We Are PoWEr Podcast
The We Are PoWEr podcast spotlights voices and perspectives that need to be heard. Our weekly podcast, with listeners in over 60 countries, delivers PoWErful conversations that inspire, challenge, and empower... from personal life stories to business insights and leadership lessons.
We share diverse experiences, bold discussions, and real solutions. Whether you're looking for career advice, topical themes, or stories of resilience and success - this is where voices spark change.
We Are PoWEr Podcast
The Power of Showing Up with Sophie Milliken MBE
The brilliant Sophie Milliken MBE joins the We Are PoWEr Podcast – bringing a conversation about the power of visibility, storytelling, and taking bold action to create lasting impact.
As an award-winning entrepreneur, author, and founder of Mojo, Sophie helps leaders and professionals communicate their value and build authentic personal brands that drive opportunity. From running writing retreats in the Yorkshire Dales to chairing Smart Works Newcastle – a charity transforming unemployed women’s lives through interview clothing and coaching – Sophie’s journey proves that visibility isn’t about showing off, it’s about showing up.
She shares her insights on building a brand with purpose, why consistent communication can set you apart, and how life’s toughest decisions – including starting her first business and navigating divorce while raising her daughter – shaped her success. Sophie also reveals how she balances entrepreneurship, motherhood, and mentorship with intention and grace, always guided by her belief in taking action and connecting with purpose.
In this episode:
- Building confidence and visibility through storytelling
- Why personal branding is about communication, not ego
- How Smart Works Newcastle empowers women through confidence and coaching
- Making life-changing decisions with courage and intention
- The power of consistency – and why one LinkedIn post a week can change everything
- Balancing entrepreneurship, motherhood, and self-belief
- Superpower: connecting with purpose and authenticity
Find out more about We Are PoWEr here. 💫
Hello, hello and welcome to the we Are Power podcast. If this is your first time here, the we Are Power podcast is the podcast for you, your career and your life. We release an episode every single Monday with listeners in over 60 countries worldwide, where you'll hear personal life stories, top-notch industry advice and key leadership insight from amazing role models. As we Are Power is the umbrella brand to Northern Power Women Awards, which celebrates hundreds of female role models and advocates every year. This is where you can hear stories from all of our awards alumni and stay up to date with everything MPW Awards and we Are Power. Well, welcome to the podcast and I am thrilled to bits. Never imitated, never replicated, singularly wonderful, everybody's wonder girl. Well, welcome to the podcast and I am thrilled to bits. How long has it taken to get Sophie Millican MBE in the studio, All the way from?
Speaker 2:the tune. I was just thinking that on the way here. I was thinking why has it taken so long? But here I am in lovely Liverpool.
Speaker 1:Because we haven't got a teleporter. That's what we need. We need a teleporter between our two fantastic cities of Newcastle and Liverpool because they're both ace. I totally agree. That would be so helpful. Now, Miss Millican podcaster, entrepreneur, multi-award winner, what's your favourite job?
Speaker 2:Oh, that's a tough one, isn't it? I like them all, and if I didn't, I wouldn't do them. So a lot of the time I get asked about how do you manage to do all these different things? And I think it's because I do enjoy literally everything that I do. I really like. You know, if I had to choose, I really enjoy writing, so that's a big thing of mine, which is helpful because I have to write for lots of the different jobs that I have. I like being a mum.
Speaker 1:I like doing podcasting oh. Jess, yeah, absolutely Best travelled daughter in the world. She does all right.
Speaker 2:She does all right, doesn't she? Yeah, yeah. So I think it's there's lots of things, but I think all of the things that I do all complement each other, which again helps. That helps me to use the time well, and they all feed off each other.
Speaker 1:And that's really interesting because I love your Beyond the Bio podcast because they're short, they're sharp, you have fantastic guests, but they're always got really actionable stuff in there. So I was catching up on your one of your summer ones where you went solo. Oh right, yeah, cause you have brilliant guests, cause you're about 110 episodes or something like that, aren't you? But I loved, I must admit I was. I was walking and listening and there was this whole. What surprised me. The first thing was that you're not techie. I just assumed you were like tech queen, but you're like no, I'm a write it down girl, but I like your practical tips because you like that visual sort of planning, don't you?
Speaker 2:And that visual calendar, I think for me, taking action is a theme throughout everything that I do and I kind of think so what if you're not going to actually do something with it? So with the podcast, I've always had something around action that you can take as a result. So you should be able to listen to one of the episodes and then go and do something if you want to. Same with the book. You know the latest book that's got take action sections all the way through it to encourage people to do something, because we're all just overwhelmed by content and we can watch stuff or listen to stuff all day long, but actually we need to take the action to make some progress.
Speaker 1:And all day long. But actually we need to take the action to make some progress. And that's the books. And almost like it's an iteration, because I remember us having a pretty soon. It was like a 5 30 walk during lockdown. We were having a call, weren't we? And I think you would just. Was that the ambition accelerator? Yeah, that was the second book. Yeah, yeah, yeah, three books three.
Speaker 2:Now when's four? I've been thinking about it. You know of course you have because we run these writing retreats to help um business authors get their books out there. And I'm loving doing the writing retreats so much. We hire this amazing cottage in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales and seeing everyone else starting to get excited about their books, I feel like I'm getting the bug again. So I think there's another one in there.
Speaker 1:And you talk about that action thing. I know when you were hosting your first writing retreat, you were like, oh, you're right to share it. Yeah, of course. And you're like I'm not sure if people will come. Is it about creating that safe space where you say it out loud, so it's got to happen?
Speaker 2:I think there's a bit of that, and I think I'm someone that loves going on retreats. I've been on quite a few now and I always get loads from them, but I always set myself really clear goals around what it is that I want to go, because when you're investing in a retreat there's the cost but also there's your time and we were just talking about how precious time is. So you've got to think about what you want to get from it and I think with the writing retreat, quite often business owners or, you know, people in general have got a book in them. But maybe it's just an idea and actually, if you're committing that time and cost to go in and sitting in this remote cottage in the middle of the dales, you're going to make some progress with that, and I'm really keen that they leave with a full book planned out, maybe with a few chapters written, but a plan as to how they're going to make it and that's just over a weekend.
Speaker 1:Yeah, wow, yeah, and are you seeing any kind of progress on that?
Speaker 2:massive progress. So we're about to do the third one at the end of September. So from, uh, the first two, I'm trying to think if we've actually got any books out yet from that, bear in mind, we've only been doing them this year. I think we've got three or four books about to come out or in the in production at the moment as a result of of the retreat.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, we're getting there, which is exciting and what was the motivation for you first to go? I feel like I need to put this onto I'd like to say paper, but onto a keyboard For me, for my own books.
Speaker 2:So the first one that I did was a bit of a well, they're all passion projects, really, you don't have to write a book. But I think with the first one it was when I had the first business and it felt like a really natural fit. No one in my industry had a book out, so I massively stood out from doing that and then I guess I've got the book since then. But I now really understand that having a book is the best business card ever and I think people that haven't got one are missing out. You know it adds so much to your bio. So if you, if you get booked to speak at things, to be a published author is amazing. It's given you content to repurpose across so many different things and it's good fun and how easy was it to that first one?
Speaker 1:because you didn't go on a writing retreat I get you just had to. How did you do it? I did post-it notes.
Speaker 2:Well, I did get support because I was working with a hybrid publisher at the time for the first two and then the third one's produced by Mojo Publishing. So that was that's been great and that's been a good experience as well. But with that first one I already had loads of content in different places, so it was more pulling it together and getting it into a book format. So it only took me three weeks to write that first one, partly because it was massively driven by a deadline. It had to be out in the September for all sorts of reasons. So three weeks for that one. The second one, the Ambition Accelerator, which you wrote the foreword for, Did you do?
