Women's Business Magazine 2022 - 10 Year Anniversary Edition

MAGAZINE 2022 RUPAL PATEL

From C I A

to

CEO

Alice Thompson

D E L E S O P PUR

LEADERSHIP

10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY EDITION Sponsored by

"Angela De Souza is an engaging speaker as she always manages to work in a story or two to capture the audience’s attention and to get them involved. You can’t go wrong with Angela."

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Welcome

To the 10th Annual Women's Business Magazine

Wow, this is our 10th conference can you believe it! I must say, I never dreamed that we would make it this far, but now that we have, I have so many dreams for what else we can do. It's such a great joy to be celebrating these 10 years together as I know many of you have been with us right from day one.

We are no longer a baby business and are really looking to reach as many women as possible across the globe, and it's more important now than ever that we come together.

Especially after coming through the past few years of a global pandemic, economic uncertainty and various individual challenges that we've all been facing.

There's nothing quite like what we can do when we do it together. And so building strong profitable businesses at the forefront of what we are striving for at Women's Business Club.

Part of the way that we will do this is as a community and supporting each other.

Another huge part of what we are doing is making sure that women have every opportunity to level up and upscale. And so, we are focusing heavily on training and mentoring, making sure that we are not given positions in companies and on boards just to tick a box, but because we are the best possible choice for the role.

So it’s an exciting time, and I'm really looking forward to the next 10 years with you and seeing what we can do, and how we can truly bring about a change in our towns, our cities, our countries, and across the world.

Angela

CONTENTS 6

RUPAL PATEL An interview with the author of From CIA to CEO.

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SETTING YOUR BUSINESS FOUNDATIONS With Hannah Roper, Business Development Expert

12

JANEY LEE GRACE Could you be Happy Healthy Sober?

40

IGNITE YOUR PRODUCTIVITY With Melanie Harris, Business Support Expert

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SHE SPEAKS - JANE CLARKE Nourishing your business

42

FOUNDATIONS OF GOOD MARKETING With Nicky Dibben, Marketing Expert

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SHE SPEAKS - BENTE OTTERSON Seizing Opportunity

46

ALICE THOMPSON Purpose-lead leadership

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SHE SPEAKS - ISHVEEN JOLLY Disrupting the Sports Marketing Industry

52

2022 AWARD HIGHLIGHTS See the winners from all our awards this year!

28

BLACK HISTORY MONTH SPECIAL Celebrating Black, Female Owned Businesses

35

CELEBRATING WOMEN OF COLOUR We asked you to nominate standout movers and shakers in various minority groups.

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Learn how to start, grow and scale a successful business.

My Success Story offers practical business tools and events tailored to female entrepreneurs.

Empowering you to succeed in business.

EVENTS

Build your intentional community & strategic support system

Enjoy a lovely meal, an inspiring business talk and quality networking with other like-minded executives and entrepreneurs.

Coworking spaces for businesswomen to gain support and empowerment so no woman has to build a business alone.

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Your step-by-step breakthrough guide to Success Join us as we dive into topics such as vision, confidence, work-life balance, sales, social media, PR and so much more. There's no contract, you can cancel any time, but we are so confident that you will love it and want to stay!

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EXLUSIVE INTERVIEW

A I C m o Fr to

CEO

COVER STORY

RUPAL PATEL

The Journey from CIA to CEO Rupal Patel's high-octane career has taken her from dusty briefing rooms in jungles and war zones to corporate boardrooms and international stages.

After a thrilling career at the CIA, she started two award-winning businesses, and is now shaping the future of work by helping growth-oriented leaders and innovative organisations build careers and businesses that thrive with purpose.

So tell us a bit about yourself !

So in addition to being a serial founder, I'm also a mum of two. I've got two lovely daughters, both under the age of five. So I'm very, very tired all the time these days.

I am a born and bred New Yorker! So I've lived in the UK only for the past 11 years now, but previously lived most of my life in New York. And then while I was working at the CIA, I lived all over the world - war zones, jungles, military bases, lots of unsexy places where this would definitely not be appropriate attire. But I've had a very, really fulfilling career that was, in hindsight, probably all leading to where I am now.

How did you get into the CIA? And what did you do?

When I was at university, I studied political science and foreign affairs. And I spent a summer while I was at uni, working for the State Department, which is the equivalent of the foreign office, working at our embassy in Muscat, Oman.

And that's when I first got a taste of expat life of, you know, working in a diplomatic capacity overseas. And I just loved it. And so when I was in graduate school, again, getting a master's in international affairs, the agency recruited me and I thought, Oh, well, this wasn't what I was initially thinking of. I was thinking of becoming a diplomat. But how do you say no to the CIA? This wasn't expected but I love the idea of it. I loved that it offered a lot of great things that being in the foreign service offered, plus a little bit more excitement and adventure.

How did you make the transition from CIA to CEO and decide to run your own business?

Initially, it was business school. While I was there, I quickly realised I did not want to work for any of the big companies that MBA students are supposed to want to work at. And I had this really deep sense that I wanted to be my own boss and to test myself in a totally new way. And so I spent the bulk of my MBA two years just exploring the startup scene. London, of course, is very vibrant and very exciting.

My first business, that I'm still a CEO of, is a real estate investment and construction business, which was not in the thought process early on, but came about over time, through process of elimination and trial and error.

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And I thought, You know what, I can do this. And the thing that really attracted me about it was that it's very tangible. For so long, I had been working in industries where it's all about knowledge and intangible assets, and you sort of give a briefing, or you write a report and you don't see the physical manifestation of it.

And I thought, you know what, let's give this a go. And the other longer term reason was I wanted to buy back my time to create some form of relatively passive income. So that over time, I could do something else and not have to worry about how I'm going to pay the bills, not put a lot of pressure on myself to turn a passion into an overnight success and a money generator. And so it was very strategic. It was for those two reasons, doing something that was tangible and something for the long term that would give me a lot more freedom, but also I loved the idea of transforming either unloved buildings, or unloved neighbourhoods, into something really beautiful, and something that we would be proud of, and that the people who live there would be pleased to call home. So that's how it all got started.

So you first knew you wanted to run a business, and then you figured out what business!

Yeah! And it was nice, because by doing that, it opened up so many different doors over time. I knew from the second I got started that that business was going to be in many ways, just the beginning of a portfolio career or a serial founder career.

And the whole time, I just kept my mind open about what could be next, not necessarily feeling like I had to do a specific thing or focus exclusively on property and real estate for the rest of my life. But, you know, this is what I'm starting with. And then something else will eventually turn up. But what it was, I could not tell you until it emerged, you know, over time.

How long has it been since you started your first business? And at any point in your journey, did you feel like it's not working and you want to give up?

Exactly 10 years! And nobody prepares you for starting a business, right? There's no number of degrees or types of education that can really give you an idea as to what it's like to just go out on your own and be totally vulnerable in that way. And nobody teaches you how to deal with challenges or failures, or the self esteem knocks you get when all of a sudden you don't have a flashy company and a flashy title on your CV or your business card. You're just a founder of a struggling growing business.

