Hey guys, I hope you are well 😊
Last week I was back in Dublin for a fascinating event, for which I was very honoured to be invited to speak. The Walfrid Private Wealth Summit took place at the Westin in Dublin (a beautiful venue!) on the 11th of May. Walfrid Private is a Wealth Management firm based in Dublin. Founded by Richard Collins in 2012, Walfrid Private assists Irish Company Directors, Business Owners and Entrepreneurs to reduce costs, reduce taxes and improve business and personal financial performance.
The Wealth Summit has been established to share knowledge with Business Owners, Entrepreneurs and those that aspire to be on how to gain Financial Independence. I was very excited to be invited to speak to the attendees about my career, how I began my journey and my top tips for scaling up your business.
Hosted by Ivan Yates, the day was packed with some incredible speakers such as Ray Cooke, Damien Malone, Philip Gardiner, Darrah O’Dea, Peter Smith and Walfrid Private’s founder, Richard Collins.
It’s such a pleasure for me personally to speak at events like the Wealth Summit. It is an excellent opportunity for me to give a real insight as to how SOSU Cosmetics began and the graft behind it. I said in my speech how ‘I was standing before you today with no college degree or formula for success’. My career originated from a real passion for beauty and fashion, and I needed to speak about the factors I believe to be crucial to any up-and-coming business. In my opinion, these are:
- Honesty – always be honest with your customer.
- Marketing – how you market yourself and your brand is essential; know the trends and what works well.
- Have the right people around you – hire people who have different skill sets than you.
- Know what you’re doing and why you’re doing it.
- Think of the bigger picture & don’t get caught up in the small things.
- Enjoy the process.
I know how hard building a business and a brand can be. Still, any up-and-coming entrepreneur must remember to enjoy the good times. It would have been easy for me to stand on the stage and speak about all the highs that I have had with SoSueMe, SOSU Cosmetics and Dripping Gold, but I chose not to. Instead, I talked about the hardships and what kept me going. That reason was down to sheer determination and thinking outside the box.
Things like COVID and the DHA regulations could have very well ended my business. These are unforeseen circumstances, and they have impacted not only my business but many companies worldwide. Instead of allowing these situations to take my business, the team and I worked hard to get some control of the problem. It’s times like these that define business owners.
To business owners, aspiring entrepreneurs thinking about acting upon that idea you’ve had that’s always been in the back of your head keeping you awake at night, or current professionals thinking of a career change, as I always say: ‘Bite the apple and learn to chew later’.
For me, this means diving in. Take every opportunity as it comes. Yes, you will have your ups and downs. That’s a given. Still, as long as you stay focused and accurate about who you are, you will always find ways of controlling the situations and not allowing them to control you. Assess each case, consider the challenges, weigh the pros and cons, and take a calculated risk. Another way I like to look at potential opportunities is to imagine they are like oncoming waves. Throughout our adult life, the waves of opportunity keep flowing towards us. Yet it is up to us to choose whether we let the wave pass us by again and again and play it safe or to take a deep breath and try and surf the damn thing!! Leaving what you know and are comfortable with is extremely scary, trust me! You will only see some details of where this wave may bring you, but you must trust yourself and keep moving forward. So, now that I’ve finally gotten to my point, if you’re feeling disillusioned or disheartened and a new opportunity arises, grab it with both hands. You’ll be afraid and nervous and feel every inner voice telling you to stop, think about it, be careful, it’s too risky, what if it doesn’t work out, you’ll look stupid. This is how you should feel! This is how I felt! But… crucially, I kept going! So go towards whatever it is you feel the internal resistance to because contentment is at the other end of resistance. The more critical a decision or an action is to our personal evolution, the stronger the resistance we will feel, so ignore all those excuses we tend to make for ourselves and push on! Also, don’t be afraid to seek help and surround yourself with people with skills that add to your business; after all, two heads are better than one, right?
Anyway, I am delighted to say the day went very well. I met some fantastic people and was very grateful for the positive feedback I received after (I will leave some screenshots below). Thank you to anyone who took the time to message me; I have a huge desire to help people trying to take these first tentative steps in business. It is a real passion for me, so it’s always great to hear that I have inspired or motivated someone to follow their dreams; it really reminds me how much I love doing what I do.
Chat soon,