Speaker 2:That one took me about five or six months and that was my lockdown project and I think I just kept putting it off so I wasn't as disciplined and making sourdough bread or something, something like that?
Speaker 2:do you remember that? Oh god, don't even want to think back to those days, but I was quite distracted, or it was easy to get distracted, and of course we're all trying to save our businesses and you know we keep saying during that time, and then with the third one, I think that took me about two months again. I had quite a bit of content there and I know what I'm doing now. So so it's all good.
Speaker 1:Well, I remember just taking us back to that lockdown period, which was it's hard to imagine how long it was and it almost it was like in phases, wasn't it? But I remember when we eventually we locked out as we locked, just going into lockdown, just before we locked down, we were due to have our awards on the Monday. What would have been the 5th? Actually, we were due to have our awards on the Monday. What would have been the 5th? Actually the 5th Northern Power Women Awards. And on the Friday or Thursday we had to pull them and it was out of government guidelines and et cetera.
Speaker 1:And then we went on a whole merry dance for almost a year till we could host it, because we were like, oh, we'll be able to do it in September, no, okay, well, let's try December, no, and I had this crazy idea that I wanted everybody to have the trophy in their hands by the end of the evening. What more could go wrong? And of course, you don't know until you've got all your finalists and such like that of which we did know because we were just about to go into the awards. Know, because we were just about to go into the awards. But then, how it was. It was like a huge military operation trying to find people in nearby postcodes to go and hand deliver.
Speaker 2:I loved hand delivering a few of your awards. Oh, I mean.
Speaker 1:Jess, you and Jess and Sarah Davis came to the door in her slippers, didn't she?
Speaker 2:she had her hair done, though it all hair looked lovely.
Speaker 1:She looked amazing yeah that was hilarious and, interestingly, now there's something that you are so passionate about, which is Smartworks Smartworks, and particularly Smartworks North East, isn't it Well?
Speaker 2:it's Smartworks Newcastle at the moment.
Speaker 1:Oh okay, oh okay. There's a wink there for those of you on the podcast that can't see this. There was a wink. For those of you on the podcast that can't see this. There was a week, Can't say anything. Can't say anything. Secret, Can't say anything.
Speaker 2:All good, we're in 60 countries. No one will hear. I've made no secret of the fact that you know we represent the whole of the Northeast. So yeah, a bit of a Ambition.
Speaker 1:You're having a book called Ambition Accelerated for Nothing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:But Sarah Davis is the chair, isn't she? No, I'm the chair. Sorry, she's the patron.
Speaker 2:Trustee no close so.
Speaker 1:I'm the chair. I'm the chair.
Speaker 2:Sarah is one of our ambassadors. She was our first ambassador for Newcastle and all of the other centres are massively jealous because our ambassador's the best and she really is I mean, I was just messaging her well yesterday because she was running the Great North Run for us and she wanted some headline stats for a BBC interview.
Speaker 2:And then I was messaging her again this morning like, how are you feeling? And she's brilliant, she's very well. You know, sarah, what you see is what you get with Sarah. She's very, very supportive. She does a lot behind the scenes that you don't see and she's just very responsive and she's massively helped raise the profile of the charity across the North.
Speaker 1:East, and it's the same kind of focus, isn't it? She is determined, driven, action orientated, doing good orientated. Tell us about the headline Smartworks. Tell us some of those stats that you've just passed on to us.
Speaker 2:So Smartworks Newcastle. We are Smartworks Newcastle, but we do operate across the whole of the northeast and we provide interview, clothing and coaching to unemployed women across our region. So typically in the northeast we have highest levels of unemployment. A lot of the women that we see have been out of the workplace for usually over five years, maybe more. They might have had caring responsibilities, they might have had some very challenging relationship situations and they've been out of work for a long time. Now what happens?
Speaker 2:If we can imagine how we might feel in that situation, our confidence is probably pretty low.
Speaker 2:We might not have the funds to be able to buy clothing that might be the bottom of our list and we've not prioritized ourselves.
