PODCAST SHOWNOTES

Nicole Otchy: Welcome to the Six Figure Personal Stylist Podcast, the ultimate no-BS business podcast for ambitious personal stylists ready to build a six-figure and beyond personal styling business.

You won't hear the typical snoozefest business advice that most personal stylists get told all of the time. Nope. Instead, I'll be sharing business-building strategies that will help you create a killer personal brand, a cult following of loyal personal styling clients, and make a ton of cash while creating lasting style transformations for your clients.

I'm Nicole Otchy, your host and a former personal stylist of 14 years who built a lucrative styling business in three major cities, but only after spending years trying to crack the six-figure styling business code without burning out. And now I'm here to tell you how to do exactly the same. Let's get into it.

Today's episode is an extra special one because I am joined by not only my longtime client, but my very dear friend, Erin Stoll. In today's episode, we're going to talk about how she left her six-figure corporate job in fundraising to pursue her passion for personal styling, and in the process, built a career that is as unique to the styling space as it is impactful.

Erin started her career small, helping friends with closet edits or getting ready for holiday parties like so many of us do, experimenting on Instagram and saying yes to opportunities that scared her. Step by step, she created a body of work that has grown into a full-time business. Today, she is not only a stylist with a massive audience on Instagram, she is also a movement maker, a podcast host, and now the creator and star of a live show that will be taking her message to stages across the country starting this November and into 2026.

In this conversation, we go deep into how she made her leap from corporate to personal styling full-time and how she's redefined what it means to build a career rooted in creativity, courage, and staying true to yourself. Let's dive in. Erin, thank you for being here, my love.

Erin Stoll: Hi. It's the greatest thrill of my life to be here with you. Actually, every time I get to talk to you in any capacity. Greatest thrill of my life.

Nicole Otchy: Erin is like, I used to think I had soulmate clients when I was a stylist, but then I opened this business and realized I had great clients, but Erin's a soulmate client. No question.

So let's go back to before you were who you are now with a massive audience and a successful career. When you were still working in fundraising, what did your life look like then? Where did styling or influencing—where did that all come in?

Erin Stoll: I've been thinking a lot about that lately. I don't know why. I think it's important to go back and reflect. I am so appreciative that you're asking me to come on here and share this because, like everyone, we can get really stuck in our minds of, "I'm not moving fast enough. I haven't grown." But when someone gives you the opportunity—or you give yourself the opportunity—to look back at how far you have come, it's such a gift.

This was definitely the whole styling aspect—it was like a fun side thing. I had thought about dabbling in the world of styling through blogging. That was the first way, in 2009, I think. I was like, "I'm going to start a blog." Then I researched other blogs and I was like, "Oh, other people are doing that, so I shouldn't." Number one mistake. I had very small children. I don't know what I thought I was doing. Actually, I didn’t have children yet in 2009.

Nicole Otchy: You didn’t even have kids when this started. I didn’t know that. I thought the girls were babies. Oh my gosh.

Erin Stoll: Well, when I officially started, I did. But in 2009, when I was researching, "Should this be something I dabble in—putting myself out there in a blog?" I didn’t have kids yet. But I turned 40 in 2017. That was such a favorite year of my life. Lightbulb moment. I just felt more of myself than I ever had—unapologetic.

I had this week around the holidays, because my birthday’s in late November around the holidays, where every single day friends would come over and say, "I’ve got a holiday party. I’m going on a trip. Can you help? Can I borrow something? Can you help me?" I was like, I love this. I love doing this. I love clothes. Could I just live in a closet? I mean, I’m in my closet right now as we’re talking.

I said to my friend, "Would you pay for someone to help you, like as a professional?" She was like, "Yes. You want my checkbook right now? What are you talking about? Yes."

I literally started an Instagram account called Style Thief Fashion with the help of my friend John because I wasn’t sure what to call it, whatever. I just started putting things out there. I was working a full-time job at that time. The girls were—I have two girls, they’re now 14 and 12—they were very small. But they were old enough that I had that space where it wasn’t like they were so dependent all the time.

They were in daycare. I was working full-time, but I needed this creative outlet. That is what Style Thief Fashion became. I started doing $25 closet edits with friends that I knew. My first client, Brooke—we’ve even worked together still over the years—we did a closet edit because I thought that’s what I was going to do.

We cleared out like eight bags of clothes, and it was amazing. I walked out of there thinking, "This is it. I love it." Yeah, I never would have imagined where it would be today—that this would be a full-time career that has taken many twists and turns. But I’m so glad that I had the moment of, "Let’s just see what happens if I start this thing and just one step forward."

Nicole Otchy: It’s so interesting that you say that it was friends asking you, because that’s how so many of us got started. Now, I think it’s really the first time that people are like, "Oh yeah, that’s a career." Like I see people in their 20s that are like, "Oh yeah, I knew that was a career." Most of us were like, "Is this a thing?"

Erin Stoll: I mean, the term "stylist," I used air quotes because sometimes I don’t always resonate with that title now, which we can talk about—but I mean, I thought of What Not to Wear. Those were the stylists I knew, or Hollywood stylists. I was obsessed with that show. I think so many of us were. I learned a lot about what not to do, turns out. But yeah, I didn’t know that this was something people could do for a job.

Nicole Otchy: Well, back then there really weren’t that many people. I mean, yeah. So you also have an influencing career. I really want to talk—because I’m curious. I actually don’t know this, even though I’ve known you for so many years—which sounds like styling came first technically, in terms of your own, "I want to help people." But you were also growing the Instagram account to the point that you became an influencer when you had a full-time job.

