Miranda Holder: Give it a go, or you'll never know

Miranda Holder is a leading London TV & Celebrity Style Expert, who started her business after a life-changing car accident in 2012 and has not looked back since. We hear Miranda's story and My 'Miranda Meets' series on Instagram, my dog rescue work with DASH, the largest dog shelter in Greece

Show notes:

www.mirandaholder.london

hello@mirandaholder.london

Dog rescue in Greece: Dash_.com

Transcript:

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

dogs, people, outfits, fashion, styling, day, working, wardrobe, bit, instagram, business, miranda, life, fashion styling, london, moving, shelter, style, moment, love

SPEAKERS

Erin, Michael Benatar

Erin  00:03

Hi, everyone, I'm Erin master Pietro joined with Michael Benatar. And this is the call me crazy podcast where we interview business owners and inspiring people like our guest today, Miranda holder. She is a leading London TV and celebrity style expert. And she also has a hand in dog rescue work. So that's right up our alley. And we're really excited to chat with you today. Miranda,

00:25

welcome to the show you thank you so much. It's great to be here. Hello from England.

Erin  00:30

Yes, she's tuning in from London. And Yep, it's night where you are, it's the middle of the day here and we're gonna get into it.

Michael Benatar  00:37

So tell us a little bit about kind of your background and how you got into because I, because we were talking before the show, you know, becoming a stylist and, uh, in that world, I feel like people don't realize how much of a independent business it is. Sometimes when you're going out there and trying to style people and do things I come from kind of a commercial photography background, and I know being a photographer, you know, you're kind of your own business. And I think doing the style thing I always thought that is it's crazy, because I knew a lot of stylists that had like wardrobes in like, you know, storage closet somewhere where they go and they pull some so many things. So how did you get all into that?

01:16

Oh, wow, that's that's a very good question. I've always loved fashion. So ever since I was adopt literally I would dress up and make an effort and I have always loved the power of a fabulous outfit and clothing just to say so much about you without having to say you know, utter a single world word. I think it's very, very powerful. And I actually started out as an actress, I trained as an actress, I went to Middlesex University, and then I went on to Rada in London, which is very well known. And I'm loved my acting, I had a had a good start. I did lots of theater and Western lots and lots of Shakespeare. But then the classic story I met a man fell in love. I know and I kind of it sounds awful. I threw it all away, but it was for the right reasons because he was moving out of the city and down to Hampshire. It was this whirlwind romance. So I moved down to the country with him. We very quickly got married, had had two children. And I was you know, for quite a few years, I stay at home mom, which is super important and incredibly rewarding. With many, many animals, of course, which I know we're going to talk about later. I do love my animals. But in 2012 I had a very serious car accident. My husband was driving I was sitting in the passenger seat. We've been away actually for a romantic weekend. Just the two of us. My parents had the kids. And Justin was driving and I was sitting very relaxed, slightly hung over if I'm honest with my feet up on the dashboard. Oh no. Yeah, so no one I I'm going to complain about this one day I kind of mental mental. I made a mental note at the time, but I wasn't in the right position to mentally or physically but I will now use my profile at some point to help get the word out there because people do not realize how dangerous this is because the airbag is stowed directly under the dashboard on the passenger side. So we It was really dodgy light. It was dusk, and there was a car in front of us whose brake lights weren't working. And it was just one of those slow mo moments where they'd actually stopped and we went into the back of them not that fast about 40 miles an hour. But the airbag went off and I think it's 130 miles an hour and through my feet from the dashboard straight into the windscreen. The windscreen didn't smash because it's full of safety glasses. A child was trying to come in as

