Taylor Elizabeth Perramond, Founder and Director, The Elegance Advisor Consultancy
In business, as is in life, it is always a challenging task to choose to travel a difficult path, especially one which no one has ever dared to tread upon or explore. The reasons may be apathy to do the necessary work needed for success or one’s general resistance or fear of change and the unknown. Only someone with a vision, able to topple over the barriers of conventionality, to develop a new method of approaching life challenges, can encourage and empower others to think and act differently. An example of such a triumphant woman in business is the founder of The Elegance Advisor Consultancy, Taylor Elizabeth, a personal branding expert and an award-winning certified etiquette and image advisor.
Elegance is no longer a word confined to the world of fashion; it’s rather an inner quality that can transgress all boundaries and positively impact everyone regardless of culture, cult, or class. Taylor Elizabeth, through her consultancy and social media presence, has challenged the world to rethink the meaning of elegance and repurpose etiquette skills as essential professional development tools. Through her coaching, she offers a provoking question: What if instead of dismissing etiquette as superficial or outdated, you leaned into the virtues of elegance and its related skills? What would you risk? Dare I say nothing! What would you gain? Everything!
For the entrepreneur, etiquette, along with a cluster of interpersonal and soft-skills like effective communication, public speaking, behavioural gestures, cross-cultural communication, and cultural sensitivity, are the major skills that bind us socially with each other and help us establish strong and lasting relationships both in business and beyond. Throughout her career spanning over 13 years and catering to 22 nations, Taylor Elizabeth has been harnessing and mastering these skills in all aspects of social custom.
The inception of The Elegance Advisor and the birth of a passionate leader
An erudite businesswoman, Taylor Elizabeth has a long list of degrees and certifications from the leading institutions of the world. She has a Master’s in international affairs, an MBA in international business, a certificate in fashion and personal styling, a diploma in etiquette and protocol, is a certified emotional intelligence coach, and is a licensed life coach. In the span of her illustrious career has worked with heads of state, diplomats, industry leaders, and Fortune 500 executives. Being a successful professional herself, deep inside, Taylor Elizabeth was always interested in the idea of doing something unique that could positively impact society. Her long-standing association with human relations enabled her to hit upon a novel concept of making people aware of the values and relevance of good manners and etiquette on social and professional fronts. Geared up for this new challenge, Taylor Elizabeth took on the extraordinary feat and set up her entity in 2019, and The Elegance Advisor Consultancy was formed. The Elegance Advisor Consultancy offers private and group training and courses, encouraging her clients toward awareness, acceptance and an adoption of cultural sensitivity, etiquette, personal branding and cross-cultural relationships as tools for self-development, growth and success.
Defying challenges and climbing the summit
As a coach, Taylor Elizabeth had to deal with some overriding challenges. Firstly, Etiquette is perceived as having many social taboos and is often disregarded as outdated and irrelevant. In addition, the subject can be rejected by people who have the wrong notions about etiquette and often connect it with some elite code of conduct that is neither accessible to them nor relevant to their lives. These misconceptions make it harder for an entrepreneur and coach to create awareness of the significance of etiquette and elegance as life skills and tools for success. It has been a challenge for Taylor Elizabeth to remodel and reposition her teachings so that people could resonate with them as life skills and understand their value in building relationships and creating strong personal brands. Her strategy and what sets her apart as a leader in this field is how she approaches coaching these skills. It is not only about the skill that she works to develop; she works with her clients to develop an elegant mindset.
“As a certified life and emotional intelligence coach, I partner with the client to come to the awareness of what exactly is driving their fears, challenges, and obstacles to change. The next step is to take this awareness to develop a growth mindset and identify and develop the skills needed to address their challenges.”, asserts the leader.
The second challenge she faced was timing. The Elegance Advisor Consultancy was founded at the onset of Covid 19 and had to sustain itself under the pernicious influence of the pandemic. When life became digital, people were hardly interested in attending one more zoom meeting on personal branding and etiquette. It was a period of stress and uncertainty, still so palpable that it is reflected in the voice of the entrepreneur, “It was an overwhelming time. I had to reformulate what I was doing; I had to adapt very quickly and switch to online and to social media to get my message out and to have more presence. I shifted my entire business model, and at first, that was a struggle”.
The hurdles and barriers on our path and our success in surpassing them are great testaments to our strength and power to sustain and evolve, often leading us to beautiful, unexpected destinations. Achievers like Taylor Elizabeth knows exactly how to sail through difficult times by changing strategies and upgrading skills. “I overcame the internal and external challenges by giving myself grace and having self-compassion. I accepted that I had to shift my strategy, I had to change my mindset, just as I advise my clients to do, to adapt to the changing environment”, remembers the leader.
Empowering people at the Elegance Advisor
Taylor Elizabeth is committed to lifting the age-old stigma attached to the social codes of Etiquette and Elegance and raising awareness about its stupendous power of uplifting society and supporting one’s career. She has curated various comprehensive and bespoke programs and courses on elegance and etiquette to enhance her client’s mindset, social skills, and emotional intelligence In the opinion of the leader, the knowledge of etiquette, effective communication, and personal branding have immense significance in making one socially and professionally, confident, prepared and successful. Focusing on one’s mindset and doing the needed and challenging work to develop the skills is truly transformative. In her words, “Elegance starts from within. It begins with our mindset. From the way you communicate, to how you react to stress or emotional situations to how you engage others and build relationships both personal and professional”. An individual equipped with such social attributes is better poised to handle relationships in life, as well as in business.
Journey of balancing life and being on a roll
What success implies to you? Taylor Elizabeth, the sagacious businesswoman, replies beautifully in her natural self-composed tone, “Success to me is when your passion meets your purpose and the work produced at the intersection of the two leaves this world a better place than they produce “good” for the world”. Apart from earning a name and fame for herself, this benevolent business leader is inclined to support personal growth, build relationships, and thus empower socially effective individuals capable of making a positive difference. While coming to the question of balancing professional and personal lives, Taylor Elizabeth draws a beautiful analogy to explain how to prioritize the two different aspects of life…
“An analogy I once heard which I think best explains how to balance the many demands of life, think of it as if you were juggling different balls and some of those balls are glass. It’s important to know at each given time which balls are glass and which are rubber, so you can know which ones you can let fall because they will bounce back and which ones, if you let them fall, will shatter and never be able to be repaired… and knowing this make your decisions accordingly.”
Future roadmap and message to the women entrepreneurs
Coaching clients worldwide, Taylor Elizabeth is setting her sights on deepening her network and continuing to grow her business in the GCC and UAE markets. She continuously offers new resources to her clients and community so that they can grow and evolve to be the best versions of themselves.
The journey of thousand miles begins with a single step, and we have to take that small step to catapult our dream into reality. Taylor Elizabeth advises aspiring entrepreneurs to progress forward with ultimate devotion and fidelity to their purpose, identify their strengths, and utilize them to the fullest. At the same time, she encourages them to create a healthy growth mindset. “Keep on working and striving harder and harder but do not to your detriment and the detriment of your health, relationships, and business. Allow space for self-compassion, for grace and remember to enjoy the journey of being an entrepreneur, it is a unique one and not like the journey of working for a company. It’s a very different journey. It requires a 360-degree involvement. It’s you; you are your business, and your business is you. Treat it and yourself with commitment, dedication, one day, one lesson, one success at a time”.
