In this episode of The Success Revolution, we speak to author, journalist and art critic, Laura Freeman. Her critically acclaimed first book, The Reading Cure: How Books Restored My Appetite, was published in February 2018. A mindful, exquisitely written memoir of her passage away from anorexia, The Reading Cure is as much a love story to literature as it is a tender exploration of recovery and womanhood.
This episode is recorded in support of Smart Works. Smart Works provides interview training as well as interview attire to unemployed women in need, ultimately providing them with the clothes and confidence to allow a woman to be her best at a crucial moment in her life, giving her the self-belief and the practical tools required to succeed at interview and transform her life. Find out more about how to help at SmartWorks.org.uk.
The Reading Cure: How Books Restored My Appetite is out now. Buy your copy here.
If you enjoyed the podcast and it’s sparked some thoughts about your success, please don’t forget to leave us a rating or a review wherever you’re listening!
Head to stepupclub.co for all the show notes and links.

Laura Freeman: How Books Saved My Life

If we asked you for your definition of success, what would you say? For us, it's simple: success is unique to each of us. Welcome to The Success Revolution: the podcast that's changing the way we talk and think - about success.

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If I asked you for your definition of success, what would you say? For me, it’s simple: success is unique to each and every one of us.
 
Welcome to The Success Revolution, the podcast that’s changing the way we talk – and think – about success. Having worked with one too many women who’s had her confidence and her identity diminished as a result of working towards an antiquated definition of success – you know it, money, power, status, etc.
  
In this episode of The Success Revolution, I speak to the inimitable businesswoman Amber Venz Box. Who despite starting her career rather uneventfully by being ignored by all of the American style magazines, when she wrote as asked to be an intern, did not give up on her pursuit of brilliance. What lay ahead, has even surprised her. Because after several years as a jobbing freelance stylist, making her own jewellery on the side, and generally just doing anything to stay in touch with the fashion industry that she has loved for as long as she can remember, Amber came up with a simple but game-changingly brilliant idea: technology that helps bloggers earn a small cut of the products or services that they are promoting.
 
Today that idea has spiralled into a business that has literally changed the shape of the fashion industry, promoting bloggers and influencers to their right position up the tree of credibility, and also giving them the revenue to be able to become individual content creators, which has directly impacted on traditional magazine and media sales and distribution globally.
 
Since RewardStyle’s inception in 2011, it’s no exaggeration to say that Amber and her team have created a fashion revolution. They’ve helped legitimise bloggers (and put them on the front rows) and democratised money and power away from the big brands.
 
Amber herself has been named on the Business of Fashion 500 power list, Forbes' 30 Under 30, Fast Co.'s Most Innovative and Glamour’s “Woman of the Year” for Technology, among many other accolades.
 
You can follow Amber and her ventures at:
@liketoknow.it
@rewardstylehq
@ambervenzbox
 
or via the website at rewardstyle.com and liketoknowit.com
 
And as a podcast listener, I would also like to extend to you a special discount on the Step Up members club, which is helping women all over the world to feel more confident at work, to get paid their value, find a success that suits their lifestyle and might the right work choices when things feels stressful and confusing. Join now at stepupclub.co/membersclub and enter POD50 for 50% off your first month – making it less than the price of two cappuccinos a week!
 
Also, if you enjoyed the podcast and it’s sparked some thoughts about your success, please don’t forget to leave us a rating or a review wherever you’re listening!

Amber Venz Box: From Intern To International Disruptor

In this episode of The Success Revolution, which is actually the last in the current series, I speak to Sophie Conran, one of our country’s most important female creatives. The only daughter of Sir Terence Conran, she is a designer, an award winning cook, entrepreneur, retailer and taste-maker. She may have come from creative privilege but Sophie has trodden her own path, and made many pivots in her varied and eclectic career. What struck me about Sophie was her focus on happiness and contentment, two themes that dominate her life and have become important values within her business too. Hers is a story of exploration, a sensible attitude to failure and modern working motherhood. If you enjoyed the podcast and it’s sparked some thoughts about your success, please don’t forget to leave us a rating or a review wherever you’re listening!
ALSO STAY TUNED ON MY @THESTEPUPCLUB INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT OVER THE SUMMER FOR NEWS ON MY BRAND NEW LAUNCH – A BRAND NEW ONLINE AND OFFLINE MEMBERS CLUB TO ANSWER ALL OF YOUR WORK RELATED NEEDS. THERE WILL BE MONTHLY LEARNING BUNDLES, EXPERT VIDEO TIPS FROM MY ACCREDITED COACHES, MENTORING CIRCLES, JOBS BOARDS AND SO MUCH MORE.
TO GET ON THE EARLY BIRD WAITLIST, EMAIL YOUR DETAILS TO HELLO@STEPUPCLUB.CO

