5 minutes with The INKEY List Co-Founder, Colette Laxton
From family and friends to colleagues, role models, mentors and more, this International Women’s Day we are celebrating all the powerful, inspirational, and successful women in our lives. We’re incredibly lucky at The INKEY List that we’re co-founded by an empowering female leader and successful business woman, Colette Laxton, so we thought who better to share her own experience of being a woman in business and her recipe for success…
Being a woman in business makes me feel…
Like an imposter. I have huge imposter syndrome and spend most days feeling like I don’t belong. I see this a lot with females in business, and always try to take part in events where I can show women that vulnerability is normal - we are all faking it until we make it! My experience is that males generally have a stronger self-belief which is often hard when you don’t feel the same.
The moment I felt I’d made it as a woman in business was…
Winning British Beauty Brand of the year at the CEW awards. It was an incredible moment for me personally - looking into a room full of insanely successful people and beauty brands I have used and admired my whole life was a real moment. Did INKEY really belong here? That was a moment I had to pinch myself!
I’m inspired by women who…
Are strong and will not back down with their views. I was lucky enough to find successful women early on in my career who I admired and who showed me women could be strong, smart, and kind too.
Supporting and nurturing the next generation of female talent is…
Beyond incredible. Yes, growing the brand is important, but if we can support a team of people to grow and thrive - nothing could be better. In our four short years we have already had a few of the team who have gone on to start their own businesses or progressed to amazing careers from their experience at INKEY… I will forever be their cheerleaders and will try to be as helpful as the women I looked up to in my early career.
The advice I would give to other women in business is…
Be prepared to dust yourself off many times. You need to believe in yourself without wavering, because there will be times when nobody else believes in you.
My recipe for success motto is…
It’s okay not to know the answer. Learn every single day and surround yourself with people you want to learn from!
International Women’s Day serves as a reminder to champion and celebrate all of the incredible women we are surrounded by not just today but every single day. Because empowered women, empower women and that’s what we’re here for!
Now you’ve read Colette’s recipe – build your own!
