Show Notes

• Life as a supermodel
• Socks: The gateway to licensing
• 17,000 products, from apparel to merchant services
• “The common denominator is our vision statement”
• The kind of people it’s important to surround ourselves with
• Kathy’s priorities
• Her first business talk
• Why it’s important to be passionate about what you’re doing
• Keys to success
• kiWW’s fight against human trafficking
• The role Christ plays in her life
• Advice for young entrepreneurs
• Various forms of education

Connect With Kathy Ireland

Website – https://www.kathyireland.com/
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/kathyireland/
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/kathyirelandWorldwide
Twitter – https://twitter.com/kathyireland
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/company/kathy-ireland-worldwide/

Summary

Kathy Ireland is a former supermodel, and the CEO & Chief Designer of kathy ireland Worldwide. She discusses her success in the modeling industry, and how she positioned her brand as one of the top global licensors in the world.

Full Transcript

Brian:

Welcome to another episode of Life Excellence with Brian Bartes. Join me as I talk with amazing athletes, entrepreneurs, authors, entertainers, and others who have achieved excellence in their chosen field so you can learn their tools, techniques, and strategies for improving performance and achieving greater success.

Kathy Ireland is a fashion and licensing icon. As a supermodel, Kathy appeared in 13 consecutive Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issues, including three covers. During Sports Illustrated Swimsuits 50th Anniversary event her 1989 cover was declared the greatest Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover of all time. In 1993, Kathy founded her brand marketing company, Kathy Ireland Worldwide. Products bearing her company’s brand have produced billions of dollars in revenue. And in 2020, her company stood at number 15 on Licensed Global’s top 150 Global Licensers list with an estimated 3.1 billion in retail sales that year. Kathy was also named one of the 19 most influential women in licensing by Licensed Global Magazine. And according to Fairchild Publications, she is one of the 50 most influential people in fashion. Furniture Today names Kathy one of the most influential leaders in the furniture industry. And she is hailed by Harper’s Bizarre as the most successful model in the world. Kathy has also written numerous books, many of them for children. In 2020, she released her first novel Fashion Jungle, which is based on events from her career in the modeling industry. She is a philanthropist, a fearless human rights advocate, a wife, and the mom of three children. Kathy is a true supermodel turned super mogul, and we’re incredibly blessed to have her on show today. Welcome Kathy, and thanks for joining us on Life Excellence.

Kathy:

Brian, thank you for that very kind introduction and thank you for inviting me today.

Brian:

Oh, it’s great to have you. Kathy, modeling as a profession was around long before you entered the business, but the term supermodel really became popular during the 1980s when models started to become celebrities really. How did you get into the modeling business? And did you ever imagine that you would achieve the extraordinary celebrity status that you have, gracing the covers of magazines like Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Mademoiselle, and of course, Sports Illustrated?

Kathy:

No, modeling was never part of my plan. I’m grateful. It ended up being a wonderful education in many ways—it was my college. It allowed me the opportunity to experience travel, different cultures, how people live, also some of the greatest designers in the world. So it’s been an instrumental education, but it was really, I mean, just by fluke that I entered that industry. I thought, okay, after a scout had approached me and invited me to come to New York for the summer, I thought, you know what, I’ll see how I do. Perhaps I could save up enough money to pay for college or to start a business. And the entire time I worked in that industry, Brian, I was trying and failing at businesses. Had any of those businesses been successful early on, the modeling career would not have gone on as long as it did.

Brian:

Well, it certainly provided a great platform for you and we’ll talk about that as we go. Kathy, the world of modeling had to have been overwhelming for you as a young woman. I think you started modeling when you were 16 years old. What did you love about that time in your life? It had to be such an adventure. You talked about traveling and getting to wear designs of some of the biggest designers in the world, and also share with us what aspects you don’t miss about modeling.

Kathy:

I always knew I belonged on the other side of the lens. It just took me a while to get there. And that’s just where I feel my strengths lie. Some of the frustrating things about that industry—it’s improving, but yet when I began in that industry, the look was so specific and just a very few people would have that look of the moment. And I mean, I believe beautiful people come in every shape, size, color, and age, and that’s being more represented today. So that’s encouraging to me, but my girlfriends used to give me such a hard time and they’d say, we’re not going to spend money on a magazine to look at pictures of beautiful, skinny, retouched women wearing clothes that we could never afford. So, we get it, what you’re doing now, but when you have your own business, you better make it real. Don’t forget about us. And so those girlfriends have always been, and continue to be, a great inspiration for the work that I do, I want to keep it real. And so whether we’re talking about our opening price point or luxury, that we’re able to serve our customers in way that really meets their needs.

