EP 87: The Power of Extra: How I Built a Career Being Too Much (Season 3)

If I told you that blind faith and pure audacity built this life, would you believe me?

In this raw and reflective season opener, I'm pulling the curtains back on how I went from cutting up my GAP hoodie at 19 to running workshops for Nike, speaking on global stages, and getting paid to be exactly who I am... extra, unqualified, and totally delusional.

No plan. No permission. Just vibes, creativity, and the refusal to shrink.

This episode is for anyone who’s been told they’re "too much," for the dreamers with no blueprint, and for the ones finally ready to back themselves out loud.

💥 Topics include:
– The truth about how I got started
– The power of delusional confidence
– Why “extra” is my business model
– Lockdown glow-up stories
– What’s coming this season on the pod
– A weekly check-in that’ll have you calling yourself out (with love)

👑 This ain’t about sewing, it’s about stitching your life back together in a way that feels like you.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome to Season Three
• 2:27 My Upcycling Journey Begins
• 5:20 From Lockdown to Paid Collaborations
• 10:11 Workshops, Presenting, and Sticking With It
• 13:18 Season Three: Getting Real and Delusional
• 15:24 Call to Action: Embrace Your Extra

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

If I told you that I built this life being delusional, would you believe me? Because it wasn't strategy that got me here, it was audacity, straight up, blind faith and vibes, because I wasn't qualified and I wasn't backed. But do you know what? I backed myself, and that's why we're here. So, season three let's go, baby. Hey guys, welcome to another episode of the so Flippin' Extra podcast, a platform for me to express, explore and connect and be so flippin' extra. Why are you here? Well, baby, that's what brings me joy. So, without further ado, let's get into season three, let's get into episode one and let's go. Oi, come on. So welcome back to the Sofie Connection podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:55

I am your host, daniela Dawkins, and you may have missed me for the last two weeks because I had an impromptu break. It wasn't planned. I just I don't know. I just I was too busy and I was too tired. I was extremely tired last week and I said you know, I'm taking a break. And then I was like I feel like I need a change. I feel like I just need a change. So I'm going to start a new season, because when run your own ting, you can just do what you want. So, yeah, this, this podcast is where being too much is just the bare minimum, and I really want to dive into that. I really want to dive into that extra because, although the podcast has been called from the beginning the so flipping extra podcast, sometimes I'm like are we really giving extra? Are we really giving extra? Because sometimes I just feel like we're just doing the bare minimum, like it just is what it is. So I think it's time to be even more extra. We're kicking off season three with a bang no playing it safe, no shrinking to make other people feel comfortable, just real talk, bold moves and full-blown extras. Ever, whether you're new here or you've been riding from day one, I love you guys, thank you. This season is going to be raw, reflective and real as hell, and we're starting with a theme that I live by being delusionally confident because, honestly, that's the only reason why I'm still here. Right, let's take it back.

Speaker 1: 2:27

People always ask me how did I get into upcycling and, honestly, there's no business plan behind it. Lockdown was very much a key player in this whole story as to how I'm here now, but really this started from when I was 19. If you know how old I am, you know that was a long fucking time ago, from when I was 19, I started cutting shit up. I started making the things that I wanted, because I wanted to stand out and I wanted to be different from other people. So, while everyone had a normal gap jumper, I had my gap jumper with the hoodie cut off, so it was off the shoulder and it fit into my 80s vibe that I was going for when I was doing performing arts. I was making leg warmers out of the sleeves of jumpers and that's really how it began, like if I wanted something, I would create it, I would make it. It wasn't called up cycling then. We were just doing bits. You know what I'm saying. So, yeah, a couple years later I started.

Speaker 1: 3:29

I had my son a couple years there. Well, it wasn't a couple, it was a good maybe six, seven years later, but I would make stuff for him. When he got to four years old, I was customizing denim jackets for him, as well as myself and family and friends, and I got myself back into this creative flow even before then, like I remember I remember had I had Caden at this point, I'm not sure, but I remember making a pair of shoes out of glass, like I got mirrors, pieces of mirrors. I broke the mirror into pieces and I was like, please don't give me bad luck, because this is creativity, so I haven't broken it by accident, so it shouldn't be, it shouldn't be bad luck. And I smashed the mirrors and I glued all the mirror pieces onto these shoes because I just wanted a pair of high heels that were mirrors, like a mirror ball. They were freaking amazing. I must try and find a picture.

