The Six Figure Personal Stylist Podcast | Build and Grow Your Styling Business

I recently worked with a stylist who spent $8,000 on a complete rebrand. New website, custom logo, photoshoot, the works. She'd already been in business for several years, and in the six months after that rebrand, she didn't get a single new client inquiry. The problem was that her messaging wasn't clear, and she'd spent thousands of dollars trying to fix something that a new website was never going to solve.

I've been having a lot of conversations lately with stylists who have invested in their businesses and feel like they have very little to show for it. I understand why they're hesitant to spend more money, but I also know that avoiding investments altogether isn't going to help them build the businesses they want. There are things absolutely worth spending money on, and there are things I wouldn't touch until some other pieces of the business are working.

In this episode of The Six Figure Personal Stylist Podcast, I'm walking you through where I'd spend my money if I were building my styling business today. We'll look at the investments I'd prioritize, which ones I'd hold off on, and what needs to be in place for those investments to actually pay off. Because spending more money on your business won't necessarily help you grow if you're spending it on the wrong things.

1:03 – Why I'm bringing this episode back for stylists who've made investments that didn't pay off

3:39 – The stylist who spent $8,000 on a rebrand and got zero new client inquiries

5:36 – Why you don't need to spend thousands on branding or a website to look professional

7:59 – The problem with investing in ads and visibility before you know what converts

10:04 – What stylists should consider before paying for PR and media placements

12:55 – Why more website traffic from SEO doesn't necessarily mean more styling clients or income

16:39 – Where I'd invest first, starting with understanding your ideal clients and their needs

17:15 – Building styling services around your clients instead of copying other stylists' offers

18:26 – Pricing your styling services based on value and the results you deliver

19:30 – The sales skills you need before investing in more marketing

21:29 – When I'd invest in branding, photography, copywriting, and administrative support

22:26 – Where PR, SEO, Pinterest, and AI search fit into my investment priorities

24:06 – The cost of continually investing in the wrong things beyond the money you spend

Mentioned In Where I'd Spend My Money If I Were Building My Styling Business Today

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Something I learned over 14 years as a personal stylist is that you can attract someone who looks like your ideal client on paper and still have a frustrating experience working together. I think we underestimate how much influence we have over who hires us and how they show up once we're working together.

There are things we do in our own businesses that set the tone for those relationships, sometimes without even realizing it. Your marketing can communicate the values and characteristics you're looking for in a client long before they ever get on a sales call with you. That conversation is another opportunity to establish your expertise and make sure you're both clear about what working together will look like. By the time you're actually styling someone, you've already had several opportunities to set the expectations that can make the experience better for both of you.

In this episode of The Six Figure Personal Stylist Podcast, I'm sharing three things you can start doing right away to attract more of the right clients and keep them. I'll walk you through how to use your marketing, sales conversations, and client experience to set clearer expectations, communicate what you value, and help clients become more active partners in the styling process.

1:02 – Two things new and aspiring personal stylists can take from this episode

2:02 – The connection between attracting the right clients and building repeat business

4:49 – Using your marketing to attract clients who share your values and expectations

9:15 – What your styling business marketing needs to communicate to help people decide to hire you

11:59 – An example of using client stories to encourage better communication

15:29 – The characteristics to highlight in your marketing to attract ideal styling clients

23:35 – Screening questions that help you determine whether a potential styling client is a good fit

26:29 – Positioning yourself as the expert during a styling discovery call

27:34 – Assessing whether a client is ready to invest their time and money in personal styling

31:16 – The role of communication and client processes in maintaining great styling relationships

34:16 – Setting realistic expectations for the styling process, especially with virtual clients

36:51 – Establishing communication channels and response times that help clients feel comfortable reaching out

38:06 – Learning from difficult client experiences and improving your business processes

Mentioned In How to Attract the Right Clients as a Personal Stylist

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There’s a point in your styling business where you start thinking about what comes next. You’ve built a client base, you know people will pay you for your expertise, and you’re ready to grow. So naturally, you start paying closer attention to people who have already achieved some of the things you want. You look at how they run their businesses, how they show up, and the decisions they’ve made along the way. And before you know it, you’re questioning things about yourself and your business that you were perfectly confident about before.

I caught myself doing exactly this while preparing to co-host The Next Era of Personal Styling in New York City. I started wondering whether I needed to change how I presented myself to be taken seriously at this next level of my business. The funny thing is, when I stopped to consider some of the things I thought I should be doing, I realized I didn't actually want them. I had gotten so caught up in what success looked like for other people that I was losing sight of what I wanted to build.

In this episode of The Six Figure Personal Stylist Podcast, I’m talking about what happens when your business grows into territory you haven’t experienced before and you start looking outside yourself for answers about what comes next. I’m sharing how I caught myself doing exactly that, what it made me reconsider about my own definition of success, and why the next version of your styling business might require you to trust your own judgment more than you expected.

2:43 – Looking to other business owners for instructions on who you're supposed to become

3:41 – Recognizing when you've outgrown your current styling business

4:28 – The difference between learning from others and copying their success

5:38 – Getting clear on what you actually want from your business

7:13 – The version of success Nicole realized she didn't want

8:44 – Questioning your assumptions about what success should look like

10:52 – What you overlook in your own business when you're focused on others

11:17 – The importance of mentorship and discernment as your business grows

12:32 – Reaching your next level without losing who you are

13:39 – Recognizing opportunities you're ready for, even when you didn't plan for them

Mentioned In You Don't Have to Become Someone Else to Reach Your Next Level

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When every new month depends on finding brand-new clients, it’s very hard to create consistency in your styling business. You can have a great month, do really good work, and still look at the next month wondering where the next round of clients is going to come from. One of the places I see stylists leave a lot of opportunity on the table is with the people who have already hired them, already trust them, and already know what it’s like to work together.

My client Julia Nauer has spent the last year making repeat clients a much bigger part of her business, and they now account for roughly 30 to 40 percent of her revenue. What I like about her story is that this wasn’t the result of one giant change. She got clearer about how clients could continue working with her, became more willing to reach back out instead of waiting for people to come back on their own, and kept working on the smaller things that made the business feel more consistent overall.

In this episode of The Six Figure Personal Stylist Podcast, Julia and I talk about the changes she’s made since joining the Income Accelerator Mentorship last fall and the role repeat clients have played in creating more consistency. We also get into what she’s learned about marketing, visibility, and treating the business more like a business as she continues to grow.

2:35 – Where Julia’s styling business was when inconsistent income pushed her to rethink her marketing

4:21 – How motherhood helped Julia put more structure around her schedule and client work

5:52 – The changes that helped Julia create more consistency and increase her repeat client rate

7:17 – Reaching back out to past clients instead of waiting for them to come back on their own

9:10 – Why Julia was overthinking her marketing and what helped her simplify the way she talks to clients

11:37 – The smaller changes Julia made over time instead of rebuilding her entire styling business

13:15 – Expanding visibility beyond social media through speaking, TV, and in-person opportunities

16:34 – Separating herself from the business and taking client responses less personally

18:01 – Building a styling business around the flexibility Julia wanted as a mom

22:42 – Where Julia wants to take her styling business next as she continues to grow

Mentioned In Getting More Repeat Clients in Your Styling Business with Julia Nauer

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There’s a point in your styling business where you’ve already proven that you can do this. You’ve had paying clients, you’ve had good months, people have referred you, and you know there are people who want what you do. Then revenue gets quiet again and suddenly you’re back wondering what changed.

That’s usually when the questions start. Do you need a bigger audience? Is something off with your offer or your pricing? Should you be marketing differently? You can spend a lot of time trying to answer those questions without ever really understanding what’s happening between someone finding you, becoming a client, and eventually coming back to work with you again.

In this episode of The Six Figure Personal Stylist Podcast, I’m taking you inside how I look at that problem by walking you through the business of a fictional stylist who is a mashup of people I’ve worked with over the years. I’m showing you what I would actually pay attention to before I told her to change anything, and how I think about the different parts of a styling business when the income isn’t as consistent as you want it to be.

2:11 – Meet Sarah and the inconsistent styling business Nicole is using as a case study

4:08 – Why follower count feels like the obvious problem

7:38 – What Nicole looks at before telling a stylist to grow her audience

9:43 – The difference between having business information and understanding it

10:03 – What past clients can tell you about who you should build around

11:56 – The math behind Sarah’s $125,000 revenue goal

14:37 – How Nicole evaluates offers, pricing, and client experience

15:40 – Why established stylists struggle to know what to fix first

16:45 – How a busy season can hide bigger problems in your styling business

18:24 – What happens when feelings start driving business decisions

20:57 – Why one disappointing post is not enough data to change the plan

23:12 – Recognizing the patterns that make you abandon the plan

25:21 – Why more information is not the missing piece

26:27 – How to prioritize what actually needs attention in your styling business

Mentioned In What If You Already Have Enough People to Grow Your Styling Business

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A client can genuinely want the transformation they hired you for and still struggle with what participating in that transformation actually requires. They can want to feel better in their clothes, feel more confident, and have a wardrobe that reflects who they are now. You can believe them when they say they want all of that, and still get to a point where wanting the outcome runs into the reality of what the process asks of them.

