Mindset & Action: Grow and Streamline Your Business
Mindset & Action is a business podcast aimed at helping business owners grow and streamline their businesses. It focuses on four main pillars, building an audience through different mediums including Donna's preferred method, podcasting, planning, productivity and mindset Giving you a MAP to success from entrepreneurs around the globe.
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Mindset & Action: Grow and Streamline Your Business
Podcast LIVE: Planning Health Over Business: Andrea Rainsford |EP307
Your Health Matters More Than Your Business Ever Will
Freedom isn't just a buzzword—it's the foundation of a sustainable business. Andrea Rainsford's journey from corporate burnout to entrepreneurial success offers a masterclass in creating a business that serves your life rather than consuming it.
After collapsing during a business pitch and later suffering a devastating stroke at just 32 years old, Andrea spent five years confined to a hospital bed in her front room, unable to walk, speak, or care for herself. This profound health crisis transformed her approach to business completely. "I did have a stroke. But 18 months ago I found a tumor in my throat and I looked at the ceiling and went 'are you having a laugh?'" she shares with raw honesty.
What emerged from these challenges was a revolutionary approach to business planning. Andrea now operates a thriving business working just two and a half days per week and is transitioning to working only three days per month with her innovative "Haven" business model. Her Women Winning in Business community has grown from 200 to 2,500 members in 18 months, expanding to 15 cities across the UK—all without the conventional hustle mentality.
The most powerful insight from Andrea's story is that success doesn't require sacrificing your health or happiness. "My body is the most important thing to me and that's the reason why I only work two and a half days," she explains. Her approach challenges entrepreneurs to stop comparing themselves to others and instead build businesses that reflect their true priorities.
What would your life and business look like if you truly prioritised freedom? Listen now to reimagine what's possible.
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You're listening to the Mindset in Action podcast, the place to be to grow and streamline your business. I'm your host, donna Eade. Let's jump into the show. Welcome back to the podcast, everybody. I am so excited to have you here today for this episode.
Donna Eade:Today is episode two of the live podcast series, so, for those of you who don't know, I ran a live event at the beginning of April to celebrate five years of this podcast and I had five guests and myself did sessions at that event and I am giving them to you here live on the podcast. So today we have Andrea Rainsford with us. Andrea has such a unique and fantastic story to share. She has been through a hell of a lot and she is absolutely a true fighter in every sense of the word, and has just been able to create such a wonderful space for women in business. So we are going to jump into that session. Take a listen to Andrea's story. Our focus was planning and why planning in our business is important.
Donna Eade:Our episode last week was with Nicola Tonsaga, so you can go back and listen to that one. That was a mindset episode and we have got four more sessions coming in the next coming week, so make sure you are subscribed, where you listen, so that you don't miss an episode, and if you are on a platform that allows you to leave a review, I would love it if you would review the podcast. It makes a huge difference. So let's jump into this episode with Andrea Rainsford Now. Is that everybody back? Let me know if you're not here, okay, I think. I think that's everybody about that. I think it's all Ready for our next session. Andrea Rainsford, come up to the mic.
Andrea Rainsford:Hello.
Donna Eade:Right now, Andrea, you speak quite softly.
Andrea Rainsford:Hello.
Donna Eade:There you go.
Andrea Rainsford:Everybody hear me at the back. Lincoln, can you hear me at the back? Thank you very much. I'm on brand today. If, if I didn't turn up in brand colors, my, my brand person would shoot me.
Donna Eade:Yeah, okay, so Andrea Rainsford, welcome to the stage.
Donna Eade:Thank you very much for having me.
Donna Eade:Please introduce yourselves to everybody and let them know who you are and what it is that you do.
Donna Eade:Hello, I'm. Andrea Rainsford Andrea
Donna Eade:.
Andrea Rainsford:Nice to meet you. What do I do? I love advocating for women. I think that we need a cheerleader, so I'm your biggest cheerleader. I like the whoop. Thank you very much. We'll have a few more of those.
Andrea Rainsford:I think that what I see and apologies Lincoln is that in the self-employed, running your own business space is that women tend to earn less than men doing exactly the same role about 38% and that's because, on the whole, we don't believe in ourselves. We just don't think we can do it Like we've been talking with Nicola a few moments ago. We don't believe how brilliant we are and my post in my community group this morning was it's tell us Thursday. Tell us how brilliant you are, was the post this morning. And we need to tell people how brilliant we are. So I help women to grow businesses grow their businesses, not just any business.
