S9 E2: Navigating a Non-Linear Career in Fashion with Lynsey Scoins

In this episode, we're joined by Lynsey Scoins — a fashion industry veteran with over 15 years of experience across design, buying, merchandising and recruitment, and founder of Fashion Path, a platform dedicated to helping people break into and build careers in the fashion industry.

Lynsey shares her winding career journey from almost landing a placement at Company Magazine to discovering buying and merchandising almost by accident at George ASDA, and eventually realising her original degree in International Fashion Marketing had been pointing her in the right direction all along. We also get into the reality of retail vs supplier roles, and how working through COVID brought both sides closer together by revealing just how similar the pressures are. Across every role, the same core skills stand out — confidence, team fit, passion for product and attention to detail.

She also doesn’t hold back on CV and interview mistakes, from careless applications to a lack of real brand understanding, and shares why tailoring your approach is more important than ever in a world where AI is now screening candidates. We also touch on the value of sourcing trips and how they can transform your understanding of the supply chain, before Lynsey explains why she launched Fashion Path — supporting candidates through coaching, CV and portfolio reviews, and structured programmes designed to help them present themselves with clarity and confidence.

Whether you're just starting out, feeling stuck mid-career, or navigating redundancy, this episode is packed with honest, practical advice from someone who has genuinely been on every side of the industry.

Connect with Lynsey:

• LinkedIn: Lynsey Scoins
• Instagram @Fashionpathconsultancy - follow for weekly tips, real case studies, and programme updates
• www.fashionpath.co.uk

Three Key Takeaways

1. Your career path doesn't have to be linear - and that's a strength.

Lynsey's journey from design to buying, merchandising, and recruitment is proof that moving between roles isn't a sign of indecision, it's a competitive advantage. The creativity you develop as a designer makes you a better buyer. The analytical thinking from merchandising makes you a more commercial thinker. Embracing a non-linear path gives you a rounded perspective that specialists often lack.

2. Tailor everything - your CV, your portfolio, your application.

One of the most consistent mistakes Lynsey saw as a recruiter was people applying for multiple roles with the exact same materials, or worse, cover letters addressed to the wrong company. Recruiters notice. Hiring managers notice. The same way a supplier pitching you a generic deck feels disrespectful of your time, a generic application signals low investment. Take the time to research the brand, visit the store, and tailor your pitch - it dramatically increases your hit rate.

3. You already have the skills - you just need to package them.

In fast-paced buying and merchandising roles, you're constantly pitching to directors, negotiating with suppliers, covering for colleagues, and making high-stakes decisions under pressure. But when it comes to job applications or interviews, people tend to forget or undervalue everything they've done. Write it down. Document your wins. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:10

Hello and welcome to Buying and Beyond, the podcast that takes you behind the scenes of retail buying. We're Kate and Linz, and we are talking all things retail buying and beyond with real people in retail. So grab your drink of choice and come and have a giggle with us. This episode is sponsored by the Buyers Club, our membership created for buyers by buyers.

SPEAKER_00 0:44

If you work in retail buying, you'll know that this role is unlike any other. It's creative, commercial, fast moving, and incredibly rewarding. But it can also be high pressure and full-on. The Buyers Club exists to support you through it all.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

Built from feedback from over 400 retail buyers, it's a dedicated community designed to help you grow, connect, and thrive in your career. Inside you'll find in-person networking events, monthly online catch-ups, career clinics, mentoring and sounding board support, curated trend edits, retail insights, members-only podcast extras, and a few exclusive perks along the way. Because while tools and technology can support your role, nothing replaces community.

SPEAKER_00 1:26

If you want to feel more connected, more confident, and more supported in your buying career, head to our homepage for more information on how to join our club.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

The future of buying isn't just smarter, it's more connected. Now let's get into today's essay.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

So hi everyone! Today we are joined by Lindsay Scoines, who has got over 15 years' experience across the global fashion industry, working from everywhere from design and buying through to merchandising and recruitment. So she's seen the industry from all angles, including hiring talent from entry-level right up to director roles, and she really knows what it takes to break in and build a career. She's also the founder of Fashion Path, which is a platform helping people to navigate the fashion industry with real practical insight. So, Lindsay, it's great to have you here.

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Thanks for having me, guys. It's so nice to have a chat and catch up. It's just so nice to meet someone with the same spelling as well. I know I didn't know if you're gonna.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

So, Lindsay, as I alluded to in the intro, you have basically done every job in fashion. Designer, buyer, merchandiser, and then recruitment. And when we first spoke, I was like, How? How did this happen?

SPEAKER_02 2:47

Yeah, it's a it's a it's a bit of a weird one, and I'm definitely because of this, I'm definitely an advocate for a non-linear approach to you know, your work. It's okay to do that. I am living proof of that. Basically, I always wanted to be in fashion, I've always really, really enjoyed clothing, loved magazines back in the day, getting all the magazines, reading through them, loved everything about it, but I couldn't decide whether or not I wanted to be a designer. Then I learned about art direction, styling, everything like that. So I've always loved the creative vision of what garments are, and it probably wasn't until I went into the industry itself that I fully understood the whole product life cycle and actually what there is to take hold of, really. So many different roles that you don't really learn about when you're at university.

SPEAKER_00 3:38

So did you start in design? Was that your first foray?

SPEAKER_02 3:41

So I funnily enough, I joined Manchester Met University. I always wanted to do design because I'd done an art kind of course in college. So I went to Manchester Met University and started something called international fashion marketing. And I was promised that this would incorporate everything plus design. And then when I was there, I realized that we were talking about things like buyers, we were talking about things like merchandisers, we were talking about marketing, but we were not talking about design. So I ended up leaving that course because I thought this is this is not designery at all. So I went back to college, did another course, and then went back to university and did design and art direction as my degree. So within that, it was everything to do with designing your collection through to art direction, so shooting magazine shoots, everything like that. So it was really, really exciting and an all-encompassing degree. So it kind of gave me like that insight to both. So basically, from that, I then got offered a placement at there. Used to be a magazine called Company Magazine. I don't know if I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

I loved Company Magazine.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

I loved magazine, I loved Company magazine, so I was so excited. Basically, working with their styling team, art direction, marketing, things like that. But basically, because of personal circumstances, I couldn't actually do that, which I was actually gutted about. So I ended up looking for other work experience because I'd basically maximised all my money on creating all of the showcase pieces at the end of my university degree, basically, from everything from the book to collections to everything. Because it was so it was so diverse that we had so much that we actually had to do at the end. And I literally couldn't work in London for free. Plus, we also had some of the personal situations happening.