Styling stops feeling like “just clothes” pretty quickly when someone has to put those clothes on their body and walk out into the world looking different than they have for years. When a client starts struggling with that, it’s easy to assume you need to explain it better, find more options, spend more time, or figure out the thing that will finally make the decision easier. Sometimes there is something in your process that needs to change. Before you know it, though, you’ve taken responsibility for a part of the work that belongs to the client.

In this episode of The Six Figure Personal Stylist Podcast, I’m talking about how a clear process helps you understand what is actually happening when client work starts to go off track. It gives you something to come back to so you can see what you need to improve, where your client may need more support, and when you’re starting to do somebody else’s part of the work for them.

3:10 – Wanting a transformation versus having the capacity to participate in it

4:43 – When styling stops feeling like “just clothes”

6:27 – The client’s role in transformational styling

7:31 – Why a struggling client can make you feel like you need to do more

8:35 – How systems support client transformation

9:47 – Creating emotional safety through a clear process

11:21 – Using your process to understand what went wrong

12:34 – Where your responsibility ends with a client

15:38 – How this same pattern shows up in your styling business

18:07 – Wanting a different business versus participating in building it

21:12 – The peace of mind a good process gives you

Mentioned In Your Client’s Transformation Can’t Rely on You Doing More

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When an existing client comes back to work with you, do you already know what makes sense to recommend next? Or are you figuring it out in real time based on what they ask for, what they might say yes to, or what feels easiest to sell them?

You can get very good at getting clients and doing great work while still building your business one transaction at a time. And if every client relationship essentially ends when that transaction is over, you’re constantly going back out to replace people you’ve already worked with. That’s how you can have a strong month and still feel like you’re starting over again when the next one begins.

In this episode of The Six Figure Personal Stylist Podcast, I’m talking about what happens when you don’t have a clear client lifecycle, why that can leave your revenue feeling unpredictable, and what changes when you start using everything you already know about your established clients to lead what comes next.

2:11 – Building a styling business when you’re new versus running one once you’re established

3:11 – Getting stuck making the next transaction work instead of building for consistent income

4:52 – The context you gain after working with a client and the value most stylists underestimate

6:11 – Existing clients come back and stylists slip into reactionary mode instead of leading the experience

8:16 – Your judgment is more valuable than a longer list of styling services

10:01 – Selling to someone who already trusts you compared with constantly finding new clients

11:49 – A retail background can be a competitive advantage until the sale starts driving the recommendation

12:36 – Sometimes the best thing you can tell a repeat client is that they don’t need to shop

14:54 – Your marketing teaches people what kind of relationship they can have with you

16:42 – Look at your last 10 clients and what happened after the initial work was done

17:24 – Established stylists trying to solve established business problems with beginner-level solutions

19:46 – Refining the business you’ve already built to get where you want to go next

Mentioned In Why You’re Starting Over in Your Styling Business Every Month

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Menswear is still one of the most underserved areas of personal styling. Abbey Page saw that gap before she ever styled her first client, partly through her own experiences dating and partly from hearing friends talk about men showing up for dates looking completely mismatched for the occasion. Once she started paying attention, she realized how few resources there were for men who wanted help with how they dressed.

Abbey built her entire styling business around that market, and what she’s learned working with men complicates a lot of the assumptions stylists have about them as clients. They may talk more openly about efficiency, a promotion, dating, or getting a return on their investment upfront, but that doesn’t mean the work stays on the surface. Abbey sees plenty of anxiety, insecurity, and identity shifts once her clients trust her enough to talk about what’s really going on.

In this episode of The Six Figure Personal Stylist Podcast, Abbey and I talk about what it takes to build a menswear styling business, how she strengthened her offers and sales process after leaving her corporate job to go full time, and what she’s learned about selling and marketing personal styling to men. We also talk about her frustration with feeling like running a business requires becoming a content creator and why she’s found a different way to market that works for her.

