The Athena Network Kent

How not to have a marketing one-night stand with your customers.

Today this is the topic that marketing strategist and Athena Member, Tanya Gaffon will be talking about when she delivers the business training at our online reworking meeting.

Tanya is an experienced marketing strategist with a passion for using her skills and experience to help other solopreneurs and small business owners and her goal is to encourage them to engage in smart marketing.

Tanya will talk to us about how to avoid one of the pitfalls often made by businesses large and small, which can result in a lot of wasted time and effort - marketing one-night stands.

Every Athena Network meeting is packed with learning - parking new business skills, networking skills and learning from the expertise, experience and wisdom of each other.

If you’re a woman in business looking to upskill this year and grow your business and your network, then I highly recommend attending one of our nationally held meetings.

Wahoo!

What better way to start our first Athena Kent meeting of 2022 than with the fabulous, talented and self-acclaimed introvert Susanna Reay delivering our business training today.

This year, I committed to our Members that we will be focusing on learning new skills in the digital arena, as well as building on what we have all learned from the last 18months.

Upskilling in these areas is high priority, and our Q1 scheduled business development speakers reflect that. At each and every meeting, our Members will learn something that will help develop their business skills.

The Athena Network :: Members Member, Susanna, is an Online Business Coach, Digital Course Expert, author and speaker. She helps introverted coaches package and sell their expertise online so they can achieve the sustainable income and lifestyle they desire.

At today's online networking meeting our attendees will receive insights on how to scale their digital business using Susanna's tried and tested formula.

If learning new business skills is on your list of goals this year, I can promise you'll enjoy a supportive and inspiring networking environment at any one of our national The Athena Network Athena meetings.

What new business skills have you committed to learning or improving in 2022?

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What’s your natural networking superpower?

If you’ve ever come away from a networking event feeling less than elated it could be that you’re not harnessing your unique networking superpower (I promise you, we all have one ).

When you uncover your networking strengths it’s like unlocking the magic ingredient to getting more quality clients, contacts and referrals.

If you want to learn more about your natural networking style, take this 4-minute quiz created and designed by Athena Network founder Jacqueline Y B Rogers to find out more.

I did! And was described as a DYNAMIC CONNECTOR.

Some of my own networking superpowers were revealed as:

⚡️Having drive and ambition and making networking look easy!

⚡️Finding the solutions to even the most difficult of problems and making things happen.

⚡️Having exceptional ideas for everyone in my network and always willing to share my connections

⚡️Being a determined go-getter and having a quick-paced mind and natural aptitude for problem-solving.

But that's more than enough about me, I’d love to know what YOUR networking superpowers are.

When you complete the quiz, let me know what type of networker you are so I can follow up with more information on how best to support you and your networking goals in 2022.

Take the quiz by clicking the link below and feel free to invite any other networkers you know to do the same.

https://www.theathenaacademy.com/natural-networking-quiz

Discover Your Natural Networking Style Your Natural Networking Style is one of four natural styles in this test. By knowing YOUR Natural Networking Style, you can follow your natural path in life. You have a natural way to earn, to learn, to lead, to live, to love and ... of course, to network.

HIGH CALIBRE

These are just two words that spring to mind when I reflect on the quality of speakers we have across the Athena Network.

Today is no exception.

Athena Member Sophie Watson visited our Kent group and shared an intriguing talk around the topic of how we can powerfully use silence in our business and life to get results.

Sophie has been guiding corporate and entrepreneurial women from around the world to create a life they love since 2014. She has been featured in the Huffington Post and is a regular guest on BBC Radio Berkshire.

This is the last Athena Kent meeting of 2021 and what a year it’s been! We made the decision that our business network meetings would remain online on the back of the huge success of our Pass+ initiative which enables members to visit other groups across the country where there is no professional lockout.

