Ladies at 11 Business Awards, winners, sponsors and finalists

Friday 7th October saw a lively evening at Sandown Park for the inaugural Ladies at 11 Business Awards. The sparkling evening, sponsored by Natwest began with a champagne reception.  A difference on this occasion was the inclusion of men in this event, it was lovely to be able to take our husbands and partners along too.

Sarah Martin, Founder of Ladies at 11 welcomed us all before we filed through into the main room for a delicious dinner.

I’m sure I wasn’t alone in probably not enjoying my meal as much as I could have done as I was quite excited and apprehensive about the main event which of course was the award presentation. Imagine my dismay when I read the programme for the evening to find that we had to wait until 10.20pm for this to start.

The evening was expertly compered by Lynne Parker from Funny Women.  A raffle was held to raise funds for Eaves, a London-based charity that provides high quality housing and support to vulnerable women.

Throughout the evening guests were wowed by the creations of Miss Ballooniverse.

Carolyn Currie who heads up the new business development team for women for Natwest gave a presentation about women in business and female entrepreneurship.

Then came the presentation of the awards and the winners were as follows:

1. Inspirational Woman Award sponsored by MDM Associates – Winner - Lynne Parker, Funny Women

2. Entrepreneur of the year award sponsored by Tony Purslow Ltd. Mercedes- Benz Guildford – Winner - Samantha Kelly, Funky Goddess

3. New Business Award sponsored by Sandown Park – Winner - Diane Dunkley, RM2 Music

4. Continued Business Success Award sponsored by The Surrey Chambers – Winner - Zoe Brown, BWebsites

5. Networking Champion Award sponsored by Best of Guildford – Winner – Laura Hart, Voice Coach

6. Ladies at 11 Outstanding Contribution Award – Winner – Sue Bown, The Coaching Zone

7. The Natwest Award for the outstanding business success, judged from all the winners – Winner – Lynne Parker, Funny Women

Me winning my award, feeling very chuffed!

So I won the Ladies at 11 Outstanding Contribution award!  I am delighted for this award because I believe completely in what Ladies at 11 stands for.  I attended the second ever meeting of Ladies at 11 over three and a half years ago.  I have coached and mentored Sarah Martin along the way.  I know that Sarah and Ladies at 11 will go far, just you watch.

I am flattered by Sarah’s very kind comment on the night that without my support there would be no Ladies at 11. Wow, what can I say!

Congratulations to all of the winners and the finalists. With thanks to the sponsors and judges for an excellent event and to Ladies at 11 of course.

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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It’s an exciting week, Friday 7th October sees the first ever Ladies at 11 Business Awards ceremony at Sandown Park and I am delighted to have been nominated for the Outstanding Contribution Award.

The awards event sponsored by Natwest range from Entreprenuer of the Year, Inspirational Woman Award, New Business Award.  You can see a full list of awards and nominees here.  I am delighted to be in the company of Camilla Campbell, Laura Hart, Lynne Hardy, Lindsey Collumbell, Zoe Brown and so many more.

Ladies at 11 is a networking company for women who are serious about growing their businesses.  It’s a networking group with a difference because it’s focused, supportive and works.  It’s a subject very close to my heart and I love what it does and what it stands for.  I am so happy just to be nominated and of course if I win it will be a terrific achievement.

We even got a mention is this week’s Surrey Advertiser:

Item from Surrey Advertiser 30 Sep 2011

So it’s fingers crossed, I may even write a brief acceptance speech…..just in case.  Wish good luck to everyone else who is nominated.  And let the party begin…..

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Find a way to live your life stress-free. Photo courtesy of tvftdo.com

It makes shocking reading but the report by Chartered Institute of Personal Development (CIPD) featured in many of the nationals today says exactly that.  Stress is so common-place it’s the top cause of workplace sickness and it’s so widespread it’s been called the Black Death of the 21st century.

Stress has overtaken stroke, heart attack, cancer and back problems as the commonest cause of absence from work.

Common causes of stress are an excessive workload, the boss’ management style, problems at home, anxiety regarding restructuring in the workplace.

What is stress?
Symptoms of stress are lack of focus, losing your temper more quickly than normal, losing your sense of humour.  Left untreated these can lead to more serious illnesses such as heart disease, stomach and bowel conditions and depression.

I believe that by living in a fast-paced world of fast answers, instant access, iPhones, Blackberrys and social media, whilst they all offer benefits to our lives, they can if misused by detrimental to our health.

