It’s no secret that I’m a bit of a Word Nerd. A couple of years ago when I was reworking my content strategy I wanted to move away from a bragfest-type strategy where I tooted my own horn in the context of the work I do with my incredible clients, but I still wanted to showcase the calibre of the people I’m bloody blessed to work with every day. I was staring aimlessly at my bookcase when the spine of a book I’ve hurled across a room many, many times over the years caught my eye. Bloody Proust… Pretentious, impenetrable Proust – but then I remembered an exercise my poetry* Masters’ lecturer led us through one class- the Proust Questionnaire. You can read more about it here, but basically, Proust, drunk off his clacker, would ask his guests these questions to get to know them. Boom!
Here, for your reading pleasure, is 2021’s class of Holly’s Proust questionnaire:
Julie Doyle is my business mentor and hiking partner and I loved her answer here about her most marked characteristic, which indeed is the actual best.
Jaq O’Donohoe is a superstar, the sort of person you just know via osmosis is having a positive impact on you. She inspires me each and every day and while she lists her hero as Wonder Woman in my Proust Questionnaire, she’s my wonder woman.
Angela Esnouf blows my mind with both her content and her business nous (and a whole lot of other reasons, but that’ll do for now). I loved her answers, but she had me at Commissario Guido Brunetti.
Mark LeBusque is a phenomena- clever, funny, generous and oh, so inspiring with his mission to change the world of work, one dickhead at a time. I’m not sure how he’d like my paraphrasing of his work, but his answers here indicate he might kinda like it!
Siobhan Mulvahil is a marketing mentor who is writing a book with me on her shoulder (both devil and angel style) and I’m absolutely in love with her no BS approach to marketing. There’s so much I admire about Siobhan, not least of which the fact that she gave birth naturally to twins as she shares here…
Brian Klindworth, AKA Captain America, shared some cracker answers. He’s a career coach for people who want to break free of the golden handcuffs and work/live by design. His content makes me clap my hands and then look around sheepishly.
Ali Drew-Forster heads up Workology Co, a consultancy that works with organisations to co-create exceptional workplace cultures. When she’s not helping incredible organisations go from good to great (or exceptional, to be more accurate), Ali writes fiction. In fact, each month, Ali and I spend the day together (virtually) writing and it’s one of the highlights of my month. You can see how clever and creative she is even by her answers to my Proust.
Melitta Hardenberg heads up Learning and Development for Seek, is my strengths guru, but more importantly she’s my friend, and she could write a shopping list and I’d be all for it. I loved her answers to Proust, especially given I do believe I’ve played a part more than once or twice in her idea of perfect happiness. Hello, cards against humanity!
Farah Mak is my favourite glitter bomb. She’s the founder of The Self-Worth Movement and is just a beautiful soul inside and out who, believe it or not, has a smidge of the potty-mouth about her, although that could just be my influence. I loved her answers to my Proust, particularly when she threw in Fig Jam.
So that’s just a glimpse of some of the wonderful people I work with. I’m really excited to share more in this coming year.
*Told you I was cool.