To kick off Series 6 of our 40 Minute Mentor podcast, we’re joined by serial entrepreneur and Founder of The Stack World, Sharmadean Reid MBE. From WAH London – a nail salon that mushroomed into a global mecca for aspiring entrepreneurs – to her latest venture, The Stack World, which combines leading editorial and beauty content with a marketplace for mission-driven women, Sharmadean has always placed female empowerment at the forefront of her work. In today’s episode, Sharmadean speaks candidly about taking her first steps into entrepreneurialism at a time when there wasn’t a well-trodden path guiding digital Startups, and the many lessons she learned along the way, including: The importance of having a definite plan when you launch a business, and not falling into the trap of saying yes to everything. Why it’s so crucial to remove your ego from your work and focus on your business’ success. And how, despite the shift in the right direction, we’re still a long way off from achieving gender equality in business and beyond. It’s not every day you get the opportunity to speak to someone so humble and honest about the reality of launching your own business. That’s why we can’t wait for you to listen to this episode. Whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or someone driven to move the equality lever, we know you’ll get so much valuable insights from Sharmadean in this episode. And a special thank you to our sponsors for this Series - Chipper Cash. The team have been on an incredible journey, having launched their borderless way to send money across Africa and beyond, in 8 countries so far and are widely considered to be Africa's most valuable Startup. To find out more, head over to their website, or tune into our 40 Minute Mentor episode with their Co-Founder and CEO, Ham Serunjogi. Enjoyed this episode? We’d love to hear your feedback on this episode, so please feel free to get in touch at james@jbmc.co.uk or leave us a review on https://ratethispodcast.com/40mm If you want to find out more about Sharmadean, take a look at her LinkedIn profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/sharmadeanreid/ If you want to find out more about The Stack World, head over to – https://www.thestack.world/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices