Thread: Penny Power - Founder Ecademy

Penny Power Interview

Penny Power, Founder of Ecademy, discusses her ability to create a place where 'people can be themselves and be proud of who and what they are' with Michael Beale - May 2008.



Ecademy's cause is 'to build the world's largest Trusted Business Network by connecting people to each other - enabling knowledge, contacts and opportunities to be shared for World Wide Wealth'.

(Please allow up to two minutes for the MP3 file to download if you would like to listen to this discussion.)

http://www.nlp-expert.co.uk/networking/Penny.mp3

Michael : Good morning, Penny. Firstly I would like to really thank you for taking part in our podcast and I?m really looking forward to listening to what you have to say.

What we?re going to talk about is how you got this skill of creating a place for people to be themselves and be proud of what they have and what they do ? but before we go into that, can you introduce yourself to our listeners, giving a very short background of who you are and what you do?

Penny : I?m forty-four now and I?m married to Thomas Power and we live in Farnem in Surrey and we have three children who are fifteen, fourteen and eleven. Girl, boy, boy. My background was: as a child growing up, I very much wanted to go into the vocational world and actually wanted to be a physiotherapist. For eight years I lived next door to and cherished a little boy who had cerebral palsy, Toby, my hero he was, and still remains. I was very privileged to be able to spend a lot of time with him and in the summer holidays, Easter holidays, Christmas holidays, we?d actually go to the physiotherapy department with him and be with him and all of the other children that had similar difficulties and challenges.

So I decided, from about the age of thirteen, fourteen, that I wanted to work in that world and help these children and adults. I?m not highly academic. I worked hard at school ? spent three years in sixth form ? so I was actually nineteen when I left school.

I applied for six physiotherapy posts, all around London and in Exeter, and was absolutely convinced that that was going to be my destiny. I spent five years, as I said, did a lot of voluntary work around that, and based my A-levels around that.

Unfortunately, due to the academic side of me, I didn?t get a place in physiotherapy, which was a huge let down for me and my family ? my mother was very much behind me with all of this. So I had to rethink. My parents were very surprised and actually sent me off to psychometric testing. And at the time, I was nineteen, and it was the early eighties, and that was ?150 for a day?s psychometric testing to see what I should do.

And it came back that I should be a red coat at Butlins. Isn?t that interesting?

Anyway, that was a bit of a shock to us all. I never saw myself as a performer. So I applied to do child psychology and I did get a place at London University, to do that ? but I lost a year ? so I had a year to fill in. And during that year I worked in a school, as a welfare assistant, and at night I worked behind the bar in a pub that I loved. And I?d love to do that again, it was great fun. Lots of people ? in fact, I love that community, of being around a pub.

So that?s what I was planning to do, and that got me to about nineteen and a half. And then I got head-hunted by a recruitment lady called Barbara who came into the pub and said that I was such a sale-sy lady, and spoke with a lot of confidence, and she said ?you should go into the IT industry.? And I didn?t know what on earth she meant, but I actually thought that I could save up a lot of money for going to university, so I took up an interview as a tele-sales person in an IT company selling printers and PC?s and bits and pieces to dealers, on behalf on Hewlett-Packard and Digital, and people like that.

And I got the job and I did it ? and I have to say I did incredibly well at it actually ? and I really loved it.

I resigned to go to University in September and October, and I think one of the greatest pieces of information about the subject that you?ve asked about Michael, is that my boss, at that time, the managing director of the company, called me in when he?d heard that I?d resigned and was very surprised and asked me why. I said that I wanted to go into vocational life. I didn?t want to be in business and that I really wanted to make a difference in the world by helping others. And he said that one of the things that I contributed to his business was far more than just sales in terms of the atmosphere and the attitude I had towards my colleagues and people.

And he persuaded me that I could be who I wanted to be and who I wanted to be in the business environment, which is precisely what I ended up doing. And I did build a great career in the IT industry. I left it at age twenty-eight to have our first daughter, Hanna, and look back on it very well ? and financially, I was very secure. I caught that IT wave.

And I did feel that I was also making a difference because of all the people that I was employing and promoting and helping ? that was the thing that I loved about it.

So that?s it. That?s it in a nutshell.

Michael : There?s really two parts to this ? there?s creating a safe place for people to be themselves, so they can be proud of who they are ? why do you think that?s important?