Erin Stoll: Yes. I have always seen myself as a stylist. It took me a very long time—I pushed against the influencer term hard for a long time. Even though, which I hear you talk about all the time in our work together, you coaching me on the brilliant podcast of tips and tricks and showing your own style, yes, that can be a component. But there is a fine line, and it can so easily go into, "Let me show you this outfit and link everything. Let me get brand partnerships."

It’s not that it’s bad, but I struggled—and still struggle a little bit—with not wanting to just look like an influencer, someone who’s selling clothing, but to be someone who is teaching you how to think about what you’re putting on your body and why.

So I always had—even when I was working with brands consistently—I want to educate you about this piece and why I chose it and why I was sent this thing, but I’m not keeping it. I want you to think about your style in this way. How is this thing going to function? Do you have something similar? You don’t know how to style this thing? Let me show you how I would style it.

So I do understand that a lot of people still see me as an influencer, and now I just let them. It’s like, you don’t have to be just one thing. For sure, I don’t want to be put in a box. You know, no rules. But it really did open a lot of doors for me and led me to try a lot of different things that I can carve out and create my own path in this way.

So for that, now I don’t eschew the whole thing of, "Oh, you’re just an influencer." It’s like, okay, if I am influencing you to think about your wardrobe in a different way and yourself in a different way, I’ll take that. If I’m not just influencing you to buy these shoes—if I did influence you to buy these shoes, but you’re thinking about them differently, or you looked at them and thought, "I’m going to add these to my cart," and then you thought about it and you didn’t—also a win. You know what I mean?

Nicole Otchy: You teach people to think. That has always been—I've never, with you, because Erin and I have worked together for a very long time, we’ll get into that—you’re one of the only people I have ever worked with that I have not ever thought influencing is going to be a problem.

It’s because, number one, when we started working together, influencing was very new. I was not aware that there were people making—it was more mommy influencers, which you were not. It wasn’t really looking like styling does now.

You were one of the only people that I know that ever, without any help from me, though, really took the influencing side and added your own beliefs and values. You have never, ever influenced or pushed something you didn’t believe in. In fact, I know that you have said no to things.

Lots of people now want to be a stylist so they can get free things. Lots of people actually think that being a stylist and being an influencer are the same. Lots of people think, "Well, it’s fine to call myself a stylist, even if I don’t really work with human beings, so that I can get free things." Like it’s part of the attraction.

That is not where you started. It is very, very clear in your content. I tell people all the time, if you want to see someone who does this well, go watch Erin, because you will say, "Do not just buy this. I want to teach you to think." You've created a body of work that we're going to talk about that actually backs that up.

So very few people can say they've done the amount of intellectual work to create a body of work around the idea that "I don't want you just buying crap." Most people—that's not even in their frame of reference. They're just like, where's the stuff? It's a bonus. It's fun. And it is fun.

Erin Stoll: It is. Sure. Of course.

Nicole Otchy: I wish I could do it some days. But it's not styling. So there's just that. But how did the influencing thing come to be? Because it felt like you just grew this audience back in the day when Instagram was just popping.

Erin Stoll: It was easier.

Nicole Otchy: Yeah. People just started reaching out to you.

Erin Stoll: Yeah. I mean, thinking back—really thinking back—a lot of it was because of relationships that I formed online from other creators, other women that I followed and reached out to. Because I will tell you, when I knew I wanted to become a stylist and help other people, I was like, "Who out there is doing this?"

I was Googling in Omaha, Nebraska, where I live, like, "Who else was doing this?" I found no one who I reached out to on Instagram, some people didn’t even respond or weren’t as welcoming. There just wasn’t an example of what I was trying to do that wasn’t just influencing or just styling.

But I would say just putting myself out there, and this is where showing what I did and my approach and the things I learned in getting dressed did help me get that solid point of view, get my whole philosophy solidified, and drew people to me who were like, "This feels different. We might want to work with you."

I’ll talk about ABLE, even though that relationship has gone away and completely crumbled in the worst way possible. They were one of the first brands I worked with. They were my top—like, if I could work with any brand and get paid, they were at the top of my list. No kidding, three months after I said that, they reached out for a paid partnership about doing a post about their jean jacket, which I do still love to this day. I have it literally right here.

Nicole Otchy: It was because of their values that you wanted to work with them.

Erin Stoll: It was because of their values.

Nicole Otchy: This is what I’m saying. It wasn’t because they were like the coolest guys in town. Let’s be clear.

Erin Stoll: No. So many people—small brands—many people didn’t even know who they were. But a lot of the women that I was watching and gravitated toward, who I did feel like were, yes, influencers, but had a very clear set of values, also liked this brand. They really brought me into that and said, "You should work with Erin. She really loves you."

So, I mean, those relationships have given me everything. Yes, I’ve had ideas—great, I’ll take credit where credit is due—but I also know that I did not build those things by myself. People opened doors for me, brought me in.

You are the perfect example of that. I mean, let’s do a whole podcast about how much I love you, but the relationships were key. I did not do any of that by myself.

Nicole Otchy: So you basically—what I really want people to understand about Erin is that, and again, we’re talking like 2017—full-time job in fundraising, making six figures, little kids, full life—really decided to put herself out there and just see what happens.

It wasn’t like she was like, "And then I’m going to get…" because a lot of the things that people want now, like brand partnerships and making six figures as stylists, there just weren’t examples. By you going out there and showing people, "This is what I’m wearing. This is what I’m doing," the difference between what you were doing and what people are doing now is that you weren’t thinking, "This is a way to monetize." You were thinking, "I don’t have a ton of clients. I got to show people how I think. Let me use what I have." That has always been what is impressive.

