Dare To Be Brave with Joy Foster

They say that health is wealth, and Melanie Lee knows this better than anyone. After experiencing burnout not once but three times in her life and following a bout of Covid right at the beginning of the pandemic that left her and her kids wondering whether she would wake up to see another day, Mel realised that things had to change. Now, at 61, she says she’s got the energy of someone in their 30s...

Are you a purple cow? Or rather, is your business one? Don’t worry, we haven’t lost our marbles! We’re just diving straight into the analogy made by sales guru Paul Essery in this episode of the Sparkle and Thrive Podcast  – one dedicated to helping you nail your sales process. Paul points out that to attract your ideal customer and ensure you can have a conversation with them that will influence...

If you’ve ever lost hours doomscrolling, you’ll know that social media isn’t always the best place to be. And when it comes to protecting your mental health, the results of countless studies will make you want to close all your Apps and run for the hills. #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek But before you do, take a moment to check out Sophie Bradley’s story, TechPixies’ Insta Ninja extraordinaire and a wo...

If you’ve reached midlife and you’ve found that looking for a job is like one of those steady-hand games – you know where you need to go, but charting a path to get there is pretty frustrating (and a shock to the system at times!) – you need the wise words of Sarah Taylor Phillips. 🧭 She’s popped by the Sparkle and Thrive Podcast to reveal her 5 secrets to getting hired over 50, although we think...

Divorce, single motherhood, cancer diagnosis – that’s a lot by anyone’s standards. 🤯 But as Benita Triffitt says, she was determined ‘not to crumble’. And if this episode is anything to go by, she’s living proof of what happens when you lean into thinking about things differently. And, wowzers! Benita’s radiating happiness right now. 😊 So how do you get through the obstacles that block your way?...

If you’ve ever suffered from a case of the ‘what ifs’: 😰 What if I can’t find clients? 😰 What if clients don’t pay me? 😰 What if I say the wrong thing online? This is the episode to plug into your lugholes. Because we’re on a major ANT squashing mission (don’t worry, no ants were harmed in the making of this episode), courtesy of Fern Fuller. As a single mum growing her own business, Fern wante...

So you’ve got your social media up and running, a lead magnet in place that’s growing your mailing list. your paid ads are out in the world, and you’re busy networking to build your reputation. Before you give yourself a high five, there are a couple more steps to go on your business growth strategy, and they’re probably the most crucial. They can also feel like the biggest leap for women who get...

If your head is spinning from all the jobs you have to focus on as a business owner, Joy Foster, our chief TechPixie, is here to try and make your life easier. Having set up three businesses and discovered what works and what doesn’t, she’s put together her playbook for business growth containing the 5 things you need to focus on to move the needle forward. Joy’s already covered steps 1 and 2 in t...

What are you supposed to be doing to grow your business? 📈 This was the question one of the peeps in our LevelUp Mastermind asked chief TechPixie Joy, and it got her thinking about the action steps every business owner should be taking to move the needle forward in their business. So if you’ve had your head in your hands over your numbers and wondering how so much effort can produce such little r...

TRIGGER WARNING: This episode touches on the loss of an ex-partner to cancer and includes some swearing (although there’s a good reason for those curse words!). Why does it often take a major life event to serve as a wake-up call? When we should be doing what we love right here, right now. When author Kate Christie lost her ex-husband to pancreatic cancer in the space of 11 months, it was a remind...

Ok, confession time. For more years than we care to admit, we thought a damp squib was a damp squid. 🦑😂 Yep, we confused that oh-so-disappointing firework that fizzles out after a few seconds with the (definitely damp) ocean-dwelling creature – and we bet we weren’t the only ones. Because the English language can be a confusing mashup of words with similar spellings yet wildly different meanings...

How do you go from 0 to nearly 1 million followers on TikTok in just two years? Well, the good news is that you don’t have to be busting out the dance moves or doing a challenge to get eyeballs on your videos.   In fact, when Dr Vanita Rattan (aka Dr V to her TikTok fans) started, she felt exactly like you probably do right now, with statements like  ‘I’m too old’, ‘I’m not pretty enough’, ‘Will a...

We all have women who inspire us. But who would you LOVE to hang out with at your dream dinner party? And which women have had the biggest impact in history? What advice would you share with your daughter if you were chatting about female empowerment? How would you encourage your son to be an ally? 🤔 These are all questions posed by TechPixie Shrijal Patel, who wanted to turn the tables and put T...

