Hi, I’m Kate Langford. Over 16 years ago, I started in Human Resources and Recruitment.

My role was to recruit candidates so companies could thrive. While being part of successful organisations was an awesome achievement, I found myself wanting to go deeper with guiding people to careers that made their everyday life better. I wanted to share my knowledge and help everyone do a job they love, learn the skills to stand out, and ultimately enjoy going to work.

Kate Langford Career Consulting is the result of my passion for helping people like you live their best life. I want to help you get a job you love and not just one you can do.

Kate is sharing what the word “empower” means to her with The Corporate Escapists.

Thank you for joining us here at The Corporate Escapists. Please introduce yourself to our readers. They would love to know about you, your passion, and how you came to find and follow your passion.

Kate is a driven, passionate, and resilient female Mumpreneur who started her own business in career coaching just over 2 years ago. She has gone from working alone to building a business of 15 staff and over 85k revenue a month while changing lives all at the same time. Also, while running her business in just over two years, she has managed to have a baby and also mother 2 other children aged 4 and 5. So a business start-up, 3 kids (one a baby) building to a team of currently 15 has been both exciting and challenging for her.

Kate has a Career Consulting business that assists people to identify their dream role using a holistic approach as well as Resume Writing, Job Searching strategies, Interview Coaching, Career Coaching, Confidence training and so much more. She has transformed the lives of thousands of people Australia-wide through her honest and authentic approach and is now one of the top Career Consulting firms in the country.

As a successful entrepreneur please share your viewpoint if you believe that entrepreneurs are born or made?

Born! It is in your from day one, you just need to bring it out. Some people never “come out” due to lacking confidence.

**Clear Vision and Processes**

A clear vision on knowing WHERE you are heading, what and why we do what we do, the ideal client and target market we serve, and the outcomes we want for these clients, are important.

The team must be on the same page to achieve this as well as having a process in place, to ensure efficiency. Processes are my best friend because, without them, we lose time. Time is your most important resource in business and that is why I have set up a business around automation and key processes on each part of the business to maximise profit and efficiency to scale.

Nelson Mandela once quoted – ‘I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.’  What has been one fear you have overcome?

Fast growth and ensuring I didn’t burn out, all while having my 3rd child. I have a 5-month-old, 4-year-old at Kindy and a 6-year-old in Grade1, plus, a business nearly turning over 1 million in revenue, Hubby, and then life of being a Mum, so I guess you could say I a bit proud 

It is all about work-life balance, but also about loving what you do and serving people that you care about and are truly making a difference in their lives. It is so rewarding so I think through-out your challenges if you can remember your WHY and your GOALS and the amount of people you HELP, it makes it worth it.

Having the right people in your circle, your support network, and leaning on them when needed really helped. I am one to ASK for help, so that was the solution to be able to get it all done. Outsourcing became my best friend

Tell us what the word “empower” means to you?

Personal definition of an empowered woman – how do they feel, what to they look like, how do they engage?

An empowered woman to me is about standing in your own power, feeling it, embracing it, and OWNing it.

Everyone is different but for me, it is really about acceptance of who you are and owning your individuality and what you bring to the world in your own genius zone.

We all have one, it is about embodying this. In your profession/life experience, what is empowerment Empowering in my profession is about knowing your worth, genius zone, and your individual talent.

It is about career confidence and getting clear on your path and going for gold and lifting others up around you. When it comes to your career and what I do at KLCC and KLBC, it is about helping people to recognise their genius zone and core strengths. If we talk about business coaching specifically (which is what I do more recently) empowerment is about:

1 – knowing your special niche and genius zone and sharing this with others!

2 – Knowing your worth and that people have a need for what you can offer

3 – Standing in your power and owning that inner strength and seeing it come to light to deliver success for others.. and with that comes the rest when you love what you do! That is true empowerment to me, doing what you love NOT what you know.

What has been one of the biggest business ideas you have had and how did you have the courage to implement it?

Honestly, starting this business and tripling it through covid, starting with only just me. How I started KLCC is very special. I was working for a recruitment firm on the Sunshine Coast and I knew I had more to give. I knew I wanted to help people and that helping the employer for 16 years was great, but it wasn’t serving or fulfilling my purpose. I knew that teaching people what I’d learned over the years and teaching them the backdoor on how to find a job that they’re passionate about and how to get it and land it from being on the other side of the fence was really where my heart lied.

