Behind the Scenes: a peek into The Ask.
What I'm building, the learnings and developments and how I've stayed true to my North Star.
Hi all!
It’s that time of the week again and today a more personal post, with a behind the scenes into my business.
Read about my business-building journey, details on upcoming events and a first peek at the upcoming Intern opportunity with The Ask.
The timing of this newsletter coincides with me hitting the one month abroad in Cyprus, working remotely, and also (sob) soon to return home to cold rainy London.
Coming away was a bit of a punt, but on a personal and professional level, has been an incredible payoff. So much so that I’ve extended not once but twice over and there is a chance I’ll come back again before the year is up.
Snapshot from a Friday evening working past 7 pm isn’t so bad with views like these :)
Watching my business grow whilst being here has been a blessing. Things falling into place after months of hard work and some levels of fear and insecurity about building a business in a pandemic and economic recession is a welcomed feeling of alignment and relief.
But with greater success comes greater levels of personal growth, responsibility, and stress.
I’ve worked longer hours this last few weeks than I have for years, and my brain is rarely thinking about much else. I’ve neglected many of my usual staples (exercise, meditation, journaling) and the list of unanswered emails, texts, and people to give energy to is growing each day.
This isn’t sustainable in the long run but it’s a sacrifice that has felt easy to make when the sun is shining, COVID is almost non-existent here and weekends are spent beach-side. I’m not sure what this level of hustle will look or feel like back in London when reality sinks in that this is my new normal.
Strategic planning, support systems, and intentional rest will be required and this is all a learning curve for me. When you’re your own boss you don’t have an HR department to turn to when things get tough. You have to manage your energy flows and create enough self-awareness to spot when things might fall apart, well ahead of time.
I share all this with you today because authenticity is a core value. At times too much authenticity poses risk — revealing blind spots and areas of weakness. But it’s a risk I’m willing to take because my ‘why’ is bigger than my vulnerability.
My ‘why’ is helping people to do work they love in this world.
I believe we are hardwired to do meaningful work on a soul-level.
Love him or hate him, this Steve Jobs quote sums it up pretty neatly to me:
“Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it.”
— Steve Jobs
My ‘why’ is about helping you to do work you love. I know that for many of you this includes having a business of your own one day. I hope you might learn something through me to help you make an informed decision.
Ps if you’re new here you can typically find posts such as: How to negotiate your salary; How productivity helps you get more done; Can you make an income from your passion?
This newsletter is one of many aspects of The Ask.
I’m reviewing it as I shape how the business runs which means it might look a little different soon. If you get any value from reading these posts I’d love your input. Can you spend 2 min filling out this survey about how I can best support you with your career queries?
Thanks to those who did last week, I’d love to get a few more responses before switching too much up :)
My recent learnings and developments
Following how I’m wired
Core to doing work you love is understanding how you are wired, what drives and motivates you and gives you energy. This is the stuff I work on with my clients and it makes sense that I continually review these questions for myself. I observe where time flies (my flow), where excited feelings come from and what piques my interest. Whilst I love 1-1 coaching and going deep with people, I also love the high energy nature of live workshops. I also love the introspection and solitude that comes with writing. I’ve been building a business around these blocks.
Doing ‘Free work’
There have been many times I’ve done work essentially for free. What free means however is hard to pin down. This newsletter is free for you to read and takes time out of paid work but then leads to other opportunities. Some workshops for corporates I run for free have led to paid opportunities.
When I feel overwhelmed and pulled in too many directions by ‘free’ work I spend time reviewing where the resentment might be coming from. If it doesn’t align with my values or long-term vision I’ll bin it but if it helps grow me and teach me something or help other people exponentially, its worth doing.
Finding time for Professional Development
I haven’t had as much time for learning and reading as I’d like. The act of sitting down and being ‘taught’ by someone is something I love but as it’s important and rarely urgent (the distinction is key) it often slips. What writing this newsletter does do however is force me to think about high-level concepts and make them actionable for other people. The art of learning your own craft in a more focused way has increased my confidence in what I know and makes me better equipped to help others. It’s learning of a different kind.
Using Coaches
I’m often asked about my own experiences with coaching. I’ve used three coaches over the last year and wanted to share what I gained from each as they have played unique and important roles in my journey.
Sula Bruce - Helped me when I was leaving a full-time job I disliked and experiment with what might be possible next (and pick me up from a place of feeling down)
Sophie Clyde Smith - We connected over our mutual love of coaching, personal development, and entrepreneurship as well as a background in recruitment. Sophie has been a huge shining light and influence on The Ask as her group coaching program and 1-1 support this year helped keep me accountable, feel my fear and do it anyway and share her own journey in a similar field. Sophie mentioned my business-building journey in this Huffington Post article which was pretty cool.