SPEAKER_00 5:25

It's so hard, isn't it, when you're at uni, like when you're doing a more kind of practical course, it's amazing because you don't have as many exams, but you are A, always on because there's always a project running, and also to make it look amazing, you always get carried away with how much you spend on it, the fabrics you might buy. I went to uni at De Montford and we had a market stall and they had fabrics there, but they were and you could you could get your fabrics there, but we wanted to go down to London. We wanted to go down to like you know Berwick Street and go and buy them, but they were so expensive. So not only are you paying to go down to London, we were then paying for like the expensive adherents like the tailor. You don't want to just like have a you know, you you want to make it special and and you if you can you plow everything into it because you care about it so passionately, don't you?

SPEAKER_02 6:12

Yeah, definitely. And you think this course is literally your only way in. That's how I felt. I felt like if I don't, you know, ace this course, how am I gonna get into fashion? And I think you put so much pressure on yourself, and like you said, just all the you know, making it look amazing, and obviously things were different then. You had, I mean, my one of my course leaders was obsessed with having this bound book that you had to, you know, completely put all of your like mood boards and everything, wanted the whole story from start to finish in this bound style book that cost an absolute fortune, and we were like, why do you need that? Whereas now, you know, so anybody listening, they'd be like, What the hell's a bound book? Why do you need tangible things? Like what? But it was just a thing.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

And what did she do with them all afterwards? Does she, I mean, does she rows and rows of these books of years and years of students in our house?

SPEAKER_02 7:04

Just a collection of them all, only the best one. But yeah, from that, I ended up getting a placement at Georgia Azda, which I'm from the Midlands, so it was close to where I was kind of living at the time, and ended up doing everything there from design, buying, merchandising, just kind of helping out in all of the areas, really. And that's that's probably where I fully started to understand what a merchandiser was, what a buyer was, and it made me always laugh because I thought I'm really excited about this. And that essentially was the first course I did, and I left. Yeah, it's so weird they actually did that and then ended up not going back into design, just kind of going into more of like the procurement side, and yeah, the more commercial side of it, really.

SPEAKER_00 7:49

Yeah, so out of all of those roles, which one sort of surprised you the most?

SPEAKER_02 7:55

Probably to be to be honest, it was kind of how the buying side of things worked, really surprised me because I think because of the course I did, obviously, there's a buyer for everything, you know, everything in your house right now, everything you're wearing, you know, everything with you know, any skincare or anything, and you don't realise literally everything is bought and someone is buying that or a team is buying that. And then I think that in itself was just a big eye-opener to me that there was just this whole massive area that I had didn't really know much about, but then it kind of just stuck with me in the back of my head the course that I initially did and thought, oh my god, this is if I'd stayed on this course, this is what I would be doing. Um, and then it was just a case of I really wanted to get back into that and how could I do it with a design degree and kind of use that to kind of bolster what I could bring to the to the role, really.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

And so what was the the the route? So was it talk me through which one did you do first? Give us a sense of how it kind of worked timeline and how it fitted together, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:59

Um, so basically, I've always been a person that's kind of just taken opportunities. So because I needed to get a job and I'd done this placement at George Asda, I then used that and get my first job. And my first job was working for a small supplier. So basically, what they did was they had a merchandiser and it was on wholesale merchandiser, excuse me. So it was basically a just a whistle stop tour into what the industry actually is from a supplier side, and it was very, very much raw, hands-on, literally throwing you in. I had to learn what a critical path was. I didn't know what a critical path was, really. I'd heard of it, but I'd learnt about it a bit from how uh George Asda used it. But they every single company I've worked for now, even now, and when I've worked for other companies, every single person has a different critical path system, the way it works, the way they use it, the way their suppliers use it, the way everybody in the team uses it is completely different. So yeah, that was kind of like my first yeah, that was my first proper look at how a supplier uses it. And it was completely eye-opening from that point of view because I hadn't even looked at it from a supplier point of view at that point because I'd only done the kind of retail side of it.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

And the in-house part of it. How long was your time at George when you were covering all of the areas? How long was your placement there?

SPEAKER_02 10:22

So I did six months, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:24

That gave you like a really good kind of grounding and a good understanding of those different areas, and then to be able to, because we didn't even talk about that in the beginning, the fact that not only have you done design, buying, merchandising and recruitment, but also not just for retailers, but also for suppliers too.

SPEAKER_02 10:39

Yeah, yeah. And that that is, yeah, it's I don't know if it's because I'm from the Midlands, so there is a lot of suppliers, and there always was a lot of suppliers, plus you know, big big companies as well. So there's there are opportunities, and I think that's something definitely that with my current business, Fashion Path, that I try and get out to people that there are possibilities and opportunities, and you don't need to go to London, you don't need to go to London, you don't need to go to Manchester. If you look on your doorstep, there will be somebody doing something that could lead to the next thing.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

I think from what you've said as well, like, and we'll get more into this, but you don't have to be in a particular box. Like, just because you've started in design doesn't mean you're always a designer. I mean, sometimes when you think very, very stereotypically, you think a designer over here is very kind of conceptual, and then you think over here a merchandiser is very analytical. You almost think, well, if you're a merchandiser, you can't be a designer. But actually, there are skills that you can transfer. And if you're a well-rounded kind of creative person, then there's no reason why you can't move within these roles. As yeah, yeah, and exactly that.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

I think I underestimated the fact that creativity in itself, if you are quite a creative person, the fact that you you can use that across multi-areas, you know, lots of different areas, because I think that's in itself makes you a better buyer, that makes you a better merchandiser, it makes you obviously a better everything, even when you're speaking to a garment tech, your fabric tech, you understand a bit more about fabric. For instance, you might do something in your in in your sort of private time where you just you love doing the you know, crocheting or sewing or anything like that, and you understand how a fabric falls, that in itself will be massive when you go into the industry. Whereas obviously at uni, if you are really, really focused on one thing, that's fantastic as long as you know sort of what goals you want. But if you are somebody that is a bit creative, is a bit sort of academic as well, and you you're not sure where to go, you know, you actually can do a lot of things that you're probably thinking I can't because I don't, I'm not sort of that super, super focused on going in marketing or buying, or but there's so much that you can do with it, and it's I just think that the industry itself is so big, it's so exciting, and it is fast-paced, it is stressful. But to be honest, that's what I love about it. I really do, and I think that actually happens when you meet people in the industry. You do kind of thrive off the press day, you do thrive off the fast-paced turnarounds and seeing things happen and seeing it come to life.

SPEAKER_00 13:12

That adrenaline and that, like you know, trading, and one minute you're doing one thing, another day you're doing another, and like you might have a list of things to do, but something comes in and throws you off, and you do something like that. Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Yeah, yeah. It thrives off the energy of other people as well, don't you? Oh, definitely. Yeah. Obviously, you've done some time in retailer and a supplier.

SPEAKER_02 13:32

Which one did you prefer? To be honest, they are completely different, completely different machines. And it's really it's really interesting when you speak to people that um when you've only worked in retailer or you've only worked at you know a small brand, or flip side, if you've worked only with a supplier, it's yeah, it's just it's very interesting the insights you have and the experiences you've had. So obviously, because I've worked in both, I've seen perhaps how some people treat suppliers in conversations. I've been that person, I've been spoken to by people that potentially have kind of placed you in a box, so to speak, and kind of made you feel like you're not as important as them, which is completely not the case. And I don't think that should be the case at all. Whereas I have worked when you work in a retail as well, you see the other side that you know the different pressures that they're facing, the different time. Everybody kind of works on a different timeline, I think, as well. And when I worked in Supplier, I also worked there during COVID, and that in itself kind of taught me a lot of different things from both sides, which I then thought when I worked into a re in a retailer, just just kind of listening to both sides of it. And I think to be honest, that kind of brought a lot of people together, the suppliers and the retailers together, that everybody was kind of working together, had the same issues, the same, you know, problems, and kind of the empathy built a bit more then as well.

SPEAKER_00 15:00

Um almost that kind of like you're all in the trenches together, a bit like when you kind of first start out, as we've talked about trauma friends, but you know, when you're all experiencing the same thing and you've all got the same end goal. Exactly. What's been so funny about suppliers and sort of retailers sometimes, because actually the end goal is kind of the same. You all want to sell a product, but you kind of have your slightly own agendas. But when it comes to a big force, like you say, like something like COVID or another geopolitical issue that is against us, you then join forces against that issue.

SPEAKER_02 15:33

Yeah, yeah. And I think it going back to your question, which do I prefer? To be honest, I've like both because it's for me, it's always about the team you work in. 100% that massively is a thing, and some teams can literally feel like your family, and I think that's that's another amazing thing about the industry. Uh, the the people I've met, a guest like you two, they literally, because you know, your soulmates, you're with them forever because they've seen you at your worst and got through like that with you almost, and it's kind of things that even without your closest friend outside, won't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Totally, so totally. I mean, I think, yeah, Kate and I definitely resonate with that. It is about your team and just all having the same goal and drive and energy, getting somewhere with something, you know, that is what drives us and what motivates us, and seeing people develop and nurturing them and you know, making all of that. And I think that probably must have been a pin, where's in your mouth now? You know, how it led led you on to recruitment. Like, what was the kind of stepping stone from having all these amazing roles and really understanding the industry? And I'm sure someone would someone would have, you know, incredibly implorable, you're such a credibly deplorable person, you know. What what was the sort of moment where you realised, right, I'm gonna I'm gonna step into recruitment now and and give this a go?

SPEAKER_02 16:54

So I did have like a little gap in in my career when I was doing the sales sort of buying side, the commercial side of things, and I noticed that I just I I loved it, but I was getting to kind of stalemate with it, and I just thought, is there anything else I can do whilst I've got the time, got the flexibility? It was before I'd have my family or anything, and I thought, let's just give it a go. So I I basically went into agency recruitment, so I did that for a little bit, which is completely different to the in-house retailer recruitment that I've done most recently as well. Because again, I thought I've been I've been you, how can I help the situation? So I've I've been looking for the jobs, I've I've I've you know, I've I've dealt with recruiters that maybe don't come back to you, ghost you, give you minimal feedback. And I thought I if I'm gonna be in recruitment, I'm gonna still be me and I'm gonna put myself in their shoes. And I absolutely say that, you know, I confidently can say that I have done that as well, and you know, probably to my own detriment sometimes because the amount of people that you have to go back to sometimes. But if I see something in somebody, I really want to bring it out of them. And I think from being in the industry, I'll know if you've worked at a company that I've heard of, and I'll know what type of a person you actually are. And are you putting that, are you really kind of putting that across on your application? Because in some companies, I guess even maybe you guys will potentially think like you'll think, well, I bought a certain product and that's what I did. But then there might have been occasions where you covered for somebody else and you actually did you bought shoes, but you actually did kind of look after lingerie for a bit, and it's like, can you put that on? What what did you learn from those that week when your colleague was off? Or did you cover a meeting for somebody because somebody was off sick or something? And then just kind of always thinking about those skills and and bringing those in.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

You're right, most likely you did, because in buying, you cover everything and you have and every one, you know. If someone's off, someone's got to cover it. And exactly if you're if your buyer's off and suddenly the buying director wants to see everything wrapped up, but they're not in for two days, you're doing it. And you're suddenly thrown into a product review and sign off. That's one expecting to happen. And you're right, you don't necessarily always pull these things out. And I think one thing I definitely always remember from being in a junior level, and then I experienced it when I was, you know, sort of head of and I had my team to lead. But you're so fast-paced, as we've already talked about, you're always on the go. There's always something to do, there's always something ad hoc. There isn't a huge amount of time for reflection and thinking, oh, I did that. So when it comes to putting yourself forward, writing a CV, you can't remember what you did yesterday, let alone a week ago. Or and it it's quite good, I think, to speak to somebody like you because you're teasing these things out, you know, actually, you know, cast your mind back. Do you think about that? Because you go so often you go into PDR and you'd be like, Yeah, you can't. And and I remember so many times being told and saying it myself, just write it down. Write it down when you do it, write it down. But sometimes it's so hard to find that two minutes to just write it down.

