30th Anniversary Celebration series | Emmanuelle Verhagen — Entrepreneurship Programme
As part of PWI Brussels 30th anniversary celebration, here is the first interview of a series that will celebrate the rich history and achievements of this association. We will bring to you some of the volunteer voices that contributed to PWI Brussels success throughout its 30 years. It was my pleasure to interview Emmanuelle Verhagen — Founder of the Entrepreneurship Programme — The Growth Club.
Grace Nicola: Emmanuelle, tell us a little about yourself, what do you do know?
Emmanuelle Verhagen: I was born and raised in Belgium. I am a transwoman and an intersex advocate. I am currently working as a diversity consultant with Actiris, which is the labour market regulator in Brussels. In my role I work with diversity and inclusion which is the thing I love doing. I am also a coach and I do plenty of other stuff besides that like designing shoes. I’m also writing a play, which I hope to make into a book at the same time. I founded an NGO working on the Intersex, so yes, I keep busy.
Grace Nicola: What brought you to PWI Brussels?
Emmanuelle Verhagen: I have an international background and career, after my transition that kind of just fell apart completely, going through my transition all of that went away. I got back to being very Belgian which I felt was somewhat limiting, giving my experience. For me it was very important to get back to an international environment and build new relationships. I was looking for a group of people, that didn’t have Dutch or French as a primary language and will enable me to build my network and connect, the key thing for me was networking.
Grace Nicola: You mentioned that you love working with Diversity & Inclusion, what does D&I mean to you?
Emmanuelle Verhagen: I will start with where it comes from. A few years ago, I was working with Nokia in a project that was aimed at understanding how technology can expand or help the development of different groups of people. The main question to address in that particular project was how can you bring telecommunications technology to people who have a hard time surviving? I was in charge of an anthropological study in China and India. I went among others to live in the slums in Mumbai, where I spend a month.
The whole project opened my eyes and made me realise that whatever privileged I might have I am not different as a human being. I recognise my privilege compared to people leaving in the slums in Mumbai, but at the same time the way I function or operate is nearly identical. They don’t need cell phones, like I don’t need cell phones. However, there is a need for conversation and creating meaningful connections, and that kind of got stuck with me. I became passionate and curious about what is a meaningful relationship. For me inclusion is all about that, is about having a conversation, full stop, it is as easy and simple as that.
The etymology of the word conversation is very interesting, it comes from an old word that means a place to be, to be safe and to share. Inclusion is about creating a conversation, creating a beautiful union of minds. Once you start creating that, you start including the other into your life and that’s where inclusion happens. I believe that the practice of inclusion is creating meaningful conversations. I am a conversationalist, because I love creating meaningful conversations.
Grace Nicola: What was your motivation to create entrepreneurship programme at PWI Brussels?
Emmanuelle Verhagen: Something I noticed at the time was that within PWI Brussels there were basically three groups: the entrepreneurs, the free-lancers or solopreneurs and a people from the corporate environment. In my opinion, entrepreneurship is the commitment to build a business, your focus should be on building something lasting which is beyond yourself. It’s getting yourself out of the equation as soon as possible. The question I asked myself is how I can build a platform that enables people to really build a business. If you want to become an entrepreneur, then you have to be inspired by people who have done that, meeting and interacting with them is so important, because they have the stuff you need to grow. That was for me the starting point for creating a programme around that, where there is room for everyone who has an interest in creating a business to learn and enrich their experience with people that have done it.
The idea behind the Growth Club was having that meaningful conversation between people who have a desire to grow, that is why it is called the Growth Club. For me it was never a personal growth story, because there were plenty of initiatives already within PWI Brussels which focused on personal development, which is all the human side of things but for me there was a need for a business side. How could I enable people to connect within a context that if they want to grow and build a business, that’s where you go, where you will find the people you need to meet. That is the idea!
Grace Nicola: What is your advice to women of PWI that are exploring or beginning to experience entrepreneurship?
Emmanuelle Verhagen: Entrepreneurship for me is figuring out what problem need to be solved, understanding and validating that it is a problem that everybody has. From there you can start building a business. The largest entrepreneurial trap is thinking your solution is great and forgetting to fit it with the actual problem. Entrepreneurship is going out there and doing it. There is this rule described as 50 coffees, you have to drink 50 coffees before you launch your business, but you have to go for the 50 coffees now, not spread over 6-months, but in the shortest amount of time possible.
When you have a great idea or a great solution that addresses a problem then just go check it as soon as possible, and as deep as possible, with the desire to make your solution fail, because you need to have a solution which is robust and does make sense. I come from the pre-lean thinking and pre-agile thinking. We used to call it rapid application development. It is that idea of how to cut your process as short as possible and just launch it. I remember this mantra that says: launch it, break it and fix it live. Entrepreneurship is about just launching and be ready to launch different versions of your solution, because you know things will fail. Be prepared to fail. From the coaching perspective I used FAIL a lot as mnemonic as First Attempt In Learning, so failing is ok because it’s your first attempt in learning, so you can move on to the second attempt in learning, which selling your product or solution, which is more fun.
Grace Nicola: What is your wish for PWI Brussels in the next 30 years?
Emmanuelle Verhagen: That it continues to grow, to become bigger and larger and all the more present. The beauty of PWI Brussels is that it is an international platform. I believe that it could be even more the bridging community within Brussels, extending its reach even more to Belgian nationals, build more inclusion because the conversations will be different. Something, I really like about PWI Brussels is the openness towards including men in the conversation and that is what I loved about the whole concept, to enable women to progress in society engaging and teaming up with men.
Christine Masure succeeded Emmanuelle Verhagen and is the current Entrepreneurship Programme Director. For Christine The Growth Club is more than a business club. The Growth Club is a safe place where women who intend to launch their own company or want to scale up their business can learn best practices, share their own experience and help each other. In her own words: “We want to keep it cosy, friendly, generous and also with high quality content. We select our keynote speakers according to their entrepreneurial experience, their knowledge on specific business issues and their ability to share tips in a very articulated manner. When you attend The Growth Club, you are sure to leave the gathering with actionable tips for your business, new friends, and possibly new business associates. You become part of a community of like-minded women, who are ready to take their business to the next level and at the same time help each other through the ups and downs of the entrepreneurial life.”
