COMMIT TO THIS WITH EVERYTHING YOU HAVE

It's been a year now since I have been out of my last agency role, and I am now hitting my stride in my second career curve.?

In Feb this year I quietly launched my new business WeGrow, a training, coaching, consultancy business and I am thrilled that WeGrow is, well, growing.

WeGrow is a mash up of Wendy Gower in case you didn’t notice, but it’s also naturally about growth; personal, professional, and commercial. Growth for my clients of course, but also if I’m honest, for me too.

I am applying my extensive leadership experience gained across agencies, media owners, client assignments and teams, and using that to teach, coach and guide with the firm intent of making a tangible impact on my clients’ businesses and people.?

Mine wasn’t an intended pivot – things abruptly changed on the 19th October 2022, when I was surprisingly made redundant from the holding company I had been at for 9 years as a media agency MD.? It felt like a punch to the stomach.? Redundancy is hard; for me it tackled my own sense of worth and value, it stripped me of my work community and sense of belonging, it removed financial security, and feelings of shame and vulnerability abounded.? But this piece isn’t about redundancy.? This is about finding a new career path, as a female, in advertising and in my 50’s, that frankly has changed my life for the better.

I know it’s working through the incredible feedback I am getting.? The brilliant Margie Reid, CEO at Thinkerbell, was one of the first people to back me at WeGrow.? I recently asked her for a quote based on the work I have been doing and she said ‘Wendy works with 18 of our senior team and the feedback has been wonderful and the results are incredible.? We are stronger as a business for our partnership with Wendy.? WeGrow is part of our collection of partners that forms the Institute of Measured Magic”. Well, that filled my cup.

I have built a training programme for client leads in agencies because as far as I was aware, nothing like it existed, and I have successfully run this programme in some of the leading agencies in the land. I have trained to be a coach and now have over 20 coaching assignments where I am making a difference.? I have built and delivered a training programme for Sales Leads to enable them to have more understanding, more empathy and more impact when dealing with their media agency counterparts.? I have successfully run a survey with CMOs and a survey with media agencies to fuel my training programmes.? I was thrilled to be selected to work with the IMAA to help launch their mentoring programme for the Female Leaders of Tomorrow.? I have run a pitch, facilitated workshops, done a stack of project work and have been proud to be involved with the launch of this year’s critically important White Ribbon campaign.? This is a significant, meaningful, and fulfilling change from life in an agency holdco.

I have always been tenacious, resilient, and ambitious and I have needed every ounce of this over the past year.? And still do.? As much as agency life is challenging and stressful, receiving a monthly salary is very different to the hustle of finding new clients, building trust, building content, delivering content, assessing impact, refining content, and always always doing my best work.? It’s a different type of stress where I have had to get comfortable with rejection, of people not returning my calls, of finding courage and accepting that failing is growing.

In the very early days, there was naturally some level of imposter syndrome; taking your agency hat off one day and putting on what felt like a brand-new one the next can do that to you.? On reflection tho’, it never was a brand-new hat, just maybe slightly re-upholstered.? It was still me, just with a new focus and direction.

Deciding on this new career path felt like a natural evolution, albeit a pretty scary one at times.? These 4 moments were integral:

1.?????? Firstly, I knew straight away that I didn’t want another agency role.? I wanted change.

2.????? On the drive home after the redundancy meeting a friend called to check in.? She instructed me to go straight home and make a list of all the things that I’m good at.? I told her that at that moment I didn’t feel as tho’ I was any good at anything.? As I said, redundancy is hard.? Her response was brilliant.? “Well, lady, that is going to have to change.? One because it’s bullshit and two, because if you don’t believe you’re any good at anything, then you can guarantee nobody else will.”? At some point over the coming days, I made her list. My list, accepting and owning my strengths.? I know agencies inside and out.? I build strong, effective client relationships for the long term.? I build highly effective and collaborative teams. Coaching and mentoring are a passion and a strength.

3.????? Arthur C Brooks is my work crush. He literally wrote the book(s) on happiness and teaches an oversubscribed Leadership and Happiness course at Harvard Business School.? His book from Strength to Strength was released in 2022 and it’s about finding meaning, purpose and success in the second half of your career.? For me it was impactful and reading it felt timely and serendipitous.? He says there are 2 things that give you career satisfaction.? The first is a feeling of progress – you’re earning your success, you’re creating value, that your accomplishments are moving the needle and you’re being recognized for those accomplishments And the second?? Well, that’s helping people.? WeGrow was shaped to deliver on both.

4.????? I read an article on LI early this year about a founder’s perspective on his new business and the things that fuelled his success.? ‘Commit to this with everything you have’ was a mantra that was pivotal to this founder and was the key outtake for me.? I wish I had kept the article, but sadly I didn’t.? However, I did write down the line.? It’s on a scrappy piece of lined paper which is stuck on the wall in my office.? This became a decisioning tool for me – and still is.?

?I suspect every new business cherishes the clients that believed in them from the beginning.? I will be forever grateful to Margie Reid at Thinkerbell, Jasmin Bedir at Innocean, Fi Johnston at Dentsu, Sam Buchanan, Angela Smith, Bec Coulson at the IMAA, Adam Sadler at SBS, Jodi Paton and Steph Mills at Hoyts; all of whom believed in me from the beginning.? There were lots and lots of other people too that helped, supported and reached out to help; Paul Taylor at Catalyst6 and Colin Jowell at Good Behaviour in particular.? Not always the people I suspected that would either, but I am super grateful to every one of you.? It has been amazing reconnecting with people from my past, forging new friendships and letting go of the friends that were there for just the season.

?People tell me I look lighter and happier.? I feel lighter, happier and more fulfilled too.? I am committed to this new path with everything I have.? I am kicking goals, am proud of what I have achieved so far.? I am working hard so that there is lots more to come.??

?If you would like to discuss any of my training solutions or coaching assignments, please reach out.? I would love to chat.?