The Blank Page.
Freelance scaries
Do you ever experience the freelance scaries, the sudden wave of panic about unstable income, dry spells, and isolation? I have been thinking a lot about the feeling of being lost in a styling career over the last few weeks. Maybe you have spent years building something you used to love, and slowly, over time, that love has vanished. Or maybe you are just starting out as a freelancer, unsure of the next steps to take, which in itself can be overwhelming and debilitating.
As I sit down to write this mailer, I have spent the morning finishing up the final edits on the masterclass for Week One of the Fashion Mentorship Program (which starts on Saturday!). You guessed it, the week is all about resetting your fashion career. So that is what brings me to this week’s challenge. But first, let me talk a little about being a freelance stylist.
It is a career that comes in swings and roundabouts. You go through phases of being happy, enjoying your clients and loving everything you do, and then the next minute you get that one awful client, or the one job that doesn’t pay you what you’re worth, and it all goes downhill.
I often find myself asking: what if I could minimise the bad weeks to as few as possible? What if I could run my business so that, more often than not, it’s on a level playing field? So it feels steady, almost like working a 9 to 5, and the horrible freelance scaries rarely happen?
But before you can do any of that, there’s the question I ask myself, and everyone I mentor. If you could redesign your fashion career from scratch, what’s the first thing you’d change?
So that’s this week’s question. Before you reset (especially if you’re joining my mentorship program on Saturday), ask yourself: if you could redesign your styling career from scratch, what’s the first thing you’d change?
I’ll go first. My answer is: be kinder to myself. So this week I am going to stop comparing myself to other people’s careers, and focus on the things I have achieved this year. And I am going to remind myself that the Emily of five years ago would never believe me if I explained everything I have managed to achieve and overcome.
Naming the change is the easy part, and I really hope you name yours today. Actually redesigning your career, and making it stick, is the part almost none of us manage on our own. It is the whole reason I built the 6-Week Fashion Mentorship Program. It starts in just 5 days’ time, I cannot believe it, it is my favourite time of year.
Over the next six weeks I will be working with fashion creatives at all levels, through 1:1 support, doing the career reset instead of just thinking about it. We look at things like why they are not booking clients, why their repeat bookings dried up, and why their pitches get compliments but no bookings. We look at how to grow if they are just starting out, and a career pivot if they have been assisting for a while and want to transition into a lead stylist. It’s the room where the thing you just named gets built, rather than becoming another nice idea you had one morning.
If you are reading this and thinking, Emily, I want this help, there are a few spaces left on the program, and the last chance to enrol is Friday. You can join as a group participant, or as a 1-1 with me (this is if you would rather stay anonymous within the community, because of the clients you work with, for example).
This isn't for the stylists who already have it all figured out. It's for the stylist who is ready to stop guessing, wherever you are starting from. You do not need the answers yet. You just need a system, a plan, and someone in your corner.
Doors close on Friday the 31st of July. If not now, it tends to be another season of the same swings and roundabouts, and I would love this to be the season it finally changes for you.
I hope to meet you on Saturday.
With love, Emily,
🔗 The Long Reads: Link
🔗 The Studio of Stylist Elixir: Link
🔗 1:1 Sessions: Link
🔗 The Mentorship: Link
Name the one change, and commit to it.
If you could redesign your styling career from scratch, what is the first thing you would change? Do not just think it, name it. Then commit to making that one change this week, and say it out loud in the chat. Naming it privately is a thought. Declaring it is where the reset actually begins.