I knew I wanted to start a Career Coaching business but having a 2- and 3-year-old in tow made it very hard to leave, especially when I was paid well for working a 3-day week. My Dad called me and said, “Kate, what’s it going to take for you to leave this job and start your own business?” I said, “Dad, I need at least $500 a week to be able to cover the costs because I have a young family.” He said, “Right, I’m going to lend you that money until you can pay me back.” I still remember this phone call vividly, walking out the back crying, saying I can’t believe that this is going to come to light. He knew I had to give it a go because this was bigger than me. That was in April 2018.

Within four weeks, I’d already started to pay myself and by the end of 2018, I was running a business earning 2 thousand a week, which was enough to be sufficient. Moving into 2019 was where things really started to scale. I was going from a $5000 per month to $30,000 in a very short time frame by the end of 2019.

Running your own business can be scary.  Success requires moments of courage to push through to the next level, please tell us one of the moments you have had to push through to take your business to the next level?

When Covid hit, our business was in high demand and tripled overnight. I had a baby right in the middle of it and needed to adapt quickly to a market that needed my help. I created during this time, a very low price point membership portal that gives people all the DIY information around changing careers called the Career Changers Academy.

This was everything I knew that could help people fast to get the confidence and tips to keep them going. Reviewing business plans to accommodate is also critical. As you can see with Covid, risk is always possible, and being able to pivot like we did with a program to help and respond to the market needs, when possible, is important for the ongoing success of business but also, I am now constantly recruiting because you never know what is around the corner.

Resilience I think is one of the most important ingredients to success. It has been a key part in shaping my growth in both business and personal. Finding a way is my mantra and that has proven detrimental as well as knowing Risk vs Reward.

Tell us what attributes you feel make a good leader in business today?

This is a story of someone who I believe I am as a leader.

The way Roz White holds and values her culture within her business, being able to connect with staff members and know their names (with such a large team) and have conversations with each of them about what is important to them. She is humble, “goes about her way” quietly without a fuss, gets the job done, is always about the “people”, real, genuine, no need to “fake it” and is very professional while grounded at the same time. She is all about female empowerment which I completely align with and would love to follow in her footsteps with making the network a success in any way I can.

She is also very gracious and quietly confident in the way she holds herself and speaks like a true authentic leader. I believe these attributes mentioned above have played a huge part in her success because without a team, passion, drive, and humility, you cannot achieve that level of success. As a leader, your humility demonstrates a desire for collaboration rather than internal competition and shows strengths when making decisions. It also is extremely important for growth and being able to learn from mistakes without ego and builds trust within your company. These traits allow a business to grow successful and she has these attributes in spades.

What is your favourite quote about empowerment?

you can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” ― Stephen King

What advice would you give to anyone wanting to start their own business?

The growth of the business hasn’t been easy, as any entrepreneur knows, sometimes you go forward on one side, while you take a few steps back on the other. Changes with online marketing rules and other challenges never slowed me down though. I have often been on my own, without the support of others, while still juggling my busy family and had to push on through.

Every problem and challenge I has addressed head-on and worked through to overcome and if someone was thinking about starting a business, you need to be ready for this party.

There have been times when I have had to juggle staffing issues, sick kids, family challenges, marketing, and advertising setbacks, legal issues, and my own self-worth. People often see the success that others have, and don’t realise how much they have had to overcome to get there so it would be remembering your self-worth and your WHY every day and that passion will get you where you need to be every time.

What would be one (1) question you would you ask the person who most inspires you?  Also, share with us about this person and why they inspire you?

As above, Roz White. The one question is what is the key to your success and I know this is leadership.

She inspires me to believe on myself and understands what it is like to start at the bottom with only passion and a vision. I like Roz, has a fire in my belly to serve and better the lives of others in the community and want to be able to make a difference in any way I can, with money the bonus to what I do.

When setting business and personal goals, I focus solely on my own WHY. This has always led me to achieve realistic expectations of myself because it aligns with my own values without comparison. I run my own race and have always “selected” the strategies that align with my “big picture” and created and executed what works for best for myself.

You can connect with Kate right here on Facebook.