Being made redundant hurts, I’m not talking about taking voluntary redundancy; I’m talking about when out of the blue you get called into the office and your line manager tells you they’re having to make cuts and have decided to let you go. No matter how much you didn’t love your job or how many others have also been let go it’s still a massive blow. A blow to your confidence: “Am I really that indispensable?” and more importantly it’s a huge blow to your security: “How will I pay the bills, what if I don’t get another job?”
But the great thing about being made redundant is that is forces you to review your life and ask, “What do I really want to do?” As they say the Universe hates a vacuum so has to fill it with something. Now is the time to really reflect on how you want your next chapter to unfold. What are you passionate about? What would be your dream job? This is the time to manifest it into your life. By being made redundant you have time on your side to research, make calls and enquiries. Maybe even temping is an option whilst you pursue your bigger dream… all I know from experience is that’s there’s always a silver lining to any change that gets forced onto you.
At our Academy we meet so many women that have been made redundant and are now training to have their dream careers as Personal Stylists. I can always sense their nerves when they make that first call to me, they can’t actually believe they’re taking the first step into an amazing future, doing a job they love, where work doesn’t feel like ‘work’!
Once we’ve spoken and I’ve reassured them that ‘now’ is the time to act I can almost hear their butterflies on the other side of the line….
Even on day 1 of the training I can tell the women who have been made redundant apart from the others, what they lack is confidence, confidence that they can really make money from this new career path, almost acting as if it’s too good to be true… Then the real work begins. As the training starts fear is written all over their faces, probably because for the first time in years they actually have to use their brains to absorb in this new information and no it isn’t as easy as people might think. But then something amazing happens over the course of the few days, as the knowledge starts to sink in and they start to enjoy the tasks their whole demeanor changes, they start to smile because they can actually start to see themselves working as a Personal Stylist and loving what they do.
That’s why at our Academy we insist wherever possible to do the 5-day Intensive training course, knowledge takes time to absorb and immersing yourself in the world of Personal Styling for 5 consecutive days really is the key. Women leave the first day doubting themselves but then by day 5 during their photo shoot they not only look like a stylist but they start to radiate that missing confidence! I’m sure they’re probably drinking that glass of champagne pinching themselves at not only how far they’ve come but also how their redundancy really was the best thing that could ever have happened to them.