Hi, I’m Serena Fordham, and this blog post is an extension of my Amazon Bestselling Book “ProspHER(ish): The diary of a fcuked up female-founder” written to help women succeed in their businesses and careers – while ultimately achieving their dreams and fullest potential.
Not the plan
This is not the blog post I planned to write. My alarm went off this morning, not with a gentle, melodic chime, but with the frantic barking of my two dogs at 3 a.m. One of those “it’s windy and therefore a cause for alarm” barks. A quick trip into the garden in the dark to let them out, a fruitless attempt to get them to quiet down, and then, just as quickly as it started, they were calm again. Me? Not so much. I didn’t get back to sleep.
My second alarm at 7 a.m. went off, and I was in that frustrating half-awake, half-asleep limbo. The morning was just getting started. My daughter, bless her heart, dropped a bomb: no clean school shirt. My husband wasn’t around, so I was the one to rummage through the laundry, frantically searching for a dryer sheet, only to find the clothes were still damp. My son, having seen his pre-made lunch, declared it inedible, so I had to slap together a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in record time, which, of course, resulted in a sticky mess all over my hands.
From bad to worse
Then, the dog food bag broke. Spilling across the kitchen floor, it created a crunchy, oily mosaic. At least the dogs were happy, eagerly helping me “clean” it up. The final straw came when my son, on his way to school, fell off his bike. He came back in tears, with grazed knees and a broken chain. I spent a frantic few minutes trying to fix the bike, getting my hands covered in grease, and then comforting him, all while watching the clock tick past my departure time.
I was supposed to be on my way to London Tech Week at Olympia, ready to network and learn, but instead, I’m here, writing this, still in my pajamas, sipping a lukewarm cup of coffee. The FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) is real, but so is the need to just take a breath and wallow in the chaos.
This is me
As a female founder and mum with a disability, things often don’t go to plan. And I’m willing to bet it’s the same for many of you. We see these polished photos online—the smiling faces at conferences, the perfectly styled outfits, the “I’m living my best life” posts. But what we don’t often see is the reality behind it all. The spilled coffee, the last-minute crises, the exhaustion that comes with juggling everything.
So, this is me, being fully transparent.
This is me, sharing a messy, frustrating, and very real morning. This is me, embracing the fact that sometimes, life doesn’t cooperate. And that’s okay. It’s a reminder that it’s perfectly fine to have a day where you do nothing but rest and recharge. There’s always next year for London Tech Week. For now, I’ll be here, scrolling through LinkedIn posts of everyone else enjoying the event, and I’ll be fine with that. I hope that by sharing this, you’ll know that you’re not alone on those days when everything seems to go wrong.
Share your story
Do you have a story like this where the day didn’t seem to go how you’d imagined it? Please share it with me here.
Hi, I’m Serena Fordham, and this blog post is an extension of my Amazon Bestselling Book “ProspHER(ish): The diary of a fcuked up female-founder” written to help women succeed in their businesses and careers – while ultimately achieving their dreams and fullest potential.
Focusing on others
As a woman in business it’s easy to get caught up in the comparison game. We scroll through social media, watch the highlight reels of others, and find ourselves asking those all-too-familiar questions: “Why aren’t I that successful?” “How come they get all the luck?” “Why does everyone seem to love them so much, when I’m over here struggling?”
I know I’ve been there. I remember being a quiet kid in school, watching the popular children from a distance, and wondering why I wasn’t like them. That feeling of being on the outside, of not quite belonging, is a heavy one. And the truth is, it doesn’t just disappear when you leave the school hallways. It can follow you into adulthood, into your career, and even into your personal life.
For years, I carried that same loneliness and self-doubt with me. I compared my journey as a writer and business leader to others, always feeling like I was falling short. The more I looked outward for validation, the more I felt I lacked. It was a vicious cycle of comparison and self-criticism that kept me from truly celebrating my own wins.
The shift to me
But a few years ago, something shifted for me. I had a moment of clarity that changed everything. I realized that the reason I felt like I was struggling wasn’t because of what anyone else had. It wasn’t about their success, their luck, or their popularity. It was because I wasn’t giving myself the love and respect I deserved.
I hadn’t celebrated my own achievements. I hadn’t fully embraced who I was—the good, the bad, and the beautifully imperfect. I was so focused on trying to be someone else’s version of “enough” that I had lost sight of my own. Once I started treating myself with kindness, once I started acknowledging my own strengths and accomplishments, something truly magical happened.
My “right people” started to appear in my life.
