MY MANIFESTO: Owning My Shizzle
DAY 2 OF WHO. HOW. NOW: A SEVEN-DAY (BIRTHDAY) CELEBRATION.
“Testify. Why are you here?” — Seth Godin.
“Even at the bleakest of experiences, there was growth and change that allowed me to be the person that I am now.” — Lana Jelenjev
When I was at (a good school), no-one ever said, “But you are a woman — so even if you do make a career for yourself, you might need to navigate hormones, career-breaks and societal baggage…
It’s taken me 40ish years (41 on day 4 of this exercise!) to begin to work out how to navigate the world.
I’ve undulated in and out of jobs — some that “made sense” and some that didn’t — I’ve encountered geniuses on the way, and quite the opposite.
I never thought I’d be an “entrepreneur”. But here I am… having in the past year launched Better Bolder Braver — a business with Simon Batchelar, who is now a life-long friend too. We run a marketing community for over 50 coaches, all of whom want to get more confident about doing ethical, human centred, good and marketing for a sustainable and enjoyable coaching business.
We have a “Manifesto”. We were inspired to come up with this as a result of being on Vision 20/20, the accelerator programme offered by The Happy Startup School— a community of which we are both members. The Happy Startup School puts happiness at the centre of business planning and purpose. It has changed my approach to productivity, grounded me in my values and motivated me to make stuff happen — for myself and others. Its founders, Carlos Saba and Laurence McCahill continue to inspire me on a daily basis. Carlos encapsulates what you really need to know about The Happy Startup School here.
I’d encourage any entrepreneur looking to take a leap and consider joining Tribe 5 of their Vision 20/20 programme, which starts in March. As I near the end of it, I am already pining for it.
As part of Vision 20/20, I am part of a Tribe and, within that, a Buddy Group. The magic that happens when you feel safe, seen, heard and inspired by like-minded souls on a similar path is hard to describe…
My Vision 2020 Buddy Group
Before that, I was inspired and guided by Eleanor Tweddell. Through her Another Door course, I realised that I did not need to feel sorry for myself — or guilty — for having had to take career breaks due to kids, Covid-provoked redundancy and other things. And she also helped me see how inspiring the breaks were — how beautiful it was to be able to look back on a “Squiggly Career” — as Helen Tupper, Sarah Ellis describe it — and learn from the unintentional undulations, the serendipitous pitfalls and the very broad experience I had accumulated. I found Eleanor on Flexible Working People website, the founder of which — Katy Fridman — is a friend of a fellow mum at my kid’s nursery. Go figure… serendipity.
I’ve really got to know myself over the past year, and now I want to help people-helpers really get to know themselves in a way that helps them to be generous in the gifting of their services — to be proud to put themselves out there with clarity, composition and compassion…. and to price their services with a confidence that reflects this — for themselves and those they wish to serve.
I’ll be back tomorrow with DAY 3: WORKING OUT LOUD: Pivoting with Pride
