The road so far

An intro to who I am and how ‘R&AL4E’ came about…

Intro

Lean Startup trainer, coach and mentor; Innovator; Entrepreneur; Business consultant and supporter of startups; mountain biker, beekeeper, countryside dweller

I worked for nearly ten years as a business consultant in enterprise IT.

Now, I work with clients to harness the Lean Startup framework to create growth, innovation, and greater agility. I’ve always loved ideas — having ideas myself, and creating ‘safe enough’ space for others make the most of theirs. Together we figure out ways to make great things happen.

I also worked at the (positive psychology) startup Happiest; helped set up the Searchcamp accelerator programme in Middlesbrough; and was a Director of — and bootstrapped — Dynamo North East, a social enterprise, whose goal is to grow the Regional enterprise IT economy.

As a psychology graduate and practitioner of personal development, I am keen to do the right things for the right reasons — and work with others to make the most of what they bring to the World.

How I got to Resilience and Authentic Leadership for Entrepreneurs

In May 2016, I volunteered at Leanconf, and then jointly ran a session with Constantina Muston on the Saturday at Leancamp which addressed issues of mental health and wellbeing.

Since then I have been pulling together materials relating to my own personal development activity, and seeking a fit between my work as described above.

Through a dear friend Claire Maxwell, I reconnected with Nick Ellerby at the the Oasis School of Human Relations. In turn, Nick kindly connected me with Valerie Monti Holland.

Valerie and I maintained a dialogue for six months or so. It was when I found out about the Creative Fuse North East innovation pilots that we discussed a way to ‘level up’ our activity. Claire and I connected at an event in Newcastle, and then together pitched for the innovation pilot funding. Successfully as it turns out!

In sum

I create greater client productivity and market success by teaching masterclasses; structuring and delivering consultancy to build corporate cultures supportive of innovation, the process to support it, and the tools which can make it happen.

I am super happy that Claire, Valerie and I are working together on a topic which is important to us all, and which motivates us to ‘make of ourselves a light’.