Andrea Rainsford:I've been doing it for 32 years. I know I don't look that old. I was a child when I started and I also run a community. Debbie asked me this morning when I started and I also run a community. Debbie asked me this morning when I came in why do you call it a community rather than a network? And I think it's because I've had so many bad experiences with networking, and so I wanted mine to be a community of safe space where you can use your own voice and you can be yourself.
Donna Eade:I love that. I love that and I love being part of your community.
Donna Eade:I, I love that, I love that and I love being part of your community. I need to get more like having you. Thank you very much. I need to get more involved, but, uh, yeah, it is a lovely place to be and I was at Andrea's event a couple of weeks ago and it was phenomenal. Um, so many great people in the room and so many fabulous speakers on the stage. So, andrea, the reason I have brought you on stage today is to talk about planning.
Andrea Rainsford:I think it's don't all stop.
Donna Eade:You know running for the doors, don't nod off just yet so because it's a fundamental thing in our businesses and I think it's one. You know. It's one of those uh tasks that a lot of us will avoid doing because we don't want to do. It's boring, it's not the fun stuff, but it can bring about so much of your favorite word. So tell us about don't know what that is.
Andrea Rainsford:Tell us about your business and how you are currently running it the word she's alluding to is freedom, and I think Nicola picked up on that, um, a few minutes ago. Freedom is everything and I think that we I wrote a post on LinkedIn the other the other day. I'm friends with many of you on LinkedIn, so it's lovely to see so many faces. I, the post. The post that I wrote was turning up on LinkedIn at seven o'clock every morning to engage for an hour, to then post to engage for another hour, just so that you get traction, just so that your dream client sees you. Isn't freedom for me. I just can't do that anymore.
Andrea Rainsford:Like Nicola was saying, the way that we're taught to do marketing and the way that we're advised to do marketing doesn't doesn't sit with the way that I want to live my life, and there's a huge reason for that. And I do only work two to two and a half days a week max. Nobody believes that I do that's okay because they and a half days a week max. Nobody believes that I do that's okay because they don't need to. I know the truth and I see behind the scenes. I think, because my content is scheduled and because I pop in my group quite regularly, everybody thinks that I work a five-day week and I don't.
Andrea Rainsford:What I normally hear from women is you can't possibly be earning sufficient amount of income on two and a half days. I am. I don't need to qualify that, I don't need to prove it to anybody. That is the reality and there's a huge reason why I do that. So planning is incredibly important, like this week, because Donna very kindly asked me to speak. I work Monday morning, I work Tuesday morning and I'm working today and that's me done for the week. Monday afternoon I was off walking. Tuesday afternoon I was out walking yesterday, I had my nails done, I had a pedicure, I had my brows done and I and I basically sat on the sofa and binge watched netflix. So planning is incredibly important because it allows me to work those two and a half days I think that's phenomenal.
Donna Eade:Andrea, tell us a little bit about why freedom is so important to you.
Andrea Rainsford:I knew that was coming Deep breath. I don't like sharing my story. I share it for one reason, and one reason only, and that is because I'm hoping that somebody sitting here today will listen, take notice and do something about it before it gets too late. So I went to the Big Fest Dune last week. I don't know if anybody was at the Big Fest Dune last week Nobody. It's a two-day event in Bolton with Danny Wallace, and the very first speaker onto the stage was Debbie Waite. I don't know if any of you have ever met Debbie Waite and the first thing she said that triggered the heck out of me and I was in a sobbing mess for about an hour was we push and push and push and we hustle in business until we nearly kill ourselves. And that was the first thing that she said, which leads me on to the fact that I nearly killed myself.
Andrea Rainsford:So I worked in corporate for Ernst Young for about 20, 25 years. I was a business development director globally for corporate finance. I was in a very male-dominated world. I didn't work with any women at all. So back then because we're going back quite a while you had to push incredibly hard to stand out. I'm going to jump forward quite quickly.
Andrea Rainsford:So I was diagnosed with ME first. Me is basically adrenal fatigue and your body's giving out on you. I was pitching to I think I'd got a team together to pitch to um Renault in Leeds and I'd driven up to Leeds. I collapsed in the office and I never went back to work. I got home, um, I had private health care with my, with my job. The doctor said to me you won't be going back to work. And I thought there was something seriously wrong with him because I thought there's no way I won't be going back to work. So I thought I'll show him, show Andrea style, I'll show him that I can get back to work.
