A Styled Life

Alex Standley

Welcome to A Styled Life, the podcast for purpose-led female founders & senior leaders ready to use style as a powerful tool for confidence, impact, and influence. I'm your host, Alex Standley, multi award-winning Personal Stylist, Speaker and Sustainable Fashion Consultant, with two decades of experience in the fast-paced world of fashion. Join me as we redefine success from the inside out. This podcast isn’t just about clothes. It’s about personal power, purposeful style, and creating a life that aligns with your values. So whether you’re running a business, leading a movement, or stepping into your next chapter, you’re in the right place. Each week, we’ll dive into the world of personal style, sustainability, female empowerment, and living with intention. Through real stories, expert insights, and plenty of inspiration.

  1. 19h ago

    Lead from Who You Are: Intuition, Visibility, Hormones & Getting Dressed as a Female Founder

    There is a version of you that already knows. Knows the price is too low, knows the outfit isn't right, knows the decision before you can explain it. And then a second voice arrives to talk you out of it. In this episode I'm joined by Danielle Hobson, Intuitive Business Coach and founder of The Aligned Business School. She helps women build businesses that run on their own intuition rather than someone else's blueprint, and the more we talked, the clearer it became that we are doing the same work. We both read energy in different ways. Neither of us is predicting anything. We're helping women recognise who they already are and act on it. We go deep on the difference between intuition and fear, and why one is a felt response and the other is your nervous system trying to keep you safe from a decision it has mistaken for a threat. Danielle explains why confidence is the last thing to arrive, not the first, and why waiting to feel ready is the thing keeping you small. Then it gets physical. We talk about how the same outfit can feel triumphant one week and unbearable the next, why what you wear changes how you actually work, and why the woman who feels invisible online usually needs to change her environment before she changes herself. Danielle is also honest about perimenopause in a way few women are, and about what it costs to stay quiet. The thread running through all of it is self-trust. How you lose it, why the world is built to take it, and what it looks like to build it back, one decision and one outfit at a time. TIMESTAMPS 01:03 — Two women working from the same place  02:42 — When Danielle first trusted her intuition over any strategy 07:18 — Intuition or fear: feel first, think second  16:35 — Courage before confidence (the four Cs)  18:55 — What it means to be an energetic match for what you want 33:26 — Dressing from your mood, and the days you override it  39:01 — Hormones, the mirror, and Beyoncé versus homeless person 42:24 — Perimenopause at 36, the GP battle, and breaking the silence  53:39 — Visibility, environment, and the mother-in-law on your feed 57:47 — Quickfire: leopard print, blue, and the tartan trousers KEY TAKEAWAYS Your intuition responds first and your fear argues second; once you know the order, you can tell them apartConfidence doesn't come before you act, it's built by acting before you feel readyWhat you wear isn't vanity; it changes your energy and how you work for the rest of the dayThe same outfit can feel completely different across your cycle, and that's your hormones, not a failing in youIf you feel invisible, look at your environment before you question your nerve If this conversation landed for you, and you're ready to stop dressing for who you were and start dressing as the woman you are now, a Style Strategy Call is where we begin. 👉 Book yours here: https://www.alexandrastandley.co.uk/service-page/style-strategy-call CONNECT WITH DANIELLE HOBSON Website: https://www.daniellehobson.co.uk  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thedaniellehobson The Aligned Business School: https://www.thealignedbusinessschool.com/waitlist

    Lead from Who You Are: Intuition, Visibility, Hormones & Getting Dressed as a Female Founder

  2. Aug 12

    Why You Keep Buying Clothes That Don't Feel Like You | Personal Stylist on Identity & Sustainability

