Knowing what starting and running a business should be like, or can be like, is great, but what’s it really like?

How do you cope, learn from setbacks and overcome doubt?

Our next event, Coast to Confidence, is all about the human stories behind business successes. For every swan’s serene-looking glide there’s a pair of webbed feet putting in all the underwater effort, and this inspiring event is about those unseen hard yards: the sacrifices made, the small-hours self-doubt, the short-term failures transformed into long-term resurgence.

We’ll hear about all of this from people who, like you, have been there in starting a business, but who’ve now come out the other side.

Hosting will be Lucy Cox, Director of the AcadeMe. She’s an award-winning business and confidence coach with many years’ experience, but also no stranger to the ups and downs of leadership, relationships and personal growth.

Lucy will facilitate our four experienced business-owners, each with their own compelling story to tell of bending not breaking, losing and re-finding confidence, and, overall, knowing exactly what business success looks like and demands.

Jess Ratty is a globally recognised communications strategist and influential entrepreneur who founded Halo PR and Communications; Sam Boex is the co-founder and creative director of Flexi-Hex, an award-winning sustainable packaging company; Dan Parker made his business – Firetext, one of the fastest growing tech companies in the UK – a multi-million-pound success story; Ouvrielle Lindfield Roberts is a pioneering force in the UK nursery industry whose business helped to transform how babies are put to bed.

Their successes are stand-out, but their stories are much more than a roll-call of achievements: they’re fascinating snapshots of how people find ways to thrive despite challenges of confidence, as well as managing the internal ‘imposter’.

This event will be affirming for anyone dealing with business and life who sometimes wonders how they can possibly make it all work …