Speaker 2:So when a woman accesses our service, they usually access the service at the point where they've got a confirmed interview and their confidence is really low and we want to welcome them into our center, give them a lovely cup of tea and a biscuit and make them feel really welcomed by our volunteers.
Speaker 2:And they get an hour with a stylist volunteer who will pick out the most incredible clothing and we have the best clothing. We've got gorgeous pieces of clothing from all sorts of retailers. Then they get an hour with an interview coach which is prepping them for that job that they've got, usually coming up a day or two later they go out and you can just physically see the difference in them. It's increasing that confidence and at Newcastle we have incredible stats around that woman going on to secure a job within the first month of seeing us. It's usually around about the 68, 69 percent of women and, bearing in mind that quite often they'll have applied for 33 or more jobs before they even get to see us, it's life changing 33 jobs and then you go in with a or your team, go in with a magic wand and build that self-belief.
Speaker 1:It's brilliant.
Speaker 2:I mean when I speak. I've got goosebumps now just thinking about it, because when I'm in the center and I'm seeing those transformations and seeing those clients and seeing the stats each week as to how many have gone on to get the job, and you know, speak to them afterwards and they talk about how it's it's changed their lives. You know they've been able to have more structure to their life, have some income to be able to do wonderful things with their families and it is, it's transformational.
Speaker 1:Now you not only are a trustee, patron, speaker, entrepreneur. Tell us about Moja. That's your new business, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I say it's new, but no it's not actually. Yeah, we're three years in now, so is three still new? Maybe it is. I mean it's still sort of start up phase and we've had it's taken us that long to get you on the couch.
Speaker 1:Let's just put it out there. I know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I really enjoy Mojo. So when I had my first business, what I realised is that going for amazing awards like the Northern Power Women Awards, which you can nominate- people for right now and things like that.
Speaker 2:But awards, you know, getting in with great communities, being on podcasts, writing books, all these things that would increase your profile, but without there was, like I said, there was no plan around it. I just used to say yes to stuff and then other cool stuff would happen, and what that meant was that when I was going to have a sales meeting with someone, they already felt like they knew me and they already wanted to work with us, so it made sales really easy, and then it also created all the fun opportunities as well. So when I sold that business had a horrible experience after selling it whilst I did my earn out and it was very unpleasant At the point where I left, I couldn't operate in that industry for at least nine months because that was one of my restrictions, and I started thinking about what I could do instead and I just had this idea in my head like there's something in doing that for other founders and business leaders. So fast forward three months and that is what we do for founders.
Speaker 2:But we're also doing quite a bit in the corporate space at the moment, because corporates are usually a bit rubbish about making their people ambassadors within their businesses, so they'll be on linkedin all the time but they'll never post anything, or they might repost something and think that that is that that does. Yeah, they're lurkers. So we're doing a lot with corporates at the moment where we're supporting them with linkedin, training and strategy, and then that's kind of our way in to say but here's all the other stuff that you can be doing as well, and of course we've got the publishing as well, so there's all sorts to it, but we're really enjoying it and no one's doing the same thing.
Speaker 1:It's like you've opened a kind of not worms, but glorious kind of like pathways, isn't it?
Speaker 2:I think so and I think the thing is is that everyone's doing something amazing and the need to just be a bit louder about it and be more visible, and that's the point around storytelling.
Speaker 1:You know we're year 10 of the awards. You are as you called yourself when we did the event up in Newcastle last just before Christmas, and you were like, yeah, we're part of the OG, and afterwards I was like I have no idea what that even stands for.
Speaker 2:Did you have to Google it.
Speaker 1:I did, I was just thinking hip-hop, because that was my, my genre of music was hip-hop. So I'm like, oh, I'm like all right, gangster, right, okay, that's fine. And then it wasn't until afterwards. I'm really such said that out loud. I'm really not cool at all, am I but? But there's the whole point around.