Brian:

Well, and obviously the industry has changed tremendously. And I remember when, back in the eighties and nineties when you were modeling, the models of your day it seems to me, were very well known celebrities. How has the business changed? You alluded to it a little bit, so it’s not just the “beautiful people”, but in fact, it’s men and women of all shapes and sizes. But the other thing is that I noticed that top models today don’t seem to have the celebrity status that you and other models in your era had. Is that the case or does social media play into that? What’s your take on that?

Kathy:

Brian, it’s interesting. I mean, the world changes so quickly and rapidly and media, magazines—they’re not what they once were. So it’s a very different world. I think Julie Campbell, the editor and founder of the SI Swimsuit Issue, I think she played a large role in actually really giving the models an identity. She’d always include their names and try to bring out the personality. And I really appreciated that about Julie, just a great business person too. I watched her fight for the integrity of her brand, and that was an amazing experience. But, for example, Elizabeth Taylor is an incredible legendary movie star and because of the way movies are made today and because of all the options that people have, I don’t think we will ever see another movie star of her stature. It’s just times change.

Brian:

Yeah, that’s a great parallel. And the other thing is anybody can make a movie today, or anybody can take photos at a beach and have that blow up, so to speak, on social media. So that dynamic, the delivery mechanism, has changed too. To be a successful model, say back in the eighties or nineties, you needed to be “discovered” like you were when you were 16 and then you had to have an agent probably, and you had to have people promoting you. Whereas today it seems like you can shoot a movie or you can take a photo and have that photo get pretty good coverage.

Kathy:

Right. And I mean, there’s some exciting elements to that too, because it really does level the playing field for people and brings opportunities that otherwise weren’t there.

Brian:

Kathy, at some point in your career, you very astutely recognized that Kathy Ireland is not just a person, but in fact is a famous celebrity brand. And I have to tell you, the extent to which you’ve capitalized on that is awe inspiring and incredibly impressive, and again, we’ll talk about some of the specifics of what that looks like. I mentioned some of the statistics in your introduction. Tell us about your transition into licensing. How did you know that that was the direction that you should go in, and how did you get started initially?

Kathy:

Well, you’re so kind Brian, celebrity brand [laughter], although that really didn’t apply to me. By the time we started our company, I was an aging, pregnant model at my kitchen table. And, I knew…one of the frustrating things about the modeling industry is that it’s a fickle industry—so much of it is dependent upon your outward appearance, which we have very little control over. I didn’t feel secure earning my paycheck based off how someone else perceived how I looked. And celebrity, any little smidgen of celebrity I might have had back in the last century, I knew that wasn’t going to carry a brand and I wasn’t celebrity enough to have a celebrity endorsement so that wasn’t going to work. And it really wasn’t of interest. I wanted to build something that would be lasting that would go beyond my lifetime and that would really be of service. I wanted to bring products and services that could really make a difference in people’s lives. That was important.

Actually Brian, I was offered an opportunity to model a pair of socks, and it’s not quite as glamorous as it sounds. It was a teeny tiny budget and they weren’t sure they were going use my face. They might have like cropped off at the knees and just got my feet in the socks. So that’s where we were in the modeling at that point in time. Yet I really liked the people, John and Marilyn Moretz from North Carolina, who continue to be not only cherished partners in business, but they’ve become family, they’re so special. I really liked them. And I thought these are people that I could work with. And I had invested my modeling money in putting a team together, invested in people. And we met with John and Marilyn and I said, the socks seem great. I tested them and they were wonderful. And I said, I’d like to be in business with you and have our own line of socks. And so Jon Carrasco, he is our genius, worldwide creative director. We hit the road, loaded our backpacks full of socks. And, oh my goodness, the rejection we got, I mean, everything from laughs—like you can’t start a brand with a pair of socks, it’s never been done—to people slamming doors in our faces, hanging up on us. And I’ve got to say, one of the great blessings of modeling is the resiliency that it gives you, because there’s a lot of rejection in that career. And so the rejection didn’t destroy me at all. It was just like, okay, I’ll come back tomorrow, maybe you’ll be in a better mood or maybe your circumstances will have changed. We started in socks. I felt like if women would embrace something as basic as a sock, that would tell us if we were onto a real brand, that would really give us a lot of information. It took well over a year—the first year we were still in the red—yet I was encouraged because people were buying them and so that was good. And then we were in a handful of sporting good stores and some independent retailers, and then a major mass retailer started carrying the socks and our brand proved from there.

