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This is a show for burnt-out fashion designers (and TDs, PDs, patternmakers and beyond) who want more flexibility while still doing work they love. As a freelance fashion designer, you can build your fashion career on your own terms. Freelancing in fashion is the only way to get freedom in your day (instead of being tied to a desk). Whether you want to earn extra money on the side, fund your fashion brand, or replace your salary, the FDGP podcast will help you get there. Listen in for actionable tips and strategies to kickstart or grow your career as a freelance fashion designer, build your confidence, and create the life you want. Hosted by $100k+ fashion freelancer Sew Heidi, the show features interviews and strategy sessions with successful freelance fashion designers from around the world who've ditched toxic fashion jobs and taken control of their own destinies. This is the only place to get REAL insights from REAL freelancers who have built REAL careers on their own terms. (Formerly the Successful Fashion Freelancer podcast.)
Heidi [00:00:00]:
If you
Heidi [00:00:00]:
have ever wanted to grow beyond a solo freelancer and build an entire fashion design agency, it's exactly what my guest today did. Lindsey Condole went from a solo freelancer to a cofounder of a full service fashion design agency in just 2 years. In the last 8 months since she started her agency, she has worked with 20 clients. We walked through all the ups and downs of her journey, including where she finds clients. Hint, Instagram has worked really well for her. We also chat through what her team looks like and how she's managing growth and always evaluating her marketing strategy to make sure it is effective. You're gonna love this episode. Let's get to it.
Heidi [00:00:37]:
Alright. I wanna hear about all the things.
Heidi [00:00:41]:
Help me all the things. So I mean,
Heidi [00:00:44]:
the little bit that I know is I know you joined F. A. S. T. In June 2022 and you very quickly got like, your first client. You sent me your invoice in an Instagram DMs, and you're
Lindsay Kondel [00:00:57]:
like, look.
Heidi [00:00:59]:
And then Yeah. It's a lot has happened since then. You now, like, own a whole design agency and have a team. So do tell.
Lindsay Kondel [00:01:09]:
Yeah. A 100%. So I started your like, back in the day, like, early pandemic, I was doing some of your course your your classes, and I loved it. I I felt like everything that you you were, the way that you would speak to your community and the way that you would teach things was very understandable and very relatable. And I would, you know, go to my office and be like, check out the, you know, check out the programs from So Heidi and like, they're so great. So then like people in my office were all doing your program. Oh, thank you. Anyway, a few years later, I then, I was working as head of design for an activewear label here in Melbourne.
Lindsay Kondel [00:01:49]:
I decided I wanted to go out, independently and do my own thing. Immediately, I knew that I needed a game plan, because I'm I'm a very structured person. And without structure, it it, like, it didn't feel like I was gonna have a road map. So Yeah. Joined fast, went right into that. I was listening to your podcast. I would listen to it, like, while I'm driving, while I was doing, my exercise in the morning. And, but I would find myself literally stopping to take notes from your strategy sessions that you had on your podcast, like a few years ago, because it was really actionable advice.
Lindsay Kondel [00:02:29]:
I found it really helpful. So I definitely applied everything that I learned through your fast program, immediately into where I started, which was fab in freelancing, and I focused in design and tech packs. And then I did that kind of in tandem with, like, I kind of knew in the background that I wanted to do an agency structure because I really, really enjoy working with multiple clients and on different projects. It's very exciting. I have experience working for big brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Esprit, and they're amazing. But I really love the diversity that comes with working with different clients on different brands, different projects. So, anyway, freelancing and kind of parallel thinking about how to build an agency in the background. But with freelancing, I definitely, yeah, applied everything that you had been saying when it came to everyone's pain points, like pricing, scope creep, reaching out to clients, just how to manage those expectations.
Lindsay Kondel [00:03:39]:
It was really helpful because there's not really a guide out there And people just don't you don't know how to you don't know how to do what you've never done. So that was really helpful. So I went from freelancing and then, decided to open an agency.
Heidi [00:03:59]:
Okay. So talk us through, like, the early days where when were you still working your job and kind of freelancing on the side? Like, what did those first few clients look like with your life? Yep. And how did you get like, do you remember how you got the first few clients and how you got your kick start?
Lindsay Kondel [00:04:17]:
Yeah. Okay. So I did a cold cut. I, like, quit my job altogether. Okay. And just kind of went into it head first. And, we feels like such a blur because it was like so much has happened in the last 2 years. Yeah.
