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Join us for a Culture Cuppa
Filling the cultural intelligence gap with a unique business idea
In conversation with Victoria Rennoldson
Hello, my name is Victoria Rennoldson, and I am the CEO and Founder of Culture Cuppa, and I am a communication coach and cross-cultural trainer. Before I set up this business, I was working in brand marketing in international organisation; living and working in London, but working with people all over the world.
Inspiration
I help international leaders to elevate and amplify their communication to leadership levels. I also support teams who need to connect and work effectively together around the world. I do that through the power of communication and cultural intelligence. I'm helping people, teams and organisations to grow themselves and expand globally, so that they can get the best results for their businesses.
The idea for Culture Cuppa came about from my previous career, when I was working in marketing in international teams. I was working with people in international teams, often working cross-functionally to deliver large scale projects, which really had large business impacts.
In those times, I noticed that when it worked smoothly, it was great. We connected, we understood each other and we were able to deliver our objectives smoothly. However, there were times when it was frustrating, when there were challenges, when people didn't really seem to be on the same page or get each other. And that got me curious - what was driving that? What was going on there?
As I dug a little deeper, I realised how important communication, and understanding behind that the cultural impact of communication, is. And that's when I realised that, often what happens in international business is that sometimes we end up with this communication and cultural gap. And that's when I saw the opportunity to help people bridge the gap and work more effectively together.
The journey
I started Culture Cuppa back in 2015, so at this moment in time we're 8 years old. And it has been an absolute journey. Initially we started off working with people who were relocating to London, and we were mostly supporting individuals and teams in face to face coaching and training workshops. However, the Covid pandemic hit and we had to totally shift our business model.
In fact, this was a great opportunity for us, and we realised that the real opportunity was working with people all over the world in a virtual way. So, today we now work with people and organisations in over 40 countries and expanding, and our real ambition and mission is to help 100,000 people to speak up and share their voice, to share their expertise and talent, in over 100 countries. And that's where we're heading in the future.
The growth curve
The growth curve of the company has been really interesting. It hasn't always been smooth and plain sailing. Clearly, we had the pandemic a few years ago, and that made us rethink our business model, because business really plateaued, and we had to find new ways of doing things.
The real opportunity was that we realised people were much more open to coaching and training virtually than they were previously, before the pandemic. So, this is an opportunity to work in a very different way. And in fact, we're now able to really think about how we grow our business by scaling up and reaching even more people in more countries, and offering these opportunities, to train and coach in very flexible ways, via virtual platforms.
Challenges
The greatest challenge in growing our business has been - how do you scale up and really continue to grow in a way that is sustainable, particularly when there are ups and downs within the business? One of the key ways that we've done this is that we have pulled in virtual people into our team as and when we need them. For example, a virtual assistant; someone to help with a relaunch of our brand earlier this year; people to support with elements like the website and social media.
And the same is true for our trainer team as well. As we scale up and we need more support, then we bring in assistant trainers into the team.
Highlights
I'm very proud of Culture Cuppa, because of the impact that we have in people's lives. And I know this because they tell us. Feedback is very important to me and the business. It's the way we measure if we're really making a difference - are people really progressing? And we see it in their results as well - for individuals, that's about how they are performing at work; but also how they're progressing in their career. People often go on to make changes in their career - whether that's a promotion, a new job, a new role.
Within teams, we get feedback about how people feel more connected to each other. In fact, their teamwork - the way they are working together - is much more effective as well. That's how I know we are making a difference, and that makes me feel really proud. Every time we get this feedback, that is something that goes on my pride wall, that we look at all the time.
For me, what I really enjoy about working in Culture Cuppa is really two things:
One is the people - the clients we work with, whether that is individuals or teams. They are incredibly professional, high-level individuals and teams who are ambitious and want to achieve great things in this world. I love that, it's so exciting to work with people in this way, helping them to fulfil their own performance and career goals.
I also feel that the other part I absolutely love is creating. I love creating in my podcast, the episodes that we share each week with tips, ideas and strategies to try out, the videos we create, the blogs we write, the LinkedIn posts that we share. All of this creating is great, because it means we are building conversations with our people - the people we could be working with.
The future
I hope the future for Culture Cuppa will be about continuing expansion and growth. We have this mission to help 100,000 people to speak up and share their voice in over 100 countries. For me, I really want the future to be about enabling us towards that vision, and really supporting people in more and more places. To feel connected, to build that powerful sense of how communication can help them perform and how it can help their careers.
Advice
The advice I'd give to anybody who is thinking about starting their own business is - you need to think about - what's your 'why'? Why are you doing this, and who are you doing it for? This might seem really simple and obvious - but sometimes I think people have an idea without really thinking about the why and the who - so this is really important.
I'd also say that if people are feeling hesitant about moving into the entrepreneurial world, that you just need to think about Dr Pepper. This is a drink from the 1980s, and they had an advertising campaign - "what's the worst that can happen?" Well, in reality, the worst is that you go back to a career or a job you were doing previously. So why not try, why not have a go? I think the biggest mistake is having regrets and not trying.
Using 1st Formations
I first heard about 1st Formations from my accountant, who recommended the company because they had other clients who used them. I was really impressed from the first moments that I contacted 1st Formations, because I felt that the team were able to answer my questions, which I had many, and they were able to come back to me fairly quickly so I could make my decision. It was really important to me that I had a central London address, and that added to my credibility as a global company, and so that opportunity to have that at a great value fee was amazing for me. And so that was why I was really interested in coming to 1st Formations.
1st Formations today
I have my registered address and service address at 1st Formations, and for me that's fantastic, because it means that officially that address is set up, that any official correspondence comes to 1st Formations' address, and that my home address is not visible on the official register.
I personally use 1st Formations by watching some of the videos and listening to some of the tips and ideas they are sharing about running a business. I also have a look at some of the blogs. What's helpful is receiving the emails which come regularly with ideas, which helps me to grow and learn and make sure I am doing the right things in my business.
