 We are so excited to have the fabulous Lynn Slater with us today for a very special episode of School of Hustle. Lynn, thank you for being here. Thanks for having me. And thank you all for showing up. What a beautiful room tonight. This is going to be a lot of fun. We have a lot of fun ahead. I think that it's probably most appropriate to start by asking you about what you're wearing. You look beautiful when you walked in. You know, you're so stunning and so elegant. I love your shoes. Could you tell us a little bit about what you're wearing tonight and what it means to you? I want it to be comfortable so I could enjoy myself. And I am a little obsessed with pajama looks. But this is Amping Net Up. And it's from Stina Goya. And I'm wearing Chloe shoes and a bag. And let me remember, vintage earrings. It looks great. Thank you. Now, you have been into fashion from the start. And from what I know about you, you were in Catholic school. And you got very creative about how you would express your individuality in spite of the fact you had to wear a uniform. Yes. How did you do that? Well, I think that's a big part of my story, which is starting with sort of a small box and being creative in a box. And so we were not allowed to have any accessories, no jewelry. We were all supposed to look the same, no makeup. But we were allowed to have religious medals and rosaries and things like that. So I used them as accessories. And so I would make these different combinations on my uniform. I would put rosary beads around my arm, like a bracelet. So you worked within that box? I did. You pushed the envelope right up to that line? Exactly. Did anyone ever tell you not to do that, or did they say to check it out? No, because they couldn't. And you see, that's the place you have to find is, you know, in every situation where you think you don't have power, if you look very, very carefully, there's some tiny place that you can. And so they had said you could wear medals. They didn't say how you could wear them. And so what could they say? I was wearing medals. Academics are very important to you. And you have your PhD in social welfare and you are a professor at Fordham. How did you grow into such a substantial role at the school? Well, I have been in social work a very long time. And in my social work career, I've also done a lot of reinventing. And so I have about a five-year timeframe where I decide to try something new and then I'll get very good at it and then I'm ready to move on. And so I did that in my career as a social worker, which is why I love that degree because it lets you do many, many things. So before I went to Fordham, I was working with lawyers. I was representing with lawyers and kids who were in the child welfare system and really making sure that their voice and their story and what they wanted was in the room because most of the time it was everyone else making decisions. And at that time I was starting a PhD program and Fordham was starting a big collaboration with their school of law and they wanted to have social workers in all of their clinics and they wanted to have courses with social workers and law students and they recruited me to teach because I had been doing that for a long time. And academics played a very important role in you launching your blog as well. Why was that important to you and how did you use academics to launch your blog today? Well, I think a lot of times people underestimate the intelligence of people who love fashion. And I knew that there were a lot of people in the world who understood that fashion is not just about trends. Fashion has been part of social movements. I think right now it's a really super exciting time. For me as someone committed to social justice to be in fashion because fashion has decided they're taking on a lot of these issues. So there's a lot of inclusion, diversity work. There's a lot of looking at sustainability and fair wages and human rights. And so it's a really, people are beginning to see that fashion has a lot more power than we ever thought it did. And so I knew there were people who knew that so I just started to write in that way. And I certainly found out that my guess was true. How did you name your blog Accidental Icon? So that story always gets conflated in the press and what happened was I work at Fordham Lincoln Center which is about a block away from Lincoln Center when they had the fashion shows there. And so I was, it was the first week of school I was really dressed up because I like to wear something out readjust for the first class and I went to meet a friend for lunch and I was standing on the plaza and a couple of photographers came over and started taking my picture and then a bunch of other photographers came and there were some journalists from Japan they came to interview me and then the tourists thought I was someone famous and they started taking pictures of me and they were wanting to take selfies and so when my friend came she said you're an accidental icon and I had been, my blog was ready to go but I had been struggling with the name so that's how I got the name. The press seems to think that that's how I got famous and so for the purpose of School of Hossel I want to say that that was how I named my blog and it took really hard work every day really working on social media producing good content just working like 10 hours a day to get at the point where I became well known so it was not a magic moment because people took my picture and it involved a lot more than that It usually does there's not one quick moment to reach success but a lot of hard work along the way Absolutely How do you hope to liberate and inspire people through fashion? Well I guess I really when I first started I had no agenda except I was really kind of bored and I wanted to express myself in a different way that was more