Brian:

Well, and you’ve built a licensing empire by not only lending your name, and you have sort of downplayed your celebrity status or your brand, and we could debate that a little bit, but in addition to your name, you also added your business acumen and your marketing prowess. Your background in business, you talked about how all the while you were modeling, you were starting different businesses and testing different ideas and that’s resulted today—and I hope I’m close to the number, it’s probably a lot higher than this—but 17,000 products, in the last article that I read. Now, it would take the whole show obviously to list all of them. But I just want to take a second if I could, to give our listeners and viewers a sampling of the businesses that you are involved in:  apparel, fine jewelry, wedding dresses and social occasion gowns, skin care, cosmetics, furniture, lighting, flooring, cookware, office furniture, insurance, telemedicine, recovery centers, merchant services, FinTech, real estate, hospitality, the list goes on and on, pet products, supplements, rugs, and even shipping containers. I just have a couple questions. The first one is what aren’t you involved in? And secondly, and on a more serious note, what’s the common denominator in all these businesses, Kathy?

Kathy:

First question, what are we not in? Brian, I was just talking with our team the other day and in so many ways we are a baby brand because we look at the future and there’s so much that we want to do. And there’s so much that we want to accomplish. The common denominator is our vision statement. And our vision is teach, inspire, empower, make our world better. And that’s what gets our team energized, gets us up in the morning. And it’s been a privilege to experience needs that are so much bigger than me and also opportunities that are so much bigger. And anytime we partner with a new group, new people, the first thing we do is we look at our philanthropy plan and strategy. We have ten initiatives, ten goals, and they range from eradicating hunger and poverty, to fighting disease, to supporting our military veterans and their families, to fighting human trafficking. And so everyone with whom we work, we show them our list and we ask them to please choose one that they will support. We don’t require a monetary amount. This can be accomplished in many ways. It’s something that our team contributes to, we encourage them to [contribute], it can also be volunteer days with their teams, but this really lets us know that in success, we will be making a difference. And we’ll be honoring that vision. Another example, as you mentioned, our merchant services. And so with Ireland Pay—if you go to KathyIreland.com and then you can go to the Ireland Pay tab from there—that is our credit card services—51% of all profits go directly to nonprofits. So, swipe a card, save a life. And we have asked people and encouraged people, we don’t believe you’ll find a better deal for this product. NASA recently signed on as one of our clients, they believe in it. And we would love to get people signed up everywhere because this really does have a great impact.

Brian:

So in that particular case, with Ireland Pay the merchant service company, you have a direct philanthropic link. Is that the case with all the businesses and the licensing arrangements that you’re involved with, or does it play out in different ways?

Kathy:

Well, it plays out with everyone with whom we work. We have a philanthropic arm to everything that we do. And with Ireland Pay specifically, we have that going to some wonderful organizations and again it’s 51% of all profits.

Brian:

That’s awesome. You, Kathy, are in so many different businesses, so many different industries. How do you—and you talked a little bit about the vetting that takes place in terms of philanthropy—but from a business standpoint, how do you sort through what has to be just an unending flow of opportunities that get presented to you?

Kathy:

You learn to ask some really good questions, you learn to not assume. And we have an amazing team. So back when I used to model, people would tease me, they would accuse me of being cheap and I would correct them and say, you know, I’m fiscally frugal. I was investing in people. I love sports and I love the idea of people who have different strengths coming together for a common goal. We have an incredible team. One of the ways that we really learn a lot is when we go through our contracts and we’ve invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in our human rights contracts. And [I] always encourage people—if you’ve got something stronger or better, please share it, because we always need to grow and learn. But the how is so important, even when we go back to that first pair of socks, we began that relationship by conducting surprise factory inspections, because we learn a lot when we show up unexpectedly. Anybody can clean up if they know you’re coming and that’s powerful information. We work with amazing people. I mean, some of our relationships have gone on for decades, and in maturity I really recognize when you meet great people and truly great people—it’s kind of a rare thing to meet people so special—I hang on to them. And so we’ve got some really wonderful people with whom we work.

