Small Business, Big Network

Nicola Auckland is a Business & Brand Photographer with a passion for the relationships formed between business owners, customer and brands. 

After her corporate career ended during Covid, she turned her profitable side-hustle into fully fledged wedding photography business. Whilst she loved this, she knew something wasn't quite right (and it had little to do with the number of Ed Sheeran songs she had to listen to!) In January 2023 she took the decision to pivot her business, completely cut off her numerous wedding leads and exclusively offer business and branding photography. 

She now offers personal branding photography to solopreneurs, branding photography to small businesses and corporate headshots to larger companies who prefer to have a photographer on-site. she also offers e-commerce product photography in a studio setting for her business customers with an online store. 

You can find out more by visiting her website and LinkedIn profile.

 https://www.nicolaaucklandphotography.co.uk/  https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolaaucklandphotography/

This episode is kindly sponsored by Yeseo.

SEO is BORING - but only when you're doing it wrong! Visit https://www.yeseo.io for a free consultation.

James West is the co-founder of ONLE Networking - the online business network for people who like people. He met his wife Kelly while networking and they built ONLE on the belief that most people can be trusted to network without the rules and protocols that get in the way of running a business.

Based on his own experiences, James believes that the secret power of networking is to provide business owners with access to the meaningful connections that are vital to good mental health.

ONLE currently has 350 members spread across 22 UK groups and two in the US - the latter helping prove that geography is no longer a limitation of networking.

Experience "the business network for people who like people" by booking a complimentary visit to an ONLE networking group. Use the discount code: SBBM to claim your free £10 online meeting visit:

https://theonle.network/meeting-calendar

Camilla is a Vedic Meditation expert, based in Kent, UK

Camilla trained as a primary school teacher in 2000 and learnt to meditate when she was an Assistant Headteacher in an inner city London school. 

After meditating, she worked as a gardening teacher in the Eden Project, a chef and cooking teacher in Sydney and then returned to the UK to live in the family home, Owletts, a National Trust property. 

She recently left the class room and, armed with Sanskrit GCSE (grade A!) she began teaching adults - how to read and write Sanskrit (the Devanagari Script).

She runs cacao ceremonies and wellbeing retreats in Kent and Gloucestershire. 

Meditation is still her favourite thing to teach.

She trained in India in 2014 with Thom Knoles, and currently supports advanced meditators across Europe preparing for teacher training. 

She is Director of Herbert Baker Furniture and co-founder of Lost Crafts CIC - supporting arts and crafts and wellbeing for Neurdiverse families.

She lives with her son and 2 dogs at Owletts, (a National Trust property) where her family have lived since 1783.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/camilla-baker-meditation/

https://www.vedicmeditationbycamilla.co.uk

https://herbertbaker.com

Claire Waite Brown is the founder of the Creativity Found podcast where she interviews people about being creative in later life.

She has also built the Creativity Found website to help grown-ups find their creativity by listing courses, workshops, events, books, products and subscriptions with creativity at their heart.

In addition she has created a network to support and promote artistic and creative facilitators who help adults to get creative. Membership is more than just a listing on a website, and includes access to monthly online meetups to connect with likeminded creative facilitators and suppliers.

www.creativityfound.co.uk

Apple Podcasts Creativity Found and on all other podcast platforms

Instagram @creativityfoundpodcast YouTube @creativityfoundpodcast

Facebook @creativityfoundpodcast and Creativity Found group

Linkedin Claire Waite Brown Pinterest @creativityfound  

Martin Whiskin and Ben Bowles (collectively known as Bentin) are the founders of The Creative Collective (TCC), an online networking group for people in creative industries.

Their motto is 'collaboration not competition' and their meetings regularly attract 30+ attendees which suggests it's an approach that works!

Find out more at:

www.thecreativecollectivenetworking.co.uk

Today's episode is kindly sponsored by Sheena Whyatt of Kapow! Sheena is a fantastic coach for small business owners who has just created an online library of fantastically useful business books which can be accessed for just £5.99 a month 😊 . Visit https://heroes.kapowme.com/superchargeclub to get your library card now.