And so it was a lot of that kind of stuff, where I was like, Oh, is it worth it? Am I doing the right thing? Then the challenges come, and they start to highlight all of the doubts that you have about yourself and your abilities, and whether you can make a success of it. So yes, a million times over, I thought about quitting, I got very close a couple of times to just being like, you know, I'm just gonna get a real job. I'm gonna say this is a fun little sort of experiment, but I don't have it in me. But at the end of the day, what it always brought me back from the brink was this idea that I just didn't want to work for somebody else. I knew that I wanted to be in control of my success or failure. And you know, having a business of your own, in many ways you are in control, not necessarily of your luck, or what happens to the outside world or that kind of thing.

But you are in control of when you decide to play. And I just decided that nothing was going to make me quit unless I wanted to.

So it wasn't going to be a challenge. It wasn't going to be a rejection, it wasn't going to be a financial sort of disaster that forced me to quit, because that was other stuff that was external. The only reason I was gonna quit is because I decided that I wanted to, and none of those other things were ever compelling enough for me to give up.

Was there anything else that just keeps you going?

It's just a belief in myself, and I don't know where it came from, I couldn’t tell you. It definitely didn't have a concrete form for a long time. But from my early 20s, I had a strong sense that I was meant to do something big. What that something big was, I never knew and I couldn't verbalise, but I just felt it in my bones that it was there for me. And so whenever I felt like I wanted to quit, or there was a big hurdle to overcome that made me question that. I just came back to that feeling of like, well, this is just a test, it's gonna make me stronger. If it doesn't kill me. And there is something, you just have to wait it out and ride the wave to see what that something is.

Have you faced any particular challenges as a woman in your career or business?

Initially, but I haven't felt it has ever held me back.

One of the things that I noticed, while I was at the agency was this. I was young. I was in my early 20s, when I started my career there and, you know, thrown into the deep end, where I'm advising four star generals, presidents and senators and parliamentarians from all over the world.

These people would be, you know, usually men, usually white men, who are 50s, 60s plus. And you could see it on their faces, I'd walk into the room and you could just see them being like, “what the hell does she think she has to offer us?” But the way I combated that was just being really damned good at what I did. So being an expert, developing expertise, working on that expertise, and just knowing my stuff so that nobody could question my competence. I didn't feel like “well, I don't belong here. What am I doing here?” any of that stuff, but it was just an acknowledgement of the reality that you know what people would look at me as a civilian or a woman of colour or a 20 something year old woman. And they would just make all these assumptions.

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So it’s about actually being the best person for the job, and not settling for token roles. How do you feel about tokenism and companies ‘ticking boxes’?

It's not just about being the best person for the job. But recognise that sometimes you can be less than 100% and still be the best person, that's so important! There's that horrible statistic that men will apply for a job where they tick 60% of the boxes and women won't apply until they meet 100%.

Well, look, that's not a bad thing about the men, it's something that I think women should do more! Because all expertise is on the job training. All of it, unless you're a doctor, most of it you'll learn on the job.

Most women, again, who hold themselves back, are smart, aren't driven, are ambitious or capable. And so if you've got those things, then put yourself out there because you will learn. So it's not tokenism.

It's, “yes, give me a shot, because I will prove to you that I am just as capable as anybody else that you would choose to put here”. And so it's sort of having that belief in yourself again, that you don't have to be 110%, in order to be the right fit for the job. So important.

The power structures are what they are, and they're going to just reinforce themselves. We need a multifaceted approach, we need things like photos, and to some extent even tokenism. But we also need the groundswell of women putting themselves forward. But again, there are so many incompetent men on boards, there are so many men on boards who got there because of who they know because of the people they play golf with, because of who their dads went to school with. So all of those things, doesn't make them any more competent. They just got there. And there's again, a structure in place that keeps them there. So women shouldn't feel bad and a company shouldn't feel bad for having quotas, because it's not like the men who are all there deserve to be there anyway.

It's so interesting. If the world were a meritocracy, then I would be all for like, yes, best foot forward, but it's not. So I say we have to do everything we can to start breaking down what's just been so deeply entrenched for decades and centuries and all the cultures in which we operate. And if sometimes that means having a minimum criteria for X number of women on boards, So be it.

UNCONVENTIONAL LIFE LESSONS FOR THINKING BIGGER, LEADING BETTER AND BEING BOLDER WWW.RUPALYPATEL.COM

ARTICLE

Could you be Happy Healthy Sober?

ByJaney Lee Grace A few years back I accidentally caught sight of myself in the full-length mirror in my bedroom. I had to look again. Who was that bloated, ageing woman with several chins and greying hair? I took a layer of dust off the mirror, convinced that once sparkling, the glass would show the real me. But no, I looked tired, drained, old. I felt winded at the sight of myself, early fifties, yet in my head -twenty-five if I was a day.

I could see my running shoes, silver, with a Nike tick, bought in a sale in a fit of enthusiasm, still in their box at the bottom of the wardrobe. Who was I kidding? I was anxious, not sleeping, couldn’t think about running, I felt a sense of desperation at the thought of washing my hair.

I was shimmying around the great big elephant in the room – alcohol.

What could I do, a strict diet maybe? – tried that, the weight went back on.Have Botox? Mmm, didn’t fit with my ‘natural’ approach, and I wanted to smile.Find a bootcamp and start a fitness regime?

Joking right? It suddenly hit me, I was terrified of getting old, it was all going south, I didn’t like it and I couldn’t think of a thing to look forward to.

Something was off. Since writing my first book fifteen years ago I had been on a

mission to inspire everyone to live more holistically, eat well, eschew chemicals and practice mindfulness, enjoy therapeutic techniques, and focus on self-love. Was I walking my talk? Well, you wouldn’t find me putting anything on my skin that I couldn’t eat, I bought the organic food, juiced regularly, did yoga and had all manner of treatments, from EFT, TFT, NLP (perhaps I needed ABC) but it was all while I was shimmying around the great big elephant in the room – alcohol.

I loved my nightly glass (or two or three) of wine, I was fully functioning, never had a DUI, never missed a day off work, I just drank most days…doesn’t everyone? But I had no ‘off switch.’ There was no rock bottom moment, I was what’s known as ‘high functioning’ – ‘high bottomed’ (sadly not true for a woman my age!).

Now I am four years and five months sober, I am absolutely staggered that I didn’t make the connection between just how awful I was feeling and the amount I was drinking. I thought I was just ‘normal,’ everyone drank – right? I assumed everyone my age had similar issues. I would wake at 3 am almost without fail, heart racing, berating myself for yet again drinking too much. I would be sweating profusely (drinking can increase your heart rate and widen blood vessels in the skin so increases perspiration). I would hear a voice telling me ‘This has to stop’ It’s not

13

You care about your health and practise self-care. Stop poisoning your body with alcohol!’ but by 6 pm the next evening, a much chirpier voice arrived. The ‘wine witch’ said ’You’ve had an exhausting day, time for a cheeky chilled Sauvignon…You might give up? Don’t be ridiculous! Sober – anagram of Bores! Everyone is drinking!