So as we look to 2022 I have the pleasure of planning the next season of business development training at our meetings.
My focus will be on supporting my Kent members to continue to learn and develop our online business skills. As the digital era accelerates, it’s vital that we continue to skill up to future proof our businesses.

Do you have a particular business skill are you looking to learn and develop in 2022?

Dream big!

The person behind this profound quote is the genius German scientist Albert Einstein.

He emphasised the importance of sticking to what you want to do, even when others think it's 'unrealistic'.

"The person with big dreams is more powerful than the one with all the facts.”


As well as learning from Melanie’s wisdom and experience today, I’m excited to be collaborating with her on an exciting project next year which will help other female business owners become more visible on video.

Melanie is an multi award-winning filmmaker and award-winning radio broadcaster.
Both accolades she achieved in mid-life as an entrepreneur having quit the corporate rat-race when she found out she was pregnant with her first child.


As well as learning from Melanie’s wisdom and experience today, I’m excitied to be collaborating with her on an exciting project next year.

So there you have our Athena Network aims right there:
⚡️Learning and developing
⚡️Connecting and collaborating
⚡️Supporting and inspiring each other in business

And that is why I l LOVE my Athena Tuesdays.

What does dreaming BIG mean to you and your business? And do you spend time with people that will support you to make your BIG dream a reality?

DM me for more details and benefits of becoming an Athena Member - there are too many to mention here! 😁

When I first joined The Athena Network as a Member 6+ years ago, I could never have imagined how being a part of this wonderful, inspiring, strong and talented network of business women would change my career path.

At the time, I joined the network to get more clients (most women do!) and I did. I billed an additional £30k+ in income for my law firm - not a bad return on a £545 annual investment for membership!

Up until I joined Athena, my experience of networking had been dull, grey, suited and booted, male-dominated and to be quite honest…BORING!

Athena opened up what felt like a vibrant world of business colour and opportunity, experience and expertise; a world of variety of backgrounds (it was all a bit homogenized in the legal world) and ultimately it gave me the confidence to make and take a leap of faith a change my career altogether.

I chose to become an Athena Regional Director a year or so after I became a Member. The opportunity came up, I wasn’t looking for it, but it felt right and I took it.

I can honestly say it was one of the best personal and business decisions I have made in my life. The learning, the growth, the confidence, the friendships that I have made and enjoyed has been extra-ordinary.

So as we celebrate 16 years of MagentaTribe superpower - Thank you Jacqueline Y B Rogers - and as I refresh the Kent banner on our Facebook Group (pictured) for 2022 and highlight in yellow our ‘Athena aims’, never has the mutual support of women in business been so vital, so necessary, so appreciated and so valued.

None of us knows what’s next, but I do know that with the alongside me we’ll conquer it together.

DM me for details on how to join us.

How do you feel about SALES? 😱 😁

Whether we are comfortable selling or not, there’s no getting away from doing it in business - yet most of us hate the feeling of being sold to and spot it a mile away.

The solution? Do it right!

Athena Member Becky Hayman is Founder of Vela Verde and is a Sales and Comms Trainer. Becky has worked in sales for 13 years, and done every job, from cold calling and knocking on doors to consulting to sales presenting and training. The lot!

Tomorrow at our Athena Kent meeting, Becky will share with our Members what she has learned about what makes someone good at selling - no gimmicks, no manipulation, and no pushiness that you might associate with a typical salesperson. I'm all ears!

Every Athena meeting has a business development training where we learn more about a skill we can use in our business. The breadth of knowledge, experience and industry expertise in The Athena Network never fails to amaze me.

It’s definitely one of my favourite parts of our meetings.

If you are a woman in business looking to learn new skills, develop new connections and grow your business through networking, DM me and I’ll share all benefits you can expect when you join us.

Gill McKay and I have never met in person, yet we communicate several times a week.


We've not yet met at a networking event, but we are both Members of the Athena Network.


So it is with a genuine sense of excitement that I will have the pleasure of introducing Gill to our Athena Kent Members tomorrow at our online networking meeting as our Business Development Trainer.