creative than academia I wanted to write in a more creative way and so because I wasn't in fashion I had no idea about how fashion worked I just knew I loved clothes and a lot of people had told me all throughout my life but even more recently that I should start a blog you have great style and so I just started taking pictures writing about an article of clothing or a designer and pretty soon I got noticed and that's how it happened so I think what has ended up happening which wasn't intended is that I have perhaps given people a different way to think about what it means to get older and on Instagram interestingly the majority of my followers are 25 to 45 and when I speak with 25 year olds it's interesting they say they're not thinking oh I'm going to be 26 that's great they're thinking oh my god I'm going to be 30 I'm getting old I haven't done this I haven't done that I haven't done this and so what people in that age group have told me is that I'm letting them see that it's never too late I was 61 when I started this and it's just become like I couldn't have dreamt of it and I wear things that any age woman would wear because it just feels good for me and my style so I think in that way I've changed culture a bit I've made being older look like kind of cool and exciting and fun so it's not something that you have to fear and start trying to change yourself and be worried about I love a particular quote from you here's the quote the more I research fashion the more I realize it's a powerful force we talk a lot about how it's oppressive or how it promotes ideal body types but we don't talk about how it can be productive how does fashion lend itself to productivity in society well I think for me you know it's a really great example of how I through clothing through fashion through how I style myself became was able to break into a world and I think social media has a lot to do with it that was pretty much controlled right so 15 years ago I doubt that someone like me would be considered to be a person in fashion I don't fit the the stereotypical mold of who was supposed to be so I think that's the wonderful thing about technology and social media is it's a great equalizer and it's given us power and I think that's how fashion can be productive also since I'm a researcher there's a lot of research now that shows that what you wear actually impacts your brain and your performance and so there's been studies that have been done repeatedly with the same outcome where they take two different groups of subjects and they all have tested so they're equivalent in their performance levels and they'll give them a blazer and they'll tell one group that it's from Prada and the other group that it's from H&M and the one who thinks it's from Prada will always perform higher and they've done similar experiences with white coats they tell one group that they're a painter and one group that they're doctors and the ones that think the coat is a doctor's coat perform higher so it really it's a little complicated because it's how you think about what you're wearing and what you have in your head about it but it's a very powerful force and so for me I think about how I can use what I wear to express myself or even to get an outcome and so I'll think about okay what do I have to do today what do I want to happen who do I have to meet what do I want them to think when they look at me and then I very purposefully get dressed and so when you when you're styling and your fashion comes from inside of you instead of outside you begin to have more power and right now it's okay to be different it's getting more and more okay to be different I think we should all be controlling how we want to be represented and so for me I'm controlling how I want to be represented as an older women because the way that society thinks of older women is not okay with me and so I'm not having it there is some scrutiny around fashion's impact on the environment specifically what do you consider when you buy clothing given some of the environmental impacts that the industry has well for me actually my personal wardrobe is pretty much from consignment and thrift stores so I really have always had a habit of using recycled clothes I'm in a very enviable position right now because designers give me a lot of clothes which is really nice but I will also recycle them so for example housing works always does a big fashion for aides and this year I gave them my closet so I gave a lot of clothes that I had gotten from designers for that kind of thing I think a lot of brands are starting to realize that they have to do something I think there are some brands that have been doing it really well and so I think being thoughtful about what you buy being creative with how you style yourself and reusing things like I do if people look at my Instagram I don't care I'll wear the same thing that I wore in other posts because I love it and so I might wear it a different way but you'll see a lot of repeating of my personal clothes and so that's how I think about it what is the difference between thinking and talking about fashion versus consuming fashion well I think it's just that that you're not just buying it but that you are that you know who you are and so when you're going to get something that it is advancing who you are so a lot of people say oh I'm going to this event what should I wear etc I cannot tell anyone else what to wear I don't give style advice because my belief is that style is intensely personal and that it should convey who you are and so I'll say to women instead and sometimes men and I understand later a dog to think of maybe three words that describe them their essence and then to take a look at the clothes that they have take an order of clothing and say does that convey that and if it doesn't then you can recycle it but if you have that