My top tips for de-stressing:

1.  Give yourself time everyday.  Find some time even if it’s just 5 minutes where you can just be alone with your thoughts.  We all need thinking time

2.  Focus on your breathing, inhale fully, and exhale fully, using every part of your lungs.

3. Turn off social media, give yourself a break.

4. Take up meditation or yoga.  Both of these are so very beneficial to health and wellbeing.

5. Be your own best friend.  Think about some advice you’d give to a friend in the same situation and take that advice yourself.  You’ll be surprised what you know.

6. Sign up for my free email coaching programme, top left of this page.

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Ladies at 11 Conference 2011, speakers, back row l-r Tiffany St James, Dylis Guyan, Sue Bown, Carole Ann Rice, Laura Hart. Front row Sarah Martin. Picture courtesy http://samjhanamoon.com/

Is it possible to experience inspiration overload?  Because that’s how I felt when I left the 2011 Ladies at 11 Back to Business conference.  My head felt fit to burst with all of those highly charged particles and dollops of motivation that were ladled on us throughout the day.   The only way for me to sort myself out after this was to go for a run and if you know me, you’ll know that running is not a usual pastime.

What made it such a phenomenal event?   Given that last year there were only fifteen of us there; this year saw in excess of 80 delegates listening to an impressive line-up of high-profile speakers such as Penny Power, Rachel Elnaugh, Cara Sayer, Tiffany St James, Emma Wimhurst, Dylis Guyan, Carole Ann Rice and er… ME!

Carole Ann Rice, one of the UK’s leading life coaches and myself opened the day with a call to action.  Our message was simple:

1. You’re here, well done.  For many multi-tasking busy women just getting there was an achievement.
2. Pack away everything else and give yourself the time to enjoy the day with purpose.
3. Write down one goal that’s a BIG stretch, one that makes your toes curl!
4. Take ACTION!  Make it HAPPEN!

We were followed by Dylis Guyan from IncreaseYourSalesIn30Days.com  Dylis is a high-hitting Sales and Sales Management Coach.  With an impressive CV of sales successes Dylis shared top tips on how to increase your sales in a recession.  She dished out sensible, valuable advice and strategy that we all need. One fact stuck firmly in my head is 80% of sales are made in between the fifth to the 12^th contact.

Penny Power

After a quick networking coffee, Penny Power, founder of Ecademy took to the stage.  Penny captivated the audience with her passion for social media.  She told her story of success and how ‘through the keyboard’ we can all connect, share and turn contacts from stranger to friend to follower. Her story is indeed inspiring.  I loved her analogy about serendipitous moments that appear during your life that she called ‘random dots’ and how we should be looking out for them.  The standing ovation she received for her speech was well-deserved.

A relaxed Cara Sayer followed.  Cara, inventor of Snooze Shadeis a natural

Cara Sayer

speaker who spoke to our large group with such ease it was like she was chatting to us all as a friends.  She inspired us with wise words of advice and of how by focus, determination and making measured choices for her family, she has invented Snooze Shade. An award winning product to help babies sleep on the go.

Lunch was then served, Sandown Park, our conference venue provided a variety of delicious buffet choices.  Including some rather interesting desserts, which I’ve only just remembered and forgot to go back for!  There was networking to be done, lots of people to meet and catch up with.

Rachel Elnaugh

Ex-star of Dragon’s Den, Rachel Elnaugh opened the afternoon session.  Rachel, who founded Red Letter Days, shared her experiences of how a business can go from dream to nightmare.  Learning from her nightmare, Rachel has inspired countless business owners to create Business Magic.  Rachel told us we should each have a ‘seven second sizzle statement’.  To be able communicate the value of our business in just 7 seconds.

The arrival of Tiffany St Jamesto the stage piled on more inspiration, this time in

Tiffany St James

the fast-growing arena of social media.  Tiffany, former Head of Public Participation for the UK Government advised us how to using a digital strategy can impact and grow your business.  Did you know that London is the Twitter capital of the world?

Emma Wimhurst

Time for a welcome cuppa, and of course some much enjoyed networking.  After tea we were introduced to Emma Wimhurst, who became a self-made millionaire from the success of Diva Cosmetics.  Emma author of BOOM! a practical, no-nonsense business book inspired us with her story.  She talked us through her 7 Business Disciplines, a straightforward method to grow your business.  We also learned that 85% of business women don’t have a business plan, interestingly 95% of men don’t have one either.

