[00:00:00] I recently had, someone come to me and then became a client. She had just been, come back to Australia after spending several weeks traveling. And, she was there for a major strategy conference for the organization that she was working for.
So for that particular strategy conference, she had just bought this incredible tailored Navy suit. But what she had said to me was that every time she, so when she came home and every time she opened her wardrobe, she still felt stuck. And she said, I'm not trying to really look perfect. I just want this to be easy again.
And I think that really sums up what so many women. are carrying, right? You just want it to be easy. You may have grown, you've evolved, your role has changed, but that wardrobe hasn't, caught up. And I talk about [00:01:00] there's this mismatch of personalities that are in the wardrobes still, and it then creates this confusion.
So therefore making it harder for you to make decisions around, what are you actually wearing now? And so if you have been saying things like, I'm overthinking what to wear, I just wanna focus on my work and not my clothes, but I know clothes play an element of this, or perhaps I'm not sure if this still feels like me, then this episode is definitely one for you.
Welcome to the Style and Strategy Podcast, where personal brand meets leadership and style. I'm Sonya, a personal brand and style coach who's been exactly where you are juggling career and business success. Personal growth and finding a style that truly fits. After decades in corporate leadership, I've learned that showing up isn't just about [00:02:00] what you do, it's about how you align who you are and how the world sees you.
This season, I'm bringing you practical strategies, bold insights, and honest conversations to help you amplify your presence, unlock your next level, and lead with clarity and confidence. Let's dive in.
I really like to call this as this gap, between. Who you are internally and that visual wrapper or the external signals you've got on the outside. And so when I'm working with clients, I take them through something that I call the leadership wardrobe system and. It's really designed to solve that gap for you really simply.
And so what I want you to really know though is this isn't a styling issue. It's a system issue because [00:03:00] most high achieving women and impact driven leaders are still getting dressed from a collection of clothes, not a wardrobe with a system. And certainly not one that's intentionally built around their current body, their lifestyle, and definitely the leadership identity that they want.
Without a system, you really end up rebuilding the wheel every morning, and so then if you add in all the back to back meetings, the presentations, the travel, the visibility that you're trying to achieve. You just don't have time. the, I guess the margin for any friction there kind of disappears.
And then research backs this up. So women in executive roles face up to 27% more daily micro decisions than their male peers. And yes, that includes, your appearance, the appearance based choices that we make. [00:04:00] So when clients say to me, I just wanna get dressed without the mental gymnastics, what they're craving is relief.
Now here is something really important, and this is where,the concept of a capsule wardrobe can go wrong. The system doesn't come first, right? Before you build a functional wardrobe, you need to understand a couple of things. So. Your identity work. You need to be comfortable with that. You need to be really clear on your brand and your style and where you want to go with that.
But then you also need to understand, what is your current shape? What are the proportions? What is your colour identity? so your wardrobe is working visually on your behalf, creating this whole level of cohesion and clarity without adding more pieces. And so I like to call those other elements, the shape strategy and strategic color identity.[00:05:00]
And so once you've got those in place and then we build out the wardrobe system or the leadership wardrobe system. Then you've got everything working in tune because you're not just reorganizing a collection that was never designed to support how you live and work inside, the leadership wardrobe system.
I really focus on with clients to understand how to anchor the pieces so they work across roles and settings from work to weekend, right? Because who doesn't want return on investment in the pieces that they've got? Obviously, you're gonna end up with, there's gonna be statement pieces in there potentially that, are those special pieces, but I'm talking about those pieces that need to work a little bit harder in your wardrobe.
And these days between the mix of smart casual, casual, casual and the variety of how people are showing up [00:06:00] in, the workplace, you need to have a wardrobe that's gonna work for you. The next element of that is visual clarity, right? You wanna be able to open that wardrobe and know what works.
and then really there's this seasonal refinement piece, right? So you come back and revisit areas of that wardrobe as it evolves with you instead of holding you back. So for me, it's never about starting with buying more. It's about finally seeing what supports you and building from there.
Because what I often see is that. When women have a wardrobe system that reflects their pace, their presence, then they stop asking, does this look right? And start asking, what impact do I want to create today? And I'm gonna go to my wardrobe to go create that.
So when your wardrobe becomes that [00:07:00] system, it can stop draining your energy, and it really just starts to reinforce your presence.
So today I want you to think about do you have a wardrobe system in place or is it something that perhaps you need to think about? How do I incorporate that?
