All right, then, so today’s guests, trained as a silver smith, became an interior design, and then moved on to visual merchandising, becoming the head of creative at Long Book. She found her happy place within interior styling, combining all of her creative, crafting, and commercial experience into one wonderful job. She’s now been an interior stylist for over twelve years, shooting predominantly commercial projects, helping her clients to sell through imagery. She’s known for composing.

She’s known let’s try that again. She’s known for composed and balanced styling using Herr, knowledge of color and her creativity of thought. I’m delighted to be chatting with Laura North today. Hello, Laura.

Hello, Emma, I’m delighted to be chatting to you,

Hey.

too.

Fantastic. So, I think it’s really interesting that your name is Laura North and you are, you are north of London, I’m gonna say you, you’re in Manchester.

I’m in Manchester, yeah, I have actually had clients writes me and say can I just check is your name actually Laura North? It’s not just an indication of your geography but it is I am laer north of the north, yeah.

Silver Smith into interior styling. That’s a very interesting journey. I’ve never heard of anyone doing that before. How did that happen?

That is an interesting one, isn’t it, It’s you. I suppose any creative will probably know that the path to getting to where you are and where you are now is really wobbly. It’s a lovely, wiggly wobbly path that is never a straight line. It’s not like you train in law, you, you do your bar, you become a lawyer and then that’s it. So I have done all sorts to kind of get to a very happy place where I am now, but silver smithing came from, I just happened to be doing all sorts of very tiny detailed bits on my art foundation and my choose to just happen to say, Oh, I think you’d really enjoy a silver smithing degree.

And I have to say I loved it, I really loved it. I did a lot of damage to my hands on lathes and various aggressive looking machinery,

What.

but it did make me super confident using tools. Feeling like I can just make anything. If you can make something out of metal, you, you feel like you can make anything. But the weird thing was on my degree show. My tutor said I love how you’ve displayed this. Maybe you should look at curation as opposed to sort of the making of the things themselves. So that actually that was, there’s always been been little indicators all along that sort of the art of display. The art of presentation was probably always to be my path, as opposed to sort of fine art jewelry, which is quite a solitary job anyway.

So I think I knew by the end of that degree, whilst I loved it, it probably wasn’t going to be the path that I took.

That’s so interesting because I had a very similar experience myself.

Yes, yes, I had a very similar experience because I studied product design at uni and I had gone, I’d gone through you through. I did engineering at college where I used great big blades and I made, I’ve got tool box and a metal tin I made from sheet metal, welding and all that sort of stuff. And then I went on to product design and I had to use like all these like Cnc machines and I had to programm them and all of this sort of stuff. And then I got my 1st job on a magazine and I was doing all the Di Y stuff and all the kind of how to make things from scratch like toy boxes from Mdf and stuff.

So and it’s exactly the same thing. I learned exactly how to do all these machines that I wasn’t really scared of it. I thought if I could in my head, if I could use it, a big pillar drill and a lad and I made my own wedding dress. I can sew and build anything. And it means that when someone chucks an idea at you, you go, oh, I know exactly how to make that. I think pattern making and how to take lots of different pieces and make them work together. It means the way you it like an analytical mind in the physical call bringing things together to make them look creatively beautiful.

So that’s really interesting from a silver smithing idea.

It’s weird, isn’t it? And I think it does make if you’re kind of quite competent at making. I don’t think it’s a prerequisite for a stylist, but I think it’s a really fantastic kind of arm to have is if some, if you come up with a bonkers idea, you’re not immediately stopped in the path because you can’t work out how to do it or how you’re going to make it, or if you can’t source that impossible prop or that piece of artwork, or you fear it’s going to have too much of a license attached to it, you just do it yourself.

I love that. It’s just, it’s just the easiest solution is you kind of yourself and your own skills, isn’t it?

Yeah, that’s actually my favorite bit is like that furniture is the right shape, it’s the wrong color, let’s spray paint it or whatever.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, yeah, that’s, that’s why I love my job so much. She gets paint stuff. Someone told you that it would be your, your curation was really, obviously it stood out so you into interior design.

So I was really lucky that a friend of a friend of a friend knew somebody, who was, look, they were looking for kind of a work experience person at a company called Real Studios who I think are still going actually, who are in Sotho. So I maybe been to London once before and so tracked down, had an interview and they were actually fantastically open to people from different backgrounds. So the girl I was working with, Alice, she had a product design background and various other people weren’t necessarily from interior design originally, or perhaps they sort of retrained.

They really saw value in coming from a different practice and a different background. So I did my work experience there and then stayed there as Junior’s designer for a couple of years and got to work on all sorts of projects. Like the Gary Rhodes restaurants, the ballroom carpet at the Grove House Hotel, you know, all sorts of kind of crazy. Lots Lots of hotels, and it was a, it was a really brilliant company to work for. And I was in London, you know, I was traveling into Southern every day and experiencing London life.

So that sort of got me settled there, really.

And then from interior design you moved into interior styling.

I did, yeah, I mean, as I said before, it was quite wibbly, wobbly, so I did have a little stint at, I did um, creative marketing with um, a company, so I let’s reverse a little bit. I then went to work with Mint, you know, Mint shop in London. So uh, managed that for a little while and kind of found my love of retail, but took a mini detouring, a bit of creative marketing and did loads with the na, and then came back to retail with long book and was visual merchandiser for a few years and then worked my way up to be sort of head of creative, So it was a bit of a wibbly wobbly path as I say, but it was not none of it.

If I look back, none of it was to be regretted or a waste of time. Like all of it has been super valuable, especially being freelance and running my own business. Like they’re all kind of really quite key that Um,

Hey.

that are necessary actually. Yeah, none of them were accidental. If I look back actually.

I think every, everything you learn, it’s not always obvious at the time, like something be learning now as a evening course or something will be us, like you might be doing pottery because you enjoy it and then later down the line that comes into something else. It’s always interesting how the journey of people’s experience and how it takes them from,

Yep.

from the beginning to wherever they’re, they’re going is fascinating.

Definitely, and I think there’s, there’s, that there’s always, like whilst I amm bursting with creativity, I did, I’ve got quite an academic background and I, I did quite enjoy the sort of marketing side of things and I’ve, I’ve also got a super commercial head on my shoulders, which is why I’m a commercial stylist as opposed to editorial because I actually really love the process of selling and this is how I sell now through imagery. But I, I loved being in shop environments and I always have been.

I thrive on it actually. I’ve gott a little sideline business where I do illustration and if I can book it in in time. I’ll try and do kind of market days where I get to sell my prints and stuff. Oh, I love that. My husband comes along and laughs at me and goes, you’re just in your element aren’t you? And I just say, yeah, I love it because I get to chat to people all day and it’s just great, yeah.

