Fashion School Doesn’t Work

Today’s topic is something that I’m sure many of you can relate to – fashion school. Raise your hand if you’re personally victimized by fashion school.

I attended four years of fashion school to learn how to be a fashion designer, and I left school in debt, clueless, and wondering what to do next. In today’s video, I’ll tell you why those other fashion schools, whether traditional or found online, don’t work.

First and foremost, they fail to teach you how to run a business or even understand how it works. When I went to fashion design school, I learned nothing about how the fashion industry worked. I didn’t know how to start a business, monetize my creativity, or understand business. I left school with the ability to be more creative, but I had no clue how to monetize it.

For the past 13 years, I’ve been teaching stylists because it pains me to think that so many people are spending money just to be better at their craft, which is not enough. You need to understand business, and that’s why the core focus of my program, Style Boss Academy, is business. We’re barely talking about clothes; we’re talking about business. That’s why you’re not making money – you don’t understand business.

The second reason fashion schools fail you is that they leave out mindset. Suppose you don’t have a great attitude; good luck being successful. This was a massive awakening for me when I started getting into styling. My brain always felt like it was on fire, and I would wake up wondering how I would make money and survive and how everyone around me was crazy. Once I started working with mentors who told me to get my brain together and journal, meditate, and pray, it changed everything.

That’s why the first module in my program is a mindset, getting your mind right. I promise you; it’s worth it alone for the mindset. My students say their minds are blown, and they’re grateful for the mindset training. These other schools teach business, but they don’t teach mindset. Success is 80% mindset and 20% mechanics. If your mindset is trash, your little 20% of how good you are at styling won’t help you succeed.

Lastly, these schools, especially the cookie-cutter schools, try to do what I do, but they don’t know the secrets, the juice. They’re committed to teaching people cookie-cutter businesses and styling businesses. Even though I used to introduce a formula that worked for stylists, it was too formulaic and left no room for creativity.

Now, I leave my students with a lot of rope and tell them to figure it out. You’re a boss; figure it out—no more cookie-cutter stuff. If you want to be different in the market, if you want people to be intrigued, you must be creative.

Fashion school doesn’t work because they don’t teach you how to run a business or understand it, leave out mindset, and try to teach you cookie-cutter companies. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that being good at your craft is enough. You need to understand business, have an incredible mindset, and be creative to succeed.