03:57

we were talking about the homeschooling, weren't we earlier oh my goodness, it's it's a struggle in lockdown at the moment doing all the juggling. But yes, my foot, both my feet but in particular one leg was absolutely smashed to smithereens. I had multiple dislocations breaks and very extensive nerve damage. And it was one of those things that you couldn't really make up if you tried. It was then a catalogue of errors and bad luck in that we waited a very long time for the ambulance to come. They didn't realize anything like the extent of my injuries. We have friends the doctors who said that really there should have been a crushed him waiting in the hospital for me instead I was I was left in a corridor because they were oversubscribed. And it was a Sunday and I think loads of people were on holiday. It was the summer and they remodeled it honestly it really was. It was quite the experience and to sort of condense it down a bit. I was in hospital for four months and throughout this period if they kept finding new things wrong with my my foot in my leg it was just really bad luck that they just didn't find everything at once and i was told that i wouldn't walk again i wouldn't run dance you know wear high heels anything like that and was recommended to have a leg amputation because it would be much quicker to recover which was quite a bitter pill to swallow yeah and then i came home i was in will a wheelchair for months and months but i am i'm pretty stubborn what i want to be and i don't like being told that i can't do something so i thankfully got really stubborn about this and decided that i would embrace everything that i could all sorts of complementary and alternative medicines as well as an amazing physio and lots of specialist care and fought very hard to regain the full use of both legs ankles and feet and did so which is great and then having done that got a whole new lease of life and just thought life is absolutely too short as has just been proved what do i really want to do in life saadat i've always wanted to work in fashion and i love it i'm going to take this course and see where it leads me and and i'm here now it was the best decision i ever made

Michael Benatar  06:20

in with the with the fashion and the styling what was kind of the the course to know that this was a at the time i don't think when you're getting into stuff like that like when i was getting into photographer i didn't realize that you are a small business you are like your own kind of business unless you join like a firm or something like that but still you're kind of managing every aspect of it you know you're managing okay i'm finding new clients here i'm doing this over here when did you kind of realize like oh wow this is like a true career and i'm not only doing something i love but now i actually have to run can i operate this styling business

06:57

that's a really good question because when i took the course i didn't really know how it was going to pay off or how successful it was going to be and i'm pretty philosophical in my life anyway i do think you know i'm quite spiritual and i believe in being in the right place at the right time and i think this was the right thing for me to do because i got into a very well respected college that gave me all the background that i needed and all the tools that i needed to set up my own business and i was very lucky that they were incredibly supportive so i kept in touch with many of my tutors and lecturers and i went when i got stuck apologies my child has left the door open and has now joined us

Michael Benatar  07:36

that's alright okay animals we have animals back to the dogs

07:42

i've got a 22 year old you can hear her she's she's called penelope and she's very very vocal and wants cuddles she'll leave us alone in a minute

Michael Benatar  07:53

it's totally okay

07:55

but i had great support and i was very lucky because when i left their work just actually found me opportunities were presented to me because i just looked at who i knew that was the first thing that i did when i left this course right who do i know that remotely works in fashion who can help me and actually without even realizing it turned out that i had some quite influential friends who were able to open doors and certainly get me working in the industry straightaway because it is a really hard industry to break into

Erin  08:29

do you think you ever would have taken this path so confidently and excited if you hadn't gone through the accident you know it seems like you knew exactly what you wanted to do

08:37

after that i it's funny isn't it i think i mean people often talk about these life changing events that change their course and i am grateful for that accident because actually it changed my whole outlook on life i'm so grateful now for everything that i have my legs and and i and i'm just gonna go for it and wring every last bit out of this wonderful life that we have and

Michael Benatar  09:01

you know we were we aaron and i were watching this netflix series i think it's called like life after death or something it's about the people that have these accidents and they they technically die but they come back and they have a whole new perspective on life and there's like groups people meet up with but i think there is something to it i've never experienced anything that traumatic but i could see how it could shift your whole life because everything is different it's like taking a psychedelic mushroom or something like that and you're like this experience was real and i know now that this is the path i'm taking or you know what i'm saying

Erin  09:37

and all the things that seem like such a big deal looks so small compared to what would have maybe happened you know you took a wrong turn or like you actually lost a life it makes you fearless and i think in business it's really scary a lot of times and fear can be a blockage and so when you have those moments that you lose the fear you have to lean into them and sell Like you did that with the with your business,

10:02

I love that. I love that I still do things that scare me in my work regularly, you know, I still get butterflies. If it's a new celebrity or something or a new TV show or radio appearance, I do a lot of broadcasting, I still get so nervous. But the The difference is, I think now is I'm prepared to put my neck on the line and take those risks. Whereas before the accident, I was playing it safe. And those risks are paid off.

Erin  10:27

Yeah, what's something you're working on now that's new or risky or exciting that you might want?