That’s d that, that’s really cool. So you put your on,

I do that as my other hat. Yeah,

yeah.

my side hustle which started in lockdown actually because I, I couldn’t stand a knockdown and I thought I’m gonna go mad if I don’t do something. So I just started drawing every day, every day kind of found this lovely community of fellow illustrators on Instagram and we all supported each other, and just started actually selling prints, which I was always been a weird little dream and I never thought that would I’d have time to do that and now it’s like a little side part of my life which is lovely.

That’s really cool. Have to talk about that because we’ve got an artist directory on Inside Stylist, so we’ll talk you about that afterwards. So how did you get into it? Styling for brands, how did that come about?

so I, when I, sort of finished my time at Lum Book, a wonderful one of the nicest photographers in the entire world, Alex Wilson, I’d been friends with him anyway because I was, I’d started styling for Lon Book in house, so I was doing quite lot of their, you know, new campaigns for autumn, spring, summer for a few years and then I started to take more responsibility on for the shoots and, and weirdly, was doing all sorts of things that I think I didn’t realize needed a bit more training if, you know, I mean like I was kind of location hunting and organizing all of that, producing the shoots, and doing all of the styling and budgeting, but I hadn’t quite clocked that I could kind of do it for a living if that makes sense and that a lott of people work under stylist beforehand and get experience.

I think it was naivety, you know, often that can be quite a blessing, just, you is bliss, isn’t it? Oh, I’ll just crack on this So Alex had doing, been doing a lot of Ar photography, and when he heard that I wanted to go freelance, he set me up with this bathroom job, but it was a, a bathroom client and he said, oh, they need a production designer. So I just started doing that. And then another person I’d known through Lombok said, Oh, we need a stylist for this, you know what your rates, And I sort of went, I don’t know, So there was a lot of kind of, I’m not gonna say bake it to make it because it has never been that, but there’s been a lot of kind of thinking on my feet and having to learn super quickly.

So I never did experience under a stylist. I, I literally went in. I suppose I had a training though, and interestingly, I had previously done, the week long course at S. Martin’s in styling, which do you teach at now? Have fun Eight. So it Wasn’t it?

If I do, then I Um,

I can’t remember who it was.

I can’t remember the other person’s name. So I, I’ve done, I did it at Centra, so Martin’s the August in between the lockdowns when it was open, but the majority of the time I do it at um, Chelsea School of Arts. So the right in the brick tape Britt is a great,

Okay.

it’s great fun teaching that. I love it.

That was years ago that I did that. In fact, that was, I think, when I just left real studios and was sort of working out what I wanted to do. Styling was still in my head then, so I did do that week long course, but I don’t know if maybe I was a bit young and didn’t have the confidence or I’m not quite sure why I didn’t, but um. Yeah, maybe it was just the sort of idea of doing something completely on my own. It was a bit terrifying at that age, who knows? But um, yeah, it’s always there.

It’s interesting, isn’t because, quite a few of the people who come in to do this interior styling course don’t necessarily want to be interior stylists like we are, not to do editorial and commercial shoots. Sometimes they want to, be able to star their own pictures for Instagram. Sometimes they have properties that they’re developing and they want to be able to style themselves. There’s nearly always architects and interior designers who are taught their skills of spatial planning or buildings but don’t have the final details of how to get the photos, you right?

And some people just want a creative outlet and they’re not quite sure where they want to go. And styling feels like something they’re interested in because they like interior. Everyone why they’re here and what they want to learn or get from the course. And the people have such varied backgrounds. It’s really fascinating, But you kind of see these little light bulb moments going off throughout the week and then by the end of the week everyone’s interior people are so friendly.

They just end up going to lunch together and they chat and then when they come back you just see all these Macara was talk about on the last day. I save it for the last day. The, the businesss side of being an interior stylist or a freelancer. I talk about insurance and having to put yourself out there and marketing and all those things that aren’t really styling but are the things that I really wish someone had taught me at the very beginning because I’d gone from being in house to being freelance and,

Hey.

and it’s quite big and scary. So for you to just kind of go for it is, it’s almost like there’s a bravery in that, but also there’s a, well, I’m doing it anyway, so I’m just going to get on with it. And then it’s a word of mouth game though, isn’t it?

it’s it really is it is so word of mouth I I think it’s been very rare that i’ve sort of a cold called someone and anything’s pulled up like it it’s all sort of everyone talks to everyone yeah and and actually I would say you know it’s a real five zero five zero people will absolutely hire you for your skill and your style but then they’ll hire you because they like you as well and they go on with you and they can trust you and that is just as important as being a good stylist in fact it’s part of being a good stylist it yeah.

You do wonder for one then. Starling Yeah, absolutely, Starling actually people on the outside world think it’s really glamorous and I always think you should see me loading vans and laying

Oh, and what I smell like at the end of the day,

But there’s this whole.

yeah, definitely. And the fact that you haven’t managed to go to the toilet all day because you’ve been too busy and you suddenly realize,

exactly.

yeah, it’s so glamorous.

I s that to my assistance all the time I got. Oh, oh, could you just go to the low for me?

Yeah, yeah.

Doesn’t they go? No, I’ve just been But it’s, it’s incredibly hard work and it’s very stressful if you gotta do 20 shots in a day and you’re doing three different sets,

Oh, shoping.

it’s quite bang bang, bang, bang bang and actually you need to be like confident and experienced to hold that shoot because we kind

Oh, yeah.

I feel like I’m always the logistics the planning. Mik comes and I say, right, this is how we’re to the things you want me to these, this is the set, okay? Where do we start with a light and where it’s to the for you? And, and it’s go, go, go, go, go. So if you’re with someone all day and it’s, you know, it’s nine to six, it’s go, go, go the whole day except I will always for lunch because food comes 1st. And there’s always and exactly, exactly, but you want to be with people who can do all of that and can keep a sense of humor and can you enjoy the day you want to be with people you know?

Yes, an army march is on its stomach. I completely concur. Fire.

I can trust to produce the work you want, but also to have a good day, and if you’re doing a shoot that’s a few days long, by the end of the week you don’t want to feel like you want to kill each other, so you’re wrong.

absolutely and also for some clients it’s sort of their um they’re they’re in the office three hundred sixty days of the year this is their day out they don’t want it to be they want to have fun they want it to be a fun day as well and it’s exciting you know whilst we I mean that’s the goal isn’t it to make every shoot as exciting as the last for you as well so it’s kind of a reason to get up it’s it’s that kind of what’s going to be exciting about this shoot what’s going to be a bit different about this shoot because if you’ve got that then the c it’s infectious and the clients going to feel that too.

Nahh, yeah. And when a client comes back to you, and you’ve shocked with them, like maybe you’ve done their Christmas campaign a few years in a row. I’ve got a couple of clients that I’ve been working with for a very long time, one the Citi Gro freelance. And it’s exactly the same sort of product. I mean, Christmas, it’s going to be ball balls, it’s going to be table decorations and it’s the same thing. So you have to think of how you can help that client get new photography that looks different from last year.

