PODCAST SHOWNOTES

Nicole Otchy: 10 years of high-level corporate HR experience, thousands of hires, millions of dollars of negotiations under her belt, and she felt like she was starting from zero. She wasn't. She just had no idea what to count. This is The Six Figure Personal Stylist Podcast. I am Nicole Otchy and this is the show for personal stylists building world-class businesses and setting the standards in the industry. Profitable growth, thought leadership, real client transformations. Because the best personal stylists don't just edit closets, they shape culture.

Let's get into it. If you come from a corporate background, HR, tech, finance, marketing, consulting, any of those worlds and you are now thinking about, or trying to build a personal styling business, I want you to stay with me for this whole episode. Because something happens to almost every corporate woman who steps into this industry that I speak to. They look at everything they created in their previous career and decide it doesn't count towards their dream of building a styling business. They look at stylists on social media, who appear booked and busy, who are producing high-level, polished content with little microphones on social media and they decide that 10, 15, 20 years of corporate experience is irrelevant baggage, instead of a massive advantage. And so they start trying to prove themselves by the wrong metrics, when starting their career and set themselves up for a lot of frustration. They put themselves in more courses. They get certifications. They spend a lot of time getting ready to be ready to launch a business. And a lot of false beliefs about things like what your social media should look like as a personal stylist end up looking a lot more like influencer content.

Because when you're looking into an industry from the outside, you don't realize what the standards are. You don't realize who's actually making money. You just realize how it looks on the outside. And so a lot of new stylists, up-and-coming stylists are copying behaviors and business models, or services, some people's websites, to be honest, it's not a business model and thinking, well, this must be how it works. They have a lot of followers and not realizing that they're completely different business models for stylists that act like influencers, stylists that are working with high level clients, they don't act the same way. And so meanwhile, you're sitting there on a set of skills that most stylists without real world corporate experience, who have never had to deal with that responsibility, are spending years trying to build the skills that you bring to the table. And you can't see that, because you only see what you're looking at on social media, or on some stylist's very polished website and that blind spot is exactly what we are going to fix today.

There's this really clear pattern that emerges and I'm always, to be honest, a little taken aback by, but now I've seen it enough to know, oh, this is not, like a one-off thing, this is like a pattern. I have not really been in the corporate world for so long, I was for a little while, but it was more in like high-level academia and that kind of a world. Where I did see people in power and deal with people in authority positions and it did help me a lot as a stylist, but I'm so removed from it that, when I get on calls with new stylists who are considering leaving their full-time job to create a full-time career as a stylist, or they have left and they feel totally out of their depth. I'm always surprised when they say that they feel like a beginner again. And you can hear there's like a lot of vulnerability in that. And I'm always surprised, because I view their experience in an entirely different way than they do. And I think part of the vulnerability comes from the fact that they have a lot of experience being competent. Women who rise in the corporate world are usually the person who figures things out, they're good at delivering, and they become the person as they rise that other people know they can rely on. I see this over and over again. They are the go-to person, in their company, for whatever it is they do and sometimes things they don't do.

And so now in something new, that beginner feeling gets really loud and it can drown out everything else that you're actually bringing to the table, including all of the experience you have, you know, styling friends and family and coworkers and all that. All of a sudden it's like, that doesn't even matter because you're looking at the outside of the styling industry. And let's be honest, you're probably not looking at people with like 10 followers, you're looking at people with big followings. And so you're treating your entire professional history like it happened to a different person and you just can't even bring it into this part of your life. And I was talking recently with my client and friend, Erin, who you've heard on this podcast, Erin Stoll. And now she's been working as a full-time stylist for years now. And we work together to help her leave her corporate job. I'll put her episode in the show notes. And she said something that I've been really thinking about in that conversation. She said, and it's exactly what all these other stylists get on calls with me say, and I hadn't even shared this with her. She said, it's just hard, because you're a beginner again.

And yet you have all these skills that you've built across your entire adult life. But somehow you just can't see them, when you start a business. And that blind spot becomes a specific kind of trap. Because the stylists I work with who came from corporate, are not generally less confident people overall. In fact, I find that they have a lot of stick-to-itiveness. They have a lot of very high motivated energy. They're actually very capable, very high performing, very reliable, very dependable. And they lost their frame of reference, when they're embarking on ,or considering embarking on something new, because they only know how to measure success inside of a structure that they have been in. But when that structure disappears, they don't know what counts anymore and instead decide that they are the problem, or they are the one that's lacking. Sure, there are, of course, some things you need to know. But there's way more that I find women and men in corporate that come into styling, bring with them that a lot of stylists, who have not been in those worlds, are missing.

