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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]:
Hello, everyone, and welcome to this episode of the Successful Fashion Designer Podcast. It is a bit different than a usual episode because I have some podcast updates for you as well as 10 business challenges that I have faced in 2024, and, there's a reason why I'm sharing that. So first, let me share the updates with you. Full transparency, I've been running the podcast in one way or another for over 5 years, and I've never, never done listener surveys or conducted, listener interviews where I talk to listeners, and I hear directly from you guys what you love, what you hate, what you want more of, what you want less of on the podcast. And so I was working with a podcast strategy coach, and he suggested that I do that to, maybe clean the podcast up a little bit. Because here's the reality. Over the last year or so, it it started to get a little bit mishmashy of a mess. And episode, durations were all over the place.
Heidi [00:00:56]:
We had hour long episodes and 10 minute long episodes. And, our goal was was to publish every week, and I I think what we wound up doing was sacrificing quality, for quantity. And we wound up repurposing some content where I would basically take a blog post and read it as a podcast episode because we already had the content. So why not repurpose it somewhere else? I was pulling clips from our strategy sessions and publishing them, and and honestly it, it just kind of became a messy mishmash. And so I decided to do some listener surveys and listener interviews. Thank you to those of you who participated and to really learn what you loved about the podcast and, how I could make it better and more of that. So, ultimately, after chatting with multiple people, what I discovered was that most of you do not like these short 10 minute episodes for a long list of reasons, And I had a hunch about that, and so we are going to discontinue those short episodes. What we are going to do is create a show structure that is very understandable and sets expectations.
Heidi [00:02:05]:
So when you come to the podcast, you know what you're going to get, and we meet those expectations in a regular cadence. What that also means is that we are going to be adjusting our publishing schedule a little bit to help help us manage the project a little bit better and and fulfill the project in a capacity that works for myself and my team. So all of that is a is a big way of saying that starting in 2025, starting the week of January 6th, we will be moving to an every other week publishing schedule. My goal is to bring you the top quality content, and sometimes that means that we have to reduce quantity a little bit. So we'll be publishing every other week. The core episodes that we're going to be publishing are going to be success stories with freelancers, most of which you hear from our students inside of our fast programs. And we are going to be sharing those in an interview capacity and an every other week basis. However, we're gonna be adjusting those a little bit because another thing that I learned in chatting with listeners, thank you guys again, was that you sometimes felt multiple people told me that they sometimes felt we kind of glossed over the challenges, the perseverance, and the amount of time that it actually took for people to get to success, to get to their big win.
Heidi [00:03:33]:
And it left some listeners feeling a little bit defeated in their own journey. Like, why am I not getting that same success? Why am I, you know, what am I doing wrong? What's wrong with me? And so I am going to very intentionally going forward Now, you won't hear this in the first few episodes of 2025 because I have already recorded them. We do batch and record a little bit in advance, but going forward, I'm going to very intentionally bring, air quote, failure talk into the podcast. And we're gonna talk specifically beyond the win. We're gonna talk about what were some of the challenges and struggles they faced on the way there, and what challenges and struggles that they're still facing. Because let's be honest, the hard parts of freelancing and to be really realistic, the hard parts of life never go away. So that is what also inspired the the more content topic of this episode, and since it's the last episode of 2024, I thought I would do a solo episode, but but it's a solo episode that's not just repurposed from a blog post. However, if you're on the email list, I will be sending this out as an email as well.
Heidi [00:04:37]:
And and that leads me to talking about my challenges within the business, and and speaking very frankly about some of the things that I struggled with in 2,024, because I really believe that some of the things I struggled with are things that you might have struggled with in your own freelance business or your life. Before I share the challenges though, I do want to share one other thing about the podcast, and that is that, while the core structure of the show will be every other week with interviews with successful freelancers. We do want to still feature industry guest experts on the show because our listeners shared that they really did love those episodes and enjoy hearing different perspectives from people who maybe aren't freelancers or maybe who don't even work in our industry, but can offer, insights into strategies for freelancing, sales strategies, pricing strategies, etcetera. And so we are going to still do guest expert interviews. We're just going to publish them as bonus episodes. And the reason we're doing this is because we want to create a core structure with our podcast, like I mentioned, that every time you see the show come up on its regular cadence, you know what you're getting and you know what to expect. And so we're going to keep that with the success stories. But we wanted to have the opportunity and the flexibility to add other types of episodes in as they come across our desk or these opportunities present themselves for me to have a chat with somebody.
