The Inside Word with Interior Stylist Jen Paul
Ten years ago, Jen Paul decided to take the leap and pursue a creative career that was more aligned with the life she wanted to live. This led to her working as an interior stylist for Studio McGee, and later, launching her own prop and interior styling business. Jen and I met when she joined The Styling Masterclass as a way to dive deeper into styling and expand her creative skillset.
If you’re curious about making a career pivot to interior styling, come listen to Jen’s interview on Imprint here.
What words would you say best describe you?
Ambitious, resourceful, scrappy, artistic, thoughtful and fun.
What’s the best life or career lesson you’ve learned?
Be intentional and thoughtful about the choices you make, the clients you take on, the way you spend your days. Make sure it's something you really want to be doing.
What's your proudest achievement?
Getting the job at Studio McGee was a big deal for me. That was a milestone. And then recently getting a pretty awesome three-day shoot with a good budget all on my own. Having my own name on it just felt so good.
What’s been your best decision?
To pay attention to what I love, and be more in tune with my intuition to know what’s best for me.
Who inspires you?
I am so inspired by strong women. I just think there's so many amazing women doing so many cool things right now, but specifically in the interior design space, I'm really loving Hadley Wiggins' work right now. She's putting out some really cool stuff that's unique. And one of my first mentors, Meta Coleman — she was a stylist and I assisted her back in the day. Now she focuses on interiors and I just feel like she's just authentic to herself and isn't trying to copy anyone else. She’s making a path of her own that I really find inspiring.
What are you passionate about?
I am passionate about collaborating and building each other up in life, in careers and just in our day to day life. I just love connecting with people and on a deeper level, I think we're all here to help each other out and build each other up and be there for each other.
And I’m passionate about connecting with other artists and working together. I love being on set with a photographer and a stylist and an interior designer, and sometimes I'm on a bigger set with a DP, and a director, and hair and makeup and wardrobe. And it's just so cool to see everyone come together in their own expertise to create something really beautiful. It’s magical.
What dream do you still want to fulfil?
I haven't quite figured it all out yet, but I have this idea to create some kind of nonprofit to use my skills and the network of people I have to help women who have escaped abusive relationships and are starting out in their new space on their own.
What are you reading at the moment?
I recently started reading “The War on Art” — it was recommended to me by lots of people. I think sometimes in creative careers, we can get stuck in this block of not feeling ‘good enough’ that makes it hard to have the creative process flow through you. This book talks a lot about ways to break through those blocks that can come up as you're trying to create.
What are you listening to?
I love listening to podcasts, all kinds really. One of my favourites (not design-related) is Esther Perel. She's a psychotherapist and talks a lot about relationships and I just think she's so cool and so smart, and has so, so much good advice for people. I'm inspired by her knowledge and I think she speaks like eight languages and <laugh> she's just so cool. So she has a podcast where you can actually listen to her therapy sessions with clients and get a little bit of her commentary with it.
What piece of advice would you give to your younger self?
I would tell my younger self to not worry so much about what other people are doing and the expectations other people have on you for your life. Just do what you want to do. Go for it and dream big.
I think sometimes we can feel like there's a limit to what we can do based on the people that we have in our lives or what we've seen other people do. Over time, I've learned that we can do more than we think. It’s just a matter of putting in the work, figuring things out and learning.
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It’s Time to Create
with Clarity and Confidence
The Styling Masterclass gives you not only the exact process to transform your interiors – to help you save time and money – but also the tools and resources to take that “whisper within” to pursue your dreams, and turn it into the life you really want.