1:13 – Abbey’s path from corporate work to personal styling

2:48 – Spotting the gap in the market for menswear styling

5:16 – Leaving corporate and going full time in her styling business

9:59 – Pricing based on comfort instead of what the business needed

10:59 – Working with male clients in person and the safety question

12:05 – Marketing personal styling to men as a woman

13:13 – The sales psychology differences Abbey sees with male clients

14:52 – Abbey’s biggest improvements in her sales process

17:53 – The sales-call analogy that changed Abbey’s mindset

18:30 – Using Threads to market her styling business

19:21 – In-person styling versus virtual client work

21:27 – The life transitions that lead men to hire a stylist

22:38 – Giving men their own space in personal styling

24:27 – Recognizing when a sales call is still a win

25:32 – More confidence in her offers and sales process

26:31 – Finding a marketing approach that actually fits

28:58 – The opportunities Abbey is excited to explore next

Mentioned In What It Takes to Build a Menswear Styling Business with Abbey Page

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You know you need to raise your prices. You also probably know exactly which clients you’re afraid of losing when you do it. Maybe they’ve been with you for years, you genuinely enjoy working with them, and raising your prices starts to feel personal, like you’re doing something to those clients.

The problem is that if you’re already busy, staying at the same price means you have to keep the same amount of work coming in to make the money you need. And if you’re already working too much, there isn’t a lot of room left to go. Add in the belief that charging more means you’ll need to give clients even more, and it makes sense that changing your prices can start to feel much bigger than changing a number.

In this episode of The Six Figure Personal Stylist Podcast, I’m talking about why staying in your head about pricing usually makes the problem bigger and what you need to understand about the business you’re already running before you make the next move. Because sometimes the price is the issue, and sometimes it’s just the most obvious sign that you’ve outgrown other parts of the business.

2:12 – Why raising your prices feels so personal when you’re thinking about current clients

3:05 – Jessica raising her prices by thousands of dollars and what her existing clients said

6:31 – What happens when you stay at a price you already know is unsustainable

8:38 – The fear that charging more means you’ll have to give clients more

11:04 – Looking at the business underneath your pricing before you change the number

12:45 – When customizing everything starts creating problems in your client experience

15:45 – How Liza changed her offers and client experience before raising her prices

19:15 – What to look at if people really are pushing back on your new price

21:15 – What to review before you pick a new price

22:06 – How Income Accelerator helps established stylists work through pricing and the business around it

Mentioned In What’s Making It Hard to Raise Your Prices as a Personal Stylist

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Personal styling is changing, and technology and AI are becoming a bigger part of how people discover services, work, and do business. There’s a lot of anxiety about what that could mean for stylists, but there’s also a much bigger conversation to have about what technology could actually make possible for this industry.

Megan Wright and Kaitlin Oran, co-founders of Nove, came into personal styling from the tech world after hiring stylists themselves and seeing how much of the business behind the client experience was still being done manually. Since then, they’ve spent the last few years working closely with stylists and seeing firsthand how the business side of styling is changing.

In this episode of The Six Figure Personal Stylist Podcast, Megan, Kaitlin, and I talk about how personal stylists should be thinking about AI, what’s changing in the industry, and where technology can make the work easier without replacing the human side of styling. We also get into recurring revenue, ShopMy, new ways stylists are being discovered, and some of the conversations we’ll be continuing live in New York this October.

2:06 – Megan and Kaitlin on the biggest shifts they’ve seen in the personal styling industry over the last two years

4:59 – Consistent revenue as a growing challenge for stylists building more stable businesses

7:24 – Recurring revenue and what changes once the initial high-touch client work is done

9:38 – VIP clients, time tracking, and the business data worth paying attention to

12:23 – Closet digitization, AI tools, and making the upfront client work more useful long term

15:33 – Stylists’ anxiety around AI and the opportunities Megan and Kaitlin see instead

16:04 – The parts of styling that still depend on trust, presence, and a real human relationship

20:04 – Nove’s ShopMy integration and what it opens up for affiliate income and brand relationships

21:41 – A look at the ShopMy conversation coming to the New York event this October

25:59 – Corporate styling, in-store relationships, Substack, bridal, and other revenue opportunities

29:27 – AI search as a new way potential clients are finding stylists

30:20 – Authenticity, branding, and showing up as yourself in a more technology-driven industry

Mentioned In How Should Personal Stylists Be Thinking About AI with Nove

How Nove Helps Power Your Personal Styling Business with Founders Megan Wright and Kaitlin Oran

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