Join me for the next brunch at The Chubby Frog on April 8th at 11am
For a little while it's been in my head & my heart to create a get together for local entrepreneurs and business owners to connect, collaborate and cultivate a little community. The vision was clear - I wanted it to be an informal, relaxed, with a no pressue kind of vibe and I didn't want to make any money from it.... a sort of free anti networking networking event where creatives could meet up and have the kind conversations that only us bold enough go against the grain and take more risks and be willing to accept more failures than regular folk. Because let's be honest, entrepreneurial life, whilst hugely rewarding, is not for the faint of heart! And like most things in life - we're always stronger together!
After spending almost 15 years running businesses, mainly solo from the comfort of my own home, I know only too well how easy it can be to feel like you're on your own pursuing goals and ambitions so wild that they make family members roll their eyes and say things that imply "Well just make sure you're insured because you'll probably fail" ( true story! ) But it wasnt until I started travelling out to America every year to attend Lewis Howes Summit of Greatness, that I realised the deeper value of connections and community as a business owner and entrepreneur.
For the past 2 years I've traveled out to Ohio (this year the summit is in LA and I honestly can't wait!) and every time I came home from the summit I would feel SO unbelievably excited, inspired and bursting with ideas. But then after a month or so, that feeling dissipated and was replaced with something akin to loneliness. Not in life, but in the context of being a buisness owner. And whilst I have an INCREDIBLE partner in life and in business who is my rock and the first one to say "Go for it! I believe in you!", he is also the only one I have shared my deepest ambitions with and the only one who sees the slog and the only one that share I the failures, losses and wins with. After the second year of going to the summit I saw the pattern clearly - when I came home and back to my regular day to day life, I would be excited - then I'd feel kind of flat. I wasn't having the same conversations. I wasn't connecting with people who's ideas and dreams and business were infinitely bigger than mine. Since the pandemic, my only source of inspiration from such people were the authors, creators and business owners who's work I was following on Instagram and on Podcasts. And although I'm truly grateful for the abilty to do so and learn from such amazing people, it started to feel like it wasn't quite enough.
That's when I realised what was missing - Connection, community and collaboration. In real life. Not just on instagram. And definitely not just once a year when I fly out to the states. I've since come to believe that these are key elements not only to running a successful business happily, but also to your own wellbeing as an individual.
Connecting with other local business women has been such a gift
And so the idea of the Business Brunch Club was born. Because if I felt this way, there's no way I'm on my own! I stared to get really curious about this, putting the feelers out online to test the water with my idea only to discover that as suspected, I was most definitely not on my own. Others were also seeking connection, support and potential opportunities to collaborate with other business owners.
This desire of mine to create a business brunch club also tied in beautifully with my goals for the restaurant we launched in December - I didn't want to just own a restaurant or another business. I wanted us to create something magical and a place in which we could foster community and connection, something I feel is still deeply lacking post pandemic. Even more so for those working from home or running online businesses where we tend to spend more time on connecting on Instagram than we do with people in real life!
Since launching the club in January we've had a wide range of local business owners and entrepreneurs, from Air BnB hosts, Events Entertainment Management, Life Coaches (not just me!) Marketing Companies, Skincare Experts, Artists, Yoga Practitioners, Sound Bath Facilitators, Property Investors, Network Marketers, Interior Designers, Cake Makers, Business Developers and even one lovely local lady who grows vegetables and flowers with sustainability at the heart of her business.
I can't tell you how happy it makes me to bring people together, to see the connections being made and the feedback has been the same at each event - "I didn't know how much I needed this" The next Business Brunch Club will be hosted again at my restaurant The Chubby Frog, in Caxton, Cambridge on the 8th of April at 11am, it's free to attend and we'd LOVE for you to join us! You dont need a bricks and mortar business, maybe you have a side hustle, maybe you're a digital nomad or simply a creative soul who's curious about business ownership and the entrepreneurial journey - all are welcome!
Hayley x