"We Were £50,000 In Debt!" We're Talking Fashion Empires with Lorna Luxe and Adam Frisby

0:28Think your lashes have hit their limit? Anger Getz. Walker and Leah. Daniel Diemer. Tim Simons. Adam Kovlin. You're the one asking the questions. How, why? And they better answer. I don't know anything. Epic. This is just a quest. I'm Arian Samhadri. Welcome to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians official podcast. Available wherever you get your podcasts. And watch season two of Percy Jackson streaming now on Disney Plus and Hulu. Learn more at DisneyPlus.com slash what's on. Hello and welcome to We're Talking. Today we're talking about what it really takes to build a fashion empire in the age of Instagram.

1:04My guests are Adam Frisbee, the self-taught entrepreneur behind In The Style that grew from a bedroom side hustle into a high street success story. And Lorna Lux, the fashion creator who turned her personal style and loyal online community into a brand of her own. Today we're talking fashion empires.

1:37You then essentially get on the path to what has now become a major business, a major brand. Yeah. Right. I'm curious about how you and John work together on that, because there's a similarity in my career, in my wife, in us working together in the early stages. And I was reliant on her. Yeah. I was reliant on her skill set. I was reliant on her financially early on. So what was the dynamic between you and John early in your current career? I mean, it was as practical as he took my photographs that I would post on Instagram every day. And I would do all the back end, the replying to messages, the DMs and whatnot.

2:22But he was taking my photos. He was the guy that was saying, listen, we can't really afford it, but let's put it on a credit card because you need that bag to be relevant if you're going to be this fashion-y girl. So we kind of over, we got into debt. I'm not going to pretend we didn't. And I think we got into about 50 grand's worth of debt, spending on things like trips, places we would pay to go so we could create content. Interesting. To kind of build, because I was so adamant that this was going to be a career for me. I was convinced of it. I just needed the opportunity, and he helped me pay for that.

2:57But when you are 50 grand in debt, what do you see that makes you believe you should keep going down that path? Because every month that I kind of grew my community and slowly these money moments came in, you know, partnerships and whatnot, the brand partnerships would get better. There was never a month where it went backwards. And so it was a bit of, you know, he likes certainty, John does. He likes, he's the guy that's a bit more sensible than me. But he couldn't argue with the stats, which were that every month we're earning more money. So the trajectory is, why is this going to stop anytime soon?

3:37okay and we as much as we were in debt we could afford to pay off our credit cards each month so i was like as long as we can afford to pay off our credit cards let's just keep going interesting and what you were doing at that point was i would imagine you're creating content yeah you're posting that content online and different companies are reaching out to do collaborations partnerships with you yeah okay yeah and then it really i think lockdown kind of helped me massively because I had a nice community online before lockdown. I think I probably had about half a million followers. So a lot of people were, you know, in my circle.

4:15But I'd never spoken on camera or maybe I had once or twice, not really showing my face. People didn't know I was from Manchester or much about my background because I quite liked it like that because there's a vulnerability in sharing those things. But in lockdown, we couldn't leave our houses. and I was doing street style photography. You know, that's what my content was. It was me stood in the street in an outfit. So I was like, what are we going to do here? And it was John that said, well, listen, every morning you get up and do your makeup and you sit chatting to me, why don't you just film it?

4:44Oh, that was his idea. Yeah. He was like, instead of chatting to me, why don't you chat to them? And I was like, yeah, I suppose I could. And I just tried it out, and it kind of took, it took off. And actually, my business to this day is built on storytelling, on stories. So a lot of people on Instagram, it's all about the main grid, right? Yes. And that's where all the brand partners come from. But, I mean, you've got to pay me a lot of money to put something on my main grid. Because I'll avoid it like the plague. Yes. Because for me, that's my shop window. Can I – so this is another thing that's blown my mind.

