Local Love: Amy Shio of Les Best

TGIF, Cowes!

Today, we highlight Amy Shio of Les Best, one of the realest OG’s in the game. 📸: Erin Leydon

Tell us a bit about yourself. We want to know what you’re all about.

I’m Amy Shio, formerly googleable as Amy Patel who worked in investment banking for 10 years, syndicating public and private deals in the market. I left that life to tap into my truest self being what I like to call myself, a “person of interest” which embodies being an artist, storyteller and lover and obssesser of many things. In North America we’re programmed and told that we can only do and be one thing, but I don’t think we truly are supposed to live that way. I just want my life and life’s work to reflect the purest form of who I am and what I stand for.

#LocalLove is all about showing love to bad-ass bosses like yourself. Can you share with us what you do for work and how you make an impact?

I’ve been figuring out the trajectory of my brand Les Best, which was created as a platform in my IB days of sharing my looks of the day, via Twitter then a Tumblr, then a blog and finally on Instagram. Since the early days of Tweeting only fashion, it has become sharing a lifestyle which incorporates many things I have a passion in learning about and sharing my findings.

With art, it’s both the work I create on canvas and display in my home and my love for galleries I attend locally and internationally and share other artists’ work. With food it’s recipes I create to help inspire others and also share amazing restaurants I love to support. In terms of sport its sharing my love for running and pilates and encouraging my followers to join along. With health issues I’ve faced, I’ve shared skincare tips and tricks and the importance of gut love. Everything is done through my lens and experience, and I think the biggest thing for me is that I’m pretty transparent with my followers which lends itself to authenticity and trust. My biggest rule is that I only work with brands which I would feel comfortable spending my own hard earned money on – that’s when you know it’s real.

How did you get into this line of work?

It happened pretty naturally. I was sharing looks on Twitter in the beginning, then on Tumblr, then on my blog, then on Instagram. I started sharing running and pilates as well. Once the invention of instagram stories started, I would share more behind the scenes with my cooking and other facets of my life, some personal, some funny but always real. This was all at the same time while I was still in banking. Brands gained trust in me and I in return and here we are today.

What’s the best advice you’ve ever been given (career or otherwise)?

The best advice has been to read more books about people I admire and realize that everyone goes through the same thing before becoming what they are, so failure is okay because everyone has faced it at some point and learning to lean into this has strength.

How about the worst?

The worst advice would have been “DON’T QUIT YOUR JOB!”, because it would be scary, uncertain, volatile and I wouldn’t have benefits. All of which is true, BUT you can’t become GREAT living in your comfort zone.

If you could paint your ideal life, what would that look like in 5-10 years from now?

My ideal life would be partially what I’m doing now as I do this interview. Being a snowbird, working remotely in a warm part of the world, with my health in tact, living life in real time with my family, working with luxury brands and coming to the full realization that what I’ve always called work was really just play this entire time. And stacks – many many stacks and abundance for me and my circle.

Who are 3 of your favourite Canadian entrepreneurs that our readers should absolutely be in the know about?

I can’t list three, so here’s my list: