From banker to fashion - Libby London

Libby Hart, founder and owner of clothing line Libby London, launched her first fashion line in 2011, while she was still working in banking. Her career was rocketing fast and she was promoted to a senior directing role at the age of 28. She soon realised a massive gap in the market: good quality dresses that weren’t cheap looking, too expensive or uncomfortable.

“I hated dressing in suits and whenever I found dresses, they were either too mumsy, too boring, too expensive or too booby,” Libby says, explaining how she began to get annoyed by the low selection of quality business wear.

“If I didn’t want to spend a small fortune in a dress, the only options for proper business wear were basically places like Zara, but sometimes those dresses can be a bit inappropriate for a woman who wants to be taken seriously and works in the highest level of the game. They are a bit booby.”

Libby Hart

Tackling the problem first hand

“In my extreme naivety,” she laughs, “I decided that if I can’t find myself dresses, there is a gap in the market and I should try to fill that gap.” And so she did. 

She spent up to 5 years working as a banker by day and fashion retailer by night, until the growth of the business was too much for one woman to handle. Libby had to face the decision of either letting her career in banking, or her business go. We know what she decided to do.

“I really loved my career in banking and I had always been determined that I would be a chairman of Goldman & Sacks one day, but while doing this fashion business on the side, I started to realise that I could be a chairman of my own company and really give it a go.

“During my last year in banking the fashion business really started to take off and I was struggling to find the balance for both. It caught me by surprise,” she says adding that no-one really starts a business thinking that it will be the 'next big thing overnight.'

Positive attitude

Taking the final step of becoming an entrepreneur could feel daunting for some, but not Libby. Her positive attitude is without a doubt the reason she has done so well in everything she has put her mind into.

“I have always been almost stupidly ambitious thinking that everything is achievable for me. Not in an arrogant kind of way, more like thinking that there are always people who will make it as well, not only those who fail. 

“There are people who start and run successful businesses and I truly believed it could be me who can do that.” And she was not wrong.

Libby says that perseverance is the most important thing you need when starting a business and that resourcefulness is a great quality which will keep you going when you think you have hit the wall. 

“You will grow a thick skin over time for sure which is a painful process, but you need perseverance to succeed."

“People will help you in different things, but ultimately, you need to do things yourself and at first every little thing you don’t know is a massive challenge, but you learn along the way,” she assures.

Inspiration from powerful women

During her career Libby has both mentored, and been mentored by powerful women who have in time formed a close network which she often turns to for help and advice. 

“I have had some amazing mentors who have been senior people in the industry with a lot of knowledge and resources. I can’t say who they are, but they have been a tremendous help and an inspiration to me,” she says. Her own mentoring is also important to her:

“It gives me a lot to be able to mentor someone. It makes me appreciate where I started and how far I have come in a very small time.” The very tight network of other business women has helped her many times along the way. 

“Sometimes we share information like factory details, and sometimes I just need someone to talk to about my emotions or about some challenge and they have all been there. They know how it feels like and can support.”

Only dinosaurs think tattoos are not suitable for workplace

Long time ago, tattoos might have been the symbol of hard life, prisoners, sailors, prostitutes and exotic countries, but in todays modern society, one fifth of British adults have one.

Luckily for us “heavily tattooed modern folk”, tattoos are now becoming increasingly harmless across a variety of workplaces and situations.

Starbucks, for example, which used to be the leading business in the mainstream uptightness around the world, has recently (finally) given in and approved tattoos for their staff. In this world of boosting individualism, especially in a city like London, many employers now value our differences and ways of expressing it. Many even see it being good for their business concept that their individuals stand out.

Obviously we are not talking about offensive tattoos here, as those can indeed have an impact on how professional a customer or a future client sees a person. We are talking about little cute things like dolphins around an ankle.

(Did you notice how I used the tattoo of Samantha Cameron, wife of our current PM, as an example here?)

Employers and the perfect world!

In a perfect world all candidates for any position wouldn’t be judged by their appearance, with or without tattoos, but by their professional skills and merits of their work.

However, we do know by now that not judging a book by its cover has never really worked for the business world before, and is unlikely to work any time soon.

As long as “old dinosaurs", the white middle-aged male who ru(i)n the majority of businesses in London, get their way, tattoos will be covered under jackets and skirts, turning the business world into grey mass of emotionless achievers.

“I would never even want a job where my tattoo would be a problem,” said Annika, a Senior Consultant who has a big skull with roses in her left arm.

“It is so important to like the atmosphere at the office and the culture of the company, so I think that in a place where tattoos in general would be a problem, I would not feel comfortable anyway.”

Even though she proudly carries her skull anyway, all the comments about her tattoo have been positive on her workplace.

“If someone is doubtful about the affect of a tattoo in a workplace, then maybe they need to have another thought about having one in the first place. They are forever so you need to be sure in all that comes with it,” she said.

Inappropriate or not? 

When looking at the recent statistics, a strict no-tattoo-policy would remarkably cut down excellent candidates for any role so it seems like a no-brainer, but there are other kind of statistics too.

Forbes published a 2011 study by CareerBuilder which shows that 31% of surveyed employers ranked “having a visible tattoo” as the top personal attribute that would sidetrack them from promoting an employee, 76% of respondents felt tattoos and piercings hurt an applicant’s chances of being hired during a job interview and 42% felt visible tattoos were always inappropriate at work.

There has been no reliable statistics from the UK recently, but it has been argued that the amount of people with at least one tattoo was close to 20 million in 2013. What is certain though, is that people in all walks of life have them. We should not try to fit in the same template.

People should stop being afraid of the dinosaurs who fight for their dear lives in the business world. Their time is done and a confident, high achieving woman with a visible tattoo can drive them to extinct better than a meteor ever could.

101 for Women in Business

All the channels available today have, however, given the “internet national” generation a possibility to brand, sell and work themselves as a desirable employee purpose-built for their potential employer.

Never under-estimate how important social media is for getting noticed and being visible, but also how damaging it can be if not managed effectively. And remember, your LinkedIn profile might open you the door, but your personality needs to support your online brand.

How to start building your brand

Make a plan and spend a lot of time before your job search making sure you have a clear and specific goal on what you want to accomplish in your career or in the next few years. Think about who you really are, what you stand for, what your values are and what motivates you in life. What are your strong personality characteristics, your talents and strengths?

Make sure YOU know exactly who you are, so you will be able to sell yourself.

“New employers will be looking for authentic confidence, good personal presentation that is appropriate for the role you will be in and for their corporate brand,” said Lesley Everett, the creator and founder of Walking TALL which is a methodology for building original personal brands.

“They want to know about ‘you’ not just what you’ve achieved so far, and to ensure that your communication skills in all forms are of a high standard.“ 

We live in an even faster moving world, where we are forced to make decisions quickly, have limited attention spans and where trust and like-ability are at the fore-front of our sub-conscious minds when we chose to work with, promote, recruit and build relationships with individuals,” Everett said.

The part of social media

You must know by now that each post made on social media sites is a layer added to your personal brand. A certain carefulness is always good to keep in mind. Before posting, ask yourself: ’Would I care if my boss saw this?’

Also, those warnings your mother gave you are worth considering - whatever is added to the internet, could very well stay there even if deleted later.

The first steps in branding should always include taking a closer look on your existing accounts and ‘cleaning’ them up.

“I recently pointed out to a young guy, who has a lot of talent and drive, that his profile picture with his hand gesture as it was, and a certain comment in a post about the police should be changed immediately,” said Lesley Everett.

Her advice on social media use is: “You need a LinkedIn profile with a good, clear and professional head and shoulders photo and a strong summary statement. On Facebook make sure you have your settings so that when you are tagged in a photo you know about it to delete if necessary. 

“Twitter is great for building a presence if you have an area of interest or expertise, and great as a tool for research and following relevant people or companies. Always ask yourself before posting – is this in-line with my personal brand and how I want to be perceived in the professional world? 

“Just remember, that your personal brand is about being who you really are and being the best you can be. Just take time to define it, refine it and project it consistently in all you do,” she said.

Lisa Christensen

Women in business

Women in business can succeed if they remember one simple tip, according to Lisa Christen, the Founder and Managing Director of Christen Consulting. She said: “You have to take the action and control your own destiny. Don’t sit back and wait for others to recognise your work, give you a promotion, hire you for a job or tell you your opinion matters.”

“The best way to get noticed for a job is to network, network, network offline... and then use online to stay recent and relevant in a potential employer’s mind,” Lisa said.

The trick, Lisa explains, in selling your brand forward is to take part in the social media conversation. Weekly, post links to interesting articles or provide insightful and interesting comments on LinkedIn, XING, and other social media platforms. Show initiative and give your brand some coverage and visibility.

In the world of business, women should empower each other and surround themselves with other strong and confident women. Your brand should be one that works as a positive force for others.

In the world of social media and information, there is a great amount of knowledge your future employer can gather even before inviting a candidate into an interview.

Adventure awaits

“I just want to start by saying that sailing is not the best career option” says Hannah White who’s surprisingly an adventurer, sailor and TV presenter talking on the Adventure Travel Show, Kensington. She admits at just 31, she is still “sort of” in her gap year.
  

She is one of many travel and adventure experts who will spread inspiration and give advice based on their own experiences around the world. 

Hannah recently got engaged on top of the Mount Everest base camp during sunrise, but assures that you can have an adventure everyday without having to spend a lot of money. “The world is everywhere for us to discover, we just need to start doing rather than sit at home dreaming about doing it,” she says. Hannah sailed the Atlantic on her own three times, but says the most epic things she has done have been the cheapest things she has done with her friends.

Felicity Aston on her expedition. (Photo from her website)

Get out of the tent

If you think that Hannah’s solo trips were impressive, the next speaker certainly knows what the word ‘alone’ means. In 2012 Felicity Aston became the first woman to have crossed the Antarctica by skiing solo. Her 1084 mile and 60 day adventure truly made her an expert of persistence. 

After watching the plane that dropped her to the Polar region disappear to the horizon, she sat down and cried. Terrified of the adventure ahead, the reality sunk in: “I was supposed to know what I was doing. It was not my first expedition, but after a month or so, I became sure that I could not finish. Every morning I had to keep pushing myself to get out of the tent,” she describes.

She later started to value her stubbornness more than ever before. The motivational message she wants to share with other people is to keep getting out of the tent.

She says:  “it doesn’t matter how fast you are going or for how long, what matters is that you are making progress.”

Let’s talk adventure

Both ladies have created a brand out of themselves and make a living by going on different adventures. However they say that it is a demanding career that involves a lot of determination to succeed.

The travel show introduced several ways to see and learn about the world we live in. The best buzz seemed to be around the Globetrotters stands, where people exchanged travel experiences.

The club has a meeting every month in Covent Garden, and if you are planning a trip, there is a huge chance that someone in the meeting is able to give you excellent advice. The world is full of amazing places and adventures. 

“My favourite is India,” says Sandra Reekie, a travel advisor from the Globetrotters Club in London, who has visited more countries than she can count.

“On the other hand, being married to this lady for 49 years, I can tell you that if you ask the same question again tomorrow, the answer has changed,” says David Reekie jokingly and continues: “Sometimes it is India, Syria the next day, Iran or Afghanistan, often middle east in general, but it changes a lot,” he laughs.

Sandra laughs along, but reasons her choice of the day: “Nowhere else have I seen a naked man walking casually down the street, or an elephant turn over a tuk-tuk on a busy road, but in India that is just the kind of things you see everyday. And it is normal there. It will widen your understanding of the world.”

She continues: “But the nicest people I have ever met have been in Pakistan. The Pakistani people are just so welcoming and amazing you just don’t believe it when you read the papers back home. It is just a phenomenal culture with such hospitality and the people are the highlight.”

“I told you,”  David laughs adding a little nibble of information they learned while in Pakistan last time. “It is the rule of tea. The first time a Pakistani invites you to have tea with them, you are a stranger and a quest. Second time you are a friend. And if they have tea with you the third time - you are family. And by family, I mean that they would take a bullet for you.”