10:32

Well, I've written it's not fully in the bag yet, but something a wall. But something that I've been working on, which is a real passion project actually is a new TV show. So it's something that can marry my acting background and my presenting skills with my passion for fashion. And I've written a new age, style stylings of makeover show. But with a whole new perspective, I can't say too much about it yet, because it's not all fully signed off. But I'm talking to production companies and networks on both sides of the Atlantic. So please keep in touch and watch this space. I'm so excited. And I would I wouldn't have I'm pitching. I'm pitching it right now. I've got a team in actually Hollywood that I'm working with, and I'm pitching it to networks. And some really senior people. I've got a proper a list, Hollywood director that I'm working with on the pilot, I know and I just I can't believe it. But yeah, believe it. It's

Michael Benatar  11:32

amazing. In what what are kind of, because I think a lot of people now you know, they're at home, we're still in this pandemic, things are really weird. What are some steps that you can kind of give to people that might be wanting to shift over to a new career. And like, you know, style is a lot of people's passion. Aaron had passion for style, too. She has all these. You still do. But she has all these drawings and sketches. And I think that's something still that, you know, maybe one day we'll go forward with or something, right? Yeah.

Erin  12:01

Yeah, I was probably too fearful. You know, it's like a hobby, you know, you like it, but you're like, is this gonna be the end all be all. So how'd you do it?

Michael Benatar  12:08

You're just some steps, I think because i that is the big thing, right? Like, what can you do? Just make those little steps to get to that next step? where like, okay, I figured this part out, because it's scary. If you're like, one day, you're just like, Okay, I'm gonna be a movie director. Well, how do I get there? How do I do that. And that's, that's hard.

12:28

I think the first thing as you said, is, is to plan out the steps. But also, I would say, Don't dream too small, allow yourself to dream big and get really excited about it. I mean, I, I have a gratitude journal, I have a notes journal, I jot down all my dreams and my plans, and I, this TV show, a great way to beat this TV show was in it. And I actually want to host my own show one day, too. So I've just thrown that in there, you know, why not? and dream big, and then also bringing it back. So I think always dream big, but start small. And that's a great sort of attitude to have. So breaking it down into tiny steps that you can achieve every day. And a great one to start with. Because it's it's worked for me is Who do you know, that you can have that can help you. And there's always somebody that has a connection, a bit of knowledge, a friend of a friend, you know, I'm asking around, and also people always, usually really happy to help, particularly if it's an exciting project or a passion project. And, um, life is too short. So it's, you know, give it a go, because otherwise you'll never ever know.

Erin  13:34

Yeah, and I think you mentioned you leaned on your network after you completed your course too. And I think when you're so when you're following your passion, and you're so excited, and maybe you're dreaming so big, and you're sharing with your friends, and it's infectious and you're making the universe attracted to you, so I think dreaming big and like maybe sounding a little crazy. I think it makes people want to help you and be like, wow, Miranda's gonna do this, whether I help her or not like let me help

13:57

her. Absolutely. I'm putting yourself out there as well. Don't be afraid. So I remember my first Fashion Week in London I now go all over the world and do it twice a year although of course not at the moment because we're all on lockdown. But the first fashion week I attended in London, I was super nervous that this was a whole new industry a whole new crowd lots of incredibly fashionable people and I wasn't wasn't sure that I was fashionable at the time. And and it can be quite intimidating. You have to queue up for the shows. It's a real aRGy bargy. If you're lucky, you get on the front row. But when I started off I you know, wasn't a name. So I had to stand at the back and, and you do get chatting to people and I was invited to lots of after parties and I didn't want to go because I was on my own. But by putting myself out there and taking that risk, I got chatting to people who have remained firm friends and actually been really great. We've helped each other out and opportunities have arisen that I could never have dreamt of just by being out there and saying Hey, you know, I'm Miranda, this is what I do. Let me know if I can help you. And it's all happened from there.