Penny : Well, I think people are more transparent than they realise. I think that people think that they can create an illusion and an image of themselves, but we can also see through that, and I think that people that live in an ego state rather than actually understanding their identity of who they are ? those people that manifest themselves into their ego are actually very unattractive people to know, and we all know that ? but it can be very hard at times in people?s lives to not slip into an ego state.

But obviously, Ecademy is an environment for business people to connect with one another and the basis of it that people like you ? they like you enough to advocate you, advocate your business, pick you up when you?re down, congratulate you when you?re up, and they?re not going to do that if they don?t like you.

They?re not going to do that just because you?re the best at what you do. Nowadays I think people have so much choice in where they can go for business and suppliers, they?re just not going to be attracted to people who aren?t nice people, and I think this is the thing. I had an email this morning from a new member saying that Ecademy is the first place in her business life that she?s felt that she?s able to talk from her heart and I thought ?What a poignant email to get today, when I was talking to you!?

Because, I think that?s one of the biggest transitions people go through ? I think our emotional wealth is what makes us get up in the morning. And gives us the self esteem and the self belief to attack the world in the way we need to, to use our adrenaline and achieve what we need to in a day. And we have to be superhuman a lot of the time, and if you?re not actually settled inside yourself it makes the road a much harder road to go along.

Michael : If you look at yourself ? if we take those two concepts, being yourself, and being proud of you and what you are ? where has it helped you?

Penny : I think for me ? well, in two areas ? One, when I actually went into the business environment I did get promoted into a very good position, in fact, I was a sale-marketing director at the age of twenty-four, in a fairly male-orientated industry. And I found myself all over the world in conferences and I?ve never been academically confident, and I?m not a great studier ? Thomas when he met me found it unbelievable how little I actually knew about the products that I was selling.

I?ve always been much more attracted towards people and what makes people tick and understanding people ? and I learn everything I know from people. I?m not a great book reader. And so I think learning in the business environment that was highly competitive I could use the values ? my emotional values, to look after my staff, manage supply relations.

I?ll give you an example: we were working as a small distributor in the UK. We had massive competitors ? Our buying power was not as strong as our competitors so we had to compete on margin, and it was very much a margin based business ? you had a dealer ring up the distributor and say, ?OK, I need five printers today. What?s your best price?? And they?d be ringing all of them to find out the best price because they were all working on their margins.

So it was very much stock them high, ship them low. I used to ask all of the product managers in my team to ring around all of our competitors as soon as I worked out that something had gone out of stock, so that when one of our customers would ring in ? if we didn?t have it, we?d say, ?Don?t worry, we?ve rung North Amber, and they?ve got it.? Or ?Don?t worry, we?ve rung West Coast, and they?ve got it.? To try and save them time and to apologize to them for the fact that we?ve let them down.

So although we weren?t able to compete on price we were able to compete emotionally because they knew that we really deeply cared about their businesses, and it wasn?t about our business, it was about them having an end user who was on their back that wanted a printer installed tomorrow morning ? and we had to help them find a printer in the fastest route that they could.

So that was one of the lessons. One of the next lessons in life was when I became a mother ? because I had been a very career-based woman, and had a great fast life and car, and a lovely life, a very glamorous life ? I was absolutely determined to be a full-time mother, to be at home with the children ? and I loved it, and it was because of business that I was able to do that.

There was an adjustment, as all women have to go through when they do that ? and I did, after a time, start deciding to do a little bit of work, which led me off to start Ecademy when my children were five, three and six months old. Now, at that point, it was very important that I understood my emotional values, because ? people talk about life/work balance, but you can?t actually achieve a balance between work and life, you can only integrate the two things ? and if I was to pretend in my working life that I wasn?t a mother, or if I was to pretend in my mother-life that I didn?t work ? the two things would be in conflict with each other.

And it?s really important that these things are integrated. So when I started Ecademy, and was looking for someone who ultimately became Glen Watkins, our CEO, I said to him, ?You have to understand, my greatest value now is as a mother, but I do want to build Ecademy into an amazing place for people ? but if you?re working with me, will you be comfortable with the fact that with me my family come first? And I will be at every sports day and nativity play??