5:17So it was John's idea for you to sit, do your makeup and tell the story. Yeah. Which, by the way, is, I would say, one of the most popular forms of content today. It is, yeah. In 2025. But it wasn't then. Yeah, so you hadn't, because I'm thinking, did you originate this? I don't think I did, but I saw an influx of content creators in the UK that emulated what I did very quickly after I did it because they saw the success I was having. And I get it because it was so raw. There was no preparation other than ordering a load of stuff online to use. So I would do, you know, hauls. I'd just ordered bits of makeup, skincare, stuff I'd never tried before.

5:56And I think there's a naivety in, let's unbox this together, let's try it together. I'd use it wrong and we'd giggle about it. I'd come on with no makeup and I didn't look that great. And I think there's a really nice thing to see somebody just not being so conscious of how they look. Yes. And not feeling so dolled up. And I don't have a telephone voice when I come online. I talk, I think I talk like I talk to my mates. And it was like a FaceTime with my mate. It was just, I never really think who's watching. Okay. If I did that, I'd be conscious of everything I said and I'd be over filming and re-recording.

6:32So everything's one take. There's no over edits. Like it's just, that's it. That's what I said. But what about body image? Because it's something that you've struggled with throughout your life. So how conscious were you of how you were showing up with your body online? I kind of was, but also because I was doing a lot of makeup stuff, that's just your face, isn't it? So I wasn't really focused on my body as much. right at the beginning of me doing those tutorials there was a lot of like face apps and stuff and I remember using an app called snow okay and you could slightly I remember like I slightly made my jaw a bit more narrow and I quite liked how it looked but then when I started getting offers for money for skincare and makeup they'd had in the in the briefs it would be like you can't use any editing filters and I think the government even made a decision on it as well so I had to be like right I've got to scrap this and I said to John like what am I going to do and he was like well you don't look that much different and so I just one day went on without the app and no one commented and I was like no one's noticed so it's only me that cared so then I thought yeah sod it like you know if they don't care I don't care and actually the more swipe ups were on the ones where I looked a bit rough if I looked too perfect it wasn't as engaging okay and so I you know and we spoke about it before I like money so I could see this was a financial like a decision for me absolutely to be bare at what point did you feel like you were profitable um probably before probably before lockdown before the beauty okay I think as soon as I started to create those fashion collections they were really lucrative and I realized that oh this has got john was like this is crazy money like you're earning in a month while i earn in a year it's like this is daft but then certainly beauty there's so much more variety right and it's there's a lot of there's a lot of money in beauty as well oh my gosh and a lot of advertising so it opened up lots of lovely doors yeah so around that time then the collections you were creating so you were uh partnering with yeah i partnered with a fashion brand the fashion brand okay and we would create initially it was like one collection every three months but they would i think the first collection sold out in the first day and then so the next one we did again and then they were really like fun to do as well i loved it and they gave me so much they indulged my like creativity so they were like if you can be as involved as you want or as non-involved wow and i built this little team that i work with there and it was brilliant yeah it must have been a dream yeah it was a dream experience and i'm so grateful to the people you know that were behind that and let me do that and I always knew I'm gonna do this on my own at some point but that was like risk-free really because I wasn't putting any money into it and it was just brilliant experience in terms of understanding my customer base what they wanted the back end was key yes because I could see what what did well because I answer my dm so I was getting the feedback so I really used that as like market research it was the best market research ever oh Oh, my gosh.

9:43And you were making money. I'm making money. Can you disclose what a good month was for you? I mean, I think at the high, I think one month I got paid just from that brand, like 80 grand, which is a lot of money, isn't it? That is a lot of money, Lorna. It's a lot. That wasn't the standard. That was a one-off. A one-off. But still, when you think about your community, which has truly, I think, been the linchpin around your success, it's been your community. what do you believe is most misunderstood or even least known about you what I do I come on every day right and chat so I feel like if there was a fakeness in anything I was doing they would have seen that by now because I don't think it would have I couldn't have kept up the facade right so the fundamentals of who I am people do definitely know but the general day-to-day of my life because they only get that small snippet they probably don't see a lot of the the worries that I have and just generally things that worry that panic me because they're not things I talk about whether it be obviously John they know but certainly work stuff when you think about your career what do you believe is the biggest misconception about it that me and John started