Michael Benatar  15:06

Yeah. But it's because you can think back to the time that happened to you or somebody you met at an event or something like that. But it is hard to put yourself out there. Because, you know, there's a lot of times when I didn't want to go do something, but I still do it. And eventually, you still, you can still have fun and mingle. But those are the hard moments when you're just like, do I continue on this path? Or our dogs are playing? Or do you kind of step aside? And like, oh, maybe not tonight. And I think that's something that you can't just, like snap on. Sometimes. Sometimes it really does take that time to build it up. And you know, do the gratitude journals and kind of read and almost analyze yourself, because I think that is the best way to understand like, what it what's really going on, like, why am I not doing this? Or why am I not doing that? I think that's the hard part tonight, I

15:55

think, yeah, I think you're right, it's showing up for yourself. And the number of I love the fact that your dogs are playing in the background, it makes me feel so much better about my account. My childhood was the way and it's showing up for yourself. And, you know, I still have plenty of occasions where I think, oh, particularly the moment Oh, my energy is not great. I don't feel that positive. You know, what's the point where you just feel really low. And then you only have to just take a moment and look back at what you've achieved so far. And we all have so many amazing achievement. And I'm proud of myself, because I've put myself on the line. I've taken those risks, and I've achieved things. So often, it's a good idea to have a little reminder to look at, you know, remember that time at fashion, we didn't want to go but look what happened. Come on this podcast. This is the first podcast that I've done as a guest I usually one yeah. So you know, it's great. I'm making the effort to do it. And I'm loving it. And I'm sure you know, it'll be wonderful. And and the other thing would be to have a mentor or someone to bounce off. It doesn't have to be someone in the industry. But it does have to be someone that you respect that you can phone and just get an honest sort of objective opinion on matters. I think that can be really helpful to help you take a step back.

Michael Benatar  17:12

You're really building a big one. Yeah, we got a business coach. I mean, we're even we got a therapist too, because we're engaged right now. So it's like we do business together. We're doing podcasts together. Maybe we literally do it all together. So it's nice to have these third parties kind of talk us through some stuff. Because when you're in it, you don't realize he's little things as much because you're just it's kind of, you know, Blind Eye like, Oh, yeah, you know, I just like if I'm trying to dye it like, oh, obviously, if I'm eating like five hamburgers a day, I'm not going to lose any way. But if I'm trying to lose weight, like Oh, I didn't realize I was eating five hamburgers. I don't need a health coach. But I just think it is great. You're right about that.

17:52

Yeah, absolutely. I love the fact that in America, you have you know, all these coaches in England, we're not quite as we don't embrace that culture quite as much, but it's becoming more of a thing. Definitely. And so social media is something that I spend a lot of time doing because it's a huge part of my business and it gets me work and it's all about my public profile. And I do consult a couple of social media coaches just to keep up with all the changes actually it's crazy out there

Michael Benatar  18:19

absolutely insane this stuff because every every month it's like now you have to do reels now you have to do

18:25

them I know

Michael Benatar  18:26

you do it all. What is your What is your favorite platform right now? Do you like Instagram Tick Tock Facebook, what are you what is your most kind of go to social right now?

18:35

for business for fashion? It's definitely Instagram. And yeah, I love it. I have a passion for it actually. And I really enjoy it. I think the thing with Instagram is if you're not really strict, it can actually become a full time job running your Instagram and social media accounts and then you don't have time to to your actual job. It can be so intrusive but I love it I love it as a way of getting my message out to the world you know my followers and I have been told to adopt Tick Tock so that's in in the running but I'm just I'm going to get my kids to help me with that one.

Michael Benatar  19:10

Tick Tock is tough because it's like the dances the talking it's a lot of the video and but I do find and I've said this before I find it very like less judgmental on tik tok because it's just a standard scroll people dancing people talking. And there's no way to manufacture a photo or anything like that, like Instagram became this like, world where everybody like post like I'm on vacation, I'm in Cabo, or am I doing this and it became Yeah, a little bit more, like I guess clean and then tik tok is just it's like it feels more real,

19:43

which I know exactly what you mean. Yeah, I've been I've been practicing with my daughter and doing some very silly dancing. But I now know there's all these fashion reels that you can do in fashion tic Tock that you can do, which I will do but I just have to be incredibly organized to get all the outfits lined up. Have you tried on on all these? You know, very creative ways, but yet it feels grittier and definitely less filtered than Instagram. Yeah.

Michael Benatar  20:09

And in with the business of styling, how has that grown with you? Because I know getting clothes and getting the connections and, you know, pulling wardrobes from certain places. How is that kind of expanded as you're, you know, a veteran in the industry now and people know you like, how has that become something that you can use a lot more of, because I feel like it's just, I don't think a lot of people understand it. Because I've worked with a lot of stylists, I'm trying to, like, make people understand, like, it doesn't seem like an easy job. Like, it's a very tough thing, because you have to know all these people. So you can go pull, like, you're not just gonna go pull some wardrobe from, you know, Louis Vuitton or whoever, if you don't know anybody there that can actually give you that access to get that wardrobe. And that's not easy to just get access to.