You can just have one!’

Alcohol is so ingrained in our culture. From playdates, parties, weddings, fresher’s week, funerals. From celebrations to commiserations, alcohol is the ‘social glue’ that sticks everything together. We have been brainwashed into thinking we are either ‘good drinkers’ or alcoholic losers.

Clearly, there are rock bottom drunks who

have a serious issue, and the rest of us – happy social drinkers – are occasionally lightweights who just can’t hold their beer.

In truth it’s a spectrum, there are many ‘grey area drinkers.’ I’d suggest there are at least 50 shades of grey – but sadly not so sexy! Let's not sugarcoat it, alcohol is responsible for 200 different illnesses, including cancer, and it’s notably terrible for exacerbating menopausal symptoms.

I wasn’t sure how to stop drinking, it was such an ingrained habit, and I was worried about what others might say, whether I’d be ridiculed, ‘sober shamed’, rather than congratulated for the sober badass I really was! ‘Alcohol is the only drug you have to

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justify not taking,’ when you stop smoking everyone says, ‘well done!’ But if you stop drinking, people tend to look concerned and ask if you ‘have a problem.’

I’d given up for short periods before, during pregnancies etc, but I had always counted the days till I could drink again.

This time it was different, it was as if a light had come on, and I didn’t ever go back.

I found that rather than giving something up, I was gaining my life back. If only someone had told me before how freaking fantastic life without alcohol is!

The benefits of quitting booze include better sleep, regulated weight, better digestion, better sex, better cognitive function, and many people report their anxiety reduces or dissipates. It took time, but eventually, all the benefits kicked in – and more. The overheating stopped, no more hot flushes! My eyesight improved (really!) and I got shiny locks (sober hair, who knew)!And I feel younger. Want the best anti-ageing secret ever? Ditch the booze! (You’re welcome!)

As for the mirror in the bedroom, I smile at it now, if I remember. There are still some bulges and I’m far from perfect, but it’s not self-loathing anymore. I’m not quite there yet, but I am ‘self-love curious’. I am…dare I say it - Happy Healthy and Sober.

Janey Lee Grace is a presenter on BBC Radio 2, author of several books on holistic living and the founder of The Sober Club, a platform offering a nonjudgemental approach to wellbeing underpinned by sobriety, and hosts the Alcohol Free Life podcast. Watch her TEDx talk, Sobriety Rocks – Who Knew!

Read 'Happy Healthy Sober – Ditch the booze and take control of your life' now. www.thesoberclub.com

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EXLUSIVE INTERVIEW

INTERVIEW

Jane Clarke

Nourishing your Business At Women’s Business Club we are really passionate about empowering women to succeed. One of the ways we can do that is to share with each other, be vulnerable and tell the truth about the not so glamorous side of business. We’re so excited to have spoken to Jane Clarke, founder of Nourish, an alternative to meal replacement drinks.

With over 30 years of experience in the nutrition industry, she has written for publications such as The Daily Mail and Observer, along with her own bestselling books. She has been Jamie Oliver’s teammate in the School Meals revolution, been personal dietitian and nutritionist for David Beckham and Benedict Cumberbatch, and has even been awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of West London.

Her rewarding work has allowed her to advise those with serious illnesses such as those with neurological degenerative conditions, cancer and dementia. She has recently spoken about how she was very ill for the first 25 years of her life, having had 15 surgeries within those years.

In our She Speaks series we want to learn about what it really looks like to run a business, the behind the scenes stuff that maybe we don't see. We dig into Jane's story and learn all we can from her business journey.

What work goals and aspirations did you have?

I spent about a quarter of my life, between the age of 15 and 25, unwell and in hospital and I think that when you're very unwell as a teenager it leaves a lot of time for your imagination to wander. That was the only way I could get through it, to dream. I always had a dream of wanting to run my own business because in those days there were amazing women in the public eye that were fantastic role models for me.

I always used to set myself goals and I'd say for anyone who's thinking about starting their own business, you have to be a good goal setter, really lay them in the sand and aim for it.

Does your passion stem from your illness?

I think if I wasn't ill, I wouldn't have had the tenacity to do what I do now. When teenagers are very ill, they either get really buried by the experience and they sort of struggle to then break through and find their own voice, or find their own feet. At times I was critically unwell and I knew I had nothing to lose so I became really tenacious. To my detriment at times, I'm a huge driver of my own goals and won't let myself off the hook until I've achieved. I went through huge emotional, physical pain and once you've gone through that, you can do anything.

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Do you feel that the way you dealt with your dreams and goals helped you with your mental health?

Definitely. My late dad is a key driver to everything I do now and we were sitting at the bottom of my bed and he burst into tears at seeing his daughter in the state that I was in. It was that moment that I thought I could bear anything myself, but I'm not doing that to my dad. So, I decided to have the surgery that I've put off for so many years. I desperately wanted to be a mother and my final surgery, which was a hysterectomy, was a huge thing for me at the age of 25. But that then gave me the courage to move forward. A huge thing about being your own boss and running your own business is your mental health, it’s hugely important, incredibly challenging and it's really tough.

Do you still find you have mental health challenges now that you’re doing amazing things and have a successful business?

I think anyone who says that they're absolutely fine is completely fooling themselves. The thing is, you do have to present this face to some extent but there are times when I'm very anxious, certainly in the current climate when you're dealing with distribution issues, manufacturing issues, costing issues. It’s unprecedented times all of us are going through but at the end of the day, I'm founder and I'm CEO. What tips do you have?

I can do all my mindfulness, take all my calm remedies, do my wild swimming, but for me, particularly at the moment, it's that lack of sleep that I struggle with and have

to find a way around. A mistake I made in the early days is thinking that I've got to finish that bit of work before I can relax but you never find any female founder that’s ever finished! What I do now though is set the goal of finishing two hours before I even think about going to bed. I then read or I'll even go for an early evening walk to just try and let my brain decompress.

Lavender milk is also something I make because it contains magnesium and proteins. I actually make it with vanilla Nourish. I put it in a pan with a little bit of dried lavender, bring it to the boil or just warm through. Once it’s cooled down a bit, it’s a really lovely thing - for teenagers too!

When you get into the female founder space, it’s easy to think you don't really need certain things so much because you’re following your dreams. But then you hit a wall and wonder where everything else has gone. So as much as you can, try and keep a little bit of time for your family, friends and yourself. In the early days of my practice I would get up at 5:00am so I could have that hour before my daughter even started stirring. I always remember my dad having his quiet time reading the Bible and I've done the same. It's not reading the Bible for me but that early morning just lets me wake up slowly with the world.

Good habits boil down to having discipline in your life, how do you manage this?

