Wow, it’s been busy at SheSays here in London!

Over the last 6 months we’ve had over 8 events in total, all with a workshop spin to them.

Recently one of our Who’s Your Momma mentee and creative copywriter at Table 19, Melissa McGinnis, attended ‘Fixing Things That Are Broken’, a workshop with the fantastic Jody Orsborne, founder of The Backscratchers. Here’s what Mel took away from it all:

The SheSays gathering began with the normal buzz and a few cheeky drinks – and I have to say, it’s nice to see so many likeminded woman chatting and networking together. Jody takes the stage, a young American woman of average height, but who’s huge personality makes her seem so much taller. She drives straight in to telling us about her career in the music industry, and what it taught her. She saw a lot of problems, and lot of shortfalls.

Cue the massive skill she’s built her current career around; her ability to solve problems.

She shows us, with reference to her own life, how to break an issue down into bite size chunks. It’s something most of us are familiar with, the power of lists, but it’s great to see a shining example of success.

First, she thought about the things she absolutely had to get from her career and life in order to make herself happy. That gave her a list of her top four values. And then she made it her priority to change her life and make these lofty goals her reality. This helped her give life to a revolutionary music festival in California where you pay what you can afford, all proceeds going to the music industry.

The overall takeout from the session has to be this: ’be obsessed with solving the problem, not your solution’. Things will constantly crop up in life, but we must make sure that what we’re doing aligns with what we want, and upholds our values.

Then, of course, we workshopped a few group issues. It was interesting how many similarities cropped up regarding job seniority, climbing the career ladder, and even a few internship issues. And it was nice to see the collaboration among everyone present in suggesting ways to resolve or improve situations. The camaraderie was amazing. And that’s the beauty of SheSays; it’s an organisation designed to support women in advertising, of all roles and levels. It’s a platform we can all use to help each other out, and solve problems together in order to make the industry better. So let’s keep meeting together, talking through issues, and get to fixing some of those broken things in the industry and in our own lives.

Thanks to Mel for the lovely write up and if you want to attend our events sign up to the LDN mailing list!