“What we always want to do, is give something back to the community when we visit,” Sandra says. She explains that it is wrong to think travelling only brings fortune to the places where tourism is the main industry.

“You don’t want to take resources away from the people and add to their burden. You want to leave something good behind instead,” Sandra says, hoping that people would think responsibly when visiting a different culture. 

Volunteering or small donations can make a huge difference, or you can even highlight the problems you face after visiting. 

Workplace bullying & Top Gear

... and what Jeremy Clarkson has got to do with it?

Jeremy Clarkson is in the middle of yet another media storm, but workplace bullying can happen everywhere.
Picture: Tony Harrison

Is there a Jeremy Clarkson in every workplace - and how to deal with them?

When the famous BBC Top Gear presenter, Jeremy Clarkson, took the headlines starting a violent episode with his colleague and producer, the media slightly missed the point of the whole chain of events that followed.

The real question in many people’s minds was how can an institution like the BBC not stand up against bullying? And if they can’t, is there a company in this country that will stand up in this situations?

The remarks of Clarkson’s recent undertakings can effectively be seen as a form of intimidation. But in many workplaces the bullying don’t usually take such violent form, but may cause different kind of scars.   

“Bullying is behaviour that leaves the victim feeling threatened, intimidated or offended,” says Dr Emily Griffiths, Clinical Psychologist at City Psychology Group.

“It can take a variety of forms and there are endless tactics that bullies use to cause harm to the victim. There is often an imbalance of power as the bully attempts to undermine the victim’s position, worth and value,” she continues. 

According to Dr. Emily, bullies may use verbal insults and intimidating threats often when the victim is in front of others, to belittle and humiliate.

“Psychological intimidation may show up as requests to complete meaningless tasks, rumour spreading, withholding information, exclusion from opportunities and being ignored. 

“Sexual harassment may take the form of unwelcome comments, inappropriate touching or sexual advances. Bullies may also resort to threats of physical violence or outright attacks,” she says. 

Dr. Emily’s advice for people in these situations is clear: “Share your concerns with someone you trust and if possible talk to your manager. Keep a record of any incidents, including what exactly happened, what was said and any documents that might provide evidence of bullying, such as emails.” 

Sense of hopelessness when career path is blocked

An Independent Career Coach, Kate Mansfield, who launched her own career coaching practice after a career in recruitment, works with women returning to the workplace after having children. Often that is a challenging time for women.

“I think women still often struggle to reconcile the competing demands of work and home life and in certain industry sectors, such as investment banking. I think women feel a lot of pressure and feel torn between family and having worked so hard and long for their careers,” Kate says.

“I work with a lot of women from multiple sectors such as banking, legal, technology and management consulting, who are all considering alternative career paths after having children because they don't see their former work lives as compatible with families and they no longer wish to work long hours and have long commutes.”

Especially in the capital, women can feel isolated when returning to their careers after starting a family, but that can also result them to feeling that their career path has taken a step back. 

Bullying, as well as this sense of hopelessness in their career, can result to depressive feelings. Especially if these women think that their future is not improving and they feel unsupported.  

“People experiencing feelings of anxiety and depression may find that they withdraw from work or other activities, isolate themselves from others, notice changes to their eating and sleeping patterns, difficulties concentrating and focussing on tasks, and have physiological sensations such as heart palpitations, muscle tension and tiredness,” says Dr Emily. 

Kate Mansfield advises women who feel hopeless about their professional future

Find out more about Kate and her practice from her website, here.

Visit The City Psychology website for more information about Dr. Emily Griffiths, here.

Are you unsure if you are being bullied at work? If that is the case, here are Dr. Emily's advice on how to find out. Ask yourself the following questions:



On 25th of March, BBC has reported that Top Gear presenter Clarkson has been dropped from Top Gear due to his 'unprovoked attack' on the shows producer. If you want to know the full story so far, open this Prezi:

Have your say. Let's see how Dolce Vita readers react in the world of car presenting. What do you think? Should he be fired?

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