Over the last couple of years I’ve been on back-to-back calls. There's no flexibility, there's no breaks and people expect you to be available 24/7. I would be lying if I said that I'm good at being disciplined every day, there are days when it cascades. But if I could go back, I’d just be kinder to myself.

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When you first started, did you have an exit strategy for your business?

For me, this is it for life. I don’t want to leave the business because the challenge and scenario that we're tackling is a very personal one. We get phone calls, we get handwritten letters, we get emails, all from the people who are struggling.

Undernourishment is a huge issue. People don't talk about the fact that when you're going through cancer treatment, it's often undernourishment and malnutrition that is a determinant of whether you live or die.

It’s so brutal that it puts you off your food, you become so weak you're not strong enough to take the treatment. What we are tackling is being able to nourish someone to be strong enough to take the treatment they need. I've got a great deal of gravitas for my work because of my 30 years of experience. I'd say to a lot of founders, find your sweet spot and focus on that. Mine is helping people who are undernourished because of cancer treatment, dementia and eating disorders.

Tell us more about Nourish.

making an enormous impact. Before creating our drinks, I actually started by creating the Nourish afternoon tea which is an outreach project that we did pre-COVID going all around the country for vulnerable people. Prue Leith is our patron, she's a huge supporter. I then realised that I wanted to create the drinks. A very dear friend of mine, Micah Carr-Hill, who was involved in the startup of Green & Black’s, helped me create the drinks. They're all organic, have natural ingredients and they taste beautiful. I wanted to be environmentally friendly, so of course, it’s not in a plastic bottle. We also have lovely Swedish designers that help me do the packaging. I hope that the simplicity and beauty of it means people can be proud to have it on their table. We have crafted them so that they are heat-treated and they don't have to be refrigerated so they're safe for someone who is vulnerable.

What is next for Nourish?

We plan on bringing out a smaller, 250ml slim can Nourish drink and later on a plant based version, to evolve our environmental ambitions.

When you're struggling to get nourishment inside your body, that's where Nourish is nourishbyjaneclarke.com info@nourishbyjaneclarke.com

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

INTERVIEW

Bente Ottersen Seizing Opportunity

Through chatting to Bente, we’ve learned that she loves a challenge and is always ready to take on calculated risks, but is never reckless. Her inspiration to succeed in life and business comes through playing sports, skiing, horseriding and martial arts where her teachers have urged her to always reach for higher goals and focus on details while keeping the long-term goal in sight. We’d say this has served Bente really well in her entrepreneurial journey, so let’s find out more!

So far, what are you doing now?

Right now, this business is in the media services industry, meaning that we give Film and Video distributors, or sellers, subtitles and dubbing all of the things that need to go to the global market. Titles - On is relatively young, our company started in 2019.

What inspired you to start a business in this industry?

I started in translating. I did it for a while, I learned the trade, it was cool. I saw that the industry suffered from complete chaos, when it came to asset management. There were assets all over that nobody had control where they were, or anything. So I and a few others, we designed a system to put all these assets into order in a database and make them accessible directly to clients. I mean to view whatever, wherever you were, you could access any language.

So we made a system where we had a patent for it but we weren’t able to bring it into the market, because of licensing practices. So I had to put that aside and then I was contacted by a few other people in the industry and they said why don't you start in the subtitle industry? You know, the trade is needed. I looked at it and I saw that it's really a good business opportunity.

So that's how I started

The key to the story is you saw a need and you served a need.

I saw a need and I saw an opportunity. I knew the trade, I knew the craft and the people. So I just needed to do something.

So when you were really little, say under 10 years old, did you dream of having a company? Do you have any particular dreams?

I wanted to be a fisherman. Either that or a child psychologist. So I was a little bit like this, a little bit like that. We lived near a clinic or a hospital, really for children who had severe trauma. So I used to play with them and thought that, yeah, I'd like to take care of kids like this when I grow up.

On the other hand, I also found it romantic to be out at sea, maybe alone in a storm.

Luckily, that never happened.

So when did you figure out what you wanted to do? People ask me that all the time, how do you figure out what you are meant to be doing?

I didn't figure out I just went with the flow in a way. That could happen for some maybe but for me, it was never that way. I was just drifting along. I saw an opportunity, I went after it. I saw another opportunity, I went after that.

Did you ever find any point in your career that there were particular challenges that you faced because you're a woman?

I think that, you know, especially with individual meetings, you sometimes face things that you would not have faced if you had been a man. I suppose I have experienced mansplaining and all of that, which is annoying. Sometimes you go along with it for a little while, because you need that person at that time and then you can correct it at some other point. Yeah, so I've had my share of that.

Do you have any particular tips or anything that you've done to deal with those sorts of challenges?

You just must recognise it. And then once you recognise it, you have to make a decision. Shall I stop it now? Or shall I let it go on for a little bit for tactical reasons?

You know, but you have to stop it at some point, and definitely not be manipulated by it.

Can you give us your top tips for anybody at the beginning of their business journey?

I think they would have to really be sure they have a good thing going. I heard yesterday from a woman who thought of herself as a very good entrepreneurial type.

But you know, to become a good sailor, you have to be courageous, you have to be able to take the sea to be able to be out there.

But you also need to ship. The ship part is very important and to be an entrepreneur, you have to have a business idea. If you don't have that, you can be a lot of good stuff as a person but you're not an entrepreneur, until you have a business idea that you want to build and grow and bring to fruition.

This has been a small snippet of our interview with Bente Ottersen.

In the full interview we cover all the technical aspects of running a technology and media based business including raising funds and working with investors, working with developers, the ups and downs of patents and legal issues and building a team.

The full interview will be released in the She Speaks book, coming soon!

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

INTERVIEW

Ishveen Jolly Disrupting the Sports Marketing Industry Ishveen is a trailblazer in the sports marketing industry having built OpenSponsorship.com into the world's largest marketplace connecting brands to over 12000 athletes for marketing campaigns. Her accolades include Forbes 30U30 sports list, Inc's top 100 female Founders list and raising over $5M from NBA team owners, athletes, notable VCs and her Alma Mater Oxford University.

Let's just have a quick summary. Where are you at now?

Now I am living in London, having lived kind of all over the world. I am running my company, Open Sponsorship. In about seven years it's probably as successful as it's ever been, which is really nice. I'm in a good space, lots of learning, lots of growing, but it feels quite steady.

What is the problem you are solving in the Sports Marketing industry?

I worked as a sports agent previously and was buying and selling sponsorship, and I just thought the model was quite broken.

Just like recruitment, real estate and dating before marketplaces and websites that connect the two, it was physically near impossible to make a connection. So, that was sponsorship and what we essentially did is we built Open Sponsorship, the largest marketplace connecting brands to athletes, to make sponsorship super easy.

The same way it's hopefully mostly super easy for people to find a job through LinkedIn So in your early days, what would you say was your biggest challenge?

I think the journey of everyone is you're constantly hit with new challenges so I think it's about having a toolkit to solve

them and obviously being able to look back and share your learnings, but knowing that you figure out one challenge and it just opens up the next. That's just the way it is.

