INSPIRATION COMES IN THE MOST ODD PLACES...
Hello there, dear readers
I hope this edition of the newsletter finds you well and warm and have slipped into January okay? As I write this, the sun is going down on what has been a bright, sunny day - quite cold admittedly - but I’d rather have that than days that never seem to get light :(
So, in this issue, I want to tell you a story about something that happened to me just before Christmas, and very inadvertently, turned around my whole focus.
Last summer I stumbled upon a community of business women in the next county to me - Staffordshire. It was a very welcoming community, and because it is highly funded by Nat West, there were loads of opportunities and business advice available to me, as a women business owner. Have to say, there’s sod all like that in Cheshire (where I live) but that’s possibly another newsletter in its own right….
I continued to meet this fab community of women and took part in all the events they offered. By the way, I am a Nat West business customer, so I’m entitled to participate in these events. At one towards the end of of the year, one of them randomly mentioned to me that another member - who wasn’t at that meeting - was organising an big event purely for women that would sit very well with my 45 Not Out brand and why don’t I get in touch to see if we could collaborate on anything
Well, reader, I did. I arranged to meet Kirstie Ash and heard all about her ideas for her “Women Empowering Women” event to be held on Thursday 15th February at Staffordshire Uni LRV at 11.00am till 2.00pm.
The time I spent with Kirstie was so inspirational. I really enjoyed brainstorming with her and her vision and enthusiasm really resonated with me. So much so, that I’m one of the guest speakers at the event, where I’ll be talking about my experiences as a midlife woman setting up a business after the age of 50 and all the subtle (and not so subtle) ageism I received along the way.
But, my meeting with Kirstie went deeper than that. Walking back to my car, I knew definitely then that I wanted to spend the following year (2024 - we met at the end of 2023) developing my beloved 45 Not Out into a viable business in its own right. And that’s what I’m working on right now.
In addition to the free Facebook Group, I will be launching a more exclusive Facebook group that will be a subscription model and will offer free talks/webinars from experts in issues that affect us at this stage in life and all kind of other events/offers etc. If you’re not a member of the fab existing free Facebook group, why not? You can ask to join here And there’ll be more of the VIP group nearer its launch.
But, the reason why I’m telling you this, is because I went to meet Kirstie never expecting to come out knowing exactly what my work objective would be for this year. But it came to me very clearly, and part of the surprise was that I was so inspired by someone younger than me.
Kirstie is quite some years younger than me, but that didn’t matter. It was the clarity of her vision that inspired me and made me believe I could make a good go of 45 Not Out, which had always been a passion project. Not any more - I have big plans for it - watch this space ladies…
So the moral of this tale is - if you’re wanting to make some changes in any part of your life - be that work, relationship, home life or something else - keep an open mind, because you never know when inspiration will hit.
I wish you well with what you’d like to achieve this year.
Take care till the next issue
Una x