SPEAKER_02 19:55

Yeah, yeah. And when you do write it down, it'll actually blow your mind how much you've done that day, and it'll actually make sense as to why you're sat on the sofa thinking, wow, because you will have done so much. And you know, depending on what you're doing after work, and literally when you get to finally sit down and think, wow, I've done so much today. And yeah, it's kind of I think we're so used to selling ourselves short and thinking that we're just getting the job done, and you're not just getting the job done. You've been employed for a reason, you are amazing at what you do, and it we I think we're not very good at kind of lifting each other up as well in moments because we are so busy, and there will be people in your team that think you're fantastic and you think they're fantastic. So I'm just a big advocate of just now and then saying, you know, you've done amazing today. Yeah, you know, here's tea for you. I've just been and got myself a tea because I had like 30 seconds. Here's one for you, just like a random cup of tea, random cup of coffee. I mean, yeah, bring tears to someone's eyes if they've had a bad day.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

I always used to do that with my merchandiser. As soon as we were about to do the buy, I'd be like, Would you like a cup of tea?

SPEAKER_02 20:59

Yes, and also it kind of fosters those relationships, doesn't it? And it does help build those relationships because you know, because I've worked in a few different roles and particularly in Supplier, talking about doing different things. I mean, I've even been to a company to learn how to be a garment tech for a bit because my garment tech was off for a couple for six months and there wasn't anywhere else to cover because it was at a time where we didn't have any more money to put into it, and I'd always kind of helped anyway. So I then did a bit of that. So it's kind of like throwing a bit more onto it.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

I remember our fit model was unwell for a little while and we were struggling to find anyone, and then we needed to keep extra bits. So suddenly I became the fit model. Yeah. Okay, great. Yeah. Quite super exposed. Many colleagues. Yeah, just a whole new level that we're getting to know each other on now.

SPEAKER_02 21:50

Really critical. Yeah. Um so yeah, when I went into recruitment, I just wanted to well, the foot the funny thing is, when I went into recruitment, I actually got offered a job. As a buyer at the same time. So I'd been made redundant from my previous job. So I was going for jobs. So I had the decision of whether or not to be a recruiter in-house, which is something I'd never done before, or stick to kind of what I know, but it was a it was a different buying area completely. And yeah, just me, me, me, just thought I'll do another career pivot. Let's go.

SPEAKER_00 22:24

Let's give it a whirl. Let's learn something else. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 22:28

And yeah, I've always, I think, I think purely the commercial side of being in the business, you love a chat and you can build relationships. So I just thought have that plus really thought if I'm going to do it because it was for a big company, I wanted to do it in the way, like I said, being me, bringing my knowledge, bringing my authenticity, really. Because I don't, I just because I worked for a corporate company, I didn't want to kind of go into be pushed into more of a corporate box with it. Obviously, there is aspects of that, which is amazing, but I still wanted to be me and help people and adjust.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

I feel like you almost are your own category and you've been like looking at your product assortment. And actually, what makes your offer stronger? And where are your strengths and where are your opportunities? And you branch out to.

SPEAKER_02 23:26

Yeah, it's just I've yeah, I think on, yeah. It's just well, I guess like a little insight into how my brain works is like A levels. Literally, I did psychology law, and then I did media cities and art. So that just kind of packages me up as a person. I love creativity, but I obviously love the academic side, and I'm always kind of trying to put them together.

SPEAKER_00 23:46

And then also the analytical side as well.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

That really sums up a buyer as well. Like that's what a buyer buy personality could. I mean, you don't have you don't have to have that. I'm not sort of put people in a box here, but I think that's definitely something that we've experienced from interviewing lots of guests, lots of buyers, like we all have the same kind of idea on that that side of things, psychology of why people want to buy what they want, or how they live their lives, or there's just so much more depth to it than people realise as well.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

Yeah, and like you said, it like we kind of touched on at the beginning, it we we buy everything. There is a buyer for everything, like everything.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

You almost before you get to you understand that that there's a massive machine behind it, or you just think that things just are there. They're just there.

SPEAKER_02 24:33

Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're there, of course they're there.

SPEAKER_00 24:36

Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 24:36

They've just arrived, nobody did it. And and also just to touch on it's not obviously just buyers, it's it the merchandises, the the techs, the designers that all come together and work together to for that goal of getting that product.

SPEAKER_00 24:50

What would you say the kind of the kind of key skills, I guess, that you need if we're really broad about it, but to talk to sort of think about working in retail, but then also it would be really interesting to sort of think like, you know, what are the sort of top three, four skills you think you need to be to have, to be a designer, merchandiser, buyer, product tech from your sort of experience?

SPEAKER_02 25:14

To be honest, I think you can cross over most of them to be a really good sort of asset to a team. I think it's good to know about all the other aspects. So obviously the main thing would be confidence, and I know that's really hard to say because I think a lot of people do struggle with confidence, and definitely in my experience, my confidence has come with experience. I mean, when I first started, it was kind of like, oh, whoa, what is this? And if you do come with confidence, that's amazing. But yeah, with confidence, I think just education. So if you educate yourself about the say the company that you're going for, if you learn about their product, go to store. Absolutely go to store. Don't just look online, go and feel the fabrics. Whether whether you're a merchandiser, a buyer, a tech, or a designer, go into the store and see what product you are dealing with and see how it's laid out, everything like that. So, yeah, confidence, just a team player, really. I know it's everybody kind of puts that on a on a job description, it kind of sometimes makes me feel like a bit ugh, but it's about how you interact with people, how do you treat people? Something that I used to do when I was a recruiter, excuse me, is you sometimes I would just ask different people as they walked around the building, or if they're, you know, the receptionist sort of how how did you meet that person? And if you if you're rude to the receptionist, then that kind of tells us a lot about you in a way as well. So it's just a case of how do you network with people and what kind of a person are you? Um, and particularly in buying, what just when you come to an interview or when you come to an application before you apply, what are you gonna bring? What are you gonna bring? What are the gaps in the market? Because the market, people are saying it's really saturated, but in my opinion, it's always been saturated. Everybody wants to be a buyer. That's the top job for everybody when they leave university, it seems, within the the roles that people choose. Marketing, buy-in. But yeah, kind of just like I said, educate yourself, see what gaps there are in the market. And if you're not great at presenting, that's okay. You don't need to be the best presenter in the room. If you're passionate about the product or passionate about what you can bring, then that's okay. You don't need to stand up and be, you know, not shaking or worrying that you know you're gonna go red or anything. That's just natural, and people will see past that and don't worry, don't let that hold you back from you know following your dream of what you want to do. And typically within merchandising, if it's a retail merchandising, if you love maths, you've done a finance degree, you've done some completely some some degree that's got nothing to do with fashion, the chances are if you love fashion, you will be fine because it's more about again, depending on what what company you're working in, you have a slightly different role. But if you can, if you love data, you know, if you are loving data, but you you you don't have to just love data, you can love clothing, you can love fashion, but perhaps you do actually have that sideline in interest in data, and you want to have those reins to kind of be in charge of the money because a lot of the time in companies, the merchandiser is actually the one in charge of the money. You have the power. A lot of people think buyers have the power, but depending on which company you work for, your merchandiser is the one that holds the power because you have the money.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

Yeah, yeah, because the buyers are the one being like, please negotiating with a supplier and a merchandiser.

