On Friday, 15 October, 25 female founders and women in business came together to learn how to innovate as solopreneurs.
As the Workshop Leader for this particular Thrive Workshop funded by Enjoolata Foundation, I was excited to showcase my passion for innovation within small businesses, and share some of the lessons I have learnt from advising and mentoring 100s of solopreneurs and small businesses to start, innovate and grow. I also reflected on my own experience innovating within Thrive over the past 3 years.
At September’s Thrive Workshop, Financial Coach and Technical Communicator – Catherine Pope – shared a phenomenal amount of valuable tips to help us – as small business owners – become more productive and profitable.
At last week’s Thrive & Brighton Eagle Lab Female Founders Business Brunchin’ event, 43 female founders and women in business came together to learn from Katie Riddoch and Lindsay Willott - two inspiring female entrepreneurs making waves in the UK tech industry.
At our last Thrive Meetup, during the workshop part of the event, we learnt from lifestyle photographer, documentary videographer, and editor, Roxy Van Der Post, about how to tell an engaging story about our business.
We discussed how important story-telling is, and that as human beings, we are wired to take in stories. Stories enable us to transform our world view, and can literally change our minds!
As someone who - at times - suffers from imposter syndrome, and who has also witnessed the detrimental impact imposter syndrome can have on the solopreneurs I mentor, I was keen to find out more about this phenomenon and learn how we can overcome it.
The amazingly talented photographer, Victoria Dawe, recently approached me with a fantastic idea for a collaboration. (Click on the blog title to read the portrait and full interview).
Victoria wanted to use her camera for good, and raise the visibility of female founders within the Thrive Community. Victoria proposed taking portrait photos of a selection of founders as well as carrying out an interview with them to capture their story.
The first step to gaining business clarity is to pinpoint your purpose - to identify the ‘why’ behind your business. Once you have done this, you will then be able to identify your mission (your ‘how’), before checking that your products and services (your ‘what’) are aligned with your purpose and mission.
Last Friday, in celebration of Women’s History Month, I teamed up with the Brighton Eagle Lab team once again to host our second, virtual brunch.
Our 38 brunch attendees had the pleasure of hearing from Jo Darling and Melanie Lawson - both of whom reflected on their entrepreneurial journeys taking their natural health products to market.
At the last Thrive Meetup, our Workshop Leader, Suse Bentley, the Gen X Women’s Coach, shared an insightful and informative workshop on ‘How to Sell with Confidence and Curiosity’.
One of the things that struck me during the workshop was how the majority of the Thrive Meetup attendees reported back that they fear selling - or at the very least - associate selling with very negative feelings.
Despite studying A-Level English (English Language & Literature Combined, to be precise!), I don’t think I ever learnt how to write a story!
So, when the opportunity came up to learn from Jon Card, business journalist and author of ‘How to Make Your Company Famous’, I jumped at the chance.
During Jon’s training session on ‘Unlock Story-Telling and Get Media Ready’, I learnt why entrepreneurs need to be story-tellers, and what makes an influential story.
For me personally, January 2021 has been a month filled with some fantastic highs but also some devastating lows.
On a positive note though, it has been a month packed with learning - thanks to the diverse range of workshops and webinars on offer during lockdown.
This month’s theme for my marketing content was ‘Personal and Business Resilience’, so I chose to attend workshops which reflected those particular themes.
While I am not keen on engaging in lengthy debates about definitions, I think it is important to define ‘innovation’, as it has to be one of the most overused and misunderstood buzzwords bandied around the business world! In ‘The Little Black Book of Innovation’, Scott Antony defines innovation in five words, ‘Something different that has impact’. This is undoubtedly my favourite definition of innovation. Put simply, innovation is a process of having an idea and implementing it. It is not about inventing something new, as many people mistakenly believe; it is about introducing something different to what is already being done, in order to bring about positive change.
Over the past 10 months, we have had to adapt personally and professionally, and our resilience has been pushed to the limit. And this new lockdown will, once again, test those limits as well as our patience.
Some of my habits and behaviours have changed during the pandemic. Has that been the case for you?
What strategies have you used to build your resilience - either in a personal context or in a business context?
Here are my five top strategies for building my personal and business resilience:
At the last Thrive Meetup of 2020, I facilitated an interactive workshop ‘Looking Back to Look Forwards’ during which I invited everyone to reflect on their achievements from the past 12 months, along with their greatest lessons learnt. We also created ‘Our Wall of Intentions’ at the end of the Meetup, capturing one action we committed to take in order to move closer to our goals.
Creative thinking is a process fuelled by conscious and unconscious insight: of generating ideas, concepts and associations, and an ability to make connections between seemingly unrelated things – like a subconscious game of ‘join-the-dots’. As children, there are no limits to our imagination. An ugly concrete pavement can suddenly transform into a flowing pool of lava, and a toilet roll can magically turn into a portal to reach another galaxy. However, as we get older, we find ourselves using our creative muscle less and less. More often than not, our daily routines, work environment, and self-confidence, all play a part in diminishing our ability – and desire – to think creatively.
I am really excited to announce the launch of a new workshop series I have created - The ‘Healthy Business’ Workshop Series, sponsored by Hatch.
Between now and January 2021, I am hosting five workshops designed to give you the knowledge, skills and resilience you need to grow a healthy, small business.
These are practical and informative workshops delivered by experts in their field, written specifically for this series. You won’t find these workshops anywhere else!
Running your own business can be lonely - especially when it comes to decision-making.
Whilst your friends and family can be a fantastic support for you along your entrepreneurial journey, they may not necessarily make the best business advisers.
On Friday, 29 May I did something I never imagined I would do…
I co-hosted RE-DEFINED - our first ever, virtual conference for female founders and women in business, in partnership with the fantastic Karen Stenning, Founder of Absolute Alchemy.
As you may know, I am in the final stages of preparing for RE-DEFINED - the virtual, half-day conference I am hosting in partnership with Karen Stenning on Friday, 29 May.