Andrea Rainsford:What actually happened was the complete opposite. Two years later I did get married, the next year to the most amazing man that's walking the planet. And the year after that I had a stroke. I was 32. It wasn't a tiny little simple one, it was enormous. I couldn't speak. I couldn't speak, I couldn't feed myself, I couldn't toil at myself, I couldn't walk. I was in hospital for six months. I was in my hospital bed in our front room for five years. I didn't see the outside for a very, very, very long time.
Andrea Rainsford:I am sharing this with you because we can become incredibly blinkered. We can have the end goal and a bit like Nicola was saying is you need to tap into your body and you needed to listen. I was so in my head it was untrue. I didn't listen or didn't care what my body was doing. I didn't. It's the most important thing to me. Now. I work with Nicola. I've been working with Nicola for quite a while and we listen to my body every week or every other week, or how often we meet.
Andrea Rainsford:My body is the most important thing to me and that's the reason why I only work two and a half days, but it was the longest, longest road back. It took me 17 years to learn to walk. I've only been walking about 18 months, which is the reason why I'm rocking up in green heels today, because I am going to wear them, because I couldn't wear them for such a long time. Um, thank you.
Andrea Rainsford:So, yeah, your health, your life, your family are the most important things to you. Your business isn't. You know, my business is important, but when people start getting a little bit tetchy and they start getting a little bit mardy because I haven't replied to their email and I haven't replied to their social media post. They can do one, because that isn't my life. My life is making up on all the years that I didn't have, and I will advocate for anybody. I will stand up and help anybody, but it's got to be in my time, on my you know, on my agenda, and anybody that tries to push me into doing anything more won't be tired of them.
Donna Eade:I love that. I love that and I think it's so important because I think we have grown up in a world that is just go, go, go and and it just seems to be getting faster and faster and, with technology moving, everything's moving at such a pace and humans were not made to do that. It's like we can't keep going and I think, as women especially, but I think generally we don't take care of our health as well as we should. We don't take the time to actually look at how do we feel, get back into our bodies and really feel those feelings and take the time.
Donna Eade:And I think a lot of people are stuck in that hustle mentality like I've got to, like I have got to work nine till five because otherwise I haven't earned the money that I've made. How many of us feel like if I don't work all the hours, then I'm not worthy of the money that I'm making? So it's one of those things where we've got to learn that actually know our knowledge and the things that we are giving. So it's one of those things where we've got to learn actually know our knowledge and the things that we are giving, whether it's done in one hour or 10 hours, can still be valuable and it's just amazing what you have achieved.
Donna Eade:So what I would like us to talk about is how would you say somebody going about planning their freedom, whatever that looks like. It might be that you want to do two and a half days a week. It may be that you want to do four and have every friday off. Um, it may be that you want to actually work the weekend because, for whatever reason, that works better for you. Um, how do you think people should go about evaluating where they are right now and how they can actually plan better for their future?
Andrea Rainsford:I would think there's many of you sat here now thinking am I pushing my body too hard? Are the signs there? Am I? Do I actually stop and listen to how I'm feeling? I think when you get into your 40s and your 50s I know we we get lots of aches and pains, don't we? I? I I'm trying to figure out what's normal for a 50 year old woman and what's you know what's the after effects of of being sick. So I want you to all, I want you to all stop, and I want you to take some time to get into your bodies. And I want you to stop and I want you to listen, and I think that if I asked you the question what's, what's the one thing that you would love to achieve by the end of next year, there's going to be something that pops into your heads. There's going to be something that pops up. There's going to be one thing that pops in, and I want you to actually stop and think about whether you're on a track to get in there or you're letting other things get in your way.
Andrea Rainsford:Are you letting other people influence you? Because I think the one thing that I see day in, day out is people look left and right too much. You're looking at what everybody else is doing. I couldn't give a rat's ass what anybody else is doing. I really couldn't. I mean, people have always got an opinion about what I'm doing. That's OK. They're entitled to their opinion. I can't change it. I can't change what they think of me. We were having this conversation this morning. There's going to be a lot of people that don't like us. They're going to be a lot of people that do things differently to the way we do. We've just got to let them get on with it, because that's them. That isn't us.
Andrea Rainsford:But are you making yourself truly happy? Are you spending enough time with the kids? Are you spending enough time with your partner? Are you spending enough time on your own? Because the one thing that I do every week in my diary is I plan me time. I plan my Pilates classes, I plan my yoga, I plan my walking. I mean, I'm obsessed with walking. It's a bit of a problem. It's like I've got my walking boots on every day because obviously I didn't walk for such a long time. I have to walk most days now. But are you making time for the important stuff? Are you doing the stuff that you think you should do? Are you thinking that you're doing the stuff that you think you've got to do to impress others, or are you doing the stuff that you want to do?
