21st Anniversary Post: Lockdown Meant Networking Online, and Finding a Tribe!

So there I was: Loving my new beginnings and re-invention, and I had a fresh new booking from my first all-women networking event.

Life was good!

But, literally, by the end of that week lockdown was announced.

That sucked so big and, like so many businesses, I had no idea how my business would survive.

After all a photographer who cannot be in the same room as a client cannot do business.

And how would I network and spread the word about my re-invented business!?

I was asking the same questions and facing the same issues as the rest of the world, so no self-pity was allowed!

It was Sandra Garlick who came to the rescue of women in business, just like me:

She started "The Woman Who Achieves Academy" which was, at that point, an online only networking group for women.

Having loved being at The Woman Who in-person event, not long before, I had no hesitation in joining and being one of the founder-members of The Academy.

There were ten of us, initially, all in the same lockdown-boat!

Over the coming months the group grew - I got to know some incredible women, got to find out about their businesses ,and they got to know about me and my work.

I really felt "I found my tribe".

I did my very first public speaking, albeit in via Zoom, and loved it.

Life had changed in ways I could not have anticipated, and I was feeling accomplished.

Although it took what felt like forever for me to be able to re-open the studio, once I did I was already known to many ladies and was booked for photo shoots by a few of them.

After the world re-opened properly, I was able to continue to build on my modest-but-significant success - I did some in-person public speaking, and even won a Woman Who Award, which was awesome!

Networking became something I looked forward to, and I met so many wonderful people…

The 50 Over 50 Amazing Women Project took off and everything was good in the world.

Until, it is, life knocked it out of the park for me, and it was time to realise a dream which was 25 years in the making:

"Cornwall"

Everything was put on hold!