and their children.

And then before I knew it, 1:30PM hit, and it was my turn. Lights were dimmed, my formal presentation was projected, and the 15 minutes flew by! Here are a few snapshots of me in action from the conference. Images were taken by Valerie Madeline Photography who also happens to be a Beijo Bag Consultant, and I have shared a few screen shots from my presentation, too!

I am only going to highlight a few main points of the presentation that I did, because this blog would take forever to write. There were two mains areas covered in the verbal part of the presentation — (1) Dressing the Part and (2) Displays that Sell. And for the third part of my role, (3) Show Me What You Got, was for the audience to take what I presented and put it into action with their own displays after my verbal presentation was over. Then, I would critique each group with their purse set-ups and physically show them on how to improve their displays with some minor adjustments.

In "Dressing the Part", I touched on 2011 Spring + Summer colors and provided pointers on how to dress one self to be confident and fashion forward using current basic wardrobe pieces in one's closet while also incorporating new color accents that reflect the season.

For the second part, "Displays that Sell", I covered key aspects that successful department + boutique retail stores do with their displays and arrangements in which Beijo consultants should consider when setting up purses in home environments... such as good organization, uniformity and arrangements of 3's. There are always exceptions to the rule, but one needs to understand the rules before you know how to break them successfully.

And now the Beijo consultants take action and work on their own purse displays in groups and by theme...

After each group finished setting up their personalized displays, I went back in and corrected areas that needed much attention in order to bring the focus and visual clarity back to the Beijo bags. With every move or switch of a purse by my hand, it was nice to hear the reactions from the consultants, because they visually understood how a shift in spacing can really change up the playing field.

And then I got pics with each team, only two groups are shown here, and one is with the winning team that I selected that did the best display (2nd pic) — "Girls Night Out".

Also, I can't forget the best part, a sneak peak at Beijo's 2011 Spring line (see below). As you can see, Susan Handley embraced the Honeysuckle Pink, the 2011 Color of the Year selected by the Pantone Color Institute. I do love the new faux texture prints on these bags. I loved it so much that I couldn't pass up getting one of my own. In the 2nd image, with the giraffe-like print, I recently purchased this bag for myself so I can sport it this summer. It's called the Inside Out Bag, where it literally turns inside out. If I wanted the Camel color to be exposed, and the Honeysuckle Pink Giraffe print to be hidden as the inner liner of the purse, all I have to do is flip it inside out. How fun is that?! And the fabric material is quite durable and wipes easy if there is a spill on it. I am quite happy with my Beijo purchase. :)

2011 Beijo Spring Line

©2011 Valerie Madeline Photography

If someone out there is interested in throwing a purse party, or just want to purchase one of the bags featured in this post, feel free to contact Tami Banno at her email tambanno[at]gmail.com or give her a call at 309.256.9773, too. And you can always contact me if you have any questions to anything related to this post.

A Side Note: The Beijo new website is under development so it won't reflect all the latest and greatest bags available. Once I hear that the new site is launched, I will share it with you all.