IAM909- Founder Helps Women Refine Their Brand Image

Solita Roberts is a Caribbean expat, former banker, and now Personal Stylist/ Image Coach and founder of Styled by Solita.

Solita believes that having a strong personal image is the gateway to women having the confidence to share their stories, using their voices to inspire others, and quite frankly make an impact in the boardrooms, business, and their careers.

As such, Solita works with women entrepreneurs and executives to refine their brand image, discover their unique style, build their dream wardrobe, unlock their confidence, and become recognized as an influencer in their niche.

• CEO Hack: The ability to keep learning and keep practicing
• CEO Nugget: The road is not easy, there are no shortcuts (ii) Make those connections and start those partnerships
• CEO Defined: Being able to create something for myself and put the different pieces together

Website: https://www.styletoimpact.com/

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Transcription

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00:17 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:45 – Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today Salida Roberts of Styled by Salida. Salida, it's awesome having you on the show.

00:54 – Solita Roberts

Oh, thank you very much, Gresh. It's a pleasure coming to you and connecting with your audience. I hope that We have a fantastic conversation. I know we have a lot of things in store for them today. So yeah, let's get started. I'm excited.

01:06 – Gresham Harkless

I'm excited as well. And we can get into it. I want to read a little bit more about Salida though, so you can hear about all these awesome things that she's doing. And Salida is a Caribbean expat, former banker, and now personal stylist, image coach, and founder of Styled by Salida. Salida believes that having a strong personal image is the gateway to women having the confidence to share their stories, using their voice to inspire others, and quite frankly, making an impact in the boardrooms and businesses and their careers. As such Alita works with women entrepreneurs and executives to refine their brand image, discover their unique style, and build their dream wardrobe, unlocking their confidence and becoming recognized as an influencer in their niche. Salida, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:52 – Solita Roberts

I am ready, I am ready.

01:54 – Gresham Harkless

Let's do it then. Let's go. So to kind of kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about how everything got started. Could you take us through what I call your CEO story? We'll let you get started.

02:03 – Solita Roberts

Oh yes. Starting in fashion, like I've never been like the fashion girl, like you know the 1 that's always on trend, like that. I like the way I look, like I try to look you know quite clean and put together, but I've never been like, oh my gosh, I need to get into the latest look. But I think the turning point for me was when I started my first corporate job in banking, like everybody else, I got 2 pairs of dresses. It was a black suit and a black and white suit and, you know, matching a blouse to go with it. And I remember wearing those 2 pieces to that, like they died. My supervisor at the time pulled me aside and she was like, your parents are a little bit, because I was front-facing always dealing with customers. And she's like, your parents are a little bit under, not so nice. I should try to put it off as nice as possible because not everyone can take that type of critique.

And so I listened to it and I was like, Okay, I understand. And 2 days later, she got me pants and 2 shirts. And that was the changing point, like the turning point in terms of how I looked at my parents, because I'm like, if my supervisor noticed my appearance wasn't matching my performance, it wasn't matching, you know, she kind of outlined for me what it would mean should I dress appropriately, you know, have that polished look, customers being able to engage and building my confidence on all of that. And that was the moment that I was like, OK, I understand. And from that day, it was every decision that I made in terms of what my goals were. When I looked at that company and it was time for me to transition out of it,

There was a specific company I wanted to work with and I was like, okay, how do I, you know, elevate my, not just my work, but also my parents to be able to work for that company? Because it was a Swiss subsidiary at the time. So we were talking about the head office, we're in Switzerland, and I wanted to match, you know, the aesthetics and everything. So I had that professional look. I had to go for, you know, clean-cut tailored pieces that fit and suit my personality and my body. And I've always done that in that whatever goals I set for myself, how do I present my package? Because people look at you first. They see this. We can argue from now till never that we shouldn't be judging our parents.

