Pretty Busy - and why I wouldn’t have it any other way
I want to start with something that might sound a bit deluded: I’ve been building Odd Muse for nearly six years, I’m 29, and I genuinely think my career is just getting started.
I’m not downplaying Odd Muse, it’s the brand I’ve poured everything into, the business I built from absolutely nothing, the thing I’m most proud of in the world. But the thing is, I’ve always been more than just Odd Muse. I’m a founder, sure. But I’m also the girl who can’t shut up about what that actually looks like behind the scenes - the messy, exhilarating, exhausting, weirdly beautiful reality of building something from nothing while still trying to work out who you are.
For a long time, that version of me lived in the gaps. In voice notes nobody heard. In conversations in the loos at events. In the kind of honesty that doesn’t always fit on a product brand’s grid.
That changes today.
Welcome to Pretty Busy.
so, what is Pretty Busy? The name came from exactly where I am right now. 29, running a fashion brand, managing a team, diversifying my career, building a life, trying to remember to drink water. I am, by every measure, pretty busy.
But “pretty busy” is so much more layered than just a packed schedule.
It’s the version of busy that still has time to be curious. To get dressed up for no reason. To read a stranger’s Substack at 11pm and have your whole week shift. It’s the kind of busy where ambition and softness are allowed to live in the same room. Busy in a way that’s still, somehow, pretty.
It nods to the world of Odd Muse - the aesthetic, the attention to craft, the belief that how you show up matters - while making room for who I am outside of it. The aspirations. The obsessions. The questions about how you build a business and a life at the same time without one swallowing the other.
Pretty Busy is the home for all of that. A whole content universe - podcast, Substack, vlogs, the rest of it - built for people who want honest conversation about what building something actually looks and feels like. Not just Odd Muse fans. Founders. Creatives. Ambitious women who are tired of the polished version.
the podcast (yes, I’m doing a podcast)
Pretty Busy is, first and foremost, a podcast. The hub. The home base. Everything else orbits around it.
Weekly episodes. And this is officially my third time launching a podcast. You might ask why? Because I’m not afraid to fail and try again! That’s what this is. I still don’t think I am coming to launch with a perfect product… I’m launching with solo episodes as I find true comfort in the podcast. I’ve pushed myself out of my comfort zone, and you’ll notice my anxiety rash take over in the first few eps. I’m on a journey for sure, but I feel SO passionate about Pretty Busy.
Here’s the thing: there’s a gap I keep noticing. On one side of the podcast landscape you’ve got the chaotic, hilarious, comfort-listen friend pods which I love, but no business depth. On the other side, the Diary of a CEO school of things: polished, intense, sometimes a bit much when you just want to do your skincare.
Pretty Busy is the missing middle. The voice you actually want in your ears while you’re doing your skincare and while you’re writing a business plan. Comfort with substance. Funny with feeling.
It’s a podcast for the girl who’s pretty busy - building, becoming, falling apart, putting it back together - and wants company that actually gets it.
one pretty, one busy
Every single episode opens the same way. One thing keeping me pretty. One thing keeping me busy. The comfort half and the building half, side by side, every week, without fail. (Low-key the part I’m most excited about.)
Solo episodes. Conversations with guests I’ve been quietly dying to put a mic in front of. The occasional “recording from a hotel bed because I had a feeling” moment.
the monthly Pretty Busy vlog - I’m back on YouTube
I know. I know. The hiatus is over.
Starting this month, I’ll be posting a monthly Pretty Busy vlog - a real behind-the-scenes look at what life and work actually look like in any given month. Running a fashion brand isn’t a highlight reel. It’s 6am alarms and 11pm decisions. Creative breakthroughs and genuine setbacks. Moments of total clarity and moments where you are just figuring it out on the fly.
The vlogs are how I bring you into all of it. Not polished. Not strategised within an inch of its life. Just what it’s actually like to be pretty busy in the best possible way.
introducing: Pretty Busy, lately
Which brings me to what you’re reading right now.
Pretty Busy, lately is my weekly newsletter - and it’s the heartbeat of all of this. Every week, I’ll be filling you in on exactly that: what’s been happening lately. The week in the life. The things I’ve been thinking about. The decisions I’ve made (and the ones I’m still sitting with). The links, reads, recommendations and micro-updates that don’t fit anywhere else but feel too important not to share.
Think of it as the bit in between. Between the podcast eps. Between the vlogs. Between the version of me you see at Odd Muse and the fuller picture of who I am outside of it. A weekly check-in. A letter from a friend, not a broadcast.
It’ll land in your inbox on Sundays, and my one real ambition for it is that it becomes one of those emails you actually look forward to opening.
You’ll notice there is a paid option on my substack too. And this is of course, optional. The paid tier of Pretty Busy, lately. Two things sit behind it:
The Chat. Pretty Busy Founders. This is the main thing. Substack’s group-chat feature, paid-only. I’ll be in there throughout the week with voice notes, the odd rant, screenshots of emails I’ve actually sent, what I’m reading, what I’m second-guessing. The closest thing to having me in your group chat - lower-stakes than the newsletter, more frequent than the podcast, and where I’m planning to be at my most honest. This chat really is for the founders. I want pretty busy to be the light hearted middle ground I’ve spoken about in this article, but there has to be a section where we get nitty gritty, into the number and deep into detail for the founders. That’s what this is.
The extra letters. This Sunday one stays free - same shape, same time, forever. But once or twice a month, paid subscribers will get a longer, more behind-the-curtain letter. The numbers behind a launch. The prompts I actually use. The framework for a decision I just made. The stuff you’d want to know if we were sat next to each other on a flight.
£6 a month. 7-day free trial, no awkward unsubscribe email if it’s not for you. The door’s just open if you want in.
now - I want to hear from you.
Genuinely. This whole thing is built to be a conversation, not a broadcast. Pretty Busy only becomes what I want it to be if I know what you actually want from it - so I’m asking.
What topics would you love to see covered here? What questions do you have about building a business, navigating the fashion industry, or just managing the chaos of ambition? Is there someone you’d love me to have on the podcast? A conversation you’ve been desperate to hear? A corner of founder life that never gets talked about honestly enough?
Drop it all in the comments. I mean it. I’m reading every single one, and your answers are genuinely going to shape what Pretty Busy becomes. This is the beginning - and I want you in it.
Let’s get pretty busy.
Aimee x
Aimee, thank you for this newsletter. As a starting entrepreneur in skincare and cosmetics, with lots of questions, challenges, and new information, Pretty Busy is great to read, listen to, and watch. I’ve been following you since the launch of the first blazers (and yes, I still wear them), and I admire how you’ve managed to build a life as a entrepreneur. Thank you for the honest and realistic version 🤍
Firstly YAY for all of this. I’m so excited you’re back with a podcast and YT. I’ve found your Substack through both of those platforms and I’m honestly in love with how cozy Substack is.
Personally I juggle multiple workplaces being a freelancer/entrepreneur.
I always struggle with routine, wake up/sleep times, doing the right thing for my health vs how much time I should be dedicating to each workplace. I constantly feel guilty.
Although you’re the founder of odd muse, with this and being an influencer as well I’m sure your juggle is the same. I’d love to understand a week in the life breakdown of how your schedule looks, how you jump from priorities and responsibilities, when and how you make time for yourself and your partner/friends and family. Just as an example of how to navigate the ambition, hustle and bustle and self care/personal life.