Speaker 1:The awards were 10 years in 11 years of kind of the organization. But it's not about an awards and every award is different as well and you talk about this on your pod a lot and it's how and what you do with them and there's pay to play and all those kind of different things. But the awards that, when we set up, was fundamentally about storytelling, was fundamentally about high fiving your own achievements, you know, really important. But the power of that, especially in a world right now which is a little bit crazy out there, I think we have to bang the drum and we. I think if you put it under a storytelling, it feels less braggy. But this is about your personal brand and your personal profile. A bit like you highlight with the, the LinkedIn, there's ways to tell stories.
Speaker 2:You can do you right 100%. And I think, as women in particular, we often get imposter syndrome and I know blokes get it as well, but we do tend to get it worse or more often. And I think we have this thing and maybe it's a bit of a northern thing as well Like, oh, we can't brag, we can't show off. And you know, in the northeast I would say we're a very humble region and we don't tell people how great people are in our region and all the amazing stuff we do, how great people are in our region and all the amazing stuff we do. And I think there is a bit of a turn now with that where people get the value of doing it because they see the benefits and it's not bragging, it's communicating effectively what you do, and then it's then seeing the impact of that, whether it might be a brilliant new partnership or being able to raise money for something that you care about. All these things are so important.
Speaker 1:So I'm a big fan of it and I saw recently we were. You were speaking with Sarah Davis and Rasheen from Rasheen Curry, from Greggs, over a brilliant event with the Northern Leaders, and I love that on the back of that, because you're on the Northern Leaders 100 list, as are you indeed, but one of the things I love that you were like I'm putting my hand up here because things can be very Northwest-centric, right, you know that, and you put your hand up and Chris Maguire give him a shout out, he's mad as a box of frogs but he's brilliant.
Speaker 1:But you are now a Northeast ambassador and representative for that.
Speaker 2:So you can use your voice in different ways. 100%. And at that dinner you remember the dinner that that we had that list and he ended up turning it into an awards event, which I wasn't expecting, and then I won this business.
Speaker 1:Champion for the northeaster was that just before you knocked over glasses over Andy Burnham?
Speaker 2:oh, honestly like no one's. Let me forget that I wouldn't mind, but wasn't even drinking it.
Speaker 1:We could cut that out if you want, not really, it was an empty glass.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was really, was really embarrassing. I'm never going to live that down. And I wasn't like I say, I was drinking water.
Speaker 1:Way to make. Wait, you only get one chance to make a first impression right, I know I know, mortified.
Speaker 2:So when I won that award, that was actually really good because it meant that I mean one I was dead chuffed Like how cool is that Business? But it also meant I could say to him right, chris, we need to not just run these events in Manchester and that's you know something I'll say to you a lot about. We need more stuff in the Northeast and we've had some fantastic Northern Power Women events in the Northeast. So being able to do that event and get Roisin and Zara along as well was fantastic. And he's now given me a column talking about all things Northeast.
Speaker 1:I saw that and I think, if you talk about the ethos of not just mojo but everything that you're about whether it be the book that you know, the podcast, you personally it is about raising that profile and it's okay. It's okay. What would you say for anyone listening, irrespective of age experience? Sometimes it's easy to stay in the shadows, sometimes it's easy to stay over here because it's a bit comfortable. What would you say is a? An easy way to make a start if you want to have your voice heard or be a bit visible, but you're not sure how.
Speaker 2:I think for everyone, we've all got boundaries as to how comfortable we feel with sharing stuff or putting ourselves out there, and I think the first thing has to be to just start to just do something, and I think for most people that are in our community probably start with something like. Linkedin is a good place because everyone's on it. There are a billion people using it, but less than 1% post every week. That's a tiny amount. So even if you just posted once a week, you're already in the top 1% of people on LinkedIn.
