is dedicated to inspiring change in individuals. Throughout her career, she has committed herself to fostering profound
connections among people.
Allow Penny to share
her journey with you.
From a young age, love and connection were central to my world
despite growing up feeling isolated in a village as the youngest of four. With parents who were present but emotionally reserved, I found myself navigating loneliness and learning independence early on.
My mother, a gentle soul, often sought to temper my enthusiasm for life, labelling me as overly sensitive.
Yet, it was this sensitivity, my keen empathy, and a natural inclination towards problem-solving that became my greatest strengths.
This deep-seated empathy drew me towards a career in helping others
Initially aspiring to be a physiotherapist, inspired by a neighbour with cerebral palsy, my path took an unexpected turn. Academic hurdles led me to the IT industry, where I quickly excelled in sales.
My journey didn’t stop there; rejecting a chance to study psychology, I climbed the corporate ladder to become a Sales Director, leading a team of 60 and managing an £80 million target.
It was my love for people, a servant leadership style, and the ability to genuinely care and understand others that propelled my success in business. To me, business wasn’t just about numbers, but about making people feel valued and loved, the foundation for thriving success.
In 1998, I embarked on an entrepreneurial journey
Inspired by a vision of the Internet’s impact on society, while recognising its potential for efficiency and economic transformation, I was equally concerned about the loneliness and mental health issues arising from our increasing dependency on digital connections. It was clear to me that we needed to engage with this digital revolution, but in a manner distinct from the prevailing trends.
In 1998, my dream came true, I came up with the idea for us to build a global community to combat the digital world that was emerging. I Co-Founded with my husband, Thomas, a global online community for businesspeople.
With my desire to bond people and create deep, loving friendships between them, and Thomas’ incredible skills in networking we educated the business world on how to build their personal brands and build their businesses though networking online as friends. Predating LinkedIn by 4 years, we grew fast across 50 countries.
My role evolved as Ecademy grew; by 2001, I found myself stepping into the public speaking arena
sharing insights and inspiring businesses to navigate the digital landscape. My book, ‘Know Me, Like Me, Follow Me’, published in 2009, delved into the emerging world of social media and its challenges for meaningful engagement.
Leading a community of over 650,000 was a joy and a psychological experiment, we could see the behaviours that worked and those that repelled people. In a world driven by results and success, we observed that the successful people were the ones that had high EQ and took time to get to know others and understand their deeper needs, beyond the desire to achieve their own results, they communicated in a manner that attracted people toward them.
Many of us face dark times, both personally and in our professional lives
in 2012, social media had beaten social networking. The world turned to broadcast rather than conversations. Ecademy’s time was up, and we exited the business, a painful period in our lives. In 2014 I was proud to be awarded an OBE from the Queen for my work in digital and social development, it felt that now things were really changing online.
Online culture had become a place for beating chests and pumping up our identity, way beyond the truth inside each person’s life. It is no surprise that we started to see the emergence of social anxiety, loneliness, reduction in deep relationships and a world of fleeting moments with people became the norm, whether desired or not. In 2019 I published my second book, ‘Business Is Personal’.
“Business Is Personal” was written to normalise the experiences we all have when building our professional careers
our personal life impacts our business life, and our business life impacts our personal life. How we navigate this is critical to thriving. We must discover our own vulnerabilities and see how we can self-develop and take responsibility for our future.
I learned in 2018, following 6 years of significant financial and emotional challenges, that despite our attitude to survival when the chips are down, our human needs do not go away, in fact they become more critical to understand them when we spend so much time using online digital technology. In 2020, the global pandemic highlighted this and the world opened to the reality of all our vulnerabilities and emotional needs.
This became a moment in time once more when I believed my message would be heard
and understood and my speaking took off in greater quantities. Armed with my history of IT and Digital, with over 40 years of professional and personal life to look back on, and an Ai future to consider, we started a community again and once again saw the rise of joy and success in people when they deeply connected, known for what they do as well as who they are.
When one’s purpose resonates so deeply, and the world begins to echo that sentiment, it becomes impossible to resist the call. The shift towards remote work magnified feelings of disconnection. So, today, I find myself speaking once more on the topic that lies closest to my heart, encouraged by the impactful responses of my audience and the heartfelt feedback I receive.
My keynote – “A Human Touch in a Digital World, because Business Is Personal”
encourages each person in the audience to consider the part they can play in improving their own connection to those around them, be it their colleagues or clients. I share openly the lessons I have learned. I seek to be highly relatable and find that far from being someone that has climbed mountains, crossed seas, won Olympic medals, I am a Mum, a businessperson and I am just like everyone else, navigating a complex world and find a personal way to connect and achieve our dreams. Being Awarded an OBE in 2014 for our contribution to the social digital world was a huge accolade, and gave me the validation that our message and commitment to ‘social’ in a digital world is needed.
Love in business is a wonderful energy to believe in
we can all take responsibility for the experience of each day we have and not only make our own day more positive but contribute to the way each person that we touch feels, in every interaction digital or face to face, we can all make people feel significant and appreciated.
