Christmas is upon us and what better way to kick start our official countdown with the launch of BEYOUROWN’s 12 Women To Watch Christmas Countdown 2019. Here are 12 women we know are killing the game within their field, by showing commitment, dedication and hard work.
Emily Barclay set up Perimenopausal Hub after finding a dearth of information on perimenopause. She spent 4 years seeing various different doctors before it being acknowledged that her symptoms might be linked to her hormones, and when she tried to research she found either website telling her about menopause or ones trying to sell a “quick fix.”
As a language graduate, she found this lack of semantic difference frustrating – in perimenopause women still have periods, in menopause they don’t – and so wanted to create a space where women experiencing a whole host of symptoms could find information and help to navigate their way through this life stage.
Importantly, Emily recognises that all women are different, and everyone has their own experience of perimenopause. This brought about the idea to pull together an array of experts who work with this demographic, with the aim of offering all perimenopausal women the choice of how they tackle their symptoms. On a personal level, Emily is a personal trainer who lives in South Norfolk, UK, with her partner and their 6 dogs.
British designer Kerry Clayton started the Trend Tonic brand from her hospital bed in 2018. Having spent a lifetime in chronic pain from rare connective tissue disorder, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, she wanted to create a range of accessories that were comfortable to wear.
Trend Tonic specialises in making lightweight statement earrings from cork, an eco-friendly vegan alternative to leather. Soft, durable and hypoallergenic making them suitable for everyone to wear.
Sallee Poinsette-Nash is a human brand builder and the founder of Brandable & Co – which exists to bring people to the forefront and put humanness firmly at the heart of careers, companies and corporate organisations. Sallee has spent 20+ years navigating the world of high-level business and brand building, holding CEO / COO positions, heading up international projects and delivering brand strategy and advisory board roles to a high-profile client list. Sallee’s work takes her all over the world so downtime is often spent closer to home with an abundance of dogs, nature and books.
Ruth Kudzi is first class when it comes to helping coaches, consultants and service providers build and scale their businesses to create the life they love.
The ex-teacher is today a business mentor, mindset coach and best-selling author who has worked with 1000s of clients worldwide. She combines practical business skills with an MA in Psychology and numerous coaching qualifications including NLP to help her clients build businesses they love. She is a well-respected coach and has been featured in a number of places including The Metro, Women & Home, The Guardian, Psychologies, Thrive Global, Huffington Post and Business Insider and lives in South London with her family.
Jessica Killingley is a Publishing Consultant & Literary Agent who has spent 20 years working in the publishing industry. During that time, she worked for a number of major multi-award-winning UK publishing houses, working with hundreds of authors and created countless bestsellers. Over the past two decades she’s worked on pretty much every kind of fiction and non-fiction genre, learned everything about publishing – inside out and upside down – AND become a marketing & promotion ninja. Today, she works with coaches, entrepreneurs and business owners to right books that will change lives and she does this with a hot mug of coffee and a healthy serving of cheese on toast!
Natalie Trice is a PR Director based in Devon and has a huge wealth of experience, as well as an enviable client list and contacts book. During her career, Natalie has worked with international TV channels, leading IT companies, famous fashion houses, ambitious entrepreneurs, creative start-ups, and many more. When Natalie’s second son was diagnosed with hip dysplasia ten years ago, life changed dramatically and work had to be put on the backburner and she put her business on hold for several years. While looking after her family and navigating endless operations with her son and months of recovery, she never lost her love of PR. Natalie wrote her first book, Cast Life, and set up DDH UK, a charitable trust that today helps thousands of people around the world. This November, her second book, PR School, Your Time to Shine, is set to launch and she continues to build her empire as her family flourishes and the charity changes lives.
Hannah Martin is founder of the Talented Ladies Club, an online community that helps mums unlock their potential and shows women that becoming a mother isn’t the end of their career – it’s the start of an exciting new adventure.
