This is what it's like running a fashion business with a chronic illness.

If you run an ethical, sustainable, circular or slow fashion label, you've landed here for a good reason. The Fashion Advocate is the slow fashion ‘business bible’ you've been looking for and it's full of strategies and solutions to help you change the world with your fashion business and increase your impact and sales.

We need to succeed as a community of slow fashion brands if we’re going to create positive change, and that means sharing wisdom and sharing strategies to support each other.

I also believe in the power of conversation. Conversations create change and that’s what my weekly LIVE chats are about. I speak with incredible guests doing amazing things in the slow fashion industry and we talk about all things fashion, business, sustainability, growth strategies and sales. The good, the bad, the ugly, the stuff everyone’s talking about and the stuff we need to talk about more - if it’s happening in the fashion business world, I want to talk about it!

And today's Instagram LIVE with Danielle Abery-Miller was such a great conversation on all things ethical and sustainable fashion. Running a slow fashion business is tough, but it’s even tougher when you’re doing it with rheumatoid arthritis, and Danielle has been forced to slow down since her diagnosis.

You can watch the full interview on Instagram here and catch up on the three big takeaways from our chat below...

1. Define your own definition of success. Since Danielle's diagnosis, she's had to dramatically change the way she does business. She used to work long hours and long days and work, work, work to grow her slow fashion business, but since being diagnosed with her chronic illness, she has to listen to her body and slow down. Business for Sanct looks very different, but Danielle is okay with it now, and if she could go back and give her start-up self one piece of advice, it would be to define your own version of success because ultimately, running your own slow fashion brand has to bring you joy. 

2. Don't compare your own brand to other brands. It's easy to fall down the social media rabbit hole and spend hours scrolling and comparing your brand to others, but it's a waste of time and energy. For Danielle, her time and energy is her most precious commodity, so she focuses on the growth strategies she can control within Sanct, not what every other brand is doing out there. She knows that running a slow fashion brand sometimes means slow growth, but that also means a manageable pace and stress-free workload - which is every bit as important as making sales.

3. Serve your customers with something they actually need. Danielle's business model ticks all the boxes; she's transparent, ethical, sustainable and size-inclusive, but she's also making fashion the world actually needs. Sanct serves sizes 8-30 with the added option of custom fit too, which means she's providing an ethical and sustainable solution for an underserved market. If you can create great products that create a positive impact and fill a gap in the fashion market - you've created the perfect recipe for happy customers. 

Take a leaf out of Danielle's book and check out Sanct via her website here or watch our full Instagram live interview here to learn more about fashion, business, sustainability, sales and growth strategies that you can apply to your own label.

If you're running an ethical, sustainable, circular or slow fashion brand and you have a challenge you're trying to overcome, tune in every week on Instagram to watch my LIVE interviews with brands and businesses who have overcome their own challenges - proving that you can too.

You can also reach out to me here.

Claire.