Last, but of course, by no means least, Voice Coach, Laura Hart came to the stage.  Laura cleverly used examples from the day’s events to highlight how we can get the best from our presentations.  Laura, who works with blue chip organisations dished out tip after tip of how to make the best of your voice, your presentation and to communicate your business message best.

Do you see what I mean by inspiration overload?  My mind was brimming with ideas, thoughts, plans and more.  What I needed was time, time to get my thoughts together and start putting all this good stuff into action.

That’s exactly what I’ve done and I hope you have too.  And those toes are not curling quite as much as they were.

If you missed it, you missed a treat, looking forward to seeing you next year

Thanks to Samjhana Moon for taking pictures on the day and for supplying the picture for this article.

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Busy working Mum and trainer, Hilary Nunns

My double life as an ICT trainer and also as a Behavioural Management consultant (not to mention as a lone parent of two teenagers) tends to bring about a variety of activities from one day to the next.

I work with individuals, small businesses, charities and other organisations.  As a former teacher in Further Education I still occasionally teach but primarily (when I work in colleges) I am coaching teaching staff who would like increase their classroom management skills.

My day today began with coaxing my two children to school by 8.30am, although I do often leave earlier than them in order to reach colleges all over the UK.  With a clear head and a load in the washing machine, I updated my ‘do’ list and switched on the laptop.

My first task was writing a guest blog for an education training company in response to an article in the Guardian referring to the imminent raising of the leaving age of compulsory education and how this would negatively impact on teachers.  The 16+ environment is my world of work and I feel strongly that we should be promoting the extra benefits of staying on in education.

Next I set up a series of tweets to be delivered periodically via Hootsuite.  If I know I’m due to be away from my desk I try to ensure there’s a little stream of information flowing through Twitter in my absence.
At 11.30 I met with a new private client who has just purchased a new PC and all the latest software.  The meeting was a two-hour overview session of the Microsoft 2010 software.  It was great fun, she is a lovely lady with an enormously busy life!  We’ve arranged that I’ll go back next week to drill down to specifics such as practical use of Word and Excel, and then some sensible e-file management.

Arriving home for a late lunch I have time to answer emails, and prepare papers for meetings the following day before the children are back from school.

Today has been seriously satisfactory.

Hilary is a teacher in Further Education and a member of the Institute for Learning.   Her FE subject specialism is Business and ICT and Hilary has great experience of teaching both in mainstream and supported/foundation learning (including adults).

Hilary became a specialist in devising and implementing classroom behavioural management techniques, managing a behavioural support department at a medium-sized mainstream FE college.   In 2009-2010 Hilary was the appointed Behaviour Specialist Lead for Action for Inclusion in Surrey and in this capacity Hilary worked closely with Surrey Local Authority and colleges in Surrey. This was the springboard to providing staff training and INSET to FE and 6th form colleges nationally.
Additionally, due to popular demand (and utilising Business and ICT training skills), the ‘Courses’ arm of Can Do offers ICT training to individuals, small businesses, charities and other organisations.

If you are a working woman and would like to write about how you balance your busy life and have it featured please contact Sue Bown at sue@thecoachingzone.co.uk

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Charles Dickens 1812 – 1870

If Charles Dickens wanted to come and speak at your Book Club would you say ‘No thanks, you’re too old?   Would Emmeline Pankhurst or Adam Smith get the same reaction at your networking group?   Or, how about if Sir Winston Churchill wanted to speak at your Speakers Club would you say ‘Sorry pal you’re just a bit over the hill and we’d rather hear from someone younger’?  Of course you wouldn’t!  So why do you tell yourself ‘I can’t do that because I am too old to?’

This is a common theme I hear, people limiting themselves because of their thoughts.  They won’t start their own business, they won’t apply for a new job, they won’t look for a new relationship, they won’t learn something new.  All this because they believe that they are too old, too young, too tall, too short, too fair, too dark, too anything-they-want-to-focus-on!

What other people think of you is their opinion and to be quite frank about it, it’s none of your business!  It’s a waste of your energy even trying to think about what they think because I guarantee you’ll be wrong!

If there’s something you want to do – then do it!