And he was fantastic, Glen, and he continues to be ? well, he?s just an amazing man because he understands that value that I have, and he knows that I don't have to lie to anybody in my life about what my priorities are. And that runs through Ecademy ? we don?t do weekend events for members because we believe that family life is important ? it?s important for people in business to understand that you?ve got to get balance.

Michael : That nicely leads onto the next question. And it actually turns out to be a deeper question than I had originally thought when I wrote it ? where and when is it appropriate for people to be themselves?

Is there ever a time that it?s not appropriate or not in their interests to not be totally themselves?

Penny : That is a great question Michael. I would say it depends who ?themselves? are. We all go through different stages. I have had members that are maybe going through a difficult patch and you can read on their blogs on the way that they communicate with people that they?re feeling very defensive and angry with the world. Things have gone tough and they don?t feel that it?s fair. And those times I?ve often recommended to members that they?re not really reflecting themselves in a very good way, and it would be a very good idea for them to unplug because they?re creating negativity on the internet whatever they do or say.

Roger Hamilton puts it really well- the entrepreneurial guru. He says that people are in their attraction zone ? and when people are in their attraction zone they?re attracting people towards them because they?re feeling like they?re doing what they love, everything in life is great, and they attract goodness towards them.

People when they go below their attraction zone go underneath it. It?s often when things get tough and they become aggressive, defensive, and angry. People that go above their attraction zone are well into ego-state because things are so fantastic. Often we see this actually. When members join who we call ?Corporate Refugees?, they?ve been in a corporate, they?ve had a great position. I had a lady come up to me in an exhibition last week and she said to me, ?I like Ecademy, it?s very nice, but you know, I don?t feel that there aren't enough high-quality people.?

And she said, ?Well, they?re all sort of running their own businesses. Now I?m used to the corporate world.?

And I said, ?Well, what do you do now??

And she said, ?Well, I?m running my own business.?

I said, ?How can you possibly say that these people aren?t high quality people? You know what it takes to run your own business, and manage your own business, and set yourself on fire every day, and bring in an income. Those are incredible people that are doing that.?

And this lady was really in an ego-state. She left a high job in a travel industry and she believed that she was better than everybody else. And I actually said to her at the end of it, ?Look, I?ve got to say to you that you?re no different than anybody I meet on Ecademy. If anything you?ve got to adjust your attitude or you?re not going to attract anybody to help you on your journey.?

And she was quite shocked by that, but she wrote to me later and thanked me for that.

So I think ? ?When should you be yourself?? It really does depend. If I was in an angry mood, Michael, at the beginning of the day, and somebody had severely let me down, or something had really gone wrong for me ? it?s hard at times like that to bring yourself back. I might say to you, ?This is me! This is who I am at the moment, Michael.?

But I would hope that I would know what my underlying values, and the areas of me that I want to put forward about myself, and always use those in life and always think of myself in a positive way. And those times that we don?t feel so positive, and give ourselves a little bit of a time-out and maybe retreat, that?s when family and friends are very important and may be careful with how many family and friends you?re communicating with at that time.

Having said that, we?ve had a number of members on Ecademy who have been ill for various reasons and it?s incredible how they?ve said that Ecademy has kept their self-esteem, self-belief and self-worth during that period. But they?ve understood that they need to huddle down a little bit. Maybe they actually got deeper relationships with people with it because they talked at a deeper level when they were going through that. But maybe that wasn?t the time to start blogging about their business because they wouldn?t be sounding as bright as they normally would.

Michael : Let?s move on from that. If you were going to teach somebody or coach them to be more like themselves, where would you get them to start?

Penny : Well, the first thing, if I?m talking from a business point of view, a lot of this does stem into business ? I think it?s very important for people to understand what the heartbeat is behind their business. I?ve talked before about emotional wealth, I?ve talked about connecting your heart to your brain. A lot of people talk about their skills and what they do, they don?t talk about why they do it and who they are. And the ?Why you do something? and ?Who you are? is much more interesting, so I?ve spent time with members - I?m much more interested in the journey that took them to doing what they?re doing, but the soft skill behind what they do.

So whether they?re an accountant, or they?re into property, or whatever they?re doing ? yourself, into NLP coaching and a brilliant one at that ? there is a reason you do that, and it?s much more interesting to get beneath that and I think once you uncover that, that is actually your flame. That?s your core purpose.