Lindsay Kondel [00:04:38]:
I say we, I'm thinking of my agency, but but me, I no. Immediately was just freelancing. At first I took like a 3 month break because after being in the industry for like, you know, 12 years, I was like, okay, woah, I just got married. I need, I'm doing a bit of a reset and I needed a break and it was amazing. It was the best thing that I could suggest to anyone. If you, you know, are trying to transition from one chapter to the next, take a second. So I ended up how did I get my first clients? I I've always been really unafraid to reach out to people. So I was constantly just meeting with people for coffee, reaching out to companies, you know, even if they were looking for a full time designer in house, I would still reach out to them and say, hey.
Lindsay Kondel [00:05:30]:
I love what you guys are doing. I really believe in it, and I know that you're looking for full time support. But in the interim, how can I you know, here's what I can do, and I can support you bridging that gap, which people were receptive to?
Heidi [00:05:47]:
Yeah.
Lindsay Kondel [00:05:47]:
And I would do that remotely. So I had a few different clients that I would work with, and a lot of times it would just be design or I had a couple where it was, like, pretty full on it. It would be like design, tech packs, product development. And then in January 2025, I stopped freelancing and just worked on fashion, like, my fashion design agency, Stack Studio full time. Sorry. January 2023? Yes. Sorry. Oh, thank you.
Lindsay Kondel [00:06:18]:
You said, no. No.
Heidi [00:06:18]:
No. 5. I was like, we're not even
Lindsay Kondel [00:06:20]:
there yet. In my head, I'm already there. Okay. Totally. In my head, I'm in Jan 2025, but, no. So it was Jan 2024. Okay. So a year and a half in.
Lindsay Kondel [00:06:35]:
Yeah. A year and a half in, I was like, alright, I'm gonna just go hard. I've got a, co founder of the business and we decided in Jan 2024 that we were gonna just go in, like, a 100%, because we were doing it kind of parallel to freelancing or other jobs. She had her own brand. And we were getting a lot of traction. It started scaling. It was getting really exciting, and we just started it started growing and growing. And then we're like, okay.
Lindsay Kondel [00:07:08]:
Wow. To service all of the clients and do this really properly, we need to give it a 110%. So, yeah, Jan 2024, that's when we changed. So it's really been, like, the last 6 months that has been, you know, if I so it was really, like, 7 days a week, but, yeah, 247. Yeah. And then prior to that, we were both working on it about maybe 2 or 3 days a week, which is not that much. So Okay. It yeah.
Lindsay Kondel [00:07:38]:
It was exciting to be able to get traction even when you're not giving it, you know, a full time job schedule. Yeah. But yeah, so we transitioned to doing it full time and we've grown to having a portfolio of like over 20 clients in the last few months. Wow. Which has been really exciting. Yeah, so we, yeah, so we were working with, a lot of like emerging brands, startups, and established businesses that are maybe, let's say like 3 to 5 years old. And they're kind of in that sweet spot of, they don't need a full team, like in house yet, but they do need some support because they need to focus on operating their business. Right? So driving it forward and, you know, they may not have the background of doing design, doing the product development, and they don't wanna spend a lot of time, you know, putting energy into something where they're gonna just they're wasting time, wasting money on samples that aren't working.
Lindsay Kondel [00:08:38]:
So it's better just to go with people that know what they're doing. Yeah. We have a lot of clients that come to us that they're like, okay. I've tried spearheading this myself. Like, I've always had a dream of having my own brand. And they've spent, you know, maybe a year trying to get their samples right. And they come to us and they're like, this is what I've tried. These are the challenges that I've faced.
Lindsay Kondel [00:09:02]:
And, you know, what can I do to get this outcome to, to actually be what I want? And that's where we would come in, in that particular type of case and say, all right, cool. We're gonna help you, you know, restructure your tech pack and redo your, like your specs and stuff like that.
Heidi [00:09:22]:
Okay. Gotcha. So you, so first of all, how did you connect with your co founder initially? You said she like had her own brand, but how did you guys know each other?
Lindsay Kondel [00:09:32]:
Yeah. Okay. So funny story. So I lived in Germany for about 5 years and we both worked for a spree, but we didn't know each other. It's a big company. So we're living in Dusseldorf. Yeah. Yeah.
Lindsay Kondel [00:09:44]:
Do you know a spree?
Heidi [00:09:45]:
I do know a spree. I feel like I wore it when I was a
Lindsay Kondel [00:09:49]:
kid, when I
Heidi [00:09:50]:
was a
Lindsay Kondel [00:09:51]:
little girl. Same. Same. Yeah. Same. So it was really yeah. It's really funny. We were both, like even though I'm from the US and she's from originally from, from Melbourne, we were both in Dusseldorf in this small town, in Germany.
