Regular Reflection, November 2023.

Where I look back on the wins and the lessons learnt in life and business. This month "Social Media, The Beauty and The Beast."...

When I launched this Substack in August this year, a large part of me was craving a space in which to share more personal, vulnerable musings. Since then, I’ve consistently shared my weekly Stalf styling articles, the monthly Style Notes and The Love List- a delve into everything that’s been on my radar, with a touch on the mood of my life. I’ve slowly started to share more personal reflection in a handful of more intimate essays for my paid subscribers.

This month I feel ready for more.

Regular Reflection is a time for me to journal, reflect and ponder life in more depth, go a little deeper, and share a few more of the inner insights.

Thank you for reading, and thank you for helping me create this space to share.

Paris

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Social Media, the Beauty and the Beast.

I read a piece from the Substack GROW series last week from Amanda Yates Garcia. She said that one of the things that surprised her about writing on Substack is that it makes her feel “safe and happy”.

I feel the same- this has been a real theme for me this year. Slowly carving out spaces where I feel safe and happy- and that’s typically not been on social media of late.

I very much lost that secure feeling over the past few years across these online platforms - the place I had slowly grown and nurtured had morphed into something else entirely and I really closed my clam shell when it came to sharing anything remotely personal or vulnerable. But the thing is, I am a highly emotional, sensitive and deep-feeling person- most creatives are. Part of what I truly loved about growing a (small) following on social media was sharing the journey. Chatting it over with followers, reading feedback from people who really valued the creative process. Sharing the intimate aspects of it all played a huge part in the growth of my clothing brand- the ability to weave the personal, vulnerable and real experiences of day-to-day into an overall offering is a superpower of small businesses, I feel. If you picture your favourite places to land on social media, I’d imagine most of them are micro businesses or one-man-band-influencers, and furthermore, I’d suggest the reason you’re drawn to them is for the people, the process, the personal. Not so much the product shots or the ads.