We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sophie Fleming. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sophie below.

Sophie , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What were some of the most unexpected problems you’ve faced in your career and how did you resolve those issues?

When I started as Regional Director of The Athena Network North London, I had limited experience in networking (I had only been a member for a few months), a basic understanding of running a business, and naively thought that the members would just renew their membership.

At that point, I had taken over the region, which comprised the Hampstead group (around 20 members), the Muswell Hill group (around 13 members), and the Finchley Central group (around 7 members). For various reasons, one by one, they resigned their membership, leaving me with 2 members in the Hampstead group, 5 in the Muswell Hill group, and 2 in the Finchley Central group. The business I had hoped would provide meaningful work and extra income helping women in business was now failing, and I started to panic. Luckily, I had the support of head office and began to take action.

I decided to merge the Finchley Central and Muswell Hill groups, now known as the Muswell Hill and Finchley group. From the first meeting, I drew a line under the past members who had left and reframed it to prospects as a fantastic opportunity to be one of the founder members of this new group and help it grow. Rebecca from Accura Accountants was one of the first to join under this new guise and has just renewed for her 7th year, making her my longest-standing member. That group continued to grow and is now one of my strongest. However, things were more challenging for the Hampstead group. The franchise head office advised me to close the group due to the low membership numbers, and to make matters worse, the venue we were using said we could no longer use their room as our numbers weren’t sufficient. This is when I really dug my heels in. I knew Hampstead was a thriving area, and I was not going to lose it.

So what did I do?

When I saw that my business was going downhill, one of the first things I did was look for a VA. Now you may be thinking, why would I do this when my business is not making much money? Well, at that time, I knew my only focus had to be growing the groups and looking for new prospective members to join. Therefore, I needed a VA to take care of the administrative tasks that would consume my time. I have always advocated for outsourcing and now work with an incredible award-winning VA, Sarah Szekir Papasavva at Apt Virtual Assistance https://www.aptva.com/.

When I had visitors at meetings, I put a positive spin on it being a small group, emphasizing the opportunity to make more meaningful connections and have more time to get to know each other. Even today, when I have a small group at meetings, I receive some of the best feedback because of the environment I’m able to create despite the group size.

Then, it was all about marketing, marketing, marketing. I posted in every Facebook group, did Facebook lives, attended every networking event, used Eventbrite, social media, and anything else I could think of. I just had to put myself out there and get visitors to the meetings.

Lastly, maintaining a positive mindset and writing out every day what I wanted the groups to look like helped the group grow little by little, and I managed to revive it.

Once I got to 12 members in each group, I was given the go-ahead to launch another one. First came St John’s Wood in September 2018 and then Primrose Hill in May 2019.

I now have 3 thriving groups: The Hampstead and Primrose Hill group, the St John’s Wood group, and the Muswell Hill and Finchley group. From past experience, I now know how to maintain membership and, of course, still deliver the most incredible high-energy meetings, keeping many members renewing their membership year after year.

Sophie , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I graduated in environmental sciences in 2007, keen to somehow make a difference in the world. I tried out various roles within the sector but these mostly involved writing reports and doing data analysis, rather than what I most enjoy – connecting with people. With that in mind, I started volunteering on a child helpline. I found this so rewarding that I decided to leave the environmental sector and take on a new role as a referral line worker, connecting rough sleepers with outreach teams. I thought this would be my dream job but soon got burnt out by the 12-hour night shifts and daily abuse I was receiving on the phone.

It was around this time that I was offered the opportunity to start my own business in health and wellness, something which ran alongside my full-time job until I mustered up the confidence to quit. It was my business as an Arbonne consultant that eventually led me to The Athena Network, a supportive nationwide virtual network helping women connect and collaborate in business where they may have felt isolated and stuck in their business through monthly online networking meetings. . I joined the Hampstead group in January 2016 and only a few months into my membership an opportunity presented itself – to become the regional director for North London. It struck me as an ideal way to hone in on my passion for both connecting with people and helping them. I took over the region in August that year and now run three thriving groups – Hampstead and Primrose Hill, Muswell Hill and Finchley, and St John’s Wood – with regular monthly networking meetings, drop-in sessions and quarterly masterclasses and business brunches.

We’re different from many other networking organisations as we really focus on helping our members develop personally and professionally through the trainings we deliver. We do two in the meeting: One to improve your networking skills and one to improve your business skills. We also run a networking strategy masterclass for members to help them make the most of their membership, work on their networking strategy and skills as well as how to communicate effectively what it is they are looking to achieve through networking.