Lindsay Kondel [00:10:04]:
If you don't know Dusseldorf, it's kind of near Cologne. And she was working as a designer in, like, I think it was, like, casual shirts or something like this, and I was doing accessories. We're completely different areas of the building, Never crossed paths ever, except I went to her going away party, which is so funny. And then I ended up moving to Melbourne about 2 years later. Reached out to her. We reconnected, and then we just ended up, like, hitting it off. And she had her brand. She's she'd been building that for about 5 years.
Lindsay Kondel [00:10:39]:
And, yeah, the rest is history. We it was just funny. We we were really aligned on so many of the same things. We had a lot of the same style. We complemented each other in opposite areas, where she's an incredible designer, but I and I would say between the 2 of us though, like, I'm not as technical as she is. Like, she is an absolute gun and absolute wizard. Like, she actually was on project runway and one project runway. So she's, like, incredibly
Heidi [00:11:08]:
she's very, very skilled. Some people, like, know how to make season.
Lindsay Kondel [00:11:15]:
This is going back, like, 10 years ago. Her name is Christina Xy. It's Xy. It was the Australian, yeah, project by the way. So Okay. Well, maybe not. Maybe not. Maybe not.
Lindsay Kondel [00:11:26]:
But, yeah, and, where was I going with that? I just lost my job. Well, I just asked you how you guys did so bad. We came together.
Heidi [00:11:37]:
Yeah. And then talk to me a little bit about because you sorry. Go ahead.
Lindsay Kondel [00:11:43]:
No, that was it. We came together in Melbourne and it kind of just, we had a really good, chemistry and we're aligned on a lot of things and it the rest is history. We kind of just went into working together. And I would say this is not your average story of business partners. Like, we're very lucky in the sense that it just all lined up for us in terms of, the goals and the things that we wanted and the way that we complement each other's working styles. So that's how we met and that is, yeah, kind of where we are today. Now we're very, very close and, yeah, definitely couldn't do it without her, for sure.
Heidi [00:12:24]:
That's awesome. Talk a little bit about, I mean, you said it was interesting to me because you, the way you talked about like your freelancing business and your studio, your agency felt like 2 very different things. You're like, okay, I was working on this 2 or 3 days a week, and I was working on my and and I was working my freelance business 2 or 3 days a week. And then in January 24, I decided to go all the way in. Like, how did you Yeah. Keep those 2 businesses separate? Like, what did that actually look like? Because I I feel like most of the time it's like you start a freelance business, then it kind of just evolves into the agency and you start hiring some people to do the work. And it it just felt like they were so separate.
Lindsay Kondel [00:13:04]:
Yes. That's a really good point and it was a little bit challenging. So, in the beginning yeah. So I was freelancing and I was just freelancing under, like, my personal name, Lindsay Rosnick, which is now Condell. I then created, like a freelance business, which it's called Condell Studios. Anyway, that's, that was basically just like the business name for like my ABN, which is like tax purposes. Anyway. But I kept that quite separate because I would do a limited scope of the projects.
Lindsay Kondel [00:13:36]:
So we're really focusing on design and tech packs for some clients, which I had, a lot of work with, I would help them through the product, like, the fabric sourcing product development side of things, but I would really end there. So if they needed, like, a garment tech or they needed support with fittings, I could help them with from a design perspective and what the vision was shaping that in fitting, but I was very clear that I needed someone who's technical to execute it. As in, you know, we need, we need a garment tech. And in terms of like production and stuff like that, that was also where my kind of boundary lines were. Whereas with my business, I was really, you know, we together are helping from the full end to end spectrum. So we initially started with doing, you know, we help with design with the tech packs, product development, production, and now we even have expanded to include, like, brand development. Because what we found is that a lot of people start their own brand, but they don't necessarily have the brand DNA and the the the vision and the mission and the purpose sorted out and you need that. Like, that is the soul of your business.
Lindsay Kondel [00:15:03]:
So you need you really need to have that. So we help people through, a brand building process. And then from there, it organically funnels through the rest of the process. Okay. So I think because there was that hard stop, and I was not working with them for, like, on the freelance side of things. It was generally, like, here's a project. Okay. Great.
Lindsay Kondel [00:15:27]:
We've done that. That's wrapped. And I'd have a few of those going. But with Stack, it's very much like an ongoing long term type of working relationship. Okay. And Does that make sense?
