I DID A TALK
And here's what happened!
Dear lovely readers.
I hope you are well?
So okay, February already! How??? It would seem the year is going to be flying along much like 2025. But I’d hope we will be able to stop and pause parts of it. The good parts especially.
How was your January? Always a difficult month, but it helps us to focus a little bit after Christmas, doesn’t it?
My January got off to a flying start. On the second week, I did a talk for a fabulous business women’s networking group called Alex And His Sisters. It’s a bi-monthly event and has been popular since it started prior to the pandemic. It attracts business women from all levels and from all parts of the North West, and tends to get booked up very quickly. The events are usually so uplifting
And I’d been attending for a while, when Alex McCann of Altrincham HQ - who runs the event (for free - I might add) - asked if I’d be a speaker and talk all about 45 Not Out and my reasons for setting it up etc
Well, I have to say I jumped at the chance. Knowing just how wonderful the audience would be at the event, and they would be very much the perfect recipients to hear all about 45 Not Out, I told Alex a very big yes.
I did wobble a bit about speaking, but since I did my 45 Not Out podcast a few years ago, I think I broke through to fear of public speaking and have a bit of a taste of it now.
So, after a briefing with Alex about the subjects surrounding 45 Not Out he thought relevant to talk about (he is also an ex journalist, and knowledgeable about what women would like to hear about), I was set for my interview with him on Tuesday 13th January.
I got to the bar in Altrincham in good time - where the event was held - and checked in with Alex. All good - around 70 or so fab women were booked on and I started to look forward to the chat, if getting a tad nervous.
The event went really well - the usual upbeat positive energy was very apparent in the room - and I thoroughly enjoyed being interviewed. I could see women listening intently, but I don’t think it was me. I think it was the subject matter that they resonated with most.
Rather than bore everyone with full details of what I said, basically I talked about why I set up 45 Not Out, what I’ve discovered since and what I want to achieve going forward.
However, if you do want a bit more detail of the talk, Alex did a blog piece that outlines more fully what we discussed - and it includes Stephen Bartlett from Dragons Den a bit - you can find that here .
So what’s happened since doing the talk?
Well, for a start it’s increased my confidence a bit. I think anything like that where you put yourself out there and move out of your comfort zone can do that for you.
It’s also increased my focus on pushing 45 Not Out to where I’d like to take it, and the business I think it can be. Of course, I’ve got a long way to go and I’m spending the rest of the year doing that.
But, and this is the best bit, it opened up to even more fab, sassy women who had experienced the same ageism and a tad of sexism too in trying to set up businesses or even during their career.
I made even more contacts and some of them will be really relevant to you lovely lot in terms of their advice and support and I might be including them in any future newsletters I do. Watch this space.
I’m really grateful to Alex for allowing me to talk about his now famous events and also to the wonderful Katie Lucas, who was the event photographer, and took some amazing shots of me in full flow, which she has kindly allowed me to use on here. Katie has a wonderful eye for action photos and you can get in touch with Katie here
If I may, I’ll just add a few more photos here -
So that was the main event of my January.
And it’s set the idea of doing talks this year. I am available for giving talks to groups of women who feel ignored, invisible and generally passed over by life and society in general.
I’m actively looking for more speaking opportunities and am able to cover most issues that affect midlife and older women. If you’d like to speak to me about anything, please just reply to this newsletter, and it will find me.
Meanwhile, I wish you well as February progresses, but I’ll be back next week with next edition of the 45 Not Out newsletter.
See you then
Una x