People First Mobility's Karen Sheppard

English sporting business leader and television personality Baroness Karren Brady – often seen as one of Lord Sugar’s aides in the popular The Apprentice series – has recognised the personal and business achievements of People First Mobility’s Karen Sheppard on her new community for strong female leaders.

Well-known for her time as the MD of Birmingham City F.C. and as the current vice-chairman of West Ham United F.C, Baroness Brady is also recognised for her work encouraging women to develop in business and in 2012 she published the best-selling novel, Strong Woman.

Continuing her efforts to encourage more women to take on leadership roles in business, Baroness Brady launched the Strong Female Leadership (SFL) online community, sharing insights, skills and experience from some of the UK’s top business leaders to help women further their career or build their own business success.

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Alongside useful tips, podcasts and advice, the SFL platform also features case studies from inspirational women in business, including multi-award-winning mobility retailer People First Mobility’s Karen Sheppard’s motivational story.

In Karen’s candid and moving article, she discusses working hard to take over and turnaround the fortunes of the Skegness-based mobility retail shop following a number of difficult personal events, including growing the business whilst battling cancer.

Explaining how the opportunity to have her story featured and shared amongst Karren Brady’s SFL community came about, Karen told THIIS: “Lady Karren Brady is an inspiration to women everywhere and her incredible success is borne of her passion; impressive business instinct; ambition; and her very genuine, honest, down-to-earth outlook.

“Having read her book [Strong Woman], I then recently was following her website to gain inspiration.  This year she launched an award on twitter for #SFL strong female leadership and was looking for ladies who were fighters and inspirational in their work. I entered and was noticed by Lady Karren Brady and was the first ever winner of #SFL!”

After winning the award, Karen was contacted by Baroness Brady’s team, who conducted an interview with the mobility retail managing director.

Sharing her story across her social media channels, Karen commented: “The response has been overwhelming. Some of the comments are “you are an example to us all and you should be very proud,” “wow, just wow,” and “well done, you deserve success. You have worked hard in spite of your ordeals”.”

Always looking to expand her knowledge and find ways to grow her business, at the start of 2019, Karen completed the iDEA programme – a free training course designed to improve an individual’s digital expertise.

Discussing her motivations for sharing her personal tale, Karen explained: “I always think through life that someone, somewhere, is going through something worse than what I am and look at that rather than those who are having more luck.

“I just handle whatever comes my way and I feel very humbled and honoured that people should say such nice things to me and that they think of me as an inspiration.”

Heartened by the feedback she has received, Karen says she hopes that by sharing her story and some of the trials she has faced, it will encourage others to keep pushing forward, despite the hurdles they come across.

“If I can give one person hope and faith that things can get better and that you can deal with many things in life; if I can save one person from making sure they check their bodies for cancer; if they can know that they can face cancer and other life’s issues and come out the other side; and if I can help just one person to think, I have got this, I can do this, then I would feel so proud and know that everything I have gone through is not only to make me a stronger better person but to help others and let them see that there is light at the end of the tunnel and there is hope,” she finished.

“You CAN ACHIEVE. Just because you are a woman, just because even though you are sensible and level headed, and depression creeps up on you, just because you hear those words…you have cancer, it doesn’t mean you have to give up

“I would like people to achieve more, to persevere when times get tough and to know they are never ever alone.”

To find out more about Karen Sheppard and People First Mobility, read THIIS’ Retailer Spotlight.

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