There are tons of people that still do this. But because of all the trappings that we see online of what’s possible and how you can make money easily, it becomes a thing that they want. They don’t understand that if you just get out there and try to relate to people—social media is still social—it will work. The other things are the byproducts. They’re usually the things you never imagine.

Erin Stoll: The best things are the ones that you never imagine. I mean, sure, free stuff is great—to a point. To a point. But I was working a full-time job, and yes, wife, mother, doing all the things. It’s like, "Oh, I got to do a try-on video," because it’s so easy to just be influencing and selling other people’s things instead of, as you say, sell what you do.

It’s so much easier, and it will take an incredible amount of time and energy. I mean, I would do try-ons and I would be completely exhausted after that. Then you start working with some brands that are like, "This is what we want it to look like. This is what we want you to say. If you don’t say it right, we’re going to make you rerecord it. You have to submit it ahead of time."

I’m like, this is zapping all creativity out of this thing. Now I’m only going to work with the brands that let me do it the way that I want. There are so few of those, honestly, because now so many brands are working with influencers. They want to help manipulate the messaging and the marketing, as they should.

But I was doing it at a time where—and I know it doesn’t feel like that long ago—but think how fast all this moves and changes, where they would see you. I’ll tell you, ABLE and the people I was working with at the time, they were like, "However you want to share this, however you want to do it, whenever you organically share your posting, you make so many sales."

I wasn’t even trying hard to do that. So once I felt like things weren’t aligning with brands, or it was too much like, "Well, I know you like this thing in the catalog, but we only want to send you this," and it didn’t fit me, it’s like, no, I’m not going to pretend. I cannot fake my way through these things. My audience is going to see right through this, and that’s not what I’m here to do.

So I barely work with brands now. I would say my partnerships now are more local. That was the other thing when I started too. I really—this was pre-COVID—put myself out there and wanted to speak to groups I wanted to work with. There was a small boutique that I worked with that gave me amazing opportunities to come to events. I mean, I just put myself in those places. I mean, honestly, I had never styled someone else before. You always got a first time. Well, I mean, my friends.

Nicole Otchy: Right, right, a stranger. Let’s talk about that. Let’s talk about that. But I’m trying to remember where you were in your career when we became connected. So, I’m trying to remember—you definitely had a full-time job. You were still in your full-time job, and we started following each other somehow. I don’t remember.

Erin Stoll: I think Laurel.

Nicole Otchy: Yes, who is one of the stylists, I was in a training program, we were training stylists. We were the mentors in another business program for stylists. That’s right.

Erin Stoll: She's one of the only people that I would DM and ask questions, she would respond. She was so sweet. She’s just the coolest.

Nicole Otchy: She is.

Erin Stoll: She is. Cool. I don’t remember if she mentioned you and I was following you, or I really think that you slid into my DMs.

Nicole Otchy: I did. Oh, I definitely did.

Erin Stoll: I’m going to find this. I got to go back and find this message.

Nicole Otchy: We have so many DMs. Good luck to you.

Erin Stoll: Instagram [inaudible] and screenshot that moment where you said, "I just want you to know I’ve been a stylist for many years, and I see you. I just want you to keep going."

I can’t not cry thinking about that, because I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just being myself and thinking, "I know there are other women out there like me who feel this way, and I know that I want them to see themselves in me and what I’m trying to do." And you saw that, I mean, it was like a lifeline. I was like, "Oh my god, thank you. Could you get on an hour phone call with me, and can I just ask you some questions?" And you were like, "Sure."

Nicole Otchy: Yeah. What I saw in Erin—so I was a stylist then. I was working for a company called The Paid Stylist that no longer exists. That was amazing. It gave me so many opportunities, and I would not be where I am now.

I believe I was their head of sales. I was doing all their writing. I was doing all their communications. I don’t even remember. I had signed an NDA, so I technically could not coach people. I was still in the NDA period.

I remember we were talking, and there was something about you that I was just like—I wasn’t thinking like, "Oh, I’m going to get her as a client." That was not even in my worldview. It was just sort of like, "Wow, she really cares, and she’s really doing a good job."

There are just so few people that care. I was so taken with how much you cared, and like what everybody loves about you, how incredibly real you felt. You were really one of the first people online that I was like, "Oh man, I feel like I could be her friend," which I think everyone feels about you.

And as someone that struggled with social media, I’ve always admired that about you, because I always felt like when I saw you, I knew it was you. As I got to know you more, I knew that was 100% real, and it is who it is. But it’s just not something we saw back then.

I mean, people just weren’t relating on social media in that way. You were so comfortable with it because you are also just really good on camera, and really good, you’re a performer at heart, and it was a perfect match for you. So we got on the call, on your lunch break at work.

Erin Stoll: Yeah, I remember I was sitting in the HomeGoods parking lot on my lunch break because that’s when I could do work. I mean, I would take consult calls in my car and all the things. Yeah, we sat there. I remember that conversation so clearly. You said something like, “Okay, you’re going to change your prices like seven, eight times.” I think I wasn’t even at the “It’s $350 to work with me.” The first time someone gave me $350 to work, I was like, “Oh my God, I have made it.”

You immediately started helping me relate to the psychology—not a warning—but it’s like what you’re doing is hard, deep work. When you’re working with women in their clothes, that is not just what that is. That is the most surface-level piece of this job. You’re about to go in deep. And you do care. You don’t maybe have all the skills yet, but you have the desire, and you have the natural ability to see this in people. That’s all you need.