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Here I am inching along through my 30 day blog challenge.  I started off guns blazing and was managing to write a blog a day.  However, after a couple of weeks I made a decision to slow down, there were too many other things getting left behind so by the time I’ve finished it will be a 60+ day blog challenge.  Never mind, I’m determined to get there and I’m surprised to find I really am quite enjoying the process.

Thanks to all of you who have sent me comments and feedback on my blog, it’s lovely to receive your thoughts and insights into my writing.  It is much appreciated.

While we are on the subject, I’d like to know what you’d like to be reading about?  How can I help you?  What would you like me to cover in my blog posts? How can I help you to continue to be motivated, to develop new habits, to stretch yourselves and to reach your goals.  What are the challenges you face in your day to day life?  Let me know and over the next few weeks I will feature your selected subjects in my blog.

Be my guest. Also, I am keen to find more of you who would like to write ‘A Day in the Life’ for my blog, I already have received contributions from Zoe Brown, Bwebsites and Kathy Wright, Writewell Services, and of course I’ve written one myself.  Have a read of these to inspire you and if you fancy writing about a day in your life please get in touch.  The purpose of these ‘A Day In The Life’ blogs is to show how we all have our ways to balance our busy lives.  Also you can tell readers a little about what you do in your business, go on be bold, give it a try!

Thanks for reading and I look forward to hearing from you.

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Change is an interesting subject isn’t it?  It happens to us all, do you embrace it or fight it?  A blog post by Lisa Cherry, Holistic Health on this very subject caught my eye recently.

The blog post is appropriately called The Cycle Of Life.  Inspired by the popular John Lewis TV advertisement, Lisa contemplates how we learn as we go through life and how with the benefit of hindsight we can laugh at events and enjoy our lives.

It made me think about how so many of us fight change, yet with the cycle of life, how can we avoid change?  We are all changing, evolving in our own lives.  Perhaps it’s time to stop fighting, enjoy the moment and in doing so enjoy the precious time of our lives.  What do you think?

Read Lisa’s blog

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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As someone who, as a child, used to write bigger to make it look like I’d written more.  I’ve never been much of a writer.  I wonder if I’ve ever really fully discovered my writing  and creativity potential.   Right now, I feel like I’ve learnt more in the past two years than I’d done in the previous twenty.  So what next.  What else can I do?   Who knows.  I’ve loving what I’m doing and I eagerly anticipating my next move.  If you need encouragement about what or where your true potential lies get inspired with this talk by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of the book Eat Pray Love.

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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Is perfectionism holding you back?

You’re a perfectionist, you like to make sure everything gets done properly and you won’t stop until you get there.

How to tell if you are a perfectionist?

1. You spend ages making sure everything is done properly.

2. You notice fine detail and are very critical of mistakes.

3. You are your own worst enemy when it comes to self criticism.

4. Your standards are high and there is no grey area.

5. You want to be best at everything you try.  And will probably give up on things that you can’t be good at.

6. You beat yourself up over mistakes that you make.

7. You run things through in your mind wondering ‘what if’ you’d done it another way.

8. You waste time on getting things perfect.

9. You won’t set a goal in case you don’t achieve it and let yourself down.

10. Procrastination is your best friend and worst enemy.

Recognise yourself in some or all of these traits?  If so, I congratulate you on getting here.  The good news is that identification is part of the battle.  You may notice that you’re more of a perfectionist in some areas than others.  For example you may spend ages getting en email worded correctly, yet you’re not such a perfectionist when it comes to taking the vacuum cleaner out of the cupboard!

Many solutions to stop being a perfectionist is to set realistic goals or expectations.  Which is great, but when you’re a perfectionist how do you know what realistic is?  That’s part of the problem (or even the whole problem)

My advice/tips to overcome perfectionism are:

Accept that you’re not going to change this pattern overnight.  It’s going to be a gradual shift, so the fact that you are aware is a step in itself.  Next step is to get used to understanding what realistic expectations are. How could you do that? Well observe how others do things, you will notice that everyone’s measure of a job finished or perfect is different – hugely different.

Being a perfectionist will serve you in some areas, but not in others. Recognise the difference in these areas, being aware of when will be part of the growing process. So keep aware and you’ll begin to know when is appropriate.

Repeat the mantra ‘good is good enough’ because it is!

Sometimes you just have to trust and let go!

Sue Bown

Works with businesses and individuals to get better results, more efficiency, less stress AND more success. I play golf too, especially in the sun!

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