And so what happens is a lot, a lot of women, who want to be stylists and I'm saying women, because those are the conversations I've had. I'm sure there are men and if there are men out there, listening - reach out, I'd love to hear from you and see what your perspective is. But they tend to go towards looking for external proof for a really long time, before they actually move on taking action. And they do things like they get a lot of credentials, they get a lot of training, they do a lot of cost-benefit analysis, if they come from the world of analytics and spreadsheets, which I think is wonderful and is a huge skill that I wish more stylists had. And then they keep waiting to feel ready, because they don't realize that they actually are chasing something they already have. They just don't recognize it, because nobody showed them how to translate what they are bringing from their old professional life into the future of their professional life, into a styling business.

And so I want to share with you what I see when a corporate background stylist comes into one of my programs or works with me, because there are a few skills and a few ways of moving in a business that are vastly underestimated and really end up being superpowers, when they launch a career in styling. Some of the most successful stylists I have worked with, who have gotten to six figures in a year or less, all came from corporate. Actually, when I think about this, I can only think of two that I know of that did it and I'm thinking of like dozens and dozens. Yeah, I can only think of two off the top of my head that had not worked extensively in corporate. And so here are the top three things. There are more for sure, but I was thinking about some of the ones that may get like missed, because I think like things like being okay with tracking metrics, things like, you know, being organized, knowing how to like get feedback from people. Those all came to mind, when I made the list, but these are the three that I think are the most underrated and the ones that stylists that I talked to later on, like Erin and a couple other of my clients, they were like, oh yeah, I didn't even think of that. So here are some ones that tend to go unnoticed.

Number one is you know how to read what a client isn't saying. Now, lots of stylists I work with, are empaths, that's not what I'm saying. But there's a level of the reading of a client and the responding to a client, in real time, that I find stylists with corporate backgrounds are exceptionally good at. Whereas I find not always, but sometimes people that don't have that kind of longer term training in these environments, they don't know how to manage it. They can read a client, but how they deal with it is different. So this actually might be the most important thing that you bring with you. And it's really not even about the clothes. It's about those moments, when a client goes quiet mid-session and a lot of stylists either read it as everything's fine or tell themselves, if they're not saying anything, let's just keep it status quo and let it move, because they don't want to be confronted. It feels uncomfortable. But most of the stylists I've worked with who have high-level corporate experience, they've managed people, they've had to do things like reviews quarterly for people, they've had to, you know, look at metrics and think about like why things work or don't. They don't tend to do that, they don't tend to shy away from the conversations, because they sat in rooms where someone has checked out during the presentation they were giving, or they've gotten hard feedback from a boss or mentor.

And they kind of have learned that they need to catch things before it becomes a problem, because they've watched that happen in the environments that they're in, that people that didn't do that didn't rise. And so you know what it means, when someone's energy shifts and you know how to address it, because you have skills from presenting, from being responsible, from having to lead and be in charge that require that of you, that you just literally do not get, if you've not been in these environments and seen it modeled for you. And the stylists who catch these things early on, they are the ones that have higher repeat client rates long term. They ask different questions. They're okay with slowing down. They know how to reformulate the agreement with the client in real time so that everybody's on the same page. And the stylists who miss this, because they just don't know, end up with clients who quietly disappear and honestly really don't get a lot of referrals, but don't always know why. And so when you've built that sort of skill over years of high stakes professional situations and real responsibility, it doesn't just like go away, because you're in a dressing room and not a boardroom. It is a critical skill that is very hard to teach people, because it's very scary. You have built up evidence that you can course correct and put things back on track. Right. Other people don't necessarily always, because they've not gotten a lot of feedback. And so they panic or don't follow up with the client. And so that is a huge, huge benefit that I see stylists, who come from a corporate background have.

The next one is that you know how to build a case, not just make a suggestion. And if you have listened to any of my podcasts on thought leadership, or anything like that, they may feel a little bit high level for where you are. But I assure you, I have watched my clients. Michelle Liu, who I did a podcast with and I'll link here as well, is a good example of this. They're very… she came from many years in corporate and what I see with these kinds of stylists with this experience is that they don't just pull something for a client. They don't just say things like, I think this will look great on you, which is fine, but like it doesn't immediately convince a client. And often the stylist is seen as like not being very effective. But when I look at the way that stylists in these backgrounds move, they don't tend to just like present things. They tend to like build a case around them, if you will. And I think that's because of all of the experience from talking to these stylists they've had in the corporate world, where they've had to stand up in front of rooms and in front of people and build a case. They've had to deal with people pushing back. They've had to hold their ground without getting defensive. It really is helpful, because I've seen in situations, where like in a styling context, when I give my methodologies and my tools to these stylists, they tend to be able to take them and run faster. And they'll be able to quickly integrate it in and say something like in their next session to a client like, you told me in your intake form that you wanted to stop feeling like you were disappearing in rooms you walked into and this outfit is doing that for you. It's not an opinion, it's their building of the rationale from the client's own words to give the feedback.