Brian:

I know you value relationships, Kathy, and you’ve spoken about people and/or about relationships, and just about every answer that you’ve given so far. I, I know that you’re very careful in choosing the right people in your life, both personally and professionally, as an example of that. And you mentioned the couple that you got involved with in the very first deal with socks. But I also read that you’ve dealt with the same attorney for over 30 years and that you’ve sought business advice from very smart people like Warren Buffet. You’ve had close relationships, close friendships, through the years with different people. Some of them very well known, some of them probably not well known. And you and your husband, Greg…Elizabeth Taylor, you mentioned too, and I don’t know if you were very close friends, and also on a personal note, you and your husband, Greg, have been married 33 years. Share with us why it’s important, you started to talk about it. But if you don’t mind just sharing a little more, why it’s so important to surround ourselves with success, with people who are encouraging and supportive, people who have the same goals and desires, both in our personal lives and also professionally.

Kathy:

Well, thank you, Brian. And I don’t look at success in monetary terms but more in the kind of person that you are—integrity, honesty, those qualities, and life is hard, it’s hard. And so it’s important to surround ourselves with people who love us enough to tell us the truth and if we’re going down a path that’s either dangerous or are just not good, whatever, that they love us at enough to, to call that out and help us. That’s fantastic. And also people who are encouraging, I think we all need that. I meet so many, women in particular, they’ll tell me an idea they have for a business and then I’ll follow up with them a few months later. How’s it going? Oh, my husband told me it was a stupid idea. It’s like, so you stopped? I mean, did you not stop to think well maybe it’s my approach, is my price to value ratio not correct? Is there something else that I can learn from it? But so often people give up so quickly without learning, and dreams that they have they never become a reality unless we just keep pushing through.

Brian:

And so if we talk about the other side of that, if we can be around—and it doesn’t mean we have to be around exclusively or that we run from everybody who calls one of our business ideas stupid—but like you alluded to, if we can surround ourselves with people who encourage us, people who help us to grow, people who motivate and inspire us to be better, then that helps us not only to be better for ourselves, but to be better for the people around us too.

Kathy:

Absolutely. And you know, I actually reach out to my critics. I have to see if I can learn something from them. Sometimes they don’t deliver the criticism in a kind way but I seek to face them and ask them, help me understand why you said this, what can I learn from you? What or how do you think I could do this better? And sometimes they have some good advice. Sometimes they’re just people being mean, and then you’ve got to shut the door on that. But I’d like to see if there’s something that can be learned.

Brian:

Can you share a particular story where you’ve done that and maybe it surprised the person and, and it had a really positive outcome, not only for you, but for the other person as well?

Kathy:

Sure. Early in our entry into the home industry, as somebody wrote, just an unkind description about me because I came from a modeling background and it just really was not taking into account my role as CEO of the company and our business and what we had built. And so I found his phone number and I called him, and I think he was surprised by the call, but I just said, I’m a mom and calling me a bimbo is not kind. I would like to share with you a little bit about our brand and our work, a lot of our work we do beneath the radar so you might not be aware. So I let him know the work that we’re doing, the jobs that are dependent upon our success. And so I let him know that by him calling me names, I can take it, I can deal with that, but that’s going to have an impact on a lot of jobs so please really be thoughtful. He’s become a dear friend, just a great friend. So that was a really wonderful outcome.

Brian:

Well, it’s wonderful. I really want to acknowledge you for taking the time to do that. First of all, because typically our reaction is rrrra-rrrra-grrrr and you wouldn’t think to call that person and have a conversation. But you strike me as the kind of person, very kindhearted person, who was reaching out, like you had said earlier to learn and to grow. And if there’s something that you can take away from the conversation, then that would be wonderful. But I think he was the one who was probably blessed through that conversation and it’s great that you’re friends to this day, what a great story.

Kathy, our show, as you know, is called Life Excellence. And we have guests on the show who have achieved extraordinary results in lots of different areas. People just like you. And one of the things that we really try to do is discover the tools and techniques and strategies that people use to achieve success. And then ideally our listeners and viewers take some of those strategies and apply them in their own lives both personally and professionally. I’m sure you’re asked this question all the time. How do you do it all? But seriously, how are you able to run this multi-billion dollar licensing business and still make time for the other important areas in your life?

Kathy:

Oh, thank you, Brian. I don’t do it all and I don’t always do it well, but every day is a new day. And I find that when I honor my priorities, that’s when it works, and when I don’t, I’m a disaster and it just absolutely does not work. And so my priorities are my faith and then my family, and then being in service through our work. And when those priorities are not in order, it’s pretty disastrous.