11:10with loads of cash because we didn't really. We just got into loads of debt. We pretended. We basically, I'm definitely that girl that fake it till you make it. And I think most people think, you know, John's a rich guy and that's why they've got all that nice stuff. But fundamentally, John and I together are successful and that's why we've got all that nice stuff. It's not more, all right, I'm the front-facing person, but he's my business partner and co-founder of all my brands and equal decision-making and very involved in every element. It seems like you had to sell a lifestyle in order to then live the lifestyle.

11:51Yeah, I did, and that is exactly what I did. I reversed-engineered my own living, if you like. Yes. I just recently started following you, And I notice that so many of the people that I admire and respect that I'm also following are following you and engaging your content. That's almost a litmus test on how I can tell how well I'm going to like someone is based on those that I respect. Whether or not, not only do they follow you, but I see that they engage in your content. So they look up to you. And to me, I always look at that as an endorsement of how similar the values I'll have with someone.

12:36Gotcha. Yeah. Based on, because I think that in essence that's what we do, is that we end up becoming close and highly admire and highly respect people who share our values. Because our values are like our rule book to life. Yeah. And you do have to edit whose content you consume because if you find yourself in a hole of following people that are quite negative or maybe have strange values, you start to make it okay. You start to make it passable and plausible. Yes. And before you know it, you've ended up with completely different morals and views. Yes. Yes, absolutely. And that's why how we were grounded, how we were taught early on, that's why that's so important.

13:21Are you proud of yourself? Yeah, I am proud. But there's always more you can do, right? Currently, it's three brands that you're managing. So it's L.A. Space. L.A. Space. Ghost. Ghost by Lady A. And then 98 Beauty, which hasn't yet launched. And we've called it 98. We've called it Beauty because that was the only like.com available. But fundamentally, 98 is going to be an umbrella of products I love. Okay. That aren't clothes. Ah, interesting. Interesting. All right, so busy, busy, busy. Yeah, very busy. At Sierra, discover top workout gear at incredible prices, which might lead to another discovery.

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14:51You know, we had Lorna Lux on. Yeah, yeah. I think that you, did you do her first range? Yeah, we were, she was with In The Style for three years. Wow. Yeah, and that was her first, obviously she's got her brand now, but that was her first, yeah, collaboration she did, yeah. Look at that. Yeah. We worked with so many big names in the end over the years. Stacey Solomon was one, Jacqueline Jossa, which she won the jungle and then came and signed. Yeah, all these people trusted me. And it was the root of success, really, that we had so much trust with each other and we built relationships. And that then helped the success of the Rangers and the company.

15:32Look at that. So the company grew and grew and grew and grew. Yeah, the company grew. Grew so, yeah, so big. And I would say COVID was a really pivotal moment for the business because, you know, I'd looked at it and changed the business model completely because obviously you had to. You know, it was lockdown. Things were changing. We moved our collections. We changed it all around. So I think in our first year of In The Style we'd done, I'd got to£4 million of sales, which was incredible. You know, like. First year? Yeah, first year. Look at that. A thousand in, four million in sales. It's a minority of companies that are able to survive after one year of business, let alone more.

16:14Yeah. Right? But you were able to do it. So just from a business advice standpoint for everyone who wants to become an entrepreneur or maybe is in their early phase of entrepreneurship, what advice would you give in that first year? Where are the areas that everyone should focus? I think, well, firstly, anyone that wants to, to just go for it is a first because I think so many people say things and it is such a big thing to try and do and believe in yourself and leap. But that believing in yourself and just going for it is the biggest thing. And it's hard because in that first couple of years, I think resilience again comes down to it.

16:57Honestly, I knew nothing going into business at all. like the roles that I was recruiting for after a couple of years I didn't even know what they did you know I just had to learn like wing it all on the job and I think that's probably the biggest thing for me is like you know you don't need to have qualifications you don't need to know certain things if you've got an idea and you can believe in yourself just go for it and I think when you fall down which you will many times is you know dust yourself off and get back up and go for it And that's what I did over and over and over, over the first few years, because there were so many setbacks and there were so many reasons to not continue.

17:34But I just believed in it and just kept getting back up and going again. All right. So then let's let's talk about going into COVID. Yeah. You just mentioned your Nan. And I think that it's important to, you know, look at the fact that you're growing this business. You've become successful as an entrepreneur, but you still have life. Yeah, absolutely. Going on. I really didn't have much of life going on really. I must admit, you know, for the 10, 11 years I was in the style, you know, it was my whole life. And I missed out on a lot of time with family and different things. And that was my fault because I was so focused on the goal and the business.

18:13But yeah, you know, life was still lifing. And yeah, we hit COVID and my nan passed away suddenly, actually. You know, she was, to me, she was very healthy in the sense of she looked amazing. She looked incredible. She was 81 and we just didn't expect it. She did have heart problems over the years and, you know, she did suffer with her health, but it was still such a shock to us. And I remember, yeah, literally I think we'd gone into lockdown like three days or something and I'd spoken to her the night before. And yeah, my uncle rung Jamie actually and told him and Jamie had to tell me. and I just remember at the time thinking wow like because my nan to me was like my mum really she was the equivalent of my mum and that hit me big time and I think for the next two three days I struggled to even leave my room I just was really I just couldn't cope with it and then something just clicked in me and I remember thinking you know I know how proud she was of me and this business and she used to tell me all the time how proud she was of it she just used to find it fascinating amazing and every time i went to visit her she says i'm so proud of you for doing this i knew how much she she loved it and i thought i can't let this slip away now you know i can't i need to be there and make this work so i kind of it kind of created a bit of a fire in my stomach almost and i was like i know we're hitting covid and this the voice i was getting well the team at the time the board of directors and stuff that were on the board and they were kind of like we're have to possibly shut down we're gonna have to do this we have to reduce sales and i was like no guys like i've got ideas like let's try and do this and we changed all the collections and did work from home collection you know different things going on and the business just cataported um wow grew yeah it grew hugely uh during a period where you think it would have been on a decline yeah during that coveted period it really grew and it was it was really about just completely changing and pivoting the business model you know like not the business model as such but like you know we'd had so many collections planned for summer and everything and we were like hang on a minute what do people kind of need um we did loads of stuff we raised money for nhs at the time like there was loads of things that we kind of did and the brand just grew phenomenally and i think you know a lot of people on social media of course um and yeah it went i mean i think pre-covid we were doing probably i mean we were we were doing well anyway 30 40 million sales post you know over the next year we were doing 80 million in sales 80 million in sales yeah post-covid yeah a period where many businesses were shutting down yeah yeah yeah some fashion businesses really grew and some fashion businesses you know didn't but yeah we we did and it um got to march 2021 and then we floated on the stock market look at that yeah was that that must be a moment that you'll never forget Do you know what?

21:04I feel bad saying this, but I kind of got convinced in a way to do it because, you know, we had a board at the time, which was, you know, had some directors on it and they were like, look, Adam, we think this would be a great idea. And there was two reasons, really, from my perspective. You know, one, of course, financial freedom for me and my family. Like I'd never really taken any money out of the business, even up to that point, which was like eight years in, seven, eight years in. So that was, you know, one opportunity that was going to be on the table. but bigger than that for me actually was that the business would be okay like we wouldn't need to get any more funding because it's on the stock market you've got shareholders so if you ever need to raise more money you can buy the stock market so I was like this is a win-win really you know it makes sense but I was scared because I ran the business in my way I could get my arms around it and this was going to become a whole different ballgame yeah as you'll have other yeah owners in essence other yeah holders that essentially is no longer my company it's a public company yeah you have shareholders you're you're answerable to you've got a big board that you know that comes in and you know we knew there was going to be like potentially other heads directors you know lots of different things and it was like okay this is this is this is going to become a lot but it made sense it made a lot of sense but you were reluctant to do it yeah initially i was reluctant to do it um but i you know i was on board totally you know by the end i thought this is going to be a game changer for the business and it's going to be life-changing for me and my family, which is the goal, right, in life in a way.