SPEAKER_02 28:45

Yeah, exactly. So again, it's about how you work with people, your networking skills. That's definitely something that if you are, you know, if you are quite a shy person, it's something that you can work on, and you don't have to just do it in person. You can start, you know, online something like LinkedIn, you can start doing something like that, or just kind of practice with friends or family. You know, if if you are feeling a bit like you don't have as much confidence, there's definitely ways of doing it, but you don't what I'm trying to say is you don't have to come to a job interview being super, super confident and you know, presenting the best thing ever, because people will see things in you anyway, and I think it does come across immediately when you see somebody, whether or not they'll fit in your team within the first couple of seconds.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

So right, the team fit is so important, like having that passion, being keen, but yeah, definitely the team fit. And I think that can be the hard thing sometimes because it's not that you didn't have the right skills, it wasn't that you didn't come across, but sometimes it's not not the right fit for that existing team. Not you, it is them.

SPEAKER_02 29:46

Yeah, and it is it is hard, depending on how you know your interview's gone. And but I I just think every single interview is an experience, and you will learn something from it. Even if you went and thought, oh my god, that was the most horrendous interview I've ever done. A couple of weeks later you'll reflect on it and think, Oh, actually, I've learned this or I've learned that, or it wasn't as bad as I thought, or you know, I feel like every experience you do learn from it. Yeah, look at me, I've done lots of different things. I've learned all the things.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

I've learned so much from each other. Always learning how there any kind of like big mistakes that any, you know, that you would say are kind of you know, I guess no-nos of like just please try and avoid doing this because that is not going to wash, or that's not gonna, you know. I know you've sort of said about showing that you're a people person, if you don't sort of greet people, each receptionist or except etc. Are there anything else like that that are kind of like watch outs?

SPEAKER_02 30:36

I think also being authentic yourself. So if you aren't that person that is gonna greet receptionists, don't try and be that person that will, because again, that's quite obvious. Just just be yourself because at the end of the day, if you're not yourself in an interview and you do get that job, you probably won't enjoy it there because they'll have seen a version of yourself that you presented in that moment, and it's really hard to keep that version of yourself up for eight, nine hours a day every day. Yeah, so you know, I think I'm a big believer of the job's got to be as good for you as you are for the job. So if it's not working for you, don't try and force yourself to work there because it is some big brand that you've always wanted to work for, and you must have it on your CV because it's so much easier to be yourself and get hired for you and what you're gonna bring to the company than it is to be what you think they want you to be.

SPEAKER_01 31:28

Yeah. Because it's gonna destroy you.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

Yeah, yeah. Also, probably if you like I said, if you came to an interview and you'd not looked at the product and you just literally did a big you just scanned online. If you if you came thinking you know it when you actually don't, it'll come unstuck quite quickly. Yeah. And that's for any of the roles, because you know, if you're going in as a garment tech and you've not actually been in to do a case study, or you know, the you haven't looked at if you're coming in for a children's wear role or something, you haven't gone and had a look at how the sequins are attached to the garment, or you know, whether you because again, companies will always want you to bring something that they've missed, like opportunities. So again, I think it's very obvious if you've just looked at flat images online.

SPEAKER_01 32:14

Yeah, absolutely. Honestly, Lucy, I can't tell you how many people I've interviewed in my in my career who haven't actually been in a store. Oh, yeah, 100%. So much, it's just it's like almost kind of uh a courtesy thing, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 32:28

Yeah, yeah. Well, I think it just shows interest. It just shows interest in the job, and it's not just you're chasing after the name, you're you're you want to make a difference in that company.

SPEAKER_01 32:39

Yeah, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And yeah, it's yeah, like you say, shows interest, show you know, that you're committed to going the extra mile. I mean, we all know that this industry is so notorious for setting, you know, project after project after project. Yeah, and that's just something that you have to do. You have to a lot of people kind of feel like, oh my god, I'm giving them like days work for free, you know. But it's kind of it is something that is accepted. And then would you say that from your career in recruitment that that has that changed at all, or is that something that's still quite, you know, the done thing? Are retailers being a bit more wary about the kind of like work-life balance, like you're trying to balance the job that you've already got, and you've got to go to an interview and you've got to create this massive project. I mean, and my my friends are my my best friend who we used to live with many, many, many years ago. She's a primary school teacher, and she'd just be like, Why are you spending all night with all these tears? This is back, this is how old I am on the floor with all these magazines, and like you've literally spent like literally all week up till midnight doing this for your interview. Like, how does it sit now?