Heidi [00:06:03]:
And so we will be sprinkling in bonus episodes periodically that may be guest industry guest experts. Maybe I'll do a full strategy session with someone in my program that I'm like, this is just too good not air. We might air that as a bonus episode. So look forward to that. But back to the challenges thing. Similarly to how, you know, we we maybe don't touch on enough challenges within each of the episodes, I did want to talk about challenges within my business. I've I've been known to, in the past, at the end of each year, celebrate all the wins and celebrate all the things that I did in the business and and the growth. And I think it's important to celebrate wins, but I also think it's important to look at the challenges.
Heidi [00:06:39]:
So this year, I decided for the end of the year to talk about, the top ten challenges I faced in in my business and some personal stuff, and what I learned. So I do have these a little bit structured, so I'll go through them and chat through through each of the challenges with you. And I think that you'll you'll find some relatability in these, I hope. So the first challenge is that I got ghosted by brands, and I got ghosted by prospective students. So I periodically have conversations with brands or or or students over email or on LinkedIn, and and that's for, students to go into our fast program or Fast Track or Fast Track Turbo or by brands to do brand partnerships with. And and there were multiple times that I had very, very promising conversations that vanished into a black hole despite my numerous amounts of follow-up. And and the lesson here that I've learned, and and I do always try to portray to you guys, is that you have to move on because there are always other opportunities. At the end of the day too, I don't really want to work with people who ghost, so perhaps I dodge a bullet.
Heidi [00:07:40]:
And so I try to take that little win out of it, and I move on. Ghosting is a fact of life, and, unfortunately, people do it. So please know that you're not alone. I get ghosted too by prospective students, as well as other brands. Challenge number 2. I pitched and I followed up, and there were many times that I did not hear back. You know, if if you're not super privy, it was only in 2024 that I started doing client work again, and that is in the capacity of brand partnerships, where I work with various brands and, promote their their content, their tools, etcetera, to you guys, to my community. And I did I was lucky enough to get some inbound leads.
Heidi [00:08:23]:
The brands approached me and say, you know, we'd like to work with you and help have you help us promote. But I also pitched out to brands that I felt felt were a great match. And I followed up, and I used my own strategies that I teach you, and I didn't hear back from some of these. And the lesson learned here is that pitching is still a numbers game, and it's still a timing thing. You know, like I said with with the last challenge, ultimately, there's plenty of brands out there, and so I am, again, choosing to move on and to focus on those brands. Challenge number 3. I created some offers that nobody bought. I won't bore you with all the details, but, there were a couple of launches and a couple of things that we threw out into the world, that we went through our research on, that we put together a tremendous amount of marketing efforts.
Heidi [00:09:11]:
And at the end of the day, some of our products and some of our offers did flop. So if you've ever put anything out that has not taken off, please know that you're not alone. And it still happens to me, and it still happens to, I believe, every creator and every person out there in the world. It's just whether or not they want to talk about it. So the lesson learned here is, something that I really hold near and dear to my heart as an entrepreneur, and it is that as long as you're growing, you will never stop failing. And that's a good thing, because, ultimately, failure is a part of growth. My son is, soon to be 5 in February, and I regularly tell him, when you fail, you need to try again. And if you need help, you ask for help.
Heidi [00:09:50]:
The good news that I've learned over my life and and continual failure within my business and and all endeavors that I I pursue is that, over time, failure becomes easier, and you get used to it. I promise it happens. It can still sting, but I do believe that failing is a little bit of a muscle that we have to continue to develop. And I truly, truly, in my heart of hearts, believe that if you're not failing on a somewhat regular basis, you are not getting outside of your comfort zone enough. You're not pushing yourself hard enough. So I would advise you to really push and think about how much you can feel in 2025 to, to to grow to the most potential possible. Challenge number 4. It took me 16, 16 months to close a new dream client.
