How I reignited the passion in my business
I’ve been feeling a bit disconnected recently, not super disconnected but just a bit out of sorts with my business, like I’m following the path laid out but I don’t really know where I’m headed.
Luckily for me, this feeling has coincided with everything returning a bit to normal and so I finally have some time and space in my week for personal development, to work on my business and to actually stop and think about things.
As part of my personal development time, I’ve started reading ‘Start with why’ by Simon Sinek. It’s a super old book and having started it, I now realise had I read it much earlier in my business journey it would have been helpful! But I’m here now, at the time when I need it and it’s fascinating.
As you can imagine from the title, he invites you to think about your why and the underpinning thought for your business. Not what you do or how you do it (although important, these come second), but why. What’s your mission, what gets you out of bed in the morning and how does that feed into your business, culture, marketing, products or services?
When I look back to why I started my business, a few reasons come up, it was firstly to do something that I enjoyed. Secondly, it was to do something flexibly where I didn’t have to commute and could be available for my children should they need me. And thirdly, and although this is the third reason it’s probably actually the main, most important reason; because I love championing and supporting women.
This championing of women is so deep rooted, I’ve always been a girls-girl, but I have somehow ended up in quite male dominated environments through my 20s and 30s (hello all male previous job, cricket club and even my home environment now).
And yet, where possible, I’ve always looked for the women - when I joined my local cricket club I trained as a cricket coach, choosing to start the women and girls section of the club rather than coaching the boys teams.
When I moved with my husband's job to a new area over 11 years ago, I used to ask my husband everyday when he came home ‘have you found me any women to be friends with yet?’
The answer was quite often no, so rather than waiting, I took matters into my own hands and I (along with a couple of female friends I’d found along the way) started a community group for the women to get together and socialise.
And so, when I started my business, it made total sense to seek out female business owners and female entrepreneurs to work with, support and champion.
When women support each other, great things happen.
I love helping people, but it’s more than that, it’s cheerleading, it’s supporting, it’s reframing, it’s offering a fresh perspective. It’s helping women achieve the greatness which we all have inside of us. But right now, we might have buried it.
I’ve been listening to Megan The Duchess of Sussex’s podcast Archetypes this week (find it on Spotify here) and honestly, regardless of what you think of her as a person, she is having some super interesting conversations around the words associated with women and how we are perceived in our patriarchal society.
Diva, ambitious, crazy, dragon lady, singleton. All words that are either specific to women or have negative connotations when used to describe a woman - or both.
It serves to highlight even further that the world isn’t equal yet and it should be.
It’s made me even more determined to work with as many women as I can to help them succeed in their businesses.
When our businesses succeed, it’s not only to the benefit of us and our families, but it has a greater impact on our communities and a wider deeper significance on society as a whole.
That is something I am here for.
And so, reconnecting to this clear mission has put me firmly back in control of my business.
If you’re looking for help, support, cheerleading, coaching, marketing support or social media training, and you’d like to explore whether I am the right person to help you, reach out here to book in a chat. Or reach out in my Insta DMs.