DM Your Way In? Leigh King Says Yes 💬 | Ep. 344

Jay Schwedelson: What up? Welcome to do this, not that, the podcast for marketers. I'm Jay Schwedelson. Let's dig into some tips and some randomness. We are back for Do This, Not That podcast presented by Marigold. And we have such a cool guest today. We have Leigh King. Who's Leigh? Leigh is the Director of Special Projects and Events at the Council of Fashion Designers of America. Oh, I should have worn something nice today. I didn't do that. So what does that actually even mean? So in addition to the CFDA Fashion Awards that they host, they also organize the fashion calendar, okay, for the official New York Fashion Week schedule. I'm going to walk the runway. I'm talking this into fruition that's happening. But Leigh King, she like puts on all this stuff, all the events, digital stuff, in person stuff. It's amazing. We're going to dig into her career path because I think for a lot of people, want to hear how does somebody wind up doing something so cool? I want to do that. So Leigh, welcome to the podcast.

Leigh King: Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

Jay Schwedelson: I really should have stepped up my outfit game, but don't judge me. Right, so before we get into your career path and all the different twists and turns, what do you actually do?

Leigh King: That's a good question. So like you said, I'm the Director of Special Projects and Events at CFDA, the Council of Fashion Designers of America. We're a membership based organization for the American fashion industry, and our members are all American designers. So, you know, some bigger names you might know like Ralph Lauren, Michael Kors, Tori Birch are all on our board. And our chairman is Tom Brown, who's just an incredible American designer. We really work to support designers throughout their entire designer life cycle. So from a student who's just graduating from fashion school, all the way up to an iconic designer like Tom Ford. So I oversee all of our events and that can be something very small from a board meeting all the way up to the CFDA Awards, which is our biggest event of the year. It's a big fundraiser. The last few years, we've done it at the Museum of Natural History in New York City. We have roughly about 500 people on a yearly basis, and it's a very big night in fashion that we're proud of.

Jay Schwedelson: So in your heart, are you an event professional? Are you a What would you If somebody says to you, what are you? What industry are you actually in, in your brain?

Leigh King: I'm very much in the fashion industry, like fashion with a capital F. That's what we like to say. So very, very much within that. However, we work with creative people. Although we serve designers specifically, we really serve the entire industry. So that's everyone from retailers, stylists, models, fashion influencers, tech companies. So fashion is an insular sort of company type, but it has a huge scope and a huge reach.

Jay Schwedelson: So a lot of people listening out there are like, Oh, that's cool. That's so much better than my business to business plumbing supply company that I'm doing the marketing and events for. I always wanted to be in fashion. So was it just super easy? You finished school and you're like, hi, I want to be in fashion. You got the job out of the gate. Like, was it that simple or did you have to hustle your way in? Like how did you break in? Like tell us from the beginning how it all happened.