in your mind you're being a much more thoughtful consumer and you'll find that you may buy a lot of less things but they're going to be more special we talked about social media earlier but I'd like to ask you about how we can think about when we're posting in social media we love to post our clothes and things across Instagram and that space how can we use social to raise people up and not bring people down well I think I have been very fortunate because I pretty much just show people my everyday life I'm not in Bali pretty much Calvin and I are on New York City streets that's where we're shooting and actually I got a wonderful comment on Instagram yesterday and I made a screenshot because it meant a lot to me the woman said thank you for what you're doing and thank you for doing it in a way that you're not making other women feel bad about themselves and so I do think about that and what I I mean look people get what they see I have gray hair I have wrinkles that's who I am I'm fine with it Calvin is a film photographer and he's graciously agreed to get a digital camera to help me but the consequence of that is he does not know Photoshop no Photoshop on his computer so all of the pictures on my Instagram that aren't taken by professionals that are taken by Calvin have no retouch nothing and so I think people see that they see me and they say I could kind of be like that I'm not so out of the orbit of the real world that I can't maybe inspire people to think about their own kind of ordinary life in a more special way with regard to negative feedback that you might pick up I know that you get a ton of positive feedback but there's always those trolls out there who say what they're going to say how do you address that negative feedback do you do that yourself to lean into your community how do you handle that well you know again one of the things that has helped me a lot is I've had a career as a social worker I've had a career as a professor and so I know how to set limits and I know how to deal with unpleasantness and again I'm very blessed because overwhelmingly my comments are positive particularly on Instagram I don't like Facebook because people for some reason seem to be freer on Facebook and so I really didn't pay attention to my Facebook for a while and then one day I looked at it it was after some Buzzfeed video and I had like 100,000 followers on it or new followers so I said let me look at it and the thing that was sad to me was you know it was these judgmental negative comments from other women and so I was about to just shut the page down because I do most of my stuff on my blog and on my Instagram but I said let me see if I could turn this around and I've done a lot of group work before in my career and I've had to deal with bullies and a lot of people in different scapegoats and all different roles in the group so I basically set a manifesto about how people were going to behave on the page I said I'm going to be transparent with you if your comments are judgmental I'm deleting them I shared research about the positive and negative impact of social media on women and if you look at it it's 50-50 it could be bad or it could be good and so for me I basically said this is my page I'm responsible for it and I'm not going to have it be a place where any woman is going to feel bad and so I want women to take risks I want to encourage them because Facebook is generally my older group of followers a lot of women who lost themselves during career and raising families and now they're like what happened to me and I need to get back or they're hearing things like from their children oh don't wear that you're too old for that and they don't want to they want to wear what they want to wear so it took a long time not that long but it took a lot of hard work because I had to be in there monitoring all the time and then finally the culture changed and all of the people on the page start addressing any negative comment and now I always ask them questions like I'll say things like I'm the boss of my style and I'm the boss of my life how are you the boss of your life and they put up these pictures and they're doing all these wonderful things so I think it's if you take control over it but a lot of people just put it out and they don't but I found that you can change a culture of it if you want to I'm learning so much and I feel so inspired listening to you on the flip side of negative feedback comes a lot of positive feedback and it can be hard to handle a lot of positive feedback too it can be overwhelming and you can potentially even lose humility or become a different person and let it get to your head so how do you think about handling all the positive feedback that you're getting I'm going to be 100% honest that I still find what has happened to me completely unbelievable that when I wrote that first blog post if anyone told me what would happen I would say you're insane so I think because it still remains so unbelievable that it is easier to have humility but I also don't take myself so seriously and I also know that this could go away tomorrow and so I just am in the moment and I enjoy it and I try to remember when I first started how many people were amazingly kind to me and that's my mantra is be kind so I try to respond to emails and stay engaged with my followers because I do know 100% that if it wasn't for them I wouldn't be sitting in this chair so I think by looking at them and knowing what's important in life you know my family people close to me trying in some way to make the world better I think that keeps you grounded and what is one issue in today's world that is top of mind for you and why? That's a good question there's so many unfortunately I think I've been becoming more concerned about the earth and climate change and what we're doing to the quality of life because at the