What do you think, what do you diagnose as actually happened in those years? That jobs market that you returned to, what do you think was going on with it? What do you think the problems are with that kind of jobs market that is locking people out of work?

So twofold really.

So the reason I was locked out was because AI had mopped up quite a lot of the work that I do for brands and they no longer needed me.

Brands were also incredibly, you know, pinched in terms of their own budgets, right? So that's one thing.

Where they may have gone, oh, call Stacey Dugan.

She'll be really, really good at that.

They'll send it to someone else in-house who's kind of average at it, but can just deliver it and that's fine.

Do you think it's adding to problems of ageism? Do you think it's adding to problems of sexism in hiring? What is your theory of the case?

something

I'd always, always looked for.

I'm from a working class northern background.

We never had money.

I just always craved safety.

And when I landed in the lap of safety and found myself still unhappy and looking for something, I knew it was time for therapy.

I went into therapy and it was through therapy that I began to understand and unpick a lot of my childhood stuff.

And it's from, and this is something we share, from being so frank and honest, Would you say, and again, this is early days still, and we'll get to the platform and everything, but would you say, tell us about that power that's given you and the feeling of whether you build, whether this becomes your business all the time or not, how

Stacy, I wonder if you can tell us briefly about your career and where you found yourself recently.

Good morning.

I have worked my entire life.

I have worked from the Saturday job that we all used to do when we were kids.

I've walked into jobs very, very easily throughout my entire career.

I've worked for Giorgio Armani.

As you mentioned, Paul Smith was my first job in London.

Mm.

Do you still stand by that tactic or is that something of a defeat because it's not you and it's not true? That's when I got mad.

For 16 months, I have been sending out CVs, endless, endless, endless CVs without once, no, you know, without so much as an auto reply.

Nevermind, thank you for your application and certainly no interviews.

My friend is the head of comms for a huge legal firm here in London.

And she said, I just can't believe this is happening to you.

Send me your CV.

So I sent it to her and she WhatsApp me.

What does that involve?

Yeah,

best thing.

Remember the funnies? That was actually a really horrible...

I mean, look, there have been many horrible sessions, but that particular session was...

I was in the middle of trying to buy this house, which took a long time.

The woman I bought the house off, she was also single and...

I think she's possibly not more than 10 years older than me.

Do you feel like that now? Oh, Sam, honestly, if

It's

not like that connected thing.

No, it was so random.

And he's standing on the pavement.

And I'm like, I said, you sound just like me, your accent.

He was like, oh, from Edinburgh.

I was like, oh my God, so am I. where are you from? And then it just, we realized that who we were and I looked at him, I was like, oh my God, I had such a crush on you at school.

So do you think that it was the perimenopause that made you act on the meeting with your old school friend? 100%.