20:56

Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. I've got a lot of friends in fashion, PR, who I often pull from, and they say, oh, my goodness, I would not want to do your role. But I don't think people understand. So for those listening at home, there's two parts of my styling business. One is the personal styling, where I take normal people like like you and me shopping, I take into account their color and body shape and kick them out in a new wardrobe or whatever they need. And then the other side is the fashion styling, where I will style magazine shoots on there'll be a theme. So it might be the latest trends, a particular color, certain printer brand, I started brands to, or I might style celebrities. So I work with a lot of celebrities, a lot of a lot of recording artists and things like that I love doing things like music videos, which are very theatrical, but on that side of the business, so with the celebrities, and with the fashion styling, you have to get the clothes from somewhere. And the whole point is, as you mentioned, we pull the clothes, that's the technical term pull from fashion, PR, which represent the big brands, or you can go in house, if some brands don't have to be ours. But if no one knows who you are, you're absolutely right, your name is not worth a thing. So literally, you have to work your way up from the bottom, and you're stuck. There's this sort of levels of designer and PR. And the way that I started was I went for the emerging designers and the new artists, and there are some PR that specialize in that, who are friendlier and, you know, more open and less, shall we say, selective about who I collaborate with. And then it builds up from there. And it's literally like a ladder that I have, I have scaled with my you know, my teeth and my fingernails. And now I'm a decent way up that ladder. And things are a whole lot easier.

Michael Benatar  22:43

And does this become something that is more scalable than just you at some point, like if you had your own company that then you could hire these stylists to go out and be like, okay, I can't be in 10 places at once. But I'll help everybody style. And these are my assistants kind of handling this because I think as you grow, you know, like gloves and photography business. You know, you only can do so many photoshoots but yeah, yeah, yourself. So I think at some point, you need that assistance to like, okay, trusted guy, he's gonna go help you he's gonna style you here's the clothes. Is that something you've thought of? Or something in the future?

23:18

Yeah, it's I have definitely thought of it. First of all, on the personal styling side, I think everyone I think styling is a very subjective thing. And I have an aesthetic and a look that I like and I am known for but both with the personal SAP styling and the fashion styling. And so I am also moving more into the broadcasting I'm on TV and radio quite a lot talking about that the fashion stuff, which I adore, because it kind of takes that that old acting and performing box for me and I've got this TV show that I'm working on. So I'm actually working with a couple of fantastic interns right now. And we have discussed their training separately, but then once they've got their qualifications are then put them through a bit of a boot camp of the Miranda way of doing things if you like, and then we can scale it. So that is the plan. That is the long term plan.

Michael Benatar  24:09

And that's something hard too, because then you have to manage people, you have to understand that that's the hard because we're trying to do that too. We're scaling and we're trying to understand, okay, how do you manage people correctly? Like what's the right thing? And it doesn't come easy, and that's why I think when everybody's working when they're like 16 or something like I worked at a pizza place like the manager was insane but that's all he knew he was managing people at a pizza shop like what are you supposed to do? And I think it's definitely a skill you need to work on because it is really hard Aaron's really good at it. She likes she loves actually managing people she loves like getting them in order and

Erin  24:42

yeah, I always wondered if it was because that's typically the job I carry but even but looking back even to when I was a child and the stories my mom would tell me like I think I've always been a little bit of a you know, Boss but if you manage if you you bring on people to help support Your vision you can you know, spend time doing other things you love, like, you know, rescue work and whatnot. And I want to ask you about your job doing rescue work for something in Greece. For us in Greece, just so yeah, I know, totally off topic. But I'd love to work with restaurants here in LA, too.