Hannah’s also an award-winning copywriter and qualified psychotherapist, hypnotherapist and NLP Practitioner. She’s also built a reputation as a popular and highly effective business coach and trainer, and writes and runs all of the Talented Ladies Club’s online training courses and coaching programmes.
She has led workshops for Country Living Magazine and Mumsnet (where her session was voted ‘most popular’ at a one-day event, even beating Instagram!). She’s also a mentor for NatWest’s entrepreneur accelerator programme, and a member of two All-Party Parliamentary Groups (Women and Work, and Women in Business). A passionate campaigner for women’s issues, Hannah frequently appears in the media talking about issues such as maternity discrimination, imposter syndrome, and business psychology.
Suzy Ashworth is a TEDx speaker, Hay House author, international retreat host and mindset and messaging mentor for women in business who is currently living in Mexico. Following a successful career working in the world of media, Suzy founded the world’s first video-based hypnobirthing program The Calm Birth School, which now has real-life instructors teaching the method all over the UK. She has a diploma in hypnotherapy and psychotherapy, three children and helps women create a business, and life, they love.
For many years Georgina Lynch hated who she was. She worried what people thought about her, had crippling self-doubt and the damaging belief of feeling unloveable and worthless.
Over 12 years she suffered five episodes of severe depressive illness with psychosis, spent months in and out of a psychiatric hospital and put on various psychiatric medications. In 2007, following my final episode of psychosis, she began to change my life. She said NO to labels and medication and peeled away the layers of emotional pain and finally felt like a good person and set herself FREE. Today she is a Transformational Success Coach & Counsellor, I help people like you and me to thrive.
Bryony Simpson is founder and CEO of Engineers for Pioneers, a platform bringing together small and scaling businesses with a handpicked network of top freelance talent.
Born out of her own experience as a freelancer, Bryony saw how many young, growing companies struggled to find or afford smart, experienced people, when it was just these kinds of businesses that needed them most.
A strong believer in the power of small business to shape the future of our world, Bryony saw the answer in a curated network of freelancers that companies could tap into, giving them access to top talent in a way that they could control and scale based on their needs and stage of growth
Mother of two, Bryony knows first hand how being your own boss, be it as a freelancer or entrepreneur, can help women to manage life at work and home on their own terms. And hopes that Engineers for Pioneers can play its part in supporting more talented women to build a career they love, with fewer of the sacrifices they don’t.
Cuzena’s future is as bright as its packaging as Shadia Al Hili plans to be the first recognised brand of Arabic products and a major contributor in changing the way Britain currently views Middle Eastern cuisine with the rise of veganism. The garlic and coriander fava bean recipe loaded with aromatic spices will suit most tastes, but for those people who love punchier flavours, fiery chilli and caramelised onion, which is sweetened with dates will really hit the spot. Commendably the Fiery Chilli Fava Bean Dip has just been shortlisted for the 2019 Great British Food Awards. The dips sit comfortably with those that seek a healthy lifestyle or who follow a slimming world plan as the entire tubs are sin-free!
Patricia Salume and Randa Bennett are both immigrants who came to the UK over 20 years ago, built successful careers and are now taking on the world of fintech with their start-up, VeeLoop.
Randa has always had a passion for technology. Within two years of coming to London from Iraq, she landed an apprenticeship with the UK’s largest IT consultancy at the time. She learnt a great deal working for major companies but always knew she wanted to start her own business.
Patricia is originally from Brazil. She came to the UK to learn English, fell in love with London and ended up settling down here. Patricia started her career working for local government but quickly moved on to management consultancy and more recently ran operations for two start-ups.
Together, Randa and Patricia built VeeLoop’s MVP during evenings and weekends whilst holding full-time jobs and looking after young families. A year ago, they quit their jobs to focus on VeeLoop, and they have since raised funding, established a team and started growing their customer base.
VeeLoop is an online payment service enabling young people to shop online safely whilst keeping parents in the loop. The parent retains control of the purchases and protects the child’s personal data. VeeLoop was recently named one of the UK’s top 100 new businesses by NatWest’s #PowerUp Index 2019.
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