The lights, it’s still exciting and still inspirational and complete. That sounds like for you as well. That’s the thrill of it. It’s that whole. What I this year?

think would be doing the clients a big disservice if you kind of just went onto automatic mode and and I, I would sort of,

Yes.

that’s one of my biggest fears really is to sort of because then you’ve lost your spark and your creativity and you know, I don’t want to be doing styling by numbers. I want to want to be doing, I want to be exploring and going on adventure every time really, if possible, you know.

I think that’s possible. So how long has it been you’ve been an actual stylist for?

I think, I think it’s about twelve years or so now. Yeah, yeah, a decent chunk of

I’m in my 13th year of being freelance. I’m, I’m, I love it. I think, you know, it’s never the same, no shoots are the same. Even when it’s the same client sort of thing. There’s always a new challenge and a new event and I’m, I do events. But there’s always something new that you just want to. I just love the process and love the, the shots at the end. And when you think, oh, I put that on Instagram and say, I did I many.

No, I know it is, it’s weird, but do you find that once a shoot is done,

Hell.

does it linger in your head or do you almost wipe the board clean? And you’ve just because I sort of, there are certain shots that stay in my head, but it, but I think I have to move on quite quickly in order to give the next client. The tent, the full attention and creativity that they deserve. So there are times that I’ll seee an image and go. I don’t sure I remember doing that. Do you ever get that.

Oh. there’s been a few shots where I’ve looked and gone, is that mine? And they’re going, oh but I’ve been doing it for 20 something years, so there’s a lot of photography over the years.

Yes.

I worked in house at what was Ipc Media for ten years and there’s lots of shots, there’s shots of me throwing a vey up that um, I took when I was a woman in home and I was assisting, I wasn’t even styling then. That shot is still being used now. I mean every time I see that I go, God, I was thin before kids. But it’s I mean I left twelve thirteen years ago and they’re still using it so that that always really interesting but there’s the image I remembered the food we were eating on the shoes and I usually remember the photographer but sometimes I can’t remember the photographer and that stumps me because when it’s a editorial shoot and we were shooting every every month sometimes twice or three times a month they do merge a little bit so I think it depends on the shoots but I do normally especially the free lunch I remember lunches.

They’re really good.

Well, obviously, yeah, definitely. And the snacks, if it was a good snack shoot as well.

The snacks, there’s no, there’s no chance of that go. I listen to it probably. J Well, so can you maybe describe your styling? So you work for brands doing photography to help them sell their products? Tell me maybe the process from being getting that phone call or email saying are you free to shoot with us?

so well I suppose it varies a little bit in terms of what they’re asking for a recent shoot i’ve got coming up it was all hinged on the location um and so we really had to get that sorted first before any creative thought could go into it but generally um I’ll ask them a few things like what is there because I’m very much about storytelling for the customer I always keep the customer in mind so um I’ll ask them sort of how they’ll be pitching it um who’s the customer um what’s the end use of the image for example is it web is it for magazines is it for their lookbook or whatever um and then i’ve started just spending a few hours getting a loose mood board and sort of mini sketches together I do a lot of drawing for clients to kind of try you know not fancy illustrations but communicative drawing just so that they can understand where my head is at um just so I know we’re all on the same page, because there’s nothing worse than spending.

Days doing set designs, mood boards, reference images, only for them to turn around and go. Oh, that’s not really what we had in our heads. So I have started doing a kind of toe dipping exercise where I say this is kind of where my heads at is, this where your head’s at too. And generally it is. And I can and, but then I’ve gott the confidence to crack on and that I’m not going to have to redo all of the work. And then I will pretty much always start with color. I can’t help myself. I’ll start with a sort of idea of color palette, and then things will grow from there.

I will. Up north it tends to be an awful lot more studio shooting and if it’s not studio you’re traveling quite a lot for location. But um, it does mean that I get to do lots of set design, which I love doing. So that will start 1st getting the set designs over lots of thumbnail sketches, so that the client knows what I’m doing and the set builders know what’s going on, and then it’ll be sort of sourcing from all sorts of places. We’ve got some brilliant prop pie companies up here, and lots of really nice interior shops and charity shops.

I love a charity shop and my sort of cupboard of doom at home,

Zero.

full of all sorts of things that I can’t best throw away, and I know it will be useful for shoots. I’ve got quite a few cupboards of doom, if I’m if I’m if I’m being honest, Emma, the whole house is cupboards of doom. But they’re joyous cupboards of doom. Still behind close doors.

That’s a really nervous laugh coming from me and over feeling. I’ve got, I’m sure all stylists are exactly the same. I’ve got all my crops inverted, commerce in the garage, in all those big, really useful,

Oh, yeah, a laundry bag.

work.

Yeah.

the, you know, I can stack them really high. And then every, every time I see something at a boot cell or a jumble sale or a, a charge shop, I’ll go, ooh, I’ll just slip this one into the house and then when I got to shoot, I just walk around the house and go that one, that one, that one. And every time my husband looks like a, it’s a prop, it’s a prop. It’s not for a

Ah, well, I’ve got a new word for that, which is um, what I often say. So a friend of mine, Carol of has immaculate taste in a beautiful house and she will often be buying things and Herr Husband goes oh no, not more bleep, insert bleep here. And I said, Carol, you just need to say it’s Obj absolutely fine,

Okay, that’s it. My house is full of O play.

you find it’s Obj.

the thing is, without it, it would make our jobs doubly hard. And also, I think people, this is a question I got asked when I, I was teaching, a couple of weeks ago, and people are asking where do the props go afterwards and what happens to them and how many do you have? And I was like, well, and, and do I need, like they were asking, do I need to have a specific sort of style? And I said, well, your style will shine through. And although someone might come to me and say I want a really modern shoe or I want a real scanty shoe,

Hey.

I can do that. But if they see me walking around my house and showing, sharing the kind of props I pick up, I am going to pick up more crafty things. I am going to be picking up furniture to paint and secondhand things. I’m not going to necessarily buy everything from new because actually that’s not my thing. And people do tend to hire me because they know what my style is like and they can see that I will fit with their brand. So although I, as a stylist, you needed to be able to do everything, I do think the things you have in your home reflect your style, which helps people seee what you can do for them and gets work at the end of the day.

This is my, this is what I say to my husband, this is for.

It’s basically marketing. It should come out the marketing. Pema Yeah.

I’ll tell him that marking budget for home.

Go with it. I do often get kites. Go. Oh, my God, is this all from your house? Actually the answer is is rarely, yes, I mean, but I’ll say, but that is, that is, that is, and sometimes if it, if I bought a really good prop for a shoot, I’ll pay for it myself, kind of keep it that I think that’ll definitely will come in handy for something else. But you know, it’s is always a mix. I, I’ve never been the kind of person that just goes through a pop house and gets everything from there. And I’ve never been the kind of person that just buys from what, like I can’t deal with just one place.

