If you’ve been on this business growth journey with me for long enough, you’ll know that foundations are a key to success, especially when they are tied to strong vision and core values.

I’ve lost count of the number of people who have asked me who my target market is, what’s my niche and who’s my ideal customer.

The answers to some of these questions are still shifting and changing but there’s a definite certainty in most of them.

Part of the work in finding those answers was looking back on all the years in my career to see what I’m actually about. Going really detailed with it and then putting a curious slant on it with a ‘why’ or a ‘so what’ and looking at the past with a future focused mindset:

• Why does that shape me now?
• What can that past experience bring to this situation?

I was tentative at first but the more I’ve looked back over the last few years, the more I fell in love with my past career all over again. Those of you who have gone through redundancy will know the impact it can have, the feelings you can take with you and hold against the past because of how it ended.

The focus ends up being all on that final chapter of an otherwise outstanding book! And it can sometimes take time to remember that the earlier chapters were overflowing with life, learning and joy.

Speaking of books – I’m not one to write a review but when a book grabs you the way a recent one did me, you have to tell your world about it.

That book was ‘I Shop, Therefore I am’ by Mary Portas.

I happened upon the book while on a girls weekend with mum. We were at Good Housekeeping Live. Mary had been the resident author a few days prior, doing book signings. I picked up the book and read the synopsis:

‘From the legendary doyenne of the high street comes a no-holds-barred account about her time as the window dresser and creative director for Harvey Nichols that is immersed in the fashion world, full of juicy anecdotes and bursting with ‘90’s nostalgia.’

I got excited about this… Let’s not forget, I am by trade ‘a retailer’. I read the inside cover summary; the final paragraph started with:

‘Mary takes us behind the shop window – to the people who kept the show on the road and the early lessons that shaped her career.’

I was sold. With a big smile on my face, this 43 year old approaches mum and says ‘ Please can I have this for Christmas?’!

Now, I could have bought it myself but it felt like a gift, like something I’ll be excited to open on Christmas Day and that will also remind me of this great weekend shared with my mum.

The book sparked something in me. Mary wasn’t a salesgirl, she was a creative. But the way the book weaves through the behind the scenes of retail, fashion and high street reawakened all of the glamour, pride, humour, exhaustion, chaos and sometimes horrors that make up the mystifying world of being a store manager in ladies fashion…

Oh the stories I could tell… and do you know what? I think I just might!

When I sat down to write this blog, before I knew it, I had eight pages of A4.

I realised, it wasn’t a blog anymore, there was a force in me to start writing my story from the beginning. I want to revisit all of those memories, all of those special times, the struggles, meeting L&D, working at headquarters, the fashions, the sales, the insane amount of hours in the workdays, the endless journeys across the country and most importantly, the incredible people I worked with, most notably all my wonderful Wallis girls, the core of whom are still at the centre of my friendship group today.

So, I have Mary’s book as a shining inspiration that told me how special my story with Wallis was. And how much of it is still helping me today.

I’m still living the brand… only this time, it’s my brand!

So I am it seems, accidentally writing a book! The book is a long way off completion – it may never be. It may never see the eyes of anyone outside my office but if that’s the case, I’m still doing it for me. And I’m excited to see where it goes. I’m so in love with revisiting those days and creating something from it.

So with a little thank you to Mary Portas, I’ll get back to my pen and paper. But before we wrap up, let’s reflect:

• What story from your past still has something to teach you today?
• What experience might you have undervalued that actually shaped your brilliance?
• And what could you create if you simply allowed yourself to begin?