About the founder at My Training Shop

About Sian 

Entrepreneur, leader and teacher

A Fellow Member of the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) previously served as a board member. 25 years in varying roles within management, marketing, learning and development ..... a entrepreneur too! I have walked the walk and overcome the numerous pitfalls and challenges that often occurs in business. Importantly, developed strategies and tactics to overcome barriers and be creative with solutions to drive businesses forward.

How I got to here:

Looking back I feel that I grew up within quite an extraordinary family. Many had worked in the retail industry for generations. That was until my father broke with tradition and entered the Police force. I, however, had always been fascinated by my grandparent's achievements and their parents before them. Eventually I arrived at the conclusion that 'people'  business was part of my DNA.

Influences can be traced back to the early 1900's, where my grandparents and great grandparents resided and ran businesses in mid-Wales. They became the first people in Wales to own company vehicles for the collection and delivery of groceries. Sadly, the start of World War I had a huge impact on my grandparent's success. With the whole country battling for their lives, their once-thriving business never fully recovered to what it once was. Albeit they continued to make a decent living from their business for the remainder of their working lives. I realise now what entrepreneurs they truly were.

When my father left the police as a result of early retirement, retail was still in his blood and was calling him back. He opened a high-end gift shop on the North Yorkshire Coast, which at the time was the first of its kind in the region. Whilst developing my own career, I regularly participated and assisted my father with running what came to be a very successful and well-respected retail outlet and holiday accommodation too.

“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.” -William Shakespeare

Influenced by my ancestors (likely it was inevitable) My determination to start my own business eventually took flight. I sought out and began to partner with other companies to source niche and specialist products from Germany.  making a success of selling and supplying individuals, health authorities and social services for the 12 years following.

“Knowledge is a weapon. I intend to be formidably armed.” ―Terry Goodkind

Following the sale of this business, always curious, further learning was what I now desired. This was the beginnings of my learning and development career. In the first instance, I trained staff in stores throughout the midlands and north-west for a major high street retail outlet. During which time I made time to juggle my personal development, which eventually led to securing a role in the adult career service. I continued to work hard and invested further in training which led to my becoming a qualified assessor and trainer.

I spent the following years practising and honing my skills working in self employment mode and utilising my inherent business skills. This far-reaching expertise opened up a whole new world of opportunities. I found myself working on government, charity, college and corporate contracts, where I confronted and embraced numerous challenges with gusto! I witnessed first-hand how a range of other businesses worked, learning from the best at the same time assisting those where improvements were needed.

If you’re offered a seat on a rocket ship, don’t ask what seat! Just get on. Sheryl Sandberg

With my finely-tuned instinct for business and marketing, I now had the bug for helping and sharing knowledge with others. So, in 2016, when I was approached to work on a 12-month contract within a Stoke -on-Trent business as their digital marketing manager, I jumped at the opportunity. The aim was to drive the business towards its e-commerce goals, along with scoping other major changes. Moreover, this meant I would also be responsible for training others, it was an irresistible prospect. 5 years later I was still there! in a senior management role.

The idea of my two passions coming together was a delight. The mammoth task of moving this business forward, change, project managing, recruiting, training, compiling procedures and efficient streamlining processes began. Importantly, I had established and initiated new sales channels within the organisation, resulting in new jobs being created. My work here was done, when the business was successfully sold. Hey presto, what a result! As I was instrumental in this acquisition, I know how to make a business sale ready. NB learning pointer, start off with the intensions of putting your business on the market and it will be relatively straightforward when the time comes.

Perfect timing....

As I could return to my love of developing others on a larger scale. 

“Even if you have achieved everything, there is Perfection, still left to be achieved.” Amit Kalantri

Having taken considerable time to reflect and analyse my achievements to date. My desire is simple and blatantly obvious, its all about softs kills, emotional intelligence and agile workplaces! Individuals and teams from diverse businesses have all thrived as a result of my facilitation and mentoring to date. It is time to pass on and share what I have seen, heard and experienced over the years.

Having created my own very personal style which can simply be defined as always being on the side of the learner. I am aware of the importance of how ‘one-size-does-NOT-fit-all’ and whole-heartedly believe that the best way of learning is YOUR way of learning. Whilst this theory cannot always work within groups, I will always identify 'your' learning gap in question and target that. This is because my beliefs are born out of experience and instinct; which is why I have partnered with ‘Everything DiSC’. All too often it is misunderstandings of behaviours that cause clashes in life...... and the workplace. DiSC proprietary profiling tool can identify traits and reasons for conduct to ensure we all work better together.

If you've got the appetite (and the stamina) you can read more about me here

Want to trigger your journey banishing potential conflict in your workplace and improving communications styles . Then complete a needs assessment (no cost) from there I will assess and propose how we can work best together.