Here’s the structure. Here are the services you could offer. Here’s how you could tier. I mean, it was such a lifeline and just a glimpse into, “Oh, this is something that could happen. This is a real thing. I can really be helping women.” It’s not just some frivolous thing. You really saw that as well.

Nicole Otchy: Yeah. It was just so rare that I saw somebody that cared so much, and I know how hard it is to be online. It’s hard. And even if you’re good at it like you are, people don’t get it. And when you don’t have people in your life, you know, people have normal jobs. Your husband’s a teacher. My husband has a normal job. People are just like, “What are you doing?”

It is a lifeline for people to know not only is this real, but there’s another human being in another part of the country doing it that’s real. And it was just very clear you were going to kill it eventually.

So I know we worked together. Then my NDA expired—or maybe it expired—and I did a little program, which I found all the PDFs to the other day.

Erin Stoll: You did?

Nicole Otchy: My husband and I were laughing at all the stuff too. Oh my gosh. We were laughing about that. He was like, “Should I save this?” I was like, “Yeah.” Then I did a little program one summer. It was the first summer I was going through IVF, I remember, and I couldn’t work. So that was a huge moment. It was a way for me to make some money. And then you went full-time. How long later did you go full-time?

Erin Stoll: Well, it was a couple of years still. I think that was 2018 we were working together that summer. And I quit my full-time job at the end of 2021. I went back to work for like two weeks in 2022, and then I was like, "I’m leaving." So 2022, 2023, 2024, I’m in my fourth year of full-time.

Nicole Otchy: And what was the moment when you realized, “Okay, this is going to work”? I know it was still scary, but when was the moment when you were like, “I’m going to leave my job. That’s it. I can do this.”?

Erin Stoll: Well, you and I were having a conversation in my car.

Nicole Otchy: Were we?

Erin Stoll: Yes, it’s you.

Nicole Otchy: We have been talking in the car for a long time, girl.

Erin Stoll: Anything I have done that’s major, Nicole has been a part of it, okay? She’s either championed it, had the idea, said, “Oh my God, yes, you need to do it.” You were a part of it.

I think because I would randomly call you and be like, “Are you still coaching? Can you talk to me? I know you’re on maternity leave. I’m thinking about doing this thing. Can we chat?” You were always like, “Yes.” So I don’t even think that’s why we got on the phone, but it led to this conversation.

You’re like, “Let’s put some pen to paper. Let’s do some math,” which I hate and don’t ever want to do. But you were like, “Okay.” Because this was slightly post-COVID. What happened was my full-time job—I was working from home. And working from home, even though I had kids who were also trying to do school, my husband was trying to teach—we did have some time on our hands. I really ramped up being online.

I would say those years of COVID are when I had some of my best years as an influencer. My brand partnerships really solidified and grew, but I had more time to devote. I had to figure out a way to really take this whole process that I had online and make it virtual, like so many of us. It started to just take on a life of its own.

I was bringing in a lot more money. I felt, the summer of 2021, I was like, "I’m at a breaking point. I either need to quit doing Style Thief altogether and focus on my full-time job, or quit my job," which I was like, “Can I do that? Can I do that?” You were like, “Let’s think about this. If you’re strategic, and you’re only able to focus on what you’re doing with your clients, imagine how you could grow. You could devote more time to it. You could be charging this.”

I was like, “Oh my God, this can work.” You said, “Yeah, this can work.” I pulled into the garage, I hung up the phone with you, and I walked in and I said to Jeremy, “I think I want to quit my job and do Style Thief full time.” He said, “I’ve been waiting for this.”

Nicole Otchy: Oh.

Erin Stoll: I get emotional again.

Nicole Otchy: This is a very emotional conversation. People don’t know how many years we have together. I just had no idea when I slid into your DMs that it would be what it is. It’s wild.

Erin Stoll: It’s so wild.

Nicole Otchy: Jeremy’s amazing. He’s a huge part of this story. It’s Erin’s husband. I love him.

Erin Stoll: He is. I know. It’s been—just people that believe in you is what—that’s all you need. If you have one person who believes in you that you can do it. Because you have to have that for yourself too, but in those moments where the world is literally falling apart, but you still want to show up for your community, for yourself, it’s hard to do that on your own. You have to have people that you can lean on.

So having Nicole, having Jeremy, having the other women in my corner is what kept me going. So we put togethe`r a plan, and Jeremy’s like, “I want you to have this much money saved by the end of the year. If you can have that saved, I say go for it.”

I mean, with my partnership with ABLE and the clients I brought on board, I hit that right before Christmas break—because at the time, when I was working for Special Olympics, one of the greatest things is we took the week between Christmas and New Year off. So you were just off, and it was great. Days before the break, I got another client, and it just put me to that exact amount that I needed.

I was like, “Jeremy, when I go back to work, I’m putting in my two weeks.” That was it.

Nicole Otchy: That was amazing. Since then—fast forward—there have been lots of packages. You’ve created a group course, you have a podcast. Like we’ve talked about, you created a body of work, in part, like we've talked about in the beginning unintentionally, it wasn’t like you were like, “Let me create a body of work that will end up being Style Thief Fashion stage show.”

But when you think back to all the different things you’ve tried, and then where you are now with the show, which we’re going to get into in a sec, did you realize you were kind of—I don’t know if you would say it this way, but I would—creating like a movement?

Erin Stoll: That’s really powerful that you said that.

Nicole Otchy: Well, you have. I mean, people are following your hashtags. You have “I love my outfit,” “Tools, not rules.” I mean, you have things that are literally trademarkable in ways that people know you—an approach to style that is not just “I have a cute outfit on,” but is truly empowerment.

