In Conversation with Our Founder, Melissa Murrell

MM Personal Styling has come a long way since its beginnings at Melissa's kitchen table. What started as one woman’s determination to make styling more accessible has grown into a business with a global audience, an Academy, and a team of stylists working with women every day. We sat down with our founder Melissa, to talk about how the idea first came to life, how the business has evolved, and what’s next.

Where did the idea for MM Styling begin — and was the Academy always part of the plan?

MM Styling was born from a desire to become self-reliant.After being let down by a third party in a previous business, I realised that the only person I could truly count on was myself. One aspect of that venture I consistently loved was the styling — though I found working with models didn’t feel particularly fulfilling. What I really loved was going home on weekends and helping friends and family with their wardrobes. I could see not just the physical transformation, but the emotional lift it gave them — and that made all the difference.

Styling wasn’t part of the original plan, but it quickly became my focus after I enrolled in a few styling courses, only to come away disappointed. While they included a handful of older or plus sized women, they were still all models with proportionate, balanced body shapes that didn’t reflect women like me or my friends. They arrived with fake tans, confidently showing off their arms and legs, with seemingly no insecurities or body hang-ups. It felt very different from the women I wanted to help.

This experience quickly taught me that these courses weren’t teaching the practicalities of running a real styling business. There was no guidance on making wardrobe edits profitable, or how to work sensitively with a client with a wardrobe full of unflattering clothes. There was no role play or real life scenarios, and very little hands-on advice. How do you politely tell someone her jeans are too tight, or that a dress is pulling in the wrong places? These are the realities of the job and no course prepared me for them. So, I learned on the job. I made plenty of mistakes but found my rhythm, and slowly figured out how to make my time profitable, all while juggling a young family and a husband who travelled frequently. It wasn’t easy, but I knew there was something in it and it's the foundation of what MM Styling stands for today.

MM Styling has gone through some big changes in recent years. What has evolved, and what has stayed the same?

The heart of the company has always remained the same: educational styling and my ethos: maximum style, minimum effort for women of all shapes and sizes. However, the company has grown substantially from just me serving women locally to a team of 3 and now, 13 people! I've learnt a lot in that time about building teams and how the right hire can push a company forward.

For a long time, I did everything myself, not because I wanted to, but because I didn't have the resources or the right people around me. Running your own business is all consuming, especially at the beginning. Now, I’m surrounded by a team who challenge me, push me, raise the bar, and most importantly, do their jobs brilliantly. That’s what has finally given me the space and freedom to focus on what I do best: styling.

Demand for our services has grown across the board — from client bookings to online course sign-ups — our social media played a large part in that. We've launched three online styling courses, and behind the scenes, our internal systems and processes are constantly evolving to keep up the pace.

Interest from brands in our platforms has grown exponentially because we have a loyal audience that trusts and follows our advice. We’ve earned that trust by doing what many don’t: we don’t just dress ourselves, we dress real women of all shapes all sizes. We don’t just tell women what to wear, we show them, using volunteers (real women, not models) so they can actually see what works and why. Our expertise is what sets us apart from the influencers you might see online.

When clients book a service or watch one of your YouTube videos, how do you hope they feel?

When someone books a service or watches one of our YouTube videos, I want them to feel seen, understood, and completely capable of putting my styling advice into practice. I want them to walk away thinking, “Ah, that’s what’s been missing and now I know what to do about it.”

So much of the styling world is exclusive and unattainable, but what we do is the opposite. We make it real, relatable, and doable. Whether someone’s scrolling Instagram in bed after a long day or investing in a full wardrobe edit with one of our stylists, my hope is always the same: that they feel more confident, in control and a little bit more like themselves again. Styling is about so much more than clothes, it’s about helping women to feel good about themselves and enjoy life to the full.

What inspires you most in your work? 

Honestly, it’s a mix of things. My team inspire me daily: their drive, their creativity, their entrepreneurial spirit. We have such a good energy in the office; the banter, the ideas, the way everyone just gets it — it makes the long days feel like all the hard work is worth it. It’s rare to find people who genuinely care about your vision and want to build something with you.

Then there’s the community. We respond to thousands of comments each week across all our platforms. Some of those comments are raw and heartfelt, and honestly, they keep me going. They remind me why we do this — it’s not just about clothes, it’s about confidence, identity, feeling good in your own skin.

I’m also driven by success and the growth of the company, not purely in a financial sense, but in what that success allows me to do. The choices and opportunities it creates for my team, and the freedom and security it provides for my family, that’s what fuels me every single day.

What’s next for MM Styling?

We’ve got a lot of exciting plans right now. We’re expanding the team, bringing in more online stylists to meet demand, developing a colour course that’s unlike anything else out there, and collaborating with brands on exclusive ranges, pieces that genuinely work for real women.

For the first time, we’re in a place where we can pause, look properly at our brand as a whole, and start making decisions from a place of strategy rather than survival. Up until now, it’s been all hands on deck, constantly reacting to growth. But now we have the team, the data, and most importantly the headspace to drill-down into what’s working, and what our clients really want from us next. I’m genuinely excited to move into this next phase where our decisions deliver real, tangible results for us and for our clients.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given — in fashion, business, or life? And what advice do you always share with your clients?

One that’s always stuck with me came from my dad. He used to say, “If you’re not willing to take a risk, you need to be prepared for a mediocre life.” And while that might sound harsh, it’s true. A safe life is fine for some people, but if you want more, you have to take calculated risks. That mindset has shaped so many of my decisions both in business and in my personal life.

When it comes to my clients, the advice I give is simple but it can be truly transformational. First: use clothes to balance your shape. It’s not about hiding or covering your body, it’s about how to play with your proportions using my Hourglass Balancing Method®. Second: always dress from head to toe. So many people focus on one part of an outfit and wonder why it doesn’t feel quite right. You need to think about the full look (shoes, accessories, your coat, hair, makeup) that pulls everything together into a stylish outfit.

What’s the one thing you wish you could tell people about the business?

I wish people understood just how much work goes on behind the scenes when we get unpleasant messages. Take a YouTube video, for example — what you see is 20 minutes, but what goes into it is about 8 full days of work. Two days might be spent shopping, then there’s all the admin, ironing, prepping looks, fittings with volunteers, a full filming day, two days of editing, another half-day returning unwanted items. Then we create the UK and US shopping links, which takes at least another day, followed by hours answering comments which we love by the way, but it takes time.

That’s without factoring in curveballs like a volunteer who thinks she's a size 16 only to find that she's larger or smaller than she thought. Sizing is so inconsistent across brands these days that it's hard to know your true size - and that’s exactly why we do what we do. It's a much more complex and lengthy process than you'd think! We’re honestly not throwing outfits together for fun, it’s a multifaceted business that takes a lot of hard work and dedication.