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The Path To Leadership
We podcast about strong leaders, loyal employees, avoiding burnout, and raising profits building strong cultures. Everyone is a leader, but the path isn't always easy. Developing critical skills to build stronger, more successful and profitable organizations.
The Path To Leadership
Discovering Authenticity and Empowerment Through Style with Beth King
Beth King's transition from the corporate world to founding her own business, Lead Through Style, is an inspiring journey of self-discovery and passion. Her love for fashion, rooted in her early job at Express, never faded even as she pursued a path in marketing and nuclear weapons contracting. Drawing inspiration from Glennon Doyle's "Untamed," Beth realized her true calling in personal styling and branding, ultimately leading her to entrepreneurship. Her story not only underscores the courage it takes to redefine success beyond the conventional corporate ladder but also highlights the importance of following one's true passion.
Embarking on a transformative journey of personal style, Beth reveals how embracing one's authentic style can significantly boost self-perception and confidence. Through techniques like color analysis and personal styling, she helps clients understand and enhance their personal branding. The conversation touches on the challenges of maintaining style amidst life changes, including the pandemic, with powerful stories illustrating how reinvesting in one's wardrobe can foster internal growth. Beth's holistic approach demonstrates clothing's vital role in personal expression and communication with the world.
Discovering your authentic style personality is more than just fashion—it's about finding balance and expressing your true self. Beth shares insights into blending masculine and feminine energies to create a cohesive wardrobe that resonates with your identity. Learn how quizzes, mood boards, and events assist clients in uncovering their style, and get excited about her new subscription service, "Style My Season." As we celebrate the exhilarating journey of entrepreneurship, Beth emphasizes the importance of perseverance, vision, and support from peers. This episode is a testament to the power of style and entrepreneurship in shaping one's confidence and success.
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Theme music by Emma Jo https://emmajo.rocks/
Welcome back to the Path to Leadership. I'm really excited for my guest today. Hey Beth, how are you? I'm great. How are you? I am doing pretty good. We were talking before. We got on little voices, a little scratchy feeling. I don't know if it's allergies or weather change, but we're going to get there. So can you introduce yourself to everyone, tell everyone who you are and what you do?
Speaker 2:Sure. So this is my first time publicly announcing myself, as you know, a founder of my own company and not someone in a corporate role. So my name is Beth King, I am the founder of my business. It's called Lead Through Style, and what I do is personal color analysis, which, if you don't know what that is, it's assessing your undertone, your eyes, your natural features to determine which colors look the best on you. And I'm expanding into personal styling and hopefully eventually, personal branding type services.
Speaker 1:I think that is so cool and I know we talked when you were getting ready to make the jump and I am a huge fan about personal branding and I think most people who know me and see me expect to see me in green all the time. But I see you're working. I'm always like I'm nervous, I should have it done, but also like what if you tell me green's not my color?
Speaker 2:Well, green is in every palette, but we can find out which green is your best.
Speaker 1:Okay, we probably should do that. So before we get too far into you know the work you're doing now. Can you tell us a little bit about your career journey and what led you here?
Speaker 2:Sure, so I'll go way back. I don't want to tell my whole life story, I'll try to keep it brief, but I really think my career journey started when I was in high school. My parents, you know, we were okay, but I always wanted, I wanted to go shopping. I love shopping. And so they said, if you want to buy these high end brands, you need to go get a job and work for it. So I was reflecting on this actually about a week ago and I thought I've always been kind of a hustler. I've always held multiple jobs because I love nice things and I like to work for things, and so in high school I was a hostess at a restaurant, but I got a job at Express in the mall, if you remember Express, and I really thrived in that role and it wasn't out on the floor selling necessarily. I loved being in the dressing rooms and helping people and grabbing things for them and I would always maximize sales. I would always win the contest and so, really, thinking back and connecting dots, it all kind of started there.
Speaker 2:I always loved fashion, Been into fashion since I was a little girl. I watched movies for the fashion not necessarily the storyline and going into college. I was not that my parents didn't give me guidance. I think all I knew was that I should go to college and I wanted to major in fashion merchandising. And my parents bless their hearts, they did the best that they knew. But they said well, if you go into fashion, you'll have to move to New York or LA. I think they really wanted to keep me here in the Midwest. So I went to Missouri State University in Springfield and I got a degree in marketing management and still was kind of at a loss for what to do when I graduated with my bachelor's.