25:18

Thank you. He, I'd love to tell you about that. One thing, I've got to sound the management side of things. But before I do, I've never considered myself to be a natural manager at all. I've done it before in other roles, when I've had time out from acting, and I just don't have the natural patience for it. I'm going to be honest. But what I've learned, what I've learned in my more mature years of business, if you like, Is that what's working for me so well, right now is just, if you're in terms or or the people that are working for you are really bought in to the business. And if you can get them to share in just a little bit of your passion, and they can see what's in it for them. They see the vision and they fall in love with the brand as much as you do, then I think you've got a really great team. And I think that's the sort of the golden ticket, if you like is to make them fall in love with your business. Yeah,

Michael Benatar  26:11

it's towards finding those people. Yeah, they're like, super into it. Because you're so into it. And you're like, why grant? Yeah, why is it not everybody else into this thing? Right? Yeah. And that's the tough part is finding I mean, we've, you know, we've been trying to find people that are interested in what we're doing. And it's, it's hard to find the passions, we're

Erin  26:29

lucky. I mean, we have a I mean, our company is dope dog. We everyone loves a lot of people love dogs. So there's some companies, I think might even have a harder time than us like, you know, a more boring topic. But

Michael Benatar  26:38

sure, I mean, who doesn't love dogs?

Erin  26:40

We're lucky that we get to do that.

26:42

It's also what's what's in it for them. I think you've got to get their buy in somehow, you know, as well as just the passion is that they're going to get something personally out of it.

Erin  26:51

Yeah, learn or, you know,

26:54

manifesting soft top sports cars at the moment, my intention is going to be they're going to be branded, you're gonna drive around in a Porsche, you know, there you go. We're gonna aim high. That's but you're an incentive. You know, I know it's just a bit of fun. But so the dogs Yeah, I mean, I'm a huge animal lover anyway, always have been. I mean, you met my cat. Earlier, she made a guest appearance and I, we have dogs too. But we went on holiday a few years ago to Greece on a standard holiday and thought it would be fine and lovely. On the first day, it became apparent there was a starving pack of dogs on the beach at the hotel. Great. It included a really stick thin puppy who had terrible mange and two broken back legs, and my heart was just going out to her. I tried to feed her and she was too scared to even take any sausages. I stole them from breakfast, as you do, you know, and flung them at her. She was so frightened. She'd only eat when she was around her mama, who was sort of come and go. And we contacted a local dog shelter that was one nearby, thankfully, and they said, Forget it. We're absolutely full. We were oversubscribed. And by the way, the stray dog problem in Greece is the worst in Western Europe. But what's even worse is the dog torture and abuse or animal torture and abuse is also the worst in Western Europe. But we were shocked because it's a huge holder destination. And this is covered up

Michael Benatar  28:26

quite well. What's the reasoning behind all that?

28:29

And they don't believe they are sentient animals. So they have no feelings or emotions, and, and lack of education and boredom. I mean, it's more in the rural areas. And I'm not going to go into any details. But the stories I have heard and the things I have seen would make you sick, they really, really would. So the shortened version of the story is that I said, Right, well, I'm going to pay whatever it takes to get these guys into your shelter because this puppy in particular, is not going to survive. without someone it's someone sort of stepping in. And we managed to get after a lot of trials and tribulation, we did manage to round them all up. They gave me a sedative to put in some sausages. And eventually she went to sleep test and we got her into the shelter. And then we went and visited the shelter and actually realized what they meant about having no room. They're the largest shelter in Greece, and they've got hundreds of dogs. And they survive only on donations. And they feed the dogs when they can with dog food. If not they make do with stale bread that's donated by local supermarkets and they soak it in water. And when we arrived, water was in short supply as well and dogs were dying of of drought. So we've become very involved with the shelter and I've been campaigning for them to raise awareness. They are the largest shelter in in Greece. So there's there's so much dogs that i've been helping them get adoptions all over the world which they're fantastic and we've had adoptions to america and canada england we happen to have three of the dogs at home so including the little puppy test who first round is with

Erin  30:19

all that said it's such a different world because in here a lot in the united states that shelters are added obviously a different standard than that and i think bringing awareness to what it could be and how much more you can help the dogs there because yeah i think there's a gap obviously in education and

