 Welcome back to Geeks are sexy. I'm Jason Leduc from evil genius leadership consultants I'm your host on the fourth Friday of every month talking about business and entrepreneurship and how to be successful with your business Here in Las Vegas. My next guest is Katie Wofford She's an established fashion stylist and style expert from Hollywood whose talent is grace the red carpet for numerous events There's the Academy Awards Golden Globe independent spirits awards comic on the today's show and my personal favorite on this list the Conan of There's a lot more to this list. I actually cut some of it down. So so I know it's getting a little long But Katie is coming to us in Las Vegas by way of Nashville and then before you were in Nashville You spent 13 years in Los Angeles and you've been featured in your clients been featured in in style magazine glamour magazine And some of them he'd been put on some of these prestigious best-dressed lists that you hear about so so Katie's a real deal She knows what she's doing. She's done this for celebrities And now she's gonna tell us today how she can use her styling talent her personal styling talent to help women entrepreneurs Women women and women in business on a personal level to develop their personal brand of their personal style Thank you for being here today. Thank you. I'm very excited to be here today Yeah, so tell us how you got started as a stylist. Was this something you did when you were a kid Was it how'd you get here? Um, it's it's a it's a fun story. I've always naturally was doing it in my brain I didn't realize that's what I was doing But if you look back at photos when I was in high school I was always just so enamored with it and then I moved out to LA when I was 18 years old I was a professional dancer at the time doing ballet jazz tap hip-hop Okay, and then so I just worked in the entertainment business for years Trying to figure out what I wanted to do in life And I think it's a really key point for business or aspiring business owners or people who are in business It's like I couldn't find what I wanted to do what I love to do in life And I was really lost for a long time and then as fate would have it one day. I when I was actually 23 I had a girlfriend say hey, would you assist me on this? German cell phone Commercial that was featuring Snoop Dogg I was like, well sure. Okay. And so that was like my first official time on set That was my first time and that was really the moment that I was I had like I was I had the instincts I was like I think I'm gonna do something I didn't actually officially realize I was going to do it until a few years later You have to be ready for success and I wasn't I wasn't quite ready then for a lot of different reasons. So Again fast forward till about 28. I was just really wanting to find my passion And then I just like found a website. It said this is how you take a crash course on how to do it And I will tell you When I started to tell everybody hey, I think I'm gonna be a fashion stylist I had the most support from everybody and it was like I knew I was home in some weird way And I've just always had a career since day one. I started out with business women Executives and my career has just been a dream. It's just taken me all over the world I mean, I've just done things that I never knew that I was going to Achieve and and so yeah, I love what I do that is that is outstanding So what what is something you learned your first day on set with Snoop Dogg in a German cell phone commercial? With one of your best friends in this commercial What what's something you took away because I imagine that was an intimidating experience to start with? You know, I didn't get intimidated by it. I learned how small his waist really is He's like you heard it here folks. We are we're gonna get emails now. His waist is like itty-bitty, right? Like teeny-tiny um just How quick you have to think on your toes with it Because you can only be so prepared for the job and then all of a sudden like the director may Come up and say I want to change this and you've got to make it happen And you've got to make it happen in 10 minutes And you know because they've got to get on to the next shot because it's a production schedule And they only have so much time because they're paying everybody That's that's outstanding and the Air Force really said flexibility is the key to air power And it sounds like that may be the key to to fashion styling on a cell phone commercial That's it's good to see that the lessons apply everywhere One of the things that really stood out to me in your bio is that you really believe in helping your clients Impressed upon the world who they are without even saying a word just when they walk into a room How do you help them do that? What do you what do you look for in your clients? What do you how do you see them get to know them and help them do that? I loved this question when you sent this to me I know we do homework here. We don't just wing it. I Always start out with what's called style development, right? Okay, like you've got to build your brand and so how you do that is how I do that is Getting to know my client on a very intimate level and it just depends on where somebody's at And so I simply start with a question in there, but I try to get to understand their personality On a deep deepest level that I can to be able to go literally out and find that piece that literally says This is Katie at her best to make her feel the best without so that way You're not worried about like am I overdressed in my underdressed when you go have a meeting with a client So you can't close that deal. So you just feel so empowered about yourself So that's always the end goal and it's just figuring out where that client's at So that way that they are growing in this naturally and