Sarah Franken explains how accidentally walking into a panel talk resulted in the online magazine 'Lumera'.
Release Date: 01/24/2024
Talking to driving instructor Sophie Stuchfield.
GillHB & Friends
I find out from Sophie what made her choose to become a driving instructor. She used to be a personal trainer but was tired of commuting into London from Watford everyday having chunks of the day with no clients plus working weekends so retrained as a driving instructor. If you thought taking your driving test was scary it's nothing to the training and tests needed to become an instructor. It may well explain why we have a lack driving instructors and such long waiting lists for lessons. Sophie (has a waiting list several months long) gives some great advice - if you're wanting to buy...
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Sarah Fowler has a stark warning about drivers on mobiles.
GillHB & Friends
I met Sarah over 12 years ago when we were both working on the Virgin Flying without Fear courses helping people overcome their fear of flying. We always said the most dangerous part of flying was getting to or from the airport. Turns out crossing the road on a crossing is FAR more dangerous and scary than flying! Sarah is cabin crew for Virgin and whilst in LA was out getting her new 'lippy' before returning to the hotel to get her rest before her flight home. She was on a crossing when she got hit by a car, the driver had glanced at her mobile phone and lost concentration for a...
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Part 2 with Janet Henson on social media!
GillHB & Friends
Following on from my chat with Janet in the preivous epiosode we decided there was a lot more to discuss on the topic of social media. We are keen to point out that we are giving our own viewpoints and experiences as we discuss the ins and outs of social media. We both use social media and enjoy it but do question to what extent are we being manipulated in ways we're not aware of? Are we addicted? Ever heard of 'Thirsty Thursday', 'Influencer pods', 'Shadow banning' for example? No me either! Janet enlightens me as we look at the darker side of social media that many of us use but...
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Catching up with Janet Henson on why she's closing her business.
GillHB & Friends
I last spoke to Janet in episode 25 about her business as a divorce coach specialising in narcisstic abuse and why she has now decided to close her business. She explains that having reached a milestone birthday that she feels she is in the 'departure lounge' of life, but absolutley not ready to board just yet, so wants to make sure she makes the most of it and has the time to do what she wants. We chat about the pressures of the type of coaching she has been doing and that she was doing it more to help people and get information out there rather than build a six figure 'Instagram'...
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Jess Harvey believes women need coaches and mentors.
GillHB & Friends
Jess tells me her story as to why she left a senior role in corporate banking to follow a little idea she'd had in the backof her mind for a few years. She retrained and is now a fully qualified coach and mentor. As people are often confused about the difference between a coach, mentor and sponsor Jess uses a great analogy to explain them. We chat about the importance of making sure a client knows when we are coaching or mentoring. As Jess's background was in a predominantly male environment she recognised the importance of supporting and enabling women to thrive and grow in their own...
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How did a Primary school teacher end up making willow and wool coffins?
GillHB & Friends
Before recording this episode I was looking at Eleanor's Hunt website , and thought she must have been honing her skill of weaving beautiful willow and British wool coffins for years. How wrong can you be?! I've just started learning how to weave with willow and like anything new when you try it you discover just what a skill it is to weave anything! So I was blown away when I learnt Eleanor's story of how she left teaching and is now making really beautiful coffins inside and out. She started her company back in 2021 but she had only recently started willow and rope weaving during...
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The links between people pleasing, trauma and narcissists.
GillHB & Friends
I met Michele many years ago, we are both trained coaches and Master Practitioners of NLP, when we were both assistants on Dr Richard Bandler's NLP courses. Since then we have both gone in different directions and Michele is now a highly experienced trauma informed therapist. She is trained by Gabor Maté in Compassionate Inquiry, Dr Richard Schwartz in Internal Family systems as well as a hypnotherapist and coach. Michele came to specialise in narcissism through wanting to understand more about her own behaviours and experiences. She is an expert in knowing about narcissism in all its various...
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Finding out about a new British innovation - sustainable wool rope.
GillHB & Friends
Did you know that of ALL the global textiles only 1% is wool and of that 1% only 1% is UK wool? Kate Drury is a 4th generation sheep farmer. She lives in Yorkshire and explains why that is the perfect location for her business and how she came to make wool rope. She is passionate about keeping the business in the UK so she knows each stage of the process and that in turn means she helps British farmers and manufacturers maintain their businesses. Launching her business has involved learning a lot about other industries as well as doing the scientific research on her own...
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Chatting to Karen Bek about willow weaving and basketry.
GillHB & Friends
Karen was in academia, about to start a Phd, but knew she wanted to be involved in gardening so despite people saying 'you're wasting your qualifications' and takigna paycut she followed her dream and became a gardener on a large estate supporint peole with mental health challenges. It was whilst working as a gardener she learnt how to weave obelisks and plant supports. The more weaving she did the more she wanted to learn. so enrolled on a course and did lots of different classes with different weavers over the years (and still does attend courses). As she learnt about each basket she...
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Have you heard of wool pots? You will soon!
GillHB & Friends
When wandering around a garden centre have you ever thought about all those plastic pots we buy our plants in and what happens to them? What do you do with yours? Bin them? hide them in the shed never to use again? Give them to a friend who grows things from seed or divides plants? Well apart from hiding in someone's shed or being re-used by growers over 500million of them get sent to landfill! They don't degrade and take on average between 400 - 450 years to break down into micro and nano plastics and we all know where they end up! On the other side farmers with smaller herds of...
info_outlineIn this episode it's all about 'sustainable fashion'
Gill chats to Sarah Franken a young entrepreneur about how she came to set up the online magazine 'Lumera'. The focus of the magazine is to highlight sustainable brands and Gill finds out what is sustainable fashion and how complicated it can get!
Sarah explains that at university she wasn't particularly passionate about sustainability but how, a few years later, she accidentally walked into a panel talk all about sustainable fashion and it gave her a whole new perspective and passion to pursue. Lumera was born.
They discuss what constitutes as 'sustainable fashion' and what are the bigger challenges involved? Sarah explains what the 3 main sustainability categories are.
Gill mentions about how when she was younger it was normal for families to have a 'button and zip box'. Sarah uses a great quote as an example as to why we now simply discard clothes: "Clothes have gone from being a valuable item to becoming a disposable item".
The discussion widens out to look at: how do you get people to change their mindset / perception around their fashionable clothing buying habits when large cheaper brands target them in their marketing? How does the industry overcome the dilemma of what would be seen as sustainable fashion for one group of people is viewed differently by another. What is 'greenwashing' and how does the consumer know if a brand is doing this?
They both agree that with anything in life it has to be easy for the consumer to navigate.
Links to the articles mentioned in the podcast:
- Resale on the Rise - Brands Selling their Pre-Loved Garments https://lumeramag.com/articles/resale-on-the-rise-brands-selling-their-pre-loved-garments
- 5 Tips to Spot Greenwashing https://lumeramag.com/articles/five-tips-to-spot-greenwashing
To subscribe to the magazine: https://lumeramag.com/ or follow them on social media @lumeramag. Or if you are a sustainable brand or know of one please contact Sarah by email info@lumeramag.com so she can add it to her list or Gill to do a podcast!