Erin Stoll: That’s what I wanted, but I had no idea that’s what it would become, that that’s what was being built. No, that was not my intention. My intention was like, “Oh my God, what if I could have some money on the side and be doing this, shopping for people? How can I make shopping, which is my sport, just a thing I do all the time?”

I didn’t realize how much of a creative outlet style had been. Now I look back and talk about this in my live show and my podcast all the time. It’s like, “Oh, I was just trying to express myself all the time through my wardrobe, but also trying to stay in the rules.” You’re too big for this. You’re too old for that. You’re too young. I was really trying to stay into that, but I would push it as far as I could. No, I did not see or predict or plan any of this. It’s one of the things I do like about myself. Doors open and I’m like, "Okay, let’s go, let’s see what happens."

Nicole Otchy: It is one of the things that has been most—I mean, there are a lot of things that have been inspiring about working with you, but we have very different approaches to life. Yours is like, “Go, run with that,” and mine is like, “Wait a sec, where’s the plan?”

Erin Stoll: That’s why you’re so good for me. You’re like, “What’s the plan?” and I’m like, “I don’t know.”

Nicole Otchy: And I often channel Erin when I’m like, “I gotta go on Instagram stories and I don’t have a plan.” I’m like, “Just get talking, get on there.” I want to make it clear though, because I think it’s easy for people to listen and think, “Oh, okay, I’ll just do whatever and it will work out and whatever.” But there are a lot of hard moments and a lot of moments where you had to do things you did not want to do.

Things that weren’t just following the creativity all the time. There were a lot of times where you had to do things that were—I mean, we built a program that was not particularly fun or easy but ended up having great results. There were lots of things that were not easy, but you kept going. I think I want people to just know that. What are examples of that that you look back on and you’re like, “Oh, that was hard, but I’m glad I did it”?

Erin Stoll: I mean, really working with you and having to look at, “What is this process that women are going through? What are the components of that? How is yours different?” That was a hard question to answer. I appreciate so much when you talk about that because, when you think about what we do, I mean, essentially, we’re all going to be shopping at some point. We’re all going to be getting in a woman’s closet and saying, “Let’s rethink this X.”

But what makes you different and still bringing your uniqueness and your personality to that—every time I would try to put myself, “Look more like this person,” and work on the graphics and the visuals and the blah blah blah. Not that you don’t need those things—you do—but don’t lose your secret sauce, what makes you special.

It’s hard. You ask really hard questions, which are really good. When we worked together through the Wing Woman for a year, I mean, some of those questions, I was like, “I’m sweating. I don’t know how to answer these.” You wanted to look at numbers. I was like, “Please don’t make me.” It was like, yes, you can be creative, but there are things you can look back on.

And what was great was you were always like, “You can stop doing this thing.” I barely do closets. I don’t ever start with them. I barely do them. It’s part of the process that naturally occurs now with my clients. When you get more clarity, you’re like, “This is not me, taking it out, but I don’t stand alone doing that anymore.” I hated them.

And now, as I’ve gotten further along in this work, there are other aspects that I hate. I came to you at one point, and I was like, “I am so overwhelmed by shopping for people. I will spend hours doing it till my eyes are bleeding and I can’t handle it anymore.” You were like, “Let’s figure out a way for you to fix that. How can I help?”

So the permission to let go of, even though other stylists may be doing it, you don’t have to do that, or you don’t have to do that in the way that everyone else is doing it, those were hard things to admit. But you were always like, “Okay, great. You don’t want to do that. Let’s figure out how we’re going to make this work in another way.”

Nicole Otchy: The thing about you that’s always been so incredible, that I wish I could clone, is that you were really never willing to leave yourself behind in the process. What’s really hard as a consultant and coach for stylists is, I can’t give that to people. If you’re going to keep self-abandoning—not that we don’t do that in different ways—but if you’re going to keep saying, “Well, what about this person? What about that person?” I can never get you to focus on what’s going to make you great.

I can give you a strategy, but strategy is not what makes it magical. It’s you taking the strategy and applying it to you in the way that works, and your willingness to be honest. I mean, we had a very long relationship, to be fair. Erin has helped me through a lot of things, in motherhood. We’ve been in this for a long time, so our ability to be honest with each other is probably a little bit deeper than most.

But I think the fact that you were willing to say, “Is there a way to do this?” Then it’s like, okay, we’ll look at the numbers, which nobody likes. I don’t like it either. It makes me sick to my stomach. That’s why I have an accountant. But I need to do it so that I can know what I don’t have to do. So I can give myself permission, and I can see, am I worrying about this unnecessarily? Do I have to worry about this? Fine. How can I make it as palatable to deal with as possible?

Erin Stoll: Yes. Yeah. I mean, I want to keep going, and I am willing to leave things behind. That’s something I have learned. I’m willing to leave some things behind. I mean, I was in the Mini Minds for a while and came to you at the end of the summer last year. I was like, “I don’t really want to do one-on-one styling anymore.” I was crying, and I was like, “I don’t think I should be in the Mini Mind because every woman there is so committed and wanting to do this. I feel like every time I talk, it’s about some other thing that doesn’t…” You were like, “Welcome to your leveling up. This is a new adventure. Great.”

Nicole Otchy: You thought I was going to be so upset. That was when I was like, “Finally, now I don’t have to have this conversation with her.” Because I was actually thinking, “All right, I have to pull her aside and touch her.” Not because you were not welcome in the Mini Mind, everybody loves you.