Andrea Rainsford:I've got a number of ladies in my mastermind, so I help women to create consistent income, but consistent income based on freedom. And I've got women that have completely pivoted because they're just not happy. They're not happy doing what they're doing. They're putting a mask on and saying, well, that's what's bringing the money in at the moment, so that's what I've got to do, but that's just utter rubbish. It really is, because you are brilliant, whether you believe it or you don't believe it, and you know what your superpower is and you know what you were put on this earth to do. Deep down, you do, and if you're not doing it, there's still time. I think what I tend to see is women that are hitting their 50s, think I'm running out of time. The clock's ticking, I've and, and it's usually. There's usually something big that makes you do or it makes you change.
Andrea Rainsford:Janine said to me this morning do you stick to your two and a half days? I do know, because what I haven't told you is you know, I got sick again. So I did have a stroke. But 18 months ago I found a tumor in my throat and I I looked at the ceiling and went are you having a laugh? And you know I looked upset and how am I going to get through this? But the most amazingly beautiful thing came out of it is that they damaged my vocal cords when they took the tumour out and my husband had been made redundant, so the income was down to me and I thought I'm going to set up a Facebook group to market my business while I'm not very well and while I'm coming back from this tumour. And I called it Women Winning in Business. And the reason I called it Women Winning in Business and the reason that I called it Women Winning in Business was because I thought I want it to be a positive space. I want them to realise that they're winning at business, whether you know, at the stage that they're at, no matter what they're doing, the fact that they're showing up every day, they're winning.
Andrea Rainsford:We started off with 200 women 18 months ago. We're now at 2,500. We're going to be in 15 cities by the end of april. We only started the first one in october and you know that what it's based on is kindness. That's it. It's a kind space. You can, you can show up and you, you and you, and you use your voice and you. Nobody is going to be unkind to you. And I always say to everybody that joins it doesn't matter what your skin color is, it doesn't matter what your sexuality is, it doesn't matter what your religion is. If you're a dick, you're a dick and you're not welcome and that and that and that is that is the, the ethos for the group. Sorry, lincoln, no, no, men. We have men. We have lots of men in our communities, don't we? We have some beautiful souls, because it isn't about women, it's, it's men that are supporting women. It's everybody that wants to lift women up and realize how brilliant they are. We've we have four empowerment days a year. We have um abundance, flourish, shine and succeed, because it's all about all of you. It's about you standing in a space where you walk into a room and you're enveloped with a hug, and it's all about kindness.
Andrea Rainsford:So planning has gone out the window a little bit, because I didn't plan Women Winning in Business and I didn't plan Affinity and I didn't plan the Empowerment Days. So I'm having to be really, really religious with my time. At the moment I'm having to. It's growing so quickly that I'm not blinking, but what I'm finding is that I'm being dragged away from my mastermind. I'm being dragged away from teaching women how to grow their businesses, and what I'm actually doing is creating spaces for women to shine.
Andrea Rainsford:So I'm going with it, because I've been trying to go backwards, haven't I? I've been trying to say no, I'm not doing that. I want to do what I know, and that's the thing is. We try to stick to what we know. We I want to do what I know, and that's the thing is. We try to stick to what we know. We try to stick to what's familiar. I'm being pulled in a different direction. Beautiful souls like Gemma keep saying to me I'm the missing piece of the puzzle, which every time, I feel like giving up. When somebody says things like that to me, then I'm keeping going. I've got no idea where it's going, but what I do know is that I've got to stick to my two and a half days because my health is more important than anything.
Donna Eade:I love that. So if anybody's got a question, keep it in mind. I am going to ask one question that I got through the form that I sent out, and that is how do you decide what you say yes and what you say no to tap into my body nicola's taught me that I've got to it.
Andrea Rainsford:It's not about alignment, it's about I go by people's energy. I'm sure you get it all the time. If you send a friend request to somebody, they'll message you and say is there a reason why you've connected with me or can I help you, or something along the lines? Those lines, and my response is always the same I like your profile picture, I get good energy from, and my response is always the same I like your profile picture, I get good energy from you. And it's always the same answer. I tend to connect with people that I like their energy and they feel like a nice human being to me. But what do I say yes to? The reason I said yes to this is because Nicola suggested it and I trust Nicola wholeheartedly. I go with my gut feeling. If my gut's off off, then I don't tend to do it anymore because that's that's sort of my north star, that's sort of guiding me forward love that.