In 2015, Debra decided to leave the corporate world and do something. Exactly what she was going to do was somewhat unclear! She decided to focus on smaller businesses and see if she could use her experience to support them. Having set up a website, she realised that she needed to get the message out which led to her joining various networking groups - a new and, initially somewhat uncomfortable, experience! 

As her business progressed, Debra - like so many of us - tried to find her niche. Starting her own podcast in 2018 marked a turning point in her services. Recognising the challenges and obstacles that we can face when starting a podcast, Debra now provides 3 distinct services: Podcast Start, Podcast Refresh and Podcast Connect.

Find out more about Debra at www.bridgeroadconsultants.com.

Learn more about the Podcast Connector and sign up as either a podcaster or a guest:

https://bridgeroad.ac-page.com/Podcast-Connector-Founding-Membership

Connect with her on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/levittdebra/

Listen to Debra's original podcast, Bridging Gaps - The Business Podcast https://modusevolvere.com/podcasts/ (note this podcast has now stopped but there are many interesting interviews available)

Today's episode is kindly sponsored by Sheena Whyatt of Kapow! Sheena is a fantastic coach for small business owners who has just created an online library of fantastically useful business books which can be accessed for just £5.99 a month 😊 . Visit https://heroes.kapowme.com/superchargeclub to get your library card now.

Anna is a Sexual Intimacy Expert and Your YOU Coach, operating from China where her focus lies in helping women who’re disappointed, disconnected and detached in their relationships accelerate their intimate connection with their partner with her INTIMACY ACCELERATION 3 Step System.

She has helped 100s of women shift from desperate and frustrated to delighted and confident by integrating coaching approaches, psychological theories and NLP in all of her coaching.

Additionally, she speaks, educates and writes about sexuality, intimacy, relationships, and mindset. 

In China, she has established herself as the go-to Mental Health Specialist for expats, and in Uganda, she volunteers as Relationship Consultant in one of the biggest refugee camps. 

Links

AnnaThellmann.com

https://annathellmann.com

Landing Page

https://intimacyacceleration.my.canva.site/

LinkedIn

www.linkedin.com/in/annathellmanncoaching

Insight Timer

https://insighttimer.com/AnnaThellmann

Tom Jepson is a coach for creative people who describes himself as being slightly rebellious and also quite nerdy!

Tom's background is in the design industry as both an employee and a freelancer, so he understands the issues that creative business owners face.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/tomjepsoncoaching/

https://www.tomjepsoncreative.com

Branding is all about creating an emotional connection between the brand and their ideal customer. When that prospective customer encounters your brand, it should create an instant feeling. That feeling if done correctly should grow and turn that customer into a customer for life. That’s exactly what Squark Design help business owners to do – build trust, loyalty and excitement in their brand. 

Links: 

Website: https://www.squarkdesign.com/

Discovery meeting: https://www.squarkdesign.com/contact/

Brand power Hour Q&A - Register your interest: 

https://www.squarkdesign.com/brand-power-hour-qa-interest/

Gemma Adair is the founder of Riada Consultancy, a marketing expert who helps businesses unlock their marketing potential. With an impressive 20-year marketing journey, Gemma has worked for and with some of the world's largest tech giants, including Accenture, Microsoft, Avanade, AWS, Ricoh Europe, and K2 (Nintex). Her deep understanding of the tech industry shines through her expertise in marketing strategy, crafting multi-channel campaigns, spearheading lead generation, forging powerful partner alliances, and ensuring seamless sales alignment across regions like the UK and EMEA.

Gemma is the host of the 'What's Sales and Marketing got to do with it' podcast which is on YouTube: https://bit.ly/3JVp9c8 and Spotify: https://bit.ly/46SFyrG

She is also a trustee of the Aleto foundation which exists to Identify tomorrow’s leaders irrespective of their race, gender, faith or ethnicity, and provide personalised opportunities and awards to accelerate development of those leaders for whom such support is not ordinarily available.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/gemmaadair/

https://riadaconsultancy.com

https://www.aletofoundation.org.uk