Speaker 2:So, long story short, I was dating my now husband and he said well, you really love shopping, you really love shopping, so why don't you be a buyer somewhere? And I got a buyer role at the manufacturing company he was working at at the time up in southeast Nebraska. Huge culture shock. I was there for about a year, wanted to get back to Kansas City at least some kind of normalcy for me. So I took a buyer job at a large company in Kansas City.
Speaker 2:They're a government contractor and I didn't think I'd be in nuclear weapons for too long. I thought well, you know, I'll do this for a couple years and I'll pivot into fashion at some point. And long story short, there I just kind of kept climbing and climbing and moving around the company and the leaders there were great. They saw potential in me. They urged me to go get my master's degree. I was on the board of the young professionals group here in Kansas city for the chamber of commerce. I did a bunch of leadership type programs and I finally made my way into senior leadership and I thought, well, and I finally made my way into senior leadership and I thought, well, shoot.
Speaker 2:I never really thought what is my end goal here? Do I want to be VP? Do I want to, you know, do whatever. And I thought, well, I'm only in my mid 30s and if this is it, I'm not going to be happy. I can't spend another 30 years doing this, dealing with the politics.
Speaker 2:I've always been a little rebellious, from the time I was a teenager on. So you know that's probably a weakness of mine is taking direction from others. I've always liked to kind of march to the beat of my own drum and I was really allowed, up until the last couple of years, to be an entrepreneur, so I'd see a problem and I would go fix it, no matter what that meant. And the larger we grew, a lot of that was taken away, and the higher I climbed in the ranks, there was more red tape and things to work through. So I thought you know what I need to do something different. And really, looking back, there was a moment I was listening to the book Untamed by Glennon Doyle Don't know if you're familiar with that or not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'll never forget it. I was driving down a road by my house this is probably four years ago when it first came out and there's the story about the cheetah being caged in at the zoo at the beginning of the book and I stopped and I thought, oh my gosh, I'm a cheetah caged in the zoo and there is more out there and I don't know why. But that was a pivotal moment for me and from there I started thinking differently, listening to all the podcasts surrounding myself with you know, people I hadn't been exposed to, and from there I didn't know what it was going to look like, but I knew I needed to start something. And I can't been exposed to. And from there, I didn't know what it was going to look like, but I knew I needed to start something. And I can't even tell you how it happened but organically fell into color analysis and that's kind of where it started.
Speaker 1:I'm a huge believer in listening to the universe and I love that the universe is like maybe not this, maybe not this, and it just hits you that day, which is really, really interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for sure I can be a little woo. And so the crazy thing was I hired a person named cheetah and one day I said, send me a sign. And I walked outside of my office and there was a piece of equipment named cheetah, and so I was seeing cheetahs everywhere. Bizarre. I won't go down that rabbit hole, but the last couple of years have just been wild like that. Signs from the universe.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, oh my gosh, and I love going from fashion to nuclear weapons. And then you're like I don't know that I'll be here that long.
Speaker 2:And I was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, well, and I know we talked when you were making the transition and we were so fortunate we met through Driving Pursuits, which is such an amazing program. People aren't familiar with it and you're in Kansas City. You should check it out, because it's all about getting women into golf, but bigger it's making those connections and building relationships, right, yeah, so you talked a little bit about the color analysis and kind of the signs of you know making the leap and everything, but can you talk a little more about kind of what your business looks like, like how do people work with you? What do you do those kind of things? Sure, Sure.
Speaker 2:So since I've, you know, kind of just dipped my toe in the water at this point, I've been focused primarily on color analysis. I started doing that around May. I've served over 70 clients now and that's been in different ways. So I've done in-person sessions. I go to the client's home or they can come to me to the client's home or they can come to me. I've been doing pop-ups at some of the bigger boutiques here in Kansas city and I also am certified to do it virtually. So that's been really cool, getting to work with men and women from all over the country who have found me on Instagram. So, primarily as far as marketing and getting clients has been word of mouth and social media. But it's pretty easy process. I'm on Instagram, I have a website and you can go in there and book a color analysis.
Speaker 2:Now, like I said, I'm expanding into personal styling services. So as my bandwidth increases, I'm looking to take on one-on-one clients and that's really looking at not only color. That's just a small piece of the puzzle. But what is your style, personality? There's different variations of that. We all have a yin and a yang, a masculine side and a female side to us, and how do we blend those two to create harmony in our style. Your lifestyle is a big part of it, right when you work, how you spend your days, and then also your body shape. So really looking at the whole person and putting all of those elements together to help them embody the best version of themselves possible.
