What if you could build a wildly successful business with under 1,000 Instagram followers? Nicole Otchy, founder of The Styling Consultancy, is living proof it's possible—and she's breaking all the industry's outdated rules to do it.

In this episode, Nicole shares her journey from styling presidential advisors and power players to coaching stylists to build six-figure businesses. We dive deep into the uncomfortable truths about creative entrepreneurship, why perfectionism keeps talented people broke, and how to price your services like the leader you are.

[01:51] Handling "You're Too Expensive" Objections Nicole's game-changing advice: put your prices on your website and own them with confidence. If someone says it's out of budget, respond with "Yeah, it is. It may not be right for you."

[03:21] Earliest Sign of Being Allergic to Ordinary Growing up feeling "different" in a negative way, and how that evolved into a superpower in her 40s.

[06:48] What's Broken in the Styling Industry Why styling has been pigeonholed as a "little dress-up business" instead of recognized as serious consulting work.

[14:54] What Powerful People Have in Common Lessons from 14 years styling CEOs and political advisors: they all did it scared, had excellent emotional regulation, and cultivated networks of advisors.

[18:44] Perfectionism: The Silent Business Killer The biggest thing holding creative entrepreneurs back and why the obsession with being perfect keeps people from launching and showing up.

[21:36] The Identity Shift to Six-Figure CEO How to baby-step your way from fear to confidence without jumping into the deep end.

[24:34] The Social Media Myth How Nicole runs a multiple six-figure business with under 1,000 Instagram followers. Her secret? Deep relationships over vanity metrics, with her podcast doing the heavy lifting.

[28:36] Visibility vs. Profitability Stop chasing followers and start focusing on your bank account. Understanding the numbers that actually matter in your business.

[31:22] Advice for Small Followings Ask specific, limited-scope questions and take real client conversations online. Quality engagement beats quantity.

[35:08] Common Pricing Mistakes Why pricing is a form of leadership and how to stop outsourcing your authority to what's on other people's websites.

[38:16] The Career Pivot at 40 The voice that asked "Do you really want to do this when you're 60?" and choosing impact over comfort.

[45:22] Rapid Fire: What's Normal That You Don't Subscribe To? Stop asking "what is everyone else wearing?" and other wisdom bombs.

Connect with Nicole: Instagram: @stylingconsultancy Podcast: The Six Figure Personal Stylist Podcast

If ordinary has ever felt suffocating, you’re in the right place.
Follow Allergic to the Ordinary for conversations on identity, ambition, and designing a life that doesn’t play it safe.

Hosted by @jamiegasparovic

A Studio Gaspo production

What if losing everything you built on social media was actually the beginning of something bigger? Jen Szpigiel is the Editor in Chief of Iconic Magazine and Founder of Becoming Iconic. She's helped thousands of women build over $100 million in sales. In this conversation, Jen gets raw about giving her power away to goals, clients, team members, and social media—and what happened when she lost her entire Instagram following in 2022, then built her first million in six months with less than a thousand followers.

What We Cover:

[01:18] The lesson Jen wishes she'd learned earlier: taking personal power back [04:19] The most recent thing Jen gave her power away to (team members she kept too long) [06:35] When being copied feels fresh—and the maturity that comes with it [11:20] Success isn't saying a million things—it's saying your thing a million ways [16:17] Don't talk about the wound while it's bleeding: when to share your story [18:27] Being seen was petrifying: Jen's divorce story and the mean girls [25:10] Why action creates the feeling, not the other way around [31:54] The selfish desire that became Iconic Magazine [37:53] Losing her social media and making a million with <1K followers [42:23] What actually drives reach? It's not what you think [45:00] If you feel invisible, here's the hard truth you need to hear [47:32] The weirdness that makes you successful [52:02] Emma Greed: the woman ripping doors off the hinges

Quotes Worth Saving:

"I wish I had known to consistently take my personal power back. I gave power over to goals, income, potential clients, and social media."

"The first million dollars I reached in six months came off of losing my socials with less than a thousand followers."

"Women wait for the feeling to come first, not realizing that action creates the feeling. Your feeling of being ready will not appear first."

"Nobody's coming to your rescue. Not a mentor, not a team member, not your spouse, not even the followers on Instagram."

"The very thing that makes you weird is the very thing that will make you successful."

About Jen:

Jen Szpigiel is Editor in Chief of Iconic Magazine and Founder of Becoming Iconic. She's helped thousands of women build successful businesses, resulting in over $100 million in sales. After losing her social media in 2022, she launched Iconic Magazine—described as Forbes meets Vogue—which has garnered over 10 million impressions and reached 48+ countries.