It hass to be the exact right things from, you know, the right places. And that does mean it’s a bit more work. So much more satisfying when it all comes together on it. On a

Yeah, I don’t think I’ve ever got been able to get like if, if I’ve done really big shots where it’s a week long shoot and it’s lots of different table settings and you need lots of furniture and I would start at the prop house, get everything I can, furniture wise and accessory wise from the prop house. Then anything else I couldn’t find there, I would go. Sourcing and then add on all the food and the, and the flowers afterwards and that. I think that is kind of my process in depending on budget, isn’t it?

As well you make sure you can get as much into the budget from a prop house because that’s going to be cheaper sometimes, not always though. Sometimes it’s cheaper to buy furniture, paint it. And then I’ve bought stuff from, a charity shop, taken it home, painted it, shot it and returned it to the charity shop because actually it’s cheaper than hiring. And then the church is kind quite, that’s quite feel good,

Oh, it’s giving it back,

but it’s like,

Yeah, absolutely, yeah, definitely. And I’m often quite happy if I’ve sort of got bits and pieces that I picked up along the way and I think. Covered of doom needs a bit more space in it. I’ll happily give it to my prop house because I know I’ll be able to use it again. But you know it It still exists in the world, but I, it doesn’t need to be in my house, that kind of thing. Yeah, so all considerations that you don’t think about, isn’t it? Where the hell is anything gonna

That’s really good. You need an extra extension, just that you. I almost feel like I could set my own prop house up.

Well, yeah, I mean, I think that is actually one of our main prop houses in Manchester’s propaganda and it is two stylists that had exactly that and they went, oh, we could probably start setting a prop and that’s exactly what, where they’ve ended up, they’ve ended up, owning a prop house,

Idea.

yeah.

Oh, I like this one. If we got a few stylists together, we could all prop from each other’s props and then buy for our own prop shop. This is a great idea.

I’ve often wondered if there could be some kind of online portal where everyone uploads pictures of all the things they’re willing to learn to other stylists. Imagine it would be a massive library, wouldn’t it? And you just pay for postage, maybe.

Or just send your career. I, I was talking to someone who was talking about doing that just as lock down starting. I wonder if she’s, she literally had a, a studio and it was full of props she was going to turn it into something very similar to that, but yeah, don’t Emma, stop thinking about that, but your play, don’t think of another item, un terrible, another idea at it’s shiny objects and Jo let’s go do that now.

Maybe that’s a delegation one, Emma, but that you could feed through Inside Stylist.

Yeah, do you want to know what I would call it? I’ve already named it.

What were you gonna that?

I call empty rooms, as in Morton Ten. I want it. Not that I’ve it any thought or anything.

My God.

so tell me when I very 1st started Inside Stylist, I, would do these kind of discovery calls essentially and people would um, phone and I would listen to what they wanted to do and then kind of advise them whether Inside Stars was going to work from them or not. And a number of people were saying I’m not in London and I would say to them, I don’t know if it will work if you’re not in London. And I was so wrong, I was so thought everything had to happen in London. And I’m so wrong because I mean Manchester is such a key place.

I’ve done, I’ve driven to shoots in Manchester to work in studios. So and the fact that you have a prop house proves how busy is. There’s a lot of T V work goes on there, a of films, skills, tell me how so you were in London,

Tons work, Los of work.

you, have you moved to Manchester as a stylist, is that right?

as a stylist. Yes, so I was already freelance in London, had some really nicee clients, and I It was a very gradual process. For the 1st few years of living in Manchester, I was basically a traveling salesman. I felt like it anyway. Because all of my clients were based in London, so all of the shoots were kind of southern locations. So I was driving here, there and everywhere with a car full of props at all times basically. And I think actually it took a little while for me to adjust to being a Mank Union again.

Like I didn’t even have a hairdresser in Manchester. I kept going back down to the hairdresser I had.

Hello.

I am from Manchester originally, but I hadn’t lived here, since I left Buna basically. So it was, it was a totally different city, the one that I left behind. And it was weirdly my Essex born husband that said, why don’t we try living and a, to which I said, yeah, let’s try it, let’s give it a go. But bit by bit I started making connections. Some, you know, that whole word of mouth thing is particularly prevalent in Manchester. We all have a good chat up here, so. Slowly but surely people would say, oh, are you open to work?

And I, I started going, oh gosh, I think I’m now 50 fi zer, I think I’m now 50 % London, 50 Manchester. And I kind of used to pitch myself as that as well because I was almost a bit hesitant to say I’m a stylist in Manchester for thinking it would put people off. And then I think without even noticing. All my clients now are based up here. Loads of people who manufacture North used to go down to London to shoot and are starting see that there’s really good stylists here and really good photographers, that they.

They don’t need to up their whole businesss and send everything down and pay for accommodation and pay for London locations when actually there’s this stuff going on up here. So I’ve started seeing a bit of that since lockdown. And there’s just quite a lot of activity going on up here really. Yeah, I’m, I’m busy.

That’s really great.

been known too.

Do you do like Tv or film or anything like that?

but you know what, I don’t love it if I’m honest. No, no, I think for two women chatting together right now who’ve gott very much a can do attitude,

Are you not?

I feel this is personal and I’ve got friends who do it and they’re amazing and I don’t know how they do the hours, I don’t know how they. Yeah, he’s mental, the hours absolutely mental and I haven’t got the energy for that. I give a styling day my all and I can’t do another 6 h top of that and it. A load of stodgy food. I wish they eat a lot of but I I found it quite restrictive in that everybody has a particular job so for example I once got asked on an advert b a spark an electrician can I put a bulb into that lamp and I sort of looked at him and thought you’re an electrician why can’t you put a bulb in that anyway oh because it’s a practical lamp so it counts as a prop so you have to put the bulb in that and I just thought I can’t deal with this I need everyone working together and you’ll see like huge burly blokes just sat down watching struggle with something,

And a Bos, yeah. My goodness.

but they’re not allowed to offer any help because it’s not their job. I sound terrible. I have, I’ve gott some amazing friends who are in the industry because it’s a huge buzzing industry up here, especially since kind of Bbc have moved and all sorts of things. And they’re brilliant at it. I think maybe I’m just a bit. A bit gung ho and a little bit impatient to work on a job like that. And maybe I’m a bit better at short bursts of work as opposed to real long haul jobs. Maybe I’ve not got the stamina for it.

I think also it’s very slow like it’s very slow and I was like it’s like you say they’re very long days I was picked up at six and I was dropped off I think quarter past one in in the morning so it was such a long day we had one day um and then at the end of the day like I didn’t realize it was going to go that far over and I said to my client I’m really sorry I’m going to have to charge you for every time she went just charge me two days and I went to right it was two days even one go and they’re very very gracious with that but it was very slow and there’s a lot sitting around and then there’s a house and you’ve got to jump up quickly because your house and you got to go and put your light bulb in or whatever and yeah I just didn’t enjoy it like I enjoy styling a shoe it felt like I had something at the end of the day I had shots at the end of the day and you know.