Sophie Conran: Career Changes Are The Root To Happiness

In this episode of The Success Revolution, I speak to Natalie Lees AKA Style Me Sunday who is a loud and proud modern female voice. She is also a trained – though non-practicing, midwife – and has harnessed her empathy skills, her ability to communicate what women feel and her inherent style and sass to create a digital space that helps puts us all back on our own front foot. She is a body positivity campaigner and uses her platform to challenge social norms, and shout about what’s important. She is funny, open-minded, brave and not afraid to challenge the status quo. I loved hearing about her major career pivot, what it felt like to lose and then regain her identity and what it takes to carve out a new path based on new working norms. This episode is recorded in support of the Royal Society For Blind Children, a charity very close to Natalie’s heart. Find out more about the charity and how to help or donate at rsbc.org.uk
If you enjoyed the podcast and it’s sparked some thoughts about your success, please don’t forget to leave us a rating or a review wherever you’re listening!
Head to stepupclub.co for all the show notes and links.

Natalie Lees Style Me Sunday: Rebuilding Your Career Identity

In this episode of The Success Revolution, I speak to the vivid (their own word!), hilarious, highly intelligent, perceptive, modern force that is The Midult. Set up and run by journalists Annabel Rivkin and Emilie McMeekan, The Midult is a blog, a podcast and a movement. What Annabel and Emilie believe (and shout about with plenty of humour on a daily basis) is that  women in their midulthood deserve some of the spotlight. Why is it that when we reach our late 30s, the Midult think, and I wholeheartedly agree, do women become invisible? And not just invisible to society, but to ourselves too. In this podcast we explore this extinction, come up with some answers and belt out plenty of laughs and profanities in the process. 
 
The pair write, and talk, openly about their neuroses, just as they do their grey pubes. And in doing so have, not-unwittingly, helped give a voice to women who feel crushed by constant pressure and expectation to be living their #BestLives but who deep down just don’t give a damn.
 
In this episode we talk about the power of female friendship, what it means to be a working woman today, how Emilie’s adoration for her husband knows no bounds, and how they manage and end up ignoring their internal negative voices.
 
You can find The Midult across all social media platforms @themidult and on their site themidult.com
 
If you enjoyed the podcast and it’s sparked some thoughts about your success, please don’t forget to leave us a rating or a review wherever you’re listening!

The Midult: How To Say P*** Off To Perfectionism

In this episode of The Success Revolution, we speak to the wonderful and stylish Alex Stedman. A freelance stylist by trade, she previously worked in PR and as magazine stylist for 15 years before deciding to do a major career pivot in 2015: she left her job in order to focus her energies on freelance editing and her already successful blog, The Frugality which she had set up 3 years earlier. Today The Frugality boasts 100,000s of readers and Alex continues to keep it true to its original aim of being a stylish manual to living frugally. She talks us about how she made the momentous decision to become a fulltime blogger, the very good reason she won’t ask you to swipe up for links on Instagram and gives us some tips on how we can all live a little more frugally.
You can find Alex on Instagram @thefrugality and on her site The-Frugality.com.
This episode is recorded in support The Railway Children, a charity that works to protect street children in India, East Africa and the UK who nowhere else to go and nobody to turn to. Every year thousands of children across these countries run away or are forced to leave homes that have become unbearable through poverty, abuse, violence and neglect. The Railway Children aim to reach these children as soon as possible before an abuser can, and before they become entrenched in street life. Find out more about The Railway Children and how you can help at RailwayChildren.org.uk.
If you enjoyed the podcast and it’s sparked some thoughts about your success, please don’t forget to leave us a rating or a review wherever you’re listening!

Laura Freeman: How Books Saved My Life

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