and developing their Vocabulary if you will. Yeah, I love that when you told me about the book the style vocabulary. Yeah, yeah, right because it's like we all speak a language and Whatever your native tongue is but we are all speaking the language of who we are each day And you do that by through what you wear because we actually communicate 93% more non-verbally than we do actually verbally So, you know, what you wear is a very impactful thing that you're going to be when you're going into business Outstanding look it sounds like you're helping people really get in touch with who they are and then it'd be confident showing them showing the world who they are while they improve their their style vocabulary and branch out and and to pull on the vocabulary analogy learn more More words more more specific words to represent how they're feeling and what they're trying to accomplish. Exactly. I love it Yeah, I love it. So tell us about your new Relatively new East styling business that you've put together. Yeah, you know I learned so much in LA from like working with incredibly wealthy clients out of Beverly Hills to celebrities and stuff like that I really learned skills and techniques I eat like that that I was feeling like the women wanted and then when I researched Stitchfix obviously is a huge like seven hundred million dollar business and for her to have had that level of success It really like identified that like this is what women want women want really somebody that can give them that personal touch The challenges is what what they do is that you're not actually working with a real fashion stylist It's actually technically done Everything so that's where I have customized my East styling business called style retainer to where now I wanted this to be affordable for women no matter where you're out from New York to Seattle, Florida Los Angeles and everywhere in between to be able to work with with a real stylist myself to be able to properly build you a wardrobe that Does the correct transaction for you in your business? Okay, great Yeah, so how how can someone get started with you? What do they what do they need to know? What do they need to bring to you? To start that conversation with you and what do they need to know about themselves to start that conversation with you if they want to work with you through Style retainer it's a good question I just simply is the desire that they want to do this Okay, and if they want to do this then email me through my website Katie at Katie watch for calm and then from there We'll set up a free consultation and talk and really start to delve more into your fashion personalities And getting a little bit more breakdown of your brand to see you know What would be a good fit for you? Okay, and you're just working with women right now. Yeah I mean, I have one male client, but you know, I mean, I always say I help men too because I'm making the wife happy So happy wife happy life. Yeah, that's what I hear so So so like my business is 99% women. Okay, so sorry guys. Sorry. Okay He's probably not the right person for you today Maybe in the future, but if you're really interested hit us up here at the show I'm sure Katie can give you a great referral for whether you're in Las Vegas or somewhere else She can help you out and I'll talk to a man I'm not saying like it's just my the foundation of what most of my tier material is around women But okay guys really like Katie I need some help. I want to grow my business like help me just I don't want to have to think about it I'm not like and the vibes right like I'm totally willing to talk. Well forget what I said guys. Don't hold back getting touch with Katie. So You weren't just making this up as you go along You've actually been to school to do this fashion and not just the the style piece of fashion But you learn I remember watching a video with you as I was prepping for this interview where you talked about that introductory business course At your at your style school And so what are what are some of the elements of business that you feel that you feel like you've had to learn and that are Really strong at in addition to the style aspects. I mean the number one key thing in business is like is a sales But it's your relationships. And so you it's there's that old-fashioned saying it's it's who you know But it's also I heard a bartender years ago say this and I loved them and he always said my dear It's not who you know. It's who knows you And I love that spin on it because you know and it is like you have to have a lot of Really strong relationships in order to grow your business to the next level. So I mean obviously Like understanding the technicality of what I do But I mean I also personally work a lot with like personality traits. It's beyond just outside clothes So relationships Is a key a key key element that I think people really take for granted. Okay, great We talk a lot about that about that on this show is build your team around you build those relationships It really is important. Nobody does this alone. Nobody does so okay So in the in the few seconds we have left you talked about the web you talked about the email on the website How else can our viewers get ahold of you? Uh through social media you can go to instagram at katie wattford So and then obviously through my website just to easily send an email too Okay, and the website is great very very beautiful website. You have so I really I really enjoyed it. All right Well, katie stay right here. We're going to bring dwayne and shawn back or and have a panel discussion Talk a little bit more about business in general in the las vegas area And uh, i'm jason laduke. I almost forgot what I was going to say here I'm jason laduke and we will be back with our panel discussion in just a few minutes. This is geeks are sexy