Yes. Yeah, it’s a very different beast and you know what else I, I think if you’re very much, if you’re really passionate about um, A two Dd image and, and you don’t want that plant to interact with that Varas, and you don’t want that curtain to look like it’s growing out of something. We’re trained to look at everything as you know, a two Dd thing. As soon as the camera moves, you’re like, oh, it was change it and you can’t change it because of continuity.

Yes.

And I think that, I think it’s just the way my, my brain works. I’m, I’m very much a look through the camera or look at a laptop and that is the painting I’m creating. Whereas they are very much creating something that lives in a three dimension, even though people will be viewing it on a Tv. It’s a, it’s a totally different beast, totally different.

We will watch that, that video and see the plant coming out someone’s head.

We yeah.

We w, we see the plant where everyone else going. Look at that paso, it’s like,

Yeah, yeah, absolutely,

what,

yeah,

what is your favorite thing to work on?

yeah, my favorite thing to work on, well, so I did, I think we’re quite similar, Emer, in that we quite like, little sidelines so that I have got another side hustle. It’s not really a side hustle, it’s another arm to what I do. So I also have a company called Laura, Laura, which is, me and a very good friend, Laura Hutchinson, who’s an incredible photographer. And we deal with. So we started working together and just loved it because it’s, you get a vibe, don’t you, with, with this, with the right photographer.

You suddenly like start sparking off each other and it’s a really collaborative, beautiful thing. And we started getting clients like really small, lovely businesses, wanted help to create beautiful content. These ful things for. Postcards, maybe look books. And it was jewelers, it was candle companies, it was the really little lovely teams where they just went, oh just do whatever you want. And to the stylist that’s like dream, isn’t it, what? You don’t have any, You just okay for me to do whatever I fancy.

Oh yeah, trusty, trust you. So I have to say those are the most joyous jobs. And Laura and I have been testing quite a lot together recently as well. And that is some kind of heaven like you go, oh this, it’s a reminder of why you do it as well, because a lot of the time you’re creating spreadsheets, you’re producing, you’re doing massive documents, you’re handling big budgets when you’re just doing a test shoot, which we’ve done recently based on, a female artist who’s been long forgotten throughout history, and which we’re going to be putting out there soon, when you’re doing a day like that, you go, oh, this is why I’m it.

For the person that I’m working with, for the subject that we’re doing and the just the feeling of play whilst you’re doing it as well, like that’s just joyous isn’t it? Gives you that kind of twinkly stomach feeling.

I love it when you, I do test shots as well with the I, we call them spec shoots, the same thing and um, I’ll have a really clear picture. I do drawings for my, like you were talking about your process, I do drawings as well, even for my spec shoots, because I quite like the reference of them. And then I’ll have it very clear in my head how I want to shoot one specific thing. And then you get it set up and then the photographer gets the camera on it and you’re like, you’re lighting so good and we got a shop, you get really excited because the lighting so good and like other people probably would be like, yeah, the lighting is great.

You can’t down their own of, but it’s they do get it.

Well for this, for this shoot. Laura Because it was a test shoot, I said it’s really important, Laura, that you test as well for like it’s not just me playing with shapes and forms and whatever, all concepts. So she was sort of doing really experimental lighting where she was lighting onto a mirror and then the mirror was lighting the, oh my god, it was amazing, it was beaut thing of absolute beauty,

Love it.

yeah.

You, you mentioned color earlier. You’re really into color.

I’m really into color, Yeah, I am, Oh God, yeah, everything about it. I mean, I love reading about the history of it, and the meaning of it. Have you ever read Cassa St., Clair’s? I think it’s the story Yeah,

Yeah, I know it when you one of dots on it,

yes.

no, it, it’s in my, audible wish list.

um I you know I would I’m a big fan of audible but I would get both just so that you’ve got your reference there as well of what because when she talks about the color piece for example to have an exact reference of pus is very pleasing yeah now it just really excites me nothing gets me talking more than color um whether it’s kind of the psychology of or I mean,

Yeah, you need to St.

is there anything more exciting when there’s two colors together and they’re, they’re actually physically vibrating off each other? That, but I think that comes from the fact that I love painting and it is always my starting point. Yeah, I just, I just love it. I really do anything that.

Yeah, I’m really in. I read well, I interviewed Car and Holler on the podcast. If he did the Little Book of Color, I think it’s called a Little Book of Color. And there’s a quiz in it and I always get my students to do the quiz. So they have season.

A brilliant What’s the quiz,

They like to find out what color,

then?

what season you are. And then from Right now I want you to do a mood board with your season and then they have to really choose items that fit in with that season as if it was a client suggesting it sort of thing.

Oh, okay.

But when I read that book, it’s the 1st book. I, in fact it’s the only book I think I’ve ever read on color and the history of it and, and I would get all my family to do this quiz and and they, they were so right, you know, like I’m very autumn, but my sister was very winter and I read the description of winter and it was just so spot on. She’s quite, I’m not going to say actually because she’ll me. Not that she listens, but um, she was very much, she’s very direct, she says things we are.

Yes.

Whereas I’m a little bit more cozy and a bit more soft than the edges and the, the colors are really interesting and and things. Like I learned from interviewing Karan and from reading the book, I’ve learned how color affects me and like from talking to her about the color gray, how gray is very much a color that you hide, you’re hiding from something. When I, I surrounded my house, my house was all grey, all my clothes were grey and um, she was like, well, what, what we like we were in. I was interviewing Herr in my living room, which was grey, and I said, I hate this room.

And she says, Well, why do you hate this room? And I says, I just don’t like the grey, I, I’m over the grey, I like teal. And she said, What were you doing when you, listeners, please forgive me if I said the story ten times. She said, what were you doing when you painted this room great and I was like, ah, well, that would have been that year, I was sitting up inside stylist and she said, and what were you hiding from and I was like, well, I didn’t want to be the face of the brand, I didn’t want to put myself out there, I was absolutely breaking it.

I like,

is so curious, isn’t there?

And the moment she said that, I was like, she’s right. I wear grey on the dog walk because I don’t really want people to notice me, and I removed all the gray from my wardrobe and black and white and beige, that make me feel wishy washy and actually I’m recording this in like a tomato red jumper. I know we’re yeah,

It’s beautiful, it’s lovely. And I’m in cobalt blue. I feel like we’re sort of,

I know that if I’m in a feeling a bit low or a bit slumped or a bit like,

representing all the primaries today.

oh, if I put this color on, it will to me and even if I don’t feel I eventually it because I’ve surrounded with it. It’s the whole thing is fascinating.