Connect: @iconicmagazine__ & @becomingiconic | The Iconic Podcast

Your Turn:

Where are you giving your power away? To metrics? People-pleasing? Waiting for validation? This week, identify one place where you're holding back—and fully commit. Be more of yourself. We're all craving more of YOU.

If ordinary has ever felt suffocating, you’re in the right place.
Follow Allergic to the Ordinary for conversations on identity, ambition, and designing a life that doesn’t play it safe.

Hosted by @jamiegasparovic

A Studio Gaspo production

What if the screenless camera everyone's obsessing over, the VHS tapes making a comeback, and your sudden urge to buy a record player are all symptoms of the same thing...we're exhausted by optimization?

In this solo episode, Jamie breaks down the pattern she's been noticing: the pendulum is swinging hard toward analog, friction, and nostalgia. But it's not really about the VHS tape or the 90s. It's about craving a time when you weren't mainlining terrible news every hour, when everything wasn't AI-generated slop, when effort and time created meaning instead of just being inefficiencies to eliminate.

From her four-year-old asking if she's ever been inside a grocery store (answer: basically no) to teaching her kids to sit through an entire vinyl record without skipping songs, Jamie makes the case for intentional friction. Not performative analog aesthetics, but actual choices about where to automate and where to protect presence. Because complete optimization? It makes us hollow.

What We Cover:

[00:00] The Camp Snap camera phenomenon: why people are swarming over a basic screenless camcorder [02:30] The pattern: VHS tapes, kids' landlines, Ralph Lauren Christmas, and millennial nostalgia marketing [04:45] What we're really craving: not the 90s, but being unreachable and protected from the chaos [06:30] AI slop fatigue: when fascinating became suffocating in record time [08:15] The nuance: it's not about rejecting technology—it's about intentionality [09:00] The grocery store story: Jamie's son asks if she's ever been inside one (basically no) [10:30] Adding friction where it matters: vinyl records as events, handwritten notes, presence with kids [13:00] Design application: the two-queen bedroom that took 16 weeks instead of 2 [15:30] Collecting art over time vs. filling walls instantly from Wayfair [17:00] The invitation: where should you automate and where should you add friction?

Quotes Worth Saving:

"The VHS tape, the Camp Snap camera, 90s nostalgia—all of that is showing this desire to disconnect and have protection from the firehose of chaos we're living in."

"When you come across something that feels genuinely human—with personality, mistakes, a strong point of view—it stands out because most of what we're consuming doesn't have that anymore."

"My four-year-old asked me, 'Mom, have you ever actually been in Publix?' And the answer is basically no. I'm happy to automate groceries because I don't care about them."

"When you put on a record, you can't skip to whatever song you want. You commit to the full experience. That friction creates meaning that telling the robot to play music doesn't have."

"You're investing a lot of money either way. Would you rather wait 16 weeks and have it be exactly right, or rush it in 2 weeks and regret it 5 minutes later?"

"Complete optimization makes us hollow. We think we want everything instant and frictionless, but when we get that, something's missing. Friction is where the growth lives."

"Being allergic to the ordinary isn't about doing everything differently. It's about knowing what matters to you and refusing to let convenience steal it."

Your Turn:

Jamie's challenge: Ask yourself these questions:

1. What's one thing you're rushing through that you actually want to savor?
2. What's an area where you've optimized away the experience?

Start with one area. Add the friction back. See what happens.

If ordinary has ever felt suffocating, you’re in the right place.
Follow Allergic to the Ordinary for conversations on identity, ambition, and designing a life that doesn’t play it safe.

Hosted by @jamiegasparovic

A Studio Gaspo production

The Real Talk What happens when "authenticity" becomes your brand? Can you build a million-dollar business without ads or funnels? And more importantly—what do drum lessons and talking to dead people have to do with running a successful online business?

Colleen Nichols is here to answer all of that and more. She's the #1 bestselling author of Don't Make it Weird, a digital authenticity expert, and someone who's done what most people said was impossible: built a thriving business on pure human connection.

But this isn't your typical "business success story" interview. We're talking about the pricing pivot that terrified her, why she's building a networking group for normal people who happen to make abnormal amounts of money, and how learning to suck at something new saved her from burnout.

If you've ever felt trapped by your own brand, bored in your business, or like you've forgotten how to be a human outside of work—this one's for you.