Obviously very early on, it was around finding a co-founder. I was building a website, but I don't even know how to code. So you need to find someone to build that website for you. Then it was fundraising, and then it was getting your first customers and then figuring out your business model and then everything on from that. So I'd say, I think you just learn to constantly be facing challenges, but it is about knowing that, trying to stay on a plateau. So the lows should only make you that low and the highs should only make you that high.

Have you faced any challenges because you're a woman in business, especially in your industry?

Yeah, I definitely think so. I mean, going back to what you were just saying, I'd say entrepreneurship is like banging your head against a brick wall, but you can't just turn around, you have to figure out a way through. So I think as a woman, in the early days, for sure, it was probably harder to raise money and probably not taken seriously. Not just as a woman, but being ethnic. Then I started a company in America, and so when I start talking to older white men about how I'm going to change NFL sponsorship and they're like, yeah. They didn't take me seriously. To be honest, I get it because I think everyone thinks you're a stereotypical kind of thing.

So I think that was a challenge. I would say being a female, sometimes you have the ability to be in the room because you're a woman, but then you have to work three times as hard once you're in there. So sometimes I am obviously grateful for being a woman because I think I get the opportunity to be on a speaking panel or whatever else, but then you can't just rely on that. Your content had to wow everyone.

Do you have any top tips that you would want to give women at the very early stages of their journey?

Yeah, I'd say one, be really passionate about your mission. The journey is so tough and people only see the rewarding bits of it, right? Like, the accolades and the awards, and being interviewed by you! It sounds great, but it's so tough that if you're not excited and passionate about your mission, you will give up because it's just not even worth it. Really think about the kind of business you want to build and write it down and stick to it. Do you want to have one location, like a nice storefront property that produces a good income, you raise a bit of financing and it gives you a nice work-life balance and whatever else?

Or are you looking to run a VC funded business? Which means basically right off the next ten years of your life. There are a lot of amazing entrepreneurs that have got a website and they produce some stuff and it's a nice business and they can be selfemployed. People say to me, “oh, you're self-employed.” I'm not self-employed. I'm employed by my investors, by my team. I am more answerable than anyone to the people around me. And so I think it's really important to think about whether you are looking to be self-employed and have independence don't go out and raise VC money.

This has been a small snippet of our interview with Ishveen Jolly.

The full interview will be released in the She Speaks book, coming soon!

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2022 Black History Month is an important time of year to celebrate the huge and often-overlooked contributions of Black people in the UK. To get to a better tomorrow, we can’t just focus on the past. The past is in the past.

We can acknowledge and learn from it, but to improve the future, we need action, not words. We need to come together around a shared common goal to achieve a better world for everyone.

To ensure real change, we need real support from our allies. It’s time to reset your mindset and support us with actions, not words.

Join us, see something, say something, and don’t be a passive bystander. Not just at the weekend in the club or playing sports, but on the street, in shops, at work.

Being an ally means moving beyond shortterm or performative gestures and taking real, long-term action. In the workplace, in places of education and learning, and in the public sphere, this means having policies in place that achieve real outcomes.

As an individual, it means actually practising what you preach. In the wake of 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests, many organisations and individuals committed to tackling racism.

This was done around the world by taking the time to learn about the black experience and additionally, in the UK, this

included learning about the historical legacy of colonialism and slavery.

That was an important step forward, but it won’t fundamentally change institutional racism today.A number of recent reports have called out racism across a range of sectors, from international aid and education to healthcare and policing. As a society, we all know there is a problem with institutional racism. Now we need to work together to tackle it.

Black people are often given the double burden of experiencing racism and discrimination, and then being expected to fix it.

Hopefully, by making the theme of this year’s Black History Month magazine and website Time for Change: Action Not Words’ we can come together to make a change for the better.

Yes, Black History Month is a time to celebrate black history, heritage and culture, and the iconic figures that have contributed so much, but this year, let’s make it about so much more. If you’re serious about allyship, it’s Time for Change: Action Not Words.

Excerpt taken from www.blackhistorymonth.org.uk Find out more about Black History Month and how you can get involved.

2022

Dawn Butler MP Black History Month is an important time of year to celebrate the huge and often-overlooked contributions of Black people in the UK. As the third Black woman ever to be elected as an MP, and having made history by becoming the first ever elected female African-Caribbean minister to speak at the Dispatch Box, as well as the first ever MP to use British Sign Language to ask a question in the House of Commons, it’s important that I help to celebrate the history of Black people in the UK. I would like to see Black history in all its glory incorporated into the history books, so that it is taught daily. Because Black history is British history.

It is no secret that I would like to get to a point where we do not need Black History Month, so our history is not confined to 31 days. Because all our shared history should be celebrated, taught and recognised equally.

But it continues to be important and we have had more honest conversations on race since the brutal murder of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement.

I will therefore continue to mark Black History Month with pride and we must continue fighting for full racial equality.

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Celebrating Black, Female Owned Businesses

Elaine Hughes Elaine Hughes Inc

Elaine is an eCommerce Strategist, Disability Empowerment Coach, and professional speaker. Elaine primarily supports people with and without disabilities and stay-at-home moms to start their own businesses by unlocking their creativity for business by thinking out of the box, with a master key, and building multiple streams of income through her signature program, Authentically You! Elaine has her own cake and chocolate supply business and several subscription boxes including the UK’s first subscription box solely for young carers.

Elaine professionally speaks on issues around disability and employment and is striving to break down bias and barriers in the black community.

job as people only saw my disability. After raising my first £1000, I used that to buy stock by selling what I had through creative thinking. I went on to own a shop, before moving back online.

What's one piece of advice you would give to anyone else wanting to get started in business?

I would say to someone, never let anything deter you from your goals. People will give you a million reasons why you shouldn't, but only a small number of them will cheer you on. Ground and surround yourself with those people, soak them up like a sponge with knowledge and never stop having an unwavering belief in yourself.

What challenges have you faced as a black woman in business?

How did you get started in business?

I was medically retired from my civil service job at age 32, after taking almost a year off due to surgery recovery. Faced with life on a low income and benefits, I decided to start selling on eBay as a way to boost my benefits as I couldn't get another

As a black disabled woman, I have had lots of challenges from not being taken seriously to people not understanding my needs. I didn't receive support and had to challenge biases, whether it be in securing loans (very few are available to female entrepreneurs let alone black women) and

also my disability. People only ever saw my physical disability as a result I have to constantly prove my worth and forge my path. I have consistently been an outsider looking in.

How could you be better supported in your business by your white female counterparts?

I would love to have more allies to invite people like me to corporate events, so we can sit on and share our experience, with issues of breaking down perceptions and allowing us to show our talents. I say this as a black disabled woman in her 40's who was consistently overlooked for roles in the civil service due to my colour and my disability.

Our white counterparts need to speak out in their organisations on institutional racism and ways to make it more inclusive through opportunities and seats at boardroom and senior level managerial positions.

What are your dreams for the future of your business?