Heidi [00:10:38]:
Yes. That is over a year from the initial interest that they expressed in working with me to getting the deposit. Because here's the reality. Good things take time and relationships take time. And, ultimately, freelancing and client work is a relationship business. That is the biggest lesson learned here. Right? It's it's about those relationships, and it's and it's the the reality. You know, maybe you've heard the saying, things that start fast end fast.
Heidi [00:11:05]:
Right? Like, relationships that start fast tend to end fast. That's that's not always the case. But I do believe that a lot of the best relationships evolve slowly. The other thing that I always like to remember and and learn from this experience is that you never know what's going on behind the scenes that may delay progress. Sometimes it has nothing to do with you. It's just about the logistics that are going inside on inside the company, and it can take time. So don't feel deflated if projects get delayed. What you do is continue to nurture the relationship, like I did over 16 months, to to just remind them that you're there.
Heidi [00:11:41]:
Remind them that you care about them and you're thinking about them. And over time, it can still develop into an amazing project like it did for me. Challenge number 5. I way underbid a massive project. Even after 10 years of freelancing and working with a coach to help me with brand partnerships and pricing and proposals, I still messed up. So with this project, I I still delivered exceptional work because that is in my heart and soul, the the right way to do it. But I ultimately was really, really frustrated about my pricing mistake. Whenever you make a pricing mistake, which I I do believe will happen throughout your entire freelance business, you're never immune to it.
Heidi [00:12:24]:
You need to have a conversation with the client, with the brand, as soon as the project wraps up. And that's exactly what I did, and you just very graciously let them know, thank you for the project. I'm so glad to have the opportunity to work with you. I wanna be really transparent that while I was happy to do the project at this rate, because that is what I quoted, I have to be honest that I made a mistake and I accept full responsibility, but I did underbid the project. And so when we discuss a project of this caliber again, I don't wanna blindside you with the quote. So I wanted to give you a heads up about that now. So that's exactly what I did with my client, and, they were happy to hear that, and they understood. And the lesson that I've learned here is that, ultimately, no matter the amount of experience you have, it does not make you immune to underestimating projects and pricing.
Heidi [00:13:12]:
I always say that pricing is like learning to sew. You learn by doing. You know, with sewing, every project can require different tension or different stitch lengths, etcetera. And the same is true with client work. There's always room to mess up, learn, and grow. And like I mentioned earlier, fail, do better next time. Alright. Challenge number 6, which I talked about a little bit earlier, but my podcast spiraled into a mess that I wasn't really proud of.
Heidi [00:13:37]:
As I mentioned, we were really trying to publish consistently every week and repurpose content, and it just wound up getting sloppy. So, as I told you, we're going to be restructuring for 2025, and I feel really, really, really good about the changes. The really big lesson learned here was that if you're unsure what to do, you need to talk to your customers or your audience. My gut told me that something was off with the podcast, but I wasn't sure what it was. Our systems behind the scenes were running really smoothly, and so I avoided change for a while. But then after doing the listener surveys and doing the listener conversations, the answer was so clear how we needed to change things. I think, you know, something to take home if you're a freelancer is that no matter how long you've been in business, you need to continually do customer research and talk to your clients about what's working, what's not, and get feedback. Challenge number 7 is that my LinkedIn engagement dropped by 50%.
Heidi [00:14:36]:
I try to say this with a little bit of a chuckle because I don't know how else to take it. In 2024, I I was really proud to grow my LinkedIn followers to over 10,000, but my engagement is still the same as it was when I had 5,000 followers, which is a 50% drop in engagement. I'm trying to be somewhat analytical here, but I also want to be mindful about creating content that I want to create and doing stuff that feels good and is fun. So the lesson that I've learned is to analyze what worked, but also care a little bit less about vanity metrics. So I I am, to some extent, looking at past performance and trying to plan for the future based off of that. But I am also posting what I want and ignoring the data sometimes because why spend time somewhere or doing something if you don't enjoy it? I think that's one of the perks of owning your own business or freelancing and getting to control parts of your life in that way. Challenge number 8, which is a little bit of a win, but also a big challenge, was that my in person New York City event almost broke me. I was really proud to host SFD in NYC this year and bring over a 100 fashion designers and freelancers, from around the world together in real life in New York.