Speaker 2:Now, what you post is important and and there's all sorts of things about how you post and when you post and some of those technical things. But you've just got to just start doing things and you might not want to write some controversial posts where you think you're going to get loads of grief, but you could just talk about being at an event. You know, just something really straightforward or a cause that you're really passionate about. You know I smart works a lot and whenever we've needed help for things like having to find a new office yet again, you know that sort of rally cry has been massively helpful to help us to be able to find new offices and things like that. So it is just putting something out there, but I think, mixing it up. So it's not just all about work, or you've got to show a bit of personality there's nothing wrong with that, 100%, we're not.
Speaker 1:It's not cookie cutters, are we, you know? And we talked earlier about your Jess. So, um, your partner in crime when you go travels is that your don't say downtime, because we you can't talk about having. No one has a balance right. It's all about kind of using things. It is a blend, isn't it? You know? We've just come out of summer, um belated happy birthday, by the way. Um, who picks the destinations.
Speaker 2:We do have conversations about it at home, where we're like, right, where we're gonna go this year, or sometimes it might be an opportunity to go somewhere, and I'll just like do you want to come? And we can go and do this. So we do have conversations about it. And she's 13 now as Jess, which is an interesting age, so she's all about the city break. So we've done yeah, she loves the city break, so that's been what we've been doing this year. Is that because of shops dining?
Speaker 1:She loves shopping.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she loves shopping. She's just gone nuts for it. She's starting to, you know, show her fashion flair, which wouldn't be what I would choose. She's going through a goth phase at the moment, which is interesting, but you've just got to let her go. And yeah, we just usually plan something together and then what we normally do is so. We just came back from New York, we did Barcelona not too long ago, and I'll say right, you choose some activities you want to do, I'll choose some I want to do, I'll choose some I want to do, and we'll both make the most of each of those, because there won't be what we both want to do. So in New York, she wanted to do Squid Game.
Speaker 1:I saw that.
Speaker 2:It was great. I actually loved it. We had such a laugh. It was so much fun. So that's something I would never have chosen to do when we went to Barcelona. She had me go to a balloon exhibition. And again, why the heck would you want to go to Barcelona go to a balloon exhibition? But, yet again, amazing, best thing we did while we were there. So you know future career here future career.
Speaker 2:It's all good so, fun so, and I really love our time doing our trips because I feel like and a lot of people get this mum guilt around not being present and not doing anything particularly well, and I do get that. And I feel like when we go away, especially with the city break, where I can't be on my phone or, you know, responding to emails or whatever it's quality time. So I feel like that helps me get some level of balance around proper time with her where we can talk about things.
Speaker 1:And one of the things I know you did not so long ago was do your year of no. I need to resurrect that, yeah.
Speaker 2:I really do, because, I really do because.
Speaker 1:I've always lived by the say yes and work out later, and sometimes it's just too much, isn't it?
Speaker 2:I think you can do that earlier on in your career, yeah, where you need to, and actually you should, I think when you get a bit older and a bit more experienced, you just you have to work out how to say no, and I do. I do struggle with this and I'm trying to be better at it and I'd probably, out of everything I get asked to do, I'd probably say yes to about one in eight things at the moment I would say, but it's probably still too much, and I do wear a lot of different hats. I've just taken on a couple of new board roles which I probably should have down time in or travel time, cpd stuff.
Speaker 1:What's the stuff that's going to develop me? You know that's do. How often do you do that cycle?
Speaker 2:I usually have something formal with myself at the end of each year, usually over the christmas break, because I try and take a full two weeks off over christmas the full school holidays and I'll sit usually around that new year time and I'll review stuff, because I do set myself goals. I've got a vision board in my office at home, which I don't work from home that much anymore, so I kind of forget what's on it. And then every so often I'll go, oh, look, and I'll look at something and then do something to try and make it happen. So I do review things and I'll take things off my vision board and I'll write a little note on it and it'll go in a box if it's something that I've done. So I am thoughtful around what it is that I want to do and what I want to achieve, and I think you have to when you run a business or a charity or you know whatever responsibility I'm thinking about, otherwise you don't move things forward. So, yeah, I am, yeah, I am quite thought out with all of these things.
Speaker 1:Now, are you ready to go into our power jar? I'm excited for the jar.