Heidi [00:15:40]:
Yeah. It does make sense. So quick clarification for people listening who don't know, your company now is called Stacked Studio. So you said stacked, and they don't I'm not sure they would know what you're referencing. Yeah. So, I mean, but it's still interesting to me, I guess. So so when you were still doing both, working as an independent freelancer, as well as working on Stacked, like, and a new client would come to you, how did you decide like, if they only needed design and tech packs, you would take them as a freelancer. If they needed a larger breadth package, then you would put them into Stacked? Or, like, or did Yeah.
Heidi [00:16:20]:
And brands, like, maybe start working with you independently, and then you would transition them into Stacked because then they needed, like, the second half and you were like, well, I can't do that as an individual freelancer, but my design agency, like, what did that look like? Yeah. Initially I would say
Lindsay Kondel [00:16:36]:
it is. It was definitely challenging. Like you obviously don't want to cannibalize one over the other, but at the same time, if you look at it as like someone comes to you and you can kind of qualify them and say, okay, you know what? As a freelancer, I charge in as, it was a lower rate at that time when I was first getting started. Stacked being 2 people or now we're a team, that pricing structure was very different. So based on knowing what that person's budget was, it was an opportunity to kind of catch them and say, alright. You know, we're both only focused on our we have only x amount of time with the capacity for stat. Okay. Great.
Lindsay Kondel [00:17:15]:
Well, I can still catch them and and try to get business out of it. So alright. You know, great. If you you maybe are at x amount, you have a a budget of, like, x amount, that might be better fitted to my freelancing. And then if you have a little bit more capital to really create a full brow brand brand, then stacked would be better. But it did start to become quite complicated, and which is why it just organically made sense. I didn't ever really wanna have both parallel, but that was just kind of how it went in the initial sort of testing phases. Because you need to know you need to have, like, an idea and a gauge and a temperature read.
Lindsay Kondel [00:18:00]:
Is this business structure gonna work? The agency. Is there, you know, is there an appetite in the market for it? Yes or no? And if it works, amazing. If it doesn't fail, fail fast. But once we started having an understanding that people did have a need for our services, we were able to, like, switch gears very quickly.
Heidi [00:18:21]:
Mhmm.
Lindsay Kondel [00:18:22]:
So that was always the that was always the goal. Like, we both wanted Stack to become something much larger. But in the beginning, you also need to be able to make money and, you know, pay your bills. So for me, that was through freelancing because when you open up a business, like, if you, you know, no one knows who you are. So the 1st 6 months, it's just relationship building and seed, planting, and it takes a lot of time to really get the ball going. And so, yeah, I needed to be able to like supplement my income through freelancing. So that was the main reason. But I wouldn't like in a perfect world, I wouldn't recommend doing that focus on your business, but I needed, I needed to make income.
Lindsay Kondel [00:19:11]:
So that's how I did it. I used the skills that I had just to, like, freelance.
Heidi [00:19:14]:
Okay. Totally cool. So how did you start getting, like, like, I know at the beginning you were like, oh, I was reaching out to brands or like pitching if they had a full time job. You were like, oh, if you need help in the interim, I can support you in these ways. As your freelance business grew, and then also as you were building Stacked alongside it, when you, where you said you were working maybe 2 or 3 days a week on it, How did you continue to get clients over that 1st year and a half in both of those ventures?
Lindsay Kondel [00:19:47]:
Mhmm. Okay. So I would say that within my own personal freelancing, I got lucky. I found a client, through a relationship that I had built that was starting a business and they really needed support in those, like in those pillars of design tech pack and like fabric sourcing and stuff. So I was able to work with them about like 3 days a week, 2 to 3 days a week. Sometimes a little bit more. Yes. I had multiple clients, but because I was able to have retention with them, that stabilized that.
Lindsay Kondel [00:20:21]:
And then I was able to project what my income would be, roughly. And then I knew, okay. Cool. I've got, you know, 2 days if if I'm with them 3 days a week, I've got 2 days for Stack, and then I've also got the weekend. But the way that we were getting clients through Sac, because I think that's a little bit more interesting, is initially, you obviously do a lot of outbound lead generation. So you're reaching out to people, and just meeting with people, trying to connect, you know, sharing your story with people. And then it kind of switches to like word-of-mouth and people are coming into you. But I would say like, we're caught that is like the number one focus at all times is lead generation, a 100%.
Lindsay Kondel [00:21:07]:
So we're always trying to get people through the funnel. We're always trying to, cultivate those relationships, and it's definitely it's yeah, it's, that's a full time job in itself.
Heidi [00:21:21]:
Yeah. Yeah. You do have
Lindsay Kondel [00:21:22]:
to do marketing. Do you, I know you're
Heidi [00:21:24]:
pretty active on Instagram. Is that a good platform for you guys?