Leigh King: All right. That's a good question. I'll go to the long, but the short answer is no, it's not easy. It was a lot of hustling, years of hustling, and I'm still hustling every day, which is why I've had my job for so long, I think, and have been able to grow. But taking it way back, I have always wanted to work in fashion. I went to school for fashion. I went to FIDM in California and I also went to LIM in New York, which really focuses on the business of fashion. So I feel lucky that I always knew I couldn't be a designer because unfortunately my brain just doesn't work like that. However, I was always interested in working in the industry and I had some knowledge that other jobs besides being a designer existed. Originally, went to school for fashion merchandising because I thought I'd be a buyer. Very quickly learned I would be a terrible buyer. I'm really not good at math and buying is very math focused. So although I finished my degree in that, I don't think I actually did much work in that sort of area. While I was in school, we were pushed to do a lot of internships and get on hand on the job experience because we were told you will never get a job in fashion unless you have fashion internship experience, which I can say is very, very true. It's very hard to break into the industry. At the time when I was in college, Etsy, the sort of like crafting platform had become really popular. And I created a fashion blog because this was a hundred years ago when fashion blogs were just getting started. And it was about all the best fashion on Etsy. And so I'd just spend hours and hours scrolling Etsy several times a week and create posts of all these outfit ideas that I put together with things I found on Etsy. And sometimes I'd bring in other designer pieces to pair with that. So I did one time post about Tori Birch. And randomly enough, I think her role probably at the time was marketing director at Tori Birch. And she found my blog and she emailed me and was just like, Oh, that was cool. Thank you for the mention. And I was just like, didn't know what to do with myself. Didn't even know that anybody read it, let alone someone that actually worked in fashion. So I took it upon myself to reach out to her and try to introduce myself. I had a project coming up where I had to interview someone. So I asked if it could be her and she said, yes. And she said, If I was ever looking for an internship in New York, she couldn't make any promises but to reach out. Years and years later, I saw my blog, I saw an internship posting online for Teen Vogue in their web department. And this was when literally Teen Vogue had just created a website. So it was very, very new and they were hiring interns to help with that. So I brought printouts, I think, from my blog as my writing samples and somehow just connected with this amazing woman and got the internship. I truly have no idea why she chose me or thought I was capable of that, but I was so grateful that someone took a chance because that's really all I needed was just someone to give me one big chance. So I get my foot out in the door and I ended up staying there for a year interning at Conde Nast with the Teen Vogue team. It was incredible. We were based in Times Square at the time. I just felt like we were at the pinnacle of fashion. It was such an amazing time for fashion publishing as well. So it was super exciting and I learned a lot. I did have to get another internship. My school was like, Okay, you did great, but get something else. So I used the opportunity to then reach out to the woman from Tory Burch. And she didn't have anything in her department, but the visual merchandising department was hiring and they wanted me to be their intern. So I stuck around with them for a really long time. I helped them open the Tori Bird store in Madison Avenue, which was incredible and just a great experience. I got to work really closely with Tori and worked with her stylist a bit. Through all of this experience, I kept hearing about this company. I didn't really know about them, but it was called the CFDA. And it seemed really cool. And I had no idea what they did, but I just felt like they were kind of a big deal because I kept hearing about them at all of my jobs. So during my last semester in college, I ended up seeing a post for an internship at CFDA in the communications department. And again, I applied, I interviewed. Luckily enough, I did get that internship. It was really great because it was actually a full time internship. So I really got very immersed within the company, which at the time I think was nine people, which is incredibly small for the amount of work that goes on there. And when I graduated, I was really heartbroken because they didn't have a job for me. And I had to leave, which was devastating because I just had grown to love CFDA and grown to love our work so much and was really bonded with everybody and proud of everything that I had done. But there was a designer that was a CFDA member that was looking for an assistant, and that designer is Zach Posen. And I went and worked with Zach Posen as his assistant. That was my first official job in fashion, my first big girl job, like I say. I have never learned so much in such a short amount of time. It was really like a masterclass of working with a designer and what it meant to be a designer and create a collection and market to the industry and work within the industry and have shows and have events and have partnerships. And at the time he was also a judge on Project Runway. So I got this really incredible, well rounded experience working with him that I'm so, so grateful for. And also grateful that he's still a good friend of mine in his new role as head of everything Everything Creative at Gap and Old Navy and Banana Republic. From there, I went and worked at Jay Crew. I tried my hand in the merchandising and planning world because I had gone to school for that and I thought I got a little bit of experience like that working from Zach. Didn't love the role, loved J. Crew a lot. It was a great company. And I was there in the heyday of Mickey Drexler and Jenna Lyons and Mickey would get on the speaker and talk to everybody and have people call him and people would be running around, picking up phones, calling Mickey, running to his office. It was super exciting. And then finally, job became available at CFDA and they were starting a new department, which was gonna be called the Events and Special Projects Department. And the woman that I had previously interned for was gonna be in charge of this department. And apparently she said, There's only one person I wanna work with, and that was me. So I was very, very lucky. I shouldn't probably say this, but I didn't have an official interview. I talked to Stephen Colb on the phone, who's the CEO, and he kind of said, Well, Sophie said she'll only do this department if she can hire you. So I guess if you're in, I'm in. And obviously I was in. And the rest is history. And I've been there for about ten and a half years now, working my way up in the events and special projects department from a coordinator assistant role to director and head of the department now.

Jay Schwedelson: That's an amazing journey. It really is. Thank you. What I love about it and what I think everybody out there that's listening is you, you did some, you didn't just go in, go on, you know, Indeed or ZipRecruiter or LinkedIn and say apply, apply, apply for whatever, but you were a self starter and you're creating this blog and you are connecting with people and networking and you're manufacturing, you know, your own luck, you know? And that is, I don't care what industry anybody's in, especially a super competitive one. I would guess that if you didn't do any of that and you just were hitting apply, apply, apply, especially in today's day and age, would it be almost impossible to just break through and get those types of internships?

Leigh King: I think it's hard. I think it's so hard. And it was hard for me to get an internship. Like I said, I was just totally amazed that someone would take a chance on me. I know that I try to do that for other people. I do try to take a chance on people even if they don't have tons of internship experience available, because I think if you meet someone, you can tell really quickly if they're gonna be the right person and the right fit. So I do like to try to pay it forward. But yeah, I mean, it is very hard to break into fashion in any role as a designer, as an event person, as an influencer, whatever you're doing. There's facets of the industry that are gatekeepy and that do feel exclusive. But once you get in, you kind of realize those things are not necessarily true, but sometimes it's just hard to get your foot in the door and you have to be super assertive and network and meet people and DM people on Instagram. I always tell people to DM on Instagram because I've met so many people just by literally messaging them. And I think it's a great tool.

