It is an honor to introduce you to Warm Spring, Kathleen Pringle. Kathleen is the founder of Kathleen Pringle Group Inc, a Career Strategy and Leadership Coaching business. She has spent decades helping her clients to empower themselves and their organizations.
Kathleen speaks to large groups often and understands the significance of personal branding. With her vibrant personality and radiant smile, she stands out in a crowd. She exudes confidence in herself, her business and any organization she is representing, especially when wearing her colors. Around Rochester, she is a "Roc Star".
We first met at a Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority alumni event in the early 80's but over the years have found each other at school events for our children, HR & Career Development meetings and a variety of charitable and networking events. We share a passion for working with women to advance their personal and professional growth.
Kathleen is very active and involved in the philanthropic and networking community in Rochester, NY. She helped establish ROC Moxie, an independent peer advisory organization bringing women in diverse professions, ethnicity, age and career levels together for business conversations to further their personal and professional growth. She is the incoming President of Rochester Rotary, the largest human services organization in the world.
What prompted you to have a color analysis?
I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Kerry for over three decades dating back to our corporate careers and then as bleacher moms during our son's baseball playing days. By then, in my capacity as a business owner, career strategist, and leadership coach I was more than ready to ditch the black, gray and blue that dominated my wardrobe in favor of the colors that would make me feel and look amazing!
For years, I have affectionally referred to Kerry as America’s “Color Queen” for her unique ability to accentuate clients’ natural color palette manifested in the skin, eyes and hair plus her brand of magic to make us feel authentic and amazing!
How has it changed your life?
Wearing MY colors has literally changed how I experience life and business!
A little backstory – Upon emigrating from Italy, my maternal grandmother’s talents as a seamstress we retained to design custom wardrobes for the wealthiest women in her community. I was blessed to learn about style, color and how to sew. My grandmother was such an inspiration to me. She was kind, resourceful, and incredibly talented.
In what ways has it changed the way you approach your business?
As a business owner, I’ve been described as a trailblazer, dynamic, bold, a bright light, confident, credible, unstoppable, resilient, positive, and affirming. When I’m wearing MY colors, I feel great and most importantly empowered to BE the most authentic version of me.
Building on a nearly twenty year career as corporate leader, recruiter and search consultant, I launched my own company in 2003 to inspire and lead change with executives and their companies. Career strategy and leadership conversations with clients or groups include the importance of presence, influence and image. This leads to discussions about the power of color and my own experiences with image and color.
As the incoming President of Rochester Rotary in July, I will have the honor and privilege to lead the 16thlargest Club in the world at a podium each week as well as in the community. My readiness for this role also includes confidence borne out of being comfortable with myself. Of course, what I wear is the other essential ingredient!
What has been the biggest challenge?
Not defaulting to black and the flawed thinking that it’s the only color to achieve a slimming look.
Any interesting things happen while you were wearing your colors?
(Better things happen when I’m in sync – colors, hair, mindset. My favorite colors in my pallet are combos of coral and cream, and gold tones with touches of turquoise, lighter blue greens and medium royal blue.)
I was presenting at a conference and had a goldenrod yellow suit, an emerald green shell and scarf that pulled them together along with great gold jewelry accents. I felt like a Boss Lady on that stage. The feedback was that my message was filled with relevance and conviction. "To look good is to feelgood is to do good!"
What was the biggest surprise?
How profoundly color affects my mood! I also found that warm grays, browns, taupes and other neutrals instead of black are very comforting! My colors have expanded from professional to my fitness gear! I’m a firm believer that I get a better workout when I’m wearing my colors!
Tell me about your favorite color in your palette
My favorite colors in my pallette are combos of coral and cream, gold tones with touches of turquoise, lighter blue greens and medium royal blue.
Tell me about your closet
As a Virgo, I like order so it may not surprise you that my closet is super organized by season, type, and color including shoes (hangers are all the same too!). Once I understood my colors, I parted with the items that weren’t warm spring OR didn’t give me joy (a bit of Marie Kondo inspo!) I also made an agreement with myself that for every two items I bought, I would part with one that is already in my closet. It forced me to be very intentional about what I’d buy! I haven’t been as stringent with all of my quality costume jewelry as I love to accessorize!