Lindsay Kondel [00:21:28]:
Yeah. For our business, it is, it is a really good platform, because we work with a lot of influencer led businesses through our design agency. That is a space which, yeah, which that, that does really help. I would say, I mean, this is my personal opinion, but I I was actually listening to a podcast episode that you did not well, it was a long time ago, but I recently relistened to it with Kristen Anderson. I've been she was talking a little bit about, Instagram and whatnot. And I was like, oh, it's so funny to like, there's so many different ways to approach it and what works for one person doesn't work necessarily for the other. In our case, I would say we are pretty consistent with posting. I think we could do more, but, we have a structure and pillars that we work into and we're posting about, like, 3 or 4 times a week, and that has really helped to generate brand awareness for our business.
Lindsay Kondel [00:22:25]:
And we also do collaborative educational posts with another, US based agency. So I think between those audiences and us constantly kind of like showing up and trying to be present that has really helped. We do get a lot of our leads through Instagram, funny enough, but not LinkedIn. Like I know some people really thrive on LinkedIn that hasn't worked for like, for me personally, that hasn't worked.
Heidi [00:22:52]:
Interesting. I'm a big believer
Lindsay Kondel [00:22:54]:
in LinkedIn these days. Oh, totally. I mean, we have a, like, we have a presence on LinkedIn. We're doing like not blog posts, but we're doing like we are active in. Yeah. The articles we are participating, but out of all of our clients, we have like one from LinkedIn. Interesting. Which I find interesting because a lot of people find that to be really successful.
Lindsay Kondel [00:23:16]:
I think if you're doing freelancing and you're an independent freelancer, that avenue is definitely the way like, you should definitely be active and tap into that. But if you have an agency, it's a little bit harder. I think, yeah, that's just been my experience. I find that it's really great for your freelancing. But from the other business perspective, it hasn't really converted.
Heidi [00:23:44]:
Okay. Have you, like, I'm just curious, have has your engagement on LinkedIn been via, like, a business page or via you as an individual person?
Lindsay Kondel [00:23:56]:
All of the above. So we've got an we have a business page, and we are, like, inviting followers. We're doing the posts on there, and then we both reshare Both myself and my business partner will reshare on our personal pages. For her, she's really spent a long time building her LinkedIn presence. So it does get engagement for me, like, I don't get engagements. It doesn't really matter if I reshare the posts or not. But yeah, if, if you are someone who's quite active on LinkedIn, I would say definitely have your business page and then like funnel it through to your personal as
Heidi [00:24:37]:
well. Okay. Interesting because everything that I've read and heard and learned over like the past year about LinkedIn is that they really favor people, not businesses.
Lindsay Kondel [00:24:48]:
And Really? Okay.
Heidi [00:24:49]:
Mhmm. And so you will get, like, I wouldn't even and and I'm not an expert on LinkedIn either, but like my experience, and from what I know, I would advise someone, you can have a business page set up, but like, whatever. Don't post there and then repost it to your business. Just post everything organically through your personal. Like, I even, this is beyond fashion, but even, companies, large corporate companies and and businesses are incentivizing their employees to post as individual people, not like repost what the company has, but like individually post. Because those posts, like their executive team and stuff, those posts from individual people get so much more traction than anything that comes out of a business page even if the business has, like, a 100,000 followers or something. So I've heard it's a really big shift towards people. Yeah.
Lindsay Kondel [00:25:48]:
That makes a lot of sense. I mean, like I said earlier, like, LinkedIn hasn't been a focus for me because I've just noticed, like, that hasn't been working. So I've put my attention elsewhere, but I think that does make sense because we're living we're really in an era of of people wanting to connect with other people, not businesses necessarily. So it's it is, like, if you are getting traction that way or if a business is getting traction through, like, employees that they work with, it's because people, you know, recognize there's something in that person who's posting that they like, that they align with. And there's a lot of power in that as well.
Heidi [00:26:28]:
Yeah. For sure. For sure. Okay. So a lot from Instagram, not so much LinkedIn. You mentioned that you partner with this other agency in the US. So do you do primarily stuff that's in you do you do primarily work with brands in Australia?
Lindsay Kondel [00:26:44]:
Yeah. We do. We're really excited to be, hopefully, expanding into the US market in well, I mean, we're we're working on it now, but, like, in 20 we really wanna get, business established in the US. But for now, we're focused on, like, where we're located. But the the, the I say agency, they have, like, sort of an umbrella business, and they're very much involved in the streetwear community, which if you don't know about us, we're focused on activewear, athleisure, streetwear. So originally, we just connected purely for our love of streetwear.
