Celebrating International Women’s Day 2020

Hopefully you will have been enjoying a variety of blogs each day this week from some of the amazing women who work at Space & Time Media. This is because we’re celebrating International Women’s Day on the 8th March 2020 and recognising some of the truly dedicated, inspirational and talented women in our business.

I confess that when this idea was first put to me, my very first question was, ‘is there an International Men’s Day?’

I’m a Libran, so I’m all about balance and fairness and generally take into account everybody’s feelings and reactions to a given situation!

I have however been reassured that there is indeed an International Men’s Day on 19th November. Now that I know that the chaps will be getting their turn to shine in a few months’ time, I am proud to share the successes of some of the fabulous women in our business and also make a personal contribution in celebration of International Women’s Day!

My own professional journey was born out of humble beginnings. No ‘A’ levels or degrees for me. Just a bunch of ‘O’ levels, a big dollop of common sense and a desire to start earning a wage and being financially independent.

Given those credentials, the inevitable choice back in the day was a job in a High Street bank; the National Westminster Bank became my first employer in the Summer of 1981. Suffice to say, I hated it! The positive take from it though was that I discovered that I liked numbers, I enjoyed working methodically and helping people and solving problems gave me enormous job satisfaction.

A variety of finance and payroll jobs followed and then my first foray into the world of marketing and media buying arrived in 1991. Nine years of learning my trade from our esteemed Chairman Peter Jones, and discovering an industry that truly motivated, excited and enthused me, led me to the opportunity to set up Space & Time Media Limited in early 2000.

This business has been my life since that day. We officially opened our doors for business on a very chilly, frosty morning from a converted cow shed on a working farm in a small Surrey based village, with just a village shop, post office and of course, the ubiquitous local pub catering for our lunchtime needs!

Those early days saw letters being written and posted, three-part carbon copy media orders being printed on a dot matrix printer then faxed, meetings being attended across the whole of the UK with no sat nav or hands-free mobiles (just a trusty printed map book for guidance), and horror of horrors, very limited email and internet access. We used to plug in modems, dial up for access and pray for a connection… Oh how times have changed!

One thing that hasn’t changed across those years is the culture of this awesome business. In-spite of growing from two people on day one (Amanda McDonald who wrote a blog piece yesterday was my very first employee, and I’m thrilled to have shared this journey with her every step of the way!) to 128 people today, and being spread across five infinitely more desirable locations than a cow shed, we still care about each other, put our clients’ needs first and go above and beyond every day because we genuinely want to make this a great place to work and offer the very best service to our clients.

Helping to shape this business, create a level playing field for all, maintain a fair gender balance and partake in its evolution over the past 20 years has been my proudest professional achievement. I’ve been passionate about what we do and how we do it since that very first day, but my greatest passion has always been the people. The knowledge that we still have a number of clients today who set out with us on our journey all those years ago is just incredible, and witnessing the growth and development of the team here, both in their personal lives and at work, creates memories which I will treasure forever.

So, here’s to International Women’s Day, to all the awesome women that we come into contact with and share time with every single day, and to the next 20 years!