Spotlight Series: Stacy Kehren Idema
Legacy Club shines a light on some of our members to see what makes them and their business tick.
We spoke to Stacy Kehren Idema from Global Collective
Please tell us a little bit about you the person (not you the business owner): I am a lover of life. Curious, deep and soulful person who enjoys great food, delicious wine (and spirits) and fantastic company. I am a prolific writer (sometimes moreso in my head than on paper), love learning and consuming knowledge and information. Die-hard self-development junkie and do my best to live in integrity every day. Completely reinvented my life at 49, sold everything, moved from the US to the UK on an innovator visa and restarted life and business. I keep a small circle of friends and am a proud Mom to two young adult men.
Describe your business in less than 30 words: Revolutionising how investors and business leverage gender strengths to empower gender equity and improve mental health in business.
What industry or sector does your business fall in to?: B2B
What did you do before you started your business?: I am a former corporate program leader (26 years), working specifically with executives in highly ambiguous environments on healthcare innovations, new products, services, and solutions. The majority of my corporate experience was working in various sectors of Financial Services, Healthcare, and Telecom and in most pillars (Tech, Sales, Product, Innovation, Research and Development, Operations, etc.). While in corporate, I started coaching and transitioned pivoted a couple of times, eventually into leadership and business coaching. In 2019, I was made redundant and started coaching full-time. I also worked with a Diversity, Inclusion and Equity company for a period of time while exploring the UK and the Innovator visa opportunity in 2021. My entire life has been in business as the former wife of a generational business owner and the daughter of two small business owners.
What have been the biggest struggles that you have encountered, and what did you do to overcome them?: My mindset. How I talk to myself, love myself, understand and speak to and in my capacity, capability and confidence as a woman. I took a radical approach to solutioning my anxiety, (my biggest mindset barrier). Learning to stop myself mid-panic attack or mid-stream panic thought by constant redirection (and the help of sticky notes all over the house and a therapist). I then hired a coach and said yes to really uncomfortable situations and invited myself to reframe and reconsider my old approach with a more empowering one to build self-trust. While my hard approach isn't one I recommend, it worked for me. Since then, I have hired many coaches and practitioners to improve my mindset, which has also helped me in areas of feminine groundedness, speech/speaking, and emotional intelligence. Today, many modalities are part of my routine, including hypnosis, reiki, meditation, and other eastern medicine practices into my daily routine. It has improved my intuition, self-trust, decision-making, and ability to take bigger and bigger risks and navigate stress in healthier ways.
Have you had any external investment to date?: Yes
What has been the impact of COVID-19 on your business and did you make any changes, or pivots?: I took the leap in the middle of Covid to start my business. In fact, my original initiative grew!
Do you struggle with, or have you found any of the following barriers to your business growth?: Access to finance/funding, Other
Do you have any business hero's, if so, who are they?: In general, I don't believe in hero's as I find that my evolution is fast and many experts or people of influence may only be on my journey for brief time durations. That said, some of favorite and most respected business humans (at the moment) are Mary Portas, Cindy Eckert, Jordan B Peterson and Steven Bartlett.
Financial Rewards or Business Awards?: Business Awards
What was the last book you read?: Never split the difference. Chris Voss
Tell us something totally unique about your business: We aim to solve gender inequality by empowering Women and Men in business.
Finally, please tell us what we can look forward to with your business in the next 12 months.: 2023 is really exciting! We are focused on (getting funded) initiating pilots between male led investment firms and women owned-led business while implementing a marketing and awareness campaigns that dig deeper into the impact of creating a new ecosystem that empowers Women and Men while enabling gender equity. There are a couple of other treats and treasures I would love to see happen as well when I find the best resources for the vision.
