After decades in digital agencies two former colleagues have decided to rise from the fog of menopause to run their own business – and they believe being midlife women is their superpower.
Alison Holliday, 50, and Charlie Lycett-Smith, 46, held multiple senior roles in digital agencies for decades. Holliday as a Chief Financial Officer and Lycett-Smith as a Chief Operating Officer.
Holliday said: “At some point you stop waiting for permission and do it for yourself. Time is finite. Men often have the sports car moment. Women of our generation are choosing a different kind of shift.”
Lycett-Smith added that post menopause she believes she is clearer-eyed and more confident: “I'm a completely different person now than I was five years ago, even in terms of where I will stand my ground and where I won't. And to be honest, I don't think there is anywhere I wouldn't stand my ground anymore.”
And so as the fog of midlife cleared North & Nest was born – a plug and play solution for service-led businesses who need top operations and financial expertise, but don’t want to invest in an in-house Financial Director or Operations Director.
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The business partners believe that being women and having to navigate midlife and the workplace as females makes them uniquely able to spot opportunities.
Lycett-Smith said: “I’ve been doing this for 20 years. The kids are older, the timing’s right and I’m ready to take a bit of a risk. The imposter syndrome has gone and I’ve stopped deferring to people who aren’t better than me. I know what I’m good at and I want to help more companies fix the problems I can solve.”
Holliday said: “What I’ve seen is a difference in how women tend to read the room, spotting patterns, joining the dots and juggling competing priorities. Given most agencies have historically been led by men, bringing a different lens is overdue. And while everyone faces mental health challenges, the realities many women deal with while they are working, menopause included, shapes a kind of resilience that’s really valuable in business.”
The pair said their years of experience in the agency-world has taught them that traditional functions like operations and finance have to evolve in order to drive creative businesses.
“The best FDs and COOs for these sorts of businesses aren't the corporate caricature. It’s someone who can meet people where they are, be authentic and make the numbers useful. Otherwise you have a culture gap and progress is hard to achieve.”
The pair said they typically find they can be useful for digital first, performance led businesses who often have sound creative ideas, but lack any financial or operational strategy.
Holliday said: “You’d be surprised how many teams don’t have a clear view of their numbers or the problems they have with their operational structures. We bring that clarity, what the figures really say, what to focus on and what the next year should look like.”
James Moffat is the Founder of Organic, where the pair have honed their expertise. He says: “Ali and Charlie have worked alongside me for fifteen years and have been the backbone of the business throughout. They carry a level of operational and financial discipline that has allowed the rest of us to push creative thinking further than we ever could without them. I have always admired the way they balance the demands of work and family life while still spotting problems early, cutting through noise and simply getting things done. That resilience sits at the heart of Organic. It is why I back them fully and why I think they are so well placed to build something successful and lasting.”