    Why knowing who you are is the most sustainable thing you can do. The overwhelmed wardrobe, the impulse buys, the pieces with the tags still on. Most women assume it's a shopping problem. It isn't. The buying is the symptom. When you don't have clarity on who you are, shopping becomes a way of searching, and searching is the least sustainable way to dress there is. This one is for founders, senior leaders and speakers who are becoming more visible, and who keep landing on the same sentence: this doesn't feel like me. Most sustainable fashion advice hands you a list of what not to do. Buy less. Stop chasing trends. Wear it thirty times. All well-meaning. All quietly exhausting. This episode takes a different route. Because the women I work with don't need another rule about what they consume. They need clarity about who they are. Get that right, and you buy differently. Not because you're forcing yourself to, but because you no longer want the thing you used to reach for. I reframe sustainability as something that happens to you when your style finally matches your identity, rather than a set of restrictions you impose on yourself. YOU'LL LEARN Why the buying is never the problem, only the symptomHow identity clarity quietly ends the search, and the overspending with itWhy the seasonal colour of the moment leaves a graveyard in your wardrobeThe order that actually works: identity first, presence next, clothes lastWhy the woman who doesn't care about sustainability still ends up with a wardrobe that lastsFour questions to start reading your own wardrobe differently TIMESTAMPS 00:00 — Why the usual advice feels like restriction03:10 — The buying isn't the problem. It's the symptom05:20 — Searching at the till: what you're really reaching for07:40 — The seasonal colour trap and the wardrobe graveyard10:15 — This doesn't feel like me: the sentence I hear most13:00 — Identity first, presence next, clothes last15:30 — The five lenses I use to read who you are18:20 — Where sustainability actually comes from20:40 — For the woman who couldn't care less about eco23:00 — Four questions to sit with this week My Styled for Impact guide is for the woman stepping into her own event, keynotes, media features, photo shoots and high-stakes rooms who wants to walk in thinking about her message, not her reflection. It's five questions, it's free, and it will show you exactly where the gap is with your style and change the opportunities you create in every room you walk into this year. 👉 Download Styled for Impact: https://www.alexandrastandley.co.uk/styledforimpactguide And if you're ready for the full personalised picture, working together 1-2-1, that's the Style Identity Blueprint. Two sessions, a complete read of who you are through my identity framework, and the clarity of your own signature style that makes every wardrobe decision afterwards simple. It's the work that brings my clients their biggest light-bulb moments. £750 for two sessions. 👉 Book yours: https://www.alexandrastandley.co.uk/service-page/the-style-identity-blueprint

    Why You Keep Buying Clothes That Don't Feel Like You | Personal Stylist on Identity & Sustainability

  3. Jul 29

    Style, Purpose, TEDx and Redefining Success with Mindy Gibbins-Klein, International Speaker & Coach

    There's a version of shopping most women know well. You go in without a clear picture of who you're dressing, and you leave with at worst nothing, or at best a bag of maybes. Mindy Gibbins-Klein doesn't do that anymore. Since we worked together on her wardrobe transformation, she’s stopped second guessing and has total clarity. She's spent her career turning other people's expertise into influence - founder of three international businesses, including The Book Midwife, coach to thousands of business leaders and entrepreneurs, two-time TEDx speaker.  For the past few years she's drawn a hard line between being a thought leader and being a thoughtful leader. The difference, in her words, is what's left once you strip the ego out. We talk about what it means to build something so strong it becomes bigger than the name it started under and what TEDx really tells you about credibility today.  We also get into the wardrobe work itself: what she noticed once thirty-five pieces left her wardrobe, why intentional dressing changed how she shows up for speaking engagements, and the suit she finally let go of. We explore: Building a purpose-led brand with a big missionThought leadership versus thoughtful leadership, and why the distinction mattersGiving 1%: the social impact project born from a hard truth about her own givingTEDx as a credibility marker for founders and thought leaders, and what actually gets a talk chosenWhat thirty-five items leaving a wardrobe reveals about identityWhy intentional dressing changes how you carry yourself into a roomA wardrobe full of "nothing to wear" is rarely about clothes. It's about losing touch with who you are now.Saying no with confidence, in a shop or in your calendar, is a skill worth building deliberately. Timestamps  02:01 — Why purpose-driven work matters more than the profile  02:53 — Thought leader vs thoughtful leader: stripping away the ego  10:42 — Outgrowing the brand you're known for  14:06 — What's missing when you lose touch with your own mission  19:41 — The rude awakening behind Giving 1%  22:59 — TEDx as a credibility marker: has it become a buzzword?  26:32 — Starting the style work: a wardrobe full of nothing to wear  28:55 — Thirty-five pieces gone, and what it made space for  31:02 — Dressing with intention for speaking engagements  36:03 — Quickfire: spots, dots and one suit she was glad to see go If this conversation moved something for you, and you recognise the moment you've outgrown a title, a look, or a version of yourself that no longer fits, a Style Strategy Call is where we begin. 👉 Book a free Style Strategy Call: https://www.alexandrastandley.co.uk/service-page/style-strategy-call Connect with Mindy: https://mindygk.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mindygibbinsklein/ Giving 1%: https://giving1percent.com/ Mindy's TEDx talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_Fft9u69as

    Style, Purpose, TEDx and Redefining Success with Mindy Gibbins-Klein, International Speaker & Coach