I have an established client program that people don’t even know about, so Erin just spilled the tea. But I have a second—no, it’s fine, it’s fine, it’s not a secret—it’s me. So I had a very small Mini Mind of women who were getting to six figures or at six figures. Erin was in there, and we were all really focusing on tightening up our messaging. It was a lot of sales stuff.

She was like, “Yeah, I really don’t want to do one-to-one anymore.” I was like, “Yeah, I figured that was coming. I was wondering when we were going to have the conversation.” But you never want to preempt a client’s decisions like that, so you just have to keep an open channel.

So, in that time, that is the perfect segue to how in the world did the Style Thief Fashion live show come to be? The people want to know, my darling.

Erin Stoll: That, again, was a relationship that I had—from someone way back in my high school past who had reached out to me in 2023 to do a show because someone they had cast had dropped out. Billy is his name, and he and I had done—it’s this musical Godspell, okay? I’m a theater nerd. Fine, I’m not afraid to admit it.

We had done that show together in high school in 1994, and he’s like, “Hey, crazy idea, but we have this show. The rehearsals start on Monday.” This was a Thursday. “Could you step in and do it?” My husband was like, “If you don’t do this show, I’ll—like, you have to.” Because he sees too that this creative style thing I’ve been doing, that was my creative outlet, was now my job.

Okay, well, you still need a creative outlet. If you’re a creative person, you don’t stop singing or acting or painting, whatever. I have really had to make time for those things in my life as well because I need that creative fuel. Those things definitely create sparks in your business too.

So we rekindled this relationship, and he has a production company. He has a show that he travels with his brothers, and it’s like a Beatles review show. It’s amazing. They build the show wherever they go based on requests. Everyone has a Beatles song that brings back some memory, so every night the show is different.

He’d say, “Erin’s requesting this song because it brings back this memory for her.” It’s amazing what they have built. They don’t dress up like the Beatles, but their father was really involved in helping them have a love for music, and the Beatles were the foundation.

All of this, I’m telling you because he came to me one day and was like, “I created this show.” He’s been very successful; they tour all over the place. He’s like, “I think the idea of what we have done with Yesterday and Today is something that you could do with what you do on Instagram. You need a live show.”

I was like, “What are you talking about?” Then immediately I was like, “Oh my God, yes, I do. I see it.” He’s like, “Every day on Instagram, you’re sharing some anecdote, you’re helping people, you’re sharing a funny story, you sing sometimes, you are just so much of your performer personality, and you’re helping women think of themselves and their style in a different way. What if we put that on a stage and people wrote down their questions and you brought them up and you said, ‘Well, here, let’s put on this jacket and roll up the sleeves.’ You do this magic, and then it’s a fun night out.”

I was like, “Yes, yes, I have a playlist in my head. I see it.” So that’s how it started. I did my first show here in Omaha last August, and it was literally—every single detail went exactly the way I wanted. I lay in bed that night, and I was like, “I’m changing everything about it. That was great. Completely revising it. It’s going to be more me.”

A month afterwards, they came to me and said, “We would love to represent you. We have relationships with theaters all over the country. This is a unique show. We would love to take it on the road.” That’s what we’re doing.

Nicole Otchy: When is it? Tell everybody what cities you’re going to be in. I’m so excited. When?

Erin Stoll: The first show is here in Omaha again, at a different venue called The Slowdown. If you're from here, you know that's one of the coolest concert venues. I'm very excited to do that show there because I am very passionate about music. There's so much music infused in this show, like soundtracks, nostalgia. If you're a woman my age, I'm 47, there's going to be some Whitney Houston. Just the vibe and the fun. I want every woman to walk in there like, “Oh my God, this is the most fun girls’ night I've ever had.” You're going to walk out thinking, “Oh my God, I can take on the world and I can also wear whatever the hell I want.”

So we're starting in Omaha again to kick it off. Then next year we're visiting six cities. Only three have been announced so far. So there's a show in Torrance, California, Parker, Colorado—what's the other one that's out there? Oh my God, I should have had this more prepared. It's on my website.

Nicole Otchy: Okay, awesome.

Erin Stoll: But there are six cities total so far. Oh, Elgin, Illinois. So outside of Chicago, which I'm thrilled about because I used to live in Chicago. It's amazing. These are just different spaces that we can go into and bring a unique experience—a show that combines a little stand-up feel, because I'm going to share some of my stories and how I even developed this point of view with style and this philosophy.

But then practical advice—bringing women up on stage, get vulnerable. “Tell me what you're struggling with. What feels hard? Is it jeans? Is it sizing? What is it? Let's fix it right then and there.” Because if you're willing to stand up and do that, you know other women have that same question. We're all in this together. So how can I take what I do on Instagram with clients in their closets one-on-one and make it that much bigger with a cool soundtrack and some merch and fun drinks?

Nicole Otchy: Oh, I'm so obsessed. I can't wait to see it. Question as we wrap up, what advice would you give to a stylist who really wants to grow their business, have it support them full-time, but feels stuck?

Erin Stoll: I think you got to keep going and examine—which is an exercise you had me do, and I do this frequently with so many things in my life, not just my work—what is giving you energy? What do you feel pulled to want to do? What is feeling hard? Not that there aren't aspects of it—at some point, you might really be in the mood to shop for someone, you might not that day, but it's part of the job, right?

What are the things that you can do? Ask for help, hire an assistant. I would say that’s the one thing: bring in reinforcements sooner than you think you can. That's why you need to charge what you need to charge, because you need help.

Nicole Otchy: If you knew what it took, you would be charging more.

Erin Stoll: And work with Nicole, listen to her podcast, get a coach. You are a coach. You're coaching women. Coaches need coaches. I don't ever want to work with someone who does not have a coach or a mentor of some kind.

