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This time last year I was on Necker Island at a leadership gathering hosted by Richard Branson. During the discussions, the inspiring Halla Tomasdottir – CEO of The B Team – said: “There will come a time when you need to lend the world your shoulders.”
We are in that time now…
Sometimes life will throw curveballs at you. You’re happily beavering away at a job you love and you’re made redundant. You marry the man of your dreams only to discover that he has somewhat different ideas about fidelity to you. You’re filled with joy, travelling...
I was chatting to some friends earlier this week, talking about the highlights of 2019 and our respective plans for 2020. It has been an extraordinary year. From the creation of Actually to the delivery of my first ever online training course; from my stay…
TACKLING THE INNER CRITIC I remember when I first heard the term ‘inner critic’. The first thing I thought was ‘Oh my god…so it isn’t just me?’ I believe that to create an impact you need three things: the right mindset, the right communications skills…
ANNUAL PLANNING It is the end of November as I write this and I recently asked a question about annual planning in the Actually Facebook group. I asked people how ready they were for 2020 on a scale of 1 to 10. With a few notable exceptions, everyone was…
MEDIA COVERAGE So many of my clients come to me obsessed with national media coverage. ‘I want to be in The Guardian’ they say. ‘I want to be in the Financial Times’. Don’t get me wrong, national media coverage can be a game-changer – although unless you’re an…
Being an entrepreneur isn’t easy. It can challenge you in ways you can’t even imagine when you start out on the journey full of excitement about your ‘big idea’. And sometimes what started out as a passion can feel like purgatory. And yet…I find it hard…
FIND YOUR SPARK You need inspiration to create. And you need inspiration in order to inspire others. But when your mind has gone blank; when you’re tired; when you’re stressed; when you feel as though you might never be able to come up with an original…
SELF-CARE FOR VISIONARIES Let’s not get hung up on words here. Maybe you don’t consider yourself a visionary. Maybe you feel like a fraud reading this blog because you don’t think of yourself as a changemaker. Here’s the thing, the same rules about self-care apply…
HOOKS FOR STORIES & CONTENT Journalists receive hundreds of emails every day pitching stories. Literally hundreds. And every single person sending every single last one of those emails thinks that theirs is a good story. About 90% of them are wrong…
WHAT MEDIA WANT I see a lot of experts on social media, at conferences and writing books about PR and how to generate media coverage. And nearly every single one of them* makes it so much more complicated than it really is. Generating media…
NAILING YOUR PURPOSE At Actually, we believe that there are three things you need in order to actually change the world: the right mindset; the right mindset; the right skills and the right support. Actually exists to support you in all three of these areas and in this new…
In this ad hoc series of blogs, I offer some thoughts on the people, campaigns and sometimes poems that inspire me. This week – in honour of the International Day of the Girl Child coming up on Friday (11th October) – I’d like to share with you three campaigns or...
Last week I learnt a new acronym: LWoP. Life Without Parole. That’s the sentence that 32 year old Mike* has been serving since he was 15. Mike is incarcerated at Kern maximum security prison in California and I had the privilege of meeting him there whilst…
A little while ago, I published the Actually Manifesto on my Facebook page. This is what I wrote: “We live in interesting times. Our dominant culture is often cynical and negative and at a time of significant global uncertainty, pessimism is an understandable...
Yes, I know it’s the modern way to meet people. And yes, I know lots of people have met their soul mate on Guardian Soulmates or their match on match.com. But I LOATHE internet dating. Truly. Loathe. It. Nonetheless, every now and again I give it a go. And after my...
The Power of ‘No’* If you are a regular reader of this blog, you may remember I wrote a blog in June entitled ‘Five Lessons from Burning Out’. In it I shared what I had learnt from burning out in the hope that you might learn from my mistakes and avoid a...
Robin Gorna, CAMPAIGNER & ACTIVIST I recently conducted the second of my changemaker interviews. The first was with Kate Levine of The Body Shop. This time, I interviewed Robin Gorna. Robin’s incredible career spans over 30 years, campaigning in the…
Tomorrow is the first day of August. From next year it is my plan to take February and August off completely. I'm calling them my 'Care and Curiosity' months - when I will replenish my energy, take care of myself, see friends and family and explore things that...
Recently I interviewed Kate Levine, Director of Global Activism and Communications at The Body Shop for an ad hoc series of interviews with changemakers. One of the things I asked her was which of the many campaigns she has been…
Recently I shared on my social media channels that I was having a ‘wobble’. That I was feeling THE FEAR. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ll know the kind of fear I was talking about: the kind of fear that makes you doubt yourself; that shakes your self-confidence and...
Kate Levine, Global Director of Activism & Communications at The Body Shop In this series of ad hoc interviews, I’ll be talking to campaigners, changemakers and visionaries and asking them to share their wisdom, lessons and inspiration with the Actually…
In this ad hoc blog, I share with you some of the things that I find inspiring. Last week I attended an event run by the How to Academy – an evening with Elizabeth Gilbert. For those of you who have been living under a rock for the past decade or so, Elizabeth Gilbert...
In the UK, according to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), 526,000 workers suffered from work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2016/17 and 12.5m working days were lost as a result over that period. Research in the US suggests that burnout costs…
I’ve spent 25 years in PR and communications and over that time I’ve seen some amazing PR and marketing stunts by commercial brands and campaign groups that have really captured imaginations and headlines. And I’ve witnessed some absolute shockers that…
I’ve been reflecting recently on inspiration. I’ve been fortunate to attend some truly inspiring events and gatherings so far this year including a one day event with Roger Hamilton and a 5 day leadership event on Necker Island with Virgin Unite. But I believe…
There’s a lot of chat about referendums in the UK at the moment: the one we already had; whether we should have another one; what the question should be if we do…yes, I’m talking about Brexit. I don’t know about you but I have found the conduct of both sides…
Picture the scene: it’s a balmy 26 degrees, the sky is blue, the sun is shining and sending shimmers of light fracturing across the surface of the ocean. At the front of a beautiful room furnished simply but luxuriously with wood, bamboo and linen, a man is speaking...
Last week I was fortunate enough to attend a Roger Hamilton event in London: Entrepreneur 5.0. Roger is the creator of Wealth Dynamics, Founder of the Entrepreneurs Institute, GeniusU, Entrepreneur Resorts and a multitude of other businesses all designed to support...
“If you see something that makes you angry or resonates with you, don’t wait for someone else to do something about it. “ (Amika George) As a seventeen year old in the midst of her A’ levels, Amika started a campaign #freeperiods to persuade Government to do…
"So come and join us. Rebel for life. For the planet. For our children’s children’s futures. There is so much work to be done.” Extinction Rebellion If you’ve not heard of Extinction Rebellion (XR) then I can only assume you’ve been in a coma for the past few weeks!...
“If I can start a movement, anyone can.’ Lucy-Anne Holmes In 2012 a young woman asked herself why a ‘family’ newspaper would publish images of topless women and what that said about the place of women within our society. That woman was Lucy-Anne Holmes and by 2015,...
“I don’t care if I get into trouble at school. I believe that one person can make a difference.” (Greta Thunberg) From one lone schoolgirl sat outside the Swedish Parliament to a global movement involving more than 1600 events in more than 105 countries, there can be...
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