I'm fascinated by Gill's work and I know she will deliver valuable insights and learnings to our group.


This is the power of the online business world we live in.


Gill and I follow and engage with each other on LinkedIn, and because she is an Athena Member she can use her Pass+ to visit any one of our Athena groups and meet more women who will be interested her work.


ONLINE networking represents huge opportunities for us all.
If you're curious as to what that means for you, please message me and I'd love it invite you, as my guest, to one of our networking meetings so you can find out for yourself.



Do you surround yourself with experts?

Athena Kent Member, Vardeep Edwards is the Founder of The Branding Fox an award-winning design studio that supports businesses large and small with all their branding needs.

She has worked with a huge variety of clients including ODEON cinemas, Marie Curie, Pentagram and EMAP. and is passionate about helping women in business define and refine their brands, so they can show up and be more visible.

Vardeep is just one of the award-winning business owners in our ever expanding network, and today she will sharing her expertise with us during our business development training session.

Surround yourself with experts, grow your business, build a stronger network and develop your business skills in a supportive and informal networking environment.

DM me for detail on how to join our next meeting.

People join business networking groups for a variety of reasons.
If you’re new to networking you’ll get the best results for your business if you:

✅ Get your objectives for joining clear in your mind
✅ Share those objectives with your new group
✅ Prepare for your meetings with your objectives in mind

We ask all prospective Athena Network Members to tell us what they are looking for from the Network so that our Members know how best to serve each other.

Our most recent Member shared her 3 Objectives for joining us:

👉🏼To build up my network and make some entrepreneurial friends with like-minded people!
👉🏼To learn more about how an entrepreneur thinks, what makes a successful business, what social media channels I should be using and the format, how to build up my business and gain more business acumen
👉🏼To learn more about what confidence issues entrepreneurs struggle with, especially during the start-up phase, so that I can build my confidence program around helping them.

Join one of our online business meetings to find out how the Athena Network can help you and your business.

For more details on how to reserve your seat please contact [email protected]

Yesterday at our Athena Kent business meeting we spoke about our successes from this year. Just one. The ‘stand out’.

It was our last meeting before the summer break and this was part of an exercise to support our positive thinking on the back of a year that may not have gone quite to plan for many of us.🥴

As business owners, we spend a lot of time pressing forward to the next step, the next action point, the next sale, the next client...That’s part and parcel of having your own business, of course.

And in that process of striving, I think we can be tough on ourselves for what we haven’t achieved.

Armed with the knowledge that a successful and positive mindset breeds success, we shared ours. Successes such as: ‘finding more clarity in my business’ ‘learning a new skill to incorporate into an existing client offering’ and ‘keeping my business alive when I thought it would sink’ to name a few.

So as we start to look forward to a summer break, how about take a deep breath, (maybe imagine yourself with a mojito on the beach somewhere!) and think about what you have achieved this year already.

I guarantee that if you take some time to reflect, you’ll have had amazing successes that you might not have given yourself credit for.

What has been your biggest achievement so far this year?
The one that makes you feel warm inside and smile on the outside? 🤗

Join us from 01 September and we'd love to celebrate your business successes with you.

Difficult conversations.

We have them in business, we have them in our personal lives.
But how do you feel about managing them when they come up?

Today we will be hearing from experienced Relationship Coach and Counsellor and Athena Member Smith, who’ll be offering our Members insights on how to manage those “difficult” conversations you either avoid or dread having.

Meeting online has enabled our Athena Members to access the experience, wisdom and expertise across the national Network, and I’m delighted that this will continue to remain possible for our Members as we continue to host our events online.

If you’d like to know more about and how we can help and support your business, please message me for more details.

YET. A small but hugely powerful word, in my opinion.

When business owners say to me, “I know I need to learn how to use video in my business, I just don’t know how.” I always add this BIG little word ‘YET’ to the end of their sentence. 😁

Because I believe that no-one starts off being an expert in anything.
Most things worthwhile doing in life and in business take time, know-how, and guidance from someone who has already done it.