Nicole Otchy: [Inaudible] suspect, I think. [Inaudible]

Erin Stoll: Yeah, I do not know everything. I do feel like an expert in a lot of ways, but I'm not afraid to say, “I'm not sure.” This is a growth area for me. I always want to be changing and growing. So how are the ways that you can get that support so that you can keep going?

And just show up. Just show up. If you're using Instagram, if you're using TikTok, please do not censor yourself. Please do not try too hard. Sure, there's an algorithm. Sure, there are hashtags. I don't know how to use them, sometimes maybe, sometimes I don't. I think getting yourself out there is so important.

I don't think you have to do it every single day. I don't think you always have to look amazing. But let people see you. Because that’s what we're doing, right? We talk all the time, Nicole, about women showing up and letting themselves be visible. If you aren't willing to do that, how can you ask other women to do that in your work?

So just put it out there. You can go to my Instagram page and look at all the trash, weird-ass stuff I've put out. It's not actually trash. As long as you are creating and you keep going, you're going to learn something every single time, which is what I tell my clients about their clothes. Let it get weird. Let it get weird on Instagram and in your marketing. If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. You pivot and you try something else.

It's actually not a mistake. It's actually not a failure. The only thing that's a mistake is sitting inside your house, Googling things to say or what to do or looking at what other people are doing and trying to match that instead of just getting it out there. That's what I would say. That's going to move you forward more than anything else.

Nicole Otchy: From that conversation we've had today, it seems like all the opportunities that you've had are ones you couldn't have dreamed of. So it's like, you try to plan out your whole career, but it's the showing up that leads to the magic. Yes, you do need to have some plan because you're helping people and you're leading people and you need to make sure that they're getting a good experience. But a lot of the opportunities we talked about today did not come through you orchestrating them. They came through you just being you and being committed to that.

Even if we had to have conversations about what changed, even if it felt like we were throwing things out that we worked hard on, it was like, but you got to stay true to you.

Erin Stoll: Yeah. You're not for everybody. You're not. I still struggle with that sometimes too. I fall into the trap. I do so much from my closet. This closet is a mess. But I know where everything is. It does get to a point where I'm like, “Fix this.” But I would not want to show this for so long if it wasn't totally cleaned up. I was like, “No, this does not mean that I can't help someone with their wardrobe. This does not mean that I don't know what I'm doing because it doesn't aesthetically look pleasing to everyone else.”

This is how I live my life. Sometimes I'm messy. But is your closet messy when you're trying to get ready in the morning and you have every single pair of pants on the floor? Yeah, it is. So let's show it how it is. I'm not going to ask you to change that about yourself. I'm trying to make it easier for you so that it doesn't get that way. But the reality is sometimes it is messy, and sometimes it's not. But that doesn't mean that you can't still show up.

Nicole Otchy: So what many of you may not know about Erin is that she is very much responsible for being the catalyst for me starting this business. Number one, because she was such an important and pivotal client, and because it was really through working with her that I felt very confident in my ability to help other stylists make a certain amount of money, leave full-time jobs, do that.

Because she was so incredibly vocal about the work we had done together, lots of stylists started to come to me during my maternity leave. I was still a stylist, and we had lunch in the summer right after a year after I had my daughter. She was in New York, and I told her I was closing down my business, and she was surprised. But I don't recall a lot of that conversation because I was still in mommy brain. So Erin and I are talking about that, and she's going to tell me what happened because I don't remember.

Erin Stoll: Yeah, this was the first time we met in person, by the way. We had never met yet in person. My husband teaches theater, and every other summer we go to New York City and take a group of students, see Broadway shows, blah blah blah. I was like, “Hey, I'm not going to go to the Statue of Liberty again. Nicole lives there. We're going to meet up.”

So I skipped sightseeing, and we met for lunch. It was like, you know that thing where you’ve never been in the same room as a person, but you pick up where you left off?

Nicole Otchy: Oh yeah, we've talked for years.

Erin Stoll: So she tells me, “You know, I'm going to close my business,” and I was like, “Oh.” At first I know that I was like, “Well, you're a mom,” and you were like, “That's not the only reason.” And I was like, “Yeah, I get that too.”

I love my kids, but I was like, sure, this is an aspect of my life, but this isn’t like—you know. And I was like, I think I said, "Well, can I still call you?” In this desperate way, like, “Oh, you're not a stylist anymore, but can you still help me?” And she was like, “Well, yeah, of course.” And I said, “Maybe that's what you should do, coach other stylists.”

And I'm not sure if those were the exact words, but I was like—

Nicole Otchy: You said, “Why don’t you do that? Why don’t you do that?” I remember my recoil. I was like, “Absolutely not. No.” You were like, “But why?” And I was like, “The industry is a mess.”

Erin Stoll: I was like, “Well, who can fix it? You.” Because Nicole is the person who's like, “I don't understand why people aren't doing this. I don't understand why people aren't doing that.”

I was like, “Yeah, I don't. Yes, why are we doing that? How come it has to be this way? What's the deal?” So when she said, “I don't want to be a stylist anymore,” I was like, “Girl, I understand.”

Because all of you who are listening know you've done it enough, that you're on this podcast to know this is so hard. This is so hard. At some point, something is going to change for you. I knew Nicole had all this knowledge. No one helped me see the potential in this job, that this could be a career like her. So I was, I was like, "Well, why don't you just tell us how to fix it?" Then I don't know how many months later you were like, "Hey."

Nicole Otchy: Yeah, I think it was about six.