Brian:

From a professional standpoint. And this is digging down a couple layers in your business. But if you don’t mind me asking the question, what are the highest value activities for you and your business, the things that you and only you can do, and what aspects of your business—and you said you don’t do it all, and obviously you’ve surrounded yourself with great people in your organization—what are the aspects of your business that you’re happy someone other than you is doing?

Kathy:

Oh goodness, I do get accused of being a control freak, and I prefer to think of it as passionate. And we have an amazing team. I love the work that I get to do with people. I love the nonprofit work, in particular. I love working with children. I enjoy very different aspects of my work, from sales to marketing, to design. I do really enjoy so much of it. There’s those difficult phone calls, those are not necessarily fun, but sometimes they’re necessary and sometimes they’re necessary to come from me. So I don’t want to be afraid of any of it yet I also recognize—and I was 40 before I realized that no was a complete sentence, no, thank you is better—but I’ve learned from some really wise people that oftentimes we have to say no to good things in order to say yes to great things, and that our life comes in seasons. And so at certain seasons of my life, I can’t say yes to every business opportunity or every social engagement. It’s really determining which moment I want to prioritize.

Brian:

Looking at your business, and again, you’re involved in a variety of different businesses, what are some that you maybe looked at initially and weren’t super excited about, or maybe your team looked at and wasn’t super excited about, but you got into it and looking back on it, you’re very happy that you did, for whatever reason, whether it ended up being super successful commercially or there was a philanthropic piece attached to it. What have some of the surprises been in your business?

Kathy:

Oh my goodness. Many surprises. I’ll give you two examples. One is when we went from socks to athletic wear, when we were growing our brand, expanding our brand, one of my business partners suggested that I become a certified fitness instructor and that we put together a fitness video, and I just laughed out loud because my sense of adventure outweighs my grace. I had been kicked out an aerobics class for being too uncoordinated. And yet I understood that I needed that credibility if we were going to sell this product to our customer. If I was going to do a fitness video that I needed to understand physiologically how the body works, I didn’t want do any harm to anybody inadvertently, I didn’t want to do that at all. I needed to understand it. So it was really hard, but I did it and went on to put together five work out programs. And they were all platinum, moms in all of them and that was really fun, really great. So that was wonderful.

Another area was public speaking. When I worked as a model, my job description was shut up and pose and on a rare occasion to speak publicly. I had a critic very publicly say that I had a voice that could kill small animals. I did not reach out to that person and it wasn’t a confidence builder at all. Yet I had to recognize there was some truth to that because I was 25 years old and I could not order a pizza on the phone. I had a really high squeaky voice, they thought I was a kid making a prank phone call. So there was some truth to it. And I remember when I gave my first business talk, I was terrified. I was standing on stage peeking behind the curtains as people were taking their seats. And one of my business partners looked at me—because [he] knew that I wanted to go hide—and he just said, you’re being so selfish. Those people, they bought their tickets, they organized childcare, transportation, cleared their calendars. You know what that is, you’re nervous, you’re uncomfortable. That’s irrelevant. You have information that they need, your job is to take care of them. And so I said, you’re right. You’re absolutely right. Thank you. And so I faced my fears and I gave the talk and about halfway through, I noticed that about two thirds of the room had cleared out and being my first business talk I thought, well, they have meetings to go to or something like that. And I met with the team afterwards and they said, no, nope. It was really bad. You got a lot of work to do. And I love being with people who love me enough to tell me the truth, they were right. I mean, it was my first public talk. I needed a lot of work. And what a gift and a privilege it was many years later to be asked to speak at AIPAC as a Christian supporting Israel, I think there were 13,000 people in attendance, and what a privilege that was.

Brian:

And so for you was public speaking a fear? Did you have anxiety about getting in front of people or you just didn’t have a polished presentation that first time?

Kathy:

I think all of it, I just wasn’t good at…anything that we really want to get good at, some people say it’s 10,000 hours, but however many hours it takes, it takes work. I mean, most people, maybe some people are born naturally, they have these giftings, but it seems that most everything that I do, it takes a lot of work. And that’s one of the reasons why it’s important that you’re passionate about what you’re doing so that you’ll endure the hard work and you’ll face the battles. And when you stumble and fall down, you’ll get up and you’ll try again.

Brian:

That’s a nice segue into my next question and you answered it a little bit, but I’ll ask it anyway. You’ve been in business a long time, Kathy, and obviously you’ve achieved tremendous success by every measure. What are the most important keys to success that you’ve discovered along the way?