SPEAKER_02 33:49

Like, what's the what's the pre-I think in in all areas again there will be some kind of a project set. Excuse me. I think again, it's it's if you've got lots and lots of candidates that are of a similar level that are all fantastic, there's got to be something that's gonna differentiate them, particularly in a creative area. So, for instance, particularly in the age we are now, a lot of AI is being used, which is great. However, some people are using it in a different way. So, for instance, in a design role, you could be using AI to create your mood boards that you've submitted as your part of your portfolio, but until they can see that you can research yourself, pull that through and into a complete story. I think that's what a project will do. And a project also shows your commerciality. And I think what definitely I did when I was in recruitment was I would try and really kind of push the hiring managers to say, do you actually need that much or how much do you actually need? So I would always kind of just challenge and push back again because I'd built up trust with them. And also with my experience, I think it it helped that I could do that because I understood that you can see someone's direction, you can see their taste level, you can see their storytelling quite quickly. And also when they present that back to you, you can tell if that's actually their choices or not, just the way the passion that they have behind it or the way that they kind of speak about it, you'll know if they fully understood that whole trend or not. And it's similarly within buying, I think doing a SWOT, doing a project, something like that shows again how you translate things and how quickly you can move, you know, how how what trends you do like, you know, are you actually matching with that brand or that retailer that you're interviewing for? Because again, that's also like a match thing, as well, isn't it? If your taste level really, that kind of comes up time and time again. If your taste level doesn't match, you can't actually teach that. You can't teach a taste level, you either have it or you don't. Um and likewise for a merchandiser. Sometimes I know people do projects. I've heard of all sorts of things from merchandisers that they've had to do like literally like DCC math tests in companies from friends that have gone for that in order to do it. Absolute panic. Like literally, they've had to do full math tests with spreadsheets, not in the companies I've worked for, but when friends have gone for other jobs, they've had to do them sort of live in the room with the interviewers. It's awful. So I know that there's lots of different things that people do, but I think generally across the board in all areas, really the project is just to test taste level, commerciality, and how you are, whether you do understand the brand ID of the company you're going for. And if you're going for if likewise, if you're going for a job at a supplier, you probably wouldn't have as much of a project just purely because you're going to be designing socks one day, you're going to be designing bras another day, you're going to be designing nightwear another day. So you're going to have to be that versatile that they can probably see that much in your portfolio. Or likewise buying it, it'll just be about costings, connections also, whether you've got connections in the in the mills, in the dye houses, have you been traveling? That's another massive thing. But if you have been traveling, again, a lot of people don't put that on their CV, but that in itself shows that you've got a completely different understanding of the of the product lifecycle to somebody who hasn't a massive skill set, isn't it? Yeah. But again, because some people have been in the industry for so long that they'll just think, well, yeah, I've been hundreds of times. Why would I put it on there? But there's a whole bunch of people that due to COVID, their company won't have opened up a budget, even still now, for people to go traveling. So there's a whole group of people that have never been travelling. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:38

And I've always find that quite astonishing. And it is an incredibly sad, sad time, isn't it? Yeah. Those those people are still they're still progressing, which is great, but also they just don't have that level of understanding of what it is face to face with a factory owner or go around a showroom or see something being made. Yeah, I've said this so many times on our podcasts. I can't tell you how much I learnt in a week on my first trip. I just accelerated my my learning. Everything I learned for the last three years, I learned in one week. Do you know what I mean? I think I I mean I'd love to start some sort of campaign one day with retail, like how much you get out of uh of someone by investing that money and sending them out there because you get it back. You get it back.

SPEAKER_02 38:29

You do, you do, and I think a lot of companies also, if they've got the money, they'll send you to Pity, they'll send you to I don't know, Seoul or something to do the trend. But I think that there's a massive, massive, like you said, just it just it just blows your mind, I think, going to a factory. And also for me, when I my first trip when I went, I completely changed my timing. Like I stopped when I got in, I didn't go and get my coffee and have a chat to people. I then understood that I needed to respond to China, I needed to respond to Vietnam straight away. And because they'd been waiting half their day, and I don't think it's until you work there that you realise you're waiting and waiting with your colleagues to wake up. Come. And you know, if you've got something on the line and you want to change the button or the fabric's not looking right, it doesn't match the bulk fabric, and you're not that senior level, and you're waiting for your senior to essentially wake up, like it just puts for me, it just put like a different dimension on timings and respect again that they're trying to do. And again, working together, we're all working for the same thing. And if you do come into work and you're going straight away to eat your coffee, your breakfast, having a chat, and there is like because as we know, you get lunch hundreds of emails, and there's there's a whole bank of emails there. It did make me re-look at it and think, actually, I won't go for the ones that I know that are the easy ones, and you have the ones in your inbox that you think, oh, what's happened now? Yeah, but go for those ones. If you've got suppliers, go for those ones because they're obviously the middleman to going and letting that the factory know or the dye houses know.

SPEAKER_01 40:03

Yeah, exactly, exactly. And the repercussions on that, you'll understand so much more. You can sort of be like, Yeah, I get it. Like, we miss a dead, we miss a deadline, that's gonna add on a week. But actually, when you're out of hand, you're like, you think about it the other way around, don't you? You're like, Oh, actually, we could save money because they're gonna be putting the cost price next year because have caused a massive, you know, disruption to the production line, which costs exactly money. It's again opening the like what you were saying before, like understanding the everybody else's role in the business. You also need to understand everybody's role in your supply chain and in your space.

SPEAKER_02 40:39

Yeah, and also sampling, it can it can help with sampling when you see you wanted that one allows in all the colours, yeah, but you actually didn't need that, which I think now in companies they really don't need to be doing that because of so much technology, you know, it's moved on massively, but you just the sampling costs, the the you know, the environmental costs for that as well.

SPEAKER_01 41:03

Yeah, I mean I learned that from moving Kate between Kate and I. We've done like so many different product categories that moving into more hard goods and you know, bigger items like furniture. You cannot request five colours in a chair. It's just you have to get the the metal swatch or you know, a wood sample book or a paint swatch, you know, library.

SPEAKER_00 41:25

And these days with AI, you could just get Claude or Gemini or whichever to rustle it up, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:31

And I think I think that is a that that could potentially be a problem because obviously people in the roles are still might have been their years and they need that tangible product date. But again, it's confidence, and that's why I say if you come into a roles, any of these roles with confidence, then that's gonna kind of just bolster your career a bit because you can think, no, actually, I will make that decision. And decision making, if you can be a decision maker, yeah, and you and and you're confident with it, you know, not bulky or anything, but if you're confident with it, then you will go far, I think. Yeah, exactly. Massively.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

Yeah. Having to make a decision is so true. And yeah, when it comes naturally to you, like you're quite decisive. And that was one thing when I read about the job spec of a buyer. It's like, yeah, I make decisions all the time, but I don't think I realised how much of a like character trait it was or a or a quality it could be. Because my brother would spend hours choosing a pair of shoes. My mum would win, I'd be like, Yeah, that pair, I love it, great, let's go. And he'd be there. She was like, she'd be calling me, be like, I'm still, I'm still in the shop with your brother. Do you like it or you don't? Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:40

And it's being able to envisage it as well. You can like rack it up in your brain. Like some people could just rack it up in your brain, aren't we?

SPEAKER_01 42:47

I know, but I don't know about you two, but kind of it kind of stopped because you have to make like hundreds of decisions a day and I mean being dramatic. You know, I get to my personal life and I'm like, I don't want to decide where we're going for dinner. Over to you. Yeah, yeah. It's like enough enough. So, Lindsay, we are so excited to talk a bit more about what you're doing now. And so give us the real backstory about how it came about, leaving, should we say, the safety of a P A Y role, which we talk about a lot. And yeah, what was the what was the moment where you're like, right, I'm gonna go and do do something for myself and tell us everything about Fashion, Fashion Par?