There?s a lot of different phrases for that. That?s your reason that you?re getting up and doing what you?re doing. If you haven?t got a moment in your day when you actually get that spine-tingling feeling that makes you feel like you?re on fire ? then you?re quite possibly not doing the right thing, or you?ve got to a stage in your business where you?ve employed or collaborated with people and let them do all the things that you love and you?ve taken on the wax in your business; which is unfortunately what a lot of people do.

So I would always start by saying to them to find their emotional wealth and if they don?t have it, if they really can?t find it, than there are lots of people they?re connected with that can help them to achieve that. But I think people need to know what makes them tick inside, and it?s not just going to impact their business lives, it can impact all areas of their life, when they actually find that heartbeat inside them that makes them really feel happy. So that would be how I?d always start to coach someone.

Michael : How did you learn to do this? Was there a sort of time in your life when this sort of thing just fell into place? It clicked and you said, ?Ah, this is what I need to do?. Or ?This is how I should approach this,? in the context of actually helping other people be themselves?

Penny : Yes, there was actually. Steve Jobs has got a brilliant speech at the moment; you can see it at youtube if you put Steve Jobs or Stanford University in. He talks about joining the dots and he tells all of these university students that as long as you?re creating dots on a page you?ll be able to look back on that page and make a picture or make sense of your life.

And that happened to me four years ago, when we were six years into building Ecademy, five or six years into building Ecademy, it?d been a huge financial journey for us and massive amounts of investment. At that time, in order to keep our children at the school they were at, I negotiated with the headmaster for me to be able to work for free at the school during the day from eight in the morning until six at night to enable them to do that.

And that was fantastic, because I was working for free, but I was surprised at the end of every day to how much I actually enjoyed my day. In the evening I would go back out and I would do a speech for Ecademy. In the toilet in the school I?d do a superwoman turnaround and come out wearing a suit and would go out and speak, or I?d come home and go through the hundreds of emails that would come in.

And obviously it was tiring, but there were lovely moments with the children, and being part of a team at the school and getting to know the children?s friends even more, and sitting with them at lunch time ? there were lots of great things. But I started to think about ? how come I as a person am equally happy doing something like this as I am in the business world, standing up in front of four hundred people talking?

And I realised that I don?t feel like I have an ego. I feel like I?m in touch with my identity, with who I am. And to me, life isn?t about what you do - it?s what it is behind you, the purpose behind what you?re doing.

So I was loving what I was doing at that school, because I was really contributing to those children?s lives and the lives of the parents, and to the lives of the teachers around me. The tasks that I could take on that could make things more efficient for the teachers, ways I could help a child that was perhaps a bit sad for some reason, the way I could help a parent if she had problems getting back to school with her son on time.

All those ways - I could translate all of those feelings into the same feelings that I get when I?m in Ecademy, because at the core of it is that I really do love each day to make a difference to people. And it sounds really trite, but I do. That?s what I love doing. And I think that?s when I learned the skill of translating what?s behind the person instead of what they do.

Michael : Building on that, when you?re doing this with people, what do you believe about yourself?

Penny : Interesting question. I believe that I have good intentions, I believe that I have very high empathy, like if there?s a bit of a problem at home ? there?s a lot of films that I can?t watch, and Thomas is a film addict, but I became that person in the film!

I love learning about people. I love learning about every single person, because being interested in them like you are now in me, you give them a chance to have a platform to talk about themselves. And it helps people to clear their minds, their thoughts. But also, that?s how I learn, so I also know that I love to learn from people more than books ? I?d say that?s what I know about myself.

And I genuinely love people.

Michael : That?s funny because the question is ? What do you believe about the people that you?re doing it with?

Penny : OK, I?ll generalise a bit now Michael, but I think that nowadays people are quite lost. People are quite confused. Massive, massive amounts of information are coming at people each day ? and all that can actually steal time and time is without doubt the most expensive commodity that anybody has.

So how I feel about people is: I feel that the world is improving actually, in terms of the intention of the individuals. I think that the authorities and the governments and things like that aren?t actually in touch with that. I don?t think they realise how much people have this global consciousness that is not just about the environment, it?s about people wanting the people next door to them to be as happy as they are.

And I?ve had a lot of arguments about this over dinner parties, with some very wealthy people ? You know the Eighties, the Maggie Thatcher times, people were very much into beating their fellow neighbour, having the better garden, the better car, but I actually genuinely believe inside communities like Ecademy that people are happier if everybody grows together, and everybody becomes emotionally, and financially wealthier together. I don?t think people like to live in a world where there?s sadness or poverty.