Speaker 1:I just think that is so neat, and I know we've talked before about, you know, establishing your personal brand, and it's not all about clothes, but I think clothes help you feel better and and how you dress and when you dress and how you do it, it gives you that extra pep in your step um, which I think is really powerful. So can you talk a little bit about developing your personal style and and really we've also talked about your personal brand and that's all kind of linked together as well.
Speaker 2:Sure, so I can talk about highs and lows for myself. First, like I said, I was always the one who was really into fashion and embracing my personal style all through my teens and my twenties and, I think, becoming a mom, a working mom and I know this comes up a lot but COVID and those years really, really changed me and put me in a funk. I wasn't one who got to work from home, so I can't say I ever fell into the leggings and sweatshirts funk A lot of people did all week. But you know, my body changed after having kids and I was walking into a workplace where people weren't in the best mood every day and it was just survival mode and I think, truly, because I kind of lost myself and I wasn't showing up in the way that I dressed or internally, kind of put me in a dark place for a couple of years. It went through a lot personally as well. It wasn't until I'll share I lost my brother in 2020 during the pandemic and through that experience and had a pregnancy loss within a week of losing him, I, after I had my second, I decided I need to, you know, do some inner work and talk to someone and through that. That's when the door started opening in my mind and I thought, all right, I need to pull myself out of this funk and I don't know why. But my first step was I need to get my act together in my closet and start showing up the way that I used to and I'm a huge believer in your personal style is 100% a reflection of what's going on on the inside. And once I started taking the baby steps to get my wardrobe back in place and showing up, I showed up brighter, more confident. I was starting to be the leader that I was in the past, and it's just crazy how putting effort into your external looks can help you on the inside. And part of what I did was, like I said, I followed color analysis my whole life, but I went and got my own colors done, you know, just to see if I was right or not. And then, once I fully started embracing my color palette and my makeup and my hair I had highlighted blonde hair, like you have, katie I went back to my natural color and started purging things and bringing new things in. It just all kind of came together, bringing new things in. It just all kind of came together. Now where I'm at now.
Speaker 2:So I left my career I'm still kind of in it so I took on a bridge assignment at another manufacturing company and there the dress is super, super casual. To paint the picture, people out on the floor wear shorts, oh my goodness. And so I said I'm going to step into this authentically. I've been wearing jeans to work the last couple of months and, you know, dressing up as much as I can, but it's definitely impacted me and I've realized and thinking about this podcast today and what to say that you know who cares what the environment is like around me? Be myself and show up wearing what I want to wear. But again, wearing denim every day to work, I don't feel like the same person. I've kind of been a little bit of a funk mentally.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and it's interesting because clothes do make you feel different ways and you talked about the pandemic and I would just get up in the morning and like put on makeup and jewelry. Like the act of like finishing your outfit was one of the things that kind of got me like okay, now I feel a little bit normal.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I guess, to add on to that, there's multiple studies on this and you know, talking about how what you wear impacts how you show up in the world. And, as far as you know, communication 55% of what we communicate is visual, which is, yeah, that's crazy. I'm sure you've heard the same stats. So our visual appearance is huge when it comes to showing our credibility, whether we like it or not. I've been in many conversations throughout the years with people about, oh, it doesn't matter or oh, I'm not going to conform to this, that's just a fact. And so 95% of that 55% is how we are dressed and how we are handling our grooming. So, you know, human beings, I think it's just, we're curious. It's human nature to look at a person and judge or, you know, create a first impression off of the way someone looks, which I'm not saying is a good thing, but that's the way that it is Right.
Speaker 1:Right, well, and I appreciate you sharing your, your personal stuff that you did. That's gotta be hard. And then, to you know, say, okay, how do I get back to myself? And I think doing that, by you know, getting up, getting yourself together and and doing that. I know, when I'm not feeling well, sometimes it's like get up, take a shower, put on clothes, like let's, let's go, and it's it's amazing the power that something so basic can have for people. Right, yeah, yeah, um, well, and there's this, I, I, there's this meme that I love out there and it's um, it it's a woman standing in a wonder woman costume and it's like, um, I've always been told to dress for the job you want, not the job you have. And now I'm sitting in HR in a wonder woman costume, which I think is awesome. Uh, but can you talk a little bit about executive presence and and you know what that really means and what that means to you and why that's so important for really everybody?
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's a reason why that saying is so popular and it's held true for probably decades now. Just thinking behind the scenes throughout my career, hearing some of the things that people will say about leaders in the business and whether it's, you know, physical or personality or whatnot, when you are in a position of leadership, executive presence is everything, and I think that's a really hard thing to nail down.
