SEE ME BE ME: The power of a network

You are the company you keep – as well as having great role models, we know how important it is to have the right people surrounding you. Lifting you up, encouraging you, talking you up when you’re not there, advocating for you and being an ambassador for your achievements.

We definitely know how much we enjoy doing that for our friends in business and in life – enter the incredible, wide-reaching power of a network. We started the SEE ME BE ME podcast to platform diverse role models, but through making it, we’ve discovered an incredible group of people that we’re honoured to share the airspace with, and to work with. The right network will give you advice when you’re facing a challenge, and celebrate you when you get a win. And having one to rely on is invaluable.

That’s not even touching on the power of having a network to reach new people – the right new people – with your ideas.

But don’t just take it from us…

Dr Marilyn Comrie, on what Jason and the Argonauts taught her about the power of community:

“We can all be heroes. We have to choose to be a hero. The hero is about to go on this journey, and it means that you’re going to have to confront your personal demons, overcome them, in order that you can be transformed as a person, and then get the Golden Fleece. And Jason becomes the king. He was a young man who was born a king, and had his throne stolen away from him, so he had to go and reclaim it. So that’s really the basis of the story.

So each and every one of us is born a king, a prince, but we have to reclaim our greatness. And in order to do that, we each have to go on a journey, where we have to face our greatest fears, but we don’t face them on our own. You know, we have our tribe, and we have a great network of people who’ve supported us on our journey. But without that tribe, without those people who support you, who back you and you can always rely on, it would be an impossible journey.”

Simone Roche on creating a powerful network:

“I found myself at this event, which was a room full of women drinking warm wine, and it felt sort of very negative. And it was all supposed to be about encouraging more women to get at board level. And I just remember thinking, Well, where are all the women? Where are the great stories? Where is that inspiration?

At that initial moment, I realised we could sort of put some real positivity around amazing people in this industry [hospitality and retail]. I found myself coming back up from London, because everything I was doing was down in London, and I thought, well, what would happen if we sort of changed where we were having these conversations around gender; what would happen if we started to showcase and celebrate and recognise the amazing role models that we have across the fantastic North of England. And that’s where it started, on a cold train journey, where I started thinking about what we could do, how we could highlight, how we could really showcase brilliant role models so that our future talent could look through and look up and believe.

I wanted to dispel any myth that it was grim up north. Look at the brilliant role models out there. And that’s where Northern Power Women was born, because I felt like I wanted to change the landscape, the geography and the individuals talking about gender equality.”

Catch up with the SEE ME BE ME podcast, and our incredible network, right now on Spotify!