And it's something that I see a lot of stylists with this type of experience able to do, because they had to do it in situations, where they were giving people annual reviews or, you know, talking through difficult things with an employee who wasn't getting better. And clients can feel the difference, especially if they come from this world. And it's a difference between someone who looks at you as like a real expert and books you again, because you're able to articulate why something works and it doesn't, not just because you have a good eye. And it's a really critical and overlooked skill that I wish was easier to teach people. I can try, but not everybody is open to it, because, again, a lot of people don't have the experience of having been pushed back on in public and stylists worry about that. So that is a huge advantage.

And the last one that I am shocked gets overlooked the most is that you have lived in the world that your best clients in the future are going to live in. Here is something that most personal styling industry coaches are just not going to tell you. Honestly, I've heard from stylists, who paid very good money for coaching and told me they have never gotten this piece of advice, which is something I give pretty early on, in calls, as it comes up, in my programs, is that there is actually a real structure upholding the styling industry. People act like, oh, it's all like, do it, like there's no roadmap. No one knows. It's a wild guess. That's not actually true, if you know what you're talking about. There are actual things that are true about this industry and especially high ticket industries, that are kind of the guardrails. So like, for example, you don't actually have your pick of any client you want. Technically, yes, it's your business. You can work with anyone. But if you want to be successful, there are very specific markers of who hires a personal stylist and who does it repeatedly. And those people are working professionals.

And I'm not saying those are the only ones, but they are the majority of it. And that can look differently. They can be working professionals that, you know, are in transition to retirement. They can be working professionals that are transitioning into entrepreneurship. There can be working professionals that are entrepreneurs. But the majority of the people that make up the money that stylists make and are their best clients are coming from the corporate world. They're coming from the world you've been in. You don't have to pick that exact niche, but being able to speak to the experiences there, are kind of a big deal. And so that means if you spent years inside the corporate world, you are not behind stylists who came straight from fashion school, or who were buyers or wherever, or who worked in retail. You're actually closer to your clients than they are, in terms of lived experience, which especially when you are a transformational stylist, is absolutely critical, to how quickly you go past that transactional period that I talk about and into transformational. Because part of being transformational is understanding someone's world. And so you know what it means to pack for a conference, when you're presenting in the morning and you're on your feet all day and you have to go to dinner at six and you feel kind of gross, because you've been in the same clothes.

You know the specific stress of wanting to express yourself inside a dress code, without crossing the line and that costing you professionally. That's a huge thing that people think about when they're hiring a stylist. Will they be able to read the room in the context? And so I tell people that I have, you know, professional backgrounds in the corporate world, stop hiding it. I want to hear all about it. I want to hear all about the times you saw it go wrong, all the times you saw somebody's clothes impact them negatively. There is so much content, when you're just getting started as a stylist, pulling from these worlds that give you credibility and people just don't realize it. So they get stuck doing the same stupid like five jackets for spring and not realizing that most of the stylists who are doing that that have big followings are making like a ton of money in commission links, which is fine. But most little stylists just starting out or not even up and running professionally yet, don't have that ability. They can't garner those numbers. So they're doing content that doesn't make sense for them and for their numbers. Meanwhile, they're sitting on a like a gold mine, an absolute gold mine of content from their real lived experience that would get people to book them at, you know, multiple thousands of dollar packages. And like, this is why I can't stand it when stylists of all backgrounds just like decide that it has to be one way, that you can't move or act in different ways and be credible.

As a matter of fact, the more you move or act differently, the more credible you are, because everybody else just blends together. And so you actually know what business casual means. You're not out here trying to Google it like I was back in the day, because I didn't really know. And so you know what it costs to show up in a room and feel like your clothes are working against you, instead of for you. You know what that actually costs you in your life. And clients who are in that world can feel that understanding immediately either through your content or when they begin working with you. So if you're walking into, or thinking about, starting a styling business, why does none of what I'm saying feel like an advantage?

And I just want to bring you back to what we started with. You are measuring yourself against the wrong metrics. When you come into this industry, you start looking at stylists who are doing well online. That is who the algorithm serves you, when you look for professional stylists on Instagram, on TikTok, on Google, whatever. And next to looking at their output, your years of experience in conference rooms and in poorly lit office buildings feels completely irrelevant. But think about what you're doing, when you're making that comparison and you're looking down at the phone. You're holding your raw material, your potential, because you don't even have a business that's fully up and running, or maybe you don't have a business at all. You're putting that up against someone else's finished product and deciding in advance that your one day end product doesn't count, because of how it looks at its raw state now. And that's just not an accurate read on the situation. The new unfamiliar environment of being a business owner and a stylist and that whole world is making you forget what you know and how valuable what you know is.