Speaker 2:I don't know anyone who is perfect at it, but you know thinking throughout the years about hearing people say, oh, our director was up there speaking, and this is a dress thing, right, but their shirt was hanging out. Or I did it myself earlier this week I was watching a town hall, I was watching a CEO speak and I felt terrible, and I wasn't trying to be judgmental, but every second or third word was terrible. And I wasn't trying to be judgmental, but every second or third word was um? So people are constantly watching you and that's hard.
Speaker 2:But I had many conversations at my last job with people about perception or you know, you're in a position of leadership, you're a supervisor, and you're coming to work in jeans every day, with a backwards hat on, and people are looking to someone to lead and if you're not dressed for the job that you want, it, it really does. Hearing their team say well, I don't respect this person because they can't even show up to work dressed for the job that they have, and I have honestly heard things like that throughout the years. That's why it's important. But executive presence, yeah, I think it's something that you know and not that it ever went away, but I think that there was less emphasis put on it the last couple of years. It never went away, but it's important, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I think you know some people and I get it. We're working hybrid and you know some things have become more lenient and lax, but I do still think like I'm all for everyone having their personal style and everything. But I also think you have to dress for the environment you're going into. And my husband and I've been married for 24 years. We're huge, we love to cruise and for our honeymoon it was like you couldn't get into the dining room if you weren't dressed for dinner. And now it's so lenient that you know you can wear anything. You can wear a bathing suit, you can do whatever. And I know people will say well, you know why does it bother you what other people look like or dress or do? But it's that respect for everyone around them and you see it just in the workplace and restaurants here too, where people, like you said, they just dress however they want and sometimes it's a little little off putting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I guess that's okay to each their own, but it goes back to your personal brand, right, and your style is a piece of that, and you know how do you want to feel and how do you want the world to perceive you. And for me, my mission and my company, I really want to emphasize it's not superficial, it's not about looks, it's about how you feel on the inside and showing up as the best version of yourself, and that's a part of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, and I think you know we've talked about this before. I think it gives you confidence too when you just when you look and feel put together. It gives you that confidence, that extra little pep in yourself, exactly, yeah, um. So can you talk a little bit about um being your? You mentioned authentic self and, and I think that's really important, and so how I know that you do the color analysis and, as you're moving into styling, how do you help people figure out, like, what is their authentic style? What does that look like? So what does that some of that work look like? Sure.
Speaker 2:So that really goes into the whole style personality thing. There's I don't know how much to get into it here, but there are six high, very high level personality styles and it's like anything else any other personality assessments right, you don't want to put people in a box, but it's a guiding light and what? What I do is I talk to the person, I get to know them, but I also administer a quiz so that I can try to figure out what your masculine energy look like, what your feminine energy look like, and then try to blend the two together. So, for example, I am an elegant classic with a touch of creative. So for me, I realized through doing that work that I was leaning into my masculine for so long, and I think that's attributed to the role that I was in at work. But I was all about like blazers and tailor pants and button up shirts, and so I realized, oh, I got to put more of my feminine in and just blending the two together makes me feel more balanced and it's really fun.
Speaker 2:So I can walk through the personality types. There's the creative, there's elegant or aristocrat it's called sometime and there's natural, and those are the masculine energies and the feminine energies are the classic, the creative, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Dramatic is masculine, creative is feminine and then romantic, oh cool. And so again, just yeah. Getting to know people looking at pictures of their favorite outfits and Pinterest boards, that's another thing. When I take on a client, we'll work together, put together some mood boards and things to make sure that we're on the right page before I go off and start acting pieces for them.
Speaker 1:That is so fascinating and I know when we talked it's like it's so much more than just just color and, like you said, it's so much more than just what's on the outside and and I think it's important for for people to know that and to to realize that the work you do is not the superficial, but it's the whole person, the whole persona, the whole style, from inside out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think it's fun to learn about yourself. I'm one who will take all of the personality tests. I know my Enneagram, my Myers-Briggs, et cetera, et cetera. But style personality is one more thing and I found the more that I know about myself, the better off that I am and able to navigate not only my own emotions and dealings in the world, but also dealing with other people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah Well, and I love watching you on Instagram because your outfits like I. Always, when I see someone whose style is well put together, yours is like that. Emma Blankenship is always on point and it's always. I always love when people just are dressed to the nines and even when you are in your casual you're still dressed, really, look, really fantastic. So I always love seeing the pictures of your outfits.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you. I appreciate that and I'll say, knowing your style saves you a lot of money, because I don't follow the influencers right, the Amazon and all of the influencers that throw things out there, because that's a big issue I find with my clients is they have a full closet of nothing to wear. I admittedly fell into this trap, but you see stuff on Instagram or wherever that an influencer is wearing and you don't know your own style, so you buy it. Now that I know my own style, I can go into a store, I can look online and I avoid purchasing a lot of things I would have before because I know it's not going to be cohesive with the other pieces of my wardrobe and it's not part of my style personality.