Kathy:

I would say—some say it’s counter-intuitive—for us it really works. And that’s from my favorite book and it’s, consider others as more important than yourself. And when we’re approaching business, we look at it as okay, how will us coming together raise your bottom line? How will it help your business? And of course, it’s got to make sense for our company as well, but when we focus on the other, it naturally falls into place. And it also makes for great relationships. It makes for a wonderful working opportunity. And we find that we really become family when people recognize we actually really care about them and we want to do well and we’re fighting for them.

Brian:

So you’re very focused on win-win. Have there been situations where you’ve been presented with an opportunity that you and your team concluded would be a pretty good opportunity for Kathy Ireland Worldwide, but through that conversation, you saw that maybe it wasn’t that win-win, that maybe there wasn’t enough in it for the other party that you decided not to do it?

Kathy:

Yes. Many times that has happened. If we don’t feel that we can really bring something to what someone is doing, we’re not going to waste their time or resources. So absolutely. And then sometimes sadly, people aren’t always who they say they are. I love transparency. I love people being direct. And even if it’s unkind, I’d rather have somebody be direct than say something that’s not true. So we’ve bumped into that as well, people not being honest, not being transparent. It just makes it difficult. So, we really seek to do everything we can to learn who it is that we’ll be working with. And then we can better understand how we can best help them.

Brian:

That’s awesome. Are there other keys to success that stand out for you?

Kathy:

Again, it’s being transparent, being genuine. Don’t compromise your values, I mean, just don’t do that. Know what you would be willing to walk away from, know there are boundaries, and this is something that I share with young people frequently, too. Figure out what your priorities are, what your values are, put boundaries in place to protect them because they will be challenged. That’s most definitely important. And the hows, I think that’s such an important question—how. Things can sound really good, but help me understand how this works. Okay, the socks, you’re selling them at a wonderful price to value ratio, the quality, the craftsmanship, everything is there, how are they being made? How are people being treated in the factories? And this is something that we’ve all got to be mindful of when we look at the world today and we look at human trafficking and recognize that it is the fastest growing illegal business on earth, because unlike drugs, human beings are able to be sold over and over and over again. And tragically, when human beings are no longer profitable in the sex slave trade, they’re often sold into forced labor. We see the atrocities happening in Xinjiang, China with the weaker Muslims and these camps that they’re in and the conditions. And it is devastating when we see atrocities happening all over the world, we’ve got to have our eyes open, we’ve got to be alert and do all that we can to fight this. I had the privilege of working with Dr. Brian Grim of Religious Freedom and Business Foundation in DC and working with the CEO Women’s Round Table. It’s incredible to be with people who share these concerns and strategize ways to really make a positive impact.

Brian:

Well, and that’s horrible and like you said, it’s happening in China, but the other thing I think most people don’t realize is that it’s happening here in the US. Here in Detroit is a huge area for human trafficking because of the border with Canada, I’m sure California where you live too. And it’s not just sex trafficking, it’s putting people into slave labor. And it’s not just young women, it’s young boys and even adult men and women. How can people learn more about the organizations that you’re involved with? Is that something that Kathy Ireland Worldwide is involved with directly? Or how could people learn more about that?

Kathy:

Oh, thank you. Well, they can certainly go to our website, KathyIreland.com and can contact me at KathyIreland@KathyIreland.com to learn more about our philanthropic efforts. People with whom we work, some of those nonprofits, include the Free Burma Rangers. And this is an amazing group. They go into to Burma, to train, equip the people to be able to protect themselves. They also train them medically to care for one another, the people who are being just slaughtered by their government. When ISIS hit, they went into Iraq and Syria. They just returned from Afghanistan when that crisis hit in August. It’s encouraging to see people getting great results. It’s a Christian organization. They serve people of every faith, people of no faith. They serve everyone. Also, a dear friend of mine, Tina Ramirez of Hardwired Global. She, herself is a Christian and she fights for people of every faith, people with no faith at all, that they will have the right to believe how they choose to believe and not be persecuted because of it.

Brian:

Thanks for sharing that, I appreciate that. Kathy, I know your faith is important to you, and you and I share that same belief about putting Christ at the center of our lives. Tell us about your faith journey and the role that God plays in, not just your personal life, but also in your organization at Kathy Ireland Worldwide.

Kathy:

It’s, my relationship with Jesus is everything, and I’m a very slow learner. There’s scripture that talks about the…

Brian:

We all are.

