The importance of having fun with Carmen Alfonso Rico
Make Space for Growth Podcast
You can feel the energy in the voice or the video. It is contagious. A breath of fresh air in a world that is almost afraid of joy. That is how I felt coming out of recording the new season of the podcast with Carmen Alfonso Rico. It is not every day that you meet someone who is unapologetic about having fun and enjoying what she is doing. Kicking off with politics Carmen wanted to be the US Secretary of State when she was a little girl. Note she was not a US national or living in the US, but that did not seem to stop her. Serendipity determined she would start her career in...
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Listening to Yourself with Samreen Ghani
Make Space for Growth Podcast
Before the summer break, I reconnected with old colleague Samreen Ghani to talk about her journey and her role as President of Moonbug Studios. It had been a long time since our M&A times together! And we end up finding ourselves in a similar life reflection on "how you measure your life"! The Early Days Samreen did not follow the expected path. Her earliest memory from childhood was spelling the word "doctor", which was exciting for her parents as she grew up. In Pakistan, her expected paths would have been doctor, engineer, lawyer or banker if she wanted to define herself...
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Believing in Serendipity with Rita Vilas-Boas
Make Space for Growth Podcast
Rita Vilas Boas first connected with me on Linkedin. After a lot of online engagement, we finally met in person last year to find out we shared . When she was a little girl, Rita wanted to dismantle things and figure out how things worked, but deep down, she wanted to be part of Fame, and dance on a Taxi roof in the streets of New York. Can you picture it? Different lives Rita studied biotechnology but soon found out about marketing, where she started her career. She threw herself into it and got a job at Loreal. For 20 years, she was a marketer in multinationals and large family...
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Finding your happiness with Sabine Tejerina
Make Space for Growth Podcast
When she was a little girl, Sabine wanted to be a businesswoman. In the middle of the pandemic, faced with economic distress in parts of the world and her day job helping large companies restructure and prepare for the economic downfall of Covid, she went on a life change. She became an entrepreneur and has since then been living the rollercoaster of start-up life. "It's not always the big decisions that impact your life", Clay Christensen Share ownership as a goal The idea for Upstreet started with a focus on rewarding customers for loyalty through company shares. Research shows that...
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A life dedicated to purpose with Daniela Barone Soares
Make Space for Growth Podcast
It is unusual to find someone who wanted to be something as a child that they are today. Daniela started volunteering at age 12 and she always knew her life would be dedicated to making the problems of the world better. These experiences increased her resolve to do something about it, even if she did not know how. A glide path "When you look back, it all seems to make sense" Daniela However, it was not so rational at the time. As Daniela was working in Private Equity, she realized her skillset was truly invaluable in the social sector and realized she could start making a difference in this...
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A life dedicated to purpose with Daniela Barone Soares
Make Space for Growth Podcast
It is unusual to find someone who wanted to be something as a child that they are today. Daniela started volunteering at age 12 and she always knew her life would be dedicated to making the problems of the world better. These experiences increased her resolve to do something about it, even if she did not know how. A glide path "When you look back, it all seems to make sense" Daniela However, it was not so rational at the time. As Daniela was working in Private Equity, she realized her skillset was truly invaluable in the social sector and realized she could start making a difference in this...
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Never waste a good crisis with Inês Santos Silva
Make Space for Growth Podcast
With a love for learning since early age, I have a feeling Inês will be learning for many years to come. She is passionate about innovation, and is not scared about solving a challenge. You just have to look at her resume to see this. I lost count of the number of roles and ventures in her profile. A fast-starter Ines assessed start-ups needed support way before it was cool to talk about accelerator programs. So she designed one. And expanded it to multiple cities. She determined there was a need for social ventures long before social impact was a concept. So she dedicated her efforts...
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Never waste a good crisis with Ines Santos Silva
Make Space for Growth Podcast
With a love for learning since early age, I have a feeling Inês will be learning for many years to come. She is passionate about innovation, and is not scared about solving a challenge. You just have to look at her resume to see this. I lost count of the number of roles and ventures in her profile. A fast-starter Ines assessed start-ups needed support way before it was cool to talk about accelerator programs. So she designed one. And expanded it to multiple cities. She determined there was a need for social ventures long before social impact was a concept. So she dedicated her efforts...
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Creating Space - Launching Season 3
Make Space for Growth Podcast
Today, I am bringing you the launch of Season 3 - Creating Space. In order to tell you more about the upcoming season, I feel I need to go back in time and explain my concept of word of the year. Because Space is my word of the year. For the last 3 years, I have been defining myself a word of the year. Why a word of the year? I already have goals, values, and even a vision board. I found a word goes beyond and through all that. A word gives me a true north. Believe In 2020, my word of the year was . And that belief helped me hold it together - do you remember the year of Covid? I acted...