Jay Schwedelson: I couldn't agree with you more. If people out there think they're going to move their career forward just by playing the regular game and not being a serve, even if it's out of your comfort zone and DMing people or messaging them on LinkedIn or doing 17 different things, doing smoke signals, not going to get those opportunities. You have to create it for yourself. I'm curious about something though. It's such a cool path, right? You meet all these cool people. And now you don't just do all the stuff with the designers and stuff, but you're putting on like big events and you're dealing with not always the fun stuff. You're dealing with how many tables should we have? Do we have the right lighting? Does the microphone work? How are people going to do this? How, whatever. Not, I mean, it sounds amazing, like the most fun thing ever, but just so everybody has like a little sobriety here, like you deal with a lot of non just designery type stuff and that's the case for any job, right?

Leigh King: Totally. That's a great point. And whenever I do meet new people or talk about events, because my job does sound like it's this super glamorous thing, I get to go to all these events and fashion shows. And really, it's 95% Excel sheets and table charts and colors of linen or flowers and 5% glamorous. The 5% I will say is quite glamorous and I feel really lucky about that. But I also am not mistaken in that I'm not a guest, I'm there to work. And I expect everyone on my team to sort of operate in that same way. But yeah, it's you know, it's a lot of smoke and mirrors.

Jay Schwedelson: Yeah. No, you're working hard. Okay. So I have a couple of very random questions before we run out of time here. If I was your friend and now we're friends, but if I was your regular friend in real life, I would be like, Oh, I'm going to hit Leigh up. Maybe she can get me into blah, blah, blah. Or maybe she can get me backstage to blah, blah, blah, because she knows everybody. Do you just get people hitting you up for like hookups all the time? And do you have like a standard line that like keeps everybody at arm's length?

Leigh King: Honestly, I will say most of my friends work in fashion, so they kind of understand. But I will say in general, CFDA probably does get hit up for things like that all of the time, or just someone is really interested in attending Fashion Week. But the thing to understand is while the industry is working to make Fashion Week more democratic, it is an industry facing thing. And it's meant for buyers and stylists and editors to see the collections. It's not necessarily meant for consumers first and foremost. So that's always the way I sort of phrase it is like, there's limited seats at a fashion show. Like, why are you taking, what makes you want like ownership of one of those seats? And even for us, I try to always be really cognizant of like, am I taking the seat from somebody else? Someone else that could maybe do something other than what I can do for the designer.

Jay Schwedelson: That was very smooth. That was good. I would feel bad then if I asked you and then you'd be like, okay, well, I don't want to take the seat. All right. The most random question that you'll ever be asked. So love Zach Posen. I love Jenna Lyons. As you know, Jenna Lyons, Real Housewives of New York. Okay. Do you, Do you watch The Real Housewives of New York? Are you like, no, Because I love Jenna Lyons.

Leigh King: I love Jenna Lyons. Jenna, if you're watching this, you know how much I love you. Every time I see her, I tell her I love her and she's my fashion icon forever. And working at J. Crew while Jenna was there is like seeing a big celebrity every day. But I will say Jenna is like incredibly kind, down to earth, cool, awesome fashion girl.

Jay Schwedelson: Oh my God. I'm not gonna get into Real Housewives, but she's the only cast member they should keep because the rest of it was a hot mess. But she-

Leigh King: Well now New York got the cut.

Jay Schwedelson: No, I just read yesterday. This is updated literally. I'm on a Bravo blog. So, as you know, because you're going to be out of fantastic speaking, Andy Cohen is speaking from Bravo. But as of yesterday, they said no, New York Housewives is coming back, but at least of almost a whole new cast, if not some members might say, but it's coming back.

Leigh King: Okay. Tea. I did not know that.

Jay Schwedelson: There you go. Very important information here. All right. You're amazing. Should people find you? Do you want people connecting with you, following you, whatever? Where should people find you if they want to like follow your world?

Leigh King: Find me on Instagram. Because apparently I don't LinkedIn or update my LinkedIn very well, but on Instagram, I'm Leigh Elise. And feel free to find me and follow me and DM me if you really wanna put yourself.

Jay Schwedelson: There you go. Be brave. We're gonna put it all in the show notes. This was amazing. I loved every second of it. Thanks for being here, Leigh.

Leigh King: Thank you so much.

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