Speaker 1: 4:22

Um, and this is this bit there's just been so many times throughout this last decade is a decade, two years or one year, this last double decade, this, this last 20 years where I found myself just making stuff because I just wanted it, because I wanted something new, because I wanted something different and because I wanted to stand out and I wanted to be extra. I didn't realize at the time that I was trying to be extra. I didn't realize that I was trying to be an upcycler. I wasn't trying to do anything but just be me and be happy and have what I wanted. Um, I had Cali. I started making dolls. I went through a phase where I was making African print clothing, so like off the shoulder tops, circle skirts, because I love spinning around and my skirt flying up and showing my knickers. I was just a girly girl, um. But then we got to lockdown.

Speaker 1: 5:15

I, my journey along that way, found my love for secondhand clothing and vintage clothing. It wasn't really secondhand, it was vintage, but obviously vintage is second hand. And I went on a haul of buying a lot of stuff, second hand, as much as I bought a lot of clothes when I was buying high street. When I discovered the second hand store, in my brain it was okay because it was cheaper and I had a lot of stuff I bought a lot, a lot of stuff, way too much. Wardrobes were overpacked, overcrowded. Then I was like I'm just gonna sell it, I'm gonna be a reseller, did I Fuck? No, because I'm. I just didn't have the patience. I went through a phase of reselling and did make money, but not enough. But I still my love for secondhand was, has just been there for years. Now I don't really shop in high street unless I have to for whatever reason.

Speaker 1: 6:05

We can get into that into another story, um. So where are we now? We're, let's just say we've gone, we've come into lockdown now and I have got clothes everywhere, hordes of clothes and bags of clothes that I'm like I'm going to go through this bag and make stuff. So now I'm holding on to stuff because I want to make stuff out of these clothes and remake them into something. So when lockdown hit and I just had all this time on my hands, I said I'm going to start making, do transition videos, and I done my first few and they went really well and I loved it. So that's what became of lockdown. I was just doing transition videos every week. There was maybe three videos that I was pumping out of stuff that I made. Every day I was making stuff and just be doing the content.

Speaker 1: 6:48

I fell in love with content creating. I thought I loved content creating before lockdown. I loved content creating. I just would spend my evening on the phone editing my videos. Absolutely loved it. Absolutely loved it.

Speaker 1: 7:09

My first paid collaboration was with Foot Locker and they sent me a pair of their I think they're called Flyknit trainers, which they're sustainably made trainers, and they said for me to do an upcycle video, like with an out in my clothing and feature the trainers, and I got paid a thousand pounds to do that and I I remember thinking what? So I get to do what I love One, make clothes out of old stuff and upcycle them and then do the content and I get paid a thousand pounds. What I loved it? I was like this is what I'm going to do, but the overthinker in my brain didn't have the experience and that was just a fluke. So did I go out and hustle to get more of these jobs? I did not, and I kick myself sometimes, but everything happens for a reason. Everything happens for a reason.

Speaker 1: 7:55

By this point, I've obviously started the so Flippin' Extra live show because I was live every Sunday on Instagram and I was bringing people onto my live show in introducing them to my community and showcasing what their skill was. So these were obviously people that had had made businesses. So they were creatives. I think everyone I had on the show was a creative in the sense of they created their own company or their own business. So many different types of people. They weren't upcyclers like me um, some were. But you know there was present your joy, um, who does candles. There was den's cakes she does cakes and stuff. There was hair people. There was a therapist on there. I had a lot. I don't even know because live tv went, instagram live went. I don't even know where all of this stuff is, and I would love to find it because I would re-upload it, because great stories, great stuff came. There were tears, shared, everything. And at this point I'm still upcycling.

Speaker 1: 9:01

But now I've shifted and I told you what happened during this time of upcycling. I didn't ever want to be of service like a service provider, in the sense of I didn't necessarily want to make stuff for people. I'd done it before. I just don't think I was really good at it. I was good at making stuff for myself, but I don't think I was good at making stuff for myself. But I don't think I was good at making stuff for people.

Speaker 1: 9:23

And the reason I came to that conclusion was because I had never, I hadn't gone to, I hadn't studied, I was self-taught, so I felt like my finish isn't proper, but the way I sew, and especially when I do denim and stuff, it doesn't have to be proper. So I feel like that's why I leaned into the denim, but I didn't want to do that. But I had found something that I enjoyed. So I said to myself I said, dan, do this, just stay here and and ride it out and see where it gets you, because it's gonna get you somewhere and by golly gosh did it. Because what happened?