SPEAKER_02 43:29

Yeah, sure. So basically, I've always wanted to kind of do my own thing, but like all of us, I've just been governed by the safety of having a having a job, like I said, just a full time job, steady job. But I guess working in recruitment, one of the main things I saw time and time again was the gap between, particularly between uh graduates and getting your first job. So although I didn't work directly as the with the early careers team, I saw firsthand how that worked. But also, I did assistant levels all the way up to director levels. So I was doing everything from designers, garnet text, fabric, text, fabric sauces. I'd help out on sort of the buying side and the midsidized side as well. But basically, I saw that there was a gap in the applications that were coming through. And also even people that have been in jobs for a long time, perhaps even made redundant, looking to apply for a new job. And particularly what I would see is the same people applying for a same role, but in exactly the same way. And because I did other areas, I would see almost the same sort of CV portfolio being sent for a boys' wear role as a girls' wear role, and they just give me the same stuff. And equally within the graduate side of things, just the just the way that they are applying for roles or that the portfolio is put together, CVs put together when you speak to people, just not really knowing what they can do with their skills there. That just because you did that degree, you don't have to stay in that box, so to speak. But then I would think I'm gonna keep you because I know that something's gonna come up and you'll actually be fantastic for this other team, this other role that might come up. And I did that time and time again and worked with people on their portfolios and just thought it's nearly there, but what you need to do is this. So basically, I left recruitment and I decided to start up my own company, Fashion Path, because most people struggle to get into fashion, but not because they are lacking in skills or anything, it's just more about they just don't understand how the industry works, how recruitment works, particularly. So that is what I wanted to do. So I work with people on a one-to-one basis. I'm starting some programs basically about how to break into fashion that will go through detailed aspects of how to do that. So look at your skill sets, building confidence, looking at your CV, your portfolio, but also just building a strategy because it's not just about having the greatest CV, the greatest portfolio. Because when if you do get through and you get to sit in front of somebody, how do you put across your brand, you know, you as a person, as a brand, and how do you do that with clarity, authenticity? And can I draw out of you any kind of other skill sets that you might have had and show you other areas of the industry that you could go into? Um just using my, you know, yeah, I think it's about 20 years experience now, really, which is crazy, it goes so fast in the industry. So yeah, just I just really, really am passionate about helping. Helping people break in and yeah, just break in, move, pivot, and show it's okay. It's okay. You don't have to stay in that job because you want it to be on your CV or you're scared to move. You can do it. And I think because I have been a redundant multiple times previously, I've come back from maternity leave into jobs, or as we've found out, I've done a lot of pivoting. So I think from a personal level, I can say I've done that. Also, from a personal level with the industry, I can understand from where you're coming from, from multiple areas, categories, how different companies work, the stresses that come with that, and then also from being on the other side of the table, being the recruiter, working with hiring managers, the reality of what you need to do, the reality of what there is, and the reality of how everything is processed, really.

SPEAKER_01 47:40

Yeah, absolutely. So is it not it's not just entry level you're helping? Is it sort of all the way through your sort of stages of your career, stages of life? So you don't yeah, pretty much. Maybe, or if you've been made redundant, which obviously it's really a tough time out there at the moment. Seeing a lot of, but is there any kind of like top tips that you can sort of you know, bits, you know, little bits of little bits of advice you can give people at any point that that they've sort of experienced one of those things, or you know, that well, yeah, how you know your process works and how people can get in contact with you as well.

SPEAKER_02 48:16

So on my LinkedIn, so Lindsay Scorns on LinkedIn, I do a lot of top tips on there. I do a lot of real case studies and how you know how I've got over things or how I've worked with people and kind of gone over hurdles that they've done. Like I said, do a lot of tips as well. And also I'm gonna be doing a program that will be a six to eight week course of how you can break into fashion, or that's whether or not you've started from the beginning. So if you're not sure how to do it, or if you've you maybe you've been in fashion for maybe three to five years and it's just not going anywhere for you, and how you can actually reposition yourself, look at your skill sets, like I said, and go through CVs, portfolios, strategies, just really build that clear strategy as how to pivot. Because I think the difference between what I offer and what coaches offer is I guess the coaches are fantastic at what they do and really sort of building usually and getting you into that mindset of attacking, you know, what you want to do. But I can give you that authentic look from recruitment side and actually give you that reality of what you do need to do and how quickly recruiters look at things and also not just recruiters, how AI is actually scraping things as well. So just really kind of looking at it and just pinpointing what you need to be putting there, what you need to actually be doing for yourself, putting yourself first, and really kind of just digging into what you have and what you can actually promote as, like I said, your brand, rather than just looking at yourself and how you can achieve it. I can give you the the I guess the 360 tools because I've been that person, I've been through lots of different things, and I can see from, like I said, the other side of the table how to package it together and what what opportunities there might be that you might not realise. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 50:10

It's a noisy place out there, isn't it, for finding jobs these days. So, you know, to have always been LinkedIn or finding like you finding a recruiter, but often you find recruiters are incredibly busy, they are also adapting to AI tools. So it's pick the journey, yeah. The relationship that you have with with a recruiter is becoming a little bit more robotic than you know, that personable. I mean, I remember the days when you'd go in and actually go to a recruitment agency, sit on the have a cup of coffee, sit in a room, and someone would go through your CV, and it was all right, like those days are probably behind us. LinkedIn's so noisy, sometimes you miss jobs. Yes. It's so incredibly important to have these kind of services now available to people because it's it A can stop you from even looking for a job because it's exhausting job in itself, right? Looking for a job, and B, it's like where do you start with all this noise now?