What We Cover:

[00:00] Why Colleen's book has zero fluff (and what she refused to add)
[06:08] The secret Instagram account that became a million-dollar business
[11:19] The pricing model change that made no financial sense (but total human sense)
[13:25] How to tell the difference between "I'm bored" and "this doesn't align with my values anymore"
[15:46] Drum lessons, mediumship, and the hobbies you can't monetize
[22:42] The ROI on doing things that have nothing to do with your business
[26:36] Building a networking group that doesn't feel like buying friends
[28:17] The "trust recession" happening in online business right now
[35:12] Why normalizing martyrdom in marriage is bizarre (and what to do instead)
[38:28] The one thing you can do TODAY to live more allergic to the ordinary

Quotes Worth Saving:

"It is a privilege to be bored in your business."

"Somebody is scrolling right now, waiting for whatever it is that you're too afraid to say."

"I had to do stuff that I could not monetize. Gross. Hate it."

"A lot of women normalize the martyrdom of being a woman. And I think that is just bizarre."

"You have to have the patience to build the foundation of people seeing you as a thought leader or somebody they can relate to. The currency has to be engagement, and then the currency can be actual dollars."

Connect with Colleen:
Instagram: @noshamessalesgame

Don't Make it Weird by Colleen Nichols

Your Turn:
Colleen's challenge: Unfollow people who make you feel like shit.

Seriously. Go through your feed right now and unfollow (or at minimum, mute) anyone who makes you feel bad about yourself. You're in charge of your algorithm. Use it.

If ordinary has ever felt suffocating, you’re in the right place.
Follow Allergic to the Ordinary for conversations on identity, ambition, and designing a life that doesn’t play it safe.

Hosted by @jamiegasparovic

A Studio Gaspo production

The Real Talk What do you do when something is good—but not great? When you've invested years into a path that makes perfect sense on paper, but something in your gut says it's time to move on?

Kacia Ghetmiri has become the queen of the pivot. She's a toddler mom, host of the empowerHER Podcast with over 13 million downloads, and a Denver-based real estate agent who built a $5M+ real estate portfolio with her husband. But here's what makes her different: she's not afraid to publicly change her mind.

In this conversation, we're getting into the messy middle of pivoting—how she knows when to quit versus when to push through, why she wrote a children's book in one month just because she wanted to, and what happened when she tried to be a stay-at-home mom (spoiler: it lasted two months).

If you've ever felt stuck because of sunk cost, afraid to pivot because of what people will think, or paralyzed by the gap between where you are and where you want to be—this episode will give you permission to move.

What We Cover:

[02:51] The difference between quitting when you suck vs. quitting when it's not aligned
[09:56] The two-month stay-at-home mom experiment (and what it taught her)
[13:06] Why she recycled The Giving Tree and wrote her own children's book in 30 days
[21:12] How empowerHER evolved from "figuring it out together" to expert advice
[30:09] Why she got her real estate license while pregnant in her first trimester
[33:02] The design advantage that makes their short-term rentals crush it
[38:58] How becoming a mom changed her appetite for risk (spoiler: she takes MORE now)
[54:35] Future you can handle future you's problems

Quotes Worth Saving:

"You're probably already in your worst case scenario. Like if you're in a job that you don't like, what's the worst that's going to happen? You try the thing and it doesn't work out. Then you just go back to what you're literally already doing right now."

"A future version of you can handle a future version of you's problems. Let's not stay on the start line because we're worried about problems we don't even have yet."

"How can you fall more in love with the process rather than what the process can produce? Because that will keep you going long enough to have enough data so that when you walk away from something, you can say, that wasn't for me and feel confident about it."

Connect with Kacia:

Instagram: @kacia.ghetmiri
Podcast: empowerHER Podcast
Real Estate Podcast: Ghet Investing Podcast

Your Turn:

Kacia's challenge: What have you done for the first time recently?

If you're feeling stuck, confused, or underwhelmed with life—ask yourself this question. If you're hanging out with the same people, doing the same things, listening to the same podcasts, having the same conversations—of course you're bored. Go take a pottery class. Book a trip to Costa Rica. Do something that shakes it up. You're out there collecting data, remember?

If ordinary has ever felt suffocating, you’re in the right place.
Follow Allergic to the Ordinary for conversations on identity, ambition, and designing a life that doesn’t play it safe.

Hosted by @jamiegasparovic

A Studio Gaspo production

The Real Talk What if everything you've been told about building a successful business—scale fast, sell big, exit early—is actually keeping you from real wealth and power?

Lacey Madison is the founder of SIR Ventures, helping women move from business owners to true ownership. She's built and advised over 400 companies, managed more than 1.2 billion in value, and she's here with a message that might make you uncomfortable: women are selling their businesses too early, and private equity firms are winning because of it. Instead of building to sell to LVMH, why don't we become LVMH?

In this inaugural guest episode of Allergic to the Ordinary, Lacey breaks down how buying a business can collapse a decade of growth into a single move, the mindset shift that turns fear of debt into fuel for expansion, why men and women approach business acquisitions completely differently, and the exact first steps to take if acquisitions feel terrifying but intriguing.

