Here at Style ME Training we pride ourselves on helping any woman of any age to launch their dream career as a Personal Stylist! Anyone from their 20’s to even their 70’s all are welcome through our doors. When we first launched the Academy back in 2012 we presumed our delegates would predominantly by fashionistas in their 20’s looking to break free from their jobs in Retail wanting to launch their own freelance personal styling careers; how wrong we were!
Instead, the 40 something woman has been our most popular age group on the course and when I say 40 something I mean the lady in her late 40’s, you know the one, the woman who is nearly approaching the big 50 and wants to finally put herself on the top of her to do list and pursue a career she’ll actually love to do, perhaps before it’s too late! When I have a brief chat with her on the phone I can always sense her eagerness to just get started as if she’s finally just worked out a career in Personal Styling was made for her and she doesn’t want to waste any more time, but at the same time I can sense her anxiety as she’s probably thinking: “Am I mad to be wanting to change careers now, will I be any good?”
This is when I reassure her that she is in fact the perfect age to become a Personal Stylist! Why? Well the clue is in our title; we are not fashion stylists we’re personal stylists. It’s a very personal service, we’re in the industry of helping men and women look their best, be it to achieve a particular goal or overcome an obstacle. I always say to them: “if a client felt great about themselves and the way they looked, would they really need to book and pay for a personal stylist?”
By the time we hit our late 40’s we’ve gone through a lot of experiences: heart breaks, losses, illness etc. and if those women are looking for a stylist to help with their styling dilemmas they most definitely will be looking for a stylist they can relate to, so 40 something is the perfect age…
When I get a young 20 something enquiring about the training as much as they’re welcome to attend, I always ask: “who do you think your clients will be? Will those potentially younger clients be able to afford personal styling services?” A lot of the time my younger delegates go on to work as in-store Personal Shoppers, as here they can really make a name for themselves, apply their knowledge on customers in store, build their confidence and then hand out their business cards for their other home styling services such as Colour Analysis and Wardrobe Styling. If I’m totally honest I do worry if they’ve had enough life experience to just launch out on their own….
But every now and then, I’m totally proven wrong. Take the lovely Roger who attended the training last month. Roger is not only a male but at only 19 he’s the youngest delegate to have attended. When Roger and I spoke on the phone I felt like he was interviewing for a job desperate for me to train him! I was skeptical, Roger is a drama student but at this young age he’s convinced he should be a Personal Stylist instead. I tried telling him maybe he should try fashion styling as he loves fashion but no he was hell bent on Personal Styling and said he only wants to be trained by Style ME.
What an amazing young man! Everyday Roger had to leave his house for 7am to get a coach all the way from Coventry to London where we’d train all day and then would deliver the best homework every evening with his shopping tasks. He was exhausted but so eager to learn and was literally hanging on my every last word, soaking up every bit
of information he possibly could. A true gentleman, so polite and had people in the stores captivated during his client practice, wanting him to dish out some free advice!
1 month on and Roger is already styling and has a list of customers in the pipeline. I couldn’t be more proud and he has put to rest any doubts I had on his age. As I always say I always learn something with every client and with Roger he really proved, age is nothing but a number and the results we achieve in our life are purely based on our determination to succeed. Watch this space Roger is going to be BIG!