Speaker 1: 10:01

From me doing these videos, these upcycling videos, and sticking with it and staying there, I was able to open so many more doors for myself. I was able to start doing workshops and becoming a workshop host working with Nike, working with ECOVA, working with Comfort, like big brands that I've worked with. There's probably loads that I haven't even said, that I've done workshops for. I've done workshops for Google. I don't even think I even posted Google when I've done it but I've done an upcycling workshop with Google. Um, great, great stuff that I've done. But because I stayed and I stuck it out and I love doing workshops then I've my presenting side of it. I've got to do presenting and speaking on stages, hosting stages, hosting events. I absolutely love it that I got there from sticking to what I said I was going to do, from having that conversation with myself and saying, stay with this one.

Speaker 1: 10:59

I'd done the dolls. I stopped doing the dolls. I'd done the customization of the jackets. I stopped doing the jackets, I'd started doing the African prints, making stuff for people, and then I stopped, and I always thought that whenever it got too much, where it felt like it was getting. I was getting too much attention and people wanted it. I was like I can't keep up the demand. That's just me one. I can't do this on my own, so I would stop and I stayed this time and I'm very, very grateful for where it's got me. I've got my own podcast. I wanted my own podcast for so long, which is why I started the so Flippin Extra live show.

Speaker 1: 11:30

I thought I can't do a podcast though like oh, who's gonna listen? I don't even know who's gonna listen. Sometimes, absolutely no one listens to my podcast. That's the real, god's honest truth. Sometimes I have two or three I have. I have a couple diehards that come back all the time and if they miss a couple, they'll go on the catch up. And I'm so grateful for you guys and I really, really do hope that my podcast does start catching numbers. But even if it's just me having a space to be honest with myself and a couple of you lot to tap in with me and be like I hear you babes and I feel you and I'm with you, I stand with you, then it's for us, isn't it? So that's my story, that's when I take you back, that's where it's been and a lot of the time I can't be. I can't lie. Delusion has got me here, believing in myself, believing that I can, believing that someone wants it, and just going through it and hoping for the best. Blind faith has got me through and it's going to continue getting me through because it's my story.

Speaker 1: 12:35

Okay, so this season we're going to add something new. It's going to be a little check-in each week to help us reflect and recalibrate and see where we're at each time. Today's prompt is this, though when have I been playing small lately? So is there a dream, a move, a version of yourself that you've parked up because it just felt too much? I know I have Sometimes, I probably still do it. We can't be doing this anymore. This is where it has to end. I want you to get delusional about it. Imagine the most unrealistic version of your next step and go there. That's the energy that I'm on, because that's what it should look like to me.

Speaker 1: 13:14

So what can you guys expect this season? Well, this season you're gonna get more real from me. I'm gonna be so real with real, with you guys, because the realer that I am with you, the realer I've got to be with myself and I feel like I've already been real. But I don't know, maybe I could dig a little bit deeper. You're going to get the behind the scenes of running a business, flipping fashion, flipping the mindsets. Raising a 19 year old, raising a frigging, soon to be 12 year old oh my God, all of it.

Speaker 1: 13:54

We're going to talk about identity, burnout, confidence, rejection oh my God. And resilience. We're going to laugh. We're going to continue crying, because we do that a lot over here. We're going to absolutely cuss, but you know what else we're going to have. We're going to have guests. I'm going to have guests on this season. We'll have the solo rants. Not too many of them, because we keep it cute and we keep it positive. We're going to have the street interviews. I'm going to be giving you guys stories from Ghana Hopefully I'll be back in Ghana during this season and bold as fuck reflections.

Speaker 1: 14:34

This isn't just about sewing it's not even that much about sewing at all on this podcast, but what it is about it's about stitching your life back together in a way that feels like you Audacious, messy, proud, loud and absolutely fucking extra. So listen, babes. If you've ever been called too much, then good, you're in the right place over here on the so Flippin' Extra podcast. Season three is going to be all about being delusionally confident, and it's not a bad thing. That's what I keep trying to tell you lot that survival is power. So here's your call to action.

Speaker 1: 15:10

I want you guys to tag me on instagram, dm me your most delusional dreams, or send this to someone who needs a reminder that they're not here to blend in. And if you're still waiting for a sign, whatever that sign is, babes, this is it right here. Peace out a time down west side is the best side. Do I believe that? Not really, guys. However, what I do believe is that wherever I'm at, the vibes are, wherever you're at, the vibes are, and the vibe is getting even vibier over here. So make sure you come back every week. Next week, we're going to be continuing the conversation about being delusionally confident and what that really looks like, so make sure you come back next week. Come find me, meet me in the same place. Sunday is the day. I love you guys. Bye.