What are the best new Instagram trends that you should make the most of in 2023? Hmm! 😕 We all know that trying to keep up with the changes to the Instagram algorithm is like a game of whack-a-mole. But Adam Mosseri (Insta’s big cheese) helpfully dropped some handy hints earlier this year about what the platform will be focusing on (for the next 2 minutes at least): 🔥Inspiring creativity 🔥Helpi...

What’s big on Facebook in 2023? Well, according to Vee Roberts, our fab Facebook coach, quite a lot. There’s new functionality in the Home and Feed tabs, options to serve up news to your most loyal fans first, and Meta has taken a leaf out of Elon Musk’s book and decided to roll out a subscription service for that all-important symbol of social media status – the hallowed blue tick. ✔️ Vee is here...

We’ve all been there. You plan to take some time to prioritise your dreams – launch that side hustle, upskill to go for that higher-paid job – and then life gets in the way. Before you know it, a week becomes a month, and then you’re sat there singing Auld Lang Syne with a sherry in your hand (ok, that might be just us). You vow that THIS is your year… but it’s eat, sleep, repeat. You know that so...

Wowzers! LinkedIn is levelling up. 📈 Having gone from 40 changes to the platform in 2021 to more than 100 in 2022, LinkedIn is picking up the pace to ensure it’s a fab (and easy-to-use) space to hang out. But with so many updates and new features on the go, we’ll forgive you if you’ve struggled to keep up. But there’s no need to feel FOMO. We’ve called on Marianne Avery, our expert LinkedIn coach...

If you want to skyrocket your views and watch times on YouTube, you’ve got to keep up with what’s hot and what’s not. So we’ve called on our resident YouTube expert Aby Moore to reveal this year’s biggest YouTube trends to help you stay ahead of the game.   Because with 2.3 billion active users, 62% of whom use YouTube daily, this is a slice of the social media pie you don’t want to miss out on. A...

Feeling like a ‘tech dinosaur’, nervous about typing a message, afraid of pressing go, worried about getting what you have to say out into the world?  Sound familiar? It’s incredible the number of women who arrive at TechPixies feeling like their self-worth has just taken a tumble from the penthouse to the basement. What’s more, they wonder if they’re the only person who feels this way.  This was...

How do you get from where you are now to where you want to be? This is a question we like to provide an answer to at TechPixies. 👏🏽 Because we know that life is too short to be spent not doing work you love, living with the niggling doubt that you should be following another path if only you could work out what that path was. And after more than 8 years coaching thousands of women, we've se...

Have you ever dreamt of seeing your name in print? 📚 Well, the good news is that you don’t need to be the next Hilary Mantel going for the Booker Prize to get published. With help from our guest in this episode, you can get what you know down on paper and become established as an authority in your niche. Sue Sundstrom wrote her first book when she was 14 years old and then went on to use a book t...

If you’ve made a list of resolutions for the year ahead and they’re already beginning to feel like the post-Christmas clean-up – a bit of a chore – you need this episode in your life. Because Joy is kicking off a new year of the Sparkle and Thrive podcast with tips on making New Year’s resolutions and why you don’t need to beat yourself up if you fail at them. And as you’ll discover, while it migh...

How has 2022 been for you? Don’t worry, we’re not about to set you a Big Fat Quiz of the Year brain teaser, and no, this isn’t a snoozefest year-end round-up. 🥱 Sure, we’re taking a moment to cast an eye over the past year here at TechPixes, but it wouldn’t be TechPixies if we just sat back to reflect. So, we’d love you to do this exercise with us: Think back over 2022 and write down one thing yo...

An apple with a bite taken out, two interlocking Cs, and a tick. Thanks to the power of their logos, Apple, Chanel and Nike have become instantly recognisable worldwide brands. But creating a brand that customers identify with is about so much more than a great logo. Getting your branding right is the key to being visible, memorable and attracting your ideal clients. But where do you start? And if...

They say there are two certainties in life: death and taxes. Both can be painful, but dealing with grief and loss, especially during the festive season, can be an emotional rollercoaster. It’s why we’re shining a light on Grief Awareness Week (2-8 December), which aims to open up the conversation around bereavement, and are sitting down for a chat with grief recovery specialist Liz Tayor. As a soc...