  4. Jul 22

    Style, Personal Leadership, Freedom and Radical Responsibility with Tara Brevitt

    In this episode of A Styled Life, I'm joined by Tara Brevitt, personal leadership coach, serial entrepreneur, and digital nomad. Tara spent 11 years as a project manager in the construction industry before walking away from a six-figure corporate salary to build a freedom-led, pleasure-first life on her own terms. Now she helps disgustingly ambitious women do the same. This is a conversation about the word "style" stretched wide open. We go from wardrobes to world-building, from leopard print trousers in a Dubai boardroom to living out of one suitcase by the ocean, and from the fear of what someone might say about your outfit to the freedom of becoming so recognisable that people think of you when you're not in the room. This conversation confirmed something I see with every client: when your outer world matches your inner one, everything clicks into place. And it starts with what you put on your body every morning. Timestamps 00:00 — Why "style" is about the whole way you design your life 02:03 — Tara's digital nomad life and why freedom is the style 03:54 — "Staying in one place feels like wearing someone else's clothes two sizes too small" 06:14 — Reconnecting to yourself: values, alignment, and what lights you up 08:08 — The pencil skirt that lasted two days and what people can smell a mile off 09:28 — Leopard print in a Dubai boardroom and why nobody ever said "you can't dress like that" 14:18 — If you're managing your outfit, you're not managing the room 17:16 — When people think of you without you being there: style as identity 22:44 — Getting dressed up with nowhere to go, just because it feels good 23:36 — "F**k off the mindset work, put some nice clothes on" 27:20 — Why every item in your wardrobe should make you feel elite 28:39 — Personal leadership: knowing who you are, what you want, and exactly how to get it 35:15 — Radical responsibility and the controversial truth about women and dirty work 38:44 — Gentle bullying, leading behind your own front door, and walking your talk 49:57 — The Leaders Tribe and what six years of coaching ambitious women has taught Tara Key takeaways Your style is the whole way you design your life. The clothes are one expression of that, not the starting point.Nobody is policing your wardrobe. The rules you're following were written by you, and they can be rewritten by you.If what you're wearing makes you uncomfortable, you're giving away energy you need for everything else.Personal leadership starts behind your own front door. You have no business leading others if you haven't led yourself first.Sometimes putting a good outfit on will do more for your mood than an hour of journaling. If this conversation landed for you, and you're ready to close the gap between who you are and how you're showing up, a Style Strategy Call is where we begin. It's a free, focused conversation about where you are, where you're going, and what's getting in the way. Book yours here: https://www.alexandrastandley.co.uk/service-page/style-strategy-call Connect with Tara Website: https://tarabrevitt.com  The Leaders Tribe: https://tarabrevitt.com/the-leaders-tribe  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tarabrevitt

    Style, Personal Leadership, Freedom and Radical Responsibility with Tara Brevitt

  5. Jul 15

    How to Quit Dressing On Autopilot & Reclaim Your Style Confidence from a Personal Stylist

    If you're managing your outfit, you're not managing the room. And there's a subtler version of this. The woman who looks polished, pulled together, professional. Nobody would notice a thing. But she walks into every room carrying a friction she can't name, because the version she's performing is three chapters behind the woman she's become. This episode is for the woman who's built the career, the clients, the reputation, and is still getting dressed every morning on autopilot. Not because she doesn't care about style. Because her wardrobe stopped keeping up with her evolution a long time ago, and she hasn’t had time to stop and recalibrate. I talk about why performing a past version of yourself through your clothes was strategic (and why it's now costing you), the two energetic sides every woman has, one that dims and one that's magnetic, and which one has been running your wardrobe. And I get into what I see change when women stop performing: speed, energy, presence, and the kind of visibility that stops feeling like a threat. This isn't about fixing anything. It's about evolution and owning your individuality so that your career can reach new levels of success. EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS: Why the performance was smart, and why it's now the ceilingThe cost of operating at 80% of your presence because your first decision every morning is a compromiseThe two sides: your shadow energy (dims, softens, seeks permission) vs your magnetic energy (bold, direct, entirely you)Why the shadow side has been running your wardrobeWhat changes when women stop: five-minute mornings, zero anxiety, clothes that feel like a second skinWhy getting dressed should be creativity, self-expression, joy, funHow Identity to Impact uses human design, astrology, and character strengths to build your style from who you are, not from someone else's template If you recognised yourself in this episode, your wardrobe is still holding a chapter you've already closed. Identity to Impact starts with who you are now, not who you used to be. 👉 Book a free Style Strategy Call to find out more and how it will work for you. https://www.alexandrastandley.co.uk/service-page/style-strategy-call If anything resonated, drop me a DM on Instagram or email me at  alex@alexandrastandley.co.uk. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexandrastandleyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-standley-personal-stylistFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=500777031TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@alexandrastandley