Completely, completely. I don’t know what season I am, but I know that if, if, this sounds terrible, but it’s genuinely my reference. If I’m shopping, particularly charity shops I got over excited and I sort of take it out of context and think that’s to look amazing. If it’s the color of a bruise, so a bruise from the start to the finish, so you know, even when it goes like the reddy pinky color and then to the Oca, if, if it, if it could be a bruise color, it suits me ridiculous.

That’s so a random thing to. Did you look at a bruise long time ago? These,

Hello.

I mean bruises can be really beautiful colors and you, li, you like, I’m inspired by this bruise.

I think I just noticed in my wardrobe I was like, these are all the colors of a bruise. And then I sort of used it as a bit of a rule of thumb when I was shopping for things and when, yeah, yeah, that’s a,

That’s so cool.

that’s a rule that works for me,

So people should find something that they can relate

I’m gonna get with it.

that distinctive and no.

I mean, not sure I’d ever put it on a mood board. This room is inspired by a bruise. I don’t think I’d get away with that.

I always like you to have three words that evoke the feeling pain.

You never.

Pro Right, what?

but I just, I’m just doing a shoot at the moment, prepping for a paint company. And I actually used, have you heard of now I hope I pronounced this correctly, Verner’s nomenclature of color. You heard of it? So he,

Oh, no, no. What’s that?

I think it’s sort of back in Victorian times, probably should have thought about this more before I started talking about it so that I could give you some proper history. Maybe we can put it as a link. But he, identified millions of colors and documented them all and for every single color for example sulfur yellow he hass he found an animal a mineral and a vegetable reference for it so the animal might be Um, underside of the wing of a bespectacled goose or something. I know it’s really, really accurate and, and a beautiful thing and then it the um, animal.

Might be a particular like a mimosa blossom or some thing, and then the mineral would be like sulfur. But he’s done it for so many colors. And it’s a paint sheeet where it’s a small collection of colors where I’ve kind of gone. Or actually it was the animal element that inspired it. So it’s all gone along the line. He uses a lot of feathers, so it’s all gone along the lines of that. But to actually usee his references as the starting point and to use books as a reference, as opposed to just hopping onto Pinterest or whatever, has been joyous.

It’s been lovely. I’ll send you some notes about it.

Yeah,

Oh,

that sounds right up my street.

it’s lovely.

Haron talks about, I can’t remember the guy’s name, but there was a guy he’s like now, and he was doing like a study of color and there was like a quiz. And you and I, I did it after reading the book and you basically have to, you see a color and then you have to say what the name of that color is. And I, I thought it was was like a hundred colors or something. And as a stylist, I wouldn’t say green, I’d say olive, or might say chicken,

Or pay or Yeah,

I wouldn’t say just a regular color.

absolutely.

And it’s all about the cones and rods in your eyes and how I see color might be different to the next person and and the names that people give the color. It’s not quite the same sort you’re talking about, but it’s on those same

No, but it is because well, that’s a whole other extension, isn’t it? Where you, where you go? Are you seeing what I’m seeing? That always fascinates me as well.

because my husband can’t and one of my daughters can’t see. Like I’ll say that’s green and they’re like, no, it’s grey and I’m like it’s Green,

I often have.

It’s Bob, it’s green. You guys have got bad color side, you just can’t it.

It baffles me. When I’ll say to Rob my husband, I’ll say, Oh, that it’s that green one over there, and he’ll look at me and go It’s blue, and I’ll say Actually it’s green, but there’s a touch of scion in it, so I can understand why you’re saying that, but it’s not. Don’t argue.

My girls will go what comes that then, like we walk down the street, and I walk cloths that then, and I’ll go with that sea breeze, that green that’s sea breeze. Must drive them absolutely mad. So we’ve been talked about going to bring us back to studying,

Hey.

what? What was I going to ask you, What’s your, what’s in the highlight of your career?

That is a tough one.

I don’t know if I could answer that actually thing.

It’s a really hard question because you can, well as I talked, I said earlier that I sort of sometimes have to just press delete on the previous shoot in order to have a fresh head for the next one. So there’s probably quite been quite a lot of highlights that have gone delete, move on, delete, move on. And actually I’m trying to get better at pausing. I suppose it’s mindfulness, pausing and appreciating, you know, the images and a lot of that work that went into it and you know, having a moment before I then move on, I suppose, but that’s quite hard to do when you’re a bit mani, isn’t it?

I, I, I guess my 1st full kind of catalog brochure, which was, you know, 90 % of my images, that was for crucial trading and that was quite a moment where I kind of went off and I also did an entire brochure for um, I think it was clear. Water, Yeah, it was clear water baths, and that and a lot of that was sort of made props and things, like made big canvas backgrounds, so that was quite lovely to have that. And was very me in that sort of sense of balance and Form and color there was quite a lot of that in there.

But also for illustration, I a really proud moment was I got featured in Simple Things magazine. Like I had a whole kind of page of my work for their, identify a page about ice creams. So on the other side of things, like sort of having that was a bit of a, a bit of a moment too.

That’s fabulous. I always like to ask stylists, if they’ve ever had like a really big mistake that happened at work or a big shoot disaster or anything like that. Have you got any stories like that?

God, there’s always disasters, aren’t there? I suppose I mean, there’s been shoot disasters that I’d not been, that I’ve been there. It’s usually has involved shattered glass. So we were once installing a shower on a location and as the set builder was just installing the sort of last bit of the shower glass, it just the entire thing just shattered in his hands. That and that went everywhere. Then couldn’t do that shoot. There was once a shoot where we turned up. It was actually Lisa Giles’s house, you know, Herr Amazing Green.

I’ll send you a link to her So she’s, I think she’s ex interiors and now an artist. She does beautiful green abstract paintings and her house is all kind of green critical doors with lovely tiling, quite contemporary. But there’s tons of color going on in there and all through the kind of green palette she’s gott palette, she’s stuck to it and that’s. It works amazingly and we were there and the product never turned up. The entire team was just sat there for the entire day. It was it was really I mean it was it was no one’s fault.

I mean it was the clients fault.

Well, it was, wasn’t it? I go to get the product before I book the shoot if I’m on here. So like, you know, if the client doesn’t have it in their hack, oh my God, that’s so stressful.

It was really bad and it was, and it was a shame actually because it would have been such a lovely place to shoot. There’s also been, oh, a very expensive glass desk has shattered. At a very expensive location amongst gravel as well.

No.

So somebody did spend the day picking out those shells of glass and gravel.

Oh. Yeah, that’s

But I I mean not. I listened to your podcast recently about how you deal with your day and how you prepare yourself for a shoot, and it was so familiar, even to the point of kind of getting your clothes ready,

You know.

making sure your laptops in your bag, post it notes on the door saying flowers because they’ll be in a different bits of the house, load in the car. I’m very much that person and my, my biggest terror would be for something to really badly go wrong. That was my fault, through lack of preparation. Like if it goes wrong through an accident, like I’ve just said an accidents, an accident, and we deal with it and we work out how we’re going to do it. But if it was ever sort of down to me having forgotten something or not covered something, that’s like my idea of hell.