22:35So, yeah, we did it. And, you know, I worked really, really hard over that year. And being honest, I put a lot of it down to my nan as well, like just having that fire in my stomach of like, we're going to get there, we're going to do this. She'd be so proud. I can help my family, which I always promised my nan I would. I always said to her, you know, she used to say to me like, I don't know, one day if you get rich, you know, you can help me out. You can put me in a nice home. And we used to joke about it so much, but it was never really a joke to me. Like, I always wanted to help her out. Can I ask, too, is when you go public, then what becomes the valuation of the company?

23:05How big is it? So we floated on the stock market in March 2021, and the business was valued at£100 million. £100 million? £100 million. Once again, from£1 ,000 to£100 million. Yeah. But honestly, going back to your question, sorry, in the moment, everything changed. In reality, everything changed. I did become a millionaire from that. My business was really well-funded, which was incredible. It benefits so many people in lots of ways, and the business was changing. But the reality on the floor was I was working so hard. I was literally at burnout. I had not taken any sort of break or anything really from the business at all.

23:54And although I was so proud of the moment, I didn't feel what I thought I would feel, if that makes sense. I felt really numb. I think because the reality was my nan wasn't there to see it and she was my biggest driver. And I think that I had so much work to do to get it there and post. It doesn't stop. You know, you then got shareholders, you know, the work really gets bigger. So I think I just remember being in a moment of like, this is amazing. And, and, you know, people, the outpour of like, congratulations and, you know, was amazing. But in the actual moment, I just felt numb. That's the only way I can describe it.

24:30And at this point, I'd realised, and I think Jamie had realised that I'd hit burnout. And up until this point, you know, someone would have said to me, you know, you work too hard or careful of burnout, I'd have been like, oh, burnout, whatever, you know, I'm an entrepreneur, this is how it works. and you know that last year really changed it for me because i'd realized that i had given everything to this business over eight years and i had nothing left almost i i just was so i'd worked myself into the ground ultimately um so when we did do the ipo and float on stock market before we did it i'd kind of said to the guys look if we do this i want to bring in a ceo because it's bigger than me this now you know i don't know how to deal with the stock market and shareholders is it's new to me and I'm absolutely burnt out.

25:15You know, I have to, I'll still be in the business. I'm still going to work as hard as I can, but I just need someone to help take it to that next level. And they agreed, you know, they wanted me to stay a CEO, but I was like, you know, this is the reasons and they agreed and understood. So that was always kind of the plan when we floated on the stock market. And yeah, I started to think, right, okay, let's, let's see. But essentially I carried on. I started work. I was working, I wasn't being paid. I'd given up the salary. that didn't matter you know I just wanted the business to be okay and I brought in an MD and I'd just say things started to slowly happen that were not right and that was things like you know people not being paid properly you know I was having calls from suppliers long-term suppliers that I'd worked with who were crying down the phone to me saying Adam we're not having this paid we're begging like you know we're doing this work and I was helpless because the The difference when being on the stock market was I was still the biggest shareholder.

26:14So although I didn't have the majority, I was the biggest shareholder and everyone had lots of small shareholders. When they bought the majority from the stock market, they became the majority shareholder. So although I was respected initially and I was ultimately the heart of the business, I didn't have a say. If they wanted to not pay someone, they would not pay someone. I didn't even have access to the FD. So I started to really raise the flag and just say, look, this is not right. I'm not comfortable, you know, in this position. And things just got worse. They just got worse. The lack of respect was there.