Our hybrid model of online and offline meetings means that members get many opportunities to make connections through online meetings throughout the UK and abroad where Athena is represented provided their profession is not locked out as well as meet in person in between meetings at our Cappuccino Connections informal networking. This means they get the best of both worlds and have a balance of business focussed meetings online and optional in person networking to complement it.

Now I feel I’m really making a difference to the lives of the business and corporate women in the groups I run. As an experienced networker, natural connector and supporter of women in business, I get so much from helping these inspiring and driven women grow personally and professionally. Most of all, I love seeing them thrive.

I really enjoy being the person that brings everyone together, that helps make things happen through an introduction, referral, or just by sharing my ideas and support. What’s more, I have so much fun organising and hosting the Athena meetings and always come away feeling more inspired and energised – as do the members.

I’m most proud of what the members achieve through incredible collaborations: creating new products, workshops and new ideas, the awards they’ve won and how they always go out of their way to support each other.

I’ve also managed to keep my groups and business going through two pregnancies and maternity leaves thanks to the support of my VA and members.

Have you ever had to pivot?

For businesses who navigated the Covid period they either had to stop working completely or find a way to continue to deliver a service to their clients which met the rules of the time. Luckily having a franchise I’m part of a team of other Regional Directors who were going through the same thing and was able to tap into the support and guidance offered by head office.

Before the pandemic we held meetings once a month over lunch in a regular venue, where a diverse range of women from different sectors meet to collaborate, support and generate business. once we were told that the country was locking down and we would no longer be able to meet in person we had to adapt our business model seemingly overnight. Fortunately our HQ was already working on an idea for a virtual club, so when the virus hit, they put together a virtual handbook with a worst-case scenario for a lockdown situation, meaning we already had that contingency plan in place. Most Regional Directors, like me, had already bought a full Zoom package, and in my case the lockdown began during a lull between events, so I had plenty of time to learn before the next meeting.

We were fortunate that the structure of the meetings adapted perfectly to online networking and followed much the same structure and with the cost and time saving we decided to stay online after the pandemic and completely change our business model. Where we usually had time for informal networking, we instead put members into breakout rooms, switching groups every ten minutes or so to enable everyone to meet. People can’t move around as they would in real life, but they can request to connect with specific attendees, and if I see obvious links I’ll make sure those connections are made. After that we’re back in the main chat room and the formal meeting begins, I chair it using Zoom tools. One big advantage of running things this way is that the main speakers have all the shared screen functions that enable whiteboard display and interaction. And instead of physically exchanging business cards we just add our social media links as a chat comment.

At the time when we initially went online we had such positive feedback. Members appreciated how fast we adapted and how we continue to support everyone. We introduced a new online Pass + system, allowing members to visit any virtual group for free, which gives everyone a wider reach right across the UK and even to our groups overseas. Members embraced the new technologies; especially impressive for those who had never used anything like it before.

Adapted from a blog by Mo Lawson Copy Writer: Networking Online: an Interview with Athena’s Sophie Fleming:

See he full blog here https://www.wordfairy.co.uk/blog/2020/4/30/networking-online-an-interview-with-athenas-sophie-fleming

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

I’m fortunate that, being part of a franchise, the good reputation of The Athena Network preceded me. However, I still had to build my personal reputation as a networker when I took over the North London region. I aimed to be known as the go-to person for networking and a supporter of women in business, whether that meant supporting them directly in their business endeavours or helping them with potential connections, regardless of whether they were members of The Athena Network or not. Therefore, it was essential to increase my contacts to make those introductions and demonstrate my focus on serving others first.

Early on, I attended local in-person networking events. Some were focused on women-only networking, while others were mixed, and I tried to attend as many as possible to gradually become known in the industry. As I helped women in business (and male-owned businesses, if I could support them) and attended these events, my reputation as a networker and supporter of women in business grew. Opportunities began to arise, such as doing Facebook Lives in women-in-business Facebook groups and an interview with Barnet TV. I also did lives on my own business Facebook page to demonstrate my expertise.

As I built my groups, I focused on creating a community both within each group and across the region, always going above and beyond for my members. This environment and commitment to my members led them to talk about me to others and helped build my reputation within the network. This resulted in other Athena members visiting my groups and experiencing what I had created. As my membership increased and more visiting members came to my groups, it created a ripple effect, and my region became known as one to visit and sometimes even join.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.theathenanetwork.com/sophiefleming
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/athenanorthlondon/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AthenaNorthLondon
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/the-athena-network-north-london/
• Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/Athena_N_London
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@athenanorthlondon7543

Image Credits
Anne Thomas Photography (main photos), Eva White Photography (maternity photo) Location for main photos Lola’s Bakery West Hampstead