    How to Quit Dressing On Autopilot & Reclaim Your Style Confidence from a Personal Stylist

  6. Jul 8

    Closet Grief: Why "I Have Nothing to Wear" Is Never About the Clothes

    You open your wardrobe. It's full. And still, nothing to wear. As a Personal Stylist & Identity Strategist, here's what I see with almost every woman I work with: that's not wardrobe overwhelm. It's grief, for a version of you that your clothes are still dressed for. In this episode, I name the pattern behind wardrobe overwhelm that most style advice misses entirely. I break down why clearing out your closet rarely works when it skips the identity work underneath it, and why decluttering alone can't fix a wardrobe that's still anchored to who you used to be. You'll learn the three patterns of closet grief I see most often in my work, why black becomes a hiding place rather than a style choice, and what wearapy means: the opposite of closet grief, and why getting dressed is a daily act of self-care. This episode is for women mid-reinvention, career shift, body change, bigger stage, who keep saying "I have nothing to wear" when what they mean is "I have a wardrobe full of someone I'm not anymore." TIMESTAMPS  00:00 — Naming closet grief  01:30 — Why "nothing to wear" is never about the clothes  02:40 — The woman who left corporate, but her wardrobe didn't  04:50 — The double grief of a body that's changed  06:20 — When your ambition outgrows your closet  07:40 — Black as a hiding place, not a choice  09:00 — Your wardrobe is a record of every version of you  10:40 — Letting go of pieces with love, not loss  12:50 — The past, present, future method  15:00 — Reclaiming the joy and colour you left behind  17:20 — Wearapy: the opposite of closet grief  19:30 — Dressing as a daily tool, not a source of dread  20:40 — Why identity comes before the wardrobe, always KEY TAKEAWAYS Closet grief isn't drama. It's mourning a version of yourself that kept you safe.Clearing your wardrobe without the identity work underneath it doesn't stick.Black isn't always a style choice. Sometimes it's a hiding place.Reclaiming isn't always aspirational. Sometimes it's remembering who you were before the shoulds arrived.Wearapy is a daily tool for confidence, not an occasional indulgence. If you recognised yourself in this episode, your wardrobe is still holding a chapter you've already closed. Identity to Impact starts with who you are now, not who you used to be. 👉 Book a free Style Strategy Call to find out more and how it will work for you. https://www.alexandrastandley.co.uk/service-page/style-strategy-call Connect with Alex: If anything resonated, drop me a DM on Instagram or email me at  alex@alexandrastandley.co.uk. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexandrastandleyLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-standley-personal-stylistFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=500777031• TikTok: www.tiktok.com/@alexandrastandley

    Closet Grief: Why "I Have Nothing to Wear" Is Never About the Clothes

  7. Jul 1

    The Size on the Label Means Nothing: Body Confidence, The Size Ceiling, & Unrealistic Beauty Ideals

    This weekend I bought the biggest size in jean shorts I have ever bought. My usual size did up, but it was uncomfortable, so I took the bigger size, and then stood there running an old script about what that number was supposed to mean about me. I'm nearly forty. I work out four times a week. I’ve done the work, and I continue to do it, because this is a lifelong practice. And the reflex still came. I want to be honest about that, because I know it happens to my clients every single day. This episode closes our June series on body confidence and body image, and it started with a mermaid. The morning after the shorts, I caught sight of my daughter's mermaid bath toy, the tiny waist, the impossible hourglass, a shape no woman is naturally built to hold, sold to a child as the picture of beautiful. That's where the conditioning begins. Not in midlife, not with hormones, but in plastic, often before a girl has even started school.  The standard was never an accident, and an unattainable shape is very good for business, because a woman who believes she's one size away from good enough keeps buying her way toward a line that keeps moving. TIMESTAMPS 00:01 — The biggest size I've ever bought, and the script that came with it 02:23 — I've done the work, and the old reflex still showed up 03:30 — The size ceiling we all quietly carry 04:41 — Why the label on the high street means nothing 05:00 — The mermaid on the side of the bath 07:04 — Where this really begins, and who profits from it 11:47 — Confidence was never on the other side of the body 13:00 — Why my work starts with identity, not a wardrobe 15:30 — What I want my daughter to inherit KEY TAKEAWAYS The size on the label means nothing about you. It is inconsistent by store, fabric and season, and it was never a measure of your worth.The standard was never reachable, and it was never meant to be. The waiting to reach it is what quietly costs you.Confidence does not arrive with a smaller body, a calmer nervous system or a younger face. It is not on the other side of anything.You cannot dress your way out of a standard you still believe in. That is why the work begins with identity.The most powerful thing you can model for the next generation is a woman who knows herself and dresses from that. PAST EPISODES Reclaiming Identity, Vitality and Authority in Midlife with Jules Anderson, Audacious Aging™High-Functioning Is Not the Same as Thriving | Nervous System & Identity with Sarah AspinallBody Confidence, Self-Worth and Self-Trust, for the Life You Stop Putting on Hold, with Lisa UngerMidlife Health, Style and Self-Trust with Ro Feilden Cook, Founder of The SHE CollectiveWhy Clothes Don't Fit Anymore:High Street Sizing Secrets from an Ex Fashion Buyer & Personal Stylist WORK WITH ALEX Book your free Style Strategy Call: https://www.alexandrastandley.co.uk/service-page/style-strategy-call If anything resonated, drop me a DM on Instagram or email me at  alex@alexandrastandley.co.uk. Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexandrastandley LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-standley-personal-stylist