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A Journey back through the Season
Make Space for Growth Podcast
For the Season Finale, I went around the world and down into my memory to pick the highlights of this season. What I learnt, what I discovered, what I was impressed about. There is no bittersweet taste in getting to the end of a season. In fact, it is exciting to look back and remember all the amazing women that crossed my path. After the hard to forget year of 2020, my goal was to bring to light in 2021, the stories of what are now almost 2 years of this pandemic, but more importantly, how each of us is looking to lift ourselves up, look forward and face life stronger and together. As for...
info_outlineI met Amy a few months back via a common friend. John thought we would like to meet each other and find common interests. He did not explain much. But he was not wrong. Amy has launched a business dedicated to women empowerment - Fem-Foundry. I am passionate about women empowerment. It seemed like a good fit. So today, I decided to bring Amy to the podcast to bring light to our common passion.
Why do we need Fem-Foundry?
First, it may help you to know what it is. Fem-Foundry is a digital media platform exclusively dedicated to women. A space for women to be without fear of judgement, a platform for women to be what they wanted to be, to connect and collaborate, to express themselves freely, to learn and develop. The platform is not about competing with each other, but rather about collaborating. It is a space for every woman, whether you are 25 or 65. Women can choose their topics and they come from around the globe. One can find the more practical money courses or the more new-age spectrum on "how to manifest".
Putting women in a box
One of the things Amy really wanted to avoid was the tendency we have to put women in a box. The mother. The working-mum. The career trailblazer. The entrepreneur. The wife. The daughter.
Fem-Foundry avoids bucketing women and gives them a space where they can choose what to be. One day you may go into a career "room", another day into a wellness one, or parenting, or money issues. You are not defined by any of them. Releasing right? So maybe there are very ambitious career-driven people on the platform, but there are also those that don't want to pursue it. And this is a place for both.
"I personally think putting women in boxes is reductive and I think it stifles progress towards a more equal society"
Amy Williams
Building Role Models
"74% of women globally don't feel like they have a positive female role model"
Whilst there are a lot of mentoring programs, people are not always comfortable asking "silly questions". So Amy wanted to have leaders that people could easily reach out to. They are called the Foundry Leaders. Leaders may be smaller or larger influencers, and many you will know because they are someone influential in a specific community, not because they have millions of Instagram followers. They each matter according to interest areas, have a story behind them and are within arm's reach for people to ask their questions and connect to. Role models are a key problem for women advancement, so I am curious to see how it develops as a key part of the platform.
Not on my watch
As we discussed the women stats that have assaulted us during this pandemic, Amy mentioned she read about how the pandemic may have pushed women back by 20 years. Her immediate reaction was "not on my watch". That is why Fem-Foundry's timing is now.
Whilst we thought we had done great advances in the opportunities that women were getting, the pandemic has brought a harsh reality forward. Women are dropping the workforce more rapidly. Many of them had more precarious jobs that did not hold "working from home". Others had to revert to be carers as the other part was often making more money. Many side-entrepreneurs had to leave their businesses behind to care for the children under home-schooling. The effects are still being felt.
Fix the crown
"Be the woman that fixes the other women's crown, without telling the world it was crooked"
It is great to talk about women platforms, but sometimes, we must admit women are not the nicest to each other. So I am curious about how Fem-Foundry can establish a different culture. Amy is very focused on this fundamental concept of working together and being better together. It tries to teach women about the importance of operating in this way across any vertical. About how adjusting someone else's crown we eventually get a boost to ourselves.
Having done this podcast featuring women leaders around the world, that is definitely something that I am trying to do. And I have certainly been learning from each woman that I have "visited" on this journey.
Launching in the middle of the "waves"
Amy launched the beta version of this new business in the second week of March 2020 as Female Tribes. Talk about timing! Naturally, the investment money that was on the way never made it there. It all got very challenging. However, the pandemic brought to light the importance of having a platform like this.
"I have always been resilient, but this has really tested my resilient in every possible way"
Amy Williams
As they re-launched as Fem-Foundry in August, they benefited from everyone being online, but no-one was really into an app that promised to improve their lives. There was no time for that! Finally, this changed in December and since then the platform has been achieving solid organic growth. According to Amy, it is like a light was switched on!
A country girl in the city
For the first lockdown, Amy was in London and did struggle to find space. However, the lockdown allowed her to have no FOMO as she just worked through and put in the hours to launch her business. She has now moved to the countryside and space has boosted her creativity and severely helped her mental health. First thing in the morning she now gets the dogs out and does a morning meditation. Morning daily habits have been key to help lift her up. And we found out we both accepted to now like Yoga...
Amy had her share of highs and lows in 2020. Trying to fundraise for a business during a global pandemic, when you so deeply believe in what you are doing can really feel disheartening. And as the platform starts to get traction, now the days have more highs as people join the platform and the conversations get more engaging. Not, it's onwards and upwards to lift up women. Better together.
Before we go…
- 2020 Advice: Don't be impatient. Be easier on yourself!
- 2020 Lesson: To be grateful
- 2020 Challenge: Being a female trying to raise in a global pandemic. And trying to launch a business.
- Word for 2021: Optimistic
Connect with us
- Meet Amy on Linkedin and follow Fem-Foundry on Instagram
- Join the Fem-Foundry platform
- Join our Make Space for Growth free community online and on Facebook
- Follow me on Linkedin, Instagram or Twitter
Produced by Alice Stansfield
Disclosure: I am now an angel investor in Fem-Foundry