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Networking with Fiona Grayson & Vanessa Sanyauke

Interview & Words Phadria Prendergast



Fiona Grayson, She can. She did. 

 For Fiona Grayson She can. She did.started when she was just 25 years old in the summer of 2017. It was born out of frustration – the perfect ingredient for creativity to begin. At the time, she had gotten herself what was deemed as a ‘good job’, straight out of university. She produced a finance conference for a publishing house in the City of London which allowed her to travel across the globe. For her age, the position paid well and allowed her to take on a lot of responsibility. She had promoted a number of times whilst working for the company which of course, came with pay rises. Grayson recalls the last 8 months of her time there and the feeling she simply couldn’t ignore not doing something she was passionate about. Putting the perks aside, she had no real interest in keeping on top of the finance markets.

Grayson recollects that at the time, there had been a rise in the ‘Girl Boss’ movement and she had seen more and more young women begin to launch their own businesses. For her, launching her own business was something that she had always wanted to do but, in her head, she had concluded this would be much later down the line. She credits our EntreprenHER cover girl Jo Malone CBE as one of the women she looked up to who had worked their way up and she loved that Malone would always speak about her life in hindsight.  

After receiving an email one morning whilst on a business trip, Grayson knew she wanted to quit. She just could not do it anymore. She stated “If I’m coming across all of these women that are launching businesses, let’s just jump in.” She figured out that she loved researching on a 2-hour journey to visit Harvard University. She loved seeing the incredible women that would make lists such as Forbes’ most sought after ‘30 under 30’ list but she wanted to know how they got their success. She worked her 3-month notice period and went on to.

She can. She did.is a platform that puts a spotlight on women who have been daring enough to go solo and launch their own business from within the UK. The business has very much relied on a series of events called the Midweek Mingles which takes place all over the UK. There’s been 20 to date in 7 cities and they’ve been sponsored by Xero, the accounting software app. In January 2019, the platform switched over from written interviews to She can. She did.podcasts which again was sponsored and is currently sponsored by Tide Bank. 

The She can. She did. platform have been offering female entrepreneurs on-going support and continued inspiration during this time with their weekly podcasts and have an exciting announcement in September which Grayson comments is the main phase of the business.

Vanessa Sanyauke, Girls Talk London

Sanyauke originates from a background in diversity and inclusion where she worked for 10 years. Girls Talk London began after Sanyauke pitched an idea to her directors at the company she once worked for. The idea came after she noticed not much was being done on gender. They rejected the idea which probed her into wanting to begin her own project. 

The Girls Talk London leader believes the future of networking is one that is global. When building a community, sometimes we only think locally but with technology helping us to constantly evolve, she believes we should be thinking bigger. 

 7 years on from the inception of Girls Talk London where at the time, women made up around 12.5 percent of all board level roles of FTSE 100 companies, there was a lack of senior leadership and female CEOs amongst women, Sanyauke is steadily making moves towards ensuring this figure is never seen again. Starting Girls Talk London was her way of connecting women with senior leaders from the world’s leading companies to support two agendas. The first is for women who want to move up the career ladder and the second is to connect businesses and brands with female talent. It was a “come and look at our community and recruit from here concept,” Sanyauke states. Girls Talk London currently has an online community of over 44,000 people across social media. Facebook, LinkedIn, PWC, o2, BT and Vodafone are amongst the numerous companies that have sponsored Girls Talk London events. Additionally, they produce content on ‘who is’ and provide life skills development classes and mentoring programmes. 

The platform is working closely with corporate partners to help them adapt to and ensure that gender equality remains a priority. During the last few months of the pandemic, they have also partnered with businesses to co-host career development webinars to support women who have found themselves out of work due to the Coronavirus.