It was a powerful sentence that silenced the room at our first Coffee & Conversations. Juliet Simpson, founder and CEO of Stripe Communications said simply: “I love what I do - if you don’t love what you do, I’d ask yourself why are you doing it?”
Perhaps it was a moment of reflection for the guests who filled the huge yellow floored Santu Coffee Roastery within egg & co. After all, work fills such a large part of our lives, it makes sense to get it right and have passion in what we do.
Opening up conversations like this was the very reason we launched our new event at egg & co, Union Street. Yes, we get to see you, network and enjoy fabulous freshly brewed coffee from our amazing neighbours at Santu Coffee. But, importantly, we can also be inspired by other like-minded women. People that open up, share their learnings and experiences.
Coffee & Conversations kicked off in style last week and we can’t thank Juliet enough for joining us and sharing her inspiring story to head egg Kylie... and a room of over 40 eggs! If you haven't heard of Juliet, she's the female founder of Stripe, one of the UK’s leading PR, Social, Influencer and Content agencies and she’s worked with everyone from John Lewis to Virgin Hotels and MTV. Most definitely a girl boss, Juliet takes risks and doesn’t put up with anyone’s bullsh*t.
"I’ve always been a hard worker; it's been engrained in me," reveals Juliet. "My Dad was a workaholic and mum was the original girl boss who founded Toys Galore in Morningside. She spotted a niche in the market and just went for it. I worked there as a Saturday girl from a young age, it was an all-female team, I learnt (and laughed) a lot.”
There’s no doubt about it, Juliet has had some amazing experiences, from working for a fashion brand in Toronto, to becoming Head of PR & Consumer Marketing for Vodafone in Australia. However, her desire to start a family and concern for father’s health brought her back to Edinburgh where she launched Stripe nearly 17 years ago.
“We now have 56 staff in Edinburgh and London - 27 are in our head office in Scotland," she says, before adding, laughing: "We only work with people we respect, that aren’t dick heads and can pay us!”
“I’ll sack people for being bitches or shit stirrers. Toxic people cause so much damage! We have a diverse team but what unites everyone is our common values and our respect for one another. People are not just employees, they’re human beings. We retain a lot of talent because we treat them that way. Investment in people is the best investment you can make.”
After a freak accident a few years ago resulting in a shattered hip, almost losing her leg and having to learn to walk again, Juliet took 5 months off work.
“When you really stop, you work out what really matters," she reflects. "You can still be the person you were but find a better version. I used to work 60-70 hours a week but now I try slowing my pace down. I also don’t spend my time with people that don’t make me feel good.”
“Life is incredibly short; things can change in heartbeat. And it has made me think 'fuck it, don’t stop yourself from doing anything'. It’s all just stuff after all!”
We couldn't have said it better ourselves.
If you’d like to join us for our next egg &co event and be inspired by many more speakers and fellow eggs, make sure you follow us on social and sign up to our newsletter where you’ll find out more. A big shout out to Laila Edinburgh for providing the chairs, Erin & Washington at Santu Coffee for letting us show off their amazing space (and taste the amazing coffee and pastries). And lastly, thank you to our sponsor FreeAgent who provided some treats in the goodie bags too!