Erin Stoll: Yeah, maybe like the next spring or something.

Nicole Otchy: I mean, when I told you that, I was still actively styling. I still had retainers. I still had clients I was working with. I'd slowed down a little. I didn’t slow down when I had my daughter. I was supposed to take—that’s what it was. I had my daughter, literally taking client texts in labor.

It was like I was out of the business. It was just massive by the time I moved to New York, and I knew that it wasn’t my daughter, my daughter had full-time childcare. I was never planning on not working. It was my relationship with it that just felt complete. It was almost like I had gotten what I needed out of it.

And it was also about the time—and I’ve talked about this on the podcast—where it was after COVID and there were so many people trying to sell stylists on a dream of making six figures from their couch. It like personally felt offensive. I thought, "How will I ever convince people of what it’s actually going to take with all of the messaging out there?" It had just exploded from COVID.

Something about COVID really made people think, “Let me leave my job to be a stylist.” Influencing was big. There was a lot of confusion about what was what. I thought, "How will I ever break through the noise and get people to listen to me if they knew how much it took?"

It almost felt like the job got harder to convince people, right? Like, I had to compete with this thing. But then I thought about you. I thought about [Asima,] who’s going to be on the podcast. I thought about all the things that styling gave me and how it wasn’t about escaping styling. In many ways, I was at the top of my career. I could have done so much.

It was just like, it was done. It was like you love someone, but like you’re not in love with them anymore. That’s what it was. It was like there was something else, but I did not know what it was. When I thought about that conversation over and over that I had with you, I was like, "I’m drawn to that conversation."

And I also knew that if I was going to do this the way I wanted to, which was to redefine the industry, to actually fight what I saw happening, I would have to leave. Because it wouldn’t be in integrity to say, “I’m going to give you the tools to be the best.” That’s my goal. I want the best stylists in the world coming out of the trainings that I do.

I want them to be making the most massive impact on other human beings so that they can make the biggest impact if I was still in the game. Because why would you believe me if I was doing it as your "competition"? It just always hit me as off.

But my old podcast is still up, and all of that stuff is up to show like, I did it. You can go listen to me doing it badly many times. But I can’t be in it and give you what you need. So that was what I struggled with. I didn’t know what in that conversation, and Erin was the person, the catalyst.

Then I think six months later, I told her, "Okay, I’m going to do it." I talked to her husband. I told no one. I had too many drinks on New Year’s and started an Instagram account, and you were my first follower.

Erin Stoll: That just makes me want to cry. It makes sense. It all makes sense. Just like leaving that little nugget there, and then you coming to this is what it is. I am in awe of you. I’m in awe of you. People don’t come to me anymore. For a while, there’ll be, “I think I want to get into this.” They just go to you. Like, I know it’s because this is what I would say: “How do I get started? Talk to Nicole.”

Nicole Otchy: You’re so sweet.

Erin Stoll: You have to. You are changing it for all of us. You have done it. You have done it. You have changed the industry. You have changed the game. You don’t let us off easy. You aren’t shy about saying, “This is how hard it is.” You tell the truth. You give us tremendous grace to be who we are or to, like I said, let go of the things that aren’t working.

You always say there’s not just one way to be a stylist. In the moments where I want to give up or I think I’m not doing a good job, I’m like, "I can pave my own way. I can try this. What if I have this crazy show that I get to do a couple of times, and what could that lead to or not? There’s not one right way to do this." This is what fuels me. Nicole said I could. So I’m going to.

Nicole Otchy: So proud of you. Thank you for being part of all of this.

Erin Stoll: I’m proud of you. I am. I will go to the ends of the earth for you to tell you what you have meant to me, what you have done for me. I have seen it in the other stylists that you have worked with, some that I know really well, some that just reach out and say, “I know you’ve worked with Nicole.” Oh my God, you know?

It’s incredible to me, and we just need more people out there like you. So thank you. Thank you for showing up and being there for all of us.

Nicole Otchy: I love you guys. There’s nothing else. I was meant for it, and I didn’t know. So thank you for being the nudge for that.

Erin Stoll: It’s okay to figure that out in your 40s, right?

Nicole Otchy: Well, man, everybody I know that’s killing the game is in their 40s right now. So I believe that it is. I do think age has something to do with that. I don’t think it was a coincidence that I turned 40, had my daughter, and all of a sudden, you and I had been working together, the amount of people that reached out to me because of my own podcast to train them. I didn’t see that.

What was weird is you and I had that lunch, I had emails and DMs coming in all the time from that podcast. I mean, to think that this is like, I wake up every day with such a mission, and to think that it was like, “What is she even talking about sitting across from me at lunch saying this?” It’s wild. And so that’s what I’m saying—you never know. You never know. You don’t.

Erin Stoll: So you were 40.

Nicole Otchy: Yeah, I was 40 when I started, and you gave me that push. So look at how full circle.

Erin Stoll: Oh.

Nicole Otchy: God, I can’t. This is the best episode ever.

If you’ve already built a six-figure styling business but you’re starting to realize that the strategy that got you here isn’t the one that will take you where you want to go next, you’re not alone. You’re probably ready to step away from the hustle-and-grind schedule that built your success but nervous to lose the momentum you’ve worked so hard for.

The truth is your strategy will have to evolve to reach your next level, but that doesn’t mean throwing away everything you’ve built. Inside my one-to-one Creative CEO Coaching and Consulting package, I help established stylists at six figures evolve from successful service providers into thought leaders, rewriting the identity, systems, and strategy that support their long-term growth. Book a discovery call through the link in the show notes to learn more.

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.