My post for International Women’s Day – Inspirational Women
My post for International Women’s Day is a celebration of the women in my life who have made an incredible difference. Those who have been inspirational women, giving me time, support and love throughout the years. Helping me to grow to be the person I am today and the successful business woman I am now.
My family
I will start with my family who are very female dominant, and the women are all dominant characters! My mum was the person in charge of the family when I was growing up. She would host the Sunday dinners and Christmas dinners. She taught me how to cook and taught me the importance of education and achievements. But then she left this world early and left me to step up and take on the mother role in the household.
I have an older sister, 21 years older, who took on some responsibility for me. Her house became my home when I would return home for trips from university. She guided me through life without a mum. Took on the proud role at my wedding, graduation the birth of my three babies.
These women shaped me from a young age and helped form my beliefs and views. They brought me up and created a young adult with ambition and drive to achieve everything I wanted in life with a fierce independence.
My Friends
A big influence throughout most of my life, has been my friend Becky. We met aged 11 at secondary school and have been there for each other ever since, despite an incident involving me throwing a purple suede boot into the sea.
We have been through many tough times, both of us losing our parents at far too young an age. She was the one I ran to when I was going through an awful time with my ex, driving those 4 hours to reach her for a hug and a chat. She is who I turn to when I need to talk to someone about my parents. I have so few people in my life whom even met them. And she gets what it feels like. She is very good at being a life coach asking questions that make you think about how you are behaving and reacting to certain situations.
Women from My Corporate Career
I have written about women in my corporate career before after attending a women’s empowerment event last year. This story focussed on a slightly negative experience with one corporate female and mostly my female bosses have done nothing but develop me and help me to become a better person at work.
My first experience of a strong female leader was Janet Aldridge, my boss at M&S. She encouraged me to always strive for more. I was working there as part of my work placement whilst at university and she’ll helped to organise my previously unheard-of sponsorship throughout my final year. The work I produced for M&S also doubled up as my dissertation for which I got a first. Janet supported me in this endeavour and it helped my career for many more years afterwards.
I worked for an amazing lady called Irene Lloyd in HSBC. I was going through a tough time trying to come to terms with the death of my parents in my early 20’s and she gave me wonderful solution of a course which helped me come to terms with many demons. Whilst working with Irene I got to develop my corporate skills by heading off the most amazing HSBC courses including leadership development and women’s development. I felt very honoured to be chose to take part and that they saw potential in me.
I must call out Anita Muir as my next inspiration in life. We worked in the same team for a few months at EE, but we became firm friends from that moment onwards. EE was a tough role, particularly the last year. But she was there to pick up the pieces and cry to and try to work out a solution. When I turned to setting up my own business she was right there full of ideas and strategy. She even helped to come up with the business name over a glass of wine.
Women who inspire me now
In this is self-employed world I look to many women for help and guidance. Women to help with ideas, strategies, business development, inspiration.
Kat Byles was a big influence during 2017 when I was in place of make or break with Mrs Mummypenny. She helped me to create a PR strategy from the heart. This brought forward a change of direction where I turned my business focus to writing content about healthy wealth, body and mind. Looking back at the strategy she helped to create so much has been achieved. My business has grown significantly since I began the PR process with Kat. Average monthly income has grown by 50% in that short period of time.
A person who inspires me every day is my blogger best friend Emma Drew. I possibly speak to her more on Facebook messenger than my husband which is a worry!!! We talk about business strategy, blogging detail, product plans and launches, collaborations across our businesses. In the blogging world your business will only grow if you collaborate with the right people and brands. We each have our individual strengths and learn from each other. To have someone understand exactly where you are in blogging life who can share triumphs and frustrations is so important. We push each other to achieve more and to grow our businesses. I love this.
I am so fortunate to meet so many inspirational women, particularly since I have transitioned over to the self-employed world. To every woman reading this post keep doing what you are doing you fabulous person.
I am part of the most awesome community of personal finance writers and bring you a most fabulous selection of their pieces to celebrate International Womens’s Day too
Maria from the Money Principle writes about 5 lame excuses why women don’t invest
Faith from Much More With Less talks about women investing
Cat Plummer from Penny Wise Life Rich has written about Women and Money.
Hollie From Thrifty Mum shares a post about closing the gender gap
Emma from the Money Whisperer shares an open letter to her daughter
Jennifer from Mamafurfur writes about what she would teach her daughter from a mum raising boys
Eileen from Your Money Sorted talks about why women should talk more about money
Emma from Mums Savvy Savings talks about Raising Sporty Girls
Araminta from Financially Mint talks about Finance Degrees
Joliesa from Penny Pinchers Paradise write about showing your financial worth as a stay at home mum
Jamie from Thrift Mumma Thrifty Bubba write about money learnings from women
Nicky from The female money doctor writes about great women
Nicola from the Frugal cottage writes about why arn’t women investing more
Cass from Frugal Family writes about tips to enable you to have it all as a working mum
Jane from Ladyjane writes are women better at customer services
Kaya from Earnings by the Sea writes about women and MLM schemes
Please share in the comments which women inspire and guide you.
14 Responses
Such a beautiful post to celebrate women and what they create in this world. I thought it was lovely that your mum came up when you
Googled her name. What a great post! with handy tips to declutter at the end yayyyy!
Thanks Kate, we are pretty awesome! And yes that Emma Drew is ever so good at decluttering;-)
This was lovely to get to know more about you and the special people in your life. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you Elise, very special people.
Lynn, I absolutely love this post! It’s so lovely to read about the women who’ve inspired you.
I also did my university placement at M&S – small world!!
Thank you Ruth!! Wow small world, going to message you now to find out when you did it??!!