Women Trailblazers - Purposeful Leadership & Business Building

My mum taught me more about purposeful leadership than all the leaders I've worked with put together (and that’s no disrespect to them - they were great). She was travelling the world for a big corporate in mini skirts and heels when everyone else was male and in a suit. She pushed for her firm to be one of the first businesses to move to London Docklands before anyone knew what was being built there. She watched Canary Wharf go up from her office window. She kept the family Insurance Brokers firm punching above its weight through sheer tenacity. Growing up, I used to hear her on the phone. Negotiating with big businesses. Chasing debtors. Speaking with the bank. Not flinching. Not waiting for permission. When I was a teenager with ME and needed to come home from school one day, she packed up her files, her actual desktop computer, put it all in the car, drove to pick me up, set up on the kitchen table and cracked on. No drama and no indication that this was anything out of the ordinary, long before laptops and long before hybrid working. She didn't ask for permission. She solved the problem. She refused to choose. I didn't understand what she'd given me until years later. When I went back to work after maternity leave and found flexible working easier than most of my peers, it was because she'd already done it quietly and practically, 30 years before anyone gave it a name. Since I started my business three years ago she became something more: my Finance Director, my business confidante, the person who sees the numbers and tells me the truth. She always says it the same way: Nics, the numbers tell the story. I have spent three years asking leaders what energises them, what impact they want to have, what unique skills and values only they can bring. I have never asked her. I've guessed. Assumed. Taken it as read. A total dick move, pulled on the person who has been living with purpose her whole life. She's a trailblazer. She always has been. And I never stopped to ask the question. She's properly going to hate having the coaching spotlight turned on her, but I'm going to ask it. For Phase 2 of the Purpose Papers I want to speak to the women who have been quietly building, taking the risks, showing others the way. The trailblazers who didn't wait for the world to catch up. I want to understand what drives them, what they've carried, and what it really takes to thrive rather than just survive. Who should I be talking to? Drop their name in the comments, or send me a DM.