Speaker 1:It's not going to be cohesive with the other pieces of my wardrobe and it's not part of my style personality, I never thought of that and it saves you, I would imagine. Saves you time and stress as well. I mean, how many? How many mornings have I? Yesterday I was stressing because I had the dress I wanted to wear, but you know it's middle of October, but then what shoes? And so I'd imagine it saves time and stress as well, knowing those kinds of things.
Speaker 2:Yep, you can mix and match everything if you do it right, yeah, oh my gosh, I'm just fascinated by it, by this work that you're doing Well.
Speaker 1:so before I ask you, the final question that I ask everyone on on all the shows how can people work with you? How can they find you? Uh, get more information.
Speaker 2:Sure, so I'm at lead through style on everything. Like I said, I'm mostly on Instagram. I do have a Facebook page. Now I have a website, wwwleadthroughstylecom. That's where you can find out more about my services and book there. Feel free to email me and you can reach out to me on Instagram.
Speaker 2:I have a few events coming up the next couple of months for the holidays, which is really exciting. Let me see. I'll be at Shop Scooby over in Prairie Village if you're familiar with them on November the 7th. I will be at Jay McLaughlin on the Plaza on November the 16th doing a pop-up there. And I will be at Hema Hema it's a Sierra winter jewelry event at the beginning of December doing some pop-up color there. So I'll add that onto the website and the calendar is also open for one-on-one appointments as well. And I'll also say I'm working on a subscription service. So once you have your colors done, I'm working on a I'm calling it style my season. It'll be a monthly subscription service. I've been doing so much shopping shopping for each season, over 100 pieces and I'm hoping to launch that here in the next couple of weeks so that I can take the guesswork out of shopping for you that is exciting.
Speaker 1:I've seen kind of the sneak peek on Instagram. I didn't realize that that's what it was. So that is that is really exciting. Anytime that I can get a box to make my life easier, I'm all in Yep Well, so I'll put all your contact information in the show notes so people can reach out and connect and to stay up to date on everything that you're doing. So the final question that I ask everyone on every show is to the level you're comfortable sharing, what's the biggest leadership or career misstep you've taken?
Speaker 2:Yes, the biggest one that always comes to mind is everyone has that one bad hire that they'll never forget.
Speaker 1:Oh, boy yeah.
Speaker 2:When I was a new manager. I wouldn't say I was pressured into hiring this candidate, but you know I was brand new to the role and so others on the interview panel thought they would be a good fit. I'm an Enneagram eight. If you follow the Enneagram, you know I tend to make decisions based on my gut feeling and all of the red flags were there. I just knew it wasn't the right thing to do and, needless to say, I brought her on and it was a few years of, you know, on a positive note, a lot of lessons learned for me having to manage difficult conversations and situations.
Speaker 2:But you know I learned the importance of having crucial conversations up front and, unfortunately, learning to document Document. Document was a problem employee, need to document document with a problem employee. But it was after that that I knew to ask the right questions to the previous manager. If you had that luxury, if it was an internal, you know, transfer and also just getting ahead of things. There's a saying I saw somewhere that said you are as good as your worst employee, and I've really carried that with me and I've told my managers that when you know those opportunities have come up. Yeah, this is hard, but you're really as good as your worst employee and it'll drag your whole team down. Yeah, that was. My biggest misstep was going against my gut feelings and bringing that person onto the team.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh my gosh, that's such a great point. I was speaking to a group of business owners yesterday and it's like we got to get away from just hiring a warm body, because that warm body, if they're not good, can destroy your whole team.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and it did. I think I lost some good people because of that person.
Speaker 1:In hindsight, yeah, yeah, what an important lesson. Well, thank you so much for sharing everything. It has been so much fun to watch this transition. I know we've talked about starting a business and when you're in the heat of it all, it just it's even still to me three years in. It's a rollercoaster of emotions, but it's just such a cool thing that you're doing and I know you're going to be wildly successful, so I can't wait to continue to watch it grow.
Speaker 2:Oh, thank you, Katie, and inspiration watching you as well.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Well. Thank you everyone for joining us on the path to leadership, and I will talk to you next time. Bye, everyone, yay.
