#MyEntrePoint: Katherine Skelly
A motivational and supportive linguist — Katherine Skelly
Katherine Skelly Website
Katherine Skelly is an English teacher with a background in psychology and neuroscience. She also holds a master’s degree in teaching English as a foreign language, from the UK. Her entrepreneurial spirit has made her decide to incorporate the knowledge that she has into her teaching strategy to guide her clients to bring out the best in them.
In November 2019, she started her online business venture, Katherine Skelly, with the aim to mentor and guide non-native female entrepreneurs who need advanced English communication skills to run their businesses in English with confidence and expand globally.
The idea came about when she was scrolling through her Facebook and stumbled upon a business mentor. Katherine spent about at least a week researching, watching all her videos and reading her posts on how she had the kind of lifestyle and philosophy that Katherine wanted too. So, she decided to invest in herself by signing up for self-development courses and pursue higher education in what she is interested in.
Another reason is also that she realised that one of the many true factors is that women continue to struggle in the business world. It is so difficult for them to be respected, gain gender parity and have the right to receive a good education. The situation gets worse for them if they are not strong in English. She decided to combine all of her passions and knowledge to help out those who need her help to achieve more significant goals in life.
“I noticed that there will always be room to grow my business and as a person, no matter how much I have achieved in my life. So, I have decided to help women to fight for justice and be on par with other genders in the world. I want women to have the opportunity to transform their lives through great recognition and all the respect that they deserve.”
Katherine also spent six months studying Chinese when she was living in China. She has a great passion for learning different languages. However, she does face challenges when she would like to advance her learning in that particular language without having the right support to assist or guide her, especially when specific usage of terms or delivery of speech are required for business and networking.
If she had the chance to start her career all over again, she wouldn’t change anything as she believes that whatever she has been through has led her to where she is today. She also highlighted that she always takes action based on her own instincts, and continues to do that to achieve other dreams that she has to help transform women’s lives.
Katherine giving a talk to teenagers in Spain about the importance of English for their future careers and lives.
As a motivational linguist entrepreneur, Katherine has received multiple recognition for her contribution in Thrive Global and Vice Magazine and has appeared as a guest on The Entrepreneur Way podcast. She also holds multiple certifications such as:
● BSc Psychology and Neuroscience
● CELTA (Certificate in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages)
● M.A. Applied Linguistics and TESOL
● M.Ed. Teacher Training for Compulsory Secondary Education, Upper Secondary Education, Vocational Training and Language Teaching (specialising in English as a foreign language).
Katherine also mentioned that as a female entrepreneur, you are your own boss, and you also get to benefit from living the lifestyle that you have dreamed of. Another plus point is that, as a female, you do not need to put up with workplace inequality, politics and uninspiring environments. Your business is what you make it, so you can make it as fabulous and inviting as you want.
Katherine volunteering with elephants at a nature reserve in Thailand
She recommends entrepreneurs to invest their time in getting visible on social media and through publicity. She suggested joining various groups on Facebook to support female entrepreneurs and gain insights and value from them.
“If you are not ready to get yourself out there, you will never feel ready”, she says. So, it is better to put yourself out there as soon as you can because if you don’t, you will never do it in the future.
She also emphasised that having a planner would be a great help to help one to schedule your ideas and content for one’s social media. There are many free tools available on the internet such as Canva, Apple Voice Memo app, Audacity and many more to help one to kickstart on content creation.
Katherine Skelly is an English teacher with a passion for languages, travelling and helping others create their dream life. She also has her own online business focusing on mentoring international businesswomen to advance their communication skills to run their businesses globally. She has shown us that when women support and empower each other, anything can happen. Also, we should get ourselves out there and have our voice heard!