Heidi [00:27:24]:
Okay.
Lindsay Kondel [00:27:26]:
We well, the the Instagram handle, which we collaborate with, is called streetwear of roses. And but they also have an agency which is, like, separate to their business, and they're doing a lot of stuff in, like, ads and creative content and whatnot. But Streetwear of Roses is very much, yeah, streetwear culture focused. And initially, we had just met up and we're like, hey. We love the same things. I love absolutely everything that you're doing and the awareness that you're bringing within the streetwear community. I really like that we just clicked on so many levels and we're like, hey, you know, I feel like we'd be better together. What can we do? How can we bring our businesses potentially to, you know, share audiences with one another because there's synergies between our businesses, just in the sense of, like, general interest.
Lindsay Kondel [00:28:18]:
And we're like, cool. You know what? Like, you're trying to grow your agency side of things, and we're also trying to grow, like, our streetwear side of things and, like, really bring bring, like, this bring a soul and, like, a personality to our brand. So why don't we do, like, a collaborative post each week? And so we'll do a post, which is typically educational, but it makes it it it marries in with, like, the streetwear dynamic. Like, it it marries together somehow beautifully. I don't make the post. Actually, Christina does. She's, like, brilliant at it. So I don't know how she does it, but she they it marries together really well, and that's been a really beautiful, partnership between the 2 of us.
Lindsay Kondel [00:29:06]:
We've only been doing it for close to 2 months, but, yeah, it's been great in that sense.
Heidi [00:29:11]:
That's awesome. That's awesome. Very cool that, like, you guys were able to come together and see each other as collaborators and and not like, oh, we're actually competing against them. Because I feel like that's the initial thought or emotion that people have when they see, like, oh, they're another agency. I know you said they also have their own brand. I think you said that, right?
Lindsay Kondel [00:29:28]:
Yeah.
Heidi [00:29:29]:
Yeah.
Lindsay Kondel [00:29:29]:
They've got their own brand. They've got their, like, streetwear kind of like, this is almost like a news outlet, but I think, and they even do offer services of agency things like fashion design, production, whatnot. But I think that at the end of the day, there's always competitors out there and there's always people, like, everything has been done before, but there's space for everyone. And that's something that people should remember. You can actually be, like, stronger together, and you can be better together. And I think that if you if you authentically believe in that, it you just there's so much you have so much opportunity. And if you just look at each other as competitors, you're kind of closing yourself off to bigger opportunities. For sure.
Lindsay Kondel [00:30:13]:
That's just yeah. That's my view on it.
Heidi [00:30:16]:
Yeah.
Lindsay Kondel [00:30:16]:
I agree. They should be so competitive anyway.
Heidi [00:30:19]:
I know. We have so many freelancers in fast who are, like, they're in the same niche and they're friends, and they refer projects to each other all the time because one person's busy or this client is just for some reason a better fit for them versus, you know, and it's it's very cool. Even though they're technically, like, in the same niche, so it's really cool. I'd love to talk about, yeah, I'd love to talk about, your team. Who who's on your team? What does this look like?
Lindsay Kondel [00:30:50]:
Okay. So this has been such an exciting, this is such an exciting topic, I think, for us this year, especially because both, myself and Christina are pregnant. I'm actually 8 months pregnant right now. Oh, you are? Congrats. Thanks. So we've been we've been growing our team, but we've also been put in a position where we need to accelerate that as well. And so, yeah, we're actually yeah. We're both due in October.
Lindsay Kondel [00:31:19]:
And so we have a team of freelancers that we work with, and it is yeah. It's been such an amazing experience to be able to build those relationships with people because I've been a freelancer. I know what that feels like. And I try really, really hard to treat the freelancers that we work with and the, just in general, all the things that I didn't experience, I try to be mindful of paying them their value. I try to be mindful of just including the like, including them into the business and, like, getting them to really buy into it and believe in it as well. I tried to also really cultivate this, atmosphere of, like, it's okay if you don't know how to do something. Let's acknowledge it, and we'll figure out a different thing that you can work on or everybody makes mistakes. I feel like the fashion industry is so strict, and it's it's one of those things where back in the day, you know, if you didn't know how to do something, people would kind of like, they'd be like, well, she doesn't know how to do this.
Lindsay Kondel [00:32:25]:
Like, let's let's and no one's perfect. No one knows how to do everything. Let's just call it out, work on it. I'm happy to show you what it is. If you have a question, we can just, like, keep it moving. And, like, that's so fun. So we've got a team. We've got, we've got Jazz who is working with us on, the product development side of things and tech packs and specs.