And I like to say if you go to a restaurant and you see the chef and he had dirty nails here hanging down all over the place. Would you eat at that restaurant? Because you're using your visuals, your senses are connected and it's the same thing when it comes to when we interact with somebody. Our senses are engaged. It's like, oh, should I talk to this person?

his person looks interested in this person so that overall package must look you know presentable and professional not going professional is something that I always need to make a point of when I say professional, people always think that you need to wear a suit, you need to be buttoned down and pinned. No, professionally dressed is based on the environment that you're going to be entering and also your personality. So yeah, that's how I got started, basically into the whole realm of fashion. Or I have styling women from my own experience and getting that insight that, yeah, my style does matter, the way I look does matter, my appearance matters to me. And I took it from there.

05:29 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, absolutely love that. And the phrase that was coming for me was to dress the part and you hear that so many times. And I love how you talked about this next position you wanted to apply for and get that opportunity to showcase yourself. And you saw and understood how your appearance would impact that and how a lot of times we think that this is where I wanna be. So when I get there, I'll dress the part when in reality, a lot of times you dress the part and then you walk into that position or that goal or whatever it is that you want to do because you look the part, you feel the part and it starts to exude in everything that you're doing.

06:03 – Solita Roberts

Exactly, exactly. And I think that sometimes we will go into like let's say for instance, we're interviewing for a job and we'll go get the best suit, we'll put it on, then we get the job and that's it. And then you're looking at yourself, oh, but I'm not getting any promotions. Oh, my supervisor is not paying attention. It's like if you want to be promoted to any position you need to dress the part. If everybody else is wearing jeans and you want to go to that office, you want to you know be the supervisor in charge, whatever position you want in that company, you have to stand out. You cannot just rely on your work only.

You have to grab people's attention. And to do that, get connected to jewelry. There's something, maybe it's your hairstyle, Maybe it's your shoes, your jewelry, whatever it is that you're wearing that connects with them. And like my previous boss, a simple, at the time when you, when I thought about it, I was like, okay, brush it off. Whenever he was connecting with clients, he wore something specifically based on their culture. If he were going to meet a client from Japan, he would wear a watch that was the statement piece that he always, that was made in Japan, but maybe it connects, starts the conversation, and builds that trust.

The person, oh, where's your watch from? Oh, it was this, and that's a whole conversation. And that person feels comfortable and trusting enough to say, okay, I'm ready to do business with you. And that's the thing we have to understand. Start dressing now for those positions that you want, whether or not it's in business or it's in your career. Dress the partner. No, people will take notice of you now instead of you trying to work your way. Try to climb this ladder and get to the position by standing as somebody who is not to say that no, any job that you have, no position is better than any, sometimes it's not, right, but it's just you have your own personal goals. You know what you want for yourself. And you have to engage the senses and those persons around you to be able to get that opportunity. So yeah.

08:11 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. Yeah, absolutely. Love that you, you know, help people to be able to achieve that. And, you know, offline before we got started, the word connection came up. And I also hear the word communication because a lot of times what you're wearing and what you're not wearing is communicating something. So you wanna make sure that you're putting your best foot forward. And so I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper. Could you take us through a little bit more on how you work with your clients? Could you take us through how you serve the clients that you work with?

08:35 – Solita Roberts

Oh, absolutely. So working with my clients, what I tried, at least when I started like really thinking about how do I want to differentiate myself from you know, every stylist out there because the mindset most persons you say oh you're a personal stylist you buy me clothes that's the last thing on the agenda when it comes to working with me. The first thing I need to know is you know who are you you know what Grish wants to achieve in life. What is it, you know, what are some of, your goals personal and professional? What are some of the things that maybe in your past that you were told about your, parents about the way you dress and about, you know, just going forward with life?

So I like to start at that point by getting to know you better. Because it's not about just buying, anybody can go to a store and buy an outfit. Anybody, there are stores around, there online, you can do that. But to have a personal style that represents who you are and one that you are comfortable with, like whatever clothing you put on, you feel great about yourself and you're able to get into those rooms and just express yourself, is to be able to first know who you are. It starts here. We have to understand, you know, who we are as a person and what is it we want to achieve first. So when I work with my clients, that's the first thing we do. We go through that consultation in understanding, you know, what are some of the struggles that they're having when it comes to their style? What are some of the things that they wanna achieve? And then we go to that stage, okay, how do we craft your style to match those goals?

