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Today we have a guest post from Marie Betty Davis – vintage fashionista, legendary multi-tasker and general all-round nice person. Hello Inspiration collaborated with Marie on the ‘Inspiring the Inspirers’ project, and Marie has shared her feelings about the project in her own no-nonsense style. Contains strong emotions (and strong language!). Over to you, Marie…

“Those of you who know me will be more than aware (thanks mainly to my packed Facebook and Twitter feeds) that I have gotten myself involved in a lot recently.

I share a health & wellness business with my partner Andy, I am an ambassador for a beauty company, I do a bit of social media management for a new hairdressers in Manchester (who are brilliant by the way) and now I am a personal stylist for a fashion boutique. All of this is in addition to my full time job and busy home life with my kids Lucy (aged 9½) Roddy the Wondercat (aged 2) and Andy (aged 41¾)

I cannot yet say that I have reached a point where I can quit my day job, but I can see that opportunity is on the horizon, so I keep trooping on.

The hardest thing for me has been (along with losing touch with a lot of my friends) is that I have encountered a fair bit of negativity from people; from being told that the products I sell are “a load of shit”, to “you are neglecting your daughter”

I will be brutally honest and tell you that this negativity has drained me at times. Although I know that I should let such poisonous comments wash over me, it is really hard to put that method into practice. Only yesterday was I sat in the kitchen in floods of tears (no, I hadn’t been peeling onions) mascara streaming down my face onto Andy’s shoulder and white tee (sorry, luv) wondering why I am putting myself through all this stress and heartache.

Then Andy reminded me why I am, because it is ME and what I LOVE TO DO. He also made the following points (as he always does when I have one of my episodes)

1. The things I sell aren’t shit. I wouldn’t be wasting my time selling them if they were.
2. I am not neglecting Lucy, I am building a better life for us, so we can have a holiday next year, and every year thereafter (and nice clothes, days out, a rainy day fund, a nest egg etc…)
3. The negative people are far outweighed by the positive people, who can see what I am doing and my WHY.
4. People are in awe of what I do. I receive a lot of messages from people telling me this, commenting that I have a lovely aura and who notice that I am still smiling all the time.
5. People who say they wish they were like me…!? He tells me that all these people see greatness in me, I just need to start seeing it myself.
6. If any of the above points were not true, then Hello Inspiration would not have got in touch…

Which brings me (finally) to the topic of my post…

A couple of months back, Chris Keep, owner of new company Hello Inspiration, and fellow resident of Urmston, got in touch with me via my favourite platform, Twitter.

He had set up a new business, which combines motivation with art, and he wanted to use me as a muse for a project he was doing, entitled ‘Inspiring the Inspirers’

Of course as confused as I felt at that point (in my Typical-Marie ‘why me’ kinda way) I accepted his kind request. He had already thought up some ideas of what he wanted to do from reading my earlier blog post (my post about finding acceptance after encountering a rude man in a pub) but being the perfectionist he is, he asked me to complete a series of questions:

• What three words to describe your outlook on life?
• Who/what inspires you?
• What’s the best compliment you’ve ever been given?
• What would you like to say to your younger self?
• What job would you do if time, talent, money etc were not factors? Why?
• Do you have a mantra or set of words you find yourself going over when things are challenging, a piece of advice that you rely on?

After a couple of weeks, he came back to me with a series of pieces of art which he felt encapsulated what I am all about.

All of the pictures contained a quotation or word which highlighted my strengths. We shortlisted the pictures down to two, and Chris decided on this as the final piece (which also happened to be my favourite)

He went for a subtle but strong message, which hints at the greatness which he sensed in me….’There is greatness within me’

Cool!

He then delivered to me, a mounted copy of the image, which is now hanging proudly on the wall of my hall (it stands out nicely against my vintage pictures) I was emotional, as you can imagine!!

Chris is a lovely gent with a brilliant concept. We all love to be inspired and motivated day to day, and one of his pictures on your living room wall or on your desktop will keep you feeling that way.”

Welcome to the third instalment of the Inspiring the Inspirers project – a visual design project that examines the nature of inspiration, and how it affects different people in their daily lives.

I have been working with Steve Brennan on a unique design for the last few months. Steve runs Bespoke | Web Specialists, a web agency in Preston in the north-west of England. The agency started 13 years ago and Steve has now grown it to an established company with 13 full-time permanent staff. The company was a finalist for Creative Business of the Year at the 2014 BIBAs (Be Inspired Business Awards). He is truly an entrepreneur at heart, having run businesses from the school playground before the internet was even a twinkle in a modem’s eye.

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This instalment of the ‘Inspiring the Inspirers‘ project is focussing on Marie Betty Davis, a fellow resident of my home town, though we had never crossed paths until this project. I came across Marie through her blog – and it was her inspirational writing which really made me want to collaborate with her.

Here was a person who was willing to write so openly and honestly about challenges in her life, and how she has overcome them, that I felt sure we would be able to come up with an amazing design.

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Very excited to publish this first instalment of the Inspiring the Inspirers project! Hello Inspiration has been working with abstract artist Ellie Depp to produce a piece of inspirational artwork based on her unique life experience. What would this talented young painter have to say about inspiration?

I was interested to work with Ellie because I wanted to get to the bottom of how inspiration plays a part in the life of an artist. Where does her inspiration come from? Does she have to go looking for it, or does it come and find her? Does she ever get stuck for ideas, or fed up with the creative process?

Her story of the redemptive power of art taught me more about inspiration than I had ever expected.

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It has been a very busy week on the ‘Inspiring the Inspirers‘ project…

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