Lindsay Kondel [00:32:49]:
And we're training her as we go into sort of a bit of a new space being new moms to be involved with, lead generation and and nurturing the our clients being a little bit more client facing, which is just a really fun experience in general. And then we've got, some freelancers that we work with, like, purely on tech packs, purely with sketching. We've got a podcast as well, Dress to Skill. We work with a podcast editor for that. And then we are also bringing on board a VA, which is its own process in and of itself. Sure is.
Heidi [00:33:26]:
So that's I can attest
Lindsay Kondel [00:33:28]:
to that firsthand. Yeah. Like, I I've never I've only hired within the fashion space, so I know exactly what that trajectory looks like. But with the VA, it's a little grayer for me. We also work with consultants. I mean, they're not on our team, but I consider them, like, to because we're all, like, aiming in for the same goal. So we work with a business development manager, and we work with a business coach. And they're all incredible people and definitely, you can't know everything as a business owner.
Lindsay Kondel [00:33:59]:
So you may as well just acknowledge that and go to an expert who can teach you, you know, give you their experience and their knowledge and just save you a lot of time.
Heidi [00:34:10]:
Yeah. What would you say are some of the things that, a business coach is helping with? Cause I think I love that you're continuing to invest in like your business development. I think that's a really important thing, even though you already have such a strong base. Like what are some of the things you're learning from that person that you feel like would have been a lot harder on your own?
Lindsay Kondel [00:34:35]:
So he comes in and he has really helped set us up with this is gonna sound simp I'm like, it sounds like I'm simplifying it, like spreadsheets. So for example, he has really helped us to learn how to quantify things through data. So I'll give you an example. That might look like this complex spreadsheet for lead can that get okay. It's like it'll break it down and show you how many leads are you contacting per week. Alright. How many of you converted from the people that you've contacted? What funnel are they coming through? Is it word-of-mouth? Is it Facebook? Is it, Instagram? Is it TikTok? Okay. Cool.
Lindsay Kondel [00:35:14]:
And then these formulas help you understand the percentage of your it under you understand your conversion rate. Mhmm. And then it helps you as well with, like, quarterly and monthly knowing all of this data so you can know how to focus your energy, and where to put your efforts because you can't just spread it everywhere. So it's like, okay. LinkedIn, like I said earlier, that's not really working for us. Cool. No problem. Word-of-mouth is alright.
Lindsay Kondel [00:35:42]:
How do we get that going? That's its own complex kind of space because it's word-of-mouth. But if you wanna do outbound leads, where do you focus it? Okay. Instagram, that path is working for us. Cool. So there's that component of it, and then he also looks at things, like, from above and says, alright. If you're gonna be hiring people, you know, what's the most important? There are KPIs, but I forget what he called it. But there's, like, a, like, a there's, like, emotional intelligent indicators as well. For example, one of the things that he said to me was, like, McDonald's has not just, like, KPIs, but they have these, like, these targets that they they want all their employees to hit, which come more from, like, an emotional standpoint.
Lindsay Kondel [00:36:32]:
So how I would apply that to my business, I'm explaining it horribly, but it's like, alright. If you were put in a position with a client, how do you handle this? What is what is the bar? What is the baseline for how we, at our business, wanna interact and and how do we handle customers? And that is super important because the way that I react to something might be totally different than how you react to something. Sure. But it all needs to be holistic. Like, I can't be reacting one way and then you being like, oh my gosh. No. That's so wrong. Like, we all need to be really aligned.
Lindsay Kondel [00:37:08]:
So that's been really helpful, and then he also really helps, looking in at kind of a finance perspective. Now that is Christina's bag in her area, not mine. So I can't tell you too much about how he's helped with that, but I know it's been incredibly helpful. Just really streamlining things, making sure that it's being set up the right way when you look at the, you know, what are your operating expenses? What are you, you know, what are you trying to hit? What are your projections? What do you how much money do you wanna make in 1 year versus 3 years? And it helps you set the building blocks for how to get there. So it really forces you to do a lot of homework, which is good because a lot of people don't have time to do that homework, but you have to put in the hard work.
Heidi [00:37:58]:
Yeah. Cause you have someone doing it and holding you accountable and saying, I need you to get me
Lindsay Kondel [00:38:04]:
this thing. And yeah. Yeah. It's literally like going to school and same with our business development manager. Like she came in and, looked over a lot of stuff and was like, all right, your pitch deck or your proposals, you know, these need to be improved. I would record, like a discovery call with a client. She would listen to it, which is it's intimidating to have to record yourself, you know, speaking to someone and just like, okay, this is what I would adjust and this is what you need to, like, you, you know, this is how you need to be like qualifying people, disqualifying people. These are your, like, key closing questions and stuff like that.