So let's say for instance, you were, like I had a client recently, mom of 4, and she is going back into the work for us mama for clothing that she wore as a mom is not necessarily what she wants to wear in the workforce, especially given the fact that the profession that she was going into is HR. So you see how we now connect, we have to now connect the position that she's going into and the wardrobe, who is she becoming now? She's becoming this HR professional.

She's still a mom, but she's transitioning as well into an HR profession. So we now have to build a wardrobe around that. And so that process from consultation, understanding what your goals are, then building your style uniform and your signature style, then we go to what are the pieces that you need. You may already have like two or three pieces in your closet that we can repurpose, but you may need some additional pieces. As I said, getting to the clothing is the last part of the process. We need to first understand who you are and what your goals are.

11:26 – Gresham Harkless

Yeah, absolutely. And so would you consider that to be what I call your secret sauce, the thing you feel kind of sets you apart or your business and makes you unique, is it that ability to be able to obviously kind of drill down and understand that about each person, but have and showcase that through this style, through the, I guess, the clothes that they're wearing, is that what you consider to be your secret sauce?

11:45 – Solita Roberts

Yeah, absolutely. And what I would do, I would add, because once we have done the work and created that style and got new pieces, that's not the end of the process. Because now you have to go on living your life and you have to ensure that you're dressing in a way. So what happens now is to equip you with the tools to make dressing a habit.

12:06 – Gresham Harkless

I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

12:15 – Solita Roberts

The ability to keep learning and to keep practicing. I looked at it this way when I first started a simpler tool such as Canva. Like I'm not a designer. I am in no way shape or form a designer. I'm not getting my creative juices going. And when I first started using that, that software, I was like, Oh my gosh, if I show you some designs, crappy. No, I look at my designs, I'm like, Oh, wow. Right. And It just came from constantly practicing and not giving up that, okay, I can do this. It just means that this is where I'm starting as I continue to see using the tool. I got better as it added. So I think the most important thing as a CEO is just remembering that.

13:00 – Gresham Harkless

I love that hack. And so I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. And this could be a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. It might be something you would tell a client or if you hopped into a time machine, you might tell your younger business self.

13:13 -Solita Roberts

The road is Not easy. There is no, there is no absolutely, absolutely no shortcuts. And one of the things that I think I've learned while growing my business is connections, connections, connections, make those connections, start those partnerships.

13:36 – Gresham Harkless

Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So Salida, what does being a CEO mean

13:44 – Solita Roberts

It means honestly, just being able to, being able to create something for myself, being able to put the pieces together, having this puzzle and you being able to put the different pieces together and then see it come, you know, the whole thing being transformed in front of your eyes is just absolutely amazing. Forget you, you, you, when you see it come together, you forget that everything, you know, may have that moment when you just stood at your computer and cried or you know or you're just like okay I don't want to do this anymore or you know you have those moments when you see everything coming together.

14:26 – Gresham Harkless

Truly appreciate that definition. Appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and of course how best people can get a hold of you and find out about all the awesome things that you're working on.

14:39 – Solita Roberts

Oh, thank you very much. Thank you again, you know, lost my voice there for a second. You know, thank you for having me and it was a pleasure. I enjoyed this conversation. Just being able to do this is amazing and just express and tell my story from the beginning to the impact that I'm making. As I mentioned before, briefly, I did mention it, I'm going through a rebranding. I'm very excited about that. You know, just having the same energy, just different colors, you know, different products and services that best suit my clients for where they are right

15:13 – Solita Roberts

now and being able to get them into that life that they're looking for and aspire to be able to, you know, do great things with their lives. So it's like, in terms of contacting me, I, I'm still at style at style by solita.com. That's my email address. So I will leave that 1 now because I think by the time this year, you know, there'll be some changes to my brand as we go forward. I would be sure to update everyone on the new changes and the new name and everything like that. I think it will speak to exactly what, you know, women want to do in their lives or being able to have that style that can make an impact.

15:57 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, absolutely love that. Appreciate that, Salida. We will have the links and information in the show notes as well. So definitely make sure you check out those, especially with the rebrand and everything. But love to have you back on after you get all those things kind of ducks in the row, I guess you can say. But I appreciate you so much for all the value you provide, and all the help you do to so many other people. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:19 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening

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