Go Furness

Showing Off and Living Well!

Joanne came from a background of working in insurance and sales before she started work at Marl. They soon saw something in Joanne and set her the task of establishing their marketing department. Not one to do things by halves, she did this whilst tucking a master’s degree in marketing under her belt. ??Her confidence grew, but so did her frustration at being an employee…she came from good entrepreneurial stock. Her confidence and frustration combined together to create stress and she began to cook ‘Showing Off’ a fantastic marketing company.

She took a calculated risk and left the day job in 2004. Immediately the frustration left and she knew that she was doing what she was born to do. She hit the ground running and in year 1 doubled her earnings and doubled it again in year 2. She expanded and took someone else on. But this proved more difficult than it first appeared and, no matter how hard they tried, they couldn’t make that work. To try and make ends meet, Joanne worked even harder and describes herself as a hamster on a wheel.

In 2006, Joanne had very little life outside of business. She made herself exhausted and ill. At this point, she started using Herbalife products and thinking about her health. She was so impressed with the products that she decided to get involved with the company.
This was a turning point for Joanne and her business. Herbalife offered her another income stream, a set of values and morals that matched her own, and training in personal development and business. ??After consulting a business coach, Joanne learned to balance the two businesses and manage multiple income streams: an extremely successful marketing company, a Herbalife distributorship and a property portfolio. The business coach told her that she had found her ‘business soul mate’ in Herbalife. Indeed, Joanne and her husband Gavin have done very well with this business which they call Wishing Wellness. They have travelled far and wide on training days and enjoy helping other people set up their own businesses, as they expand their team. ??Since having the coaching, Joanne lives life quite differently. She will never go back on the hamster wheel. She puts a lot of energy into her own personal development and is much more aware of her limitations and what makes her happy. But this does not mean that she is less ambitious. On the contrary. She has even bigger goals and plans now.

In April this year she will be launching a new arm of Showing Off- Showing Off Academy of Business. This is an exciting new business school for Cumbria; which will give local business owners the practical skills they need to grow their companies. During the year-long programme, delegates will be trained by twelve business owners; all experts in their field. The aim of the course is to highlight the power we have to design our own lives through increasing our knowledge and experience. Using different learning and teaching styles, the trainers will help to catapult SMEs to new levels; significantly impacting our local economy. But the best bit for Joanne is, the Academy will be able to survive without her doing it all. This will allow her to take it to the next step…International!

Joanne has visions of taking this model, once tried and tested, to Africa, where she wants to make a positive impact in some of the poorest areas. She hopes to teach people business skills, so they too can design their own futures.

The Business Academy will be launched at one of Joanne’s famous networking events- ONE Business Network on April 15th at the Riverside Hotel in Kendal. These events are the biggest networking events in Cumbria and are not to be missed if you are in business in the area.

So what are the secrets of Joanne’s success?

Take a lesson out of everything, especially the negative things
Work hard
Focus on the value you bring to the market place – rewards are about the results for your customer. The money and referrals will follow
Have strong morals and values, and stand by them
Be true to yourself
Be pleasant
Be positive
Set goals and dreams
Stick to them
And her advice to others setting up?
Read all you can, learn something from every opportunity and talk to others who have been there and done it. Remember free advice is worth exactly what you pay for it – you can learn more from people who tried and failed than you can from those who never tried in the first place.

If you want it badly enough, just do it!

Posted by Kay Hebbourn on 6th March.