Premium Member Profile - Rachel Extance
Rachel Extance is an introvert who helps other people shine!
When Rachel first joined Drive she made it very clear that she wasn’t comfortable talking about herself or being the centre of attention but she loved learning about everyone else.
This was very handy in her career as an award-winning journalist but not a great advantage for someone who was starting a small business and had to find a way of promoting herself and her services.
Six years on and Rachel is still an introvert (we don’t change) but has overcome her reluctance to talk about how she can help other business owners get their messages out to the world so that they can build their own business.
Rachel has run numerous workshops for Drive members on how to write for their business: How to Create Content When You’re Short of Time (this is great fun!); How to Structure and Plan your Business Story; How to use Blogging to Build Your Business; How to Find the Stories that Appeal to your Target Audience. They’re all available in our Learning Hub
Rachel’s Writing Club for coaches and consultants is also proving to be a great success with Rachel’s mentoring and accountability encouraging members to be adventurous with their writing.
The Story Cave is Rachel's place for sharing a love of writing. She describes it as an homage to how humans have shared stories with each other for millennia, a warm and inviting place where people have conversations about all kinds of topics from copywriting to climate change, what they are reading to research. You can get regular updates from the Story Cave by signing up on Rachel's website.
In a world of so much mediocre content we’re very lucky to have Rachel on hand to offer advice and inspiration to our members!
Premium Members Profile - Charlie Ashley-Roberts
Charlie Ashley Roberts came along to a Drive meeting back in 2017 and said, “I’m in!”
Charlie recognised straight away that our values were aligned, and she’s been an enthusiastic member ever since, running small group meetings in St Neots, UK, where she lives, as well as taking part in other Drive activities and her local community.
After she was made redundant from her role as a pharmaceutical scientist at 3M Charlie trained as a careers advisor and joined the Royal Society of Chemistry, looking after their graduate training programme and then leading the RSC Careers Service. She then launched her own careers coaching business Your Time to Grow. She specialises in supporting women who are in or aspiring to leadership roles who may be feeling lost in their career.
Charlie’s coaching may be career focused but she is also a huge support to everyone in Drive, sharing coaching programmes that help our members make sense of everyday challenges. Her newsletter, podcasts and YouTube videos are all aimed at helping as many people as possible.
We’re all in awe of how much she accomplishes with a busy family life, seemingly effortless multi-tasking and still finding time for vegan baking and an impressive running schedule!
There’s an old saying about busy people always getting things done and it’s certainly true of Charlie. She’s never too busy to help others!
Premium Member Profile - Berenice Howard-Smith
Berenice won three Blue Peter badges for drawing and that was the start of her career!
Berenice (pronounced Ber – e – niece) has an MA in Graphic Design and Typography and runs her business Hello Lovely Design, an award-winning, full creative service for print, book and online design plus image and illustration commissioning, to help those who want design to enhance their work. From small businesses to book publishers (including the world famous Cambridge University Press) Berenice regards each piece of work as an adventure and an opportunity to educate anyone who is interested in the way design makes our life better, easier and more beautiful.
From poetic descriptions of font history, font pairings and the often overlooked “spine design” of books, Berenice shares her knowledge with joy and enthusiasm. Sign up to her newsletter “Gorgeous”to get your share!
Her knowledge of sourcing images, copyright law and printing has saved many a self-published author from a heap of trouble. She has studied inclusive design, making sure that not only is information easily accessible to a wide range of people but that a wide range of people see themselves represented.
As well as sharing the joys of design, Berenice, along with two colleagues, has created a world wide community of people who support those who are childless not by choice, many of whom are enduring the life changing effects of failed IVF.
Berenice was at first hesitant about sharing so much of her personal life but she’s been encouraged by those of us who are keen to learn more so that we can better support friends and family members who are affected, especially the men in these relationships, of whom very little is known or documented.
Learn more about this work at The Full Stop Podcast
Many Drive members are keen to do all they can to help reverse climate change and Berenice is our go-to-person whenever we want to check the claims of eco-friendly products or services. She is unfailingly generous in her support of Drive members and a dedicated collaborator, harnessing and enhancing other people's talents wherever she can.
I'm sure we've got a lot more to learn from her!
Premium Member Profile - Helen Lindop
Helen Lindop is a self-confessed geek who loves working with people.
It's no surprise that Helen uses her skills to help other small business owners but unlike a lot of geeks, she makes it all very easy and accessible to people who don't love tech as a much as she does! Using plain language and a calm, pragmatic approach is Helen's secret to making tech easy.
Helen’s extensive research into what sort of training would make the biggest difference to small business typically isn’t a flashy quick fix but a simple business practice that has stood the test of time – email marketing.
Helen has helped many businesses work out their strategy and implement email marketing, mailing lists and newsletters, showing them how to manage growing lists and repeat business.
Helen’s early career as a software trainer with a PGCE, and post grad diploma in Training and Development, comes through in everything she does. Before she joined Drive, I’d long admired the way she shared her own learning for the benefit of others and wasn’t afraid to try new things in public. “Giving it a go” was her style and that was hugely helpful to a lot of people finding their way through the digital landscape.