Alon Alperovitz - Helped me expand my horizons and look at things more holistically. Having met when I was in a state of desperation last year wanting to quit my job, he encouraged me to stay true to my path. He suggested I buy a symbolic gift to myself about my decision to start the company that lay in my heart. Almost one year ago I bought myself this bracelet thanks to Alon’s suggestion. To this day I’ve never taken it off. I call it my North Star.
The commonality between all these coaches? I’d seen them in action in some form or another, I trusted them and they were genuinely concerned with my personal development. Seek these out in your coach.
Now I’ve moved from coaching to mentoring. Coaching is good when you feel a bit stuck and fuzzy in your mindset and need some help aligning your actions with your hopes and dreams. Mentoring is more directive: you know what you are trying to do but you want someone who’s been there before to show you shortcuts and hone your craft. Excited to be working with Lara Sheldrake via my female founder’s community as of this month.
You are probably thinking this all sounds expensive, and it is. Investing in yourself is scary and can require sacrifices. It requires binning the excuses and finally making your dreams a priority. .
Working in Recruitment
In one form or another I’ve been working in recruitment for seven years. Doing so has helped me know what makes people successful at work, work with some of the leading startups in London, build my network and make decent money. Recruitment work has funded The Ask. I have not taken any investment and self-funded the journey to date which I doubt would be possible otherwise.
I used to believe I needed to leave it behind but now I’m now experimenting with ways to integrate recruitment into everything else more holistically. Helping people do work they love leads naturally into placing them into great roles. Watch this space for more.
Coaching private clients
Coaching people pursuing courageous career paths has led me down new roads of discovery and learning.
My private 1-1 client list has included people like Riikka who is setting up a fashion-tech start-up from scratch, supporting the environment in her way. People like Dan who is democratising access to coding and equalising the playing field in tech. Like Kiri who is shedding light on injustices via her work in a human rights charity and her political commentary via her own channels.
Its rewarding work getting to support people push the boundaries of what they thought was possible by unblocking limiting beliefs, increasing confidence and alignment in their work. I feel so grateful to support amazing humans in their missions.
My mentor Lara recently asked me what unifies my clients. I said people who are creative, big picture thinkers. Who are (more subtly) ambitious and determined and who are building their work around missions that are important to them.If this sounds like you (or you’d like to feel this way soon) I have one private coaching client slot available for November. Book a discovery call with me here.
Working with businesses
The Ask has been on a journey of its own when it comes to partnerships and I’m pleased to say all these experiences so far have been rewarding and led to follow-on work or contacts made.
So far this has included Bethnal Green Ventures, Jolt and Le Wagon, and Found & Flourish on the workshops/coaching side and Out of Hours, Lizzies Lines, and Hustle & Hush on the events side.
These businesses are united in their service to the worlds of personal and professional development, helping people who are also pursuing courageous career paths. If you are working in one of these businesses and would like to collaborate, get in touch.
And the main takeaway? Stop thinking and start doing
It hasn’t been a smooth ride but the journey so far has been eventful, rewarding, and full of moments of joy and surprise. The biggest takeaway? Get out of your head and out of thinking mode and into doing.
The faster you put something out there the faster you see how it feels in reality. You get feedback. You get input and support from the world.
I do what I do with an incredible support network. I share openly and share widely, and opportunities arise as a result.
If you are reading this wanting to do something similar — what action can you make that will make it all feel a little more ‘real’ this week?
Event upcoming
Lizzie Reid and I share missions of helping people understand themselves and doing the work that is meaningful to them in the world.
The Self-Reflection Toolkit for people on a mission
We’ve partnered to bring you this event on 27th October about following your mission with focus. If you find self-doubt and distraction can detract from your true north, you don’t want to miss this.
Use my code: THEASKNEWSLETTER for 10% off
Internship with The Ask.
Exciting development…..
Do you know someone at the start of their career who is super motivated, tech-savvy, and interested in personal and professional development?
I would love to speak to them as The Ask is launching an Internship programme.
This is a three month paid internship to support building The Ask. If you know of anyone who is super smart, organised, and (ideally) has experience in an early stage online business. In return, they will receive dedicated career development coaching and support from me and exposure to the worlds of coaching, content creation, community building and startup recruitment. Email me.
Thanks for reading as always and a reminder to take 2 min to fill out the survey to shape this newsletter around your needs 🙏
As always pressing <3 lets me know you’ve enjoyed this week’s edition and feel free to get in touch with any questions!
Until next time
Your Coach,
Ellen