My plan is to scale my business to support more people with disabilities and turn my signature program into an accredited course to help more people with disabilities to start their own businesses around their condition for a better lifestyle with financial freedom through multiple streams of income.

Find out more about Elaine Hughes Inc at www.elainemh.com

Nzinga Orgill

RaCExpert Limited Nzinga Orgill was born and raised in Birmingham and moved to London to study Law. Instead she fell in love with the aviation industry after graduating.

Nearly 20 years on, Nzinga has held various roles at Europe's busiest airport Heathrow moving from a front line operative up to senior leader managing projects around innovation, automation, diversity, inclusion and transformational change.

Today she is an award winning, industry recognised transformational change leader. Founder and CEO of RaCExpert Limited, a consultancy business that looks at tackling challenges with race and culture using organisational resources, capabilities and innovation for greater inclusion.

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How did you get started in business?

I decided to set up a business after seeing a lack of progress and actions on racial equity and inclusion. I wanted to use my skills and expertise to help to transform business for better performance, creating accessible opportunities and a belonging environment for all employees.

What's one piece of advice you would give to anyone else wanting to get started in business?

Meet people and build relationships, connections create opportunities for your business.

What challenges have you faced as a black woman in business?

I have been ignored, asked to work for free, told that there is no problem with racial

equity, overlooked for white led businesses, questioned about my skills and expertise, mistaken for cleaning staff/security.

What are your dreams for the future of your business?

Growth so that i am able to work with more organisations.

How could you be better supported in your business by your white female counterparts?

Allyship, advocate and sponsor me. In the rooms that i don't occupy speak up for me.

Share opportunities with women of colour.

Finally acknowledge the intersectionality of being a woman of colour and the added challenges it presents when discuss gender inequality.

Find out more about RaCExpert Limited at www.racexpertlimited.com

Roneish Myers MoneyHeave

Roneish Myers, is a Forbes Featured Financial Expert. Helping Professionals & Entrepreneurs get good with managing their money.

Roneish has worked in the world of Finance for over 10 years. In addition to

attaining a First-Class Degree in Accounting and Finance in 2014 her career includes roles at the online streaming giant Netflix, Britain's leading Marketing Service group St Ives Plc and Award Winning International Outsourced Sales Agency CPM UK.

But something that kept bugging her was how little friends, family, and even coworkers knew about their own finances.

Being both a Money enthusiast and passionate advocate for economic empowerment it made sense to create a business that would do just that! Which led to the birth of MoneyHeave Ltd - A Financial Coaching Service.

Through MoneyHeave, Roneish has designed a comprehensive service that provides clients with the practical knowledge and mindset to create financial freedom and build wealth.

Roneish finds nothing more fulfilling than helping her clients to elevate their wealth and achieve their life goals.

How did you get started in business?

In 2019 I decide to leave my career in the Film in TV industry to take a different direction in my career. Helping professionals to better manage their finances started off as a side business for me and then through the results I was getting for my clients, they started recommending me and it grew from there.

What's one piece of advice you would give to anyone else wanting to get started in business?

I would say go for it! Entrepreneurship isn’t for everyone but it can be for you, if you want it to be. If you have an idea, test it. Even if you don’t have it all figured out, take the steps that you do know. It's an amazing feeling when you see your idea come into fruition and people actually buy from you. It’s rewarding.

Some days can be testing and so I feel it’s important to have other entrepreneurial friends/family who can support you with what you may be going through. If you don’t have any other entrepreneurial friends, find them or create a circle. I feel

important to have other entrepreneurial friends/family who can support you with what you may be going through. If you don’t have any other entrepreneurial friends, find them or create a circle. I feel this is really key for your mental well being as an entrepreneur.

Finally, never give up, just because one idea doesn’t work, it doesn’t mean you are a failure, keep going, it’s just a matter of time.

What challenges have you faced as a black woman in business?

Due to limited access to finance; scaling the business has been challenging, as we have had to rely on bootstrapping and expensive finances like credit cards to grow; whilst maintaining the business bills. The knock on effect of this, limits the amount of money being spent on marketing, thus limits exposure of our brand and so people just don't know that we even exist.

Limited networks; as the saying goes your net worth = your network. The way we have engaged our corporate clients has been through introductions, if you have a limited network, this can be challenging getting to the right people.

Lack of diversity in Supply Chains Companies using the same type of businesses or just having stringent processes.

Unconscious Bias.

What are your dreams for the future of your business?

Financial wellbeing is a high area for growth and we want to dominate and become the leading Global Financial Wellbeing Company.

Find out more about MoneyHeave at https://www.moneyheave.com/

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JawahirAl-Mauly

Ujamaa Spice

What are your dreams for the future of your business?

Ujamaa Spice Co. is an innovative company with a social mission, proudly working to decolonise the spice supply chain and bring the highest quality, single origin Zanzibar spices directly from Zanzibari farmers to you!

How did you get started in business?

As a native Zanzibari, I have always wanted to do something to give back to the community back home. Seeing as Zanzibar is well known for their spices but the farmers that were working hard to supply those spices were not treated equally due do the traditional supply chain, I knew I had to do something to change that.

What's one piece of advice you would give to anyone else wanting to get started in business?

Don't give up on your idea. If you believe it will work and are willing to put in the effort to make it work then just go for it!

What challenges have you faced as a woman of colour in business?

Not being taken as seriously as my (white) business partner because I do not seem to fit the stereotypical image of a 'businesswoman'

Become the UK's leading business in ethical spice trade. We are soon expanding our assortment of spices and might release 2 more Chai blends including a caffeine free one.

In the future, we hope to work together with more small hold farmers to really extend the impact we have on as many people as possible. We witness firsthand the impact spending a little bit more money on your spices has on peoples' lives and it really drives us to expand this concept to as many people as possible.

We are currently stocked at a few Scottish grocers and cafes however, there is currently a rise in demand from more cafes and bakeries, so keep an eye out on those and other future collaborations we will have with local Scottish businesses. We really hope to connect as many local communities in Scotland and the wider UK as possible to our farming communities in Zanzibar.

How could you be better supported in your business by your white female counterparts?

Buy/support black(&female) owned businesses, help spread the word about what we do and encourage others to do the same.

Find out more about Ujamaa Spice at www.ujamaaspice.com

Celebrating Women of Colour We asked you to nominate standout movers and shakers in various minority groups.

Pinky Ghadiali

Netwomen

give to anyone else wanting to get started in business?

Netwomen founded in 2015 is a supportive, collaborative community for ambitious women of all ages and backgrounds. From 2020 our online meet-ups are relaxed and welcoming with a non-salesy style that attracts women globally who are new to business, career women progressing up to the top and even women setting up their own businesses. So that you can grow and develop to be an inclusive female leader.

Start before you are ready and never be afraid to ask for help.

What challenges have you faced as a woman of colour in business?

Brown women in business don't get the same opportunities as white women. For example investment and funding is less than 03%. I have never had funding.

What are your dreams for the future of your business?