Trudy Avery:Thank you, anybody else got any questions? Oh, look, now please wait. I have got a lovely assistant who's coming around with a microphone so we can get you on the podcast.
Andrea Rainsford:Hello hiya, at the beginning you said that women hold themselves back because they don't believe they're good enough. But I find that actually, I do think I'm good enough. I think I'm I'm amazing but the thing that I think I struggle with a lot is that I worry it's like this women's sense of community. I worry that I put my prices up, people can't afford me and I don't want to be inaccessible to to those people. So I feel like you know how do you deal with that as a as more of an issue.
Andrea Rainsford:I haven't touched on my business model, which is one of the things I haven't spoke about, one of the things that I will answer your question in a very roundabout sort of way, if that's OK. So I'm actually moving from two and a half days a week to three days a month, and people don't think that that's possible. But the reason that I'm moving to three days a month is because I wasn't happy. I was really unhappy. So I was looking at my diary and I was really unhappy. So I was looking at my diary and on a Monday and a Tuesday it would be full of Zoom calls. I just can't do it anymore. I can't wake up on a Monday and a Tuesday and speak to lots of people. That isn't me being unsociable, I just didn't feel like I was living my life. So I had to sit and think about how could I serve, like you were saying, the people that need me most, plus the people at different stages. Like you were saying, the people that need me most plus the people at different stages. How can I help all of them and look after myself at the same time? And I've come up with a new business model called Haven, which I turn up three days a month, once in the north, once in the Midlands and once in the south and that day in the morning I have a larger group of women between 20 and 30, where I teach them the fundamentals of what they need to be able to grow their businesses. Then after lunch I do a mastermind where we apply that learning to a specific group of people, which is 5 to 7. And then I do one to one before I go home. So I work one day but I'm teaching a larger group that can't afford to do the mastermind. Then I'm doing the mastermind where we apply the learning to their business, and then I've got the one-to-one in as well. So, rather than working a full week, I'm doing one day where I'm covering all three groups of people. So they will sign up for a set period of time. They will learn a set number of steps, which will probably be around 10 steps. So they'll need to commit to around 10 months 10 steps, so they'll need to commit to around 10 months. But the women in the in the morning it's going to be a lower, lower fee because I'm teaching them rather than helping them do the work. The mastermind that we have after lunch, which is going to be around seven to ten. We apply the learning to their business and I'm going to be actually helping them. They're going to be getting my advice, and then I don't do any one-to-one at all at the moment because that was my choice.
Andrea Rainsford:All of my income comes from one thing. So I do one thing to one group of people with one solution, with one outcome, and that's how I've earned my income for around five years. That haven has come about because I don't want to do that model anymore and it doesn't work and it doesn't make me happy. I wasn't sure if people would want it. I wasn't sure if people would want it. I wasn't sure if people would do it.
Andrea Rainsford:I had I think it was 100 people sign up to hear about it within an hour of putting it out. So the universe told me that this is the path for me to go down and I'm holding my first event. I think it's on the 7th of May. But, like you said, I couldn't just do high ticket. High ticket doesn't make me happy. I could charge thousands of pounds to to work with one-to-one with somebody. But it's the ladies that are coming through, the ladies that are starting out, the ladies that need me the most and that's where the larger group comes in in the morning, in in the first morning of the day thank you very much.
Donna Eade:Trudy lincoln had a question.
Lincoln Noel:Hello as the only man in the room I can say thank you for looking the way you look.
Lincoln Noel:Thank, you and for the ladies in the room, I'll say this first of all, don't worry about my presence. Um, I'm very, very. I have great empathy for where you are and, uh, because of what I do, I have a a vested interest in everything that's being said today, which brings me to my question to you. You are very defiant. You are very, very, very strong and you know your journey. My question is this, if you can answer it briefly at what point were you? You know, the current of life takes us in a particular direction and we make a decision that we are not going to travel in that direction of the current.
Lincoln Noel:When did you make that realization that you were not going to be that person too? When were you able to be courageous, to execute all that strength that you display? Because the thing that struck me about you speaking is that you mean what you say when you say you're not going to get up at 7 am and do that nonsense of LinkedIn that we've all been. You know those of us that have been to coaching with LinkedIn coaches, and there's a million of them, and we've all spent money and all the rest of it and you said and that caught my attention I'm not doing it? You've probably said that for a very long time, but when were you able to pull the trigger and do it with intention, in a meaningful way? Do you see what I mean? How long was that journey when you had the power to then say, right, I'm going to do it and be that person, as opposed to wish to be that person?