26:48It was really challenging because at the time, the staff, the team really saw me as the, you know, the guy there. And I think they had a lot of comfort in me being there. And, you know, they didn't really know this new team. And I really… What are the customers also saying at this point? And the customers as well. Like the customers didn't really feel this. You know, they didn't really feel any of this because ultimately our goal was just to make sure the business stayed OK and we bought the collections, we did if we could. So the customers didn't really see this firsthand, if that makes sense.

27:20But I think the reason I stayed so long after this was because A, I loved the business, I wanted to be part of it. But B, the team and the customers, you know, the people that had followed my journey and supported this business from day one and over the years. um but yeah i think one of the big the big things that happened was i kind of found out via a member of the team ringing me and they said adam we're going to lose our jobs like the business is being sold and i was like no no it's not and i looked online and um essentially when i signed over some paperwork to give some more shares back to them um they'd released this press that we were doing a deal and they were going back on the stock market and yeah doing this big deal and i i run you know I'm on the guy, I won't go into the ins and outs of the conversation.

28:08It wasn't a good one. And essentially I said, how dare you do this? You know, I don't know anything about this. This is my business that I love. My team are worried, like, what's going on? And I just was like, this just isn't me. I got my lawyers involved and I said, look, I don't want to leave this business. It's everything to me, but I need them to run this business in the right way. And in the end, I sent a letter of resignation to them. I surrendered all of my shares, which I got nothing for. and I left um and I never heard back from that note ever um and I obviously stayed in contact with the team and I did everything I could before I kind of released a statement to say that I'd parted ways with the with the business um and it was really tough you know for me that was a decision that I had to be a breaking point to make um and I really was you know after everything I'd gone through and then the business to be running this way, I just felt so, it just felt so wrong.

29:05And I was like, if I can't steer this in the right way, I'm going to go and I'm going to speak my truth and I'm going to tell people because that's just not me. I'm just not that person. So yeah, I left and that was September 2023. Yeah. In December last year, I recorded a podcast and I did it with Jamie to kind of speak my truth really and I thought you know this makes sense with Jamie and I was getting questions every day about what had gone on and I thought I don't want people to think that I've just walked away from something that I love because I really didn't you know it was so much bigger than that so I did the podcast and I put out that I was obviously doing it and I got a legal letter I think about 10 p.m the night it was due to go out and it came from the company and just basically what the investment company and just said if you essentially put this out we will be taking court action and I spoke to my lawyers and they were like look you've got some clauses in your contract at this point where you know they could try and do this and do you really want to go through another two-year court battle when you've just been through what you've been through so we pulled the podcast and we put out a statement which in to be honest with you it did what it needed to do because people trusted me and Jamie they could read between the lines they could see these other people talking speaking up about it right um but it was it was really hard at the time because I'd kind of been shut from speaking my truth um and I kind of carried that for a long time really because um yeah I want you know I wanted to I wanted to tell people but luckily you know we've got such a small supportive community on like Instagram and socials in general and the word got out and people supported.

30:48And yeah, it was an amazing amount of support that we got from that. And how are you able to speak today legally? So there's lots of things happened since then. Time is a big thing. The business then got put into administration a few months later. I kind of stayed in touch with a lot of the team and I tried to help as much as I could with new jobs and like the new business that I'm working on are all ex-in-the-style people, which I'm really pleased about. But yeah, the business essentially went into administration so it changes things a little bit. It got different ownership structure now. I don't even know if it's still trade and it's very strange that the setup, but yeah, it changed things really.

31:26And also, you know, this wasn't about coming in and damning a particular person or, you know, it was just really the reality of what happened at the time. Yes, and it also sounds like you wanted to speak to the community, the in-the-state community just to set the record straight. Yeah. No regrets? No regrets. I don't think I could have any regrets. At the time, absolutely. I really struggled. But I think, yeah, therapy and lots of conversations later, I have no regrets for what I did. I stayed true to myself and I did the right thing.

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