How did you get started in business?

I've been a leadership coach since 2015 and continued to help women who are struggling with limiting beliefs. In 2020 started Netwomen and decided to bring women together from all backgrounds to support and elevate each other.

What's one piece of advice you would

Grow and expand in USA, empower 100,000 women in 5 years.

Find out more about Netwomen at www.netwomen.co

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Celebrating Women of Colour

Noreen Baqir

Circle Finance

Started in 2017, Circle Finance has established itself as a dynamic financial services company which provides, mortgages, commercial finance and insurance. They embrace latest technologies and market expertise to provide tailored advice to their clients according to their circumstances.

How did you get started in business?

I always had an entrepreneurial spirit heavily influenced by my successful business man father. This lead to a degree in Financial Services and a stint working in a bank and having my own estate agency, it helped me understand finance and how it applies to business. I naturally had a passion for property and all of these manifested in a perfect storm to form Circle Finance.

What's one piece of advice you would give to anyone else wanting to get started in business?

Trust your instincts and do something you are passionate about. Dream big work hard and success will follow.

What challenges have you faced as a woman of colour in business?

It was a challenge to establish myself in the industry and it took time to be recognised for my knowledge and expertise.

What are your dreams for the future of your business?

To make it the biggest financial services company in Scotland and make it a fun place to work for empowered and ambitious employees How could you be better supported in your business by your white female counterparts?

A lot of progress has been made in this regard and I think further equal opportunities and exchange of knowledge will help.

Find out more about Circle Finance at www.circle-finance.co.uk

Coworking spaces for businesswomen to gain support and empowerment so no woman has to build a business alone.

Join us across the globe!

Find out more womensbusiness.club/my-success-story

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Setting Your Business Foundations With Hannah Roper, Business Development Expert Running a business is a constant learning curve, we will never know it

with your decision making and goal setting but be flexible to change course if

all! By setting strong business foundations you have solid ground to ride the highs and lows of being a business owner of which there will be many!

something isn't working!

Here are my 4 top tips for setting your business foundations: Spend time defining your key message!

You need to know what you are saying to your audience, using language they relate to and use content to share the value and transformation your business provides.

This takes time and will not be perfect straight away! Conduct market research, find out about your ideal customer and what they need from you and your business!

Be strategic!

Strategy is all about having a plan of what you want to achieve and knowing why you want to achieve it. Be intentional

Invest in systems to free up your time and improve efficiency There are so many affordable online systems that will automate various aspects of your business to free up your time to spend on activities you want to do! This may include outsourcing certain business activities so you can spend your time serving more customers.

Take care of your mind!

It can be very easy to fall into unhealthy habits and not look after yourself! Take time to play in some way, know when you need to prioritise your family and other commitments, celebrate your wins however small and remember that success is relative, take time to define your own version of success and remember that Rome wasn't built in a day and neither is a successful business!

If you want some support in looking at any of these business foundations come and visit me in my expert pod!

Ignite your Productivity With Melanie Harris, Business Support Expert Do you sometimes find yourself wishing you could get more accomplished each day?

Perhaps you struggle getting started or get hung up on the details.

Use these strategies to ignite your productivity and get things done.

Be realistic about what you want to accomplish in a day.

instead of 8:00 a.m. and see how that works. Plan to use that first hour of each day to finish any incomplete tasks.

Use lists.

Write down a list of things you can conceivably accomplish in a day.

Once you have a concrete list in front of you, it is a lot easier to get started and stick to a plan. This also helps you easily transition between tasks since you won't have to ponder what's next.

Your goals should be achievable and make sense within the parameters of your life.

If you set a goal of completing 30 tasks in a day and you only finish 10 of them, you

Keep your list in a notebook. Check off or put a line through each job as you complete it. When you look back at all

probably won't feel very productive.

you have accomplished, you will feel fabulous. Working from a list is not only

Wake up earlier.

Perhaps you need an extra hour to get things done. Try waking up at 7:00 a.m.

motivating, but it also gives you a feeling of success.

Pick an hour or what time you have available to work on tasks you have been avoiding.

We all have sticky notes reminding us to do those tasks we find difficult, most tedious or those small jobs that seem insignificant. Set aside an hour each day to focus on completing those lingering, annoying tasks. You will be amazed at how quickly you can get them done.

Melanie Harris The Cottage Club

Limit interruptions.

If you are at the office, let your phone calls go to voice mail for an hour while you get your work done. If you're at home, avoid answering phones or responding to texts during that hour. If you want to keep your momentum going, always stick to your list.

GET IN TOUCH mel@thecottageclub.co.uk 0333 339 8005

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Foundations of Good Marketing With Nicky Dibben, Marketing Expert Marketing is most likely one of the areas of your business that is constantly

What problems are you uniquely equipped to solve? What language do

changing, and change brings about all sorts of confusion.

your customers use?

How do they describe their issues and requirements?

However, when you look closely, what keeps changing are the recommended

Think “what’s in it for them” not “what’s

tactics for implementation: the foundations of good marketing, and

in it for me” and your messaging will begin to resonate.

good business as a whole, never change and never go out of fashion.

Once you view tactics as the ways in which you can implement your strategy, rather than your strategy itself, it’s easier to have some filters to decide what’s right for you. Here are a few of the fundamentals that can help you wrestle back some control over your marketing.

Be clear on what you stand for.

Who do you serve? What makes you special? Why do your clients and customers choose you? What personal values do you bring to your business?

What compromises are you not willing to make? Combine this “inside out” analysis with an “outside in” approach.

Progress over perfection is okay.

Rather than getting hung up on everything being perfect, it’s more than okay to have what I call “strategy with a small s” and then take actions every day that will take you in the overall direction you want to go.

You can adjust on the fly and you will quickly notice that every conversation you have, or every foray into social media you make, will help improve the next one.

Think relationships not transactions, and this makes it easier to put yourself out there on step at a time.

Routines are essential.

Marketing appears to break all the laws of physics: it can either take up all the time

and space available, or disappear into invisibility beneath all your other competing priorities. The trick is to decide what time and resources you can realistically make available, and develop the routines that work for you.

Marketing your business does not need to be overwhelming, and one of the best things about marketing is that you get to make it what you need it to be for your business.

What it does require is a pragmatic,

For instance, think LinkedIn: unless it’s your job to be a prolific content creator, what works best for you? Is it six posts a fortnight alternating between curation, education and promotion, plus 15 minutes a day engaging with your network? How about perfecting one marketing tactic before you add three more to the mix?

practical look at where the needs of your customers meet what you have to offer, a discerning choice of the tactics that will work best for you and your resources, and the willingness to take actions in line with the routines you’ve committed to.

My Marketing Velocity Framework enables you take your marketing from stuck to structured, helping you own your

Think “what’s realistic for me”, put it in your diary, and it stands a chance of actually happening.

own marketing, and I am looking forward to chatting to you more at the conference in my SME Expert Pod!