Up-skilling and learning how to make videos for your business is no exception.
So if you don’t feel camera confident right now, but you know it's something you want to learn, I can help you.

I’ve designed my new online video creation course ‘From Scared to Shared’ precisely for women in business who don’t feel confident making videos YET, but will by the time they’ve completed ‘From Scared to Shared’. 😁

YET is my power word. What's yours?

FIND OUT MORE: https://curious-dog-media-s-school.teachable.com/p/from-scared-to-shared

Who do people love about working with you?

It’s just one question I will be asking our Athena Kent meeting attendees later today at our monthly online business event.

Why? Because good networkers want to know more about other businesses and not just try to ‘sell’ their own.

1. A good networker will ask you questions about your business.
2. A great networker will use that information to refer you new client and contacts.
3. An Athena Member will do 1 + 2 and then tell everyone else how fantastic you are too!

Every Athena meeting has a dedicated training session on how to get the most out of networking, so our Members learn what makes a great networking strategy that will grow their business.

And that starts with asking questions

So…What do people love about working with you?

And if you’re finding that hard to answer that, my challenge to you is ask someone and post the response in the comments.

Join an Athena online meeting and meet like-minded business women here to help you grow your business.

How can an HR consultant help your business?

Check out the facts below, and you'll see why having a good HR Team or consultant is a must if you want to avoid the traps.

At our meeting today, we were informed and advised by HR Consultant Kavya Andersen-Tuffnell, partner in Madison HR who specialise helping SMEs get their HR right.

I love our Network! There is seemingly no area of expertise that isn't represented, and for a small business owner this is an invaluable resource to have access to.

If you are a woman in business looking to learn new business skills and benefit from connections and collaborations with like-minded women, then do come and join one of our online networking meetings. I guarantee you'll learn something new.

What a way to spend a day!
More significantly, International Women's Day.

The theme was 'festival' (hence my 'work wear' - do you like my feathered earrings...? :-)) - A Networking Festival for women in business across the country.

A unique event never done in this way before, hosted by Athena founder and visionary Jacqueline Y B Rogers and infused with everything that stands for: to meet, learn, collaborate, refer and inspire each other. With a healthy dose of fun along the way.

I'm proud to be a Member of our amazing
I'm proud to be a woman in business surrounded by so many others.
I'm proud to be a woman.

WAHOO! Today is International Women’s Day.

I cannot wait for 10am…that’s when the first EVER event of its kind begins: NETFEST - hosted by The Athena Network - and bringing together a dazzling array of amazing business women from across the country.

I’ll have the opportunity to
> learn
> connect
> celebrate
And have BIG FUN all from the comfort of home, thanks to the tech and the inspiration of Y B Rogers who has created the Event.

How are you choosing to spend today?
What do you ?

I'd love you to join me on Monday 08 March for International Women's Day where will be celebrating at by hosting NETFEST - an online networking event like no other!

My is to seek out and celebrate the achievements and success of women in business, and NETFEST will be shining the spotlight wide and bright on so many of them!

Open to all women in business, and non-Members. You can book your ticket here: https://www.theathenaacademy.com/offers/EvTuFopy/checkout

Is there one piece of advice or words of wisdom you run your business by?

The pictured quote was shared by multi-talented and high productive Athena Member Lauretta Wright who shared her 'Productive Tips for Crazy Busy People' at our recent meeting.

I love learning from other business owners: the tips, the hacks, the workarounds, the dos, the don'ts. We can always learn more, and it's one of the reasons that the Business Development Training session at every Athena Network meeting is so valuable to all of our Members: we learn new skills and develop existing ones.

If you are a woman in business looking to grow your business and learn from the wisdom, experience and expertise of other women, then when you next sit down at YOUR desk, message me for more details on how to join us!