Heidi [00:15:52]:
But I will not lie. I had multiple meltdowns planning that event, like snot face, ugly crying. And I felt really burnt out in the weeks and and even month or 2 leading up to it, as well as afterwards. I massively, massively underestimated the work and the emotional load of this project. It's been about 3 months since we wrapped up, and and on some days, I do still feel like I'm recovering. It this is a good lesson to learn and and a reminder that most good and big things in life, or business or work, whatever, are at least often 2 times harder than you think. I I think that we're all really good at underestimating the workload, and we're good at underestimating pricing, like I talked about earlier. And so going forward to protect my time and mental health and sanity, I'm I'm trying to be mindful going into projects knowing that this could take twice as much work than anticipated.
Heidi [00:16:52]:
It doesn't always, but I'm I'm really trying to take from this lesson and learn that I really need to be mindful about my capacity and what I can or cannot say yes to. Challenge number 9 is a personal one, and that is that I had some tough conflicts in my family. I'm I'm gonna spare you the details because it is quite personal. Right? But things got heated this year. And the lesson I'm taking away from this is that no family is perfect and it is okay to take space. I know some people who claim that there are no conflicts or issues in their family and I personally think that they're lying to themselves and that they're lying to you or me. I I firmly believe that every family has air quotes, some stuff. And I I believe that you should talk about things, but I also believe that if you need, you should give yourself some space, which is what I've done, and it's feeling like the right thing to do in this season of my life.
Heidi [00:17:45]:
The last challenge is number 10, which was that I finally started running and then I quit again. I talked about this in an email to my list a while back, but I I've wanted to be a runner for about 10 years, and and it never really quite worked out. I tried, and then I stopped. I tried, and then I stopped. And I finally, once moving out to Virginia Beach, I I became one. I was running. I was, I ran ran a couple 10 k's, nothing formal, but, like, on my own through our neighborhood. I ran a couple 10 k's straight without stopping to walk, which was a really, really big milestone for me.
Heidi [00:18:23]:
And then when we had our event in New York City, I got really off track, and I came back, and I started to try to run again. My body was not having it. And I was feeling a little bit ashamed that I never got back into it. It's been about three and a half months now, and and I have not run. The lesson learned here is that some things aren't for everyone and you do need to listen to your body. What I realized after a couple months of not running was that I love to run-in the summer heat. I love when it's really hot and I'm just getting really sweaty, and I can wear a tank top and shorts. And, I I want it to be super toasty out.
Heidi [00:19:01]:
And as soon as the temperatures drop just a little bit, my body said, nope. This is not really feeling fun. This is not what I want to do. And so I have decided to lean in and find peace with that and focus more on my hot yoga practice. Ironic that I love heat, which feels right for the season of my life. It feels right for this season of weather. And so I'm I'm choosing to lean into that and, let go of the shame that I felt about starting to be a runner and then quitting again. So if you made it this far and listening, cheers.
Heidi [00:19:33]:
I hope it was relatable to hear my top ten challenges from 2024. And like I said, while I did have some great wins this year, the truth is that nothing is ever perfect or easy, even if it looks that way from the outside. And I never want to project that my life or my business is perfect or easy. And so, something for you to take away is as we slide into 2025. I hope this message reminds you that life is a balance of good and bad and hard and easy and success and failure, and those balances are things that literally everyone experiences. So I hope that that is relatable and helps you feel maybe a little bit more peace with some of the ups and downs that you likely had in 2024 because I believe everybody had them. Thank you so much for listening. I'm I really appreciate your support on the podcast and beyond, and stay tuned for our next episode to come out on our new schedule, which will be on Tuesday, January 7th.
Heidi [00:20:31]:
Talk to you in the new year.