What We Cover: [01:09] Why your life partner is your greatest accomplishment [08:09] The rebellious childhood: selling lollies on the playground and getting suspended for hustling [14:46] Why we need to stop selling to LVMH and become LVMH instead [15:53] How men and women approach business debt and leverage completely differently [21:04] Why buying a business collapses 10 years of building into day one [24:38] Name one billionaire who hasn't played in acquisitions (spoiler: you can't) [29:27] Relational capitalism: what happens when women pool funds and build together [34:14] First steps to acquiring a business (it's less scary than you think) [42:39] Why women buy too small and why that's a mistake [46:41] Structure matters more than price—every single time [1:00:35] Three things you need to do to stop being ordinary

Quotes Worth Saving: "Instead of trying to sell to LVMH, why don't we become LVMH so that we are not at the mercy of the institution?"

"When you buy a business, you acquire suppliers, vendors, relationships, customers, and assets on day one. You just cut 10 years out of that timeline."

"Name me a single billionaire that hasn't played in acquisitions. There's not a single one of them."

"There is a 360 billion dollar credit gap for women because banks don't trust us and women fear debt."

"Structure matters more than price every single time."

"You're not going to be less ordinary by trying to be less ordinary. You be less ordinary by doing the things you say you want to do and going full force on them."

Connect with Lacey: Instagram: @laceymadison Company: SIR. ventures

Your Turn: Lacey's challenge: If you want to be less ordinary, do these three things:

1. Surround yourself with extraordinary people—frequently. Stop retreating behind your laptop.
2. Worry about it but do the thing anyway. If needed, see a somatic healer or leadership consultant.
3. Consume extraordinary things. Read, travel, get ingrained in art and culture. You can't have a story sitting behind a laptop.

Ready to explore acquisitions? Start with a clarity call with your CPA or accountant. Then start looking—Facebook Marketplace, driving around your neighborhood, networking.

If ordinary has ever felt suffocating, you’re in the right place.
Follow Allergic to the Ordinary for conversations on identity, ambition, and designing a life that doesn’t play it safe.

Hosted by @jamiegasparovic

A Studio Gaspo production

What if everything you've been told about being easygoing, going with the flow, and not making waves is actually keeping you from living your own life?

This is the launch episode of Allergic to the Ordinary, where Jamie introduces the ethos behind the show: it's not about what your life looks like from the outside—it's about how you got there. From refusing to eat fake whale blubber in kindergarten to saying no to everyone before meeting her husband at 22, to getting logical about having kids she never thought she wanted, Jamie breaks down the difference between living on autopilot and making intentional choices.

This isn't a design podcast. This is about questioning defaults, trusting yourself over authority, and refusing to eat the whale blubber just because someone put it in front of you.

What We Cover:

[00:01] The suburban paradox: how the most "ordinary" life can be the most intentional
[02:00] The whale blubber incident: kindergarten rebellion that set the pattern
[05:30] Authority figures and gaslighting: why pushing back makes you "the problem"
[11:00] The intentional path: marriage, kids, and doing life on your terms
[14:00] The wallpaper principle: intent is everything
[21:00] The invitation: where are YOU eating the whale blubber?

Quotes Worth Saving:

"It's not about what your life looks like. It's about how you got there."

"Most of the time when I've been told I'm being difficult, I've actually done nothing wrong. I've just refused to make myself smaller so someone else could feel more comfortable."

"Two people could have the exact same wallpaper, but one chose it because it reminded them of their grandma's kitchen. The other has it because they needed wallpaper and it was blue. Same wallpaper, completely different story."

"This show is permission to question everything, to dig your heels in when something doesn't feel right, to trust yourself more than you trust the default path."

About Jamie:

Jamie Gasparovic is the founder of Studio Gaspo, a luxury interior design firm. She's been questioning authority and refusing to eat whale blubber since kindergarten. She lives in the suburbs with her husband Ryan (her first boyfriend), two kids, and a dog, while approaching marriage, parenting, business, and design with radical intentionality.

Connect with Jamie on Instagram @jamiegasparovic

Check out Studio Gaspo

Your Turn:

Where in your life are you eating the whale blubber? Where are you going along with something just because that's what you're "supposed" to do? Examine one area where you're on autopilot and ask: Is this actually my choice, or am I following a script I didn't write?

DM us your answer and we might feature it in an upcoming episode.

If ordinary has ever felt suffocating, you’re in the right place.
Follow Allergic to the Ordinary for conversations on identity, ambition, and designing a life that doesn’t play it safe.

Hosted by @jamiegasparovic

A Studio Gaspo production