So I do everything I possibly can to make sure that nothing bad really does happen. My biggest mistake I think was when I was doing the whole London, to London. Manchester was not making time enough time for my family and sort of over prioritizing work. So I developed a sort of square of joy. So each corner of the square has a different element that I have to consider before take on work. So that’s family and dog Um, portfolio, like if they would, they be really amazing shots that I just enjoy doing, money.

So it may be portfolios not there, but money and families there. And then at the bottom left is, the people. So sometimes I’ll take a job on because I just love working with them and usually if I can kind of tick three corners, if I can create a triangle out of those corners, then I’m, we’re good to go and sometimes if it’s just two, that’s fine, but if really it’s on ticking one, I will have a good think about is it worth the sacrifice of those other corners. Yeah.

That’s brilliant, I love that. Never heard anything about that. That’s really interesting. I, during lockdown and I got made an essential worker so I could do a shoot from a brand that was like if we don’t shoot, we don’t sell, if we don’t sell, we go bust. Is there? And I from being at home all the time throughout the whole of that 1st big lockdown.

into air.

then I went off out and my husband was working away from home, he was, he didn’t stop working throughout the whole of lockdown, he worked Monday to Friday, which has his own ups But um, I left my kids who were, I mean we’re talking three or four years ago, so they weren’t tiny, they were probably 14 and 16 or something, but I just left them and thought when they’re at home they’re safe, there’s nothing wrong. But I was gone for I think I was gone for seven days, seven days. And when I came back or I had a phone call like towards the end of the 1st week and one of my daughters was very upset and I said, do you just need your mommy kind of joking?

And she went yes, and I went Po um, I can’t do it. And I was due to come home for a couple of days and go back the following week and I just said to the the staff right we were in a studio and it was all contained I said right i’mm bringing my girls to help on the shoot next week that’s the only wy I’m going to be able to do it I hope that’s okay I it was a client I knew and they weren’t my kids have been on shoots quite a lot they were great I basically got them to work all morning and then I gave them twenty quid each she said right you can go to the shops now and I sent them off to get them out of my head it was birthday but it was listening to you say thinking about your firm that’s the one time where I thought okay this isn’t working I have to change something but I was fortunate that it was locked down I could bring them with me and it had been lifted by the time they came with me but we’re in a hotel room normally I’d be like oh i’ve got nothing no dogs no kids no husband I could just do whatever I like of course all I do is work but that was taken away and it was kind of quite nice we could only eat in and put a tail room and yeah but that’s a really clever way of thinking about it in like separating out the quarters and thinking about what is the most important element of your it can get very it’s a great position to be in to have so much work you need to think what is working here and I can it La evening.

That’s brilliant. Well, I mean I, I’m gonna put some honesty out there. The, this spring has been terrible, but I believe pretty much everyone, I don’t know if about in London I’ve heard a few friends who would do adverts and films that it’s been a bit dead, but that is the industry and for anyone listening who thinks it’s a constant flow of work, generally it is, but there are moments like I had about three months of going,

Hey.

oh my God, I’m just gonna have to go and get a job in Tesco or something, I don’t really know.

I was thinking, yeah.

And there illustrations you can sell like it’s not actually It’s not a living, it’s just a happy pastime really, that I happen to make some pocket money out of It’s not I, I suppose I could have thrown myself into that, but and all the while my husband was kind of going, you know, this happens, just enjoy yourself, why don’t you just do a bit more of this and and all the time I’m going, but I needed, I can’t do this, I can’t do, I needed, I needed to be doing well and then of course it comes along.

And what and what it teaches you is it reminds you never to take anything for granted, and reminds you that it’s not a dead cert that you’ve always got work on, but until I’ve, I’ve had one blip before, but usually I am a pretty busy stylist and um, yeah, it just suddenly I wasn’t and it sort of makes you question everything, doesn’t it make, oh my God, what am I anymore if I’m not a stylist?

you know what also um everybody feels that it’s just no one ever remembers that everyone goes through it and whenever someone calls me I’m really quiet I’m like okay it’s probably just a quiet time and because one person will tell me it’s dead and another person will tell me I’m absolutely my off my face busy that’s how it is different people do different types of shoots and it’s never the same for any anyone I literally what you were saying i’ve experienced that one hundred and it’s very interesting that you do think it will never be busy again but it’s when you’ve gott a client you’ve worked with a few times and they haven’t called and you’re like oh my god have they found somewhere else not like me anymore and think all these things and then they co.

Yes. Yeah, definitely, yeah, you start questioning everything don’t you, because you are your businesss and if your business isn’t being used, Iu you think more, there must be something wrong then, but you, but it’s ridiculous that we question it, that we think it’s us that’s wrong, as opposed to the fact that maybe they just are saving a bit of budget to do something else, somewhere else or yeah,

Well, the, the product hasn’t arrived yett they’re not ready and then they phone and they’re like,

exactly, exactly.

I don’t think I’m going to do such a good job again, that’s me this They’re.

it has opened loads of new doors, like it was almost a little reset button that felt a bit scary at the time, but it was a reset for my brain. It was a reset for some of the clients I’ve got in terms of like I’ve expanded that a bit more. And it creatively it was a reset as well. It, it stopped me doing that thing that I talked about earlier, which is sort of styling by numbers. It, it makes each, you know, you treasure each one. Yeah, it’s, it should maybe be obligatory, but, but you wouldn’t be able to control And was when that reset was coming, because then you don’t get the fear to make you, you know, sit up and listen again.

No, exactly. I think it’s one of those things where, if ever, I am having the quiet spot. I w, what can I do, Who can I call what, What haven’t I done for a long time that I enjoyed doing? Like I used to really enjoy shooting houses. I hated sourcing them when I was in house. But when I shoot houses and send them out, I quite enjoy doing that. Why I’m doing that? Let’s find some houses. And there’s lots different things you can do, but you, because you’re in the flow of doing whatever it is like if you’re just doing commercial you’re just doing that.

And then actually there’s other things that you haven’t even considered. Like people are styling houses for, estate agents and for property developers and you designers who want to bring someone in to do the sheet for them. And there’s all these other things you could do.

Yes.

I think there, there’s a guy around the corner who’s just, it was, I’m sorry, we’re going really long. You’re right for time.

Oh yeah, I’m fine, I’m fine.

There’s a guy around the corner who has a mechanics and he’s great, and they basically pulled the whole thing down, rebuilt the garage and then built these amazing flats above. And every time I walk past the G, I’d a lot to design that for them. I’d love to. I’m not an interior designer, but I think it every time. It’s like, but I think I could do that because he’s, he’s,

Definitely.

he’s my Mcanany. There’s, it’s never just one door closes and that’s it. One door closes and another door opens every single time. People just forget to have the faith in themselves.