30:35

that yeah there isn't that there are a small charity so every so that if people are listening the website maybe i'll put the details out but it's yes ww dot dash the word and then dash the hyphen dogs.com so dash dash dogs.com thank you but they're also on my instagram as well so if you come and see my social media under my highlights i always have some some information about gash so every penny goes to the dogs they're not like in much larger charities actually there's quite a lot of people to pay answer bureaucracy that is costly but every single penny and they constantly find new urgent tragic cases of dogs that desperately need medical help and everyday there's a decision about whether they feed the dogs or they treat a dog that's in you know in dire straits and there are many many very sad very moving stories but it's a wonderful place to go we go as a family several times a year and kind of on a bit of a retreat out there and literally muck and bullets get covered in dogs that help build candles or move the dogs around or take them to the vets whatever needs doing and it's such an amazing place to be because despite all the hardship and heart ache and there is so much of that the spirit of the place is just fantastic the dogs know they're being helped i get greeted by hundreds of wet noses every time i go and it is magical

Erin  32:06

that's awesome i love that story okay well definitely check out yeah we'll support that

Michael Benatar  32:11

put it in the description so everybody can go support

32:13

oh thank you so much yeah

Erin  32:15

i'm so inspired i love that so miranda we're going to change gears and get to our call me question call me crazy question you've had some pivots in your life you've made some you know choices what do you have a story for our listeners where you might have been called crazy by you know your network and you went ahead and move forward anyways

32:38

kinda it's it's more like it's more like my most probably one of my most embarrassing moments it was an example of how you have to sort of think on your feet when when things go wrong and it was my first big music video i've worked with boy george a few times which is an incredible experience because he's you know an incredible legend in the music industry and on this particular video shoot he was directing and i was styling the young recording artist who is now a great friend of mine and i had planned the most incredible outfits for this occasion because it was we had loads of drama going on we're channeling a bit of a bit of david bailey a bit of freddie mercury and you know had these fantastic outfits and i've really thought that i pulled it out of the bag working with a fantastic young designer who was incredible so this young designer was amazing but but slightly erratic which is not unusual for creative people and she found me and we kept in touch and it was getting closer and closer to the deadline and before you know she had to deliver the goods to me and she phoned me the night before and said look i'm really sorry i want to make some alterations it's almost ready it looks amazing would you mind if i brought the psd resistance this fabulous outfit to the shoot on the morning i said goodness gracious okay i don't really have a choice but i kind of did but i wanted to be perfect and it was a big deal for her as well so i was nice and said yeah sure okay but you know don't let me down and can you imagine can you guess where this is going on the day i turn out and boy george is there and he's not yet got always make upon so he's he has he's a wonderful i absolutely adore working with him but until he's got his sort of game face of his makeup and his hat on he likes to be sort of keep himself to himself which is perfectly understandable and so quick introductions you know it's all the outfits they all present and correct oh yes sure george yeah it's all in hand can't wait to show you the talk that the clock ticks on that she doesn't show up and worse i can't get hold of her and i she didn't turn up and she wasn't contacted the whole the whole day i luckily did yeah i did have backup but i had and what had actually happened was this poor lady lee i mean you can't make this stuff up had an epileptic epileptic fit out of the blue and knocked herself out in her garden very early that morning i know what to say she was unconscious and then she'd lost her memory and he just wasn't wasn't with it so she couldn't contact me which i found out later and you know obviously you know it's not her fault but it was so stressful so i have to go to boy george and so really sorry george i had this outfit but the whole thing that we've planned this whole shoot around isn't here but i do have these funny bits and pieces that are all kept you know carry around with me and i'm sure we can make some great outfits that he i know and he said darling there are no wardrobe malfunctions there are only wardrobe moments which i just thought was amazing and he was so cool about it and actually he was a great mentor and between us all we came up with so many incredible quite unusual but incredible outfits for this video it was a huge success but know that it stresses it was a very very stressful couple of days

Michael Benatar  36:28

yeah when did you find out that she like lost her memory and hit her head like when when did you was it weeks later like hey

36:35

day after because i was on i was i was on a witch hunt at the time all her assistants like stalking her facebook who do i know that she knows yeah where are you where are you know wells pretending to be really calm and serene and all is fine and obviously she was full of you know full of sorrow and apologize profusely but what can you do

Michael Benatar  36:57

yeah that's so wild well miranda thank you so much for coming on the podcast we'll link everything in the description below so everybody can find out more on dash more on yourself you can go to your website it's miranda holder dot london correct

37:12

that's correct in my my social media is miranda holder l di n which is short for london

Michael Benatar  37:19

perfect we'll we'll link it all up in there and thank you so much for coming on the podcast sorry yes

37:23

miranda

37:24

my pleasure thanks so much for having me

Michael Benatar  37:26

thank you