Lindsay Kondel [00:38:44]:
And I think all of this is super applicable to being an in like, individual freelancer as well. Because at the end of the day, if you need to know from an agency point of view, what is someone's, like, timeline, their budget, their, you know, their challenges. Like, you need to know that as an individual freelancer as well. Because if you're not addressing what is their budget, well, then you might be charging either far too much or far too little, and then you need to assess. Is this someone that I wanna, like, either compromise and lower my rates to work with or bump it up? So it's just it's about being informed, and I think everybody, like, the specialists that we work with, just teach us how to constantly be informing ourselves in particular areas.
Heidi [00:39:31]:
That's amazing. Where did you find these 2 beautiful humans?
Lindsay Kondel [00:39:36]:
I think our business could be found through a friend, like word-of-mouth. And then, the the business development manager, she is she's an absolute gun. We found her, my business partner went to a, some kind of a marketing dinner and sat next to her and they hit it off. And then we ended up meeting and we were like, wow, we are like, we are super aligned on the way that we think, the way that we function. I'd love to be able to pick your brain. And then organically, we realized how she has so much value and knowledge that she can bring. And we just asked her. She she wasn't even doing consulting, but we're like, can we engage you in your expertise and pay you for your knowledge and help, like, yeah, help, you know, set us on the right path so we don't waste time.
Lindsay Kondel [00:40:24]:
Yeah. And she's like, sure. I'd love to.
Heidi [00:40:26]:
Yeah. Those are such smart moves and, like, going to I mean, you guys are only sit it's August of 2024 that we're recording this, August 8th. And you guys are, like, still in the infancy, I feel like, and yet you're building this amazing foundation and getting, like, investing in the business to get the right support, to do things right, and to, like, skip over learning these lessons firsthand, which can just derail you and slow your growth down so much. So, we'll have to have you on in another year or 2 and see what all has transpired.
Lindsay Kondel [00:41:06]:
Yeah. Yeah. I'm looking forward to being able to look back on some of this brand and business building and and see how it's been evolved because now we're in the trenches. So it's a lot of work and it's a lot of fun, but I'm really excited for, to I'm really looking forward to like a year or 2 from now seeing how it's transpired as well.
Heidi [00:41:28]:
Yeah. This has been lovely. Thank you so much for coming to chat, Lindsay. And I would love to ask you the question I ask everybody at the end of the interview, which is what is one thing people never ask you about freelancing and fashion that you wish they would? Or maybe owning a design agency?
Lindsay Kondel [00:41:50]:
That is a great question. What do people never ask me? Probably what we one of the things that we touched on, like, how do you do it? People never asked me, like, how do you do it all? But I wish that they did because then I wish I could tell them, you don't know everything. Go out. Don't be afraid. Ask for help. Find out what you can do. Always be working on yourself. And if you like, if that's a weakness like a weak spot in freelancing as an individual, if you're like, I have no idea how to approach pricing.
Lindsay Kondel [00:42:19]:
Go talk to people. People love to help people, especially with our freelancers helping freelancers. Mhmm. And same in, like, in the, like, business side of things with the design agency. Don't be afraid to just lean in and be like, I don't know how to do this. I don't know. You know, I'm a fashion designer by trade. Like I don't really own anything about business development or like sales.
Lindsay Kondel [00:42:42]:
So just acknowledge it, ask for help. I wish people did ask these questions. Because that's what I would say to them.
Heidi [00:42:49]:
Yeah. I love that. That's amazing advice. Where can everybody find you and connect with you online? They
Lindsay Kondel [00:42:55]:
can find me on Instagram at stacked, s t a c k e d studio underscore. And then our website is stacked hyphen studio dot com.
Heidi [00:43:09]:
Okay. Awesome. We'll link to all that in the show notes. Yeah. Thank you so much for taking the time, and congratulations on your baby.
Lindsay Kondel [00:43:17]:
Thank you. I'm so excited. It's coming soon. It's like literally 2 months. Well, we'll see. They, the projected due date is 2 months from, for you, it would be, or for me it would be yesterday, 8th. So 8th September, October.
Heidi [00:43:31]:
That's exciting. You'll have to keep me posted.
Lindsay Kondel [00:43:34]:
Yeah. A 100%. Thank you so much for having me. It's so lovely to speak to you face to face, especially having taken your course and and really followed your journey in the path in the industry as well. Thank you.