Absolutely. And you have to remember, what your transferable skills are as well. Like you’re not just a stylist, you’re actually a businesss manager, you’re a marketeer, you’re a web designer, you’re, you know, you are so many things, you’re a veritable Swiss Army knife basically, aren’t you? And surely there’s other ways to, you know. Other paths to follow I suppose if, if, you know, the usual run of the mill shoots start drying up a little bit, but it is, it is incredibly hard when you’re in it and um, yeah, a bit worrying, but luck, luckily now manic and I’m my happy again.

I’ve a million more questions that I haven’t asked you, but we have been on for nearly an hour, so I know.

My God, I did tell you I’m all right. Ll gaba.

not the same. I I carry on for hours and um, right, what, what must I ask you? You’ve been a member of Inside Stars for a little while now, so thank you that what what are you liking about being?

Yes.

I’ve not even given you a question of whether you like it or not. I’m asking you what do you like about being

What do you like about it? Laura Um, well, I, I’m just quite a big believer in, in community particularly, I mean stylists are not exclusive for women, but they tend to be and I really believe in, you know, women supporting women in businesss and stylists supporting stylists. I have to say up North I have noticed of stylists support other stylists. If I can’t do a job, I will happily give the name of two other people that I think could do it because I know they’ll do the same for me if they’re me mega busy.

I mean, there’s like a little network of some really good stylists that I know that I’m always happy to kind of dish out work too, and I know have given my name out before as well. And so I suppose I was interested and hopeful that Inside Stylists would be a sort of bigger, more nationwide version of that, which it really is actually, you are, you are heralding other stylists and I think that’s a fantastic thing without any insecurity on your part. So, that’s why I think it’s brilliant, yeah.

Thank you. I think it’s really interesting how when I set it up, there’s quite a few people were saying, why are you kind of building something that will get other people work? And I was like, Well, because I’ve got enough work for me. And actually it’s exactly what you say, when I can’t do it, I will. I have to be very careful. Now when a brand emails me and says we’re looking for a stylist, I have to see if they say are you free or can you help? I find it on one. I’m very careful that. And someone says to me, Oh, I got job because you shared that on Inside Stylist.

That that is such a big Bzz. And people do share it, love. It’s lovely how people share. It makes me very happy. And I’m gonna let you share your contact details because I obviously can’t read because I got your Instagram handle wrong. So you are Laura Hyphen, North Cod, Uk.

Yes,

You on with my stylist under stylists,

right, yeah.

so people can find you on your profile there. I will share all of this on the show. Not, and your Instagram handle is.

l underscore h underscore north.

Wrong. I did it so wrong.

You know, I only emailed you because I thought if I don’t email am and now I’ll definitely forget and then it’ll be out there forever and um, yeah, there we go. But yeah, all contact details are on my website and I, as you can probably tell, I’m always happy to take a phone call as well. I, I love a good chat so um, and often you can really get to the crux of the matter much, much quicker on a phone call than you can an email.

one hundred percent agree it’s been an absolute pleasure I think we could probably talk all day but I.

so yeah, definitely. Let’s another one. We’ll do same time next year.

Do a recap. See what you’ve been doing. Things. I love the idea of that. A repeat, a repel, repeat offender, repeat yest. I love it. Thank much.

can call repeat I’ve call worse.

been brilliant. I’ve it. Thank Laura.

Brilliant. Thank you so much, Emma, thank you.

I don’t what I’m saying, hold on, I’m going to stop recording, that’s good, that was so good, all there, that was so good,

Sure.

Oh my God, we went into such so much chatter. I love that, I love when it flows like that and it’s like I, I was gonna, there’s so many things I was gonna say and let me get going off on hundreds, but I think it’s really interesting as a stylist hearing what other people do and everyone wants to be a fly on the wall on other people’s jobs to see if there’s something they could pick up and tips. And they think something’s completely differently. And I don’t think it is. I think it’s all pretty much the thing.

don’t think so.

So.

Yeah, yeah, definitely, yeah. And you do kind of because you’re working on your own, you’ve got no feedback. It’s not like you get a yearly review to say, oh, this is how you’re doing and this is maybe an area you can work on. It’s just you, isn’t it? And you’re constantly questioning yourself and constantly going is this, is this right, is this good enough, Is this how I should be doing it? Is this how other stylists are doing it? But yeah, you’re right. I mean we, we should just crack on and stop thinking things like that because everyone’s doing the same thing basically.

Yes. Exactly, exactly. Now, can you send me a headshot over, please? And I will put that in with all of the promotional stuff.

Yes, I can, yeah.

I, I’d like to get this one, one up on Friday if possible, because the one happened on Friday was boring. And then I want to put this one out straight away. So um, I’ll let you know and I’ll send you the link and

Okay, and do you needed any references for anything? We talk, so we need, do you want to write me a list?

do that. The yeah, if if there’s anything I can’t find or I’m unsure of, I’ll, I’ll drop you a line. But I’m usually I can find.

Hello.

Not even if I spell things wrong, they can, Google works out what I’m trying to say, so it should be wrong.

Okay, cool,

I have to order a book.

yeah, any if you need anything. I’m basically planning all week, so I’m at my desk for most of the week, so yeah, just let me know.

Cool. And last question I’m planning in workshops at the moment, I’ve got got one on Seo which is really interesting,

Yep.

what’s going on with that, which is good for websites and people’s profiles. And I’ve got one on U Affiliates because affiliates all the way things are going at the moment. And I think even if people aren’t doing it themselves, I think it’s quite useful to understand what magazines and brands and things are doing.

Yeah, definitely.

Is there anything you would be interested in learning or would like me to get an expert? You know, you don’t have to answer me now if you want to have a think, but I’ve done pensions and I’ve done tax,

Okay.

but I think it can always be reviewed. I’m probably going to try and get someone from the Intellectual Property Office back on to talk about copyright, but if there’s anything you can think of that you you’d like to have a deeper dive into,

Yeah.

let go, because I’m to get people lined up for the rest of the year.

Okay, okay, deep. P I have a little ponder, yeah.

S It’s still recording. Why is it still recording? That’s really way anyway. I will edit, edit the chat around. Thank you so much. I ketch you longer than I meant to,

Oh no,

but it f.

it was lovely, I really enjoyed it. Thanks and if you ever, yeah, if you ever need anything, as I say, happy Nata.

I want to come to Manchester,

You need to come to Manchester,

I need to go to propaganda,

you need to go to Propaganda.

and we need to have coffee or piza.

I need to take you to Ros and Gray and uh, Idaho and all of the lovely. Come for a day in Manchester and I’ll give you a guided, a stylist guided tour. We’ll record it.

That’s a great idea. Let’s do it. Okay, So about three years time,

Book it in when you’ve got some free time.

you and me in the pyramids.

Book it in.

Thank you. I’m let you go. Chan.

All right,

Right,

all right. Thanks so much,

Thank you.

love. Take care, em there.