My name is Susan. A few years ago I had this crazy idea that I should be helping people in mental distress who wanted to rebuild their lives after things had gone wrong. It made sense as I had been through something like this in my own life. The long story about this can be found here.

I set up Lily the Pink Education CIC to help me do this. Have a look around and see if you resonate with what I am doing. I would love you to sign up for the blog posts using the form on the right. That way whenever there is something new you will automatically receive a copy.

You can pick up a few more details about me if visit one of the other sites. The about pages do have slightly different names like About the author or About Susan or More about the author but it is not just the names that are different the text is as well. Yikes that means I must have written at least 13 other about me pages, one is normally enough for most people. No wonder I have run out of steam with this one.

A bit more about Lily the Pink Education CIC

Its great knowing who you are going to serve but my problem has been how. That is the thing that has kept me up at night. It got worse as the more I thought about it the more I realised that part of my mission was to help others get their projects off the ground as well. Problem was I was struggling in this area myself. Nothing like learning the ropes the hard way.

I knew I needed money and thought that if I had a legal structure I would be able to apply for grants. Wrong. There was a Catch22 like situation that developed. We can’t trust you with money because you have not achieved much so far. I cannot do much without money.

I had a business structure I could use. Great I can hide behind that. Wrong. People do not relate to a business they relate to people and if no one relates to what you are doing then there is no business.

The redeeming factor in setting up this business was that because of the legal structure I used it had to have a purpose. It was written up in a document called a Community Interest Statement. In addition to the bit about helping people in mental distress I had added providing online courses for all. Well I had taught IT to adults in local community centres and to teenagers in a Sixth Form college.

Putting it into practice

I soon found that I could not do this in the same way as the colleges do. The software might be free but it is not that easy to set it up in such a way that you can earn money from using it. Thankfully I found ways around this that work and that are easy enough for me to set up myself. All I needed then was the content.

Oh boy, that took some research as ideas were pulled together from various places. Sometimes it involved some crazy mixtures like the church sermon and the preview call for a coaching course.  Other times ideas came from amazing finds in second hand book shops. Often I was learning things that were helping me pull myself out of the hole I had spent over 40 years digging for myself. I was the guinea pig. If they helped me then they would help others.

When you have the ideas for the content you then have to pull it together into books or courses. They have to be written, and proof read and turned into audios and videos. Crumbs it makes me just feel tired thinking about all that work!  It is worth it though. If they help just one person get their head together and create a new life out of the ashes of an old one. Of course, the joy would be if thousands or millions did. However when I re-read the prophetic word that I was given in 1991 that says what I will do will help millions of people, my first reaction is to look over my shoulder to see if there is someone else there and say who me. Yet at the same time I echo what Mary is recorded as saying i.e. I am the Lord’s servant. May it be unto me as you have said.

If you want to follow the adventures of an imperfect woman stumbling and learning to fulfill her mission of helping others in mental distress sign up for the blog broadcasts using the form on the right. Hopefully you will learn from my mistakes and understand why I believe that this kind of social action is essential. There again you will find the books and courses that we have and are developing will offer you a shortcut so that you do not have to do as much research.

God bless you

Susan

P.S. I would also love you to add something to the comment boxes when you see them.

P.P.S. If you are in the UK please consider using the shopping portal that we have set up. Click on the advert below the form and you will be taken to a site where you can buy a variety of items for no more, and possibly less, than you could elsewhere. As a community interest company we earn commissions from the items that you buy using the Spend and Raise scheme. Have a look around. I did and was surprised by how many good deals there are available through that scheme, many from well known retailers.