Nicky Dibben Invention Marketing GET IN TOUCH nicky@invention-marketing.co.uk

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EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

D E L E S O PURP

LEADERSHIP

COVER STORY

Alice Thompson Alice Thompson is the co-founder of the leading social enterprise, Social Bite, famous for bringing the likes of George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio, Harry and Meghan and many more to Scotland.

She is now a now purpose coach, speaking on the importance of being truly purpose-led from an organisational and neurological perspective.

So tell us a bit about yourself !

I'm a purpose coach! And I'm particularly interested in helping people get in touch with who they are at their core. So that means helping them to nurture their intuition (or find their gut feeling) so they can live with more conviction and a clearer sense of direction. I love working with people who are at a crossroads in their life, helping them to distinguish between their sense of self and their fear responses.

I'm obsessed with the Enneagram as a professional, personal and spiritual growth tool, and I believe self-inquiry is essential to leading a fulfilling life.

I've spent most of this year doing a lot of DIY (badly) to our new house which is a real project! My partner and I worked really hard to get onto the housing ladder and to save enough to make the move earlier this year, but a lot of luck and timing comes into play with all of this stuff too, so I'm very grateful for the space we now have and the ability to make it beautiful.

I think too much (don't we all) and have absolutely no self-preservation skills - so I rarely know when I'm hungry or need to pee and can go for hours (like all day) without doing either of those things - at which point I become grouchy and feel like I've burnt all of my resources trying to help other people when really I just need to take better care of myself. I realise how daft that sounds, but I wanted to share something real about myself that I've noticed recently. So I'm a work in progress like everyone else.

How did Social Bite start, and what part did you play in its early days?

Social Bite started with a LOT of sleepless nights, many 17-hour days, constantly moving forward when we hadn't finished anything we'd started yet and a lot of making it up as we went. A lot of thought went into it all as well, as we were never "off". Downtime didn't exist - even as the organisation grew and the 17-hour days became more like 12-hour days if my CoFounder and I were having dinner or it was a weekend, you can guarantee we were talking about the next big thing we wanted to do, how we should do it, and usually disagreeing. So I won't sugar the pill - hard graft, dedication and having a unique experience in Bangladesh to kick off our inspiration for building a social business - but that's a whole other story we don't have time for today!

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My role in the early days was everything really... as you'd expect from any founder I think. Except for finance. I hate finance.

The initial branding, the cafes, hiring, training, managing, opening new cafes, getting to know the homeless community (including living with the first 2 people we hired who were homeless), figuring out how to best support them, designing a training and support programme for them called the Social Bite Academy, how to run a central production kitchen responsible for £100k turnover a month... Just everything! And being 21 when it kicked off and having no training for any of the above, you can bet mistakes were made!

But that's the best way I know for us to learn. So as long as we reflect and try not to make the same mistakes over and over, something good can come from that.

How did you make the transition to Purpose Coach and doing what you are doing now?

I think I became really ready to move on and do something new, having spent 9 years and all of my working life at Social Bite. In the early days of Social Bite I was so close to the issues at hand and a sense of purpose in the good work we were doing but it also completely took over my life.

That kind of important work has a way of doing that! So eventually, after an inevitable breakdown at 25 years old, I moved into an office-based role and developed my own fundraising programme (Wee Sleep Out), and I was more sheltered from the very pressing and urgent needs of those who we were there to help, which was necessary for my mental health... but I was also more removed from that sense of purpose - which is what I was so excited about at the start: Having a sense of purpose behind the work I'd be doing as the Co-Founder of a social enterprise and national charity. So it took me a while to figure out exactly what I wanted to do, and eventually, it became clear piece by piece.

I retrained as Coach & Mentor with the Association for Coaching and began to read up on neurochemistry and the Enneagram (as mentioned above) which are two things I've found to be instrumental both for myself and my clients to create powerful shifts in our lives.

I've been on a journey of getting to know myself and my own deeper needs so that I can stand a chance at fulfilling them. A big part of that for me is connecting with people, being authentic and avoiding deception at all costs (a real bugbear of mine), helping people to feel safe and importantly, helping people to take control of their lives instead of feeling tossed around by life (as I've experienced myself in the past). Providing coaching with a focus on finding clarity, fulfilment and motivation is a great way for me to align with myself and be around the theme I find most interesting in life: purpose!

So I'm still on that journey of creating this new career path for myself, and I'll continue evolving my practice throughout my lifetime as I've finally found something that really connects with me and where I'm playing to my strengths. It's important to me that I don't paint the picture of a finished article or someone who thinks there's one way to do things - because that's never the case! One day I'd like to be hosting retreats for 10 - 20 people at a time which will serve as almost MOTs for someone's life, and offer free places to people who need the intervention and support but couldn't make it happen on their own. That's the dream I'm working towards now. It's not as huge as the social issue of homelessness, but I'm finally aligned with myself and I'm proud of the work I did at Social Bite to create services that save people's lives and provide essential support. It's just time for me to nurture myself. Cheese alert!

At any point in your journey, have you felt like it's not working and you want to give up?!

Yes! Frequently! Never with the coaching business funnily enough, not yet at least!

But at SB I debated leaving many times before I actually did. But I think I always had more to do there. Once I felt like I'd given all I could and learnt everything it had to teach me, it was easier to make the decision to stop - not that it wasn't working or that I was giving up - but that it was time for my next chapter. Sometimes we just have to power through and dedicate so we can make meaningful progress - but other times we have to listen to our intuition to leave or change lanes. Knowing the difference is what I also see many of my clients struggling with when they come to me, so I don't think it's uncommon.

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What motivates you and keeps you going in those tough times?

Striving for perfection cripples me, but I catch myself doing it all the time. So looking at the progress I've made, and the progress I want to make motivates me. But in order for that to land, I have to break it up into tiny pieces and focus on doing the first thing first. Simplifying.... that's what motivates me! Trying to do everything overwhelms me.

Do you have other projects you are working on that you want to tell us about?

I support some awesome social enterprises for free, like ANEC, who work with UK governments and companies to report on and reduce their carbon emissions in order to meet the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. And I just agreed to be a Trustee of a new meditation charity who will be working to deliver free meditation classes to people who are in harder-to-reach communities, such as prisons, hospitals, lower socio-economic areas etc.

With my own work, I deliver a 9-Month

Purpose Coaching Programme and a Find Your Purpose workshop for individuals or teams which are always really cool to be a part of. I also offer monthly coaching, but I really favour people who are ready to do the 9-Month programme first as a way to establish inspiration, momentum and clarity.

Have you faced any particular challenges as a woman in any of your career or business?

I think the internalised patriarchy we all live with as a result of growing up in the society we all exist in is one of the biggest battles I've had to face.

Who's your greatest influence?

At the moment it would be Danielle Macloed, an incredible woman who's coached me over the last year or so, and who has touched my life in an incredible way. She's recently released her second book, so everyone can enjoy a piece of her genius - it's called Remarkable Leadership and I couldn't be more proud of her or happy for her that it's out there!

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