Kathy:

I’m very slow and God is so patient, I’m so grateful. And so that it reminds me, it’s like, okay, you’re patient with me, I’ve got to be patient with this person. There’s scripture that says that the one who has been forgiven much, loves much. And so I love a whole lot and I came to know Jesus, as my Lord and savior when I was 18 years old through reading the Bible. My mom had stuck one in my suitcase—I was a rebellious teenager. So as I read, I knew that what I was holding in my hands was the truth. And I was alone, there was nobody telling me to be this denomination or that so it was just, I want to follow Him. Yet, in my own ignorance and arrogance, the very thing that led me to the Lord—the Bible, His word—I started to pick and choose. So I’d say, I like this, but this is a typo or it’s a translation. I’d justify it away to try to mold God into what I wanted rather than to submit to Him and let Him mold me into what He made me to be. So I was 44 years old before I read the entire Bible. And when I read it, it was so bittersweet. And the scripture that really impacted me is Joel 2:25—I will redeem to you the years the locust has eaten…God is so good. And that’s what He does. So it’s never too late and it’s never too early. And I know He loves me and yet I recognize that so many of the mistakes and messes I made, I could have avoided. He just wants us to have the best, richest life. And that is, He knows best. So it’s following Him, just like with our kids—don’t play in the freeway. It’s like, oh, you’re so mean you won’t let me. It’s like, no, it’s because I can see what’s going to happen if you do that.

Our team is made up of people of every belief and some with no beliefs. I don’t impose my faith on anyone, and I’m not ashamed of it, I’ll share it with anyone who wants to hear. And for me, I don’t put my name on, I don’t lend my name or really give my heart to everything that we do. And so, I mean scripture, that’s my plum line. It’s got to align with what God’s word says. That’s what works for me. The truth doesn’t change.

Brian:

No, it doesn’t. And I really appreciate you sharing that. I know that’s something that’s very personal to you. And yet I also appreciate you sharing that with our listeners and viewers. I don’t know that everybody knows that about you, about that side of you, but again, I know it’s very important to you and so I appreciate you talking about it.

Kathy, you have—if we could talk about your family for just a minute, your kids in particular—I know you have three children, a son and two daughters. I have four children, two boys, two girls, and our youngest, three kids actually match up pretty closely with your kids in age. You talked a little a bit before about when you speak to young people and so I’m wondering what advice do you have for, especially young budding entrepreneurs and particularly young women, who want to become maybe even a super mogul, just like you?

Kathy: 

My first advice is pray—what does God want? I believe God gives each of us gifts. I mean, He gives each one and what I tell our kids and other kids is, ask Him. Which of the gifts that you’ve given me do you want me to focus on at this moment in my life? I see how the world is today. When I was younger, people who went to college, most of them graduated, found a job, had that job for most of their lives. But today it’s not finding a job, but it’s inventing one and likely not just one, but maybe seven or eight in the course of your life. And so those entrepreneurial skills are really important. And I think just knowing where God would have you every moment of your life, that’s where you’re going to be in the best place. Whatever the world says, what He has is better. That’s the first piece of advice I would give.

The next is have a passion for what you’re doing, even if there are elements of the work that might be tedious or mundane, think about you’ll be able to accomplish in success, how it’s going to benefit others. That’s amazing, if you have a passion for it, you’ll be able to endure those hard days. Think big, don’t put limits on yourself. Don’t let someone else’s opinion of yourself define or destroy you. Don’t let people put you in a box and think, oh, well I’m just this or I don’t have this education or this qualification, so I can only do this. Don’t limit yourself. Don’t use those kinds of parameters. So really think big.

Something that I tell our children is to be alert and pay attention. And that can be hard. It sounds easy, but to be alert and to pay attention, you’ve got to face stuff. And that means you’ve got to face really tough stuff. All of us have tough stuff in our lives. I don’t know one family, that doesn’t have some kind of struggles going on. And I share with our children, pay attention. Hopefully you’ll find some traits in your dad and me that you like, that you might want to emulate. Unfortunately, you’re going to find some funky behavior in us, reject that, we might not even be aware of it, but take the good and reject the bad. And this I say with mentors too. It’s wonderful and really important to have good solid mentors in your life who you can learn from, but please don’t put anybody on a pedestal, because we’re all failed. We all make mistakes. Have some grace in forgiveness, but just recognize that we are all failed humans. And when it comes to scripture, the book of Acts tells us we are to be bereans and we are to check what we hear against the Word of God, to know what He thinks about it and what He says about it.

