Ladder Down

In this episode Kate meets Karena Calhoun, a Certified Mindset and Life Coach who leads with a servant's heart. After spending over two decades in Corporate America, she left to become a coach who now empowers and encourages people to be their best.

She guides female entrepreneurs through levelling up in their business by unveiling their authentic selves, discovering their purpose, increasing their self confidence and destroying self defeating obstacles. This in turns helps women to not only reach but crush their goals and pull their vision towards them in a massive way. Find out more and connect with Karena at: https://linktr.ee/coachkarena

In this episode Kate meets Rae Brook, Chief Executive of the Community Foundation for Merseyside, an independent charity that promotes local giving to address local disadvantage.

Rae has over 30 years' senior management experience gained in both the private and public sector after studying Business and Finance at De Montfort University and attending a Harvard Business School Programme for Senior Management Executives.

Her role as CEO is to nurture relationships with existing and potential donors, community groups, third sector members and regional stakeholders in the public and private sector. Her passion for the charitable sector is deep rooted as her father was a Barnardo's orphan which she says has greatly influenced her decision to enter the charitable sector.

You can find out more and connect with Rae at: https://cfmerseyside.org.uk/team/rae-brooke 

In this episode Kate chats to Briony Wilson, CEO at Taste Cheshire and Event Organiser of the Chester Food and Drink Festival. Taste Cheshire is the definitive guide to independent Food and Drink across Cheshire, connecting those who offer the real “Taste of Cheshire”. Cheshire is a county that is really spoiled for choice when it comes to restaurants, pubs, farm shops offering real food, made by real people.

Briony started with the company eight years ago whilst on placement from the University of Huddersfield where she studied Events management. She has since worked in every area of the business from events to sales, making her the ideal person to be CEO! 

You can find out more about Briony and Taste Cheshire at: https://www.tastecheshire.com/ 

In this episode Kate meets Irene Afful, an award-winning businesswoman and specialist in the field of diversity, equality & inclusion. She is the Founder & Director of Ametrine Coaching & Consultancy where she pursues her passion for diversity and inclusion, supporting businesses and individuals to be more effective by offering a variety of tools, bespoke workshops, personal and group coaching and consultancy services.

Prior to setting up her own business, Irene was a Detective Inspector and served 25 years in Merseyside Police, where she became the first black, female Inspector in the history of the force. Her career incorporated critical incident management, professional standards, safeguarding (children and vulnerable adults), community engagement and serious crime investigations. In addition to her core role, she was instrumental in re-establishing, relaunching and chairing the Black Police Association, a support network for BME staff and served as Female Vice President of the National Black Police Association, advancing equality on the national stage. 

Her passion and mission is to support organisations in achieving their vision and values for diversity, increase profitability and effectiveness and enhance their reputation as an employer of choice.

Lorna Helps is the founder of Vibrant Thinking, a business which helps dispersed teams to establish successful ways of working. Prior to setting up her business in 2018 she worked at Procter and Gamble for nearly 20 years.  She was based in Newcastle but worked with teams in London and Geneva so understands the challenges and benefits of hybrid team working. With hybrid working now the new normal for many previously office based teams, her work is more important than ever.

Lorna is passionate about using creativity to overcome communication challenges and uses pottery painting as a tool in her workshops. She says you don’t need to see pottery painting as art or requiring artistic ability: it’s a vehicle for facilitating creative thinking to overcome challenges, with the added benefit of being a rewarding and absorbing activity for everyone. 

Combining her corporate experience with pottery painting means Vibrant Thinking offers a unique way to empower teams and transform the workplace. 

In this episode Kate talks all things money with Olivia Stefanino. Olivia is the creator of the 'Money Types' emotional profiling system and she's been working in the world of business and finance for nearly three decades - initially as a journalist and subsequently as an executive coach and leadership trainer. An engaging speaker and author of "Be Your Own Guru - personal and business enlightenment in just 3 days'", Olivia's belief is that money is a powerful medium for life and that when we understand our emotional relationship with money, everything else falls into place.

Discover your 'Money Type' and find out what your relationship with money reveals about your unique talents, gifts and strengths - by taking the 30 question quiz at www.oliviastefanino.com 

In this episode Kate meets Ben Hughes, a recording artist known as Tall Children. Ben is a music industry professional, course tutor at Liverpool Media Academy, radio presenter, producer and Ted X speaker.

Ben’s music career is decorated with numerous awards and accolades. Tall Children’s fanbase reaches across three different continents, including the USA. In 2020, Ben also created and launched ‘Tall Children’ Films and TV which produces indie films, documentaries, educational TV series, and music videos. 

Find out more about Ben at: https://www.tcmusichq.com/ 

In this episode Kate meets Dr Sue Smith and Dr Helen Kini, experienced GPs within the NHS who have developed a passion for lifestyle medicine and its positive effect on health. 

Together they have founded 'Flourish for Life', a Doctor-led service providing a tailored holistic approach to give you the confidence and support to achieve your lifestyle goals. They help people to making long lasting changes which have a significant impact on people’s health and wellbeing. That can be a reset or rebalance of lifestyle habits to generally feel better or it can be linked to specific life changes – for example they help a growing number of women with symptoms linked to the menopause – a subject that is super topical and that both are very passionate about. They say that the key is recognising that no two women are the same and simple small changes can make all the difference. 

Sue and Helen are great believers in the power of changing lifestyle as medicine and want to share this with as many people as they can. Find out more at: https://www.flourishforlife.uk/ 

In this episode Kate chats to Hope Timberlake who is passionate about amplifying the voices and ideas of under-represented minorities in the workplace. In her book 'Speak Up, Dammit!' she helps people at all levels to learn the skills and mindset to overcome obstacles in sharing their voice at work.

Her area of expertise includes Persuasive Communications, Leadership Development and High Performing Teams. Hope has worked with leaders in the financial services, technology, healthcare and advertising sectors, helping enhance their performance and workplace influence. She helps individuals and groups become more effective as leaders, presenters and team players. Hope prides herself on her energetic, creative and results-driven approach. Find out more and connect with her at: https://www.hopetimberlake.com/ 

In this episode Kate chats to Christina Colmer-McHugh, Founder of Moodbeam which is wearable technology that tracks how you feel. Christina’s background is in journalism, PR and as a ghost-writer for high profile politicians and celebrities.

With Moodbeam she has the ambition of transforming the way the world sees mood and make it easier to understand and talk about how we feel. Their aim is to put the power of self-reflection and emotional awareness in everyone’s hands to make mood visible, conversations easier and the world a happier place! 

Find out more at: https://moodbeam.co.uk/