Everyone who has benefitted from Helen’s training talks about her calm, clear, well-paced approach, utterly practical, and focused on helping people solve problems with no ego in the equation.
With many businesses suffering from the disruption of social media platforms that deny them access to their contacts there has never been a better time for businesses to build their own lists and contact their customers directly. Helen provides all the support that small businesses need to make this work.
As well as a trainer and business owner, Helen draws cartoons, and her robot, Speedy, can be be seen on many of her blog posts, training programmes and social media posts.
We’re very lucky to have Helen in Drive, She’s not only shared a lot of invaluable knowledge in our Learning Hub and has had a direct and very positive impact on many of our members’ businesses, she is one of the nicest people you could meet!
Find Helen at www.helenlindop.com and https://www.linkedin.com/in/helenlindop/
Premium Member Profile - Emma James
Emma James, the Number Ninja, has been making us giggle since the day we met her.
Emma joined Drive shortly after we launched in 2016, overcoming her natural aversion to meeting people and immediately dispelling the myth that accountants and bookkeepers are boring.
Emma calls our unique style of networking "peopling" as in: "I love Drive because it's peopling without feeling like you're peopling. I love being part of this group."
Styling her business as The Number Ninja gives us a clue about Emma’s sense of humour and you need only spend a short time in her company to know that the three little known facts featured on her LinkedIn profile are just the tip of the iceberg!
Throughout her membership Emma has helped our members by answering questions, running workshops and sharing practical tips on how to simplify bookkeeping in a small business, why it’s a more important skill to learn than marketing (OK that might have been me), how to use Xero, and most recently a superb post on her blog that de-mystifies all the promises of creating a six figure business that we see on social media: What is a six figure business (really)?
We’re always glad when Emma turns up at meetings and shares her utterly practical knowledge in a way that makes us laugh.
Premium Member Profile - David Brown
David Brown ACC, CPCC is our next Premium Member in the spotlight.
David joined Drive very shortly after we launched in May 2016 and just three months later offered to lead a Drive Group in St Ives and Huntingdon, inviting some great speakers and creating some wonderful experiences.
For the past ten years David has been running his life coaching practice, Potentiality Coaching, which he started after gaining an MPhil in Biochemistry and working at the University of Cambridge researching neuroscience.
David’s love of studying and teaching martial arts, which he has been doing for over 30 years, has a huge influence on his coaching practice where he uses archetypes to model human behaviour and potential and helps people become aware of how their body reflects and can influence the way they feel.
In his workshops for Drive members David introduced us to the Sovereign, Warrior, Lover and Magician archetypes and helped us get through Covid lockdowns by learning to listen to our bodies and keep moving. His unfailing kindness is reflected in his work with the Samaritans and we’re very lucky to have such a generous coach and teacher in our tribe.
He also has the best hugs 🤗
Premium Member Profile - Jon Torrens
Next in our series of profiles of Premium Members is Jon Torrens
Jon accepted my invitation to join Drive before the launch meeting in 2016, and I'm grateful for his trust that we’d figure everything out.
In March 2023, Jon will be celebrating the ten-year anniversary of starting his business, Confident Communications, teaching people the verbal communication skills they need for hosting events, preparing and delivering presentations, creative pitching and all forms of public speaking.
As well as being an introvert who enjoys public speaking, Jon worked for almost three years as a compere and stand-up comic and is an experienced games developer with a passion for super-heroes. This explains why his training is so popular with teams at companies like Microsoft, Foster+ Partners, Redgate, Raspberry Pi, Creative Assembly and other tech and games companies. He understands how introverts think and feel and he makes the training fun.
One of my favourite techniques that Jon teaches is to identify your super hero or alter ego and step into that persona when you start a presentation.
Its great to see Jon’s business flourishing and how much people enjoy the tips he shares for improving their communication skills.
You can see lots of short videos, blog posts and tips for confident speaking at Jon Torrens - Communication Coach
Premium Member Profile - Andy Boothman
Andy Boothman, our very first member, joined in 2016 (before we launched!)
Andy is celebrating 26 years of running his branding business Busy as AB - creating a buzz for your business. He joined Drive as soon as he'd finished designing our branding, before anyone else knew about us!
In 2018 his passion for design and clothes gave birth to DressCode Shirts
An exciting journey of learning about sustainable manufacturing, wearable tech (check out the The CashCuff®) and many other new adventures has kept Andy very busy all through the pandemic and he's now looking forward to pushing forward with both businesses this year.
As well as using sustainable manufacturing processes, Andy works with More Trees to plant a tree every time a DressCode Shirt is sold.
When he's not photographing rust, listening to live music, riding his mountain bike and having fun with his young family, Andy likes to take part in the Distinguished Gentleman's Ride, an annual event that unites classic and vintage style motorcycle riders all over the world to raise funds and awareness for prostate cancer research and men’s mental health.
Here's Andy wearing The Climate Code Shirt, designed for The British Antarctic Survey that uses 800,000 years of data from the polar regions to clearly highlight global warming.
Andy is unfailingly generous and helpful to all our members, selflessly sharing his experience and expertise.
Thanks for all your support Andy!