Kathleen is CEO & founder of The Kathleen Pringle Group, Inc. where she works with ethically driven executives, business owners, entrepreneurs, and professionals to elevate their leadership performance and effectively manage their career trajectories and legacies in increasingly complex and competitive markets.
During an annual mammogram in the fall of 2017, Kathleen was blindsided with nearly Stage III breast cancer requiring a bilateral mastectomy and one-year regimen of chemotherapy and immunotherapy.
Kathleen attributes early detection, aggressive treatment, faith in her All-Star medical team, a tribe of family and friends, and a healthy dose of gratitude and inner strength to confront and navigate the unknown as the reasons for putting her back on the path to her very active life.
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It’s a treat to introduce you to this month's colorful lives feature, Soft Autumn Tim Stich who is also my son!! Tim’s experience with shopping for clothing and wearing color is unique as I become a color analyst when he was quite young. When he and his sister Clare were little, I tried dressing them in bright colors with strong patterns as was the style then.....but even before learning about personal color harmony, I started to sense that the clothes overwhelmed them and began dressing them in softer colors and solids. I was even shocked the other day to discover when I pulled out his school photos that every single photo (even before I learned of his color palette) was taken in a Soft Autumn color. You can see how his life has evolved wearing the soft, earthy colors that suit his ruddy hair, freckles and soft blue/green eyes.
Over the years, he has mostly been very eager to wear what suits him and looked to me to help him distinguish soft autumn colors from the two seasons nearby - warm autumn and soft summer. We enjoy shopping together, especially now that he lives in Manhattan and the shopping is abundant. It can be a challenge to find his colors in sizes and style that fit but when its perfect, it feels great and he knows it. Read on to learn more about what it’s like to be a guy whose mom is a color consultant!
I am so excited to introduce you the “entertainingly irreverent” (Associated Press) Soft Summer, Valerie Peterson. Valerie is an extraordinary storyteller in a variety of media including scriptwriting, screenplays, fiction, non-fiction and book publishing/consulting. I analyzed her colors years ago in Rhode Island at a girls weekend hosted by a mutual friend (color analysis and girls weekends make a great combo!). In the years since, Valerie has embraced her Soft Summer colors in spite of living and working in New York City where black is a standard and practical.
It was a thrill when her publisher chose a photo of my family for her wonderfully spirited book, Peterson’s Happy Hour. On page 46, you can find me with my family - brothers, Mike and Tim and my parents Marcia and J. Michael Jones circa 1970. The book features many more photographic gems and recipes for a fabulous social gathering!
In this month’s colorful lives blog, Valerie shares her journey with her color palette. As with all her writing projects, she is humorous, colorful and entertaining! She has kept in great condition and still uses the Sci Art swatch book that I provided back in those days!! Be sure to check out her large body of work on valeriepeterson.net and read more in the blog:
While doing color analysis in Boston in June, I had the pleasure of meeting Danielle Burton and giving her a 12-Season Color Analysis. Danielle had recently experienced a 4-Season Color Analysis with a House of Colour consultant and was told she was a Winter. I was skeptical that she was any type of Winter (in the 12 season system, there are actually 3 Winters - Dark Winter, Cool Winter and Bright Winter). Her light eyes, natural lighter and soft brownish hair and skin tone were much more consistent with my clients who fall into the lighter seasons, especially Summer.
Since her hair had been highlighted, we covered it with a neutral gray cap to do the testing portion of the analysis, ensuring that the lighter color did not sway the results of the analysis. It was clear from the beginning that Danielle was responding more harmoniously to the cool tones even some of the lighter cool winter drapes which was consistent with her 4 season color analysis.
But, while she contrasted with any drapes that were dark and bright, she was softened and balanced by the lighter cool tones, particularly Summer. The dark colors brought out shadows under her eyes and the brighter colors overwhelmed her and brought attention to themselves. In the end, she looked lovely and perfectly balanced and harmonious in the Cool Summer colors!
"While I had a great experience at House of Colour, I do think they are missing out on a ton of research and color science by not including the 12 seasons and variants. The added layer of cool vs bright vs dark was a huge difference for me and really solidified which category I best fit”.
Enjoy reading more about Danielle’s experience with both systems and her reaction to her diagnosis as a Cool Summer:
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