Show Me The Way

Lucy Werner is the founder of The Wern, a communications consultancy for startups, entrepreneurs and independents. She runs the company with her partner Hadrien.

Lucy writes brilliant posts on her blog which are packed with great tips on how to write a business biography, how to get self-promote (without wanting to shove your fist in your mouth with the embarrassment at the un-Britishness of it all) and how to pitch to journalists. AND she has a book "Hype Yourself: A No Nonsense DIY PR Toolkit for Small Businesses" which you can pre-order from Waterstones or through The Wern website.

Mandu Reid is the leader of the Women's Equality Party. The first woman of colour to lead a political party in Britain. She believes that equality for women isn't just a women's issue. She says that when women fulfil their potential, everyone benefits. Mandu's first experience of injustice was racial injustice. She grew up in the shadow of apartheid South Africa - her mother is black, her father is white.

When she was eight her family took a car journey and en route they stopped at a service station. She was confused that her father was allowed to use clean, gleaming toilets and her mother was forced to use substandard toilets. She thought it might be because her father was a man. Her parents explained to her that it was because of the colour of her mother's skin.

She remembers the outrage she felt. Her whole premise is that her cause isn't anti-men, it's pro-everyone. She believes that equality means better politics, a more vibrant economy, a workforce that draws on the talents of the whole population and a society at ease with itself. Books for Emmeline: Talking To My Daughter About The Economy: Yanis Varoufakis Noisy Nora: Rosemary Wells Links: In this interview I take questions from listeners one of whom is worked in parliament and is campaigning for an independent authority to be set up to hold MPs to account. You can read her Guardian piece about that in this link.

Kathryn Sargent is a tailor, a quite unusual sight in the male-dominated world of Savile Row.

She set up Kathryn Sargent Bespoke Tailoring in 2012 having worked her way from apprentice at No. 1 Savile Row at Gieves and Hawkes, to cutter, to tailor, to having her own atelier.

In this interview she explains how it wasn't just about being talented but being steely and determined and showing dedication to the craft to gain the respect of those around her.

Maeve Haran is a best-selling author. She wrote her first book in 1991 and it scandalised the feminati. "Having It All" told the story of a top TV exec with a glittering career, a successful marriage and a happy family. But soon the big job becomes her worst nightmare as she struggles to balance it all. When she confesses to her friends she is going to quit, they are scandalized – Liz is their role model and she is shattering the myth they must all live by. The booked mirrored Maeve's own life. She was the first generation of women trying to have big careers but realising that often meant denying the existence of family. She decided she would have to change her job working as a TV producer if she was ever going to see her before she turned 21! Have things changed? Maeve isn't sure. She talks about the continuing need for partnership at home in order to enable a better work-life balance and calls on us to examine what Sandi Toksvig has coined #GUDP - that's the Grossly Undervalued Domestic Product - the caring, support and childcare women do without seeing a penny. For more on Maeve: The book we talk about in the podcast: An Italian Holiday Springtime in glorious Southern Italy can go to your head. Especially if you are escaping an overbearing husband, the embarrassingly public loss of your company, an interfering mother who still tries to run your life or the pain of a husband's affair with a girl young enough to be his daughter. The story follows the fortunes of four different women with very different problems who unexpectedly meet at a villa in Italy. And for more books from Maeve: https://amzn.to/2LVIiPt

When mothers give up work they don't just lose their current salary, but their future earnings growth and the benefits they would've accrued over their career. Kathryn Sollmann is a US-based career coach and author of Ambition Redefined, Why the Corner Office Doesn't Work for Every Woman & What to Do Instead. She advocates for staying in work once you've had children even if you think childcare expenses mean you think you can't. Kathryn recognises that the examples of women in leadership roles are not appealing or realistic for most women's lives. The huge job managing hundreds of people on a vast salary will invariably mean you have little time for other things - like children and family. But as she explains in her book success isn't about a certain job title, it's about finding the flexibility that means you can be home nursing a sick child or ageing parent at 2pm or in the office to lead a big meeting at 7am.

She says women can have substantial careers but they have to do a professional pitch for flexibility. Doing this works 80% of the time. Not doing it, often results in rejection.

Kathryn Sollmann's book: Ambition Redefined https://www.amazon.com/Ambition-Redefined-Corner-Office-Instead/dp/1473679095 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathrynsollmann/ Books4Emmeline:Reach Out by Molly Beck http://mollybeck.co/reachout

Other resources: Kathryn talks about the hidden cost of not returning to work. Here's more on that and a handy calculator in the link so you can see how much you'd lose out. https://www.kathrynsollmann.com/do-the-right-math-cost-of-childcare-vs-staying-home/ The Center for American Progress https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/early-childhood/reports/2019/03/28/467488/child-care-crisis-keeping-women-workforce/

Clare Chambers is the founder of Miss Dress, an online styling community and personal styling service. She has been a stylist for 15 years and helped over 1000 women reinvent their wardrobes. She has a very different approach to helping people get dressed. She helps them redesign their personal style and use it as a TOOL to take life, business and relationships to the next level of success. Her mission is to help women realise that what they wear is the most essential form of self-care and when they learn to dress from the outside in, they will have access to an innate power to be able to use outfits to create all the opportunities they desire and MORE. Where you can find things: Miss Dress Facebook Community

Stephanie Alys is the founder and Chief Pleasure Officer of Mystery Vibe. A company she founded which designs and creates innovative luxury smart vibrators for all. This is sex tech at the cutting edge. Stephanie won the Veuve Clicquot New Generation Award which unearths and identifies new female talent in the UK. Her mission is to close the pleasure gap by bringing equality to sex. She has some top tips on how to have it all in the bedroom. Definitely worth a listen. In other (tech) news: Thanks to Nate Lanxon for having me guest host his show Tech's Message this week. Where you can find things: The website: Mystery Vibe The awards: Veuve Clicquot Research I referenced on faking it: Archives of Sexual Behaviour

Hi - welcome to my newly rebranded podcast Show Me The Way - new look, new name, same content - great women telling their stories. In the first episode of the new series I speak to Annie Ridout, the editor-in-chief of the digital lifestyle and parenting magazine The Early Hour. She has recently published her first non-fiction book "The Freelance Mum - a flexible career guide for better work life balance". Where you can find things: The website: The Early Hour The app: Clementine The book: The Freelance Mum Annie's instagram: Annie

In this episode of Show Me The Way I sit down with IVF specialist and founder of CREATE fertility, Professor Geeta Nargund. If you want to have a baby, have considered egg freezing, are in your early 30's and don't have a partner or do have a partner but don't want to have a baby yet but think you might in the future, if you're a mother, father, grandmother, friend...Basically if you're anyone who has an interest in future generations, then this episode is for you. That's because it talks about what isn't talked about enough: sperm and eggs and how important it is to know the facts about fertility to save heartache and LOTS of money. Prof Nargund is a pioneer in the field of Natural and Mild IVF. In layman's terms that means using the least drugs possible to make a baby in the safest possible way. With 1 out of 6 couples now requiring a fertility doctor to help them achieve a pregnancy she believes that fertility testing for women and men should be provided on the NHS as a preventative measure to enable people to take proactive measures to conceive naturally and avoid expensive and stressful IVF treatment. She also believes that egg freezing is the second wave of emancipation for women after the oral contraceptive pill. Listen. Subscribe. Tell you friends. Let's get this message heard. You can find out about CREATE fertility open evenings mentioned on the show by clicking here: Open Evenings

You can find out more about the charity work that Geeta and CREATE does by clicking here: Create Health Foundation