Urban Assistant

Wow! Another amazing night meeting amazing women and listening to 3 very inspiring and motivating women.

The speakers at the event were Sam Baker, Editor-in-Chief of Red magazine, Lorraine Pascale who is a chef and author and Sarah Walter who has just launched Style-passport.com.

It was clear that Sam always had an urge to write, and Sarah always wanted to run her own fashion empire, (she used to pretend she ran Selfridges as a child), but Lorraine tried many many things including car mechanics and hypnotherapy before realising cooking was her passion. Oh and did I mention she was the first British black model to grace the cover of US Elle magazine?

This event was all about turning your passion into a business.  Well I guess one of the things I’m passionate about is getting people organised. I hate mess and clutter at home – and I hate the thought of people at work drowning in admin and not being able to work efficiently and effectively because of it.  That’s why i’ve been a PA for around 15 years.  I’m also a little bossy which helps.

I am passionate about supporting people in business, making their working lives as stress free as possible by taking on all the things they don’t have time to do or just don’t like doing.

I am also rather in love with the whole social media world. I love tweeting on behalf of my clients – and interacting with their followers on their behalf. Being their voice in the Twitterverse. I love it. And am hoping to get more and more involved in this aspect of my business as I think i’m pretty good at it!

My passion may not be as glamourous as some – but it’s what I do. I do it well. And it makes me REALLY warm and fuzzy inside.

If you want to make me feel warm and fuzzy inside, let me transform your office/business into a well oiled machine… Go on, you won’t regret it.

Have a look at some of the photos from the event and a short video with highlights from all of the fabulous speakers:

http://www.redonline.co.uk/red-women/the-red-network/event-3-find-your-passion

Im really hoping Red do another event in London soon – I’m addicted.

Have a look at the official write-up of the event hosted by Marie Claire a couple of weeks ago.

The fabulous Carole White from Premier Model Management spoke about how she made it in business and gave us some great tips to make it to the top!

I got a front row seat and a great goodie bag as well as some excellent advice.

http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/inspireandmentor/525672/how-to-get-into-business-with-carole-white.html

My Notes…

Carole is just as she is when you see her in The Model Agency documentary.  I get the impression that what you see is truly what you get.

She is a very attractive, dynamic, outspoken – tell it how it is kind of girl.

She told us how she started the business with her brother with just £7000 personal investment after being made redundant from another model agency.

For the next 10 years they relied heavily on a huge overdraft from Barclays bank before finally making a profit around 10 years into the venture.

She loves working with her family as she feels they can have their crazy fights and disagreements without ending up in an industrial tribunal!

She counts Richard Branson,  Mary Portas and Maggie Thatcher as her inspiration. She had a very close relationship with Naomi Campbell for many years but it was always a tough one and she tells us that even in the early days she knew the relationship would end badly.  (She couldn’t say much more due to an ongoing legal battle with the delightful Ms Campbell).

Carole explained that at the start of their careers, British models are insecure and needy, but Eastern Block models are the most ambitious and determined creatures you are ever likely to meet.

Despite the press opinion of today’s skinny models, Carole doesn’t believe that editorial models are any skinnier now than they were 20 years ago.

Carole has a wonderfully exciting job with her agency and gets to travel the world and mingle with the top-dogs.  One thing I can confirm that Carole and I have in common is our dislike of completing our tax return forms…

She counts being assigned to get the girls for George Michael’s Freedom video as the moment she knew she had ‘made it’.  She managed to get Cindy, Naomi, Linda and Christy despite the fact that none of them with signed to her agency.

It was great to meet and be inspired by Carole. Now all I need is for her to sign me up – not as a model of course, but as her Social Media Manager and Virtual Assistant.

Watch this space…

http://www.marieclaire.co.uk/news/celebrity/516884/new-must-see-tv-the-model-agency.html

I am really excited right now as I am on the brink of a new venture.  It will make Urban Assistant even better.

I have a meeting tomorrow to discuss a few options and hope to have it all wrapped up by the middle of this week.

I will keep you posted…

I am the one doing the big boob impressions about 10 seconds in! Typical…

http://www.redonline.co.uk/red-women/the-red-network/event-2

It was an amazing night and I met with some fabulous, inspirational women.   Really looking forward to the next one.

I have been busy doing my own admin today. Funny how I make my living by doing everyone else’s and mine is in such a mess!  All sorted now and neatness has been restored.

Harry (2yrs) has been home today too which really doesn’t allow me to get an awful lot done.  I’ve managed a few things in between the jigsaws and tower building but not a great deal. Much more play than work but it’s great to spend time with him.

I have booked his nursery days for next week so I have planned all of next weeks work in advance. I can relax now and enjoy the weekend.

I also had a nice chat with my mother-in-law, Rosie – she told me about a BBC Radio Four, Womens Hour programme today about women in business. I missed it but will be having a look at it later on iPlayer:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00y8vb0/Womans_Hour_10_02_2011/

I had a great evening last night at Red Magazine Network event which was held at The Hospital Club in London.  The lovely ladies on the panel were Jo Malone of Jo Malone obviously, Sarah Curran of My-Wardrobe.com and Joanne Matthews of  TenPilates.

It’s hard to believe that in the beginning, Jo Malone was refused a £100 overdraft by her bank when she needed to buy some supplies for her new business!  She has certainly come a long long way since then.

It was great to talk to so many women who are determined to set up businesses of their own. I met lots of like-minded mums too who are working from home so they can be there for their children but still maintain their independence (and their sanity).