The old adage is true: “Your vibe attracts your tribe.” When you show up as your authentic self, you become a magnet for people who are on a similar wavelength. When you stop trying to fit into a mold that was never meant for you, you create space for genuine connections to flourish.
I started embracing all the quirky, beautiful parts of me. I’m a writer and an advocate for female success, yes, but I’m also newly disabled, a film fanatic, and a proud lover of giraffes. I’m a tea drinker and a wife to an amazing husband, and a mum to two children and two mischievous dachshunds. These are all parts of my story, and they are what make me, me.
And you know what? When I started sharing these truths, the community I had been searching for all along began to form around me. It wasn’t a group of people who were all exactly the same, but a crew of individuals who were all on their own journey to self-love and authenticity.
My invitation to you
So, if you’re reading this and you’ve ever felt like the quiet one, the outsider, or the person constantly comparing themselves, I want you to know that you are not alone. The greatest gift you can give yourself is to stop looking outward and start looking inward.
Embrace your authentic self, celebrate every single win, and give yourself the same love and grace you would give to a friend. Your tribe is waiting for you to show up, fully and completely, as yourself.
If this resonates with you, I’d love for you to reach out and introduce yourself to me here.
On Monday evening Team ProspHER sent out an email to our email subscribers to share the exciting news that said:
“OUR BRAND NEW WEBSITE IS NOW LIVE!” 🥳
Except it wasn’t.
Due to tech issues we couldn’t get it to go live…
…We were just met with the dreaded buffering wheel of doom 🤯
Working deep into the night, our CMO Sandra said it was “like watching paint dry” seeing the files gradually (and very very slowly) transferring over to the live site.
But, after we all had fallen asleep, the transfer failed ❌
On Tuesday morning, we all woke up confused, expecting the site to be live…
Instead of flapping about like crazy chickens 🐥 we made a plan, and have pulled together to unleash the site to the world (we even called upon the big guns – aka our CTO Taylor – to upgrade our servers to help sort out the problem!)
As all that techy stuff goes over some of our heads, we trusted our team mates to do their own parts and get s#it done 🤪
And, finally the beautiful new ProspHER website is NOW LIVE (for real!) 🥳🥳🥳
So, why are we telling you all about this epic fail?
Well, because even though you may think this situation was utter chaos… especially as we already told everyone on our database to visit our stunning “all-singing-and-dancing” website…
Throughout this process we’ve all kept calm, stayed grounded, communicated openly, and learned through the experience 😁
You see, in business things like this are out of our control…
It’s often how we deal with these challenges that keeps us in control 💪
And, by staying sane and focusing on solutions, rather than problems, we know what we would do differently in a future similar situation, including:
Playing on our individual strengths and working styles.
Planning for when things go wrong.
Definitely not sending emails until we know things are in place! ✉
Running a business or leading a team is never smooth sailing for anyone…
There are always issues, challenges and obstacles, and there are learning curves around every corner 🤦♀
So, the next time you are faced with a moment of madness where things feel like utter 💩 remember that things like this happen to everyone at one time or another…
And how you deal with these things, and what you learn from the journey, is more important and valuable to your success than you will realise 😉
Sending love and high vibes, The ProspHER Team ✨
P.s. we hope you love our new website as much as we do 💜 (we promise it was worth the wait!)
P.p.s. In the spirit of fcuking up, our Founder Serena, launched her new book ProspHER(ish) on Monday that talks all about this sort of stuff (which did actually go live on Monday! 🤣)
Hi, I’m Serena Fordham, Founder of ProspHER and Author of ProspHER(ish)…
My mission is to educate and empower women across the globe, to achieve their professional aspirations, to fulfil their true potential, and to live the lives they ultimately desire.
A sequel to my bestseller HER Funny Business, this book contains raw and real-life accounts of my fragile journey, while navigating the turbulent world of building my successful(ish) business – and delves even deeper into my mind and feelings than ever before.
I don’t hold back in this honest insight into my life as a businesswoman and mother, while I authentically share my story since emerging from the crazy Covid-19 pandemic of 2020.
Little did I know that my life would get even more mental, manic and chaotic after the global epidemic, both in business and at home.
Strap yourself in, take a deep breath, and dive straight into my diary of a completely fcuked up female-founder!
Copyright 2024 Serena Fordham. Written and Cover Design by Serena Fordham from ProspHER. In memory of two beautiful souls in heaven: Sonia Catchpole (auntie) and Monica Payne (grandma).
Hi, I’m Serena Fordham, Founder of ProspHER and Author of ProspHER(ish)…