Kitchen Table to Red Carpet for 50-Plus Entrepreneur!

Not bad is it? Especially when you consider that aged 49 I was finally diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD (which I found rather hilarious!)

My message to every single woman out there YOU CAN. Whatever it is that you want to do, you CAN do it because the female species is absolutely bloody amazing. We multi-task like it’s going out of fashion. Everything I have brought to the boardroom in my business I have learnt throughout being a woman; daughter, wife, friend, mother, we women have many facets.

So as I hurtled towards 50, a little dishevelled, I realised ‘this is my time’ and I chose to make my life a masterpiece. It started with a bit of an epiphany really, I decided to let my hair go grey (no more hours spent in the colourist’s chair at the hair salon), I let myself put on weight and I got my first tattoo. Maybe not the average behaviour of a fifty-year-old mum-of-two, but then I’ve always been different!

I realised in my maturity that I was MORE than just a body. For years I had been getting it wrong, thinking I had to wake each morning and adorn some kind of ‘skin’ for the day. I was always in the latest gear, I had to be thin. Will I be ‘mum’ today or will I be ‘sexy’? I used to ask myself, becoming quite the chameleon over the years. But then I decided I could finally just be ME – whatever that was.

Creating my Absolute Collagen Daily Dose of Beauty is not about turning back the clock or yearning for my youth. It quite simply about fitting into this ethos of being the BEST version of myself that I can possibly be. Wearing my inside on my outside. And by that I don’t mean all lipstick and heels, own who you are darling’s! Hey - perhaps that IS lipstick and heels, who gives a stuff! You’ve earned your stripes so be just you.

Around 50 I started looking at what I was putting in my body – having being diagnosed with arthritis. This led to boiling up bone broth and not only did my arthritis ease up and my sense of wellbeing improve – my skin also started to ‘glow’!

I learnt this was due to the collagen in the homemade broths I was making. I realised, as all my friends started asking me for it, that I’d kind of become a ‘collagen dealer’. Could I take this further?

The answer was yes, of course I could! I was on to something. That’s when I decided to GO for it and work alongside professionals to create the very best collagen supplement I possibly could.

Literally hours of experimenting with formula, taste and ingredients began – and I threw myself into becoming as knowledgeable as I could about the ingestible collagen beauty market. I’ve always played to my strengths – and recognised my weaknesses – hand-picking my AC team for their knowledge and expertise in the bits that I lack.

We officially launched at the Beauty Show UK in May 2017, and what a year it has been! A fortnight ago we did some filming with the original #absoluters – those friends who kept asking me for the collagen extract and the small team I launched with back then.

It was a real day for insight – looking back over the past year and realising just how far WE had come. It’s taken blood, sweat and tears but we learned at the beginning of this year that we had won an Editor’s Choice Award in the Beauty Shortlist 2018 - and shortly afterwards that we had reached the finals of the GLOBAL Beauty Awards 2018, in not one – but two categories.

We went up for the Best New Anti-Ageing product for the women’s Beauty Box and the Best New Skin and Body Care product for the men’s Stud Box.

This came with a personalised invitation to the glamorous Black and Gold award ceremony at the Four Seasons Resort at Jumeirah Beach in Dubai. I attended with my daughter Darcy, who is just turning 21 and has become Head of Operations for the company upon completion of her Food Development and Innovation degree. It was incredible to stand on that red carpet, side-by-side - knowing that the hours of measuring out ingredients at the kitchen table together had paid off!

My message to any of you women out there is to fulfil your dreams and your potential whatever they may be. Maybe you don’t know what that is, just go have fun and explore, something will present itself - all you have to do is be open to it and recognise when it’s happening. Should you be scared? Hell yeah, there were many times I was petrified but I sure as hell would rather have experienced all that fear and be telling you my story now than have never been brave enough to take that first step. And never forget to be the best version of YOU. It’s amazing to hear from #absoluters how much they love Absolute Collagen and how great they feel.

But the most rewarding thing about creating Absolute Collagen and the success we are having isn’t actually the glamorous red-carpet experiences (as incredible as they are!) but actually showing my two girls that ANYTHING is possible.