IWD: Colony Profiles - Becca & Georgia

5 March 2021

For International Woman's Day we are spending a week celebrating some of the amazing women who make our community so great! We will be uploading profiles daily where they have shared their experiences as women in their fields of work and more. Our wonderful space managers Becca & Georgia are here to kick things off.

International Women’s Day

As a woman, International Women’s Day is a strange one – surrounded by hype, a lot of it manufactured to tick a box. We don’t want it to be just that. Like many of these national events they serve a purpose, to raise awareness of inequality and showcase how far we have come.

This year the theme is #choosetochallenge and for me I want to challenge the mindset that equality is something we should think about for just one day. Personally, I make it my mission to recognise the challenges we have faced, the achievements that have taken place and I aim to bring this celebration of women into my everyday life.

As such, instead of flying the flag of amazing women on one day, at Colony we wanted to start today but use this week as an opportunity to highlight some of the truly amazing women that make our community so great and give you an insight into them and their industries.

We are starting today with the Colony women; myself, and Georgia – our newest addition to the team.

---

A little about Becca

I love travelling and taking photographs - you’d normally find me on a plane many times a year returning with hundreds of moments captured, so the last 12 months have been interesting to say the least. It has meant I have thrown myself into a new hobby, running, and have become one of those annoying people clogging up the canals around the city trying to beat people on Strava. Sorry!

Having worked in a variety of sales roles in Manchester since graduating back in 2013, I am enjoying being in such a varied role as a Community Manager here at Colony. It incorporates a lot of my passions as I love being around people, solving problems and planning events. We may have had to pause the events but seeing the community still prosper in this time and having the opportunity to bring new faces into the space has been amazing in these strange times.

What women’s empowerment moment has made you proud?

2020 was quite the year, with the whole world battling a global pandemic, it made me proud that it appeared as though the countries with women leaders in government, the responses were quicker and more effective. I looked on at Jacinda Ardern in awe of her strength, her decisions, and her ability to help New Zealand have lower cases and lower deaths. It made me proud to be a woman and has led to many a debate as to why more females should be in power.

If you had the knowledge you have now, what would you say to your younger self?

I would say that you don’t always know what you want to do and that’s OK, people don’t have one set path. Pressure from society feeds into your subconscious without you realising and it is so easy to feel you are not enough or that you should be pushing yourself further because there are now more opportunities for women and you should take advantage of this. Focusing on what makes you happy and finding a job, purpose or hobby that allows you to do that or use those skills will help you go much further than jumping through the hoops you think you should.

---

A little about Georgia

Having grown up in a small town called Burnley I decided it was time to put on my big girl pants and moved to Manchester 4 years ago. In doing so it allowed me to grow out of that small town mentality and discover who I was in a city where I didn’t really know anyone. I joined Colony March 1^st but have been a Community Manager for almost 6 years. In that time I have been lucky enough to be surrounded by some really interesting, influential people which I think is the best part of my role.

I’ve been on many start up journeys and felt part of the process in some of their success when providing them the workspaces and offering that we do. I position myself as an extension of your team. I’m here as an ear, a shoulder, an impartial opinion and I’m also the queen of cuppa’s if you are ever in need of one!

What women’s empowerment moment has made you proud?

I know many people have mixed feelings about Greta Thunberg but no one can take away from her the fact that she is on hell of a female. At 16 she attended the UN Climate Summit and appealed to World Leaders about the grave need to control the effects Climate Change. I remember watching her power speech shouting at my phone, ‘YES, go on girl!’

And her more recent quips to Donald Trump on Twitter have only made my feelings for her grow fonder!

She is what I call an influencer.

If you had the knowledge you have now, what would you say to your younger self?

Don’t try to be the person you think people want you to be - it is a hard façade to keep up.

Be your amazing, authentic self and be it unapologetically.

---

We will be publishing more profiles everyday this week to celebrate IWD and our amazing female members. Make sure you check out our website and social media each day to read their incredible stories!