SPEAKER_02 51:06

Yeah, absolutely. And I think a lot of people think, depending on situations, that you need to just apply, apply, apply. But you that's absolutely not what I would advocate for at all. And the reason behind it is I think you you you know what you have, or if you don't know what you have, obviously a service like Fashion Impath can help but pinpoint what that is, but package it into a way that is tailored for each application. Don't just apply for things because obviously you're panicked. And it, you know, if I've been made redundant and I know what it's like, but try to take a step back, try to think about what you want to do, and just yeah, like use a service like myself and just really look at how you can tailor things to a specific role, or how you can build yourself up confidence-wise, using real tools, authentic advice, actually from the industry, from recruitment, to to to not kind of lose sight of what you want to do and don't because I know how disheartening it is with if you don't hear back from from recruiters or you really do take it take it personally and think, well, I'm not going to bother now, I'll just go and do the other job. But we're in it, we're in a job for so long, hopefully, we're in a job for so long that you want it to be something that you want to do, you want to still have that passion. And just because just because a job's been if you've been made redundant, it wasn't your decision. So just because if that's the case, you shouldn't just go for a job because you feel you have to, you know, you still should prioritize yourself as much as you can sort of financially. And I know obviously with my services, there is a financial cost attached to it, but it's absolutely a great investment for somebody that is looking to not do a quick fix but really dig into what they can do, build your career, and you know, really take your career to that path that you want it to, and focus on yourself. You know, you do. I mean, when you when you think about it, the amount of money that you probably spend on coffees or getting quick snacks and things, but if you actually put that into yourself or you know, it it can be amazing.

SPEAKER_00 53:10

Yeah, but actually how much money you can waste on the coffee, really, yeah, versus actually investing that money properly into yourself. Yeah, yeah. I think you're really right when you're saying about just focusing on a few roles rather than trying to apply for everything and just scatter gunning. And especially if you're part way through your career and you've been a buyer or but well, I say particularly a buyer, but maybe designer or merchandiser. But think about maybe when you've interviewed other people and how frustrating it can be when you've had people come to an interview that haven't been into your shop, or a supplier that's trying to pitch to you that's never been into your store, or a supplier that's pitching to you that is clearly sending you the same deck that they've sent to everybody else, and you're like, you're not that's not tailored to me. Why should I take you on if you're just sending that out to everybody? And that is the same way you need to think about your CV going out because that's the same way that's going to be received. But I get that sometimes when particularly if you're desperately looking for a new job that you just don't like where you are, or if you've been made redundant, that sometimes your judgment and things can be clouded and it's harder to kind of just think outside. But if you put yourself in that position, just think how frustrating it is when you constantly get hammered with messages on LinkedIn or emails of pitch proposals that are not anything tailored to you. And that's how you feel sometimes when your CV is just scattergunned out.

SPEAKER_02 54:34

Yeah, definitely. And the the position I was in before, because I was recruiting for multiple areas, I would literally see the same person apply for all of them, and it would be the same. So then I would think, okay, that's that kind of person, you need to tailor it again. But also what we would see is just cover letters that have got the wrong company name on, just really, really small things that I think if you again, it's just that like you said, it's that scattergun approach, it's the confidence in yourself. And I think if you if you take a step back, take a breather, and you do tailor it in any situation you're in, you the the hit rate is it's got to be higher, it's got to be.

SPEAKER_00 55:14

One of the kind of key requirements of kind of being a buyer or designer or merchandiser and working for a large retailer is attention to detail.

SPEAKER_02 55:21

Oh, 100%. You'd be surprised. That's honestly, and it is it's like a frustration because you can see, and sometimes you can see this is great, but then like you said, if it's just says, hi, I'd love to wake up, blah, blah, blah, and it's just or I'm so excited for my second interview here. And you're just thinking, I don't even what what is this? Yeah, and again, like you said, it's the whole attention to detail, a passion for the product, you know. Like you said, it's a it is a bit, it's a busy marketplace. So if you are doing that, you're only doing yourself a disservice, and it's just a case of attention to detail. And I know everybody says you haven't got time for things, and I know time is really stretched, particularly in our industry. But honestly, if you spend the time on yourself just doing this thing once, you know, potentially in like a program like like I'm offering, it can actually hopefully just change the way you look at everything. Yeah, and even if you're happy in your job, it's it can still change the way that you look at how you progress in your company because a lot of people, depending on you know, who your manager is, how your team works, a lot of people are just feeling quite stagnated. And again, it's just retention, again, is a thing. So just again, you could you could look at it for that aspect of really kind of strategizing how you are gonna get to where you're gonna get to, and if your current company then still isn't responsive to it, you've then got the tools to move on.

SPEAKER_01 56:46

Yeah, I think it's just a really powerful thing that you don't have to stay in a job just because you think you should, yeah, or just because you think that it's really uncertain out there at the moment. You just got to be a bit more clever these days about finding a job, right? Yeah, yeah. Like I remember saying this to a colleague years ago, that you you it's not gonna find you, you almost have to create it yourself and create it. Yeah, yeah. Really clear on your goals, you're really clear, clear on your value. Like, and then that that's the first step these days, isn't it?

SPEAKER_02 57:16

Yeah, yeah. Confidence and clarity and just resilience. And I think we all do that day to day in your job, and it's almost like when the spots light shine back on you, you kind of go, Oh, I don't know. But in your job, you know, as buyers or whatever you're doing, you constantly do that. You know, you are pitching to directors, you're pitching to different levels within your team, you're you're convincing the supplier to give you, you know, a CPR or something, you've got those skills. But when the when the spotlights shine back on you, all of a sudden people think I'm almost not good enough. When you are, you absolutely are, and you do have those skills. And it's just about how you package those back up and put yourself first, just really put yourself first because you can do it and you are fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 58:01

Amazing. That's such an incredible way to end this. We'll obviously put all of your details in our show notes so the listeners can go on and take a look. It's amazing, thank you. But it's been incredible, amazing to speak to you, and it's just so nice to hear that this service exists. I think that it's incredibly needed and just goes to shine the light on you know everything that we're all trying to do jointly together is create this community of support and collaboration and connection, and like that's that's the way forward these days, isn't it? And that's how we're gonna definitely stay in an industry that we all bloody love, you know?

SPEAKER_02 58:36

Yeah, exactly. Just network, network and put yourself first, and yeah, everything will work out great. It will be brilliant.

SPEAKER_00 58:42

Thank you, Lindsay. It's been so great speaking to someone so like-minded.

SPEAKER_02 58:46

Oh, thanks, guys. It's been great.

SPEAKER_00 58:48

We'll speak soon.

SPEAKER_01 59:00

Kate, are you a drama queen? No, drama just makes things interesting. That's true. All these thoughts and opinions are our own and based on our own experiences working for a wide variety of retailers. These are all in the hope to entertain and educate and not to reflect negatively on any place we currently or have previously worked.