same time I'm aware that technology and medical advances are having us all live longer it's almost like we have a whole new period of life so my mother just turned 92 and so it makes me think well if I'm like her I could be doing this for 25 more years or 30 and then I think of my granddaughter and I think if we keep on doing what we're doing what is the environment going to be like for her and so I've been becoming more concerned about that issue and looking at how fashion is contributing and what they can do differently and probably I'm going to be spending more time around that issue moving forward that's an important issue to me too we have been very serious and we have really talked about some very important issues and gotten so much inspiration and advice and now this is the part where we spice things up a little bit and play one of my favorite games called Hustle Time so the spirit of the game is that we set a timer for 60 seconds and I have two former school of hustle guests here in the front row tonight thank you for coming these ladies know how it goes we set a timer for 60 seconds and the idea is that you say the first answer that comes to mind Jonathan, we have 60 seconds on the clock beer or wine neither favorite part of a s'more chocolate top quality you look for in an employee creativity camping or glamping camping finish this sentence when I dance I look like when I dance I look like a disco queen New York City tourists help with directions or keep on your own way help with directions if you could have a superpower what would it be fly the best chocolate in the world comes from flank Belgium king size or fun size king size would you rather fly or talk to animals fly favorite holiday Christmas Instagram or Twitter Instagram binge watch, watch weekly binge watch or watch weekly oh binge me too but can I just for good measure ask this next one your go-to outfit oh I want to know jeans sneakers caldron of sweater particular color of sweater just soft comfortable let's see how many we got through that was fun wasn't bad right 11, 12, 13 lucky number 13 nicely done in school of hustle we have a lot of entrepreneurs coming on the show every week and like I said two of them are here today and we ask the same questions to everybody and the idea is that no matter what line of business you're in or your expertise your age or your gender any of that doesn't matter everyone has a thought about this same set of questions and we like to see how that changes from guest to guest favorite part of your day early early in the morning how do you use your career to inspire others well I have two careers that is true I try to inspire my students through the way that I teach and I try to inspire my followers by what I write and how I get dressed ever felt like walking away no one thing you still need to learn how to take selfies I'm really bad at it what do you want people to learn from you that being yourself as you are is absolutely enough what's next for you good question I guess I can't say the answer to that because I just don't know what can possibly happen so I'm just going to be open who inspires you my mother my daughter and my granddaughter who challenges you my granddaughter well we also let everyone know in social that you are coming tonight and you did too thank you so much for putting that out in your network I wanted everybody out there to have a chance to ask you something and watch of course we're going to have the final video out later this summer and people were very excited to send questions and I pulled a few of my favorites and again you can keep these short if you'd like to move on through I have six okay so the first question is every look you share looks fabulous on you what is your favorite personal look well I don't have a favorite that's the whole point right so that I am always experimenting and changing so where is a place to shop for good quality clothing while on a budget Beacon's Closet Who is Simon Soros who is your favorite writer that's hard because I have so many favorite Mary Gates Gill you are a fashion icon do you like clothes or shoes more well based on the fact that I have a mountain of shoe boxes that was like a big avalanche the other day I have to say shoes what things deep down are you moved by very simple things actually like the way that the light falls on someone's face just small things inspiring and what is your favorite phrase no effing way the last question in terms of advice goes is actually for our favorite hug noodle hi sweetie how are you look at you so noodle just recently got this adorable bow tie a few people have told him that it doesn't fit his look I know you imagine what advice do you have for noodle to follow his fashion instincts with confidence and what other pieces should he consider to complete his look well noodle when the rare occasion happens and someone tells me that I shouldn't wear something I will respond well it's a good thing I'm the boss of my style so I think you should say that to your friend and I think you should do some polka dots now can he mix the stripes with polka dots okay I think so too completely well yes so remember noodle I'm the boss of my style that's right absolutely the last piece I always like to close school of hustle with a final thought like a good fortune cookie at the end of a great meal and so I'm going to read three quotes and I'd love for you to tell me which quote resonates the most with you and why okay fashion is about dressing according to what's fashionable style is more about being yourself number two people will stare make it worth their while number three fashion is like eating you shouldn't stick to the same menu fashion is like eating you should not stick to the same menu and that was by Kenzo yes you knew that though right thank you so much for opening up tonight thank you this was