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Podmas, Small Business Saturday, Your Horse Live and lots more!

Podmas, Small Business Saturday, Your Horse Live and lots more!If a podcast could be a newsletter, this would be it!

Podmas, Small Business Saturday, Your Horse Live and lots more!

As we start Podmas next week (eek!), I wanted to share a bit about that with you, and when I started chatting about that and how it all works and why, I then wanted to share some other bits with you too!

These include:

Small Business Saturday– this BRILLIANT campaign, created by Small Business Britain which is run by the fabulous Michelle Ovens, helps to promote small businesses and how incredible they are to the wider world. Falling just after Black Friday, Small Business Saturday encourages us all to take to the streets- or shop online- and support our favourite small businesses. On the run up to the event, Small Business Saturday also offers lots of support for businesses through webinars and one to one mentoring opportunities. Not only am I one of the very lucky #SBS100 for 2022, I’m also giving a webinar and providing mentoring sessions as part of the campaign. I’m really delighted to be involved.

Your Horse Live– I’m heading over to Your Horse Live for a few different reasons, but one of them is that I’ve been invited to speak on the stage each day and I am genuinely so excited for this. Each day, I’ll be interviewing some brilliant influencers to talk about what it takes to be an influencer, the highs and lows along the journey, and we’ll be answering questions from the audience too. It’s going to be brilliant. In addition to this, I’ll also be helping the BETA team at the event as they have a stand there to help promote their work and the trade, and Dr Diane Fisher will be hosting a live Rider Clinic on the stage each day too! Exciting stuff!

 

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Finding a way, not an excuse, with para showjumper Evie Toombes

 

evie toombes

Evie Toombes is a truly inspiring equestrian. Not only does she showjump competitively and create really beautiful content, she’s also tube fed 20 hours a day and has a number of significant health issues that impact her day to day life.

Finding a way, not an excuse, with para showjumper Evie Toombes


Her influencer journey started when she was just 11 and a school bully decided to ‘expose’ her health issues. Instead of waiting for this to happen and feeling powerless, Evie took control, started a blog, and started telling her story, in her own words.

This open approach is a theme through everything that Evie does, from her work with schools to help promote understanding and conversations around invisible illnesses to her honest social media. This is an absolute joy to follow and gives an insight into what she has to do to not just compete, but also exist.

I had the pleasure of meeting Evie in real life at  Bolesworth in the summer and knew I had to get her on the podcast. She’s great fun, so interesting, and I learnt so much that I had to get her on to chat!

Evie is one inspiring lady, and it’s an absolute joy to share this podcast with you. Prepare to feel very inspired…

Make sure you follow Evie online too- she’s very active on Instagram, and you can find her here.

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What’s an influencer?

whats an influencer

The term influencer gets used a LOT, but do you know what one really is? What defines an influencer? Does the term get attributed to people with a certain following? Does the term kick in at a certain follower number? A certain mission? How does it work? And for those who are, what are you going to use your influence for?

What’s an influencer?

When it comes to being an influencer, how do we make a difference for good? What are good and less than good ways to use our influence ‘status’ online and beyond? Let’s explore a few untruths, shall we…

‘It’s all about the follower number’ – no, no it isn’t. It’s about the engagement. Of course, brands want to work with people who have good followings as that means that whatever they’re promoting gets in front of more people, but if it’s an inauthentic following, it’s useless. Bots and fake account won’t care what you’re doing or saying, so if you focus solely on the number, you’re on a route to nothing. A good engaged following is the key…

‘It’s just people getting free stuff’ – no, it’s not. Or at least it shouldn’t be! Yes, as part of an influencer arrangement, the person will often receive product, but it’s not without anything coming from their side! People receiving the ‘stuff’ described will also have to create and plan content to share that product or service with their audience, so there is a payment there, even if the product is given for free.

‘Influencers can say what they want!’ – well, technically, yes, but for the good of the community and your ‘brand’, please do think about what you’re saying and use your influence for good. This can be through raising awareness for good and important causes and sharing products and services you really love.

‘Click bait and scaremongering is good for engagement’ – yes they are, but for ALL the wrong reasons. If the only way you can make people engage with you is through scaring the living daylights out of them, then you need to revise your entire strategy. Because it’s a weak one.

Influencers can be so good for businesses but also the world at large when power is used for good… so let’s do that, shall we?

 

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Representation, changing the narrative, and winning the Magnolia Cup with Ashleigh Wicheard

ashleigh wicheard

In 2022, Ashleigh Wicheard won the Markel Magnolia Cup. This fabulous charity horse race not only raised funds for a great cause- The Brilliant Breakfast, as part of The Prince’s Trust, but it also brought representation, inclusivity and more into the spotlight. And a lot of the credit for this has to go to Ashleigh Wicheard, my guest on this episode of the Small & Supercharged Podcast.

Representation, changing the narrative, and winning the Magnolia Cup with Ashleigh Wicheard


I would urge each and every one of you fabulous people to tune in. Even if you haven’t and won’t experience what Ashleigh has, we all have the ability to be allies when it comes to supporting inclusion and diversity in our sport. Ashleigh has done a lot to raise awareness around this issue, and there are many other equestrians doing a superb job too, but we really do have the opportunity to help in a bigger way.

We discuss what winning the Magnolia Cup meant, why taking the knee was so powerful, diversity in equestrianism, being open to uncomfortable conversations and how we can all be allies for important issues that we might never experience ourselves, but really matter.

Tune in, learn, enjoy and do give Ashleigh a follow- she’s @missblackequestrian over on Instagram and shares some great content around racing, diversity, representation and so much more.

To find out more about Ashleigh, make sure you follow her on Instagram here at @missblackequestrian 

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