Speaker 2:I think you should be. I'm excited.
Speaker 1:It's my first one doing the jar no, no, you're not, you're not, but so you will. I will ask you to put a question in here which we'll have for our next guest, and you will pick a question out of here that one of our previous guests that I've put in and will I find out who asked me the question? Oh, that's a good point, though I'd quite like that. Hang on, have. I got two, we can innovate as we go.
Speaker 2:Are you going for two? No, it can't be greedy, right, oh god. This one is oh. What's one decision you made that completely changed the course of your life that's not an easy question, is it?
Speaker 1:that's not an easy question is it?
Speaker 2:no, it could be personal, I know I think I've probably got one of each okay.
Speaker 2:So which one should I go for? I'll go for both, all right. So one course. Um, I think, business wise, it was leaving my corporate job with John Lewis and and setting up that first business. That was quite wacky when I look back, because when you work for a big corporate, you feel like you're gonna be there forever and, um, you know, I look back and I think that was probably a bit reckless but it did work out. So that was, that was good and I don't think I'd ever gonna would want to work for anybody again now I think I'm I'm just in the zone of wanting to have businesses.
Speaker 2:So that'd'd be my business one, the personal one, I think I would say getting married and getting divorced. So I think when I got married, I think I knew I'd probably get divorced. I think I'd got this is quite bad hope, just as I'm watching. She'd actually be totally fine with this because we talk very openly about relationships and what she should look for and aspire to having a relationship.
Speaker 2:But I think when I met my ex-husband I was at a stage where I wanted to settle down and have a kid. So it was kind of the right time, the wrong person, which is a shame in some ways, because you know, if I'd waited maybe I would have met someone better. But at the same time I got Jess. So you know I can't look back and regret that and I think the fact that I got divorced only I think we'd been married about three years that was a really good decision because Jess was only two. She doesn't remember.
Speaker 2:I can talk very openly with her about my relationship with her dad. Now I'm a bit sensitive as to how much detail I would give her, but she does see him fairly consistently at the moment, although that's not always been the case, and I want to be very open with her around the fact that that marriage did not work for these reasons and actually here are some other role models that you should look at around what's aspirational in a relationship, because I think the decision that you make around who your partner's going to be is probably one of the biggest business decisions that you can make as well.
Speaker 1:I think I saw a poster of that recently about that for that exact reason to enable, to enable and to empower.
Speaker 2:I think it makes a really big difference. I've had, you know my relationship. History is not the best, and I've had relationships with people that have really held me back work-wise People that haven't supported what I've wanted to do, business-wise and I think, having lived in London, where there's a different vibe versus the North East, that can be quite challenging sometimes.
Speaker 1:So yeah, interesting. And final question what is your superpower? What's my superpower?
Speaker 2:Oh, what did I tell you it was? I can't remember. Can you remember You've got more than one superpower. What's my superpower? I suppose it probably depends what kind of mood I'm in and what's going on, but I would like to say I'm a good connector. I think I'm a good connector. I think I've gone from moving back to the northeast and not knowing anyone in business apart from some people at the John Lewis shop, to knowing pretty much everyone across the northeast, and if I don't know them, I'll know someone that knows them. So I can introduce people to anyone and I know who to go to for different things. And and I love that, I think it's it's that is powerful and with purpose.
Speaker 1:You don't just connect for the sake of it.
Speaker 2:No, it's with purpose Agreed.
Speaker 1:Sophie Millican MBE. We could have gone on. This is episode one of a box set. I feel like for you and I yeah, I'll come back. Thank you so much for joining us. I love watching what you're doing, where you're going and how you showcase and signpost other people as well. You and signposts to other people as well. You were very generous in your spirit, so thank you so much. Thank you, thank you so much for joining us and we will see you next week. Subscribe on YouTube, apple, amazon Music, spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review or follow us on socials. We are Power underscore net on Insta, tiktok and Twitter. We are Power on LinkedIn, facebook and we are underscore Power on YouTube.