so much fun doing this I know that the audience has so many questions as well hi I'm Haley so I do work for GoDaddy actually but kind of coming from the brand influencer partnership side when you get approached by a brand to work with them what's like the number one thing that you look for when partnering with a brand is it the authenticity necessarily like maybe the product that they have what really what's that number one thing so for me I have a basic bottom line which is if this is not a product that I would use or wear in my own everyday life I don't do it and so for me what was really wonderful about the GoDaddy thing is that it was my story that I started a website which I taught myself how to do and I it changed my entire world so it was a very authentic thing for me to do I believe that authenticity is your big currency so for me my followers would know in a heartbeat when I was promoting something that isn't me and so that really is my bottom line I've also been taking a stand and not doing trying to avoid products that are not inclusive that are targeting a specific group like over 60 because I think that real inclusion means all ages all ethnicities all types of bodies and that's where I'm aiming for so I think I do research brands I see where they're at in terms of their own values and so I do make choices based on what feels like it's a good match for me that's awesome, thank you hi, my name is Kristen Voss it's nice to meet you, my question is I was the granddaughter in the granddaughter-daughter-mother grandmother for a part of my life when I was younger and to be able to be a part of that all four of us being alive at the same time and we had a lot of conversations as women in the different stages of our life even as I was a little girl which gave me a really strong, solid understanding of women and relating to them and I'm just wondering what roles have your granddaughter and your mother played in what you do with your life well I'm the oldest of six children and I have four brothers after me and finally got a sister who's also important to me in my life my mother kind of had this notion that women were strong she had the opposite gender orientation women were strong in her view stronger than men and men needed to be taken care of that was my mother's view but women should be on their own and so I think that orientation really influenced how I thought about myself as a woman and plus I grew up in the 70s where there was women's liberation and gender roles were really changing and I was very, very determined that I would really raise my daughter to be an independent free thinker which she most certainly is there's downsides of having a daughter like that which she is now finding out since she is a mother raising a very strong-willed girl so I think also I was always around nuns who in their own ways were really strong women and so I think all of that I went to an all girls Catholic high school all girls Catholic college but there was something about that environment that encouraged you to really just soar and interestingly my daughter went to an all girls college not a Catholic one but she had the most rigorous amazing experience in that kind of setting so I think all of that and my mother and my daughter and my sister and now my nieces they inspire me all the time thanks we've got time for two more questions I'm going to throw this up here hello I'm Callie I've loved listening to you something pinged when you said the word authenticity because being in front of you it's so clear that you really are an authentic person and I feel like authenticity is now this catchphrase it's being thrown around everywhere and I'm a little bit curious about when you are on the other side when you're consuming absorbing getting inspiration from other people like what's the how do you know when something's real and when something's just that brand because I have this like allergic reaction even though I know you are authentic because it's such a thing I feel the same way about the word influencer right it's such an annoying word and I think you can influence people to buy things or you can influence them and influence culture and so I think of the word influence in its dictionary definition yeah and now authenticity is becoming a buzz word so for me again because I've been a social worker I've been working with people for many many years I have a good ability to assess when someone is being real I mean that's much more like the word I think and so I can pick up on it pretty quickly but like you said you're having a gut reaction now to that word and that is a true authentic moment your gut reaction and so I trust mine also and so when I'm around someone I know not matching the words, the behavior not matching and that's how you can always tell hi my name is Jules I was kind of a two parter do you personally like to follow trends and are there any for this spring that you've seen that you really like no I don't do trends I'm very clear I don't do trends that was a simple one what was the second part was your second question are there any trends that you've seen that you think that you really enjoy like for this spring well I think I like the colors so it's giving me a lot of choices and I will do a color story based on what I think is a good look for me so I think again it goes back to what I said earlier about my orientation to style it really comes from inside of me and what I hope is that designers will give me a whole ton of choices and then I will be the one who decides what the trend is for me Lynn thank you so much for being here today my pleasure I really enjoyed our conversation and I know that everybody out here did too I'm sure school of hustle out every week with fabulous entrepreneurs and inspirational stories every week on GoDaddy social so follow GoDaddy and we'll see you soon bye