So I think when I have one-to-ones with people, that people are a bit lost. People are chasing their purpose massively. There?s a danger in that- and I often say that to people? because often and ultimately your first purpose in life has to be to put food on the table for your family. And then once you know that you know that you?ve fed your family, then is the time to go out and seek your purpose.

And I come across a number of people who almost feel like they?ve found God. They?ve found some way of thinking, ?I?ve found my purpose now.? But actually in doing that, they?re not thinking commercially enough about what their business needs to do in order to feed their family ? So I think people are lost. I think people can be very isolated - And scared. And very overwhelmed by communications.

And the whole intention of Ecademy is to help people to learn how to commercialise themselves. Learn how to give them more visibility on the internet. Help them to be more productive, help them to have a lower cost business model and connect them with great people who will support them through all of that and help them all learn together.

Michael : Now you?ve already answered this question in many ways but it would be very interesting to listen to you pulling them together ? Do you have a personal mission or vision when you do this?

Penny : My big mission is for business people to really learn how to collaborate and to help one another throughout the world. I think that's important for a business. I think if people were really able to do that, like people do inside Ecademy ? but if we could spread that across that world, I think business models would become highly efficient, and the way that people would be connected with one another would become so symbiotic that it would be awesome. There?d be nobody eating the other person?s food. Everybody would be sitting down at the table together and cooking together.

So that?s my overall mission. And individually, whenever I get up in the morning, when I touch the keyboard, when I speak, when I?m doing this podcast with you ? when I?m spending time with my children ? whatever I am doing, I am trying to make people more self-aware and more successful, so that they can achieve the things that they want to be and not be an unsung song.

Michael : I?m always fascinated by how people answer this, but if you were to describe what you do, in the context of a fairy tale, or parable, or story, or cartoon figures, or animals, or whatever ? how would you describe what you do as a story?

Penny : Goodness me. I would say that we?re definitely sowing seeds. And definitely providing a fertile platform for people to thrive and grow great crops. I can?t think of a ? No you?ve got me there - I?m going to be thinking of that Michael.

Which fairy tale am I? I don?t know. Maybe I?m Dopey or Happy or Doc from The Seven Dwarves.

Michael : Before I give you a chance to plug anything, or to give your contact details, is there anything about this topic about people being themselves, people being proud about who they are, that you would either like to emphasise, or maybe there?s something that you left out that you think is important?

Penny : Well I would say that if anyone is listening to this and has been inspired by anything that they have heard you and I talk about, I would hope that they would go away with the message that they should be proud of who they are as a person ? every single person has a unique aspect to them that makes them very attractive for people to know and they need to finely tune that and understand that ? learn how to communicate it. And then learn how to leverage that by making money out of it.

And that doesn?t mean changing careers, it means them really understanding why they do what they do ? what is it they enjoy about what they do? When is it that they get that moment up their spine that I mentioned, that makes them tingle and that makes them feel that today was a worthwhile day because they really contributed? And then just learn to build on that, and to create massive visibility around that skill and that soft skill.

And fine a place that you can call home that?s a group of people that will help you and support you through your life journey, which is obviously what we?ve hoped Ecademy does, and certainly the Black Stars experience. You want to be in a place where other people really are genuinely caring about you through all of your ups and your downs and will help you to grow.

Michael : And moving on from that, is there anything specific that you?d like to mention to our listeners ? anything that you?d like to plug that you?re doing at the moment?

Penny : Well, Ecademy.com, is my business home. It?s probably a lot of my social home as well. And if anybody is interested, if they?re already on Ecademy, perhaps they can read some of my blogs or understand it a bit more. Or contact me through Ecademy and I?ll reply to them.

And if they?re not on Ecademy, please do join and contact me, Penny Power, and I?ll welcome them in and help them through their journey.

Michael : Can you give your specific contact details?

Penny : If you?re on Ecademy, you can contact me, Penny Power, through my profile. If you?re not on Ecademy, but you?d like more information, you can contact me at Penny.Power@ecademy.com and I look forward to hearing from anybody who might want me to inspire them a little bit more.

Michael : Excellent. Thank you very much for your time, Penny.

Penny : Thank you, Michael