Consistency is Key

Hi there,

I promised you I would be back - and here I am.  What a month! I have always been good at having a chat (haha), but reconnecting with a lot of ex clients and colleagues as part of my #100people challenge has been, in short, AMAZING!

I’ve received a lot of love from people who read my previous blog about ‘coming out’ regarding my Mum, pregnancy, returning back into work and the objectives I’ve set myself for this year.  I can’t tell you how wonderful that has been. I’ve always thought it was career suicide to talk about personal events, but actually I now realise it’s crucial we normalise what’s happening for us in the workplace.  Everyone goes through icky periods in life and by pretending that we don’t just perpetuates the problem. We are human beings first and being able to empathise with others can only make us better colleagues, suppliers, clients and so on. So it’s been really refreshing to get such positive feedback.

So what have I been up to?

I’ll choose to spare you the details of all those coffees, lunches, and the occasional glass of wine; that part has been really awful :)  What I have been doing is acting on my commitment to becoming more visible which has meant learning a lot about social media, writing a content strategy, and taking a huge leap and just doing it.  This has opened up a lot of new opportunities for me. Being SO visible is definitely out of my comfort zone. The biggest take away is around being consistent in being visible. I’ve met a lot of people and these connections are now turning into relationships off of social media which is just awesome.  

I attended a brilliant festival event at the beginning of Feb, which was amazing. Pregnant then Screwed is a community that focuses on the issues surrounding motherhood and work.  It highlights an ever growing issue for women having children, on the lack of support, whether that be through our family network, through the workplace or society as a whole.  It was incredible and I felt really empowered, inspired and was great to laugh and cry (yes I did cry) with other women all trying to raise our little people while balancing a career. 

So many topics covered in just one day!

Panels at this festival included one around how to ‘Build a Community that flies’ - hosted by one quarter of Dope Black Mums Endy McKay, Roshni Goyate (founder of The Other Box), author and blogger Kathryn Wallace, Nicki Sprindz (MD of UsTwo and co-founder of Ada’s List), Sarah Hesz (co-founder of Mush).

Another panel around ‘Motherhood, Identity & Guilt’, we all all nodded and laughed – Sindhu Vee hosted alongside another quarter of Dope Black Mums Nina Malone, blogger/comedien Victoria Emes (aka The Crafty Fox) and comedian Jen Brister.

There was a panel around campaigning which was so powerful, how we have to speak out and support each other by Zelda Perkins, former assistant to Harvey Weinstein and activist, journalist, campaigner and politician Shaista Aziz; and leader of the Women’s Equality Party, Mandu Rei.

The last panel I attended was ‘My Bloody Uterus’,  hosted by Deeba Syed, campaigner and sexual harassment lawyer. Emma Barnett, from Radio Five Live, talked about periods. Joeli Brearley, founder of Pregnant Then Screwed, talked about the motherhood penalty, and Cari Rosen, editor of Gransnet, discussed older motherhood and menopause.

There were some brilliant workshops I went to two, one around Game-changers - how to really flip your career by the Guilty Mothers Club. And the REALLY important one - how to maintain a healthy relationship with your partner after kids as yes you have guessed, stuff changes, this was run by relationship coach and public speaker Kate Nicolle.

I also cried my eyes out 3 times to the poetry of Hollie McNish - she read some poetry from her book No-body told me (which I had previously read). I laughed a lot but there were some real moments that got me right in the heart and the tears flowed.  It was such a great day. Full respect to all the incredible women that spoke, ran workshops and participated. It was a wonderful thing to have a safe space for us all to share, you could really feel the energy...also great to see all those lovely little babies...ahhhhhh 

My #100people challenge is going well.  I realised that meeting 100 people over a year would equate to about 8 a month which is pretty ambitious.  I have so far met up with 7 people. I’ve had to put a few rules around this though so as not to skew the numbers.  For instance, anyone that’s on my 100people list if I meet them again that can’t be a recount - that’s cheating, so I need to up my game a little to try and reach my target.

Another huge thing that happened on a personal front, our little boy turned 1. We kept a human being alive for a whole year….Well done us - haha!

Now that personal milestone has been crossed, the more pressing thing for me work-wise is to be able to say within the next 3 months that I am at capacity client-wise.  My client base is becoming a nice mixed bag - but there is still space for new things to come into the fold. I have pitched for some really interesting pieces of work of late; - so as they say watch this space! 

For now however I sign off, but thanks for reading and please shout if you want to talk about projects, collaborations but most importantly LUNCH :-)

Cx