Andrea Rainsford:I think something major has to happen. So when, when I'm teaching women to grow their businesses, when I'm teaching them anything, they only actually start taking action and take it seriously and really putting in the work when there's something huge. So when I found, when I found the tumour and I was sick for the second time, I looked to the sky and said I'm not going to get a third chance. And I know I'm not going to get a third chance. I'll be taken out next time. And I know that I've got to take better care of myself. And that was. That was the point that there's always something huge that makes you change your mind.
Andrea Rainsford:Now you'd think the stroke was huge enough, but I think that after the stroke, I was desperate to come back to life. I was desperate to be the person that I was before. I was desperate to be Andrea that was in corporate. She was gone, she, she wasn't coming back and it took me quite a while to figure out I wasn't going to be her anymore. And I'd got to. I'd got to try this new Andrea, this new version on, and I'd got to try her on for size.
Andrea Rainsford:I sat at home after my operation and I realized that I hadn't got it in me anymore. I hadn't got it in me to to get up at seven o'clock. The first thing that happened was I'm not too sure how to say this, but those of you that are on LinkedIn at seven o'clock every morning are so used to posting and engaging. You're used to a certain level of visibility, so your posts get a lot of traction, you get a lot of comments, you get a lot of visibility. So I've been used to that for quite a long time. That dropped off and so you got the first thing to think is well, I need that because, like Nicola was saying, to a certain degree you want the external validation, you want people to tell you that it's OK and that you're doing a good job.
Andrea Rainsford:So the toughest thing was for me to tap into myself and say it's OK to walk your path. You haven't got to walk the path of everybody else. It's incredibly lonely. I'm not going to sit here and say it hasn't been lonely. I am very lonely because you walk your own path. You're not. You know there's people that are coming on this journey with me and, like Nicola says, they're gonna. They're gonna change route, they're gonna go in a different direction.
Andrea Rainsford:But it was the realization that I've got to do this on my own. I can't rely on the people that comment on my posts. I can't rely on the people that are, you know, me, patting me on the back, telling me I'm doing a good job. I've got to do that for myself, and that's it's still a work in progress. I still have to. I have to put my phone down. I leave my phone downstairs, so my first thing in the morning isn't just to pick my phone up and seeing what social media is doing. It's still a work in progress. But the one thing that is in the forefront of my mind is I can't make myself sick again, and I do believe that I made myself sick both times. It was me that made myself poorly. I can blame anybody and anything, but the reality is is that I'm the one that did it. I'm the one that put my body under pressure.
Donna Eade:Thank you very much. Thank you, Lincoln. One very quick one. Cheryl, Very quick answer, because otherwise we're going to run over. I don't want to stop people having their tea break.
Andrea Rainsford:Hello, Hello.
Cheryl Laidlaw:Andrea, it's just a quick one to follow on, actually. So how did you grow If you're not on LinkedIn and you're not.
Andrea Rainsford:I am on there and you're not. I am on there, I'm just not. I'm not, I'm just not there. You know, constantly, constantly. And did you start from scratch? No, no, I've been. I've been on. I've been in business 11 years.
Andrea Rainsford:So I started my business from my bed while I was still while I was, I was recovering, really. I went back to university and did a degree, a degree in computing science, and I started an seo agency about 11 years ago. I did seo for around seven or eight years and then I pivoted because basically I was hiding, not doing business growth, because I needed to put my big girl pants on and get back out there and do what I'm great at. So I've been on LinkedIn a long time. I've amassed a lovely following of people, but because I only go on there and I only post when I want to and I only post when I feel like it, the traction isn't as much and the visibility isn't as much. So it is harder, it is more difficult, but what I have done is brought everybody onto my email list and I've brought everybody into a Facebook group and it's the group where I spend the most of my time and where I give them my time and attention.
Donna Eade:So would you say, that you nurture the Facebook group, and then the energy just naturally grows.
Andrea Rainsford:We've had five sold-out empowerment days and we're now in 15 cities around the UK and that's come from the group and the email list. It hasn't come from social media. But my recommendation is always you put one solution out there to one group of people, one platform, one outcome, and you smash that before you try to move on to anything else.
Donna Eade:I live by that too. Thank you, brilliant. Thank you very much, cheryl, and thank you. Andrea, for talking with us today. Thank you.
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