Brian:

That’s all really great advice. Thank you for sharing that. Kathy, when you and I were college age, you were already off working and traveling the world and living this glamorous model life. But it was very unconventional during that time because—and today it’s a little bit unconventional—for college age kids to not go to college. It’s starting to change for a variety of reasons. For one, we have a shortage in the trades and so I think there’s a push for kids who are gifted in that area to, first of all, make it okay for them to go into those fields and not go to college. And the other thing is the entrepreneurial opportunities and some of them, I don’t even begin to understand some of the technological opportunities that exist, but there are just so many great entrepreneurial opportunities. And so it’s starting to be okay for kids to not go to college, or more generally accepted. Can you offer encouragement, given your background, to kids who are maybe 16, 17, 18, and they’re not quite sure what they want to do, but maybe they have an entrepreneurial idea or they have something that they want to pursue that doesn’t involve going to college.

Kathy:

Absolutely. I believe in education and I’ve served on educational boards for about 20 years. My husband and I are two of the founders, along with Randy Clark, of Providence. It’s a Christian school in Santa Barbara area. And, it’s something I believe in, however, traditional education, as far as higher education, is not for everyone. We’re all built differently. And I’ve experienced…some of the most intelligent people that I’ve met don’t have a college degree and do great work. I think of it as a luxury. And I think it’s fantastic if you can get a college education and if you can learn. I look for colleges that teach you how to think rather than what to think. So if it’s a place that’s really going to help you grow, not indoctrinate you, but rather really encourage you how to grow and use all the gifts that you have that is a fantastic luxury. Whether your education is traditional, or looks very different, reading is a powerful education trade school, as you mentioned, is incredible. So it really depends on the path that you’re on. I would say to the young person who knows that college is not your path, just to be intentional, work to set yourself apart from the crowd. When I was a kid, I had a paper route. And something that my dad taught me is he said, Kathy, always give 110%. If the customer expects the newspaper on the driveway, you put it on the front porch. And that was the foundation of my learning to under promise and over deliver. It’s the foundation of our business today. And this is so helpful for young people. When they’re going into the workforce, do your homework, do your research, research is at our fingertips today, it’s so much easier. Learn about the companies that you’re exploring. What are they all about? Do your values align with them, what can you bring to them? How can you make their company better? How can you help raise the bottom line? Why should they choose you over someone else? What do their philanthropic efforts look like? And do you support them? These are questions that are so important to ask and answer, and to really set yourself apart from the crowd. And this can happen whether you have a traditional education or a non-traditional education, but either way education. I barely finished high school. That’s where my formal education ended. I also look at failure as education and in that respect, I’m very well educated. So don’t be discouraged when you fail, not if, but when, I’m mean, if you’re not failing, you’re not trying hard enough. So learn from each mistake, try not to make the mistakes twice, but keep on going and keep on learning. I hope to learn until the day I die.

Brian:

That’s all really great insight, Kathy, thank you so much for sharing that. I know that’s helpful for young people and actually it’s helpful for everybody. It’s just really, really great sound advice. Kathy, what are you excited about for the future of Kathy Ireland Worldwide?

Kathy:

Oh, Brian, you know, as I shared, I do feel like we’re a baby brand. We’re just getting started. We have so much ahead. And our company just recently sponsored The Walton’s Homecoming with Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr. They’re singing Silent Night in this and just amazing. We’re working with BMG. We have our own record label with them and doing some wonderful projects there. And again, in areas from FinTech to home, to fashion, to our philanthropy, we’re grateful. I’m grateful to our customers, our clients, who have had our brand for so long and who are so direct with me, and our customer lets me know when they’re happy and when they’re not, when we need to do better. So I’m really grateful for that, which we’ve got a lot of great work ahead of us.

Brian:

Kathy, I’m grateful for you being on the show today. Thank you so much for our time together today. You are such an inspiration, and it’s been great getting to know you and learning more about Kathy Ireland Worldwide.

Kathy:

Aw, thank you, Brian. Thank you for inviting me and Merry Christmas to you.

Brian:

Merry Christmas to you as well and to our audience. Thanks for tuning in to Life Excellence. Please support the show by subscribing, telling all your friends, posting on social media about today’s show with Kathy Ireland and leaving a rating and review. You can also learn more about me at BrianBartes.com. Until next time, dream big dreams and make each day your masterpiece.