Because most people are not going to show you how your corporate skills map onto this business, because they don't know the corporate world well enough and they don't know the world of styling well enough. So you assume they don't and instead you spend a lot of precious time, regardless of how many years you've been styling on the side, looking for things to fill a gap that probably is not the gap that you need. More research, more courses, more color analysis, more tweaking, more waiting, a different website. And the longer you wait, the bigger the leap to the thing you actually want feels. And the harder it is to go all in. And I want to just bring it back to my client, Erin. Erin spent her career as a fundraising executive at the Special Olympics before she and I worked together. As a matter of fact, I reached out to her while she was still there. She was able to take from, you know, all of her years there, the high stakes relationship work, managing donors, telling stories, asking for things that really matter to people. She was able to take all of that and build an incredible career. I mean, the things she has done are unmatched. But at the time that she started, at the time we first started talking and she was saying, is it really possible that I could charge more than $50 for a closet edit? She didn't see any of that as relevant to styling when she started.

Now, she's going around the country telling her story as a stylist on stages. I'm not going to, I didn't get her that job, so I'm not going to promise you that. But I am going to tell you that it was the way that we showed her, what she was capable of and all the ways that we took her skills and thought about who she was, as an individual and as a stylist, to build a career that allowed her those opportunities. And I can tell you that she and every other stylist I have worked with that's at her level, have had every doubt that you probably have right now. And again, I will make sure that her episode is in the show notes, because we actually talked about this in her most recent episode. But by the time that we wrapped up our first set of working together, we're working together again now. I've worked with her for many years. She had hit six figures and left her corporate job. And she wasn't starting over. She was using her skills and her abilities in a new context, in her next chapter. Again, what shifted for Erin wasn't that one day she had more skills and so she felt ready. It was that she finally had a framework and an understanding of how she could use her skill set and connect it to building her styling business. And once she saw that, she stopped discounting where she came from and started using it as her advantage. And that is one of the reasons why she has been able to get to where she is and had the unique experiences come to her. Because we didn't bury it. We actually highlighted it.

So here's what I want you to hear before you go. You know how to read people and what they aren't saying. You know how to make a case and hold your ground. You know the world your best clients in the future live in, because you have lived it. And none of that disappears when you decide to formally become a stylist or launch your styling business. If you are counting the wrong things and evidence and data towards your goals, you will never be ready to actually meet them. And the longer that goes on, the harder it gets to go all in, on a business that you keep saying you want to start. So inside my foundation program, I am going to show you how what you already have, maps onto this business that you want. And then we're going to build the structure around it, so you can actually go all in.

I have roadmaps to how much money you should have saved. You can do a more aggressive sort of sprint towards going full time. You can do a less aggressive one. Everybody has their own situation. No one's pushing you. But I want you to have a clear sense of what this should look like, before you make the leap, because you deserve that clarity and that comfort when you're doing something new. It is also a six month program. It is only for new and early stage stylists. So you're going to be with other people having the same experiences. You're going to get your client sessions handled. We're going to make sure you know how to do those in your sleep. We're going to build your sales call process. We're going to create marketing that attracts the right people from the start. And we're going to get you up and going in packages, so you can charge real money and stand behind those prices within that six months.

And what's interesting about this founding group that I'm really excited about is it's the only round where we're going to have live support twice a month and a circle group while you're actively building your business. This is the most support you will ever get for the price. If you're on the wait list, you will also get $500 off and I have just added two bonus trainings that we're going to do over the summer, before we kick off in August. The waitlist for the discount and the bonus trainings opens on April 27th. The link is in the show notes so you're going to want to get on there, because after that, it expires and it goes back to full price and there are no extra trainings.

So thank you for listening. I can't wait to hear how this lands for you. Get in my DMs over on Instagram if it resonates. And if you are still in the corporate world, tell me what you are thinking, when you want to make your move. Let's get a timeline and a date on the calendar, because if you have had the dream of being a stylist, it's probably not an accident. I'll see you next week.

Thank you so much for hanging out with me. It turns out that social proof is actually pretty important. So if you could help me out, I'd so appreciate it. If you just had a quick free moment and could leave me a rating or review on the podcast app, that would be killer. And even better, if you wanted to share this episode on Instagram and tag me, that would totally make my day and it would bring so much more awareness to the podcast and would help other stylists, just like you, who are looking to build lucrative styling business because the better each of us does, the better all of us do. Thanks for hanging out with me and I'll chat with you next time.