The journey to becoming a Semi-Finalist!

I have been very kindly nominated for the Venus Business Mother of the Year Award, as you can imagine I was thrilled when the email pinged into my in box. Working predominantly for myself with no boss or business partner I was thrilled to receive a nomination from someone that had taken the time to write and nominate me for the award.

To have my nomination considered for this award also involves filling in the application form, which felt like I was preparing a ‘This Is Your Life’ project about wonderful me! I found this process hard, continually writing about myself isn’t something I would normally do- yes I have done well………. but so have lots of other people too! I feel very proud of everything that I do, but I don’t work for a charity, I haven’t invented the wheel – I just love what I do and I get paid for it.

The nature of looking back had its advantages and I have reflected on many funny and challenging moments…..”heavily pregnant mum teaching gymnastics”….. “I was pretty much laughed out of the door when they realised I did not own either an iPad or a smart phone”……. “Making phone calls whilst chaos breaks out in the home environment”.  Writing about all of my achievements has been enjoyable. I look back and wonder – how on earth at 18 I had so much determination and vision to start my own business and never look back.

Being a semi finalist means you have to make a 1 minute clip about yourself – this is something that came as a bit of a shock…. along with the public vote. I have used my son…..as a bit of a prop to hide behind! He did a great job in helping me and along with some feedback from the gymnasts, this is the video we came up with;

The public vote is currently live and people are becoming aware of my involvement. Whether I am successful in getting through to the final or not, I am overwhelmed at the support that I have felt during this process. Social media is a fantastic tool at times like this and I have received lovely support messages from my immediate friends and family, from colleagues I worked with teaching gymnastics at Camp America, old school friends now living in New Zealand and complete strangers using my books and apps.

Thank you once again for the nominations and all of the support, please keep voting. Gemma Gym x

http://www.venusawards.co.uk/dorset/dorset-2015-public-vote/