    The Size on the Label Means Nothing: Body Confidence, The Size Ceiling, & Unrealistic Beauty Ideals

  8. Jun 24

    Reclaiming Identity, Vitality and Authority in Midlife with Jules Anderson, Audacious Aging™

    The wellness industry is extremely loud right now. And most of what it's saying is designed to make you feel behind. Behind on your protocols, your supplements, your biohacking routine, your results. What it rarely says is: your body already has answers. You just need to learn to hear them again. In this episode of A Styled Life, I'm joined by Jules Anderson - Energy Expert, founder of Audacious Aging™, and author of an upcoming book on what becomes possible for women who approach midlife with intention and intelligence. Jules brings a first-class chemistry degree and fourteen years working with high-performing women to a conversation that refuses the usual wellness noise and goes somewhere far more grounded instead. We talk about what it actually means to age audaciously, why so many accomplished women find themselves depleted and disconnected at exactly the point in life when they should feel most powerful, and how energy, when it's really working, changes everything: how you think, how you decide, and how you show up in a room. WE EXPLORE Why the wellness industry profits from keeping women in a state of low-grade self-doubtThe four dimensions of energy and why the soulful layer gets ignored mostHow self-trust is built incrementally, not declared overnightThe OPAs: other people's agendas and how to start drowning them outWhy style and energy land in the same place: the outer world reflects the inner oneWhat shifts outwardly when a woman starts owning her own authority from the inside TIMESTAMPS 00:00 — Why the way you show up is never just about what you're wearing  05:39 — The double challenge of midlife: identity, visibility and the fear that the best years are over  12:53 — What women are sharing that they aren't saying to anyone else (loss of identity, anxiety, the perfect storm)  15:15 — When health knowledge becomes noise and why being person-centric matters more than any protocol  21:21 — On outsourcing decisions and why the watch-or-it-didn't-happen trap keeps us small  23:57 — Optimising so hard you forget to enjoy your life  42:15 — Where energy and identity meet: what changes outwardly when a woman claims her own authority CTA If this conversation landed for you and you're ready to close the gap between who you are and how you're showing up, a Style Strategy Call is where we begin. It's a free, focused conversation about where you are, where you're going, and what's getting in the way. 👉 Book yours here: https://www.alexandrastandley.co.uk/service-page/style-strategy-call Connect with Jules: The Energy Assessment https://jules-1ik7iqtx.scoreapp.com Website https://feelglorious.com/ Instagram https://www.instagram.com/gloriousjules/ LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/julesandersonlondon

    Reclaiming Identity, Vitality and Authority in Midlife with Jules Anderson, Audacious Aging™
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About

Welcome to A Styled Life, the podcast for purpose-led female founders & senior leaders ready to use style as a powerful tool for confidence, impact, and influence. I'm your host, Alex Standley, multi award-winning Personal Stylist, Speaker and Sustainable Fashion Consultant, with two decades of experience in the fast-paced world of fashion. Join me as we redefine success from the inside out. This podcast isn’t just about clothes. It’s about personal power, purposeful style, and creating a life that aligns with your values. So whether you’re running a business, leading a movement, or stepping into your next chapter, you’re in the right place. Each week, we’ll dive into the world of personal style, sustainability, female empowerment, and living with intention. Through real stories, expert insights, and plenty of inspiration.

Information

  • Creator
    Alex Standley
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    45
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025 Alex Standley